The New England Patriots suffered a brutal loss on Sunday in one of the most unbelievable endings in NFL history when the Las Vegas Raiders snagged a lateral attempt as time expired and took it all the way in the other direction for a game-winning touchdown.
The play led to a lot of second-guessing, with many wondering why the Patriots didn’t call a hail mary pass instead. Bill Belichick claimed that the team was too far away to try a hail mary, but quarterback Mac Jones revealed that he doesn’t think that’s true.
“No,” Mac Jones said when asked if it would have been too far to throw, according to Audacy. “I think we obviously had a plan in that situation. You have to think about everything in those situations. That’s something that [Belichick] did, and that’s his job and he’s done it for a long time, but whatever the play call is, I’m going to run it and do it the best I can. If it was a Hail Mary, it was a Hail Mary. If it was a run, it was a run. That’s what I always tell myself regardless of the situation: What’s my job and how do I do it? And I just try to keep it really simple, hand it off, throw it or run myself. So there are three options I have. I think it’s one of those things we’ve got to learn from to get better, but there are a lot of things that go into it beyond just the throw itself. There are other things that go into it.”
Obviously, hindsight is much clearer than in the moment, but if Mac Jones feels confident he could throw it to the end zone, that seems like a much safer play.
About Kevin Harrish