Aidan O’Connell took full responsibility for a fumble that sealed the Kansas City Chiefs’ close victory over the Las Vegas Raiders on Friday. However, the quarterback’s head coach has no regrets about the way the Raiders finished their final drive and, in fact, believes the officiating contributed to the team’s critical error.
Addressing reporters after Friday’s 19-17 loss, Antonio Pierce initially admitted that “a lot happened” during the Raiders’ final play, during which O’Connell failed to corral an early play and Las Vegas was penalized for an illegal shiftpushing the stick out of field goal range and handing the ball to the Chiefs.
Asked Saturday if he would do anything different to close out the series, such as avoid a shotgun blast while trying to burn out the clock before a potential field goal attempt, Pierce was blunt.
“No,” he said.
The coach added that the loss of the ball could have been due to a misunderstanding caused by the referees.
“We heard a whistle on our sideline,” Pierce said, possibly explaining O’Connell’s lack of preparation for the snap.
At the end of the day, it’s too little, too late for the Raiders, who fell to 2-10 on the season with the loss. Las Vegas will send the play to the NFL office for review, Pierce explained, but does not anticipate any significant action from the league regarding the matter. O’Connell, meanwhile, took the blame for the final loss immediately after Friday’s game.
“Time was running out, I was trying to get guys lined up, and we were just going to throw the ball out of bounds, run the clock, get to fourth down and kick the field goal,” O’Connell said. . “It’s completely my fault. I was looking to the right, making sure the guys were ready, and I started clapping… I clapped too soon. That’s how the ball bounces sometimes. It didn’t go the way we wanted… [And] There’s really no one to blame but myself. That’s probably the hardest part to accept.”
