In need of a victory over the Miami Dolphins to preserve their hopes in the playoffs, the last thing the Raiders needed to do was to invent a new way to lose.
But that is what they did in their impressive 26 to 25 defeat Saturday night at Allegiant Stadium, which puts an end to their postseason dreams.
It all boiled down to a sequence at the end of the game in which they rejected several offers from the Dolphins to score a touchdown with permission to score the first and the goal on the Dolphins’ 8-yard line with 1:55 to play.
Leading by 23-22, the Dolphins (10-5) were willing to give up a touchdown to retain as much of the clock as possible in hopes of setting up a potential campaign to win the game. But the Raiders (7-8) had other ideas. They opted to resist crossing the goal line in favor of running as long as possible off the clock and establishing a short field goal.
The thought was, between the clock they burned and all the timeouts they forced the Dolphins to use, there would not be enough time for Miami to take the field for the go-ahead score.
Three moves later, including a skid by Josh Jacobs just before the goal line and Derek Carr kneeling in the third and that goal, Daniel Carlson kicked a 22-yard field goal to put the Raiders ahead 25-23 with 19 seconds remaining.
“We wanted to give the Dolphins the ball with the least amount of time possible, with no time limit,” was how Raiders coach Jon Gruden explained the thinking process.
In the field, Carr and his teammates were on the same page.
“You can think of a million different scenarios, the way we could have handled it,” said Carr. “And I thought we made it absolutely perfect. I do not regret it. You take out all your timeouts. You take all the time out of the clock. You just hope to win this game. “
But, in a sign that they may have tried the powers of football, the Raiders suffered great consequences. This is the chance you run when you reject the opportunity to get a team to travel the entire length of the field for a touchdown to win it, instead of just being in position to kick a basket that wins the game.
The Raiders’ penance came in the most cruel way imaginable.
With the Dolphins mounted on their own 25-yard line after the kickoff, quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, who replaced Tua Tagovailoa in the fourth period, somehow completed a 34-yard pass to Mack Collins while being pulled simultaneously by the mask by Raiders defensive end Arden Key.
Between the long shot for Collins and the extra 15 yards from the penalty spot, the Dolphins were unbelievably in goal position on the Raiders’ 26-yard line with 12 seconds remaining.
Two moves later, Jason Sanders kicked a 44-yard shot to give the Raiders one of the most unlikely losses in recent memory.
“This is confusing. There is no way around that, ”said the Raiders’ moneyed Darren Waller. “It just hurts. I don’t know what else to say. “
The defeat shattered the Raiders’ hopes in the playoff and denied them the chance to end with a winning record for only the second time since 2002. When they travel to Denver to end the season next week, they hope to avoid the second 7- 9 finishing.
The Raiders, it should be noted, were 6-3 just six weeks ago.
It also ruined Carr’s gutty performance, which was a game-day decision while dealing with the groin injury that took him out of the Chargers game 10 days ago. Still limping through the injury, Carr completed 21 of 34 passes for 336 yards and a touchdown.
“I am sick for our defense. I’m sick for our team, ”said Carr. “My heart feels for our fans, for being so excited. We take the lead and then disappear.
In the process, a solid effort by a struggling defense was wasted. As was the night of five catches and 155 yards for Nelson Agholor and the game of five catches and 122 yards for Waller.
Looking back, Gruden believes he did the right thing.
“I don’t regret it one bit,” said Gruden. “I only regret the results.”
Contact Vincent Bonsignore at [email protected]. Follow @VinnyBonsignore on twitter.