Aidan O'Connell still has plenty to prove in his young NFL career, but he certainly looked the part of a franchise quarterback on Friday afternoon at Arrowhead Stadium.
And he sounded like one, too, after the Las Vegas Raiders suffered a heartbreaking 19–17 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs.
O'Connell was on the verge of setting up a potential game-winning field-goal attempt for Raiders kicker Daniel Carlson when disaster struck. Las Vegas rookie Jackson Powers-Johnson, who shifted to center earlier this month, snapped the ball too early on a third-down play. The football glanced off O'Connell's shoulder for a fumble and the Chiefs recovered it to secure their 11th win.
As any savvy veteran quarterback would do, O'Connell took full responsibility for the botched snap in his postgame press conference.
"It's completely my fault," O'Connell said. "I was looking out to the right making sure guys were set, and I started clapping. In my head, I was thinking signal the ball to get the ball, but when I start clapping, it basically tells Jackson to snap the ball.
"Jackson did exactly what he should've done. I clapped too early. That's just how the football bounces sometimes; it didn't go our way. Super tough, but there's really nobody to blame but myself. That's probably the hardest part to swallow."
"There's really nobody to blame but myself."
— Logan Reever (@loganreever) November 29, 2024
Aidan O'Connell says the final play was "completely my fault" and that he clapped too early which led to the botched snap. #Raiders pic.twitter.com/iUdLF1N2MB
Powers-Johnson, for his part, also shouldered the blame after the game.
"We didn't come up short," Powers-Johnson said, according to Tashan Reed ofThe Athletic. "I came up short."
The Raiders, now 2–10, are set to pick high in the 2025 NFL draft and could be looking to select a young quarterback talent in the first round. But O'Connell, who threw for 340 yards and two touchdowns on 23-of-35 passing against the Chiefs, put together a performance on and off the field Friday that showed flashes of his potential to lead a franchise.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Aidan O'Connell Had Classy Response to Raiders' Game-Ending Fumbled Snap vs. Chiefs.
