Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Nick Bolton stepped comfortably into the role of hero on the field during Friday’s 19-17 victory over the Las Vegas Raiders. In his postgame press conference, he recalled the bizarre ending, which featured the game-ending takeaway.
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure he was trying to make a pre-snap check to one of his wideouts,” said Bolton. “The center kind of had a miscommunication hiked the ball early, and the ball kind of fell on the ground. The quarterback fell on it. Kind of squirt out the back part by his feet in the right place at the right time with the football.”
In the game’s final seconds, Bolton recovered a fumbled shotgun snap to return the ball to the Kansas City offense and seal the victory. The recovery marked Bolton’s first fumble recovery of the 2024 season and the second of his career. He recalled waiting for the umpires to decide at the end of the fumble recovery.
“I thought it was an illegal shift for illegal formation; maybe I didn’t think we’re offsides. I think we were each on the snap early because it was a botched snap,” said Bolton. “So honestly, I knew we got the ball pretty much just wait for the confirmation if it was on them. I think we got a 10-second runoff for like one second left, something that would help us out in our favor.”
Bolton registered a game-high 11 tackles (10 solo), including one for loss in today’s game, tying his single-game mark for tackles in the 2024 season. He also came up big in other notable moments in the game, first breaking up a pass on third-and-four that forced a missed field goal attempt and joining Charles Omenihu to stop Raiders running back Ameer Abdullah on fourth-and-one at the start of the third quarter to stall another promising drive.
