Former New England Patriots legendary corner Ty Law had an epic rant prepared, following the embarrassing Week 15 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders at Allegiant Stadium on Sunday.
With three seconds left in the game and the score tied in the fourth quarter, the Patriots ran a play that ended in Rhamondre Stevenson tossing a lateral pass to Jakobi Meyers, who then tried another lateral that was picked off and taken back for a game-winning touchdown by Chandler Jones.
Law gave the coaching staff a pass and noted that coach Bill Belichick makes a point, more so than any other coach he’s ever had, to teach good situational football. So this particular rant was directed solely at the players involved.
“You have an opportunity to play another series. The strength of your team is the defense,” said Law, when appearing on The Greg Hill Show. “How in the hell can you not go down? Do you see Rhamondre Stevenson’s stat line? 172 yards and 19 carries. But don’t nobody talk about him. But he’s the one that got the damn party started. He’s the one that pitches the first pass.
“Now Jakobi Meyers should have looked at that and been like, ‘You big dummy. What are you doing?’ And land the ball and got down, but he was like, ‘Oh, I guess it’s a party.’ And he goes and does the same thing, and then he’s going to try to throw it back to Mac Jones. I don’t know what kind of throw that was. They say he was a quarterback. I can’t tell. I can see why he’s the wide receiver.”
What just happened?? The @Raiders win on the final play!! #NEvsLV pic.twitter.com/cmKNUuab1k
— NFL (@NFL) December 19, 2022
Most would have expected Law’s rant to be finished after going after both Stevenson and Meyers, but he had his eye on one more player he viewed as directly responsible for the way the game ended.
And that player was Mac Jones.
After Chandler Jones picked off the lateral pass attempt from Meyers, Mac Jones had an opportunity to make a tackle in the open field, and he didn’t even come close. The lasting image of the game is the Patriots’ quarterback being stiff-armed into the dirt.
“Now, Mac Jones, let’s get on him. He must have never—I’m talking about ever, ever, ever in his life played defense,” said Law. “You know how you were born to play quarterback, and you didn’t play no other position ever, ever in football? That was Mac Jones. That’s what he looked like on that tackle right there. That was absolutely awful. It was embarrassing. I want to know if he ever even in Pop Warner played on the defensive side of the ball.”
The loss against the Raiders didn’t completely put the Patriots out of playoff contention, but it drastically lowered their odds considering their last three games are against the Cincinnati Bengals, Miami Dolphins and Buffalo Bills.
That’s a massive uphill battle for a good football team, which the Patriots haven’t necessarily proven themselves to be this season.
