The Raiders were already in field goal range with a chance to upset the Chiefs when a fumbled snap cost them the opportunity to send their kicker on the field on the last play on Friday. Raiders quarterback Aidan O’Connell says he’s the one who signaled for the snap and that makes him the one to blame.
Despite some talk that the blame was on Raiders rookie center Jackson Powers-Johnson for snapping the ball when O’Connell wasn’t ready for it, O’Connell says that’s not the case.
“The clock was running down, I was trying to get the guys lined up, and we were just going to throw the ball out of bounds, run the clock down, get to fourth down and kick the field goal. 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 tells Jackson basically snap the ball. So Jackson did exactly what he should’ve done and I clapped too early. That’s just how the football bounces sometimes. It didn’t go our way. So super tough, but there’s really nobody to blame but myself. That’s probably the hardest part to swallow.”
It’s commendable that O’Connell isn’t pointing fingers, but the reality is the Raiders’ coaching staff could have handled it better. O’Connell wouldn’t have been in that position if the Raiders had let all but a few seconds run off the clock before spiking the ball on the previous play, and the Raiders’ coaches could have done a better job of communicating to O’Connell that that’s what they needed to do. O’Connell isn’t the only one who deserves blame.
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