The referees cost the Oakland Raiders at the end of their home loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday.
The Raiders blew a 16-3 lead and lost 20-16 on a touchdown by the Jags with 31 seconds left. Their comeback cause was aided by a bad call by the refs.
The Raiders had a second-and-9 at the Jacksonville 46 with 2:12 left and Derek Carr scrambled towards the right sideline for a gain of 12 and first down. After picking up the first, Carr made the heads-up decision to slide inbounds, which should have kept the clock rolling until the 2-minute warning. Instead, the refs botched the call and said Carr was out of bounds, which stopped the clock with 2:05 left, forcing the Raiders to run another play before the 2-minute warning. The decision essentially gave the Jags another timeout and saved them nearly a minute in game clock.
It’s almost fitting that the refs found a way to contribute to the Raiders losing their last game in Oakland. Had the clock been correctly wound to the 2min warning, they could have run the clock to at least :40 left before the FG attempt. #RaiderNation pic.twitter.com/GhIrfWztY1
— Chris Reed (@ChrisReed_NFL) December 16, 2019
Jon Gruden tried to challenge that Carr was out of bounds, but he was told that was not something that could be challenged, so he lost a timeout. The Raiders were also penalized for delay of game.
Instead of having the ball 1st-and-10 at the Jaguars 31 with two minutes left and Jacksonville only being able to stop the clock once with a timeout, the Raiders had a 1st-and-15 at the Jaguars 36 with 2:05 left, and the Jags had the 2-minute warning and a timeout.
The Raiders ran the ball on first down, then there was the 2-minute warning. They ran on second down, and the Jags used a timeout. Then facing a third and long with 1:55 left, the Raiders passed the ball and threw incomplete. They had two tries at a field goal due to a penalty, missed both attempts, and the Jags got the ball back at their 35 with 1:44 left.
Had Carr correctly been ruled down in the field (when a player slides to give themselves up, the ball is spotted where the player begins the slide), the Raiders would have had first down after the 2-minute warning. They would have been able to run on first, second, and third down before attempting the field goal, and the Jags would have likely only gotten the ball back with around 45-50 seconds left.
Oakland benefited from a bad spot in a win over Cleveland last year. This time around, they were on the negative end.
Combine this ending with this being the final home game for the Raiders at the Coliseum, and you can understand why Raiders fans were so rowdy after the loss.
