It’s week 13 of the NFL. And the results are starting to make an impact. With a 19-17 win, the Chiefs have now qualified for the playoffs and the Raiders, eliminated. It all came down to the last 15 seconds of the game when QB Aidan O’Connell spiked the ball on second down at the Chiefs’ 32-yard line to stop the clock. Looking well on their way to clinching an improbable win, a penalty on the third down instead became the apple of discord for Sin City. At the center of the confusion is rookie center Jackson Powers-Johnson who later said: “We didn’t come up short; I came up short.”

On third down, with the Raiders trailing 19-17 and nine seconds left on the play clock, the QB signaled for his team to line up quickly with a few claps.
With just six seconds remaining in regulation, O’Connell looked sideways toward his right to make contact with receiver Tre Tucker. All good up until this point.
Then, as he looked toward his left to communicate with his other receiver Jakobi Meyers, that’s when it happened: Right guard Dylan Parham tapped rookie center Jackson Powers-Johnson to go, resulting in an untimely snap from before O’Connell was even ready.

The ball bounced off his left bicep, hit the ground, before the Chiefs LB Nick Bolton recovered the fumble… which meant they had seemingly sealed the game, leaving the Raiders to contemplate over their eighth straight defeat. The game resumed until officials halted the play with the blow of a whistle. You’d think they’d attributed the Raiders’ third-down play to be a false start (a dead ball penalty) which would qualify it as a pre-snap infarction, and thereby, nullify the fumble. One referee did so but, surprisingly, a dragged discussion among the officiating crew later, the call was revised to an illegal shift.

The Chiefs declined and retained the possession of the ball, eventually kneeling to run out the clock to avoid any further snaps. While O’Connell took the blame upon himself for his clapping to set the wrong precedent for Jackson, confusion regarding the penalty still ran rampant in the Raider Nation. NFL Senior Vice President, Michael Signora, later issued a statement to address the situation,

“Had the clock been running at the snap, then by rule an illegal shift would convert to a false start. Since the clock was stopped (spike on the 2nd downplay), an illegal shift is a live ball foul.”

Patrick Mahomes’s accurate pass to Justin Watson in the 2nd quarter extended their lead to 10-3 at halftime. The Raiders turned the game around in the starting seconds of the game by being ahead 17-16. At the 9:53 mark in the 4th quarter, the Chiefs were ahead with 19-17. It looked like the Raiders would make a comeback. But that didn’t happen. It was shocking. Subsequently, the Raiders are eliminated from the playoffs, the Chiefs have secured a spot in the postseason.

Patrick Mahomes and Chiefs smash records in week 13 victory

Pre-2017, the Chiefs were like any other NFL team. They were good but had only the Super Bowl, which they won back in 1969. Then came the Grim Reaper. A player who had trained baseball and football since childhood, and defied his father to play in the NFL. Then began their meteoric rise.

In 8 years, they have won 3 Super Bowls. After defeating the Raiders in the Black Friday game, they rewrote the NFL history books by winning 14 straight one-possession games, the longest streak. That’s not all.

Chiefdom, prepare for the double celebrations. Patrick Mahomes became the leader of the Chiefs’ touchdown pass records with 238 passes. He surpassed the Hall of Famer Len Dawson in the process. That’s a huge achievement.

It’s all sorted for now. The Chiefs are looking into their locker room to find the plan that will surprise their rivals in the playoffs. The coming times would be exciting.