Silver Minings: Raiders sending video of final play against Chiefs for NFL review

Antonio Pierce says team “heard a whistle” before Friday’s infamous botched snap

The Las Vegas Raiders suffered their 10th loss of the season on Friday against the Kansas City Chiefs but, in typical Raiders fashion, it didn’t come without some controversy.

A botched snap between Aidan O’Connell and Jackson Powers-Johnson ended what could have been Las Vegas’ game-winning drive as Kansas City recovered the fumble to win 19-17. However, after the game video circulated on social media where it appeared an official was blowing the play dead to call a false start penalty on the Silver and Black.

When talking to reporters on Saturday morning, Antonio Pierce said, “We heard a whistle on our sideline.” If that’s the case, the play should have been blown dead before it started and the fumble wouldn’t have counted, giving the Raiders an opportunity to kick a game-winning field goal with the ball on the Chiefs’ 37-yard line.

However, that didn’t happen and Pierce said the team will send video to the league and ask for an explanation. According to The Athletic’s Vic Tafur, “Such reviews are often a standard process for teams when they disagree with how a play is officiated in hopes the league at least acknowledges a mistake.”

Tafur also asked NFL senior vice president of football and international communications Michael Signora for a comment on the penalty, and Signora replied, “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 (due to the spike on the second-down play), an illegal shift is a live-ball foul.”

In other words, the league is saying the foul was an illegal shift instead of a false start, which the official in the video above appears to indicate. Regardless, the result of the game won’t change but it seems as if Pierce and the Raiders are hoping the NFL will at least acknowledge the mistake.

In Other Raiders’ Links:

• What they’re saying after loss in Kansas City: A roundup of post-game quotes and posts from X/Twitter after Friday’s contest.
• Pierce can’t lead Raiders to win: “Where did interim coach Antonio Pierce go? Full-time head coach Antonio Pierce doesn’t resemble that guy at all,” Silver and Black Pride’s Bill Williamson wrote. “The look on Pierce’s face at the end of this game was one of shellshock and bewilderment.”
• Pierce wouldn’t do anything differently: “He was asked whether there was anything he and his staff would have done differently on the fateful botched snap on third down that resulted in a lost fumble with the Raiders in position for a potential winning field goal at the Kansas City Chiefs the night before,” ESPN’s Paul Gutierrez wrote. “‘No,’ he said.”
• Takeaways from Friday’s game: “Because the Raiders have proven to be a bad football team, a lot of the football world may not be familiar with [Brock] Bowers’ game. They learned Friday,” NFL Media’s Nick Shook wrote. “Bowers once again finished as Las Vegas’ leading receiver, catching 10 of his 14 targets for 140 yards and a spectacular 33-yard touchdown grab that was a crucial part of the Raiders’ comeback.”