Julian Edelman: Mac Jones Should Have Tripped Chandler Jones on Game-Winning Play

Former New England Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman offered a solution that would have saved Mac Jones the humiliation of being on the receiving end of Chandler Jones' stiff arm on the final play of Sunday's game against the Las Vegas Raiders.

Appearing on Inside the NFL (h/t Dakota Randall of NESN.com), Edelman said Jones should have tripped Jones to prevent him from scoring.

Even though Jones became the butt of most jokes after the play, the end result wasn't his fault. Rhamondre Stevenson took a handoff with three seconds left in regulation and the score tied at 24, he gained 23 yards before lateraling the ball to Jakobi Meyers.

Meyers decided he wanted to keep the play going, and threw a lateral that was supposed to be for Jones even though he was nowhere in the frame on the television feed until Chandler Jones grabbed the ball.

Edelman's theory sounds good on paper, but tripping is a 15-yard penalty that would have given the Raiders a chance to kick a 47-yard field goal on an untimed down.

If there was an attempt to prevent Jones from scoring by blatantly tripping him, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk also noted there is a rule that allows officials to award a touchdown "to a team that has been denied one by a palpably unfair act."

Stevenson took responsibility for the play by saying he shouldn't have lateraled the ball in the first place. Meyers admitted he was "trying to do too much and trying to be a hero" when he attempted to throw the ball back to Mac Jones.

Even though the game will be remembered for that all-time blunder at the end, Mac Jones didn't do himself any favors with how he played. The second-year quarterback finished 13-of-31 for 112 yards against a Raiders defense that allows the fourth-highest completion percentage and seventh-most passing yards per game.