The Patriots' remarkable loss is an important reminder of the dangers of trying

We’ve all had a crazy dream at some point. 

A silly aspiration that isn't necessarily grounded in any firm reality—something really outlandish like making it to the NBA , winning an Academy Award, or someday being a homeowner. Unfortunately, what life teaches you is that while irrational dreams are nice to have, if you latch too tightly to them, you’ll most likely be left disappointed. 

On Sunday, Patriots wide receiver Jakobi Meyers had a crazy dream. 

The Patriots had the ball on their own side of the field while tied at 24 with the Raiders and only 10 seconds left in the game. With no timeouts remaining for either team, the game seemed all but destined for overtime. The operative word is "seemed." 

On the final play, Rhomondre Stevenson broke a run to the Raiders' 40-yard-line and with no time remaining, decided to pitch the ball behind him to Meyers—an event every person involved, including the players, Patriots fans, and most certainly Patriots bettors, very much wish hadn’t happened.

If Jakobi had caught the ball and gone down to the ground, this play is likely forgotten forever. One of the countless failed lateral plays in NFL history. 

But instead, Jakobi Meyers—a former college quarterback with a gifted arm—decided to dream... and it resulted in a truly beautiful disaster. 

After the game, Stevenson said that the play call was just a draw play intended to run out the clock. He was never supposed to pitch the ball. 

Meyers for his part also admitted he was trying to do too much. But he also added a truly perplexing explanation for throwing the ball when he said after the game, "I thought I saw Mac open. I didn't see Chandler Jones at the time. I just thought he was open, tried to get to him and let him try to make a play with it, but the score was tied so I should've just went down." 

For the uninitiated, here’s a video of Mac Jones running a generously hand-timed 4.86 40-yard dash.

In a universe where the ball isn’t intercepted and Jakobi successfully completes the 25-yard backward lateral to possibly the slowest player on the field, if not the conference, what exactly was supposed to happen? Outside of a general glitch in the matrix making Mac Jones untacklable, the best-case scenario would be him likely immediately getting lit up at soon as he caught it.

The awful play could ultimately have huge ramifications on their season. The Pats' odds of making the playoff were 50% going into the game on Sunday and now sit at just 19%. For a proud franchise that has been the benefactor of their fair share of boneheaded plays, the embarrassment must sting particularly hard. It’s very possible it will be used as a teaching tape for the rest of time at every level of football to instruct developing players what not to do at the end of a game. It was that bad.

But still, it’s nice to have dreams.

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