New York Jets safety Elijah Riley blamed for winning touchdown against Tampa Bay Buccaneers

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Even after allowing the Buccaneers to fight in the second half on Sunday, and the New York quarterback sneaking into fourth with two minutes left in the fourth quarter, the Jets still had a chance to stop Tom Brady and win the game.

At the start of Tampa Bay’s last practice, Brady would dive and dive, scooping up a few yards here and there, but generally refraining from pushing the ball too far down the field.

After six assists, taking the Bucs to the Jets’ 33-yard line, Brady finally delivered the decisive blow, hitting Cyril Grayson on the sidelines for a winning touchdown.

As much as Brady made his last outing easy, the final pitch at Grayson was nearly interrupted by Jets safety Elijah Riley.

In fact, if you take a closer look at the replay – shown in the clip above – Riley is literally inches away from getting her hands on it and forcing a failure.

He might have been close, but Riley took full responsibility for the lack of coverage on that final game.

“What really matters is I just need to make this game,” Riley told reporters. “There’s not much more to say about it. In the dying seconds, against a team like this, I have to be able to make this play.”

To give Riley credit, he’s had a solid season so far, replacing after veterans Marcus Maye and Lamarcus Joyner landed on the injured reserve. Heck, Riley even playing this week is remarkable considering he was flown off the field to Miami just two weeks ago with a frightening concussion.

But that didn’t make Riley happier with the end result, failing against the defending champions.

“It sounds cool, but you have to win these games,” he said. “It doesn’t matter who you play. We have to do what we have to do and win the game. There are no moral wins. So what, we played close? We have to finish it and get the win.”

With tight end Cameron Brate performing a run into the flat, a quick pump from Brady’s shoulder allowed Bryce Hall to advance to the cornerback, leaving Grayson open on his fade route down the right sideline.

Here’s what Hall had to say about the fateful play:

“Just credit to Tom Brady and his team and what he’s been able to do. Seasoned vet, obviously. Own the moment. Obviously, we don’t want to give up on explosives. Hard to say, I haven’t. diagnosed with the movie, I haven’t seen it, but just credit him and what he’s been able to do. We have to be better in this situation, and that’s really it. “

Head coach Robert Saleh also spoke:

“Unfortunately, the last game, the touchdown, we have to be better in terms of cover. They shouldn’t be getting explosives in this situation. We’re basically in a double shell and he still managed to catch one. melt ball. It’s not good. I felt that in the absence of timeouts we would do a good job keeping the ball in front of us. an opp. We just needed to attack them in bounds once again and we would have considered a last-game effort to win it. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. “

Who knows what would have happened if Riley could have flipped Brady’s pass and prevented the touchdown. I felt like it was only a matter of time before Brady reached the end zone on that ride – he’s always been virtually unstoppable in those clutch situations – but there’s no way of knowing for sure.

Jets safety Elijah Riley takes on Buccaneers tight end Rob Gronkowski at MetLife Stadium

Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports

Riley reiterated that he and the rest of the New York defenders were thrilled to be able to make a winning save. It was just about facing an all-time excellent quarterback while failing to perform when they needed it most.

“We were delighted to have the opportunity to go there and win a game ourselves,” he said. “In the end, we weren’t able to do that. There were a couple of things happening along this journey that we could have stopped, and ultimately, like I said, this last game I must be able to do. “

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