Legendary announcer defends DC Williams

It was hard to find anybody to defend former Jets defensive coordinator Gregg Williams for his ill-fated all-out blitz at the end the Jets’ recent loss to the Las Vegas Raiders.

Williams called a blitz that allowed for no deep safety help for cornerback Lamar Jackson, who was beat for a 46-yard TD for WR Henry Ruggs III with 5 seconds left, giving the Raiders a 31-28 win.

Jets coach Adam Gase fired Williams the next day.

“Obviously, I wasn’t happy about that call,” Gase said. “That was a heartbreaking way for our guys to lose a game. For that to happen in that situation, we just can’t have that happen.”

Williams took a lot of criticism for making that call at that time. It wasn’t easy to find anybody who defended what Williams’ decision.

Well there was one person — kind of — and that was legendary sportscaster Brent Musburger, who actually called the game, as the radio voice of the Raiders.

We say “kind of,” because Musburger didn’t say it was a great call, but he believed the much-lambasted decision needs a little more context than most people provided.

“There is another side to that (play call) for the Jets,” said Musburger on the Vegas Stats & Information Network.

First-off, Musburger said the Jets should have done a better job on their offensive series before the Hail Mary.

“The Jets got the ball, and the Raiders are out of timeouts; all they needed was one first down and the game is over, and the ball never would have gone back to the Raiders for that Hail Mary pass to Ruggs,” Musburger said.

The Jets went with three running plays to Ty Johnson for 3 yards, 1 yard and 1 yard. The drive started at the Jets’ 9, and ended at the 14. They punted with 42 seconds left.