Finally, a year I am free from the stress of Fantasy Football. It’s been a brutal last couple of years for me managing a team for a coworker. Besides the obvious injuries, players in your starting lineup not performing while bench players are is a sickening feeling. So, I’ve decided to take a break. I can finally watch NFL football without any skin in the game, stress free.

So, watching the Falcons and Eagles game on Monday Night Football sounded like fun. It came right down to the wire, with the Eagles losing, 22 – 21. What’s baffling is the events that led to the loss, which even had me scratching my head.

So the Eagles coach decided to go for on fourth down in the very first quarter and failed. This could have put 3 points on the board for them, as they were very near the end zone. Towards the end, when the score was 15-18, they declined an intention offside by the Falcons to be able to milk the clock some more. A touchdown here would seal the game. Milking the clock, even if they had to score a FG, would make it that much harder for the Falcons as a touchdown would be required of them. They don’t exactly have big threat wide receivers. On 3rd and 3, with the Falcons out of timeouts, Hurts decided to throw the ball to a wide open Barkley on the flat. However, he dropped it. A first down would have sealed the game. So, they kick the FG to make it 15-21. They not only failed to milk the clock, but now Cousins have 1:40 to score a TD to win the game.

At this point, I was like, OK, no problem. Whatever you do, just don’t play soft defense. But what do the Eagles do? They play Swiss cheese defense. It took the Falcons only 3 completions to go into the red zone and another to score the touchdown. In fact, they probably scored a little too fast! I said earlier they don’t necessarily have big threat wide receivers but these guys are still professionals, and very speedy at that. Give them open space, you know, by playing soft defense, and they’ll still be able to catch the ball. The Eagles had the ball with :40 seconds, but Hurts threw an interception, and that was all she wrote.

So, WTF? Number one, the Eagles could have won if they had obviously just kicked the FG in the first quarter instead of going for it on fourth down. Maybe the coach wanted to show how big his balls were that early in the game? Maybe it’s the new thing to do in the NFL nowadays?

Number two, they declined the penalty to be able to milk the clock some more, but they decided to not give the ball to literally one of the best running backs in the game? Saquon’s drop was obviously his fault, but shit happens. But you know what also happens? Running the damn ball to milk the clock because the opponents have zero timeouts, you know, the reason why you declined the penalty in the first place!

Lastly, the stupid defense play calling. They played so soft. Someone tell the defensive play caller that the only thing playing a prevent D type of defense is going to get you is preventing your team from winning. Yes, I know, hindsight. But dear God, if there was an Ask Madden button, would it have prevented this outcome? I know that’s always a joke, but sometimes I swear that the decisions some of these professional coaches and play callers make are extremely suspect.