With about two and a half minutes left in the fourth quarter and trailing by one point, the New Orleans Saints had the ball well within field goal range and clearly planned to run out the clock before taking at least a two point lead. There was nothing conventional that the Eagles could do about it.
So why didn’t the Eagles just allow the Saints to score a touchdown?
Then the Eagles would have had ample time to launch a final drive of their own and possibly win the game.
We don’t know the answer to that question, seldom watching football except occasionally when Penn State plays. But we wonder what was going on in the coach’s mind.
There was no guarantee the Saints would cross the goal line. An unopposed Saints player could merely stop before the goal line and wait until the clock ran down, scoring at the last second. Poor special team play lost the game in the final minutes.
EDITOR: Perhaps the trick is not make it too obvious.
Now that’s funny. Can you imagine 11 Eagle pro football players somehow missing tackles while the ball carrier takes a knee just short of the goal line and awaits a tackle while the Eagles somehow continue to keep missing tackles? On prime time national TV no less. That’s one Monty Python couldn’t match.
EDITOR: Good point. Also, we suspect there are unofficial admonitions about allowing the other team to score.