For NFL teams, the most exciting play in football is the kneel down and that's mostly because it usually means that you just won your game. However, that's definitely not the case in Fantasy football.
In Fantasy, the kneel down is a dreaded play that can quickly turn a surefire win into a loss, and several Fantasy owners found that out the hard way on Monday night when the Cowboys beat the Chargers 20-17. With just under 90 seconds left to play, Stephon Gilmore sealed the Cowboys win with an interception of Justin Herbert, but even with the pick, the game still wasn't quite over.
With 1:22 left on the clock, the Cowboys had to run two plays, so they called for Dak Prescott to kneel the ball twice. Prescott ended up losing one yard on each kneel down, which caused some Fantasy football chaos around the country.
The guy below was winning his Fantasy matchup 141.8 to 141.66 going into the final two plays, but after Prescott took two knees, our Fantasy friend lost 0.1 point per kneel down, which cost him the game.
Literally add me to one of the people who got #badbeat due to the Dak kneel. #FantasyFootball #badbeat pic.twitter.com/AKhljIJKvS
— Benji Butter (@BenGermanButter) October 17, 2023
If you lost because of these two plays, you should just go ahead and blame the Fantasy gods. That's what the person below did.
The fantasy gods are cruel 😂… them 2 Dak Kneel downs at the end snatched Defeat from the jaws of victory for my dynasty team Uncle RICO. 😂 pic.twitter.com/MXDcISlUTJ
— C.J. Lawrence (@CJLawrenceEsq) October 17, 2023
On the flip side, there were some people who were equally happy to see the kneel downs and that's because they won thanks to the final two plays. The guy below ended up winning by .06 points thanks to Dak.
No one cares, but I just had the craziest win in fantasy.
— Zach Heilprin (@ZachHeilprin) October 17, 2023
Pic 1: After the Dallas sack and INT
Pic 2: After Dak took a knee on the last two plays
😂😂 pic.twitter.com/MOOlxXkjRZ
The two kneel downs also caused a lot of drama for the guy below. He was trailing 122.78 to 122.76 before the Cowboys took over for their final possession, but after the kneel downs, he ended up winning 122.76 to 122.58.
I won on that Dak kneel 😂😂 pic.twitter.com/wO1k8FUlZq
— Bryan🤖 (@brychacho24) October 17, 2023
That's some serious drama.
This was especially painful because it was the final game of the week. If this had happened in a Sunday game, no one would have noticed, but since it was Monday night, there were likely hundreds of Fantasy matchups that flipped on the two kneel downs.
Losing a Fantasy matchup because your starting quarterback had to take a knee on the final play is definitely the worst way to lose. Of course, in real football, taking a knee makes sense because it essentially guarantees that you're going to win. If an NFL team has the lead in the final minute, they're always going to take a knee, if only so they don't turn into the next University of Miami, a team that lost to Georgia Tech on Oct. 8 after refusing to take a knee in what will almost certainly go down as one of the greatest coaching blunders in football history.
“That’s one of the biggest coaching mistakes at this level that I have ever seen in my lifetime.”
— ESPN (@espn) October 8, 2023
Miami could've taken a knee and closed out Georgia Tech. Instead ... disaster struck 😳 pic.twitter.com/I5vAvtn78p
If that ever happened in the NFL, the coach would probably be fired the next day.
As for Prescott, although he lost two yards on the kneel downs, he otherwise had a pretty solid day for his Fantasy owners. Not only did he throw for 272 yards and a touchdown, but he also rushed for 40 yards and another score.
