The Philadelphia Eagles clinched home-field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs by defeating the Oakland Raiders on Monday night. The Eagles (offense) basically tried every way possible to lose the game, but the Raiders outdid them, and so the Eagles walked away with a win.
Oakland's fourth turnover of the second half set up a Jake Elliott field goal that gave the Eagles the lead with 22 seconds left, but the scoring did not end there. Because the 2017 season is just straight-up bonkers, we had yet another night game end with a defensive touchdown on the game's final play after the offense tried to set up a series of laterals to matriculate the ball down the field.
This time, rookie defensive end Derek Barnett was the beneficiary of the Raiders' mistakes.
How good is the @Eagles' defense?
— NFL (@NFL) December 26, 2017
They end games with TDs. #FlyEaglesFly#OAKvsPHI pic.twitter.com/ejpaDurex3
Previously, the Chiefs scored a defensive touchdown against Washington on the final play of the game, giving gamblers fits. The Chiefs entered the game as 6.5 or 7-point favorites, depending on where you'd bet the line, and the final play touchdown pushed their margin of victory from three to 10.
Wouldn't you know it, the same kind of thing happened this time around. Philadelphia entered this game as a 10-point favorite, and the late touchdown pushed their lead from three to nine. Only instead of kicking an extra point to push the lead to 10 and get a push, Doug Pederson had his team kneel on the football.
Line closed at Eagles -10. After scoring on the game's last play to go up by 9, they kneeled. Incredible. pic.twitter.com/Q2MCVVurRS
— Kenny Ducey (@KennyDucey) December 26, 2017
The emotional swing from elation at possibly not losing your money, to definitely losing your money because the coach decided he valued sportsmanship, has got to hurt.