When the Eagles allowed Jets running back Breece Hall to score a touchdown with 1:50 to play and New York down by two, 14-12, the reaction from many was that the Jets should not have scored. That Hall should have gone down, with the Jets playing for a field goal and leaving the Eagles with minimal clock time.
But the Jets were smart to score. The touchdown and two-point conversion gave the home team a six-point lead, forcing the Eagles to score a touchdown and convert the point-after attempt to win.
The score was 14-12, not 34-32. The Eagles had scored only two touchdowns all day. The Jets defense was doing its job. The Jets were, and should have been, content to dare the Eagles to make it all the way to the end zone.
Besides, the alternative hardly guaranteed victory for the Jets. If Hall had stopped short of the end zone, the Eagles would have called a timeout. On second down, the same thing would have happened. On third down, the Jets would have been able to bleed a full 40 seconds off the clock before attempting the go-ahead field goal.
Assuming the snap, spot, and hold would have worked, the Jets would have led by one point, 15-14. And given that the drive started with 1:50 to play, there would have been roughly one minute left.
And all the Eagles would have needed to win the game was a field goal.
Even starting at the 25, they would have been 35 yards from the outer limit of kicker Jake Elliottt’s range. The Eagles would have been 40 yards from a 53-yard attempt, 45 yards from a 48-yarder.
With a minute to play, and with players like A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith on the team, it’s not crazy to think the Eagles could have gotten within field goal range within the allotted time.
Regardless, that would have been easier to do than scoring a touchdown.
Which turns the potential second-guessing of Jets coach Robert Saleh into justifiable second-guessing of Eagles coach Nick Sirianni. His team led by two points. Force the Jets to run their offense three times. Maybe they would have fumbled. Maybe they would have missed the field goal.
Ultimately, the Eagles opted to challenge the teeth of the Jets team — its defense. And letting the Jets score said to the Jets defense, “We think you’re not good enough to keep us from scoring a touchdown with the game on the line.”
So, yes, the Jets should have welcomed the easy touchdown and the six-point lead. And, no, the Eagles shouldn’t have just handed it to them.
Whatever the analytics might have said (and, frankly, I don’t care), on Sunday at MetLife Stadium based on how those two teams had been playing it was more realistic to think the Eagles would get in position to kick a field goal with roughly a minute to play and no time outs than to score a touchdown (and convert a 33-yard extra point for the win) with 1:46 to go and two time outs.
