Matt Ryan, Peyton Manning and Eli Manning played a combined 782 games as quarterbacks in their NFL careers. They’ve seen plenty of situations where clock management was paramount late in games, and they all agreed that no matter what the Eagles did with a late lead against the Falcons on Monday night, they shouldn’t have risked stopping the clock with an incomplete pass.
Ryan was part of the Manning cast along with Peyton and Eli, and all three were warning Eagles coach Nick Sirianni not to call a pass with the Eagles leading 18-15 late in the fourth quarter.
“I don’t think the ball’s going to be in the air again,” Ryan said during the two-minute warning.
But Ryan was wrong. Sirianni called for a three-yard pass on third down, but Eagles running back Saquon Barkley dropped it, stopping the clock and giving the Falcons 40 seconds of overtime before scoring a touchdown with 34 seconds left in the game that ultimately won the game.
The Manning brothers thought that was the only way the Falcons could win.
“Peyton, do you think they’re going to get the ball back?” Eli asked on the broadcast as the Falcons took their final timeout.
“If Philadelphia pitches,” Payton replied.
“They won’t pitch it,” Eli scoffed.
Ryan agreed: “This ball shouldn’t be in the air for the rest of the game.”
Both Eli and Payton predicted that the Eagles would try a tackle push on third down and three, then try a tackle push on fourth down, and then try again if the tackle push failed to gain three yards.
“Push is coming. You can’t pitch here,” Payton said.
The Eagles threw a pass there that fell incomplete to stop the clock after the Falcons took their final timeout.
“That’s why I didn’t throw it,” Payton said. “Kirk Cousins is over there celebrating. As soon as I saw him step back I said ‘Yes!'”
The Eagles’ pass attempt was one of the most shocking decisions in the NFL this season, and one that three quarterbacks who had been in the same situation before had begged them not to attempt.
