For some the late Eagles TD was a Christmas miracle, but for others it meant an unbelievable and infuriating end to the fantasy football season.
- The Philadelphia Eagles beat the Oakland Raiders on Christmas night, 19-10, including a last-second touchdown by the Eagles when the Raiders fumbled on their final play.
- The final touchdown was meaningless for the outcome of the game, however, for bettors and fantasy football players across the country, it was either a Christmas miracle or a crushing defeat.
- The fumble-touchdown is just the latest in a year full of wild gambling moments in the NFL.
The Philadelphia Eagles had a tough, but ultimately successful, Christmas night, beating the Oakland Raiders, 19-10, on a frigid evening to secure the top seed in the NFC and home-field advantage throughout the 2017 postseason.
While the win was simply another in a season full of them, for gamblers and fantasy football players, it was a wild night of whirlwind emotion.
At the start of the week, the Eagles were favored by nine points, meaning that Philadelphia would have to win by ten or more points for Eagles backers to cash their bets. As the week went on, so many bettors were taking Philadelphia that the line bumped the Eagles up to 10-point favorites.
Late in the game, it looked like people who had money on the Eaglers were dead in the water. While Philly had scored the go-ahead field goal with just a minute left to take a 13-10 lead, the chance of them stretching the lead beyond the point-spread seemed hopeless. But on the last play of the game, as the Raiders tried to lateral the ball in desperation, chaos took over, and the Eagles were able to recover the ball and run it into the end zone to take a 19-10 lead with the extra point pending.
You can take a look at the play below.
At this point, those that had Eagles -9 had been gifted a miracle push and an extra point could get them a win, while other bettors who had taken Philadelphia at -10 needed the extra point to salvage their bets. But they would never get the chance — the Eagles elected to kneel down on the extra point attempt, settling the final score at 19-10.
While the play no doubt swung a ton of money in Las Vegas, it's possible that the final sequence was even more impactful to fantasy football players. Week 16 serves as the championship week for most leagues, and the Eagles' late fumble recovery and touchdown likely made the title change hands in multiple leagues. Further, there had to be someone out there down a point in their championship with Jake Elliott as their kicker, who for a brief moment thought that they had won in a miracle, only to be crushed as the Eagles chose to kneel.
A quick look through Twitter would show that there were at least a few championships that changed hands due to the bizarre final sequence in the game.
It's not the first time a late, broken play has changed the outcome of bets and fantasy matchups across the country — earlier in the season the Chiefs had a similar play on "Monday Night Football" against the Redskins, leaving bettors elated or furious depending on which side of the game they were on.
The lesson, as always, is that gambling (and that includes fantasy), is a cruel mistress.