Joe Buck has seen it all from his vantage point calling NFL games for more than three decades.
Well, almost everything.
The 55-year-old, now in his third season calling ESPN and ABC’s “Monday Night Football” with Troy Aikman after the pair left their longtime gigs at Fox, has never been as “shocked” at how quickly a team collapsed like the Eagles did at home Monday night, when the Falcons marched down the field on a six-play, 70-yard drive in 1:05 to take the lead with 34 seconds left and steal a 22-21 win.
“I think you have to tip your cap to the Atlanta Falcons,” Buck told ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt during the postgame show. “I’ve been doing NFL games for 31 years, and I don’t think I’ve ever been as shocked as fast as I was tonight with the way this game ended. It was all just like a landslide with Philly.”
That landslide started when Saquon Barkley, who left the Giants in free agency this year to sign a three-year, $37.75 million contract with the Eagles, dropped a pass on third-and-3 at the Atlanta 10-yard line with a clear path to pick up the first down.
The decision to pass was debatable as the Falcons were out of timeouts and the Eagles could have milked the clock, but the chance was there for Barkley to ice the game.
Instead, Jake Elliott kicked a 28-yard field goal to put Philly up 21-15.
Kirk Cousins then engineered the game-winning drive, going 5-for-6 with 70 yards, capping it off with a 7-yard touchdown pass to Drake London.
London was then flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct over an apparent gun celebration, forcing kicker Younghoe Koo into a 48-yard extra-point attempt, which he converted to put Atlanta ahead.
Jalen Hurts threw an interception on the second play of the Eagles’ ensuing possession to end the game.
Buck also noted a questionable decision by Eagles coach Nick Sirianni in the first quarter that helped doom them, when they went for it on fourth-and-4 at the Atlanta 9-yard line and the game tied 0-0, and Hurts threw an incomplete pass intended for Dallas Goedert on a broken play.
“[Aikman] and I are looking at each other like, seemed like a chip-shot field goal was the call, but they go for it,” Buck said. “It’s a different time in the league.”
The Eagles (1-1) visit the Saints (2-0) on Sunday while the Falcons (1-1) host the Chiefs (2-0) on “Sunday Night Football.”