The Eagles lost a Week 2 heartbreaker to the Falcons by a score of 22-21 at Lincoln Financial Field on Monday Night Football.

With Philadelphia ahead by six points following a 28-yard field goal by Jake Elliott with 1:39 remaining, Falcons veteran quarterback Kirk Cousins led his team on a six-play, 70-yard drive that ended when he connected with receiver Drake London for a seven-yard touchdown pass to knot things up at 21. Younghoe Koo nailed the extra point, albeit from 46 yards away thanks to an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on London, and Atlanta had a one-point lead with 34 seconds left.

Thankfully, there was still enough time for Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts to lead his team into field goal range. I mean, 34 seconds is an eternity in today’s NFL. Not only that, but Philadelphia still had two time-outs remaining. Unfortunately, Hurts threw an interception on the second play of the drive, and that sealed things for the visitors, who flew home 1-1 when they probably should have been 0-2.

The Eagles should have been 2-0 and would have been, had it not been for their head coach, Nick Sirianni. Some say that most football games come down to one or two plays, and they do. However, we’re also often reminded that you can point to moments earlier in games that ultimately led to the final score.

I’m sorry, but Monday night at Lincoln Financial Field was not one of those times. Don’t get me wrong, there were moments earlier in the game that shaped the end of it, but every contest has those moments. Having said that, the final minutes of a close game are almost always in the hands of the head coach, at least as it pertains to his decisions.

That brings me to third and three from the Atlanta 10 with 1:46 remaining in the fourth quarter. The Eagles were the team facing the third and three, but they held an 18-15 advantage on the scoreboard. The Falcons had burned their third timeout. Philadelphia subsequently used its first one before running the next play, but who cares about that? The clock had already stopped, and the Eagles just wanted to think things over a bit more before deciding on a pivotal call. Since Atlanta burned all of its timeouts and was on the wrong end of the score, the smart move would have been to run the ball, no? Think about it, you run the football, and even if you don’t make the necessary yardage to put the game on ice, you could have allowed the clock to run down to around the one-minute mark before attempting the field goal. By then, you’re up by six with less than a minute to go.

What did the Eagles call? A pass play, one that fell incomplete when a short throw to Saquon Barkley out of the backfield slipped through the running back’s mitts and onto the turf of Lincoln Financial Field. If you read the beginning of this article, then you know how much time was left for Cousins to navigate his offense down the field for the game-winning touchdown.

If 34 seconds is an eternity for most quarterbacks to work their offense into field goal range, 1:39 is all the time most competent signal-callers need to make enough plays to get into the end zone. Cousins is more than competent and was able to get the job done.

But would Cousins have been able to come through had he had 40 fewer seconds to work with? That’s debatable, but Sirianni should have forced him to find out.

After the game, Sirianni told reporters that Hurts was supposed to run the football or take the sack if nobody was open. However, Barkley was open and just dropped the ball. You can maybe blame Hurts if you want. You can certainly put all the blame on Barkley’s shoulders; after all, if he catches the ball, it’s an easy first down, if not a touchdown. Either way, the Eagles would have fired up the victory cigar.

Excuse me, but I’m blaming the head coach. NFL head coaches make lots of money, and while every call ultimately comes down to the execution of his players, the call always comes before the execution.

I know we live in a sports world that likes to celebrate head coaches having huge, well, cajones, and there are coaches–especially the Ravens’ John Harbaugh–who have been lauded for gambling on two-point tries in recent years when the safer move may have been to tie the game with an extra point. What’s funny is that I can’t remember the last time Harbaugh was right with any of his end-of-game gambles. They’ve led to losses on every occasion, and his team has missed the postseason because of them.

So why applaud these moves? In football, the risk is only worth the reward if it leads to a win. It’s downright stupid if it leads to a loss.

I hate to talk in absolutes about the end of the Eagles/Falcons game on MNF. Cousins may still have found a way to drive his offense down the field for the winning touchdown with 40 fewer seconds on the game clock.

But I maintain that Nick Sirianni should have given Kirk Cousins 40 fewer seconds on the game clock.