Saquon Barkley was staring at wide open field and one of the easiest touchdowns of his career.

Then the NFL’s leading rusher suddenly went down, preventing the Green Bay Packers from further embarrassment and keeping a big TD off the board.

Getty

Saquon Barkley went out of his way not to score a touchdown[/caption]

Social media lit up, wondering what had just happened to Barkley.

Stunned bettors were simply furious, watching millions of dollars suddenly go up in flames.

“I lost the parlay on that play,” one fan tweeted.

The drama-filled Philadelphia Eagles moved on in the playoffs with a 22-10 home win over the Packers.

It easily could have been 29-10, though.

Multiple betting lines were affected in real time as Barkley opted to slide and go down without contact for a game-sealing first down that allowed Philly to melt the clock.

Barkley finished with a game-high 119 rushing yards on 25 carries.

Yet the NFL’s top rusher left at least 75 yards and a TD on the field by sliding instead of burning into the end zone.

“That’s not classy, you get paid to score touchdowns,” one fan tweeted.

“Barkley going down is worse than him running it in,” a second fan posted. “That final will forever spiritually be 29-10.”

x@NFLonFOX

Tom Brady had to know why Barkley went down[/caption]

x@Eaglesfans9

Barkley sprinted past Packers defenders and stared at an open field[/caption]

x@Eaglesfans9

An overhead view showed how open Barkley was with the end zone in sight[/caption]

x@Eaglesfans9

He suddenly slid down, avoiding 60 extra yards and an easy TD[/caption]

“Yup, classy move,” a third fan posted. “Thanks, Saquon — my kids can’t eat tonight.”

“$4,500. I’m f***** now,” a fourth fan said.

Running backs sometimes will slide down near the goal line to put a game on ice.

But watching a runner who topped the NFL with 2,005 regular-season yards suddenly pull up and go down while staring at 60 yards of open field had social media steaming.

Even Tom Brady had to ask Barkley about going down without contact.

“Do yards mean anything to you at this point?” Brady said.

“I mean, I can’t break the record now, right?” said Barkley, who sat in Week 18 with Eric Dickerson’s NFL record for single-season rushing yards on the line.

“The most important thing is winning games. … I definitely left something on the bone, but at the end of the day the stat line don’t matter.

“The only stat that matters is getting Ws and advancing.”

Some applauded Barkley for prioritizing health and mutual respect over personal numbers.

Others questioned the NFL’s integrity and swore they’d never forgive Barkley for losing them money.

“That s*** was suspect as hell,” one fan tweeted. “Nobody does that unless instructed to.”

“It’s first down you win the game, so it’s get the first down and get down,” he said. “Don’t matter.”

Entering Sunday, Barkley was one of the top bets in the league to score a TD against the Packers.

“He literally could have gave every one of his fans cash if would have scored,” a fan posted. “But he instead decided to say ‘f*** you, stay poor.’ So selfish because he knows his fans bet him to score.”

Follow talkSPORT NFL on Facebook

Follow our talkSPORT NFL page on Facebook for the latest breaking NFL news, exclusive video interviews, and the biggest talking points from around the league.

Our dedicated NFL YouTube channel ‘End Zone’ will also keep you across the very latest NFL news with exclusive access and our weekly ‘Rundown’ review show.