By the end of the game, they had stopped taking such risks because they knew we could take advantage of them. But they did not know how to play defense without taking such risks, so they more or less just fell to pieces. Most adults will be able to understand this story. One reason for this is that this version fills in the concrete facts which were missing in the first version. Another equally important reason is that most adults understand the abstract knowledge about life that underlies the story.
Every adult knows what it means to plot a strategy.
Every adult knows what it means to have a plan of action that usually works go wrong, and not know how to react. Adults can understand this story because they know stories that, in the abstract, are just like it. They understand the abstract schemas on which the story is based.