I really don't get why you keep saying that. Its rather silly.
Because the NE was acting like a badass, and the instant the Fallen took a village up north near the start of strat, Ecko flipped out and posted on the ATS steam group "FALLEN DECLARE WAR" move troops yadda yadda blah blah blah, so we figured that NE was pretty pro to be ready to fight so fast. (and yes, we have access to the steam group, thank some of your members for that).
We expected to win, but not have um... We expected a series of hard fights before the NE crumpled, not the fast avalanche that we had.