Trick play against Pats costly for Indianapolis
If you don’t think Bill Belichick gets inside the heads of opposing coaches, Sunday night offered more stunning proof.
If the Seattle Seahawks’ decision to call The Dumbest Play Ever near the end of February’s Super Bowl wasn’t lesson enough, Chuck Pagano of the Indianapolis Colts learned it the hard way on Sunday night.
He tried to outfox Belichick and his staff of savvy New England Patriots coaches, with the Colts trailing 27- 21, with 1: 14 left in the third quarter, and Indy facing 4th- and- 3 from its own 37.
Pagano called for a fake punt — the most poorly conceived and wretchedly executed fake punt since North American football spawned from rugby nearly 150 years ago. It was laughably unsuccessful. “And they called the damn thing against the Patriots, a wellcoached team,” Mike Westhoff, an NFL special- teams coach for 30 years before retiring in 2013, told Postmedia in a phone interview Monday. “The Patriots were playing punt- safe. I’ve gone against them a million times. I know what the hell they do.”
Tom Brady subsequently needed just six plays to move 35 yards and score what turned out to be the winning touchdown in a 34- 27 victory. Let’s go over the play. First, the Colts shifted out of a regular punt setup and into this travesty of a trick formation. Receiver Griff Whalen acted as centre, with safety Colt Anderson playing quarterback, hands under centre. The other nine Colts, including punter Pat McAfee, were arrayed far out to the right.
First off, they’re lined up illegally — egregiously so. After the play, Indy was flagged for it.
In the NFL, seven players must be situated along the line on every scrimmage play, even punts. The Colts had only one man on the line: the receiver-turned-centre, Whalen.
The clump of five Colts in between probably was supposed to be on the line too, but either those five players screwed up together, or they were never coached to line up on the scrimmage line in the first place. They’re a good yard- and- a- half too far back. Then the bigger screw- up. Pagano probably was hoping the Patriots would jump offside. Or that they’d take the bait and move en masse to cover all the bodies flexed out wide, so that a quarterback sneak against one or two leftover defenders would gain at least three yards.
Instead, the Patriots spread themselves along the line, more or less evenly, with three bunched in front of Whalen. No sneak would work.
Alternatively, Pagano suggested afterward, the hope was the Patriots might panic, substitute incorrectly and wind up with too many players on the field at once — an automatic blown whistle and a five- yard penalty, which would have given Indy a first down.
“When you run a trick play or formation like that, you need to have a specific, achievable goal in mind,” Westhoff said. “It shouldn’t be that you hope you draw them offside, or hope you get them to make a substitution error. I think that’s totally naive. ... It’s BS.”
As it was, with the play clock ticking down and the Patriots not screwing up in number or alignment, Whalen inexplicably snapped the ball anyway. To Anderson.
Westhoff said it had to have been Whalen’s decision to snap it, not Anderson’s.
“I’m sure that quarterback didn’t want the damn ball. He’s standing there looking at three guys!” Westhoff said.
Actually, five Patriots were nearby.
“Trust me, he doesn’t want the ball,” Westhoff said. “He knows his ass is getting kicked.” It was. Five Patriots swarmed Anderson the moment he received the snap, with four more Patriots on the way, before any of the nine faraway Colts got anywhere near the action. Loss of two yards. The Patriots declined the illegal- formation penalty and took over. Game essentially over.
STOCK UP: Cam Newton, QB, Panthers. On Sunday, Newton almost single- handedly rallied the Panthers for two TDs in the final four minutes, to remain unbeaten. Newton was 20- of- 36 for 269 yards.
STOCK DOWN: Arizona Cardinals. Maybe it’s just temporary. But suddenly the Cards have lost two winnable games in a row. Carson Palmer and the offence have sputtered in the second half, and the defence has leaked big plays.