Absurd Colts play proves Patriots still winning mind game
INDIANAPOLIS -- In the solitude of night, all alone Randy Gregory Youth Jersey with his thoughts, Chuck Pagano had to be dreaming up heroic scenarios for his big moment in the Sunday night lights. No, he was not only going to beat Bill Belichick. Pagano was going to beat Bill Belichick at his own game. The coach of the Indianapolis Colts was going to outsmart the coach of the New England Patriots, the potential consequences be damned. If a completely unnecessary onside kick in the second quarter didn't work -- in fact, it set up a Patriots touchdown -- then Pagano would run a fourth-down play near the end of the third quarter that even Belichick's mad scientist of an aide, Ernie Adams, couldn't cook up in his underground lab. Maybe the same team baffled by Belichick's trick formations in last year's playoffs, the Baltimore Ravens, lent this play to the Colts as eagerly as they allegedly alerted them to the possibility the Patriots were deflating footballs. Or maybe Pagano and his staff came up with this baby on their own. Either way, the play turned out to be http://www.nflcowboysofficial.com/Authentic-Byron-Jones-Jersey funnier than Belichick's affection for "My Cousin Vinny"; it was a full-season blooper reel all its own. If the Patriots did take the air out of the balls before their 45-7 destruction of the Colts in the AFC Championship Game, all Pagano did in this 34-27 defeat was take the air out of his own building. You've likely seen the replay a half-dozen times by now. In a fourth-and-3 punting situation, the Colts sent nine players wide right and had backup receiver Griff Whalen isolated on the left side with a safety, Colt Anderson. Of course, the Patriots acted as if they'd spent all day Friday and Saturday preparing for this formation. They had two defenders on top of Whalen, the de facto center, and Anderson, the de facto quarterback, with a third nearby and a fourth sliding over to help. Whalen snapped the ball anyway. On cue, Anderson was immediately tackled for a loss by Brandon Bolden with a flag already on the field. To punctuate the absurdity of it all, Pagano didn't have enough of his "decoys" on the right side up on the line of scrimmage. The Colts would've lost the first down even if the trick play succeeded, and Belichick never looked happier to tell a ref he was declining a penalty. Six plays later, Tom Brady hit LeGarrette Blount for an 11-yard touchdown pass and a most demoralizing two-score lead. "I take full responsibility http://www.nflcowboysofficial.com for that," Pagano said, as if he had any other choice. "We expected this to be a gadget game in the kicking game," Belichick said. The winning coach had watched Colts punter Pat McAfee run for 18 yards on a fake against the Titans, so he expected a curveball or two.