The Colts tried a little trickery on Sunday night that went badly, and it was an ugly play to say the least.
Trailing 27-21 in the closing minutes of the third quarter, Indianapolis attempted a poorly executed fake punt play on 4th and 3 with an offset formation that they didn’t even line up right for and were called for illegal formation even after New England shut it down. That gave the Patriots the football at the Colts’ 35-yard line.
Six plays later the Patriots were in the end zone thanks to an 11-yard pass from Tom Brady to LeGarrette Blount, putting the game out of reach at 34-21 and ended up being a key turning point in the contest.
Here’s a quick look if you missed it:
NORMAL FOOTBALL PLAY https://t.co/oSOoJTpmct
— Jon Bois (@jon_bois) October 19, 2015
Here’s the explanation head coach Chuck Pagano gave after the game:
“The whole idea there was on fourth-and-3 or less, we shift to an alignment to where we could catch them misaligned,” he told reporters after the game. “They tried to sub some people in. Catch them with more men on the field — 12 men on the field. And if you get a certain look, you have three (or) two yards to make a play.”
“We shifted over and I didn’t do a good enough job coaching it during the week. Alignment wise, we weren’t lined up correctly and we had a communication breakdown between the quarterback and snapper. That’s on me.”
Bill Belichick said it was just a good play by his team and called it a good “heads up play” by his team.
“We didn’t know what the play was going to be obviously, but no, they, you know, went on the swinging-gate-type play. We went over to the over shift and made sure we covered the inside part and reacted well to it,” explained Belichick. “So it was a good, heads up play, you know, by our punt return unit. I thought we had good coverage from those guys from the opening kickoff, went down there and nailed them inside the ten or whatever it was, right around the ten. Then the onside kick, so obviously those were big for us too.”
Needless to say that play is a prime example of the difference between Bill Belichick – one of the best coaches in the game – and Pagano, whose team is now 3-3 following Sunday night’s defeat.
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Ian Logue is a Seacoast native and owner and senior writer for PatsFans.com, an independent media site covering the New England Patriots and has been running this site in one form or another since 1997.
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