There is no shame in losing to the Indianapolis Colts. After all, the undefeated boys in blue have had their way with nine different teams this year—four of which are over .500—and when Peyton Manning is calling the shots under center, the vast majority of the league doesn't stand a chance.
But when you place the greatest quarterback of our generation against him, incessantly torch their secondary and thwart what is a normally robust offense, all culminating in a comfortable 31-14 lead with 14:18 remaining in the fourth quarter, regardless of how rare this perfect storm of sovereignty is, there is no excuse for losing to the Indianapolis Colts (or any team for that matter) especially when your head coach is Bill Belichick.
Yet, it was the team of the decade, the three-time Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots who found themselves in this exact situation on Sunday night at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
The 6-2 Patriots, led by Tom Brady, had ridden into central Indiana, fired off their muskets, and obliterated every Colt on the field. Brady finished the game 29-42, passing for 375 yards three scores and just one interception, the characteristically magnificent evening that we have all grown so accustomed to over the decade, which included a 63-yard bomb (70 if you count the pass's point of release) to Randy Moss who found the end zone which highlighted the Patriots supreme domination of their most abhorred rivals.
That was until 14:18 remaining in the fourth, when Manning and Indianapolis orchestrated a comeback reminiscent of the 2007 AFC Championship game, a game in which the Colts trailed 21-6 at halftime only to circle the wagons and seal a spot in the Super Bowl with a stunning 38-34 victory. Ironically, New England's point total from that painful night was exactly the same Sunday evening as the Patriots once again surrendered a hefty lead and fell 35-34.
The game changed in one play, and if you're a human being who watches sports, by now you should have a pretty good idea of which play that was.
The Patriots were up 34-28 with 2:08 remaining in the game, and after a third down pass from Brady to Wes Welker was broken up on 3rd and 2, New England, who were on their own 28-yardline were faced with a fourth down.
Now for those of you who don't know, the standard procedure on fourth down—unless you are within an inch of the marker (but even then it's risky) or within field goal range—in the NFL is to punt the ball away, lest your team go for the first down and fail, and thus turn the ball over to the other team at the exact spot of the failure.
In other words, if you punt the ball away, the farther and more difficult it will be for the opposing team to score. It is, I repeat, the standard procedure in the NFL. Unfortunately for Patriots fans though, "standard procedure" is a term of which Bill Belichick is not cognizant.
Belichick called his final timeout and ultimately decided to go for the first down on a short pass to Kevin Faulk, who caught it, but who also was denied forward progress just short of the first down marker. Colts ball. It only took Indianapolis four plays to punch it in for the score, who did an exceptional job of shedding time off the clock in the process, before Manning found Reggie Wayne in the end zone on a one-yard strike to tie the game. Matt Stover then added the crucial extra point that gave the Colts the 35-34 win. But back to the fourth down call.
Belichick has never been averse to going for it on fourth down. In fact, he prides himself on it. In moments when it would be obvious to most, if not all coaches and fans alike, to punt the ball away or kick the field goal on the final down, Belichick time after time will send his offense back onto the field knowing full well that with their dynamism and composure, they have a pretty good chance of getting the first down.
It also helps when you have Tom Brady, arguably one of the smartest players in NFL history, at your disposal. So should any of us really be surprised that Belichick decided to do Sunday night what he so often does?
His decision did little to dispel the notion that he probably colored outside the lines as a kid, for surely no head coach in all of professional sports is as staunch to his idiosyncratic in-game tactics (Knicks head coach Mike D'Antoni is tantalizingly close) as Belichick.
He will always go for it on fourth and short, run up the score on you until the final whistle blows, and give the opposing coach a curt, perfunctory handshake after the game (only if you're lucky though, Eric Mangini).
He will never smile on the sidelines in the middle of a game, give direct responses to answers at press conferences, and be completely satisfied until he wins another Super Bowl. It is this audacity—in fact, a real kind of arrogance—in all facets of his coaching style that easily makes him the most dislikable head coach in sports, and I'm not just saying that because he left the Jets after one day as the boss back in 2000 (this also coming from a guy who believes Belichick owes more to Jets linebacker Mo Lewis for sidelining Drew Bledsoe indefinitely back in 2001 that paved the way for Brady for his success than anybody).
Fittingly, as if the football gods of karma had intervened, Belichick could not even challenge the spot of the ball on the Faulk play as he had already burned all of his timeouts. And when he stormed off the field at the end of the game like a ten-year-old en route to his room after being grounded by his parents, he predictably spurned everyone in his path offering him a sportsmanlike shake, most notably Stover, who might as well have been a mosquito buzzing in Belichick's ear in the way the coach brushed off the kicker.
Yes, it is this audacity that makes Belichick so easy to dislike. Yet, it is this same audacity that has made Belichick one of the most successful head coaches in NFL history.
The reaction around campus and the rest of New England this week following Belichick's Bay of Pigs has been expectedly mixed, several who have cited the reasons above as to why it was the right decision to go for it on fourth down, while others have pointed to the poor field position at the time being as clear a sign as any to punt it away "at least make Peyton Manning beat us."
Regardless of what the pundits have voiced though, this is perhaps the first time since his inaugural season in charge in which New England finished 5-11 that Patriots fans have questioned Belichick, and still, the stubborn head coach remained resolute to his decision after the game telling reporters that the contentious call gave his team the best chance to win the game at the time. And although it didn't work out the way he had hoped, Belichick knew exactly what he was doing. By going for it Sunday night, he may have made implicit his not trusting his defense enough to stop Manning.
On the contrary, he may have invested too much trust in his offense to get the first down. Regardless of the outcome, the game didn't mean much more than another thrilling chapter of a storied rivalry, as the Patriots still sit comfortably atop the AFC East with all signs indicative of a postseason berth in the near future.
And as a Patriots fan told me on Monday, "This loss will hurt a lot more if the Colts go undefeated."
Belichick took a gamble Sunday night that he thought would pay off: the best quarterback in the league throwing a quick dart to one of the most sure-handed receivers on the team in Kevin Faulk, just as they'd done a million times before. But this time it didn't work out for Big Bill, and I gotta say, it really couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.