Worst Play After Midnight
Now the Colts are facing third-and-8 on the Patriots' 17 with no timeouts and 49 seconds remaining at 12:07 a.m. local. To that point, they had rushed 42 times for 202 yards, exploiting the Patriots' only weakness -- run defense. Why not run here? A short run leaves Vanderjagt in position for a high-percentage field goal that forces overtime. If the run earns a first down, a spike stops the clock. Instead, the Colts lined up in shotgun formation, planning to pass.
Pause your mental TiVo here and review the first Indianapolis possession of the game. Trailing 3-0, the Colts had first-and-goal on the New England 6. What did they do? As pointed out by reader Miguel Molina of Houston, they threw incomplete on first down, then on second down threw an interception from the shotgun. Why not just run? On a night when Indianapolis rushed well -- averaging 4.8 yards a carry -- it was the Colts' failure simply to run after reaching the red zone on their first and last possessions that doomed the challenger's hopes. (Yes, Edgerrin James fumbled on a goal-line Colts' run, but fumbles are random mistakes, not tactical decisions.) Had Manning simply handed the ball off on the first and last Colts' red-zone possessions, two field goals were likely. Instead, Indianapolis failed to score both times. Now restart your mental TiVo. Manning's in the shotgun. On the right side of the Colts' line, tackle Ryan Diem is next to nervous sophomore tight end Dallas Clark. The Patriots played a soft three-man rush on the previous downs, but now five gentlemen crowd the line, looking to blitz. Two Pats are lined up directly "over" Clark, who has a reputation as someone who'd rather catch than block. Diem and Clark are gesturing like mad to each other; something is fouled up, and TMQ suspects Diem is urgently communicating that Clark must stay in and block. The ball is snapped and, rather than block, Clark runs a turn-out, as if expecting a "hot read" anti-blitz pass. Diem takes one of the two defenders coming through the hole Clark left. Willie McGinest, the other defender, roars in untouched by human hands for the sack. And set aside that the Colts' line call was so discombobulated, that although there were six blocking five -- Edgerrin James read the blitz and stayed in -- no one touched McGinest. Seeing him coming, Manning ran backward five yards and went down for a 12-yard loss. Manning committed the cardinal sin of allowing himself to be sacked out of reliable field-goal range. Ye gods. If they'd only handed off straight up the middle!
