Bill Belichick got the last laugh against Chuck Pagano on Sunday. (Joe Robbins/Getty Images)
Colts coach Chuck Pagano has been taking a lot of heat for his team’s poorly executed fake punt that ended in disaster, setting up the Patriots for a key touchdown late in the third quarter of Sunday’s 34-27 New England win.
ESPN’s Tim Hasselbeck, however, credits Pagano with trying to be creative in a game in which his team clearly needed to come up with something special to pull off an upset.
During his appearance with Dennis, Callahan & Minihane on Monday morning, Hasselbeck — whose brother Matt is Indianapolis’ backup quarterback — defended the embattled Colts coach.
“I know everyone’s grilling Pagano about the call,” Hasselbeck said. “I think it was pretty evident how the Colts felt about this game, when you look at that situation and then you look at the onside kick [in the second quarter]. I think Chuck Pagano had a good plan for the night. He said, ‘Look, here’s the deal: We’re playing a team that’s better than us. And to beat a team that’s better than we are, we need to take a couple of chances and get a couple of breaks. We got a dropped pass that goes back for a score. We follow that with a surprise onside kick. Then we’re going to have this punt play that’s going to have different elements to it.’
“He said, ‘We’re an overmatched team, this is my plan for it, this is how we’re going to attack it.’ And I have zero problems with that whatsoever.”
Looking at the other sideline, Hasselbeck said the play demonstrated the greatness of Bill Belichick.
“I think this is the brilliance of Belichick,” he said. “The Colts have never ever shown that look this season, or going back to last year. His team — Belichick’s, that is — is prepared for it. So between Belichick, his involvement in teams, and his special teams coordinator, the players that they have out on the field that are both offensive and defensive players, the fact that they adjust to the shift properly is why he’s the best coach that I’ve ever seen.”
Added Hasselbeck: “That’s why Belichick’s the best, and it’s not close. I would argue that over half of the teams in the National Football League would have burned a timeout or lined up incorrectly. In fact, I think two-thirds of the NFL would burn a timeout or line up incorrectly. Whether people don’t like Belichick because of how he deals with the media or whatever the situation is, if you can’t respect that, then you’re not paying attention to football. He’s amazing at that.”
In the end, Hasselbeck said it’s obvious that the Colts should not have snapped the ball when they realized the Patriots did not fall for the ploy.
“The only way that the ball ends up being snapped is if New England does not adjust to the shift properly and you have one over two — meaning one defender over Griff Whalen and Colt Anderson,” Hasselbeck said. “If you look at how they were lined up, I believe it was essentially was three over two when you see the guy that’s stacked behind. … As soon as there’s three over two, the ball’s not being snapped.
“All you really are hoping for, especially when you think about the field position, you’re hoping that New England burns a timeout, because they’re uncomfortable with how they get lined up to it, or they just don’t line up properly and you’re able to end up running the ball because they have one over two. That’s how it works.”
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