What The Hell Was Belichick Thinking?

Normally when a sports network hypes up a game, all it is is hype.  NBC, who are still promoting The Jay Leno Show like it still has a chance at succeeding, had been pumping up their Sunday night game between the New England Patriots and the Bastard Baltimore Indianapolis Colts all week as the “Rivalry Of The Decade.” I was blinded by Brett Favre returning to Lambeau, and I still think the anticipation for Vikings-Packers was higher, if not once-in-a-lifetime.  But once I saw the network’s annoying commercial for the two-billionth time, I realized I had to pay respect to these two clubs because, frankly, NBC is right.  Baltimore Indianapolis and New England have now met a dozen times since Tom Brady made his first start against the Colts Sep. 30, 2001, and there has been at least a compelling storyline to each one of their clashes.  That this game lived up to the hype is stunning in and of itself.  What is even more amazing is that Pats Head Coach Bill Belichick is the man responsible for putting the 2009 edition of this heated, storied rivalry on the top shelf, possibly above all the others.

Geniuses are sometimes known for missing things that we of average intelligence remember all the time –  they can reason through Fermat’s Last Theorem but forget the glasses are on top of their head, for example.  Not to say that Belichick had a complete mindfart over the basic rules of football, but there’s one salient fact that’s supposed to override all the others: You are at your own 28-yard line.  Even if you only need to gain six more feet, a length nearly all your players are taller than, you punt the ball.

Yes, Peyton Manning is Peyton Manning, and he demonstrated he was Peyton Manning by leading the Colts for touchdown drives of 79 yards twice in the fourth quarter.  If the Patriots defense showed no resistance in giving up so much territory so quickly, giving Manning and his receivers a field the length of a typical backyard makes things worse.  And don’t forget that Manning was picked off twice, the last sandwiched inbetween those 79-yard TD drives.  He was fantastic Sunday night, but he wasn’t perfect.

Meanwhile, what Belichick should have heeded wasn’t Manning but the Indianapolis D.  Tom Brady was having a solid night, throwing for 375 yards, but in retrospect you could see that Indianapolis solving, or at least coping against, New England’s offensive schemes.  On third down, cornerback Jerraud Powers almost intercepted a pass to receiver Wes Welker.  And on fourth down, safety Melvin Bullitt knew that Brady would probably go to either Welker or running back Kevin Faulk.  Belichick decided to keep the offense on the field, Brady went to Faulk, Bullitt gave Faulk one yard but not two, and that set the stage for Manning-to-Wayne and the thrilling end to the early leader for Game Of The Year.

This doesn’t mean Belichick will go 0-16 the next three years.  New England had a chance to win despite missing both starting defensive ends and two linebackers.  They still can make the playoffs and face Indianapolis again.  And I’m fairly certain that they won’t be blindsided when they face Oregon and Stanford later in the season.  (Oops, wrong disappointing team.)  But this is the first time the Patriots had a lead of at least 13 points to start the fourth quarter under Belichick and lost.  And this isn’t like the ’06 playoffs when New England was denied a third straight Super Bowl because they gave Denver the ball five times.  This isn’t Steve Spagnuolo engineering the greatest defensive strategy in Super Bowl history in denying the Pats their perfect season two years ago.  Belichick blew it.  It’s the first big collapse in the Belichick Era because of the first outright mistake of the Belichick Era.

But damn, what a call.  What a game.  And what a rivalry.

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