players wide right and had backup receiver Griff Whalen isolated on the left side with a safety, Colt Anderson. Of course, the Patriots acted as if they'd spent all day Friday and Saturday preparing for this formation. They had two defenders on top of Whalen, the de facto center, and Anderson, the de facto quarterback, with a third nearby and a fourth sliding over to help. Whalen snapped the ball anyway.

On cue, Anderson was immediately tackled for a loss by Brandon Bolden with a flag already on the field. To punctuate the absurdity of it all, Pagano didn't have enough of his "decoys" on the right side up on the line of scrimmage. The Colts would've lost the first down even if the trick play succeeded, and Belichicknever looked happier to tell a ref he was declining a penalty. Six plays later, Tom Brady hit LeGarrette Blount for an 11-yard touchdown pass and a most demoralizing two-score lead.

"I take full responsibility for that," Pagano said, as if he had any other choice.

"We expected this to be a gadget game in the kicking game," Belichick said. The winning coach had watched Colts punter Pat McAfee run for 18 yards on a fake against the Titans, so he expected a curveball or two.

"We didn't know what play it was going to be obviously," he said.

The Patriots only acted as if they knew the play better than the Colts did. New Englanders are still laughing over the Jets' bygone "butt fumble" on Thanksgiving night in the Meadowlands, but