Spygate and Deflategate, and on all the time and energy New England's opponents have invested in fretting over potential covert ops and dirty tricks.

Pagano coached Sunday night as if he were determined to out-trick the master. "We were going to be aggressive," he said. "We wanted to attack this football team."

Fine. The Colts knew they were in for a rough one. Unlike baseball, a (mostly) noncontact game built around poise and fundamental precision, football is generally a sport that lends itself to manufactured pregame rage. You are not only allowed to hit people in football, you get fired if you don't.

So even before Brady's father told the New York Daily News that he would be rooting for the mother of all blowouts, the Patriots were fully expected tostampede through the tunnel with smoke billowing out of their ear holes. No matter how much Brady and Belichick attempted to bat away any suggestion that they were seeking retribution, human nature conspired with The Patriot Way to tell a different tale.

Pagano decided to meet fire with fire, and there's nothing wrong with that. But the onside kick was a foolish move and, after the referee explained that only a replay showing a clear Colts recovery of the loose ball originally awarded the Patriots would go his way, the challenge wasn't much smarter.

Pagano doubled down on it later with a play that will follow him like that high-pitched "Playoffs?" rant still follows Jim Mora. "Why'd you snap it?" the coach later asked Whalen, who apparently was too professional