Bill Belichick claims he doesn’t understand how you can complete a pass like that and not gain a yard.  It will become obvious to him when he watches the coach’s film today — you needed TWO yards, not ONE.  Didn’t you have enough time to see that?  Well, you should have called for one of your more cheesy maneuvers within NFL rules with “we want a measurement” instead of blowing your last timeout.

Oh, I agree you should not regret the decision — to admit that means you capitulate to the growing reality that the game has escaped you.  Time to move on, before the Kraft’s exile you to Buffalo.  I think you have enough marbles left to decide on a noble suicide than work for Ralph Wilson.

All joking aside, it’s hard to believe Bill was thinking that decision gave the team their best chance to win.  I think he panicked.  Let’s consider what was at stake.  It probably means the AFC road to the Super Bowl goes through Indianapolis.  And, it certainly would have stopped the Colts win streak at 17, and keep them from tying their 18 regulars-in-a-row streak.

So, was Bill really thinking of his team’s best chances?  A football team has three aspects, and he was only considering The One he thought he had in Tommy.  The only decision that has “paid off” for him, separating him from a lackluster coaching career that was always in the shadow of NFL titan Bill Parcells.  The One was allowing Tommy to throw the ball in that situation.  Bill can hide behind delusional football “statistics” that steered his decision, but he failed to do what he preaches:  Situation, situation, situation.  In that situation, you’re ahead, you’re on the road, you’re deep in your own territory, you punt the ball to a team with no timeouts and a short clock working against them.  Only then can you objectively assess what kind of team you have.

… or you can panic and gamble for the win.

Bill’s gamble not only lost the game, but sends a clear message to the other two aspects of a football team.  And to the fans, too, that also bought into Belichick and Brady’s proclaimed selflessness that brought them three championships this decade: a solid defense (2001, 2003, 2004), special teams (2001, 2004), strong running game (2003, 2004), and cerebral QB play (2003).  Everyone observed that they were Team First.

So what turned him from that formula of success, the start of which the world saw from that Giants’ improbable Super Bowl win in 2007?  Is Bill believing the hype?  Did Bill succumb to Tommy’s “body language” of 2005 and 2006, with this selfish need to pad “statistical” worth by running up the score and “chuck it to Moss” plays?  Did he turn renegade from the asterisk in their 16-win regular season?  Why would an accomplished professional football coach deviate in THIS situation?

Well, it’s going to be interesting to me to see how this change in “tactics” will play out to the rest of the team and fans this season.

“All in all, I hated the call. It smacked of I’m-smarter-than-they-are hubris. Let Manning, with the weight of the world on his shoulders and no timeouts under his belt, drive 72 yards in two minutes, with his mistake-prone (on this night) young receivers and the clock working against him. Sure he could do it. But let him earn it. This felt too cheap. It was too cheap. Belichick’s too smart to have something so Grady-Littlish on his career resume, but there it is, and it can never be erased. — Sports Illustrated’s Peter King