I Am Still In Disbelief

Around the start of the 4th quarter, I gave up. I began preparing myself for the worst. The Pats had seriously had their way with the young and inexperienced Colts secondary all game long. Peyton and company had struggled to get anything going on offense. In my mind... there's no way the game is still in reach at this point. Even for the Colts.

Obviously, I was wrong. Here are some things I still can't believe:

1. That Belichick would go for it on 4th and 2 from his own 28. Despite how little I think of this man, even I was surprised he did that. And it sure looked to me like it might have been Brady's idea--he was at least involved in the discussion.

Don't tell me for a second that they were really just that sure Peyton would score from 70 yards away. It's easy to say Belichick felt the defense would give up a score no matter what, and so he went for it. But not when Belichick has a history of being a cocky jerk who likes to make statements and run up the score. He was arrogant, plain and simple. He wanted to step on the Colts' throats. And in my opinion, got what he deserved. It was an attempt to pull a Bud Adams and give the Colts the finger, and it backfired. I'm looking forward to a week's worth of articles about Bill's screw up.

Yet even now I almost can't believe he did it.

(wow, I wrote a whole couple paragraphs about Belichick without mentioning cheating... amazing).

2. That final touchdown pass to Reggie Wayne. Lost in the hub-bub surrounding the comeback and the Pats' bad decision to go for it on 4th and 2 was the fact that Wayne's catch at the end was freaking ridiculous.

3. I can't believe the Colts are so good at scoring in the 4th quarter and so bad at it in the first three.

4. Still marveling at the perfect storm that led to the Pats not being able to challenge that spot. Out of timeouts (because of calling one just a few seconds earlier) kept them from challenging... and the timing of the play coming right before the 2-minute warning meant the replay booth couldn't look at it on their own either.

Not that it would have been overturned... looked very, very close.

5. I can't believe how many people I have talked to already today that stopped watching the game with about 5 minutes left--Manning's final interception of the evening seems to be the point when people starting tuning out.

6. That Belichick's bodyguard threw a photographer to the ground. Dang.

I am completely and wholeheartedly biased... but that was one of the best games I've seen in a long, long time.