On November 15, 2009, the New England Patriots led the unbeaten Indianapolis Colts 34-28 with 2:08 left in Indianapolis. They faced fourth-and-2 at their own 28. The conventional call was to punt. Bill Belichick kept his offense on the field.
Tom Brady threw to Kevin Faulk, who juggled the ball and was driven back by safety Melvin Bullitt. The officials spotted the ball at the New England 29, just short of the first-down marker. Peyton Manning took over 29 yards from the end zone, and four plays later he threw the winning touchdown to Reggie Wayne with 13 seconds left. The Colts won 35-34.
Brady’s Patriots led 31-14
For three quarters it was New England’s game. Manning opened the scoring with a 15-yard touchdown pass to Joseph Addai on third-and-11, but Brady answered with a 55-yard throw to Randy Moss that set up Laurence Maroney’s 1-yard run. In the second quarter Stephen Gostkowski kicked a 31-yard field goal, Brady dropped a 63-yard touchdown pass to Moss over safety Antoine Bethea, and Julian Edelman caught a 9-yard score. The Patriots led 24-7 with 7:19 left in the half, more points than the Colts had allowed in any game that season.
Manning hit Wayne for a 20-yard touchdown before halftime, and the Colts stopped two New England drives in the third quarter without giving up a point. Bethea intercepted Brady in the end zone, and on second-and-2 from the Colts’ 2, Philip Wheeler knocked the ball out of Maroney’s arms. Gary Brackett recovered in the end zone for a touchback. Two plays into the fourth quarter, after a 69-yard Wes Welker punt return, Brady threw a 5-yard touchdown pass to Moss for a 31-14 lead.
Twenty-one points in the fourth quarter
Manning needed five plays to cover 79 yards, finishing with a 29-yard touchdown pass to Pierre Garcon. The Patriots got the ball back on Jonathan Wilhite’s interception and added a 36-yard Gostkowski field goal, but Manning moved the Colts again. A 31-yard pass interference penalty on Darius Butler put the ball at the New England 13, and Addai ran in from 4 yards out. The Colts trailed 34-28 and kicked off deep rather than try an onside kick.
| Time | Play | Situation |
|---|---|---|
| 4th quarter, 2:23 | Faulk run, no gain (Patriots use their second timeout first) | New England leads 34-28, 2nd-and-10 at the New England 20 next |
| 4th quarter, 2:18 | Brady to Welker, 8 yards (Colts timeout before the play) | 3rd-and-2 at the New England 28 next |
| 4th quarter, 2:11 | Brady incomplete to Welker (Colts timeout before the play) | Patriots call their last timeout |
| 4th quarter, 2:08 | 4th-and-2: Brady to Faulk, 1 yard to the New England 29 | Turnover on downs, Colts ball at the New England 29 |
| 4th quarter, 2:00 | Manning to Wayne, 15 yards | 1st-and-10 at the New England 14 |
| 4th quarter, 1:20 | Addai run, 13 yards | 1st-and-goal at the New England 1 |
| 4th quarter, 0:36 | Addai run, no gain | 2nd-and-goal at the New England 1 |
| 4th quarter, 0:16 | Manning to Wayne, 1-yard touchdown; Matt Stover extra point | Colts lead 35-34 with 13 seconds left |
The call
Belichick had used a timeout before the first-down run and his last one before the fourth-down snap. That meant he had none left to challenge the spot. The Colts, who had used two of theirs to stop the clock, got the ball with two minutes to play and one timeout left.
“We tried to win the game on that play,” Belichick said. “I thought we could make the yard. We had a good play, we completed it. I don’t know how we couldn’t get a yard.” He also said, “That was a yard I was confident we could get.”
Bullitt was starting in place of the injured Bob Sanders. “As soon as the ball came, whether [Faulk] caught it or not, I knew he wasn’t at the yard marker,” he said.
It was not the first time Belichick had gone for it deep in his own end that season. Against Atlanta in September, he went for it on fourth-and-1 from his own 24, but that was in the third quarter.
“Let’s not be in a hurry”
The short field changed the Colts’ plan. “It certainly changed our philosophy,” Manning said. “In practice, we’re going 60 or 70 yards. So we figure we’re going to have to go five, six, seven plays. In the huddle, I said, ‘Obviously, we need a touchdown, but let’s not be in a hurry.'”
Addai’s 13-yard run reached the 1 on the snap at 1:20. With no timeouts, the Patriots could not stop the clock, and the Colts let it run down to 36 seconds before the next play. After Addai was stopped on first down, Wayne asked for a slant instead of the fade Manning had thrown him earlier in the game. “Reggie called the last play,” Manning said. “I threw a fade to him earlier in the game. He wanted the slant. He just kept fighting through and made an extended catch. Maybe not his best catch ever, but it sure was timely.”
New England’s last play was a 9-yard pass to Welker and a lateral to Ben Watson that went nowhere.
The numbers
Brady completed 29 of 42 passes for 375 yards, three touchdowns and one interception. Moss caught nine passes for a season-high 179 yards and two touchdowns, and Welker caught nine for 94. Manning completed 28 of 44 for 327 yards, four touchdowns and two interceptions, and Wayne caught 10 passes for 126 yards and two scores. The crowd of 67,476 was the biggest home crowd in Colts history at the time.
| Patriots | Colts | |
|---|---|---|
| Points | 34 | 35 |
| Total yards | 477 | 407 |
| First downs | 24 | 25 |
| Third downs | 7 of 14 | 5 of 12 |
| Fourth downs | 0 of 1 | 0 of 0 |
| Turnovers | 2 | 2 |
| Time of possession | 35:02 | 24:58 |
What they said
“It’s a bummer,” Brady said. He backed the call: “That fourth-down play, that’s one of your best plays, and you go to one of your best guys. We’ve got our offense on the field. We have over 450 yards of offense at the time. We’ve got a lot of great players on our offense. They stopped us.”
“You can’t be surprised at that point,” Faulk said. “The game is on the line. So, you have to be able to get it done.”
“Give the Colts credit,” Belichick said. “That’s why the Colts are the Colts. They’re a good football team. That’s about as close as it gets.”
What came next
It was the first time Belichick’s Patriots had lost a game they led by at least 13 points in the fourth quarter. The Colts moved to 9-0 under first-year coach Jim Caldwell, and their 18th straight regular-season win tied the second-longest streak in league history.
Indianapolis won its first 14 games and reached 23 straight regular-season wins before resting its starters in a 29-15 loss to the Jets. Manning was named the league’s Most Valuable Player for the fourth time. The Colts beat Baltimore 20-3 and the Jets 30-17 in the playoffs, then lost Super Bowl XLIV 31-17 to New Orleans. New England finished 10-6, won the AFC East and lost its wild-card game at home to Baltimore, 33-14.
Both teams play division rivals on the road this Sunday. Mike Vrabel’s 4-3 Patriots visit Miami, and Shane Steichen’s 3-4 Colts go to Jacksonville.
Related WhyNFL reading: October 18, 2015: The Colts’ fake punt that was never supposed to be snapped.
No published comments yet. Start the conversation.