You won't read or hear this anywhere else.

Everyone and their dog is shouting from the rooftops about how bad of a decision Bill Belichick made last night against the Colts. Just looking at the basics, it certainly does seem like a bad call. 4th and 2 from your 28 yard line, up by 6 points, and nearing the 2 minute mark. Obviously, the correct call is to punt the ball away, and play some D, right? Well, (at least for me) not really. Belichick made the call that put the game in his best player's hands. Aren't coaches supposed to do that? I thought that's the big cry from fans, give your playmaker the ball. That's what New England did. They put the game on Tom Brady's back, and if it weren't for a juggle, the call would have worked.

Now I'm not trying to say that Belichick made the right call, or a good call, but he made the decision that he felt gave his team the best opportunity to win. I'm sure by now you've read/heard to the point of being bored, how dumb of a call going for it on 4th down was. Only, it wasn't really that dumb. Lets say you punt the ball away, and force Peyton Manning to go 60-70 yards for the game winning score. Well, there was no sign what-so-ever, that the Pats defense was going to keep Manning out of the end zone. Zero chance of that happening, and Belichick knew it. So, instead of having Indy go 60-70 yards, take up the final 1:50, and score, he decided to give them a short field, presumably score quickly, and give Brady about a minute, to drive and set up a game winning field goal. And the difference between driving for a TD, and driving for a FG are huge. And you want to know what, it almost worked. And you want to know what, the "experts" are either too dumb to realize that, or too scarred of being labeled stupid to acknowledge the idea.

Go back to that game winning drive by Indy, and notice how close this idea came to materializing. Joseph Addai was within an ankle tackle at the 1 yard line from scoring a TD with 1:15 left. That's how close this game was from being a Belichick poor decision, into "Indy scored too quickly" argument. This play will be forgotten amongst all the same analysis you'll hear of this game for the next week, but that's what Belichick and Brady were counting on, and they came within a yard of seeing it happen. Instead, Indy had a timeout in their pocket, and knew they would have 3 chances from the 1, so they were able to bleed another minute off the clock.

Now, lets look at how "big" this game actually was, in the grand scheme of the 2009 NFL regular season. It wasn't that big folks. Yes, it was Indy and New England. Yes it was Brady and Manning, but this game didn't decide playoff berths, and it's unlikely that it would have decided home-field advantage. Perhaps the home-field advantage part played into Belichick's decision. He knew that the only way his team would get home-field is by knocking off the Colts. A Pats win would have put NE just one game behind Indy, with the tie-breaker. Even with the win, though, the Pats still needed help from some pretty mediocre teams, while knocking off one of the best in the NFC.

So lets say the Pats come away with the win, and are now just a game back from taking the AFC. Indy has reeling Baltimore on the road, @ Houston, Tennessee, Denver, @ Jacksonville, the Jets, then @ Buffalo. Do you see any losses? Maybe the Colts would split their next two, but that's about it. Maybe there's a blizzard in Buffalo to end the season. However, that's about as easy as it gets to end the season.

Now lets look at New England's schedule to end the season. Jets, @ New Orleans, @ Miami, Carolina, @ Buffalo, Jacksonville, @ Houston. We all see 1 more loss on the sched, most likely coming against NO. So Belichick sees an easy finish for Indy, and a little tougher road for his team. He decides, the only way to get back into the home-field hunt is by beating Indy, and getting themselves just 1 game away from being the best in the AFC. And what's the best way for that to happen? Put the ball into Brady's hands. It's not really that hard to understand his decision, when looking at the big picture.

The loss didn't drop New England from the playoffs. The Pats will likely win the AFC East, and host at least 1 playoff game. Plus, they are still in line for a first round bye, should they upset the Saints, hold serve from here on out, and see Cincinnati stumble down the stretch, as they have two more tough games, @ Minnesota, and @ San Diego. So what did the Pats lose last night, besides 1 football game? Not much, except an outside chance at home-field.

Too many people view football on a very narrow scale. When doing that, you get the over-reaction that's happening this morning. When you view it on a wider scale, you realize the call wasn't as terrible as you're being led to believe, and that nothing really changed because of it. Nothing. With the win Indy still has the best record in the AFC, and New England still has a shot for a first-round bye at best, and host a first-round game at worst. Funny, that's the exact same scenario had Belichick punted.