[Punt play fail (merge)]

I am reading a lot of 20:20 hindsight.

If play goes bad because a player took initiative - "what an *! He should just follow the play that was called"

If a play goes bad because a player went by the playbook - "what an *! He should have more sense and not follow the play that was called based on the situation"

The common denominator is the play going bad = blame someone

[Can we stop blaming Whalen now?]

All of you blaming Whalen saying that he absolutely should not have snapped the ball - Tell me - WHAT WAS HE SUPPOSED TO DO?

Was he supposed to trot out there and just give the Pats 5 yards for delay of game?

No one has answered what Whalen was supposed to do. There was no way to get the Pats on a 12 man or offside penalty unless the ball is snapped. So if Whalen was NOT supposed to snap the ball at all - then the play is basically a play to take a delay of game penalty and give NE 5 yards.