Why do so many have a problem with the fake punt?

[RockThatBlue]

It was a great call by either the coaches or players. Dewey was wide frickin open and dropped it. I keep seeing many people complain about it. And I don't understand why.

[PuntersArePeopleToo]

The timing of it. If it wouldve been third possession that would've been better

[jvan1973]

if McDonald catches it nobody is complaining

[RockThatBlue]

if McDonald catches it nobody is complaining

Truth. The same people complaining about it would be hailing it as a great play call.

[jmac_48]

I hope it doesn't leave psychological scars on Dewey, poor kid, he was the brunt of C'mon Man tonight. lol

Great call (audible on the field) poor execution...  just like the rest of the Colts play on Sunday.

 

P.S. We're in big trouble if Pat ever has to throw a pass as emergency backup QB

[braveheartcolt]

I never saw that many complaining about the call. The drop......well, yes.

[ReMeDy]

Pat also threw the ball perfectly. One criticism I read is the Colts shouldn't have done it because we tipped our hat to a strategy we could have saved for a game that mattered. I don't see that being a valid criticism though, because how often does special teams leave a guy that wide open?

[Indycrazy1287]

Because half the people I read comments from on this board are just itching to whine about anything this coaching staff ever does

[jmac_48]

Pat also threw the ball perfectly. One criticism I read is the Colts shouldn't have done it because we tipped our hat to a strategy we could have saved for a game that mattered. I don't see that being a valid criticism though, because how often does special teams leave a guy that wide open?

Sorry, it was a floater that took forever to get there. Dewey got alligator arms while waiting and being anxious about getting hit.

<axiom: look the ball into your hands; then run with the ball> the kid got skidish and started looking downfield.

I agree about the rest of what you said.

[GwinnettColt]

It was a great call by either the coaches or players. Dewey was wide frickin open and dropped it. I keep seeing many people complain about it. And I don't understand why.

 

Too far into our territory gave them great field position after the failed pass.  

[CoachLite]

It was the wrong call because of the very early stage of the game, and the location on the field. It showed that the Colts werent't taking the game seriously, at all. Had Dewey Macdonald made the catch, it would have been the case of good luck masking a bad play. I think everyone knows this deep down.

[Indianapolis-Colts-Fan]

I never saw that many complaining about the call. The drop......well, yes.

How do you drop a floater?

[sfergson727]

It was the wrong call because of the very early stage of the game, and the location on the field. It showed that the Colts werent't taking the game seriously, at all. Had Dewey Macdonald made the catch, it would have been the case of good luck masking a bad play. I think everyone knows this deep down.

That about sums it up, nothing more to add. 

[PeterBowman]

the call was great...the pass was great.....the rest, not so great.....
 

 

There were so many drive killing drops on Sunday...if those passes were caught, I really feel the game would have had a much different outcome (maybe not a win, but not the turd that was laid)

[Valpo2004]

It was a great call by either the coaches or players. Dewey was wide frickin open and dropped it. I keep seeing many people complain about it. And I don't understand why.

 

It was a call by the players.  

 

The guy covering Dewey shifted over to try and rush the punter.  At that point the guy behind the line I think he's the "personal protector" or whatever made the call and moved his hands on his chest like he was dusting himself off.  That was the call.

 

McAffee took the snap and made a good throw and the guy was wide open.  He just dropped the ball.

 

Honestly the call was a great call, I would have made the same call myself, in fact due to the strange motion by the guy behind the line I pretty much expected that they where going to do that since it coincided with the guy who was suppose to cover Dewey moving in to rush the punt.  I mean if they are gonna leave him wide open like that. . . why not??  Because you are scared of failure?  Playing scared isn't gonna win you the game.

 

It was also a good call because Dallas has a powerful offense and we needed an early game spark.  

 

But the perfect play call doesn't matter if the players can't execute the play correctly.  

 

You can't pin this one on the coaches other then maybe the fact that they gave the players the authority to make that call.  I guarantee it wasn't sent in like that because the man lined up initially on Dewey and then moved inside.  There is no way the coaches could have known he was gonna move inside and I don't think anyone on the field had an earpiece to allow the coordinator to tell him to change it.

 

Again good recognition of an opportunity, I like special teams to try and take advantage of those when they see them.  It's the same recognition that gave us those onside kicks at the beginning of the season.  We only celebrated those because the players executed them well.  This one they didn't.  That doesn't make it a bad call by any stretch.

[jvan1973]

It was the wrong call because of the very early stage of the game, and the location on the field. It showed that the Colts werent't taking the game seriously, at all. Had Dewey Macdonald made the catch, it would have been the case of good luck masking a bad play. I think everyone knows this deep down.

if you watch the play you see mcafee make the audible. clearly they saw something on tape and gave pat the go ahead to make the call. Dewey dropped it. it sucks but it happens he wasn't the only dropping passes that's for sure

[Cynjin]

I never saw that many complaining about the call. The drop......well, yes.

 

I heard several talking heads on Indy sports radio complain a lot about the call, risk vs reward yada, yada, yada.  I don't understand their mindset on that, why take any chances in a game if that is what they are thinking.  I am glad the Colts are willing to take some chances, just like the onside kicks earlier in the season, if you see something on film you can exploit then take advantage of it.

[GoColts8818]

Simply put because it didn't work. Had it worked people would be talking about how great it was.

[kabong90]

Sorry, it was a floater that took forever to get there. Dewey got alligator arms while waiting and being anxious about getting hit.

the kid got skidish and started looking downfield.

I agree about the rest of what you said.

What game where you watching he was looking and moveing down field before he even got it that was a perfect and beautiful pass I was a TE I would love for that pass when i was playing

[LJpalmbeacher2]

I didn't have a problem with it. Risky yes, But he was wide open and that pass normally gets caught 99% of time.

[DougDew]

It was a dumb play call, even if it had worked:

1.The defense played well the first series. Freeman's penalty is what kept their drive going. At that point in the game, there was no indication that the Boys would be able to score a lot of points, so risking putting them into an extremely short field, essentially giving them points, was not the thing to do.

2. It was 4th and 11. Even if the Colts converted, there is no indication that they wouldn't have gone 3 and out from there. You go for it on 4th down when the O has shown some signs that it can move the ball. At that point in the game, the O showed nothing.

Bad decision. Dug themselves into a hole when they were outmanned to begin with.

[texascolt]

I would have been  one of those who said it was a good play if he completed the pass.  But in  reality it wasn't a good call.  You have

a punter throwing to a safety from the 19 yard line.  If it doesn't work you give the other team at least field goal and a good

chance for a TD, which happened.

 

I think they should  of saved that play until they were at least  at the 50 yard line.

[Moopsiepuffs]

Maybe the fact that the play wasn't made? That's a pretty big problem.

It's also ridiculous to run the ball on first, second and third down and then do something like that. Passing the ball at some point might have been a nice idea.

[lollygagger8]

I personally loved the play call. Our ST has been watching a lot of tape and saw something they could take advantage of. Patty Mac made an excellent throw too. 

 

If MacDonald doesn't drop the pass and converts, everyone would be singing and dancing about how good of a call it was. 

 

Just like jvan said, MacDonald wasn't the only one of our receivers with the dropsies.

 

 

Before coming into that game we led the league in drops. I'm sure that number shot to the stratosphere after that game  

[BullsColtsFan1]

I didn't like it because we were at like the 18.  You get it and you move the chains, if you don't Dallas is coming away with 3 or 7 and we were already down 7-0.  I still can't believe he didn't catch it.  He wasn't the only one with butterfingers Sunday though.

[FanFromtheWasteland]

I thought it was a great aggressive play. Just poor execution.

[pgt_rob]

The fake punt wasn't a total dumb call because it would have worked, McDonald just dropped it.

 

What IS dumb is that we ran the ball 3 times in a row with Andrew not throwing once. It's like we wanted to do the fake punt no matter what.

[SLILLINGTON10]

i think people are complaining because it was really the only aggressive play calling of that qtr or half really. 3 run plays that went no where, more run plays and bubble screens to nicks just wasnt getting it done and they kept on doing it until it was too late.

[Ja'Crispy]

if you watch the play you see mcafee make the audible. clearly they saw something on tape and gave pat the go ahead to make the call. Dewey dropped it. it sucks but it happens he wasn't the only dropping passes that's for sure

I saw this on the Eagles-Cowboys a couple weeks back. The Cowboys had nobody on the Eagles gunners so the return man (Harris?) had to come up and cover. The announcers said a team could easily just throw it out there and get a 1st. Right when the guy left McDonald I yelled "throw it!" Loved the call.

[Smash Mouth]

The call was a good one.  But the Colts have left themselves open to scrutiny with that performance.  Make the play and its not issue but they failed after a 3-and-out running 3 feeble running plays, already down 7, deep in their own territory looking at going down by another 3 or 7 points.  

 

I'm more upset about their, at times, fragile psyche.  They have gotten rolled like this 7 times in the past two years: last year: Cincy, AZ, STL, Pats in the playoffs; this year: Pitt, Dallas, Pats.  They're just not as talented as we would like to think - how else can you explain these wild swings?

[Superman]

Because Dewey dropped the ball.

[Superman]

Pat also threw the ball perfectly. One criticism I read is the Colts shouldn't have done it because we tipped our hat to a strategy we could have saved for a game that mattered. I don't see that being a valid criticism though, because how often does special teams leave a guy that wide open?

 

We've punted a thousand times this season, and no one has left the gunner completely uncovered. They ran it because it was available for the first time, and probably the last time.

[RockThatBlue]

Sorry, it was a floater that took forever to get there. Dewey got alligator arms while waiting and being anxious about getting hit.

<axiom: look the ball into your hands; then run with the ball> the kid got skidish and started looking downfield.

I agree about the rest of what you said.

The throw wasn't that bad. It went right to Dewey which is all that matters

[ponyboy]

This is similar to the onside kick against the Texans.  They saw a vulnerability to the onside kick (Texans) or fake punt (Cowboys) and allowed Pat to make the call if the opportunity presented.    Pat executed perfectly both times (a very nice pass by the way).

 

It's reasonable to argue, as some have on this thread, that the risk of failure outweighs the benefit of success no matter what.  The same could have been said about the onside kick too -- but the reaction to that was mostly positive as I recall.  If Dewey catches it I bet the reaction is more like the onside kick.

[IndyD4U]

Dewey blew it! It was executed perfectly with one key flaw. He didn't catch the ball! That potential 80 yard TD run got the best of him

[Horse Shoe Heaven]

That was a stupid call based on where we they were on the field, and at the time and point of the game! I don't care that Mac dropped it it was the wrong time to do it! It would be better to have tried it when a drive had stalled IMO not on our 20 after a 3 & out! Not smart football, to much over thinking, IMO!

[ColtStronger]

It was a great call... I don't care if they're on the 1 yard line up by 10... Good call.  They are professionals and are expected to perform!  Im pretty sure I can catch a perfect spiral lob pass from anybody.  He didn't secure the catch, and was probably nervous.  That's why we should have WR's like Cribbs and Whalen be our gunners, but regardless he knew he wasn't getting hit because nobody was there.  He was anxious and wasn't patient or calm.

[ProblChld32]

It was a great call by either the coaches or players. Dewey was wide frickin open and dropped it. I keep seeing many people complain about it. And I don't understand why.

 

The answer is in the content of your post lol, people have a problem with it because Dewey-Mac dropped the ball. Now had he have caught the pass everyone would have been ecstatic calling the ST coach and pags a genius and what not.

[RockThatBlue]

The answer is in the content of your post lol, people have a problem with it because Dewey-Mac dropped the ball. Now had he have caught the pass everyone would have been ecstatic calling the ST coach and pags a genius and what not.

Yep exactly

[NewColtsFan]

ARGUMENTS FOR:

 

It worked.    It worked beautifully.    Right up until the dropped pass.   But other than that Mrs. Lincoln,  the play worked perfectly.

 

 

ARGUMENTS AGAINST:

 

The timing.   You're already down 7-0.   If this doesn't work,  the Cowboys have the ball around the Colts 20.   If they score, it's 14-0 Cowboys and we'll likely abandon the run.     In other words,  you put the balance of the game in jeopardy on one play roughly midway in the 1st quarter.

 

You've pushed your chips to the center of the table and gone all-in on the 2nd or 3rd hand of the game (if you follow the metaphor)    Dangerous as can be.     Riverboat gamble dangerous.

 

And it should have worked.    But it didn't.