Colts Catastrophe

The Colts and Patriots were perennial playoff contenders who had developed an intense rivalry over the years. The Patriots had most recently blown out the Colts in the 2014 AFC Championship Game (before subsequently winning Super Bowl XLIX), in a game marked by the Deflategate scandal. This Week 6 Sunday Night Football game was the first meeting between the two teams since the scandal.

The game featured a back-and-forth first half in which Patriots quarterback Tom Brady threw one touchdown pass and Colts quarterback Andrew Luck threw two. With strong running games and accurate kickers on each side, the Colts led the close contest by only a single point at halftime, 21–20. After Brady threw a touchdown pass to Rob Gronkowski on the Patriots' first drive of the third quarter, the teams traded punts for several possessions. When a Colts possession stalled at their own 37 yard line, the team chose to call for a trick play.

With 1:14 remaining in the third quarter, facing a 4th down and 3 yards to go on their own 37 yard line, the Colts lined up in a punt formation, with punter Pat McAfee in his usual position. After several moments, most of the Colts' punt team began jogging toward the Indianapolis sideline, but stopped and lined up in an imitation of their punt formation near the outer hash mark. Upback Colt Anderson jogged with them, then ran back toward the ball and lined up as quarterback behind gunner Griff Whalen, who had positioned himself as the new center and was prepared to snap the ball.

The Patriots players initially followed the Colts toward their sideline, but some remained in the area near the ball. Brandon Bolden and Jon Bostic positioned themselves on either side of Whalen in what would normally be called the A-gaps. Whalen snapped the ball with one second remaining on the play clock, and Bolden was immediately on top of Anderson, wrestling him to the ground with the assistance of Tarell Brown.

A penalty flag was thrown on the play, which referee Tony Corrente announced as an illegal formation penalty: "The whole right side of the line was not on the line of scrimmage," he explained. New England coach Bill Belichick declined the penalty, accepting the Colts' yardage loss and setting up his Patriots with a 1st and 10 at the Indianapolis 35 yard line.[2]

New England scored a touchdown on the ensuing drive and went on to win the game 34–27.

Color commentator Cris Collinsworth cut himself off in mid-thought when the Colts began moving. He and play-by-play announcer Al Michaels reacted to the play with hesitation and confusion.

Collinsworth: Uh-oh.
Michaels: Yeah. Now we've got... on a 4th down and 3... you got Griff Whalen ready to take the snap [sic]. He'll snap it, actually Colt Anderson is behind him.
Collinsworth: What. The. Heck?
Michaels: And... w-what in the world. Flag is down. You tell me.
Collinsworth: I thought maybe they were trying to get them to jump offsides?

A nonplussed Collinsworth spent several moments trying to analyze the play, making statements such as, "That was insane," "I've never seen anything more bizarre than that," and "What was the plan?" to which Michaels replied "I don't know. It's completely nuts."[2]

Scott Allen of The Washington Post immediately compared the play to former Washington Redskins coach Jim Zorn's similarly infamous "swinging gate" play in 2009.[3]

Punter McAfee provided a detailed explanation of the play on the October 18, 2019 edition of The Pat McAfee Show—the fourth anniversary of the play.[4] According to McAfee, the play was designed to trick the Patriots into committing either of two penalties. In the first scenario, the Patriots would be fooled into thinking the Colts' offense was about to enter the field and attempt to send in defensive players, creating a situation in which the Colts could catch them with too many men on the field. In the second scenario, if the Patriots did not commit a substitution violation, Anderson was to use a hard count to try to draw them offside. Either scenario would give the Colts enough penalty yardage for a first down; but if neither occurred, the Colts would simply wait for the play clock to expire and accept a delay of game penalty, then punt normally on the next play.

McAfee claimed that the play was executed flawlessly during practice, but that Whalen was not involved in the practice drills. The player who had initially been assigned the role of snapper, McAfee said, was deactivated on Saturday due to illness, leaving Whalen only a day or so to learn the play; as a result, Whalen was unaware of several verbal and physical prompts that had been added in the meantime. Per McAfee, Whalen should not have snapped the ball at all during the play. Similarly, Pagano attributed a "communications breakdown" for the play's failure.[3]

The Colts finished the year 8–8, one game behind the AFC South champion Houston Texans, beginning a 3-year playoff drought. Coach Chuck Pagano was fired in 2017 after two subsequent non-winning seasons.

Football fans on Twitter reacted with strong statements of contempt directed toward the Colts. Internet memes that spread in the immediate aftermath featured Luck, Pagano, and other Colts figures cast as the Three Stooges, along with Hillary Clinton and other controversial political characters.[5]

The NFL Network produced an episode of their "Top 10" series related to the worst plays in NFL history, and ranked the Colts Catastrophe number six, behind such plays as the Butt Fumble, the Wrong Way Run, and the Miracle at the Meadowlands.[1]

• Colts–Patriots rivalry
• Deflategate