INDIANAPOLIS -- We've all seen -- many times -- a game or a half start with a kickoff return for a touchdown.
But how many times have you seen a half end with a kickoff return for a touchdown?
"That was really not a smart play on my part at the end of the half," Indianapolis coach Tony Dungy said of his decision to kick deep after the Colts had trimmed a 17-0 New England lead to 17-10 with 12 seconds left in the first half.
Peyton Manning had just capped an 86-yard drive with a 12-yard touchdown pass to tight end Marcus Pollard, giving the Colts momentum heading into the locker room at halftime.
All that remained was a presumably perfunctory kickoff.
Instead, Patriots rookie Bethel Johnson caught the ball at the 8 and returned it 92 yards for a touchdown.
"We wanted to kick the ball away from Bethel Johnson," said Dungy, "but they ended up switching. We should have kicked the ball on the ground, or high and short. It was my fault, a bad decision there."
It wasn't the only decision of Dungy's that turned out to be questionable.
After the Colts staged a spectacular and stunning rally in the second half, tying the score at 31-all after having trailed 31-10 midway through the third quarter, they were again behind by seven when they recovered a fumble by Kevin Faulk at the New England 11 with 3:45 remaining.
It was a perfect opportunity to pull even, but Manning threw three straight incompletions and, on fourth down, Dungy decided to take the field goal, rather than try for the tying touchdown.
"It's tough to score on 4th down from the 11," he said. "If we had gone for it and didn t make it, we had a chance to keep them down there. But the way the game was going, they didn't really try to run the ball in the second half. We thought they were going to continue to throw to move the ball, which was their plan the whole game. We felt we could force the incomplete pass and get the ball back with a chance to win, and we had that."
Did they ever.
With just under a minute to go, the Colts had first-and-goal at the New England 2. Two runs by Edgerrin James gained just one yard. Following a timeout with 18 seconds to go, Manning threw incomplete on third down.
On fourth down, James was dropped at the 2 by outside linebacker Willie McGinest, who blew in untouched from the left side of the New England defense.
The problem, Dungy said, was that the Patriots had their goal-line defense in the game, while the Colts, because of injuries, didn't have their goal-line offense.
"We lost (fullback) James Mungro, we lost (tight end) Dallas Clark, and so we didn't really have our goal-line offense to go to," Dungy said. "We tried to keep (the Patriots) spread out and punch the ball in. We weren't quite able to get it in. You have to give them credit for keeping us out."
Manning, who threw for three touchdowns in the second half and four for the game against a New England defense that had allowed only six in its first 11 games, was disappointed that the Colts couldn't get it done.
"We got down to the one and I called the timeout," Manning said. "I was thinking, going over to the sideline, that we were going to get into our goal-line offense. But when I got over there, we didn't have a goal-line offense because the whole team is hurt.
"We had no fullback and no tight end. That's what it came down to. We had no personnel options. It's tough, being only that far away and still having to stay with our three-wide offense due to injuries."
Midway through the third quarter, it seemed as if New England was on its way to a surprisingly easy win.
"To be honest," Manning said, "if we had won this game, you could have called it stealing one. The score was 31-10 at one point. Offensively, it took us a while to get on track. We had some three-and-outs and some missed opportunities.
"But it was a great effort coming back. It was just disappointing we didn't get the win. Whatever the drama and all that, it was still just a big, fat 'L.' "
The difference in the game turned out to be the huge, goal-line stand by the Patriots at the end.
"We called the plays that we like to call down there," said Dungy, "and got the ball to the 1-yard line, but we just couldn't get it in."
