FOXBORO – Former Patriot linebacker Tedy Bruschi and safety Rodney Harrison both said that Bill Belichick, with his team up by six, must not have believed that his defense could stop the Colts’ high-powered offense and that’s why he mistakenly chose to go for a first down on 4th-and-2 at the Pats’ 28 with 2:08 remaining in their 35-34 shocking loss to the Colts instead of punting the ball and making the Colts drive the length of the field.

They pointed to the fact that Peyton Manning had already engineered two separate fourth-quarter touchdown-scoring drives of 79 yards that took less than 2:05 to complete as proof that the Pats could not stop Manning.

But Patriots defensive back Brandon Meriweather disagrees with their assessment of Belichick’s decision.

“I was excited. I was ecstatic,” Meriweather told WEEI on Monday of the decision. “To trust the defense so much to give Peyton Manning the ball on the 20-yard line, or better yet, go for it to win the game right there, you’ve got to be excited. You’ve got to be behind him 100 [percent]. Whenever Bill makes a decision like that, we’re always behind him, That’s the Bill Belichick everybody knows.”

Meriweather said he did not take the decision as Belichick questioning the defense.

“Peyton Manning did have two late, great drives, but that’s Peyton Manning. We’re a bend-but-don’t-break defense,” Meriweather said. “I’m sure Bill thought that if he goes ahead and wins the game, then we don’t have to give Peyton Manning the ball at all, we don’t even have to try. At the same time, he made a decision and the team stuck behind him 100 [percent].”

Harrison called Belichick’s decision the worst coaching move Belichick ever made.

When asked what he thought about Bruschi and Harrison’s opinions, Belichick said, “Everyone’s entitled to their opinion out there,” Belichick said. “I respect that.”

Belichick said that he isn’t worried what people think of his decision.

“I tell the team – and I think they believe that I do what I feel like is best for our football team to win every game. I put the team first and I put those decisions first. I would hope everybody understands that,” Belichick said.

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Patriots linebacker Brandon McGowan is quickly becoming the Patriots go-to defender when they are facing a team with an explosive tight end.

After helping limit Atlanta’s All-Pro tight end Tony Gonzalez to one catch for 16 yards in Week 3, and Tampa , tight end Kellen Winslow to 2 catches for 9 yards in Week 7, McGowan helped contain Indianapolis star tight end Dallas Clark, limiting him to 4 catches for 65 yards.

Belichcik was impressed.

“I thought Brandon challenged him well and played him well,” Belichick said. “Plays he was open on, both of them, were play-action passes and we just didn’t…We kind of got out of position on the play-action a little bit and the coverage that we had on him just wasn’t there.”

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Because rookie receiver Brandon Tate was a late scratch for the game and Julian Edelman was a game-time decision, Belichick inserted practice team quarterback/receiver Isaiah Stanback into the lineup.

Stanback had two catches for 17 yards in his Patriots’ debut.

[Julian] Edelman was a game-time decision. We really weren’t sure about that one until, literally, a couple hours before the game,” Belichick explained. “So Isaiah was the fourth receiver for the game and we felt like we needed that with our offense to be able to go into the game and we had Edelman available, too. That’s not something we were sure of. We knew it was a possibility, but we couldn’t count on that until right there at the end.”

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One of the many story lines leading up to Sunday’s epic was how the Patriots would deal with Colts’ defensive ends Dwight Freeney and Robert Mathis, particularly with Freeney lining up opposite rookie left tackle Sebastian Vollmer for much of the game.

Though he had successfully neutralized Miami’s Jason Taylor and Joey Porter the week before, there were some who felt that Freeney, he of the great speed and even better spin move, would be Vollmer’s biggest test as he made his fourth straight start in place of Matt Light (knee).

Vollmer passed with flying colors. He got help, of course, but Light would have gotten help at times as well, especially against a pass-rusher like Freeney whom he has historically had issues with.

Tom Brady was sacked twice Sunday night, and neither came from Vollmer’s side. Both were by Robert Mathis, when he was lined up over Nick Kaczur, and Mathis nearly got Brady a third time -- again getting past Kaczur -- on the touchdown pass to Julian Edelman.

Overheard in the press box after the game: "There were turnstiles to get into Lucas Oil Stadium that were harder to get through than Kaczur."

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Going into Sunday night’s Patriots-Colts game, Indianapolis’ weak link was clearly its defense.

But when Bill Belichick decided to pull his punt team off the field on fourth down and put the offense back on to get the two yards that would enable it to kill the clock and seal the win, Colts’ defenders took it personally.

"Total disrespect," linebacker Clint Session said. "They disrespected us and got what they deserved. They fought hard throughout the game but they disrespected us at the end and they got what they deserved."

Defensive lineman Robert Mathis: "Wow. All you can say is wow. They were going to do it like that so we had to step up and fortunately we did. That’s a lot of disrespect. I know they’re trying to win the game just like we are but we were fortunate to get a stop on that play."

Dwight Freeney, who was held in check by rookie left tackle Sebastian Vollmer, said any defense should feel disrespected in a situation like that.