First off, credit to the Colts. They played a much better game than I think most of us expected, certainly looked better than I expected. They gave it the ol’ college try and came up short, but it was a noble effort.

Except for…that.

That was the worst play I’ve ever seen. That’s the kind of play that gets replayed for years and years. That was buttfumble levels of dumb. It was definitely worse than the Redskins version against the Giants several years ago. The Redskins swinging gate play was at the end of the half, the Skins were down by 24 points, and Jim Zorn was effectively flicking off Dan Snyder with it. This…this was just a complete brain fart. At least the Skins player got the pass off. At least the Skins player was supposed to snap it. At least the Skins version was a sort of *screw it, we’re gonna lose, let’s do something silly* and not a deciding factor in a close game against a rival. This swinging gate was the Colts outsmarting themselves, trying to pull a Belichick and missing horribly. Even if the guy manages to not snap the ball and screw up everything, what’s the endgame? To make the Patriots confused and maaaaybe get one of the most disciplined teams in the league to make the kind of mental error they never make? Or then take the delay of game and punt anyway? That’s the best case scenario? They’d have been better off trying an actual fake punt. When is the last time people saw a swinging gate work in the NFL? The last time we saw one, it became a laughing stock and a symbol of Washington’s dysfunction. I can’t remember seeing one before that.

Anyway, I made this comic and then realized I could have just made a gif of it instead, so here is the comic in gif form