Boomer Esiason On Colts' Trick Play: 'One Of The Dumbest Things I've Ever Seen'
BOSTON (CBS) -- Boomer Esiason spent 14 years playing quarterback in the NFL, and he's been a TV and radio commentator on the league for even longer. So clearly, the man has seen his fair share of plays.
Still, what took place on the turf at Lucas Oil Stadium on Sunday night might take the cake for the most unbelievable play Boomer has ever witnessed.
The play, if you don't know by now, involved the Colts lining up to punt the football, only to send nine players over to the right side of the field in a "swinging gate" type of play. That left receiver Griff Whalen playing center and safety Colt Anderson in a de facto quarterback position. With nobody else protecting the "line of scrimmage," as it were, Whalen inexplicably snapped the football to Anderson, who was immediately swallowed up by three Patriots defenders.
"I can't even imagine what [Colts head coach] Chuck Pagano would say to the special teams coach," Esiason said Monday morning on Toucher & Rich. "I understand playing aggressive and all of that stuff, and I understand that you're playing against Tom Brady and he's going to put up 34 to 40 points, but the fact remains you have to be smart with the football. And right there, that had to be one of the dumbest things I've ever seen."
Esiason said it was pretty remarkable to see the Patriots calmly respond to a situation they've clearly never seen before.
"It was unbelievable, really," he said. "I've never seen anything quite so unexplainable and it completely caught me and everybody else off guard. The only ones that it didn't catch off guard were the Patriots defenders that were on the field. I have no idea what those players were thinking about. And here's the problem with that kind of thing: you're asking players that never really have to make a tough decision during the game to make some sort of a decision whether to snap the ball or not snap the ball or whatever. And you saw the two Colts players right there completely FUBAR the whole situation and completely show why they are not the quarterbacks, why they don't make decisions, because the decision that they made ultimately was a fatal one."
Esiason also talked about his appreciation of Julian Edelman, the upcoming Patriots matchup with the Jets, the poor performance of Peyton Manning, the great performance of Cincinnati and Andy Dalton, and more. Listen below!