Colts’ ‘worst football play of all time’ more of a mess than it appeared

In the wake of the Colts running and botching one of the most bizarre trick plays ever attempted in the NFL in Sunday night's 34-27 loss to the New England Patriots, Indianapolis punter Pat McAfee detailed what went wrong on the Bob and Tom morning radio show.

"So it's circling around the Internet that this was one of the worst football plays of all time," McAfee said. "I happened to be on the field for it and in practice for it, so I'll try to explain to you how literally the worst football play of all time happened."

To recap, facing fourth-and-three, nearly the entire Colts offense sprinted to the far right of the field, leaving only two players — safety Colt Anderson and receiver Griff Whalen — in the middle of the field. Despite the Patriots having the duo surrounded, Whalen still inexplicably hiked the ball and Anderson was promptly tackled behind the line of scrimmage. New England took over on downs and promptly scored.

"The point of the play is to be a deception play. So, you're trying to manipulate the (receiving team) into thinking they have to sub their defense back on," McAfee said. "We are sprinting to the sideline in hopes to make the other team think we are subbing our offense back onto the field. So, when they think the offense is coming back on the field, your hope is that they think their defense has to come back on the field."

Had New England's defense returned to the field, Indy could've snapped the ball and caught the Patriots with too many men on the field. But when New England didn't substitute or jump offsides, the Colts were supposed to take a delay of game penalty and punt. However, McAfee said Whalen didn't know that because he was never supposed to be the center.

"The gunner who became the center all week was Clayton Geathers. Clayton Geathers gets injured in the second quarter," McAfee said. "Insert Griff Whalen who had never done it before. So Griff Whalen is now the new center in a play he's never practiced before.

"Last week (in practice), Griff is at the other end catching my punts. We added something to try and draw them offsides if they don't do their substitution. Griff never got the heads up this was happening, because it's not in the playbook. Stanford guy, reads the playbook, knows everything he has to do, but if he's not there for an audible that's added, he can't know.

"So Griff has no idea that we're going to try to draw the guy offsides. Colt Anderson is trying to draw the guy offsides, Griff goes, 'His hands aren't supposed to be on my ass. If I feel them right now, I'm supposed to snap it.'"

New England's Brandon Bolden said after the game that Anderson was trying to make that clear to Whalen, screaming, 'Don't snap it! Don't snap it!.'

Even if the play had worked, it wouldn't have counted as the Colts were flagged for an illegal formation.

Check out McAfee's interview below.