Hooray for Bill Belichick. I’ll be interested to see Gregg Easterbrook’s reaction tomorrow, but I’ll back Belichick whatever the percentages. What a mensch.

Since we don’t know how well the Colts would have moved the ball had the Patriots punted, Belichick will forever take the blame for the loss, but with two minutes to go the Colts would have been  under no time pressure.

What killed the Patriots was the Colts’ penultimate touchdown drive:  79 yards in 1:49. If the Colts burn even 10 seconds more on that drive, the Patriots could have gotten the clock under the two minute warning on their succeeding series and forced the Colts to use up at least one timeout. That would have made the decision to punt a no brainer.

The other decisive factor? By the final quarter the Colts were dominating the line of scrimmage. The pressure the Patriots put on Manning in the first half simply evaporated. Belichick asked his offense to seal the win because his defense was spent.

Update: As I suspected, Belichick made the right call.

Update: Easterbrook confirms.