Chuck Pagano Given Patriots Flashbacks After Cowboys Debacle

Even after the Dallas Cowboys gave them a run for their money, the Indianapolis Colts are still having flashbacks to their disastrous special-teams play from nearly a decade ago.

Incase you’ve been living under a large boulder, the Cowboys on Sunday — with their season on the line — ran one of the most bone-headed plays of the century to drive the nail into their coffin. No, we’re not being hyperbolic. It was that bad.

The play has drawn a variety of reactions, with Cowboys owner Jerry Jones calling it “sickening” and head coach Mike McCarthy being forced to explain himself after the fact. Among those to give an anecdote? Former Colts head coach Chuck Pagano, who had mixed feelings about the entire ordeal.

“It took me right back (to 2015) and I don’t like thinking about that play, obviously,” Chuck Pagano said, per The 33rd Team. “It’s probably one of the dumbest things to happen in the National Football League. I happened to be a part of that, and It’s all my fault. I take full responsibility for that debacle in putting those kids in that position.

“I’m sitting there thinking, ‘Why they gotta do stuff like this, keep bringing this bad memory up?’ And then, we get to that game (Sunday) and that final play, and I was like, ‘Man, this could be the one. This could be the one that erases our debacle.’ Our attempt at the fake punt, whatever that was.”

If you need your memory jogged, here’s the play Pagano was referencing.

Pagano wasn’t the only former Colt forced into remembering the disaster, as Pat McAfee gave his take on the Cowboys’ situation as well.

While Colts fans were forced into taking ricochet shots for the Cowboys’ incompetence, Patriots fans were able to enjoy the ending to a football game for the first time in a while.