Pagano's trick play; finally an explanation

[Hunter2_1]

Straight from the horse's (Pat McAfee) mouth ;

 

AJ Hawk: “Hey Pat, were you in on that play, the worst fake ever against the Patriots, what was that?”

Pat McAfee: “No no AJ, it was a play that was not designed to be snapped, that’s what happened, AJ.”

AJ: “And who snapped it?”

Pat: “Well, his name, and he will go down as the worst center in football history, he will go down as, one play, one disaster, was Griff Whalen, but Griff Whalen did not practice at gunner the entire week. It was another gunner that, he didn’t get activated. So the play was, we were going to, if it was a situation where we could take a delay of game, it wasn’t a big deal, field position wasn’t a big deal, we were going to try to fake a substitute and steal a yard, cause I think it was, or steal a couple yards real quick, if there was a chance. If the Patriots, who are coached by the best coach in the history of sports, was to not have them prepared and they were to spread, we were going to steal a couple yards or take a delay of game. Either/or, and we’ll just back it up five, no big deal, didn’t work, cool, we’re out.”

“So Griff Whalen is a Stanford guy, who was literally our guy we went to for everything, he was like the onside kick guy, I would kick it to him, he was just our go-to guy. He was Luck’s roommate in college, he’s just a genius, Griff Whalen is like a super-smart guy. So our guy couldn’t go, so the replacement for the gunner was Griff Whalen. Griff Whalen reads the playbook exactly word for word for what that play was, so that play is actually in the playbook, right, it was for that week, the actual play. Griff reads it, studies it, sounds good. So, there was an adjustment made somewhere by some people, I don’t know who said it, that said try to draw them offsides if they line up over the center because we’re trying to take a delay of game, it doesn’t matter.”

“In the book, though, it says ‘if there is a cadence at all, you’re snapping it’, don’t look up, just snap it. So there was a communication error between somebody who talked to Colt Anderson, who was the quarterback, and the playbook, which is the only thing Griff Whalen read. So then, now, under center, he called he has to snap it in the playbook, but in his mind he’s was like ‘I’m just going to try to draw them offsides, don’t snap it’. It was just one gigantic communication clusterf*** that resulted in one of the worst GIFs in history, in the history of football, one of the worst GIFs.”

“And I just so happen to be right out of the picture so you can’t even see me but my name is right across the godd*** bottom, it says “Pat McAfee in to punt” with my average on it. And it was a pretty good average so I wasn’t that mad about it, but it’s, the whole play is just directly right above my name, and it’s an interesting situation to be in.”

Jerry: “The punchline of that was one of the all-time great referee calls, too, it was ‘offsides, the entire side of the formation’.”

Pat: “Dude, they showed my face afterwards, they showed my face on national TV, and I am not good at lying, my face tells the story. You know exactly how I’m feeling at the exact moment I’m feeling it. I’m just, my face does not relax, like it has no chill. I was talking to Bill Nye last week and I was losing my sh*t, I had no idea what he was saying, he was speaking over my head. So they went right to my face, and you literally see me, like it’s a full-on “...what the f*** just happened?”. Like, I’m going to be associated with that forever, like, that’s something, it just didn’t work out. A lot of plays don’t work out, let’s not act like they don’t, guys, OK? That could have very easily been a dive play that lost four yards, we’ll just act like that’s what happened. But boy, it went down in an ugly manner.”

[everlong]

Regardless, that "trick play" should have been the final straw with Pagano.