Everybody Blame Chung Tonight

In the wake of the Pats' stunning loss to the Jets Sunday evening (almost as big an upset as the Seahawks victory over the Saints one week earlier), everyone in Pats Nation is focusing on the failed fake punt at the end of the first half that sent New England into the locker room with a 14-3 deficit. Although Patrick Chung took responsibility for the call, many Patriots fans are questioning if he really had the authority to make that kind of an audible at such a crucial point. Unfortunately for them, a look at the tape shows that he did.

If you examine the play, you can see that the gunner on the right side of the formation (top of the screen) takes an inside route to get down the field:





Why is that significant? The gunner's path takes his two men directly into the path of where Chung is trying to run (up the right side of the line). Now I'm no special teams coordinator, but if I was calling that punt I would direct the gunner to take an outside path that draws the defenders to the sideline and away from the point of attack, so there's no chance that they can see the fake in their peripheral vision. That tells me that the gunner probably didn't know that it was a fake, and that Chung made the change at the line (although I wish this clip started 5 seconds earlier so you could possibly see him making the call).

For further evidence, look at this Gary Reasons fake punt that Bill Parcells called in the 1990 NFC Championship game against the 49ers. Remember that Bill Belichick was the defensive coordinator for that Giants team:



It's virtually the same exact play. Notice that both gunners take their men to the outside, which completely opens up the middle of the field for Reasons.

Looking at this, it seems that Chung isn't falling on his sword for his coach. Belichick did give his player the authority to make that call in the biggest game of the season. The tragic thing is that if Chung handled the snap cleanly, he had a clear path to the outside for a first down after a nice block by Sammy Morris, and New Englanders would once again be proclaiming the genius of their Hall of Fame coach.