Where to start …

In Bill Belichick's long career, it's hard to question much of what he has done. Most of the seemingly strange decisions he has made have turned out well in the end. Sunday night's decision only cost the Patriots a win. And in the big picture, it might not make a huge difference. But it calls to question what Belichick was thinking to start the drive.

To recap the fateful decision:

The Patriots had the ball at their own 23-yard line with 2:23 remaining and two timeouts remaining. They burned one of them right before their first offensive play, which to me was the biggest mistake of the game. If I was in the post-game press conference, it would have been the first question I asked of Tom Brady or Belichick: What did you see? Why the timeout there? I know you want to play safe and make sure you have the right people on the field. But that was a costly one.

On first down, they ran for no gain. Timeout, Indy. Now there's 2:18 left. Second down, an eight-yard pass to Wes Welker. Again, timeout Indy, now 2:11 left. If the Patriots knew they were going to go for it on fourth down, why don't they run it here? It forces Indy to use its final timeout. Instead they try to throw it to Welker, but it's incomplete. Timeout, New England with 2:08 left. This is when they decided to go for it, not prior. Belichick usually figures these strategies out beforehand, but this time he wanted to see how the third-down play went. It looked like he and Brady decided at that point they could go for the yard and a half to pretty much end the game. (Note: Even if they made it, the game would not have been over necessarily. The Colts had the two-minute warning left and a timeout. Granted, there would have been little time left, but this is an ancillary point now.)