And, let’s be honest: When something goes this wrong, it usually winds up with a nickname. Try this one on for size: the Flake Punt.

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Pagano didn’t really explain much in taking responsibility for the most impactful sequence in the Colts’ 34-27 loss, although there seemed to be a bit of nobility involved in deflecting it away from the players. The Colts had practiced the trick play they tried to pull off when trailing by six points and faced with a punting situation on fourth and 3 from their 37.

They’d sent their special teamers onto the field with specific instructions.

Those men did not follow those instructions.

So the coach took “responsibility." This was warranted. Matched against the greatest coach in the 21st-century National Football League, Bill Belichick, Pagano and his assistants rummaged through every dog-eared page in their playbook. They called a pass play on a fourth-down situation in the first quarter, and they didn’t just shoot for a first down but for a tough-to-complete scoring pass. That worked. They attempted an onside kick in the second quarter, after taking a 14-10 lead on an interception return by safety Mike Adams. That did not.

Most egregiously, Pagano and his staff called for what can nominally be termed a “fake punt,” in which the majority of players lined up for the kick shifted far to the right, by the sideline, leaving only a center (who happened to be 5-11, 190-pound wideout Griff Whalen) and quarterback (who actually was strong safety Colt Anderson) dealing with the ball. Three New England defenders reacted quickly to line up adjacent to Whalen. Instead of waiting for a delay of game call, as Pagano indicated was the plan if the Patriots weren’t fooled, Whalen snapped the ball.

“That’s the part that was miscommunicated,” Whalen said. “We’ll talk about it tomorrow.”

Pagano trusted his players instead of calling time to assure such an outcome was avoided.

“It never got, obviously, to that point.”

Look, by the time this fiasco developed, New England was in excellent position to win this game, which drew massive attention because it was a reunion of the two teams involved in 2015’s defining NFL story, Deflategate, but mattered at least as much to the Patriots as a continuation of their overwhelmingly perfect start to this season. The Flake Punt did not decide the game, but it certainly ended it. Pagano called it “a huge factor” in the defeat, which dropped the Colts to 3-3 on the season.

“It turned out to be one of the most failed fakes, probably, of all time,” Indianapolis punter Pat McAfee said, after explaining this had been in the works for a year.

He also termed it “a complete cluster.”

New England took the field-position gift presented by the Colts and scored the clinching touchdown six plays and 35 yards later.

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“The whole idea there was,” Pagano said, “we shift to an alignment to where you either catch them misaligned, they try to sub, catch them with more men on the field, 12 men on the field, and if you get a certain look you got three yards, two yards — you can make a play.

“I didn’t do a good enough job of coaching it during the week.”

New England running back LeGarrette Blount scored two touchdowns, including the first scoring reception of his NFL career on the series that followed the Colts’ gaffe. He insisted there had been no special motivation for New England in this game, which seemed difficult to believe, and that the atmosphere at Lucas Oil Stadium provided pretty much a typical experience for a road victory.

He did say, however, that New England’s players were “prepared for everything they were throwing at us.”

Even the Flake Punt?

“We stopped them,” he said.

Or did they stop themselves on that play? The Colts and Patriots can argue over responsibility, if they wish. It would be nothing new.