Finally, the full reasoning behind the Colts' doomed fake-punt has been revealed, thanks to Colts punter Pat McAfee, who happened to be on the field for what might just be one of the worst plays in NFL history.

First, the context: In the third quarter of the Colts game against the Patriots on Sunday night, the Colts brought their punting unit on the field. Prior to the snap, all but two players on the Colts ran to the right sideline, which happened to be the Colts' sideline. With nine players near the sideline, wide receiver Griff Whalen, acting as the new center on the play, snapped the ball to safety Colt Anderson, who was under center. Anderson was tackled immediately by the Patriots and the Colts were flagged for an illegal formation. The Patriots ended up scoring a touchdown and extended their lead before closing out the Colts.

Colts head coach Chuck Pagano said he didn't regret the play call and briefly described the mistake on Monday.

"The design was to actually maybe get them to burn a timeout that they might need later on at the end of the game or catch them with too many man on the field, yada yada yada. Didn't work out that way," Pagano said. "I obviously didn't do a good enough job of getting the thing coached up correctly to handle every scenario that could come up. Again, that's on me. That ain't on these players."

Now, McAfee has expanded upon that explanation while on the air with The Bob & Tom Show. According to McAfee, the botched play can be attributed to two factors: miscommunication and an injury.

Let's break the play down, as McAfee explained it.

The reason why the Colts punting team sprinted to their sideline? Because they wanted to make the Patriots think they were subbing off their entire punting team for their offense. If the Patriots thought the Colts were putting Andrew Luck and the offense back onto the field, the Patriots might've wanted to sub their defense onto the field and their special teams unit off the field. Had the Patriots done that, the Colts would've snapped the ball as that substitution was taking place and the Colts would've gotten a free first down, as the Patriots would've had too many men on the field.

Here's what McAfee said:

"The point of the play is to be a deception play. You're trying to manipulate the defense into thinking they have to sub their defense back on. So we're sprinting to the sideline in hopes to make the other team think that we're subbing our offense back onto the field. So when they think the offense is coming back onto the field, your hope is that they think that their defense has to come back on the field. So as soon as their defense comes back on the field, we snap it, we steal 5 yards, we get a first down ... So there's the intention of it."

McAfee continued, saying that once the Patriots didn't get fooled into subbing their defense onto the field, the Colts were never supposed to snap the ball. Instead, they were supposed to let the play-clock run out and take a delay of game penalty.

Obviously, that didn't happen.

The Colts snapped the ball because Whalen, the center on the play, didn't know he was supposed to just eat the ball. And that's because Whalen never practiced as the center leading up to the game. The player who practiced for the role was Clayton Geathers, who left the game in the first half with an injury. Whalen took Geathers' place. During practice, Whalen was apparently on the other end of the field, catching McAfee's punts.

Whalen didn't know the Colts added something to the play during practice. I'll let McAfee explain the rest:

"We added something to try to draw them offsides if they don't do their substitutions. Griff (Whalen) never got the heads-up that this was happening because it's not in the playbook. Stanford guy reads the playbook, knows everything he has to do, but if he's not there for an audible that's added, he can't know. So, Griff has no idea that we're going to try to draw the guy offside because in the play it says if we get under center, snap it. So Colt Anderson is trying to draw a guy offsides to pick up an easy 5 yards. If not, we just don't snap it, we take take the delay of game."

McAfee went on to explain that when Whalen felt Anderson's hands on his butt seemingly awaiting a snap, he didn't know Anderson was simply doing that to draw the Patriots offside. Whalen thought Anderson was asking for the snap. So, he snapped it. Anderson got tackled. The Colts were ridiculed. End of story.

"This is a 100 percent miscommunication," McAfee said.

If you're still wondering why the Colts would run a play that was actually an illegal formation, McAfee said that all of the players on the sideline lined up based on one guy and that one guy lined up in the wrong spot, so everybody ended up lining up in the wrong spot.

So, there you have it. The worst play in NFL history, explained.

An explanation for this play has finally emerged. (NBC)