Read other letters about this article
Clearly, Manning (or some combination of Manning and his receivers, as fault for interceptions is often a little unclear, though certainly some of those were 100% on Manning's shoulders alone), along with special teams, bears the brunt of falling behind the way they did. But he was also absolutely phenomenal in leading them back, and with another timeout, who knows? He maybe could have gotten them back into field goal range.
Maybe not, but we don't know. Who is mostly at fault here? The players, for sure, specifically Manning and special teams. But that doesn't mean that Dungy's timeout wasn't wasteful. I don't think anyone is blaming Dungy for the loss, exactly, but there was still no good reason to take that timeout and it's tough to say they definitely would have lost if he hadn't taken it.