Long before Tom Brady and Peyton Manning arrived in Massachusetts or Indiana, the Patriots and Colts were two of the most unsuccessful organizations in the entire National Football League. Although New England went to two Super Bowls before the new millennium and Indianapolis did have Eric Dickerson on their team at some point, those two teams have mainly been known for losing and unpredictability. Once Brady and Manning arrived on the scene, there was no looking back for any of these franchises. It might not have been the first quarterback rivalry, but it was easily the best that anybody has seen with their own two eyes. Forget about the amount of yards and touchdowns that each threw in those matchups or the final score. Whoever won the first regular season game was going to inevitably be the host quarterback when they saw each other again in the playoffs, which ultimately meant that whoever won that was going to be in the Super Bowl. But there’s also one more game between the Patriots and Colts that is just as important as most of these matchups between Brady and Manning, one that reignited a couple more flames to keep the rivalry alive. Let’s look at some of the most unforgettable contests between these two teams and recognize just how these outcomes affected the legacies and careers of those involved.
Brady, Manning, and then This Game
#1: Brady’s First Start
The start of this journey began on September 30, 2001, at the old Foxboro Stadium in Massachusetts. One week ago, the Patriots had just lost their starting quarterback Drew Bledsoe indefinitely due to internal bleeding and lost to the New York Jets at home to begin the season 0-2. Second-year backup Tom Brady was thrust into the starting job and nobody expected him to look like the franchise savior. He was still raw with an uncertain ceiling, and going up against the undefeated Indianapolis Colts, there were no expectations that New England would win. Guess who the starting quarterback of the Colts was that year? Peyton Manning. Through the first three seasons of his career, the generational star took his team to the playoffs in two of them but lost the first game of both of those trips. He had a lot to prove himself because while he was already one of the best quarterbacks in the league, there was a huge chip on his shoulder when it came to winning games that truly mattered most. Funny to think that Brady’s first start would come against the quarterback that almost always stood in his way of a Super Bowl trophy, and little did anyone know that this game would dictate the course of the rest of this rivalry.
Unfortunately, this was not even close. From start to finish, the Patriots absolutely dominated on the defensive side and their offense did just enough to make sure that they did not lose any momentum. It ended up being one of the worst games of Peyton Manning’s career. He threw three interceptions, two of them were returned for touchdowns by Otis Smith and Ty Law, and it was one of the only times that he was held to under 200 passing yards on twenty completions. As for Brady, he was okay with just 168 yards and thirteen pass completions, but all he had to do was just manage the game and make sure that he kept the ball in their hands. New England heavily relied on their run to get their points on offense, which was why Antowain Smith had a productive 152-yard day from scrimmage, along with three rushing touchdowns from him and Kevin Faulk combined. From the looks of this game, it was easily the most lob-sided in the history of the Brady-Manning rivalry, but this had bigger implications than people realized.
Remember, the Colts were 2-0 before this game and it looked like they were going to have another successful season. However, everything just slowly but surely began to fall apart. Despite their offense scoring the second most points in the league, Manning led the league in interceptions with 23, the most he has had since his rookie year. The defense was an absolute travesty that allowed the second-most points and fourth-most yards. Sitting at an easy 4-3 record near the midway point of the season, the Colts went on a five-game losing streak and then were booted out of the playoffs at 6-10, which ultimately cost head coach Jim Mora his job. As for the Patriots, it was a completely different story. The team rallied around their backup quarterback and incredible defense, which did wonders for the team. They finished the regular season 11-5 with the second-best record in the AFC, they took down the Oakland Raiders and Pittsburgh Steelers to make it back to the Super Bowl and then capped it off with a shocking upset over the St. Louis Rams to win their first championship in franchise history.
#2: Willie McGinest Saves the Day
2002 was not exactly a year that either the Patriots or the Colts wanted to remember. After beating the Greatest Show in Turf in the Super Bowl, New England had an underwhelming and disappointing 9-7 season, which eliminated them from playoff contention via tiebreaker. Indianapolis was at least fortunate to win their division and have a chance to finally get a postseason victory on their belt, but against the New York Jets, they got absolutely demolished 41-0. Even with a new head coach in Tony Dungy, they have still yet to win a playoff game, which just kept staining Peyton Manning’s legacy every time he came up short. 2003 was a make-or-break year for both franchises in different ways. New England had to prove that 2001 was the furthest thing from a fluke, while Indianapolis had to let the world know that they were not overrated pretenders. Fortunately for the rest of us, these two teams got to see what they were made of in late November at the old RCA Dome, just the third matchup between these quarterbacks. Each team was 9-2 and were fighting to win the number one seed in the AFC, and while the Patriots were on a seven-game winning streak, the Colts wanted to let the world know that they had what it took to beat this team.
Throughout the whole first half and early in the third quarter, it looked like both teams picked up where they left off against each other in 2001. The Patriots were in cruise control the entire way with a 31-10 lead and it was going to take a miracle for Peyton Manning to pull off a comeback. He had already turned the ball over twice, his defense gave up a couple of easy touchdowns, and the special teams let Bethel Johnson take a 92-yard kickoff return to the house at the end of the first half. But once Tom Brady threw two bone-headed interceptions to Donald Strickland and Nick Harper, more life was given to the Colts and somehow somehow, it was a tied game with just over ten minutes remaining. Fortunately, another huge kickoff return from Bethel Johnson set up a touchdown pass to Deion Branch in the red zone to give New England the lead, but Manning still had plenty of chances to finally get a win against this quarterback who was not going anywhere. Down 38-34 with 2:57 and one timeout remaining, all he had to do was drive his team down the field and get in the end zone to give the Colts the win. He got his team within scoring range with ease, and with forty seconds left, it was first and goal at the two-yard line. Based on how Indianapolis played in the entire second half, it looked like they were going to easily get another touchdown, but this is Bill Belichick’s defense that we are talking about. On the first two plays at the goal line, Edgerrin James took the handoff up the middle and the Patriots immediately swarmed him up both times. On third down, Manning tried to put the game in his own hands and look for the winning pass to Aaron Moorehead, but the pass fell incomplete. It all came down to fourth down at the one-yard line, and unlike Russell Wilson nearly a decade later, Manning was not going to throw an interception. Instead, they gave it to their future Hall of Fame running back one more time, but linebacker Willie McGinest came out of nowhere from behind and James was nowhere close to getting to the goal line. The Patriots held on with a 38-34 victory, but it would not be the last time these two teams saw each other.
Peyton Manning ended up winning the first of his five MVP awards, after leading the league in both completion percentage and passing yards. But everybody knew that none of that was going to matter if he did not win a playoff game. In the Wild Card game against the Denver Broncos, he not only won, but he played out of his mind. Manning finished with a perfect passer rating as he threw five touchdowns and as many incompletions in a 41-10 demolition, then followed it up with a thrilling 300+ yard and three touchdown day against the Kansas City Chiefs in the Divisional Round, a game where the Colts did not punt once. Unfortunately, all of their biggest strengths got exposed in the conference championship against guess who? The New England Patriots. It might have taken five field goals from Adam Vinatieri for the Patriots to score more than twenty points, but their defense also picked off Manning four times, three of them from future Hall of Fame cornerback Ty Law. New England then went on to beat the Carolina Panthers 32-29 in the old Reliant Stadium to win their second Super Bowl in just three seasons, giving Tom Brady another championship to Manning’s zero.
#3: Manning Finally Makes it to the Super Bowl
Leading up to the AFC Championship game in January of 2007, some things might have changed, but others just remained the same. Peyton Manning finally beat Tom Brady in two regular season games on the road in both 2005 and 2006, he won another MVP in 2004 after setting the single-season touchdown record, but Brady still had three Super Bowl trophies to brag about. Manning might have been better in the regular season, yet everyone knew that when it came to the playoffs, there was one guy that everybody should fear going up against. For the second time in four seasons, these two quarterbacks were up against each other once again in the conference championship, but Manning had the home-field advantage. The Chicago Bears had already demolished the New Orleans Saints just three hours prior, a team that had an amazing defense and running game, but not the quarterback that was going to deliver the city a championship. Everybody knew that whoever was going to win the AFC was going to win it all two weeks later in Miami. The Colts were under a great world of pressure heading into this game, and even the team knew that this was the biggest night of their lives.
After halftime, the cycle just kept repeating itself. Once again, New England took any hope that Indianapolis might have had and crushed it with each and every play. Forget about the pick-six that Manning threw to Asante Samuel or the touchdown run from Corey Dillon. Let’s rewind to the second drive of the game for the Patriots. On third and one at the four-yard line, the first-round rookie Laurence Maroney mishandled the snap and the ball was bouncing around for what felt like ten seconds, only for it to land in the end zone and have it recovered by an offensive lineman for a touchdown. That play right there signified just how bad the Colts were on both sides in the first half, and by the time each team headed into the locker room, they were down 21-6. How could they even be pained when it’s just the same thing that has happened to them over and over? But one thing that Indianapolis did not do that other teams might have done against the Patriots when suffering this big of a deficit was flat-out give up and quit. Throughout the whole second half, the Colts were impossible to stop on offense, scoring on five of their seven possessions. With just over four minutes left in the third quarter, Indianapolis tied up the game at twenty-one, but that did not mean Tom Brady was just going to lay down and die. Once the score was even, the Patriots kept jumping back on top, and Indianapolis was essentially playing keep-up. Their season would be decided late in the fourth quarter, down 34-31 with 2:17 remaining and one timeout, nearly the exact same situation they were in against the Patriots just three years ago. Were they going to get stood up at the goal line once again, or were the Colts finally meeting their date with destiny? Well, it started out the way that everybody thought it would. Manning drove his team down the field with ease, saved as much time as they could, and reached the three-yard line with close to a minute left. They could either throw the football and risk giving Brady more time to score the game-winning touchdown, or they can elect to run it and chew off even more clock to make it more impossible. Well, if Marvin Harrison is telling you to go with the latter, you just have to listen. So they did, handing it off to Joseph Addai up the middle, and the Patriots’ defense let him get the touchdown to put the Colts ahead by four. The only problem was that Brady still had 54 seconds and two timeouts in his pocket. This Indianapolis defense was getting picked apart for most of the night, but all it took was one stop or takeaway for this team to go to the Super Bowl, so everything was on the line. Within three plays, the Patriots were already into Indianapolis territory and the stadium was praying for dear life that Brady would not haunt them again. But with twenty-four seconds left, Brady threw a pass across the field towards his tight end Benjamin Watson, and defensive Marlin Jackson jumped in front of the play for the game-sealing interception! Indianapolis finally overcame their demons and for the first time since the team was in Baltimore, they had a chance to give Peyton Manning his first-ever Lombardi trophy.
Two weeks later against the Chicago Bears, the Indianapolis Colts found themselves on top of the world after a convincing 29-17 victory. It started sloppy with a kickoff return score by Devin Hester, but they did just enough in all three phases to win. Their defense forced five turnovers, they ran for 190 yards against the vaunted Bears linebacking corps, and Manning was crowned the MVP of that game. For years and years, the Colts were thought of as a juggernaut in the regular season, but frauds when it came to the playoffs. All it took was them finally beating the vaunted New England Patriots and it was enough for the Colts to be labeled as champions. It’s about time, Peyton!
#4: Battle of Undefeated Teams in ‘07
In 2007, it was inevitable that a rematch of the prior year’s AFC Championship was going to happen, mainly because every team that has won their division has to play against each other in the season. By Week 9, both the New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts were undefeated, so it was really the first time that either Brady or Manning were going to lose their first game of the season against one another. Leading up to this game, Peyton was having a successful season like always, but it was Tom Brady’s turn to show off his elite prowess. Heading into Indianapolis, he threw at least three touchdown passes in every single game, with just two interceptions. However, this Colts defense was nowhere near a liability that season. They were giving up just sixteen points a game, which was the fewest out of every other unit in the league. They allowed the second-fewest passing yards and touchdown passes, and for a defense that only totaled 28 sacks in sixteen games played, that was a pretty impressive accomplishment. Obviously, everybody was aware of how potent Bill Belichick’s defenses were every single season, so both teams were sure as hell evenly matched. The question was not which quarterback would pull through at the end, but who would screw up the least to keep their winning streak alive?
What ensued became one of the lowest-scoring matchups in the Brady-Manning rivalry history. Both quarterbacks threw a couple of punches to keep the fight alive, but it was each defense that came out swinging at the very start. Coverage sacks, easy interceptions, you name it. However, instead of the Patriots taking control early on, it was Indianapolis that came out with a very different mindset. By the beginning of the fourth quarter, Brady had only thrown one touchdown and two interceptions, both of them in opposing territory. Both of those turnovers led to two endzone scores for the Colts, which was the biggest reason why New England trailed by ten with nine minutes left. But this is Tom Brady who had the ball in his hands. Any time that you least expect it, he will find a way to come back and save the day. Sure enough, that’s exactly what happened. Once Peyton Manning scored on a quarterback sneak, Tom went right to work and showed why he would be the eventual MVP of the league. A deep 55-yard shot to Randy Moss at the three-yard line set up a simple touchdown pass to Wes Welker that cut their deficit to three. Rosevelt Colvin then sacks Manning on third and long, which gave Brady the ball back with plenty of time on the clock. He took another shot down the left side of the field, this time to Donte’ Stallworth, which allowed Kevin Faulk to evade past defenders for the go-ahead touchdown. However, Peyton Manning had so much time left on the clock and two timeouts, so this was no time to relax one bit. The Patriots should know that lesson very well given their last matchup. In this revenge game, they passed the test. On third and nine near midfield, Jarvis Green came around the edge and knocked the ball out of Manning’s hands, forcing the fumble and it got recovered by the Patriots. The offense then forced Indianapolis to burn the rest of their timeouts and they got the first down they needed to run the clock out. New England escaped with a 24-20 comeback victory in the arms of Tom Brady, and not only did they keep their win streak alive, but they did not lose for the rest of the regular season.
But first, let’s see what happened with the Indianapolis Colts after this loss. Well, they still finished with the second-best record in the AFC at 13-3, but the playoff woes quickly resurfaced after they had just won the championship the year prior. In their first game against the San Diego Chargers in the Divisional Round, Manning threw over 400 yards and three touchdown passes, but it was just not enough as Phillip Rivers and company beat them in his house 28-24 to advance to the Conference Championship. Those Chargers would end up losing to the Patriots in Gillette Stadium before New England was on the wrong side of one of the biggest upsets in sports history. Against the Wild Card New York Giants, the Patriots’ offense was punked from start to finish, and their defense broke down against the other Manning to lose in heartbreaking fashion 17-14.
#5: Fourth and 2
Little did anybody know that this would be the last time that Peyton Manning would beat Tom Brady as a member of the Indianapolis Colts, but everybody got a hell of a game on Sunday Night Football in Week 10. These two teams might have played each other once again in 2008, but Brady was unfortunately not on the field that day due to a torn ACL, so this would be the first rematch between these quarterbacks in two seasons. By this point, the Indianapolis Colts were once again at the peak of their game. They were undefeated through eight games for the third time in five years, which was flat-out unbelievable. Manning had just won his third MVP award in 2008 and was on pace to win another one in 2009, their defense was still a rock-solid unit led by Dwight Freeney and Robert Mathis, and they were heavy favorites to win the AFC that season. Sure, the Patriots were still the juggernaut of the league, but they were not exactly the dominant team they had been in the past. Obviously, their starting quarterback was recovering from a serious knee injury, so it took a while for the offense to really get acclimated and comfortable with one another. The defense was the definition of “bend but don’t break”, the type that will give up a good amount of yards but few points, so there were some performances that were closer than it really should have been. However, they were still 6-2 heading into Lucas Oil Stadium, so it was really anybody’s game for the taking.
For forty-five minutes, it once again looked like another dominating performance from the New England Patriots. Tom Brady threw for well over 300 yards and three touchdowns, Manning had been picked off once and could only get two touchdowns on the board, and New England was cruising with a 31-14 lead with about fourteen minutes remaining in the game. It was going to take total self-destruction for the Patriots to lose and an absolute miracle for the Colts to come back, but remember the quarterbacks that have been talked about in the last five games. You cannot give Tom Brady or Peyton Manning enough breathing room, because once you let them get in a rhythm, it’s game over. So far, the Colts regained a bit of momentum by scoring a touchdown and forcing a punt but gave some back to New England by turning it over on the first play of their next drive. That set up a chip-shot field goal from Stephen Gostkowski to put them up 34-21, and it looked like things would calm down for the Patriots. But this is where the chaos ensues. In less than two minutes, Manning sliced up Belichick’s defense, mainly due to a pass interference penalty from corner Darius Butler that set up a four-yard touchdown run to Joseph Addai that made it a one-score game. Three players, the Colts defense forced a three-and-out, but Tom Brady and the offense were not getting off the field. On fourth down at their own 28-yard line, the Patriots decided to go for it and put the icing on the cake. Everybody thought that Bill Belichick was crazy for making this decision, but he knew that if he punted the ball right back to Peyton, then this game was not going to end well for them. The ball got snapped, Brady looked for the check-down to Kevin Faulk, and he made the catch right near the sticks. But upon further review, Melvin Bullitt tackled him this short of the first down marker, which gave the Colts the ball back and tremendous field position. At this point, Patriots fans were that close to turning off the TV, because this was too easy for a quarterback like Manning. Two plays into the drive, they were already at the one-yard line, and the Colts ran the clock all the way down to under thirty seconds because New England did not have any more timeouts. Right then and there, Manning threw a slant in the back of the end zone to Reggie Wayne, and he made a tremendous go-ahead touchdown catch to put Indianapolis ahead by one. Trailing 31-14 in the beginning phases of the quarter, the team went on a 28-3 run to keep their undefeated streak alive and run away with the rest of the AFC.
Tom Brady might have been the Comeback Player of the Year after leading the Patriots to another division title and playoff appearance, but they were immediately booted out of the playoffs by the Baltimore Ravens, the first time they lost at home in this stage in the Brady-Belichick era. In the next round, those Ravens got blown out by the Colts 20-3, who ended up beating the New York Jets in the AFC Championship to make it to their second Super Bowl in four years. It was in the same stadium that Indianapolis hoisted the Lombardi Trophy, but the New Orleans Saints were a way better team in 2009 than the Chicago Bears were in 2006. Even with a one-point lead in the middle of the fourth quarter, not only did Drew Brees give New Orleans the lead with a two-yard touchdown pass to Jeremy Shockey, but Manning threw a costly pick-six to Tracy Porter that ended up sealing the deal. It was the first Super Bowl loss for Peyton Manning, and it would be the last time that he would take the Colts to the big dance.
#6: The Deflategate Game
Fast forward five years and the landscape of the AFC has changed. To make a long story short, Peyton Manning was released in the spring of 2012 after missing the entire season due to a neck injury, and he decided to stay in the AFC by signing with the Denver Broncos. Indianapolis then drafted quarterback Andrew Luck with their first overall pick, and through the first two seasons of his career, there were a lot of promising and positive moments. He took his team to the playoffs twice, won the AFC South in his second season, and came back from one of the largest postseason deficits in NFL History to win number one on his belt. Heading into the 2014 playoffs, they were always considered the respectable playoff team. The Colts were always going to win a lot of games, mainly against those that were deemed inferior, but did not really have enough to beat teams like the Patriots or the Broncos. They were good enough to win at least one playoff game, but just like the Dallas Cowboys in the last thirty years, their inevitable fate was not advancing past the second round. However, Indianapolis proved a lot of people wrong that year. After beating the overrated Cincinnati Bengals in the Wild Card, they headed into Peyton’s new house at Mile High and shocked the world by holding him to just thirteen points and hanging 24 points to advance to their first AFC Championship in the Chuck Pagano-Andrew Luck era. So much was optimism was riding high in Indianapolis because if they could beat their old quarterback on the road, there was no doubt that they could do the same against Tom Brady and the very hated New England Patriots. But they had a huge edge to play with as well.
Before the 2014 postseason, the Patriots had still yet to win another Super Bowl since they cemented themselves as a dynasty in the winter of 2005. They had another chance against Eli Manning and the New York Giants in 2012, ironically in Lucas Oil Stadium, but everybody experienced deja vu. The Patriots’ offense was sluggish, their defense broke down at the end, and Eli was on top of the world over Peyton again. New England was getting sick and tired of coming up this short year after year, and if they did so once again, then a lot of changes were going to be made. Well, they took care of the first part, which was beating the Baltimore Ravens at home in the Divisional Round. But after finding out that Denver lost, the Patriots felt a lot better about playing the Colts. They had already beaten Indianapolis in the regular season, they had the better quarterback, and they had the better head coach. But there’s a reason why this AFC Championship is labeled as “this game”, because it ended up being one of the more controversial games in recent memory.
The score is 14-0 New England with 9:21 left in the second quarter. The Patriots’ offense was back on the field and tried to worsen the score, but Brady threw a wobbly interception to linebacker D’Qwell Jackson. The defensive player brought it back over to the sideline to their equipment guy, which was where the Deflategate scandal started. The equipment staff noticed that the ball was deflated, which was brought to the attention of the NFL. Sure it was rainy and soggy, which normally affects the air pressure of the football, but that did not stop the scandal from eventually getting out to the public after the game. It was still a competitive 17-7 game at halftime, but once both teams were in the locker room, the balls were re-inflated and football eventually resumed. The final score at the end? 45-7. That’s right. Tom Brady led four straight touchdown drives in that period alone, LeGarrette Blount finished the game with three rushing touchdowns, and Andrew Luck could not throw for 130 yards and had two interceptions. This was when the footballs were supposedly “back to normal.” So even if there were no issues surrounding the PSI of the balls being used, the Patriots were still going to beat the Colts pretty handily.
The allegations and questions kept surfacing leading up to the Super Bowl between New England and the Seattle Seahawks, but there was no intimidating Tom Brady or Bill Belichick. Playing in a dome in Arizona, the Patriots won their fourth Super Bowl in franchise history by taking down the Legion of Boom 28-24, sealing the deal with a game-winning interception by an undrafted rookie named Malcolm Butler. But even with a Lombardi Trophy and Super Bowl parade, the NFL was going to hand down punishment either way. Brady ended up getting suspended for the first four games of the season in 2015, which was eventually appealed and then re-instated in 2016. Once he came back, he just happened to lead the Patriots to another Super Bowl title. Even when you try to force them out and push them down, they are still going to find a way to raise banners in their stadium, which is the biggest reason why so many still envy this team to this day.
