One More Victory

Just because I think a real news story about the game should be on my blog (emphasis mine):










By John Oehser - Colts.com

Colts Move to 8-0 with Victory at New England
FOXBORO, Mass. – All week, they said it was just another regular-season game, no more or less important than any other.

Even with all the hype. Even with all the media.

Even with all the buildup.

The Colts played big amid the Monday Night hype, and afterward, said the same theme as before the game held true.

“Just another game,” safety Bob Sanders said as the Colts jogged from the field with their first victory in Foxboro since 1995.

The Colts (8-0), after two weeks of buildup and after two-plus seasons of frustration, played big in the most-hyped game of the first half of the regular season Monday night and beat the defending Super Bowl champion New England Patriots, 40-21, in front of 68,756 fans at Gillette Stadium.

A huge victory? One full of symbolism? A purge of the past?

Hardly.

“It was a good win for us, but as I said all week, ‘It’s just one game at the end of the first half of our season,’ ” Colts Head Coach Tony Dungy said. “We’ve got to be careful we don’t look at it as more than that. I think we’ve got some level-headed guys that will do that.

“Hopefully, we can follow this up. It was a good win for us.”

The victory left the Colts as the NFL’s only remaining unbeaten team, and extended their record for the best start in franchise history. They have won 16 of 17 regular-season games since midway through last season.

“I think we all had it in perspective that it was just another regular-season game,” Colts wide receiver Brandon Stokley said. “It wasn’t the playoffs or anything like that, and win or lose, we have to play next week. We all had it in perspective.”

It left the Colts with a three-game lead over the Jacksonville Jaguars (5-3) in the AFC South with eight games remaining, and snapped a slew of well-publicized streaks.

The Colts, who hadn’t won in Foxboro since 1995, were 0-6 versus Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. They had lost to New England four times in the last two seasons, once in each regular season and once in each of the past two postseasons.

Three of those Patriots victories came at Gillette Stadium, and Colts quarterback Peyton Manning was 0-7 in his career in Foxboro.

The Colts, who will play host to the Houston Texans (1-7) at the RCA Dome Sunday, are 5-0 on the road this season.

“It’s just good to come up here and get a win,” Dungy said. “We’ve got five wins on the road. It’s really no more than that. It’s a game in the middle of the year that we wanted to win, and we got the win.

“It just sets us up for next week.”

Manning, the NFL’s Most Valuable Player the past two seasons, completed 28 of 37 passes for 321 yards and three touchdowns with one interception for a 117.1 passer rating.

The Colts scored touchdowns on four of their first five possessions, and after a 30-yard touchdown pass from Manning to wide receiver Marvin Harrison with 5:53 remaining clinched the victory, they had scored on seven of eight possessions.

Harrison, who had nine receptions for 128 yards, caught two touchdown passes. The first gave the Colts an early 7-0 lead and although the Patriots tied the game 7-7, they never led.

“I think it shows us that when we play our game and we don’t turn the ball over, we’re tough to stop offensively,” Dungy said.

The Patriots’ offense, ranked fifth in the NFL entering the game, kept the score close late, but through three quarters, the Colts were dominant, having:

• Out-gained the Patriots, 357-201.

• Out-rushed them, 99-27.

• Out-passed them, 258-174.

• Twenty-three first downs to 11 for the Patriots.

• A 27:08-17:52 time-of-possession advantage.

Wide receiver Reggie Wayne had nine receptions for 124 yards and a touchdown, and running back Edgerrin James rushed for more than 100 yards for a fourth consecutive game, finishing with 104 yards and a touchdown on 34 carries.

The Colts, who took a 14-point halftime lead by scoring on three of four first-half possessions, held New England on downs to start the third quarter, then drove immediately for a 21-point lead.

Starting on their 40, the Colts drove 60 yards on 11 plays, taking a 28-7 lead when reserve running back Dominic Rhodes scored on a 4-yard touchdown run with 8:36 remaining in the third quarter.

A 31-yard screen pass from Patriots quarterback Tom Brady to tight end Daniel Graham cut the Colts’ lead 28-14, but after safety Joseph Jefferson recovered an onside kick, Colts kicker Mike Vanderjagt’s 35-yard field goal pushed the Colts’ lead to 17, 31-14.

“That was a play that kind of filled the momentum for them,” Dungy said of Jefferson’s recovery. “But I think it was more of a case of our guy making a good play.”

The Colts took an early lead, scoring on their first possession when Manning threw a 1-yard fade pass to Harrison with 12:30 remaining in the first quarter. The play capped a five-play, 54-yard drive.

A 48-yard bomb from Manning to Harrison down the middle of the field gave Indianapolis 1st-and-goal at the 9. Manning’s touchdown pass three plays later gave the Colts the quickest touchdown against the Patriots since Bill Belichick took over as head coach in 2000.

The Patriots on their ensuing possession drove 69 yards on 11 plays, with Brady’s 16-yard pass to wide receiver Deion Branch tying it 7-7 with 5:52 remaining in the first quarter.

Each team converted 4th-and-1 plays early. A 5-yard pass from Brady to wide receiver David Givens on 4th-and-1 from the Colts 21 led to Branch’s touchdown.

One series later, James rushed for 2 yards on 4th-and-1 from the Patriots 46, a conversion that led to the Colts’ second score. Twelve plays after converting fourth down, James’ 2-yard run capped a 17-play drive and gave the Colts a 14-7 lead.

The drive consumed nine minutes, two seconds.

After holding the Patriots without a first down on their next series, Patriots linebacker Mike Vrabel intercepted a pass from Manning, giving the Patriots possession at their 47.

After New England converted a 3rd-and-23, Colts safety Bob Sanders forced Dillon to fumble and Colts cornerback Jason David recovered, preserving the Colts’ lead.

The Colts turned the turnover into a 14-point halftime lead, with Manning leading the Colts on a nine-play, 73-yard drive in the final minutes of the half. With Manning completing six of seven passes for 68 yards, the Colts moved the 73 yards on 1:57, with Manning passing 10 yards to Wayne in the left corner of the end zone with 10 seconds remaining in the half for a 21-7 Indianapolis lead.

“I thought that was really big – to get the touchdown there,” Manning said. “We had the momentum going into halftime.”

And they kept it, never letting the Patriots pull closer than 13 points again and afterward, not straying from the theme they stayed with all week.

“I told our guys in the locker room, ‘Pittsburgh beat these guys last year, in the regular season and couldn’t do it in the playoffs,’’’ Dungy said. “Week 8 really doesn’t guarantee you anything. We’re three games ahead at the turn in our division. That’s what we came here to do.

“We looked at it as one game, and one thing I like about our team is we don’t really look in the past too much. We got beat 41-0 in a playoff game a few years ago and people thought the world was going to come to an end. We came out the next year and that wasn’t really on our minds.

“We’ve lost to New England, and we’ve lost some tough games up here, but we felt like we were a good team and we felt like we’d be able to show it and fortunately we did.

“I don’t think it has any ramifications for anyone other than winning one game.”

Said Sanders, “I don’t know what anyone else is saying, but to me, it was just a normal game. We still have eight games left. We played eight so far, and we’re halfway through.

“It was another game for us. We played a great opponent. They played great. We just happened to come out and play better today.”