Priceless

I'm tired this morning, but not nearly as tired as I was after the Colts/Ravens game I attended and definitely not as tired as the Indianapolis Colts! I kept my mother on the phone last night until 12:15 am watching the end of the game. Final score Colts win 40-21 (in case you missed it) in Foxborough. There was about a minute or so left when the screen switched to the most fantastic Mastercard commercial I've ever seen:

Salary and bonus for this season: $25 million
Off the field endorsements: $10 million
Beating the Patriots in Foxborough: PRICELESS

Despite the defense practically handing the Patriots their last touchdown, the Colts whipped up on them the whole game. Say what you will: this isn't the Patriots we're used to (4-4 so far), they're injury riddled, blah, blah, blah. I could care less because nothing anyone says is going to take this spectacular moment away from me. Tom Brady is supposed to be this fantastic leader for his team, but he dug a hole for them early and couldn't buy his way out of it.

Pieces of Beauty etched in my memory:
*Bill Belichick got so disgusted at Peyton and Marvin's last touchdown that he threw his red challenge flag in anger (100 times better than Spurrier throwing his visor). So in order to avoid the penalty for throwing it when he didn't mean it because he disrupted play, he had to challenge a touchdown so obvious the aliens on Mars could see it.

*Tom Brady on the bench for the last minutes of the game completely defeated and Doug Flutie (yes...Doug Flutie) running the last series. The only better ending to the game would have been Peyton getting to take a knee at the end. Oh well...maybe next time.

*Peyton Manning's 30 yard pass to Marvin Harrison in the 4th quarter (leading to Coach Belichick's "challenge") after which Peyton ran to the end zone to congratulate everyone high-fiving the Colts sideline the whole way down.

Truths of the matter:

*The Colts are now 8-0 leading in to the toughest games of their season. They still have to play the Bengals, the Steelers, and the Seahawks. If they can hang on, it will be great, but they have bigger challenges ahead before they can even think about Motown in February.

*This is still only the 3rd time in Peyton's professional career that the Colts have beaten the Patriots. So monkey or no monkey off the back...the Pats still own the series. I'm just looking for the Colts to improve their post-season record and for their loss column not to include the Patriots (at least for this year anyway).

NFL Network: Love this channel. I got to see the entire post-game press conference with Coach Dungy and Peyton. Oh and they're DVR'd if I want to watch them, again. :) They've all got pretty level heads and really know that beyond winning each week, they still haven't accomplished anything. Right on...no one needs a big head at this stage in the season. Keep that train moving.