All this week on the projo PatsBlog, Jim Donaldson will be reliving the 13 games played by the Colts and the Patriots this decade, when the two former AFC East doormats became the hottest rivalry in the NFL. We'll also present archival photos of the games. We continue with a look at opening night of the 2004 season, when the Colts had many chances to end their misery against the Patriots, but just couldn't get it done.

The Patriots kicked off the 2004 season on a Thursday night in Foxboro with a rematch of the '03 AFC Championship game.

And the Pats picked up where they'd left off, as Tedy Bruschi intercepted Peyton Manning at the 1-yard line on Indy's opening possession.

That marked the beginning of a night in which the Patriots would wind up dodging even more bullets than Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid ever did in the course of their colorful careers.

The Colts were on the verge of taking the lead in the fourth quarter when Edgerrin James fumbled the ball away at the N.E. 1.

But Indy again moved into scoring position late in the game. With 23 seconds remaining, kicker Mike Vanderjagt attempted a 48-yard field goal that could tie the score at 27 and almost certainly send the game into overtime.

Now, a 48-yarder isn't exactly a chip shot. But, at the time, Vanderjagt had made an NFL-record 42 in a row. In the entire 2003 season, he hadn't missed a kick. He was 37-for-37 on field goals, made all of his PATs, and also was 3-for-3 on 3-pointers in the playoffs. Over the previous two seasons, he'd tried four field goals from beyond 50 yards, and made them all.

This time, however, he missed -- pushing the kick wide right.

It helped tremendously that, on the previous play, the Colts had been pushed back when Willie McGinest sacked Manning for a loss of 13 yards.

"It comes down," Pats coach Bill Belichick said, "to whether teams can make plays at the critical time to provide the difference in the game. The team that makes them wins. The team that doesn't make them loses."