Projo Pats Blog

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 begin with a look at the two games between the teams in 2000, Bill Belichick's first season as head coach.

The Patriots and the Colts still were AFC East rivals when Bill Belichick became head coach in New England in 2000.

They'd been playing in the same division ever since the AFL merged with the NFL in 1970, when the Colts were playing in Baltimore.

Not that it was much of a rivalry when Belichick arrived.

Although the Colts had won the division title in 1999, the year after taking a promising young quarterback by the name of Peyton Manning with the first overall pick in the draft, the Patriots had won 7 of their previous 8 games against Indianapolis heading into the 2000 season.

In a 17-game stretch from 1984 through their first meeting in 1992, the Patriots beat the Colts 14 times.

Nevertheless, the Colts, who'd been 13-3 in 1999, were favored over the 1-4 Patriots when they came to Foxboro on Oct. 8, 2000.

But the Pats pulled off the upset, in large part by pulling the proverbial wool over the eyes of the Colts, who were completely fooled by a fake field goal that set up what proved to be the decisive touchdown.

The following is from the column I wrote that Sunday:

"Football is suddenly fun again in Foxboro, thanks to a guy who thinks fun is staying up all night poring over game tapes.

"Bill Belichick isn't exactly a barrel of laughs.

"Crack a joke? For Belichick, merely cracking a smile qualifies as wild hilarity.

"Not that he cares about winning personality contests. He just wants to win football games.

"Belichick provides no pithy, Parcellian quotes at his postgame press conferences. His idea of light banter is detailing the intricacies of the zone blitz.

"One-liners aren't a concern of his. Instead, he concerns himself with his offensive and defensive lines.

"But, while his laugh barrel may be close to empty, Belichick has a truckload of tricks, a sackful of schemes, a pocketful of ploys.

"And so he sent 60,000-plus Patriots fans home grinning from ear-to-ear by sending the Colts back home again to Indiana seriously chagrined following a 24-16 defeat in which Indianapolis was not so much outplayed as outsmarted."

Clinging to a 17-13 lead midway through the fourth quarter, the Patriots lined up for a 39-yard field-goal attempt, only to have holder Lee Johnson throw an 18-yard pass to tight end Eric Bjornson, setting up a 4-yard TD pass from Drew Bledsoe to Terry Glenn on the next play.

The Pats weren't so successful when next they played the Colts, just two weeks later in Indianapolis.

Although they led going into the fourth quarter, 23-14, the Patriots couldn't keep Manning in check. He'd already thrown TD bombs to Marvin Harrison of 51 yards and 78 yards. In the final 15 minutes, Manning led scoring drives of 65 and 66 yards. Running back Edgerrin James finished off both of them, taking a short shovel pass from Manning into the end zone from the 1, then running in from the 3.

"It's disappointing," Belichick said, "when we put ourselves in a position to win and can't finish."

 Tags  Patriots vs. Colts

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