5.) 2003 Week 5 - Colts 38 @ Buccaneers 35
Let's take a little trip back to October 6th, 2003. This is probably the last weekend in the NFL that wouldn't be about Brady & Manning. The Patriots had lost and fallen to 2-2 (their last loss until Halloween - 2004!). The Colts were 4-0, and were making a trip to play the defending champion Buccaneers, in Tony Dungy's homecoming. The NFL was at a weird time in 1999-2002. The Rams were the best team in that stretch, them or the Raiders. Defense first teams were dominating. The Patriots '01 title was seen as a random blip. The NFL had lost a set of hall of fame QBs in this stretch, from Young to Aikman to Marino. Brady and Manning were coming on in 2003, and it really started here, in the first public, audacious, comeback by Peyton Manning.
Like so many games in the Manning era, the game was really highlighted by the Colts starting slow and figuring things out in real time. Their drive chart is hilarious, starting with five straight punts, and overall seven failed drives out of nine, before a finish of TD, TD, TD, FG. The game highlighted everything amazing about the Peyton Manning era in Indianapolis. Some horrendous defense (Keenan McCardell caught two TD passes, one for 74 yards on the second drive), brutal luck (the Buccaneers scored their second TD when after throwing an interception, the Bucs forced a fumble on the return and ran the fumble back for a TD), and of course iffy special teams play (more on this particular Vanderjagt special later). Of course, it also showed the resilience of the Colts in the Manning era, their ability to never stop playing and being able to scare any team even when they are up 21 points.
The comeback started after the Buccaneers scored a TD to make it 28-7 on a ridiculous 7-minute drive (another patented element of any great Colts game), the Colts scored a quick TD on a run by 'The Other' Ricky Williams, which the Buccaneers followed with a 6-minute drive to nowhere, punting back to the Colts. The Colts, with 6:42 to go, down 28-14 started their comeback... by immediately throwing a pick-six to Ronde Barber. There was 5:22 on the clock and now the Colts stared down a 35-14 deficit. They were a young team playing the defending champs on a Monday Night - back when that was the premier football night. It was another example of a team flying a little too close to the sun. Except Peyton Manning, who went 13-20 for 181 yards and 2 TDs to finish the game, and Marvin Harrison, who had 4 catches for 71 yards, grew into even hotter stars.
The comeback actually started with a special team play that benefited the Colts, with a 90-yard kick return that set them up at the 12 yard line. Four plays later, the Colts cut it do 35-21. Then they got the on-side kick back, and seven plays later, Manning hit Harrison on a beautiful 28 yard TD throw, arced beautifully above the Buccaneers cover-2. The real beauty of the drive, and another hallmark of the Colts in the Manning era, was that the 7-play drive to fifty seconds. No one operated more quickly. Going that fast allowed them to kick off, and then get the third TD drive that highlighted a 52-yard throw to Harrison again. It took 4:32, and the Colts had tied it at 35.
OT was not quick, the Colts played pretty much perfect football against a great cover-2 performance. Their game-winning drive was a sign of the Colts growing up, 14 plays, 6:06 off the clock. No play longer than 16 yards. It was beautiful, it was controlled. It set up Mike Vanderjagt with a 40-yard field goal, which of course he missed. And that is where 'leaping' became a known penalty. Simeon Rice was penalized for jumping and landing on the back of a defensive player. By rule, that is a foul, half the distance to the goal, and a 40-yard field goal became a 29-yard field goal, which Vanderjagt promptly clanged off the upright, but it fell in, ending the largest comeback ever in the last five minutes.
The 2003 Colts started the modern team. That was the first year where both Reggie Wayne and Dallas Clark contributed. It was Manning's first MVP season, and the first great year with Dungy. It started a string of seven straight 12+ win seasons. It was the first year they would win a playoff game. WIth the Patriots goint 17-2 en route to a Super Bowl, it really was the first year of the Brady / Manning NFL. It started a 13-year stretch where teh NFL got more popular and bigger than ever, and I don't know if that is the case if the Colts lose this game. Even if that is somewhat overanalyzing one game's impact on a baker's dozen of NFL seasons, maybe we can draw that line from the legacy of Peyton Manning back to the leaping of Simeon Rice.
