Patriots get physical, ride Colts into ground

BY GORDON FORBES • PUBLISHED JAN. 19, 2004

FOXBORO, Mass. — With snowflakes falling in his face at Gillette Stadium, Peyton Manning was in perfect form. This was before Sunday’s AFC showdown during warm-ups when Manning threw more than 50 spirals, none of which touched the ground.

But later, in the gloom of a New England winter day, Manning could never recapture the rhythm he had when the Indianapolis Colts were flexing their muscles. That was because the ambitious New England Patriots got away with using a three- or four-man pass rush, rarely blitzing while dropping seven or eight cover guys into Manning’s passing lanes.

“They used a four-man rush the whole game,” said Manning, who came in as the league’s hottest quarterback. “They played a lot of bump-and-run. Sometimes a combination man-and-zone coverage. It was hard to find some guy open.”

Manning had thrown eight touchdown passes without an interception in two previous playoff games. But against the Patriots’ punishing defense, which kept knocking his receivers woozy, three-receiver look; a one-back, two-tight end look; a shotgun look; and a no-back, five-receiver look. No matter the look, Brady stood tall and lonely in the pocket, waited for his receiver to make his break and fired away.

Manning threw four interceptions and only one TD pass, a 7-yarder to a skidding Marcus Pollard with 2:27 left.

On two of his interceptions Manning was forced to throw off-balance. On another the pressure caused an underthrown ball that gave left corner Ty Law his third sideline interception. “We really got ticked off,” Law was saying after the Patriots won a bruising 24-14 game that wasn’t as close as the final score. “No one gave us credit. It was all about Peyton Manning.

“He’s the greatest winner in pro football,” Law said. Then Law summed up the defensive effort that left Manning with a ragtag 35.5 quarterback rating. “It was a simple game plan,” he said. “Just stick ’em and beat ’em up.”

But I’ve said it before, no one man can win a championship.”

While Manning struggled, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady sat back in a comfort zone formed by his underrated offensive line and picked apart the soft Colts secondary. Brady’s longest completion was a 28-yarder that fullback Larry Centers created out of a little flat pass by slipping linebacker David Thornton’s weak attempt at a tackle.

Starting with the opening drive, a 13-play, 65-yard thrust into the end zone, Brady demoralized the Colts with a series of underneath completions. They came from a variety of sets. Coordinator Charlie Weis, the mix-’em-up strategist, gave the Colts a power-I look; a one-back,

The Patriots defense was so good, so physical that Marvin Harrison, Manning’s go-to star, didn’t catch a pass until the final minute of the first half. After a collision with Pro Bowl safety Rodney Harrison, the ball squirted into New England hands, one of five turnovers.

“They really didn’t play a variety of coverages,” Manning said. “Nothing super special. Ty Law played bump-and-run with a safety, Harrison or (Eugene) Wilson over the top, which helped them. The combination of Law with Harrison behind him made it tough to get Marvin the ball.”

Brady never was challenged. Not by the Colts’ rushline, which tangled itself in too many handfights with Matt Light and the other Patriots protectors. And not by the young Colts secondary, which allowed Brady’s receivers to continually make their breaks into open lanes. Brady came close to being sacked only once. Midway in the third quarter, Marcus Washington blitzed and was just wrapping up with his arms when Brady

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