There will be bloodNew England Patriots (8-0) at Indianapolis Colts (7-0); 4 pm, CBS
The last time an NFL regular season game generated this much anticipation, I was in second grade. It was 1989, and the San Francisco 49ers (10-1) defeated the New York Giants (10-1) 7-3 in a November Monday Night match-up at Candlestick Park; the Giants and 49ers would later meet in the NFC Championship game, with New York coming out on top, 15-13, on the back of a last-second Matt Bahr field goal.
Eighteen years later, we have Indy and New England, the two most dominant franchises of this decade, facing each other in the latest meeting of two undefeated teams in a season in NFL history. Between 2001 and 2005, the Patriots and quarterback Tom Brady owned the Colts, winning six consecutive contests and racking up three Super Bowl titles; since then Peyton Manning and Co. have held a 3-0 advantage, including a miraculous come from behind 38-34 win in last season's AFC Championship game en route to winning Super Bowl XLI.
This year, Pats coach Bill Belichick has set his re-loaded (uh, Randy Moss, Donte Stallworth, Wes Welker) team on the warpath, humiliating opponents by an average score of 41 to 16. Burned in the "Spy-gate" videotaping/signal stealing scandal that followed the Week 1 win over the hapless Jets (curses), he has decided to take it out on the rest of the league, blatantly running up the score to prove his point that the Pats don't need video to destroy your team. Brady has thrown 30 touchdowns (and only 2 interceptions) through eight games, setting him up to obliterate the single season TD mark of 48...set by none other than Peyton Manning. The Colts have set about running the table thus far much more quietly, but in doing so have become the first team since the 1930s to start three consecutive seasons off 7-0 or better.
Frankly put, I see this game as analogous to the first Balboa-Lang fight in Rocky III, with the champ, fat and happy off a diet of patsies, running into a hungry assassin in whose copy of the dictionary the definition of "mercy" is suspiciously absent. The Patriots, who have never had the compliment of offensive weapons Manning has enjoyed during his run, are now more stocked than a Branch Davidian compound; they have played this season not merely to win but to impose a Carthaginian peace on the vanquished - one blanches to imagine Belichick as a feudal warlord.
For in-depth analysis you can go elsewhere: I'm telling you now, don't be shocked if it's Pats 41, Colts 7 when the final gun sounds.
The last time an NFL regular season game generated this much anticipation, I was in second grade. It was 1989, and the San Francisco 49ers (10-1) defeated the New York Giants (10-1) 7-3 in a November Monday Night match-up at Candlestick Park; the Giants and 49ers would later meet in the NFC Championship game, with New York coming out on top, 15-13, on the back of a last-second Matt Bahr field goal.
Eighteen years later, we have Indy and New England, the two most dominant franchises of this decade, facing each other in the latest meeting of two undefeated teams in a season in NFL history. Between 2001 and 2005, the Patriots and quarterback Tom Brady owned the Colts, winning six consecutive contests and racking up three Super Bowl titles; since then Peyton Manning and Co. have held a 3-0 advantage, including a miraculous come from behind 38-34 win in last season's AFC Championship game en route to winning Super Bowl XLI.
This year, Pats coach Bill Belichick has set his re-loaded (uh, Randy Moss, Donte Stallworth, Wes Welker) team on the warpath, humiliating opponents by an average score of 41 to 16. Burned in the "Spy-gate" videotaping/signal stealing scandal that followed the Week 1 win over the hapless Jets (curses), he has decided to take it out on the rest of the league, blatantly running up the score to prove his point that the Pats don't need video to destroy your team. Brady has thrown 30 touchdowns (and only 2 interceptions) through eight games, setting him up to obliterate the single season TD mark of 48...set by none other than Peyton Manning. The Colts have set about running the table thus far much more quietly, but in doing so have become the first team since the 1930s to start three consecutive seasons off 7-0 or better.
Frankly put, I see this game as analogous to the first Balboa-Lang fight in Rocky III, with the champ, fat and happy off a diet of patsies, running into a hungry assassin in whose copy of the dictionary the definition of "mercy" is suspiciously absent. The Patriots, who have never had the compliment of offensive weapons Manning has enjoyed during his run, are now more stocked than a Branch Davidian compound; they have played this season not merely to win but to impose a Carthaginian peace on the vanquished - one blanches to imagine Belichick as a feudal warlord.
For in-depth analysis you can go elsewhere: I'm telling you now, don't be shocked if it's Pats 41, Colts 7 when the final gun sounds.
