[Steve00007]

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The Pats "own" the Colts. The Colts have lost to the Pats 4 times now due to just about everyone except Peyton Manning. Let's look at the stats.

2004 Divisional Playoffs: 27/42, 238 yards, one garbage time INT.
2004 Week 1: 16/29, 256 yards, 2 TD, 1 INT
2003 Conference Championship: 23/47, 237, 1 TD, 4 INT
2003 Week 13: 29/48, 278, 4 TD, 1 INT

Looks to me like he's played pretty well in 3 games and pretty awful in one. Yet, everyone you talk to will say Peyton Manning chokes against the Pats. Manning doesn't choke; everyone else on the team chokes. For example, let's take a look at why the Colts only scored three points last year in the playoffs.

Edgerrin James had 14 carries for 39 yards. His longest carry was 7 yards. He had 0 first downs. The Colts picked up no first downs on the ground! They also lost two fumbles.

How is that Peyton's fault? The Colts were not able to get anything going on the ground at all. Considering how good his opponent was, he played pretty damned well. The only problem is, he was the only one that did.

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I don't think this takes everything into account.

First of all, those are pretty crappy numbers for Peyton Manning. You are talking about a guy with a career YPA of 7.6 being held to 6.08 against the Pats.

Second - if they shut down the Colts' rushing, that adds to the impressiveness of containing Peyton. That would show the Pats were not "keying" in on the pass. Maybe their game plan was something along the lines of "Peyton's going to get his yards, but we're not going to let them establish the run." If the Pats held Peyton to these numbers while keying on the run then I would say without a doubt that Peyton has been majorly owned by NE.

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The Pats were keying in on the pass. They just managed to shut down the running game anyway. The Colts offensive line did a horrible job at run blocking.