FOXBOROUGH -- The Indianapolis Colts insist that there's nothing to the fact that the Patriots find ways to win close games between the teams. They insist they don't have a mental block, nor are they victimized by Murphy's Law when they line up against New England.
After five consecutive defeats, including last night's 27-24 Patriots' triumph, they say it's mere coincidence, and that they must line up prepared to play with little thought to the previous meeting, no matter whom the opponent is.
That might be more difficult in years to come for Indianapolis.
How do you fail to score from your opponent's 1-yard line -- as running back Edgerrin James did when he fumbled the ball with 3:43 in the fourth quarter last night -- without thinking back to last season, when James was stopped at the 1-yard line on fourth down in the final minute of the Patriots' 38-34 triumph in Indianapolis?
On its next possession, Indianapolis moved the ball to the New England 17-yard line. Then quarterback Peyton Manning suffered a 12-yard sack by defensive lineman Willie McGinest with 49 seconds left, moving the Colts back to the 29-yard line.
Manning had completed 16 of 29 passes, even ran for a 19-yard gain for a first down, but for that one play, McGinest brought back memories of last season's AFC Championship, when the Patriots frustrated Manning, sacking him four times.
Still, the Colts had placekicker Mike Vanderjagt, who lined up to kick a 43-yard field goal (19 seconds left), having booted his last 42 in a row. Yet even he knew that streak was in jeopardy the moment he saw Manning sacked. He missed wide right, and the Patriots' recent dominance of Indianapolis in close games continued. New England is 16-4 against Indianapolis since 1993.
"This guy never misses. I'm happy he missed it finally," said McGinest.
"It was a good hold, everything was great," said Vanderjagt. "The whole pregame the wind was coming out of the left, going right, so I felt like I needed to hit it inside the left upright and I hit it outside the right. I just pushed it. Nothing mechanically went wrong other than the ball didn't go through.
"A 34-yard [field goal] is guaranteed in this league by the field goal kickers," added Vanderjagt. "I saw Willie coming and, obviously, Peyton didn't. It's a fortunate situation. They didn't dominate us and we didn't get it done. We played well, we're a better team than they are and we just didn't show it."
For Indianapolis, it was a contest it could have, and likely should have, won. It outgained New England in rushing yards (202 to 82), net yards (446 to 402), and first downs (28 to 22). But the Colts also turned over the ball three times (two lost fumbles and an interception) and failed to score four times after marching inside the Patriots' 20-yard line.
"This is probably the most disappointed I've been," said Colts coach Tony Dungy. "We said it wouldn't take a super-human effort. It would just take just doing what we should be able to do and we couldn't get it done. You have to give New England a lot of credit for that. They forced everybody into mistakes."
The fumble overshadowed a stellar outing by James, who rushed for 142 yards on 30 carries.
"On that goal line, I was just sticking the ball out there, and I shouldn't have stuck it out there like that. I just wanted to win this game so badly," said James, who also lost a fumble with 5:06 left in the third quarter.
"I take the blame for the whole loss. The first fumble, I was just trying to slide for more yardage," added James. "We moved the ball, and we did everything we wanted to do but we can't make mistakes. We can do things right and do the 11th thing wrong, and it's like we did it for nothing."
For Manning, the sack overshadowed a night in which he frustrated the Patriots secondary, completing passes of at least 20 yards to four receivers.
"The loss is what really comes to mind," he said. "We certainly did a lot of good things, but this stings. We should have won, no question."
The Colts said they will work to brush up on their blunders and regroup in time for their next outing.
"We've got to play better if we're going to get where we want to go and that's my responsibility, to get us to be able to not fumble and not throw interceptions and not blow coverages and be able to stop them on third down," said Dungy. "If you don't do those things, you're not going to win."
