Although the season concluded Sunday with the crowning of Philadelphia as this year’s Super Bowl Champions, the NFL is far from finished in the breaking headlines department.
For weeks now, it has been expected that New England Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels would be hired by the Indianapolis Colts. On Tuesday morning, Adam Schefter of ESPN officially confirmed that McDaniels would indeed be taking the job. By Tuesday night this would no longer be the case as McDaniels revealed he changed his mind and would be staying in New England as offensive coordinator.
McDaniels leaving the Colts high and dry is eerily reminiscent of a move his boss and mentor, Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, did himself when he resigned as head coach of the Jets after one day and jumped ship to New England.
On Wednesday morning, amidst the fallout, Colts general manager Chris Ballard held a press conference in which he declared that “the rivalry (between the Patriots and Colts) is back on.”
When I read that, I couldn’t help but laugh.
What rivalry???
In order for there to be a legitimate rivalry, there’s got to be some back and forth. Multiple classic matchups where it is a genuine coin-flip who wins and who doesn’t. This is not that rivalry because Tom Brady, Bill Belichick, and the New England Patriots absolutely own the Indianapolis Colts. Even during the prime years of Peyton Manning, the Colts only managed four wins versus the combo of Brady and Belichick. Andrew Luck has yet to even notch a single victory.
In fact, since 1998 the Colts have won but six total games against New England for a whopping record of 6-14 in the 21st century.
Six wins in twenty years. Some rivalry.
The Colts have not beaten the Patriots since the 2009 season. Yes, that’s right. It has been nine years since Indianapolis prevailed over New England. The Colts barely even squeaked out that one too, at the last second to win 35-34 at home. Since then Indianapolis is on a seven-game losing streak to New England, with every game since 2012 being even more lopsided than usual.
In 2012, the Patriots set the League’s highest single-game point total in a 59-24 win.
The Colts met New England again the following year in the 2013-14 postseason, but the result was the same. The Patriots ran over the Colts, quite literally, as Indy’s defense gave up SIX rushing touchdowns in a 43-22 loss.
Meeting only 11 months later in November of 2014, New England once more decimated the Colts on the ground. The Colts let an undrafted rookie running back gash them for 201 yards and four touchdowns AT HOME. Andrew Luck could do nothing in another 42-20 blowout loss.
Indianapolis would have their third game against New England in the span of a calendar year when they met in the 2014-15 AFC Championship game. Ah yes, the game where the infamous “deflategate” scandal was uncovered. This scandal was the only thing memorable about this game, however, because the Patriots would march to yet another Super Bowl to the tune of a 45-7 walloping.
The last game was two years ago during the 2015 season in Indianapolis. The Colts only lost 34-27, but the contest was never that close. New England was in full control the entire time with no doubt as to who would walk away victorious. Although this is the best scoreboard performance the Colts managed in a loss, this is the game that gave us this pathetic attempt at a trick punt. Yes, you’re looking at that right. The Colts tried to have a receiver block anywhere from two to five Patriot defenders.
Needless to say this image pretty much sums up the “rivalry” between Indianapolis and New England.
