From Deseret News archives:
Manning is not the same in Foxboro
Yes, Peyton Manning is great, the best active NFL quarterback and moving up the list of the best ever.
But beating a flawed Denver team 49-24 at home in the first round of the playoffs Sunday is not the same as going into frigid Foxboro against the winner of two of the last three Super Bowls.
So far road teams have fared well in the playoffs — better than ever before in fact. Three of the four winners in the wild-card round were road teams. The Colts were the only home team to win and they'll be the best of the second-round road teams.
They will need all the skill they can muster — they have lost to the Patriots five straight times, including in last year's AFC championship game and on the opening night of this season, both times in Foxboro.
Indianapolis-New England will be the final game of next weekend's Super Bowl quarterfinals, which will begin with the other AFC semifinal, the New York Jets at Pittsburgh on Saturday. The Patriots are favored by 3 points; the Steelers by 9.
In the NFC, Minnesota will be at Philadelphia early Sunday after upsetting Green Bay 31-17, joining St. Louis as the first 8-8 teams to advance in the playoffs. The Rams, who beat Seattle 27-20 on Saturday, now go to Atlanta for a Saturday night game.
As with the AFC games, these are rematches. Philadelphia beat the Vikings 27-16 in the second week of the season, a day after Atlanta beat St. Louis 34-17 in the Georgia Dome. The Eagles are favored by 9 points, the Falcons by 7.
The most interesting game will be in Foxboro, matching Manning and the other record breakers in the Colts' offense against the defending champs.
They also have the home weather advantage.
Of Manning's record 49 touchdown passes, 32 were indoors — 26 at home and six more at Detroit's Ford Field.
And in the five losses to New England dating to 2001, Manning has thrown just nine TD passes along with nine interceptions. Once again, he will be facing Tom Brady, who doesn't have Manning's numbers but has the title — two, actually — that Manning lacks.
So Foxboro will be a different story, though it probably will be more like this season's opener, a 27-24 New England victory, than last season's title game, a 24-14 Patriots win that wasn't really that close.
Manning threw four interceptions in the title game. He had just one in this season's matchup — in the end zone by the Patriots' Tedy Bruschi on a pass thrown from the New England 6 on the Colts' first possession.
