Damn That Peyton!

Being at last night's Patriots - Colts football game was a very strange experience. Strange to see New England football hero Adam Vinatieri in an Indy uniform and even stranger to see him miss two field goals. Yet it sure was fun cheering after those misses - another thing I never would have predicted I'd do in my lifetime. It was great to see the Patriots' Troy Brown become the Pats all-time leading receiver, but strange to (not) see the phantom taunting penalty called on him. There were lots of strange calls and non-calls last night. I don't know if it made it into the television coverage, but I've never seen Coach Belichick so irate. He was running all over the field to scream at the refs all night it seemed. It was actually the Coach who showed the first sign of a strange night - giving up on his traditional gray sweatshirt and sporting a bright red hoodie instead. The hyped matchup between the NFL's best two quarterbacks never quite materialized as Tom Brady had one of his worst games ever, throwing four interceptions (and garnering me negative 3.33 points in fantasy football!). Despite the loss, it was still a great game to be at. There was a highly charged atmosphere in the stadium and the crowd was loud and lively all night. It was pretty amazing that with how bad our offense played we were still in the game, and down to the last minute I believed in our inevitable comeback. But I've finally got to give some credit to Peyton Manning, he looked fantastic last night. Every time it seemed the Patriots defense had Manning trapped he pulled off an amazing pass. He's certainly proven he can win in Foxboro - we'll just have to wait for the playoffs to see if he can win when it really matters.