Andrew Luck already has shoved aside one quarterbacking legend during these NFL playoffs. Now he has another in his sights entering Sunday’s AFC championship game.
Luck, the prodigious third-year quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts, knocked Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos from the postseason last weekend, leading Manning to ponder the possibility of retirement. That’s after Luck previously took Manning’s job in Indianapolis. Now Luck and the Colts face Tom Brady and the New England Patriots in Foxborough, Massachusetts, attempting to deny Brady what could be his last, best chance to secure a fourth career Super Bowl triumph in tandem with Coach Bill Belichick.
There is no malice involved and not even a tiny measure of disrespect. It’s just business. But pro football is a ruthless business, and there is no room for on-field deference toward one’s elders while attempting to climb the sport’s quarterbacking hierarchy.
Luck’s time to be a Super Bowl quarterback almost certainly will come. He’s too good for that not to happen. The question is: Has that time arrived now?
“He’s pretty good,” Belichick said at a news conference this week. “He was pretty good when he came in and he’s even better now. He’s a great player. He does everything well. He’s got a lot of strengths, no weaknesses. He’s got a great future in front of him. He’s already produced a lot. He’s already done a lot in the time that he’s been in the league. And I’m sure by the time he gets done, he’ll pass a lot of guys by.”
This AFC title game Sunday at Gillette Stadium was supposed to be the 17th career meeting between Brady and Manning, one more — and perhaps one final — high-stakes showdown between the two greatest quarterbacks of their generation. It was supposed to be the top-seeded Patriots hosting the second-seeded Broncos.
Instead, the fourth-seeded Colts have crashed the party and the quarterbacking duel has an old guard vs. new guard slant to it.
Brady was 27 and not yet at the peak of his passing prowess when he, Belichick and the Patriots beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 24-21, on Feb. 6, 2005 for their third Super Bowl victory in a span of four years. There was no telling at that point how many Super Bowl wins he might pile up.
But while he and the Patriots repeatedly have come close since then, they have not added to their total of Super Bowl triumphs. There has been a pair of Super Bowl losses to the New York Giants, one to cap an otherwise-unbeaten season. There has been a trio of defeats in AFC championship games, one to Manning and the Colts and another last season to Manning and the Broncos.
As always, though, the Patriots are back. This is their fourth straight AFC title game, and their ninth during the tenures of Belichick and Brady.
The appearance in this conference championship game comes in a season that began with a 2-2 start, and with questions being raised following an uncharacteristically inept performance in a lopsided Monday night loss at Kansas City in late September about whether Brady’s most productive days, at age 37, were behind him. Belichick dismissed those questions and, as it turned out, was right to have done so. Brady ended up throwing for 4,109 yards during the regular season with 33 touchdown passes and only nine interceptions.
The Patriots arrive at this game off a 35-31 win over the Baltimore Ravens last weekend in Foxborough in which they overcame a pair of 14-point deficits and Brady became the NFL’s career leader in postseason touchdown passes. The Colts are coming off a 24-13 triumph last Sunday at Denver, after which Manning said that he could not be certain about returning to play another season.
Luck threw for 265 yards and two touchdowns against the Broncos but also threw two interceptions. It was the relatively rare game in which the Colts were able to beat a formidable opponent without Luck doing most of the heavy lifting.
The Colts ask plenty of Luck. He led the NFL with his 40 touchdown passes during the regular season. He ranked third with his 4,761 passing yards. The Colts don’t have an overpowering team around him. They ranked 22nd in the league in rushing offense during the regular season and 19th in scoring defense. They probably will need Luck to have a superb game Sunday to have a chance.
He generally has been up to the task since being chosen with the top overall selection in the NFL draft in 2012, with the Colts parting ways with Manning to make room for him. Luck has not disappointed. Manning went on to reach a Super Bowl, win his fifth career league MVP award and set single-season NFL records for passing yards and touchdown passes in Denver. It is a testament to how excellent Luck has been in Indianapolis that practically no one there, it seems, ever has second-guessed the decision to move on from Manning.
But Luck, like Manning, has struggled mightily to beat Brady. Manning has a 5-11 career record against Brady, including 4-8 while with the Colts. Luck is 0-3 against Brady and the Patriots. He has thrown eight interceptions in those games, including four in a loss during last season’s playoffs and one during a 42-20 defeat this season in Indianapolis.
“To us what matters is we lost a game we’ve got to fix what we did wrong, and then go out and try to win our next one because that’s the biggest one now,” Luck said following that game. “I think if this was the last game of the season, we’d truly be sick to our stomachs. … We’ve got a lot to improve on.”
Brady said at a news conference this week: “We’ve played this team quite a few times over the last few years and none of them as important as this game here. So I’m sure they’re going to be doing the things they’re most confident in. We’re going to do the things that we’re most confident in and then see how it all shakes out.”
Luck gets his chance to craft his first career victory over Brady and the Patriots at what would be a most opportune time, with his first career Super Bowl appearance in reach.
“The Colts are a great team,” Belichick said. “We’re going to have to play our best game… . Right now, I don’t really care about any of the other games – last week, last year, 10 years ago, whatever it was. All our focus is on the Colts and we’ve got to do a good job with our preparation for Indianapolis. We’ve got to execute well and we’ve got to coach well and we’ve got to play well. That’s our challenge.”
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