The Denver Broncos and Indianapolis Colts clash on this week’s NFL slate of games, and for this week’s Throwback Thursday feature we will revisit a game played between these 2 AFC rivals on January 11, 2015. It was a divisional round playoff contest, and Denver’s Mile High Stadium was it’s location. The story line of this game was the clash of quarterbacks. Peyton Manning meeting his former team, now led by brash young gunslinger Andrew Luck.
Manning got the party started by leading a first quarter drive that ended with a 1 yard touchdown toss to Demaryius Thomas. The Colts fought back to take the lead 14-7 in the second quarter with touchdowns from Dan Herron on a 6 yard run and Dwayne Allen on a 3 yard pass from Luck. Denver’s Connor Barth cut that lead to 14-10 with a 45 yard field goal in the waning seconds of the half. The Indy defense clamped down on Manning in the second half, and upped their lead to 21-10 with the only score of the third quarter, a 15 yard Luck to Hakeem Nicks touchdown pass. Manning’s frustrations continued throughout the remainder of the game, and the only scoring the Broncos could muster was another Barth field goal. Adam Vinatieri matched that for the Colts, and that was all the scoring they needed to secure a 24-13 win and a trip to the AFC Championship game the following week, where the mighty New England Patriots awaited them.
The loss by Manning robbed America of another classic battle between him and the Patriots’ Tom Brady. Instead it was Luck who got the privilege. Typically, Luck ran out of luck as he and the Colts were schooled by Brady and Bill Belichick in a 45-7 rout in the title game.
Dejected Peyton Manning after playoff loss to Colts