Next week: the Colts

Yes, it is time for that annual epic battle yet again. I feel like we always play the Colts -- sometimes twice -- and that somehow we always play them in Indianapolis (I can recall playing them in Foxborough in 2005 and getting destroyed, so maybe I just prefer to forget. However, that was also the game with the Deion Branch Contradance against the goalpost which I cannot believe has not been preserved on YouTube).

Us against the Colts since 2002, when they went to the AFC South, meaning that theoretically, we should play them only once every three years but never seem to:

2002: we did not play them

2003: we beat them in Indy, then beat them again in the playoffs in Foxborough

2004: we beat them in Foxborough, then beat them again in the playoffs in Foxborough

2005: we lost to them in Foxborough. It was painful.

2006: we lost to them in Foxborough. Also painful because the week before we had lost to Mangini's Jets (this is the last time that we lost two games in a row as of this posting). We then lost the most painful playoff game ever -- with the possible exception of the 2007 Superbowl -- when we blew the 24-3 lead we had at the half and lost to them 38-34 in the AFC Championship game. OH THE AGONY. Note that this was the game where our aging defense was already falling apart, a problem we failed to correct until (I hope) 2009.

2007: we beat them in Indy

2008: we lost to them in Indy. Again, painful, though nothing like those 2006 games.

So yes. Despite the fact that they are not in our division, we have played them an average of 1.5 times per year since 2003. Weird, isn't it?