Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images
Pat Lane and Matt St. Jean relive New England’s overtime win in Houston, and their memorable goal line stop in Indy.
Twenty-one years ago, the
New England Patriots completed the most dominant streak in the history of the NFL, finishing with 21 wins in a row across two seasons. Since it was such a dominant run, we have decided to take a look back at each one of the games.
This is the fourth in the series, so expect a ton more to come, and make sure to follow along
on YouTube for the accompanying videos for each game as well.
Today, let’s take a look at Wins No. 7 and 8.
Win No. 7: Patriots 23, Texans 20 (OT)
2003 Week 12 | Nov. 23, 2003, 1 p.m. ET | Reliant Stadium, Houston TX
Setting the scene: Following a pair of primetime victories over teams that would make the playoffs in 2003, the Patriots were hoping for an easier afternoon against a franchise that was 8-18 since debuting the year prior.
Unfortunately, they walked into the site of Super Bowl XXVIII down multiple receivers to face a well-coached
Texans team.
The Patriots were already missing David Patten after he was put on injured reserve earlier that month, and David Givens and Troy Brown would both miss the game in Houston with injuries. With Deion Branch also playing through an ailment, that left Brady throwing to a depleted receiving corps that also included rookie Bethel Johnson and additions Dedric Ward and J.J. Stokes, both added that week.
The Texans entered Sunday winners of two of their last three. With starting quarterback David Carr injured, backup Tony Banks had led them to both wins and would get the start against New England. Banks would be throwing to rookie Andre Johnson and second-year wideout Jabar Gaffney with former Patriot Greg Randall at right tackle. Led by head coach Dom Capers and defensive coordinator Vic Fangio, Houston’s defense featured Pro Bowl cornerback Aaron Glenn on the outside and Marlon McCree at safety.
Game breakdown: To the surprise of many, it was Houston that got on the board first. The Texans took 8:41 off the clock in the opening quarter on a 14-play, 79-yard field goal drive. It was the longest drive in team history at the time.
Eugene Wilson’s 28-yard defensive pass interference penalty got the Texans into the red zone, and Jabar Gaffney scrambled on a blown-up double pass to get to the goal line. There, New England’s defense would hold firm.
The Patriots failed to score in the first quarter for the first time since Week 1, but it only took them four plays into the second to find the end zone. Tom Brady found Bethel Johnson from 27 yards out for his first touchdown as the Pats went on top 7-3.
New England’s defense would lock in from that point on, forcing three consecutive three-and-outs while the offense drove back into the red zone. Brady threw an interception to Eric Brown, but Bethel Johnson would force him to fumble and subsequently fell on it to save the day. Vinatieri came on to tack on a field goal to extend the lead to 10-3.
It appeared that he would add another heading into the half after Brady found Dedric Ward and Kevin Faulk to get deep into Houston territory. Instead, however, Vinatieri put it off the upright from 38 yards out; it was his first miss indoors in his career.
New England moved the ball coming out of the half, but once again they were unable to score. On the first possession of the half, they decided to go for it on 4th-and-5 on the edge of Vinatieri’s range. Brady looked for Branch but the pass fell incomplete. On their next possession, Brady was hit while throwing on 3rd-and-10, and Marcus Coleman picked the ball off before returning it all the way to the Patriots’ 11-yard line.
Two plays later, Tony Banks found Andre Johnson for the game-tying touchdown.
With the two teams now level, new addition J.J. Stokes would help the Patriots retake the lead. Brady found him for 31 yards on 3rd-and-8, getting New England inside the 10 late in the third quarter. Vinatieri would put the Pats back in front with a 32-yard field goal on the first play of the fourth quarter, with New England out-gaining Houston 300 to 92.
After the Patriots got another stop, Brady led the offense back into Houston territory with less than 10 minutes left in the ballgame. It seemed like they were ready to put the Texans away for good, but the wheels came off instead
Brady would be strip-sacked by linebacker Kailee Wong, and Jay Foreman scooped the ball up and returned it into Patriots territory. Houston would capitalize when safety Rodney Harrison slipped on their grass surface, leaving tight end Billy Miller wide open in the end zone to put Houston ahead 17-13.
Suddenly trailing, Brady fumbled the snap on an ensuing third down but fell on it, delaying disaster by just a single play as Texans linebacker Roman Walker blew through Tedy Bruschi on the punt to block it. Kris Brown would add a field goal three plays later as Houston increased its lead to 20-13.
Now down by a touchdown with three minutes left, New England needed a clutch drive. Brady delivered. On the first play, he found Deion Branch for 13 yards. Three plays later, he escaped a sack and hit Daniel Graham down the middle of the field for 33 more. A screen to Faulk on the next play would pick up 21 yards and move New England into the red zone. Still, after Faulk picked up five yards on 3rd-and-6, the Patriots were faced with a 4th-and-1 from Houston’s 4-yard line — putting their win streak in serious danger at that point.
Charlie Weis called for Dan Klecko and Mike Vrabel to join New England’s goal line offense, and they seemed ready to hand it off to move the chains. Instead, Weis dialed up a hard play fake. Brady rolled out to his right, where Wong was not fooled by the run action and no receivers were open. He drifted away, buying time for Graham to create space in the end zone. Then, he fired just as Wong got to him. Graham rose up and snatched the ball out of the air, tying the game. Overtime.
Mike Vrabel seemed to grab a win on the first play of the extra period. He drifted from the back side and picked off Banks, setting up Adam Vinatieri for a 37-yard field goal attempt a few plays later. As the broadcast noted that the Texans had never blocked a field goal in their history, the predictable happened. Roman Walker leaped through the D gap and blocked Vinatieri’s attempt, his second block of the day.
New England’s defense would get a stop as Tyrone Poole blanketed Andre Johnson on consecutive targets, but Houston was able to pin Brady and the offense deep. Brady was then sacked at the 4-yard line on a third down, with Ken Walter managing to punt the ball just 31 yards.
Houston got the ball back in range for Kris Brown to win it, but Willie McGinest came up clutch, notching a run stuff on first down and stopping running back Domanick Williams five yards deep in the backfield on second down. After an incompletion, the Patriots had the ball once again late in overtime.
Completions to Kevin Faulk for 16 yards and Bethel Johnson for 14 got New England across midfield. And while a Brady deep shot to Johnson a few plays later was intercepted by Marlon McCree, a defensive holding penalty against Kenny Wright in coverage on Deion Branch overturned that pick. Two more chunk plays to Branch and Christian Fauria later, and Vinatieri was in range again. This time, from 28 yards out, he connected.
Despite out-gaining Houston 472 to 169 and possessing the ball for nearly 45 minutes, it took almost all of overtime for the Patriots to get a win. In the streak of 21 consecutive wins, this may have been the ugliest of the bunch.
Game highlights:
Other game notes: Firstly, I was not expecting to see future Red Sox World Series champ Josh Beckett in attendance. The Houston native was in town after winning World Series MVP with the Marlins following their defeat of the Yankees.
Secondly, this was a game that looks way different looking back with the success that Vic Fangio has gone on to have. It’s no wonder Brady struggled at times with a dreadful receiving corps and against one of the great defensive minds in the league. The fact that Houston had Fangio, Dom Capers, and even guys like Jedd Fisch and Greg Roman in the building and couldn’t win games is a testament to how bad the talent was on those teams.
It’s also worth noting here that Chris Palmer, their offensive coordinator, was the head coach of the
Cleveland Browns when they decided to pass on Tom Brady for Spergon Wynn in the 2000 NFL Draft.
Elsewhere in sports: After going down 14-3 in Buffalo following a Sammy Morris touchdown, the Colts would rally to get a win. Dallas would get a win over Carolina, but the Panthers would go on to get their revenge in the playoffs. Sunday Night Football featured the
Miami Dolphins rallying from down 13 against Washington behind a pair of fourth quarter Ricky Williams touchdowns.
During the game, there was a promo for something called “Gateway Superset Tennis” that would air later that week on Thanksgiving. Google was not helpful with identifying whatever that was.
Win No. 8: Patriots 38, Colts 34
2003 Week 13 | Nov. 30, 2003, 1:00 pm. ET | RCA Dome, Indianapolis IN
Setting the scene: The second matchup between Tom Brady and Peyton Manning — the first coming in Brady’s first career start back in 2001 (what most Patriots fans remember as the Bryan Cox game) — was also the final one played in a 1 p.m. ET time slot. Based on how this one ended, and how great both quarterbacks already were at that point, that makes perfect sense.
Both the Patriots and Colts were 9-2 going into this game, and Manning would end the season as the Co-MVP with Steve McNair. Interestingly enough, the Patriots would beat both Manning and McNair twice this season.
In a weird scheduling quirk, the Colts were going into their third consecutive game against the AFC East; they had beaten the
Buffalo Bills and
New York Jets in the previous two weeks, and were trying to make it three straight against the division. Spoiler alert: they did not.
Game breakdown: The Patriots jumped out to a 17-0 lead in this one, thanks. to touchdowns by Mike Cloud (4-yard run) and Dedric Ward (31-yard catch). The Colts then scored on back-to-back drives to cut the lead to 17-10; their second score was a touchdown with 15 seconds left in the first half.
With the Colts getting the ball to start the second half, it seemed as if all the momentum had swung in their favor. That was until the kickoff after the touchdown: Bethel Johnson ended the half with a 92-yard kick return TD to extend the Patriots’ lead to 24-10 at the half.
To start the second half, the Patriots got a stop, and then a 1-yard Cloud touchdown to make it 31-10 Patriots. When they picked Peyton Manning off in the red zone on the next drive, it looked like the Patriots were going to run away with it.
Unfortunately, Brady threw an interception of his own on the second play of the ensuing drive. A nice return, coupled with a 15-yard penalty to Christian Fauria, gave the Colts the ball back in Patriots territory, and they mounted a methodical nine-play drive to cut the lead to 31-17. Brady then threw another interception on the third play of the next drive, and the Colts would immediately capitalize with a 26-yard touchdown pass to Marvin Harrison.
Now that the Colts had made it a one-score game, the Patriots did what they did during so many of these games, and turned it back on to crush the Colts. Just kidding, they went three-and-out and allowed a 10-play, 69-yard drive to tie the game.
The Patriots offense had gone cold, and the defense was struggling to keep up with the Colts. Luckily, Bethel Johnson (who does seem to come up big in a lot of these games) returned the ensuing kickof 67 yards to set the Patriots up with great field position. Four plays later, Brady found Branch for a 13-yard touchdown to give New England and 38-31 lead halfway through the fourth quarter.
The Patriots stopped the Colts on the next drive, and had a chance to put them away, but a Kevin Faulk fumble set the home team up with great field position. Indianapolis then made the call to kick a field goal down seven on a 4th-and-10, meaning it went from a one-score game to a one-score game.
That decision, however, appeared to be a good one when the Colts got the ball back in Patriots territory with just under three minutes left thanks to a terrible Ken Walter punt that traveled a grand total of 18 yards. The Colts marched right down the field on the Patriots, who were out of timeouts. An “injury” to Willie McGinest gave the Patriots defense a little bit of a breather, but their backs were against the wall: the Colts had the ball on a 1st-and-goal at the 2-yard line.
Two run stuffs and an incompletion later, however, that first down had turned into a game-deciding 4th-and-goal from the 1. In one of the most memorable plays from the early Patriots dynasty, the defensive line clogged the middle on an Edgerrin James run, and McGinest came screaming around the edge to take down the ball carrier at the 2-yard line to seal the victory.
McGinest, Mike Vrabel, and others sprinted down the field in celebration after the play, and that image has been burned into my brain. What started as a blowout ended up being one of the best games in Patriots history, and the first in a long line of incredible matchups between Manning and Brady, with Brady coming out on top this time.
Game highlights:
Other game notes: With Antowain Smith out for this game, the Patriots had a hard time running the football in this game. They finished with 21 total carries, not including kneel-downs, for only 57 yards. Mike Cloud did manage to score two touchdowns, but that was pretty much the extent of the damage they were able to do on the ground. Combine that with the Faulk fumble, and it was a really rough day for the running game.
Also important to note is that the Colts would score on four of six possessions after Manning’s interception, with their only turnover being the fourth down goal line stand. Meanwhile, the Patriots scored on only one out of their six drives, with their three turnovers leading to 17 Indianapolis points.
Elsewhere in sports: Only one real notable game took place in the NFL that week, with the Bengals and
Steelers trading touchdowns in the final two minutes en route to a 24-20 Cincinnati victory. First, Tommy Maddox went 9-of-10 for 78 yards and finished with a touchdown to give the Steelers a 20-17 lead with just over a minute left. Then, they squibbed the kick and the Bengals returned it almost all the way to midfield. Jon Kitna finished the drive with an 18-yard touchdown pass to tight end Matt Schobel with 13 seconds left to win the game for the Bengals. The win moved the Bengals to 7-5, but they would, in true Marvin Lewis fashion, finish the season 1-3 and miss the playoffs at 8-8.
That week, the Celtics also blew a 26-point halftime lead to the Suns, at home. They went cold in the second half, shooting 15-of-42 overall, including 1-of-7 from Jiri Welsh, who was a starter for them somehow. The Celtics would end up losing the game 110-106 with Mike James missing a game-tying 3 with 3.9 seconds left in the game.
