Longtime rivalry takes center stage

PATRIOTS AT COLTS | November showdown has proved to be pretty accurate precursor of postseason success

INDIANAPOLIS -- Things are back to normal among the NFL's elite.

Peyton Manning is healthy, Tom Brady is throwing touchdown passes, the Indianapolis Colts are unbeaten and the New England Patriots lead the AFC East.

Tonight is the perfect stage for the next chapter in the NFL's best rivalry.

''It's a fun game to play and, obviously, you have playoff implications and playoff hype,'' Colts linebacker Gary Brackett said.

The annual November showdown has become more than a midseason feature attraction; it's a barometer for what to expect. Four times since 2003, the winner of this regular-season game went on to become the AFC champion. Three times, the winner brought home the Lombardi Trophy.

And it's not just a road map to championships, either. When these teams last met last season, Brady was recuperating from knee surgery and Manning was just rounding into MVP form with the Colts an uncharacteristic 3-4.

The Colts won 18-15, a victory that started a nine-game winning streak and sent them back to the playoffs. The Colts (8-0) haven't lost a regular-season game since -- 17 in a row -- leaving them one short of the second-longest winning streak in league history.

The Patriots? Well, after losing last season to the Colts, they went 6-2, missed the playoffs and opened this season 3-2. Three consecutive victories have given the Patriots a 6-2 mark, but they still trail the Colts by two games in the race for the AFC's top seed.

''With them being 8-0 right now, it makes it tough with a loss here,'' Brady said. ''There are obviously a lot of things that can happen, and the playoffs are a long ways away. But anytime you play the teams that you know are going to be playoff contenders ... you know, that was our problem last year, why we didn't get into the playoffs. We finished 11-5, but we didn't beat any playoff teams.''

As much as the rivalry has been about the teams, it also has been about Manning and Brady.

The debates never seem to end about which player a team rather would have: Brady with his three Super Bowl championships and one MVP award or Manning with his three MVP awards and one Super Bowl title.

The two have gone head-to-head eight times since 2002, with Brady winning five times and Manning three -- plus the game when Brady was out last season. Manning broke Dan Marino's single-season record for touchdown passes in 2004 with 49, only to see that mark fall to Brady when he threw 50 in 2007.

Who's better?

''Peyton Manning is the best pure quarterback in the National Football League, but Tom Brady is my quarterback with a minute left and we're down four points and we need a touchdown because he's done it,'' former Patriots safety and NBC analyst Rodney Harrison said this week.

The comparisons go far beyond numbers. Last season, Manning entered the game answering questions about his left knee. It took two surgeries to clean up an infected bursa sac, procedures he later admitted led to a slow start before he won his third MVP trophy.

This season, Brady is answering questions about his left knee -- more than a year after having surgery to repair torn ligaments. He, too, needed additional treatment to fight an infection and, like Manning in 2008, wasn't himself early.

''We did talk a little bit when he was dealing with the infection,'' Manning said. ''There were some similarities there, but not quite as much similarity as you'd think. What he's been able to do coming back this year, we've seen film of the Patriots playing other defenses, and you can't tell that he missed last year with major knee surgery.''

So fans will get to see two premier quarterbacks at the top of their games tonight. Brady has thrown 10 touchdown passes in the Patriots' last three games, while Manning has thrown for 2,545 yards and remains on pace to break Marino's single-season record for passing yards (5,084).

Does it get better than this? Only if it comes with a rematch in January.

AP