Manning-Brady Saga Continues on SNF

NFL News - November 10th, 2009 - Written by Scott

It won't be long before we start dumping oodles of time into the playoffs with tempting match-ups between the elite teams in the league.

Or we can start in Week Ten.

Always one of the most anticipated match-ups of the year, the Indianapolis Colts and New England Patriots settle the debate when the two division leaders meet on Sunday night.

For almost a decade, Peyton Manning and Tom Brady have provided some of the most memorable games this decade, including in 2007, when the Colts finally got over the hump with an AFC Championship win over the Patriots. It was the first time Manning had ever beaten Brady in the playoffs, and secured the first-ballot Hall-of-Famer his first league title. Manning is 2-6 lifetime against Brady, however, and has split the last two games since.

Regardless, the Colts get the edge at home by three points, according to BetUS. The over/under is currently 49 1/2. New England is probably the trendiest underdog of the week, and pose a big threat to Indianapolis' league-best winning streak. And for good reason. The underdog in this matchup is 11-3-1 in the last 15 meetings. If you are doing some betting be sure to check out our NFL Week 10 Betting Odds to get the odds for all of the games going on during week 10.

While Indianapolis has slowly come back to earth in recent weeks, ravaged by injuries on defense, the Patriots have won their last three games easily, beating their opponents by a combined 121-24. The majority of that came from the woodshed whooping handed to the Tennessee Titans four weeks ago, where Brady threw for an NFL-record five touchdowns in the third quarter. He was less spectacular last week in a win over Miami, but still managed to connect with Randy Moss for a 71-yard score and finished with his fourth 300-yard passing day. Moss had a career-high 147 yards.

Laurence Maroney has made the most of his increased carries since the loss of Fred Taylor. He ran for 82 yards last week and has 248 over the last three games. After Sunday, New England figures to be challenged only one more time during the regular season when they face the New Orleans Saints, one of only two teams still unbeaten, at the end of November.

But the other unbeaten team is Indianapolis, which has done well to overcome a sweeping plague of injuries that has sidelined defensive backs Marlin Jackson, Kelvin Hayden and Bob Sanders, as well as receiver Anthony Gonzalez. Still, Manning is putting up career numbers, throwing for his sixth 300-yard game last week and becoming the only quarterback in league history to throw for 40,000 yards in one decade.

He will have his work cut out for him as the Patriots boast the league's third-best pass defense.

Running back Joseph Addai seems resurgent after a down year in '08. Despite the absence of a 100-yard game, Addai has a touchdown in each of the last five games, one passing, and has eight for the year.

Indianapolis has struggled covering the spread against winning teams. In fact, they have failed to do so in four of the last six occurrences. The Patriots have hit the over in seven of their last nine games on fieldturf, while the Colts are 11-2 hitting the over in their last 13 games in Week 10.

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