Thirteen years ago this Tuesday, Peyton Manning walked back into the building he had helped get built and lost there for the first time as a visitor. On Sunday night, October 20, 2013, Andrew Luck threw three touchdown passes and ran for a fourth score, Robert Mathis knocked the ball out of Manning’s hand for a safety, and the Indianapolis Colts beat the unbeaten Denver Broncos 39-33 at Lucas Oil Stadium.
It was Denver’s first loss of the season after six straight wins, and it snapped a 17-game regular-season winning streak. The Colts improved to 5-2. The Broncos fell to 6-1.
A homecoming 19 months in the making
Indianapolis had released Manning on March 7, 2012, after 14 seasons, four MVP awards and the franchise’s only Super Bowl title in Indianapolis, then used the first pick of that spring’s draft on Luck. Manning signed with Denver, and this was the first time the schedule sent him home.
The week leading up to it was not all warm. Colts owner Jim Irsay had said in an interview that he wished Manning’s era had produced more than one championship, and the remark became the story of the build-up. Kickoff night was kinder. A crowd of 67,196, with plenty of old No. 18 jerseys mixed in among the blue and orange, stood through a 90-second video of his Colts years before the game. The 37-year-old stopped his warm-up throws, pulled off his helmet, turned to each side of the stadium and waved.
Mathis and the 23-point swing
Manning opened the scoring with a 17-yard throw to Eric Decker and later found Julius Thomas from 12 yards for a 14-10 lead. The first break for Indianapolis came on special teams: a punt return fumble by Trindon Holliday, recovered by Sergio Brown at the Denver 11, set up an 11-yard Luck touchdown pass to Darrius Heyward-Bey.
Then came the play the night is remembered for. With 9:01 left in the second quarter, Denver faced third-and-7 at its own 9. Mathis, one of the last teammates left from the Manning years, beat left tackle Chris Clark off the edge and chopped down on Manning’s throwing arm. The ball bounced out of the end zone for a safety, and the Colts were off on 23 unanswered points: a 20-yard catch by fullback Stanley Havili, an 8-yard touchdown to Coby Fleener for a 26-14 halftime lead, and a 10-yard Luck scramble in the third quarter that made it 33-14.
Manning’s last push
Adam Vinatieri, another former Manning teammate, stretched the lead to 36-17 with a 52-yard field goal early in the fourth quarter. Denver answered fast. Manning hit Demaryius Thomas for a 31-yard touchdown, and after a Colts fumble Knowshon Moreno ran in from the 1 to cut it to 36-30.
The Broncos got the ball back, but Erik Walden reached Manning as he threw and the wobbling pass fell to linebacker Pat Angerer with under seven minutes to play. Vinatieri’s 42-yarder restored a two-score cushion, and Matt Prater’s 47-yard field goal with 12 seconds left only set the final margin.
The numbers
- Peyton Manning: 29 of 49, 386 yards, 3 touchdowns, 1 interception, sacked 4 times.
- Andrew Luck: 21 of 38, 228 yards, 3 touchdowns, 0 interceptions; 4 carries, 29 yards, 1 touchdown.
- Eric Decker: 8 catches, 150 yards, 1 touchdown.
- Denver on third down: 5 of 16, against a Colts defense that forced seven three-and-outs.
- Denver penalties: 12 for 103 yards.
The win had a cost for Indianapolis: Reggie Wayne injured his right knee in the fourth quarter. Denver lost cornerback Champ Bailey to a left foot injury in the second.
What came next
Both teams won their divisions. The Colts went 11-5 and came back from 28 points down to beat Kansas City 45-44 in the wild-card round before losing at New England. The Broncos went 13-3 behind Manning’s record-setting season and reached Super Bowl XLVIII, where they lost to Seattle.
Manning got his win over his old team in the 2014 opener in Denver, 31-24. That victory made him the second quarterback, after Brett Favre, to beat all 32 franchises, the very mark he had hoped to reach on his first night back in Indianapolis.
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