Colts 29, Patriots 28
September 6, 1981
From 1976 through 1980 the Patriots had five straight winning seasons, a stretch of success unsurpassed until Bill Belichick came along. It ended with a thud in 1981, a 2-14 disaster under Ron Erhardt. The beginning of the end was the season opener against Baltimore at Schaefer Stadium. The Colts, a team on nobody’s list of contenders, galloped over, around, and through the defenseless Pats, piling up 249 yards on the ground with the backfield tandem of Curtis Dickey and Randy McMillan.
The Pats helped the Colts’ cause with three turnovers and eight penalties.
Even the NFL rules of the time worked against New England. Trailing 29-21 late in the game, the Pats got a break when they took over at the Baltimore 36 after Colts quarterback Bert Jones fumbled. Three plays later Steve Grogan hit Don Hasselbeck from four yards out for a touchdown that made it 29-27 with two-and-a-half minutes left. Today, the Pats would have gone for two in that situation. But the NFL didn’t introduce the two-point conversion until 1994. So all New England could do was kick the extra point and hope to force a three-and-out.
The way the Colts were running the ball, and the way the Pats were being run over, there was no chance.
Remember him? Defensive end Mark Buben, a native of Auburn and a Tufts grad, snuffed out the Pats’ final hope when he jumped offside on a third-and-four with 2:01 left, handing the Colts a first down that allowed them to run out the clock.
Also on this date: In 1992 the Pats played … nobody. The scheduled season opener in Miami was postponed until October 18 because of hurricane Andrew, and the Pats used up their bye week before they had played a single game. New England thus sat idle on opening day, which turned out to be the only NFL Sunday when the Pats didn’t lose a game until November.
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