.jpg) Peyton Manning (AP Photo) The Top 10 . . .Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning turned 33 last week. To commemorate the occasion, the NFL Network put together its Top 10 Manning Moments. It was a good piece, covering the obvious, but over the coming days on Examiner, we'll discuss the Top 10 underrated Manning moments -- the ones that don't include Super Bowl XLI or the 2006 AFC Championship Game. What were the Top 10 best Manning moments maybe a lot of people don't remember? Or don't appreciate as they should? What are the 10 that don't jump out as obvious? Here's . . .
No. 5 . . . Colts 31, Minnesota Vikings 28 . . . November 8, 2004 Because the Colts won five consecutive AFC South titles from 2003-2007, it is easy to look back at that era and think they completely dominated the division each year, start to finish. In most years, that was true. But 2004 was an exception. And in fact during that season, the Colts faced one of their two most serious crises of that five year run. One of the crises came in December of 2006, when they lost three road games to division rivals before getting hot in January and winning Super Bowl XLI. The other came in early November of 2004. And that's what made this underrated Manning moment so important. The Colts, after winning the AFC South title in 2003, started the season with a nailbiting loss in New England. After winning four consecutive games, they lost at home to Jacksonville on a late 50-plus-yard field goal. A week after the loss to Jacksonville, the defense had one of its worst games of the Tony Dungy era in a 45-35 loss in Kansas City, with Manning's five touchdown passes outdone by 590 total yards offense by the Chiefs. The Colts entered the Vikings game trailing the Jaguars by a half game in the division, and the Vikings entered it with quarterback Daunte Culpepper in the middle of a year that may have been worthy of an MVP award if it hadn't been the same year Manning threw 49 touchdowns. The game was tight throughout, but Manning -- as good that season as nearly any quarterback in NFL history -- was at his best that night. The Colts scored four touchdowns, all on passes by Manning, who completed 23 of 29 passes for 268 yards. But Manning's most memorable moment came late and the score tied, 28-28. Three plays after a 15-yard run by Manning and an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty gave Indianapolis a first down at the Vikings 26, the Colts faced 3rd-and-5 at the Minnesota 21. Under pressure, Manning flipped the ball to running back Edgerrin James with his left hand. James turned the play into a 6-yard gain. The Colts ran the clock to the final seconds, and kicker Mike Vanderjagt's 35-yard field goal with two seconds remaining gave the Colts a critical victory. The victory in a very real sense started one of the most remarkable runs in NFL history. They won their next seven games to clinch the division and their playoff positioning, then won their first 13 games the next season, again not losing until their playoff positioning had been clinched. The following year, 2006, they won their first nine games before losing, which meant that from mid-2004 through mid-2006 they did not lose a meaningful regular-season game, a streak of 30 games. Perhaps because they were so dominant during that stretch, it was easy to forget that there was a crisis point before it began, but there was. The Colts were reeling in early November 2004, and the Jaguars had control of the division. They controlled it, that is, until a remarkable game by a quarterback en route to one of the most-remarkable seasons in NFL history.
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