Colts get four primetime games on 2005 schedule

INDIANAPOLIS -- Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts are going prime time this fall.\nWhen the NFL announced its 2005 schedule Wednesday, the Colts found out they would play four night games -- including two Monday night home games for the first time since 2000 and only the third time since moving to Indianapolis in 1984.\nIt was no surprise to coach Tony Dungy.\n"We knew we'd be on national TV with the type of year our offense had, with Peyton being a two-time MVP, with the way we play," Dungy said. "We kind of knew what was in store."\nWhile the Colts will host both St. Louis and Pittsburgh in Monday night matchups, their biggest game is again at New England, this time on Nov. 7.\nIt marks the fifth time in three years the Colts and Patriots will meet, and it's the Colts' fourth straight trip to Foxboro, Mass. The Patriots ended Indianapolis' playoff runs each of the past two seasons in New England, which has been a house of horrors for Manning and the Colts recently.\nThe Patriots have won five straight in the series and Manning is 0-7 all-time at New England, but Dungy said it could have been worse.\n"We kind of felt that was coming when we found out it wasn't going to be the first Monday night game," Dungy said. "We're just happy it's not the last one."\nInstead the league put the game in November, when it typically tries to schedule some of its most attractive matchups for the television sweeps season.\nBut New England won't be the only hostile environment the Colts (12-4) visit after winning their second straight AFC South title.\nThey open the season Sept. 11 in a Sunday night contest that sends them back to Baltimore -- the city they abandoned in the middle of the night 21 years ago to move to Indianapolis.\nIt's a rematch of last December's Sunday night game in which the Colts won 20-10 and Manning tied Dan Marino's single-season record for touchdown passes with 47. Manning could have broken the record in the final minute after an interception put the Colts inside the Ravens 10. Instead, he knelt down twice to run out the clock and now will face one of the league's stingiest defenses for the second straight season.\nDungy was pleased, though, that the Colts didn't wind up with some of the challenges last year's schedule presented. They opened the season with back-to-back road games against rivals New England and Tennessee, then won four games during an 18-day stretch in November.\n"We don't have any real treacherous stretches, so it kind of balances out," Dungy said. "We have some tough games but nothing like having two or three games squeezed into 18 or 19 days."\nIndianapolis will open on the road for the sixth straight year before hosting Jacksonville and Cleveland, then traveling to Tennessee and San Francisco. It's the only time all season that the Colts will play back-to-back road games.\nOn Oct. 17, the Colts have their first Monday night showdown against St. Louis, a game that pits two of the NFL's most wide-open offenses against one another. It is the Rams' first trip to Indianapolis since 1995.\nThe Colts then have two prime-time matchups in November, against the Patriots on Nov. 7 and Steelers on Nov. 28. They close the season at home New Year's Day against Arizona, the first time those teams have met since 1996.\nIndianapolis also has two nationally televised preseason games -- against Atlanta on Aug. 6 in Japan and Aug. 27 at Denver.