Tom Brady-Andrew Luck Becoming a One-Sided Affair

It’s only a rivalry if it’s competitive.

So far, Tom Brady vs. Andrew Luck has been anything but competitive. To this point, it’s been an outright ass-kicking.

In three meetings with Luck, the Patriots are 3-0 and have won by a combined score of 144-66 — or an average of 26 points per game. That’s nearly four touchdowns.

That’s far from the Patriots-Colts rivalry we’re used to seeing. If this new incarnation of the rivarly is ever going to reach the level of the old incarnation, then Luck and the Colts are going to have to hold up their end of the bargain.

This rivalry has delivered some of the most iconic images moments in the history of either franchise: Peyton Manning hanging his head as he walked off the snowy field at Gillette Stadium; Willie McGinest leading a swarm of Patriots defenders in tackling Edgerrin James on a goal-line stand; the list goes on.

So far, the only images in the Brady-Luck rivalry are of Patriots running backs steamrolling Colts defenses, and of Patriots defenses confounding Luck into one error after another.

The whole scene looked eerily familiar. A high-powered Colts offense, maestro’d by a young gun-slinger, runs into a brick wall against the Patriots defense. In his first three games against Bill Belichick’s Patriots, Manning threw five touchdowns, six interceptions, and earned a 76.9 passer rating. Those numbers are similar to Luck, who has six touchdowns, eight interceptions, and a 80.5 passer rating.

Manning eventually leveled off, and in the 13 meetings with Belichick since then, he has thrown 34 touchdowns to 19 interceptions and has earned a 90.1 passer rating. Even though his performances have improved, he still has only won six of 17 meetings with Belichick’s Patriots.

Much like those early contests in the Brady-Manning rivalry, the Brady-Luck affair has been one-sided. Also like those games, these contests have not been all about the two quarterbacks.

In the first Brady-Luck meeting, the Patriots got some help from a big second-quarter punt return by wide receiver Julian Edelman that drew the Patriots into a 14-14 tie with the Colts, which they would turn into a 45-17 lead roughly 30 minutes later. In the second meeting, an early Luck interception followed by a three-and-out gave the Patriots all the opportunity they needed to open up an insurmountable 14-point lead on the Colts.

This week, Brady took a back seat to running back Jonas Gray, whose 199 rushing yards and four touchdowns kept the Patriots offense chugging along when the passing game went down with a clunk. Luck’s struggles, meanwhile, took a back seat to the Colts’ defense getting abused up and down the field.

Brady hasn’t been particularly brilliant in these games against Luck, either. He lit up the scoreboard the first time around with three touchdowns, but in the past two meetings, he has thrown two touchdowns, two interceptions, and has earned an 82 passer rating.

So, the fact that the quarterbacks have played a minimal role in the outcome of these games hasn’t helped this rivalry grow. Neither has the fact that only one of the three games between Brady and Luck has been in the playoffs, with anything substantive on the line. Brady-Manning only became a rivalry when trips to the AFC Championship and/or the Super Bowl were at stake.

Luck and the Colts appear primed to compete for high seeding in the playoffs this season, so it is possible that another meeting between the two teams could be only a couple months down the line.

Hopefully by then, the Colts have figured out some way, any way at all, to make the game competitive.

Patriots-Colts hasn’t been as much a rivalry as it’s been a reminder that the Patriots still sit among the class of the AFC. Until the Colts knock off their former AFC East rivals, they can’t be considered among that upper echelon.

Follow @ErikFrenz