For the end of Week Five of the 2003 NFL season, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers hosted the Indianapolis Colts. The Bucs, under head coach Jon Gruden, were fresh off their Superbowl championship but had begun to struggle as the 2003 season went on. The Indianapolis Colts, meanwhile, had become a consistent winner under former Bucs coach Tony Dungy, who was making his first trip to Tampa since being released after the 2001 season. The Colts were rapidly becoming famous in the NFL for their offense, the most explosive seen in the league in many years, but as the game went on ...
The last game before their bye week of the 2003 season, the New England Patriots took on the Denver Broncos, a foe they had long struggled against; they had won ten of their first eighteen match-ups against the Broncos in the 1960s, then split four 1970s meetings before losing eleven straight against John Elway's Bronco teams; the Patriots finally won again after Elway's retirement, winning two straight before dropping two straight entering this 2003 match-up. The Broncos were surging toward the 2003 playoffs under the stewardship of coach Mike Shanahan, having ...