At first glance, a team coming back from a 21-6 halftime deficit to win doesn't look like a particularly major feat. It is certainly not an achievement worthy of being placed among the greatest comebacks in sports.

Yet the more I think about what just happened in the AFC Championship Game, the more I realize that the Colts victory should be recognized as just that: one of the great comebacks in the history of the NFL.

It seems a bit early for me to rank the Colts win that high already. I mean, it just happened. Great comebacks stand the test of time and are remembered for years on end. Well, I have reason to believe football fans will recall this game everywhere for years on end.

Let's just look at the situation:

The Colts, a team labeled as one that melts down in the post-season, plays the Patriots, a team regarded as one of the most clutch playoff teams of all time. As an added bonus, the Patriots happen to be the team most responsible for placing the "playoff chokers" label on the Colts.

We all know the recent history. The Colts were the young upstart team in 2003. They went into a very hostile Arrowhead Stadium and dismantled the mighty Chiefs. Everyone anointed Peyton Manning as the next great one and got delusions of grandeur as the Colts traveled to New England to battle the Pats for the AFC Championship. One muddy game and three Ty Law interceptions later, the Patriots sent the Colts home.

In 2004, the Colts had to once again travel to New England for a playoff game, this time in the divisional round. Right before kickoff, a vicious snowstorm hit the stadium and away swirled the Colts chances. The Patriot win was a dominant one. The lasting image of that game was of New England linebacker, Teddy Bruschi, grabbing and ripping the football away from a Colts running back. "I just wanted it more", Bruschi would later say. That quote seemed to sum up the Patriot/Colts competition. The Colts referred to it as a rivalry, but when push came to shove, New England always pushed back harder than the Colts could handle.

Last year the Colts tore through the NFL. It seemed they had finally learned from their past mistakes and were ready to wrench the Lombardi trophy from Patriots grasp. New England ended up losing a tough divisional round game in Denver, which paved the way for Indianapolis to reach the Super Bowl. However, no one told the Pittsburgh Steelers and they dominated the Colts to a victory that wasn't as close as the final score might indicate.

This is when Colts bashing went into high gear. The franchise became a metaphoric piņata as every football fan in the nation got their cheap shot in.  The team was called a finesse squad who could put up magnificent regular season numbers, but would fold under playoff pressure like a cardboard table. Peyton Manning became a perfectionist quarterback who didn't know how to operate if his conditions weren't ideal.

Meanwhile, despite the loss to the Broncos, Tom Brady and the Patriots were still the symbol of success in the NFL. All anyone could talk about in the Denver game was how Patriots tight end Ben Watson ran down the much speedier Champ Bailey of the Broncos and nearly stripped the ball from him. The Denver loss was a bump in the road for the Patriots; the Steelers loss was inexcusable for the Colts.

This season brought more of the same for the Colts. They tore out of the gate, winning their first nine games. No one really noticed though. They all just assumed that the Colts would disintegrate sooner or later. Sure enough, the Colts run defense went somewhere over the rainbow and the team lost four of their last seven games. They lost home field advantage in the playoffs and limped into the wild card round.

The Patriots were also playing in the wild card round, but nobody made a big deal out of that. This was the post-season and that is when Tom Brady and the Patriots are at their best.

Sure enough, the Patriots dismantled the Jets in the wild card round and then flew out to San Diego to battle the team with the best record in the NFL. The Chargers dominated the Patriots through most of the game and should have won easily. But they made terrible mistake after terrible mistake and sure enough, the Patriots scored just enough points at just the right times to end San Diego's season early.

Meanwhile, the Colts traveled into Baltimore to face one of the nastiest defenses in the NFL. Peyton and company squeezed out an ugly 15-6 win on the foot of kicker Adam Vinatieri. Like the Patriots, the Colts had gone into a hostile stadium and knocked the host team out of the playoffs.

You rarely heard about that victory, however.  The media was busy crowning the Patriots as the most clutch team of the past twenty years. The AFC Championship Game seemed to be a foregone conclusion. Despite being played on the Indianapolis home turf for the first time during the Colts/Patriots playoff clashes, the game was practically over already. The Patriots were just going to find a way to break the Colts hearts yet again.

This was what the Colts were up against that Sunday evening. They were battling against all of their own playoff demons and standing directly in their way was the biggest demon of all, the New England Patriots.

The game started out as the same old story:  On their first drive, the Patriots moved right down the field on Indianapolis without any hint of trouble. Even when the Colts defense stepped up and made a big play, forcing New England running back Laurence Maroney to fumble the ball, the ball squirted into the endzone where a Patriots lineman recovered for a touchdown. Peyton Manning, watching the fumble play from the sideline, threw his hands up in the air in exasperation. It seemed that no matter what the Colts did, the Patriots would get the best of them.

Frustrations could have boiled over later in the first half when Manning threw an ill-advised pass that was intercepted and returned for a touchdown. That upped the Patriot lead to 21-3 and all but ushered in another disappointing end to the Colts season.

Then something different happened in the series. Instead of falling apart, the Colts regrouped and managed to drive the ball down the field in the last minutes of the first half. With the ball on the nine-yard line, but only seven seconds remaining in the half, the Colts didn't panic and try for a desperation touchdown to end the half. The team simply allowed kicker Adam Vinatieri to boot an easy field goal to make the halftime deficit 21-6.
 

This simple field goal may have been the play of the game because for the first time in recent memory, the Colts entered halftime with some momentum on their side. The 21-6 deficit was a large obstacle to overcome, but the Colts now knew that they could actually move the ball on the Patriots and if they just kept plugging away, fortunes might actually fall their way. It was a titanic shift from the norm because Indianapolis was usually stunned and clueless at this point of a post-season game. Now it was as if they had gotten the mental anguish out of the way and now they were ready to play some football.

The Colts indeed played some football in the second half. They came roaring back and tied the score before the third quarter was even done. The Patriot dominance was now over and the game was on.

The Patriots, however, didn't win three Super Bowls by quitting when the opponent gained momentum. They came right back and scored a touchdown to end the third quarter and took back the lead.

The next Colts drive was the one that proved that the times might be changing, not only because the Colts scored a touchdown, but also by the way the touchdown was scored. With the ball near the goaline, Manning handed the ball off to Dominic Rhodes in an attempt to pound the ball into the endzone. Rhodes was promptly stripped of the ball and the fumble rolled loose on the ground prompting a free-for-all to recover it. Once the pile of humanity was removed, it turned out that an Indianapolis lineman had control of the ball and he was in the endzone. The Colts had recovered their own fumble for a touchdown, just as the Patriots had done at the beginning of the game.

The symbolism was unavoidable.The Colts had tied the game back up, but more importantly, fate was finally smiling upon them.

The two teams traded field goals before New England mounted a time-consuming drive down the field that ended with another field goal.Time was growing short and the Patriots once again had the lead.

Then once and for all, the Colts stared straight at their demons, drove the ball down the field, and scored the game-winning touchdown.Fortunes had indeed changed.

It still wasn't over as Tom Brady still had some time left to bring the Patriots back down the field, but this wasn't the same Patriots team that had broke the Colts hearts time and time again. Brady looked flustered and hurried on the drive. Time was now running out on the Patriots and they weren't used to feeling desperate. Brady completed a few passes to move the Pats down the field, but he was clearly pressing. Finally, Brady tried to force a ball to a receiver and the Colts intercepted his pass.

Ballgame.

The Colts erased the biggest deficit in championship game history and managed to eliminate their Patriot tormentors in the process.

Only time will tell where the Colts victory ranks among the great comebacks. However, to paraphrase former Houston Oiler coach Bum Philips, this win may not be in a class by itself, but it sure doesn't take long to call role.