Record 6–10 Playoff finish did not qualify Start date 2001 | Head coach Jim E. Mora | |
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The 2001 Indianapolis Colts season was the 49th season for the team in the National Football League and 18th in Indianapolis. The Indianapolis Colts finished the National Football League's 2001 season with a record of 6 wins and 10 losses, and finished fourth in the AFC East division. In the process the Colts allowed 486 points in sixteen games, an average of 30 points per match and the franchise worst since the infamous 1981 Colts who allowed 533. At the time only the aforementioned Colts, the 1980 Saints and the notorious 1966 Giants (in a 14-game schedule) had ever allowed more points. This would be the last time the colts would miss the playoffs until 2011.
Season summary
The Colts suffered only the second losing season of Peyton Manning's career. After opening with dominant wins over the Jets and Buffalo, the Colts were crushed twice in three games by the Patriots to go with a loss to Oakland. Two more wins followed but the season fell apart with losses in seven of the season's final nine games; a 40–21 rout by the San Francisco 49ers on November 25 set off an infamous postgame press conference rant by coach Jim Mora in which he harped on four Manning interceptions, repeatedly noting one was returned (by the Niners' Zack Bronson) for a touchdown and the others set up San Francisco scores, and a fumble; he angrily scoffed at a reporter's question about the Colts' playoff chances when he barked, "What's that? Playoffs? Don’t talk about — playoffs? You kidding me? Playoffs? I just hope we can win a game!" Mora was fired after the season.
Manning threw 23 interceptions during the season, the highest number of his career following his rookie season. He was sacked a career-high 29 times.