Down 21-3 to the Patriots, in the AFC Championship, against the team that had owned him for years, Peyton Manning finally got over the hill. January 2007, the Colts roared back to win 38-34 and reach the Super Bowl they would go on to win in the Miami rain. For a quarterback who had carried the label of the guy who could not win the big January game, that comeback was the whole story turning in one night.

Two cities, one long postseason book

This franchise carries playoff history from two homes. Back in Baltimore it played in the famous 1958 title game, the one people still call the greatest ever, lost Super Bowl III to the Jets, and won Super Bowl V. After the move to Indianapolis it became Manning’s stage, a decade of January contention crowned by that 2006 run and the title that followed.

The years since

It has been thinner lately. There was the gut-punch of a blowout AFC Championship loss to New England in the deflategate January, a few brief Andrew Luck-era runs, and then a stretch on the outside looking in. The deep January runs that defined the Manning years have not come back.

Two cities, two trophies, and one of the great career-defining comebacks the playoffs have given us. Colts fans, your postseason history runs deeper than most because it spans two lifetimes of the franchise. The Manning Januarys were a gift. The wait for the next great one is the price.