Tony Dungy still thinks about the 2005 Colts. Twenty years later, seated among the Super Bowl 60 media circus this week, the Hall of Fame coach offered something he rarely gives: a candid admission that his best team never won anything.
“There’s no doubt in my mind of all the teams I’ve ever coached, that 2005 team was the best,” Dungy told PFSN in San Francisco during Super Bowl 60 media week. “It was the most talented. We didn’t win it that year, and that was disappointing. Still one of the major disappointments to me.”
The 2005 Colts and Tony Dungy’s Unfinished Business in Indianapolis
Dungy arrived in Indianapolis in January 2002 after being fired by Tampa Bay following four playoff appearances in six seasons but no Super Bowl berth. The Buccaneers won it all the next year with the roster he built. Jim Irsay called him anyway.
“We are making a change at head coach with the Indianapolis Colts,” Irsay told him. “And you’re the guy I want to be our coach.”
What followed was a run of dominance unlike anything in franchise history. The Colts made the playoffs every year under Dungy and became the first NFL team to post six consecutive 12-win seasons from 2003 to 2008. But early postseason exits haunted the tenure. New England knocked them out in the 2003 AFC Championship and again in the 2004 divisional round. The Patriots became a wall Dungy’s teams couldn’t climb.
Then came 2005. Peyton Manning and that offense started 13-0, the first team since the 1998 Denver Broncos to begin a season with that many consecutive wins. Indianapolis set an NFL record by winning 12 games in which they never trailed at any point. The defense, rebuilt in Dungy’s Tampa 2 scheme, finally looked capable of complementing Manning’s aerial attack.
The Colts clinched home-field advantage throughout the playoffs with three games still to play. Speculation about a perfect season intensified. Then came the collapse: losses to San Diego and Seattle in mid-December. And in December, tragedy. Dungy’s 18-year-old son, James, died by suicide. Assistant head coach Jim Caldwell led the team in Seattle while Dungy grieved.
He returned for the regular season finale against Arizona, a 17-13 win preserved by a goal-line stand. The team awarded him the game ball. But the emotional weight of those weeks carried into January.
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Pittsburgh, the sixth seed, came to the RCA Dome on January 15, 2006. The Steelers had lost 26-7 to these same Colts in Week 12. This time, Ben Roethlisberger carved up Indianapolis early, building a 21-3 lead through three quarters.
Manning rallied the offense, finding Dallas Clark for a 50-yard touchdown to make it 21-10. An Edgerrin James touchdown run with a two-point conversion then cut the deficit to 21-18. With under two minutes left, Jerome Bettis fumbled at the goal line. Nick Harper scooped it and sprinted toward what looked like a go-ahead touchdown.
Roethlisberger made a shoestring tackle at the Colts’ 42. Indianapolis drove to the Pittsburgh 28. Mike Vanderjagt, the most accurate kicker in NFL history at the time, missed a 46-yarder wide right with 17 seconds remaining.
Season over. Best team Dungy ever coached, gone.
Why Dungy’s Lesson Applies to Super Bowl 60
Indianapolis returned in 2006 diminished on paper. They lost Edgerrin James to free agency. David Thornton left for Tennessee. Injuries hit throughout the year.
“We came back in 2006 with not as good a team,” Dungy said. “We weren’t as talented the next year, but a little more focus, a little more luck maybe, and we won it.”
Those 2006 Colts rallied from 21-3 down against New England in the AFC Championship, the largest comeback in conference title game history, then beat the Bears 29-17 in Super Bowl XLI. Dungy became the first Black head coach to win the championship.
The lesson he drew cuts against conventional Super Bowl week wisdom: “I think what that tells me is the best team doesn’t always win it.”
Neither the Patriots nor the Seahawks was supposed to be here. New England went 4-13 two years ago. Seattle fired its offensive coordinator after last season. Both finished 14-3, with Seattle’s Mike Macdonald in his second year and New England’s Mike Vrabel in his first—both still proving themselves.
Dungy visited both locker rooms this season. The Patriots won nine straight after he spoke to them.
“Both of these head coaches know their players really well and they are disciplined,” he said. “They don’t make mistakes. They don’t beat themselves.”
Somewhere, a more talented team is watching from home. The Patriots and Seahawks get to play Sunday because talent alone has never been enough.
