Adam Vinatieri played in 29 Colts-Patriots games during his 24-year career spent with New England (1996-2005) and Indianapolis (2005-2019). Five of those were in the postseason – so Vinatieri knows a little bit about what a playoff atmosphere looks like when the Colts and Patriots play each other.
And Vinatieri sees Saturday night's game between the Colts and Patriots at Lucas Oil Stadium as having that playoff-type atmosphere.
"This is going to be two major heavyweights shooting for, I don't want to say the title, but this is a game that's going to feel like a playoff game," Vinatieri said on Tuesday's edition of the Colts Official Podcast. "And you gotta find a way to win this one."
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With that playoff energy will come a fired-up crowd on Saturday night at Lucas Oil Stadium – one that can give the Colts an edge in one of the team's biggest home games in recent memory.
"Having that loud atmosphere when it's third down for the other team or a big play happens, you just love that emotion and that excitement in the stadium and being able to feed off that, or quite frankly it makes it tough on a quarterback if they can't make their calls and stuff," Vinatieri said. "It's still 11 on 11, it always has been, it always will be. But having that home field advantage when they're loud – and the key is the Colts have to play well enough to keep the crowd fired up. Everybody always talks about, you know, take the crowd out of the game by making plays — well, we have to make plays to keep the crowd excited the whole game and if they can do that, yeah, that's a huge advantage, it makes a big difference in my mind."
Check out this week's episode of the Colts Official Podcast with Jeffrey Gorman, Larra Overton, JJ Stankevitz and guests Adam Vinatieri and ESPN Patriots reporter Mike Reiss on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher, or by clicking play below:
