The 1965 Baltimore Coltsseason was the 13th season for the team in the National Football League. The Baltimore Colts finished the National Football League's 1965 season with a record of 10 wins, 3 losses, and 1 tie, tied for first in the Western Conference with the Green Bay Packers. Although the Packers won both regular season games over the Colts, no tiebreaking system was in place in 1965 and a playoff game between the two was required to determine who would play the Eastern Conference champion Cleveland Browns for the NFL title.
Because the Colts and Packers finished the regular season with identical 10–3–1 records, an extra tie-breaker playoff game was needed to decide the Western Conference champion, which delayed the NFL Championship Game a week, as the Eastern Conference champion Cleveland Browns stood idle. The Western Conference playoff game was played in Green Bay the day after Christmas and the Colts lead the Packers 10–0 at halftime, with third-string quarterback Tom Matte. The Packers, with back-up quarterback Zeke Bratkowski in for injured Bart Starr, tied it up late in the fourth quarter on a controversial 22-yard field goal (video replays appeared to show the kicked ball sailing wide of the right upright – which, susequently, resulted in 1) a re-design of NFL goalposts, and 2) changing the placement of an official directly under each upright on field-goal attempts). The Packers would later win the game 13–10 in overtime with a 25-yard field goal. The following week the Packers defeated the Cleveland Browns for the NFL title, their third under Vince Lombardi and first of three straight.
