AUBURN – At half-time, Andy Andrews was Mr. Confident.

One of five or so Indianapolis Colts fans in a packed Patriots’-loyal movie theater, he was on his feet shouting “Great job guys!” while everyone else moaned in their seats. He planned to bring tissues to work for his coworkers’ tears. He’d even made a bet with his friend, A.J. Sluyer: Whoever’s team lost, the loser had to wear a paper bag colored with a frown and blue tears, over his head, all the way to the parking lot.

“I’m a huge Colts fan and I hate the Patriots with a passion,” said Andrews, 33, from Auburn. “I hope it fits him.”

With two minutes left to go in Sunday night’s game, Andrews got bagged. He pulled it on and darted up the theater aisle in his Payton Manning jersey to a swell of cheers.

“That’s too funny, coming in here with that jersey on, that’s crazy,” said Vinny Gogan of Lewiston. He said he’d never had any doubt: Of course the undefeated New England Patriots were going to win.

Flagship Cinema started showing Pats games for the first time this season. It’s free, but tickets are still required to control the crowd. Manager Prudi McLean said people started gathering outside at 2 p.m. Sunday, an hour before the door opened and two hours before kickoff, the earliest she’s seen yet. About 200 people filled the theater and more were turned away.

Whenever the Pats scored a touchdown, theater staff threw T-shirts and goodies into the crowd to dozens of waving hands.

Sybilla Pettingill of Lisbon Falls came out with her husband, two young sons and friends to watch on the huge screen.

“This was one of the most important games, almost like the Super Bowl but not quite,” she said. Going in, neither team had lost a game this season.

“It’s really nice because we don’t have a television at home,” Pettingill said. The family listens to games on the radio instead. “People really have faces and names and you can see them run.”

The last five minutes of the game, fans like Gogan whooped, hollered and encouraged the Pats, long-distance. A fan since he was 8, he ticked off all his gear at home: Patriots’ PJs, a watch, a painted door. “I’m going to be getting Patriots’ shoes tomorrow,” he said.

Gogan’s prediction: a 19-0 season. “They’re going to be going all the way.”

Sluyer said he sent Colts’ fan Andrews a text message mid-week that said the “Colts are going down and that Manning was a TV-commercial moron.” He stood up and announced their paper bag bet to the entire theater at the start of the game.

On his walk back to the parking lot, after his team’s victory, he said he’d worried his friend might back out of the bet. “But he did it. I was surprised,” he said.