Dwight Freeney on one of the few occasions he has gotten his hands on Tom Brady. (AP)

FOXBORO — Tom Brady won’t be facing his old friend Peyton Manning this week, as Manning is getting his neck X-rayed to determine if he will play again, either this year or in 2012.

But he will be facing another old nemesis in a Colts uniform – perennial Pro Bowl defensive end Dwight Freeney.

“I’ve played Dwight Freeney a bunch,” Brady said Wednesday. “I wish he was out this week. He’s in there again. He’s a phenomenal player. If I could be a defensive end, I’d be like him.”

As a matter of Brady has faced Freeney seven times and the results indicate that Brady’s offensive line has done a pretty fair job of protecting him. In those seven games, Freeney recorded just three sacks, two solo tackles and two assisted tackles.

“Robert Mathis on the other side, both those guys can really wreak havoc,” Brady continued. “They strip sack. Coach said Freeney has 99 career sacks and 43 forced fumbles. So, almost half the time he sacks you, he strips the ball from you. He’s a great player. They’ve got [defensive back] Jerraud Powers, I really like the way he plays. I think they have some very good defensive players.”

All of this, Brady realizes, comes with one huge caveat – zero wins in 11 games.

“When you’re having a season like they’re having, no one wants to be in that situation but I’ll tell you this, they play hard,” Brady added. “They have a lot of pride. They’ve been in a lot of close games. They haven’t won them but they’re in them.

“We have to go out there and try to play really well, play more consistent, kind of like we did last week. We played more consistent than we had the previous week and we’ve got to go out and try to play very consistent this week, too.”