Luck of old helps send Denver to first defeat
INDIANAPOLIS — Andrew Luck finally reverted to his old form Sunday — and the Indianapolis Colts finally looked like the team everyone expected.
Now they just have to keep playing this way.
Luck threw two touchdown passes and set up Adam Vinatieri for a tiebreaking 55-yard field goal with 6:13 left, giving Indianapolis a 27-24 victory over Denver that ruined Peyton Manning’s homecoming.
“That’s who we need to be consistently,” Luck said. “Probably a little bit of soul searching, trying to figure out what we want to be. The truth of the matter is we have the pieces, which is pretty darn obvious.”
The Colts (4-5) ended a three-game losing streak, won for the first time in six tries outside the horrible AFC South and moved a half-game ahead of the Texans for the division lead.
Ill-fated return for QB
Manning fell 3 yards short of becoming the NFL’s career passing leader — after his second interception and two late defensive penalties allowed Indy to run the final six minutes off the clock.
Denver’s quarterback heads into next weekend’s game against Kansas City with 71,836 career yards; Brett Favre had 71,838.
But that was not the record Manning really wanted to break in a venue many credit him with helping build. He also will have to wait to break Favre’s record for most career regular-season wins (186) by a quarterback after going 21for-36 with 281 yards, two TDs and two interceptions.
The Broncos (7-1) were the only one of the NFL’s four unbeaten teams to lose this weekend.
“I’ve been in enough situations like that in my career where I’ve been able to focus on the task at hand — trying to win the football game,” Manning said after losing his second in a row at Lucas Oil Stadium in what could be his final game in Indianpolis. “I kind of dealt with (the emotions) a few years ago. I felt like this time coming back was just playing against a good football team.”
A Colts team that was mired in turmoil.
Just five days after offensive coordinator Pep Hamilton was fired, Manning’s successor played like the best young quarterback in football. The Colts followed his lead:
• They started fast and finished strong.
• They had no turnovers.
• They committed only four penalties, and the 17-0 lead they took in the first half was their largest of the season.
That’s exactly what Indianapolis needed.
Fourth-quarter magic
“We really feel we’ve competed with the best football teams in the league — Denver, New England, Carolina,” team owner Jim Irsay said. “We still feel we can go the places we dream of going.”
They can if Luck continues playing this way.
He was 21-of-36 passing for 252 yards and guided the Colts on two tiebreaking drives in the fourth quarter.
The first ended with an 8-yard TD pass to Ahmad Bradshaw that gave Indy a 24-17 lead. After Manning tied the score on a 1-yard TD pass to Owen Daniels, Luck took Indianapolis back down the field and set up Vinatieri for his longest field goal since coming to Indy in 2006.
Denver closed to 17-7 on Omar Bolden’s 83-yard punt return on the last play of the first half. Manning started the second half with a 64-yard TD pass to Emmanuel Sanders, and the Broncos tied it on a 29-yard field goal from Brandon McManus.
But they never got the lead.
“We dug ourselves a hole in the first half and showed a lot of character getting out of that hole,” Denver coach Gary Kubiak said. “We just weren’t able to close the deal.”