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Sweet redemption


Critics said the Colts would never be at Super Bowl. They were wrong. 

By Reggie Hayes of The News-Sentinel 

Peyton Manning, surrounded as usual by cameras and the whole world watching, made his way through the end zone after he'd finally, exhaustingly, reached the Super Bowl.

 

His father, Archie, waited for him outside the lines.

 

This was the hug they both needed.

 

"All that little junk - maybe this will temper that a little bit," Archie said later.

 

The junk, of course, was the rap on his son, the jab that said Peyton Manning couldn't win the big one, that he couldn't rise to the occasion in the playoffs like, say, Tom Brady. Plenty of critics said Manning and his team, the Indianapolis Colts, were nothing but regular-season wonders. Lots of spicy statistics, but no meaty wins.

 

Junk that.

 

In what could go down as the most thrilling AFC Championship game ever, the Colts beat the New England Patriots 38-34 on Sunday in the RCA Dome. The Colts will play the NFC champion Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XLI on Feb. 4 in Miami.

 

To beat the Patriots, the Colts came from 18 points behind - the largest comeback in conference championship game history.

 

They needed to overcome Patriots leads of 21-3, 28-21, 31-28 and 34-31. They needed touchdowns by two linemen - defensive tackle Dan Klecko on a pass and center Jeff Saturday on a fumble recovery.

 

They needed an 80-yard, Manning-directed, one-minute, 17-second drive to take the final, game-winning lead.

 

They needed one delicious interception by Marlin Jackson to end Brady and the Patriots' playoff mystique.

 

They needed, frankly, something they've never been able to deliver in the past - a heightened, championship level of play. Manning, in particular, delivered.

 

"We had to do it the hard way," Colts coach Tony Dungy said. "We had to go through a great champion, and we got down 18 points to them and that's not easy. But at halftime, I just felt an energy in our locker room."

 

There was some energy in the stadium, too, generated by 57,000 fans experiencing the kind of erratic breathing that comes with the nauseous feeling that "We waited all week for this?"

 

After all, it seemed like years of the Colts teasing their fans with potential Super Bowl runs that would end prematurely, and this time in the cruelest of fashion - a blowout loss to nemesis New England. The Patriots took a 21-3 lead when:

 

* Laurence Maroney's goal-line fumble squirted through various Colts' hands and into the end zone, where the ball was pounced on by Patriots guard Logan Mankins for a 7-0 lead.

 

* Colts cornerback Nick Harper suffered a left ankle sprain, which allowed the Patriots to exploit an off-balance Colts' secondary with Brady passing to Troy Brown for a 27-yard gain on fourth down to set up a Corey Dillon touchdown and a 14-3 lead.

 

* Manning tried to hit Marvin Harrison on a curl route but was picked off by New England cornerback Asante Samuel, who returned the interception 39 yards to make it 21-3.

 

Dungy surveyed the scene and recalled a speech Saturday had made to the team a day earlier.

 

"This is our time," Saturday told the team. "We've got to make it happen."

 

Dungy looked at the clock after Samuel's touchdown. There was still 9:25 left in the first half. Football isn't boxing. There aren't any rules allowing for a technical knockout, no matter how much the Colts were staggering at the time.

 

"All I did at that point," Dungy said, "was go up and down the sideline and tell our guys, `It's still our time. We've got plenty of time left.'"

 

In fact, the game was only beginning to heat up. The Colts drove 80 yards shortly before the half, settling for an Adam Vinatieri field goal to make it 21-6 at halftime.

 

From that point on, the Colts scored four touchdowns and a field goal. Manning doesn't deserve all the credit for the championship-level offense, just as he hasn't deserved all the blame when the Colts have fizzled in the playoffs.

 

But he came through repeatedly in the Colts' brilliant, 32-point second half. The scoring drives were far from gimmies: 76 yards, 76 yards, 67 yards and 80 yards. Manning finished with 349 yards passing and one touchdown - to former Patriots player Klecko on the 1-yard-line.

 

The last drive, with the Patriots holding a 34-31 lead, could cement Manning's legacy for years to come. In his nine-year Colts career, Manning had directed 28 fourth-quarter or overtime game-winning drives. None of those had come in the playoffs.

 

His 29th comeback was his most important. The condensed sequence of events: A quick sideline pass to Reggie Wayne, a "how'd-he-get-so-open?" 32-yard pass to Bryan Fletcher, another quick pass to Wayne. Then, following a roughing-the-passer penalty, controlled runs by Joseph Addai, the last of which went three yards when Saturday and guard Ryan Lilja parted the Patriots for Addai to score the game winner.

 

All of it happened with Manning nursing a sore thumb from a collision with Colts left tackle Tarik Glenn's helmet. He also ate enough clock so that Brady had only 60 seconds left to try to counter, and it wasn't enough time or the right place.

 

"Once our defenses stopped them, I think we all felt good that Peyton was going to drive us," Dungy said. "And I just think it's great for him to get to the Super Bowl with a drive like that.

 

"It probably won't shut anybody up. Until we win in, it'll still be "Well, can you win a Super Bowl?'"

 

No, it won't shut anyone up. Manning remains too much of a talking point for the media for that to happen.

 

"I don't get into monkeys (on his back) and vindication," Manning said. "I just don't play that card."

 

You might say it's all so much postseason junk, left far behind with a father-son hug that spoke volumes without a single word.

 

This column is the commentary of the writer and does not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of The News-Sentinel. E-mail Reggie Hayes at rhayes@news-sentinel.com.

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