He’s stood on the sidelines watching the Colts offense put 79 points on the board over the last two contests while he has yet to put his foot on a single ball. For the second week in a row, the Indianapolis Colts offense was so devastating that they could have left their punter in the locker room and no one would have noticed.
Peyton Manning played tremendously for the second week in a row, throwing for 304 yards and three touchdowns, and led the offense to six scores in their first seven drives on their way to a 38-31 win over the Kansas City Chiefs.
The Colts jumped out to a quick start by taking the opening kickoff and marching 71 yards in 10 plays, including a 29-yard touchdown pass from Manning to wide receiver Brandon Stokley less than six minutes into the game.
Kansas City, who put together a pretty nice offensive performance themselves, bounced back with a nice drive of their own. Running back Priest Holmes ran for 52 yards on seven carries before the drive stalled and the Chiefs had to settle for a 22-yard Morten Anderson field goal.
Fielding little resistance on the ensuing possession, Manning quickly had the Colts back in scoring position. A 38-yard pass to wide receiver Marvin Harrison moved Indianapolis to the Chiefs 11-yard line, where running back Edgerrin James burst through a hole and raced for the touchdown, opening the lead to 14-7 as the first quarter came to an end.
Kansas City opened the second quarter by methodically advancing to the Colts 9-yard line, setting up a Trent Green touchdown pass to wide receiver Dante Hall, but once again, the Chiefs defense could not slow down the Colts offense, and Manning, along with a big effort by James, soon had Indy knocking on the door again.
A 21-yard pass to Marcus Pollard moved the Colts down to the Kansas City five, and after a three-yard run by James, Manning beat the Chiefs blitz by finding fullback Tom Lopienski at the goal line, making the score 21-10 in favor of the Colts.
The Chiefs final possession of the half resulted in an 11-play drive that stalled at the Colts 13-yard line after a controversial pass interference call on tight end Tony Gonzales nullified a touchdown reception, but Anderson pulled the 31-yard field goal attempt wide left of the goal post and the Chiefs came up empty.
The Chiefs suffered a bad break to open the second half, when Holmes broke into the clear and scampered 48 yards only to have the ball stripped and recovered by cornerback David Maklin.
As they did the entire first half, the Indianapolis offense once again sliced through the Chiefs defense to set up a 45-yard Mike Vanderjagt field goal.
The teams traded touchdowns as the third quarter rolled on. Holmes ran one in from one yard out before Manning hit Wayne on a 19-yard TD strike to stretch the lead to two touchdowns again.
But the Chiefs got back in the game again when Hall returned the ensuing kickoff. He started to return the ball to the left, but cut back across the field and raced up the right sideline, before cutting back inside to avoid the last defender. The 92-yard return made the score 31-24 in favor of the Colts as the fourth quarter approached.
James and Holmes traded touchdown runs to close out the scoring in the fourth quarter, and the Colts ran out all but the final few seconds of the game on their last possession.
The Colts racked up 434 yards of total offense while the Chiefs recorded 408, and neither team punted in this contest, which marks the first time in post-season history that has happened.
Manning is 44-for-56 for 681 yards and eight touchdowns in the postseason.
The Colts advance to play the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship game in Foxboro next weekend.
