INDIANAPOLIS — The Indianapolis Colts weren’t themselves Sunday. Against winless Detroit, they didn’t need to be.
The Lions, seemingly on their way to the first 0-16 season in NFL history, were victimized in the fourth quarter by Peyton Manning and the Colts, falling 31-21.
Despite a litany of missed tackles and two lost fumbles, Manning kept the Colts (10-4) on track for a playoff run. And he kept the Lions (0-14) on track for a winless year.
The win was Indy’s seventh straight and assured the Colts (10-4) of a seventh straight season with double-digit victories. More important, it also put Indy on the cusp of earning a seventh consecutive playoff bid.
Despite Detroit’s unenviable record, the game was more competitive than expected because of the Colts’ continual miscues and Detroit’s ability to play keepaway in the second half.
That was nearly enough for a respite, but against Manning, close is never good enough.
The two-time league MVP was 28-of-37 for 318 yards with one TD, throwing primarily to Dallas Clark. Clark set a franchise record for tight ends by catching 12 passes for 142 yards and one TD.
When Manning wasn’t doing the damage, the Colts’ ground game was. Dominic Rhodes replaced the injured Joseph Addai in the starting lineup and carried 20 times for 86 yards and two TDs — the second with 8:39 left to break a 21-21 tie. Rookie Chad Simpson also ran for the first TD of his career in the first half.
Initially, it looked like the Colts would pull away. They held the ball for nearly 7½ minutes after the opening kickoff, with Rhodes going over the pile from 1 yard for a 7-0 lead.
But Detroit stuck to its game plan.
After recovering a fumbled punt, Jason Hanson hit a 51-yard field goal to make it 7-3 — a league record 41st field goal from 50 yards or longer, breaking a tie with Morten Andersen.
Simpson’s 2-yard TD run made it 14-3, but Dan Orlovsky needed just three plays to strike back. Orlovsky, starting in place of injured quarterback Daunte Culpepper, hooked up for two 33-yard passes. The first went to tight end Michael Gaines, the second to Calvin Johnson, who spun his way across the goal line with 3:36 left in the half to make it 14-10.
Johnson had nine receptions for 110 yards.
Manning quickly led Indy back downfield, connecting with Clark four times in eight plays, the last a 3-yard TD pass in the back of the end zone on which Clark stuck the landing. The catch gave Indy a 21-10 halftime lead.
But the Lions wouldn’t go away.
Another fumbled punt early in the third quarter set up a 31-yard field goal for Hanson. And after a potential Indy scoring drive was derailed by a holding penalty, Kevin Smith capped a 91-yard drive by looping around the left side for a 1-yard TD run. Orlovsky tied it at 21 with a 2-point conversion pass to Casey FitzSimmons with 12:52 left in the game.
Then it was all Manning.
He methodically marched the Colts 88 yards, finally giving to Rhodes for a 1-yard TD run for a 28-21 lead. He closed it out by setting up Adam Vinateri for a short field goal in the final minute.
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