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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Peyton Manning spent his rookie season
setting passing records. He's a lot happier getting victories, even
at the expense of the hapless Cincinnati Bengals.
"After last year, to say we're going to overlook anybody
doesn't make a lot of sense. Sometimes it's not going the way you
want it to, but we finally caught on and made some plays," said
Manning, who passed for 284 yards and two touchdowns as the
Indianapolis Colts beat the Bengals 31-10 Sunday.
|  | | Colts receiver Marvin Harrison celebrates with tackle Adam Meadows after catching a 56-yard touchdown pass. |
Coupled with last week's 16-13 victory over the New York Jets,
it marked the first time in Manning's 22-game career the Colts
(4-2) have won two straight.
"So far this year, it's been win-lose, win-lose," said
Manning, who was only 3-13 last year despite setting NFL rookie
records for yards and touchdowns passing. "It's nice to have one
that didn't go down to the wire in the fourth quarter. Even though
it was a struggle at times, we felt we were in control the entire
game."
Marvin Harrison, the NFL leader in receptions, caught eight of
Manning's passes for 156 yards, including 56 yards for a
first-quarter touchdown. It was the eighth TD reception of the
season for Harrison, matching his career high in just the sixth
game.
"They were double-covering him early and they realized it was
just hurting them, and we were beating them with other guys,"
Manning said.
The Colts also got two short touchdown runs by rookie Edgerrin
James and a late touchdown pass by Manning to Ken Dilger.
The Bengals (1-6) lost Corey Dillon, the NFL rushing leader,
with a cut on his right arm in the first half and rookie
quarterback Akili Smith with a bruised right shin in the third
quarter. Jeff Blake relieved Smith, going 5-of-7 on a 68-yard drive
and hitting Darnay Scott for a 10-yard score with 5:13 to go.
Dillon managed only 7 yards on six carries.
"Everything like that affects us. But that wasn't the reason
for us losing the game," Bengals coach Bruce Coslet said of the
loss of Dillon.
"We didn't play very well. They got after us on a lot of long
plays. The one long play, we had Harrison double-covered and he
still got out. You can't do that to a heck of a player.
"So many things went wrong, I don't know where to begin."
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GAME NOTES |
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The Bengals also lost guard Brian DeMarco (elbow) and
tackle Willie Anderson (knee).
Darnay Scott's five catches gave him
301 for his career; Carl Pickens, who had three receptions, moved within
one of becoming the first Bengal with 500.
Jim Mora became the 27th coach to win 100 games and was presented with a game ball.
Peyton Manning has been sacked only three times this season, a league low
by a starter.
Marvin Harrison has had receptions in all 50 of his NFL games. He's had 100 yards receiving four times this year.
Terrence Wilkins, an undrafted rookie, had three receptions for 54 yards in
his first NFL start at wide receiver.
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Manning (17-for-33 for 284 yards) hit Harrison for the 56-yard
TD on the Colts' third play. Both of James' scores came in the
second period following crucial mistakes by Cincinnati.
After a bad snap, Will Brice's punt was blocked by Ratcliff
Thomas, giving the Colts the ball at the Bengals 28. Two passes to
Harrison helped Indianapolis to the 12, then an apparent
interception in the end zone by Artrell Hawkins was called back by
an offside penalty.
Manning passed to Terrence Wilkins at the 1, and James ran in
for a 14-0 lead.
On the Colts' next possession, a long pass to Harrison fell, but
an interference penalty on Hawkins put the Colts at the 5. James
ran 2 yards for the second touchdown.
"We wanted to be aggressive, but their passing game is so quick
and rhythmic that you can't come up very far or they'll try those
double moves and go behind you like they did on the first score,"
Hawkins said. "Marvin Harrison has so much speed, you can't afford
to give him any steps."
Smith, making his third start, was 12-for-24 for 122 yards, but
he was sacked five times.
An apparent TD pass to Harrison was nullified on a review that
showed he had one foot out of bounds when he made the catch,
setting up Mike Vanderjagt's 22-yard field goal for a 24-0 lead.
Cincinnati, which had just one first down up to that point,
moved 48 yards in nine plays, including a 24-yard scramble by Smith
and a 16-yard pass to Carl Pickens. Doug Pelfrey's 32-yard field goal with 15 seconds left cut the lead to 24-3.
Three more completions to Harrison set up Dilger's 10-yard TD
reception in the fourth quarter before the final touchdown pass
from Blake to Scott.
"I told the team all week Cincinnati is a better team than
their record. I was impressed with their defense, and they showed
that again today," Colts coach Jim Mora said. "I didn't relax
until the game was over. I was concerned the whole game."
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