Indy's perfect season is still intact. Barely. Peyton Manning had a milestone day, Joseph Addai produced the winning play for the second straight week and Houston's Kris Brown missed a 42-yard field goal as time expired as the Colts survived with a 20-17 victory Sunday. The implications of this win were monumental. Indy became the fourth team in league history with a 17-game winning streak. New England did it twice _ winning 21 straight from 2006-08 and 18 in a row from 2003-04 _ and Chicago achieved the feat in 1933-34. Jim Caldwell became the first rookie coach to start 8-0 since Potsy Clark in 1930, while Manning earned his 125th victory, tying him for fourth with Hall of Famer Fran Tarkenton on the career list. Manning, the three-time MVP, also became the first player in league history to throw for 40,000 yards within a decade. The most important result from Sunday: The Colts now hold a commanding 3 1/2 game lead in the AFC South over second-place Houston. The Texans (5-4) dropped to 1-14 all-time against the Colts, including 0-8 in Indianapolis. It was a strange day indeed. Manning opened the game with 25 passes in the first quarter, the most by any quarterback in the first quarter since 1991. And after running 37 of the first 44 offensive plays, Indy led only 13-0. Things started to change with another odd situation as the first half ended. Brown came in to try a 56-yard field goal attempt, which Indy blocked. But the Colts had called timeout to put a returner underneath the goal post, and when Brown got a second chance, he knocked it through to make it 13-3. Houston turned the tables on Indy in the second half, taking more than 6 1/2 minutes off the clock with their first possession and capping the drive with a 1-yard TD pass from Matt Schaub to Ryan Moats. Continued... |