By Tom James
INDIANAPOLIS — It wasn’t pretty. And it certainly wasn’t as efficient as it had been in the team’s previous six games. But the Indianapolis Colts offense did just enough when it needed to during Sunday’s 18-14 come-from-behind win over the San Francisco 49ers.
“[San Francisco] did a nice job. They really just kind of kept us off-balance. Early on in the first half, they came with a bit of [pressure]. We didn’t have a lot of [defensive] people came in Scot-free or anything of that nature. But just in terms of bringing an extra guy to try and get some pass rush generated, they did a good job of that,” Colts coach Jim Caldwell said after the game.
“They tried to keep us off-balance with some of their stunts. There might have been a couple situations maybe where we weren’t quite in sync as we would like to be. But also you have to attribute some of that to the opposition. They did a nice job.”
Quarterback Peyton Manning had pretty good numbers on the day, throwing for 347 yards. But he was also sacked a season-high three times. Manning had come into the 49ers game having been sacked just twice in six previous games.
“We will see some things on film. Never found much rhythm. Had a number of three and outs. Couldn’t have been very good percentage-wise on third downs. It certainly felt that way,” Manning said later.
“It was just kind of one of those days. We just kind of kept grinding it out. Fortunately, our defense kept [San Francisco] from scoring a lot. So we were able to keep the game close. Red zone, we’ve been good all year. We were No. 2 [in the NFL] coming into this game and that is one of our strengths. But we had to settle for field goals. Give San Francisco a lot of credit for that. They did an excellent job on defense. But obviously there are some things we can do better.”
Manning just missed connecting with open receivers several times during the game.
“We probably had some close plays there. That is usually how it works sometimes if you don’t have much rhythm. There are some plays we could have made that maybe we didn’t make or San Francisco made the play. I don’t think we had any turnovers. That was good,” he said.
“We tried to keep [the 49ers] off a short field. Probably the most disappointing series was when [San Francisco] fumbled and we had the ball on the other side of the 40, went three and out in excellent field position and had the chance to get the lead. We did not take advantage of that field position. Obviously [there are] some things we can build on.”
• Injury list — Missing the game due to injuries were running back Donald Brown (shoulder), placekicker Adam Vinatieri (knee), wide receiver Anthony Gonzalez (knee) and cornerback Marlin Jackson (knee). Quarterback Curtis Painter, cornerback/punt returner T.J. Rushing, offensive guard Jamey Richard and offensive tackle Tony Ugoh were the Colts’ other pregame inactives.
Cornerback Kelvin Hayden was hurt twice Sunday, suffering a concussion in the third quarter but returning. He also incurred a knee injury in the fourth quarter and was sidelined for the remainder of the game. Strongside linebacker Tyjuan Hagler suffered an injured elbow in the fourth quarter and also did not return.
There probably won’t be any updates on Hayden and Hagler until Wednesday at the earliest. Wide receiver Reggie Wayne (strained groin) and defensive end Dwight Freeney (knee) both appeared to come out of the 49ers game in relatively good shape.
• Record book — Indianapolis extended its franchise record with a 16th consecutive regular-season victory. The Colts have become the eighth team to earn a streak of 16 consecutive regular-season victories.
Indianapolis also extended its NFL record streak for six consecutive seasons with winning streaks of at least seven games. This year marks the fourth time that the Colts have started the regular season at 7-0. The franchise owns four of the eight 7-0 starts since 2004.
Caldwell became the first Colts head coach to win his first seven games and is tied with Barney Lepper (Buffalo, 1920) for the second-best start by a rookie head coach in NFL history.
He is the only rookie head coach in the Super Bowl era to start 7-0. And he became the only coach to ever start 7-0 when succeeding a head coach (Tony Dungy) who won 100 or more games.
Manning became the fourth quarterback with 4,000 or more career completions and he accomplished the feat in his 183rd career game. That’s the fastest that the mark had been achieved (193, Dan Marino; 196, Brett Favre; 227, John Elway). He also recorded his 53rd career 300-yard passing game.
Sunday’s win marked Mannings’ 38th career fourth quarter or overtime game-winning drive and his second this season.
Freeney notched a sack in his eighth consecutive game, tying Robert Mathis’ franchise record which was originally set in 2005. Freeney is one game short of tying Bruce Smith and Kevin Greene for the third-longest streak in NFL history. Simon Fletcher and DeMarcus Ware share the league mark with 10 consecutive games with a sack.
Wayne caught a touchdown pass in his fifth consecutive game, his second-best single-season career streak. He also recorded his 29th career 100-yard receiving game and his 10th career 10-plus reception game.
It was his third 100-yard receiving game this season and his second 10-plus catch game. His 12 receptions against the 49ers tied his single-game career high.
Running back Joseph Addai’s 22-yard halfback pass to Wayne was the first touchdown pass thrown by someone other than a Colts quarterback since tight end Ken Dilger’s 39-yard scoring pass to wide receiver Marvin Harrison in 2001.
Addai is the third non-quarterback to throw a touchdown pass in the Indianapolis era (running back Curtis Dickey in 1984 and Dilger).
• Hoener on 49ers sideline — Former Indiana State offensive line coach Pete Hoener is San Francisco’s tight ends coach.
Hoener served as the offensive line coach and offensive coordinator under head coaches Dick Jamieson and Dennis Raetz while at ISU in the early 1980s.
