• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Manning leads second-half outburst as Colts rout Saints

Sep 7, 2007 - 5:32 AM INDIANAPOLIS (Ticker) -- The Indianapolis Colts needed barely over a half to show there would be no Super Bowl hangover.

The Colts scored 24 consecutive points in the second half and opened up defense of their Super Bowl championship with an impressive 41-10 romp over the New Orleans Saints on Thursday in the opening game of the NFL season.

Quarterback Peyton Manning shrugged off a lackluster first half and carved up the Saints' defense following the intermission, leading four straight scoring drives as Indianapolis (1-0) improved to 8-1 in its last nine season openers.

"Our execution was better (in the second half)," Manning said. "We never really got into a good rhythm in the first half. We had a lot of first downs, second downs, third downs, but they were doing a great job forcing us to punt. We had some 3rd-and-longs due to penalties, and we really wanted to be sharp to start the second half."

The Super Bowl MVP, Manning completed 18-of-30 for 288 yards and three touchdown passes. Reggie Wayne caught two TD passes and finished with seven receptions for 115 yards. Marvin Harrison added 83 yards and one TD on four catches.

Cornerback Jason David, a former Colt who signed with the Saints in the offseason, was victimized on all three touchdowns.

"We don't really do that (pick on one player)," Manning said. "When you have Marvin and Reggie, you're always going to try and get it to them. If you have a good day, then they say that you're picking on one guy, but believe me, we're always trying to get it to one of those two guys."

David did return a fumble by Wayne 55 yards for a touchdown in the first half but he was burned by Wayne twice in the second half.

"A lot of my problem is just looking in the backfield," David said. "Whenever you've got your eyes in the backfield, you're always going to miss the receiver."

Second-year running back Joseph Addai bounced back from a crunching hit on the very first play from scrimmage to rush for 118 yards and a touchdown. He also had three receptions for 25 yards.

"The offensive line was doing a great job," Addai said. "(The defense)has got to be nervous when you have players like Reggie and Marvin on the outside and Peyton as quarterback. It makes it kind of easy."

Saints quarterback Drew Brees, who led the league with 4,418 passing yards in 2006, was bottled up by the Colts defense. He finished just 28-of-41 for 192 yards and two interceptions - the second one getting returned 82 yards by Matt Giordano in the final minute.

"I think there was a couple of times when we tried to force it down the field a little bit we really should have stuck with the completion throw," Brees said. "They got on us a few times with their pass rush. If we could have had just a split-second longer on a couple of plays, something might have opened up down the field.

"You've got to give them credit. They were ready to play."

Saints second-year back Reggie Bush was limited to 45 total yards.

Neither high-powered offense distinguished itself in the opening 30 minutes, leading to a 10-10 halftime tie.

"It was a game where, at halftime, I thought we did a number of things right defensively," Saints coach Sean Payton said. "We struggled to generate the offense we wanted early in the game, and then it carried over into the second half. That's disappointing, and it's disappointing in the way it finished."

After the Saints (0-1) went three-and-out on their first possession of the second half, the Colts took command.

Manning drove his team 71 yards in eight plays, highlighted by a 42-yard pass to Marvin Harrison to the 2-yard line. Addai burst in from there to give the Colts the lead for good, 17-10, with 9:45 to play in third quarter.

Indy's defense then forced another three-and-out and Manning needed just four plays to cover 69 yards, capped by a 29-yard scoring strike to Wayne to extend the margin to 24-10 with 6:11 left in the quarter.

After opening the first half 8-of-17 for 106 yards, Manning was 5-of-6 for 102 yards on the first two drives of the second half.

Trailing by two touchdowns, the Saints finally were on the move until linebacker Freddie Keiaho picked off Brees and return it to the Saints 47.

Manning hit Wayne for 31 yards on the very first play, setting up Adam Vinatieri for his second 33-yard field goal of the game and a 27-10 lead 48 seconds into the final quarter.

Wayne hauled in his second TD pass from Manning - this time from 45 yards - just over two minutes later as the lead ballooned to 34-10 with 10:05 remaining.

"It was a great start to the second half, coming out and getting that touchdown," Manning said. "Our defense played great all night and our offense gave them their only touchdown. Reggie had three touchdowns tonight; he caught two and gave them one."

Indianapolis broke on top, 7-0, when Manning hit Harrison for a 27-yard touchdown with 1:36 left in the opening quarter. It marked the 107th time Manning and Harrison have hooked up on a scoring pass, extending their league record for the most TDs by a quarterback-receiver combination.