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Manning, Vinatieri lift Colts over Chiefs

Nov 18, 2007 - 10:33 PM INDIANAPOLIS (Ticker) -- Peyton Manning and Adam Vinatieri shrugged off dismal performances to keep their team from an unwanted spot in the record book.

Vinatieri kicked a 24-yard field goal with three seconds to play as the Indianapolis Colts held off the Kansas City Chiefs, 13-10, on Sunday.

It was the 20th game-winning field goal for Vinatieri, who had blown a 29-yard game-winning attempt in last week's 23-21 loss to the San Diego Chargers and missed his first two attempts Sunday.

"I wanted to have a good game after last week," Vinatieri said. "I started off a little rocky. Statistically I've had some better weeks, that's for sure, but the only important stat right now is that we are 8-2 and we got the win."

Overcoming his worst effort of the season, Manning was perfect on the final drive in preventing Indianapolis (8-2) from absorbing its third straight defeat.

No team in NFL history ever has lost three consecutive games after starting the season 7-0.

Failing to throw a touchdown pass for the first time this season, Manning completed all four of his attempts for 59 yards on the winning drive. He finished 16-of-32 for 163 yards and an interception.

"Certainly, our defense did a great job holding their offense down," Manning said. "We didn't have to score a lot of points. We had some drives where we made some plays, but we certainly weren't as good offensively as we wanted to be.

"When you hold the other team's offense to 10 points, you feel like you should win the game pretty soundly, not necessarily with a last-second field goal."

Indy coach Tony Dungy made a gutsy call with his team facing a 4th-and-1 at the 3-yard line at the two-minute warning.

With the Colts appearing to try and lure Kansas City offsides, Manning took the snap and picked up the first down on a quarterback sneak.

"We did some fake snap count stuff, to make them think maybe we were just trying to draw them off," Manning said. "Maybe they got a little heavy in their stances, thinking that we weren't really going to run it. We got a good surge and got (the first down) pretty cleanly."

"It was inches to go and they've got a big, strong quarterback," Kansas City coach Herm Edwards said. "If they miss, it was going to be a tie game and we were going to have the ball at our 3-yard line. So, you've got to make that decision and they made the right one."

The Chiefs were out of timeouts and Manning took a knee three times before Vinatieri came on for the winning kick.

"In retrospect, I should have done that last week," Dungy said. "We had a measurement of about the same distance, we had the timeouts. The only difference is that last week we were behind, this week we were tied. ... You learn things from the week before and this week, we played it a little better."

Vinatieri, who entered this one by making 30-of-31 career field goal attempts in the RCA dome, had missed his first two chances Sunday.

Chiefs quarterback Brodie Croyle completed 18-of-26 for 148 yards and a touchdown in his first NFL start. Kansas City (4-6) lost their third straight game.

"I thought Brodie, for the most part, did a pretty good job in a tough environment," Edwards said. "but we've got to grow from here. We've got to be more productive offensively."

An ugly first half ended in an unlikely 3-3 tie.

Manning endured one of the worst halves of his career, finishing 6-of-16 for 62 yards and one interception. After completing his first two passes for 42 yards, Manning struggled throughout the half as the Chiefs, led by defensive end Jered Allen, applied continuous pressure.

Croyle was sacked and fumbled the ball away late in the first half, giving the Colts the ball at the Chiefs 13-yard line.

Manning, however, was unable to get the ball into the end zone and Indianapolis had to settle for a 27-yard field goal by Vinatieri to tie it at 3-3.

That ended a streak of three consecutive misses by Vinatieri, who earlier misfired on attempts of 49 and 38 yards.

Kansas City's Dave Rayner booted a 47-yards for a 3-0 lead with 8:55 left in the half, but he also missed a pair of field goals in the second quarter.

The Chiefs (4-6) lost their third straight game.