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Manning, Colts make second trip to Meadowlands

Sep 26, 2006 - 9:34 PM Indianapolis (3-0) at NY Jets (2-1) Sunday 1:00 pm EDT

EAST RUTHERFORD, New Jersey (Ticker) -- Peyton Manning makes his second trip to the Meadowlands. Only this time he's not facing his younger brother.

Manning and the Indianapolis Colts, one of seven unbeaten teams in the NFL, meet the New York Jets on Sunday.

The Colts opened the season with a 26-21 victory here over Eli Manning and the New York Giants. Three weeks later, Peyton Manning returns to duel Chad Pennington, who beat the Colts, 41-0, in a playoff game here in January 2002.

The teams met the following season at the RCA Dome and Manning threw for 401 yards to lead the Colts to a 38-31 win. Pennington passed for 219 yards and three touchdowns.

After undergoing two shoulder operations each of the last two seasons, Pennington appears to be in vintage form, passing for 808 yards in New York's first three games this season. Thanks to Pennington, the Jets have averaged nearly 23 points a game despite the absence of an effective running game.

New York's Laveranues Coles leads the NFL with 24 catches for 331 yards and a touchdown.

Manning no longer has two-time rushing champion Edgerrin James in his backfield, yet the Colts are still averaging 30 points a game. Manning recorded his seventh career 400-yard game two weeks ago against Houston, but completed just 14-of-31 passes for 219 yards and a touchdown in a 21-14 victory over Jacksonville last week. It was only Manning's fourth game with less than a 50 percent completion rate in his last 115 regular-season games.

The Jets will have a difficult time containing Indianapolis' high-powered offense after yielding 475 yards in a 28-20 win at Buffalo last week. New York allowed J.P. Losman to set a career high with 328 passing yards, but also forced three turnovers.

Safety Kerry Rhodes, a second-year player out of Louisville, has turned into quite a threat on blitzes for the Jets. He sacked Tom Brady and forced a fumble two weeks ago and followed by sacking Losman twice and forcing another fumble which was returned 32 yards for a touchdown by linebacker Victor Hobson.

The Colts allowed just 107 passing yards to Byron Leftwich and picked him off twice last week. But they also yielded 191 yards on the ground.

Indianapolis' Marvin Harrison needs three catches to surpass Andre Reed (951 receptions) for fourth place on the all-time list. He is second to Coles with 22 catches for 334 yards this season.