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Colts maul Bengals for sixth in row

Dec 7, 2008 - 11:35 PM INDIANAPOLIS (Ticker) -- A record winning streak could not prevent the Indianapolis Colts from seeing their reign as AFC South champions end.

Peyton Manning threw three touchdown passes and the Indianapolis Colts posted their sixth straight victory with a 35-3 rout of the lowly Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday.

Still, the Colts saw their five-year stranglehold on the division evaporate when the Tennessee Titans beat the Cleveland Browns, 28-9, to wrap up the AFC South.

It was the first blowout during the skein for Indianapolis (9-4), which had won the previous five games by a total of 20 points.

"We haven't had that in such a long time," Colts coach Tony Dungy said. "You get them by just working hard. You never know when they are going to come."

Indianapolis became just the second team in league history to win at least six straight games in five consecutive seasons, joining the San Francisco 49ers (1989-95).

Manning finished 26-of-32 for 277 yards and extended his league record of becoming the only player to throw for at least 3,000 yards in each of his first 11 seasons.

Completing 13 straight passes at one point in the first half, Manning also reached another milestone with his 20th touchdown pass, giving him 20 in 11 consecutive seasons to move within one of Brett Favre's all-time record.

"We look at teams, we don't look at their record," Manning said. "They have good players, they have good schemes. We still have to go out there and make plays."

The Colts struggled on offense for most of the first half before Kelvin Hayden provided a spark with his first interception of Cincinnati's Ryan Fitzpatrick, setting up the Colts at the Bengals' 7-yard line.

Manning needed just two plays to cash in on the turnover, tossing a 5-yard scoring pass to Marvin Harrison with 32 seconds left in the first half to give Indianapolis a 14-3 lead.

"Everybody thinks these games are going to be easy, and they'll look at the score and feel like it was, but we had to work," Dungy said.

Indianapolis put the game away quickly in the second half, scoring on its first two possessions. Manning threw short touchdown passes to Anthony Gonzalez and Dallas Clark to pad the lead to 28-3 and make it six straight wins over the Bengals (1-11-1).

"I was telling the football team, today you witnessed what happens when you have opportunities and kind of let them go by the wayside," Cincinnati coach Marvin Lewis said. "You don't get some points out there on the first two drives of the first half where the ball was right on the edge of scoring position, whether it be an opportunity to kick the field goal or touchdowns.

"Just the consistency, at times, in some of our players keeps putting us behind the 8-ball and at risk. We didn't make plays."

Harrison finished with three receptions for 78 yards and caught his 128th career scoring pass - including his 112th from Manning.

Fitzpatrick completed 18-of-26 passes for 170 yards, but he was intercepted twice by Hayden, including one he returned 85 yards for a touchdown in the fourth quarter.

"He was getting excellent reads on the quarterback and getting a jump on things," Dungy said of Hayden. "He made some big plays. He did a good job in our zones on the quarterback."