Make wishtv.com your home page

Poll: How do you grade the Colts against the Broncos?

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) Andrew Luck looked like a different quarterback Sunday, and the Colts looked like the team they were supposed to be all season.

Just five days after changing offensive coordinators, the struggling Luck got back in sync by throwing for two touchdowns and setting up Adam Vinatieri for a tie-breaking 55-yard field goal with 6:13 to play, giving the Colts a 27-24 victory over Denver.

Indy (4-5) snapped a three-game losing streak, remained atop the AFC South and ruined what many expected to be a historic homecoming for Peyton Manning. It was the Colts’ first win outside the AFC South that they lead.

Manning fell 3 yards short of becoming the NFL’s career passing leader after his second interception and two Denver penalties allowed the Colts to run the final six minutes off the clock. He’ll head home to face Kansas City next week with 71,836 career yards; Brett Favre had 71,838.

The loss also forced Manning to wait at least another week to break Favre’s career record for most career regular-season wins (186) by a quarterback.

Luck made sure his predecessor in Indy didn’t get a chance to celebrate in his old stomping grounds by breaking a 17-17 tie with a TD pass to Ahmad Bradshaw early in the fourth. Luck set up Vinatieri for the longest field goal of his Colts career to break a 24-24 tie. He probably would have made it three scores in a row, but Luck took a knee on the final play of the game inside Denver’s 5-yard line.

Luck was 21 of 36 for 252 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions.

Manning was 21 of 36 for 281 yards with two TDs, and Denver (7-1) was the only unbeaten team to lose this weekend.

What was different for Indy? Tuesday’s switch of offensive coordinators certainly made a difference. Instead of the pervasive slow starts, Indianapolis started fast.

Frank Gore’s 7-yard touchdown run ended Denver’s defensive streak of seven straight games of scoreless first quarters.

Vinatieri made it 10-0 on the Colts’ next series, and after Mike Adams picked off Manning, Luck hooked up with Jack Doyle, who stretched the ball across the goal line for a 3-yard score. Luck’s 100th career TD pass gave the Colts their largest lead of the season and put Denver in its biggest deficit of 2015, 17-0.

Denver finally got started when Omar Bolden fielded a punt at the Broncos 17, and sprinted past the Denver bench on an 83-yard TD return as time expired in the first half to cut the deficit to 17-7.

After going 9 for 22 in the first half, Manning led the comeback in the second half.

He found Emmanuel Sanders for a 64-yard pass on third-and-14 to make it 17-14 early in the third period, and set up Brandon McManus for the tying 29-yard field goal.

Luck answered right away. He capped an 80-yard drive with an 8-yard pass to Ahmad Bradshaw, who hurdled his way into the end zone to make it 24-17.

Manning took advantage of Greg Toler’s pass interference in the end zone by throwing a 1-yard TD pass to Owen Daniels to tie the score at 24.

But Luck drove the Colts to the field goal, and after the interception, Indy ran out the clock.

Daniels caught six passes for 102 yards and Sanders had six receptions for 90 yards and a TD for Denver.