Born Free-ney ! Colts 36, Ravens 24

Both teams entered this contest with identical 3-3 records. The Colts, being a "dome team" were a bit apprehensive about playing against a the fierce Raven defense in 46 degree windy weather. Those worries should never come into play when the great Peyton Manning is calling the signals.

1st QUARTER: Indy started out with great field position (BAL 47) and Peyton Manning drove his team down to the 1 in 10 plays. The Raven run defense dug in and a Mike Vanderjagt chip shot made it 3-0 with 8:53 left in the quarter. Tony Banks took the Ravens on a 10 play excursion of their own that went 71 yards and resulted in a 7-3 lead for the home team. Banks hit TE Shannon Sharpe in the middle of the end zone for a 4 yd TD pass. On a short Matt Stover kick off James Mungro returned it 26 yards to setup good field position on the Colt 42. The big play of the drive was a 22 yard run by Edgerrin James vs nickel coverage to make it first and goal on the 3. On the following play Manning threw a pick in the end zone off of a deflection that wound up in Rob Burnett's hands. Unfortunately for the Ravens there was a penalty, which negated the turnover and Indy retained possession. The Raven D stuffed James' next run and threw him for a 3 yard loss back to the 4. Adalius Thomas slammed the back from "the U" hard. A errant play action pass fell to the ground and just missed Reggie Wayne's hands to make it 3rd and goal from the 4 as time ran out in the quarter.

2nd QUARTER: A short pass to Brandon Stokely netted 3 yards and Indy faced a key 4th and goal from the 1. Manning didn't even have to look to the sideline to find out if they were going for it. He immediately lined his troops up and hit Marvin Harrison with a corner fade that only an ALL-PRO wide out could catch. Vanderjagt nailed the XP and the score was 10-7 Indy. BAL had a drive that stalled just before midfield, so Kyle Richardson came on and hit a coffin corner punt to pin the Colts on their own 4. Facing a 4th an 1 from their own 13 the Colts called on Hunter Smith to boot them out of trouble. All he could manage was a 36 yarder that Jermaine Lewis fair caught. The Ravens would have excellent field position at mid field. On 2nd & 6 Banks dumped one off to Jamal Lewis who broke about 4 tackles on a magnificent individual effor run to get down to the Colt 13. Indy's D tighted up and allowed only 4 yards on the next 3 plays. Stover came on to nail a 26 yarder to tie the game at 10. Manning drove his team down to BAL's 23, but the drive stalled and Vanderjagt missed a 40 yard FG attempt, which would have broken the 10-10 tie. The Ravens could not take advantage of the Colt miscue and went 3 and out, which the Colts did as well. With 1:53 left to go in the half Baltimore curiously went to their hurry up offense even though they were starting from their own 7. Banks took a deep drop, but all of his receivers were covered. Before he could get rid of the ball Dwight Freeney slammed him to the turf in the end zone for a safety. The Colts now led 12-10. Indy took a 15 yard blocking below the waist penalty on the free kick and wound up starting on their own 18 with 97 ticks left on the clock. James ran 10 yards out of the spread for a first down on a play that looked more designed to kill the clock than to gain yardage. Indy burned their first time out. Manning hit Harrison for 17 yard and immediately called their second time out. From his own 44 Manning audibled and hit Reggie Wayne on a fly pattern for 38 yards as the big receiver faked Cornell Brown, who had single coverage, right out of his shoes. With 1:08 to go the Colts were now on the Raven 18. A 5 yard defensive holding penalty made it 1st and 5 from the 13. Going with a 4 WR set Manning hit Stokley at the 4. Ray Lewis held on to Stokely and kept him from going out of bounds. With :38 seconds left Manning faced 2nd and goal from the 4. The Ravens thought run and loaded up to get James. Manning saw it all the way and hit Stokely on a beautifully executed play action pass for the score. The Colts moved 82 yards in 5 plays and did it in 1:14. The score at the half was 19-10 Indy.

3rd QUARTER: Corey Harris took the opening kickoff by Indy back 43 yards to midfield to setup great field position for Baltimore. Jamal Lewis took a dump pass from Banks, who was forced to look away from double covered primary receiver Shannon Sharpe. Lewis, just like he did in the 1st half turned on the jets and broke a few tackles for a 35 yard gain down to Indy's 15. Barely catching his breath, Lewis ran off tackle for 9 yards on the following play to get down to the Indy 6. Two plays later he gained 2 yards and made it first and goal from the 4. On the following play he walked in untouched from the 4 as Indy was looking pass. Indy was now up by 2 points with the score 19-17 with 12 and a half minutes left to go in the quarter. In a blink of an eye Manning Hit Brandon Stokley on a 68 yard post pattern as the Baltimore defense was expecting Domenick Rhodes to run with the ball. It took Indy 3 plays and 90 seconds to go back up by 9. Baltimore's next drive stalled at midfield. Richardson's punt rolled into the end zone, so Indy took over on their own 20. A rare 3 and out forced the Colts to punt and the Ravens started on their own 45 down by 9, but could do nothing...so they punted once again. This time Richardson pinned Manning and company on their own 9. Indy moved the ball to their own 39 and then punted. Smith hit a 58 yard beauty that went out of bounds on the 3. Tony Banks attempted to throw a corner route to Patrick Johnson, but Jason David picked it off on the 17. Uncharacteristically, two plays later, Manning was intercepted by Rod Woodson on the 1. Woodson returned the pick to the 29. Baltimore's defense came up big, but their offense could not as they were forced to punt once again.

4th QUARTER: Manning started work from his own 19 with 12:05 to play in the game. He proceeded to dink and dunk his way into Raven territory gaining yardage and eating clock. The big play was a 24 yard pass to Reggie Wayne that gave them a 1st and goal on the Raven 6. Baltimore brought the pressure and forced Manning to scramble on a second and 10 pass play for no gain. On third down Manning dumped the ball to Wayne and gained three, thus making it 4th and goal from the 3. It was an easy decision to kick the FG and go up by 12 with just over 6 minutes to go in the game. The Ravens couldn't move the ball and were forced to punt from their own 29. Josh Williams blocked Richardson's punt attempt and Indy had the ball on BAL's 18. Three plays later Manning made it look easy by hitting Harrison on a skinny post to make it 36-17. The Colts went into prevent mode and the Ravens began to march down the field. On the final play of the game Jermaine Lewis scored on a 6 yd TD pass from Banks to make the final score 36-24 Colts.

KEY STATS: Manning was 28-38-413-4td-int. Both Stokely (8-156-2) and Wayne (6-119) had over 100 yards in receiving. Dwight Freeney was a monster on the defensive side of the ball recording 7 tackle, 3 sacks and a safety. Indy moved above .500 (4-3) for the first time all season and Baltimore dropped to 3-4.