Expand / Collapse search
Watch TV
Menu

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2024 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper.

Sports

Quickfire Colts down Ravens to make AFC title game

By Reuters
Published | Updated

Toronto, Canada – By Marc D. Allan

INDIANAPOLIS (Reuters) - Two touchdowns in two minutes at the end of the first half helped the Indianapolis Colts beat the Baltimore Ravens 20-3 on Saturday and advance to the AFC championship game.

The Colts, the AFC's top seed, will host the winner of Sunday's match between the New York Jets and the San Diego Chargers for a Super Bowl place after they ended a losing run in playoff games following a bye.

"It's a myth that you can't win at home after a bye week, but I didn't believe in it," Colts quarterback Peyton Manning told reporters after completing 30 of 44 passes for 246 yards.

"I thought we came out sharp on both sides of the ball really from the get-go, kind of set the tempo of the game."

Manning broke the game open with touchdown passes to Austin Collie and Reggie Wayne in the final 2:06 of the first half.

The two scores turned a 3-3 tie into a 17-3 Colts lead from which Baltimore, one of the league's top defensive teams, never recovered.

Seven penalties and four turnovers only compounded problems for the Ravens against an aggressive Indianapolis defense.

"The defense did a tremendous job," Colts coach Jim Caldwell said. "When you look at what Baltimore's been able to do to teams over the last few weeks, our defense did, indeed, play hard and played well."

Baltimore did not score a point after the Ravens' first drive, which ended with Billy Cundiff's 25-yard field goal to tie the score at 3-3.

The visitors failed to make a first down in the second quarter, and Ray Rice, who rushed for 159 yards in Baltimore's opening-round win over New England, gained only 67 against the Colts.

Manning, however, had Indianapolis on the move late in the second quarter with a 10-yard touchdown pass to rookie Collie capping a 75-yard drive and a 64-yard effort that ended on Wayne's three-yard catch.

"He does a great job of finding receivers," Baltimore coach John Harbaugh said. "He finds a match-up. I thought we really did a good job of making that tough for him, for the most part. It wasn't easy. They had no cheap ones."

(Writing by Gene Cherry in Salvo, North Carolina; Editing by Patrick Johnston)