Mike Vanderjagt's 29-yard field goal with 3:47 remaining in overtime capped one of the greatest comebacks in NFL history and gave the Indianapolis Colts a 38-35 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday night.
Peyton Manning rallied the Colts from a 35-14 deficit with four minutes left in regulation, sending the game into overtime on Ricky Williams' 1-yard touchdown run with 35 seconds to play. Marvin Harrison, who had two touchdown catches, set up the tying score with a 52-yard reception to the Tampa Bay 5.
Harrison scored on second-half receptions of 37 and 28 yards, the latter trimming Tampa Bay's lead to 35-28 with 2:29 remaining in regulation.
Indianapolis (5-0) became the first team in NFL history to win after trailing by 21 or more points with less than four minutes to play in regulation.
Vanderjagt had missed a potential game-winning field goal from 39 yards wide right a play earlier - it would have been his first miss of the season in 13 attempts - but Tampa Bay's Simeon Rice was called for leaping and landing on a teammate and the Colts got another chance.
Vanderjagt made the second kick, barely as it went off the right upright and through after being deflected at the line by a Tampa Bay player, and coach Tony Dungy had the win on his return to Tampa.
Manning launched the game-winning drive from his own 13. He had crucial third-down completions of 8 yards to Harrison, 16 yards to Reggie Wayne and 9 yards to Troy Walters to keep the march alive.
Harrison's 37-yard TD catch put the Colts, who trailed 21-0 at halftime, on the scoreboard early in the third quarter. He finished with 11 catches for 176 yards.
Williams, part of a committee of running backs filling in for the injured Edgerrin James, had a 1-yard TD run three minutes into the fourth quarter. James Mungro scored on a 3-yard run for the Colts with 3:37 remaining, the touchdown that started the comeback.
A week after throwing for 314 yards and six touchdowns in the Colts' 55-21 rout of New Orleans , Manning was 34-of-47 for 386 yards, two touchdowns and one interception, which Ronde Barber returned 29 yards to give Tampa Bay a 35-14 lead with just over five minutes left in regulation.
Keenan McCardell caught two touchdown passes and scooped up an Indianapolis fumble and returned it 57 yards for another score for Tampa Bay (2-2), which looked like it would ruin Dungy's homecoming when it took the big halftime lead.
Dungy received a polite ovation from a crowd of 65,647 that likely included a generous number of fans who no doubt were not the least bit upset when he was fired in January 2002 after six successful seasons in Tampa Bay.
He's the winningest coach in franchise history, going 54-42 from 1996-2001 while turning around a club that had 14 straight losing seasons. But an anemic offense and consecutive first-round losses in the playoffs cost him his job.
Dungy left behind one of the league's best defenses, a unit that was the driving force in last year's Super Bowl run under Dungy's successor Jon Gruden, whose improvements on offense helped put the Bucs over the hump.
McCardell caught TD passes of 74 and 15 yards from Brad Johnson. He was in the right place at the right time when safety Mike Doss fumbled after intercepting a poorly thrown pass and returned it 16 yards to the Tampa Bay 43.
Dungy led the Bucs to the playoffs four times in six seasons and is the architect of the Cover 2 defensive scheme that's been instrumental to Tampa Bay's success.
Although defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin has tweaked some of the things the Bucs do, it was Dungy who developed the heart of the unit - Warren Sapp, Derrick Brooks and John Lynch - into perennial Pro Bowl selections who make the system go.
McCardell is one of the players Gruden brought in to improve Tampa Bay's offense a year ago.
On his long touchdown reception, the 12th-year player slanted to the middle of the field and found himself with a mismatch against Colts middle linebacker Rob Morris, who stumbled near midfield when McCardell accelerated to run under Johnson's pass at the Indianapolis 30.
Johnson's 3-yard pass to Reggie Barlow put the Bucs up three touchdowns early in the second quarter and freed the Bucs defense to unleash an all-out pass rush on Manning, who did a good job of getting rid of the ball and only sacked once.
Johnson finished 26-of-39 for 318 yards. Michael Pittman rushed for 106 yards on 16 carries, while McCardell had four receptions for 106 yards for Tampa Bay, which played in overtime without Keyshawn Johnson (leg bruise) and Pittman (cramps).
The Colts, off to their best start since 1977, are one of four unbeaten teams remaining in the NFL. The others are Kansas City, Minnesota and Carolina, which visits Indianapolis next Sunday.
That game absolutely ROCKED!!! I was on edge for the entire game.
I thought that the Bucs were clearly going to dominate, but after the second half, the Colts came out with a fire.... a desire to WIN! And they did.
I do have to say this though... I don't think that the last penalty call was valid. They shouldn't have gotten a second chance to kick. It should have been TB's ball. Rice did NOT leap off of another player to try to block that kick. He came down, and accidentally 'touched' another player... but what do you expect everyone is in such close proximity??? That was a really bad call that should have been looked at. I don't blame Gruden was right, going to the ref and just asking him to look at the jumbotron screen. Everyone else clearly saw that it was a bad call.
Oh well... games are filled with good AND bad calls. That's just how it works. And when you're the team that is getting something good from a bad call, you're always happy... until the shoes on the other foot.
Great game
:::>^..^<::: ~*~The Journey is more important than the end or the start~*~ :::>^..^<:::
I think they clarified that the penalty resulted for leaping and coming down on another player - which he did - barely.
Either way, if looked at as being a bad call, it made up for that roughing the kicker call that came against Indy just a short time before that when the kicker came down ontop of the Indy player on the ground.
This game didn't come down to one play - Tampa's defense self-destructed the entire 4th quarter and the Colts happened to be on a mission made up of several brilliant plays.
Now if we want to talk about ONE play changing the outcome of a game, we must look at Dante Hall's return for a touch down and refs missing too terribly obvious illegal blocks. (GRRRR....)
Originally posted by Marc Flemming
I think they clarified that the penalty resulted for leaping and coming down on another player - which he did - barely.
I thought the call was good...after all, its in the rules, and he did fall into another player on the way down....of course, I will admit, that I disagreed before the clarification came in! Then Of course, I agreed and thats because I wanted Indy to win....but I still love Gruden (I cant help it!)
Either way, if looked at as being a bad call, it made up for that roughing the kicker call that came against Indy just a short time before that when the kicker came down ontop of the Indy player on the ground.
Thats was the most unbelievable call I'd ever seen. Terrible call! I really felt at that point that they were making calls just to help Tampa.
This game didn't come down to one play - Tampa's defense self-destructed the entire 4th quarter and the Colts happened to be on a mission made up of several brilliant plays.
Now if we want to talk about ONE play changing the outcome of a game, we must look at Dante Hall's return for a touch down and refs missing too terribly obvious illegal blocks. (GRRRR....)
Im sorry Marc....this might be my fault....I actually rooted for Denver in that game!
But you are right....I saw the illegal blocks, which should have resulted in that run being negated.
Of course thats just my opinion....I could be wrong. (Dennis Miller)
"You might be the toughest little whacker. . .but in my world, you're about as worrisome as a cloudy day." (Dutch Dooley)
10-07-2003 07:00 AM
