Peyton Manning completed his first 17 passes and finished 29-of-34 for 364 yards and three touchdowns as the Indianapolis Colts beat Jacksonville 31-24 on Thursday.
Keiwan Ratliff returned an interception 35 yards for a touchdown late in the final quarter for the Colts who clinched a National Football League playoff spot with the win.
The Colts won their eighth straight game and will be the fifth seed in the AFC.
PHOTO: AP
“It was a funny game, we were completing some passes but we were down 14-0,” Manning said. “The crowd was into it and Jacksonville is always tough here at home.”
“It’s been a very different season. For us to win eight in a row, it was what we had to do, we had no choice but to do that and have a chance to get into the playoffs,” he said. “You never take winning for granted. It’s hard to win one game and its extremely hard to win eight in a row like we did.”
Indianapolis trailed by 10 entering the fourth quarter, but tied the contest with 6:34 left after Manning’s one-yard touchdown pass to tight end Dallas Clark earlier in the session and Adam Vinatieri’s 45-yard field goal.
The Colts defense forced their first “three-and-out” of the game prior to the possession ending in Vinatieri’s field goal.
On the Jaguars’ next possession, quarterback David Garrard tried to force a third-down ball into coverage when Ratliff intercepted the pass and followed his blockers down the right sideline. The score gave the Colts a 31-24 lead with 4:58 remaining.
After the both teams punted, Jacksonville (5-10) drove from its own 10 all the way down to Indianapolis’ seven-yard line with 19 seconds left.
With no timeouts left, Garrard threw an incompletion on first down and Dwight Freeney raced around the left end and sacked the quarterback on second down. The Jaguars could not get back to the line in time to stop the clock, ending the game.
Garrard was 28-of-41 for 329 yards with one touchdown and one interception for Jacksonville. He also rushed for a score.
Jacksonville held a 17-7 lead at the half but Indianapolis scored on the first possession of the second half when Manning connected with Dominic Rhodes on a 10-yard touchdown with 10:32 left in the third.
Manning set a new career high with 17 straight completions before finally misfiring on a pass intended for Anthony Gonzalez.
Thursday’s game helped clear up the playoff picture for the Colts but there are still a number of teams who are fighting for their lives in week 16.
The Minnesota Vikings can win their first division title in eight years with a victory over the visiting Atlanta Falcons tomorrow.
Tarvaris Jackson returns to a starting role for Minnesota.
While the Vikings can win the NFC North, the Falcons are in the thick of the wild card race.
Jackson, who was benched after week two, started in place of an injured Gus Frerotte and was 11-of-17 for 163 yards and a career-best four touchdowns in a 35-14 rout of Arizona last week.
Jackson also completed eight-of-10 passes for 105 yards while leading the Vikings to 17 points in a 20-16 win over Detroit in week 14 after Ferotte suffered a fracture in his lower back.
On Thursday, Vikings offensive co-ordinator Darrell Bevell announced that Jackson will start tomorrow and that Frerotte will back him up.
Jackson patiently waited to redeem himself and now has a chance to lead the Vikings to their first division title since they claimed the NFC Central in 2000.
“I tried to use [the benching] as motivation,” Jackson said. “It was hard, but I came to work every day. It was a different situation for me, but I am happy I continued to work and it paid off.”
It would be a good idea for Jackson to hand the ball off to Adrian Peterson as much as possible. Peterson rushed for 165 yards on 28 carries against Arizona, marking his franchise-record ninth 100-yard game of the season.
Peterson leads the NFL with 1,581 yards.
In the only contest today Baltimore visit Dallas.
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