Colts beat Ravens, head to AFC title game

INDIANAPOLIS — Peyton Manning beat the Ravens and buried a myth.

Say goodbye to the bye-week blues.

In his first game since winning an unprecedented fourth NFL MVP award, Manning threw for two touchdowns Saturday night in the Indianapolis Colts’ 20-3 victory over the Baltimore Ravens. The decisive win came after a playoff bye, something that had been a plague, not a respite, for Manning and his teammates.

“I don’t think it matters if you’ve had a bye or you’re playing home or away,” Manning said when asked about Indy’s previous 0-3 record after sitting out the wild-card round. “This myth that you can’t win after a bye week, I haven’t believed in it.”

The Colts (15-2) will host the AFC championship next Sunday against San Diego or the New York Jets.

“Whoever it is, we know it’s going to be a challenge and we have to step it up another notch,” coach Jim Caldwell said.

Manning and the other Colts starters got lots of rest when the rookie coach sat them for long portions of the final two regular-season games, both losses after they had opened 14-0. Then they had the bye, a reward for owning the league’s best record.

But previously it was a curse for the Colts.

“There’s no question how the guys used the off week,” Manning said. “We kind of called it preparation week. I thought we had good preparation coming into this game, thought we came out sharp and kind of set the tempo from the get-go.”

Not quite from the outset. When the Ravens (10-8), who routed New England in the wild-card round, marched 87 yards for an early field goal, the All-Pro quarterback’s sour face told it all.

By halftime, the scoreboard told it all: Indianapolis 17, Baltimore 3.

It didn’t get any tighter, even though Ed Reed got his fourth career interception of Manning in the third quarter. Reed was stripped of the ball by a sprinting Pierre Garcon, the intended receiver, at the end of a 38-yard return. Dallas Clark recovered, and Reed was robbed of another pick five plays later because of a pass interference call on Corey Ivy.

The Ravens’ vaunted defense was self-destructing, and Manning gave it another push toward the offseason with a 14-play drive to Matt Stover’s 33-yard field goal early in the fourth quarter.

Directing a patient offense, Manning finished 30 of 44 for 246 yards. He showed the Ravens there’s a price to pay for keeping the ball out of his hands: Once he gets it, he doesn’t give it back — at least not until he’s gotten the Colts plenty of points and a playoff win.

The last time the Colts hosted the conference title game was three years ago, when they won their only Super Bowl representing Indianapolis. That championship victory came in Miami, the same site as next month’s Super Bowl.

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