Game 16 - Indianapolis 29, Cleveland 28

CLEVELAND (Sun Dec 26 18:45:04 1999) -- Mike Vanderjagt's 21-yard field goal with four seconds left capped a furious fourth-quarter comeback as the Indianapolis Colts kept alive their hopes for homefield advantage throughout the AFC playoffs with a 29-28 win over the Cleveland Browns.

At 13-2, Indianapolis completed the best turnaround in NFL history with a 10-game improvement from last season's 3-13 mark. The Colts tied a club record with its 11th straight win and matched a franchise record for most wins in a season, set in 1968 when the Colts finished 13-1.

"The objective in this business is to win football games and that's what we did," Mora said. "That's a credit to our team that we were able to come back and win. We'll take the win. I'm happy with it, but I'm not pleased with the way we played in certain areas. Hopefully we can learn from this, correct it and make us a better team down the road."

Edgerrin James' third touchdown run of the game from two yards out pulled Indianapolis within 28-26 with 9:54 left in the fourth quarter.

After forcing the Browns to punt, the Colts started on their own 43 with 4:12 remaining. But Peyton Manning guided his team 54 yards, including a 10-yard pass to James on 3rd-and-4 to the Cleveland 20, to set up Vanderjagt's game-winning kick, his third field goal of the game.

"It was a dogfight the entire game. That's what we expected," Manning said. "We didn't play as well as we could have. I feel good about the win. This is a tough place to play. We'll take the win and run with it."

Indianapolis moved into a tie with the Jacksonville Jaguars for the best record in the AFC going into the final weekend of the regular season. The Colts play at Buffalo next week, while the Jaguars host Cincinnati.

"Coach (Jim) Mora addressed it yesterday a little bit," Manning said. "We didn't get into the tiebreaker rules. But we needed to come in here today and score points to win. We needed to score a lot of points and win."

Manning completed 28-of-44 passes for 283 yards. Marvin Harrison reeled in a franchise-record 14 catches for 138 yards, and James had 103 yards on 28 carries. The Colts racked up 404 yards of total offense.

Terry Kirby rushed for two touchdowns and Karim Abdul-Jabbar had 82 yards on 19 carries as the Browns (2-14) rushed for a season-high 141 yards in their final game of the season.

Starting for the injured rookie Tim Couch, Ty Detmer was 15-of-26 for 173 yards and added an eight-yard touchdown run early in the third quarter, the longest scoring run of the season for Cleveland.

The Browns finished winless at home in its first season back in the league.

Cleveland went 60 yards in seven plays on its opening drive of the second half as Detmer went up the middle on 3rd-and-4 for a touchdown to extend the Browns' lead to 21-13.

But the Colts answered back on their next possession as James had three carries for 28 yards, including a 15-yard run to the Cleveland 3 which set up his one-yard run two plays later. James failed to reach the end zone on his conversion attempt as Cleveland's lead was cut to 21-19 with 7:04 left in the third quarter.

The Browns moved out to a 28-19 lead late in the quarter as they went 90 yards on seven plays, capped off by Kirby's second touchdown run of the game from one yard out with 11 seconds to go.

"I have been in situations where at the end off the year guys have their cars running in the parking lot ready to go home," Cleveland coach Chris Palmer said. "But our guys hung in there and it caused an exciting ballgame."

Abdul-Jabbar helped Cleveland take a 7-0 lead in the first quarter as he had five carries for 28 yards, including an 11-yard run to the Indianapolis 7, to set up Kirby's one-yard score with 4:10 to play.

Harrison, who already has set club records for receptions and yards in a season, had four catches for 71 yards on the Colts' game-tying drive late in the quarter.

"When you're in the flow off the game, you just go out and make plays and try to make catches," Harrison said. "When it was over, it was a shock to me but I really didn't notice."

After getting the ball back, the Colts took a risk as they went for it on 4th-and-8 at the Cleveland 31. But Manning connected with Harrison on a 30-yard pass to the Cleveland 1 on the final play of the first quarter. James' one-yard touchdown run on the second play of the second quarter tied the game.

Detmer engineered Cleveland's go-ahead touchdown as he completed two third-down passes to set up his 28-yard touchdown pass to Darrin Chiaverini with 10:07 left in the first half.

Vanderjagt's 41-yard field goal with 1:56 left in the second quarter cut the Browns' lead to 14-10. The Colts forced Cleveland to punt, and Terrence Wilkins returned it 39 yards to the Cleveland 33 with 51 seconds remaining.

Manning's 15-yard pass to Wilkins moved the ball to the Cleveland 3 with 22 seconds left. After three straight incompletions, Vanderjagt kicked a 19-yard field goal with no time left as Indianapolis moved within 14-13.

NFL FINAL 1ST 2ND 3RD 4TH TOTAL
--- --- --- --- -----
INDIANAPOLIS 0 13 6 10 29
CLEVELAND 7 7 14 0 28 FINAL

SCORING SUMMARY

1ST QUARTER: CLE - TD, TERRY KIRBY 1 YD RUN (PHIL DAWSON KICK), 10:50.
Drive: 11 plays, 53 yards in 5:47. Key plays:
Detmer 12-yard pass to Davis on 3rd-and-10 to
Indianapolis 29; Abdul-Jabbar 7-yard run to
Indianapolis 22; Abdul-Jabbar 11-yard run to
Indianapolis 7; Abdul-Jabbar 5 carries for 28
yards. CLEVELAND 7-0
2ND QUARTER: IND - TD, EDGERRIN JAMES 1 YD RUN (MIKE VANDERJAGT KICK),
0:54. Drive: 9 plays, 72 yards in 5:04. Key
plays: Manning 28-yard pass to Harrison to
Cleveland 44; Manning 30-yard pass to Harrison
on 4th-and-8 to Cleveland 1. Harrison 4 catches
for 71 yards. INDIANAPOLIS 7, CLEVELAND 7
CLE - TD, DARRIN CHIAVERINI 28 YD PASS FROM TY DETMER
(PHIL DAWSON KICK), 4:53. Drive: 7 plays, 67
yards in 3:49. Key plays: Detmer 22-yard pass
to Smith on 3rd-and-5 to Indianapolis 40;
Detmer 6-yard pass to Smith on 3rd-and-4 to
Indianapolis 28. CLEVELAND 14-7
IND - FG, MIKE VANDERJAGT 41 YD, 13:04. Drive: 13 plays,
66 yards in 6:19. Key plays: Manning 12-yard
pass to Harrison on 3rd-and-8 to Indianapolis
25; Manning 12-yard pass to Green on 3rd-and-7
to Cleveland 49; Manning 18-yard pass to
Pollard to Cleveland 31. CLEVELAND 14-10
IND - FG, MIKE VANDERJAGT 19 YD, 15:00. Drive: 7 plays,
32 yards in 0:51. Key plays: Wilkens 39-yard
punt return to Cleveland 33; Manning 10-yard
pass to Dilger to Cleveland 18; Manning 15-yard
pass to Wilkens to Cleveland 3. CLEVELAND 14-13
3RD QUARTER: CLE - TD, TY DETMER 8 YD RUN (PHIL DAWSON KICK), 4:13.
Drive: 7 plays, 60 yards in 4:13. Key plays:
Detmer 25-yard pass to Edwards to Indianapolis
45; Abdul-Jabbar 9-yard run to Indianapolis 30;
Detmer 16-yard pass to Smith to Indianapolis
14. CLEVELAND 21-13
IND - TD, EDGERRIN JAMES 1 YD RUN (TWO-POINT CONVERSION
FAILED), 7:56. Drive: 6 plays, 69 yards in
3:43. Key plays: Manning 25-yard pass to Dilger
to Cleveland 44; Mannin 11-yard pass to
Harrison to Cleveland 28; James 10-yard run to
Cleveland 18; James 15-yard run to Cleveland 3.
CLEVELAND 21-19
CLE - TD, TERRY KIRBY 1 YD RUN (PHIL DAWSON KICK), 14:49.
Drive: 7 plays, 90 yards in 4:13. Key plays:
Detmer 25-yard pass to Johnson to Cleveland 39;
Abdul-Jabbar 21-yard run to Indianapolis 40;
Edawards 28-yard run to Indianapolis 4.
CLEVELAND 28-19
4TH QUARTER: IND - TD, EDGERRIN JAMES 2 YD RUN (MIKE VANDERJAGT KICK),
5:06. Drive: 11 plays, 77 yards in 5:06. Key
plays: Manning 9-yard run on 3rd-and-4 to
Indianapolis 49; Manning 9-yard pass to
Harrison to Cleveland 42; Mannin 14-yard pass
to Wlikins to Cleveland 20; Manning 12-yard
pass to Dilger to Cleveland 8. CLEVELAND 28-26
IND - FG, MIKE VANDERJAGT 21 YD, 14:56. Drive: 11 plays,
54 yards in 4:12. Key plays: Manning 7-yard
pass to Harrison to Cleveland 47; Manning
8-yard run to Cleveland 36; Manning 10-yard
pass to James on 3rd-and-4 to Cleveland 30;
5-yard offsides penalty on Browns on 3rd-and-3
to Cleveland 8. INDIANAPOLIS 29-28

TEAM STATISTICS

IND CLE
-------- --------
FIRST DOWNS 27 17
Rushing 10 9
Passing 16 8
Penalty 1 0
3RD-DOWN EFFICIENCY 5-12 5-11
4TH-DOWN EFFICIENCY 1-1 0-0
TOTAL NET YARDS 403 314
Total plays 74 52
Average gain 5.4 6.0
NET YARDS RUSHING 120 141
Rushes 30 26
Average per rush 4.0 5.4
NET YARDS PASSING 283 173
Completed-attempted 28-44 15-26
Yards per pass 6.4 6.7
Sacked-yards lost 0-0 0-0
Had intercepted 0 0
PUNTS-AVERAGE 5-45.2 6-43.2
RETURN YARDAGE 121 78
Punts-returns 4-56 1-6
Kickoffs-returns 5-65 5-72
Interceptions-returns 0-0 0-0
PENALTIES-YARDS 0-0 6-32
FUMBLES-LOST 1-0 0-0
TIME OF POSSESSION 37:20 22:40


PLAYER STATISTICS

Missed field goals: None.

Indianapolis rushing: Edgerrin James 28-103, Peyton Manning 2-17.

Cleveland rushing: Karim Abdul-jabbar 19-84, Marc Edwards 1-28, Terry
Kirby 5-21, Ty Detmer 1-8.

Indianapolis passing: Peyton Manning 28-44 for 283 yards, 0 INT, 0
TD.

Cleveland passing: Ty Detmer 15-26 for 173 yards, 0 INT, 1 TD.

Indianapolis receiving: Marvin Harrison 14-138, Ken Dilger 4-56,
Edgerrin James 4-25, Terrence Wilkins 3-28, Marcus Pollard 2-24, E.g.
Green 1-12.

Cleveland receiving: Irv Smith 4-48, Darrin Chiaverini 3-40, Kevin
Johnson 2-29, Karim Abdul-jabbar 2-7, Marc Edwards 1-25, Zola Davis
1-13, Terry Kirby 1-8, Orlando Bobo 1-3.

Indianapolis tackles-assists-sacks (unofficial): Michael Barber
7-0-0, Chad Cota 5-1-0, Chad Bratzke 4-1-0, Mike Peterson 3-1-0,
Bernard Whittington 3-1-0, Jason Belser 3-1-0, Larry Chester 3-0-0,
Billy Austin 3-0-0, Cornelius Bennett 2-0-0, Mark Thomas 2-0-0, Jeff
Burris 1-0-0, Ellis Johnson 1-0-0, Bert Berry 1-0-0, Keith Elias
0-1-0, Marcus Pollard 1-0-0, Spencer Reid 1-0-0, Ratcliff Thomas
1-1-0.

Cleveland tackles-assists-sacks (unofficial): Marquez Pope 9-1-0,
Corey Fuller 5-0-0, Jamir Miller 4-1-0, Marlon Forbes 2-3-0, Ryan
Mcneil 3-1-0, Mike Thompson 3-1-0, Daylon Mccutcheon 2-2-0, Wali
Rainer 3-0-0, John Thierry 3-0-0, Darius Holland 2-1-0, Raymond
Jackson 2-1-0, Lenoy Jones 2-1-0, Marquis Smith 2-1-0, Derrick L
Alexander 2-0-0, Stalin Colinet 2-0-0, Earl Little 4-0-0, Bill Duff
1-0-0, Antonio Langham 1-0-0, Hurvin Mccormack 1-0-0, Rahim Abdullah
0-1-0, James Williams 1-2-0, Chris Gardocki 1-0-0, Madre Hill 1-0-0,
Tarek Saleh 2-0-0.

Interceptions: None.

Fumbles lost: None.

Opponent's fumbles recovered: None.

Officials: Referee-Phil Luckett, Umpire-Bob Waggoner, Head
linesman-Gary Slaughter, Line judge-Byron Boston, Field judge-David
Warden, Side judge-Ron Liebsack, Back judge-Bill Leavy.

A: 72,618; T: 3:00.

 

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