Perfect Patriots Beat Clock, Colts

Nov 05, 05:00 AM

Current Headlines: By Jarrett Bell

Battle for NFL supremacy

INDIANAPOLIS -- Bill Belichick preached about the clock in the days leading up to the so-called Super Bowl XLI1/2 showdown at the RCA Dome on Sunday, and this hunch had nothing to do with the end of daylight saving time.

It was all about 60 minutes.

That was Belichick's theme for what it would take to defeat the Indianapolis Colts, and a half-hour after the Patriots used a fourth-quarter comeback to snatch a 24-20 victory that left them as the NFL's only undefeated team and favorites to seize Super Bowl XLII, one player after another droned on as if they were programmed.

Listen to linebacker Tedy Bruschi, at the locker near the showers.

"We realized that it was not just 60 minutes," Bruschi said, "but that we needed to win the 58th, 59th and 60th minute."

A few feet away, defensive end Richard Seymour was in the same time zone.

"Every week it's a different theme with Coach Belichick," Seymour said. "You could play 59 minutes, but it would not have been good enough."

Rosevelt Colvin, the linebacker who caught Peyton Manning's pop-up fumble that essentially slammed the door shut with 2:25 remaining -- "gift-wrapped, like I was back in high school" -- took about three seconds to, well, fall back on the clock theme.

The last time the Patriots (9-0) were here, the Colts staged a magnificent comeback in the AFC title game, overcoming an 18-point deficit that was aided by a New England offense that couldn't put the game away.

This time the Colts (7-1) are left to wonder what might have been if they had turned their first-half opportunities into points that might have buried their archrival.

Indianapolis netted two field goals on three drives into scoring range -- twice after setting up first-and-goal following long pass-interference penalties -- then couldn't buy enough points down the stretch to offset New England's charge.

This turn of events was undoubtedly rooted in the mind-set.

"You look at the situation of what happened last year and not playing for 60 minutes and how it turned our season of opportunity into a failure," Colvin said. "All offseason that was Bill's message to us. It was the finish. Not just a game, but finish the wind sprint. Finish the meeting. Finish the practice. Finish it the way you want to be."

Maybe this explains why the Patriots had no mercy on recent opponents.

Belichick went for it twice on fourth down during a 52-7 rout of the Washington Redskins a week ago Sunday and reinserted quarterback Tom Brady in the fourth quarter of a rout at the Miami Dolphins the week before that.

If the statement by such actions is that Belichick hasn't forgotten how the last AFC title was lost, when they didn't score enough in a 38-34 outcome, then so be it.

"There was a lot of uneasiness," Colvin said, "because (this season) we haven't been in this situation before."

Colts' lead wasn't safe

The Colts took a 20-10 lead with 9:42 remaining, when Manning's 1-yard TD sneak capped an eight-play drive that was set up by Gary Brackett's remarkable tip drill of an interception -- Brady's second pick.

Yet something seemed shaky about the Colts' double-digit lead. The first touchdown, just before halftime, came on a 73-yard catch-and-run by Joseph Addai -- as much an indictment of sloppy techniques by the Patriots defense as it was a brilliant effort by the running back.

"We can do a better job of coaching to get some things straightened out," Belichick said.

The Colts, though, had even more to fix for an offense that got allergic to the end zone in the first half. Indianapolis started the game with a 16-play drive that went as deep as the Patriots' 23 but got nothing. Adam Vinatieri missed a 50-yard field goal try.

Then two long pass-interference penalties -- 37 yards on Asante Samuel and 40 yards against Ellis Hobbs -- twice set up the Colts with first-and-goal situations. They settled for two short Vinatieri field goals.

These missed chances highlighted the significance of all-pro wide receiver Marvin Harrison's absence for a second consecutive game with a knee bruise. On one third down, first-round rookie Anthony Gonzalez was stripped of the ball by Samuel as he landed in the end zone. The next time, the timing with fill-in receiver Aaron Moorehead was way off on one incompletion, and a desperate third-down dump to Dallas Clark sent out the field goal unit.

There was no running up the score. Just blown chances that haunted the Colts.

"You always want to score touchdowns as opposed to field goals," Manning said.

They paid for this in the fourth quarter, when the Patriots set their watches back to a time when they owned what has evolved into the NFL's best rivalry.

The previous three games in the series were won by the Colts, who finally broke through after years of misery against New England. But in the final minutes of Sunday's game, it seemed like 2003 all over again -- when the Patriots won a regular-season game here with a goal-line stand and then prevailed in the AFC title game in Foxborough, Mass.

Moss comes up big

First it was a quick, seven-play, 73-yard touchdown drive capped by Brady's third-down, 3-yard throw to Wes Welker.

The score was set up by Brady's 55-yard completion to Randy Moss, who is new to the series in his first year with the Patriots but now officially a Colts killer.

Moss blew past safety Antoine Bethea (who thwarted a first-half Patriots scoring drive with a leaping goal-line interception), then absorbed a crash from Bob Sanders to hang on at the 3-yard line. Moss, who scored a 4-yard TD in the second quarter, finished with 145 yards on nine catches.

"We hadn't been throwing it deep very much all day," said Brady, who passed for 255 yards and set an NFL record with his ninth consecutive game with at least three touchdowns. With 33 TD passes for the season, he owns a new franchise mark.

"I think we had been picking our spots. Randy had a great release, and he got up on that safety. I just tried to throw it up for him. It was a great catch. That was a big spark for us. I'm glad we scored quickly, because when we got the ball back we had some time."

Said Dungy, "We did not have an answer for Randy Moss."

Patriots defense rises up

The Colts also didn't have an answer for a Patriots defense that stiffened down the stretch. In the first half, Indianapolis shredded New England with a heavy dose of Addai, whose 187 rushing-receiving yards stamped a 13-7 halftime cushion, but by crunchtime the Patriots defense controlled the line of scrimmage.

Manning took all three of his sacks in the fourth, including one from Colvin with four minutes to play, forcing a fumble that the Colts recovered.

Then it was Brady's time again. He struck fast, throwing to Donte' Stallworth -- another of the new Patriots wideouts this season, like Moss and Welker -- for 33 yards along the sideline. That set up Brady's dump over the middle to Kevin Faulk, who raced into the end zone for a 13-yard TD that provided the final margin.

The Colts had one more chance at the end, but that was snuffed out by Jarvis Green's sack, which forced the Manning fumble that landed in Colvin's hands.

The Patriots closed it out with Brady connecting on a throw to Welker, who beat Marlin Jackson's coverage on a tight route similar to his TD.

The big catches by Moss, Welker and Stallworth in the final minutes provided another stark reminder of how much improved these Patriots are -- capable of producing the clutch offense -- than the unit that failed here last season.

And just like old times, Brady was winning with a fourth-quarter rally while Manning was dismantled by the Patriots defense.

"We haven't had a game like this all year," said Bruschi, mindful that New England's tightest margin of victory to this point was a 17-point win against the Cleveland Browns. "Winning a game like this, it's nice to know that we still know how to win 'em."

And they know it takes 60 minutes.

"We didn't play Patriots football for the majority of the game," said Stallworth, alluding to mistakes that included a club-record 146 penalty yards on 10 infractions. "He kept telling us that we couldn't play 55 minutes. We had to play 60 minutes.

"We ended up playing probably six or seven good minutes -- but at the right time."

With the close call, Stallworth figures Belichick's next theme will come easily.

"Bill's going to be extra busy tonight, cooking up a lot of humble pie," Stallworth said. "There's going to be a lot of that pie to go around."

The following fields overflowed:

OBJECT = c1scov05 c01_scov_05.jpg.105 c01_scov_small_05.jpg05 c02_big_scov_jump_05.jpg05 c01_v3_scov_small_05.jpg05 (c) Copyright 2005 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.