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Now the Kansas City Chiefs know how the Denver Broncos felt a week ago.
Helpless.
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At least when it came to stopping Peyton Manning, who has made the playoffs his personal playground this postseason.
"He's just been fantastic," Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy said
after Sunday's wild 38-31 win at Arrowhead Stadium. "I don't know how you
can be any better." Tickets
One week after his performance against the Broncos, when he registered a perfect
quarterback rating, Manning engineered six scoring drives in Sunday's AFC divisional
contest. That might explain the pained expression on the face of Chiefs defensive
coordinator Greg Robinson.
"We kept putting it on them, kept scoring, and it put the pressure on their
offense," Colts center Jeff Saturday said.
As much as Chiefs quarterback Trent Green tried, he couldn't keep up.
Not even with a little help from Dante Hall, who added a 92-yard kickoff return
to his Pro Bowl résumé, and Priest Holmes, who ran for 176 yards
- a Chiefs postseason record.
"We just couldn't get them off the field," coach Dick Vermeil lamented.
As a result, Manning, criticized for not being able to win the big game in the
past, has the Colts headed back to the AFC Championship for the first time since
the 1995 season.
If anyone can stop Manning, it would be New England coach Bill Belichick, whose
Patriots held on for a 38-34 win in Week 12, when Edgerrin James was tackled
at the 1-yard line as time expired.
"It's going to be a battle," Saturday said of Sunday's rematch against
the Patriots, which will be at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass., rather than
at Indy's RCA Dome.
"Those guys play tough defense and their offense controls the clock. They
don't beat themselves. We just have to match their intensity."
They certainly did that Sunday against a Chiefs team that hadn't been in the
playoffs since the Broncos stunned them in a 1997 divisional game at Arrowhead
Stadium.
While that 14-10 game was a defensive struggle, Sunday's proved to be the shootout
everyone expected.
More amazing than the 69 combined points and 842 total yards was that neither
team punted - a first in NFL postseason history.
"You've got to love that," Saturday said. "Big Hunter (Smith,
the punter), he's collecting checks nicely. Maybe he can make a little donation
for the offensive line."
Or to Manning, who in two playoff games has passed for 681 yards and eight TDs,
with no interceptions.
Just like a week ago, he went to Brandon Stokley early, setting up a 29-yard
TD pass with play-action.
The Chiefs, knowing they had no margin for error, responded with only a field
goal.
It was little mistakes that cost them dearly.
In the first quarter, the Chiefs - tops in the NFL with a 77.8 red-zone conversion
rate - couldn't punch it on despite first-and-goal from the 6.
In the second, they came up empty after driving 57 yards.
Tony Gonzalez saw his 27-yard TD catch nullified by a questionable pushing-off
penalty. Then veteran wide receiver Johnnie Morton dropped a third-and-4 pass
inside Indy's 10-yard line and Anderson missed wide left on a 31-yard field-goal
attempt.
The heartbreaker came in the third quarter, when safety David Macklin, who twice
intercepted Jake Plummer last week, stripped Holmes after his 48-yard run to
the Colts 22-yard line.
"That was a big momentum swing," Colts cornerback Walt Harris said.
"A play like that sometimes takes the fight out of a team."
Neither the Chiefs, nor their raucous fans, would give up.
Hall's fifth return for a touchdown this season pulled them within 31-24 late
in the third quarter.
But Manning wasn't done either.
Playing traffic cop behind the line, he checked off on third down and hit Reggie
Wayne on the slant for 27 yards - setting up James' 1-yard TD run that bumped
Indy's lead back to 14 points.
Then, after the Chiefs drove 76 yards in 17 plays to pull within a touchdown
again, Vermeil made the fateful decision with 4 minutes, 22 seconds left.
Knowing his defense hadn't stopped Manning but once all day, Vermeil thought
about going for an onside kick, only to opt against it.
"The percentages aren't good," said Vermeil, who saw his bid to take
three different teams to the Super Bowl come up short. "I did what I thought
was right at the time."
It proved the wrong choice as Indy's offense, behind Manning and James, made
two first downs before giving the ball up with 8 seconds left.
For an offense behind the eight ball all day, that wouldn't be enough.
"It was a good season," Chiefs defensive end Eric Hicks said of a
year that started 9-0. "We hate to see it end like this."
For maestro Manning, the fun continues, and so does the humble attitude as evidenced
by his answer to a question about being in a "zone."
"That's kind of deep for me, that whole 'zone' thing," said Manning,
whose only mistake Sunday came when he knocked a tape recorder off the podium.
"I think it was (Michael) Jordan who said that a few years ago (but) that's
to deep for me.
"I'm just a football player. I'm hot."