PRO FOOTBALL / DAILY REPORT : Harbaugh Relaxes Just in Time

Despite his outward calmness, Indianapolis Colt quarterback Jim Harbaugh was so nervous on Saturday night that he could barely finish his fish dinner.

“You have to understand that just a couple of months ago, he had accepted the prospects of sitting on the bench for the rest of his career,” said Leigh Steinberg, Harbaugh’s agent. “Something very big has happened very fast. Can you imagine how it must be to deal with all of it?”

But two minutes before the Colts’ eventual 35-20 victory over the San Diego Chargers in the first round of the AFC playoffs, Harbaugh said he calmed down.

“Somebody made the announcement about being on the field in two minutes, and that made me so happy,” he said. “It was like, here I am, I get to play quarterback in a big NFL game. It was like living out a dream.”

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Bill Tobin, Colt vice president, said he purposely built a team that would withstand games in hostile places like San Diego.

Few have heard of anybody on his defense--Jeff Herrod? David Tate?--yet they held the Chargers to 84 yards in San Diego’s first three possessions after the Colts took the lead in the fourth quarter.

And few have heard of anybody on his offense--Floyd Turner? Randy Dixon?--yet they overcame three deficits.

Tobin, who helped build the great Chicago teams of the mid-1980s, said he looks for Bear types.

“We didn’t create this football team with a tape measure or a stopwatch,” Tobin said. “The first thing we look for is character. We want guys who won’t back down. We talk to coaches and friends and everyone we know.”

And, according to cornerback Ray Buchanan, they have found those guys.

“A few years ago, this team would have broken down in a game like this,” he said. “This game would have been a blowout. But now we have the sort of players who just won’t let that happen.”

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Zack Crockett’s 147 yards rushing was the single-game high in Colt playoff history. . . . In the first quarter, the Chargers’ John Carney kicked the second-longest field goal in NFL playoff history, a 54-yarder.