Colts Wearing Their Lucky Horseshoe

Some guy named Ronald Humphrey is a victory away from running with the ball in a Super Bowl. Clif Groce, and that’s Clif with one ‘f,’ is now 60 minutes of football away from becoming a household name. Three weeks from now, little kids all across America might be making like Bradford Banta.

Put it this way, as quarterback Jim Harbaugh did Sunday, the Indianapolis Colts are “just a bunch of ragamuffins,” and on their way to Pittsburgh to play for the AFC championship after stunning the Kansas City Chiefs, 10-7, in a divisional playoff game before 77,594 in Arrowhead Stadium.

“Let me tell you this,” said Colt Coach Ted Marchibroda, so excited that he ran his words on top of each other. “In the 1960 championship game Norm Van Brocklin took the Philadelphia Eagles, not a great football team, but they had a leader and they beat the Packers. In the back of my mind, I said, ‘Gee, maybe the Indianapolis Colts of 1995 could be the Eagles of ’60.’

“Nobody picks us. We’re the dead-end kids, so to speak. But they’re doing a heck of a job, and it’s no fluke.”

It’s a fluke, all right, but when the Steelers stop chuckling and celebrating their good fortune with an apparent walk-over to Super Bowl XXX, they will still have to contend with the likes of Brian Stablein, Eric Mahlum and Derwin Gray.

“Everybody else thinks we’re lucky,” Marchibroda said. “You win with 48 players, and we have proven that here. We don’t have Marshall Faulk [knee], Roosevelt Potts [knee] wasn’t here, Tony Siragusa [flu] missed the game, and Randy Dixon [elbow] didn’t play much. But we had guys step in for them and come through.”

The Chiefs, meanwhile, were left to ponder their self-destruction. Kicker Lin Elliott, who probably played himself out of a job, sat in front of his locker crying more than 45 minutes after the game had ended.

Elliott went wide right from 35 yards before the end of the first half, went wide left from 39 yards in the opening moments of the fourth quarter, then went wide left again from 42 yards with 37 seconds remaining in the game.

“You can’t tell by the results, but I felt like I was going to get the job done,” said Elliott, who used his sweatpants to rub the tears from his eyes. “The field was frozen and it’s tough to dig in. I was cautious and maybe I shouldn’t have been.”

Maybe the Chiefs should have continued to pound Marcus Allen at the Colts. Allen ran for 94 yards in 21 carries, but never had the chance to score his 14th playoff touchdown.

“We just didn’t do what it takes,” Allen said. “That’s why you see all the sad faces in here.”

Maybe Steve Bono should have saved his worst performance for the Chiefs for another day. Bono, who had led Kansas City to an AFC West Division title with a 13-3 record, completed 11 of 25 passes for 122 yards and three interceptions before being yanked in favor of Rich Gannon in the fourth quarter.

“Steve Bono’s had a heck of a year,” Kansas City Coach Marty Schottenheimer said. “But when you’re the quarterback, the kicker or the head coach and you don’t get the job done. . . . “

Maybe it’s Schottenheimer, the coach who can get his team to the playoffs only to stop short of the Super Bowl. “The Drive,” a 99-yard masterpiece directed by Denver’s John Elway, swiped one AFC championship from Schottenheimer when he was coaching the Browns, and “The Fumble,” Ernest Byner’s miscue as he neared the goal line in Denver, took another.

And now “The Flop,” an almost unexplainable pratfall by the Chiefs in front of their screaming faithful against a wild-card team playing at less than full strength.

“We have 48 guys that are tough suckers,” said Trev Alberts, Indianapolis linebacker. “Maybe we’re too young and dumb to realize the significance of this.”

The Colts caught the Chargers by surprise a week ago with running back Zach Crockett rushing for 147 yards. Against the Chiefs it was Cary Blanchard, Floyd Turner and Harbaugh pulling the shocker.

Blanchard, released by four teams previously and unable to win a job after trying out for four or five more, put the only three points on the scoreboard in the second half with a 30-yard field goal to break a 7-7 tie.

Turner, who had an undistinguished tenure in New Orleans before joining the Colts last season, caught a five-yard touchdown pass in the second quarter after the Chiefs had established a 7-0 lead with Bono throwing a 20-yard touchdown pass to Lake Dawson.

Harbaugh, who had fallen out of favor with the Colts prompting the off-season acquisition of Craig Erickson, frustrated the Chiefs with his scrambling and timely passing on third down.

“My [left] shoulder popped out a little bit and I was coughing up blood, but after I coughed it all out I felt better,” said Harbaugh with a grin. “Sure, I don’t think too many people outside this locker room thought we could make it this far, but we just keep grinding.

“You guys probably don’t know anything about our team, but most of the year guys have come in who weren’t expected to be major contributors. That happened with myself, and with Aaron Bailey, Ken Dilger and Lamont Warren.”

Who?

“Whoever they are, sit down and watch them on film,” said Joe Phillips, Kansas City defensive lineman. “They’re good, good enough to beat us when we had the opportunity of a lifetime there for the taking.”