Bad Day, but Colts Still Win Seventh in a Row

Peyton Manning passed for only 198 yards and one touchdown, but the streaking Indianapolis Colts survived three turnovers and beat the New York Jets, 13-6, Sunday.

“We made it closer than it should have been,” said Manning, who threw two interceptions. “It’s nice to win and still have a lot of room for improvement. We just need to make the corrections and stop the costly mistakes. We played hard, but didn’t quite play smart enough.

“We moved the ball well and had plenty of time to score a lot of touchdowns, but we just made too many mistakes.”

It was the seventh consecutive victory for the Colts (9-2), the longest winning streak for the franchise since the Baltimore Colts won nine in a row in 1975. They are one game ahead of the Miami Dolphins going into an AFC East showdown next Sunday at Miami.

“It’s a nice feeling, but you want to be in first place at the end of the season, at the end of the playoffs,” Manning said. “But obviously you have to put yourself in a position to be in first place, and we are. They don’t get any bigger than next week at Miami.”

The Jets (4-7), who lost to Indianapolis, 16-13, last month, gave Manning and Co. a tough game, but a two-yard touchdown pass from Manning to Marcus Pollard in the first quarter, and two field goals by Mike Vanderjagt were enough.

Indianapolis has scored no fewer than 25 points against any other team but got only 29 in sweeping the Jets, who had won three in a row. The Colts came in as the NFL’s top offensive team at 378 yards a game, but were held to a season-low 287.

“I knew this was going to be a difficult game,” Colt Coach Jim Mora said. “They’re better than they were the first game, and we certainly didn’t help ourselves. We made it tougher than we should have. We made some critical errors.

“Defensively, we played better than we did against them a few weeks ago. The defense didn’t give up any big plays, and we played solid, consistent defense throughout the game.”

The Jets moved to the Colt 17 with a chance to tie in the closing minutes, but a holding penalty on Kerry Jenkins set the Jets back to the 27. Two long passes by Ray Lucas were broken up in the end zone by Billy Austin.

“That was a play we practiced a thousand times, and I certainly expected to make that catch,” the Jets’ Wayne Chrebet said of the last pass. “It was just a dropped ball. Any time you can get your hands on a ball and you don’t bring it in, it is definitely a drop.”

Edgerrin James, the NFL leader in total yards from scrimmage after a career-high 152 yards rushing against the Eagles, had 74 yards rushing and 53 yards in receptions.