Colts Hang a Left, Win

It sounds like a left-handed compliment, but Peyton Manning might be the best “amphibious” quarterback in the NFL.

Manning, who threw four touchdown passes Monday to power the Indianapolis Colts past the Minnesota Vikings, 31-28, set up the game-winning field goal with a play that required the hands of a magician. On third and five, with a defender in his face, he improvised by throwing a left-handed shovel pass for the first down.

Not since his days at Isidore Newman High had he thrown a pass with his left hand.

“My high school coach used to tell me, ‘You’ve got to be amphibious when you’re sprinting to the left,’ ” Manning said with a smile. “I’d say, ‘You mean ambidextrous.’ [He’d say], ‘Nah, nah, amphibious.’ That was his expression. That’s one of those things you do before practice when you don’t really want to throw, you might do a couple left-handed options.”

The Colts followed something very rare with something very routine. Mike Vanderjagt, the most accurate kicker in history, made a 35-yard field goal with two seconds left to clinch the victory.

The kick wasn’t a no-brainer for Vanderjagt, who has made six of eight field-goal attempts this season. The Colt offense scores so many touchdowns, the kicker doesn’t get a lot of work other than on extra-point attempts.

“You lose your rhythm, you have doubt in your mind sometimes because it’s been so long since you made a bunch,” he said. “In a situation like that where the team is setting up for it as if it’s automatic, and everybody in the stadium is, ‘Oh, game’s over,’ you still have to make the kick. So there’s a little bit more pressure.”

With their season in danger of slipping away, the Colts (5-3) had no option but to win. They were coming off consecutive losses, and came into the game with the league’s worst defense. The Vikings (5-3), meanwhile, were looking to regain their equilibrium after a disheartening loss to the New York Giants a week earlier.

The matchup featured the two best passing offenses in the league and two of the premier quarterbacks, Manning and Daunte Culpepper. But the Vikings were missing all-pro receiver Randy Moss, who is nursing a strained hamstring and sat out a game for the first time in his seven-year career. Typically, Moss excels on the big stage. He has 11 touchdowns in nine career Monday night games.

“They probably ran the ball a little bit more than they wanted to,” Colt defensive end Dwight Freeney said. “But regardless, it’s football. Sometimes you’re not going to have your best guys out there. Sometimes your guys are going to be hurt. That’s why you have backup guys.”

The Vikings had 292 yards of offense, marking the first time in a record 36 games they had fewer than 300, and their 154 yards passing were precisely half their league-leading average.

Indianapolis had 408 yards of offense, nearly half of which was generated by running back Edgerrin James. He rushed for 123 yards in 26 carries, and caught five passes -- including the left-hander -- for 56 yards.

Tight end Marcus Pollard caught a pair of touchdown passes for the Colts, and the other two were reeled in by Dallas Clark and Reggie Wayne.

“If we keep spreading it around like that, it’s going to be hard to defend this team,” Pollard said.

After falling behind early in the second quarter, 14-0, the Vikings chipped away at the lead with a pair of field goals in the second quarter, then forged a tie in the third when Nate Burleson returned a punt 91 yards for a touchdown and Culpepper plunged into the end zone on a conversion run.

Early in the fourth quarter, after the Colts had reclaimed the lead, Burleson caught an eight-yard touchdown pass to even things, 21-21. Over the next 11 minutes, came touchdowns by Pollard and Minnesota’s Onterrio Smith, which set the stage for the game-clinching drive.

For the Vikings, the first play was almost as discouraging as the last. A bad exchange between center Matt Birk and Culpepper on the opening play led to a fumble and a mad scramble for the ball, which bounced back toward the goal line. A pack of Colts botched a chance to recover it, and Minnesota tackle Bryant McKinnie wound up pouncing on it at the six after a loss of 28.