Manning Revs Offense for Undefeated Colts

Peyton Manning threw for 264 yards and four touchdowns, including two to Marvin Harrison that tied the NFL record for most touchdowns between a quarterback and receiver, and the Indianapolis Colts beat the Tennessee Titans, 31-10, on Sunday.

Harrison caught nine passes for 109 yards, and Edgerrin James ran for 90 yards in helping the Colts improve to 4-0 with their highest point total this season.

“I guess we won’t have to answer the question what is wrong with the offense now,” Colt Coach Tony Dungy said.

The Titans (1-3) are the NFL’s youngest team, and their inexperience showed. Drives ended repeatedly with dropped passes, including one that turned into an interception, costly penalties and two timeouts wasted in a march that finished with a missed field-goal try.

Tennessee Coach Jeff Fisher said he was disappointed by the poor performance. Center Justin Hartwig was much more succinct.

“Today they just blew us out of the water. When we didn’t come out in the second half and put points on the board right away, it was pretty much over,” Hartwig said.

Manning and the Colts were numbingly efficient and had fans streaming to the exits midway through the third quarter. They rolled up 364 yards with four drives that stretched 69 yards or longer.

“It’s tough,” Titan linebacker Peter Sirmon said. “You can’t stop it. Peyton Manning knows what he’s doing with the ball every time.”

Manning tied Ron Jaworski with his 116th consecutive start, which ranks second among quarterbacks behind Green Bay’s Brett Favre. He came into Sunday with a two-game drought without a touchdown pass that was his longest since his rookie season.

It didn’t last long.

Manning was four for four for 64 yards on the opening possession and capped the drive with a 25-yard toss to Reggie Wayne, who was wide open with Titan safety Tank Williams late sliding over to cover.

“Last week people were kind of making a big deal,” Manning said of scoring 47 points in the first three games. “I overthrew it a couple times.

“The real mind-set is to finish drives into the end zone, and we did that today. And that really was the difference.”