Colts don’t miss a beat, 41-10

INDIANAPOLIS -- With all the breath-holding going on in the RCA Dome on Thursday night, it’s a wonder Colts fans didn’t turn as blue as their jerseys.

When would Peyton Manning cut loose? When would he shred the New Orleans Saints -- a team especially susceptible to the big pass play -- the way he strafed the Chicago Bears seven months earlier in Super Bowl XLI?

It took a while, but Manning eventually turned the NFL season kickoff into a 41-10 kick in the gut, transforming a game that was 10-10 at halftime with four unanswered scoring drives in the second half.

The relief in the stadium was palpable. The place went from raucous before kickoff, when the championship banner was unfurled, to strangely quiet as the hometown offense plodded along, to delirious when Manning put on his familiar passing-pyrotechnics show.

“There was a lot of emotion in our city the last couple of days, and today, even coming over to the stadium, you could feel it with our fans,” Colts Coach Tony Dungy said. “The game was just a great way to cap that all off.”

With a national TV audience tuned in, and a long-since sellout crowd rocking, Manning and his offense did what they have done so many times. In this case, they roasted a Saints defense that gave up more 40-yard pass plays last season than any other in the league.

And, although the Colts swear they didn’t, they clearly targeted their old teammate, Saints cornerback Jason David, who gave up two touchdown passes to Reggie Wayne and one to Marvin Harrison. Manning said that’s the first time he can remember throwing a touchdown pass to Harrison when the receiver was lined up on the left side -- seemingly further evidence the Colts were headhunting for David.

“With Marvin and Reggie, you’re always going to throw it to those guys,” said Manning, who completed 18 of 30 passes for 288 yards. “So if they have a good day, you’ll say, ‘You were picking on one guy.’ But believe me, we’re only trying to get the ball to those two guys.”

David said he was often distracted by what was going on in the Colts backfield, instead of concentrating on the player in front of him.

“Whenever you’ve got your eyes in the backfield, you’re always going to miss the receiver,” he said. “And it showed up tonight. I feel really bad, but it’s Week 1 and I just have to keep getting better. I was brought in to make plays, and I just need to learn the schemes and get better.”

The game wasn’t a total disaster for David, who spent his first three seasons with the Colts before signing with New Orleans this off-season. He provided the Saints with their only touchdown, causing and recovering a fumble by Wayne and running it back 55 yards for a touchdown in the second quarter.

“Reggie had three touchdowns,” Manning joked. “Caught two, and gave them one.”

That the Saints offense mustered just three points was shocking, considering they rolled up more yardage than anyone last season and have an arsenal that includes All-Pro quarterback Drew Brees and ultra-dangerous running backs Deuce McAllister and Reggie Bush -- each of whom had feeble 38-yard rushing nights.

“I thought it was going to be tough to hold these guys down,” Dungy said. “Watching on tape last year, what they had done in the preseason, they have a special offense with a lot of weapons. I didn’t envision holding them to three points.”

It was a masterful performance by a revamped Colts defense, one that struggled mightily to stop the run for much of last season. That unit has four new starters, including both cornerbacks, and punctuated the game by scoring on an 83-yard interception return in the final minute.

The Colts play at Tennessee a week from Sunday, and five of their next six opponents failed to notch winning records last season. That’s a favorable start for a franchise that started the 2005 season 13-0, and last season 9-0.

But for a player who never looks past the next week, that kind of speculation is premature and silly.

“This was a start,” Manning said. “That’s all it was -- a start.”

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sam.farmer@latimes.com