Monday, September 24, 2001
Four's not a crowd in Indy
Pathon joins usual stars as Colts roll 42-26
The Associated Press
INDIANAPOLIS — Forget the triplets. Now the Indianapolis Colts have a quartet.
Peyton Manning, Edgerrin James and Marvin Harrison played brilliantly as usual Sunday as they routed the Buffalo Bills 42-26. They added a fourth co-star, wide receiver Jerome Pathon, to their cast.
“Peyton and Edgerrin and Marvin are the proven big three, so it's going to be a pretty hard lineup to break,” said Pathon, who had nine catches for 168 yards. “It's still premature to say because it's a long season. If I can maintain my focus and keep this going throughout the year, I think I will do that.”
That's bad news for the rest of the league.
For the second straight game, the Colts' topped the 40-point mark and they did it in impressive fashion.
Manning passed for 421 yards, 19 short of his career high, tied a career-high with four touchdown passes and doubled his touchdowns rushing total with a 1-yard scamper in the third quarter.
James set a team record with his fifth straight 100-yard game and tied Jim Brown for second-quickest in NFL history to rush for 3,500 yards — in 34 games. The record is held by Eric Dickerson, who accomplished it in 30 games.
Harrison, who had seven catches for 146 yards, tied his career-high with three touchdown receptions and Pathon added another dimension to the offense by setting career-highs in receptions and yards receiving for the second straight game.
It was only the second time in team history, and the first since 1975, that the Colts produced a 300-yard passer, two 100-yard receivers and a 100-yard rusher. Bert Jones was the quarterback in that game, Lydell Mitchell the running back and Roger Carr and Glenn Doughty the receivers.
And...the team played in Baltimore.
“Jerome had another good game, he's really playing well,” Colts coach Jim Mora said. “But this guy is becoming, he is a very good receiver and he made some big plays today.”
While almost nothing went wrong for the Colts, the Bills, who are learning new offensive and defensive systems, did little right.
Their leading rusher was quarterback Rob Johnson with 63 yards. The defense allowed touchdowns on six straight series and never forced the Colts to punt.
And Buffalo tied a team record with 19 penalties in their first game with the NFL's regular officials.
One wiped out an end zone interception and positioned the Colts for their first touchdown. Having 12 men on the field gave the Colts 5 yards and a first down on their final touchdown drive.
“It's very frustrating,” Johnson said. “We hurt ourselves. We could have put up a couple of sevens instead of threes. We had second-and-inches and jumped offsides. We had a third-and-2 and had a play called that was perfect for what they were doing, and we jumped offsides again.”
“We were stopping ourselves at times,” new Bills coach Gregg Williams said. “Some of that's technique. I don't like that; we'll address that. We've been talking about that every day and we'll continue to pressure that a lot.”
Buffalo ....... 7 10 3 6—26
Indianapolis ....... 14 21 7 0—42
First Quarter
Buf—Clements 48 interception return (Arians kick), 12:59.
Ind—James 1 run (Vanderjagt kick), 5:14.
Ind—Pathon 60 pass from Manning (Vanderjagt kick), 1:46.
Second Quarter
Buf—Henry 4 run (Arians kick), 12:08.
Ind—Harrison 39 pass from Manning (Vanderjagt kick), 11:26.
Ind—Harrison 39 pass from Manning (Vanderjagt kick), 9:18.
Buf—FG Arians 48, 4:19. Drive: 9 plays, 31 yards, 4:58.
Ind—Harrison 7 pass from Manning (Vanderjagt kick), 1:03.
Third Quarter
Buf—FG Arians 49, 10:35.
Ind—Manning 1 run (Vanderjagt kick), 5:57.
Fourth Quarter
Buf—P.Price 40 pass from Johnson (pass failed), 1:25.
A—56,135.
Buf Ind
First downs 21 28
Rushes-yards 22-145 30-137
Passing 229 418
Punt Returns 0-0 3-16
Kickoff Returns 7-143 4-97
Interceptions Ret. 2-48 1-12
Comp-Att-Int 24-37-1 23-29-2
Sacked-Yards Lost 4-28 1-3
Punts 4-47.3 0-0
Fumbles-Lost 0-0 2-1
Penalties-Yards 19-133 8-59
Time of Possession 30:37 29:23
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING—Buffalo, R.Johnson 5-63, Henry 12-39, P.Price 1-28, Centers 3-14, Bryson 1-1. Indianapolis, James 23-111, Manning 7-26.
PASSING—Buffalo, R.Johnson 24-37-1-257. Indianapolis, Manning 23-29-2-421.
RECEIVING—Buffalo, Centers 7-56, Reimersma 5-36, McDaniel 4-48, Henry 3-36, P.Price 2-56, Moulds 2-14, S.Morris 1-11. Indianapolis, Pathon 9-168, Harrison 7-146, James 4-48, Dilger 2-51, Pollard 1-8.
MISSED FIELD GOALS—Buffalo, Arians 37 (WR). Indianapolis, Vanderjagt 45 (WL).
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Four's not a crowd in Indy
