Colts Eliminate Bills on 'MNF'

I N D I A N A P O L I S, Dec. 12, 2000 -- Peyton Manning, Edgerrin James and MarvinHarrison?

Who needs them when Paul Shields, Jeff Burris, Bernard Holseyand Mustafah Muhammed are around to keep the Indianapolis Colts inthe AFC playoff race?

Shields blocked a punt to set up one third-quarter score andBurris sacked Rob Johnson to force a fumble that Holsey returned 48yards for another touchdown as the Colts got just 237 yards ofoffense but beat the Buffalo Bills 44-20 Monday night.

Muhammed added a 40-yard interception return for a score in thefourth quarter as the Colts scored 35 points in the second half, 21by the defense and special teams.

Defensive Difference

“Anytime you see a defensive player running with the ball, it’sa great feeling on offense,” said Manning, who was 13-of-24 for acareer-low 132 yards. “When the defense scores, it’s a huge liftfor the whole team.”

The win kept Indianapolis (8-6) alive for an AFC playoff berthand eliminated the Bills (7-7), although the Colts still need helpto make it. Indianapolis’ victory also enabled Denver to qualifyfor the postseason, joining Oakland, Tennessee and Baltimore withtwo spots in the conference still open.

This was clearly a victory for the Indianapolis defense, whichfor two years has played the supporting cast to Manning, Harrisonand James.

This time, the offense supported the defense.

Sad Sacks

The defense sacked Johnson and Doug Flutie nine times — aftergetting just six sacks in its previous five games. The twoturnovers for touchdowns were among three for the game for a teamthat entered the game with just 15 takeaways, last in the NFL.

“You’ve got to make plays. That’s been our problem all season.We haven’t been able to take the ball away,” Colts coach Jim Morasaid. “We did that tonight. Of all the games this year, this wasthe most opportunities we’ve had to make plays and we made them.”

“I got a little impatient,” said Johnson, who was 12-of-22 for188 yards and two interceptions. “I tried to make some plays. Igot frustrated and I made some bad decisions.”

Two of the heroes were making their first starts — Brad Scioli,who had two sacks, in place of Holsey, and Muhammed in place ofTyrone Poole.

The Colts led 9-6 at halftime after an exchange of field goalsby Mike Vanderjagt and Buffalo’s Steve Christie.

But Indianapolis came out energized in the second half,especially on defense.

It stopped the Bills on three plays on the opening series, thenShields, who started four games at fullback last year but had beencut and re-signed twice this season, broke up the middle andblocked Chris Mohr’s punt. Mohr juggled the ball and had tore-start, but it was too late, and he fruitlessly tried to run.

“We didn’t have a block called at that time. We had a returncalled,” Mora said. “He just took a long time to get the kickoff.”

That gave Indianapolis the ball at the 25. James carried theball four straight times, the last time taking it in from the 1.

The play that broke it open came late in the third quarter.

Knocked Out

With Buffalo facing a third-and-2 at the Colts’ 45, Burrisblitzed from the right corner and hit Johnson from the blind side.The ball came loose and was picked up by Holsey, who took ituntouched to the end zone to make it 23-6.

“You get the blocked punt, where the punter missed the ball,then they return the fumble for a touchdown. That knocked us rightout of the ballgame pretty quick,” Buffalo coach Wade Phillipssaid. “We fought them the first half and were only three pointsbehind and suddenly we’re down 17 points in a couple of minutes.”

Buffalo cut it to 23-12 on a 1-yard run by Sammy Morris late inthe third quarter that was set up by a 34-yard pass from Johnson toEric Moulds. But the Colts came right back and went 62 yards on 12plays, scoring on the second 1-yard TD run by James, who finishedwith 111 yards on 27 carries.

After Muhammed’s interception return, the Bills added a latetouchdown on a 29-yard pass from Flutie to Peerless Price.

James closed out the scoring with a 13-yard TD run giving him 34TDs in two seasons. That ties Eric Dickerson and Gale Sayers formost touchdowns in their first two seasons.