INDIANAPOLIS — Sorry, Peyton Manning.
No umbrella drinks and pool-side dunk gags this year.
For the first time in eight years, and only the second time in 10, Manning will not be playing in the Pro Bowl.
He’ll be going to be Miami, all right, but only to play in the other game.
The Super Bowl.
Down big and down late in the first half to the astonishingly pesky New York Jets, Manning took complete charge of the AFC championship game here Sunday at Lucas Oil Stadium, throwing three unanswered touchdown passes and leading the Indianapolis Colts to a 30-17 victory and second Super Bowl appearance in four years.
This year’s Pro Bowl will be played a week before Super Bowl XLIV in the same site of freshly renamed Sun Life Stadium, so the all-star players chosen from the two Super Bowl teams won’t be able to participate.
“I am going to miss it. Dallas is going to play, though,” Manning said, deadpanning a jab at teammate Dallas Clark, a tight end known as a great receiver and not-so-great blocker. “He could use an extra game to work on his blocking technique. They didn’t say you can’t play.”
During last year’s Pro Bowl, Manning was part of a conspiracy group that threw Broncos quarterback Jay Cutler into the hotel pool. There will be less hijinx in Manning’s life the next two weeks. Although he was frustrated early by the blitzing, smothering Jets defense, Manning wasn’t about to get outsmarted by the New York Jets’ goofy coach Rex Ryan.
“We grinded on these guys all week hard,” Manning said. “I studied a lot. Studied a lot of film. It was funny because I studied the 2005 Colts-Ravens game. I kind of said, ‘I think they might play some of this defense.’ That’s what they did today.”
He was referring to the Colts’ 24-7 win against the Baltimore Ravens, whose defensive coordinator was Ryan, in the 2005 season opener. Heard of anybody else preparing so diligently, they went back to a game four-plus years ago?
Down 17-6 against Mark Sanchez and the Jets with 2:11 left in the half here Sunday, Manning connected on three consecutive passes to slot receiver Austin Collie for gains of 18, 46 and 16 yards. Touchdown. The Colts were back in the game.
By the time the Colts got the ball again in the second half, Manning was a quarterback in rhythm. The Jets took away the Colts’ top pass catchers in Reggie Wayne and Clark, who combined for just four receptions worth 43 yards through three quarters.
So Manning instead went to his third- and fourth-best receivers, Collie and Pierre Garcon. Third- and fourth-best for the Colts are better than most. Manning threw four completions to Garcon in the Colts’ opening second-half drive, including a 4-yard fade to the end zone for the go-ahead score.
Garcon and Collie accounted for 274 of Manning’s 377 passing yards.
“You have Peyton Manning back there pulling trigger – you know, we tried everything,” Ryan said. “We tried man, we tried two-man, tried zone. We tried you-name-it. But you have to give (Manning) credit. He’s a heckuva quarterback.”
After the Jets lost their star rookie running back Shonn Greene to battered ribs in the third quarter and the Colts’ defense stopped giving up big plays, Manning mixed in Wayne and Clark with Collie and Garcon on his first drive of the fourth quarter.
The drive ended with Manning connecting with Clark on a 15-yard touchdown pass and the Colts up 27-17 midway through the fourth quarter.
The best quarterback of the present now has a chance to stamp his case as the best quarterback of all-time. Manning has been the NFL’s most prolific passer since 1998, the year the Colts were fortunate enough to have the No. 1 overall draft pick.
To the Colts’ credit, they did not whiff. Can you imagine if they listened to so many draft pundits and took Ryan Leaf?
“We did a lot of work on him,” Colts president Bill Polian said of Leaf. “I don’t care what those draft people say. Ultimately we had to make the decision as an organization and we elected to go with Peyton. And that’s that.”
That’s that? The Colts are working on an ongoing NFL record streak of seven years with at least 12 regular-season wins. They didn’t always have the kind of defense built for the postseason, but Manning will now soon head to Miami, where he will gladly surrender a chance to play in another Pro Bowl for the opportunity to play in only his second Super Bowl.
And that’s that.
Mike Klis: 303-954-1055 or mklis@denverpost.com
