The first two wishes of Lovie Smith and Tony Dungy came true Sunday. Only one of them will get their third.
Both coaches wanted their teams to meet in the Super Bowl and it took a near-flawless and playoff-record second half by Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts to set up the Feb. 4 match against the Bears in Miami.
Dungy and Manning won’t need a plane to get there. The sigh of relief after finally beating the New England Patriots 38-34 will be enough to carry their entire team wherever it wants to go.
The Colts couldn’t have won in more dramatic fashion, overcoming a 21-3 deficit, the biggest in championship game history. They scored on five of seven second-half possessions, got the winning touchdown on Joseph Addai’s 3-yard run with one minute left, then clinched it when Marlin Jackson intercepted Tom Brady with 16 seconds to go.
The Bears can only hope the Colts wore themselves completely out with the effort.
“We have one more mission in Miami,” said Colts owner Jim Irsay, a Loyola Academy graduate from Skokie.
“It’s a shame we have to go to Miami. We should have to go to Ft. Wayne,” Dungy said.
Smith and Dungy are the first African-American coaches to get their teams to a Super Bowl.
“I thank the Lord. He did it in such a way nobody would believe,” Dungy said. “I’m proud to represent African-American coaches and I’m so proud of Lovie, but this is about Indianapolis and this Colts team right now.”
It was Asante Samuel’s 39-yard touchdown return of Manning’s interception that put the Colts behind 21-3. Later, Manning injured the thumb on his right hand when he banged it on tackle Tarik Glenn’s helmet.
“Adrenaline carried me through,” Manning said. “Hardly anybody comes back when the Patriots have a lead, but it’s the last game of the season, so there was no point getting mad and panicking about it.”
After the Samuel play, it got so quiet inside the RCA Dome you could have heard hearts drop. But Manning led twin 76-yard drives to start the second half against coach Bill Belichick’s suddenly vulnerable defense. Manning sneaked 1 yard for the first touchdown and passed 1 yard to ex-Patriots defensive lineman Dan Klecko before finding Marvin Harrison in the end zone on a two-point conversion to tie it.
After trading two more touchdowns and two field goals, a 43-yard field goal by Stephen Gostkowski put the Patriots ahead 34-31 with 3:49 to play and the Colts went three-and-out on the ensuing series. But the Patriots punted back, setting Manning up for his heroics with 2:17 to play.
From his own 20-yard line, Manning hit a wide-open Bryan Fletcher for 32 yards on a play Fletcher called. Manning hit Reggie Wayne for 14 yards and Tully Banta-Cain was penalized for roughing the passer, putting the ball on the 11.
From there, Addai ran three times to put the ball in the end zone.
“For Peyton to get to the Super Bowl with a drive like that, it probably won’t shut up everybody, but he’s a great player and anybody who knows anything about football can see that,” Dungy said.
Manning said he watched the Bears beat the Saints.
“It’s not a great feeling seeing how good the Bears are and seeing how good that defense is, so we know what kind of challenge we’ll have down there,” Manning said.
After the Colts had worked so hard to come back for the 21-21 tie, Patriots cornerback Ellis Hobbs ruined the celebration by returning the ensuing kickoff 80 yards. That set up a controversial score when Jabar Gaffney was ruled forced out of the end zone while leaping for a pass from Brady. Dungy challenged but lost and the Patriots went ahead 28-21.
Back came Manning, this time for 67 yards. He found Dallas Clark for 23 yards to the 9 to set up a run by Dominic Rhodes, who fumbled at the goal line and center Jeff Saturday recovered in the end zone.
Gostkowski and ex-Patriot Adam Vinatieri then traded field goals to make it 31-31. Another long return by Hobbs set up Brady at his 46, but the Colts’ defense held, forcing the Patriots to settle for Gostkowski’s field goal.
This only set the stage for a Brady-like finish, this time featuring Manning.
“I don’t know if you’re supposed to pray, but I said a little prayer before that drive,” Manning said. “We wanted to score but not too fast. You don’t want to give Tom Brady the ball with two timeouts even with a minute.”
This was the Colts’ best chance yet against their archnemesis, their first AFC title game at home after losing a semifinal in New England in 2005 and the title game there in 2004. Manning evened his postseason record at 6-6 in his ninth season and knocked a monkey off his back that had threatened to grow into a gorilla at halftime.
“We had to go through a great champion and do it from 18 points down,” Dungy said. “I told the guys at halftime, we were going to have the ball with a chance to win in the fourth quarter.”
Dungy finally advanced to the big game in his ninth playoff in 11 seasons in Tampa Bay and Indianapolis. He got to the 2000 NFC title game with Smith on his Bucs staff before getting the Colts to the finals twice.
Belichick and Brady were denied their fourth Super Bowl in six seasons.
The way the Patriots scored their first touchdown signaled this might not be Colts’ day again.
Brady’s handoff to Laurence Maroney was batted in the air and kicked on the ground before squirting from underneath a pile of Colts into the end zone, where guard Logan Mankins pounced on it.
Manning sat helplessly on the bench, no doubt pondering how Belichick and Brady drew that one up.
But after Manning’s pass to Klecko and Saturday’s match of Mankins’ touchdown, the Colts found out how the other half lives.
“I’m so happy Lovie got there because he does things the right way, with a lot of class, no profanity, no intimidation, just helping his guys play the best they can. That’s the way I try to do it,” Dungy said.
“I think it’s great we’re able to show the world that not only African-American coaches can do it, but Christian coaches can do it in a way that we can still win.
“When he took the job, we talked about how happy we were he was in the NFC and maybe we could meet someday. But realistically, it’s hard to dream of that.”
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Comeback for the ages
The Colts’ rally from 18 down was the largest in a conference championship game and tied for fourth largest in the playoffs.
32 AFC first round, Jan. 3, 1993: Buffalo, 35-3 vs. Houston.
24 NFC first round, Jan. 5, 2003: 49ers, 38-14 vs. Giants.
20 Western Conf. playoff, Dec. 22, 1957: Lions, 27-7 vs. 49ers.
18 AFC championship, Sunday: Colts, 21-3 vs. Patriots. NFC semifinal, Dec. 23, 1972: Dallas, 21-3 vs. 49ers. AFC semifinal, Jan. 4, 1986: Miami, 21-3 vs. Browns.
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dpierson@tribune.com
