As Luck Would Have It

It was a comeback for the ages, and a coming of age.

And when it was all said and done on Saturday night, Andrew Luck had etched his name into postseason lore, and the Indianapolis Colts had broken the hearts of the Kansas City Chiefs, 45-44, in an AFC wild-card playoff game.

Even Peyton Manning never did anything quite like this. With a raucous Lucas Oil Stadium crowd as the backdrop, Luck rallied the Colts from a 38-10 third-quarter deficit, leading them to the second-largest come-from-behind victory in NFL playoff history. Only the Buffalo Bills, who came from 32 points down to beat the Houston Oilers, 41-38, in overtime 21 years ago in the AFC wild-card playoffs, have clawed back from a larger hole.

“Never a doubt,” Colts coach Chuck Pagano joked. “Just how you draw it up.”

Nobody could have drawn up a game this wild, and a game that showcased Luck’s growth this much. A year ago, Luck struggled in his first playoff game against the eventual Super Bowl champion Ravens, but Saturday, he shook off three interceptions to power the comeback. He threw for 443 yards and four TDs, and on the final TD, he told receiver T.Y. Hilton to “just run.” With 4:21 left in the game and Indy still down 44-38, Luck zipped a bullet to Hilton, who got behind the Chiefs defense for the decisive 64-yard score.

That wasn’t even Luck’s biggest play. The pivotal moment came with 10:21 left and the Colts (12-5) facing a second-and-goal from the 2, still trailing 41-31. Luck called for a handoff to UConn product Donald Brown. But K.C.’s Eric Berry jarred the ball loose and it bounced off lineman Samson Satele.

Luck alertly scooped it up, then dived across the goal line to close a gap that had once been monstrous. “We lost that ball and Andrew picks that ball up and finds a way, like only Andrew can do,” marveled Pagano. “That was incredible.”

That play kept the Colts’ momentum going as they turned what should have been a K.C. blowout into a close game. Luck had been awful in the first half, so bad that he felt like “I was trying to lose the game for us.” And while Luck was bumbling, Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith was performing his own assault on history. Smith would throw for 378 yards and four TDs in the game’s first 33 minutes, breaking Joe Montana’s postseason franchise record for TDs in a game.

The last TD pass, a 10-yarder to Knile Davis just 1:21 into the third quarter, gave the Chiefs their 38-10 lead, positioning K.C. (11-6) for its first playoff win since 1993. Everything was going the Chiefs’ way, even though they had lost running back and MVP candidate Jamaal Charles to a concussion just six plays into the game.

“Twenty-one wasn’t enough at half, so we thought we would give them another seven,” Pagano said. “Just to make it interesting. We did everything we possibly could do on the wrong end of it.”

But Luck was determined to find his poise. He started connecting with Hilton, who finished with 13 catches for 224 yards (both Colts playoff records) and had 140 receiving yards in the second half alone. And Luck started to dominate.

A 46-yard completion to Da’Rick Rogers set up a 10-yard Brown TD run. After a Smith fumble near midfield, Luck wrapped up another drive with a 3-yard TD pass to Brown. His best pass came with 2:31 left in the third, when he threaded the ball to Coby Fleener in the back of the end zone.

“I don’t think anything changed,” Luck insisted. “Stop throwing interceptions. Stop making stupid mistakes.”

Luck did that, and now he has done something it took Manning six years to do: Win a playoff game. The Colts will visit Manning’s Broncos or Tom Brady’s New England Patriots in the AFC divisional playoffs next weekend.

Not that the Colts, winners of five of six, are worried. “We’re gonna bring it,” Hilton said. “We hot right now, and we ready for whatever.”