“That’s three weeks in a row with strong second halves. “We just started doing things better,” Haley said. Garcon finished with five catches for 125 yards.
He threw a 6-yard TD pass to Pierre Garcon on the opening series and after a 53-yard field goal from Adam Vinatieri, he hooked up with Garcon on a 67-yard TD pass to make it 17-0 less than 20 minutes into the game. Painter completed 15 of 27 passes for 277 yards. Breaston caught four passes for 50 yards but made a spectacular effort to get into the end zone at the end of the first half and a terrific move against a backup cornerback to give the Chiefs their only lead with 5:15 left. He threw four touchdown passes - two each to Bowe and Steve Breaston.īowe caught seven passes for 128 yards and simply outmuscled the much smaller Jacob Lacey for many of them. Hopefully, he’ll continue to grow in this offense.”īattle’s running provided balance for Cassel, who was an efficient 21 of 29 for 257 yards with a rating of 138.9. “There’s never a time when I’ve seen him get hit where he doesn’t somehow fall forward,” Cassel said. Cassel got the first down on a quarterback sneak, and the Chiefs ran out the clock. One of Battle’s key plays came late in the game on a second-and-10 when he appeared to be stopped near the line of scrimmage, but escaped and set up a third-and-short. He had 81 yards on 13 carries after halftime and added 21 yards on two catches for 102 total yards. “They wanted to pound the ball and get some things going.”īattle was at his best in the second half while the Chiefs were rallying. “It just seemed like the second half, we couldn’t switch the momentum,” Colts receiver Reggie Wayne said. Indianapolis led 24-14 at halftime but ran just five offensive plays in the third quarter. The running game was key because it disrupted the Colts’ offensive rhythm. With Battle leading the way, the Chiefs pounded the ball 38 times for a season-high 194 yards. In the games since Charles’ injury, Kansas City (2-3) had rushed for 81 yards against San Diego and 103 yards against Minnesota. Kansas City’s running game had struggled since star running back Jamaal Charles was knocked out for the season with a torn ACL in his left knee. Indy is 0-5 for the first time since 1997 and has lost five straight for the first time in a decade.
A series of second-half drops prevented the Colts from moving the ball, though, and now the Chiefs have won two straight after starting the season 0-3. Painter opened the game 12 of 17 for 237 yards with two TDs and a near-perfect 152.2 rating. They also overcame suddenly dynamic Indy quarterback Curtis Painter, who benefited from having the injured Peyton Manning available as a teacher on the sideline.