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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (AP) -- Peyton Manning and Edgerrin James
finally got some decent playing time, and the Indianapolis Colts
finally got a preseason victory.
Manning, who saw little action in the first two games, passed
for 106 yards and a second-quarter touchdown to Chad Plummer in the
Colts' 17-0 victory over New Orleans on Saturday night.
James, who did not play in a loss at Seattle last week, rushed
for 53 yards, including a 29-yard carry during the lone TD drive.
The Colts also got two field goals by Mike Vanderjagt and one by
Danny Kight.
"It's good to get out there and play," Manning said. "We
tried some new things and got them on film so we can see what
worked and what didn't work.
"Obviously, you want to get points. But field goals usually
aren't going to win games for you. To go down like that was good
for the whole offense," he said of the touchdown pass. "That was
a plus."
It was the first time the Colts shut out a preseason opponent in
11 years, and it was the first time the Saints did not score in a
preseason game in 20 years.
Indianapolis (1-2) led 14-0 lead after three quarters, then
stopped the Saints (1-2) in the final period with interceptions by
Mustafah Muhammad, Patrick Sapp and David Macklin. Kight hit the
final field goal, a 23-yarder, with 5:54 to go.
"Even though its the preseason, when you've lost two it's
always good to get a win," Colts coach Jim Mora said. "The drive
right before the half was an excellent job.
"We didn't plan on playing our offensive starters as much as we
did, but we started out slow," he said. "We figured 20 plays, no
more than 25. They ended up with 30."
New Orleans converted on only one-of-nine third-down plays.
"We work a lot on it every day. We just didn't execute
tonight," Saints coach Jim Haslett said.
"Good teams don't do what we did tonight. Bad teams do that.
There are areas need to improve on, but we have to hurry up because
time is running out."
The Saints' Ricky Williams, who rushed for 66 yards and caught
four passes for another 53, said, "We've got to do better than
that. We have goals we want to meet in order to win and we didn't
do a good job of that."
Unlike the first two preseason games, Manning played the entire
first half and was most effective in the second quarter when the
Colts scored the only touchdown of the game.
"Our defense played well," Haslett said. "But when you're out
there with Peyton, he runs the show. He's masterminding the whole
thing."
Manning was 9-for-19. In the first two games combined, he was
just 7-for-11.
James, who came in with only 5 yards rushing in the preseason,
carried five times late in the second period, including the 29-yard
gain to the Saints 40. After two more runs by James, Manning passed
16 yards to Terrence Wilkins at the 11.
James then ran 3 yards and Manning passed to Plummer, who fell
across the goal line for the touchdown with 26 seconds remaining. A
2-point conversion run by James made it 14-0 at the half.
"I'm just going with the flow. We're just getting prepared for
bigger games," James said.
The first Indianapolis score was on a 34-yard field goal by
Vanderjagt in the opening period. Four straight completions by
Manning late in the first quarter and early in the second took
Indianapolis to the Saints 42. A personal foul on Fred Weary, who
tackled James out of bounds, put the Colts at the 27, and after
three straight incomplete passes, Vanderjagt kicked a 44-yard field
goal for a 6-0 lead.
New Orleans, which gave up the ball on downs near midfield in
the first quarter, lost two chances to score in the second period.
A 45-yard field-goal attempt by Doug Brien hit the left upright
midway through the quarter, and after Weary recovered a fumble by
James on the next series, the Saints again lost the ball on downs
at the Indianapolis 36.
Kelly Holcomb replaced Manning in the third quarter and took the
Colts to the New Orleans 30, where Kight missed a 48-yard
field-goal attempt. The recently signed Billy Joe Hobert, who
played the past two-plus years with the Saints, came in late in the
third quarter and took the Colts 33 yards following Muhammad's
interception to set up the final field goal by Kight.
The shutout was the Colts' first in the preseason since they won
30-0 at Tampa Bay in 1989. The last preseason shutout loss for New
Orleans was 20-0 against Miami in 1980.
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ALSO SEE
NFL Scoreboard
New Orleans Clubhouse
Indianapolis Clubhouse
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