Saints Sink Colts 19-13 In OT

The boys from New Orleans came through, and we're not talking about Peyton Manning and Marshall Faulk.

Danny Wuerffel passed for touchdowns of 15 yards to Andre Hastings with 41 seconds left in regulation and 33 yards to Cameron Cleeland at 8:50 of overtime Sunday, giving the Saints a 19-13 victory over the winless Indianapolis Colts.

"Sometimes it happens quick," Wuerffel said. "Fortunately, they don't put parentheses with `pretty' behind any win. So a win's a win. As long as you do what you've got to do to win a game."

Manning and Faulk, both natives of New Orleans, appeared to have the game won for the Colts with a 78-yard touchdown connection in the fourth quarter. But the Saints (3-0) got the ball back with 2:49 to go, converted a fourth-and-17 with a 44-yard completion to former Colt Sean Dawkins, and tied the game with the touchdown pass to Hastings.

Indianapolis (0-4) reached midfield on its second possession of overtime after a 20-yard pass to Faulk and a personal foul on New Orleans' Joe Johnson. But Tyronne Drakeford made the third interception of Manning and returned it to the Indianapolis 36. Lamar Smith then ran 3 yards and Wuerffel hit leeland for the winning touchdown.

"It's part of football," Wuerffel said of Manning's interceptions. "He made some great plays today, too, that got them in the game. He was standing in the pocket strong, throwing some great balls. He's going to be a big-time player."

"A lot of them were deflections. Sometimes they're intercepted, sometimes they're not."

Manning, the first pick in this year's draft and the son of former Saints star Archie Manning, was 19-for-32 for 309 yards and was sacked four times. His first two interceptions led to field goals by Doug Brien that tied the game 6-6.

"I feel like I'm seeing things a lot better. I never felt confused out there," Manning said. "I was seeing the defenses, but I still need to continue to improve on those things."

Manning said he is confident the Colts can recover from their 0-4 start.

"It's just a matter of pulling together. We can't have any finger pointing," he said. "All we can do is pull together and try to feed off each other."

Then, on the first play of the final period, Faulk took a short pass at the Colts 26, raced to the outside and beat the last defender into the end zone for the second-longest touchdown reception of his career and the longest completion by Manning.

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Tyronne Drakeford gets burned by Jerome Pathon in the first quarter, but comes up with the key interception in overtime. (AP)

"I am happy with the way Peyton's progressing," Colts coach Jim Mora said. "You can't blame all three interceptions on Peyton. There were a couple of them it looked to me like the guy should have caught. He's working about as hard as he can work. He made some excellent throws, some excellent decisions."

"We had some big third-down pickups throughout the game. So I know Peyton's progressing week by week."

Rob Kelly picked off a pass that bounced out of Jerome Pathon's hands and returned it 25 yards to the Indianapolis 7. Brien kicked a 22-yard field goal as New Orleans pulled within 6-3 at the half.

Brien's second field goal, a 20-yarder that tied the game 6-6, was set up by an interception by Chad Cota and runs of 33 and 18 yards by Smith, who finished with a career-high 157 yards.

The first field goal by Vanderjagt, a 52-yarder, was set up by a 45-yard pass from Manning to Pathon. In the second quarter, an interception by Tyrone Poole helped set up Vanderjagt's 19-yard fied goal.

For the game, Faulk had only 61 yards on 27 carries, but six receptions for 128 yards.

"It was a tough one, I'm not going to lie to you," said Mora, who also coached the Saints from 1986-96. "When you fight hard and you have it, basically, in hand there and then to lose it like that, yeah, it's tough. But I've been through this before. It's a test of a team's character."

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