James Sanders intercepted a Peyton Manning pass with 31 seconds remaining and the New England Patriots held off the visiting Indianapolis Colts 31-28 on Sunday.
The Patriots led the entire game but their lead was in danger as Manning rallied his team from a 31-14 deficit in the fourth quarter.
Manning, who finished 38 of 52 passing for 396 yards, threw two of his four touchdown passes to Blair White in the fourth quarter. He then marched the Colts (6-4) to the New England 24-yard line before he was picked off by Sanders.
It was Manning’s third interception of the day.
Tom Brady threw two touchdown passes for the Patriots (8-2). He was 19 of 25 for 186 yards on the day.
Brady opened the scoring with a 22-yard touchdown pass to Wes Welker and made it 14-0 on the Patriots’ next possession with an 8-yard scoring pass to Aaron Hernandez.
Manning answered with a 1-yard pass to Gijon Robinson to cut the deficit to 14-7.
BenJarvus Green-Ellis (21 carries, 96 yards) scored on a 5-yard run to give New England a 21-7 lead, but Manning again responded with an 11-yard touchdown pass to Reggie Wayne with 4 seconds remaining in the first half.
Patriots running back Danny Woodhead made it 28-14 with a 36-yard touchdown run for the only scoring in the third quarter.
Indianapolis | New England | |
Donald Brown | Player | BenJarvus Green-Ellis |
17 | Attempts | 21 |
68 | Yards | 96 |
4.0 | Avg Yards | 4.6 |
0 | Touchdowns | 1 |
36 | Long | 16 |
Indianapolis | New England | |
Reggie Wayne | Player | Deion Branch |
8 | Receptions | 7 |
107 | Yards | 70 |
13.4 | Avg Yards | 10.0 |
1 | Touchdowns | 0 |
28 | Long | 18 |
Yards | Scoring | Defense | ||||||
Team | Tot | Rus | Pas | TD | FG | INT | Sck | FF |
Indianapolis | 467 | 71 | 396 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1.0 | 0 |
New England | 346 | 168 | 178 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 0.0 | 0 |