Fighting the good fight

INDIANAPOLIS -- They died with their boots on and one too few defensive backs on the field. That's what killed the New England Patriots last night.

The Patriots fought as hard as men could be expected to fight in an effort to return to the Super Bowl for the fourth time in six years. In the end, however, their low-cost wide receivers dropped two key passes in the second half and their defense got caught in a losing situation that pitted reserve linebacker Eric Alexander against Colts backup tight end Bryan Fletcher. Fletcher won the battle after getting behind Alexander for a 32-yard reception with just over two minutes remaining in what would end up a 38-34 Indianapolis victory in the AFC Championship game at the RCA Dome.

One play later, Reggie Wayne made a 14-yard reception on a play in which another linebacker, Tully Banta-Cain, roughed Peyton Manning, tacking on another 12 yards that pushed the ball to the Patriots 11. From there, rookie running back Joseph Addai made three runs inside the tackles, the last for a 3-yard touchdown that gave the Colts their only lead with just a minute to play, thus ending the largest comeback in championship game history with an improbable victory after falling behind, 21-3, in the second quarter.

"We talked in the locker room at halftime that if we kept our poise and continued to play we'd have a chance at the end of the game," Colts coach Tony Dungy said after backup cornerback Marlin Jackson intercepted a Tom Brady throw with 24 seconds left.

The Colts came out in the second half and scored the first three times they got the ball, including once by borrowing a page from the New England playbook when ex-Patriots nose tackle Dan Klecko sneaked loose from the 1-yard line and caught a pass from Manning for a touchdown. Manning's pass to Marvin Harrison on the 2-point conversion tied it at 21-21.

Twice more the Colts came back to tie it after New England scores, putting up points four of the first five times they had the ball in the second half before the Patriots switched to a five defensive back alignment. That shift brought the Colts' offense to a momentary halt, stopping them three and out. But when Indianapolis got the ball back with 2:17 to play at its 20, New England inexplicably went back to the defensive formation Manning had been torturing throughout the second half until the Patriots briefly added Chad Scott to their coverage package. That series they chose to again play the Colts in a conventional alignment with four defensive backs and four linebackers that included the seldom-used Alexander, and Manning tore them apart again.

First Fletcher outsmarted the Patriots to create the mismatch with Alexander, who had not started his first game until yesterday and who played admirably but just got caught in a pass coverage situation he wasn't able to handle.

"I don't want his head to get too big, but Fletcher made that call," Manning said. "Their middle safety was moving to the right side to double [Marvin] Harrison and we kept saying 'What's something we can do to take advantage of that coverage?' Fletcher's the one who said the corner route on 52 [Alexander]. We'd run a seam route on the previous one and 52 made a good play and Fletcher came back and said, 'Give me a corner route on that guy.' That was a huge play there because we were in sure-fire field goal range then."

With the ball now on the Colts 37, New England again refused to add a fifth defensive back and again Manning attacked, hitting Wayne for a 14-yard gain before he got hit late by Banta-Cain to bring the ball to the 11 and set up Addai's touchdown.

At halftime, Manning seemed headed for a different kind of day however, having gone 13 of 24 for 124 yards with an interception by Asante Samuel that was returned for a 39-yard touchdown. His quarterback rating at that juncture was 38.4 and it seemed like a repeat of his dismal performances in two previous playoff losses to the Patriots in which he had combined for one touchdown pass, five interceptions, and a passer rating of 51.5.

But Dungy believed all week he had the better team and in the second half he proved it. Warning the Colts to remain patiently aggressive on offense, he brought them out throwing and Manning went 9 of 11 for 93 yards and a score in the third quarter.

"I felt the energy in our locker room at halftime even though we had to settle for a field goal [just before halftime]," Dungy said. "We talked about being two scores down, so if we got a good return and scored [with the second half kickoff] we'd be one score down and we could make it a 60-minute game. When that happened we made a game of it from there on out. This was a big test today, but we did it."

What they did was the same thing Manning had done in his last two games against a New England defense that seems to no longer mystify and mangle him. He helped the Colts' offense destroy the Patriots' defense, outgaining New England 311 yards to 149 in the second half, outrushing them 93 yards to 8, and outscoring them in the game's final 30 minutes, 32-13. In his last three meetings against the Patriots, Manning has thrown for 996 yards and six touchdowns.

"Peyton Manning is a great player, and anybody that doesn't know that doesn't know much about football," said Dungy.

The Patriots remain a great team as well. A beaten one this morning for the second year in a row in the playoffs, but a proud and formidable group that fought to the last play a week ago against a team in San Diego that had outplayed them but could not outsmart them. This time the story was different. This time the Colts did both those things, but they didn't do it by much.

They did it by creating a mismatch on a backup linebacker, a surprise throw to a former Patriots nose tackle, and by outsmarting and outgutting one of the gutsiest teams in NFL history. In the end, the Colts won because they won those battles the Patriots had won on so many other afternoons. But they didn't do it by much.

Ron Borges can be reached at borges@globe.com.