Another Struggle for Colts

INDIANAPOLIS â€”  The Indianapolis Colts hoped on Sunday to fix some of their flaws in time for the AFC playoffs. They settled for a victory.

The Colts had another sluggish first half, got a scare when Marvin Harrison was hurt midway through the third quarter and needed Peyton Manning’s 11-yard touchdown pass with 2:26 left to put away the Jacksonville Jaguars, 20-13, on Sunday.

For Colt Coach Tony Dungy, it was good enough.

“That was a big win for us, an important win for us,� he said. “We had to play 60 minutes of football, and that’s kind of the way you want it.�

A thing of beauty, it was not.

The Colts (10-6) struggled early on offense and couldn’t stop the Jaguars’ ground game either.

Indianapolis needed two Jacksonville penalties to keep late scoring drives going in the game’s final minutes and also took advantage of a late melee, in which the teams were called for offsetting personal fouls. That allowed the Colts to run another play on third and four, and Manning passed to Marcus Pollard in the back corner of the end zone for the game-decider.

Manning completed 20 of 28 passes for 146 yards and a touchdown.

Edgerrin James followed his worst career game with a performance more worthy of a two-time NFL rushing champ. He carried 15 times for 86 yards and finished 11 short of his third 1,000-yard season and a $1.5 million bonus.

Harrison caught six passes for a season-low 28 yards to finish his record-breaking year with 143 receptions and 1,722 yards -- the fourth-most in league history. He came out after injuring his left arm in the third quarter but returned on the Colts’ next series.

Jacksonville finished 6-10.