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It was an eventful and effective Thursday evening for Peyton Manning in Lucas Oil Stadium.

At halftime of the preseason game with the Philadelphia Eagles, the Indianapolis Colts quarterback was presented with his record-tying third NFL Most Valuable Player trophy from the 2008 season.

Prior to that, he showed why he should at least be included in the discussion for No. 4.

After lobbying the coaching staff for a heavy workload against the Eagles, Manning got it and responded in MVP fashion. He directed three series, punctuated two with touchdown passes to Anthony Gonzalez and Reggie Wayne and erased the memory of the starting unit's brief and ineffective performance six days earlier.

"The entire offense felt hungry after last week and so we wanted to play more and play better this week,'' Manning said after the Colts' 23-15 win over the Eagles. "I thought we practiced well last week and it kind of carried onto the field.''

Manning wasn't perfect, but was close: a 150.9 rating after completing 10-of-14 passes for 167 yards and two touchdowns.

His TDs went short and long. The first was a perfectly-thrown 3-yarder to Gonzalez, who beat Eagles cornerback Asante Samuel in the right corner of the end zone. The second was a 76-yarder to Wayne, who found himself all alone along the left sideline when the Eagles botched a coverage assignment.

The performance by Manning and the No. 1 offense was in stark contrast to their first of the preseason. In the opener against Minnesota, it netted zero yards and allowed three sacks in just six plays.

Coach Jim Caldwell planned for the No. 1 offense to be on the field for approximately 20 plays. He pulled them after 18 netted 177 yards and Manning's two touchdown passes.

"They had a couple of real solid drives in there and we were pleased with what we saw,'' Caldwell said after his first win, albeit in the preseason, as coach.

The only blemish was a fumble by Manning when he was sacked by linebacker Akeem Jordan.

That was quickly countered, though, when defensive end Dwight Freeney used his patented spin move against backup left tackle King Dunlap for a sack-and-strip of Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb.

"I think we did come out and play a little better than we played the week before,'' Caldwell said. "We certainly moved the ball a lot better with our offense, and our defense played pretty solid.

"We saw some real solid play out there.''

The defense was short-handed for a second straight week: The entire secondary was out as were ends Raheem Brock and Robert Mathis. Yet it held up well against McNabb and the Eagles.

The only hiccup occurred when wide receiver DeSean Jackson split safeties Matt Giordano and Melvin Bullitt on a deep post and caught a McNabb pass in stride for a 39-yard touchdown. The Eagles finished the first half with 154 total yards, but had only 15 yards on nine rushing attempts and were able to convert just 1-of-5 third-down situations.

Once Manning and several other front-line players exited the game, it was left to the subs to entertain a slowly diminishing crowd.

Rookie quarterback Curtis Painter completed 11-of-19 passes for 116 yards with one interception, while place-kicker Shane Andrus converted 24-, 41- and 31-yard field goals.

Now, the Colts look ahead to an Aug. 29 trip to Detroit.

"I'm sure we'll play the most against Detroit, which is what we usually do,'' Manning said. "I thought this was something we can build on going into next week.''

By Mike Chappell
Posted: August 21, 2009
Manning already shows MVP form | IndyStar.com | The Indianapolis Star

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Now lets hope he can keep it up.

I think that having AGon as the #2 will be a big upgrade over what Harrison gave them last year and Tamme has looked pretty good at that second tight end spot.

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