Seahawks Un-Lucky in Indy

 

Andrew Luck spent most of Sunday’s game watching Russell Wilson and Marshawn Lynch run around.

So when the Colts quarterback finally got a chance to make some plays, he rallied Indianapolis in the fourth quarter for yet another victory.

He threw two touchdown passes and led the Colts on two time-consuming scoring drives in the fourth quarter, taking the lead on Donald Brown’s 3-yard TD run with 8:55 to play, to hand the Seattle Seahawks their first loss of the season, 34-28.

This is the most resilient team that I’ve ever been around,” coach Chuck Pagano said. “They’ve got more grit than anybody, any team I’ve been around.”

This season has certainly tested the Colts (4-1).

Since a closer-than-expected Week 1 win over Oakland, the Colts have lost three offensive starters with season-ending injuries and a Week 2 game for their first home loss in nearly a year.

Somehow though, Indy rebounded with three straight wins, including victories over NFC powers San Francisco and Seattle. Now they have sole possession of the AFC South lead for the first time in the post-Peyton Manning era, too.

And all this came on a wacky day.

Both teams scored off a blocked kick. The Seahawks (4-1) ran for 218 yards, averaged 6.4 yards per carry, had better field position and ran more than three dozen plays in Colts territory as they played keep away through the first three quarters.

None of it mattered to Luck. He still found a way to win.

On the decisive drive, he took advantage of a pass interference call against Richard Sherman, got another break when Pagano won a challenge on a third-down spot that turned fourth down into a first down.

After consuming nearly seven minutes, he gave the ball to Brown, who squirted through the middle for the go-ahead score.

Luck then hooked up with favorite receiver Reggie Wayne on a 2-point conversion pass and took nearly five more minutes off the clock to set up Adam Vinatieri for a game-sealing 49-yard field goal.

Huskies Play Great but Loose a Tough One

 

Ty Montgomery had several drops and one of his worst games in a loss at Washington last season. A year later, he turned in a breakout performance that saved Stanford.

Montgomery finished with 290 all-purpose yards and two touchdowns, and the fifth-ranked Cardinal held on to beat No. 15 Washington 31-28 on Saturday night in a matchup of unbeaten Pac-12 North teams.

I would say Ty was the difference in the ballgame,” Stanford coach David Shaw.

The Huskies outgained Stanford 489-284 in total yards but had no answer for the Cardinal’s rejuvenated junior wide receiver any time he touched the ball.

Montgomery returned the opening kickoff 99 yards for a TD and caught a 34-yard pass for another score to put the Cardinal (5-0, 3-0) in control from the start and keep them there. He caught three passes for 56 yards, ran 30 yards on two carries and racked up 204 yards returning kicks.

“It showed that we can stand in there and we can finish a game and we’re willing to fight if we have to,” said Montgomery, who was slowed — and sometimes sidelined — by a nagging knee injury last season.

Stanford led from wire-to-wire while winning its 13th straight game and 12th in a row at home. No matter the score, Washington never went away.

Keith Price threw for 350 yards and two touchdowns on an injured thumb and nearly led the Huskies (4-1, 1-1) back. But officials overturned Price’s completed pass on fourth down in the final minutes to end Washington’s rally.

Price completed 33 of 48 passes with one interception, and Bishop Sankey ran for 125 yards and two scores in an impressive — though, at times, mistake-filled — performance for the Huskies against the defending Pac-12 and Rose Bowl champions.

In the end, officials ruled Washington came up at least one bounce short

Tiger Helps US to Another President’s Cup

 

US wins again

Fred Couples, the coolest guy in golf, never really looked that way until he stood on the edge of the 18th fairway Sunday and saw everything going his way.

The Americans needed only one more point to win the Presidents Cup.

And there was Tiger Woods, who has a history of delivering the winning point, in the middle of the fairway at Muirfield Village, where he has won a record five times.

The Presidents Cup ended just the way it always does.

Woods found the green and two-putted for par and a 1-up victory over Richard Sterne, the third straight time he has won the clinching point in the Presidents Cup. The Americans won for the fifth straight time — and eighth time in 10 tries — against an International side that showed some fight when it was too late to matter.

The Americans, who finished strong Sunday morning in the rain-delayed foursomes for a 14-8 lead, only needed to win four singles matches.

It took longer than anyone expected.

“I must have asked 500 times, `How are we getting this fourth point? Where is the fourth point coming from?'” said Couples, a three-time winner as U.S. captain. “You’re nervous. Not for the players — the players know what they’re doing. But we knew we needed 18 points, and we got them. It was a very, very good match today. And the matches were all close. At no given time was I a nervous wreck. But it was nice when Tiger two-putted that last green to get the 18th point.”

The final score — United States 18, International 15 — and whether the matches would beat the rain was really the only suspense on Sunday.

“People say it was close. Jack (Nicklaus) said it was close,” International captain Nick Price said. “You tell me. We were behind the 8-ball all day. If we pulled it off, it would have been miraculous.”