INDIANAPOLIS — Wide receiver Reggie Wayne entered Sunday’s game with a question mark beside his name.
He exited the Indianapolis Colts’ 18-14 victory against the San Francisco 49ers with an exclamation point.
Wayne caught 12 passes for 147 yards, and he was center stage for the game’s most enduring highlight.
His diving catch of Joseph Addai’s 22-yard pass in the back of the end zone at Lucas Oil Stadium clinched the tight victory.
The trick play was installed in 2006 shortly after Addai, who had been an ESPN All-America quarterback at Sharpstown High School in Houston, was drafted out of LSU.
The Colts only called it once before, and Wayne was flagged for offensive pass interference breaking up a bad pass.
But it resurfaced this week, and Addai was 5-for-5 in practice.
With the Colts’ offense stuck in neutral on the first snap of the fourth quarter, Addai was thinking only about avoiding a turnover.
“You always hear (offensive coordinator) Tom Moore saying it is our ball, or it is nobody’s ball,” Addai said. “Peyton kind of throws it to wherever the defender can’t get it. Obviously, Reggie was by himself.
“Like I said, my rookie year I almost threw an interception. So I was just thinking, ‘Don’t throw an interception.’ Throw it over him or make it go out of bounds. That was pretty much the situation. Reggie, he made me a believer.”
Wayne also made the San Francisco defense believe.
He sold a block on cornerback Shawntae Spencer, pulling him up toward the line of scrimmage. Once Wayne sprinted into the end zone, there were no defenders in sight.
“That was solely my fault,” Spencer said. “All week they told me to focus on the pass and focus on Reggie Wayne. I saw the handoff, and then I came up. I watched hours and hours of film, and it was something I hadn’t seen.
“Talking to Reggie after the game, he said they hadn’t run that play in nine years. It was my fault. I had one responsibility, and that’s pass coverage the whole day. It was one play, and it cost us the game.”
The hardest part for Wayne, apparently, was waiting for the ball.
“It seemed like it was up there forever,” Wayne said. “Plus, (Addai’s) a left-hander. So the ball was spinning the opposite way (from right-handed quarterback Peyton Manning’s). It felt like when I caught it, I was in there by the bathroom somewhere. That’s something we’ve been practicing for years, and we’ve never actually had a chance to do it.”
Wayne stretched out to nearly his full length before landing with the football in the back corner of the end zone.
He then rolled over and spread his arms wide in apparent disbelief.
Tight end Dallas Clark said the catch had a high level of difficulty.
“Joe put it in a very tough place that only Reggie could catch it, and thank goodness Reggie caught it,” Clark said. “It was a great throw, but maybe if somebody was all over Reggie and covering him. When he’s wide open like that, just throw a little lob ball — just a little easy one. Reggie is thinking it’s going to be a layup, and he had to go into an extra gear to get it.”
Wayne entered the game nursing a groin injury, and he had been listed as questionable on the injury report.
There was little questionable about his performance, however.
His day also included a 32-yard gain on a screen pass that helped jump-start Manning after a slow start.
“It’s frustrating for everyone,” Clark said of the offensive struggles. “As players, you’re just kind of waiting for a guy to step up. And it took Reggie getting that little screen for 30-some yards. That was kind of the play where we could kind of breathe.”
Wayne said Sunday’s action left him no worse for wear.
“We won. So whenever you win, you feel good,” he said. “My groin is a little sore, but that was expected. I’m going to get some treatment for it and move forward.”
Wayne and the rest of the Colts will continue to move forward with a 7-0 record.
But you won’t find much celebration in the Indianapolis locker room.
The main goal remains a return trip to Miami in February.
“We need these games,” Wayne said of close battles like Sunday’s. “We’re going to continue to push for our goal, which is the Super Bowl. We’re going to need these close ones. We’re going to need to fight through a little adversity and push forward.
“We were able to do that (Sunday). The team did a good job. Coach (Jim) Caldwell said he was proud of the way we finished (Sunday). It was a grinder, and we figured out a way to win.”
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