Judy Battista was in Indianapolis and John Woods was in Manhattan providing live analysis of Saturday’s game between the Ravens and the Colts. Scroll down to track the progress of the game, as it happened. You also can follow Judy on Twitter.

The Colts looked a little like a team that maybe should have been adding to an undefeated record, not that I am trying to start an argument. They were efficient and aggressive early in the game, chewing up big chunks of clock and converting on two scoring chances late in the second quarter.

Peyton Manning, playing very much like this year’s M.V.P., had two touchdown passes, leading the Colts into the AFC championship game with a resounding victory. The Colts will host the winner of tomorrow’s game between the Chargers and the Jets. But as sharp as Manning was, it was the Colts’ defense that made a bigger difference. Indianapolis held Baltimore to 87 rushing yards a week after the Ravens gained 234 at New England.

The Ravens could get nothing going through the air, either. Flacco was 20 of 35 for 183 yards and 2 interceptions. The Ravens’ offense spent almost the whole second quarter on the sideline as the Colts, who had a nearly-eight-minute advantage in time of possession, swept to a 17-3 lead.

In the end, it was the mistakes the Ravens made — not the plays they didn’t — that cost them. They were penalized 7 times for 64 yards (the Colts drew 4 flags for 25 yards), and it seemed like every whistle hurt the Ravens. Their first erased a long kick return. Nos. 2 and 3 pushed the Colts closer to their first touchdown. Three penalties helped stall their first two drives of the second half, and the final flag negated a long interception return by Ed Reed. It was too much to overcome.

Flacco keeps throwing. But the completion streak ends. And a streak of incompletions begins. A few plays later, that ends — with an interception. All the Colts need to do is take a knee. This game is over.

Flacco comes out throwing. Three in a row, probably his only three pass plays in a row all game. They get 16 yards before the two-minute warning, with the ball at the Colts’ 27.

And that has to be the last straw. The Ravens had something working on offense there. A lot of energy, some good, crisp gains, but Flacco just missed the mark on that last pass. The Colts go back to work and pound the rock. Three consecutive running plays, very little gained, and they line up to punt with 3:17 left. The Ravens get it back at the Colts’ 43.

The Ravens gamely keep at it. Consecutive first downs brings the Colts’ midfield helmet into view, and a third first down — a short pass to and 16-yard run by Ray Rice — sends the Ravens’ offense into Colts territory. On a second-and-10 from the Colts’ 39, Flacco tries to stretch the offense again. He launches a deep pass to inside the 5, intended for Mason, but it is picked by Antoine Bethea. Mason was open for a score, but Flacco’s pass was short. The Colts will take over at their 2.

Gumbel just said the clock was “slo-o-owly becoming an enemy for the Baltimore Ravens.” …The Colts’ offense goes right back to the Ravens’ game plan. Short run. Short pass on a slant route. And all with the clock ticking. On third-and-1, as the clock slips under seven minutes, Manning tries to lob the ball on a timing pattern to Collie, who is looping out of the slot. The pass is incomplete and an observer has to wonder why the Colts didn’t run the ball again. After the punt, the Ravens take over at their 22.

The Ravens, with nine minutes left, like I said, are sticking with Rice. They run inside with Rice on first down and, about 30 seconds later, Flacco throws incomplete to the sideline. Third-and-8 with 8:16 left. Flacco is under center, and he faces heavy pressure. The pass is incomplete, intended for Washington, who has the ball hit him in the hands, though a step behind him. The Ravens punt and the Colts will take over their their 25.

The Ravens’ defense, which has to be stunned by that last play, rises to the occasion. The Colts, though, weren’t trying anything fancy. They go three and out, and punt it back to the Ravens. With about nine minutes left, the Ravens will have the ball at their 21.

The Ravens get the kick out to the 28. …The Ravens go right back to Rice — and short gains. On third-and-5, though, Flacco stretches out and finds Kelley Washington for 11 yards and a first down. And then the Ravens’ offense starts to build momentum. After a nice 7-yard pass to Heap, Rice takes a handoff up the middle. And he finds lots of room. And when the Colts close in on him, he just bulls ahead. His jersey is stretched. He’s butting heads. He drives 20 yards deep into the heart of the Colts’ defense — and then a solid hit jars the ball loose. Clint Session recovers for the Colts. They take over at their own 20. …Ouch.

Strangely, with a chance to put the game away, the Colts start moving backward. On first-and-goal, and the Colts try a run, out of a single-back set. The play had nothing to recommend it. They lose 3. On second down, Manning tries the gun, but is flushed to his right and he slides to the turf after losing 4. On third down, Manning tries for the end zone and his pass is long. But just getting that far might have been enough. Stover makes his second field goal of the game, and the Colts lead, 20-3.

Manning keeps the Colts on the move. As time winds down in the third quarter, he finds Dallas Clark for 5 yards for a first down at the Ravens’ 9. The third quarter ends.

From Judy: Ravens just burned their second timeout — with 4:24 left in the third quarter. Time is slipping away, for the Ravens. And the theme of self-destruction continues, too. Is a fumble on an interception not enough for you? How about another interception by Ed Reed and another long return negated by a pass-interference penalty? That’s exactly what happens. A great pick by Reed, and this time he hangs onto the ball. But there are flags down. And the Colts go from possibly having the Ravens at their doorstep, with first-and-goal from the 10 to getting the ball back and penalty yards to boot. From the Ravens’ 37, the Colts dial it back a little with consecutive runs, but Manning airs it out on third-and-4, finding Wayne for 11 yards to the Ravens’ 20. …From Judy: That’s two Ed Reed picks on this drive. And the Colts are inside the Ravens 35 yard line anyway. Bizarro world. My thoughts exactly.

So, a big thing happens on the next play. Manning throws to Garcon, but Ed Reed picks the ball off and takes off like a shot. He’s up the sideline and he goes 30 some yards and you don’t notice that Garcon was following the whole way. He finally catches up, and pops the ball out. And the ball bounces right to Dallas Clark. You go from turnover to turnover in a blink of an eye. …Manning gets the Colts almost all the way back to the 45 two plays later. It’s like Reed’s big play never happened.



The Ravens seem dead set on stopping themselves. They lengthen the field with a holding penalty on the next play, and then Flacco throws incomplete on third-and-3 and fourth-and-3. Colts take over at their 45, poised to possibly pull out their pot of spackling and put the finishing touches on this game.

Ngata is not as corpulent as some of the wide bodies who play on the interior of the defense, but Manning was wise to avoid a direct hit. …The Ravens start with their best field position of the game, by far. And they go right back to Rice. Two runs and they are facing a third-and-oh-so-short. The wilder monkeys in the crowd amp up their screeching, but flags are thrown and it’s a false start on the Ravens. (Penalties are killing them so far in this game.) The Ravens shrug it off, though, and Flacco finds Todd Heap over the middle for 10 yards and a first down.

You don’t have to wear an ugly suit and stand in front of a TV camera to know that the Ravens need to stop the Colts here, and get back on offense. They have the Colts pinned back, though, so a turnover could be a game-changer. …Manning gives himself breathing room right away, with completions to Brown and Wayne. But that is where the good feeling stops. On his third play, Manning is forced to take a dive, disappearing under the pumpkin-shaped Haloti Ngata. On second down, Manning throws deep and incomplete. His third-down pass is dropped by Pierre Garcon. …No return on the punt, but the Ravens will have decent field position at their own 34.

So, on third down, Flacco niftily dodges the pass rush, and dumps a pass off to Rice, who gains 26 yards, up the right sideline, finishing his run by blowing right into a tackler. An exclamation point on a powerful run, which brought the Ravens to midfield. But on third-and-3, the Ravens’ offense shorts out. Flacco throws incomplete, and the punt is downed at the Colts’ 7.

Greg Gumbel muses, as the Colts kick off the start the second half, about how long the Ravens can stick with their game plan. A long time, I say. There is a lot of time left in this game, and Flacco might be a young player, but he has shown plenty of composure in his short career. …The Ravens start with Rice, who runs for short yardage. And after an incomplete second-down pass, Flacco lines the Ravens up in the shotgun and… calls timeout.

Wow. I just checked Manning’s numbers. It’s the story of the game — so far. He was 21 of 29 for 180 yards and 2 touchdowns. He had completions to seven different players, led by Dallas Clark, who has 6 catches for 54 yards. …Flacco was 5 of 10 for 55 yards, but I think that works out to be 1 of 4 for 1 yard in the second quarter. The Colts’ big time-consuming drive in the second quarter prevents us from getting a solid feel for the Ravens’ offense, but so far it has been one-dimensional. The 55 yards of pass offense were all to Derrick Mason, in just 3 catches. Ray Rice has shown some power running with the ball. He has 28 yards on 8 carries, but his longest run was only 6 yards. …Flacco is sure to face a strong pass rush in the second half, so Rice is going to have to make some plays running the ball if the Ravens are going to have a chance.

Judy writes, Peyton was right. He wanted one more play — TD to Wayne. two TD lead at the half. Is that the game?

That’s the end of the first half. The Colts get an important score after an impressive two-minute drill by Manning. The Colts went 64 yards in 8 plays and 1:48.

Manning can be heard on TV shouting at his teammates to “move, move, move!” …On second-and-10 from the 14, Ray Lewis is flagged for a helmet-to-helmet hit on Austin Collie. The Colts creep closer to the goal line, but time is slowly slipping away. On first-and-goal from the 7, Manning finds Clark for a 3-yard gain, and the Colts have to call their final timeout with 11 seconds left. …They line up for another play, though. The Colts are showing that they are not afraid to be aggressive. …Manning works out of the gun, and he throws incomplete. He had pressure coming up from his backside, and he was knocked down after he threw. …With 7 seconds left, Manning wants to take another shot. He is slow coming out of the huddle, though, and the Colts are flagged for delay of game. The Colts will still go for it, though, possibly turning their back on a sure 3 points. (Never mind.) Manning finds Wayne, who is right at the goal line, almost straddling it. He goes down, but gets the ball in the end zone. TOUCHDOWN. Colts add to their lead, 17-3.

Brown is the Colts’ backup running back, and he went from pass catcher to runner on the very next play. He bulled off the left side, out of the shotgun, for 13 yards, breaking tackles in old-time Earl Campbell style. The Colts catch a huge break on the next play, with the Ravens getting flagged for pass interference. That moves the ball safely in field-goal range at the Ravens’ 27 with 34 seconds left.

The Ravens have to be disappointed. They needed either to bleed the clock, or gain yards. Instead, they give Manning a very real chance to expand the Colts’ lead. …Manning wastes no time, rattling off three completions, including one to his seventh different receiver — 8 yards to Donald Brown. They bang across midfield to the Ravens’ 40 with 55 seconds left.

The Ravens’ starting field position had been gradually inching away from the goal line, but on the ensuing kick it slips backward. Two minutes left, they take over at their 18. …They start with Rice, a bullish run behind the right guard and then call timeout. …On second-and-6, Flacco is jolted hard as he threw, a deep pass toward the post. It’s incomplete. Which brings up third down and a seemingly louder wave of crowd noise. Flacco throws incomplete again, and the Ravens meekly prepare to turn the ball back over to the Colts. With plenty of time for them to score again.

From Judy, referring to the Ravens’ Domonique Foxworth, Foxworth beaten on that TD by Collie. 8 minute drive — Ravens defense was out there a long time.

The Colts are much more methodical on this drive. They have chewed up six minutes so far. …They bounce inside the 20 on a pass to Mike Hart, a player who began the season on the Colts’ practice squad. Gain of 9 up the sideline to the Ravens’ 11. And they take the lead back on a 10-yard pass from Manning to Austin Collie. TOUCHDOWN. Colts move back in front, 10-3. The Colts go 75 yards in eight minutes. …We’ve hit the two-minute warning.

The Colts weren’t bluffing. It’s fourth-and-4 from the Ravens’ 35. Not a bad place to do something like this, when you consider the distance a field goal would be. Manning passes to the right side to Addai who appears to have room to run, but Dannell Ellerbe arrives for a solid hit right at the first-down marker and the officials have to measure. …They give it to the Colts, the fourth first down of the drive.

The Colts move inexorably on, though now in smaller steps. After Addai is stuffed on a third-and-2 at the Ravens’ 33, the Colts line up as if to go for it on fourth down. The Ravens, perhaps caught off guard, call timeout.

Manning finds Reggie Wayne on first down for 12 yards, which is Wayne’s first touch of the game. On the next play, as if to emphasize Wayne’s importance to the Colts’ offense, Manning goes to him again, and Wayne makes a spectacular catch. Gain of 11 to the Colts’ 48. …The Colts have done a good job of spreading the workload. Manning has completions to five receivers. But the hardest worker so far is Dallas Clark, who has four catches for 39 yards. His fourth was a nice 7-yard gain on third-and-6 from the Ravens’ 48.

The Ravens stick with Rice. He runs, he catches. On third down from their 24, however, Flacco doesn’t have a chance to get Rice the ball. Flacco disappears under a white and blue wave of plastic. Loss of 6 yards and an entree for the punt team. …Flags fly like crazy on the ensuing punt. It was, you might have guessed, a nifty return. All for naught. Colts take over at their 25.

The Colts’ drive ends as effectively as the Ravens’ did. There was a brief blip when Joseph Addai pulled down a tipped pass for a short gain. Manning throws long and incomplete on third down, and the Colts are forced to punt. About the only thing you can take from those four plays are the fact that the punt went out of the end zone. The touchback gives the Ravens their best starting field position of the game.

The Ravens bring the hammer for their second drive. They start with consecutive runs up the middle by Ray Rice, but on third-and-2 an unremarkable incompletion sends the ball back to the Colts. The punt is returned close to midfield.

Manning was 7 for 11 and 75 yards in the first quarter. As Judy writes, We can also stop talking about Peyton being rusty — yeah, he’s not. Looks better than he did against Jets by a mile. Flacco was 4 of 6 for 55 yards. A very fast-moving first quarter. …The Colts punt, and the Ravens fair catch inside their 10. More bad field position.

The Colts begin their second drive with the kind of precision passing that Manning is known for. He finds Clark on a short crossing route. The TV heads agree that the defensive coverage was pretty good, but Manning puts the ball right where it needs to go and the Colts pick up 19 yards. A clutch 8-yard completion to Austin Collie on third-and-6 gets the Colts close to midfield. But they can’t get back across. On third-and-7, Manning finds Clark on the left side, but he is pulled down after 3 yards. The quarter ends, and the Colts are likely to punt.

A tweet from Judy says it all: Flacco is obviously much healthier than last week — is throwing to the edges with ease. But that’s a killer to not get 7 there.

The Ravens’ erased their next third down with a sneak by Flacco for 2 yards to the Colts’ 8. Closing in on the end zone, the Ravens try to run. They try a pass. And on third-and-goal, Flacco is nearly picked off by Antoine Bethea, who would might have taken it to the house had he been able to hang on. The Ravens settle. Billy Cundiff is good from 25 yards and the Ravens tie the score, 3-3.

The Ravens erase the bad taste of a short gain on their very first play with a short pass on second down that Derrick Mason turned into a 16-yard gain. And with that, their offense stretches its legs. Five plays go by before they face their first third down, third-and-7 from midfield. They get 5 yards on a penalty and then the Ravens’ Joe Flacco toss his first deep pass, 18 yards to Mason down the right sideline. First down at the Colts’ 18.

Judy said the Colts would be looking for a fast start. I am not sure that qualifies, but the Indy offense did look crisp to start and they moved quickly across midfield and in big strides. …The Ravens cause a bit of a stir on the ensuing kick. The returner Jalen Parmele found some room up the left sideline, and ripped of a 64-yard return — that was called back because of an illegal block. Ravens’ ball at their 7.

The Colts start with bold passing strokes, straight up the middle of the field. 20 yards to Austin Collie. 10 yards to Dallas Clark. Then they shorten their reach, starting with a pass underneath to Pierre Garcon, who shrugs off a tackle and gains 8. After a nice off-tackle run by Joseph Addai, to bring the Colts to the Ravens’ 26, the Ravens’ defense stiffens. Back-to-back incompletions, including a wicked collision between Ray Lewis and Clark, end the Colts’ drive. They line up for a 44-yard field goal, and Matt Stover converts. Colts move ahead, 3-0.

We are on. The Colts won the toss, and they chose to receive. (Inexplicably, CBS cut to commercial just as the coin flip was being resolved.) It was a deep kick and a touchback.

* The game starts at 8:15 p.m. Eastern time and is broadcast on CBS. You can check out the breakdown from the N.F.L. here. The Indianapolis Star notes that “it’s put up or shut up” time for the Colts. While in Baltimore, The Sun has a to-do list for the Ravens.

We begin our coverage with this from Judy: