Andrew Luck heard the halftime boos and refused to accept them. Chuck Pagano understood exactly why Colts fans responded as they did and challenged his team.
After three mostly dismal quarters Sunday, the Colts finally responded. Luck rallied his team with three late touchdown passes to get Indianapolis and the crowd back in the game, but New Orleans recovered an onside kick and ran out the clock to hang on for a 27-21 victory.
"It would be real easy to say — make excuses and say, 'Well, it's because of this, that, the hangover," Pagano said before blurting out an expletive. "It's on us. We're going to come in tomorrow, we're going to look at the tape like we always do and we're going to get it fixed."
The voices inside the locker room have been making similar promises all season. So far, little has changed.
Luck, who returned last week from an injured shoulder, still doesn't look like himself. He was hesitant Sunday, opened the game with five straight incompletions for the first time in his career, was picked off twice in the first half and finished 23 of 44 for 333 yards.
His early struggles led to another slow start as Indy (3-4) fell into a 27-0 deficit that had some fans leaving by the middle of the third quarter.
And despite leading the rally, Luck largely blamed himself for the miscues that brought out the boo-birds at halftime.
"Sure, you hear them, I guess," Luck said. "Fans are fans, and I still think we have the best fans in the world."
They just don't have the best team in the world yet.
Neither does New Orleans (3-4), which won on the road for the first time this season, won back-to-back games for the first time since last October and did it with a balanced attack and an aggressive defence.
Mark Ingram rushed 14 times for 143 yards and one touchdown, and Khiry Robinson ran for two scores. Drew Brees, the 36-year-old quarterback who attended college at nearby Purdue, finished 28 of 44 for 255 yards with one touchdown in what might have been his final game in Indiana.
The Saints' oft-criticized defence pressured Luck into mistakes all day, hitting him 10 times, sacking him four times and picking him off twice.
But after Ingram's 1-yard TD run made it 27-0, Luck dug himself and the Colts out of the big hole with three touchdown passes in in final 19 minutes. All Luck wanted was one more chance.
Brees and the Saints refused.
"Indianapolis did a good job fighting back and we did some things that we'll learn from on tape," coach Sean Payton said. "There were some things, with a lead, that we could have done better."
The biggest difference Sunday was the quarterbacks.
Brees has played well since coming back from a bruised right rotator cuff and was masterfully efficient again Sunday.
Luck, at times, looked as bad as he ever has. Pagano called the first half "unacceptable."
When Luck fought back, it came with a flurry.
He found T.Y. Hilton for an 87-yard TD pass late in the third quarter — a career long for both players. He connected with Hilton again for a 46-yard TD pass to make it 27-14 with 1 second left in the third quarter. And after three straight punts, Luck capped an 80-yard, 54-second drive with an 8-yard TD pass to Donte Moncrief to make it 27-21 with 3:05 to play.
Hilton finished with four catches for 150 yards.
It was a strange afternoon — even before the dramatic turnaround.
New Orleans lost both of its coaches' challenges on one first-quarter series and kept the drive moving when Luke McCown pulled off a fake field goal with a 25-yard completion to Ben Watson. Robinson finished the drive with a 1-yard TD run to make it 7-0.
Then, the Saints took control.
Stephone Anthony intercepted Luck on the first play of the next series. Five plays later, Robinson scored on a 6-yard run.
Griff Whalen compounded things by fumbling the ensuing kickoff. Three plays after that, Brees hooked up with Michael Hoomanawanui for a 16-yard TD pass to make it 20-0.
"When we had them at zero, we needed to keep them at zero," safety Kenny Vaccaro said. "We can't get excited about shutting out a team for a half. We still have to finish the game."
NOTES: Brees has thrown a touchdown pass in 96 of his last 97 games. ... The Colts lost receiver Phillip Dorsett (left ankle) and centre Khaled Holmes (stinger) in the first half. Neither returned. ... Robert Mathis had a sack on the first play of his 100th career start. ... Saints defensive end Cameron Jordan had two sacks, giving him five in the past two games.
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