MIAMI — Peyton Manning threw two touchdown passes to take some sheen off the Miami Dolphins' glitzy makeover under new owner Stephen Ross, and the Indianapolis Colts came from behind four times to win 27-23 Monday night.
The Dolphins rolled out an orange carpet for the pregame arrival of Ross' celebrity partners. The crowd included Serena and Venus Williams, Gloria and Emilio Estefan, Marc Anthony and Jennifer Lopez, Jimmy Buffett and Colts rooter Tiger Woods.
But Manning was the big star. He had the ball for less than 15 minutes but threw touchdown passes of 80 yards to Dallas Clark and 48 yards to Pierre Garcon.
The first score came on the first play from scrimmage, the latter with 3:18 left for the game's final points.
"It was about being efficient when it counted, in the fourth quarter," Manning said. "That's really what the game's about."
Manning finished 14 for 23 for 303 yards, and the Colts improved to 2-0. The Dolphins fell to 0-2 even though they had 239 yards rushing, including 107 with the Wildcat.
Indianapolis had the ball for only 14:53, the lowest time of possession for a winning team in the NFL since 1977.
"It's really disheartening," Miami Coach Tony Sparano said. "That's exactly the formula to beat that team."
Indianapolis trailed 10-7, 13-10 and 20-13, but each time pulled even. Down 23-20 after Miami scored with 3:50 left, the Colts rallied one more time with a big play by Garcon.
After completions of 15 and 17 yards, Manning hit Garcon with a short pass on the right side. Garcon cut to the middle, then broke back toward to the corner of the end zone to score.
Miami reached the Colts' 30 with six seconds left, but Chad Pennington's end-zone pass was intercepted by Antoine Bethea.
Miami's Ronnie Brown rushed for 136 yards, including 62 in the Wildcat, taking a direct snap each time. Teammate Ricky Williams added 69 Indianapolis ............. 7 6 0 14 - 27 Miami .................... 7 6 0 10 - 23 First Quarter Ind-Clark 80 pass from Manning (Vinatieri kick), 14:48.
Mia-Brown 14 run (Carpenter kick), 8:42.
Second Quarter Mia-FG Carpenter 45, 13:21.
Ind-FG Vinatieri 43, 9:14.
Mia-FG Carpenter 44, :43.
Ind-FG Vinatieri 48, :00.
Fourth Quarter Mia-Brown 3 run (Carpenter kick), 13:23.
Ind-Brown 15 run (Vinatieri kick), 10:06.
Mia-FG Carpenter 45, 3:50.
Ind-Garcon 48 pass from Manning (Vinatieri kick), 3:18.
Attendance-66,227.
PASSING-Indianapolis, Manning 14-23-0-303. Miami, Pennington 22-33-1-183.
RECEIVING-Indianapolis, Clark 7-183, Wayne 3-37, Garcon 1-48, Brown 1-24, Addai 1-7, Collie 1-4. Miami, Ginn Jr. 11-108, Bess 3-29, Camarillo 3-11, Hartline 2-23, Cobbs 1-8, Williams 1-3, Fasano 1-1.
MISSED FIELD GOAL-Miami, Carpenter 49 (WR).
Sports, Pages 15 on 09/22/2009