Tampa Bay, Oct 08: The Indianapolis Colts pull out a record-breaking come from behind overtime victory against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Tony Dungy's 48th birthday had a little bit of everything. It ended with an improbable victory in his former home.
After rallying from a 21-point deficit to the NFL's best defense with less than four minutes remaining, the Indianapolis Colts stunned the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in overtime, 38-35, when Mike Vanderjagt's second attempt at a game-winning field goal successfully knuckled off the right goalpost. Vanderjagt - who had been 12-for-12 on field-goal attempts this season - missed wide right on a 40-yard attempt with 3:52 left in overtime but defensive end Simeon Rice was whistled for a highly questionable unsportsmanlike penalty call for using a teammate for leverage. Replays indicated Rice grazed a teammate's back on his way down. On Vanderjagt's second attempt, from 29 yards out, defensive end Ellis Wyms tipped the kick, but it still had enough force to just go through and help the Colts become the first team in NFL history to win after trailing from 21 points down with less than four minutes to play.


Dungy went 54-42 in six seasons coaching the Bucs before being fired following the 2001 season by owner Malcolm Glazer, who targeted Bill Parcells as his successor.


After Parcells jilted the Bucs, Glazer sent four draft picks and $8 million to the Oakland Raiders for Jon Gruden, who immediately led the team to its first Super Bowl title.


Dungy's former squad dominated his current one in the first half, jumping out to a 21-0 advantage and taking a 35-14 edge on Ronde Barber's 29-yard interception return with 5:09 left.


But Brad Pyatt returned the kickoff 90 yards, setting up James Mungro's three-yard touchdown run with 3:37 left. Idress Bashir recovered the ensuing onside kick, and Peyton Manning tossed a 28-yard TD pass to Marvin Harrison to cut the deficit to 35-28 with 2:29 left.


The Colts (5-0) narrowly missed recovering another onside kick but prevented the Bucs from getting a first down and took advantage of a pair of penalties that stopped the clock to get the ball back with 1:41 left. One play after Warren Sapp was whistled for an unnecessary roughness penalty on Manning, the quarterback completed a 52-yard pass to Harrison to the Tampa Bay 6 and Ricky Williams ran it in from one yard out to tie the score with 35 seconds remaining.


The Bucs' defense had allowed one touchdown in their first three games but surrendered four in the fourth quarter alone. Tampa Bay (2-2) had not given up three touchdowns in the fourth quarter since November 19, 1989 at Chicago.


Indianapolis (5-0) became the first team in NFL history to win after trailing by 21 or more points with less than four minutes to play in regulation time.

Bureau Report