The Indianapolis Colts booked their ticket to Super Bowl XLIV with a 30-17 AFC Championship victory over the New York Jets at Lucas Oil Stadium.
Colts quarterback Peyton Manning brought the unfancied Jets' play-off to an end, passing for 377 yards and making three touchdown passes to outshine rookie opposite number Mark Sanchez and seal a place in the National Football League finale in Miami on February 7.
The Jets, led by first-year head coach Rex Ryan, had sneaked into the play-offs on the last day of the regular season and then upset the Cincinnati Bengals and second-seeded San Diego Chargers.
The visitors began confidently against the AFC top seeds behind Sanchez yet it was the Colts who put the first points on the board with a first-quarter 25-yard field goal from Matt Stover.
New York got its reward at the start of the second quarter and in spectacular style as the Jets abandoned their rushing game and Sanchez threw long for wide receiver Braylon Edwards to complete an 80-yard touchdown run, kicker Jay Feely adding the extra point.
Stover kept the Colts in touch with a 19-yard field goal but there was more to come from Sanchez, whose short pass to Dustin Keller gave the tight end his second touchdown in as many weeks.
Feely added a field goal from 48 yards to his kicked extra point as the Jets took a surprise 17-6 lead.
Then Colts quarterback Manning, the NFL's Most Valuable Player in 2009, stepped up after a shaky start that saw him sacked twice to throw a 16-yard touchdown pass for wide receiver Austin Collie and Indianapolis went in at half-time trailing 17-13.
Manning began the second half as he ended the first with a four-yard touchdown pass thrown to Pierre Garcon with Stover adding the point as the Colts moved in front 20-17 heading to the fourth quarter.
The Colts quarterback made the game safe in the final period, throwing his third touchdown pass of the game, Manning this time finding Dallas Clark to give the home side a 10-point lead with Stover adding some insurance from a 21-yard field goal two and a half minutes from time.
The Jets' last throw of the dice came when Sanchez threw an interception to Kelvin Hayden and the Colts began planning for a second Super Bowl appearance in four years.
