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Nick Harper was gone, 93 yards for the most shocking game-stealing touchdown in NFL postseason history. Yes, the most controversial Colt was on his way late Sunday afternoon to winning one of the most controversial games.
The Colts were about to be Stealers. Colts survive, 25-21? Somehow, it had to be Nicholas Necosi Harper who had scooped up perhaps the most unlikely fumble ever -- the first of the season by Jerome Bettis. Colts cornerback Harper was listed as questionable on Saturday after his wife was jailed and charged with slashing him in the leg with a knife. Charges of domestic battery also are pending against Harper, who, according to authorities, struck his wife in the face last June. His Sunday was about to get a little worse. Three stitches to close a small wound above one knee ... his other knee banged up earlier in the game ... now this. Nick Harper, a fifth-year Colt out of Fort Valley State, was about to make the dumbest move in Indianapolis Colts history. With blockers trailing to his left and right and only one Steeler left between him and immortality, Harper veered straight into a middle-of-the-field ankle tackle made by a stumbling quarterback who outweighs him by almost 60 pounds. No, Nick, no! Slow up and let a blocker take out Ben Roethlisberger! Cut to the sideline! I spoke Sunday night to a coach whose team isn't in the playoffs. He said: "Players today just don't listen to what we continually try to teach them. What's the first thing you're supposed to do with an interception or fumble? Head for the sideline. Touchdowns are always scored up the sideline." But a backpedaling 6-foot-5, 241-pound quarterback somehow tripped up a 5-10, 182-pound cornerback. Oh, Harper will never live this down in the locker room. Give Roethlisberger credit -- many quarterbacks would have done no more than wave at Harper. But Harper should have scored untouched. No way Steelers tight end Jerame Tuman, who was chasing him, would have caught him. Imagine: Ben Roethlisberger's tackle saved the game -- and the officiating crew from a week of ridicule and rebuke. At least justice was served. Pittsburgh deserved to win and finally did 21-18. Only an inexplicable replay reversal had negated a Troy Polamalu interception, giving Peyton Manning a ninth life in this game he didn't deserve. Polamalu clearly caught the ball, secured it, ran two more strides, tumbled -- knees twice touching turf -- rolled and kicked the ball out of his hand before recovering his own fumble. But upon further review, it was ruled that Polamalu never had possession. Incomplete pass. Still Colts' football. You're kidding. Referee Pete Morelli told the RCA Dome crowd and TV audience that Polamalu lost the ball "prior to getting his knee off the ground." Huh? It was difficult to disagree with the postgame charge made by the Steelers' Joey Porter -- that the refs and the league wanted Peyton Manning in the Super Bowl. Did cream-of-the-crop playoff refs ever have such an embarrassing weekend in the four quarterfinals? Manning struck quickly to score a touchdown and a two-point conversion, cutting Pittsburgh's lead to 21-18. The Colts' defense held. The Steelers punted. But Pittsburgh turned back into Blitzburg, terrorizing the Colts' befuddled line and quarterback, forcing Manning into a fourth-and-16 and sacking him at his 2-yard line. All you could hear in the RCA Dome was the sound of a 13-0 start and season-long Super Bowl dreams crashing to the turf. Thousands of fans hit the exits the way the Steelers had hit Manning all afternoon long. With 1:20 left, all that remained was for the Bus to take what amounted to a victory lap -- one more plunge over the goal line for Bettis. And that's when the inconceivable occurred. Bettis got a little careless with the ball, which was in the crook of his right arm. As he veered right and cut up field, Bettis let the arm fly away from his body. Colts' linebacker Gary Brackett got a helmet on the ball. Out it popped, backward. And here came Harper on the dead run. He slowed slightly to scoop up the loose ball at the 7, and he was off. In fairness, Harper's knee had been hurt earlier when a teammate's helmet hit it from the side, bending it inward. He missed some plays -- but he returned to play, and play well. He appeared to be running just fine with the ball under his arm. The Indianapolis Star reported that his wife, in a sworn statement, told authorities that she had accidentally cut Harper. When he wouldn't speak to her, she waved a folding knife and a filet knife over him in a slicing motion as he lay on the bed. As he flexed his leg, she said, the filet knife opened what the team called an inch-deep, half-inch-wide cut just above his knee. News such as this the day before playoff games is seldom anything but bad news for a team's focus. This was especially so for the Colts, who had to be fighting self-doubt after losing their 14th game, at home to San Diego, then mostly resting their starters during the final two games before a bye week. For the last time: Colts general manager Bill Polian sent his team a dangerous message with his public statements before the San Diego game that he didn't expect his team to go 16-0 and that it didn't need to win any of its final three games after clinching home-field playoff advantage. The risk of losing rhythm, edge and momentum was far greater than risk of losing stars to injury. In Sunday's first half, Manning and his finely tuned offense coughed and sputtered like a Porsche that had set in a cold garage for five weeks. Meanwhile, coach Tony Dungy's defense looked like it was playing in just-woke-up slow-motion while the Steelers were stuck on fast forward. That's what happens when one team hasn't played a meaningful game in five weeks while the other has won five straight, including at Cincinnati in the previous week's wild-card showdown. But credit Pittsburgh coach Bill Cowher and offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt with clever, gutsy game plans. Cowher didn't buy into the NFL rule of (under Peyton's) thumb -- that Manning will pick you to pieces if you blitz him. Cowher turned Peyton into sophomoric Eli with blitz after mix-it-up blitz. And Peyton surely infuriated some teammates by pointing this finger: "I'm trying to be a good teammate here, but we had some problems with our protection." Good teammate? Reactions like this are one reason Manning hasn't been able to lead a team to a Super Bowl. Meanwhile, Whisenhunt let Roethlisberger go Peyton on an unsuspecting Colts defense. The run-first Steelers threw first. And before you could say Terry Bradshaw, it was 14-0, then 21-3. That's how you beat Peyton: Throw for the lead, then run the clock. Still, Nick Harper had a chance to wipe all that away. No, Nick, no! Down he went at his 42. But here came Manning, one last time. Twenty-two yards, then eight more. Mike Vanderjagt wound up with a 46-yard field goal to force overtime. And fittingly, one of the best clutch kickers hit one of the worst clutch kicks in playoff history -- a banana-ball slice that missed the right upright by 15 yards. Justice, prevailing.Skip Bayless can be seen Monday through Friday on "Cold Pizza," ESPN2's morning show, and at 4 p.m. ET on ESPN's "1st & 10." His column appears twice a week on Page 2. You can e-mail Skip here.
