BUFFALO, New York (Ticker) -- Peyton Manning showed his poise, Edgerrin James made the big plays and Mike Vanderjagt boomed the winning field goal.
Vanderjagt's 45-yard field goal as time expired lifted the Indianapolis Colts to an 18-16 victory over the Buffalo Bills in a battle of AFC East rivals.
"Fifty-three guys are depending on you to make that kick and I'm excited to help them out," Vanderjagt said.
Buffalo (2-2) had taken a 16-15 lead on a 40-yard touchdown pass from Rob Johnson to Eric Moulds with 68 seconds remaining.
But the Colts (3-1), who had not won here since 1994, drove 42 yards in seven plays to the Buffalo 27 to set up Vanderjagt's winning kick. James caught a 10-yard pass and broke off a 10-yard run up the middle and Manning completed two passes for 15 yards to Jerome Pathon to set up the field goal.
The Bills rushed for 170 yards and dominated in time of possession, controlling the ball for close to 36 minutes. But in the first half, Buffalo had to settle for field goals of 19, 30 and 27 by Steve Christie after drives stalled deep in Indianapolis territory.
Despite being outplayed for most of the half, Indianapolis pulled within 9-7 on a 14-yard touchdown pass from Manning to Marvin Harrison with 4:09 left in the second quarter.
"It was missed opportunities," Bills coach Wade Phillips said. "Maybe instead of 9-7 it could be 21-7 or whatever. Those things hurt us."
After a scoreless third quarter, Indianapolis took its first lead of the game on a 10-yard TD pass from Manning to Terrence Wilkins and James' two-point conversion run 50 seconds into the fourth quarter to cap a 10-play, 80-yard drive.
But Johnson brought the Bills back, hitting Jeremy McDaniel with a 27-yard pass to the Indianapolis 40 before finding an open Moulds streaking towards the end zone near the left sideline for the go-ahead TD. Moulds finished with nine catches for 112 yards.
However, Johnson, who was 21-of-32 for 246 yards, left Manning with plenty of time. After Pathon returned the ensuing kickoff 18 yards to the Indianapolis 31, Manning had 63 seconds to drive his team to the winning field goal.
"When they scored with 1:08 left, I knew we would be able to get into field goal range," Vanderjagt said. "That is plenty of time for Peyton with three timeouts left."
Manning hit James over the middle with a 10-yard pass and a five-yard facemask penalty on safety Keon Carpenter added another five yards, moving the Colts to their own 46. Manning hit Pathon with a seven-yard pass and scrambled for a two-yard run to the Buffalo 45.
On a 3rd-and-1 play, James ran up the middle for 10 yards to the 35. After Manning spiked the ball to stop the clock, he connected with Pathon on a seven-yard pass to the Buffalo 27.
The stage was set for Vanderjagt, a native of Oakville, Ontario which is 45 minutes away from Ralph Wilson Stadium. Vanderjagt calmly split the uprights with room to spare and celebrated with a leap and a pumped fist in front of the Buffalo fans before he was mobbed by teammates.
"Mike told me at halftime 'I'm going to kick the winner for you,'" Colts coach Jim Mora said. "I kind of laughed it off."
Manning finished 16-of-27 for 187 yards and two touchdowns with an interception. James was held to 60 yards on 19 carries and caught four passes for 43 yards. Harrison had just three catches for 45 yards.
"When we win like this, we win together," Harrison said. "When we lost a couple of weeks ago (to Oakland) we lost together. We had a pretty good game plan and we stuck it out."
Buffalo's tandem of Jonathan Linton and Shawn Bryson combined for 101 yards on 24 carries.
"This is a long season but we are behind the eight ball right now," Linton said. "We got to find out in a hurry what's wrong and fix things to get back in this race."
The Bills opened the game with a 13-play, 67-yard drive which lasted more than seven minutes. Johnson connected with McDaniel on a 32-yard pass to the Indianapolis 7, but the drive stalled and Buffalo had to settle for a 19-yard field goal by Christie.
Buffalo's second scoring drive went 61 yards in 10 plays and featured a 20-yard pass to running back Sammy Morris to the Indianapolis 19. Christie's 30-yard field goal 48 seconds into the second quarter increased Buffalo's lead to 6-0.
The third scoring drive was set up by the defense. Cornerback Antoine Winfield intercepted a pass and returned it eight yards to the Indianapolis 45. After moving to the Indianapolis 9, the drive stalled and Christie booted a 27-yarder with 8:54 left in the half.
"Any time they get in the red zone you want to shut them down," Colts defensive end Chad Bratzke said. "Bend but don't break. You need to hold them to field goals which helped us win."
The Colts went on an eight-play, 77-yard drive which resulted in Manning's 14-yard TD to Harrison.
