INDIANAPOLIS — All Chuck Pagano asked the Colts to do was focus on football.
Andrew Luck and Reggie Wayne did that — and a little more to honor their ailing coach.
The rookie quarterback and veteran receiver connected at the most critical moments yesterday, including a 4-yard touchdown pass with 35 seconds left to complete the Colts’ second-half rally and stun the Packers 30-27 on perhaps the most emotional day in Lucas Oil Stadium history.
“I’m sure we were all lying to everybody the whole week, trying to downplay it,” Luck said after throwing for a career-high 362 yards. “I think we all went out there wanting to do it for Chuck more than anything else. To see all the emotions … I think it’s one of the greatest athletic moments I’ve ever been a part of.”
It’s a day nobody in Indy or around the league will soon forget.
Interim coach Bruce Arians acknowledged he was fighting back tears when he spoke to reporters. From the sounds of it, so were Luck and Wayne.
The sometimes emotional team owner, Jim Irsay, sniffled as he spoke inside a silent locker room before dashing off dash to the hospital where Pagano is undergoing treatment for leukemia. He wanted to personally deliver the game ball to Pagano, who celebrated his 52nd birthday Tuesday.
Pagano made it perfectly clear Friday, in an emotional email to players and coaches, that he didn’t want guys playing for him; he simply wanted the Colts (2-2) to play for themselves and match last season’s victory total.
“Focus on being 500 by 4:30pm on Sunday. Nothing else,” he wrote. “That has to be our mind set. 60 minutes, all you got, one play at a time! WIN!”
Turns out the players wanted this one even more for Pagano than he wanted it for them.
“I’ve got 12 years of [special] games,” said Wayne, who has known Pagano since the two were at the the University of Miami together in the late 1990s. “But this did mean a lot … I talked to coach Pagano and he wanted us to win so bad. Is it a high? Yeah. I don’t necessarily have one other than the Super Bowl game. But it’s up there.”