Impeccable Manning dissects Denver

Maddeningly meticulous and impeccably precise, this was Peyton Manning at his cruel best.

Skewering a Denver defense that was designed specifically to stop him, Manning led the Indianapolis Colts over, around and through the Broncos on Sunday, throwing for 345 yards and three touchdowns to Reggie Wayne for a message-sending 34-31 victory.

“When you play a guy like Peyton Manning, and the guy’s going to put it on there on the money, what can you do?” Broncos cornerback Champ Bailey said.

Not much, as the Broncos (5-2) found out repeatedly, watching Manning lead the Colts to scores on seven of their final eight drives, the only miss coming when he kneeled on the ball to end the first half.

Manning’s final drive set up the winning points on a 37-yard field goal by Adam Vinatieri with 2 seconds left. It made the Colts the first team to go 7-0 in consecutive seasons since the 1929-31 Green Bay Packers did it three straight times.

Manning made a mockery of Denver’s cushy zone defense. Wayne dissected it best, catching 10 passes for 138 yards, most of them in front of Broncos cornerback Darrent Williams.

It was Williams who Denver picked first in the 2005 draft, a defense-heavy class that was part of an ongoing effort by the Broncos to shore things up after 41-10 and 49-24 playoff losses at Indy in 2003 and ‘04.

But the Broncos aren’t the only team that uses the offseason to get better. Manning’s work ethic is impeccable, and in a 2006 full of stops and starts, he was practically perfect against the team many thought would be Indy’s biggest challenger.

“When you’re throwing against Bailey and Williams, that’s why you work in April, May and June,” Manning said. “That’s why you throw a lot in the offseason, with nobody covering. You pretend it’s Champ Bailey covering. You have to throw a perfect throw and run a perfect route.”

MERCURIAL VICK: Michael Vick has found a balance. His passer rating is just as impressive as his 40-yard dash these days.

Vick threw three more touchdown passes on Sunday, leading the Atlanta Falcons to a 29-27 victory over a Cincinnati Bengals team that had never seen anything quite like the show he put on.

Few teams have.

The mercurial quarterback has led the Falcons (5-2) to consecutive wins over the defending Super Bowl champion Steelers and the defending AFC North champion Bengals by throwing the ball. Vick has thrown seven touchdown passes in the last two games, proving his point.

“I feel I just need the opportunity to throw the ball,” said Vick, whose passer rating of 140.6 was the second-highest of his career. “Just give me the chance to do it. I’ve felt like all along, this is what I could do.”

No matter what they did, the Bengals (4-3) were helpless to run him down or shut him down.

Many of the Bengals’ defenders had never faced Vick, who put on quite a show in his first career visit to Cincinnati. He went 20-of-28 for 291 yards and left would-be tacklers scattered all over the field while running for another 55 yards.

Seen enough, Bengals?

“He’s a heck of a player,” defensive end Bryan Robinson said. “When your goal is to keep him in the pocket and you do that and he still makes the play, that’s frustrating.”

Steelers drop fifth of six: As putrid as the Oakland Raiders were to start the season, they’re now at least as good — or is it bad? — as the Super Bowl champs.

Chris Carr returned an interception by Ben Roethlisberger 100 yards for a touchdown, Nnamdi Asomugha also took back an interception for a score and the Raiders mounted a late goal-line stand to beat the Pittsburgh Steelers 20-13 Sunday.

After losing five straight games to open the season and sparking talk of possibly going winless, the Raiders have put together consecutive wins for the first time since October 2005.

“We’re not going to go around and stroke our egos or anything like that,” defensive tackle Warren Sapp said. “We’re still 2-5. We have a long way to go to get ourselves to .500.”

But to find an equal, they need only go as far as the Steelers, who lost for the fifth time in six games.