DaytonDailyNews.com

INDIANAPOLIS — In a rare benching, Bengals wide receiver Chad Ocho Cinco opened the game on the sidelines.

Then he turned in his finest game of the season — five catches for 79 yards. T.J. Houshmandzadeh had eight receptions for 75 yards.

Why didn't Chad start?

"Because I chose not to start him," head coach Marvin Lewis said. "It was just my decision not to start him and to play the other guys."

Rookie second-round pick Jerome Simpson started in Ocho Cinco's place and got shut out.

'Fitz' exonerated

"We had a couple of miscues in the passing game that obviously just killed us and put us way behind the 8-ball," Lewis said.

But he exonerated quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick for his two interceptions on passes intended for Simpson and Chris Henry.

Colts cornerback Kelvin Hayden picked off both passes, returning the first one 22 yards to set up a TD and racing 85 yards for the game's final TD.

"It wasn't Fitz's fault on the interceptions," Lewis said. "We didn't do a very good job. The quarterback gets the blame, but the other guys were at fault."

Henry flagged

Hayden dashed 22 yards to the Bengals' 15 on his first pick at 1:13 of the second quarter.

Henry made matters worse when he pushed cornerback Tim Jennings in the face mask at the end of the play, drawing an unnecessary roughness penalty that put the ball at the 7, setting up Peyton Manning's 5-yard TD pass to Marvin Harrison for a 14-3 halftime lead.

"Chris got hit from behind, but he can't retaliate," Lewis said. "It's selfish when you retaliate and that hurt us. Now the ball's inside the 10-yard line."

Dinner time

Defensive end Robert Mathis (2.5) and Dwight Freeney (1.5) combined for the Colts' four sacks.

Hayden was the beneficiary of the pressure.

"Our offense is going to put up numbers," Hayden said. "Once we get up, (the opponent) is going to pass the ball. We call it 'dinner time.' Everybody wants to eat off the (enemy) offense when they make mistakes."

Fond memories

Manning's 2-yard TD pass to Anthony Gonzalez in the third quarter was reminiscent of the plays Gonzalez made for the Ohio State Buckeyes.

He broke into the end zone and slid into an opening just beyond the goal line, keeping the play alive until Manning found him.

"We did a good job of getting touchdowns, not having to settle for field goals," Manning said. "Gonzalez made a great play on a sprint-out play."

Winded warrior

Bengals strong safety Kyries Hebert tracked down Harrison at the 4-yard line after Harrison's 67-yard catch-and-run. The big play set up Manning's 4-yard TD pass to tight end Dallas Clark at 2:22 of the third quarter.

"It was a play that should've been made a lot sooner," Hebert said. "Peyton did a good job of adjusting to the things we did. Once (Harrison) caught the ball, he just ran away from the defense."

Quick hitters

• Colts tight end Gijon Robinson entered the game with seven catches for 32 yards (a 4.6 average) on the season. On Sunday, he had six receptions for 69 yards (11.5).

• The Colts were poised to go ahead 14-0 when Clark fumbled on a hit by linebacker Rashad Jeanty that cornerback Leon Hall recovered in the end zone for a touchback at 10:24 of the second quarter.

• Jordan Palmer replaced Fitzpatrick with 4:56 to go and threw an interception on the game's final play.

• The game lasted 2 hours, 44 minutes — a quick, easy Bengals death.

Quote machine

"Everybody has to be accountable at all times. You never know when your number's going to get called. We're going to need everybody down the stretch." — Colts QB Peyton Manning, who completed 26 passes to seven receivers for 277 yards and 3 TDs.