Indianapolis, IN (My Sportsbook) - Peyton Manning threw for 277 yards and three touchdowns, leading the Indianapolis Colts to a 35-3 rout of the Cincinnati Bengals at Lucas Oil Stadium.

Manning completed 26-of-32 passes for the Colts (9-4), who have won six straight games and control their own playoff destiny. They currently sit as the fifth seed in the AFC and finish out their season with games against Detroit, Jacksonville and Tennessee; however, they were eliminated from contention in the AFC South, as the Titans clinched the division with a win over Cleveland on Sunday.

"I think we have just gotten back to some of the basic fundamental things that we won with in the past," Manning said of the six-game winning streak. "Certainly at 3-4 you find yourself in a hole. We really have stepped our game up a little bit as far as protecting the ball better, being better in the red zone, trying to eliminate penalties. It's truly been a one-game-at-a-time mentality since we have been 3-4, and that will be the philosophy the rest of this month."

Manning accomplished some history in the game, passing Drew Bledsoe for seventh all-time in career passing yardage. Bledsoe posted 44,611 yards during his 14-year career, and Manning now stands at 44,851 yards after his performance Sunday.

Marvin Harrison caught three passes for 78 yards and a touchdown, while Anthony Gonzalez and Dallas Clark each had a scoring reception in the win. Robert Mathis had 2 1/2 sacks and a forced fumble, and Kelvin Hayden had two interceptions -- including one for a touchdown -- for the dominating Colts defense, which held the Bengals to 252 total yards of offense.

"Everyone thinks these games are going to be easy, and they'll look at the final score and feel like it was. But we had to work," Colts head coach Tony Dungy said. "Everybody came out and played well. Slowed the game down. With their defense, we thought that we were going to blitz us a lot more. We got a couple big plays on defense, got some takeaways. The second half, we got rolling. It was a good effort and the kind of thing you need to start off December."

Ryan Fitzpatrick struggled, going 18-of-26 passing for 170 yards, with two interceptions, for the Bengals (1-11-1), who are in last place in the AFC and have lost six straight times to the Colts. Cedric Benson ran for 57 yards on 16 carries, and Chad Johnson caught five passes for 79 yards in the loss.

"Today you witnessed what happens when you have opportunities and king of let them go by the wayside," Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis said. "You don't get some points out there on the first two drives of the first half, where the ball was right on the edge of scoring position. We (had) a couple of miscues in the passing game that obviously just killed us and put us way behind the eight-ball."

The Colts got on the board as the first quarter was winding down. Manning took the offense down the field in nine plays, and Dominic Rhodes darted his way for a 17-yard touchdown to cap the 79-yard drive.

Clark appeared to be headed for a touchdown early in the second, but he fumbled at the goal line, and Cincinnati recovered for a touchback. Shayne Graham ended the ensuing drive with a 19-yard field goal to make it 7-3.

With just over a minute to go, an interception and personal foul penalty put the Colts on Cincinnati's seven-yard line. Two plays later, Manning found Harrison from five yards out, and Indianapolis held a 14-3 halftime edge.

The Colts came out in the second half and drove for a score. Rhodes converted a key 4th-and-1 from the Bengals 30 with an eight-yard run, and Manning threw a two-yard touchdown pass to Gonzalez to complete the 15-play, 81-yard drive that took 8:45 off the clock.

"Once we got the lead, our guys were able to turn it up," Dungy said. "Which we like to see. It was fun to have some of our young guys in there and see them play and get some rest for our guys."

The Bengals punted, and on the second play of Indianapolis' next drive, Harrison turned a short slant into a 67-yard reception down to the four. Clark caught a four-yard touchdown pass on the next play, giving the Colts a 28-3 lead late in the third.

Fitzpatrick had Cincinnati at the Colts 23 late in the fourth, but he threw an interception to Hayden, who returned it 85 yards for the score to seal the win for Indianapolis.

Game Notes

Mathis now has 11.5 sacks on the season and six sacks in his last three games...Dwight Freeney recorded 1.5 sacks for the Colts...Bob Sanders, the league's reigning defensive player of the year, recorded six tackles after missing the last three games with a knee injury...Jordan Palmer, Carson Palmer's brother, was put into the game for the Bengals late in the fourth quarter and completed 4-of-6 passes for 30 yards, with an interception...Since 2004, the Colts are 43-7 when Manning throws for two or more touchdowns... Rhodes finished with 31 yards rushing, while Joseph Addai had only 26 on 10 carries...Indianapolis joined the San Francisco 49ers as the only two franchises to have a six-game winning streak in six consecutive seasons. The 49ers did it from 1989-1995.