INDIANAPOLIS — Chuck Pagano put on his dancing shoes and relished every moment of Sunday’s postgame celebration.
He took his customary linebacker stance on the sideline, hands on bended knees. He signaled touchdowns when the Colts scored, patted Deji Karim on the helmet after a 101-yard kickoff return for a game-changing touchdown, and gestured for penalty flags to be thrown.
And after Indianapolis beat AFC South champion Houston, 28-16, Pagano even tossed aside the stodgy image of an NFL coach and began jumping around with players, assistant coaches and even team owner Jim Irsay like he was a kid again.
Why not?
“There was a lot of high-fiving, a lot of dancing, a lot of hugging going on and a lot of celebrating,” an emotional Pagano said. “There’s a lot to celebrate right now.”
It started with the 52-year-old’s return.
He took an indefinite leave Sept. 26 to begin the first of three rounds of chemotherapy for leukemia and didn’t make it back to the sideline until Sunday when the cancer was in complete remission.
But the party began much earlier.
When Pagano first walked onto the field, he waved to the fans and hugged his wife, Tina.
When fans gave him a standing ovation after a 1-minute video played on the stadium’s two Jumbotrons just before kickoff, a choked-up Pagano held his tears in check.
When he left the field, he hugged everybody in sight — assistant coaches, Colts players, even Texans players and coaches — before moving the postgame party to the locker room, where Irsay gave him a game ball and they did a do-si-do together.
“What a day, what a day,” he said. “We could go into what transpired out there over the last three hours and five, 10 minutes whatever, from a stats standpoint and big plays, penalties and run offense and run ‘D’, all of that stuff. But just down the road, I have watched all of this take place for the last 12 ballgames.”
Players had a different kind of welcome-back celebration planned.
“Guys really did not want to lose in his first game back and heading into the playoffs,” rookie quarterback Andrew Luck said. “To get a win, I think means the world to him.”
Luck, as usual, had a big hand in the victory. His 14-of-28 passing was good for 191 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions.
He wasn’t alone.
Karim swung the game with the kickoff return just seconds after the Texans took their only lead, and when Luck converted a third-and-23 with the 70-yard TD pass early in the fourth quarter, the crowd was in a frenzy.
The Colts (11-5) will play at Baltimore in the wild-card round at 10 a.m. Sunday. The slumping Texans (12-4) will play host to Cincinnati at 1 p.m. Saturday after they slipped behind Denver and New England in AFC seeding.
Indy did everything it needed to Sunday.
The Colts prevented J.J. Watt from getting too close to Luck — or any closer to Michael Strahan’s NFL sacks record (221/2). Watt finished with 201/2.
“We didn’t win, so I could care less about the record. It’s about winning,” Watt said.
Luck broke Peyton Manning’s franchise record for completions by a rookie but fell 15 short of Sam Bradford’s NFL mark. Luck also moved into third all-time among rookies with 22 TD passes.
And Indy completed the second greatest turnaround in league history — winning nine more games than it did in 2011.
“Man, this has been a great year, a storybook ending,” Pro Bowl receiver Reggie Wayne said. “Let’s keep it going. Hopefully we can continue to write this movie.”
It didn’t take long for the Colts to assert themselves — or to turn the game when the Texans took their only lead. Shayne Graham made a 37-yard field goal with 5:22 remaining in the third quarter to make it 16-14, a lead that lasted all of 12 seconds. Deji Karim’s long TD return set off a celebration that didn’t end until after Pagano had done his dance.
“It’s like a dream come true again,” Pagano said. “It’s the greatest feeling in the world to be down there.”
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