INDIANAPOLIS -- Joe Flacco and Daryl Smith spent Sunday afternoon in the Baltimore locker room looking for answers.
All they really found was more frustration.
Andrew Luck threw one touchdown pass and ran for another before Indy's suddenly stout defense snuffed out the Ravens' final chance with a daring deflection to preserve a 20-13 victory.
"When it came down to it, the Colts made the plays when they had to, we did not," said Smith, a linebacker. "We got lots of hits on him. Contain, contain, contain, and then he (Luck) makes a play."
The Ravens (3-2) hadn't been through anything this discouraging in a month -- since an opening-day loss at home to the Bengals.
It was just plain ugly.
Flacco, the Super Bowl-winning quarterback, finished 22 of 38 for 235 yards and one interception. The Ravens ran 15 times for 90 yards, their first sub-125-yard day in four weeks, committed three turnovers and Flacco was sacked four times -- one more than he had been in the previous four games combined.
And Baltimore's usually staunch defense allowed Luck and the Colts to maintain a disparity of almost 17½ minutes in possession time. Not surprisingly, the Ravens' three-game winning streak ended as they fell to 0-5 all-time in Indy.
"We made too many mistakes. We didn't convert first downs, and we didn't put ourselves in very good position," Flacco said. "Any time you turn the ball over and you're not keeping yourselves on the field, it's going to be tough to win."
Things didn't go much smoother for the Colts (3-2).
Luck threw two interceptions, had one touchdown called back because of a rare penalty on Reggie Wayne and couldn't convert on fourth-and-1 on the Colts' opening possession. He still finished 32 of 49 with 312 yards and the TD, and his nimble 13-yard TD run early in the fourth quarter wound up providing the decisive points.
Indy also lost two fumbles and two of those four turnovers -- Luck's third-quarter interception at the Baltimore 18 and Ahmad Bradshaw's fumble at the Ravens 10 with 1:49 left -- made the finish infinitely more difficult. It wasn't over until cornerback Greg Toler's diving deflection prevented Torrey Smith, who had gotten behind him on fourth-and-3 with 32 seconds left.
Indianapolis (3-2) has won three straight and now owns a share of the AFC South lead thanks to Houston's overtime loss to Dallas.
"They (Baltimore) do such a great job of standing strong in the red zone and not giving up touchdowns," Luck said. "We knew that coming in. We talked about if we weren't getting (scores) early, stick with it. Don't get frustrated."
Eventually, the Colts' patience paid off with Luck's 6-yard TD pass to Dwayne Allen with 10:33 left in the third quarter, and then with Luck's TD run with 8:56 left in the game that made it 20-6.
But it was a strange game.
Both teams missed scoring chances in the first half when they couldn't convert on fourth down. Both coaches, Pagano and John Harbaugh, lost first-half challenges as they attempted to get spots overturned. The teams combined for seven turnovers, and Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco was sacked a season-high four times -- one more than his combined total in the first four weeks this season.
Even Lucas Oil Stadium's retractable roof was closed at halftime because of the threat of rain, the first time that's happened during a regular-season game since the stadium opened in 2008.
The biggest surprise might have been Indy's surging defense, which allowed a season-low 13 points, which limited Baltimore (3-2) to just 1 of 11 third-down conversions.
The miscues took a toll.
Steve Smith's fumble on the Ravens' first offensive play led to Adam Vinatieri's 38-yard field goal.
Vinatieri made it 6-0 late in the second quarter after one defensive penalty gave the Colts' a second chance to score a touchdown, and an offensive penalty later wiped out a touchdown pass.
Baltimore finally got on the scoreboard with Justin Tucker's 52-yard field goal as time expired in the first half, cutting the deficit to 6-3.
But in the second half, the Colts applied even more pressure with Luck and the ground game taking charge on offense and the defense holding fast, a strategy Baltimore prefers.
"(Against Baltimore) you expect things not to go as expected. What you do expect is a tough, gritty, down-to-the-wire (game)," Luck said. "We survived our mistakes, in a sense. We made our plays enough to get a win."
NOTES: Reggie Wayne caught seven passes for 77 yards and passed Cris Carter for No. 8 on the NFL's career list in yards receiving. Wayne now has 13,950 yards. ... Ravens left guard Kelechi Osemele left briefly in the third quarter with a sprained right knee, but did return.
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