It was misleading.

Manning threw for 308 yards and four touchdowns, including a 65-yarder to Reggie Wayne to go ahead for good, and the Colts stayed unbeaten with a 35-31 victory in a wild game against the Jacksonville Jaguars on Thursday night.

“We’ve had some extremely close games,” Manning said. “Do we feel fortunate to be undefeated? Certainly. Anybody that’s followed us each week can go back to a lot of games and say, ‘Boy, if we don’t make that play, we’re not undefeated.'”

The Colts improved to 14-0 for the first time in franchise history and extended their NFL-record winning streak to 23 in the regular season. They also became the third 14-0 team in league history, joining the 1972 Miami Dolphins and 2007 New England Patriots. New Orleans can match the feat with a win over Dallas on Saturday night.

“This is who we are,” Wayne said. “We’re built for 60 minutes. It won’t be pretty all the time, but we’re getting it done.”

The back-and-forth game on a cool night included 714 yards, 43 first downs, 10 lead changes, six punts, several big plays and just two turnovers.

“This was an old-time shootout at the OK Corral,” Colts coach Jim Caldwell said.

Jacksonville had a chance to win it in the closing minutes, but David Garrard overthrew Mike Thomas on a third-and-10 play with about a minute to play. Jacob Lacey intercepted the ball, and the Colts ran out the clock.

The Jaguars (7-7) lost for the third time in four games and no longer controls their fate in the AFC wild-card race.

“We were close, so close, to being in this locker room celebrating,” cornerback Derek Cox said. “But there’s no moral victories. It’s about winning … It’s not in our hands anymore. But we still have two games left.”

They have Manning to thank for the latest setback, which spoiled the team’s home finale. The game was Jacksonville’s first not blacked out on local television this season.

Manning completed his first 13 passes and was nearly as efficient as he was in last year’s game in Jacksonville, when he completed 17 in a row.

Manning finished 23 of 30 and wasn’t sacked for the third straight week. His only real mistake wasn’t even his fault. Dallas Clark bobbled a pass that Reggie Nelson tipped and Daryl Smith intercepted in the third quarter. The Jaguars turned the error into a touchdown and a 24-21 lead.

But it was short-lived.

Manning answered with an 80-yard drive, hitting Wayne with consecutive passes and later finding Clark across the middle for a 27-yard score. Wayne caught five passes for 132 yards. Clark had seven receptions for 95 yards and two scores.

Special teams chipped in, too. Chad Simpson returned a second-quarter kickoff 93 yards for a touchdown to put Indy ahead 14-10.

The Jaguars, who have lost eight of 10 in the series, ended up in a shootout with Manning & Co. — a huge mistake for a team built to run the ball and take advantage of play-action passes.

Garrard was 23 of 40 for 223 yards and three touchdowns. Maurice Jones-Drew ran 27 times for 110 yards and a score, and caught five passes for 30 yards and a touchdown. But once the Jaguars got behind and abandoned the running game, they had trouble sustaining drives.

It might have been worse had defensive ends Dwight Freeney and Robert Mathis played extensively. Caldwell kept both players on the bench most of the night for precautionary reasons. There had been talk all week about Caldwell resting some key players down the stretch.

But Manning, Wayne, Clark and other stars played the whole night.

They did plenty of damage, too.

The dagger came with 5:23 remaining, when Manning found Wayne streaking down the sideline for the 65-yarder. Safety Reggie Nelson seemed to bite on a pump fake, allowing Wayne to get behind the coverage.

“What a huge play when we needed it,” Manning said. “He’s a great player. He comes to play. We haven’t gotten him the ball recently as much as we’d like, but he draws a lot of attention and you still want to get him the ball. His presence allows us to get other guys open.”