Bloomington fans cheer, celebrate Colts' win

Not since 1996 have Indianapolis Colts fans had this much to cheer about in January.\nA crowd of boisterous Colts fans looked for the team's biggest win since it was led by "Captain Comeback" Jim Harbaugh to the 1996 AFC Championship game. Colts fans made a lively appearance at Yogi's Bar & Grill Sunday and cheered the Colts to a 38-31 win over the Kansas City Chiefs.\nJunior Kyle Hollon, a fan since he "could watch TV," was one of those on hand to witness the event and revel in the long road the Colts have traveled since the days of players like Jeff George and Don Majikowski.\n"It's amazing," Hollon said. "They are a lot more talented. If they play to the best of their abilities, they won't be stopped."\nPeople were into the game before it even started. When commentator Deion Sanders announced that he was picking the Chiefs on the CBS pregame show, he was met with a loud chorus of boos.\nBeing able to watch a game in such an atmosphere was precisely the reason that many people decided to watch the game at Yogi's rather than in the comfort of their own La-Z-Boy.\n"I couldn't imagine a better place to watch the game," sophomore Matt Furnish said. "It's so much more alive with all of the Colts fans around."\nThe crowd was able to cheer early and often. High fives were passed around amongst strangers as the Colts opened the scoring on a touchdown pass from quarterback Peyton Manning to wide receiver Brandon Stokley.\nHowever, at times the cheering was slightly irregular due to a slight delay on the television screens because of cable connections. One half of the bar would see a play end a few seconds before the rest of the crowd, so some people would already be cheering a touchdown, while others would still be watching the snap.\nWhen Kansas City kicker Morten Andersen missed a field goal towards the end of the first half, it brought shouts of "laces out!" in homage to the fictitious Ray Finkle of Ace Ventura fame. With the miss allowing the Colts to nurse a 21-10 halftime lead, everyone went to their halftime bathroom break in a good mood.\nWell, everyone but junior Atit Patel, that is. Patel was the lone Chiefs supporter in a sea of Colts blue. But he wasn't going to let overwhelming numbers get in the way of a good time with his friends.\n"It sucks right now. It's frustrating to watch," said the Kansas City-area native. "But I can't be afraid of them giving me crap."\nIndeed, when the Chiefs did make a big play, he would be the only person in the bar heard clapping and yelling "Go, Priest, Go!" But as the second half began, his joy turned to misery as Holmes fumbled after a long run and the Colts recovered.\nAs the game moved along and the Colts offense looked more unstoppable, the crowd continued to get louder, more and more confident that Indy was riding to victory.\nBut that confidence was shattered when the Chiefs' Dante Hall returned a kickoff for a touchdown and made Colts fans feel like their team was vulnerable for the first time in the game.\nTheir worries seemed to cease on the final play of the third quarter, though, when Manning hit Reggie Wayne on a big third down conversion. Indeed, the cheering got louder as the clock wound under two minutes, with people pounding on their tables as if they could make the sound carry all the way to Arrowhead Stadium.\nFinally, as Priest Holmes was taken down on the final play of the game, the place erupted one final time. A toast was raised, and one guy started riding an imaginary horse around his table.\nYogi's manager Josh Miller said the crowd was not quite as large as he expected, but as the playoffs carry on and the possibility of the Super Bowl looms, he knows that a standing-room crowd could be on hand.\n"Every one is pumped up," Miller said. "It will be crazy. There will be lots of blue and white. This place will be full."\n-- Contact senior writer Alex Hickey at ahickey@indiana.edu.