By Tom James
The Tribune-Star

INDIANAPOLIS

There’s just got to be something special about playing a team from your home state. That has to be the case for Indianapolis Colts second-year safety Melvin Bullitt, who is a native of Bryan, Texas, and attended Texas A&M.

For the second time this season, Bullitt intercepted Houston Texans quarterback Sage Rosenfels to end a game. He had his first career interception in last year’s home-field win over the Texans. Of his five total interceptions over the past two seasons — he has a team-leading four this year — three have come in games with Houston and against Rosenfels.

And to make matters even more interesting, Sunday’s interception was his third game-saving interception of the 2008 season — twice against Houston, plus last week at Pittsburgh.

“He’s sort of like [New York Yankees reliever] Mariano Rivera,” Colts coach Tony Dungy joked afterwards. “It’s not often that you get to end a game [with an interception] in a season. But to have three, and three big ones when we needed them, that’s great.

“Melvin’s doing a good job. He’s playing for Bob [Sanders] and making things happen and learning as he goes. He’s getting better and better every week. I’m happy for him that he is making those big plays. I’m happy for us too.”

• Addai makes the switch — On Joseph Addai’s first touchdown catch of the year, tight end Dallas Clark was originally intended to be the receiver on the play. But just before the snap of the ball, quarterback Peyton Manning moved Clark and Addai.

“Dallas was supposed to run that little wheel route out in the flat. But just before the play started, he had us switch where we were,” the Colts running back explained. “We were going to run that same play when we played the Texans in Houston earlier this year. But we had a delay-of-game penalty and ended up not doing it.”

• Sanders status to be determined — Sanders was a somewhat surprising scratch before Sunday’s game. He had missed Wednesday’s practice session, but that was his normal day off during the week.

Sanders came back and practiced on Thursday, but experienced some unexpected soreness and swelling in his right knee. He had arthroscopic surgery on the knee in September in order to clean out some old scar tissue, but had played the last two weeks against New England and Pittsburgh.

“[Sanders] had some swelling after practice on Thursday, really Friday morning. He left Thursday and we felt like he was going to be fine. But it’s just one of those things,” Dungy said after the Houston game.

“We’ll just have to investigate and keep working on it. Hopefully he’ll be ready to play this week [against San Diego]. If not, Melvin [Bullitt] will get a lot more work.”

• Pregame inactives/injuries — In addition to Sanders, the Colts’ pregame inactives included cornerback Kelvin Hayden (hamstring), linebacker Buster Davis, rookie offensive guard Steve Justice, wide receiver Roy Hall (hamstring/knee), rookie tight end Tom Santi (shoulder) and rookie defensive end Curtis Johnson.

Hayden and Santi might be able to return to practice this week. An update on their recovery is not expected until Wednesday.

Cornerback Nick Graham suffered an ankle injury in the second quarter of the Houston game and did not return. His status for the San Diego game won’t be known until midweek.

• Game notes — The Colts’ 474 yards of total offense against Houston marked the team’s first 400-yard game of the season; the Colts had 458 yards last December in a win over the Texans.

Also, Addai recorded his third career game with both a rushing and receiving touchdown. His 105 yards rushing gave him his seventh career 100-yard rushing game and first this year.

Manning now has 3,702 career pass completions, surpassing former Minnesota Vikings and New York Giants quarterback Fran Tarkenton’s 3,686. That ranks the Colts’ quarterback seventh in the NFL record book. His 320 passing yards was his 45th career 300-yard passing game and his second this season.

Wide receiver Marvin Harrison now has 127 career touchdowns, passing Jim Brown (126) for ninth place in league history. Defensive end Dwight Freeney netted his sixth and seventh sacks of the year. He now has 11 career sacks against the Texans. His performance Sunday was his second consecutive multiple-sack game and the 16th of his career.

Tom James writes for The Tribune Star in Terre Haute, Ind.