Indianapolis running back Joseph Addai celebrates after scoring a touchdown against the New Orleans Saints in the third quarter. The Colts won, 41-10, Thursday in Indianapolis.

Indianapolis ? The Indianapolis Colts looked just as formidable on offense as they did when they won the Super Bowl last season.

And even better on defense.

Shaking off a sluggish first half, the Colts outscored New Orleans 34-0 after intermission in Thursday night’s NFL opener to beat the Saints 41-10. At the same time, they served notice to New England, San Diego and other highly touted teams that losing six players who started the Super Bowl last season hasn’t slowed them down a bit.

Four of them were on a defense that didn’t allow a touchdown Thursday night.

“All offseason, that’s what everyone talked about, that the defense has lost all these guys,” said Peyton Manning, who threw for 288 yards and three touchdowns. “A lot of young guys played good tonight. It’s only one game and there’s a long way to go, but we played really well tonight.”

Playing against his hometown team, Manning threw two TD passes to Reggie Wayne and another to Marvin Harrison. Joseph Addai ran for 118 yards on 23 carries, and that super-quick defense shut down Drew Brees, Reggie Bush and the explosive New Orleans offense.

The game was tied 10-10 after a sloppy first half.

But Manning led two quick TD drives in the first 8:49 of the second half as the Colts put up 24 points in 20 minutes after intermission. On the first drive, Manning hit Harrison for 42 yards to set up a 2-yard TD run by Addai. Then the Super Bowl MVP came right back to throw a 28-yard TD pass to Wayne.