National Football League

Colts know what to expect in quest for perfection

Published Nov. 16, 2009 9:24 p.m. ET

share

facebookxredditlink

foxsports

Now that Indianapolis has won its annual November showdown with New England, players can embark on their next traditional quest. Chasing perfection. For the third time in five years, the Colts are 9-0 and need to pull out those rehearsed lines. "It is a huge win," three-time MVP Peyton Manning said after rallying the Colts for a 35-34 victory Sunday night. "The main reason is it's an AFC team. Teams in our division are winning. That's what we are trying to do, stay ahead of those teams." Clearly, the veterans want to downplay the distractions that typically follows wins like this one. Sports talk shows, analysts and bloggers will break down every Colts flaw and question how good the Colts really are. They'll again debate Indy's strength of schedule and may contend the Colts wouldn't still be perfect if Bill Belichick hadn't decided to go for it on fourth-and-2 from his own 28 with 2:08 left Sunday. Others will argue about which unbeaten team is better, New Orleans or Indy. And each ensuing victory will bring more reporters, more questions and more hype to the Colts' locker room. More than half of the players on this year's roster weren't around when Indy last opened the season with nine straight wins, in 2006, so coach Jim Caldwell and the veterans will try to prepare the youngsters for the challenges ahead - on and off the field. "For the older guys, they've been through this before," said Caldwell, who still has not lost a game as head coach. "But our young guys are catching on pretty quickly. I think they've learned their lesson." If the young players learned anything Sunday night, it was this: Never give up with Manning on the field. For the second time this year, he orchestrated an improbable fourth-quarter comeback against an AFC East foe. He did it despite several drops by new receivers Pierre Garcon and Austin Collie, despite tight end Dallas Clark being held to four catches for 65 yards, despite Tom Brady's proficiency at exploiting holes in a Colts' secondary that started two rookie quarterbacks and despite trailing by 17 points early in the fourth quarter against a team with three Super Bowl titles this decade. Now the focus shifts back to Indy's road to perfection. The Colts go to their former hometown, Baltimore, this weekend. Indy has won six straight in the series including three in a row on the road. Then comes the trip to Houston, which is 1-14 all-time against Indy. After that, the Colts host Tennessee and Denver before finishing at Jacksonville, home against the New York Jets and at Buffalo. Only one of those teams, Denver (6-3), has a better record than 5-4 and the Broncos have lost three straight. Indy is now three wins away from extending its own league record for consecutive 12-win seasons to seven and three wins from matching New England's mark for the longest winning streak in league history (21). But the Colts realize current success does not dictate future results. "We can't be in any better spot, that's a given," Caldwell said. "But the fact of the matter is there's still a lot of work to be done. If you take a peek in the rearview mirror, there are some teams behind us but not very far behind us, in our division even." After going 13-0 in 2005, the Colts lost back-to-back games to San Diego and Seattle, won the season-finale against Arizona and then lost to Pittsburgh in the divisional round of the playoffs. In 2006, Indy started 9-0, then lost four of six. It finished the season win five straight wins, the last being a 29-17 victory over Chicago in the Super Bowl. The next year, the Patriots became the first team in NFL history to go 16-0 but lost in the Super Bowl to the New York Giants. So while the Colts cautiously embrace their position - a four-game lead in the division, a two-game lead in the chase for top seed in the AFC, the possibility of clinching a playoff spot on Thanksgiving weekend - they're not talking about 16-0.

share

Get more from National Football League Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more

in this topic

National Football League