MVN - Most Valuable Network

Pats Scary, Colts Consistent

Six weeks into the craziest NFL season in recent memory, the success of the Colts is virtually the only circumstance of any team in the league that you would’ve believed if someone had told you it was going to happen back in August.

Even in the case of the seemingly unstoppable Patriots, while it was generally assumed the additions of Randy Moss, Wes Welker, and Donte Stallworth would generate a noticeable boost in the New England offense, nobody could’ve guessed it would turn out like this. Tom Brady has already set an NFL record for consecutive games to start a season with at least three touchdown passes, they’ve beaten every team they’ve faced by at least 17 points, and scored at least 34 points in each of those victories. At this pace, as painful as it is to write, they pose a very realistic threat to run the table and go undefeated and Brady could likely end up breaking, if not shattering, the all-time single-season touchdown pass record the beloved Peyton Manning set in 2004.

A few things to get off my chest about this Patriots season, though I will admit that their offense is playing as perfect as any I’ve ever seen and that I was incredibly wrong in my pre-season prediction that they would prove to be overrated: first, and most importantly, everyone seems to have suffered amnesia in the regard that this team, and more specifically, coach Belichick, have already been caught red-handed cheating, in their very first game in fact. Of course, even with such an obvious advantage in play-calling, the players still have to execute proficiently or it doesn’t even matter, and it’s not like they’re trying to hide what they’re doing offensively anyway (they throw the ball every damn play), so I understand that doesn’t take any credit away from how outstanding the Patriots have been. But when you consider this team in an historical context, as, unfortunately, it’s beginning to look like we will down the road, you can’t ignore such a glaring blemish that will certainly haunt them later, whether anyone recognizes it now or not. As I’ve implied before, it’s strikingly similar to the way steroids influence the recognition of a home-run hitter: steroids might make you stronger, but you’ve still got to be able to hit the ball, just like Tom Brady still has to be able to make the throw, even if he does know what formation a defense is running against him. The homerun and the touchdown pass are both inherently impressive, then, but the question of to what extent an unfair advantage may have assisted either scoring player will always remain.

Secondly, if Tom Brady does end up with more than 49 touchdown passes this season, which I pray he doesn’t but expect that he will, he will not have broken the record in the same classy fashion Peyton Manning did three years ago. The Patriots proved against the Cowboys on Sunday they have no problem running up the score against a helpless team, scoring a completely unnecessary touchdown in the final minute just to rub it in, and certainly they have shown no mercy against the other pitiful teams they’ve faced thus far either. When Manning threw 49, he was regularly sitting out the entire fourth quarter of the blowout games he was involved in, didn’t even play the final game of the season, and still had enough to break the record. Nothing Brady does this year will match that feat playing as dishonorably as the Patriots are.

Finally, if the Patriots do wind up undefeated, which is definitely less likely than Brady breaking the record but is still possible, they will have done so in the worst division in football. The combined record of the other teams in the AFC East right now is 2-15. That’s right: three teams, two wins, fifteen losses. The Bills are so bad they blew a Monday night home game against Dallas despite scoring two defensive touchdowns, a special teams touchdown, and coming up with six turnovers, and the Dolphins have yet to win a single game. The third stooge in this group is the New York Jets, whose only win has come against, who else, the Dolphins, and when you put the three together and play each of them twice, it’d be tough to find more than five teams out there who wouldn’t come out of that stretch 6-0. The six teams the Patriots have beaten so far are a combined 14-20, with almost half their collective victories coming from the Dallas Cowboys alone, and they haven’t even played their first of two games against winless Miami yet. This does nothing to diminish what an incredible accomplishment a 16-0 season would be, but will, once again, I think, play a factor in determining where this squad ranks among the all-time best.

Then there’s every other team in the league, who have taken all the expectations placed on them in every preseason analysis around, good or bad, and done the exact opposite. It’s been nothing but injury after injury and surprise after surprise.

The Saints, a trendy pick to win the NFC, if not the Super Bowl itself, are barely in contention to make the playoffs. The Chargers stumbled out of the gates and are just now back to .500 on the season, the Bears are all but dead, the Browns are 3-3, the Bengals have only won once and the Rams haven’t won at all. Green Bay is sitting pretty at 5-1 with Brett Favre having his best statistical season at the age of 38, Jeff Garcia is pulling wins out of a hat like David Copperfield, Donovan McNabb will come out one week and throw four touchdown passes then end up getting sacked 12 times the next, and Tony Romo won’t even let five interceptions in a single game slow him down. I’m telling you it’s crazy time out there. Next thing you know, Vinny Testaverde’s going to show up somewhere and throw a touchdown pass. (Whoops.)

And in between all the chaos are the Indianapolis Colts, steady as ever, playing the same exact kind of football that’s earned them four consecutive 12-win seasons and a Super Bowl title, still taking it one game at a time, never underestimating an underachieving opponent and never buying into the hype of those overachieving. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, as they say.

If there’s any advantage the Colts hold over the other undefeated team left out there, who, in case you haven’t been reminded of in the last twenty four hours, they play on November Fourth, it is their consistency. The Patriots are bound to come back to earth at some point, however limited their trip may be, simply because their level of play has been inflated, I believe, by the quality of teams they’ve played, just as the Chargers are starting to play like the good team they are and the Lions are realizing they still are indeed the Lions.

This Colts team, however, is as grounded as ever, and even with the highs and lows they experience within any given game, they are a constant force that knows, above all, how to win. From the core players who’ve been together for years now to the coaching staff to the play-calling to the execution, you know you’re getting a solid, controlled, methodical effort from them every single time and you had better be fully prepared or else they will put the game out of reach before you even realize what happened.

And as if it weren’t already obvious, their last outing against Tampa Bay, who is a very good team in their own right, proved that the guiding force behind their effort is so powerful in many cases it doesn’t even matter who they have out on the field. Of course, Tony Dungy and Bill Polian are the absolute best in the business at finding otherwise overlooked talent to confidently fill every position on their roster, but just think of all the players, outside of their irreplaceable core group, that have come and gone over the past four years without leaving any noticeable void. If anything, they’ve just gotten better. Edgerrin James, David Thorton, Nick Harper, Mike Vanderjagt (the NFL’s most accurate kicker at the time of departure), Corey Simon, Montae Reagor, the list goes on and on. This season highlights their resiliency more than any other, however, a season in which not only did the Colts lose four defensive starters to free agency, but another to injury and an offensive starter to retirement, because even after suffering all those losses, this team actually looks better now than it did before they left.

Whether that team will be good enough to oust the Patriots come November Fourth remains to be seen, though you can bet all the attention right now is focused squarely on the upcoming game against Jacksonville. But we all know it’s coming, and we all know that if any team bears the most potential to beat those vintage-Yankee-like Patriots, it is without question the Indianapolis Colts.

Tell me, would you really be surprised if they did?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 17th, 2007 at 1:31 pm and is filed under Colts Chat, Colts, Super Bowl. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.