Colts starting to have the look of a charmed team

	Just five games stand between Peyton Manning's Colts and a perfect NFL regular season. AP

INDIANAPOLIS -- This is getting serious. This perfect season stuff.

They may not say it, but the Indianapolis Colts are definitely starting to sniff it. Sixteen and 0. History. A place in the record books. A chance to leave a mark that can't be topped.

Will they do it? As of Monday night, it's 11 down and five to go, and what seemed wholly improbable is beginning to enter the realm of the possible. Didn't you at least get the makings of that notion watching Indy's 26-7 rout of Pittsburgh at the RCA Dome? December is about to dawn, and the Colts still haven't tasted defeat.

St. Louis couldn't beat them, even after taking a 17-0 lead. Indy finally laid its Patriots jinx to rest on Monday Night Football in Foxboro earlier this month, and last week in Cincinnati won the highest-scoring game of the year in the NFL.

And now the Steelers -- who last year hung the first loss of the season on both 6-0 New England and 7-0 Philadelphia -- have taken their best shot at the Colts and come up with nothing but air, leaving Indianapolis in a league of its own so far in 2005.

The Patriots, Bengals and Steelers vanquished in a span of four games. Talk about your Indianapolis combine.

"I've never really even thought about being 11-0, but I think it's somewhat of an honor, because I know how good teams are in the NFL,'' Colts quarterback Peyton Manning said. "It's hard to win 11 games in a season, let alone starting 11-0.''

What's becoming more obvious with every passing week is that the Colts don't seem burdened by their unblemished success this season. As the challenges arise, they surmount them. One at a time. Just the way every football coach -- Tony Dungy included -- preaches. They win with offense one week, and defense the next.

"We're not worrying about it, man,'' said Colts receiver Reggie Wayne, of the perfect season talk. "We really do take it one game at a time. Our goal around here is to get to the big dance. If we get it (the perfect season), great. But if we lose a game, we're still in it. It doesn't hurt us.''

With five weeks remaining in the regular season, things are even starting to break right for these Colts. We know they're good, and now they're starting to get a little lucky to boot.

How so? Let us count the ways. For starters, they caught the Steelers in quarterback Ben Roethlisberger's first game back since Nov. 4 arthroscopic knee surgery, an injury that cost him both Pittsburgh's previous three games and whatever momentum he had generated from the Steelers' 5-2 start.

Roethlisberger Monday night was far from horrible, completing 17 of 26 passes for 133 yards and a touchdown. But he also had two interceptions and an undeniable layer of rust covering his game, putting him in something less than the form that allowed him to enter play 18-1 as a regular-season starter in his two-year NFL career, with nary a road loss.