Manning and Co. look ready to take the next step

	Peyton Manning threw for 326 yards, two touchdowns and an interception in the Colts' 27-20 win over the Patriots on Sunday night. Elsa/Getty Images
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Look what the Colts have just done: In the span of eight days, they've gone to Denver and New England, put 34 points up on the league's No. 1 scoring defense (the Broncos'), 27 on the No. 3 scoring defense, and established themselves as far and away the team to beat in the NFL.

The meat of the schedule is over. Indy has beaten the 6-2 Giants in New Jersey, the 6-2 Broncos in Denver and the 6-2 Patriots in Foxboro. One winning team is left on the schedule: 5-3 Jacksonville on Dec. 10 in Florida. Three currently disappointing 4-4 teams will be tough -- at Dallas on Nov. 19, Philly at home the next week, and Cincinnati at home on Dec. 18. But do you really think Indianapolis will lose more than one of those? I don't. The Colts have the look of a 15-1 team to me. Which one will they lose? I don't know. But no one wins 16.

Indianapolis took a 2 1/2-game lead for home field in the AFC playoffs -- because of their head-to-head tiebreaker edge with two closest contenders, and their conference-record edge with similarly 6-2 San Diego and Baltimore -- and let's be honest: The Colts aren't losing three ... and can you see Denver or New England running the table?

The eight points I learned about 8-0 Indianapolis and the fumbling Patriots on Sunday night:

1. The Patriots are continuing an annoying little habit of playing lousy when the lights are brightest. They're 1-3 in biggies in the last 12 months. A year ago they stunk it up in a 40-21 loss to Indy at home. They beat Jacksonville 28-3 in a wild-card game at home, not a surprising accomplishment against a team with a gimpy quarterback on a frigid night. Then they stunk it up again in the 27-13 divisional playoff loss at Denver. And on Sunday night, with the Colts again in their house trying to remain the only unbeaten team in football, the Patriots committed five turnovers, missed a chippy field goal and let Indy's receivers run like Colts in a meadow. I know three of Tom Brady's interceptions were tipped, but the Patriots were still too careless with the ball. That Corey Dillon fumble was a fumble, by the way, so no carping on that one.

2. Peyton Manning looks like he's ready to win the big one to me. I'm not saying the Colts will necessarily. Turnovers are funny things, and I could see New England winning a game in the RCA Dome in January, even a game in which Manning plays well. But I would like to put that annoying he-can't-win-the-big-one story to bed. A quarterback just can't play better than Manning's playing.

My favorite Manning play from Sunday night: New England was desperately trying to keep the Colts within seven late in the fourth quarter so the Pats could have one more shot at tying the game. On second-and-8 from the New England 46, Manning took a short drop and looked for tight end Ben Utecht up the right seam. Just as he threw, he was sandwiched by two Patriot rushers, and he managed to fling his arm forward. The ball fluttered out toward Utecht. He dove for it, caught it and made a first down. Gain of 13. That was Manning's ugliest completion of the night. It was also his prettiest.

3. John Madden was absolutely right midway through the second half when he wondered, incredulously, why the Patriots were running all this trick horsecrap instead of just pounding away at a bad run defense. New England ran it well -- 33 times for 148 yards -- and maybe it wasn't as good as they thought at 4.5 yards a clip, but it was still plenty good to keep the chains moving.

4. Sometimes Bill Belichick outsmarts himself. Very rarely, but this was one of the nights.

5. If Indianapolis free safety Bob Sanders is still hurt, then he's going to be Ronnie Lott when healthy. He was a big factor in an improved run defense, and he gave the Colts a hammer in the secondary that they'd been missing. Eleven tackles, an interception, a pass deflection. Not bad for a guy who hadn't played in seven weeks.

6. The Patriots aren't the same team without Rodney Harrison. They lost him three plays into the game with what appeared to be a right shoulder or arm injury, and there went the physical game they knew they had to play in the secondary. I guarantee you this: If Harrison had played four quarters, you wouldn't have seen the Colts running unencumbered through the secondary like that. That was part of New England's plan -- have Harrison nail everything that moved back there. Chad Scott's just not anywhere near the physical presence Harrison is.

7. Marvin Harrison was supposed to be a nonfactor in this game, but he played at a Jerry Rice level. Which, by the way, will be a good comparison when he retires. Harrison's 21 catches from becoming the fourth receiver to catch 1,000 balls in his career, and he'll pass both Tim Brown and Cris Carter in 2007, if he remains injury-free. When Rodney Harrison went out, up stepped Marvin Harrison, with 145 yards worth of impact. And his one-armed, balancing-act catch in the end zone ... That one had better be shown in Canton in August 2019, when he's enshrined.

8. This is the best matchup in football today. Only the Red Sox and Yankees, for sheer drama, match it. When the Colts and Patriots play, all I can think of is one of those Red Sox-Yankees playoff games from 2003 or 2004. You can't turn away from a single play. I'm praying we see a replay on Jan. 21, even if it has to be in the hermetically sealed confines of the RCA Dome.