Experts close to Pats, Colts break down big game

The Patriots' Ty Warren tries to get to Colts quarterback Peyton Manning in last season's AFC Championship Game. New England's ability to pressure Manning will be a key to Sunday's game. Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images

MAILBAG Peter King will answer your questions each week in Monday Morning Quarterback: Tuesday Edition. Your name: Your e-mail address: Your home town: Enter your question:

CHARLOTTE -- "When's the game? Monday night?'' Carson Palmer wanted to know.

"No,'' I said. "Sunday afternoon, 4:15.''

The disappointed sigh traveled over the cell phone from Cincinnati to New Jersey. "That's too bad,'' Palmer said. "I'll miss it. Wish I could see it.'' Cincinnati's charter flight back from an early game at Buffalo next Sunday will be landing at Greater Cincinnati Airport about the time this year's Game of the Century ends. Palmer's bummed. It's like LeBron James being miffed he'll miss a Kobe-Shaq game, or Albert Pujols pining over being TV-less when Papelbon stares down A-Rod.

New England (8-0) at Indianapolis (7-0). The only thing like it in sports today in competitive intensity is Red Sox-Yankees -- and Colts-Pats, to the country, is much, much bigger because, of course, football is much, much bigger. But the story is the same. Yanks win division after division, Red Sox spend $102 million on a Japanese pitcher. Yanks let their Hall of Fame manager walk and ponder raising the salary of the highest-paid player in baseball in order to not risk losing him. And so it goes. One team trumps the other, continually.

In this one, the best two quarterbacks, the best two front offices and the two best coaches go at each other year after year. The Colts won the Super Bowl last year after the Pats had won three of five before that, and what did the cap-rich New Englanders do? Go out and get the best defensive player on the market, linebacker Adalius Thomas, and the best THREE receivers (Randy Moss, Wes Welker and Donte' Stallworth) on the market ... to ramp up an aging pass-rush and completely revamp the league's seventh highest-scoring offense. The difference in Indy-New England is Colts GM Bill Polian doesn't chase the decisions of Pats VP of player personnel Scott Pioli and coach Bill Belichick, nor does Pioli chase Polian. They just keep trying to get better, because they know the other team in the rivalry is brilliant and is doing the same thing. Status quo equals failure.

So we begin the countdown toward the most hyped regular-season game in memory. Maybe ever.

I'll help kick off the blah-blah-blah of the week with eight numbers: 38, 38, 38, 34, 34, 48, 49 and 52. The Patriots' point totals in their eight routs is something we've never seen before. No team has scored 34 or more points eight games in a row. That is why the Colts' situation is so interesting right now. At Bank of America Stadium on Sunday afternoon, Indy came in off a short week and a road Monday night game, playing the co-division leaders of the NFC South. They won by 24. I don't know; maybe it's from having watched how other-worldly the Patriots have been, but all I could think after watching the Colts for three hours was: They're going to have to play much, much better to be in the game with New England next week.

I got some good perspective from Tony Dungy on that. "We had the challenge of traveling and playing a tough, very emotional game that we had pointed to,'' Dungy said, referring to the win in Jacksonville on Monday night. "Then we had to travel again and play a good team in first place in its division.'' True and true. But I still think they'll have to be 20 percent better Sunday at home.

Nothing, however, happened in either Charlotte or Foxboro on Sunday to change the fact that these teams are still playing in a league of their own. "What's great about the game is no one can say they're not the two best teams in football,'' Palmer said. "Even the best team in the NFC right now wouldn't doubt that.''

We'll start with Palmer on my telephone expedition of the last few days. I asked a few people with a quality opinion what they expected to see in this game, and what they felt would be a big factor in the outcome.

Experts' Takes

Palmer has studied both quarterbacks for tips in his own development, and he has played both teams a total of three times in the last 24 months. His take:

"The interesting thing about these two teams on offense is how they can basically do whatever they want most games. Last year, I remember watching the Patriots at Minnesota on a Monday night, and they came out and did nothing but throw the ball. They dictated to a good defense, doing whatever they wanted. Now, with all those great receivers, they're even freer to do that.

Peyton and Tom will play like the best two quarterbacks in football, which they obviously are. They'll throw checkdown after checkdown as long as they have to, then find a ball they can hit deep. That's why they're so great -- they don't force what's not there. They won't change in this game. It'll be a playoff atmosphere, but neither of them will be nervous or tight. No jitters. You won't see Tom go 8 of 23 with three picks. Or Peyton. They both rise to the occasion so well ... Neither of the defenses are like a classic Baltimore defense, but they're both playing like championship defenses right now. They're not going to let you throw it over their corners' heads. Both defenses will make you earn it.

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