The Indianapolis Colts followed the Bears as the NFL’s only 6-0 teams Sunday by toying with the hapless Washington Redskins in a 20-point third quarter to win easily 36-22.
The Colts became only the ninth team to start 6-0 in consecutive seasons, joining the 1985-86 Bears, among others. The Colts will be happy to follow the Bears all season when the inevitable noise about an undefeated season starts to obscure the more important goal of going 3-0 in the playoffs.
Coach Tony Dungy and his players remember last year all too well, when they got to 13-0 before losing to San Diego and then lost in the playoffs to Pittsburgh after securing home field.
Last year the Colts were the only undefeated NFL team at 5-0, so they are happy this season to have the company of their neighbors 175 miles to the north.
“That’s perfect,” Dungy said. “We’d rather have it this way. Keep winning and not have the attention on us. We went through it last year, so even if we were by ourselves we’d be OK. But our guys do a great job of focusing in on the short term, and I’m sure Lovie [Smith] will do the same thing.”
Because Dungy brought Smith into the NFL, their styles are similar. They break seasons into segments, and 16-0 is not mentioned. When it got brought up last year, Dungy actually got some criticism when he said it wasn’t really that important. Both have talked about first quarters of seasons, saying they had only a nice 4-0 lead.
“Now we’ve got two road games against division leaders (at Denver and at New England), so we look at it much more short-term,” Dungy said.
The Colts have escaped premature talk because their last three wins were by one-play margins of seven, three and one point. Against the 2-5 Redskins, Peyton Manning threw four touchdown passes and rookie running back Joseph Addai ran for 85 yards in his best outing as departed Edgerrin James fades further into the past.
At Sunday’s rate of precision, two touchdown strikes to Marvin Harrison and one apiece to Reggie Wayne and Dallas Clark, Manning will have to start dealing with the questions of two years ago when he threw for a record 49. He only has 37 more to go in 10 games to tie.
“Somebody asked me my goals, and I said I wouldn’t mind having a quiet season, if you will,” Manning said. “I did get one of the dumbest questions I’ve been asked. `Do you almost need to lose a game to make things quiet?’ I said, `Absolutely not.'”
The Redskins actually had a 14-13 halftime lead after Antwaan Randle El’s 87-yard punt return for a touchdown, but his unsportsmanlike-conduct penalty for running into the goal post and falling on his back was one of 10 penalties against a team that doesn’t reflect its coach. Joe Gibbs said the Colts “overwhelmed” his team in the third quarter, when Manning completed seven of eight passes for 138 yards and three touchdowns against a defense that is supposed to be good.
Manning was nearly done in by ex-Bears defensive end Phillip Daniels, who took off Manning’s helmet but escaped a penalty. Manning was bent over backward and had to take a timeout.
“The guy wouldn’t let go of my head,” Manning said. “I looked in my helmet to see if my head was in it. The ref (Scott Green) apologized and said he was watching the ball.”
The Redskins thought they could run against a Colts rush defense that ranked last in the league, but Clinton Portis had only 43 yards and Ladell Betts 52.
The Colts got more help than they expected from newcomer Anthony McFarland, acquired from Tampa Bay in a trade last week. Familiar with Dungy’s defense, McFarland had to start when regular defensive tackle Montae Reagor suffered facial injuries in an auto accident before the game and was hospitalized. The Colts said he was in stable condition.
Linebacker Cato June, who replaced Marcus Washington two years ago when the Redskins paid their usual generous free-agent money to pry him away, was in on 15 tackles for the Colts and was no more impressed by numbers than anyone else in the locker room.
“You saw last year,” he said. “It’s what you do in the playoffs once you get there. We’re just taking it week by week. We didn’t get it done in the playoffs.”
The Bears have an apparently easier two weeks ahead of them against 2-4 San Francisco and 1-6 Miami than the Colts have, so the undefeated questions are more likely to hit Chicago ahead of Indianapolis.
“About two weeks from now is when it started last year,” Dungy said. “It’ll start. We’re fortunate being in Indianapolis. Chicago is going to be 10 times what we got.
“I think Chicago will be fine with the way Lovie thinks and the way he talks. Some of their veteran guys, Muhsin Muhammad and some of the guys who have been through division championship races, will be good. But they will get hounded as long as they’re undefeated. And it will be much more than what we got.”
Manning said just watching the games is enough to temper most undefeated fantasies.
“If you play a 4:15 game and watch the early games, you just see good football teams,” Manning said. “Carolina-Cincinnati, Atlanta-Pittsburgh. Anybody can beat anybody these days. You’ve won your first six and you feel good about it and you try to enjoy the wins, and you’ve got to keep making plays in order to keep winning.”
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dpierson@tribune.com
