Column: Colts' success not slowing down

INDIANAPOLIS — Where were Dallas Clark, Bob Sanders, Joseph Addai and Austin Collie, among others, at Lucas Oil Stadium on Monday night?

Actually, here’s a better question: Did it matter?

A quick look at Monday night’s box score should give an even quicker answer.  
Peyton Manning & Co.’s 30-17 win against Houston should have proven to any doubters that Bill Polian and Manning are first-ballot Hall of Famers.
 
Can someone name me a team that can go out and not only beat, but rout, a divisional opponent after an embarrassing performance the first time around as this one did Monday night?

Personally, I’ll need punter Pat McAfee to go searching in Indy’s canal system for that answer because I’m not sure where exactly to start to find a close second.

It was a perfect night to enshrine Tony Dungy into the team’s Ring of Honor because this game epitomized what this franchise has made its bank on over the last decade or so.

There are no backups at any position under Polian’s watch, as the Colts have lived by the slogan “Next Man Up” since he and Manning have been calling the shots in Naptown.

“This is how to play when it counts,” Dungy said in the locker room after he was given the game ball. “They got it done. That’s what coach (Jim) Caldwell preaches.”

We really should have known better than to even think about writing the Colts off after watching them start 3-4 in 2008 and reel off nine straight wins to cap off another 12-win season.

ESPN’s Ron Jaworski made an interesting comment earlier this week that Father Time is catching up with Manning.

And really, it’s hard to argue that after watching a couple of the throws he made Monday night, similar to some of the more errant ones he’s thrown already this year.
 
So I’m sitting here saying Manning’s time is running out on a second Super Bowl victory — one that would solidify him as one of the top three quarterbacks of all time — and saying that the Colts are Super Bowl contenders at the same time.

No, I’m not at Kilroy’s writing this column while enjoying $2 Tuesdays.

I’m saying that a beginning-to-age Manning is still better than 95 percent of the quarterbacks in the league, especially while surrounded by a seemingly bottomless talent pool.

Third-string running back Mike Hart ran how he did at Michigan, and Jacob Tamme put on a Clark-esque performance.

Yeah, free agency and the salary cap (thanks to the Colts) have made it nearly impossible to do what this organization has done since 1999. But somehow, time and time again, the Colts find talent in the least likely of places, whether it’s a receiver from Division III Mount Union or a running back from Michigan that most scouts didn’t have in the middle of their draft boards.

I asked Colts center Jeff Saturday after the game why he thinks a team as this, whose roster has taken major hits, still has the ability to contend for a Super Bowl. Keep in mind, of course, the highly talented, yet highly disappointing Cowboys and
Vikings.

“We’ve got a ton of guys out here that can just produce,” Saturday said. “The guys believe and expect to come out on Sunday and get their jobs done.”

Don’t limit the credit to the 53-man roster. The coaching staff Polian has assembled always finds a way to out-scheme its opponent, even if there are notable mismatches going against the Colts as there were Monday night.

Case and point: Constructing a game plan to let Hart establish the running game that let the Colts balance out their attack and keep Arian Foster — who ran 231 yards against Indy week one — off of the field.

“We know that we were better than what we showed during week one,” defensive end Robert Mathis said. “We have a ton of pride around here.”

The truth is, Indianapolis and its fans have been spoiled with this team and its success. It’s going to end sometime within the relatively near future, but until there’s a new sheriff running the show under center or a new guy in the suit and tie, don’t expect anything to slow this team down.


E-mail: ftherber@indiana.edu