Indianapolis – If the Indianapolis Colts mirrored the country’s political landscape, Reggie Wayne would be somewhere along the lines of Al Franken. On a team whose ultraconservative leadership – Tony Dungy and Peyton Manning – is further right than Dick and Dubya’s wildest dreams, Wayne can be counted on to provide a bit of rebelliousness.
The coach and quarterback merely hit the cliché button when asked about the Colts’ status as the NFL’s elite team, one whose 11-0 record has taken them beyond the 2005 NFL season and into the pages of history. A team drawing more and more attention the closer it gets to the 1972 Miami Dolphins’ perfect 17-0 season.
Even so, Indianapolis, they say, will continue to play one game at a time. On any given Sunday, they insist, any team in the NFL, even the Texans or the Jets, is capable of beating you. The Dolphins and perfection are the furthest things from our minds, they implore, so how can there be any pressure on us.
But while Dungy, Manning and many others in the RCA Dome try to shrink from the spotlight, Wayne leaps to embrace it.
“I love the attention. I love the talking, I love the crowds being into it, I love the playoff atmosphere every week,” Wayne said. “It gets you pumped up. That’s what you play the game for.”
Taking their fair share
It’s clear nowadays there’s room for a bit of against-the-grain counterculture with the Colts. After being strictly stereotyped the past few seasons, Indianapolis has developed the capacity to change.
There is an offense that doesn’t have to go for the jugular on every play, one that’s content to grind it out for 60 minutes if need be. That’s largely because of a defense that has gone from sieve- like to solid, combining amazing speed with a surprising wallop.
So long the poor relation to Manning and the Colts’ offense, the Indy defense has asserted itself from the season’s start. Defensive end Dwight Freeney, who was first-team all-pro last season after registering a league-high 16 sacks, spoke of his disdain for quarterbacks and his desire to punish them all, including Manning, in an interview with Sports Illustrated.
But while his teammate still is hands-off, Freeney and Indy’s other defenders are wreaking havoc everywhere else around the league. After giving up almost 371 yards a game last season, the Colts’ D, ranked 10th overall in the NFL, is allowing just 285 this year.
At the RCA Dome, where the Colts’ speed really takes flight, the defense has been nothing short of dominant, allowing just more than 11 points and 263.6 yards in five games. In Monday’s 26-7 win over Pittsburgh, there was a play when Ben Roethlisberger hit Antwaan Randle El on a quick screen pass. It was the same play, run by Philadelphia against the Broncos earlier this season, on which Terrell Owens slipped by Champ Bailey, then ran untouched 91 yards for a score. Monday, Randle El again slipped the first tackler, but instead of breaking away was hammered by three other fast-closing pursuers and tackled for a loss.
“They believe in that scheme,” Steelers wide receiver Hines Ward said. “Usually when teams play a Cover 2 defense, you’re supposed to be able to run on them. We couldn’t do that. There’s no question they’re a great team and defense.”
Indianapolis yielded but 29 points in the opening five games, helping lend much-needed confidence to a group that has been battered in recent seasons, inside and outside the team’s locker room.
“We just got tired of hearing how we were the weakest link on this team,” defensive tackle Montae Reagor said. “We didn’t want to hear it again this year.”
Added defensive back Mike Doss: “We all know that defenses win championships. The last couple of years our offense has gotten us deep into the playoffs, but the defense didn’t really get it done. Everybody on the defense took that personally. Now we feel we have to step up to that challenge.”
Even Manning, who became the focal point of the Colts’ annual pre-Super Bowl playoff defeat, said he no longer feels as much pressure.
“I sleep a lot easier on Saturday nights before games now,” he said. “I’m not going to lie – now I don’t feel like we have to go out and score 40 every week.”
That, in turn, has allowed Indianapolis to not worry about living up to the offensive standard it set last season. Manning threw a league-record 49 touchdown passes and had an NFL all-time best passer rating of 121.1. Wide receivers Wayne, Marvin Harrison and Brandon Stokley each had at least 1,000 yards in receptions with at least 10 touchdowns. Meanwhile, halfback Edgerrin James ran for 1,548 yards.
While James, already with 1,240 yards, is headed for an even better season, everyone else’s numbers are down. The Colts, who averaged almost 33 points and 405 yards total offense last year, are at 30 and 379 this season.
A reduced output early in the season was an offshoot of the defensive approach used by teams dropping seven and eight players into pass coverage. Like everything else this season, even that has ended up working in Indianapolis’ favor – the offense has developed a sense of patience.
“It’s OK if we have a 2-yard gain,” Manning said. “Last year, we would get a little jittery when that happened.”
“Now we’ve been able to work our way through that,” Dungy added. “We’ve been able to work our way through a lot of situations, and I think we’ve just got more confidence to play a different style game.”
The big picture
That might come in handy over the remainder of a regular season that will present a variety of challenges: divisional slugfests against Tennessee and Jacksonville, a home game against a San Diego team battling for a playoff berth, followed by a trip to Seattle in Week 16 to face a team that may be reaching for home-field advantage in the NFC.
Normally the last couple of games wouldn’t mean anything to a team looking forward to the playoffs, but there’s that pesky undefeated thing. That puts the Colts in something of an odd place – staring down NFL history while maintaining focus on the big picture.
“I was talking to (Pittsburgh coach) Bill Cowher before the game,” Dungy said of Monday’s contest. “They went 15-1 last year and nobody really cares. All the talk is that you didn’t win the championship game, you didn’t win the Super Bowl, (but) there haven’t been a lot of 15-1 seasons.
“It would be an honor, it would be special, but it’s not something you’re going to remember if you don’t do well in the playoffs.”
While no one may remember how impressive the Colts have been should they not win the championship, there is great significance to being undefeated at this point. Since 1970, there have been five teams to win their first 11 games – the 1972 Dolphins, the 1984 Dolphins, the 1985 Chicago Bears, the 1991 Washington Redskins and the 1998 Broncos. Each made it to the Super Bowl, with all but the second Miami team winning it.
“As long as we get to the Big Dance,” Wayne said. “We’ve got a little winning streak going on and the Dolphins’ thing is coming up, but all that just happens to be something that’s in the way.
“It’s great, it’s all great. If we get there (finishing the regular season undefeated), great. But the thing is, if we should up and lose a game, we’re not out of it.”
Staff writer Anthony Cotton can be reached at 303-820-1292 or acotton@denverpost.com.
