Not the Same Colts

Remember in Gladiator when Russel Crowe is still fighting in Africa and he's simply dominating his competition. That's kind of what happened in Foxborough yesterday. There was no way that the Patriots would lose. The Colts were built around Peyton Manning. Even their defense was geared toward playing in shootouts with lots of passing and little running.

The Patriots had a mediocre 1st quarter, and a bad 4th quarter, and they still won. This was a preseason game. And even the crowd at the Stadium was like a preseason game. Late arriving, lots of families and first-time visitors, early exiting.

It's hard to praise the Patriots after beating a winless team. I guess I can say that Rob Gronkowski is probably not human. He's a monstrosity.

Belichick and his assistants have plenty of mistakes to show their players this week. It's a testament to how bad the Colts are that just two good quarters from the Patriots was enough to beat them. Even so, the Pats' defense allowed Dan Orlovsky to have the game of his life. 30 for 37, 353 yards, 2 scores, 1 pick, a 113.2 rating. It's kind of scary to allow a guy like Orlovsky to put up Peyton Manning numbers, even if some of that was in garbage time.

Everyone keeps trying to figure out how good the Patriots really are. Are they good enough to win a playoff game? Are they good enough to get to Indy? Can they beat the likes of Green Bay or Baltimore? There's no way that a Week 13 game against the Manning-less Colts will tell you if they can or cannot go deep into the playoffs.

To be honest, it will come down to how well they play on gameday. If Brady is at his best, the Patriots are almost unbeatable. If he's just good, it gets interesting. If he has a bad or even below average game, the Patriots have no chance.

Patriots travel to the 4-8 Redskins next week.

Photo Credit:
AP Photo