If the Colts go undefeated, they will have earned it. The question is whether they want it.
“Going undefeated never has been our goal,” coach Tony Dungy said.
Dungy would love to make history, but he also knows history.
“I was talking to [Pittsburgh coach] Bill Cowher about it and he said `We went 15-1 last year and no one really cares,'” Dungy said. “It would be an honor, it would be special to go undefeated, but it won’t mean anything if you don’t win in the playoffs.”
That means Dungy is likely to rest regulars as soon as the Colts wrap up home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.
“Everybody is way, way ahead on this,” Dungy said, trying to deflect questions after Monday night’s decisive victory over Pittsburgh. “We don’t even have our division won yet.”
Last year, the Colts went to Denver for their last regular-season game. Peyton Manning started, threw two passes and watched backup Jim Sorgi finish. The Colts lost 33-14. The following week, the Broncos came to Indianapolis in the first round of the playoffs and the Colts won 49-24.
With the Broncos now 9-2 and only two games behind the 11-0 Colts, the home-field question might linger until the final week, when the Colts host Arizona. If the Colts are 15-0, you would have to guess Manning would want to play long enough to give 16-0 a fair shot. But maybe not.
“We will play the way we’ve always played,” Dungy said Monday night. “Last year, we were in a situation where it was more beneficial to rest our guys. We’ll play it out.”
Last year, the Colts weren’t 15-0 going to Denver, so Dungy isn’t ready yet to announce a definite game plan for this year.
“There’s a proverb in the Bible: You shouldn’t look ahead and make plans and do hypotheticals,” he said.
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But that would eliminate much of the fun of sports. So here are the possibilities:
Dungy has told his team to concentrate on wrapping up the AFC South the next two weeks at home against Tennessee and at Jacksonville.
They can clinch the division Sunday if they win and Jacksonville loses to Cleveland. It would be better if they still have the clinch incentive next week in Jacksonville. Although the Jaguars are without injured quarterback Byron Leftwich, they are the only division team to beat the Colts the last two seasons, doing it once in Jacksonville and once in Indianapolis. So it would be nice to clinch the division against the Jaguars, a team they might see again in the playoffs.
With Leftwich playing in Week 2, the Colts managed to squeak out a 10-3 victory in Indianapolis, so this is not a team the Colts take lightly.
On Dec. 18, the Colts host San Diego. Most likely, the Chargers still will be battling for their playoff lives and the Colts won’t have clinched home field over Denver.
The RCA Dome is the smallest stadium in the NFL but also one of the loudest. The Steelers committed five false starts on Monday night. The Colts needed overtime to beat the Chargers 34-31 last year in the dome in Game 15, so this will be the next big test.
On Christmas Eve, the Colts play at Seattle. Both teams might have clinched the respective AFC and NFC home fields by then. What an anticlimax–a possible Super Bowl preview with no more meaning than an exhibition.
Finally, lowly Arizona at home.
Dungy knows that going 3-0 in the playoffs is infinitely more important than going 16-0 in the regular season.
“The teams that get remembered are not the ones who have great regular seasons, they are the ones who do something in the playoffs,” Dungy said.
The 1934 Bears were 13-0 only to lose to the New York Giants in the one-game championship playoff.
The 1942 Bears were 11-0 only to lose to the Washington Redskins in the title game.
What’s so weird about sports is that not even an undefeated season settles all arguments. The 1972 Dolphins remain the NFL’s only undefeated team, yet they are forced to defend themselves to this day about winning a few close games and beating only two teams with winning records.
A book was written about that team, “But We Were 17-0” by Chicago authors Francis J. and Raymond M. Lodato.
Coach Don Shula never can figure out why that season failed to put to rest discussion about the greatest team ever. Even Dolphins players concede that their 1973 team, which was 12-2 before winning a second Super Bowl, was better.
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