In a very real sense, this shows a significant difference between the 2005 team — the last Colts team that started 13-0 — and this year’s team. That year’s team faced a similar situation in Week 14. Playing a desperate San Diego team, they faced a team that played very, very well early. The Colts rallied to take the lead, but in the fourth quarter, the Chargers made the plays to win, and the Colts didn’t. I’ve thought for years had the Colts not clinched home-field advantage the week before they would have won that year against San Diego. They lacked something early against San Diego — an adrenaline, an edge — and then when they got it close at the end, they couldn’t quite close the deal. They didn’t close it a month later, either, losing to Pittsburgh in an AFC Divisional Playoff.
It’s not insignificant, I don’t believe, to note that that year’s Colts team never played a close game until that San Diego game. Each of the first 13 games were decided by seven of more points, an NFL record. Colts Head Coach Tony Dungy said later he wondered if that hurt the team in the postseason, not having been in tight games.
This team, to state the obvious, will have no such issue. The Colts this season are an amazingly late-game tested team for an unbeaten team. Of their 14 victories, they have rallied in the fourth quarter to win seven of them. They have won late making interceptions, as was the case on Thursday, and they have won with unlikely miracles and bizarre decisions, as was the case against New England. They have won they held the ball for less than a quarter, as was the case against Miami. They have won when their running back, Joseph Addai, threw a fourth quarter touchdown pass.
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