Pulling for Colts to go all the way

Pull for the Indianapolis Colts for all the right reasons: A state-of-the-art offense, a quarterback who combines 21st-century skills with an old-school mind-set, a quiet, dignified coach and brash team president whose consistent excellence should have been rewarded long before now.
Me, I'm hoping they go undefeated for no reason beyond seeing the remaining members of the 1972 Miami Dolphins, the last team to turn the trick, pour all that champagne down the drain.
What began as a neat little tradition, a bunch of old ballplayers toasting their accomplishment each season when the last undefeated team in the league loses a game, has turned into a relentless exercise in self-promotion. It should have been canceled in 1998, when quarterback Bob Griese rooted unashamedly against unbeaten Denver, even though his son, Brian, was a member of the Broncos.
Indianapolis preparedto halt happy hour
No matter. These Colts look prepared to call a halt to happy hour soon enough. They have six games left, the two tough ones likely to come against Pittsburgh at home next Monday night and Seattle on the road Christmas Eve. Considering the Colts' improvement week-to-week, that doesn't seem like such a tall order.
"Looking at that offense from the sideline," Bengals receiver Chad Johnson said after Indianapolis improved to 10-0 by winning a shootout in Cincinnati, "it's unfair."
Cincinnati came into the game off a bye week, with the league's best turnover margin, and enough versatility on defense to decide how they wanted to play.
Instead of dropping seven, and sometimes even eight, defenders into pass coverage, the way teams tried to contain Peyton Manning in several low-scoring, early-season affairs, the Bengals chose to load up in the box and take away Indianapolis' ground game. It worked in one sense: running back Edgerrin James, who had five straight games of 100-plus rushing yards, finished with 89. On the other hand, daring Manning to beat you is a gamble that no team save the Patriots has cashed in recently and this was no exception.
Tony Dungy has littleto show, except record
After this win, just like the win against the Patriots, it fell to coach Tony Dungy to short-circuit the buzz about a perfect season and the Super Bowl title the Colts might already have claimed if not for the Patriots. He's now 44-14 in 31/2 seasons in Indy, but with precious little to show for it.
"The thing I like about our team is we come to play every week, and we seem to adjust pretty well to what is put in front of us. Today had to be an offensive day," he said. "We won a couple games early in the year, 10-3 and 13-6, so I think that's the sign of a good team: You can win whatever is presented to you."
Five of the eight teams that reached double-digits without a loss since the NFL-AFL merger went on to win a Super Bowl, but Dungy is careful never to get ahead of himself. He learned that lesson after coming up short several times in Tampa Bay, and that was even before New England and coach Bill Belichick began their championship run at his expense.
Besides, should Dungy need reminding, team president Bill Polian is always close by. Polian was the architect of the Buffalo Bills teams that came home empty-handed from four consecutive Super Bowls. And despite drafting shrewdly and spending wisely to hang onto the NFL's best triple threat -- James, Manning and wide receiver Marvin Harrison, who have become the most prolific scoring quarterback-receiver duo in league history -- Polian So maybe it's not too late for those Dolphins to jump on these Colts' bandwagon. Seeing how hard it is to put together a perfect season now might remind us that the guys who did it back then were capable of a lot more than rounding up a few champagne flutes and toasting somebody else's bad luck.knows how much luck is involved, how the window of opportunity can be slammed shut at just about any moment.
The 1972 Dolphins refused to let that happen to them. They're often thought of as one-season wonders, but the fact is they went to three straight Super Bowls, won two of them, and might be remembered for their larger achievement if the occasional toasts didn't make them seem so churlish.
XJim Litke is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at jlitkeap.org.