Red-hot Colts eye playoffs

Indianapolis has rebounded from a rough start, while Jacksonville hasn’t.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Indianapolis and Jacksonville both started the season 3-4, falling well short of expectations but not quite reaching panic mode.

After all, there was plenty of time to turn things around.

Only one of them did, though.

The Colts stuck together, rallied around their leaders and focused on fixing their problems. The Jaguars benched their defensive leader, shuffled lockers around, quietly pointed fingers and questioned team chemistry.

Any doubt which team got back in the postseason picture?

Indianapolis (10-4) has won seven in a row since the rough start and can clinch a playoff spot tonight against Jacksonville (5-9).

“We’ve been through a lot together, and we rely on those past experiences,” Colts coach Tony Dungy said. “Because we’ve won so many games, we realize that what you did last week doesn’t really have any bearing on what’s going to happen next week, so we try to keep all that in perspective.

“At 3-4, we knew what the problems were. A lot of it was ourselves and our execution, and that’s what we focused on more so than pointing the finger at someone or figuring out who’s to blame,” Dungy said.

Indianapolis’ turnaround had a lot to do with winning close games. The Colts opened their current streak by winning five consecutive games by six points or less.

“They didn’t start off great, but then they got on a little bit of a wave, a little bit of a roll,” Jaguars quarterback David Garrard said.

The Jaguars, meanwhile, never really got going. They had numerous injuries along the offensive line, struggled early to get comfortable in defensive coordinator Gregg Williams’ blitz-heavy scheme and went 3-5 in games decided by less than a touchdown.

The team was out of sync off the field, too.

Coach Jack Del Rio sent linebacker Mike Peterson home twice for insubordination in early November, fined him $10,000, benched him for a game and then relegated him to playing mostly on special teams.

Del Rio also broke up the linebacker corps by moving the lockers of Daryl Smith and Justin Durant away from Peterson’s stall and openly questioned team chemistry. Running back Fred Taylor, now on injured reserve, called this the worst “team” he’s ever been on in his 11-year career.

The Jaguars snapped a four-game losing streak last week against Green Bay, but the victory brought even more questions when seldom-used receiver Dennis Northcutt stepped into a starting role for the first time all season and did something Matt Jones, Jerry Porter and Reggie Williams had failed to do in the previous 13 games — catch a pass longer than 35 yards.