If the Vikings were walking into a potential trap, the Colts were heading for an ambush. At 4-0 and cruising comfortably atop a division that no other team seemingly wants to try to win, Indy could have encountered an uprising on Sunday night in Nashville from the 0-4 Titans.
And it never even began to materialize.
The biggest trick the Titans had up their sleeves? Pretending in pregame warmups that Vince Young would run the Wildcat.
So this one unfolded just like those who compare records and pick the team with the better mark (and I resemble that remark) had expected. Despite last year’s 13-3 regular season, the Titans have shown that they’re not the best 0-2 or 0-3 or 0-4 team in league history. Instead, they’re a garden-variety crappy team, and they now are 0-5.
No one has ever emerged from such a hole to make the playoffs, so the best move going forward would be to shake things up in preparation for 2010.
And that means using Young for something more than a late-game cup of room-temperature tap water after everyone has switched over to Mad Men.
If the Titans don’t starting planning for next year, the reason could be that coach Jeff Fisher suddenly fears there might not be a next year for him in Tennessee. And if experimentation serves only to cause more losses to pile up, Fisher wouldn’t be nearly as attractive to Cowboys owner Jerry Jones or anyone else looking for a new head coach after the season.
For the Colts, more and more people are realizing that Peyton Manning is the greatest quarterback to ever play the game, and that he’ll shatter all the records that Brett Favre currently holds. (Maybe that’s why Brett keeps going.)
The Colts now get a week off before a trip to St. Louis followed by three straight home games.
Though Indy might not be ready to match the 2007 Patriots with 16 wins and no losses, they look as good as ever -- and they could be on track to follow the Steelers’ Super Bowl win with another of their own, just like the Colts did in 2006.