After Baltimore's implosion last night in Denver, the Indianapolis Colts and the Chicago Bears are the lone undefeated teams left in the NFL. For the Colts, this is the third time in four seasons they have started 5-0. For Chi-town, this is the first time they have started 5-0 since 1986, the year after the dominated the NFL and won the Super Bowl.
Both these teams run similar offenses and defenses. Lovie Smith, Chicago's head coach, is a Tony Dungy protege. Bears QB Rex Grossman is a Hoosier boy, born and raised in Bloomington, IN.
It's nice to see the Midwest represented by two quality franchises lead by two very, very good men: Smith and Dungy.
In pretty much every ranking, the Bears are listed as #1, and they deserve to be. Chicago has dominated its opponents. The Jeff Sagarin NFL ratings, regarded as the most accurate team rankings (along with Troy Aikman's), show the Bears at #1 and the Colts at #2.
This is a bit surprising for some Colts fans, and for some media. If you tuned into ESPN radio this morning, the morons from Bristol called the Colts the worst undefeated team in the NFL. I'll take that title anyday. I'll take "worst undefeated" all the way to the Super Bowl, because last I checked "undefeated" means "no loses." Maybe the boys at Brostol didn't know that when they called Indy "worst undefeated."
Remember Colts fans: the media wants us to suck, especially the clowns at Bristol. They are tired of Peyton Manning, Tony Dungy, and the Colts. They want Vince Young (46.6 QB rating), Reggie Bush (no rushing or receiving TDs, fewer yards than Joseph Addai), and Terrell Ownes (complete nutcase). They also don't want to cover yet another "flirting with undefeated" run by Indy. Just get used to the lack of respect, coverage, and kind words. It's part of the game.
Understand though that the media knows ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about the sports they cover. Rather than discuss Chicago dominance, they talk about Reggie Bush's punt return. Rather than discuss Marvin Harrison's record breaking stats the last two games, and the fact he is having one of his best seasons at age 34, the only receiver they want to discuss is TO, TO, TO.
It's a circus folks. 5-0 and disrespected feels pretty good right now. I hope you are enjoying it as much as I am.
Look for the Stampede Blue NFL rankings later today, and check out jdb's PPYA rankings for Week 5.