Bob Cook

Recently we in the media have had to pretend that such phony contenders as the Dallas Cowboys and the Jacksonville Jaguars matter, just so we didn’t get accused of starting the hype too early for the New England Patriots-Indianapolis Colts matchup coming in about two weeks.

But with the Patriots easily dispatching the Cowboys in Dallas last week, and the Colts easily dispatching the Jaguars in Jacksonville Monday night, let the hype begin! (Special thanks to the reporter after the Colts-Jaguars game who brought up the Patriots to Indianapolis coach Tony Dungy. You may have been able to swat us aside with a we’re-not-worried-about-the-Patriots answer now, Tony Dungy, but you haven’t heard the last from us!)

It’s been pretty well apparent since, oh, the preseason that the only NFL games that matter this season are Patriots at Colts on Nov. 4, and Patriots vs. Colts (location to be determined) whenever they meet in the playoffs. The Super Bowl, as it was last year when Indianapolis swatted aside the Chicago Bears after a gut-wrenchingly difficult comeback victory over the Patriots in the AFC Championship Game, will be but a formality. The Patriots and Colts are so far ahead of the rest of the NFL, the rest of the league needn’t bother to play, except that season tickets have already been sold, TV and radio contracts inked.

The Patriots’ ascendancy to supergreatness, after they tried to win last year without an NFL-caliber receiving corps, has been well-chronicled:

The re-emergence of Randy Moss, the budding stardom of Wes Welker, the downfield threat of Donte Stallworth, the crazy numbers of Tom Brady, the impassibility of the offensive line, the speed and power of Adalius Thomas, the cinematography of Matt Estrella.

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The oddity, and a tribute to New England’s awe-inspiring dominance, is that the Indianapolis Colts — the defending Super Bowl champion, only the third team ever (following the 1929-31 Green Bay Packers and the 1999-2001 St. Louis Rams) to open three straight seasons at 6-0 or better, a team that has beaten its three division foes on the road already — have been less of a story.

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Not that the Colts are complaining. After two previous seasons of being the focus of will-they-go-16-0 discussion, of the 1972 Miami Dolphins rooting like hell for them to fail so they can have their last-undefeated-team champagne, the Colts’ players are more than happy to let someone else have that attention.

But while the Patriots, with their numerous free-agent signings, have changed and gotten better since last season, so have the Colts — by shedding most of the defensive dross that dragged them down last year by letting other teams sign them to free-agent contracts, and using a healthy Bob Sanders and a lot of young talent to become a smashmouth team.

Ask Jaguars quarterback David Garrard and running back Maurice Jones-Drew about that. You’ll have to ask them in the Jacksonville trainer’s room, where they went after being knocked out with ankle and knee injuries, respectively. From the first defensive play, Indianapolis — reminded often by we in the media about the 375 rushing yards it gave up the last time it played in Jacksonville — was hitting hard and harder. That first defensive play was six-foot, 195-pound cornerback Kelvin Hayden hitting the 6-foot-6, 265-pound tight end Marcedes Lewis hard enough to dislodge the ball before he could catch it.

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