Mike Celizic

I admit it sounds ridiculous to suggest there's a team hotter than one that hasn’t lost a game. Just the same, the Colts are smoking right now, and it’s awfully hard to say that any team — Patriots included — is playing any better.

We tend to surrender the AFC championship and Super Bowl to New England. There’s good reason for that, but it’s the same one we used to cede the American League and World Series to the Yankees for the past seven years. On paper, it was obvious — the Yankees were best. Problem was, someone forgot to tell their opponents that.

That’s why we play the games — because stuff happens. And as great as the Patriots have been, they can still be beaten. And the one team that has the best chance to do it is their archrival over most of the past decade — the Colts. And right now, the Colts are on a roll.

While the Patriots have been grinding out victories down the stretch in the snow and rain and wind, Peyton Manning & Co. have been playing like New England played in the first half of the season.

Indianapolis was 8-0 when they lost by four to New England on Oct. 22. That loss seemed to take something out of the Colts, who lost 23-21 the following week in San Diego, and then they barely pawed their way past the Chiefs 13-10 the following week at home.

But since then, the Colts have cruised to five more victories over the Falcons, Jaguars, Ravens, Raiders and Texans. They clobbered Baltimore 44-20, and Houston went down 38-15. This week against the Titans, they’ll barely put in an appearance, having already secured home field in the second round of the playoffs. Manning and other key players will rest most of the game while the Pats are slugging it out against the Giants to try to close out an unprecedented 16-0 regular season.

Win or lose, the Patriots still will be the favorites in the playoffs. They lead the NFL in total offense, in scoring offense and in scoring defense. And their defense is getting better by the week.

But the gap between them and the Colts, who are also near the top of the league on both sides of the ball, is not prohibitive. And anyone who underestimates their chances is going themselves and the NFL a grave disservice.

There was a time when the Patriots had the Colts’ number, but those days are gone. After last year and their Super Bowl win, the Colts are afraid of no one. They can run the ball, if the weather goes bad in Foxboro in January. And, as most fans are probably aware, they can also pass a little. They know how to win.

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The same can be said of the Patriots, which is why we so looked forward to their game during the season and why we’ll provide the NFL with another set of record ratings if they get together for the AFC Championship.

The Colts lost that mid-season game by just four points, 24-20. They were right to think they should have won it. Yes, Tom Brady was the difference, as he has been so many times, but games like that are crap shoots — you play enough of them and sooner or later the other guys are going to get the ball last and their quarterback will have a chance to be a hero instead of yours.

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The Colts have not done a great job of rushing the passer this year — only 27 sacks this season — but they showed last year that they can kick their defense up several notches in the playoffs.

That’s one way they can win — by putting Brady on his back. If they do that, they’ll also intercept him; the Colts are one of the few teams that always seem to get a pick or two against Brady.

And, while the Patriots have been the better rushing team on the season, the Colts have also showed that they can control the game on the ground in big moments.

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It’s not impossible — bad weather, turnovers, the running game. Get a break or two, and the Colts will have their shot.

That’s all Indianapolis can ask for — another shot at a team they feel they can beat. You know they’ll get it, and I don’t care how big a Patriots’ fan you are, you can’t say that it’s impossible for your team to lose, that you are somehow destined for glory and history.

Destiny’s a fun concept to toss around, but it’s a fantasy. Destiny isn’t something that waits for you to show up and then bestows its blessings on you. Destiny is whatever you go out and grab for yourself. The evidence of that is endless: every team of destiny has gotten to its goal because it outplayed everyone it came up against.

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It’s like what Knute Rockne once said about the power of the pre-game prayer he used to lead his Notre Dame teams through. Someone asked him it really helped them win. Rockne said it did if his guys were bigger and faster than the other guys. And it’s educational, but hardly funny, that nobody has asked Charlie Weis the same question about his team.

So leave destiny to the science fiction writers. The Patriots are writing their own destiny in the regular season, and then they have to win the postseason if all these thrilling and wonderful weeks are to mean anything.

The odds are good that the Colts are the team that’s going to be standing between them and the Super Bowl late in January. If anybody can beat the Pats, it’s Indianapolis.

Remember that.

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