Alan Abrahamson • E-mail

SAN DIEGO - It takes guts and wile to win in the National Football League.

It takes confidence and resilience.

It takes the professionalism that is the hallmark of a team coached by Tony Dungy, and that's why, with four straight victories, the latest a taut 23-20 victory over the San Diego Chargers, the Indianapolis Colts have emerged as one of the most dangerous teams in the NFL.

Again.

"We are playing in that time championship teams have to shine," Dungy said as he was getting dressed in the Colts' locker room Sunday night, Indianapolis a winner on a 51-yard Adam Vinatieri field goal knocked through as time expired.

It's official: The Colts are on a roll. "I like where we are," Dungy said.

"We're fighting and scratching and clawing," Colts quarterback Peyton Manning said, adding a moment later, "And getting it done."

Two years after their Super Bowl victory, Indianapolis would now seem set up for another likely run deep into the post-season.

The victory over the Chargers -- which knocked San Diego to 4-7 and perhaps out of the playoffs -- lifted Indianapolis to 7-4. Next on the Colts' schedule: Cleveland, Cincinnati and Detroit.

For Indianapolis, that means 10-4 is far from out of the question before the Colts wrap up at Jacksonville and at home against Tennessee.

The Titans, 10-1, would seem to have the AFC South division all but locked up; Indy is three back with five games to go. But what matters is getting into the playoffs, and as Dungy pointed out as he was getting dressed in the Qualcomm Stadium locker room Sunday night, "We're playing better than we've played all year. This is the time of year you want to do it."

If you can do it at less than full strength, moreover, so much the better. Indianapolis won at San Diego without star safety Bob Sanders; he has a hurt knee and didn't play. The Colts won, moreover, despite losing star offensive lineman Jeff Saturday early in the game with a calf strain; the severity of his injury remained immediately unclear.

They won because that is what they do, and it what they do because it's what they expect to do.

The Colts articulate, as a team and to a man, their goals. They assign responsibility. Then they go and create opportunities.

It's not dull. It's brilliant. It's what sustained excellence looks like.

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For instance, early in the third quarter Sunday night, the Chargers driving, San Diego at the Indianapolis 14, the Colts' Robert Mathis sacked quarterback Philip Rivers, the Colts' Raheem Brock recovering at the Indianapolis 34. That play turned the momentum in the game, Dungy and others said afterward.

Manning then moved the Colts all the way down the field.

On first and goal from the 1, though, Colts' running back Dominic Rhodes went backward.

Second down, now from the 2, and a shovel pass to Rhodes went nowhere.

Third down, Rhodes tries the left side. Nothing. Across the line, San Diego linebacker Stephen Cooper, helmetless, started celebrating the goal-line stand.

But wait. The Colts would not settle for a field goal. They lined up. An empty backfield. Manning found Rhodes on the quickest of slants. Touchdown.

"Never giving up," Rhodes said, adding, "That's what we're about here, staying focused and making plays."

The Colts would extend the lead to 20-10. The Chargers, though came back and tied it with a minute and a half to go in the game.

For Peyton Manning, 90 seconds might as well be an eternity.

You know it. He knows it. Everyone knows it.