Johnette Howard

It seems insane to say the Indianapolis Colts are 13-0 and don’t get enough credit. But someone has to say it. It’s as if being out there in the heart of the heart of the country, playing under a lidded dome, playing with such constant efficiency and low-key professionalism has left the Colts taken for granted.

They’re not as racy a story as the Saints’ being 13-0 or the Patriots’ fraying before our eyes. But watching the New England Patriots bicker amongst themselves the past week — or, even rarer than that — seeing some players bite back at Patriots head coach Bill Belchick has been a reminder of something else that’s hardly being said:

The Colts have eclipsed New England as the NFL’s best-run organization.

You couldn’t have made as strong a case two years or even a year ago, back when New England was playing without injured quarterback Tom Brady. But it’s clearly the case now even though Brady is back.

Peyton Manning and the Colts have still won an NFL record 22 straight regular-season games, snapping the Pats’ record. New England won the first six Brady-Manning encounters, but the Colts beat the Patriots in Week 10, and have won five of the past six times they’ve played. They’ve inched ahead of New England for most wins in the NFL this decade and could tighten the Pats’ 3-2 edge in Super Bowl wins this season.

Timeline Spotlighting Colts’ record streak A game-by-game rundown of Indianapolis and its run of 22 consecutive victories NBCSports.com

And as Pats linebacker Adalius Thomas was openly griping last week about Belichick’s treating him like a kindergartner; and Pats wideout Randy Moss was being accused of dogging it in Sunday’s one-catch effort against Carolina because Moss, like Thomas, was irked at being sent home last Wednesday for being a few minutes late to work during a snowstorm; and defensive lineman Ty Warren went on a Boston radio show to accuse Thomas of leaking the whole punishment story to the media — want to catch your breath? I’ll wait — you know what the big story in Indy was this week?

How much should the Colts rest their starters over the last three games and 34 or 35 days before the playoffs begin now that they’ve clinched the AFC’s top seed again?

One reason the Colts are so taken for granted is, of course, Manning’s presence. He’s a contender for his fifth career league MVP award this season, but New Orleans’ Drew Brees will probably get the nod before him, same as Jim Caldwell isn’t given much chance to win NFL coach of the year and Colts boss Bill Polian, the architect of all this, isn’t remarked on with much wonder anymore. Everyone’s been there, done that, too, since Polian’s days of building the Buffalo Bills’ four Super Bowl teams.

Still, Polian’s brilliance and wonderful no-nonsense demeanor always makes him fun to check on. Indianapolis Star columnist Bob Kravitz recently wrote that when he asked Polian if he was concerned about the Colts’ losing their “mojo” in the long wait for the playoffs to begin, “Polian gave me one of those looks he reserves for his intellectual inferiors. ‘I don't believe in mojo,’ he said sharply. Then he added, ‘I don't know what mojo is.’”

Makes you wonder if Polian has heard of the iPod, either.