By Marc Thaler
Sports Editor

Go ahead. Tell me I pucker up to the New England Patriots. Call me a homer, an apologist, an anything-but-objective observer.

Say I’m biased, someone who watches Pats games through Foxboro-tinted frames.

I’m so blinded by the bling that reflects off ring (2001) after ring (2003) after ring (2004), that my inability to be critical of the hometown team is painfully obvious.

Done? Delightful.

Now, I’d like to revisit my point of view put forth prior to the big Monday Night Football showdown between the Patriots and Indianapolis Colts on Nov. 7. My thoughts regarding Indy’s undefeated record – the result of playing the NFL’s easiest first-half schedule – were made clear.

The term Cupcake City made its way into the text. I declared Indy guilty of having the gridiron’s greatest sweet tooth. New England, I said, would present Tony Dungy’s club with its first true challenge of the 2005 campaign.

Although a prediction didn’t appear in print, anyone reading between the lines could certainly see which team I thought would play better, well, between the lines.

The 19-point pasting put on the Pats suggested otherwise, as did the comments of at least one reader:

“With regards to your ‘Unchallenged and unimpressive’ column of Nov. 3,” this gentleman began, “could you please tell me what part of the Colts’ dessert menu the Patriots were? In case you missed it, the final score was 40-21, and not much of a contest.”

Ouch.

That reader made his point quicker than Peyton Manning found Marvin Harrison hanging out behind the Pats’ secondary in the game’s opening moments; a 48-yard pass play that set up the Colts’ first score.

Despite New England’s sickeningly suspect defense – minus the likes of Richard Seymour and Rodney Harrison – I still believed the Colts would collapse inside Gillette Stadium, Manning’s true House of Horrors.

While my argument included statistics shining light on Indy’s opponents, particularly the weak offenses of those opponents, backing the Patriots was predominantly based on blind faith.

Call it the In Bill Belichick I Trust factor.

When dissecting any Colts-Pats matchup, a personal promise was made: Never pick against Belichick’s bunch until Indy wins on enemy turf.

Every possible on-field statistic could point in overwhelming favor of New England’s chief foe. But until Manning & Co. closed the deal in The House that Kraft Built, those numbers meant nothing.

The men of the Flying Elvis could’ve left the building, leaving Indy to step to the line of scrimmage all by its lonesome. The Colts had to prove they weren’t hound dogs – cryin’ all the time – by actually winning.

That goal was finally achieved. But this Patriots suck-up still isn’t impressed by Indianapolis.

The AFC South leaders remain unchallenged. New England, in all its defensive disarray, was merely the Colts’ eighth sweet treat of the season.

There I go again, making excuses, right?

Well, defense – not 40-point offensive performances – wins the Super Bowl. And the Colts, as my Nov. 3 column pointed out, still lack a championship-caliber defense.

Before Indy arrived to invade The Blade, Dungy’s defense faced a slew of second-rate quarterbacks, who threw for an average of 194 yards, .71 touchdowns and 1.71 interceptions. When facing a two-time Super Bowl MVP, who spent the majority of time on the sideline, the Colts were hardly the ’85 Bears.

Tom Brady, whose offense possessed the ball for little more than 23 minutes, threw for 265 yards and three TDs, without an INT. The Pats scored the second-most points against Indy and in the process, Brady posted his second-highest QB rating of the season.

Once again, feel free to call me a suck-up to the two-time defending Super Bowl champions. However, should these two teams meet again – when playoff elimination is on the line – take a wild guess which bandwagon I’m boarding.

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