Mike Tomlin's team is riding a serious hot streak. Bet against the Steelers at your own risk.
I can't choose between them, and here's why: Remember the scene in "Rain Man" when Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman catch fire at the blackjack table, and there's that one hand when Cruise gets blackjack, raises his hands happily, then does the incredulous Cruise laugh for a few seconds? That's the Steelers and the Colts right now. They're winning every conceivable type of hand and catching every break, and after a while, you start waiting for their coaches (Tony Dungy and Mike Tomlin) to raise their hands happily and do the Incredulous Cruise Laugh. I thought for sure Dungy would dust it off Thursday night when David Garrard threw the game-ending TAINT out of nowhere to Keiwan Ratliff. Didn't happen.
Luck is a major part of football, whether we like to admit it or not … but at the same time, you make your own luck to a certain degree. With Jacksonville frantically trying to tie Thursday's game in the final seconds, Maurice Jones-Drew got racked by two Colts on a screen pass and couldn't get up, leading to a 10-second run-off and Jones-Drew being removed from the game. That was a classic part-luck/part-skill moment. But when Dwight Freeney finished off the Jags by demolishing their left tackle and sacking Garrard to end the game, that was just skill and talent. The best teams take advantage of every opening they're given. And if winning football is a mixture of making plays, not making mistakes and getting a sprinkle of good fortune at the right times, you can't do it any better than Indy and Pittsburgh have been doing it lately.
Just remember, if they meet in the playoffs -- and odds are, they will -- there will be only one horseshoe available.
They've won big, they've won close, but the bottomline, is that the Colts keep winning.