Baltimore Ravens vs Indianapolis Colts

If you turned off your television Sunday night while watching the New England Patriots and the Indianapolis Colts, you were in for quite a shock on Monday morning.

The Colts (9-0) seemed to be finally losing a regular season game, their first since October 27, 2008 when they trailed by 10 late in the game. But a questionable call from Patriots’ coach Bill Belichick to go for it on fourth and two from the deep inside their own territory resulted in the Colts improbable victory which extended their regular season winning streak to 18 games, just three shy of tying New England for the longest regular season winning streak in NFL history, which spanned from 2006-2008.

Indianapolis is 9-0 for the third time in their last five seasons and look to improve to 10-0 in their old stomping grounds of Baltimore, Maryland when they face the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday.

The Colts are in a great position. They are one of just two teams who are still undefeated, along with New Orleans, and the only team in the AFC to be undefeated. The hold a commanding four-game lead over the rest of the AFC South and have a two-game lead over the Cincinnati Bengals for home field advantage in the AFC playoffs.

Peyton Manning has showed no signs of age, or a blip from the changeover from Tony Dungy to Jim Caldwell as head coach. He leads the league in numerous categories, including passing yards and touchdowns (2872 and 20). Manning has thrown for 300 or more yards in eight of the nine games this season.

The Colts head to Baltimore for the sixth time since the Ravens (5-4) came into existence a decade after the beloved Colts bolted Baltimore for Indianapolis in 1984. Indianapolis has won three straight in their old city after dropping their first two.

The Colts have also won six straight in the series in both Indianapolis and Baltimore and the Ravens have not won since a 39-27 home win over the Colts in their Super Bowl winning season of 2001.

The Ravens’ defense has not been up to its usual self this year and although they shutout the hapless Cleveland Browns offense last week, they will be without one of their stars, Terrell Suggs, who was injured on an illegal chop block by Browns’ quarterback Brady Quinn, who was fined by the league and personally apologized to Suggs.

He will be out for up to three weeks, meaning the huge task of stopping Manning is even bigger.

Matt Stover will face the franchise he broke into the NFL with for the first time. The kicker is the franchise all-time leader in points (and fifth all-time in the NFL) and started with the team in Cleveland in 1991 and stayed with the team when they moved to Baltimore through last season before he was released and later picked up by the Colts after Adam Vinateri was injured.

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