Chargers’ Big Foe Is From Within

The 13-0 Indianapolis Colts, still driving for a perfect (16-0) season, will play their two toughest remaining games the week before Christmas, starting with a home game today against 8-5 San Diego and continuing next Saturday at 11-2 Seattle.

San Diego, in particular, matches up well with the Colts. Also, having lost a game last week they should have won, the Chargers know their season is over if they fail again. They tried to take Miami (5-7) in stride and lost, 23-21.

That defeat should be charged to the coaching staff, which is responsible for a team’s mental and emotional state.

Team leaders can be blamed for another loss this season, when tight end Antonio Gates was suspended unnecessarily and unwisely on opening day, and Dallas won in a 28-24 upset.

At least two other close San Diego games were lost in the final minutes when quarterback Drew Brees, after passing his team into scoring position, was told to hand off to running back LaDainian Tomlinson as his conservative coaches played for field goals instead of touchdowns.

This is a playoff-caliber team that can surmount everything but its leadership.

Manning Rebounds

At Indianapolis, quarterback Peyton Manning’s goal this year is to surpass a 17-0 winner, the 1972 Miami Dolphins, in both regular-season and total results. And he’s in the midst of a difficult three-game test that will determine the Colts’ regular-season fate.

The first of the three, Jacksonville, went down last week, 26-18, but it was touch and go for much of the first half.

Although Manning started fast, driving Indianapolis ahead, 7-0, the next thing he did was fall clumsily after tripping over himself while dropping back to pass -- the kind of misplay that partially explains why he’s so fond of the shotgun formation.

In his embarrassment -- and under heavy pressure from the Jaguar pass rush -- he couldn’t move the Colts for a while.

By the second quarter, after the Jaguars had driven back into the game, 7-3, they were attacking him hard and had begun piling up three sacks, a 2005 record against Manning.

His history shows that when he feels pressured, Manning has trouble holding himself together.

Because the Jaguars, as coached by Jack Del Rio, play sound defensive football, the question was whether Manning could rebound.

He could. Fighting through the sacks, he suddenly returned to life with a perfect long pass to wide receiver Marvin Harrison, who ran a carefully rehearsed stop-and-go pattern for 65 yards and a touchdown. And before halftime, Jacksonville was just as suddenly doomed, 17-3.

Losing No Help

Indianapolis fans are asking -- now that the Colts have earned home-field playoff advantage -- whether it would be wiser to rest their starters this month and protect them from physical harm than to seek perfection in a bunch of meaningless games.

The one Colt who might profitably be rested and saved is running back Edgerrin James. But benching the entire first team, or much of it, would be a miscalculation.

Losing seldom helps any football club. And the Colts are a team that feeds on momentum

Their playoff season is going to be their real test, with opponents such as New England, Cincinnati and Denver lining up to knock them out. And it will be difficult enough for Manning to beat that kind if he still has the helpful momentum of a winning streak.

The 2005 Colts, more gifted but also more fragile than the 1972 Dolphins, are not the sort to come back from a self-inflicted December misadventure to blithely resume as a winning team in January.

Better they keep striving to win them all.

Bengals Can Run

Cincinnati’s 10-3 Bengals, who could well do the most damage to Indianapolis in the playoffs, are a different kind of team. The Bengals are accustomed to the ups and downs that define most NFL comers.

They figure to beat 4-9 Detroit today, yet they figured to beat 4-9 Cleveland last Sunday and struggled all the way before pulling it out, 23-20.

That game was a learning experience for the Bengals.

For one thing, they obviously hadn’t realized how far the Browns’ new coach, Romeo Crennel, had brought the cross-state team along.

For another, when Cincinnati quarterback Carson Palmer muffed his first try at throwing straight passes in a Cincinnati wind, the Bengals went away from pass offense and converted smoothly into a running team.

For another, when their new hurry-up, no-huddle offense couldn’t produce, they simply went away from that too.

As Palmer and his coach, Marvin Lewis, exhibited their flexibility, the Bengals easily adjusted to what strongly resembled a losing situation and mounted the game’s winning fourth-quarter drive with the help of the unrelated Johnsons, running back Rudi and wide receiver Chad.

It could have been a better passing day for Palmer, who held his poise. He at least threw the ball accurately enough on the decisive drive to force the Browns into the penalties they thought they had to chance.

The penalty play is a frequent bonus play for passers as talented as Palmer.

Defense Doesn’t Win

The Chicago Bears, whose eight-game winning streak collapsed in falling snow at Pittsburgh last week, 21-9, will get another look at a winning team tonight when quarterback Michael Vick leads the Atlanta Falcons into Soldier Field.

Of the Bears, it’s being said that the Steelers were the first good team they played this year and that they flunked the exam miserably. But that doesn’t quite tell the full story.

One problem is that Chicago’s coaches have come to believe the hype that the Bears are a team that has been winning with defense this season.

No modern NFL team can win with just defense. Occasionally, a defensive man can make the winning play, but when a defensive team seems to be winning these days, it’s always because the opponent is faltering offensively.

Another Chicago problem is that the Bears’ coaching staff, again apparently following the lead of Bear critics, seems to hold that rookie Kyle Orton isn’t much of a passer.

In any case, Orton doesn’t often get aggressive game plans, although those are what he’s needed all season to round into condition to beat a good team such as Pittsburgh. Orton can throw the downfield pass, the sideline pass and all the rest. Yet if such plays are seldom called, a rookie passer can’t often take it upon himself to take a shot.

Last summer, working with an established good passer, Rex Grossman, Chicago’s coaches put in a pass offense that might have made the Bears a different team this season. When Grossman was hurt, though, they resumed their conservative stance.

But by now, Orton is past his rookie days. He’s a 13-game veteran who can throw.

To prevail in the NFC North, the Bears should either immediately give him much of the pass offense they designed for Grossman last summer or resurrect Grossman himself.

Chiefs Surprised

The Kansas City Chiefs are about to take their place as the best NFL team that won’t make the playoffs.

Every time they play, the 8-5 Chiefs show off perhaps football’s most creative offense, one that soars with Trent Green’s pass plays and pounds with Larry Johnson’s runs.

As the season winds down, Coach Dick Vermeil’s players are heading into a demanding holiday schedule against San Diego on Christmas Eve and Cincinnati on New Year’s Day, meaning they are a longshot to catch Denver in the AFC West.

Dallas Coach Bill Parcells tossed in a handful of strange plays as his Cowboys scored a 31-28 victory last weekend, including a touchdown pass to a Cowboy who is never thrown to, blocking tight end Dan Campbell.

Once more Parcells proved “it doesn’t matter what you do in football, as long as it’s different.”

A Ram coach, Clark Shaughnessy, made that a guiding NFL principle half a century ago, when he won with all sorts of strange plays.