Defense steps up to keep the Colts in perfect position

Alone again, naturally.

Once again, the Indianapolis Colts are the NFL’s sole unbeaten team, pulling off that feat Sunday with a 27-20 victory over New England several hours after the Chicago Bears lost their first game.

For the Colts, there was this curious twist: This is the same locale where their 2005 team achieved an identical 8-0 record, and, at the time, was the league’s only undefeated franchise.

But that’s where the similarities end.

Whereas last year’s Colts crushed opponents with their offense, these Colts seem to find a new path to victory each week. Sunday, it was the defense, embarrassed a week earlier at Denver, that secured the victory. The Patriots had five turnovers, their most in five years.

“We’re not playing quite as good as we were last year, but I think I like where we are better,” said Coach Tony Dungy, whose 2005 team won its first 13 games. “Because it’s more like the real NFL. You’ve got to make plays in the fourth quarter. You’ve got to really assert yourself down the stretch, and we seem to be doing that.”

Some Colts were more assertive than others. Kicker Adam Vinatieri, for instance, was only pushy in that he pushed two of his field-goal tries wide right. Those misses had the packed house shaking Gillette Stadium with glee, a bizarre sight considering Vinatieri for so long was a local hero. The same fans who cheered him when he nailed two Super Bowl-winning kicks for the Patriots loudly booed him when he returned to Foxborough as a member of the Colts.

“It was kind of what I expected,” Vinatieri said. “I had a few people give me a thumbs-up at the beginning, and then they started booing me the rest of the game. It was fun.”

Fun, that is, until his pair of uncharacteristic flubs in the second half. The second errant attempt, which came with two minutes remaining, might have given the Colts some breathing room. Instead, they needed an interception to clinch the victory.

“Obviously, I would have liked to play a little better,” he said, “But ... the defense stepped up.”

It wasn’t a defensive masterpiece; the Colts had a tough time putting the clamps on New England’s ground game. But by intercepting four Tom Brady passes, and by keeping the Patriots out of the end zone in the second half, Indianapolis atoned for some of its breakdowns against the Broncos in Week 7.

Peyton Manning, meanwhile, was typically efficient. In a game billed as a battle between the league’s elite quarterbacks, Manning had the decisive advantage. He completed 20 of 36 passes for 326 yards and two touchdowns. But the Patriots roughed him up along the way, sacking him three times and intercepting one of his passes.

For Manning, one of the stranger moments came just as he took the field for the Colts’ first possession. During a TV timeout, his face appeared on the giant video board. It was an in-stadium commercial for a cell-phone provider, the one where Manning is in disguise, wearing a cheesy black mustache, touting the service. The place thundered with boos.

Asked if he was aware what was showing on the screen, Manning said: “Oh, sure. My [offensive] line was just killing me.”

Across the line of scrimmage, he briefly locked eyes with linebacker Mike Vrabel.

“It was one of those awkward eye contacts where he’s kind of wondering why I’m being shown, and I’m kind of wondering why I’m being shown,” he said.

It was the first of the night’s many memorable moments -- not the least of which was seeing the Patriots lose to a franchise they had dominated for so long. Before Sunday, the Colts had not won consecutive meetings in the series since 1995. They had lost six in a row to the Patriots before beating them a year ago.

“We just didn’t do a good job tonight,” Coach Bill Belichick said. “I didn’t do a good job of coaching. We didn’t do a good job of playing.”

And Indianapolis came away in prime position to again capture the imagination of the country and make a run at the 1972 Miami Dolphins, the only NFL team to finish undefeated.

“The questions are going to increase, the coverage is going to increase,” Manning said. “It’s like Coach Dungy said, we’re going to start getting a lot of hype; just don’t believe any of it.”

They might not believe the hype, but some of the Patriots sure do.

“Same old Colts,” linebacker Rosevelt Colvin said. “They are the greatest team in football.”

Or, at 8-0, at least half-perfect.

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sam.farmer@latimes.com

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Winning combinations

Sunday’s game featured two of the five winningest head coach-quarterback duos since 1970. Colts quarterback Peyton Manning and Coach Tony Dungy lead the category with a .778 winning percentage. Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and Coach Bill Belichick rank fifth with a .744 percentage. The top five winning percentages by a coach-quarterback duo since 1970 (minimum 50 games; * -- active):

*--* Quarterback/Head Coach Team W-L Pct. Peyton Manning/Tony Dungy Indianapolis * 56-16 778 Ken Stabler/John Madden Oakland 60-19-1 756 Jim McMahon/Mike Ditka Chicago 46-15 754 Jake Plummer/Mike Shanahan Denver* 38-13 745 Tom Brady/Bill Belichick New England* 64-22 744

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Source: NFLmedia.com