Patriots crush Redskins and shift focus to Colts

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- They have fantastic players, extraordinary strategists, and three glittering Super Bowl rings.

But do the New England Patriots have a conscience?

That’s what some Washington Redskins were asking Sunday after New England throttled them, 52-7, making the visitors look more like the Washington Generals.

Did the Patriots need to keep throwing the ball in the fourth quarter? Did they really need to go for it on fourth down when they were up 38-0 and 45-0?

“It’s hard to say whether they’re just padding the stats or just want to embarrass the teams,” Redskins defensive end Phillip Daniels said. “It’s one of those.”

There’s no pity on the road to perfection, and the Patriots (8-0) aren’t fretting about what people outside their locker room are saying. They’re headed into a showdown at Indianapolis on Sunday against the Colts (7-0) -- a matchup commentator Boomer Esiason has already deemed Super Bowl 41 1/2 -- so they scoff at the suggestion they would have any reason to coast.

“Obviously, they’re a great team,” Patriots Coach Bill Belichick said of the Colts, who beat his team in last season’s AFC championship game. “They’ve won 12 in a row. They’ve beat us three straight, so there’s no better team in football than the Indianapolis Colts.”

The statistics tell a different story. The Colts are very good, perhaps even good enough to stun New England on Sunday, but no NFL team is rolling with the merciless momentum of the Patriots.

They are the first team since the St. Louis Rams in 2000 to score at least 30 points in each of its first eight games, and the first since the Colts in 2004 to score at least 40 in three consecutive games.

Indianapolis, meanwhile, is the first team since the 1929-31 Green Bay Packers to win its first seven games in three consecutive seasons. The Colts were 13-0 in 2005 and 9-0 last season.

Careful to focus solely on the task at hand, the Colts have steadfastly refused to address the possibility of a blockbuster game against New England . . . until Sunday, that is, after their 31-7 victory at Carolina.

“Everybody’s been talking about it for a long time, except us,” quarterback Peyton Manning said. “I guess now it’s safe to talk about it.”

Likewise, the Patriots can look back at their game at the RCA Dome last January, when Manning helped the Colts erase an 18-point deficit and ultimately win, 38-34.

“That film will definitely come up, I can tell you that,” New England defensive end Ty Warren said. “But we’re going to mainly watch what they’ve been doing this year.”

In the last two years, the Colts have won regular-season games twice in Foxborough, beating the Patriots 40-21 in 2005 and 27-20 last November. New England had a combined seven turnovers in those losses.

“We know it’s going to take our best effort,” New England quarterback Tom Brady said. “We know you can’t make a lot of mistakes against these guys. When you turn the ball over against the Colts, it’s usually seven points. When you punt it to them, it’s usually seven points.

“I’m happy we’ve got seven days to prepare because I think we’re going to need each and every hour of that week.”

The setting will have special meaning for Patriots linebacker Rosevelt Colvin. He grew up in Indianapolis and used to work at Colts games, making cotton candy at the stadium back when it was called the Hoosier Dome.

“I used to stock up about 10 to 15 bags of cotton candy, and then I could walk up the steps and look at the game, then I’d come back for the big crush,” Colvin said.

“That was back when ‘Big Play’ Ray Buchanan was there, Eric Dickerson, man, that was back in the day. When the Colts moved there . . . that was the beginning of my hometown football history. Because before that, we’d just see the Bears on TV all the time. It’s a part of me. It’s a part of who I am.”

Colvin, who scored the first touchdown of his career Sunday, on an 11-yard fumble return, still loves cotton candy and remembers how to make it. That’s fitting, considering the type of atmosphere for which the teams are bracing.

Said Indianapolis Coach Tony Dungy when asked what lies ahead: “I think it will be a circus.”

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sam.farmer@latimes.com

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Something has to give

Sunday’s matchup between New England (8-0) and Indianapolis (7-0) will mark only the sixth time in NFL history that two teams with 5-0 records or better have played. A look at how the other five games turned out:

Oct. 14, 2007: New England Patriots (5-0) at

Dallas Cowboys (5-0). Result: Patriots 48, Cowboys 27.

Oct. 24, 2004: New York Jets (5-0) at

New England Patriots (5-0). Result: Patriots 13, Jets 7.

Oct. 28, 1973: Los Angeles Rams (6-0) at

Minnesota Vikings (6-0). Result: Vikings 10, Rams 9.

Nov. 4, 1923: Canton Bulldogs (5-0) at

Chicago Cardinals (5-0). Result: Bulldogs 7, Cardinals 3.

Nov. 13, 1921: Akron Pros (7-0) at

Buffalo All-Americans (6-0). Result: 0-0.

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Source: Associated Press