Patriot Games Spoiled By Colts Receivers

A raft of disappointing games, star players slagging off their clubs and team-mates, sex scandals: football on the other side of the Atlantic is more similar to our game than we might like to think. In fact, just as the Premiership's fixture list threw up the most eagerly-anticipated match of the season this weekend, the NFL saw the favourites for the championship - the only team with an unbeaten record this term - come up against the most heralded side of the past decade, aiming to hasten the crumbling of an injury-ravaged dynasty and in the process earn the title of "the next great team".

Yes, last night the Indianapolis Colts, hitherto 7-0 this season, met the reigning champions, the New England Patriots. As America likes to say, the Patriots have "owned" the Colts recently. They eliminated them in the play-offs in each of the past two years - reducing Indianapolis to just three points in January - had won their previous six encounters, 14 of the last 16 if you prefer, and the Colts hadn't won at Foxboro, Massachusetts for 10 years. Peyton Manning, the Colts' star quarter-back who last year broke Dan Marino's record for most touch-downs thrown in a season, had always been stifled by the Patriots' pesky defense.

So it was on history rather than current form that most pundits predicted the Patriots would kick-start their inconsistent season by knocking the Colts down a peg or two. It didn't happen. In fact, as Patriots quarter-back Tom Brady eloquently put it: "We got our butts kicked tonight." 40-21 to be exact - the highest number of points the Colts franchise has ever put past the Patriots. And the scoreline flattered the home team. Manning was imperious, throwing three touch-downs to his excellent receivers Marvin Harrison and Reggie Wayne, while running back Edgerrin James carried the ball for 104 yards, to prove the Colts are undoubtedly the No1 team in the AFC.

It means that, with half the season gone, the Patriots (4-4) have yet to win consecutive games and have already lost as many matches as they did in the last two seasons combined. Having won the Super Bowl in three of the past four years - an incredible record in this age of salary caps, fixed fixture lists and draft picks - their empire is crumbling.

Most of their effective players - they don't really have any stellar names - are still there, but remain on the sidelines plagued by injuries. John Madden, of computer game fame, suggested coach Bill Belichick was keeping some of his defensive plays hidden last night to save them for when the two teams meet again in the post-season. However, the Patriots will only make the play-offs because they are in a weak division and have now all but conceded home-field advantage to the Colts - a key factor. It is difficult to see them progressing to the Super Bowl again.

And so the second half of the season is likely to be consumed by talk of whether two brothers might face off at quarter-back in America's great showpiece. Eli Manning, Peyton's younger brother, is the man leading the New York Giants' unexpected charge. With a healthy 6-2 record, they have become every pundit's outside tip to the extent that they are no longer outsiders at all. But they are in the NFL's strongest division, and to make Archie Manning - the father of Peyton and Eli and one-time great quarterback himself - have his dream come true, the Giants need to maintain the high standards they've set themselves to top the Washington Redskins, the Dallas Cowboys and the Philadelphia Eagles.

Ah, the Eagles. Last year's NFC champs and Super Bowl runners-up have been having a torrid time of it this season thanks to star wide receiver Terrell Owens. "TO" is the NFL's answer to Roy Keane. Since he arrived at Philadelphia he has threatened to quit because his $48.97m contract wasn't sufficient; walked out on the club pre-season after arguments with the management; rounded on quarter-back Donovan McNabb saying the Eagles would be unbeaten if Brett Favre was at the helm; thrown a strop because the club failed to celebrate his 100th career touchdown "properly", and come to blows with Eagles ambassador Hugh Douglas - and Owens has only been there just over a year.

When he refused to apologise to the franchise and his team-mates before this weekend's defeat to the Redskins, he was suspended for four games - amounting to a $800,000 fine - after which he will be placed on the inactive list; which effectively means he will never play for the Eagles again. And without their star man, Philly are unlikely to progress too far this season.

Neither are the Minnesota Vikings, who were the NFC's joint favourites with the Eagles pre-season. The Vikings are 3-5, have played terribly, lost quarter-back Daunte Culpepper to a serious knee injury, and have become middle-class America's most hated team for their immoral behaviour - namely hiring a luxury boat on Lake Minnetonka and inviting a bevy of ladies to join them on a lewd sex cruise. However, ex-London Monarch quarter-back Brad Johnson performed well this weekend, suggesting the Vikings could yet reel in the over-achieving Chicago Bears in the NFC North.

Other teams who could still challenge for the NFC championship include the Seattle Seahawks - who play the St Louis Rams in a game that could decide the NFC West this week - the Atlanta Falcons, led by the speed and agility of Michael Vick, and the Carolina Panthers, whose five-game winning streak got two of their cheerleaders so excited they face criminal charges after being caught having sex in a pub toilet before Sunday's game (spot a recurring theme here?).

Meanwhile, in the AFC, the Colts' nearest challenge for a Super Bowl place could come from the Pittsburgh Steelers. A pattern has emerged with the Steelers: when their huge second-year quarter-back Ben Roethlisberger plays, they win; when he doesn't, they don't. With "Big Ben" at the helm, Pittsburgh have lost just one of 19 games. This stat maybe underplays the talents of running backs Jerome "The Bus" Bettis and Willy Parker, not to mention the brutish strength of the Steelers' defense, but it shows how firmly Pittsburgh's ambitions rest on Roethlisberger's injury-prone body.

While the Steelers should reel in the Cincinatti Bengals in the AFC North - the Bengals are yet to beat anyone decent - the San Diego Chargers could struggle to top the Denver Broncos in the West. The Chargers are inspired by the phenomenal running of LaDainian Tomlinson, widely regarded as the top back in the game, a statement few who saw his four touch-downs this weekend will argue with. But the Broncos have strode to a 6-2 record in the first half, and with frugal quarter-back Jake "The Snake" Plummer having thrown just three interceptions thus far, they could surprise a few people as we approach the New Year.

But it's the Colts who've changed the face of American football in the first two months of the season. They - not New England for the first time in four years - are the team that everyone has to beat, and they will most likely be celebrating their first Super Bowl victory in Detroit in February. Of course that's three months away and in three months anything can happen in the unpredictable NFL.