Patriots move on to difficult part of schedule

By HOWARD ULMAN
AP Sports Writer

FOXBOROUGH, Mass.(AP) — The pushovers are in the past. Now the
New England Patriots must prepare for the powers of the NFL.

They’ll visit the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday and the New
Orleans Saints two weeks later. Both are 8-0 with outstanding
quarterbacks and a chance to match New England’s regular-season
record of 16-0 in 2007.

The Patriots are on a roll themselves with three straight
victories. But the first two were against winless teams, 59-0
over the Tennessee Titans and 35-7 over the Tampa Bay
Buccaneers. Sunday’s 27-17 win over the Miami Dolphins was much
closer to the competitive level of upcoming opponents.

“It’s always good competition every week,” cornerback Leigh
Bodden said Monday. “This is the NFL, no matter what guys’
record is. Tampa Bay just won. Any Sunday is going to be tough,
but to play a tough team (Miami) is always good in just
preparing you for this week. We’ve got a lot of tough games
coming up.”

After facing Indianapolis, the Patriots will host the New York
Jets, who beat them 16-9 in the second game of the season.

Bodden has good reason to call winless teams competitive. He
played for the Detroit Lions last season when they were tied
21-all with the Colts before Indianapolis scored 10 points in
the fourth quarter for a 31-21 win. That was Detroit’s 14th loss
in an 0-16 season. It also was Indianapolis’s seventh straight
win in a regular-season streak that reached 17 with Sunday’s
20-17 win over Houston.

The gap between Indianapolis and New England appears small. Four
of the Colts wins were by four points or less. The Patriots
losses were by seven and three points.

“I think it’s going to be competitive every week,” safety
Brandon McGowan said.

New England’s first five games were close, starting with a 25-24
win over the Buffalo Bills in which Tom Brady threw two scoring
passes in the last 2 minutes, 6 seconds. Only one of the other
four was decided by more than seven points.

The Patriots (6-2) lead the AFC East by two games, but on Sunday
they’ll face their toughest test so far.

“I think we’re approaching it just like any other game,” said
Bodden, who sees no reason to change that “just because of
anybody’s record, anybody’s winning streak.”

The teams have developed a strong rivalry despite being in
different divisions.

The matchup of quarterbacks Brady and Peyton Manning is one
reason for that. The teams have faced each other in each of the
past six regular seasons with each winning three games. In the
AFC championship game in 2006, the Colts rallied in the second
half to beat the Patriots 38-34 on their way to the Super Bowl
championship.

“Just a great rivalry,” said Bodden, who spent five seasons with
the Browns before joining the Lions last year. “I’ve been part
of a rivalry with Cleveland and Pittsburgh. It’s not really a
rivalry because it’s one-sided, but the Colts and the Patriots,
it’s a rivalry just because of AFC championship games. They’re
always cream of the crop.”

The hype surrounding the Sunday night game is sure to build as
the week goes on.

Typically, coach Bill Belichick doesn’t think he’ll get
overexcited.

“The most important thing is what it means to our football
team,” he said. “We’re 6-2 and it’s a big game for us on the
road. We know it’s an outstanding team. They are undefeated this
year, they’ve won 18, 19 in a row, however many it’s been.
They’re pretty good. It’s a big challenge for us. That’s really
where we’re at.”

The biggest challenge figures to be Manning.

He leads the NFL with a 70.6 completion percentage. He’s thrown
for 16 touchdowns and five interceptions and trails only Matt
Schaub of Houston in yards passing with 2,545.

“He’s just the ultimate quarterback,” Bodden said. “There’s a
route and a run to beat every coverage or defensive front. So he
looks at it, he surveys it and he checks out of whatever play
he’s in to go to a better play and he has a lot of weapons and
he can put the ball on the money in tight coverage.”

And there’s not much Manning hasn’t seen in 12 NFL seasons.

“You can show him 13 players on the field,” linebacker Adalius
Thomas said with a laugh. “Other than that, I don’t think you
can give him anything new.”

NOTES: Staring C Dan Koppen walked through the locker room
without a noticeable limp after a knee injury knocked him out of
Sunday’s game. “He’s a fast healer,” Belichick said, without
indicating whether he’d play Sunday. … Rookie left tackle
Sebastian Vollmer started in place of injured Matt Light for the
third straight game and helped hold linebacker Joey Porter
without a tackle. “Sebastian’s gotten better each week, even
going back to training camp,” Belichick said.