Dominant Indianapolis Colts Send Message to Rest of the NFL

Some wins come easy. Some wins are flukes. Some come at the end of huge comebacks, and some are over early. Some wins don't mean much in the long run, and some wins seem huge in the moment but fade away as the season plays out.

The Indianapolis Colts' 27-0 dismantling of the Cincinnati Bengals wasn't any of those things.

It was a wire-to-wire domination and a clear signal the Colts are one of the best teams in the AFC—and, maybe, one of the best teams in the NFL.

After opening the season with two close losses to good teams, the Colts are on a red-hot five-game tear. Not only are they 5-0 over those five games but they've also outscored opponents 165-75. They've outgained opponents 2,421-1,359. Name a football measurement or metric and the Colts have probably walloped their last five opponents in it.

Should the Houston Texans lose on Monday Night Football, the Colts will be two games clear of them, three clear of the 2-5 Tennessee Titans and four ahead of the cellar-dwelling Jacksonville Jaguars. Only three of the Colts' remaining nine opponents have winning records (pending the Pittsburgh Steelers' results against the Texans).

Not only are the Colts about to run away with the AFC South, but they could also end up with a playoff bye and home-field advantage.

The rest of the NFL had better start paying attention.

Andrew Luck Is Really Good

Colts head coach Chuck Pagano and offensive coordinator Pep Hamilton have finally buckled under the pressure of reality: They are not a power-running team. They are an Andrew Luck team, and the more often he throws the football, the better the Colts offense does.

Coming into Week 7, per Pro-Football-Reference.com, Luck led the NFL in pass attempts. Against Cincinnati, he kept up that league-leading pace, completing 64.3 percent of his 42 passes. With this game in the books, Luck is averaging a massive 333 yards per game, putting him on pace for a 5,328-yard season. That'd be third-best of all time, according to Pro-Football-Reference.com.

Luck also tacked on two touchdowns to his previous NFL-leading season total of 17.

Nineteen touchdowns in seven games puts him on pace for 43 touchdowns in 2014. That would tie Drew Brees' 2012 season for eighth-best ever, per Pro-Football-Reference.com. He's sixth in adjusted net yards per attempt, sixth in NFL passer efficiency rating and fifth in ESPN's Total QBR.

No matter how you slice it, Luck's gaining yards in chunks and lighting up the scoreboard—and there's no reason to believe that's going to change as the Colts round into the soft part of their schedule.

Against Cincinnati, Luck warmed up slowly. The Colts' first two drives ended in punts, and the third was aborted by a lost Ahmad Bradshaw fumble. They drew first blood with a field goal on the next possession, though, and Luck got stronger as the game went on.

Michael Conroy/Associated Press

The Colts scored a touchdown in each of the next three quarters and tacked on another field goal in the fourth. The three-headed tailback committee of Bradshaw, Trent Richardson and Dan "Boom" Herron had by far its best performance of the year, averaging 5.7 yards on 29 attempts.

The Colts offense didn't just score points; it also denied the Bengals offense the ball.

Like a boa constrictor, it just kept tightening its hold on the game until the Bengals broke.

The Colts Defense Is Better Than You Think

The Colts defense was ranked 16th, right in the middle of the pack, when it came to allowing points. But the feast-or-famine nature of the Colts' aggressive defense became apparent when looking at its per-drive stats. It allowed points on 32.4 percent of drives against it, tied for 11th-best in the NFL.

Teams weren't scoring often, but when they were, they were scoring touchdowns.

Obviously, the Colts leap up the ladder in both rankings after this shutout performance. The 19.4 points they've averaged over seven games would have ranked them fourth-best in the NFL coming into the week, per Pro-Football-Reference.com.

In other words, almost halfway through the season, the Colts have a top-five scoring defense.

How did this happen? Pagano and general manager Ryan Grigson have famously eschewed elite talents, instead developing young players who fit their systems. Second-year outside linebacker Bjoern Werner sacked Dalton once Sunday, after racking up two sacks last week and one the week before. The 6'3", 257-pound pass-rusher is finally getting comfortable using his natural speed and power in the Colts' 3-4 scheme. Around the NFL shared its positive assessment of Werner's performance as a pass-rusher:

The Colts' secondary play has been unexpectedly outstanding. It was graded the eighth-best in the NFL, per Pro Football Focus (subscription required), before suffocating the Bengals' high-flying pass offense.

The Colts' back seven isn't just playing sound football, it's playing nasty. Watch cornerback Vontae Davis light up Bengals tailback Giovani Bernard:

That hard-nosed attitude is a reflection of Pagano and the way he loves to play footballl.

It looks like Pagano has finally built his monster.

The Colts Are Only Getting Better

The Bengals game was a microcosm of the Colts' season so far.

Though they played well in those two tough season-opening losses, and gleefully stomped weaker teams like the Jacksonville Jaguars thereafter, this is a whole new level of performance for the Colts.

Even without star receiver A.J. Green, the Bengals roster is chock-full of talent on both sides of the ball. To grind out a no-suspense, no-mistakes, whistle-to-gun win like this speaks loudly...and they aren't done yet.

"We had opportunities to score points, and it didn't happen," Pagano told the team's official site after the win.

After giving his defense credit for an outstanding performance, he again expressed frustration at the offense's slow start.

"It was tough sledding," he said, "but I'm proud of the guys for coming out in the third quarter, [putting] a couple scores on the board and [finishing] the thing."

With a relatively easy slate of remaining games and a bye week still to come, a Colts team that's firing on all cylinders should terrify the rest of the NFL.

[Vine]