Before I start with the games this week, I want to give a quick shout out to Don Shula. The retired old fart mouthed off this past week about how the Patriots shouldn't be regarded as highly as his pain-in-the-butt 17-0 Dolphins team.

On Monday: "The Spygate thing has diminished what they've accomplished. You would have to have that attached to your accomplishments. ... I guess you got the same thing as putting an asterisk by Barry Bonds' home run record."

What's almost as insulting as this attack on the Greatest Team Ever was his 180-degree turn around that evolved over the course of the week, ending on Thursday with: "If they run the table, and they win all the games, then they are doing it within the rules of the National Football League. .. And there shouldn't be any asterisk to it. That would be the accomplishment that they made. It would be the best in all of sports."

In other words, "I'm not man enough to stick by what I said."

Thank you Don Shula for giving the Patriots something to focus them during their bye week!

How bizarre, how bizarre: It is still hard to believe the end to the San Diego Chargers' 23-21 win over the Indianapolis Colts in one of the most bizarre games of recent years; Cyd must have texted me a half-dozen times using "unbelievable." It certainly was entertaining. 

--Peyton Manning throws six interceptions but the Chargers can only convert them to 9 points. ("It was poor quarterback play on my part," Manning said. "I take full responsibility for all of them.")

--San Diego's Darren Sprouls returns a kickoff and punt for a touchdown … in the first half.

--San Diego leads 23-0, but gets shut out in the second half.

--Stats: Total yards (Colts 386, Chargers 177); first downs (Colts 25-11); Plays (Colts 84-50); Passing yards (Colts 311-86); Time of possession (Colts 36 minutes to 24)

--The Colts, despite missing their starting left tackle and two receivers before the game, and losing two more offensive linemen during the game, rally and drive to the Chargers' 6-yard line down two with less than two minutes to go.

Jim and I had talked all week about how the Colts would likely lose to the Chargers. They had mounting injuries, they had an emotional loss at home to the Greatest Team Ever the week before, and the Chargers had been embarrassed in Minnesota the week before as well. It spelled doom for the Colts. But I never imagined it would look like that.

Believe it or not, I as actually cheering for the Colts after that first quarter. I felt sorry for this 7-1 team that had so much talent but has no chance to win the Super Bowl this year. Keeping pressure on the Patriots would have been a good thing. So much for that.

At 7-2, this is the worst start the Colts have had since they were 6-3 in 2004. Beyond the numbers, though, the Colts have some big problems ahead. First, to lose back-to-back games in the fashion in which they lost them (blowing a 10-point fourth quarter lead at home, then come back from down 23 only to blow it in the end on the road) is devastating. When they suffered those big late-season losses last year, those were on-field personnel and scheme mistakes that were correctible. How do you get off the matt after those two losses? The Colts have the Chiefs at home and the Falcons on the road before welcoming Jacksonville. They need to win those two games.

Second, there is a big injury problem on the Colts right now. Marvin Harrison's "bruised knee" has kept him out of four of their last five games; and the one game he did play, he caught three balls for 16 yards - his worst yards-per-catch average since week 1 of the 2003 season.

(And by the way, before dismissing this Colts loss, consider that the Chargers didn't have their top cornerback, Quentin Jammer, for this game, and Manning threw a career-high number of interceptions (6, 5 of which were "legit"; he had never thrown more than 4)).

The third problem the Colts have? The Jacksonville Jaguars, who are winning with Quinn Gray at quarterback, who are one game behind the Colts right now, and who visit them for a rematch in three weeks. I'm not putting the Titans as a problem, because I don't believe for a second that the Titans could win the AFC South.

The fourth problem the Colts now have? The Pittsburgh Steelers. The Colts are better than the Steelers. But, the Colts desperately want to host a divisional playoff game; they certainly don't want to go to Pittsburgh on Jan. 13.

Since the rest of the league is crappy, I wanted to look at whom everyone has beaten to see who might deserve to be No. 3:

Green Bay Packers. They're total frauds, but they've got the best pedigree: They've beaten three teams (Giants, Chargers, Redskins) over .500.

Dallas Cowboys. They're mouthy, but they're looking pretty darn good. I'm not remotely impressed by their win over the New York Giants on Sunday, because the Giants aren't a very good football team. Other than the Giants, the Cowboys haven't beaten any team that's over .500.

Pittsburgh Steelers. They've beaten three teams over .500: The Bills, Browns and Seahawks, all 5-4.

They don't deserve to be mentioned with these other teams, but since the New York media is trying to make the Giants into contenders, you know how many over-.500 teams the Giants have beaten? One; and that was the 5-4 Washington Redskins, who blew a 17-3 halftime lead.

--The Colts have Adam Vinatieri, the best clutch kicker in history. He had not missed a field goal of less than 30 yards since 2003 (32 in a row). But he misses a 29-yarder that would have given the Colts the lead. ("I should make that kick every time," Vinatieri said. "There are no good excuses. I just missed it.") As I said, bizarre. 

Before Vinatieri's miss (his third in two games), can an even stranger sequence. Third-and-3, Joseph Addai runs for three yards and a first down. But the officials take a look on replay at the spot and correctly rule Addai down a half-yard shy of the first down, so Indy now has fourth-and-.5 yards. Instead of kicking a 24-yarder, they get clever, call a timeout and send the offense back on trying to draw San Diego offsides and get a first down. Players are moving on both sides and the Colts get called for illegal motion (a call NBC's John Madden said was wrong, and one I am not sure about). Now, on fourth-and-6, Vinatieri misses the go-ahead kick and the Chargers survive. 

As Jim Allen, whom I was watching the game with, said, "The Colts iced their own kicker." Vinatieri stood on the sidelines on a damp, cool night for more than three minutes while the Colts screwed around on fourth down. They would have better off not trying to draw the Chargers off and kick it right away. They would have saved five yards and a timeout (which would have come in handy at the end had Vinatieri missed the shorter field goal)  Being clever cost the Colts and they have now lost two in a row after starting 7-0. 

Colts coach Tony Dungy admits he blew it by taking the timeout. "I apologized to the team after the game,'' Dungy said. "I called a timeout at the end to make a point to the officials and we obviously could have used that timeout at the end of the game. That was just one indication of what went wrong for us. Not being poised and not being smart.''

Still, in all, Indy will be a force if their injuries are not severe. Stud pass rusher Dwight Freeney left the game late on a cart with a foot injury and if he is out for any length of time, their defense will take a hit.

Money's worth: Win or lose, the Colts are the most entertaining team to watch in the league. The Colts have lost seven times since the 2005 playoffs to the Steelers. Save for the Jacksonville game last December (27 points), the margins of defeat have been 3-7-3-3-4-2. Since sports is ultimately about entertainment, the Colts are the NFL's equivalent of A-list. 

Wide open: Take away near certain playoff spots from New England (9-0), Indy (7-2) and Pittsburgh (7-2) in the AFC, and Dallas (8-1) and Green Bay (8-1) in the NFC and you have a jumble for the rest of the playoff spots. Tampa and San Diego are each only 5-4 but lead their lame divisions. Seattle (4-4 heading into Monday) will be at worst tied with 4-5 Arizona for first place in the even lamer NFC West. In the AFC, Jacksonville and Tennessee (both 6-3) have good wild card shots, but there is still half the season to go. The season is so topsy-turvy that perennial doormats Buffalo and Cleveland are in the hunt at 5-4. 

Boys and Pack are back: The Nov. 29 game between Dallas and Green Bay looks like a doozy, with both teams potentially 10-1 going in. But the game is being shown on the NFL Network, still unavailable to most TV viewers in the country. 

Dallas looked impressive in spanking the Giants, 31-20, in New Jersey, while the Packers proved with their 34-0 win over Minnesota that they have the best defense in the NFC. For Dallas, Terrell Owens looks like a receiver reborn with two more TD catches. He sounded coherent and humble in the postgame interview, quite a switch from the malcontent his last days in Philadelphia. 

Home uncooking: Carolina is 4-1 on the road, but the Panthers are 0-4 at home, including Sunday's embarrassing loss to woeful Atlanta. 

Inept: How bad is the Baltimore Ravens' offense? They played the 31^st-ranked defense in Cincinnati, a team that had not allowed fewer than 20 points in any game this season and nearly got shutout. The Bengals won, 21-7, on seven Shayne Graham field goals. The Ravens did not score until there was 1:56 left at the game was out of reach. "This is probably the lowest point in my career," Ravens quarterback Steve McNair said. "What do I need to do about it? I don't know." McNair has thrown two TDs and committed 11 turnovers this season. He is done and so might be the Ravens. Kyle Boller deserves to start the rest of the season.