Week 8 picks: There's another team out there... | Agganis Lives

Has a defending world champion ever started the season 6-0 and seemed like such an afterthought?

Meet the Indianapolis Colts, the home half of this season's Game of the Century on Nov. 4. While the New England Patriots have been running up big numbers and getting all the screen time, Indy is just winning, baby. And in a slightly more difficult division than the AFC East.

The Colts have had closer games and have a major deficit in style points, but they took advantage of a Monday night showcase to let the world know they're still here. That was an impressive 29-7 pummeling of Jacksonville - quite a few people in my pool took the Jags.

I wondered about the Indy defense, since it was riddled by free agency and little money was spent to reinforce it. And Booger McFarland threw a wheel in training camp and ended up out for the year. Nothing to worry about, as long as Bob Sanders is out there, all 5-8 of him. The 200- and 300-yard rushing games opponents had against the Colts while he was injured last season stopped the moment he came back, and they haven;t returned. Even before David Garrard got hurt, that was a dominant defensive performance.

As for offense, Marvin Harrison hurt? No problem. Joseph Addai banged up? Ditto. Peyton Manning is, well, Peyton Manning, and Addai and Canadian import Kenton Keith provide the 1-2 ground punch that has become, as the late prospector Whitney Ellsworth would say, the rigor for a Super Bowl team.

The Colts aren't getting as many magazine covers, but they're still the man. When Ric Flair goes into his "If you wanna BE the man..." shtick, he's talking to the Pats.

On to the picks (13-7 last week, 91-49 for the season):

PATRIOTS 30, REDSKINS 20: The Skins are only six points away from being undefeated themselves, but haven't made the sale as a playoff-caliber team. Don't worry about the Pats not being focused. (I'll be live-blogging this one on SI.com Sunday at 4:15 p.m.).

COLTS 27, PANTHERS 13: Good thing Vinny Testaverde's stretched his streak of seasons with at least one touchdown pass to 21 already. Indy's peaking.

GIANTS 34, DOLPHINS 17: If the trip to London was awarded on merit, you think the Fish would be going?

VIKINGS 20, EAGLES 17: Think how good Minnesota could be if it actually had a quarterback.

BEARS 20, LIONS 19: Detroit hasn't quite made the sale yet, either. But then again, I'm really struggling to find a second wild card-worthy team in the NFC.

TITANS 25, RAIDERS 20: Who would've thought Kerry Collins could move the Tennessee offense into field goal range eight times?

BROWNS 31, RAMS 24: Cleveland deserves a Browns run at the playoffs after the way baseball season ended there.

BENGALS 27, STEELERS 23: The AFC Central is officially up for grabs.

JETS 20, BILLS 17: Winner has a clear shot at catching the Patriots.

BUCCANEERS 20, JAGUARS 13: Until Quinn Gray proves he can throw, the road-game-after-Monday-night rule applies.

CHARGERS 31, TEXANS 16: No matter where the SoCal fires force them to play, the Charger defense won't be blowing a 25-point fourth-quarter lead to a journeyman backup QB.

49ers 17, SAINTS 16: San Francisco's playoff chances won't die. .500 might do the trick in the NFC West.

BRONCOS 24, PACKERS 20: Something about Denver in a nationally televised game...

And in college...

BOSTON COLLEGE 20, VIRGINIA TECH 16: Give Matt Ryan the Heisman if the Eagles overcome the three-week-long Number 2 jinx. I trust the Hokies will play better than they did in their last big game, the catastrophe at LSU.

USC 31, OREGON 20: Time for the Trojans to start being Trojans again.

FLORIDA 34, GEORGIA 13: The Gators may be the greatest two-loss team ever.

OHIO STATE 23, PENN STATE 20: The year of living dangerously for Number 1 continues.

ARIZONA STATE 34, CALIFORNIA 31: Support your local undefeated team, especially in this brutal PAC-10 season.

WEST VIRGINIA 27, RUTGERS 17: The Mountaineers look more like a BCS team after the hiccup at South Florida.

SOUTH FLORIDA 24, CONNECTICUT 23: One can build a good argument for the Big East as the nation's second-deepest conference.