Did I forget to mention the Colts beat the Patriots AND Steelers?

In the excitement of the Colts' big win Sunday at Pittsburgh I completely glossed over the fact that the Colts beat the Patriots AND Steelers in back-to-back weeks.

Let me say that again: the Colts beat the Patriots AND Steelers.

Patriots and Steelers. Beat them. Advantage Colts. Life doesn't get much better than that.

This turn of events is meaningful for two reasons.

Reason 1

Remove the Colts from this equation, and insert "Team A" in the Colts' place. Let us assume that Team A beat the Steelers and the Patriots in the same season sometime between 2001 and the present.

What kind of assumptions can you make about Team A? Here are mine:

1) This team is well coached. To beat Belichick (sidebar: I will hand it to Belichick, 2008 has been a great year for him) and some combination of Cowher, Tomlin and that staff in Pittsburgh requires a head coach and staff that knows what it's doing.

2) This team gets it done on offense. The Patriots have been a bit susceptible to the run in recent years. But if you disregard that, the Patriots and Steelers field two of the finest defenses around. They force a team to flawlessly execute the game plan in order to win.

3) This team also gets it done on defense. The Patriots beat you with dominance in the air and on the ground. The Steelers pound you into submission. If you're built to stop a power running attack, you're not necessarily built to beat the Patriots' high flying attack. And vice versa (especially vice versa). Only well-rounded defensive squads can handle both.

In short, Team A is a complete team. A team that's a lock for the playoffs, and will likely advance far into the playoffs. A Super Bowl contender? Definitely.

Now lets remove Team A and insert the Colts. Does it fit?

Not really ... not on the surface. The Patriots and Steelers both have injury issues that have left them short-handed.

But when you consider that the Patriots and Steelers are likely the second- and third-best teams in the AFC, what does that say about the Colts?

It tells me that the Colts are down, but far from out. Maybe this does make sense.

Reason 2

Colts fans understand the significance of the past two weeks. At least pre-Manning Colts fans do, anyway.

The Patriots have been rivals of the Colts since the move to Indy because they both resided in the AFC East before the realignment. The Colts seemingly NEVER beat the Patriots - even when the Patriots were horrible. I can remember thinking how much it sucked when fans of other teams, like the Bills, would automatically count games against New England as wins because we Colts fans could never do that. Need proof? Consider this:

• The Patriots lead the all-time series since 1984 at 32-12.
• The Patriots lead the all-time postseason series 2-1.
• The Patriots have enjoyed one 7-game winning streak and 2 6-game winning streaks. The Colts longest winning streak stands at 3 games, from 2005 to 2007.
• The Colts have beat the Patriots 4 out of the last 5 times. Before that, the Patriots owned a 31-8 record against the Colts since 1984.

The Patriots have dominated the Colts over the years. It's only recently that Colts fans have been able to turn the tables. In fact, I would bet that most Patriots fans didn't consider this a true rivalry until the Colts got the breakthrough win in Foxboro during the 2005 season.

This was one of the 32 bad days.

We hate the Patriots, and with good reason.

Now lets look at the Steelers series. The Colts never played in the same division with Steelers, and for that I think every Colts fan should thank the Football Gods. Here's why:

• The Steelers lead the all-time series against the Indy/Baltimore Colts, 19-5
• The Steelers lead the all-time postseason series against the Colts, 5-0
• Including last weekend, the Colts have beat the Steelers 3 times since moving to Indianapolis: 1984, 2005 (regular season) and 2008
• The Colts had not won in Pittsburgh since 1968

There's an old baseball saying that goes "they don't put pictures in box scores", meaning that the ugliness of a game can get lost. That's a good thing for Colts fans. If box scores came with pictures, here's what you would see:

• Jim Harbaugh's incomplete Hail Mary pass that would've sent the Indy Colts to their first Super Bowl in 1995 -- the one and only time I cried over a Colts game (I was pissed, damn it. I still haven't let it go.)
• The 42-10 domination during the 1996 postseason.
• The 21-18 loss in the 2005 postseason. My story for this game goes as follows: I left the RCA Dome when Peyton Manning threw an interception to Troy Polamalu. The score was 21-10 or something like that. Anyway, I left because I got so upset that I couldn't take it. There were a lot of Steeler fans there, so I decided that discretion was the better part of valor. It took me about 30 minutes to get to my car. When I turned on the car radio, Nick Harper had just picked up the Jerome Bettis goal line fumble and taken it back into Steelers territory. I couldn't believe it, and couldn't believe I walked out on it. Three plays later, ultimate disgust. I couldn't decide who I was more upset with: Manning for throwing the picks, Tom Moore for going away from the run, Nick Harper's significant other for stabbing him on the leg the day before (why else would Ben Roethlisberger run him down?) or Mike F-ing Vanderjagt. I decided it was all of the above, and damn near didn't renew my season tickets. I submitted payment on the last day ... sometime in March. I was for certain that was the Colts best and last chance to win a Super Bowl. Then 2006 happened, and the rest is history.

Long story short: the Steelers have owned the Colts, and it has sucked.

I still think he caught it.

Now you know why beating the Patriots and Steelers in the same season is such a big deal to me. It's like the Football Gods have made up for the fact that the Bears won the first game at Lucas Oil Stadium, and perhaps even compensated me for my trip up to Green Bay to watch the other awful performance of the year.

No matter what happens this year I at least have something to hang my hat on. But if my speculation in reason 1 comes to fruition, I might have more than these two victories.