Colts streak to end?

THE Indianapolis Colts winning streak faces its biggest challenge to date, when they face the Cincinnati Bengals in Ohio.

The Colts are looking to go 10-0 for the season, but the last team with a nine game winning record in the season, the Kansas City Chiefs, saw their streak end when they visited Cincinnati two years ago.

A year ago, Cincinnati QB Carson Palmer and wide receiver Chad Johnson drove to Indianapolis on a Monday night to sit in the stands and learn from the magic of Colts QB Peyton Manning and receiver Marvin Harrison.

Now they get to see them up close. And although Manning is in his eighth year and Palmer only in his second as a starter, the two share an NFL record. Palmer’s nine 100.0 passer-rating games in a row dating back to last season tie the NFL record of Manning in 2004.

Offensively, the teams are matched well. Indy is ranked second in the NFL, the Bengals, fifth. The key components of each sides quarterbacking, running and rushing games are all ranked in the top 10 in the league.

Defensively, the Colts (No. 4 in the NFL) would seem to have the edge, especially with sack kings Robert Mathis and Dwight Freeny.

But the Bengals lead the league in interceptions (20) and total takeaways (29) for an NFL-high take/give margin of + 20.

Cincinnati is not interested in just playing the spoiler. They’re only interested in building upon their record.

“We’re playing for ourselves,” said linebacker Brian Simmons. “We don’t have to play the spoiler. We don’t have to worry about what anybody else is doing. We just got to play for ourselves.”