First: On Sunday Peyton Manning was as close to great as you can be without actually being great.

I know, I know -- he didn't get it done when it mattered, he had three interceptions, all that matters is the final score. All true, I suppose. 

But think about this: What did Manning have on Sunday? A running game? Please. The Colts averaged 3.6 yards per carry and I'm thinking Donald Brown isn't going to be confused with Jim Brown (or even Ronnie Brown) anytime soon. Doesn't exactly strike an opposing defense with fear. And how was that Colts defense? Allowed a passer rating of 123.1, and 4.9 yards per carry from the undrafted dynamic duo of Danny Woodhead and BenJarvus Green-Ellis. 

Nope, Manning was on an island Sunday. All alone. If the Colts were going to win, it was going to have to be a "jump on my back" performance. And it almost happened. Manning threw for 396 yards and four touchdowns in the 31-28 loss, slinging the ball 52 times in a game where the Patriots knew the Colts were going to put it in the air virtually every down. And this wasn't Harrison/Wayne/Stokley/Clark he was throwing to, either. We're talking Blair White, Gijon Robinson, Jacob Tamme and Javarris James. You take Manning out and put in Average NFL QB, this is Patriots 41, Colts 10.

I guess the real question you have to ask yourself is this: When the Colts took over on their own 26-yard line -- down three points with 1:54 left and after back-to-back TD drives -- did anyone think Manning wasn't going to a find a way to get into the end zone? 

It just reeked of 2009, didn't it? A 31-14 lead about to go down the drain thanks to Manning, who was about to put the finishing touches on his new-found domination of Belichick. Yup, it was last year (and 2006) all over again, save for the fourth-and-2 madness (and we all have to wonder if the Pats would have gone for it if the situation were the exactly the same Sunday, instead of fourth-and-7).

But then James Sanders stepped up and reminded us that this isn't the 2009 Patriots.

"For a minute, I was thinking deja vu," Sanders said of his final-drive pick of Manning, a leaping INT that put the game away. "As a defense, we knew if we didn't make a play, we were going to lose the game. He wasn't just going to give it to us. We had to go out there and take the win. We made a play at the end and came out on top."

There is no question in my mind that last year's team does not win this game. Last year there wasn't Devin McCourty and Brandon Spikes and Jerod Mayo wasn't right and Pat Chung wasn't on the field. This is a young defense that still makes plenty of mistakes (Chung getting beaten twice by White for TDs and Kyle Arrington's struggles at the end of the first half are prime examples from Sunday), but there is also a penchant for the big play that simply has not existed on that side of the ball the past few seasons. 

Think of the goal-line stop on Adrian Peterson, the three overtime stops against the Ravens, even the third-down tackle by Sergio Brown (another Brown we won't confuse Donald with) on Antonio Gates to force the Chargers to attempt (and miss) a 50-yard field goal at the end of that road win. This is a flawed (allowing a nearly 70 percent completion percentage against opposing QB's, on pace to be one of the worst in NFL history in that category) but ultimately opportunistic group. 

Look, we know that Tom Brady (who outplayed Manning on Sunday and is now the leader in the MVP race, with Michael Vick making a real push) is going to be Tom Brady. No worries there, and after the past two weeks it sure seems that the offense has found its sea legs in the post-Randy Moss era. (And what a difference Moss has made for Vince Young. Before Moss got to Tennessee we only had a suspicion that Young might be a flop. But now we know for certain. Thanks for the help, Randy.)

This is the best team in the NFL. Wins over the Ravens, Steelers and Colts are enough for me to buy in. But for this team to get to Cowboys Stadium in February the defense is going to have to make noise in the playoffs. Game-changing kind of stuff.

Last year? No chance that was going to happen, as we saw from snap No. 1 from the Ravens offense. 

But there are reasons to believe that this year could be different. Just ask Peyton Manning.

"I just put our team in a hole," Manning lamented after the game.

Welcome to 2010.