The Indianapolis Colts hope they got their 10-day break at just the right time. They may need every healthy body to hold off charging Jacksonville in the American Football Conference South.
"We aren't as sharp as we need to be because we haven't been together and haven't been practicing as much and as well as we need to," said coach Tony Dungy, whose Super Bowl champions have been without a raft of important players.
The notable absentees include Marvin Harrison, their best wide receiver, and starting offensive tackles Tony Ugoh and Ryan Diem.
So after being off since Thanksgiving, the Colts go into today's game at 9-2, just a game ahead of the 8-3 Jaguars. The Jags have won three straight and four of five in a division Indianapolis considers its property -- the Colts have won it for four straight seasons.
Jacksonville's success has been due in part to the return of David Garrard, who sprained his left ankle in the first meeting with Indy, a 29-7 Colts victory on Oct. 22. He has been back for two games, throwing three touchdown passes in wins over San Diego and Buffalo and continuing a remarkable mistake-free run. Garrard has yet to throw an interception this season in 209 attempts.
The weekend started on Thursday night with Dallas winning their sixth straight game with a 37-27 victory over the Packers. The Cowboys improved to 11-1 and the Packers, who lost Brett Favre to an injury early in the second quarter, fell to <>b10-2.
In other games today, the New York Jets are at Miami; Houston at Tennessee; Detroit at Minnesota; Buffalo at Washington; Atlanta at St. Louis; San Diego at Kansas City; Seattle at Philadelphia; San Francisco at Carolina; Denver at Oakland; Cleveland at Arizona; the New York Giants at Chicago; Tampa Bay at New Orleans; and Cincinnati at Pittsburgh.
New England are at Baltimore tomorrow night.
A win for Jacksonville would put them in a flat tie with Indianapolis because it would mean the Jaguars split their two games with the Colts. That would leave a battle for the division title in the last four games and Indianapolis look to have a slightly easier schedule.
But the Colts also are playing for a first-round bye; top seed in the AFC seems unreachable because they are two games behind unbeaten New England and lost to the Patriots. They are also a game ahead of Pittsburgh for the second seed, which would give them that week off in the playoffs.
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