5. Jeff Gordon takes the Subway 500 title in Martinsville, Va., on Sunday, but Tony Stewart takes the lead in the NASCAR Nextel Cup points standings by 15 points over Jimmie Johnson.

4. Lucas Glover's 40-yard putt for birdie on the 17th hole and his 35-yard punt from a bunker on the 18th hole clinches the Funai Classic title at Disney World for his first PGA Championship.

3. No. 2 Texas rides Vince Young's arm to an impressive 52-17 win over No. 10 Texas Tech in a large Big 12 showdown in Austin on Saturday.

2. The Indianapolis Colts remain unbeaten after beating the winless but feisty Houston Texans, 38-20, in Houston, going to 7-0 for the first time in franchise history.

1. The Chicago White Sox are halfway to winning their first World Series in 88 years after beating the Houston Astros 5-3 and 7-6 in the first two games at U.S. Cellular Field.

Our topic of discussion: 2. The Colts' quick start.

No team in the NFL can be compared to any team in the past. It was all nice and dandy that the 2000 Baltimore Ravens that won the Super Bowl had a defense comparable to the 1985 Chicago Bears, who also won the Super Bowl. Anyone with a defense like that will hear that comparison.

However, when you start comparing any overall team to the 1972 Miami Dolphins, then you step into sacred territory. Comparing any team with the '72 Dolphins is like comparing your personal painting to the Mona Lisa, your car to a '66 Mustang or your clothing line to anything a Hollywood star or starlet wears from those well-known fashion designers.

You just don't do it. Those Dolphins went 17-0 and are the model of what a perfect season is all about.

And that brings us to the 2005 Colts. Of course, there's that warm and fuzzy feeling of how the Colts have finally got a defense great enough to win a Super Bowl and if they just keep playing the way they are, they will win the whole thing.

But they can't get any kind of respect for now until they come back from this week's bye week, which assures they go into November unbeaten. On Nov. 7, the Colts take that perfect record to Foxboro, Mass., and face the New England Patriots, the home of the two-time defending Super Bowl champions and the site of their 2003 and 2004 postseason losses.

Then, and only then, if they beat the Patriots, you can start taking the Colts seriously as not only a Super Bowl contender, but as a team that could go unbeaten. The Colts seem to have a lot going for them right now n the much-maligned defense in years past actually carried the Colts for the first few weeks of the season while Peyton Manning and his offensive mates tried to get into rhythm.

It's the play of the defense that has people talking about the Colts. This is the defense coach Tony Dungy put together that he thought was similar (there we go again with that comparison thing) to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defenses he coached in the late 1990s and early part of this decade.

If the season ended now, it might not be out of line to think that linebacker Cato June is the league's defensive player of the year. June leads the team in tackles with 50 and the league in interceptions with five.

Defensive back Bob Sanders has come up big with 49 tackles and an interception, as has linebacker Gary Brackett with 48 tackles and two interceptions. And defensive end Robert Mathis is having a monster year with 21 tackles and a league-leading eight sacks, due in part to the double coverage offensive lines put on four-year veteran Dwight Freeney.

Freeney is as much a defensive leader as Ray Lewis with the Ravens, Brian Urlacher with the Bears and Michael Strahan with the Giants.

And this is all without much mention of Edgerrin James' 801 yards rushing and seven TDs, Manning's 1,551 yards passing and 11 TD throws, a far cry from the 49 he threw last year or Marvin Harrison's 37 catches for 388 yards and five TDs.

Once again, the adage is true: Offense bring fans, defense brings championships. This Colts team is good enough to go all the way and win it all.

Let's say the Colts get past the Patriots 13 days from now. The next game is home for the winless Texans, who did give the Colts a rough time. Then they have to travel down I-74 to Cincinnati to face a good Bengals team on Nov. 20. Then an even better Pittsburgh team comes to Indy for a Monday night game on Nov. 28. And two weeks later, the Colts go to Jacksonville to face the Jaguars, a team the Colts beat by a 10-3 score. After that, there are games with San Diego and Seattle.

Chances are the Colts aren't running the table. And if you ask anyone involved with the Colts, that's just fine. It's not perfection they chase all season n it's just perfection at the end of the season that counts. A three-game (or four-game depending on the seed) winning streak in the postseason is what will let players hoist the Lombardi Trophy at the end.

So no comparisons to the '72 Dolphins, please. That's history.

Being the 2005 Indianapolis Colts in the end might be complimentary enough.

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