As the Indianapolis Colts stormed back in the fourth quarter at Houston, a question presented itself: Will the Colts, even without Reggie Wayne, emerge as the best NFL team?

Indianapolis is not impressive statistically, outgained on the season. But the Colts make plays when the pressure is on. They outscored Houston 15-0 in the fourth quarter. Many's the club that staged a fourth-quarter comeback at home; Indianapolis just did that on the road.

In terms of what this column calls authentic wins -- victories over other top teams -- the Colts are the best so far, 3-0 versus those on track for the playoffs (San Francisco, Denver and Seattle).

How do others compare? Undefeated Kansas City and stats-a-palooza Denver each have only one victory over a team with a winning record, in both cases shaky 5-4 Dallas. Cincinnati has a quality win over New England, but also three losses; Chicago has a quality win over Cincinnati, but also three losses; Green Bay is 1-3 against other winning teams; Detroit 2-2 against other winning teams. Seattle beat the 49ers but lost to Indianapolis, making the Seahawks 1-1 in authentic games. San Francisco 1-2 against top teams. New England has just one quality victory, over New Orleans, which in turn has just one victory over a winning team. For authentic accomplishments, so far Indianapolis is tops.

The Colts are 17-8 since the arrival of Andrew Luck, and have 10 fourth-quarter comebacks. The first choice of the 1998 draft brought them Peyton Manning and a long stretch of winning; the first choice of the 2012 draft brought Luck, whose style of play is so similar to Manning's it's spooky. Though Luck has an athletic dimension Manning lacks -- Luck runs well, and seems unfazed when hit in the pocket. Houston hit Luck a lot on Sunday night. Surely he did not enjoy it, but didn't let it bother him either. Several times he stood in the pocket and launched perfect passes knowing he would be hammered on release.

Luck is hardly the only reason Indianapolis is winning -- see more below for the team's other players, and tactics. Feels an awful lot like it's 2003 again in Indianapolis, the year Manning's Colts began their streak of seasons with at least 12 victories. Unless it's already 2006 again, the season the Colts won the Super Bowl.

In a development that made this columnist cheer, in the fourth quarter on "Monday Night Football," Bears coach Marc Trestman heeded years of hectoring by Tuesday morning quarterbacks and went for it on fourth down in his own territory. The result was victory.

With Chicago leading favored Green Bay 24-20 with 7:50 remaining, the Bears faced fourth-and-1 on their 32. For generations, NFL coaches in this situation have been doing the "safe" thing and punting. Though possession of the ball is almost always more important than field position, punting shifts the blame for any loss to the players. Going for it, if unsuccessful, focuses blame on the coach.

But the Bears had dropped six straight to the Packers and needed a change of mindset. Chicago went for it and converted with a 3-yard rush. The possession became an 18-snap, 95-yard, 8:58 affair that numbers among the greatest clock-killer drives in the annals of the sport. When it ended with a field goal, Chicago led 27-20 and left Green Bay with just 50 seconds and no timeouts.

Trestman's decision even followed the metric, tested by thousands of computer simulations, laid out in my 2007 column linked to above:

• Inside your own 20, punt.

• From your 21 to 35, go for it on fourth-and-2 or less.

• From your 36 to midfield, go for it on fourth-and-3 or less.

• From the opposition 49 to opposition 30, go for it on fourth-and-4 or less.

• From the opposition 29 to opposition 3, go for it on fourth-and-3 or less.

• From the opposition 2 or 1, go for it.

• Exception: inside the opponent's 25, attempt a field goal if it's the fourth quarter and a field goal causes a tie or gives you the lead.

Coming into this season, Trestman had an indistinct reputation. Now he is Manly Man Numero Uno! And now the Bears have the football gods on their side, which I for one would not want to mess with.

In other football news, leading undefeated Kansas City 10-3 in the third quarter, Buffalo faced third-and-goal on the Chiefs' 1. The Bills were down to their fourth-string quarterback, but already had 157 yards rushing and would end the game with 241, averaging 6.3 yards per rush. So run the ball once, maybe twice, win the game! Coaches could not possibly have radioed in a goal-line pass for the fourth-string quarterback! At least the ever-dreadful Bills now have a distinction -- see Single Worst Play of the Season.

Stats of the Week No. 1: At Oakland, Philadelphia scored 39 more points than in its previous two games combined.

Stats of the Week No. 2: Carolina is on a 4-0 streak -- over teams with a combined 6-27 record.

Stats of the Week No. 3: The Dolphins are 6-0 on Halloween.

Stats of the Week No. 4: The Cowboys' defense allowed 1,016 yards in eight days.

Stats of the Week No. 5: The Buffalo offense allowed more points (14) than it scored (13).

Stats of the Week No. 6: Since taking the field in last winter's playoffs, Atlanta, Houston and Minnesota are a combined 5-22.

Stats of the Week No. 7: At 1:39 Eastern on Nov. 3, St. Louis scored its first rushing touchdown of the season.

Stats of the Week No. 8: At 2:11 Eastern on Nov. 3, Carolina allowed a first-half touchdown for the first time this season.

Stats of the Week No. 9: Six weeks ago, Seattle came back from a 20-3 deficit to win in overtime; Sunday, Seattle came back from a 21-0 deficit to win in overtime.

Stats of the Week No. 10: Kansas City has six touchdowns on defense; Jacksonville has seven touchdowns on offense.

Sweet Play of the Week: Leading Baltimore 21-18 with three minutes remaining, Cleveland faced fourth-and-1 on the Ravens' 43. The "safe" move was to punt. The restless home crowd sensed a punt, followed by a Baltimore drive to victory. After all, Cleveland came into the contest having dropped 11 straight to the Ravens.

Cleveland goes for it! Third-string quarterback Jason Campbell sprinted backward on a zany broken play then, about to go out of bounds, heave-hoed to Davone Bess for the first down. The Brown ended up consuming 6½ minutes on the possession, kicking a field goal and leaving Baltimore just 14 seconds. That's a manly-man sweet play!

Sweet Play No. 2: Winless City of Tampa reaching first-and-goal on the 2 of the heavily favored Seattle Seahawks, the Buccaneers sent in six offensive linemen for an expected power rush. Tailback Mike James took the handoff, went one step forward -- then stopped and leaped into the air to throw a pop pass to a tight end. Sweet.

Sour Play of the Week: Leading 23-20 at Dallas, Minnesota faced fourth-and-5 on the Boys' 36 with 3:41 remaining. A 53-yard field goal attempt stands a decent chance -- the Dallas dome offers ideal place-kicking conditions, while Vikings kicker Blair Walsh came in 2-for-3 from beyond 50 yards. A try for the first down is appealing -- the Dallas defense came in ranked last in the league. Earlier in the game, Minnesota went on fourth-and-1 and scored an 11-yard touchdown. There's no defense an NFL team of 2013 would rather face in a critical situation than the Cowboys' defense.

So go for it! Or at least try a field goal for more points! The Vikings came into the contest 1-6, what did they have to lose?

Minnesota coach Leslie Frazier sent the offense out to attempt to draw Dallas offside. It was a pitiful attempt: an empty-backfield formation that could only be a passing play, so did not tempt the front seven to crash the line. When Dallas didn't jump, Frazier did not call timeout -- he had all three -- rather, took a delay of game penalty that pushed the Vikings back. After a mincing punt, the Cowboys went the length of the field for victory. At 1-6, why were the Vikings punting in opposition territory? Now Minnesota is 1-7.

Verily, beholding the courage of the cheerleaders, the football gods smiled upon the Washington franchise. AP Photo/Alex Brandon

Sweet 'N' Sour Series of the Week: Washington leading 24-21 with 21 seconds in regulation, officials signaled touchdown for San Diego's Danny Woodhead. Then they reversed -- correctly -- and spotted the ball on the 1. The home crowd roared. The visiting Bolts had first-and-goal on the 1 with 21 seconds, holding two timeouts. San Diego went run no gain, timeout, incompletion, incompletion, field goal to force overtime. The Potomac Drainage Basin Indigenous Persons took the opening kickoff of overtime and moved the length of the field for the win. Sweet for the home team, sour for the visitors -- who left a timeout on the table. They could have rushed once more, but instead chose to throw into the slight amount of space available from the 1-yard line.

Some might say the R*dsk*ns prevailed by going back to their roots, spending much of the contest in a college-style pistol set with two running backs and a tight end forming the letter "A" around Robert Griffin III, resulting in 209 rushing yards. But TMQ attributes the Persons' victory foremost to the Washington cheer-babes. Kickoff temperature 57 degrees with a stiff wind, the cheerleaders wore summer two-piece numbers in the second half. Outstanding professionalism, and the football gods smiled.

Only Ratings Threat to Football, "NCIS": Football continues to dominate television, the "Monday Night Football" woofer pairing of 1-5 Vikings at 0-6 Giants drawing higher ratings than Game 1 of the World Series two nights later. Prime-time NFL contests on NBC and ESPN consistently dominate their ratings periods. But there's an opponent the NFL cannot seem to get off the field -- the two top prime-time ratings dramas of last television season and, so far, this one: "NCIS" and its little brother, "NCIS: Los Angeles."

"NCIS," entering its 11th year, and "NCIS: Los Angeles," entering its fifth, posit an alternate reality in which the Naval Criminal Investigative Service has jurisdiction over all wrongdoing anywhere in the world. For the early seasons, scriptwriters tried to shoehorn in a nautical angle -- a Marine was involved, an ocean shipping document was found on the victim, that sort of thing. Now, desperate to crank out plots -- the shows are up to 340 total episodes -- "NCIS" scriptwriters often dispense altogether with jurisdiction. Businessman murdered? NCIS is on the scene. Terrorist sympathizer owns shell corporation? Call in NCIS. Cold War-era atomic warheads stolen by a creepy guy with a Peter Lorre accent? NCIS to the rescue: no FBI, CIA, local or state police on the case, just a bunch of boat-lovers.

Agents from "NCIS: Los Angeles" attack the last remnant of logic in their plots. Courtesy of CBS/Michael Desmond

A high percentage of episodes concern dire terrorist threats from sinister foreigners who are vaguely Middle Eastern, wear $1,000 suits and are terrible shots. The creepy guys are plotting mass slaughter; good-looking, wisecracking NCIS agents use super-advanced technology, plus kickboxing moves, to stop every plot in time for a buddy-bonding scene. The success of the "NCIS" franchise suggests that in a post-9/11 country, there is strong fantasy appeal to the notion that terrorists are under every bed, but fearless agents who operate above the law won't rest until every last one is found. Though audiences must have breathed a sigh of relief when a planned spinoff of the spinoff, "NCIS: Red Team," about good-looking, wisecracking Navy agents with Knight Rider-style antiterrorism vehicles, was passed on by CBS.

Most television crime dramas exaggerate both the frequency with which law-enforcement officers kill suspects, and the likelihood of law-enforcement officers themselves being killed. This conforms to what audiences expect -- constant bloodshed. At least a dozen NCIS agents have been murdered during the shows, which depict just two small units of a large agency. Last year the actual NCIS held a memorial service for the six agents killed in the line of duty in its history.

"NCIS: Los Angeles" depicts the bustling NCIS office in the City of Angels, but there is no NCIS bureau in Los Angeles. The agency's office for Southern California is in San Diego, because San Diego has a large naval base. NCIS has a satellite facility in Seal Beach, Calif. -- near the Long Beach harbor. NCIS doesn't need an office in Los Angeles proper, since that city mainly has tanning beaches.

"NCIS," the main show, has grown so coated in treacle that its No. 1 status in drama ratings reflects poorly either on viewers or on the competition. Last season's story arc had the Justice Department relentlessly pursuing heroic agent Jethro Gibbs to put him in jail, though Gibbs has pretty much single-handedly rid the entire world of crime. The smirking prosecutor obsessed with destroying Gibbs was identified as an "independent counsel." Congress abolished the Office of the Independent Counsel in 1999. Within the tube, the job lives on.

"NCIS: Los Angeles" is more entertaining -- better wisecracks, more scenes of agents leaping away from explosions, references to NPR and plots that don't waste a single moment trying to make sense. To look cool, "NCIS: Los Angeles" agents dress in tight jeans and fashion T-shirts, even on regular assignment. Yet they pull out guns, badges, cell phones, handcuffs, flashlights and extra magazines, as if from a magician's hat. The megababe detective played by actress Daniela Ruah wears sprayed-on jeans that don't appear to have space for a credit card. Yet during action sequences, she draws more stuff than Batman from his utility belt. Where is the stuff coming from?

Viewers get no clue: in one frame the agents look cool in tight clothes and in the next frame they are holding stuff, they're never actually seen pulling anything out. Except that a close look at "NCIS: Los Angeles" action scenes shows all four agents have their handguns stuffed down the backs of their pants, even during office work or routine field investigation. A gun in the waistband may fall out when the bearer is running or exiting a car -- why don't their guns fall? Law-enforcement agencies require officers not on undercover to keep firearms snapped into a holster, for safety and because a clearly visible holstered pistol helps communicate the identity of a peace officer to the public. (One objection to "open carry" is that it may cause confusion about who's in law enforcement.) TMQ guesses the actual NCIS does not allow agents to carry guns in their waistband. Plus, stuffing a gun down the back of your pants an excellent way to shoot yourself in the keister.

Action movies and shows have too many characters depicted as casually skilled in languages. The tough-guy detective played by LL Cool J is fluent in Arabic, Ruah's character is said to be fluent in five languages, the lead detective played by actor Chris O'Donnell is said to be fluent in nine languages. Regardless of how they acquired language skills a diplomat would envy, none seems to spend a single moment maintaining proficiency, which is essential to fluency.

O'Donnell's character has amnesia, not knowing where he was born or his own first name. This scriptwriting contrivance allows for subplots in which O'Donnell searches for clues to his past. But missing from all prime-time crime shows is that arresting officers spend considerable time as witnesses. How could someone with amnesia be credible on the stand? "Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, Agent Callen tells us he cannot remember his own name. Yet he claims a clear recollection of observing the defendant placing the stolen fissile materials into the MacGuffin generator."

See any warships here? That's why there are no actual NCIS agents based in actual Los Angeles. AP Photo

The credits following recent "NCIS: Los Angeles" episodes include this puzzling line: "Promotional consideration furnished by Lockheed Martin." The world's largest military contractor, Lockheed Martin does not manufacture any consumer product that could have a tie-in on a TV show. Watching "NCIS: Los Angeles" can't make a viewer say, "Wow, I want to go out and buy a Fury 1500 drone," even if sharing with Lockheed Martin a passion for unmanned innovation. So what "promotional consideration" could the world's largest defense contractor have supplied?

"NCIS: Los Angeles" depicts a United States in which terrorists are taking over, and the sole hope for the innocent is cowboy law-enforcement agents who laugh at the phrase "search warrant," picking locks and smashing doors as they please while using advanced technology to break into suspects' cell phones and computers without a court's permission. The show especially glorifies closed-circuit video monitoring of public spaces, presenting a (highly unrealistic) supercomputer that requires mere seconds to locate any vaguely Middle Eastern-looking person anywhere in Southern California. This worldview -- terrorism is rampant, American citizens should allow law enforcement to ignore the Constitution -- is good for the revenue of Lockheed Martin, which sells, among other things, CCTV systems and biometric scanners.

How Indianapolis Came Back: Things didn't go well for Indianapolis early at Houston. The Colts fell behind 21-3 and were being outplayed by about that margin. Undrafted third-string quarterback Case Keenum twice ran naked boots and threw long touchdown passes, generating kilowatts of crowd energy. Keenum entered the game as an unknown -- little NFL film of him to study -- and took the visitors by surprise by bootlegging without blockers.

Early, Houston blitzes were hammering Andrew Luck. Right tackle Gosder Cherilus had trouble with speed moves by the Houston front seven. When Cherilus was uncovered, no teammate beside him, he looked terrible.

Indianapolis adjusted. In the second half, the Colts kept a linebacker "home" on the opposite side to contain naked bootlegs -- on a key snap this resulted in Keenum hauled down for a loss, since after all, he was without a blocker. The Colts gave up a lot of yards, but figured out the weaknesses of the Houston offense in time to hold the hosts scoreless in the fourth quarter. Indianapolis coaches seem to have prepared their team for early success by the desperate Texans, followed by gradual comeback. Houston coaches could not have prepared for Gary Kubiak suffering stroke-like symptoms as the first half concluded, which put the sideline into turmoil.

The offensive adjustment was that much of the second half saw the Colts use six offensive linemen. Backup tackle Jeff Linkenbach lined up next to Cherilus, where a tight end would be expected, and didn't even report eligible. He was there strictly to block. On third downs in the second half, the Colts always had either six offensive linemen, or two running backs both staying in to block.