Doyel: Arrogant New England is dismissing Colts' chance

FOXBOROUGH, Mass.

– They think it will be a blowout. A rout. They think, here in cold and crowded New England, that the Patriots will beat the Indianapolis Colts so badly in the AFC Championship Game on Sunday that this matchup, this very game, is a joke.

They're laughing at the Colts as a franchise, at Indianapolis as a city, at you as fans.

If it weren't sincere, the stuff these people in New England are saying and even doing this week, you'd swear it was a lampoon of the area's haughty, arrogant stereotype. One goof from Boston, a radio barker and former Patriots tight end named Christian Fauria, called into the Dan Dakich show this week pretending to be some random Patriots fan – which he is – and dismissing the Colts' chances in this game. Fauria ended up stuck between Dakich's teeth before the WFNI-1070 AM host spit him out and moved on.

That little stunt sums up the mood in New England. At the very least, it sums up the mood among the Patriots media. And when all of a team's media are this aligned, it usually reflects the feelings of the fans.

This is not me being the Indy media homer. Scan this story closely and find where I say, "I know the Colts are going to win!" I won't say it. Because I don't know it. But in New England, they're saying the Patriots are not just going to win, but win big. They're claiming to know it. And before I show you that, let me tell you this: Friday night on Twitter, I put out a request to fans of both cities for a prediction, with a score.

Average score among 150-plus Colts fans: A toss-up.

Average score among 50-plus Patriots fans: Patriots 38, Colts 22.

They see this game as a joke. And in their defense, the past three games between these teams have been a joke. The Patriots won the past five meetings, and the past three were New England blowouts: 59-24, 43-22, 42-20.

The 43-22 rout was in the playoffs last season. The 42-20 debacle was earlier this season, and it was at Indianapolis, no less. So there is recent history, postseason and even this season, that says the Patriots are three touchdowns better than the Colts. And if life were as simple as that, if it were linear and predictable, then what happened last time will happen this time. Bingo, bango, Patriots by three touchdowns.

Life isn't simple. Sports isn't predictable. Not at this level, not when you get to the conference championship game. A team doesn't get here by fluke, not the Patriots and not the Colts. Once upon a time New England was 2-2 and being roasted nationally. Tom Brady was old. Bill Belichick was out of touch. The Patriots won their next seven games, and 10 of their next 12. They lost only at NFC finalist Green Bay and in the regular-season finale against Buffalo, when Tom Brady was pulled at halftime. The Patriots are formidable, and favored by a touchdown for a reason.

But the Colts are no joke. Beating the Bengals in the AFC wild-card round wasn't an eyebrow-raising result, but manhandling the Broncos in Denver was. That was a definitive statement that the Colts can go on the road and not just beat a team, but dominate a team – a team that had dominated them earlier this season. Any team that can go to Denver and do what the Colts did last week can go to New England and compete, even win.

That last sentence is not execrable nonsense. But what's coming out of New England this week is, starting with this predictable piece in the Boston Globe titled, "Face the facts: Colts are no match for the Patriots." Written by the same guy who wrote before the Texans-Patriots playoff game in January 2013 a story titled, "No offense, but the Texans simply can't win." The same guy who wrote before the Colts-Patriots playoff game in January 2014 a story titled, "Colts won't be a challenge for the Patriots." He was right the first two times, and he could well be right this time, but a dismissive superiority complex is dislikable every single time.

That guy doesn't speak for New England, or the media, or the fan base. But when it's a lot more than him, it makes you wonder. The Dennis and Callahan show on Boston radio station WEEI called me this week to laugh at the Colts and to tell me, "I need help here, Gregg. I need a way to think this is a game. I think this a blowout here. Don't you?"

No, I don't. But the Patriots beat writers for the Boston Globe believe it, one of whom told me Wednesday on video, "I'm not giving them much of a chance. I don't think most of America is giving them a chance to win this game." The other one predicts in the Globe a 34-17 Patriots rout.

"I think this a blowout here," Gerry Callahan had told me on WEEI. "Don't you?"

No. But this dude from Comcast Sports New England does. He told me on Thursday, "The Colts don't have a snowball's chance in hell. The Colts are not winning this game. There is no way the Colts are winning this game. I mean it's not going to happen." At which point I dissolved into laughter, because this stuff isn't insulting. It's funny.

The prank call to Dakich, the dismissive TV and radio and print media in Boston, the predictions of a blowout on Twitter? Hilarious. Let me say this, in all my Indianapolis glory, as someone who loves my town and my people and is amused by the noise coming this week out of theirs:

It would be hilarious for the Colts to win this game. It would be instructive for New England, inspirational for Indianapolis, interesting for the rest of America. And while it is tempting to paint the entire New England landscape with a broad brush and dismiss all of them as delusional and dismissive, let's call the Boston media this week what it is: not the whole body of New England, not even the tail wagging the dog, but a symptom of Boston's arrogance. The Boston media have behaved like a cavity inside one of Boston's teeth, and so I offer this:

Take Indianapolis' name out of your mouth. May you have an entire offseason to reconsider your behavior. And may your offseason begin Sunday night.

Find Star columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter at @GreggDoyelStar or at www.facebook.com/gregg.doyel

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