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INDIANAPOLIS (Oct. 19, 2014) – With the roof opened on a crisp day in the Circle City, so were the opportunities for the Colts when it came to the AFC Playoffs.

It’s only the middle of October, but it’s never too late to solidify a place in the postseason and more importantly a chance for a significant amount of homefield advantage. This is especially true now considering the AFC South is easily the Colts to lose.

A game against the Bengals at Lucas Oil Stadium represented a chance to get a tie breaker against a team they may compete against in January both in standing and maybe on the field.

For 60 minutes on Sunday the Colts looked January ready as they dominated the Bengals 27-0 at Lucas Oil Stadium to improve to 5-2 on the season. With the win Chuck Pagano’s team moves ahead of Cincinnati to third in the AFC Playoff Standings.

A dominant defense allowed just 154 yards for the game and pitched its first shutout since Dec. 28, 2008, when the Colts beat the Titans 23-0 to end the regular season.

Andrew Luck finished 27-of-42 for 344 yards and two touchdowns.

Defense was the name of the game to start things off as the Colts allowed the Bengals just 16 yards on their opening three drives of the game. Cincinnati responded with their own strong efforts on the defensive side of the ball as Carlos Dunlap stripped Ahmad Bradshaw on a rush inside the Bengals’ 20-yard line to stop a Colts drive.

That wouldn’t happen again as the team converted a long drive into Cincinnati territory into points when Adam Vinatieri hit a 23-yard field goal to make it 3-0.

With the help of a 46-yard catch by T.Y. Hilton, Bradshaw was able to redeem himself early in the second quarter when he punched it in from two-yards out to put the Colts up 10-0.

Meanwhile the defense continued their first half dominance as they allowed just 27 yards and 28 plays with just a single first down yielded. A Cory Redding sack finished off the half as the Colts headed to the locker room up by ten.

Following another three-and-out by the Colts defense, Luck led the team down the field on an 85-yard drive that was capped off by a great scoring play by Dwayne Allen. On third-and-two he made a fingertip catch the shed a defender and beat another to the pylon for the touchdown to make it 17-0.

Cincinnati would make their first major threat at scoring a point early in the fourth quarter when a Dalton hit Sanu for a 32-yard pass to get them deep in Colts territory. But the defense held and forced a turnover on downs with just under nine minutes to play.

For good measure, the Colts closed out a dominant day with a 51-yard field goal by Adam Vinatieri as they ran their winning streak to five games.