Giants at Colts, 1 p.m. Sunday, CBS

INDIANAPOLIS – This couldn’t have happened without Josh McDaniels.

McDaniels isn’t the reason the Indianapolis Colts are suddenly the hottest team in the NFL, stealing that title from Houston and Dallas by knocking off both in the past eight days, snapping the Texans’ winning streak at nine last week and on Sunday ending the Cowboys’ streak at five with a 23-0 domination of America’s Team.

But McDaniels was the first domino to fall, taking the Colts’ head coaching job in mid-January and then backing out, allowing the Colts to hire the right coach in Frank Reich. And it was McDaniels – who isn’t good for much, but apparently can pick a coaching staff – who saddled Reich with the right defensive coordinator, a man Reich knew very little about when he came to Indianapolis: Matt Eberflus.

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Eberflus came here from the Dallas Cowboys, of course, moving to Indianapolis in January to work for McDaniels, which makes this result on Sunday so perfect. The Cowboys were shut out for the first time since 2003, and it was a Matt Eberflus defense that did it.

If you recall, Frank Reich was on the Colts’ initial list of eight candidates to replace Chuck Pagano, but Reich wasn’t one of the five to interview for the job before it went to McDaniels. In other words, his only path to this job was the one that unfolded, with McDaniels accepting the position and other candidates going elsewhere, including Matt Nagy to Chicago and Mike Vrabel to Tennessee, and when McDaniels backed out three weeks later the Colts were forced to start over. General Manager Chris Ballard took a harder look at Reich, and the rest is history.

And this is history we’re watching, the Colts starting this season 1-5 but now sitting at 8-6 with a legit shot at reaching the 2018 NFL playoffs. Since the NFL changed its divisions in 2002, just one team – the 2015 Kansas City Chiefs – have started a season 1-5 and reached the playoffs. And those Chiefs weren’t operating with a Mr. Potato Head coaching staff like the one here in Indianapolis, cobbled together by two head coaches. By the time Reich took the job, he was handed McDaniels’ defensive coordinator (Eberflus), offensive line coach (Dave DeGuglielmo) and defensive line coach (Mike Phair).

About those three assistants …

Taken a look at the Colts’ offensive line lately? It has played so well, leading the NFL in sacks allowed per pass attempt (2.9 percent) and approaching historic greatness – five consecutive games without allowing a sack earlier this season, the NFL’s longest stretch since 1991 – that the franchise has no idea which lineman to nominate for the Pro Bowl. So it’s pushing all five, from left to right: tackle Anthony Castonzo, guard Quenton Nelson, center Ryan Kelly, guard Mark Glowinski and tackle Braden Smith.

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The Colts’ defensive front, meanwhile, is almost as ludicrously, damn near unbelievably improved as the offensive line. Denico Autry is playing at a Pro Bowl level, Margus Hunt isn’t far behind, and good heavens are you watching how good Ohio State rookie Tyquan Lewis (two sacks Sunday) is playing after coming off the injured reserve list in November?

“Crazy how it works out,” Reich's telling me after this 23-0 blanking of the Cowboys. “Things happen for a reason.”

He’s talking specifically about Eberflus, but only because I asked him about his defensive coordinator. Reich has praised Guge and Phair this season, but Sunday was Eberflus’ day, and my focus, because this was the Colts’ first shutout since 2014, and the defense has been superb all season, and again:”

It shouldn’t be working this well, this forced marriage of Reich and Eberflus.

“I’ve seen a lot of coaching staffs change, kind of like this one did,” says Colts linebacker Najee Goode, a seven-year NFL veteran who was with Reich the past two seasons in Philadelphia. “And I’ve never seen one work this well. I’ve seen them not work.”

Because it’s not supposed to work, not like this, not with Reich handing over the defense to a man he’d never met, a coordinator he didn’t hire, a guy he was told by Ballard that he didn’t have to take as his defensive coordinator.

“Chris gave me the obligatory, ‘Hey, we’ve already agreed to (hiring Eberflus), and we’d really like it if you’d sign off, but …’” Reich was telling me Sunday. “But I trusted Chris. And I made several phone calls real quickly and heard nothing but the best reports (on Eberflus). And I just knew right away talking to Flus: He was the kind of guy we want as our defensive coordinator.”

That first conversation with Eberflus, I’m asking Reich – was that a phone call?

“It was actually in the office,” Reich says, and his throat is sore and his voice is scratchy because he’s “a little under the weather,” as he puts it, but he’s smiling because he knows how ridiculous what he’s about to say will sound. “I got the job, came to the office, and there (Eberflus) is! He’s already there!”

Eberflus is a quiet man, not your typical defensive coordinator, not a screamer, a high-energy lunatic. No, he’s subtle, he’s smart, he’s thoughtful. Men like this, they tend to teach chemistry or sit behind a desk and make a lot of money. Eberflus does something else. He coaches football, and he operates a 4-3, “Tampa 2” defense that depends on effort from his players, and he very quietly tells them that they are about to play in a system where they will be exposed, for better or worse. To get their best effort he studies the game film carefully, watching all 11 guys, even – especially – those not involved in the tackle. He’s looking for something he calls “loafs,” as in, loafing. And then he shows the team.

And it works. In an NFL locker room where players make more than coaches, it’s amazing what a little peer pressure can do.

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“We watch film as a team,” says defensive end Jabaal Sheard, an eight-year NFL veteran. “Nobody wants to get a loaf, let’s put it that way.”

Linebacker Najee Goode puts it like this:

“You don’t want it to happen to you,” Goode says. “Effort is our choice, and it shows how much of a man and a brother you are to the family you’re playing with.”

Sunday against the Cowboys, the Colts defense plays 60 minutes in a frenzy, holding the Cowboys to less than 300 yards of offense (292), throwing All-Pro running back Ezekiel Elliot for a 3-yard loss on the first series (tackled by Hunt and star rookie linebacker Darius Leonard), and then two plays later blocking Dallas’ 48-yard field goal (by Autry). On their next series the Cowboys reach the Colts’ 3, where Elliott gets the handoff on fourth-and-1. Hunt blows up the play in the backfield, linebacker Matt Adams hits Elliott next, and cornerback Pierre Desir finishes it off by forcing a fumble.

The Dallas offense doesn’t make a peep the rest of the day, not with Leonard adding 11 more tackles to his NFL-leading total of 135, and with the defense combining for three sacks, an interception and a fumble. Reich is leaning against a wall outside the locker room, smiling about the timing of Eberflus’ defense recording its first shutout against the Cowboys, of all teams, calling it “unreal” and saying, “I’m so happy for Flus. He’s such a good coach, and he’s such a good person.”

Now Reich is reminding me of what I already know.

“You see him, and you hear him,” Reich says. “You know: He’s no frills, he’s the same all the time, he’s uncompromising in his beliefs and in his convictions.”

Now I’m the one smiling, and I’m telling Reich why:

You know who you just described? You, I’m telling Reich. You just described you. Eberflus is a defensive you.

“Well you know what?” Reich says. “I’d like to think we’re a good fit in that regard.”

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