Media and team in parallel worlds, Indianapolis Colts President Bill Polian says

Indianapolis Colts S Melvin Bullitt (Nick Wass/AP Photo)

There may be those who don't yet believe the Indianapolis Colts are one of the best one or two teams in the NFL – that, despite a 10-0 record and a 19-game winning streak.

If that's the case, Indianapolis Colts President Bill Polian said this much is true:

The Colts don't care. Not a bit.

“It doesn't mess with your psyche at all,” Polian said Monday on his weekly radio show on 97.1 Hank FM. “What we've told the players is, 'The people who write and speak, don't play.' The outcomes of the games rest only in the hands of the people who play and coach and work with the team. So, anything that's said or written is absolutely meaningless – to us. Now, it may be meaningful to fans, but it's not to us.”

The media and the team, Polian said, “live in parallel worlds.”

“The media is in their world and what's important to them is important to them and we're on our world and what's important to us is important to us and the twain almost never meets,” Polian said. “We pay no attention to that whatsoever. . . . The great thing about the NFL is that everything is decided on the field. We don't have polls. We don't have voters. We don't have computers. We don't have any of that stuff that is associated with the college game, which in my mind is so artificial.

“The game ought to be decided on the field, not by who has the best publicity department or who has the best computer person. That's what happens in the NFL. . . . “Our focus every week is to play the best we can and not worry about what's happening the following week.”

Polian on Monday also discussed:

*A second consecutive two-interception game by QB Peyton Manning Sunday: “Sunday was probably the poorest day he's had all year and when you use the word, 'Poor,' every once in a while, Galileo had a poor day, too, I think. Leonardo da Vinci may have have a poor day. It's in that context. He himself said he got a little bit itchy and made two throws that probably he would like to have back. Part of that is [Ravens safety] Ed Reed. Ed Reed has the darndest habit of showing up where you don't expect him to show up, where the coverage tells you he won't show up. Where you can reasonably expect that he won't be, he shows up and intercepts the ball. Those kinds of things can happen from time to time. The throw to [tight end] Dallas [Clark] was probably an ill-advised throw. He was bracketed and normally, Peyton doesn't put the ball there. . . . Peyton threw two interceptions, so that's cause for concern – I'm saying that tongue-in-cheek. Bottom line: the drive that went all the way down the field that ended in the fumble was as good a drive as we've had all year. He had by Peyton Manning standards an average game. By anybody else's standards, it was a heck of a game and we ended up winning the football game. The two interceptions are two more than he wants to have in a given day, but against that defense, that's more than good enough. Don't anyone lose sight of that."

*Baltimore being allowed to pick up the challenge flag just before the two-minute warning in the first half: “They have only two alternatives once they throw the flag – actually two and a half. If the challenge is not within the rules – and there are certain plays that can not be challenged – if they challenge erroneously, the referee is allowed to say, 'That is not challengeable and we won't charge you with a timeout and we're moving on.' If they did it more than once in a ballgame, that would be subject to a penalty if in the official's opinion he thought they were trying to slow the game down. Absent that, once you threw the flag – and they threw it as to feet in bounds or out of bounds on Reggie Wayne and it was clear they were in bounds – once they threw it they had two choices: go through with the challenge and lose it and therefore lose a timeout and the right to a third challenge; or, get a 15-yard penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct because you can not slow the game down with an erroneous challenge. I've only seen that done once before, and interestingly enough the other time the coach was not penalized either. I was furious about it. I remember distinctly in our Competition Committee meeting when we brought replay back asking the question, 'What happens if a coach throws the flag either entirely in error or because he wants to slow the game down and wants to give his defense a rest and wants to substitute people?' The answer was, 'He can not do that. He can't pick the flag up and decide he doesn't want to challenge. He either must accept the challenge and the penalty that goes with it if he's wrong or be penalized 15 yards for unsportsmanlike conduct.' Now, they might – they might – in what they consider a nonegregious situation – and this is not in the rulebook – they might penalize five yards for delay of game, maybe. But there has to be some penalty for erroneously throwing the flag and then saying, 'No, I don't want the challenge.' That was not the case Sunday and it almost ended up being a disaster. If you remember, they got a third challenge because they got the first two right. The third challenge they used was on the fumble out of bounds where we actually recovered the ball. So, that could have changed the whole complexion of the game because they were allowed to pick that flag up. I spoke to the league office about it. They're well aware of the situation. But there's no possible way they should have been allowed to do that."