Colts deserve recognition as one of the all-time great teams

The Indianapolis Colts set a new NFL record Sunday by winning their 12th game in a season for the fifth consecutive year.

It is astonishing that with all the great teams in the history of the league that none of them were able to do this before.

Even more impressive is that the Colts have done this with a perceived "bad" defense for most of that time.

The turnover the Colts have had on the defensive side of the ball has been enough to where one would think they might fall off a bit, but it hasn't happened yet.

Yet, in all that time, they still managed to somehow stay just under the radar of many NFL "experts."

Sure, they do get spoken of quite a bit, but not at the level of some other teams like the Patriots this year and the Kansas City Chiefs a few years ago when Priest Holmes led their high-powered offense.

However, the Colts keep rolling along, playing smart and efficiently.

One thing they do which reflects the demeanor of their head coach, is stay quiet.

You never hear of one of their players being outlandish on the field, or a thug off of it.

They, as many say, keep their eye on the prize and block out all distractions and naysayers, and just go out and play their game.

Sometimes their wins have been ugly, like the playoff game against the Baltimore Ravens last year, but they almost always seem to pull off the close ones while other times landing the finishing blows before halftime.

I have even heard the way they play referred to as "boring" and "methodical," but the fact is, when the day is done, the Colts are the ones walking away with the win.

If they can win their last two games of the regular season, they will have racked up 64 regular-season wins in those five years. The Patriots are the only team to have won more games in that span, sitting at 64 right now and could reach 66 by season's end.

By comparison, the Dallas Cowboys teams from 1991-95 won 60 in a five-year span, the Chicago Bears from 1984-88 won 62, and the San Francisco 49ers also won 62 from 1989-1993 and also won another 61 from 1994-98. All of these teams are considered some of the best of all time.

It blows my mind how the greatness of the Colts is questioned just because they have only won one Super Bowl during this run, but consider one thing; the team the Colts have lost to which ended their possible Super Bowl chance in a couple of those years is the one team who has won more during the same era, the Patriots.

For one team to be this successful in a five-year span is remarkable, but for two to be just as dominant is flat out incredible.

The Colts deserve just as much recognition as the team I will now refer to as "Team Conspiracy" due to their secretiveness about everything, including the injury report.

It's about time to highlight the fact that the Colts play the right way: with class and respect.