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ARLINGTON, Texas -- For weeks, the Indianapolis Colts have talked about having a special team capable of making a deep run in the playoffs. Stop right there. It's silly to even talk like that. Just because the Colts continue to have the rest of the AFC South looking up at them, it doesn't automatically put them in the same category as the rest of title contenders. They continue to prove that. It started with a loss to Denver, then losses to Pittsburgh and New England, and to cap it off, the Dallas Cowboys embarrassed the Colts 42-7 and tied quarterback Andrew Luck's worst loss in his three-year NFL career. Forget talking about the Colts going on a playoff run. It's time to wonder if they're even capable of winning a playoff game. "I don't blame people if they question us," Colts safety Mike Adams said. "The numbers don't lie on that part. I've been there before. I know what it takes to make that run." The easy out for the Colts was they had nothing to play for against the Cowboys because their playoff spot was already locked up. That's a weak way to approach it because Indianapolis needed the victory to lock up the No. 3 seed. More importantly, Sunday was their final opportunity to get over the mental roadblock of beating a legitimate playoff team. "No question, this was our opportunity to show we belonged," Adams continued. "It might not have been enough emphasis put on that. I'm not talking about the coaches, but from us as players. It's about knowing and understanding the situation. This is a playoff game. This is what we're going to see -- that and much better. To come out here like that, it's embarrassing. It's not good." The idea is to get better as the season progresses. It's been the opposite for Indianapolis. The Colts lost at Denver to open the season, but not in the fashion that you needed to be alarmed. But then Pittsburgh's Ben Roethlisberger threw for 522 yards against them. New England's Jonas Gray ran for 201 yards against them in a 22-point loss. Dallas' Tony Romo was 18-of-20 for 218 yards and four touchdowns. The Colts gave up at least 42 points in three of those four losses. It's hard to give yourself a chance when you're called for a taunting penalty and give Dallas a first down on the opening drive of the game. Or you gamble -- and fail -- on a fake punt attempt deep in your end of the field. Touchdown. Touchdown. A 14-0 deficit before the Colts even ran five offensive plays. That was just the start of a day filled with miscues. Four dropped passes, eight penalties and just one rushing yard as a team means you're begging for a long afternoon. The Colts got away with those mistakes against Jacksonville and Washington. But you knew it would catch up to them when they tried to stand toe-to-toe against a legitimate team. "I guess it is a bit surprising," Luck said. "There were high expectations, especially on the offensive side of the ball, to go out and score every drive. When we don't, it's disappointing. When you go out and play like this, it's a bad feeling. Against a good team like the Cowboys, you aren't going to survive those mistakes." The Colts will go to Tennessee and likely wrap up the season with a win over the Titans to finish with an 11-5 record for the third consecutive season. That won't do anything to make you believe the Colts are ready for the playoffs -- not after the way they were humiliated Sunday. "Disappointed, yeah. Discouraged, no," Colts coach Chuck Pagano said. "We obviously know we can't play the way we played and expect to do anything down the road, [but] we never get discouraged. It's a tough business ... [Dallas] played at different speed than we played."
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