The Colts were routed 31-7 at home against Atlanta in a loss that was more disappointing than most of the other eight. Even with Peyton Manning out indefinitely after neck surgery, the collapse is shocking for a franchise that expects to compete for a trip to the every year.

“I haven’t had nightmares like that in a long time,” coach Jim Caldwell said when asked if he ever dreamed the Colts could go 0-9. “It’s not something that you anticipate is going to happen.

Indy (0-9) had been competitive at home this season. The Colts were within two points in the second half against Cleveland, Pittsburgh needed a late field goal to win and Kansas City had to overcome a 24-7 deficit at Lucas Oil Stadium.

This game wasn’t close in any way. It was the Colts’ worst home loss since a 31-3 defeat to Seattle on Sept. 14, 1997, the year before Manning arrived. Indy was held to 186 yards — just the second time since the start of the 1998 season the team had failed to gain at least 200 yards of total offense. The Colts only entered Atlanta territory on two possessions, and one of those drives ended when Curtis Painter threw an interception to ex-Colt Kelvin Hayden, a painful reminder of the good old days.

“We just have to be sharper, better on the details than today,” Painter said. “Missed a few throws that I normally would have made. Just didn’t play well enough to win today. We will come back this week and again try and get those details straight and work hard this week.”

Miami’s win at Kansas City left the Colts as the only team in the NFL without a victory.

“The thing that we have to do is we have to look at our situation and be honest with it, with everybody,” Caldwell said. “The fact that there are some things that we didn’t do well, that’s why we didn’t win. We kind of look at those situations where we turn it over, and where we aren’t effective in terms of our execution.”

Jerraud Powers provided Indy’s only highlight, a juggling interception he caught at the Falcons 6 before returning it for Indy’s only score. That cut Atlanta’s lead to 21-7.

But Indy’s stagnant offense never got close to scoring again.

“That was a big play,” Caldwell said. “Anytime you can get a pick six, that’s huge. But we just couldn’t follow it up, we couldn’t back it up, we couldn’t come back and answer with another score to close the gap a little bit and make it 21-14. So, yeah, it was a bit of a spark, but we couldn’t put another, good sequence where we could get a scoring drive or another interception or turnover of some sort to get us going again.”

Manning still hasn’t practiced since having neck surgery Sept. 8, and now the Colts could be without their top two tight ends. Dallas Clark (lower leg) and Brody Eldridge (hand) both left the game early. Caldwell provided no updates after the game.

The Colts have been outscored 75-14 in the first half of the last three games and 120-24 overall in that stretch. They have lost five straight home games for the first time since 2001 and could fall to 0-10 for the first time since 1997.

Atlanta (5-3) won its third straight to keep pace with NFC South-leading New Orleans, and it looked easy. Atlanta’s Matt Ryan passed for 275 yards and three touchdowns, and the Falcons ran 41 times for 163 yards.

Julio Jones finished with three catches for a season-high 131 yards and two TDs, and had two carries for 33 yards. His first touchdown was a spectacular diving grab between three defenders for a 50-yard score. His second touchdown was an 80-yarder.

“That was a good win for our football team,” Ryan said. “I thought all three phases played well today. We did it for 60 minutes. That’s something that we’ve been trying to do throughout the year.”

NOTES: Atlanta is 2-13 against the Colts and earned its first road win in the series, which began in 1966. … The Colts had a video tribute for Hayden between the first and second quarters. Hayden scored a TD on the game-sealing interception in the Colts’ Super Bowl win over Chicago. Hayden was cut before training camp opened. … Falcons CB William Moore left briefly in the first half with a thigh injury. … Donald Brown ran 16 times for 70 yards for Indy. … Powers’ interception was Indy’s first forced turnover in six games.

The Saints are the group nobody wants to play, quite during the Superdome, where they have rewritten vast sections of the descent record book this season. The Lions have the conflict scars to infer it. On Dec. 4, Detroit ventured into New Orleans and fell behind, 17-0, and trailed during halftime, 24-7, on the approach to a 31-17 New Orleans victory. It’s no tip why. The Saints, with the tip flitting offense, have some-more weapons than any other group in the N.F.L. The 6-foot-6 parsimonious finish Jimmy Graham is many uncoverable, and when teams try to double-team him, they leave somebody like Marques Colston alone. When the Carolina Panthers attempted to sweeping Graham on Sunday, Colston had 145 yards receiving and 2 touchdowns. Drew Brees merely set the single-season symbol for flitting yards and pennyless his possess record for execution percentage.

Expect some-more of the same in this game, that should be a shootout. In the teams’ regular-season game, Detroit’s Matthew Stafford threw for 408 yards, outgunning Brees (342). Both teams can rush the passer, though that does not seem to matter to possibly quarterback. What foiled the Lions final time was an inability to finish drives – for all that yardage, they scored only dual touchdowns.

The Lions’ invulnerability is a furious card. The pass rush has been challenging – Cliff Avril is the pouch star this deteriorate – though Detroit was destroyed by Aaron Rodgers’s backup, Matt Flynn, in the regular-season culmination in a diversion that did not matter for the Packers. Consider that a warning.

KEY TO THE GAME The Lions should wish that Brees decides to retire this week. Short of that, a quick start by the Lions’ offense is essential since no manager has a improved torpedo instinct when he gets a lead than the Saints’ Sean Payton.

4. GIANTS (East winner)

5. ATLANTA FALCONS (10-6, furious card)

The Falcons got a propitious mangle in the final game. If the Lions had beaten the Packers, the Falcons would have had to lapse to New Orleans, where the Saints flustered them final Monday, 45-16. Instead, Matt Ryan will face the Giants’ bomb offense, though exploitable defense, distant some-more exposed to the pass than the Saints’ invulnerability is.

The Falcons have been a bit of an enigma, violence intermediate or worse teams (Jaguars, Panthers, Seahawks, Vikings) and losing to many of the playoff-caliber ones (Saints, Texans, Packers). The second detriment to the Saints highlighted their biggest problem: they onslaught opposite the pass. Discount the blowout of the Buccaneers on Sunday – that says some-more about how Tampa Bay quit than it does about how the Falcons smoke-stack adult with other playoff teams. Still, the Falcons badly indispensable a large win to feel improved streamer into the playoffs, and they got it. Running behind Michael Turner had been struggling with a groin injury, though he pennyless out with 172 yards and 2 touchdowns on 17 carries.

But keep an eye on the rookie receiver Julio Jones. The Falcons’ offense competence not have been means to keep adult with the Saints, though that does not make them unique. Jones could nag defenses that arrange nearby the bottom of the joining opposite the pass, and that creates the Falcons a dangerous playoff team. The vigour will be on Ryan to kick the relentless vigour that the Cowboys or the Giants can move – the Falcons authorised only 26 sacks this deteriorate – and to try to keep gait with the offense on the other side.

KEY TO THE GAME The Falcons will have to strengthen Ryan from some of the best pass rushers in the N.F.L. to give the offense a possibility to keep adult with a quarterback who is carrying a glorious season.

1. GREEN BAY PACKERS (15-1, North)

The Packers mislaid some steam down the stretch, their invulnerability harm by the run (199 yards by Chicago on Dec. 25) and the pass invulnerability sad via the season. But the bye will offer the dictated purpose: everybody can get healthy before the local round, generally receiver Greg Jennings (knee), defensive lineman Ryan Pickett (concussion) and several descent linemen.

2. SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS (13-3, West)

They entered the final Sunday with the league’s best scoring invulnerability (they did not give adult a rushing touchdown in their initial 14 games), that has authorised them to play a conservative, probably error-free descent style. That regulation will get an impassioned exam if the seeds reason adult and their local turn competition is the Saints.

This is a some-more finish chronicle of the story than the one that seemed in print.

PHOTOS: Saints receiver Marques Colston (PHOTOGRAPH BY BILL HABER/ASSOCIATED PRESS); Wide receiver Julio Jones of the Falcons (PHOTOGRAPH BY KEVIN C. COX/GETTY IMAGES)

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