They've already clinched a playoff spot, and have won 20 of their last 21 games. Now that the Indianapolis Colts are sitting atop the league with an impressive 12-0 record, the pundits are abuzz with talk of what might be. "Can they do it? Can Indy become the first team to go undefeated since the 1972 Dolphins?"

Personally, I think the answer is a clear cut and resounding "NO." In today's parity-stricken NFL, it is all but impossible for any team, no matter how good, to finish the regular season with a perfect record.

Need proof of that? Look no further than the 1985 Chicago Bears, unquestionably the best pro football team to ever take the field. If His Sweetness Walter Payton couldn't pull it off, what makes you think that Peyton Manning can? Don't get me wrong - Manning is a great player, one of the best in the NFL. In fact, Indy's big three surely rank among the best triple threat ever assembled in the modern salary cap era.

But offensive triple threats don't make legendary teams, defenses do. The Colts' defensive unit isn't even close to being the 85 Bears. And as great a coach as he is, Dungy is no Ditka.

Indy has 3 tough games coming up - at an excellent, largely under-the-radar Jacksonville team, at an 8-2 mentally-tough Seattle, and a matchup with 'the-best- running-back- Marty-Schottenheimer- has-ever-seen' and his San Diego Chargers. A very good team could lose all three of those games. In fact, the best team ever assembled would surely drop at least one of them.

Or maybe the loss will come in Week 16 when the Colts face the struggling Arizona Cardinals. Wouldn't that make an otherwise boring final-week-of-the-season interesting?

The fact is, I have no earthly clue where the Colts will stumble. But I know they will. No team can finish a modern NFL season undefeated.

Not even if they have a player named "Payton."