Published: October 20, 2009 12:15 am         

Back to work for 5-0 Colts

Indianapolis doesn’t intend to slow down, will not take winless St. Louis lightly

INDIANAPOLIS — The Indianapolis Colts should be in a lot better shape physically heading into Sunday afternoon’s National Football League road game with the St. Louis Rams.

Indianapolis is coming off a bye week in which it was able to get some much needed rest after a grueling five-game stretch to begin the year. The Colts have gotten off to a 5-0 start, but that included back-to-back nationally televised road games with Miami and Arizona.

Throw in the team’s game at Tennessee two weeks ago and Indianapolis has been involved in three nationally televised road games through the first five weeks of the regular season.

Injury-wise, safety Bob Sanders (knee) — who has yet to play in a game yet this season — has a shot at playing against the Rams. How well he practices this week will go a long way in determining if he takes the field at St. Louis.

“His activity level is increasing. And he was out there [at practice] last week and looked good. It will increase some this week, and we will see where we are toward the end of the week, but he’s coming along,” coach Jim Caldwell said Monday.

Indianapolis should be able to welcome back cornerback Kelvin Hayden (hamstring) and offensive tackle Charlie Johnson (knee). Hayden has been sidelined for the past three games. Johnson didn’t play against Tennessee two weeks ago.

The status of cornerback Marlin Jackson (knee) and wide receiver Anthony Gonzalez (knee) remain unanswered for the time being.

“I feel good about their progress. I feel good with where we’re headed, in terms of them coming back, but I’m not quite certain when that will be.

“Kelvin, I think, is going to end up practicing [Monday], so we’ll see where he is through the week,” Caldwell said.

“Gonzo and Marlin, I think those guys are working at their craft, trying to get a little bit better, but I’m not quite certain when they’re going to be available. Some of those things could change in the middle of the week, some may go on to the middle of next week.”

Team president Bill Polian likes where the Colts are, health-wise, six weeks into the season.

“I think the arrow is up on Bob [Sanders]. I don’t want to put a time frame on that, but he has been out taking some activity with the scout team. We’ll see if we can ramp that up. Marlin, I think, is a little bit away still. Kelvin probably is the closest. We’ll see where we are there,” Polian said recently.

“We came through the [Tennessee] game with little or no serious injuries for the first time in five weeks. That part of it was really positive. For St. Louis, we should have all hands on deck other than the defensive backs. And that will be a catch-as-catch-can kind of situation. So, we feel pretty good about that and we’ll just take it from here.”

n More work on tap for Colts — Despite that 5-0 start, there’s still a lot of work left to be done by Indianapolis heading into the final two months of the regular season.

“Here’s the good thing about our team. We analyzed the film [from the first five games] and took a good look at it. The thing you have to understand around here is we have very high standards. The standards we have in terms of excellence and play is pretty high. [The coaching staff and players] set that bar really high. We have a lot of things we could get better at, seriously. That’s the good thing. We believe that as a coaching staff, and the players do also. Our guys are hungry. They are always looking for ways to improve,” Caldwell said last week.

“That’s what counts. I looked at the five-week point from 2006, 2007 and 2008. There were a number of teams that were 4-1 at that time and playing pretty well. They ended up not making the playoffs. Some of them started at 6-2. Another team started at 7-2 and didn’t make the playoffs. As we look at that, we have to understand 5-0 really doesn’t get us anything. They are not handing out any trophies or bonuses for that record. We have a long way to go.”

Caldwell has point. Indianapolis has experienced long winning streaks before, both to begin the season and during the season. But all of that has produced just one Super Bowl championship.

“It’s not like we are doing something that is brand new. In 2003 we started out 5-0. Since then we went 7-0, 13-0 and 9-0 during the stretch between 2003 and now. They’ve [the players] had some pretty good experience with some [win] streaks. Right now, we are scratching the surface, and we have a long way to go,” the Colts’ coach said.

Polian agrees. Polian knows that as good as Indianapolis has played this year, it can play a whole lot better.

“There are lots of things we can improve. [Defensive line coach] John Teerlinck is fond of saying, ‘Don’t miss the layup.’ When you get a layup interception, you have to take advantage of it. In two of those cases, the defensive rush created the interception and we should have had it. That clearly can be improved. In terms of blocking efficiency and run efficiency, we can improve that pretty dramatically. That has not been what it should be, or can be, or will be. Some areas of pass protection can be improved, particularly one-on-one. We can improve that certainly. There are areas on defense we can improve, particularly in terms of all-out hustle all the time. We had some people like [defensive end] Keyunta Dawson that really stepped up and did a great job of that, but there are other people who can improve upon what they’re doing. It’s good enough, but it can improve,” he said.

“The message for our team this week is nobody stands still in the National Football League. You either get better or you get worse. Even though we’re in a position where we want to get healed up and we want to rest injuries and we want to give people normal rest, we need to do our work and make sure we do it in such a way that improves us. I will say this, Jim Caldwell has done a heck of a job preparing our team and getting them rested through this very difficult stretch [three night road games, two on consecutive weekends]. We’ve overcome that. We’ve fought through it. Jim has done a wonderful job making sure our team is focused and able to handle that. We now go into a little bit of a different phase, playing at home, playing in our own time zone. We have to concentrate on getting better now — not overcoming the obstacles of travel — so that’s our charge as we go forward. Nobody stands still. You either get better or you get worse. It’s our job to get better.”