As a faithful Patriots fan for 35 years....I fear the Colts this season. Unless Belechick has some other magic up his sleeve, Manning and Company will be ready for the Pats by years end. If they aren't, then they haven't the character I think they have.
If they couldn't beat us last year with our decimated secondary then they've got even less of a chance this season.
Well they've got the Colts at home at night in early November. There's a good chance the weather will be on their side. And by the playoffs the weather will definitely be on their side.
It's not really a matter of being ready. Part of their problem in the playoffs against the Pats last year is that they were very much ready... for the game Belichick called earlier in the season. I'm not really sure how a finese football team gets truly ready to play against a smashmouth team outdoors on grass in nasty weather. I doubt in this off season Dungy is going to completely re-invent the team to make them play something other than finese football, and in the end what it's going to boil down to for the Colts offense is watching the Pats offense run dink and dunk 7 minute drives against that mediocre Colts defense. And with the way they're spending money on the offense there's no way the Colts D will be anything but mediocre for the next 4 years or more.