By Ron Borges

Tony Dungy thought about the question of greatness for a moment or two before answering, taking into account the understanding that greatness is always subject to change without notice.

The question was whether he shared the nearly universal opinion that the team his Indianapolis Colts will be facing Sunday afternoon is one of the greatest ever assembled. When one’s own team is the undefeated defending Super Bowl champions one could easily take offense at such a question but Dungy is long passed emotional nonsense so he reflected for a few moments before putting where the New England Patriots are at the moment into the kind of context fans and media despise but coaches fully understand.

“They have a chance to be a great team but it’s way too early,’’ Dungy said. “Let the whole thing play out. It might turn out that they are (great) but it’s only November. In 1998 the Vikings were 15-1 and everyone said they should have been 16-0 when they went into the playoffs.

“Then Gary Anderson missed a (38-yard) field goal (with two minutes remaining that would have given Minnesota a 10-point lead in the NFC Championship game) and I haven’t heard anyone talk about the 1998 Minnesota Vikings since.’’

That’s because the Atlanta Falcons beat them in overtime and went on to Super Bowl XXXIII. The Vikings took their record breaking 556 regular-season points and went home to obscurity. Oh, by the way, the team that made them 15-1 that season was the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Its coach? Tony Dungy.

“We all know what the Patriots have accomplished,’’ Dungy said Wednesday night from his office, while sneaking peeks at the opening game of his beloved Indiana Pacers’ season. “We know how well they’re playing. But when Peyton (Manning) had his great season in 2004 he was throwing a record number of touchdown passes. We supposedly couldn’t be stopped. But we didn’t play well down the stretch and then we went to New England and lost a playoff game, like 20-3. Nobody cared how many points we’d scored any more.

“The year after that we won 13 in a row and we supposedly couldn’t be stopped but we lost our first playoff game. It’s a little early to be crowning anybody but this is a game the whole league is focused on. It’s a game everyone wants to see and that’s great. It’s great for the league and it’s great for the players on our team, to be part of something like this. It’ll be a very, very, very hyped game. It’s a big game but it’s still a regular season game. You’ve got to keep it in perspective.’’

Perspective is something Tony Dungy seldom loses sight of. His autobiography, “Quiet Strength,’’ was a New York Times best seller this year and the biggest selling sports book in years, easily eclipsing the tome on Bill Belichick by David Halberstam. So when a friend called to congratulate him on its success he said, “I don’t think it will make anyone forget Hemingway. We hit a unique audience nobody knew existed: football fans, people of (Christian) faith and African-Americans.’’

Dungy himself is a man of unique faith. Faith in God, family and team and it is the latter that is the national focus at the moment because Sunday that team must face a buzz saw – the Patriots’ Pounding Points Machine. After just eight games New England’s offense has piled up 331 points, a number which if doubled in the second half of the season would obliterate the 1998 Vikings’ record by more than 100 points.

They are averaging 41.3 points a game, lead the league in margin of victory (25.5 a game) and have been so prolific they are now being accused of running up the score, with conspiracy theorists insisting this is a reaction on Belichick’s part to having been outed earlier this year for cheating by his former acolyte, Jets’ head coach Eric Mangini.

While all this noise and heat has been swirling around the Patriots, quietly the Colts are third in points scored per game at 32, second behind New England in margin of victory (17.4) and perhaps most importantly considering who they’re playing this weekend have the league’s No. 1-rated pass defense, one that has allowed only five touchdown passes all season and an average completion of only 5.31 yards.

That contrasts markedly with what it is preparing to face. New England’s passing attack is the tops in football and Tom Brady is on pace to throw 60 touchdown passes (30 thus far), which would erase Manning’s single-season touchdown record so thoroughly as to not even make it a point of discussion.

Perhaps most incredibly, according to my street corner mathematician friend Nicky the Nap, this is the first time in NFL gambling history that an undefeated, defending Super Bowl champion playing at home is an underdog. Considering that the home team generally is conceded seven points just for not having to leave town, that would convert the 4 ½ point spread into an actual 11 ½ point flip by the odds makers favoring New England.

After Dungy takes this all in he says matter of factly, “That’s all about public opinion and the way they’ve been playing. So you look at the tape and see what you can do.

“They’re doing a few things differently in the passing game because of the (new) personnel but they’re really no different than they have been. They’re playing sound football and they thrive on people who don’t play sound. You make mistakes they make you pay for them every time.

“That’s what makes this game so exciting. When you get into this business you want to measure yourself against the best. You want to play in nationally televised games where there’s a lot of interest.

“But people who think whoever wins this game will be guaranteed to win the Super Bowl are just wrong. Whoever wins still will have seven weeks, eight for us, so anything can happen. It’s silly but that’s how it is.’’

Some have speculated that after losing the AFC championship to the Colts last season New England went out and specifically imported players to beat Indianapolis. They got receivers who could attack a defense deep and pry Pro Bowl safety Bob Sanders away from the line of scrimmage, where he wrecked havoc on the Colts’ playoff opponents last season, and they went and got an athletic, quick, physical linebacker in Adalius Thomas who could match up in coverage against Colts’ tight end Dallas Green or running back Joseph Addai, who have badly hurt New England in recent games. This is a logical conclusion to jump to in light of what the Patriots did during the off-season but Dungy declines to make it.

“I wouldn’t be cocky enough to say we’re why they did it,’’ Dungy said. “The real reason is obvious. They weren’t explosive enough. (Laurence) Maroney was and maybe (Ben) Watson. But now they’ve added Randy Moss and (Wes) Welker and (Donte) Stallworth and Sammy Morris.

“I think they’re kind of like the New York Yankees. Any time they don’t win the championship they’re going to go out and get more talent.’’

They’ve used that talent to obliterate eight straight opponents by ever widening margins and that, in some ways, is really what separates these two teams going into Sunday’s showdown. In the fourth quarter, when many games have been out of hand for both, New England has outscored Indianapolis 86-57 and thrown 60 passes to the Colts’ 35. A case in point came last Sunday when Tom Brady was still throwing in the fourth quarter of a 45-0 game while Manning was on the bench while backup Jim Sorgi handed the ball off on 14 of the final 17 plays in a 31-7 mugging of the Carolina Panthers.

Because of differing numbers at garbage time, Dungy’s Super Bowl champions have flown contentedly under the media radar until now while the Patriots have been a topic of conversation since before the season began. The acquisition of one of the premier defensive free agents in Thomas and the explosive Moss on offense began what has been a seemingly endless round of headlines and talk show fodder centering on the team that lost the AFC Championship Game last year while the eventual Super Bowl winner returns home this weekend as underdogs in their own living rooms.

Is Dungy bothered by this? Not hardly.

“It’s actually been good for us,’’ Dungy said. “Not as motivation but by allowing us to avoid the distractions Super Bowl champions often face. They went through it in 2004. They were the champions but Peyton had that great year and everyone was taking about us.’’

This time the shoe is on the other hoof. It’s the Colts who are the champions nobody’s noticed facing the all-time greatest team ever assembled (just ask Fred Smerlas and Glenn Ordway). And what if Dungy’s underdogs beat that team?

“I spoke to our guys about that Tuesday,’’ Dungy said. “The team that wins this game has to be the most concerned the next week. You beat the team people are saying is the best team of all-time, the best ever put together, and everyone is anointing you the next Super Bowl champion. That’s a recipe for disaster. You have to preach that.’’

Tony Dungy isn’t putting the cart before the Colts however. Before he worries about next week’s sermon he’s focusing first on this week’s game. A big game to be sure but one that’s not as big as the rest of the world wants to make it.

“No matter what happens Sunday, we both have a lot of games left to play,’’ Dungy said. “A lot of games.’’

Some will be big games, too.