Over the course of Peyton Manning’s history of futility in Foxborough, Mass., anticipation of the Colts and their quarterback finally getting off the schneid has built from one year to the next.

Neutral observers have been on the Indy bandwagon for a long time, starting with the 2004 AFC Championship game. It got a little more crowded for the 2005 season opener. Come the AFC Divisional playoff last January, the passengers had to suck in their guts to make a little more room for the stragglers who were finally ready to hop on board.

But there was always a noticeable lack of Patriot fans on board the Indy Lovefest Express. That is until now.

Now the bandwagon is ready to tip over with an overwhelming majority of New England fans who think this is finally it.

You would have to go back to Super Bowl XXVI to remember the last time such clouds of doom hovered over New England. Sure, there were a lot of fans (including yours truly) who thought the Pats had a shot at winning that day. But since we’d already been burned, and burned badly, in two previous Super Bowls, few of us really, truly, in our heart of hearts, were certain they were going to take out the Rams.

That hasn’t been the case in any other Patriot game since, but it is today. You hear a lot of Pat fans saying “I’ve learned to never pick against this team,” or “In Belichick we trust.” But secretly, most of them are adding the Colts’ third string receivers to their fantasy teams in anticipation of Manning shredding New England’s battered defense.

It’s understandable why so many can’t at least admit the Patriots are in trouble tonight. We’ve owned Manning and the Colts for a long time, and year after year, we’ve been able to rub it in the faces of the non-believers out there (the whole “Nobody respects the Patriots” thing). It’s tough to give that up.

But let’s be real here, folks. Corey Dillon is questionable for tonight. If he doesn’t play, we’ll be hearing “Mike Cloud, running back, Boston College” during ABC’s starting lineup introductions. So much for the keeping the ball on the ground, burning the clock and keeping the Colts’ offense off the field.

The Patriots had to release their starting strong safety for the last two weeks, Arturo Freeman, to add Cloud to the roster. That means when Duane Starks gets burned, and sure as John Madden will say “Boom!” tonight, it’s going to happen, the only thing standing between Marvin Harrison, Reggie Wayne or Brandon Stokely will be converted linebacker Don Davis or rookie safety James Sanders.

In the past, the Patriots might have been able to overcome these short-comings by dominating the line of scrimmage.But with two rookies on the left side of the offensive line charged with protecting Tom Brady from Dwight Freeney, and without Richard Seymour’s presence on the defensive line (he’s listed as questionable), that’s unlikely to happen.

Many Pats fans are facing these facts and conceding to each other, though usually in hushed tones, that a win by the boys in red-white-and-blue would be a big upset. The vast majority of them are predicting an Indy blow-out. Patriot fans still can’t bring themselves to predict a loss in a close game, not with Brady and Adam Vinatieri on their side.

The funny thing is, in the big picture, tonight’s game really doesn’t mean that much. Win or lose, the Patriots will still be in first place in the AFC East.Next week’s game in Miami is actually more meaningful to their playoff chances.

Win or lose, the Pats still be injury-depleted. Their secondary will still be, at the least, suspect. And they’ll still be the team no one wants to face in the playoffs because they’ll still be the Patriots.

Win or lose, the Colts will still have home field advantage in the AFC. They won’t have to deal with the “Can Manning win in Foxborough?” questions from the media because they won’t be playing in Foxborough again this year, unless Manning suffers a season-ending injury. They’ll still be the darlings of the media for the rest of the season.

But that’s what makes pro football so great. It’s such a psychological game, so emotional, that Pats fans and Colts fans will overreact to the outcome, win or lose.

That means Tuesday morning in New England, either the world will have ended as we know it, or the clouds will have parted and everything will be just as it should be.

Randy Whitehouse is a staff writer. He can be reached by e-mail at [email protected]