Insider: Deflategate? Doesn't matter; Patriots own Colts

• Patriots at Colts, 8:30 p.m. Sunday, NBC

Before anyone knew — or even cared — about proper PSI levels; before the “Tom is acting crazy about his balls” text message conversations between two New England Patriots ballboys were released, and Tom Brady’s text messages weren’t; before Ted Wells decided the Patriots quarterback was “probably at least generally aware” of some rule skirting in January’s AFC Championship Game; before the four-game suspension was handed down and, months later, overturned by a U.S. District Court judge, there was the 60 minutes of football that Deflategate made everyone forget about.

And, if you’re the Indianapolis Colts, the hard truths that came with it.

That is: The New England Patriots still own this rivalry.

That is: The Patriots can run the football against the Colts whenever, however, with whomever they want.

That is: Despite four consecutive beatings from their biggest rival, the Colts don’t seem to have the faintest clue how to keep these games competitive.

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The Patriots’ 45-7 pasting of the Colts in the rain in Foxborough quickly became a footnote in the firestorm, buried beneath the drama that was DeflateGate. What followed: awkward and anxious press conferences. Discussions about the ideal gas law. Patriots coach Bill Belichick claiming he wasn’t Mona Lisa Vito. Colts GM Ryan Grigson, at the NFL scouting combine in February, confirming he emailed the league in the days before the game with the Colts’ concerns. The explosive phone records of John Jastremski and Jim McNally, two Patriots locker room regulars, with McNally even referring to himself in one text as “The Deflator.” The 243-page Wells Report.

There were two fan bases openly and relentlessly mocking one another. There were questions about how the saga would stain Brady’s legacy. There was Brady’s vindication — a reversal on his suspension, his scintillating start to the season, a revenge tour of sorts that lands in Indianapolis on Sunday night for the most anticipated NFL regular season game in years.

“I couldn’t care less about it,” Colts guard Hugh Thornton said of Deflategate. “You lose breath talking about it.”

He’s right. Most significant this week isn’t DeflateGate and its aftermath, which in reality now feels like eight months of nonsense. What it did — besides dominate a summer’s worth of headlines — was camouflage how impossibly inept the Colts were that day, how they were outcoached, outplayed, outtoughed, outeverythinged, again, in their biggest game of the season against their biggest rival.

“They could have played with soap for balls and beat us,” Colts tight end Dwayne Allen tweeted in the days after the AFC Championship Game, just as the Deflategate controversy sparked. “Simply the better team.”

Not just the better team. By far the better team. The Colts and Patriots have met four times since Chuck Pagano took over in 2012, and the remnants from those four whippings are staggering.

The Patriots have won by an average of 29 points.

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They’ve scored 47.3 points per game (compared to the Colts 18.3) and run the ball on average 42 times for 219 yards and four rushing touchdowns.

They’ve turned the ball over just three times (compared to the Colts’ 12).

They’ve made Andrew Luck look like Curtis Painter. Disagree? Consider Luck’s career numbers vs. New England: Six touchdowns, 10 interceptions, a 49 percent completion percentage, a paltry 57.3 quarterback rating. (Painter's career quarterback rating: 57.6.)

The 38-point loss in the AFC title game was so disheartening for Indianapolis that owner Jim Irsay, inside what was a morose locker room immediately afterward, said this: “To get to this championship level, we have to be able to be a tougher team. We knew this was a measuring stick that we wanted to get over and we didn’t, so it’s disappointing.”

For these Colts, the Patriots remain the only measuring stick that matters. Since the soap opera began, just a few hours after the AFC Championship Game ended, the two teams have sped off in different directions. On the field, one team has soared, the other stumbled. The Patriots haven’t lost since. They won the Super Bowl in February. They’re 4-0 this season, pushing opponents around each week, winning by an average of 18 points a game, again establishing themselves as the AFC bully that refuses to fall.

The Colts are a game above .500 and winless outside the AFC South. Luck hasn’t played since Sept. 27.

This could get ugly. Again.

Unless the Colts do something about it.

“Everybody was pissed off about it,” Colts linebacker Jonathan Newsome said of last January’s loss. “But it’s new team, new game, new season. It’s really about what we do.

“I don’t think they’re unstoppable,” he continued. “I think they’re a great team with a great coach, and you have to give them credit. They have been for the last decade. There’s only so much you can say about that. The numbers don’t lie. But I don’t think they’re invincible.”

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Newsome wasn’t the only Colts player this week to recall a “pissed off” sentiment in that locker room last January. What they had no interest in discussing was Deflategate, in any form or fashion. They know the reality. Doctored footballs or not, it had no impact on the outcome of the game.

Complaining about that would only leave them in a state of denial. The Patriots remain the schoolyard bully they refuse stand up to. Whether they’ll admit to it or not, the Colts know this. They know what Sunday’s result means.

“There certainly is a history between us and them, but it’s also a new year,” Luck said Monday. “You’ve got to take care of business at home, so we’re excited.”

Deflategate? Throw it out the window. Forget psi levels and John Jastremski’s text messages and Mona Lisa Vito, the 243-page Wells Report and the appeal process that dragged on for months.

Remember 45-7, and 42-20, and 43-22, and 59-24. Remember LeGarrette Blount and Jonas Gray. Remember one team making a mockery of a rivalry that used to be two-sided.

The Colts say they remember. They say they’re ready for this one.

“Absolutely,” linebacker Erik Walden offered. “It’s in our house. You can’t beat it. This is what you play this game for.”

Call Star reporter Zak Keefer at (317) 444-6134. Follow him on Twitter: @zkeefer.

Patriots at Colts, 8:30 p.m. Sunday, NBC