The 16th consecutive regular season win for the Colts will fit into Indianapolis’ record book rather neatly.

The game tapes for this week’s game will show just how imperfect the Colts really are.

On Sunday, with Peyton Manning being completely out of sync as well as the offense struggling to make touchdowns, Indianapolis turned to Joseph Addai, a former quarterback, to get a touchdown pass of 22 yards to give the Colts an 18-14 win over the 49ers and keep their perfect regular season record going.

Reggie Wayne, Colts receiver said, we need these types of games if we are going to make it to our ultimate goal of the Super Bowl. We need the close game. We need to fight though some adversity and keep pushing forward. Today we did that. It was a real grinder out there, but we found a way to get a win.

In spite of all the Colts accolades, there’s still a lot of work that needs to done, clearly, after their sluggish offensive performance on Sunday.

Jim Caldwell, with the Colts win, became the latest rookie head coach to get wins in all seven of his first games in the NFL since the 1970 merger. Indianapolis extended their franchise record by becoming just the eighth team ever in the history of the NFL to win 16 games in a row. Once again, the Colts are the AFC’s last undefeated team. It’s the fourth time that has happened in the last five years.

However, it wasn’t a typical Indy day.

Although Manning went 31 for 48 for a total of 347 yards passing, he missed on his passes short, wide, and high, failing to come close to his remarkable efficiency that he had during the first six games for the Colts. Indy’s three time MVP failed to get a touchdown pass as well. The last time that happened was November 30, 2008. Instead it was Addai, the All American high school quarterback, who got that job done.

It was the first touchdown pass for Addai as a professional as well as the first by an Indianapolis non-quarterback player since 2001 when Ken Dilger had one. It was a perfect result. Wayne lunged toward the line, getting both of his feet on the ground and giving the Colts their first lead in the game early fourth quarter.

Wayne caught 12 passes, his career high, for a total of 147 yards receiving.

Addai said, all I was trying to do was get the football out there. During practice I just sort of spot up, read my keys, kind of look. I really don’t have keys to read. I kind of just sit back like I was a real quarterback.

It was yet another very frustrating day for the 49ers (3-4).

San Francisco has lost three games in a row despite the solid performance of Alex Smith. It was the first start for Smith in almost two years. He went 19 for 32 for a total of 198 yards passing and had one interception and one touchdown. Smith got sacked four times playing behind the 49ers makeshift offensive line. Joe Staley, left tackle, got injured during the game’s first play to lend another potentially devastating blow to San Francisco’s line. Tony Pashos, right tackle, is already out for the remainder of the season.

Despite that, the steadiness of Smith, a long run by Frank Gore, and the continued contributions of Michael Crabtree and Vernon Davis, San Francisco controlled the game for majority of the first three quarters.

Their performance was almost good enough.

Mike Singletary, 49ers coach said, dropping a couple balls can make the difference during games like this. Any missed chances in games like this will really bite you at the end. All I can say right now is we came in to win this football game.

The defense of the Colts had to keep Indianapolis in the game. They did allow Gore to break free up the middle, elude two tackle and race 64 yards to score a touchdown on the second series for the 49ers. Indianapolis hadn’t allowed a touchdown before that since the 4th week of the season. Gore rushed for 91 yards in 13 carries and caught five passes for 43 yards receiving.

In the meantime, Manning had to settle for field goals.

Early second quarter, when Indianapolis closed the gap to 7-6, the 49ers answered back with a touchdown pass of 8 yards from Smith to Davis with just 33 seconds remaining first half.

There were two problems with that. Manning still had enough time to drive down field and the celebration by Davis result in a penalty of 15 yards, giving Indianapolis extra yards down field.

Indianapolis capitalized. Manning only need three plays in order to set up a field goal of 31 yards by Stover. That made the halftime score 14-9. Manning then opened up the second half by leading Indianapolis 52 yards. Stover kicked his fourth field goal.

The score stayed that way until Indianapolis pulled the halfback option out.

Manning said, I didn’t think we were as sharp as usual. We definitely have areas we need to improve on.

Yes the Colts do, even with winning 16 games in a row.