INDIANAPOLIS -- Indianapolis Colts linebacker Zaire Franklin was asked after Sunday's win over the Arizona Cardinals to put his team's 5-1 start into perspective.
It took only a split second for him to recognize the rarity of their early season wins in contrast with many of his previous campaigns.
"It's been a long time," Franklin quipped.
Yes, 16 years is quite a while. After Sunday's 31-27 win, the Colts are off to their best start since 2009. That's the year quarterback Peyton Manning won Most Valuable Player and the Colts advanced to Super Bowl XLIV.
It remains to be seen how this season ultimately ends, but its front end is nothing like what we've seen in recent years, when the Colts have become renowned for their slow starts.
In their previous 10 seasons, the Colts have managed a winning record through six weeks just three times. And in those three instances, they were never four games above .500 as they currently are.
Relatedly, the Colts went 11 seasons without winning a season opener, a trend they reversed this season when they defeated the Miami Dolphins in Week 1. Climbing out of early holes following slow starts has become part and parcel for Indianapolis. In 2018, when the Colts made an incredible late-season run to the postseason, the Colts had to rally from a 1-5 start.
So, what explains this rare early-season success? There's something different about this team, players said.
"Whether we win or lose, whether it's a blowout or not, I think our mentality is just pushing ourselves and being the best versions of ourselves every single day," Franklin said. "I think that's what just continues to push us to get better. There's no blink in this team. There's no quitting in this team."
That last point was tested on Sunday. It was, perhaps, the Colts' toughest victory to date. Their scorching-hot offense sputtered at times against an Arizona defense that had not previously allowed more than 23 points in a game.
The Colts still managed to score 31 points and remain the NFL's highest-scoring team.
"It wasn't the cleanest the whole time and we certainly made some mistakes here and there," quarterback Daniel Jones said. "Playing against a good team, that's going to force you to execute and play well. I thought just, mentally, the fact we were able to kind of come down and execute down the stretch and make sure we were at our best when we needed to be, I think that goes a long way."
For a team whose previous two wins had come by an average of 27.5 points, it was a good test of their mettle. It was a much more realistic representation of what a typical NFL week looks like. That could serve the Colts well as they look toward a road game against the 4-2 Los Angeles Chargers in Week 7.
"That's this league," coach Shane Steichen said. "A lot of this league is what happened [on Sunday]. It's the back and forth. I thought our guys handled it well on the sidelines, and we knew it was going to be a back-and-forth game as we started getting going."
"You've got to be built for games like that," receiver Josh Downs said, "because later in the season there's going to be a lot more games like that when it matters."
But those late-season games might not matter nearly as much had the Colts not started fast for once. It's why Steichen is preaching a message of staying the course despite their league-best record.
"The message is consistency in everything we do and stay consistent," Steichen said. "Being relentless every day."