Red-hot battle in the South

Manning: Decade of brilliance

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Houston @ Indianapolis
San Diego @ NY Giants
Sky Sports 2, 5.30pm on Sunday

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Two of the in-form teams in the NFL clash on Sky Sports on Sunday, with the unbeaten Indianapolis Colts facing divisional rivals Houston, while San Diego try to pile more misery on the struggling Giants in the second live offering.

The Colts may be a perfect 7-0, but the Texans are flying high themselves as they sit on 5-3 for the first time in their history and they arrive in Indianapolis with a run of five wins out of their last seven on the road.

San Francisco pushed the Colts all the way last week until running back Joseph Addai threw a TD pass for Reggie Wayne to win the game and remain unbeaten - taking them to 16 regular season wins in a row.

"I couldn't drop that one," said Wayne. "If I had dropped that one, he would have messed with me forever."

With Colts safety and defensive leader Bob Sanders out, three-time MVP Peyton Manning takes on even more importance, and he has more milestones to break at the weekend, as 19 yards will see him become the first player in NFL history to throw for 40,000 in one decade.

Manning is also a perfect 7-0 at home against divisional rivals Houston, but the Texans have been red-hot on offence this season with Matt Schaub leading the league in passing yards and with a career-best 16 TDs so far this season.

Receiver Andre Johnson has been a beast this season and averages 112 yards on the road and leads the league in reception yards in 2009, and with Wayne just behind in second it could be a high-scoring encounter on Sunday.

QB battle

Sunday's second live game on Sky Sports is a huge one for the New York Giants as they try to halt a skid of three straight defeats, as Philip Rivers returns to the Big Apple for the first time since almost joining the Giants.

Big Blue started out the season 5-0, but defeats against New Orleans, Arizona and Philadelphia exposed their defensive floors and indicates that maybe they are not among the big guns this year.

Hoping to add to their misery is Chargers QB Rivers, who was drafted by the Giants in 2004 but immediately traded to San Diego for Eli Manning, who was chosen as the number one pick by San Diego but did not want to play for the team.

Since that quick switch, Rivers has garnered the reputation as the more explosive quarterback, but Manning has the Super Bowl ring that says otherwise, and it will be intriguing to see how the two match up at the Meadowlands.

LaDainian Tomlinson will hope to repeat his 192-yard, three TD performance of the last time the teams met, but San Diego will continue to look to their aerial game with tight end Antonio Gates and receiver Vincent Jackson formidable weapons.

Divisional drama

There will be more bruising divisional encounters around the NFL on Sunday, with Dallas and Philadelphia squaring off to see who will take the outright ownership of top spot in the NFC East.

Baltimore travel to Cincinnati looking for revenge for their Week Five defeat, when the Bengals took it with a late, late touchdown, while Cedric Benson broke the Ravens' proud long run without conceding 100 yards to a running back.

Miami seem to be involved in a grudge match every week, and again there has been plenty of trash talk ahead of their visit to AFC East rivals New England - expect there to be some big hits in that one too.

Josh Freeman gets his first start as an NFL quarterback and has the thankless task of leading the hapless Buccaneers, with Tampa Bay the league's only remaining winless team entertaining Green Bay on Sunday.