"Dominic Rhodes had just pinballed his way through the Baltimore Ravens defense, 38 yards of contact followed by more contact.

He was winded. In normal circumstances, Rhodes would have headed to the Indianapolis sideline to catch his breath while a replacement took his place.

But Sunday afternoon at Lucas Oil Stadium was anything but a normal circumstance for the Colts. Rhodes stayed in the game, and took the next two handoffs. Starting running back Joseph Addai had left the game early in the first quarter with a hamstring injury. Rookie Mike Hart injured his right knee early in the second quarter.

Rhodes was it, and he knew it.

"Usually after a run like that I probably get up and do a little celebrating,'' Rhodes said. "But I understood the circumstances.

"I wasn't looking for nobody because I knew there wasn't anybody there, man. I knew it was all me.''

It was. He hammered away at Baltimore's defense 25 times for 73 yards in the 31-3 win.

What was Plan D if Rhodes had gone down? After waiving rookie Justin Forsett early last week, the Colts had only three running backs and Addai and Hart were out of commission.

"I could look good doing it, but I don't know if they'd let me,'' center Jeff Saturday said. "It'd have to be straight up the middle. No stretch play.''

Seriously, the Colts' contingency plan involved using rookie tight end Tom Santi at fullback and pretty much throwing the football the rest of the afternoon.

Coach Tony Dungy said he didn't believe Addai's injury was serious. Hart, though, was a different matter.

"Right now it doesn't look great,'' Dungy said of Hart."