The focus of week 13 in the National Football League is Thursday’s game between the Green Bay Packers (10-1) and the Dallas Cowboys (10-1). The winner of tonights game at Texas Stadium will have the inside track to home-field advantage throughout the playoffs in the NFC.

There is another game this weekend with major playoff implications and it takes place in the AFC. The Jacksonville Jaguars (8-3) travel to Indianapolis to take on the Colts (9-2) at the RCA Dome with first place in the AFC South on-the-line.

If the Colts – who have won the last four AFC South titles – win Sunday, they will take a two-game lead in the division with four games remaining and hold a significant tiebreaker advantage because of a head-to-head sweep.

The Colts blasted the Jaguars, 29-7, in Jacksonville on Monday Night Football, October 22nd. 

If the Jaguars – the division runners-up in 2004 and 2005 – win, they will move into a first-place tie, with the Colts still holding a tiebreaker advantage because of a better division record.

The Jaguars are 2-2 in the AFC South while Colts are perfect at 3-0. All three of the Colts divisional wins have come on the road.

The Colts have won eight of 11 meetings with the Jaguars since the 2002 inception of the AFC South, and since 2003, no division team has played the Colts tougher than the Jaguars. Indianapolis swept the series in 2002 and 2005, but the teams split in 2003, 2004 and last season, with the Jaguars winning, 44-17, in Jacksonville in December of last season.

The Jaguars have won just once in the RCA Dome – a 27-24 victory in October of 2004.

The teams have spent much of this season within a game of one another in the standings. Indianapolis’ victory in October gave the Colts a two-game lead, but the Jaguars again moved to within a game of the lead on November 11 and have been there since.

The Colts dominated every aspect of their showdown earlier against Jacksonville, easily winning 29-7 and once again taking charge in the AFC South.

Joseph Addai and Kenton Keith combined for 141 yards rushing, Peyton Manning and Reggie Wayne picked apart Jacksonville’s secondary, and the Colts avenged their most embarrassing loss of their Super Bowl season.

This is the first time since these teams were placed in the AFC South under the NFL’s 2002 realignment that Jacksonville will enter December trailing Indianapolis by fewer than three games.

The Colts have won back-to-back games after losing two in a row, and now they may be the healthiest they’ve been in several weeks thanks to some extra time off after a 31-13 Thanksgiving Day win over Atlanta.

Among the players who returned to practice Wednesday were left tackle Tony Ugoh and linebacker Tyjuan Hagler, neither of whom had played since October due to neck injuries.

The Colts will once again be without All-Pro and future Hall of Famer, Marvin Harrison. Harrison hasn’t played since the last time these two teams meet.

The Colts are starting to get healthy at the right time of the year and that is not good news for the rest of the teams in the AFC, including the New England Patriots.

The Colts, a 7-point favorite in the game, are 10-3 all-time against the Jaguars. Look for another exiting game from the Dome as first place in the AFC South will be decided Sunday.

Adam Vinateri kicks the winning field goals as the Colts rally to beat the Jaguars, 27-24, and move closer to the number 2 seed in the AFC and setup the potential rematch against the Patriots.