If the 17-15 victory with which the Indianapolis Colts escaped M&T Bank Stadium on Sunday wasn’t particularly impressive by their standards, the Colts were appropriately unimpressed. They didn’t seem to much care about going 10-0 by beating the Baltimore Ravens.

“It means nothing,” said wide receiver Reggie Wayne , whose seven catches for 89 yards included a critical late-game third-down conversion from quarterback Peyton Manning .

“It means we won’t finish the season with (seven) losses,” shrugged middle linebacker Gary Brackett, who made 13 tackles and the game’s biggest play, an interception at the Colts 13-yard line with 2:42 to play. “It doesn’t guarantee us anything right now.”

Wayne and Brackett are right, but they at least slightly understate the value of being 10-0 in a conference in which no one else is better than 7-3.

The Colts can clinch the AFC South on Sunday by winning at Houston if Jacksonville loses at San Francisco. They aren’t interested in .500 football, but if they close 3-3 to finish 13-3, they would take the division no matter what anyone else does.

A 4-2 finish would lock down the AFC’s No. 1 seed, a first-round bye and home-field advantage throughout the AFC playoffs. A 3-3 close would force Cincinnati, San Diego and New England, all 7-3, to finish 6-0 to have any chance, and the Bengals play the Chargers on Dec. 20. The Patriots are effectively four games back by virtue of their loss to the Colts, but in the event of a three-way tie, conference record becomes the first applicable tiebreaker, with common opponents No. 2.

Finally, a 2-4 close would give the Colts 12 victories for the seventh consecutive season. No one else has managed more than four.

So 10-0 matters, if only as prelude. With injuries mounting, particularly on defense, they have earned a margin of error.

Red flag call

Baltimore coach John Harbaugh threw his red flag to signal his challenge of a sideline catch by Wayne during the second quarter. Then a strange thing happened: Harbaugh was allowed to reconsider. No challenge. No video replay. No timeout charged.

Maybe it was the scoreboard replay that showed Wayne got both feet down inbounds.

“From what I understand, they said it should not have happened,” Colts coach Jim Caldwell said Monday. “They said that you should not be able to throw your flag down and retrieve it and say, ‘Well, I really didn’t mean to do it.’ That’s the word I got.”

Charge is on

The records are falling faster than the leaves.

Wayne (76) and Colts tight end Dallas Clark (65) ran their combined reception total to 141 through the first 10 games of the season Sunday. That was a record, but only for a few hours.

Later in day, New England’s Wes Welker (79) and Randy Moss (63) combined for 20 catches while beating the New York Jets 31-14 to exceed the Wayne-Clark total by one.

Etc.

Clark had more tackles than catches Sunday, 2-1. He made a tackle on the first of Manning’s two interceptions and on a fumble by TE Tom Santi . . . . Caldwell said CB Kelvin Hayden , who has missed the past three games with a knee injury, might get some work this week. “Possibly. Underscore that,” Caldwell said. “How much activity, the doctors will have to let us know.” . . . The NFL sent a letter of reprimand to Patriots security director Mark Briggs for knocking an NBC cameraman to the ground following the Patriots’ loss to the Colts. Briggs was not fined. . . . Manning was credited with his 41st game-winning fourth-quarter drive. He was 4-for-7 for 52 yards on the 60-yard drive that yielded Matt Stover ’s 25-yard field goal and the final 17-15 lead with 7:02 to play. . . . Manning also helped produce the 10th double-digit victory total of his 12 seasons as starter. He had been tied with Minnesota QB Brett Favre with nine, a tie that is likely to recur with the Vikings at 9-1. . . . Wayne has caught 37 passes for 426 yards and three touchdowns the past four weeks. With 76 receptions for 968 yards, he needs 32 yards for his sixth consecutive 75-catch, 1,000-yard season.