The NFL world changes at warp speed. Both the Colts and Giants are amending their business models and dealing with injuries as they prepare for Manning Bowl II, Sunday night in Indianapolis.

New York tight end Kevin Boss will miss the game after suffering a concussion in the Week 1 victory over Carolina, an absence that will affect both the passing game and the running game. Boss’s blocking is important if not vital to the Giants’ running game, and New York is expected to pound the ball on the ground early and often against a Colt defense that gave up 231 yards and three TDs to undrafted free agent Arian Foster in a stunning opening-day loss to Houston.

Indianapolis has had issues against the run for years, and NFL analysts are still trying to figure out how the Colts repaired their run defense on the way to winning the Super Bowl in the 2006-07 season. A lot of it had to do with the return from injury by safety Bob Sanders, which brings up another problem: Sanders is hurt again, so badly that no one really knows when he’ll return from what is believed to be a torn bicep tendon. He’s spending the week visiting doctors, which is never a good thing, and he will definitely miss the Giants game.

The Colts’ loss to Houston in the opener has fueled speculation that at long last there might be a changing of the guard atop the AFC South, which has long been the domain of Peyton Manning. No one is ready to put Manning out to pasture, and anyone who can throw for 433 yards and three TDs (even in a loss) still has game. But unless the Colt figure out a way to put a reasonably successful run defense on the field, Manning will have the ball less and less this season as teams grind clock. The Texans feel like their due to collect on a long-overdue long, and they will keep knocking on the door.

Which brings up the Giants, and near and dear to coach Tom Coughlin’s heart is the presence of a power running game that can wear down teams. Ahmad Bradshaw and Brandon Jacobs are as good a pair of RBs as it gets in the NFC East, and they both appear to have set aside a squabble about who will start and get the most carries. For the record, Bradshaw got 20 to Jacobs’s 12 on opening day, but Jacobs had the edge in touches (224-162) last season. So who knows? While the game will be won, lost or tied based on whether the Colts have more success stopping the run, TV will focus its attention on the Manning Battle. The brothers met one other time, on opening day 2006, and Peyton and the Colts got the last laugh, 26-21, in a game in which the QB siblings pretty much played to a standoff. The Colts were just a bit better. Since then the Giants have come to realize that the best they can hope for out of Peyton’s younger brother is a solid QB who can give NY some offensive balance to a power running game. And Sunday night, that might be enough.