Coach of the Colts of Indianapolis, Frank Reich, greets the Colts fans after their match against the Tennessee Titans at Lucas Oil Stadium on Sunday, November 18, 2018. The Colts defeated the Titans 38-10.(Photo: Matt Kryger / IndyStar)

INDIANAPOLIS – Even in the middle of the worst, while they were sitting in the league's basement at 1-5, with no win for a month, Frank Reich refused to let the doubt infiltrate. He had spent 24 years in this league – 14 years as a player, a decade as a coach – shaping and reinforcing a personal conviction that had earned him, in seven magical days last winter, the Super Bowl had given him the job he had always dreamed of.

This conviction? He would lean on it. He would live it. Especially at 1-5.

"No man suddenly becomes different from his darling habit and thought," Reich would say, relying on the words of Joshua Chamberlain, the civil war officer who had helped lead the the Union to victory in Gettysburg.

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"You just have to keep working and it's going to change," he told his wife, Linda, at private times at home. Regardless, he lost five of his first six games as the NFL head coach. No matter his team was tied for the worst football record. No man suddenly becomes different …

His belief in his team – in itself – was not negotiable.

He was right. A month later, everything at amended. On Sunday, Frank Reich went to Lucas Oil Stadium with the coach's fan in a three-game winning streak, knowing he would be four soon. Sunglasses. Scarf during. Backpack hanging on his shoulder. Beatdown coming.

A few hours later, he came out of this stadium, sunglasses, woman in tow, defeat over. The swagger has been returned. That's what happens when you coach one of the most popular football teams.

The lesson to be learned from all this, especially after the Reich Indianapolis Colts passed Tennessee on Sunday 38-10 to climb to 5-5 of the season: do not let the nice guy, the former pastor-persona to cheat you. It may be that he is perpetually measured and of unfailing kindness, that he never swears, that he never lies – in many ways, the antithesis of the monumental and intimidating football coach from past eras. But that does not mean that Frank Reich does not want to step on his opponent's throat every week.

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Because he's doing it.

And he will do it.

There is some assurance in the way Reich calls games – You think you can stop us? Prove it – and in the way he saves the season of his team. From 1-5 to 5-5 and, believe it or not, tie for second place with the AFC Wild Card with six games to play. The fingerprints of the head coach are on all the resurgence of the mid-season. His conviction bears fruit.

"People will have to take care of us, we will not do it," he told his team in October, a revealing prophecy in light of last month's results. As soon as the Colts stopped interfering, they started to win football games. And they have not lost since.

The Jags could not face them last week. The Titans could not deal with them Sunday. (And this is a Tennessee team, remember, who trampled Tom Brady and the mighty Patriots 34-10 a week before.)

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The Titans arrived Sunday at Lucas Oil Stadium with such a high performance, not to mention a series of two consecutive victories. All the Colts scored was the first 24 points of the match. It was so one-sided, so ridiculously ended, that Andrew Luck was off the bench for most of the fourth quarter.

Will I continue to cover T.Y. Hilton face to face? Good luck with that. The Colts' Pro Bowl receiver burned the Titans for nine out of nine goals for 155 yards and two goals.

Reich had the feeling that Hilton was about to leave. Maybe that's why he smirked as he entered work on Sunday morning.

You think Marlon Mack is the only running back who can beat you? Jordan Wilkins postponed 18 yards in the end zone to advance to 24-zip.

Another of Reich's strengths is to use little used crime pieces at the right time.

The most telling thing, though, is this: Reich's attack is so deep and so ridiculously balanced that Luck has now hit 12 different teammates for a touchdown this season. It's six wide receivers, four tight ends, three halves. It's also one of the worst in league history, set by Matt Ryan of Atlanta in his 2016 Pro Bowl season.

"I think he's playing the best I've ever seen," said Jack Doyle, one of those touchdown touches, about Luck Sunday.

Reich changed everything for his quarterback and his team.

The Colts have not lost in a month; their four-game winning streak is the longest for this franchise in four years. Reich's attack embarrassed the Tennessee lead player, one of the best, with a 38-quarter defeat on a unit allowing an average of 16 players. The offensive line has been better than in a decade. Luck's was not sacked in five consecutive games, with 23 terms and 214 losses.

And when the defense plays like that – that is, five sacks, two interceptions, a forced fumble – the Reich team proves it will be a tough exit for the rest of 2018.

The coach sees it.

"The belief that we had at the beginning became a confidence," said Reich.

The players feel it.

"We just had to get a glimpse of what it was like to lose," said Eric Ebron, a close friend. "At this point, people understand what losing looks like, and it becomes a bad feeling. Nobody wants to live at this moment. We just had to be patient. "

As this franchise was to be back in February, the saga of the saga Josh McDaniels is still fresh. Do not forget: Frank Reich did not even have the initial list of five candidates he wanted to interview, that of Chris Ballard.

When they finally sat down, Reich did not even lift Andrew Luck's shoulder in the interview. They talked for hours. Reich thought he could win with or without the quarter star.

Ballard has been sold. He felt the conviction in Reich's words.

Nine months later, the Colts' replacement plan at the head coach saved them, never doubting that he was the ideal man for the job from the beginning.

"No one could write a script like this," said Linda in February. "It's just remarkable."

The same goes for 1-5-5-5, and these Colts, still very early in the ambitious reconstruction of Ballard, return to the image of the playoffs on Sunday before Thanksgiving.

"We dug a hole and dug the hole," Reich told his team after the win. "Our eyes can see on the horizon, but now we have a mountain to climb."

He is right.

There is a lot of season left. As he did at his lowest point, Reich likes the chances of his team.

Call Star reporter Zak Keefer at (317) 444-6134 and follow him on Twitter: @zkeefer.