Jim Mora stuck to his guns, even though it left the Colts short-handed.

The young Indianapolis Colts were in Philadelphia and already had serious manpower issues: Starting left guard Steve McKinney underwent an emergency appendectomy earlier Saturday, tight end Ken Dilger was still suffering the effects of a concussion, and the second and third wide receivers, E.G. Green and Jerome Pathon also were out with injuries.

The Colts would be entering one of the league's most hostile venues, Veterans Stadium, and if ever there was a time for a letup, a number of league observers believed this was it. But when King, the Colts' starting defensive end, and Wooten, a reserve safety, were late for a defensive meeting Saturday, missed bed check and failed to show for a Sunday morning meeting to discuss their transgressions, coach Jim Mora put them on the next plane back to Indianapolis.

Mora dressed only 44 players for the game, and maybe it was appropriate that the Colts blinded the Eagles 44-17. At one point in the third quarter, it was 44-3. Indy cruised to its eighth victory in 10 games and remained tied with Miami for first place in the AFC East.

Did Mora, for even a second, consider letting King and Wooten play?

"No. No. No," Mora said loudly and emphatically in a Tuesday morning telephone conversation from his office in Indianapolis. "Once you start to do that, you've got problems. I will not let myself do that. You can't start to acquiesce. Over the long haul, you've got to be consistent in your philosophies and beliefs."

In these whatever '90s, an era when authority is less evil than it is irrelevant, that is a refreshing point of view.

	“	It doesn't matter what kind of player he is, I'm going to do this -- even if we're 2-8. I'm going to handle situations the same. I've always been a strong believer in this, and I'll never change. ”
		— Colts coach Jim Mora

Mora, who always has been an old-school disciplinarian, put his mouth Monday where his players' money was. The headline Tuesday in Indianapolis: "Colts put Wooten, King on the shelf."

Indeed, for their ill-advised trip to Atlantic City that Mora said brought them back to the team hotel at 5 a.m. (before a 1 p.m. game), the team suspended King and Wooten for a stout five games each. That will cost each of them more than $100,000, a sum potential gambling winnings aren't likely to cover.

"They broke team rules -- severely violated team rules -- and they're paying the price," Mora explained. "Guys break rules, they pay the price. It's that simple."

King admitted he violated team policy, but said the punishment was too harsh. "He's a hothead about it," King told WISH, the CBS affiliate in Indianapolis. "He blows up. He makes decisions while he's mad, and that's not good."

Oh, and what about that decision to spend the night casino-hopping in Atlantic City, was that a good decision? King, who was suspended by the Carolina Panthers for six games in 1997 after testing positive for marijuana, has a history of making bad decisions.

Mora, citing repeated rules violations, suspended linebacker Andre Royal on Oct 10. On the very next day, the Colts terminated his contract.

"Look," Mora explained, "the players have got to know what you expect from them and, at the same time, what to expect from you. Granted, every player is different. There are different personalities and backgrounds. But when it comes to philosophy and rules, if the players see that you're inconsistent, they'll start to think that they can get away with things. They'll push it.

"When you're winning, maybe nobody really notices. But when you start losing, those things always surface. That's why you have to handle things the same every time, even if you think it might hurt you on the field."

Rather than hurt the Colts, the moves seemed to galvanize the players. Mark Thomas, who replaced King in the lineup, made three tackles, recorded a sack and recovered a fumble deep in Eagles' territory that led to an Indianapolis touchdown.

The Colts have won six games in a row and are off to their best start since 1976.

"We're ahead of our own schedule," Mora said. "We didn't anticipate this. It could go all to hell. You don't know what's going to happen, but we like where we are.

"Our guys have done a good job of keeping their focus and not getting overconfident and letting all the stuff got to their heads. We take it one game at a time, and we've worked hard to get here."

And you get the idea if, for some reason, quarterback Peyton Manning or rookie running back Edgerrin James stepped across the line, Mora's response would be the same.

"It doesn't matter what kind of player he is, I'm going to do this -- even if we're 2-8," Mora said "I'm going to handle situations the same. I've always been a strong believer in this, and I'll never change."

Greg Garber is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.