Colts offense beaten down by selves; the Chargers were also there.

There may be some who feel that after this ugly defeat suffered by the Colts, that the team didn't show up.  The problem is that they DID show up and this is what they look like.

Future Hall of Famer Peyton Manning was hit and harassed all night behind a offensive line that features not a single player who would start for the Patriots, Chargers, Steelers, Ravens, or Jets.  I'll go further and say that if they all got cut tomorrow, not one of them would be claimed off of wavers.

The Colts gameplan in this one was obviously to throw short precise passes to keep Manning upright, and it seemed to be working early on.  But starting in the 2nd quarter the Chargers starting jamming the receivers and daring Manning to try to take advantage by throwing deep.  But who to throw deep to?  Wayne was doubled short and long all night, every deep pass to him was at some point tipped by a Chargers defender.  Garcon and Manning are not on the same page and several opportunities were lost by timing issues on long passes.

Running the ball could have really taken the pressure off of the challenged passing game, but the current crop of offensive linemen are incapable of moving a large defensive lineman.

For most of the game the Colts defense really stepped up and slowed down the high scoring Chargers offense.  They forced Phillip Rivers to throw the ball short all night, taking away their deep passes.

I'll have more on them later in the week.