2016 Colts - Week 9

8:30PM ET - October 30th, 2016
Qualcomm Stadium - San Diego, CA

Indianapolis Colts at San Diego Chargers
Oct 30, 2016	1ST	2ND	3RD	4TH	SCORE
Indianapolis Colts (7-1, 4-0 Away)	14	10	3	14	41
San Diego Chargers (3-5, 1-4 Home)	3	10	9	0	22

Top Performers

Passing : A. Luck (IND) - 409YDS, 3TD
Rushing : D. Woodhead (SD) - 19CAR, 123YDS, TD
Receiving : T.Y. Hilton (IND) - 7REC, 156YDS, TD

SAN DIEGO - After giving up 33 point to the Lions last week, the big storyline this week would be if the Colts defense could turn things around. San Diego, not the best team, would be a bad offense to face coming off the Detroit game. The presence of Danny Woodhead would keep the coaches up late at night, covering him out of the backfield would be a serious concern.

As it turned out Indianapolis wouldn't need to worry for very long, but Woodhead would gash them on the ground. From the very beginning the Colts favored Cover 2 and Dime defensive coverages to force the Chargers to run. Chuck Pagano was obviously confident that Christian Ponder wouldn't be able to throw the ball well enough to win, but the Colts probably had no idea how poorly they would play on defense.

Indianapolis really poured it on, but it wasn't without an enormous amount of trouble. Andrew Luck did not look like himself with passes flying off randomly and finding the turf more often than a receiver. Despite those issues the Colts managed to put up 24 points before the Chargers scores a TD thanks to a 42 yard run by rookie HB Andrew Hale. Hale broke a number of tackles on his way to the endzone, and Pagano could be seen exploding on his defensive unit on the sidelines.

Hilton made the most out of his seven catches.

After the half Pagano had another reason to unload on his players after Woodhead went 64 yards for a TD. The Chargers 2PT attempt failed, and that was basically the end of the game. The Colts went to their running game and put 17 more points on the board in the second half to blow out San Diego.

Even with Luck having a terrible 26/40 day the Colts won and head into a home game with Houston before an incredibly easy run of games. It won't be until Week 15 that Indianapolis will face an elite team, the currently 8-0 Green Bay Packers, but by that time they could have their division all but clinched.