Nate's Pick
I think this is the ultimate buy-low spot for the Colts after an absolutely horrific meltdown last week against the Vikings. Matt Ryan, who holds the distinction of blowing the biggest Super Bowl lead of all time when the Patriots came roaring back after getting down 28-3 against the Falcons in 2017, added another notch to his facemark when he blew the biggest lead in NFL regular season history. Matt Ryan will be holding a clipboard for this game, and Nick Foles will emerge from the shadows to start this week.
It's been something of a quarterback carousel in Indy with Matt Ryan and Sam Ehlinger trading starts at various points, but now this desperate Colts team turns to Philadelphia legend, Nick Foles. Nick Foles hasn't played a ton lately, though he did steal a win in his only start last season for the Bears when they beat Seattle as a touchdown underdog.
The Chargers have struggled to put teams away all season and they've consistently needed late game heroics to steal wins. Some of this is simply due to the fact that Los Angeles has dealt with a mind-boggling array of injuries on both offense and defense, but I'm not sure they are built to just bury a team.
The Colts are feisty. Don't forget that they were up 33-0 against a Vikings team with a 12-3 record. They can play well. They just can't pair their greatest first half of the season with their worst second half of the season and expect to win many games. Particularly against a team as explosive as the Vikings.
Matt Ryan has not played well all season and Sam Ehlinger was worse. I'm not really sure that Nick Foles is a downgrade in this spot. Hell, for all we know he might be the best quarterback on the team, we just haven't seen him play yet. Some of it is just politics. Matt Ryan has the big contract and Ehlinger was the young guy they wanted to see in a game. We know what Nick Foles is (a journeyman and SB champion), so it's not surprising he kept getting skipped over until now.
Last week aside, the Colts are generally competent on defense and the Chargers are a team that makes life difficult for themselves.
Looks for a feisty and embarrassed Colts team to redeem themselves in primetime against a Chargers team that always seems to stub its toe in big spots.
