INDIANAPOLIS -- The Indianapolis Colts won't get any sympathy from the San Diego Chargers, especially quarterback Philip Rivers, when it comes to the number of injuries they're dealing with.
You can say Rivers and the Chargers are in an even worse situation than Indianapolis.
The Chargers have placed 14 players on injured reserve, including receivers Keenan Allen and Stevie Johnson and running back Danny Woodhead.
"To say it's not tough would be not being honest with you," Rivers said. "You lose Keenan Allen and Danny Woodhead, two of your most dynamic guys and guys that were going to be huge contributors all season long. We just have to find ways to keep it going. Certainly you hate seeing those guys go down, personally. Certainly you hate it for our team but we just have to keep finding a way each week."
The Colts have only placed five players on injured reserve since the start of training camp in late July, but it's been a week-to-week struggle for them to keep healthy players on the field. They've been without cornerback Vontae Davis (ankle), cornerback Patrick Robinson (concussion), defensive lineman Henry Anderson (knee), safety Clayton Geathers (foot), safety T.J. Green (knee), cornerback Butler (ankle/hamstring) and receiver Donte Moncrief (shoulder) for at least one game this season. And quarterback Andrew Luck is dealing with a right shoulder issue.
The Colts are optimistic that they'll have Green, Geathers, Robinson and Anderson available for Sunday's game.
It got so bad in the secondary for the Colts against the Denver Broncos last weekend that they had to improvise and use safety Matthias Farley, who just signed with the team on Sept. 4, as a cornerback.
"You don't necessarily make a bunch of sideline adjustments, you just look at your call sheet and see the things that you believe that the guys you have available to you can play well," Colts defensive coordinator Ted Monachino said. "At the end of the game when it really got crazy, that was a situation where, OK, we've got a set of calls in place in another personnel group that we can live through each down and still be aggressive when we want to be and that's what we would've had to go to."
The Colts are the more desperate team of the two because they're winless and they've never started a season 0-3 with Luck. The Chargers, despite all their injuries, thoroughly handled the Jacksonville Jaguars 38-14 in Week 2.
"The way the media is now and social media, I think what we do if you are 2-0 right now, just like you said, they are going to talk about you and make you into something that you probably aren't," Colts coach Chuck Pagano said. "If you are 0-2, they are going to say enough negative things about you to make you into something that you are probably not. Somewhere right in the middle is where reality lies whether you are 2-0 or 0-2. That is just how it is."
What the game could come down to is whether Luck can do enough offensively to offset the potential shortage of players they have on defense or if Rivers, who is 5-1 in his career against the Colts, can still pick apart their defense while not having some of his favorite targets. The Chargers are averaging 32.5 points a game through the first two weeks.
"We have a huge challenge as we know [against] a really good San Diego team coming in here," Pagano said. "Offensively, for our defense we know it's going to be a huge challenge, [they are] putting a ton of points on the board. Philip Rivers shows no signs of slowing down, they are running the ball extremely well and he is spreading the ball around."
Chargers coach Mike McCoy said, "[Luck's] an outstanding player that's very efficient in what he does and spreads the ball all over like all the great quarterbacks do. He's going to take what the defense gives him whether it's checking the ball down in a third down situation. [He] gets the ball out of his hand and is a great competitor."