Indianapolis Colts fall to San Diego Chargers

(UPI) -- The Indianapolis Colts were unable to make quarterback Andrew Luck’s first appearance on “Monday Night Football” a successful one and they were defeated by the San Diego Chargers 19-9.

San Diego quarterback Philip Rivers threw a 22-yard scoring pass to Keenan Allen in the second quarter to put the 3-3 Chargers ahead and they never trailed again. Rivers only passed for 237 yards in the game and he gave the bulk of the credit for the win to kicker Nick Novak.

Novak booted four field goals, including a 50-yarder with two minutes left to really put the game away. He added field goals of 31, 33 and 34 yards. “We weren’t great in the red zone offensively, but our defense was awesome and Nick Novak was awesome,” Rivers said.

Third-down penalties were a huge problem for the Colts throughout the game. “You’ve been executing the whole week and you finally see it in the game, then you see dropped passes, the unnecessary penalties, all those things, it makes you frustrated,” said defensive end Ricky Jean Francois, who committed one of those third-down penalties.

“You get the look that you want but you don’t execute. And if you don’t execute with a team like (the Chargers), you get one shot at it. They’re going to pounce on it. It’s simple things that a good quarterback like Philip Rivers, if they see something like that, you know they’re going to (take advantage).”

Luck was held without a touchdown pass and completed only 18 of 30 passes for 202 yards. Monday was only the second time Luck failed to throw a touchdown pass since being taken No. 1 in the 2012 draft. “They made the plays and we didn’t,” Luck said. “Credit goes to them.”

The 4-2 Colts will now turn their attention to a Week 7 game against the 6-0 Denver Broncos and Peyton Manning.