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The interior of the Colts offensive line has been a mess all season. However, the play of tackles Anthony Castonzo and Gosder Cherilus has been solid all season long. In a somewhat surprising shift, during Saturday's dramatic come-from-behind win over the Kansas City Chiefs, it was the interior of the line that performed adequately while Cherilus and Castonzo struggled.
Per Pro Football Focus, rookie guard Hugh Thornton had a positive "green day" grade overall with a +2.4 score while Samson Satele earned a +1.9 grade. Saturday's game was the best outing by Satele since he scored a +2.8 in Indy's Week 11 win over the Titans.
Conversely, Cherilus scored a -0.5, giving up four hurries and a Justin Houston sack. Castonzo scored a modest 1.0 grade, but gave up five pressures. Mike McGlynn struggled the worst, scoring a -5.1 grade while also surrendering five hurries.
Obviously, the play of the offensive line is skewed somewhat by the Colts needing to throw the ball so often in the second half. Though Andrew Luck's three INTs in the game contributed to Indy's 38-10 third quarter deficit, the Chiefs scored only 10 points off those picks. Prior to Luck's first interception of the game, which came with 33 seconds left in the second quarter, the Chiefs were already up 31-10.
The Colts would eventually rally behind Luck's three touchdown passes, along with his fumble recovery touchdown, to beat the Chiefs 45-44.
In fairness to Castonzo and Cherilus, both had to spend much of Saturday blocking all-world pass rushers like Tamba Hali and the before-mentioned Justin Houston. No easy task, especially when the Colts were forced to throw often down 38-10 early in the third quarter.