Colts week 16 snap counts vs. Dolphins: Notes and thoughts from the Colts' win

The Indianapolis Colts improved to 7-8 on the season on Sunday with their 18-12 victory over the Miami Dolphins.  Frank Gore rushed for two first half touchdowns, the Colts recorded a safety and six sacks total, and Indianapolis got a crucial goal-to-go stop to seal the win.

Let's take a look at the snap counts from the game to see what we can learn from them.

Offense:

For the first time in a while, Andre Johnson played the second-most snaps of any Colts wide receiver.  T.Y. Hilton played a lot of the snaps (51), while Johnson played 44 snaps.  Donte Moncrief was dealing with a toe injury in recent weeks, which is likely one of the main reasons why he saw 39 snaps - five less than Johnson.  Perhaps more surprising is the fact that Phillip Dorsett was in on just 14 plays despite Moncrief being hampered a bit by injury, as you would think that Dorsett would cut into Johnson's snaps a bit too.  That doesn't seem to be the case, though, and to be fair, Johnson did catch three passes for 39 yards to finish as the team's second-leading receiver.

Frank Gore played over two-thirds of the team's offensive snaps, which is quite a bit for a 32-year old running back.  He received just 15 carries and caught just two passes, though, meaning he received 17 touches - a very reasonable amount.  He accounted for 95 yards and two scores on those touches, really producing and leading the way for Indy's offense.  According to Pro Football Focus, Gore forced five missed tackles on the day and finished with his highest-graded game (by PFF's metrics) of the season.

Khaled Holmes played 31 snaps at guard on Sunday, entering the game after starting right guard Hugh Thornton suffered an ankle injury.  Holmes started the first several games of the season at center but has been the backup to Jonotthan Harrison recently, and he was the next man up at guard as well on Sunday.  Thornton was placed on injured reserve today, so it's likely that Lance Louis will be active this Sunday to take Thornton's place.

Matt Hasselbeck left the game in the second quarter with a shoulder injury after playing 26 snaps, so Charlie Whitehurst entered the game in relief.  He played 33 snaps but in doing so suffered a hamstring injury that was serious enough to land him on injured reserve today.  Hasselbeck's shoulder injury might also keep him out of next week's game.

Defense:

Greg Toler, playing on Sunday after missing the past two games, played 100% of the snaps.  He joined Mike Adams and Vontae Davis as defenders to do so.  According to PFF, Davis was targeted five times and allowed just two catches for seven yards (with four coming after the catch) and grabbed an interception.

Also according to PFF, Colts inside linebacker D'Qwell Jackson missed four tackles on Sunday, the most since they began keeping track of that stat.

T.Y. McGill played 44% of the snaps but had a huge impact on the game - he recorded his first two career sacks and brought Ryan Tannehill down for a safety.  Robert Mathis (43 snaps) and Kendall Langford (52 snaps) both recorded two sacks each as well.

Special Teams:

Andy Studebaker played 100% of the special teams snaps on Sunday, furthering his reputation as a very reliable and consistent special teams player for the Colts.