Monday Night Football was a terrible night for fantasy football owners of the Indianapolis Colts' star wide receivers. Andrew Luck had an awful game but finished with enough stats to save fantasy owners from complete heartbreak. The Colts quarterback threw for 231 yards and two touchdown passes along with three interceptions. Luck looked very bad for most of the game, making inaccurate throws and turning the ball over. He could have easily had more turnovers if the Carolina Panthers made a couple of plays. The poor performance of Luck harmed the fantasy value of Indianapolis wide receivers T.Y. Hilton and Donte Moncrief more than himself.
Hilton finished with just one catch for 15 yards and Moncrief finished with two catches for 18 yards. Both men saw seven targets each but were unable to pull in more catches thanks in part to Luck's shoddy play. To make matters worse, the fantasy-irrelevant Andre Johnson was the wide receiver to garner the best stat line. Johnson caught four passes for 81 yards and a touchdown either on fantasy benches or waiver wires. The other touchdown reception went to tight end Coby Fleener. You’re still trusting Hilton and Moncrief over Johnson, but Luck’s current play is making it difficult to start any member of the Colts.
Luck’s fantasy performance would have been significantly worse if not for his fourth-quarter heroics. Both passing touchdowns and the game-tying field goal drive were all delivered in the fourth to send the game to overtime. Unfortunately, Luck threw his third interception of the game in overtime and gave the Panthers great field position. Carolina scored their second overtime field goal to pull off the big victory 29-26 and remain undefeated. Indianapolis falls to a very disappointing 3-5 start in the first half of the season.
Things get even worse looking forward for Indianapolis, as the Colts will host the undefeated Denver Broncos in Week 9. No defense in the NFL has impressed more than Denver this season. Aaron Rodgers recently had the worst regular season start of his professional career against the Broncos defense. With Luck struggling and potentially dealing with an injury, this could be a very ugly game. If possible, avoid any and all Colts in Week 9.