Colts player who must step up in Week 9: OT Anthony Castonzo

The Colts offensive line had a bit of a nightmare performance against the Kansas City Chiefs last week as they allowed six sacks and 12 quarterback hits on route to a 30-14 home defeat. At the middle of it was left tackle Anthony Castonzo, who has had many a fan point fingers in his direction this season for the team's struggles in pass protection.

Castonzo gave up two of those six sacks and was up front this week about accepting the blame for what happened.

“I have no problem (with) that,” Castonzo said, per the Indianapolis Star. “We all can watch and see where everybody makes mistakes. In the outside world, if I have to shoulder the blame, I have no problem doing that. I didn’t play well Sunday – that’s the reality.”

Castonzo wasn't the only offensive player to take the blame following the loss as quarterback Andrew Luck did so as well, proclaiming after the game that he was the root of the offensive struggles against the Chiefs. Castonzo however pointed at the offensive line as the reason things went wrong for Luck.

“Most of the time, if Andrew is struggling, he doesn’t have the time he needs to throw the ball,” Castonzo said. “If he has that time, he’s a stud. We recognize that we need to give him that time, and when he has it, he does special things.”

The Chiefs came into Sunday's game with eight sacks on the season and without their best pass rusher (Justin Houston) due to injury. This week, the Colts face a Packers team that has been one of the better pass-rushing teams in the league with 18 sacks, so the Colts linemen have had to quickly put what happened against Kansas City behind them and focus on the challenge ahead.

"We have Green Bay coming up this week with great edge rushers and a good defense just like every other team in the NFL so there is really no time to dwell on past games," Castonzo said, per Colts.com.

The Colts seemed to take a step forward in their pass protection two weeks ago in their win against Tennessee, during which they allowed three sacks and six hits against a talented Titans pass rush. They'll need to take that step again this week in order to give Luck a chance to lead the offense to a win in Green Bay.

“We have confidence that we are good players... we just need to be more consistent with our fundamentals and technique and really trust it every play, play in and play out," Castonzo said. "Once we can settle into that, we know that we are good enough.”

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