The Los Angeles Chargers will be down one key player the rest of the way against the Indianapolis Colts Monday night. That's after star safety Derwin James was thrown out of the game following a brutal hit on Colts wide receiver Ashton Dulin in the second quarter of the contest.

Dulin is also being evaluated for any injury as a result of that hit from the Chargers star.

James went after Dulin like a missile, meeting the Colts wideout just before the first-down line, knocking the ball out of Dulin's hands. As one of the best players in the NFL in his position, James is always expected by the Chargers to make things happen on the field. Unfortunately for James and his team, he's no longer going to be able to help the Chargers' stop unit contain Indianapolis after getting sent to the showers early.

Nevertheless, the Chargers should still be able to handle Indianapolis' offense that isn't all too terrifying. In fact, the Colts entered Monday's meeting with Los Angeles ranked 30th in the NFL with just 17.5 points per game. Conversely, the Chargers started Week 16 just 26th in scoring defense with 24.3 points allowed per outing.

James is one of the pillars of Los Angeles' defense, so the challenge for the Chargers will be to keep the Colts from gaining any sort of confidence now that he is no longer part of the ball game.

James, who has been selected for the 2023 Pro Bowl, entered the Colts game with 4.0 sacks and 61 solo sacks with five tackles for loss in the 2022 NFL season.