These are the San Diego Chargers , who thoroughly embarrassed him last year, picking off six of his passes in a 23-21 Colts regular- season loss, then intercepting him twice more as San Diego won a divisional playoff game 28-24.

Although the Chargers' pass defense was intimidating last year, ranking first in the league with 30 interceptions and 14th in yards allowed at 213.2 per game, it is has been exploitable this season. The Chargers (4-6) rank 24th with six interceptions and are last in yards allowed with 242.6 per game.

Seems like easy pickings for Manning, who has guided the Colts (6- 4) to three consecutive victories and is the AFC's Offensive Player of the Week, right?

He's not so sure.

"When you watch the film, I haven't really noticed anything different," said Manning, who threw for 320 yards with two touchdowns in last weekend's 33-27 victory over Houston. "But I do sure notice the guys who are making plays for them."

Chief among them is cornerback Antonio Cromartie, who had three interceptions against Manning in the regular season last year and another one in the playoffs. There's also cornerback Quentin Jammer, pass-rushers Luis Castillo and Shaun Phillips, and nose tackle Jamal Williams.

"They're very talented, (especially) in the secondary," he said. "The teams who have been able to move the ball and score on them, they've made some plays with (great) throws, catches and runs after the catch."

Colts center Jeff Saturday also noticed similarities between the Chargers' defense this year and last, even if the team recently fired defensive coordinator Ted Cottrell and replaced him with Ron Rivera, the former Chicago Bears player and defensive coordinator.

"Going in, our mentality is, obviously, (have) no turnovers," Saturday said. "I know they changed coordinators, but the setup of their defense looks the same."

Which is why the Colts are hopeful they'll be able to get a victory but aren't assuming they're going to exact some juicy revenge.

"I think what happens is, you look at the tape and you look at things you could have done a little bit better, and you realize that it's going to come down to just playing ball," Colts coach Tony Dungy said.

"We were that way with New England, where everybody said we couldn't beat them, and we did have trouble beating them for three or four years. All of a sudden, you just relax and start to play a little bit better. There are no major adjustments or changes that you make, and you have a little more success. ... Does last year's game really impact this year? Not really."

jcohn@jg.net

Indianapolis at San Diego

When: 8:15 p.m. Sunday

TV: NBC

Radio: 1190 AM