Doyel: Are the Indianapolis Colts loathsome or likable?

• Browns at Colts, 1 p.m. Sunday, CBS

INDIANAPOLIS – There was something charming about the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday, charming in defeat, but there was something repulsive, too, and in a few cases that ugliness carried over to Monday. This is the dichotomy of the Colts. This is why I cannot decide:

Is this team loathsome or likable? Does it need a hiss or a hug? 

This is not a question for Colts coach Chuck Pagano, because he answers it every day with hugs, mostly metaphorically but sometimes for real. When Colts punt-team gunner Kenny Moore II didn’t see Kerwynn Williams’ fair-catch signal and barreled into him for a personal foul late in the fourth quarter, putting Arizona within 25 yards of field-goal range – a field goal that resulted in overtime and the Cardinals' 16-13 win – he returned sheepishly to the Colts sideline.

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Pagano hugged him.

And that’s OK. No, really. Moore is one of the charming Colts, a 5-9 undrafted rookie out of Valdosta State who made 18 tackles as a high school senior – all season – but five years later finds himself on an active NFL roster because injuries have sidelined Colts starting cornerback Vontae Davis and three reserves. Moore won’t be here much longer, is my guess, but until then I’ll root for him. He’s adorable, tiny and always smiling, and I’m not sure he can believe he’s here either.

Anthony Castonzo's struggles

Left tackle Anthony Castonzo is not adorable. Not tiny, not always smiling, paid a small fortune to protect his quarterback’s blind side and often unable to do so. Castonzo doesn’t have Moore’s problems of size or ability, doesn’t need to get bigger, quicker or more skilled. He just needs to stop screwing up. The light bulb that resides inside Castonzo’s complicated head flickers on and off, and it was off Sunday.

Watching Castonzo is not fun. But it is fun to watch center Deyshawn Bond, an undrafted rookie out of Cincinnati by way of Warren Central, starting his second straight NFL game and demolishing the Cardinals’ defensive interior on the Colts’ only touchdown. This was on the opening drive, and running back Frank Gore already had gained 16 yards on four inside rushes before scoring from 5 yards out. Gore ran behind Bond and wasn’t touched until Arizona cornerback Patrick Peterson dived for a piece of his ankle on Gore's final step into the end zone.

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Like Moore, Bond is here only because of injuries. He was the third-team center this summer, but injuries to starter Ryan Kelly and backup Brian Schwenke elevated him to starter. Bond could stick around, after Kelly returns, if he demonstrates an ability to play another position on the line. Either way, he’s someone worth cheering.

T.Y. Hilton? Donte Moncrief?

Hard to cheer players as self-involved as those two. On Monday, one day after a game where Moncrief couldn’t have played much worse had he tried – and if you saw the game, you already know: he didn’t try – he was walking around the locker room in a shirt bearing the name and image of Donte Moncrief.

The shirt failed to show Moncrief dropping a pass, as he did Sunday, or losing another in the lights, or failing to fight for several balls thrown in his vicinity. New Colts quarterback Jacoby Brissett was taking a pounding in the pocket – thanks, Castonzo – and needed help from his receivers, but Moncrief wasn’t into it: eight targets, two catches, 18 yards. Afterward, when I asked Moncrief if he was “comfortable with (his) level of fight” on Sunday, he said yes, but mentioned one route he should have run differently.

“Other than that,” he said, “everything else was good.”

Plus, the shirt. He was sending a message, one I heard loud and clear:

What's up with Donte Moncrief?

It’s all about you, Donte Moncrief.

Hey, he lockers next to T.Y. Hilton, so maybe diva is a contagious disease. Hilton is infamous for wearing T.Y. Hilton shirts, socks, medallions and backpacks, and while he wasn’t wearing any of that nonsense on Monday, he was scoffing – literally, scoffing – when asked how veteran receivers can accelerate the learning curve of a new quarterback like Jacoby Brissett.

The question, in particular, was one of wonderment: Does it require extra work before practice or after practice or on an off day or …

Hilton heard the magic words and spoke up.

“Nah,” he said, “nothing’s going on, on the off day.”

Of course not. What were we thinking?

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Hilton has a history of diving to avoid contact, diving forward but diving nonetheless. On the one hand, look, it’s understandable. He’s often the smallest player on the field, 5-9 and 178 pounds, and the Colts can’t afford to lose him to injury. On the other hand, it’s hard to watch an NFL player consistently take a dive. One such play might have happened on Sunday, when Hilton caught a short pass on third-and-9 and went untouched to the turf after 8 yards. I thought he stumbled, and he agreed:

“I was not diving,” he said. “I slipped.”

Thought so. But last week in Los Angeles you dived for yardage, I said not unkindly – unkind would have been to mention that he fumbled on that dive – so how do you balance making plays for your team with not getting hurt?

“On third down I won’t go down unless I can get a first (down),” he said. “Other than that, I just slipped. Other than that, man, it ain’t got nothing to do with nothing.”

Interview over.

Rashaan Melvin's attitude

Fine by me. Tired of the locker room’s diva district, I went looking for Rashaan Melvin, another undrafted guy, his career a picture of what Moore and Bond could have if they work as hard. Melvin had been released five times before the Colts signed him a week before the 2016 opener following an unfathomable run of injuries at cornerback. Melvin was literally the first player at the complex that week, always one of the last to leave, and he started nine games last season.

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This season, with Vontae Davis injured, Melvin is the Colts’ No. 1 cornerback. The depth behind him is so bad, the Colts have had Melvin do what they rarely ask even of Davis: follow the other team’s No. 1 receiver. Melvin followed Los Angeles’ Sammy Watkins last week in the regular-season opener. He wasn’t particularly great at it – Watkins was targeted five times and caught all five for 58 yards – but he’s not supposed to be great at it.

Here’s what Rashaan Melvin is supposed to do: fight and claw on the field, the same way he’s fought and clawed for his NFL career, and that’s what he did Sunday. For me, the game’s most memorable play was a third-down pass from Arizona quarterback Carson Palmer to Jaron Brown. Melvin attacked Brown for the ball, getting his hand on it in mid-air and then coming down and attacking some more, smacking at the ball until it bounced to the field, the pass incomplete.

Melvin’s a battler, a long and lanky guy out of Northern Illinois playing a physical sport and coming back for more after being released once, twice, three times, four, five… Not sure who on this team has less business being in the NFL than Rashaan Melvin, but he’s here and he’s not going away, and if the Colts were smart they’d move his locker down to the diva district, or over by Castonzo, or next to any of this team's other underachieving players with superior pedigrees. Maybe they can catch some of the fight that fuels Melvin.

Then again, never mind. Wouldn’t want any of those dudes to infect Melvin. Keep them away from Kenny Moore and Deyshawn Bond, too. That locker room already has so few winners, which is why this is true:

The Colts have played two bad NFL teams this season, and all they have to show for it is a lousy T-shirt.

Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter at @GreggDoyelStar or at facebook.com/gregg.doyel.