Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Assessing the Colts after 1-1 start with Kevin Bowen

Episode Date: September 25, 2020

On today's episode, 107.5/1070 The Fan's Kevin Bowen joins the show to discuss his thoughts on how the Colts have looked through two weeks. Also, we look ahead to this Sunday's matchup with the Jets as 11.5-point favorites.After an awful Week 1 showing from the defense, they flipped the script versus Minnesota. Should we expect that to continue, or is it somewhere in the middle of both? Also, how about Philip Rivers? Kevin believes he's been even better than original expectations so far.How will Indy replace Marlon Mack, Malik Hooker, and Parris Campbell? The 2019 second-round pick will be the toughest to replace with his speed, so who steps up? Luckily, Jonathan Taylor and Julian Blackmon are more than ready to accept bigger roles.Kevin also dives into some more assessments before hitting on the Jets game. Will Indy cover the spread? There's no excuses in this game for the Colts.All of this, plus so much more, as we dive into the Colts' season so far! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You are Locked On Colts, your daily Indianapolis Colts podcast, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello, everybody. Welcome back into the latest episode of Locked on Colts, part of the Locked on Podcast Network. Today's audience is your host, Evan Seder, and you're with my Kevin Bone of 107.5, 1070 The Fan. He's the Colts' be-writer over there. Kevin, how are you doing today?

Good, Evan. How are you doing, man? Doing well, doing well. We haven't talked to you in a few weeks here, Kevin, so we're going to talk through your assessment so far of the Colts' first few weeks of the season. They are currently 1-1, a disappointing loss in Jacksonville followed by a huge bounce back win last Sunday against Minnesota before they played the Jets here, which we'll preview later on in the show in a week three matchup. That keeps going up on DraftKings, Kevin. The Colts are now 11 point

favorites in the spread. Maybe the biggest spread in the last couple of years, honestly. I don't know about the Dolphins game last year, but hopefully it's not the same result as it was last year for this team against Miami. But let's hit on the first weeks of the season so far, Kevin. Just overall, just in your own words, what would you say your overall opinion of this team has been in the first weeks of the season? Yeah, you know, I thought they'd be one and one after two weeks, but certainly not, you know, the results of kind of how I expected it to go. There are some really impressive numbers on the defensive side of the ball. You know, I know Minnesota's a much better offense on paper

than I think they've put up in the first two weeks. So I've been a little bit surprised there. Obviously a huge shift kind of in overall philosophy in week two, which was so needed. And offensively, I mean, if you're going to tell me the injuries that you've had at receiver and tight end, you know, I think you would take the result you've seen from Phillip Rivers so far. And a lot of people, you know, probably look at the two interceptions and we've won it.

And that tells, you know, a large chunk of the story. But there's still been a lot of good that I think Rivers has shown early in the year, again, considering some of the personnel losses he's had to deal with. You know, so right now you're at one and one. I mean, you know, I know a lot of people probably thought they'd be a little bit, you know, get off to a 2-0 start and have a chance to, you know, really have a strong record early in the year. I would say one thing that stands out certainly is you have got to continue

to take advantage of this early part of the schedule. You know, through two weeks, it's probably even more drastic than we thought it was back when the schedule came out in May, just the big discrepancy between what you have in the last two months of the year versus what you have in the first two months. So that's why it's just vitally important that you continue to string wins together and kind of get ahead in the win-loss record because you're inevitably going to drop a few games late in the year

with how tough that schedule is. Like you mentioned, Kevin, a couple injuries here already. That our season ending for this Colts team, Paris Campbell, of course, still up in the air with his PCL-MCL sprain. We don't know how long the timetable is going to be for that one. But Marlon Mack and Malik Hooker, both torn Achilles. They're out for the year for this Colts team. Luckily, the Colts did draft Julian Blackman and Jonathan Taylor

to really step up and be day one replacements if needed. And that's exactly what happened this year. But Paris Campbell is another story to me, Kevin, because he's such a unique player, 4-3-1 speed at his size. How are the Colts going to replace Campbell, you think, Kevin? Yeah, I think it's going to be very difficult. I don't think it's as seamless as, you know, going from a Marlon Mack to a Jonathan Taylor or something along those lines.

I do think it's going to be a bi-committee approach. You know, I think, you know, even using T.Y. Hilton in the slot, you know, that's where we saw Hilton, you know, try and catch that deep ball on Sunday. And he's obviously been in the slot throughout his career at various times. So I think you could see him there. You know, Naeem Hines, of course, has the receiving background and has done it in the NFL. You know, he could be an option as well but still it's not just going to be just a an immediate kind of plug and play where you have Taylor for Mack or even a Julian Blackman if he isn't on that

pitch count anymore this Sunday uh replace Malik Hooker as well but you know I know Campbell doesn't have the kind of historic production in the NFL. Again, he hasn't really been healthy that much. But in terms of what he means to this offense trying to be a top 10 unit, whatever label you want to throw on there, he is a very, very key component. And I think that's why I believe he is the biggest loss of these three guys. You just don't have – when you talk about this offense moving forward and what you want them to be in 2020 he is such a critical piece to it and again there's just not that obvious answer to replacing him so that's where I think you're really going to feel his

loss is that he's a guy that can change a drive with one touch. And all of a sudden, instead of going 12 plays and 80 yards, he provides that 30, 40-yard spark, and you've totally flipped the field and, you know, potentially totally flipped the game. So it's going to be a by-committee approach. You know, I point to Hilton and Hines kind of early on, maybe a little bit of Paschal as well. I think when you're healthy at tight end, maybe some more two-tight end looks is another piece of this offense that I think when you're healthy at tight end, maybe some more two tight end looks is another

piece of this offense that I think they could go to. I just wanted to hit on Phillip Rivers here. The first couple games of the season so far for him, 77.5% completion percentage. Of course, those three interceptions, I think one of them obviously was on Malia Cox last Sunday.

You see how accurate he is, how efficient his offense has been so far, Kevin. How big is it? Of course, seeing how the offense was last year, it's on Malia Cox last Sunday. But then you see just how accurate he is, how efficient his offense has been so far, Kevin. How big is it? Just, of course, seeing how the offense was last year. It's an incredible number I found yesterday, too. Jacoby Brissett, 32, completed 20-plus yards in 15 games last year. Phillip Rosari has nine in two games. He's well on pace for 70-plus throws in that category.

It just goes to show just how efficient his offense is with Rivers, the quarterback, and how effective he is. Seeing his read and throwing it, not really being gun-shy at all, which is kind of Rivers' forte. But also you see so far through two weeks already that Frank Wright, the whole playbook is now finally open again. Yeah, you know, again, going back to my earlier point, Evan, I've been very impressed with a lot of what Rivers has done.

Has it been perfect? No. The Reds on offense has got to be better, you know, critical interceptions in week one. But there's been some definite areas where this passing offense had to upgrade, and Rivers has given you that. He's given you a consistent, accurate quarterback, and there's been enough big plays in there. And honestly, when you look at what this passing offense has done

from a yards per attempt standpoint, you know, hovering right around eight week one, I think it was eight and a half in week two, that is without hitting on the big vertical chunk where, you know, you see like Pittsburgh last week with Chase Claypool on an 85 yard touchdown that can really skew what your yards per attempt number looks like at the end of the day. The Colts really haven't hit on that yet. I mean, the biggest, I think the biggest pass play so far is Jonathan Taylor's screen, I believe

for 33 yards in week one. So the fact that you haven't really touched on the big, you know, over the top, get behind the defense play, but yet you've still achieved that key yards per attempt metric that you weren't achieving last season consistently enough. You know, kudos to the quarterback for being able to make the right reads, knowing where the ball needs to go, more of that intermediate passing game. So, you know, I think Rivers deserves a little bit more credit for what people have, you know, given him.

I just think for some reason there's just a negative connotation with Rivers, and it takes a little bit more for him to kind of win over fans, you know, maybe based off his track record or based off what we saw week one. But, you know, I kind of thought he'd be a middle-of-the-pack to maybe a slightly above-middle-of-the-pack quarterback, and I think he's given you that early on in the season. Yeah, it's been big for Rivers. 77.5% completion percentage.

Third in the NFL right now through two games. Russell Wilson's one. Lamar Jackson's two. Phillip Rivers' three. It just goes to show you, I think, just the big upgrade, the cool tomato sauce. And so far it's paid off. You know, the turnovers are there.

That's kind of what Rivers is going to give you is a couple big plays and a couple big head-scratching plays. But the first one's kind of outweighed the second one so far throughout the first two games this year, Kevin. But Jonathan Taylor's coming in for a minute because obviously he's now the RB1 of this team. Marlon Mack goes down for the year. What was your assessment of Taylor on Sunday, getting 28 total touches in his first NFL start, a lot for a rookie running back? It looks like the Colts are going to use him as their workhorse now, of course, moving forward.

Yeah, you know, most carries, I think, for a rookie running back in the league since 2016, and I thought it was a workload he could handle. Having said that, going back and watching the game, I do feel like he left some yards out there, and, you know, I guess it's a little bit of a nitpick game because, you know, he secured it well and had a lot of positive runs, and obviously the Colts were better in short yardage. And I think Taylor is a big reason why, but still, I just think over time he's gonna, you know, his vision's gonna improve. He's gonna learn running behind these five offensive linemen and,

and just get into a rhythm to where he can be a little bit more decisive with his cuts or maybe realize, okay, this is a whole, this is a, you know, a back cut that I didn't originally see. And now that I've seen it, it's something that I can tap into if we run that play again. So just solid from him. Still waiting for kind of the open field run, you know, his longest rush in the NFL.

I think it's 13 yards right now. And we know he's got the home run ability in him. So pretty solid sound performance from him, and the fact that you know that there's more there I think is pretty encouraging for this team. You're going to face tougher defensive lines. I don't think Minnesota is a great defensive line by any means, but still very solid debut for him, just handling that workload,

not having a ton of mental mistakes, not making that critical error by any means, and yet knowing well you can tap into a little bit more. Colts fans, you want to save a lot of money on your next car purchase, rockauto.com is the place to go. They save you so much money, whether it be getting a new tires, a new fuel pump assembly, an oil change, rockauto has it all for you on a much easier price scale than the competitors out there. RockAuto.com has been a business serving auto product customers online for 20 years. You can go to RockAuto.com to shop for auto and body parts from the highest manufacturers.

They have everything from engine control models and brake parts to tail lamps, motor oil, and even new carpet. Wear it as your classic or daily driver. Get everything you need in a few easy clicks to redirect it to your door. The RockAuto.com catalog is unique and more easily to navigate. Quickly see all the parts available for your vehicle and choose the brand, specification, and price you prefer. Investable prices at rockauto.com are always reliably low and it's there for professionals to do it for themselves. So why spend twice as much for the same parts to get even cheaper at rockauto. Go to rockauto.com.

Right now, see all the parts available for your car or truck. Write Locked On in their How to Gearbox box so they know we sent you over there. Again, write Locked On at L-O-C-K-A-D-O-N in the Howdy Your Mouse box. Send your Locked On Colts to you over there. Rock Auto has a main selection, reliably low prices, and all parts you'll ever need. Colts fans, go to rockauto.com right now. Last point on the offense here, Ken, before we dive into the defense and our Jets preview as well. Molly Cox had a huge game on Sunday, 111 yards on five receptions. Of course, he had that one key drop at the beginning of the game.

He really bounced back after that. The best PFF grade for a tight end since 2017 with Rob Gronkowski. Like you tweeted earlier today, Jack Dwell was back practicing today. What do you expect with the tight ends moving forward here now? Trey Burton's still on IR for another week or two. How do you think that load share is going to be divvied out between those three guys when Burton's back too? Because it feels like the Colts have now three really good tight ends. You know, when those three back in 2018 were healthy Eric Ebron Doyle and Mo Alley Cox you know Frank Reich still involved them a good amount it was something they liked Mo Alley Cox

kind of even in that first NFL season he was playing so I they're all very niche in their individual roles you know Doyle probably the most balanced, most trustworthy. I was impressed by how deep and just the general depth of Allie Cox's route tree on Sunday. Some big plays vertically, obviously him in the open field. I think, you know, he's listed at 6'5", 267. I think he almost plays bigger than that at times. It just looks bigger. And then Burton, you know, is a much different guy in what he can offer you as well and having a really strong camp.

So I think that's something to wear. Frank Reich, knowing you don't have Paris Campbell, I think you can use all three of those guys in kind of their own individual roles. I don't – you know, I think it will be a very kind of unpredictable game plan week to week, kind of like what we've seen so far from week one to week two. But that's a position that we had question marks about at the start of the year. The health concern is still there. But each of those guys can bring you something.

The key is just maintaining health there because, unfortunately, like we've seen again rise up this year, the receiver group, it's just hard to trust them as much as you would like to. And that's kind of been the same storyline throughout the years. So more of an onus now comes on the tight ends to be able to be reliable. I know two games is a small sample size for the defense too, but really an awful week one for them followed by a really awesome week two. Kevin, what do you think about this defense so far?

Yeah, I mean, you just literally told the picture right then I thought it was a terrible terrible performance week one and then you know was able to rebound in really a way that I thought that's the sort of game plan we should have seen in the opener of the ability to have such a poor end of the 2019 season and I think you got to show from the onset that you know whatever you are going to be a little bit more of an attacking defense from a coverage standpoint and disrupt timing better and set the tone and kind of dictate things so it's disappointing that it took another wake-up call week one for you to have to resort to that but obviously you know hopefully for the Colts

sake it was a wake-up call and it's something where you won't see this defense retreat back to that performance. That's been something I think has happened too often where they've had some really nice defensive performances. You know, Kansas City's the one we always talk about last season, but then you see this team, you know, struggle to maintain that or be willing enough to go back to that as well. So I think that's something to where you showed it. Don't be afraid to turn to it. Don't be afraid to turn to it within the course of a game as well. If you start struggling when you're using a different game plan.

So I think that's vital for this defense moving forward. DeForest Buckner, of course, had a monster week too. He had four quarterback hits, one and a half sacks. He was all throughout the Vikings backfield on Sunday. If the Colts get this Buckner consistently, which I think they expected to happen when they trade a first-round pick and give him that big money, Kevin, how does this change his defense? Well, it totally changes it.

I thought he played like an all-pro on Sunday. The four quarterback hits and sack and a half. I mean, that's the Buckner that you traded for. Didn't feel like you got the all-pro out of him week one. And he kind of admitted that, you know, didn't give you enough from an individual production standpoint. But when he can wreck the game like that, impact things, make quarterbacks pump, you know, whatever, hold on to it longer, get rid of it earlier. You know, obviously sacks, tackles for loss, those things. That's what you need out of him.

He's just such a key cog to this entire defense. And when he can command attention and now Autry's taking advantage of a one-on-one or Justin Houston is able to get upfield because the quarterback, you know, is pushed back in the pocket because of Buckner's, you know, interior rush, that's where these guys can benefit. And obviously, when you get Kamoko Ture healthy later in the season, that's where he can help them. So I thought it was the exact performance you needed. Again, a banged up interior of the Minnesota offensive line. It's the same thing you'll see on Sunday. The Jets will be without their starting center. Buckner's got to be that disruptive force to where, you know, you look at that stat sheet at the end of the game, not only has he, you know,

contributed to Houston and Autry making some plays, but he's also done it himself from a tackle for loss or a sack standpoint. Going to the linebackers for a second, Kevin, of course, Darius Leonard's going to be on that field a hundred percent of the time. He was a monster against the Vikings on Sunday too, but I think it's really interesting to snap the scurcy so far between Anthony Walker and Bobby Okereke. They kind of flipped week one to week two. Walker played a lot week one over Okereke.

Week two, Okereke had more snaps than Walker. I think the Colts are, maybe it just depends on the matchup, Kevin. They're finding a way to really have all three of these guys on the field more often than not. Yeah, you know, it's something that I feel like they've played a decent amount of base defense early on in the year.

And the snap count week one was heavily Walker. And then, you know, week two was heavily Okariki. You know, is that Minnesota getting behind early? Maybe being more of a, you know, kind of three wide personnel grouping? You know, it's tough when you play early on in the season. You are going to play a ton of pass happy teams. So I'm curious how that continues to evolve I think passing down wise they haven't gone to the dime package a whole lot so Leonard like you said he's not coming off the field and it seems like with

them not going full dime Okariki is going to be on the field a whole lot not a ton of production yet but still you know I think the speed at linebacker, you were able to see, especially from Leonard, this past week. You know, when you get in the second half of the season and you play a Lamar Jackson, certainly that's going to come in and be a big factor as well. So I just thought in general the playmaking from the defense was at such a high level on Sunday. You know, the three interceptions, sure. I mean, one was a Hail Mary, one was kind of a pseudo punt. To me, it's the nine passes defense in 26 pass attempts. And that is just

a tremendous number. It's a number we have not seen in quite some time, you know, from the Colts again in that small amount of pass attempts. So really impressed by what you saw from that group linebacker wise. I still think they want Walker out there on the early downs. And when you face the run-heavy teams, his communication is key. But they've talked about Okereke so highly. You know he's going to have a big role when it's the more passing situations. Last one on defense here, Ken, before we dive into our Jets preview. Julian Blackman had a hell of a debut for this Colts team

nine months after his ACL tear for Utah in the Pac-12 title game last year. He, of course, replaced Malik Hooker, played even more before the Hooker injury, but stepped in, had a monster first half, in my opinion, really had a couple impact plays, had that hit stick, had the tip drill as well to Curry Willis. I don't know if it's hyperbole to say this, Kim, but I feel like it was one of the better impact games to see from a Colts rookie defender since maybe Darius Leonard in 2018 at Redskins.

Again, I wouldn't put on that level, of course, but I think it's in that discussion for the best impact we've seen since then what was your thoughts on Blackman's debut boy I was really impressed and honestly you know just putting his production aside like the two passes defense I just I couldn't believe how fearless he looked you know I'm used to guys when they come and, you know, make a debut or stuff like that, you just see some tentativeness, you see some hesitancy and whatnot. That dude played fearless. And credit to him, you know, credit to the rehab staff

and everything that went into getting him ready with COVID and whatnot. For him to, you know, look like that in his NFL debut, part of me thought when he was dressing, I'm like, all right, he'll play 10 snaps on special teams and that's it. But, no, that dude was flying around. And then, yeah, when you factor in the whole production and getting his hands on balls and whatnot, it only adds to it. But I just thought he played with kind of a reckless abandon that, you know,

there's not many guys that play with that, period, let alone, you know, nine months after an ACL. So I don't know if the pitch count will fully be off for him on Sunday, but still you had to really like what you saw from Blackman. You know, when the pick happened, I was a little bit like, man, when can you count on him as a rookie? You know, maybe the hooker ACL is kind of still on my mind about, it kind of took him a while, but yeah,

Julian Blackman looked darn healthy to me. And, you know, you slot him into the Jonathan Taylor, Michael Pittman group now of rookies you need to show up, you know, early in the month of September and certainly be mainstays for you throughout this season. All right. I'm trying to move on to the Jets preview, Kevin. As we were recording,

the spread for the game has gone up even higher on DraftKings. It was 10.5 24 hours ago. It was 11 this morning. Now it's 11.5 point favorites to Colts on Sunday against this Jets team that has depleted. They're in the midst of just chaos right now on and off the field. They have just a lot not going their way. Adam Gase could be fired in a couple weeks if this continues.

Sam Darnold does not look good so far through his career at the New York Jets. If the Colts don't win by 10-plus points, Kevin, I feel like that would be a disappointment, right? Couldn't agree more. You know, this is a game where you win by double digits and you don't get guys hurt. And I know that's a high standard to live up to in the NFL, but I'm sorry.

The Jets are terrible. They are absolutely terrible. Look at their roster. They don't have upper echelon guys that I think even the Jags, you know, had at a couple positions, whether it's, you know, Josh Allen or DJ Shark or, you know, Miles Jack or CJ Henderson. Like, I don't even look at the Jets and think that they have that many of those types of guys. So they are incredibly banged up. I think it's nine guys in the injury reserve, another 16 on the injury report. This is the

easiest game you will play all season. I said on my podcast, I'll say it again, you define a standard and you play to that standard. You don't play to your competition. You play to your standard. And I think far too often this team has played to their competition in recent years. I know that's difficult in the NFL, but when you play a team like this,

who there is dysfunction within that organization right now that most teams, you know, they don't even sniff that until late in the season, you've got to make sure that you are playing to your level. So, yes, double-digit point win. Try to get out of this game as healthy as possible and move on to Chicago next week. Kevin, last one for you. Appreciate the time as always.

Looking at the schedule for this Colts team until the Baltimore Raiders get November 8th, they play, of course, the Jets on Sunday at Chicago, at Cleveland, home against Cincinnati, and at Detroit. Three of those four teams are in the dumps right now. And you have to just imagine if the Colts take advantage of that schedule, they could be 6-1. But if you're in the Colts position, Kevin, would you be worried if they're anything less than 5-2 in that Baltimore game

for playoff hopes? Yeah, you know, seven playoff teams this year. So that kind of skews a little bit of just what the standings would look like. Part of me thinks a nine and seven, eight and eight team could still get in the playoffs. But yeah, I think five and two, you know, if you're four and three, you're playing with a little bit of fire because then, okay, if you play under 500, the second half of the year with Tennessee twice and Baltimore and Green Bay and Pittsburgh. Now all of a sudden, you know, you're going to need some help and you don't maybe control as much as you would like to. So I, you know, I said five and two from the start. And I think that's the barometer of where you'd feel comfortable as a football team. And like I

said, through two weeks, I mean, the schedule is probably even more skewed than I thought with how Oakland or how Las Vegas has played and how Pittsburgh's played early in the year. So, yeah, I think five and two, Evan, has kind of just kind of be that bottom line for you. You're coming out of that bye week with the Lions. Kevin, appreciate the time as always. We'll talk to you again in a couple weeks. You guys go follow Kevin on Twitter at KBowin1070.

Always go listen to his podcast as well twice a week right now, Kevin's Corner. Kevin, appreciate the time, man. Yes, sir. Thanks for having me on, man.