Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - BLAME GAME: Indianapolis Colts' Daniel Jones, Shane Steichen Have Adjustments to Make

Starting point is 00:00:00 Indianapolis Colts, Daniel Jones, and Shane Stuyken must be better down the stretch that this team wants to win the division. Let's get to it. You are Locked-on Colts, your daily Indianapolis Colts podcast, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello, everyone. My name is Zach Hicks, your resident film nerd of Horseshoe.com. I've joined, as always, by Jake Arthur, the boots on the ground over at Roundtable Sports Podcasts Network.

Starting point is 00:00:33 Welcome to Lockdown Colts, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, now the number one sports podcasting network. Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if your first bet wins, you'll get $300 in bonus pets to use across the app. Hello, everyone, we are back talking all about Daniel Jones, Shane Steichen, this Colts defense, all your favorite topics from this past game. and from the last couple weeks as well. Jake's done a great job the last few days of breaking down all of your guys' Q&As,

Starting point is 00:01:04 but now we're going to go into it in a little bit more detail when it comes to Daniel Jones, Shane Steichen, and obviously how this Colts defense looks going the rest of the way. But Jake, let's talk about Daniel Jones because, again, if this was like a one-week issue on the road against the Chiefs, it's one thing that we could like kind of push aside, you know. But this has been a trending thing for the past month. I will say they've been on the road for the entire month, so maybe that's a part of it here. But yeah, it's been a three-game stretch now for Jones where we've seen a lot of issues regressed. We've seen his play against pressure come back down to earth quite a bit.

Starting point is 00:01:41 His like turnover rate or turnover-worthy rate is climbed up to around 4%. He's got a lot of turnover-worthy plays. His pressure to sack ratio is now creeping up to around 30% when early in the year he was among the league leaders at only 4%. So we are seeing a lot of metrics come back down to earth for Daniel Jones. What are your overall thoughts on him going forward and also your thoughts after watching this past game against the Kansas City Chiefs? Yeah, obviously the Steelers and Falcons performances were really concerning. You know, 12 sacks, a lot of those, which we would kind of put on his shoulders and then, of course, seven turnovers as well.

Starting point is 00:02:19 So we got improvements against the Chiefs, no sacks, although, you know, some of that's just kind of semantics. like there were some close ones there no turnovers i didn't there there weren't a lot of egregious plays there was that one where both chiefs defenders just collided and that would have been an interception under normal circumstances but overall i thought what they did with jones against the chiefs through the first three quarters what i saw from him super encouraged especially when i went back and watched obviously in the heat of the moment you know seeing the meltdown in the fourth quarter and overtime everything it's you know kind of the world is on fire but when i rewatched i actually thought he was really good through those first

Starting point is 00:03:06 three quarters and i thought you know great you look at this and it's like a really good bounce back from how bad it was against the falcons and stealers uh but then the fourth quarter came um i think we're seeing that as extra protection gets spread out and it's not there and it's it's you know a five-man protection and you're sending extra pressure at jones he's just not responding well to it i think the colts operated really well out of tight you know bigger packages you know what i mean the 12 personnel and everything i thought they both ran it and passed really well out of that and i thought jones looked more comfortable had more time to operate but yeah it was it was in the four quarter when the Colts were going past, pass, pass, maybe spreading it out a little bit,

Starting point is 00:03:55 and then Steve Spagnolo smelled some blood in the water and understood the assignment what to do. Jones just, it felt like he panicked a bit. His accuracy definitely dipped. And, you know, he got rid of the ball quickly, but it just wasn't where it needed to be. So I thought there were some missed opportunities in the third quarter that really could have changed the tide of the game. And they weren't really necessarily Daniel Jones issues, but the Colts get the two field goals in the third quarter. It becomes, you know, it becomes 20 to 9. You know, their 11 point lead going into the fourth, but there was the first one, the first field goal was third and four in the red zone, and Jones do it outside when Josh Downs went inside, just not on the same page on that

Starting point is 00:04:43 one. You know, if that bolts completed, it's a first down. And then you never know, they may go to get a field or a touchdown out of it. And then the final drive of the third quarter, you know, he hits Alec Pierce in the hands in the end zone. And then on the next play, it's the Michael Pittman Jr. Offensive pass interference, they get another field goal. So there's just a missed opportunities, you know, if that's 28 to 9 going into the fourth quarter,

Starting point is 00:05:11 it's a whole lot different. And I don't know that the chiefs come back from that. So I thought the margin of this game, being completely handled by the Colts versus what actually happened and them going with whatever plane of attack that was and Jones not responding well to it, it was really thin and it could have, it could have teetered either way there. But overall, those first three quarters, I thought it was a great response from what we'd seen over the last couple games.

Starting point is 00:05:41 But then the fourth quarter, you have to be discouraged because of what you had seen earlier in the month. Yeah. And I think the frustrating aspect of it is. is we saw how he played against the Denver Broncos, right? He was hanging in there under pressure. The Broncos had a very, very blitz-heavy approach. Even in week one, the Miami Dolphins had a very, very blitz-heavy approach.

Starting point is 00:06:01 And he responded exceptionally well in those two games. He hung in there, delivered under pressure. I think PFF had him as one of the highest-graded quarterbacks in the league under pressure throughout those first, like, eight weeks of the season, including those first two games against the Broncos and the Dolphins. It's just regressed back down to earth heavily. the last couple weeks and yeah part of it is the the colts pass protection for sure right like but but like when you have five or six guys in blocking right so five six maybe even have seven

Starting point is 00:06:30 in at times and the defense is bringing seven or eight guys quarterback has to account for some of that or even if you have the numbers back there quarterback has to know to get the ball out high and get the ball out quick you know especially when we're talking you know third and four late in the game there was a couple third and ones third and twos in this game like it wasn't necessarily all these like third and tens they're bringing the heat get the ball out hang in there there were some that was like third and three third and four like you just got to set your feet and get it to your first target and like yeah you're going to take a hit like every quarterback takes a hit in that situation but you have to deliver those balls like he did against the Denver Broncos like go back

Starting point is 00:07:07 to that Broncos game earlier in the season when they were bringing the I mean gosh they were bringing so much heat constantly and he was hanging in there all game long but I don't know if it's just the heat of the moment, the last couple weeks, whatever it's been, there is a lot of hesitancy in terms of when he sees those blitzes coming in. Maybe because the sacks he took against the Falcons and against the Steelers, the strip sacks against the Steelers in particular might be a big part of this, where it's kind of in the back of his head because we saw here against the Chiefs, especially in that fourth quarter, when Shane Steichen was like,

Starting point is 00:07:40 here, Daniel, go win us this football game, get us a couple first downs through the air. He just wasn't hanging in the pocket. you know the one that keeps coming back to my mind was that third and four where he threw that dirt ball to michael pitman junior there there's no excuse for that play as a quarterback you're going to take a hit you are 100% going to take a hit there they are bringing seven guys you're going a six-man protection you're going to take the hit you have to stand in there and deliver it you just have to like i'm sorry you're going to take the hit regardless uh and to throw it off his back foot like he did rushing it and throwing it in the ground and then leading to that punt there

Starting point is 00:08:13 that's part of how you lose a football game. So, yeah, I don't think his overall play has been, like, horrendous these last three games. Like, yeah, the Steelers game, there were a lot of turnovers. But the Falcons game, I thought he responded well late in that game to eke out that win. I thought there were some nice throws throughout that game, even though he took a couple stacks that he should have taken. And I think for most of the Chiefs game, he played some good football. But the difference between a game manager and, like, a legit quarterback you can win with

Starting point is 00:08:41 is how you respond in. like the big moments whenever everything's on your shoulder and we saw early in the season where you know we were saying like jones can be this great game manager for the colts he can do these really good things for the colts uh the difference is he's been doing these things on third and 10 and third and 11 and converting first downs which has made him such a like a good quarterback and MVP candid even the first eight weeks of the season uh but we have seen that come back down to earth these last couple weeks in terms of third and eight plus third third and nine uh he's not making those plays that he needs to make and standing in there and delivering and and

Starting point is 00:09:13 these defensive coordinators are coming after them. So, you know, I do think part of this is being on the road throughout all these games. The Colts are clearly a much different team at home than on the road. Three of their losses, all three of their losses have come on the road this season. All their wins are scoring, what, almost 35 points a game at home this season. They've been a much better team at home. So maybe that's all it is. But there definitely needs to be some kind of course correction here.

Starting point is 00:09:39 We talked about during the bi-week, but it reared its ugly head there in that fourth quarter and it just it's not sustainable if you want to win this division with the with the schedule they have remaining yeah and we obviously have to address you know the the fibula thing real quick like i didn't think it it drastically altered him all that much like i thought he had enough mobility to like he got a couple first downs with his legs that he picked up um but we obviously noticed that the colts didn't sneak it at all on like third and short they didn't go for any fourth downs or anything. I am curious if that plays into it at all.

Starting point is 00:10:15 And we could kind of go into that a little more in our next segment, the Shane Steichen portion of it. But when I rewatched, I actually didn't think he was as hampered by the injury as initially kind of made out to be. But I mean, we'll see. It's something that they appear they'll have to kind of manage throughout the season. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:10:34 And now in coming up, there's another big part of this that we're going to talk about, which is Shane Steichen. He's been getting a lot of the blame here in Indy, these past couple days. I want to push back on some of the narratives while also kind of reaffirming a few of them as well. Today's show was brought to you by friends over there at Peloton.

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Starting point is 00:12:08 the number one sports. podcast network again in the galaxy we're declaring it we're planting our flag in the entire solar system Zach knows exactly what we're talking about uh so yeah let's let's go ahead we discussed daniel jones you know how much of the blame he should maybe shoulder for what happened in kansas city but also just the really clunky play that we've seen over the last month from the colts offense but now we're going to shift over to shane stuyken it's the man pulling the strings you know, the mastermind behind this all, you know, there's there's a relationship, Zach, between player execution and what's actually being called. And sometimes when things aren't

Starting point is 00:12:48 being executed well, it makes the play calling look bad as well. So like, how do you delineate this entire thing? Like if you, when you unravel what we've seen against the chiefs, but also, you know, over the last like month, what are you seeing from Saigon? Yeah. So I think we should actually just run down the list of complaints, I guess I've seen about Stuyken post this game in the last couple games and just kind of agree or disagree, I guess, with the overall narratives here, Jake. So the first one here, Shane Stuyken should run the ball more. Lean on the running game a lot more, 100% run or whatever. But like, seriously, though, like, especially in that fourth quarter, they should have run the

Starting point is 00:13:22 ball more. What do you think? Yes or no to that? Me? Yeah. Yeah, I think they should have attempted to run more in the fourth quarter. Yeah. I agree.

Starting point is 00:13:31 I do think that that was a legitimate complaint. plane from this past game. I absolutely should have run the ball a little bit more. Now, do I think they should have been like more rushes than passes or anything in this game? No, because the run game was getting crushed all game long. The boxes were full of eight men boxes like all game long. They were bringing down the safeties over the top.

Starting point is 00:13:51 They were stacking the boxes. Sure, you want to still get some runs in there because it's Jonathan Taylor. He'll at least get you three, four, five yards because that's just what he does. But, you know, I think part of this too was Jones has. control with the line of scrimmage to check out of plays and like any good quarterback can check out of a play where there's eight men in the box you know and stuff like that so I think that was part of it for sure so yes they should have run the ball a little bit more in the fourth quarter but I do think a little bit of that is hindsight bias like if Jones completes a couple

Starting point is 00:14:20 more passes are we really complaining that much because they win the game doing that you know like it's I don't know I think it's just kind of a weird thing to go too crazy on I get it but I don't think that's why they lost the game next one here though jake shane stuyken was too conservative in this game sitting on the lead uh not going forward on fourth downs when he should have late in this game to like really try to put it away do you think he should have been way more aggressive and should have gone forward on more of these fourth downs um on on more occasions yes just because it it it almost seemed like he was being like i felt like the entire thing with the chiefs in that fourth quarter in the second half was just away from his identity.

Starting point is 00:15:03 You know, he's an aggressive guy that's going to go more for the fourth downs is going to be more conservative in his play calling when he's got a lead. So I did think it was a little odd. I probably would have gone for it a time or two more than he did. Yeah, no, I get it. I'm aggressive as all heck. I mean, gosh, I would never kick in both situations. But I kind of understand in this game the punt decisions in a lot of these.

Starting point is 00:15:26 Like, the Colts defense all game long was holding down the chief's offense. Like, yeah, the chiefs were moving the ball, but they weren't getting points on the board. So there was some of it was trust in your defense. But the other part of it was a lack of trust in your offense, which you never want to say. But like, we still have to be realistic, you know? Like, what about what the offense was doing in the fourth quarter says that we should go for any of these fourth downs? Right. Like the processes were horrendous.

Starting point is 00:15:52 So, yeah, you could sit here and say, hey, the fourth and three around midfield with, like five or six minutes left in the fourth quarter, they should have gone for it. I know that's what Tony Romo was saying on the broadcast. Sure, it's easy to say when your job's not tied to it and stuff, but like, you know, the offense just threw a dirt ball on that third and three right before that. And you know Spag's going to bring eight defenders again. Do you want to try to run that back? I think the quarterback on the other side has a lot to do with it too.

Starting point is 00:16:21 Yeah. Shane is very cognizant at all times of who he's giving the ball back to when he makes decisions. Right. And then the other part of it is like the, was it the fourth and two in overtime after the Jonathan Taylor runs stuff. People were saying go for that as well. Again, Spag was going to bring eight guys. You want to trust Daniel Jones to make that play when he had just shown on three other third downs or fourth downs that they weren't making that play. So it's tough. It's tough to ever give the ball back to Pat Mahomes. And part of it is you want to go for it. But you also leave yourself susceptible to that old Patriots player where they went forward on the fourth down and

Starting point is 00:16:55 gave it back to Peyton Manning back in the day, and they threw it to the fullback short of the sticks, and we all know how that play went down. So there's risk either way, obviously. I don't hate trusting the defense in those situations, even though, again, I'm aggressive as all heck, and I would have maybe gone for him. But with the way your offense was playing, I don't know, you like, you have to have faith to go forward on fourth down, not only in your defense, but also in your offense. And I don't think the faith was there in the offense, and the guys executing what was called with what was going on. Yeah. So Shane's thinking with the fourth down in overtime is basically, you know, if you go for it, they're on fourth down and don't get it.

Starting point is 00:17:34 Well, there's your field goal. Your game winning field goal, Patrick Mahomes, like take a couple of plays to get there. What they want to do is punt and back them up as far as possible and make the chiefs eat off enough clock, even if they, you know, eat off enough clock to give the Colts the ball back with another chance to score, basically. It's a lot of hoping and praying in that scenario, but that's at least how he's explained where he's coming from there. I mean, and they had the chiefs in a third and eight situation. They just made a crazy throw to Rishi Rice down the field. That was maybe a 5 to 10% chance of completion.

Starting point is 00:18:10 Yeah. It just ended up like the bounces go against you sometimes. Last one though, Jake, and I think this is the one that's really pressing to talk about. It's not only Shane Stiking, but also his coaching staff. There's a fundamental issue with Blitz pickup in the scheme that they need. need to figure out because I totally agree with this takeaway. I think this is the biggest takeaway of the last couple of weeks. There has been a big issue with Shane Steichen's scheme and picking up Blitz's since he arrived

Starting point is 00:18:35 in Indy, even going back to Philly. A lot of it is on the quarterback to just get the ball out to scat protection or if they do go heavy personnel protections, a lot of option routes that take a long time to develop. So a lot of times you're doing like these one read like sit and wait for a guy to make his decision. And to me, I just don't know how sustainable that is. and we kind of seen it kind of fall back to earth these last couple weeks. Like the one you mentioned in the red zone to Josh Downs,

Starting point is 00:18:59 like they're running that option route, but you're facing a blitz. Your quarterback can't hang in there forever. So then when he makes that decision before Downs is out of his break, you can have miscommunications where the quarterback's throwing outside and the receiver's breaking inside. I love option routes, especially with Josh Downs, but a lot of these sacks have come from Jones sitting and waiting for Downs or another receiver to come out of these option routes,

Starting point is 00:19:20 and they're just taking too long to develop. So I think there is a fundamental issue with how they pick up blitzes. I don't know if it's something that can be fixed on the fly. And if I have any concern with Shane Stiking going forward and the Colts going forward, it is that more so than conservative play calling or not calling enough runs. Because I think that is an issue that could actually sink them. Yeah. What I want most from them moving forward is to recognize what their issues are and to, like,

Starting point is 00:19:47 you're not, like you said, you're not going to magically fix them right away. find ways to work around what you know your issues are. You know what I mean? Like fire up things that get the ball out quicker. Like you mentioned with the option routes, like the quarterback has to wait on the receiver's decision. And on that play in particular, I thought Jones made of,

Starting point is 00:20:08 you know, probably the right read because he throws at the downs there. And if downs goes out, he gets probably at least eight, nine yards on that third and four. So, yeah, I just want them to not be stubborn and recognize kind of where their shortcomings are.

Starting point is 00:20:21 yeah i i just think it needs to be more decisive in what they're calling like see a blitz coming right side is running running running a left side is running you know some kind of zone beater a high low a quick high low zone beater or something and just have them running decisive routes i think would be better or just have scat protection and like hey if they bring eight throw it out to tailor in the flat real quick um i just want more decisiveness i think so the quarterback's not thinking while also getting pressure bearing down on him yeah it worked early in the season because he because Daniel Jones was kind of relentless in how he hung in there and threw the ball to downs on those option routes. He waited for it to the last second and threw it there. But

Starting point is 00:21:00 with him now kind of being a little skittish back there, I don't know if those routes can be an answer to blitz protection because your quarterback needs to be like almost oblivious to the rush for that to work. And he hasn't been that since the fumbles against Pittsburgh. So I just don't know if that's a great response right now to the blitzes that they're facing. But But that's all we have for Stuyken and Jones on this episode. If you guys want more talk about Shane Stuyken, Daniel Jones, go to yesterday's episode that Jake recorded. Go to an episode that Jake recorded for tomorrow of Q&As as well, because almost every

Starting point is 00:21:35 question is about those two this week. But coming up, we're going to talk about the Colts defense and what the first impressions were of this new look defense with Soss Gardner, Mooney Ward, and everybody out there against Pat Mahomes and the Chiefs. NBA is back and there's no better place to get in on all the action than Fanduel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. If you miss the start of the game or you want to ride the hot hand, Fandual's got live bets on everything from who's going to score next to if there's a fourth quarter comeback on the horizon. Plus, you can even combine your live bets into a same

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Starting point is 00:22:45 It's not been as smooth sailing as it was in the first half of the year. you know, Daniel Jones has kind of come back down to Earth a little bit. Shane Stuyken's taking a lot of heat, including for me. I'm not going to make it. I'm not going to deflect things here for how we approach things in the second half in the fourth quarter against the Chiefs. But people have also been wondering quite a bit about the defense. I personally think the defense probably caught a little too much flack for how things went down the stretch. Now, well, it was over 90 snaps, Zach, which is about a game and a half.

Starting point is 00:23:18 half, two games. You know, I thought overall the defense did more than enough to win this game. But the Chiefs just, the Chiefs, I thought had kind of, I don't want to call it brilliant, but I thought the timing of the big plays they made was perfect. I thought the game plan they came into with adjusting to what the Colts defense was going to offer was really smart. Because all week, what did I say? I was like, okay, no Isaiah Pacheco.

Starting point is 00:23:48 even if they had Pacheco, they're not going to be able to just have this heavy run approach and it's going to make it. Well, Kareem Hunt had a career high 30 carries, and he only averaged three and a half yards per carry, but it was enough. You know, on second and short, third and short, the guy kept converting and moving the chains. I mean, 33 first downs was the most first downs. Any team has had this year.

Starting point is 00:24:11 So when you take all that into account, it kind of overshadowed a little bit. what I thought was a really, really good debut of the tandem of Soss Gardner and Moody Ward. So what did you get out of all that? Yeah, I'm happy I'm not really on social media as much anymore because I have no clue of where any opinion would be that the defense struggled in this game. Like, look, I'm not going to sit here and say it was a A plus game. I said that I said as much on the squad show. Like, there's always room to improve. But they went against the number two offense in EPA per play.

Starting point is 00:24:41 And offense that's even better at home. You know, they're one of the best offenses in football, regardless. this, but at home, they're pushing up there with the Colts offense in almost every metric with how good they have been at home. They're the best short yardage team in football. And they have a first ballot Hall of Famer at quarterback and at head coach and at tight end. You know, you're not going to contain them to zero yards in a game. Like, sure, you don't want to allow 500 plus yards in a game. But if you're getting two takeaways, if you're getting four sacks, if you're holding them to one of five in the red zone, that's enough to win a football game. Like I, I,

Starting point is 00:25:16 I think this was a beautiful chess match between Luana Rumo and Pat Mahoney slash Andy Reid. And I think for the most part, Loua and Rumo won the day. I thought that his defense was much better for a majority of the day. But you just can't, you can't give greatness constant chances in the fourth quarter. That was the thing. The Chiefs had four opportunities in the fourth quarter to come back from 11 point deficit. They had the ball four times. They went three and out on one of them and they fumbled in the red zone on the other.

Starting point is 00:25:43 That should be enough to win a football game. I'm sorry. Like, that's, it's no excuse. It's no excuse for the offense. So, yeah, if people want to pin this on the defense, like, yeah, you want to allow fewer points for sure. But I thought the defense played really good football. Like, again, you're not going to keep the chiefs off the field. They have arguably the most efficient offense in the league because Pat Mahomes is so efficient

Starting point is 00:26:06 and effective with his scrambling and with his ability to manipulate defense to get the checkdowns open and getting guys the ball in space that they face so many third and shorts. that they're just a really good offense. I know that they're not putting up the flashiest numbers this year, but it is a really good offense. So I think the way that Lou Ann Rumo responded to it, which was a lot of drop-eight coverage, a lot of contain rushes to keep Mahomes in the pocket.

Starting point is 00:26:29 And we saw a lot of these like unforced errors from Mahomes with three-man rushes where he didn't need to climb the pocket. But Lou played him exceptionally well. He had a really good scouting report on him and knew that Mahomes was going to force himself into pressure because he needs to be this playmaker. and I thought they were able to create a lot of pressure and messes for the Chiefs' offense as a result. Now, at the end of the day, though, again, if you just keep giving them chances, they're going to convert.

Starting point is 00:26:55 Like, it's like, it's like Kobe Bryant could shoot like 40% from the field. If he shoots 80 shots, you know, he's going to still get his 60 points or whatever, you know? Like, it's kind of what it was, you know? Like, they just had the ball forever. And even on the drives where the Colts defense would get a three and out or get the ball back to their offense, the ball was given right back to them. in better field position. So, you know, football is a complimentary sport. You need both sides of the ball to be playing well to be efficient. I thought the Colts defense, while not perfect in this game, like the run defense could have been better. There were a couple

Starting point is 00:27:27 past plays where like Mooney Ward fell down and so and so just lost contain on a rush or something like that. But overall, I think when you're going against an offense like that, it's the best possible outcome you could have had. Like the Colts don't have the Denver Broncos defense. They don't have edge rushers who are going to win in one second to absolutely beat down the Chiefs offense. So the next best thing you can do is hold them to field goals in the red zone, take the football away, gets timely sacks and timely incompletions, and they did that. So, you know, I think the first, like, impression of this new look defense was very good, even without DeForest Buckner.

Starting point is 00:28:05 I came away from that game very, very optimistic about the Colts defense going forward, even if it's a little bit more concerned about the Colts offense. Yeah, I thought the chiefs were just, again, really uncharacteristic in this one. They had not been running the ball at all, and that was their main mode of attack against the Colts. To me, it looked like they were trying to avoid sauce and Ward at all costs. Like Tony Roma was even, like, begging them to throw the ball along the boundary, which they would not do. It seemed like everything they wound up doing the passing game, at least their big plays, they funneled it all inside lots of crossers and in breaking routes and stuff and mind you this is a

Starting point is 00:28:49 team with speed speed speed like rishy rice hollywood brown Xavier worthy typhon thornton those guys are all incredibly fast like they're usually going to be able to beat the man they're they're being covered by and when you do that over the middle and you cause a guy to have to turn and burn with that like it's going to create those big plays the really timely big plays that they had and i mean it was it was just it was really good adjustments from the chiefs to just like they understood what lou and the personnel was going to be able to do against them and they just found the right things to dial up to get plays when they absolutely needed it like in in the end the chiefs just made the plays that the colts were not able to make

Starting point is 00:29:40 Yeah, and again, we're a couple of timely bounces going against the Colts away from talking about what a performance the Colts defense had in the win. I mean, Noah Gray gets knocked out on a catch and the ball lands on his chest. He doesn't ever catch the ball, but because it never hits the ground, it's rule to catch. And that's the difference between a fourth and two near the end of regulation and a fourth and eight that the Chiefs would have had to go for. And, you know, a fourth and eight's a much lower chance of conversion rate there, and the Colts arguably get the win in that case. Who knows, the Colts offense might have still needed to get a first down. So maybe not the win in that case. But yeah, there were a couple things.

Starting point is 00:30:13 And there were a couple like long third down conversions where they were inches away for making a play. So I'm really not concerned about the Colts defense. And I think when they go against lesser offenses, and again, maybe this is going to be a crazy thing to say right now before the game, but like the Texans offense or Jaguars offenses, good offenses, but they're not the chief's level of efficient and effective. I think we're going to see even more stifling performance from them. And I think another big takeaway is just how good they're going to be in the red zone,

Starting point is 00:30:39 the rest of the way with those big, long corners, athletic corners, I think they're going to be able to get all over receivers in the red zone and whole teams of field goals. So look, if my defense is holding the Kansas City Chiefs to 23 points through five quarters, I'm not blaming them, especially when they spotted seven points for the offense. They gave them seven points to start the game with the interception. So, yeah, I'm not blaming this defense whatsoever. I think it was a very, very positive showing from the defense.

Starting point is 00:31:09 It's just the Colts offense didn't hold up their end of the bargain. Yeah, my lasting impression from this game is like the football is just seriously, like a game of inches and like just such minute differences. Like you look at the opening drive. There's the three offensive line penalties. Jones has that awesome throw up the seam to Michael Pittman Jr. on third down. Like it's called back because of the Braden Smith, a legal formation penalty, which was. a little tic-y-tack, whatever. I mentioned the two miscues in the third quarter.

Starting point is 00:31:44 Like, they were so close to having just utter control of this game. And they did for most of the game. And it honestly made me remad about how the national media painted this game afterwards. Because I'm like, oh, my God, like the chiefs should not have been in this at all. But yeah, I digress. We're moving past this game after this. I will say this. as a final note on this game and heading into the next game,

Starting point is 00:32:12 every loss the Colts have had so far I can live with, you know, road losses to desperate teams that have been in the playoffs or the best team in football in the Rams. It starts now, though, this week in terms of, like, any kind of excuse or wishy-washing-away losses, because if they lose to the Texans this weekend, there is going to be no pushing that aside and moving on to the next. CJ Stroud was a full participant today, so it's probably stroud.

Starting point is 00:32:38 The Colts are lucky they're getting the 3-5 quarterback instead of the 3-0 quarterback, but still, it's a very new challenge here. But the Colts at home, got to take care of business, get back on track. There's no more excuses the rest of the way. Take care of your divisional games. Take care of your home games and get in the playoffs. Like we said, it was past game against the Chiefs, but even more so this week because now the Colts have some desperation, it's a playoff game this weekend. Don't lose. Don't lose this weekend.

Starting point is 00:33:05 But that's all we have for today. We'll be back with you guys tomorrow for the Lockdown Colts and Texans crossover for Thanksgiving Thursday there. You guys can listen to the crossover. Thank you guys for making Lockdown Colts your first listen today and every day. The NFL seasons in full swings. If your next listen, get a double dose of the Lockdown NFL podcast. Tyler, the Madman, Rowland, gets you a shot of espresso to start your football day. While Tony Wiggins takes you into the barbershop for the smoothest breakdowns to end the day.

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