Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Colts avoid COVID-19 scare after four false-positive tests

Episode Date: October 17, 2020

On today's episode, Stampede Blue's Stephen Reed joins Evan to discuss the Colts having a false alarm with COVID-19. Four people within the Colts organization reportedly tested positive, but it turns out all were false-positives in the end. How has Indy and the NFL overall handled the pandemic thus far?Stephen provides his thoughts on the Browns loss, more specifically Philip Rivers and the defense before diving into some more Cincy talk. What should we expect on Sunday against the Bengals? Will the Jonathan Taylor monster breakout game finally happen?All of this, plus so much more, in our latest episode of Locked On Colts! 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 to your latest episode of Locked On Colts, or the Locked On Podcast Network. Today is always your host, Evan Cedric. I'm joined by Stephen Reed of Stampede Blue, as we are here to talk through a very eventful day for the Apples Colts on an off day on Friday, as we're preparing for the Colts to play the Bengals on Sunday.

Stephen's going to talk about his thoughts from the Browns game, or of course we're going to talk about his thoughts as well for the Bengals game coming Sunday. But we'd be remiss if this draw off today's show, Stephen, with the news today that was national news. About four tests that turned out to be false positives for the Colts. A big-time COVID-19 scare this morning for the Colts where they had three staff members and one player, according to Albert Breer of SI,

that it seemed like we might have been in a situation where the Colts could have had their game delayed to like Monday night or Tuesday night if this would have been actually a real positive test. But it turns out false alarm, all four were false positive. What was your thoughts on that situation? Because obviously avoiding that was a huge sigh of relief. Yeah, you think about it. And just from the health standpoint, you want to make sure

that everybody is safe and everything, so I'm glad to hear that they were false positives in this situation. You never want to hear of anybody coming down with any kind of disease, and so, yeah, it caught us, I think, all a little bit off guard because the cults have been very conservative from everything that we've seen and everything that we know publicly with how they've handled the COVID-19 and their precautions, everything that they've done, all the steps that they've taken to limit contact and do contact tracing, everything like that. I think the important thing that we need to take from this is that the cult process worked and they've got a plan even though even if something happens they immediately went to all virtual um shut down the facility didn't even

risk it to have anybody in the facility until they found out whether those were true positives or whether they were false positives thankfully for the Colts organization and for those involved, that they were false positives and that the Colts were able to resume being at the facility later today, later in the day. And so it's obviously troubling, and it goes to the whole idea of this, is you never know. And so it's one of those situations where you never like to hear that it happens and you're glad that they're false positives. For me, I was a little bit scared, uh, for them and, and, and those involved and

their loved ones at home. And then the other part about it is, you know, possibly having to move the game. I've talked about this, if not on this podcast, on the podcast that I co-host, in that one of the big drawbacks on if this game had to have been moved and postponed and wasn't able to be played, say, on Monday or Tuesday, is that that effectively would take up the Colts bye week and they wouldn't have gotten that opportunity to really have a week away from the facility which is the best part about the bye week for players is that they're not necessarily at the facility like they would in any any game week and so from the Colts standpoint and on-field standpoint and their ability to still have their bye when they're supposed to have it

during the season, I think this was just kind of a huge sigh of relief for the Colts as an organization, for them in the football sense, and then also obviously for the health sense as well. Just overall, Stephen, last thing here really on this COVID scare because since nothing happened, it's a huge sigh of relief. And luckily there's not much else to hit on here because it's not going to be a situation where it drags on. And like you mentioned, the Colts, their process,

I believe they had two guys, I think it was Picasso, Nelson, and Malik Henry, two guys who were on the bottom end of the 90-man roster early on in training camp that tested positive. But from there, those guys were cut soon thereafter. Outside of that, though, there really hasn't been much at all as far as COVID-19 goes with this team. And that's a great sign moving forward. Like you mentioned, the process is working.

They're doing all the right things. Overall, though, just from a general standpoint, seeing from the NFL this year, what's been your thoughts on just the way it's been handled around the league I mean we saw the outbreak in Tennessee we saw Cam Newton and Stephon Gilmore get in New England a couple guys in Kansas City get it as well Atlanta had a scare today as yesterday for the Colts to these false positives as well I think the Jets did earlier this year as well it just seems at this point that's inevitable at least at some point whether it be false positives or actual positive tests. COVID-19 is not going away anytime soon.

And if you're on any NFL team, there's a good chance, or maybe not a good chance, but a really quality chance, in my opinion, that something, whether it be false positive or positive, is going to impact your team one way or another before the end of the season. Yeah, I think that's the most difficult part with nfl rosters because when you think about it you've got you know a 53 man roster and then a practice squad that's with 12 players 12 15 players um depending um on the time and so you've got anywhere between you know 65 to 70 people players that are going home and being around their families and the likely the difficult part with the NFL is the sheer number of players that they have on

the rosters the NBA was able to really effectively take care of this and able to finish off their season where they didn't have any positive tests. But they also were able to limit everybody to their bubble. The NFL really can't do that outside of doing it within their own facility because there's so much more that goes on for NFL teams in terms of just not, not even the players that you also have the coaches, you have the organizational personnel you you've got, you know, from the top down, there are so many people involved in the day to day for an NFL team that

inevitably something will happen around the NFL. And so I think so far, the NFL has done a really good job of being flexible with their schedule. I really liked the fact that they didn't have a Thursday night game this week because personally, I'm not a huge fan of Thursday night games in general. I'd much rather have them play the two Monday night games than the one Thursday night game. But in terms of everything that goes on with this, I think the NFL as a whole has done a very good job at handling it, being flexible, changing their schedule around when they have to. I think the Tennessee Titans really messed it up when they did it.

They didn't follow any of the rules. They went and had their unorganized practices or their organized practices off-site when they weren't supposed to be meeting. Apparently, you know, that got reported out, and it's just they weren't taking it seriously. And so that's what makes me really happy about the Colts is they do seem to be taking this very seriously from the top down.

And so as a whole, I think the NFL has done a good job. Of course, they're going to be outliers as with any kind of job or profession. But as a whole, I've been pretty satisfied with the NFL because they're not known to be flexible. They're pretty rigid in a lot of the ways they do things. So I'm glad to see that they're working around situations with what's going on now. BuiltGo makes you the best you at whatever you do. Break through your wall, whether it's a mental or physical wall, break through with Go every day.

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Let's go. Let's hit on a couple key bullet points from last Sunday's game, Stephen. I know we're approaching less than 48 hours away from the actual game on Sunday here, so I'm going to hit on a few of the key bullet points from Sunday's game. Let's start off with Phillip Rivers because it was a rough game for him.

Back-to-back weeks now where Rivers really hasn't had much success in the passing game. And this passing offense itself has really been trying to get out of their own schneid, so to say, for the last three or four weeks after that really impressive week one in Jacksville. And Rivers in that game had two interceptions where he threw 46 passes. In this one, he also had a pick, that pick six, and he also had that safety in the end zone. I think LeRaven Clark had a lot to do with that as well. I think Frank Reich has a lot to do with that as well, the play calling.

They did run that play-action pass with a deep seven-step drop out of your own five-yard line outside of that. But what was your assessment of the way Rivers played on Sunday, back-to-back weeks now where Rivers is – it looks like – it's not surprising because we, I think we talked in the office, Stephen, that in these like inclement cold weather conditions that Rivers might not fare the best with his arm, but what was your overall thoughts of how Phillip Rivers played on Sunday in Cleveland? I think Phillip Rivers was having kind of PTSD to his time in San Diego and with Los Angeles and the Chargers organization. For 17 years, he never really had protection.

And so he just kind of threw it up. He really, outside of, let me rephrase, games two through four, when he really got good protection and was settled in, he was a very accurate quarterback. I think we said before coming into last week, he was leading the league in completion percentage. He had plenty of time. He was working through his reads. He was doing fantastic. And then this week came and you missed Anthony Costanzo and I said during the game that I think that was arguably the biggest issue for the Colts leading in is because you've got an elite pass rusher with Myles Garrett going up against somebody that you're not real comfortable

with even letting him have a chip or chip lock or a tight end over there to slow Myles Garrett down and sure enough miles garrett wreaked havoc on philip rivers and forced him to make a lot of bad decisions um as for the like that's the really tough part is is philip rivers just made bad decisions and you're hoping that he gets that turned around and doesn't do that again because ultimately he did cost the Colts the game that pick six and then you had the the safety that's nine points right there that's directly attributed to Phillip Rivers mistakes um that's the ball game right there and so the Colts have to figure that out um and if hopefully Anthony Costanzo and he was limited this week

in practice um for the first for Wednesday and then the full participation and Thursday and Friday he's questionable for the game this weekend so if they can get Anthony Costanzo back I think that fixes a lot of the issues that Phillip Rivers has just because if you give Philip Rivers time he's an elite quarterback in terms of his accuracy and getting the ball where it needs to go so I'm not as concerned about Philip Rivers long term assuming that Anthony Costanza is healthy so they're kind of related correlated and and how how one goes the other. I think it's fair to say. I mean, obviously, Costanza lost last week.

It was obvious. We saw LaRaven Clark getting manhandled by Miles Garrett consistently. And, again, I think Costanza would have made a much better impact than Clark did against a player who's leading the league right now. I'd imagine that's a player that you're voting, Stephen. But what do you think of the receivers right now? I know T.Y. I mentioned this on our CrossFit podcast with James Rapine of Locked On Bengals earlier this week.

I think T.Y. honestly has lost a step a little bit as far as being that true elite number one guy in this league and being able to really separate and do all that good stuff. We've seen flashes here and there, but honestly, T.Y. still has not a 100-plus-yard game in the last calendar year, and it's been just a tough sledding with him with Brissette last year, now still getting a group of Phillip Rivers here. But you have T.Y. really exiting out of his prime years at this point. You have Zach Paschal as well. He's a great blocker.

He's a great route runner too, but he's obviously not at the level of guys like Paris Campbell and Michael Pittman Jr. How much do you think that Rivers is missing those two guys, Campbell and MPJ right now? I think it's huge. And I think it's huge based on what we saw in that first game, those first two games with Paris Campbell, is they had a plan for him.

And Paris Campbell was the guy that you had T.Y. on the one side, Paris Campbell on the slot, Michael Pittman Jr. on the other side, and teams couldn't just double T.Y. all the time because you had to be aware of Paris Campbell. You saw it in the first two games is he kept catching balls over the middle, and if you get him in space, he'll eat you alive. I think with T. with ty it does appear that he's lost his stuff but i'm not necessarily ready to throw him under the bus and toss him away

because you have to realize that the colts number two receiver right now is zach paschal and he's a quality receiver but he's not somebody that you really want to have as your number two. And so teams are able to cover Zach Paschal man on man for the most part. And that leaves defenses to bracket coverage, TY, double him up if they have to. And so I'm not sure exactly whether it's all on TY losing a step or because defenses are starting to shift coverage over to T.Y. to make sure that he doesn't beat them. Because in terms of the receiving game, he's all the Colts have right now, especially with Mo'Ali Cox being out going into the Bengals game this week. Jack Doyle's been – you hope that he's consistent,

but he hasn't been recently. And so that's the thing is they don't really have a solid, like, guy to draw coverage away from T.Y. And that's really where the questions lie is will Darius Fountain show up? Will Marcus Johnson start to play well like he did last year in Tampa Bay? He had a huge game when given the opportunity. Ashton Doolin made some great catches this week. If they can get those guys some snaps and they can really show some reliability, they can use T.Y. as more of a decoy and go ahead and bracket coverage him. But as a whole,

there are some concerns because they really were relying a lot on Paris Campbell and Michael Pittman Jr. And with both of them out, it really has hampered the offense. Last point here on the Browns game, Stephen, before we transition to the Bengals game. What do you think of this defense? They only allowed, like you mentioned, nine points around Phillip Rivers there, so 23 points the defense allowed against that Browns offense last Sunday.

A high-powered offense at that, like we saw. I mean, a really rough first half, though. They allowed 20 points in the first half there. The Browns moved the ball up and down the field, and then I think three or four long drives in a row start that game. But in the second half there, they really settled in. Great halftime adjustments by Maddie Rufus and that defensive staff to really stifle Baker Mayfield in that passing attack

because their running game really wasn't going for the Browns most of the day in that one. Do you feel like that game showed us anything else as far as how good this Colts defense could be in 2020? I feel like holding that Browns offense, honestly, at 23 points the way they've been playing this year was pretty impressive to me. Yeah, I think people are making too big of a deal about the defense giving up, you know, giving up 23 points to the Browns is really impressive. They gave up 20 points in the first half. I had a couple of friends that are Browns fans that,

that texted me at halftime and said, Hey, guess what? The Colts have given up more yards to the Browns at halftime than they have in the last three games total or in each of those games. And I was like, well, that's a cute stat. Let's see how the second half goes. And then, you know, the defense allowed 101 yards in three points in the second half. And so you look at that from a standpoint of, you know, the Browns offense, they were clicking in the first half, but that's really where you saw the lack of Darius Leonard in this game.

That being able to spy a quarterback like Baker Mayfield, who likes to make plays by running and getting out of the pocket and extending plays. And all of the Browns' big plays were either circus catches where they literally made them through a Colts player who had pretty good coverage. And the announcer was just saying, I can't believe he made that catch. And they said it like three or four times during that first half. And then you had the Baker

Mayfield being able to run and get out of pressure and the Colts just weren't able to bring him down and he extended plays with his legs. In those situations, that's where having a player like Darius Leonard makes a huge difference. It's because you can have him in there and spy a quarterback like Baker Mayfield, similar to how Darius Leonard has played Deshaun Watson in the past, and really limit the ability for him to extend plays. Because he's not going to be able to run all the way to the sideline. He's not going to be able to run three or four times back and forth across the field.

So it gives his receivers time. You're asking those, those corners to cover five, six, seven seconds. And that's way too long for corners to cover. And that's the toughest part as a defensive back. And so the fact is Baker Mayfield made some great plays, made some fantastic throws, throws that normally he doesn't make. And so it was unlucky on the Colts' part. I feel really good about, like you said, the adjustments they made at halftime. Matthew Mayfield really shut down the Browns' offense after the half.

They couldn't do anything. Instead, get 101 yards total and then three points. That's pretty good. And that's pretty much on par to what the Colts defense has allowed for most of the season. And so as a whole, I'm not too concerned about the defense. Hopefully Darius Leonard's growing injury starts to heal a little bit better. I believe he's doubtful for this game against the Bengals. But the fact that he's not explicitly ruled out, I think is a positive sign in terms of his rehabilitation. Let's move on now, Stephen, to this Bengals game on Sunday.

I just checked DraftKings. The Colts are eight-point favorites over the Bengals. Joe Burrow, of course, coming to town. You have a young offense. You have a really unproven offensive line that's already allowed on pace for 70 sacks for Joe Burrow this year. David Carr-esque numbers, early-day Andrew Luck-esque numbers for Joe Burrow right now.

And hopefully the Bengals are able to fix the offensive line and not have an Andrew Luck 2.0 situation like we saw at the Colts this past year with him retiring due to injury later on in his career. But what do you think of this game here on Sunday, Stephen? Does it feel like the kind of Jets game on Sunday? I kind of alluded to that earlier this week, that this feels like a really good opportunity to have a get-bad game, so to say, where this could be an opportunity for the Colts

on both sides of the ball to really get their mojo back for the bye week. Yeah, this game feels like it should be like the Jets game where the Colts should take advantage of of the Bengals in their lack of offensive line and they don't really have a big receiving threat either AJ Green's been silent and then he had that hamstring injury flare up again Tyler Boyd's been meh Joe Mixon is is maybe their best receiving threat because they're running back. And so in terms of offensive skill players, Joe Burrow is obviously fantastic, and he's played really well in terms of what you kind of see from him, but he's got no time.

If you give him time, he's able to make some plays, but he's got no time. He's got no offensive line. I think you're right. They need to just basically draft five new offensive linemen next year and pay up to get the best guys they can. I think that the Colts have a real opportunity to jump on them early. The defense can take advantage of them. I could see there being a pick six in this game for the Colts.

You hope that the offense is able to take advantage of what is a weaker Bengals defense to really kind of get Jonathan Taylor going, get that run the damn ball mentality back from the offensive line that they've really been lacking all season to this point. And so you hope that you see those things come about and that there's some kind of reawakening of the Colts offense, that they're able to figure this out and kind of get things going. Because what they've done so far has been underwhelming, I'd say, at best in terms of the offense. They start the game and their first, you know, those scripted 15 to 20 plays to start the game are really, really good.

And the Colts are really efficient to start the game. But then after that, they kind of slow down. And so the hope is that they'll start to work that in and kind of get that play calling right and get a feel for the game a little bit better. And hopefully that they'll be able to put some points in the barn early and be able to just let those pass rushers, let Ben Banigou and Kamoko Arture, if he's able to come back,

you know, let these guys, Justin Houston and DeForest Buckner, get these guys some real opportunities to rush the passer and put some pressure on Joe Burrow and just let them kind of pin their ears back and go. And that's what you really want with the defense is for the offense to kind of get out early and let the defense just be able to pin their ears back. It helps that they're playing on the faster here, Lucas oil. I think that makes a huge difference for this defense as a whole because they

are predicated on speed and speed and quickness and being here on the turf. That really, really helps them. Doesn't this feel like Steven also, also as far as like a bounce-back game and really kind of that statement game goes? I've been waiting for so long for this Jonathan Taylor breakout game to happen. The Bengals are actually allowing over five yards per carry so far this year, which is one of the worst marks in the NFL. If Costanza goes on Sunday, which it sounds like he will,

he's been a full participant the last two days of practice. So if he's back and the full offensive line is ready to go and they're gelling a full sink, I mean, this feels like the recipe right here, Steven, for finally to see that Jonathan Taylor 100-plus-yard breakout game. I know we saw it in Minnesota. His first career started at 101 yards, goes on 26 carries. I feel like this could be one of those games we see like the Wisconsin version of Jonathan Taylor if this all goes well. Yeah yeah I think you know I think you've really got an opportunity

to see him rush for 150 yards um against his Bengals team and to do it and and really to have him average you know probably pretty close to five five yards of carry if not more um I don't know how much the Frank Reich will will use him if the colts get out to a big league they might you know give more snaps to jordan wilkins in the fourth quarter just to kind of save up jonathan taylor a little bit but this does this feels like a game that should be a jonathan taylor game this feels like a game where the colts are going to run the ball down their throat and just try to take control of the physicality take control of the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball

and just kind of take them and and put them to the ground and just don't let off the gas Steven before we close this show I want to get your prediction for this one I mentioned earlier this week my prediction for this game I think it's going to be like you mentioned a a grinded out type of game where I think the Colts offensive line is, I want to get your prediction for this one. I mentioned earlier this week my prediction for this game. I think it's going to be, like you mentioned, a grinded-out type of game where the Colts offensive line is going to want to control this one. John Taylor maybe gets around 25 carries in this one as well. Run the damn ball in full effect here. I'm going

23-13. I think maybe the Bengals have one successful driver or two in this one. I love watching Joe Burrows. It's going to be fun to watch him against this Colts defense, but I feel like this Colts defensive line, they're going to really abuse that front five of the Bengals offensive line, as well as really a trench battle between both sides for the Colts. It's a massive advantage here, and I think the Colts are really going to expose that on Sunday. I'm going to go 23-13, the Colts over the Bengals. Stephen, what do you think? My guess was 24-10 on it. I just feel like the Colts should be such a much better team than the Bengals.

I think it's one of those things where the Bengals kind of, similar to what happened in Chicago, where they get like a late jump touchdown to really kind of put it away. But I expect the Colts to be up like 21-24-3 for most of the game. I just don't expect the Bengals' offense to really do anything or put anything together based on what they've done thus far this season. It just doesn't seem like they've got enough firepower to really compete. Steven, always enjoy talking with you.

He's a weekly guest here on the podcast. Go and follow him, if you're not already, at Nice Read Steve, and go listen to his work and read his work as well over on Stampede Blue. Steven, appreciate the time, man. Thanks, Evan.