Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - COLTS SQUAD SHOW: Indianapolis Colts Have Another LETDOWN in Loss to Houston Texans

Episode Date: November 30, 2025

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I'm Jake Arthur, and the Colts lost today. In the grand scheme of things, it's one loss, but they might be in a little bit of trouble. And I'm Zach Hicks, and this team is staring down the barrel of the biggest collapse in team history. And I'm Alan Pickett, former Oiler, and I know everyone is disappointed, but the bright side is you're still in first place. Colts Nation rise up. It's the Colts Squad. Everything Indianapolis Colts every week covering all the big hits and game changing plays from the circle city the way only the locked on podcast network can it's time to squad up the cult squajo starts now right hello everybody i am jake arthur indianapolis colts beat writer for roundtable sports joined by the legendary

notre dame fighting irish running back in former houston oiler allen pinkett and then you know my partner in crime on the Locked on Colts daily podcast as well as Zach Hicks and welcome to the locked on Colts squad show your favorite number one place to be after games whether you're hate watching after a loss or you are reveling in a Colts win we are here for you regardless and today's episode is brought you by GameTime download the GameTime app create an account and use code locked on NFL for 20 bucks off of your first purchase again welcome everybody to this show. We were talking the Colts 20 to 16 loss today to the Houston Texans here at Lucas Oil Stadium, their first home loss of this season. And boys, we said leading into this one that

this was technically a must win, but this was pretty dang close to as must winnie as you can be despite being in control of the division. You look at it. You just allow the Texans to get within a game behind you. The Jaguars are now tied with. you at eight and four as a result of their shalacking of the of the tennessee titans and i mean in november the colts dropped three of their last four so again this is one loss but you're seeing a lot of the same stuff pop up uh so zach number one is this team in trouble and then what did you see today that kind of reaffirms your opinion of that yeah i mean they're they're absolutely in trouble i mean they're they're in a lucky spot where they were able to build

up such a lead to be at eight and two or, I mean, if you're going to go back a little further at seven and one going into that Steelers game to where these couple losses don't completely sink their season, but you're absolutely in trouble, you know? And I think if we look at this from like an analytic standpoint, they're not like in this horrible place because they still are competing with these teams. These are one score losses and one score losses are essentially coin flips in the NFL, but you still have to win some of those coin flips. You know, you can't be hitting your worst moments late in the season, and it doesn't get easier for the Colts the rest of the way. You know, they play all playoff teams down the stretch here. If you count Houston

as a, you know, playoff contender, the Jaguars are peaking at the right time. They are getting better and better each and every week. And then you get two really tough NFC West teams in the 49ers and the Seahawks. You both look like they're going to be playoff bound. So this is not what you want to see from this Colts football team, an offense that look like a historically great offense to start the season is averaging just 18 points per game over the last two games especially and one of them again considering a home game today they were averaging well over 30 points per game at home only 16 today against the Texans it's just unforced errors it's bad like going on the flip side of just these margin for errors just so short in the

NFL and you just can't be on the negative side of it and that's how you lose football games so you know the season's not over because they built up such a lead to where like look, they're still eight and four right now. They still have a chance to write the ship, win the division even. I mean, heck, they're still tied for first place, but you lost, this was, like down the stretch here,

this is one of the best opportunities they had. This was a home game against a divisional opponent who isn't at the same caliber of like the Seahawks. Maybe even not the same caliber as the Jaguars. You know, I know that those two had some evenly matched games, but like the Jaguars look like the better football team. So this was such a winnable football game for the Colts, had a couple of bounces go their way, and they just couldn't get over the hump.

So, yeah, it's looking dire right now. I don't blame Colts fans at all for being kind of bleak about the outlook the rest of the way, because we are seeing this team kind of hit that valley of the season right now, while other teams that are chasing them are hitting the peaks of their season. Texans, four-game winning streak, Jaguars of what, held teams to like 11 points in their last two games or something like that? They're playing some really good football where the Colts are kind of bottoming, out and losing this game at home with playoff implications here. I think it does kind of hit

the new low for the Colts on this season. Well, I saw from my eyes a rather lethargic team, a team that struggled to get any rhythm, haven't seen the punter this much all season. And I don't know if the Colts were still depressed from last week's defeat of the Chiefs, or wasn't because they were playing the number one defense in the NFL. And that defense really reared his head. It was, to me, a defense that was able to bully the Colts, that they were very physical with the Colts. The Texans just looked faster,

just looked more excited to be there. And I can't really say a lot of bad things about the defense because the Colts defense, held them to 20 points in a contemporary NFL game if you hold your opponent to 20 points you should win that game you know but the offense really struggled

they did announce the commentators did announce the injury to Daniel Jones and that he was still going to play showed his nice little pad that was his custom made pad on his legs but you know

having played every team goes through like a little funk and a downtime sometimes we like to call it the dog days of the season and you just got to work your way through it and part of that working your way through it is not correcting the things you did wrong on film because every team watches the film and every team is going to hit you with some of those things until you correct them and some of those are, you know, earlier in the season, when there was like a seven-yard dig route, the defender was usually five yards behind a Josh Downs. Now, teams are squatting on that, and I see the defender right on Josh Downs back at seven yards, at the depth where the first down is.

So that needs to be corrected. I did see one screen pass today. Remember how I asked for, if you're going to get pressure, screens. draws. I did see one screen pass to JT. And he almost took it to the, well, he didn't almost take it to the house, but he got a very nice gain out of that. So all these things, I think, are correctable. But I think the one thing that has to take place is you got to regain that mindset that you are a machine on offense and that you're not going to be denied. And as long as you are executing the way you're supposed to execute, that nobody can stop you. And I didn't see that

today. Yeah. And I just think, again, a game like this shows how close the margin for error is in the NFL. Because you look at the Colts offense today. After the first quarter, it was a very, very sluggish first quarter, a dreadful first quarter for the offense, a couple three and outs, and just not their best football whatsoever. And that kind of got them behind the eight ball. But if you look at the rest of the game, they moved the ball pretty effectively. They got in the red zone a handful of times. And I mean, honestly, I thought, we'll talk about more in segment two, but I thought Jones had a perfectly fine day after that first quarter.

But it shows that you just can't have quarters like that in the NFL. Getting behind the eight ball, they were lucky to be down just three nothing after that first quarter. They even got a lead at one point, but it's hard to overcome a missed extra point. A couple drops from Josh Downs, including that drop on the very last drive. It's hard to overcome that. A fumble on fourth and one that just can't happen whatsoever. However, Jonathan Taylor on that second and two in the red zone, cutting back outside and losing six yards on the play, turning it into a third and eight, those are the things that lose you football games.

And you throw in some bad penalty luck because NFL refs are just at their job. You throw that in there as well, and that's the recipe for losing games. You know, I'm not going to sink this team completely because these are coin flip type losses, you know, an overtime loss to the Chiefs, a four point loss to the Texans here. where, again, if they just don't call that penalty on Kenny Moore, this is a very different game. If Michael Badgley makes an extra point, which tickers aren't paid to do, make a dang extra point, this is a different game. But this is the difference between winning or losing in the NFL.

And again, this Colts offense is not very far off from where they were early in the season, but those couple lapses in execution, those couple lapses in what they were doing earlier in the year, where receivers were catching everything. And now the only receiver that's stepping up on a week-to-week basis is Alex Pierce. All the other receivers have seemed to regress. The offensive line is not winning as thoroughly as they did early in the season. We're seeing Jonathan Taylor missed some pass blocking assignments and had a couple more negative runs today than he's ever had this year.

That's the difference between 30 to 40 points on Sunday and 16 points because they moved the ball. They had a couple big plays. Daniel Jones had some good moments. But the execution needs to be better. They need to be cleaner. They need to be more solid. And they're just not getting it right now.

So, you know, the rest of the season, They've got five games to figure this thing out. You know, if you lose these five games, you're not making the playoffs. You win only one of these five games. You're probably not making the playoffs. Heck, even just winning two, you might not make the playoffs here. It's a tough AFC race. Colts need to buck up and figure this thing out.

Get their execution back on point. You can't be playing your worst football in November and December and expect to make the playoffs regardless of how great your start was. So I don't think I've seen anything these last two weeks that says they're like a terrible football team, but you're not playing cupcakes the rest of the way. You're playing playoff caliber football teams. You can't be making these mistakes on a week-to-week basis and expect to get out of this unscathed. So they need to figure this thing out. It's on the coaching. It's on the players. It's on the leaders in that locker room to figure this thing out and clean up these

issues because the Colts just a couple weeks ago made an all-in move to go get Sauce Gardner. And right now they're staring down the barrel of being without their first round picks the next two years and potentially missing the playoffs this year. And that just can't happen. You know, that can't happen if any of these guys want to keep their jobs. You know, so we said going into the Kansas City game that down the stretch, the Colts really need to match the desperation of other teams. Now the other teams are going to have to match your desperation because the Colts need to be the desperate team in every single game here on out. There's no leeway anymore. You're tied for the division lead. I mean, again, the difference between being the three seed right now and being

the 10th seed is two games. And Kansas City has a tiebreaker over you. So there's no margin for error now with this team. You've got to win. You've got to win going for it. You've got to figure these things out, get back on track, and get back to what was working early in the season.

I believe in this team, but these last couple weeks have been dreadful football and it just can't continue. Yeah, Alan, as a player who, like, you've got to keep optimism, you've got to keep on that train because, like, I'm sure in the locker room once doubt starts to creep in, it's all over.

After this game, I'm sitting there. I'm just trying to think of common denominators over this last month that are leading to all this stuff. And, you know, you've seen losses where there's a ton of sacks or there's a ton of turnovers. But guess what? Between the last two weeks, both losses, one sack combined, zero turnovers combined. There's, you know, untimely penalties. There's, like Zach said, the offensive line is not establishing itself. Like, they were establishing dominance and setting the tone.

earlier in the year now they're not like on defense you've got these i don't know blown coverages or just it seems like offenses know exactly where to attack the colts at times so from your perspective i mean five games left that's that's only a quarter of the season it is do or die like zach said zero margin for error left i mean what's what's the mindset for a team like the colts like if you're in their locker room after this game what do you think well you're pissed off because of the loss. You're pissed off even more because you lost at home. You're doubly pissed off because you lost to a conference, a division opponent. So those are like three strikes right there. But you remind yourself that you have three games left. Excuse me,

five games left. You also have to remember that you're still in first place, that you still can control some of the things. So it becomes more of a detail-oriented process. Go look at the film, see, look at the mistakes, iron out those mistakes, and then come out playing like you did in week one. You know you can move the ball. But if you get behind the sticks, it just, it gets you out of rhythm and you can't really execute your office. offense. You know, you can execute the offense. And, you know, what's nice about this particular team is everybody can eat. Everybody has a certain dimension. They shouldn't be able to shut you down because if they want to double Pittman, we'll throw to Alec Pierce all damn day. But I think

the one thing, the most glaring thing that has to return that has to be made a priority by his offense is getting the ball of Jonathan Taylor and getting the running game going again. I know other defenses are committing to stopping the run, but you've got to figure out a way to get that running game going because, number one, it's going to put the ball in your hands. Your time of possession is going to be a lot better. I mean, the Texans held the ball for what? Damn near 35 minutes today. just playing keepaway with a mediocre NFL offense, you know,

but you see what happens when you just keep moving the chains. What, the Colts were three in ten, three out of ten on third down. You know, you're not going to win that way, you know. But it's all, I think it's all in the details. And if they can fix these little details and have a second and four instead of a second and nine, then you're making your way towards, you know, playing ahead of the sticks, executing your offense, and ultimately getting into the end zone and winning. Yeah, where there's that much going on,

it seems like all you can do is literally control what you can control as an individual. All right, guys, coming up in a moment, you know, kind of the talk of the town all week again has been Daniel Jones and his fibula injury. More information starts to come out. And, you know, he had another game to play today. So we're going to evaluate his performance here in just a moment. This episode is brought to you by Price Picks. You and I make decisions every day, but on Price Picks,

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All right, welcome back every dayers. We are talking Colts Texans. Colts lose 20 to 16. They are now eight and four on the season. All is not lost, but now they have to share the division lead with the Jacksonville Jaguars. Meanwhile, the Texans are just a game behind both of them. Colts and Jaguars next week. So the whole thing, very, very intriguing, very, very, I don't want to say exciting.

It's more anxious, I would say. But one of the main things I think that's kind of giving people anxiety right now is not knowing what to expect from Daniel Jones. Last week against the Chiefs was the first week he played with this fibula that is reportedly fractured. The team won't confirm nor deny, but, you know, the report is out there still. He's obviously playing a bit limited. I thought he was really good through three quarters against the Chiefs, and then things just kind of fell apart in the fourth quarter. Out here today, given the context, I didn't think he was all that.

He did complete, you know, about in the neighborhood of 50-ish percent, 200 yards, two touchdowns, again, no turnovers, just one sack, pass-a-rating over 100. He's obviously not really running the ball. With the leg, you've got to imagine the quarterback sneak that we used to see pretty successfully that's out of there for now. Like you saw Tyler Warren with that trick play that the little, you know, handoff there, or not handoff, but, you know, tried to take the under center snap.

It just didn't quite work. So I do think Jones not necessarily being available in that instance, is affecting things. You're not seeing him out on the move as much. He's just kind of classic dropback passer right now, and that's not necessarily his game. So in this one, Zach, how did you see it? How do you evaluate Jones and to what degree he impacted this game?

Yeah, I thought Jones was pretty good overall in this game. I thought there were certainly some moments you'd like to have back. Again, the first quarter, the whole offense was really stale looking, and he missed a couple of throws and forced a couple things. but he avoided the big turnover in this one. I thought he made several big-time throws. I mean, those couple throws he had Josh Downs on that one drive. The touchdown to Alec Pierce was a fantastic throw from him.

And yeah, we are seeing a limited style of offense with his injury where not having the ability to QB sneak in the NFL, I think, is massive. It's a massive thing that takes away from your offense, not only because we saw the results of that with the Tyler Warren fumble, but it's like an automatic conversion. I know the Texans didn't get it with their near the end of that game. I used to tie it in too. For the most part, it's like an automatic conversion. We saw early in the season how much the Colts were converting with Daniel Jones in that situation.

And to lose that flexibility on third and inches, fourth and inches, I think that does hurt the Colts a lot going forward. And then we've seen just the, I mean, outside of the touchdown throw to Tyler Warren, there's just no bootleg game anymore with the Colts. And that was such a vital piece of their offense early in the season. And I think that is hurting some of the efficiency on that side of the ball. But overall, you know, they asked him to be a dropback passer.

He's not really able right now to create those like plus plays on the move like he did early in the season where like the scramble against the Titans, a couple of the plays against the Broncos where he got out of the pocket and through the ball. He can't really do those at the same level as early in the year. So it does limit a couple of the third down conversions. But for the most part, I thought he wasn't that much of a problem today. want to see a couple more situations where maybe he gets the ball out in the flats a little bit quicker instead of trying to force these like over the middle ones but yeah he made some plus throws he got them into plus situations a lot there were just a couple drops from josh downs that i

thought really hurt them uh there was a drop by jonathan taylor it wasn't really like a big drop but a drop by taylor um and i thought he put it out there a couple times so yeah i think jones for the most part like yeah he is certainly limited he's looking more like uh you know 20 20 philip rivers back there for the Colts but like that's that's good football that's good enough to win football I thought he put it out there and I thought he played fairly well and and again if Downs catches that ball on the last drive we might be talking about a different story here because they were marching there with a chance to win the game puts the ball on the numbers for Downs two yards toward the sticks on third and 10 and if Downs turns that ball up field and gets a first down or falls just an inch

short the Colts might go on and punch that in and win the game so I thought he played some pretty good football today. Definitely good enough to win against the number one defense in football. They just weren't able to get those, those couple opportunities, and obviously the extra point missed by the kicker was a big factor in there as well. But yeah, I thought Jones played fairly well. I think this is one of his better performances out of the last four that we've seen. And again, in retrospect of like what the injury is right now, where I know it's not like a weight-bearing injury, but it's still a painful injury. Like it's a fracture in a part of your leg. So it might not, it might not like fully limit like your ability to walk, but you feel the

pain every time you step for him to gut it out there and still have a pretty good performance against the top defense. I thought was really promising from him. So for outside of the first quarter, I thought he played some good ball. Yeah, I don't have any complaints about Daniel Jones and the way he played. I think he executed pretty well. But a limited Daniel Jones makes it tougher to win a football game. If I'm playing that 85% versus 100% at 85%, I might be hurting the team, not helping the team. But I think one thing you bring up, Zach, is every single possession matters, every play matters. And, you know, one of the things that happens in football is when bad things happen, it becomes

contagious you know one drop leads to another drop to another drop it's just i don't don't know how to explain it uh but when things are clicking then then guys concentration uh level is a little bit better and they make those plays but you start seeing drops it's just you know a contagious thing and uh it's i thought he played good i think he handled the the blitz well but I will say this as a player. There's a difference between playing hurt and playing injured, right? And I guess I would say playing hurt, you can deal with some of the pain. But when you're playing injured, you know,

it's sort of like if somebody gets close to that leg, ball's coming out. I don't care if dude's open or not. Ball's coming out. If I'm playing injured and somebody even touches the limb that I'm currently nursing, it's going to affect my performance. You know, so right now we're not getting 100% Daniel Jones, but whatever we're getting, he's doing his job.

I think he faced down the blitz a lot better this week than he did last week, which makes me think he's probably even worse last week. from a pain threshold than he was this week. He's had an extra week to heal. So definitely got to get that thing going. Yeah, I think if, I'm not going to say like Jones was perfect and everybody let him down, but there was definitely a handful of drops. You know, Downs had a couple.

Jonathan Taylor had at least one. Michael Pittman, Jr., you could argue, could have caught that final ball there in the fourth quarter. I mean, it wasn't an easy pass, but there were just plays out there to be made. and so I don't really find myself really seeing him at fault. I'm actually a bit encouraged because he does seem to be getting a little better each time we see him. So that part of it's not too bad. But speaking of injuries, like before the game was over and that became the biggest story,

Soss Gardner came out with a non-contact injury. Now we talked to him after the game and it doesn't, it seems like he hopefully avoided something serious. But he said he felt kind of something. something in his upper calf. He, you know, he hit the ground again, non-contact, hobbled off, couldn't put any weight on that left foot, went to the tent, went to the locker room, eventually came back out to the sideline, and he had just the big, chunky gray boot on its left foot. Again, we talked to him in the locker room after. He had the boot, but he also

has a set of crutches now as well. So Tom Pelliserro came out and reported that it does seem that they've avoided something serious because when you see that you can't really help but immediately thank Achilles. So there's going to be some further stuff done, you know, over the next 24 hours and hopefully we'll learn more. But I guess let's start here, Zach, with the effect you saw out there without him because when you get Charberius Ward and then you get sauce gardener, you're like, okay, Nico Collins can't hurt us anymore ever again. We'll be totally fine. But, you know, the Texans came out and they had some nice plays on offense in the passing game. And it felt like, you know, Gardner was probably missed a little bit out there.

Yeah, I think it's just at the point now where this defense is just not going to get to the full strength that we hope for this season. With the Buckner injury, with the Mooney Ward injuries, he doesn't look like himself after coming back from that second concussion. He's kind of been like a replacement level player these last couple weeks. not terrible, but he hasn't been the Mooney Ward that we saw early in the season, that first month or so of the season before his second concussion. And now losing Sauce Gardner, you lose the guy that you invested so much in at the trade deadline. And honestly, I'll give the defense credit to just for the heck that they fought as well as they did to only give up 20 points in this game. Like, yes, you want to get off the field a little bit more than they did. The defensive line is

in a bad spot right now with their pass rush. They're just not impacting passers whatsoever back there. Even when they bring the blitz, like it's just not effective enough. So they do need to find some answers and it wasn't a perfect day. But, you know, the defense is the hampered unit right now. I know on offense, the quarterback is dinged up, but everyone else is healthy out there on offense. They need to get the points on the board because when your defense is down, two of their three best players, and then Mooney Ward, their other best player still doesn't seem right out there. He doesn't look the way he did early in the season. The fact that they're forcing turnovers and that they're forcing field goals in the red zone, I mean, they're doing as much as they can on that side

of the ball. You want to see it better for sure. But they're the hampered unit right now. They're the more injured unit. They're the unit that wasn't number one in the NFL to start the season. So I do think they're fighting well. They're getting teams off the field in the red zone. And even when they're allowing a touchdown because of a bogus penalty in there, I can't let that pass. But yeah, I think the defense is fighting throughout the adversity right now. It's unfortunate that's, like all the bad luck has happened on the Colts defense this season with the Gardner injury now, Buckner being out, and again, Ward just not looking like himself. But they fought well, they just need more from the offense on the other side to capitalize.

I mean, like Allen said, 20 points allowed in an NFL game should be enough to win in the modern NFL game, especially when you take the ball away once and they also had a fourth downstop late in the game. That should be enough to win in the NFL. You need more from your defense or more from your offense to counteract that. Well, the fact that, Jake, you said you saw him walking, it gives me some hope. With a boot, and he's got crutches, so he's not, like, walking unimpeded. Right, yeah. But then I was going to say that the fact that he was in a boot, now I'm a little more concerned.

But what I'm hoping is it was he caught it early enough to where it's a strain and not a pull. I have strained that calf before, and it's a good week that it takes. And you can be in perfect shape, but when the calf feels like going, it's just going to go. And I can't explain it. I'm hoping more calf because that type of injury doesn't last as long as an Achilles. And Achilles is just a death blow. So I'm hoping it's not in Achilles. But when I saw him, they sort of walk a little gingerly, I was thinking, oh, God, I hope that's not an Achilles.

But it is something he can hopefully rehabilitate. And I think the defense, you know, played fairly well in his absence. You know, but there's definitely a different swagger that that defense has when both guys are out there. You know, they play with a little more confidence because they know they can do a lot more things because, you know, Sauce and Moody are going to lock down their two best receivers. But I think we're also seeing the effect of No DeForest Buckner in there because I've got to tell you something, yeah, there may have been some open guys and some other plays made, but this dude Woody Marks looked like a bowling ball

going through that defense. I mean, when he lowers his shoulders and puts his head down, I don't want to stand in front of him if he's running the football. So to me, that was the area that, you know, I think hurt the defense the most. And what he ended up with 64 yards, not that many. But there were crucial times when he got first downs that just, you know, put you back up against the wall in terms of having time to do something. So it's not just sauce.

I'm hoping we can get the DeForest Buckner back because that will solidify that run game just a little bit more. And I think that's what hurt the Colts more than Saw's being gone. Yeah, for the love of God, maybe we'll see this defenseful trick, maybe one or two weeks before the season expires. All right, guys, coming up next week, we still have our studs and duds segment. I think we got a lot of names on this.

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We are now going to go ahead and get into our studs and duds period. Guys who may not have held their own segment, but by golly, they contributed to this loss in one way or another, whether it was positive or negative. So, Zach, let's go ahead and start out. Who's a couple guys who you just cannot quit thinking about after this one? I know one that you need to talk about this guy immediately. Yeah, I do want to get the one stud out of the way. There's just the one stud that we get away. Alec Pierce, I think we could all agree.

Was it an absolute stud in this game? The only reason this game was as close as it was. He made several highlight catches, including that touchdown catch. The one over the middle, I swear he had a 40-inch vertical on that at least. That was insane. And then one of the few past breakups on the day for the Colts defense as well on that Hail Mary at the end of the half. But yeah, Alec Pierce is a budding star, just an outstanding player. I'm honestly at the point where I want to call Shane Steichen and say, like,

if you ever see Pressman coverage to his side with no safety over the top, you should not have another play call in the book than just throw it up to Alec Pierce. Sometimes football doesn't have to be as difficult as it is. You don't need to outskine everybody. Just throw jump balls to Alec Pierce. if it's one-on-one. I don't care if it's Derek Stingley. I don't care if it's me out there cover and just throw those jump balls up here because he's playing some great football right now. So that's the true stud. The one you wanted me to get to, though, Jake, and I'll lump in

the whole the whole units with him as well. Special teams really let them down in this game all around. Special teams was just not good enough. It started off with the missed extra point. Just dreadful. Can't happen. The kick return game was terrible in this game. Aside from the ones that got kicked into the end zone, which I was really thankful for when the Texans kicked it in the end zone because anytime they brought it out of the end zone, it was like barely getting to the 20. And you can't lose those 10 to 15 yards against the defense as good as the Texans. So they were not getting anything in the return game. The punting game, I thought, was pretty bad for the first time all year as well. No Ashton Doolin. Yeah, no Ashton Doolin certainly

showed. But punting it before the half, when they punted it, you're doing that trying to get that ball within the 10-yard line. Like, if you get it within the 10-yard line, you feel okay about that decision. But Rigoberto punted that, like, almost straight into the end zone. I don't know what was going on with the whole process there.

Nobody was even close to that. And that punt gave them an extra 10 to 15 yards of space to go down there. They didn't get a field goal there, but they were able to move the ball into good range. And again, when we talk about that margin of error against good football teams,

you can't lose the special teams battle. And they lost it in all four phases today. I'm sure Brian Mason will talk even longer than I am right now about all the ways that they screwed up in this game on special teams. But that was another big, like, dud for this team that we haven't talked about yet, where special teams completely let them down. It had been a strength in recent weeks, the reason why they were keeping some games close. Today, it was a major weakness that contributed to the loss. You know, I'm going to sound like an echo because, you know, I agree

with just about everything you just said. The one stud that really stuck out to me was Alex Pierce. And I guess the only way I can relate is when it's a contract year, you play your ass off. And I know it's, I know it's a contract year. And it was just another opportunity for me to say the Labrador receiver. I love, I love saying it. But I mean, he does just, he has just this uncanny skill to be able to concentrate on the ball. when all the bullets are flying around him. And it's, it's, I think what, he has the best yards per catch average in the league currently. I want to say 21.2 because he doesn't catch it that often.

Back to back seasons, though. Back to back seasons, he's led the NFL now. He's fantastic. He's fantastic. Like, the offense is going through this rut right now, but Alec Pierce has been incredible throughout all of it. Yeah, so he's definitely established his value to the team. And, I mean, he's just another reliable piece that you have. I did want to, I had a couple guys that qualified for both stud and dud, you know,

and I want to say Josh Downs, especially the play where he got both feet in on a third down to keep the drive going was picture perfect. but the pass that he dropped was just basic fundamentals, catch the ball first, then run. And sometimes you take for granted that you're going to be able to catch the ball. And it's, you know, there's a progression, a progression that receivers go through. You know, number one, just catching a ball, especially when they come from college to the pro level, just catching a ball. The second thing is they catch it and they fall down.

You know, so then you have to learn how to catch it, not fall down. But then you get more confidence, and before you even catch it, you're thinking about the move I'm going to make when I catch it, because I'm so confident I'm going to catch it. But you still have to do the fundamental things to catch it first before you run. And look, all receivers are never going to catch every ball. What you hope is that they don't drop it in a crucial situation. Yeah, it was so disappointing for downs because it looked like he was finally getting back on track.

Made some huge receptions on that scoring drive to Tyler Warren. And it just at the end of the game had another great opportunity to get that first down. And again, if he catches that, turns up field and gets a first down. Who knows what the mood of this episode would be. The Colts might win that game. It really felt like they were going down the field to win that game. But that drop kind of derailed it. And then obviously the next play was the fourth downout.

So, yeah, just this brutal drop that just can't happen from one of your best players. Speaking of some more duds, though, the Colts defensive line. It's just, I think in run defense, a lot of the stops came from the linebackers, kind of shooting gaps. And they were very hit or miss with some of their fits. Either they were getting tackles for a loss or they were just completely whiffing and allowing a 10-yard gain. But that's, you know, that's kind of what you're getting from this linebacker room. but the defensive line and pass rush,

like I was willing to excuse it last week because a lot of the game planning against Mahomes was just keep him in the pocket, contain rush, we're dropping eight guys, we're dropping seven guys, and make sure that he runs himself into pressure. This week against CJ Stroud, he likes to operate from the pocket.

He's not a guy who is better on the move or he's going to be like this massive scramble threat. So you're fully unleashed against a quarterback like C.J. Stroud, and these guys just weren't able to get the job done. And yeah, I know there's no divorce, But Laotu Latu, top 15 pick last year. First defender taken in that draft. Had a couple opportunities to get Stroud to the ground, and we saw the same issues we've

always seen with him where he just couldn't get the quarterback down. Quitty Pay is just a non-factor on the other side. I thought JT. Tuamolo had a couple of solid rushes in there, and maybe he was the most impactful guy, but he's not getting the snaps of other guys in there. So, yeah, this Colts pass rush is just brutal. And then when they try to bring some pressure, Stroud is really good. getting to that one read, hitting his back foot, and throwing against man coverage because that's where he's thrives. So if you're going to bring pressure, you have to, you mostly do man

on the back end there, and the Colts struggled in that, in that regard. So, yeah, it was a tough day for the defense. And when you're already down your top corner that you gave up two first round picks for, for your defensive line to not win and get pressure, that's a recipe for disaster. And the Colts are lucky they somehow only gave up 20 points in a game like that. Yeah, but I think that's the point is we point. point out a number of different things, but it was still only 20 points that they gave up. You know, so you should be able to win an NFL game giving up 20 points. But there are definitely lots of things that guys can do that they can control,

they can control their technique, they can control their fundamentals, and they can control some of the small little details that will help them, you know, make a play instead of dropping a ball, which kills a drive or, you know, commit a penalty, which kills a drive. All these, I think all the things I come out of this game still thinking positively because they're all things that are correctable. If they can correct these things and you know you only got five games and look as a player, usually what we try to gear ourselves up for is the four-game final stretch.

Now, they're going to have to be a week of schedule because there's five games left. But you do because all the goals that you were working for, they're either attainable or they're not. And if they're attainable, that's when you want to be playing your best football is in December. You know, so they, they had this opportunity to write this wrong. So, like I said, all I got to do is get in, check out to film, you know, focus on the details, and then get after it. Yeah, no, for sure. Oh, what are you going to say, Jake?

Well, I was going to say, I'm going to put you on the spot here for a couple minutes. I'm curious for a nuanced take on Kenny Moore because in the last couple weeks since you've seen sauce and everyone come on board, I don't feel like we saw it as much today, but opponents are pulling their receivers away from sauce and putting them inside, having them go over the middle. You're seeing Kenny get some penalties. I feel like you're seeing Kenny get targeted more. And him trying to turn and run on end-breaking routes and stuff

just seems like that's not necessarily his game. Keeping things around the numbers and inside the stick seems to be where he really thrives. What are you seeing from Kenny, whether it's good or bad? I just really want like a take from someone who's watching it closer than I am in the secondary. Yeah, I mean, one thing to keep in mind is playing slot corner is probably the toughest position in all of NFL defense. You're faced with two-way goes at all times. You're getting the cheap motion guys moving towards you. A lot of runaway from them routes when you're also, again, factoring in the two-way go,

you can't just sprint on the runaway from them routes because they can always go back the other way and beat you with those whip routes and comeback routes and stuff like that. So it is a difficult position. I think Kenny's been fine. It's nothing special. He's a big time playmaker in zone coverage and in man defense. He doesn't really have the overall length. And I think we are seeing him still kind of hampered by that early season injury to his ankle.

I think it was his killies, actually, early in the season. That's not something that just heals up and goes away. It's something that certainly hampers him a little bit. So we have seen him be a little bit grabby here and there. But, yeah, I think he's been fine. Man coverage has just never really been his full strength. strength. He's always been a much better zone guy. And then with Lou trying to play a lot more man, we have seen some of his weaknesses kind of exposed back there. But, you know, if I had to

pick the biggest weakness on this Colts defense, I don't think he cracked the top five. Right now, they have a lot more issues kind of going there on there. But yeah, you certainly want to see better from a guy you're paying as much as Kenny. But real quick, before we go out of this segment, though, and I'm not someone who no part of me believes the NFL is rigged in any way. I want to put that out there right now because I'm not going to sit here and say the NFL's rig. I think NFL refs are just really bad at their job and I really wish I know it. I know it would

grind the game to a whole but I really wish some of these penalties could be reviewed because the one on Kenny Moore was a dreadful dreadful call that should never happen. Heck the one on Alec Pierce 2 on the Colts 3rd and 20 was a terrible call. That ball wasn't remotely catchable. Daniel Jones threw

that ball 20 yards out of bounds. That should not have been a pass interference. The Colts got lucky and got their touchdown there. The extra point wasn't even remotely close to being made by the Texans. I don't know how they called that. The delay of game on the Texans. Like the miss face mass penalty. Like it's not even just saying only for the Colts too.

Because again, I think that one that they called on the corner covering Pierce down the sideline was terrible too. They got to do something with the rest. It's just it was too much of a factor today. The refs inserting themselves into the game, making just dreadful calls that were extending drives and kept things alive when defenses were doing good. enough or offenses we're doing good enough. Again, I don't think anything's rigged here, but I just think refs are terrible at their job. And that's what we saw today on a big display in multiple situations.

You know, well, usually what happens with the, what the refs is they're going to screw up every now and then because they're human, but at least they give you a makeup call a lot of times. And I wasn't seeing the makeup call come in. Yeah. So I'm reading the pool report right now. It was bad. the pool report comes out when there is like some sort of foobar officiating thing and then so

jol ericson talked to the officials after the game about that entire series the not delay of game the defensive pass interference and the extra point on it and you're not getting a lot of great explanations here from what i'm reading um there's nothing i can tell you guys that i think would make anybody feel better so like i'll write about it but there there's no great answers right now just the officials are sticking to their word and that's that they can't reverse anything at this point. It just sucks that it swings games so drastically, you know, like a third in 15 or a third and 20 again to argue for the Texans on that one for Pierce. Like those are, those are seven point penalties, you know? I mean, and then missing the extra point call was another extra like point thrown in there too.

Like I'm fine with refs deciding like minute details and stuff like procedure of things. But like when we get to that, like we got to be able to review crap like that. Like, it's just, it just can't happen. I don't know how that's not. If we have instant replay, what is not reviewable? Yeah. Why can't we review everything? I'm sure that's going to come up when they have their owner's meetings.

As long as it doesn't slow down the game, but to get another set of eyes on it, because looking at, like, that extra point that was potentially missed, I mean, that wasn't even close. that wasn't even like somewhat close that was way outside the thing they said the calling official had it above the the upright but inside no chance yeah even when jean saratore all has to be inside when we're no running late here so we'll get out i don't want to complain too much for the ref but when jean saratore for three straight things is like you know what the rest got it wrong jean saratore could see a ref kick a puppy and say no the rep didn't kick the puppy right there like he is the most pro-ref guy ever.

I'd be like what the puppy do to deserve it. For him to say three straight, like it was just bad. We got to chill with the rest like this. So bad, man. Yeah, I agree. All right, guys. So, you know, we got through this game,

but there is a handful of games left, and we're going to take kind of a look at the light at the end of the tunnel. What does this final stretch look like? Here in just a moment. All right, welcome back every dayers. We are putting a bow on Colts Texans. a 20 to 16 loss for the Colts.

Looking big picture, the Colts are 8 and 4. The Texans are now 7-5, a game behind them. The Jaguars whooped the Titans like everybody does. So they're now 8-4 as well. So it's the Colts and Jaguars tied atop the AFC South. And then the Texans are the game behind. The Colts have the Jaguars this next Sunday. Then they're in Seattle.

They got Monday night football here back at Lucas Oil Stadium against the 49ers and then they are here against Jacksonville and then on the road against Houston and finish it out honestly on the road in Houston week 18 was probably the division game I said the goals would lose wasn't necessarily this one so I don't feel great about that but Zach you know this final stretch of the season obviously we've already addressed that there's like zero margin for error but your next games are the Jacksonville curse and in which the stadium will be filled with witches because that's what this curse is about. There's witchcraft afoot.

The Colts haven't won there since, what, 2014? So that's a problem. And then you have to go to Seattle, which is like notoriously one of the most difficult places to play. And mind you, it's your fourth enormous road trip of the season because you've already been out to L.A. twice and Berlin, Germany. So they got a lot working against them. But, you know, they've, this is the slate of games they have to. finish off or how are you feeling about it i mean look the colts surrendered all the leeway they had you know they had leeway two weeks ago to where you could afford to drop some and and they took

full advantage of that they dropped the two they dropped two in a row that they uh so now now there's yeah now there's just no leeway whatsoever every game is a playoff game you know like it's you we could hand wave away the chief's loss like oh a desperate chief's team on the road colts still have the divisional lead you can't wave away this game that just happened against the texans at home against your division. What does Alan say all offseason coming into the year? When your home games?

When your divisional games. What did the Colts just do? Lost a home divisional game. You can't do, you can't like again, in November and December, if you want to be a serious playoff team, you can't have that happen. So the Colts are now behind the eight ball.

They have no leeway. They have no room for error. Now it's all systems go. Put everything you can in these last five games or you're going to be on the outside looking in and there's going to be a lot of heads rolling in the off season. I mean, gosh, let alone not winning the division, but if you don't make the playoffs with this lead they had, no one's coming back from that, right? Especially when

you gave up two first round picks, right? So it has to be all system goes. You need every single player, every coach, every front office person fighting for their lives, these last five games. And it's not going to be an easy test whatsoever. When I say these are all playoff games, you're going against playoff caliber teams down the stretch. You're going to the dreaded curse at Jacksonville, where they could be going there with the best team in the history of football versus the worst Jaguars team. They'd still lose that game. Like they always have.

Now the Jaguars, though, they're peaking at the right time. They're playing really good football. Their defense is just surrounding and crushing teams right now. So they have to go there against a team that's surging. And then you get two tough NFC West teams where, yeah, the 49ers are really banged up. But their offense, and that kind of dink and dunk offense is kind of seeming like the Colts kryptonite right now. And the Seahawks have the most explosive offense highlighted by the offense player of the year, most likely in Jackson Smith and Jigba at wide receiver.

So, yeah, they need to win these games. Like, and they're going to be tough games. The Colts sacrificed all the leeway and all the leverage they had. Now they're back on even playing field with the Jaguars, with the Texans. And now there's no excuses the rest of the way. Every game is extremely important. They can't afford to drop any of them. So they need to come out here and win.

Because if they drop this one at Jacksonville, they're going from the team that was coasting in first place for most of the season to being the third place team, maybe on the outside looking in. So it's all systems go now. I don't know how great I feel about it because these are, again, these are all playoff teams. The Colts have not played good football recently, but they need to find a way to flip these coin flip games the other way and get some victories on Sundays because these last couple weeks have gone against them and you just can't have that if you want to make the playoffs. Just so we're all aware, the Colts are now the fifth seat. They're a wild card team now. Okay. Yeah.

Well, what I'll say to that is all you want to do is get into dance. You know, just get into dance and anything can happen. But you would much rather be in a position where you can control your destiny. And these next five games, the way a player thinks about it is, let's just win. the next one. What is it we can do to win the next one? Invest all your capital and energy into winning the next one. And then when you accomplish that, then it's got to be one at a time. You can't look past anybody. You can't, you know, think about the what ifs. You got to do what you need to do to win the next game.

And I have to say, I have to become more familiar with this Jacksonville curse, because I'm not aware of it. You will be on Sunday. Alan, look, I'm not a superstitious guy. I don't believe in, like, spirits or I don't believe in anything that is not tangible. Like, it's something that I don't. But the Jacksonville curse, I believe in, man. There's no, there's nothing.

I saw Andrew Luck go there when the Colts were in the middle of like a 10-game winning streak, whatever the heck that was in 2018, and they got shut out by a Jaguar's team that didn't make the playoffs. Hey, I think they scored three points, but. Wasn't it six nothing? I thought it was six nothing. It might have been. I think it was six nothing in that game. You might be right, but it was bad. And the worst one, Alan, was back in the Phillip Rivers year, the year we always had to go back and fantasize about because besides the start of this year was our favorite year covering the team. In week one, they went on the road to a one-win Jaguar team. You know what that one-win was for the Jaguars that team that year, Alan?

It was Gardner-Minchie with like a 95% completion percentage against them. So, yeah, this curse is very real. It is something that the Colts have been unable to break for a long time. And regardless of the status of the two teams, Jaguars always play them so tough down in Jacksonville. But now, again, they're not getting a pushover Jacksonville team now. You know, so even in the past, you could say, oh, the Colts should win this because Jacksonville's a one-win team. No, this is not a push-over Jacksonville team. This is a team fighting for the division in the lead of the division.

right now this late in the season, and they're going to come out there ready to play. So, again, we said this past game, the Colts season was on the line, like, fight like your playoff lives are on the line, but like now the desperation needs to be cranked up even higher because now you really stand to lose a lot. They're tied for the division lead right now. You lose this next week, and the Texans beat the Chiefs, you're in third place, and you're just looking up at those two teams that have a much easier schedule than you, and you're kind of just there below them.

Well, I'll say this. I don't think Daniel Jones is familiar with this curse, so maybe he can be the one to break it. So, and Sauce Gardner is not aware of this curse. Hopefully he'll be healthy enough that he can

break it. And Moody Ward is not familiar with this curse, so maybe he can make some plays too. You see, Alan, that's what we do every year, is every year when the new quarterback comes in we say you know what this is new quarterback new year like that this is the year it's the Colts even had Gardner Minchu who was part of the curse on the opposite end and they couldn't do it

and Zach you were right it was six to zero as that person mentioned it was their only loss of the final 10 games they won nine of the 10 except for that one in which it was six to zero and the gardener minchie game too if I remember and that one zero yeah and the Gardner minchue game you mentioned And he was, what, a six-round pick that was, like, his first career start, and he was 19 of 20. Unreal. Yeah. I think the biggest thing they need to do is they need to go see whatever Alec Pierce's pre-game ritual has been these past couple weeks. And everybody needs to copy Alec Pierce because he's showing up on Sundays.

We need everybody else to show up now. And I think the biggest thing, too, for this next game and just going forward, they got to wake up early in these games. What were the Colts doing so effectively early in the season to put teams down? Why was taking the football such a big thing for this team early in the season? Because they were going down and they were scoring on that first possession. Scoring on that first position, putting the other team behind the eight ball, making them fight from behind. And what we've seen these last four weeks have been turnovers,

failed fourth down convergence, three and outs on the first drive. And you're taking away all benefit you have of taking that ball first. So I like the confidence from Stuyken in this offense, but you need to reward that confidence by going down and scoring on that first. drive. So I need to see more life from this team this next week or we have to start seriously questioning like again, we're going to question it regardless if the results aren't there, but Shane Steichen's ability to lead this team. Like if you can't come out fiery and just wired to play in these playoff type games, then what are you doing as a head coach out there? Yeah. And I guess what

I'll say to go on that is what worked in week three might not work in week 14. But how can you, What can you do in week 14 to have a variation of that thing that worked in week three benefits you again? And so I think that they've got the weapons to be able to do it, but they need to fine-tune something, and they need to get Jonathan Taylor running again. Yeah, all right, guys. Well, that's the 24-hour rule. We sulk about this one for 24 hours, and then we'll move on to. the next. Zach and I will break this game down a little bit further and kind of hone in on our

main overview our main themes for this game as well tomorrow on the daily show. Derek will be back with us, I believe, on Wednesday for our normal midweek check-in. I don't know. He sent us a very rude text from what appeared to be paradise today. So we'll see. If I were him, I may not come back because Indiana feels awful at the moment. of us were in purgatory while he was in paradise today. We had to watch the Colts first Texans and he was in paradise. Oh, and you want to know what I did before? I had to shovel. We had over a foot of snow here in northwest Indiana. And it wasn't, it wasn't one of those push to shovel and get it all to the side. No, we were literally digging ourselves out of the snow. You know what? It was cold

in central Indiana. We only had maybe like an inch. But you know what? I was fun. I didn't like it. I did not like it at all. But you know what? We didn't like this game either. We're going to move on now. If you guys want to become a locked on Colts insider, chat with us directly, get the inside scoop, get your questions answered. Follow the link in our show notes.

If you don't already follow at Locked on Colts on social media. We're on pretty much all of them. If not the show, individually we are. Also, please be sure to subscribe on YouTube and wherever you listen to podcasts. We would love your ratings and reviews as well. you guys have a great day and remember zach and i will be back with you tomorrow on the daily show to break this thing down even further