Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - COLTS SQUAD SHOW: Season ON THE BRINK? | How Critical Texans' Tilt Could Tell Us All We Need to Know

Episode Date: September 24, 2026

Even though it's still September and we're only a handful of games in, is the Colts' season already on the brink entering Sunday's matchup against Houston?The Squad convenes to discuss what's on the line for the Colts as they face a visit from the Texans and how big of a hole 0-3 would be to dig out of, should it come to that. Also, how Shane Steichen compensate from not having Alec Pierce out there for the next few weeks, where the Colts can take advantage of the Texans' weaknesses, the sorry start for the AFC South, and why the guys are down on Lou Anarumo.Find and follow Locked On Colts on your favorite podcast platforms: 🎧 https://lockedonpodcasts.com/podcasts/locked-on-colts/📺YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLdpxJspi1hMh5HL7ExpWOQGive the squad a follow on X/Twitter @Schultz975, @JakeArthurNFL, @ZachHicks2, @allenpinkett, @colts_hit, @LockedOnColts, and @ColtsOn_SI, as well as on TikTok and Instagram!Locked On NFL League-Wide: Every Team, Fantasy, Draft & More🎧 https://lockedonpodcasts.com/podcasts/lockedoncoltsEverydayer ClubIf you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans. Click here to learn more and join your team’s community: https://lockedonpodcasts.com/everydayerclubSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!OdooGreat organizations win because operations matter. And that’s why you should get Odoo. Try for free today at https://Odoo.com/lockedon.Butcher BoxIf you're looking for an easier way to get great meals on the table, give ButcherBox a try.Go to https://ButcherBox.com/LOCKEDONNFL to get $20 off your first box, plus your choice of free ribeye, new york strip, or filet mignon in every box for a year — with free shipping always.IndeedListeners of this show get a $75 Sponsored Job Credit to help give your job the premium placement it deserves at http://Indeed.com/podcast.PrizePicksVisit https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LOCKEDONNFL and use code LOCKEDONNFL and get $150 if you win your first $5 lineup!KALSHIToday's episode is brought to you by Kalshi. For a limited time, Download Kalshi and use code Locked On to get $25 when you trade $25. Kalshi. Trade what’s next.GametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase.FanDuelGet three hundred fifty dollars in Bonus Bets — GUARANTEED — when you bet five dollars every day for seven days. Join all the action at https://FANDUEL.COMFANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to the Colts Squad Show. I'm Derek Shultz. And in my personal standings, our entire squad, 2-0. And I'm Zach Hicks, and the Indianapolis Colts season is on Life Alert. And I'm Alan Pickett, former Oiler. Lots of positives in that Chiefs game, but can they convert it to a win? 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 Colt Squajo starts now. Welcome once again to the Colts Squad Show. Today's episode brought you by Fandul. Make this your most rewarding season ever with Fandul Rewards Club. Every week, check the Fandul app to see what's waiting

for you. I'm Derek Schultz, longtime indie sports talker. I'm joined by a Notre Dame legend in long time NFL running back Allen Pinkett along with Locked on Colts Daily host Zach Hicks, your first listen every day. Locked on Colts hit host Will Starlipper. He's going to join us post game on Sunday, which will be the routine when the Colts are at home at Lucas Loyal Stadium, because Jake Arthur will be on duty and he's also on duty tonight. So if you're a big Jake fan, just hold tight. He'll still be on the daily show, right? We'll get him back on the squad show here very soon. But for tonight, it'll be this trio that you see in front of you right now to talk about the Colts and their upcoming game against the Texans. Obviously, we'll still

touch on some of the after effects from that overtime loss in Kansas City, but is the Colts season already on the brink in week three? We'll discuss that in the opening segment. Why Sunday's matchup with the Texans, really, I think is going to tell us all we need to know. I get that it's September. I get that it's three games in. It just feels like there's a pretty firm line in the sand right now just with where the Colts are and where they have sat and showed us in the first two games. How the indie offense can compensate without Alec Pierce for a lot? I know the IR is four weeks. We've all suffered from Colts injury, PTSD to keep players in the past.

Anybody think Alec Pierce is coming back in four weeks? So how are they going to be able to overcome that in the interim, even if it is four weeks, if we are going to play glass. We'll talk about that in the second segment. We'll take a look at the Texans as well as just the current state of the annually anemic AFC South. It is the unwrapped Christmas present under the tree every December for the Colts, and they haven't unwrapped that thing in 12 years.

But we'll take a look at that in segment number three. And then some squad squibs. Are you out on Lou Anorumo? Zach had some interesting comments on that. Yes, I still listen to the locked on Colts shows, even when I'm not there. And then quarterback injuries really kind of shaking up the NFL early. I think that's been one of the big league-wide storylines through the first couple of weeks. We'll touch on that as well.

And before we bid you a do on our midweek show. But Zach, let's start, you know, season on the brink. Look, and I joke about this a lot. I come from a sports radio world where everything. thing is, oh my God, every loss is panic, panic in the streets. What are we doing? And every win is they're going to the Super Bowl, right? So that's kind of the mentality that I tried to kind of fight against. I tried to look at sample sizes that big, Alan, what did you say? Five games, right? Let's wait five games and then it's a sample size. But it just feels like where they are right now,

how they've played, especially defensively in the first two weeks, how the Texans have played and looked on the other side of the ball, their offense through the first two weeks. You're at home, It's a division game. This would be a third straight loss to an AFC opponent. I mean, if you add everything up to me, if you lose this game on Sunday, why should I believe that the Colts can salvage things after that? Obviously, they'd mathematically be alive, but like what confidence level could you possibly have in them

if they're not able to bounce back and get the job done here in a couple of days? Well, let me even add some credence to your kind of dumerism here, Derek, when you say technically they'd be mathematically alive. But since 1990, do you guys want to guess on how? How many teams have made the playoffs after starting 0 and 3? Since 1990, how many teams do you guys think have done that? Oh, made the play? I was going to say three.

Just made the playoffs. Have the Texans done it twice? Yep. Only five teams have done it. Only one team since the NFL expanded to a 17 game season. It was the Texans last year. And the Texans in 2018 as well. The Texans are the only team to do it.

And they've done it twice since 2000. There were a couple teams in the 90s, the 1992 Chargers, 1995 Lions. in 1998 bills all did it. But there's like a 2% chance of making the playoffs when you start 0-3 historically. So when we talk about like ending your season early, like, yes, it is a small sample size, right? But historically speaking, it is like a Mount Everest mountain to go over if you start the season 0-N-3. And that's not even factoring, like you said, Derek, like if they lose this game, they'd be 0-1-1-A-F south. They'd be 0-2 at home and they'd be 0-3 in the AFC.

Those are a lot of tiebreakers right there, especially the AFC South one and the AFC. Those are tiebreakers when it comes to making the playoffs. So I know it sounds premature to be even talking playoffs at this point because the third game of the season. But historically speaking, if you start O and 3, you are not making the playoffs unless you're the Texans, I guess, since 2000. They can do it. But nobody else has done it outside the Texans. So, yeah, this is put up or shut up for the Indianapolis Colts. If they want to resurrect this season, it needs to start on Sunday.

at home against a divisional opponent. If they don't show up for this game, or even if they have one of those, like the games like they just had against the Chiefs, right? Where it's like that moral victory of like, yeah, we took them to overtime. Woohoo. Like, we looked better in this game.

That's not going to cut it in this one. It needs to be a win. It can be a two to nothing win. It can be a 70 to 63 win. It doesn't matter. It needs to be a win for the Colts if they want to resurrect this season. I know that we can put the, you know,

the mantras on the locker room, door saying like there's always next week or something or like we keep climbing the mountain and you know it's never over until it's over but historically speaking if you start oh and three your season is essentially over and you're looking to the next season so again this it doesn't technically mean that this week but mathematically speaking this is do or die for the colts on Sunday well uh the thing about the NFL season it's a marathon and it's a sprint you know so So each week is a Super Bowl. That's just how you have to treat it.

But you know it's a long season. And what you want to do is get into some kind of rhythm where you can just start stacking wins. Because stacking losses can create a very bad locker room. And I think that in this particular case, they can look at the positives from the Chiefs game, especially on offense. I don't know if there were any positives on defense, but there was some good, they put up 30 points on a Chief's team that loves to blitz.

In fact, was looking at some of the stats, not a big stat guy, but I think they got, you know, like full house blitzes, send everybody plus the water boy, like 10 times. And the Colts fared well on those blitzes.

So, I mean, that's something you can build on. And I think, you know, I have to agree with you, Zach, when they were in a situation where they had fourth and eight, even my son, who doesn't watch a lot of football, is like, Dad, you got to go for it. Yeah, yeah, there we go. You got to go for it. Everybody on the planet knew what would happen, giving the ball back to Patrick Gahom. Holmes in Arrowhead Stadium. Well, I guess they don't call it Arrowhead anymore.

They got another corporate name for it. But no, it's the marathon part is it's a long season. You could withstand a third loss because this first four or five games are kind of rough, but there's some stretches in the season where you can, you know, put together a run. And just like you mentioned, Zach, the Texans started O-N-3 last year. And they seem to be all right. But the sprint part is you don't want to be an offer in your division. You don't want to get behind.

Right now there's only one game behind in the division. That's a comfortable place to be. So, I mean, you've got to keep up, you know, I've always heard that the division games count twice, but I've never done the math to figure out how I counted twice. But the division games just mean more. And the Texans are struggling a little bit. And so, you know, good for the Colts. Let them struggle.

You know, let them have their problems and just put a heater on them. So I think if I was a member of Colts, I'd be excited about playing a team that, still hasn't found their offensive identity. You know, it's a good game for the defense to get right. Or for the Texans' offense to get right. Yeah, yeah. Could flip either way. I think what either way, but I don't think it's doom and gloom,

but I do believe if you go into this with a positive attitude, that you can, you know, get the desired outcome that you want. Yeah, and I think what's just really recently been tough about the Houston game, you know, plural. They play twice a year, right, especially is they've all just had really major, major stakes, right? They've lost five straight games to Houston. All five have been decided by single digits. Like, we can throw out last year's game, right,

because they were already eliminated at that point. But if you really think about it, if you flip those results, which I know you can't do, but hypothetically, if those were all single-digit wins, we're talking about a team that very likely is coming off three straight playoffers. I mean, that's how much has been on the line in these games. The Texans have been able to put themselves over the postseason line by beating the Colts repeatedly in close games. And the Colts have put themselves behind that line by losing to the Texans

repeatedly in close games. So it is strange in a sense that, and we'll talk about this when we kind of go over the Texans in segment three and the AFC South, how, you know, the strengths sort of align here. You know, Colts, clearly their strength is the offense and obviously the strength of the Texas defense. And then there's going to be quite the pillow fight on the other side between the Colts defense and the Texas offense with where they sit right now. But I just, I've just always felt this way about these particular games, not just Houston, but Jacksonville, too. If you find a way to win them, you're feeling really good about yourself and really good about your chances because the bar to cross to win this division and put yourself in position to do that and get your stamp your auto ticket to the playoffs.

isn't very high. And yet the Colts under Shane Stuyken, Zach, have repeatedly lost in this same exact sort of situation, especially to Houston. I mean, not even under Shane Stuyken, under Frank Reich, under Jeff Saturday. Like the whole Chris Ballard era has been plagued by this, right? Where the Texans had been the bane of their existence and the Jaguars. I mean, the Texans games are always decided by one score. The Jaguars games are, they sometimes are one score.

Sometimes the Jaguars win by 20 in those games. Yeah, the ones in Indy are sometimes one score, right? Yeah, that one's actually a tough. Like the Texans matchup, I think is more frustrating for the Colts because those are games that are back and forth. Like even when the Colts have been at their worst, they have gone down to the wire, 2023 to make it in the playoffs. Whoever won that game was going to be in the playoffs. And the Colts were, what, a couple miskews at the very end of the game away from winning that game.

But that's just been the story of this matchup. I think even last year, outside of what, the Rams game, that was probably the most frustrating loss for the Colts, right? because there were so many bang-bang plays that went against the Colts, right? Where the Josh Downs drop at the end of the game, where if they convert that, they probably go ahead and get the go-ahead points to go on top. There was the missed extra point debacle that the Texans clearly missed the extra point, for some reason the rest gave them the point, and that ended up putting the Colts out of field goal range at the end of the game to tie it.

There was a phantom passenger-reference call against the Colts in that game as well, and even Tyler Warren dropping a QB sneak when the The Colts were on the 20-yard line going in. He fumbled the sneak, and the Colts didn't get any points on that possession. But those are the little things that decide winning and losing in these tight games against the Texans. And to kind of invoke Carly Ursaid Gordon's motto here, the Texans have found a way consistently to win this matchup. Regardless of the situation, regardless of what's going on within a game, the Texans come out on top. And that is why they have been in the playoffs the last couple of years and the Colts have not.

So I completely agree with you, Derek, where it's going to be. kind of goes to what Carly's been saying, right? Find a way. They have to find a way to win this game. It can be the ugliest game of all time or it can be the prettiest game and they win by 50. It doesn't matter. Find a way to get over the hump and beat the Texans. Five straight losses. And I'm going to, look, it's not going to get more than seven. If it becomes seven straight losses, nobody associated with this team is going to be back next year because they will all be fired. So five straight losses, if it gets to six, if it gets to seven, we won't see any of these people making decisions back with the Colts next season.

You know, and I think the biggest thing to overcome is the mental part. If you've lost to a team five times in a row, I just remember playing with the Oilers. We never had a streak like that, but we had somewhere, you know, we might lose to the Browns, you know, so many times. And you just have to, in your mind, overcome it. Because you get in a game and you start losing,

and you just somehow, I don't. know how it happens, you start to accept the fact that, well, we're not supposed to beat this team anyway, because we haven't beat them before, you know, so you got to fight that so that, you know, that's why I say the positive attitude is so important that, you know, this isn't the Texans team from last year. This isn't the Texans team from, you know, four years ago. This is the Texans team now. But we're the Colts team now. And, you know, it's our opportunity to to rewrite history. We'll see if they can do that coming up here on Sunday.

We'll talk plenty more about the Texans matchup in segment number three. Next, we know the Colts are going to miss Alec Pierce for the next few weeks, and they brought in Darius Slayton for outside help. How can they compensate losing their star receiver? We'll discuss when the Colts Squad Show returns next. This portion of the Colts Squad Show brought to you by Odu. Running a business shouldn't feel like you're trying to connect a bunch of systems that were never designed to work together.

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like passing yards, rushing yards, or fantasy score. That's easy, right? Now that Alec Pierce is out, I'm especially watching Jonathan Taylor in Price Picks every single week. We already knew the Colts are going to lean heavily on him, right? That's not a secret. But I think that's going to be even more emphasized as he is really the only true offensive playmaker

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Tap the link in the show notes or go to locked-onpodcast.com slash every day or club. So we know with Alec Pierce going on IR, he won't be able to return until week seven, and that's at the absolute earliest. The Colts bring in Darius Slayden, which actually, you know, kind of worked out. I mean, if you talk about a street-free agent, you know, I'm not going to pretend to have watched every single rep that Slayton has taken as a New York giant, but just looking at his production and his familiarity with, Daniel Jones. It seems like it's actually a great fit. Now, he's not a wide receiver one, right? He's not going to do all the

things that Alec Pierce did for you, but I think you could do far worse. That said, Zach, this is a wide receiver room that so far has had a very underwhelming Keenan Allen. And while Josh Downs is good in his role, you can't really ask Josh Downs to be something that he's not. And he is a very different skill set from what we've seen from Alec Pierce. Tyler Warren as well, I think one of you guys made the joke that he's averaging like six inches per catch this year. That's what it feels like, right, with what he's had so far. So kind of activating him to, you know, there was a time and not that long ago that, you know, we looked at Shane Stuyken as this, this wizard of offense, right? And he can scheme things up and he's a gifted offensive mind. And I think that Shane Stuyken is still in there

somewhere. So, Zach, I'll ask you being kind of our resident film buff slash nerd, what, and I mean that in a daring way, how can the Colts kind of, for not having Alec Pierce while knowing, you know, the detriment of not having somebody like that in the equation for this offense. Are there certain things that they can do with some of the personnel that you know skill set-wise that could potentially work for them in the interim? I mean, I'll start this by saying I still think Stuyken is that kind of wonder kid at offensive coach, offensive coordinator, right? And like, because, I mean, they just put up 30 against Spagnola in the Chief's defense without Alec Pierce. Lequon Treadwell was having a 90% snap rate at this point in his career. and they put up 30 points in this, right?

When their running game was pretty volatile, right? It was either negative two-yard run or a 15-yard run. There was not really much in between with the Colts running game. So I still think we see a lot of impressive aspects with Shane Steichen as an offensive play caller. That's as far as I'll go with that. And I do think that there are ways that he can figure out how to manage this offense. I just think it has to drastically change, right? You lose a consistent deep threat.

Now, they were very lucky to get Darius Slaten, a player who he's not even close to. the player that Alec Pierce is, right? He's fine. But to find a fine player at this point off of waivers or just off of the street, I think is pretty great for a team. Like, that's the best as you're possibly going to get at this point in the season. He can catch the ball down the field. He's not going to give you much contested catch, but he can give you some catch and some run. And he's at least has some explosive elements. So we should be out there on Sunday. If I were the Colts, I would play him a good 60, 70% of the snaps. I know it's a lot for a guy who's coming off the street, but they need that speed element out there to open up the defense just a little

bit. But I think my weird theory that I have with the Colts going forward, the way that I would kind of approach this, is kind of the inverse of what you'd think of when it comes to NFL offense, right? Where we're going to build explosives through the passing game, but we're going to soften them up with the run game. I think I would go the opposite direction with the Colts. You kind of zig when the rest of the NFL is zagging, right? I'd build my explosives in the running game, and I would build my kind of jabs with the passing game, right? Because you have the perfect jab wide receiver in Josh Downs, right? As long as you can get into third and short,

you should be able to convert every single third down because nobody can cover Josh Downs on third down. We saw the Chiefs on Sunday. They tried. They really could not get a handle on that player. And it's the whole reason why the culture would have put up 30 points is because Josh Downs was always open. So as long as you can get into manageable situations on third down,

You have a chance to move the ball up and down the field because you have that impact player in Josh Downs. I think you can use him again as like your jab over and over again. Just get him involved in the short to intermediate game and be precise with your offensive passing game. It's not going to be the best passing attack in the world, but you don't have the players to have the best passing attack in the world right now. And then really build the explosive run game. By that, I mean, go for your home run shots in the run game. Those are like the ones where you get Bordellini and Quentin Nelson out in front of Jonathan Taylor. Those are the plays that have a shot to really hit big.

You know, these outside zone runs that we see with the Colts, like those ones have a chance to really hit big with Taylor. So build the explosive running game while using the passing game to move the sticks and get into third and short situations where you set up, obviously, Josh Downs, to do his thing. I think that's probably the best plan of attack for the Colts. I think they can obviously still build some explosive passes, like Darius Slayton can win on the vertical plane, not as much as Alec Pierce, but he can. I think I would probably get Tyler Warren more involved down the,

the field instead of the short area right now because teams are sitting on those flat routes. They're sitting on those screen passes to Warren, and it's just not working at the moment. So until you can get teams to open up again to that, you just can't keep throwing them, hoping that he's going to get eight inches instead of six inches on this catch. You know, like Jake joked the other day on the podcast. So I do think getting him more involved, like on the high, low stuff or the middle of the field, have him be the high man instead of the low man and try to get him moving with momentum down the field. and that might work to open up some explosive passes.

But I think in general, leaning on Jonathan Taylor's ability of his explosive runner, get some lead blockers in front of them, some pullers out in front, to get some trap plays in there. Those always have a chance to hit for some explosive runs and use Josh Downs primarily. Like, he should be getting 10 plus targets a game going forward. There's no reason to throw it to anybody else but Josh Downs when the moment matters the most because he is always open. So it's a simplistic approach, and I think that there are ways that you can be creative with it,

but ultimately just use Josh Downs as much as possible. He is fully capable of being a guy who can catch 10 plus passes a game. Now, it's not going to go for 130 yards because he's not going to catch them on the vertical plane, but he can beat, like what Wendell Robinson did last year for the Giants, having over 100 catches over 1,000 yards, being that mostly slot guy. I think you can do that with Josh Downs and have a feasible offense with that. It's not going to be pretty, but honestly, we have to make do right now. now because your number one receiver is going to be out for an extended period of time.

I don't think I could explain it any better than you did. And I agree 100%. I wish I could disagree with you, but you are, I agree with you in the fact that I still believe Shane Steichen is a great play caller. But all these defensive coaches watch film and they see the short passing game. And a lot of them now are squatting at the point where they're going to catch the pass. So you're getting two and three yards of pass or six inches when you talk about Tyler Warren. So they do need more explosive plays.

They do need more downfield throws. Now, they can execute the downfield throws, but you're going to put a little more pressure on the offensive line to protect a little bit better. I think if they're not getting more than five people rushing, they need to focus on throwing the ball downfield. And I also agree that after seeing Josh Downes, what he's got nine catches in two games, feed that brother a little bit more because he is the one getting open.

And, you know, for the life of me, I don't know how we can't get the ball downfield to Tyler Warren on a scene. because that dude is so big, got a lot of safeties. If he's coming down the middle, they don't want to hit him. You know, they'll receive the brunt of the collision if they hit him.

And he's athletic and fast enough to get downfield. So I think the answer is more downfield throws instead of this, you know, pinpoint accurate five-yard pass, which the defensive backs are squatting on them. They've seen enough film on chain. Stiking to know, okay, this is what he's going to do. And as far as Darius Slayton goes, I know it's going to be tough learning the playbook. But right now, I just send his ass deep. You know, let him just run.

Yeah. Just send his ass deep because you might hit one out of six passes to him, but you've got to give the defense a reason to back off because right now everybody's coming up because they know that their coach are utilizing a short passing game. So Darius Slayton just go deep. You might throw it to him three times. Might overthrow him, underthrow him, don't matter. He's got to go deep just so the defense can know that, okay, this team is trying to go down field.

And I think they're utilizing, you know, Jonathan Taylor good. I'd love it when Quentin Nelson gets out in front of him. You know, I just, that's a running back's dream to have a guy like that out in front because you know he's going to get the block. He's not going to miss. And it allows you to, you know, just get right behind him. And you can actually help set up the block as a running back. And then boom, explode. And you can average five, six yards of carry.

Just staying behind Quentin Nelson. So yes, I think there needs to be somewhat of a change in terms of how they execute this offense. Yeah, and one thing I just want to add with Tyler Warren, too, is a lot of their play action stuff with him has him delay releasing. So he's going to fake the blocking and then release into the flat. But teams are so aware of that right now, they are just sitting on top of that. And they're leaving backside defenders to take away the flat. I think the next evolution of this now is if you're going to have him delay and release, delay and have him release up the seam. right up the seam or on these like bang eight concepts over the middle have him really test the middle of the field

and pull even if he's not getting targeted right he's pulling linebackers or he's pulling safeties away from the middle of the field so i understand why they want to get him involved in the flat because he's so good with the running catch with the ball in his hand but as of right now it's not working so make them pay for sitting in the flat by releasing vertically up the field and pulling players away then if you want to have a crosser underneath or you would have something underneath to work off of that well that that that can work but But I do think that they have to expand what they're doing with Tyler Warren in order to give him more of an impact in the passing game. The yards are in the middle of the field. And, you know, he's a big enough target that he should be, they need to zero in on him a little bit more in the middle of the field. And like I said, nobody wants to hit that big boy. Yeah. And you're not asking him to do something or be something that it's not.

Right. We all know that he's not a vertical real threat. not his game. But it's got to be better than it's been nine straight games under 50 yards. And while you can chalk up a lot of that to the quarterback situation last year, you can't chalk it up to that so far this year. So it's got to be more than what we've seen so far. I think he's just really a critical element, right, to keeping the floor of this offense high. Because I think we've liked what we've seen so far from the office. It's been overshadowed by everything else. But I think so far, so good for the offense for the most part in the first

two games. Yeah, Warren's a very limited player. He's a really weird player. That's why it's hard to, because you can't have him running this full, like, Josh Downs route tree, right? You're not going to put him on option routes and having him break down a defender and break out wide because he's just a stiff player, right? He is a vertically explosive player, right? And the Colts used that last year by getting him in the flat, get the ball in his hands, have him turn up field and use that vertical explosiveness right there. But because that's being taken away, and you still can't have him, you know, again, go run this deep out route. That's just not going to be effective for him, right? But test him on the seams, test him in,

again, these bang-a concepts where it's just one foot in the ground and you're still working vertical. He's explosive. He's got a good catch radius. That's the better way to use him right now. Don't ask him to be, again, this great route runner. You can still use him in this limited way, but use him to test a different area of the field. And I think you can get him more involved again. Some bully ball. You know, he's a bully out there. You know, get it in his hands. Can the Colts defense get right against the Texans offense? Or is just everything wrong? We'll discuss that in the sorry state of the AFC South when the Colts Squad Show returns next.

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and new patients can book a complementary test and consult easily and conveniently take all the hassle right out of it. Book your complimentary, sorry, book your complimentary test and consult at Gamedaymen'shealth.com. That's gameday, men's health.com. Welcome back to the Locked on Colts Squad Show. Appreciate you being here about halfway through this midweek edition of the show alongside former NFL or Alan Pinkett,

locked on Colts daily co-host, Zach Hicks. Eric Schultz. Jake Arthur will return to a later show. We'll get World Star Lipper back in here for the postgame show on Sunday as the Colts do battle with the Texans. Both of those teams winless at 0 and 2. In fact, if you look around the AFC South, which we'll do in a couple of minutes, the teams have combined for a 1 in 7 record through the first four weeks. So as much as some things change, some things remain the same. And the imminently winnable AFC South remains such. Let's talk about, just kind of where this this matchup is. And we touched on this a little bit, Zach, in the beginning of the show. You know, this Texas defense is great, you know, not just on paper, but on the field as well. Now, maybe it looks less great after two weeks because one of those two weeks you had to face Josh Allen. But in reality, I mean, this is one of the more formidable, if not the most formidable unit in the entire league. That said, they have a lot of questions about C.J. Stroud.

he's taking a lot of sacks. He's holding onto the ball too long. He keeps looking like he has regressed from the player that we thought he was as he sort of burst onto the scene, his rookie year and seemingly has not been a player that has made kind of a linear improvement since then. All of that said, I think it's hard, even with a two-game sample, just with how they've looked,

it's hard to have any confidence in this defense at all. And it appears at the very least that the Colts coaching staff understands the dire straits that they're in, but it's about kind of making up the ground that they've already lost and kind of trying to reinvent the wheel here in season, which I know is difficult to do as opposed to when you're in Westfield. But, you know, how do you feel about this matchup overall and how the Colts kind of line up against what we know about the Texans

thus far this season? Yeah, in some regards, I'm more optimistic about this matchup than like the last one, for instance, because, again, you're going against a different caliber of quarterback than Pat Mahomes. you know, where Pat Mahomes, I mean, look, the Colts defense wasn't good in that game, but when you watched the film, Pat Mahomes was on one in that game. He was clear, he was in like this Zen state that you just couldn't touch for most of that game. He was, so many of his throws were just perfect and on the money.

And I don't know if we're going to get that same kind of play from C.J. Stroud. But on the other hand, this Colts defense has just been so bad. Like, it's not just one thing. It's the, I talked about on the show today. It's like the three pillars of defense, communication, scheme, and talent. all three of those pillars have crumbled this year for the Colts. So it is kind of hard to say like, oh, this is their get-right game. I will say on paper, it is nice that the quality of the running game is going to be taking

a step back on who they're facing this week, right? They're not facing Derek Henry or Kenneth Walker. It is this really struggling Texans rushing attack with an offensive line that hasn't meshed well so far this year. They brought in a lot of new faces, a lot of veterans hoping that that would change their offensive line and maybe establish more of this bully ball mentality, right? They brought in Braden Smith, brought back Trent Brown, Wyatt Teller brought in here, Keelan Rutledge with an early pick. Like, they wanted to revamp that offensive line and be a bully ball offensive line. And they've

been pushed around the first two weeks. I know they had a little bit more success in the first week against the bills, but last week they were just absolutely dominated by Dexter Lawrence and the Bengals defense. And, you know, I do think there are some cracks in that offense. But here's the thing, right? Like, CJ Stroud is at his best when he can just hit his three or five-step drop, hit that back foot, and throw a ball over the middle of the field. Now, he probably won't have Nico Collins for this, so it does help the Colts, but the Colts defense has been very vulnerable over the middle of the field so far this year, and especially off of play action. Those are the areas that C.J. Stroud is at his best. If you can do play action, or it can

just attack the middle of the field, so if the Colts are going to be as leaky as they've been the last two weeks, even a struggling Stroud or even a struggling Texan's offense is going to find success in this game. So, yeah, it's basically a pillow fight between the two units, but at least the Texans' offense showed a little bit of life in week one against the bills where the Colts defense hasn't shown any life through two weeks. So I would probably lean Texans there. I will say the Texans defense looks a little bit more vulnerable than I think I've seen under D'Amico Rines. Now, they don't look awful by any means they've played against, like the Colts defense. They've played against, like, these two teams have played the four best quarterbacks in the

AFC, right? They played Burrow. They played Lamar Jackson, and they played Josh Allen. They played Pat Mahomes. Like, these are the four best quarterbacks in the AFC by a long shot. So, you know, the defenses have been tested early in the year. But I do think with the Texans defense, we are seeing cracks in two areas. One, they made that high draft pick on Cain McDonald out of Ohio State to be that, like, bonafide, nose tackle, run stuffer. He's been on a IR, so he hasn't played, and that has left them a little bit vulnerable in the middle of the defense. And then their big free agent signing, big free agent signing, Reed Blankenship from the Eagles,

has not been a great fit so far. I think he's allowed three touchdowns and coverage already through two weeks. So there are a little bit of cracks here and there with the Texans defense. Still a tough defense to face probably on the same caliber of like last weeks against the Chiefs, where the Chiefs are a great defense as well. So the Colts were able to score on the Chiefs. We'll see if they can do that against the Texans here. but I would still say that the Colts offense has to be the ones that carry the way this week

because I'm not trusting this defense. I mean, look, I will say one silver lining with the Colts defense this week, with Michael Clemens going on IR, we should see more Caden Curry, we should see more Atatomio, Adibore, that's a pass rusher on third downs, and those are two upgrades for the Colts. So, hey, just because a guy got injured, now we're getting younger and better players on the field. So maybe that leads to better results. We also might see Justin Wally play outside this week instead of in the slot, which might lead to better results, too.

So, yeah, they could bounce back, but there's nothing really on tape the first two weeks that says this defense is going to bounce back. Well, the Texans have never impressed me as this dynamic offense. But, you know, one thing that happens is the Texans defense gives the offense so many opportunities that, essentially they wear on your ass. And it's a simple offense, but I just think they execute really well. You know, and, you know, it's not a complicated offense, but, you know, they get completions. They get good runs. And I know that they've tried to build themselves to be a bully ball type of team.

But I don't think they're there yet, but they do wear on you with their, their offense. So if I'm the Colts, I'm thinking, hell, if Cincinnati can limit them to six points, you know, we got a shot. I think you have some more confidence after seeing how Cincinnati was able to hold them down. So, again, watch the film because you know what the Texans are doing. They're analyzing that film and saying, okay, whatever Cincinnati, did. We're going to see this mess again. So we better make the corrections. And a lot of times,

it takes about two or three games to overcome some of your tendencies to finally break out of it. So hopefully they're still in that stage where they haven't broken out of that tendency. So if I'm the Colts defense, I'm feeling kind of good about this matchup. And let's face it, You know, I'll agree with you again, damn it, Zach. You know, both teams have faced stars. Patrick Holmes is a star. You know, Jamar Chase is a star. And he was just working that Texan's defense.

You know, Josh Allen is a star. Lamar Jackson, Zayflowers, stars. I mean, who can we say on the Texans? offense is really that star. They're pros and they're good. They're damn good at what they do, but are they one of those, you know, price of admission type players? If Niko Collins were healthy, that would be their star. Niko Collins is absolutely that guy. Right. And with Niko Collins out, you know, that's one of those, you know, thank God. You know, he got a shot. He's out. He's out. So I think the Colts can feel good, especially the Colts offense about the effort they put up against the chiefs, knowing that Texans defense is going to be better.

It would be harder to get yards against. But if you put up 30 against the Chiefs and the Bengals put up 20 against the Texans, you got to feel good about your chances. If you can, you know, stay ahead of the sticks, maintain a good game plan, and keep the pressure on that defense. Yeah, one thing I want to add to, I think the Texans are going to come out with an emphasis with more heavier tight end personnel settings and more of like heavy, heavy settings this week. One, because the Colts-based defense is just dreadful. So that's why they're going to do it. But also, they got a lot of flack this past week for having an 86% 11 personnel rate against the Bengals, despite Nico Collins and, Jaden Higgins, who they drafted in the second round last year,

both those guys were out for this game. So they didn't have many great receivers on their team. Like, imagine if the Colts came out with 11 personnel as much without Alec Pierce. Like, it was just Treadwell and Keenan Allen and Josh Downs as much as that, right? The Colts did do do more tight-end stuff to kind of counteract that. So I do think that we're going to see them try to reverse the course from that a little bit and try to do more heavy personnel sets, which the Colts have really struggled with through two weeks. So that'll be a good push-pull to watch in this matchup.

Yeah, and I think that's the trend in the NFL now, more tight ends on the football field, which means a lot of times more running because what's happened? You know, the NFL had a lot of explosive plays and oversized linebackers with fast tight ends running by them. And now the linebackers are smaller now. So what do you do? You make your offense bigger and run at them. Yeah, and I think, Alan, you know, you're running. right that there's no one on this Texans defense that scares you.

But with the way the Colts defense has played, how do I not know that Dalton Schultz going to go for like a buck 50 against it? You know what I mean? When you have linebackers that can't tackle, a edge rushers that can't get after the quarterback and at least one young corner who can't cover anybody yet in his career, I don't know that it matters that the Texas don't have stars, right? With how the Colts have played so far, I just feel like it's more, all of these guys are still NFL level players, right? They're on an NFL roster.

So any of them, I think, can still hurt you when you play as poorly as the Colts have played defensively so far. So while I'm sort of in the mode of, well, it can't possibly get worse for the defense, I'm also in the mode of I need to see it before I believe it. Like I need the Colts to give me a reason to believe that this can even be a competent NFL defense, much less like a middle tier one, which I think was our long shot hope for them going into this season. Because I think we are all confident that the offense was going to be good and it has been good. Yeah, it's really going to come down in this game to can they limit the Texans run game?

Because they have been incessant on running the football this year, even when it's not working. And that's kind of what hurt them last week is they got into so many third and long situations against the Bengals. Stroud threw for 350 yards in that game. They scored six points because they were backed up so much. and they kept getting into these third and long, and they keep getting productive passing plays on those third down, but they couldn't convert for first because it was so far to get to the sticks. So stopping the run is going to be the first thing, and then the Colts have to be better against play action because CJ Stroud thrives off play action. The Colts so far this year are averaging nearly 11 yards per attempt against them on play action this year as a defense. If that maintains on Sunday, they will lose to the Texans.

So be better against play action and stop the run, and they have a good shot of slowly. slowing down this Texan's offense. And I'm saying slowing down more jokingly here because it's not like this Texan's offense is great, but the Colts haven't slowed down anybody with their defense this year. So I will take slowing down an offense. I don't need a six point showing from the defense. If you can allow 25, I will call this a great day for the Colts defense at this point in the season. Yeah, and imperative that the Colts get a pass rush. Because you look at some of the passes that have been completed against its Colts defense. You know, nobody's going to be able to cover a guy if he's running all the way across the field.

If he's got time, the quarterback's got time to wait six seconds for a guy to cross all the way across the field. Nobody's covering that dude. So it's imperative that the pass rush show up. Are we out on Lou? And are we actually feeling bad for some random NFL teams because of these quarterback injuries? We'll get into both of those things when the Cold Squad Show returns for a final time next. This portion of the Cold Squad Show brought you by Fan Duol. Welcome to your most rewarding NFL season ever, only on FanDuel.

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But for me, I feel like, and I think I'm speaking for a lot of Colts fans here, the ultimate reward right now for the Colts feels like can they get to the playoffs? Can they get to a wild card weekend? Can they have a winning record and sneak in? I mean, I'm old enough to remember when that was a given. And it doesn't feel like that long ago, even though as the years past, it's feeling longer and longer, but that's the reward that I'm still hoping for. It's still September.

We're only two games in. Maybe this defense turns it around. We still feel good about the offense, right? Just projecting the good vibes onto your favorite team. That's my reward every Sunday, even if sometimes that goes unfulfilled. But the good news is, Fandul doesn't unfulfill those rewards because you can make this your most rewarding season ever right now with Fandul. Visit fandul.com to get started. back for a final time here on the locked on Colts Squads.

I hate doing that. I hate being like the remember when guy. I'm the old enough. Well, Peyton and Robert Mathis and Dallas Clark and Regie Wayne. That's what it feels like sometimes, though, with what we've gone. Alan always gives us history lessons on Warren Moon. Okay. That's true.

Fair. Fair. That does make me feel a little bit better. So squad squids time. We usually kind of step outside the league. But, you know, just kind of one thought that I was simmering on. And Zach, I actually think that I heard you say this in the Daily Show that you do with Jake about just, you know, reaching the point where maybe you're out on Lou Anurumo. You just don't understand some of the personnel choices that he's making, maybe some of the schematic choices as well.

And I think even, you know, for somebody that doesn't have the football brain of a Zach kicks, you know, you watch this team and they can't tackle, right? They take poor angles. Like there's a lot of like fundamental football 101 stuff that the Colts really have not been doing so far this year. And I think that gives me some pause as well. Again, we're only two games in and we're really not that far, I guess, into the Lou Anarumo tenure as Colts defensive coordinator either. But is there some hope that you have that he salvages this thing? Because as much as it's a personnel thing, I think it's also a coaching thing with what we've seen so far. No, it's very much a coaching thing.

I think you can be of two mindsets here, right? If you want to lean veterans, worst case an error, right? You want to lean veterans anytime there's a debate, right? You better have this complex defense that requires veterans, and the communication better be on point with that, right? Because why else would you, like, if it's truly even, why else would you be leaning the veteran unless it really impacts what kind of defense you can call, right? So if you want to be this complex, diverse defense,

which the Colts want to be with Lou Aniromo, and that's what Anuromo has tried to do, your communication better be great with these veterans you're throwing out there. or you can go the other way and have a more simplified defense for young players and let them fly to the football and do their thing. Right now, the Colts have chosen the veteran route, but the communication's been on the level of the other one. Like, it's been terrible, right? So we're at the point now where it's like you are playing players who are worse than the alternatives. Or at least we know they're worse than their alternatives.

Like, we know what they are, I guess, at this point, right? We know what Jerry Tiller is. We know what Arden Key is. We know what Michael Clemens is. We know what Jalen Carlize and Akeem Davis Gather are, right? If you're going to throw those guys out there, your defense better be clicking in sync and knowing where they need to be. If they're not doing that, get the young guys out there and simplify your defense. Rely on your couple staples.

Let those young guys fly to the football. If it doesn't work, it doesn't work. They're young players, though. At least that they are building something. What is Jerry Tiller going to turn into at this point in his career? What is Akeem Davis Gather turning into at this point? What is Arden Key turning into? They are what they are in the NFL.

Guys can still break out late. It happens, but it's a rarity, right? It is a rarity in this league. So I'm not saying that you have to commit either way to this. But again, if you want to lean all these veterans, if you're saying, hey, we have to start Carlis and Davis Gaither over Betcher and Allen because they're more adept for the system that we want to run this complex system, you can't have coverage bust on every single play action.

You can't have the middle of the field wide open on every single play action call. You can't have, you know, deep safeties blowing every single coverage. call too. Like this stuff can't happen if you want to be this veteran laden team. So I think going forward, they do need to simplify the defense. They do need like, I get what Lou wants to do. He's running these, these complex coverages. You see some inverted coverages. You see like a lot of cool stuff that I think could work if everybody knew what they were doing. But these guys have no clue what they're doing on Sundays right now. You need to simplify it. They need to rely on some staples. I'm not saying go to Gus Bradley and say, we're going to run cover three on every single play

because that's fine if you don't want to do that, right? But honestly, I would say, I would say that would probably be getting a better result right now than what they're getting on the field on Sunday. So they do need to simplify this, and then they just need to get the better guys on the field. C.J. Allen had six snaps on Sunday. He looked more athletic. He looked more into the game, and he looked better than these other linebackers that were out there. I mean, Carlize had some good things in coverage, but he can't play run defense. He's a safety playing linebacker. We saw King Curry get him for a couple plays, and he looked better than Clemens, you know? At a Tommy Wada, Atta Bore, whenever he gets out there, gets a pressure, but then he gets subbed out for 30 minutes,

for Jerry Tillery snaps. They need to lean into these young guys a little bit better. Just more explosive, faster, guys with Jews, and guys who care, right? There were too many loaves on film this past game. And with this saying in retail, I've worked in retail for a long time, that if you're not coaching your employees, then your manager needs to be coached, right? Because if you're not holding people accountable, then that's on the manager above them for not holding people accountable.

So as long as we keep seeing these guys trotting out there who shouldn't be on the field, that is on the coaches for not making those changes, right? The coaches are still letting these guys out there. So, I mean, not to go too crazy with this rant, but, like, I don't want to say I'm completely out on Anirumo, but it's time right now. Like, if they lose this game, we have to be out on everybody, right? Because they're probably not making the playoffs. So they do need to make some changes going forward.

CJ Allen needs to get on the field. Bryce Becher needs to get on the field. Caden Curry needs to get on the field. I just think these are very simple changes that need to be made if you want to have better success and they need to simplify the defense. These guys are making too many mistakes. Let them, again, let them play a little bit more free with the, like if you have to lean into quarters, you have to leave in and cover two more, whatever it is, like lean into a zone coverage that you feel best in and let them play fast and able on defense instead of just

am I matching this route, am I boxing this route, am I inverting here, am I inverting here? These guys are making too many mistakes because they're thinking too much. Just simplify and let them go. It's what the Bengals did late last year and they turned it around and look at what their defense looks like now. I do think there are ways to fix this. So I'm not completely out, but if we don't see some changes, if we see just stubbornness and sticking with all this, then yeah, I'm going to be out pretty soon. Well, I think what you just said was it's not to X's and O's. It's to Jimmies and Joe's and Leroy's. So I am all for simplifying the defense. because as a defender, the less that's on your mind, the better you react to the football.

See ball, go get ball. You know, and, you know, in order to do that, effectively, you need better athletes out there. You know, I know that Luan Arumo is an accomplished defensive coordinator, and you can become enamored with your system in your style. but it's the players that make it come alive. And if you don't have a right players in there, then all you are doing is drawing up schemes that you hope will work. And I guess what started off bad for me is when they made Cam Bynum, the green dot.

And I'm like, what the hell are you doing? The safety should be back in the defensive backfield community. with the other DBs, not up in a line of scrimmage trying to tell, you know, the defensive tackle, you need to be over top of the center, you know, and I know it wasn't that drastic, but that one confused me for a little bit. But I am all for simplifying the defense, because usually when the defense is simplified, the defense is ahead of the offense. Because all they're doing is when they see the ball, they go get the ball. And they're relying on the talent that got them to the NFL to begin with.

So I'm all for seeing. And I'll say this, Carly is definitely letting the coach's coach. Because usually in a situation like that, your top draft pick, not playing, uh-uh. Owners not having that. No, we paid this guy this much money. Why do you think Deshaun Watson is still starting? You know, if we paid this money, this dude needs to be out on the field. So Carly is letting the coach's coach.

But, you know, sometimes a coach sometimes has to let go with their pride and get better players in there and simplify the defense of all for that. Yeah, I agree. I still think that some of these easily fixable things should be fixed. They're not going to suddenly have a great linebacker room. that's that's not going to just suddenly happen out of thin air, but they can at least control the things they can control, like not blowing tackles and blowing angles and all the things that they've messed up so far. Ever, ever, ever too.

Yeah, I mean, that's part of it. I always hate questioning that, right? Because that's, you know, Alan, you know as a former player, like that's the one line that you can cross there. But I think that's part of it too, particularly in that Baltimore game. Squib number two, just quickly while we're in our final minutes here, there's just been a rash of NFL quarterback injuries. And I can't sit here and say, no offense to you guys,

because you both grew up fans of this team. I can't say that I care about the commanders. But you know, you hate to see it, right? For James, you hate to see it for Jackson Dart. I mean, you know, it felt like he's starting to kind of come into his own a little bit. I know we're still sort of early. But, you know, Jackson Dart potentially missing the season here. But even some of the just kind of the Nixon bruises of, you know,

I don't think it's going to be a long-term thing, right? with like Caleb Williams. I guess it's allowed like, you know, Marcus Marriota and Carson Wants and some of these other guys that are kind of throwbacks to be out there. If anybody wanted to actually still see them play football, I'm trying to look for a glass half full thing. But are you guys kind of bummed a little bit?

I find myself bummed about the quarterback injuries. I don't know. Yeah, you probably have one of them on your fantasy team. I see what it is Derek here. But I think, you know, I think I can speak for Allen here where it's like the most Washington things. since 2000, right, where the only two quarterbacks that ever showed anything, it's just injury after injury after. RG3 is the other one I'm talking about, obviously. RG3 all over again.

Right. It feels like that, right? And like, it's the same elbow three times with Jaden Daniels, too. So he's dislocated the same elbow three times in like a year now. And he's refusing surgery again on them. I'm like, oh my gosh, man. Like let's get, I don't know, get like something on there, like a bulletproof vest on the arm or something for when he gets back. But yeah, it's unfortunate how these injuries have. Jackson Darts actually in like the same boat, I think, as Daniels, if not even worse, because it feels like every time DART gets out there. And I will say he's a bit more reckless than Daniels.

Daniels actually protects himself a good bit. He just bad luck, it feels like, with Daniels where DART, he's a bit psychotic out there with how he hangs onto the ball sometimes and how he runs with his head down. and what he got checked for concussion like six times last year or something like that. So he's a bit psychotic and his play style does kind of lead to this. But yeah, it's always unfortunate when you see young players go down, like young quarterbacks go down. We felt it with Anthony Richardson, obviously. We felt it with Andrew Luck quite a bit.

So we know exactly how that feels here in Indy. But yeah, I think speaking for Allen, both of us growing up in the DMV area or the Washington area and stuff. And it's just par for the course since 2000 with the Washington team. Whenever there's a semblance of hope since they were good, like, it just, it goes down out the window. So Colt fans should relate pretty much to Washington fans for sure in that regard, especially since Payton Manning left town. Well, my best friend in the world is still back in the DMV, and you talk about being depressed. And I just, I feel bad for the fans, you know, because on every level of football, if you don't have that quarterback, you either have. have that guy or you don't have that guy. And when you don't have that guy, it's a miserable watch.

You know, so when you have that guy, all your hopes and dreams are elevated. And it's like, you can't wait to get to Sunday to watch the game for this guy to work his magic. And when he gets knocked out, you know, for a number of games, it's so deflating. You know, so I, like I said, I feel bad for the fans in that regard, but that's how this game is. When I saw Jackson Dart go down, it made me think of when Tom Brady went down and was out for the year. Yeah, God, that was a Bernard Pollard hit. I remember I was at the Lucas Oil opening stadium opening game, Colts Bears Sunday Night Football. And we found out that Tom Brady had that injury.

And I won't say what was said in the stands there. But we'll just leave it there. Thanks so much for joining us on the latest edition of the Colts Squad Show. We are your place for postgame Colts reaction as our Colts squad shows will follow each and every Colts game this season. We'll next be with you following Sunday's critical tilt with the Texas that comes away Sunday afternoon after 430. As always, keep it locked on Jake and Zach every day on Locked on Colts all season long. Be sure to follow at Locked on Colts on socials and add at Colts underscore hit for our buddy Will Star Lipper's great content. Don't forget to check out our other great offerings on YouTube and TikTok and we'll see you next time right here on the squad show.