Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Colts stunned in season opener, lose 27-20 to tanking Jaguars

Episode Date: September 14, 2020

On today's episode, Evan Sidery is joined by Stephen Reed of Stampede Blue to give their instant reaction to the Colts' stunning 27-20 loss in Jacksonville. Not a way anyone envision Indy beginning their 2020 season.Philip Rivers had a strong debut, but two costly interceptions swung momentum in Jacksonville's favor. 10 points directly off turnovers from Rivers. Meanwhile, Indy lost Marlon Mack to a season-ending Achilles injury.A huge storyline from this game was Gardner Minshew going 19/20 completing 95% of his passes. Another inexcusable performance for Matt Eberflus' pass defense. If this continues, will Eberflus be on the hot seat?From the positive standpoint, Parris Campbell and Nyheim Hines look to be focal points of the offense alongside T.Y. Hilton.All of this, plus so much more, as we dive deep into the Colts' awful loss to the lowly Jaguars. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You are Locked On Colts, your daily Indianapolis Colts podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello everybody, welcome back into your latest episode of Locked on Colts, probably Locked on Podcast Network. Today's host is your host, Evan Sutter. And my very first guest today is Stephen Reed of Stampede Blue. To recap, the Colts' stunning loss in Jacksonville, the 27-20. The Colts got off to a hot start here, but unfortunately, Gardner Minshew

gave us flashbacks as far as this defense goes for the Colts to not be able to stop really any starting quarterback in the NFL. The secondary got shredded. The pass rush didn't really show up that much consistently. And the offense, too, kind of sputtered on the ground a little bit. What was your thoughts, Steven? Let's get your quick takeaways here, your biggest takeaways. We're going to go through our biggest takeaways

in this one, as well as talk through the big injury that Marlon Mack, looks like a season ending injury for Marlon Mack, a torn Achilles, which really impacts maybe Marlon Mack's career with how running backs are after post-Achilles injuries, and really a game where there's a lot of ups and downs for this Colts team. What was your thoughts, Stephen? How are you doing today as well? Just 27-20 on a day where we all thought this might be the easiest game of the year for the Colts, but of course in Jacksonville, it never happens. Yeah, I think ultimately, first, I'm doing well given circumstances. It's always tough to talk after a loss.

But I think my initial reaction was, like most fans, disappointment. You had a lot of high expectations coming into this season, especially coming into week one. You think you'd get this cupcake. I believe they had the best Vegas betting line of any team, especially of any road team, and they fell flat. They came out and they weren't – they just didn't have any energy. And it's one of those things where you go through and you think that all this buildup, all this hype, they're going to come out and they're going to just go nuts.

And the first series at the offense, you sat there and you're like, oh, yeah, this is – they're rolling. This is good. We're not worried about this. And then the defense just didn't do anything. They just – they made Gardner Venture look like Drew Brees. And he's not, he's not, he went what 19 for 20 on the day, which is just a crazy number.

Now he only threw for like 250 yards or something like that, or no, he threw for 150 yards. So it's not even, he had like a big gain in terms of big gains or anything like that. The defense just kept bending, kept bending, kept bending and couldn't stop anybody. And I think ultimately that was probably my biggest disappointment was the defense as a whole. And then the offensive line not being able to establish a running game against a Jacksonville team that really they should have dominated. Like this should have dominated that like this should have been a Colts blowout win and quite frankly through through different circumstances

you know obviously they lost and that's that's disappointing for everybody yeah like you mentioned Steven the Colts drew it on the field on their first drive Phillip Rivers was surgical on that drive as well and really thought the first half Rivers was great he had a couple errant throws a lot of interceptions. Then really looking back on those interceptions, we'll have the game turned out. Probably did cost the Colts the game a little bit, but Phillip Rivers was definitely not the biggest fault in this one, like you mentioned in defense. Very disturbing trend continuing on, Steven, with Gardner Minshew, 19 of 20, 173 yards, three touchdowns. The Colts got to him a little bit as far as sacks goes. Justin

Houston got a couple of sacks in there as well, Four total for the Colts today. But 19 of 20 is a really disturbing trend. 95% for Minshew. And going over the last five out of six games, I'm not going to count the Carolina game last year because they played third-string quarterback Will Greer in Carolina. But you see, let's go through the last five or six games for the Colts heading into, I believe, late November of last year. Ryan Tannehill had two touchdowns, 77% completion percentage. Jameis Winston, four touchdowns, 73.3% completion percentage. Drew Brees, of course, was 29 of 30 that one night after Christmas, had 96.7% completion percentage.

Gardner Minshew as well in the last two games, six touchdowns, one interception. Of course, 95% today, 69..2 in the last game of last year's season that's way over 75 steven this is a trend now moving forward that if this continues from next month or so i i imagine the colts aren't a team where i'd be shocked they make any mid-season moves i don't want to overreact too much just first game of the year but this is a trend from last year steven i want to point out just because this shouldn't still be happening this cold team where they allow any starting quarterback that at least knows how to pick apart

his zone defense that he can have a perfect day almost every single time. Yeah, and I think that you really kind of hit it on the head is the way the Colts are playing this zone defense allows quarterbacks that are adequate to just kind of surgically pick them apart. And ultimately I think that was the most disappointing because if they want to play this kind of zone defense where it's a sit back zone defense and they, they react to the guy that's in front of them, they, they make those, those stops short. They need to have a defensive line that gets home and gets to the quarterback consistently and quickly. And they didn't have that today,

which was, I think, the most surprising thing for me as a fan and for everybody watching. You make this big move for DeForest Buckner this first week over the last offseason, and you expect this first week DeForest Buckner to really kind of set a tone. And he did. He opened up some lanes for Danica Autry, who had two sacks.

He allowed Justin Houston to get single coverage, get a single blocker, which led to his sack. You know, he was disruptive, but you kind of expected the defensive line as a whole to get there more often and quicker, and they just didn't. Now, one thing I also want to preface this, and I probably should have started this, is thing I also want to preface this, and I probably should start with this, is we can't overreact to this game, and the Colts themselves have a great team.

Once they get things figured out, again, this defense had, you've got DeForest Buckner coming in, starting to play. Xavier Rhodes is your starting cornerback. You got to get him kind of acclimated to the team. The offense was really clicking for a while. Phillip Rivers played really well for this game for the most part. Everybody's going to remember those two interceptions, and they were really bad interceptions. But for the most part, Phillip Rivers was pretty good,

much better than Jacoby Brissett was. And for goodness sakes, we need to take that Jacoby Brissett play and throw it in the trash and burn it, because that was maybe the worst play of the game for the Colts. But yeah, going back to what you were talking about on the defense, it's one of those things where you just get frustrated because the expectations were so high against the opponent that had just traded away basically six of their top players in one offseason. They got rid of Jalen Ramsey. They got rid of A.J. Bouye. They got rid of Kalei Campbell. They got rid of Leonard Fournette. They got rid of Yannick Ngakwe, and I think Ronnie Harrison was the other one.

So five defensive starters. They just jettisoned this offseason, and they came out here, and the Colts are doing their job in terms of picking them apart on offense, but the Colts defense just didn't show up. And that, I think, is, like I said before, it was the most frustrating thing for me, is to see that defense just kind of keep giving up completion after completion, eight-yard gain, four-yard gain, seven-yard gain, to where you really didn't put any pressure on Gardner Minshew to really make a play downfield. And looking at his completion percentage, his average target or average completion was 8.7 yards. That's okay. But he threw for 19 completions for 150 yards. It's like, that's frustrating.

And they didn't even have a good game on the ground. Like they had 91 rushing yards. So they weren't their offense. The Jacksonville offense ran for, or had like 245 yards. The Colts had like 445 yards. Like the Colts offense was good, but they just – Jacksonville made the plays when they needed to. And that's ultimately what it came down to is the Colts didn't make plays and Jacksonville Jaguars did, which is weird to say.

Yeah, the undrafted running back of the Jaguars, James Rock, had a good few call possessions for the Jaguars in the first quarter or so. They kind of ran it down the Colts' throat a little bit when they got those first few possessions going in the second quarter. But after that, the Colts' run defense really settled down. And we saw kind of just the dink and dunks, the slants, the drag routes from the Jaguars just really take over. And that zone concept, like I mentioned, Stephen, is kind of getting picked apart here, the basic principles that those passes will be open every single time against this team. And I wanted to ask you real quick one more thing on this Colts secondary this Colts passing defense before we

move on to some offensive topics as well it's really interesting to me like Maddie Rufus mentioned to the media last year I believe or even the year before that that they're going to mix things up more and more as they add more players into this scheme and unfortunately we still have not seen that much I think maybe there's one game or two games in the past couple years I'm saying the most important games where the Colts did. That was the chiefs last year. And also the Texans playoff game in 2018, the wildcard matchup where they really locked down to Sean Watson.

Those, those weapons on the outside. Why don't we see more man coverage, Steven? I know obviously his own coverage is the Colts bread and butter here, but if this continues on from this couple of weeks, they played Kirk cousins. They play a couple more great quarterbacks in that couple of weeks as i know sam darrow mitch rubisky could be a couple off

weeks for them as well but if those players even have good games it's cold secondary and it's cold passing defense i think it's maybe time to sound alarm bells with just the overall philosophy going on here yeah it's and like it might be a you, playing outdoors with a little bit slower turf out there in the grass. But yeah, if this keeps up and they keep giving up, you know, these really high completion percentage, because ideally you want your quarterback to be around like 70, 75 percent completion. And you're really happy about that from an offense. You know, from a defense you want them under 60 and the fact is like i don't think anybody in the past six games that you

mentioned outside of that you know the will greer um situation with carolina any of them had below 60 and i think only one of them had below 70 two of them were in the 90s that's crazy like that shouldn't happen um in a professional football team it just shouldn't happen that a defense allows a quarterback to complete over 90 of their passes period that's and that's not acceptable and i don't think i think if this continues chris ballard will have to have a talk about the defensive philosophy because they can't continue to do this. They're not going to win if they continue to do this. And I think that's what Colts fans are going to have the biggest issue with moving forward is if this defense keeps just giving up play after play after play after play, it just gives you nightmares of what new England used to do. The Colts all those years ago where, you know, the Colts would just keep giving up, you know, five yard completion,

four yard completion, three yard completion. And then they'd always get the first down and it'd be just right on the first down marker and they do it the next, next series. Every single time. But yeah, I think if they continue down this path, I think they're, they're going to have to have a discussion about defensive philosophy. Now I do think Matt Iberflues hopefully will make a change once he sees that it doesn't work or if it doesn't work next week against Minnesota, I think you will see him make a change to be a little bit more aggressive.

But you know, if it, if it continues this way, you got to wonder what they're going to do. Cause it, it can't if it if it continues this way you gotta wonder uh what they're gonna do because it it can't it can't continue this way yeah it's definitely starting out the monitor next couple weeks next couple months here with this colts team because a really sour taste in the mouth as far as passing defense goes in this opener where they lost 27 20 on the road in jacksonville to a team of the jaguars who was not favored in a single game this year per draft king so they were definitely favorites to be the Trevor Lawrence, which is obviously still are,

but it really is a painful loss here for the Colts to start off the season in 2020. But let's hit on Phillip Rivers for a second now, because like you mentioned at the top of the show, Stephen, a good game for Rivers. I've seen a lot of people on Colts Twitter, maybe overanalyze those two interceptions. That's kind of what who Phillip Rivers is though, Stephen.

He's a player who will make those aggressive throws, throws that we mentioned before. Jacoby Brissett last year would have no shot of making 10 or 12 of these throws in this game that Phillip Rivers made. And those two interceptions, of course, because he wouldn't take those risks. He'd try to hit T.Y. Hilton once in double coverage, Paris Campbell in double coverage, too. But that's just the gunslinger mentality Phillip Rivers has.

So, you just get where you take with Rivers. And he was 36-46 for 363 yards, one touchdown, two interceptions. Outside of those interceptions, though, Stephen, a pretty flawless game from Rivers, wouldn't you say? Yeah, and that's the thing. If you look at the totality of the game for Phillip Rivers, he was pretty good. And he was able to stand out. He only took like a couple hits.

He didn't take a sack. And so the offensive line did very, very well in terms of pass protection. And Phillip Rivers, you saw the difference Phillip Rivers brings versus Jacoby Brissett, especially on those crossers with Paris Campbell, which is one of Phillip Rivers' favorite routes is the deep end. And Paris Campbell is perfect for that. Jacoby Reset would always throw that late. And you saw some of those outside throws to the sideline.

T.Y. Hilton, at the end of the game, had two balls that hit him in the hands that should have been catches for first downs to extend that drive. And he didn't catch it like people are will make the big big deal about the two interceptions from philip rivers yeah they were bad throws they threw him into double covers the first interception was like a little bit of a duck that that went went over and that cj henderson got and ultimately that led to 10 jaguars points, which could be considered the game right there. But as a whole, Phillip Rivers, he commanded this offense. He knew where he was going.

He was able to get the ball there with some pace, some anticipation, which is exactly what you wanted from Phillip Rivers in this game. And I feel like this offense is just going to grow, even despite the potential loss of Marlon Mack, which everything we hear sounds like is probably going to be season, season ending situation there. But you saw how well he used Naeem Hines out of back foot. You saw Jonathan Taylor make some good catches.

I think at one point, I don't know whether it was you or somebody else on Twitter that said that Jonathan Taylor now had more catches in his NFL career than Clyde Edwards Lair from Kansas city, which everybody kind of thought was going to be the pass catching back out of Kansas city. And so you see Philip Burbus have command of the offense is exactly what you want going forward.

And so I feel like people are going to overanalyze those two interceptions. And if you look at his work as a whole, it was actually a pretty decent game. Yeah, the command of the offense was obvious from the very beginning. That surgical opening drive there, of course, and it consists of the second half where the Colts only scored three points total in the second half of this game. Very disappointing from that aspect there. I think a lot of it had to come to – I mean, I even tweeted this out for the game on the Locked on Colts Twitter account, just my takeaways from this game.

The run to pass disparity kind of surprised me a little bit. 46 passes for Rivers compared to 22 rushing attempts for the Colts rushing attack. But when you go back and look at some of the clips from the game, it was surprising to me, Stephen. Of course, like you mentioned, the pass blocking from the Colts offensive line, one of the best in the NFL, did very well for themselves. They only allowed one sack. That was a Cody Brissett play that we'll throw in the trash right away.

Rivers, of course, didn't allow a single sack. But the rushing attack really did surprise me. 22 carries for 88 yards. Naeem Hines averaged four yards per carry. Marlon Mack, before he went down, we'll talk about Marlon in a second here. He averaged six and a half yards per carry. But outside of Jonathan Taylor, he was nine carries for 22 yards. His long

was nine yards. So if you take that out, eight carries for 13 yards, less than two yards per attempt. It just seems like the offensive line surprisingly enough against this jaguars team that was depleted on the inside especially trading away coleus campbell kind of lost that trench battle there yeah and like i said at the beginning that was one of the most surprising things for me is the offensive line not really kind of imposing their will in the run game because that is that's what they like to do they like to run the damn ball and they didn't today like they they would try to go behind quentin nelson and for whatever reason the jaguars were able to to stuff it whether it's because the

running back didn't see the hole clearly or whether the colts just weren't blocking well enough and this is one of those first game jitters that you hope it's a one-off and that you don't see this for the rest of the year, and the Colts really kind of use this as their motivation, being like, all right, look, we came in here. We overlooked this team. We can't do that for the rest of the year because now we've given up a little bit of our ability, a little bit of our cushion,

and you hope that the offensive line really takes us to heart and says, hey, we're too good of an offensive line of a group to only get 88 yards in a game against the Jacksonville Jaguars. And in a game where the Colts were leading or tied for the lead, I think the entire game up until the fourth quarter, midway through the fourth quarter, I think they're going to try to impose their will next week against Minnesota. And I think that it's going to be a much different game in Lucas Oil Stadium than what

it was down in the hellhole that is TIAA Bank Stadium, whatever this stadium is down there in Jacksonville that really is just a house of horrors for the Colts. Yeah, the Colts have long struggled there in Jacksonville. Who knows why at this point, because the Jaguars have been the lower team in the totem pole the last couple of years. And even still, they keep being the Colts team in their house. And hopefully sometime soon that trend will end, but not this year in 2020, as the Colts did fall 27-20 today in Jacksonville. Let's hit on the Marlon Mack injury, though, Stephen,

because this could be a big deal for this offense. We kind of saw once Mack went out of the game here, the Colts' offense did change a little bit. They went away from the run once Mack went out of the game. They tried to get Jonathan Taylor and Naeem Hines going in the run game, too, as well. It just didn't work, so to say, just as much as Mack did. Because I think Mack in the first quarter really busted off some really good

runs, an 18-yard run he had, average of six yards per carry. And then I went back and saw the injury that happened with Marlon Mack. It was a non-contact injury. Went out for a quick little short concept route in the middle of the field, three-by-seven-bar dump ball pass. And you go back and watch the video of Marlon Mack, non-contact injury. You see his, like, ankle Achilles area. When he plants, it kind of see a vibration there. It turns out

it was an Achilles injury for Marlon Mack. We don't know that exactly yet, but Frank Reich said it was an Achilles injury postgame. Jonathan Taylor also mentioned if Mack is out for the year, he'll be able to step up in a bigger role, which he obviously will have to. If Marlon Mack is out for the year, Stephen, which it seems like for all indications he will be, a massive blow to this Colts offense, and one for Marlon Mack is out for the year, Stephen, which it seems like for all the occasions he will be, a massive blow to this Colts offense, and one for Marlon Mack personally, a contract year, and one when we go back in the history of running backs with Achilles injuries, Arian Foster, Isaiah Crowell,

multiple other running backs as well recently, have just never had that same burst ever again off of that injury where you have an Achilles injury. What do you think is going to happen to those Colts offense with Marlon Mack, and especially for Mack now entering into a contract year? Who knows what happens for the future of him? Yeah, I really feel for Marlon Mack in this situation. It's, like you said, it's his contract year.

This is going to be the year that he gets his big payday. I wonder if the Colts will go ahead and sign him to like a two-year deal after the season to try to give him a chance to rehab and everything and be much lower than what he was going to get. I think the offense itself, once they get a week with Jonathan Taylor, there is a lead back. I think they'll start clicking again. Jonathan Taylor has that second gear that really is surprising given how physical of a runner he is.

Marlon Mack being as in tune to the playbook as he was, probably getting most of the first team reps in practice, even though they said that they would split with Jonathan Taylor. I think you're going to see a little bit more from Jonathan Taylor. It really is one of those bittersweet picks that Chris Ballard made in this last draft of taking Jonathan Taylor in the second round. When everybody was going, oh, well, you've got Marlon Mack. Why did you take a running back in the second round? You know, it's really unfortunate, again, for Marlon Mack. I think ultimately the offense itself will probably be fine going forward.

Marlon Mack just gives them an extra piece where they could alternate between Mack or Taylor and not really miss a beat. Now, whenever Taylor goes out and they put Wilkins in or they put Hines in, it tips your hand a little bit for the defense. And that's going to be frustrating, I think, for the Colts. And they might have to make the playbook a little bit more vanilla for Jonathan Taylor. But Jonathan Taylor is like a pro's pro. He was very much in that NFL professional athlete mindset when he was at Wisconsin in terms of how he took care of his body and how he studied the playbook and how he worked on his craft. So in terms of the offense

slipping or falling back, I don't expect that to happen too much with Jonathan Taylor, just because of how he approaches this game and the type of person he is. And so I'm excited for Jonathan Taylor moving forward. I feel my heart goes out for Marlon Mack because he deserves better than this. And if it is a torn Achilles, which it sounds like that's what it is, it's frustrating for him because, like you said, a lot of running backs never come back from that. And so you hope that that's not what it is. It probably is a torn Achilles.

But if it is, you hope he's able to make a return and is at least able to get to a place where he can contribute in the NFL again. And that's the sad part about it. Again, my heart goes out to Marlon Mack and what happened here with this one. Yeah, Jonathan Taylor now will be the RB1 for this Colts team, like you mentioned, Stephen. I think he's poised to be in that bell cow role now. He had nine carries today.

But if you add in Marlon Mack's carries, you add in a little bit of Niall Hines' carries as well. Probably a player who's going to be getting at least 15 to 18 carries per game moving forward, or maybe even 20-plus in some games, like we saw from Marlon Mack in Kansas City last year. There's going to be some games – I mean, we saw that screenplay with Jonathan Taylor early in this game, that explosiveness. He had a 30-yard run, and at the five-yard line,

he bowls over two guys, two Jaguars, defensive backs. He has that rare speed and explosive power that I think moving forward here, the Colts are going to take full advantage of here with him, and Naeem Hines is the one-two punch. In the back, obviously Jordan Wilkins, too, if need be, can spell those guys as well. But let's hit on really quick the other running back, Naeem Hines, who, of course, had a little bit extra rushing burden today with Marlon Mack

going down mid-game. Had seven carries, 20 yards, and a touchdown. But then also in the receiving game, eight catches for 45 yards and a touchdown. Two total TDs for Naeem Hines today. I'm looking at just the way that Rivers loves using his running backs. And Steve, we talked about this in the offseason, too, that Naeem Hines appears to be the biggest

beneficiary because those guys love getting yards after receptions, after contact. They know how to get open. They're very speedster players. But looking at the way Rivers used Naeem Hines, it seems like he trusts him already so much. I wouldn't be shocked at all if Hines has like 80 to 90 catches this year at this rate.

No. No, I wouldn't be shocked at all. You could see Naeem Hines really break 100 this year. You know, given it's a 16-game season, he's probably going to average between five and ten catches a game based on this offense that they run. And so he really is kind of the, he's a very important part of this offense in what Frank Reich and Phillip Rivers likes to do. And we said this in the off season, we said Paris Campbell and nine hides would be the biggest beneficiaries of

Phillip Rivers coming in. Sure enough, Paris Campbell led the team and receptions and Paris Campbell led the team in receiving yards and had six reception. Nine Hines led the team in receptions with eight with 45 yards. You're going to see them use that running back, use Paris Campbell, trying to get him open, trying to scheme him open, get him in space. Yeah, I just feel like Naeem Hines is such a great player for the system. And if you have an opportunity to get him in waivers in your fantasy leagues,

go get him, especially if it's a PPR, because you will not be disappointed unless you play in a league with me, because I have him on every single one of my rosters. So that's there. But yeah, in terms of what you're doing with Naeem Hines, as a general matter, he is just such an important piece of this offense and like we had talked about in the the offseason that's that's pretty much he's doing exactly what we thought he'd do we thought he little flare outs little

wheel routes out of the backfield little dump downs and and he's able to make some plays after it which is which is what you want to see So I'm excited for him moving forward and the opportunities that he's going to get. No surprise here, Stephen, looking at the targets for the Colts weapons today. Paris Campbell had nine. T.Y. Hilton had nine. Naeem Hines had eight. Jonathan Taylor had six. Maybe tossing Marlon Max three. He'll, if you would have nine in a game as well. So it seems like right now, of course, Michael Pittman Jr. is still going in slowly in this system. But for the the top four at least for now as far as Phil Berger's fair targets goes Campbell, T.Y. Taylor, and Naeem Hines what do you think about those four with Rivers

moving forward? I think it's going to be great I think as a whole like the Colts receiving unit is pretty good it's not great yet that we've seen. We want to see more from Michael Pittman. You saw Michael Pittman do a lot of the dirty work in terms of making some blocks downfield, which was good to see. And he was thrown two twice and made two catches. So you like to see that in terms of targets and receptions.

I think the more frustrating number, I want to see T.Y. Hilton and Phillip Rivers get more on the same page., like you said, T.Y. had nine targets, but he only had four receptions. That's a little bit frustrating. You kind of expect that number to be higher in terms of the receptions when you get nine targets. But as a whole, I'm excited for the Colts receiving options here with Phillip Rivers because they really do play into Phillip Rivers' strengths, and Phillip Rivers' strengths play into their strengths. So it really should be a really good cohesive relationship there between Phillip Rivers and the wide receivers that you mentioned. Last thing for you, Steven, appreciate the time going over today's loss for the Colts 27-20. What do you think moving forward here heading into Minnesota in Week 2,

a must-win game now for this Colts game,20. What do you think moving forward here heading into Minnesota in week two, a must-win game now for this Colts game, in my opinion? I want to see more from the defensive line. It's the trenches. I want to see more from the defensive line. I want to see him get pressure on Kirk Cousins because Kirk Cousins will make mistakes if you can get pressure on him. So I want to see that. And I want to see the offensive line really establish the run because Minnesota, you should be able to run on them. And so I want to see those two things happen, and I want to see less mistakes from the defensive secondary

because I think both of their passing touchdowns today, there were some pretty obvious mistakes where you're like, somebody blew a coverage there. There's no reason that guy should be wide open. So this needs to get fixed. But, yeah, I think if we're going 1A, 1B for me, it's the trenches. It's the defensive line really needs to show up and get pressure on Kirk Cousins because that's going to make a huge difference in terms of how the rest of the defense can play.

And the offensive line really needs to come in, set a tone, and run the damn ball. Colts lose today in Jacksville 27-20 in a stunning loss where just a lot of miscues on the Colts end as they do fall to – as eight-point favorites heading this game in Jacksville. They lose this game 27-20, start off the year once more 0-1. Steven, appreciate the time as always. You guys can go follow him on Twitter at NiceReadSteve

and go read his work over at Stampede Blue. We'll be back with you guys tomorrow for next up as we head into previewing the Colts versus the Vikings at Lucas Oil Stadium next week.