Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - CROSSOVER: Alec Pierce, Jonathan Taylor VITAL to Indianapolis Colts vs. Jacksonville Jaguars

Starting point is 00:00:00 All that talk about the AFC South not being good, and the Jaguars and the Coats got a big one coming up this Sunday. You are Locked on NFL crossover, part of the Locked on podcast network. Your team every day. What she said is a fact. It is your team every day. here on both Locked-on Jaguars and Locked-on Coats, a part of the Locked-on Podcast Network and also part of the number one sports podcast network.

Starting point is 00:00:40 We thank you all for making us your first listen. I am with Jake Arthur of Locked-on Coates, and my name is Tony Wiggins. We're about to do a crossover, man, as we do every Thursday around the Locked-on podcast network. Wherever you locked in at, man, make sure you tap in whether you watch or listen. So you do not miss an episode of Locked on Colts and Locked on Jaguars, especially today. It's cross over Thursdays. It's presented by Price Picks.

Starting point is 00:01:08 Download the Price Picks app today and use the code locked on NFL to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. Jake, tell the people what's up, Dahl? What is happening, everybody? We are just riding the ride when it comes to anything covering the cult. It is never normal. They are never not boring. There is always something tumultuous, even when things are at their brightest.

Starting point is 00:01:35 So we've got a lot to talk about today. Yeah, we do. Here's where we're going. We're going to hit you up with the biggest storylines early, and then we'll hit you with game-changing matchups, what the winning formula is, and I'm going to try to squeeze a game prediction out of Jake. Jake is as smart as I think he is,

Starting point is 00:01:53 and I know him to be. He's going to pick the coach to win, and I'm going to tell him he's slacks. crazy. So let's make sure we go ahead and get started here. Once again, thank you for making us your first listen here on both Locked on Coats and Locked on Jaguars. It is crossover Thursday presented by prize picks. Let's just get going, man. The biggest story for me is Daniel Jones. I picked y'all to finish dead last this year because I was so unsure about the quarterbacks. Well, Daniel Jones, at least for 10 or 11 weeks had me convinced that I was dead wrong.

Starting point is 00:02:23 Jake, what's been going on lately, though? Yeah, we've kind of come full circle on Daniel Jones and the Colts all together. You know, at first, just like you said, you know, the, the vibes were a little low. People were lukewarm on them, even internally here within kind of the cult sphere of things. He was a pleasant surprise, seemed to be the perfect marriage with Shane Steichen. Things were going great. I think they were like seven and one to start out the year. And then they just hit some sort of major hiccups around Pittsburgh. Between Pittsburgh and Atlanta. He turned the ball over like six times with sack 12 times in those two games. And in the last four games overall from now through then, the Colts have dropped three of their

Starting point is 00:03:04 last four. It's it's very peculiar how to look at this entire thing, though, because in those two games, Jones was definitely a problem. Now, with the Atlanta game down the stretch late in the fourth quarter and into overtime, he made some really clutch throws, redeeming his performance a little bit because the Colts won. But then you look at Kansas City. You look at Houston in these last two weeks. Oh, and two in those two games. But he's played better, you know, despite that fractured leg, believe it or not. Kansas City, I thought he was really, really good through the first three quarters. And then in the fourth quarter, everything just fell apart. Teams know they can just blitz the heck out of the Colts right now. And his lack of mobility is a problem. He is not the

Starting point is 00:03:51 problem, but his lack of mobility is. So that's been kind of a thing. He's been relegated to being just kind of a pocket passer right now because they can't use all the bootlegs and all the getting him out and moving that they normally would and kind of cashing in on all the stuff that works so well early in the season. So he's doing well in what he's physically able to do right now. But defenses that are going to bring the heat and the Colts have faced some really aggressive ones they're getting home right now and it's it's just limiting what the colts can do and so far they haven't had a good answer for countering that it's we all can see it coming and the colts should be able to see it coming too but defenses are just still getting home and in the

Starting point is 00:04:39 offensive line in general has not really held up its end of the bargain the last few games so that's that's just caused quite a few issues as well i think you know this is proof positive that maybe a fracture or a broken bone is actually worth than a high ankle sprain because we've heard that we've heard that for years and dudes don't play with high ankle spraines but they play with broken legs and broken fractured fibulas uh Trevor Lawrence hasn't been hurt but the roller coaster that you're talking about it hasn't occurred the same way with him as it did with Daniel Jones whereas Daniel Jones lights out seven eight 19 games and then all of a sudden the bottom falls out that used to happen with Trevor Lawrence every other quarter now I say used to because I think it stopped like two games ago. So you know, you got to take that with a grain of salt, but you can see the progression and the impact that Liam Cohen had on him. And you got to forget about all of the draft expectations

Starting point is 00:05:37 and just look at it for what it is. The last couple of weeks, the last few weeks, and we can check on True Media, man, that we always use. Trevor Lawrence has been very, very good over the last two, I would say two and a half games. He had a bunch of turnover early against Arizona, fixed it, got it together. And now with the addition of Jacobi Myers and with the welcoming back of Brenton Strange and Brian Thomas Jr., it seems like now you can start see the promise of what this is

Starting point is 00:06:09 supposed to look like, what a Liam Cohen and Trevor Lawrence combo looks like. The thing that gets me, though, is nobody, nobody picked these two teams, except David Harrison from Locked-on commanders. He picked the Jaguars to win the AFC South. But this is new blood, not only in our division, man, but at the top of this thing headed into the playoffs. And with Houston going to Kansas City, it's going to be fun watching to see how this shapes out.

Starting point is 00:06:35 I can't ever recall a time where it seems like every single week there were games that were just so important to the schedule and important to teams' playoffs hopes. We never usually see it. Usually somebody has to wait on somebody else to do their work, but now these teams are playing each other. Yeah, I think the Colts losing to Houston last week officially made it playoff mode for all three of these teams at the top

Starting point is 00:06:57 because Jacksonville and the Colts are now tied and then Houston's just a game behind them. And then the Colts and their final six games have four AFC South matchup. So an incredibly valuable final section of the roster or of the schedule. In Jacksonville, obviously the Colts have not won there since 2014. I don't know what kind of witchcraft is going on there,

Starting point is 00:07:21 but it does not matter how bad the Jags are that year or how good the Colts are that year. Going on the road against the Jaguars is some enormous problem. Andrew Luck got shut out there in his final performance. She did. Yeah, so whatever it is, that's a tough matchup. The Colts close out the season week 18 in Houston. And then the two non-division games they have in Seattle.

Starting point is 00:07:48 Seattle has been one of the best teams all year. And again, it's in Seattle. And then they have the 49ers on Monday night football. So I know it sounds like I'm just sounds like I'm taking shots of tequila. Every time you say that, I go, it's a, man, that is a daunting. And there's two, two games against the Jags, another against the Texans. Is that it? Yep.

Starting point is 00:08:09 Oh, not fun. They are, they already, they already swept the Titans. They got that done and out of the way already. But yeah, it's, uh, their final five. games are brutal and the playoffs start now i really don't know that they can drop another one they can maybe drop one and get a wild card still but if they want to have hopes of this division they can't lose any more division games yeah i know what you mean the jaguar aren't quite there but they have they still have another game against the titans they have the two against the

Starting point is 00:08:39 colts they do have a tough game at mile high against denver but then they also play the jets but the thing about the jets man you can't count anybody out these days so now they're They're weird. Yeah, it's about growing up and winning. All right, we're going to talk game-changing matchups because that's always important. I'll let Jake hit me up with whatever questions he has about the matchups. And then, of course, I'll talk about a matchup that won't happen because I think a certain player is injured. That will be Saul's Gardner.

Starting point is 00:09:09 We talk about that and more just a second here on crossover edition of Locked on Jaguars and Locked on Coats. Hi, today's show is sponsored and brought to you by prize picks. This holiday season is one of the best times for sports, bowl games, big basketball matchups, coaching changes, playoff pushes, it's all happening at once. And while we're all making choices every day, one of the most fun places to make the right call is prize picks. Prize picks is the easiest way to get in on daily fantasy. Just make the pick of more or less on at least two player projections, lock in your lineup and you're in the game.

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Starting point is 00:10:27 Prize picks. It's good to be right. And right is the word because we came right back at you here talking about Colts and Jaguars and Tony Wiggins. That is Jake Arthur on our crossover Thursday around our network presented by prize picks. All right, man. shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot, Jake, what you got? Yeah, I mean, I feel like trying to ask you specific questions about the Jaguars is almost as challenging to answer specific questions about the Colts right now.

Starting point is 00:10:57 But, you know, you had mentioned Brent and Strange returning was a big deal for Trevor, and that did seem to coincide with Trevor really leveling his playoff and getting back to that kind of upward trajectory. And then Brian Thomas Jr. from afar, you know, from my ignorant perspective, of not watching the Jaguars all the time. Everyone was saying how low of a season he had been having. Now, it sounds like maybe things are on the up and up a little bit. But, yeah, I got to get a gauge on this passing game because the Colts also,

Starting point is 00:11:31 you know, Jacoby Myers, the Colts of Face Myers already when he was with the Raiders this year. And Charverius Ward kind of took care of that issue. Now, Ward is a little bit of a different player at this point right now than he was at that point because the next week he would suffer kind of a devastating concussion and this will be his third game back from it. So I'm very interested to see how that Jaguar's passing game has evolved from then to now. That's a great question. I think what happened was there were a whole bunch of things at play and I even discussed this yesterday on my show. First of all, there was how

Starting point is 00:12:08 were you going to ingratiate Travis Hunter? Second, we're all learning a new offense. right with new things to see new things to do and the coaching staff came in and I think they determined that you had high IQ football players and Travis Hunter and Trevor Lawrence and Brian Thomas Jr. So we're just going to throw it out of them and see what happens and people were criticizing saying they're only using Travis in the slot. Turns out later on Liam Cohen actually explained that F position is the one that is the most difficult to learn. So they were actually leaning into Travis's work ethic when it comes to that and it's football IQ. But if you don't really understand that, it's like, well, they should just simplify things

Starting point is 00:12:54 and just throw him the ball and he'll catch jump balls. That's not the way it works long or short term in the NFL. So what happened is BT got out to a slow start, but he was also banged up, had a little bit of a shoulder issue, and then he had an ankle injury. And what was going on, he was double clutching balls. Like ball hit him, he double, and then he'd get hit. ball would come out um they were learning each other learning an offense learning everything trying to get a rookie involved and at first it was just clunky and you couldn't tell the

Starting point is 00:13:25 reasons why then those guys got hurt and they go out and make an addition of a professional pass catcher who gets it and understands and then they bring him in and all of a sudden we're going to start him outside because we he plays more of the slot position but it's too difficult for him to learn that on the fly. So that told you that what they were actually asking Travis Hunter to do was the most difficult thing when it came to their wide receiver. So sitting and watching has helped BT. I think Britton Strange was ready to bust out.

Starting point is 00:13:59 Parker Washington has busted out and has been one of their best players. So now what has happened is I think everything caught up. Everything caught up. So from a little positive note, I said, Travis Hunter is now, instead of getting drafted by one of the worst organizations, we'll come back from injury next year to potentially a division winning team and a wildcard team. So take that for what is worth. And that's all that happened.

Starting point is 00:14:23 And I think Trevor just had to get used to it. And then they just, Liam Cohen just said, hey, let it rip, man. Let it rip. He's coaching. It's just that sometimes we get a chance to see how the sausage is made and we don't like it. But we have to wait for the results and give these guys a chance to do this. job i like that yeah and i'm not going to lie britain strange is definitely someone who i've got some concerns about because there's there's been ingredients there for the colts to be vulnerable over

Starting point is 00:14:51 the middle of the field uh in breaking routes and crossers like all that stuff has kind of plagued them at times this year and easily the worst part of their coverage is the linebackers zire franklin and jermain pratt now those guys have have really stood up against the run but i just look at like a Brenton strange and what they might be able to do in the passing game with him but how's the Jags pass rush because like I think numbers can be a little misleading because the Colts are like number six and sacks right now but if you watch the Colts every week it doesn't feel that way you know what I mean so statistically you know that's one thing but like how do you feel about how productive Jacksonville's pass rush is all right so

Starting point is 00:15:34 they weren't getting sacks but they weren't getting pressure and you've heard the coaches where pressure is just as good as sacks. No, not really. Because pressure, you can't get a sack without pressure, right? But if you let a guy throw the ball away, it's second and ten. If you sack him, it's second and 18. So, no, one thing is worse than the other. Sometimes it's just situational football, and that's what it is.

Starting point is 00:16:01 But I will tell you, as of late, Trayvon's been out. And I think the same thing that happened to the offense kind of happened to the defense. Guys realize we got to pick it up. So when you ask, when you go next man up, and you say you got to pick it up, and you bypass Emmanuel Ogba, who was your veteran free agent, third eddruster that's supposed to give you what a veteran brings,

Starting point is 00:16:25 and you start playing faster guys like Danny Striggo and B.J. Green, two rookies that were undrafted, and you see the speed. And then you start getting Dennis Gardak, who's a Sam linebacker, more involved. and then you start sending people from different places to make up for the fact that Walker's not there. And over the last couple of games, it's looked pretty good. Now, take it for what is worth, the last few games have been the Raiders, Houston, Arizona, and Tennessee.

Starting point is 00:16:54 Take it for what is worth, man. But the thing is, getting home is getting home. This is the NFL. The key to it is putting people in a position where they got to throw it every single time and you're not being in prevent. Get a big lead and then let your guys cook. The problem is the Jaguars were stumbling and bumbling around a lot early in the year, and they weren't getting out to big leads, with the exception of the game against Houston, where they gave up 19 points.

Starting point is 00:17:16 They lost the 19-point lead in the fourth quarter. It was kind of fluky, but Houston did what they had to do. But the only thing is, man, sometimes there's no magic wand to it. Guys that are on the field just have to play better. And that's what they've done. They've played better. That's, yeah, you look at all the commonalities for the Colts since they've hit this wall, you know, in the last month.

Starting point is 00:17:38 November was not kind of them. Again, they dropped three or four after like a blistering hot start to the season. And you look at it, it's, you know, kind of blunders and protection, turnovers in the first two. They haven't turned the ball over in two games now, though, and they've only been sacked once. So how you lose, how you go 0 and 2 under those circumstances? I don't know. Untimely penalties, like just poorly timed big plays allowed on defense. it's just like it's just like the worst time things where your your opponent just capitalizes on those but for me when I look at what the Colts are going to like have to do so Alec Pierce that was a big thing last week and it usually is anytime they win a game Alec Pierce plays a big role and Jonathan Taylor so I guess Jacksonville I know you know Greg Newsom is in there now so like how has that secondary looked and obviously no Travis Hunter

Starting point is 00:18:35 So are they susceptible to the big play over the top or how does that work for them? They had some plays where there was some miscommunication. You play two deep safeties and they both get split and you got inside leverage on the corner. There's no reason for some dude you never heard of in Arizona catching a slant and running and going 60 yards for a touchdown. But for the most part, Jari and Jones has played really really well. Second year play out of Florida State. They haven't just missed Travis. In fact, Travis was playing more offense than he was defense.

Starting point is 00:19:09 They have also missed Joy Lewis, who was their big time free agency signing, who came back last week and knocked some of the rust off. But they've missed Eric Murray, who they also signed in free agency, who was basically allowing them to use him at free safety and create a lot of turnover. But they've had guys like Antonio Johnson step up, getting Newsom, they just swapped him out for Tyson, because he was a better fit, but Monterec Brown has now stepped up.

Starting point is 00:19:37 Guys have learned how to play when other guys were absent. And now I think when you bring those guys back in, they trust the other guy more and therefore there's more organic and natural motivation to play. I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to tell you what I'm afraid of for the Jags

Starting point is 00:19:54 and then we'll talk about the winning formula and a game prediction here, segment three, crossover edition, Locked on Jags and Locked on Coach. a little afc south matchup everybody well i ain't gonna say everybody i used to refer to the afc south as the nfl's version of the mountain west but that's all right it's all good because now you got three competitive teams uh we all gonna pull out a little something for uh the titans and tell them yeah we all been there get it together um i would tell you this though i'm always afraid of a team that has a pass catching tight end but he's not

Starting point is 00:20:33 not considered a move tight end. He can also block too. Because now you don't know what he's going to do. Is it going to block or he's going to leak out? And you have to always, you don't know if to get caught in a nickel, a big nickel, or being your base defense. And I think Britain Strange provides that same thing for Jacksonville. But the combination of having a dominant running back and a tight end, you think about play action, linebacker sniffing around in the whole safeties, having eyes in the back field. And then you're leaking this. big six-foot-six-two-hundred-pound dude that runs a four or five and a half out in coverage. And it can just cause a lot of serious problems, man.

Starting point is 00:21:13 I can't stand it, you know, to see tight ends running down the scene. It just stretches your defense and it challenges your windows too much on defense. So that's the thing I'm most afraid of is that they'll get the ball out quickly because of the threat of the running game. So that's something I'm hoping that the Jaguars can make sure that they get in front of i would like to see tyler warren have kind of a bounce back performance he's had obviously several bigger game like he he's still the the hundred yard game alludes him but he still had plenty of you know 70 plus yards sometimes i think they try and lean on his yards after catch a little

Starting point is 00:21:52 too much and like his primary mission in the game is a lot of just like bubble screens and stuff like that you know uh but i would like to see them use him downfield a bit more like good things happen when they do like they had what was it like a 16 yard touchdown or something to him last week so they can hit the chunk play with him he's more than capable of doing it he had a 41 yard catch really in the year so he can stretch the field playing like he said he's got the speed to do it especially if you find a mismatch like with a linebacker on him but something that's just really been missing for them is Jonathan Taylor had almost 300 yards of offense against the falcons in week then

Starting point is 00:22:32 And in the couple games since then, they haven't been able to get him going yet. Like, I don't even know that he's had 100 yards from scrimmage into games since then. Now, last week, he started to do a couple things, and they totally abandoned him in the fourth quarter against the Chiefs. So obviously, like, he was off to an MVP pace in the first half of the year, absolutely dominant. He's still leading the league in rushing right now. But they have got to find a way to get him going again. Because at no point have they been getting killed to the point where they couldn't continue to use him. I mean, shoot, even in that Chiefs game in the fourth quarter, they were up by 11 with the ball going into the fourth quarter and ran him one time.

Starting point is 00:23:19 So just keep him going. And then again, Alec Pierce, that's, I think that's just going to have to be their lifeblood, is having Jonathan Taylor as a consistent threat because you are showing that. that you will go to him throughout the game and then play action opportunities with Pierce over the top. I think they hit two or three nice plays with him off of play action last week. So it's definitely, it's a feather in the cap they have, but not everyone does.

Starting point is 00:23:47 Like Pierce, I think for the second year in a row is leading the NFL in yards per catch. So he's a legitimate deep threat. Like contested, downfields, like all of it. Like keep feeding it to him and good things are going to happen. Yeah, I mentioned Pierce last week. and somebody said, what about Michael Pittman? I'm like, Pierce is the dude that scares me because of that big playability.

Starting point is 00:24:11 And he's a catch rating's dude, too, man. He could go up and get it. I mentioned a player that I was afraid of, a matchup that I was looking forward to, Salt Gardner's out. Is that correct? Yeah, he's going to probably be out a few weeks. They're not putting him on IR, so that probably means his timeline is about three weeks, I would imagine. So that means to me, the coach traded for him for a reason.

Starting point is 00:24:32 One, he's a great player, but two, they wanted him and they needed him, him to go along with Charvera's war. And now that they don't have him, I want the Jaguars to exploit whoever that is. Come out of the huddle, break, and find whoever it is standing over there where sauce was going to be and then try to take advantage of it. But not to the point where you abandon making sure you get first downs, and can keep possessions going and stay on the field. I think the more you limit possessions,

Starting point is 00:25:01 And the more you make this a situation where the coach are like, look, we can't just sit here and get his dude the ball four, you know, five, six times in a row, even if he gets four yards of carry because we're losing. So my thing is, I want them to run out of time before they try to ground and pound with the running back and then be able to dump all to the tight end. And oh, while everyone's paying attention to all of that, here's Pierce running deep. So situation of football is key for me and one of those key. is making sure that they get ahead and limit possession. So one of the ways they can do that is to run the ball themselves, and the other way they can point out a weakness on the coach and score some points.

Starting point is 00:25:41 And I think that's what they're going to do, by the way. They've said, you mentioned that the coach haven't won here. The Jaguars are not worried about that. They say this team has never beaten the coach. So they are taking the approach that this is all new money. They ain't got nothing to do with anything. If the coach is thinking about it, fine, but the Jaguars aren't. Real quick, tell me how you feel about that.

Starting point is 00:26:06 And then I'll tell you what I think is going to happen. It is getting increasingly difficult to pick them in games, but it's the thing. We've seen them go toe to toe with the best teams. They beat Denver, and they've held fourth quarter leads against the Rams and the Chiefs. They beat the Chargers pretty handily. Like, they're really on some, he's a good kid. he's just on some hard times type stuff right now you know what i mean uh so i i do still have

Starting point is 00:26:36 faith they can do it because in even in losses every single game they're showing you that they're still there uh they're just kind of finding ways to find a new ways to lose so i have this a really close one like 2320 colts uh something around there that's probably where i'm going to settle at uh i i can't get to them blowing anyone out anymore until i see them just win one again uh but I do still have faith they can do it and break the curse. This has been a year of them breaking curses and streaks. So I'm going to say they win 23 to 20 and get back on top of the division. All right.

Starting point is 00:27:11 That's a good pick. And I'm also proud of you because sometimes people come on here with me and they buckle and go, I think the Jags going to win. I need you to be coached strong, baby. I need you to stand there. I respect people. Yeah, I respect it, man, when you just stand in the paint for your team. They haven't gotten hammered any point this year.

Starting point is 00:27:28 They just keep finding new. ways to lose you know i mean they're very frustrated yeah the jaguars got hammered once and that was against the rams okay and that was in london and that was teacher versus student other than that the games have been close and normally in those close games there's a there's another level of gritty that comes out of the jaguars so by you picking to be a close game i pick this is what i've done i have picked them to win a close game damn there every time this year because that's just who they are if it gets ugly and muddy and I heard it's going to be raining Sunday

Starting point is 00:28:00 the Jackson was going to find a way to win man so I got the same score I'll tell you what I got a different score I got 2423 Jacksonville I'll let you keep 23 and I'll go I'll go Kobe to you Michael Jordan how about that honestly I think I would love it to be

Starting point is 00:28:17 gross weather because then you have to lean on Jonathan Taylor and you have to get Tyler Warren like really involved in all the like close quarters type stuff I think I like the Colts trying to fit that sort of mold better than I do, them spreading it out and trying to throw it 35 times. You know what I mean? If they do, I think that would make me feel even better.

Starting point is 00:28:40 But, I mean, the Jaguars, I think they're built to play well in that circumstance too. So a 2423 game, if it's all rainy and stuff, I like that. I want to see a gross smash-mouth game. Yeah, ain't nothing wrong with it. But guess what? Me and you're going to do this again soon because they play. twice here at the end of the season. So depending on how this goes, one of us going to be looking crazy the next time we do this show because one of these teams is going to be in a bad

Starting point is 00:29:05 precarious position. But you're not in a bad spot whether you're locked on coach or locked on Jaguars because it is your team every day. Always appreciate you guys making us your first listen. Tap into locked on NFL. If you do, you've seen Jake before because we used their clips from around the National Football League from all the local hosts that have their finger on the pulse of the team to let you know what is exactly going on. So make sure you check out Locked on NFL twice a day. Tyler Rowland in the morning and me in the afternoon. Former man, Jake Arthur, I am Tony Wiggins.

Starting point is 00:29:36 Injury free is how we want to keep it. But, Coats and Jaguars, man, once again, I cannot believe it. It is for a lot. Locked on Coats, Locked on Jags. We don't take you for granted, man. Thank y'all for spending time with us. We'll see you next time. Enjoy the game Sunday.

Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - CROSSOVER: Alec Pierce, Jonathan Taylor VITAL to Indianapolis Colts vs. Jacksonville Jaguars

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