Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts: AD Mitchell Shines, Laiatu Latu's Time is Coming

Starting point is 00:00:01 Indianapolis Colts rookie A.D. Mitchell enjoys a breakthrough performance while Laatu Laatu is still waiting on his. Let's get to it. You are Locked On Colts, your daily Indianapolis Colts podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Thank you all for tuning in and making us your first listen of the day. This is your daily podcast covering your Indianapolis Colts, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Today's episode is sponsored by Ultimate GM. Use the promo code LOCKEDONNFL, all caps, inside the game store to receive a free boost to your franchise. Hello, everyone. I am Zach Hicks, your favorite film nerd over at HorseshoeHuddle.com. And I'm joined, as always, by Ben Bores at Colts Film Room to talk some film stuff, to talk about this Indianapolis Colts team.

Starting point is 00:00:54 And, yes, again, we usually talk about the quarterback position on these episodes with Ben each week. But I'm going to save your guys' sanity and my sanity and Ben's sanity and not talk about Joe Flacco this week. We might be sacrificing some clicks with that, Ben, but I don't want to talk about a quarterback who threw seven intercepts. Is it worth it? We're talking about seven interceptable balls basically in this past game along with a fumble. I can't talk about that.

Starting point is 00:01:24 I really can't. I did enough on Sunday in the post game I can't do it anymore but we found some really interesting topics to talk about one being A.D. Mitchell having that breakthrough performance and we can kind of pat ourselves in the back a little bit for this one Ben in a lot of ways when it comes to this performance then we're going to switch over to a different rookie Leotu Latu, who I've seen a lot in the comment section on this show. I've also seen Colts fans kind of be wary about him and calling him a bust and being low on him. But patience, patience is needed with Leatu Latu. We're going to discuss that whole aspect of his game as a rookie this year. And then we're going

Starting point is 00:02:01 to have some fun and talk about Kenny Moore because this guy deserves more love he really deserves more love I know he's been here forever and he's a really good player we all know of Kenny Moore and know what he does on the field but we just need to devote a segment to Kenny Moore he's such a fun player he's so fun but let's start off with A.D. Mitchell then A.D. Mitchell is a guy last week where you and I kind of went after Shane Steichen a little bit for not playing A.D. Mitchell against the Minnesota Vikings. Only six snaps in that Vikings game. I believe he had one catch for 22 yards in those six snaps. One of two pass plays that the Colts had. Yeah. Had over 20 yards in that game. Comes out this week. Michael Pittman Jr. was ruled out. And I know you and I were both kind of like,

Starting point is 00:02:46 oh, this might be good for the Colts offense and A.D. Mitchell. And Mitchell goes out there, catches all six of his targets for 71 yards. He did have a little scare on the first catch, fumbled after he caught it, but Josh Downs bailed him out. But this performance was everything I was looking for

Starting point is 00:03:02 from A.D. Mitchell, from the route running to attacking the ball in the air to, I mean, multiple third down conversions when targeting him in here. I mean, this was the breakthrough performance I was looking for from A.D. Mitchell. It wasn't like a breakout superstar performance, but it was certainly the performance that I wanted to see from this young player to maybe build some confidence for him and now I'm looking at this like maybe A.D. Mitchell needs even more than six targets going forward in a game because that was some really good stuff he put on film yeah obviously my first episode ever on here we were talking about A.D. Mitchell and I've been high on him he's one of my favorite players coming out of the draft just from the way that he runs how crisp he runs his routes and his ability to just separate just pure separate

Starting point is 00:03:48 get away from the corners give quarterbacks an easy and open throw now sometimes the timing I think that was some of the early issues is like you know a lot of false steps and a lot of extra sauce is what he called it uh to get open and generate that separation. That can be difficult on some of the timing routes. And I think that that is something that obviously I think he's working through because you can get away with it in college with some of the, just the pure space between the hashes on the field. When everything's a little bit more condensed, it's harder and everything's so based on timing in the NFL.

Starting point is 00:04:24 Really was impressed. I think everything that he's shown you this year he can do, you saw, except he actually got those opportunities. I think we saw in the Houston Texans game, like, wow, they really love what he can do from a double moves perspective. Versus Houston, AR unfortunately didn't connect with him on a lot of those. Probably could have had 150 plus in that game. I think we could have said that again about, there's a couple other games and opportunities that I'm thinking of. Probably the other Houston game too, if I'm being

Starting point is 00:04:53 honest, dropped that touchdown, or not dropped that touchdown, but didn't have two feet in when he probably should have. It's been up and down. I think for A.D. Mitchell, he walked into essentially a crowded wide receiver room where he wasn't going to come in and play the F. That's what Josh Downs is going to do. He wasn't going to play the Z. That's what Michael Pittman is going to be able to do. And then Alec Pierce was the X. And they've kind of been rotating in between those two. And that's and that's it's just it's been tough from that perspective for him to get on the field. I think he just ran with his opportunity. And yeah, just really excited about the player that he is.

Starting point is 00:05:36 And then knowing that it's really not even put together from college product, A.D. Mitchell, to what NFL products should hopefully look like. Yeah. And I think a big part of why we saw such a good game from him in this one was. And look, we give credit on this show when credit is due. Shane Steichen used him the way that he needs to be used, and that is set the tone early with that little mesh concept. I know you talked about that on Twitter because it was a mesh concept that you really love, but using your 4-3 wide receiver on mesh to run away from a corner. A little outside jab, run away from the corner, convert on that third down.

Starting point is 00:06:05 And then when you build that up and you have these corners feeling the speed of A.D. Mitchell, then it's a lot of vertical stems that break off into outside speed routes. And setting that up with the three by one sets to the backside, you know, he's the backside one receiver and three by one. It doesn't matter if it's Christian Benford, who's a really good young corner, Razul Douglas and a very good veteran corner. The Colts were trusting him on those islands, and he won for the most part on a lot of those, some really nice and crisp routes. I mean, I think his two best routes of the day both came against Christian Benford,

Starting point is 00:06:38 where the vertical stem and the comeback route when they were backed up on their own goal line, and then the speed out on like a third and eight where he, I mean, he caught the ball with enough space to where Benford punched the ball out and it wasn't reviewed as a non catch because he had so much separation on Benford. And again, Benford's a great young corner, like a really good young corner. And you're just seeing A.D. Mitchell. And I love that you said that like early in the season, he's putting too much sauce on his routes.

Starting point is 00:07:05 And a lot of his breakdowns was just too many steps. No wasted movement in this game at all. When he was getting to those speed outs, it was sell vertical, break outside. We're not wasting any movement. We're keeping full speed, breaking outside. And he was able to convert on third down and also on early downs too.

Starting point is 00:07:23 I mean, this was a really strong game from AD Mitchell as a wide receiver. And I'm tempted to look, man, if the Colts ever have third down, just go three by one and isolate him backside and let him do his thing. Like I'm tempted to do that every third down and build that staple for the Colts offense as in like, this is our ball winner. And he showed it in this game like they kind of need that right now and they were able to get some things going on offense in this game because of ad mitchell's ability on third downs and as a ball winner in those isolated situations and i think it's tough comparing players but like i see a lot of like keenan allen in what ad mitchell can do

Starting point is 00:08:02 just from like his ability to just pure separate um yeah now sometimes again yeah there's a lot of the some of that that sauce but i think what's important is the the ability that he has and ability that he's shown to improve like a speed out is not a route that you're typically separating on that much i mean you're you you can give the corner a little bit of a move, but you got to get out of that route and you got to go because the quarterback is probably doing a three-step drop and balls out. It's not necessarily a route where you have all day to get to your landmark and set that corner up to jump inside. And those are routes that I don't think in week one, AD would

Starting point is 00:08:43 have necessarily been successful at the NFL level as he is now in week 10. So similar to kind of how Alec Pierce has emerged a little bit this year, and we've seen Josh Downs, who obviously started his rookie campaign really strong, but even built on that and is even better. I think we're just going to see the same thing from AD Mitchell. And I think he's got that really high ceiling and he's he's going to start to continue to push maybe maybe not this season but potentially next season is push some of these wide receivers where if he plays like this it's just hard to keep him on the

Starting point is 00:09:15 sidelines it's hard to win games with that guy on the sidelines yeah and and one thing i will say about the speed outs too because you mentioned perfectly it's hard to set up players like inside or anything on those kind of quick routes but when you have the speed that he has you're getting these corners again like benford a really smart strong like good corner you're getting him bailing off of off coverage i mean benford was an off coverage on that deep speed out and he's backpedaling he's starting to bail and mitchell's transitioning outside and creating that space purely because of the speed threat that he has out there. And it reminds me a lot of T.Y. Hilton. I'm not saying that he's very similar to T.Y. Hilton, but just the way he moves and the way he uses that speed to not be like a

Starting point is 00:09:55 perfect route runner, but to create separation on every little move because of that speed. That's what makes a good wide receiver. So I'm very intrigued and very impressed by A.D. Mitchell. Again, as someone who was not super high on him in the pre-draft process, this was everything I wanted to see from him in a game. Still some room to improve. Hold on to the ball after catching. Please create after the catch on the opportunities over the middle. And again, be a little bit more crisp on some of these catches, especially with this catch technique. But overall, this is such a great step forward that I can't complain too much with A.D. Mitchell.

Starting point is 00:10:28 But coming up, guys, we're going to talk about another Colts rookie, maybe someone that some people are a little bit down on, and that is pass rusher Leatu Latu, thrust into a bigger role this year, has impressed in some ways, but also disappointed in some ways. We're going to talk about the entire conversation around Leatu Latu coming up in just a second. Hey Colts fans, remember our great partner Ultimate Pro Football GM? Well they're back and they have added an amazing new game mode that I need to tell you guys about. The game has you

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Starting point is 00:13:04 Now, for A.D. Mitchell, it's kind of been a growth to getting to where he needs to be, you know, slow and steady, inconsistent play early in the season, but incremental improvement to get to where he was on Sunday, which was a pretty good looking wide receiver out there. Leatu Latu, it's been a little bit different, where from day one, he's been pretty fine for the Colts this season. Like I wouldn't say he's been like fantastic from day one, but we've seen the flashes. We've seen the good moments. We've seen some production from him,

Starting point is 00:13:31 but he hasn't really had that huge breakout performance yet. He did have the forced fumble against the Chicago Bears. He beat the tight end on the outside and forced the, you know, the game ceiling fumble in that game. But aside from that one moment moment I don't think we've really seen Leatu Latu fully emerge this season for the year he has two sacks six QB hits and 15 hurries has a 13.3% pass rush win rate a quarter pro football focus which is second on this Colts team behind Dio at Dangbo and I believe it's like 32nd among edge rushers in the NFL this year

Starting point is 00:14:03 which is a little bit above like Max Crosby a little bit behind some other players so it's like 32nd among edge rushers in the NFL this year, which is a little bit above like Max Crosby, a little bit behind some other players. So it's not it's not bad by any means. It's like an above average pass rush win rate. But I think the problem kind of with Laiatu Latun, I'll kick this to you here in a second too, Ben, is we kind of set this standard for him before the year of a little bit too high. And we I mean, we are certainly at fault here too on lockdown. I mean, my cohost, Jake Arthur was very high on lockdown before the year was projecting double digit sacks. I was trying to temper expectations a little bit more and said between six and eight, but I didn't hate the double digits projection. It looks like he's on pace for around four to five, right? Maybe not even

Starting point is 00:14:46 four right now with the current rate that he's at. So he's going to fall a little short on sacks, but this is kind of par for the course for young pass rushers. I mean, if you look at like the Max Crosby's, the Will, I mean, look at Will Anderson last year, how long it took him to hit a couple sacks last year. It took him a long time to really get to where his sack total was last year. Now he's up there among the best in football. It takes young passers a little bit of time to figure it out. And I think what makes me feel a little bit more comfortable with the layout to Latsu going forward is it's not like he's disappearing during games. Like I'm watching these games and he's winning his rushes.

Starting point is 00:15:26 He's getting there. He's getting close. He's just not 100% finishing. He's not, you know, forcing fumbles and stuff like that. But it's not like he's performing poorly. Like he's doing his job. It's just not super flash. So I think he's right there.

Starting point is 00:15:41 And for a rookie, I think that's all you can really ask for. But Ben, I want to get your thoughts on Leatu Latu. And, you know, again, some people calling him a bust and a bad pick and all these things. Like, I think he's been fine this year and I'm not too concerned going forward. Yeah, I think for me, I agree that the standards coming in were really high. You know, like Chris Ballard laughing, he got the best pass rusher in the draft 10 sacks all this kind of stuff um lotto's definitely skilled right like he's still very skilled with his hands he's still um a really good pass rusher i think what kind of is concerning and maybe why jared verse

Starting point is 00:16:20 is going to run away with the defensive rookie of the year is his lack of ability to just rush with power because the thing with jared verse is lotto we knew with the defensive rookie of the year is his lack of ability to just rush with power. Because the thing with Jared verse is lots of, we knew lots of had this vicious cross chop destroyed all these college tackles. And when you got to the NFL, I think the expectation was always just going to do that to those guys. Well, those guys see cross chops each week.

Starting point is 00:16:41 He's played some experienced tackles. I mean, Dion and we can talk specifically the bills game in a second here um but it's been a lot of it's been a lot of that where it's like he doesn't have necessarily the power that jared verse has as something to fall back on it's if the cross chop doesn't work we're hand fighting fighting, we're hand fighting, balls out. Yeah. I think in this Bills game specifically, and the one thing I really did want to say is he's affecting the game. Like, it's not going to show up on the stat sheet, unfortunately.

Starting point is 00:17:17 It's not going to. The flash plays, splash plays are not there but i see him in what uh being a viable factor on this third down pass rush uh blitz packages where he's going to be their prowl end is what they call it or something similar where he's basically lining up as an off-ball linebacker and can pretty much hit anything from the a gap to the d gap and not everybody can do that not everybody can do that because not every guy can rush from the a gap to the D gap. He's affecting the game in the run game. I think he's gotten a lot better from that perspective. I wouldn't say that he's necessarily making TFLs, but his position necessarily as a wide nine isn't always going to result in TFLs.

Starting point is 00:17:58 His job is just to squeeze and be a force player, essentially, in the D gap or the C gap. So I think he's continuing to improve. The other thing I wanted to point out specifically, because I saw a lot of this kind of maybe after the Bills game, no edge rusher looked great for the Colts. And I think a part of that was due to their rush plan and maybe some of the coaching heading into that week. And I don't want to speculate, obviously,

Starting point is 00:18:22 but a lot of what Buffalo's tackles were doing were snatch trapping, where a lot of, they're going to, you know, utilize, you're going to, they're going to wait for you to punch, get your arm right into the chest and then chop your arm down. And Dio was looking silly all day.

Starting point is 00:18:36 Latu was looking silly all day. So that tells me that there was an intentional choice from the Bills to counter some of the stuff that they're doing on the rush from a rush technique perspective on the Colts defensive line. So I would like to see them counter specifically and be aware that tackles are going to do that. Because if you're a tackle and you go watch, oh, I'm facing Latu this week. I'm Tyron Smith. I'm facing Latto this week i i better see what the buffalo is doing and

Starting point is 00:19:08 see how i just made that guy look silly and put him on the ground so i think it's it's and it wasn't just lotto's dial as well so um that was something i noticed and i think that like from this particular game i i can't i don't think i can extrapolate but when you look at like especially since deforest buckner is back it's really hard on pass protection units to block all of them. Yeah. Yeah. I will say, I mean, in the last three weeks with Buckner coming back in the lineup, especially, but the last three weeks against really good or good offenses, I won't say really good. I mean, the bills are really good offense, but Texans and Vikings are more middle of the road type offenses, but the colts defense has like a

Starting point is 00:19:45 52 pressure rate on on passing plays these last couple weeks like they are getting pressure on quarterbacks i don't think they have the same mobility like darnold and stroud don't have the same mobility that josh allen does no no well you're gonna rush them differently right right but even including this allen game it's still been like a 52 pressure rate these past couple weeks like they got after allen more so than most teams have. They just didn't finish a lot of the plays because who finishes for sacks against Josh Allen? Like, nobody does. It just doesn't happen.

Starting point is 00:20:14 Right, right. So, I mean, if we're looking at this game, we're even looking at the whole season, Laatu, Laatu. Yes, there is room to improve. Like you said, he needs to be stronger. There needs to be something else besides the cross chop and these finesse moves for him to be a productive pass rusher. But the floor I'm seeing with him this year is a good finesse rusher who's getting better with run defense every single game. I mean, he had a couple plays in this past game in run defense that I thought were really, really good. He destroyed a whole duo run that James Cook had,

Starting point is 00:20:45 I remember, to the left side, where he killed the tight end, like just trying to double team him on the outside. It's just stuff like that. Like he's a disruptive player in the run game. He's a good finesse pass rusher. And if you project him to get any bit better going forward, like this isn't a quitty pay

Starting point is 00:21:00 or even a Dio Dangbo situation where those guys from day one were pretty big projects and they had to work to get to where they are now which is perfectly fine players leatu latu feels like he's already kind of at their level right now so what's the next step going to look like when he improves and gets better like those two players did again those players kind of had to work up to this current level where Latu is kind of a similar player to them I think Latu will take that next step and get to that next level like you know I kind of talked about this week on on Twitter with this Colts defense they have two impact players DeForest Buckner and not Quidipe DeForest Buckner and Kenny Moore uh who we're going to talk about here in a second

Starting point is 00:21:39 I think Latu is the closest guy to joining them as an impact player it's just I think you can make the argument for Grover but like not a premier position but not right Grover's not going to be that like he's not a pass rusher he's he's a run stuffer he's an impact run stuffer but yeah Latu but that fumble was an anomaly in the Minnesota right like like Kenny and DeForest can can impact the game from quarter one to quarter four, from down one to down four on any given play. Grover, it's more so the early down stuff, which is great. You definitely need that. Yeah, I think Latu can join those two players, though,

Starting point is 00:22:14 as being in every down force. But since we mentioned one of those guys, let's talk about Kenny Moore here in a second because Kenny Moore is such a fun, fun player. And two film nerds like us are just going to enjoy talking about a player we're going to talk about Kenny Moore in just a second but first guys it's NBA season right now you got your Indiana Pacers going right now and I want to tell you a fun story that I enjoyed back in my day when I used to go to basketball games when I was a

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Starting point is 00:24:09 All right, Locked on Colts, every day as we are back, talking about Kenny Moore II, who had a fantastic interception in this past game, which I know Ben and I are excited to talk about because it's such a fun example of a player recognizing something mid-game and adjusting on the fly. A really great find by you, by the way, on finding what happened on the first play of the game to the interception play. We're going to talk about that in a second.

Starting point is 00:24:30 But just to give some background, man, Kenny Moore does not get the shine he deserves. I know he had a rough, I want to say 2022 season like everyone did. He didn't really adjust to this Gus Bradley scheme very well. But now we're at the point where he is a pivotal player in this Gus Bradley system, especially with them doing more cover two stuff this year on passing downs. He's getting back to where he was in the Matt Eberflug system prior to Gus Bradley, and he is flying all over the place. I think he's a big reason for the communication fixes too on defense. You see him a lot on these like stacked concepts and, you know, just, just anything to his side, you see him communicating with Sam Womack a lot. And those guys have been

Starting point is 00:25:11 shut down on a lot of those stacks and bunch looks. So Kenny Moore, man, he has been just a fantastic player for this Colts team this year. And Sunday was another fun performance run. It wasn't perfect. The Dalton Kincaid near touchdown, certainly on him jumping in underneath route. But that's just what you get from Kenny Moore. He's a playmaker, man. He is a pure-blooded playmaker. He will take some risk every now and then, but when they pay off, you get the interception like you got on Sunday.

Starting point is 00:25:37 Just a fantastic play from a fantastic player. Yeah, and I kind of tweeted out about that interception, but it's just like you talk about like playing corner in the NFL and like everyone will tell you. You're trying to keep up with elite athletes while not knowing what's coming. That's what makes it so hard. Like they can run pretty much anywhere. make those plays that Kenny Moore makes is getting lucky because of course someone made a bad play or use it or being just a really smart cerebral player and staying at a step ahead of that game so if you remember that play three three receivers to the field tight end looking like he's going to

Starting point is 00:26:17 crack on the defensive end or really just be their rollout So help on the defensive end. And they're running this little like smash concept, basically saying, and if this was clear all game, by the way, Buffalo totally saw this on film where they're like the curl flat defender doesn't get, doesn't get enough width. We're going to target Curtis Samuel in the,

Starting point is 00:26:39 in the flats because the underneath player isn't going to get there in time. They got, he got beat on the first play. It was, he was a little slow off isn't going to get there in time. They got, he got beat on the first play. It was, he was a little slow off the play action to get there. So he's the same play. And as soon as he confirms what's happening, he's bailing straight to the, where he knows the ball is going to go, makes the play.

Starting point is 00:26:56 It probably could have been a pick six for being honest. I, it was just a really, really great play. And it's crazy to see how he affects the game from down one to down four because for a guy his size, I'm seeing him make plays in the run game where he can fit anywhere from the C gap to the D gap. He is such a good player. He's having a Pro Bowl year. I think there's no reason that he shouldn't be up there and voting.

Starting point is 00:27:22 He's just a fantastic player. And obviously when he was in the league, like the nickel position wasn't really that as important as it definitely is now. And there's a lot of guys up there who are elite nickels in this league. I think Kenny Moore is right there with him as a pioneer, what he calls himself for the position, but he can do literally everything. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:27:43 I will say from talking to prospects over the last couple of years, when you talk about guys who played nickel in college, you know, when they go through the guys that they watch, you know, they would mention Jalen Ramsey from a couple of years ago being that all around player. But Kenny Moore is the guy they talk about the most. Like, I don't even say I'm a Colts guy. And they're like, yeah, Kenny Moore, I watch all the time. If you want to see a player who makes the perfect tackle, who fills in the run game, who can do it all in coverage and who's such a smart and cerebral player, like it's Kenny Moore, man. And I so, I so love that interception.

Starting point is 00:28:14 Like the funny, the funniest thing about the interception is probably not in like a top five pick of Kenny's career because he's got so many just impressive interceptions. I remember a couple, I remember one against the Tennessee Titans a couple of years ago where he just completely abandoned his assignment because he recognized what was coming at him and stole one over the middle. The one-handed pick against the Raiders, obviously we all remember. Just plays like that though. He is such a playmaker on this defense. And I think it's something the Colts have really lacked since the fall off of Shaquille Leonard.

Starting point is 00:28:42 They have not had, they just have not had that guy on this defense and Kenny, you know, he's had spurts of not being perfect at times with this defense, but when they've needed a guy to make a play, it's been Kenny these past couple of years. And I can only imagine how much more it would be if they had another threat in the secondary besides him. Like Jalen Jones,

Starting point is 00:29:02 I think has had a fine season in terms of disrupting at the catch point and making some plays but they really don't have another playmaker in that secondary so teams know when hey we need we need a big play we need a big moment we're not going to go with kenny more we're going to go at jen jones sam womack julian blackman these linebackers you know because we have other guys we exploit but But imagine where Kenny would be with his production if there were another guy to take away the ball and take away like where teams can't just say we can't go at Kenny Moore. Sometimes it has to be we have to go with Kenny because on the other side, they have this other guy. Just imagine where Kenny would be with his playmaking, kind of like how it was with Shaquille Leonard here, where they were both making a bunch

Starting point is 00:29:43 of big plays. But all that to say, it was such a great example of, again, just in-game awareness, like you mentioned, with that interception. First play of the game, they hit him with that smash concept. He doesn't get out to the flat in time. Second time he sees it. If you watch on film, he recognizes what's coming by what is happening in the backfield

Starting point is 00:30:01 on this first second of that play. It's such a good play. Balls on the left hash, which is huge because you're not going to run a roll out or not never but like you're typically going to run a roll out to the quarterback's throwing arm so he doesn't throw across his body they were still in like the back was to the three receiver side so it was really four by oh or four by one i can't remember like it was all it was there right in front of us and kenny just saw it and know exactly what the play is and it's just like i think we talked about the secondary like one of the big things was so big on continuity is like hey this scheme might

Starting point is 00:30:38 be a little bit vanilla at times i don't think it's actually gotten vanilla in the past couple weeks i think they've started to really evolve but you know where teams are going to attack you when you play that cover three and you know where the weaknesses are the curl flat was where the weaknesses are in that particular play versus that particular coverage kenny moore abandons basically abandons what his assignment and just runs right to the play because he knows what where they're trying to attack the defense i think that's such a valuable part of playing defense is knowing we're in this coverage this is what the team is going to do to attack you how can i minimize the the uh damage and i think that it's just it's just really fun to watch on film and i'll also see him disguise

Starting point is 00:31:22 coverage too which is he's when you talk about like I mean there's not a lot of disguising in this defense but he'll he'll bluff a blitz uh he'll do a lot of things to to really uh affect how you're you're playing on offense yeah he is such an a plus player on defense and he deserves all his flowers for I mean I know the big talk this week with Kenny Morris his comments made to the media but his play on the field has been fantastic. He is so fun. He's been a big part of this defense evolving since that Jacksonville disaster. Since that Jacksonville disaster, him and DeForest Buckner, I think, have been the two most integral players to this defense taking that next step.

Starting point is 00:32:01 And going from, again, I mean, that Jacksonville disaster, I was thinking worst defense in football. Oh, I mean, it was literally the worst defense in football at that point yeah and they've totally turned it around and it's it's so impressive too because when you watch them like there's still things that like they need to clean up and they can be even better like yeah it's they're gus is running sim pressures on second down. That is gone through the roof. They're getting creative up front. Like this is not what you think it is when it comes to Gus Bradley. I want to make that clear. The film will totally show you that,

Starting point is 00:32:32 but there's still stuff from a schematic perspective. And then also from a technique standpoint, like the one 20 yard run from James cook, where they had him bottled up and he's breaks a bunch of tackles. Like that's something that's been a work in progress all year. Can't happen. Some different plays off schedule. I feel like some of these plays now, the explosive plays are coming on

Starting point is 00:32:54 off schedule, just not being ready for that. So work in progress, but that's the best. I think that's the most encouraging thing, Zach, is they can be playing even better than how they're playing which is pretty good yeah the last three weeks again against good offenses they're they're sixth in epa per play or six in epa per drop back 11th epa per play and they forced six turnovers have a 52 pressure rate 30 blitz rate from gus bradley in the last three games against pretty good offenses like he's blitzing against good offense. He never did that in the past.

Starting point is 00:33:27 He blitzed against bad offenses in the past, good offenses, never blitzed against them. Now he's blitzing. He's simming pressures. He's getting pressure up front. I don't think this is Brian Flores, but it's not four down over front cover three.

Starting point is 00:33:39 No, it's just not. Yeah, it's, it's, it's really fun to see this whole thing evolve, especially when we put a guy like Gus into this box and really this whole entire unit into this box.

Starting point is 00:33:51 And they dug their way out of it. Now, obviously, the offense is doing them no favors. You're never going to be good with the amount of short fields that they had on Sunday. I mean, it's hard to play defense when they're starting on the 50. Against Josh Allen. Against Josh Allen. Kind of tough.

Starting point is 00:34:09 I mean, I thought that given the circumstances, they really had him held to three field goals and a touchdown. And that's pretty good for Josh Allen. We're talking about the MVP candidate, and they held him to three field goals and a touchdown. Two picks and no passing touchdowns from the MVP candidate candidate not really much more you can ask from this Colts defense unfortunately resulted in a loss but that's life as a Colts fan right now but we're gonna get out of here guys we want to thank you all for making Locked on Colts your first listen today now for your second listen go find the new Locked on NFL with two shows every day for the first the madman Tyler Rowland kicks off your morning with a double shot of NFL espresso

Starting point is 00:34:46 and then stop by the barbershop with Tony Wiggins for some real NFL talk. Find Locked on NFL on YouTube where we list your podcasts. And if you want to become a Locked on Colts insider and chat with us directly and follow that inside scoop, follow the link in our show notes. And if you don't already, make sure you're following at Locked on Colts, at Jake Arthur NFL, at Zach Hicks 2, and at Colts Film Room all on Twitter. Also, subscribe to us on YouTube, where we list your podcasts. We love you guys, raise the views, and we'll catch you guys back here tomorrow afternoon.

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