Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts Anthony Richardson, Shane Steichen Let Team Down in Loss to Houston Texans

Starting point is 00:00:00 With this loss to the Texans, the Colts offense has become an absolute disaster that Anthony Richardson and Shane Steichen have got to figure out. 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. All right. Thanks for tuning in and making us your first post-game listen of the day. This is your daily podcast covering your Indianapolis Colts, part of the Locked On Podcast Network,

Starting point is 00:00:36 your team every day. And this episode is brought to you by PrizeFix. Go to prizepix.com slash LockedOnNFL and use code all lowercase Locked locked on NFL to win $50 instantly when you play $5. The show is also brought to you by Pain and Suffering. What's up, everybody? This is Jake Arthur and Zach Hicks of HorseshoeHuddle.com. I'm your resident media member for the site, and Zach is your resident film member from the site. We're talking about this 23 to 20 loss it's a division midweek or

Starting point is 00:01:08 mid-year loss three-point loss honestly the Colts covered the spread in this one so on the surface it doesn't look that bad but is there any single one of you who has a good warm fuzzy feeling after this one so we got to start talking about the problems right off the bat with Anthony Richardson, Zach. So obviously this, this is kind of becoming a broken record each week. You know, we talk about the peaks and valleys and this and that, and the good days are coming. They haven't come. Every week seems like a new low.

Starting point is 00:01:42 We were kind of joking before we went on the air, like his stat line from today, it looks like when you absolutely whoop your little brother in math, like they can do absolutely nothing. Like this is video game numbers, but in the wrong way. And box score scouting with a player like Anthony Richardson is incredibly misleading. I saw a tweet by one of the Houston

Starting point is 00:02:05 media members talking about his first quarter, and I was like, oh no, he's actually kind of dealing in the first quarter. The numbers are just terrible because of drops and just like tiny, you know, being inches off, but then extrapolating over the entire game, it just went downhill from there. 10 of 32, which is 31.3% completion percentage, which might be the lowest I've ever seen in my life. 175 yards with a 5.5 YPA. Remember there was a 69-yard touchdown involved in that. One touchdown, one pick, and five sacks. So there was some really good ball harassment by Houston's defensive backs, and the Colts offensive line didn't really do him many favors either. And there were a couple of drops. So like it wasn't a hundred percent on Anthony, but here

Starting point is 00:02:52 we are. It's a, it's a new low Zach. Yeah, it is. And I've been very vocal about the patients needed when it comes to Anthony Richardson. I've been very vocal since they drafted him about how there's a lot of patients needed in this project because the Colts are taking a shot at a crazy experiment with Anthony Richardson, betting on the traits, betting on the upside, betting on the talent when there's really nothing off of his college film in terms of, you know, in terms of what he produced in college that says he should have been a top five pick. And this was going to be a process that took a long time. But while I am still preaching patience, and I still think he needs to be the starter the rest of the season,

Starting point is 00:03:28 because it's more valuable to get those data points on him than it is to get anything that Joe Flacco would give you. Like Joe Flacco, again, at best gets you a wild card loss where Richardson, it's more valuable to get those data points. But we are at the point where four of his last five starts and the four starts that he finished the game had been very bad starts. And we can point to Shane Steichen's issues. We can point to wide receivers issues. Today, we could point at the offensive lines issues. Like they're, they're not excluded from this conversation, but at the end of the day, the quarterback position needs to get it right. And the quarterback position is the one that takes the blame and takes the credit when

Starting point is 00:04:06 things go right or go wrong. You know, that's literally what this NFL is built around. It's built around the quarterback position. So despite having some drops, I mean, all quarterbacks deal with drops. I know Richardson's had his fair share this year, despite dealing with a lot of pressure. A lot of quarterbacks go through a lot of pressure. And despite dealing with poor play calling at times, a lot of quarterbacks have bad play callers and bad moments, but they figure it out. If they're right for this league, they figure it out.

Starting point is 00:04:33 And I'm not saying Anthony Richardson needs to be some star quarterback right now, but there needs to be some foundation of just functionality in this offense. And again, Steichen's part of this too, but there is no functionality in this offense right now. They are bad on third downs. I mean, I guess the broadcast was obsessed with telling how good they were on third and 15 plus or third and 10 plus this year. But again, they're in those situations way too much. Right. Don't give yourself that. They're getting a lot of reps, I guess. Maybe that's why they're so good in third 10 plus, but they're bad on third down. They're bad on early downs. They're bad until the fourth quarter in a lot of ways for the most part.

Starting point is 00:05:07 And a lot of that is your quarterback. And like, look, I'm a longtime proponent of, I don't care about completion percentage. If a quarterback is, you know, if a quarterback like Richardson is completing 55 to 60% of his passes, that's fine because he adds so much with his rushing threat and his sack negation and all these things that I don't care if he's not a 70% passer, but we're not talking about a 60% passer right now. We're not talking about a 55% passer. We're barely talking about a 50% passer right now.

Starting point is 00:05:35 That is not functional for an offense. There are too many negative plays, too many just plays that are not going anywhere. And the offense is behind the sticks and behind the margins too often. And yeah, receivers can be better. Quarterback is, and quarterback can be better as well. Like it's just, it's everything right now. But at the end of the day, when it comes to this Anthony Richardson project, and when we're looking at year two, we're not seeing a lot of good.

Starting point is 00:05:59 Like we are seeing a couple of flashes here and there, which have been fine. But it's, it's been sort of this kind of regression for him. It's either the passes are sailing high and he's missing passes, or he's taking too long to go through his reads, or he's making bonehead decisions. Like there were multiple decisions in this game that should not have been made. The interception before the half shouldn't have happened. Another fumbled snap that happened and took them out of field goal range at the beginning of the second half. Not running out of bounds on that final drive.

Starting point is 00:06:31 I know that was a very low chance of winning the game regardless at that point, but wasted what, 15 seconds just so he could lower his shoulder and run in bounds on that final drive? Like, it's things like this, man, where we're seeing too much negative from him and not much positive. And it's been this way for a little over a month now with Anthony Richardson. So I'm not saying I'm out on Richardson. I'm not saying bench him. Like, absolutely not. Get the data points on this kid. But if we get to week 18 and every start up until week 18 is looking like this without the couple positive outliers in there that you can really hang your hat on, I don't know how you give him year three. You know, it's difficult, man, like because this is not a functioning offense with him. And there are some things that the coach can do to make it a functioning offense with him.

Starting point is 00:07:14 Lean on the run game, lean on the QB run game, get something in the short game going with him. It's not just Richardson. But again, at the end of the day, it's not functioning right now. It's not working. And they're lucky enough to be competitive team in some of these games. I mean, this game against Houston was a prime opportunity to win and the quarterback play wasn't good enough. Again, other positions weren't good enough either, but the quarterback play was not good enough. So yeah, man, it's frustrating. And I just, I'm, my bar is so low for Anthony Richardson right now. It's kind of what I said earlier in the season with the defense where it's like the bar is so low, just don't be dreadful and everything. It's kind of the same with Richardson.

Starting point is 00:07:48 Just give me a game or two to hang my hat on. Give me something where you go out there, complete 60% of your passes for 200 yards, run for another 30 or 40, and the Colts get a win. I can hang my hat on that and be happy giving you year three, because I'm like, look, he showed me he can do it in this game. But as of right now, he's not showing me that he can put it together for four quarters and give me an efficient and effective football game. And we're not like, again, we're like 10 starts into

Starting point is 00:08:14 this thing, 11 starts in this thing, but we're in year two. Like he's been in an NFL program for a year and a half now. You know, like I know we can say he's a rookie in terms of starts, but there is some point where you have to, like, you can't keep know we can say he's a rookie in terms of starts, but there is some point where you have to, like, you can't keep lying to yourself saying he's not been around. Like if he gets hurt again and misses time and then starts week one next year, you're not going to say he's a rookie still because he's under the 17 starts. You know, at some point this process needs to be hurried up a little bit. And I'm not saying he needs to be there right now. I'm just saying, get me to like a baseline where I can hang my hat on something. And that's all I'm asking for right now.

Starting point is 00:08:46 And we just haven't seen it this year in year two. Year two, in a lot of ways, has been a big regression from year one. And that's not what you want to see for a process where you're saying, hey, this is a process. Get him snaps. Get him snaps with Stain, Psychon. And hopefully you can see this growth. I mean, progress isn't linear, but like there needs to be some semblance of moving up.

Starting point is 00:09:04 It can't be progressing downwards. So hopefully you can come out see this growth. I mean, progress isn't linear, but like there needs to be some semblance of moving up. It can't be progressing downwards. So hopefully you can come out of this funk. You give him all the snaps that you hope for. And again, hope that he can turn this around. But as of right now, again, four of his last five starts, the four games that he's finished have been very negative performances in games where it's like,

Starting point is 00:09:21 this is not functional NFL quarterback play. And it needs to be better than this. Like the baseline needs to be better than this. And that's all I'm asking. Just give me a good baseline and I'll be back in baby. Like, and I'm not even out on him right now. It's just my concern level. If we go back to like week two or week three of this season,

Starting point is 00:09:37 even my concern level is like I had a two or three. My concern level right now is probably like a five or six. Like there is some concern here. And I understand anyone who's out on him because he's not really showing it right now. So that's my long monologue here. And I'm taking away the podcast from Jake and not letting him talk right now because I need to do my monologue. But I am very concerned as one of the most Anthony Richardson truthers and pro Anthony Richardson draft picks and the pro give him patience and time people out there. I am a bit concerned

Starting point is 00:10:05 because we have a guy who struggled to stay on the field and a guy who struggled to produce when he's been on the field. And we're now a year and a half into this thing. Like the progress needs to be a little further than what it is right now. And I think it's okay to expect that. Like we can still be patient, but still want progress to be a little bit better than what it is right now. And I think for this Colts team to get where it needs to go,

Starting point is 00:10:26 he needs to be at least again, the baseline it needs at least needs to be better than what it is right now. I don't need him to be superstar. I don't even need him to be average right now, but like at least give me below average quarterback play right now. Cause right now we're getting dreadful quarterback play and it just needs to be better than this. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:10:42 Without a doubt. And honestly say your piece, cause you're speaking for a lot of different people right now. But we're actually going to roll this into segment two as well, because there's still more to say about, you know, Anthony, because like, honestly, for a lot of people, the low moment of the game lasts one play. And then we got to talk about the play calling as well. And then, you know, a few other things that did stick out on the offense. When you're hiring for your small business, you want to find quality professionals who are right for the role. That's why I got to check out LinkedIn Jobs, which has the tools to help you find the right

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Starting point is 00:13:26 And then Richardson calls himself out of the game. And everyone's like, oh, God, here we go again. Is he hurt? What's happening? And then as it comes out later, he was just tired. He said so after the game. Shane Steichen said so after the game. So Joe Flacco comes in for a play, and they run the ball with Jonathan Taylor.

Starting point is 00:13:55 And it's like I have there's been times this year like when he's been hurt and I feel like they've really coddled him. Like he is a big time competitor and wants to be in there. But they have put him in bubble wrap and just not let the kid play or face much physical adversity if he shows any signs of being injured or anything and in this one he's the quarterback but takes himself out for a play because he's tired and then they just run the ball next but they weren't going to have him run it again or needed him to like make some really dialed in pass like he was tired and like Pat McAfee who's the biggest homer in the world like literally he's at every home game he bangs the anvil like there is no bigger Colts fan on earth than Pat McAfee he even tweeted right after that like I've never seen a quarterback do this you know the the message this sends is just you know so on and so forth basically saying like

Starting point is 00:14:43 this is a terrible look and i couldn't agree more like richardson's not the first quarterback who runs a lot yeah but if you're a quarterback i don't even know how that's an option to you like you're scraping my dead body off the field if i'm a quarterback you know what i'm saying like i've just never seen that before and i don't like, I don't love, again, the message that sends to the rest of the guys. You don't think other guys out there are exhausted. Like offensive players aren't often exhausted that much. It's that's why defensive players get subbed in and out so much. But I don't, I don't think anyone from the Colts organization

Starting point is 00:15:20 is going to throw anyone under the bus because this group doesn't tend to do that. But man, I did not. I did not think that was a good look whatsoever. You don't you just don't see that. No other quarterbacks do that. You just got to get better at lying, man. Like send some trainers over to him, say the wind got knocked out and then this is fine. This is not. But no, like to get to your point. Yeah, it is kind of ridiculous. And I'm not someone who calls out players for being soft or stuff. Like I don't, at the end of the day, I really don't care about this too much. But it is, again, like you said, it's bad optically when you have other guys on the field. I mean, Jonathan Taylor is taking 20-something hits a game running the ball.

Starting point is 00:15:57 Alec Pierce is running 30 miles a play. This guy is running to the end zone and back on every single play. You know, Quentin Nelson is in the trenches every play like these guys are tired too and they could get out there for that little lame handoff on third and 25 too like Richardson can at least take a snap and hand the ball off so yeah just optically like everything about this game is just a really bad look for Richardson and and honestly again for someone like me is pro, who's always been pro Richardson and pro the development process and pro where he can be one day, I don't have any response for the negative outcry after this game, because I get it, man. I get it. It's one of those

Starting point is 00:16:36 games from him and from everything else like right now. But before we get out of this segment, talking offense, though, Jake, I know we've talked a lot about Richardson in this one. There's still a lot of issues around Richardson. I mean, Shane Steichen as a play caller has just not figured out Anthony Richardson whatsoever. And to a lot of the detractors points who are going to yell in the comments right now, like it's hard to scheme around a quarterback that inaccurate. It is. It very much is.

Starting point is 00:17:01 But Anthony Richardson is a weapon in the run game. And we see the impact he brings in the run game. We see them when they do call QB runs and design QB runs, the Colts rushing attack is really good. So when they come out in these games where it's like, like the first quarter was really good from the Colts today. 10 points in the first quarter, had a huge touchdown pass. And then I believe on the broadcast,

Starting point is 00:17:22 it was like their last nine plays went for like negative eight yards or something. And I believe eight of those were pass plays. And it's like, why are we throwing the ball so much? You have Jonathan Taylor. You have Anthony Richardson's ability in the run game. This should be like a 60 to 65 percent rush offense. Like this should be a run dominant offense, especially in today's football when linebackers are the smallest they've ever been, where too high safety looks is such a big thing.

Starting point is 00:17:49 And if you want to build your explosives off of the rush offense, you can do that, but run the ball more. Run the ball more confidently and more aggressively. Jonathan Taylor had a great game running the ball. Richardson, when he ran the ball, was really good in this game. Like, let's lean into the run game. Right. If Richardson gets hurt running the

Starting point is 00:18:06 ball so be it that i mean he cannot be an effective quarterback right now without the qb run game so if he gets hurt so be it like that is part of who he is as a player and part of what's going to make it what can make him good so you have to lean into that man like especially early in the games like if you want to throw the ball late fine but, but like lean into the QB run game early, get him some hits on him and get him into the action of the game. So his natural instincts come out because I guess in the fourth quarter, his instincts come out and he plays better football in the fourth quarter of these games. So yeah, get the run game going early in these games, man, get the QB run game going. Like, I don't care if you have to go run, run pass early, like the dreaded run, run pass lean into it man because the running game was the only thing working in this one the receivers

Starting point is 00:18:48 aside from Josh Downs were not good enough the tight ends were not good enough in the passing game um the offensive line and pass protection was just getting abused Bernhardt Reimann had his worst start I think since his rookie season where the Colts I mean he was getting abused by Hunter Will Anderson uh so yeah this was a game where it's like lean on that rushing attack with Richardson at the helm, with Jonathan Taylor running the ball. Like you see the impact that Richardson's presence has on the run game. Lean into that, man. Like lean into it.

Starting point is 00:19:15 And you see just far too often in these last couple games where it's like been so pass heavy in the first quarters and first and second quarter. And it's like, that's not a winning formula right now with this team. They got to run the ball and they got to run the ball with Richardson and with Taylor. So hopefully they can eventually get to that point. But again,

Starting point is 00:19:34 we're like a month now of seeing this where they don't use the, the running game to, to set up the passing game. They set up the passing game to do the run game later, but then they get into big enough deficits where they can't run the ball late in the game. So it's like, it's all a moot point, but yeah, they got to lean into this run game a little bit more. It's really good with Jonathan Taylor. It's good with this offensive line. And honestly, Richardson's a really good rushing threat at quarterback, even with him not protecting himself as much as you would like.

Starting point is 00:20:00 It is a good rushing attack and great potential for rushing. Like they got to lean into that because you can't just make him a drop back passer on every single play. That's just not effective football. And you're getting yourself in these horrible deficits by doing that. So it's on Shane Steichen.

Starting point is 00:20:17 It's on the offensive staff. Like lean into this, lean into this. He can run. Like if he gets hurt, he gets hurt. Whatever, it happens. You know, lean into the running game. Lean into the. He can run. Like if he gets hurt, he gets hurt. Whatever. It happens. You know, lean into the running game. Lean into the running game. Fully lean into it to set up your explosive passes that you want to do.

Starting point is 00:20:31 And maybe you'll be able to find some semblance of consistency early in these football games. Yeah. If you would have told me that Jonathan Taylor and Anthony Richardson would have combined for 150 yards on the ground. You know, you get Jonathan Taylor back. you get DeForest Buckner back. You know, Jonathan goes over 100, and the defensive front performs as well as it does against C.J. Stroud. There's no Nico Collins for the Texans. I'd be like, yeah, they probably won that game then. They didn't.

Starting point is 00:21:01 I mean, you look at the rest of this offense two of 13 on third down a lot of third and longs and everything which forced them into fourth down which they actually are good at they were two or two on fourth down um but it's it's just like the six offensive penalties i think there was three false starts on quentin what are we doing there like to get you back to your all pro performance does it mean we have to have so many penalties like that sucks, but that's kind of that he's doing his job as a performer. So like that can't be too much of a gripe, but that type of stuff puts you in those terrible situations on third down.

Starting point is 00:21:37 And like, that's awesome that they're so good at third and a million, but like, don't put yourself in that position. So there's, there's just a lot to point out. Like there were drops again. I thought, I thought Houston's secondary did a good job at playing aggressive, but there were drops. The contested catches were, were not made, you know, that they let Houston pretty much have all those. This is a game where Michael Pittman

Starting point is 00:22:02 caught one pass. Alec Pierce caught one pass. A.D. Mitchell won. I think things are getting really, really, really close with A.D. Mitchell. I think that's on the verge of becoming a thing. Jonathan Taylor on the first play, not first play of the game, but really early on. It might have been the first play, but that nice 12-yard screen pass and then nothing again, it worked very well. So of course let's abandon it. The tight ends don't exist. You know, Kylan Granson who can't buy a reception in the last several weeks, one reception for four yards. Like I just don't, I don't know what to make of this offense right now. There's way more wrong with it than what's right. And

Starting point is 00:22:41 that's so crazy given the players they have available to them. Yeah. And this isn't, I mean, this isn't even just a Richardson thing either. This offense has had no identity this entire season. I mean, even when Flacco was out there, the only way they were scoring points was they were dreadful on first and second down. And then Flacco was bailing them out with some godly third down play that was just not going to be sustainable. Like they have no identity whatsoever on offense they have splashes of good plays but they have nothing to hang their hat on whatsoever on offense and they need to figure that that that stuff out that's a family show i had to say stuff out they have to figure their stuff out before the end of the season or you're going to be sitting at seven eight nine and wondering what could have been this year so So yeah, they have a lot to figure out

Starting point is 00:23:25 on offense. I feel better about the Gus Bradley led defense right now than I do about this Colts offense. Let's talk about that defense man here in a moment. All right. The weather's getting colder. We're in the fall and this is Indiana. So that means basketball time is heating up and thank God, you know, let's go Pacers. Let's see what you guys can do. But, you know, game time, whether it's basketball or anything else, they should be your hookup for all your ticketing needs. They have a new feature called Game Time Picks that makes getting tickets to see your favorite teams play even easier.

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Starting point is 00:25:09 Again, create an account and redeem code L-O-C-K-E-D-O-N-N-F-L for $20 off. Download GameTime today. What time is it? GameTime. All right, so let's talk defense, Zach. So starting up front, CJ Stroud was only set twice, which is like whatever, but he was hit nine times. He was under duress, I thought, throughout the game.

Starting point is 00:25:34 He made a bunch of just C.J. Stroud-esque plays, which cannot be defended. He's the type of guy you have him wrapped up. He somehow gets rid of the ball, and there's a receiver there with nobody around him. Like he does that five times a game. You can't really do anything about that, but I thought the defensive front did a great job. Again,

Starting point is 00:25:54 DeForest Buckner was back for the first time since week two. Of course he had to have a sack. I think on the broadcast, they said in 11 games against Houston, he has like 11 and 11 and a half sacks, something like that. So he definitely loves playing them. You know, Dio played out of his mind.

Starting point is 00:26:11 There for a minute, I thought that it was going to be a legit scoop and score. From a certain angle, I didn't think he was really – I thought he didn't have possession yet by the time he was touched. But, of course, we almost had an absolute play of the day for our guy, Ken, in there. But, no, really, I liked the performance from pretty much everybody up front. You know, Grover did well. Quitty did well.

Starting point is 00:26:34 Latu did well. Just a lot of, you know, kudos to go around for the defensive front. I can't really say a ton of awesome things about the linebackers necessarily. But in general, I thought the defense itself played more than good enough to win this game. I would argue this is one of Gus Bradley's best called games in his Indianapolis tenure. I mean, there was a very clear advantage that the Colts and pretty much every team has on the Houston Texans right now, which is blitz them heavy and attack them with stunts and twists because this offensive line is really struggling. And honestly, we saw today like C.J. Stroud,

Starting point is 00:27:13 he made a couple of big time plays in this game, but he was not on point this entire game. Like he had a lot of misses, especially a couple of misses on third downs in this game where there were open receivers and he was sailing passes and missing them short. Like this was not a great game from CJ Stroud. It was, it was a fine game, but it wasn't a great game from CJ Stroud on the other side of the field, especially in that first half. And I think a lot of that had to do with how the Colts attacked him and how they attacked this offense. They stuffed the box on early downs and did what they could against the

Starting point is 00:27:44 run. I mean, the tackling could have been better. And I'll talk about kind of the issue with that too. But I think just from a schematic standpoint, what Gus Bradley was doing with his blitz calls, what he was doing with his simmed pressure, what he was doing with his just the way that he attacked this Texans offensive line, I think it was a great game plan. Like he did the best he could and he got the best out of the defensive line. The defensive line had their best game of the season. Dio Dangbo, DeForest Buckner, Quiddie Paye had a handful of pressures in this game. It was a really strong game from the defensive line. And it looked like the defensive line we projected all off season and what we expected out of this defensive line all off season.

Starting point is 00:28:22 And I thought the cornerback play was really good too. The issue with this defense and the issue where it comes into is the linebacker play is simply not good enough and it's not going to be good enough this season. I'm kind of out on just the linebacker play in general this season. You know, our greatest story ever last week, Grant Stewart had a really rough day out there. And I know he was forced into the lineup because of the injury to Jalen Carlisle, but it kind of showed why Stewart was a special teamer. He was missing tackles. He couldn't do anything in coverage. And, and there were some issues. I mean, the Texans did a good job throwing the ball a lot on early downs so they could target wherever Grant Stewart was supposed to be in coverage. It was a really smart game plan from Bobby Slowick in that regard. And then,

Starting point is 00:29:02 yeah, the safeties were missing some tackles and missing some coverage opportunities. And really, if you look at where a lot of these completions were coming, I mean, I know there was a couple on Sam Womack and it was probably his worst game of the year. I mean, the other games were fantastic. So obviously this was going to be the worst game by far for him, but there were a couple of completions on Womack. But really, if you look at where this past defense is struggling, it's with the linebackers in zone, with the safeties in zone, in that middle of the field. And it's hard as a defensive play caller to really account for that because they just don't have a single player on the roster at those positions who can play zone coverage well in those spots. So this defense is very flawed and very limited, but if they get what they got today, which is a good defensive scheme and good play calling from the defensive coordinator,

Starting point is 00:29:48 top tier defensive line play for the most part. I mean, again, it could have been a little bit better on the rundowns, but fantastic at getting after the quarterback and did a lot of really cool things with sim pressures and blitzes and then good player from their good play from their cornerback room. This defense can be feisty and be competitive with everyone despite their limitations. So really this defense did their job today. I have no issues with the defense. Dio Dangbo was a man on a mission in this game. Jalen Jones was fantastic in this game. DeForest Buckner, I mean, the man that we missed so much this season, you could see his impact. Quidi Pei and Latu Latu had their impact in this game. Like, I really think this defense played so well to get a win.

Starting point is 00:30:28 Like, they did it. And they stole that turnover late. They gave the Colts a chance to go get a win. And then the Colts offense and their offensive line just blew it right afterwards. But yeah, no issues for Gus Bradley in this one. No issues for the defensive line. Cornerback room, not their best day, but still a pretty good day from the cornerback room. Like, defense, good job, man.

Starting point is 00:30:47 You guys did enough to win this game. Even with the linebackers, I think still being an issue. The overall defense did all you could ask for to get the win. And it's unfortunate that they didn't get this win because I mean, if you take away,

Starting point is 00:31:00 like they had the touchdown right before half because it was a really, really short field. This defense essentially gave up what 16 points to CJ Stroud and the Houston Texans, this super offense that everyone was talking about before the season, they get 16 points and looked really good doing so.

Starting point is 00:31:15 Like I I'm really impressed with this defense in this game. They are feisty. They're competitive. They're not perfect and they're not going to be perfect, but this is what I kind of expected from this defense coming to the year. And they really showed out in this game. And again, it's unfortunate they couldn't get the win because they really deserve to get it with how they played in this one. Yeah. So they do get another shot at Minnesota. A lot of these guys were around a couple of years ago during that huge collapse. I feel so much better about it.

Starting point is 00:31:42 Oddly enough, I feel better about the defense going into this one against Minnesota. You know, very unfortunate injury for Christian Derrissaw. But, you know, with DeForest Buckner back, this defensive line playing like it does. You know what I mean? Like this, this is not a game against Minnesota we felt good about at all. But I'm way more optimistic about the defense moving forward and into a really rough four game stretch that they've got going on now yeah the defense has an identity the defense identity has like they have

Starting point is 00:32:11 an identity and they have a plan they're competitive they're not perfect they can get punched in the mouth at times but for the most part they're going to be aggressive they're going to hit you they're going to punch the ball out every now and then and and they have good corner play and good defensive line play especially with deforest buckner. Like there is some semblance of an identity on the defense. There's no identity on offense at all. And I don't know if that's going to change anytime soon, because again, as someone who was, who is, and was a very optimistic Anthony Richardson person, I don't have a reason to be optimistic right now with this season. Cause there's just, there's just no identity with him starting a quarterback. There was barely an identity with Joe Flacco starting either I'm not saying that like it's all Richardson

Starting point is 00:32:47 but like this offense is in a bad place right now and I feel better about the defense going forward I feel better about the Gus Bradley unit than the Shane Steichen unit going forward and that says a lot about where we are this season but again let's look at the bright side they are 4-4 team we're talking like the sky is falling but this is still a four and four football team that still has a chance to do some, some things this year, despite all the negatives that we've seen. So we'll see, we'll see eight straight games that are one score games for this Colts team. They play three of the four or they play three of the best teams in football coming up. So we'll see if they can keep their one score streak against the best teams in the league. I mean, Detroit won by like 60 today. So we'll see if they can keep their one score streak against uh the best teams in the league i mean detroit won by like 60 today so we'll see if they can if they can keep that

Starting point is 00:33:29 against detroit coming up but we do want to think that might be one where that might be one where we all just decide to have a good time and not hope for anything optimistic going i might take that which of course it means they'll steal that win that'll be 2022 when they beat the chiefs and had zero reason to do so. That's the weird win the Colts get this year. Oh, man. Jelani Woods coming out the tunnel like Bill Murray in Space Jam just to come catch the game-winning touchdown at the end.

Starting point is 00:33:55 That's what it'll be right there. But we do want to thank you guys for making Locked on Colts your first post-game listen today. Now, if you're a second listen, go find the new Locked on NFL with two shows every day. First, the Madman Tyler Rowland kicks off your morning with a double shot of NFL espresso and then stop by the barbershop with Tony

Starting point is 00:34:09 Wiggins for some real NFL talk. Find Locked on NFL on YouTube, wherever you get your podcast. And if you guys want to become a Locked on Colts insider and chat with us directly and get that insider scoop, follow the link in our show notes. And if you don't already, follow at Locked on Colts, at Jake Arthur NFL, at Zach Hicks too, all on Twitter.

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Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts Anthony Richardson, Shane Steichen Let Team Down in Loss to Houston Texans

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