Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts Anthony Richardson, Shane Steichen MUST Iron Out Issues Heading Into Houston

Starting point is 00:00:00 the Indianapolis Colts escaped Miami with a win, but did they get good enough play from their quarterback or good enough from their play caller and Shane Steichen? We talked about that here on Locked On Colts. 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.

Starting point is 00:00:28 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 brought to you by GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNFL for $20 off your first purchase. Hello, everyone. I am Zach Hicks, your favorite film nerd over at HorseshoeHuddle.com. And I'm joined, as always, early in the week here by Ben Boras at Colts Film Room over on Twitter.

Starting point is 00:00:55 You know him. You love him. That is at Colts Film Room there on Twitter. Today, look, it's not going to be the most fun show, Ben, because we're not talking like a super positive Anthony Richardson performance. But at least we get to talk about Anthony Richardson this time. Like I had fun. Look, man, I had fun the last two weeks coming on here talking, you know, whatever came to our film nerd minds. But we get to finally talk about the quarterback, which that's a good thing in itself right there. So Anthony Richardson got the win. That's all that matters, right?

Starting point is 00:01:25 QB wins. So we don't even have to go over the stat line. Just QB wins here. No, the stat line was 10 of 24 for 129 yards. No touchdowns, no picks. 14 rushes for 56 yards. The offense, really low success rate in this one. Had a really tough day.

Starting point is 00:01:44 I will say positive wise their last two drives did get three three points on the board each drive got three points on the board which was enough to win this game so a good finish for this offense and a good finish for anthony richardson but up until that finish it was a pretty brutal day for the young quarterback he avoided the massive mistake outside i mean the fumble loss in the backfield was obviously a massive mistake. Yeah, that's not just him though. Like, that's probably, yeah. Yeah, that's more of a fluky one.

Starting point is 00:02:11 Like, it's not an overthrow or forcing a pass or anything like that. So he avoided that massive mistake and they beat on an inferior opponent. So not all bad in this one. But again, Ben, you and I, we're pretty realistic when we talk about Anthony Richardson where it's like, this is a 22-year-old quarterback.

Starting point is 00:02:28 There are going to be a lot of growing pains. But as of right now in year two, maybe aside from the Houston game where it was kind of bombs away early in that game, we haven't seen much progression from this young quarterback. And in some ways, we've seen a little bit of regression from him. That doesn't mean that's what he's going to be his entire career. But so far, there are a little bit more warning signs in Anthony Richardson's play than maybe what there were coming into this season. And that is, you know, a little bit concerning right there. Yeah. And I think I want to make it very clear when we talk about Anthony Richardson that I don't think either of us are writing him off by any means or saying that I'm trying to make some sort of sweeping take about like what Anthony Richardson's future as the quarterback of the Indianapolis Colts looks like.

Starting point is 00:03:11 I do think it's also just very fair to say the standard doesn't need to change because of how he's playing. The standard should be high. I mean, he was the number four overall draft pick. We know that he's an athlete. We know going in that he was always going to be able to avoid the sacks. Those things are cool. Those things are great. We know he's a unique one-of-one unicorn athlete. We know all those things. There are some things that he still just needs to play and learn and develop, and those are all true. It's also okay for us to sit here and say, hey, it hasn't been good enough. It really hasn't been good enough. Three points in the first half and really 16 in total is going to really be tough when you go to play defenses that obviously are good,

Starting point is 00:03:54 but when you're maybe not having the same success on the other side of the ball and you need the defense to come and play. And I think when you look at this Colts team, it's like, okay, well, how critical can we really be because they've won four of their last five. They started out 0-2, and they're now above 500. Anthony Richardson has struggled to maybe stay on the field. I think we can probably say that at certain points. He's back, and it would be good to see him build off of something. I feel like every

Starting point is 00:04:26 time he tries to do that, it's another unfortunate injury that seems to happen. So I don't think I'm writing off Anthony Richardson or making any real sweeping takes, but I also think that it's okay if we sit here and say, hey, it wasn't good enough from the play caller and we'll get into all that. And we can acknowledge some of the context, but we don't need to make the context excuses where, hey, he can definitely be playing better. There was some inconsistency with footwork. The accuracy is something that still is a work in progress. And then honestly, like, he probably needs a little bit more help

Starting point is 00:04:58 from his play caller as well. But, you know, there were some good things. It wasn't all bad. But I think there's some bad that consistently is showing up week to week that it's like, hey, I think we can ask Anthony Richardson to play better quarterback as much as he is a good athlete. Yeah. And that's one thing I really wanted to hype on here is, yes, when we're like when you

Starting point is 00:05:17 watch this game on film, it wasn't the best designed game by the play caller. I mean, Shane Steichen was very adamant. So I know he usually takes the fall for his quarterback, but this one, even as someone who just watches film, it was like, yeah, this one felt a little bit more on Steichen than maybe the Bears or the Packers games where Richardson was missing open guys in those games.

Starting point is 00:05:37 Wasn't a lot of guys open. Yeah, maybe like one or two misses in this game, really, from Richardson. Even then, it was like a miss's a drop by Alec Pierce yeah a really nice play that gets called back for uh illegal formation but also I think you can make the argument there were some offensive pass interference it was iffy they got the call defensively uh there were some good things there was the field the field side comeback to uh to ad mitchell

Starting point is 00:06:08 there was another one that he hit on another comeback really uh off jet motion um so there were some really good throws in this game too uh it wasn't all terrible uh it also hasn't it's it's really weird and that's why I've really struggled to have the kind of thoughts and and kind of I needed the extra day to be honest with you to put together I think we both did to put together on this because it's like hey like this is an above 500 football team it's obviously going to go play a really tough stretch of games but there's things that they're doing to beat themselves like we can talk about the defenses they've played and how they've struck and how Anthony Richardson has played versus those defenses.

Starting point is 00:06:49 You can also make a lot of arguments. It had nothing to do with the defensive coverage calls. They beat themselves. So that's what I think is almost encouraging in a lot of ways is, Hey, we don't have to say, well, Oh, okay. Like when we evaluate Anthony Richardson, we need to talk about how awesome the defenses are playing. Like he can go play against good defenses.

Starting point is 00:07:07 You're going to see all those every year in the NFL. If you want to get to the Super Bowl, which everyone's intention is when you draft Anthony Richardson, they're going to have to beat those teams along the way. If you want to make it to the playoffs, you're going to have to succeed against those teams along the way. So like a lot of it seems to be beating themselves more than anything, whether it's inaccurate passes, unfortunate play calls, free runners, all those kind of things that we'll get into. But ultimately just inconsistencies again. Yeah. And I want to get to my overall points on Richardson because, you know, you've kind of gone into yours a little bit there.

Starting point is 00:07:38 And kind of my long list of notes to kind of really put them all out there for you guys is yeah this was not a good enough game from Anthony Richardson and like you said like just because he's a young quarterback doesn't mean that we need to drop our standards maybe we lower our expectations but our standards don't lower we still have the same standards for quarterback play which is be a reason why we win not a person that we have to win in spite of and in a lot of ways in this game you know again the Colts had nine of 13 drives that were under five plays in this game. And it wasn't like the Houston game where that's a positive where they were scoring within five plays like they were not scoring within those drives. They were going three and out in a lot of cases. That's not good enough. That hurts your defense. It hurts your team and you're not winning games that way. So yeah,

Starting point is 00:08:21 there were a lot of things on him in this game where it's like missing some throws there were plays where the ball needed to be out a little bit quicker there were times they needed to get hot he needed to recognize the blitz a little bit earlier even sometimes on the gives and versus gives and don't gives on the run plays like there are some times that he missed an opportunity to take the ball and run it himself other times where especially around the goal line where he wants it himself and he kind of tries to get in there instead of giving it to the advantage player. But I will say this, because again, this is not the most positive episode on Richardson and they really haven't been lately.

Starting point is 00:08:54 But just to kind of end this on a fairly positive note, when you have a quarterback like Anthony Richardson, even with the inaccuracies, with the poor poor success rate I always have made the argument that having a mobile quarterback does raise the floor of your offense and we did see that a lot in this game in terms of the run game floor was raised so high like this was not a great game from the rushing attack and they still ran for over four yards to carry in 150 yards under 55 yards with again like Tyler Goodson I love his explosion Not the best vision as a running back, but great explosion. Trey Sermon runs like he's in quicksand, but he's a physical runner. Like this is not like they're not rolling out top tier running back.

Starting point is 00:09:34 So to get 155 yards on the ground and Richardson being a big part of that is because of him being on the field. And then again, like we've seen in a lot of these games the colts were tied in the fourth quarter of this game they needed drives to string together to win this football game they went down and scored on two consecutive possessions late in this game really put it together richard i think was five or six passing on those drives and also added some more on i mean converted i think three third downs with his legs and that on those last two drives like did some really good things so it should have been worse, to be honest with you,

Starting point is 00:10:06 because of all the sacks that he did evade. Like, he didn't take a sack. Probably, if it's Joe Flacco in there, I'm not sure they win that game just based off the fact that, you know, maybe Joe Flacco has the toolbox to maybe get them in the right pass protection pre-snap, but he's not evading any of these sacks. So, like, Anthony Richardson being able to keep the offense on schedule from that perspective was really nice.

Starting point is 00:10:29 And yeah, I think that you can ultimately draw a lot of positives. I don't know, in the darkest days there's some light or whatever that phrase is. Like it wasn't all bad. I think that when you turn on the tape week after week after week and you see everything that you knew you were getting with Anthony Richardson day one, the insane athlete, the ability to make plays with his feet,

Starting point is 00:10:57 the ability to really put stress on the defense from that perspective, you're seeing that. It's the fact that, you know, what happens when defenses start to take away some of the fact that you know what do what happens when defenses start to take away some of the things that you know you do well which we'll get into in the next segment and force anthony richardson to do things that make the easy plays you can make the hard plays look real easy and the easy plays look almost impossible yeah yeah i definitely think it's an issue and it's been an issue for him this season but overall i mean again if we're grading this on a letter scale maybe a d plus type of game like you get a little

Starting point is 00:11:28 bit of that plus because the rushing ability and negating some of the big negative plays but again the standard for the quarterback play in Indianapolis doesn't need to drop if the expert even if the expectations are a little bit lower so it needs to be better from him going forward I do think he salvaged it a little bit late in this game but going forward we don't need salvage performances we need productive performances and he knows that the colts know that this this is nothing that they're not saying this is nothing that they're not feeling in the meeting rooms this is nothing anthony richardson isn't saying to himself after the game like it's not that he doesn't hold he probably holds himself to a higher standard than we are on this show so

Starting point is 00:12:02 this i don't i don't think this is outlandish to say that Anthony Richardson could be playing better football than he is right now to help his team win. Yeah, and now that we've held Anthony Richardson accountable for his game, so we want to make sure we get that segment out of the way first because if we started with the other one, we would sound like we're making excuses for him. We're not. We want to talk about this whole topic, which is both ends of this,

Starting point is 00:12:22 and talk about where Shane Steichen, the guy who had all the answers last year and had a really good fundamental, you know, system going on with Gardner Minshew and and even with Anthony Richardson early in the season last year, they don't really have the answers for a lot of these defensive coordinators this year. And we've seen it too many times this year. So we're going to talk about Shane Steichen and talk about the overall game plan and what we saw on film from the Colts play caller against against Miami Dolphins coming up in just a second. But first, NFL fans, you can spark the season with a big return on FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook. So when you get a hunch in the middle of a game, you can check out the latest stats, view live play by play, and so much more on the same page where you place your bets. You look,

Starting point is 00:13:08 Anthony Richardson is perfect for this because he starts games slow, finishes strong. You can bet the over on the rest of his yards and touchdowns and everything the rest of the game because you know in the fourth quarter, he's going to be able to turn it on a little bit. So you'll get started with $200 in bonus bets guaranteed when you place your first $5 bet. The Colts this past weekend were three-point favorites. If you guys bet on the hometown team, you would have won there over at FanDuel. Again, that's fanduel.com. And also, when you guys are hiring for your small business, you want to find quality professionals that are right for the role. That's why you have to check out LinkedIn Jobs. LinkedIn Jobs has the tools to help you find the right professionals for your team faster and for free. Look, guys, that are right for the role. That's why you have to check out LinkedIn Jobs. LinkedIn Jobs has the tools

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Starting point is 00:14:41 our weekly film session on anthony richardson or just on the colts in general in general if Richardson misses the game. Now in this one we are talking Shane Steichen's next segment. We're going to talk about where some of the issues lie in this Colts offense, where they're not finding some answers, where last year they were finding answers, and kind of how that plays into Richardson's development. Now for just for me to set the stage a little bit, Shane Steichen brought here as the Colts head coach primarily, I mean, not entirely, but primarily because of his work as an offensive guru and what he's been able to get out of young quarterbacks. I mean, Justin Herbert with the Chargers, Jalen Hurts with the Eagles, did some really great stuff. And I think one of the best things about Shane Steichen and his time with those two teams

Starting point is 00:15:22 is how he's been able to find the right offense for these guys. I mean, Justin Herbert, this pure vertical play action game, we're pushing it down the field and he has the highest A dot in the league and he's going crazy with that vertical passing game. Jalen Hurts, we're going to install a lot of the Oklahoma offense, a lot of quick hitters and bubble screens and QB run stuff. Gardner Minshew last year, a lot of RPO and just get the ball out of his hands in the RPO stuff. He's been able to find things that work for his quarterbacks. I don't know if he's found that yet in the passing game for Richardson.

Starting point is 00:15:53 I think he is toying with some things. There are a lot of vertical breaking routes, and I think he's getting a lot of four verts mixed in, a lot of just kind of stop, like vertical stop routes and stuff where Richardson can really just drive the ball and then the QB run game I think has actually been a really big plus to to what he's calling and what he's designing but when we look at these inconsistencies early in games for Richardson and just for the Colts offense especially when Richardson starts there are a

Starting point is 00:16:22 lot of times where it's like what are we doing Like, why are we just spamming play action vertical all game long? It worked in week one against the Houston Texans. Why is it taking us until halftime and a lot of these Richardson starts before we start mixing in these diverse QB runs and diverse runs in general? And we're not and we're just kind of doing all these play action spam vertical things early in game. So I do think he's kind of struggling to find that perfect offense for Richardson, which isn't uncommon.

Starting point is 00:16:49 Like it's nine starts into Richardson's career. Like you're not going to have all the answers right now. I mean, Jalen Hurts, it took him until year two with Hurts to really find the right offense for him. But I do think this is a little bit concerning on Steichen's, from Steichen's standpoint. And you even have more concerns when it comes to facing style of defenses that they faced against Miami this past week.

Starting point is 00:17:11 Yeah, I think it's, again, I want to clarify the same way I started with Anthony Richardson is like, staffs have stinkers where they just put out a terrible plan, and they go look on Monday, and they review it. And they were like, what are we doing here? The fixes we need to make schematically. Like they have that same sort of process, the same way that they'll grade players tape. They're going to grade themselves from the way that they call plays.

Starting point is 00:17:35 Assuming that this will not come across very positively. I'm sure those meetings were really constructive in that regard. Yeah. I'm sure those meetings were really constructive in that regard. Yeah, and there's a lot of vertical play actions on certain concepts that I just don't think that needs them. Where it's like, I think a lot of it is to help Anthony Richardson keep his footwork clean. I think he probably has, you know, hey, if we are using play action from the gun, we can keep Anthony Richardson's footwork cleaner than a five-step drop with multiple hitches to keep him on time. So I would imagine that the mesh for the play action

Starting point is 00:18:15 basically takes away a second hitch if the routes are taking longer to develop. That would be my guess. I would also say that, like like a lot of what like they're trying to do is sacrifice efficiency for explosion so like this is probably one of the least efficient offenses in the league there's so many three and outs uh a lot of low percentage throws all over the board but they basically will say hey we'll sacrifice a couple three and outs. If Anthony Richardson can make the 60-yard pass,

Starting point is 00:18:53 take the life out of the defense and flip our win percentage the entire way because we totally just jumped the side of the field, and now we're in the red zone, and we can totally open up a whole new thing of our offense. That's what Shane Sikin wants to do. I think his philosophy is what traditional low percentage throws are in the NFL aren't low percentage to him I he would disagree with a lot of that I think that's where this is coming from I think we're also seeing hey what does it look like when a team goes fire zone and you have pressure now and you might be hot and you're trying to to like run play a play action, five-step drop from gun.

Starting point is 00:19:27 And it doesn't look very pretty. And I think that that might be the tipping point on the scale to be like, Hey, we need to find some balance offensively. There's, I had some additional concerns kind of where it's like you know where is the answers for anthony richardson when pressure is coming pre-snap and you know it's coming pre-snap where's the hots where's the site adjusts where's the different mechanisms that anthony richardson has to get into a play that can punish defenses for bringing pressure and not hey we know that there's going to be a free runner our quarterback is so athletically gifted.

Starting point is 00:20:06 We know he's avoiding the sack. He can make a playoff schedule. Like, I don't think it has – I think good offenses aren't that rigid. I think it's probably unsound to say otherwise. I think Anthony Richardson probably needs more answers in that regard, and especially going to play a team like Brian Flores where you know you're going to get a lot of that. You would hope that you can provide him with better answers in that game plan.

Starting point is 00:20:31 I don't think all hope is lost. I think Shane Sagan, again, is a great coach, and he has put together these stinkers before in his career, not just in Indianapolis, by the way. He also had it in Philadelphia. There were plenty of games where the offense didn't look as great. And I'm sure that that's good play callers and good coaches that stick around for a long time are willing to learn from that and adjust to see what their

Starting point is 00:20:52 team needs and where they've failed in that regard. So again, that's kind of my overall thoughts with Shan Steichen. But again, it's like, I don't want to be so hyperbolic when you know that this guy's a really good play caller and they've found some, they've created a really explosive offense or some high quality defenses yeah and a couple points i went ahead on too and then we'll jump into our final segment and just kind of talk about where the colts are going from here but to kind of add to your point on the colts have sacrificed efficiency for explosion they're the third most explosive offense in football and they're probably

Starting point is 00:21:23 like the worst most like worst efficiency or probably bottom five in efficiency. I haven't looked at that one, but explosion, I know they're third. You can only guess. Yeah. I believe they're third most explosive in football right now. They just moved to third most explosive. And I think it's a really poignant point that you make there with, yes, the Colts are sacrificing that efficiency for explosion. They were doing it with Joe Flacco, too.

Starting point is 00:21:42 Flacco was just taking a lot of checkdowns to running backs on those explosive plays and passing up on a lot of the explosion. They were doing with Joe Flacco too. Flacco was just taking a lot of checkdowns to running backs, uh, to, to, you know, on those explosive plays and passing up on a lot of the explosion. But here's kind of my thinking with Rich. And I think this is where the second half is why the Colts are like better in the second half than they are in the first half, especially throwing the ball is like, if you want to have this hyper explosive passing game and sacrifice the short stuff, you have to run the ball well early in the game. Like they have to run the, like for me personally, the way I view it is if you're going to sacrifice short passing because Richardson is this ungodly talented quarterback who can push the ball

Starting point is 00:22:17 down the field. And that's where he's most comfortable too, is pushing the ball down the field. You have to build so much up in the run game early and take your shots off of that run game you know whether that's your your running backs performing well whether that's using richardson in the run game i mean they have a really good qb run game design i think it's fantastic like it's really really good i thought what they did this week was great yeah and richardson protected himself really well until he got within the 10 yard line then he became psycho richardson again after getting inside the 10 yard line but and like he's gonna do that like that's who he is

Starting point is 00:22:48 and i i think i think it's really well kind of quick about the quarterback run game it's like he's got i agree full-heartedly that that's got to be a part of their offense they can never get away from that because that's honestly what that's that's what kept this offense from being total, like bad to miserable. Like he, that raised the floor of the offense every single week because Anthony Richardson is just that gifted and chain staking is really good at putting him in positions to create explosive runs. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:23:17 And, and again, my quick point that I really want to get to though, is when, when you do that, the explosive pass game, like you build your offense around the explosive pass game, it can't be three straight passing dropbacks, play action dropbacks with vertical passing. Like it can't just be three straight and then three and out if your quarterback doesn't hit on them. That can't be your design. Like you either have to, you have to mix in some short stuff. And I'm saying it, I'm not saying you have to go full Kansas city where it's all screens

Starting point is 00:23:40 or go full Washington with a quick screen or run on every first down. I'm not saying you have to do that, but you either have to incorporate those things early on to set up the explosion, or you have to run the ball well enough with your quarterback and your run game, and then build the explosion plays off that. It can't just be play action, drop play action, shotgun, you know, vertical pass. Yeah. And look, it's awesome when it hits, but doing that three straight plays and then going to the sideline and putting your worn out defense back on the field, it's just not effective football, especially when we live in this too high world where the best offenses are the ones that are doing the quick screens every single play.

Starting point is 00:24:18 So either mix in some of these short concepts in these quick screens and, and build a short game or make your short passing game your running game and and just become become a raven a pseudo ravens team i mean look what lamar jackson especially early in his career they ran the ball so effectively and then their passing game was so explosive off of that that that that worked there but you have to be able to like commit fully to being this run dominant team that builds explosives off of it or you have to accept a little bit of the modern passing nfl offense which is quick screens and and isolation routes and they have downs for that stuff like they can't do it um so like yeah

Starting point is 00:24:57 we have to jump to our third segment real quick ben and then i'll let you get your point in here but yeah um yeah i i really think that they have to change it up a little bit it can't just keep spamming big explosive pass plays because unless you're just having richardson throw 50 50 balls it's not going to work uh and he's not throwing them right now so um that's my long-winded spiel there we're going to jump into our final thoughts and just kind of where the colts go from here and where this team goes going forward uh after a quick word here from game time. Guys, game time sports is my favorite place to get tickets for any event. I'm a big concert guy. I go to a bunch of punk shows and rock shows near me.

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Starting point is 00:26:57 because that's just how we roll on these these episodes are 34 35 minutes of our 30 um but yeah man like i i think this Colts team is in a really weird place because statistically we should feel really good about the offense and meh about the defense right now. Personally, just vibes wise, I feel okay about the defense. Like they're competing. Like, yes, I have my concerns, but secondary is playing some good ball offense. You know, I feel more concerned than what the advanced stats say, but like, I'm not terribly concerned.

Starting point is 00:27:34 You know, I'm in a weird place with this team. They're four and three. And it's not like they don't have quality wins. Like the Chicago win was a quality win. Pittsburgh win, very quality win, especially with two quarterbacks playing in that game for you. And at this point in the year, I mean, outside of Pittsburgh and Jacksonville, the Colts have only had, the Colts just haven't had good quarterback play this year.

Starting point is 00:27:56 And they're sitting at four and three. So it's an interesting team right now, Ben. Like, I think it's, the team is in such an interesting place to where you really can't say like Richardson's the reason why we're losing or this or that or whatever. I don't even think that's true. No, I think you can make the argument. You can make that argument. You can make that argument about potentially Houston. You can make that argument maybe about Chicago, but they won the game.

Starting point is 00:28:23 So like, yeah, it's, it's a really weird team because you are above 500. When you look at situations around the league, I think Indianapolis is in a far better situation than a lot of the teams currently. They don't, even now and the future. And it's 4-3, and anything can really happen in the NFL. So if you told me we were going to be four and three at the start of the year, I'd be, I'd sign, I'd sign up for it right now.

Starting point is 00:28:51 Because I probably didn't have the option to sign up for five and two and six and one. So I, it's really weird. It's ultimately really weird. And I think that this stretch could be the greatest thing to happen in the Indianapolis Colts. And they just start building confidence and getting better and better or they totally crumble and I think that's up to them in that locker room to decide how it's all going to look but I think you can you can become real scared in this gauntlet and admit these teams

Starting point is 00:29:18 are better I don't think they're thinking like that in the locker room I think they're thinking themselves hey we're four and three we haven't even played good football yet. So, like, we have an opportunity to do it versus good teams and build some serious confidence. Yeah, and again, I think this offense looks just insurmountably better with Jonathan Taylor out there alongside Richardson. I mean, we saw the Chicago game. Like, I would still say that the Chicago game was Richardson's worst game of the season.

Starting point is 00:29:42 Like, it was just a terrible, terrible game from Anthony Richardson against Chicago. And they still put up 21 points against a really good defense because they had that dynamic duo of Richardson and Jonathan Taylor. So once you get Taylor back and like we said in the last segment, you can lean on that ground game a little bit, maybe not become the Greg Roman Ravens, but like close to it, I guess, in terms of the running game where you just really pound the running game. You know, the Colts are doing a lot more 12 personnel to right now, really pounded out on the ground.

Starting point is 00:30:10 And then you can build your explosives off that and they'll hit a little bit more. And the, you know, the one of the better things about this next stretch of games, right, is the Colts have had to survive these first seven right now outside of the Jacksonville game, which they lost. But the Jacksonville game was the only bad defense they faced to start this season. All the other defenses are good that they have faced this next stretch. It's like decent defenses to below average defenses. Now you're going against elite offense.

Starting point is 00:30:38 You're going against an elite offense. But I think that's a bigger opportunity for this offense to maybe figure some stuff out. Like the Colts defense has been able to figure some stuff out against some really bad offenses. So maybe the Colts offense can figure some stuff, some things out against, you know, a Bills defense that's really banged up. A Detroit defense that's really banged up. A Houston defense, which has been pretty good, but, you know, they've had some ups and downs. And what's the other? Well, Vikings defense.

Starting point is 00:31:06 We're not going to talk about the Vikings defense there. But I do think they can maybe find their rhythm a little bit in what should be higher scoring games, too, than 16 to 10. So I don't like I don't think all is lost anyway. Like they have to get through this gauntlet, at least win one to two of these games in this gauntlet. You want to be a playoff team, which look, they're four and four and three right now again they've beaten two as of right now playoff teams in Chicago and Pittsburgh so there's no reason to think that they can't compete in these games um so yeah I don't see any reason to be super negative about this team uh Richardson sure they're they're the panic level is a little higher right now than what it was in week one but it's not

Starting point is 00:31:42 blaring sirens you know like i'm not sitting here going oh my god he's done he's done like yeah i'm he's gonna he he can and should get at least until the end of the next year to figure out if he's the quarterback or really however long it takes for him to be the quarterback for them to make that decision if he's the franchise quarterback of the indianapolis colts yeah yeah Yeah. Yeah. I wouldn't say it's blaring sirens either. I think there's a lot of, like, things that can tell you, hey, like, he looked really good in that Steelers game. He obviously had some really flashy plays at home versus Houston.

Starting point is 00:32:18 It would be really interesting to say, hey, you're playing Houston again, a team that he's had, I don't want to say success with, but he's played some of his best football versus that team. Again, I think we're going to look back at this gauntlet, and this will make or break the season. So get ready because we're past the thing of, oh, it's early. It's not early anymore. We're getting into November.

Starting point is 00:32:37 This is going to be a huge kind of stretch of games to figure out what this team really is and then kind of tell you what they're going to look at going into the offseason yeah yep so a big thing for this Colts team going forward again figure out your blitz checks very big thing especially with Brian Flores coming up and even D'Amico Ryan's to a degree I think it's a good test beforehand because he mixes in some some really good blitzes as well but figure out your blitz your blitz checks build your layups so whether it's the run game or the passing game whatever it's going to be and then look the explosives can still be there baby like look i'm i'm full on the explosive train when it comes to offense i love me some

Starting point is 00:33:14 explosives we just need this a little bit more efficiency where it's like hey let's give our quarterback an easy let's get him in some rhythm that he's really never had since maybe the second half of the Rams game. Yeah. Some of it is on him for missing throws and, and not finding that rhythm, but also it's an offense that's not asking him to be in rhythm because if, if the way that this offense has been called to start the season, him in rhythm would be like seven straight 50 yard bombs,

Starting point is 00:33:41 which isn't realistic. You know, like that's kind of how this offense is being called. It's kind of an offense that's like begging for a low completion percentage right now. Like, like not as low as what Richard. I don't think there's anything. I'll say this way. Everyone loves to talk about Anthony Richardson's completion percentage.

Starting point is 00:33:57 There's nothing in this offense that would tell you that number should be high, should be high. Like this is not. Yeah. Like, like, yeah, there's nothing they're doing, but like, yeah, there's nothing that they're doing.

Starting point is 00:34:07 Yeah. It can be better, obviously, but there's nothing in this offense that tells you that this should be towards the top of the NFL or really at the median, because that's how they're trying to play football. So there's nothing that's, I'll put it this way. There's nothing Shane Sikens doing to help him plate that number.

Starting point is 00:34:20 It's a little, it's a little pep Hamilton, a rookie year, Andrew Luck, you know, that 50, 57%. Now it's a very different style of off. It's not Bruce Arians, you know, style of offense, but it is very similar in terms of, we want you to be like a 58% passer with like, you know,

Starting point is 00:34:37 every completion going for like 25 yards. Like that's kind of what they want in this offense. And to me in today's moderate moderate like maybe that works in 2012 I don't know if that's a good way to play football nowadays it'll work in some against some teams it'll really work against some teams I mean especially static defenses like Pittsburgh and I mean to a degree Houston in week one was a little bit static too but it does not work against these very diverse moving defenses with good secondaries like we saw against Tennessee, which wasn't even Richardson, but Tennessee also did some good things there. And then this past week against Miami.

Starting point is 00:35:11 So they'll have to change some things. Again, if it were me, I'd lean heavier on the run game, be more diverse in the run game, keep mixing in the QB stuff. I mean, again, for the most part, Richardson did a good job protecting himself in this past game until he got inside the 10 yard line, which, you know, that's how he's going to be. So, yeah, I think you can do a lot of good things with that stuff. So we'll see going forward. I mean, Ben, do you have any final thoughts on this topic?

Starting point is 00:35:34 And then we'll get out of here. Yeah, I think ultimately when you look back at this game, it wasn't necessarily the performance, I think, that Anthony Richardson wanted when after all the noise of Joe Flacco and he should be the starting quarterback and all that kind of stuff it also doesn't matter because I don't think he cares uh and I think uh when you look at when you look at this next stretch of games we can take this kind of so-so performance and then hey let's try and build on some of the positives let's try and fix a lot of the negatives and we can look back in

Starting point is 00:36:04 this gauntlet of games where really nobody expects Indianapolis to be a favorite in any of them and it could be the best thing that happens in the team all season or the worst so that's up to them and the people in that locker room and the coaches look man just get out of this next stretch with two wins get into that final five and you have to win four or five and and you'll be a playoff team so we'll see I think this cold going to be competitive until the final whistle like they always are. And hey, look, we got the jokes already going around. Shane Steichen is the Mike Tomlin of offensive coaches. He's going to find a way to get those nine wins, baby.

Starting point is 00:36:34 He's going to find a way to get those nine wins. But we shall see. I do want to thank you guys for making Locked On Colts your first listen today. Now for your second listen, go find the new Locked On NFL. Now 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

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Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts Anthony Richardson, Shane Steichen MUST Iron Out Issues Heading Into Houston

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