Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts' Anthony Richardson vs. Houston Texans' C.J. Stroud Begins Now

Starting point is 00:00:00 The first chapter of the Anthony Richardson-CJ Stroud rivalry begins this Sunday as the Texans host the Colts in a battle of top rookie quarterbacks. 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. What's up, everyone? Thanks for tuning in and making us your first listen of the day on this crossover Thursday featuring your daily podcast covering your Indianapolis Colts and the Houston Texans part of the locked on

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Starting point is 00:01:11 I am Jake Arthur. You know me from HorseshoeHuddle.com. I'm the deputy editor over there bringing you the latest scoop every day. Today we're going to go over kind of the main talking points and break down this matchup between the Colts and Texans. On paper, from the outside, nationally, maybe not an exciting one, but in the division, I'm pretty ready for it. We'll go over, you know, Anthony Richardson and C.J. Stroud. What are the biggest individual matchups and the most important players?

Starting point is 00:01:39 And then ultimately, we're going to make some picks on this one. So everybody also, I'm joined by John Hickman. Everybody, John, why don't you tell everybody a little bit about what you're thinking Texans-wise. Walk us through this a little bit. Yeah, right now I think for the Houston Texans, and by the way, thank you for having me. Shout out to all of the coach listeners that check out the Locked On coach every day. Shout out to our Locked On Texans listeners that listen to us every day. If you're new to the podcast for both sides, thank you. Make sure you subscribe to both Locked On Coach every day. Shout out to our Locked On Texans listeners. They listen to us every day. If you're new to the podcast for both sides, thank you.

Starting point is 00:02:08 Make sure you subscribe to both Locked On Texans and Locked On Coach. My thought process right now is Houston had a very good opportunity to get a glimpse of what Anthony Richardson can be taking on Lamar Jackson.

Starting point is 00:02:24 That's a dual-threat quarterback. Just got his money in the offseason, so he's inspired. Didn't have his full arsenal of weapons out on the field, but we know that Lamar Jackson can break you off and kill your team with his legs, excuse me. Or he has a cannon for an arm as well. He's been known to hit some of those deep shots. And so athletically, Houston had a great opportunity this previous Sunday to figure out what can

Starting point is 00:02:52 they do to stop those type of quarterbacks. And going into week two, you got Anthony Richardson, the rookie, the number four overall pick, who, by the way, we're looking at prospects. I took the under on prospects for Anthony Richardson passing yards last week. And if he would have, you know, did that, I would have won $1,000. So Anthony Richardson. Oh, man. It was like, what, 193.5, was it?

Starting point is 00:03:14 I think it was something. It was. And I'm thinking to myself, the Jags should be able to at least hold him to 180. But he's a guy that athletically he's just different, right? And he has that cannon of an arm. And what you don't want to let happen for the Houston Texans is let him get comfortable, throw him to the right side of the field, allow him, don't let him get comfortable early in the game using his legs. You got to collapse that pocket. You got to make sure that you're disciplined. So Will Anderson, John Garnard, whoever's coming off the edge,

Starting point is 00:03:47 be disciplined in that area. Your interior defensive line, or if you're blitzing, maybe Christian Harris up the middle, Denzel Perriman, be disciplined. Because when you go up against a quarterback, an athlete, a playmaker like Anthony Richardson, one small mistake can really turn a negative game, a one-yard game, a two-yard game to maybe eight, to maybe 12, to maybe 15. We've seen in college, maybe to the house.

Starting point is 00:04:12 So that's what I'm looking at right now, containing that rookie quarterback, making his day difficult with different coverages and disguises, but you don't want to let him get an open field because regardless of what Trevor Lawrence, that advice that he gave him this past Sunday, Anthony Richardson was drafted because of his athletic ability. And you definitely want to take that aspect away from his game. Yeah, that's a guy who's just, you know, maybe he can learn to run out of bounds a little more or just like hit the turf before he's going to get hit. But sliding and protecting himself, that's just probably not going to be something really in his DNA.

Starting point is 00:04:46 It's just something, you know, from the Colts perspective, they're going to have to kind of get used to. But I'm glad you brought up the Lamar Jackson thing. I watched the Texans game today and I was like, you know what, I'm actually really glad they went up against Lamar Jackson, someone who's got some comparable skill sets to Anthony Richardson. I'm looking forward to this rookie quarterback matchup quite a bit. At first, it looked like CJ Stroud was going to be doing a

Starting point is 00:05:11 lot of dinking and dunking and short stuff like Richardson did throughout the game. But then I was impressed that they really opened things up with Stroud. And he started kind of peppering things around the field and Baltimore was getting home. They were disrupting the back field, but he wasn't avoiding all the sacks. He was still getting pressured plenty, but I thought he was poised. He never really seemed rattled to me. So I'm really looking forward to this. I'm interested to see if they're going to open up Anthony a little more because it felt like they were bringing him along slowly and almost protecting him a little bit from a passing perspective,

Starting point is 00:05:48 whereas I thought Stroud probably had a little longer leash as to what coaching staff was going to be letting him do in the passing game. So I'm really looking forward to this one, man. Like, does that seem accurate in what they were allowing C.J. Stroud to do from a coaching perspective? Well, I think what really hindered C.J. Stroud and, you know, what really allowed the offensive coordinator, Bobby Sloy, to kind of put C.J. in more passing downs was Houston couldn't block a body on the ground.

Starting point is 00:06:26 There were times where your running back for Houston, they didn't hit the hole as you wanted them to hit the hole and maybe the wrong read. But it was very difficult for the running backs to get ahead of his team. It was difficult for CJ Stroud to get ahead of his team. As you guys know, I think the biggest storylines for Houston right now is centered around injuries, right? And so Jalen Petrie's now on IR.

Starting point is 00:06:49 Today, Noah Brown went on IR. Titus Howard is already on IR. Drew Scruggs, a rookie center who was playing very good for Houston, he's on IR. So the protection for Houston and C.J. Stroud isn't there. And you know what that led to? It led to the Baltimore Ravens, who has a good defensive front, by the way, Patrick Queen and Roquan Smith. I love that tandem.

Starting point is 00:07:12 That led to them being able to get into the face of C.J. Stroud more often, get into the backfield more often than not, and get some of those tackles for loss. And for Houston, you got third and 13, third and 21, third and 16, third and 16, third and 18. Those were the third downs Houston had to go up against on the non-scoring drives. Only scored three times on three field goals.

Starting point is 00:07:35 But Houston had a very, very difficult day establishing themselves offensively. And I think a lot of that did – sorry. A lot of that was due to the inability to run the ball. This is an offense, guys. And with JT, JT Lau, that uncertainty, I know you guys wish he was out on that field. But this is an offense that is predicated around being able to run the ball and run it effectively. Houston wasn't able to do that.

Starting point is 00:08:03 They were still looking to be competitive. And so that allowed Bobby Sloan to say, hey, you know what? The best way to probably win this game right now is putting the ball in C.J. Stroud's hand. He had some good moments, had some moments I know he wants back. But overall, the offensive line for Houston made it very difficult for the offense to open up entirely and to sustain drives. Yeah, the Colts had really comparable issues in the run game as well.

Starting point is 00:08:30 They aren't really dealing with injuries on the offensive line, but the run scheme is just a lot different than under the previous coaching regime. So you've got running backs and the offensive linemen trying to figure each other out, essentially, right now. When you take away anthony richardson's 10 carries for 40 yards because of course he was the leading rusher uh the other running backs put together 16 carries for 25 yards just like one and a half yards per carry like real rough so i'm looking for a little you know anything is about an improvement there and

Starting point is 00:09:02 they might get zach moss back which which helps. That would help. How was Anthony Richardson on the RPOs? He actually, that's arguably the area he struggled with the most, I guess, making the proper decisions on those. My co-host Zach Hicks actually kind of went into that a little more in depth yesterday.

Starting point is 00:09:21 Good, good segue for every day. But no, he, he went in depth pretty good on that yesterday. The design predetermined stuff, he did pretty well. He's really efficient. But as far as RPOs goes, kind of something he's going to be adjusting to there. But yeah, that is a big part of the offensive efficiency

Starting point is 00:09:42 because he was also stuck passing real short as well. His 5.3-yard average depth of target was 27th among all quarterbacks last week. So that is something I'm looking forward to. Here shortly, John and I are going to kind of talk about some of the biggest matchups, the X factors that might be the biggest difference in this game, and kind of the biggest areas that are going to determine a win or loss. But first, let's talk to you about our friends over at Jace Medical.

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Starting point is 00:10:56 That's J-A-S-E medical.com, promo code LOCKEDON. And thanks again, everydayers. You know us. We've kind of wrapped up a nice week here tomorrow on locked on colts we'll give you our final thoughts heading into the game what about you guys john same predictions um and in what ways more ways since the news of noah brown going out on ir and all of the changes with houston the injuries right now, man, it's taking a promising offseason, and it's really kind of just slowly taking the life out of it.

Starting point is 00:11:31 Now, I do think Houston can still compete. I still like the areas of – I like the depth on the defense. I think the defense will be fine, even though Jalen Petrie is out, and we're waiting to see if Jimmy Ward's going to play. But offensively, it's just tough right now so we'll go into how can Houston you know win with the updates and give our final predictions yeah yeah that's that's tough you hate to see a matchup like that just so hamstrung no pun intended by by injuries because I always felt like the Colts have it rough but the Texans are in a really tough spot right now.

Starting point is 00:12:06 Yeah. So let's look at it though. So if there's a big matchup and you might even be dealing with new players thrown in there on this one, what's a big matchup that you're looking at hat on hat Texans versus Colts that has really got you intrigued. You know, one of the underrated parts of the Colts roster, I think, is their

Starting point is 00:12:27 wide receiver group. I like it. I like Pittman. I like Alex Pittman. I loved Alex Pittman coming out and I thought, when he ended up last year, was 700 yards? Something like that, yeah. 6-7, yeah. He probably wants back from last year. He has a couple of dry passes. But I like y'all number one and two. And so I think for Houston, mainly for Derek Stingley,

Starting point is 00:12:57 he had a very good game against the Baltimore Ravens. However, the Ravens were never able to establish themselves vertically, passing the ball. And you look at, we went up against an Odell Beckham. That was his first time playing football in a very long time. And then you got Michael Pittman. He's coming off nearly a 100-yard game. I think we had like 90-something yards.

Starting point is 00:13:19 Got a very good number two. So the matchup I'm looking at is Derek Stingley versus y'all number one receiver and Steven Nelson on the opposite side who had an interception on Sunday versus maybe Alec Pierce. So I'm looking at that simply because I love Houston's front four between Will Anderson and John Gennaro who had a very good game. If you eliminate those receivers, and from what I've seen, Anthony Richardson at times does take a deep shot down the field, but if you take those receivers out the game,

Starting point is 00:13:54 Indy doesn't have JT back there to run the ball. That's going to allow your front four to create that pressure, and then you're looking at some of those sacks. Well, he didn't have nowhere to go with the ball and it was covered sacks, which would help play into, you know, making the office day for the coast difficult, you know, 38,

Starting point is 00:14:12 39, 30 and long, then you'll be able to get off the field. So that's the matchup I'm looking forward to. What about you, Jake? I'm really glad you brought that up because I'm going to transition into some of the guys or some of the Colts interior pass catchers. So Josh Downs, their rookie slot receiver, three catches for 30 yards

Starting point is 00:14:30 last week, a modest day, but actually looked pretty good doing it. There was actually one play in particular that he and Richardson connected on. It was an option route by Downs and he sold the outside run or the outside route to the defender really well and cut inside. And they just, you know, Richardson roped it in there and Downs did the rest for like a 20-yard gain to get them into the red zone. So I really liked that. Those two have a connection.

Starting point is 00:14:57 Another guy that Richardson seems to have a strong connection with is Kylan Granson. Four catches for 39 yards last week. Those guys, when you peel back Pittman and Pierce wasn't even all that involved last week, it's partly due to the coverages that Jacksonville was putting out there. But Granson and Downs are going to get a lot of attention from Richardson this week. And I was looking at who's he going to be up against for Houston. And Tavir Thomas looked like he had a pretty good game this week. And I was looking at, you know, who's he going to be up against for Houston? And Tavir Thomas looked like he had a pretty good game last week. Cause I was, I was watching the game. I saw Zay Flowers doing some nice things and it didn't appear to be against

Starting point is 00:15:35 Thomas. Thomas actually graded out really well, according to pro football focus. So I'm intrigued by that. When Thomas is matched up against downs and grants and then the slot, how's that going to look because those are kind of the hidden yardage things that the colts are are going to be able to pick up i think this offense likes to attack things over the middle uh so that's that's one i think can be pivotal the colts really struggled on third and fourth downs in the red

Starting point is 00:16:01 zone last week like it was two or, two or 10 or something like that? Yeah. So it was – I had it here. But, yeah, third down and – three of 17 combined on third and fourth downs, and they were one and three in the red zone. So on those – We're seeing the NFL kind of transition to just saying – I'm sorry to cut you off.

Starting point is 00:16:21 We're going for it on fourth downs. I kind of like it. We did it last week, 104. But I think for rookie quarterbacks, kind of keep it a little simple early on for it. However, I like it. Yeah, I do too. That's why I combine third and fourth down now. Because if you're at your own 40 or beyond, you're probably going for it anymore.

Starting point is 00:16:43 So yeah, the Colts just didn't really convert on those money downs and I think downs and grants and will be a big part of it so now if you're looking at this Texans roster again you talked about it's really banged up who is the most important player to the Texans against the Colts this week? Putting you on the spot. Yeah, I'm still going to go Larry Tunsil. Okay. You got to protect your quarterback.

Starting point is 00:17:16 You got to protect your franchise, right? And one thing that C.J. Stroud has shown to be able to do is break out of the pocket and use his legs to either extend the play or pick up some extra yards. He does a very good job of keeping his eyes downfield, but the offensive line right now is already banged up. And Larry McTonsell didn't play.

Starting point is 00:17:37 I mean, he didn't practice on Wednesday. So you're looking at a situation where your best player has to be the best player on the field that day and for Houston your best player is absolutely Larry Tunsell so uh him being good allows the rest of the offensive line to not be as bad and I think he's going to be the number one guy with Noah Brown going out I am looking at the receiver position. Tank Dale should be getting some more snaps. Robert Woods is a guy that sneaky good can sneak in and out and pick up some of those yards, those third downs. So I look at Robert Woods as a player that I want to see have a good game as well. I think he's going to be important for Houston. Yeah, I came away from watching that

Starting point is 00:18:22 Texans game saying it looks like Woods is Stroud's safety net. He's still effective at this age and despite the injuries he's had. From a Colts perspective, I think Richardson is the obvious answer. He's the biggest X factor and is the run game right now. But outside of him, I'm going to say DeForest Buckner. Buckner had a killer game, all pro game last week. And I mean, he is a multiple time all pro, so that makes sense. But against a banged up Texans offensive line like this, against a rookie quarterback, a guy in Stroud who keeps those eyes downfield, which can leave himself open to pressure from the outside, I think Buckner is going to be huge if he's able to consistently provide push up the middle

Starting point is 00:19:06 and just keep Stroud moving out of the pocket. I think that'll be huge. Yeah. Rookie defensive coach versus rookie offensive coach, head coach. You know, first time. I like that. That's a little storyline that you got to look at, right? And I think D'Amico has done a very good job of installing his defense.

Starting point is 00:19:28 They were playing lights out last year. Like for everybody here in Houston that criticized Lovely Smith, you saw day and night the difference of that defense on Sunday. And Shane Steichen, I think – I liked what I saw from Anthony Richardson. I did. And I think that you got a guy that helped turn Jalen Hurts around or give Jalen Hurts life in the NFL. Those two, and they're in the same division.

Starting point is 00:19:58 So this is game one for the only C.J. Stroud and Anthony Richardson, but, of course, D'Amico Ryans and Shane Steichen, who I think will be here for a very long time. I'm looking at that matchup as well the battle of the new head coaches former coordinators on their respective sides of the ball how they're gonna beat out the other coach yeah that's this is a matchup of the two favorite head coaching options for the Colts coming into it because it was pretty much D'Amico, Ryans was 1A, Shane Steichen 1B, or they could be interchangeable. So it should be a pretty exciting matchup. So here in a moment, John and I are going to give our final predictions

Starting point is 00:20:32 on what we think this game is going to turn into. But first, we've got to talk about some fantasy. Testing my skills on price picks this football season is the most exciting way to play daily fantasy sports. If you have the skills, you can turn $ 10 bucks into 250 with just a few taps price picks is really simple to play i can make my picks and submit my entry in less than 60 seconds quick withdraw quick withdrawals easy game play in an enormous selection of players and stat types what makes price picks the number one daily fantasy sports app. You heard John mention it earlier.

Starting point is 00:21:05 The projection for Anthony Richardson got him tripped up, costing some money. So don't make that same mistake. Go to prizepix.com slash locked on NFL and use code locked on NFL for a first deposit matchup to $100. PrizePix, daily fantasy sports made easy. All right, John. So I'm going to put you in the hot seat now.

Starting point is 00:21:26 Let's go. I'm hot. First, tell us what must go right for the Texans to win and what is ultimately your prediction for the game? Man, two things contain Anthony Richardson. You contain him, you contain the offense. Yeah. And again, from the edges, play discipline, right?

Starting point is 00:21:46 Don't try to rush upfield and force the sack because he'll step up and take off, and then there's nobody within five to six yards to pick him up. Once that big guy get ahead of steam, that's a business decision that's going to get made. On the opposite side of the ball, you got to give your weapons some time to get the ball offensive line. Guys played terrible in game one. Move bodies out the way for Damian Pierce,

Starting point is 00:22:11 who should have more than 11 carries. Give your quarterback some time to take some of those maybe deeper shots or in between the middle of the field shots, which he did a very good job on Sunday. Give them time to be explosive because if not, you're going to suck the life out of that offense. My final prediction score-wise, I think Houston wins 24-17. I love that pick.

Starting point is 00:22:38 Okay, so for the Colts, offensively, they've got to – they had everything in front of them last week. They've just actually got to convert and clean up the mistakes. They had two lost fumbles, and Anthony had an interception, which it wasn't even a terrible read. He just threw the ball too flat and needed to loft it a little more, which oddly, when he misses, he normally misses high. So clean up stuff like that.

Starting point is 00:23:04 I mentioned on third and fourth downs combined, they were three of 17, one and three in the red zone. That's so many missing points just left out there. They could have very well wound up beating Jacksonville last week, if not for all of the lack of execution, essentially. So on offense, take care of that. On defense, I mean, the Colts have a really talented defensive front and they're staring at a banged up offensive line. Take care of business there.

Starting point is 00:23:33 Kind of the same thing you said, you know, what the offense needs to do. The Colts have to take advantage of that. You know, Samson Aboukham, you got a nice new contract. Quidipe, it's prove it time to say that you are the alpha pass rusher on that team deforest buckner you're an all pro and grover stewart you were one of the highest paid nose tackles in the league when you got your new contract so those guys have got to smell blood in the water and take advantage of it and i actually had the colts on the flip side of your score prediction i had the colts winning 24 1717. Ah, I'm not mad at it. I think also for Houston, create turnovers.

Starting point is 00:24:10 Got to create turnovers and better third down situations. I also want to see Plank Dill get active. He is this team's X factor. There's nobody that can move like him. There's nobody that can dominate at the receiver position once he's in space. There's nobody that can do some of the things on this team like

Starting point is 00:24:33 Tank Dale. I want to see him get active and get nasty out there. I want to see a couple of highlights, but I do want to see him on the field more than 30 snaps that he received in the Ravens game. Yeah, for the Colts, I'll throw one last thing in there.

Starting point is 00:24:51 The young secondary, I mean, they had a tough task against Trevor Lawrence last week, who, for my money, is probably one of the upper-tier quarterbacks. If he's not in Tier 1, he's in Tier 2. Like, the guy is good. He threw some absolute gems last week so this really young colt secondary gets a rookie quarterback this week so they're not going to be so overmatched uh so i i think it'll be a good test for them to see where they're really at uh they didn't even truly fail last week. They held up pretty well,

Starting point is 00:25:27 but they don't have to face Trevor Lawrence this week, so that's pretty good. With that on Locked on Colts tomorrow, again, Zach and I will be giving our final predictions, score stuff. We'll catch you guys up on all the injuries because there are some interesting names that have come up there, and there's some guys we're waiting to see if they're going to be able to come back. So, John,

Starting point is 00:25:46 what do you guys have on tap for, for the locked on Texans listeners Friday? Yeah, we got predictions. We're going to hop into the YouTube comments a little bit and, and, and look at the roster with the new players on IR. If somebody is called up or how can those, how can these players is going to receive more time affect this Sunday's

Starting point is 00:26:03 outcome. Mainly again, Tank Dale. Of course, that'll be an exciting one. Tank Dale and Josh Downs. That'll be intriguing. I hope both of those young guys get some run. So, again, if you don't already follow at Locked on Colts and at Locked on Texans on Twitter and also subscribe on YouTube and wherever you listen to podcasts, always free.

Starting point is 00:26:24 We would also love your guys' ratings and reviews because that helps both of our shows move up the charts. And with that, we will see you guys Friday and then again after the games.

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Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts' Anthony Richardson vs. Houston Texans' C.J. Stroud Begins Now

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