Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts blow AFC South chances with 34-31 OT loss to Titans

Episode Date: November 3, 2021

On today's episode, Evan is joined by The Herald Bulletin's George Bremer to recap the Indianapolis Colts' 34-31 loss overtime loss at home to the Tennessee Titans. How did the Colts choke that game away?We go over Carson Wentz's bad outing, Frank Reich's questionable calls, plus so much more. Why did the Colts once again go away from Jonathan Taylor in crunch time as well?Then, Evan and George go over a quiet deadline for the Colts. Why wasn't Marlon Mack moved?Closing out the show, we preview a Thursday Night Football matchup against the New York Jets at Lucas Oil Stadium. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You are Locked On Colts, your daily Indianapolis Colts podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello everybody, welcome into your latest episode of Locked on Colts. I am your host, Evan Sattery, joined by Indianapolis Colts B-Rare for the Harold Bulletin, George Bremer. George, how are you doing tonight? Good, how are you doing? I'm doing well, appreciate coming on today as you do always on Tuesday throughout the regular season. And man, what a hot start it was for the Colts on Sunday when they got up 14-0.

The first touchdown to Pittman, then the interception by Kenny Moore, go get another touchdown from Wentz to Pittman. I'm thinking, okay, the Colts are making a statement right now, George. They're going to go out and win this game by double digits. But the rest of that game, just super ugly from, I would say, both sides of the football. A.J. Brown had a monster game. Derrick Henry, even though he was inefficient,

they kept beating him to rock and keeping them off balance. Frank Ray got some questionable play calling. But Carson Wentz in the last three quarters of that game, George, especially in the fourth quarter and overtime, quite frankly, was just awful after the first quarter of that game. What was your assessment of what went wrong after that 14-0 start? Yeah, you pretty well summed it up, a little bit of everything. I think the last couple of years, for whatever reason, strange things happen in these Titan games. I mean, you go back to, you know, Adam Vinatieri's last kick here gets blocked and they return it and a close game becomes a blowout. Last year,

you had multiple players out for the Colts. They're DeForest Buckner and Denico Autry chief among them. And they're not able to really get a hand on Derrick Henry the whole game, and they lose in a blowout. And then this year, it really seemed like they had things going the right way. They were as healthy as they've been all year. They get off to that red-hot start. And then, you know, it's funny.

They scored 31 points. And I asked Carson Wentz this on Monday. It never felt like they got in a rhythm. And I don't know if I could ever say that before. Usually when you're talking about the offense seemed out of sync and they were – you know, they couldn't really get anything consistently together. You're talking about a team that scored 10, 17, something like that. You know, if you had told me last week they would score 31 points

and Derrick Henry would rush for 68 yards. I would assume they win by 10 or 14 points, which is what I was going to have in the first quarter. A number of things go wrong. You know, I think the fourth and three early with a 14 to nothing lead cost them some momentum, not picking that up. Frank Reich has said that he wishes he had the third down call on that back when they threw the bomb to T.Y. Hilton. You know, maybe if you run the ball there, knowing you were

going to go for it on fourth down, maybe at least it's a shorter fourth down. If not, Jonathan Taylor picks up the first down. You know, I think it started there. I think the biggest play in the game arguably was the interception by Tyquan Lewis. Not only does he fumble the ball back to Tennessee, he tears up his knees, done for the season, quietly having a great year for the Colts, you know, in the role that he had. I think it was a big loss during that game to lose him, and the momentum, you know, the very next play, the Titans throw a 57-yard touchdown to A.J. Brown, and the game's tied. If the Colts keep possession there, which you could argue they did,

George Odom came out of the pile with the ball, and, you know, it's one of those things. The rest ruled what they ruled. But I don't know if I'll ever understand how that ball ended up going to Tennessee. It doesn't matter. It did. But, you know, the Colts retained possession there, 17-7. Maybe it's 21-7. You're going at a halftime of the score like that instead of 17 to 14 who knows how things change in the second half

you know who knows things play out the other biggest play of the game two of them the call that Frank Reich has has beat himself up for for you know 48 going on 72 hours now. The tight end screen from his own eight, really no chance there for Carson Wentz to make a play. Bud Dupree comes in and envelops him right away. He makes a poor decision to throw the ball left-handed, just trying to get it out of the end zone. Interception pick six, ironically helps the team. Safety there would have ended the game.

The Colts are able to somehow come down, tie the game, take some part to one more unbelievable catch by Michael Pittman Jr., which seems to be a weekly occurrence now. But then, of course, in overtime, the one that Carson Wentz has beat himself up over ever since that game, John Taylor's wide open. I think we've all seen it. The check down on that pass, he's standing at the 30-yard line.

There's not a tight within 15 yards of him. If he catches that ball, he's got a first down. He's maybe got a touchdown. You never know with them. Instead, they try to throw the ball to Michael Pittman. Kevin Byard makes a great play. Give him all the credit for that. You know, breaks on the ball late, picks it off.

That leads to the game-winning field goal. But the thing that sticks with me most about that pass, there's about four and a half minutes still remaining. It's first down. All you need is a field goal to win. There's a time and a place to be aggressive. That was not the time and place. Yeah, it most certainly wasn't.

I think Carson Wentz was really pressing in this game, especially in those game-breaking situations, George. It reminded me an awful lot of the 2020 version of Wentz playing hero ball, putting too much pressure on himself to win the game. He not only had Jonathan Taylor open on that play, but he had Jack Doyle and Molly Cox open about five yards down the field as well. Threw it in the triple coverage of Michael Pittman Jr., which is a horrible mistake when it was first down.

All you need to do is run the ball a little bit with Jonathan Taylor. And I know I imagine you're meant to have been the same way, George. And I kind of agree with some of the fans that are asking this as well. But why did the Colts abandon Jonathan Taylor on Sunday late in that game? I feel like the Colts were feeling like they were down most of that game. Of course, they were a little bit in the third and fourth quarter, but they came back. It was a close game throughout. John Taylor had 16 carries. Frank Reich did mention postgame. He did have seven or eight run calls that Carson Wentz audibled out of, but even still, the numbers say Taylor

averaged four and a half yards per carry. He's averaged seven yards per touch over the last five weeks of the season, George. At some point, you do have to wonder why the Colts don't use Jonathan Taylor like Derrick Henry, unless the idea is like you're just trying to preserve for later in the season. But in a moment like now, you have to use him in a way where it's a must-win situation.

Why does this keep happening, George? Because a lot of Colts fans now are getting very frustrated with Frank Reich and getting frustrated with how Jonathan Terrell is not being used like a Derrick Henry type of running back. Yeah, first and foremost, no one should be used like Derrick Henry. It was inevitable what happened to him. It's

amazing he hadn't gotten a major injury before this. You carry the ball in this league. I know why the Titans do it. Don't get me wrong. It worked really well for him for the better part of three years. But that ending was the most predictable ending in the NFL this season. You know, whether it happened now, a week from now, a month from now,

a year from now, no human being is going to stand up to that kind of workload, not in this league. That being said, most of the time, I have kind of seen where, where Reich was coming from this year because the Colts have done a lot of good things in the past game and they're trying to keep defense off balance. Sunday, I don't at all. Carson Wentz was struggling. He'd thrown three touchdown passes. You mentioned the early ones, but he really, like I said earlier, there was no rhythm, and a lot of that was an inability to connect downfield. He's been great this year on deep throws. I think he was 5 of 22 on targets

10 yards or more on Sunday, and some of that had to do with really physical play by the Titans. Give them credit. You know, their defense was really getting up into receivers and making it tough. Some of that had to do with just bad throws. I can think of a couple third downs where Wentz just overthrew people. Just, you know, a couple in particular, one to Ashton Doolin late. A third down, it looks like it's a slant. If you hit him, maybe you got a first down and move the chains.

And the ball's about five feet over Doolin's head. He never had a chance. And I think when you see Wentz struggling like that, even though early in the game through the first three quarters, you know, they have a lead, 24-21, and he hadn't thrown an interception yet and he had three touchdowns. His yards per attempt were around 4.9 at that point. He wasn't being efficient.

And I don't I really don't have an answer for why they didn't go to Jonathan Taylor he was really running well uh I think it was a situation where you want to lean on him and then maybe wear down a Titans defense that had been on the field quite a bit at times during that game uh you know hold on to a lead or protect lead it doesn't make a lot of sense, you know, and really a lot of what Ryke has said afterwards about some hurry up situations, I get that, I know there were a couple penalties that got, put them behind the six, you know, big runs that the Colts got that if they, if they stand and you get the first down and you're in Tennessee territory on both those runs,

you're probably gonna get some more runs out of it, instead you're backed up and you get the first down, and you're in Tennessee territory on both those runs. You're probably going to get some more runs out of it. Instead, you're backed up, and you have to throw the ball. I get that. That accounts for some of this discrepancy. But on a day when Carson Wentz was struggling this badly, for him to drop back 52 times the pass and only 16 carries for Jonathan Taylor, I don't really see how that's defensible. Does this sound familiar? You've got one device that lets you catch the game live,

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Content varies by package let's switch to a pause real quick including jonathan taylor on this george but i think sunday confirmed yet again what we've seen the last month plus of the season that jonathan taylor and michael pitman jr are taking that star leap right now taylor potentially the superstar might win the russian crown this year after gary kenry's foot injury could sign the rest of the regular season but like we mentioned jonathan taylor had over-plus scrimmage yards yet again, his fifth straight game of over 100-plus scrimmage yards. Michael Pittman Jr. had 10 catches for 86 yards and two touchdowns on 15 targets, a career high for Pittman.

It's obvious now, George, that Taylor we already know is an elite running back, but he's becoming a top-two, top-three running back in my opinion. And then Michael Pittman, it's officially the Pittman era for the Colts as far as the new WR1 goes for Indy. And he's just becoming a monster force for them down the field, moving the chains in the short game as well. And Carson Wentz obviously trusts him more compared to others because he doubled up everyone else in targets in this game.

What's your assessment as young duo, George? Because it feels like we're now seeing the ushering in officially now of a new era as far as weapons go. Oh, absolutely. I think you can't ask for much more out of either one of these guys. I mean, Taylor is, as you said, he's an absolute superstar. With Derrick Henry sidelined now, you make a case that Taylor is the most dangerous running back in the NFL

at this point for the rest of the season. We'll see how that plays out. But he does a little bit of everything. He's added the passing game now to his repertoire a little bit, just in case you thought he couldn't do that. Pittman, every week he's going out there, he's making these contested catches. That one, you know, the 38-yarder to extend the drive

where they end up tying the game, there's four Titans around him. There's no reason he should come down with that ball other than he just would not stomach anybody else catching it. I don't know if they've had a receiver quite like that before. You know, Marvin Harrison's an outstanding receiver. Reggie Wayne, outstanding receiver. T.Y. Hilton, outstanding receiver. None of them have the skill set of Pittman.

I'm not saying he's better than those guys. Harrison's in the Hall of Fame for a reason. Reggie Wayne's going to be in the Hall of Fame very soon for a reason. But I think Pittman's a completely different animal. You know, his ability to go out there and be physical. There's times when he catches the ball it looks like he's looking for contact you know it's almost like mo alley cox where you almost feel bad for the defenders that somebody has to try to bring him down i don't think i've

ever seen the colts have a receiver quite like that now it would be great if you could get hilton healthy and pair him with him for a while so you have that deep threat not that Pittman isn't a deep 30 is but that speed you know pure speed more traditional deep guy to pair with him I think would really make a difference but I still am really optimistic about this offense I know Carson Wentz is taking a lot of flack this weekend rightfully so played a terrible game last year last last week. That happens. You know, it did look way too much like 2020. There was way too much hero ball. But when he plays within himself, when he takes those check downs and when he's judicious with taking those deep shots in situations

where it's warranted, this is a really good offense when they're all clicking at the same time. And again, you know, for all the legitimate complaints about Sunday, about the number of touches Jonathan Taylor had, the way that Wentz played, he still put up 31 points. And that's going to win a lot of games in this league. Yeah, most definitely. And it was just a disappointing way to end that game on Sunday.

The Colts now are officially outside of the AFC South race. They're technically four games back now, if you want to include the tiebreaker, because they officially lost both games now to the Titans, George. Pivoting a little bit to a long-term thought here before we dive into the trade deadline and some Jets thoughts here to close out the show. But I want to get your opinion of the rest of the season for this Colts team. They're now three and5. The AFC South is now done, I imagine, even though the Titans lost Derrick Henry. They still play four games against the Jaguars, Texans, and Dolphins combined.

That's probably at least three or four wins out of those four games. So that's at least nine or ten wins for the Titans right there alone. I mean, what's your opinion, George, of the rest of the season for this Colts team? Because you're pretty much relying on ten wins to make the wild card.

Maybe ten won't even be enough at this point. So you're betting on this Colts team to be 7-2 over the last nine games of the season. And I'd be stunned, unless you're a very optimistic Colts right now, betting on the Colts, the way they're playing right now, to finish 7-2 this season. Yeah, it's a really uphill battle from here. I mean, obviously the division race is over.

And, you know, there's been too many what-if games already this year. You can't have more than maybe one or two of those a season, and it's already happened three times. You go back to the Rams game, and what happens if you cash in some early red zone situations in that game? Instead of kicking field goals, you score touchdowns. Or if Carson Wentz is healthy for the final drive, and you don't have Jacob Eason out there throwing an interception.

This is a big what-if game there. Baltimore, obviously a huge what-if game. And now Sunday, you lose three games like that, it's hard to come back. It just is. You know, I don't know what's going to happen in the AFC. It feels like almost the entire conference is either 5-3 or 3-5 right now, somewhere between there. So I think there's still a lot of things to play out over the course of the rest of the season. And so I think the wild card still, it's not a pipe dream, but it's,

they're going to have to turn things around in a hurry. They're going to have to finish games. And I think it's been interesting. I feel like this isn't a young team in the sense of being filled with a lot of rookies, but it's a young team in the sense of how long they've been together. You know, Carson Wentz's first year here, a key player on defense in DeForest Buckner's just his second year there. We talk about Pittman and Taylor. They're just in their second years in the league. I think sometimes when you're in that situation,

you have to learn how to win. We talk about that a lot. You know, Tiger Woods used to talk about it all the time that, you know, he wanted to be in contention as often as possible because you're going to fail and you've got to learn how to close out, in his case, golf tournaments, in this case, close out these football games. And I think that's the growing pain we're seeing with this team right now. It's easy to forget how little time they had together in training camp.

I think that's a by-product of this right now too. None of that matters in the NFL. At the end of the day, you are what your record says you are, and they have a very difficult stretch ahead. I mean, they've got probably five games that are going to determine their season now. If you win the four games you should, starting with Thursday night against the Jets, then you've got to –

between the Bucs, the Patriots, the Cardinals, the Raiders. I think there's one more in there too that I'm forgetting right now. You've got to win three of those games. You've got to find a way to do it. And can they? Right now, I don't know that I would bet on it and again a lot of it comes back to just these little errors that they're making three times already this year you win two of those three games we're having a completely different conversation right now and it's been

different things every time the defense and the kicking game against the Ravens the offense not being able to finish at the goal line against the Rams, and then on Sunday, a little bit of everything, you know, turnovers being the biggest factor, but the defense had moments there it needed to be better, the offense needs to finish better. I just feel like there's too much of that going on to have confidence they're going to finish seven and two the rest of the season. Let's dive into the trade deadline now, George. The Colts did not make a move. No surprise there, as you all know, through Chris Bauer. He does not really make midseason moves here.

We heard a lot of buzz around Marlon Mack, but it sounds like, according to Ian Rappaport, the Colts had offers on the table, but not enough for them to really bite on anything. And then we heard some rumors from Albert Breer late last week about Kamoko Ture and Ben Banigou potentially being on the trade block. I imagine Banigou got no offers because he's a guy that's a healthy scratch for the two years in a row now, George.

So I imagine he's probably on the outside looking for this roster next year. Kamoko Ture is just so inconsistent with injuries in production and the run game as well as far as being able to set the edge. And then Marlon Mack, like I mentioned before, there was offers on the table, but not enough for the Colts to bite there. So what was your assessment of the Colts? No on your end I imagine too George with a quiet deadline

and then keeping Marlon Mack around through the rest of the season yeah you know it really wasn't a surprise and I think we talked about this a couple weeks ago I kind of figured Mack was here to stay after it didn't happen really early on I mean he was on the trading block for a month or so there and he felt like if there wasn't a deal in the first week or two, it probably wasn't going to happen. It probably meant that there wasn't offers out there that the Colts really wanted to take. And, you know, I've seen – I'm sure you've heard the same thing.

I've seen, you know, fans upset. Why didn't you take a fifth or sixth rounder? Well, first of all, we don't know that that's what was offered. Just last week, Mark Ingram got traded for a 2024 seventh round pick which is literally nothing uh so you know if that's where the market's at i don't know houston's made some questionable moves so i don't know if that's where the market was or if that was just part of this texas fire sale that they've been they've been undergoing but you know the the end result is you've you're going to take your chances that you get a compensatory pick for him now in free agency you know and maybe you will maybe you want i'm not sure

what the market's going to look like for him after this season uh coming off the acl or the achilles uh you know it's obviously tough for a running back um he hasn't yet shown that he's back at that top form but he's got nine weeks now to kind of show that. I think the Colts are going to continue to mix him in. I think that's the hope for them right now. And he's insurance. If Jonathan Taylor does go down, which who knows, I mean, it's a very dangerous position to play in this league. You'd feel pretty comfortable if Marlon Mack had to be the feature back the rest of the way. Obviously nobody wants to see that happen. There would be a big drop off,

but he's pretty critical insurance for a team that right now, as we just mentioned, pretty much has to win out. I'm sure they would have loved to have gone out and got some help in the secondary. They've been getting guys off the waiver wire, you know, they're almost every week, but obviously nothing materialized, but they felt like the cost and the need matched up. Real quickly, George, on a front where I'm actually intrigued by this idea. I know many Colts fans on Twitter today have laid out this idea after he was officially cut by the Rams.

He's officially on waivers right now, but if he does pass through, maybe he'll sign for cheaper than his $1.5 million salary. But 34-year-old wide receiver Deshaun Jackson, he obviously is older on the age scale, even older than T.Y. Hilton, but he provides that deep threat that they've been missing since Paris Campbell's injury, since T.Y. Hilton now is so up and down with injuries himself as well. Are you intrigued by the idea of kicking the tires on Deshaun Jackson if this Colts team is indeed trying to win and make a wild card push?

Because he kind of would fill that deep threat, and you were talking he's like you mentioned he's 34 years old but he still gets down the field at a elite rate over 20 yards per reception this year does that make any sense to you george it feels like to me if they even were to get him on waivers you can cut like a guy ben banigou and you'd be right near that mark as far as the salary need to make it happen yeah i know absolutely uh you know it's something that raised my eyebrows a little bit when I saw it because I know Deshaun had asked for a trade earlier, and obviously the Rams weren't able to get that done, and so they went ahead and released him.

He does have a history with Carson Wentz. You know, the last couple years in Philly they played together. Jackson was banged up, and they didn't have a whole lot of time together. But when they were together, they were pretty effective with Jackson running under that deep ball. So, to me to me yeah it's definitely something you kick the tires on whether they they feel like they want to claim him off waivers whether they want to see if he clears waivers and grab him you know a smaller market whether he wants to come here you know that's another part of it too you do have to wonder why anybody wants out of la right now, the Rams looking like a potential NFC champ, you know?

So that, you know, that element we'll see, you know, if he wants to be here and if they can get him, you know, at a rate that's reasonable, which I think is definitely the case. Like you said, there's a lot of ways I think to bring him in. He definitely does have history with Carson Wentz and it is good history with Carson Wentz. We'll see how that plays out let's move in now George to one more long-term thought before we dive into our Jets preview and it's about Carson Wentz just really quickly because this could be a situation where the Colts are staring down the barrel of let's say a five and seven finish at

the month of November let's say they lose to Buffalo in Tampa Bay they beat the Jets and they beat the Jaguars. They're still technically in the race, but they're pretty much one loss away from being officially knocked out of the playoff race. Kirsten Wentz's snap count, 75% has played 99% of the snaps so far this year. He plays at least 75% of the Colts get up that first-round pick. Do you see any way, George, that the Colts sit Kirsten Wentz

at the last part of the season to preserve that first-round pick if he does get to that point because obviously you want to have potentially a top-15 pick around, but if the Colts are still in the playoff race and you bench Wentz, I feel like that sends a bad message to the locker room there. So it's kind of a really delicate balance if the Colts want to go down that road right now. Yeah, I think it was really – this is the worst spot for them to be in.

You know, if they were more like 5-3, then there's no question you're you're moving forward and you know maybe gonna have a chance to win the division uh in that situation especially with what's happened with derrick henry uh but at three and five you know or like you said at five and seven at the end of the month i think that's the worst possible spot for to be in because you are right on that edge you know it's sort of like everybody talks about, you know, the Major League Baseball season when the trade deadline comes up there. You know, those teams that are – Atlanta was one of them this year that's a perfect example.

They're in the World Series right now as we're talking. You know, they were hovering right around 500, a little below. They decide to go all in at the trade deadline, and they end up making the playoffs, winning the division, and, you know, here they are playing for the championship. Maybe have won it by the time this people listen to this. I don't know. At worst, they're going to be playing in game seven. You know, the Colts are in that same boat now. It's that same kind of decision.

Do you go for it? Even if the odds are not great. And by that, I mean, you know, keep Carson Wentz on the field and, and take your chances that you have a good enough December and you get into the playoffs or do you sit him down? And I agree, you know, keep Carson Wentz on the field and take your chances that you have a good enough December and you get into the playoffs, or do you sit him down? And I agree with you. I think that it's going – you have to be like three and nine to sit him. You know, I don't think five and seven is going to do it. You're going to have to be out of the race.

You're going to have to be able to tell everybody in that locker room, hey, this is the best decision. We're going to take a look at Sam Ellinger. You know, let's see what we've got with him, and we're going to run this back next year. I think a five and seven or anything better than that, it's going to be hard to look a guy like Darius Leonard in the eye and say you're not doing everything you can to try to make the playoffs. You do have to wonder, because this is one thing that kind of threw me off for a loop when the Colts had that blowout victory last month and they kept playing curse and went to that game game that to preserve some of that snap count later on this season

do you think there's any possibility let's say we're going to dive into the Jets here in just a second but if they blow out the Jets in huge fashion and then the Jaguars the week after that do you think maybe if they sit Carson Wentz the last few possessions of those games that might be a sign that they're at least thinking about it it It'll be interesting to see. I mean, I think there's rationale now to do it. When Brett Hundley was the backup, it's hard to say that you're taking a look at your backup for trying to get him any experience. Now that Sam Ellinger's moved into that number two spot, if you've got a big lead, even without the snap count hanging over your head,

it just makes sense to get Elling're out there and get his feet wet. Right. I mean, that's what you want to do. Give that young quarterback some snaps. If you can get a lead, you know, big enough in some of these games, I don't know if that alone will be enough to get it under 75. And I know that's not what you're saying. And I don't know that it would necessarily signal one way or another, but I think it's something that very well might happen because again, you know,

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advantage of all the amazing offers available for the 2021 season. BetOnline is the fastest and easiest way to bet on all your favorite sports, and BetOnline is always where the game starts. Let's dive in now for the last few minutes of the show, George, talking about a short week for the Colts, Thursday night football, 48 hours from now to be imagined in the second half of the game at Lucasville State. Maybe they're covering the game for the Harold Bulletin. The Colts are 10.5-point favorites over the New York Jets,

who shocked the NFL world last week. Being the Cincinnati Bengals with Mike White, a quarterback, their backup, he threw for 400 yards and four touchdowns. I actually recorded my crossover special earlier today with Locked on Jets, which will be out tomorrow as you listen to this as well. I have the Colts winning this game 34-9. I don't think it's particularly close.

I think they match up a lot better than the Bengals did who had a more inconsistent defense and a lot less team speed than the Colts do. So what do you think about this matchup, George? I feel like, honestly, especially with the way the Colts played, even if they do miss Quentin Nelson, who's questionable in this game, T.Y. Hilton obviously is going to be out of this game as well, and Kari Willis, it sounds like, too.

It just feels like to me this is a pissed-off Colts team, George, that's going to try to go out and make a statement. Yeah, I think that's going to be the big question here. How do they respond coming off that loss of Titans? They responded very well coming off the similarly crushing loss of the Ravens. You know, do you come out and play at your top form and, you know, put it all together? Or do you come out and have a hangover from that game? I think that's the first question. The second one for me is, you know, with Mike White, one of the things he did really well, one of the things they put him in really good position to do was get the ball out

of his hand quickly, throw those short intermediate passes. That will give this defense some trouble. Now, I think you're right. The Bengals don't have the team speed, and so those were probably bigger plays against Cincinnati than they necessarily might be against the Colts. But we have definitely seen journeyman-type quarterbacks come in and put up some pretty big numbers against this team just playing that exact style. You know, get the ball out and make those – you take what the defense gives you kind of situation.

So I think they need to get some pressure. We've seen that a little bit more in the last couple weeks, sometimes not in some key situations. But the sack numbers are starting to go up little by little. I think Buckner has one in each of the last three weeks now. They really need Quidipe to start coming on. And now that he's healthy, his hamstring's healed, you know, he's out there.

They're getting decent production from Alcantara and Muhammad. But losing Tyquan Lewis is going to hurt. You really need Quiddie Paye to start maturing and to have some kind of impact over there, help out Buckner, help him start to move in the direction he needs to move. Ture had a sack against the Titans. You need to see more of that. They've got to get in white space.

They've got to make him uncomfortable. They've got to make him try to rush some decisions. You know, we'll see how that goes. The one thing about him, you know, two games so far, even the 305 or 405 yard game on Sunday, he threw two picks in that game. He's thrown four picks overall. We know that's how this defense feasts. So I think the key is get some pressure on him, get the takeaways, get the offense back to being efficient. They weren't efficient at all on Sunday. Get them back to taking what the defense gives them. You know, I don't think it's a bad idea to give Jonathan

Taylor 25 carries, 30 carries on Thursday night. He got fresh legs. We know that, you know, in a short week, you just kind of want to keep things simple and execute. You know, that's really what it's about is execution. So give the ball to Jonathan Taylor. Get those takeaways. Get those sacks. I think you do those things, you win the game. Before I let you go here, George, you have a score prediction for us here.

I'm going to go 34-9. I think this one is over by end of the third quarter. I think Taylor has a big game, like you mentioned. Michael Pittman Jr., I think, takes a lot of deep shots down the field from Carson Wentz, playing almost like the Houston Texans game plan that we saw a few weeks ago. I think it's a similar script. They're going to fall against the Jets on Thursday. What's your score prediction for this one?

I think it's going to be a little bit closer than you're thinking. I just fear there's going to be a hangover. I mean, just being around the team this week, Reich said they were a little bit better at practice today than they were Monday. But there just seems to be, I don't want to say a melancholy, but that loss stuck with them. They know what was at stake.

And I think it's going to carry over a little bit into this one. I think it's going to be close into the fourth quarter. I'm going to say Colts win 31-17, pull away late. We'll see how it goes. George, as always, appreciate you coming on the show. Colts fans, go ahead and follow me if you haven't already. He's a must-follow on Twitter, at GMBremmer. And go read his work, as always, over on the Herald Bulletin.

Does excellent work covering the Annapolis Colts every single day for us. George, appreciate your time tonight. No problem, man. Thanks a lot.