Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts: Can Shane Steichen's Offense Be Fixed in 2024?

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Indianapolis Colts offense is in a horrendous spot right now. Is it broken beyond repair? Let's get to it. You are locked on Colts, your daily Indianapolis Colts podcast, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Thank you all for tuning in and making us your first listen of the day. This is your daily podcast covering your Indianapolis Colts, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day.

Starting point is 00:00:33 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, by Ben Boris nerd over at HorseshoeHuddle.com. And I'm joined as always by Ben Boris at Colts Film Room over there on social media. And yeah, Ben and I, you know, we started this this weekly segment to talk about Anthony Richardson. So this will probably be like a 20 second episode. We'll talk about how he looked on the bench and

Starting point is 00:00:59 and all that stuff and get on with the day. But no, for real, this show, this segment is going to really transition going forward to the Joe Flacco experience, to other coaching points and things that we really want to highlight and talk about. But we will kind of talk a little bit more about Joe Flacco and his Colts offense on this week's show in particular, because it was the first game following the benching of Anthony Richardson. So in segment one, we're going to talk about an article I wrote recently about how the Colts kind of eliminated their floor of their offense

Starting point is 00:01:30 by starting Joe Flacco, and we're going to get Ben's thoughts on that. Then we're going to talk about how we would personally maximize Joe Flacco. Good luck for us in that segment there on maximizing Joe Flacco in this offense. And then we're going to end this episode on something positive and talk about how Gus Bradley has kind of righted the ship there on defense these last couple weeks. And, you know, they're not perfect on defense, but it's been pretty solid there on that side of the ball.

Starting point is 00:01:58 And that's something positive to talk about. But then we're going to open up this show by talking about a recent article I wrote for HorseshoeHuddle.com. This is not me trying to pub it by anything, to talk about. But Ben, we're going to open up this show by talking about a recent article I wrote for HorseshoeHuddle.com. This is not me trying to pub it by anything, but it is something I really want to talk to you about because the main thing that I posited in that article is when the Colts made the transition from Anthony Richardson to Joe Flacco, they essentially replaced the floor of their offense for completion percentage, for third down efficiency, and such like that. Those are the areas that Joe Flacco was excelling at early in the season. I

Starting point is 00:02:31 mean, the third down percentage, they were the third best team in football on third down when Joe Flacco made his previous starts. Now that regressed heavily against the Minnesota Vikings, but that was kind of the thinking, I'm guessing, when it came to like the win now mindset of putting Flacco in the game, what you owed it to the veteran players. So for me, when you take out Anthony Richardson, who gave you a high rushing floor, who gave you explosive plays as a floor, who gave you early down success as the floor, you're putting Joe Flacco into this system where you don't really have that floor for your offense anymore. And you kind of got to see on Sunday night how low the floor could be with Joe Flacco, which is much, much worse than anything we got out of Anthony Richardson-led offense this season. So that was one of my

Starting point is 00:03:14 points. My other point was we kind of got to see how bad this offense was operationally with Joe Flacco in there, because when you have a mobile quarterback, they hide a lot of things for you in terms of scrambling, in terms of broken plays, in terms of, again, their impact on the run game. So my two biggest posits were you killed the floor of your offense by benching Anthony Richardson. And the other big thing is you kind of got to see how bad this Colts offense was operationally without somebody who could create outside or or somebody who could even blame for missed throws you know so what are your thoughts on that there ben yeah i mean obviously we talked i mean it doesn't take a genius to know that having anthony richardson in the backfield

Starting point is 00:03:54 um will help your rushing efficiency like that's i mean we didn't see the same run game that we've seen when anthony richardson and jonathan tay in there, and I think that's for a reason. Now, obviously, the plus one quarterback changes a lot of things. Obviously, they're limited from a schematic perspective on how they can open up those runs. They have to really stick to more base runs because where's the threat? How are they moving people's eyes? How are they manipulating the linebackers? How are they... And you're talking about a defense in Brian Flores that can do a lot of different things from a movement perspective on the defensive line. That gets limited and mobile quarterbacks tend to see vanilla defenses. That's what Lamar tends to see.

Starting point is 00:04:36 Not saying that like Lamar is a vanilla defense merchant, but I'm saying that like he earns the right to have vanilla schemes because you have to cover the threat of his legs. That's kind of what Anthony Richardson was getting in a lot of this. Now, that doesn't mean everyone should take that to say every single down, every single play, he's going to see just cover threes so he can get an extra man in the box. But on those base downs, that's a lot of what you'll get. And then when you know what you're going to get, you can easily manipulate it. You didn't really get that with Joe Flacco. And I don't even think that you really got the execution of a lot of their base plays.

Starting point is 00:05:12 I think that's probably been something that Indianapolis has struggled to really get to all year, that their offense is pretty much broken until someone makes a play. And then we kind of saw what happened in Minnesota when you rely on someone to just make a play and bail you out and it doesn't happen. So my favorite line in that article was Shane Steichen is too good of a coach for this offense to look this inept. And this is what you're seeing with a substandard quarterback. So it's unfortunate because obviously we were so excited, I think on this show uh look at maybe the episodes we did uh with chicago and green bay and compare it to what it looks like um i'm not really sure i

Starting point is 00:05:52 why i i i've tried to wrestle a decision i'm glad i wasn't on last week's show i need to think about it to be honest with you um and i yeah it makes no sense to me, but more importantly, like this was never about the quarterback. Everyone in the shows to make this about the quarterback. There were struggles all year about all other 10 guys in that huddle and the play caller and the offensive staff and everybody coming up with the game plans each week. And they chose to kind of make the story about the quarterback, but let's be real. I think we saw way more than Joe Flacco's

Starting point is 00:06:26 getting the pitfall but like I kind of agree with Shane Steichen I'm not sure he was the worst person on that field by far right right and that's my big thing too and again that second point of the article that I was making is it kind of exposed all these things that's kind of what that's what the title of the article was. The offense got exposed with Joe Flacco out there because with Richardson, you had a fall guy and a guy who could cover up your issues. It's kind of you got the best of both worlds or the worst of both worlds, I guess, with Anthony Richardson, because every missed throw, you could say the guy was open, you know, every single missed throw. And then for the positives he did, like scrambling and stuff, it's a net positive play. So you don't question, like, why was this guy scrambling on the play nobody was open that's why guys couldn't get out of their brain or or the offensive line was leaky you know and i and i and i tweeted this out

Starting point is 00:07:13 during the game it's like the story i felt like was oh well joe flacco is such a statue in the pocket anthony richardson can evade sacks and my thing is like i don't that's i don't care because i'd rather throw hot when your offense has the rules to handle the pressure than rely on your freak athlete quarterback to throw a 300 pound defensive lineman off his back. Like that's not, that's looks cool, but it's not, that's not good offense. That's not good offense. That's not good coaching.

Starting point is 00:07:39 That's not having the proper system to handle all those type of things. Like it's something cool that anthony richardson can do to bail you out but like if we're we're just like absolving shane steichen and this offensive staff for not creating proper rules if we're saying the reason that joe flacco stinks is because he can't do that right and and i think a big thing with this offense too that i'm really seeing this year, especially compared to last year, because regardless of who the quarterback was last year, you know, a big thing that I said a lot last season was Shane Steichen's the guy with the answers. Like there were answers for everything in this offense last year and they had staples in their offense. They had run staples that they were really strong with.

Starting point is 00:08:19 They had RPO staples that they were really consistent with. They had passing throws that were leverage-based and Josh Downs' iso plays and certain things that this offense specialized in and was really good in last season. Regardless of quarterback, Anthony Richardson or Gardner Minshew, you come into this year, man, and I don't see a single answer for anything with this offense. I don't see, what can this offense lean into when things are not going right. And regardless of quarterback, regardless of Richardson or Flacco, what are they, what are they able to, Hey, we have a couple incompletions in a row or a couple three and outs in a row. What can we just simplify this game down to and do like last year with

Starting point is 00:09:00 Minshew when Minshew struggled, it was let's get the RPO game going a little bit. Let's get the RPO game going. Let's stress the defense. Let's get the RPO game going. Let's stress the defense. Let's get the ball to the flat on throws. Let's run Taylor up the middle and do those things. Or let's lean on our inside zone runs where we were pretty good at them last year. This year, just from execution, from play calling to adjusting to what defensive coaches are doing, I don't see answers for anything this year.

Starting point is 00:09:23 And this coach that we were talking about last year, where our biggest complaint at the end of the season with Steichen was who they threw the ball to on that fourth down. It wasn't if the guy was wide open in that Houston. Which he was. It was the perfect call. It was the perfect call. When have we seen the perfect call this year though? I mean, week one in Houston, I thought they had a good chunk of calls because they attacked Houston vertically. But since then, man, it's been a lot of just no answers for what they're seeing. And that's a detriment to Shane Steichen and his coaching staff this year. And it's on a down-to-down basis because, like, there's definitely some plays, especially in the fourth quarter.

Starting point is 00:09:59 Like, I don't hate the idea, and this is Shane Steichen's MO kind of, like, I don't hate the idea of pushing the ball down the field and being aggressive in that way. Like, I don't think that's like the worst offensive philosophy. No. Where I disconnect from a lot of it in the way that I think about football is that if those shots aren't presenting themselves, you have to have a way to keep the offense moving so that you can live to see another down. And I think that that's like the way that I think about football a lot of the times is like, hey, we can't, like, I don't think that Anthony Richardson was drafted number four overall to, you know, be check down Charlie by any means.

Starting point is 00:10:40 But like, you also need some of those things to keep the offense on schedule. And that's what I kind of thought that you would get with Joe. It was just like, and I think I just kind of looking through this game, I think Joe turned down a lot of throws down the field, partially due to that's Brian Flores. He'll make you do that. He just wasn't accurate on a lot of these checkdowns. It's a conundrum to say the least. But yeah, I think they have to find these answers in a hurry because you're right. Shane Stakin came in as an excellent play caller,

Starting point is 00:11:13 excellent developer of quarterbacks through a year and a half so far. He's done none of that. Well, he's done a little bit of that last year, but he has not done it in this season through nine to 10 weeks. He's needed to be better for about a month and a half, maybe even two months now. And if looking at the whole back half of your call sheet and you didn't call a single one of those red zone plays,

Starting point is 00:11:36 if that isn't the wake-up call you need, I don't know what is. So that's probably all I have to say there. Right, and the big thing with the NFL, regardless of coach or player or GM or whatever, it's what have you done for me lately? And lately it's not been very good from this coaching staff. So we're going to move past this, this segment here. We're going to talk all about Joe Flacco coming up and talk about how the Colts can maybe get something rolling with Joe Flacco with a couple of big games coming up. We'll see if we can somehow create a plan for Joe Flacco-Benn here in just a second.

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Starting point is 00:14:22 as we are back with Ben Boris at Colts Film Room and we're talking Joe Flacco today. Joe Flacco, our favorite 39-year-old quarterback currently in Indianapolis. I can't even say favorite 39-year-old quarterback because I feel like Matt Ryan and Phillip Rivers are both around that same age. And I definitely enjoyed Phillip Rivers a little bit more as of right now. So we'll see if he can maybe surpass Phillip Rivers these last couple games. But we're going to talk about how to maximize your 39-year-old quarterback here in Indy. And Ben, I will at least say one positive thing towards Shane Steichen, because I know we kind of ripped on him in the

Starting point is 00:14:56 first segment. But I was shocked to see the amount of under center runs in this past game, especially on that first drive. I was pleasantly surprised with the under center stuff on the first drive. It kind of went downhill from there. And Flores really threw some good curve balls at the Colts after that. But I do think kind of the recipe to working with Joe Flacco was getting more under center. Maybe, I mean, they, they went to a lot of 12 and 13 personnel, a lot of 12 personnel in particular I saw in those first couple of drives.

Starting point is 00:15:26 And they found some success doing that. So maybe leaning into, again, more 12 personnel, more play action, and just hope you don't run into a Flores type of coach again. It might yield better results going forward. Yeah, I think step one to maximizing Joe Flacco is not play the Vikings at home. That's probably going to be my – I mean, the stuff you have to do from a cadence perspective, from a – just all the different looks that they can give you. I mean, I said it going into the week. That's Shane Steichen's kryptonite, these blitz-happy defenses.

Starting point is 00:15:58 If Gus Bradley, who we'll get to in the final segment, was to – or if does lose his job, I figured that he was going to hire something from that kind of tree just from the amount of times it's beaten him up over the years. Yeah, I think the first thing that they need to do for Joe is someone's got to make a play for him. He needs better production out of the receivers. I think that when you look at uh just all those incompletions and all where where things failed and penalties was huge i mean the chop block was to get them out

Starting point is 00:16:31 of uh field goal range was was terrible um definitely need uh just some some more production like literally just some more production in the run game from the offensive line, from the tight ends, which we've talked about all year and really from the receivers too, because listen, like Michael Pittman, you know, I know he's hurt and I'm not questioning anything about him anymore because he's, he's battling to play. It's, it's so clear. And you can only respect that from a captain, first time captain, something that he's probably wanted his entire career since he wasn't a rookie is to be one of those and he finally is and he's doing everything he can to get out there and that's awesome um they need more from the receiver position they need more than just the fourth quarter deep ball to alec pierce they need more than just josh downs

Starting point is 00:17:20 being a number one receiver as a slot i mean mean, like, they need more from that. And like everyone, it's really great right now to pile on Joe Flacco, but I don't think he had a bad game. I really don't. I saw more on that film of a play caller not putting him in the position to succeed. And then ultimately his players not making plays for him. JT dropped a couple. His offensive line missed a couple blocks that they wish they could probably have back.

Starting point is 00:17:49 So, again, it's less about Joe Flacco, who is 39 years old. He played quarterback. He's had these stinkers before. Like, I think we will see better. No, I know we will see a better game from Joe Flacco before the season's over. it comes to the other 10 guys in that huddle and if they can make a play for him and if his play caller can give him a better answer yeah i mean ultimately that is the biggest thing here because you know i'll sit here and say like yeah i do more under center stuff which shane syken's really never done in his career so i was again i was shocked that they actually came out

Starting point is 00:18:22 they've literally letting go so yeah always he always has i mean going back to jalen hurts with philly and even i think justin herbert's rookie season they did a lot of gun work as well because he came from oregon where oregon was always in the gun so shane seigen's never really done this before and you really can't live in the gun with flacco because you don't have the plus one qb advantage now they did some pistol stuff which again i don't really know the advantage of pistol with flacco because you're not i don't really get the pistol thing uh from i think it's it's something it's probably the track of the back um and just being able to stay multiple from what kind of runs they can do for out of pistol versus under center um for a ball handling perspective

Starting point is 00:19:05 probably but even then it just they fumbled on the pistol snap no i'm just yeah i mean yeah the ball handling wasn't great uh it's probably just from uh trying to stay not predictable so yeah yeah so again you almost want to lean into the run game a little bit and and take the pressure off of flacco early but again if you wanted to lean into the run game a little bit and take the pressure off of Flacco early. But again, if you want to lean into the run game, you would have Richardson as your starter. So ultimately, yeah, like I do think the key to maximizing Flacco and honestly, the key to maximizing any pocket passer is the structure and the procedure of the offense being better. So no procedural penalties and no just boneheaded penalties. Because once you get behind the sticks with a pocket passer,

Starting point is 00:19:47 you don't have the bailout plays that like a Richardson could give you. Again, I'm not saying Richardson gave them to him that much, but he could scramble. He could hit the long bombs. It was there. It was there. He did have a couple of occasions, to be honest. Right.

Starting point is 00:19:58 Where Flacco, you're more so going to get the tiny chunks. And the tiny chunks don't really work when you're in first and 20 or second and 30. I think they were at one point in this past game. So you have to eliminate the penalties and the stupid mistakes like that. Guys need to get open at a at a higher rate and they have to get open easier when you have a quarterback like Joe Flacco. And your play caller needs to be on his game. And again, this kind of exposed that that Steichen has not been on his game when you don't have that person that can also take the blame

Starting point is 00:20:28 and also bail you out. And then one more thing I want to throw in here, and I'll let you do a quick comment on it before we get to our final segment, but play A.D. Mitchell more. Play him some more snaps. I'm fine with him not being a full-fledged starter. I mean, at this point, he probably should be over Pittman because Pittman can't move.

Starting point is 00:20:43 But A.D. Mitchell getting six snaps in this game and having one of the only two explosive plays in the entire game for the offense in those six snaps. Look, he's a guy who can get open on every single route. I'm fine if he gets 10 targets in a game and he only hauls in like three of them because at least he's going to be open on those targets. These other throws to Pittman right now down the field are completely covered because he can't move right now. Alec Pierce is not a great route runner, so he's going to be more covered down the field too. A.D. Mitchell's at least open.

Starting point is 00:21:13 So if you're going to throw it to anyone down the field and get your medium to long chunk plays, at least throw it to the guy open. I don't care if he drops it. I'd rather have a drop down the field than have a contested opportunity. So get opportunity you know so get eddie mitchell on the field he's explosive he's fast and he can get open he needs more snaps than just six i know they wanted to go a little bit more run heavy and more 12 personnel and that's probably what led to this but he needs more snaps than just

Starting point is 00:21:38 six it's it's uh i know i mean like we we obviously had difference of opinions when the Colts actually drafted A.D. Mitchell. I was ecstatic. I thought he's a fantastic wide receiver. It has – the game needs to probably slow down for him a little bit, and there's a reason that – like, there's a reason why he's having six snaps because I'm looking out there and I'm saying he's too talented to have six snaps. He's just too talented to have six. And he was – he played better than Pittman.

Starting point is 00:22:10 He probably made the – when they needed a play on second and 30, he was the guy who answered. He was the guy who made one for them all night. They needed someone to make a play for them. Josh Downs was doing as best as he could to literally take – to try and get in the no cover zone, trying to manipulate some of these underneath defenders, trying to keep this offense on schedule. When that wasn't there, the offense was non-existent other than A.D. Mitchell.

Starting point is 00:22:35 And yeah, I can't live in an offense where he has six snaps. He's just too talented to be out there. And if we're doing the accountability thing, and he was benched because he had that rough game in jacksonville uh i think it's time that we now get we start promoting him because he's earned it he really has i agree agree and look again it was a run heavy game plan you want dueling out there for his blocking and and some of that stuff you want pierce out there for the blocking but come on like if we're gonna throw the ball going forward, we need to get A.D. Mitchell on the field, especially with Pittman so banged up to where he can barely move.

Starting point is 00:23:10 Very tough player. A.D. Mitchell is the guy that thrives under a guy like Flacco. Yeah. The guy that can generate the separation on the back. Like, he was brought to Indianapolis – sorry, I'm rambling – to be on the backside of three by one and get open. He's actually done that this year in those very limited roles. So the Colts haven't ran a lot of three by one with A.D. Mitchell as that backside X. I think they have to get to that. That's one

Starting point is 00:23:35 thing that I think that like, hey, we are now in the stretch of the year and A.D. Mitchell made the best play out of any of the receivers. I'm trying to think if Josh Downs made one better. I mean, that was probably the best catch and play when they needed it the most. That earns more than six snaps. I agree. I agree completely. But we're going to transition from this offense now because Ben and I are about to start throwing stuff and punching out our computer screens.

Starting point is 00:23:58 And we're going to talk about something positive, which is crazy to say, but the Colts' defense has found a way to make things work. I'm not saying they're a great defense by any means, but they've moved past that disaster in Jacksonville to being a capable defense that can do some things. And that deserves a shout out. And Gus Bradley is going to give some love in this final segment, which I know you guys are going to hate, but Gus Bradley is going to get some love coming up here in just a second. But first, this show is sponsored by BetterHelp. This month is all about gratitude. And along with the person that I'm about to shout out, which is my co-host, Jake Arthur. Jake Arthur is my favorite person in all of the world right now.

Starting point is 00:24:37 Love my co-host. You guys can tell our love for each other when every time we record. But seriously, though, Jake is my guy. I couldn't ask for a better regular co-host than anything just from flexibility terms in terms of just repertoire and just a friendly relationship. Jake and I get along really well. And it's great to have him be my co-host on the show. And with this month being all about gratitude

Starting point is 00:24:59 and giving thanks, I really wanted to give a shout out to Jake, my boy here on this show. I know, Ben, you get a shout out as well. But Jake, I love having Jake out to Jake, my boy here on this show. I know, Ben, Ben, you get a shout out as well. But Jake, I love having Jake on here as my co-host every single time. And look, guys, again, this month is all about giving shout out to the things you're grateful for and things you're thankful for. And along with that person I just shout out, which is my boy Jake, there's another person we don't get to thank enough, ourselves. It's sometimes hard to remind ourselves that we are

Starting point is 00:25:25 trying our best to make sense of everything. In this crazy world, that isn't easy. Here's a reminder, send some thanks to the people in your life, including yourself. Also, if you're thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try and really learn to love yourself and give thanks to yourself. It's entirely online, designed to be convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule. Just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist and switch therapist at any time for no additional charge. Let the gratitude flow with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com slash locked on today to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp.com slash locked on. All right, Ben Boris at Colts Film Room.

Starting point is 00:26:16 We are here talking Colts film, Colts coaching, and we got through the slog that was that Colts offense. Now we're going to get to some positives here, which is Gus Bradley. Before I kick it to you, Ben, I do want to throw some stats at people here to anyone who's maybe being like, okay, look, Gus Bradley stinks. We hate him. He's the worst. Fire him. But Gus Bradley has always been pegged as this guy who is the old dog who cannot teach any new tricks to whatsoever. He lives in cover three. He doesn't blitz. He's passive and he will die by what he's always done. But this past month, since that disaster in Jacksonville, I have a couple stats here. These last two weeks, for instance, he's got a 33%

Starting point is 00:26:50 blitz rate, which is much higher than what he's ever done in his career. 33% blitz rate the last two weeks, 51% pressure rate these last two weeks, six sacks and four turnovers forced these last two weeks. The Colts defense is fourth in the NFL with 15 turnovers forced this year. And again, this past month, they've been the eighth best defense in terms of EPA per play. And if you guys want to take out those two games against Tennessee and Miami, they're the sixth best defense in EPA per play the last two weeks. JJ Stankovich, the Colts beat writer for Colts.com, actually sent me an additional stat here that I didn't have in my article I wrote about this, but the Colts sim pressure rate

Starting point is 00:27:30 from weeks one through six was 0%. These last three weeks, 22% on sim pressures. So what we're seeing from Gus Bradley these last couple of weeks is more cover two. He's running cover two at a higher rate than he's ever run. He's really leaning into that cover two stuff and sitting back with those safeties more blitzing a lot more blitzing sim pressures and even something that you pointed out the other day they got some more big dime looks in there really adjusting things and Gus Bradley's changed a lot this year so I'm not here to say

Starting point is 00:27:59 this Colts defense is has arrived they're not they're going to shut down Josh Allen this week absolutely not they have flaws they have fatal flaws that lead to a lot of issues. But despite, again, starting a waiver wire corner on one side and a former seventh round corner on the other side, despite linebackers that have had their struggles, despite all the injuries up front, Gus Bradley's found some kind of formula to find some success with this defense. And I think that's commendable for as much as we want to hate on him for that Jacksonville disaster, which, yes, like by all means, everyone deserves the criticism for that game. Since then, he has done a darn good job with this defense.

Starting point is 00:28:41 Not great. I'm not saying hire him as a head coach. Great. Like by no means whatsoever but i do want to commend him for what he's done with this defense the last four weeks the culture two and two in this past month and those two losses are not on him and his defense they're on the colts offense for not getting their it together so shout out to gus bradley man like crazy that this is where we're at in the season, right? Yeah. I think like when I come on here and when you do the show, obviously, when we give our analysis on the Colts, like I never want to be afraid to adjust my analysis based on new information, right? Like just because Gus Bradley was one thing three months ago, doesn't mean that

Starting point is 00:29:21 he's the same thing now. And that's kind of what we're seeing. Like, yes, I think in the past he has been very rigid in his thinking in terms of, hey, we're going to do this. I believe in the execution. I believe we execute in over front cover three all day, maybe make some things up here and there from game plans, by game plan, sorry. We can be a successful defense if we just tackle correctly and we just stick to our alignment assignment technique on those kind

Starting point is 00:29:52 of things i'm not saying that that hasn't gone away because they have they've been a better a better tackling team i think they've been a better route distribution team in terms of like hey when i we're we're handling punches and stacks when we are uh passing things off in match coverage like it's a lot more it's a lot more clean than it was i think in the first couple weeks of the year and that's a credit to the players they're the one out there but then you talk about what he's doing from a schematic perspective and it's actually amazing how having deforest buckner out there again has changed everything. You can see how the pass rushes came alive.

Starting point is 00:30:32 This is a good defensive line, a great defensive line even, I'd be willing to say. When 99 is in the game, and really when 99 is out of the game but playing in the game, everything looks different. And Gus is a lot more, I think, confident in playing. He knows that, hey, like this rush can get home because DeForest Buckner is in the game. I'm going to call it. Maybe that's not something he said when it was Taven Bryant, Adetami Wad, he was saying all the way back in that Jacksonville game. I feel like he's saying that now. Nick Cross has really came along in these past couple weeks. Like he's playing good safety play.

Starting point is 00:31:13 He's playing good safety play right now and really has this. It's impressive to see what he's doing. He's finding a way to really take what he has, which is talent. It's certainly not barren in terms of some defenses and making it work. A lot of people will point to that Sam Darnold completion percentage. And my thing is like, yes. And I think that that's something that with Gus will always kind of happen. I mean, he's going to play a lot of zone. He's going to play a lot of cover three. That's going to warrant a lot of those checkdowns, which we saw. I have to pull up the stats. I don't know off the top of my head.

Starting point is 00:31:46 I would imagine that Sam Darnold's average depth of target was not that great. They were throwing a lot of screens in this game, a lot of checkdowns. There were a lot of passes that really didn't result for a lot of games, and that's how Gus Bradley wants to play defense. He wants to limit your points. He wants to bet on the fact that you're going to make an incompletion here or there get behind the sticks we're going to check down rally tackle and get off the field and that's really what's happening right now yeah and i think a big thing of this too and i know you weren't really covering indianapolis back when matt eberflus was here but

Starting point is 00:32:17 there's been this very big shift to like a matt eberflus type of defense and i'm not saying that's the perfect way to run a defense but it did work for the colts in that matt eberflus type of defense. And I'm not saying that's the perfect way to run a defense, but it did work for the Colts in that Matt Eberflus era. Heck, it got him a head coaching job. So clearly it did something correct in terms of, we're going to make you guys go 12, 13, 14, 15 plays, whatever it's going to be, go down the field and score on us. And we're going to make you have to earn everything. Now the run defense needs to be better. Yes. Some of the over the middle coverages need to be a little bit better and they need a little bit tighter in their in their route recognition and feel it's not perfect by any means but you're also playing you're also playing

Starting point is 00:32:53 jordan addison and justin jefferson like right right i mean like if you weren't on fan duel betting 100 yards i mean like that was gonna happen like he was gonna get his like and that's gonna happen probably again with josh allen like they're, you're playing talented players. They're going to, they're going to get, it would be, it would have been an astronomical preposterous thing to suggest that Justin Jefferson wasn't going to have a day. Yeah. Yeah. And while I say that those are those issues and like, yes, it can be a little bit cleaner when you make offenses go 10, 11, 12 plays down the field on you, it results in more turnovers.

Starting point is 00:33:28 Yes, they're on the field a lot. And again, there is areas to clean up. But again, they're fourth in the NFL in turnovers force this season. They've been the top 10 defense this past month. And even, again, good quarterbacks or bad quarterbacks, making them have to go chunk, like little chunk by little chunk down the field on you, and then standing tall in the red zone is a recipe for success.

Starting point is 00:33:48 Yeah. You saw Sam Darnold pressing. Those two turnovers were pressing. Yeah. That was what he was. He wanted a chunk play to get back in the game. Yeah. So, look, I'm not saying it's a perfect formula, but, again,

Starting point is 00:33:59 when you have – for as much as Womack and Jalen Jones have impressed this season, they are who they are coming into the season. You know, these are not premier names at outside corner. These are not premier names. I mean, at linebacker, maybe the names are a little bit more known, but they're not perfect fits for this system. And even aside from DeForest Bumper, you don't have like a star on your defensive line. You have good players on this team.

Starting point is 00:34:20 I'm not trying to say this defense stinks in terms of players or anything like that, but to make it work with the guys they have, Gus Bradley's kind of said, look, we'll concede some yards, I would I would kill for the Colts offense to have that because right now they're not perfect and they have no recipe for success. Gus Bradley has gotten has grown throughout the year. This defense has an identity. They're not perfect. They have an identity, though, and they're doing things that contribute to towards winning football.

Starting point is 00:35:00 So for as much as you want to hate on the offense right now, because we can like they stink right now on offense, on defense, they have something going. It's not perfect. It's not Super Bowl winning football, but it is good enough to win some games. And they deserve better than what they've gotten from their offense the last two weeks.

Starting point is 00:35:15 It's probably better than it was last year, for being honest. Like, I think this is the best that we've seen Gus Bradley play. And I said that like, hey, like if Gus Bradley keeps his job next year and you're really mad about it, it's games like that in prime time that are the reason why, because. Last two games. The last two games versus the Texans, they're building something. And this is something you can really build on as you head to the stretch run now, they're going to play some,

Starting point is 00:35:38 some good offenses in the next couple of weeks, some really good offenses in the next couple of weeks. They're going to be put to the test and there's likely going to be probably not going to put this up every week. Just make that, just make that pretty, pretty obvious. I mean, you're playing the lions. I mean, this is what's going to happen. You're playing Josh Allen. This is what's going to happen, but they're building something. And it's really, it's exciting to see, I think from the defensive line,

Starting point is 00:36:01 which was probably the most excited I was about a position group heading into the year. Yeah, yeah, for sure. So we want to give some love to Gus Bradley before we get out of here. We do want to thank you guys, too, for making Locked on Culture your first listen today. And now for your second listen, go find new Locked on NFL show with two shows every day. First, the Madman Tyler Rowland kicks off your morning with a double shot of NFL espresso and then stop by the barbershop with Tony Wiggins for some real NFL talk.

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