Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts Crossover Special with Locked On Dolphins

Episode Date: October 2, 2021

On today's episode, Locked On Colts x Locked On Dolphins get together for our weekly crossover special! Diving into the Indianapolis Colts vs. Miami Dolphins matchup from all angles, Evan Sidery and Kyle Crabbs get you ready!This is a must-listen episode, if you want your fix on Colts vs. Dolphins. Whoever loses this game, the season might already be over. 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. Welcome in to our week four NFL CrossFitcussion here on the Locked On Podcast Network. I am your host of Locked On Colts, Evan Sattery, joined by the esteemed great Kyle Krabs of the Locked On Dolphins Podcast. Does great work as well for the Draft Network as well. Kyle, we are here for an intriguing Week 4 match, if you want to call it intriguing, because I think it's going to be a really ugly game on Sunday

between an 0-3 Colts team and a 1-2 Dolphins team. How are you doing today, man? I'd be better if these teams had a little bit more success early this season. I will not lie to you. I mean, these are two teams last year that combined for 21 regular season wins. Indianapolis won 11, Miami won 10. Both teams came in with high expectations. Obviously, the quarterback situation for both teams was something that was supposed to be a point of excitement,

and I don't think either team's necessarily got what they were hoping for to this point in the year. So it will be a high-stakes game, right, because the math says, you know, if you're 1-3, especially in the AFC landscape in Miami and you've lost tiebreakers to Buffalo and Indianapolis and the Raiders already, you're not in a good spot. And from Indianapolis' perspective, if you go 0-4, you're definitely not in a good spot. So there's definitely going to be a sense of urgency, I think, at Hard Rock Stadium, even if it is, and I agree with you, going to be an ugly game. We're going to kick it off here with me asking questions to Kyle about the Dolphins, and we'll flip-flop for the second segment and then close it out with our predictions for this game.

But let me ask you first off, Kyle, because it's been an issue with Tua for the last couple of years. He's once again out with an injury. He has a rib fracture, if I'm not mistaken, on that. What was your takeaway with Tua so far this year from what you saw in a really brief sample size? And what do you think now with Tua being out? You're in the middle of the Jacoby Bursette experience experience and Colts fans know that all too well at quarterback.

Yeah, it's, it's really unfortunate because I was really looking forward to seeing how that Buffalo game in week two was going to evolve because the bills came out and they effectively just gave the Dolphins two middle fingers and said, we're going to blitz the hell out of you until you prove you can beat it. And then we're going to back off. And, uh, the Dolphins never beat it. And Tua was knocked out of that game within the first five minutes of game clock. And, uh, I thought that was going to tell us a lot more than what the new England game did. Uh, obviously, uh, Miami coming out with a blank script and having an opportunity to kind of hit new England with some new concepts that they hadn't shown on film.

He executed it very well. And then you got to the end of game situation where he kind of hit New England with some new concepts that they hadn't shown on film. He executed it very well, and then he got to the end-of-game situation where he kind of throws one up into the clouds, and it's intercepted, and it put the game at risk, and the defense made a play and bailed him out. So it's been ups and downs, and I think the point of anxiety with a lot of Dolphins fans, of course, is kind of the rumor mill that hangs over this team about a potential change at quarterback. And, and especially with kind of the off field allegations involved with the individual who we're not going to talk about because it's, it's all speculative at this point, but

that that's kind of Dolphins fans are stressed about the quarterback and the Jacoby Bursette experience was you respect the effort that he put forward. You respect the toughness that he has. He's got some ability to shrug off a would-be sack in the pocket, but the lack of accuracy showed up on Sunday against the Las Vegas Raiders. And it was one of those things where he put that ball high and upfield for Jalen Waddell on a dumb play call, if we're being honest, on a little now screen or smoke to Jalen Waddell on first and 10 from your own one that resulted in a safety. And that totally flipped the momentum of that game. But I think Jacoby Brissett has probably earned some bonus points with this team

for his toughness. And obviously they were down 11 points with five minutes left or whatever it was. And he made some plays when he had to, but the variability of his play is just something that kind of reminds you why he's a backup. Yeah, absolutely. And Colts fans had that all in 2019. Just a lot of what I saw from Jacoby in Las Vegas was a lot of the same things the Colts ran. Just a lot of quick concepts, kind of hold on the ball a little bit too long

in the pocket sometimes. So we'll have to see how the Colts counteract Jacoby on Sunday when they play the Dolphins. But I just want to ask another quick quarterback question because it's so intriguing to me with the future of this Dolphins team. You have Jacoby Bursette out there. You have Tua talking about missing the next three games with his rib injury. Is the offense really that much different than what you saw?

Because Tua has been known for at least a little bit of time in his NFL career. A lot of just the same things, short concepts, not really testing the ball down the field. Is it really that much different from the outside looking in from a Colts perspective with the quarterbacks? I think you do have to be mindful of different things. Miami was very geared towards RPOs with Tua Tongvaloa in.

Obviously, the Buffalo game, they came in with a game plan catered to Tua, and Jacoby tried to run it. Jacoby against Buffalo, I didn't see quite the same frequency of true RPOs where the offensive line is fitting up the run, and then the quarterback has to make a decision in the mesh. So I think that is a little bit more of a departure from making sure if you're Indianapolis that you've got integrity with the number of hats that you have in the box versus the run, whereas with Tua there, they're going to make a jurisdiction based

on how you line up, whether it's going to be a run or pass, no matter what. So Jacoby not being somebody who's really quick twitch and fleet of foot, I think those are things that allow the offense with Tua to do more mesh point decision-making in real time with RPOs. Whereas, uh, for Jacoby, the responsibility is going to fall on him at the line of scrimmage to make sure you're into the right play, whether that be a pass or a run, but less of the true RPOs. But yeah, as far as depth of target, you know, they, they got training wheels on this passing offense right now, and they're not really looking to take shots. And I don't know if that's by design for we don't want to beat ourselves and have turnovers

or what. But they're taking sacks and getting penalties on the short game. So you might as well open it up and use some of this 4-3 speed you got at wide receiver and try and loosen the defense up a little bit. Yeah, speaking of those weapons, I love what Miami has. They have Jim Waddaddell, huge fan of in the draft process. You have Will Fuller as well, another speedster from the AFC South from Houston. You also have Devontae Parker. Mike Gusecki is one of the more underrated tight ends

in the NFL. This Colts secondary is a little wounded right now. Rakia Singh got hurt on Sunday. Kari Willis got hurt on Sunday. Xavier Rhodes is battling back from a calf injury. So, I mean, if Jacoby Brissett feels confident enough on Sunday, Kyle, I think this Dolphins passing attack with their weapons could have their way against his secondary. What's your assessment of how this matchup goes between the Colts secondary and the Dolphins playmakers? Because if Jacoby is confident enough on Sunday to test them

and the offense line gives them some time, I think the Dolphins hold the advantage there. Yeah, I would say this. I certainly don't think that they're going to shy away from taking one-on-one opportunities. Jacoby took a number of one-on-one shots against the Raiders, specifically to Devontae Parker. It seems like he's the guy that, you know, if there's tight coverage, that's the guy that they're going to trust to put it up. And it falls on Devontae to make a play at the catch point. And he's done a good job of that throughout the course of his

career, but he is still inconsistent. They did dial up a deep shot to him against the Raiders and Devontae tried to cradle it in over his shoulder instead of high pointing the football and it fell incomplete and they didn't get a call on PI for it. So I think they'll take their shots and obviously good coaching in Miami. The start to this year has been frustrating, but over the course of the first two years of the Brian Flores era, they've typically shown if they sense that there is some blood in the water, as far as injuries and a team being down, they typically do test that player replacement early on in the game. So if these guys are down for Indianapolis defensively in the secondary,

then maybe it is a 12 personnel max protect play action, deep shot right off the jump. Just kind of see, all right, like, are you guys up to play or like, can we go get you? So I would not be surprised if Indianapolis does come into this game and dresses guys that, that, you know, might not necessarily dress off the practice squad or if they got to go to the backups, if Miami doesn't try to get a sense for how game they are early on two more questions here for you Kyle don't flip the script and you'll ask me some questions I want to hit on this offensive line because both teams right now are struggling the Colts and the Dolphins on the offensive line from the outside looking in from the Colts they have DeForest Buckner in the middle of the defense he could be a huge game

wrecker on Sunday how's is this offensive line stacked? I feel like it's kind of regressed from what we've seen last year from Miami. It's really hard to get a feel because they keep playing musical chairs with who's lining up where. And the big decision that they made that a bunch of Dolphins fans on Twitter are questioning this week is they paid Eric Flowers $6 million to go away. One year after paying him a three-year $30 million contract, they traded him for peanuts to go back to Washington.

But here's the thing. The offensive line play this year for Miami is not good, but Eric Flowers wasn't good. He definitely wasn't worth $10 million based on his play last year. Financially, obviously, we have the big salary cap reduction. It came down to $175 million, so some tough financial decisions had to be made. That was one of the guys on the chopping block for Miami. And I think they do themselves a little bit of a disservice

by how often they're cross-training guys or training guys to play multiple spots so that they kind of have that in-case-of-emergency break glass, we'll move so-and-so from left guard to right tackle and move the right tackle into right guard and all that kind of jazz. And you got a player in Lee Meikenberg from Notre Dame who is from your neck of the woods out there. And he played left tackle for three seasons for the Irish. He gets into mini camp and they're training him at right tackle. And then he ends up and he switches over to left guard because they're trying to push

Solomon Kinley because he showed up to camp overweight and he's there for three weeks. And then they flip him back to right tackle. And then Austin Jackson gets COVID and they start him at left tackle. So it's just like, it's, it's really hard to get a feel for the identity of the offensive line right now. And yes, from a pass protection standpoint, the offensive tackles have been a nightmare. I think at least on the inside, you've got bigger body guys. They're all like 320 plus, where unless you're really able to stress them with your first step, which DeForest Buckner is perfectly capable of doing and can win those one-on-one matchups. It's not like you're going to put those guys on skids, but it's the guys on the outside who are really troublesome right now.

Like Max Crosby got Liam really good a couple of times in the first half of that game, but I did think he settled down. So it's really just a matter of patience versus how far of a hole you're going to dig yourself into by trying to stay the course by keeping the offensive line approach that you have. Last one here for you, Kyle, just about this defense, because obviously they struggled the last two weeks. Josh Allen is in a whole other stratum, one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL.

Derek Carr looks legitimately good now this year so far in 2021. In week one, Mac Jones was the Patriots quarterback, and it was more of a game. I think it's going to happen on Sunday, 17-16, the Dolphins win that game. Kirsten Wentz right now can barely move around the pocket. He's worse than Phillip Rivers was with two sprained ankles. He can barely move anywhere in the pocket. So how do you think this defense is going to bounce back this week against a Colts team with a wounded quarterback and not much of a running game right now because the offensive line is struggling so much?

What do you think about this defense for Miami? Yeah, so obviously the big regression for them is they were number one in the league last year in third down defense, and I think they're 29th or 30th in third down defense after three weeks. And that regression is very much real, but it's also very much high-level quarterbacks gave Miami fits in 2020, too. If you're a guy who can move and get off your spot, and Josh Allen can obviously do that, and Carson Wentz, or excuse me, Derek Carr did that reasonably well. Miami has done a nice job in scheming and manufacturing pressures. It's been finishing those pressures and getting home

and getting the quarterback on the ground that's been the problematic part. Emmanuel Agba for them has been tremendous, and Jalen Phillips played more. The number 18 overall pick played more against the Raiders than he played in the first two weeks combined. And he looked pretty good. He actually flat backed Alex Leatherwood on one speed to power conversion. So I do think if Carson Wentz struggles to get off his spot because of the issues with his ankles, I do think they will look to really really collapse the pocket around him and obviously they've done a nice job in manufacturing Brandon Jones had the safety had two sacks against the Raiders with manufactured rushes so I think they'll probably look to test him early on they'll

look to I agree with you with the assessment of the the parallels with the Patriots game where I think you look at the weapons that the Colts have outside in Miami with Byron Jones and Xavier Howard, they're probably going to like their chances to play one-on-one in those situations, play in their face, stack the box, and really try and collapse the pocket around Carson. Great stuff right there, Kyle.

We can flip the script now. We're back after this commercial break to talk through what Kyle has to think about this Colts team, who is now 0-3 for the first time in 10 years. Hey, Colts fans. This is Evan Sider with an incredible app everyone who buys gas needs to know about, GetUpside. My listeners are making up to $0.25 a gallon of gas every time they fill up.

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who are underwhelming to say the least to start the year. And unfortunately, we are two birds of a feather with the start that each one of these respective teams have had. I guess my first question for you, Evan, around the Colts is how much of the struggles with Indianapolis can be pointed to the fact that they have played three teams in Seattle, Los Angeles and Tennessee that are perceived to be playoff quality teams versus how much of their struggles are self-inflicted wounds and holes on the roster that you have a hard time reconciling? That's a really good question because I think part of it is because of that tough schedule. Obviously, Seattle, Los Angeles, two of the best teams in the NFC. I know Seattle is one and two, but they have the number one offensive DVOA through three weeks. They're right up there as far as elite teams, in my opinion.

Tennessee, of course, they're always going to be really good with Derrick Henry, their playmakers they have. But a lot of this Colts team is really different from what we've seen the last four or five years, in my opinion. Just so many undisciplined mistakes. We see Zaire Franklin get a block punt last week, but he hits the punter on the way down. They're trying to get a two-minute drill down the field.

Zach Paschal, instead of trying to get on the line, tries to fight two guys last week, and with about 30 seconds left, they're trying to get in field goal range. It's just really undisciplined, what this Colts team looks like so far, and it's just not a good look for them. Really different from what we've seen the last couple of years. And then Frank Reich, too,

the play caller, obviously the head coach for the Colts, struggling horribly in the red zone so far. They've converted four of 11 trips in the red zone, four touchdowns, the worst in the NFL. Just execution, just players not really living up to their overall standards right now. Darius Leonard struggling right now, $100 million linebacker. He's not playing anywhere close to it. He's dealing with an ankle injury, but he only has 17 tackles through three weeks.

DeForest Buckner, he's pretty much been relegated to nothing right now because you can double-team DeForest Buckner, and the guys alongside him have not done anything at all. Ben Banigou, Tyquan Lewis, Kamoko Ture, they've all been whiffs so far. They've had zero sacks, zero quarterback hits through three weeks. Quiddie Paye, he's actually been hurt this week. He reactivated a hamstring injury, so he might not play on Sunday for the Colts, which means it's going to be even worse pass rush for this team.

And the offensive line, I want to point that out real quick, too, because they have not been good at all. Quentin Nelson got hurt last week as well. They've allowed 31 quarterback hits on Carson Wentz. PFF actually said that Carson Wentz only is allowing 2% of those hits so far, so it's more so on the offensive line regressing to the mean here. So it's really just been a really tough start for this team. I think it's overall regression, but it's also, like you said, tough schedule.

But this Colts team right now, I have little to no confidence they're going to be getting back on track anytime soon. So I have a great deal of respect for Indianapolis and Chris Ballard and what he's been able to do with the course of his tenure, especially when you compare and contrast it to the tenure of Ryan Grigson and kind of the team building approach that's taken place there. But kind of the commitment to a quarterback I know was kind of a hot button topic for the Colts this offseason. And he said something along the lines of effectively, you know,

as soon as I make like that big time commitment to a quarterback, you guys are going to put me on the clock. So what is the temperature with the Colts fan base and whatever your assessment is of the Colts themselves to Carson Wentz himself, because this was not a small investment. You know, it's not trading a bunch of first round picks to get up into the top five to draft one. But he didn't come with a small contract, and he's potentially going to come with the cost of a conditional pick that's a first-round pick in 2022 for the Colts. Yeah, it's a really good question, too, because Carson Wentz, he's not been the issue so far. I think the Colts probably would have won last week if Carson Wentz was fully healthy.

Just the way he moves around the pocket, he's been saving this offensive line from probably 10 more hits in the first three weeks of the season, honestly. But Wentz, he's looked a lot better under Frank Reich. He's taking care of the ball a lot better than what we saw in Philadelphia last year. Just one pick. Now he's on that really bad shovel pass in the end zone against Los Angeles. But outside of that, Wentz looks really good. He's playing more in structure.

But like you mentioned, I think Chris Ballard and Frank Reich should be feeling a little bit warm. I wouldn't say overly warm, though, because they assigned five-year extensions both before the season started. So they can get out of this, too, with Carson Wentz. He can play 75% of the snaps, and they can get a first-round pick out of it. Obviously, I think if the Colts are out of it in December, I think it'd be complete malpractice, Kyle, if the Colts don't sit Carson Wentz to the Final Four or five games of the season. If you want to give a potential top 15, top 10 pick to Philadelphia,

I just don't see how that makes any sense for this team. But if they are fighting for a playoff spot down the line, I could see them just doing that to see what happens. But I think 2022 is the year to watch out for. If the Colts do commit more weapons to Carson Wentz, if they just build a better team around him, kind of push the chips a little bit more on free agency next year, and they still are not a good team,

if they still are barely making the playoffs, that's when I think it gets really warm for Ballard and Wright because they built a good team, and they bet a lot on their young guys. But now, a couple years down the road now, this 2018 rookie class thing is benefiting a lot, helping balloon their overall status in the NFL because Quentin Nelson, Darius Leonard, Braden Smith, they're all really good players. But the 2019 draft, looking back on that hindsight, looks really, really bad. helping balloon their overall status in the NFL because Quentin Nelson, Darius Leonard, Braden Smith,

they're all really good players. But the 2019 draft, looking back on that in hindsight, looks really, really bad. The 2020 draft, Jonathan Taylor and Michael Pittman are good players. Outside of those two picks, not really good at all either. 2021, obviously we'll have to find out more about it later on. But only about four or five good picks from this Colts team when you look back on it over the last three or four years. And I think, honestly, 2022 is, you're going to watch out for there

because Kirsten Wentz, he's going to be $15 million dead cap head next year if they want to get rid of him. That's not going to happen. So it's a two-year commitment with Kirsten Wentz. I think 2020 Tuesday, we're going to find out really what's going to happen with those two guys. So as we look more narrow-focused to week four between the Dolphins and the Colts, and I'm looking at some of the names that were on the injury report for week three. It's Jack Doyle, Eric Fisher, Darius Leonard,

who you mentioned is battling with an ankle injury, Xavier Rhodes, Quentin Nelson, Carson Wentz. So what of these names plus other names that maybe, you know, weren't on, haven't been dealing with injuries earlier in the season, should Miami fans not expect to see? Because that's obviously a big storyline for the Dolphins with Tua Tongavalo being on injured reserve and they're starting nose tackle. Raekwon Davis is on injured reserve. So we already know like one of the better or more important players on both sides of the football for Miami are going to be out of these, this game. So how does the scales work from the,

the football gods as it pertains to durability and injury issues for the Colts? Yeah, I would say a lot of these guys I'm going to mention probably set out the game on Sunday, but with the season being on the line at this point for this Colts team, if they fall to 0-4, the season's over. They're not going to be making a wild card run, especially being three games back of Tennessee and losing a game to Miami, who they'll probably be contending with throughout the season for a wild card spot.

So the season's on the line for them on Sunday. So I expect a lot of these guys to be playing on Sunday. Quentin Nelson, we don't know just yet. If it was more of a game where they're 1-2 or they're 2-1, I think Quentin Nelson does not play in this game. But I think he's actually going to try to test it out with that sprained ankle on Sunday. Quiddie Paye, maybe the only guy I could see missing this game with a hamstring

re-aggravation. He can't really do much on the outside of the guy. His juice, if he's limited with a hamstring, I have a hard time seeing him play in this game. Xavier Rhodes, he re-aggravated his calf injury. I do wonder if he misses this game, but I do think Braden Smith's the only guy I'm thinking about. Right tackle, he's probably going to miss this game on Sunday with a foot injury. He's been out since week one.

He's not played the last two weeks. He looks like he's not going to be coming back anytime soon. Probably going to be short-term IR for him. So I'd say Braden Smith plays this or doesn't play this game. That's the only guy I'd probably put on that list. Maybe Xavier Rhodes, maybe Quiddy Paye, maybe Quentin Nelson, but I really doubt it with the season being on the line on Sunday. So I'd say just one or two guys on that list there, but this Colts team is going to be – this is their Super Bowl on Sunday pretty much. If they want to get this season right back on track, if they want to somehow make a run in the second half of the season

where their schedule gets a little bit easier, I think a lot of these guys are going to be playing on Sunday just out of necessity to try to save this season. So offensively, you know, we talked about the Dolphins and their skill players, and looking at what the Colts have. Who is the X factor for Indianapolis for if Miami wants to keep Indianapolis boxed in offensively? Who is the skill player that they most need to be attentive to? I'm going to name two guys here.

I think Jonathan Taylor is the obvious one. If you can't stop the run and the offensive line has a good game against this Dolphins front four, I think they're just going to ride Jonathan Taylor the rest of the way. But I'm going to throw out Michael Pittman Jr. as well. He's number three in the NFL over the last two weeks and targets. He has 24 targets over the last two games. Looking really like a legit WR1 for this team with T. Whiteholt being out. He's a true X factor on the outside there. He's a true X-factor on the outside there.

He can do middle of the field, inside, outside stuff. He looks really good the last couple weeks. And I'll throw out Naeem Hines, too, as another X-factor. With Carson Wentz being immobile back there, he's really a really good check-down player. He can run the ball as well. Average five yards per carry last week when Hines got touches. So I'd say those three guys.

If you can stop the run with Taylor, if you can stop Michael Pittman Jr., I imagine Xavier Howard or Byron Jones would be on him, and then Naeem Hines out of the backfield. Those are really the only three weapons for this team right now. Zach Paschal, he's just more of a red zone guy right now. He has three touchdowns in the red zone, but not much else. This wideout group really struggles creating separation, so I'm not really worried from Miami's standpoint against their wideout group.

More so the running back duo, I would probably say Naeeem Hines and Jonathan Taylor, because both those guys can give you some serious issues if you don't do anything up front. I'm going to give you a friendly tip here. If you see Justin Coleman out there on defense for the Dolphins, hope that the Colts go after him in coverage because he struggled greatly against the Raiders. So that's my last question for you is who's the player out there in coverage for the Colts on defense that you kind of collectively hold your breath and say, oh boy, I hope they don't find them. Or I hope we don't get a mismatch that we don't like on this one because it's not going well thus far this season.

Yeah, I would have said before the season started, Rocky Asen because he did not look good the first two years. He's actually been the PFF's top-rated defensive back for the Colts through three weeks, which is really surprising. He had an 89.8 grade last week against Tennessee as well. So he looks like he's taking sort of a mini-leap right now. Saw Liam off the list here. I'm going to probably go with, surprisingly enough here, because this guy's actually a really good player. But Kenny Moore has been quite frankly really bad in coverage so far this year.

He's taken a really bad step back forward i'd say if you're in a nickel if you put jill and waddle in the slot he's probably going to beat kenny more and more often than not you can do the same thing with devante parker on the outside more plays on the outside as well one guy i'll also mention here he's more of just a in the box guy but teams the first three weeks of the season have been testing him deep continuously and getting success that's curry willis the safety out of michigan state fourth round pick of 2019 really struggling in pass protection when they play that deep zone more often than not teams are trying to test that middle right side of the field so i could see miami taking some deep shots at davante perker jalen waddle in that middle of

the field and they can have some success we saw tyra lock in the week one on that third and 20 russell wilson throws a moonshot 70 yards down the field for a touchdown it's Cody Brissett wants to try it out that they can have some success there so this secondary is really young for Indianapolis if Xavier Rose is the play on Sunday either I think they're in trouble against this playmaking group for Miami well that's uh that's a great little recap on both sides of the fence here so stick with us we're going to be right back in which we are going to give our predictions for what happens in week four, high-stakes game between the Indianapolis Colts and the Miami Dolphins. This episode is brought to you by Rock Auto.

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We're back here on Crossover Thursday, locked on Dolphins, locked on Colts. Naturally, Evan, I'm the home team, so I'm going to defer to you. I'm going to make you say it first. Your predictions for what is going to play out on this week for AFC clash between Miami and Indianapolis at Hard Rock Stadium in South Florida. Would love to hear your thoughts. Yes, the Dolphins are fair by two points right now, and the over under, I believe, is 43. If you're out there listening, I would hammer the under in this game. Hammer the under.

Hammer it. It's going to be really would hammer the under in this game. Hammer the under. Hammer it. It's going to be really, really ugly in my opinion. It's going to be one of those games where the first one to 20 points wins this game. I'm going to go with the Colts winning this one 20-13. But after us conversing, Kyle, for the last 25 minutes, I don't feel confident about that at all anymore. I think Miami could win this game. It's a toss-up to me.

I'm going to go 20-13 Colts. I think this Colts team is just better in the trenches. I think it's a good get-back game for them. Jonathan Taylor has a big game. So I'll go 20-13, but I could easily see going in the opposite direction there if Miami's playmakers get going, if their defense can shut down Michael Pittman Jr. on the outside. Carson Wentz could be completely immobile in this game. He's going to be statue back there. So if they get pressure on Carson Wentz, I think they're in trouble. But I'm just going to go my gut prediction and say 20-13, but I do not feel confident about that at all. Yeah, Uh, I I'm not even going to say a team gets a 20 in this football game, to be honest with you. Um, naturally,

you know, as the host of locked on dolphins, you see the, the get up behind me here in my, my home office. I am going to pick the dolphins to win this game. It's at home, the dolphins, they got a crafty little, uh little engineering trick on their hands at Hard Rock Stadium. They've engineered the canopy in the stadium that the last thing for a 1 o'clock kickoff to remain in the sunlight is the opposing team's sideline. And they wait until about midway through the third quarter for the shade to hit with the way that the sun comes down there at Hard Rock. And I do think Miami,

they kind of wasted that season opener against Buffalo. They do usually wear white at home, kind of trying to get as much of a home field advantage for heat absorption as they possibly can. And I like their chances against an immobile Carson Wentz to really squeeze the pocket. I think both teams' defenses is going to have an advantage over the opposing team's offense. As I said, I don't think any team gets to 20

points in this game. So you can go ahead and put me down for 17-14 Dolphins win at home. But this is going to be a very closely contested game. And as you pointed out, Evan, there's a lot on the line for both of these teams. There's going to be a lot of urgency. And I said this, I had an opportunity to do a crossover with Ted Wynn of the Athletic talking about the Raiders on Saturday ahead of that game. And I really felt like, you know, that's, is the three or four bounces of the ball going to go one team's way or another team's way? And the Raiders in week three got those bounces that Miami didn't.

And I feel the exact same way in this kind of game where just the dynamics are very, very close. It's going to be, there's three bounces of the ball on three critical plays throughout the course of the game. Whoever gets two or more of them is going to win this football game, but it's going to be close. Yeah. I'm right there with you. It's going to be one of those games where it comes down to the very end.

I think only Dolphins fans and Colts fans are going to watch this game unless you just like subjecting yourself to torture. Just watching this one, it's going to be a really ugly game. But I could go either way with this one. It's going to be one of those games where if Miami loses, your men's going to be on fire saying, do this, do this, do this. If the Colts lose on Sunday, my men's going to be like, fire everyone. So it's one of those games where it's a lot of high stakes and everything

matters in this week for matchup. Yep. We will, we will say here's to good health and here's to an enjoyable week for contest. Evan really appreciate you linking up and us talking a little bit of football here in a locked on crossover Thursday. Appreciate it.

Kyle. Have a good one. That's going to do it for us. Thanks as always for tuning in your team every day. We don't just say it. We live it here on the Have a good one. That's going to do it for us. Thanks, as always, for tuning in. Your team every day. We don't just say it. We live it here on the Locked On Podcast Network. Thanks, as always, for tuning in. Enjoy the rest of your weeks,

and enjoy Week 4 of 2021 NFL action.