Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts CRUSHED By Atlanta Falcons, Fall Back in Playoff Race

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Indianapolis Colts got crushed on Christmas Eve by the Atlanta Falcons. Let's get to it. You are Locked On Colts, your daily Indianapolis Colts podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast-game listen of the day. This is your daily podcast covering your Indianapolis Colts, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. This episode is brought to you by GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNFL for $20 off your

Starting point is 00:00:49 first purchase. Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. Hello, everyone. I'm Zach Hicks, your guy's favorite co-host here on the Locked On Colts podcast. Also, find my work over at horseshoehuddle.com for all my film analysis. And yeah, this was a brutal one, guys. This was a very, very brutal outing by the Indianapolis Colts here on Christmas Eve. They lost 29-10 to the Atlanta Falcons on the road in this Week 16 game.

Starting point is 00:01:19 Now the Indianapolis Colts still have two more games to right the ship, and they have two more games to win out to make the playoffs. So I'm not saying playoffs are absolutely out the window at this point for this Colts team, but obviously this game did not really inspire too much. They are still in the playoff race in general, but they are going to be falling out of the top seven in seeding as of right now because the Bengals had the tiebreaker over them. The Buffalo Bills won yesterday, so the Colts are currently out of the playoffs,

Starting point is 00:01:51 obviously with a chance in the last two games. But we're going to talk about this game a little bit. We're going to keep it a little short today because, again, it is Christmas Eve. You guys obviously want to get back to spending time with your family. And also, what is there really to talk about with this Indianapolis Colts team after this type of game? There was simply no positive aspect of this game for the Colts. So we're going to go through it.

Starting point is 00:02:13 We're going to run through it. Just talking about the overarching theme of this game, though, just be soundly. In every single facet of this game, the Indianapolis Colts were not remotely close in this one. I mean, even when the score was kind of close in the first half, it simply was not a competitive game in this one. The Colts did not look like they belonged on the field with the Atlanta Falcons. And honestly, this should have been a 30 plus point victory for the Falcons if they had a

Starting point is 00:02:40 better quarterback and better head coach over there. In the trenches, the Colts were thoroughly beaten by the Falcons' offensive line, by the Falcons' defensive line. The Colts' offense had no pace, no answers, no solutions to anything without Michael Pittman Jr. out there. The Colts' defense couldn't tackle anything. I don't know what was going on with them in this game, but they couldn't tackle anything. They couldn't adjust to any kind of game plan thing

Starting point is 00:03:07 that was going on from the Falcons. There was just no solutions whatsoever for this Colts team. And they look like they're looking ahead to the two vital games coming up against the Raiders and the Texans. I mean, they just didn't show up for this final road game of the season against the Falcons, and it showed out there. I mean, again, this game was not very close whatsoever. The Colts came out scorching hot.

Starting point is 00:03:27 They went down the field and scored a touchdown to start the game. It looked like it was going to be a close game. Colts defense gives up a really quick touchdown drive after that, and from that moment on, the Atlanta Falcons controlled the entire game. Again, it just wasn't a competitive football game in the slightest. It was the Falcons game to control. And honestly, it's hard to place the blame on any one person for this. I mean, I saw a lot of people throughout the game saying this is on Gus Bradley

Starting point is 00:03:54 because the whole defense didn't show up. And we've seen this from him this year against similarly bad quarterbacks like Taylor Heineke. And I don't completely disagree. I mean, Gus Bradley deserves a ton of fault for the way his defense played in this one, but also that kind of absolves the defensive players for how they played out there. I mean, Gus Bradley's not the one missing tackles. Gus Bradley's not the one blowing coverages. Gus Bradley's not the one doing these, like, you know, like, don't get me wrong.

Starting point is 00:04:20 It's on Gus Bradley because it's his unit and it's his players out there, but at the end of the day, there are multiple times where this defense just need to make a tackle. Just make a tackle and go get the guy short of the sticks. But they simply couldn't get it done. EJ Speed and Zyra Franklin had really rough outings out there. The pass rush I thought was, you know, it wasn't horrendous, but they just didn't finish plays. They didn't come away with sacks. They didn't really disrupt Taylor Heineke too much.

Starting point is 00:04:44 The coverage wasn't good on the back end either. So you can blame Gus Bradley, don't get me wrong, but you also have to blame the players that are on the field. And the same goes to the offense too. We can blame Shane Steichen for certain calls and downs and distances that he was doing out there. And we can blame Gardner Minshew for missing a lot of throws and not having his best game.

Starting point is 00:05:04 But at the end of the day, the blame goes to everyone. And Jonathan Taylor was running skittish out there and we can blame Gardner Minshew for missing a lot of throws and not having his best game but at the end of the day the blame goes to everyone and Jonathan Taylor was running skittish out there Blake Freeland was a train wreck at right tackle the rest of the offensive line didn't play much better Alec Pierce had a drop DJ Montgomery had a drop Josh Downs didn't come away with some tough catches I mean it really was just a complete team collapse I mean a mere speed on special teams too I mean we, we can even talk special teams collapse. I mean, Amir's speed just gifting the Falcons three extra points in this game in a game early on that looked like those three points were going to be a big deal. So overall, I mean, just a thorough, thorough beatdown by a team that, like,

Starting point is 00:05:38 just lost to the Carolina Panthers. Like, we're not talking about, you know, it's not like the Bengals game where it's like, okay, look at the Bengals. They're a pretty solid team. Like they have had Jamar Chase in that game. They had T Higgins. They had a lot of good weapons on defense too. So it's like, okay, I get, it's not great, but I get it getting blown out by the Bengals. But when it comes to this game against the Falcons, I mean, the Falcons have lost four games this year to the four worst teams in football. They have not been a great team statistically. And like, I mean, like their defense has been fine, but overall they have just not been a great team at all this year.

Starting point is 00:06:12 And to come out in this kind of matchup and just get thoroughly beat down. I mean, it's just, it just can't happen. It just can't happen. I mean, luckily, luckily when it comes to the playoff hunt in the AFC, if they could afford to drop any games down the stretch, they could afford to drop this one. But, I mean, in this kind of fashion, not really. I mean, you can't afford to get blown out when it comes to NFL games. So it's just not a pretty game.

Starting point is 00:06:40 It's not one that you want to see from this Colts team. Hopefully they can bounce back in these final two and make a push for the playoffs and maybe make a push for 10 wins. But gosh, this was a brutal, brutal game that none of us wanted to see here on Christmas Eve. So, you know, Merry Christmas to all of you guys. Happy holidays. And whew, what a brutal, brutal game from the Colts. Coming up though, we're going to dive a little bit more

Starting point is 00:07:00 into the offense and why the offense struggled so much in this one. And I guess struggle doesn't even define it. Why the offense was completely inept in this game against the Atlanta Falcons. But guys, as the weather gets colder, the NFL offers stay hot on FanDuel. Right now, new customers get $150 back in bonus bets with any winning $5 money line bet. That's $150 if your team wins. If you're thinking about joining FanDuel,

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Starting point is 00:07:52 and kick off this NFL season. FanDuel, official partner of the NFL. All righty, guys, we're talking Colts offense. Just not a great day at all from the Colts offense. Like, again, I know we can really look at the Colts defense and say, like, yeah, the Colts defense was just getting thoroughly beaten over and over again the whole second half. And it was like six straight scoring drives from the Falcons in the second half. But really, it comes down to this Colts offense just couldn't match anything whatsoever.

Starting point is 00:08:30 They were just getting beaten soundly in the trenches all game long. Blake Freeland has a major, major liability at right tackle, just couldn't get it done whatsoever. You go to, I mean, the rest of the offensive line couldn't get any push on the interior. And a lot of those inside zone runs with Jonathan Taylor were just bottled up from where they start. And honestly, the biggest thing in this game, like the real biggest thing in this game, was they lost their pace setter. They lost Michael Pittman Jr., who made himself a lot of money today.

Starting point is 00:08:56 Made himself a ton of money today because this Colts offense, like just how inept they were in this game really showed that he is the driving force of this Colts offense he's the player that Gardner meant you trust he's the player that drives the RPO game he's the guy who drives uh the early down plays of this offense and then on third down when they need a conversion he's the guy the Colts go to so when you're losing like like five different impacts in one player going into a game and you're left with a bunch of

Starting point is 00:09:26 complimentary pieces that are not ready for that big role themselves you are stuck with an offense that looks completely inept I mean the Colts are down to their backup quarterback they're down to their backup right tackle who is a rookie day three pick and they're down to their backup wide receiver I mean they're non-number one wide receivers out there. Eventually, all those injuries and absences stack up for your team. And this is not me trying to excuse a poor offensive outing, but eventually all those losses stack up because you could see it out there. They look like a bunch of spare parts put together that just had no flow, no rhythm, and no, no, just anything out there. I mean,

Starting point is 00:10:05 there was a couple guys who had some good day. I thought Will Mallory had a really good day overall. I thought Kylan Granson had his best game of the year, but at the end of the day, I mean, there was just no symmetry whatsoever on the offense side of the ball. They had no answers for what the Falcons were doing, which wasn't anything unique. What the Falcons were really doing was we're going to stuff the box and we're going to play a lot of man, press man coverage. Let's see if these receivers can beat them. Let's see if Gardner Minshew can beat it. Let's see if the running game can run on eight, nine man stack boxes. And, you know, spoiler alert, the Colts couldn't beat that. I mean,

Starting point is 00:10:38 Gardner Minshew couldn't, couldn't beat the blitz and couldn't trust his receivers on the outside. The receivers couldn't beat press man coverage against AJ terrell and and jeff okuda and these other good corners that the falcons have and the colts running game could not overpower a stacked box all game long i mean we even saw the colts were kind of just bashing their head against a brick wall in the second half at times because they were trying to get the inside running game going but every time they tried to run up the middle there was five guys in the backfield, four guys in the backfield. There was just nothing going on whatsoever with this Colts offense. There was no solutions to problems.

Starting point is 00:11:12 There wasn't any players making spectacular plays. There was just nothing going on whatsoever with this Colts offense. And again, Michael Pittman Jr. just showing his value without even touching the field today because he is that pace setter. He's that guy where first and 10, second and 10, whatever it is, and we need to get, you know, reasonable amount of yards to get within striking distance on third down or on second down. Pittman Jr. is our guy to go to, whether it's a quick screen, whether it's a quick slant, whether it's an isolation route, whether it's a deep hitch or something like that, Pittman Jr. is that guy.

Starting point is 00:11:46 And then when it comes to those third down plays too, like, okay, I need to find my top receiver. I need to find my guy, my matchup. That's what Pittman Jr. was. I really do think, I mean, Pittman Jr., like Patrick's saying here in the comment section, I mean, Pittman might have his contract guy. You go from $20 million per year off of this game up to 25. I mean, that might be hyperbole,

Starting point is 00:12:05 but like you just proved your entire bit of value to an offense in one outing. This Colts offense this year has played what? This is like their eighth game or ninth game against the top 15 defense in total points allowed. And all those games outside of the Patriots game, they've been averaging like 30 points a game. Like outside of the Patriots game, they've been averaging like 30 points a game. Like outside of the Patriots game, they've been averaging like 30 points a game in those

Starting point is 00:12:27 matchups. Then you come into this one without Pittman Jr., even though you're getting your star running back back that you just gave a big contract to, you just get blown out. You have no answers to the problems in front of you. And it's not, again, the Falcons weren't doing anything too crazy in this one. They were sitting in too high. They were stacking the box with extra men, with, you know, four down linemen, three linebackers or a nickel guy that was in this one. They were sitting in too high. They were stacking the box with extra men, with four down linemen, three linebackers, or a nickel guy that was in the box.

Starting point is 00:12:53 And they were bringing a lot of pressure, a lot of run blitzes. They were stacking the middle. And they were daring the Colts to beat them on the outside with their wide receivers. They just couldn't do it. They took away the deep ball. They took away the short game by being in press coverage. And the Colts had no solutions to the problems in front of them. The RPO game was broken because there was no Michael Pittman Jr. to make those tough catches over the middle. And there was no Michael Pittman Jr. to have a player that Minshew has trust in. And this isn't even me saying that, you know, Pierce and Downs were awful in this game where they're terrible players. But when you have a quarterback who's already not a number one guy you know again Minshew is a backup quarterback for a reason and I think we've seen that enough this year where he

Starting point is 00:13:29 is a backup quarterback it comes down to trust a lot with him like you know you could have like Pittman Jr. if there's an inch of separation he's still going to trust that Pittman Jr. can make those plays when it comes to Pierce or Downs he's going to hesitate he's going to be late on those throws because there's not that full trust in those players. And yes, those players need to earn that trust. But at the end of the day, like Minshew's got to rip some of those throws too. But when you have like those kind of issues there and you don't have that quick answer that is Michael Pittman Jr., your offense is going to completely falter. And that's what happened in this game.

Starting point is 00:14:02 The Colts had no answers for what the Falcons were throwing at them. Offense was inept. I mean, outside of the first drive, they averaged like two yards of play the rest of the game. You just can't, you can't even be competitive in football games with that kind of offense. And for as good a year as Shane Steichen has had for finding answers to so many, so many problems with this offense, with losing his quarterback, with losing his star running back, with never having a full five on his offensive line, with now losing Michael Pittman Jr. You know, Steigens had to come up with a lot of solutions to a lot of problems on this offense. He just did not have any solutions today. There was no solution for this offense in this game against the Atlanta Falcons. And at the end of the day, I mean, they got to look at, they have to look at some, some changes for next week. I mean, maybe you,

Starting point is 00:14:48 you, you bench Blake Freeland and you get Jared Valdir out there. You got, you, you pray, you pray that, that Michael Pittman Jr. can come back. But at the end of the day, I mean, this is going to be a tough, tough one to look back at for the Colts offense and the Colts offensive staff. And they really need to readjust going into these last two games because they can't afford to drop another one. Now you can maybe afford this one. Who knows what the way that other teams are playing. The Buffalo Bills are coming up. The Bengals are still right there. You got the Denver Broncos with a very lax schedule. These final three games, all those

Starting point is 00:15:24 teams are coming up for this playoff race, and they still have the Texans in week 18 as well, with Stroud likely coming back. So, you know, they need to figure out some solutions to these problems on offense. I know Michael Pittman Jr. coming back is going to be a nice little band-aid, but there are still some issues with this offense that the Colts need to figure out. They need to get back to being a high success rate, just moving the ball type of offense.

Starting point is 00:15:47 I don't doubt Shane Steichen whatsoever, but eventually, again, being down your top right tackle, being down your quarterback, being down your receiver, being down all these other players, eventually it takes a toll and you get the result that we saw today. So again, hopefully Shane Steichen can kind of figure out some of these issues throughout the week here

Starting point is 00:16:04 before this Raiders game. But man, man, they cannot have a repeat of this performance whatsoever down the stretch here. We're going to talk now about the Colts defense coming up. And, you know, if you guys thought I sound exhausted here talking about the Colts offense, wait until we talk about this Colts defense coming up because it might have been even worse. Buying tickets to your favorite events shouldn't be stressful. Game time is the fast and easy way to buy tickets for all the sports, music, comedy, and theater near you. With killer deals on last-minute tickets and their best price guaranteed,

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Starting point is 00:17:42 So now we're talking Colts defense. Oh, guys. So now we're talking Colts defense. Oh man, it was, I mean, I think I referred to it with the offense there when I was saying when they were trying to run the ball inside in that, in that second half, that it was like just bashing your head against a brick wall, hoping that you're going to break through eventually. I mean, so much of this past coverage today was just bashing your head through a brick wall, hoping that the same, you know, doing the same thing over and over again is going to lead to a different result. I have been very, very protective of Gus Bradley this season, because I do think for the most part, he's done a good job

Starting point is 00:18:15 this year. I mean, they have not had the personnel, I think, at certain levels of the defense to be an effective defense, but they still are top 15 in EPA per play. They've been effective in a lot of games. And there have been a couple games this year where the Colts defense have just won the game for the Colts. I mean, last week against the Pittsburgh Steelers, they didn't allow any points in the second half. That's a great showing by the Colts defense.

Starting point is 00:18:37 Now we come to this game, and I mean, at some point, you have to make some adjustments to what is going on in front of you. I mean, the Colts are a quarters-type defense. They love to sit back in the deeper, deeper halves and just play, basically prevent defense and let teams attack underneath, come up and make tackles, make plays, rip the ball out, get turnover, stuff like that. But when it came to this game, I mean, Taylor Heineke was not even somewhat considering downfield throws. I mean, he had one deep shot to Kyle Pitts early in the game. But outside of that, Taylor Heineke's eyes were not going past 10 yards.

Starting point is 00:19:13 Taylor Heineke was in love with the flat. I mean, Bijan Robinson had like nine catches in this game. He was in love with the flat routes. He was just tossing it effortlessly to the flat route every single play. And the Colts on every single play were just not having anyone come up and cover that. Don't get me wrong. I can blame the players on the field for missing tackles. Because at the end of the day, for this scheme to work, for this kind of quarters, prevent-ish type scheme to work,

Starting point is 00:19:41 you need players to come up, make tackles, rip the ball out, whatever that's going to be. Your pass rush to get home on those quarters type calls. That stuff needs to work. You need players to come up, make tackles, rip the ball out, you know, whatever that's going to be, your pass rush to get home on those quarters type calls. That stuff needs to work that you need your players to execute that. The players failed in this game because they were not able to come up and make any tackles whatsoever. I mean, it might have, it might've been like a 15 to 20 missed tackle performance from the Colts in this one. I'm really curious to see what pro football focus puts the Colts at in this one, because it was downright abysmal the way that they're missing tackles. But at the end of the day, like it's your job as a defensive coordinator to adjust to that. You have to look at this and say, okay, these guys are not making tackles whatsoever. So that means we need to be tighter in

Starting point is 00:20:16 coverage. We need to go more man. We need to cover the flats a little harder, make it so, okay, if they're going to miss a tackle, they're not missing the tackle 10 yards down the field. They're at least missing in the backfield and we can try to rally from there there wasn't any adjustment it was okay they're just killing us with gash plays on little dump offs to the flat because Bijan Robinson's untackleable apparently in the flat and it's just okay we're gonna let that keep happening I mean there was there was a sequence in the third quarter where I think Robinson had three straight catches in the same flat on the left side of the field. It's like, OK, come on, let's maybe bring somebody up at this point, maybe play those a little more aggressive because the tackling is not working.

Starting point is 00:20:55 They're not getting these tackles. So maybe try to prevent the ball from being completed by actually covering those underneath routes. That adjustment never came from the Colts. And look, again, I know we can go a little too far blaming coordinators over players because we like players and we traditionally do not like coordinators. But I do think this is one of the games where you can blame everybody involved with the Colts defense.

Starting point is 00:21:17 I mean, this Falcons offense had six points against the Panthers last week. And I'm not saying that there weren't reasons for that. Obviously there were turnovers in the red zone by the Falcons. There was a, it was a big heavy rain game, but the end of the day, the Falcons scored six points against the worst team in football last week

Starting point is 00:21:33 to have them go on six straight scoring possession drives in this game where they were just running up and down the entire field on you. I mean, like it just can't happen. The Falcons are able to run at will. And this one had plenty of explosive plays running outside and inside zone. A passing game with Taylor Heineke leading the way. We're just, we're just manhandling the Colts. I mean, there was just nothing that could get done. Excuse me. There was just nothing that

Starting point is 00:22:03 could get done whatsoever on defense in this game. So I don't really know what more to say. I think you guys are, are, you know, ranting a good bit in the comment section as well. But it's just like, you can't win football games with anything that happened in this game from the Indianapolis Colts. There was nothing positive whatsoever in this game from the Colts. On defense, they could not get a stop at all. There was no stopping this, I guess, vaunted Falcons offense. They couldn't stop the run. They couldn't stop the pass.

Starting point is 00:22:34 Taylor Heineke was just dicing them up in the short passing game. On offense, they couldn't move the ball whatsoever outside of the first drive. It's just a recipe for getting blown out. And I think when you're looking at this Colts team, I mean, I think we can all agree that this team has massively overachieved this year. I mean, if you look at the way that they've won games and the way they've lost games, I mean, in their, in their, in their games, they've lost this year.

Starting point is 00:22:57 They have been losing pretty big. I mean, the Saints game wasn't particularly close. The Bengals game wasn't very close. Both Jaguars games were not very close and this game was not close at all. But when they're winning games, they're winning it by the skin of their teeth, like just very narrowly. That's a recipe for a bad season next year. And I'm not going to go that far by saying next year, they're going to be awful because they're going to get a lot of players back. They're going to get Richardson back, hopefully get Braden Smith back, hopefully get some other players back and add some more players. But that doesn't bode well

Starting point is 00:23:28 for the future of this season, at least. If you're winning games by one score, but you're losing games in blowout fashion, that's traditionally not a great sign for your team because one score games are basically coin flips that come down to bounces that are lucky or unlucky in a lot of ways and the Colts have benefited a lot from a lot of you know favorable things going their way so these next two games are going to be big I mean look at the end of the day I think it's a positive first season for Shane Steichen regardless of what happens I think it'd be massively disappointing if they don't make the playoffs at this point or they don't get to 10 wins at this point but we still have to contextualize that getting to even eight wins with Gardner Manchu as your quarterback uh coming off a season where this team was a four-win team is an impressive

Starting point is 00:24:13 year but you also don't want to settle you don't want to say okay good like you just want to kind of look at it as a good start but like we need more going forward it can't be uh you know December collapses going on with the Colts. And that's what we're looking at right now. I mean, again, they have two games to get this right. This one was obviously a step backwards for the Colts, but they need to get these final two games right. It starts with the Raiders this next week,

Starting point is 00:24:37 and then it finishes with the Houston Texans in week 18. Got to find a way to win these two games, get in the playoffs, or at least get to 10 wins. I mean, look, if you don or at least get to 10 wins. I mean, look, if you don't make the playoffs with 10 wins, I can live with that. But get to 10 wins, make it a tough little fight there to get into the playoffs and see what you can do from there. But that's all I have for today, guys. Again, enjoy your holidays. I know today is Christmas Eve. Tomorrow is Christmas. You guys have some fun with your families. And, you know, don't take out this loss too much on your loved ones there. It's not their fault that the Colts no-showed in this game.

Starting point is 00:25:12 But, yeah, I want you guys to all enjoy your holiday season. We'll be back with you all on Tuesday, like, afternoon-ish. You know, we're going to find some way to record that episode for you all. But we'll be back with you guys on Tuesday afternoon-ish. But, yeah, enjoy your holiday season, guys. And if you guys don't already, make sure you're following at LockedOnColts at JakeArthurNFL and at ZachHicks2 all on Twitter. Also subscribe to us on YouTube, wherever you list your podcasts. We love your guys' ratings and reviews, and we'll catch you guys back here in the afternoon time on Tuesday.

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Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts CRUSHED By Atlanta Falcons, Fall Back in Playoff Race

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