Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts' DISASTROUS Performance vs. Green Bay Packers Leads to 0-2 Start

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Colts just laid a total egg at Lambeau and a loss to the Packers, and it might have been more costly than the points on the board. Let's get to it. You are Locked On Colts, your daily Indianapolis Colts podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. All right. Thanks for tuning in and making us your first post-game listen. This is your daily podcast covering your Indianapolis Colts.

Starting point is 00:00:33 Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. And today's show is brought to you by GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNFL for $20 off your first purchase. Hello, everybody. This is Jake Arthur and Zach Hicks of HorseshoeHuddle.com. I'm your resident Indianapolis Colts media member of the site, and Zach is your absolute film nerd who is going to have a really fun time digesting this one throughout the week.

Starting point is 00:01:00 But no, we are here to just, you know, eulogize this game. That was the Colts in their 16 to 10 loss of the Packers on the surface, the 16 to 10 loss, you know, it's a one score game, but the Colts were really never in control of this one. It just so happened they weren't facing Jordan love and God, this game might as well have been 36 to 10, you know what I mean? So we'll obviously go over, you know, our, our normal format for this, Anthony Richardson, the offense and the defense, what stood out to us both positively and negatively.

Starting point is 00:01:34 I know we're going to want to take a lot of negative from this one, but there were some things to kind of hitch ourselves to a little bit. So before we dive into Anthony, let's go ahead and talk and talk about some of these injuries. So DeForest Buckner and Liatu Latu both left the game in the second half. I didn't see Latu get injured. It was just reported afterward that he suffered a hip injury and was going to be out for the game. Buckner, though, I think we all saw that. He helped make a stop on a play and just like kind of landed down on his lower right leg, got twisted up

Starting point is 00:02:08 under there a little bit. He had to be helped off the field, was clearly in pain and then very, very frustrated on the sideline. So we're going to hope for the best for that one regardless. But obviously, he is the heartbeat of the defense and it is an already very poor defense. Losing him for any amount of time would be a huge issue. So we'll find out more about that in the next 24 to 48 hours, I'm sure, Zach. But let's talk about Anthony Richardson.

Starting point is 00:02:37 This one, of course, you cannot box score scout this guy. We say it every week. There's a lot, a lot of nuance to this evaluation here. So on the surface, 17 to 34, which is, of course, only 50% for 204 yards. His YPA this week was dang near cut in half from last week, just a 6.0. One touchdown and three interceptions. So I will go into this saying that this was arguably his worst performance. This was his worst start of the six that we've got so far, just in terms of like

Starting point is 00:03:12 the bad plays, some of them being truly bad. But man, once again, the guy did not receive a lot of help. These numbers could have looked a lot better if everyone around him was also clicking. Yeah, I definitely want to take this from the angle of, again, this is his sixth career start in the NFL. It's only, what, his 25th since high school. It's really not that many starts for him. A lot of this process with Anthony Richardson is him getting on-field reps and understanding the good and the bad that comes with it. We've seen this for a lot of quarterbacks that are similar molds of Anthony Richardson. Jordan Love last season was pretty poor that first half of the season. And he was a guy who had sat for multiple years before he finally got that opportunity.

Starting point is 00:03:57 You can go back to Josh Allen's rookie season. His first 10 starts very, very down, a little bit of up, but a lot of down. And there Jalen Hurts' first 10 starts, very, very down, a little bit of up, but a lot of down in there. Jalen Hurts, first 10 starts, not very good. So when we talk about Anthony Rich in here, we're not going to make excuses for him. We're going to talk about the good and the bad and where he needs to be better. But a lot of it has to be contextualized with this was kind of expected. It's going to be a rollercoaster with him, especially the first half of the season. I wouldn't even shock me for the entirety of this season. It's going to be very rollercoaster with him. And you're going to have games like this where mostly duds. Honestly, I didn't expect him to turn around at the very end there, which will go into one of his positives,

Starting point is 00:04:34 was the ability to get the Colts moving a little bit in the fourth quarter and making it so the Colts weren't completely out of it. But again, you shouldn't be in those situations at all. But that kind of goes into the roller coaster aspect of Anthony Richardson. He's still young. He's still learning. I'm not too concerned about him. I'm more concerned about 21 other starters or like 19 other starters right now than I am about Anthony Richardson, who is a 22-year-old quarterback still figuring things out. But if we are being honest with his game, the two interceptions are ones that can't happen. And I think he knows that. Obviously, he knows that those can't happen first one inexcusable throwing

Starting point is 00:05:09 off his back foot not stepping into it fading with the pressure uh had Alec Pierce open on that layered over route and just threw it over right to the middle of the field safety Pierce was I mean Pierce was going to be open on that play if he just throws that a little bit lower and leads him it's a good catch, good chunk gain, and they're right there in the red zone early in the game. So one that you just can't miss. And then the second one, again, Colts are finally moving the ball a little bit,

Starting point is 00:05:33 getting down on the other side of the field, cannot throw an interception there, read the high-low route, very, very wrong, did not get the ball to the player it needed to go to. It needed to go to A.D. Mitchell, which I know him and Mitchell have had a horrible chemistry these first two weeks, so maybe that contributed to it a little bit, but those two interceptions can happen. A couple other plays, I mean, missing Jonathan Taylor a little bit on that flat route. Yes, Taylor should have made that catch, but I don't know if Taylor gets there even with the catch because of where the ball placement was.

Starting point is 00:06:02 A couple other routes where it's like the ball placement wasn't good enough so yeah it wasn't a great day for for Anthony Richardson it wasn't even a good day for Anthony Richardson so if we're starting with the negatives with him yeah those interceptions can't happen and they were back breaking and a couple of those fumbled snaps and stuff can't happen too but overall I do think and I know this is me kind of getting to the conclusion of the segment before we even are at that point right now, but it is part of the peaks and valleys that we're going to get from Richardson, especially in this first half of the season. So long term, I'm still fine with Richardson. You're going to go through a lot of these bumps and bruises. I mean, Jordan Love last year, if we're making that direct comparison still, Love had a game where he had like 120 or 180 yards and three picks against the Raiders in the game that they lost 17 to 13. It's a very similar aspect to this type of game right here that Richardson just had.

Starting point is 00:06:54 So these kind of games happen from these big arm quarterbacks who trust their arms too much. And the game hasn't slowed down for them yet because they haven't seen the field that much. So I'm not too out on Richardson or anything like that. These games happen. It sucks it happened in a game against Malik Willis where the Packers were not throwing the ball very much. You'd rather it happened against a really, really good team because you probably weren't winning that game regardless.

Starting point is 00:07:17 But still a lot to improve from Richardson. I think there was some good, again, coming back late, hitting Pierce for the touchdown, had a couple of really nice throws up the field. The 180 Mitchell was a great throw. A couple to Pierce late in the game were really good throws. But overall, not where you want him to be. And hopefully he can keep growing and make the peaks less peaky, or the valleys less valley, and the peaks a little bit higher there.

Starting point is 00:07:42 But overall, not a great day from Richardson and kind of what we expected early in the season yeah one of the things about him is obviously there's so much you have to like develop within him and how to play within like a normal system and everything but it turns out he's still very much at his best like when they're running hurry up and like he's got to use his instincts more often. And it's, there's not some like plan beforehand, like when they've got to have it and when things speed up, it's kind of when he just takes over and does his thing. But I was so surprised with how poorly the whole team really looked overall,

Starting point is 00:08:19 especially, you know, the offense at times you look at this 17 of 34 and you look at this again, one score game, just a six-point loss, this could have very easily, I don't want to say very easily because nothing came easily to them, they could have been on the other side of this and just had a super ugly win. Or they're like four or five drops. There were several plays in there where the receiver really should have had it.

Starting point is 00:08:47 There were just so many times where it's like, what is going on? There is the deep throw to Mitchell on their final drive where Mitchell cooks his guy and then just lets up, doesn't run through the route. There's just so many miscommunications like that. And then there's the drops and everything. It's like, God, this game really could have gone a bit differently. Even again, still an ugly win, but a win is a win. I thought, you know, running wise, that that's been a big topic of conversation leading into the season. And he's always been, you know, pretty good in the, in the red zone and picking up those short touchdowns and everything. But the Colts said they were going to be intentional

Starting point is 00:09:29 about kind of grinding into him situational running, when to know when you got to have it, and using your discretion a bit more to really grind out those tough yards. I thought when he decided to take off and run, I thought he had great situational running. There was the 21-yard gain that he had in the second half where he turned the corner and got upfield. And then in the red zone late in the game on the touchdown drive to Alec Pierce, he had that 11-yard run where he met the sticks and they reviewed it and he got it. I thought his, his rushing performance was awesome.

Starting point is 00:10:07 So that, that was definitely a positive takeaway for me, but you know, the, he did have three picks. So obviously the, the third pick was the Hail Mary, but he should have had a legitimate three picks when they were buried deep

Starting point is 00:10:21 in their territory on that final drive. And then the linebacker, the Quay Walker just didn't come down with it. And Alec Pierce, who was one of the other heroes of the game comes through with the, the catch off the, off the tip. That was by design.

Starting point is 00:10:35 He was actually throwing it off of Quay Walker's helmet to Alec Pierce. Great throw by Richardson, but no, we're going to have a full breakdown of Anthony Richardson's day on tomorrow's episode on the Colts Film Room episode tomorrow. So you guys can look forward to that. Again, we won't sugarcoat it. It was a bad game from Anthony Richardson.

Starting point is 00:10:52 But again, long term, these are going to happen. I can't remember if Ben and I talked about it on the air last week or right afterwards, where it's like, there's going to be some valleys. There's going to be some valleys. All these type of quarterbacks who go through this, Lamar Jackson's early in his career throwing the ball. I mean, they had him running the ball a ton. Jalen Hurts early in his career could not throw the ball very well.

Starting point is 00:11:12 Josh Allen, Jordan Love, like these happen for these young quarterbacks. It's all about making sure that you sure those things up by, you know, start 10 to 20 and like that range or whatever. And Richardson still isn't at that level yet. So overall, yes concerning start from anthony richard not what you want to see i think there were some positives but a lot of negatives and hopefully he can turn the corner from here and make these less prevalent in the future but bad starts happen i'm i'm more concerned with 18 to 19 other starters on the team than am with richardson right now but up, we're going to get into those other 18 to 19 starters. We're going to talk about the rest of the offense and how, aside from a certain wide

Starting point is 00:11:51 receiver who we all thought might have been benched before the season, the offense was stinky doo-doo today. It was just not good enough. And we're going to talk about that here in just a second. And first, a word from our pals over at PrizePix. Just one Caleb Williams passing yard gets you a win on PrizePix every week in September. So that means when the Colts play the Bears next week, you will get that within the first five seconds of the game. Yes, that's right.

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Starting point is 00:14:48 So we all might want some alcohol, you know, provided. I wish Jake, I wish. I've been sober for almost a year now and like I'm considering breaking it, man. It's a rough time out here, but let's start with the positive. Everyone's bingo card through two weeks had Alec pierce being an absolute stud so he puts up randy moss numbers in week one and then comes out and it's like easily the colts most productive wide receiver in this one gets a touchdown his second of the year uh he makes another tough catch over the middle he comes up with that tipped pass catching it on the ground um late in the game when the Colts needed to march that ball and get it out of their own territory. So Alec Pierce is one guy who has

Starting point is 00:15:32 absolutely stood up this year. He saw the Colts draft A.D. Mitchell and he said, oh, I should probably kick it into high gear. Very helpful that he has a quarterback that is willing to get him the ball, though. Yeah, over, what, 170? No, 180 yards receiving now through two games. 125 last week, 56 today. I'm bad at math, so you can do it. But he also has two tuds. Yeah, yeah. So Alec Pierce, man, he's already almost like 40% to his total last year,

Starting point is 00:16:02 or like 30-something percent to his total last year. So Alec Pierce, hats off to what he's done the first two weeks, Jonathan Taylor, nice bounce back game on the ground. We're not going to talk about him in the past game too much because it wasn't very good in the past game. He did have 32 yards. He did.

Starting point is 00:16:16 Yes. Yes. He probably could have caught a few more and maybe been a little bit better in past protection, but in the run game, really good day from him in the run game. So it was nice to see him and the offensive line get back together. And honestly, the O-line I thought was fine today.

Starting point is 00:16:29 Some solid moments in pass protection, good in the run game. Yeah, I think it was perfectly fine there. Okay, now that we got all the positive out of the way, because that's how we're going to talk about these segments. The two or three positives are out of the way. We got to start with Shane Steichen here with the offensive game plan. I know you're working with a very inaccurate quarterback or not an accurate quarterback, a quarterback who's still figuring things out, seeing the field, and he has some inaccurate moments in Anthony Richardson. He's working

Starting point is 00:16:58 with that. He's working with receivers who are not playing up to par right now, aside from Alec Pierce. So I get that a little bit handicapped here but so far through two weeks I do think a lot of Shane Steichen's worst tendencies as a play caller have been highlighted a lot the the option play on fourth and short is simply something that cannot be called I mean even if you had the right personnel on the field, it's still just like, why are you going sideways and backwards on? I think it was third and one actually on that call. And then Matt Gay missing the kick afterwards,

Starting point is 00:17:31 like just added insult to injury. Simply can't happen. The RPR and RPO game is non-existent right now. I know part of that might be because Richardson doesn't feel comfortable with it, but still I don't know why that's completely gone. It's a lot of stagnation on the short routes and maybe that's again maybe that's a Richardson preference but I'm not a fan of running all these stick and spot routes and stuff like it's just not working in the

Starting point is 00:17:54 short game I don't know why there's no quick screens or or like you know there's no screen game whatsoever with this offense right now and it feels like those are easy completions get the ball out of Richardson's hands and maybe get that to your A.D. Mitchell's or Michael Pittman Jr.'s and get them rolling a little bit so they can gain some confidence. But there's really no layups in this offense right now. It's a lot of play action over shots. And then it asked Richardson just to be Superman in the fourth quarter of the last two these last two weeks. And to Richardson's credit, he's done it a little bit in them, but like, as, as of right now, like Shane Steichen needs to

Starting point is 00:18:29 really look hard in the mirror and figure something out with his offense, because it's just, he gets too pass happy. He gets a little too out of what works and, and they're, and they're not really building many layups in the passing game for their young quarterback. It's just not been a good offense right now. So Shane Steichen, just not a great game. Two games in a row, I don't think he's had a great time calling games. And then we also got to talk about Michael Pittman Jr. and A.D. Mitchell in this one because Pittman, struggling to catch the ball a little bit these first two weeks and just been really slow and lethargic in his routes. I know he's running a lot of zone beaters and getting to spots, but come on, man, we got to see a little bit more urgency ongic in his routes. I know he's running a lot of zone beaters and getting to spots, but come on,

Starting point is 00:19:06 man, we got to see a little bit more urgency on some of these routes. And then 80 Mitchell had the game from hell today. He had a illegal formation penalty early in the game. He had a really bad drop at the end of the first half that might've took three points off the board for the Colts had really bad lack of effort on a couple of these. There was like two short route throws to him where

Starting point is 00:19:26 he just didn't get his head around for the ball it's like these are just like elementary I mean A.D. Mitchell might have been responsible for like four or five incompletions in this game like I know last week they were not able to connect and some of those were on Richardson because it's like those are deep balls you got to hit but this week it's like no effort not getting your head around dropping the ball like ad mitchell man i know you're a 21 year old rookie like there is some lenience there but leniency there but like oh god that i mean it can't get much worse than this from ad mitchell so maybe this is rock bottom uh but just a brutal, brutal showing from A.D. Mitchell in this one. They have got so much more on offense than needing to be 100% reliant on Anthony having a perfect game. I know you and I differ on this a little bit,

Starting point is 00:20:16 but Jonathan Taylor just being yanked from the game and not playing in the fourth quarter, sure, there were scenarios. They went super pass-heavy, and he's not their guy for that. But like, there were a couple of scenarios where he should have been out there, I think, or at least his presence, you know, offering some sort of decoy or that, that, that late run that the option played to Trey Sermon. I don't know if Sermon's's the guy for that it already wasn't a great call and then you have your least explosive runner out there to run it just not great um that you know I I totally agree with you I think there's things they can bake into this offense to just

Starting point is 00:20:56 make it a little more seamless and routine like there were short throws there were short you know there were throws to the running backs and everything, but those were more checkdowns and dump offs. They weren't like design screens with like a convoy ahead or anything like that. It was designed to like pick up yards after the catch or anything like that. So yeah, before we move on to the defense, I did want to kind of throw some kudos to Ashton Doolin and Mo Alleycock as well. Mo, I get nervous every time the ball goes to him.

Starting point is 00:21:25 And I'm pretty sure, if I saw correctly, I think he took out two guys in one block on a big Jonathan Taylor run. And then Doolin, after making a nice, important 13-yard catch, like a couple plays later, helped open up another big Jonathan Taylor run that Quentin Nelson went and pulled to the right side and opened it up even further. So in totality, I don't know how those guys' days were, but they at least made a couple of plays that I was like, okay, very nice. Yeah. Yeah. There's a lot to improve on this offense right now. Hopefully,

Starting point is 00:21:59 I think Josh Downs will help a lot when he's back next week, hopefully back next week. But again, the process needs to be cleaner. The Colts need to rely more on the run game. You're paying your running back for that. Use Richardson more in the QB run game to supplement his passing. I know there's a little bit of fear with that, but use him a little bit more in the QB run game. And overall, man, we've got to stop having Richardson be Superman in these fourth quarters. Like there needs to be a positive game flow or positive game situation for Richardson does not have to be throwing the ball 20 times a fourth quarter.

Starting point is 00:22:30 I mean, through two weeks, that's what he's had to do. And of course it's not going to be perfect with a young quarterback in that situation. So overall the processes need to be cleaner. The game plan needs to be cleaner and they need better from these wide receivers. Alec Pierce cannot carry this passing offense so that's not good enough right there so overall a lot to improve on offense even if that's the better of the two units right now a lot to improve on offense right now yeah like it's great that we saw pierce can do that but ideally that would not be the case uh coming up next uh wow we're going to talk about the defense. But first let's talk about more happy times.

Starting point is 00:23:08 Let's talk about making memories and going to live events because we are winding down with the summer, but there's still plenty of concerts and all sorts of outdoor activities and shoot, even ball games, fever games, you know, Colts games indoors. because the roof is rarely open. Me personally, I just went to Post Malone a couple days ago. Some of you probably did as well because I have quite literally never seen a more packed concert in my entire life. So a lot of you guys can probably test. Good show. And you know what? Got to hook up through game time. B tickets weeks ago and you know what there's nothing better than buying your tickets and it being a seamless process and you actually get to the venue and enjoy it without any issues from the ticketing side of it because i think we've all been there

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Starting point is 00:24:34 What time is it, Zach? It's GameTime. It's GameTime, guys. It's definitely. Did the Colts hear that? I wish. I wish they did. But it's game. Guys, the game has started.

Starting point is 00:24:42 Yes. All right. So defense wins championships, but not this started. Yes. All right. So defense wins championships, but not this one. Holy smokes. So the Colts defense gave up over 200 yards on the ground in week one. And you think, wow, it can't get a whole lot worse than that because Joe Mixon turned back the clock. And then Green Bay exceeds that in the first half.

Starting point is 00:25:07 Yeah, so 261 yards overall on the ground. That's two games in a row, well over 200. But that wasn't even like the whole story. We went into this one saying, hey, Colts, we've seen you before allow these young quarterbacks to look like studs. Don't let them do it. Well, I thought Matt LaFleur drew up a great initial setup for Malik Willis, allowed him to be totally comfortable and get into the flow of the game. And, you know, they ran the hell out of the ball. But when they needed to pass, Malik Willis was out there making plays.

Starting point is 00:25:40 And when the Colts got him under duress in the backfield, he escaped how many times, three or four times productive chain moving plays yeah um hats off to Nick Cross for showing up I mean yep good you know what this this is so far the season of the guys who we all dogged Alex Pierce stud Nick Cross stud Nick Cross has 117 tackles already this season somehow and he's safety and that's not good yeah hats off to Nick cross for showing up um Dio had a couple nice stops in the third quarter uh yeah let's get to the negatives now Jake because like look I know they only only gave up 16 points in this game but like if the Packers had any trust in Malik Willis throwing the ball early in the game, it would have been a 40-something point game for the Packers offense

Starting point is 00:26:32 because the other team was telling you, we're running the ball every single play. Hey, we're running it unless we're in third and 10. And it didn't matter. It didn't matter. The Colts were what? A Josh Jacobs fumble on the one-yard line from being down three scores in the first quarter? We're running it unless we're in like third and 10. And it didn't matter. It didn't matter. The Colts were what? A Josh Jacobs fumble on the one yard line from being down three scores in the first quarter to a team that was not.

Starting point is 00:26:51 They threw the ball four times in the first quarter. They ran the ball for 200 yards in like the first quarter. Like and and look again, credit to this Packers offensive staff where they saw what the Texans did last week. They saw, hey, all we got to do is power it out and pinch the edges because those linebackers are not getting there to the edge. Those linebackers are not getting there and they're having safeties fill and look what's happening.

Starting point is 00:27:15 So credit to the Packers coaching staff for figuring out, hey, we just got to do what the Texans did last week. But yeah, it was the same stuff. It was power runs. It was misdirection. It was reverses and stuff like that. But yeah, it was the same stuff. It was power runs. It was misdirection. It was reverses and stuff like that. All very effective runs for the Packers. And the Colts had no answer for it.

Starting point is 00:27:32 Josh Jacobs turned the clock back. It looked like Josh Jacobs of his, you know, record setting, or not record setting, but his league leading rushing year. So I fully expect Miles Sanders next week to all of a sudden look like the Philadelphia Eagles version of himself

Starting point is 00:27:44 when the Colts play the Bears. Yeah. DeAndre Swift. Or DeAndre Swift. Sorry, DeAndre Swift. I knew one of those Eagles running backs ended up there. DeAndre Swift. But yeah, like, it's very simple stuff. And then, oh, what did the Colts do in the second half? Rolled out some bear front, aggressively jumped on all reverse type plays and stayed home. And they allowed like one yard of carry in the second half where was that in the first half it's not like they changed up what they were doing they did the same things because they only had like four plays in the playbook for the green bay packers offense but the colts couldn't stop it so like we said all offseason coming this year

Starting point is 00:28:21 that this colts secondary was going to be bad. It was certainly going to be bad. And the Colts only chance of having a decent season on defense was their front seven being dominant in both the run and the passing game. Through two weeks, their secondary has been below average, maybe like better than expected, but below average. Their front seven has been putrid. And I know some of that is because deforest buckner got hurt middle of last week and he was obviously hurt today uh no samson ebucom is part of that but their front seven has just been a train wreck all season long and a lot of it is the players not

Starting point is 00:28:57 playing up to par a lot of it is this attacking scheme just getting destroyed by these gap runs and a lot of it is is Ballard relying on Taven Bryan to get 60, 70% of the snaps through two weeks. I don't know what the expectation here was with the Taven Bryan and Adetomi Adabor. I think Adetomi could be a good pass rusher, but why is he getting all these run snaps? What's going on with these linebackers?

Starting point is 00:29:23 They can't fill runs and they can't get running backs to the ground. Like it is just an absolute corrosion of everything on defense right now. And it's, it's frankly embarrassing. And it's at the point where it's like, I see a lot of people saying like, oh, we got to fire Gus Bradley. Oh, we got to fire Chris Ballard. Yeah. I mean, sure.

Starting point is 00:29:41 Like whatever, like we can talk, like they're not blameless here, but we also got to talk about the players on defense, just not playing up to par. Quiddy Paye is getting paid a lot of money coming up, and I don't think he was horrible today, but Quiddy Paye is getting a lot of money going into next season. Zyra Franklin, EJ Speed are both on their second and third contracts or whatever. The third contracts, I believe, is what they're both on. DeForest Buckner, I know he was hurt today, but he's on his third contract and making a ton of money. Grover Stewart on his third contract and making a ton of money. Grover Stewart on his third contract, making a ton of money. There's no excuse.

Starting point is 00:30:08 At the end of the day, unless Gus Bradley is literally telling them to let running backs run for 30 yards to carry, it's not like changing the defensive coordinator doesn't all of a sudden make all these guys great. They have to show up to the games. So, again, these are not children. These are not 20-year- old players where it's like, Oh, the coach has to lay into them and really yell at them. And all of a sudden they're going to figure it out. No, these are grown men who've been doing this for years. They need to have some pride in actually stop the run. Like it's as simple as that. Like they actually have to fill their run gaps. They have to play aggressive and they have to get these running backs. Cause

Starting point is 00:30:41 like, again, it's one thing if you're allowing four yards to carry five yards to carry in the first half this was like 11 yards of carry like this was this was kent state versus tennessee this was um purdue versus notre dame you know i know i'm ruffling some feathers with that one because it was painful for you guys yesterday too but that's what this was like it's just frankly embarrassing it can't happen so oh man, I don't know. Like it, it just like offense. I feel optimistic about the Colts offense, figuring it out at least at the halfway point this year, cleaning up some things and Richardson seeing the game a little bit better. This defense, especially if Buckner is out long-term, which looks very possible with that injury he suffered. I don't know what the solution is here on defense. You got players that are

Starting point is 00:31:23 getting paid big money, not showing up to these games and not playing well. And you've got rookies that are not playing well whatsoever either and young players that are not playing well whatsoever. And you've got a defensive staff and defensive coaching, whatever their strategy is there, that's just not working. It's just a mess on all fronts right now. And it's not just the GM. It's not just the defensive coordinator. It's not just the players. It's all of it like it's just a mess on all fronts right now and and it's not

Starting point is 00:31:45 just the gm it's not just the defensive coordinator it's not just the players it's all of it it's all of it like this was an embarrassed i know they only only gave up 16 points but to an offense on the other side that's telling you they're running the ball all game long and then a couple times they pass it they're throwing the ball all over you like it's an embarrassing showing they're lucky it was only 16 points. If Jordan Love plays today, it's 50 points. It's looking like Drew Brees and the Saints a couple years ago, back in 2019, when he only had, like, two incompletions.

Starting point is 00:32:13 Like, it was just an abysmal showing. And if this is what we're getting from the defense all year, then you can pack up the season right now. I mean, I'm sure you could almost already pack it up now. But if we're getting this from the defense all year, you can pack up the season and go home I mean, I'm sure you could almost already pack it up now, but if we're getting this from the defense all year, you can pack up the season and go home already because you're not going anywhere with it. No, you're seeing true regression from guys.

Starting point is 00:32:33 And things you used to be able to hang your hat on are not there anymore. And when you said it's a system problem, from the top to the bottom, they have poor depth in a lot of places and guys they are having to rely on maybe shouldn't even be on the roster. That part's not the player's fault. That's how you put the roster together. The coaching staff is clearly shown to be late to the party to make adjustments on certain things. They also have to work with what they've got. But then the player is just a total lack of execution. guys who you're used to seeing winning certain matchups or in certain scenarios aren't doing it they're getting blown off the ball they're

Starting point is 00:33:09 getting stuck on blocks they're not making simple tackles like how many missed tackles are you going to find on film tomorrow when you go in so and the first half in particular it's it's just unbelievable like fund breaking down in the fundamental there's just nothing going right we haven't even gotten to the point where a team can attack the secondary and truly show everybody oh yeah this is what we've been complaining about all offseason because they're getting killed so bad in the run game teams don't have to really pass against them other than when they you know need a throw to get that big third down conversion that you know they're going to get and even then they're converting them at

Starting point is 00:33:49 60 something percent clip right now which is like the worst they're doing what they want to do like there's just nothing like there's nothing you can look at with this defense right now to bring you any optimism and this was a game where they started Rodney Thomas, Samuel Womack, and Taven Bryan in this game. Outside of maybe Julian Blackman coming back and supplanting Thomas, you're going to be starting Womack the whole season probably, or Flowers, or whoever it's going to be. You're starting Taven Bryan maybe the whole season if Buckner's injury is serious. That can't happen. Does it get better? Does it get better from serious like I can't happen does it get better does it get better from

Starting point is 00:34:26 here I don't know like I what does it take what's the most defunct run game in football right now maybe that can get them back on track but honestly I feel like we're going to be the get right game for them um I just don't have any answers for this defense right now it's a fundamental collapse through two weeks and it's in the one area they actually had a strengthen on defense which was their front seven but now that's looking like a like a complete weakness their secondary is probably still a weakness but we don't know i mean every time they've been tested they've been beat i guess like jalen jones doesn't know how to find a football down the field on a on a 20 yard under that was like when i saw that i'm like you Of course, yes, he was a seventh-round pick.

Starting point is 00:35:06 He probably doesn't need to be in the position to have to be the one defending that throw. That's true. That's true. Seventh-round pick, he's probably a special teamer at best, typically. But, no, he's our best corner on our roster right now through two weeks. As you can tell, this is definitely a game that makes you go back and literally question everything. Because we are unraveling the entire yeah we're flying over the over the time limit for the show too but it's just like

Starting point is 00:35:28 something that like these things can't happen like it's again it's one thing like if Willis has the game of his life and beat you whatever make him beat you Josh Jacobs running for 200 yards in the first half for that offense running 200 yards in the first half that that can't happen like bring on bring nine linebackers on the field if you have to I don't care if you don't even roster a safety this week surely they knew that was going to be the plan whether it was going to be Jordan Lover or Malik Willis like they were gonna try and run the ball because of what Houston just did yeah and and then every time they threw the ball it's like these backed off zones and it's like just press them like it's Malik

Starting point is 00:36:02 Willis make him fit it into a tight window like I it's it blows my mind just the game plan the performance from the players the players that were on the field out there it's all inexcusable from this team and again we're talking playoffs here we're talking playoffs of this team it's not it's probably not happening but like just even getting wins at this point with with this type of defense you're not winning games with this defensive performance. Because if the Colts offense even showed up today, the Packers offense would be incentivized to score more. And they would have put up like 30 in this one. It just didn't have to in this game because the Colts offense was putrid as well.

Starting point is 00:36:38 Just a fundamental breakdown of everything on this Colts team in this one. It just can't happen. They're lucky that it was a six-point game. Like they were lucky last week was a two-point game.. They're lucky that it was a six-point game. They were lucky last week was a two-point game. They were really lucky this week was a six-point game. But that's all we have for today before Jake and I end up breaking all of our contract limits with shows. Other than that, how was the play, Mrs. Lincoln?

Starting point is 00:36:57 It was great, I guess. I don't know. But before we get out of here, I do want to remind you guys that our friends over at Lockdown NFL are now two shows every day featuring Tyler Rowland in the morning and then Tony Wiggins for some real NFL talk afterwards. Add in the Locked On local experts and you get unprecedented NFL insight all in 30 minutes. Or if it were us, 40 minutes, I guess, today. It's the new Locked On NFL and it's twice a day. Make the madman Tyler Rowland and the barber Tony Wiggins your second listen over at Locked On NFL on YouTube,

Starting point is 00:37:25 wherever you get your podcasts. And if you guys don't already, make sure you're following at Locked On Colts, at Jake Arthur NFL, and at Zach Hicks 2 all on Twitter. We're also on TikTok and Instagram. A lot of Dune posting over there coming this week. Also subscribe to us on YouTube, wherever you listen to your podcasts. More Dune posting on there as well because we love you guys' ratings and views despite the horrendous showing from the Colts. But you guys have a great rest of your day. You know, we're going to

Starting point is 00:37:49 disconnect from social media, because that'll make the rest of our day great. But you guys do what you have to do, because we will see you back here for our Anthony Richardson breakdown tomorrow afternoon.

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