Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts Dominate Houston Texans, Anthony Richardson Leaves with Concussion

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Colts pounded the Texans for their first win of the year on Sunday, but they lost their young star quarterback for the game in the process. 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, all right. Thanks for tuning in and making us your first listen post-game.

Starting point is 00:00:38 This is your daily podcast covering the Indianapolis Colts, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. And today's show is presented by LinkedIn Jobs, which helps you find the qualified candidates that you want to talk to faster. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com slash LockedOnNFL. That's LinkedIn.com slash LockedOnNFL to post your job for free. Terms and conditions apply. Hello, everybody. I'm Jake Arthur, and he is Zach Hicks. You know the two of us from horseshoehuddle.com. And let's just rush into this one

Starting point is 00:01:11 real quick. 31-20 win for the Colts on the road. Their first win since week 10 of last year. That was an eight-game losing streak previous. Zach told me a nice little stat before this. Their first multi-score win since that Jonathan Taylor Patriots game two years ago, back when Carson Wentz was the quarterback. So this was kind of a streak breaker of sorts. The Colts have needed this kind of win for a while. Really set the tone throughout. There were some times where the Texans came up and showed some life, made things a little interesting, but truly the Colts were in control from start to finish. The big story of the game, obviously, despite the win, just to bring the vibes down a little bit, I guess.

Starting point is 00:01:57 So Anthony Richardson left the game with a concussion in the second quarter, but not until looking really, really good before then. He pretty much owned that first quarter. The first two drives of the game, he had rushing touchdowns on him. So he looked good before he left. Gardner Minshew came in and picked up where he left off, helped put the Colts in cruise control and ultimately win the game. So, Zach, give me your takes. Yeah. So, I mean, starting with Anthony Richardson, obviously we'll talk about the hit protecting yourself and not wanting to see this type of injury in your young quarterback, but does just talk about how he played before he went out in this game. I mean, that first drive of the game was one of the

Starting point is 00:02:38 smoothest looking offensive drives. It was such a smooth drive for Colts offense where, I mean, last week, again again they had what 64 percent of their drives were three and outs and then if you go back to last season i mean every single drive was a three and out it was like 99 percent of their drives were three and outs last year they couldn't even complete passes last season they couldn't do anything so to see that type of drive to start the game i think he was 506 on that first drive uh for his you know his 56 yards he had a couple rushes. He finished it off with an 18-yard rushing touchdown as well. Just really, really good

Starting point is 00:03:11 opening drive. And then he capitalized on the second drive as well after the turnover with that really fancy reverse play that Shane Steichen drew up. Really gorgeous play design that he walked in for that second touchdown. Now it is unfortunately he left the game early, but it's a long season. Injuries happen. I'm not trying to downplay a concussion because we know how concussions are. Concussions are very serious injuries and you don't want to sit here and say, oh, it's just concussion. He'll be back.

Starting point is 00:03:36 Like, no, concussions are very serious. We've talked about this with Shaquille Leonard in the past as well. Concussions are extremely serious, but but once he hopefully he can get through the concussion protocol and we can get him back on the field because as of right now I mean the arrows are pointing up for him as long as he's healthy he needs to get healthy he needs to protect himself and obviously we'll talk about that that'll be a big thing we talk about all week this week but when he's been on the field this year he's looked smooth he's looked in control he's looked like a really developed passer and then the running game has been great as well. So I think there's a lot of positive to

Starting point is 00:04:09 look at with Anthony Richardson. Yes, you would like to see him finish a game. You'd like to see him not go down with this type of concussion, but it's early in the season. He's going to learn to protect himself. He's still a young player that is used to playing Superman his entire career when it comes to having the ball in his hands. I think this could be kind of a good lesson, a really hard lesson to learn. You know, again, concussion, you don't want to have to learn a lesson this way. But I think this is a good lesson for him to learn early in the season. And if he can come back and still look like the quarterback we saw these first two weeks, but protect himself a little bit more, I mean, we're looking at a really developed young

Starting point is 00:04:41 quarterback that's really promising. So I don't want to look at this injury and say like, woe is me oh woe is the Colts like let's be all depressed about this injury it's like let's look at the positives these first two games the Colts offense and Anthony Richardson look way ahead of schedule through two weeks and once they get him back from this injury we can continue to hopefully be ahead of schedule with this offense yeah and to the topic of protecting yourself, because I'm sure we've both seen it a million times already. The play in question,

Starting point is 00:05:10 I think the assumption is that he got the concussion on that second touchdown run. Right. I got hit by the defender and then his head hit the ground when he kind of careened off of him. Looking back at that play, like it was, it just seemed kind of fluky.

Starting point is 00:05:23 There was really no one in the wrong. Richardson and any other ball carrier is going to do essentially the same thing. Maybe they brace for impact a little more, but generally that's how football is played when you're the ball carrier. The defender smoked him, no doubt. You could consider it late within it know, late within it and wasn't necessary. But at the same time, Richardson was approaching the goal line and the defender was just trying

Starting point is 00:05:50 to, I'm assuming dislodge the ball from him, you know, just trying to not make it a cakewalk for him. So there's really no one in the wrong Richardson on that play in particular. I didn't think abandoned caution or anything like that. Like I thought it was just a football play. Well, and again, the thing we had to say about Richardson is I don't want abandoned caution or anything like that. Like I thought it was just a football play. Well, and again, the thing we had to say about Richardson is I don't want to bring up like the Paris Campbell thing or whatever,

Starting point is 00:06:10 but it's not like when Paris Campbell was always getting hurt, especially early in his career, it wasn't that it was like these, he was being reckless or anything like that. It's just, he took weird hits. He took weird hits and it hurt him. It's like with Anthony Richardson where it's like the first run of his career last week. Sure. He should have ducked out of bounds and that's where he hurt his ankle

Starting point is 00:06:27 and then the very end of the game he's trying to make too much happen but besides that he was really safe you know he was pretty safe throughout all that in this game through an entire quarter of play he takes one hit and that one hit he's he falls on his back and hits his head like i don't want to say like injury prone or oh my gosh he's not protecting himself or anything like that it's just part of football you sometimes take some bad hits and you got to hope that you can mitigate those bad hits sure i would love for him to duck and cover a little bit more going into the end zone like that don't even expose yourself to a big hit but at the end of the day it's football you're going to get hit especially if you're a big running

Starting point is 00:07:00 quarterback like him and you just got to hope that you can mitigate the damage on those type of hits but before we get out this first segment jake we do have to talk about gardner minchu gardner minchu comes in and we're going to talk about this more in segment two when we talk about shane steichen in particular but for shane steichen to have that backup game plan just ready for gardner minchu because obviously that was not the game plan they were going to run with anthony richardson when gardner minchu came in the game obviously you weren't calling qb runs for gardner Minshew, but to just have that spare game plan on plans like, okay, cool.

Starting point is 00:07:29 Gardner Minshew is coming in heavy RPOs, heavy, quick hitters, more runs with Zach Moss and the offense still moved pretty freely. And it flowed really well after that. I mean, two straight scoring drives right after Anthony Richardson leaves the game that just speaks volume to Gardner Minshew would be Minshew being able to get ready and go out there, but also to Shane Steichen and his ability to have that second game plan available. Minshew comes in, does his job, does everything right,

Starting point is 00:07:53 and the Colts end up getting the blowout victory. Yeah, it seemed as if on the first few drives when Minshew took over, the Colts were able to kind of operate how they wanted to. The passing game was rhythmic. They were able to get some things after the catch. Picked up first downs. Like, they were really, really efficient. Like you mentioned, Zach Moss, really solid performance out of him.

Starting point is 00:08:15 You know, three scoring drives from Minshew right off the bat. Two of those were for touchdowns. They were nice sustained drives, too. They averaged 75.5 yards on 10 plays on those two touchdown scoring drives. Even the field goal one was like 55 yards. So moving the ball really well there, you know, different receivers and things like that. They can, they'll live that way.

Starting point is 00:08:39 Like obviously there's a ceiling to it when it's not Anthony Richardson out there, but like just the game plan that was drawn up in that instance was was pretty solid I did not have any issues with that whatsoever yeah yeah one thing I do want to touch on is like unless Richardson clears concussion protocol by like Wednesday I'd probably hold him out this next game you know again don't rush it don't rush it. He's only been in the NFL for, you know, this is going into his third game coming up. Unless he's absolutely cleared, like be safe with it. And you have a good backup. You have a backup that can manage the offense and get things moving. Don't need to rush him out there. I know there's a need to just see him and get him more snaps.

Starting point is 00:09:20 And trust me, I want to get him on the field. But, you know, unless it's super clear that he's ready to go and you feel like you've been able to get him ramped up throughout all week, I wouldn't force him out there this week against the Baltimore Ravens, who have a defense that's going to bring a lot of pressure, bring a lot of physicality, a lot of hits. I'm not saying that you hide him because of his potential to get hit again, but I feel like this is the type of defense where you need a couple of practices under your belt to kind of get the flow of the week and get the flow of the game plan under you you don't want to go into this game blind and if he's in the concussion protocol all the way up until Saturday I would say just go with Gardner Minshew in this next game yeah like you

Starting point is 00:09:59 said unless the timeline is pretty quick like because you have to get through a limited practice and then a full practice. So you want Anthony to get through a full week of practice for especially for a defense like this. So that makes a lot of sense. So here in a minute, we're going to move on and talk about some of the rest of the offensive playmakers and how they stood out. But first, let's talk about our friends over at LinkedIn Jobs. These days, every new potential hire can feel like a high stakes wager for your small business. You want to be 100% certain that you have access to the best qualified candidates available.

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Starting point is 00:12:09 first deposit match up to 100 bucks. Daily fantasy sports made easy. And every day as we back on Tuesday morning to talk all about this Colts victory, we'll have time to digest the film at that point and really go into the Shane Steichen game plan that led to the Colts, dismantling this D'Amico and Ryan's defense. So make sure you guys are here for Locked On Colts on Tuesday morning. And Jake, I think that's a great segue into this Colts offense.

Starting point is 00:12:35 Obviously, we're going to talk about a lot of the individual players and what they did. But again, I think we really need to have our hats off here for Shane Steichen. Shane Steichen, new head coach, play caller. Last week, it wasn't the prettiest. I know I saw a lot of people coming out and saying it was a terrible game plan that they had for the Jacksville Jaguars. And the Colts offense just didn't flow under Shane Steichen. Well, they come out this week, albeit against a shorthanded defensive defense that's not that great. But a really good defensive play caller in D'Amico Ryans,

Starting point is 00:13:05 and they just dismantled them the entire game. I mean, this, again, the second half, maybe they played a little too conservative. They only had, I think, four possessions in the second half, and one of them, they had a long drive for a field goal, and then the other ones, you know, they moved the ball a little bit, but not a ton. But for the most part, I mean, this was just a dominant showing

Starting point is 00:13:22 by the Colts' offense, even when their backup quarterback came in. They just completely dismantled this Texans defense. And, you know, hats off again. Hats off to Shane Steichen in this one. Phenomenally called game. Again, this is probably the best game I've seen called by a Colts play caller since when Frank Reich dismantled the Jets, I think, two or three years ago. You know, that Thursday night or Sunday night game, whatever the heck that was.

Starting point is 00:13:47 It reminds me a lot of that one where it was just like from start to finish, this was just a play caller on one side of the ball, just toying with another play caller. It just wasn't even a close game whatsoever from that perspective. And also in a lot of other ways, Shane Steichen outcoached Miko Reins. I mean, that punt fake or whatever to get the offense back on the field to force Ryans to call a timeout. It's just a really, really good, confident game by Shane Steichen.

Starting point is 00:14:12 I thought he did a lot of great things in this. And if you're someone like me who was super high on the Shane Steichen hire in the offseason, seeing a game like this where the Colts came out and, again, they just kind of dominated a team they should have beat, this is such a promising sign for the Colts. This wasn't a letdown game. This wasn't a game where they were going to roll over just because they should have won. They came out, and they showed that they deserved to win this game early and often,

Starting point is 00:14:34 and a lot of that starts with the head coach. So Shane Steichen, before we get into the offense, I just want to go on that little tangent about him. This was a really, really well-coached game from all facets of being a head coach. Yeah, as the kids say, he was in his bag on this one. I mean, I understood some people's gripes from week one, like whether it was situationally or just like play calls on fourth down, whatever. I got it. Like it was whatever. But on this one, I thought he was really, really smooth. You can see, we've seen it, especially with the Colts. Like they just get, it feels like they get stuck if their game plan isn't working and it's like, they can't, they can't adapt whatsoever. And it just seemed like whatever they tried,

Starting point is 00:15:15 they found a way to do it. Whether it was getting, you know, the, the rhythmic passes in the short to intermediate stuff to get first downs and not, not just going for the tiny stuff, but like going for the sticks, going for the first downs. Like I just thought in general, they were able to move the ball. Well, again, Zach Moss, very welcome return to the lineup, 18 carries for 88 yards and a touchdown also for receptions for 19 yards dominated the backfield. I think he saw like all but just

Starting point is 00:15:47 a couple of the snaps at running back today uh so that guy was a workhorse in his debut um for the season very very well done and to do that i mean he he pretty much did that against the the texans last year uh but to do it without Anthony Richardson right there next to him, carving things up as well throughout the majority of the game, and for how bad the Colts looked last week running the ball, it's a lot of optimism because it shows you they can have a competent run game moving forward. Yeah, Zach Moss, it was such a massive get back to get him on the field this week because again, he's a player where he's not going to break off an 80 yard touchdown run like a like a Jonathan Taylor but he's the type of guy where

Starting point is 00:16:29 no matter what the the mess looks like in front of him he's going to turn out four five six yards you know he's going to turn out those positive gains and we saw that for majority of his runs in this one it just it wasn't flashy it wasn't pretty but it was some old school football where he's able to get his head down he He's able to fall forward for positive yards. And he makes those third and tens that we saw last week into third and twos, third and threes, third and fours, maybe third and five. But those are all positive plays from your running back that get you in position to get a first down.

Starting point is 00:16:56 So, yeah, Zach Moss, a massive get back for him. Some other pass catchers played really well. Michael Pittman Jr., eight catches for 56 yards. Will Mallory, in his debut ofman Jr. 8 catches for 56 yards. Will Mallory in his debut of the season 2 catches for 49 yards. Had the Colts biggest explosive play on offense of the entire year on that 43 yard catch. And also I think Josh Downs,

Starting point is 00:17:14 Kylan Granson, Alec Pierce all had really solid games as well. They all hauled in their targets when it came their way. I mean, Granson had that one high drop-ish play early in the game from Anthony Richardson. But for the most part, I think all the Colts pass catchers and weapons and running backs played really well in this game.

Starting point is 00:17:31 They all showed that they belonged to be out there, and they all made some plays happen. Yeah, and I thought the offensive line was really solid as well. Even with Ryan Kelly going out with his own concussion and Wesley French coming in, I thought he did a solid job. But you had mentioned this with kind of the down and distance stuff. When Shane Steichen was asked about some of the offensive hardships last week, down and distance especially, getting something positive on first

Starting point is 00:17:57 and second down and not just getting stuffed and no yardage or losing yardage, whatever, on those early downs, that goes a long way to getting third and manageables. And then last week it was something real bad. It was like three of 15 or something combined on third and fourth downs. It was just really uneven. I want to say it was two of 12 on third and one of five. So it was three of 17, I believe.

Starting point is 00:18:21 Okay. Yeah. So it was a really terrible number. So today you look at, they didn't even have to attempt a fourth down because third down was going pretty well, six at 12. And then they were one of four in the red zone last week, I think four or four this week. Yep. So a lot more efficient. They were getting the yards when they needed to early in the down and distances.

Starting point is 00:18:42 So that was, that was one of the biggest reasons why they were able to score 31 points. Nope. Nope. So they were able to do, they were able, they were to execute what they wanted to do a lot better today. And I just feel like that's something we really haven't been able to say about a Colts offense in a very long time. Yeah. You know, again, we might be talking like nonchalantly here, but like, this is the best a Colts offense has looked since, what, Phillip Rivers, 2020?

Starting point is 00:19:12 Even those 2021 seasons or whatever, maybe the Jonathan Taylor game against the Buffalo Bills or maybe the Jets game as well that same season where they just destroyed those two teams. Maybe you could say those games, the offense looked a lot better from start to finish, but the offense just could do what they really wanted to in this one. Like, sure.

Starting point is 00:19:29 You wanted to see more first downs in the second half, but like the offense was able to really do what they needed to in this one. They were able to run the ball. Well, they were able to throw the ball. Well, they had a couple of downfield plays from like,

Starting point is 00:19:39 you know, Will Mallory, Alec Pierce had a 20 yard catch. I think Michael Pittman jr. Had a 20 yard catch to start the game too. They had two big runs from Anthony Richardson. They were just able to kind of do what they needed to in this one. And on top of all that, and I don't want to throw this aside,

Starting point is 00:19:54 the Colts offensive line, zero sacks allowed. One quarterback hit, zero sacks allowed. Perfect. Perfect. Perfect. The stinkometer, they are fine. They're doing good right now. They're doing good. That leads me to to think Anthony probably would add a huge game.

Starting point is 00:20:10 Yeah. Like if Gardner's not, if Gardner's not getting sacked and Anthony probably isn't either. And he's able to obviously do a lot more. Yeah. I think it would have been a lot of more wide receiver screens, a lot of quick hitters like they did on that first drive. And then a lot of QB runs as well, which was really working before he went out of that game. So it would have been a huge game for Anthony Richardson, but still a huge game for the Colts offense. Nonetheless, so far through two games, the Colts offense is averaging 27 points per game. Last year, I believe they were like one of the worst averaging like 15.5 or something or 16 point something. So massive improvements early this year.

Starting point is 00:20:44 We're loving it from the colts offense and coming up we're going to talk about the colts defense and how yes it wasn't pretty in the second half but you know they still got job done they still got each other we're gonna talk about that here coming up but first snap into action this nfl season with fan duel america's number one sports book right now new customers $200 back in bonus bets guaranteed when you place a $5 bet. That's $200 in bonus bets, win or lose. If you've been thinking about joining FanDuel, there's no better time to get in on the action. The app is so easy to use. There's a wide range of betting options, including spreads, player props, over-unders, and more. So visit

Starting point is 00:21:21 FanDuel.com slash locked on and kick off the NFL season. FanDuel, official partner of the NFL. All right, Jake. So we're going to get into the defense here. We're going to talk about the good. We're going to talk about some of the bad, but I need to come out and address it first because it was my big prediction going into the season that Daryl Baker Jr. was going to establish himself as a long-term answer, a corner for the Colts. And it was a brutal game. It was an absolutely brutal. I defended last week because those were really difficult plays for a corner to make on those two big catches he allowed.

Starting point is 00:21:54 But this week, again, part of it was that the Colts were just winning by so much, and you're trying to force everything inside, and you're trying to kind of get everything to the defense so you can swallow it up but the effort wasn't there he was he looked a little lackadaisical at times and he was just getting beat like a drum constantly in this one I don't really have excuses or reasons for him this week it was a really really rough game from Darrell Baker Jr. and I think before we even get to the positives here I do think the Colts need to consider maybe getting Juju Brents up to speed for next week or inserting Jalen Jones into the lineup next week, because this type of game is not going to cut it. Again, we're going to talk about the

Starting point is 00:22:33 defense as a whole and how, yes, they gave up a lot of yards passing in this one, but it was mostly in a blowout victory. So again, it's kind of tough to judge that, but Darryl Baker Jr., it was a really rough game. And I will completely take that take to my, that was a horrible take, I guess, by me before the season, because I don't know if he's going to bounce back from this kind of game. It was a brutal game. You hope that it's just a Rockdison Denver Broncos type game where you can bounce back from it. But, oh man, just from the effort effort level from contesting passes to making tackles after giving up receptions there was just nothing there positive in this game from Daryl Baker Jr. and I just don't have any good things to say about his performance of all the great things we could

Starting point is 00:23:18 say about the Colts in this game oh man that was that was a that was one of the roughest games I've seen a Colts corner have. Yeah, I think we know that Bradley and Ron Miles aren't just going to like fully rip the cord yet, but it would be good to see like Jalen Jones get some action. I totally agree with you there. You know, looking in detail, Baker appeared to be the primary defender on Nico Collins most of the day. Collins went off for seven catches for 146 yards and a touchdown. As bottled up as the Colts had the Texans' offense for much of the game,

Starting point is 00:23:52 a big play to Collins bailed them out on several drives. You know what I mean? It extended a lot of things. And C.J. Stroud, like, he's a guy that keeps his confidence throughout, and he's not really that flappable. But with how much pressure the Colts were getting on him, they really could have shut him down a lot more. That connection to Collins was just on fire.

Starting point is 00:24:11 And the 146 yards wasn't because he had like an 80 yard catch. It was like a legit averaging 20 yards for catch type of day. So, right. Yeah. I'd be interested in seeing Jones, see what he's got. Not doesn't have to be a whole overhaul of his playing time, but I just need more effort.

Starting point is 00:24:27 I love it. Yeah, you're going to get beat when you're a corner. You're going to get beat. Dallas Flowers actually is a great example of this. He gets beat quite a bit, quite a bit. He gets beat, but he's diving for passes. He's making tackles after getting beat. You know, he's he's playing until the end of the snap.

Starting point is 00:24:42 You know, they were Baker Jr. On the touchdown, he gave up. It's just no effort whatsoever on that tackle. On multiple other plays where he gets beat inside, it's just very lackadaisical running it down. That fourth down conversion late in the game too, it's like you could have dove and maybe made a play there, but he just kind of pulled up.

Starting point is 00:24:57 It's like I don't want to make this whole segment all about Darryl Baker Jr. Like we're going to end it right here and go to the positives. But, like, man, I don't, you can't have a game like that. Like what, what is going on? Like you just can't have a game like that, but you know, switching to the positives with the Colts defense, they were all over this Texans offense for most of the game. Again, a lot of their passing yards came either throwing a Baker or just in

Starting point is 00:25:19 garbage time for the most of the second half. They had six sacks in this game. Constantly had CJ Stroud under duress. All from different guys too. All from different guys. Yeah. They had six sacks in this game, constantly had C.J. Stroud under duress. All from different guys, too. All from different guys. Yeah, they had a lot of pressure. They had the forced fumble in the beginning of the game that made it a two-score game, and it was basically a two-score game

Starting point is 00:25:35 like the rest of the game from there. And then also the run defense, just outstanding. 26 carries for 52 yards on the ground for the Texans. They couldn't do anything running the ball. Now, the big man that was destroying the They couldn't do anything running the ball. Now the big man that was destroying the run game, obviously Grover Stewart, Grover Stewart is insane.

Starting point is 00:25:52 Like, and he's getting more pass rushing snaps this year too. I think he has like three QB hits through two weeks as well. He called for it. I'm telling you, Grover's having a breakout season again. Like it's just Grover season every year, but you know, this is another breakout season for Grover. He's been outstanding through two weeks.

Starting point is 00:26:10 He was one of the best players on either team today. Same with Buck. They're just getting really solid performances out of their interior. I thought it was probably Grover a little more than Buck, but Buck did call game at the end and sack Stroud to end the whole thing. But the defensive line in general, you know, we we've called this group really deep and that they needed to step up and do some things and they have the two games.

Starting point is 00:26:33 Quitty pay out there with another sack. Samson to book him at a solid game. Oh, Samson to book him was awesome. Samson to book him was destroying early on too. Oh gosh. Beat that. Yeah. Samson Abukam was destroying Josh Jones. Early on, too. Oh, gosh. Beat down. Yeah, Samson Abukam, I think, was the best rusher in this game for the Colts. But, yeah, DeForest Buckner, great.

Starting point is 00:26:51 Quiddy Paye had a great game. Taven Bryan had a sick. Dio had the forced fumble. Had the forced fumble. Yeah, like EJ Speed had a sack. It was just the front seven for the Colts is such a strong point right now for this team where it's like you want to see this secondary come along a little bit faster even though you know they're a dumb group but this front seven is so good this front seven is really really good for the Colts right now yeah absolutely and

Starting point is 00:27:14 I think that can kind of hover up for some of the things and coverage because they can get to the ball quickly but at a certain point that those you know the cornerback situation will have to get figured out but no overall really good speaking of someone in the secondary i thought kenny moore had a really good game yeah there was one one play in particular he came on a blitz against stroud and you know he had he had stroud moving out stroud you know fake the pass a lot of guys jump and take themselves out of the play at that point. He stayed grounded, stayed with it.

Starting point is 00:27:48 Totally made the play a failure. I felt that was so impressive for being something that's not going to be in the box score. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. I know. Kenny's been really strong to start the first two weeks.

Starting point is 00:27:59 Again, you wish you could say about the whole secondary. You want to see a little bit more from the rest of the secondary, but yeah, I think Kenny's been back to Kenny self, which is nice. A lot of confidence. He's coming up and hitting like he always does.

Starting point is 00:28:09 He's not getting beat much in coverage. Like we've seen very, very good Kenny more to start this season. Yeah. I, I think it was an episode right before the season where I said, you know, they need Kenny more to step up and be the Kenny more of old because he

Starting point is 00:28:24 pretty quickly earned a master's degree in Matt Eberflus' defense back then and became one of the most dangerous defenders in the league. And he's already looking so much more comfortable in this defense year or two of Bradley. If he gets that mastery of this defense, he's able to do so many things outside of the structure. Like he can bait guys. He just has instincts that not everybody has. He's able to do so many things outside of the structure. Like he can bait guys. He like,

Starting point is 00:28:45 he just has instincts that not everybody has. And so when you have a player like that, just playing at that level, it's really important. Yep. Yep. And then one more thing before we close out the show, before we close out talking about the defense here,

Starting point is 00:28:57 Jake, the Colts so far have what? Eight sacks through two games. Your prediction was that they were going to break, break a record right 40 yeah it's uh the record is 46 by the 2005 team okay in the indianapolis right now they're on pace for 68 right now that's a lot you tried to see you tried to push me to say that they would get 60 and i said that was too rich yeah as of right now i still i still think that's pretty

Starting point is 00:29:23 rich but yeah i feel confident in saying they could break that Indy era record, though. Oh, yeah. I mean, as of right now, I think we're, what, 12 QB hits, eight sacks through two games. This Colts front seven is playing some really great football. They have one of the best run defenses in the league right now, too. So if anything else about this Colts defense, you want to be concerned about the secondary, sure. I understand it. Be concerned about the secondary.

Starting point is 00:29:49 But this front seven, they look ready. They look ready. They look great from linebacker depth to defensive tackles and defensive tackle depth to the pass rushers off the edge. This looks like the best front seven of the Chris Ballard era, which is really fun to see. And we'll, we'll see them really tested next week against one of the best quarterbacks in all the football in Lamar Jackson. So, you know, if you guys don't already follow at Locked on Colts at Jake Arthur NFL at Zach Hicks to all on Twitter, because we'll be back with you guys all week to talk about Colts Texans reviewing that game, but also getting you guys ready for Colts and Ravens. So every day is again, follow us there on social media, subscribe to us on YouTube, wherever you list your podcast.

Starting point is 00:30:23 We'd love your guys ratings and reviews. And we'll see you guys back here Tuesday morning to talk the Colts.

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