Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts Go Up-Tempo, Saving Anthony Richardson's Day vs. Cincinnati Bengals

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Colts visited the Bengals today for a joint practice at their preseason finale later this week. And the Colts offense and defense actually seem to switch roles. 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 listen of the day. This is your daily podcast covering your Indianapolis Colts,

Starting point is 00:00:35 part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. And today's show is brought to you by FanDuel. Now through September 22nd, all FanDuel customers can bet $5 and get a three-week free trial of NFL Sunday ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV. Just visit FanDuel.com slash locked on to get started. What is up, everybody? This is Jake Arthur of HorseshoeHuddle.com. Your boots on the ground. Credentialed media member. I was out there in Cincinnati today for the Colts and Bengals joint practice. They had this one joint practice, and then both teams are going to wrap up the

Starting point is 00:01:10 preseason this Thursday night. And it was quite an interesting day. So going into it, you assume the Colts offense with Anthony Richardson, you know, Jonathan Taylor is there that they're going to have some success against the Bengals defense that was, you know, kind of lacked some teeth at times last year, and that the Colts defense, which has had some times where it's kind of been a turnstile and didn't have its best showing last week against the Cardinals, that it would really struggle against a Joe Burrow-led Bengals offense that was without Jamar Chase, but had T. Higgins, Mike Gesicki, Zach Moss, Jermaine Burton, still plenty of weapons and one of the best quarterbacks in the entire league.

Starting point is 00:01:56 It actually turned out the Colts' offense struggled mightily early on, and the defense actually pitched a shutout and didn't allow the Bengals to get into the end zone during 11-on-11s. So expectations were surprisingly kind of swapped there. So first off, let's talk about the guys that were in and out. One of the biggest injury developments of the day, Raekwon Davis is back. He was removed from the non-football illness list on Monday. He was back out there in his first possible opportunity.

Starting point is 00:02:29 Of course, it's like the most physical practice of the entire summer where you get out there in a joint practice. And then when they're condensing all of it into one practice, and it was like two hours or so, it's obviously going to be the most intense one of the summer. Ashton Doolin was back after missing like three or four practices, I believe. Jelani Woods, who came up with a toe injury in the game on Saturday, he was out. We're going to have more on that in a moment.

Starting point is 00:02:59 Juju Brents, who had a nose injury back in the game, he left the game early. He was out. He's not expected to be out very long. Trey Sermon has been out for a couple weeks now. He pulled a hamstring injury in that first preseason game. Tanner Bortolini, he also had a toe injury on Saturday's game, but it's not expected to be to the extent that Jelani Woods' injury is. Linebacker Cameron McGrone was out. Titus Leo was out. Liam Anderson was out. Josh Downs, of course, was still out, but at least he's not still on his scooter. I think we've all seen those things where you put one knee up on the scooter and then you have to

Starting point is 00:03:37 scoot along to take pressure off. He wasn't in a boot, wasn't on a scooter. He was walking with a limp. So I guess that at least shows there's been some improvement in his rehab so far. Still very questionable whether or not he's going to be ready to start the season, but at least he's making progress as you would hope. After practice, head coach Shane Steichen confirmed that the vast majority of the Colts starters will play into the second quarter. He said about a quarter and a half, give or take. So we'll see what that means.

Starting point is 00:04:10 There might still be some guys that don't play at all and won't have played in the preseason, which is totally fine. Some of those older, more important veterans, you really don't need to see them out there. So let's go ahead and get to Anthony Richardson know, Anthony Richardson and the Colts offense and how they started. How it started was horribly, at least in the 11-on-11s. I think Anthony was like two of eight or two for nine before things really got started. He had an interception early on too. It was just ugly. I don't know really what was going on you know that they started it wasn't even

Starting point is 00:04:47 just in the red zone that they started with 11 on 11s um but shane steichen wasn't over there coaching them in the first half he was watching the defense uh it was i believe jim bob couter over there calling the plays and everything but everything was just so off first off the offensive line was incredibly leaky. Anthony Richardson was constantly under duress. When he'd get rid of the ball, it's like the receivers weren't expecting it yet. I think there was at least three passes where Anthony had it right there, and the receivers just weren't getting around in time to catch it.

Starting point is 00:05:25 So that was kind of odd because that really hasn't been an issue at any point throughout camp. Now, the process had to be sped up, I'm sure, because Anthony was, again, under pressure and having to get rid of the ball pretty quickly, but not a great thing to see initially. Anthony had to kind of take off and run several times. And what really punctuated it being so ugly was we could hear loud and clear what the Bengals defenders were saying and yelling, and they were not impressed. You know, they were criticizing Richardson, like, just throw the ball. He doesn't even see his receivers. He just throws to spots. They didn't have very nice things to say. Luckily, about midway through the practice, things kind of turned around. I'm not going to say it was a direct result of Shane Syken coming back and watching them, but around that same time, the offense

Starting point is 00:06:18 really flipped the script. They started to go up-tempo. You start, you know, at the end of the day, you saw like a two minute drive. But that seems to be where Anthony really excels. Like the more chaotic and tense of a situation, it's almost like he needs that to get going. You know, we've talked about before, like routes on air and seven on seven and stuff where there's no pass rush and there's no like threat of the play you know coming to a quick end he maybe it's too relaxed or allows himself to have too much time but when he has to get out on a move and and just make things happen that seems to be when he internally settles down and allows himself to play a little more crisp.

Starting point is 00:07:08 But, you know, in totality of his day, he went 10 of 20 in the 11 on 11s. He had a touchdown to A.D. Mitchell. He did have the interception to Logan Wilson, the Bengals linebacker. He got sacked, you know, the would-be sacks we talk about about three times at least. Again, I talked about he was under duress a lot. That offensive line was pretty leaky.

Starting point is 00:07:29 It seemed to be mostly coming from the right side. Michael Pittman Jr. led all receivers with four receptions. Again, there was the touchdown to A.D. Mitchell. That really was like one of the first bright spots of the day. It came down in the low red zone in the back of the end zone, about five yards out. Anthony also had a couple of touchdowns during the red zone portion of seven on sevens.

Starting point is 00:07:54 He hit Mitchell and Kylan grants in there and the shallow end of the, the end zone from about 10 to 15 yards out. So he was productive in seven on sevens in the red zone. That's great because we've seen him be kind of lethal in the red zone throughout the entire summer. So that stuff is something to keep an eye on. As long as the offense can get into the red zone and put sixes on the board instead of threes, that's always going to be a big plus,

Starting point is 00:08:20 especially when Matt Gay has been having whatever struggles that he's been dealing with on the field lately. So just a quick theme on the defense. It's again, it seemed like they had a pretty big day overall, no touchdowns allowed against the Bengals first team offense during 11 on 11s. There were plenty of opportunities to be had. They had at least like 10 plays in the red zone and Colts to individual defensive players. We'll get to that in a minute, but there is a handful of big plays that they generated. So certainly awesome news to hear all of that coming up. We're going to talk about, you know,

Starting point is 00:08:55 guys outside of Anthony Richardson that had significant days on the offense. You guys have heard us talk a lot about FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook. Well, we got something a little different for you now. Now through September 22nd, all FanDuel customers can bet $5 and get a three-week free trial of NFL Sunday Ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV. Then, with a YouTube TV base plan, you'll be able to watch every regular season Sunday afternoon out-of-market game. All you need is a Google account and a current form of payment, and you can cancel anytime.

Starting point is 00:09:29 When it comes to hedging your Colts bets, they're currently five and a half point favorites for Thursday night against the Bengals. There's a total point over under of 34 and a half. Now that we know how much the starters are going to play, we'll maybe see if those lines move at all. But maybe if you're more comfortable betting on a league that's actually in season and has some consistency, Kaitlin, Aaliyah, and the Fever are on the road this Saturday

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Starting point is 00:10:12 But for your second listen, go enjoy the Locked On Fantasy Football Podcast. Get daily insight to the best fantasy draft strategies so that you can win your league this season. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. All right, so let's talk offense. I'm going to kind of wrap two things into one topic here. So Jelani Woods, I mentioned at the top of the show, he's got the toe injury that he remains out. So let's kind of break down this timeline.

Starting point is 00:10:37 He gets hurt on Sunday or Saturday during the game with a toe injury, leaves the game. Afterward in the locker room room he didn't seem to think it was too big of a deal he thought he might be practicing this week he wasn't out there during practice today and then after practice Shane Steichen said he was going to miss some time and kind of left it open-ended like he would be out a pretty decent chunk of time. After practice, Joel Erickson from the Indy Star tweeted out that Jelani Woods is actually going to have a procedure on his toe and that he will be out, of course, for an extended period of time. Ian Rappaport came out a little bit later and reiterated the same thing.

Starting point is 00:11:21 So it looks like Woods is going to be out indefinitely with the season coming so close. I can't speculate, but we've been talking lately about is Woods even going to make the roster? I think an option for them now is probably to put him on IR. That way they can keep him. They don't have to cut him. And, you know, he's injured. So it's not like they can just sit there and let him be on the roster.

Starting point is 00:11:49 Again, we'll have to get a clear timetable of how long he's supposed to be out. But if he's having a procedure on it, one can assume that it's going to be a little bit. So I do think injured reserve is an option for them now. A guy that obviously directly, I hate to say benefits from this, but someone who is directly affected is Will Mallory. It feels, it felt like that last tight end spot was maybe going to come down to Mallory or Woods. They offer a lot of the same things, you know, downfield receiving ability. They've got that big play ability. Both really just pass catchers for the most part. Mallory has been a lot more sure-handed, I will say.

Starting point is 00:12:32 The only time I've really recalled him dropping balls ever in his first couple years here now is in the rain the other day when it was a torrential downpour. Other than that, the guy catches absolutely everything. He is a big play threat. And so now Other than that, the guy catches absolutely everything. He is a big play threat. And so now maybe it seems like the Colts can get away with carrying four tight ends and they don't have to cut either of Mallory or Woods. Again, that's just me kind of putting the pieces together a little bit. We're going to have to wait and see and see what kind of comes of that.

Starting point is 00:13:03 But I think that makes the most sense. Mallory did have a really strong day today. He had at least four or five catches in 11 on 11s. His first big one was about a 20 yarder from Joe Flacco over the middle. Later, he caught a touchdown from Flacco during the red zone portion that was in 11 on 11s as well. He finally kind of broke the cold streak for Anthony Richardson. He was his first reception of the day. So Mallory was very involved in, you know, mostly the second team offense, but he did get some reps out there with the first team as well. As far as personnel goes, we're seeing a little more diversity with the slot.

Starting point is 00:13:51 It had been mostly A.D. Mitchell with Anthony Gould occasionally getting out there. But now as of today, you know, we've seen Mitchell, we've seen Gould, we've seen Michael Pittman Jr. out there, which from the beginning, I thought that was really intriguing. Alec Pierce even was out there today. So they're kind of experimenting with what they want to do there at the slot. When it gets to the season, I think it's going to be very matchup and situational based. I don't think we're going to just see like one guy that's defined as the slot receiver. Obviously, Josh Downs when he comes back, but I think they're going to keep mixing things up until Downs returns.

Starting point is 00:14:26 Someone else who got some reps with the ones today was Tyler Goodson. He had a really strong performance Saturday against the Cardinals. Evan Hull might have as well. I didn't notice him getting any reps with the ones, but it does feel like the Colts are kind of trying to give Goodson and Hull equal opportunities recently to really grab a hold of that third RB spot now that Trey Sermon is out of the lineup. And of course, you can't give Jonathan Taylor every single rep. So let's see some other big plays on the day. Joe Flacco connected with Juwan Winfrey in a touchdown on seven on sevens. Sam Ellinger hit DJ Montgomery on a touchdown in seven on sevens.

Starting point is 00:15:09 Flacco, he's starting to take his mobile show on the road. Joe has been running more than I can ever recall him running throughout his career. He's been doing that a ton this summer. He had a really long Matt Ryan versus the raiders-esque run today and you know he just kept running but the referees weren't blowing the whistle and so it's like i'm just just keep going old man let's go so a huge run on the ground today for joe flacco again guys are not allowed to hit him out there during practice so who knows how long that really would have gone. But Flacco really turned on whatever jets he has, he turned those on today.

Starting point is 00:15:51 It was good for Flacco to get his buddy Ashton Doolin back. The two guys that I think he has had far and away the most chemistry with since OTAs into now, Anthony Gould, especially hitting plays deep. They've gotten kind of a full rapport now. They're able to kind of find each other at all levels of the field now. Doolin wasn't there for OTAs because he was still recovering from the ACL, but he's been out there all training camp, except for, of course, the three or four practices he missed with the hamstring.

Starting point is 00:16:23 But that is Flacco's, like, when he's got to have a reception, he goes to Doolin. We've seen the second-team offense in two-minute situations probably at least four times or so by now. And when Doolin is out there, that is who Flacco is looking for. That is his Michael Pittman Jr. So that's very intriguing. I like to see that, especially for a guy like Doolin, who missed so many reps last year because of the ACL and he couldn't be out there. So to be out there and to have a rapport with a guy like Joe Flacco, who is not going to really glom onto anybody if they're not a reliable

Starting point is 00:17:06 player. Cause I mean, let's face it, Flacco is an old veteran and he's not just going to waste reps on, on guys who, you know, aren't really in it. So for him to have a really strong connection with both Doolin and Gould speaks volumes to me. Again, the offense, I mentioned the pass protection was shoddy a lot of the time. Obviously, when they went up tempo, the ball was getting out way, way quicker. But earlier in practice, we counted at least three would-be sacks against Anthony. There was a couple on Flacco and Ellinger as well. So it was kind of every level of protection for a second and third team was, was having its struggles.

Starting point is 00:17:47 One guy I wanted to shout out because we have had to talk negatively about him lately because that's what his performance has been like, but Blake Freeland, I did notice he had a nice pancake block today. They drew up a screen pass for Ashton Doolin there with the second team offense and the offensive line. A few of them got out there out in the open and in front of Doolin to create some room. And Freeland was at the forefront of that and made a defensive back pay by planting him right into the ground. So, you know, we have had to say some negative things

Starting point is 00:18:21 lately, but when a guy does something positive, we'll go ahead and shout that out as well. So coming up next, let's tie a bow on this thing and let's tell you all about the defense. Just catching up, looking at your guys, some of your guys' comments here. All right. So defense, I'm going to go ahead and give a lot of credit to Joel Erickson from the Indy start here. Because as much as I love these joint practices, the only problem with them is if there's only one of you like there is with me, the first team offense and the first team defense are on different fields doing stuff at the same time. So you kind of have to pick and choose. And with Anthony Richardson obviously being the most important thing to focus on, I tend to follow Anthony in those situations. I was able to see some stuff near the end of practice, like the last like 30 minutes or so, because they finally joined everybody onto the same field. But otherwise I've got the rest of my notes from

Starting point is 00:19:21 talking to Joel and reading his camp notes piece over on the Indy Star. So definitely give some attention to that if you guys haven't checked that out already. So let's go through some of the kind of main points here. Again, the Colts first team defense did not allow any touchdowns to the Bengals offense. And that includes work in the red zone today. There's at least 10 reps from the Borough led offense in the red zone today. There's at least 10 reps from the borough-led offense in the red zone. So they did a good job of keeping points off the board. They got big stops on third downs. And during the two-minute drill, which I was able to watch, they absolutely wreaked havoc.

Starting point is 00:19:59 They absolutely slammed the door on the Bengals' offense. EJ Speed got a quick stop. Quiddy Pay got in there for a sack and a half or two sacks, depending how you want to divvy it up. Guys provided pressure. Nick Cross had a big pass breakup deep over the middle of the field. I didn't see what coach it was, but I heard some coach boom loudly, great effing coverage out there and so to hear coaches scream that out at a guy like Nick Cross who has really needed all the kudos he can get this summer uh that that's really good and speaking of that battle Cross got some first team reps of course he gets the vast majority of them but Rodney Thomas did as well so whatever that competition remains if it even really is still a competition which they say it is it seems to now be between cross and thomas uh so burrow uh he was 14 of 18 passing that's

Starting point is 00:20:56 obviously very efficient but it was mostly short stuff um he was harassed again up front in the middle of the defense in the back of the Colts defense. As far as linemen go, again, I mentioned Quidipe had about a sack and a half just on that final two-minute drive alone. Taequann Lewis got in there with him on that final drive. Laatu Laatu had at least one sack and provided pressure throughout the day. Zaire Franklin crashed through for a sack. You guys might have saw that one on the Colts Twitter page. I saw they tweeted that one out shortly before we went on here. Nick Cross had that good pass breakup. Julian Blackman had a

Starting point is 00:21:36 big pass breakup in the red zone, which I saw that one. EJ Speed numerous times throughout the day was there to just kill screen plays right there at the line of scrimmage before they could really get going. Um, if you run the ball outside on a long developing run, like a stretch, or you've got a screen pass or something to the shallow outside EJ speed is going to seek and destroy it. Like, I think we all should be really pumped to see kind of the ferocity at which Zaire Franklin and EJ speed are going to play with when it comes to sniffing out everything in the box. I still have questions about how it's going to look in the passing game,

Starting point is 00:22:16 but when it comes to the run game and you know, that short screen game, I really think those two guys are going to clean up. They can see through the garbage and they know how to get to the ball. So I think that's going to create a lot of big plays. Again, having EJ Speed right now as your starter at the beginning of the season and not having to figure out the whole Shaquille Leonard thing, I think that's going to be really big for the continuity of the defense. Jalen Jones, he had a couple interceptions. That's really big for him because that's a guy who is normally really good in coverage but doesn't have the ball production to show for it.

Starting point is 00:22:53 He's just a guy that gets in the way of the ball and doesn't allow a high completion percentage, but he doesn't get the interceptions or pass breakups. So he got a couple interceptions today off of Joe Burrow. So that's very big. At least one of them was created by Burrow throwing an errant pass from, you know, being pressured and having to throw off of his back foot. So you love to see, you know, guys kind of teaming up to create turnovers. That's always a big positive.

Starting point is 00:23:23 Jalen Carlisle has been back for a couple of practices now. He looked a little shaky on Saturday, I think, against the Cardinals, but apparently looked good out there today. He resumed the role that he vacated when he was out for like six or seven practices with that hip injury back as the Colts linebacker three. Now, what we know of that, what we've heard from Gus Bradley is when they go back to that base defense. So normally, normally there's just going to be two linebackers out there and it's Zyre Franklin at Mike and EJ Speed at Will. But when they go to the base and it's three linebackers, EJ Speed normally goes to Sam slash Otto, however you want

Starting point is 00:24:03 to call it in Gus Bradley's defense. It's out of your stays at Mike. And then Carlize will go to will. We've seen that a lot with Sagoon, a Luby also, but Jalen Carlize seems to be the guy that's coming back as the linebacker three. That could be a competition between a Luby and Carlize who knows,

Starting point is 00:24:20 but Carlize as a rookie, as a guy who has earned quite a few first team reps there at the third linebacker spot so it seems like the writing's on the wall if it's a competition it's probably going to be short-lived because at some point it feels like carlize is the guy there were some good plays around from dio at dangbo particularly in the one-on-one and two-on-two pass rush drills putting offenses offensive versus defensive line uh micah abraham had a nice pass breakup kind of stacking days and building on a really solid summer for him uh if there is someone who had a not great day it was daryl baker jr nothing really of note to say about jay Simpson, who I think they're kind of battling for one spot.

Starting point is 00:25:08 So Darryl Baker Jr., not the greatest day, but hey, I mean, if it's your fourth or fifth corner that's getting beat out there, I think you can live with it. If Darryl Baker Jr. is out there during the season, then that means a lot of guys are dropping like flies. So thank you guys for hanging out with us today. That's it for us now. We are going to, so we're going to start breaking up our training camp and kind of summer review process into two episodes, kind of bookending Thursday's game. So I'll be back in Cincinnati Thursday for the game. And we'll obviously bring

Starting point is 00:25:45 you guys an episode after the game there with Zach and me, but we're going to talk about a lot of the positives and negatives and big things we've learned this summer about the team tomorrow and Friday. So we've got a loaded slate for you guys the rest of the week. You know, I'll obviously bring you stuff from the locker room, bring you guys some interviews and stuff as well. So let's finish out this week strong, you guys. Again, thanks for making us your first listener of the day. Go check out Locked on Fantasy Football after this. And if you want to become a Locked on Colts insider,

Starting point is 00:26:20 chat with us directly, get the inside scoop from the practice field, the locker room, just pick our brains about stuff, then absolutely please follow the link in our show notes. If you don't already follow at Locked on Colts at Jake Arthur NFL and at Zach Hicks two on Twitter. We're also on TikTok and Instagram. Also subscribe on YouTube and wherever you listen to podcasts. We would love your ratings and reviews as well.

Starting point is 00:26:42 And with that, you guys have a great night and we'll see you tomorrow.

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Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts Go Up-Tempo, Saving Anthony Richardson's Day vs. Cincinnati Bengals

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