Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts' Joe Flacco, Shane Steichen Fall Flat in Embarrassing Primetime Loss

Starting point is 00:00:00 Well, the Colts made their big win-now move this week, which resulted in their worst offensive day of the season. 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 and your first postgame listen, seeing as it is just after midnight.

Starting point is 00:00:34 This is your daily podcast covering your Indianapolis Colts, 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 of your first purchase. What's up, everybody? This is Jake Arthur and Zach Hicks of HorseshoeHuddle.com. I'm your resident media member for the site, and Zach is your resident film nerd for the site. I don't think he's going to like this game, and we're going to tell you all about it.

Starting point is 00:01:03 So, obviously, the Colts made their huge, you know, seismic organizational move this week to take Anthony Richardson out of the lineup and replace him with Joe Flacco. This was obviously because they thought that meant Joe gave them the better chance to win right now. And they just, you know, Shane Steichen said he owed it to the guys in the locker room to be putting their best foot forward to win basically. And Joe gave them their best chance to do that essentially. So that essentially puts Anthony Richardson's development on the back burner. We don't even know what that means anymore at this point. And so our very first look at this new look team, you know, new hairdo, new phone, who dis, with the Colts, with Joe Flacco, not great. Their worst offensive day of the week or of the season,

Starting point is 00:01:58 which probably not like an enormous shocker against this Brian Flores defense, very exotic defense, very blitz heavy. They move a lot of guys around and maybe it would have been worse with Anthony Richardson, but I can tell you it wasn't fruitful with Joe Flacco. Yeah. Yeah. It was certainly a game where it shows you what you kind of lose when you

Starting point is 00:02:18 lose the impact of Anthony Richardson in this lineup. And I do want to predicate this by saying Anthony Richardson was not playing well. We were very clear in our conversations on this podcast, you know, again, this guy was completing 40% of his passes. He was missing targets and the offense wasn't a cohesive unit with him out there. But at least with Anthony Richardson,

Starting point is 00:02:40 you had a really strong run game because of the impact he brought. Even when Jonathan Taylor missed that Miami Dolphins game, you still had him leading a strong rushing attack with Trey Sermon and Tyler Goodson out there because of that impact that Anthony Richardson has. I mean, Trey Sermon looked like a fine running back in that game against the Miami Dolphins because of Richardson's impact. And that's what this run game is built around.

Starting point is 00:03:04 So with Richardson, you have the run game, you have the escapability and you have the explosives. And with Joe Flacco, and again, this is kind of why I'm so like mobile quarterback pill. Like I love mobile quarterbacks for this reason is with Joe Flacco out there and any just kind of generic concrete foot like pocket passer like the margin for error error is so small it is so small you have to have a scheme that gets guys open constantly the ball always has to be accurate and on time you can't be leaky with your pressure because that quarterback can't create and you kind of see you have nothing to really lean back on. So even with Anthony Richardson being a 40% passer, we saw better offensive days with him than we saw tonight because you at least had something to lean back on,

Starting point is 00:03:52 which was Richardson creating with his legs, which was the running game being a feasible part of the offense. And, you know, the explosives that were occasionally there, he might complete 30% of his passes, but you'll hit some explosives in the passing game. And you have the running game to lean back on. The Colts had nothing to lean on in this game. They had no answer for the blitz. Joe Flacco looked like, like he, he looked like old Joe Flacco, like an old man trying to play quarterback out there. He looked in over his head. He looked scared of the blitz. He was looking like a deer

Starting point is 00:04:22 in headlights and the Colts just had no answer whatsoever. Like there was just nothing. Like you lost the one thing your offense had going for it, which was the elite run game. Like this Colts rushing attack with Anthony Richardson was fantastic. It was fantastic with Anthony Richardson. And I'm not saying that it was leading to some great offensive outings because Richardson was struggling as a passer. But you at least had something to lean on.

Starting point is 00:04:51 Maybe the better solution would have just been keeping Anthony Richardson as a starter and just calling more runs. I don't know. Crazy, crazy thing that we probably talked about a little bit this week on the show. But yeah, I mean, I know we spent this whole week mostly talking about the decision events Richardson's way. We couldn't really go into the whole like what Flacco means as a starter for this team but yeah man you you lose a lot of your floor of your offense you lose a lot of what your offense could lean on and also like when you look at what Joe Flacco did in his previous starts before this one

Starting point is 00:05:21 or his previous snaps with the Colts. Pretty much all of his production came because he was on just such a heater on third downs. Like he was completing nearly 50% of his, or they were, the Colts were converting nearly 50% of their third down opportunities coming into this game with Joe Flacco. He was like number one in the NFL and EPA per play among all quarterbacks by far and away on third down but first and second down he was horrendous the Colts offense was horrendous in first and second down with Joe Flacco and those other games and when you got that third down regression in this game where he wasn't completing every single pass on third down he was missing targets all of a sudden the offense stagnated to

Starting point is 00:06:01 a nothing and they just had nothing going for them. Like they, the offense was responsible for zero points, essentially. I mean, I know they got the field goal at the very, very end, but that was a DPI that pushed them all the way down there. The other 10 points were all the Colts defense giving them points. So this was just a horrendous, horrendous showing. And I'll let you talk here in a second, Jake, because I know I'm going on a rant here, but like you made the big move, the big win now move to move to a 39 year old quarterback. I don't care whose decision it was, if it was Steichen's, Ballard's, Ursae's, whoever made this decision.

Starting point is 00:06:35 It comes down to Shane Steichen because Shane Steichen is the one who has to make this thing work. And he's the one who fell on the sword for it all week saying this was his decision. Like he's the guy who is at least falling falling like diving on the grenade essentially for this move. When you make that decision, you need instant results. You need results and wins out the gate. And to come out on primetime and essentially put up zero points with your big win now move at quarterback. It's embarrassing, man. It's embarrassing.

Starting point is 00:07:03 You lost the floor of your offense. You lost, you know, the one thing your offense can lean on by getting Richardson out of the lineup. And unless Flacco's coming in and being perfect, like he was on, again, on the heater at the end of the Jaguars game, you just weren't going to have anything going with this offense. So yeah, it's terrible, man. It's terrible. And, you know, this was one of the two very feasible outcomes that this game could have produced that were going to be really funny, at least. And unfortunately, it's the set. It's like the the sad funny is essentially what we're looking at in this game. So, yeah, man, like it is so embarrassing to make that big win now move. And this is the result on primetime in front of everybody in front of everybody like it's embarrassing man it's another embarrassment for this colts franchise where since 2019 it's been full of embarrassment for this franchise that is without a doubt and i mean we're gonna we're gonna roll this more into the next segment but shane stykin is the other big takeaway from this other than Joe Flacco. Right.

Starting point is 00:08:08 I feel like everything they do, whether it's, you know, you're several weeks into the Anthony Richardson thing, or you're moving to Joe Flacco now, everything seems so disorganized, non-functional, and like, there's not a good plan in place. I just don't like, I don't understand what's going on here because I feel like we've all seen glimpses of each of these guys, whether it's players, coaches, what have you, where we know what they can do well and be successful at.

Starting point is 00:08:35 And it's never strung together. It's so discombobulated that you don't know what their plan is. They are like week in and week out. Like, you know what probably would be a good plan of attack like we knew coming in this one they probably were gonna have to throw a lot because of what Minnesota did against the run but then they came in running the ball I mean they abandoned it pretty quick like they didn't run in the middle of the game but what like how could they not make this work like I I just don't get it like this probably

Starting point is 00:09:07 would have been a good tight end game uh because you know they were vulnerable over the middle of the field all season they have been Minnesota your first tight end play is a 22 yard shot to Kylan Granson and then you know you passed ball 27 times, but tight ends aren't really involved in that the rest of the way. But we're going to talk about way more of this, more Shane Steichen and kind of like the players to the sidelines of, you know, the Joe Flacco and Shane Steichen of it all here in a moment. With Robinhood Gold, you don't need a silver spoon to eat up the financial favors of the 1%.

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Starting point is 00:11:28 Download the app today and use code LOCKEDONNFL to get $50 instantly after you play your first $5 lineup. Again, use code LOCKEDONNFL to get $50 instantly after you play your first $5 lineup. Prize picks. Run your game. All right, Zach. So as I mentioned, this is the kind of game, especially when you're changing quarterbacks. Number one, you got to have a lot of confidence in the quarterback to do whatever it takes to, you know, execute your game plan, what have you. But if you're going to your second quarterback, having a strong run game is always going to be the best friend in that scenario.

Starting point is 00:12:03 And we knew there would be a drop off going from Anthony to Joe. Defenses were just going to react to it differently. But this was always going to be a tough matchup regardless, because Minnesota was third in the NFL in yards per carry allowed and third in yards per game allowed. So to me, I always check both of those to kind of verify, like, how legit are they? And that's a legit run d and they

Starting point is 00:12:25 held taylor to just 48 yards on 13 carries i think we really only saw like one true vintage like jonathan taylor run like just getting small and weaving through the the middle of the field between the tackles a lot of between the tackle stuff uh by the way on this one so Jonathan Taylor held in check uh so the Colts really weren't able to and establish a run game to get like a play action going which it seemed like they wanted to try and do um but yeah this nothing they were trying really seemed to work at least not with consistency yeah I mean Shane Steichen's entire running system is built on the plus one quarterback. And when it's not built on the plus one quarterback, it's built on the RPO game. And the unfortunate part of having a player like Joe Flacco in there, who obviously is not a plus one QB running threat and also stinks at RPOs, is you take away everything that Shane Steichen's good at drawing up in the run game.

Starting point is 00:13:24 So what you saw from the Colts in this one is a lot of under center work. And Shane Steichen has not called an offense with under center work, especially at this frequency that we saw tonight, since maybe like the early days of Justin Herbert, like Justin Herbert's rookie season. And even then, I think Herbert was working a lot out of the gun because that's what he was doing at Oregon. So I do think like this is really the first time we saw a Shane Steichen offense work a lot under center. And even then, like it wasn't a very creative run game because that's just not what Shane Steichen's run system is. His run system is we keep it simple in the run game we stress the defense with our plus one QB run game or with RPOs and we are just stretching these guys side to side and give Taylor those windows up the middle to do what he does best with his patience and that's why Jonathan Taylor this season in games with Anthony Richardson

Starting point is 00:14:16 was averaging 5.2 yards per carry now with Joe Flacco this year he's averaging I'd have to put all the numbers together now but like it's probably still like 3.6 3.7 yards per carry with Joe Flacco because the run game dies without Anthony Richardson out there like that is the whole basis for this run system and you can't just change that mid-season so again this was one of the big concerns when going to Joe Flacco is you weren't going to have this dominant run game that that Richardson had you couldn't just, you know, bring over that dominant run game that you had with Richardson and just give it to Flacco. You're giving Flacco a much worse rushing attack. Oh, and also there were two backup offensive linemen in this game.

Starting point is 00:14:54 So even if you had this creative run system, it's not like Gonsalves and Dalton Tucker are these top tier players yet. They're young players, you know, so there were going to be issues with that. So, yeah, no run game to help out Joe Flacco because that's just not what he's going to get if he's your starting quarterback. So then you need to be perfect in the passing game. And then when you get a game like this out of Flacco where he's a deer in the headlights, he can't really read much down the field. He's doing the Anthony Richardson thing of not taking the checkdowns. I mean, he took a couple of checkdowns early in the game, but later in the game, he got into his

Starting point is 00:15:29 Joe Flacco ways of just pushing the ball down the field and ignoring short passes. I mean, their drive that they could have gone down there to, I think to tie it up or to take the lead. I can't remember the situation exactly. I was in and out of consciousness half, like halfway through this game. So I have no clue what was going on at this point uh but like he had trey sermon in the flat on third and one for an easy first down conversion and he's ripping the ball down the field trying to take michael pitman jr's head off on a hospital ball like he did that with with taylor too there was a ball to the left side i think that went to pitman oh yeah we threw it across his body yeah the sticks but jonathan was leaking out untouched with no one within five yards of him towards the right side

Starting point is 00:16:10 right you can expect a guy to see everything but i i know what you mean well that's what you that's what he's in there for he's in there for the checkdowns make the layup like he's literally in there because he can make the layups and he's passing up the layups like richardson could give me the cross body throws to that miss the receiver like I could get the same thing out of him like yeah I've seen it man I've seen it so like again you're you're like in unless the passing game is going to be perfect you're going to be downgrading every single way going to Flacco and it's just like this is what happens man like I don't know I don't know what the answer is here. Because again, the really the only argument you had for the mood of Flacco was this guy was on some insane heater on third downs.

Starting point is 00:16:52 And our third down offense was horrendous with Anthony Richardson. And it was like Anthony Richardson was horrendous on third downs in his starts this year. That was really the big issue with Richardson. His first and second downs were great. Third down was really bad. And that's where the Colts offense struggled. But when you're not getting the third down efficiency from Flacco, you don't have anything good there.

Starting point is 00:17:12 There's nothing positive with him starting. So we saw today, like when the third downs are not hitting, this is the worst offensive performance the Colts have gotten this season. Yeah, three of 11 today. So just kind of back to their status quo yeah three of 11 on third down and no red zone trips yeah so and like here's the thing too like i don't think the offensive line was particularly horrible in pass pro like it wasn't great like don't get me wrong but like for going against the minnesota vikings pass rush it

Starting point is 00:17:41 wasn't some horrible game from the offensive line it It held up fine for the most part. Flacco was under a little bit of duress here and there. There was like one time a free rusher got in there and hit him, but like, it was fine. Like, there were plays to be made, man. And the quarterback couldn't make them. And again, when you lose every bit of the floor of your offense to appease the passing game aspect of your offense and appease the efficiency part of your passing game and your quarterback can't do that then you have nothing on that offense they had nothing going for them outside that first drive and even that one they fumbled that away so it was it was off I mean I felt like I was watching 2022 Colts with the offense tonight like I felt like Matt Ryan like Sam no I felt like I was watching 2022 Colts with the offense tonight. Like I felt like Matt Ryan,

Starting point is 00:18:25 like Sam, no, I felt like I was watching Nick Foles led Colts offense in this game is what it felt like is like, what did they have to hang their hat on? Josh Downs made a couple of plays. That's really all we got. Like that's really all we had on offense in this one.

Starting point is 00:18:39 I thought Pierce had a decent game for when he was targeted as well. He made some plays that they needed to have made. I think we're starting to get into a thing where we got to start talking about Michael Pittman's effectiveness. Yeah. He's like a decoy at this point. Yeah. And it's to the point where it's like,

Starting point is 00:18:58 is that taking away snaps from guys who could be useful like AD Mitchell? But we're, we're getting to a weird area there in the passing game like if the the sole purpose of this move to flacco was effectiveness in the passing game you have a guy who's operating at like 50 right now it feels like but yeah that's that's pretty tough um yeah yeah so let's see you, in this one, Tyler Goodson wasn't involved. I don't think I saw him at all. Nope. You know, Flacco is probably a guy who could utilize him a little bit. I mean, he even got there with Richardson last week, obviously had the drop touchdown. But I mean, if you've got Flacco out there for this whole purpose, it seems like a guy who would have some utility. But yeah, ugly game from the offense. Again, the team scored 13 points, but it was the defense, the entirety of the game that had to do all the work for the whole team. They scored more points than the offense did.

Starting point is 00:19:56 They put the offense in decent position, field position at times. They had the few turnovers, the takeaways, and the offense just couldn't capitalize. They had three takeaways. I mean, one of them was a return for a touchdown, but you still couldn't get into the red zone out of that? No, and I have just one more thing to say on the offense because I know we've got to get to the defense

Starting point is 00:20:16 and on something kind of positive at least. At least when Anthony Richardson was struggling on offense, we could all sit back and say, look, we're getting data points on this young quarterback. We're getting reps and data points on this young quarterback. And even for the biggest Anthony Richardson detractors, I think we can all kind of agree that like, it's more valuable to at least get the kid out there to get some snaps and

Starting point is 00:20:38 see what he can do and see what he can grow to be. And if it ends up being that he grows into nothing, that's fine. Like whatever. You would at least know by years in like he ain't it or you can go forward into 25 with him but when it's a joe flacco dud like this we all just leave the game feeling so disgusted because like what do you hang your hat on as a fan even like again richardson bad game it's like well he's young he's 22 like i can still talk myself into some things. And even if I can't, it's like, okay, at least this season is not being wasted, you know,

Starting point is 00:21:11 because, like, we're going to use this season to learn what we have in Richardson. When it's Flacco, what are we learning here? What did we learn about this team tonight? Like, what do we gain from this experience? That Josh Downs fantasy owners can rest easy. Josh Downs had 120 yards last week in a touchdown. Like, with Richardson. Like, come on.

Starting point is 00:21:33 I'm a Josh Downs fantasy owner. Yeah, but he's had six catches minimum every game. Oh, that's true. We sacrificed Anthony Richardson at the altar of Josh Downs six catch minimum. If you need a solid flex option every week, then you love this offense. Oh, my gosh. But, yeah, you just leave this feeling disgusted because, like, we learn nothing.

Starting point is 00:21:53 We gain nothing. Uh-huh. And, look, and this is a good segue into the defense here, but, like, we wasted another pretty good game from the defense against a playoff-calibered offense. Like, what a waste, man. What a waste. Let's go ahead and talk about that defense because I playoff caliber to offense like yeah what a waste man what a waste let's let's go ahead and talk about that defense because i don't want to again you mentioned waste i don't want to waste the whole time talking about the things that make us unhappy because

Starting point is 00:22:13 i was pretty pleased overall with this defensive performance yeah all right get ready to tackle the nfl action FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook. Because right now, new customers, you guys can get $5. Actually, you can bet $5 and get $150 in bonus bets if you win. The FanDuel Sportsbook app gives you everything that you need to place live bets on the NFL all in one place. So when you get a hunch in the middle of the game, you can check out the latest stats, view live play-by-play, and so much more on the same page where you place your bets.

Starting point is 00:22:48 Coming into this one, FanDuel had the Vikings as five-and-a-half point favorites. They obviously covered that. Total point over-under was 46-and-a-half. Didn't quite get there. It was kind of a stink-fest, low-scoring game. But, you know, if the Col Colts defense wasn't playing so well, the ingredients were certainly there for the Vikings to open that up a little more.

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Starting point is 00:23:23 that's fando.com. Never waste a hunch $5 bet. That's FanDuel.com. Never waste a hunch and make every moment more with FanDuel, an official sports partner of the NFL. All right, so this was, to me, I'm kind of thinking of this as like a tale of two halves. I mean, overall, I still think the defense did well for the most part throughout the game. But the first half, I thought,

Starting point is 00:23:43 especially the front seven really set the tone. You had Grover Stewart put up two sacks. He had that play where he blew up and stole Garrett Bradbury's soul and then threw Sam Darnold to the ground like a ragdoll. Darnold fumbles it. Kenny Moore scoops and scores. DeForest Buckner was playing with his hair on fire. All three starting linebackers made plays in the run and pass game.

Starting point is 00:24:08 Towards the middle of the game, I thought the Vikings run game opened up a little bit. It looked like guys had a harder time getting off the blocks. But the defense is the sole reason this ever stayed within one score. Yeah, and I do want to say it's not it wasn't some perfect defensive performance by any means like they got gashed for a lot of yards and and some of it was like yeah like they need to be a little bit tighter in their zones and a little bit tighter in their coverages and stuff and even when they got stops early in the game they were a little bit leaky and and allowing yards and allowing the the vikings to move the ball. But they did a bend.

Starting point is 00:24:45 Don't break style against an offense. That was clearly like overmatched for them is what I, it's like lack of a better term here, but overmatched for them. Like they have Justin Jefferson who might be the best receiver since Randy Moss. Like that guy is insanely good. Like Justin Jefferson is an insanely good talent.

Starting point is 00:25:03 TG Hawkinson, fantastic player. You know, Jordan Addison, very good player too. Darnold's on a heater. Aaron Jones, really good player. Like this is a very, very talented offense with a very talented play call on the other side. So the Colts deployed a bend, don't break approach

Starting point is 00:25:18 and basically said, hey, we will take away most of the vertical passes. We'll blitz you on the passing downs and we'll make Sam you on the passing downs, and we'll make Sam Darnold's tendency to hold on to the ball a little bit be their downfall a little bit in this game. And what we saw was multiple sacks late, you know, on third downs and second downs, we saw the big sack fumble return for a touchdown, we saw two interceptions, one was on the third down, one was on D darnold just trying to force the ball down the field a little bit and in a normal game with a normal offense if you're able to force that against another team that's typically a winning formula especially when you factor in two missed field goals too like this was not a perfect day from the defense but i do think the colts defense

Starting point is 00:26:00 did enough to win this game they they stood tall when they needed to they got I mean they forced what two empty red zone trips from the Vikings in this game uh they had intercept two interceptions in this one too like it was a good enough performance from the defense and now again we're looking at back-to-back weeks against playoff caliber teams where the Colts defense showed up the Colts even showed like not in some dominant like they shut down the opponent but like enough to where they did enough to win the game in both of these past two games and and the Colts offenses let them down both weeks and and again when you have an offensive head coach like that that's inexcusable your whole reason for having Shane Steichen is he's an offensive head coach who can get you those points and your defense just needs to be good enough. Well, the defense was good enough the last two weeks. And I know

Starting point is 00:26:48 Gus Bradley gets a lot of hate in this fan base, and I'm not saying he's perfect. And the last thing I'm going to say here is like, he's done enough to keep his job and be like the guy forever going on and stuff like that. But these last two weeks, he's had the defense playing hard, playing fast, forcing turnovers and giving the offense on the other side of the field a chance to win the game and they just haven't taken that opportunity so for as much as we want to hate on Gus Bradley and this Colts defense that again like outside of DeForest Buckner and Kenny Moore there's not a ton of talent on that defense like a lot of B players C players on that defense now. A lot of young players on that defense besides, again, Buckner and Kenny. And they stood up.

Starting point is 00:27:29 They stood up well tonight. And they played pretty well against a really talented offense. So, yeah, they fell apart a little bit in the second half. They got really worn down. They were on the field for like 30-something minutes of this game. Like, it was terrible. But I think they did enough to win this game. And it's unfortunate, again, back- did enough to win this game and it's unfortunate again

Starting point is 00:27:46 back-to-back weeks against playoff caliber teams the defense showed up and was playing winning football and and the offense for the colts just simply couldn't get it done they couldn't even do the bare minimum either week uh to get it done and this is where we are now where we are now like four and five heading into a buffalo bills game and. And then Detroit Lions are coming up soon too. Like it's a horrible place to be horrible place to be for this team right now. Yeah. I mean, looking at it this way, four sacks, eight tackles for loss, seven quarterback hits, a defensive touchdown. Let's see the, let's see the red zone numbers. You mentioned they shot them out in the red zone twice all those things to not win is crazy like your offense just kind of has to do the bare minimum and you'll you'll easily cakewalk that game and they couldn't do it um and the shame of it is

Starting point is 00:28:37 you kind of alluded to this like they'll go to they'll they'll have the buffalo game and josh allen will just slaughter them, and it'll be Gus Bradley's fault again. Right. And it's like, nah, this team just so crazily struggles to play all three phases together in a single game. It just doesn't happen. Your offense plays well one game or your defense,

Starting point is 00:29:01 but it's never the whole thing. I think they have maybe one or two games this season where they've had a complete team effort. So incredibly unfortunate that they just cannot find a way to have any identity as a team. No shot of having an identity on offense so far. No. Even the games they've won, you're like, what the hell is this offense? Right. The defense plays hard and they play fast.

Starting point is 00:29:26 Look, their linebackers can't cover a soul. Their safeties are hit or miss. The run defense is very leaky. They have issues on defense. The corners, I mean, despite them playing above their talent level this year, again, the corners are who they are. Jalen Jones having to travel around with Justin Jefferson, yeah, he's going to get the brakes beat off him. Again, the corners are who they are. Jalen Jones having to travel around with Justin Jefferson.

Starting point is 00:29:46 Yeah, he's going to get the breaks beat off him. Yeah, you don't expect Samuel Womack and Jalen Jones to clamp Justin Jefferson. Right. It's a very limited defense, but they at least play hard. They play fast. They punch the ball out. Nine forced fumbles this year in nine games. They have an identity on defense. They might be very flawed, and they might be an average to below average defense, but they have an identity on defense. They might be very flawed and they might be an average

Starting point is 00:30:06 to below average defense, but they have an identity. The Colts offense has no identity. I don't know what they are. They don't even have a quarterback. They can't even pick a quarterback. Yeah. Like there's no identity. There's nothing that can hang their hat on. At least again, I know I keep going back to this, but at least when Richardson's out there, you have the run game identity. Right now with Flacco, you have nothing. I just, I don't foresee this season being anything more than mediocre at best. And the thing is, if Richardson were your starter in every game, fine. I got the data points on him. But now when you make this wind now move to Flacco, and when you're looking at this team being like, I'm seeing mediocre at best, at absolute best. And you made this move to a 39 year old quarterback.

Starting point is 00:30:50 You don't know what it does to Richardson standing in the locker room to when you can go back to him. I know a lot of our comments were like, hey, how soon do we see Richardson again? They're not going to go back to him next week or the week after even like they're gonna let this Flacco thing play out a little bit now so now it's like again what are we doing here on off like what are we doing with this team I don't understand if this were a Richardson loss I could sit here and be like you know what we're getting data on Richardson and this team we're seeing what this team can do but when it's again when it's a Flacco loss like this how am i supposed to feel you guys tell somebody tell me how i'm supposed to feel i feel tired right now like that's because it's 1 a.m

Starting point is 00:31:30 and i'm old but like it felt like gardner menchie games is what it felt like yeah but at least like gardner like did something gardner was at least kind of young right he was like 29 at least there was something at least he had a mustache and that cool hair oh man I I just I don't know man I it's awful this is just like the Flacco thing the only way this was gonna feel decent is if he was coming out slinging it and winning like he was with the Browns last year but when he's coming out looking like this there's no way to feel anything like i feel dead i feel dead inside you know maybe maybe the colts could see this say something's missing from the offense realize that david and joku is on the trade block and with what they want to accomplish

Starting point is 00:32:17 this season realize they need to be buyers and then go get david and joku and match him back up with joe flacco who's throwing in the ball? You think Flacco's getting in the ball? Did you see Flacco tonight? I don't know if Flacco's getting in the ball there. Bernard Reimann will be back at some point. No, I don't know. All I know is this episode could traverse into another hour

Starting point is 00:32:37 because there's so many more topics to tackle on this and so many more angles to approach it. But that's just what we're going to have to do the rest of this week. Yeah, guys, we have eternal optimist Colts film room coming on either tomorrow or Tuesday. We'll see if we have energy for any of this stuff. But yeah, Colts film room. Ben Boris is going to come on like usual early in the week, and we'll see if we'll see if he has the energy to be optimistic because I know I'm not optimistic right now.

Starting point is 00:33:02 So we'll see what is in store for that episode there. We do want to thank you guys, though, for making Locked On Culture your first post-game listen today, tonight, however you want to view this show. Now, if you're a second listen, go find the new Locked On NFL with two shows every day. First, the madman Tyler Rowland kicks off your morning with a double shot of NFL espresso,

Starting point is 00:33:20 which I could use some espresso right now. And then stop by the barbershop with Tony Wiggins for some real NFL talk. Find Locked on NFL on YouTube, wherever you list your podcasts. If you guys want to become a Locked on Colts insider and chat with us directly and get the insider scoop on all this apathy we're feeling, follow the link in our show notes. If you don't already, make sure you're following at Locked on Colts, at JakeArthurNFL, at Zach Hicks too, for more apathy there on Twitter slash X.

Starting point is 00:33:44 We're also on TikTok and Instagram. Jake is going to be doing some sad dances there on TikTok tonight. And also subscribe to us on YouTube, wherever you list your podcasts. We love your guys' ratings and views. And we'll catch you guys back here the rest of this week covering Joe Flacco.

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Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts' Joe Flacco, Shane Steichen Fall Flat in Embarrassing Primetime Loss

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