Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts serve up massive statement with 27-17 win over Patriots

Episode Date: December 21, 2021

On today's episode, Evan and Stampede Blue's Stephen Reed go over the Indianapolis Colts' 27-17 victory over the New England Patriots on Saturday night. Thanks to a strong start, Jonathan Taylor running wild, plus an opportunistic game plan, Indy pulled off the W.Taylor is forcing his way into the MVP discussion as he continues to dominate defenses. Will he actually win the award?Closing out the show, we go over other big notes from the game alongside the updated AFC playoff picture.It's time to celebrate a memorable win over the Patriots, Colts fans! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You are Locked On Colts, your daily Indianapolis Colts podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello everybody, welcome to your latest episode of Locked On Colts. I am your host, Evan Seidry. I'm joined by Steven Reed of Stampede Blue. And we're here on a Monday evening, about 48 hours after kickoff commenced between the Indianapolis Colts and the New England Patriots. What a thriller that was at Lucas Colos Stadium on Saturday, Steven.

The Colts came out on top, 27-17. They built out an early 20-0 lead. New England comes back. And then Jonathan Taylor, or just Jonathan Taylor at this point, just puts the team on his back the entire game, breaks one loose to seal the game. All it needs is a first down. But John Taylor says, never mind, I'm just going to go ahead

and score a touchdown. Probably the last I've heard Luke Solo stay in since Andrew Luck and T.Y. Hilton connect on that bomb against the Kansas City Chiefs in the wild card game in 2014. But, man, what a moment that was, Stephen. I mean, talking through this game, the rivalry is back on, so to say, as Chris Ballard said a couple years ago after Josh McDaniels left. So many storylines going into this game.

I think the crystal clear picture of this game walking out of it, Stephen, this Colts team is for real, and they're red hot at the right time. And this team reminds me an awful lot of 2018 at this point. Yeah, I tend to agree with you. It's a really intriguing team to watch. They definitely have their flaws, but the fact is they came to play this week against New England in a game that really, like, they didn't have to win necessarily

to make the playoffs, but it was a really good way to kind of prove to themselves that they could compete and they could go ahead and take on New England, take on the first place team in the AFC and really for three quarters, just kind of kick their butts. And then the fourth quarter came along and things kind of got a little shaky, but for the most part, like the Colts were able to, to really stick it to them. And that was such a huge huge advantage being there in Lucas Oil Stadium and with the crowd and you could tell just watching the game that Mac Jones he had never been in a stadium that loud in his career he had never played a defense that fast in his career

and it was it was blatantly obvious obvious that he was having a lot of trouble with the Colts' defense through the first three quarters of that game. Let's hit on the man of the hour here, Jonathan Taylor-Steven. 29 carries, 170 yards, and a touchdown average of six yards per carry. Obviously, like we mentioned, that 67-yard icebreaker at the end there to seal the game for the Colts to go up 27-17. But, I mean, what can you say about John Taylor at this point, Steve? I mean, he already has 19 touchdowns already this season,

19 in the last 11 weeks alone. Just the way that he's playing football right now, he looks like not only a transcendent talent, but he's forced his way. Like, I've been watching, like, Good Morning Football, ESPN all day, and I think finally John Taylor's going to respect he deserves around the NFL. But there's a legitimate case now with Tom Brady laying the goose egg last night against New Orleans Saints where I think John Taylor has a legitimate shot of winning MVP this year for the first time

for running back in a decade since Adrian Peters. So, I mean, what was your thoughts on Taylor last night and also looking ahead to look to the awards because, I mean, it's pretty much him and Aaron Rodgers at this point for the award. And I think Aaron Rodgers, what happened with that COVID-19 situation, should be docked a little bit for that. So, I mean, quite honestly, I believe that John Taylor is probably the MVP favorite with three weeks to go.

Yeah, I mean, he's definitely the man of the hour right now. It's one of those situations where you love Jonathan Taylor, you love how he plays. And what's interesting, and it's something that we've talked about before, what I've ranted about on Twitter is it doesn't matter whether the box is loaded. You need to give Jonathan Taylor carries because he has a tendency to break off a 67-yard run, a 73-yard run, a 78-yard run. According to ESPN's Next Gen stats, Jonathan Taylor has three of the top fastest times or speeds by a ball carrier in the NFL this season. He is getting the ball and going and

taking off, and people can't catch him and so if he can get that little little wiggle and what was most impressive about that run that 67 yard touchdown run to really steal the game was everybody they had 10 guys in the box 10 guys in the box um right there on that play because they knew they were handing it off. And Jonathan Taylor went to the hole. They were two New England Patriots. Dante Hightower was one of them, a veteran, all pro or pro bowl, at the very least pro bowl linebacker who's no slouch. And Jonathan Taylor made both guys miss and ran 67 yards for a touchdown

against a stacked box. You you got to give this guy carries no matter what it's not like you're going to force feed him the ball every single play like Tennessee does did with Derek Henry but you're it's just wild because in the fourth quarter like the Colts really needed to rely on Jonathan Taylor and Frank Reich put the ball on Carson Wentz's hands and he threw some incomplete passes through an interception as soon as you handed it off to Taylor ball game and it just goes to Jonathan Taylor like you said Tom Brady laying a goose egg on Sunday night and being shut out against the New Orleans Saints that really should should knock him.

And it's something, like, there was no quarterback that was really running away with it. And I've talked about the Aaron Rodgers situation, too, is where his, you know, I'm immunized, yeah, I'm immunized little spiel. And then his, like, attacking of the unvaccinated players there at the start of training camp really soured a lot of people on it and and don't get me wrong Aaron Rodgers is the most valuable player in the league like I don't I don't think that's really a question at this point but I don't think that the voters are going to vote for him for that because of that and not to mention once he got

called out on it how he went on Pat McAfathy's show and just ripped into the uh the woke mob i think is what he called it and i'm sure that's going to go over real well with reporters who are going yeah but you just kind of like straight up lied to us um so yeah if there were ever a year that a running back could win it jonathan taylor's really you know set himself up well to fill that void and become the Colts' first MVP winner since Peyton Manning. That would be huge for this team. If he continues to play like he has the past handful of weeks, I don't see that Jonathan Taylor train slowing down anytime soon.

That Jonathan Taylor train is really off the rails now at this point nationally because I think he's showing just the most valuable player. Jonathan Taylor is easily the most valuable player to this Colts team. Who knows where they'd be without a guy like Jonathan Taylor in this offense. But interestingly enough, Stephen, over the Colts' last five games, Jonathan Taylor has 143 touches, almost 29 touches per game. That's a Derrick Henry-esque workload. And you look back on the first five weeks of the season,

he's only played around 50% of the snaps. And it was a question I brought to you before around midseason or during that portion of September, October, talking about why Jonathan Taylor's not getting enough touches and why he's really splitting the backfield out of Naeem Hines and Marlon Mack at that point. I think it's fair to assume that the Colts knew at this point in the schedule that they were going to need to have Jonathan Taylor be Superman for them,

and he's done it. I mean, maybe conserving him for the first four or five weeks of the season is what's really paying off now because this guy still has fresh legs, and now you're giving him a huge workload for the last two months of the season when it matters most. Yeah, I think you can go back and check the tape and and we talked about this and that that was the the main consideration that we we came up with was that they were they had to be conservative in him during the first part of the season to try to limit his touches because

i i know i i talked about this where it was you know you now you have a 17th game you don't want him to to be totally you know run down going to the end of the season and into the playoffs where you hope you're going to be in the playoff contention and have him be like the wheels falling off you know as of right now he just keeps getting better and you the guys you hear about it about players talking about it after after games and things like that. When you go see him, he could have 10 touches or 40 touches, and you'd never know the difference because he's just that type of player.

He's just lively. He's got energy. He's not the guy that gets beat up because he doesn't take big hits. He gets out of bounds when he has to. He's more of a punishing run running back like he puts bigger hits on on defenders than what they put on him um and so it's just he's just such a fantastic player and such a unique and humble individual that i think giving the mvp to a player like jonathan would just be, it would be, it would be right

in this situation because he's earned it. But it also would be really funny for Colts fans to have to listen to Tennessee Titans fans talk about how great Derrick Henry was for all those years and never won the MVP. And we can just, you know, go ahead and add that to the list of their, their issues they have with the Colts. And I just think that would be pretty funny in and of itself. Yeah, Taylor's on pace right now, Stephen, to break the scrimmage marks of Adrian Peterson in 2012 and Derrick Henry last season in 2020.

He already has 19 touchdowns on pace for, I believe, 23 or 24 at this point. I mean, last thing on Taylor before we dive over to Carson Wentz, I know he didn't really play a big part of it. I wanted to have him on Wentz overall throughout this last stretch of games and looking ahead a little bit. But Jonathan Taylor, I mean, if you're Frank Reich and you're the Colts, I mean, you don't change anything up, right? I mean, at this point, with the way John Taylor's playing,

he might hit 2,000 rushing yards by himself in the last three games of the season. Arizona will hit on them in a little bit as well, playing them on Saturday on Christmas Day. But Taylor might run wild again in that game because the last three games of the season. Arizona will hit on them in a little bit as well, playing them on Saturday on Christmas Day. But Taylor might run wild again in that game because the Cardinals just let the Lions run for 150 yards on them. So I really believe that at this point, Stephen, the rest of the way, playoffs included, I mean, you give Jonathan Taylor 25, 30 touchdowns per game and just see what happens at this point, right?

I think they found their formula these last two months. Yeah, I mean, yeah. And it's interesting because you want to rely on Jonathan Taylor for these last three weeks of the season, assuming that you're playing for something in week 18, which is still kind of weird to say, but assuming you're still playing for something in week 18 and you're not locked into the five seed or, or locked into, uh, I don't think you'd be locked into the AFC staff at that point, but assuming you're not locked into the five or six seed at that point, you want to keep playing them through and play them out.

But, yeah, he's got an opportunity to really pad those staffs against Arizona, who, like you said, got ran on by the Detroit Lions. They don't have anybody that's anywhere near as talented as Jonathan Taylor. The Oakland Raiders, they barely pulled out a game today against the Cleveland Browns, the one on our last second field goal against the Browns who was playing with a practice squad quarterback and had half of their team off because of COVID. So I'm really excited for the Colts and these opportunities they have in the

next three games. Because if you look at it, like Jonathan Taylor, if they ride him out, he's going to continue to put up yards. And if he puts up yards at the same pace he has over the past handful of games, I feel like he's going to, you can't ignore him when you talk about the, like when you talk about the MVP situation, he's a lock, an absolute lock to have offensive player of the year if he's not the MVP. So I think regardless, he's going to win one of those big awards. It's just whichever one they don't want to give to the quarterback. They don't, if they think it's Aaron Rodgers, they don't want to give it to him.

They'll give Rodgers the offensive player of the year and give him to Taylor, which of course will piss Rodgers off and they'll have a great playoffs. So there's that. I don't know when they announce it. They announce it right before the Super Bowl, don't they? And so, yeah, I just think it would be a really cool situation to have a running back win it this year. And if there ever was a more deserving and more humble player uh that that worked hard and didn't like bang his chest about things and did all the right things it's jonathan taylor you listen to podcasts for the power of knowledge you switch to boost mobile for the power of saving money because with boost you get the

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Offers and coverage not available. Everywhere for all phones and networks. See BoostMobile.com for details. Let's go to Carson Wentz now. We're going to be talking obviously a lot about Jonathan Taylor the rest of the season here. He's going to be the straw that starts the drink for this Colts team if they want to make a deep playoff run. But Carson Wentz on Saturday, Stephen, he did not have a good game.

Five of 12. He had an interception. He had, I think, one or two others that should have been interceptions as well. He had one credited touchdown, but it was more so just like a handoff to Naeem Hines on that trick play. That was incredible by Frank Reich. But Molly Cox also didn't do Carson Wentz any favors when he dropped that touchdown in the end zone on a drive as well.

But what's your opinion of Carson Wentz on Saturday? Obviously, probably one of his worst games as a Colt, but it's a little concerning to you, Stephen, especially when we get closer to playoff football when these teams are going to force the Colts to just pound John Taylor 30 to 40 times to win a game and try to put the game in Carson Wentz's hands where he's kind of shown on two or three separate occasions now the Tennessee game

at home is one example then against New England the two where they try to force it in Wentz's hands and you really didn't do much to help out at all does that worry you at all looking ahead a little bit to January football where they might have to go on the road to Foxborough or Buffalo or or even Kansas City and try to pull out a win. And let's say a team shuts down John Taylor. He only has like 110 rushing yards instead of 175. And Carson Wentz is relied upon for a couple extra drives than necessary. Yeah, I think everybody's kind of worried about it

in terms of Colts fans at this point. Like Carson Wentz can put up one of those wow you games, but then he can also put up one of those games where you're like, wow, ouch, like he did this week. Part of it, he wasn't really relied upon, and then you lose Michael Pittman with a weird ejection. Michael Pittman got thrown out because he got punched in the face and then had a

guy on top of him with his forearm across his throat and yet Michael Pittman gets ejected for that for not doing anything which is absolutely wild to me I think if Pittman was in there he changes the entire course of the Colts passing game and I think it had to it forced Frank Reich to swap to something else like you mentioned mentioned, Mo'Ali Cox dropping that touchdown pass, it hit him in both hands. He should have brought that down. It was kind of questionable. I don't know why he didn't – he wasn't able to bring it down.

And then Carson Wentz, once he – you saw him get fired up on the sidelines and it came out after the game that uh one of the Patriots players were going after his manhood and either punching it or grabbing it and tugging it and uh he didn't take too well to that which I don't think any guy would um but after that it seemed like he was fired up but he was like too pumped up he was too angry um and he needed to cool off a little bit so I was I'm a little concerned um he wasn't called on a lot in this game and when he was called on it it was uh questionable um I don't think it was like terrible, terrible bad. It's just he wasn't – they threw 12 passes in the game. And so, you know, you talk about the last –

there were two weeks ago when Bill Belichick got all this huge praise because the Buffalo Bills, Max Jones threw three passes and completed two. Yeah, the situations were different in terms of the weather. But in terms of game plan it was obviously the Colts game plan to run on the Patriots they threw 12 passes like that's it they they had no intention to throw the ball um and so you want Carson Wentz to take more more advantage of those opportunities when he gets them. But he clearly wasn't the game plan this week. Frank Reich wanted to punish the Patriots.

And that's something that, as a Colts fan, I enjoyed. I enjoyed them running it down their throat. It was nice. Speaking of Frank Reich and that game plan, Stephen, glad you brought that up. It was a good segue into my next question. Just Frank Reich's offensive game plan. We mentioned before that trick play in the end zone where John Terrier lines up and the Wildcat wins

that running back, so to say. Then they do the reverse, double reverse, where Wentz gets it, and then Wentz passes it back and a quick reverse back over to Naeem Hines for that touchdown. Ironically enough, that's a back-to-back touchdown on trick plays that Frank Reich has over Bill Belichick in his career.

Obviously, the Philly Special and the Super Bowl, and now this one on Saturday. But also, it's the aggressiveness that Frank Reich played with on Belichick in his career, obviously the Philly Special and the Super Bowl, and now this one on Saturday. But also it's the aggressiveness that Frank Reich played with on Saturday, calling that game, constantly going for it, fourth and one, fourth and two. We're going to go for it. Just punching it down her throat, like you said. Carson Wentz was huge on his quarterback sneaks.

Quentin Nelson, almost every time the Wentz followed Quentin Nelson on the left side, Nelson had a dominant game on Saturday as well. What was your thoughts on Frank Reich and his game plan? Because maybe the first drive of the game where they really didn't run much, you could have a criticism. But outside of that, I mean, I would say it's a pretty flawless Frank Reich game plan that we saw on Saturday. And one that I think that is in the feather of the cap of Frank Reich

beating Bill Belichick and kind of coaching circles around his defense for a little bit. Yeah, it's one of those like chef's kiss emoji or memes things. It was beautiful. Brinkwright did an awesome job this week. It was fantastic. He relied on Jonathan Taylor, like we've talked about before. Again, his best offensive player.

And it didn't matter what they did, what the Patriots did there in the box. And he just said, nope, doesn't matter. We're giving it to them. Gave it to them, and it paid off for them. Frank Reich, I think he politely named it the Patriot Special instead of the Philly Special, that trick play thing that was jokingly named the Patriot Special by Frank Ray, I believe, maybe. And just his play calling as a whole, this game was fantastic. And the game script that he had,

the fact that he wanted to run it down their throat, he wanted to punish New England. And this is, again, the nuanced part of it is New England doesn't have the same type of defense, the same caliber of players of defensive players as Tampa Bay does. And so it was a different game plan between the two of them. Obviously, Tampa Bay, they were able to effectively take away Jonathan Taylor. In a lot of those instances, New England didn't have those types of players. The main player you had to look out for was Judon. As long as you knew where he was, you felt good. I love the fact that Frank Wright kept going forward on fourth and one with Carson Wentz and quarterback sneaks,

especially when it was like, it was fourth and one, but really it was like fourth and like four inches, fourth and a foot to where if Carson Wentz can get on top of any of his offensive linemen and get over top of them, he's going to make it because he's big and he's long. And it's just, that's just what's going to happen. He's going to make the first down. And so you look at that and you go, okay, great. Let's, let's keep moving. Let's keep moving. I love the aggressiveness that Frank Reich had. He was put his foot on their throat and said, all right, you know what? We scored on the first drive.

All right. We got a block pump. We're at 14 to zero. It didn't matter. They just kept going for it and kept trying to push it and try to, it's something that we've talked about before is that it felt like at times the Colts really lacked that killer instinct. And it looked like Frank was really trying to put the nail in the coffin on them early, which was nice to see.

It really is tough that they were able to make a comeback there and make the game a close game there at the end. But I was really happy with how Frank Wright called the game. I thought it was brilliant let's flip it over to that defense now really the Patriots we knew what they were going to do in this game was run the ball they only had 81 rushing yards in this game and the Colts getting up 20 nothing kind of forced them to go away from the run because Ramon J. Stevenson I thought was gonna have a big game against them but obviously did not did not do much at all he only had 10 carries for 36 yards. Add in Kendrick Bourne on two reverses, an extra 19 yards.

Mack Jones on a 12-yard scramble. So the Patriots really didn't do anything as far as rushing the ball goes. And they forced Mack Jones in the two turnovers, like I mentioned earlier in the show, Steve, and that was a raucous atmosphere at Lucasville Stadium. I think it got Mack Jones' head a little bit. We saw like three or four false starts from the Patriots as well. This is a game where I think

the Colts might have figured out for the rest of the NFL how you stop New England is you get up early, you run the ball, you force Mac Jones into making mistakes. He's a rookie quarterback. He's eventually going to do that, and we saw it on Saturday. So what was your thoughts there on the entire game plan for the defense?

I know the fourth quarter got a little rough there, 17 points in the fourth quarter, but that's just the story of the Colts season so far, Stephen. I mean, they get big leads and they almost blow them or they give them away. So that's just the main theme, I think, at this point with this Colts team is no lead is safe. But for most of that game, that defense was absolutely fantastic. So what was your thoughts?

I mean, that's what it is. They absolutely fantastic. So what was your thoughts? I mean, that's, it's what it is. Like they were fantastic. Um, they were flying all over the place. They were faster, physical, uh,

they, DeForest Buckner is just an absolute game wrecker, um, in the middle and being able to have quitty pay and, and, and Dio in there. And they're able to go ahead and, and have them slop

and move DeForest Buckner to the outside. DeForest Buckner against an offensive tackle is a mismatch every single time, especially on passing downs. Like his little sidestep move when he came inside and got that sack on Mac Jones, and if Mac Jones was going to go anywhere, he was running straight into Quiddie Bay and he was like, all right guys, you got me and just went down. So it was just so much fun to see them do that and play so well. And Darius Leonard, again, with an interception in the game, like it's,

it's wild how many turnovers Darius Leonard gets on a weekly basis, and yet how he's barely ever mentioned in defensive player of the year in any of that conversation. It's just wild how much of an impact he has on the game week in and week out and how he's not mentioned. He should be one of those first three names mentioned after like aaron donald and then i mean who else maybe a pass rusher in there but if you're looking at linebackers that make a difference in the game darius lennar should be one

of those first names off your lips um i loved how rocky scene played. I think him and Isaiah Rogers is your future at corner. They played really well. And the Patriots don't make it easy. They try to confuse the defensive backs, but with their route combinations, their scheme. And I thought that they did really well. The one thing that is a little concerning with the defense is something that's been concerning all year, and that's how they cover tight ends. Tight ends are able to eat them up a lot. And so that's the one question mark I have. But other than that, the defense played great.

They were consistently able to get pressure on Mac Jones. You had five quarterback hits, one sack. He had a bunch of tackles for loss, but they constantly got pressure up in his face and made him feel uncomfortable. And for a rookie quarterback to come in and try to deal with that, it was clear that he was having issues. And, like, even Julian Edelman tweeted out, and he said, rookie pains, and that was the the tweet rookie pains after the game where yeah that's what that's what it was it was you went up against the fastest defense you've

ever gone against one of the most aggressive defenses you've ever gone against uh and you got beat uh it was a little bit of a smack in the mouth and he calmed down there in the that going in the late third quarter into the fourth quarter but quarter. But it was still nice to shout out the Patriots for three quarters. Yeah, absolutely. And I want to give a quick shout-out, too, to that special teams block punt they had, too, because that changed the game at that point. I mean, who knows if without that touchdown on the special teams

that this game would have went to overtime or maybe it goes to New England with a late surge in that game. So, Boeuf and Treon continues to be a massive asset to special teams. But last thing I wanted to do on the defense here, Stephen, before we divert to the AFC playoff picture, looking ahead a little bit, you see overall what's going on with this defense. And like you mentioned in your answer there, Rakia Sin and Isaiah Rogers really blossoming over the last two months

of the season. Kenny Moore is playing at an all-pro level once again in the nickel. I mean, at this point, maybe you draft a guy on day three. Maybe you sign a veteran free agent, like an upgraded version of a TJ Carey, but I mean, I feel very comfortable. Who would have thought about two months ago

I would be saying this, but I feel very comfortable saying that Rocky Asin and Isaiah Rogers and Kenny Moore is the trio of the future in the defensive backfield. I think that's exactly what Chris Bauer hoped for. I think he's getting a lot more than he bargained for with Isaiah Rogers, Kenny Moore is the trio of the future in the defensive backfield. I think that's exactly what Chris Bauer hoped for. I think he's getting a lot more than he bargained for with Isaiah Rogers, too, because he's turning out to be one of Chris Bauer's best six-round picks. I mean, that's a late-day three pick.

You trade Quincy Wilson to get Isaiah Rogers, and he's really what Quincy Wilson should have been as far as production goes for that value. Yeah, I mean, I agree with you. I think that Rock and Isaiah and Kenny are there's your, there's your three, um, there's your three starters going forward and they play that way. And you don't feel uncomfortable, uncomfortable, if I could pronounce that word about any of them coming through and being in a spot at this point throughout the season.

They have week in and week out shown that they can handle it. And so it's really exciting to see because, like you said, it was a question mark. I mean, shoot, we talked about it. Like if Rock didn't have a good camp, was he going to get cut? You know, and we talked about that going into training camp. And thank goodness he's been able to show out and make it make it work for him um and shows that he's put in the work um yeah i feel really really good about the defensive secondary um assuming that julian blackman comes back from that achilles injury and he's able to come back a full full speed full 100 i feel really really confident

about their defensive backfield. I think that they do need to get a safety just because Kyrie Willis has never played a full season and Julian Blackman. Obviously, he's coming back from a pretty major injury. But from the corner position, you sign maybe a veteran backup, maybe bring back Xavier Rhodes on a cheap deal. Let him continue to be that mentor to these guys and let him be that fourth corner. But you, you know, you don't,

you don't feel like you need to invest in a super high draft pick or invest big money in the wide, in the free agent market to fill in that need at corner because you feel like you've got it already. So I think that they can better spend that money elsewhere, preferably in a wide receiver to go opposite Michael Pittman. But I think in terms of the defensive backfield, I think they're pretty well set.

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sure you put the promo code locked on and when you receive your bonus l-o-c-k-e-O-N. Last point of the show, Steve, before we close things out here, looking at the AFC playoff picture, Kansas City is kind of, I would say, running away with number one seed at this point. They're 10-4. They've won, I believe, their last six games. They were, I believe, 1-3 to start the season. They've won nine of the last 10 games.

So they're 10-4. They're a game and a half on New England at this point for the second seed. The Colts are two games back of the Chiefs as well for the second seed. The Colts are two games back. The Chiefs as well in the wild card. The Colts are currently number five in the AFC. If the season ended today, they'd be traveling to Cincinnati to take on the Bengals in the wild card. Again, that'd be a super fun game to watch.

But the current playoff picture as it stands, first is Kansas City, two is New England, three is Tennessee, four is Cincinnati, five is Indianapolis, six is the Los four is Cincinnati, five is Indianapolis, six is the Los Angeles Chargers, and seven is Buffalo. It's going to change up, I think, drastically over the next couple weeks, Stephen, but the Colts control their own destiny here. I think the highest it can get realistically is a five seed because, I mean, maybe Tennessee does lose.

It's entirely possible. They're actually underdogs on Thursday against San Francisco 49ers. So if they lose that game and the Colts win out it all comes down to a tug of Viola in two weeks in the Miami Dolphins when they go to Nashville if Tua and the Red Hot Dolphins upset the Titans in that game as well if the Colts win out they would win the AFC South miraculously just seeing the Titans completely nosedive in that scenario if that does indeed happen then the Titans finish 10 and 7 and the Colts finish 11-6, and the Bills beat the Patriots next Sunday,

or if the Patriots just lose one game the rest of the way, the Colts be the number two seed in the AFC. Just incredible where they'd be at 0-3 to go from that to number two in the AFC, but that's absolutely on the table here as a plausible scenario. I mean, what's your opinion of the different routes this season could take for the Colts as far as the playoff picture goes? They have a 90% chance of making the playoffs now

after what's happened in the AFC and their win on Saturday against the Patriots. I mean, I'd mention it on the Locked on Colts Twitter accounts, but I think the perfect scenario for this team, absolutely perfect scenario, would be Tennessee just falling off a cliff. They finished 10-7, and they finished as number seven seed, and the Colts moved to number two seed and went out.

Could you imagine Lucasville Stadium, two-seed Colts hosting the reeling, just in a nosedive, Tennessee Titans number seven seed for a chance to go to a divisional round, and the Colts to host another playoff game before they go to the AFC title game? I mean, that's just an incredible scenario that I think is absolutely on the table. And I think all Colts fans are going to be temporarily 49ers and Dolphins fans the next two weeks because if those two things happen, the Colts really are going to be number two seed in the AFC

if they can just win out here. Yeah, honestly, yeah. Because, like, that's honestly – it's something I talked to you about this back after Tennessee lost to Houston. Surprisingly, they lost to Houston. And I said, well, you never know. That was the one game that I thought that they would win. But, you know, with how they've been playing recently

and the injuries that they've got, they could lose their grips on the AFC South here. And here we are. We're three weeks out. They go – Tennessee goes in, I believe it's at San Francisco. Is that right? It's a Thursday night game. No, it's home. Yeah, home in Nashville.

Next two games are – Yeah, next two games are at home against these two teams okay so you've got two games you know you've got uh against the 49ers who are red hot right now and you've got you know joey bosa or nick bosa which one it's nick bosa who is there with the 49ers and is just absolutely destroying tackles. And the Tennessee, their tackles are not great at all right now. Now I think they've said that A.J. Brown's been put on the 21-day window to be able to come back from IR.

So he's going to be coming back here soon. My guess, probably not this week against San Francisco, but next week against Miami. And what's wild is if you look at the dolphins, like they started their season and they were like one in six or one in seven to start the season and are now seven and seven. Like they're, they're a more hot, there's not a more

hot team in the nfl than the dolphins recently like they've literally gone six and oh over the past six games and so i don't think tennessee is going to beat san francisco on thursday i think that's just too tall of a task for them given their injury situation i think the colts have a real opportunity to beat arizona so they can be tied going in with two games left in the season. And like I said, Tennessee plays the Dolphins who are on fire right now. And so I have a hard time thinking that the Dolphins who they play the Saints, looks like it's a Monday night game on ESPN. And then they go and they they play Tennessee and that's going to be the game that Colts fans have to hope for because Tennessee really could lose both those games if they lose

both those games and the Colts went out then you're looking at you know the Colts and maybe Patriots up there but I believe the Patriots still have a couple tough games left to play I know they play the Bills coming up. They've got the Bills. Yeah, they've got Bills this week. And then they've got the Jaguars, so that's not a tough game. And then they're at the Dolphins. And the Patriots never play well against the Dolphins at Miami.

So who knows there? That could be Miami's playoff game right there on if they win, they get in. So the AFC playoffs is just wild because they've got, I think it's like 10 teams that are all within one game of each other for four spots. So it's just nuts. The entire AFC North is all within a game. I think everybody's either 8-6 or 7-7. I think three teams are 8-6 and one team's 7-7. The Raiders somehow are still afloat in there. It's just wild how this thing is played out at the AFC playoffs.

And it's wild that the Colts, after starting 0-3, control their own destiny. If they win out, they're in the playoffs, and they're at the very least the five seed. And if you can be the five seed, you might be able to get a game against Tennessee. Because even if the Colts sit there at the five seed, then I don't think Tennessee's going to win out.

I don't think they're going to win out to hold the three seed. I think they're going to end up being the four seed if they win the AFC South. So you're going to get probably a rematch with the Titans regardless because if they lose their games and they end up – if they lose out and the Colts go and win the division, then the Colts are probably going to be the two seed and Tennessee is going to be the seven seed. And if the Tennessee Titans can somehow find a way to win two of those three games

and win the AFC South, they're probably looking at the four seed and the Colts are going to be the five seed. So either way, I pray for a first- round matchup for the Colts to have the Titans because it would do me no greater pleasure than to like, just crush Ryan Tannehill and the Titans and break his little finger roll and move on in the playoffs and have it be them being the first step as the Colts go through. Yeah, that would be just an incredible scenario.

And we're going to be obviously talking a lot more about the AFC playoff picture throughout the next couple of weeks as the Colts inch closer and closer to clinching a playoff berth. Obviously a huge game on Saturday against the Cardinals. Really quick before I let you go here, Stephen. I mean, after Saturday's game against the Patriots, obviously probably like we mentioned the highest they can get in the AFC is the second seed.

But, I mean, honestly, even against Kansas City, I mean, you have to play ball control to beat Patrick Mahomes and have an opportunistic defense, and the Colts have that. So, I mean, I'm pretty comfortable with the way the Colts are playing right now that they could go on a run here. I mean, I wouldn't have said this about a month ago, but the way that John Taylor is playing, the way that this defense continues to create turnovers,

Carson Wentz being a really solid game manager and doing everything when asked upon, when need be. I think this Colts team, realistically, we could be talking here in late January, with an AFC playoff berth on the line, or a suitable playoff berth on the line, and Arrowhead. I think it's a really plausible scenario with the way this team is playing right now.

Yeah, I mean, again, this is stuff with the way this team's playing right now. Yeah. I mean, again, this is stuff that, that I know people made fun of me for when I, when I would bring it up, but I truly believe that this team was, was good enough to be able to make it through the AFC because there wasn't a

dominant team in the AFC. And there hasn't been all year. Even this year, Patrick Mahomes and is is randomly he will struggle. And you're going, what's going on? Is there something wrong? Do you have some grip issue with your thumb? I don't understand why you're struggling at times because you really shouldn't be.

But he has. There's not a runaway team in the AFC. And quite honestly, the team that I don't think anybody wants to play in the AFC playoffs is the Colts like they're not the team that the like nobody wants to play the Colts right now because they have a really strong defense they're hard to run against and they've got a fantastic running game that they take pleasure in running it down your throat and just being cruel to people and just crushing their spirit and so they're a team that nobody wants to play in the playoffs and if they can make it if they do make it in the playoffs which we all hope they do at this point obviously but they can do

some real damage similar similar to Tampa Bay last year who who did not do – they were the fifth seed coming in. They were struggling until the defense showed up, until playoff Lenny showed up with Leonard Fournette. Once those two things started to happen, then Tampa Bay started to take off. And, yeah, they've got some great right receivers. They obviously have one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time with Tom Brady, but it wasn't until the defense started playing well and Leonard Fournette started to take off that they really took off. The Colts already have those two things in place in terms of the defense and the running back. All they need is for Carson

Wentz to be an above average game manager who can make them the defense pay every once in a while. And I think he's totally comfortable in that role this year and will do fine. And I think the Colts are the most dangerous team in the AFC if they can make the playoffs. This is a lot of fun, as always, Stephen. Having you on the show each week here on Locked on Colts. And one of the most fun, memorable games we've watched in a very long time is the Colts, for the first time in 12 years,

beat the New England Patriots on Saturday night with Jonathan Taylor running wild 27-17. Colts fans, make sure you follow Stephen on Twitter if you haven't already at NiceReadSteve. Stephen, appreciate the time, man. I know we're going to be talking again here sometime soon. All right. Thanks, Evan.

Have a good one.