Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts Upset Kansas City Chiefs, 20-17

Episode Date: September 25, 2022

The Indianapolis Colts did the unthinkable in Week 3, defeating the Kansas City Chiefs, 20-17. Zach and Jake break down all the details from this wild victory for the Colts.Find and follow Locked On Colts on your favorite podcast platforms:📺YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLdpxJspi1hMh5HL7ExpWOQ🎧 Apple https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/id1151621306🎧 Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/6meP450baAtjX4rTENZ5ij🎧 Audacy https://www.audacy.com/podcasts/locked-on-colts-daily-podcast-on-the-indianapolis-colts-21701🎧 Google https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vUFBZODk1ODUyODkyNQ🎧 Megaphone https://cms.megaphone.fm/channel/lockedoncoltsFollow Jake and Zach's written work on HorseshoeHuddle.com, and give them a follow on Twitter @JakeArthurNFL, @ZachHicks2, and @LockedOnColts!Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!LinkedInLinkedIn Jobs helps you find the candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/LOCKEDONNFLBuilt BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts!BriteCoThe guys at BriteCo Jewelry Insurance made buying insurance for your engagement ring, your watch, or whatever so easy you can get covered in 2 minutes on your cell phone. You won't find a better deal on coverage that's so affordable. Go to https://brite.co/lockedon/PrizePicksFirst time users can receive a 100% instant deposit match up to $100 with promo code LOCKEDON. That’s PrizePicks.com – promo code; LOCKEDONBetterHelpIt’s not a crisis line, it’s not self-help, it’s professional therapy done securely online, available to people worldwide. And they have a special offer for my listeners: get 10% off your first month at Betterhelp.com/LockedOn Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Well, well, well, I guess we're going to talk about a big fat Colts win today, everybody. 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. Thank you everyone for tuning in and making us your number one listen of the day. This is your daily podcast covering your Indianapolis Colts, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day.

This is Jake Arthur, joined alongside Zach Hicks, of course. You know the two of us from HorseshoeHuddle.com. Well, this was unexpected, guys. The Colts pull off the improbable upset on Sunday, beating the Kansas City Chiefs 20-17 here at Lucas Oil Stadium. That's why I'm dressed like this. That's why I'm in a weird bunker room right now. We'll go ahead and give you guys our instant reactions, hot takes, grievances, etc. All about this one. So the Colts jumped out to an early 7-0 lead, which in itself is rare. Kansas City then went up 14-10 before the half, and then the Colts finally caught up to them.

Matt Ryan to Jelani Woods from 12 yards out to take that 20-17 lead with 24 seconds left. Then just a couple plays later, Rodney McLeod, he sealed the deal with an interception with the very nice assist from Stephon Gilmore. We obviously didn't see this one coming, Zach. What are your initial thoughts? Yeah, you know, the only victory lap that we can kind of take from this past week,

because it was a very negative week for us on this show, and rightfully so. I think all of you guys listening can agree that we had the right to be negative this whole week going into this game. But I think the only thing that we can take victory lap wise is we did say a couple of times on this show this week that Frank Reich and this Colts team, they are at their best when their backs are against the wall. When, when they need the improbable to happen, they typically do a really good job and they came out in this game and I'm not

going to say it looked pretty. It was an ugly, ugly game. Super ugly game, especially, you know, the Chiefs committing a lot of mistakes. The Colts offensive line not holding up for a majority of the game. Ugly, ugly game. But the Colts still hung in there against one of the best teams in all of football. And honestly, my biggest takeaway is the defense, man. This Colts defense came to play, and I did not see this coming at all because I really thought after those first two weeks,

we saw Trevor Lawrence have a lot of success. We saw Davis Mills in week one have some success up the seams as well, and we didn't really see this Colts pass rush doing much at all the first two weeks. They came out today, and they look like a very, very different unit. The defense was very diverse in how it attacked Pat Mahomes. The pass rush looked really good for the whole game. Like, even if they weren't getting sack after sack after sack,

they were getting a lot of constant pressure. And then I think a lot of the star players finally stepped up. Like we said, Yannick Ngakwe had a sack and a couple pressures. DeForest Buckner looked like DeForest Buckner again. Stephon Gilmore had the huge pass breakup that turned into an interception at the very end of the game. They had a couple other really nice plays. The Colts star players really stepped up on defense,

and they held this Chiefs offense down enough for the Colts offense to finally put it away late. So like Frank Reich said, a great team effort outside of the offensive line, I think, outside of the offensive line. Great team effort today. And the Colts really fought for this one. They had a couple of gifts go their way late, but they definitely fought for this one. And it's a great win. They needed this win going into week four against the Titans.

Yeah, no doubt. I mean, neither of us thought this win was coming, but we did say there was a roadmap for it to happen. And one of the biggest things was they were going to have to have breaks go their way and they were going to have to take advantage of, it's too small for that. No, somebody on Twitter said, we have you wearing the tie and I'm sleeveless. Just the perfect match. It really is. It actually speaks to our personalities. You're the more professional one and I'm just here for the vibes. I have to be to keep it up. But no, I mean, they took advantage of all these Kansas City mistakes. The first score of the game came on a Sky Moore muffed punt. They took advantage of that.

There were some untimely penalties. There was the Chris Jones penalty that kept the final drive alive. There was interception at the end. There was that weird fake field goal that went nowhere. And a missed field goal. Kickers rock. Kickers are awesome. We love it.

Thank you, kickers and special teams. It's such sweet poetry for you that part of what won this game was a missed field goal and missed extra points. So definitely two big things there. And then, like you said, defensively, big round of applause for Gus Bradley. And, you know, we're going to play both sides of the ball. Like, we trashed the defense last week. Like everything was bad. And we, we were, we were on that too. And kudos to Gus Bradley for, you know, changing things up and putting, putting things to Taylor against a game plan of Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reed,

and not just forcing the same single high stuff. Because coming into this game, I saw a thing. This Colts defense has been playing far and away the most single high safety looks in the league, and Patrick Mahomes feasts on that. And, you know, like you said, the pass rush was good. They only got one sack, but they were disrupting Mahomes and flushing him out of the

pocket throughout the game. The coverage was good because Mahomes is just like an absolute wizard when it comes to plays breaking down and making all the random stuff happen. But they stayed tight in coverage and they really did a good job sticking to those guys. And like you said, the Stars played like the Stars. And we also – some of this stuff happened because of injury, but we saw Isaiah Rogers finally and why he maybe didn't have any, like, enormous plays. He did his job.

I thought he was – he played well. It was just good to get him out there. Dayo Odengbo had a couple nice run plays. Just, man, all around. Rodney McLeod, if we're talking different guys, Rodney McLeod stepped in as a starter this week, played a lot of the snaps, and he looked really good out there. And then Rodney Thomas, I mean, if we're talking about a game-changing, game-saving play, I mean, that pass breakup on that deep pass towards the end of the first half, I mean, if he doesn't make that play, this game is a completely different story.

And the Chiefs probably run away with it in the second half. So, yeah, a lot of unsung heroes. Guys who didn't really play much in the first two weeks really stepped up on the defensive side of the ball for the Colts. And honestly, on the offensive side, too. Alec Pierce and Jelani Woods, two guys who people were, you know, we always hear people going, oh, Alec Pierce, the biggest bust or whatever. Jelani Woods never sees the field. But now we're here in week three, and Alec Pierce, I think, had over 50 yards receiving.

And Jelani Woods had two touchdowns on two catches and the game-winning touchdown. So both those guys really came to play. Honestly, right now we feel pretty good about this Colts team at the offensive line. We're just a little bit better. That's really it. So we're talking negatives and grievances. That's pretty much where it's going to be. But hats off to the defense. And honestly, again, Gus Bradley coming into the season, I thought was getting a lot more hate than what he deserved.

Although he did stick with that single high, I thought he was a very impressive defense coordinator. So I think he did a lot of good with that Raiders defense last year. And the first two weeks kind of had me going like, oh, maybe not. Maybe I was wrong. And I was really concerned, especially with some of his comments this week about playing Pat Mahomes and that. But yeah, give him credit today, man. He came out with a really, really good game plan for Pat Mahomes, and these guys were fired up. And this defense played really, really well. The defense definitely deserves the game ball for this,

and the special teams, you know, for capitalizing on those miscues. But the Golds defense, for sure, gets the game ball for holding Pat Mahomes to 17 points. Yeah, and just so you guys know, it is still us. You know, this doesn't cure all woes. Like, this wasn't a spotless win by any means. Like, the offensive line, it was still terrible at times. Like, I know you and I both had tweets of, like,

how is this even real, basically. But, I mean, just to stay consistent, there are still issues. Like this was a very Colt style win where they're going to go out and lose these first two games and then beat one of the best teams in the entire league. That's very on brand for them. So this doesn't cure everything. There are still issues to pay attention to moving forward, but man, for today, it's the 24 hour rule. You know, you got to celebrate this one for him. Again, like we mentioned, that offensive line was real shaky. Matt Ryan was under duress like all day.

He still needs some better help up front. But for all of you guys out there, better help's got your back. Now we'll hear a word from our sponsor, BetterHelp. If you guys are like me, you've probably got way too many irons in the fire at times and you get overwhelmed. It's easy to feel like you're just drowning in tasks and you just almost feel like giving up. Instead, it's obviously more beneficial to take one step at a time and focus on solutions. For me, I just try and start knocking out the smallest things one by one, and suddenly it doesn't seem so daunting. It can be tough to train your brain to stay in problem-solving mode when faced with a challenge in life. But when you learn how to find your own solutions, there's really no better feeling.

A therapist can help you become a better problem solver, actually, making it a lot easier to accomplish your goals, no matter how big or small. Yeah. And guys, I've been pretty open about this. I've been in therapy in the past, not BetterHelp in particular, just not yet, but I have been in therapy in the past. And I do think there's this weird stigma when it comes to therapy that a guy shouldn't go to it or you're too good for therapy or something like that. But honestly, the main inspiration for me was just I needed something to kind of lift me through the day, lift me through those daunting tasks that Jake was talking about, something to really be my safety net. And that's what BetterHelp can be for you guys. You know, the benefits of therapy far outweigh the negatives. You know, if you can just get yourself to a very comfortable level, be happy with yourself again,

if that's therapy, if that's, you know, exercise, if that's the Colts winning, whatever you need to be, you're going to take advantage of that. And BetterHelp can really be that for a lot of you guys. So if you're thinking of giving therapy a try, BetterHelp is a great option. It's convenient, accessible, affordable, and entirely online. Get matched with a therapist after filling out a brief survey and switch therapists at any time. When you want to be a better problem solver, therapy can get you there. Visit betterhelp.com slash locked on today to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash locked on. All right, let's talk about this offense, Jake, because there's some good stuff in there, kind of.

I think so you know and this one obviously you know nothing runs smoothly if the offensive line isn't going well but i at least think we saw some glimpses in this game of what the offense can look like when ryan has some time i think they they bought him a little more time later in the game luckily at least when it mattered the most. But you saw them taking advantage of some guys' strengths, which was good. You know, Michael Pittman Jr. over the middle of the field, his hands are like bear traps. He was really clutch.

He's not going to get talked about enough in this one because other guys had really big plays. But Pittman Jr., this game probably doesn't happen without him this win. Alec Pierce, you know, those deep sideline shots, contested 50-50 stuff. Jelani Woods using his athleticism and size to beat defenders. Like, this was a very telling performance of what things could look like. And, of course, if the offensive line is short up a little bit,

Jonathan Taylor doesn't have to create all of his own yards and he can get some creases to actually bust some bigger runs. But yeah, I was encouraged just because if you stay optimistic that the offensive line can have some improvement, then this could be a decent offense. I don't want to say hot take but honestly right now who would have thought into week three i really don't think the pass catchers are an issue with the colts like when they're all healthy obviously we saw last week there were some issues without alec pierce and michael pitman jr but with these guys all healthy i don't think there's been many issues with with the pass catch i mean even week one against the

Texans the the pass catchers are really not an issue for most of that game you know they were obviously Alec Pierce had that drop in week one but I think the pass catchers are looking pretty good I mean uh Paris Campbell's decoy a lot but he's he's doing his job I made a couple nice catches today Michael Pittman Jr. did his thing Alec Pierce looked awesome uh in every opportunity he had today he looked really really good so I was really really thing. Alec Pierce looked awesome. In every opportunity he had today, he looked really, really good. So I was really, really impressed with Alec Pierce. Ashton Doolin, obviously, on his one catch, had a nice little catch. Kylan Granson had a nice one that was nearly a first down, too, late in the game. Jelani Woods had the two touchdowns. I really think these pass catchers,

you know, I'm not going to come out here and say that they're the best group in the league now or these guys are awesome, but I really think they're winnable pass catchers. I i'm not going to come out here and say that they're the best group in the league now or these guys are awesome but i really think they're winnable pass catchers i think they're perfectly fine and and they've been playing pretty well i think this was just a really solid game from all the pass catchers and they're definitely not the issue of this offense right now so when you when you mention a lot of those like receiving threats i do think a lot of those guys played really well uh and they're and they're really solidifying themselves and their roles in this offense as of right now yeah totally agree like it's it's again matt ryan showed he can he can work with those guys like if they just get some separation and i thought the jelani woods the second touchdown was a perfect example of it he he hit woods coming

the ball was already out of his hands as Woods was coming out of his break. He led him perfectly where only Woods could get it. And like, that's, that's just the kind of stuff. And that comes with trust too. He talked to, Ryan talked a lot about that after the game was he's getting a lot of trust in these guys. And in my opinion, something that can kind of propel development is confidence boosting games like this. It just allows you to play more free and confident and your mindset is closer to where it was when you were a star in college. You know, at the end of the day, it's a game of football.

Sure, there's a lot of stuff to absorb and take in. But I think a day like this will go a long way towards towards helping Pierce and Woods continue to become bigger parts of the offense because they haven't been so far. Pierce had two targets in that first game, obviously missed last week. But both of these guys caught their first passes of their career today and pretty big showing. Yeah, and then I'll touch on running backs real quick. I thought the running backs were fine for what they were given today.

Taylor really didn't have much room to run at all. Hines had a couple nice catches, did his thing. He was a nice little outlet. I thought that was fine. But the two things we really got to talk about, the offensive line and Matt Ryan. So let's start with Matt Ryan. I would say mostly positive day for Matt Ryan. There are some issues, I still think, with him

because when it comes to pass protection, because the way the Colts are getting beat in pass pro, it's really not, like outside of Danny Pinter versus Chris Jones, which we knew was going to be a disaster, but it's not really guys just getting bested or getting beat one-on-one. It's just simple miscommunications that are things that you would learn in like high school football. Like,

like you had guys lining up mugging the a gap and just not getting blocked. And I do think the quarterback bears some responsibility for that. The center bears responsibility. The O-line coach bears responsibility and all the guys up front, you know? So I'm not going to say Matt Ryan is blameless for this. And there are some of these plays where there is a free rusher and he's not IDing that free rusher and he's getting hit.

So I do think that he is part of these protection issues. And also that second fumble that he had was 100% on him. You've got to feel the guy coming from behind there. You know, you can't be that loose with the ball while you're rolling out of the pocket. It was just a, it was a mind numbingly bad mistake that led to points for

for the chiefs and and that's something that we hope that the colts be getting away from with with matt ryan we get away from the dumb mistakes and get into more efficient football now getting to the positives though i thought he looked pretty good today you know he had a couple misses uh obviously there was there was a the big miss to johnny woods over the middle uh that i remember it was kind of happened in the third quarter. A couple of misses outside. But when the Colts needed him to go down there and make a couple of big throws, I mean, he had a really nice throw outside the numbers to Alec Pierce. And then obviously the game went and touched down to Jelani Woods.

And he was doing that while getting lit up. You know, every single one of those plays, he was getting crushed. So, I mean, it was just a, it was a really good performance down the stretch and I'm glad that he had the chance to go down there and win the game for the Colts. So I, this game would probably be like a B for me, for Matt Ryan, you know, like a B, B plus, I think he, he turned around there at late, but it was, again, still just kind of,

still kind of ugly for a lot of that game with Matt Ryan. Yeah, it was. And I'm glad you mentioned the fumble thing because ugly for a lot of that game with matt ryan yeah it was and i'm glad you mentioned the fumble thing because he does a lot of things well and overall he does not concern me um but i i wrote after the game that the fumbles are becoming a concern it's seven through three games right and now three of those are three of those are qb center exchanges and we don't know who really made the fluff. That stuff has been cleaned up so far, but still, it seems,

it seems like almost every time he gets sacked when he's not expecting it to fumble and that could become a big issue. But at the end of the day, clean up the pass protection and that won't be as big of an issue. So yeah, that's the bigger problem. Yeah. I don't,

man, this O-line looked terrible today. I mean, just downright dreadful for the bigger problem. Yeah, I don't. Yeah, man. So line look terrible. I mean, just downright dreadful for the entire game. Yeah, it wasn't just everyone not named Quentin Nelson pretty much. Yeah, and it wasn't just stunts like we said all week. Oh, just do a call a stunt and you'll get pressure. I mean, it's literally like it'll have four on four and guys will just not pick up the guy in front of them or they'll just just horrible communication horrible blitz three i mean anytime there was a blitz it was there was one or two free rushers hitting that ryan oh yeah if they brought an extra guy they were getting

there yeah so i i posed this during the game i don't know if you have to fire chris drosser if you have to give protection calls to matt ryan or take him away from that i don't know who's making the protection calls right now but whoever's making those calls probably needs to get those taken away with his Matt Ryan or Ryan Kelly, whoever it is making the protection calls. Like you got to take it away from them at this point, because this is downright dreadful the way that these protection calls are going. And, and honestly, yeah, I mean, it's just been, it's not just bad and pass pro it's not just bad and run blocking.

It's bad all around on this offensive line. Everything looks ugly and just messy. And, you know, luckily it was just Chris Jones that they were playing against today that was like a really tough pass rusher. But next week they've got Danico Autry and Jeffrey Simmons with the Titans. It's going to be even worse. So, I don't know, man. They've really got to figure this out.

I don't know if the answer is putting Will Fries at right guard, putting Bernard Ryman at left tackle, moving Braden Smith to right guard, and putting Dennis Kelly at right tackle. I don't know. I don't know. They have a lot of issues right now, and I don't know what the easy fix is. But this offensive line, for how much it's getting paid, is an abject disaster.

Yeah, that's no doubt. I was actually, I was anger searching earlier on Spotrack. And so Braden Smith is the 14th highest paid tackle in the NFL. Obviously, a lot of guys that had him are going to be left tackles. They get the handsome deals. And Brian Kelly is the second highest paid center. And these are based on guaranteed money. That's, dude, you got to perform if that much money is being tied into you. the second highest paid center and these are based on guaranteed money that's dude you gotta perform

if that much money is being tied into you and it's like you're talking about what changes need to be made there's a lot of stuff on here that's that's player based of course but at the end of the day all these communication issues and stupid mental mistakes like that's got to come back to coaching um and you you were wondering about who's making protection calls i know for the longest time and i assume it's still the case it's ryan kelly he's an enormous part of the protection plan throughout the entire week working with the quarterback and the coaches so i assume it's still him yeah from my understanding it was philip rivers year philip rivers did almost all the protection calls um kelly which makes

sense because they didn't have a lot of time together. Right. And Kelly, Kelly was obviously in part of that. And then last year, my understanding was it was almost always, it was always Kelly instead of Wentz. I don't, I just don't know if they've changed that with Matt Ryan this year. I'm not too sure.

Maybe that's not a question for a reporter to ask Frank Reich next time, like sometime this week, that would be actually be an amazing question that a media person could ask Frank Reich is like those protection miscues, like who's making those calls or how are those falling apart? But yeah, that's really all we got really for offense. I mean, I just, the offensive line needs to get better and I think we'll see running backs and pass catchers

and quarterback play increase if that offensive line can at least be mediocre, which it it has not been this year yeah yeah no doubt it's that's a tough one um i honestly i think i know we're going kind of long on offense but when bernard ryman gets back into practice i think you gotta throw him back in there like you're gonna have to do some sort of shuffling somewhere and it probably starts with right guard if you're looking at a positional change uh but yeah i i think you get rhyming in there whether it's left tackle and then you throw prior right guard or whatever it is something's gotta change yeah i agree i agree uh but coming up guys we're gonna talk some defense so all positive coming up here um so all right that's we going to put an ad when you guys are listening to it there.

That's showbiz, baby. That's showbiz, baby. We're doing it live. We're doing it live. Talking about this defense, man, I was so impressed with everything. Where do you want to start here with this defense, Jake? I really was impressed everywhere. I was going to throw in some stats.

They held Kansas City to 3 of 10 on third down, which that's terrific. Other teams have had some success getting the Colts on fourth downs, but the Chiefs were only 1 of 2 on fourth down and 2 of 4 in the red zone. And considering you've got Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelsey, a pass-catching back like Clyde Edwards, Alair, you could have won in those situations, but the Colts held strong in like every facet. It seemed like, again, we talked about the pass rush was awesome. Bobby Okereke, I thought played really well.

Zyre Franklin played good against the run, actually against the run. They totally snuffed out. Yeah. Another thing right here, 38% pressure rate today against Mahomes. Yeah. Unreal. Just had him, had him running all the time, just like in the Superbowl against the 49ers almost. But no, they totally made them one dimensional. And in that passing game, they, they kept, they kept Mahomes on his heel. So kudos all around. Shoot. Yeah, no, I want to, I want to put this thing back up here from from ozi 75 just great comment 38 pressure rate to mahomes i i put this on social media where i think this was the best pass rushing performance i've seen from a colts defense since 2020 maybe since like the lions game in 2020 or something like that like this was just phenomenal all around from the pass rush.

And again, it wasn't constant sacks, but it was constantly getting Mahomes off his spot. And I know Pat Mahomes loves to run around like a chicken with its head cut off back there and make some crazy plays. But anytime you can force a quarterback off their spot and make them make throws on the run, even the best in the world at doing it, it's going to be a level of discomfort. And the same goes to Pat Mahomes. So I really think this pass rush was the star of the game for this defense. I mean, they were outstanding. And like you said, also, just to keep throwing more stuff to this defensive line,

going into this game, Clyde Edwards-Hilaire was leading the NFL, I think, in 7.7 yards per rush through the first two weeks. This game alone, he had seven carries for zero yards and a touchdown. He did score his touchdown, but seven rushes for zero yards. That was late Jerome Bettis numbers. His final days at the Steelers, he'd have like five carries for one yard and two touchdowns. Right, right. So just hats off to this Colts defensive line. And I know I'm going to be rambling here, but these Colts linebackers as well,

I mean, the linebackers were dreadful the first two weeks. I mean, they were terrible. But Bobby Okereke has really stepped it up. He stepped it up late last game, too, and he kind of carried that into this one. But Zyre Franklin and EJ Speed, they both looked really, really strong in coverage, which is a first this year. Both those guys have struggled in coverage early in the season, but they both look like different players in coverage.

They look confident in their reads. And I think it was because they were getting back to more cover two, cover four type stuff. But good game plan, good performance from the defensive line, good linebacker play. I mean, I really can't say enough about this defense. I was really impressed. And that's, again, with Julian Blackman leaving early in the game,

with Stephon Gilmore leaving for parts of the game, and with no Shaquille Leonard. And this defense looked really good against one of the better teams in all of football. So just awesome, just an awesome performance. I really am so impressed with this defense and Gus Bradley and all the players after what they had done the first two weeks yeah that that leads me to my next point you just were talking about you know Patrick Mahomes you obviously want to be at full strength

but you know they made a substitution for you know Nick Cross didn't really play with them doing more too high stuff it was Rodney McLeod and Julian Blackman. Blackman goes down. You put a seventh-round rookie in there in Rodney Thomas. He did really, really well, we mentioned, at corner. They finally put Isaiah Rogers in there. And then it just so happens they needed him for a stretch because Gilmore went out briefly with the hamstring, which with a hamstring, I almost always assume

they're going to be out the rest of the game. But, I mean, applause to're going to be out the rest of the game. But I mean, applause to Gilmore for coming back for that. Hopefully it wasn't really anything. But no, man, this was a next man up. Like everyone did their job type of game.

I was thoroughly impressed all the way around all three levels. Yep. And we also got to talk about Rodney McLeod again, because I really thought Rodney McLeod was great. And to point this comment out, Nick Cross didn't really play too much in this. And we also got to talk about Rodney McLeod again because I really thought Rodney McLeod was great. And to point this comment out, Nick Cross didn't really play too much in this. I don't even know if he logged a defensive snap. I don't remember seeing him out there. I didn't notice him.

Yeah, so I don't think he was out there. But the game plan was more to have the experienced Rodney McLeod who can kind of play the deep ant box role. So they were kind of rolling him around a lot on the defense and using him all over the place. And it really worked. Uh, Ronnie McLeod had a strong, strong game. Uh, and this was kind of what the team needed in this one.

So I think Nick cross will be fine in the future. He needs to get some more experience, uh, before you throw them into the fire against a team like this. Uh, but getting a guy like, uh, Ronnie McLeod, this off season was a huge, huge signing and you could just see it in this game. I mean, he was great. And the game-ending interception was obviously just an exclamation point on that. But, no, I mean, this defense, man.

I know I keep saying it, but Stephon Gilmore, too. I want to highlight him because we talked a lot the first two weeks where he was playing pretty well. Obviously, he made some mistakes in that second game when he was in coverage against tight ends and stuff like that. It's a tough call for anyone. Evan Ingram is a freaky, freaky tight end. So it was kind of a tough assignment for him in week two,

but he didn't look as good in week two as he did in week one. He bounced back pretty well today. You know, there were a couple mistakes. There were a couple times he did get beat for catches, but that game-ending interception, that was his play through and through. Just an outstanding play. Played right through the hands. Knocked it up in the air to Ronnie McLeod to get that pick. He also had a really nice tackle on third down on Travis Kelsey early in the game, too. Like I said, the Stars came to play play on defense and it's the first time they, that they actually came to play and this one,

and we saw what this defense was capable, you know, all off season people saying that Gus Bradley could take this defense to top 10, top five, you know, whatever. And even without them really forcing the turnovers today, like they still didn't really force as many turnovers, like what they would do, like what they did last year. They really, really were all over the place. They had a really strong game.

They look like that top five, that top 10 defense today. So if they can keep this going, this defense, man, and then get Shaquille Leonard back into there, maybe they could be that top five, top 10 defense. I'm again, really, really impressed by everything the defense did. Yeah, no doubt. And someone we, we can't end the show without acknowledging is Kylan Granson on special teams, man. Yeah. So of course, Kylan Granson. Yeah. So he, he went down,

he's the one that recovered that first fumbled punt by the chiefs that the Colts then turned into a touchdown. And he also, Matt Hawk had a beautiful punt and I think they got it down at the one yard line when it was Granson that was right there for it. So he had a nice player too on offense, came up with a catch that a lot of people probably thought he wouldn't have because it was a difficult catch, but no, it was, it was special. It was a good special teams day for him particularly as well.

Yeah. Yeah. No good special teams day for him particularly as well. Yeah. Yeah. No, good special teams day in general. I mean, obviously a lot of luck played into that with some muffs and the stupid fake field goal call. But good special teams day. Again, they bounced back when they had not had good special teams days the last two weeks. Yeah, no doubt.

Well, shoot, you got anything else on this one? I mean, obviously we're going to talk all more about it tomorrow. Nope. We're feeling good. We're feeling good. Very good. Yeah. Well, yep. That's it for us then everybody. We'll be back with you. I mean, this will be Monday show still, but we'll be back with you Tuesday morning. Then we'll keep breaking down this game. We're going to talk to more people, digest more info about it, and tell you the real skinny on this real skinny on how this one went down.

Yes, sir. Follow at JakeArthurNFL on Twitter, at ZachHicks2, and at LockedOnColts all on Twitter. Also subscribe to the show on YouTube, LockedOnColts on YouTube, and wherever you listen to your podcasts. Thanks again for making LockedOnColts your first listen every day. Now make your second listen to the Peacock and Williamson NFL show. Brian Peacock and former NFL scout Matt Williamson

give you the expert NFL analysis in less than 30 minutes. It's free and available wherever you get your podcasts. We'll see you guys Monday, Tuesday. Tuesday. Tuesday. We'll see you guys Tuesday. Yeah, I got to get off here because I have a sinking feeling that I got locked in this room, so we'll see.