Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts' Zack Moss, Zaire Franklin Star in Win over Baltimore Ravens

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Colts finally appear to be turning the page, starting fresh, and leaving some of their old atrocities behind them. Let's get to it. You are Locked On Colts, your daily Indianapolis Colts podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. All right. Thanks for tuning in and making us your first listen of the day. This is your daily podcast covering your Indianapolis Colts, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. And today's show is brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs,

Starting point is 00:00:46 which helps you find the qualified candidates that you want to talk to faster. Post your job for free at linkedin.com slash locked on NFL. That's linkedin.com slash locked on NFL to post your job for free. Terms and conditions apply. Hello, everybody. I am Jake Arthur, and he is Zach Hicks. He is Zach Hicks or Gardner Mins, or every truck driver you've ever seen. It's glorious.

Starting point is 00:01:11 Whatever is going on in between your nose and mouth, it's beautiful. I look like the neighbor in Office Space. That's what I look like as of right now. Oh, yeah. Lawrence? Yeah, I look like Lawrence. Or I look like Bob Belcher from from Bob's Burgers. I think there's some good comparisons. You guys can drop it in the comment section below.

Starting point is 00:01:29 But look, I'm a man of my word. I am wearing this mustache. It's not going to be for the whole year because I'm not that much of a man of my word. But I am a man of my words where at least I will give you guys, you know, part of this. It's on video now. It's going to be on YouTube. It's going to be part of history now. So you guys can always access this if you want, but this is my punishment slash reward, I guess, for winning. Yeah. Come up and see. That's a good one. Like you alluded to on Twitter, your marriage is on the line. If that thing doesn't hit the road in the near future. So yes, I understand. But I am back in the saddle today with Zach. Obviously, you guys have probably noticed it's been mostly Zach or just one or the other for a while.

Starting point is 00:02:11 I've obviously had some issues with my dog. She has one eye now. So thanks to Zach for holding everything down. Thanks to you guys for your well wishes. She's feeling better. It's weird to have one eye, but dogs can bounce back strong. I think she dislikes wearing a cone more than she dislikes only having one eye. So it's interesting out here. We are going to talk about Colts and Ravens today. I have finally had a chance to watch the game. Zach has probably watched the game at least two, three, four times at this point. So we're going to give you our takes, kind of the things that stood out offensively, things that stood out defensively, and then either things that we really, really like that they've

Starting point is 00:02:55 done that we want to see them keep doing or things we think they still have an opportunity to tweak moving forward that we would like to see them do as soon as this week against the Rams, for example. So offensively, Zach, I was looking at this thing and I don't want to besmirch anyone who was here before, but I just really like the way Shane Steichen calls a game. It's not necessarily spotless and there are sometimes things where, ooh, what are you doing here but like I just feel like everything is very sensible it's versatile and keeps the defense guessing like I really enjoy watching what the Colts put out there offensively and and keep in mind the past two games it's been Gardner Minshew yeah and it wasn't like a pretty game on offense overall I mean it was what 3.4 yards per like drop back or something gain for the Colts offense.

Starting point is 00:03:46 Just that's terrible production from your offense in this game. But it's with your backup quarterback. You always have to have that stipulation with it. You're not throwing your design starter out there. You have to change your offense to fit what Gardner Minshew can do. And I think Shane Sagan did a good job

Starting point is 00:04:01 of giving Minshew the tools to be kind of successful in this game again it wasn't much of a successful game but minshu didn't go out there and lose the game for the colts he did the gardener minshu thing he got the ball out quick he let the offense move a little bit and he did his thing so yeah i think you got to give props to shane steichen for leaning on what could work looking at how the offense can still stay on track and still keep moving like they didn't have an amazing third down conversion rate in this game. It was like eight of 22, but it could have been worse with your backup quarterback out there. It could have been a lot worse. So I think Shane Sike did a good job of just changing his whole offensive scheme and

Starting point is 00:04:38 design to fitting Gardner Minshew and keeping the offense able to at least kind of move the ball in this game. I think there's real credit out to him for that because that's a hard thing to do. We've seen it with Frank Reich even when he was here, you know, going to backup quarterbacks, all these new quarterbacks. There's a lot of these like really bad issues that started up pretty quick, but Shane Steichen was able to move to his guy in Gardner Minshew and get the job done. So hat off to Shane Steichen did a really good job with that. Yeah, it was something where I thought they did enough to win. Like you said, they didn't have like a great third down conversion rate.

Starting point is 00:05:10 And the defense was a huge part of it too, putting the offense in decent spots, creating turnovers. But, you know, Gardner made enough plays to extend drives a little bit, you know, was able to get them into Baltimore territory where Matt Gay took over and show that he was the MVP of the day. But yeah, in general,

Starting point is 00:05:29 I thought Minshew as a passer was fine. I got to give them like a peripheral awareness score of zero in this game. Probably. I don't, I think there's plenty of things you would probably like to have back in that one, but I won't harp on that too much. I've got to imagine you really

Starting point is 00:05:45 liked what you saw out of zach moss zach moss is a tough runner man he's a tough runner like the vision's not perfect the burst isn't really there the explosion's not really there but you're not gonna have many negative runs with zach moss i mean obviously one of his biggest highlights of the day was when he had that sweep run to the left i believe in the fourth quarter where he was swallowed up for like a four yard gain, tosses Jadavian Clowney off him and turns it up and turns into a four yard gain or should have been a four yard loss turned into a four yard gain. Like that's an,

Starting point is 00:06:14 that's almost an explosive play right there. That's almost a plus 10 run because of what he was able to turn, but would have been a negative play and probably a drive killer into a positive run on that play. So Zach Moss is just such a good running back to have in the Shane Steichen system where you're going to always stay ahead of the sticks. You're always going to stay in those third and manageable because Zach Moss is always going to get you into that situation. He's going to get those three, four, five really tough running yards and get you into third and short, third and two,

Starting point is 00:06:41 third and three, whatever it's going to be. So Zach Moss is a great running back to have for this system. He's played really good football the Zach Moss is a great running back to have for this system. He's played really good football the last two weeks. And even dating back to last year when he took over as a starter, he's been a really big plus in this Colts backfield. Yeah, I put out a tweet shortly before this. He's had like six games going back to last year where he's been like the lead ball carrier. He's been really productive.

Starting point is 00:07:02 He's averaged around five yards per touch or a little more in those six games three games with over 100 yards from scrimmage three games with a touchdown so he's really effective again like you mentioned not explosive but he's got like all the other intangibles to be a productive runner I also you know I really liked what I saw from Michael Pittman those games where these guys don't average 10 yards a catch is a little, it could be a little icky at times, I guess, because he had two, at least two catches where he got pretty decent yardage. Of course, the highlight one late in the game, nine for 77 for him.

Starting point is 00:07:38 He's actually the first Colts player with three consecutive games of eight plus catches since Reggie Wayne did it at the end of 2011 into 2012. So that even surpasses T.Y. Hilton. So he's been really productive this year. Josh Downs, I also think he's just got such a feel for, he's slippery after the catch, just grinds out those extra few yards. These two are just a really solid tandem to have moving the chains yeah and even alec pierce you know he had his best game of the season he had three catches for 43 yards two really nice catches in traffic in this game yes you would love him to pull down that one late yeah but that's a good play by the defender it was a good play by the corner it was also just a weird i don't know

Starting point is 00:08:22 it was i'm not saying it was it wasn't a bad ball by gardener minchu because he gave his guy a chance to get it and that's what you want with your jump ball receiver but it was like a back shoulder throw and pierce had like two steps on the corner so it was kind of it was like a weird just a weird play in general i love the play call i love the play design uh to get that jump ball situation you want pierce to come down with it but i mean for the most part pierce had a really strong game too so i think the top three receivers are really coming into their own a little bit and I'm telling you guys there there are chances for Pierce down the field where he's just two three four steps past this guy it's just not getting there yet I mean there was one where Gardner Minshew just didn't feel the pressure slid up in a really weird way and threw it like falling forward and threw it over Pierce's

Starting point is 00:09:03 head where Pierce had a couple steps on the guy. So I do think those deep balls are going to come for Pierce in the system. And I think they're eventually going to get there. Pittman's playing really well. Josh Downs is third downs right now. If it's the third and short, Josh Downs is getting that first down for the Colts. So they have a really good thing going, I think, with their top trio. And before we get out of the segment, I did want to hit on the offensive line. Yeah. Offensive line, another really good week. Bernard Ryman, Will Fries, and Quinton Nelson,

Starting point is 00:09:29 all phenomenal in pass protection. Run game could have been a little better, but the Ravens, they were just stacking the box and coming because Gardner Minshew's not going to threaten you with his arm. So you're going to be stacking the box and running downhill. And you also don't have to account for the QB rushing threat because Gardner Minshew's not going to pull it and run. So they were just really coming downhill.

Starting point is 00:09:51 I mean, really, credit to Zach Moss for grinding out so many yards. He really should not have had that many yards with how little space he had to run. But besides that, I think the Colts offensive line played really good football in this one. And Wesley French, too. Admirable job filling in. It wasn't phenomenal.

Starting point is 00:10:07 It wasn't great. But did a really admirable job filling in. And I think he deserves his spot on the roster for sure. I was going to say, we've talked a lot about the offensive line depth coming into the season. We now have a small sample size of what it looks like with Wesley French, Josh Sills. So those guys are getting some experience. You obviously want to see the starters in there, but the guys who you want to have experience are finally starting to get that a little bit. Coming up on the next segment, we're going to talk about how Gus Bradley, the guy is just getting into his bag these days.

Starting point is 00:10:39 But first up, we're going to talk about our friends at LinkedIn Jobs. These days, every new potential hire can feel like a high-stakes wager for your small business. You want to be 100% certain that you have access to the best qualified candidates available, and that's why you have to check out LinkedIn Jobs. LinkedIn Jobs helps you find the right people for your team faster and for free. Simple tools like screening questions make it easy to focus on candidates with just the right skills and experience so that you can quickly prioritize who you'd like to interview and hire. It's why small businesses rate LinkedIn Jobs number one in delivering quality hires versus the leading competitors. LinkedIn Jobs helps you find the qualified candidates you want to talk to faster.

Starting point is 00:11:20 Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com slash LockedOnNFL. That's LinkedIn.com slash LockedOnNFL to post your job for free. linkedin.com slash locked on NFL. That's linkedin.com slash locked on NFL to post your drive for free. Terms and conditions apply. And every day as we back here tomorrow to talk about some of our pre or some of our standouts of the early season play, not the preseason standout, some of our standouts of early season play, what has surprised us so far and which guys are deserving of team MVP through three weeks for the Indianapolis Colts.

Starting point is 00:11:45 So every day is again, join us tomorrow morning for that great conversation. All right, Jake, getting into this defense here, it was a tough day for them. It was a tough day and not in a bad way, tough day as in they came out and they played physical against a really good Baltimore Ravens offense. Yes, the Ravens were a little bit hampered. They didn't have Odell Beckham Jr. They didn't have some running backs in this game. A lot of their offensive linemen were missing, but they still have MVP candidate Lamar Jackson. Like Lamar Jackson is a top tier player in this league. And we saw it this past weekend. He had over 300 total yards, two touchdowns in this game, a hundred yards on the ground. It's Lamar Jackson. You can have the

Starting point is 00:12:22 greatest defensive game ever, and he's still going to get his. But I think this Colts defense played admirably as well. They had two really tough drives where, you know, the Ravens went right down the field on them and scored touchdowns, where Lamar Jackson caps it off with touchdown runs. But aside from those two drives, the Colts defense was locking it down this entire game. And we're going to get to some players here in a second.

Starting point is 00:12:45 I know you have some PFF grades and stuff to go over with them. But Gus Bradley, I just want to have a big shout out to Gus Bradley for this game. Because watching the film, I mean, if you're watching that first half, I had Lamar Jackson with 11 dropbacks in the first half. And the Colts blitzed on just one of them. One of those dropbacks. And I believe Jackson was like 9 of ten passing or nine of nine passing in the first half you go to the second half and gus bradley jumps that up to around 52

Starting point is 00:13:10 i believe 52 blitzing in the second half especially in the fourth quarter they blitzed at a uh at a 58 rate in the fourth quarter and over time they really came after lamar jackson they made it uncomfortable in the pocket they had two big sacks on third downs uh late in the game or I guess I guess the quitty pay sack was on second down but you know it was really late in the game so it was like a third down situation and the Zyra Franklin one before that was was on a third down and then they had constant pressure on other blitzes where it just made Lamar Jackson uncomfortable getting that ball out quick let letting him sit in the pocket not create with his legs and move around. So Gus Bradley, a guy who never blitzes. I know the broadcast team, the one right thing they said the entire time, this entire game was that Gus Bradley

Starting point is 00:13:55 doesn't blitz that much because he doesn't. But when he does blitz, he is one of the most creative and innovative blitzers that I have ever studied. I love when Gus Bradley blitzes. So when you get a game like this, where Gus, by my count, they blitzed around 40% of the time, which across the league, that would be in like the top five across the entire league. So they blitz around 40% of the time. When you get that kind of Gus Bradley, oh, chef's kiss, chef's kiss. Gus Bradley with his innovative blitzes. I mean, there was Prowler defensive tackle standing up. There was Grant Stewart coming in just to blitz on a couple of times. Grant Stewart has four snaps this year on defense. All four of them were blitzes where he came. That's your goon right there.

Starting point is 00:14:34 Yeah. So it's just Gus Bradley's so fun with his blitz designs and what he does with them. And he said in the second half, you know what? I'm coming after this quarterback. I'm not letting him kill me with a thousand paper cuts. I'm coming downhill. I'm coming after him. And I'm not letting him kill me with a thousand paper cuts. I'm coming downhill. I'm coming after him.

Starting point is 00:14:46 And he's going to have to beat us with a quick game. So I'm really impressed the game plan by Gus Bradley and really impressive adjustment into that second half to get this defense playing with their hair on fire the whole time. Yeah, in the pregame show that I did on Friday, I had some concerns, obviously, facing Lamar Jackson. But I said, you know, if they keep up the pressure at the rate that they're going, you can get to him and he can turn the ball over. And that's exactly what happened.

Starting point is 00:15:15 Gus, it seemed like he smelled blood in the water. He had them going. And guys like Quidipe, Samson, Abouk, and Taven Bryan, they were all there to answer the call and to make things uncomfortable. Like you had mentioned, you see Jackson flipping these passes out real quick, inaccurately, before he would like to have processed everything. And so they just made life difficult for him. Looking at Quidipe again, the guy for the second time in his career,

Starting point is 00:15:42 three consecutive games with a sack. So a healthy Quidipe is a very good thing for sure. Samson Abukim continues to be a really good compliment to pay on the other side of the line. His 84.3 grade from PFF was the second best among all defenders for the Colts. Really, really liking what this defensive line is doing. It's three straight weeks. And yes, the Ravens were really hampered, especially on the offensive line, but it's Lamar Jackson at the end of the day. It's still Gus Edwards. Those are guys who know how to be successful. They know what they're doing. And the Colts defense just keeps answering

Starting point is 00:16:19 the call. Yeah, they're second in the NFL right now in sacks with 12 sacks only behind the Pittsburgh Steelers who's at 13 sacks so they're one half and have TJ Watt yeah yeah right exactly so uh yeah no this is a really complimentary pass rush they have right now Samson Aboukam and Quidipe they're not guys who are just going to constantly beat their man all game long but they are guys who are going to constantly collapse that pocket and it kind of goes to what the blitzing was going like with the Colts in this one is you can't blitz a mobile quarterback because if you do, the second they get past one blitzer, they're gone. It's a huge play for the offense and you're toasted. So the Colts had to have pure confidence in their pass rushers and their coaching with

Starting point is 00:17:02 Richard Smith and Nate Ollie up front that when these guys are blitzing, they're going to stay true to their pass rush lanes. They're going to stay true to their contain, and they're going to at least at the very end of the day, they're going to speed up the processing of Lamar Jackson and keep them in the pocket. So the hats off to the coaching for getting those guys ready and knowing how their rush lanes on those pass rush plays. And then obviously the guys to go out there and contribute and get the thing,

Starting point is 00:17:25 get the job done. They did a really great job in those pass rushers on the outside, the linebackers coming in, it all just worked perfect harmony to get Lamar Jackson just off his rhythm. And then obviously pass rush and coverage work hand in hand. I want to get to the linebackers in a minute, but we have to get to guys like Juju Brents and Julian Blackman as well well brentz his debut and was lights out highest graded defender on the team with an 87.6 he did everything you want to see he was competitive he played confidently uh he made that had that

Starting point is 00:17:57 forced fumble and recovered it had another pass breakup late and he was inserted basically as, you know, the other outside cornerback. Like he took on a huge role in his debut on Monday. Shane Steichen said, you know, he's just been coming along really nice the first couple of weeks in practice. And they felt it was finally time to let him loose. And it comes on the heels of a really rough game from Daryl Baker. But I mean, at this point, it seems like Brents is the guy on the outside. Hey, remember everything I was complaining about with Daryl Baker Jr. after his week two game was, look, I don't care if you make mistakes, but make them at a thousand miles per hour.

Starting point is 00:18:36 Be aggressive, enforce your will on opponents and do these things. Just play fast, you know, play fast and aggressive and strong. And Juju Brents, you know, it wasn't perfect. He allowed a couple of catches in front. I mean, I think the first two passes the Ravens had were catches right in front of him to Zay Jones. So, or not Zay Jones, Zay Flowers there on that side of the field. So he wasn't perfect, but he was coming downhill.

Starting point is 00:18:58 He was hitting guys. He had that huge force fumble, chasing down the play and punching the ball out. And again, I don't want to keep dogging on Daryl Baker Jr., but you weren't going to see that from Daryl Baker Jr. whatsoever. Juju Brands came in from day one and showed why he needs to be starting because, hey, I can make the same mistakes that he's going to make, but I'm going to make them running 100 miles per hour and actually hitting dudes. So that's all that really matters to me.

Starting point is 00:19:21 He got out there, he played fast, he played strong, he played confident, and he was able to get some really good things out there. So as long as he keeps growing from here, I'm all in. Juju Brents, you keep that starting role and keep doing what you're doing out there. Yeah, and I've got just a quick question for you. It's probably an obvious one. But, I mean, tackles aren't everything. But Zaire Franklin is tackling at at like a basically a historic rate.

Starting point is 00:19:46 But is he one of the NFL's best linebackers? I mean, I think it's starting to trend that way. It feels I think so far this year he has been. I mean, you got to have more like more break past breakups and coverage and more exceptions and stuff to really get up there with like the Fred Warners of the league and stuff right now. But I think if you were like looking at like all pro selections right now, or at least pro bowl selections for sure, pro bowl selections, the guy who's at a historic rate with tackling has a big force fumble, has a pass deflection, has a sack through three games. Like it's not like he's only doing the London Fletcher thing and tackling guys 30 yards down the field. He's getting tackles for a loss. He's getting run stops. He's getting, you know, sacks out there as well.

Starting point is 00:20:27 He's doing it all for this Colts defense. So I do think that has to all factor together where it's like, hey, this is at least a Pro Bowl caliber season for him so far. It's only three games, but heck, we're looking at a pace that he's on right now where he could be at 100 tackles by like week seven, you know, week six. He could be at 100 tackles. So Zy you know week six he could be at 100 tackles so zyra franklin we're gonna talk more about him tomorrow because we expected a big year from him

Starting point is 00:20:50 but like holy cow like this kind of year he's having is just unreal so we're gonna talk more about zyra franklin tomorrow uh but coming up guys we're gonna talk about what we see from this colts defense and just colts offense and everything in general going forward and some positives that can build on from this victory against the Ravens. But first, do you need fresh groceries for the week, but you don't have time to go to the store? Try grocery delivery with DoorDash. You'll get everything you want delivered when you need it right to your door. You trusted DoorDash to deliver your restaurant favorites, and now you can get grocery delivery that actually delivers too.

Starting point is 00:21:21 With thousands of grocery stores to choose from, you'll find the best in your neighborhood and boost your local economy with each and every order. Want even more value? You can save on all your grocery and restaurant favorites with a $0 delivery fee on all eligible orders with a Dash Pass membership. Guys, I have Dash Pass. It's one of my favorite things. I use it for restaurant food a lot too, but now with the grocery delivery stuff, I mean, I don't want to go out and get onions tonight, even though I had to go get onions for dinner. So I might just use DoorDash to get onions to my door so I don't have to go out with this mustache

Starting point is 00:21:52 that you guys have me wearing. With easy substitutions right in the app, in best-in-class customer support, DoorDash delivers groceries exactly the way you want it. Get 50% off your first DoorDash order to a $20 value when you use code LOCKEDONNFL at checkout. Limited time offer, terms apply.

Starting point is 00:22:10 That's 50% off up to $20, no minimum subtotal, and zero delivery fees on your first order when you download the DoorDash app in the App Store and enter code LOCKEDONNFL. Don't forget, that's code LOCKEDONNFL for 50% off your first order with DoorDash. All right, guys, so diving into what we want to see from the Colts going forward and just how this offense and just this Colts team in general

Starting point is 00:22:37 can continue their positive development and continue after this big one. You don't want to have a letdown after this massive win against the Baltimore Ravens. I think the biggest thing we want to see going forward, Jake is QB one back on the field. It's QB one back on the field. Um, Gardner Minshew admirable job, did a really good job. I cannot say that word by the way, admirable job. You guys are going to kill me in the comments for this, but admirable job by Gardner Minshew in this one. I think he did as well as Gardner Minshew could do, and he got the Colts victory against the Baltimore Ravens, but it's time to get the guy that this offense is designed for out there. We saw he was on the verge of a massive game in week two against the Houston Texans. Had to leave that game with an

Starting point is 00:23:21 injury, unfortunately. Now we just need to get him back for either the Rams game or even if he has to miss another week because of this concussion because you just never know how recovery is with a concussion. Just get him back healthy, get him back out there, and get this offense rolling because the defense is carrying the load a lot right now. The offense isn't as bad as what it was last year because the O-line and the run game is still kind of there, but passing game needs to get going a little bit,

Starting point is 00:23:44 and it needs QB1 passing game needs to get going a little bit, you know, and it needs QB1 in there to really get going. So I think the biggest thing for me going forward is, look, I'm loving what I'm seeing. I'm loving how well coached this team is. I'm loving the energy and tenacity of the trenches on both sides of the ball. Let's get QB1 out there

Starting point is 00:23:58 and start throwing the ball around a little bit or start having the explosive runs a little bit. You know, we can keep dinking and dunking and getting little chunk plays with our run game and quick and quick hitters, but let's get, let's get some offense going now. Let's give this defense a little bit of help. Yeah, absolutely. And I've got to give the Colts credit because I didn't pick them to win the Ravens game. I thought it was gonna be close, but I thought the Ravens would win. Um, even with a whole seven starters out, I thought the Ravens would win.

Starting point is 00:24:25 So I've got to give the Colts credit because they've finally made me a believer that they're not just... I thought they would be competitive in pretty much every game, but just maybe weren't ready to win those types of games where they could take advantage. I'm buying in now. And I think adding Anthony Richardson, like you're saying, unlocks so much more. Like, yeah, against Houston and against Baltimore, the Colts might have won, I don't know, comfortably, but it might not have gotten as interesting as it was at certain points. I mean, obviously the Ravens, it was overtime, but adding Richardson into that opens the offense so much more. It adds an entire new element to a run game that's already been pretty productive in these last couple games. The downfield passing game can open up a little bit more,

Starting point is 00:25:10 especially when you get defenses like this who are going to play a little bit more man. So, yeah, getting Richardson out there will be huge. Obviously, it could be an exciting matchup if it's against the Rams. You know, you have Aaron Donald flushing him out of the pocket and he's running around doing whatever. Can make some special plays, ad-libbing a little bit. But adding Richardson with Zach Moss, who's been on fire already,

Starting point is 00:25:35 this Rams matchup that I'm looking at just in the very near future, not necessarily long-term, this is a team that has allowed Kenneth Walker and Christian McCaffrey to both average over five yards of carry. The Colts have been doing really well lately. So you add Richardson into this, we can see just another really big run performance from the Colts, similar to what we were on the way to seeing against the Texans. Yeah, yeah. And the big thing for me too, in this game is just continually the continuing the trench play that we've seen on both the ball. I I mean I think I don't think it's too crazy to say that this is the best trench play we've seen from the Colts in a long time maybe since like 2020

Starting point is 00:26:13 when they had Justin Houston and I think Danico Autry was still on the other side of the ball along with DeForest Buckner had just come over so the defensive line was playing really well and then obviously the offensive line in 2020 was lights out for pretty much the entire year i think this is the best we've seen since then though the offensive line is playing at a really good level bernard ryman and quentin nelson are both playing at extremely high levels will fries and above average guard when ryan kelly gets back in there he's been one of the better centers in football this year braden smith's been kind of average but like that's fine if we're gonna have an average starter, that's fine. You know, on the offensive line. And then you go to the defensive line.

Starting point is 00:26:47 Like we said, they're second in the NFL and sacks right now, Abu calm and Quitty pair, both having really good years to force Buckner's. It's still that playmaker on the interior. So this trench play, if they can continue what they're doing through these first three weeks, carry that into this Rams game, carrying that going forward, the Colts are going to be in every single game this year. It doesn't matter if you have Gardner Minshew out there. It doesn't matter if you have Anthony Richardson going through some rookie

Starting point is 00:27:10 struggles at times. As long as your trench play is at a really high level, like it's been for the Colts, they can compete with anybody. And we've seen that through three weeks. I mean, the Jacksonville Jaguars are not off to the start that we thought they'd be off to, but the Colts were competitive in that game until the end. You look at this past week against the Baltimore Ravens with their own backup quarterback out there, they were able to pull out a victory. So when you have strong trench play, you can compete

Starting point is 00:27:31 with any team. And I think right now the Colts have really strong trench play. And I just want to see that carrying forward, going forward with this team for the rest of the year. Totally agree. When you've got things clicking inside on both sides of the ball, you literally, the possibilities are endless for how far you can get. And we talked about the passing game opening up a little bit, not just downfield and everything, but we've seen whether it's Richardson or Menchie, there's been a lot of short stuff, you know, just trying to dink and dunk and just, you know, having an extension of the run game being that short passing game. I think, I mean, Kylan Granson has been pretty involved, but now that Drew Ogletree is healthy again, just you know having an extension of the run game being that short passing game i think i mean kylan

Starting point is 00:28:05 granson has been pretty involved but now that drew ogletree is healthy again he's back from his concussion i think really good things happen when you get those guys moving up the seam you know pushing the numbers a little bit like getting the ball downfield doesn't have to mean alec pierce you know leaving his guy a couple steps in the dust every time. Like, there's other ways to do it. And they've got some really talented pass-catching tight ends that can do it. Ogletree and Granson. I think Will Mallory is probably going to be the odd man out, you know, for a while.

Starting point is 00:28:39 You know, we'll see what happens when Jelani Woods gets back. But you've got some guys that can push the field a little bit as tight ends. And maybe it'll open up things where you don't have to have Michael Pittman averaging like eight yards a catch you know yeah yeah and then the last thing is just you know this Colts defense especially in the secondary I know they had a really strong week this past week against Lamar Jackson but continue building forward have a strong week against one of the better passers in football Matthew Stafford I mean he's arguably been a top five quarterback in the league so far this year. That could all change by the time this recording comes out, though, because he plays the Bengals on Monday Night Football.

Starting point is 00:29:13 But, you know, continue having a, you know, bounce, like, I guess, carry this last performance forward against a really good pocket passer. You know, they struggled against C.J. Stroud. They had struggles against Trevor Lawrence. Let's see if they can bounce back and have a good game against a really high-level pocket passer in Matthew Stafford. You guys can leave in the comments while you're making fun of my mustache. Also leave in the comments what you want to see from the Colts next week against the Los Angeles

Starting point is 00:29:38 Rams. We're going to have a whole week talking about that matchup coming up, so don't worry. We'll have you covered here, all you beautiful everydayers. Again, if you don't already, follow at LockedOnColts, at JakeArthurNFL, and at ZachHicks2 all on Twitter. Also subscribe to YouTube or every list of your podcasts. We love your guys' ratings and reviews,

Starting point is 00:29:54 and we'll see you guys back here bright and early tomorrow morning.

Your Ad Here

Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts' Zack Moss, Zaire Franklin Star in Win over Baltimore Ravens

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.