Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - LEGENDARY: Jonathan Taylor Making Legit MVP Push | Any Concern with Daniel Jones?

Starting point is 00:00:00 Indianapolis Colts running back, Jonathan Taylor, is having one of the most impressive seasons we have ever seen from a running back. 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. Hello, everyone. My name is Zach Hicks. to the Locked-on Colts podcast by the Lockedown Podcast Network. Now the number one sports podcast network around. And today's episode is brought to you by Fanduel.

Starting point is 00:00:38 Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you'll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. Today we have an action-packed show. We're going to talk all about Jonathan Taylor's special season. I know we've talked about it a lot on this show, but coming off the performance he just had against the Atlanta Falcons, what, over 300 yards from scrimmage, basically. game like we have to just we have to keep talking about how special this season is and how he

Starting point is 00:01:06 seems to be closing in on at least the MVP like runner up or something like it has to be some kind of recognition we're going to continue talking about jonathan taylor obviously today we're going to talk about daniel jones in the recent turnover bug that has plagued him a little bit and if that's a reason for concern going forward and then talking about this colts defense what the outlook is for them on this final stretch heading into what should be a playoff run for the Indianapolis Colts. But Jake, let's start with Jonathan Taylor, man. It has been an absolutely insane season. And I'm going to let you go through like the counting stats, but just for someone like me who dives into like some of the efficiency stats and a little bit deeper into

Starting point is 00:01:48 the analytics, I really, I wish there was a better way to communicate this to people on how special this Colts rushing offense has been this season. So EPA per play is one of my favorite metrics to look at. It's estimated points added per play. So on a per play basis, how many points is an offense adding or if it's defense, like points against is happening, right? And usually when it comes to rushing, rushing is typically a negative output when it comes to adding points to the board. So like the eighth best rush offense in the NFL will have like a negative point zero to, you know, EPA or something like that, right? So you are a really great rushing offense when you're in the positive with that, right?

Starting point is 00:02:28 And the greatest rush offense we've seen since 2016, according to EPA per play, was the Baltimore Ravens in 2020 when Lamar Jackson and Mark Ingram both went over 1,000 yards with a 0.08 EPA per play running the ball, like just elite season, insane efficiency. The Colts this year are 0.198 EPA per play. So they are over double the rushing efficient. and effectiveness in terms of adding points on a per-play basis. Then the Lamar Jackson thousand-yard rushing season in 2020, like, it is the best rushing offense I've ever seen.

Starting point is 00:03:05 You're going to go through the counting stats in a second, Jake, but I really don't even know how to quantify how great this rushing offense. And they're doing it with just one player. You know, Lamar Jackson season, it was the quarterback running the ball as well, right? A lot of this is just Jonathan Taylor kind of doing it all. It's absolutely insane what the Colts are doing on the ground this year. year. No, it's bonkers. And I mean, remember we were kind of skeptical what it would look like with Daniel Jones rather than Anthony Richardson because it was always Anthony that opened up things so

Starting point is 00:03:33 much in the running game. But just to kind of go along with your theme of like, this is a historic impact. It's not just like the best rushing attack of the year. So obviously, Saquan Barclay had an incredible year last year, like threatened the single season rushing record, everything. So I think a lot of people may be desensitized to us referring to this as like a historic season. But let's just put it this way. Jonathan, he's two yards, rushing yards ahead of where Saquan was at this point last year. But he already has more touchdowns than Saquan did that entire season. His receiving output is already about as much as Saquan had all the last season.

Starting point is 00:04:15 So he's like in terms of entire body work and rushing. he's on pace to go beyond that right and you look at what jonathan's doing each week he is he's chasing history he's not going up against like just the best runners of the last few years like historically with with the franchise stuff he just broke edron james franchise career rushing touchdowns record uh he's alone in history in the NFL with guys like uh marshall falk and priest homes Ledanyan Tomlinson, Jim Brown, O.J. Simpson, like the greats. And even going into the season, he ranked in the top five all-time in rushing yards per game and then is adding to it and crushing it even further this year.

Starting point is 00:05:03 So right now he's got 1,399 yards from scrimmage, which leads the NFL by 81. Christian McCaffrey is in second. Christian McCaffrey has 30 more touches on the season than Jonathan does. He's got 17 touchdowns from scrimmage, which leads the NFL by six. He is averaging 139.9 yards of offense per game. Like, he jumps on the field. By the end of the game, he accounts for 140 yards of it, just rushing. He leads with 1139.

Starting point is 00:05:37 That leads the NFL by 219 yards. Like, that's absolutely insane. 6.0 yards per carry. leads all NFL running backs by a half yard. And then he's got the 15 rushing touchdowns also, obviously, which leads the NF leads the next guy by four. So not only is he leading the NFL, like he is, like he's going into the by week right now and no one's even going to threaten most of this stuff, right?

Starting point is 00:06:09 You know what I mean? So like what he's doing is not just the best of the year. Like I mentioned, like he is having a. historic season. Like, cannot undersell it. Leading the NFL in yards per carry and in rushing attempts is absolutely six yards per carry from running back. I thought it was 2021 season was special and he somehow made, like, has a more special season

Starting point is 00:06:37 this year than what 2021 was on the ground. He's getting better and better each week. I believe over his last 17 games, he's got 1,900 yards rushing over his last 17. So he's been on a 2,000 yard rushing pace. for the last 17 games of his career. He is just playing at an insane level. Like, there's really not much more we can say about it. Like, the Colts rushing offense right now

Starting point is 00:07:00 would be the ninth best passing offense in football in terms of EPA for play. There's no other rushing offense that breaks the top 32, by the way. It's all passing after that. It's just the Colts rushing offense. It's insane. And, again, Jonathan Taylor's kind of, like, you get some rushing touchdowns from Daniel Jones

Starting point is 00:07:18 here and there that bowl. it a little bit, but it's pretty much all tailor. And then if we just want to go aside from the analytics and like the numbers with it, let's just talk about the aesthetic of it, I guess. You could say it's some of the greatest individual runs of the year from like a running back. He's probably got like five or six of them in the top 10. Like this run this past weekend, I think is probably the run of the year in the NFL

Starting point is 00:07:42 from a running back. Like it doesn't get much better than that in terms of getting met at the contact point four yards down the field. breaking free, destroying the angle and running for 83 yards, longest run in the NFL this year. But then you have like the two Tennessee Titans touchdown runs, right? The one where he broke like four tackles on for 50 plus yard run the first matchup. The second one where he called game in that third quarter, essentially.

Starting point is 00:08:06 The Rams one that didn't even count was a special run as well to spin off the defender. I mean, just aside from just the numbers, man, the aesthetic of it, like just some special, special plays we're seeing he's got a nose for the end zone teams know he's getting the ball in the red zone but it doesn't matter he's still punching at home like he's planning at a great level and you know we don't want to take away anything from the from the offensive line they're doing some great things too but what we're seeing just from the running back in particular is special and look i know matthew stafford's playing some great football right now like probably the best of his career and and they're doing the denver broncos patent manning thing where he's doing a lot of like

Starting point is 00:08:46 six-yard touchdowns and blowouts right now, which is kind of adding to those numbers and making them look sexier. But Jonathan Taylor right now is just, he's playing at a superhuman level. And I don't know if we're going to see a running back season like this again in a long time. I mean, I haven't seen a running back play at this level since Lidani and Tomlinson back in the day. So it's hard for me not to put my vote for him, even though I don't think he's going to get a kind of vote for MVP just because a lot of the writers now are analytics based and they're going to vote for quarterbacks. but it's a running back performance that I've just never seen before. Yeah, and, you know, Sam Darnold and Matthew Stafford and Drake May,

Starting point is 00:09:30 like those guys all would be deserving. Like what they're doing is insane, but I look at this offense and even what Daniel Jones has done, you take Jonathan Taylor out of this and none of it works. You know what I mean? Like you can make a case that it would be livable for all those other scenarios across the league. But you take Jonathan out and it's, you know, Tyler Goodson or Amir Abdullah, D.J. Giddens running the ball. It doesn't work. This has been a historic offense for most of the season.

Starting point is 00:10:02 And, I mean, you mentioned the impact that just the running game has had on that. Like, the cult have been dominating the bad teams and they've only lost twice. They're like one of the best teams in the league. It just, it all goes kaput if you take Jonathan Taylor. out of the equation. Yeah, no, he's been so vital to all this. And at the end of the day, the Colts of the number one team in the league right now, and they're doing it behind the best rushing attack that we've at least seen the last 10 years

Starting point is 00:10:30 in the NFL. And it's largely because of him. So, yeah, that's just our praise of Jonathan Taylor to start today's show. I feel like we've got to get at least one of those segments in every single week. But coming up, I guess we're going a little doom and gloom-ish, Jake. We'll see how the segment takes us. But Daniel Jones is a little bit of a turnover problem. in recent games is this a sign of things to come or can this be corrected and rectified going

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Starting point is 00:12:48 And thank you for making Locked on Colts, your first listen of the day. And thank you for making Locked on the number one sports podcast network on earth. All right. So next we're going to talk about Daniel Jones. You know, we talked about all the rosy stuff with Jonathan Taylor. There isn't possibly anything negative to say other than he fumbled of all that he didn't even lose last week. Boohoo. You know what I mean?

Starting point is 00:13:12 That's about the only blemish I can really think of with him. So let's talk about Daniel Jones real quick. The elephant in the room over the last couple of weeks is the turnovers, the issues with pressure and everything. But I want to kind of paint the picture first with some positivity. So, you know, this overall has been a very positive season. Like, I think they still want to make him the guy going into next year and everything. So, like, that's all valid. Right now, he's first in the NFL in passing yards with 2,659.

Starting point is 00:13:42 he had Peyton Manning are the only Colts quarterbacks to go over 200 plus passing yards in the first 10 weeks of the season, just those two. That's it. That is the list, as they say. Jones is also fourth in the NFL in yards per attempt, sixth in completion percentage, ninth in passer rating, and the ESP and QBR, which is a metric that tries to accomplish the same thing. But it's also a very hard.

Starting point is 00:14:08 It's a good metric, by the way. very harsh grade normally like it's not easy to get high up there uh but i mean anywhere you look at it he's been the top 10 quarterback this year uh he's got three fourth quarter comebacks and game winning drives including last week overtime uh he's he's just been overall a very very positive addition but the problem in these last two weeks he's taking 12 sacks obviously the offensive line has gotten overwhelmed with some blitzes and things like that but there are some bad sacks from jones on the tape as well he's been hit 13 times in that in that period of time as well four interceptions he's fumbled six times and lost three of them

Starting point is 00:14:55 which means seven turnovers so that's obviously a big problem like you're not going to win when you're turning the ball over that much and it is directly why they lost to pittsburgh they gifted Pittsburgh 24 of their 27 points based off turnovers. So that's the only reason they lost Pittsburgh. I mean, Pittsburgh punched them in the mouth and they were awesome, but that outcome doesn't happen without that many turnover. So they had a couple of the last week as well, kind of reared its ugly head out there in Germany, but they

Starting point is 00:15:26 overcame it. Jones put a nice end of game, a couple series together to get them where they needed to go. But overall, Zach, I think they're going into the the by week at a very, very good time because they got to get this figured out. I mean, are we seeing New York, Daniel Jones, creep in? And, you know, as the Colts face tougher competition over the final couple months of of the season, is it, do you think it's going to be a problem? Or is it all just correctable stuff?

Starting point is 00:15:55 Yeah, I mean, I think you laid it out really well there that Jones has defied expectations this year and he's played at a very high level, especially compared to what we thought of him coming into the year. So with that, the expectations get raised. You know, you kind of raise your expectations for a player and you want to see him continue at that very high level of play. And he's hit kind of a rut these last two weeks. I think his play has tapered off a little bit for sure.

Starting point is 00:16:18 And the question really becomes, like, is he going to just devolve into the quarterback we thought he was or can he get back on track? So the first thing I want to say with all that is, thankfully, the by week is here. You know, it's a time to course correct, a time to relax, a time to just kind of get your legs back under you. And I think Jones and this offense kind of need that right now. They really hit a low the last two weeks against two aggressive blitzing defenses. And those defenses threw a lot at them.

Starting point is 00:16:45 And they didn't really counter super well. They still put some points on the board. And I still think there's some good signs on that side of the ball. But they hit their first kind of like bit of adversity on the season these last two weeks. And you want to see them be able to recover from that. So I'm glad they get the by week to kind of figure some things out, especially before you go against Spags and that Chiefs defense. defense where, you know, if you're struggling with what the Falcons are throwing at you,

Starting point is 00:17:07 which, you know, all respect to the Falcons, they had a good game plan, but Spags will throw the kitchen sink at you and confuse you at the point of attack a lot. So I'm glad they're getting this by week. In terms of Daniel Jones, there are certainly some issues these last two weeks that have reared their ugly head, pressing things a little bit. Some of his drops in the pocket had been a little bit too deep on some designs, which have led to speed rushers, getting a lot cleaner rushes off the edge than what you would like. Now, T.J. Wad and Alex Highsmith got their wins in that Steelers game, which led to those force fumbles, but you still want to see the quarterback either, you know, release the ball as he gets to that hitch at the top or step up and slide in that pocket when you know you have two dominant rushers on the outside. So there are ways that quarterbacks can kind of help mitigate that a little bit.

Starting point is 00:17:54 But, you know, quarterbacks, again, they go through these ruts quite a bit. The biggest thing right now is just keeping two hands on that football, making sure we're not fumbling. This last game against the Falcons, they got really lucky by recovering two of those fumbles because they were kind of unforced fumbles from Jones. The screen one is the most unacceptable play that he's had all season. The screen one never should have happened. Honestly, when you're a quarterback and you check to a screen when you see a blitz coming, if that screen is not open immediately when you were about to throw the ball,

Starting point is 00:18:27 you either hit the deck or you throw it at the running back's feet because you know that there's a rush coming from the backside. You can't double clutch and run around with it in one hand. And that's how you get that fumble and the cold lost points or lost the potential for points on a drive like that. The interceptions I'm not really as concerned about. If you look at the interceptions, you know, a tit ball on an RPO, trying to make something happening with like an arm punt before the half against the Falcons. One where Peyton Wilson or whatever just was in the kind of like the wrong zone, which ended up being where the ball was being thrown. So I'm not really too concerned about the interceptions.

Starting point is 00:19:02 It really is just the fumbles. Let's control the fumbles a little bit. You know, the T.J. Watt one happens, obviously, but we want to be a little bit better with the other ones that have happened, especially the one on the sideline this past week that luckily rolled out of bounds. Like that one, you know the hits coming. You shouldn't be fumbling that football and stuff like that. But overall, I'm not terribly concerned about Daniel Jones.

Starting point is 00:19:23 My big concern right now with this Colts offense is getting your feet back under you, establishing how to pick up these blitzes and how to find answers for these quick blitzes because that's really where the Colts have struggled. And Jones, I think we're seeing ghosts a little bit in the pocket in this past game where early in the year he was trusting his protection. He was stepping up into the face of blitzes and delivering the ball down the field. This past game, there were a couple of moments where it's like, you could have hung in there for like a couple more like half seconds and got the ball out to a

Starting point is 00:19:54 downs or got the ball out to a pierce. And instead he kind of just clutched it and ran with. with it instead, which to his credit, he got some positive yards, but, you know, those were throws against, like, Denver that he was making when Denver was bringing a ton of blitzes in that game. And so why the Colts were able to put up 29 points in that one. So, you know, it's a time to reestablish himself a little bit over the by week again. Look at the film, look at the protection calls, clean up some of those issues, figure out where the answers can be. So I'm not too concerned. I'm just happy they got the buy week when they did because it's good to get this before things start

Starting point is 00:20:27 spiraling you can just kind of reset and get back to what you were doing i will say if if we're talking about the flip side like a positive side to all that it does seem like you know jones recognized the amount of man coverage there and that's how he picked up a lot of those really necessary yards on the ground because obviously when it's man coverage like it's not you know people are pulled away from the line of scrimmage it opens up things for him to be able to run so i thought he recognized that well one of the sacks that was really really tough and I'm sure he will be beating himself up inlessly about it. It was that one down in Atlanta territory where he was running up to the line scrimmage and Josh Downs got open

Starting point is 00:21:09 at the last second. It probably would have had a touchdown. That one was really tough. He was already well under duress and kind of committing to the run at that point. So it's hard to dock that on him, but it was it was a tough watch when you see it back after. Yeah, well, that's that's the case of what happens when you're feeling the pressure when it's not even there really like there was a little bit of duress around him but for the most part he had a clean enough pocket to where he could have slid up and bought the extra time needed to work back to his right to Josh downs but when you are feeling that blitz all day when you've already fumbled twice in that game like that's where you start feeling it too much and now you're like his brain was saying I got to run a lot more in

Starting point is 00:21:48 this game so then he wasn't making the same plays that he was making earlier in the season when he fully trusted the protection and fully trusted the calls. And as Ben Eris says here in the comment section, you know, he's just kind of drifting a little bit in the pocket because there is that lack of comfort right now. So the by week is good. Just get everyone back on the same page. Get that trust back going with the offensive line and reestablish like the quick game and answers against the blitz. I'm not really concerned right now. If this continues after the bi week, then we can have this conversation in a more like serious tone. But let's see how they come out of the by week against the Kansas City Chiefs.

Starting point is 00:22:22 Yeah, again, by week could not have come at a better time. And all right, guys, here in a moment, we're going to talk about the defense. A lot of interesting developments that could happen with this defense over time. But we're also going to kind of look at how they've performed up to this point as well. Today's show was brought to you by friends over there at Peloton. Look, folks, it's time to break through the busiest time of the year with a brand new Peloton cross training, tread plus that's powered by Peloton IQ. It's Peloton's most elevated technology and equipment yet that gives you real time guidance. and it gives you endless ways to move, whether you want to work out by yourself or if you want to work out with your favorite, Alex Toussaint. He always gets me fired up to tackle the day.

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Starting point is 00:23:44 All right, Zach. So let's talk defense. obviously like this is a defense in transition right now all right you get sauce gardener in but you've been without charberry's word for these last several weeks but now you hopefully get him back after this by week now you don't have de forest buckner you haven't had ebucom and lewis so it's like what's this defense going to look like in the next two three four weeks um you know the only high point is you know fast forward four or so weeks from now and everybody's back you know by week 15, let's just hope everybody's back in there at full strength.

Starting point is 00:24:20 And then you've got the few games left to wrap up the regular season head into the playoff strong. But let's just look at this thing and how it's looked so far. And again, this has been a very hamstrung group, you know, literally in some cases, but with the amount of guys they've had out hurt. So to this point in the season, the Colts defense is 17th overall. Ninth in scoring, though, which obviously is the thing you're always shooting for. It's also kind of shows the bin, but don't break of it all.

Starting point is 00:24:50 They're giving up yards, not giving up points so much. They're seventh in rushing, which is great. 25th against the pass, adding context to that, teams have been getting killed in the second half, and they could only pass against the Colts in a lot of those instances. This one was kind of surprising to me, Zach. The Colts are tied for fifth in sacks right now with 29. Like, it just doesn't feel like a ferocious pass rush,

Starting point is 00:25:15 because I think we've seen so many pass rush wins, but guys escape. So I think that's the encouraging thing is I think that's going to get even higher. You look at yards for attempt. They're tied for eight, tied for 11th, and again, yards per carry. And then a couple ones, areas for opportunity, we'll call it.

Starting point is 00:25:35 They're 22nd in red zone defense and 27th on third down. Yes, those are the two biggest things. And I think those are going to get a lot better down the stretch. but just to add a little bit context to the sacks, though. Teams are throwing the ball on the Colts more than most teams because they're trailing so much in the second half, so then you can add to your sack total a little bit. But I do think they're a better pass rush team

Starting point is 00:25:58 than we give them credit for because they just don't have that star pass rusher, especially now with DeForest Buckner out. They're good at team pass rushing. Just want to get quarterbacks on the ground a little bit more, but I do think they do a pretty good job with the team pass rushing. But overall, yeah, I think you said it well, where, like, metrics-wise, this is a good defense. You know, they get their splash plays against the run.

Starting point is 00:26:19 They have some issues at times in the run defense, but for the most part, they get their splash stops, their negative runs, which push teams back into passing. And I think this is a very good pass defense overall, especially when they get Mooney Ward back, and, you know, now they have Soss Gardner. I think it's a really good pass defense that's going to get much better down the stretch here

Starting point is 00:26:38 with those key Coggs back in place. And I think they're going to be able to mix the, coverage and just the past in the pass rush together really well down the stretch, even with the Forrest Buccner out. The two biggest things, though, are just red zone defense and third downs. That's going to determine the ceiling of this defense, because if they can get to league average in both of those metrics, I think this could be a top 10, top eight defense in football, but if they continue kind of coasting around the bottom of the league in those things,

Starting point is 00:27:07 that's where we see the issues. I mean, look, with how the Colts offense was making just mistake after mistake in this game in terms of multiple fourth downs they didn't convert in terms of two turnovers on the other side of the field in terms of a miss kick in this game like there were a lot of times that this offense put the Colts defense behind the just behind the bell where like wherever they needed to be in this game and for the most part the Colts defense stayed really well against the Falcons they had eight stops on third down they stopped all eight of the Falcons tries on the one the rest gifted them they came back the next drive and the next series there and we're able to get off the field so

Starting point is 00:27:43 this Colts defense, I thought, played really well against Atlanta. You're not going to go against Bajon Robinson every week, so the run defense should clean up a little bit. And I think, again, it's going to get better with Mooney Ward. So we can see just that kind of come to fruition a little bit more, like in terms of like good third down defense, good red zone defense, holding to three instead of allowing seven, I think this defense can be a strength down the stretch for the Colts,

Starting point is 00:28:06 even as they play these playoff teams, like the Chiefs, like the Seahawks, like the 49ers, like, you know, the AFC South teams are playing. I don't know which one of those teams are going to make the playoffs. One of them will, but we'll see which one of them gets in the playoffs. As the Colts play these games, you know, I think this defense can be a strength, even with these like playoff caliber offenses they're going to go against. It really just comes down to third down at Red Zone.

Starting point is 00:28:28 But I'm optimistic. I'm intrigued. I think Lou Aniru did a lot of really good things against the Atlanta Falcons. We saw a lot of four, five, six man pressure packages where they were showing like seven or eight rushers at the line of spring. throughout the entirety of the game and then they were just bailing or they were bringing guys that you wouldn't expect to bring and it made the quarterback hold the ball a little bit because they were running this press coverage on the outside with sauce gardener on the number one receiver

Starting point is 00:28:55 and we saw where michael pennix junior just didn't feel comfortable throwing that ball so he had like four throwaways on third downs in this past game the Atlanta Falcons against the colts in this past game had eight third down plays jake you know how many yards they got on those eight third down plays let's hear negative 31 negative 31 yards on third down. I'm not saying going against Michael Pennix Jr. every single week, but if you can just replicate that to some degree, get off the field on third down, I think this Colts defense can be a major strength. So I'm really optimistic, especially when Mooney Ward is back, you can kind of, like, because where did the Falcons really kill the Colts

Starting point is 00:29:31 this past week, right? It was run defense because Bejohn and Alger are really, really good players. And when they were able to move Drake London away from Sauce and kind of protect Drake London from sauce is press. When you get Charverius Wardback or Mooney Wardback, like that takes away one of those two issues. Now if we can just get some splash plays and run defense, I think this defense can be really good. So I'm really intrigued by this defense going for. I think Lou is finding the right answers for some of the issues. Zaire Franklin's blitzing a lot and coming downhill a lot more. And that's maximizing him a little bit at Tomiwa and JT are finding some rhythm rushing from the interior. Like, I think there's a lot of good things going with this defense right now. And I think

Starting point is 00:30:11 they can be a real strength in these final games. It's just let's get Mooney Ward back out there and at least stay healthy with those two outside corners. And I feel good about the defense the rest of the way. Yeah, I really wanted to shout out Zaire because, like, he stood out to me when I, when I rewatch the game, he made a few brilliant plays in the backfield. And like, he wasn't even always the final stop on the play, but he influenced a lot of run lanes in that game.

Starting point is 00:30:38 So obviously the sequence in overtime where he had the run, stuff, and then two plays later gets the sack. Just outstanding clutch ball by Zaire Franklin. That one got to shout him out. But, yeah, I'm just ready for everybody to be back because, like, I, you know me. I am very pro JT to him a low-ow. We both really like Dorel and Chamey, but to have the depth again, to have Typhoon Lewis as an option, to have Samson-Ebukom as an option, both in run defense and rushing the

Starting point is 00:31:08 passer, like it's only going to make. them better to have a deeper more stock covered obviously and then to have mooney ward and sauce gardener like you mentioned you can peel guys off sauce and hide them but they're just going to go to keny more or mooney ward like you're going to literally have to pick your poison and i i think just fingers crossed that ward's going to be back against the chiefs because the chiefs don't really run the ball like if you have this full complement in the secondary against patrick mahomes I am I'm very much looking forward to that match. I think it's going to be super entertaining and just must see TV.

Starting point is 00:31:47 Yeah, two real quick things I want to add here is if we're saying our biggest concern with the Colts defense down the stretch, especially with DeForest Buckner out, is their run defense. Luckily, they don't face many good run offenses the rest of the way. Like your best ones are what, San Fran in Seattle, and Seattle's got a pretty decent run offense. They get a lot of practice because they blow out teams early in games, so they get a lot of practice running the football.

Starting point is 00:32:08 but Sanfran's more of a quantity over quality in the run game this year. Like McCaffrey has nine fewer carries than Jonathan Taylor this year in half the yards, you know, averaging 3.5 yards per carry at running back. So, you know, I think that's going to help this run defense. And then one thing about Zaire Franklin is when you get Mooney and Sauce out there, it frees up Franklin to be just this splash play hunter because he's protected on the backside. So in the passing department, you're going to sim pressure him a lot. You're going to mug him over the A gap, and either he'll drop into just, like, you know, hook zone coverage or cover a running back, or you're going to blitz him.

Starting point is 00:32:45 And in the run game, you're so focused on getting those negative splash plays, you just unleash him. You know, it's kind of like a dog that you have to keep on a collar, like on a leash or whatever. You can just take it off and let him go, let him run around, get his zoomies out a little bit. That's kind of what you can let him do on those run plays, get those negative plays, force them into must-pass situations. And then this Colts defense can thrive with their two star corners on the outside. So I think they're going to be able to do some really cool things down the stretch. And I'm really excited about the Colts defense. But if you want to hear me talk about that more, go check out my personal YouTube channel,

Starting point is 00:33:16 just Zach Hicks. I broke down the Colts third down defense against the Falcons. Really, really fun stuff, what Luana Rumo was doing. Just so much pressure, so much sim pressure. And he really got after that Falcons offense. But that's all we have for today, guys. I want to thank you guys for making Lockdown Coach your first listen today and every day. The NFL season's in full swing.

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