Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - LOCKED ON COLTS 10/1/19: What changes need to happen on defense?

Episode Date: October 1, 2019

On today's episode, George Bremer of The Herald Bulletin is back to go over the Colts' loss against Oakland while looking ahead to Kansas City. Bremer hammered home some great points on many topics.What exactly is wrong with the Colts' defense? Is it more player or scheme? Also, if this continues, does Matt Eberflus' seat feat warm? Bremer points to both points, but also says some sort of change needs to be made ASAP.Eric Ebron had his worst game of his Colts career Sunday reverting to the Detroit version. This is a headline we should be following as it is Ebron's contract year. If these type of outings continue, will Chris Ballard pay up for him? I don't think so.Finally, we look ahead to the Colts' primetime game with keys and predictions. Patrick Mahomes is good, but how good is he really? We compare Mahomes the best we can and what task he will be for this defense. Also, is this team built for a shootout?  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, everybody. Welcome back into Locked on Colts, probably Locked on Podcast Network. Today's audience is Evan Sayre. We're joined by our weekly guest, George Berman, the Herald Bulletin. How are you doing today, George? Good. How are you doing today? Doing good. Thanks for coming on. I appreciate the time as always, George. And we're coming to you guys after a surprising loss on Sunday. Now it's recording here on Tuesday morning. 31-24 is the final score. The Colts lost the Open Raiders, dropping a 2-2 on the season.

Was that the most surprising loss to you? They were, of course, down T.Y. Hilton. They were down Darius Lane and Emily Hooker, arguably three of their five best players, George. I feel like even with those guys out, this is probably one of the more surprising losses to the Ballard era so far in the Reich era. Yeah, I think so.

I think, to me, it's comparable to the Jets game last year just in terms of just watching really almost a complete defensive meltdown, especially early in that game, and then them just really not having the response on offense when they needed it. I mean, you can take some positives away here and there, but for the most part, it was really just this one in the Jets game that I can think of as being probably the two worst games all around that they've played under Frank Reich.

Yeah, it certainly wasn't a good look on Sunday for the Colts. They were down 14-0. I want to get your sense from talking to the guys in the locker room afterwards, George, and just the atmosphere in the stadium. It feels like the Colts were kind of shell-shocked there when they got down 14-0 so fast. Yeah, you know, I think that obviously they didn't expect to see that happen. But I don't think the Raiders did anything that they weren't anticipating. It was just missed assignments, missed tackles,

people not being in the right place at the right time. I mean, you take the 60-yard touchdown run, for example. Ben Banigou's a rookie. He's out there on the edge, and he doesn't set the edge, and he doesn't stay where he's supposed to. He gets sucked in, and there's a wide open lane and you know it was sort of something like that on every play that one's a little more obvious than most because it happened right out in the open field where the ball was but I think that was that was the sense in the locker room was that

you know everything they did is correctable it just a matter of guys being in the right place at the right time and making the play when it comes to them. And on Sunday, that wasn't happening all across the field, all across the roster. I mean, there were guys in every phase. They even muffed a pun at one point. They got it back. But you just saw breakdowns in all three phases

that against anybody in the NFL, you can't make that many mistakes and come away with a win. And it also seems like this, George, just what's your opinion on the defense so far? We saw it again last week against Atlanta and then again this week against Oakland. Just if you have an average to about average quarterback or an elite quarterback at that, which you're going to see on Sunday against Kajit Mahomes homes at Kansas City you're going to slice through this defense led by Mattie Rufus's zone heavy scheme do you feel like it's time to see some change here as far as the scheme goes because it personally is really a George that offense are really starting to figure

this defensive scheme out yeah you know I don't put as much on the scheme as some of Dallas runs the same scheme and have these problems so I think they just needed to tweak some things that they're doing within it they've got to first of all they got to get the quarterback and that's been the biggest problem the last few weeks a lot of that has to do with like you said the caliber of quarterback they're playing they get rid of the ball a lot faster uh you know they're a lot more aware of where the holes are in the zone and so they're not thinking and holding on to it longer and they're attacking you know really from the get-go. And so they've got to do one of two things.

They've either got to start blitzing a little more and find a way to get pressure on the quarterback because that has simply not happened at all in the last two weeks. Or they've got to play tighter coverage. And you can stay in your zone and still stick the receivers better than they are. You don't have to give a five-yard cushion, you know, on third down the way that they were almost the entire day. So they've got to do one of the two.

You know, either they've got to switch up a little bit of what they're doing. And they did play some man coverages. You know, they played more man this year than they did last year. But, again, when they do, there's not execution. So it's got to be all three of those things you've got to tweak the the the scheme and the coverages a little bit get tighter on the guys because they're getting rid of the ball quicker obviously get up there be physical with receivers and have somebody there when the ball comes out maybe blitz more find some way to get more more pressure on the

quarterback and then the players simply have to execute better. Yeah, doesn't it seem a little weird, George? I mean, obviously it's week by week, and the NFL is just so variant with how the games play. But you had such a good start to the pass rush first two weeks of the season with eight sacks in the last two weeks. You have, I believe, one or zero in that category. It just seems like that's just a stark contrast to where they start off the season.

I don't know if it's any injuries. I know Trey's back, and Shearer got back for his first game on Sunday, but I just think the pass rush isn't getting home like they were the first two weeks. Yeah, it is. It's probably the weirdest thing that's gone on in these last two weeks because the first two weeks they were all over opposing quarterbacks. And the last two weeks you got one sack Sunday,

and that was Anthony Walker. It was sort of like a broken play, and it wasn't really what you're thinking of when you're looking for sacks. They've just got to find a way to win their one-on-one battles up front, which is not happening. And if that's going to continue to not happen, then, yeah, you've got to find a way to send some guys on a blitz, especially on third down.

I just felt like the last two weeks, now the numbers weren't as bad with the Raiders because the second half they did a better job on third down. I just felt like the last two weeks, now the numbers weren't as bad with the Raiders because the second half they did a better job on third down. But the last two weeks, it felt like the offense was way too comfortable on third down. The quarterback wasn't panicked at all because he wasn't under pressure. The receivers didn't feel like they had to fight to get open. It just seemed like, you know, for the most part, the Falcons and Raiders were playing pitch and catch on third down,

and you got to do something to disrupt that or it's going to happen all year. I mean, the one thing about the NFL is the other teams watch this on tape and then they're going to do it to you too. Until you prove you can stop it, it's going to keep happening to you every week. Speaking of that thought george i feel like the rushing defense for this team is really taking a step back this year we saw last

year no team had at least 100 yard rusher then we see josh jacobs and the raiders get 188 yards on them then we also see austin epper go off week one derrick henry's always a good running back then you'll see week three devante deontay freeman it kind of a guy who is falling off, so to say, and then all of a sudden he has a really good week against the Colts defense again. So it feels like this rushing defense. We saw, I think, Grover Stewart take the place of Marcus Hunt, who might have been benched. I don't know if you have any more information on that, George,

but it seems like this is kind of a theme so far. The run defense has taken a huge step back as far as regression goes. Yeah, I don't have any information yet on Hunt. Hopefully we'll learn a little more about that as the week goes on. But yeah, definitely we saw more Grover Stewart as that game went on. And I don't know if that was health related, if it was rotation or if it was performance related, but they definitely have not gotten from the middle of that offensive line what they expected to, both in terms of pass rush and clog you know, clogging up running lanes. The middle of that defensive line was supposed to be a strength this year.

Looked good in training camp, and it just hasn't translated to the field. And that's, you know, they're not the only reason the run game hasn't been good. Bobby Okereke the last two weeks has really struggled without Darius Leonard in there and Anthony Walker going over to the weak side. You've seen a lot of mistakes from him, and that's helped open up some of those runs. Obviously, getting Sheard back will eventually probably help. I thought he made a couple plays even on Sunday. As bad as the run defense was, it could have been even worse

if not for a couple plays he made out there on his spot. But they're just not getting a push. You know, and I think that's the biggest thing. When you look at that defensive line coming into the year, you felt like they had a chance to be physical, to win games up front, and they haven't done that. They've been pushed off the ball more often than not. They're not getting in the backfield and making plays either in the run game

or the passing game. And that's, you know, to me, when you look at the defense right now, yes, the scheme has issues, and, yes, there's things that need to be addressed there. But you can't point to one area of the defense right now that's playing up to expectations, and that's part of the problem. They're simply not doing what they're supposed to do. The defensive line has been subpar. the linebackers have been subpar the secondary has been subpar and then you throw injuries on top of that and you end up with the performances that we've seen the last couple weeks yeah it certainly has been pretty george's the colts defense are

allowing 25 and a half points per game through the first four weeks when is it time to start talking i know i've heard some people mention this already, which I think is a little overreactionist due to what's happened so far. But if this continues for the next couple weeks, George, you have Mahomes and you have Deshaun Watson coming to town. Then you also have a couple more games in the slate against some good quarterbacks. If this Colts defense continues to get abused as far as just like passing defense goes and running defense, so to say,

is it time to really start talking about Mattie DeFluess and his seat kind of being hot here if this continues for a little bit? Yeah, I think it's going to take more than a few weeks to do that. I mean, last year we were talking about this guy as a potential head coaching candidate because of the way they finished the season. So I think it's way too early to start calling for his job. And I think it's going to take a while to get to a point where, where that's the case,

but yeah, you know, I mean, there's going to be, I'm sure they're looking at everything they can right now to, as far as how to get this fixed, because obviously on Sunday, you've got the biggest test in the NFL when it comes to your defense,

uh, when you face Kansas state chief. So it, there's never a good time to be playing poorly on defense. This is probably the absolute worst time for it. In a lot of ways, I think it's good for them that the bye week is early this year. They're obviously banged up. You should be able to get healthy on that bye week.

And then you're going to be able to sit down and take a good, long self-evaluation and try to figure out what you need to do in the final, what, it'll be 11 games at that point of the regular season to get this turned around. It really wasn't that much different early last year. I think people tend to forget because of how they finished the year. There were some really rough defensive games early last year. The Jets game, of course, comes to mind. There were a few others where Cincinnati, they were really pretty awful on defense to open the year. They didn't play very well at all against New England,

which was a game with a lot of injuries. But still, defense didn't look very good against them at all. Against the Texans the first time around, they really didn't have much answer after about the first or second quarter. So we've seen this before. And I think that's one thing that it's disappointing because you kind of go into this year saying the way they finished last year they should be able to build off that the defense will just get better as they go and that's not happened they kind of started back to square one uh where they were last year and I don't know if that's injuries or if it's, you know,

just new pieces not quite fitting in the way they wanted to right away or what have you. But at this point, I give Ibra Flues the benefit of the doubt that he's going to be able to turn things around the way he did a year ago. Yeah, they are missing as well, Darius Leonard and Malik Hooker. Hooker's going to be out here for the next four to six weeks. But I feel like one positive on this Colts defense so far, George, if there's a rookie of the year, so to say, in the first quarter of the season,

I think it has to be Kari Willis, the way he's played so far. Do you feel like once Hooker's back in the next month or so, it's going to be Hooker and Willis from here on out as the safety combo? I think there's a good chance of that. I mean, Willis was already closing in on, you know, taking a starting job even before Hooker got hurt. Now he goes out there and he has a chance to show for a month or so what he can do.

And I think, yeah, he's closing that gap between him and Clayton Gathers a little bit every day. So I think you're going to see a real possibility of him at least getting more snaps. But even from the injury standpoint, even Pierre Desir, he's only playing about half the time that he normally would. I mean, if you look at the rotation on Sunday, Rocky Sin was really your starter, and Desir was coming in the nickel packages.

It was sort of the reverse of what you normally see, where Desir's out there all the time and Yassin comes in when they go to a sub package because they're trying to nurse his hamstring and the other things that have gotten him dinged up. So that secondary is going to be a big question. I think it is part of the answer. But if Clayton Gathers can't go Sunday, and who knows? I mean, we've seen the concussion protocol and how that plays out.

If he can't go Sunday, it could be almost a train wreck back there in the secondary against the Chiefs. Treat yourself to the meal you deserve and have your favorite restaurants come right to you with DoorDash. Right now our listeners can get $5 off their first order, $15 or more when you download the DoorDash app and enter promo code LOCKEDON to get started over at DoorDash. It's great to sit down and take some time off and and watch some football. Game week, touchdowns and two-minute drives. Running backs reach down to the signs with no one to stop them. There's nothing else quite like the NFL,

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That's promo code LOCKEDON and visit mybookie.ag today. You play, you win, and you get paid. Yeah, it could certainly get ugly because we see a guy in Patrick Mahomes who's going to throw for maybe 6,000 yards here for the first time in NFL history. He's on pace for that at least, which would be an absolutely crazy statistical season for him. But before we go on to that Chiefs game, George, just one of your final thoughts on the Raiders game here.

Just how big of a loss is this for the Colts? Because I feel like this is a game, like the Jets game last year, where we're going to look back on in about a month or two and say how did they lose that game? And it could be a really big one as far as the playoff chase goes in December. Yeah, it's big. I think going into the week, Frank Reich had mentioned it's a conference game, which obviously has tie-breaking potential down the road.

It's a home game, and it's one that you kind of circle on the schedule as a win. Those are the ones you really – playoff teams don't lose games like this. Now, obviously, the Colts did last year and survived it. It was a rogue game, but it was still a game they should have won against the Jets. And they could survive it again. It's not the end of the season by any stretch of the imagination. But it's one of those games, like you said, that you're going to end up

looking back on a week from now, a month from now, two months from now, and scratching your head about what was that team that showed up that day. And sure, there were injuries and there's a lot of other kind of peripheral things that happened that played into that. But it's no excuse. It's the NFL and no one feels sorry for you. No one's going to take it easy on you because of what's going on. Whatever adversity you face, you've got to go out there and play.

And I thought as bad as the defense played, I'm not letting them off the hook at all because they were awful, especially in the first quarter and probably the first half of the second quarter. But even as bad as they were, the offense had four possessions through the second quarter and started the third quarter where it was either 21 to seven or 21 to 10 during that entire stretch.

They end up with three points on those four possessions despite being in open territory three times. You can't do that. That was a chance to get back in the game and change the whole way the second half plays out. So it was all three phases. I think that's an important thing. Yes, the defense deserves all the criticism it's gotten,

and they have a multitude of problems they have to solve on that side of the ball. But let's not let the offense off the hook either. Actually, I have one more question for you, George, as far as the Raiders game goes. And one player that I specifically want to talk about here is Eric Ebron because we didn't bring him up on yesterday's show. And I want to get your opinion on him because seeing that that was the first game on Sunday, three drops.

I believe it might have been four as well. If there's one late, they might have dropped as well. This is one of those games, the first really true game we've seen, George, as far as the Detroit version of Eric Ebron that showed up. And how big of a stretch do you think this next month or so is mentally for him? Because he wants to be a top five paid tight end. And if he plays like this more often, that's not going to happen. Yeah, no, there's no doubt.

This is a huge year for him. It's contract year. You want to go out and show everybody that last year wasn't a fluke and this is the guy they're going to get, you know, whether it's Indianapolis or whoever it might be that ends up giving him that kind of contract. You've got to go out and earn it. We've seen it before.

Dante Moncrief had some serious struggles in a contract year. And, you know, these are things that kind of stall your career if you're not careful. I think for Ebron, I really feel like it's the first time when he was in an Indianapolis uniform where he put the kind of pressure on himself that he did in Detroit. If you go back to his Lions career and you think about being the number 10 overall pick and the guys that he was drafted in front of Aaron, Aaron Donald, OBJ, you know, that was haunting him his entire time in Detroit. I think he put a lot of pressure on himself to live up to that billing.

I feel like with T.Y. out on Sunday, it was really the first time since he's been a Colt that he felt like he had to go out and make plays and be a leader for this offense. And I think that's what you saw. So I think for him, it's really just getting back into that mindset he's been in before, that this team has a lot of options. There's a lot of different ways they can win a game, and it's not all on his shoulders.

He's just a part of, you know, a spoke in the wheel. He doesn't have to be the entire leader of the team. That's a good point to bring up there, George, because I think you hit the nail on the head there as far as probably what was happening there with Eric Ebron. It's going to be a big stretch moving forward here because if he keeps having some dropped balls here, it might be a different story come March or April for his next NFL team.

Maybe it's the Colts, maybe it's not. But let's move on here to our next outing here, George, and that's the Kansas City Chiefs. The Colts open as 9.5 to 100 dogs. The over-under, I believe, is 56.5. So Vegas is expecting a shootout here and a blowout win for the Chiefs do you expect the same yeah you know from what we've got right now to go on I don't know how you don't you know I mean the NFL is crazy we see that every week no one expected the Raiders to come in and jump all over the Colts and win that game the way they did

and no one expected Tampa Bay to go into LA and win that game. So you know that the unpredictable is always possible in the NFL. But with the evidence that we have so far, I don't know how you feel anything other than it's going to be a huge offensive game for Kansas City and the Colts are going to struggle to keep up with that pace. What's your opinion of Patrick Mahomes, George? Do you feel like, I mean, you've seen a lot of quarterbacks, but you've covered Peyton Manning and Drew Luck.

Do you feel like Mahomes is one of the more physically talented quarterbacks we've seen? I think he's the most unique quarterback that I've seen. And that's – I saw it on TV, and obviously you're impressed watching what he did all throughout the year last year. But to be out there for that playoff game last year and watch him live, there's just things that happen that don't physically seem possible. There's no other way to put it. I mean, he's one

of those guys that, you know, the pile's converging and you think it's a sack, and all of a sudden, he's not just out the other end and running for 10 or 15 yards. You've seen that before. That's dangerous enough. He's out the other end and not setting his feet and throwing across his body, across the field for 50, 60 yards, and it's a touchdown. It's almost the closest that I can come to is Brett Favre in terms of throwing from crazy contortions and making plays, keeping plays alive.

But he's better than than farb in the sense that he doesn't there's not as much risk with him he's not throwing the ball up for grabs somehow he's throwing a ball 70 yards across his body down the field and it's accurate i don't that to me is what's incredible about this guy you, he does all these things that you're not supposed to do. And yet he's still one of the most accurate, efficient quarterbacks in the NFL on top of it. So he's an amazing, unique individual. And I don't know if we've ever seen anyone like him. Yeah, he's certainly going to get paid like the top quarterback. He's on pace to make $200 million on his next contract per Adam Schefter,

which is just a crazy figure to talk about nowadays. But what are your three keys to the game on Sunday here, George? I think I'm on the same boat as you, expecting a big win for Kansas City and blow out of fashion. But if the Colts don't keep as close to me, pull off the stunner on Sunday Night Football, what do they have to do? Yeah, for one thing, they've got to stick with receivers. This is a game where Mahomes will run around for two minutes if you let him,

and those receivers will stay with it. They know, you know. They know they'll be rewarded. If they keep working, they're probably going to end up with a touchdown catch. So you've got to make sure that no play is over. This is one of those scramble drill kind of games where you've got to stick to your guy like glue the entire game because if you let him go, Mahomes will find him.

It will be a big play, and it will put you behind the eight ball. I would say, you know, you've got to get pressure on him, and that's obvious for every week. But I think it's even more imperative here. I don't know if the ankle is still a factor for him or not. I know he's made more plays from the pocket this year just because of necessity. The ankle got rolled on during the Jacksonville game in the opener.

And, you know, I don't know if that's still an issue for him or not, but you want to test that. You want to try to get as much pressure on him as you can and try to – but, you know, the thing about that is when you get there, get him on the ground. Because just chasing him around, as we talked about earlier, won't be effective. It won't do anything for you. He'll still make a big play, and you'll still end up, you know,

being behind on the scoreboard. So you've got to make sure that you're rushing with discipline and that you're getting him on the ground when you get there. And then I think offensively, you've got to be hyper-efficient. You know, long scoring drives would be the best option. You know, sort of what they were able to do against Atlanta in the first half, going down the field, taking, you know, six, seven, eight, nine minutes off the clock and then getting in the end zone.

Because kicking field goals is not going to be the way to beat Kansas City either. So I think if the Colts have any chance, you've got to limit the big plays the best that you can, whatever that looks like, whatever that amounts to. Get a turnover or two if you can. They were able to do that. I think they got a fumble recovery in the game in

January, so maybe they can get a turnover or two. And then on offense, be efficient. You can't afford to give the ball away. You can't really afford to be punting. You know what I mean? You're going to have to go down the field, take chunks at a time, and control that clock and score touchdowns.

So it's a big challenge on Sunday for sure. If you had to give a score, George, I'm going to go 34-24. I think it's going to be maybe a garbage-time touchdown at the end for the Colts here. I just don't think they're going to keep it that close against Kansas City in a primetime atmosphere. But what say you? I'd say somewhere in that neighborhood, maybe 41-20, something like that.

I mean, Kansas City's going to score. We know that. We've seen that. There's plenty of evidence over that over the last two seasons here. And I think to go into the game thinking anything else is naive. The big question for me, we haven't seen yet in Jacoby Brissett getting that true kind of shootout back and forth game and keep the Colts in it. You know, they haven't really had to do that

because obviously Oakland doesn't really count in that because of how quickly they got out in front. But can he get into one of those, you know, who's going to have the ball last type of games and win it? I think that's the only way the Colts find a way in this one. Before I let you go here, George, the AFC South is tied at 2-2. All four teams are. Who do you think the most dangerous team is to the Colts right now?

Because everyone's tied for first, of course, right now. But I don't really trust Tennessee and Mariota. But Gardner-Minchie looks really good for Jackson right now. And you add in Houston with Deshaun Watson, that's going to be that week seven game after the bye against the Texans setting up to be a really big one, George. Yeah, that game with the Texans coming up out of the bye is going to be one of the biggest games of the year.

It's at home, and obviously it's one of the top teams in the division. I feel like Houston is the most dangerous of the rest of the teams simply because they've been there before. They're defending division champions. They got J.J. Watt. They got Deshaun Watson. They got DeAndre Hopkins. All the pieces are there for Houston to be a very good football team.

So I feel like they're the most dangerous of that group. But I think Jacksonville, definitely, Minshew can continue to play the way he has and give that team a lift on offense and you know what they're capable of doing defensively the only thing I worry about with with Jacksonville is you know how much of a distraction does Jalen Ramsey become eventually for that team that's what they've got to be concerned with yeah this this AFC division divisional battle is gonna be pretty fun to follow along with throughout the season I think to come out of the very end here,

what do you say as far as the division winner in this goes, George? Do you think maybe nine wins at most, ten tops? Like, this looks like an eight and eight, nine and seven kind of division. Yeah, it really does. It looks like – I think I picked nine and seven at the beginning of the year to win the division, and I still would stick with that. There's a lot of games out there that are tough for this division. I mean, just because of the matchups they've got in cross divisional games, playing the NFC South, you know, a lot of big games.

They're playing the AFC West. There's some big games there. I think it's going to be a tough year for, for anybody to really pull away and be like a 11, 12 win team. I don't think we're going to see that. And so I think it's going to be a tight division all the way. And that's why that Houston game becomes even more important. You obviously want to win all your division home games. If the Colts can find a way to get that one, they'll be at 500 at worst

at that point. They'll be 2-0 in the division. And you start to feel a little bit better about where they're at. If you lose it, you're probably going to be two games under 500 and staring up at the Texans in the division with them holding the tiebreaker. So it's a very critical game after the bottom. Yeah, that's for sure. It's going to be fun to follow this team over the next couple weeks.

You can follow George on Twitter at GMBremmer. Read his work over on the Herald Bulletin as well. Appreciate the time. George, talk again next week. No problem. Thanks a lot, Evan.