Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - LOCKED ON COLTS -10/13- Preparing for Primetime; Indianapolis Colts and Houston Texans Crossover

Episode Date: October 13, 2016

Matt is joined by Locked on Texans host Robert Land as the two go back and forth dissecting the #Colts and #Texans primetime matchup on Sunday night in Houston. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Learn more about our healthy benefits at fepblue.org slash getmore. You are Locked On Colts, your daily podcast on the Indianapolis Colts, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome back to Locked On Colts. I am your host, Matt Dainley. And today we are going to do a simulcast between myself and Robert, the host of Locked On Texans, try to get you guys ready for this primetime matchup between the Colts and Texans this Sunday.

And there's quite a lot to talk about. So without further ado. Welcome to a Locked On simulcast. I'm Robert Land with Locked On Texans. For those of you who know me and for those of you who don't. And then also we have alongside is Matt Dainley from Lockdown Colts. And Matt, great to talk with you about the game this Sunday. And first question for you is, you know, the Texans fans have been really frustrated with Rick Smith over the last few years, and they're

at times wondering why he's still around after their troubles drafting specifically in the second, third and fourth round. Pretty good drafting in the first round. They've had some really nice success there, obviously, with guys like DeAndre Hopkins and J.J. Watt. But the second through fourth round has been basically, for the most part, a disaster. What's the level of frustration from Colts fans with Ryan Grigson at this point? Because the perception from most of us is that they haven't put a whole lot around Andrew Luck. Yeah, well, they haven't for the most part. They've become a little more defined or refined, I guess't think that they're too fond of how he's drafted in the past

and don't necessarily trust his ability to maintain what he pulled out in this past draft with, you know, several linemen. And then in the 2012 draft was by far between those two was his most successful, obviously, with Luck and T.Y. Hilton and so on. So it's there's just so much. They're so bad. And after the fourth and fifth round, kind of like you said, with Smith and they just haven't been able to. they're just wasting draft picks on people that they're either trying to mold into another position or are more more of a backup related you know and the biggest issue with the Colts obviously is their pass rush or their lack thereof uh in the past several years so it's not something that's just this past year and you know outside of uh uh robert mathis's big

20 sack year they haven't really done much since the the team's uh turned over with uh grigson and pagano and they've only drafted three pass rushers now that i mean and you would think okay who are these pass rushers but you know first is bjorn werner who i don't even know that anybody would actually call him a pass rusher anymore because he's been so bad throughout his year. They ended up even using him as a Sam linebacker because he was so bad at rushing the passer to an extent in his tenure in Indianapolis. And then they drafted Jonathan Newsom,

which he came in and played kind of way above his draft prospectus for the one year and then didn't do anything after that. And then just this past last year, or this most recent draft, they drafted Trevor Bates, and Bates is just now making it to the 53-man roster. I don't think he's seen very many snaps. He's only been in for one week. So, you know, there's just so many things that they have needs for, and they've wasted draft picks on guys.

Another perfect example is as strong as the sub packages are now in the NFL, and as often as they're being used, I think it's somewhere around 60% to 65%. That's a ton of snaps, especially on defense. They failed to evolve as a defensive – you know, Pagano's supposed to be a defensive mind, and they failed to evolve with who they select defensively, linebackers especially. They're going way more towards the old school approach. They're not drafting sub-package friendly guys who can cover in space, who can do those multiplicity of things. And it's just a bad situation, I think. I think that a lot of

people want him gone now, but we've talked about it. I've kind of tried to learn my listeners, so to speak, that there's really no benefit to, uh, firing Grigson at, you know, in, in season, it doesn't really do anything at this point, you know, to do it right now, if they're going to do it, they need to do it in the offseason. But if he keeps putting out those kind of silly articles on his own through the Colts website and other publications as well about why woe is me for not being able to draft when we have Andrew Luck on this huge contract. Well, you've had how many years to do something about that with Luck on a rookie deal, you know, and you did nothing.

And, you know, nobody feels sorry for him. But if he doesn't, you know, as long as he's not hurting the team with stupid comments like that anymore, then there's no really reason to let him go in midseason. Well, let me just tell you, Luck is one of the great guys. I mean, I think Colts fans obviously know that by now now but he's somebody that i covered in high school here and you know got to know his dad oliver which you know oliver is just a fantastic guy oliver used to come up to me and talk to me during during andrew's games and during his sister's games andrew's sister was a volleyball

player and so i would go shoot his sister's games I do a lot of video production for for high school sports shows here over the last 15 years or so. So I've got to know the family. And, you know, just, you know, he's a guy that it was terrible as a Texans fan to that he got drafted by the Colts, not only because I knew how good he was going to be, but because he was a guy that was a Houston kid that I wanted to root for. I think Houston fans wanted to root for. His dad played quarterback way back in the day. Not many people would remember him because he was a second, third-string quarterback for the Oilers back in the early 80s.

But, you know, it's just Oliver's been also very much a part of the community. Oliver, former GM of the Dynamo. He was president of Houston Sports Association. So, you know, the family is fantastic. And what a real benefit for the Colts fans to get him. And I would like to see him not get killed every week. And I know that's got to be something that's really bothering Colts fans that what what the offensive line gives Andrew Luck and how many hits he takes, right? Yeah. Oh, yeah, it is. I'm one of the guys – you know, I've constantly –

I feel like I'm legit when I'm criticizing a unit or a player, so to speak. But, you know, it was one of the things where in the past you're like, yeah, offensive line is a need, and it has been in the past, the past several years. But Luck has proven that he doesn't need a great offensive line to be great. It's really a weird situation. You don't have that very often. It's not like I didn't want them to draft offensive line. I did.

But I just thought it's just a weird situation how you have a guy like Andrew Luck who can survive with an awful offensive line. And the offensive line last year started to kind of come around a little bit, you know, and then this year they've got, you know, and this year we have the pieces. They have the offensive line. So I'm high on the offensive line, but more along the lines of high on their possibilities and their future.

This year they're just not, you know, they're getting injured one piece at a time. So new guy rookies are coming in to fulfill those duties at right tackle and right guard. And we have Ryan Kelly, who, you know, some people forget because he's just assumed he's going to be great, is still a rookie at center and he's he's having a couple of had a couple of rough games so we have to think about that as well uh that doesn't make it any easier to watch Andrew Luck get plastered every time every week but you have to assume I mean you see those those times when they do all come together and mesh well and Andrew Luck has four and five seconds to throw the ball and when he has three seconds three plus seconds to throw the ball. And when he has three seconds, three plus seconds to throw the ball, the defense, it doesn't really matter

how good their defense is, the opposing defense or who's dropping into coverage or how many of them are. Andrew Luck's going to find an open guy and he's going to hit him. His accuracy has improved from last year even to this year. It's been great. He's way more pinpoint accurate. He's putting that in stride, whether it's a short crossing route or a deep route. Andrew Luck is really, really coming around in the finer points of his game as well, which should have defenses scared, especially if this offensive line can put it together for the future. Well, for Colts fans, for your fans, I'd say the Texans have been sort of the little brother in the relationship. It seemed like there was nothing that the Texans could do a lot of years to beat the Colts. You had the Rosencopter, if the Colts fans remember that. It flips around a couple of times in the air like a helicopter.

And then the Colts get the fumble and take it back in for a touchdown. And they end up coming back to win that game. There was obviously the game that you end up getting Andrew Luck in sort of. But we thought it was a game that, oh, if you guys won that when you guys were hosting, that, oh, yeah, you're not going to get Andrew Luck, even though after you beat us. But then you go ahead and not only that year was the – I think was that the Matt Painter year? Am I remembering that right at quarterback?

Him and – oh, I can't remember. He's a quarterback now. He went back to the Detroit Lions. Why can't I think of his name? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. He's a former Oiler, Dan Orlovsky. Yes that was Orlovsky Orlovsky is actually the one who won the games for us in there and they about screwed it up yeah yeah and and that was again you know that for the Texans fans we we couldn't believe it because it was hey we finally are gonna beat

the Colts because you know that that's who they were running out or one of the worst teams actually the worst team in the league that year, of course. And the Texans still couldn't beat them. What's the impression of the Texans? Because you guys have been at the top of the mountain. So everybody in the division considers you guys as sort of enemy number one. What's your impression of the Texans? I guess what are the Colts fans' impression of the Texans as a team and a fan base?

Well, I'll be honest with you. I really like and I'm really a fan of O'Brien as coach. I mean, I don't know how you guys – you hear this throughout the division. Certain teams or just certain people outside of the immediate fan base kind of will say such and such good things about this coach or that coach, and other people are like, oh, he's terrible. But I think O'Brien's a good coach. I think he's probably the best.

I don't think it's actually a long shot at all to say he's the best coach in the division. Now, broad spectrum as far as just the Texans in general, I guess I don't really understand. I think you'd have to probably break it down a little further for me to tell me why they are so disappointed in their GM. But I think they've got a ton of talent. I think if they were to switch rosters with the Colts, then the Texans fans would really have something to be upset about

because you guys have a ton of talent on there. It's the fact that I think a lot of people thought bringing in Osweiler, getting the new weapons like Fuller and Miller in the backfield and so on, and then putting all that alongside Hopkins, that you guys were going to have, you know, one of the most electric offenses in the league, let alone the division. So it was going to be, you know, offenses colliding, and then who's going to, you know, their defense, or your defense, is going to be significantly better, and we knew that. So it was kind of a scary thought coming into the season, thinking, man, we're going to be head-to-head with these guys for how long now, and try to figure out who's going to

be, you know, we're really going to have to build this defense quickly. But, you know, you guys are, your offense, to say the least, only averaging about 16 points a game or a little over 16 points a game. I'll say it's got me excited because our defense is terrible and we need a team like that to, or an offense like that, to kind of get our heads straight and see if we can have a big game. We don't have hardly any interceptions at all this season, and they need to pick somebody apart.

But I guess the bigger question here is how do we view the Texans? Sorry if I'm getting off topic, but as always a competitor, but certain things happen between a rivalry that never get lost in the mush. And that main thing is that you can't beat us at Lucas Oil. That T.Y. Hilton is going to just gas you for 200 yards every time he comes to Houston. And outside of that, it's going to be that Andrew Luck's going to get plugged a couple times, but as long as he can maintain and right the ship at some point throughout the game, there's a pretty good chance that the Colts are going to win.

I consider personally the Texans one of the better coached and one of the best defensive teams in the league, but at the same time, I see so many falters with the fact that you guys i you know i thought i had jadavian clowny as one of the biggest bus potential uh draft picks in that draft and i was real surprised that the texans took him to be honest with you he's proven to be a pretty solid player um but at the same time i don't think his longevity and his mental makeup, you would say, just on the outsider's opinion, is going to benefit them for very long. I don't think that's going to be something that's going to be made for the next eight to ten years or anything like that. I think he's a guy who's probably going to find his way out of the organization here in the next couple of years just because of the combination of those two. It's always going to be a good rivalry.

I mean, the Texans always come to play, even if they're terrible. The Colts have been terrible for several times throughout the impetus of the division, if you want to say that, since they were put together since the expansion. And it's just a great rivalry. I really think it is. It's one of the few that the two teams seem to play off of each other every single year. It's pretty interesting.

Yeah, one of the things you were talking about in your podcast, as I was listening as far as the keys, is the Texans' offensive line. And I think you might have called them mediocre. No, they're not good. It's a bad offensive line uh the center Nick Martin uh that was the guy that was supposed to be the center he was the second round pick and really supposed to improve the line they were very excited about him he gets hurt before the preseason gets underway really and at the early part of training camp and that was that was a killer for them because now they're they're

playing an undrafted free agent and greg manson mance hasn't been mance hasn't been terrible but you know he's he's been at least at least holding i guess his own for the most part but he's not getting any push and the texans need somebody to get pushed because they brought in jeff allen he hasn't showed much of all. He was their free agent. He doesn't help them a whole lot in the running game. And they're really bad in the running game. And that's been a major problem. They can't open up holes for Lamar Miller.

Xavier Suofilo, first pick in the second round. That's one of those guys that I'm talking about. Rick Smith, just totally whiffed on. That's 33rd pick in the draft. He's just a guy. And he's going to be a free agent soon. And I don't think I don't see them wanting to keep him spend any sort of money on him. And then Dwayne Brown's been out and that's hurt. But Dwayne Brown isn't the Pro Bowl Dwayne Brown anymore. Don't confuse the you know, don't confuse his football card with what he is

right now. He's OK. And then on the right side Derek Newton they spent some money on him but he had a he had a pretty decent year when they after they you know and then they go ahead and they spend free agent money on him and he hasn't really been all that great since then uh he was hurt uh in training camp uh there's not a lot of continuity because these guys haven't played together so the offensive line they can't up holes. They don't get a whole lot of push. So the passing game should be the Texans' strength, but they're not going to pass block great, and Brock Osweiler needs that help.

You know, he's not yet the guy that can do it. A lot of people are already questioning if he will be the guy. There's a lot of panic right now, especially after the Patriots and the Vikings game and how bad they looked offensively in both of those games uh the weapons will will Fuller has been fantastic you know if I were the Colts if there's one guy to stop you know if you stop Fuller this year uh then you've stopped the Texans offense because Fuller when he's had a great game, the Texans have done really well. And, you know, obviously when he hasn't, it's been a disaster.

And Osweiler can't get the ball to Hopkins. You know, we've gone through nine or ten quarterbacks over the last couple of seasons. And everybody else has seemed to be able to get the ball to DeAndre Hopkins for whatever reason. They're not on the same page. And when he has tried to get it to him, he's forced it in, which has been an issue because that's where the interceptions have come when he's been trying to force the ball to DeAndre Hopkins. And from our perspective, if there's one guy that we're scared of, obviously luck, but the guy that we're scared of and who's beat us year in and year out is T.Y. Hilton. I mean, he scares us to death.

Yeah. And he should also, but I'm telling you, there's been so much talk, uh, over the past week and a half about, uh, uh, Dorsett about how he's not getting a lot of, uh, targets and such. I would be watching for him because there's no two ways about it. You guys are going to be targeting, um, Hilton. You guys are going to be doing as much as you can to bracket him or just make sure that you guys have him well covered. And you guys are going to try to cover the tight end, Doyle and Allen, and make sure that Luck's security blanket are gone. Because when he's dumping it down to the running backs, let's be honest, they're not getting more than five yards. So they have the ability to be dynamic out of the backfield with Ferguson, but he hasn't proved it yet.

And they really don't have a whole lot of options back there that are really going to do a whole lot of yak after the catch. But, you know, I think that you – I just consider a feeling that Dorsett is going to break out because he's going to be considerably underappreciated, so to speak, going into this game. They're not going to be as worried about him. I would look for either him or Chester Rogers to have a monster game. Correct me if I'm wrong.

You guys, the pass rush for the Colts is not good. It's awful. Oh, it's terrible. That's going to be a problem for the Colts because I think if you do give Brock Osweiler some time, he's going to make some passes. I mean, he's shown some accuracy. I like his accuracy for the most part. It's been his decision-making some time.

He's just trying to force it in when he shouldn't have. Right. Yeah. They have no pass rush. The worst thing about it is that they're only getting really some interior push from a couple of guys. Their edge guys have, you know, we've got Eric Walden, who's a Sam linebacker or strong side guy, you know, however you want to look at it. And he's got the most sacks on the team by far. Uh, Robert Mathis has like five QB hits, four QB hits throughout the season with zero sacks.

Trent Cole was awful for the year that he was healthy. If that, maybe a handful of games, ten games, whatever he was actually healthy for. They currently have nobody else back there. That's why they had to bring Trevor Bates up because he's a natural edge guy. He's undersized a little bit like Mathis, but they're using him on special teams. They're trying to move him into a pass rushing option for them on passing downs, I think. They're just really getting almost no push from anywhere. David Perry last year was a real standout guy, and I haven't noticed him as much this year, and it's making me a little worried. But Zach Kerr's kind of banged up a

little bit. They got T.Y. McGill, who I think is a phenomenal player interior. I'd like to see him and Henry Anderson really work hard together to see what they can do against this Texans front. But there's, you know, there's real worry and real, you know, unknown as to what is going to actually happen with these guys. Because, I mean, at the moment, the first five rounds need to be a combination of pass rushers, a running back, and probably a corner. I mean, and all five of them need to be those three. You know, I could care less what order they go in, but those are real, real needs for this Colts roster, and not just a need to improve, but a need to do anything. It's almost where you're below, like they're almost at a negative in these areas, and they've really got

to improve them just to be solid. I mean, just to even be considered worthy of being on the field, to be honest with you, it's just that bad. Yeah. One thing you said about the Texans also on your show, I noticed was that, that, that how good the Texans defense is. And, and I guess the, the issue right now is no JJ watt. I mean, I think the Texans had a real potential to be an elite defense because I felt like there was going to be some improvement with Clowney. Whitney Merciless has gotten better. Bernardrick McKinney was going into his second year. The secondary, I thought it looked better than maybe it's ever looked

with the Texans, especially at the cornerback position. Joseph and Jackson are pretty, they're very solid. And then they have the best backups that they've had in years. And Kevin Johnson, who was a first round pick and, and AJ Boye who had a great camp and has continued it on into the season. But without JJ Watt, I mean, he's, you know, obviously he's just such a, such a massive game changer for the Texans. And I, the concern goes well beyond this season for Texans fans.

You know, if the Colts are looking for a silver lining as far as facing the Texans in the next few years, you know, this is a back issue. You know, this could be, we might never have seen the J.J. Watt that we saw those first few years. This might very well be the end of that. I'm practically assuming it i mean we've as tech as as houston fans we've seen what back issues can do to a career guy like tracy mcgrady and you know we've had some other players have had some major back issues that have been an issue and so the texans defense right now it's it's it's good it's not great you know it's it's a team that

um they they all need to play well now. You can't rely on Watt to bail you out. Watt was kind of the bail-you-out guy. And with him not being around anymore, that's an issue. And then it'll be interesting to see, Matt, because the secondary with the Texans got really banged up the last couple of weeks. Kareem Jackson didn't play against the Vikings. Jonathan Joseph went out

early in the game. Be interested to see if he's back and how he is. Quentin Demps, they lost him early in that game as well. Joseph didn't play well to start off with against the Vikings either, but the secondary and where they are health-wise will have a lot to do with it, especially

with T.Y. Hilton because if there's one thing that always scares me with the Colts is T.Y. beating the Texans deep. The one thing that's changed with the Texans over the years, and this is something that you probably noticed, is that the Texans used to be so bad at covering tight ends. And under Romeo Cornell, they've slowly improved to where they're one of the better teams in the league. Kyle Rudolph didn't do a whole lot of damage. Um, even though the Vikings, you know, went up and down the field against the Texans, he wasn't the guy that did the majority of the damage. And in the past, that would have been the situation.

So I guess if there was something to look for, I would say, you know, if TY Hilton has a big game, I kind of feel like you guys can have a big game. Otherwise, I'm not I'm not sure where your offense might come from. That that's going to be interesting to me. Well, yeah, I mean, and that's the way it's going to be, too, because and I wouldn't say just through T.Y. I would say through the passing game in general, if the offensive line can hold up in general and put it this way, if the offensive line can pass protect, the Colts have a chance because they're never going to win a game off the legs of Frank Gore. They're never going to win a game just solely off the leg of Adam Vinatieri. You know, somebody's got to get

them into a field goal position and that's always luck for that matter, for the majority of it. Nobody's going to win a game. The Colts aren't going to win a game solely on a lot of different things but the one thing that's been the constant since Andrew Luck's been under center is he has the ability to extend plays to make those wow plays and just to be overall consistent you know Luck is well and I mean well above his best completion percentage this year. And he's been sacked more than any quarterback in the league this year. There are a lot of things that I could go through right now that would, you know, the Colts' defense in the second half and in the fourth quarter have allowed the most sacks,

or not the most sacks, I'm sorry, close to the most, in the top three or four sacks in the league in the fourth quarter, while Andrew Luck has got the best overall quarterback performances in the fourth quarter just the same. So he's not only doing it late in the games when he has to do it because that's the way it's been set up by his poor defense and, for the most part, a slow starting offense, but he's doing it while under pressure the entire time. That's something that I don't think that there's a lot of quarterbacks in this league could do. There's a few, obviously. We know the big names, but that's something that always has,

as long as they don't break Andrew Luck, they're going to be fine. But man, it's just, it's so scary to continually have to wait until the second half to see what's actually going to happen in the game. I mean, it's almost if you weren't just a diehard football and Colts fan watching the game, you'd almost have no reason to watch the game until halftime anymore. It just seems that way. Although this past week they started out pretty quick. They just kind of sputtered in the second half a little bit. But Andrew Luck stayed constant, and that's the one thing. Andrew Luck has been just absolutely tearing up the league this year.

He's somewhere around 64, 65%. He was at 71% this past week. I can't remember a game in the past where Andrew Luck was over 70% completion percentage at all, not a single game. I'm not saying it doesn't exist. I'm just saying, I don't remember it. So there's, there's so many things that Andrew has done to grow. And it's about time that this front office and this team around him starts to grow a little bit too. Because right now a lot of this stuff that's been addressed is kind of in the infant stages of its growth. And the offensive line, like I said, is one of the pieces that I think is going to be really good over the next couple of years. And I mean, really good. But on the other hand,

you know, I just don't have the trust in Pagano to coach a defense. I think he's a coordinator. And then more, more honestly, I think he's a secondary coach period. And I don't trust Ryan Grigson to bring in the defensive help. I mean, free agent-wise, I mean, I don't know. It depends on if you want to look at the good or bad, because the good's been really good. Like Mike Adams, who's old and has been one of the best defenders on the Colts since he's been here, and he's 35 right now. Or you can look at the good, or I mean, or you can look at the good or I mean, or you can look at the bad and the bad is just an absolute dumpster fire. So, I mean, there, there's just no in between with this guy. He either brings in good, really good talent,

which is very few and far between, or he brings in nothing and garbage and high dollar guys who can't put forth any, any significant help to the team. And it's just there can't be a no in between. There's got to be – if you're not going to bring in somebody who's high quality, you've got to bring in a contributor, somebody who can do something. And he's not. He's not doing that enough.

And that's the real scary part. Well, let me ask you. I've pretty much been asking you a lot of questions. Any questions that you got as far as the Texans go? Coming up? Oh, absolutely. Tell me more about your issues with your GM because, like I said, I understand that you guys have, like you said,

Xavier Suofilo is an issue with you guys because he was a high pick. But they've done such a good job bringing defensive talent around J.J. Watt to where that they're still a top five defense without him. That has to be something that Texans fans are happy about. And then you've got an offense now where you don't have it all gelling. Like I said, you're only averaging 16 and a half points a game, but you've got the possibility of being a really fantastic offense. And maybe that's kind of blind-eyed to the huge contract that Osweiler got, but at least you've got a chance now. And that was always the thing that Colts fans would see, is if the offense, if our offense can beat their defense, there's no way that their offense is going to beat our defense

just because their offense is just as bad as our defense. So, I mean, that was kind of a thought process there. So kind of tell me a little more, do you think it's warranted that a lot of Texans fans have that kind of issue with Smith? Well, Smith is, I don't think he's the worst GM in the NFL, and I don't think the Texans fans think he's the worst GM in the NFL, and I don't think the Texans fans think he's the worst GM in the NFL, but boy, the 2013 draft in particular was awful.

But just second through fourth round, it's been bad. When you talk about the talent they put around on defense, as far as Watt, it's taken time because it's been first-round picks. Whitney Merciless was a first-round pick. Clowney was a first-round pick. Brian Cushing was good he was a first round pick but you know he has he's been just a guy for the last few years just the injuries and everything caught up to him uh you know a couple a couple bad career ending knee injuries and he hasn't been the same since then and bernard mckinney second

round pick now that might be their one of their first second round picks over the last couple of drafts the middle round picks not quite as bad as they've been maybe o'brien has had more to do with it i don't know if there's been a whole lot as a change as far as what they're you know what their uh draft experts and the people in the front office have changed around a whole lot but it looks like the last couple of drafts, they might have improved a lot. But there was a long period in there where they were just getting nothing. And that mattered as far as depth. I mean, depth killed them.

Their special teams have been bad for a long time, and that's a big part of that. And, you know, you look at the talent-wise, yeah, Will Fuller, again, it's a first-round pick. DeAndre Hopkins, first-round pick. But the other, the guys, the other guys have been the issue and the offensive line is obviously a problem and what they've just put guys around him on the defensive line until they got clowny with the first pick and will will fork you know he's just he's probably just a guy for the most part. He's having one of his better years in a while,

much better than he was last year. But obviously the Patriots don't let a guy go unless he's on his back nine, to say the least. So yeah, the talent defensively, it's there, but it's a lot in the first round, and that's taken years and years and years to build up. And to be a great team, to be one of these franchises that's going to go somewhere,

the Texans fans are sick of mediocrity. I'm sure Cleveland sort of spits on that. There's franchises around that would love to have just mediocrity and getting into the playoffs occasionally and winning a game in the playoffs occasionally, like the Texans have done. But, you know, the Texans are, you know, we want to win a Super Bowl. You know, Houston has never won a Super Bowl and Oilers, Texans, it's never happened. They haven't been to an AFC championship game, Houston NFL team since 1979. So sit on that for a

second if you're a Colts fan. I mean, that's how long it's been. So this is a football-hungry community. The Texans are first and foremost and by far the biggest thing in town. And I think everybody knows how big football is in texas so yeah they're tired of the mediocrity and they see rick smith is the mediocrity you know and he's a guy that doesn't get out there uh doesn't you know do a lot of media defending what he's doing and and and he doesn't you know he doesn't say a whole lot and he's looked at as kind of a bob mc lackey, a guy that Bob McNair likes personally. And Bob McNair doesn't like change. And it takes a long time for him to make a move.

Gary Kubiak wouldn't have lasted as long as he as he did with a lot of franchises. And now, you know, it seems like, oh, what did the Texans do by getting rid of Gary Kubiak? But I think what I think what's changed, the Gary Kubiak that you're seeing have all the success in Denver is because he had a lot to do he had a lot to do with the player personnel moves and what was going on and and maybe just maybe uh he didn't but if he didn't and that's definitely an indictment on the Texans you know personnel moves compared to what Denver and John Elway does with their personal personnel moves so you know I guess that's where the rub is with Rick Smith here yeah it's it's been that it's that's a hard thing to tell too when coaches go from place to place who's actually uh responsible for the majority of the big draft

poll you know uh Colts fans are considered that too you know I talked to Bob Kravitz not too long ago and I was talking to him about uh it was perceived that Pagano had more of a say in who brought in this most recent Colts draft poll. And he thought, you know, well, I don't think that necessarily Pagano had more to do with it. It just was kind of, you know, this and that and the other. And I thought, well, that was strange because it just seemed to me like maybe, and maybe it was just because it was a different approach, you know what I mean, as to pass was strange because it just seemed to me like maybe and maybe it was just because it was a different approach. You know what I mean? As to pass drafts. So it's really hard to tell. It's really interesting how coaches can go from place to place, be either less successful at one or the other.

And who is being brought in draft wise and what the perception is as to who brought them in. So a lot can change a lot of people's minds. And one of the questions I want to ask you is obviously they're without JJ Watt right now, and their defense, like I said, has been still a top, a top third at a, at a very minimum defense, but you guys do have a lot of guys out with between Jonathan Joseph being out for concussion Demps with a calf. You guys have a lot of guys right now who missed a Wednesday practice. Who's the guy that you guys desperately need to come back throughout that in order to maintain the defensive integrity of this team?

I think probably of the secondary guys, Demps is pretty key because he's their real veteran out there. He's the guy with the most experience by far. You have Corey Moore came off the bench. We just had Corey Moore on our podcast, just did a little one-on-one with him in yesterday's show. But good guy. He's learning. He's a young guy.

He was undrafted. He played a lot last week without, without depths. So the, the, the depth in the secondary isn't as good as depth at cornerback. But if, if we're having depth at cornerback issues and you see Charles James on the field on Sunday as a cornerback, he's the fifth quarterback in the, in the, in the Texans depth chart. If you see him playing, you're going to see Andrew Luck go at him. I mean, he will definitely go at Charles James, and that's what the Vikings did when he came in last Sunday. So I guess Demps would be the guy.

Demps is the guy. Demps is the guy. Their front seven there is such an – well, I mean, consider, like I said, that you're talking to a Colts guy here. The Texans front seven's pretty impressive within itself as well. And without J.J. Watt in that front seven, you know, the Colts lately have been able to take a guy out of the box that have allowed Frank Gore to be a little more successful in his running. He's been able to turn out some eight and ten and some double-digit rushes, which the Colts fans haven't seen for years, it seems like, with any kind of consistency. Taking a guy out of the box there because Luck has been so good

through the air. Now, if Texans do that, can they keep that? You think that they, with just five guys coming in, four guys coming in to pressure Andrew Luck, that they can also stop the run in a situation like that? Because the Colts will definitely be using a little more of a draw game, I think, in the running game this week to try to get the pass rush passed and get some open looks on the ground in order not to probably battle that secondary if they can at all help it, depending on who comes back off the injury wire.

Honestly, that's what concerns me most about the Texans' defense these days. It's the run game. They haven't looked good against the run. Didn't look good last week against the Vikings. A Vikings team with, you know, with no Adrian Peterson and the Vikings seem to run at will. You know, they got yardage when they wanted to get yardage against the Texans. And that's a major concern is the Texans run defense right now. And the Vikings don't, I mean, just to be honest, the Vikings don't have really a

running game. Right. That's got to be scary a little bit oh yeah you know it's it's been it's been bad for the texans you know you i gave them a little bit of a pass when they faced the titans the week before and they and they had struggled but you know the titans have got some good running backs but the vikings you know they were they were near the bottom of the league and in the run so so yeah the texans can be run against uh cushing is not what he used to be. As I said, McKinney's okay against the run. The secondaries, the safeties are decent but not great against the run. Again, not having Watt helps to have J.J. Watt.

He's kind of a big deal. So now that we've seen kind of where your, uh, offensive guys, like you said, Fuller has been fantastic. The guys out of this latest draft Braxton Miller, I think has impressed a lot of people. Um, but where, when you look at Osweiler as a quarterback and you look at him and comparative nature to the rest of the league's signal callers, what do you see from him, both good and bad that, um, and excite both excite you and scares you for the future, uh, at that position for the Texans? Well, I think the good thing that you've seen so far, uh, is the, the fact that he, he can be really good on the deep throws, his accuracy downfield looks to be really good.

The biggest problem is he locks into guys. I asked him about that at a press conference, and he said, oh, that's just people that don't know football. And he really sloughed that whole thing off. He just said he doesn't think that's correct and uh i just thought it was a real interesting answer because you know that's been a big contingent of people here feel like that's what he does and that's why he's got seven interceptions in five games and he'll you know he'll take a snap and he'll just fire without you know knowing sometimes i feel like without knowing what the coverage might be and if the if the guy's really open you know knowing sometimes i feel like without knowing what the coverage might be and if the

if the guy's really open you know he'll he'll go at it you know he'll go right at a guy that's got a guy blanketed on him and that's especially the case with hopkins so uh yeah the osweiler the book's still gonna be out on him i still need to see him longer you know it's it's real strange because a lot of people in the the nfl fans just you know they expect like oh if the guy's going to be a great quarterback you're you know you'll see it right away you know the osweiler is still i think this will be a 13th nfl start and yeah he's he was on the bench for a few years in denver but still you know it takes time the speed of the game and he's learning a new offense this season so you got got to factor that in. And Bill O'Brien's offense is

considered pretty darn complicated. It's not as quarterback friendly as Gary Kubiak's offense. I'll tell you that for sure. And so with him, I think there's got to be some patience. Basically with that contract contract they're stuck with him for two years and after two years they can then release him and it's not going to be much against the cap so you look at peyton manning remind everybody this because i always bring this up peyton manning if i'm correct led the league in interceptions his first season as his rookie season with the colts correct oh yeah oh yes you know and come darn close to it his first season, his rookie season with the Colts, correct? Oh, yeah. Oh, yes. And come darn close to it his second season as well, I'm pretty sure.

Yeah, and it just doesn't happen. Tom Brady was not great overnight. Tom Brady, he was a game-managing quarterback. When he came into the league, even winning that Super Bowl against the Rams, I mean, that wasn't a great offensive performance. You know, so you look at, guys, Warren Moon, his first three years in Houston, I think he had something like maybe 40 touchdowns

and 58 interceptions. It wasn't good. You know, this is a Hall of Fame quarterback. This is a guy that spent five years in professional football in the CFL, and, you know, he was a veteran at least as far as, you know, his age and experience coming into the NFL. And of course, it depends on what you have around you also. But the Texans offensive line is an issue. And I want to see more Osweiler when the offensive line improves.

But you also are sort of measuring him. What can he do when he's got to do it himself and maybe that's what makes the great ones great i don't think you need a great quarterback necessarily but you need a guy that's going to be at least you know average to good and then pick it up in in bigger situations when the playoffs come around and and that's what people are looking for with osweiler you really thought after you know he looked really good against the Patriots, and I think he looked pretty good. There was another game maybe against the Steelers last year in big situations.

That's what excited you, I think, if you're a Texans fan, more than anything. And so that's what we're looking for with him. And against the Vikings and the Patriots, it's been a disaster. So we'll see what's going to happen. But, you know, for me, it's I need disaster. So we'll, we'll see what's going to happen. But, you know, for me, it's, I need more time. I need more time to really evaluate what kind of quarterback he is,

because I just don't think you can do that in the NFL. It's, it, it, it takes, you know, there's some guys you're just going to have to, you know, you're going to have to wait. And he's, as far as off the field, he's got all of the intangibles, you know, he seems like he's a leader. He, you know, he looks the part, he sounds the part it's, you know, he, he's got all of the intangibles you know he seems like he's a leader he you know he looks the part he sounds the part it's you know he he's out of he's out of your basic casting for an nfl quarterback but it's on the field stuff that's it's to me that's that's gonna be a that's a wait and see thing yeah and i'll kind of remind people and uh and this kind of goes for both colts and texans fans you know it took peyton Manning in his first four years through 23 interceptions twice.

And his rookie year, like you were talking about, I'm pretty sure he threw around 28 in the league. But other than the one year that he had 33 touchdowns, he maintained a 26-touchdown year. I think that's kind of the thing. If they show the ability to get touchdowns through the air, the interceptions in their first handful of years are going to come. I mean, that's just – some don't, don't get me wrong.

Some find a way, like Russell Wilson, find a way to stay away from the interception totals, and a lot of that is play design from coaches and the fact that he doesn't have to pass 40 times a game to will his team do a win because of the other assets that they have involved. And I think that's probably somewhere along the line of what you were talking about. You don't need a great quarterback all the time. You need all the complementary areas to do their job,

and then whether the guy's a great quarterback or not, he doesn't necessarily have to prove it week in and week out so long as the team is playing like a team. But, you know, a lot of people thought that in Indianapolis. And until this year, a lot of people weren't convinced that Luck was all that great. And I think a lot of people outside of Indy still aren't convinced because they don't think he's great because they see, oh, they, you know, they listen to the national news and talk about how he turns the ball over too often. But if you look at a lot of those passes, you know as well as I do, that all touchdowns and all interceptions aren't created equal.

If you throw an interception trying to go for the end zone from the 50-yard line, that's basically a punt. If you throw an interception and you're inside your red zone and you're going for a touchdown, or if you're backed up against your own touchdown, your end zone, then that's a different story. Those are pretty egregious interceptions. And there, there's a lot of different situations that make interceptions worse than others. But, uh, I think that people need to understand that they're going to take some time to, to get their feet underneath them.

And I think Osweiler is no different. But he's definitely got the ability. And he's got the complementary team around him, I think, to where he can take his time and they can take their time with him more or less. But he needs to be able to be coachable. I don't know if he is or not. But a lot of the stuff you hear in the national news and stuff kind of makes you – they don't say he's not coachable, but it makes you wonder if he actually is all that coachable I don't know if he is or not but a lot of the stuff you hear in the uh national news and stuff kind of makes you they don't say he's not coachable but it makes you wonder if he actually is all that coachable does that make sense yeah um so it's just kind of one of those things you want to say you know Brock you're really nobody yet but you could be somebody if you just listen

you know I mean it's kind of one of those things in my opinion now the Colts don't have a pass rush we've touched on this already the Colts have't have a pass rush. We've touched on this already. The Colts have almost zero pass rush. What do you see the Texans offensive game plan to kind of defeat this Colts defense right away? The offensive game plan for the Texans, my guess is they're going to do what they did against the Titans a couple of weeks ago, and hopefully that they didn't do against the Vikings, which is that they need to incorporate a shorter passing game and get that going. They've got to get Lamar Miller, and we've been saying it all year, they've done a bad job of getting him outside of the tackles.

They're trying more to do that the last couple of weeks, but it was a situation that they got behind so quickly against the Vikings that Lamar Miller got nine carries so you know for them to have success I feel like you know Osweiler has got to get the short passing game going and you know I'll just go back to the x-factor is is Will Fuller I mean it seems like if when he plays well the the Texans play well. I'm sure they're going to do their best to get Hopkins involved. I don't think he got his first catch against the Vikings

until maybe the third or fourth quarter, and that can't happen. They've got to figure out a way to get him more involved, and it's been really rough trying to get DeAndre Hopkins involved. They're going to try to get him involved. And I would assume that's going to be more the short routes for Hopkins because Fuller, they've been using him a lot on the deep stuff. And I'll be interested to see how the Colts decide that they're going to play that and how they play Fuller.

I mean, everybody seems to really do that two deep safety, and I'm sure that's what the Colts are going to do to combat Fuller and how the Texans sort of counter that is going to be interesting. I agree. All right, man, let's do it. Let's get our picks in. Who you got? Boy, if the Texans don't win this one,

there's going to be a mutiny against, I mean, against O'Brien and Osweiler. Both of those guys are really, you know, catching some heat right now. And this is a game that they've got to have. They're at home. I just feel like this is a must win for the Texans. And next week they face the Broncos, which looks like on paper is a guaranteed loss the way the Texans have played on the road and against defenses like the Broncos so you know I'm gonna pick the Texans but you know I've would I be surprised if the Colts won the game and it's not and it's got to be an offensive shootout if that's

the case would I be surprised absolutely not what's your score oh god I'm terrible I'm awful at scores uh oh we, we all are. That's what's fun about it. I'll just throw up some random score then. I'm going to say the Texans, to win, they're going to have to score, so I'm going to say it's probably something like 27 to 21 or something like that. That's fair.

I'm going to go ahead and go with the Colts because I think they've got no choice but to trend upwards. They've been in so many close games and they've only won two of them. And the Colts really have to put a defense, they have to put a notch on their bedpost, so to speak, of a solid defense in the league before they can really prove that they've done anything, if that makes any sense. And they've got to get a couple sacks on. I mean, we've gone through, I've gone through the keys to beating the Texans. And I think that if they do a couple of those, that they've got a shot. But I am giving the Colts the win, and I'm going to make it 24 to 20, because the Colts have had only one game decided outside of six points all year, whether

they've won or lost. And that was the Denver game. And they were within six points with a minute 51 to go until the strip sack took the ball back to the end zone for Denver. So this is definitely going to be within six points. I think I'm going to call it within four 24 20 uh colts that sounds i mean either one sounds very possible at this point and boy i think it's a it's such a big game for both teams not just because i think it's a division game but because of where the the two teams are and what you're seeing at this point who are the colts and who are the texans at this point in the season you you really get a feel i think after this game, where these two teams are and where they're going the rest of the way.

Absolutely. I agree. It's kind of the land of unknown after this as well. But I want to remind everybody, if you're a Colts fan or whoever, and you want to subscribe to either one of these podcasts, please do that. Get over to iTunes and follow these shows. They're really good stuff. A lot of the Locked On Network has been really starting to trend upward quite a bit. Now it's actually part of one of the fastest-growing shows in the world,

if I'm not mistaken from what I've been reading and seeing lately. One of the fastest-growing networks in the world, sorry. So get yourself out there and check your team out. Uh, listen to them, uh, get both myself, uh, and, uh, locked on Texans and get those, get those, uh, to where you're getting those right off the jump as soon as they're published. And, uh, you know, conversate with us on Facebook, Twitter, and email and everything else, else, whatever you guys want to do. So that'd be great. Hey,

thanks for doing this, Matt. Hopefully we can do this later in the year. Unfortunately, we can't say good luck to each other this, this Sunday, but you know, it's,

it's going to be a fun game and we'll root for that. Absolutely, man. I appreciate it. Thanks for having me on. Thanks for joining me as well. And, and yeah,

go ahead and say it. Good luck this weekend. I just don't mean it. You are locked on Colts, your daily Indianapolis Colts podcast, part of the locked on podcast network, your team every day.