Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - LOCKED ON COLTS 10/17/19: Crossover Special with Locked On Texans

Episode Date: October 18, 2019

On today's episode, our weekly Crossover Specials on the network are back and this time we dissect arguably the biggest game of the season: Colts vs. Texans. Who holds the edge and where? It's certainly going to be one of the games of the week for Week 7.Before we dive into it, the Jalen Ramsey trade broke right before recording. What does this deal mean for the AFC South, especially Indianapolis and Houston? It really cuts out Jacksonville for this year while the Colts and Texans fight for division supremacy.Then, we bounce back-and-forth on Colts and Texans topics. How has Jacoby Brissett handled being QB1? Is T.Y. Hilton going to torch the Texans once again? Is Deshaun Watson the league MVP right now, or someone else? All of these questions and more are answered, so don't miss this one! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, everybody. Welcome into our weekly crossover special. This is Evan Cedri of Locked On Colts, and I'm joined by the Locked On Texans host this week, Cody Davis and John Hickman. How you guys doing today? What's going on, Evan? We're doing good. Looking forward to the... Actually, our first division game since the Jags, so we're looking forward to that game. And this is our first game that we've seen you guys since that awful, brutal playoff performance when you guys came into Houston and just took our soul, just took the soul out of our body. That was brutal.

Yeah, that was an impressive win by the Colts for sure. It was really actually kind of surprising to me just how much it wasn't blowout fashion there. But if anyone was wondering, the Jalen Ramsey trade just happened. And I want to get both of our thoughts here before we really get into this because I feel like this trade actually impacts the division a little bit. What do you guys think Jalen Ramsey is now leaving the AFC South, and what does that do for the Texans? Personally, I think that will open up a lot more for the Houston Texans,

along with everybody. Excuse me. Even the Colts, yeah. Even the Colts. You know, you guys have the speed of receiver, T.Y. Hilton, and really a lot of young prospects that could use the opportunity to get let up a little bit. You know, when you go against Jalen, he doesn't really let up too often.

So, the Houston Texans, we are affected by it in a positive way. The Colts, even Tennessee, who's having their offensive issues, I think this will affect the entire AFC South. And for me, what that does is let us know that the Jags are not where they wanted to be. You know, losing Nick Foles, Minshew Hive is real. I'm a part of that train. But two years ago, they were on top of the world going to the AFC title game. Now, they

just traded the best corner, number one or number two in the league. They're not where they wanted to be. I don't think the Tennessee Titans are going to bounce back. So that affects only tremendously the biggest way the Houston Texans and the Titans, I mean

the Coats, we're going to play each other Sunday. So I think we're the two teams that are going to affect the bad the most in a positive way. Yeah. If anything, all the only thing this is, is just let the AFC South just come down to between two teams. And that's us and you guys, you're talking about the Jacksonville Jaguars. It's just, it's crazy. You know, you go back, what was it? Two years ago,

they was in the AFC championship game against the Patriots, and in the blink of an eye, you could basically say they're doing a rebuild. So at the end of the day, I mean, it just makes it a little bit easier to roll for Indianapolis and Houston. Yeah, I would certainly say so. I agree with you guys. That's down to the Colts and Texans here for a division here. So let me flip this thing over.

We're going to start the first today's segment talking about what you guys want to ask me from the Colts side of things. We're going to close the show talking about Texans and go with our predictions here. So I'll give you guys the floor to ask some Colts questions. The first question that I want to ask, how have things been in Indy since Andrew Luck retired? And how has it been with Jacoby Brissett taking over as the starting quarterback? It's been surprisingly going well. I would say that

it really hasn't fallen along Jacoby Brissett's shoulders so far. It's been a lot of the running game and a lot of the offensive line but Brissett's done pretty well so far outside like one bad game against Tennessee. He's held his own. He's had multiple touchdowns every single game except last week against Kansas City so he's doing doing good, and I think Frank Reich, his head coach, is doing pretty well for himself as far as scheming a good system for him. I think the Colts would be well better off than Andrew Luck, a quarterback, but Jacoby Brissett is proving them right. They thought he'd be a top 20 quarterback in the NFL, and I think he's certainly played a top 20, top 15 quarterback so far. Maybe not elite, so to say,

but he's been pretty good in the culture. If they went on Sunday, they're in a really good spot to make the playoffs this year. Yeah, and just to stick it on and just to stay with Jacoby, I mean, you're talking about a guy I personally believe that, you know, since this is his first full season playing as a starter, I mean, you're talking about a guy who is playing pretty well. I mean, his touchdown to interception ratio is 10 to 3. He got a passing rate of 94.9.

Of course, you have seen Jacoby more than I have. I don't even think I've been able to watch any of the Annapolis Colts game this season. But what have you seen the difference in between what Andrew Luck brought to the table and then you also take a look at what Jacoby Bursette has been doing, both the good and the bad. I would say the good on both sides is actually – and good and bad on both sides is actually pretty steep

as far as the difference there. I think Andrew Luck's like a top three quarterback when he's healthy. And at his peak, I think Bursette's more like a top 15 guy. It's been more like a game manager kind of since so far. He's been doing some quick passes and not really a lot of deep shots, so I wish we'd see a lot more of, but Andrew Luck really knew how to get some good deep shots at T.Y. Hill and other guys and go off multiple reads, read those guys well. And then outside of that, Bursette really looks like just a one-read quarterback so far. If his first read isn't open, he kind of pants a little bit

and tries to think of what's next for him. And I think his reads are kind of sore right now. So I would say the difference is that the style of the offense completely changes that line in Andrew Luck. It's now built around Marlon Mack, their running back, and their offensive line, which is the best in the NFL. Jacoby Brissette's more just like an Alex Smith kind of quarterback right now where he's taking a lot of short passes and making smart plays,

which isn't a bad thing, but I think he's not exactly an elite quarterback, so to say, compared to Andrew Luck. Now, John Hickman here, I got a quick question. I'm looking at the numbers over the course of the seasons thus far. The Texans are ranked number five in running. You know, we've really been able to pound and ground, especially against the Chiefs, which really helped us out controlling that time of possession.

So did it did for you guys as well. That's what allowed you to beat them. You guys rushed for 180. You rushed for 167, rushed for 203 against the Chargers and the Titans in those two games. However, you have allowed 125 against the Chargers, 124 against the Titans, and 188 against the Coast. I mean, against Oakland. How are you guys going to really crack down on that,

considering Leonard was out the last couple games with concussion? He will be back to play. He's ready to go. There was even talking about him, you know, retiring, and he came out and cleared that up with the addition of Leonard coming back help this run defense and give it the support it needs oh absolutely without Darius Leonard the last couple weeks they've been really struggling on not only the running game but also the passing defense and Leonard is one of the best linebackers

in the NFL and his presence in the middle of the defense is huge for this team they've been playing Bobby Okereke, a rookie, and Mike Linebacker moved Anthony Walker to Will, which changed things up a little bit. Walker did well. Okereke did well in Kansas City, but it's been a lot in consistency so far. And they missed Darius Leonard's speed in that middle of the defense. And I think that's what's going to make a huge difference on Sunday here is that Darius Leonard is very familiar with this Texans defense

or Texans offense. I really believe that he's one of those key X factors in this game because if he has a big monster game, which I think he's totally capable of doing here, I think it's going to change the running game, make the Texas kind of one-dimensional there. Yeah, and I agree. Leonard does so much all pro his rookie year and him along with Quinton Nelson. By the way,

I think Quinton Nelson is the best guard in the league after his first year. Those two guys are studs, but you look at what Leonard can do just specifically talking about him. Right now, the Colts are 66% in the red zone allowed. The Houston Texans have a 51 completion rate for scoring of course in the red zone so getting him back that is a number that I will look to not only just against the Texas but just further on throughout the season that red zone completion percentage against the Indianapolis defense should go down but that is an area where if I'm if I'm looking at the Houston Texans coming into this game and if I'm a coach fan coach, a part of that organization, coaching staff,

that's an area where I get a little worried, also considering that they have Deshaun Watson on the other side of the ball. Yeah, I would certainly say so. I think Deshaun Watson is one of those players who's certainly an MVP race right now, and he's given the Colts fits in the past. I think last January, surprisingly, the Colts defense really had a great game plan for Deshaun Watson. And if they can do the same thing on Sunday, I think it's going to be a very close game. I think we're all in agreement there.

It's going to be a very close game. Probably comes down to the last possession of the game. I think Deshaun Watson versus Darius Leonard, just the meeting of the minds there. I think that's one of the bigger matches for us to follow along with this on Sunday. And most definitely, not only Deshaun versus Leonard, I also look at the offensive line for Indy and the defensive line for the Texas, vice versa, the offensive line for us here in Houston, who will be without Howard, Roderick Johnson,

we'll fill his spot who's only allowed one sack but you guys have been really good at getting after the quarterback certainly have been yeah and I think that's a great thing to see because Justin Houston didn't really do much in the first month of the season but in Kansas City in his revenge game kind of he went off and he's gonna have to do that the rest of the season though because Kamoko Ture actually broke his ankle in the Kansas City game. That's a huge loss for the Colts defense. He's been their best pass rusher this season.

Rookie Ben Banigou is going to step in his place from TCU. And I think this is one of those games where if they don't get pressure on Deshaun Watson, keep him inside the pocket, it's going to be a really long day for this Colts defense, even if Leonard is back. How have things been with T.Y. Hilton lately um I know before you guys went on your bye week the last game that you guys played of course was the game we all won 19 and three against the Kansas City Chiefs um and T.Y. Hilton was actually battling a quad injury um how

has he looked um since news broke of his injury and And if he is healthy enough to go on Sunday, what kind of problems do you think he'd be able to provide for our secondary? And I don't know if you know, but our secondary, I mean, we have been hit by the injury bug really big, especially with Jonathan Joseph being out. So what kind of problems do you think T.Y. Hilton will bring to the Texans, you know, just due to the fact that we're out of our, you know, best defenders? Yeah, T.Y. played last Sunday.

He actually played really well on his quad. I think he's 100% now, especially after this bye week. And I feel like that question is sort of one you guys should know about, right, because T.Y. Hilton, I feel like, kind of owns his Texans team as far as he puts a monster things every week yeah that's the problem um but that's that's the reason why because I know um you know heading into you guys last game it wasn't looking too good for him um you know from from that quiet injury but I mean he is a guy that has has really gave us a lot of problems so you know that's what I was asking because I just wanted to know like

how healthy has he been I know since you guys had the bye week I'm pretty sure that gave him a lot more rest in order for him to be healthy in order to probably continue the devastation that he does to our beloved Houston Texans. Oh yeah. He, he certainly is a hundred percent. It sounded from Frank, right? He mentioned that earlier this week that he's good to go. And then Leonard as well, like I mentioned earlier in the show, he's cleared his concussion protocol as has Clayton gathers a starting strong safety.

So it looks like this Colts team outside of the terrain injury is going to be a hundred percent healthy, which is a great sign. Of course. Yeah, guys, thank you. This is the Locked On Crossover Show with Evan Sidery of the Indianapolis Colts. Locked On Colts. Can't wait to get on the other side and actually kind of just discuss what you have, just questions about the Texans and how you guys can execute and operate down when we play each other Sunday.

So I guess that is what we're going to discuss in the next break, right? Yeah, absolutely. And we'll do that here once we talk to our following sponsors. All right, we're back from our break here. Now we're going to talk from the Colts side of things about the Houston Texans. And let me ask you this, Cody, and I'll ask both of you, Cody and John, is Deshaun Watson the league's MVP at this moment in time? 100%, I will say yes.

I mean, Deshaun Watson, if you take a look at what this guy has been doing over the last couple of games, especially the last two games, you look what he did against Atlanta. You look what he did against Kansas City. As of right now, he should be, if not the leader two games, you look what he did against Atlanta. You look what he did against Kansas City. As of right now, he should be, if not the leader for MVP, he should by far be the second person in position for MVP right now. I mean, he has really taken his team and really helped take this team to the next level.

We got a little bit of what he was able to do his rookie season, and as you know, he got hurt. That was cut short. His second season, I would say his second season was his rookie season because that was the first full year that we got a taste of Deshaun Watson. But every single game except for that game against the Jacksonville Jaguars, he has been playing terrific. And I would give him a pass against the Jacksonville Jaguars game

because that was the day after his birthday. So I think he was still just a tad bit still a little bit turned up. That's why he didn't perform that well. But other than that, the guy has been amazing, and there's nothing that you can take away from Deshaun Watson right now. Yeah, John, what would you say? Do you think Watson is the MVP leader? Do you think it's more Russell Wilson, or would you say it's Watson?

Right now, I got to go with Russ. And I know that's going to make me a hated man here in Houston. Who are you going to go with Russ? I got to go with Russ. Here's why. Everything that Sean Watson has, Russ does not have. Like what? Russ does not have offensive weapons like Deshaun.

Russ does not have a good blocking offensive line like Deshaun. Russ does not have a good blocking offensive line like Deshaun. And without Russ, how good are the Seattle Seahawks? Now, we can ask the same question about the Houston Texans, but we've seen Bill O'Brien make the best out of nothing and make it to the playoffs.

Am I right? We've seen him win the division, win the division without Deshaun. We've never seen Pete Carroll and this Seattle team without Russ. This guy is playing completely past his mind. And you consider the fact that he doesn't have Hopkins, Fuller, Kiki, Fells who's playing lights out, Atkins who's playing lights out, Kenny Stills, Maramitone.

So I can keep going and going. But right now I have Russ slightly over Watson. What about you, Evan? What's your take? Yeah, I would agree with John there. I'd go Russell Wilson over Deshaun Watson at this point in time because I think he laid down a lot of good points there. Just we haven't seen a lot without Wilson on the Seahawks team.

And if you guys saw that throw I made a week or two ago, it was just an insane throw. It's higher lock in the corner. I don't know how many quarterbacks can make that throw in this league. And like John said, he's playing out of his mind right now. So I'd definitely go Russell Wilson. Maybe Christian McCaffrey is a sleeper guy for this because he's been going off two for Carolina.

But I think it's definitely down between right now Russell Wilson, Deshaun Watson. But another question I wanted to ask you guys revolves around this running game because I don't remember this Texans team running the ball as much as they had the last couple of games. And Carlos Hyde actually done a really good job for you guys. Yeah, Hyde, you know, just like Houston. When Houston went back to Kansas City, you can say he was at that point

a pedestrian for the Colts, right? Not that much of an impact. Same thing with Hyde in the sense where he hadn't rushed for 100 yards yet. When he went against the Chiefs, he just completely, outside of that fumble, he completely turned up. But Hyde has been exactly what the doctor ordered for us. Beginning of the season, we had those injuries left and right. We had issues with our office, our front office, our organization, period.

Lamar Miller goes down, and then Hyde had issues with our office, our front office, our organization, period. Lamar Miller goes down and then we signed Trey for him with the Martinez Rankin trade, who was a guy who was about to get cut. What's the risk-reward there? Low risk, high reward.

Actually, we're right behind you guys in rushing yards per game. You guys are ranked four. The Houston Texans are ranked five. That's a large part due to what Hyde has been able to do, game in and game out, outside of the Carolina game. We didn't do much.

Nobody did much against the Carolina Panthers. But Hyde has been heaven sent. And what he's been able to do is allow Duke Johnson to stay in his role as a pass catching back out of the backfield just for more opportunity and touches. He's also running the ball good whenever he gets in the game. So he has been able to complement Deshaun Watson, who runs the ball well, the offensive line, and Duke Johnson alone with himself.

He's been exactly what we need to be number five in the league with Rush and Rod right now. Yeah, and I think another really good point I wanted to ask both you, John and Cody, which everyone wants to go first here. After seeing Larry McTonsel the first five or six games of the season, do you agree with the price the Texans paid to get him and Kenny Stills, which was a two first-round picks in a second. The price that the Texans paid to keep

their quarterback up. Let me ask you a question. Why did Andrew Luck retire? He didn't have an offensive line those first five years until Quentin Nelson, yeah. Until Quentin Nelson. This is why I believe Quentin Nelson is the best

guard in the league because he did so much for Andrew Luck last year. It'll go unnoticed. But know that price wasn't too high. The last two weeks, zero sacks. When we went up against the Chargers, who has Bosa and Ingram, only two sacks. One of those were actually accredited to Deshaun Watson. That price was not too high. And when you look

at your franchise quarterback when you draft it up for the one thing you want to do, yeah, you want to get him weapons. Yeah, you want to get him a good OC. But none of that matters if he's going to be out the league in a couple years. Now, Andrew Luck is a guy who we all

love watching and we thought he would be an indie for at least five or six more years. He had to call it quits. Body wasn't allowing him to take that punishment anymore. This is a guy, Deshaun Watson, who already has turned his ACL. That price was nowhere near too high. And it's because of the protections that they got for Deshaun Watson is the reason why we have seen Watson play this well. This guy has been playing amazing. And part of that is due to that trade, to that deal. So, no, if anything, we should have given more just because it works so well.

Yeah, it certainly has the last couple of weeks. And it's going to be fun to see Tunsil go against Justin Houston, who I think is looking really good after that Kansas City game. But one more question I wanted to ask you guys before we get into our final prediction series about the defense. And from the Colts' side of things, I just wanted to ask, do you think this Colts team going against this Texans defense, do you think they can pick a few holes, pardon that, defense as we saw?

They can get into some shootouts pretty easily. Yeah, I think we have a couple guys that can fly. We look at McKinney. He can fly. J.J. White always seems to find his nose around a tackle. And D.J. Reeder, who I believe right now is a top five D tackle, interior D tackle in the league, I think we'll actually hold up well against him.

What I am, you know, i don't want to see of course is if those holes break loose you know and the line the the running backs are able to get to the second level then that is going to be a call for tackling from our dbs there has been some games this year where we completely forgot to tackle it's like if you created a madden player and tackling you just left on zero. We've had a couple of those moments, and that is what I don't want us to get into when we're missing tackles, especially against a team who's rushed for 200 and 180 and 160 against the individual rivals, Tennessee.

So there will be some opportunities there for the Colts. I can admit that, but I think our linebackers are speedy enough to make sure that if it does break out, they can get to, they can pursuit over to the running back in time so it won't be a big play. And I'm okay with a bend, don't break. I'm definitely okay with that. What would you say, Cody, on that? Do you think the Colts can take advantage of the Texans' defense?

The one part I believe that they can take advantage of is how weak our secondary is right now due to injuries. As you know, we lost Bradley Roby. Jonathan Joseph is battling injuries, and those are basically our top two corners right there. And then not only that, we're playing against a guy in T.Y. Hilton who has had the Texans number for so long. I truly believe that that is an area where the Colts will be able to exploit in order to try to get a win against the Texans. Let's go into our final predictions now, guys. And I'll start off here first, and I'll give you to the forward end.

I actually do believe the Colts are going to win this game at home. I think the Colts are going to do the form they just did in Kansas City, keep Deshaun Watson off the field as much as possible. They're going to run it down the Texas defense throats behind Quentin Nelson and those guys on the front line. I'm going to go 23-20 Colts. What do you guys think?

See, here's my prediction. I'm going to give the score a little bit. I think the difference between Houston and Kansas City is Houston is built to control the ball. Houston is built to run the ball. Kansas City is a team that I don't even think at this point they're averaging 80 yards per game on the ground. It could be just at 80, 85 maybe. Houston, on the other hand, we're a team that, like I said, you guys are number four in the league in rushing.

We're right there at number five. We are built to hold the ball and then make the plays. We're built to run the ball. So that's not going to stop. My prediction for this team, I'm going to go 28-24 Houston. I think we stay hot. We ride the wave and we get through our second individual game. We are hot.

I would say we could ride the wave. And it's not that I don't have faith in Deshaun Watson right now. This is going to be the first game that we're going to have to go in and see how this team is going to look with the injuries we have taken. We lost Roby, Jonathan Joseph. He's still questionable. Kenny Stills. You look on the other side of the ball, Kenny Stills. He's still questionable. And Titus Howard you look on the other side of the ball, Kenny Stills, he's still questionable. And Titus Howard. So I believe this is the game where the injuries is going to show. Playing against a guy in T.Y. Hilton who has had out numbers.

I'm going to go with 27-24 Indianapolis. I know I'm going to catch a lot of heat for this one, John. Wow, I'm surprised. That's the first time actually this year that an opposing guest picked the Colts and I'm I agree I think it's gonna be a very close game we can all agree there it's I think it's gonna be the game of the week yeah most definitely but like I say it's just because the Texans have so many injuries right now and you know we depended on different guys I mean there might be a possibility that T.Y. Hilton is going to have a rookie in Lonnie Johnson Jr. who's going to, you know, defend him. And I'm not saying that Lonnie Johnson can't do it, but, I mean, you're talking about T.Y.

Hilton. He is one of the best. When healthy, he is one of the best receivers in his game, so. Yeah, that's for sure. And I think if we wanted to dive even further into this game, we can go even more into it. But that'll be it for today's episode, guys. This has been a fun episode. Cody and John over at Locked on Texas appreciate the time.

And we can talk to you guys again on our shows tomorrow for our next episodes.