Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - LOCKED ON COLTS -10/28- Indianapolis Colts 3 Keys to Week 8 Victory Against Chiefs

Episode Date: October 28, 2016

What do the #IndianapolisColts need to do to pull out big win in Lucas Oil Stadium Sunday? Can the #Colts create more pressure, win the turnover battle or keep #AndrewLuck clean? How will the Colts stop the Chiefs running backs? All questions that need definitive answers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

That's for my crazy day. My packed commute. All those unread emails in my inbox. But I'm getting stronger, faster, and pushing myself further every day. I don't care if I'm not like everyone else. This punching bag is the best way to end my day. Fearless is knowing yoga isn't your style. That's the power of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Federal Employee Program.

Learn more about our healthy benefits at fepblue.org slash getmore. No, I'm not for sale. You are lockeded On Colts, your daily Indianapolis Colts podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome back to Locked On Colts, ladies and gentlemen. I'm your host, Matt Dainley, and we are all set. We are just about to end this week as we prepare for our week eight game against the Kansas City Chiefs in Lucas Oil Stadium this Sunday. It's going to be a good game, folks. I'm really looking forward to it for a multitude of reasons, to be honest with you. I want to see, not only am I going to be excited to go to the game with my oldest son, and that's always a good time. I enjoy taking him. He really gets into it.

But additionally, we've got the Colts playing against a solid team here where the Colts could really gain some momentum. But it's just one of those things where you need to build off of something legitimate. And, you know, as nice as it was to see the team play that well against Tennessee, to say that that's a legitimate win over a legitimate team might be stretching it a bit, and I think we all understand that. But this week against Kansas City, they've got a real running attack. They've got a judicious quarterback who's smart. He's not a guy who's going to eat him up downfield particularly. He can certainly throw it downfield accurately, but he just doesn't

do it very often. If he does do it and he scores on it or, you know, I mean, if he is successful with it downfield, that's a real issue. But they also have a quality defense. They're, you know, in various areas of their defense, they're very good. So there's a lot to hope that the Colts can not only win the game, but play well doing it. You know, a good, some good notes that we've seen that I've been reading and seeing lately is about some of the guys that we talk about on this podcast quite a bit, with one of them particularly being Akeem Ayers and a couple other guys, you know, saying the coaching staff understanding that some of these guys need some more playing time. And if you did check out my latest piece on today's pigskin, that entire article was basically about that, about some guys, offensive and defensive side of the ball that deserve to get those extra snaps in a game,

because there's a lot of guys that are playing ahead of them that aren't, aren't worthy of those snaps, if you want to call it that. So that's nice to see that, you know, there's some things when you looked at the first few years of Pagano, Grigson, some of those guys, some of the things they were doing really gets under your skin. There are small little steps in the right direction that, as a fan and as somebody that thinks he understands the game pretty well and the way that it should be run from all angles, at least a little bit anyways, you like to see certain things like even though they pulled in and basically gave the starting spot to C.O. Moore this year,

they cut him because he was garbage. You know what I mean? Things like that. Things that they wouldn't do in the past. They'd hang on to him, likerent richardson they you know that was a huge trade so they ran him in the ground and all along with it a lot a large portion of our offense so it's nice to see them grow in that regard they've done it a few times since then you know not only uh have they made corrections to things like hey we're gonna have to take this

one on the chin and let this guy go because he's terrible, or it's been nice to see if they're going to actually start playing some of these guys a little bit more that deserve the playing time. Now, from the very beginning of the season, you guys heard me and how I talked about Josh Ferguson. Not a fan of him. I don't really see how he benefits the offense. Nobody's scared of him. A lot of guys in the NFL have his speed, and he just wasn't doing anything. He's not, you know, the offense wasn't benefiting from him in it. So I think it's nice to see them pull him out,

and hopefully they can get some other guys in there who, well, we haven't seen a whole lot of running backs that necessarily deserve that playing time, but they've got to give other guys a chance. I mean, Jordan Todman has had no chance in the backfield this year whatsoever, so we don't even know what he can do necessarily this year. We've seen flashes of him in years past. He had a good year in Jacksonville and he had, you know, I was looking at his stats the other day from last year in Pittsburgh

and I thought he played more than that. I really did. I must have watched the only game that he got significant playing time in because I thought he had a really good game. So I've seen what he can do and I think you guys know what he can do as well. It's just, he hasn't had the opportunity at this point. And as you guys know, locked on Colts is sponsored in part by Mike Ernest, uh,

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You can also catch him at MikeErnest.com. Thursday's injury report was a little bit better, but still some issues in there. Dwayne Allen doesn't look like he's going to play this week. Still did not practice. Henry Anderson, who was limited on Wednesday, he did not practice on Thursday either. So he could be going nowhere fast, it looks like. And it's just always sketchy with a knee. And to be quite honest with you, I can't even remember if it's the same knee that he just had this past year. I'm thinking it is for some reason, but I don't know that for sure.

I don't know why I don't know that, but I don't. Mike Adams, he was limited, who did not practice yesterday. He had a shin injury. Vontae Davis, Gore, a lot of those guys who were out just for rest, those guys all practiced full. Dorsett had been upgraded from limited on Wednesday to full on Thursday. One guy who didn't practice Thursday was T.Y. He had apparently a hip injury, or an issue anyway,

so they're going to let him rest that out, and I don't expect him not to play, but he's definitely getting some extra rest. Kendall Langford also did not practice. Kurt Majid as well, he was out. Another guy who started out limited but then did not practice Thursday was Jack Muhort. That's another thing. That's a bad sign. It's a tricep, not something that's, I. That's a bad sign.

It's a tricep, not something that's, I don't want to say not structural, but not immediately structural to where he can't, his lower body, so to speak. But there's just a lot of nicks and cuts. As good as the injury report seemed to look yesterday, it doesn't look any better today, really. But they do look like they're going to have Moncrief back this week. They're just not really 100% sure. He was limited again Thursday.

And like I told you guys yesterday, if he's limited throughout the rest of the week, I still think that's very much a game time decision. And I wouldn't count on him playing. But if he goes full before the end of the week, you know, maybe today, I would say that there's a pretty good chance he'll play. But with him and Dorsett possibly coming back as well, you know, Dorsett was full. So they'll at least, I think, have Dorsett back. Chester Rogers again did not practice. So maybe he won't make the game this week. I don't know.

I'd like to see him play just to round out the wide receiver core, but I think that Dorsett and Moncrief are far more important for the immediate future. Now let's get into this game a little bit this week. The Colts are playing, like I said, a really well-rounded team. They're fourth in the league in turnover differential. They're only giving up 20 points a game, roughly just over almost 21, but their fourth down percentage on offense is pretty solid. Or I'm sorry, their third down efficiency on offense is pretty solid. Their third down efficiency on offense is pretty solid. Their third down percentage on defense, however, is kind of one of the worst in the league at 47%.

So it kind of – that's strange because they have the playmakers, you know, and they've got some guys on defense can play. But they're kind of nicked up this week too. So this could be just one of those games where you see you know a couple key guys out or a couple key guys not being at their best and don't really uh aren't really able to add a ton to the game so uh the colts you know with them giving up over 28 points a game they're definitely in the bottom of the area, or definitely the bottom of the league. They are a very streaky team. We've seen that over the past several weeks. They can have really bad situations. A lot of their touchdowns that they've given up have been

in close games where they're either up two touchdowns, up a touchdown, and they get the lead taken from them, and they come back. it's that putrid style of, uh, cover to, um, prevent almost type defense. They call it a cover to, it's really a cover for, I think they just continually run that in the most inopportune times when they just, uh, actually, uh, appear to be allowing the other team, you know, to score counting on them to make a mistake when there's really so many openings for their receivers to get some easy opportunities. So

I don't really understand the thought process behind that. However, the Colts have also had some, you know, they're building. Their defense is getting better. Patrick Robinson had a nice game last week. I really would love to see him build off of that. Really, really would like to see him build off of that. We've seen Vontae Davis consistently come back to play. He's one of those guys with those PFF grades that just kind of confuse me every time I see how far down they've got him. It's a little confusing for me to see that

but our safety play has been pretty solid we need you know hopefully we get like I wrote in the article yesterday I'd like to see Edwin Jackson get some more time in there he's better coverage option that you know just allow him to see what he can prove and what he can do if he can't trust me we're no worse that with him in there than we are with Antonio Morrison or Josh McNary. And we know that DeQuel Jackson isn't going to cover anybody. So Akeem Ayers is also going to, you know, that I mentioned earlier, he's done pretty well in coverage from the outside edge position. However, they've also played him in a couple packages,

kind of like a hybrid middle linebacker. It's been kind of neat to see them use him that way, but it's mainly in coverage options or opportunities. T.Y. McGill, one of the saviors of the game last week. They're going to use him. He's going to play. He's going to get his playing time. I can't imagine that they would ever not have him active for a game the rest of the year.

I don't really care what they've got to do. They need that interior pressure, and he's the only guy that's really bringing it. David Perry is a good, solid player. I just, you know, maybe it's not as noticeable or something, but he's just not having quite the year that we saw him, we expected to see from him this year. I'll say that because last year he looked to be making some strides. Maybe he is this year. Maybe he's just more, they're using him more to just take up linemen

or something, and it's not as noticeable. But McGill's definitely got the skills to get himself in the backfield and disrupt that offense. So, you know, it's weird because a team that you think has a significant more talent on it roster wide that you're getting ready to play this week. I really think that the Colts, the closer we get to the game, I really think the Colts are going to win this game. Not really sure how I can explain that. It's just a feeling I'm getting. I just feel like the Colts are going to make a solid game out of this and end up winning it. They just have to

play like they did last week. They've got to play like they've done in certain halves throughout the entire four quarters. There's no doubt about that. And here, before we go any further, let's jump into a few keys of the game that I think the Colts will absolutely need to attain in order to win this one. First and foremost, and always seems to be the case, so don't be surprised if you hear this in future episodes when we do a keys to victory type episode, the Colts have to win the turnover battle. Like I said, Kansas City is fourth in the league in turnover differential at plus seven. It's nothing huge, gaudy or anything like that, but the Colts aren't forcing a lot of turnovers. And with a quarterback like Alex Smith, who doesn't make a lot of mistakes, the Colts really have to dig in and attack Spencer Ware.

He's a little fumble happy. They've got to get after him. They've got to make these wide receivers make a mistake. But they've really got, you know, Ted Monachino's really got his hands full this week because, like I said, the offense is not going to make a ton of mistakes. It's going to have to be forced. The Colts' defense is going to have to be forced. The Colts defense

is going to have to force this Kansas City offense to make mistakes. So they've got to win the turnover battle and they, you know, they can't have a regression day for luck or they can't have, you know, some pitiful route running where they're, you know, or where the guys aren't getting off the ball and getting physical off the line with the defender. They've got to win those battles. They've got to get to the top of their routes consistently, and they've got to do it in good time. And the offensive line's got to block in order for all that to happen. So win the turnover battle, definitely number one, and probably the first and foremost, just about every week we're going to do this because it's absolutely that important. The defensive line, they have to absolutely get

more than one sack in this game. One sack is not going to cut it. They had a sack last week against Mariota where he fumbled the ball after the snap and that was given a sack. The Colts had one of those the week previous. They actually were the ones who got the sack, or they were the ones. Luck was sacked, I should say, when he took the ball and dropped it. And, you know, it was just a gimme sack. That's not really a sack. But the Colts have to have a couple legitimate sacks.

They have to have more than one. They've got to find a way to get pressure from the interior with McGill or anybody, whoever's in there, but McGill's the guy who's been forcing it, so I'm going to just say his name. Key Mayers, let that dude rush the passer. And they've also got to find, you know, they've been doing a good job finding certain situations where Walton can rush, but they've got to be intelligent about that, you know,

because if Walton's rushing the passer, they're not going to have anything else on that strong side of the formation to stop running play or the quarterback from scrambling. And Alex Smith's done a pretty good job using his feet against the Colts in the past. So the Colts absolutely have to get more than one sack this week. If they don't, it's going to be really rough sledding and that would make the turnover battle even twice as twice that much more important in my opinion, if they're not going to get any pressure on Alex Smith. The third key to the game, the running backs for both teams. It's a key in

the regard that the Colts have to use their running backs wisely because the Colts are going to need to pull their linebackers out into coverage. Their linebackers aren't great in coverage either. The Colts are going to have to use the running backs against their linebackers like they're going to use their running backs against our linebackers. I think this is going to be the week. I've talked about it, and the more I look at it, I just think this is a very smart week to use Jordan Todman a lot. He's going to probably be in the return game without Chester Rogers being back there to

return punts, and he'll probably be returning kicks, so maybe he won't return the punts, but it's possible. I'll just say that. I don't know that that would be the case or not, but they're going to need Jordan Todman in the receiving game out of the backfield. I'm just going to go ahead and call it. Who am I as the host here without any super fiery, ridiculous hot takes? I'm going to go ahead and say that Jordan Todman not only has a big game, but that he has a receiving touchdown. I'm not talking about one inside the 10-yard line for a touchdown. I'm talking about a nice, long run, whether it's a screen pass, some sort of a shovel, or maybe just something across the middle where he gets to be

the linebacker. So I'm going to go ahead and put that on wax, and I'm going to say that Jordan Todman is going to have a receiving touchdown and a nice one, a nice long one, against these Chiefs this week. So there's my fiery hot take for the week. I'm not going to be able to defend anything if I don't ever go out on a limb and say anything. So I'm going to say that. But that also means that the Colts linebackers, as I get to the other side of the running back linebacker matchups, the Colts linebackers have to find a way. And I think that they have a good thought process with the way they use gethers. And hopefully, it's just weird how, not weird, it's crucial how they use gethers against a team like this. Kelsey's a good tight end.

Ware is a really good receiving back. He's very shifty. He has multiple games where he's got 50, 60, 70 yards, both rushing and receiving. So he's going to be a multifaceted guy. They're going to use him a lot. That is their style. That's what they do. So both sides, the Colts have to win the running back linebacker battle on both sides of the ball. And I think that about wraps that up for both my hot take edition and the three keys. Win the turnover battle, have to get multiple sacks, and they've got to win the linebacker running back battle on both sides of the ball. Let me finish telling you guys a little bit about my man, Mike. If you guys are in the market to sell your home, call Mike Ernest of Century 21 Sheets at 317-285-9691. And I don't just tell

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Again, that's 317-285-9691 or MikeErnest.com. And just a couple quick notes here as just some random conversation about the team right now as we close up shop for the week. There's a couple things that I think we need to look for this game in week eight. We're at the halfway point of the season. The Colts are pining to go 500 for the first time all year. This is a huge game because they have one more game before they're by. It's against the Packers, and it's in Lambeau. Regardless of how that game turns out, if the Colts are within one game of 500, they are going to need that because the second half of their schedule is

pretty brutal, guys. Granted, they still have the Titans, Jaguars, and Texans one more time in the second half of their schedule. In fact, the Titans soon into the second half of their schedule. But this team is not going to be playing a bunch of weak games in the second half of the season. The Colts, I mean, they have the Vikings and some other teams in there that have solid defenses. Hopefully, we saw Andrew Luck's only bad half of the season when it was against Denver. But law of averages says that he's not going to have a fantastic game every single game and carry this team. This team has to find a way to build this thing that they're trying to build. They have been literally the light switch in the last few weeks. They've looked terrible, and they've looked really good and now

they've got a team that's coming home coming to their house in the Kansas City Chiefs that would love nothing better than to avenge the 2013 playoff game that was also in Lucas Oil Stadium. How many of those guys are on the team? Still not a ton. There's a good handy dose of them for sure. But more than anything, they want to win too. And the Colts need a win. So the Colts have to play hungry. The Colts have to play with desperation.

I mean, they really do. You know, Robert Mathis is old and he's not as he used to be. But you know what? It's time for Robert Mathis to really put his – I mean, we want to say put his body on the line. I don't mean go head first into a steel wall. What I'm saying is he needs to give everything he's got. He doesn't have a lot left. This is his last year in Indianapolis either way,

whether he retires or the Colts just don't bring him back. He's not coming back. He needs to put his entire body and soul into this second half of the season. And it starts this week in week eight. They're not seeing a ton of effort from a lot of guys. There are guys who are just not intelligent enough and, you know, without meaning it personally, you know, it's just my take on his game is Antonio Morrison and a heavy dose of others that just don't get it. And this, however, they're going to build this roster, it's got to start getting built correctly, and that will come with time. However, the guys on this team right now, they need the leaders to really step up, not only in the locker room but on the field.

They've got to get guys who are young like TJ Green and Edwin Jackson and a lot of these other guys to step up on defense and really want to put forth this effort to bring a significant change to how they're viewed and how they play and how they are executing every single play throughout a game. This offensive line, I think I'm done telling you how good they're going to be in the next couple years, but they've got to do something now. They had a pretty good week last week. Joe Hegg's very versatile.

Love that about him. He may get used there again this week. They may just sit Muhor an extra week. Why not, right? He played well enough last week. But as everybody knows, it's a one-week-at-a-time thing. This offensive line has to be the bully from here on out. They're a solid run team or solid This offensive line has to be the bully from here on out. They're a solid run team

or solid run offensive line, and they've got to have the running backs be used accordingly to accentuate those assets, so to speak. They need that big game from Todman, and I think that's why I'm calling it out, because they need him to be able to be in there mixing it up a little bit, Turbin mixing it up a little bit. Gore shouldn't have to carry such a huge load, okay? He's going to be the guy that they turn to for those four or five yards on first and third downs, but they also need to be able to swing these guys in because they've got to have multiple looks. They've got to have multiple guys that they can trust and count on. And not only do they not have that yet, but these guys, this is what I'm talking about. These guys have to get together and really get these guys motivated in order to put that kind

of effort together. And they've got to put that effort together every single week, or this season could be really shaky in the second half you know the Colts need a few wins right now and a few consecutive wins to really kind of change the way they're viewed and to settle themselves down if they can do that the Colts will be in pretty good shape look I don't think a whole lot of people had them at more higher than nine wins. I think there was a couple that had them at 10. I thought that was pretty presumptuous with what the Colts roster was looking like. But if the Colts can find a way to at least get nine wins, they have a very good chance of winning the AFC South. Look, getting into the playoffs is all they need to find a way. You never know how hot they can get if they get into the playoffs.

Look, I'm telling you right now, Brock Osweiler is terrible, and I've talked him up a little bit, not very much, but I was excited at the thought of him being good because I wanted the AFC South to be a solid division to where when you come out of it, you came out of a solid division. So I was excited to see some of the other teams getting better. Blake Bortles, can't defend that guy anymore ever. He's terrible. Marcus Mariota is very touch and go. So the three other quarterbacks in the division are nowhere near Andrew Luck's status. And about 80% of the quarterbacks in the NFL

aren't with Andrew Luck's status. So this team really needs to put it together, and I think that they can win the South. They have to run through the rest of their schedule pretty significantly, pretty well, and they've got to win their last three games against the division. If they do that, I think they'll win the division, and the Colts will go to the playoffs. But they've got to start right now putting together solid games. That way, when they get to the playoffs, it's not a whole other ball of wax. It's not a whole new league. They've got to put those games together now, beat solid teams. When they get to the playoffs, it's almost like they've got a little bit of that experience from this season.

They've beaten some big teams in the past. They haven't done much this year. They've got to do it. So with that, I'm going to leave you guys for the week. I will talk to you on Monday, and I will tell you guys all about our experience at the game, tell you about my son and how crazy he was when he gets there. Thank you all for listening. Please subscribe to the show. Check me out, LockedOnColts, on Twitter, Facebook page. You can get me on Twitter at mdanleyNFL.

I will talk to you all Monday right here on LockedOnColts. You are LockedOnColts, your daily podcast on the Indianapolis Colts, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. We'll see you next time.