Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - LOCKED ON COLTS 10/3/19: Colts vs. Chiefs Crossover Special

Episode Date: October 4, 2019

On today's episode, our Locked On Crossover Special is back as Locked On Chiefs helps collaborate looking ahead to Sunday's game at Arrowhead Stadium. For the Colts to pull off the stunner in Kansas City, what needs to go down? We explained that, plus much more.From the Chiefs' point of view, it's good to get to know their playmakers and scheme. Why is the Patrick Mahomes, And Reid led offense looking so unstoppable? Also, which Colts defender needs to be assigned Travis Kelce?Justin Houston revenge game incoming? Let's hope so if the Colts want a chance alongside an emphasis on the rushing attack.Finally, we close with our main keys and predictions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, everybody. Welcome into this Crossover Wednesday special. I am Evan Sidery of Locked On Colts, and I'm joined by Chris Cork of Locked On Chiefs. We're here for a primetime special now this week, as we're going to be talking about the Colts and the Chiefs going head-to-head here. The Colts come out with a shocking loss to the Oakland Raiders here in the Kansas City Chiefs. The machine keeps on rolling for their offense as Patrick Mahomes looks unstoppable again. How are you doing today, Chris? I'm doing great. How are you?

Doing great. Thanks again for doing this CrossFit Wednesday special. I appreciate the time as always. And let me ask you just before I get started, we're going to first talk about the Colts and their keys to going against Kansas City. And also, Chris, we'll be doing a second segment here, talk about the Colts and Chiefs in depth.

And we'll close here with our final predictions. But Patrick Mahomes, to me, is one of the best players that I've seen as far as the modern league goes. I don't know if it's hot takey to say, I know Kansas City is probably very much in on Mahomes themselves, probably a $200 million contract here in a little bit here now. What's your overall opinion of Patrick Mahomes?

And as a Chiefs fan, just what's it like having him as your quarterback? You know, I've been a Chiefs fan since I was a little kid, and it's been, you know, 30 years that I've been a fan. And I really enjoy watching this team, and I've enjoyed watching a lot of different Chiefs teams over the years. The difference is having a QB that I really believe can do just about anything that you could ever want. I'm not going to say that they're going to be undefeated

and they'll never lose another game. That would be silly. Obviously, it's a team sport. But the one thing Kansas City has always lacked is a QB that really has the ability to just take over a game. Don't get me wrong. Alex Smith played out of his mind his last year here. I'm very thankful for his time in Kansas City.

He really helped the organization. But Patrick Mahomes is a different quarterback. And you look at what, and I know this is probably a little bit of a sore subject, but you look at what Andrew Luck brought to the Annapolis Colts after they let go of Peyton Manning. It's kind of the same thing. And I will say, I was kind of jealous that you guys went from Manning to Luck, although it was a short run for Luck. But you look at what Patrick Mahomes has done already so far this season. He's on pace for 6,000 yards passing and 40 touchdowns throwing, and he didn't throw a touchdown last week. It's just insane. It really is, and he's really kind of just breaking

and really setting the mold, so to say, of what the new modern NFL quarterback is supposed to be nowadays. In his second year starting now, he's on pace for 6,000 yards and putting up over 40 touchdowns, which is just incredible. He won his way to a back-to-back MVP award for Patrick Mahomes. But there are other weapons on the Chiefs outside of Mahomes, though, that he's throwing to. Tyree Kill, I imagine, is out on Sunday. But what's your opinion about Sammy Watkins?

I feel like he's a guy who, now in Andy Reid's system, he's a player who's really thriving right now. I think Sammy's taking a big step forward this season, and I think that Tyree Kill's injury is part of the reason he's done that, but I think it's also him being comfortable in the system. When you watch him in 2018, he knew basically one receiver spot, and this offense is extremely complex. He's been in it for a year now. He knows the entire

system he can play any of the three positions at wide receiver and that's huge in reed's offense because they like to move them around a lot and you start talking about what they can do with moving walk-ins from you know the x to the y or to the z you know wide receiver position you know moving them all around shifting them and they make shifts and counters so much in the offense, designed in the offense. It's really hard to know where he's going to line up versus where any other player is going to line up, but it gives Mahomes comfort because he's able to tell the defense before the ball's even snapped based on motions before the ball is snapped. So it really helps. And then you look at what Watkins has done this year. He's been fantastic.

I think he got a little bit hurt on Sunday. I think he got hobbled for a couple of plays, but I think he came back in and he should be fine. I think this is going to be a good year for him. Chris, I feel like overall, I actually, Frank,

where it comes from the Andy Reed coaching tree, just what's it like for maybe some general fans out there who don't follow the chiefs on an everyday basis or even football on a daily basis? Because I know some Colts fans aren't really too fond of the Chiefs or what happened last year. What's Andy Reid's offense like to the non-viewer of the sport? Because I feel like Andy Reid's offense, especially Mahomes as a quarterback, it's almost like a cheat code the way they go about their offense and what they can do. It absolutely is.

And one of the things I mentioned already, you know, you talk about the motions, the pre-snap motions that really helps Mahomes diagnose what defense they're in before the balls even snaps. That really helps. But then you look at what Andy Reed's doing on different route concepts and the way he's putting different players in different positions. And some of the players he has,

obviously we haven't talked about Travis Kelsey yet, but Kelsey has been phenomenal this year. I think he's the best tight end in football and he's a mismatch wherever you play him. He can play inside. He can play outside. He can play a wide receiver position and Andy Reed will move them all around and have them run all those different routes.

The real key with Reed and his offense is that he looks at his players strengths and he plays to them. He puts them in the best positions that he can for them to win, and they do that consistently for him. It certainly is a good marriage between quarterback and system right now with Andy Reid as their coach. I feel like for the next decade or so, we're going to be hearing an awful lot about the Chiefs, but you brought up Travis Kelsey there, and I think he is.

I mean, we talk about Eric Ebron sometimes as far as being in that near top tier after this last week I don't know about that anymore but Kelsey's been a guy who's been consistent and a player especially in Andy Reid's system like you mentioned there Chris I feel like he's a perfect for that too and a weapon that is really unique in today's game now Rob Gronkowski not there anymore yeah and he's taking his game forward every single year I can't really tell you what part of his game has gone forward this year, but I know a couple years ago he was really struggling with fumbles. The next season he took care of that. He was struggling with different routes. He's taking care of that.

He's become a better blocker, so he's become a better all-around tight end. And when you can put him in there and run him out as a wide receiver and get him lined up on a corner, Patrick Mahomes will take that matchup every day of the week. Now, I feel like before we end this segment here, Chris, I feel like we should talk about the holes, possible holes that the Colts can exploit here in this Chiefs system. I feel like overall it's going to have to be a shootout again.

What's your opinion of this defense here? Because I feel like they got Tyron Matthews in there. He's going to help the secondary, of course. And they, of course, have Chris Jones in the middle of that interior defensive line. But do you feel like there's any holes that the Colts could exploit there as far as the offense goes going against the Chiefs defense? You know, I think really the biggest hole right now and what they have to figure out is how to stop the run.

Although Ryan and I have been talking on the podcast and a little bit off, I'm starting to wonder if they're just selling out to stop the pass because they look at what they have at QB and what they have and they figure that they're going to be out in front so often that they're going to need to figure out how to stop the pass and people aren't going to be able to run as much. So I think that their run defense is going to be suspect all year long. I just don't think it's going to be there. I would love to see that change, but I just don't think it's going to be there. And it is a new system, so it could get better as the year goes on. But I do think their passing defense is going to get better as well.

So right now, I would say that if you can attack on the ground, that's great for you because it obviously keeps the ball out of Mahomes' hands as well. And the corners are a little suspect, have been a little suspect the past couple of weeks. Overall here, it's going to have to be a game as far as time possession goes for the Colts. They ran the ball well the first two weeks of the season, but really the last two, it's been a different story as they've been getting inconsistent here and there, production

for Marlon Mack and Jacoby Bursette has settled into that game manager role. We'll definitely have to see how that goes. Chris, as far as the AFC hierarchy goes, the Colts should have been that elite tier this year if Andrew Luck didn't retire. Of course, it's now Jacoby Brissett, a quarterback. Do you feel like there's a legitimate threat to the Chiefs

as far as the AFC goes this year outside of New England? It's really hard because I would have thought that Baltimore was going to be that team, and you can't say beat them now. It was a closer game than the Chiefs had played up until they beat Detroit this past week. But outside of New England, I don't really know right now. And honestly, New England did not look that good against Buffalo. So it's a question of is New England going to be that team?

I think they are. But is Tom Brady going to continue to be the quarterback he's been, or do we see a little bit of a layoff this past week against Buffalo where he really struggled and tried to get the ball out quick because he was getting a lot of interior pressure. This is going to be a tall task this week, of course, for the Colts.

Vegas has him as a nine and a half point underdog here. The over under, I believe it's 56 and a half. They're expecting a shootout and a Chiefs double digit win. I won't say I agree with them because I feel like this Chiefs offense is going to be unstoppable for this Colts defense going forward. But we're going to get on to some more Colts-Chiefs topics here after the break. Treat yourself to the meal you deserve

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I hate asking this question because i want to focus on this game but i have to ask because i'm sure a lot of cheese fans are curious your thoughts on andrew luck retiring and how much of a surprise to you was it to be quite honest chris is probably the most shocking sports moment of my life just i was actually on the way back from that game i left it early at halftime and to see see that shifter notification go off on my phone, it was pretty incredible because this Colts team was set up in the Andrew Luck prime of his career's window there, entering his age 30 season.

They had the defense. They had the running game. They had everything set up for him to really take a leap this year as far as being one of the youngest teams in the NFL and you have the elite quarterback. But then him just stepping away all of a sudden just two weeks before the regular season started, it certainly was incredible just when you think about what this team could have

been and now unless he does come back next year which is very unlikely from what we've heard in the press conference and all the the things we've heard i imagine this colts team's now gonna have a completely different identity here for the next few years and maybe in long term here because they had it set up around andrew luck kind of the foundation, that base of that rebuild just fell through. Well, and you say you talk about what that QB can be to a team. And I like Jacoby Brissett, but he obviously is not Andrew Luck. What sort of differences does he have in his game? Obviously, you have a franchise type quarterback in Andrew Luck.

But everything I've heard from the Colts is they have a lot of faith in Jacoby Brissett. Is that something that you think is going to come to fruition this year, or is it going to be another couple of years while the Colts are trying to adjust to losing Luck? I feel like it's going to have to be this year where he shows a franchise quarterback because Frank Reich and Chris Bauer are both set on multiple occasions. They believe he's a top 20 quarterback in this league. We saw it against Atlanta that he looked like a top 15 quarterback, and then this past week against Oakland, it was back to what we saw against Tennessee here. It's been kind of an inconsistent script for Jacoby Bursette so far. He had an interception on a game-tying drive that would have sent the game to overtime. Instead, it was an easy pick six for Oakland, and they ended up winning the game by a touchdown there.

I feel like he's a one-read quarterback right now, which I don't think it's a good sign as far as if he's a franchise quarterback or not. Because far too often, I see him making one read and then throwing and if he doesn't get the first read he panics a little bit which is if you want to be a top 20 correct in this so you can't be doing that too often and there's a definitely a lot of differences here between him and Andrew Luck the pocket mobility is not there at all and I think as far as the difference with how Luck can maneuver the pocket there Bursette's kind of just the statue if he gets, he can get you off like a bull,

so to say like a bull rider, but if he's not able to get off his first read there, it's immediate panic. And it's gotta be a lot of improvements here in the next couple of weeks for Brissette to really ease my concerns as far as if he's the franchise or not. Well, and we've kind of talked about this in the first segment. And so I want to go back to this just a little bit. I think this is going to be a shootout, at least from what I've seen

from the Kansas City defense. They are just not good at this point in the year, and I think the offense, while they had an off weekend, Detroit I think is good enough to put up a lot of points. Do you see that? Is that kind of the way you look at this game? Is it going to be high scoring on both sides, and it's going to come down to the wire, or how do you see the game playing out?

I think for the Colts to win, it's going to have to be like a grinded out type of game, like the first one of 24 wins. But just to be realistic and to be honest, Chris, I just feel like that's not going to happen with the Canada study because their offense just looks unstoppable at this point. The Colts are probably going to have to put up in the high 20s to even get close in this game. I think the Colts are going to put up a good fight here, but they're going to have to score at least 30-plus, in my opinion, at Arrowhead.

It's going to be a ruckus atmosphere in primetime. I feel like, to be honest there, it's just going to be a lot to handle there with the defense. You have Clayton Gathers now in concussion, and he's in concussion protocol. Malik Hooker is out, so it could be two safeties sitting out on Sunday. And Darius Leonard could not – he's still in concussion protocol two and a half weeks after his concussion. So it could be a situation where you're down three of your best four defenders on defense and that's a really bad sign against the Chiefs offense well yeah and one thing I will throw out there Kansas City is yet uh in the Patrick Mahomes era to score under 26 points so it would have to be you know high 20s if not 30 plus uh in opinion. When you look at this defense and bringing in a guy

like Justin Houston, who played in Kansas City for so long, what have you seen from him so far this year? It's been a mixed bag with Justin Houston so far. He did really good the first two weeks, but then the last two weeks, he hasn't shown up. He's only had two combined tackles, I believe, or three combined tackles. Outside of the first two weeks, we saw really consistent production there. But after that, it's kind of weighing back and forth. I don't know if just because the defense is focusing on it more often. It certainly seems that way because he had a really impactful week one and week two as far as pressures go.

Only had one key pressure against Atlanta that I can remember. And that's the thing with the Colts defense. There are a lot of young passers right now that Kamoko Ture, Ben Banigou, Aquity Muhammad. It's kind of a lot on justin houston's shoulders right now for a guy that was cut by the chiefs and for cap reasons i believe and you can go back to that and just say you put a lot of money into it too you put 25 million dollars over two years in houston they believe he's still a double-digit tag guy but

at least at the moment here it's just kind of a couple weeks here and there he's a lead guy and backed down to a guy who might be over the hill. Well, and you start looking at what they paid him and why Kansas City released him. I don't know that he's over the hill. We'll see how it plays out the rest of the season. But where's he lining up? Is he lining up on the left or is he lining up on the right against the right tackle?

He's doing a lot of both right now. So he's moving around? Yeah, actually most of the time they have Kamoka Ture they use on speed downs on third down and long he's actually most of the time in the right tackle okay so he'll be going up against mitchell schwartz which is what he did in kansas city in practice so that should be a very interesting matchup to watch but you're talking about you said this already you're talking about being down three of your starting defenders against this offense uh obviously that's a little concerning. Where do you think the rest of the playmaking comes from

on that Colts defense to slow this offense down? It's going to have to be – I hate to be blunt here, but I feel like it's going to have to be luck if it's going to be all these injuries that are down. You have Leonard who's out of concussion. You have Gallers who's probably out of concussion and Malik Hooker. I just don't know who's going to guard these receivers and playmakers.

Emma Holmes going against two inexperienced safeties back there. Kari Wills is just a rookie. George Odom's a rotation second-year player. It's an awful tough task to ask of those guys, especially. And the inconsistent secondary so far with Kenny Moore hasn't really lived up to his contract so far. He's had some inconsistent moments. And Rocky Hussain and Quincy Wilson just don't look ready yet as far as being a media contributor to the secondary of this team that they didn't put a lot of money into, which kind of surprised me this offseason. But I feel like

overall, just a really tough task for his defense going against his Chiefs offense, who I believe, I mean, they're well on pace to average 30 points per game this year. And this offense, I just don't trust yet in a shootout. Well, and I'm glad you bring up the offense because that's where I was going next. When you look at this Colts offense, what do you see this year? And obviously with Andrew Luck not being there, everything changed. But do you see growth in the other players? T.Y. Hilton's been hurt a couple of times already. What are you seeing from the offense so far?

It's a new identity now without Andrew Luck, which is a pleasant surprise from what I grew up watching, which is past first football with Manning and Luck for obvious reasons. But it's a run first team now with Quentin Nelson up front. They have their own hats they wear. Let's say run the bleeping ball, and they wear it on the complex now, which is pretty entertaining. That's awesome. And with Quentin Nelson up there, I mean, you have to just embrace it at this point.

He's one of the best offensive linemen in the NFL. Marlon Mack put up 175 yards in week one. He's still a top six rusher in the league as far as stats go, even after two bad weeks. This is a run first team now in Jacoby. That's kind of what Alex Smith was to the Chiefs a couple years ago, just being a really good game manager and just not turn the ball over that much. But when he does turn the ball over, it's really costly, as we saw this week against Oakland. But I believe just the run-first identity makes sense for this team

because they put a lot of investment in the offensive line with Nelson, a first-round pick, Ryan Kelly, a top-20 pick. Then you add in Braden Smith and Andy Costanza, first, second-round picks as well. So they put an awful lot of draft capital in there, and I believe it's paying off for them because Marlon Mack's having a career-best year so far. Well, I'm glad you bring up Quentin Nelson because I think that's going to be a fun matchup to watch him and Chris Jones going at it on Sunday night is going to be a lot of fun. Oh, for sure. That could be, I mean, it's easily one of the most entertaining ones. I mean,

Chris Jones did the best of Quentin Nelson last year, but I feel like Nelson's taking kind of a leap this year and it could be a really fun battle for sure. No, I'm not saying that Chris Jones will get the better of Nelson. Nelson is a beast, but it's going to be a fun matchup to watch for sure. All right, I have to ask you, Evan, how do you see this game playing out? What do you see the final score as? Oh, this is a tough one here. I really believe that the Colts could keep it close, but I just don't think it's going to be that close on the scoreboard. I think it's going to be 34-24 at the end with a couple of garbage points at the end by the Colts here, but I just don't see how they can keep up with the Chiefs offense and especially being down four to five guys on defense. It's going to be a very long

night against the best quarterback in the NFL and the best tight end and some of the best wide receiving core, even without Tyreek Hill out there. Nicole Hartman looks really much like the part of an exclusive rookie wide receiver. He's going to be tough to handle for that secondary as well. So I'm expecting a lot of passing yards a lot of points and one of those nights or patch my home is going to be all over sports center next day which is not going to be fun for colts fans but i understand where you're coming from i will say it does bring a smile to my face to hear somebody else on another team say that he is the best quarterback in the nfl i do believe that uh just based on what i've seen, but I'm a little biased, I will admit.

I agree with you. I think it's going to be a high-scoring game on both sides. I do think that Kansas City is going to play better offensively this week than they did last week, and I think they score 35. I would not be surprised if it's closer than a single score. I wouldn't be surprised if it's 35-28, something like that, because Kansas City seems to find a way to get out early in games and then somehow let teams back into it at the end.

So I do think it's going to be a high-scoring game, though. It should be a lot of fun. Yeah, that's for sure. I think it's definitely going to be one of the games of the week in the NFL. I mean, even without Andrew Luck out there, the Colts have a really good team, and they're not a team you can sleep on, so to speak, if they still have all this good talent on the team. Evan, thank you very much. Really appreciate you coming on. That is going to be it for us today. We will talk to you tomorrow.