Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - LOCKED ON COLTS -11/15- How Do The Indianapolis Colts and Tennessee Titans Match up Versus Their First Meeting in Week 7?

Episode Date: November 15, 2016

The #IndianapolisColts kept the Tennessee Titans under wraps for the most part in their first match up in Week 7, but the Titans offense has been explosive over the past six weeks of the season. Can the Colts offense maintain their prowess, and can the Colts defense hold down the Titans offense once again despite being historically soft coming out of the bye? 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 looking ahead to this week's rematch against the Tennessee Titans from week seven for the Indianapolis Colts. And we've got a lot of things to kind of dive into this. We're going to take a sneak peek into what this week is possibly going to look like.

And kind of see where we're at against this Tennessee Titans team versus where we were at against them in week seven. Let's jump right into this then. In week seven, of course, we saw Andrew Luck have a fantastic game. It was 27-39 for over 350 yards, three touchdowns. He was only sacked twice against this Titans team, which was something that obviously the Colts have had a lot of trouble with, is protecting luck, and they only allowed Tennessee to get home twice in that regard. And vice versa, the Colts were able to get two Mariota three times, Akeem Ayers, T.Y. McGill, and also Eric Weldon were all able to get sacks on him and kind

of keep their offense at bay, even though DeMarco Murray rushed for over 100 yards. And that was just about it. Mariota and Henry were really non-factors in the running game. But Mariota had a good game against the Colts as well, 22 of 37 over 230 yards, two scores, no picks. But he just wasn't great. And the Colts had a couple opportunities in this where they could have had more turnovers or whatever, but they just didn't happen. And that's mainly due to penalties and stuff. The Colts ultimately shot themselves in the foot in that regard, which is just about par for the course at this point. And the Colts had 12 penalties in that game for over 130 yards. Go figure. So where are the Colts at right now?

The Colts in that week seven win in Tennessee, the Colts put up 34 points to the Titans 26 and that was a pretty big game, a pretty good outing for the Colts to put up that kind of a total. To that point, the Colts had only put up that kind of a scoring total in week one and that was a 35-39 loss to Detroit. So the Colts had been in the upper 20s and stuff quite a bit, but if you look at their last three weeks since week eight, since the Colts played them and held them to 26 points, the Colts have been really the only team to keep them under wraps. I mean, week eight they scored 36 against Jacksonville, 35 in week nine against the Chargers,

and then 47 this past Sunday against the Packers. So their offense is clicking. Their offense is running the ball really well, of course, with that offensive line that we spoke about. You know, I just had a hard time giving the Titans or giving the Colts a win against the Titans in that regard because their offensive line was so much better than what the Colts defense was able to put forward, at least in their front seven, and was giving them the clear nod in that and the Colts turned that around. The Colts have had a couple of these games so far this year where they've played against teams that clearly outmatched them in a raw talent aspect and have been able to somehow turn the tide. So that was definitely one of those games. And like I said, their last three games, they've scored 36, 35, and 47.

So this offense right now is about as viable as it gets. In fact, football outsiders have them ranked as the number eight offense in the league right now. And whereas the Colts are the 16th offense in the league, and they're going up against a defense that's ranked 26th overall. And when you take the Tennessee Titans, their offense is as hot as it is, and they're going up against the Colts defense that's ranked all the way down in the 30th range. So this is a very, it's almost a repeat offense if you want to look at it in one way, except for the fact that the Titans are as hot as they are with the ball. This is just very similar in matchup regards to that week seven fight in Nashville. And the Colts are going to have this one on their own turf and the Colts are going to

be able to, you know, they're coming off of a bye. This is a scary thing because the Colts are not, as we've mentioned, a quality squad after the bye. So there's some things that the Colts need to do, obviously, and the Colts, as sluggish as they come out sometimes when they're not following a week off, they absolutely cannot afford to come out with anything less than, you know, one of their hot starts. You know, the Colts have done a pretty good job in the past couple weeks of getting offense on the board, you know, in the first half, scoring on a large portion of their possessions. And the Colts can do nothing less than that in this week. Or they are going to get smacked in the face, especially when you consider that their offensive line for the Titans is as quality as it is.

That's just something that the Colts can't afford to do is get off to a slow start. One aspect where the Colts and the Titans match up fairly accurately, again, and again, these two teams are explosive on offense, lax on defense, very similar in that regard, except when you look at inside of the stats, more or less. You're looking more specifically at talent and quality of player, and the Colts don't have a lot of that quality in the areas that Tennessee Titans do. And not only is their offense playing well, but they're as innovative as ever. They're coming up with some original play calls, stuff that's keeping opposing defenses on their heels, and that's important. And the Colts are going to just have to be,

you know, the Colts don't have that a whole lot. They have the deeper passing game this year, something that looks similar to that of what Arians brought in 2012, the deeper passing game this year, something that looks similar to that of what Arians brought in 2012, a deeper passing game, deep drops. The Colts have to take a downfield approach, and this is something that the Colts are going to absolutely have to take advantage of, or they're going to have real issues, especially when it comes to sack totals and being able to keep drives going. That just is something that is not going to be on the Colts' side if they don't get their act together right off the jump in this game. I've told you guys before about this, but let me tell you some more about my friend Mike. Goltz fans, are you in the market to sell your home? If so, call Mike Earnest of Century 21 Sheets at 317-285-9691.

Mike is an expert in the greater Indianapolis real estate market and has helped people just like you achieve their real estate goals. As a professional realtor, Mike will not only help you navigate the real estate market, but he guarantees that he will sell your house for full market value or he'll pay you the difference. If you live in Indianapolis or any of the surrounding communities, you probably know that the greater Indianapolis area is currently experiencing a seller's market. You need a real estate professional on your team who will get you every dollar of what your home is worth. Mike Ernest is just the guy that you need. Listen, when it comes to selling your home, knowledge is power. The first step that you need to take is figuring out exactly what your home is worth. Call Mike

for a no-obligation, hassle-free market analysis of your home. Mike will not only give you the value of your home, but he will also give you the real estate trends in your neighborhood. Mike Ernest is an expert in your real estate market, so don't rely on websites to tell you what your home is worth. Call Mike at 317-285-9691 for your free home market analysis. Colts fans, when it comes to selling your home, do not get burned by amateurs. Hire a professional like Mike Ernest. Let Mike and his Century 21 Sheets team go to work for you. Whether you live in Indy or any of the surrounding communities, Mike and his team can help. Call Mike Earnest at 317-285-9691 or find him on the web at MikeEarnest.com. Again, that's 317-285-9691 or MikeEarnest.com. Now we go on the other side of the coin here and we look at what the Colts did in their last few weeks before their bye. The Colts dropped a game in week six,

only putting up 23 points against a Texans team that was just terrible then. They're still terrible. Their offense is terrible. Their defense is solid, but not good enough to withstand how bad their offense is, and the Colts really dropped the ball in that week six game. The Colts came right back against the Titans and put up 34 points with one of their better performances of the season. The following week, in week eight, the Colts really missed out on an opportunity

to take a Chiefs team down where they had knocked a running back out, they knocked their starting quarterback out, and they had an offensive lineman go down as well. And the Colts really missed out on an opportunity to take that game because the Chiefs were not playing well, regardless of who was in and who was out. And the Colts just looked sluggish and ultimately pretty terrible for a large portion of that game. Way too many penalties once again in that one, and they blew it, only putting two scores up on the board. And then week nine, the Colts bounce back and do this thing where they play as well as they've played.

The 31-26 win in Lambeau doesn't really tell the story because the Colts really blew them out. I mean, we remember that they just handed the Packers 13 points ultimately on two of those drives where they did nothing and sat back in that prevent coverage. So the Colts had a really good game there. The biggest thing right here is that the Titans have been really consistent with their scoring, and the Colts have not. And if we look at what the teams have been doing throughout the entire season, the Colts and the Titans are right there together at 26.6 for the Colts and 26.4 points per game for the Titans. But if you look at the last six

weeks for the Titans and you take out the first few weeks where they scored 16, 16, 10, and 20, they've scored over 33 points a game. That's about as hot as it gets. Conversely, the Colts in their last six games are at 26 points a game. So that puts the Titans virtually at a touchdown more per game over the last six weeks of play for each team. I mean, the Colts have had a few of those games where they've hovered around the 30-point mark, but they've only eclipsed it a couple times. And this is, I mean, I've already said it at least three or four times, but this Titans team is hot. And it's hard to imagine the Titans playing as bad as they did against the Colts in that week seven matchup. However, it is still the Titans. And for some reason, they do not match up well with the Colts. going to have to jump out to an early lead, at least at a very minimum, put points on the board, and attempt to force the Titans to not be as efficient

as they have been. Not only has the Titans defense, if you're looking at what we trust in Andrew Luck to lead this offense, you look at how consistent Tennessee's defense have been, and they've been consistently bad. When you look at the Colts defense, they hover right around the middle of the pack in variance, if you're looking at their DVOA variance, and as in how often they are dropping and how often they are rising. They've been fairly consistent. They've not been going up and down and having, you know, really bad weeks or really good weeks either. They've been pretty consistent. That's just about what they've done. Now, consistently bad isn't good. Don't get me wrong, but we know what we're going to get with that defense. It's not a whole lot. And once again, the Colts offense has also been very steady, okay,

throughout the first half of the season. Tennessee's, however, has not. Like I mentioned, the first half of the season, or the first three or four games of the season, they were struggling to score over 20 points, three scores. However, they've been busting loose quite a bit lately. So it really depends on what the Colts can bring, how diverse Ted Monachino can be in his defensive play calling. Can he create matchups that the Titans do not want to see?

Can he be strategic in his blitz packaging and use it to his advantage and try to get Marcus Mariota off like he did the last game because the last time that they played Marcus Mariota was not his self. He was inconsistent. He was inaccurate and he was running left and right and throwing it out of bounds, just really bad plays. And the Colts have to keep their big play guys under wraps. And if they don't, they're going to get blown out. However, the Colts have been doing this pretty much to the AFC South for several, several years. The Colts have a very good opportunity here to shut down one of the hotter offenses that they're going to see the rest of the season.

The best offense, aside from them, that they're going to see the rest of the year is the Raiders. So the Colts have a big opportunity right now to take control of what they can do for the second half of their season. If they can win this game, the Colts really have only the Steelers and the Raiders who can really prove, have proved that they can put up some significant points against them. The rest will be, you know, as they always are, relying on Andrew Luck to carry this team on his shoulders and put points up. And I don't think that there's any of the other teams on their schedule that can match their point totals other than those guys. So the Colts can right now get the first punch in this fight for the second half of their schedule that we talked about yesterday and really try to land a hard knockout blow to

the very first offensive team that they're going to see. The Titans do not have much in the way of defense. They're inconsistent and they're allowing a ton of points. The Colts have a chance right here. And then going into week 12 with hosting the Steelers, the Colts have a chance here with two home games to really get this home crowd into it and to get not only the home crowd into it, but to make a statement in their own division that is typically pretty bad. And the Colts are allowing other teams to kind of run it right now. So not only Chuck Pagano, but the Colts, the team themselves, the coaching staff, everybody else involved, Andrew Luck, the players, the defense, this would be a great time for Robert Mathis,

if he has anything left in his tank, to really put forth a huge effort in trying to get to the quarterback a couple times maybe. That would be nice. It would be nice to see the Colts' offensive game plan kind of structure themselves a little bit more intelligently, bring Todman in there every so often in third down situations to allow that speed back out of the backfield, who can really change a game if given the right amount of space. The things that they've been

wanting Ferguson to do that he's been unable to do. Todman can do that because he has more power, has the speed, and has the elusive and versatility to be able to pull that off. Not to mention some of the other guys who have been injured and are coming back this week off here. Here in the next couple weeks, they have that mini-buy. It'd be really nice to get a lot of those guys back and keep them back. It'd be nice to see Patrick Robinson really kind of take hold of that opposite corner of Vontae Davis and try to do something in the resemblance of shut down

corners on their first, you know, their second and third receivers. So we'll see. Rashawn Melvin's a great option for them, considering the rest of the talent at that position. There's a lot of things that the Colts really need to do in this game, and this first game is crucial in that they have to set the tone. Setting the tone has been an issue for the Colts in the past, not only in single games but in the season. We saw that at the beginning of the season. Several not only in single games, but in the season. We saw that at the beginning of the season, several seasons now in a row, they've started with a loss. So

this is no different. The Colts have to get busy, and I think they're going to win this game. I'm not too worried about Tennessee at this point, but like I said, in the back of my head, I'll come up with my prediction towards the end of the week here. But the only thing that's given me pause, as I said yesterday, is the fact that the Colts are very lax coming out of a bye. And Pagano and this Colts team, especially with the lack of talent that they have roster-wide, really can't afford to come out resembling anything other than a team that's really got their stuff together

and ready to take hold of the second half of the season. So we'll have to see what we get, but we all know that we have a lot to look forward to. Well, let me put it this way. We hope we have a lot to look forward to. At least I want to see the Colts being solid and really putting some effort in there. It's going to be interesting to say the least. The Colts have a real, real opportunity here with the teams that are playing pretty poorly

and they have some the rest of their division games. So the Colts, man, guys, they have such an opportunity here where all of us have been writing them off and they have a chance to take hold and really make a splash here in the second half of the season. It would be nice to see them get it all together and try to make a solid playoff push. But thank you guys again for joining me here on Tuesday at Locked on Colts. You can catch me at the show's Twitter page at Locked on Colts, also on Facebook and LockedOnColtsPod at gmail.com if you guys want to get me a message or anything like that, have any questions for the show. Again, I always appreciate your guys' input.

Thank you guys for listening every week, every day. You guys have been fantastic. Make sure you guys are telling your friends. Get yourselves onto iTunes or anywhere else that you get the podcast and rate and review the show. That helps immensely. You'll never know how much. And just continue to listen every day. I appreciate you guys coming here and lending me your ears five times a week.

It's great stuff. So with that, we will come back tomorrow and maybe wrassle up another viewpoint on where the Colts are going to be heading this week and we'll talk about their coming out of their bye week, what their injury report looks like and you know, kind of hard to see what they're doing without really seeing them with a day or two of practice.

So I will talk to you all here Wednesday, right here on Locked on Colts. You are Locked on Colts. Your daily podcast on the Indianapolis Colts. Part of the Locked on Colts. You are Locked on Colts, your daily podcast on the Indianapolis Colts, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day.