Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - LOCKED ON COLTS -11/17- Indianapolis Colts May Need Best Performance of Year to Beat Titans in Week 11

Episode Date: November 17, 2016

The #IndianapolisColts were prepared for a much better #Titans team than they saw in Week 7, but may just be getting a significantly better team this Sunday. The Titans have been firing on all cylinders, and the Colts may indeed need their best performance of the season on both sides of the ball to knock them off. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Learn more about our healthy benefits at fepblue.org slash getmore. 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 here for Locked on Colts on November 17th, a Thursday, and thank you guys again for joining me as you do every day. I greatly appreciate it, and we're getting closer and closer to this matchup with the Titans this weekend, and there's a lot to talk about still. I mean, we've got a lot to kind of dissect here as we get going. Mainly, probably the most important thing is taking a quick look

at the injury report here. And from Wednesday's practice, there's a few guys that missed practice on Wednesday that were not injury related, including Mike Adams, Vontae Davis, Frank Gore, Robert Mathis. The rest of the guys, mostly, you know, and the good news is that we got a full practice out of Henry Anderson, a full practice out of Jack Newhort, Joe Reitz. Those are three big ones right there because we need the offensive line as healthy as possible. And it's nice to have it all set up to where the Colts are about as quality as they can be going into this matchup. We've talked about how well the Titans have been playing. We did not get practice out of Denzel Good, though, however. And it's interesting because they've got him at a position of tackle and guard now, slash guard.

So that's kind of interesting. I don't know that I've either haven't noticed it in the past or he's just not been on the injury report for me to recognize that but that's interesting to me that they've got him listed at both but he did not practice because of illness Kendall Langford still did not practice because of his knee and Patrick Robinson did not practice because of his groin issue so some of the big names are coming back it looks like we've got a couple you. The secondary still is a big deal for the Colts, naturally, and Patrick Robinson being out still keeps that secondary a little under the health threshold, so to speak, that we'd like to see,

and we definitely need that. Also, Chris Carter, he was a full participant coming off of his hamstring issue. Now, when we look at this matchup, as much as their week seven matchup, I kind of downplayed the Colts' possibilities of winning that game because of how effective they are running. I like Mariota's possibilities of being one of the best quarterbacks in the league here over the next few years. So an amazing offensive line, a very good defensive front seven, an opportunistic secondary. We've talked a little bit about this, and last time we had Nathaniel Rutherford on here talking to us about this pregame. And this is kind of the way that the Titans are playing right now is kind of how we expected or how I expected, I should say, the Titans to be playing on their last meeting. They obviously did not come correct in that regard.

But this, you know, their last few weeks, the titans are looking and i don't want to say scary because they're still the titans but they are looking um exactly how their skill level and their roster strength should uh should be playing you know in spite of their head coach being mike malarkey malarkey's put together really good game plans the past few weeks over together. And they're looking like a very much of an up-and-coming team. And they, you know, despite only being second in the division, they're playing significantly better than the Texans are. The Texans' record is completely smoke and mirrors, you know.

So there's no doubt that right now that the Titans are the best team in the division, and I think that the Colts are right there with them should they be able to come out of this bye with their heads screwed on straight. And I've also, you know, kind of talked about how the Colts have been coming out of the byes in recent years lately I've talked about. And, you know, I kind of, I think that maybe the way that they came out in 2014 against the Patriots and the way they came out in 2013 against the Texans in Texas. Now they won that game, but if you remember right, they came out really slow.

We're just getting manhandled in the first half and came back and put it on them and ended up taking a win there. So I think those maybe have been sticking in my head. Now the last four years, the Colts are three and one coming off of their bye. One of them was the Falcons in 2015 and that Green Bay win with, I believe it was Bruce Arian's first game as the interim coach where they won that game. Now the Colts actually have, if you look at their post-buy schedules over the past four years, they actually are winning almost 70% of their games. That's pretty impressive. The one year in 2012, their buy was in the week four, so they had a lot more work to do, you know, after their bye, but the other three years, their buys have been pretty good. Nine, week nine, week 10, kind of stuff like that. So they've been able to take the shorter end of their schedule and really,

really do well with it. It's so, you know, sometimes our memory sticks with a couple key issues. You know, they got blown out that year against the Patriots, and the way they came out against the Texans, you know, kind of makes you feel it's one of those things you see it a few times, and then all of a sudden your argument goes to they always are terrible after the bye, or they're, you know, that. And I'm just as guilty of that as anybody, obviously. But, you know, overall, the Colts look to be a pretty good post-buy team when you look at it

holistically especially the past four years that the Colts have had Andrew Luck under center so maybe my assumptions weren't quite on par with what they're actually doing but the Colts do and have looked groggy and slow at least in the first halves. And, again, maybe something that's just sticking into my head. But either way, I know that's accurate. So we just have to hope that they come out strong against these guys. Because, like I said, Tennessee is playing as good a football as they've played all year.

I mean, when you look at the last three games, especially like guys for DeMarco Murray, DeMarco put up 107 yards against the Colts in week seven. And week eight, nine, and ten, I mean, week nine was kind of a drop-off for him. He only had 14 carries. That's the fewest carries he's had since week two. And he had only yards but in with on 21 carries in week eight and 17 carries in week 10 he had 123 yards in both of those games you know he's got three touchdowns in those games as well so DeMarco Murray is just you know feeding off of this offensive system that they've got there in Tennessee right now. Like I said, Mike Malarkey is putting together fantastic game plans,

and that helps when you have a running back like DeMarco Murray that can get over 100 yards half the year in half of their game. And the other guy that's obvious in this situation is Marcus Mariota. Mariota's had three fantastic weeks since his bad week, basically, against the Colts in week seven. And he is over 70% completion percentage. He's got nine touchdowns and two picks in that span in the last three weeks. And he's just tearing it up. He's smart under under center he's

smart out of the pocket he's just been uh pretty fantastic so far and his completion percentage this year is 64 and he's only about 300 yards off of where he was at last year uh out of 12 games and he's got it this year 10 games and he's already got more touchdowns than he had last year and he's working on fewer interceptions so he's definitely progressing into a far better quarterback than he was even last year and you know there's a big reason right there why the Titans are five and five and pushing for a top spot in the AFC South. This is going to be an insane matchup this Sunday, I think. And I think the Colts would be silly to come out assuming that they can just take their home field advantage and run with it and that they're just going to get a

win automatically because that's just not going to be the case. The Colts have not been overly fantastic at home, even though they should be. They started out that way throughout Luck's tenure. And then, you know, they've had some really lopsided losses at home over the past couple of years. They've also had a couple of their best games, you know, the game against Denver. And there's plenty of other examples of that, of really good games. But they've also had some really poor games. Their blowout loss to the L.A. Rams, you know, they dropped one when they should have won the same year as they,

the first year they beat Peyton Manning in Lucas Oil when they played the Patriots, and they should have won that game and they didn't because they were up at halftime and they just kind of you know crapped the bed after that so the Colts home field advantage isn't quite as strong as it probably should be it's definitely not a place that people are scared to come into and play it's an indoor environment the environment can be fantastic don't get wrong, if the crowd is hype and everything else, that place can be as loud as anywhere. But the Colts really need to play well to get their crowd in there

because the Colts, us, we Colts fans, are also very fickle in that when the Colts start playing just slightly less good than we expect them to play, you're going to hear boos from certain areas of the stadium. And that's just not going to help. That's for sure. So the Colts really have to be on their game. Not only do they have to be on their game, they need the crowd support. This is a big game for them. They need the crowd support immediately. It's a big game because it is coming out after the bye. A lot of these guys who have been injured have been a little cold, and they need to get their feet underneath them back in NFL action, especially a guy like Henry

Anderson if he comes back and plays this week. Also, Jack Muhor, who's been out for a few weeks, and Joe Reitz, who's been out for a few weeks, and Joe Reitz, who's been out for a couple weeks as well. You know, these guys really need to have really good games, and they need to be stretched out and ready to go. And for them to get the momentum and to get into a groove, they need to have a good start, and they need good reactions from the crowd, and the crowd needs to be positive. This is going to be a pivotal game for the Colts because they really need this. We've talked about their post-bye schedule specifically in the past couple days, and the Colts really have an opportunity here to break into

and turn in a really good season if they can get past the next few weeks. This week they've got the Titans, obviously. Next week on Thanksgiving they're going to be playing the Steelers at home. Then they've got the Jets and the Texans again. Now they can get two of their three division games out of the way over the next four weeks, and they really need to win both of them desperately, and they really need to show up against the Steelers and prove that they can play. Now, the Jets, that's going to be in New York, and that's a little different, but three of their

last, of their first four games after the Bayer at home, they have to establish home field advantage there, and they have to establish a good one, because it's going to be a little dicey after that. Though the Vikings have had a rough go at it over the past month, the Colts go to Minnesota and they go to Oakland right after that before finishing up the season at home against the Jaguars. Now the Titans and the Raiders have been the most consistent offensive teams that they are going to play, and they're pretty much the hottest right now. But you've seen even just last week, Roethlisberger came out of that funk, though the Steelers didn't win. Roethlisberger and Brown, they have plenty of weapons to show out just a shellacking of the Colts at home, and they definitely do not need to do that. If they do

that, that will do nothing but tear down the rest of the season, I think. These next few weeks are absolutely critical for the Colts' success throughout the rest of the year. If they can come out of these first three games at least 3-1, then they'll be good to go, I think, for the rest of the team, the games. Because, I mean, if you look at the Steelers' last four weeks and the Vikings together, they're 0-8 over the past four weeks. None of the other teams have been playing very well, aside from the Titans the past three weeks and the Raiders.

So it's critical. It's as critical as it gets right now. These next seven weeks are going to go by so quickly, and it is not going to take any time at all for the Colts to be behind the eight ball but at the same time it's not going to be much at all for the Colts to just explode and you know kind of retake the AFC South and and maybe impress us as fans impress themselves and quite possibly impress some other teams and put them on their heels, which would be fantastic. I would love to see us just dominate the Steelers at home because that's just one of those teams that seems to have the Colts number, and there's really nothing the Colts can do about it. They haven't found a good way to stop Brown. They haven't found a good way to stop Le'Veon Bell on the ground. And the Colts run defense has been a

little bit better this year, but it needs to be significantly better in these next seven weeks. Because like I said, the Colts have an opportunity here to really make an impact on their season. And it can go either way. It is literally on a teeter-totter right now. And whatever these first few weeks turn out is more than likely what we're going to see as an end result to the season. That could be definitely the difference in getting into the playoffs and winning the AFC South or being completely out of it and having a short, you know, the very first day of 2017 being the last game for the Colts this season. And I don't know about you guys, but I'm not real fond of not

seeing the Colts in the postseason because they are as dangerous as anybody, even though they have some really poor areas on their team and they can definitely strike on anybody. So that dangerous, being a dangerous team doesn't necessarily give you a step up on any team that you play in the postseason, but it certainly gives you a viable opportunity to win any game, any night. So we've seen that between comebacks and playoffs to teams, the Colts getting to the AFC South or to the AFC championship game the other year. So this is just something that we don't want to see happen. We don't want to see the Colts miss the postseason two years in a row. That would be, I don't want to say detrimental, but that would just shake up the entire thing. Whether you are a

fan of getting rid of Pagano or not, that would not Pagano necessarily being gone, but missing the postseason two years in a row. You just never know how much they could actually try to shake up the Colts. And that could be just a really strange path and could be possibly detrimental to the next two to three years for the Colts. It could also be beneficial. It's just hard to tell. Basically, this week, I'm going to go ahead and go with my gut here. And, you know, being that I've talked so much about opportunity, this is just a scary game for me because like I said, the Titans are playing

as good as I expected them to play in week seven. They didn't show up, but the quick strike ability of Andrew Luck to T.Y. Hilton helped out for sure. Jack Doyle had a phenomenal game, and they really need all three of those guys offensively to be fantastic, and they need Luck to be protected. The Titans have only allowed two sacks in the past three weeks, so the Colts are going to have to find a way to get to Marcus Mariota too, and if they don't, it's going to be an ugly day, guys. Mariota has played well in Lucas Oil. He played well last year and probably should have beat the Colts. The Colts won the last second interception, I believe, by Dwight Lowry. Not last second, but within the last few minutes of the game that really kind of helped the Colts get over the hump there in that game.

It was very close. I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to give the Titans this one here, but I think it's a shootout and I think it really honestly comes down to a field goal at the end. I'm going to say 27-24 Titans and I'm not happy about it, but that's the way I see this one ending. Like I said, it's going to end up coming down to a last second field goal so not happy about it but the Colts are going to have to wait an extra week to get on their on their roll and let's just hope they can do it against the Steelers on a short week as they play them on Thanksgiving so I want to thank you guys all for listening every single day this is really great stuff guys getting a ton

of feedback from you guys and it really is awesome. Believe me, I appreciate it. I try to answer everybody regardless of what time of day or anything that I get an email or a message on Twitter or something like that. So please keep those coming. I really appreciate it. They do help me stay motivated to keep here and talk to you guys every single day. And it gives me a little bit of time, a little bit of free time to talk Colts. Whether I have somebody right here with me or not, I feel like you guys are single day and it gives me a little bit of time a little bit of free time to talk colts uh whether i have somebody right here with me or not i feel like you guys are all here with me so uh thank you guys again for uh giving the podcast all the attention that you have please go to itunes leave a good review and leave a rating those help so much i mean just you have no idea how much they help.

Leave them on iTunes or anywhere that you guys are listening to the podcast. Also, it's actually on audioboom.com, but we've got them on all the platforms. So anywhere that you guys can leave a rating or follow or anything like that helps tremendously. Also, you guys need to check out some of the other Locked On Network podcasts. Locked On NFL with Matt Williamson. Locked On Draft with Krabs and Marino. I mean, there's so many good ones out there, guys. And you guys could go listen to the Titans, Locked On Titans podcast here in the next couple days and kind of see where they're coming from and what they're thinking about the Colts this weekend for the matchup.

They all do a very good job, and I think you guys will enjoy them too. We have one more day, and then we have a very pivotal matchup, and let's hope that my prediction is way wrong. I would love to see the Colts win by 10 again, or 12, or whatever they can find to get themselves an all-important victory this week in Week 11. So thank you guys again for joining me, and I will talk to you all on Friday right here on 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.