Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - LOCKED ON COLTS -11/30- Indianapolis Colts Should Rout The Jets, But Need Strengths To Emerge

Episode Date: November 30, 2016

The Indianapolis #Colts have few strengths this season, and their weaknesses have been exploited consistently. The New York #Jets have a great run defense, but the Colts simply have to turn those weaknesses that are so prevalent into strengths in this stretch run or they'll miss the playoffs in a perfect year as the NFL is having a down season. 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 coming back to you for a Wednesday, November 30th Locked On Colts, and it's good to be back. Like I told you guys a couple days ago, it's come down with a bit of a 24-hour bug,

but we got the pro football focus scores out of the way, and now it's kind of time to get back in the saddle here and talk some Colts and prepare for this New York Jets game on Monday night. And it looks like the Colts are heading into what you would call one of the ugly games of their schedule, with the Jets being such a quality run-defending team, only giving up about 85 yards a game. We went over this a little bit Monday, I think, and it's one of those games where you can just see it being just a game. We went over this a little bit Monday, I think, and it's one of those games

where you can just see it being just a game that outside of Colts fans or Jets fans that they just don't want to watch. It's just not going to probably be one of those exciting games, high profile, you know, a lot of bells and whistles and explosions and all that. But I think that the Colts heading into this game have a couple of things that they can certainly exploit. Naturally, the Colts are on the back end or on the bad side of some injuries from Thursday's game. It does look like providing no setbacks that they're going to have both Gethers and Luck back, which is very nice. I'm going to go ahead and go on a limb and say that Ryan Kelly will be back. Other than that, I don't know. I haven't heard much about Good or a couple of the other guys that went down, but it would be sure nice to have a lot of those guys back. They got to come back

and they play Monday. Then they're going to have to come back again the following week and play Sunday night or that same week. So it's going to be, you know, from here on out, it's, you got to stay healthy and you got to play hard and you got to be good or you're going to be left behind. And the Colts are only a game and a half out of the first place spot in the AFC South, as crazy as that sounds. But when you've got the Colts playing the way they are and you see the way that some other teams are playing, you can certainly call the Houston Texans a terrible team. Now the Titans aren't terrible. The Colts don't play the Titans anymore.

They've beaten them twice. But they do have to go against the Texans, and they do have to take on the Jaguars again, both whom they lost to in their first go-round. So this isn't something that the Colts really can afford to screw up. Now they have to play against the Vikings, and they have to play against the Raiders as well outside of this Monday night game against the Jets. And if you look at the quarterbacks they're going to face going through this stretch here, they're going to be facing Ryan Fitzpatrick, Sam Bradford, Derek Carr, obviously, who would be definitely on the brighter side of quarterbacks that they're

going to be playing. And then they've got to go against Bortles and Osweiler as well. Now, if you take Bradford and Carr out of that equation, the other three quarterbacks, Osweiler as well. Now, if you take Bradford and Carr out of that equation, the other three quarterbacks, Osweiler, Bortles, and Fitzpatrick, they've thrown a total of 39 interceptions this year. That's quite a bit. So this is something where this defense who has struggled, especially in coverage, have struggled to get to the passer. This is an opportunity, at least in those three games, where they can at least really try to make an impact and try to get some turnovers, because the Colts only have three interceptions on the year. That's pathetic through 11 games, three. Not a great sign for things to come. And this secondary and this pass defense is absolutely

terrible. And even compared to pass defenses for Indianapolis, they're terrible. So they're giving up upwards of 66% completion percentage. They're bad. And playing these three bad quarterbacks is going to be hopefully a good sign for them because both Carr and Bradford you combine them they've only got eight interceptions on the season but you know Carr is by far the best quarterback they're going to see the rest of the way through but this week we've got Fitzpatrick and they've got this run defense now the one thing their weakness that the Colts need to exploit is their pass defense. They've been fairly decent against a couple teams, but, you know, even McCown, when they played Cleveland, threw for almost 350 yards. They've given up, you know, I think it was

Tannehill and maybe Case Keenum, the only ones that didn't have good games against them. So, you know, Tannehill's a pretty solid quarterback, but this is a different secondary now that Darrell Rivas has been kind of on the schneid, so to speak, not playing real great. Definitely not himself. They think, you know, you've heard different things about he's just too old. He's just not, you know, effective anywhere near what he used to be. And then you hear that he just doesn't want to put in the effort. But they've got guys like Buster Screen and some others who have really played pretty well against Colts in the past. So there's some

possible situations that they could run into that would not be positive, but they have to attack Darrell Rivas, I think. Luck has to be accurate, of course. Attacking Darrell Rivas, I think. Luck has to be accurate, of course. Attacking Darrell Rivas without accuracy is just begging for an interception. They can't allow this Jets defense to be as opportunistic as they've been in the past. And, you know, you can kind of look at this past week's game where they played the Patriots, and it was kind of a tight game, but that was the Patriots' worst game of the season pretty much far and away. They didn't have a handful of their weapons.

Their defense sucks right now after they've traded away some of their talent. And the guys that were being lauded for stepping up into their position when they were in the rotation have not fulfilled their opportunities for that that's for sure so I'm not too worried about the way the game played out last week scores don't tell the whole story that's for sure we know that and moving on it's one of those games where like I said you just don't assume that it's going to be really like a track meet by any means. But Andrew Luck should actually feast on this defense. If his offensive line can have one of their good games in this week

because they are relentless in their front seven. I mean, Wilkerson, Williams, Richardson, there's more, and they're all fantastic defenders. This is not going to be a situation where the Colts' offensive line, despite being bad, has the upper hand. They will not have the upper hand. They have to play their best game of the season, and that offensive line is going to have to have the best game of their season

every week because they're that bad this year. They're historically bad, and they're giving up twice as many pressures and sacks as they're getting defensively. It's just not a good season for this offensive line whatsoever, and how much of that is on Philbin, and how much of that is just on the way that they're playing. One of the things that kind of aggravates me a little bit is how often Pagano, uh, preaches about continuity. And I think that people get confused between the two words of chemistry and continuity. I could care less who's playing left tackle, right tackle, center guard, any of that stuff. It doesn't matter if these guys, uh, have played next to each other for that long. What

matters is their chemistry. Sometimes that comes from continuity, but it doesn't always come from continuity. We saw last year after Wrights started getting some significant playing time, he hadn't played for the first several games. He gets in there, and that offensive line shores up pretty stinking good and pretty quick. Then you have Denzel Good get in there. The guys had all good chemistry.

They've messed with that chemistry by flip-flopping positions and so on and so forth. And I think that that's one of the biggest issues. It's not who is on the line. It's how they play together and how they play most effectively as a unit and in what positions. And I think that the Colts have messed with that too much. That just my opinion on the matter doesn't necessarily mean anything. I'm certainly not an offensive line coach, but you just with anything, chemistry matters more than continuity. Continuity sometimes brings chemistry. It doesn't always happen that way. So in that regard, like I said, the Colts offensive line has to have their best game of the season every single week.

And without it, they're just, they're just going to be done. I mean, they're just, they just don't have any room for error whatsoever. Um, real quick, I want to talk to you guys about my man, Mike actually got to meet this guy, uh, this past weekend and a great guy. I asked him cause I wanted to see kind of what he was getting out of, uh, his sponsorship of the show. And, you know, he told me that he's getting, some of you guys are getting ahold of him and you, you know, from all, all accounts's getting some of you guys are getting a hold of him. And, you know, from all accounts, everything that I've heard, everybody's happy. And this is great stuff because Mike's a good guy.

He's doing great work in Indianapolis at Century 21 Sheets. And you guys, as listeners and as customers now of Mike, are happy about it. uh, we could, uh, meet up on that. We went to dinner, had a nice talk. Of course, he's naturally a Colts fan. So it was good to get that out. But let me tell you guys about what Mike does. If you guys are in the market to sell a home, call Mike Ernest of Century 21 Sheets. Mike is an expert in the greater Indianapolis real estate market and has helped people just like you and has helped some of you achieve your real estate goals. As a professional realtor, Mike will not only help you navigate the real estate market and has helped people just like you and has helped some of you achieve your 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

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He'll love to hear it. Another situation when we get into talking about the Colts defense here that needs to be brought up is, even though the Colts have made some changes within their defense, such as the key mayors and uh edwin jackson and so on you know and they just the the linebacking core and the front aside from david perry the front line has been pretty inept about their tackling uh perry's actually in the mid-20s and tackles and then you get to the linebackers and surprisingly ceo moore still is one of the top tacklers for the Colts, and that's just pathetic because he hasn't been on the team for how many weeks. I thought that was funny when I saw that. But anyways, the situation arises that you've got two of, or well, three of the top four

tacklers on the team are safeties and a cornerback. That's not, I mean, that's a good sign, I guess, of a good tackling safety or a cornerback, but that's not a good sign of the rest of the defense, especially the front seven. Rashawn Melvin is fourth on the Colts in tackles. He's only started five games. He's gotten plenty of time because of injuries and so on, but that's not a good sign necessarily if you have a corner and two safeties as three of your top four tacklers. Obviously, the top tackler is DeQuell Jackson, but that's how you expect it. He's supposed to be the tackler.

However, he's only a tackle or two ahead of Mike Adams, or I'm sorry, Clayton Gethers, and then Mike Adams is next. I mean, Gethers is in a bit of a linebacker role too. So, I mean, that's not so far from the median there, I guess, if you want to call it that, but he's not in that dime linebacker role all the time. And then Mike Adams is actually a coverage safety. So when you get into this defense here, they have so much to shore up. They actually have to have guys taking on a lineman front, and they've got to have their linebackers be effective. And without it, this secondary can't really do much.

I mean, this secondary, like I said, is just terrible this year. They're allowing way too many completions. They're allowing the second most yards after the catch in the league. It's not a good situation. Offensively, this offensive line is extremely vulnerable. And no matter what, every time we come to this, to where we start talking about the Colts and who they're matched up against, we have to talk about all these weaknesses because the Colts, it doesn't matter how good Andrew Luck is. It doesn't matter how good Mike Adams or any of these guys are in the secondary, if the two parts that go together, one of it's not working, it's not going to be a good product. It's not going to pump out

any positive feedback. When you get Andrew Luck behind center and you've got Frank Gore, who's a pretty decent running back, and you've got all those wide receivers, you've got Scott Tolzien throwing balls to receivers who are just as good at receivers as they are when Andrew Luck's in, but they can't catch the ball. And then last week and any week before that, you've got Andrew Luck under center. The receivers are catching the ball, but the line's not blocking.

And then now, I mean, you look at it the opposite way from the defense. Obviously, we know that coverage and pressure go together like two pigs in a blanket. I mean, you're not going to have great coverage stats when you can't rush the passer. And if you can't cover, you're not going to sack anybody because the pass rushers don't have time to get to the quarterback. So there's so many situations where we see this over and over and over again, and the Colts just are a flawed team, but they're in an opportunity right now. And I'm not just going to talk about this Jets game, but I'm talking about the next five weeks like we've started the show with. This five weeks coming up is absolutely critical. They've got to win those three games against the bad quarterbacks.

This week, they've got to beat Bortles, and they absolutely have to beat Osweiler the second time around. They cannot waste any of those. I mean, even that, that's only eight wins if they beat those guys. They have to beat the Vikings or the Raiders as well. So the Vikings have a good defense. They just simply don't have a quality offense. A lot of their short passing game and stuff relies on Yak. Again, there's just another flaw in the system. That's good for the Colts to face a team that doesn't throw the ball downfield, but if you don't tackle anybody, what good is it? We're looking at a really sketchy situation the next five weeks.

This week coming up, like I said, they absolutely have to attack Darrell Revis. They actually have to attack just about everybody in that secondary. I mean, Screen too. He's been good against the Colts, but he's not having a great year. So he's a quality coverage guy, but he's down too. I mean, this secondary is in pretty bad shape for the Jets as well. And then they've got to have great coverage on the wide receivers. I mean, the Jets have thrown six touchdowns since week seven. There's no way that, I mean, the Colts are giving

up two touchdowns a game right now, you know, in the passing game. So if the Colts plan to win anything, they've got to stop Fitzpatrick. And I mean, he's got 10 touchdowns and 13 interceptions this year. I mean, come on. I mean, there's no reason that the Colts can't shut this team down. Their only stoppage is coming on run defense. And if the Colts can't beat a team who can only stop the run. Then they're worse than we think they are. So the Colts have a really big task ahead of them this week. They've got to get over some hump somewhere in all these flaws in this team. They've got to prove that they can make something of strength, whether it's the pass rush or it's the coverage or it's the protection up front for luck

or it's the running game it's the protection up front for luck or it's the running game. I mean, or the catching or, or the receivers catching the ball. They have something has to click, uh, this week, because if it doesn't, it's just a lost cause. They just, they just aren't, uh, excelling in any area this year, uh, outside of Andrew Luck and, you know, all the people that continually will, uh, respond to any Jim Irsay tweet, whether he says the roof's open or not. And then all the tweets after that are fire Greeks and fire Pagano. They're wasting luck, this and that. I mean, first of all, that's silly.

Stop tweeting Jim Irsay. That's ridiculous. Anyways, on the other end of that, they absolutely are wasting luck with all of this crap that they're putting out on the field besides him. Something has to change. I'm definitely – I mean, this is the worst defense that Pagano's put on the field in his tenure by far, and that includes the first two seasons. I mean, by quite a bit, actually.

They're on pace to give up 32 passing touchdowns on the season. The most they've given up is 29 in the first couple years that Pagano was in the league, and this has to change. It has to change now. The Colts have to get on a run. They are absolutely desperate to make a run for the playoffs, and they have to prove something immediately. Coaching has to be on point. Every facet of the game has to be on point. If it's not, the Colts are going to get routed by anybody and everybody because there are too many flaws on this team. More than one of these areas has to become a strength.

Five games to do it. Many teams have done it in the past. Plenty of teams have done it. The Colts would not be the only team to have turned their season around in the final five weeks of the season. Multiple teams have done it. The Colts would not be the only team to have turned their season around in the final five weeks of the season. Multiple teams have done it. I mean, look at the Giants who actually went on to win the Super Bowl against the Patriots. That's not a typical result. However, that is something that can happen. If a team gets hot in these final few weeks of the season, they can be a really tough out and can actually be the team

to beat in the playoffs. That doesn't seem to be the way the Colts are, but I'm not saying, I'm just saying that that's a possibility. The Colts have a very good possibility of being that red hot team going into the playoffs if they do what they have to do. So it all starts this week. It all starts Monday against the Jets in New York. They have to play well there it all starts this week. It all starts Monday, uh, against the jets in New York. They have to play well there. They haven't in the past. And, uh, we're just going to see what happens. We're just going to ride out the storm and see where it goes. So, uh, with that, thank you guys all for joining me. Like I said, I'm recovering a little bit, so bear with me in my voice. And if I sound nasally or anything like that, I apologize. But,

uh, thank you guys for coming back. As I said, always subscribe to the podcast, check it out on, uh, iTunes or stitcher, get locked on Colts on Twitter,

get it on Facebook. You can follow me at M Dainley underscore NFL, uh, anytime, anywhere you guys get ahold of me and I'll respond and we'll we'll chat, whether it's lockedoncolts at gmail.com or any of the aforementioned social media or anything like that. So thank you guys for coming back. I appreciate you guys listening,

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