Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - LOCKED ON COLTS -12/15- Indianapolis Colts Vs Minnesota Vikings Crossover w/Sam Ekstrom

Episode Date: December 15, 2016

Can the #Colts handle the #Vikings defense? Can they get consistent pressure against an equally bad offensive line? How injuries will effect this matchup Sunday, can the Colts finish 3-1 against the NFC this year and much more with Sam Ekstrom from Locked on Vikings. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

No, I'm not for sale. You are Locked 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 today with Sam Ekstrom from Locked On Vikings for our Thursday show for December 15th. Sam, thank you for joining me, man. How you doing?

Doing well. It sounds like we're both in some sub-zero difficulty in our respective cities. It is. It is cold. It is bitter cold. Kids missing school everywhere, and it is just, you know, it's an inside day. That's for sure. Stay indoors.

Listen to the podcast. Don't you dare go outside. I can't believe, Matt, that I'm sure you watched the game. Viking Seahawks played in colder weather than this last season. Oh yeah, I remember that. That was almost cold to watch. I almost had to wear a sweatshirt just to watch the game. And I'm trying to think of who it was. There was a member of the Seahawks secondary, might have been Cam Chancellor, might have been Earl Thomas, who posted an Instagram photo like three weeks later, and they still had scars in their hands just from cracks that developed in the cold.

It was unbelievable. Oh, man. That was a bitter cold. That was in Minnesota, wasn't it? It was, yep, in Minnesota. I believe it was negative 12 when people woke up that morning. It warmed up maybe to negative 6 during the game. But that was a memorable game for a lot of reasons.

Obviously, Vikings fans don't like to remember it for other reasons. Right. Yeah, that was a bitter, not only bitter cold, but a bitter way to lose that game on a missed field goal. That was too bad. I was actually rooting for them. I think it's kind of a, you know, there's one of those, some of those fan bases that you just love to root against. And for a lot of people, the Seahawks are one of them.

So let's get this bad boy on the road. We got, we got an interesting matchup this week and something that we don't typically see, uh, you know, just once every few years with the, uh, AFC North and our NFC North and the AFC South when they go head-to-head. And, you know, we have kind of an interesting matchup for Colts fans. We saw something similar only on a slightly smaller scale this past week where we go against an offense that's struggling kind of to make a serious impact and to kind of take over games. But they have that defense that's extremely dangerous and can absolutely just do that in general and take the game over versus a possibly explosive offense in the Colts,

one that's up and down and just not very consistent. And then you have the defense that's just awful. So you have two top units going against each other, and on the other side of the balls for both teams, you have two pretty pedestrian units, and some would even call them terrible. So what are your thoughts on this game, and where do you see – and I know Adrian Peterson's come back to practice. So, I mean, do you see him making an entrance in this game at all, or is he just kind of coming back hoping for a stretch run for a playoff? Well, I'll give you the 4-1-1 on Peterson. So there have been conflicting reports

on this. Several outlets have said that he's targeting the December 18th game, which is Indianapolis. Some have said that he's targeting the December 24th game against Green Bay. I think right now December 24th is the more likely scenario. This might be strictly a practice week for Peterson to get back to speed, and then he'll get ready for Green Bay on Christmas Eve next week. And the reason I think that is because Mike Zimmer was so eager yesterday to kind of throw the bait out there and tease his possible return, which is so uncharacteristic of Mike Zimmer. He usually doesn't even entertain questions about injuries, but what he likes to do is he likes to make teams prepare

for something they may not have to prepare for. He likes to taunt them almost with the specter of Adrian Peterson maybe playing, even though I really don't think he's going to be quite ready yet. He still has a brace on that right knee, and I have a feeling they're going to give him a week just to get acclimated back to football speed a little bit. I would say no Peterson if I had to put money on it. I would also say no Harrison Smith.

That's another guy who's a much more smart right now. But in terms of just this game in general, you know, fun matchup where you've got two teams late in the season who absolutely have to win. And the Vikings have to run the table to have any chance. I think the Colts probably have to do the same unless they could somehow sneak in at 8-8 in the AFC South. But, you know, you mentioned it, two polar opposites in some way.

You've got the offensive line for the Colts, which I think is the area the Vikings have to exploit because Indianapolis' offense is good in general, but the line itself is not. And the Vikings' defensive line is explosive, 13 sacks in the last four games. And I think your offensive line has allowed the second-most sacks or tied for the second-most sacks in football. So that's one area where the Vikings can almost, I think,

take down a notch the strongest unit of the Colts in that offense. And if they can get to luck early, if they can get an early lead and get in blitzing situations, then that's where the Vikings are going to win this game. Right. And like you said, these offensive lines are a major issue for teams that would typically have at least a shot in a lot of these games. And sometimes they've been letting them down. And obviously there's other areas for other games. But I don't know about the Vikings for the

most part, but the Colts in general, it's really aggravating when you see those games where they seem to protect luck really good for two, maybe three quarters even, and then it's just like everybody's like, man, I'm so tired, go ahead and hit him. Is that similar in Minnesota, or is it just something that's maybe a little more consistent over the board, once or twice, two or three times a quarter, or is it just that they're just bad in general as well? Yeah, I wouldn't say it is for lack of trying. I think the Vikings have a lot of effort being expelled on that offensive line, but they've been so decimated by injuries that their replacements are just not capable of blocking well on a consistent basis.

They've lost Matt Khalil. They've lost Andre Smith. They've had spells of losing Brandon Fusco. They brought in Jake Long, the former number one pick, and he actually was looking pretty good the last game or two that he was in there, and then he tore his Achilles. So Jake Long out. Their center, Joe Burgers, missed the last two games,

and Nick Easton, undrafted out of Harvard, has been the center. T.J. Clemmings has been their starting left tackle, and Clemmings, the former fourth-round pick, has been totally overmatched now two consecutive years. He lunges too much, doesn't have great balance, and he'll get beat two or three times a game. Now, all that being said, the Vikings, knock on wood, had their best offensive line performance,

at least from a pass-blocking standpoint, against Jacksonville. No sacks. And Sam Bradford probably had about five or six really, really good pockets where he had all day to throw, which is totally, totally uncharacteristic. Now, run-blocking has been an even more egregious problem all season. The Vikings are one of the worst rushing teams, I think, in the last three, four decades in the NFL with under three yards per carry. So that's a different issue entirely.

But the pass blocking has been extremely shoddy, maybe coming around a little bit. But the Vikings have some more issues with injuries. They might not have Brandon Fusco, their right guard. He got concussed against Jacksonville. We're still waiting to see on his status. They might have Joe Berger, their right guard. He got concussed against Jacksonville. We're still waiting to see on his status. They might have Joe Berger, the center back, but it's a bunch of backups out there, Matt. You know, they got Alex Boone in the offseason, the big left guard. But other than that,

they've got a lot of people out there who were not starters on day one. Yeah, you've got a lot of guys on the injury report as well. And you know, for that matter, both teams do. And it seems like the concussion issue seems to be just widespread right now throughout the league. You've got, like you said, Berger and a couple other guys out with concussion, mainly Waynes and Brandon Fusco. But then, you know, on the other side for the Colts, they've got Denzel Good, who's an offensive lineman,

and then they've got Zach Kerr, who's a defensive lineman. And both those guys, though they were limited yesterday, they've really struggled this season in general. You know, and it's really hard to see. I mean, almost everybody on the Colts injury report did not practice yesterday. There's a couple guys that did. In fact, those two that I just named, Denzel Good and Zach Kerr, were the only two who were even limited. A couple guys, they have those old guy day off, like Robert Mathis, but he's actually fighting a bicep right now and stuff like that. What do you see as far as your defensive side without

the possibility of Harrison Smith? Is that just a major hole in the defense, or is it something they can cover up a little bit? Well, Smith didn't play against Jacksonville, and the Jaguars, bless their heart, were unable to exploit him. But I think that's more of an indictment on Blake Bortles and Gus Bradley and just the Jacksonville Jaguars in general. That's not a good football team, and I'm sure you've seen that this season. Granted, I guess they beat you in London. Yeah, we won't talk about that. Yeah, we won't talk about that.

That's beside the point. Jacksonville's not a good football team. Obviously, Indianapolis is going to be more likely to exploit Harrison Smith than Jacksonville did. His backup is Anthony Harris. Harris is a second-year guy, undrafted. He made two starts last year, did pretty well, played sparingly in the Chicago game earlier this season, didn't do great.

And then he held his own against Jacksonville, though he did surrender a touchdown on a post route to Brian Walters that at the time put the Vikings behind. But he's no Harrison Smith. Harrison Smith is a guy that can move around, and he does a lot of blitzing. He plays in the box a lot of the time, and then they put Andrew Sandejo back as sort of the final line of defense.

But Smith roams around everywhere. That's not the kind of role that Anthony Harris can do. Anthony Harris, I think, is probably going to fall into more of the Andrew Sandejo role of being that free safety, standing 20, 30 yards back, and then they'll probably put Sandejo further forward, and he can play the Harrison Smith role. I think the Vikings try to be pretty interchangeable in safeties. They'll try to mitigate Harris' impact by not making him do difficult things.

All he'll have to do is step up in the run game, make some tackles, and hopefully assist whenever the corners are passing a guy off to him. But the Vikings are trying to reduce mental mistakes, just trying to prevent guys from getting behind them. Anthony Harris is capable, but he doesn't have the upside Harrison Smith does. And when you have a guy that can throw the deep ball like Andrew Luck, that's definitely going to be a concern for the Vikings. Most definitely I actually for the record I really liked Anthony Harris when he was coming out of the draft he was one of the guys that I kind of stuck to and

and liked I was hoping that he would land somewhere and kind of stick being that he went undrafted I had him around fourth or fifth round range and I was kind of disappointed that he didn't go any higher but I really like that guy. I don't know how he's been doing so much over the past couple seasons in Minnesota overall but I was glad to hear that he's at least hanging on and actually getting you know some looks. I think that's the guy who's had some injury issues hurt him in the draft because I think he basically had to choose whether or not he was going to have surgery before the draft or after the draft because he needed to have surgery in some way. And the threat of that surgery kind of made him fall.

But then when the Vikings got him during the rookie minicamp, a lot of people were already saying, man, this guy looks good. This could be one of those UDFAs that really latches on. And he turned out to play in some meaningful games last season, now this season. So I think your instinct on Harris was correct. We don't have a great sample size to truly evaluate him yet. But I've got to ask you, Matt, now from an injury standpoint for the Colts, and you mentioned a few of them, but Andrew Luck didn't practice yesterday.

And he said on the conference call that he'd probably be all right. Was that just kind of a veteran's day off for Luck yesterday? It was in part. I mean, he's had that. He's been basically off with the shoulder thing almost every single week for at least one day. And that's something that they're probably – honestly, they're probably going to do that throughout the majority of his career,

unless for some reason, because it's a degenerative thing, it's something that's not going to go away. The other part of that was that he had an elbow injury, as you know, and he's going to play. I mean, that was, it was something that, you know, he got hit 13 times this past week, and that was just, I mean, eye-popping. It was just disgusting to watch, you know, I mean I don't know how else to really say it. You have a guy who is absolutely possible to take. You put him on any roster right now and he makes them instantly three to five games better in my opinion.

And I guess I would say that with a lot of the crappy teams. I mean, if you put him on somebody who's under 500 right now, they're a couple games over 500 right now. But the Colts right now are just awful in so many areas. You mix that with poor coaching, poor decision-making, and a lot of injuries, and it's a testament to Andrew that he's even gotten them this far, to be quite honest with you. With three terrible teams the first three years, he had them at 11-5.

But for the most part, they had guys who were veterans already coming in. They went heavy on free agent, you know, type stuff. And they brought guys in who could make an impact on both sides of the ball and in various positions. This year, they really have very few guys who can do that. If you see Vontae Davis is going down a little bit more than usual with piddly injuries, and I say piddly because it's, you know, it's a toe and then it's an ankle and then it's a shoulder. You know what I'm saying? It's one thing after another, little bits and pieces here and there. And then it's an ankle and then it's a shoulder you know what I'm saying it's one thing after another little bits and pieces here and there and then he's really lost the ability to cover deep and in I've heard people comment and say that maybe Vontae's the only playmaker on defense he's not

a playmaker his ball skills are absolutely terrible you know I don't know how many interceptions he's gotten over the past three or four years but it ain't very many and he's had plenty of opportunities he can break up a pass, which is also just as important, but his ball skills are very subpar, in my opinion, for a top 10, top 15 corner in the league. The real playmaker on that team was Clayton Gethers as far as his ability to come up in the box and be deep and be able to make an impact, whether it be tackles or, you know, to be able to jar a ball loose or something like that. And of course, we lost our middle linebacker, DeQuel Jackson, and that's an open door.

You know, that's a bit of a turnstile right now. And then you have guys that were so promising last year, you know, that just haven't. I mean, Henry Anderson's a perfect example of that. A guy who looked like, whoa, we hit the jackpot with this guy. And granted, he was injured at the beginning of the season. Maybe he just hasn't fully come out of that. But he's just definitely not looking anything like he did last year. I don't think that I've even heard his name in the past few weeks.

So as far as during a game. But Andrew, in general, he has so much work to do, and it's so sad to see because there's just not a lot of help for him anywhere. And he's going to continue to get nicked up. And, you know, after fourth and fifth season, you know, all those hits he took in the first three seasons, they start feeling a lot worse, you know, as time goes on. And now into his fifth season getting drilled 13 times, you know,

I don't know how anybody could come out of that without some sort of nicks and bruises. Well, from a draft standpoint, Matt, you know, the Vikings are a team that's had very little impact from their rookie class this season. I think ESPN graded them as a D for their draft class. You know, Laquan Treadwell has been a non-factor. Mackenzie Alexander has been a non-factor.

The most impact they're getting is from a seventh-round safety who plays special teams and from a tight end who comes in an unbalanced set. It's not really flashy like it has been in past years, but some of that, too, is just because they drafted really well in 14, they drafted really well in 15 they drafted really well in 15 and there just weren't that many open spots or it sounds like the Colts have an issue with they're not hitting on a whole lot of draft picks and they seem to have a dearth of talent on the roster is that the case uh it's it's so strange how the Colts go about their draft position. You know, this past year, they have

at least five rookies who have played significant time already. I mean, Ryan Kelly and TJ Green have, well, let me put it this way. Kelly, Green, Hassan Ridgeway, Antonio Morrison, and Joe Haig have all played at least 12 games this year, all rookies. Then you have the Raven Clark, who's terrible. He's an offensive lineman out of Texas Tech. And he has just he's just terrible. And he is a legitimate three year project, if that. And then you got Austin Blythe, who's also filled in just in general. He's a center out of Iowa, but he's played a little bit of guard and stuff like that just come in because they're so depleted in quality up front that those guys have had to play. I mean, if you just look at the past two years, their first round pick in 2015,

Phillip Dorsett, has been extremely, extremely underwhelming. A lot of drops, kind of poor route running, and just at times has really struggled to get off the ball. DeJune Smith, no longer on the team. David Perry, Clayton Gethers, and Henry Anderson, all those guys are still on the team and for the most part are making an impact. Josh Robinson and Marlo Herrera, not on the team anymore.

Both six-round picks. Denzel Good is on the team and starting. And then you have Jack Muhort, Moncrief are the only two picks out of the 2014 draft that are still on the team. I mean, Jonathan Newsome, one of those guys that I was talking about, kind of like Henry Anderson, showed a lot of promise. He's no longer on the team. He was terrible the following year.

Andrew Jackson no longer on the team. He was terrible in the following year. Andrew Jackson no longer on the team. Ulrich John. And then if you go even deeper, Werner, Collette Holmes, Montori Hughes, John Boyette, Kerwin Williams, Justice Cunningham, none of those guys are on the Colts anymore. That was their 2013 draft class. The only guy who is still on the team technically is Thornton, and he is on injured reserve. So they don't have anybody active from the 2013 draft class, and this is exactly why this 2016 class has had to play so much. And for the most part, Hassan Ridgway looks like he could be a playmaker in the future. TJ Green is terrible in coverage, but he's an enforcer-type safety and has you know done pretty well and he's he looks like he could be um maybe the a good twin back there with Clayton Gethers at safety and they could kind of roll in and out and not

the whole idea in the Colts offense at least currently under Pagano is that they don't really have a free or strong safety both those guys can play both positions right now TJ Green struggles struggle so much in coverage that that's not really an option for him. But Joe Hegg, a guy out of North Dakota State who was blocking for Carson Wentz, he's been starting so many games at tackle and at guard. It's unreal. But these guys are getting quality and really important snaps right now but overall the Colts have drafted terrible they let go of a guy named Trevor Bates who they took in the seventh round this year who I thought had a lot of promise he and in camp I when I would watch him he looked like a natural pass rusher from the outside linebacker position and he was uh interchangeable enough to

where he could play some snaps at inside linebacker in some sub packages so and they let him go and they never did bring him back and i was a little bit surprised at that he's been in workouts all over the country with uh i think at least uh 15 to 18 teams and i don't think anybody's really latched on to him yet because he's kind of one of those tweeners doesn't really have a role but overall it's been extremely difficult to watch the Colts draft you know which is one of the reasons that is so aggravating when you hear people say let's just pack it in and hope we get a higher draft pick well Ryan Gregson hasn't proved that he can draft outside of 2012 and 2016, you know,

as far as getting guys on the field. So I don't think that's a real smart decision. I could care less where we draft at this point. The Colts need to get better however they do it. And this next year, it looks like the Colts roster could be similar to the difference in 2011 to 2012 could be a complete interchange, an about-face, and almost a mini, like a remake of this roster completely. It could look very, very different next year, very different. Well, I see why you have a little sympathy for Andrew Luck. That's pretty interesting. It's locked on Vikings, locked on Colts crossover.

I've got to wrap up here in a few minutes, Matt, but I'll tell you a couple playmakers on the Vikings offense that you want to look out for, that your listeners will want to look out for. You've got a guy named Adam Thielen. Adam Thielen is arguably the number two receiver right now in the Minnesota Vikings. I love him. He went to Division II Minnesota State Mankato, grew up in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, a local kid, worked his way onto the practice squad, then became a special teamer, started

getting some receptions as a fourth or fifth option back in 2014 and 2015, and suddenly has emerged into this incredible route runner. He's got unbelievable hands, and he's actually been one of their best deep threats this season, even more so than Stephon Diggs, arguably. So Adams Thielen, as the number two receiver, is part of the reason, too, that Laquan Treadwell hasn't gotten time on this Vikings team. A lot of people want to complain about Treadwell, but I think they also have to take into account that Stephon Diggs is excellent.

Cordero Patterson has also emerged, another first-round pick. And you've got Adam Thielen, who's come out of nowhere, to be maybe your number two. So you've got three guys that have been very solid. Treadwell, he hasn't dealt with some nagging injuries. He hasn't been that good, number two. But number three is there hasn't been a lot of spots for him to contribute. So for people giving up on Laquan Treadwell, probably a little too early for that. There are reasons to be concerned about his route running, about his hands,

about his ability to high point the football against physical corners. But the Vikings receivers have actually stepped up pretty nicely this year and supported Sam Bradford, who was thrown into a tough situation. And I mentioned Patterson, too. You want to look out for him on special teams and on offense. He's a guy that they're going to get the ball on bubble screens, on little slant patterns, and just let him run because he's an athletic guy with the ball in his hands, and he runs really hard. So Patterson, Thielen, Diggs, probably the best weapons in the Vikings offense because they're not getting much from their running backs. Their offensive line has been very porous.

Sam Bradford makes the short throws when he needs to. He's pretty accurate. The wide receivers are really the best skill position players in the Vikings right now. Well, I love watching Thielen. I definitely do. He's a guy who nobody knew anything about last year or anything like that that's for sure and then you bring him in this year and he's just he's really been that missing link almost for a guy is like you said with Treadwell failing to really get on the thing

he was a godsend for that team almost at wide receiver to bring in that extra option and he's really stood out that's for sure. Thank you, Sam, for joining me. I really appreciate it. Thank you, Colts and Vikings fan, for checking us out here on this Colts and Vikings crossover here on Locked On Colts, Locked On Vikings. Sam, let me get your quick prediction here. What do you got for this week? The Vikings have been a really good team at home this season, Matt.

They took the Dallas Cowboys to the wire two Thursday nights ago. They desperately need the game. I think they are going to get it done because I think they're really going to exploit that offensive line of the Indianapolis Colts. The defensive line has four sacks in two of the last four games, and they've had some games this season with five. They had one with eight. They can really if they uh especially if they get an early lead so all the vikings need to do i think in this game is get up by seven get up by 10

let the defensive line work i'm going to take the vikings by seven points 24 to 17. good pull uh i i'm i'm going to be very similar to your thoughts. The Colts just, they are three and three on the road this year. They've won their last three, but it's hard for me to believe that that offensive line of the Colts is going to be able to hold up against the Vikings defense with or without Harrison Smith. Doesn't make much of a difference with him in the back as far as I'm concerned. His absence will allow a few big plays to come over the top, I think. But all in all, I don't think it'll quite be enough because there's going to be, I think there's going to be too many turnovers in this game and that just worries me a little bit. That defense is just way too aggressive and they impose their will for sure. I have the Colts losing in this one, but I've only got them losing by four. I'm going to go 28-24 because I think the Colts will make a late run at this one,

and I don't think it will be quite that close until the very end of the game. But sadly enough, I got the Colts falling and falling to 6-8. Mike, your fans are rejoicing that you have enough confidence that Minnesota can score 28. That's been tough this year. Unless they score on defense, then they can do it. Well, and that's kind of what I'm giving. I'm giving them a touchdown on defense. Okay.

But, hey, great show. Thank you for joining me. Let's get out of here so that you and I can both go get our stuff done, what we've got to get done. But thanks for the show, man. Sam, any parting words for the fans? Enjoy having your really good quarterback because quarterbacks are often taken for granted.

I don't know if they're really taken for granted, but we had Teddy Bridgewater here in Minnesota this fall, and he was a very promising franchise quarterback. He goes down in the blink of an eye, and now there's uncertainty at who the quarterback is going to be going forward. Appreciate Andrew Luck while you have him. Absolutely. And that's a good one to stop on, because we absolutely do. I know we do. We just don't trust our coach or our GM and a lot of the players that they've drafted. That's the unfortunate part. But thank you, Locked On Colts fans.

Thank you, Locked On Vikings fans, for stopping in and listening today. As always, check us out on Twitter, Facebook, any emails that you guys have on the Vikings. Ours is lockedoncoltspod at gmail.com. Check us out. And Colts fans, I'll check you guys all out on Friday right here on Locked On Colts. Thanks, Sam, for the show. Have a great day, man. Thanks, Matt.

Appreciate it. Good luck to your team. You are Locked On Colts, your daily podcast on the Indianapolis Colts, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day.