Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - LOCKED ON COLTS -12/8- How Do the Indianapolis Colts and Houston Texans Matchup in Their Second Go-Round?

Episode Date: December 8, 2016

The Indianapolis #Colts and Houston #Texans clearly have a common goal in mind as the season inches towards its climax, but the Colts find themselves in a much better position than their rivals at the moment. Which Colts are healthy this week and also Matt rants about PED's Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Talkspace.com slash BOOM. B-O-O-M. 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 am your host, Matt Dainley, and we are here on December 8th for Locked On Colts, and we are inching ever closer to the Sunday game, ever-present

huge game against the Houston Texans. Sunday at 1 o'clock, it's going to ultimately have a lot to do with how the AFC South looks. So let's get right into it. We're going to notch into a couple areas, kind of take a look back at their first meeting. And, you know, that's something that we're going to have a hard time getting out of our heads, but we're going to go through it anyways a little bit. First of all, I want to say thank you guys for all the input you guys have been giving me. Continue to subscribe to the podcast and make sure that you guys are getting some reviews in. I've seen a couple new ones over the past couple days.

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And I appreciate any reviews and ratings that you guys give the podcast. Do me a great service. I would greatly appreciate it. So let's look at this. First of all, brief, brief overview of what we think we're going to expect. We see Osweiler, Lamar Miller, the obvious, you know, DeAndre Hopkins, the obvious weapons that are there in Houston. Their defense is a little short right now. Looks like Jadeveon Clowney could possibly still be out. He sat out practice on

Wednesday. And you know what? We just really don't know. But here's the skinny of it. And we've been talking about this over the past week, just little bits here and there. The Texans are definitely not as good as the Colts, regardless of their overall talent. Their quarterback is awful. There are so many holes in their team, just like there are with the Colts. However, one of the major differences is Andrew Luck versus Osweiler. Obviously, we saw that Andrew Luck can be part of an explosion on offense, especially when the receivers all come to play and are all on the same page, when the offensive line can protect. And, you know, all of that matters, but, you know,

it's a lot less significant for the Texans. Basically, their defense is left to try to limit Andrew Luck in this offense or they're going to get beat. I mean, their offense just isn't going to put up points, and they haven't over the past several weeks. And in fact, since their week six matchup, the Texans haven't put up 26 points since. Their highest output was 24 points, and that was once. They've put up 20 twice.

But other than that, a lot of 13s, 17s, and 9s. Their offense is by no means explosive. It's shown absolutely no signs of being explosive. They are anemic almost to the letter. I mean, they don't run the ball effectively. They don't pass the ball effectively. In fact, Football Outsiders has them ranked 31st overall offensively and has them 30th in the pass and 27th in the run.

So, I mean, they're not effective whether you consider it to be large-scale or small-scale. I mean, if you're looking at situational passing and running, they're just not very good. But, you know, you have on the other side of that, you have an Indianapolis Colts offense who's right in the middle of the pack and almost in the top ten in rushing as far as effectiveness and situational. Like I said, I've been telling you guys this all year,

Frank Gore gets the job done, four yards a carry. I mean, I don't know what he's actually averaging, but often you see him get that four yards. You know what I mean? At a minimum three, sometimes he gets stacked up. Anytime the Colts run more than a couple times in a row, it's going to go for no yardage. But when they do mix it up well with the passing game, like they did for the most part this past week, you see that one run effective pass for seven or eight yards or more. Luck passed for nearly almost 10 yards in attempt this past week, so you can definitely see how everything goes and how

everything works together simultaneously. The Houston offense definitely has none of that going for them. When you look on the other side of the coin, you see a Houston defense that's ranked 14th and 17th, 14th in the past, 17th against the run, and 13th overall. But then you look at the Colts defense, where they're 30th overall in football outsiders, but they're 29th and 31st between pass and rush, respectively. So you've got a terrible offense for Houston going up against a terrible defense, basically. That's pretty much a push. And then you've got a middle-of-the-pack defense going up against a middle-of-the-pack situational offense, but with one of the best quarterbacks in the league on it.

That's not, in my opinion, that is not even a close matchup. You look at it, and this is more of a paper matchup here when you think about it this way. The Colts are very much in the driver's seat in this one, pending any ridiculousness throughout this game. I mean, it's not far-fetched to assume that that could be possible, but like I said, with Andrew Luck, this set of receivers, getting that three and a half, four, five yards from Gore almost every touch. And then a lot depending upon how the defense plays against a terrible quarterback in Brock Osweiler. I think that they're more than capable of doing a little bit. And, again, we're going to have to see Ted Monachino mix it up a little bit and try to use some strengths, trying to get some of

this defensive line to get some pressure on him. And, you know, Texans offensive line is nothing to write home about. So it's not, it's definitely nothing different than they've seen in the past several weeks. They can definitely get through the middle. They can definitely stunt on these guys. The biggest issue by far is going to be the linebacker issue. And with DeQuell Jackson's stupid, stupid suspension, this really puts the Colts in linebacking core that's already pretty bad behind the eight ball. So that, I mean, if we're going to look, you know, somewhat at a keys to the game type thing, it's just don't lose the game from the linebacker position on defense because we got Edwin Jackson back there and he's ultimately going to be quarterback in the defense.

I think they're going to put Antonio Morrison in there. And, you know, Pagano even said Wednesday that they've basically, you know, previous to this had relegated him to special teams because he's a hitter. I mean, that makes sense, right? You don't stay in your lane and hit somebody on special teams. It's pretty simple. Defense is not so much stay in your lane and hit somebody, you know, so he's going to have to use more than, you know, a little bit of cognitive awareness when it comes to playing defense, especially, you know, when you look at Lamar Miller and some of the guys they have on offense too.

He's not going to be able to just step out on the field and be successful. Like I told you guys the other day, they have Deion King and a couple other guys, and they actually brought up Luke Rhodes from the practice squad to the 53-man roster. We talked briefly about him, more or less just mentioned him in yesterday's show. But they're going to have, you know, a lot of guys rotating in and out of there, that inside linebacker spot. And it's definitely going to be, I mean, I guess it could be interesting. Let's just hope it's not a complete disaster, you know,

because Clayton Gethers is not going to play. I mean, we've already moved into Thursday, depending on what happens today with his practice situation, but it doesn't look like he's practicing. I mean, it doesn't look like he's going to play. He didn't practice on Wednesday. You know, this is something that the Colts really can't take for granted at all, that, you know, it's just going to be all right as they move forward without one of the, you know, basically their best inside linebacking option. And the very, man, you know, this stuff just kind of pisses you off. I mean, how stupid and selfish do you have to be to take this crap? I don't care what it is. You know, it doesn't matter if this guy is actually injecting

steroids into his arm or if he's just taking a banned substance. Now, if you're looking at severity of stupidity, sure. Either way, it doesn't make it one or the other not unstupid. You know, if he's taking a substance or he's ingesting something that he, that is banned, he's got people for that. The Colts staff, there are Colts staff members that take care of that. They team doctors, his doctor. They're all aware of what's on the banned substance list. That's stupid. There's no excuse for it. I don't care what it is. There was no excuse for Mathis getting it. There was no excuse for Arthur Jones. There was none, no excuse whatsoever for these guys.

Absolutely stupid. It's selfish. It's laziness. I mean, you know, they either put it in their body intentionally or they're just stupid enough to not care and not pay attention and not tell somebody and not ask and not make sure before they take something that it's okay. There's just no other way to look at it. It's very cut and dry. There's an actual list, people. I mean, there's a list and these things are attached. Like there's a certain substance and because this substance is inside of this drug, which is known for performance enhancing, that drug is banned too. Okay. But there's a list of all these. It's a subsidiary of each individual drug and everything underneath it ingested with that drug is also banned. It's a very simple process. They know what they can and can't take. Anytime they take

something abnormal or on the list or something they haven't taken in the past, they're taking a chance and a risk without asking and going through the proper channels. It's very simple. I mean, they have people for this, guys. I mean, they have car service for guys that go out and get drunk so they don't get a DUI like some of the idiots that used to play for the Colts. There's a service for all of this crap in the NFL. There's no excuse for it. They're letting the team down. They're letting fans down. You're letting the city down. I mean, it's just, they all did. And like I said, Mathis did it. Jones did it. And Jackson's done it too. They've all let the team down. They've all let everybody down. And it's stupidity. There's no excuse for it. They all think they

can get away with it. They all find out that they're not going to get away with it. And my guess is that just like similar ones in the past, this has been known about for a few weeks. So the appeal process is already over and that's why he got the suspension for the four games. So just inexcusable in my opinion. But as we look ahead to this, I'm not real sure where I was at before that, but this kind of stuff just ticks me off because it's just so simple to follow these instructions and these rules and they just don't do it. You know, everybody wanted to feel sorry for Mathis because of why he took whatever drug for to help get him and his wife pregnant. I don't understand that. I mean, look, do it in the off season. To me, it just makes no sense to do that when you know you're going to

get busted for it. You know, there's other methods There's other methods to getting it other than stuff that's banned. I don't understand it. I think it was a half-empty excuse, to be quite honest with you, regardless of how loved he is. I just think it was a simple excuse. Everybody's got an excuse. They all have something. I didn't know. I didn't mean to.

This or that and the other. They're all teenagers basically when it, when it comes to this stuff. But anyways, like I said, I'll get off my soapbox on that. But when we look at the injury report for the Colts this week, uh, like I said, Clayton Gethers, he didn't practice on Wednesday. Denzel Good still going through the concussion protocol. He didn't, uh, Zach Kerr didn't, uh, Kurt Majit didn't. All three of those guys with concussions. Frank Gordon practiced. That's not injury related. Andrew Luck, he was limited with right shoulder. You know, that's like I told you guys from the beginning of this whole thing with his right shoulder weeks and weeks and weeks ago. That's something they're going to do every Wednesday

early in the week, you know, to keep his arm as fresh as possible when it gets closer to the game day. Robert Mathis didn't practice because of his bicep, and Patrick Robinson was limited at the groin. Now, there was reports about Vontae Davis just kind of being in a light practice and stuff, but he's not on the injury report whatsoever for week 14. So I'm not real sure what's up with that. I would assume he's all right.

It'd be nice to see him have a really good week this week. I think he needs it. And I think the team needs it more or less, you know. So there's a lot of things that the Colts need to do really well. Not so much because I think that the Texans should be able to come back like they did the last time they met up, but I just feel like it's needed. They need another game like last game. They have to prove points every single week throughout the rest of the regular season. They've got to put each team in their place. They've got to win by more than one score, at least 10 points, you know, and they should,

honestly, I mean, I'm not going to, you know, like I said, I told you guys I was, I felt a little bit ridiculous even with my prediction for 31-13 over the New York Jets. I'm not going to make such a bold prediction for this week with the Texans. It's an inter-division game and typically divisional games aren't like that. They happen every now and again, blowouts, but they're just not very often. It doesn't matter who's matching up against who, what division it is, or anything like that. I definitely think this should be a double-digit deficit, though. I mean, the Colts are already a six-point favorite. I think that's normal and natural, and that's basically based off of

being at home. So I mean, what? I think they count four points towards home, so they're basically a two-point home favorite, and I think that's ridiculous. I mean, Vegas isn't going to give them a double-digit home favorite, but they should be, and they will be, and they'll win by at least 10 to 13 points. I don't think there's any doubt in my mind. They would have to have a colossal explosion on both sides of the ball of just poor play and stupidity to lose to this team. I think this Texans team is absolutely pathetic. It was one of the teams I thought was going to be one of the higher risers in the division. I thought they were going to be competitive in the AFC in general, and they're just awful. You know, they have some injuries as well, some key injuries nonetheless, of course, but they're still, at this point,

with who they're putting on the field, they're awful. And if you guys remember the last game they played in week six, the Colts were up 23-9 with seven minutes to go. And then the Texans took that drive, went all the way down the field. The Colts played that stupid defense that they continue to play, just backing off, allowing everybody to catch everything in front. And then it hurt them once they got in the red zone because Lamar Miller, on a third down situation, caught a pass five yards short of the first down to go, went through nine defenders, got in the end zone.

And obviously that was the beginning of the end for the Colts because that made it 23-16. Colts are on and off really quick. Gore did get 100 yards in this game, but then the Texans get the ball with 150 to go, down a score, throw a screen to Miller, one to Fedorowicz, and then Osweiler to Fedorowicz for a 26-yard touchdown, and basically just gets right through the middle of the defense, and tie score, then they go to overtime, and that's it. That's all she wrote. You know, the Colts were pathetic in that game late. But they just, I mean, it's so crazy, too,

because when you look at the first half, I mean, they were up, you know, 13-9, then 20-9, and it just was 23-9 then. And it just, you know, it just seemed like it was going to get run. They were just going to run away with it. And they obviously did not. The Texans were decent enough to come back and beat them. And it just sucks because the Colts should have smoked them. And the Texans were not the better team that day.

But the Colts are the better team by far right now. And we should see, I think we're going to see another blowout. I think – I mean, when you say blowout within the AFC South, that's at least two scores. So I would suggest that it would be somewhere between 13, 16 points, you know, somewhere around there. That's just my personal thought process at the moment. Osweiler's bad and getting

worse. And, you know, the Texans offense just looks like it's struggling throughout. Like I said, they can't run, they can't pass. And, you know, they're basically relying on field goals consistently. So we'll look a little bit more into this as we do our Locked On crossover with Locked On Texans. And we'll get into a little bit more of the nitty-gritty of this matchup then, and I'll throw you a prediction tomorrow on Friday, and we'll do that. So thank you guys for joining me here on Locked On Colts. Let's do it again this week, and hopefully the Colts can come to bat and, you know, like I said, continue to turn the rest of the league into people that are paying attention to the Colts and that they should

because if they come out of this AFC South hot and they win the rest of these games or they at least go, you know, 4-1 over these last five games, I think that the Colts could be one of the hotter teams in the NFL and that makes them dangerous. It doesn't make them good, not in all aspects. It doesn't make their flaws any less problematic, but it certainly makes them dangerous. They're going to be probably playing somebody in the AFC West too in one of those wild card spots.

They can beat those teams, but they're going to be difficult. Denver's beatable. They should have beat Kansas City the last time. Kansas City was just better in the big spots, and the Colts weren't. That was the gist of it, but they're beatable. So we'll see. It depends. The Raiders could very well be in one of those fifth or sixth spots as well. So that's probably who the Colts are going to end up playing if it comes down to it. So, and the Colts squeeze their way into the playoffs with a divisional championship. So come back, give us a review and thank you guys for every day. I appreciate it. I'll be here tomorrow.

I hope you will be too. I'll talk to you guys 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.