Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - LOCKED ON COLTS -7/7- Are The Colts In The Titans' Head? How Has Pagano Adjusted In-game?

Episode Date: July 7, 2017

Today Matt looks at a couple of stories that have flooded the #Colts news cycle and also takes a couple listener call ins discussing competitive mindsets, in-game and halftime adjustments as well as a few others. 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. Thank you guys for joining me here on Friday to end the week. We've got a nice little show for you tonight.

I'm going to go through a little bit of the news and notes and stuff over the past few days. We've kind of been in earshot of some interesting, some not so interesting, but also going to drop a couple listener call-ins on here, and we'll listen to those, and I'll go ahead and answer those for you guys. I just wanted to continue to thank you guys for listening to the show, for sharing it and passing it on to just whoever you're passing it on to. It really is doing really well and it's really cool to see kind of the fruits of our labor, you know, both me putting these shows up and for you guys listening, interacting, and being part of the process as well. It really is good to have you guys on board doing that. Also, again, like I said, I'll give you guys a reminder, kind of being a little cryptic here, not intending to be, but there is going to

be some news coming forward that I think you guys are going to be interested in here pretty shortly. I'm going to have to get some of this stuff shored up, but I hope you guys will be interested and we'll go from there. But that should be coming up here up in the next week or so. But for now, let's kind of get into what we've been hearing over the past several days. There was a story that came out about the Colts using hearing aids in one of their games. Former tackle Tarek Glenn basically mentioned that, you know, they were used on the road game during Manning's rookie season in order to help him hear the loudest so that they could hear him and not necessarily hear the crowd noise.

So it would kind of drown those out. And at first, you know, I think I, like most of you, assumed that this was all, you know, an illegal deal. Kind of sounded kind of shady on Glenn's part to offer that information up. But on the other hand, you know, now we see in here that, I mean, it may not have been so shady. It still sounds shady, though, right? I mean, it still kind of sounds like he was kind of attempting to poke the bear, start some kind of issue or whatever. But it turns out that the Saints used him as well. I believe in a Seahawks game was the report and that there was no issues from the league or from the opposing team or anything like that brought to the forefront and ultimately that there's really

no issues with these these type of whatever they are earplugs or hearing aids or however they were uh discussed to be i just don't know like kind of what i feel about this as far as moving forward i think that's all i mean whether it's the colts or I mean, don't you guys agree that it's kind of the competitive edge to be at home? I mean, how much do these things actually help? Maybe, you know, it could be really minimal. But in the end result, I mean, the home team's not wearing them, and they still have to be able to hear. Well, at least we don't think the home team is wearing them and they still have to be able to hear, uh, well, at least we don't think the home team is wearing them, but they have to be able to hear, you know, the, the cadence from the quarterback as well. I mean, they're, everybody has to hear it. Of course, the offensive line,

the wide receivers, they need to hear instructions, but the defense needs to know, uh, certain things too. I mean, a lot of their keys are visual, but they also are going to get some audible keys as well from the opposing quarterback. So not to mention, you're on the road. I mean, that's supposed to be what it is. You know, you're on the road game. You have the disadvantage from being on the road. But at the same time, you know, if it's legal, it's legal. It's just one more thing that's added to the game, I guess.

But it seems that it happened quite, it's legal. It's just one more thing that's added to the game, I guess. But it seems that it happened quite a long time ago. And then the Saints apparently used them again. Like I said, I think it was around 2013, 2014. And there were no issues brought up about it then. So it's likely that there was, you know, it's possible, I guess, that it was used far more or has been used in the past, what, 15, 16 years has been used far more than than any of us really knew. And nobody just ever brought it up and just happened to be something that Tarek Glenn brought up as well. But at first, it certainly sounded like it was a shady little ordeal. And, you know, I wasn't really sure how I thought about it. I don't know, you know, if we were preparing for, uh, all of the Patriots fans to, to jump on board and, and get all up in

our business about all this because of their history of, of cheating and being scoundrels and everything else. Uh, I, I guess that we kind of put that on the back burner. I'm sure there's some fans out there still, uh, complaining about it, but when it comes down to it, there really wasn't much else that could be done. So let's move on from that. There was the story about Jim Mora not wanting to go to Peyton Manning's statue unveiling in October. I think it's October 8th when all that goes down. And some people think this is not a story. Some people think it's an issue. I mean, it's personal preference both by you guys and myself.

Me, for me, this just seems like kind of, look, Manning and Mora have a relationship. They had a relationship then. Manning was his first pick, and the height of the organization was to come on Manning's arm, and it did, obviously. But the first four years they were together, and then this final year that they're together, Manning said basically that he would have gone to bat for Mora, that all this was going down. Well, it all came down to Mora being basically given an ultimatum saying that he was either to fire Vic Fangio or he would be fired. And I made somewhat of a comparison in an article on Stampede Blue that it would be similar to a situation if Pagano was in that same situation. But, you know, we know and some of the people commenting on it were right to point out, and it's true, I think I just forgot to write it in there, that Pagano was not

above saying, you know, Wineski, you're going to take the fall for me being a crappy coach over the past couple years. And he did. So there's not that, that part of it is not the same. But both first yearyear coaches when they came in the league with their number one overall picks, and it just seems like there would be some sort of a connection there between these guys that would make Mora maybe more apt to show up to this guy's statue. I mean, he's getting a statue unveiled. How many times does this happen to anybody? How many statues are there in the NFL at different stadiums? There's a good handful, don't get me wrong.

But how many thousands, hundreds of thousands of players have played since all the statues started being made? Peyton Manning is going to be a Hall of Famer, no question. His jersey's going to be retired. He's going to have a statue put up. I mean, that's kind of the end of it. I mean, is Mora not going to come to his induction to Hall of Fame? I mean, Manning said that Mora was the last guy to leave his wedding when he came. I mean, so there's definitely a closeness there, despite Mora being, you know, kind of the, the guy putting Manning on front street for having a crappy game against San

Francisco, throwing four interceptions, you know, the whole playoffs rant that he's known for. But I don't, I, I think that people are making a big deal, a bigger deal that maybe Manning isn't too fond of him. Well, Manning wouldn't have invited him if he didn't want him to come. And his whole thing, Mora's whole thing, is because Pullian told him he was going to get fired if he didn't fire Fangio. He didn't fire Fangio, so those two, Mora and Pullian, went to Ursae, and then it ended up being Mora was the one let go. I think that's Jim Ursae giving Pullian his power,

allowing him to have his power and not to be micromanaged or anything like that, and basically just saying, look, if you're going to fire him, you're going to fire him. They did go to the playoffs a couple times, 10-6 season, 13-3 season, and then you go to 6-10, and then you get booted. That's a quick hand from Irsae, I mean comparatively. So we talk about a lot of how he doesn't like turnover, but this was something that Pullian was apparently pretty serious about, and their defense was terrible,

and Fangio did go on to the Houston Texans in the next couple years. Their defense was terrible. So I'm not saying that Fangio didn't deserve to get fired. Fangio's had a pretty nice career ever since, but when you look at it and you say, okay, Maura, you're holding a grudge from more than 15 years ago about how everything went down with you and Pullian, and you're not going to come to Peyton Manning's statue unveiling. Pullian's not even around anymore. Maybe Pullian will be there, but come on. I mean, am I the only one that thinks this is crybaby stuff? I mean, okay, I'm not going to

sit here and pick apart Mora forever, but this to me seems really childish to not show up for something like that when you were asked to by the guy who's being honored. I mean, am I the only one that thinks this? I mean, I think, you know, if I look at the results of the poll that I put up, you know, 85% say that Mora should attend Peyton Manning's statue unveiling, and only 15% obviously are saying no. I don't understand how you could say no to this. I mean, no, he shouldn't go because he was fired. I mean, every coach, every coach almost gets fired. There's a handful, a very small select few that don't get fired. A lot, I mean, I can't imagine that all of them are on good terms. I mean, look at the guys right now that are in the league, Bowles.

He's basically, you know, he's just there for the ride right now. He's gone next year. mean he's I mean we talked to Brent Sobleski about this the other day in fact uh he's gonna be fired because they're basically in total teardown mode over there and you know I mean who who who does have a great situation when they get fired I mean let's get over it. It's been 15 years. I get it. Not the best possible thing that happened could have happened. But come on.

Let's put this on the back burner a little bit and grow up and be a big boy. And let's go see the guy that you drafted into the NFL. This needs to be worked out. I would like to see more of there, if not for only because of this stupid story that came up and that he says that he's not going to show up because of his issues with Bill Pullian. I think that's sad. I do. I do.

I think that's a lack of judgment on his part. When that was his last NFL job. He was the last quarterback that Maura coached. Go watch the guy. I mean, go to Indianapolis. He said you love the city. Come back to Indianapolis and enjoy one last day. I don't think anybody is going to say, hey, can I get a picture of you and Bill Pullian together? Or can I get a picture of you strumming Jim Irsay's guitar? I mean, come on, man. Let's just grow up and be adults and come watch the guy and then go home. Go get a good dinner downtown Indianapolis and then go home. I mean, I don't think that it's that hard.

So now let's take a little time to enjoy some listener questions. We got our first one from Mark. Mark had a few calls and so i kind of merged them all together so if you notice a little bit of a tone difference it's not that uh they were all the same calls back and forth uh it was just that i merged them all together to make them sound a little clear and so let's let's take a listen as to what mark has to say hey matt it's mark from columbus hey i want to give you a research project. I'd like to see if there's a secondary opinion that we could develop by you going and reviewing Chuck's worst games and trying to play devil's advocate, looking for reasons to why it wasn't as much his fault because of the personnel issues or it wasn't his fault at all.

Obviously, he has issues as a coach, but I personally feel like every coach does. I feel like every year that we go through the whole Pagano talks and replacing him, names like Sean Payton get thrown out there and other available coaches depending on the year. And I just don't see where he is significantly worse than those guys, especially Sean Payton. I feel like roster 1 to 53, Payton's had a better roster,

and yet his record's worse over the last five years. So just I'd like to see what your opinion is if you were to go back and look at those games. I look forward to hearing your response. I never feel like enough credence is given to the fact that Titans just haven't beaten the Colts with Mario, their quarterback, and luck at quarterback for the Colts. To me, that's a big deal. And you look back at the years of, to me, the Colts were much better than the Patriots, yet couldn't get past them with Manning.

That was a mindset thing. And there are so many matchups to me that fall in that category. The Bengals, over the last several years with the Steelers, you know, better players, and they can't get past that team. It's just as much of a mind game as it is physical and even talent. So that's one of the great things about the NFL is that it has that opportunity for any given team, any given week. So I just would love to hear your opinions around that. Do you think that the Colts will finally stop giving Andrew Luck so much on

his plate and kind of stop doing the full field reads every other play and kind of looking into the numbers. They do like double the long throws versus his short throws and ask him to do all these seven-step drops. You think we'll get back to more kind of simplifying the field, half-field reads, three five-step drops, you know, kind of where the league is going?

I know we do more of that in kind of our hurry-up kind of offense, but maybe even just in our just basic offense. Love the show as always. Great job. Love what you're doing. Thanks. Bye. So let me drop in here on the first part of that then

and say that when you look at the whole picture of Pagano's coaching tenure, of course, I mean, I'm not going to go back and look at all these games and kind of try to deconstruct whether he was at fault or other people, but we all know of the special teams gaffes. We all know of the coaching decisions to where he overruled Minuski in the past. I'm sure he did it a lot with Monachino initially last season and stuff. And we don't know what went well, what went wrong, but we do know that he has made some really bad coaching decisions. I think that when you look back at it and you look

at it just kind of holistically here, look at the times that were inside the opponent's 50 any punts, even inside the 45. I mean, okay, you're getting about a 20-yard punt. Now, Pat McAfee hated that because it was going to screw up his punting stats. I could care less about Pat McAfee's punting stats, but on the other hand, it doesn't make any sense to earn 15 yards when you've got Andrew Luck and you're looking at a fourth and one or a fourth and two. Man, go for it. I mean, I think maybe on our end, it's easier to say than it is to do in his position because I think that legitimately after year three, Paganos felt like every play could be his last calling it for the Colts.

I truly believe that. But at the same time, he's not at all at fault. I mean, these players, some of them have given crappy effort. Some of them don't know what they're doing on the field. Some of it has been absolutely poor personnel. Don't get me wrong. It's a whole picture here. When we look at the Colts, the past two seasons, eight and eight seasons,

or even just some of the crappy coaching or whatever in the past, that hasn't all been on one guy or one entity, whether it's the players or Pagano or other coaches for that matter. There could be a lot of mishaps with the coaches underneath him that he's giving a little more creative control to that we don't know about. But I would say that it's a holistic view and it's a holistic picture of what they need to not do anymore. Pagano's got to grow some kahunas at times and say, we're good enough. We have a top 10 defense and we need to take the opportunity to try to take this to the next level and win a game and try to seal a game. Not play not to lose, but play to win on a more consistent basis. I think game, not play not to lose, but play to win, you know, at a more

consistent base on a more consistent basis. I think that when you get to those points to where you're like, well, we're going to pick up 15 yards here on a punt. And that really makes zero difference whatsoever. Now here's the other part of that. If you're in a situation like that, you're gaining on the end of the quarter, you're going to give that team two minutes. You take every single yard you can get, but there's a lot of times where he'll even do this. He'll even go for a field goal on fourth and one, you know, from like the 35 or the 40 or something like that. There's been those in the past. There's a complete picture of Pagano not being a great coach because he's not a great coach. He might even struggle to be a good coach sometimes. And there has definitely been times when he's been a terrible coach.

Don't get me wrong. But there is just as much blame to go on some of those players as there is Coach Pagano. No two ways about it. I'm not going to make excuses for the players and then say that Pagano's bad and then vice versa. They both have been less than good. That's why they have had one of the worst rosters in the league. But they've also had some high points and that's a conversation for another day. And now on to the second part of that where we talk about the Titans with Mariota. A lot of people are giving Mariota Mark a lot of praise right now, saying that he's above Andrew Luck or just vice versa, whatever the case may be.

And there is a mindset. You're absolutely right on that. I mean, when the Colts weren't beating the Patriots, though, I wouldn't say that the Colts were far and away above what the Patriots were as a team. I just would not say that. I would say right now that 1-53, like you say, the Titans are a better team than the Colts on paper, but that doesn't mean that I think that the Colts should lose to the Titans. At the same time, the Colts have gone up against one of the

best defenses in the league last year, past couple years. You know, they've been significantly better until last year in the Texans, but the Colts continue just to smoke them, and they've only beaten the Colts once at Lucas Oil. And so you look at the whole – I mean, again, everything is a whole-picture approach here, but you have to assume that there is a mindset there. The Patriots were definitely in the Colts' head back in the day. That's why it was such a feat when they beat them in Lucas Oil in the playoff game. I mean,

it was the biggest thing ever. That was ultimately the Super Bowl when they beat them in the AFC Championship game, because they knew that there isn't another team in the league that was going to be as good as them. And when they went on to play the Bears, I mean, don't get me wrong, the Bears had a staunch defense at the time. They had Rex Grossman as their quarterback, though. They had some offensive weapons. Hester runs the initial kickoff back for a touchdown. Everybody's holding their heads like this is not turning out good. And then the Colts just go out and just proceed to swamp the Bears. There was a mindset that if they could get past the Patriots, they could beat anybody,

and one kick return for a touchdown did not hamper that at all. Just the same, there's a mindset right now for other teams in the league. The Colts are better than them regardless of the roster. Now, there is a team, in my opinion, this is kind of funny now that I'm just, this is just crossing my brain, but when you look at the Jaguars and how hard they've played the Colts every single game that they've ever played them, it seems like, I don't think that they fall into the mindset. They have had some of the most god-awful rosters, coaches, everything in the NFL for as long as I can remember. But they always play the Colts tough.

The Colts often play down to their competition as well. But that's a team, to me, that I don't really think falls into that mindset. That's one of the reasons that I actually think that the Jaguars might be better this year than people think because I don't think that they have this conscience in the back of their head. They just simply need a quarterback that can play football, and if Bortles doesn't suck this year, they'll be pretty good. I think that the Titans are going to be good as well. I think that there might be some of that mindset with them. I know there is with the Texans. I mean, the record proves it between the two teams. But they, you know, did they get over the hump last year? I mean, did that crazy run at the end of the first game that they played to come back,

to end that seven-minute comeback, was that them getting over the hump with their mindset? And do the Titans need to do that now too? I mean, we don't know because, I mean, look, the Jaguars, you know, what did they do last year against us? So, I mean, the Colts have a lot more to overcome than just roster deficiencies to beat this AFC South group right now. Because they're all packing up and they're all getting better. And their mindsets, for all we know, could be gone by now. And I understand what you're saying.

But, you know, it's hard to completely put it all in one basket and say that this is how it is. The Colts are considered the juggernaut of the division, even when they're bad. And until that team can get over the hump against them, it'll continue to be that way. We'll have to see what happens with the Titans this year. Now to address the last part of your call, Mark, I do hope that the Colts will start checking down a little bit more. I hope that Andrew will do this. I wrote, I think I wrote it, I don't remember if I wrote it or if I was talking about it on the podcast, but it was talking about the way I feel that Andrew is going to be, you know, when he comes back recouping with his injury with another year of Brian Schottenheimer, it really makes me wonder, does he start from the ground level and start to get everything in place?

Is it arm action? Is it mechanics? Is it everything? Is it step, his throw, his eye movement? Is it everything that comes with being a quarterback and everything that's involved with it? Does it all come back to him as a quarterback and everything that's involved with it does it all come back to him as a learning process from a to z or does he feel like he can start at l and kind of move his way through you know that's that's what i'm wondering and that's what i think that he'll do i think that this would i think strangely it sounds that this injury could be the best thing that ever happens to Luck for his personal growth as a quarterback because he has often passed up short six-yard passes on first down, early downs

for the deeper ball, and he's unsuccessful. I feel like I repeat some of this stuff, but it's the common issue that I've had with Luck for the past couple years, even probably since his rookie year. His rookie year was so phenomenal, though, with the crazy 11 wins that nobody predicted that I don't even remember if I thought that or not. But it goes back to everything involved. I think Chudzinski really has to come up with a really good game plan this year. He's going to still have the opportunities on short yardage situations or on early down situations with Doyle and some of the other guys. Moncrief, he knows he needs to come back and be physical. All signals are pointing to where he's having a good offseason,

so that's great. Chester Rogers, he'll be good in those slant route situations. Those early down situations are going to be critical for the Colts this year because they can't afford to get themselves on second, third long situations. They just can't do that this year. They don't have the personnel to do it. And I don't mean on offense necessarily, but I mean in general. The defense can't continually go out there every three, four plays and expect to hold down an opposing offense when offenses are getting better throughout the league. I don't know whether they're going to or not, but I think that they should. The five, seven step drops, those are for a very select few plays, in my opinion. A lot of that was done with Arians in 2012.

I think that more or less Chudzinski has tried to incorporate both that and some sort of a West Coast style thing. I think that we'll see a lot. We'll see. I think that we'll really see who Chudzinski is this year. I think that we'll really see what his game plan is, what he wants. A lot of the same pieces are there. He's still got Andrew. He still has to understand how to get the ball downfield. He has to understand how to move the chains consistently. He also knows that that defense, despite all the additions, despite the new rookies, all of that aside, he knows that he has to keep his offense on the field as long as possible. Don't be surprised when they run the ball, consider or continue to run the ball like they have in the past couple years on early downs.

Don't be surprised at that. Don't be surprised if they do try to take some chunk yard opportunities. They need to do that. Andrew Luck has to be aggressive or he'll get stagnant. At the same time, he has to be fundamental and he has to take what's given to him and all that starts with mindset and his rehabilitation from this a lot of it's going to be due to Brian Schottenheimer if Brian Schottenheimer and he can be on the same level again I'm excited because I think Brian Schottenheimer might be the the one thing that's being overlooked about how well Andrew Luck's going to do in the future I think Schottenheimer's done a fantastic job with him I think last year he did did a great job with him. I'd love to talk to him. I'm wanting to get an interview with this guy because I really want to see how he dives into Andrew's mind and how he

kind of does his checks and balances with him. So I've been trying for that. I'm going to try for that. I'm really going to try hard at training camp. So we'll have to see what happens with all of that. But I really think that that will all be one long process. His rehab will have to get him back to fundamentals. His fundamentals will have to get him to doing smart things on early downs. And then he will have to be completely healthy in order for him to be Andrew Luck. So I hope they do. And I think that the team will be significantly more successful if they do. Mark, thanks for the calls.

I appreciate it. That was kind of a lot of explanation and all there, but there was a few calls there to get to, so I appreciate your time for calling in, and thank you for that. So let's get to the next call. This is Jeremy. Hey, Matt. This is Jeremy from Williamsport, Indiana. I'm at HeMan'sBrother on the Twitter.

Enjoyed connecting with you a little bit there. Got a question about game plans and adjustments. So a lot of where this question is coming from is a lot of games I watch. It looks like we're not prepared when we start games. It looks like we come out flat. The offense is committing penalties. Andrew Luck's getting sacked. Just things don't seem to roll very well when we start games. And so the first part of that question is, who do you focus on in that? Is that the players

and their inability to carry out the game plan and do what they're supposed to do? Or you put that focus on the coaches and not really having the players prepared to go out there and execute. Second question is, I hear a lot about adjustments and how key adjustments are in any game, and really a lot of commentators will say that an NFL game is really like two games. You've got the first half, and then you've got the second half. And, again, I see a lot of we've got something going possibly in the first half, and then in the second half we look like a totally different team and we're not even ready to play. I mean, we can't keep up because it seems like the other team has made adjustments

and we're playing catch-up at that point. So I don't know what you notice with that, with our adjustments. And again, do you put that on? Okay, well, maybe we've made the coaches and made the right adjustments at halftime and our players that we had out there were not able to execute those adjustments or did we not make any adjustments? Because a lot of times to be honest i'm looking at at the game and seeing our opponent doing some things differently and now that's

working for them meanwhile we're still doing the same thing and failing at the same thing we were trying to do in the first half anyway thanks for the the time and the call appreciate what you're doing just love the show and can't wait to hear more. It's kind of interesting that Jeremy come up with these situations and Mark's calls were kind of similar to this of what he's wanting to know. And look, this has been an ongoing issue forever. The Colts start out slow. We see them start out slow in the first half. And then in the second half, it seems like they come back a little bit more, or they just fall dead.

We haven't seen them really fall dead too often, I don't think. I think that, at least in my head, I am cognizant of second halves being better. I think that Pagano has done pretty well with his second half adjustments. On the other hand, they've started so poorly and so slow in just constantly having to come back, having to put the bearer of the weight on Andrew Luck's shoulders, especially early in his career. And it just made for everything to be difficult. So I went and I looked up some of these numbers and I'll go through first quarter and then second quarter numbers first, because these are the quarters that I think that we obviously think that the Colts have been pretty bad at under Pagano. So on first quarter,

each year they've been typically between 10th and 15th in the league in first quarter points. They were 21st in 2015. That was their bad year, obviously, with Luck playing bad and then Hasselbeck coming in. So they were between 10th and 15th in first quarter points. Not too bad. Top half of the league, I think that's more than gracious there. So we're good with that. Second quarter points, they've been 18th to 20th. In 2012, 2013, and 2015, they were 5th and 10th in 14 and 16, respectively. So 2014 and 2016, they were in the top 10 for those two years in second quarter points. So let's look at the first half all the way through. In 2012, their first half points was 11.5 points per game in first half,

17th in the league. Their second half points, 9.7, 25th in the league. That's crazy to me because those were, it seemed like the year, that 2012 season was the year that luck had to come back all the time. I mean, you would have thought that those would have been reversed, right? 25th in the first quarter or first half, and then 17th in the second half, but that's not how it shook out. Uh, the Colts did have a lot of comebacks. It kind of is weird to think that they only had about 21 points per game that year, but let's move on. 2013, they got a little bit better

both in points per half and amongst the league. They were 11.6 points in the first half per game. They were 14th in the league. In the second half, they were 13.8, significantly better than 2012. 13.8 points in the second half per game. They were seventh in the league with that. So that may be almost more comebacky ish, right? So I'm not sure about that. That's even better. I'm a 25 or better points per game that season, uh, per these numbers. And so that that's a little better. Then we go to 2014, right? 2014, more improvement, significantly more improvement. 2014, 13.8 points per game, seventh in the league. 13.3 points in the second half points per game, ninth in the league.

2014 was definitely their best regular season. No question about it. Not even close. Best first half, right there in the mix with the best second half points per game throughout. So 27 points per game between the two on that in 2015. Awful. 22nd and 21st respectively, first and second halves. 10.1 points per game. Lowest of any of their five seasons in points per game in the first half. 22nd in the league. 10.1 points per game, lowest of any of their five seasons in points per game in the first half, 22nd in the league. 10.3, 21st in the league. Not as bad as 2012, strangely enough, but 10.3,

21st in the league there. So 2015 is almost kind of a throwout year, right? I mean, yes, Luck played some games, but he played terrible, and then the rest of it was Hasselbeck. But I mean, you almost have to attribute a lot of that to Luck as well. So last year, 12.8 points a game, eighth in the league last year, 12.9, ninth in the league and second half points last year. So overall, they had their second or the third best combined points per game. So I mean, it seems like they were bad, right? But when you look at it, their first halves, I mean, 2015, throw that year out. It was an awful year. But look at the rest of them. 17th in 2012, 14th in the league in 2013. Two bad years. We understand that. Slow starting.

Those have been kind of like something that we just hang on to, continue to hang on to, because it was so bad and so noticeable that when we see them go three and out, two or three possessions in a row, we automatically attribute that to terrible starts. They're getting bad starts, three points every now and again, but we don't remember the times where they scored 14 to 18 points a game a couple different times. So, I mean, it's all subjective here, but moving on to 2014, they improved. I mean, every year they improved outside of 2015, and then they went back up in 2016, but still didn't get to their top, which was in 2014. So, I want to say, Jeremy, that when you look at adjustments

just in general, most of the adjustments made, Pagano is not good. In my opinion, Pagano is not good making in-game adjustments. Now, when you go to halftime or second half adjustments, I feel like Pagano is a little better than that. But the problem is, is that when you get to in-game situations, I think Pagano drops the ball. I think that he doesn't allow his coaches to coach their positions enough. It makes you feel like when Minuski was making plays, he was dialing up blitzes. It looked like the defense was getting a little creative. It almost felt like Pagano was like, nope, we got to stop that. We're going to stop it. And then the team starts playing like crap again. So overall adjustments, in my assumption, is that I think Pagano is pretty good at making

halftime adjustments because three out of those five years, Pagano got better, more points in the second half than he did in the first, at least with the offense. So there's something going on there. When you go look at defense, there honestly wasn't any stats for this that I could find. I looked for about a half hour and I didn't find any. But I would assume that a lot of this is defensive because of the offense, right? The lot of the defense, you know, and one of the things that drives me nuts about NFL stats is that they consider every single point that's given up, given up on the defense. And that's just ridiculous because kick returns, interceptions, return for touchdowns,

those aren't on the defense. But they count against the defense. And I can't stand that. Those count points allowed, and they shouldn't be. And obviously you can't attribute too many points to special teams, but you should. They should have special teams points that have been allowed through kickoffs, punt returns, just whatever. Anything that happens on special teams, points are given up. They should go to the special teams units. And that's how you should gauge them

a lot. But a lot of it goes on defense. In fact, all of it goes on defense. And it's really hard to dissect how many special teams touchdowns did they give? How many pick sixes did that team have? And then you find out really how many points that defense gave up. So with the defense that was on the field so often in some of these seasons, it's really hard to tell. But you can see the natural progression from first half to second half and even first quarter to second quarter in a couple years of how they transferred their play calling and stuff like that. If you're

looking for a definitive answer, Jeremy, for me about how Pagano does his or how he goes from one to the next or, you know, how he adjusts in the locker room, I don't know. There's not a lot of time for that as far as in the locker room for him to do much. They can find stuff to pick on and to go after. Sometimes they're successful. Sometimes they're really not successful. But in-game seems to be my biggest issue with Pagano versus when he has time to dial something up. I think Pagano is a smart guy football-wise. He has a high football IQ.

I think that he is just a reactionary coach, though, and I think that a lot of times when you're reactionary, if you're reactionary, you are already behind the eight ball. You're giving these guys the opportunity to lose again instead of trying to dial something up to stop something else that you see. These guys, because you all look on the way that teams game plan, okay? Teams game plan, and they try to move on from stuff. They try to do more things on offense, more things on defense,

to try to keep the other team on their toes. Now, when you dial things up, you want to be able to be innovative. You want to be able to find a unique way to stop something or to beat something. And that's really one of the issues, I think, that come with Pagano. He's not innovative. He doesn't come up with unique ways to stop or beat anything. And I think that's one of the biggest issues. I think Chudzinski's a pretty good offensive coordinator. He's just got to get some of this stuff shored up a little bit, and he's got to get the right guys with the ball in their hands, and we need to see Luck take another significant leap like he did last year as far as I'm concerned. But then

defensively, we've got to get a real defensive coordinator. I'm not high on Monachino. I'm going to give him a second year, obviously, because the team did, but I'm not looking for special things from him unique-wise. I'm not looking for him to dial up any specific packages that are going to blow anybody's mind. I think that the Colts are fairly easy to read, and this is a problem for smart coaches like Belichick and some other guys in the league like Andy Reid or just other ones. You get to where you're stagnant and that you're easy to prepare for. It doesn't matter what you do to alter the game after halftime because the other team already has another game plan and they're not going to give you the same look they did in the first half. And if you can't adjust in the game, then you're not going to be a good NFL

head coach. And I think that's where Pagano is. I truly do. I think that he has good football IQ. I just don't think that he is good at calling the adjustments in game. So thank you guys for the calls. This is kind of a long episode. I rambled a little bit. Sorry for that. But I appreciate your guys' call-ins. Please keep them coming. I enjoy talking to you guys. We're going to try and get some more guests on next week. I'm not sure who we'll have, probably some familiar ones, but you guys seem to always keep coming back. I truly appreciate it. Share the show. Please retweet anything that I throw up on Twitter or whatever. That does nothing but bring awareness to the show and for more Colts fans. There's Colts fans out there that aren't following us right now that aren't listening, so let's do everything we can to get

them to tune in and everything else. So go on Apple Podcasts, give me a rating and review, five-star rating if possible, and then throw me down what you guys like about the show, what you may think that we need to change or just whatever. If you want to use the call-in, it's 574-516-2881. Look forward to talking to you guys soon. And thank you guys all for joining me this week.

It was a lot of fun. So thank you guys. And I'll talk to you all next week 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. Napa Know How.

It takes a lot to get excited about a bag. But most bags can't save you 20% on auto parts. That's 20% off headlamps, 20% off oil filters, 20% off virtually anything you can fit inside the 99-cent Napa reusable bag. So tell your buddies, there's a bag they just have to check out. Quality parts. Helpful people. That's Napa know-how.

Napa know-how. At participating Napa auto parts stores, while supplies last. Minimum three items. Exclusions apply. Offer ends 10-31-17.