Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - LOCKED ON COLTS - 9/12 - Colts Drop Opener to Lions 39-35 | Instant Reaction: The Good, The Bad And The Caveats

Episode Date: September 12, 2016

The #Colts couldn't finish off the #Lions despite scoring 32 points in the final 35 minutes of the game. Andrew Luck was phenomenal, the O-Line surprised us all and regardless of injuries the defense has so much work to do. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If you're a pro, you know that this is not efficient. Because you know there's a better way. There's also a better way to save. When pro customers buy building supplies in bulk at Lowe's, they save up to 20% every day. Buy in bulk and save up to 20% on concrete, gypsum, and gypsum accessories. At Lowe's, buy more, save more. Visit the Pro Desk or LowesForPros.com for details. Discount applies to contract or pack items.

Minimum purchase required, U.S. only. You are Locked On Colts, your daily Indianapolis Colts podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Welcome back to Locked On Colts. I am your host, Matt Dainley. And our Colts dropped one 39-35 to the Detroit Lions in amazing fashion. Real quick, if you haven't subscribed to the show, please do so. And if you have, please give us a review and a rating

and let me know what you think about the show. Colts lose 39-35 on a combination of Matt Prater field goal to basically run the clock out and a safety with all the kickoff return hoop flaw that went on. Real quick, Robinson went out with a concussion and TJ Green left the game with a knee sprain, didn't return. So let's get this dissected just a little bit. Let's get the negatives out of the way first. These slow starts are almost systematic at this point. On the Colts' first three possessions, they ran the ball six times and on their passes had one connection on third down for 13 yards, but the rest were so minimal. It was ridiculous. The rest of them were short and basically do nothing attempts with gains of six, one, three, and no gain. But then on the fourth possession, the Colts began to go downfield

a bit and had receptions of 19, three, 15, and 17. I mean, you're not going to have all of them be double digit yardage, but I mean, you have to going to have all of them be double-digit yardage. I mean, you have to mix it up a little bit. But they clearly had a different idea of how to go about the offense after they realized they weren't getting the ball downfield. Previous to that fourth possession, they had a total of 31 yards on 15 plays. That's not good. I mean, that's almost sickening.

Penalties in the sack of 11 yards a side on that fourth drive, they chewed up 58 yards and only eight plays. The following possession, which was also eight plays, there was a similar approach, obviously, and they went down the field 75 yards for the touchdown. So let me sum this up. 31 yards on the first 15 plays, being conservative, and you get no points. Or 133 yards on 16 plays, and you get no points or 133 yards on 16 plays and you get 10 points. There's really not an argument for Pagano's 1965 offense approach at this point. It's, there's always been question as to how much Pagano really pulls the strings, both offensively and defensively. You know, does he let his coordinators coordinate or is he the one overriding stuff and so on and so forth? It really comes off anymore that Pagano just wants to do it his way.

And I think that he's starting to understand that he has to stop delegating to all of his coordinators, especially to begin the game. When it gets down to crunch time, you're the head coach. I mean, you kind of reserve the right to do that, but let these guys do their job. They obviously know what they're doing or they wouldn't have gotten hired. Let them do their job. Let them at least get the game started and get the game moving in the right direction. And then if you want to screw something up, do it later. You know, don't get these guys off on a bad, a bad start just to start the game. And here's a thought that came to me during the game. We're all watching this and Twitter was kind of blowing up, you know, get the ball downfield, get the up-tempo offense going that Andrew Luck succeeds so well at. But the thought that came to me was

the Colts typically struggled on defense when Manning was with the Colts because the offense was like such a quick scoring team. I think it was for at least a few years in a row that it was like that. I mean, it was almost, you know, the defense was gassed because the offense was scoring so quickly. The Colts offense now almost has to be quick paced, no huddle pass 75% of the time, and it works. If you're going to give up points, you've got to score a lot of points. And this is the way the offense scores points,

not the slow methodical stuff that they're wanting to implement at the beginning of the game. It simply doesn't work. You cannot set up the pass with the run anymore, not with this Colts roster, not with this offense. It has to be the other way around. You have to set up the run with the pass. You have to get Andrew Luck in a groove, and they did that. There's another side to it for sure. One thing that Luck has struggled to do in the past

is to get himself in a rhythm, or the coordinators are failing to get him in a rhythm with the play calling. Either way, one or the other, it's not working. So I've made several comments about it in the past and also recently. Well, the design early didn't get the Colts moving down the field by any means, but it absolutely got Luck comfortable. So where's that fine line to getting the ball downfield, but also getting Luck into a groove? He was pretty, pretty amazing. He was accurate. He was on time a lot of the time. He had 75% completion rate at halftime. I mean, I can't remember that that ever being the case at halftime for luck. I just can't.

Pagano apparently stayed out of Chudzinski's ear the rest of the game, but pulled a stupid timeout out of his back pocket following a first downplay with a minute 15 to go in the game. I just didn't understand this. It didn't make sense to me. What's the reason for it? Were there too many guys on the field? Were they at risk of having 12 men in the huddle? Who knows?

But it certainly screwed up the opportunity and milked the clock late in the game for the Colts. In the press conference, Pagano says that he took the time out to get guys in the huddle to coach. That's what the play clock is for. There were five plays ran before that play in the drive. Why aren't you looking at it then? Why don't you have a plan for what you're going to do when you get close to the end zone or you get inside the 30 yard line? Pagano looked absolutely utterly confused when he was asked that question, too, almost like he forgot that he called it. And he just was like, yeah, what do you mean? I took a timeout.

There was no reason for it. It was a pointless timeout. I mean, look, were it on third down or fourth down play, I'm on board with it because you don't want to screw something up when you have a scoring opportunity on your last possession of the game. But it wasn't. It was a second down play. I don't know. Maybe it's just me, but this made very little sense. Then defensively, the Colts were put into their Pagano prevent defense that almost always yields points and is an absolute quarterback's paradise to see. And in the presser, he was asked about it as well and said that they

were in a cover two concept because Cromartie had played every snap, Rashawn Melvin was opposite of him after Robinson went out, and it felt like it was the best opportunity for them to succeed. Let's be clear. This is always the Colts defense at the end of the game. This wasn't because Cromartie had played every snap and Robinson went down and Melvin was opposite of Cromartie. When they're ahead and they can lose or they can risk possibly being only up like two points and be at risk for an onside kick, this is always the Colts approach. This is always Pagano's approach. This prevent stuff does not work. Yes, you have to show, you have to have some pressure somewhere. You either have to body up the receivers with your secondary, or you've got to find a way to get five guys to rush the passer

and enough guys in coverage. One way or the other, you've got to do it. You simply can't sit there and just let Matthew Stafford, who was having a phenomenal game, by the way, carve you up in the last minute of the game when all they need is to get inside the 30-yard line at most for a field goal. That's common sense. This isn't something that's different. This is something that's been going on and on and on for Pagano's tenure. Let's get a little more in-depth here with the Colts' offense on third downs. Colts were nine of 16 at 56% on

third downs. The Lions were 55% on theirs. It was pretty decent for week one. I mean, it wasn't great, but I'm not going to, you know, we're not going to pick that apart. It was pretty decent for week one for the Colts offense. They were much better in the second half, obviously going five for eight on third down versus three of seven in the first half, which is pretty pathetic. And the way that they were running their offense, of course it does. You run twice and you pass on third down inside of the yardage to go, you're very seldom going to get a first down. Defensively, this is an issue as well. A 45% stoppage of Detroit on third downs would have

been good for 30th in the league last season. So that's not a number that they want to maintain. Again, it's week one. Maybe we can wash our hands with it, but it is what it is. But what I see is a much bigger issue in that regard is the fact that the Detroit Lions ran 64 offensive plays in this game. And were only forced into third down situations nine times. The Colts gave up big gains on first and second downs quite a bit. And that, in my opinion, is the real issue in this area. The Lions had first down percentage of nearly 44% throughout the game. That's insane.

They didn't get them to third down opportunities near enough, and they were basically going up and down the field at will. Now they did have four three and outs in the second half, I believe. So the Colts' defense was opportunistic at a point, but the Colts only notched one sack on the evening. They did have six QB hits and three tackles for loss, I believe. I have mixed emotions on this. Although one sack isn't going to cut it, six hits is pretty solid. Not great, but they did pressure Stafford at times,

just not with any consistency. The Colts should have had at least seven tackles for loss in this one. They weren't all missed tackles, but they were also to where the Colts defenders were in poor position to make tackles. They over-pursued, took bad angles, failed to get off of weak blocks, assuming that the play was already over. That part is mental, and that can't happen. That can't be something that happens in a game, regardless of what week it is. It doesn't matter if it's week one or week 15. This defense, with all of its shortcomings, simply cannot fail to play through the whistle. They have to be the attacking style team that takes it through the defense constantly.

While we're on the defense, there were some good things from the D. The secondary covered pretty well, I thought. Stats aside, I felt secondary was often in the right place at the right time, despite the result of the play. There were a couple times where the Colts had the defenders, especially Patrick Robinson, had his hands on the ball or was making a play on the ball and just didn't happen. Either the throw was perfect or the Colts defenders just simply missed the ball. I mean, there's not a whole lot you can do with that. They were in the right place a lot of the time. Linebackers, however, another story. They're going to be

the death of me, I swear. One of the things that I was hearing rather consistently at Colts camp was that Morrison has all the physical tools, the coaches know this, and the abilities, but he has issues staying focused and misses assignments. And that was obvious tonight. You saw plenty of that. For example, specifically on Abdul's receiving touchdown, he comes out of the backfield. He was Morrison's assignment. And first of all, set up far too inside of the structure of the defense to be able to cover the running back when he's already on that side. Absolutely paid no attention to him after the ball was snapped. He falls for the play action, stays pat, and never gave him a second look,

and he goes completely uncovered in the flats for a touchdown. And real quick, if you're looking to get stories and insight on the entire NFL all in one show, be sure to check out the Locked On NFL podcast with Matt Williamson. And for all of you fantasy diehards, Vinny Iyer will give you everything you need to be successful in your leagues with the Locked On Fantasy Football podcast. And if you're a business local to Indianapolis or a national business and your target audience is men in the age of 18 to 50 and you want to advertise on the show, email the show at LockedOnColtsPod at gmail.com and let's get that ball rolling. Now let's go to the O-line.

The O-line played really, really well tonight, I thought. The Colts gave up a couple sacks early, gave up some pressures, maybe a couple too many in the first half, first quarter especially. Late in the first half, and especially in the second half though, Andrew Luck had a ton of time to throw the ball. There was one instance where Luck escaped the pocket near the end of the game. I think it was the completion to Moncrief, in which the defender dives at his legs, misses his foot, gets a piece of it, but luck stays up. But that was about it. As far and away the best that I can remember,

the offensive line playing that well in protection. Now the running game may be another story. They need to improve for sure. But I think Colts Nation, I think we have a line here. I really do. This seems to be a pretty good group. It's amazing,

first of all, that Jack Muhor got to play this game, played the entire game, and played it well. Let's not talk too much about it, though. I'm a little superstitious about this stuff, but it's worth noting nonetheless, if it's in week one or regardless. The Colts will desperately need a repeated performance of that, though, next week against Denver to stay competitive in this game. Now, if we look at the Colts offensively, Luck was a gem tonight. 31-47, 385 yards and four scores. He was pinpoint, putting the ball where it had to be. The ball was coming out on time, and that O-line is a large part of that.

Don't get me wrong. Luck was phenomenal on his own, but Luck had so much time to throw. It was just something that we've not seen in recent history that I can remember. Not with this era. It just hasn't happened. Gore had 14 carries for 59 yards. Philip Dorsett had a really nice game with four catches for 94 yards. Hilton was pretty solid, six for 79 yards.

It seems like some of these guys go unnoticed in a game like this, at least I thought so, because it seemed like the ball was being spread around so much. Moncrief had six catches for 64 and a touchdown. Allen had four catches for 53 and a touchdown. Doyle was phenomenal with three catches and two of those being touchdowns. He only had 35 yards, but the dude, you know what? And Doyle goes unnoticed a lot. He's about as reliable as you get at tight end. I'm so glad they kept him.

I'm glad that he, you know, that they didn't try to sign both Allen and Fleener in the off season and just kind of get rid of Doyle or anything like that. Doyle's fantastic. He's a good blocker. He's a heck of a receiver, and he showed it tonight. He did his job. He caught a bullet in the back of the end zone there from luck that just sent everybody's expectations of the rest of the game as high as they could go. But on the other hand, we have the issue of the linebackers on defense. They still can't cover. We've talked about this ad nauseum.

Stafford did well, cut up our defense 31-39 for 340 in three touchdowns. Abdul was pretty solid, 12 rushes for 60 yards, five catches for 57 in a touchdown. Theo Riddick just absolutely went through us, though, with only 45 yards rushing on seven attempts, but he had a touchdown there, and then he caught five balls for 63 yards and had a touchdown as well. Ebron had a touchdown, 46 yards. Marvin Jones, he didn't have a touchdown, but he did have 85 yards on four receptions.

And then there was that catch by Anquan Bolden where he catches the ball. He gets through a couple of slight defenders and we've got about five or six defenders within five yards of him and none of them touch him for about 25 yards. That is the kind of stuff I'm talking about. Poor positioning, bad angles, over pursuit. This defense has to get better. They're hurt. I get it. And I think the secondary covered pretty well, like I said. I think they did a good job. It was a lot of missed tackles and poor angles, though. Offensively, I think we are seeing everything that we want to see from this Colts team on offense. We're seeing Luck at the best of his game. Gore is going to get what he can get. Ferguson even provided a little bit there out of the backfield. Not a lot, but that's probably going to be his role this year. We saw a

little bit out of Turbin in short yardage like we expect. All of our receivers look like they're on point. We've got a ton of weapons, and if that offensive line can block like that for the rest of the year, or even a good portion of it, the Colts are going to be in really good shape offensively. Put up 35 points with a ton of injuries. They put up 35 points after being poorly coached for 15 minutes of the game on offense. That's something that you just don't expect. They didn't have any points until 450 left in the second quarter with the Adam Vinatieri field goal. So they went a half, 35 minutes, and scored 32 points in the last 35 minutes of the game. That offense is going to be deadly if they can do half of what they did tonight. If they can even average 26, 28 points a game, the Colts are going to win a lot

of games regardless of what the defense puts on the field. Now, the defensive up the middle, it's kind of hard to tell without looking at the tape how well they played. I felt like they stopped a lot in the first half. But a lot of the extended plays, a lot of the screens out of the backfield, those were poorly defended. We had no tackling. I get it. We've got a lot of guys hurt on defense, but they've still got to be able to tackle if they're going to be in the NFL.

And if they're going to play on this team, they've got to be able to tackle. So I think that it's pretty fair to say that Pagano's got to get his head out and let the coordinators coordinate. He's got to let everybody do their job. And when it comes down to crunch time, when there's a minute 15 to go and it's your possession and you can run the clock out and you have Andrew Luck at quarterback. You don't want time left on the clock in this NFL. Certainly not almost 40 seconds left. That's not a lot of time, but that time is getting shorter

and shorter in the NFL with the way these guys can sling the ball. Stafford was excellent tonight. We shouldn't have expected anything less than for him to get down. And you know what? The Lions were even screwed out of two times having to use timeouts because their guys didn't get out of bounds. Some of it is week one, and we'll get over it. But there's some good things and some bad things. We expect this every single time. The Colts do travel to Denver next week, and they're playing one of the best defenses that they're going to play all year.

We remember how they looked against the Panthers. Not to mention the offense behind Trevor Simeon looked pretty decent as well. So the Colts need to get healthy, have to get their minds right, that players and coaches alike before this next matchup. Or things could get pretty ugly come Sunday. Like I said, we saw a lot of good things out of the Colts on both sides of the ball, believe it or not. We saw some bad things for sure, but we've got a lot to look forward to. I think we're a

little better set up than I gave us credit for previous to the jump off at the season. I'm pretty excited to see what this offense can do. I'm hopeful for the defense to improve. I really want to see these linebackers learn how to cover somebody out of the backfield or a tight end. And if they can, then I think the Colts are as deadly as anybody in the conference, and especially in their division, the AFC South. They can definitely win that with how they played today, especially on offense. I look forward to talking to you tomorrow. So stay tuned as always

go check out the show, give it a rating or a review, and let me know how you feel about the show. You can get us on Stitcher, Audio Boom, and you can also get us on iTunes. So make sure you make that happen. And also check out the show on Twitter at LockedOnColts. You can go to the show's Facebook page and you can also email me at LockedOnColts. You can go to the show's Facebook page and you can also email me at LockedOnColtsPod at gmail.com. So let's make that happen. Everybody keep their chin up, Colts Nation.

And I'll see you tomorrow on LockedOnColts. 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.