Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - LOCKED ON COLTS - 9/19 - Colts Fall Short in Comeback Against Broncos 34-20 | Instant Reaction: It's Not As Bad As It Appears

Episode Date: September 19, 2016

Despite starting 0-2 for a third consecutive season, Matt tells you why now is not the time for the #Colts, or Colts fans to panic. The competition for the other MLB spot needs to re-open and everything argument deserves context, but the window won't stay open forever to take back the #AFCSouth Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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I'm your host, Matt Dainley. And jeez, people. Colts nearly pulled it out after playing so poorly for such a large portion of that game. I mean, luck started out 5 of 15 in the first half for 53 yards. Let that sink in for a minute. And the Colts were within sixth with just a few minutes to go in the game. I mean, it just about blows your mind on its own. Anyways, let's get down to it. The Colts were within sixth with just a few minutes to go in the game. I mean, it just about

blows your mind on its own. Anyways, let's get down to it. I mean, the Colts did end up dropping it 34 to 20 to the Denver Broncos, but let's dig in just a little bit here. In the first half, Luck started out two of three on his first possession. The only incompletion was the drop to Doyle. Then Luck overthrows Hilton, throws a very off-target, strange pass in between Moncrief and Dorsett. Then Moncrief, on his next pass that he's targeted for, gets sandwiched and ends up getting hurt by Ward, who hits him on the chin underneath the front of his helmet.

It sends him out of the game. So Luck completes a first down to Hilton after that, throws a deep ball to Dorsett and double coverage. Then Hilton's wide open with a ton of green in front of him, but the pass gets batted down at the line of scrimmage because Luck stares him down throughout the entire route. It's maybe a 12 to 15 yard out, and Luck's just staring at him the whole time. That's not hard for defensive linemen to read the quarterback's eyes, get up and get a mitt on the ball. Now, the majority of that was all in the first quarter as well. On a good note, Frank Gore did pass Franco Harris on the all-time rushing leaders list, so there's that. But this game started out really bad with a line leaking

a few, a bit at times, but let's be fair. The line had been protecting for what I would reasonably assume was three to four seconds for a vast majority of the time. A lot of those were ended up being like coverage pressures, so to speak. Luck was looking downfield. The coverage was good downfield. The line was holding up for the most part, but eventually they're going to get through. You can't protect this front seven from the Broncos that long and expect nobody to get through.

The coverage was just that good downfield. It ended up forcing Luck to hold the ball a little bit longer than he wanted to and a little bit longer than he wanted to and the line to you know a little longer than the line could protect um wasn't allowed luck to be uh remain uh decisive i guess and find a groove it was more of him sitting back and you know when you get used to waiting for something to open up a little bit further maybe you get a little more comfortable or something. I don't know what it was, but he just looked like he was expecting to wait four and five seconds for somebody to open up at times.

And remember last week I said that Chud and the Colts staff were going to have to find a happy medium for him to both find a rhythm as well as push the ball downfield at times. And I think outside of the very first pass, which was just a few yards downfield to Doyle, which he dropped, they may have gone to the opposite extreme in this case, or the intermediate routes were just not opening up enough either way. Both are possible, but until I'm able to look back at the game and rewatch it, I can't really say with a great amount of certainty, but I will absolutely come back to this later in the week and talk to you about what I saw in the All-22.

Now, defensively, again, the Colts allowed 50% conversion rate on third downs in the first half, which is not great, and they're allowing far too many additional yards after first contact. They're also allowing too many first downs on early downs, first and second downs. Them getting first downs, they're not getting those opposing offenses to third down opportunities where they can really pin their ears back. Now the defense forced only one turnover, which was the Butler interception, but the first half for the Broncos looked pretty good on their part, aside from the fact that they didn't convert much

and get the ball in the end zone. Trevor Simeon went 17-25 for 215 yards part aside from the fact that they didn't convert much and get the ball in the end zone. Trevor Simeon went 17 to 25 for 215 yards and had that interception to Butler. Anderson carried the ball 10 times for 51 yards and scored a touchdown. Booker, who, you know, I'm not that enamored with Booker. He runs the ball okay. He's not anything, he doesn't look anything special to me. And when he was coming in out of the the draft I thought he was he was going to be something a pretty good pretty good running back somebody I thought that I wanted the Colts to to go after I'm not seeing a whole lot of dynamic out of that guy also Demaryius Thomas had four catches for 79 yards including

that big catch and run on the screen the wide receiver screen that he just tore up the sideline and eluded tackle after tackle and colt after colt. Sanders also seemed he was really active early, but it seemed like he had more than just three catches in the first half. He only had 39 yards. It seemed like he was getting targeted quite a bit, but I don't remember him dropping any necessarily, but he only had three catches. Now the Colts at this time, at halftime, were extremely lucky to be down only a

touchdown. They were to get the ball in the second half, and this is not a good game from the offense at all. Colts were in a really good position here, down 13 to 6, and they're getting the ball. Everybody knows they're a second-half team. It's almost redundant by now, but the Colts are slow starters, not only in the season, but in each game, it seems. This game, maybe not. They had the Vinatieri field goal, put them up 3-0. There was a lot of field goals going back and forth. Denver really wasn't taking charge of the game, So the Colts were definitely within striking distance throughout and proved that later in the game, obviously. Now, the second half was significantly better on both sides of the ball outside of a few

plays and on that last drive that the Colts tried to come back, you know, at the very, very end of the game. But luck in the second half was 16 of 25 for 144 with a touchdown and an interception. The Colts were six of eight on third downs in the second half. And if you count the fourth down conversion, they're late. Technically on those type of downs, they were seven of nine. But the defense held the Broncos to four seven on third downs. Again, that's not great, but what is pretty good is they held them to 2-5 down the stretch on third down opportunities, which was pretty pivotal in the Colts being able to stage a comeback. The Colts opened up the half with a really nice 14-play,

13 or 14-play drive that featured the Colts really putting on the offensive show that we've come to expect for the most part from these guys. Luck converted a third down with his legs on a 20-yard scramble. Today's show is sponsored by Talkspace, the online therapy company. For a fraction of the price of traditional therapy, you can pick an experienced, licensed therapist you relate to and feel comfortable with. Each and every therapist has at least a master's degree and has completed over 3,000 hours of supervised work. To match with a perfect therapist, go to Talkspace.com forward slash boom.

And to show your support for this podcast, use code boom to get $30 off your first month. That's boom. Talkspace.com slash boom. B-O-O-M. Dorsett tapped his toes on that 30-yard catch. I really did not think his feet were in bounds watching it live. And then after you see the replay of it, you could see that he was definitely in bounds. It was amazing. It was a fantastic catch,

really good body control on his part. I was really surprised to see how much room he had. I mean, it was only a few inches, but it seemed like he was out of bounds when he brought his feet down. And then to top it off, Turbin takes the pitch five yards to the end zone on a rushing touchdown, no less, for the Colts. So that was nice. That was nice to see. It also featured a really bad decision from Luck on that pick six from Tlaib. Now, one of the worst things about listening to the broadcast is typically when Phil Simms is on the call. And if you heard him and what he said about that play,

he said that door set was open when he threw the ball. He wasn't open. Phil talks out of both sides of his mouth on this. He wasn't open. It was a bad throw. There was nobody open. They actually showed the above view. You could see that there was total coverage downfield. That was nobody open. They actually showed the above view and you could see that there was

total coverage downfield. That was a very risky play. If anything, Luck should have tried to use his feet again to get himself out of a position or just gotten a little further outside of the pocket just to make sure there's no intentional grounding and get the ball out of bounds. But I mean, that's easy to say in hindsight, but that was a very risky throw. It was definitely something he should have refrained from doing. Really put the Colts under the gun at that point. But defensively, the Colts held the Broncos to two field goals and a punt in the second half. And that amazing tightrope act from Frank Gore for that touchdown with just over four minutes left, though, was amazing.

That closed the gap to three, which was 23-20 at the time. But after McManus' second field goal, it put the Broncos up 26-20. And then all hell broke loose. Miller strip-sacked Luck. Shane Ray runs it in in a situation where Luck had a minute and 51 to take the team down the field and score which I totally at least thought there was going to be some sort of a drive I mean definitely didn't think it was going to end on the first play I put up a poll on Twitter asking what

everyone's immediate reaction was to the game and one of the options was Miller broke my heart well that was my thought specifically and only about 16% of you agreed with me, but that was my thoughts. I mean, I was all ready to see the Colts at least try to march down the field, at least put a good effort into it. And sure enough, the first snap on that drive, Miller strips Axiom, Shane Ray takes it in, and I just couldn't get my hands off of my face after that in disbelief. But back to that poll, 18% of you said it's not as bad as it looks, which if I'm going on straight game reaction, that's my thoughts. It's not as bad as it looks. We'll go into that here in just a minute. But over 66% of you were of the belief that either the Colts are in real trouble

or fire Gregano. Now that's my genius hashtag mixture of Grigson and Pagano. See what I did there? But I'm definitely not ready to throw in the season quite yet. Like I said, I'll get to that in just a minute. More than anything, it was so much. That play really tore me up because I felt the Colts were massively overmatched throughout most of the game. And if you're looking at just straight roster construction, they absolutely were.

They were very lucky to be in the situation they found themselves in. But Vaughn took that hope straight from my soul in a flash. And I just was not having it at the moment. Tried to be calm during the games, house full of family and everything like that. And it was about all I could do not to tear up the couch that I was sitting on, as I'm sure it was for you at home. We all know it was over at that point. Luck took two sacks in that final hurrah, and it was over. So the Colts, now the Colts gave up five sacks.

Let's get into this real fast. Throughout the game, they gave up five. Two on that very last possession. So let's say three throughout the majority of the game. I'm not sure exactly how many pressures Luck took or how many knockdowns he had. I mean, there was some pressure there. But all in all, I mean, Wright's had a pretty bad game.

I don't think there's any mistaking that he had a pretty bad game, but he's matched up against Von Miller, like the premier pass rusher in the league at right now. He's the best at it. That's, um, you know, after I go back and look at the film, I actually kind of want to see how Reitz did, uh, holistically, so to speak. Maybe his performance wasn't quite as bad as it seemed. It just seemed like every time there was pressure getting into Luck, Wrights was, you know, on his heels and kind of on roller skates a little bit in protection. But I'll have to come back to that a little bit. I didn't have time to go through it before loading up the show. But all in all, Costanzo

was matched up against Ware for the majority of the game until he went out those two are those are I mean one hell of a matchup on each side of the line of the offensive line I mean that those are really hard assignments and for us to expect them to keep those guys to shut them You know, the flukes are what we've seen in this matchup in the past a couple times, where Luck stays clean the majority of the time, or Luck gets out of trouble, you know, on his own. Those are flukes against this type of a pass rushing team, this type of a defense who has it both in the front end and in the back end with coverage.

Not to mention they've got really good linebackers. So that was a little fluky. We can't expect that. But if you look at Muhor, Good, and Kelly, I think those guys did really well today too. It just seems, like I said, I think that the overall assumption is that the Colts line didn't do great today because of five sacks and however many hurries and pressures that they had. But there was only a couple times that I noticed anybody getting between good and Kelly or between good and rights, you know, on good side. Didn't really hear. I don't even know if I heard Muhor's name today, nor did I really recognize anybody getting through on his side.

I think they did a pretty good job for the most part. The secondary, I felt, was adequate considering who they've got back there. Gethers looked pretty decent at times. I didn't really hear his name much, but you got the other guys in there like Rashawn Melvin and Daryl. And those guys, you know, what are we going to expect from those guys? Those guys have been in the system for just a couple of weeks. But all in all, I mean, you know, what are we going to expect from those guys? Those guys have been in the system for just a couple weeks. But all in all, I mean, you saw some pretty solid coverage, I think, out of those guys for the most part. They weren't great. We can't necessarily expect them to be great.

I guess I'm trying to take this as a more realistic approach of what we have and what we should expect out of what we have. Now, what we do have is we have a linebacker who was basically given the starting role opposite DeQuell Jackson and C.O. Moore who didn't deserve it outright. He's not that kind of a linebacker to just hand it to him and say that everybody else is competing to overtake his spot, that he's got it. Edwin Jackson should be in there a little more.

McNary should be getting more looks. I in there a little more. McNary should be getting more looks. I'm not a fan of a McNary, but when you see C.O. Moore basically just getting shed by smaller running backs or tight ends with like no problem whatsoever, I mean, something's got to change there. Something's got to happen. There has to be some sort of a competition that gets renewed for that other linebacker position. We've already got a run stopper in DeQuell Jackson. We don't need another run stopper. We need somebody in coverage or somebody who can double as a linebacker, who can plug holes, and somebody who can drop in coverage. Now, Sylvester, they already let him go long before the final cuts were to come through.

I thought that was a mistake. I've made that well known. I still think it's an issue. I think it was stupid. But on the other hand, we've got two other linebackers that have been filling in there and probably deserve more snaps because they've played better than Moore. Jackson, although, hasn't seen much work. Edwin Jackson, that is, hasn't seen much work at linebacker that I've noticed.

But when it all comes down, the Colts are 0-2, so are the Jacksonville Jaguars, while the Texans sit atop the AFC South, and the Titans are 1-1. I mean, where are you guys at right now? I mean, let me know. Hit me up on LockedOnColts on Twitter, Facebook, whatever you guys want to do. But I'm just not in the mode. I think that's why I was thinking that it's just not as bad as it seems. I'm just not, I have no problem pulling. There

wasn't one of those situations like a bad timeout when it didn't need it. There wasn't any lack of preparation. The Colts were the first to score in the game and had their opportunities. The Colts made some bad decisions. A lot of people want to complain about the refereeing. That's fine. But you know what happened on the following drive, on each of those phantom pass interference calls? Yes, I don't agree with them.

They were garbage calls. But on each drive, we turned the ball over. After each of those drives where we got those pass interference calls, the Colts gave the ball to them, and actually they were scoring plays for Denver's defense. That pass interference on Morris, that was an awful call, no doubt. But the Colts hold them to a McManus field goal on that. The very next Colts drive, Bray takes the kickoff out to the 30. Then Luck throws the pick six on the very last play of the drive, obviously. And that puts the Broncos up 23-13. Now, later on in the game, what happens?

An awful pass interference call on Winston Guy. Totally phantom. Absolutely, nobody sees anything. The only time that Phil Simms has ever made sense is when he said that this is the second call that there was absolutely no pass interference, but it was called by the refs or the back judge or the sideline judge or whoever it was that threw the flag. They were terrible calls. But again, the following Colts possession with the Colts down six, Lux strip sack by Von Miller. Shane Ray takes it in for the touchdown. We don't have much to blame on the refs. That really had very little impact on the game as far as I'm concerned. They were terrible calls, but they didn't really have any kind of negative effect

to the outcome of the game. They just didn't. So I'm not going to harp on that too much. It'd be different if it came down to the final gun and it ended up screwing the Colts out of some points or something like that. But the Colts did that on their own. They gave up two defensive scores where they hold the Denver Broncos to basically six points in the second half offensively.

First of all, that's pretty good. They ended up holding the defending Super Bowl champions to what? 19 offensive points? That's pretty good for a defense that was basically giving up a lot of third down conversions, weren't tackling well, still only gave up 19 points. And Simeon's no chump. Nobody's trying to act like he's a world beater, like I said,

but he's certainly capable. He can certainly throw the ball. And the Colts weren't scoring. I mean, the Colts had 20 points themselves. So the only touchdown was that beautiful catch and tightrope from Gore. So what are we going to do? At the same time, the Colts are to blame for their own mistakes. They are to blame for the outcome of the game.

But at the same time, I'm not going to hang them because it's week two and we're going into week three. We will be hosting the Chargers at Lucas Oil Stadium next week, and they came off a absolute blowout win against the Jaguars. And Melvin Gordon rushed for over 100 yards and had another score so this is you know Phillip Rivers is as clutch as they get people and we've got another team coming in that really is quite capable of putting us in a 3-0 hole this isn't something that we should seriously be pouting about or anything like that nor should the coaching staff or the players. But man, they've got to get better.

They've got to do so much more than not get luck in a rhythm, not tackle efficiently. And we really need some guys back to get healthy. So this one is just a kind of a blah reaction. And I get that. But at the same time, I just don't feel that the Colts are in dire straits at this time. So don't get yourself all bent out of shape over an 0-2 start. It's happened the last three years now. We know that.

It's been played out quite a bit. Nothing to think. The Colts' season is in the tank at the time. Get to the third and fourth week. After the Chargers, we go to London. If we come back 0-4, yikes, people. Yikes. So hope that the Colts can pull one or two of these out in the next couple weeks. Don't let your stress level rise too much at work this week. You know, kind of relax. Let me talk you through it each week day here on locked on Colts. And real quick,

if you're wanting to get all of your NFL action on one show, go check out locked on NFL with Matt Williamson, check out locked on fantasy with Vinnie. I check out in a locked on NFL draft with Joe Marino and Kyle crabs. Those were three really good shows. And for that matter, go check out all the Locked On podcast network. It's really good. Like I was telling you guys before, you guys will get all the information you need from each team,

even the ones you don't follow, and get you guys kind of up to snuff on what's going on and around the league. You'll be smarter at the end of the day because of it. Also, if you want to advertise on the show, over 80% of my listening audience is men between 18 and 44. If that's your target audience, shoot me an email at lockedoncultspod at gmail.com, and we'll get that thing going. Again, the culture at the bottom of the AFC South, it's not the end of the world.

We're moving into week three. We've got two must-win games, I think, especially for the way that Houston looks at the moment. The Colts are going to have to travel to London in week four. They also come back in week five because their bye is not until week 10. So they've really got a few months here where they've got to put together some good football to stay in the running for the division. And for all you listeners out there, I didn't even know there were some Colts lovers out in Dallas or in Ashford, Virginia or Australia, but you guys are great. Keep listening to the show. Get back with me though. Hit me up on Locked on Colts on Twitter or the Facebook page. Let's get this back and forth going just a little bit more.

Things are going great. You guys are listening to the show. Our audience is growing. If you love the show, tell a friend. Get on iTunes. Give the show a rating and a review. Tell me what you think about the show. Get as many Colts fans as you can to listen to the show.

The bigger it'll get, the better it'll get, and we'll have more to talk about. We'll have more giveaways to do. We'll have all sorts of stuff to get into. So come back Tuesday. Don't let your blood pressure rise. Monday, today at work. Come back Tuesday for our second show of the week.

Thank you all for listening. Keep it up. I'll talk to you guys tomorrow on Locked on Colts.