Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - LOCKED ON COLTS - 9/21 - The Chargers Have Had Colts Number For A While Now | Weighing In on Week 2 PFF Grades | Who's Coming Back in Week 3

Episode Date: September 21, 2016

Philip Rivers and the #Chargers have been a thorn in the side of the #Colts for several years | Matt takes a look at the Week 2 PFF grades | Who will be coming back in Week 3 from the injury report, and who needs to step up for the Colts to be formidable moving forward? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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You are Locked On Colts, your daily Indianapolis Colts podcast, part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Welcome back Colts Nation. Thank you for joining me on Locked On Col Network. Welcome back Colts Nation. Thank you for joining me on Locked On Colts. I'm your host Matt Dainley. Coming to you for our Wednesday show, September 21st. And we are getting ever closer to a huge matchup against the San Diego Chargers in Lucas Oil Stadium. What do you guys think?

You guys on board here with the Colts pulling one out? Or are we possibly going to be looking up at the Chargers on Sunday? Well, there's some factors here. I'm going to go over some of the pro football focus grades. I'm going to look at a few things that may concern us with this matchup and a couple of interesting comparisons that we may be interested in for the game coming up. Let's start it off with some simple news here. The Colts did release Winston Guy. Should mean that TJ Green

is well on his way back into the lineup. As I told you guys yesterday, Green and Vontae and a couple other guys should be headed back to the field this week, probably today for some non-contact drills and see how everybody's doing. But it sounds like TJ Green is on the right track to coming back and being healthy. Hopefully that's the same for Vontae and Henry Anderson and so on. We really need all these guys back. It would be great to have them back.

We've got another couple weeks before we get back Arthur Jones, but the Colts need to start getting healthy because their schedule isn't getting any more favorable as we get into the thick of the season here. We're going to be playing against an amped-up Chargers team, a Chargers team that absolutely wiped the floor with the Jacksonville Jaguars last week. And among other things, their quarterback, Phillip Rivers,

who I've told you in the past is one of the most clutch quarterbacks in the NFL. And thus far, he's 42 of 60 this season for 463 yards. That's a 70% completion percentage. Five touchdowns, no interceptions. He's averaging nearly seven and three-quarters of a yard per attempt, and he's right on track with having another great season. And it looks like he's got a little bit of help this year when you consider the breakout so far. I mean, I know we're two weeks in, but for Melvin Gordon, this is a bit of a breakout. He's already gotten nearly 40 attempts. He's had 38, 159 yards

on the ground and three scores. I think that's more touchdowns than he had all of last year with Danny Woodhead possibly being injured, not being in there. I mean, that could spell a full dose of Melvin Gordon for the Colts on Sunday. So the Colts need to focus on him. That's a big task for them as well. They need to make sure that they don't let him get started because that could get ugly if they do. Receiving his favorite target thus far seems to be Travis Benjamin, who's gotten 13 catches for 147 yards this year already. He's got two touchdowns. Danny Woodhead out of the backfield, of course. He's got six catches, and that's kind of a common theme throughout the rest of the of his receiving core Keenan Allen who's obviously done but everybody else including Antonio Gates and

Tyrell Williams five and six catches you know Tyrell Williams has got 132 yards and a touchdown as well Antonio Gates has got a score from him so in true Philip Rivers form, he's spreading the ball around and he's been accurate and he's deadly. And you know what? The Colts have had a hell of a time trying to keep him down in the past. So this is not a, this is not a team that's coming in here that the Colts have dominated in recent history. And I'll, uh, I'll touch base on that here in just a few minutes, but this is a team that comes in here and usually is leaving Colts fans walking out the door with a frown on their face. So this isn't one of our favorite matchups, especially at home. The Colts haven't been good on the road against the Chargers,

but they haven't been any better at home against them. So this is going to be a tough battle for the Colts come Sunday. Now, broadcast information for the game. The game will be broadcast on CBS. Kevin Harlan will be doing the play-by-play with Rich Gannon. And also, if you're going to the game, the game day giveaway is Robert Mathis Koozies for the first 2,000 fans inside the American Family Insurance Touchdown Town.

It's free and open to the public. It's sponsored, obviously, by American Family Insurance. It's a pregame fan experience unlike any other, they say, located along South Street on the north side of Lucas Oil Stadium. It's going to have food trucks, a giant TV screen, 40-yard dash type stuff, play 60 zone for the kids and more. So if you guys are going to the game, check that out. All right, now let's get into some of the pro football focus grades. It doesn't look good for the Colts.

You know, I mean, last week I told you about some grades that weren't real high, including the majority of them on defense. And this year or this week, it just doesn't get a whole lot better. The Colts didn't have a favorable game last week, and they didn't play very well on either side of the ball. So you can expect that their grades aren't going to be very good. In fact, at the moment, T.Y. Hilton and Dante Moncrief are tied for 31st on Pro Football Focus's overall grading system amongst all wide receivers. They're 30th and 32nd, respectively, just in their own receiving grades. Hilton's got a 74, Moncrief a 73.3. I don't like the sound of that. They haven't had phenomenal games. Like I told you guys the other day, one of the Colts media members at the facility had made a statement about T.Y. Hilton

and Philip Dorsett, and their, I think it was 15 for 34, when being targeted by Andrew Luck. So that's not a good thing. But Dante Moncrief hasn't been spectacular either. At least the combination of Luck to Moncrief hasn't been. But 30th and 32nd, you expect at least one of those to be significantly higher. We don't know. We haven't gotten any updates on Moncrief that I've heard of. So we don't really know how his MRI went. Hopefully everything went well. Like I said, it didn't sound that they were too optimistic about his situation. They kind of were pretty evasive about his status. So we'll have to see about that. Now, Jack Doyle maintains his high standing on PFF's board of tight ends, though. He's 14th overall in the league at 72.6. And Dwayne Allen is 39th in there with a 54. Doyle is 18th, though, just in receiving,

while Dwayne Allen is 23rd. I don't expect this to maintain throughout the season, although I've often talked up Jack Doyle as a legitimate tight end. I think these two guys are going to be very, very similar in that they're both really good blockers, both capable receiving tight ends, and they can get up the field, but they get up the field in different ways. Dwayne Allen gets up the seam a little bit more when he's flexed out. Jack Doyle tends to come across the middle. He's a bigger guy, a little more solid, a little less injury prone, so to speak. So Jack Doyle is going to be the guy that's going to be taking the brunt of the hits across the middle between the two.

But the Colts have a legitimate tight end duo, I think. Once they decided not to re-sign Kobe Fleener last year, I think I was more than excited for that. A lot of people were doubting it, mainly just because Fleener has some of that big playability, has some speed. But the Colts are not missing anything with not having Fleener in the lineup, that's for sure. Now, as we get to the offensive line, Costanzo was 38th overall as the top Colts tackle with a 74.2 grade, and he's 36th in protection alone, and it's 75.1. I got to say, I think that's a little low. Just, you know, however the guys at pro Football Focus grade,

they do a more comprehensive version of anything that anybody else is doing. So I get it. But at the same time, Costanzo's had a pretty good start to the season. He hasn't allowed a whole lot of pressure. But I just, I would expect his grade to have been a slight bit higher. Not drastic or anything like that so i'm not it's not like i'm trying to poke giant holes in their in their scoring but i just would have assumed that his his was a little bit better i haven't noticed much pressure coming from

his end jack muhor who is sitting at 77.1 overall grade at for a guard has the highest colts offensive lineman overall grade, and that doesn't surprise you either. It still has to make you scratch your head a bit, considering that Muhort is probably still considered, you could still consider him to be injured with his knee. There's no way that that's completely healed, yet he's playing every snap of every game and doing a heck of a job in the process. Now, his sitting at 77.1, like I said, but his tally of 80.8 in protection puts him at 26 amongst other guards. Again, I've not noticed any leaks coming through Muhor's end.

I haven't watched every single snap in protection and had my eye on Muhor like these guys do. So, like I said, they grade for this and that. And basically, in the past, I've listened to the way they grade and listen to their explanation of it. And they're less concerned about how a player looks when he's doing it. They're more concerned about did the player do his job. So if the Muhor's been getting beat in one-on-one situations, then they're going to dock him for it. But Costanzo and Muhor, I'm really excited about that left side. I think it's doing a great job. It's certainly not one of the Colts' weaknesses

at this point. Costanzo's really turned it around after the preseason, looking pretty bad. Muhor has stood pat since being injured and has been fantastic, I think. So the Colts have a very real left side of the line. And let's get into this as well. I told you that I would, after watching the game film a little bit, that I would come back and kind of give you my second look thoughts on the game as far as how the offensive line played. And I don't really have much of a difference in perspective from that second look. I felt that the Colts, they gave up some pressures, but that front seven was sending a lot of crazy blitzes at the Colts offensive line.

They were sending TJ Ward. They were sending multiple linebackers at times. They were definitely running plenty of stunts where they would twist from the outside. A lot of those guys were coming through the middle. Von Miller was especially while the defensive tackles were pushing the outside, setting that edge. It's a difficult front seven to block. And I thought that the Colts offensive line did a pretty good job. They did give up five sacks, like we said. Two of those sacks were in the very last drive. And two of the other sacks, one of them was in the first quarter. One of them was, I believe, in the very beginning of the second quarter. one of them was in the first quarter one of them was I could believe in the very beginning of the second quarter so it wasn't like the Colts were getting a ton of

pressure up the middle that couldn't have been escaped from even the pressure where you did see luck come out of the pocket a little bit he had plenty of time he was just simply moving so he didn't have another another body in front of him when he'd set up to throw. So I was pretty impressed still with the Colts' offensive line. Don't bust on them too quick. This offensive line is by far the best offensive line at this point in the season that the Colts have seen in years. So keep it all into perspective.

And if you don't believe me and you don't think so, go back and watch the game. You'll see. Colts are giving Luck a large pocket to work with. He's doing a good job getting himself out of it and not moving himself into the pressure. So it's a positive note, and it's a positive thing for the offense. I can tell you that. Now, if you want to get all your NFL information from one show, go check out Locked On NFL with Matt Williamson.

Go check out Locked On Fantasy with Vinny Iyer. And also check out Locked On NFL Draft with Joe Marino and Kyle Krabs. Those are three of the big shows for Locked On Network. They're all three very good and informative, and you guys need to check them out. Also, check out the rest of the Locked On Network. Get yourself a little more versed in what the opponents for the Colts are doing. Go check out the Chargers podcast so that you can see what their strategies may be coming into this week.

Keep yourself open to a lot of it. It's really good, informative, like I said, and they're all fairly quick, right around 20 minutes or so, and getting in and out. Do it on your commute. But most importantly, listen to this one. Subscribe to the Locked On Colts podcast. Rate and review it on your commute. But most importantly, listen to this one. Subscribe to the Locked on Colts podcast.

Rate and review it on iTunes. Reach out on Twitter at Locked on Colts. Reach out on the Facebook page, which some of you are doing. I appreciate the messages on there. And also the emails coming in. Those are coming in a little more steady as we get going. That's encouraging. You can do that at LockedOnColtspod at gmail.com. I appreciate it.

Well, let's get back to the rest of these pro football focus grades. Now we get to Ryan Kelly. Now, think about this for a second. You have to put this in perspective too. There's only going to be about 32, 35 centers who are playing. We're only into week two. However, Ryan Kelly is 17th among centers, right around the middle of the pack there, with a 74 overall grade. In protection, though, he's 11th. That's nice. Top third with a 76.7 grade.

So that's good, and that's what he's there for. He was drafted to protect Andrew Luck, and he seems to be doing that. He's doing pretty good, especially for a rookie. But he's coming in at a 54 in the run game. That's bottom third by far among centers, and that's 22nd. That's something that needs to improve. I'd rather him be a good protector than be an elite run blocker and not be able to keep luck upright.

So I'm going to pick and choose my battles on this one with Ryan Kelly, but he seems to be doing a fantastic job there at the center for the Colts. Rashawn Melvin is still the highest graded Colts corner at a 70.7. Obviously, you have to take that with a grain of salt. We haven't seen Vontae Davis on the field, and the other two guys, Patrick Robinson and Butler, have been injured. But after that, it was Cromartie, and he's not very high up. He was a ways down there. So Sean Melvin's doing his part, and I think that you've all heard me talk about him more than enough.

So I'll move on to Mike Adams. Mike Adams is obviously the Colts' top safety coming in at 17th and overall grade of 80. You saw him shoot that gap a couple times against the Broncos and try to get a piece of Trevor Simeon. Those were both effective, both incompletions, both wild incompletions for Trevor Simeon. I want to see more of that. He's definitely in the top eight or ten in his pass rush category for safeties.

But Mike Adams is doing a great job at 35. Like I said, I've talked to many people who consider him to be a major liability for the Colts, especially in the secondary. You could not be more wrong. Watch his games. He's about as reliable as they get in the Colts secondary, that's for sure. No one's trying to say he's an elite safety in the league, but when the Colts secondary is one of the major issues for the team, he's definitely a bright spot in that area. So again, pick and choose your battles. Now, Seymour Linebacker. This is where it gets ugly again. 60th with a 47.1. DeQuell Jackson is all the way down with a 45.6 overall count at 67th. This isn't going to get much better.

I'm just about done talking about our linebackers until they show out a little bit. Moore and Jackson are both run-stopping linebackers. We're not getting a whole lot of contribution from the other linebackers. Morrison, very few snaps. And then McNary is kind of moot at this point. So it's not going to get much better. I might be all done pouting about these guys until they can prove that they're worth talking about, to be quite honest with you.

The Colts don't have a single interior defensive lineman in the top 75. So this is a little bad. But T.Y. McGill is 97th overall out of 43.2. Zach Kerr is 102nd out of 41.7. And Hassan Ridgway was at 41.5, and he's 103rd. Those three guys are the guys that are doing something up front, and they're that low. I was a little bit surprised T.Y. McGill was shooting the gap quite a bit for the

Colts in week one. Hassan Ridgway, who's a guy I was excited about when the Colts drafted him this year, but I wasn't quite expecting him to be one of the better defensive linemen up to this point. I expected him to be a little more of a project, but Zach Kerr, he was having a great game last week. I'm surprised that the games that these guys have had, I guess maybe I should say this. I'm not so surprised with their score or their grade currently. I'm a little surprised that the games that they've had haven't netted them a little bit higher score, a little more or a little higher praise. Trent Cole still, now this is only on one game, so keep this fresh in your head.

Trent Cole's 30th in the pass rush with 73 and 38th overall, like I said, just based off of his week one performances to this point. Robert Mathis is still coming in at 67th overall with a 47.7 score and is 57th specifically rushing the passer. Something's got to happen with this guy. I mean, Mathis is getting older. We all talk about it, you know, and he always tries to kind of downplay it and shrug it off. But he is and he is.

He is older and he is looking older. He had a couple plays where he nearly got to Simeon. He nearly got in the backfield to make a stop. He made a big stop actually in Denver on third down there towards the end of the game to give the Colts a chance. So he did his job there and has done his job a few times. But specifically pass rush is something that the Colts desperately need right now, among other things, of course. So they really need him to kind of show out. We need a couple, three sacks a game from this front seven from the Colts defense to really feel like we're

making any sort of an impact or that we can do anything with our defense to make the opposing offenses begin to get careless or something. So this is a struggle for sure for the defense. Colts offense, I think, is looking fairly decent, as bad as they looked in the first half last Sunday. I think that's a blip, to be quite honest with you. I don't think that's anything that we're going to have to worry too much about. So, well, let's move on. And kind of what I was talking about at the beginning of the show

about the Chargers being more than a worthy opponent, especially in Indianapolis. The Colts are 2-7 against the Chargers since 2007. And a couple of those are playoff losses. Not to mention the Colts are 1-3 at home in the last four meetings against Rivers. Every time they come in, it's a battle. Nothing is going to be given with these guys. The Colts do not play well against the Chargers, even when they're bad. So first of all, don't think that the Colts should be favored to win this game because they won't be. But on the

other hand, don't think that this is one of those games where it's, well, the Colts can do a couple things here and then they'll win the game. That's not how it's going to be. This is going to have to be four full quarters of playing really good football to beat this Chargers team Philip Rivers is one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL he has been for years he's had crappy teams to play with who's that sound like okay luck okay so let's not brush that aside too quickly Rivers has had to pull almost all the weight every single year he's been in the league, and the Colts are facing him right now at his best. So early in the season, a few injuries aside from Keenan Allen on the Chargers roster.

So this is probably not the time to be catching Phillip Rivers, especially when he's hot. Now I'll kind of close off the show with this. Earlier, before the season started, I gave them our prediction about the Chargers and the Colts here in week three, and some of my notes were that the Chargers are better than people think. Unless Gordon has a breakout game, the Colts will be pinning their ears back and stunting as often as they can to get to Phil Rivers, which I still say, as far as the way that they're going to be, they're going to be very intelligent about how

they go about coming after Rivers defensively. But Rivers can take the game over at any time. And I also stated that I didn't think this would be one of them. After going back and looking at everything, I actually had the Colts winning this game. I'm not so sure about this. This is, like I said, the Colts are going to have to play four full quarters of really good football, okay? This isn't me looking down on the Colts. This is me taking what I've seen from the Colts, the Colts coaches, the Colts players, how many injuries we've got, the secondary that is depleted as can be, and then looking at the Chargers and saying, this is a better football team. But not only that, the Colts have to play a really good

game if they're going to win this game. And they've got to make the Chargers look really bad. The Chargers have a run game. The Chargers have a solid defense, nothing great at all, but they have some playmakers there on their defense. We'll put it that way. They're looked pretty down upon nationally, but let me tell you something. They're not near as bad as people are making them out to be. The Colts' offense sputtered last week. That shows that if the opposing defense can throw a wrinkle in our system,

that it can shut us down for an entire half. It's not just luck. It's everything involved. Defensively, who are we going to have back? We don't know, but we've got to have a lot more go our way defensively if we're going to make any sort of stands against Phillip Rivers. So this is a very – I'm just not buying it this week. I'm not going to go outright and say it right now.

We're going to have a crossover podcast for our Thursday show with the host of Locked On Chargers. So we'll give kind of our predictions for the game on that show. But as always, thank you guys for listening. You guys are great. I appreciate all the feedback. Keep it up and feel free to reach out anytime to myself or the show. If you guys have any questions that you want read on the show, whether it's on Twitter or Facebook, just message me and we'll go through it. We'll get a couple of them out there. Make sure it's a question and not a statement. Statements don't really do anything

for me. I'm not just going to sit up here and read people's statements off when they're complaining or venting about the team. So if you have a question, we'll ask the question and I'll do my best to answer it for you. But if you just have statements or something like that, let's just consider that online back and forth. We can do that, but not on the show. So thank you again for listening to Locked on Colts. I'm your host, Matt Dainley, and don't forget to rate and review the show.

Let's keep our heads up and hope that Moncrief is getting healthy. Let's hope that a lot of the guys are going to get back on the field this week. We'll wrap it up there. I'll talk to you guys on Thursday on Locked on Colts.