Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - LOCKED ON COLTS - 9/22 - Colts/Chargers Crossover With Locked On Chargers Host Derek Togerson

Episode Date: September 22, 2016

Matt of Locked On #Colts and Derek of Locked On #Chargers break down key aspects of each other's team, as well as give their expectations for this Sunday's matchup in Lucas Oil Stadium Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, where are you going, Jim? The elevator's over here. Taking the stairs. But our meeting's up on 8. Yeah, I know. But that's 8 floors up. That's like 8 times... I don't... a lot of stairs. That's the point. I've already lost a few pounds and earned almost $100 in wellness incentives. Whoa, you're getting rewarded for working out? Yeah, I know. I'm just as surprised as you are, Bob.

Fearless is full of surprises. That's the power of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Federal Employee Program. Learn more about our healthy benefits and sign up at fepblue.org slash choose blue by December 11th. Welcome in Colts and Chargers fans. This is our Locked on Colts, Locked on Chargers crossover podcast as we look forward to this Sunday's game at Lucas Oil Stadium. And I'm joined by the host of the Locked on Chargers, Derek Togerson. Derek, how you doing, man? I'm doing well, Matt. How you doing? Pretty good. Excited to get this off. It's nice to have one of those kind of type of questions

with the enemy shows going on. I'm excited to see what you got for me. I enjoy these. Yeah, it's nice to get the scouting report from somebody who really does cover the team on a daily basis and really gets to know them well. Yeah, I agree. You guys can check out Derek on Twitter at D-E-R-E-K-N-B-C-S-D.

And you can check me out at mdanley underscore NFL. Derek, did you want to pop a, you got some questions for me first or you want me to go first? I'll go ahead and I'll take the lead on this one because I have a few things you all want to know about. I know Charger fans, they look at the Colts and they think Andrew Luck. I mean, Andrew Luck, Andrew Luck, Andrew Luck. Andrew Luck seems to be putting up decent numbers until last week against the

Broncos. Now, is that simply a matter of that Broncos defense is no joke, which in the AFC West, we see those cats twice a year so we know how good they are. Or is it that even the drafting of Ryan Kelly, is that offensive line still simply not anywhere good enough to give a guy as talented as Luck the kind of protection he needs to be successful?

It started off, Luck in the first game was phenomenal against the Lions. And then last week, obviously, the first half was awful. He's 5 for 15. I think he was less than 100 yards in the air. It was a really strange sight. You know, it looked like he had turned the corner this year and they had gotten him into a groove early, and that had been kind of one of the hallmarks, if you want to say,

about Andrew Luck's game. He really had to get himself into a groove because he's always been a second-half quarterback. He's always been phenomenal in the second half. He's a rhythm player, yeah. Yeah, he's always really kind of struggled in the first half, getting himself into the game as far as getting those early five- and eight-yard completions, you know, just to get his stat line up,

kind of get the offense moving up and down the field. But it looked like against the Lions that that was really going to – you know, that he had really turned around because they focused on this quite a bit in camp. But when he started off so poorly against Denver, it was kind of a wake-up call. But the offensive line is significantly better, I think, than especially nationally that people give it credit for. There are some holes in the line. Last year, Joe Reitz was probably one of the better spots on that line.

And this year, they've got Muhort anchored in there at the left guard. They've got Denzel Good at right guard. Reitz is at right tackle and Costanzo at left tackle. Now, that left side was phenomenal against Denver. It really was. There were a couple times where they'd come through, but you can't – you know, those guys were protecting for three and four seconds every single play. Because that Denver secondary was so darn good.

You get a lot of coverage sacks out of those guys. And they were. A lot of the – you know, and I've kind of tried to put this in perspective for other people. They had five sacks in the entire game. Two of those sacks came on that last-ditch effort with a minute and something odd, right after the strip sack that put Denver up two scores. They had had two sacks on the following possession there.

And the rest of the game they had three sacks, and the rest of it was all coverage pressure and coverage sacks. So you kind of put it in perspective, and Luck was really good getting himself out of the pocket and scrambling uh last sunday but i guess to instead of rambling and answering your question i would say that the offensive line is better than advertised nationally so to speak but But Luck, he's on it. There's just a couple different things, you know, a couple different intricacies, so to speak, that really just aren't gelling at the moment. His chemistry between Hilton and Dorsett downfield is kind of lacking right now.

It's just they're 15 of 34. It was a stat that I heard the other day in one of the media availability. Luck is 15 of 34 when targeting those two. So that's got to change. Those are two big keys. And now with Moncrief out, those two guys are going to really have to step it up. And that's going to be very difficult against especially a cornerback like Jason Verratt, who's already acquitted himself as one of the best corners in the National Football League,

a much-improved, healthier Brandon Flowers on the other side, and Casey Haywood in the slot. So I ask you, are the Colts able to generate any kind of a running game? That's been a bugaboo of theirs for the last several years as well. Well, they're going to try and force-feed it throughout the season, but that's the wrong thing to do in my opinion. They've always ran the typical run game to set up the pass game, whereas this team is far better suited to pass to set up the run. That's just the way they're built. Getting Luck going early is far more important than getting Frank Gore going early

because if he does have 100 yards that's still not necessarily going to lead to a Colts win getting Andrew Luck hot early and having him maintain that throughout the game it has proved in over the past several years that that's what wins this Colts team games and if they can do that then then they'll be successful. But they do need a running game as a complementary package. You know, they need to get to that 115, 120 rushing yards a game for the team, so to speak. They don't need a 100-yard rusher. That's been something that's played up in the news quite a bit, that they haven't had a 100-yard rusher for however long. And that's understandable. You know, it'd be nice to have one. But as long as they're getting, you know, into that 115,

120 rushing yards a game, if they could get somewhere in that area, even a little shy of that, that would at least balance the power a little bit to where it's keeping opposing defenses on their heels a little bit. So, Biscayne, you need to have the threat of it there so they can't just pin their ears back you know put seven guys in the box and dare andrew look to try and beat them right and they really don't because they're they're running backs are very defined with their jobs you know gore's going to take it in between the tackles turban's going

to be the short yardage guy in between the tackles fergus is the scat back, so to speak, that's going to take passes out of the backfield and try to win the edge, so to speak, with his speed. Other than that, there's really no confusion going on with the Colts' backfield. All right, so let's talk about the other side of the ball. I mean, defensively, they're not good. And they haven't't they've been on a backwards trend for a while since they had made those couple of playoff runs under luck that i mean mathis seems like he's been a complete non-factor after that you know the suspension that

he had for four games for the for the violating the substance abuse policy their linebackers look like they're not that great don't have that much in the secondary what How have they not been able to, with all the free agent moves they've made and all the problems they've had, how have they not been able to, with a defensive-minded head coach, be able to build anything resembling an NFL halfway decent NFL defense there? Well, I've tried figuring this one out on my own for quite a while now, but the fact that Pagano's a defensive coach doesn't mean that he's a good one. And that was kind of when he came in, I was excited because I thought the Colts defense needed to improve.

They brought in a defensive coach, but to this point he's really, you know, hasn't done much other than sign. Or, well, you know, he didn't sign him, but he brought in, he was part of bringing in Vontae Davis and really molding him into a really quality corner. They've gotten some good play out of Darius Butler at times where he was one of their big interception guys. Mike Adams has been, you know, 35 years old, has been the best guy in the secondary when Vontae's not been in. But when you look overall and you paint with a broad brush the secondary, they've been beat up, bad.

Their linebackers can't cover or tackle. Their front line is significantly better, but they're facing a lot of injuries right now. And that's something that, you know, is not allowing the skill that's up front to really kind of shine through, so to speak. Their linebacking core is a real problem though. And I mean a real problem the secondary is you know they just they just allow too many big plays um they have such a such an odd uh approach a lot of times to trying to take offenses out of their game and they very seldom work i mean when they do they work really well as far as where the secondary is covering or how they're bringing some safeties in the box to come into that nickel rotation but far and wide they have a lot of struggles uh with with covering man to man

and that's kind of their bread and butter is to be a press man, in-your-face kind of secondary. But the moves that they've made have not really panned out in large part, and there's nobody taking over that secondary when Vontae's not there to do it. So Antonio Gates and Phillip Rivers come to town. Travis Benjamin, his 4.3 Phillip Rivers come to town. Travis Benjamin, his 4-3 speed come to town. What you're saying, this does not seem to be a real good matchup for the Colts defense against the Chargers offense. No, and what it is, is it's whoever lines up against those linebackers. It's going to be the running backs out of the backfield, which you guys just brought in Dexter McCluster, and I'll definitely be asking you about him. That's going to be an issue. Him, Antonio Gates, if he's healthy this

week, those guys covering either a tight end or running back, it's been one of their biggest bugaboos since Pagano's been the coach. It's just been putrid. Those guys will just probably torch our linebackers because they can't cover. DeQuell Jackson is a phenomenal run stopper, but there isn't a linebacker on the Colts roster right now that can cover anybody, to be quite honest with you. When he was coaching up Melvin Gordon in the offseason, his quote was, we throw to the backs here.

You know, they like to throw to the running backs here. Mm-hmm. And they should, especially against the Colts. And, you know, I think that T.J. Green pick was for that. Gethers is going to be a little more of the thumper, even though Green's got that in him, in his DNA a little bit as well. But he's doing a much better job at covering, so they may try to use him a little bit more as a nickel-type guy.

Oh, no, that was good to tell you. All right, that's what I wanted to know about the Colts. Let's turn the tables now. What do you want to know about our fighting San Diego Chargers? Well, I've got a few different questions, and a lot of it has to do kind of with the injury bug with you guys as well. Not that you guys are anywhere near what the Colts have put together as far as how bad they've been plagued with some injuries,

but we'll start with the series as of late, and I think it was in 2007, or since 2007, has been extremely one-sided. In fact, it's been 7-2 in favor of the Chargers. It's mostly been on the shoulders of Phillip Rivers in the past. This, in my opinion, seems to be one of Rivers' best supporting cast teams in a long while. Is Rivers at his very best at this point in his career with that supporting cast? Rivers is at the best when he's got a good running game. When he is, when he, I mean, look back to the years when LT was there and he was in his prime.

Now, granted, Phillip was still learning the ropes. You know, he became a starter full-time in 2006. But when Phillip has a 100-yard rusher, his numbers are staggering. Phillip was still learning the ropes. He became a starter full-time in 2006. But when Phillip has a 100-yard rusher, his numbers are staggering. He's something like 35 games over 500. I'll have to look up the exact number, but it's not far off. When he has a 100-yard rusher, when the Chargers offense has balance, Phillip Rivers becomes even better than he is normally.

I mean, against the Packers last year, he threw for 503 yards in a loss because they knew what he was doing every time. He was still able to try and pick that defense apart. Last week against the Jaguars, throws for just over 200 yards, but he throws for four touchdowns because this is the stat that I love. Rivers threw 24 times. Melvin Gordon ran 24 times. The Chargers won threw 24 times. Melvin Gordon ran 24 times. The Chargers won by 24 points. When the Chargers have

balance on offense and Rivers is able to do the play action, their play action game this year has been the best I've seen since 2009 when LT last year here because teams have to respect the running game. When you

can't just pin your ears back as they say and go after the quarterback like has been the case so often again with these uh with these offenses that the chargers have put together with philip they've relied on him far too much you know no matter who you are it doesn't matter what quarterback you're talking about brady manning if they know you're throwing the ball every down, you're going to get yourself into trouble. Now they don't know he's throwing the ball every down, and it's going to open him up as accurate and as smart as he is at his pre-snap reads to be able to just be surgical.

He's not going to put up this year, I don't think, the massive passing numbers, 47, 48, 100 yards, but he's going to be so efficient. I could sincerely see him throwing for 40 touchdowns with eight or nine picks this year if they're able to sustain the running game like they have the first couple of weeks. Yeah, I think the most dangerous thing about him is he's very capable of hitting the 70% completion percentage if that running game stays in order, for sure. Oh, that's the stated goal. Ever since 2013 when Mike McCoy got here with Ken Wisenhunt. Now Wisenhunt is back as the offensive coordinator again.

Their stated goal is to get Phillip to 70% of passes completed. Yeah, and he's that kind of quarterback too. Now Woodhead was placed on injured reserve recently, which is pretty detrimental when you think of it as the kind of player that he is, not only a very reliable player, but kind of one of those guys that sparks the team in an instant. But as I mentioned earlier, you guys brought in Dexter McCluster and somebody that Colts fans might know, Griff Whalen, former Colts receiver. They were both brought in. Now, I kind of thought that was interesting.

Also, I assume that Dexter McCluster is there to take that role from where Woodhead was at because he's kind of a similar type guy, and he offers a little bit in the return game as well. But they were brought in. What sort of immediate impact, if any, can either of these two make? And can you see them getting any attention this Sunday? I'll start with Whalen because he's a guy who would be in there. They released Isaiah Burse, who was their fourth wide receiver,

to make room for him. He's a guy who would be in there in case something happened. Don't know a whole lot about him. He looked good running around in practice today. But you're still going to have, I mean, Travis Benjamin, Tyrell Williams, Don Trillinman, those are your top three guys who are going to have a very good rapport with Phillip Rivers. Going to

McCluster, I think he has a very similar skill set to Danny, but he's going to be employed very differently because, although I talked to Dexter today, and he said we asked him about pass protection, because he only weighs 170 pounds. He's not the biggest guy in the world. Danny was smaller but he was he was you know 200 pounds he was stockier he would he was able to stand up an oncoming linebacker a lot easier than mccluster is going

to now dexter said that he's going to try and fight he'll he'll try and fight you to the death to keep you off the quarterback but the sheer you physics of that, of 250-pound rushing linebacker versus 170-pound back, it doesn't seem to work in the back's favor all that much. So he's not going to be in on third downs nearly as much as a guy like Woodhead was, because Danny, as good as he is catching the ball out of the backfield, he was so good in pass protection, and he knew the playbook. Maybe the only guy on the team, including the coaches, who knew it as well as Phillip Rivers does. So that's why Phillip loved him in there on third down so often.

It's because he knew he could just snap his fingers and Danny knew exactly what to do and who to pick up. So McCluster, I think, is going to have his biggest impact, at least early on, in the return game. And the reason they wanted another punt returner is because, as you know, Keenan Allen went down with a torn ACL in the season opener against the Chiefs. Well, Travis Benjamin is now their biggest receiving threat, and he's also their punt returner.

Well, I think they're really hesitant to put their number one receiving threat now out there in the punt return game because they can't possibly risk losing another top flight wide receiver. So I think McCluster is there as insurance just to keep Travis Benjamin healthy. So McCluster with his three career punt return touchdowns now takes over punt return duties just simply to preserve Travis Benjamin in the receiving game. Yeah, and that's interesting that you say that. I'm wondering if they'll use McCluster maybe quite a bit more as a flexed-out option as well.

Yeah, he can go on the slot. He can even split out wide. And, of course, the year and a half that he spent with Wisenhunt in Tennessee, he told me today that it's been a pretty easy transition for him. He already picked up a lot of the playbook. He already knew. In fact, he said he fell asleep reading the playbook last night and woke up reading the playbook this morning just to get himself back in

and get to know it. But it's not going to be a real big stretch for him to get in and understand what are the checks, what are the calls, what are the audibles, what does Phillip want me to do when Phillip is, as you well know, he likes to get up there, look at the line. He's not as demonstrative as your guy Peyton Manning was, but Phillip checks to a lot of plays because he is so, so good at diagnosing pre-snap reads.

Yeah, he is really good. He's as bad as he's made some of the Colts teams in the past. Look, he was always a guy that I could not stand, but he was, you know, as time went on, he was a guy almost that, you know, you just respect because that dude just constantly brings it every Sunday no matter what. And he's so smart at the line of scrimmage. He really is one of the best quarterbacks, and he is way underrated among a lot of the guys that are constantly talked about in the top ten.

Oh, absolutely. And I'll tell you what, he reminds me of Dan Fouts because he's the toughest guy on the football team. Dan Fouts was the toughest guy on the football team at quarterback, and that's Phillip. Phillip is hands down the toughest cat on that team. I mean, a couple years ago, 2014, he was playing with torn rib cartilage and never even uttered a word.

Never said anything, and never stopped, and never stopped throwing the ball. He played, as you all know, it's legend now. He played the 2007 AFC championship game with a torn ACL that he had torn the week before against the Colts in Indianapolis. So you want to talk about these guys on the Chargers, and they come here and they meet that guy. He seriously toughens up the defense. He toughens up everybody there because all they have to do is say,

oh, you don't feel good? Our quarterback played with a torn ACL in New England against an undefeated football team. Get your butt up and play. Right, right. And he's definitely a guy that would exude that. I don't even know if he'd have to say anything. I think his past speaks for itself.

Yeah, absolutely. Plus, I mean, if you look at the numbers in a vacuum, he's a Hall of Fame quarterback. What he's missing is that run to the Super Bowl and that ring. And we can get into a whole different discussion on whether or not it's fair to judge a quarterback on whether or not he has a ring when football being the ultimate team game. You know, if you don't have a good defense,

there's nothing you can do about it. If it's 2006 and your safety intercepts Brady in the second half when you're up against the Patriots and doesn't just fall down, he tries to run it back and fumbles it right back to New England, and they get the ball back and go down to score and knock you out of the playoffs and you're 14-2, getting your 14-2 head coach fired. Not that that's ever happened, but your quarterback, you can't control that.

He's had a lot of circumstances. Plus, he's had god-awful head coaches. He had Marty for one year when he was a starter. Marty gets run. He had Norv Turner for six years as a starter. Norv is a glorified coordinator at best, and his teams

got progressively worse as he was here. And he's got Mike McCoy, who I think is the worst head coach in the National Football League, because he's not a leader of men. Thank goodness he was smart enough to hire Ken Wisenhunt to come back and actually get this team back on the right track. So if Phillip would have had a coach like a Mike Tomlin or a Bill Belichick, he'd have two or three rings. I am convinced in that.

Yeah, I don't see that being far from the truth at all. Something I noticed through the first two games is that the Chargers have outscored their opponents 42-3 in the first half of each of those. Colts have scored 16 in their first two first halves. What do you attribute to their quick start in the games thus far? Ken Wisenhut. Wisenhut is a genius. When it comes to game planning and setting teams up, we saw this in 2013 when he was here as well. He is able to put together a game plan to start a game and to start a half. Unlike anything I've seen, I'm sure there have been other guys who have been able to

do it, but his ability to diagnose what a defense wants to do, find the weaknesses and exploit it early before the defense can make adjustments to it is amazing. So that's why he's able to do that. And then when the Chargers go down

and bam, seven points on the board, well that helps John Pagano. So we'll talk about the Pagano ball in a little while. Defensive coordinator of the Chargers, John Pagano, that gets him a little bit emboldened, and he starts calling blitzes. And John is at his best when he is calling an aggressive game plan, when he's letting his guys come off the edge, when he's bringing corners and he's bringing safeties.

He wants to bring pressure from wherever he wants. And he plays the quarterback. He's not going to be expecting it. Where he gets into trouble is when he starts getting conservative and calling that soft zone and the pre-vent and all that nonsense and stop bringing pressure. That's what happened in the second half in Kansas City. They stopped blitzing. And then when they tried to get pressure back on Alex Smith again,

the momentum had gotten away from them and they were dead. I think that runs in the family. I think exactly. And I think I would love to talk to their dad, who was a tremendous high school football coach in the Denver area, where they both learned from. I'd love to know if they learned that from him or not. But, yeah, that's where it comes from.

Wiz gets out there and, man, punch the other team in the mouth, gets seven on the board. All of a sudden, John's like, oh, let's keep this going. You go get that guy. You, you, Jerry, you, you, you, Dwight, Dwight Blitz, go, go. When he starts calling a game like that and he gets into it, it becomes a whole different Chargers football team. Yeah, you got me convinced.

But the problem is, and this is the idiocy uh well not idiocy this is the main problem of of mike mccoy is when they get that lead they suck back because mccoy for some reason mccoy doesn't want to i would love to show him the tape of the louisville florida state game all right when you get up by 30, get up by 40. Stop. Keep doing what you were doing because that's how you got to that point. What McCoy thinks is, okay, the quickest way for them to get back in the game is a big play, is an interception, a pick six, a fumble, whatever it is. So he starts calling plays or tells his coordinators to say, listen, just eliminate the possibility for big plays.

And that's when you get conservative, and that's when you start running clock, and that's when the other team starts making a couple plays. They get the momentum, and bam, all of a sudden, it's a snowball running downhill, and you can't stop it. And that's the problem with Mike McCoy. He wants to, he's so risk-averse that he doesn't want to give the other team a way to get back in the game, not trusting the fact that the way you got up by three touchdowns is by doing this very thing. Yeah, and like I said, that's very much in line with the Colts' staff as well, I think.

Now, the Chargers have recently added some, this year, have added some real quality players, whether it's Pierre Dessert, Benjamin, Matt Slauson, Brandon Meebane. I mean, the list goes on. Casey Hayward and, you know, former Colts safety Dwight Lauer, even. Has this grouping become more important to the quick start of the Chargers? And now I know they didn't win the first game of the season, but they looked phenomenal, like in the first, or throughout the first three quarters. Or have they simply just filled some holes that were in such desperate need to be plugged?

Well, I'll put it on three guys, and two of them you already mentioned. One is Matt Slosson, one is Brandon Meebane, and one is Orlando Franklin. Slosson and Meebane coming in, you start at the point of attack. And, you know, the way I think you build a team is from the inside out. Bringing in a guy like Meebane with the pedigree that he has with the ability that he has I mean even nine ten years in this guy has a lot of tread left on his tires he's been a revelation in the middle of that Chargers defensive line opened up Corey Legit to be the

playmaker he's been he's allowed Darius Filon and Tenny Palapoy who've been on the left side until Joey Bosa finally gets on the field, to really be solid. Maybe not get off the quarterback that much. They've been solid run stuffers. Teams are not running the ball nearly as effectively against the Chargers as they have been the last couple of years. So that's where Meebane's been a big addition.

Matt Slossom has really solidified that offensive line. Last year, over the last two years, the Chargers have had seven centers. They had five in 2014 alone. In 2015, according to Pro Football Focus, Trevor Robinson, their starting center for the majority of games

after Chris Watt got hurt, was the worst offensive lineman in the NFL. Not the worst center, the worst offensive lineman in the NFL. So now they go get a guy like Slauson,

and what Slauson brings is something that's been missing since Nick Hardwick, Chris Diehlman, Jeremy Clary, you know, that 2006 to 2010 offensive line. He brings a nastiness to it. He brings an attitude to it. And that, I think, has rubbed off on the entire line left to right. And that brings me to franklin who was dinged up a lot of last year but there was one play in the game against the jaguars is that really suggested okay this guy's back to being the mauler we saw in denver tyrell williams catches a little

drag route turns it up field this guy's a burner all right he gets down there and he gets down inside the five yard line runs into a couple of defenders, and who's the guy who comes up behind him to knock the whole pile in? Orlando Franklin, 44 yards down the field. That guy being as aggressive as he is and finishing the way he is, he's now bringing the kind of attitude that the Chargers were hoping he would have brought last year, but he was just dinged up all year, never really felt physically right, took the offseason to get better. So now Orlando Franklin is that guy right next to Matt Slauson who you get a couple of dudes in there who are like,

you know what, screw you, we're going to run you over. You don't like it, we're going to run you over again. And they're going to run you over 40 yards downfield and there's nothing you can do about it. That's the attitude that those two guys bring. And the Chargers offensive line that used 24 different combinations last year for the first two games of the season has finished a game with the same combination at the start of the game. And for this team, that alone is a huge

development. Yeah, that goes a long way. And especially the way that they're playing now, you can tell that offensive line is a big part of that, that they're getting Melvin Gordon those extra yards when they're getting to the second level. I was watching a little bit of their tape today, and I saw a lot of that, whereas you definitely didn't see, you know, there was definitely no rumblings talking about the San Diego offensive line last year either. So something that we've been used to in Indianapolis as far as the way the front line is portrayed nationally for sure. Now you guys do have some kind of small injuries. Antonio Gates and Jaleel Adai were both out Wednesday. Dunlap was out with an illness and a couple other guys.

I don't see those as being much of an issue. Now, it didn't say Antonio Gates. What's his injury? I'm curious. Oh, he's not injured. He's fine. He's getting what they call a veteran rest day. Okay.

See, I looked for that, but I didn't see it on the injury report, so I wasn't sure if there was something else because I hadn't heard anything about him being injured. Yeah, no, he'll do that probably for the rest of the year. I mean, he's 35 years old. And, I mean, as Coach McCoy likes to say, Antonio Gates can fall out of bed and catch passes from Phillip Rivers. He doesn't need the extra practice time.

He didn't play a single down in any preseason game. They're protecting his body at this point. So I think Gaethje's fine. They just look for pretty much every Wednesday or Thursday, depending on how they want to work it. He's not going to be practicing just for his own physical well-being, or at least he'll be limited. He'll go through individual drills, won't put pads on.

He'll do stuff like that. Now, Jaleel Adai fractured his collarbone and had surgery on Monday, so he's not going to be playing. And that means that Dexter McCoyle, who is in his first NFL season, very interesting story behind McCoyle. I know folks on the Locked On Chargers podcast have heard me tell this before, but for your Colts fans, came out of Tulane, went to the Raiders as an undrafted free agent, got cut,

ended up with the Los Angeles Kiss of the Arena Football League. Oh, yes, I read about this. I read about this. Yeah, and then up in Edmonton for two years with the Eskimos. And then came down here and was basically a win for the Chargers and won himself a roster spot. Now he's going to be starting in week three in the NFL. But he's 6'4", and he runs like a deer, and he likes to hit.

So Dexter McCoy will be taking the spot of Jaleel Adai. I had totally forgotten all about that, and you're right. I read about that a while back. Now, this wouldn't be complete without some Joey Bosa talk. He did take some part in some padded practice today. In fact, you wrote about a real quick spot about it as well. But he's been a little reserved about talking about his injuries. Is this just media fatigue, I mean, given that he's already had to go through,

I mean, what he's had to go through just to get his contract negotiations wrapped up? Or is this just he doesn't see it as a big deal and he just doesn't want to talk about it he doesn't want to talk about it he didn't mean joey's not a guy of many words in the first place right so he just he just doesn't want to he'll talk about football all day he doesn't want to talk about the hamstring doesn't want to talk about the contract doesn't want to he wants to get out there and play with his teammates i'm sure after a game after he has a couple of sacks he'll be you know quite glib but um you know But, you know, as he said today multiple times, he's day by day.

You know, the hamstring, he said, felt really good today. He went through individual drills, put on pads for the first time since the Fiesta Bowl. And he only played one quarter in that game. He got ejected for a targeting call, which was, I mean, amazing. He figured nine, nine and a half months later, he's finally getting pads back on. So I think it's a long shot for him to play on Sunday, although it is possible. He's going to have to start building up that body armor that you get when you keep getting pounded on with pads for a while. So we'll see how that goes, because I think they have enough on the defensive line right now to wait another

week or two before they have to put him out there. I had another question about your offensive line, but you've basically answered it with your talk earlier. So basically the last question that I've got is who do Colts fans need to watch out for this Sunday that they may not be expecting to show out? May not be expecting. Oh, well, let me see. Casey Hayward had two picks last week. He's not exactly an unknown commodity coming from Green Bay. You know what?

I'll go with Craig Mager. He's a guy who's basically a rotational defensive back, but he's also their kick returner. And in practice, he's shown the ability to break a couple, but he hasn't done anything close to that in games. He really hasn't had a chance. So I know he's got the ability to return kicks. I've seen the tape in college.

Hasn't really shown it at the NFL level yet. But I'd say maybe if anything big happens on special teams, don't be surprised if that guy taking a kickback might have something to do with it. That's interesting because I've definitely never heard of him at all. There you go. guy taking a kickback might have something to do with it. That's interesting because I've definitely never heard of him at all. There you go. You wanted me to go, never heard of, and then I will go deep into the never heard of file for you. How about some predictions for the game?

What do you have? Yeah, you definitely came through on that one. I actually had the Colts in my preseason prediction. I had the Colts winning this one. But after I've looked through, you know, kind of background and researched a little bit of what I've seen so far from the Chargers and what I've seen from the Colts thus far, I, man, this is going to be a tall task. I know that the Colts offense can put up 30 in a heartbeat if they're, if the, you know, if all the machines have all the parts together and are working well.

But this one's a scary one for me. I hate the thought of the Colts starting out 0-3, but I have to go Chargers 27, Colts 24. Interesting. You see, I always say beware of the desperate team at home because that's a tall order, and with a quarterback like Luck, you know it could very easily turn into a shootout. That might not turn out all that well for you,

but given the way that Jason Barrett has taken out Allen Robinson and Jeremy Macklin, those guys have gotten combined less than 100 yards against Barrett this year, and those two are the best wideouts in the National Football League. Those guys have gotten combined less than 100 yards against Barrett this year. And those two are the best wideouts in the National Football League. I don't see Hilton being able to cut loose. And if you take him away and give him the injury problems the Colts have, I see this actually being more like that Monday night game from a few years ago when the Colts and Chargers played, and it was 19-7. I wouldn't go in it.

Yeah, it was a horrible game, but the Chargers will take it. I'll go in a lower scoring contest. I'll say Chargers 20, Colts 13. Interesting. One of the other reasons it has me a little reserved for the Colts, especially being at home, I kind of took that into account too, but the Colts are only 1-3 at home in the last four meetings against Rivers. He's kind of owned them at home as well as on the road.

So it just presents a real issue in not only offense, but the defense has to find a pass rush. There's just so many things that has to go right for the Colts to actually not to be in the game, but for them to win the game. And that's what's so hard to predict what's going to happen with these guys because they can be in every single game all year, but so many additional factors have to come together for them to actually pull out the win

in a lot of the games that they have on their schedule right now. I'll tell you what, Matt, selfishly, I hope we're both right. Yeah, I'm sure you do. But I just want to give everybody a reminder to make sure you're following Derek on Twitter at DerekNBCSD and follow Locked On Chargers as well. Make sure you guys are signing up and subscribing to that. Also follow Locked On Colts and subscribe to the podcast there as well. Give them some ratings and reviews.

We really appreciate it. We're really happy that the listenership has turned out so well in the brief time that we've been doing this, and things are just going great, and we appreciate all of you guys listening, and the reviews have been phenomenal. So keep that up. Amen keep that up amen to that amen to that it's been it's been really nice it's been uh a really uh warm welcome from from the listeners so it's uh something that we want to see continue we want to be um more engaged with you guys as well on social media

and just about any other way that we can. So keep that up. Derek, have you got anything you want to sign off with, my man? No, you touched on it all great. I really appreciate all the listeners. I mean, I've done a few of these crossovers, and everybody who talks about this on the Locked On Podcasting Network is tremendous. Matt, I mean, you lived up to the billing.

I mean, you know the billing. You know the team. You know their stuff. It's fun to talk to. Again, thank you to everybody out there who's listening to all this. We're just in its infancy. So like I said, if you have any questions, any concerns, and you want us to address anything on the shows, send us a tweet. Let us know.

Get us on social media. We're always more than happy to, uh, to do this. You want this to be as interactive as possible. Absolutely. We want to make it as good as we can for everybody. So let us know what you think we can, you know, do better. Let us know what you like. And that's how this process works.

So, uh, thank you, Derek, uh, for doing this. It was a great time. And, uh, we're going to just go ahead and officially sign off for the Locked On Colts, Locked On Chargers crossover podcast. And, uh, we'll talk to just go ahead and officially sign off for the Locked On Colts, Locked On Chargers crossover podcast. And we'll talk to you guys tomorrow. We'll talk to you tomorrow.