Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - LOCKED ON COLTS - 9/26 - Colts Break Into The Right Side of The Win Column 26-22 Over San Diego Chargers

Episode Date: September 26, 2016

The #Colts finally finish off an opponent to get their first win of the season over the #Chargers | TY #Hilton steps up in a big way | #Luck shows us the best, and worst of him | Antonio #Cromartie kneels during #Anthem | Jake Arthur joins Matt to dissect the Colts first victory 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. You are Locked On Colts, your daily podcast on the Indianapolis Colts, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome back Colts Nation. Our Colts are finally on the right side of the win column after finishing off the San Diego Chargers 26-22 in Lucas Oil Stadium. This was yet another game of some ups and downs, some great runs and throws, and some dumb mistakes.

But the Colts pulled it out and took the final lead on a 63-yard catch and run from Andrew Luck to T.Y. Hilton with about a minute 17 to go in the game. If you're like me, that amount of time seemed to be eerily reminiscent of where the Colts have been recently in the first couple weeks of the season. But they were the ones forcing the turnover late in this game to seal it up this time around. So the Colts are in good shape right now. And thank you for joining me on the Colts' first win, locked-on Colts of the season. This is a great, great deal.

We got a special guest with us tonight, Jake Arthur. But first, I want to get to one of the things that caught my attention first and foremost in the game and something that caught the attention of a lot of you as well, as noticed on a lot of the social networking sites and so on and so forth. Antonio Cromartie is officially now the first cult to kneel and whatever, you know, do something else, so raises his fist during the national anthem, and the blowback from this is just remarkable. It never ceases to amaze me, the response that people are showing to somebody doing this, and I wanted to get some insight from some people, not only that I know,

but from some people that were in the military, have this experience, and to see kind of what they think about this. Because a lot of us, I've never been military or anything like that, and I'm not going to go on a long spiel about this, but I want to direct something to you guys to where we can all, if nothing, have a second opinion or another thought about this. And I got a text from one of my friends who was in the military, was overseas, spent some time in Baghdad, spent some time in that part of the world for the better part of a year, and has been in the military for the better part of 15 years.

And this is the response I got from him when asking him about it, not just about Cromartie, but in general. It honestly doesn't bother me. I know a lot of people think it's disrespectful to vets, but I don't feel that way. Vets took an oath to support and defend the Constitution, and the Constitution gives every American the right of freedom of speech and expression. So since I took that oath to support the Constitution, I also support those who exercise their constitutional rights. I don't personally agree with the message, but I also don't believe

that the message should be silenced simply because I don't agree with it. The players kneeling are doing so peacefully. None of them are advocating violence or disorder. So if kneeling is their way of protesting, then I support their right to do so. And additionally, he goes on to tell me what does bother him. He says, Those who are outraged by it are so quick to invoke the military into it, as if we're a bunch of thin-skinned people who are easily offended. What I actually think is more offensive is the fact that the NFL charges the military for all pregame and military stuff that happens before each game.

All the patriotic stuff we see before the game is really nothing more than paid advertising. So the question I wished was asked more is what's more patriotic, a paid-for pre guys are standing or what they're kneeling for is not so much against the flag and it's definitely not against the military. I think that people want to make it what they feel that the flag is about. But you see from this that this isn't what he's worried about. Now, here is another aspect to this that I looked up a little more. There was an article last year in SB Nation, and it says teams in five major American sports leagues have taken in more than $10 million in marketing deals with the military since 2012. But the Department of Defense can't account for all the contracts, much less the money. In all, the Department of Defense spent $10.4 million on marketing contracts with teams in each of these leagues. Its official response to our request only accounted for 62% of its 122 contracts with the major league teams that we were able to uncover

and 70% of the more than $10 million it actually spent on these contracts. These paid tributes included on-field color guard, enlistment and re-enlistment ceremonies, performance of the national anthem, full-field flag details, ceremonial first pitches, and puck drops. Now, this is what's bothering them. What else is bothering them is how the VA, the Department of Veteran Affairs, among many other things, there was a scandal that led to nearly 300 veterans dying waiting for care. The agency's problems go far beyond this, though. The VA is broken, has been for a while. these people coming back from serving their country aren't being cared for aren't allowed employment um and and another thing about coming back home the suicide rate among veterans these

people are not being helped out as much as they should this is what the veterans care about okay this is what they're worried about they They overwhelming. It's not just this guy, my friend here who text me and told me this. This is overwhelming majority of these guys feel this way. They don't care about these guys doing peaceful protests or peaceful stand asides or kneelings or anything of that sort. They care about everything that is being done now is it misguided maybe a little bit because of where they're doing it how they're doing it what their cause is in specific but now as we've gone through this the major issue is the responses that all these players are getting where that they these people are advocating violence against these guys who are doing these peaceful protests and kneels on a personal level i'd I'd rather not get into it too much, but I want to put it out there to everybody to think before you respond to this and to think how it actually is affecting veterans and what they feel.

They feel that they give you the right to sit there and throw a fit about it, and they give these guys the right to sit there and throw a fit about it and they give these guys the right from fighting overseas and dying and their friends dying and everybody else for our benefit to be able to live free and continue this that's what they've fought and died for so reel it back a little bit now let's get back to the game I wanted to put that out there a little bit just to kind of let you guys all chew on that for a little bit. I think this is something that we're going to see a lot more of, and I wanted to kind of get out in front of it, especially since a Colts player finally for the first time has done this. So now we're going to talk about the game and this Colts win over San Diego.

And for it, I brought in my buddy from Pro Football Spot, Jake Arthur. Jake, thank you for joining me, man, tonight. What do you think about the game, buddy? Yeah, no problem. Thanks for having me, man. Well, it's a lot better to sit here and kind of absorb a win than to have to pick apart everything that's wrong and have to stew over it for another week

to see if they're actually going to make adjustments. So's always a good change yeah it is it's so i mean the defense finally came to play in the first half the chargers only got one of their five first uh third down conversions uh the defense was getting these guys off uh three and out on their first possession the colts really looked like they were in the driver's seat the entire game. And it was so much closer than that, really, in the end. I mean, they kept, throughout the entire game, they kept Phil Rivers from throwing a touchdown pass. They kept Melvin Gordon under wraps,

who had been having a really good start to the season in his first two games. And, I mean, he scored a touchdown. It was from two yards out. But overall, they really did a great job of keeping their major playmakers under Raps. It was just the silly, boneheaded plays that kept the Chargers in this game and kept the Colts from really, you know, zipping away with it. Yeah. And I mean, I kind of had a feeling that once they would finally start to get some of those guys healthy again, that we would see an actual effective defense. I mean, I think so many people forgot that some of their most important players were

not in there. We were seeing street-free agents starting. It was craziness what we were seeing the first couple weeks. We have an all-pro cornerback back, and I think you saw his effectiveness a lot. I didn't even really notice him in the game until there was a play where he finally got hurt near the end. Honestly, if you're not noticing a corner, that's great because it means he's not getting burned. He was out there.

They got Clayton Gathers and TJ Green back. And I thought Gathers is out there being his authoritative self like normal. He looks big right now, doesn't he? He really does. And I just really love – I want to see more of that him as a passing down linebacker. Although today was another big dose of them experimenting with their linebackers, seeing what they want to do. I do like Antonio Morrison, but I think he's becoming a bit of a liability.

He is. I actually wrote that in my notes, too. Yeah, he's, I mean, against the run, he's great, but against the pass, there's been like... He cannot stay focused. Yeah, there's been like three or four really glaring, terrible plays he's made this season so far. I do think he's still got a bright future, but he has been a liability a handful of times so far. C.O. Moore kind of got back on the horse after being a little bit taken out last week. But, yeah, I think, you know, and of course Henry Anderson, though, he didn't have much effect until later in the game.

This is more what the defense will – I think it will look more like this than it will the absolute gashings that it looked like the first couple weeks because the actual NFL players are coming back to start for this team. So it will get better, and today was a sign of it. Morrison had that play that he gave up that was actually an incomplete pass to Gordon and he was wide open and more. Morrison is nowhere to be found. He was clearly the guy in control of the flat and he let him go. And then that big 30 yard catch to Hunter Henry down the sidelines. I mean, he's he just cannot stay focused for in coverage whatsoever. He is so concerned on what's going on in the backfield that he just totally allows his assignment to run free.

And, man, we cannot have that. It's happened several games in a row. It happened a lot in the preseason. We saw it at camp. It's just really bad. It's really bad. I mean, on the other hand there, we had Eric Walden, who was, you know, and I was as guilty of this as I think anybody,

but I don't think when he was brought in, his free agent pickup there a few years ago, that anybody thought he was going to be anything because he was considered one of the worst edge-setting outside linebackers in the league at the time. He gives the Colts that nasty, though. I mean, he has some really stupid plays where, you know, for example, his headbutt to Delaney Walker. I mean, just stuff like that. Getting the unsportsmanlike conduct plays in the past and just stupid, stupid stuff. But he is the one guy it seems like on that defense who just he'll go on a tangent sometimes over a four- and five-play span and just beat up the tackle

or beat up the linebacker or the running back, whoever gets in his way. And he's the one who's causing all the pressure this year. I think he's got three sacks on the year so far and he had two of them tonight yeah and did you know the very first time i saw robert mathis on the field was when he was trailing a play it was on a a replay of a play i did not see robert mathis on that field today at. No, and it's unfortunately been that way for most of this three weeks. There were a couple occasions last week in Denver where if Trevor Simeon would have just held onto the ball a half second longer, we would have got the patented strip sack.

But so far we're not seeing the guy that used to change games you know i mean there there were several big games over the past few years where he would robert mathis was a huge linchpin and and would turn the tide of games by getting you know a sack fumble but we're just not seeing that out of him really and like you said walden as far as an exterior pass rush is about it everything else is coming from the line you know it's it's Zach Kerr uh I mean unfortunately T.Y. McGill was inactive today that wasn't awesome but you know I mean I get that because of the people that they have that they had to activate and so on but I didn't really understand that at all yeah I mean he's easily one of the best defensive playmakers they have in that front seven.

So you would think you would want as many of them active as possible. It's just crazy to think about the way that it's turned out for that. I think that we were all expecting Mathis to be formidable you know the the there's no two ways about it that Vontae Davis made his presence felt like you said you didn't really see much of him you were actually kind of concerned whether he was actually in the game one way or another they were shutting people down the outside and I'm telling you right now Antonio is much for much flack as Antonio Cromartie gets for the the you know, he gets beat a little bit. The dude's old for a corner, you know, for, but he has played remarkably well, in my opinion,

regardless of pro football focus grades or any other thing you want to tag him with. But he's played really well. He even had a, you know, he redirected an extra point tonight that, you know, that caused it to go wide left. He's been all over the field. He tackles pretty well. He's an older guy. He's getting, you know, dinged up a lot. You can see that he's probably not going to play all 16 games this year just because of his health, you know, it's just not going to happen, but, uh, he played well.

Henry Anderson played well when he was in our defensive line, I thought did really good tonight. Zach Kerr had another good game. They all, like I thought, did really good tonight. Zach Kerr had another good game. They all, like I said, they shut down Melvin Gordon. It's just been, it's been nice. And, you know, Gordon had 13 yards at halftime on seven carries. At Hunter Henry, you know, 30 of those 39, of his 39 yards were on one catch. But, you know, rivers was 8 of 16 for 106 yards and then you look at luck who as bad as his first half was he still was 11 of 18 for 143 did throw that stupid pick and i anytime i complain about luck these are the this is the play this is the very play right here that i constantly complain about is his midfield throws to the boundary where it's a one or two yard throw

downfield, so to speak, but he puts, puts the touch on the ball and it's either going to get picked, deflected, or, you know, something of the sort. It just, it's a bad throw. It's a terrible, terrible throw. It's not a good route for him because it doesn't open anything up. And those guys are biting on that. It's a three yard route. Why is that going? Tell me why that is going to take a cornerback off of his spot to make him take two back pedals and close on that pass. That is begging for a pick six every time. Yeah. Something that made me just audibly shout watching the game today too was now this this is something he does with regularity that's pretty dumb but he actually doesn't get bitten on this a lot it's when he's getting brought down on a sack and he's being

brought down when he's falling backwards and will throw a pass to – there is normally someone in the area, but there's also about three defenders in the area. That is a bonehead of play he doesn't normally get bitten on, but he has to stop that. Yeah, he got away with a couple today. Because it would be so easy for that to get picked off by a linebacker and taken back. Yeah, he got away with a couple of those today.

And then on that fumble return at the end of the first half, He got picked off by a linebacker and taken back. Yeah, he got away with a couple of those today. And then on that fumble return at the end of the first half, all he had to do was go down. I don't know why he's trying to stand up when he's clearly not going anywhere with two guys' arms around him. The one dude goes straight after the ball. All he has to do is go down. He doesn't. And there's just no excuse for it.

Look, I appreciate that he wants to play every play through and refuses to go down. I appreciate that from him as a player. He's had more than four years, we'll put it that way, of this, and it's bitten him constantly. This kind of play, sometimes it comes out in the wash, you know, and nothing comes of it. Like there was a play towards the end of the game in the fourth quarter where there was two plays in a row where he was pressured on both of them. And on both of them, he threw balls just barely out of reach of defenders because he was getting hit at the time or shortly thereafter. He can't do that

he has to understand that that totally puts the team in a hole if anything like a fumble return or a pick six comes from it um but like i said at the end of the half he was 11 of 18 143 interception and a fumble loss that was returned for a touchdown yet the colts were tied with the Chargers at 13, and the Colts dominated the first half. Now, I made a comment, and I tweeted that when it was 13-6, that it was eerily reminiscent of the Colts and Broncos from last week. The Colts were down 7, and Broncos were basically dominating the game because luck was having a terrible first half there was no running game nothing your defense was pretty much getting torn up by Simeon regardless of how many points they scored they did do a good job of holding

them to field goals but in the end the Broncos were dominating the game and the Colts were only down seven and they should have been extremely happy with that, and that's what ultimately kept them in the game. This was making me think the same thing. The Colts are dominating this game at halftime, and Luck's thrown an interception. They had a fumble return for a touchdown, and the game's tied. This is not probably going to end well for the Colts. But, you know, they came out in the second half, and in the second half, the Chargers again were held to, you know,

I'm including third down conversions by penalty too. So in the second half, they were three of six. The Chargers were on third down. And the Colts, you know, they weren't very good on third down either. They were three of seven but they came out Gordon scored his touchdown on their first drive they missed the extra point because of Cromartie that put them up six and then the Colts come back and Robert Turbin finishes off the drive with a one yard touchdown that puts the Colts up 20-19. Now this is where everything kind of goes, it seems like, up and down, up and down. Force the Chargers to a three and out.

The Colts come back with a minute 32 in the third quarter, and they go to Doyle for 11 for a first down. Gore gets him a couple hard yards on the next couple plays. There's that big play to Chester Rogers downfield that somehow draws a pass interference call on him. Am I the only one that didn't see that? Yeah, I didn't either. I mean, the replay they showed wasn't a good angle at all.

It looked like it was from the press box, you know, a mile in the sky. So it wasn't easy to see. But, I mean, it looked like they were legitimately miffed about that call yeah i didn't understand it i mean it didn't look like i didn't see i mean they said that he pushed off maybe he did yeah but it looked to me like he just changed his angle at the ball yeah i'd say you saw separation at the last moment before the ball got there. You never know if that's because he pushed off, but I also thought he just kind of changed his direction towards the ball as well. Because they both seemed to cut that way.

Right. Well, it looked like the guy, whoever the defensive back was, I think it was Hayward. Yeah. It looked like they were just kind of hip to hip on it. And when Rodgers changed his direction, that he just kind of kept going in the same direction. So I thought that didn't – it was hard, like you said.

We didn't get a good replay. I can't wait to see that just to throw a fit about it more or less, you know, on game pass or whatever. But, you know, then that started a string of penalties that ended up putting the Colts at one point to second and 40. That was ridiculous. That was ridiculous. And then, you know, Colts fans were super excited

when Turbin ran for two yards on third and 37. That was, you know, that made them happy. And so, or that put them at third and 37, I guess. But the Colts ended up having some really good coverage on that punt and nearly come up with a fumble on the muffed punt there. So the Colts had a chance regardless. But then Walden, on the next possession, ends up sacking Rivers, and that ends up holding them to a field goal when the Chargers ended up getting down into Colts' territory pretty quickly.

You know, I do my best to stay even-keeled watching these games, and, man, I found myself sitting in the most awkward positions throughout this game a couple different times. Man, I had my leg over my other leg, and then I ended up on the edge of the couch and i'm just sitting up just watching this and i'm just like man i don't know what's going to happen but i am wound tight and you know the the chargers end up going up 22 to 20 after that and then the colts and chargers traded a couple possessions before the big, big, big luck to Hilton, 63-yard catch and run for a touchdown where Hilton just squeezed out of a tackle there around the 50-yard line almost immediately as he caught the ball and ran all the way to the end zone.

And that put the Colts up 26-22 with a buck 17 to go. Now, what are your thoughts at this point when you're thinking about this? I mean, were you similar to what I was thinking about how there's a minute 17 to go and you have one of the most clutch quarterbacks in the NFL with the ball, who hasn't done anything all game, by the way, and now what are the chances of him coming back and leading them on a game-winning touchdown drive? Right.

I mean, you always got to be worried about that. But for some reason, this game, I never felt like the Colts weren't going to win the game. I felt like they were supposed to. And other than when, like you mentioned, the Chargers got that late lead, that was kind of the only time where I kind of got a little iffy. But it just seemed like the atmosphere wasn't – it didn't seem conducive to have that sort of comeback win for the Chargers because there was a lot of momentum. The crowd was still in it.

It's not like the passing game had been torching the Colts, and they were really stifling the run game, and it's not like they could use the run game to try to get back into it that late in the game anyways. There were a couple times, and this was really, you know, too little too late, but Travis Benjamin I think had some opportunities to make some plays where Rivers just couldn't find him.

And that may have screwed them in the long run, but those happen throughout the game. He had a few drops too. Rivers dealt with a lot of drops today. Yeah, yeah, definitely. You know, I just didn't think he was super sharp. I thought, especially early in the game, I thought he left a lot of plays on the field.

And I don't know, I thought the Colts' defense was playing stout enough to keep them from from uh mounting that full comeback but like you said just absolutely a bundle of nerves watching the second half unfold because they hadn't put it together yet and even though the texans lost on thursday an oh and three hole was going to be real damaging for their chances of actually making the playoffs because they're pretty much in a must-win situation from here on out. They can only afford a couple more hiccups throughout the year before they're pretty much out of it. Yeah, I think I spoke about that last week on the podcast

that the Colts were in a really scary situation to where if they went 0-3, you know, I was basically cutting it down to the Jaguars have a winnable game against the Ravens. The Titans have a winnable game against Oakland. Houston's lost, but they're still up 2-1, you know. It's just a bad situation. If they were to come out of this without a win,

it didn't really matter what the other teams did. But, you know, they kind of lucked out. Jacksonville and Tennessee lost, and the Colts won. And I've spoken about this as well probably at least four or five times in the last week, week and a half. The Colts are really a difficult team to gauge right now. They haven't had all their guys. They have been in both games in their first two games.

They've been in both of them, could have won both of them, dropped them both. They come into a game like this where the Chargers had outscored teams 42-3 in the first half of their first two games, and the Colts had only scored 16 points in the first half of their first two games. It was a setup for disaster and the Colts really you know obviously like you said and like we've spoken about Vontae Davis and Henry

Anderson coming back that was huge I mean huge and Gethers as well Gethers he looks like Bob Sanders out there and I don't mean necessarily playing style looking at him his arms are huge I don't remember him being that big but he's he played well he did good in coverage he ended up forcing that final uh fumble at the end of the game i mean that was just so beautiful to see that ball pop out there and nothing but blue around it you know it was great but this is a this team is going to be like this all year, and I'm nervous because it looks that they are going to be in so many close games, I think, and this team has to be able to perfect finishing games this year on the last drive of the game.

They run the risk of getting blown out by a couple teams i think if something doesn't go right or something doesn't start going right at halftime but man they have so much they have so many games on their schedule this year that are going to end up being decided on the last drive of the game. Oh, absolutely. The whole second half of the season will probably – I mean, obviously the first half has been like this, but looking at the schedule for the second half, I don't see that changing at all. I don't either.

Who's your player of the game? Who's the one guy you felt that the Colts couldn't win without today? We'll say without Luck because Luck had some beautiful throws. He had a fantastic toss to T.Y. down the sideline that's just undefendable. I mean, amazing. He had some really great throws. And you know what? Luck, outside of that first half against Denver, is over 65% for the season.

Oh, yeah, absolutely. He was almost 65% today. This is a beautiful – this is definitely a trend in the right direction regardless of how ugly some of his plays are. His overall play, Jack Doyle is a huge part of that. Oh, absolutely. Is he Luck's security blanket right now? I think so.

Back to your original question of who I would kind of give the player of the game to, I'd have to split this one in half for the offense. Um, I would go with both Frank Gore and T.Y. Hilton. Uh, I, I,

I like Robert Turbin a great deal, but I, I think Gore just has that special patience and vision to him that not a lot of other guys have. I mean, obviously, I think he's top 10 all-time in rushing now. And though he's lost a step, he's still got the mental side to it. And even though the Colts now, I don't even know what it is, what, like 55, 58 games without a 100-yard rusher, I think they could have got it today easily if they wanted to.

I think Gore averaged five or six yards a carry throughout the entire game up until the final drive where they were just killing clock. He finished with 82 yards and a touchdown. I think he helped set the tempo. There's not a lot the Chargers could do to stop him, especially after Manti Teo went out. Denzel Perryman had a great game, but Gore was just kind of having his way with that front seven.

So that was great to see. When I was watching the game, I kept thinking about that because Perryman was a guy that you and I often talked about when he was coming out of college. And I think last last year did he have a rough year last year or something because there was a lot of people short changing him really a lot of injuries uh is that what it was yeah and I remember he got a lot of negative flack last year and I couldn't really understand it after watching today's game going that dude is a stuff yeah he's not a great pass defender, at least not downfield. He's more of a box guy.

And you kind of saw him leave the field a couple times in definite passing situations. But, I mean, he is a really good box linebacker. I mean, just because, you know, Dequal Jackson, for example, he's still a good run defender, even if he's, you know, can't guard tight ends. That's kind of how I see Perryman. And he's probably never going to develop into much of a pass defender. We did see Edwin Jackson come on the field for the Colts in some third down situations today.

Yeah, which, honestly, this is probably just selfish on my part because I want to see it, but I also think it's the best thing to do. In a lot of those packages, I just think they should send gathers to linebacker and then have TJ Green and Mike Adams be the safeties. I kind of assume that is what they were going to be their main thing to get off because they want all three of those safeties on the field at once. I kind of assumed that would be the package that they do it with. That made the most sense to me.

I mean, Green already has starting experience because Gathers hasn't been there the whole summer. And then Gathers has experience at linebacker already. Right. But yeah, I thought we'd see that a little more. Not that I don't like Edwin Jackson, but I don't like all the experimenting they're doing at linebacker right now. I love to see the young guys get playing time,

but I think it's so blatantly obvious that Dequal Jackson and C.O. Moore is the way to go right now, at least until they can get their whole defense back because there's just been so much rotation because of injuries, and they're clearly trying to see what they have and all their linebackers next to Jackson. I think it's just safer right now to just leave co more in there for the most part other than when they're going in certain sub packages for passing downs and things like that yeah and i agree with that i think that i definitely

think that their biggest issue needs to be that three, the three safety system that they're talking about. They've been talking about that for a while now, especially in the last couple of weeks. But I think, I think when they do get into that sub package situation, they also have to be pretty careful about tipping their hand, you know, so easily because teams are going to come out in four wide receiver sets in that. And a lot of teams have a solid one through three wide receiver depth on their team.

So it's going to help more than it hurts, but the Colts have to be smart about when they use it. Yeah. If I'm going to give my player of the game to anybody, you know, Luck did his job bringing the Colts back there's no doubt about it if we're going to do this where you know it's kind of like the the same thing it used to be with Peyton Luck's player of the game I'm going to bypass Luck on this and I'm going to go everybody but quarterback on this and I'm going to say the Colts defense in general because the Colts would have

gotten blown out in the first half if they didn't come to play. And you know, that's mixed a little bit with San Diego not feeling not not playing not being smooth in the first half as well. But the defense largely came to play and showed up and did their job. On the other hand, I'm going to go with the Colts receivers with Hilton and Doyle. On that side, Alan has become sort of a footnote almost in the offense, and luck likes him. There's no doubt about it. But Doyle appears to be the better receiving threat from the tight end position,

which blows my mind. I thought he'd get more targets this year. I'm just surprised that he's getting that many more. Yeah. And Hilton obviously had a phenomenal game. I'm just glad he stayed on his feet after that catch at the 50 yard line and didn't go down because once he gets turned around you just thought oh is he up is he up and then he out ran the the other defender to the end zone I thought that was huge but he ran phenomenal routes all day he ate up

Verrett and that's that was one of the biggest keys to this game is is he gonna shut down hilton for the entire four quarters and to be quite honest with you we've all seen hilton disappear in games so it was it was something that i was worried about but on the other hand hilton was phenomenal he just chewed him up all day and for the large part luck hit hilton when he was open, as opposed to floating balls out there, you know, late and stuff like that. And I'm going to give the offensive line a little bit of love here too. I mean, Luck did get some pressure today, don't get me wrong. They weren't fantastic or anything like that. But one, the Colts offensive

line is much better than it's being perceived nationally. And, yeah. And probably even by Colts fans in general because they're just so used to complaining about the offensive line. On the other hand, they had Austin Blythin at a guard spot. They moved Haig, who started at guard, out to tackle and brought in Harrison after Wrights went out. And that offensive line, that should show everybody how much depth we actually have on that line. I know you and I looked at it a lot when we were at camp and thought this could be definitely their best offensive line in years.

I mean, they didn't even have Denzel Gooddress today. And they did pretty stinking well, I think. And Haig really showed up. I think not only for now, the Colts are formidable on the offensive line. But I think the Colts have a very, very good base at that offensive line. Costanzo is still young. Muhorz is,

you know, a young guy. Hopefully he's healthy and can stop getting nicked up. You know what I mean? But he's a, he's a beast. And then you got right guard and right tackle that depending on Hegg and good and whoever, you know,

shows out to be a better tackle, just move out. I think the Colts have a really, and Kelly at center, I think the Colts have a really good base on their offensive line right now. Yeah, I mean, I would definitely agree with that. Like you said, they kind of got thrown a curveball because not only was Denzel Good not in there at all today, but then Joe Reitz got hurt again, kind of re-aggravating his back injury. So you take a rookie who I believe was really seeing his first extended action in Joe Haig.

So I don't think he played much at all in the first two games. You know, moving him from right guard over to a tackle spot where you're even more so protecting the quarterback at right tackle, moving Jonathan Harrison into guard, who he is so much better at guard than center now that he doesn't have to do so much mental processing. Oh, it's not even close. So, I mean, that was really impressive. The line, I think, next year is going to be outstanding.

I don't see how it couldn't be. I'm sure Kelly will be one of the top half centers in the league by next year, if he's not even already. I know a lot of the analytics guys are absolutely in love with him. I've seen a lot of reason to be. He's been the – just passing the eye test, he's been the just passing the eye test he's been the best center they've had since jeff saturday already yeah up through the first two weeks as of the other day he was um i think he was 11th in protection but he's not he's not rated very

high or ranked very high in the run game but that you know, 11th center in the league as a rookie is pretty solid. I mean, granted, there's only 32 centers typically, depending any injuries in game, but there's only 32 guys that start per week, you know. So that's a top third, not even just, you know, top half. So that's a nice spot for him. I just, I'm impressed with it. I'm happy about it. I think it's going to

bring all of this fire Grigson stuff down a little bit. Think about this. Good was a seventh round pick. Blythe is a solid lineman. He's not going to get a whole lot of action this year. You're not going to see it, but I even tweeted out, I'm not worried about Blythe coming in. He's not going to get a whole lot of action this year. You're not going to see it, but I even tweeted out, I'm not worried about Blythe coming. I wasn't either. I mean, I think he was only in there for one snap, but I was not worried about him at all because I've loved everything I've seen from him from the preseason. Yeah. I mean, I just, I think the Colts are in really solid position right now and it's not been with second and third and first round draft picks.

It's good in the seventh round that nobody even could find any tape on him when he was drafted. Now, Good's not going to be a top five tackle in the league. I'm not getting into that. But he's definitely going to be part of a good unit with these guys all getting together and playing together and getting that chemistry. And as we all know, chemistry is so much more important than continuity. It doesn't have to be the same guys every time,

but if you've got chemistry among those starters plus their backups in there, that is going to make a huge difference for the Colts. Andrew Luck in general, keeping him safe and upright and allowing him to – there were several times against the chargers that he had five, six seconds to throw the ball. You know, the only scary part is when teams start sending five guys, it seems like we see some breakdowns and stuff a little bit,

but on a large part of it has been outside. It's not been up the middle so much. So that's good to see. I mean, rights just doesn't have the foot speed i don't think to get outside with some of these edge rushers i mean i think that really is about what it boils down to but overall this was a a huge win for the colts this sends them over to london next week against the jaguars whether where the colts really need to just stomp a hole

in the jaguars right off the jump and need to just stomp a hole in the Jaguars right off the jump, and they just need to blow them out. For so many reasons. Yes, yes. And, you know, the Jaguars are 0-3 now. The Colts need to put them on notice immediately and just pound them in the ground. It's still important for the Colts, like you said,

these are all must-win games coming up and Pagano is really hoping that the Colts can show out in the next few weeks because his you know people there's gonna there's beginning to be a fire lit under his butt there's no doubt about it whether people want to admit it or not uh whether erst they would admit it or not uh the patience from the colts front office is not going to last if the winds don't keep coming right that's just all there is to it you can talk about the roster uh talent one through 53 and so on but in the end they've got enough to win now. They don't have enough to go to the Super Bowl. I don't think that's realistic or anything,

but they definitely have enough to maintain and get to the playoffs and win the division, I think. Yeah. I think that's fair. Yeah, I'd have to agree with that. Well, Jake, I appreciate it stopping by and talking with me today. You guys can check out Jake on Twitter at JakeArthurPFS.

He writes for Pro Football Spot. He does a great job for those guys. I've known Jake for a long time. He does great work, constantly putting out more content for you guys. So check him out there. Jake, is there anything you want to say in closing, my man? Well, just don't forget that next week in London london it's a 9 30 a.m start time so it is kegs and eggs time next week that's right i want to tell everybody thank you again

our listenership is just exploding week to week i'm so grateful for you guys please continue to give those reviews and ratings on iTunes. Keep telling your friends. Retweet the shows on Twitter. Go to Facebook. Keep getting a hold of me at LockedOnColtsPod at gmail.com. Subscribe to the Locked On NFL channel where you'll get every team's podcast and you'll have the ability to go through and listen just to any team and stay up to date on the league all in general. You can also listen to locked on NFL with Matt Williamson. We also have locked on fantasy locked on NFL draft with Kyle crabs and Joe

Marino. There's a tons of great, there's tons of great content out there. Thank you for listening to locked on Colts, Jake. Thank you for stopping to Locked on Colts. Jake, thank you for stopping by. Really appreciate it. And the Colts are now one and two heading to London to stomp a hole in the Jacksonville Jaguars next week. We have a great week of content lined up for you guys. I have a really awesome interview that you guys are going to want to listen to later on in the week, and I'll keep you updated on that. But until then, Colts fans, we got our first win of the season.

I'll talk to you guys Tuesday on Locked on Colts. You are Locked on Colts, your daily Indianapolis Colts podcast. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day.