Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - WHIPLASH: Indianapolis Colts' Season Has Done Drastic 180 in Recent Weeks

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Indianapolis Colts were once on top of the world sitting at 7 and 2, making an all-in move for Sauce Gardner. Where did it all go wrong for this team? Let's get to it. You are Locked-on Colts, your daily Indianapolis Colts podcast. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello, everyone. My name is Zach Hicks, a resident.

Starting point is 00:00:30 film nerd of horse shoe huddle.com. Welcome to Lockdown Colts, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, now the number one sports podcast network. Today's episode is brought to you by Fandul. If you want to be right in the middle of the action this season, this is fandle.com and place your NFL live bets all season long. As you guys can tell, if you're here on YouTube, Jake Arthur is still out this week. We're not making him and come back too soon because he just had his baby yesterday. Him and his wife gave birth to a beautiful baby boy, Benny Arthur. We are giving a big shout out and all the love to the here and we're telling Jake to stay away as long as possible to spend that paternal leave

Starting point is 00:01:05 with with them. But joining today is Derek Schultz. And of course, Derek Schultz of Colt's squad show fame, I guess is what I need to say, Derek, right? Like, that's what they all know you for. But if you guys have been following Colts coverage for your entire life, you know Derek, he has been covering this team forever doing a lot of great stuff covering this squad. And he's obviously the perfect person to have on here to talk about what the heck happened this season. I don't even want to say this is a lost season yet because they're still technically in the playoff hunt

Starting point is 00:01:36 and they just made this win now move at quarterback to see what could happen. But maybe it goes from a season that we're expecting great things to now a season where it's a comedy of errors and it's kind of in line with the rest of the Chris Ballard tenure. So we're going to talk about how we got here with just the injuries that have hit this team

Starting point is 00:01:54 so hard this season from star players to what we thought we're going to be key young players. we're going to talk about just the major vibe shift. And again, it doesn't even have to be like a negative vibe shift, just a funny, goofy vibe shift at this point with the team. And then we're going to close it out by talking about, are the Colts just cursed at this point, Derek? I think that's a great way to close out this show.

Starting point is 00:02:16 But let's kick it off with the injuries. And we know the quarterback room, so we'll talk about that in a second. But the biggest one I think we need to discuss is Mooney Ward. The star free agent edition, the biggest contract that Chris Ballard has ever given out to an outside free agent coming in here to be that number one like bonafide corner perfect fit on paper bring that energy that winning pedigree all pro player and it started off so well this year like that first week he looked so good suffered the concussion after that game and when he got back on the field look like that number one corner but then the fluky pregame

Starting point is 00:02:52 incident against the a Arizona cardinals led to a second concussion landed him on iR and now he is suffering a third concussion. I don't know if it's a new one or just symptoms from that second concussion, but he was placed on IR yet again. And unless the Colts makes some crazy run of the playoffs, even if they do, I don't think you would activate him at this point. It appears that his season is done and his career feels like it's in jeopardy. So I mean, if we're talking injuries, that's the biggest one we have to discuss first. Yeah. And especially because of the serious nature of it, like you said, like this isn't a guy that, you know, tweaked a hamstring. and then he had an ankle problem, and then he had turf toe or something.

Starting point is 00:03:32 You know what I mean? Not that those aren't lingering issues. They can be, but it's not a brain injury. It's not something where you would have the quote like you had from Mooney after the second one where he said, hey, I started contemplating whether I want to even do this again. Like that's serious, you know, for these guys. I mean, you talk to these players, Zach, you know, this is their everything. You know, it's very hard to get even guys that are clearly cooked to walk away.

Starting point is 00:03:58 and to retire because of how much pride they take in this and how obsessed they are with it. So that, I think, really underlines the seriousness of the whole thing. But you're right that it's just they, you wanted Chris Bauer to really go out there and spend and be aggressive and he was. And when Ward was on the field and healthy, you saw the impact that he could make. And I think that's what's so frustrating about this is that the injuries are what got in the way. It wasn't poor performance. It was injuries.

Starting point is 00:04:29 And even if you look and you say, well, he didn't play that well, you know, the last couple of the weeks, okay, fine. But that very well could be after effects from having two concussions in six weeks, right? Yeah. And so it's a big blow because, you know, having sauce gardener and Tervarri's Ward on opposite ends with a healthy de Forest Buckner, who I know we're going to talk about in the middle of that defense, you can imagine what that thing would look like for Colts fans. and to be teased by that and to not have that and to not even have one third of that,

Starting point is 00:05:01 to have zero thirds of that is extremely, extremely frustrating. Yeah. And you link it perfectly here where it's not like it was just Mooney Ward, who's been out, right? The big addition, Soss Gardner, the trade two first round picks for him. They get two games out of him. He looks pretty good in those two games, especially good against the Falcons. Chiefs game, I thought he overall he was one of their better players on defense, gets hurt early against Houston, still not practicing as of right now.

Starting point is 00:05:25 miss this past game. We don't know how much longer he's going to be out with that calf injury. And look, this is Indianapolis. We don't mess with calf injuries in this in this city. So another player in the DeForest Buckner. I mean, obviously since 2020 has been the most valuable defensive player for this organization. And we've seen the ramifications of not having him. Where has the pass rush been with DeForest Buckner on the shelf? He did limited practice today. We don't have the full injury report by the time recording this, but he did get back on the field. But I mean, when you're missing a month of games from DeForest Buckner, when you're potentially going to miss a month

Starting point is 00:05:59 of games from Soss Gardner, plus you lump in the Mooney Ward injuries. I mean, this isn't baseball. This isn't hockey. You don't have some star prospect that can come up here and potentially step in and solve everything. Like in the NFL, you have your 53 players and that's it. You can't replace the value of those three players in-house during the season, and it plays a factor on Sundays. Yeah, you know, I was having this discussion. This was a couple of weeks ago with a friend like most valuable Colts, and I've always felt, I'm just a huge divorce, Buckner, Homer, but I've always felt like he really is, especially as quarterback has been such in flux, he's their most important player. And my buddy gets into me, he's like, what are you talking about? It's Jonathan Taylor.

Starting point is 00:06:39 I mean, come on, look at the numbers and all that. And look, obviously you can make an argument that Jonathan Taylor is also super valuable to what they do. But I just think the impact that Buckner has and the tentacles of what his play reached. is far out exceeds anybody else that's on the entire roster. Like I think Jonathan Taylor is great in a vacuum for the most part. I don't know if that always translates into helping other areas. Like you mentioned with Buckner and this pass for us that the Colts just can't seem to figure out, even though they keep throwing draft capital at it and trying to make that work.

Starting point is 00:07:14 So I think the Buckner loss, given the timing of it too, has been huge. We all knew that this was going to be a really big stretch. And now, you know, you look at it in the Colts have lost three straight and they've lost four or five. And really, Zach, they're lucky to have won one, honestly. I mean, that Atlanta game, they very easily could have lost. They needed a last minute drive to make, and a couple of great throws from Daniel Jones, and then Jonathan Taylor playing Superman to make that thing happen there. I mean, that very easily could have been on five. And yeah, you can go back to the Can City game to say, well, they could have won that or they could

Starting point is 00:07:44 have won that. You know, that kind of cuts both ways. But for the Buckner injury to happen at any point in the season would be detrimental. But I think especially when it happened was, was specifically a really crushing blow. And that's one that I was bracing for impact when it happened. And now here it is. And obviously it's made a huge impact. Yeah, and we're talking defense here. The defense losing their top three most impactful players for significant time this

Starting point is 00:08:09 season. And that's certainly weighed on that side of the ball. The offense has been mostly healthy this season outside of one position. And that one position is the most valuable position, not only in football, but in like all of sports. It's the position that determines wins and loss. more than anything else, and that is quarterback. Daniel Jones going down with the Achilles injury.

Starting point is 00:08:27 Even before that, he was dealing with a fractured fibula in his left leg, goes down with the Achilles injury in his right leg. Anthony Richardson would have been the next guy up. He's out with another fluky injury that happened earlier this season. And then Riley Leonard gets out there, the rookie six-round pick. He's dealing with the PCL injury in his leg. He did practice today, but still, I mean, him limited at all is a huge thing. So, I mean, look, you could probably survive some injuries,

Starting point is 00:08:53 like even injuries to star players, but injuries to your top three quarterbacks. I mean, no question, no reason, like, of course they're going to bring in Philip Rivers, right? Like, there's nothing else you can do when you have that many injuries at quarterback. Yeah, Zach, and we talked about this. I remember the day that it was announced that it was going to be Daniel Jones. I think we did like a bet on if we're going to see Anthony Richardson again. And I think you're the one that said, well, yeah, we're going to see him because Jones misses games in every season that he's played, right?

Starting point is 00:09:21 So, of course, we're going to. And now here's a prime opportunity. You know, what a redemption story it would be for Daniel Jones to go down with Achilles. And there's Anthony Richardson waiting in the wings. And here's an eight and five football team that still has everything in front of them. And, you know, I'm not saying that I was super confident that he would come in and save the day. But it would have been great to see. And instead, an exercise band almost knocks his eyeball out of the socket.

Starting point is 00:09:44 You know what I mean? Like you can't even make this stuff up. Like the injuries that happen here are, you know, the two most devastating. Achilles. And then that exercise band thing makes me nauseous just thinking about it. How serious that was. I don't even need to make light of it. I mean, it was a very, very, I don't think people realize how serious of an injury that it was at the time. And then with Leonard, you know, he's a third string quarterback for a reason. I don't think that he has an NFL arm. But even then you can't even roll the dice with him because of this leg issue that he has too.

Starting point is 00:10:16 So it's just, I don't think I've ever seen anything like it. I don't think I've ever seen a teams be down its three top quarterbacks and we certainly have never seen a team call a guy that's been away from football for five years and said, hey, you want to come back and play? It's interested to see how it'll play out, right? I don't think, you know, I'm kind of in the camp of sure, why not? Because what else you're going to do? Once you lose your first three quarterbacks, it's kind of like throw your hands up in the air. Yeah, like give me the most outlandish solution that you can think of.

Starting point is 00:10:47 And sure, let's throw a bunch of stuff to the wall and see if anything sticks. It is a bummer. You know, not only that, but Jones being limited by the fibula injury, which clearly bothered him and then, you know, kind of cascading into all of these other issues at quarterback. It's a tough deal. It's a tough fan. And look, and I don't think you're doing this either.

Starting point is 00:11:08 I want to be very clear because there are a lot of people that are really upset right now, Colts fans about this collapse. I'm not trying to make excuses for the organization, okay? Injuries are part of the game. Like bad luck is part of this as well. Bad luck is an excuse. It's just a reality. like all teams deal with luck and bad luck i mean look at the chiefs in close games the last couple of

Starting point is 00:11:28 years compared to this year right like that stuff sometimes even hard corrects in the span of a year and people don't you know people like to look at sports and say well everything is skill and everything is planning you have to prepare for everything and sometimes just bad stupid terrible luck related stuff happens and and that's a lot of what has happened to the colts this year they have some things that they need to wear like not addressing the linebacker position properly and if you want to go after them for the sauce gardener trade be my guest. That was a heavy, heavy capital, you know, two first rounders and then a lottery ticket wide receiver to trade for him. That was a heavy, heavy price for them to have to pay.

Starting point is 00:12:02 But this injury stuff and some of this other stuff, it's just there's no way to prepare for not having your top three quarterbacks. There's just none. Yeah, no, I think you put a perfect bow on that. It's not an excuse when it comes to injuries because there are other reasons why this team has fallen the way they have recently, but it's a big factor here. Your top three defenders, your top three quarterbacks other missed games i mean gosh justin wallie injury looms so large this season uh some offensive line injuries now popping up receivers have missed some time like it is what it is like injuries happen to all teams but the colts have been hit very hard yeah alec pierce has been mixed up and he's had a great season right but he's even he's dealt with stuff right and and yeah it's

Starting point is 00:12:39 not an excuse but it's part of the game but it's an unfortunate part that's hit the colts really hard this year uh but coming up we're going to talk about kind of this overall vibe shift i think you guys can tell from our first segment here where we were on top of the the world just a month ago and now it feels like the sky is falling and some of us are hitting it with nihilism other people are hitting it with cautious optimism like it's just a very different vibe here in indianapolis we're going to talk about that here just a second you guys know there's no reason to let big wireless drain your wallet especially during the holidays right now mitt mobile is running their best deal of the entire year all their unlimited plans are 50% off

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Starting point is 00:13:52 90 for six months or $184.12 month planned required $15 a month equivalent. Taxes and fees initial plan term only over 35 gigabytes may slow when network is busy, capable device required availability, speed, and coverage varies. Seamintmobile.com. All righty, locked on Colts everydayers. I'm joined, of course, by Derek Schultz of multiple. fan. I mean, what, indie business journal fame, Shultz and Query fame,

Starting point is 00:14:22 uh, Colt Squad show fame, obviously the biggest one there alongside Alan Pinkett and myself, like in Jake Arthur, we do some great stuff over there if you guys haven't checked it. But we are back talking about this cult season. If you guys are a big fan of the Colt Squad show that we do twice a week, Derek and I and Jake and Alan,

Starting point is 00:14:39 we've all been talking about how awesome this season has been for most of the year. And we were like praising, not praising the sauce gardener trade, but more so being like, we, we appreciate going, all in for it with this window. It looks like the Colts have their quarterback of at least the near future. Like Daniel Jones for the next couple years could really like run this thing with Shane Steichen

Starting point is 00:14:58 and Chris Ballard. Heck, speaking of Shane Steichen, Stuyken, Stuyken was the coach of the year in the NFL for the first nine weeks of the season. But man, it has really shifted so much. I mean, I think the first thing is just this injury to Daniel Jones. If this was any other injury, I say give him an extension. Come back next season, run this thing back with everybody, and just see what you can do. You know, like, if your quarterback goes down with season-ending injury, it's hard to recover,

Starting point is 00:15:25 and maybe you can find some magic again next year. But with it being an Achilles injury to his right leg, to the one that generates power as a quarterback, it just throws the future of this whole thing into the dark because, I mean, look, we've said on this show for years. The one thing I've been very consistent about for years, guys, and you guys know this if you listen to the show regularly, I don't mess with Achilles injuries. Jake and I were saying all offseason, don't bring back Samson Nebucom. We were saying, you know, when Diobango was drafted, I was nervous about that because of the Achilles injury. Achilles injury is just a brutal, brutal injury, man.

Starting point is 00:16:01 And it hits every athlete so hard, whether you're a quarterback, whether you're a running back, whether you play a different sport. It is the worst injury in sports right now. So with this being an Achilles injury, it makes the future so much bleaker. And especially in the context of the Sauce Gardner trade for two first round picks. So next year they can't tank or anything. They don't have a first round pick. I think that's the biggest thing that changed the vibes here at Indy is like if this were any other injury, it's one thing. But now the future just feels so up in the air because this is such a massive injury to a quarterback who looked like the guy who would be the answer for the next couple of seasons.

Starting point is 00:16:37 Yeah, I mean, even if you bring him back on some sort of team friendly incentive-laden deal, there's no telling if he's going to be ready for week one or week three or week five, right? And at that point, you need a contingency plan. So I agree with you. I mean, it's every bit as damaging as really any injury that I can think of going back to Andrew Luck. I mean, and that's, I mean, when you talk about disaster level injuries in this town, that you're talking about in Peyton's neck, right? I mean, those are the two that really kind of stand out. And I think it's in that category just because of what this season could potentially have been.

Starting point is 00:17:14 And I understand that there were some cracks in the foundation here the last couple of weeks, even when Jones was out there and on the field. And they probably lose that game in Jacksonville, even if he plays, right? So fully understanding that, it's still a devastating injury. And I don't know, Zach, I mean, you go back to the veteran carousel and, you know, you take another spin there. I mean, the Colts have taken a lot of spins on that vet wheel and have had a lot of varying results. I think I'd argue that the best player, at least as far as peak performance,

Starting point is 00:17:44 was concerned was clearly Jones. I don't think that it's necessarily even close. And then the consistency performance, I think, Rivers, because he did it over the course of the entire season, right? And you had kind of a baseline for Rivers. I think he struggled in one of those games like Chicago and Cleveland. He had some early season games. And for the most part, he had a very good 2020 season

Starting point is 00:18:06 with a much worse talent group around him as far as past catchers were concerned that year. So I don't envy the Colts for finding who that replacement is going to be. I am curious as to who the person deciding who that quarterback is going to be will be. I have long ago decided to stop speaking in absolutes about Chris Boward status because we've written his obituary three or four times already in this town. But at some point, we will reach the conclusion that, hey, there needs to be a change there. And even if it's bad luck, and even if the process is good, the results have not materialized. And in the NFL, it's a results business.

Starting point is 00:18:48 And it should not take a decade to produce a tangible result. And that's kind of where the Colts sit right now. Yeah, no, for sure. I completely agree. And heck, you know, this is probably a conversation for more later in the season or maybe in the offseason. But one thing that scares you the most of Chris Baller comes back is he usually doesn't care about Achilles injuries. He has shown that constantly in his time as a general manager.

Starting point is 00:19:09 So I saw Jeremy Fowler putting a report out there That maybe the tag isn't on the table for Daniel Jones for the Colts. That's like $46 million for a lot. It won't really play. No. If he does play next season, even if he starts week one next season, what's the mobility going to look like? What's the overall explosiveness going to look like?

Starting point is 00:19:28 I mean, guys, I know this is a different position, but think of all the Achilles injured players that the Colts have tried out there. Look at Samson Abucom this year. Look at Dallas Flowers after his injury. Look at Marlon Mack never played again after his. And he was, what, 27, 28 years old, never played again after. He was, well, you were moved away from a thousand yard season, never played again after his.

Starting point is 00:19:48 Like, it's just such a brutal injury. And one more thing I wanted to pick your mind on there before we get into our final segment of this show is, again, just the overall vibe shift. Seven and one, they make the trade at seven and two for Sauce Gardner. We're on top of the world, feeling good. Down the stretch, it's like, hey, we're playing good teams, but we're a good team. We're going to be good out here. Now with the Jones injury, with the sauce injury, with. Buckner being hurt with Mooney now being out for the year. You kind of said in the first segment

Starting point is 00:20:14 there that like bringing Rivers in, it's more so just like this like, I don't even want to say it's like this apathetic kind of like we'll see, but it's more so like, at least it's a fun. It's like watching the W.W.E. I guess at this point. What could go wrong? Yeah. Yeah. What else could go wrong? You know? So like just your overall mindset, I guess. And I mean, in the last like 72 hours, I suppose from watching Jones go down to now Rivers coming in here. Like what, what are you thinking? with all this man it's just it it's always uh it's always a circus a little bit and some of that has been self-imposed like obviously when you're if you're going to name an ESPN analyst your interim head coach then you get whatever you know the clowns and the monkeys and the elephants

Starting point is 00:20:56 and the trapeze artists like you you deserve that because you're you're erecting the tent for yourself with with it being a circus but in this case obviously the colts didn't didn't ask for this type of injury and they're just trying to do their best to kind of salvage what's going on here. But you know, you talk about the tone shift. And, you know, what's interesting here in this town is that fans have tasted some winning here with what the Pacers did last year. And I know they're going through some things right now as far as the injury is concerned. But IU football, Purdue basketball is a contender right now. So, you know, for a long time when the Colts were struggling, everybody else kind of sucked too. So it's kind of like, okay, yeah, this sucks, but so does this. And I think that

Starting point is 00:21:34 that kind of increases the frustration for folks because they were, teased by that seven and one, eight and two start and those ridiculous efficiency numbers that the Shane Steichen offense was putting out there in the first eight weeks of the season and now to just kind of see it all come crashing down. You know, as much as this appears to be sudden, this will ultimately end up being a much slower burn than the 2021 collapse because that was literally two games. I mean, it was two weeks. All the Colts had to do was split. You guys know they ended up not splitting and they lose to Jacksonville in hilarious fashion, at least in a Cabaway. And now, you know, this is, this is tough. I mean, because we're going to have to watch

Starting point is 00:22:13 this for the next four weeks with probably a 44-year-old quarterback and probably down all these great defensive players against Seattle might be the best team in the league right now. No one's talking about San Francisco has been very good. And you guys see how good Houston and Jacksonville had played in the last couple of weeks. So it could get, you know, as ugly as it is right now, it could get a lot worse. And that's kind of what I'm, you know, kind of gritting my teeth. and concerned about here moving forward with them. Yeah, no, I completely agree. And I think you bring up a lot of beautiful allusions to the past things that we have

Starting point is 00:22:47 dealt with. I don't want to call it just like the Chris Ballard error because I don't think all of it's his fault, but it's under his guidance, I guess, with the team. All this, like, circus stuff we've seen. So to close off today's show, Derek and I, as people who have covered this team for a while, are going to talk about just, are the Colts cursed? Am I the problem? We're going to talk about that in the final segment to close off today's show.

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Starting point is 00:24:09 the major tonal shifts, the injuries. And now I guess we've got to even go further back, Derek, because you've been covering this team a long, long time. How long have you been covering this team officially, Derek? So I was a credentialed media member from 2007 through 19, but I've sort of covered them in some capacity since the 05 season would have been my first one. See, it's definitely not Derek's fault then. He stopped in 2019, and that's what it all started to fall apart because 2019 is when I truly consider that this like curse over indie has started. They've made one playoffs since 2019. And you guys know what the biggest story was that year was a surprise retirement of Andrew Luck. That one one week before the

Starting point is 00:24:47 season and it's kind of been a trickle effect on everything. And just to talk about just some of the major events that have happened since 2019 with this team, obviously the Andrew Luck retirement is one of the most shocking moments, I guess, in pro sports since then, right? Like how often do you see, he wasn't even 30 years old, I believe, at that point. He was 29 years old. or just turned 30, quarterback that's still in his prime, just walking away from the game. And it was very unexpected.

Starting point is 00:25:13 He was still what, I mean, he was coming off a year where he was like a top five to seven quarterback in the league done for his career right then and there. Then we fast forward a couple years, the Jeff Saturday debacle that Derek was alluded to in the last segment,

Starting point is 00:25:25 hiring an ESPN analyst that was no way qualified to be in that role, to be their head coach for the second half of that year. Within that stretch, what happened, the Colts gave up the biggest blown lead in the history of the sport that still stands today. It's been a couple years. That still stands the Colts versus Minnesota Vikings.

Starting point is 00:25:43 And I think it was a primetime game. And now they're bringing in a 44-year-old quarterback who's been retired for five years to be their guy the rest of the year here. So when I say that this Philip Rivers signing doesn't feel like that big of a deal here with the Colts, it's because it's not even like a top three or four story, I guess, for the Colts since I've covered the team. team. And I think that's just saying something about just whatever is going on with this organization. If it's a curse over them, if it's just the way management is or bad luck or whatever you want to say it is, Derek, it's just it feels like since like that 2019 decision that there's in this dark cloud over Indianapolis. Yeah, you know, like even stupid stuff, Zach, like throwing a

Starting point is 00:26:25 six round pick at Isaiah Rogers and then having him grow into a player that they liked and then he has this gambling suspension and you have to let him go and then you know you look around now and he's exploding right and it's just it's like come on like how is that possible like how could that happen um sports curses and things like that like i'll leave that up to fans to determine what is a curse you know the basketball the gods the football gods the baseball gods um i think sometimes just random weird stupid stuff happens in sports and that's part of what we kind of like because sometimes that can break your way. But you're right that it just feels like whenever things have been aligned

Starting point is 00:27:07 and as a Colts fan, you felt like, okay, we're ready. Now is the time. Like things are moving in the right direction. The other shoot drops, like you mentioned, with 2019 coming off that 2018 season, like you were thinking, okay, you know, Leonard and Nelson and luck and like we're going. We're moving. Lux healthy again. And we got, you know, Frank Reich at the time, you know,

Starting point is 00:27:30 people were on board with him as well. We got the head coach for this. And then, you know, that night in August happens in the preseason game. And then that all goes to hell. And then, you know, even in 21, I mean, I think at the point of the season, even though when started to show, particularly in the Patriots game, when they were scared to death to throw the football, that things weren't going that well, you still thought to yourself, well, they're going to be in the playoffs.

Starting point is 00:27:54 And that's great. And back-to-back years in the playoffs. And what that could have meant before it all kind of came crashing down. You know, I thought in 2023, even though they lost a win and in game against the Texas, I thought they showed a lot of progress in Shane Stuyckin's first year. And I thought Richardson flashed. I was really excited going into last year. And then last year, God, it was just, it was awful watching them.

Starting point is 00:28:15 And, you know, throwing a parade over rallying against the Patriots who dominated them the entire game. Like, you know what I mean? Like, it just didn't feel right. And then this year, you felt, okay, they've unlocked Jones. They got them away from one of the worst organizations in pro sports. and he's a football nerd and a mastermind just like Stuyken and they're aligned and we've got the pieces and all of that

Starting point is 00:28:35 and then it all kind of turns to ash again. I think this honestly dates back to, you know, you mentioned the Chris Bowerd era. I think this started with the fake punk call in 2015 in the Sunday night football game against the Patriots. Like ever since then, that's true. That's true. Ever since then, things have not only gone poorly,

Starting point is 00:28:52 they've gone hilariously, hilariously poorly for the Colts over the last 10 years. And it's a bummer. I mean, it sucks to think that if this team falls out, which I think they're going to ultimately do, they're in third place now, for God's sake, that we'll be talking about a team that not only just won one playoff game, they only made the playoffs twice in the span of 11 seasons.

Starting point is 00:29:12 And that's just, that is unthinkable considering when I first started on the beat to where the Colts were, not that, you know, rolling out of bed and winning the division every year and winning 12, 13, 14 games and Star Wars numbers and all of that, man, that's a lot better than what the current reality is. Yeah, no, I completely agree. And I think the big question here, Derek, is like, I'm glad that you put it back on 2015, so it's not fully on me. But some people were saying it's my fault, Derek.

Starting point is 00:29:34 Do you think it's my fault? It's a fake pun. Yeah, no, it's a fake point completely. But yeah, no, it's just crazy though. And, you know, part of it here, and this is like the more serious question here is like, it's not all Chris Ballard's fault, right? Because you can't, I mean, he didn't hire Jeff Saturday. I know he was kind of pushed aside to have Jeff Saturday hired, but he didn't hire Jeff Saturday.

Starting point is 00:29:56 Even with, like, he didn't tell Andrew Luck to retire. I mean, we all agree a lot of that was the injuries that came from either him away from football or also from during the Ryan Grigson era. And heck, even this signing with Philip Rivers, like, what else could they possibly do? But like, there is one common denominator for a lot of this. And it's been under his management, essentially. And I kind of view it like when a CEO of a company that's like kind of going under and it's like a lot of outside forces are the reason why the company is going under. so maybe it's not completely the CEO's fault, but like you still have to make that move eventually, you know?

Starting point is 00:30:32 So it's like how many more of these things we have to see under Chris Ballet, I guess, Derek? And I know he's kind of immortal at this point. He can never die. But like it just feels like how much of this like circus because like even when Indy's bad, man, we're just like a circus all the time here right now. Yeah. And does it just need a hard reset overall? And, you know, as good as Jonathan Taylor is and as good as Quentin.

Starting point is 00:30:57 Nelson is and as good as Michael Pittman Jr. is and as good as Kenny Moore is. And I like all those guys, not only as football players, but as people, at least from what they've shown us, they haven't won, right? They haven't won. And that's, it's a harsh thing to say. And obviously, there's context that's involved with all that, including the quarterback situation, some of that, you know, that's not Kenny Moore's fault that they can't figure out at quarterback. But, you know, at some point, instead of just running it back every year and just being like, okay, we're fine. We just need a little luck. Okay, we're fine. We just need a little of luck. At some point, you just have to decide to just kind of start over again, start back

Starting point is 00:31:31 to the drawing board. I don't actually think they're positioned to do that until after the 26th season, so they look a little bit stuck to me right now. But you're right. I mean, the ultimate result, the ultimate thing for a general manager is to produce results. And while we could talk about Ryan Grickson's process being bad, there were some results that came from that. I think Bower's process has largely been good. Some people will disagree with that because there are these Bauer to think he's the worst person to ever run an NFL team. And I don't think that at all. But the results just haven't been there.

Starting point is 00:32:02 And you have to be able to produce a result. And I'm frankly, I'm tired of Houston and Jacksonville and those teams dominated this division. I'm super tired of it. And again, that's, you know, they're coming up. Colts are going down. And it's the same song and dance as it's been the last couple of years. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:32:17 Colts are staring down the barrel of, I believe this is going to be the second time in his, in the Ballard tenure where they have a 90, what, 5% chance plus of making the playoffs. and ultimately missing. I mean, I don't know what the exact numbers were on that 2021 season. I can't imagine it was below 95. It might be up to like 99 because they played two bad teams. I think both them at home to close out that season. I remember 97.

Starting point is 00:32:39 That was the number that I remember in my head. 97%. Yeah, this one had to have been around 99 when they were 8 and 2, 7 and 1. So just two massive, massive collapses in his tenure. And yeah, again, there's extenuating circumstances. Of course, if you're down to your fourth quarterback, you're going to blow a playoff lead. But still, it's in the big picture of everything that's happened in the Chris Ballard era.

Starting point is 00:33:01 It's just another notch on there, I guess. So, yeah, I don't know what it is with this Colts team. You guys can let us know in the comment section if you think it's a curse, if you think it's all Chris Ballard, if you think just bad luck, like whatever you ultimately think it is, let us know in the comment section because I've only seen Indianapolis sports like this in my time covering this team. I don't know anything different than this, you know, which is just this. crazy atmosphere with it all, but maybe one day the Colts can turn it around. I'll be with you

Starting point is 00:33:29 guys. I'm sure throughout all of that, Derek will too. But we do want to thank you guys, though, for making Lockdown Colts your first listen today and every single day. The NFL season's in full swings. So if your next listen, get a double dose of the Lockdown NFL podcast. Tyler the Madman rolling gets you a shot of espresso to start your football day. Well, Tony Wiggins takes you into the barbershop for the smoothest breakdowns to end the day. Find Lockdown NFL on YouTube or list your podcast. If you guys don't already, make sure you're following at Lockdown Colts at Jake Arthur NFL at Zach Hicks to you and at Schultz 975 as well also subscribe to us on YouTube where you list to your podcast we love you guys range reviews and if you guys are

Starting point is 00:34:01 liking what you're hearing from me and Derek right now we'll be back with you guys later tonight on the Colt Squad show also joined by Alan Pinkett on there so make sure you're checking that out later tonight

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