September 11, 2024 • 48 mins
The Colts lost a thrilling game to the Houston Texans in week one, but Inside Football with Rick Venturi is here to provide insight on how the Colts can respond in Green Bay in week two, even on the road. Rick joins host Matt Taylor to explain how the Colts can attack backup quarterback Malik Willis and what Indy needs to do to dominate in the trenches against the Packers defense, which allowed over 400 yards to the Eagles in the opening weekend.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Football is about the Jimmy's and Joe's and x'es and
o'sack New York Voto Voco, ain't Baker Bruce. It's time
to get out the chock board and diagram some plays.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Here's what all starts right here. That's play Jay Money Christmas.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
This is Inside Football with former Colts and the NFL
coach Rick Venturie.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
The Week one woes continue for the Colts. It's now
been eleven years since the Colts tasted victory. On opening weekend,
the Houston Texans came into Lucas Oil Stadium. They won
a thriller twenty nine to twenty seven. They were the
only team in the AFC South to triumph out of
the gate. But the beat rolls on. There's still sixteen
games to go. Everything is still in front of the Colts.
(00:51):
Here in twenty twenty four, Week two is here and
now it's on The Green Bay Packers had historic lambeau
Field and with that, welcome again everybody to Inside Football.
I'm Matt Taylor inside the Indiana Union Construction Industry radio studio.
But you came for Rick Vin Turrey, who has twenty
seven years of NFL coaching experience, and you can bet
(01:12):
he's seen it all. And Rick, there's no doubt you've
been part of games like last Sunday. How you feeling
a couple days later here now?
Speaker 3 (01:18):
Well, you know I didn't even walk out of their
Sunday feeling that bad. I felt bad about you know,
I felt bad about the way the defense played. But
I saw certainly, you know, I used the term excitement
and explosion on offense, which bid well for us. I
mean in a way. In a way, Matt, if you
count the blocked kick, we really scored four touchdowns and
(01:40):
four plays. I mean, really, it really comes down to it.
Two big throws to pier see how we had to
drive it in, but they they were big plays, you know,
the laser shot to Doolan and then the Louvi's block kick.
I mean, really, you know, unfortunately there were too many
short drives that we were out of there and didn't
waste any time. But we I mean we were able
to score or you know, four touchdowns and four plays.
(02:02):
What have we done that lately? You know? I mean
when I looked at the game, you know, our team
played with great resilience, particularly offensively. I mean, they never
gave in. You mentioned it during the game, you said
they will not die, and I thought that was a
perfect description. I mean, they kept coming back, kept coming back,
and mostly mostly it was with explosive plays. But the
(02:25):
problem was is the Texans every time we would do that,
every time we would come back and you felt like
you were gonna win it, then they consistently answered, you know,
with a and it was there was always a methodical,
time consuming kind of a shredding of our defense. And
you know, at the end of the day, sometimes it matters,
(02:46):
sometimes it doesn't. But the forty minutes of ball possession
in a way reflects the real dominance. The score is tight,
and it's because we made explosive plays. But at the
end of the day, the sixty minute statistical game was
really dominated and it's just a you know, it's just
(03:06):
another tough opening day loss in a game that was
really winnable. I mean, honestly, I mean, who would have
thought that our defense would absolutely not show up against
the run. I mean that's that now. If there's anything
shocking to me, I'm still shocked at that part of it, because,
you know, did I think that Houston could win twenty
(03:28):
nine to twenty seven. Did I think the Colts could
win twenty nine to twenty seven? Right? You bet?
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Rick, let me ask you. I know we talked about
this on Monday, but specifically in the run game for
the Colts defense, what what was it that gave the
Colts the most trouble in slowing down the run? Was
it formationally what the Texans were trying to do to
the well they held?
Speaker 3 (03:46):
You know, they they help themselves. They had a lot
of pre snap shifting in a lot of movement pre snap,
and so they were able to get some angles. They
were able to get the ball to the bubble and
change the bubble at times and take advantage of it.
That's one thing. And then number two, they just blocked
(04:08):
the heck out of us. I mean they really bullied
us on the defensive side of the ball. I mean
Stu didn't have a good game. Buck didn't really have
a good game on the run. And then when we
put our backups in that was just there was a
jail break. It was absolute jail break. And I've seen
enough of that. I'm not going to get into that,
but I mean they really pounded us. And I said
(04:30):
on the you know, I said the other night, And
I think one of the real turning points in the game,
although it didn't lead to points or anything, was in
that sequence before the half. Ar five missed. He missed Mitchell,
which is going to happen. Then he airmailed the interception,
which is going to happen. But we had him backed
up on the ten yard line, I mean, with not
(04:52):
much time to go. And I turned to you and
I said, they're just going to be content to run
the ball, make two first downs, eat this clock, and
go in knowing that they were going to get a
twelve seven lead, you know, and take that into the
half knowing they're going to get the ball. But what
happened was they started, they started running against our twos.
We had our twos in there, dashing ten yards here.
(05:14):
Then we put the sub package in and you got
lou inside. I love Lewis outside, but inside as a rusher,
but not as a run defender. And here goes ten, ten, ten,
and all of a sudden, if they don't have a
botched field goal and a botched play at the end
of the half, you know, they drive from the ten
all the way down to get the field goal. But
(05:35):
I think psychologically. More important than that is they walked
out of that first half after that drive, and in
their minds they said, we can run it right down
their throat, which they did in the second half. Would
we have the ball? Six minutes twenty four minutes of
ball control in the second half, including two three fourth
(05:57):
quarter drives, two to score and one to ice the game,
and most of it was run. I mean, there's not
really an explosive play there, you know, other than the
big throw to Collins early the fifty to fifty, But
there's not really an explosive run. It was just methadical, methodical,
and they controlled the line of scrimmage. And I thought
we would control the line of scrimmage, but in reality,
(06:19):
they controlled the line of scrimmage and Nixon ran his
tail up. But I really go back to that sequence
that they pounded it out of there, and I think
it changed their mindset totally.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Yeah, no doubt. It was another frustrating loss for the Colts,
another game at home, another loss to the Texans, who
seemed to unfortunately have the Colts number. It was the
third home AFC South loss for the Colts in the
last four such games, and now the Colts are looking up.
The Texans have the early lead on the division. The Texans,
they were the only team to win in the AFC
(06:52):
South was one of the biggest games of the year,
albeit the first game of the year. Another bit of
news this week for the Colts Rick second year cornerback
Juju Brince. He was placed on IR earlier this week.
He suffered a significant knee injury in Week one that's
going to require surgery, despite the fact that he played
the entire game last Sunday against Houston. And it's just
(07:14):
the latest injury chapter for him he's dealt with coming
out of out of college. He had the wrist last
year in training camp, dealt with a hamstring, then a
quad during the season, a shoulder, had the nose against
Arizona this preseason, and now the knee and all of
this and just over one season with the Colts. Really
(07:34):
unfortunate for him because he's a good kid. I think
he's a good player. I think he's got a lot
of upside obviously, So if it wasn't for bad luck
with injuries, Juju Brince wouldn't have any luck at all.
So what does this do to stun his growth?
Speaker 3 (07:46):
Rick well, it's very very difficult. I mean, you know,
just because availability is everything, and it's you know, he's
just a hard luck kid right now, it doesn't matter,
you know, just something has blown on the body every
single time he hasn't been able to stay on the field.
He's a kid with promise. I'm not sure where he
is because you just haven't seen enough of him. But
(08:08):
it's really a shame for him. He worked hard to
get back ready to go. He is a big time competitor.
So it's it's very difficult now. It leaves us in
a real dilemma and it's you know, but this is
the path we chose in the off season. I was
not even as confident in Jones and Brent's as they were.
I felt like that we should have shored that up,
(08:30):
that we should have made, you know, some moves at
that position. I thought it was the one area that
was really a little shaky on our defense. And so,
you know, we didn't do that. I think we counted
on Flowers to come back, but we could see you
and I could see right off the back that Flowers
was going to take time. And it's not his fault.
(08:51):
He's going to take time. Because he's coming off in Achilles,
which a lot of people think is that you know,
for most cases, particularly a cornerback, is a seventeen month recover,
So we put some stock there that shouldn't have been there.
And then I thought the biggest mistake, the biggest mistake
at cut day, and I said it when you and
I went through it on the preseason, was letting Baker go.
(09:14):
I thought Baker had the best preseason of any of
the corners, including Brents. I thought he was really playing well.
I thought he was maligned a year ago. He took
the blame for things that weren't totally on him. But
there's a guy that you could start. You'd feel a
lot better if you were going into it tomorrow with
Baker and Jones like we did a lot last year,
(09:37):
and you'd feel a lot better. But he's gone. So
now we're getting guys like wo Mack and then basically
off the street, you know, to think you're going to
do it now. I think one thing that we have
to keep in mind, and you know me well enough.
I've said this over the years at different times, because
we've always had corner issues, We've always had him, We've
(09:57):
never ever fixed it. The closest team was when we
signed Gilmour for pretty good money and he had a
really good year for us. But otherwise it's been a
struggle at corner the whole time, and so this may
be one of those where it's going to take a
little desperation here. This is one of those situations where
I would not and I've said this many times, nobody
(10:19):
listens to me, but I'll say it to you anyway.
This is one of those situations where you might have
to leave kennymore on the outside and play somebody like
wo Mack who has some snaps, Lemon who has some snaps.
So I would rather play with a lesser athlete at
nickel than I would in the outside. Particularly the way
(10:40):
Gus Bradley plays. Gus Bradley does nothing, nothing to protect
the corners. They're basically on an island the whole game.
Whether it's three or four doesn't make any difference. They're
on an island. And so what you can't do, you
cannot go into this season the rest of the way
with a guy that doesn't belong outs. You know, I,
(11:01):
like I said, I can get by even though Kenny
is a tremendous nickel. I'm not saying that, but I
can play a lesser guy, just like strong safety versus
free safety. I can play a lesser guy at the nickel.
But the way we play defense and the West played today,
you can't compromise those two outside guys.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
All right again, So Juju brents to ir and the
Colts have to adjust and it's next man up. We'll
see how the Colts adjust and modify in the secondary,
and we'll see what their options are. And we'll also
check out the injury report the rest of the way.
Keep in mind again, Dallas Flowers was inactive last week
and he might be a good option for the Colts
on the outside, or might be Kenny Moore on the outside,
(11:41):
as you alluded to, Rick, So we'll see how things
shake out. All right, Let's move on. Still a lot
to talk about and a lot to play for. Let's
turn our attention now to the green Bay Packers week
number two. Here's the skinny on green Bay. On the
big picture, they're zero to one, just like the Colts.
They lost a thriller to the Eagles last fight in Brazil.
Can't believe I'm even saying those words a Friday night
(12:04):
game in Brazil, but here we are. Thirty four twenty
nine was the final score there. But for the Packers,
big story there. They're gonna be likely without their starting
quarterback in this game. Jordan Love suffered an mcl injury
very late in that game internationally, so that means they'll
probably turn to third year quarterback and former Titan Malik Willis,
(12:26):
who was traded for at the end of the preseason,
and if he starts, it'll be just his fourth career start.
But despite the change at quarterback, the Packers are a
very good team. They're very young, they're very talented. Last
year that made the playoffs as the seventh seed in
the NFC, But if you look at it, ninety four
percent of their roster twenty eight years or younger, and
(12:48):
they've got a good foundation at head coach Matt Lafleur
is tied for the second most wins in NFL history
by a coach in his first five seasons in the NFL,
with fifty six of them. He's taken the Packers to
three NFC North titles since twenty nineteen. And it goes
without saying for the Packers they've got one of the
best home field advantages in the NFL. It's their home
(13:09):
opener on Sunday. They are thirty two and nine at
home under Lafloor and they have not won a home
excuse me, they have not lost a home opener, I
should say, dating back to twenty twelve. So that is
the brief outlined on the Packers, Rick, What else do
you have on green Bay going into the big picture here?
Speaker 3 (13:28):
No, no, no, I think that's right. I mean they
were It was really a disastrous opener in Brazil. You know,
they not only lost the opener in a really air
tight game that could have gone either way, but obviously
the devastating loss of their spectacular quarterback Jordan Love. The
kid Love to me is very much like Stroud. They're
(13:49):
two young just kids have a chance to be generational
and when you look at the Pack, I think the
loss is huge because the Pack has built a round him.
I mean they've got and I'll get into it. You know,
they got a busload of good young receivers. As you said,
they're the youngest team in the league. I think it's
twenty five one years. Uh, they got a bunch of
(14:12):
good receivers. You know, read is terrific in the slot.
You saw that against the Eagles. They got a decent
offensive line. I don't think it's great, but it's a decent.
And then they did what the Texans did. You know,
they went out and got Jacobs, who's very similar to Mixon.
He's a you know, he's a fifty five hundred yard guy.
(14:34):
He's got a ton of touchdowns in this league. He's
a you know, he's got a ton of catches as
well as runs. They got themselves a real all purpose,
three down running back in Jacobs, so you know, it's
built on offense. Their defense really struggled a year ago.
Uh you know, it was really bad. It was twenty
(14:56):
eighth against the rush, twenty eighth on third down, you know,
twenty sixth and takeaways and you know, just just wasn't
very good. And so that led to the firing of
their DC. And then they brought in you know, Jeff Haffley,
who is you know, was the head coach at at
Boston College. But he's had he was an assistant in
(15:17):
the NFL before that. He has NFL experience. But honestly,
from that standpoint, there was absolutely no impact. As a
matter of fact, they had one of their worst games
on defense that you know, again, they gave up thirty
four points. It was much like our defense. Thirty four points,
four hundred and ten yards and thirty three minutes of possession.
So you know, basically that move in the opening game
(15:39):
didn't work so well. So you know, the loss of
a quarterback who makes it go is even tougher on
a team like this because it's not like their defense
is going to be the eighty five Bears and rise
up and shut people off. You know, they were very
well coached. Rich Pasaccia is one of my favorite guys
in the league on special teams. But again, you know
it's you know, they they're going to They're going to Willis.
(16:03):
You know, that's what they chose to do. I mean,
they didn't choose to, you know, get a season back
up like we did in a Flacco. So they've got
to go with Willis, who really, you know, has struggled
his whole career. Is a high draft pick of the
of the Tennessee Titans. You know, but he's got career wise,
he's thrown sixty seven passes. You know, he's got a
fifty two fifty two percent. You know, he's oh touchdown
(16:28):
three interceptions in a forty nine to four passing raiding,
so he has really really struggled in that regard. So
I mean, I think you're you know, you're looking at
it the way it is. Uh, they have good players
on both sides of the ball. I think their front
is their strength. Although they were quiet, you know, Gary
(16:48):
and Gary on one side and Preston Smith on the
other side, you know, are outstanding edge rushers when they're on.
Clark is an outstanding guy inside. You know. Alexander I've
always thought was the premier corner, but he was absolutely
torched by AJ Brown. Just ate him alive. McKinney, you know,
(17:09):
and now the rookie Bullard are very good at safety,
and I think Nixon is one of the best Nickels.
So you know, it isn't like it isn't like their
talent less on defense. They've just never really been able
to put it together. The one other thing I would
say about the Packers, and I said it about the
Texans and it didn't It didn't matter in that game
(17:32):
because of the way the way they ran the ball
so much. But I thought I thought the Packers even
in that game when level was there, I thought they
were really sloppy. And one thing that you see about them,
and I think it can be a fatal flaw, particularly
now without a guy that can make up for it,
is they were twenty third in penalties last year. I
(17:53):
mean Texans were thirty one, the Packers were twenty three.
And then the other night they validated that they had
ten penalties against the Eagles, which really made it sloppy
and put them behind an account all the time. So yeah,
that's what we're looking at. It's gonna be fluid, you know.
I mean, they're gonna look at us after what happened,
(18:15):
and I think this will backfire for him. But I
think they're gonna figure out they're going to try to
do with Jacobs. You know what mixing did to us.
But I don't think that'll happen again.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
All Right, that's the blent view of the Packers from
up above. Let's get into the trenches now, let's roll
out the blueprints for success for the Colts. We begin
on the offensive side of the ball. When the Packers
have it, they'll probably have a new signal caller on Sunday.
That's Malik Willis playing for the injured Jordan Love and again.
He came over in a trade after the preseason from
the Titans, and previously he's made three starts playing for
(18:47):
the injured Ryan Tannehill at the time in twenty twenty
two for the Tennessee Titans. But Willis, a third round pick,
has a career completion percentage of fifty two point two.
He's taken fifteen sacks, he's thrown owned three picks, no
touchdown passes yet to this point. But despite his inexperience,
they've got playmakers around him. They've got Jaden Reed, They've
(19:08):
got Romeo Dobbs, Christian Watson and then also Josh Jacobs
running the football. Dobbs and Reed they were one of
four teammates in the NFL last year to both have
eight plus receiving touchdowns. Dobbs has eleven scores in two seasons,
Watson has twelve, and then with Reed, he was a
rookie last year, led the team in catches and receiving
(19:31):
yards and tied for the team lead in receiving touchdowns
with eight, and last week in Brazil, became just the
fifth NFL player since the merger to have a seventy
plus yard touchdown catch and a thirty plus yard touchdown
run in the same game. So he is incredibly explosive.
And then again Jacobs, the former Raider, he's now the
lead back in Green Bay. A former NFL rushing champ
(19:53):
in Las Vegas. He helped the Packers last week rush
for one hundred and sixty three yards in Week one
and as a team they averaged over seven yards per carry.
Very explosive is green Bay on offense? Last week they
had seven big plays and rick. Since Week nine of
last year, the Packers have the third most explosive plays
(20:14):
in the NFL, with over ninety of them. So what
else did I miss on the Packers on offense before
you roll it out and give us your must there.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
No, I think, when you look at it, that's exactly right.
I said, A busload of receivers. You know, when you
look at their receivers, they got big numbers, big numbers
from average you know per catch, Watson fifteen to one
in five TVs. You know, Dobbs eleven four and ATDs
read twelve four in ATDs. This is last year. And
then the guy can't forget about he's a really good
(20:44):
deep threat is Whips who has four TVs and fourteen
point nine. Now. I think a lot of that though
also has to do you know, with Love being their
love and lafort together, they have a gunslinger mentality. I mean,
Love is going to take that deep ball, no matter
what I mean, he is gonna throw it deep. I
(21:05):
think that's gonna change with Willis. I don't think they're
gonna trust Willis to do that as much. So here's
here's what I think, you know, in terms of the
personnel going into this game now, with Willis as the quarterback,
I think the guys you got to really be worried
about is Jacobs and then Wilson, who came in and
did a really good job. Wilson came in, you know,
he had four carries. I think they were like eleven one.
(21:28):
He really came in as a changeup. You know, we
know about Jacobs. He's got forty six tds in this
league and he's got like one ninety seven receptions. So
they're gonna try, like heck to make it easier for
Willis to operate. He's never been a decision maker, he's
never been a real accurate guy, but he is a
really good athlete, but I think they're gonna it's really
(21:50):
vital now for them to get the running game going.
And then I look for Reid in the slot. You know,
obviously he's coming off that great game as you said,
thirty three yards touchdown on one play and one hundred
and thirty eight catches, you know, in one seventy yard touchdown.
And then I think look for their tight ends to
be up. You know, between Craft and Muskrade a year ago,
(22:11):
you know, they they had sixty five catches and they
had three tds and you know, it's always easier to
get the ball quick to the tight ends when you're
playing with a young quarterback. So you know, I think
when you look at their scheme, first down is very simple.
They're not a very complex running team. Zones and play
(22:31):
actions and bootlegs. Now, their passing game on first down
is shots. Now it may not be as much with Willis,
but they want to go at you deep and if
it's not their checkdown, like touchdown checkdown. Melton number eighty,
very fast guy, is their fifth receiver, but he's also
a gadget guy. As I said, shot team on first down,
(22:54):
you know, if it gets more open it gets longer,
you know, then it's quick rhythm, quickouts, sticks short, you know, slants, smashes, options,
and then if it's third and long, then it's nine
seven flats eight sixty six, which is double digs, daggers
and you know those type of things. Again, they did
(23:16):
make four hundred and fourteen yards you know, in one
hundred and sixty three rushing, which is the star after
last week. Now in terms of the Colts defensive blueprint
for victory one and more than ever, more than ever
because of what has happened to both teams, we got
to control Jacob's pass and run and the hard thrusting
(23:38):
backup Wilson. I mean, those guys can run it, they
can slash it. Jacobs really is one of the premiere,
I would say, all purpose players in the league. His
style is much like Nixon Mixon. They're slashers. They can
run with power, but both of them can break it.
Very good receiver they, Jacob says, when he was back
(24:01):
there with Gruden with the Raiders, he caught a ton
of passes. And when you know, when they look at
us and they look at starting a new quarterback, what
are they going to do? It's not rocket science. They're
gonna feed it to him until we stop them. Now,
if we stop them, they got trouble. We gotta smother them,
and we gotta smother him on the screens and swings
because they'll try to get it out to him in space.
(24:23):
You know he had he had a five to three
average last week. Wilson was actually eleven to one. So
our defense, our run defense, now there's no excuse we
can talk about, oh, how we were playing pass defense
and all that kind of excuses in this In this one,
there is no great quarterback, so you must stop it.
I think you gotta control the dynamic receivers again, Watts, Reed, Dobbs, Wicks.
(24:47):
You know, those guys got big yardies for catch a
lot of touchdown passes. I think it's going to slow
down now without love for a while, because he is
the He reminded me more of far to be honest
with you when I watched, and even Rogers got to
stay on top of those guys. Don't give him anything easy,
nothing easy. Make this kid work. He's not going to
(25:08):
be He's not going to be high percentage and match
tight underneath, so that he doesn't have easy windows plaster
receivers downfield, because I do think Willis can move, he
can play on the playground. We can't let him do
that again. I would say the number one receiver though,
that you have to stop in terms of scheme is Read.
(25:30):
All the rest of them stay on top of him.
Don't give him anything easy. But Read is the guy.
You know, they do have a gunslinger mentality that may
be fluid with a new quarterback. I would say Number
three is squeeze their tight ends. Craft and musgrave Craft
has actually become number one. You know, they had like
seven hundred and seven catches or seven hundred and seven
(25:51):
yards a year ago, and you know they're they're kind
of an emerging duo. And and what I think about
it is, if I have Willis at quarterback, I'm going
to try to throw quickly on the sticks in the flats.
I'm going to run him on a lot of bootlegs
where I'm going to try to hit those guys. I'm
going to try to make it easy for him to
be honest with you, give him some easy completions, try
(26:14):
to keep him out of thrown into tough coverage. Number
four and this is unique to them. This is a
lot like the Grudenol offense. They run a lot of
what I call condensed formations. When you look at the
Tate matt you'll see there's eleven guys tight I mean
nasty splits by the wide receivers, bunches, stacks, and coveyes
(26:34):
on both sides. And that's what I call a condensed formation.
And what they what they're effectively doing when they do that,
and their receivers, because they're young kids, they'll go in
and block Is. They'll get a hat on a hat
on the running game no matter what. But the other
thing they can do is if you overcondense your defense,
if you tighten it too much, then they can explode
(26:57):
back outside with the play action. And that's what that's
the danger zone of those Plus, if you're going to
play man demand coverage against him on all those kind
of bastard splits, you have to be ready to zone
those things off. You have to be ready to get
in different levels. And that's a big issue those condensed
formations more than anybody you see. In the end, you
(27:20):
got to stop the run and you got to force
Willis into a drop back disadvantage game. Again, one thing
he is is a very good athlete who can threaten
the edges and he can create playground scamp scrambles. That's
the only way he's going to beat you. He's not
going to beat you with decision making and accuracy. He's
always had trouble with that. Mix your coverages. What you
(27:43):
don't want to do is play a predictable game where
Lafleur can help him out and give informations to do
things and make it easy. You've got to mix it up.
Blitz the edges, Blitz the edges because I think you
want to make sure that you cut his legs off
no matter what. But I think in terms of their
personels Walker is struggling at their left tackle, and then
(28:05):
I think you can work on their right guard and
center whoever lines up there. Don't let Willis beat us
on the playground. That's number one.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
Rick Vinterry right there, this is Inside Football. I'm Matt Taylor.
We're breaking down the blueprints Colts and Packers week number
two at lambeau Field. All right, let's move over to
the defensive side of the ball then for Green Bay
and talk about the Colts blueprint there. Last week they
gave up thirty four points to the Eagles and over
four hundred yards on opening weekend, and Rick was kind
(28:34):
of a I don't know, weird defensive performance. They held
Philly to just three for six in the red zone,
they had three takeaways. Philly was just four for fourteen
on third down, but they still gave up over four
hundred yards and thirty points and lost the game. But
they can get after the quarterback up front, there's no
doubt about that. Last year they had three players with
(28:58):
at least seven sacks, including Clark and linebackers Rashaun Gary
and Preston Smith in that regard, and they also have
Lucas van Nesset linebacker defensive lineman Carl Brooks. Each of
those players had four sacks at least four sacks last
year as well, and they've got some big names in
the secondary like you mentioned JayR Alexander and Xavier McKinney.
(29:21):
Alexander is back after an injury riddled season last year,
but he's logged at least eleven passes defense in four
of his six years. And then McKenny signed a four
year deal in free agency, coming over from the Giants,
where he played every game Last year. He had a
really nice year, a nice year. Eleven passes, defense, three picks.
So what kind of challenges are the Colts in four
(29:43):
against this backers defense? As interesting here Anthony Richardson makes
just the second road start of his young career.
Speaker 3 (29:51):
Yeah, they made the big move. You know, they made
the big move by bringing Halflee in there. You know,
fire and Joe Berry after years half Lee in his
NFL career before he became the head coach at Boston
College is a little bit of a Salah, the guy
of the Jets in Demico Rimes. He's kind of a
protege of them. You know, they struggle so bad in
(30:15):
twenty three they had to make the change. They didn't
take the ball away at all. They were twenty sixth
and fourth quarter defense, they were number twenty. You know,
he's brought in the four to three defense as opposed
to the three to four, which means that you have
two pretty good edge guys. You chronicled it, well, they
don't have one guy who has like fifteen sacks, but
(30:37):
they've got several, you know, Gary Preston, Smith Clark and
Wyatt who when you put him together, they have a
lot of sacks cumulative and then be alert for this
young kid who I like a lot Cooper out of
an m who was a pretty high draft plick. He
was pretty productive last week last year. You know, they
look solid a linebacker with Walker and McDuffie again in
(31:00):
the secondary. On paper, Alexander has been a premier, but
I'm gonna say, you know, let's let's let's don't give
him too much credit because now AJ Brown is really good.
That AJ Brown owned him. I think Nixon is a
top nickel inside number twenty five. He's also a return guy.
And then the rookie who we liked a lot, Matt
in the draft, Bullet. I know the Colts did too.
(31:22):
He has stepped right into the starting lineup. So with
Bullet as a rookie and McKinney at safety, that's a
pretty good tandem right there. McKinney's a legit playmaker. Their
scheme and it's gonna be fluid because we're not you know,
I went back and looked at some Boston College tape
and but it's gonna be fluid. It's not complex, it's sound,
(31:47):
but it's simple. But they're gonna play with high energy.
Anytime you have a new coordinator, particular guy that comes
out of college. He's gonna emphasize those things. So they're
gonna go to the ball, and they'll feed off of
green Bay fan base if in fact they can get
some advantage on first down, unknown down, first and ten,
second and five or less. A lot of eight man front,
(32:09):
which is just normal in the league. A lot of
Hawk three forty six sky and base which is like
a Hawk three, and nickel. They'll mix some Manda man,
some what I call one why bring the safety down
to the tight side, and a lot of times he'll
kick the end up and he'll get lined up face
up on your tight end. I call it a sug
(32:31):
because it's a safety up. They'll use a lot of
sug and the same thing in nickel again, give you
those sug looks with the safeties in man coverage. Now,
they didn't do a lot against the Egle, just a
little bit, but it was a big part last year.
And I'm not so sure they won't bring it back
against us because of our running game, and that is
(32:52):
they would. They do have some bear and some big bear.
When they get the third down, if it's third and short,
they're gonna play a hard man coverage with somebody down
in the hole, probably a linebacker, which I call a rat,
and they'll cut routes off. It's not just they just
don't zone with that rat. He'll cut routes off on
the crossing pattern. So you want to give him a
(33:14):
lot of high lows where you lose two guys and
then you know also a lot of five man pressure
on third and short with Manda man press. They do
like to bring safeties off the weak side. The Cats
now when they get longer yardage, and I saw a
lot of this at Boston College. They will now mix
(33:34):
Tampa two and they'll mix what I call that six
high buzz with that safety. That week safety. It's a
Cover three, but he sits high like he's in quarters,
but he's really down low when they get that third
and short that three to four yards, a lot of
three match, forty six match in a one cut type
(33:55):
of deal. Again, tough day for them last week. I
mean actually Lafleur called him out a little bit. He
thought that they should have played better gap control. They
did give up the thirty four points. You're right, it
was an uneven game. There were times they looked good
and they did get three turnovers. I mean they did
have three takeaways, but they gave up four hundred and
(34:16):
ten yards, a lot of time of possession and one
hundred and forty four rushing. All right, the Coats offensive
blueprint for victory. I just think that we've got to
get back with our identity in terms of maintaining more
time of possession, maintaining more consistency. AR five is going
to give us big plays. I mean he is a unicorn.
(34:40):
My brother who watched the game with former Hall of
Fame high school coach. He swears to God that the
ball went out of the stadium and came back in
on the touchdown pout. I mean, he's going to give
us big time plays. But we got to make them
prove they can stop the run. Really. You know, they
were twenty eighth a year ago. They gave up one
hundred and forty four in the opener. We got to
(35:01):
pound that over buddle, over bubble, you know, just prepare
to work off tackle on the edges on their bears.
We got to get more diversity. I talked about that
in the roundtable Monday. We got to do more things
for Jonathan. There's got to be more whams, more leads
more powers you can't just you know, we fall into
that trap a lot, and particularly when we have ar
(35:25):
five because of his threat, we tend to get very
vanilla with j T, and JT still got to be
a big, big part of this offense. And the more
you can run off tackle, you can keep Gary, and
you can keep Smith and the Cooper kid, you can
keep them off balance. Okay, number two, we've got to
work on the corners. On those first downs and those
(35:48):
second and fives, we gotta work on them. And we
got to continue. And if we didn't gain confidence last week,
I don't know when we'll gain confidence. Because we had
you know, a bomb a Peers the second bomb on
the fifty to fifty ball to pierce two potential bombs
to Mitchell. I mean, we got guys that now can
run by them. We got guys that can run by them,
(36:10):
and we got a kid that can throw it a
mile if he's in if he's in lambeau Field, he
can throw it to Milwaukee. If you want to know
the truth, I mean, he can fire it. And so
you know, I think Alexander will rebound, but I wouldn't
be afraid of him. I thought he'd really struggle, you know,
make him run with Pierce and Mitchell. Like I said,
AR five can throw it, and you're gonna they're gonna
(36:31):
be undressed on first down. They're gonna play eight man
front to stop the run. So you know that's when
you want to take the deep shots. You want to
go for it number three. I also think the play
action will be there because he's very simple in the coverage. Okay,
he's like that school of thought, and you can freeze
those linebackers even versus the eight man fronts. Freeze them
(36:52):
up in there with the run. They'll come and get it,
and then you're gonna be able to get your tight
ends who I think you got to get involved in
the game, and you've got to get them over the middle.
You got to get some people, get Pittman back over
the middle. I think you got to involve Pittman in
those tight ends in the inside part of the game,
throwing your bombs to the outside guys.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
Now.
Speaker 3 (37:14):
Also, I think along with that with j T, I
think you've got to get him involved in the passing
game and treat it like a runs like first down screens.
Don't wait till third down when they expect it. I'm
talking about more first down screens and swings, which really
kind of replaced the sweep game, but it freezes the
defense a little bit. So in other words, I think
(37:36):
you really got to get the others involved in this
one as well. I say, be ready for third down pressure.
This is when Halfley gives you a little volume. He's very,
very simple, and then on third down he likes to
give you what I call the mug looks. In other words,
those linebackers and Dime, they'll walk up either in an
even where they walk up into the two A gaps,
(37:59):
or they really like to get into an over and run.
Both guys in the run, put both guys on top
of the guard, which is a funny look. And you
have to be ready. And then you know you're gonna
get edge pressure from the nickel which is Nixon twenty
five and from the safety bullet of twenty So you've
got to be ready to protect if you get behind
an account because when you see when you see Richardson
(38:23):
being able to throw that ball deep, the one thing
the two things you want to do from a defensive standpoint,
once we've shown our hand a little bit, you want
to jam and disrupt those receivers and not let them
get sixty yards downfield. And then you want a pressure.
You want to make him, want to make him throw
the ball one step quicker. So I look if they
get in the third down, I look for a lot
(38:44):
of pressure. I think in the end too. And I
said this last week, play clean. I do think they
are sloppy team. Again, they were twenty third penalties a
year ago and that's self destructive. And when you look
at last when you look at last Friday, you know
they had ten. They had ten and it really hurt
them in that situation. So you know, again they did
(39:06):
have three turnovers versus hurts. So ball security is a
must again, play clean and force Willis into some bad plays. Yeah,
and I think you'll be fine.
Speaker 2 (39:17):
All right. Those are Rick Venturi's blueprints for success as
the Colts looked to even their record at one and one.
That's everything you need to know schematically on the blueprints
to close out. Rick, I'm really eager to see how
this team responds, right. I'm excited to see how the
Colts defense man's up after getting it taken to them
a little bit in Week one. Up Front I'm excited
(39:39):
to see if the Colts can find some overall consistency
on offense to couple up their big plays and you know,
the big striking ability. It was kind of feast or
famine a lot of those aspects in that first game.
So I'm I'm hoping that the offense can kind of
even out a little bit. And I'm just eager to
see if this team can bounce back after putting in
(40:00):
so much, you know, emotional investment into that first game.
How do they respond to adversity? How much professionalism do
they show after that tough loss to a team that
you know, you were really, let's put it real, you
were really amped up to play that game for five
months as soon as the schedule came out. Now, excited
to see how this team responds as the rest of
(40:21):
the season starts to settle in.
Speaker 3 (40:23):
Yeah, And traditionally, we've always played the best when our
back was to the wall, and that did That's not
just in the Stiking era. That's been you know, for
a long really time. So I think we'll be all right.
I think we have a lot of locker room character.
I think we'll be okay emotionally, but in the end,
and you're right. You got to bounce back and you
(40:43):
got to spit Sunday's disappointment out, spit it out completely
in this world. And you know it. You're that way.
Our team has to be that way. We really live
in one week capsules. You know, it's like a heavyweight fight.
It's fifteen single round, it's sixteen rounds. It's not one round,
you win, run round, you got it. You go to
(41:04):
the second one. And it's the same thing with us
seventeen times. And the all that matters right now, all
that doesn't matter what we didn't do against Houston or
did do. It's just all about green Bay and green
Bay specifics. I love lambeau Field even as an opponent.
I think it's a great and thrilling venue to play in.
(41:26):
I think that it's so widespread as it swoops back
into its traditional look. But because of that, I don't
think it has a sound reverberation like Lewis Oil, like
Lucas Oil, or Kansas City or Old Denver Mile High.
I think it's just a great venue to play in.
I always enjoyed playing there as an opponent. I can't wait,
(41:47):
to be honest with you now, the Packers are severely wounded.
I mean, you can't lose a superstar like Love who
is the trigger man for your football team and not
be wounded. But you know, you chronicled early in this discussion.
They're great record in lambeau Field and and they're great
(42:07):
record in home openers. So they're going to put together
a huge effort. Understand that it's going to be a
huge effort our defense, in my opinion. You know, they
did a lot of chirping in the offseason and a
lot of chirping at the game. Stop chirping and start playing.
We've got to smother their offense and ruin Willis's day,
(42:28):
stop the damn run cold, and pound their defensive front.
At the same time, keep getting those explosive plays on
the outside. We are now very capable of that. That's
not a fluke. They say you make more improvement from
game one to game two than the rest of the year.
I believe it. I can attest to it over the years.
(42:50):
And the reason for that is after the opening game,
it is reality. Okay, you now you can set the baselines.
You know, you know we talked a good game. Now
we know what those baselines are. And in some areas,
primarily on defense, it had to be a damn wake
up call. Don't hang your head, take it as a
(43:11):
wake up call, and in the end, put on your
big boy pants. Go to Green Bay with not a
chip on your shoulder, with a damn boulder on your shoulder,
go there to kick ass and take names. This one
is a damn must.
Speaker 2 (43:26):
There you go, Boulder, Baby, you always get us fired up.
To close out the podcast, Rick, you always had that
last line or two. You're exactly right. You don't want
to experience the zero and two blues. You don't want
to talk about the playoff odds and all of that
stuff with the no with ANH and two star. By
the way, Sunday's going to mark the first time the
Colts play at lambeau Field since twenty sixteen. When was
(43:47):
the last time you were at lambeau Field?
Speaker 3 (43:49):
You know, you asked me that the other day, and
I got thinking about it, and honestly, I'm not positive,
but I'm pretty sure that it was probably my last
year in coaching with the eight. I do remember it
was an upset win for us. Yeah, we weren't. We weren't.
We were the underdog and we ended up having a
hell of a win. We had to hold on in
(44:09):
the red zone. We had to hold on in the
red zone. And I remember that like the back of
my hand. But I think I honestly believed that that
was the I think it's right in there, that two
oh seven, two eight, right in there with the last
time I've been in there.
Speaker 2 (44:25):
Yeah, I've only been there once. It was in twenty sixteen,
and the vibe that I got was the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
You know, because you're driving through all these little neighborhoods,
it kind of reminds me of, you know, an old
neighborhood that was built up in the thirties, the forties,
the fifties. You turn the corner and then there it
is right this this mecha, this shrine, this cathedral to
(44:46):
football that's kind of buried in or snuck in just
the fabric of the small town community of Green Bay.
It's incredibly cool.
Speaker 3 (44:55):
Yeah, it's you know, it's the one spot. I think
Kansas City is probably close, but Green Bay. You know,
you go in there, like you say, the tradition reeks.
I mean, you see Lombardy Way and Homegren Street, and
you know all the things that were there and what
it really is as you go into I don't think
(45:15):
you feel it as much once you get in this
stadium and play the game. But on the way and
like you say, it's very, very different. It is the
one pro spot that is really has a collegiate tailgate.
Speaker 2 (45:27):
That's so well said. Absolutely before every game. It's iconic.
Speaker 3 (45:34):
Yeah, you know, I go and I told you this
the other day, and I've some people are probably too
old to even remember this, but one of the one
of the historic plays in the history of the NFL
is Bart Star's one yard sneak to win the It's
the infamous Ice Bowl in one of Lombardi's great great wins,
(45:54):
great comebacks and all that. And I always before the game,
whenever I coached the before I even win anything, I
would walk in and I would step right down at
goal line with that one you are where Jerry Kramer
makes the block, you know, and and Bart takes it
in on the sneak to win and beat the Cowboys.
One of the iconic games of all times.
Speaker 2 (46:14):
You always pay tribute to the history. That's that's perfect.
I can't I can't wait to see that coming up.
On Sunday. I might have to take a picture of that.
By the way, the Colts have won three in a
row against the Packers, and again both teams are gonna
have a high sense of urgency after dropping their first
games of the season. Can't wait for the trip, Rick,
Have a great rest of your week, and we'll see
on the plane on Saturday, heading up to cheese Land,
(46:36):
up to to beer Land. Anything dairy? You got it
on Saturday night, my friend.
Speaker 3 (46:40):
I mean we're gonna actually have to get on a plane.
Speaker 2 (46:43):
Yeah, take it easy, bro, take it easy, all right, Reck,
thanks a lot. Else, I'll see you on Saturday.
Speaker 3 (46:50):
All right, talk at you.
Speaker 2 (46:52):
You got a Rick ventcerry right there. That's gonna do
it for this edition of Inside Football breaking down things
Colts and Packers, week number two. We're gonna do it
again next week for Week three. The Chicago Bears are
up next for the Colts, another NFC North team in
the third week of the season. But until then, be
sure to listen to all the offerings here on the
Colts Audio Network. Then on Sunday, we get you started
(47:14):
with the Colts pregame huddle starting at ten countdown to kickoff.
Begins at noon, and then after the game it's the
Colts fifth quarter huddle and all of that can be
heard on our flagship station, of course in Indy ninety
three five one oh seven five the Fan and ninety
seven to one Hank FM, and anywhere you are in
the state of Indiana and around Colts Country on the
Ascension Saint Vincent Radio Network. Then after the game, check
(47:37):
out JJ Stankovitz and Bill Brooks. They've got you covered
with the breakdown on instant reaction that'll be on Colts
dot com, the Colts Mobile app, and also on YouTube.
Hopefully those guys talking about a Colts win in week two.
Again for Rick, I'm Matt Taylor. Thanks for listening to
Inside Football here on the Colts Audio Network. So long
Football is about the Jimmy's and Joe's and x'es and
o'sack New York Voto Voco, ain't Baker Bruce. It's time
to get out the chock board and diagram some plays.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Here's what all starts right here. That's play Jay Money Christmas.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
This is Inside Football with former Colts and the NFL
coach Rick Venturie.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
The Week one woes continue for the Colts. It's now
been eleven years since the Colts tasted victory. On opening weekend,
the Houston Texans came into Lucas Oil Stadium. They won
a thriller twenty nine to twenty seven. They were the
only team in the AFC South to triumph out of
the gate. But the beat rolls on. There's still sixteen
games to go. Everything is still in front of the Colts.
(00:51):
Here in twenty twenty four, Week two is here and
now it's on The Green Bay Packers had historic lambeau
Field and with that, welcome again everybody to Inside Football.
I'm Matt Taylor inside the Indiana Union Construction Industry radio studio.
But you came for Rick Vin Turrey, who has twenty
seven years of NFL coaching experience, and you can bet
(01:12):
he's seen it all. And Rick, there's no doubt you've
been part of games like last Sunday. How you feeling
a couple days later here now?
Speaker 3 (01:18):
Well, you know I didn't even walk out of their
Sunday feeling that bad. I felt bad about you know,
I felt bad about the way the defense played. But
I saw certainly, you know, I used the term excitement
and explosion on offense, which bid well for us. I
mean in a way. In a way, Matt, if you
count the blocked kick, we really scored four touchdowns and
(01:40):
four plays. I mean, really, it really comes down to it.
Two big throws to pier see how we had to
drive it in, but they they were big plays, you know,
the laser shot to Doolan and then the Louvi's block kick.
I mean, really, you know, unfortunately there were too many
short drives that we were out of there and didn't
waste any time. But we I mean we were able
to score or you know, four touchdowns and four plays.
(02:02):
What have we done that lately? You know? I mean
when I looked at the game, you know, our team
played with great resilience, particularly offensively. I mean, they never
gave in. You mentioned it during the game, you said
they will not die, and I thought that was a
perfect description. I mean, they kept coming back, kept coming back,
and mostly mostly it was with explosive plays. But the
(02:25):
problem was is the Texans every time we would do that,
every time we would come back and you felt like
you were gonna win it, then they consistently answered, you know,
with a and it was there was always a methodical,
time consuming kind of a shredding of our defense. And
you know, at the end of the day, sometimes it matters,
(02:46):
sometimes it doesn't. But the forty minutes of ball possession
in a way reflects the real dominance. The score is tight,
and it's because we made explosive plays. But at the
end of the day, the sixty minute statistical game was
really dominated and it's just a you know, it's just
(03:06):
another tough opening day loss in a game that was
really winnable. I mean, honestly, I mean, who would have
thought that our defense would absolutely not show up against
the run. I mean that's that now. If there's anything
shocking to me, I'm still shocked at that part of it, because,
you know, did I think that Houston could win twenty
(03:28):
nine to twenty seven. Did I think the Colts could
win twenty nine to twenty seven? Right? You bet?
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Rick, let me ask you. I know we talked about
this on Monday, but specifically in the run game for
the Colts defense, what what was it that gave the
Colts the most trouble in slowing down the run? Was
it formationally what the Texans were trying to do to
the well they held?
Speaker 3 (03:46):
You know, they they help themselves. They had a lot
of pre snap shifting in a lot of movement pre snap,
and so they were able to get some angles. They
were able to get the ball to the bubble and
change the bubble at times and take advantage of it.
That's one thing. And then number two, they just blocked
(04:08):
the heck out of us. I mean they really bullied
us on the defensive side of the ball. I mean
Stu didn't have a good game. Buck didn't really have
a good game on the run. And then when we
put our backups in that was just there was a
jail break. It was absolute jail break. And I've seen
enough of that. I'm not going to get into that,
but I mean they really pounded us. And I said
(04:30):
on the you know, I said the other night, And
I think one of the real turning points in the game,
although it didn't lead to points or anything, was in
that sequence before the half. Ar five missed. He missed Mitchell,
which is going to happen. Then he airmailed the interception,
which is going to happen. But we had him backed
up on the ten yard line, I mean, with not
(04:52):
much time to go. And I turned to you and
I said, they're just going to be content to run
the ball, make two first downs, eat this clock, and
go in knowing that they were going to get a
twelve seven lead, you know, and take that into the
half knowing they're going to get the ball. But what
happened was they started, they started running against our twos.
We had our twos in there, dashing ten yards here.
(05:14):
Then we put the sub package in and you got
lou inside. I love Lewis outside, but inside as a rusher,
but not as a run defender. And here goes ten, ten, ten,
and all of a sudden, if they don't have a
botched field goal and a botched play at the end
of the half, you know, they drive from the ten
all the way down to get the field goal. But
(05:35):
I think psychologically. More important than that is they walked
out of that first half after that drive, and in
their minds they said, we can run it right down
their throat, which they did in the second half. Would
we have the ball? Six minutes twenty four minutes of
ball control in the second half, including two three fourth
(05:57):
quarter drives, two to score and one to ice the game,
and most of it was run. I mean, there's not
really an explosive play there, you know, other than the
big throw to Collins early the fifty to fifty, But
there's not really an explosive run. It was just methadical, methodical,
and they controlled the line of scrimmage. And I thought
we would control the line of scrimmage, but in reality,
(06:19):
they controlled the line of scrimmage and Nixon ran his
tail up. But I really go back to that sequence
that they pounded it out of there, and I think
it changed their mindset totally.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Yeah, no doubt. It was another frustrating loss for the Colts,
another game at home, another loss to the Texans, who
seemed to unfortunately have the Colts number. It was the
third home AFC South loss for the Colts in the
last four such games, and now the Colts are looking up.
The Texans have the early lead on the division. The Texans,
they were the only team to win in the AFC
(06:52):
South was one of the biggest games of the year,
albeit the first game of the year. Another bit of
news this week for the Colts Rick second year cornerback
Juju Brince. He was placed on IR earlier this week.
He suffered a significant knee injury in Week one that's
going to require surgery, despite the fact that he played
the entire game last Sunday against Houston. And it's just
(07:14):
the latest injury chapter for him he's dealt with coming
out of out of college. He had the wrist last
year in training camp, dealt with a hamstring, then a
quad during the season, a shoulder, had the nose against
Arizona this preseason, and now the knee and all of
this and just over one season with the Colts. Really
(07:34):
unfortunate for him because he's a good kid. I think
he's a good player. I think he's got a lot
of upside obviously, So if it wasn't for bad luck
with injuries, Juju Brince wouldn't have any luck at all.
So what does this do to stun his growth?
Speaker 3 (07:46):
Rick well, it's very very difficult. I mean, you know,
just because availability is everything, and it's you know, he's
just a hard luck kid right now, it doesn't matter,
you know, just something has blown on the body every
single time he hasn't been able to stay on the field.
He's a kid with promise. I'm not sure where he
is because you just haven't seen enough of him. But
(08:08):
it's really a shame for him. He worked hard to
get back ready to go. He is a big time competitor.
So it's it's very difficult now. It leaves us in
a real dilemma and it's you know, but this is
the path we chose in the off season. I was
not even as confident in Jones and Brent's as they were.
I felt like that we should have shored that up,
(08:30):
that we should have made, you know, some moves at
that position. I thought it was the one area that
was really a little shaky on our defense. And so,
you know, we didn't do that. I think we counted
on Flowers to come back, but we could see you
and I could see right off the back that Flowers
was going to take time. And it's not his fault.
(08:51):
He's going to take time. Because he's coming off in Achilles,
which a lot of people think is that you know,
for most cases, particularly a cornerback, is a seventeen month recover,
So we put some stock there that shouldn't have been there.
And then I thought the biggest mistake, the biggest mistake
at cut day, and I said it when you and
I went through it on the preseason, was letting Baker go.
(09:14):
I thought Baker had the best preseason of any of
the corners, including Brents. I thought he was really playing well.
I thought he was maligned a year ago. He took
the blame for things that weren't totally on him. But
there's a guy that you could start. You'd feel a
lot better if you were going into it tomorrow with
Baker and Jones like we did a lot last year,
(09:37):
and you'd feel a lot better. But he's gone. So
now we're getting guys like wo Mack and then basically
off the street, you know, to think you're going to
do it now. I think one thing that we have
to keep in mind, and you know me well enough.
I've said this over the years at different times, because
we've always had corner issues, We've always had him, We've
(09:57):
never ever fixed it. The closest team was when we
signed Gilmour for pretty good money and he had a
really good year for us. But otherwise it's been a
struggle at corner the whole time, and so this may
be one of those where it's going to take a
little desperation here. This is one of those situations where
I would not and I've said this many times, nobody
(10:19):
listens to me, but I'll say it to you anyway.
This is one of those situations where you might have
to leave kennymore on the outside and play somebody like
wo Mack who has some snaps, Lemon who has some snaps.
So I would rather play with a lesser athlete at
nickel than I would in the outside. Particularly the way
(10:40):
Gus Bradley plays. Gus Bradley does nothing, nothing to protect
the corners. They're basically on an island the whole game.
Whether it's three or four doesn't make any difference. They're
on an island. And so what you can't do, you
cannot go into this season the rest of the way
with a guy that doesn't belong outs. You know, I,
(11:01):
like I said, I can get by even though Kenny
is a tremendous nickel. I'm not saying that, but I
can play a lesser guy, just like strong safety versus
free safety. I can play a lesser guy at the nickel.
But the way we play defense and the West played today,
you can't compromise those two outside guys.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
All right again, So Juju brents to ir and the
Colts have to adjust and it's next man up. We'll
see how the Colts adjust and modify in the secondary,
and we'll see what their options are. And we'll also
check out the injury report the rest of the way.
Keep in mind again, Dallas Flowers was inactive last week
and he might be a good option for the Colts
on the outside, or might be Kenny Moore on the outside,
(11:41):
as you alluded to, Rick, So we'll see how things
shake out. All right, Let's move on. Still a lot
to talk about and a lot to play for. Let's
turn our attention now to the green Bay Packers week
number two. Here's the skinny on green Bay. On the
big picture, they're zero to one, just like the Colts.
They lost a thriller to the Eagles last fight in Brazil.
Can't believe I'm even saying those words a Friday night
(12:04):
game in Brazil, but here we are. Thirty four twenty
nine was the final score there. But for the Packers,
big story there. They're gonna be likely without their starting
quarterback in this game. Jordan Love suffered an mcl injury
very late in that game internationally, so that means they'll
probably turn to third year quarterback and former Titan Malik Willis,
(12:26):
who was traded for at the end of the preseason,
and if he starts, it'll be just his fourth career start.
But despite the change at quarterback, the Packers are a
very good team. They're very young, they're very talented. Last
year that made the playoffs as the seventh seed in
the NFC, But if you look at it, ninety four
percent of their roster twenty eight years or younger, and
(12:48):
they've got a good foundation at head coach Matt Lafleur
is tied for the second most wins in NFL history
by a coach in his first five seasons in the NFL,
with fifty six of them. He's taken the Packers to
three NFC North titles since twenty nineteen. And it goes
without saying for the Packers they've got one of the
best home field advantages in the NFL. It's their home
(13:09):
opener on Sunday. They are thirty two and nine at
home under Lafloor and they have not won a home
excuse me, they have not lost a home opener, I
should say, dating back to twenty twelve. So that is
the brief outlined on the Packers, Rick, What else do
you have on green Bay going into the big picture here?
Speaker 3 (13:28):
No, no, no, I think that's right. I mean they
were It was really a disastrous opener in Brazil. You know,
they not only lost the opener in a really air
tight game that could have gone either way, but obviously
the devastating loss of their spectacular quarterback Jordan Love. The
kid Love to me is very much like Stroud. They're
(13:49):
two young just kids have a chance to be generational
and when you look at the Pack, I think the
loss is huge because the Pack has built a round him.
I mean they've got and I'll get into it. You know,
they got a busload of good young receivers. As you said,
they're the youngest team in the league. I think it's
twenty five one years. Uh, they got a bunch of
(14:12):
good receivers. You know, read is terrific in the slot.
You saw that against the Eagles. They got a decent
offensive line. I don't think it's great, but it's a decent.
And then they did what the Texans did. You know,
they went out and got Jacobs, who's very similar to Mixon.
He's a you know, he's a fifty five hundred yard guy.
(14:34):
He's got a ton of touchdowns in this league. He's
a you know, he's got a ton of catches as
well as runs. They got themselves a real all purpose,
three down running back in Jacobs, so you know, it's
built on offense. Their defense really struggled a year ago.
Uh you know, it was really bad. It was twenty
(14:56):
eighth against the rush, twenty eighth on third down, you know,
twenty sixth and takeaways and you know, just just wasn't
very good. And so that led to the firing of
their DC. And then they brought in you know, Jeff Haffley,
who is you know, was the head coach at at
Boston College. But he's had he was an assistant in
(15:17):
the NFL before that. He has NFL experience. But honestly,
from that standpoint, there was absolutely no impact. As a
matter of fact, they had one of their worst games
on defense that you know, again, they gave up thirty
four points. It was much like our defense. Thirty four points,
four hundred and ten yards and thirty three minutes of possession.
So you know, basically that move in the opening game
(15:39):
didn't work so well. So you know, the loss of
a quarterback who makes it go is even tougher on
a team like this because it's not like their defense
is going to be the eighty five Bears and rise
up and shut people off. You know, they were very
well coached. Rich Pasaccia is one of my favorite guys
in the league on special teams. But again, you know
it's you know, they they're going to They're going to Willis.
(16:03):
You know, that's what they chose to do. I mean,
they didn't choose to, you know, get a season back
up like we did in a Flacco. So they've got
to go with Willis, who really, you know, has struggled
his whole career. Is a high draft pick of the
of the Tennessee Titans. You know, but he's got career wise,
he's thrown sixty seven passes. You know, he's got a
fifty two fifty two percent. You know, he's oh touchdown
(16:28):
three interceptions in a forty nine to four passing raiding,
so he has really really struggled in that regard. So
I mean, I think you're you know, you're looking at
it the way it is. Uh, they have good players
on both sides of the ball. I think their front
is their strength. Although they were quiet, you know, Gary
(16:48):
and Gary on one side and Preston Smith on the
other side, you know, are outstanding edge rushers when they're on.
Clark is an outstanding guy inside. You know. Alexander I've
always thought was the premier corner, but he was absolutely
torched by AJ Brown. Just ate him alive. McKinney, you know,
(17:09):
and now the rookie Bullard are very good at safety,
and I think Nixon is one of the best Nickels.
So you know, it isn't like it isn't like their
talent less on defense. They've just never really been able
to put it together. The one other thing I would
say about the Packers, and I said it about the
Texans and it didn't It didn't matter in that game
(17:32):
because of the way the way they ran the ball
so much. But I thought I thought the Packers even
in that game when level was there, I thought they
were really sloppy. And one thing that you see about them,
and I think it can be a fatal flaw, particularly
now without a guy that can make up for it,
is they were twenty third in penalties last year. I
(17:53):
mean Texans were thirty one, the Packers were twenty three.
And then the other night they validated that they had
ten penalties against the Eagles, which really made it sloppy
and put them behind an account all the time. So yeah,
that's what we're looking at. It's gonna be fluid, you know.
I mean, they're gonna look at us after what happened,
(18:15):
and I think this will backfire for him. But I
think they're gonna figure out they're going to try to
do with Jacobs. You know what mixing did to us.
But I don't think that'll happen again.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
All Right, that's the blent view of the Packers from
up above. Let's get into the trenches now, let's roll
out the blueprints for success for the Colts. We begin
on the offensive side of the ball. When the Packers
have it, they'll probably have a new signal caller on Sunday.
That's Malik Willis playing for the injured Jordan Love and again.
He came over in a trade after the preseason from
the Titans, and previously he's made three starts playing for
(18:47):
the injured Ryan Tannehill at the time in twenty twenty
two for the Tennessee Titans. But Willis, a third round pick,
has a career completion percentage of fifty two point two.
He's taken fifteen sacks, he's thrown owned three picks, no
touchdown passes yet to this point. But despite his inexperience,
they've got playmakers around him. They've got Jaden Reed, They've
(19:08):
got Romeo Dobbs, Christian Watson and then also Josh Jacobs
running the football. Dobbs and Reed they were one of
four teammates in the NFL last year to both have
eight plus receiving touchdowns. Dobbs has eleven scores in two seasons,
Watson has twelve, and then with Reed, he was a
rookie last year, led the team in catches and receiving
(19:31):
yards and tied for the team lead in receiving touchdowns
with eight, and last week in Brazil, became just the
fifth NFL player since the merger to have a seventy
plus yard touchdown catch and a thirty plus yard touchdown
run in the same game. So he is incredibly explosive.
And then again Jacobs, the former Raider, he's now the
lead back in Green Bay. A former NFL rushing champ
(19:53):
in Las Vegas. He helped the Packers last week rush
for one hundred and sixty three yards in Week one
and as a team they averaged over seven yards per carry.
Very explosive is green Bay on offense? Last week they
had seven big plays and rick. Since Week nine of
last year, the Packers have the third most explosive plays
(20:14):
in the NFL, with over ninety of them. So what
else did I miss on the Packers on offense before
you roll it out and give us your must there.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
No, I think, when you look at it, that's exactly right.
I said, A busload of receivers. You know, when you
look at their receivers, they got big numbers, big numbers
from average you know per catch, Watson fifteen to one
in five TVs. You know, Dobbs eleven four and ATDs
read twelve four in ATDs. This is last year. And
then the guy can't forget about he's a really good
(20:44):
deep threat is Whips who has four TVs and fourteen
point nine. Now. I think a lot of that though
also has to do you know, with Love being their
love and lafort together, they have a gunslinger mentality. I mean,
Love is going to take that deep ball, no matter
what I mean, he is gonna throw it deep. I
(21:05):
think that's gonna change with Willis. I don't think they're
gonna trust Willis to do that as much. So here's
here's what I think, you know, in terms of the
personnel going into this game now, with Willis as the quarterback,
I think the guys you got to really be worried
about is Jacobs and then Wilson, who came in and
did a really good job. Wilson came in, you know,
he had four carries. I think they were like eleven one.
(21:28):
He really came in as a changeup. You know, we
know about Jacobs. He's got forty six tds in this
league and he's got like one ninety seven receptions. So
they're gonna try, like heck to make it easier for
Willis to operate. He's never been a decision maker, he's
never been a real accurate guy, but he is a
really good athlete, but I think they're gonna it's really
(21:50):
vital now for them to get the running game going.
And then I look for Reid in the slot. You know,
obviously he's coming off that great game as you said,
thirty three yards touchdown on one play and one hundred
and thirty eight catches, you know, in one seventy yard touchdown.
And then I think look for their tight ends to
be up. You know, between Craft and Muskrade a year ago,
(22:11):
you know, they they had sixty five catches and they
had three tds and you know, it's always easier to
get the ball quick to the tight ends when you're
playing with a young quarterback. So you know, I think
when you look at their scheme, first down is very simple.
They're not a very complex running team. Zones and play
(22:31):
actions and bootlegs. Now, their passing game on first down
is shots. Now it may not be as much with Willis,
but they want to go at you deep and if
it's not their checkdown, like touchdown checkdown. Melton number eighty,
very fast guy, is their fifth receiver, but he's also
a gadget guy. As I said, shot team on first down,
(22:54):
you know, if it gets more open it gets longer,
you know, then it's quick rhythm, quickouts, sticks short, you know, slants, smashes, options,
and then if it's third and long, then it's nine
seven flats eight sixty six, which is double digs, daggers
and you know those type of things. Again, they did
(23:16):
make four hundred and fourteen yards you know, in one
hundred and sixty three rushing, which is the star after
last week. Now in terms of the Colts defensive blueprint
for victory one and more than ever, more than ever
because of what has happened to both teams, we got
to control Jacob's pass and run and the hard thrusting
(23:38):
backup Wilson. I mean, those guys can run it, they
can slash it. Jacobs really is one of the premiere,
I would say, all purpose players in the league. His
style is much like Nixon Mixon. They're slashers. They can
run with power, but both of them can break it.
Very good receiver they, Jacob says, when he was back
(24:01):
there with Gruden with the Raiders, he caught a ton
of passes. And when you know, when they look at
us and they look at starting a new quarterback, what
are they going to do? It's not rocket science. They're
gonna feed it to him until we stop them. Now,
if we stop them, they got trouble. We gotta smother them,
and we gotta smother him on the screens and swings
because they'll try to get it out to him in space.
(24:23):
You know he had he had a five to three
average last week. Wilson was actually eleven to one. So
our defense, our run defense, now there's no excuse we
can talk about, oh, how we were playing pass defense
and all that kind of excuses in this In this one,
there is no great quarterback, so you must stop it.
I think you gotta control the dynamic receivers again, Watts, Reed, Dobbs, Wicks.
(24:47):
You know, those guys got big yardies for catch a
lot of touchdown passes. I think it's going to slow
down now without love for a while, because he is
the He reminded me more of far to be honest
with you when I watched, and even Rogers got to
stay on top of those guys. Don't give him anything easy,
nothing easy. Make this kid work. He's not going to
(25:08):
be He's not going to be high percentage and match
tight underneath, so that he doesn't have easy windows plaster
receivers downfield, because I do think Willis can move, he
can play on the playground. We can't let him do
that again. I would say the number one receiver though,
that you have to stop in terms of scheme is Read.
(25:30):
All the rest of them stay on top of him.
Don't give him anything easy. But Read is the guy.
You know, they do have a gunslinger mentality that may
be fluid with a new quarterback. I would say Number
three is squeeze their tight ends. Craft and musgrave Craft
has actually become number one. You know, they had like
seven hundred and seven catches or seven hundred and seven
(25:51):
yards a year ago, and you know they're they're kind
of an emerging duo. And and what I think about
it is, if I have Willis at quarterback, I'm going
to try to throw quickly on the sticks in the flats.
I'm going to run him on a lot of bootlegs
where I'm going to try to hit those guys. I'm
going to try to make it easy for him to
be honest with you, give him some easy completions, try
(26:14):
to keep him out of thrown into tough coverage. Number
four and this is unique to them. This is a
lot like the Grudenol offense. They run a lot of
what I call condensed formations. When you look at the
Tate matt you'll see there's eleven guys tight I mean
nasty splits by the wide receivers, bunches, stacks, and coveyes
(26:34):
on both sides. And that's what I call a condensed formation.
And what they what they're effectively doing when they do that,
and their receivers, because they're young kids, they'll go in
and block Is. They'll get a hat on a hat
on the running game no matter what. But the other
thing they can do is if you overcondense your defense,
if you tighten it too much, then they can explode
(26:57):
back outside with the play action. And that's what that's
the danger zone of those Plus, if you're going to
play man demand coverage against him on all those kind
of bastard splits, you have to be ready to zone
those things off. You have to be ready to get
in different levels. And that's a big issue those condensed
formations more than anybody you see. In the end, you
(27:20):
got to stop the run and you got to force
Willis into a drop back disadvantage game. Again, one thing
he is is a very good athlete who can threaten
the edges and he can create playground scamp scrambles. That's
the only way he's going to beat you. He's not
going to beat you with decision making and accuracy. He's
always had trouble with that. Mix your coverages. What you
(27:43):
don't want to do is play a predictable game where
Lafleur can help him out and give informations to do
things and make it easy. You've got to mix it up.
Blitz the edges, Blitz the edges because I think you
want to make sure that you cut his legs off
no matter what. But I think in terms of their
personels Walker is struggling at their left tackle, and then
(28:05):
I think you can work on their right guard and
center whoever lines up there. Don't let Willis beat us
on the playground. That's number one.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
Rick Vinterry right there, this is Inside Football. I'm Matt Taylor.
We're breaking down the blueprints Colts and Packers week number
two at lambeau Field. All right, let's move over to
the defensive side of the ball then for Green Bay
and talk about the Colts blueprint there. Last week they
gave up thirty four points to the Eagles and over
four hundred yards on opening weekend, and Rick was kind
(28:34):
of a I don't know, weird defensive performance. They held
Philly to just three for six in the red zone,
they had three takeaways. Philly was just four for fourteen
on third down, but they still gave up over four
hundred yards and thirty points and lost the game. But
they can get after the quarterback up front, there's no
doubt about that. Last year they had three players with
(28:58):
at least seven sacks, including Clark and linebackers Rashaun Gary
and Preston Smith in that regard, and they also have
Lucas van Nesset linebacker defensive lineman Carl Brooks. Each of
those players had four sacks at least four sacks last
year as well, and they've got some big names in
the secondary like you mentioned JayR Alexander and Xavier McKinney.
(29:21):
Alexander is back after an injury riddled season last year,
but he's logged at least eleven passes defense in four
of his six years. And then McKenny signed a four
year deal in free agency, coming over from the Giants,
where he played every game Last year. He had a
really nice year, a nice year. Eleven passes, defense, three picks.
So what kind of challenges are the Colts in four
(29:43):
against this backers defense? As interesting here Anthony Richardson makes
just the second road start of his young career.
Speaker 3 (29:51):
Yeah, they made the big move. You know, they made
the big move by bringing Halflee in there. You know,
fire and Joe Berry after years half Lee in his
NFL career before he became the head coach at Boston
College is a little bit of a Salah, the guy
of the Jets in Demico Rimes. He's kind of a
protege of them. You know, they struggle so bad in
(30:15):
twenty three they had to make the change. They didn't
take the ball away at all. They were twenty sixth
and fourth quarter defense, they were number twenty. You know,
he's brought in the four to three defense as opposed
to the three to four, which means that you have
two pretty good edge guys. You chronicled it, well, they
don't have one guy who has like fifteen sacks, but
(30:37):
they've got several, you know, Gary Preston, Smith Clark and
Wyatt who when you put him together, they have a
lot of sacks cumulative and then be alert for this
young kid who I like a lot Cooper out of
an m who was a pretty high draft plick. He
was pretty productive last week last year. You know, they
look solid a linebacker with Walker and McDuffie again in
(31:00):
the secondary. On paper, Alexander has been a premier, but
I'm gonna say, you know, let's let's let's don't give
him too much credit because now AJ Brown is really good.
That AJ Brown owned him. I think Nixon is a
top nickel inside number twenty five. He's also a return guy.
And then the rookie who we liked a lot, Matt
in the draft, Bullet. I know the Colts did too.
(31:22):
He has stepped right into the starting lineup. So with
Bullet as a rookie and McKinney at safety, that's a
pretty good tandem right there. McKinney's a legit playmaker. Their
scheme and it's gonna be fluid because we're not you know,
I went back and looked at some Boston College tape
and but it's gonna be fluid. It's not complex, it's sound,
(31:47):
but it's simple. But they're gonna play with high energy.
Anytime you have a new coordinator, particular guy that comes
out of college. He's gonna emphasize those things. So they're
gonna go to the ball, and they'll feed off of
green Bay fan base if in fact they can get
some advantage on first down, unknown down, first and ten,
second and five or less. A lot of eight man front,
(32:09):
which is just normal in the league. A lot of
Hawk three forty six sky and base which is like
a Hawk three, and nickel. They'll mix some Manda man,
some what I call one why bring the safety down
to the tight side, and a lot of times he'll
kick the end up and he'll get lined up face
up on your tight end. I call it a sug
(32:31):
because it's a safety up. They'll use a lot of
sug and the same thing in nickel again, give you
those sug looks with the safeties in man coverage. Now,
they didn't do a lot against the Egle, just a
little bit, but it was a big part last year.
And I'm not so sure they won't bring it back
against us because of our running game, and that is
(32:52):
they would. They do have some bear and some big bear.
When they get the third down, if it's third and short,
they're gonna play a hard man coverage with somebody down
in the hole, probably a linebacker, which I call a rat,
and they'll cut routes off. It's not just they just
don't zone with that rat. He'll cut routes off on
the crossing pattern. So you want to give him a
(33:14):
lot of high lows where you lose two guys and
then you know also a lot of five man pressure
on third and short with Manda man press. They do
like to bring safeties off the weak side. The Cats
now when they get longer yardage, and I saw a
lot of this at Boston College. They will now mix
(33:34):
Tampa two and they'll mix what I call that six
high buzz with that safety. That week safety. It's a
Cover three, but he sits high like he's in quarters,
but he's really down low when they get that third
and short that three to four yards, a lot of
three match, forty six match in a one cut type
(33:55):
of deal. Again, tough day for them last week. I
mean actually Lafleur called him out a little bit. He
thought that they should have played better gap control. They
did give up the thirty four points. You're right, it
was an uneven game. There were times they looked good
and they did get three turnovers. I mean they did
have three takeaways, but they gave up four hundred and
(34:16):
ten yards, a lot of time of possession and one
hundred and forty four rushing. All right, the Coats offensive
blueprint for victory. I just think that we've got to
get back with our identity in terms of maintaining more
time of possession, maintaining more consistency. AR five is going
to give us big plays. I mean he is a unicorn.
(34:40):
My brother who watched the game with former Hall of
Fame high school coach. He swears to God that the
ball went out of the stadium and came back in
on the touchdown pout. I mean, he's going to give
us big time plays. But we got to make them
prove they can stop the run. Really. You know, they
were twenty eighth a year ago. They gave up one
hundred and forty four in the opener. We got to
(35:01):
pound that over buddle, over bubble, you know, just prepare
to work off tackle on the edges on their bears.
We got to get more diversity. I talked about that
in the roundtable Monday. We got to do more things
for Jonathan. There's got to be more whams, more leads
more powers you can't just you know, we fall into
that trap a lot, and particularly when we have ar
(35:25):
five because of his threat, we tend to get very
vanilla with j T, and JT still got to be
a big, big part of this offense. And the more
you can run off tackle, you can keep Gary, and
you can keep Smith and the Cooper kid, you can
keep them off balance. Okay, number two, we've got to
work on the corners. On those first downs and those
(35:48):
second and fives, we gotta work on them. And we
got to continue. And if we didn't gain confidence last week,
I don't know when we'll gain confidence. Because we had
you know, a bomb a Peers the second bomb on
the fifty to fifty ball to pierce two potential bombs
to Mitchell. I mean, we got guys that now can
run by them. We got guys that can run by them,
(36:10):
and we got a kid that can throw it a
mile if he's in if he's in lambeau Field, he
can throw it to Milwaukee. If you want to know
the truth, I mean, he can fire it. And so
you know, I think Alexander will rebound, but I wouldn't
be afraid of him. I thought he'd really struggle, you know,
make him run with Pierce and Mitchell. Like I said,
AR five can throw it, and you're gonna they're gonna
(36:31):
be undressed on first down. They're gonna play eight man
front to stop the run. So you know that's when
you want to take the deep shots. You want to
go for it number three. I also think the play
action will be there because he's very simple in the coverage. Okay,
he's like that school of thought, and you can freeze
those linebackers even versus the eight man fronts. Freeze them
(36:52):
up in there with the run. They'll come and get it,
and then you're gonna be able to get your tight
ends who I think you got to get involved in
the game, and you've got to get them over the middle.
You got to get some people, get Pittman back over
the middle. I think you got to involve Pittman in
those tight ends in the inside part of the game,
throwing your bombs to the outside guys.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
Now.
Speaker 3 (37:14):
Also, I think along with that with j T, I
think you've got to get him involved in the passing
game and treat it like a runs like first down screens.
Don't wait till third down when they expect it. I'm
talking about more first down screens and swings, which really
kind of replaced the sweep game, but it freezes the
defense a little bit. So in other words, I think
(37:36):
you really got to get the others involved in this
one as well. I say, be ready for third down pressure.
This is when Halfley gives you a little volume. He's very,
very simple, and then on third down he likes to
give you what I call the mug looks. In other words,
those linebackers and Dime, they'll walk up either in an
even where they walk up into the two A gaps,
(37:59):
or they really like to get into an over and run.
Both guys in the run, put both guys on top
of the guard, which is a funny look. And you
have to be ready. And then you know you're gonna
get edge pressure from the nickel which is Nixon twenty
five and from the safety bullet of twenty So you've
got to be ready to protect if you get behind
an account because when you see when you see Richardson
(38:23):
being able to throw that ball deep, the one thing
the two things you want to do from a defensive standpoint,
once we've shown our hand a little bit, you want
to jam and disrupt those receivers and not let them
get sixty yards downfield. And then you want a pressure.
You want to make him, want to make him throw
the ball one step quicker. So I look if they
get in the third down, I look for a lot
(38:44):
of pressure. I think in the end too. And I
said this last week, play clean. I do think they
are sloppy team. Again, they were twenty third penalties a
year ago and that's self destructive. And when you look
at last when you look at last Friday, you know
they had ten. They had ten and it really hurt
them in that situation. So you know, again they did
(39:06):
have three turnovers versus hurts. So ball security is a
must again, play clean and force Willis into some bad plays. Yeah,
and I think you'll be fine.
Speaker 2 (39:17):
All right. Those are Rick Venturi's blueprints for success as
the Colts looked to even their record at one and one.
That's everything you need to know schematically on the blueprints
to close out. Rick, I'm really eager to see how
this team responds, right. I'm excited to see how the
Colts defense man's up after getting it taken to them
a little bit in Week one. Up Front I'm excited
(39:39):
to see if the Colts can find some overall consistency
on offense to couple up their big plays and you know,
the big striking ability. It was kind of feast or
famine a lot of those aspects in that first game.
So I'm I'm hoping that the offense can kind of
even out a little bit. And I'm just eager to
see if this team can bounce back after putting in
(40:00):
so much, you know, emotional investment into that first game.
How do they respond to adversity? How much professionalism do
they show after that tough loss to a team that
you know, you were really, let's put it real, you
were really amped up to play that game for five
months as soon as the schedule came out. Now, excited
to see how this team responds as the rest of
(40:21):
the season starts to settle in.
Speaker 3 (40:23):
Yeah, And traditionally, we've always played the best when our
back was to the wall, and that did That's not
just in the Stiking era. That's been you know, for
a long really time. So I think we'll be all right.
I think we have a lot of locker room character.
I think we'll be okay emotionally, but in the end,
and you're right. You got to bounce back and you
(40:43):
got to spit Sunday's disappointment out, spit it out completely
in this world. And you know it. You're that way.
Our team has to be that way. We really live
in one week capsules. You know, it's like a heavyweight fight.
It's fifteen single round, it's sixteen rounds. It's not one round,
you win, run round, you got it. You go to
(41:04):
the second one. And it's the same thing with us
seventeen times. And the all that matters right now, all
that doesn't matter what we didn't do against Houston or
did do. It's just all about green Bay and green
Bay specifics. I love lambeau Field even as an opponent.
I think it's a great and thrilling venue to play in.
(41:26):
I think that it's so widespread as it swoops back
into its traditional look. But because of that, I don't
think it has a sound reverberation like Lewis Oil, like
Lucas Oil, or Kansas City or Old Denver Mile High.
I think it's just a great venue to play in.
I always enjoyed playing there as an opponent. I can't wait,
(41:47):
to be honest with you now, the Packers are severely wounded.
I mean, you can't lose a superstar like Love who
is the trigger man for your football team and not
be wounded. But you know, you chronicled early in this discussion.
They're great record in lambeau Field and and they're great
(42:07):
record in home openers. So they're going to put together
a huge effort. Understand that it's going to be a
huge effort our defense, in my opinion. You know, they
did a lot of chirping in the offseason and a
lot of chirping at the game. Stop chirping and start playing.
We've got to smother their offense and ruin Willis's day,
(42:28):
stop the damn run cold, and pound their defensive front.
At the same time, keep getting those explosive plays on
the outside. We are now very capable of that. That's
not a fluke. They say you make more improvement from
game one to game two than the rest of the year.
I believe it. I can attest to it over the years.
(42:50):
And the reason for that is after the opening game,
it is reality. Okay, you now you can set the baselines.
You know, you know we talked a good game. Now
we know what those baselines are. And in some areas,
primarily on defense, it had to be a damn wake
up call. Don't hang your head, take it as a
(43:11):
wake up call, and in the end, put on your
big boy pants. Go to Green Bay with not a
chip on your shoulder, with a damn boulder on your shoulder,
go there to kick ass and take names. This one
is a damn must.
Speaker 2 (43:26):
There you go, Boulder, Baby, you always get us fired up.
To close out the podcast, Rick, you always had that
last line or two. You're exactly right. You don't want
to experience the zero and two blues. You don't want
to talk about the playoff odds and all of that
stuff with the no with ANH and two star. By
the way, Sunday's going to mark the first time the
Colts play at lambeau Field since twenty sixteen. When was
(43:47):
the last time you were at lambeau Field?
Speaker 3 (43:49):
You know, you asked me that the other day, and
I got thinking about it, and honestly, I'm not positive,
but I'm pretty sure that it was probably my last
year in coaching with the eight. I do remember it
was an upset win for us. Yeah, we weren't. We weren't.
We were the underdog and we ended up having a
hell of a win. We had to hold on in
(44:09):
the red zone. We had to hold on in the
red zone. And I remember that like the back of
my hand. But I think I honestly believed that that
was the I think it's right in there, that two
oh seven, two eight, right in there with the last
time I've been in there.
Speaker 2 (44:25):
Yeah, I've only been there once. It was in twenty sixteen,
and the vibe that I got was the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
You know, because you're driving through all these little neighborhoods,
it kind of reminds me of, you know, an old
neighborhood that was built up in the thirties, the forties,
the fifties. You turn the corner and then there it
is right this this mecha, this shrine, this cathedral to
(44:46):
football that's kind of buried in or snuck in just
the fabric of the small town community of Green Bay.
It's incredibly cool.
Speaker 3 (44:55):
Yeah, it's you know, it's the one spot. I think
Kansas City is probably close, but Green Bay. You know,
you go in there, like you say, the tradition reeks.
I mean, you see Lombardy Way and Homegren Street, and
you know all the things that were there and what
it really is as you go into I don't think
(45:15):
you feel it as much once you get in this
stadium and play the game. But on the way and
like you say, it's very, very different. It is the
one pro spot that is really has a collegiate tailgate.
Speaker 2 (45:27):
That's so well said. Absolutely before every game. It's iconic.
Speaker 3 (45:34):
Yeah, you know, I go and I told you this
the other day, and I've some people are probably too
old to even remember this, but one of the one
of the historic plays in the history of the NFL
is Bart Star's one yard sneak to win the It's
the infamous Ice Bowl in one of Lombardi's great great wins,
(45:54):
great comebacks and all that. And I always before the game,
whenever I coached the before I even win anything, I
would walk in and I would step right down at
goal line with that one you are where Jerry Kramer
makes the block, you know, and and Bart takes it
in on the sneak to win and beat the Cowboys.
One of the iconic games of all times.
Speaker 2 (46:14):
You always pay tribute to the history. That's that's perfect.
I can't I can't wait to see that coming up.
On Sunday. I might have to take a picture of that.
By the way, the Colts have won three in a
row against the Packers, and again both teams are gonna
have a high sense of urgency after dropping their first
games of the season. Can't wait for the trip, Rick,
Have a great rest of your week, and we'll see
on the plane on Saturday, heading up to cheese Land,
(46:36):
up to to beer Land. Anything dairy? You got it
on Saturday night, my friend.
Speaker 3 (46:40):
I mean we're gonna actually have to get on a plane.
Speaker 2 (46:43):
Yeah, take it easy, bro, take it easy, all right, Reck,
thanks a lot. Else, I'll see you on Saturday.
Speaker 3 (46:50):
All right, talk at you.
Speaker 2 (46:52):
You got a Rick ventcerry right there. That's gonna do
it for this edition of Inside Football breaking down things
Colts and Packers, week number two. We're gonna do it
again next week for Week three. The Chicago Bears are
up next for the Colts, another NFC North team in
the third week of the season. But until then, be
sure to listen to all the offerings here on the
Colts Audio Network. Then on Sunday, we get you started
(47:14):
with the Colts pregame huddle starting at ten countdown to kickoff.
Begins at noon, and then after the game it's the
Colts fifth quarter huddle and all of that can be
heard on our flagship station, of course in Indy ninety
three five one oh seven five the Fan and ninety
seven to one Hank FM, and anywhere you are in
the state of Indiana and around Colts Country on the
Ascension Saint Vincent Radio Network. Then after the game, check
(47:37):
out JJ Stankovitz and Bill Brooks. They've got you covered
with the breakdown on instant reaction that'll be on Colts
dot com, the Colts Mobile app, and also on YouTube.
Hopefully those guys talking about a Colts win in week two.
Again for Rick, I'm Matt Taylor. Thanks for listening to
Inside Football here on the Colts Audio Network. So long
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy And Charlamagne Tha God!
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.