December 1, 2025 • 52 mins
Intro – 0:00
What KB Didn't Like – 13:12
What KB Liked – 30:08
Twitter Questions – 33:00
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
We're back. It is the start of December, and boy
is this going to be a critical critical month for
the twenty twenty five Indianapolis Colts. I hope everybody had
a great Thanksgiving and their commutes were safe and sound.
Eddie Garrison, how you doing.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Doing all right? How about you? keV?
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Not bad? Not bad?
Speaker 2 (00:18):
I hope other people feel the same way as that
first day back after, you know, the four or five
day weekend is always a little sluggish.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Kind of like the Colds first quarter yesterday. Honestly, just
a little bit of a slog. And I did think
the atmosphere at times got really lively inside of Lucas
Oil Stadium on Sunday, but the home team, for the
first time all the year, could not deliver. That is
now all three C. J. Stroud games inside of Lucas
Ohl Stadium. He's come away victorious.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Has he lost in his career there?
Speaker 1 (00:45):
In coology? And I know I was going to say
the big ten championship history for Ohio State. I'm always
kind of like nervous to to say, because I feel
like at times they don't make it to that game
without Michigan. But I don't know, I'm sure Stroud has
played in there in his collegiate days, but in his
NFL days he's three, you know, and the AFC South
lead is gone. And we just talked about the urgency
of this game on both pods last week, Eddie. It
(01:08):
was just massive, and you know you're no longer playing
from ahead.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
You know.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
We we mentioned the percentages involved in these two weeks
Houston and Jacksonville. It was what north of ninety if
you win both games, about fifty if you split, and
less than twenty percent to win the division if you
lose both. So right now the other two numbers are
in play, the fifty percent or the whatever it is,
fifteen percent. And if you look at the standings, you know,
(01:36):
if the playoffs started today, you'd be the sixth seed,
and eight, nine, and ten have all beaten you. Yep,
and those are the first three teams obviously out. So
that is just where this thing can really start to
snowball in a hurry for you here, you know, just
big picture, before we get into what I liked, what
(01:57):
I didn't like. I think what is extra frustratating about
the loss from yesterday. We'll also get to the officiating,
you know, I think you guys know, I'm not a
huge blame the official guy, but I'm not going to
sit here and ignore elephants in the room. So we'll
address that here in a few But you know, Eddie,
I said this to people quite often over Thanksgiving. Hey,
(02:18):
you think the Colts will win on Sunday? I go,
I do. The only really big concern I have I
think I went twenty sixteen. I think it was was
my prediction the other way, or maybe twenty three to
twenty Colts. The only real issue I thought that could
turn the game, though, was Willie Anderson Jr. And Ords
O'Neil Hunter making the game changing play. Obviously, Anderson Junior
(02:40):
made his impact on the game. But if you would
have told me walking into Lucasow Stadium on Sunday morning,
Daniel Jones would be sacked one time in this game,
I would say, oh, do the Colts win by seven
or fourteen? The fact that Jones was only sacked once
that drive ended in a punt and not, you know,
a scoop and score, not a strip sack, not something catastrophic.
(03:06):
It's even more kind of surprising to me that the
Colts lost this game. But you know, they made it
really tough slighting for Jonathan Taylor. I think it was
the least effective he's probably been all season, considering the
amount of carries he got twenty or twenty one, and
you know when they needed to make timely plays they
made him. And your defense has been on the field
for way too long. It's like one hundred and sixty
(03:26):
snaps the last two weeks, which is just an absurd number.
And right now, if you can make Daniel Jones in
this passing offense have to deliver, I don't think they
are proven capable of that right now. It's a big drops.
You can't ignore those drops. I mean the downs drop
there on the third and eight third and nine downs
out a wild day yesterday.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
M hmm.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
It's such a roller coaster, which I'm used to him
being very steady. For you there started and ended with drop.
I have to drop early, have the drop there late
on that final drive. So before we get to the
officiating aspect, just your overall thoughts, Eddie.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
I felt like this was, you know, the first game
of the four losses where you can look at it
and be like, yeah, the Colts lost this one, because
like if you look at the others. It's like a
couple of plays here and there. I mean, it's still
the same way, but it wasn't the self inflicted gunshot
wounds that got you yesterday in I still think that,
(04:23):
you know, there's some people that will view this as
an optimistic point of view, like, hey, you know, this
team just has to learn how to win these games, because,
let's face it, Daniel Jones hasn't been in a lot
of these situations in his career just because the Giants
were not good when he was there, outside of the
one year where he won the playoff game. And now
you just have to learn how to make some of
(04:44):
these plays at the end, Like the defense has to
learn how to make some plays at the end of
all games to get off the field. They got to
you know, prevent touchdowns and hold them to field goals
type of stuff. The offense has to, you know, find
ways to move the ball in the fourth quarter when
it's through the air because you can't run the football
or you're playing from behind. So all those things are
learning opportunities for this team. And I go back to
(05:07):
I was it Jerarius Ward after the the loss or yeah,
terarious word after the loss? To Kansas City is like, hey,
we needed this, and like, I feel like these last
two losses for the culture hopefully learning lessons for them
that they can correct in the near future so that
they can't maintain a spot in the playoffs.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Yeah, I mean, there is definitely an element, and you know,
Twitter questions probably lead us down this path, but there's
an element Eddie that you are an eight and four
football team on December first. If you would have said
that on September first, you would have said, where do
I sign up for it? But there is also the
aspect of you're a really an eight and fourteen. I
don't think there's any denying that. The injury luck I
(05:45):
think is finally kind of caught up to you a
little bit here with Buckner's status and obviously the Sauce
Gardner injury, we know in all likelihood they're both going
to be out for Sunday. I the quicker. The kicker
questions continue to be there as well, so and your
offense just isn't You don't feel as optimistic about it
obviously as you did earlier in the season. So before
(06:08):
I get into what I didn't like, what I liked,
Eddie let's hit on the officiating. You know, when I
break down the one drive that I think everybody wants
to talk about, Let's start with what I want to
see the NFL do, Because there's all this conversation about
penalties and the enforcement of penalties, and I think when
(06:32):
it comes to football, especially and the fast movie nature
to it, I think it's very difficult to properly write
the letter of the law for holdings. For past interference
penalties in particular, I think those are naturally gray area
judgment calls, and it's really difficult to police that in
(06:52):
a consistent manner. So when I go back to yesterday,
where my biggest issue is, and again, this is a
lead wide thing, I don't necessarily blame the officiating crew
on Sunday for it. I don't get why delay of
game is not black and white. I don't get why
that is not a reviewable call. And b why is
delay of game not treated like the shot clock in
(07:14):
an NBA game? Why is there not a red light
that goes on a fog horn round? Seriously, yeah, I
mean horn it up if you have to. You know,
how about a little buzzer on all the officials or
just the head official if you need to, and when
that goes off, if the ball has been snapped, you
simply blow the play dead and five yard penalty. You
(07:37):
get forty seconds, not forty one. I don't get why
we have had this unwritten rule in the NFL, because
we see this weekly. You see it probably what three
to five times a game. Teams snap the ball with
zero on the play clock. And again I don't understand
why this unwritten rule has all of a sudden been accepted.
I maybe because there's tens of a second aren't on
(07:59):
the play clock? Well, then put tense of a second
on the play clock. That to me is where the
big gripe I have in that particular play because it
was blatantly after zero. Oh yeah, that was if you
could challenge it, which again to me, challenge black and white.
You can't challenge the judgment calls. You can't challenge the
gray area calls. I get that, but that to me
is a very Was there one second or was there
(08:21):
not one second?
Speaker 2 (08:23):
So that is.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Where I would start. You know, when you see the
pool report after the game, I guess to take people
behind the curtain. I think one of the stupidest things
the NFL does is the pool report. So the NBA
has the two minute Report, and you're very familiar with it.
The two minutal report happens the day after the game.
And what the NBA does is they literally evaluate every
(08:47):
single call in the last two minutes.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Yeah, they go back and watch the entirety of the
last two minutes of the fourth quarter.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
What they got right, yep, what they got wrong, and
then they say that in the report. It's a very
straightforward thing to be honest with it is. The NFL
pool report is the exact opposite. It is so stupid.
I am all for transparency. I don't call this transparency
at all. So basically how it works as the home
team as a designated media member that gets to ask
(09:15):
the question. So Joel Ericson in his professional manner, like
Joel Is, he walks down to us, you know, right
after the series, and it says, Okay, I feel like,
you know this is worthy of a pool report. What
questions would you like for me to ask? Until Mike
Chapel if I sit next to him and I are
you're kind of thinking about one, and I go, Joel,
will you ask if delay of game is reviewable. I'm
(09:35):
pretty sure it's not. But that's really the only real
question I have because when you ask these questions, and
again I'm pretty sure Joel, like I think he just
calls the official and then the official. It's not like
they're sitting in a room breaking down film. No, it's
not like Joel can ask follow ups necessarily. It is
very different from a you know, back and forth press
(09:58):
conference manner to these questions. So when you read the
pool report on the Kenny Moore passing interference penalty, all
it says is the official had a grab at the
top of.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
The route on his hand. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Yeah, but like it doesn't even say that much detail. Like,
all it says is grab at top of route. That's
what the official saw. Well again in the twenty minute
aftermath of the game, that's all he's going to say.
Of course, the official saw something. It's not like he
didn't see anything. And you know, if you go back
and watch to replay, Eddie, I think I got closer
to my fifth grade girlfriend at a school dance than
(10:33):
Kenny Moore got to Xavier Hutchinson on that pass interference
penalty there, So you know that to me, it was
agregious call. Frankly, and on a scale of one to ten,
I call it a nine point five. I also thought
the Alex Pierce passing interference penalty was a bad call
on the pre I think it was the previous possession, yep.
I mean that to me, that ball am was hit
(10:54):
the Colts cheerleaders.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
I like what Phil sim said on Sundayight Football last night.
He said it was closer to that the hot dog
vendors in the South.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
Here seriously, and so again, where is catchable? What is
not ketchable? That to me is just like you get
these judgment calls and they're they're difficult to I think
properly police. As far as miss miss extra point, I
know we've discussed this. I think it's a lot harder
(11:21):
than it looks, specially because fairbarons. You know, kick is hooking,
So if you're that, if you're the official underneath there,
you're like, wait, did that hook on the inside of
it or not? And Sterotory did a nice job with
that on CBS, explaining how the entire ball's got to
be inside the out inside of the outside edge of
the goal post, yes, which again you watch the replay
the camera angle isn't perfect, but when you watch it,
(11:42):
it definitely does not look like the entire ball is
inside the goalpost. Now, now, if you extend the goalpost
to the roof, does a hooking fairbarn kick there, hit
off the left, up right and go in? Who knows?
Do you?
Speaker 2 (11:55):
You know?
Speaker 1 (11:55):
Someone said, how about you just shoot a laser beam
up from the goalpost to the top. I mean, something
I think needs to be done, because you know, these
sorts of situations. How I can remember the EU Bowl
game from a few years ago having a similar situation
against Tennessee. I think it was Tennessee. Mean was Duke,
But that also involves again a lot of gray area.
(12:18):
So I don't know, you know, as far as did
it cost you the game? I mean, obviously the Kenny
Moore penalty was a big play. You know, at the
end of the game, maybe you're driving for just a
field goal there versus down for needing a touchdown. Again,
I'm largely a person that has accepted in accuracy in officiating.
(12:43):
I know that's not how a lot of people think. Frankly,
I think I'm probably in the minority of that, and
I largely believe calls even out the Colts. Trust me,
the Colts internally know that they got away with Crystal
mons on the whold of trade McBride in the Arizona game,
and if that flag is thrown, Arizona probably wins the game.
Like it Just so, I'm not one that is gonna
(13:05):
fret too much about it, but I'm getting a million
questions about it as and I understand people have them.
So those are my thoughts. What do you got?
Speaker 2 (13:12):
All right, let's dive into the actual game in terms
of what you did like and what you did not like.
But the Cults losing, we always start with what you
did not like. We'll start here because it happened first
in the game. You've got the Sauce Gardner cap strain.
It's likely to sign him, sidelined him a couple of weeks.
The severity in terms of the grade of that strain
(13:32):
still to be determined, which will determine whether or not
the team will place him on injury reserve.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
In my opinion, yeah, I mean, obviously, the A word
is what you first think of Eddie, and it seems
like that has been avoided. We'll get you know, further
clarity on it, but you know when you and then
when you're in this market and he goes down like that,
and you know, you obviously are thinking yourself, oh boy,
because if that was the A word I mean about it,
(14:01):
I mean he's out all the next year, right, that's
a November thirtieth torn a killesh So and then you
start thinking about the trade and all of it. It
just yeah, calf strain. You know what best case scenario
is Kenny Moore situation three weeks now. I didn't think
Kenny in the immediate aftermath of the injuries. Granted Kenny's
(14:21):
is on the road. I mean, Sauce was moving really
gingerly on that boot. I think I ended up getting
them some walking crutches there for the second half. So
you know, three weeks would be what Jacksonville, Seattle, San Francisco.
You know, he'd be back for the two divisional games,
I guess to end it. And then again, that's best
case scenario. And you know, I think when you're playing
(14:42):
corner and I feel this certainly watching the game yesterday,
there's no I would argue there's no position on the
football field that he that is more susceptible to the
average human noticing your one degree off than corner. It's
you just get exposed so quick. And I bring that
(15:03):
up to point to Javarious Ward yesterday and even a
little bit to Kenny Moore the second now. Right now,
I think Mooney and coming back from the injury has
been a step slow. And again when you play corner,
your step gets noticed a whole lot more. And I
hold I mean, I think Kenny Moore is one of
the soundest, most impressive football players I've watched, frankly, and
(15:28):
it's a hell of a story after that many times,
and so I hold him to such a high standard.
When he's not his usually sticky self, I find myself
being wait, was that really number twenty three? And covers
there like no, I mean, because you're just used to
him making all the plays and again being right there
and even him right now, I feel like it's just
(15:49):
a tick off from his normal Kenny self.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
So even in that Kansas City game too.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
Right right, I'm kind of going back to the last two
weeks basically in saying all this, so that up to say, hey,
those are your guys obviously right now you have to
lean on heavily without sauce and then be Sauce. You know,
when when he comes back, what does he look like,
because obviously he'll get tested in a hurry there, And
(16:16):
you just can't ignore the magnitude of the trade. And
not to rehash everything, but when you make a trade
of that significance, the goalpost do change. That's just the
nature of trading two first round picks plus Ady Mitchell.
That's how things shift alter. You push more chips into
(16:37):
the middle of the table. You need more short term
results with a few more longer term questions about the
resources that you have available to you. You weren't saying, hey,
we feel like we're a team that's going to be
fighting for a playoff spot. No, no, no, you said at
the time, we feel like we're a team that'll be
fighting for the one set, and that obviously has shifted
here in the last month. So yeah, those are just
(17:01):
kind of my overall thoughts. Sauce related, corner related, Eddie.
I know you and I are on the same page here.
I don't understand Makai Blackman still out snapping Jalen Jones.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
I don't. I don't either, Like you go back and
watch that game, and like there's so many times where
they're running at him, and he looks like he has
no interest in tackling. Like the Woody Marks play. You
have to come up with the stop or just try
to slow him down, and there's little to no effort.
(17:30):
And Texas, the Houston Texans can go on and you know,
run out the clock there, win the game at the end.
And then if you go back and watch the nih
Collins touchdown and run they run to his side and
he he looks like a toddler walking through a grocery
store when they've lost their parents.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Like he he.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Just looks. It's just like I'm just gonna FLI my
arms out and just kind of look around to see
where I'm supposed to go. Oh, there goes Nico right
by me for a touchdown.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
Which I'd rather have that than the yell. Well, as
soon as it's the the kids start screaming. Then people
are trying to call CPOs on you.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
Yeah, and of course and then there's the coverage issues
as well. It's just like I, just like you said,
I don't get it either.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
Yeah, It's it's a bit hard to explain. So, Yeah,
the injury, obviously when it first happened, looked awful, and
you know, it seems like disaster has been avoided. You know,
Achilles has always been one that I feel like you
can have a general idea of what it is pretty
quickly after the injury. You know, he he like the
fact that he initially went in the blue tent I
(18:31):
thought was better than him going straight at the locker room.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
And the fact that he came out of the locker
and to be on the sideline.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
I think he's even Yeah, so I know some further
imagen was gonna be done. He's really not a guy
that's had a lot of injury history, so it looks
like he's gonna miss some time. We'll see how much.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
Let's get into what else that you did not like
they're good versus the Colts good. I thought Nico Collins
once again was exceptional.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
I'm getting some see what Hilton vibes from. You know. Yeah,
in this series we have seen whiteouts dominate games and
and I just felt like he continues to do that.
You know, his touchdown run you just alluded to there.
You know, he's five for ninety eight, made several big plays,
(19:16):
and I mean he is their guy when you know,
I know, Dalton Schultz had death by a thousand paper
cuts and actually thought the Higgins kid made a couple
of big plays for them as well.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Listen to these last four games after yesterday, seven in
a touchdown, nine for one, ninety five in a touchdown,
six for one, seventeen, five for ninety eight in a
rushing touchdown.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
Yeah, it's scary. It's scary numbers because I don't feel
like the Texans have much else from a potent standpoint offensively,
I really don't. And yet they're able to do that
and he is able to do that as well. So again,
I think that is a frustrating element to Sunday is
(19:58):
so much I think was rooted in will Nicko Collins
impact the game at a high level and Nico puts
up good numbers. I don't want to deny that, but
I mean we're not talking whatever Hu Kunakou or Jackson
Smith and Jigba here. So yeah, that was definitely a
thing that I did not like from yesterday.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
Anything else you want to add into this.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
Yeah, I should have mentioned kicker I Eddie. I was
more serious than probably maybe you took it or our
listeners took it. But remember, like last week, I think
it was last week, Maybe was two weeks ago when
I asked you the question, would you rather have Matt
Gay or Michael Badgley?
Speaker 2 (20:34):
Yeah? I think yeah, somewhere around that.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
Yeah, yeah, basketball analogy it up. Michael Badley's not a
three point shooter, right, he's he's not a long distance kicker. No,
So that means to steal the Chris Ballard phrase, you
have to hit the layups. And right now he is
(20:56):
stone cold bricking the layups.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Three missed extra points in seven weeks. To put that
into context before Badgeley's arrival here last month, you have
to go back to twenty twenty to find the last
time the Colts have missed three extra points. And I'm
talking total, not one player, not one season total. It's
(21:22):
about one hundred and fifty attempts. You have to go
back to to find three missed extra points. Yeah, he's
missed three in whatever it is, twenty some attempts here,
and let's look at where the misses have been. Yesterday, Dome, Germany,
a two mile p hour wind, la la is did
the smog push it left or right? I mean that's
(21:45):
about his control of a climate. As you're going to
have eighty degree day like the Colts have a kicker
problem again, and this one is not injury related, of course,
So yeah, I think you have to do the tryout
thing like backup kicker. I get the bars low and
I lower, I should say, but the bar should still
(22:08):
be the extra point layup.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
If Bajie was just doing that and change stack and
had to go for every you know whatever, third and
eight from the thirty eight yard line, fine, fourth, third
and eight, sorry, fourth and eight. That's part of life
when you have to go to a backup kicker, but
to have the missed extra points. And that's why I
asked it Matt Gay thing in all seriousnes because Matt
Gaate didn't miss extra points. Remember last year, Matt Gay
did not miss a kick inside of fifty yards for you.
(22:34):
He just missed all the north of fifty. He bricked
all the threes, he made every mid range jumper, and
he made every foul shot and then he made every
layup for you. So yeah, and think about the impact
of yesterday.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Man.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
If you make that extra point, then you just treat
so many of future drives differently from that. So I
don't know. I get a weird feeling like the Colts
urgency about this city situation is not at the level
that I clearly have it. But like mist extra points, man,
people do not miss them.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
I mean it ended up at the end, costing you
a chance to make it a tie game to go
to overtime. So yeah, I have two other things I
want to bring up to see your thoughts on it,
keV before we get into what you did. Like, how
about the fourth and one? You need a couple of inches,
you go, Daniel. Now, we've seen a lot of teams
(23:28):
do this recently. They're taking their tight end or their
full back if they have a fullback. The Colt stew
it with Tyler Warren botches the snap right between the wickets.
Jonath Taylor has nowhere to go pretty much after he
picks up the loose ball thrown over on Downs. I
said at the time, and I still stand by it,
I would have kick it and took the points there. Really, yes,
(23:49):
with the way that your offense had been operating prior
to that, you needed to take advantage of every possible
moment to get points rather than trying to risk it
to get that touchdown. Understanding it's a couple inches. You're like, hey,
if you feel like you have the you know, your
old lines, you know doing a great job blocking up front,
go for it. I get it. But when you're going
up against the defense like that, with the team who
(24:10):
has struggled offensively, with C. J. Stroud at least quarterbacking them,
I just felt like it was a time where you
needed to get points on the board.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Yeah, I am, you know, fourth down In terms of
the aggression, I'm not like, hey, fourth and two is
fourth and three's you're always go, go go in those
situations like I think Stikeen mostly is, I would say
fourth and inches, though I'm probably always team go. Now again,
there's you know, if you're whatever up seven with two
(24:37):
minutes ago in the game and you're trying to stretch
it to two scores, obviously you would kick it then,
you know. I see, I've heard from a lot of
people that Chang Siking is an idiot. Why is he
getting too cute? Blah blah blah. So let's I guess
focus on this play for a second. First off, Daniel Jones'
(24:58):
injury is why the Colts didn't run the QB snake.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
I made mentioned it last week on the pot because
I was like, there were so many of those thirty ones,
fourth and ones last week, and it gets Kansas City
where you felt like, all right, we'll just go to
the quarterback sneak because nobody had been able to stop
with Daniel Jones and instead it was always a slow
developing run with Jonathan Taylor and they got stuffed.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
Exactly now what we have seen in recent years, particularly
in the college world and also in the NFL world.
Hell Houston did it several times. We are seeing the
tight end sneak. Yep, you know, Tyler Warren did it
frankly at Penn State. Oh boy, Iron Eagle JJ Watt
again for the Colts coming up on the third time
this year, right, Yeah, they're trying to.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
Do a lot of it.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
You're surprised Colts are favored in that game. A little
bit slight favorite opened or was going to open up
at three, but I think it's sounded like one and
a half. I have no issue with the play call, none,
zero issue whatsoever with the play call. Again, we get
into this mode with coaches gms all the time. Everything
Chris ballor does stinks or is great. Everything Shane Sichin
(25:55):
does stinks or is great? Can we not identify these
situations isolated mm hmm and not have to just group
everything together? And do you know who that person is?
That to me is just seems like such a logical thinking,
but doesn't happen here. The blame to me just goes
from a mis execution on the snap. I mean, BORDERLINI
(26:17):
and Warren clearly does a screw up point blank. Okay,
Jones can't QB sneak what's your best option?
Speaker 2 (26:23):
Now?
Speaker 1 (26:24):
Do you give it to tailor? Well, giving it to tailor,
they're probably gonna sell out on that alat of Kansas
City last week. It's not necessarily guarantee. I think later
in the game they ran that Taylor kind of kind
of like a little and not end around a little
sweep off off tackle ended up getting it there. You
could do that, but again that's not a guarantee. To me.
(26:47):
My general thought in short yardage in today's football is
I would sneak it, push, push it every single time
your percent. Like what the Cults did to Houston late
in the game is a miracle that they stop them. Yeah,
I mean that is insane.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
That Galmore blew up both of them.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
Galamore, I thought Grover's in there. I thought epicom was
in there as well. But yeah, Gallimore was at the
center of so much of that. Like that stuff is
just a miracle. But my team right now, I'd be
doing it every single time. So to me, that is
not too I mean, oh, he brought Warren in motion,
you know, I think the initial thought there is, Hey,
(27:25):
by putting Jones and Taylor in the backfield, they're going
to think that we we motion warn a lot. They're
not going to think Warren's necessarily going to stop under center,
they can't pinch their defensive line, and that that that quickly.
I got zero issue with it. Zero shit. Now again,
big picture was stiking. You lost a monumental home game,
good versus good. They're good, beat your good, their defense
(27:47):
beat your offense. So like you could have stiching issues
obviously with the game itself, But on that play call
in particular, Eddie No.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
And then here's a very I don't know, it's very
nitpicky of me, but I also think it's very, very,
very underrated. On that drive where the Colts turned it
over nouns in the fourth quarter, I was in the moment,
I was livid at the fact that they were so
content with letting the clock run down to the two
minute warning, and it came back, honestly to bite them
(28:15):
in the butt a little bit, just because of the
fact that you don't run a play before that it
would have been your second down play instead, you have
to run three plays after the two minute warning. You
could have used that extra time on the back half
of that two minute warning to kind of save yourself
to maybe get the ball again, and it ended up
(28:35):
costing the Colts in the long run, because I always
think when you're the losing team and you're driving, I
think it's the worst possible scenario to let that clock
tick all the way down to the two minute warning
like they did. Because the clock is your friend. You
need as much time of it as you can, not
the least amount of time as possible. And I get
you still have all three timeouts, but I still feel
(28:56):
like there was two thirty six left when Jonathan Taylor
on that first down play ended, you let the entire
clock drain out you get to the two minute warning.
I just I just don't like that, Like that's just
me as that's my preference, But I don't know, what
do you think about that high situation?
Speaker 1 (29:12):
Yeah, that was interesting. I might need to go back
and watch it. I definitely didn't have that thought during
the game. I don't have that big of a grit
on it, to be honest with you, but I definitely
hear you out and like where you're coming from. You know,
there's certainly a push and pull there, and we've seen
stichen he is much more prone to I don't want
(29:33):
to give the team another chance.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
You know.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
Kansas City followed a very similar script last week against Indianapolis.
You know, should we score here at the end of regulation?
You know, it was one of those kind of awkward
moments there that you ran into. You know, is there
a little bit of defensive fear if you give the
ball back to Stroud? You know, fair Baron has made
long field goals in his career for game winners. You
know part of that is there. I guess I'm just
(29:58):
more upset that what he Mark's ran over ran the
second and long there ice the game. But I can
listen to it, Eddie, but I probably don't agree with it.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Let's get into what you did. Like Alec Pierce, the
Colts Knew wide receiver one.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
He is the top white out on the team, period
period period period. He's the most threatening white out. He's
the most consistent white out. And the route tree is
becoming a thing. I mean, I've it became a little
bit of a running joke between me and some of
the media members. But you know, for a while there,
early on in Pierce's career, I would tweet out on
(30:35):
Pierce Deep balls even if he didn't catch it, even
if it ended in passing appearance. Good things happen when
you target out with Pierce Deep, they just do like
more often than not, it's a good thing. A he
catches the football. How great was that throw and catch
by Jones to him on the touchdown? I mean that
man operates in claustrophobic areas. How great of a hide
and secret do you think he was back in the day,
(30:57):
just thriving in little small crevices. And then late in
the game, you know, you get the panic. You know,
you bring him in motion, you get Kaylen Bullock, the
safety running down on him. Now it's a safety one
on one and third and nineteen. You throw it up
and you obviously get the gift of the penalty there
when the ball was thrown out of bounds, but you
still are able to get that call there. He's just
(31:19):
he's dynamic. He's proven to be more consistent. And you know,
in the last few weeks, Addie, I've said to you,
to me, Taylor needs X amount of touches and particular
X amount of touches in the second halves and Alec
Pierce has turned into a player where he needs X
amount of touches. Yeah, because the threat of him going
deep has just turned the endbreaker with Pierce into almost
(31:41):
a layup. And right now from a second level guy,
that's the route that I trust the most, you know,
because he does have their respective safeties over the top there.
So I mean, hell, they put him back there to
defend the hail Mary. How great was that?
Speaker 2 (31:58):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (31:58):
And he knocked that. It just we've we've had this
debate for several months and I've said to you since
the start of camp, if it comes down to a
Pierce or a Pittman, financially, it's Pierce. It's the one
that is harder to replace mm hm. And he's that
and he's younger, which you probably can't ignore that either.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
Yeah, anything else you want to add in this area.
Are you ready for the Twitter questions?
Speaker 1 (32:24):
No, I think that's for the most part. Yeah, Grover
Stewart a huge bat down there early on. I thought
that was a four point play. I thought the camp
Binham interception was so needed. You know, obviously it's like, well, no,
no shit, Kevin. Turnovers are always needed, But like that
first quarter was such a slog And remember what what
happened to play before the Biden.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
Pick was that the uh turnover on downs? Was it?
Speaker 1 (32:45):
Yeah, Warren, Warren has the muff and so you know, again,
it just felt like Lucas Oil Stadium needed something there,
so outstanding, out standing, outstanding, I thought, in just a timely,
timely play there from Uh from buying them Twitter questions.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
This pod will start with Creighton. As bad as the
loss this was, thanks refs, I do feel there is
some bright spots. Do you agree that going into next
week the offense did some did seem to catch some
rhythm throughout the game against Houston that we haven't seen
in the past two weeks, and maybe this is something
we can carry into next week against Jacksonville.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
Yeah, it's kind of wild that when you look at it.
You obviously had that really slow start the two three
and outs, and then you punt it I think after
five plays on the third drive. If you look at
the next six drives, they got to Houston territory every
single drive, and they got at least two first downs
every single drive. Now, they obviously didn't finish off those drives. Yeah,
(33:44):
but still you did move it at a decent manner.
Now I think where I struggle to though, go full
on kind of oh wow. You know, there's reasons for massive,
massive optimism now going on the road for two straight.
And also I probably view Houston as the least fearsome
(34:06):
offense of the bunch. I just you know, on paper,
if you would have laid out the difficulty of these
final seven games coming back from the bye week, Kansas
City probably wouldn't put at the bottom of the list,
just given their history. But still record wise, they were
the only team at five hundred or worse. And then
(34:26):
a home game versus Houston you might put second on
that list, and lo and behold, you've lost both of them.
Now again both games, I mean, you know, coin flip games.
If you make one play defensively in Kansas City on
the ninety yard drive. Perhaps you win that game if
you Josh Downs doesn't drop it on third and nine yesterday,
(34:46):
who knows what happens. But still they are losses. And
now the margin for air is really shrinking. You've added
another injury, and you're going on the road for two straight. Yeah,
and like, look, Jacksonville, well, as much as Jacksonville can
be rocking, it should be rocking on Sunday.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (35:04):
That should be one of the more notable home games
they've had in quite a while. And Seattle might be
playing for the one seed coming up here in a
few weeks. So that I think is where I hear
you out Creton. And again the Colts didn't move it
a little bit better. Again, they didn't finish off those drives,
but they did definitely move it better. But still it's
(35:25):
just hard for me to reach for that glass half
full right now.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
Yeah, and Seattle's defense is no joke either, Like they
got dudes all over the field that make plays.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
Yeah, Mike McDonald, I know Shane holds a really high
regard as well. Yeah, that's I mean, that's your toughest
game left.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
Yeah, Jake is starting to believe this Colts team is
not much different than last year's. The Colts can beat
the weaker teams and lose consistently against teams with the
winning record. Offense is flat and the defense is on
the field too much? Is Jacob for reacting?
Speaker 1 (35:59):
Yeah about the defense. I think it's like one hundred
and sixty some defensive snaps the last two weeks, which
is just wild, you know, Jake, I'll go back something
that we talked about about a month ago, Eddie. At
that point, the Colts had answered the questions presented to them.
But what I try to quickly point out, newer, harder
questions are about to be asked, and so far they
(36:23):
have not handled those well. Now, the beauty of the
NFL is you get five more chances to flip it.
You know, it's a harder schedule left, but you get
five more opportunities, and three of them are in your division,
so you know that obviously is heavily, heavily into your control.
So that I think is a huge, huge question. You know,
(36:48):
if you want to point to early in the year,
did you surprise some people Daniel Jones a little bit?
And then you know, such a change, you know from
the defensive system. You know that surprise teams early on
in the year. Along with that that that scar That
probably is something that is true. But you know, these
questions are just more difficult, and so far you're not answered.
Speaker 2 (37:09):
Here is a question I hadn't really thought of from Garrett.
Do you think the loss of DeForest Buckner has hurt
the offense as much as it hurt the defense. The
defense right now feels similar to what existed underneath Gus Bradley,
not allowing big plays but giving up long drives, hampering
the stamina of the defense and putting more pressure on
the offense. This team, all of a sudden feels way
(37:31):
too similar to teams of years past.
Speaker 1 (37:34):
Yeah, Garrett, I think that's a really good point. You know,
time of obssession. It's not gospel by any means, but
I think it's something that is flipped. I mean, a
do you think back to the Kansas City game? Do
you think Buckner makes one of those third down stops?
Speaker 2 (37:47):
Hopefully if not, he's helping the other guys on the
edge to get home by having the attention on him, right.
I mean, he's been the biggest problem I think in
the last two weeks is they just can't get any
sort of pressure on the quarterback.
Speaker 1 (37:59):
I've said this before, but there is no more disappointing
aspect in the ballad Ara than the edge pass rush.
It's just it's unbelievable how unthreatening it is. Yeah, it's
just like engage the left tackle, you know, hug your
grandma on Thanksgiving and move on to the next play.
(38:20):
That's seemingly what it is. Every snaps alf of not
not to get two in the weeds. But we talked
about the Ashton Dulan injury last week. It felt like
Houston was a first down or two better than you
and special teams yesterday. And again those are just little
hidden yardages in the twenty sixteen game, you know, six
yards here, seven yards there, four yards. It just adds up.
(38:42):
And so I thought they were a little better than
you yesterday in that area. But yeah, I think it's
a great point that Garrett brings. You know, in these
one possession games, Atlanta obviously went your way and then
and then the next two don't go your way. I
I I do think Buckner's just pure presence could have
(39:03):
easily been the difference.
Speaker 2 (39:05):
Mm hmm. Yeah, and it is.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
I I think, you know, has it hurt the offense
as once the defense? It's all complimentary obviously. I I
can't like sit here and say, you know, blame the
offense for deforce Buckner's absence, but everything is largely tied together.
Speaker 2 (39:27):
Colts are now three and four in one score games
in the year.
Speaker 1 (39:33):
Is that right?
Speaker 2 (39:34):
I think so if I remember correctly. You got obviously
lost his last two weeks in Houston, Kansas City, lost
to Pittsburgh, and lost to Los Angeles. Yeah, Arizona, Denver
and mm hmm yep. Uh. That's something I guess monitor
down the stretch, just because when you get into playoffs, Moost,
(39:56):
these games are going to be decided by one score.
Two questions left one from Craig. What's most frustrating is
the game being dictated by the horrid refs. I feel
like this is happening more and more every week, to
the point it's not even worth watching. Give me a
reason for hope for the rest of the season, KB
The schedule was tough enough Lew alone, dealing with crappy
(40:17):
calls every week.
Speaker 1 (40:19):
Where do you side on the you as a sports
fan and officiating in terms of what like do you
hate officials? Are you accepting of.
Speaker 2 (40:31):
It in the middle Like in the middle like during
the game, I'm like, what the what the fure like,
how can you make that call? But it's at the
same time like I get it.
Speaker 1 (40:42):
Yeah, I don't know why. I've largely accepted like human
error in sports when it comes to officials.
Speaker 2 (40:48):
But I am never one to blame the officials for
a for a loss. Never.
Speaker 1 (40:52):
Yeah, you know, I I I was really tested in
this manner the Notre Dame text A and M game
earlier in the year. If you remember that game Atie
text A M can versus fourth and goal. I remember,
and there is as blatant of a holding penalty as
you could imagine. On Donovan Heinisch on that fourth and
goal opinion, it certainly is. And yeah, I just I
(41:13):
don't know. Again, I definitely was like what the you know,
bleep in the moment, But yeah, I just I don't know.
I woke up Sunday and I was frustrated. Then I
thought to myself, Yeah, there are probably a million other
things and why Notre Dame lost that game, including missed
extra point as fittingly as that sounds there, So again,
I know there's a lot of people that think that's
a ludicrous thought from me, but I don't know. In
(41:37):
my fandom, I've just chosen to accept it. I will
agree with Craig thought. I thought the Chiefs game is
very poor officiating on both sides of it. And yesterday,
I don't know, Houston a lot of penalties early. When
did they end up happened? I don't know how the
penalty game even out in the end. But you know,
obviously I thought the Kenny Moore call was bad, and
(41:57):
I thought the delay of game was more of a
league wide issue. I don't get why the NFL doesn't
black and white it.
Speaker 2 (42:04):
Up nine for eighty five for Houston, five for thirty
three for the Colts.
Speaker 1 (42:09):
Gosh, it's another frustrating element of the game. They have
fifty two more yards of penalties in you mm hmm,
and you lose a one score game. So I don't know.
I mean, the Colts got away with one of crystal
mons in Arizona. I just I have chosen to accept that.
Probably doesn't make it wrong or right, but that's how
I look at it. You know, it's officiating down. I
(42:30):
don't know. I stayed up and watched that whole Denver
Washington game. There are some wild calls in that game. Wait,
you talk about Denver just playing with fire every week?
M m. Seemingly that defense makes big play after big play.
Speaker 2 (42:41):
Reminds me of that Tennessee Titans team that finished first
in the AFC a few years ago with Helen Henry Yep, yep, yeah,
I just bound for a bad day in the playoffs, Daniels.
I guess the scenario A in a scenario B type question, Kevin, So,
I'll rattle both of these soft for YOUA scenario A
Colts continue to look mediocre but pull out two to
(43:02):
three wins and get into the playoffs as a division
winner that have optimism with the Forst Buckner, Saucegarter and
Ashton Doolan back as they host a playoff game and
make it to the divisional round. With anyone's guess of
what can happen after that Scenario B, the Colts continue
to putter out and lose three of their four final games,
(43:23):
blow the division, and miss the playoffs. This leads into
a nightmare offseason where everyone and things are up for debate.
Is Chris Ballin and Shane Styke and retained, does Jim
Bob Cooter anddoor Lout and a Roumo leave who is
re signed? In terms of Daniel Jones, Braden Smith, Alec Peers,
(43:44):
Quitty pay Nick Cross, what happens with Anthony Richardson. Seems
like this sends the franchise and fans back down the
rabbit hole of pessimism and questioning the culture and state
of the team.
Speaker 1 (43:57):
Oh boy, hum. Yeah, I don't know if I'm quite
ready for the old big picture, you know, state of
the union, if you will, But it is a question
that I get the month of Decembers here, and you
can't totally ignore it.
Speaker 2 (44:14):
It's also a fascinating discussion, too.
Speaker 1 (44:16):
Tremendous discussion. Yeah, I mean, trust me, means some of
the media members are having it yesterday up in the
in the presspect. I guess, just moreal thoughts on Daniel's
question before I kind of get into I think what
everybody really is curious about, you know right now, obviously
two would be the obvious choice or letter be here,
given how really they are. I'm still not sold on Jacksonville,
by the way. I know they lived off turnovers early
(44:39):
in the season. They've shown a little bit more here
as of late, but I'm not overly sold on Jacksonville.
We'll see how that plays out, of course, coming up
this weekend. So you know, now the question becomes, you know,
how does Carli ers Gordon view it?
Speaker 2 (44:53):
Is it because that Lean Cummens do.
Speaker 1 (44:56):
I do think? I like Liam, I'm going a little
bit here and I guess if you start with Ballard Eddie,
the question largely revolves around this, does a season I
should say half season? Does a half season of really
quality football erase eight years of mediocrity before that? Like
(45:24):
that's largely the Ballad evaluation. Yeah, and again how much
of it do we do the post CB? You know,
pre CB, we've done the ADBC thing before. Half jokingly,
half serious with Ballard? Do you think the goalposts have
changed it all post Sauce Gardner trade? And I'm asking
(45:44):
that more for Macrli or Saint Gordon ask to it.
You know, did that heighten the need and the urgency
for short short term? Also did it heighten the need
an urgency for her to say, hey, Chris, by allowing
you to do this trade, you're the guy. I mean,
he's doing a new contract right after twenty twenty six. Yeah,
(46:07):
after next year, you know, and then the bigger questions
is are you largely kicking the can down the road?
Speaker 2 (46:16):
You know?
Speaker 1 (46:16):
I'm trying to think of a decent analogy within our market, Eddie,
But like, would you view this season at all? Because
I think it's really hard to group Ballad and Stiking together.
I think it's really difficult. It gets a little unfair
to Shane stikeing to do that. I just think three
years versus nine years is too in football years, that's
(46:37):
an insane amount of difference. But again, if I were
running the show, I'd probably want to group my GM
and head coach together because I think it's the best
thing for cohesive decision making and roster building and all
of that. But I guess to try to make like
a local analogy of it. If the Colts go three
(46:57):
and two down the stretch, make the playoffs, like right here,
right now, they are the sixth seed in the playoffs,
exactly how it looks right now. Let's say they losing
Round one? Are you bringing everybody back?
Speaker 2 (47:12):
Everybody is in regime or regime?
Speaker 1 (47:16):
Yeah, I mean Pillars quarterback, head coach GM.
Speaker 2 (47:19):
Well, you've made your bed on the quarterback aspect.
Speaker 1 (47:23):
So head coach gim I will.
Speaker 2 (47:25):
Say, I think it's trending more toys with Daniel Jones
considering the last handful of weeks of the franchise tag
versus an extension, and Pierce will be the guy that
gets the contract versus the tag. Now, just because you
need to see I can hear you on that which
guy the quarterback is in terms of the head coach
(47:48):
and GM, I think, yes, you just got to bring
him back because as you noted and as we've known
a headful of times on the pod, Vallot's got the
one year left. Like, hey, you go into this year,
you know you're final million your deal. What are you
gonna do? That's the GM like, are you going to
try to make some magic happen and you know, to
(48:10):
help bolster whatever it is you need. Is it a
true you know, number one receiver. Is it somebody who
can consistently you know, threaten the quarterback? We'll see. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (48:21):
And then you also get into I think, to a
couple of other different convents again to local and analogy
it up a little bit. Would this be like Mike
Woodson making the tournament in year four as a nine seed. Yeah, probably,
you know, is it just band aid on a bullet
hole that or do you really feel like there's been
(48:42):
tangible changes and it is going to be different? Yeah?
I think that's a really hard thing to be clear
to decide. But that's you know what Carli or say
Gordon's gonna have to look at. Are you just kicking
the can down the road? I guess it is how
you view because I feel like so many people view
the twenty twenty five Colts and bringing everybody back is
(49:03):
do you make the playoffs or do you not like
that black and white? Which is kind of wild to
sit here in December first and be like, that's the
difference between the Colts going three and two or two
and three.
Speaker 2 (49:12):
But if I told you that in training camp, what
would you have said?
Speaker 1 (49:15):
I know, I I was never one that thought the
playoff appearance automatically meant everybody was back. I think how
it looks has to be factored in. Okay, And there's
part of me it's like, well, Daniel Jones looked better
than I thought so, and again, quarterback is important, very important,
(49:36):
so maybe there is a little bit more optimism. But
if you continue to lose games at the critical juncture
of the season like you have in recent years, is
that a negative knock, right? You know? On it? So,
and let's say you go two and three down the
stretch and you just limp in or just miss, then
like the momentum for next year isn't maybe necessarily it's
(49:58):
not like the arrows pointing out. Whereas if you reverse
these four months of the season, baby, you would feel
differently about it. Like if Jones really struggled out of
the gate but then played great football down stretch and
you just didn't have enough time to get back in it,
you know, how would that be viewed? So again, I
think it is a great debate. You could go in
a ton of different directions with it. It is. I'll
(50:20):
go back to kind of what I said at the
start of the answer.
Speaker 2 (50:22):
Though.
Speaker 1 (50:24):
It is kind of wild that we have eight years
and three months of a Chris Boward resume and we're
sitting here saying it could come down to a two
and three or three and two closed to the month
of December. It's like one game is going to define
his nine years as a GM. That that is It's
it's like a wild sample size. Yeah, when you break
(50:46):
it down.
Speaker 2 (50:47):
You say, this game on Sunday against Jacksonville's your season.
Speaker 1 (50:51):
Yeah, I mean I said it. I don't know if
I said to you on Monday's pod Eddie, and I
know we didn't do the Wednesday pod together. I just
did it by myself. But said in the Winds, it
felt like one of the biggest games of the p
ssecond era. Oh yeah, because the first year you're still
honeymoon phasing it. Oh yeah, No, obviously Week eighteen winning
get in is huge, but like it's still the honeymoon
phase of the Gardner Minshew last year. You could point
(51:13):
to the Denver game, certainly, but again, that Denver game,
you're on the road. You know, it wasn't like a
lock that you would It's not a divisional game. It
wasn't a lock that if you won that game, all
of a sudden everything, you know, Ducks were in a row,
whereas this one was home game, divisional and now it's
two in a row on the road.
Speaker 2 (51:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (51:34):
But yeah, I mean to your point, you know you
can do you can obviously save a ton of face
by getting it done here on Sunday in Jacksonville. All right, brother,
should we do it on Wednesday.
Speaker 2 (51:47):
Well, are you talking about recording a pod as opposed
to what else?
Speaker 1 (51:52):
I don't know, Boy, nothing says the first Monday back
from Thanksgiving like that? How about that ending by Eddie Garrison? Unbelievable?
Speaker 2 (52:01):
Uh? Giants Patriots tonight? Are you gonna watch?
Speaker 1 (52:04):
Yeah? Well I'll probably watched Patriots a little bit more,
but then I'll then I'll flip over. Yeah, it's kind
of wild. Then if New England wins, they they headed
their bye week and going what twelve would they be?
Twelve and two eleven and.
Speaker 2 (52:14):
Two eleven and two? Yeah? Wild man.
Speaker 1 (52:18):
Yeah, I don't know if anybody really cares about this,
but I do think yesterday's loss probably ended your chances
at a one seed, and if New England wins tonight,
though probably definitely ended. So all right, he's at a Garrison'
Kevin Bow and everybody have a great week. We'll talk
to you Wednesday.
We're back. It is the start of December, and boy
is this going to be a critical critical month for
the twenty twenty five Indianapolis Colts. I hope everybody had
a great Thanksgiving and their commutes were safe and sound.
Eddie Garrison, how you doing.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Doing all right? How about you? keV?
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Not bad? Not bad?
Speaker 2 (00:18):
I hope other people feel the same way as that
first day back after, you know, the four or five
day weekend is always a little sluggish.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Kind of like the Colds first quarter yesterday. Honestly, just
a little bit of a slog. And I did think
the atmosphere at times got really lively inside of Lucas
Oil Stadium on Sunday, but the home team, for the
first time all the year, could not deliver. That is
now all three C. J. Stroud games inside of Lucas
Ohl Stadium. He's come away victorious.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Has he lost in his career there?
Speaker 1 (00:45):
In coology? And I know I was going to say
the big ten championship history for Ohio State. I'm always
kind of like nervous to to say, because I feel
like at times they don't make it to that game
without Michigan. But I don't know, I'm sure Stroud has
played in there in his collegiate days, but in his
NFL days he's three, you know, and the AFC South
lead is gone. And we just talked about the urgency
of this game on both pods last week, Eddie. It
(01:08):
was just massive, and you know you're no longer playing
from ahead.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
You know.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
We we mentioned the percentages involved in these two weeks
Houston and Jacksonville. It was what north of ninety if
you win both games, about fifty if you split, and
less than twenty percent to win the division if you
lose both. So right now the other two numbers are
in play, the fifty percent or the whatever it is,
fifteen percent. And if you look at the standings, you know,
(01:36):
if the playoffs started today, you'd be the sixth seed,
and eight, nine, and ten have all beaten you. Yep,
and those are the first three teams obviously out. So
that is just where this thing can really start to
snowball in a hurry for you here, you know, just
big picture, before we get into what I liked, what
(01:57):
I didn't like. I think what is extra frustratating about
the loss from yesterday. We'll also get to the officiating,
you know, I think you guys know, I'm not a
huge blame the official guy, but I'm not going to
sit here and ignore elephants in the room. So we'll
address that here in a few But you know, Eddie,
I said this to people quite often over Thanksgiving. Hey,
(02:18):
you think the Colts will win on Sunday? I go,
I do. The only really big concern I have I
think I went twenty sixteen. I think it was was
my prediction the other way, or maybe twenty three to
twenty Colts. The only real issue I thought that could
turn the game, though, was Willie Anderson Jr. And Ords
O'Neil Hunter making the game changing play. Obviously, Anderson Junior
(02:40):
made his impact on the game. But if you would
have told me walking into Lucasow Stadium on Sunday morning,
Daniel Jones would be sacked one time in this game,
I would say, oh, do the Colts win by seven
or fourteen? The fact that Jones was only sacked once
that drive ended in a punt and not, you know,
a scoop and score, not a strip sack, not something catastrophic.
(03:06):
It's even more kind of surprising to me that the
Colts lost this game. But you know, they made it
really tough slighting for Jonathan Taylor. I think it was
the least effective he's probably been all season, considering the
amount of carries he got twenty or twenty one, and
you know when they needed to make timely plays they
made him. And your defense has been on the field
for way too long. It's like one hundred and sixty
(03:26):
snaps the last two weeks, which is just an absurd number.
And right now, if you can make Daniel Jones in
this passing offense have to deliver, I don't think they
are proven capable of that right now. It's a big drops.
You can't ignore those drops. I mean the downs drop
there on the third and eight third and nine downs
out a wild day yesterday.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
M hmm.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
It's such a roller coaster, which I'm used to him
being very steady. For you there started and ended with drop.
I have to drop early, have the drop there late
on that final drive. So before we get to the
officiating aspect, just your overall thoughts, Eddie.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
I felt like this was, you know, the first game
of the four losses where you can look at it
and be like, yeah, the Colts lost this one, because
like if you look at the others. It's like a
couple of plays here and there. I mean, it's still
the same way, but it wasn't the self inflicted gunshot
wounds that got you yesterday in I still think that,
(04:23):
you know, there's some people that will view this as
an optimistic point of view, like, hey, you know, this
team just has to learn how to win these games, because,
let's face it, Daniel Jones hasn't been in a lot
of these situations in his career just because the Giants
were not good when he was there, outside of the
one year where he won the playoff game. And now
you just have to learn how to make some of
(04:44):
these plays at the end, Like the defense has to
learn how to make some plays at the end of
all games to get off the field. They got to
you know, prevent touchdowns and hold them to field goals
type of stuff. The offense has to, you know, find
ways to move the ball in the fourth quarter when
it's through the air because you can't run the football
or you're playing from behind. So all those things are
learning opportunities for this team. And I go back to
(05:07):
I was it Jerarius Ward after the the loss or yeah,
terarious word after the loss? To Kansas City is like, hey,
we needed this, and like, I feel like these last
two losses for the culture hopefully learning lessons for them
that they can correct in the near future so that
they can't maintain a spot in the playoffs.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Yeah, I mean, there is definitely an element, and you know,
Twitter questions probably lead us down this path, but there's
an element Eddie that you are an eight and four
football team on December first. If you would have said
that on September first, you would have said, where do
I sign up for it? But there is also the
aspect of you're a really an eight and fourteen. I
don't think there's any denying that. The injury luck I
(05:45):
think is finally kind of caught up to you a
little bit here with Buckner's status and obviously the Sauce
Gardner injury, we know in all likelihood they're both going
to be out for Sunday. I the quicker. The kicker
questions continue to be there as well, so and your
offense just isn't You don't feel as optimistic about it
obviously as you did earlier in the season. So before
(06:08):
I get into what I didn't like, what I liked,
Eddie let's hit on the officiating. You know, when I
break down the one drive that I think everybody wants
to talk about, Let's start with what I want to
see the NFL do, Because there's all this conversation about
penalties and the enforcement of penalties, and I think when
(06:32):
it comes to football, especially and the fast movie nature
to it, I think it's very difficult to properly write
the letter of the law for holdings. For past interference
penalties in particular, I think those are naturally gray area
judgment calls, and it's really difficult to police that in
(06:52):
a consistent manner. So when I go back to yesterday,
where my biggest issue is, and again, this is a
lead wide thing, I don't necessarily blame the officiating crew
on Sunday for it. I don't get why delay of
game is not black and white. I don't get why
that is not a reviewable call. And b why is
delay of game not treated like the shot clock in
(07:14):
an NBA game? Why is there not a red light
that goes on a fog horn round? Seriously, yeah, I
mean horn it up if you have to. You know,
how about a little buzzer on all the officials or
just the head official if you need to, and when
that goes off, if the ball has been snapped, you
simply blow the play dead and five yard penalty. You
(07:37):
get forty seconds, not forty one. I don't get why
we have had this unwritten rule in the NFL, because
we see this weekly. You see it probably what three
to five times a game. Teams snap the ball with
zero on the play clock. And again I don't understand
why this unwritten rule has all of a sudden been accepted.
I maybe because there's tens of a second aren't on
(07:59):
the play clock? Well, then put tense of a second
on the play clock. That to me is where the
big gripe I have in that particular play because it
was blatantly after zero. Oh yeah, that was if you
could challenge it, which again to me, challenge black and white.
You can't challenge the judgment calls. You can't challenge the
gray area calls. I get that, but that to me
is a very Was there one second or was there
(08:21):
not one second?
Speaker 2 (08:23):
So that is.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Where I would start. You know, when you see the
pool report after the game, I guess to take people
behind the curtain. I think one of the stupidest things
the NFL does is the pool report. So the NBA
has the two minute Report, and you're very familiar with it.
The two minutal report happens the day after the game.
And what the NBA does is they literally evaluate every
(08:47):
single call in the last two minutes.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Yeah, they go back and watch the entirety of the
last two minutes of the fourth quarter.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
What they got right, yep, what they got wrong, and
then they say that in the report. It's a very
straightforward thing to be honest with it is. The NFL
pool report is the exact opposite. It is so stupid.
I am all for transparency. I don't call this transparency
at all. So basically how it works as the home
team as a designated media member that gets to ask
(09:15):
the question. So Joel Ericson in his professional manner, like
Joel Is, he walks down to us, you know, right
after the series, and it says, Okay, I feel like,
you know this is worthy of a pool report. What
questions would you like for me to ask? Until Mike
Chapel if I sit next to him and I are
you're kind of thinking about one, and I go, Joel,
will you ask if delay of game is reviewable. I'm
(09:35):
pretty sure it's not. But that's really the only real
question I have because when you ask these questions, and
again I'm pretty sure Joel, like I think he just
calls the official and then the official. It's not like
they're sitting in a room breaking down film. No, it's
not like Joel can ask follow ups necessarily. It is
very different from a you know, back and forth press
(09:58):
conference manner to these questions. So when you read the
pool report on the Kenny Moore passing interference penalty, all
it says is the official had a grab at the
top of.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
The route on his hand. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Yeah, but like it doesn't even say that much detail. Like,
all it says is grab at top of route. That's
what the official saw. Well again in the twenty minute
aftermath of the game, that's all he's going to say.
Of course, the official saw something. It's not like he
didn't see anything. And you know, if you go back
and watch to replay, Eddie, I think I got closer
to my fifth grade girlfriend at a school dance than
(10:33):
Kenny Moore got to Xavier Hutchinson on that pass interference
penalty there, So you know that to me, it was
agregious call. Frankly, and on a scale of one to ten,
I call it a nine point five. I also thought
the Alex Pierce passing interference penalty was a bad call
on the pre I think it was the previous possession, yep.
I mean that to me, that ball am was hit
(10:54):
the Colts cheerleaders.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
I like what Phil sim said on Sundayight Football last night.
He said it was closer to that the hot dog
vendors in the South.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
Here seriously, and so again, where is catchable? What is
not ketchable? That to me is just like you get
these judgment calls and they're they're difficult to I think
properly police. As far as miss miss extra point, I
know we've discussed this. I think it's a lot harder
(11:21):
than it looks, specially because fairbarons. You know, kick is hooking,
So if you're that, if you're the official underneath there,
you're like, wait, did that hook on the inside of
it or not? And Sterotory did a nice job with
that on CBS, explaining how the entire ball's got to
be inside the out inside of the outside edge of
the goal post, yes, which again you watch the replay
the camera angle isn't perfect, but when you watch it,
(11:42):
it definitely does not look like the entire ball is
inside the goalpost. Now, now, if you extend the goalpost
to the roof, does a hooking fairbarn kick there, hit
off the left, up right and go in? Who knows?
Do you?
Speaker 2 (11:55):
You know?
Speaker 1 (11:55):
Someone said, how about you just shoot a laser beam
up from the goalpost to the top. I mean, something
I think needs to be done, because you know, these
sorts of situations. How I can remember the EU Bowl
game from a few years ago having a similar situation
against Tennessee. I think it was Tennessee. Mean was Duke,
But that also involves again a lot of gray area.
(12:18):
So I don't know, you know, as far as did
it cost you the game? I mean, obviously the Kenny
Moore penalty was a big play. You know, at the
end of the game, maybe you're driving for just a
field goal there versus down for needing a touchdown. Again,
I'm largely a person that has accepted in accuracy in officiating.
(12:43):
I know that's not how a lot of people think. Frankly,
I think I'm probably in the minority of that, and
I largely believe calls even out the Colts. Trust me,
the Colts internally know that they got away with Crystal
mons on the whold of trade McBride in the Arizona game,
and if that flag is thrown, Arizona probably wins the game.
Like it Just so, I'm not one that is gonna
(13:05):
fret too much about it, but I'm getting a million
questions about it as and I understand people have them.
So those are my thoughts. What do you got?
Speaker 2 (13:12):
All right, let's dive into the actual game in terms
of what you did like and what you did not like.
But the Cults losing, we always start with what you
did not like. We'll start here because it happened first
in the game. You've got the Sauce Gardner cap strain.
It's likely to sign him, sidelined him a couple of weeks.
The severity in terms of the grade of that strain
(13:32):
still to be determined, which will determine whether or not
the team will place him on injury reserve.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
In my opinion, yeah, I mean, obviously, the A word
is what you first think of Eddie, and it seems
like that has been avoided. We'll get you know, further
clarity on it, but you know when you and then
when you're in this market and he goes down like that,
and you know, you obviously are thinking yourself, oh boy,
because if that was the A word I mean about it,
(14:01):
I mean he's out all the next year, right, that's
a November thirtieth torn a killesh So and then you
start thinking about the trade and all of it. It
just yeah, calf strain. You know what best case scenario
is Kenny Moore situation three weeks now. I didn't think
Kenny in the immediate aftermath of the injuries. Granted Kenny's
(14:21):
is on the road. I mean, Sauce was moving really
gingerly on that boot. I think I ended up getting
them some walking crutches there for the second half. So
you know, three weeks would be what Jacksonville, Seattle, San Francisco.
You know, he'd be back for the two divisional games,
I guess to end it. And then again, that's best
case scenario. And you know, I think when you're playing
(14:42):
corner and I feel this certainly watching the game yesterday,
there's no I would argue there's no position on the
football field that he that is more susceptible to the
average human noticing your one degree off than corner. It's
you just get exposed so quick. And I bring that
(15:03):
up to point to Javarious Ward yesterday and even a
little bit to Kenny Moore the second now. Right now,
I think Mooney and coming back from the injury has
been a step slow. And again when you play corner,
your step gets noticed a whole lot more. And I
hold I mean, I think Kenny Moore is one of
the soundest, most impressive football players I've watched, frankly, and
(15:28):
it's a hell of a story after that many times,
and so I hold him to such a high standard.
When he's not his usually sticky self, I find myself
being wait, was that really number twenty three? And covers
there like no, I mean, because you're just used to
him making all the plays and again being right there
and even him right now, I feel like it's just
(15:49):
a tick off from his normal Kenny self.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
So even in that Kansas City game too.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
Right right, I'm kind of going back to the last two
weeks basically in saying all this, so that up to say, hey,
those are your guys obviously right now you have to
lean on heavily without sauce and then be Sauce. You know,
when when he comes back, what does he look like,
because obviously he'll get tested in a hurry there, And
(16:16):
you just can't ignore the magnitude of the trade. And
not to rehash everything, but when you make a trade
of that significance, the goalpost do change. That's just the
nature of trading two first round picks plus Ady Mitchell.
That's how things shift alter. You push more chips into
(16:37):
the middle of the table. You need more short term
results with a few more longer term questions about the
resources that you have available to you. You weren't saying, hey,
we feel like we're a team that's going to be
fighting for a playoff spot. No, no, no, you said at
the time, we feel like we're a team that'll be
fighting for the one set, and that obviously has shifted
here in the last month. So yeah, those are just
(17:01):
kind of my overall thoughts. Sauce related, corner related, Eddie.
I know you and I are on the same page here.
I don't understand Makai Blackman still out snapping Jalen Jones.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
I don't. I don't either, Like you go back and
watch that game, and like there's so many times where
they're running at him, and he looks like he has
no interest in tackling. Like the Woody Marks play. You
have to come up with the stop or just try
to slow him down, and there's little to no effort.
(17:30):
And Texas, the Houston Texans can go on and you know,
run out the clock there, win the game at the end.
And then if you go back and watch the nih
Collins touchdown and run they run to his side and
he he looks like a toddler walking through a grocery
store when they've lost their parents.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Like he he.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Just looks. It's just like I'm just gonna FLI my
arms out and just kind of look around to see
where I'm supposed to go. Oh, there goes Nico right
by me for a touchdown.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
Which I'd rather have that than the yell. Well, as
soon as it's the the kids start screaming. Then people
are trying to call CPOs on you.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
Yeah, and of course and then there's the coverage issues
as well. It's just like I, just like you said,
I don't get it either.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
Yeah, It's it's a bit hard to explain. So, Yeah,
the injury, obviously when it first happened, looked awful, and
you know, it seems like disaster has been avoided. You know,
Achilles has always been one that I feel like you
can have a general idea of what it is pretty
quickly after the injury. You know, he he like the
fact that he initially went in the blue tent I
(18:31):
thought was better than him going straight at the locker room.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
And the fact that he came out of the locker
and to be on the sideline.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
I think he's even Yeah, so I know some further
imagen was gonna be done. He's really not a guy
that's had a lot of injury history, so it looks
like he's gonna miss some time. We'll see how much.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
Let's get into what else that you did not like
they're good versus the Colts good. I thought Nico Collins
once again was exceptional.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
I'm getting some see what Hilton vibes from. You know. Yeah,
in this series we have seen whiteouts dominate games and
and I just felt like he continues to do that.
You know, his touchdown run you just alluded to there.
You know, he's five for ninety eight, made several big plays,
(19:16):
and I mean he is their guy when you know,
I know, Dalton Schultz had death by a thousand paper
cuts and actually thought the Higgins kid made a couple
of big plays for them as well.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Listen to these last four games after yesterday, seven in
a touchdown, nine for one, ninety five in a touchdown,
six for one, seventeen, five for ninety eight in a
rushing touchdown.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
Yeah, it's scary. It's scary numbers because I don't feel
like the Texans have much else from a potent standpoint offensively,
I really don't. And yet they're able to do that
and he is able to do that as well. So again,
I think that is a frustrating element to Sunday is
(19:58):
so much I think was rooted in will Nicko Collins
impact the game at a high level and Nico puts
up good numbers. I don't want to deny that, but
I mean we're not talking whatever Hu Kunakou or Jackson
Smith and Jigba here. So yeah, that was definitely a
thing that I did not like from yesterday.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
Anything else you want to add into this.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
Yeah, I should have mentioned kicker I Eddie. I was
more serious than probably maybe you took it or our
listeners took it. But remember, like last week, I think
it was last week, Maybe was two weeks ago when
I asked you the question, would you rather have Matt
Gay or Michael Badgley?
Speaker 2 (20:34):
Yeah? I think yeah, somewhere around that.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
Yeah, yeah, basketball analogy it up. Michael Badley's not a
three point shooter, right, he's he's not a long distance kicker. No,
So that means to steal the Chris Ballard phrase, you
have to hit the layups. And right now he is
(20:56):
stone cold bricking the layups.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Three missed extra points in seven weeks. To put that
into context before Badgeley's arrival here last month, you have
to go back to twenty twenty to find the last
time the Colts have missed three extra points. And I'm
talking total, not one player, not one season total. It's
(21:22):
about one hundred and fifty attempts. You have to go
back to to find three missed extra points. Yeah, he's
missed three in whatever it is, twenty some attempts here,
and let's look at where the misses have been. Yesterday, Dome, Germany,
a two mile p hour wind, la la is did
the smog push it left or right? I mean that's
(21:45):
about his control of a climate. As you're going to
have eighty degree day like the Colts have a kicker
problem again, and this one is not injury related, of course,
So yeah, I think you have to do the tryout
thing like backup kicker. I get the bars low and
I lower, I should say, but the bar should still
(22:08):
be the extra point layup.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
If Bajie was just doing that and change stack and
had to go for every you know whatever, third and
eight from the thirty eight yard line, fine, fourth, third
and eight, sorry, fourth and eight. That's part of life
when you have to go to a backup kicker, but
to have the missed extra points. And that's why I
asked it Matt Gay thing in all seriousnes because Matt
Gaate didn't miss extra points. Remember last year, Matt Gay
did not miss a kick inside of fifty yards for you.
(22:34):
He just missed all the north of fifty. He bricked
all the threes, he made every mid range jumper, and
he made every foul shot and then he made every
layup for you. So yeah, and think about the impact
of yesterday.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Man.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
If you make that extra point, then you just treat
so many of future drives differently from that. So I
don't know. I get a weird feeling like the Colts
urgency about this city situation is not at the level
that I clearly have it. But like mist extra points, man,
people do not miss them.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
I mean it ended up at the end, costing you
a chance to make it a tie game to go
to overtime. So yeah, I have two other things I
want to bring up to see your thoughts on it,
keV before we get into what you did. Like, how
about the fourth and one? You need a couple of inches,
you go, Daniel. Now, we've seen a lot of teams
(23:28):
do this recently. They're taking their tight end or their
full back if they have a fullback. The Colt stew
it with Tyler Warren botches the snap right between the wickets.
Jonath Taylor has nowhere to go pretty much after he
picks up the loose ball thrown over on Downs. I
said at the time, and I still stand by it,
I would have kick it and took the points there. Really, yes,
(23:49):
with the way that your offense had been operating prior
to that, you needed to take advantage of every possible
moment to get points rather than trying to risk it
to get that touchdown. Understanding it's a couple inches. You're like, hey,
if you feel like you have the you know, your
old lines, you know doing a great job blocking up front,
go for it. I get it. But when you're going
up against the defense like that, with the team who
(24:10):
has struggled offensively, with C. J. Stroud at least quarterbacking them,
I just felt like it was a time where you
needed to get points on the board.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Yeah, I am, you know, fourth down In terms of
the aggression, I'm not like, hey, fourth and two is
fourth and three's you're always go, go go in those
situations like I think Stikeen mostly is, I would say
fourth and inches, though I'm probably always team go. Now again,
there's you know, if you're whatever up seven with two
(24:37):
minutes ago in the game and you're trying to stretch
it to two scores, obviously you would kick it then,
you know. I see, I've heard from a lot of
people that Chang Siking is an idiot. Why is he
getting too cute? Blah blah blah. So let's I guess
focus on this play for a second. First off, Daniel Jones'
(24:58):
injury is why the Colts didn't run the QB snake.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
I made mentioned it last week on the pot because
I was like, there were so many of those thirty ones,
fourth and ones last week, and it gets Kansas City
where you felt like, all right, we'll just go to
the quarterback sneak because nobody had been able to stop
with Daniel Jones and instead it was always a slow
developing run with Jonathan Taylor and they got stuffed.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
Exactly now what we have seen in recent years, particularly
in the college world and also in the NFL world.
Hell Houston did it several times. We are seeing the
tight end sneak. Yep, you know, Tyler Warren did it
frankly at Penn State. Oh boy, Iron Eagle JJ Watt
again for the Colts coming up on the third time
this year, right, Yeah, they're trying to.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
Do a lot of it.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
You're surprised Colts are favored in that game. A little
bit slight favorite opened or was going to open up
at three, but I think it's sounded like one and
a half. I have no issue with the play call, none,
zero issue whatsoever with the play call. Again, we get
into this mode with coaches gms all the time. Everything
Chris ballor does stinks or is great. Everything Shane Sichin
(25:55):
does stinks or is great? Can we not identify these
situations isolated mm hmm and not have to just group
everything together? And do you know who that person is?
That to me is just seems like such a logical thinking,
but doesn't happen here. The blame to me just goes
from a mis execution on the snap. I mean, BORDERLINI
(26:17):
and Warren clearly does a screw up point blank. Okay,
Jones can't QB sneak what's your best option?
Speaker 2 (26:23):
Now?
Speaker 1 (26:24):
Do you give it to tailor? Well, giving it to tailor,
they're probably gonna sell out on that alat of Kansas
City last week. It's not necessarily guarantee. I think later
in the game they ran that Taylor kind of kind
of like a little and not end around a little
sweep off off tackle ended up getting it there. You
could do that, but again that's not a guarantee. To me.
(26:47):
My general thought in short yardage in today's football is
I would sneak it, push, push it every single time
your percent. Like what the Cults did to Houston late
in the game is a miracle that they stop them. Yeah,
I mean that is insane.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
That Galmore blew up both of them.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
Galamore, I thought Grover's in there. I thought epicom was
in there as well. But yeah, Gallimore was at the
center of so much of that. Like that stuff is
just a miracle. But my team right now, I'd be
doing it every single time. So to me, that is
not too I mean, oh, he brought Warren in motion,
you know, I think the initial thought there is, Hey,
(27:25):
by putting Jones and Taylor in the backfield, they're going
to think that we we motion warn a lot. They're
not going to think Warren's necessarily going to stop under center,
they can't pinch their defensive line, and that that that quickly.
I got zero issue with it. Zero shit. Now again,
big picture was stiking. You lost a monumental home game,
good versus good. They're good, beat your good, their defense
(27:47):
beat your offense. So like you could have stiching issues
obviously with the game itself, But on that play call
in particular, Eddie No.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
And then here's a very I don't know, it's very
nitpicky of me, but I also think it's very, very,
very underrated. On that drive where the Colts turned it
over nouns in the fourth quarter, I was in the moment,
I was livid at the fact that they were so
content with letting the clock run down to the two
minute warning, and it came back, honestly to bite them
(28:15):
in the butt a little bit, just because of the
fact that you don't run a play before that it
would have been your second down play instead, you have
to run three plays after the two minute warning. You
could have used that extra time on the back half
of that two minute warning to kind of save yourself
to maybe get the ball again, and it ended up
(28:35):
costing the Colts in the long run, because I always
think when you're the losing team and you're driving, I
think it's the worst possible scenario to let that clock
tick all the way down to the two minute warning
like they did. Because the clock is your friend. You
need as much time of it as you can, not
the least amount of time as possible. And I get
you still have all three timeouts, but I still feel
(28:56):
like there was two thirty six left when Jonathan Taylor
on that first down play ended, you let the entire
clock drain out you get to the two minute warning.
I just I just don't like that, Like that's just
me as that's my preference, But I don't know, what
do you think about that high situation?
Speaker 1 (29:12):
Yeah, that was interesting. I might need to go back
and watch it. I definitely didn't have that thought during
the game. I don't have that big of a grit
on it, to be honest with you, but I definitely
hear you out and like where you're coming from. You know,
there's certainly a push and pull there, and we've seen
stichen he is much more prone to I don't want
(29:33):
to give the team another chance.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
You know.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
Kansas City followed a very similar script last week against Indianapolis.
You know, should we score here at the end of regulation?
You know, it was one of those kind of awkward
moments there that you ran into. You know, is there
a little bit of defensive fear if you give the
ball back to Stroud? You know, fair Baron has made
long field goals in his career for game winners. You
know part of that is there. I guess I'm just
(29:58):
more upset that what he Mark's ran over ran the
second and long there ice the game. But I can
listen to it, Eddie, but I probably don't agree with it.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Let's get into what you did. Like Alec Pierce, the
Colts Knew wide receiver one.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
He is the top white out on the team, period
period period period. He's the most threatening white out. He's
the most consistent white out. And the route tree is
becoming a thing. I mean, I've it became a little
bit of a running joke between me and some of
the media members. But you know, for a while there,
early on in Pierce's career, I would tweet out on
(30:35):
Pierce Deep balls even if he didn't catch it, even
if it ended in passing appearance. Good things happen when
you target out with Pierce Deep, they just do like
more often than not, it's a good thing. A he
catches the football. How great was that throw and catch
by Jones to him on the touchdown? I mean that
man operates in claustrophobic areas. How great of a hide
and secret do you think he was back in the day,
(30:57):
just thriving in little small crevices. And then late in
the game, you know, you get the panic. You know,
you bring him in motion, you get Kaylen Bullock, the
safety running down on him. Now it's a safety one
on one and third and nineteen. You throw it up
and you obviously get the gift of the penalty there
when the ball was thrown out of bounds, but you
still are able to get that call there. He's just
(31:19):
he's dynamic. He's proven to be more consistent. And you know,
in the last few weeks, Addie, I've said to you,
to me, Taylor needs X amount of touches and particular
X amount of touches in the second halves and Alec
Pierce has turned into a player where he needs X
amount of touches. Yeah, because the threat of him going
deep has just turned the endbreaker with Pierce into almost
(31:41):
a layup. And right now from a second level guy,
that's the route that I trust the most, you know,
because he does have their respective safeties over the top there.
So I mean, hell, they put him back there to
defend the hail Mary. How great was that?
Speaker 2 (31:58):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (31:58):
And he knocked that. It just we've we've had this
debate for several months and I've said to you since
the start of camp, if it comes down to a
Pierce or a Pittman, financially, it's Pierce. It's the one
that is harder to replace mm hm. And he's that
and he's younger, which you probably can't ignore that either.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
Yeah, anything else you want to add in this area.
Are you ready for the Twitter questions?
Speaker 1 (32:24):
No, I think that's for the most part. Yeah, Grover
Stewart a huge bat down there early on. I thought
that was a four point play. I thought the camp
Binham interception was so needed. You know, obviously it's like, well, no,
no shit, Kevin. Turnovers are always needed, But like that
first quarter was such a slog And remember what what
happened to play before the Biden.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
Pick was that the uh turnover on downs? Was it?
Speaker 1 (32:45):
Yeah, Warren, Warren has the muff and so you know, again,
it just felt like Lucas Oil Stadium needed something there,
so outstanding, out standing, outstanding, I thought, in just a timely,
timely play there from Uh from buying them Twitter questions.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
This pod will start with Creighton. As bad as the
loss this was, thanks refs, I do feel there is
some bright spots. Do you agree that going into next
week the offense did some did seem to catch some
rhythm throughout the game against Houston that we haven't seen
in the past two weeks, and maybe this is something
we can carry into next week against Jacksonville.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
Yeah, it's kind of wild that when you look at it.
You obviously had that really slow start the two three
and outs, and then you punt it I think after
five plays on the third drive. If you look at
the next six drives, they got to Houston territory every
single drive, and they got at least two first downs
every single drive. Now, they obviously didn't finish off those drives. Yeah,
(33:44):
but still you did move it at a decent manner.
Now I think where I struggle to though, go full
on kind of oh wow. You know, there's reasons for massive,
massive optimism now going on the road for two straight.
And also I probably view Houston as the least fearsome
(34:06):
offense of the bunch. I just you know, on paper,
if you would have laid out the difficulty of these
final seven games coming back from the bye week, Kansas
City probably wouldn't put at the bottom of the list,
just given their history. But still record wise, they were
the only team at five hundred or worse. And then
(34:26):
a home game versus Houston you might put second on
that list, and lo and behold, you've lost both of them.
Now again both games, I mean, you know, coin flip games.
If you make one play defensively in Kansas City on
the ninety yard drive. Perhaps you win that game if
you Josh Downs doesn't drop it on third and nine yesterday,
(34:46):
who knows what happens. But still they are losses. And
now the margin for air is really shrinking. You've added
another injury, and you're going on the road for two straight. Yeah,
and like, look, Jacksonville, well, as much as Jacksonville can
be rocking, it should be rocking on Sunday.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (35:04):
That should be one of the more notable home games
they've had in quite a while. And Seattle might be
playing for the one seed coming up here in a
few weeks. So that I think is where I hear
you out Creton. And again the Colts didn't move it
a little bit better. Again, they didn't finish off those drives,
but they did definitely move it better. But still it's
(35:25):
just hard for me to reach for that glass half
full right now.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
Yeah, and Seattle's defense is no joke either, Like they
got dudes all over the field that make plays.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
Yeah, Mike McDonald, I know Shane holds a really high
regard as well. Yeah, that's I mean, that's your toughest
game left.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
Yeah, Jake is starting to believe this Colts team is
not much different than last year's. The Colts can beat
the weaker teams and lose consistently against teams with the
winning record. Offense is flat and the defense is on
the field too much? Is Jacob for reacting?
Speaker 1 (35:59):
Yeah about the defense. I think it's like one hundred
and sixty some defensive snaps the last two weeks, which
is just wild, you know, Jake, I'll go back something
that we talked about about a month ago, Eddie. At
that point, the Colts had answered the questions presented to them.
But what I try to quickly point out, newer, harder
questions are about to be asked, and so far they
(36:23):
have not handled those well. Now, the beauty of the
NFL is you get five more chances to flip it.
You know, it's a harder schedule left, but you get
five more opportunities, and three of them are in your division,
so you know that obviously is heavily, heavily into your control.
So that I think is a huge, huge question. You know,
(36:48):
if you want to point to early in the year,
did you surprise some people Daniel Jones a little bit?
And then you know, such a change, you know from
the defensive system. You know that surprise teams early on
in the year. Along with that that that scar That
probably is something that is true. But you know, these
questions are just more difficult, and so far you're not answered.
Speaker 2 (37:09):
Here is a question I hadn't really thought of from Garrett.
Do you think the loss of DeForest Buckner has hurt
the offense as much as it hurt the defense. The
defense right now feels similar to what existed underneath Gus Bradley,
not allowing big plays but giving up long drives, hampering
the stamina of the defense and putting more pressure on
the offense. This team, all of a sudden feels way
(37:31):
too similar to teams of years past.
Speaker 1 (37:34):
Yeah, Garrett, I think that's a really good point. You know,
time of obssession. It's not gospel by any means, but
I think it's something that is flipped. I mean, a
do you think back to the Kansas City game? Do
you think Buckner makes one of those third down stops?
Speaker 2 (37:47):
Hopefully if not, he's helping the other guys on the
edge to get home by having the attention on him, right.
I mean, he's been the biggest problem I think in
the last two weeks is they just can't get any
sort of pressure on the quarterback.
Speaker 1 (37:59):
I've said this before, but there is no more disappointing
aspect in the ballad Ara than the edge pass rush.
It's just it's unbelievable how unthreatening it is. Yeah, it's
just like engage the left tackle, you know, hug your
grandma on Thanksgiving and move on to the next play.
(38:20):
That's seemingly what it is. Every snaps alf of not
not to get two in the weeds. But we talked
about the Ashton Dulan injury last week. It felt like
Houston was a first down or two better than you
and special teams yesterday. And again those are just little
hidden yardages in the twenty sixteen game, you know, six
yards here, seven yards there, four yards. It just adds up.
(38:42):
And so I thought they were a little better than
you yesterday in that area. But yeah, I think it's
a great point that Garrett brings. You know, in these
one possession games, Atlanta obviously went your way and then
and then the next two don't go your way. I
I I do think Buckner's just pure presence could have
(39:03):
easily been the difference.
Speaker 2 (39:05):
Mm hmm. Yeah, and it is.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
I I think, you know, has it hurt the offense
as once the defense? It's all complimentary obviously. I I
can't like sit here and say, you know, blame the
offense for deforce Buckner's absence, but everything is largely tied together.
Speaker 2 (39:27):
Colts are now three and four in one score games
in the year.
Speaker 1 (39:33):
Is that right?
Speaker 2 (39:34):
I think so if I remember correctly. You got obviously
lost his last two weeks in Houston, Kansas City, lost
to Pittsburgh, and lost to Los Angeles. Yeah, Arizona, Denver
and mm hmm yep. Uh. That's something I guess monitor
down the stretch, just because when you get into playoffs, Moost,
(39:56):
these games are going to be decided by one score.
Two questions left one from Craig. What's most frustrating is
the game being dictated by the horrid refs. I feel
like this is happening more and more every week, to
the point it's not even worth watching. Give me a
reason for hope for the rest of the season, KB
The schedule was tough enough Lew alone, dealing with crappy
(40:17):
calls every week.
Speaker 1 (40:19):
Where do you side on the you as a sports
fan and officiating in terms of what like do you
hate officials? Are you accepting of.
Speaker 2 (40:31):
It in the middle Like in the middle like during
the game, I'm like, what the what the fure like,
how can you make that call? But it's at the
same time like I get it.
Speaker 1 (40:42):
Yeah, I don't know why. I've largely accepted like human
error in sports when it comes to officials.
Speaker 2 (40:48):
But I am never one to blame the officials for
a for a loss. Never.
Speaker 1 (40:52):
Yeah, you know, I I I was really tested in
this manner the Notre Dame text A and M game
earlier in the year. If you remember that game Atie
text A M can versus fourth and goal. I remember,
and there is as blatant of a holding penalty as
you could imagine. On Donovan Heinisch on that fourth and
goal opinion, it certainly is. And yeah, I just I
(41:13):
don't know. Again, I definitely was like what the you know,
bleep in the moment, But yeah, I just I don't know.
I woke up Sunday and I was frustrated. Then I
thought to myself, Yeah, there are probably a million other
things and why Notre Dame lost that game, including missed
extra point as fittingly as that sounds there, So again,
I know there's a lot of people that think that's
a ludicrous thought from me, but I don't know. In
(41:37):
my fandom, I've just chosen to accept it. I will
agree with Craig thought. I thought the Chiefs game is
very poor officiating on both sides of it. And yesterday,
I don't know, Houston a lot of penalties early. When
did they end up happened? I don't know how the
penalty game even out in the end. But you know,
obviously I thought the Kenny Moore call was bad, and
(41:57):
I thought the delay of game was more of a
league wide issue. I don't get why the NFL doesn't
black and white it.
Speaker 2 (42:04):
Up nine for eighty five for Houston, five for thirty
three for the Colts.
Speaker 1 (42:09):
Gosh, it's another frustrating element of the game. They have
fifty two more yards of penalties in you mm hmm,
and you lose a one score game. So I don't know.
I mean, the Colts got away with one of crystal
mons in Arizona. I just I have chosen to accept that.
Probably doesn't make it wrong or right, but that's how
I look at it. You know, it's officiating down. I
(42:30):
don't know. I stayed up and watched that whole Denver
Washington game. There are some wild calls in that game. Wait,
you talk about Denver just playing with fire every week?
M m. Seemingly that defense makes big play after big play.
Speaker 2 (42:41):
Reminds me of that Tennessee Titans team that finished first
in the AFC a few years ago with Helen Henry Yep, yep, yeah,
I just bound for a bad day in the playoffs, Daniels.
I guess the scenario A in a scenario B type question, Kevin, So,
I'll rattle both of these soft for YOUA scenario A
Colts continue to look mediocre but pull out two to
(43:02):
three wins and get into the playoffs as a division
winner that have optimism with the Forst Buckner, Saucegarter and
Ashton Doolan back as they host a playoff game and
make it to the divisional round. With anyone's guess of
what can happen after that Scenario B, the Colts continue
to putter out and lose three of their four final games,
(43:23):
blow the division, and miss the playoffs. This leads into
a nightmare offseason where everyone and things are up for debate.
Is Chris Ballin and Shane Styke and retained, does Jim
Bob Cooter anddoor Lout and a Roumo leave who is
re signed? In terms of Daniel Jones, Braden Smith, Alec Peers,
(43:44):
Quitty pay Nick Cross, what happens with Anthony Richardson. Seems
like this sends the franchise and fans back down the
rabbit hole of pessimism and questioning the culture and state
of the team.
Speaker 1 (43:57):
Oh boy, hum. Yeah, I don't know if I'm quite
ready for the old big picture, you know, state of
the union, if you will, But it is a question
that I get the month of Decembers here, and you
can't totally ignore it.
Speaker 2 (44:14):
It's also a fascinating discussion, too.
Speaker 1 (44:16):
Tremendous discussion. Yeah, I mean, trust me, means some of
the media members are having it yesterday up in the
in the presspect. I guess, just moreal thoughts on Daniel's
question before I kind of get into I think what
everybody really is curious about, you know right now, obviously
two would be the obvious choice or letter be here,
given how really they are. I'm still not sold on Jacksonville,
by the way. I know they lived off turnovers early
(44:39):
in the season. They've shown a little bit more here
as of late, but I'm not overly sold on Jacksonville.
We'll see how that plays out, of course, coming up
this weekend. So you know, now the question becomes, you know,
how does Carli ers Gordon view it?
Speaker 2 (44:53):
Is it because that Lean Cummens do.
Speaker 1 (44:56):
I do think? I like Liam, I'm going a little
bit here and I guess if you start with Ballard Eddie,
the question largely revolves around this, does a season I
should say half season? Does a half season of really
quality football erase eight years of mediocrity before that? Like
(45:24):
that's largely the Ballad evaluation. Yeah, and again how much
of it do we do the post CB? You know,
pre CB, we've done the ADBC thing before. Half jokingly,
half serious with Ballard? Do you think the goalposts have
changed it all post Sauce Gardner trade? And I'm asking
(45:44):
that more for Macrli or Saint Gordon ask to it.
You know, did that heighten the need and the urgency
for short short term? Also did it heighten the need
an urgency for her to say, hey, Chris, by allowing
you to do this trade, you're the guy. I mean,
he's doing a new contract right after twenty twenty six. Yeah,
(46:07):
after next year, you know, and then the bigger questions
is are you largely kicking the can down the road?
Speaker 2 (46:16):
You know?
Speaker 1 (46:16):
I'm trying to think of a decent analogy within our market, Eddie,
But like, would you view this season at all? Because
I think it's really hard to group Ballad and Stiking together.
I think it's really difficult. It gets a little unfair
to Shane stikeing to do that. I just think three
years versus nine years is too in football years, that's
(46:37):
an insane amount of difference. But again, if I were
running the show, I'd probably want to group my GM
and head coach together because I think it's the best
thing for cohesive decision making and roster building and all
of that. But I guess to try to make like
a local analogy of it. If the Colts go three
(46:57):
and two down the stretch, make the playoffs, like right here,
right now, they are the sixth seed in the playoffs,
exactly how it looks right now. Let's say they losing
Round one? Are you bringing everybody back?
Speaker 2 (47:12):
Everybody is in regime or regime?
Speaker 1 (47:16):
Yeah, I mean Pillars quarterback, head coach GM.
Speaker 2 (47:19):
Well, you've made your bed on the quarterback aspect.
Speaker 1 (47:23):
So head coach gim I will.
Speaker 2 (47:25):
Say, I think it's trending more toys with Daniel Jones
considering the last handful of weeks of the franchise tag
versus an extension, and Pierce will be the guy that
gets the contract versus the tag. Now, just because you
need to see I can hear you on that which
guy the quarterback is in terms of the head coach
(47:48):
and GM, I think, yes, you just got to bring
him back because as you noted and as we've known
a headful of times on the pod, Vallot's got the
one year left. Like, hey, you go into this year,
you know you're final million your deal. What are you
gonna do? That's the GM like, are you going to
try to make some magic happen and you know, to
(48:10):
help bolster whatever it is you need. Is it a
true you know, number one receiver. Is it somebody who
can consistently you know, threaten the quarterback? We'll see. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (48:21):
And then you also get into I think, to a
couple of other different convents again to local and analogy
it up a little bit. Would this be like Mike
Woodson making the tournament in year four as a nine seed. Yeah, probably,
you know, is it just band aid on a bullet
hole that or do you really feel like there's been
(48:42):
tangible changes and it is going to be different? Yeah?
I think that's a really hard thing to be clear
to decide. But that's you know what Carli or say
Gordon's gonna have to look at. Are you just kicking
the can down the road? I guess it is how
you view because I feel like so many people view
the twenty twenty five Colts and bringing everybody back is
(49:03):
do you make the playoffs or do you not like
that black and white? Which is kind of wild to
sit here in December first and be like, that's the
difference between the Colts going three and two or two
and three.
Speaker 2 (49:12):
But if I told you that in training camp, what
would you have said?
Speaker 1 (49:15):
I know, I I was never one that thought the
playoff appearance automatically meant everybody was back. I think how
it looks has to be factored in. Okay, And there's
part of me it's like, well, Daniel Jones looked better
than I thought so, and again, quarterback is important, very important,
(49:36):
so maybe there is a little bit more optimism. But
if you continue to lose games at the critical juncture
of the season like you have in recent years, is
that a negative knock, right? You know? On it? So,
and let's say you go two and three down the
stretch and you just limp in or just miss, then
like the momentum for next year isn't maybe necessarily it's
(49:58):
not like the arrows pointing out. Whereas if you reverse
these four months of the season, baby, you would feel
differently about it. Like if Jones really struggled out of
the gate but then played great football down stretch and
you just didn't have enough time to get back in it,
you know, how would that be viewed? So again, I
think it is a great debate. You could go in
a ton of different directions with it. It is. I'll
(50:20):
go back to kind of what I said at the
start of the answer.
Speaker 2 (50:22):
Though.
Speaker 1 (50:24):
It is kind of wild that we have eight years
and three months of a Chris Boward resume and we're
sitting here saying it could come down to a two
and three or three and two closed to the month
of December. It's like one game is going to define
his nine years as a GM. That that is It's
it's like a wild sample size. Yeah, when you break
(50:46):
it down.
Speaker 2 (50:47):
You say, this game on Sunday against Jacksonville's your season.
Speaker 1 (50:51):
Yeah, I mean I said it. I don't know if
I said to you on Monday's pod Eddie, and I
know we didn't do the Wednesday pod together. I just
did it by myself. But said in the Winds, it
felt like one of the biggest games of the p
ssecond era. Oh yeah, because the first year you're still
honeymoon phasing it. Oh yeah, No, obviously Week eighteen winning
get in is huge, but like it's still the honeymoon
phase of the Gardner Minshew last year. You could point
(51:13):
to the Denver game, certainly, but again, that Denver game,
you're on the road. You know, it wasn't like a
lock that you would It's not a divisional game. It
wasn't a lock that if you won that game, all
of a sudden everything, you know, Ducks were in a row,
whereas this one was home game, divisional and now it's
two in a row on the road.
Speaker 2 (51:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (51:34):
But yeah, I mean to your point, you know you
can do you can obviously save a ton of face
by getting it done here on Sunday in Jacksonville. All right, brother,
should we do it on Wednesday.
Speaker 2 (51:47):
Well, are you talking about recording a pod as opposed
to what else?
Speaker 1 (51:52):
I don't know, Boy, nothing says the first Monday back
from Thanksgiving like that? How about that ending by Eddie Garrison? Unbelievable?
Speaker 2 (52:01):
Uh? Giants Patriots tonight? Are you gonna watch?
Speaker 1 (52:04):
Yeah? Well I'll probably watched Patriots a little bit more,
but then I'll then I'll flip over. Yeah, it's kind
of wild. Then if New England wins, they they headed
their bye week and going what twelve would they be?
Twelve and two eleven and.
Speaker 2 (52:14):
Two eleven and two? Yeah? Wild man.
Speaker 1 (52:18):
Yeah, I don't know if anybody really cares about this,
but I do think yesterday's loss probably ended your chances
at a one seed, and if New England wins tonight,
though probably definitely ended. So all right, he's at a Garrison'
Kevin Bow and everybody have a great week. We'll talk
to you Wednesday.
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My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com