September 22, 2025 • 52 mins
Today’s Best of Features:
(00:00-15:45) – The voice of the Indiana Hoosiers, Don Fischer, makes his weekly stop on Query & Company and starts his conversation with Jake Query by discussing how fun it is now calling IU football games. He shares a couple of things he was told leading up to the game by Curt Cignetti and Buck Suhr, believes that IU is so dominant because of their execution every single week, and admits how proud he is about his son for the job he has done Edgewood High School to start the football season.
(15:45-38:37) – The Dean, Mike Chappell, from CBS4 and FOX59 kicks off the second hour of the show by discussing the consistent Daniel Jones has been through three weeks, the history that Jonathan Taylor has made after three games, provides injury updates on Alec Pierce and Kenny Moore II, and identifies a couple of things that still concern him about the Indianapolis Colts. (38:37-52:55) – Colts defensive lineman Tyquan Lewis joins Query & Company to recap yesterday’s win over the Tennessee Titans, explains the difference between Lou Anarumo and Gus Bradley’s system, identifies Daniel Jones as the guy that brings everyone together, discusses the growth of Shane Steichen as the head coach, and previews their upcoming game this weekend against the LA Rams.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's Monday, it's twelve thirty.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
It's fish.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
The putter out there on the field is Kalin Crimmins
and the beat snap from center.
Speaker 3 (00:08):
Indiana's gonna pick it up.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Here's the snap back and pressure comes a little screen
out here. Noah Kowski the tight end down to the tunny,
down to the town tough. Here's the snaff and this
time to hand off the hivy and run up the gun.
Speaker 4 (00:26):
He's gonna go out of the ten five touch That.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Roman himby forty yard run for the touchdown.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
And there was a hole you could drive a train through.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
This Indiana football team is feeling like they can eat Illinois.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Lunch any moment, anytime they want to. Here they come
across the field. Both ball clubs will shake hands. Now
in Indiana blows away the fighting Alainai of Illinois tonight
to the tune of sixty three to ten.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
The Voice of the Hoosiers, Don Fisher joining query company
on ninety three five and one oh seven five the fan.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
That's how it sounded. You just heard him on the call,
Don Fisher, the Voice of the Hoosiers. As Indiana sets
a record for the most points ever against a Top
ten team in the history of the Big Ten Conference,
and he joined us now to talk about that and more.
And Don, I got to be honest with you as
I'm watching the game and then we were watching it
(01:24):
and then listening to it on my drive, and I
thought to myself, you know, Don Fisher, for the first
couple of years that he was doing Indiana football probably
didn't have a lot of times where he got to
say touchdown Indiana. And he got to make up for
all in one night, which was nice of them.
Speaker 5 (01:38):
Right.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
That was an unbelievable performance and that has to be
would you agree, as electric a night atmosphere as you
have ever seen at Memorial Stadium.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
It goes down as number one in my book. I've
not seen anything like that in a long time. I've
not seen anything like our crowds basically for a long
time like this either. And the chaos, the noise, the excitement,
the flags waving. The atmosphere at Indiana University right now
(02:14):
at home football games is absolutely electric. And I hope
it continues for the rest of the season and for
as long as I keep doing games, because it makes
it more fun.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
If you know what I made, Don it, here's what's remarkable,
and I want you to tell me if you agree
or disagree with this. Don Fisher, our guest. The thing
about this team, and the same is true of last
year with Indiana, and I mean this in the most
complimentary ways, but that is that if I had to
pinpoint what it is that makes them efficient, that makes
(02:46):
them good, I just keep going back to the answer
of I don't know. They're just efficient and good. You know,
they just they do not make mistakes, and I guess
they kind of just put other teams in position where
you're waiting for the other team to make a mistake
and capitalize on it. I can't pinpoint it if it
were up to you to assess what it is, What
(03:07):
is it this team and this program is doing that
is different.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
You know, it's it is hard to pinpoint. There's no
question because and maybe the one thing that I can
tell you or explain this a little bit better would
be our in our pregame on Saturday with Bucks, who
were we had to fill time for about fifteen minutes
(03:35):
at the outset of our broadcast because the kickoff was
going to take place twenty minutes later than seven thirty, right,
and NBC obviously had something to do with that, and
actually had most to do with it because of the
time constraints for their first game, but for doing Notre Dame,
and they had a problem with weather delay at westlat Viette. Anyway,
(03:57):
long story shorts South Bend, but long story short.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Bucks were went on the air with me.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
We talked about this Illinois ball club and Buck said,
I've watched a lot of film on Illinois.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
I've watched them.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
I've watched them in two or three different versions of
themselves this past year.
Speaker 4 (04:19):
I looked at the.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
Duke game again this morning, he said, And then he said,
I can't find one thing that I think Illinois is
better at than Indiana on the field. I said what
he said, I don't see one thing that Indiana is
not better than Illinois at on the field. And I said, well,
(04:42):
that means Indiana is going to win in a big way.
And here's the thing, Buck is right, what does this
team do different than everybody else? I don't know that
they do a ton of things different. They just do
everything a little bit better. And I think this team
is one of the best I've seen. And what and
(05:04):
what we've seen the last two years, we've seen two
teams that beat them last year. They were just better team, right,
they had more personnel, they had better talent. And this
team this year, we haven't seen them against great competition yet.
And I include Illinois in that because they got exposed
on Saturday. But at the same time, what does Indiana
(05:27):
do That's that's poor literally nothing. That's just a matter
of personnel. It becomes a matter of personnel, that's it.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
And I'm watching the game at the beginning, okay, And
I was going back to the conversation we had with you,
and you're exactly right on this when you talk about,
you know, Illinois, Indiana limited Illinois to two rushing yards
two two rushing yards on Saturday night. And that Illinois
offensive line is massive. I mean, and they're a good line.
(05:57):
I mean, it's not like they're there, you know, there's
one thing to just be guys and then not being
I mean, that is a good and massive offensive line.
And yet Indiana defensively with their whether it be their speed,
they're there. They absolutely had their way with them and
that to me, that, to me, Don was the biggest
area of surprise. Did that surprise you the way Indiana's
(06:20):
defensive line was able to completely control things.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
I would have said to you had I not done
the talk show with Kurt Signetti on Thursday of last week,
that it would have surprised me. But when Kurt Signetti
told me off air during a commercial break, I said,
you all, Illinois offensive line is massive, coach, how are
you going to deal with that? And he says, massive
(06:47):
doesn't mean they're fast or quick, and he said it
in such a matter of fact way as if to
tell me we're just quicker and we're and we're better
than they are in that sense. Here's the bottom line here, Jake,
is that Kurt Signetti and his staff are tremendous coaches.
(07:11):
They coach the heck out of their kids, and they
do it in such a way that these kids buy in.
And it's just a if they're going to get beat,
it's going to because the other team has more talent, right,
more skill, whatever the case may be. It's not going
to be because these guys don't know what they're doing,
(07:32):
because that's absolutely a false statement. If you say, Indiana,
you know these kids don't know what they're doing because
they know exactly what they're doing because they practice the
crap out of it, and they are just phenomenal at
executing it.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
You know, at the beginning of the season, Fernando Mendoza
had said, I think it was after game one don
that he felt like he still needed to kind of
get his footing underneath him. And he had. You know,
certainly the stats and the pedic at cal in coming
to Indiana and Curtis work was a darn good quarterback
for Indiana year ago, one of the best we've seen
(08:06):
in Bloomington, and so there were some big shoes to
fill there. But clearly with that Illinois game, what we
saw is that he had a I mean such a
firm control of that offense. Is that based on the
coaching staff just saying to him, hey, you know, let
it slow, let the game come to you a little
bit and slow it down from that game, one say
(08:28):
to now, or is that just the veteran ability of
a Mendoza being an upper classman of just having the
confidence to continue to do the reps and have that
kind of a breakout game.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Well, and here's here's what I know.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
When players come to Indiana now, if they don't buy
in to what the coaches are teaching, they aren't playing.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Or they're gone. It's that simple, and.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Kurt Signetti and his staff do a phenomenal job of
getting guys to understand that. And Fernando it comes to
Indiana after being chased all over the football field a
year ago, dealing with forty six or forty seven sacks.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
I think they said that he was sacked last year. Obviously,
he comes in.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
He's got a little skitty because he doesn't want to
get hit again. And he wasn't, of course in spring practice,
but he had a little happy feet when he got
here and that kind of dissipated through spring practice and
he was much better. Sig said, he was better in
the last three or four practices of spring, and then
when they got to the fall, he said he continued
to make progress. Well, the progress that he's made shows
(09:40):
you two things. Number One, he is a veteran, he's
been in the wars, so to speak. And number two,
he's being coached dramatically well. And the thing about Fernando
that we still don't know at this point is how
much more improvement he can make. Because if you look
at the last two games, he has completed forty of
(10:01):
forty three passes for ten for ten touchdowns. I've never
seen a completion rate by anybody that's forty of forty three.
It's just astounding. And obviously he has things that he
keeps talking about after ballgames. I got to get better
at this, and I got to get better at that,
(10:21):
and I mean think about that. And again, is he
a perfect quarterback. No, nobody is. But he's a guy
that's learning and every week he tries to put into
play the things that he has learned that have helped
him become better in that week's performance. And that's all
(10:42):
it's all about. And that's one of Kurt Signetti's philosophies.
Get better every day.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Now.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
We hear a lot of coaches say that, but how
many of them actually do and we're certainly seeing that
with Fernando Mendoz No.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
I just think, you know, one of the things, and
there's a very final with this when it comes to coaching.
Right of confidence, and I'll say borishness. I don't mean
that Kurt Signetti is, but I mean you see that
in coaches. But you know, late in that game, they
a couple of times they showed Kurt Signetti on the sidelines,
and I think the thing that jumped out at me
down and I'm curious if you know, I think you
(11:19):
noticed this probably the first week you around this guy.
But there just was this epiphany of you know what,
everybody can talk about what Indiana's doing against Illinois, but
that guy on the sideline with the headset on expected that.
I'm not saying he expected him to win like that.
I'm not saying he disrespected Illinois. I'm saying he expects
his team to be in this situation week in and
(11:42):
week out and doesn't even seem content with it. Just
all business, which I love, right, I mean, it's all business.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
That's exactly correct.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
There is nothing but the business at Haym with Kurt Signetti,
and there's a standard and he talks about that when
Signetti you listen to a good press conference and somebody
asks him a question about, uh, how need these guys
to buy in? Well, we have a standard here. You know,
we've got a standard. We expect you to match or
(12:13):
at least reach that standard. If you can't do that,
you're probably not going to play. And if you do play,
you're probably not going to play very long because you're
not reaching the standard that we expect. So there the expectations.
I would say this, Jake, that the expectations for Kurt
Signetti are he raises the bar every single day. He
(12:37):
expects your team to get better and if you're not
getting better, you're getting worse.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
So and that's the only.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
Way you can be a great football team if you're
getting better day after day. And that's the standard that
he sets. And that's why I think, you know, when
you watch him on the sidelines during football games, you
almost well at this point and I'm not down there
watching him, but I've never seen smile. He's not smiling,
(13:06):
and he's always there's always something you can do better.
Speaker 4 (13:10):
And he in.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
Our press conference today, he starts talking about the fact
that you know, yeah, it was a great win. It
was a really good win for us. We really we
did a lot of really good things. But he said
there was so much to look at in the film
afterwards that we've got to clean up. And he was
talking about especially on the defensive side of the football.
There were four or five plays, he said, were we
(13:34):
just didn't get it done. And he's so his standard
is this. It doesn't have to be perfect, but it's
got to be close. And my goodness, were they close
on Saturday.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
I think the standard is he goes over on Friday
night and watches Edgewood and sees him get a shut
out for the third time in five weeks and says,
all right, let's go right, and that what it is.
He sees the Mustangs at five and oh, coming off
of thirty five nothing shutout, and he's like, all right, guys,
precedents there, let's go.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Well.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
This may sound like a coach's dad, but I'm really
proud of my son. Number one, But number two, they
haven't played anybody but the best team that they played,
and they were one a team that was right number
one in the standings of the state at that time.
But they still haven't played anybody yet. And believe me,
(14:26):
what my son's done so far has really made me
proud because he's had to build it from the ground up,
and in the two years he's been there, they really
took their lumps. But suddenly they're having some success, and
it's really special to watch that happen and see how
that program is evolving.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
At this point.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
It didn't happen like it didn't happen like Kurtzygnetti coming
to Edgewood and all of a sudden finding the tools
that he needs because you've got a pretty much in
a high school level, you got to work with what
you got. And when he first got there, and it's
not a knock on the kid, but the program was
suffering because they had so many years of failure. And
(15:05):
so at this point we're excited and we're really proud
of what we've seen. But it's the real season is
about to start for them too, because they're going to
face their toughest challenges here in the next four weeks.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Edgewood coming up, by the way, they got Beech Grove
coming up on Friday, and then after that it is
Sullivan and Northview. As for Indiana up next at Iowa
and then of course a big showdown with Oregon as well.
Don appreciate the time as always, and certainly hope you
enjoyed that Saturday night, because that was pretty special.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
It was special, love question. I enjoyed it immensely.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
I'll bet Don appreciate it.
Speaker 5 (15:40):
You bet to see it.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Don Fisher, the voice of the Indiana Hoosiers, Mike Chappell,
CBS four wxin Fox fifty nine in just about twenty
seconds but before that, Eddie health updates from the National
Football League as it relates to local players.
Speaker 6 (15:56):
Yes, so last night, if you were watching Sunday Night Football,
you saw if you're in the fantasy football league at
the Quaring Company one, you'll notice Tyrone's lifting buddy in
high school yours truly right here if you forgot about that.
He exited the game last night with a shoulder injury.
It was a Tracy right, Yes, Tyrone Tracy Junior exited
the game last night with a shoulder injury. It was
announced date it's a dislocated shoulder. He'll miss sometime. It's
(16:19):
uncertain on how long it'll be. And then Ben Davis
High School graduate Dewand Jones of the Cleveland Browns is
out for the rest of the season with a knee injury.
So not a good day for two former Indiana high
school athletes.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
Now, I was well aware of that situation with Tyrone
Tracy because in my fantasy team is terrible because justin
Jefferson and t Higgins in particular, I have nobody thrown
them in the football. But I was going up against
I think it was Derek's team met No, brandy Wine's Banchies,
which is Brian's team, and he has Camp's kataboo, and
(16:53):
he needed a certain number of points last night, and
I thought, well, it looked like I was going to
get my first win. And then Tracey it out and
he could play man, he could play, and that was
a heck of a fine for the Giants and for
Brian for that matter, joining us now on the show
a guy that cares nothing about our fantasy football teams,
nor should he. Mike Chappell of CBS four and WXI
(17:14):
N chap I will begin with this, and that is
a question that I asked a couple of people last week,
But I want your thought on this. Is Daniel Jones
playing at a level that is allowing Shane Steiken to
get creative with this play calling, or is Shane Steiken
calling plays right now to best benefit and play with
(17:35):
them the ceiling of Daniel Jones.
Speaker 4 (17:37):
Probably yes, And yes, I've always up the last couple
of years as much as and I hope we don't
get on a I mean we in general get on
a pile on Anthony Richardson deal, that's not what this is.
But he and Jones are diametrically opposed as quarterbacks, and
(17:58):
I thought the fact what they could do with Anthony
Richardson and the lack of a tight end. Let's keep
in mind, they've lacked key, a key offensive player that
Shange Stack can always makes use of. So this is
so thinking. It's three weeks and I'm one of those
I kind of keep waiting for the other shoot to
drop because because it normally does. But boy, after three games,
(18:22):
it's just been the perfect marriage. Offensively, still some pickups
on defense, but offensively, gosh, what would you complain about. Uh,
they're being created, They're spreading the ball around, They're getting
I've said for the last couple of years that Jonathan
Taylor is the most underappreciated great player nationally. He just
(18:46):
is how you see all these these offseason I think
it was a Dane tot Com or somebody had the
top hundred players. I don't believe he or Quintin Nelson
Moro on it. And I'm thinking they're just, you know,
invalidated the entire survey. So I think it's a perfect marriage,
and I maybe I'm wrong, But what I keep coming
(19:07):
back to with this offense with one hundred and three points,
the most sense one hundred since thineteen sixty seven, second
most enfranchised history to open a season. I just don't
see anything spectacular, and that's a compliment. They're just executing.
They're making plays.
Speaker 5 (19:27):
Now.
Speaker 4 (19:27):
A couple of Jonathan Taylor runs are spectacular. They are,
but that's what great backs do. But Michael Pittman's playing well,
Tyler Warren giving them what they haven't had since I'll
go back to Dallas Clark and I don't mean that
as a knock on Jack Doyle, but it's a perfect marriage.
And I think they're just asking Jones to make plays
(19:50):
and avoid some sacks. He's probably avoided I don't know,
four or five sacks by the one yesterday, the seventeen
yard run, or he was in gold in the pocket
and got out on a third or whatever it was
when the game was still you know, a game. Uh,
it's just worked and uh, I'm watching last night and
(20:13):
the Giants are such a mess. And I know Jones
didn't there were times he didn't play well with the Giants.
But don't you put most most of what happened in
Jones's first five or six years on the Giants organization.
I mean, they just, you know, the big thing in
(20:35):
Scataboy's a good story. But when your two stories over
the last couple of years are him and de Vido,
I mean, what do you got? What are you doing?
So I think this is a perfect marriage, perfect storm
to this point, and I again, what they're doing. There's
no reason to say, well, yeah, but this can't continue
(20:57):
what it can because there's four or five receivers, including war.
We really haven't seen Ady Mitchell get going yet because
there hasn't been reps. He may get reps if Alec
pierces out a little bit. But they're doing They're just
playing the way you're supposed to play in they're executing
and all that stuff. So I've seen no reason that
(21:20):
this offense can't keep this up. Maybe not the thirty
four points a game level, but efficiency level, or whether
putting up twenty seven points a game and you scored
twenty seven points. All you need is your defense to
play okay, and this defense is playing better than okay.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
You know the chap and not to always go back
to this storyline, because there's a lot of really good
stuff to talk about here, right, But I was curious
of this as I was watching yesterday and I want
you to tell me if it makes sense. The real
benefit of Daniel Jones playing at the level that he
has been playing is the obvious. They're winning games, and
(21:58):
that's what ultimately you are designed to do. And if
this continues, and if he maintains and is able to
show to the rest of the league that yes, in fact,
it was as much a New York thing as a
Daniel Jones thing in the first go round. If that's
the case, and I've seen you know, you saw Matt
Ryan talking about how what he's doing is, you know,
playing at a whole new level, and you know, everybody
(22:19):
seems to be noticing, gosh, this guy can play, and
he's making good decisions in all of those things. Does
that increase or rather even does it give some value
to Anthony Richardson on the trademark. I know the Colts
have said they're not going to trade Anthony Richardson, But
if Daniel Jones indeed proves to be the long term guy,
(22:41):
doesn't it increase the trade value of Richardson, because then
teams would say, gosh, now I see why Richard. It's
not that it's not an indictment on Richardson that he
didn't win the job over this guy. Does that make
sense what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (22:55):
Well, it depends on whether you're talking trading now or
trading at the end of the season.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
Yeah, I mean, let's say or whatever. And I always
forget when the trade deadline would be, but yes, even
at the end of the season October something, Okay, So yeah,
you probably need believe.
Speaker 4 (23:10):
But let's say you're seven and two, seven and three whatever,
and somebody offers you a four for Rechison, which I
don't know that he would get fat. Then then what
you're doing. You're a playoff caliber team that might win
the division. And your backup quarterback is right a Leonard
who who has done his job well, but he the
(23:32):
rookie and he's not ready. So then if Jones gets
hurt and then you need three games in November December,
and you would Friday Leonard, then you're screwed. So I
I think the longer this goes well, the less likelihood
of Richardson being traded this season. Now next season. You know,
(23:54):
let's say again, let's We've talked in the pressure a
lot about this and I've always thought I consider it
the worst case scenario if Jones wins it, won the job,
and then they go ten and seven, eleven and six
and make the playoffs, win the division. Then what do
you do right? Then You've got You've got Daniel Jones
(24:16):
who's a free agent, and you can always franchise him
for a year if you wanted, which is costly, but
it's just one year. So that would be such a great,
great problem to have issue to have, not a problem
issue to have. But boy, and what I consider trading
Richardson in the offseason? Yes, I would because I think
(24:38):
it would be hard to bring him back again, because
if things work out well, you're going to find some
way to bring Jones back and do this again.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Here's to me, Chap, what is impressive about Daniel Jones
and what's encouraging about Daniel Jones? And I mean this,
and I mean this is to Daniel Jones. This is
not meant in comparison to any other player. I don't
mean it that way at all. But the thing about
Jones to me that's been impressive is he seems to
have a very clear understanding as to the ceiling of
(25:11):
Daniel Jones from one play to the next. And if
something's not working he doesn't step outside of what it
is that he needs or can do in order to
make it work. And for that reason, I think you
can grow with him. I think you can build around
him because of the fact that he does not put
himself for his team in a bad situation. If a
(25:33):
bad situation is out there to be had, Does that
make sense?
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (25:38):
Yeah. And that's why I say I can see this
continuing because he's not doing anything like always smokes. I've
not seen him throw the ball like that or whatever,
make a play like it. No, he's staying within within
the framework. It's and it comes off wrong, but he's
managing the offense. But he's not a game manager, and
I think there's a difference. A game manager is a
(25:59):
guy who really can't do it. Maybe minshew it's a
game manager. I don't know, but that's not what he is.
He's but he's managing the offense. And that's why I
say it's the one thing that change Dyke and emphasized
was he wanted to consistently reliability and that's one of
the reasons that he went with Jones. And because everything
(26:25):
and sometimes we're wrong to do this, but everything that
Styken has said about Daniel Jones is sort of what
you don't but you haven't got. With Richardson, you know,
you got the great plays and all that, but again
Jones was for Richardson's fifty percent completion percentage. You can't
play offense in the NFL with that, you can't. Jones
(26:46):
is at like seventy one percent and probably the most
incredible stat he's like nine point three in attempt So
while he's making the underneath throws to Warren and Pittman
and all this, he's getting show Stanley's eliat a nice
one to Josh stawmns. I thought the one Pierce got
hurt on I thought he caught it. I did. I thought,
(27:07):
I tell you control of it.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
I would agree with that, and I think the replay
showed that right, I thought so.
Speaker 4 (27:12):
I mean it was it was like the second bounce
that the ball came loose.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
And I thought so in consequential. But when when Pierce
didn't get up from that play, we now know he's
in concussion protocol. I assumed he got because a lot
of times you see guys get the win knocked out him.
If you land on the football and it hits you
in the abdomen. That's what I kind of thought happened there.
But you know, we have to see in terms of
Pierce what the health status is beyond.
Speaker 4 (27:37):
It's just it's his third concussion and he's missed one
game after each of the first two. So you know,
I was talking with somebody last night about it and
he said, he said, he's okay, Yeah, well players do that.
Of course players do that. So so we'll see. And
teams are extremely, extremely cautious with concussions because you have
(28:00):
to be so. But again, if he's out, then that's
going to give Mitchell a chance to step up and
be that guy. But again he'll be the third guy.
Pick at fourth guy when you consider it. Tyler Warren
with Pittman and Josh Now, I'm still waiting for Josh
downs to go off, which he hasn't done yet. So
but as long as got as long as you're getting
(28:20):
Jonathan Taylor getting a hundred some yards. Again, people either
either don't recognize or forget that among active running backs
active running backs, he leads all of them in rushing
yards per game. It's like ninety yards a game or whatever.
He's had one hundred yards in six or the last seven.
And I had to double check this, and I do
(28:44):
trust the Colts PR, but I still had to check
it out. Or what is it? Three hundred and thirty
eight yards? I think it is in three games, the
most yards by a cult running back since at least
nineteen seventy, really in the first three games, and I thought, hey,
no way, Edrin had to have more than that, and
he didn't. So you know, Taylor's off to this great start.
Knock on wood. You hope, you hope he maintains his health.
(29:07):
But remember he ran. He ran for fourteen hundred last
year and he was three games. So again, I just
think that he I wrote this last week, and I
truly believe it. When Jones had his season in twenty
twenty two or like nine and seven, and they made
the playoffs and one and one of a first round game
(29:28):
he had Saint Kwon Berkley, and when you give a
quarterback that type of a running game, and then again,
this is the best supporting cast, best offensive line, best
set of receivers, best tied end that Jones has had,
and as long as these stays within himself, which I
(29:48):
whatever I know of Daniel Jones, I just don't get
the impression he's going to go out there one day
he says, you know, I'm going for four hundred today
because I want to. That's not him. So that's why
I say this is a kind of offense that that
you can't take away Michael Pittman, and then somebody else
jumps up and take away Tyler Warren, and then somebody
(30:08):
else jumps up. So so far, so good, And I
like to add structure because it's it's the kind of
thing that should that can and should continue.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
By the way, chap if in no particular order, if
Marshall Falk, Eric Dickerson, Edge, Joseph and Dye, and Jonathan
Taylor are the top five backs in Indianapolis cult history,
who's sixth.
Speaker 4 (30:32):
Tom the Crudes?
Speaker 1 (30:34):
That's pretty good.
Speaker 4 (30:35):
Yeah, maybe yeah should have been, but they the moneyman
Disney World. Uh but but yeah, I had someone tell me,
uh against someone inside the teams and yeah, you know,
top running backs, and he had they had like like
(30:56):
j T like fourth, and I no, that's yeah, I'll
give you Edge and probably Dickerson. But when he was here,
not Fault, I would agree with he took off. Fault
took off when he went to the Rams. So that's
why I say, it's just crazy how Taylor for whatever reason,
I don't know what it is, and it's just not
(31:17):
that stupid fumble whatever in Denver. It's just that there's
something about him that people don't nationally don't appreciate. I
don't get it.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
I think part of it's the devalue of the running
back for a time. I think it's starting to come
back in vogue.
Speaker 4 (31:33):
But yeah, but that's cyclical and it's coming.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
Back, That's what I mean. So the other thing is he,
you know, Taylor for the running back position, Chap seemingly
you've either got to be a Barry Sanders juke move
guy and Eric Dickerson beautiful stride guy or an Earl
Campbell barrow you over guy. And Taylor is a little
(31:56):
bit of like two of the three of those. But
I but I don't know necesscessarily that either one. He
jumps out at you as being a staple of one
of those, and that's probably right.
Speaker 4 (32:05):
But he's just the acceleration the other one probably don't have.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
And he's got the thing about Taylor that is so fascinating,
not just as he had the acceleration, but the deceleration
in other words, you know what I mean. He can
go from second gear to six back to second and
then back to sixth again, which is impressive. Not many
guys that can do that.
Speaker 4 (32:25):
Edgrin had that. He had that jump step and as
soon as he put his foot in the ground after
the cut, he was gone. People. I really don't think
people appreciated James Yeah, for his greatness.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
By the way, Roosevelt Potts might be up there. Potts
and Albert Bentley both might be up there.
Speaker 4 (32:43):
Albert Bentley could have He could have been something they
hadn't created for Dickerson. I mean, we can go back
to the Dickerson thing that it didn't It didn't work,
but it was the right thing to do at the time.
But you were never gonna win. You were never going
to go through bad times with Derrek Tickers and not
who he was. Rosie Potts was one of my favorite players,
(33:05):
and he just remember that, whether he led the team
or was second in rushing one year and then the
next year they drafted Marshall and Rosie came in and
he was a fullback and he came in. He cut
like twenty or thirty pounds, and he thought he was
going to challenge Folk for the lead runner a ound that, yeah,
that's not gonna happen. But Rose was a great guy.
(33:28):
But and he he didn't really understand his role. But
what a great guy. And he went through some tough times.
But whenever Taylor does things, you know, the most enfranchised
is this franchise has got some great, great running back, right,
and whenever he does something, it's folks, this is not normal.
(33:51):
And again people, I said, well, he he broke the
single season rushing record in a seventeen game season. Yeah,
he did. He did it in game sixteen, So he's special.
I hope he stays as healthy as a running back
can in a season. I want to see what he
can do with this offense, because he's gonna get eighty
(34:14):
yards just because and when he breaks one of those
plays like he's always going to be like he normally does,
it's something special. So I really want to see what
he can do and have Jones sort of coattail off
of that because it's such a great combination that works.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
Mike Chapels our guest CBS four WX an Fox fifty
nine as well. Chap Obviously in week two, Xavier Howard
really struggled, and that defensive backfield has been depleted by
injury a little bit. Now we know Kenny Moore has
the cap injury, he may miss some time. Howard yesterday,
did he rebound or was it just the fact that
(34:55):
you're going against cam Ward who is learning the position
and a Titans group that is not over stout.
Speaker 4 (35:02):
Probably that he did have a holding penalty, uh, which
I don't get on. DB's too much for that, although
three and five plays that he had two weeks ago
was a bit much. But yeah, this is they're really
testing the depth of the secondary and and and I'm
not defending anybody with the team, but I don't want
(35:23):
to hear well, they should have done more to reinforce
that position. No, you can't have like ten deep, for
crying out loud, I think it's gonna be it's gonna
be really important with with Javarious Ward Mooney Ward to
be well this week, which I think he just had
cramps yesterday. I think, but you're gonna have uh Nakoup
(35:44):
this week. And he's the real deal. Remember the game
they played here with him as a rookie. YEP, overtime
and and they forgot that he was out there and
he cut the touchdown and overtime. So the Rams, the
Rams are the real deal. I don't know how they
lost that game yesterday. I guess black Field Wills will
do that to you. But this will be This is
(36:05):
not to beat my home. But I thought six and
two was. It was a very realistic start for these guys,
winning the first three, losing to the Rams, and then
you're home the next two.
Speaker 1 (36:17):
Right after that, you've got Raiders and Cardinals at home.
Speaker 4 (36:21):
I mean to get your right, and then you go
to Pittsburgh and then they can get Tennessee home.
Speaker 1 (36:27):
Well they here's what they got because I'm looking at
it right here. They got Rams right, and then you
go back to back home games with the Raiders and Cardinals,
followed by back to LA to take on the Chargers.
Speaker 4 (36:39):
Those are the two I thought they would lose.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
And then you've got Tennessee at home, so you get
right again, and then that's when Pittsburgh. Then you got
to go to in Pittsburgh.
Speaker 4 (36:48):
I don't know what they are. You know, they needed
five turnovers to beat New England, right or take it takeaways?
I mean and then you go to to Berlin against
Atlanta who just got rolled, and then you get to
buy a week and and then it gets tougher. Although
you know, we love to look ahead Kansas. Any there's
something wrong with the Chiefs.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
They can't run. They don't wrong, Chiefs don't have just
a a pound you in between the tackles level back
to salt clock. If they get a lead, that's their problem, right, they.
Speaker 4 (37:17):
Need they need to center Grove kid again his name escapes.
Speaker 2 (37:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (37:23):
I did a story on anybody here for the Pro Day.
So yeah, so again, you never know how it's gonna go.
That's why stealing one against Denver, which they absolutely stole
one against dinverd they did, uh, but but that that's
how the NFL works, and you just you just stack him.
And I think so far Steichen has done a great
job of keeping these guys locked in the oh seven
(37:46):
day because if there if there was a trap game,
it was Sunday it was. And then cam Hord mails
you a seven to nothing lead, which is what an
awful throw. But I like what this team's doing. Again.
I think what's important to me is are not doing
anything extraordinary? The boy they're playing at a high level.
(38:07):
Special teams still bother with me with some of the
returns coverage. But every team's got issues. This team has
fewer than most.
Speaker 1 (38:17):
It's so far, so far, so good, and they look
they do credit to Chris Ballard, they do look like
they've got depth and areas that they wanted to have depth.
Mike Chapel, CBS four, w x A and Fox to
Denn chap appreciate it as always, to talk to you
next week.
Speaker 4 (38:30):
All right, look forward to it, you guys. Be well.
Speaker 1 (38:32):
All right, my Chapel joining us on the program, joining
us now on the guest line. He had two sacks
yesterday and of course leading that defense that made things
difficult for Tennessee yesterday. Taekwon Lewis joining us on the show. Taikwan,
how are you?
Speaker 5 (38:50):
How are you doing? I'm good, just I'm doing just far.
I'm ready get this week started. You know, I was
excited about last week and yesterday's so formance, but ready
to get going this week.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
You know, how does it, to be honest with you,
I'm curious of this in the NFL calendar, so to speak.
Uh mondays I would assume are primarily for you guys.
To maybe get treatment and kind of look over things
and then turn the page. Like, at what point in
the course of a week do you put the previous
game completely behind you and then start looking towards the
(39:21):
next opponent? What what timeline does that take place?
Speaker 5 (39:26):
Uh? I say, usually right after we finish the film,
you know, we we watch it, go over the corrections
and mishappens in the NV. You know, we pretty much
want to the next thing, and you just start breaking
down tape, you know, just breaking down players, plays, concepts
and stuff, and you know it's it's like routine, have
(39:49):
it to us?
Speaker 1 (39:50):
And the film session is when like Monday morning, Monday afternoon, Tuesday.
What day do you guys go over? What's that?
Speaker 5 (39:56):
Monday Mondays, Monday on Monday morning, Monday morning, when Monday afternoon?
And then after that, uh, you know tuesdays or usually
our off day. But you know a lot of guys
still come to work and we just just grind it out. Man.
Speaker 1 (40:11):
You know what's funny to me? Taekwon Lewis our guests
from the Colts. I'm curious when you're watch when you
watch film, for example, how often do you see stuff
that that you don't recall during the course of the game,
or that you that you see it when you're watching
it from up high, where you're like, man, that does
now I do see what we did wrong? Or you
(40:31):
know what I mean? Or usually more often than not,
does it pretty much spell out what you knew going
into it?
Speaker 5 (40:39):
Uh? Yeah, majority of the time. You know. I think
the thing with film is we usually have three views
of it that the television watcher like can't see. So
when we watch safe, it's usually like from multiple views.
You got up high, you got right behind the D line,
and then you got the other side with the offenses.
(41:01):
So you know, it gives the coaches and the players
a little bit more perspective from like each different position.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
So yesterday, let's talk about this in terms of Tennessee.
You know, you know going into it that you were
going against a quarterback who is new to the league,
but at the same time pretty darn athletic, right, you know,
what sort of things just from a matchup or maybe
it's low and Umo's defense that you like, what sort
(41:29):
of things did facilitate or enable you to get multiple sacks? Yesterday?
Speaker 5 (41:35):
All right? Really it was just knowing that, you know,
the guys back, having our backs and coverage and you
know guys next to me, you know, just honoring our rustlanes.
You know that's the main thing. The key to sacks
is just wrest lanes and one of your one on ones.
I think it's a lot of discipline amongst us as
(41:56):
a group. You know, cover, Rush, Russian cover all goes together.
You know, I pull out everybody that that that helps
us get sacks, and you know we help out when
people get intercesses.
Speaker 1 (42:07):
What was the uh, I'll say learning curve. I mean
anytime that you have a new boss, a new coordinator,
it's different, right, So so when you come in with
vander Room. But what you know what was different this year?
Speaker 5 (42:20):
Well, I would say it's a it's a it's a
lot more schematics. I would say, you know, Lou Lou
is definitely like a maths scientist. You know, he has
a lot of like different ways he could like set
things up. And I mean it took a lot of
(42:41):
learning for us because you know we're used to playing
you know, a four down at tax style defense and
you know this one is it's a lot more like
you know, discipline and more gap integrity. I should say
versus like you know, any other system that I've been in,
Like it's always gap integrity, but it's more disrupt the
(43:06):
previous years we played what.
Speaker 1 (43:07):
About for you guys as a team, Taekwan lewis our guest.
You know, you're three and zero. There were a lot
of question marks coming into the year. And I know
it's the other side of the ball, but I wanted
you to just expand, taekwe for our listeners and for
colts fans about you know Daniel Jones in general, Like
he just seems to be kind of a quiet leader type.
I know it's a different side of the ball, different room,
(43:29):
but it seems to be kind of setting a tone
for you guys in general. Is that an accurate statement
in terms of the kind of leadership Jones is?
Speaker 5 (43:38):
For the leader he is, uh, I would definitely say
that he is the guy who brings everyone together. You know,
he knows everybody, He hangs out with everybody. You know,
he's a real locker room guy. He's a real great guy. Man.
He's just a cool dude. You know, he's he's one
(44:01):
of the guys. He's like one of the guys. And
I mean he never like leaves anyone out. You know,
I respect him for that. I think he does a
great job with that. I think that, you know, the
camaraderie in the locker room right now was you know,
it's high. I mean, we're winning and you know, the
brotherhood is getting stronger as we win. You know, throughout
(44:23):
the highs and lows of training camp for all of that,
you know, everybody start together through everything that was going on,
you know, so you know, we just blocked out the
noise and we just go to work every single day.
Speaker 1 (44:34):
Were you guys surprised that, I mean that was such
a big storyline that the quarterback battle, right Were you
surprised it was? Jones?
Speaker 5 (44:42):
I mean, I think that the way that the coaches
went about it, you know, it was just we knew
what we had to do as a defense, and we
knew we had to do as a team in order
to win. So I wouldn't say a surprise, but we
just knew that whatever the decision was, we were gonna
(45:03):
rally behind it and we were just gonna come together
as a team and just win win games.
Speaker 1 (45:08):
You know. One of the things that taekwon Lewis is
our guests that to me. I'll give it and I've
mentioned this I'll give Chris Ballard a lot of credit
for and that is that it seems like you guys
have more depth than you have on other teams that
you've been a part of with the Colts in certain
areas have been tested, like for example, already behind you
in the defensive backfield, you know, guys have gone down
(45:30):
and others have been able to step in and play well.
You know, they've got some depth there. But I'm curious
for you or just as a unit in general, do
you do you kind of have to learn tendencies of
different guys when you're not used to being on the
field with them. Or is scheme scheme and the faces
(45:50):
don't matter?
Speaker 5 (45:53):
Uhs scheme and I think like faces do matter. But however,
you know, you are to play to the level of
your preparation, and you know, I think that all of
that plays apart into it, you know, especially as like
as a defense. You know, we're not going out there
and asking you to be someone that you're not. We
(46:13):
just asked that you be the best version of you
when you go out there. Make sure you do your
job because at the end of the day, It's all
about the team. You know. If you do your job,
you're disciplined, and you play to the level of your
preparation ability. You know, the rest of you take care
of yourself.
Speaker 1 (46:28):
Okay, now we do this each time I have somebody
on taikwan. I'm going to do it with you real quick. Here, Okay,
you are from Tarboro, North Carolina. Did I say that? Correct?
Speaker 5 (46:36):
That's there?
Speaker 1 (46:36):
Okay? And I don't know is that where is that?
Is that near Charlotte or what part of north the
state of North Carolina is No.
Speaker 5 (46:42):
I'm actually from eastern North Carolina. I think I like
to call it the best part of the state where
you get barbecue.
Speaker 1 (46:51):
Okay, fair enough. Now, your high school, by the way,
purple and yellow and the Vikings. Right, So, did you
grow up a fan of the Minnesota Vikings?
Speaker 5 (47:00):
No, I actually grew up a fan of the Indianapolis. Cool.
Speaker 1 (47:02):
There you go. There's the answer. That's the right answer
right there. Okay, Yeah, Now here's the thing. Your high
school and I'm looking right now, I'm going to give
you a little trivia quiz. Here. Are you ready?
Speaker 5 (47:14):
Okay?
Speaker 1 (47:15):
There are a couple of players that are listed as
prominent alumni of your high school. Actually, it's pretty impressive
the list of alumni from your high school. One of
them and this one, like, I'm way older than you are, Okay,
but I'm curious how much this guy was talked about
at your schooler when you were a kid. One of
these guys was a prominent USFL player and also NFL
(47:38):
player that had a really good career as a running back,
and he had played at the University of North Carolina
if I'm not mistaken, in the early eighties and was
probably the first breakout. Do you know who I'm talking about?
Speaker 5 (47:49):
Yeah, number forty four, Calvin right.
Speaker 1 (47:51):
Kelvin Bryant is correct, Yes, all right? Now, super Bowl
he did as a matter of fact, one of what
the Washington then Redskins. Okay, Now, another guy I think
that probably would have been a teammate of yours. Did
Are you the same class as or how close were
you to Todd Gurley?
Speaker 5 (48:09):
Uh? He is one year old, one one class older.
Speaker 1 (48:13):
Okay, So but you guys, I'm just assuming that you
guys had to have been really good in high school.
Were you really good?
Speaker 5 (48:20):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (48:23):
Like how good?
Speaker 4 (48:24):
Okay?
Speaker 1 (48:24):
It says here nine football state championships sir, Tarboro was
one of them on a team you were on.
Speaker 5 (48:32):
Uh? Three of them?
Speaker 1 (48:33):
Three of them?
Speaker 2 (48:35):
Wow?
Speaker 1 (48:35):
Okay, all right, fair enough?
Speaker 5 (48:37):
I think the fourth straight?
Speaker 1 (48:39):
Well who beat you in the fourth?
Speaker 5 (48:42):
Uh? I think uh East Lincoln?
Speaker 1 (48:47):
Yeah, cheaters right, East Lincoln cheaters, corrupt program?
Speaker 5 (48:51):
Yeah six? I think he has six favels in one day.
Speaker 1 (48:56):
Yeah. That that won't do it for you, that's for certain. Okay. Then, lastly,
so your Buckeyes is Ohio State, Ohio State? Right now?
How much do you still follow? I know you guys
in the locker room, you know, will joke around, kind
of poke fun to each other, that kind of thing.
How much do you realistically get a chance to watch
what Ohio State's doing?
Speaker 5 (49:15):
I try to watch every Saturday if they try to
catch it.
Speaker 1 (49:19):
And they they are or are not the best team
in college football not named? Come on? What about Hey?
How about Indiana? Though?
Speaker 5 (49:28):
Man?
Speaker 1 (49:29):
Come on, give the who'ser some love here? It's Ohio
Ohio against the world, right okay? Lastly, Taekwon, you know,
I know you guys probably have not gotten a chance
to get into it just yet. But one thing we
know about the Rams that is the next on the
schedule for you not only a great stadium, great environment,
(49:51):
but that is a pretty high flying offense. Your thoughts
so far, at least from the outside about Matt Stafford
in that.
Speaker 5 (49:57):
Group, Well, we know they have some dynamic playmakers and
they're running back and Karen Williams, Pooka Nicole, I mean,
obviously he's he's he had a really great year last year.
Davontae Adams, he's an established VET. They have Tyler Higby, uh,
you know, he's been around, and you know Gray old Line.
(50:19):
You know, they have a great head coach and McVay
who all. You know, I think all of those guys,
you know, I played against them before, so you know,
it's it's definitely quite fascinating to watch what they do
on offense. But you know, we line up and play
football anywhere anytime, So you know, it's just guy get
(50:39):
ready to play the game and played the right way
and go out do our jobs and get a win.
Speaker 1 (50:43):
Speaking the head coaches, you've obviously been here, you know,
for the totality of Shane Stikeen's time, it seems from
the outside like Shane Stikeen has really kind of grown
into that role. How if in any way, have you
seen him grow or change from when he first became
a head coach to now.
Speaker 5 (51:03):
Oh, Shane Shane does a great job. You know, he
does a great job navigating us in the locker room
and putting us in the right position to win, especially
with like building a bond with with with the guys. Uh,
you know, he this year we did a lot of
like off season things where we came together a little more.
You know, we got you know, I mean, you guys
(51:26):
probably seeing it on social media or something, but like
you know, we do bowling, we go paintballing with just
a lot of stuff Shane Shane like implements with us
in order to help us grow as a team and
you know, just be connected because i mean, like he says,
when we're connected with I mean we're yeah, we're connected
with committed, and you know, it just builds us together.
(51:46):
So and I mean that's that's the biggest thing I've
seen for him.
Speaker 1 (51:49):
Are you a good bowler?
Speaker 5 (51:54):
I mean I'm dcent. You know, I go hang.
Speaker 1 (51:58):
Out, I I'm good at bowling for like one game
and then after that, like you you would not have
this problem. But for me, eventually, like I'm like man,
my arm is sore from bowling too much, which is weird,
I realized.
Speaker 5 (52:09):
But you know what I mean. Uh, yeah, it does
get like that.
Speaker 1 (52:13):
Yeah, Taekwan Lewis again, Colts Rams coming up on Sunday,
But for right now, the big news is one of
six that are unbeaten in the National Football League and
two sacks yesterday against the Tennessee Titans, two of the
four where the Colts came from. Taekwon Lewis, Taekwon, We
appreciate it, man, appreciate the time and look forward to
watching you over the course of the year. And then also,
(52:33):
don't be totally upset if in fact there is some
sort of an upset. And I think Indiana place. Does
Indiana have Ohio state this year?
Speaker 5 (52:40):
Eddie?
Speaker 1 (52:40):
Maybe they don't. It might be a break for your bucks. Yeah,
it's a break for the Buckeyes. Scheduling breaks the million two.
All right, Taekwan, appreciate it, man, all right, appreciate you,
Thank you. Taekwan Lewis from the Indianapolis Colts
It's Monday, it's twelve thirty.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
It's fish.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
The putter out there on the field is Kalin Crimmins
and the beat snap from center.
Speaker 3 (00:08):
Indiana's gonna pick it up.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Here's the snap back and pressure comes a little screen
out here. Noah Kowski the tight end down to the tunny,
down to the town tough. Here's the snaff and this
time to hand off the hivy and run up the gun.
Speaker 4 (00:26):
He's gonna go out of the ten five touch That.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Roman himby forty yard run for the touchdown.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
And there was a hole you could drive a train through.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
This Indiana football team is feeling like they can eat Illinois.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Lunch any moment, anytime they want to. Here they come
across the field. Both ball clubs will shake hands. Now
in Indiana blows away the fighting Alainai of Illinois tonight
to the tune of sixty three to ten.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
The Voice of the Hoosiers, Don Fisher joining query company
on ninety three five and one oh seven five the fan.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
That's how it sounded. You just heard him on the call,
Don Fisher, the Voice of the Hoosiers. As Indiana sets
a record for the most points ever against a Top
ten team in the history of the Big Ten Conference,
and he joined us now to talk about that and more.
And Don, I got to be honest with you as
I'm watching the game and then we were watching it
(01:24):
and then listening to it on my drive, and I
thought to myself, you know, Don Fisher, for the first
couple of years that he was doing Indiana football probably
didn't have a lot of times where he got to
say touchdown Indiana. And he got to make up for
all in one night, which was nice of them.
Speaker 5 (01:38):
Right.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
That was an unbelievable performance and that has to be
would you agree, as electric a night atmosphere as you
have ever seen at Memorial Stadium.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
It goes down as number one in my book. I've
not seen anything like that in a long time. I've
not seen anything like our crowds basically for a long
time like this either. And the chaos, the noise, the excitement,
the flags waving. The atmosphere at Indiana University right now
(02:14):
at home football games is absolutely electric. And I hope
it continues for the rest of the season and for
as long as I keep doing games, because it makes
it more fun.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
If you know what I made, Don it, here's what's remarkable,
and I want you to tell me if you agree
or disagree with this. Don Fisher, our guest. The thing
about this team, and the same is true of last
year with Indiana, and I mean this in the most
complimentary ways, but that is that if I had to
pinpoint what it is that makes them efficient, that makes
(02:46):
them good, I just keep going back to the answer
of I don't know. They're just efficient and good. You know,
they just they do not make mistakes, and I guess
they kind of just put other teams in position where
you're waiting for the other team to make a mistake
and capitalize on it. I can't pinpoint it if it
were up to you to assess what it is, What
(03:07):
is it this team and this program is doing that
is different.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
You know, it's it is hard to pinpoint. There's no
question because and maybe the one thing that I can
tell you or explain this a little bit better would
be our in our pregame on Saturday with Bucks, who
were we had to fill time for about fifteen minutes
(03:35):
at the outset of our broadcast because the kickoff was
going to take place twenty minutes later than seven thirty, right,
and NBC obviously had something to do with that, and
actually had most to do with it because of the
time constraints for their first game, but for doing Notre Dame,
and they had a problem with weather delay at westlat Viette. Anyway,
(03:57):
long story shorts South Bend, but long story short.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Bucks were went on the air with me.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
We talked about this Illinois ball club and Buck said,
I've watched a lot of film on Illinois.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
I've watched them.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
I've watched them in two or three different versions of
themselves this past year.
Speaker 4 (04:19):
I looked at the.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
Duke game again this morning, he said, And then he said,
I can't find one thing that I think Illinois is
better at than Indiana on the field. I said what
he said, I don't see one thing that Indiana is
not better than Illinois at on the field. And I said, well,
(04:42):
that means Indiana is going to win in a big way.
And here's the thing, Buck is right, what does this
team do different than everybody else? I don't know that
they do a ton of things different. They just do
everything a little bit better. And I think this team
is one of the best I've seen. And what and
(05:04):
what we've seen the last two years, we've seen two
teams that beat them last year. They were just better team, right,
they had more personnel, they had better talent. And this
team this year, we haven't seen them against great competition yet.
And I include Illinois in that because they got exposed
on Saturday. But at the same time, what does Indiana
(05:27):
do That's that's poor literally nothing. That's just a matter
of personnel. It becomes a matter of personnel, that's it.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
And I'm watching the game at the beginning, okay, And
I was going back to the conversation we had with you,
and you're exactly right on this when you talk about,
you know, Illinois, Indiana limited Illinois to two rushing yards
two two rushing yards on Saturday night. And that Illinois
offensive line is massive. I mean, and they're a good line.
(05:57):
I mean, it's not like they're there, you know, there's
one thing to just be guys and then not being
I mean, that is a good and massive offensive line.
And yet Indiana defensively with their whether it be their speed,
they're there. They absolutely had their way with them and
that to me, that, to me, Don was the biggest
area of surprise. Did that surprise you the way Indiana's
(06:20):
defensive line was able to completely control things.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
I would have said to you had I not done
the talk show with Kurt Signetti on Thursday of last week,
that it would have surprised me. But when Kurt Signetti
told me off air during a commercial break, I said,
you all, Illinois offensive line is massive, coach, how are
you going to deal with that? And he says, massive
(06:47):
doesn't mean they're fast or quick, and he said it
in such a matter of fact way as if to
tell me we're just quicker and we're and we're better
than they are in that sense. Here's the bottom line here, Jake,
is that Kurt Signetti and his staff are tremendous coaches.
(07:11):
They coach the heck out of their kids, and they
do it in such a way that these kids buy in.
And it's just a if they're going to get beat,
it's going to because the other team has more talent, right,
more skill, whatever the case may be. It's not going
to be because these guys don't know what they're doing,
(07:32):
because that's absolutely a false statement. If you say, Indiana,
you know these kids don't know what they're doing because
they know exactly what they're doing because they practice the
crap out of it, and they are just phenomenal at
executing it.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
You know, at the beginning of the season, Fernando Mendoza
had said, I think it was after game one don
that he felt like he still needed to kind of
get his footing underneath him. And he had. You know,
certainly the stats and the pedic at cal in coming
to Indiana and Curtis work was a darn good quarterback
for Indiana year ago, one of the best we've seen
(08:06):
in Bloomington, and so there were some big shoes to
fill there. But clearly with that Illinois game, what we
saw is that he had a I mean such a
firm control of that offense. Is that based on the
coaching staff just saying to him, hey, you know, let
it slow, let the game come to you a little
bit and slow it down from that game, one say
(08:28):
to now, or is that just the veteran ability of
a Mendoza being an upper classman of just having the
confidence to continue to do the reps and have that
kind of a breakout game.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Well, and here's here's what I know.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
When players come to Indiana now, if they don't buy
in to what the coaches are teaching, they aren't playing.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Or they're gone. It's that simple, and.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Kurt Signetti and his staff do a phenomenal job of
getting guys to understand that. And Fernando it comes to
Indiana after being chased all over the football field a
year ago, dealing with forty six or forty seven sacks.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
I think they said that he was sacked last year. Obviously,
he comes in.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
He's got a little skitty because he doesn't want to
get hit again. And he wasn't, of course in spring practice,
but he had a little happy feet when he got
here and that kind of dissipated through spring practice and
he was much better. Sig said, he was better in
the last three or four practices of spring, and then
when they got to the fall, he said he continued
to make progress. Well, the progress that he's made shows
(09:40):
you two things. Number One, he is a veteran, he's
been in the wars, so to speak. And number two,
he's being coached dramatically well. And the thing about Fernando
that we still don't know at this point is how
much more improvement he can make. Because if you look
at the last two games, he has completed forty of
(10:01):
forty three passes for ten for ten touchdowns. I've never
seen a completion rate by anybody that's forty of forty three.
It's just astounding. And obviously he has things that he
keeps talking about after ballgames. I got to get better
at this, and I got to get better at that,
(10:21):
and I mean think about that. And again, is he
a perfect quarterback. No, nobody is. But he's a guy
that's learning and every week he tries to put into
play the things that he has learned that have helped
him become better in that week's performance. And that's all
(10:42):
it's all about. And that's one of Kurt Signetti's philosophies.
Get better every day.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Now.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
We hear a lot of coaches say that, but how
many of them actually do and we're certainly seeing that
with Fernando Mendoz No.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
I just think, you know, one of the things, and
there's a very final with this when it comes to coaching.
Right of confidence, and I'll say borishness. I don't mean
that Kurt Signetti is, but I mean you see that
in coaches. But you know, late in that game, they
a couple of times they showed Kurt Signetti on the sidelines,
and I think the thing that jumped out at me
down and I'm curious if you know, I think you
(11:19):
noticed this probably the first week you around this guy.
But there just was this epiphany of you know what,
everybody can talk about what Indiana's doing against Illinois, but
that guy on the sideline with the headset on expected that.
I'm not saying he expected him to win like that.
I'm not saying he disrespected Illinois. I'm saying he expects
his team to be in this situation week in and
(11:42):
week out and doesn't even seem content with it. Just
all business, which I love, right, I mean, it's all business.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
That's exactly correct.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
There is nothing but the business at Haym with Kurt Signetti,
and there's a standard and he talks about that when
Signetti you listen to a good press conference and somebody
asks him a question about, uh, how need these guys
to buy in? Well, we have a standard here. You know,
we've got a standard. We expect you to match or
(12:13):
at least reach that standard. If you can't do that,
you're probably not going to play. And if you do play,
you're probably not going to play very long because you're
not reaching the standard that we expect. So there the expectations.
I would say this, Jake, that the expectations for Kurt
Signetti are he raises the bar every single day. He
(12:37):
expects your team to get better and if you're not
getting better, you're getting worse.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
So and that's the only.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
Way you can be a great football team if you're
getting better day after day. And that's the standard that
he sets. And that's why I think, you know, when
you watch him on the sidelines during football games, you
almost well at this point and I'm not down there
watching him, but I've never seen smile. He's not smiling,
(13:06):
and he's always there's always something you can do better.
Speaker 4 (13:10):
And he in.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
Our press conference today, he starts talking about the fact
that you know, yeah, it was a great win. It
was a really good win for us. We really we
did a lot of really good things. But he said
there was so much to look at in the film
afterwards that we've got to clean up. And he was
talking about especially on the defensive side of the football.
There were four or five plays, he said, were we
(13:34):
just didn't get it done. And he's so his standard
is this. It doesn't have to be perfect, but it's
got to be close. And my goodness, were they close
on Saturday.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
I think the standard is he goes over on Friday
night and watches Edgewood and sees him get a shut
out for the third time in five weeks and says,
all right, let's go right, and that what it is.
He sees the Mustangs at five and oh, coming off
of thirty five nothing shutout, and he's like, all right, guys,
precedents there, let's go.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Well.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
This may sound like a coach's dad, but I'm really
proud of my son. Number one, But number two, they
haven't played anybody but the best team that they played,
and they were one a team that was right number
one in the standings of the state at that time.
But they still haven't played anybody yet. And believe me,
(14:26):
what my son's done so far has really made me
proud because he's had to build it from the ground up,
and in the two years he's been there, they really
took their lumps. But suddenly they're having some success, and
it's really special to watch that happen and see how
that program is evolving.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
At this point.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
It didn't happen like it didn't happen like Kurtzygnetti coming
to Edgewood and all of a sudden finding the tools
that he needs because you've got a pretty much in
a high school level, you got to work with what
you got. And when he first got there, and it's
not a knock on the kid, but the program was
suffering because they had so many years of failure. And
(15:05):
so at this point we're excited and we're really proud
of what we've seen. But it's the real season is
about to start for them too, because they're going to
face their toughest challenges here in the next four weeks.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Edgewood coming up, by the way, they got Beech Grove
coming up on Friday, and then after that it is
Sullivan and Northview. As for Indiana up next at Iowa
and then of course a big showdown with Oregon as well.
Don appreciate the time as always, and certainly hope you
enjoyed that Saturday night, because that was pretty special.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
It was special, love question. I enjoyed it immensely.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
I'll bet Don appreciate it.
Speaker 5 (15:40):
You bet to see it.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Don Fisher, the voice of the Indiana Hoosiers, Mike Chappell,
CBS four wxin Fox fifty nine in just about twenty
seconds but before that, Eddie health updates from the National
Football League as it relates to local players.
Speaker 6 (15:56):
Yes, so last night, if you were watching Sunday Night Football,
you saw if you're in the fantasy football league at
the Quaring Company one, you'll notice Tyrone's lifting buddy in
high school yours truly right here if you forgot about that.
He exited the game last night with a shoulder injury.
It was a Tracy right, Yes, Tyrone Tracy Junior exited
the game last night with a shoulder injury. It was
announced date it's a dislocated shoulder. He'll miss sometime. It's
(16:19):
uncertain on how long it'll be. And then Ben Davis
High School graduate Dewand Jones of the Cleveland Browns is
out for the rest of the season with a knee injury.
So not a good day for two former Indiana high
school athletes.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
Now, I was well aware of that situation with Tyrone
Tracy because in my fantasy team is terrible because justin
Jefferson and t Higgins in particular, I have nobody thrown
them in the football. But I was going up against
I think it was Derek's team met No, brandy Wine's Banchies,
which is Brian's team, and he has Camp's kataboo, and
(16:53):
he needed a certain number of points last night, and
I thought, well, it looked like I was going to
get my first win. And then Tracey it out and
he could play man, he could play, and that was
a heck of a fine for the Giants and for
Brian for that matter, joining us now on the show
a guy that cares nothing about our fantasy football teams,
nor should he. Mike Chappell of CBS four and WXI
(17:14):
N chap I will begin with this, and that is
a question that I asked a couple of people last week,
But I want your thought on this. Is Daniel Jones
playing at a level that is allowing Shane Steiken to
get creative with this play calling, or is Shane Steiken
calling plays right now to best benefit and play with
(17:35):
them the ceiling of Daniel Jones.
Speaker 4 (17:37):
Probably yes, And yes, I've always up the last couple
of years as much as and I hope we don't
get on a I mean we in general get on
a pile on Anthony Richardson deal, that's not what this is.
But he and Jones are diametrically opposed as quarterbacks, and
(17:58):
I thought the fact what they could do with Anthony
Richardson and the lack of a tight end. Let's keep
in mind, they've lacked key, a key offensive player that
Shange Stack can always makes use of. So this is
so thinking. It's three weeks and I'm one of those
I kind of keep waiting for the other shoot to
drop because because it normally does. But boy, after three games,
(18:22):
it's just been the perfect marriage. Offensively, still some pickups
on defense, but offensively, gosh, what would you complain about. Uh,
they're being created, They're spreading the ball around, They're getting
I've said for the last couple of years that Jonathan
Taylor is the most underappreciated great player nationally. He just
(18:46):
is how you see all these these offseason I think
it was a Dane tot Com or somebody had the
top hundred players. I don't believe he or Quintin Nelson
Moro on it. And I'm thinking they're just, you know,
invalidated the entire survey. So I think it's a perfect marriage,
and I maybe I'm wrong, But what I keep coming
(19:07):
back to with this offense with one hundred and three points,
the most sense one hundred since thineteen sixty seven, second
most enfranchised history to open a season. I just don't
see anything spectacular, and that's a compliment. They're just executing.
They're making plays.
Speaker 5 (19:27):
Now.
Speaker 4 (19:27):
A couple of Jonathan Taylor runs are spectacular. They are,
but that's what great backs do. But Michael Pittman's playing well,
Tyler Warren giving them what they haven't had since I'll
go back to Dallas Clark and I don't mean that
as a knock on Jack Doyle, but it's a perfect marriage.
And I think they're just asking Jones to make plays
(19:50):
and avoid some sacks. He's probably avoided I don't know,
four or five sacks by the one yesterday, the seventeen
yard run, or he was in gold in the pocket
and got out on a third or whatever it was
when the game was still you know, a game. Uh,
it's just worked and uh, I'm watching last night and
(20:13):
the Giants are such a mess. And I know Jones
didn't there were times he didn't play well with the Giants.
But don't you put most most of what happened in
Jones's first five or six years on the Giants organization.
I mean, they just, you know, the big thing in
(20:35):
Scataboy's a good story. But when your two stories over
the last couple of years are him and de Vido,
I mean, what do you got? What are you doing?
So I think this is a perfect marriage, perfect storm
to this point, and I again, what they're doing. There's
no reason to say, well, yeah, but this can't continue
(20:57):
what it can because there's four or five receivers, including war.
We really haven't seen Ady Mitchell get going yet because
there hasn't been reps. He may get reps if Alec
pierces out a little bit. But they're doing They're just
playing the way you're supposed to play in they're executing
and all that stuff. So I've seen no reason that
(21:20):
this offense can't keep this up. Maybe not the thirty
four points a game level, but efficiency level, or whether
putting up twenty seven points a game and you scored
twenty seven points. All you need is your defense to
play okay, and this defense is playing better than okay.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
You know the chap and not to always go back
to this storyline, because there's a lot of really good
stuff to talk about here, right, But I was curious
of this as I was watching yesterday and I want
you to tell me if it makes sense. The real
benefit of Daniel Jones playing at the level that he
has been playing is the obvious. They're winning games, and
(21:58):
that's what ultimately you are designed to do. And if
this continues, and if he maintains and is able to
show to the rest of the league that yes, in fact,
it was as much a New York thing as a
Daniel Jones thing in the first go round. If that's
the case, and I've seen you know, you saw Matt
Ryan talking about how what he's doing is, you know,
playing at a whole new level, and you know, everybody
(22:19):
seems to be noticing, gosh, this guy can play, and
he's making good decisions in all of those things. Does
that increase or rather even does it give some value
to Anthony Richardson on the trademark. I know the Colts
have said they're not going to trade Anthony Richardson, But
if Daniel Jones indeed proves to be the long term guy,
(22:41):
doesn't it increase the trade value of Richardson, because then
teams would say, gosh, now I see why Richard. It's
not that it's not an indictment on Richardson that he
didn't win the job over this guy. Does that make
sense what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (22:55):
Well, it depends on whether you're talking trading now or
trading at the end of the season.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
Yeah, I mean, let's say or whatever. And I always
forget when the trade deadline would be, but yes, even
at the end of the season October something, Okay, So yeah,
you probably need believe.
Speaker 4 (23:10):
But let's say you're seven and two, seven and three whatever,
and somebody offers you a four for Rechison, which I
don't know that he would get fat. Then then what
you're doing. You're a playoff caliber team that might win
the division. And your backup quarterback is right a Leonard
who who has done his job well, but he the
(23:32):
rookie and he's not ready. So then if Jones gets
hurt and then you need three games in November December,
and you would Friday Leonard, then you're screwed. So I
I think the longer this goes well, the less likelihood
of Richardson being traded this season. Now next season. You know,
(23:54):
let's say again, let's We've talked in the pressure a
lot about this and I've always thought I consider it
the worst case scenario if Jones wins it, won the job,
and then they go ten and seven, eleven and six
and make the playoffs, win the division. Then what do
you do right? Then You've got You've got Daniel Jones
(24:16):
who's a free agent, and you can always franchise him
for a year if you wanted, which is costly, but
it's just one year. So that would be such a great,
great problem to have issue to have, not a problem
issue to have. But boy, and what I consider trading
Richardson in the offseason? Yes, I would because I think
(24:38):
it would be hard to bring him back again, because
if things work out well, you're going to find some
way to bring Jones back and do this again.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Here's to me, Chap, what is impressive about Daniel Jones
and what's encouraging about Daniel Jones? And I mean this,
and I mean this is to Daniel Jones. This is
not meant in comparison to any other player. I don't
mean it that way at all. But the thing about
Jones to me that's been impressive is he seems to
have a very clear understanding as to the ceiling of
(25:11):
Daniel Jones from one play to the next. And if
something's not working he doesn't step outside of what it
is that he needs or can do in order to
make it work. And for that reason, I think you
can grow with him. I think you can build around
him because of the fact that he does not put
himself for his team in a bad situation. If a
(25:33):
bad situation is out there to be had, Does that
make sense?
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (25:38):
Yeah. And that's why I say I can see this
continuing because he's not doing anything like always smokes. I've
not seen him throw the ball like that or whatever,
make a play like it. No, he's staying within within
the framework. It's and it comes off wrong, but he's
managing the offense. But he's not a game manager, and
I think there's a difference. A game manager is a
(25:59):
guy who really can't do it. Maybe minshew it's a
game manager. I don't know, but that's not what he is.
He's but he's managing the offense. And that's why I
say it's the one thing that change Dyke and emphasized
was he wanted to consistently reliability and that's one of
the reasons that he went with Jones. And because everything
(26:25):
and sometimes we're wrong to do this, but everything that
Styken has said about Daniel Jones is sort of what
you don't but you haven't got. With Richardson, you know,
you got the great plays and all that, but again
Jones was for Richardson's fifty percent completion percentage. You can't
play offense in the NFL with that, you can't. Jones
(26:46):
is at like seventy one percent and probably the most
incredible stat he's like nine point three in attempt So
while he's making the underneath throws to Warren and Pittman
and all this, he's getting show Stanley's eliat a nice
one to Josh stawmns. I thought the one Pierce got
hurt on I thought he caught it. I did. I thought,
(27:07):
I tell you control of it.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
I would agree with that, and I think the replay
showed that right, I thought so.
Speaker 4 (27:12):
I mean it was it was like the second bounce
that the ball came loose.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
And I thought so in consequential. But when when Pierce
didn't get up from that play, we now know he's
in concussion protocol. I assumed he got because a lot
of times you see guys get the win knocked out him.
If you land on the football and it hits you
in the abdomen. That's what I kind of thought happened there.
But you know, we have to see in terms of
Pierce what the health status is beyond.
Speaker 4 (27:37):
It's just it's his third concussion and he's missed one
game after each of the first two. So you know,
I was talking with somebody last night about it and
he said, he said, he's okay, Yeah, well players do that.
Of course players do that. So so we'll see. And
teams are extremely, extremely cautious with concussions because you have
(28:00):
to be so. But again, if he's out, then that's
going to give Mitchell a chance to step up and
be that guy. But again he'll be the third guy.
Pick at fourth guy when you consider it. Tyler Warren
with Pittman and Josh Now, I'm still waiting for Josh
downs to go off, which he hasn't done yet. So
but as long as got as long as you're getting
(28:20):
Jonathan Taylor getting a hundred some yards. Again, people either
either don't recognize or forget that among active running backs
active running backs, he leads all of them in rushing
yards per game. It's like ninety yards a game or whatever.
He's had one hundred yards in six or the last seven.
And I had to double check this, and I do
(28:44):
trust the Colts PR, but I still had to check
it out. Or what is it? Three hundred and thirty
eight yards? I think it is in three games, the
most yards by a cult running back since at least
nineteen seventy, really in the first three games, and I thought, hey,
no way, Edrin had to have more than that, and
he didn't. So you know, Taylor's off to this great start.
Knock on wood. You hope, you hope he maintains his health.
(29:07):
But remember he ran. He ran for fourteen hundred last
year and he was three games. So again, I just
think that he I wrote this last week, and I
truly believe it. When Jones had his season in twenty
twenty two or like nine and seven, and they made
the playoffs and one and one of a first round game
(29:28):
he had Saint Kwon Berkley, and when you give a
quarterback that type of a running game, and then again,
this is the best supporting cast, best offensive line, best
set of receivers, best tied end that Jones has had,
and as long as these stays within himself, which I
(29:48):
whatever I know of Daniel Jones, I just don't get
the impression he's going to go out there one day
he says, you know, I'm going for four hundred today
because I want to. That's not him. So that's why
I say this is a kind of offense that that
you can't take away Michael Pittman, and then somebody else
jumps up and take away Tyler Warren, and then somebody
(30:08):
else jumps up. So so far, so good, And I
like to add structure because it's it's the kind of
thing that should that can and should continue.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
By the way, chap if in no particular order, if
Marshall Falk, Eric Dickerson, Edge, Joseph and Dye, and Jonathan
Taylor are the top five backs in Indianapolis cult history,
who's sixth.
Speaker 4 (30:32):
Tom the Crudes?
Speaker 1 (30:34):
That's pretty good.
Speaker 4 (30:35):
Yeah, maybe yeah should have been, but they the moneyman
Disney World. Uh but but yeah, I had someone tell me,
uh against someone inside the teams and yeah, you know,
top running backs, and he had they had like like
(30:56):
j T like fourth, and I no, that's yeah, I'll
give you Edge and probably Dickerson. But when he was here,
not Fault, I would agree with he took off. Fault
took off when he went to the Rams. So that's
why I say, it's just crazy how Taylor for whatever reason,
I don't know what it is, and it's just not
(31:17):
that stupid fumble whatever in Denver. It's just that there's
something about him that people don't nationally don't appreciate. I
don't get it.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
I think part of it's the devalue of the running
back for a time. I think it's starting to come
back in vogue.
Speaker 4 (31:33):
But yeah, but that's cyclical and it's coming.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
Back, That's what I mean. So the other thing is he,
you know, Taylor for the running back position, Chap seemingly
you've either got to be a Barry Sanders juke move
guy and Eric Dickerson beautiful stride guy or an Earl
Campbell barrow you over guy. And Taylor is a little
(31:56):
bit of like two of the three of those. But
I but I don't know necesscessarily that either one. He
jumps out at you as being a staple of one
of those, and that's probably right.
Speaker 4 (32:05):
But he's just the acceleration the other one probably don't have.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
And he's got the thing about Taylor that is so fascinating,
not just as he had the acceleration, but the deceleration
in other words, you know what I mean. He can
go from second gear to six back to second and
then back to sixth again, which is impressive. Not many
guys that can do that.
Speaker 4 (32:25):
Edgrin had that. He had that jump step and as
soon as he put his foot in the ground after
the cut, he was gone. People. I really don't think
people appreciated James Yeah, for his greatness.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
By the way, Roosevelt Potts might be up there. Potts
and Albert Bentley both might be up there.
Speaker 4 (32:43):
Albert Bentley could have He could have been something they
hadn't created for Dickerson. I mean, we can go back
to the Dickerson thing that it didn't It didn't work,
but it was the right thing to do at the time.
But you were never gonna win. You were never going
to go through bad times with Derrek Tickers and not
who he was. Rosie Potts was one of my favorite players,
(33:05):
and he just remember that, whether he led the team
or was second in rushing one year and then the
next year they drafted Marshall and Rosie came in and
he was a fullback and he came in. He cut
like twenty or thirty pounds, and he thought he was
going to challenge Folk for the lead runner a ound that, yeah,
that's not gonna happen. But Rose was a great guy.
(33:28):
But and he he didn't really understand his role. But
what a great guy. And he went through some tough times.
But whenever Taylor does things, you know, the most enfranchised
is this franchise has got some great, great running back, right,
and whenever he does something, it's folks, this is not normal.
(33:51):
And again people, I said, well, he he broke the
single season rushing record in a seventeen game season. Yeah,
he did. He did it in game sixteen, So he's special.
I hope he stays as healthy as a running back
can in a season. I want to see what he
can do with this offense, because he's gonna get eighty
(34:14):
yards just because and when he breaks one of those
plays like he's always going to be like he normally does,
it's something special. So I really want to see what
he can do and have Jones sort of coattail off
of that because it's such a great combination that works.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
Mike Chapels our guest CBS four WX an Fox fifty
nine as well. Chap Obviously in week two, Xavier Howard
really struggled, and that defensive backfield has been depleted by
injury a little bit. Now we know Kenny Moore has
the cap injury, he may miss some time. Howard yesterday,
did he rebound or was it just the fact that
(34:55):
you're going against cam Ward who is learning the position
and a Titans group that is not over stout.
Speaker 4 (35:02):
Probably that he did have a holding penalty, uh, which
I don't get on. DB's too much for that, although
three and five plays that he had two weeks ago
was a bit much. But yeah, this is they're really
testing the depth of the secondary and and and I'm
not defending anybody with the team, but I don't want
(35:23):
to hear well, they should have done more to reinforce
that position. No, you can't have like ten deep, for
crying out loud, I think it's gonna be it's gonna
be really important with with Javarious Ward Mooney Ward to
be well this week, which I think he just had
cramps yesterday. I think, but you're gonna have uh Nakoup
(35:44):
this week. And he's the real deal. Remember the game
they played here with him as a rookie. YEP, overtime
and and they forgot that he was out there and
he cut the touchdown and overtime. So the Rams, the
Rams are the real deal. I don't know how they
lost that game yesterday. I guess black Field Wills will
do that to you. But this will be This is
(36:05):
not to beat my home. But I thought six and
two was. It was a very realistic start for these guys,
winning the first three, losing to the Rams, and then
you're home the next two.
Speaker 1 (36:17):
Right after that, you've got Raiders and Cardinals at home.
Speaker 4 (36:21):
I mean to get your right, and then you go
to Pittsburgh and then they can get Tennessee home.
Speaker 1 (36:27):
Well they here's what they got because I'm looking at
it right here. They got Rams right, and then you
go back to back home games with the Raiders and Cardinals,
followed by back to LA to take on the Chargers.
Speaker 4 (36:39):
Those are the two I thought they would lose.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
And then you've got Tennessee at home, so you get
right again, and then that's when Pittsburgh. Then you got
to go to in Pittsburgh.
Speaker 4 (36:48):
I don't know what they are. You know, they needed
five turnovers to beat New England, right or take it takeaways?
I mean and then you go to to Berlin against
Atlanta who just got rolled, and then you get to
buy a week and and then it gets tougher. Although
you know, we love to look ahead Kansas. Any there's
something wrong with the Chiefs.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
They can't run. They don't wrong, Chiefs don't have just
a a pound you in between the tackles level back
to salt clock. If they get a lead, that's their problem, right, they.
Speaker 4 (37:17):
Need they need to center Grove kid again his name escapes.
Speaker 2 (37:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (37:23):
I did a story on anybody here for the Pro Day.
So yeah, so again, you never know how it's gonna go.
That's why stealing one against Denver, which they absolutely stole
one against dinverd they did, uh, but but that that's
how the NFL works, and you just you just stack him.
And I think so far Steichen has done a great
job of keeping these guys locked in the oh seven
(37:46):
day because if there if there was a trap game,
it was Sunday it was. And then cam Hord mails
you a seven to nothing lead, which is what an
awful throw. But I like what this team's doing. Again.
I think what's important to me is are not doing
anything extraordinary? The boy they're playing at a high level.
(38:07):
Special teams still bother with me with some of the
returns coverage. But every team's got issues. This team has
fewer than most.
Speaker 1 (38:17):
It's so far, so far, so good, and they look
they do credit to Chris Ballard, they do look like
they've got depth and areas that they wanted to have depth.
Mike Chapel, CBS four, w x A and Fox to
Denn chap appreciate it as always, to talk to you
next week.
Speaker 4 (38:30):
All right, look forward to it, you guys. Be well.
Speaker 1 (38:32):
All right, my Chapel joining us on the program, joining
us now on the guest line. He had two sacks
yesterday and of course leading that defense that made things
difficult for Tennessee yesterday. Taekwon Lewis joining us on the show. Taikwan,
how are you?
Speaker 5 (38:50):
How are you doing? I'm good, just I'm doing just far.
I'm ready get this week started. You know, I was
excited about last week and yesterday's so formance, but ready
to get going this week.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
You know, how does it, to be honest with you,
I'm curious of this in the NFL calendar, so to speak.
Uh mondays I would assume are primarily for you guys.
To maybe get treatment and kind of look over things
and then turn the page. Like, at what point in
the course of a week do you put the previous
game completely behind you and then start looking towards the
(39:21):
next opponent? What what timeline does that take place?
Speaker 5 (39:26):
Uh? I say, usually right after we finish the film,
you know, we we watch it, go over the corrections
and mishappens in the NV. You know, we pretty much
want to the next thing, and you just start breaking
down tape, you know, just breaking down players, plays, concepts
and stuff, and you know it's it's like routine, have
(39:49):
it to us?
Speaker 1 (39:50):
And the film session is when like Monday morning, Monday afternoon, Tuesday.
What day do you guys go over? What's that?
Speaker 5 (39:56):
Monday Mondays, Monday on Monday morning, Monday morning, when Monday afternoon?
And then after that, uh, you know tuesdays or usually
our off day. But you know a lot of guys
still come to work and we just just grind it out. Man.
Speaker 1 (40:11):
You know what's funny to me? Taekwon Lewis our guests
from the Colts. I'm curious when you're watch when you
watch film, for example, how often do you see stuff
that that you don't recall during the course of the game,
or that you that you see it when you're watching
it from up high, where you're like, man, that does
now I do see what we did wrong? Or you
(40:31):
know what I mean? Or usually more often than not,
does it pretty much spell out what you knew going
into it?
Speaker 5 (40:39):
Uh? Yeah, majority of the time. You know. I think
the thing with film is we usually have three views
of it that the television watcher like can't see. So
when we watch safe, it's usually like from multiple views.
You got up high, you got right behind the D line,
and then you got the other side with the offenses.
(41:01):
So you know, it gives the coaches and the players
a little bit more perspective from like each different position.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
So yesterday, let's talk about this in terms of Tennessee.
You know, you know going into it that you were
going against a quarterback who is new to the league,
but at the same time pretty darn athletic, right, you know,
what sort of things just from a matchup or maybe
it's low and Umo's defense that you like, what sort
(41:29):
of things did facilitate or enable you to get multiple sacks? Yesterday?
Speaker 5 (41:35):
All right? Really it was just knowing that, you know,
the guys back, having our backs and coverage and you
know guys next to me, you know, just honoring our rustlanes.
You know that's the main thing. The key to sacks
is just wrest lanes and one of your one on ones.
I think it's a lot of discipline amongst us as
(41:56):
a group. You know, cover, Rush, Russian cover all goes together.
You know, I pull out everybody that that that helps
us get sacks, and you know we help out when
people get intercesses.
Speaker 1 (42:07):
What was the uh, I'll say learning curve. I mean
anytime that you have a new boss, a new coordinator,
it's different, right, So so when you come in with
vander Room. But what you know what was different this year?
Speaker 5 (42:20):
Well, I would say it's a it's a it's a
lot more schematics. I would say, you know, Lou Lou
is definitely like a maths scientist. You know, he has
a lot of like different ways he could like set
things up. And I mean it took a lot of
(42:41):
learning for us because you know we're used to playing
you know, a four down at tax style defense and
you know this one is it's a lot more like
you know, discipline and more gap integrity. I should say
versus like you know, any other system that I've been in,
Like it's always gap integrity, but it's more disrupt the
(43:06):
previous years we played what.
Speaker 1 (43:07):
About for you guys as a team, Taekwan lewis our guest.
You know, you're three and zero. There were a lot
of question marks coming into the year. And I know
it's the other side of the ball, but I wanted
you to just expand, taekwe for our listeners and for
colts fans about you know Daniel Jones in general, Like
he just seems to be kind of a quiet leader type.
I know it's a different side of the ball, different room,
(43:29):
but it seems to be kind of setting a tone
for you guys in general. Is that an accurate statement
in terms of the kind of leadership Jones is?
Speaker 5 (43:38):
For the leader he is, uh, I would definitely say
that he is the guy who brings everyone together. You know,
he knows everybody, He hangs out with everybody. You know,
he's a real locker room guy. He's a real great guy. Man.
He's just a cool dude. You know, he's he's one
(44:01):
of the guys. He's like one of the guys. And
I mean he never like leaves anyone out. You know,
I respect him for that. I think he does a
great job with that. I think that, you know, the
camaraderie in the locker room right now was you know,
it's high. I mean, we're winning and you know, the
brotherhood is getting stronger as we win. You know, throughout
(44:23):
the highs and lows of training camp for all of that,
you know, everybody start together through everything that was going on,
you know, so you know, we just blocked out the
noise and we just go to work every single day.
Speaker 1 (44:34):
Were you guys surprised that, I mean that was such
a big storyline that the quarterback battle, right Were you
surprised it was? Jones?
Speaker 5 (44:42):
I mean, I think that the way that the coaches
went about it, you know, it was just we knew
what we had to do as a defense, and we
knew we had to do as a team in order
to win. So I wouldn't say a surprise, but we
just knew that whatever the decision was, we were gonna
(45:03):
rally behind it and we were just gonna come together
as a team and just win win games.
Speaker 1 (45:08):
You know. One of the things that taekwon Lewis is
our guests that to me. I'll give it and I've
mentioned this I'll give Chris Ballard a lot of credit
for and that is that it seems like you guys
have more depth than you have on other teams that
you've been a part of with the Colts in certain
areas have been tested, like for example, already behind you
in the defensive backfield, you know, guys have gone down
(45:30):
and others have been able to step in and play well.
You know, they've got some depth there. But I'm curious
for you or just as a unit in general, do
you do you kind of have to learn tendencies of
different guys when you're not used to being on the
field with them. Or is scheme scheme and the faces
(45:50):
don't matter?
Speaker 5 (45:53):
Uhs scheme and I think like faces do matter. But however,
you know, you are to play to the level of
your preparation, and you know, I think that all of
that plays apart into it, you know, especially as like
as a defense. You know, we're not going out there
and asking you to be someone that you're not. We
(46:13):
just asked that you be the best version of you
when you go out there. Make sure you do your
job because at the end of the day, It's all
about the team. You know. If you do your job,
you're disciplined, and you play to the level of your
preparation ability. You know, the rest of you take care
of yourself.
Speaker 1 (46:28):
Okay, now we do this each time I have somebody
on taikwan. I'm going to do it with you real quick. Here, Okay,
you are from Tarboro, North Carolina. Did I say that? Correct?
Speaker 5 (46:36):
That's there?
Speaker 1 (46:36):
Okay? And I don't know is that where is that?
Is that near Charlotte or what part of north the
state of North Carolina is No.
Speaker 5 (46:42):
I'm actually from eastern North Carolina. I think I like
to call it the best part of the state where
you get barbecue.
Speaker 1 (46:51):
Okay, fair enough. Now, your high school, by the way,
purple and yellow and the Vikings. Right, So, did you
grow up a fan of the Minnesota Vikings?
Speaker 5 (47:00):
No, I actually grew up a fan of the Indianapolis. Cool.
Speaker 1 (47:02):
There you go. There's the answer. That's the right answer
right there. Okay, Yeah, Now here's the thing. Your high
school and I'm looking right now, I'm going to give
you a little trivia quiz. Here. Are you ready?
Speaker 5 (47:14):
Okay?
Speaker 1 (47:15):
There are a couple of players that are listed as
prominent alumni of your high school. Actually, it's pretty impressive
the list of alumni from your high school. One of
them and this one, like, I'm way older than you are, Okay,
but I'm curious how much this guy was talked about
at your schooler when you were a kid. One of
these guys was a prominent USFL player and also NFL
(47:38):
player that had a really good career as a running back,
and he had played at the University of North Carolina
if I'm not mistaken, in the early eighties and was
probably the first breakout. Do you know who I'm talking about?
Speaker 5 (47:49):
Yeah, number forty four, Calvin right.
Speaker 1 (47:51):
Kelvin Bryant is correct, Yes, all right? Now, super Bowl
he did as a matter of fact, one of what
the Washington then Redskins. Okay, Now, another guy I think
that probably would have been a teammate of yours. Did
Are you the same class as or how close were
you to Todd Gurley?
Speaker 5 (48:09):
Uh? He is one year old, one one class older.
Speaker 1 (48:13):
Okay, So but you guys, I'm just assuming that you
guys had to have been really good in high school.
Were you really good?
Speaker 5 (48:20):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (48:23):
Like how good?
Speaker 4 (48:24):
Okay?
Speaker 1 (48:24):
It says here nine football state championships sir, Tarboro was
one of them on a team you were on.
Speaker 5 (48:32):
Uh? Three of them?
Speaker 1 (48:33):
Three of them?
Speaker 2 (48:35):
Wow?
Speaker 1 (48:35):
Okay, all right, fair enough?
Speaker 5 (48:37):
I think the fourth straight?
Speaker 1 (48:39):
Well who beat you in the fourth?
Speaker 5 (48:42):
Uh? I think uh East Lincoln?
Speaker 1 (48:47):
Yeah, cheaters right, East Lincoln cheaters, corrupt program?
Speaker 5 (48:51):
Yeah six? I think he has six favels in one day.
Speaker 1 (48:56):
Yeah. That that won't do it for you, that's for certain. Okay. Then, lastly,
so your Buckeyes is Ohio State, Ohio State? Right now?
How much do you still follow? I know you guys
in the locker room, you know, will joke around, kind
of poke fun to each other, that kind of thing.
How much do you realistically get a chance to watch
what Ohio State's doing?
Speaker 5 (49:15):
I try to watch every Saturday if they try to
catch it.
Speaker 1 (49:19):
And they they are or are not the best team
in college football not named? Come on? What about Hey?
How about Indiana? Though?
Speaker 5 (49:28):
Man?
Speaker 1 (49:29):
Come on, give the who'ser some love here? It's Ohio
Ohio against the world, right okay? Lastly, Taekwon, you know,
I know you guys probably have not gotten a chance
to get into it just yet. But one thing we
know about the Rams that is the next on the
schedule for you not only a great stadium, great environment,
(49:51):
but that is a pretty high flying offense. Your thoughts
so far, at least from the outside about Matt Stafford
in that.
Speaker 5 (49:57):
Group, Well, we know they have some dynamic playmakers and
they're running back and Karen Williams, Pooka Nicole, I mean,
obviously he's he's he had a really great year last year.
Davontae Adams, he's an established VET. They have Tyler Higby, uh,
you know, he's been around, and you know Gray old Line.
(50:19):
You know, they have a great head coach and McVay
who all. You know, I think all of those guys,
you know, I played against them before, so you know,
it's it's definitely quite fascinating to watch what they do
on offense. But you know, we line up and play
football anywhere anytime, So you know, it's just guy get
(50:39):
ready to play the game and played the right way
and go out do our jobs and get a win.
Speaker 1 (50:43):
Speaking the head coaches, you've obviously been here, you know,
for the totality of Shane Stikeen's time, it seems from
the outside like Shane Stikeen has really kind of grown
into that role. How if in any way, have you
seen him grow or change from when he first became
a head coach to now.
Speaker 5 (51:03):
Oh, Shane Shane does a great job. You know, he
does a great job navigating us in the locker room
and putting us in the right position to win, especially
with like building a bond with with with the guys. Uh,
you know, he this year we did a lot of
like off season things where we came together a little more.
You know, we got you know, I mean, you guys
(51:26):
probably seeing it on social media or something, but like
you know, we do bowling, we go paintballing with just
a lot of stuff Shane Shane like implements with us
in order to help us grow as a team and
you know, just be connected because i mean, like he says,
when we're connected with I mean we're yeah, we're connected
with committed, and you know, it just builds us together.
(51:46):
So and I mean that's that's the biggest thing I've
seen for him.
Speaker 1 (51:49):
Are you a good bowler?
Speaker 5 (51:54):
I mean I'm dcent. You know, I go hang.
Speaker 1 (51:58):
Out, I I'm good at bowling for like one game
and then after that, like you you would not have
this problem. But for me, eventually, like I'm like man,
my arm is sore from bowling too much, which is weird,
I realized.
Speaker 5 (52:09):
But you know what I mean. Uh, yeah, it does
get like that.
Speaker 1 (52:13):
Yeah, Taekwan Lewis again, Colts Rams coming up on Sunday,
But for right now, the big news is one of
six that are unbeaten in the National Football League and
two sacks yesterday against the Tennessee Titans, two of the
four where the Colts came from. Taekwon Lewis, Taekwon, We
appreciate it, man, appreciate the time and look forward to
watching you over the course of the year. And then also,
(52:33):
don't be totally upset if in fact there is some
sort of an upset. And I think Indiana place. Does
Indiana have Ohio state this year?
Speaker 5 (52:40):
Eddie?
Speaker 1 (52:40):
Maybe they don't. It might be a break for your bucks. Yeah,
it's a break for the Buckeyes. Scheduling breaks the million two.
All right, Taekwan, appreciate it, man, all right, appreciate you,
Thank you. Taekwan Lewis from the Indianapolis Colts
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