December 1, 2025 • 54 mins
Today’s Best of Features:
(00:00-13:16) – The voice of the Indiana Hoosiers, Don Fischer, joins Query & Company to share how it feels from his perspective saying the IU is in the Big Ten Championship for a football game, comments on the selflessness that Fernando Mendoza plays with, questions if Indiana has the depth to defeat Ohio State if any of their key players go down, and reveals his plans for Saturday with IU basketball and football playing downtown.
(13:16-35:43) – The Dean, Mike Chappell, from CBS4 and FOX59 makes his weekly appearance on the program to recap yesterday’s loss for the Indianapolis Colts to the Houston Texans. Mike comments on what he knows right now about Sauce Gardner’s injury, states that the Colts need to fix their kicking problem, assesses the fourth down play call/design that led to Tyler Warren fumbling the snap, and looks at the last four games for the team compared to the first eight.
(35:43-54:05) – Ralph Reiff joins the show to discuss what he saw with Sauce Gardner’s injury in the first quarter yesterday. He highlights how long Gardner could be sidelined, depending on the severity of the strain. Ralph also explains what Daniel Jones is dealing with right now with his fractured fibula and how it is compromising him in the short term.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
On the football side of things. You now know that
there is a championship game. Joining me now on the
Joba House People and poor Guest line, he has the
voice of the Indiana Hoosiers, Don Fisher, joining us, Don,
I want to make sure first and foremost, because I'm
going to drop something on you here that's going to
I want to make sure you're sitting down. I don't
want to you know you are sitting down, correct.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
I'm sitting at a chair yet.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Okay, I'm going to make a statement for you, Don,
and then you know, I just want you to take
a second to absorb it and give me your reaction
to it.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Okay, Just don't tell me it's going to be one
of your predictions.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
It's not a prediction, I promise you. Okay, it's a fact.
It is a fact, Don.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
The Indiana Hoosiers are not only undefeated in college football,
the Indiana Hoosiers are getting ready to play at Lucas
Oil Stadium in the championship game of the Big Ten
Football Conference. Now, I know that you've witnessed it. You've
seen it, You've been up close and personal. But Don,
(00:57):
even still when you sit back, isn't there still a
part of it that says, this is unbelievably wonderful and
at the same time still surreal.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Well, it seems that way, Jake, But I watched last
year what this guy did in his first season in Indiana,
and so it doesn't shock me what we've seen this year.
And the reason it doesn't is because I've watched him coach.
I've watched him in the spring, I've watched him the fall,
I've watched him during games. I just think the guy
(01:27):
is a football genius. And I say that because of
how he runs his program. I mean, I'm not saying
that he is the best X and O guy in
the world or things like that, but he he is
a genius when it comes to running a foot program.
And I don't go beyond that point because I know
he hires really good people. On top of that, he's
(01:49):
smart enough to know that you've got to have really
good people that are on the same page as you are.
And all these guys that have been with him for
so long now all have bought in to exactly what
he's selling. And that's just like the players that he
brings to Indiana. He makes sure he vets them all
and then he figures out, Yep, that's the guy I want.
(02:09):
That's the guy that I'm not sure about. That's the
guy I'm not going to want at all. He just
really really smart and how he runs his football program.
And that's why this doesn't seem that's surreal to me,
because I've wanted to go on for two years now down.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
One of the things that happened late in the game,
and I wanted you to.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
To add to this, Okay, because again you've seen it.
I mean you're there, and the practices and other such things.
You know, here you have the bucket game, and we
know it's a rivalry game and everything that goes into it.
But for Mendoza, all of the Heisman talk and a
lot of the talk in the last couple of weeks,
(02:49):
notably of even him, you know, doing interviews, and I
get it, the campaign for the Heisman by the university,
as it should be. But in that game on national
television on you know, the Friday after Thanksgiving, and you're
playing your rival in Purdue, and from an individual statistical standpoint,
it wasn't a game that blew you away. In Mendoza's numbers,
he didn't throw for three ninety and five touchdowns or
(03:10):
whatever else. He was effective and they won that game.
And then he's off after the game or after the
game was decided. Essentially, they showed him on the sidelines
and he's laughing with his teammates and he's soaking it
in and he's watching his little brother get big runs
and he's high fiving guys. And I thought to myself,
(03:31):
here's a guy that doesn't care a hill of beans
about what his individual numbers were or what might have
or have not taken place for his individual accolade, because
he's watching his team and his brother and everything else
soundly defeat a rival and secure themselves a Big Ten championship.
And to me, that encapsulated what has been so unique
(03:51):
about this team. Now, can you tell me more about
Mendoza as a guy or as a young man that
that does make it so that it's not surprising to
you to see that sort of a selflessness on the
sidelines and how that carries into Indiana football.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Well, and here's the thing about it, Jake, this is
exactly what Kurt Signetti preaches. It's all about team. It's
all about team first. It's not about your numbers it's
not about the guy over there that's sitting in the
corner grumping about stuff, because they don't have that at Indiana,
not anymore. They used to have it, trust me, they
(04:29):
used to have it a lot. But they don't have
it anymore because of Signetti. And first of all, Frenevendoz
a great young man and his work ethic is beyond
the norm. It's way beyond the norm. And there are
a lot of guys in this football team exactly the
same way. It's a ball club that has a bunch
(04:52):
of character guys first and then second, do they care
about their teammates? Do they care about everybody else that's
around the program. And you see that with this basketball
team too. I'm not kidding. You see the same kind
of kids that Darren Debreees is brought in that Kurt
Signetti brought in. It's so amazing and it's so much
(05:12):
fun to be a part of Number one because when
you get around these guys and you get talking to them.
We don't get tons of time to talk with these players,
especially the football players, because of practice time and those
kinds of things, and the fact that they've got helmets
on and you don't recognize half of them sometimes because
you're just not around them that much with their helmets off,
so you could recognize them. But my point is they're
(05:35):
just really good people on top of everything else as
good players, they're really good people. And that's one of
the reasons I think this team is being successful right now,
and that's why I think the basketball team is going
to be the same way.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Don From a football standpoint, against Ohio State, when you
look at you know in Indiana has one They've won
soundly and virtually every game, although they had a couple
obviously Penn State and Iowa where they had to dig
deep down and make plays and they did that. But
what area to you is still the one that if
I always say, when a team loses a game, sometimes
it's a microcosm of the little things that might have
(06:10):
been an issue over the course of the season. From
an x's and o's standpoint, Indiana's vulnerability would be what.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Well, I just don't think they could survive any kind
of key injuries. If you know what I'm saying, right,
I don't mean that that Alberto couldn't take over for Fernando.
I don't mean that, you know, Drew Evans, we think
is going to come back here? Is he get hurt again?
Is that going to kill Indiana situation don't. I just
(06:39):
don't know if our depth, if Indiana's depth is what
you see at Ohio State, and I'm sure that it's not,
because I know how the program feels about the depth
that they have, and I think in a lot of
places they do have enough depth. But there are there
are some spots that they don't. You don't point those out,
those vulnerabilities out, even as a sportscaster, if you know
(07:03):
what I mean. But the fact of the matter is
injuries are the killer of a really good football team
that doesn't have a lot of depth, And I think
that's the one vulnerability this team has at this point
now on the field itself, I'm not sure they have
any vulnerabilities in the sense that are going to get
them beat. Unless they turn the ball over. That's always
(07:25):
going to be a question mark if you can't hang
out of the football. If you have turned over two
or three times in a ball game, that may cut
your throat. But other than that, I just don't see
a lot of vulnerabilities with this team. I think they've
got really good players in the offensive line, that got
really good players in the defensive line. They've got great linebackers,
They've got really good defensive backs, They've got really good
(07:48):
offensive running backs. I mean, they have all the tools, Jake.
If they didn't, they wouldn't be in this position.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Don do you like? You know Ohio State? The reality
is Ohio State in the receiving COREPS is elite, right,
And I'm not saying Indiana is not Ohio States is
you know? Ohio State's got guys that seemingly could play
on Sunday like this Sunday.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Right.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
But with that said, do you like Indiana defensively? Do
you feel that they are better at pass rush from
the defensive line and getting to and making a quarterback uncomfortable,
or their defensive backfield and their corner's ability to obviously
stymy and seal guys off when they try to get open.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Well, I don't know that anybody's got a better defensive
back than D'Angelo Pons. He is just terrific. He plays
the short side of the field all the time, but
he makes play after play. I love the way he
plays the game. When you want to look at vulnerabilities,
(08:47):
you have to find a real weakness with a football team,
and I don't think Indiana has that at this point.
So I know I'm not answering your question exactly the
way you've liked, but I just don't see this football
team doing what they did last year. I don't think
they're going to make the same kind of mistakes. I
pray that they don't make the same kind of makes
as they made last year against Ohio State when they
(09:08):
played them, you know, when they played them in Columbus.
Those two mistakes they made and the special teams in
the punt game kill them. It just killed them because
that the first mistake was just before halftime. Indiana was
right there with Ohio State, had them tied going into
the locker room at halftime, and punt snap was fumbled
(09:33):
by the punter, the ball gets away. Ohio State recovers
at seven, and they scored two plays later, and that
was fourteen to seven. Now you go to the locker
room and the airs out of the balloon a little bit. Now, granted,
this is a team that can bounce back, but then
in the second half, what happened. They get the ball first,
they are one, two, three and out. You've got a
(09:54):
punt again. They punt the ball and another mistake is made.
It was punted to the wrong area of the field
when it was supposed to go on the left side.
It went on the right side, or the right side,
it was supposed to go on the left side, whatever
the case may be. And that ball was run back
for a touchdown. And now you were in hurry up scatterbrain,
not scatterbrain, but just a hurry up scenario that now
(10:16):
we got to make plays, and we got to make
them fast, and you're behind the eight ball because you're
down two touchdowns.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
Don Don Fisher was the killer.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Don Fisher is my guest on the job House, Peel
and Port guest line. He is the voice of the
Indiana Hoosiers, all right, Don. I remember years ago David
Robinson was coming out of Navy going into the NBA,
and on Draft nine, I remember him saying, my biggest
problem in life right now is whether to get cool
ranch or Nacho cheese doritos. And I thought, man, that's
got to be a pretty good way to live.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
Now.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
This is along those same lines. This is the kind
of problem for Don Fisher. That's a good thing. It's
the same level of boys. That's a good predicament to have,
because on Saturday, you've got Indiana and Louisville undefeated. Indiana
and I know that they got You got Minnesota before then. Okay,
but the Indiana Hoosiers and Loeus in basketball at Gambridge
Field House at two o'clock. Then the Big Ten Championship
(11:04):
game football on Saturday across the street, essentially Lucas Oil Stadium.
I'd like to know the Don Fisher plan of attack here?
Do you just start popping throat los andes?
Speaker 3 (11:13):
Now? Do you call in the reserves? What's the game plan?
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Well, if we have to call in the reserves, that
means that the voice is gone. So no, I'm planning
on doing both ball gas without question. I want to
do that. The only thing that would put a stop
to that would be a cold or something like that,
and I've been battling that for all the entire fall
(11:39):
a ready, So no, I plan on doing both ball games.
My voice held up pretty well this past weekend because
I got about filve hours sleep before I had to
do a basketball game on Saturday afternoon after the Friday
night football game, which I didn't get home until two
o'clock in the morning, so I had to get up
early and do a noon ball game and a pregame show
at eleven. So I felt like I handled that pretty well.
(12:03):
And I don't think there'll be a big problem unless
I can't get from Gaybridge Fieldhouse so Lucas Oil Stadium
because of traffic.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Well, you know what, you just walked right across Maryland.
Just walk right across. Catch one of the little handsome
calves whatever it might be. But don, I'm telling you
from an Indiana standpoint, this past weekend to me is
always such a special weekend in downtown Indy, just the
lighting of the tree and you know, the festivities of
the holidays in the high school football finals. But this
weekend upcoming is going to be special as well because
(12:31):
from basketball and then the football standpoint get to be
electric for Indiana fans downtown. And of course we look
forward to the radio call for both of them, Don,
for both of them coming up on Saturday Minnesota as well,
by the way, seven o'clock with the Hoosiers from the
basketball standpoint that game Wednesday night right for Indiana Minnesota.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Yep, Indiana Minnesota on Wednesday night, And of course we
got inside AU Basketball with coach Devreese to night at
seven oh five.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Don, we appreciate the time, as always, start taking the
throat laws and.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Just now, trust me, they've been I've got a full
box of like twenty four of those little square things.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
So there you go, all right, Don appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Thanks, guys, appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
I have Don Fisher, the voice of the Hoosiers, joining
us on the program, yes, joining us now on the
Java House, Peel and poor guest line. I'll read more
of those over the course of the show. Mike Chappell
from CBS four and wxin Fox fifty nine. Chap I'll
begin with this. The reality is that there were play
(13:32):
number two on both sides of the ball. The second
play of the game offensively for the Colts yesterday was
Daniel Jones immediately throwing the ball in the dirt and realizing,
I think that he just could not extend plays like
he was able to do so brilliantly really for the
first eight games. And then play number two defensively as
soft Gardner going down and I just looked at it
and went, this looks like it's all going up in smoke.
(13:55):
Now we've had a day to step back and let
the dust settle. We now absorb everything.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
How well that they that they've they've got some problems. Uh,
you don't like to have problems after you know, two
and a half months or whatever, three months. And I
don't know some of the some of the troubles, I
don't know how fixable they are, you know. I I've
got to believe there will be kicker tryouts today tomorrow.
(14:25):
And there's a lot of things you want to be
doing in December holding kickout tryouts. Kicker tryouts isn't one
of them, because you're going to get a guy that
is out there and somebody let him go for a reason.
But my goodness, you can't be missing pats. And I
(14:45):
talked to it. We all talked to Badger after the game,
and you know, he feels bad, but it's it's kind
of like, hey, you got well, you had one job,
you know points and and what's crazy is that he
misses the pat. At the end of the game, you
need a touchdown, not a field goal to tie it.
But in that scenario, if he kicks the extra point,
(15:06):
you're you're requiring him to kick a semi long field goal.
To send it in the overtime. So you've got you've
got a trustuer kicker, and right now they don't. They shouldn't,
So we'll see. I think there will certainly be tryouts
where they make a change. I don't know. Maybe you
bring in a guy in the practice squad, but if
you're going to bring in a guy, didn't you make
(15:27):
a change it. It's crazy to bring in a guy
and didn't have him have a kickoff during the week
with badly. The bigger concern, and before I get to
the bigger concern, the defense has got to play better.
I credit him for holding the last two teams Mahomes
and Straud to three touchdowns. But Mike Goodness, are not
(15:49):
getting off the field. They've had, like I think it's
nine of the twenty one possessions the last two weeks,
they've had nine of at least ten play You just
can't do that. You've got to get upfield. I'd say,
to give your offense more of a chance to do
things right now, the offense isn't doing enough. This is
(16:11):
still this is still an offensive issue. When you boil
it down, you know it's one of those Hey, if
you can fix one thing. I'll fix the offense. Now
it's more than just you know, okay, we'll do this.
There's things get involved with it. But you hold these
last two teams, whatever it is, twenty and twenty three,
I mean, my goodness, you win. You've got to win
(16:34):
with this offense. But it's we've all talked about it.
They're average in the last four games. They are averaging
like ten points last per game, and all of the
efficiency numbers are off significantly. Third down conversions and all
that yards per games off about I don't know, thirty,
which can be misleading. But and Daniel Jones, he's gone
(16:55):
from seventy one percent to sixty one percent the last
four games, and he's at least the least yard is
the last of the season in the last two weeks.
So but I thought he played win football yesterday, if
that makes any sense. I thought he made enough plays.
(17:15):
Now he needed to make a couple more, which is
how it always is, make make two more plays three.
If he makes two more plays in Kansas City, they win.
That's that's how brutal this league is. You know, hit
Michael Pittman over the middle in case and if he
hit Michael Pittman over the middle, uh yesterday, although it
(17:37):
was high and he was covered. But it's they're just
there's just there. Whatever they had early, not early, gosh,
for the first two months, it's just not there. And yes,
I agree with you that the fractured fibula is robbing
him of movement in the pocket. Whether it's rollouts, they
(17:59):
still do something roll out, but it's really hard for
him to escape the pocket now. And whether that's impacting
his overall play on efficiency, I tend to think it's
more the pressure he's facing. But he's facing the pressure
because he's not side stepping it and getting out of
the pocket the last couple of games. But if they
(18:20):
don't get the offense uh fixed to some level, this
season's not gonna end.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Well probably dumb't me to ask this chat, but I'm
going to anyway. If Anthony Richardson was healthy, Bud, what's that?
It's never stop you. I know, if Anthony Richardson was healthy,
would would we have seen him the last two weeks?
Speaker 4 (18:41):
No? Oh no, no, no, I don't think so. I
think I would take I would take Jones at this
level over whatever you get from Anthony Richardson. That's just
me and I just I've seen enough of Richardson to
(19:01):
believe that he wouldn't do enough of the regular stuff.
He'd give you some some big plays, probably like he did.
But no, I no, no, I. I don't think in
the next week or two, maybe they open up the
practice of wind On Richardson. But no, I boy, I'm
not going to buy into that one. I think if
(19:23):
if Richardson were practicing and available, you'd still have Jones
out there.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
Okay, let's get to the elephant in the room, the
million dollar question availability health status moving forward, we probably
still won't know and I don't know, so I guess
two part question as of right now at eleven minutes
after one o'clock on this Monday, the first of December,
Sauce Gardner's health is what and we will expect to
(19:48):
hear more clarification on that win.
Speaker 4 (19:51):
Well, right now it's uncertain. I was told that the
team believe it's week. It's week to week, which probably
means minim games. Probably Kenny Moore had a strained calf
if that's all it is, and missed three games. You
know you're crazy to try to compare one strained calf
with another's trained calf. But if he avoided the Achilles,
(20:14):
which you sound like he did, hitching miss a couple
of games clarity, Oh my good luck with that.
Speaker 5 (20:20):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (20:21):
We talked to Shane Styching today to something.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
Well, in other words, is he going to have tests
done today?
Speaker 4 (20:27):
Yes? Okay, if he hasn't, all I would think he
already has. I mean, when I've needed an MRI in
my back round my hips, they get me in pretty
quick and I'm nobody, so they'll they've got there somebody.
I'm sure. Whether I had him last night, probably not,
but today for sure, I think for sure. But I
don't think we're gonna get it. I don't think we
(20:48):
are going to get any clarity. The team won't even
confirm that Daniel Jones has got a fracture of leg,
so I I think it'll be a strained cast and
there's no we're hopeful he returns. I'm thinking that's what
we'll get from the team, and in all honesty, that's
probably all they know. They're not going to break down.
(21:11):
Well it's a grade three four whatever, We're not going
to get that. And as much as we want the information,
they're not required to give more than that. So they're
giving us what they're required to give us as all teams,
as almost every team does, they're not gonna you know.
I can still remember standing by Ryan Kelly's locker several
years ago when he had a knee injury and we
(21:34):
just casual last so what did you do? And he'd
spent five minutes telling us, well, I did this and
they had to fix that, and I'm thinking, my gosh,
I need to you know, record this thing because we
never get that. So h no, but I don't think
we're going to get any clarity. But I think everyone
should just make him miss sauce missing. I don't know
two games minimum, and who knows where this team is
(21:57):
after two more games?
Speaker 3 (21:58):
Chat.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
My my concern is Smike Chapel's my guest Java House
Peel and poor guest line. He's with CBS four in
wx A and Fox fifty nine.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
And I get it.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
I know that it's probably an unfair PTSD for me, okay,
but Tyre's Halliburton started with a calf strain, and I
totally understand. I would do it all over again as well.
You know, you got to have him out there playing.
I get it, and is the achilles that Tyrese Haliburton
(22:28):
suffered related to the calf strain. I don't know that
we'll ever know that, but one would assume. And so
when I look at a player that you have given
up and mortgaged at least temporarily part of your future
to get and he has a calf strain, and then
I throw in the fact that his job is to
run backwards, not forward, but backwards, which is an abnormal
(22:50):
movement as it is on the calf. That gives me
huge pause, an area of concern because you have to
be conscientious of long term health, but at the same
time you've got to get short term payoffs. Am I
overthinking this?
Speaker 4 (23:06):
No? No, But all of us say I'd go back
to Kenny Moore. But ever a guy has a calf injury,
I default to an achilles.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
I just do.
Speaker 4 (23:18):
And we thought that maybe with Kenny, and I thought
that was with sauce Gardener, although he said he said
he felt like he got shot in the calf, but
it was higher on the calf. It wasn't down by
the ankle, which was encouraging. They are not going to
risk sauce Gardner short term or long term, just the
same way they didn't with Kenny Moore. If there was
(23:40):
a chance of Kenny Moore blowing his achilles with that
injury after missing three games, he still wouldn't be playing.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
He wouldn't.
Speaker 4 (23:50):
So but now I understand what you're saying, and this
is one you've invested a ton to first an ad
Mitchell who had a great game yesterday. By the way,
good for him. But yeah, it's if he if they
are convinced and he is convinced that this is a
strayed cast, whatever that entails, and two weeks off, three
(24:11):
weeks off is what it takes, he'll be back. If
they think, you know, there's the achilles sort of is impacted,
then I don't know that he plays. But it's I
keep defaulting to kennymore and how they handle him not
putting him on I R and missing three games, and
(24:32):
this this feels like the same using my doctor shingle
I got from Bestrove High School. Uh So, but if
he can play, he'll play. But if he if there's
a chance that it is achilles related and they can
you know, if he goes there and blows out the
achilles in December, he doesn't play next year in all likelihood,
(24:52):
So yeah, I just don't think they would risk that
at all.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
Mike.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
When you look at and I'm going to go to
that fourth and one, and you know, Eddie and I
were discussing off air, and we can get into this,
I guess, and that is, you know, did they should
they have kicked, you know, taken the points? Is there
a you know, does that get into starting to worry
about the kicker, et cetera. But in situations like you
saw yesterday, I thought it was symbolic. They had a
(25:21):
fourth and one, they elect to go for it, and
they they get cutesy, they try to do like a
direct snap to Tyler Warren. You know, when those plays work,
it's brilliant. When it doesn't work, it allows for two
knuckleheads to talk about it on the radio the next day.
But when you've got a twenty million dollar guard and
(25:43):
a whatever he wants you should pay him running back,
why would you not just go to that bread and
butter every single short yardage situation possible.
Speaker 4 (25:55):
Well, you get into Tende's and then the other team
says that they're going to give to JT. And if
you go, why do he gets he gets swarmed. And
if you go up the middle, like you said, behind
Ordolini and and and and Quentin, do you think you
can get a yard?
Speaker 2 (26:09):
Uh?
Speaker 4 (26:10):
And and there have been a lot of times that
Jay he has not got that yard.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
You know.
Speaker 4 (26:14):
The ideal thing is is to put Daniel Jones under
center and heaven Borough for a yard. But at that
what's that?
Speaker 1 (26:25):
Not having Daniel Jones get tried for that yard in
that situation? Does that tell us what we need to
know about his leg which we already.
Speaker 4 (26:32):
Knew probably probably?
Speaker 2 (26:35):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (26:36):
But but again I would think, like you said, if
you've got this offensive line is as good as as
good as it should be, and the best running back
not completely run the best running back in the league,
you think you get a yard. But other teams, I've
seen too many instances where Jonathan Taylor has has not
(26:57):
gotten it.
Speaker 6 (26:58):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (26:58):
I didn't like how they I thought they got a
little bit cute with with with Tyler w Warren, you know,
and when it doesn't work, it's like, well do something else,
you idiot. Well it didn't work. But I wouldn't be
opposed at all for Tyler Warren to be in there
doing that. But then when you you flubbed the snap,
then then you know it just blows up on you.
(27:21):
So but that's that's that's another example of where things
that worked early in New Year. Not necessarily that play,
but their third down convert third down conversion rates like
ten percent off and all of a sudden, fourth downs
are adventurous over there. Yesterday five, well they five or thirteen,
three or thirteen on third downs and all two on
fourth downs. Whatever that's been when they've really made Hey,
(27:45):
they had at one stretch they had six straight three
and outs going back to case and then the two
here you know, all of a sudden, Rigoberto Sanchez is
having a punt too much. So yeah, it's just they're off,
they're off. And injuries. I mean, keep in mind that
Tyler Warren was questionable going in the game with the
(28:07):
stomach virus. And then you've got a quarterback who's whatever
he is, eighty percent eighty five, I don't know what
he is, but he's not one hundred percent. Uh So,
But again, if they don't, like I say, when you
when you hold to two quality teams Casey and Tennessee,
uh to Houston to what they did offensively you win
those games. You have to win those games because because
(28:29):
your offense is that good and right now it's not
that the passing game isn't as deficient, the running game
isn't is a deficient and asking this defense to hold
the forward I can get. I can give good stats
on the defense, but a lot of them aren't good
because they're still my goodness pressure. You get two sacks
(28:52):
from guys who you have to check the program for
a first half of you know, pronouncer names, then who
the other guy is, wormly from the practice squad. They
just didn't get much pressure wise from Quity pay or
Latu Latu, and Stroud is just too good and Nico
(29:12):
Collins is too good if you can't make them speed
up what they're trying to do. And yesterday was part
of a result of that.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
You know, one thing with Stroud that I don't know, Chap,
that I had really noticed before it is, you know,
I remember when he came out of the draft and C. J.
Stroud had said that, you know, I'm a ball placement
specialist was his quote. His ability to get the ball
on a laser really quickly. He doesn't need a lot
of time to square up and deliver. You know, he's
got some zip on it, which I don't know that
(29:42):
I had noticed that before, and I'm not saying Daniel
Jones doesn't. But again, my worry now is that Daniel
Jones has just simply because of the leg injury that
now the Colts, in the flip of a switch, became
too offensively predictable and too stale and too easy to defend.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
Tell me I'm wrong.
Speaker 4 (30:01):
Well, they've got to be, yeah, and they've got to
be able to stretch the field. I mean, you know,
at least take the deep shots occasionally to keep people
from crowd in the line, which then that hampers of
the run game. And you've got hard to be the
league's best deep thread. And in Alec Pierce, who is
quickly becoming their best receiver, he really is, uh yeah,
(30:26):
Like I say, it's not just it's it's the whack
him old thing on offenses. You know, you think you
got this fixed, and then and then this and then this.
You know, you're trying to plug so many holes in
the dike, and it's just not it's just not teasible
right now. So those guys getting paid a ton of
money Chris Ballad and Sikeing and all those guys, And
(30:46):
we knew from the start that the half of the
season was conducive to a great start seven and one,
eight and two, and they did that, and we knew
the second half of the season was going to be
a murderer's row. I would argue that going into the
last six games, yesterday was the easiest game with Houston.
(31:08):
You know, you got them coming in with a quarterback
hasn't played for three weeks, and you're home and you're
unbeating the home you know, you know, as we've all
noted that the last time they won in Jacksonville, Reggie
Wayne was playing for Crrying Out Loud and Darius Butler.
So they've got to find a way to win three games,
(31:28):
don't They have to win three or five? I think
I don't think ten and seven gets you in eleven
and six should. But they've gone from number one seed
and the best team, best record in the league to
right now they're a wild card.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
And I saw it.
Speaker 4 (31:46):
It's crazy how these playoff simulators are. They're still, i believe,
by the Athletics simulator, favored to win the NS or
the AC South and gosh, I wonder how they've got
the better off to win the sad.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
Especially when you consider that, well, a lot of it's
going to depend on what happens between the cannibalization of
Jacksonville and Houston and their remaining games. But when you've
got to finish at Houston, that's where it becomes tough, right,
because if it comes down between those two, you got
to go there as opposed to hear and finish.
Speaker 4 (32:17):
Jacksonville finishes with the Colts twice, and then they've got
Tennessee again, and then I believe they've got the Jets.
I've got to schedule. Now I don't. I don't have
their schedule, but I believe this took out the Jets
to play. There's in the Colts. You know, everybody they're
playing is either in the play or probably probably in
(32:39):
the playoffs.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
Maybe maybe Ady Mitchell gets the Colts in the playoffs
after all, maybe he goes for eight and one or
two against Jacksonville and helps out the Colts.
Speaker 3 (32:46):
Right, Well, there you go, Okay.
Speaker 4 (32:49):
And again lately they've not gotten any help from teams
at all on other games, so this is on them.
They're wavering, but they've got time to get it straightened out.
I just boy, I'm just I'm just a little nervous
whether they could get it done or not.
Speaker 3 (33:06):
Okay, Chap.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
Lastly, last week we talked about Defcon four and Defcon one,
and one of them you said was kiss your reer
in goodbye. That's def Con one, right. So I'm going
to read you a listener text. Let me finish the text,
and then when I do it, I want you to
tell me what def con this listener is living in?
Speaker 3 (33:25):
You ready? I get Jake.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
The reality is the Colts have built a culture on losing.
Ballard's a loser GM and the players, even the best ones,
are all complicit in the losing culture. Three of the
last four years. The Colts have controlled their own destiny
at some point in the last five or so games,
and some of those games were winning in and every
single time they lost. What a disaster, But in reality
it's the least surprising outcome you can imagine as a fan.
Players who choked in Jacksonville in twenty twenty one all
(33:50):
got second contracts. But they're all chokers. What level def
con is that Chap isn't dead?
Speaker 4 (33:57):
Slim pickens riding the bomb clim Pickens right, that it was.
Speaker 3 (34:05):
That's right. Yeah, So that's zero point five is what
we're getting at.
Speaker 4 (34:12):
Right, That's right. So yeah, and I understand that. And
these guys deserve every They don't deserve the benefit of
the doubt because they haven't earned it. And they have
had complete fourth and one a couple of years ago.
Go to Jacksonville and beat a crappy team or beat
(34:33):
the Raiders when you're here, and they didn't, and a
lot there's a good portion of the players still here.
So yeah, you know, you gotta do it. You got
to finish. And we've talked before. If this thing goes south,
all gloves are off on what happens. I mean, Carly
will have some monster monster decisions to make. So just
(34:58):
just find a way to where you can't win.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
You know.
Speaker 4 (35:01):
I thought they had a chance to win in Pittsburgh
where they never won, and they couldn't. And Pittsburgh's terrible.
Good lord, they're terrible. So I went on Sunday and
things a lot better. Uh, But yeah, I think I did.
I did I say it? They lost to Houston. It
was Deaf Con two and a half.
Speaker 3 (35:19):
I think you said, yep, yep, unless you're this guy. Yeah,
Piggin's righting the bomb. Then zero point five.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
All right, we'll see what happens obviously upcoming with Jacksonville.
It only gets bigger from there, and we'll talk to
Chap afterwards and see what defcom we're riding. Then, appreciate
the time as always, Mike.
Speaker 4 (35:36):
You guys be willing to stay away from the panic button.
Speaker 3 (35:38):
That's right, Appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
Mike Chappell joining us on the program, joining us now
in the Joba House, Peel and poor guest line. Of course,
you hear them on this show with regular occasion, and
it's always an informative conversation. Ralph Reef is the foremost
leader in Indianapolis when it comes to athletic training and
joining me now Ralph Reef dot com his website, that's
(36:01):
ore Eiff, Ralph.
Speaker 3 (36:03):
Let's get right to this.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
The when I saw Sauce Gardener go down, and I
want to be very specific and also give the disclaimer
that we always give.
Speaker 3 (36:13):
You know, you are not specifically the athletic trainer for
Sauce Gardner.
Speaker 1 (36:17):
You're not looking at specifically his example, so we're speaking
in generalities.
Speaker 3 (36:22):
But when I saw it.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
My eye immediately looked over to the corner of the
end zone where I'm seeing Tyrese Haliburton there, and I'm
getting flashbacks in my mind because Haliburton was a calf strain,
and then obviously we saw that facilitate itself or grow
itself into the Achilles And I don't know if that's isolated.
I don't know if one lends itself to the other.
(36:44):
And I want to get into all of that, but
let's begin with the Sauce Gardner injury. When you saw
it and then you heard calf strain more often than not,
that means what probably took place.
Speaker 5 (36:56):
Well, good afternoon to you, Jake.
Speaker 6 (36:58):
And to get to that injury, what it means from
what we're hearing and seeing is that that unit from
the back of the knee all the way down to
the bottom of the heel. While we describe it as
different things, you know, a couple of layers of the
(37:19):
calf muscle and achilles tendon, it's it's all one unit
that has to work together. And so he has, according
to reports, an injury to.
Speaker 5 (37:31):
The upper portion of the lower leg, which.
Speaker 6 (37:34):
Would be in the meat of the calf muscle, and
so when I saw it, it was let's wait and see, right,
because they're all a little bit different. And but from
reports and and and there was some very things that
raised a red flag for me. Was what he said
(37:57):
about what he felt.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
And if I'm not mistaken, and I'm paraphrasing here, Ralph,
he basically said that he felt like a heat.
Speaker 3 (38:05):
Is that right, like.
Speaker 1 (38:07):
A warmth in the back of the leg or like
what exactly what jumped out at the ears of Ralph reef.
Speaker 6 (38:13):
Yeah, he said I felt like I got shot in
the back of the leg. And that was reported by
a couple of outlets right after the game. And so
that to me, Jake, I hate to say it, but
it's very concerning to me. It is a very common
statement that people make when the lower leg is injured.
(38:39):
And oftentimes people will turn around and look and say, hey,
who kicked me or who hit me?
Speaker 5 (38:46):
It might happen on the golf course.
Speaker 6 (38:48):
I've seen it in a couple of football and basketball
officials running on the sideline during games, where all of
a sudden they'll stop and really question who kicked them.
And so from that, I'm going to assume he has
a significant care to the calf muscle. From from that
(39:13):
statement and also the fact that I think somebody within
the media reported that it was a high grade injury,
and so high grade is also muscle fibers have been torn.
You get this feeling of, Hey, I got kicked.
Speaker 5 (39:33):
Somebody hit me with a golf club. I felt like
I got shot.
Speaker 6 (39:38):
It's because that whole structure is under such great tension.
And and you were right. You know, early in your
show you talked about back pedaling and so forth, and yeah,
that that motion up and down of the ankle, push
off and landing and so forth, that calf structure, the
achilles tendon, is always under tension, and when that is released,
(40:00):
it pops.
Speaker 1 (40:02):
Ralph, I'm going to ask it a really I'm almost
embarrassed because it's such a dumb question here, Okay, but
it would be my assumption that the human body is designed.
It's a machine, right, and it is designed. But the
machine is to move a certain way, which is more
often than not forward. And now you have a player
(40:25):
like Sauce Gardner whose job primarily is to run backward.
Does that compromise the way that the machine operates, or
would his muscles be programmed through the workouts that he's
done to be able to withstand the trauma of moving
backwards versus forward?
Speaker 3 (40:44):
Or is that.
Speaker 1 (40:45):
Something that is constantly unnatural to the body, no matter
how natural you try to make it.
Speaker 6 (40:52):
So I'll counter you a little bit and say, it's
not uncommon for that run backwards, okay, So, particularly at
the elite level.
Speaker 5 (41:04):
They've been doing it all the lives, right.
Speaker 6 (41:06):
And if you go watch a football practice, whether it's
a Warren Central High School or or University of Indianapolis
or with the Colts, your defensive backs and linebackers are
going to do a lot of backpedaling drill, and so yes,
the muscle structures, the neuromuscular system gets a custom to okay,
(41:26):
And so it's not an unusual movement.
Speaker 3 (41:29):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (41:30):
So therefore, in his situation, it's not like the human
body is saying, well, what do you expect? You're asking
me to do the opposite of what I'm programmed to do.
It can be programmed to do it that way, right,
So that's correct.
Speaker 3 (41:44):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (41:45):
Now, having said that, the one area in this town, Ralph,
as you know, Ralph Reef is my guest. By the way,
Reef Executive Performance Solutions. The organization Ralph Reef dot com,
r eiff dot Com is the website. The the reality
is I want to go back to and I hate
doing it, Ralph, but it's familiarity for us. When Tyrese
(42:08):
Haliburton had his calf strain, that's what it was initially
and then and we knew and I totally understand why
the Pacers and Haliburton, everybody else was out there in
Game seven. I mean, we all understand that the achilles
that we saw from Tyrese Haliburton that then sidelined him
for say a year, is that an issue that increases
(42:31):
in probability coming off of a calf strain.
Speaker 6 (42:36):
The injury to that unit starting with a muscle injury
as you've described that there was like this initial injury,
and so let's say with Tyrese or in this case
with Sauce Gardner, it does predispose the rest of the
unit to have an injury of some sort. So the
(42:56):
rest of that unit on the back side of the
lower leg includes the Achilles tendon. And so when you
have a disruption to the normal function of the upper
portion of the lower leg, the lower portion takes on
more of that responsibility, and I believe in the Ralph
world of thought that that load eventually exceeds capability.
Speaker 1 (43:24):
If you were looking at and I want to speak
again in generality here, Ralph okay, and I know that
every body is different, every muscle is different, every reaction
is different. More often than not, when you hear CAF
strain in your vast experience as an athletic trainer, that
lends you to believe what amount of time frame, generically speaking,
(43:48):
is a probable expectation that a player or an athlete
needs to rest and recover and not put himself back
on the field.
Speaker 6 (43:57):
Well, I'm a big fan of biology, and it's been
proven over and over again research all those things.
Speaker 5 (44:03):
That twenty one days from the onset of.
Speaker 6 (44:06):
The injury, the body needs twenty one days as a
middle of the.
Speaker 2 (44:12):
Bell curve to heal.
Speaker 5 (44:14):
And so three weeks. Let's assume nothing else is wrong.
Speaker 6 (44:20):
Let's assume that now we're speaking in terms of Sauce Gardener,
who's an elite athlete.
Speaker 5 (44:26):
He's young, he's.
Speaker 6 (44:27):
Relatively healthy, and he has the best professionals in the
world at his disposal, and so I would doubt very
much if this succeeds into the third week. So I
think that if and of course I'm stacking up all
my ifs, right, if it's a tear of the upper
(44:51):
portion of the calf muscle, and based on everything we're
hearing and reading, and then if he's fully protected and
gets all kinds of you know, we talked about stem
cells a few weeks ago and all that kind of stuff.
So there's there's different products, different programming, different treatments that
(45:11):
can be used to fool the biology.
Speaker 5 (45:15):
And speed it up a little bit. And so no
more than three weeks in my opinion, but.
Speaker 1 (45:24):
We never know, right, Okay, So I want to go
back to and and Kenny Moore ed he points out
had the same he had a cap strain, missed three weeks.
I mean, to that point right on target therey. Yeah,
but I want to go back to when you said
that his description was of concern to you. Is that
because you believe that that description could in fact be
more than just a calf No.
Speaker 6 (45:47):
No, it just tells me that it's it's not a
bump in the road. This is a significant muscle injury
that needs attention.
Speaker 1 (45:58):
Okay, Now, the other big question mark for the Colts
is obviously that of Daniel Jones. When and I think
the average person myself included, you know, like I had
somebody yesterday said to me like, how in the world
is this guy playing with a broken leg? And I'm like, well,
he has a fracture in his fibula, which, as I understand,
it could simply be that he has like a and
(46:19):
I know this sounds incredibly you know, a flake of
the bone that broke off in the fibula, you know,
whatever it might be. When you heard that injury, that
typically would mean what and can that also be one
that then becomes a bigger issue?
Speaker 6 (46:35):
Yeah, So let's I'm going to talk to you a
little bit about the role of the fibula.
Speaker 5 (46:41):
In the lower leg. So you got two big bones
below the knee.
Speaker 6 (46:46):
The knee joint is made up by the surface of
the tibia, which is the really big bone in the
lower leg.
Speaker 3 (46:53):
And so when you reach down to the which is
the shin like when you you know what I mean.
Speaker 6 (46:58):
Exactly right, that's where is going. The shin bone is
the tibia, that's the big bone.
Speaker 2 (47:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (47:04):
Riding along in the sidecar of the motorcycle, the sidecar
is the fibula, all right, And the fibula is attaches
at the bottom, it creates that outside of the ankle,
but at the top it sort of floats, all right.
And so the fibula its primary purpose is it's a
(47:31):
control box, if you will. It's sort of a junction
box if you think electronically. So the fibula only takes
about fifteen percent of the body weight when you're standing
on it. The tibia does all the work what the
fibula does, and so there are lots of athletes who
(47:51):
participate with some injury to their fibula. The one that
immediately comes to my mind that no one would remember
this your track and field fan, but Mandyo Mitchell ran
the four by four hundred relay in the London Olympics
in twenty twelve with a fractured fibula. And he was
(48:12):
actually mentioned in Obama's speech after the Olympics for the team.
But he, Manio ran that complete race with a known
fibular fracture.
Speaker 5 (48:23):
So for.
Speaker 6 (48:25):
Our quarterback to be out there not surprised, here's why
he can't move. In between the fibula and the tibia
is a web of tissue and that web of tissue.
It's called the innerossius membrane. That is, it connects the
fibula to the tibia. But more importantly, the fibula has
(48:48):
about seven muscles that attached to it, So it's like
a differential gear in a car. When you go around
to turn, the differential sort of sways the torque from
the inside to the outside wheels and so forth. That's
what the innersius membrane does. It serves as the differential
(49:10):
of allowing torque to either go through the fibula or
go through the tibia. What muscles in the foot that
to control the action of the ankle and so for
him to follow through and really push off that left
leg or to make a rotation a spin out of
a tackle. It's excruciating discomfort, not so much from the fracture,
(49:34):
but because the innersius membrane has been injured as well,
and it has like zero blood flow through it, so
it heals really really slow. But it's I would say
that most of his pain and his lack of ability
to be agile at the level that we saw him
(49:55):
earlier pre injury is because of the discomfort and the
fact then that your neurologic system just goes ballistic crazy.
It can't figure out how to compensate and make everything
work and feel good.
Speaker 5 (50:10):
And so Ralph, hopefully that's not too complicated.
Speaker 1 (50:13):
No, it's great info. And so the question would be
for Daniel Jones, would this when you mentioned like the
excruciating pain that comes with it, and maybe it is
simply pain more than it is danger, right, But so
would that most likely present itself when he's trying to
cut and readirect or when he is simply trying to
(50:33):
straight line run and get away from something.
Speaker 6 (50:37):
How about every time he stands on his tiptoes. Okay,
so every time he lifts his heel and gets into
planterflection or he's on the ball of his foot, that
inerasious memoran is screaming, it's just yeah. So then when
you add in the torque of rotation or quick movements,
that his brain is saying, hey, I need to do this,
and his leg's not following along.
Speaker 5 (50:59):
And so I mean we can see it with.
Speaker 6 (51:03):
Our naked eye on TV or in person. So imagine
the slowness that his body is responding to the signal
from the brain just because yeah, just because of probably
what is a somewhat minor crack in the fibula just
disrupts that interacious membrane, and thus you've sort of got
(51:26):
a flat footed quarterback.
Speaker 2 (51:28):
You know.
Speaker 1 (51:28):
I figured this out, Ralph over this conversation, Ralph Reef
my guest Java House Peel and poor guest line. When
it comes to the makeup of this program, what I've
figured out, Eddie is the tibia. He's the guy doing
all the work. He's the big front structure. I'm just
the fibula. I'm just the right along guy. I'm there
to basically just kind of ride along in the sidecar.
(51:49):
However I can be a huge pain. That's basically what
we've gotten out here, right.
Speaker 5 (51:56):
I think you've capsulated it very well.
Speaker 3 (52:00):
He's not on the he's not on the right track.
I'm the heartbeat of this operation here.
Speaker 2 (52:04):
Come on.
Speaker 1 (52:04):
Well, but when it comes to leg you're the tibia, right,
you know, Jack, I'm the most important muscle in the body.
Speaker 3 (52:10):
What is the most important muscle in the body. That
would be the heart, would it not, Ralph?
Speaker 5 (52:15):
It is in my body?
Speaker 4 (52:16):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (52:16):
Okay, Well there you go. So Eddie, I guess that's right.
If you're the most important. Then you are the heart.
Uh Ralph.
Speaker 1 (52:21):
Lastly, you know, I'm looking right here at ralphreef dot
com right and I'm looking at your photo. It looks
like you might have been in London or Toronto or
something on the photo that was taking of you and
then listening to your voice, and it dawned on me this.
Do you ever find that when you're at Java house
or anywhere else and you're just out in public, that
people just want to come up and talk to you
because you just have this folks see presentation, Like your
(52:42):
entire period, your entire appearance in persona is that of
just like like this super nice dude. Do people Can
people just tell that about you, that you're a super
nice dude and they come up and just start talking
to you?
Speaker 6 (52:55):
Uh, well, normally I need my wife to tell people
that I'm a nice guy. So but but you're right,
those pictures were that's a whole long story of those
pictures on my website were.
Speaker 5 (53:07):
Actually taken in London. Long story, we won't get into it.
Speaker 2 (53:11):
But it was a lot of fun.
Speaker 6 (53:12):
And but job house man I bought I bought some
of the iced tea pods last week get ready for Thanksgiving.
Oh yeah, I'm out of them, already, out of I'm already.
Speaker 3 (53:23):
Okay, Well, i'll tell you what.
Speaker 1 (53:24):
The mango black tea is outstanding, so too, just the
regular black tea and then the peach Don't even get
me started on the peach Ta fantastic. Eddie keeps stealing mine.
Speaker 3 (53:34):
Yeah, so yeah.
Speaker 1 (53:36):
But I hope you had a good Thanksgiving, even without
the iced tea that you short sold or short bought.
Speaker 3 (53:42):
I hope you did have a good Thanksgiving, Ralph.
Speaker 5 (53:45):
Yeah, we had an excellent time. Thank you very much.
Speaker 3 (53:47):
Appreciate it as always, Ralph.
Speaker 1 (53:49):
And like I said, I'm sure injuries will continue to
pop up, and if that's the case, we would love
to have you back on. But I appreciate the time
as always. My pleasure, Ralph Reef joining me again, Ralph
Reef dot com. Reef Executive Performance Solutions on the Java House,
Peel and Poor gast Line
On the football side of things. You now know that
there is a championship game. Joining me now on the
Joba House People and poor Guest line, he has the
voice of the Indiana Hoosiers, Don Fisher, joining us, Don,
I want to make sure first and foremost, because I'm
going to drop something on you here that's going to
I want to make sure you're sitting down. I don't
want to you know you are sitting down, correct.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
I'm sitting at a chair yet.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Okay, I'm going to make a statement for you, Don,
and then you know, I just want you to take
a second to absorb it and give me your reaction
to it.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Okay, Just don't tell me it's going to be one
of your predictions.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
It's not a prediction, I promise you. Okay, it's a fact.
It is a fact, Don.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
The Indiana Hoosiers are not only undefeated in college football,
the Indiana Hoosiers are getting ready to play at Lucas
Oil Stadium in the championship game of the Big Ten
Football Conference. Now, I know that you've witnessed it. You've
seen it, You've been up close and personal. But Don,
(00:57):
even still when you sit back, isn't there still a
part of it that says, this is unbelievably wonderful and
at the same time still surreal.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Well, it seems that way, Jake, But I watched last
year what this guy did in his first season in Indiana,
and so it doesn't shock me what we've seen this year.
And the reason it doesn't is because I've watched him coach.
I've watched him in the spring, I've watched him the fall,
I've watched him during games. I just think the guy
(01:27):
is a football genius. And I say that because of
how he runs his program. I mean, I'm not saying
that he is the best X and O guy in
the world or things like that, but he he is
a genius when it comes to running a foot program.
And I don't go beyond that point because I know
he hires really good people. On top of that, he's
(01:49):
smart enough to know that you've got to have really
good people that are on the same page as you are.
And all these guys that have been with him for
so long now all have bought in to exactly what
he's selling. And that's just like the players that he
brings to Indiana. He makes sure he vets them all
and then he figures out, Yep, that's the guy I want.
(02:09):
That's the guy that I'm not sure about. That's the
guy I'm not going to want at all. He just
really really smart and how he runs his football program.
And that's why this doesn't seem that's surreal to me,
because I've wanted to go on for two years now down.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
One of the things that happened late in the game,
and I wanted you to.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
To add to this, Okay, because again you've seen it.
I mean you're there, and the practices and other such things.
You know, here you have the bucket game, and we
know it's a rivalry game and everything that goes into it.
But for Mendoza, all of the Heisman talk and a
lot of the talk in the last couple of weeks,
(02:49):
notably of even him, you know, doing interviews, and I
get it, the campaign for the Heisman by the university,
as it should be. But in that game on national
television on you know, the Friday after Thanksgiving, and you're
playing your rival in Purdue, and from an individual statistical standpoint,
it wasn't a game that blew you away. In Mendoza's numbers,
he didn't throw for three ninety and five touchdowns or
(03:10):
whatever else. He was effective and they won that game.
And then he's off after the game or after the
game was decided. Essentially, they showed him on the sidelines
and he's laughing with his teammates and he's soaking it
in and he's watching his little brother get big runs
and he's high fiving guys. And I thought to myself,
(03:31):
here's a guy that doesn't care a hill of beans
about what his individual numbers were or what might have
or have not taken place for his individual accolade, because
he's watching his team and his brother and everything else
soundly defeat a rival and secure themselves a Big Ten championship.
And to me, that encapsulated what has been so unique
(03:51):
about this team. Now, can you tell me more about
Mendoza as a guy or as a young man that
that does make it so that it's not surprising to
you to see that sort of a selflessness on the
sidelines and how that carries into Indiana football.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Well, and here's the thing about it, Jake, this is
exactly what Kurt Signetti preaches. It's all about team. It's
all about team first. It's not about your numbers it's
not about the guy over there that's sitting in the
corner grumping about stuff, because they don't have that at Indiana,
not anymore. They used to have it, trust me, they
(04:29):
used to have it a lot. But they don't have
it anymore because of Signetti. And first of all, Frenevendoz
a great young man and his work ethic is beyond
the norm. It's way beyond the norm. And there are
a lot of guys in this football team exactly the
same way. It's a ball club that has a bunch
(04:52):
of character guys first and then second, do they care
about their teammates? Do they care about everybody else that's
around the program. And you see that with this basketball
team too. I'm not kidding. You see the same kind
of kids that Darren Debreees is brought in that Kurt
Signetti brought in. It's so amazing and it's so much
(05:12):
fun to be a part of Number one because when
you get around these guys and you get talking to them.
We don't get tons of time to talk with these players,
especially the football players, because of practice time and those
kinds of things, and the fact that they've got helmets
on and you don't recognize half of them sometimes because
you're just not around them that much with their helmets off,
so you could recognize them. But my point is they're
(05:35):
just really good people on top of everything else as
good players, they're really good people. And that's one of
the reasons I think this team is being successful right now,
and that's why I think the basketball team is going
to be the same way.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Don From a football standpoint, against Ohio State, when you
look at you know in Indiana has one They've won
soundly and virtually every game, although they had a couple
obviously Penn State and Iowa where they had to dig
deep down and make plays and they did that. But
what area to you is still the one that if
I always say, when a team loses a game, sometimes
it's a microcosm of the little things that might have
(06:10):
been an issue over the course of the season. From
an x's and o's standpoint, Indiana's vulnerability would be what.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Well, I just don't think they could survive any kind
of key injuries. If you know what I'm saying, right,
I don't mean that that Alberto couldn't take over for Fernando.
I don't mean that, you know, Drew Evans, we think
is going to come back here? Is he get hurt again?
Is that going to kill Indiana situation don't. I just
(06:39):
don't know if our depth, if Indiana's depth is what
you see at Ohio State, and I'm sure that it's not,
because I know how the program feels about the depth
that they have, and I think in a lot of
places they do have enough depth. But there are there
are some spots that they don't. You don't point those out,
those vulnerabilities out, even as a sportscaster, if you know
(07:03):
what I mean. But the fact of the matter is
injuries are the killer of a really good football team
that doesn't have a lot of depth, And I think
that's the one vulnerability this team has at this point
now on the field itself, I'm not sure they have
any vulnerabilities in the sense that are going to get
them beat. Unless they turn the ball over. That's always
(07:25):
going to be a question mark if you can't hang
out of the football. If you have turned over two
or three times in a ball game, that may cut
your throat. But other than that, I just don't see
a lot of vulnerabilities with this team. I think they've
got really good players in the offensive line, that got
really good players in the defensive line. They've got great linebackers,
They've got really good defensive backs, They've got really good
(07:48):
offensive running backs. I mean, they have all the tools, Jake.
If they didn't, they wouldn't be in this position.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Don do you like? You know Ohio State? The reality
is Ohio State in the receiving COREPS is elite, right,
And I'm not saying Indiana is not Ohio States is
you know? Ohio State's got guys that seemingly could play
on Sunday like this Sunday.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Right.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
But with that said, do you like Indiana defensively? Do
you feel that they are better at pass rush from
the defensive line and getting to and making a quarterback uncomfortable,
or their defensive backfield and their corner's ability to obviously
stymy and seal guys off when they try to get open.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Well, I don't know that anybody's got a better defensive
back than D'Angelo Pons. He is just terrific. He plays
the short side of the field all the time, but
he makes play after play. I love the way he
plays the game. When you want to look at vulnerabilities,
(08:47):
you have to find a real weakness with a football team,
and I don't think Indiana has that at this point.
So I know I'm not answering your question exactly the
way you've liked, but I just don't see this football
team doing what they did last year. I don't think
they're going to make the same kind of mistakes. I
pray that they don't make the same kind of makes
as they made last year against Ohio State when they
(09:08):
played them, you know, when they played them in Columbus.
Those two mistakes they made and the special teams in
the punt game kill them. It just killed them because
that the first mistake was just before halftime. Indiana was
right there with Ohio State, had them tied going into
the locker room at halftime, and punt snap was fumbled
(09:33):
by the punter, the ball gets away. Ohio State recovers
at seven, and they scored two plays later, and that
was fourteen to seven. Now you go to the locker
room and the airs out of the balloon a little bit. Now, granted,
this is a team that can bounce back, but then
in the second half, what happened. They get the ball first,
they are one, two, three and out. You've got a
(09:54):
punt again. They punt the ball and another mistake is made.
It was punted to the wrong area of the field
when it was supposed to go on the left side.
It went on the right side, or the right side,
it was supposed to go on the left side, whatever
the case may be. And that ball was run back
for a touchdown. And now you were in hurry up scatterbrain,
not scatterbrain, but just a hurry up scenario that now
(10:16):
we got to make plays, and we got to make
them fast, and you're behind the eight ball because you're
down two touchdowns.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
Don Don Fisher was the killer.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Don Fisher is my guest on the job House, Peel
and Port guest line. He is the voice of the
Indiana Hoosiers, all right, Don. I remember years ago David
Robinson was coming out of Navy going into the NBA,
and on Draft nine, I remember him saying, my biggest
problem in life right now is whether to get cool
ranch or Nacho cheese doritos. And I thought, man, that's
got to be a pretty good way to live.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
Now.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
This is along those same lines. This is the kind
of problem for Don Fisher. That's a good thing. It's
the same level of boys. That's a good predicament to have,
because on Saturday, you've got Indiana and Louisville undefeated. Indiana
and I know that they got You got Minnesota before then. Okay,
but the Indiana Hoosiers and Loeus in basketball at Gambridge
Field House at two o'clock. Then the Big Ten Championship
(11:04):
game football on Saturday across the street, essentially Lucas Oil Stadium.
I'd like to know the Don Fisher plan of attack here?
Do you just start popping throat los andes?
Speaker 3 (11:13):
Now? Do you call in the reserves? What's the game plan?
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Well, if we have to call in the reserves, that
means that the voice is gone. So no, I'm planning
on doing both ball gas without question. I want to
do that. The only thing that would put a stop
to that would be a cold or something like that,
and I've been battling that for all the entire fall
(11:39):
a ready, So no, I plan on doing both ball games.
My voice held up pretty well this past weekend because
I got about filve hours sleep before I had to
do a basketball game on Saturday afternoon after the Friday
night football game, which I didn't get home until two
o'clock in the morning, so I had to get up
early and do a noon ball game and a pregame show
at eleven. So I felt like I handled that pretty well.
(12:03):
And I don't think there'll be a big problem unless
I can't get from Gaybridge Fieldhouse so Lucas Oil Stadium
because of traffic.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Well, you know what, you just walked right across Maryland.
Just walk right across. Catch one of the little handsome
calves whatever it might be. But don, I'm telling you
from an Indiana standpoint, this past weekend to me is
always such a special weekend in downtown Indy, just the
lighting of the tree and you know, the festivities of
the holidays in the high school football finals. But this
weekend upcoming is going to be special as well because
(12:31):
from basketball and then the football standpoint get to be
electric for Indiana fans downtown. And of course we look
forward to the radio call for both of them, Don,
for both of them coming up on Saturday Minnesota as well,
by the way, seven o'clock with the Hoosiers from the
basketball standpoint that game Wednesday night right for Indiana Minnesota.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Yep, Indiana Minnesota on Wednesday night, And of course we
got inside AU Basketball with coach Devreese to night at
seven oh five.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Don, we appreciate the time, as always, start taking the
throat laws and.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Just now, trust me, they've been I've got a full
box of like twenty four of those little square things.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
So there you go, all right, Don appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Thanks, guys, appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
I have Don Fisher, the voice of the Hoosiers, joining
us on the program, yes, joining us now on the
Java House, Peel and poor guest line. I'll read more
of those over the course of the show. Mike Chappell
from CBS four and wxin Fox fifty nine. Chap I'll
begin with this. The reality is that there were play
(13:32):
number two on both sides of the ball. The second
play of the game offensively for the Colts yesterday was
Daniel Jones immediately throwing the ball in the dirt and realizing,
I think that he just could not extend plays like
he was able to do so brilliantly really for the
first eight games. And then play number two defensively as
soft Gardner going down and I just looked at it
and went, this looks like it's all going up in smoke.
(13:55):
Now we've had a day to step back and let
the dust settle. We now absorb everything.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
How well that they that they've they've got some problems. Uh,
you don't like to have problems after you know, two
and a half months or whatever, three months. And I
don't know some of the some of the troubles, I
don't know how fixable they are, you know. I I've
got to believe there will be kicker tryouts today tomorrow.
(14:25):
And there's a lot of things you want to be
doing in December holding kickout tryouts. Kicker tryouts isn't one
of them, because you're going to get a guy that
is out there and somebody let him go for a reason.
But my goodness, you can't be missing pats. And I
(14:45):
talked to it. We all talked to Badger after the game,
and you know, he feels bad, but it's it's kind
of like, hey, you got well, you had one job,
you know points and and what's crazy is that he
misses the pat. At the end of the game, you
need a touchdown, not a field goal to tie it.
But in that scenario, if he kicks the extra point,
(15:06):
you're you're requiring him to kick a semi long field goal.
To send it in the overtime. So you've got you've
got a trustuer kicker, and right now they don't. They shouldn't,
So we'll see. I think there will certainly be tryouts
where they make a change. I don't know. Maybe you
bring in a guy in the practice squad, but if
you're going to bring in a guy, didn't you make
(15:27):
a change it. It's crazy to bring in a guy
and didn't have him have a kickoff during the week
with badly. The bigger concern, and before I get to
the bigger concern, the defense has got to play better.
I credit him for holding the last two teams Mahomes
and Straud to three touchdowns. But Mike Goodness, are not
(15:49):
getting off the field. They've had, like I think it's
nine of the twenty one possessions the last two weeks,
they've had nine of at least ten play You just
can't do that. You've got to get upfield. I'd say,
to give your offense more of a chance to do
things right now, the offense isn't doing enough. This is
(16:11):
still this is still an offensive issue. When you boil
it down, you know it's one of those Hey, if
you can fix one thing. I'll fix the offense. Now
it's more than just you know, okay, we'll do this.
There's things get involved with it. But you hold these
last two teams, whatever it is, twenty and twenty three,
I mean, my goodness, you win. You've got to win
(16:34):
with this offense. But it's we've all talked about it.
They're average in the last four games. They are averaging
like ten points last per game, and all of the
efficiency numbers are off significantly. Third down conversions and all
that yards per games off about I don't know, thirty,
which can be misleading. But and Daniel Jones, he's gone
(16:55):
from seventy one percent to sixty one percent the last
four games, and he's at least the least yard is
the last of the season in the last two weeks.
So but I thought he played win football yesterday, if
that makes any sense. I thought he made enough plays.
(17:15):
Now he needed to make a couple more, which is
how it always is, make make two more plays three.
If he makes two more plays in Kansas City, they win.
That's that's how brutal this league is. You know, hit
Michael Pittman over the middle in case and if he
hit Michael Pittman over the middle, uh yesterday, although it
(17:37):
was high and he was covered. But it's they're just
there's just there. Whatever they had early, not early, gosh,
for the first two months, it's just not there. And yes,
I agree with you that the fractured fibula is robbing
him of movement in the pocket. Whether it's rollouts, they
(17:59):
still do something roll out, but it's really hard for
him to escape the pocket now. And whether that's impacting
his overall play on efficiency, I tend to think it's
more the pressure he's facing. But he's facing the pressure
because he's not side stepping it and getting out of
the pocket the last couple of games. But if they
(18:20):
don't get the offense uh fixed to some level, this
season's not gonna end.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Well probably dumb't me to ask this chat, but I'm
going to anyway. If Anthony Richardson was healthy, Bud, what's that?
It's never stop you. I know, if Anthony Richardson was healthy,
would would we have seen him the last two weeks?
Speaker 4 (18:41):
No? Oh no, no, no, I don't think so. I
think I would take I would take Jones at this
level over whatever you get from Anthony Richardson. That's just
me and I just I've seen enough of Richardson to
(19:01):
believe that he wouldn't do enough of the regular stuff.
He'd give you some some big plays, probably like he did.
But no, I no, no, I. I don't think in
the next week or two, maybe they open up the
practice of wind On Richardson. But no, I boy, I'm
not going to buy into that one. I think if
(19:23):
if Richardson were practicing and available, you'd still have Jones
out there.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
Okay, let's get to the elephant in the room, the
million dollar question availability health status moving forward, we probably
still won't know and I don't know, so I guess
two part question as of right now at eleven minutes
after one o'clock on this Monday, the first of December,
Sauce Gardner's health is what and we will expect to
(19:48):
hear more clarification on that win.
Speaker 4 (19:51):
Well, right now it's uncertain. I was told that the
team believe it's week. It's week to week, which probably
means minim games. Probably Kenny Moore had a strained calf
if that's all it is, and missed three games. You
know you're crazy to try to compare one strained calf
with another's trained calf. But if he avoided the Achilles,
(20:14):
which you sound like he did, hitching miss a couple
of games clarity, Oh my good luck with that.
Speaker 5 (20:20):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (20:21):
We talked to Shane Styching today to something.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
Well, in other words, is he going to have tests
done today?
Speaker 4 (20:27):
Yes? Okay, if he hasn't, all I would think he
already has. I mean, when I've needed an MRI in
my back round my hips, they get me in pretty
quick and I'm nobody, so they'll they've got there somebody.
I'm sure. Whether I had him last night, probably not,
but today for sure, I think for sure. But I
don't think we're gonna get it. I don't think we
(20:48):
are going to get any clarity. The team won't even
confirm that Daniel Jones has got a fracture of leg,
so I I think it'll be a strained cast and
there's no we're hopeful he returns. I'm thinking that's what
we'll get from the team, and in all honesty, that's
probably all they know. They're not going to break down.
(21:11):
Well it's a grade three four whatever, We're not going
to get that. And as much as we want the information,
they're not required to give more than that. So they're
giving us what they're required to give us as all teams,
as almost every team does, they're not gonna you know.
I can still remember standing by Ryan Kelly's locker several
years ago when he had a knee injury and we
(21:34):
just casual last so what did you do? And he'd
spent five minutes telling us, well, I did this and
they had to fix that, and I'm thinking, my gosh,
I need to you know, record this thing because we
never get that. So h no, but I don't think
we're going to get any clarity. But I think everyone
should just make him miss sauce missing. I don't know
two games minimum, and who knows where this team is
(21:57):
after two more games?
Speaker 3 (21:58):
Chat.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
My my concern is Smike Chapel's my guest Java House
Peel and poor guest line. He's with CBS four in
wx A and Fox fifty nine.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
And I get it.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
I know that it's probably an unfair PTSD for me, okay,
but Tyre's Halliburton started with a calf strain, and I
totally understand. I would do it all over again as well.
You know, you got to have him out there playing.
I get it, and is the achilles that Tyrese Haliburton
(22:28):
suffered related to the calf strain. I don't know that
we'll ever know that, but one would assume. And so
when I look at a player that you have given
up and mortgaged at least temporarily part of your future
to get and he has a calf strain, and then
I throw in the fact that his job is to
run backwards, not forward, but backwards, which is an abnormal
(22:50):
movement as it is on the calf. That gives me
huge pause, an area of concern because you have to
be conscientious of long term health, but at the same
time you've got to get short term payoffs. Am I
overthinking this?
Speaker 4 (23:06):
No? No, But all of us say I'd go back
to Kenny Moore. But ever a guy has a calf injury,
I default to an achilles.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
I just do.
Speaker 4 (23:18):
And we thought that maybe with Kenny, and I thought
that was with sauce Gardener, although he said he said
he felt like he got shot in the calf, but
it was higher on the calf. It wasn't down by
the ankle, which was encouraging. They are not going to
risk sauce Gardner short term or long term, just the
same way they didn't with Kenny Moore. If there was
(23:40):
a chance of Kenny Moore blowing his achilles with that
injury after missing three games, he still wouldn't be playing.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
He wouldn't.
Speaker 4 (23:50):
So but now I understand what you're saying, and this
is one you've invested a ton to first an ad
Mitchell who had a great game yesterday. By the way,
good for him. But yeah, it's if he if they
are convinced and he is convinced that this is a
strayed cast, whatever that entails, and two weeks off, three
(24:11):
weeks off is what it takes, he'll be back. If
they think, you know, there's the achilles sort of is impacted,
then I don't know that he plays. But it's I
keep defaulting to kennymore and how they handle him not
putting him on I R and missing three games, and
(24:32):
this this feels like the same using my doctor shingle
I got from Bestrove High School. Uh So, but if
he can play, he'll play. But if he if there's
a chance that it is achilles related and they can
you know, if he goes there and blows out the
achilles in December, he doesn't play next year in all likelihood,
(24:52):
So yeah, I just don't think they would risk that
at all.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
Mike.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
When you look at and I'm going to go to
that fourth and one, and you know, Eddie and I
were discussing off air, and we can get into this,
I guess, and that is, you know, did they should
they have kicked, you know, taken the points? Is there
a you know, does that get into starting to worry
about the kicker, et cetera. But in situations like you
saw yesterday, I thought it was symbolic. They had a
(25:21):
fourth and one, they elect to go for it, and
they they get cutesy, they try to do like a
direct snap to Tyler Warren. You know, when those plays work,
it's brilliant. When it doesn't work, it allows for two
knuckleheads to talk about it on the radio the next day.
But when you've got a twenty million dollar guard and
(25:43):
a whatever he wants you should pay him running back,
why would you not just go to that bread and
butter every single short yardage situation possible.
Speaker 4 (25:55):
Well, you get into Tende's and then the other team
says that they're going to give to JT. And if
you go, why do he gets he gets swarmed. And
if you go up the middle, like you said, behind
Ordolini and and and and Quentin, do you think you
can get a yard?
Speaker 2 (26:09):
Uh?
Speaker 4 (26:10):
And and there have been a lot of times that
Jay he has not got that yard.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
You know.
Speaker 4 (26:14):
The ideal thing is is to put Daniel Jones under
center and heaven Borough for a yard. But at that
what's that?
Speaker 1 (26:25):
Not having Daniel Jones get tried for that yard in
that situation? Does that tell us what we need to
know about his leg which we already.
Speaker 4 (26:32):
Knew probably probably?
Speaker 2 (26:35):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (26:36):
But but again I would think, like you said, if
you've got this offensive line is as good as as
good as it should be, and the best running back
not completely run the best running back in the league,
you think you get a yard. But other teams, I've
seen too many instances where Jonathan Taylor has has not
(26:57):
gotten it.
Speaker 6 (26:58):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (26:58):
I didn't like how they I thought they got a
little bit cute with with with Tyler w Warren, you know,
and when it doesn't work, it's like, well do something else,
you idiot. Well it didn't work. But I wouldn't be
opposed at all for Tyler Warren to be in there
doing that. But then when you you flubbed the snap,
then then you know it just blows up on you.
(27:21):
So but that's that's that's another example of where things
that worked early in New Year. Not necessarily that play,
but their third down convert third down conversion rates like
ten percent off and all of a sudden, fourth downs
are adventurous over there. Yesterday five, well they five or thirteen,
three or thirteen on third downs and all two on
fourth downs. Whatever that's been when they've really made Hey,
(27:45):
they had at one stretch they had six straight three
and outs going back to case and then the two
here you know, all of a sudden, Rigoberto Sanchez is
having a punt too much. So yeah, it's just they're off,
they're off. And injuries. I mean, keep in mind that
Tyler Warren was questionable going in the game with the
(28:07):
stomach virus. And then you've got a quarterback who's whatever
he is, eighty percent eighty five, I don't know what
he is, but he's not one hundred percent. Uh So,
But again, if they don't, like I say, when you
when you hold to two quality teams Casey and Tennessee,
uh to Houston to what they did offensively you win
those games. You have to win those games because because
(28:29):
your offense is that good and right now it's not
that the passing game isn't as deficient, the running game
isn't is a deficient and asking this defense to hold
the forward I can get. I can give good stats
on the defense, but a lot of them aren't good
because they're still my goodness pressure. You get two sacks
(28:52):
from guys who you have to check the program for
a first half of you know, pronouncer names, then who
the other guy is, wormly from the practice squad. They
just didn't get much pressure wise from Quity pay or
Latu Latu, and Stroud is just too good and Nico
(29:12):
Collins is too good if you can't make them speed
up what they're trying to do. And yesterday was part
of a result of that.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
You know, one thing with Stroud that I don't know, Chap,
that I had really noticed before it is, you know,
I remember when he came out of the draft and C. J.
Stroud had said that, you know, I'm a ball placement
specialist was his quote. His ability to get the ball
on a laser really quickly. He doesn't need a lot
of time to square up and deliver. You know, he's
got some zip on it, which I don't know that
(29:42):
I had noticed that before, and I'm not saying Daniel
Jones doesn't. But again, my worry now is that Daniel
Jones has just simply because of the leg injury that
now the Colts, in the flip of a switch, became
too offensively predictable and too stale and too easy to defend.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
Tell me I'm wrong.
Speaker 4 (30:01):
Well, they've got to be, yeah, and they've got to
be able to stretch the field. I mean, you know,
at least take the deep shots occasionally to keep people
from crowd in the line, which then that hampers of
the run game. And you've got hard to be the
league's best deep thread. And in Alec Pierce, who is
quickly becoming their best receiver, he really is, uh yeah,
(30:26):
Like I say, it's not just it's it's the whack
him old thing on offenses. You know, you think you
got this fixed, and then and then this and then this.
You know, you're trying to plug so many holes in
the dike, and it's just not it's just not teasible
right now. So those guys getting paid a ton of
money Chris Ballad and Sikeing and all those guys, And
(30:46):
we knew from the start that the half of the
season was conducive to a great start seven and one,
eight and two, and they did that, and we knew
the second half of the season was going to be
a murderer's row. I would argue that going into the
last six games, yesterday was the easiest game with Houston.
(31:08):
You know, you got them coming in with a quarterback
hasn't played for three weeks, and you're home and you're
unbeating the home you know, you know, as we've all
noted that the last time they won in Jacksonville, Reggie
Wayne was playing for Crrying Out Loud and Darius Butler.
So they've got to find a way to win three games,
(31:28):
don't They have to win three or five? I think
I don't think ten and seven gets you in eleven
and six should. But they've gone from number one seed
and the best team, best record in the league to
right now they're a wild card.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
And I saw it.
Speaker 4 (31:46):
It's crazy how these playoff simulators are. They're still, i believe,
by the Athletics simulator, favored to win the NS or
the AC South and gosh, I wonder how they've got
the better off to win the sad.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
Especially when you consider that, well, a lot of it's
going to depend on what happens between the cannibalization of
Jacksonville and Houston and their remaining games. But when you've
got to finish at Houston, that's where it becomes tough, right,
because if it comes down between those two, you got
to go there as opposed to hear and finish.
Speaker 4 (32:17):
Jacksonville finishes with the Colts twice, and then they've got
Tennessee again, and then I believe they've got the Jets.
I've got to schedule. Now I don't. I don't have
their schedule, but I believe this took out the Jets
to play. There's in the Colts. You know, everybody they're
playing is either in the play or probably probably in
(32:39):
the playoffs.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
Maybe maybe Ady Mitchell gets the Colts in the playoffs
after all, maybe he goes for eight and one or
two against Jacksonville and helps out the Colts.
Speaker 3 (32:46):
Right, Well, there you go, Okay.
Speaker 4 (32:49):
And again lately they've not gotten any help from teams
at all on other games, so this is on them.
They're wavering, but they've got time to get it straightened out.
I just boy, I'm just I'm just a little nervous
whether they could get it done or not.
Speaker 3 (33:06):
Okay, Chap.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
Lastly, last week we talked about Defcon four and Defcon one,
and one of them you said was kiss your reer
in goodbye. That's def Con one, right. So I'm going
to read you a listener text. Let me finish the text,
and then when I do it, I want you to
tell me what def con this listener is living in?
Speaker 3 (33:25):
You ready? I get Jake.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
The reality is the Colts have built a culture on losing.
Ballard's a loser GM and the players, even the best ones,
are all complicit in the losing culture. Three of the
last four years. The Colts have controlled their own destiny
at some point in the last five or so games,
and some of those games were winning in and every
single time they lost. What a disaster, But in reality
it's the least surprising outcome you can imagine as a fan.
Players who choked in Jacksonville in twenty twenty one all
(33:50):
got second contracts. But they're all chokers. What level def
con is that Chap isn't dead?
Speaker 4 (33:57):
Slim pickens riding the bomb clim Pickens right, that it was.
Speaker 3 (34:05):
That's right. Yeah, So that's zero point five is what
we're getting at.
Speaker 4 (34:12):
Right, That's right. So yeah, and I understand that. And
these guys deserve every They don't deserve the benefit of
the doubt because they haven't earned it. And they have
had complete fourth and one a couple of years ago.
Go to Jacksonville and beat a crappy team or beat
(34:33):
the Raiders when you're here, and they didn't, and a
lot there's a good portion of the players still here.
So yeah, you know, you gotta do it. You got
to finish. And we've talked before. If this thing goes south,
all gloves are off on what happens. I mean, Carly
will have some monster monster decisions to make. So just
(34:58):
just find a way to where you can't win.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
You know.
Speaker 4 (35:01):
I thought they had a chance to win in Pittsburgh
where they never won, and they couldn't. And Pittsburgh's terrible.
Good lord, they're terrible. So I went on Sunday and
things a lot better. Uh, But yeah, I think I did.
I did I say it? They lost to Houston. It
was Deaf Con two and a half.
Speaker 3 (35:19):
I think you said, yep, yep, unless you're this guy. Yeah,
Piggin's righting the bomb. Then zero point five.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
All right, we'll see what happens obviously upcoming with Jacksonville.
It only gets bigger from there, and we'll talk to
Chap afterwards and see what defcom we're riding. Then, appreciate
the time as always, Mike.
Speaker 4 (35:36):
You guys be willing to stay away from the panic button.
Speaker 3 (35:38):
That's right, Appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
Mike Chappell joining us on the program, joining us now
in the Joba House, Peel and poor guest line. Of course,
you hear them on this show with regular occasion, and
it's always an informative conversation. Ralph Reef is the foremost
leader in Indianapolis when it comes to athletic training and
joining me now Ralph Reef dot com his website, that's
(36:01):
ore Eiff, Ralph.
Speaker 3 (36:03):
Let's get right to this.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
The when I saw Sauce Gardener go down, and I
want to be very specific and also give the disclaimer
that we always give.
Speaker 3 (36:13):
You know, you are not specifically the athletic trainer for
Sauce Gardner.
Speaker 1 (36:17):
You're not looking at specifically his example, so we're speaking
in generalities.
Speaker 3 (36:22):
But when I saw it.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
My eye immediately looked over to the corner of the
end zone where I'm seeing Tyrese Haliburton there, and I'm
getting flashbacks in my mind because Haliburton was a calf strain,
and then obviously we saw that facilitate itself or grow
itself into the Achilles And I don't know if that's isolated.
I don't know if one lends itself to the other.
(36:44):
And I want to get into all of that, but
let's begin with the Sauce Gardner injury. When you saw
it and then you heard calf strain more often than not,
that means what probably took place.
Speaker 5 (36:56):
Well, good afternoon to you, Jake.
Speaker 6 (36:58):
And to get to that injury, what it means from
what we're hearing and seeing is that that unit from
the back of the knee all the way down to
the bottom of the heel. While we describe it as
different things, you know, a couple of layers of the
(37:19):
calf muscle and achilles tendon, it's it's all one unit
that has to work together. And so he has, according
to reports, an injury to.
Speaker 5 (37:31):
The upper portion of the lower leg, which.
Speaker 6 (37:34):
Would be in the meat of the calf muscle, and
so when I saw it, it was let's wait and see, right,
because they're all a little bit different. And but from
reports and and and there was some very things that
raised a red flag for me. Was what he said
(37:57):
about what he felt.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
And if I'm not mistaken, and I'm paraphrasing here, Ralph,
he basically said that he felt like a heat.
Speaker 3 (38:05):
Is that right, like.
Speaker 1 (38:07):
A warmth in the back of the leg or like
what exactly what jumped out at the ears of Ralph reef.
Speaker 6 (38:13):
Yeah, he said I felt like I got shot in
the back of the leg. And that was reported by
a couple of outlets right after the game. And so
that to me, Jake, I hate to say it, but
it's very concerning to me. It is a very common
statement that people make when the lower leg is injured.
(38:39):
And oftentimes people will turn around and look and say, hey,
who kicked me or who hit me?
Speaker 5 (38:46):
It might happen on the golf course.
Speaker 6 (38:48):
I've seen it in a couple of football and basketball
officials running on the sideline during games, where all of
a sudden they'll stop and really question who kicked them.
And so from that, I'm going to assume he has
a significant care to the calf muscle. From from that
(39:13):
statement and also the fact that I think somebody within
the media reported that it was a high grade injury,
and so high grade is also muscle fibers have been torn.
You get this feeling of, Hey, I got kicked.
Speaker 5 (39:33):
Somebody hit me with a golf club. I felt like
I got shot.
Speaker 6 (39:38):
It's because that whole structure is under such great tension.
And and you were right. You know, early in your
show you talked about back pedaling and so forth, and yeah,
that that motion up and down of the ankle, push
off and landing and so forth, that calf structure, the
achilles tendon, is always under tension, and when that is released,
(40:00):
it pops.
Speaker 1 (40:02):
Ralph, I'm going to ask it a really I'm almost
embarrassed because it's such a dumb question here, Okay, but
it would be my assumption that the human body is designed.
It's a machine, right, and it is designed. But the
machine is to move a certain way, which is more
often than not forward. And now you have a player
(40:25):
like Sauce Gardner whose job primarily is to run backward.
Does that compromise the way that the machine operates, or
would his muscles be programmed through the workouts that he's
done to be able to withstand the trauma of moving
backwards versus forward?
Speaker 3 (40:44):
Or is that.
Speaker 1 (40:45):
Something that is constantly unnatural to the body, no matter
how natural you try to make it.
Speaker 6 (40:52):
So I'll counter you a little bit and say, it's
not uncommon for that run backwards, okay, So, particularly at
the elite level.
Speaker 5 (41:04):
They've been doing it all the lives, right.
Speaker 6 (41:06):
And if you go watch a football practice, whether it's
a Warren Central High School or or University of Indianapolis
or with the Colts, your defensive backs and linebackers are
going to do a lot of backpedaling drill, and so yes,
the muscle structures, the neuromuscular system gets a custom to okay,
(41:26):
And so it's not an unusual movement.
Speaker 3 (41:29):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (41:30):
So therefore, in his situation, it's not like the human
body is saying, well, what do you expect? You're asking
me to do the opposite of what I'm programmed to do.
It can be programmed to do it that way, right,
So that's correct.
Speaker 3 (41:44):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (41:45):
Now, having said that, the one area in this town, Ralph,
as you know, Ralph Reef is my guest. By the way,
Reef Executive Performance Solutions. The organization Ralph Reef dot com,
r eiff dot Com is the website. The the reality
is I want to go back to and I hate
doing it, Ralph, but it's familiarity for us. When Tyrese
(42:08):
Haliburton had his calf strain, that's what it was initially
and then and we knew and I totally understand why
the Pacers and Haliburton, everybody else was out there in
Game seven. I mean, we all understand that the achilles
that we saw from Tyrese Haliburton that then sidelined him
for say a year, is that an issue that increases
(42:31):
in probability coming off of a calf strain.
Speaker 6 (42:36):
The injury to that unit starting with a muscle injury
as you've described that there was like this initial injury,
and so let's say with Tyrese or in this case
with Sauce Gardner, it does predispose the rest of the
unit to have an injury of some sort. So the
(42:56):
rest of that unit on the back side of the
lower leg includes the Achilles tendon. And so when you
have a disruption to the normal function of the upper
portion of the lower leg, the lower portion takes on
more of that responsibility, and I believe in the Ralph
world of thought that that load eventually exceeds capability.
Speaker 1 (43:24):
If you were looking at and I want to speak
again in generality here, Ralph okay, and I know that
every body is different, every muscle is different, every reaction
is different. More often than not, when you hear CAF
strain in your vast experience as an athletic trainer, that
lends you to believe what amount of time frame, generically speaking,
(43:48):
is a probable expectation that a player or an athlete
needs to rest and recover and not put himself back
on the field.
Speaker 6 (43:57):
Well, I'm a big fan of biology, and it's been
proven over and over again research all those things.
Speaker 5 (44:03):
That twenty one days from the onset of.
Speaker 6 (44:06):
The injury, the body needs twenty one days as a
middle of the.
Speaker 2 (44:12):
Bell curve to heal.
Speaker 5 (44:14):
And so three weeks. Let's assume nothing else is wrong.
Speaker 6 (44:20):
Let's assume that now we're speaking in terms of Sauce Gardener,
who's an elite athlete.
Speaker 5 (44:26):
He's young, he's.
Speaker 6 (44:27):
Relatively healthy, and he has the best professionals in the
world at his disposal, and so I would doubt very
much if this succeeds into the third week. So I
think that if and of course I'm stacking up all
my ifs, right, if it's a tear of the upper
(44:51):
portion of the calf muscle, and based on everything we're
hearing and reading, and then if he's fully protected and
gets all kinds of you know, we talked about stem
cells a few weeks ago and all that kind of stuff.
So there's there's different products, different programming, different treatments that
(45:11):
can be used to fool the biology.
Speaker 5 (45:15):
And speed it up a little bit. And so no
more than three weeks in my opinion, but.
Speaker 1 (45:24):
We never know, right, Okay, So I want to go
back to and and Kenny Moore ed he points out
had the same he had a cap strain, missed three weeks.
I mean, to that point right on target therey. Yeah,
but I want to go back to when you said
that his description was of concern to you. Is that
because you believe that that description could in fact be
more than just a calf No.
Speaker 6 (45:47):
No, it just tells me that it's it's not a
bump in the road. This is a significant muscle injury
that needs attention.
Speaker 1 (45:58):
Okay, Now, the other big question mark for the Colts
is obviously that of Daniel Jones. When and I think
the average person myself included, you know, like I had
somebody yesterday said to me like, how in the world
is this guy playing with a broken leg? And I'm like, well,
he has a fracture in his fibula, which, as I understand,
it could simply be that he has like a and
(46:19):
I know this sounds incredibly you know, a flake of
the bone that broke off in the fibula, you know,
whatever it might be. When you heard that injury, that
typically would mean what and can that also be one
that then becomes a bigger issue?
Speaker 6 (46:35):
Yeah, So let's I'm going to talk to you a
little bit about the role of the fibula.
Speaker 5 (46:41):
In the lower leg. So you got two big bones
below the knee.
Speaker 6 (46:46):
The knee joint is made up by the surface of
the tibia, which is the really big bone in the
lower leg.
Speaker 3 (46:53):
And so when you reach down to the which is
the shin like when you you know what I mean.
Speaker 6 (46:58):
Exactly right, that's where is going. The shin bone is
the tibia, that's the big bone.
Speaker 2 (47:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (47:04):
Riding along in the sidecar of the motorcycle, the sidecar
is the fibula, all right, And the fibula is attaches
at the bottom, it creates that outside of the ankle,
but at the top it sort of floats, all right.
And so the fibula its primary purpose is it's a
(47:31):
control box, if you will. It's sort of a junction
box if you think electronically. So the fibula only takes
about fifteen percent of the body weight when you're standing
on it. The tibia does all the work what the
fibula does, and so there are lots of athletes who
(47:51):
participate with some injury to their fibula. The one that
immediately comes to my mind that no one would remember
this your track and field fan, but Mandyo Mitchell ran
the four by four hundred relay in the London Olympics
in twenty twelve with a fractured fibula. And he was
(48:12):
actually mentioned in Obama's speech after the Olympics for the team.
But he, Manio ran that complete race with a known
fibular fracture.
Speaker 5 (48:23):
So for.
Speaker 6 (48:25):
Our quarterback to be out there not surprised, here's why
he can't move. In between the fibula and the tibia
is a web of tissue and that web of tissue.
It's called the innerossius membrane. That is, it connects the
fibula to the tibia. But more importantly, the fibula has
(48:48):
about seven muscles that attached to it, So it's like
a differential gear in a car. When you go around
to turn, the differential sort of sways the torque from
the inside to the outside wheels and so forth. That's
what the innersius membrane does. It serves as the differential
(49:10):
of allowing torque to either go through the fibula or
go through the tibia. What muscles in the foot that
to control the action of the ankle and so for
him to follow through and really push off that left
leg or to make a rotation a spin out of
a tackle. It's excruciating discomfort, not so much from the fracture,
(49:34):
but because the innersius membrane has been injured as well,
and it has like zero blood flow through it, so
it heals really really slow. But it's I would say
that most of his pain and his lack of ability
to be agile at the level that we saw him
(49:55):
earlier pre injury is because of the discomfort and the
fact then that your neurologic system just goes ballistic crazy.
It can't figure out how to compensate and make everything
work and feel good.
Speaker 5 (50:10):
And so Ralph, hopefully that's not too complicated.
Speaker 1 (50:13):
No, it's great info. And so the question would be
for Daniel Jones, would this when you mentioned like the
excruciating pain that comes with it, and maybe it is
simply pain more than it is danger, right, But so
would that most likely present itself when he's trying to
cut and readirect or when he is simply trying to
(50:33):
straight line run and get away from something.
Speaker 6 (50:37):
How about every time he stands on his tiptoes. Okay,
so every time he lifts his heel and gets into
planterflection or he's on the ball of his foot, that
inerasious memoran is screaming, it's just yeah. So then when
you add in the torque of rotation or quick movements,
that his brain is saying, hey, I need to do this,
and his leg's not following along.
Speaker 5 (50:59):
And so I mean we can see it with.
Speaker 6 (51:03):
Our naked eye on TV or in person. So imagine
the slowness that his body is responding to the signal
from the brain just because yeah, just because of probably
what is a somewhat minor crack in the fibula just
disrupts that interacious membrane, and thus you've sort of got
(51:26):
a flat footed quarterback.
Speaker 2 (51:28):
You know.
Speaker 1 (51:28):
I figured this out, Ralph over this conversation, Ralph Reef
my guest Java House Peel and poor guest line. When
it comes to the makeup of this program, what I've
figured out, Eddie is the tibia. He's the guy doing
all the work. He's the big front structure. I'm just
the fibula. I'm just the right along guy. I'm there
to basically just kind of ride along in the sidecar.
(51:49):
However I can be a huge pain. That's basically what
we've gotten out here, right.
Speaker 5 (51:56):
I think you've capsulated it very well.
Speaker 3 (52:00):
He's not on the he's not on the right track.
I'm the heartbeat of this operation here.
Speaker 2 (52:04):
Come on.
Speaker 1 (52:04):
Well, but when it comes to leg you're the tibia, right,
you know, Jack, I'm the most important muscle in the body.
Speaker 3 (52:10):
What is the most important muscle in the body. That
would be the heart, would it not, Ralph?
Speaker 5 (52:15):
It is in my body?
Speaker 4 (52:16):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (52:16):
Okay, Well there you go. So Eddie, I guess that's right.
If you're the most important. Then you are the heart.
Uh Ralph.
Speaker 1 (52:21):
Lastly, you know, I'm looking right here at ralphreef dot
com right and I'm looking at your photo. It looks
like you might have been in London or Toronto or
something on the photo that was taking of you and
then listening to your voice, and it dawned on me this.
Do you ever find that when you're at Java house
or anywhere else and you're just out in public, that
people just want to come up and talk to you
because you just have this folks see presentation, Like your
(52:42):
entire period, your entire appearance in persona is that of
just like like this super nice dude. Do people Can
people just tell that about you, that you're a super
nice dude and they come up and just start talking
to you?
Speaker 6 (52:55):
Uh, well, normally I need my wife to tell people
that I'm a nice guy. So but but you're right,
those pictures were that's a whole long story of those
pictures on my website were.
Speaker 5 (53:07):
Actually taken in London. Long story, we won't get into it.
Speaker 2 (53:11):
But it was a lot of fun.
Speaker 6 (53:12):
And but job house man I bought I bought some
of the iced tea pods last week get ready for Thanksgiving.
Oh yeah, I'm out of them, already, out of I'm already.
Speaker 3 (53:23):
Okay, Well, i'll tell you what.
Speaker 1 (53:24):
The mango black tea is outstanding, so too, just the
regular black tea and then the peach Don't even get
me started on the peach Ta fantastic. Eddie keeps stealing mine.
Speaker 3 (53:34):
Yeah, so yeah.
Speaker 1 (53:36):
But I hope you had a good Thanksgiving, even without
the iced tea that you short sold or short bought.
Speaker 3 (53:42):
I hope you did have a good Thanksgiving, Ralph.
Speaker 5 (53:45):
Yeah, we had an excellent time. Thank you very much.
Speaker 3 (53:47):
Appreciate it as always, Ralph.
Speaker 1 (53:49):
And like I said, I'm sure injuries will continue to
pop up, and if that's the case, we would love
to have you back on. But I appreciate the time
as always. My pleasure, Ralph Reef joining me again, Ralph
Reef dot com. Reef Executive Performance Solutions on the Java House,
Peel and Poor gast Line
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