December 23, 2025 • 58 mins
00:00–26:46 – the lack of pass rush continues to be an issue for the Colts, Rivers executing the offensive gameplan last night, watching Rivers at the line of scrimmage, the dueling storylines that is the Colts collapse and Phillip Rivers fairytale, we take some calls from listeners who need to vent, does Chris Ballard get a 10th season, revisiting the Sauce Gardner trade, will Jim Irsay's daughters be as embarrassed as he was during primetime embarrassments
26:46 – 48:01 – James Boyd starts the hour with talks about what the locker room was like after the game last night, the Colts defense made it look like the 49ers were doing a walk through, San Francisco didn't punt, how much is on Shane Steichen's plate offensively and how does that affect the defense, what was Gus Bradley thinking last night, morning checkdown
48:01 - 58:10 – How much are injuries a valid excuse for the Colts, what does this collapse say about Carlie Irsay-Gordon, comparing resumes of GM Chris Ballard to other general managers around the league
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to the Best of the Fan morning show
on ninety three five and one oh seven five the Fan.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
You look into that and obviously we got to win
one on one matchups as we get going every game.
You know, let's it, this game is about one on
ones and winning the game within the game and keep
working those you know, pass rush stuff and practice. So
then come to life, you know on Sundays and Monday nights.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Yeah, I don't think there's been a more damning.
Speaker 4 (00:25):
Element in the Chris Ballad era James than the lack
of a pass rush. The investments are rich, they are
draft picks, they are money both and yet Rock Party
has hit oon time last night. To me, that's probably
(00:45):
the big Like, you know, if you're weighing the roster,
you're evaluating position groups all of that. You know, you
obviously got big sample size that tell you the story
of no division titles and one playoff win and two
playoff appearances and all of that. But if you want
to kind of get into position groups itself. To me,
and last night the whole nation saw it just a
library quiet pass rush.
Speaker 5 (01:07):
Not enough in that department at all. I get that
the Forest Buckner was coming back from the neck injury.
He didn't look like he was himself. But the rest
of that group, what.
Speaker 6 (01:16):
Is your excuse?
Speaker 5 (01:18):
You haven't even earned the grace that perhaps Buckner has
given his resume the last few years and what he's
played through the last few years. But Quitty pay can't
find you to lat too. Did have the stripsack. Other
than that, where are you? And it felt like again
brock Purdy was pretty much going through like a seven
on seven drill at times.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
I think he went through his progressions twice.
Speaker 4 (01:40):
Yeah, he had a ton of te back through let
me scan back one, two, three, four.
Speaker 5 (01:44):
And again when it came down to the other side
of that lack of pressure, the let's get the ball
out there in the air and see what happens. You
have nobody who can make a play on the ball
outside of cam Binham who caught an interception that was
on an overthrown pass lightly. They wasn't even like, you're
not to take anything away from cam bind him, not
to say it was his fault. He caught an interception,
which you're supposed to do. But my point is you
(02:08):
all didn't make any plays in the air either, So
I mean outside of a cosmetic interception at the end
of the game.
Speaker 6 (02:16):
You got be handedly.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
Yeah on defense off the dude's fingertips that contributed to that.
We don't have a show tomorrow or Thursday, James. So
I know this question would inevitably pop up, and just
I don't want to get full into the playoff scenarios
just yet, but the Colts could be eliminated before they
kick off on Sunday. Yes, the Texans play the Chargers
(02:39):
Saturday afternoon. If the Chargers lose to the Texans, if
the Texans win, then that would officially eliminate the Colts
from the playoffs. Now, obviously, by that point, whatever that
is Saturday at seven pm, you will have done all
your prep for Jacksonville this week. You play at one
o'clock on Sunday. I think it would be hard to
(02:59):
all of a sud sudden, you know, yank the wheel
per se, and you know, have a massive one pint
eighty in shifting what you're going to do plan wise.
I still remain under the impression that it will be
Philip Rivers as a starter and Riley Leonard as the
backup on Sunday, and part of me thinks that'll be
the case again in week eighteen. Maybe if you were eliminated,
(03:21):
you'd flip flop that. But anything I guess changed for
you at all, whether you want to go Rivers, Leonard
or the inevitable Anthony Richardson, questions that will come.
Speaker 6 (03:33):
Well, let's start with the end there.
Speaker 5 (03:35):
Anthony Richardson, I would highly doubt plays again this year,
just given the severity of the eye injury and the
limitations that he has visually. Again, I don't know what
those limitations exactly are because I'm not in his body
and seeing through his eyes, but from what I understand
what I've gathered, it is perhaps more significant than I
(03:57):
initially thought, or others, you know, from the outsome looking
in might have initially thought. So let's just rule him
out for that reason. And then looking at the decision
between Riley Leonard or Philip Rivers, I just think that
until they're mathematically eliminated, you're not gonna get a real
pushback from Shane on the idea of starting Philip. And
(04:20):
quite honestly, after Philip played, I thought as well as
he did yesterday, I don't feel as worried about it
as I did after the Seattle game. After the Seattle game,
I think there was an argument you could make like, Okay,
is this enough? Is this all we're gonna get from
the old guy? And if that is the case, then
Riley might be a better option. But I thought Philip
(04:42):
played his butt off yesterday and gave this team a
legitimate chance to win.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Yeah, and I was dead wrong.
Speaker 4 (04:47):
I mean, my hand is raised again with Philip Rivers
and the ability to push it a little bit more
down the field.
Speaker 5 (04:53):
Well, we both got a middle finger along with the
rest of the beat. When they first out of the
game was a first player with the st on the field.
Speaker 6 (05:00):
I laughed at that, honestly.
Speaker 4 (05:01):
And again there were a couple of deep balls that
you know, looked like the old wounded duck falling out
of the sky that you know didn't have. It was like, okay,
pray for the defensive pass interference underthrow. Is that is
that kind of way you're hoping for? There on a
couple of those deep shots. But like you go back
to that opening drive and one thing that Rivers does
just unbelievably well is he gives guys chances after the catch,
(05:25):
like they got into the third and I forget what
it was, maybe third and eight, and he gets it
a tailor right in stride. Boom, there's a bunch of
yak first down. Even the Josh downs ball on like
the third and whatever that was eleven or twelve. He
just throws it to the right shoulder every time, and
I'm not saying right, like literally his right side. Whichever
shoulder is going upfield or needs to be going upfield.
(05:49):
He does that, and again it wobbles, It looks a
little odd, but it as long as it gets there
somewhat on time. It allows guys the opportunity to make
a play. And I'll go back to the third and
goal touchdown to Pierce. I mean, James, that was a
what third and goal from the sixteen?
Speaker 3 (06:07):
That is a give up play.
Speaker 4 (06:09):
You rarely see teams take end zone shots on third
and goal from the sixteen, like that's a risky play.
And yet the anticipation to throw that ball well before
Alec Peerce is even making his break. And then again,
if you go back, there's some unbelievable still shots of
(06:30):
the catch and Pierce of course just being Pierce, and
as if I feel like I've been a broken record
all year, long he continues to add to his payday
that's coming this offseason.
Speaker 5 (06:40):
Yeah, we were talking about it after the game, Kevin,
who are the winners of last night? And I think
me and Stephen Holder were joking about how the winners
were the forty nine ers and Alec Pierce and his agent,
Oh easily easily Yeah, like after that slim Pickens, Yes, yeah,
well said I'll give them to Blake groupie.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
But that's that's probably where I will stop.
Speaker 4 (07:01):
But like those throws from Rivers early in the game,
and you know, again, it's just kind of some second
level stuff, and they brought tempo.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
I thought he ESPN did a wonderful.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
Job of Buck and Aikman silencing themselves when Rivers was
at the line of scrimmage and he he sounded like
homeboy here at the ISO. Jack is it everly? Is
this our dude here at Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. I mean,
he was a maestro at the line. Just it was
tempo to get Rivers into twenty five seconds of chess matches,
(07:34):
That's what it was. It wasn't tempo to like, you know,
necessarily keep a personnel grouping on the field. Maybe that
had a little bit to do with it. It was
more of just let's let that wizard operate at the
line of scrimmage. Yeah, and he was able to do that. So,
you know, again, from an offensive game plan standpoint, the.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Cults were bullish.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
They were adamant, we're gonna we feel like we can
do more stuff. We feel like we can hit a
couple more chunks. I was very skeptical and they did that. Now,
when you get into the other Shane psych in evaluation marks,
it's not as glowing. But James I did not think
the offense could produce like that, especially if you had
(08:13):
have told me before the night Jonathan Taylor's gonna have
a season low two point nine yards per carry and
you're gonna lose your starting center on the second snap
of the game. I mean you were down your left tackle,
your center, your right tackle. Taylor has his least efficient
night of the year, and you score twenty seven.
Speaker 7 (08:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (08:34):
I had to go back and look, Kevin. Twenty seven
points were their most in a game since their last
win back in Berlin.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
So well, hell, it's probably the most in regulation?
Speaker 7 (08:43):
Was it?
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Did they get higher than that?
Speaker 6 (08:45):
And even regulation it's a good point I didn't go
back in that that far.
Speaker 5 (08:49):
I was trying to, you know, keep it short and
sweet there, you know, the late night writing, but point being, yeah,
that's enough to win that game.
Speaker 6 (08:58):
And defensively, you just failed to show up.
Speaker 5 (09:00):
And I talking assire Franklin talking to Forest Buckner, actually
thought to Forest Buckner summed everything up in about seven
words yesterday.
Speaker 6 (09:08):
I used it in my story. I'm gonna pull it
up here.
Speaker 5 (09:11):
And he was asked how frustrating is this loss? And
his response in full was it's the worst because it's
the latest.
Speaker 6 (09:25):
And you never hear.
Speaker 5 (09:28):
Buckner be that Kurt or that short with any answer,
but you could tell he was seething at the idea
of having another collapse, and obviously after last night, having
it happen at the hands of a defense that might
as well have stayed at home.
Speaker 4 (09:45):
Yeah, again, a horrific defensive effort. I think I want
to play this Philip Rivers audio here because and this
has largely been the conversation James, at least for myself
and I think for the show in general over the
last ten days of like, you have two different movies
we're watching here. The Rivers movie is incredible, and again
(10:08):
it added scenes last night that I didn't think were possible.
You know, It's funny Troy Aikman gave him the Himmy
award before the game he started last night on Monday
Night Countdown, and Rivers joked with him. He goes, I
gotta be the first dude that threw for one hundred
and twenty yards and loss and get an award for that.
Speaker 5 (10:28):
And we're treating him like he was again a senior
citizen at the old folks homes.
Speaker 6 (10:34):
Say, okay, he won bingo.
Speaker 4 (10:36):
Right, And that's where, like the Rivers thing is cute,
it's fun to watch and it's really cool, but you
also have the other movie that's like, holy bleep, they've
lost five in a row. You know how many events
Lucas Oil Stadium was hosted since the last time the
(10:56):
Colts hosted a home playoff game, and that will continue
to happen here.
Speaker 5 (11:00):
Who is that listener who said the Hoosias are going
to have the last win of the two teams in
Lucas Oil Stadium, right.
Speaker 4 (11:07):
Which very well could happen if the Colts don't win
here on Sunday against Jacksonville in the home finale It's
that's where I think it's like you're just kind of
torn in the day after a game of you want
to acknowledge Rivers, but also this franchise is now teetering
on the biggest collapse the NFL has seen in years.
You said it to me during the break, James, how
many teams since the NFL merged in nineteen seventy have
(11:29):
had a collapse like this?
Speaker 8 (11:32):
Five?
Speaker 5 (11:32):
And so the Colts would be the sixth team to
start seven to one and miss the playoffs. That is
six teams over the last fifty five years. Come on, man, Like,
when I put it like that, I'm like, WHOA, there
might need to be some changes.
Speaker 7 (11:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (11:53):
Again, it's five straight losses, it's six of seven, the
AFC South elimination.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
With two weeks left and last year with three weeks left.
Speaker 4 (12:03):
That's not lost to me either, Like you're not in
a division with Mahomes or Allen or you know, healthy
Lamar Jackson. I mean, you're in the AFC South, and
yet I know this year obviously it's been a better division,
but it's not like Houston won whatever fourteen games last
year and you were eliminated.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
With three weeks to go. I mean three weeks to go, that's.
Speaker 4 (12:19):
A long time in the NFL, and you're out of there.
And now this week, with two weeks this year, with
two games ago, you're also out of out of there.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
Like that to me would resonate a whole whole lot. Caleb,
it's hit up some on.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
The phone line here, so we got Courtney.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
Is that right?
Speaker 4 (12:37):
Let's lead off here with Courtney on this Tuesday morning?
What's up Courtney?
Speaker 7 (12:41):
Hey, what's happening? I got my brother in here, Sorr
with me.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
What's up Courtney's brother?
Speaker 7 (12:49):
What's going on? Man? Uh? Yeah, I watched well, I
watched that game, bro, and.
Speaker 9 (12:57):
That was that defense was hor rif Zire Franklin just
really disappointed me after that deserve.
Speaker 7 (13:05):
I don't know if that deserves.
Speaker 9 (13:07):
He needs to leave because he spends too much on
the podcast, especially with Jeff t on five to twenty.
Speaker 7 (13:13):
He needs to get off that.
Speaker 9 (13:14):
And focus on his game and we need a better
pass rush.
Speaker 7 (13:19):
Quickie pay is not showing up.
Speaker 9 (13:21):
I don't know what's going on with him, and it
was just a whole overall disaster.
Speaker 5 (13:25):
Man.
Speaker 9 (13:26):
I'm so very disappointed, especially when Phil Rivers had played
his butt off the night. He really impressed me last night,
like he really did a.
Speaker 7 (13:35):
Good job for all of that.
Speaker 9 (13:39):
For him to go out there and put up that
many points to put out that good performance for the
defense just s going that off. It's embarrassing, man, Like,
there's got to be some changes. They need to be
some changes.
Speaker 4 (13:50):
Thank you Courney for the call. Appreciated, best to you
and your brother. Yeah, the linebacker play awful last night,
Jermaine Pratt early on, certainly.
Speaker 5 (13:58):
But do you remember what you asked me yesterday about
what was I worried about any of those guys being
lined up against George Kittle or Christian McCaffrey in space
They physically can't do it.
Speaker 4 (14:09):
It was the first play was that where Kittle kind
of went over Pratt and made a play Like Pratt
kind of lost it down the field.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
Kittle made that play.
Speaker 4 (14:16):
Yeah, it just you know, I think we had questions
about the linebacker position entering the year, and we continue
to have those questions. It was probably the group you
had the most questions about entering the year. And that's
why I go back to the front seven. I mean,
you are healthy there, you have invested so much. I
mean you were to talked first second round picks, whether
it's Quitty Pay, whether it's lowed to lat To, whether
(14:37):
it's Taekwon Lewis, whether it's Beforrest Buckner. You obviously traded
a first round pick also for Buckner. You know, j
T twomlo out. You know, this year has been a
very quiet I think the thought there with him was
he was such a decorated college player, he could come
in here and maybe impact.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
A little bit earlier.
Speaker 4 (14:52):
Yeah, same with Lat two, Like Lot two and uh Tomla,
we're not drafted as projects. They were very compost players,
and the thought there was they could give you a
little bit more early.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
On supposed to be due.
Speaker 4 (15:05):
You know, banking on Samson Ebcom coming off the torn
Achilles was very wishful thinking. And if you just look,
I don't have it in front of me, James, but
I believe it's a top five money.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
Defense in the NFL.
Speaker 4 (15:19):
Like even if you don't consider the draft picks, which
you know, if you compare the starting eleven from whatever
San Francisco for example, to Indy, it's totally different from
where they're at from a health standpoint. And I'm gonna
point back to that front seven, because I get it,
you're without Javeri's Ward, You're without Sauce Gardner.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
You're gonna have some issues there.
Speaker 4 (15:38):
But to now Christian McCaffrey have a night that he
really hasn't had all year running the football, let alone
one quarterback hit in thirty four pass attempts just horrific
from the defense.
Speaker 5 (15:49):
I will say this to Courtney's point and again shout
out to you for the call.
Speaker 6 (15:54):
It is a bad look when.
Speaker 5 (15:58):
One of your team captains is on a podcast on
a weekly basis talking trash about other teams and recapping
the trash talk you had with those guys on the
field and what you're gonna do to them and how
you're how you should be viewed or feared or whatever
(16:18):
respected and you're still losing. That's not a good look.
And I do wonder if that is something that rubs
other people the wrong way within the organization, because like
here is incredible story seventh round pick. I think it
does all pro all that, but yeah, I can't imagine
(16:40):
that after you, for example, last week, you all lose
to the Seattle Seahawks and you go on to some
podcasts and you're talking about trash talking some offensive linemen
on the Seattle Seahawks, and people are probably thinking you
or thinking of you as someone who's not serious because
you've lost four straight games and then you go out
there and get embarrassed on naw television and you lose
(17:02):
your fifth straight game. So yeah, I think there's a
lot of like splintering things that are going on with
this team. And at some point you got to look
at these guys. And I forgot who said it first.
It might have mean you or somebody else on the
beat that I was talking to about this, Kevin, this
corps of players when you look at the Forest Buck news,
Iar Franklin, Kennymore, Quentin Nelson, whoever else all these people.
(17:26):
I am not saying get rid of Quentin Nelson, you know,
Hall of Famer, But my point is they don't win
these games. They don't win big games. So at some
point you got to be looking at all, right, if
it ain't with this group, then we got to figure
out how to reload and move on and do something different,
Because in my mind, I'm thinking to myself, if you
try to convince people to run this back next year
(17:49):
and everyone's a year older and Daniel Jones is coming
off of torn Achilles.
Speaker 6 (17:54):
What the heck are you actually selling people well?
Speaker 4 (17:55):
And also the justification that I've heard to whatever not
making changes is you can't give a new GM back
to back drafts without first round picks. And it's like,
in what way, shape or form is that a ringing
endorsement on Chris Ballard? Like it kind of goes back
(18:16):
to the combine conversation we had with Ballard of like
why do you feel like you're getting a ninth year?
Why do you feel like you haven't gotten done? And
those answers are not met with like this strong conviction
no or this like oh wow, that's a really key
important building piece that you know what, maybe it might
turn out in a positive direction. Like again, if we
(18:38):
have this conversation on August twenty third, and you told me, hey,
the cold season's gonna play out, they'll be eliminated from
the AFC South with two games to go, they potentially
could have their playoff hopes over by the time they
kick off on Sunday, they'll have the biggest collapse you
just pointed out since whatever nineteen seventy. They don't have
(19:00):
their two first round picks for the next two years.
Their quarterback situation I think might be okay, But then again,
the dude can't stay healthy, the dude being Daniel Jones,
right exactly, Yeah, right, Yeah, that's probably a very important
clarification by you.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
And yet you get a tenth crack at it. But
that's tough. That to me just makes no sense.
Speaker 4 (19:27):
But you know, again with Carli ers Gordon, there is
just an unknown element to it, and I think there's
a little bit of like nervous energy of for two months, James,
was it going so well that you got away from
this potential reality and now you don't want to seriously
entertain it, you know, And now it's a very scared
(19:48):
tactic to probably be a business leader. But that is
a thought that has crossed my mind. It's like, you know,
when you green light the sauce Gardener trade, you're saying,
this is our group and again the Sauce Gardner trade.
To go back to it, not only did you say
we believe in Sauce Gardner as a player, of course,
(20:08):
but you also said we believe in the quarterback position,
unquestionably in the direction that it's going, and we believe
in the powers at B I E.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
R GM and our head. Like you said all of
that with the Gardner.
Speaker 4 (20:21):
You can look at the Gardener trade and say, hey,
by trading two first round picks and Adi Mitchell, you're trading.
Speaker 3 (20:25):
What three, let's call it four players.
Speaker 4 (20:28):
Knowing Ballard, he probably would have traded back with one
of those first round picks. You basically traded four top
fifty players in a draft for one. Like, if you
want to put the trade up on a whiteboard, what
did you bring in? What's leaving? But you also said
two massive other things in that move. You said that
Daniel Jones is the side of the building guy. He
(20:50):
can stay healthy, his quality of play is great over
the course of four months of an NFL season. All
of that and then the Ballad and Siching thing is
what you said. Now fast forward here six weeks later,
the quarterback questions obviously are there, and you're in the
midst of the biggest.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
Collapse and last night's collapse.
Speaker 4 (21:07):
James was so rooted in Ballard's building, the defensive side
of the ball, the front seven not showing up in
a primetime game. That's route I mean, that's been his baby. Again,
look at the investment.
Speaker 6 (21:20):
Look at the.
Speaker 4 (21:21):
Investments on the defensive side of the ball, particularly in
the front seven, and if I were Carl ras Gordon,
that would make me pause long and hard today looking
in the.
Speaker 5 (21:29):
Mirror, absolutely, and I can't really disagree with any points
that you just made. The other thing, Kevin, when I
think about the Sauce trade, that was after the worst
game of the year that they had up until that point,
I believe Daniel might have had five turnovers if I
(21:51):
remember correctly, was five turnovers for Daniel, I think six
for the team and that loss in Pittsburgh, and I
remember riding after that game. I'm not saying I'm some
genius because many of those listening probably says.
Speaker 6 (22:02):
The same thing.
Speaker 5 (22:05):
When you made the Sauce trade right after that, you
basically gave up your exit ramp if you were still
gonna play the whole. Let's just see how this goes.
Types of thing you said after his worst game of
the year, we believe in this, dude, and we believe
that's that's an anomaly, that's just a one off.
Speaker 6 (22:24):
And perhaps maybe it was to a degree like.
Speaker 5 (22:26):
We couldn't have seen the future and said, oh, it's
gots gonna get hurt and play with a fractured leg
and teres Achilles all that. But even then he was
already he was gonna taper off. He started taper off,
and you were like, Nope, full steam ahead. This is
our group. We got this, which at the time I
was with it. Hey, you got a window that's open.
The AFC looks wounded this year. It is wounded this
(22:47):
year without Patrick Mahomes obviously, so here's your shot. But
this is a results based business, and the results that
you have now might change the calculation and what you
do moving forward with this regime, this group, because it
is very hard to sell from a player perspective, because
these dudes don't win. From a coach perspective, I don't
(23:09):
know how many coaches stay around after their first three
years without making the playoffs. Granted again, he's also had
a lot of things going on. I want to dismiss that.
And also, Chris Ballard, you're in year what is this nine?
And it hasn't been fruitful.
Speaker 4 (23:27):
We'll get to a few more phone calls here coming
up eight o'clock hour. Do you want to get to
a little bit more audio from last night as we
continue to recap this. By the way, it's a ball
me Tuesday out there. Hopefully this will create some smooth
traveling for people this week here in what looks to
be a quite the unusual Christmas weather that we're about
to have.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
I think one more thing to.
Speaker 4 (23:47):
Add, kind of James to that point, and it's something
I mentioned to lead off the show, and I'll reiterate
it here again. Carl Orse Gordon, we don't know deep down,
like we don't know there is a little past precedent
with her at this level.
Speaker 3 (24:02):
But one thing we do know about her father.
Speaker 4 (24:05):
One of the things that frustrated him the most was
when the opportunities and again they haven't been many lately,
certainly three years since you're on Monday Night football, when
the opportunities for his team to play in primetime showed
up and they got embarrassed.
Speaker 3 (24:21):
That bothered him endlessly.
Speaker 4 (24:24):
And obviously there are elements to the daughters that they
want to do differently than their father, but there are
also a lot of core tenants that he has that
they agree with. And I am curious watching that game unfold,
particularly the defensive side of the ball, and again that
front seven.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
Do they have the same level of bothersome.
Speaker 4 (24:47):
I guess, for lack of a better term, that I
know their father would have watching all of that unfold.
And again, even if you don't play the embarrassment card
necessarily as much as Jim would have, what about financially,
I mean, we just watched this entire city absolutely come
to life with the Pacers playoff run, and those home environments, James,
(25:10):
that you were in many times were absolutely electric, and
not just from the financial pockets for the Simons in
getting home game after home game after home game, but
like the goodwill of people experiencing that, and now here
you are eleven years removed from the last time we've
walked into Lucas Soil Stadium in a meaningful January game. Like,
(25:34):
even if you can't quantify the good will that that
does for your fan base, what about financially getting a
home play? I mean, if anybody I get why people
are obsessed with wanting to see.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
Their team in primetime.
Speaker 4 (25:46):
Like if you watched ESPN from six o'clock on last night,
it is a walking billboard for your city, for your franchise.
They gave more love to the Colts than they did
the forty nine Ers pre game by far, it is
such an unbelievable advertisement for your city, for your franchise, etc.
Speaker 7 (26:05):
Etc.
Speaker 4 (26:06):
And then with tons of red in your building, you
get dog walked by a team that had not been
doing that offensively all year long. Again, how if this
was a teetering decision for Carli ERSA Gordon, does that
impact it at all? There's part of it that says,
I don't necessarily think a week sixteen game and year
(26:27):
nine of a regime should have great impact. But this
has come from someone that thought Chris Baler should't have
gote a year nine either. So you know, maybe I'm
not the best person to ask.
Speaker 3 (26:39):
Much more on this.
Speaker 4 (26:39):
We'll get into it here in the eight o'clock hour
coming up, Kevin bow and James Boyd Caleb Zuber on
a Tuesday. Only thing worse than the Colts defense last
night is yours truly attempting to wrap a Christmas present.
Caleb Zuver, thank you for that intro. I thought that
Rivers quote certainly hit home pretty accurately right there. You
(27:02):
got two different movies right now. One's a fun Hallmark
movie and the other one is typical with what we're
used to from present day Indianapolis Colts, certainly in the
Chris Ballard era. Good Tuesday morning tea, it's ball me.
If you haven't been outside, you'll go shirts. You might
play golf on Christmas with what this weather looks like.
Kevin Bowen, James Boyd and Caleb Zuber again filling in
for Mark dyketon plenty to get to here as we
(27:25):
dissect last night forty eight twenty seven, the final score there,
James Boyd one quarterback hit on thirty four pass attempts
for brock Purty. They didn't encounter their first third down
San Francisco until the third drive of the game, and
that was because of a drop. And Christian McCaffrey had
(27:49):
what the two games over four yards per cary all year,
maybe it was three, and he was nearly six yards
per carry last night. Just an utterly horrific defensive effort
on a night that my hand is raised because Philip Rivers,
you showed me something that I didn't think you had.
Speaker 5 (28:05):
So you told me that one of the things I'll
have to learn when I become a father someday is
about the blowouts when you have the young child, you're
burping them or whatever, and get that sound, a little
rumble in the stomach, and boy, the pamper is decimated.
I say that because the way Zire Franklin described yesterday's
(28:28):
game was.
Speaker 6 (28:30):
With the S word. It was a bleepy day.
Speaker 5 (28:33):
And I was thinking to myself, that's true. That might
have been a newborn blowout right there, because this is
unacceptable for this group. And I don't really know how
you square that. And the scene I'll kind of paint
for you all is you have Philip Rivers, one of
(28:55):
the last guys out of the locker room, and he's
putting on his clothes and looks like he can go
drive a truck after the game or something. And he's
pulling his clothes and you know, everyone's going up to
him and give him some dap and hey, thank you
for you know what you're doing, and this and that,
and just that scene of him sitting in his locker
by himself and he's kind of like staring off, probably
(29:15):
thinking about like all the million things that could have
gone a different way in the game, or how his
career has kind of taken this crazy turn near the
end of it. And it may not be for something
not to say that those are his words, but in
my mind, I'm thinking to myself, I know he will
be grateful, and he said that, you know, when loser
draw I came back, I'll live with the results. But boy,
(29:37):
it's got a way on him to know, like, man,
I might be playing pretty good football right now and
it might not even matter because we can't win a game.
And that's one of the things he kept saying repeatedly
after last night starts. We have to win a game.
Not we gotta go on a run. We gotta you know,
prove it doubter or is wrong. We gotta shock the world.
(29:58):
It was we have to to win a single game,
which the tone of that was just so jarring to me.
Speaker 4 (30:05):
Yeah, and James, one week after your blueprint around Rivers
couldn't have been more flawless. It was the exact opposite
last night. The defense an absolute abomination. And then I
thought the Amir Abdullah fumble on the kick return it
changed everything. I don't know why, but it felt like
it was like a ten to fourteen point turnover.
Speaker 3 (30:27):
It just well, you know.
Speaker 5 (30:28):
Why, this is why I think you feel like that
for me personally. So you turn the ball over there.
Speaker 3 (30:35):
So it's seven to seven to set at all off.
Speaker 5 (30:39):
A mere Abdullah, who was great last week, by the way,
has the turnover, the fumble he lost fumble, he laune the.
Speaker 6 (30:46):
Yeah, it was great play. That happens.
Speaker 5 (30:49):
They go and score to go up fourteen to seven,
and even though the Colts came back and matched at
fourteen fourteen, in the back of my mind, I was thinking,
oh boy, this is if it becomes a shootout, a
bad bad turnover because us they got the ball come
out of the half. So even if you had made
it to the first half right kind of unscathed. After that,
you're like, okay, we get the ball first to start
the second half, we can go to That did not happen.
(31:11):
They got the ball to start second half and they
went down to score again.
Speaker 4 (31:14):
Well, the thought is from Shane Syke, and I know
a lot of people disagree on this. The thought with
him is right now we need to play from ahead.
Speaker 9 (31:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (31:21):
I blame him for that, so we're gonna take the ball.
Speaker 4 (31:23):
Yeah, but we got to play from ahead, and for
that early in the game, for you to then be
playing from behind, it just forces so much pressure elsewhere
and like inevitably, this offense is not going to be flawless,
flawless for forty eight y or for sixty minutes. Clearly
we saw that. And you know Jonathan Taylor having his
least efficient rushing night of the season. Obviously you're down
(31:45):
several key offensive linemen right now. That is contributing to it.
You know, a couple other things for me defensively that
I thought define the night and would be so bothersome
right now and evaluating the defensive effort from last night, James,
you going to have time again. You've gotten your ass
kicked in the first half. Well, what was the score half,
twenty four to seventeen twenty four?
Speaker 3 (32:05):
You're given up?
Speaker 4 (32:06):
Yes, I believe so okay, so twenty four points you
give up in the first half. Kittle is having a
career night against you, and the first play the second
half is right back to Kittle for a huge chump
like to me of all the you know if anybody
Kittle did it to you on what the first play
of the game or the second play of the game
(32:26):
when he goes over Jermaine Pratt for that catch and
then he comes out at halftime and he makes that
play and then you get them into a third and
goal from like the nine later on in the second half,
and of all the coverage, bust of all the breakdowns,
you're gonna have the breakdowns, not for Brian Robinson to
get open or Jake Tungus to get open, or Kyle
us Check to get open, or Juwan Jennings or Sky Moore.
(32:50):
The breakdown is to allow Christian McCaffrey to strut into
the end zone like those two plays, second half plays
after they have wit than Yeah, for the first thirty
minutes they come out, they throw it to their star
tight end. He makes a big play in the first
play the second half, just so fitting. And then the
third and goal to Christian McCaffrey on a just a
(33:14):
total breakdown. Not McCaffrey breaking dude's ankles with a hell
of a play, just walks right in the end zone
to really, you know, I get the cult tide to
drive there at the end until the Rivers picked sixth.
Speaker 3 (33:25):
But I thought that was a dagger.
Speaker 5 (33:26):
And this is where I need Caleb to chime in again,
because they scored twice on that possession. Yeah, man, it's
it's unbelievable.
Speaker 10 (33:36):
Kyle Shanahan was smiling the whole game, because of how
easy it was, and there's no greater example. Then on
second in goal, they throw to Jake Tungus in the
back of the end zone and they rule it incomplete.
It's a great play by Purdy, by the way, like
he was rolling to his right, so a great yes,
and he does it and they initially rule it incomplete,
(34:00):
and then they show the replay on the broadcast and
it's like, hold on a second. There's turf pellets flying
up like I think he got his other foot down.
And San Francisco did not complain to the refs. They
just got back in the huddle and they're like, you
know what, it's third and goal from the ten or
twelve or whatever, and we're just gonna go score because
(34:21):
it's that easy right now, No no problem, We'll just
throw it. I think this was McCaffrey the next play.
It's that's how easy it was last night.
Speaker 4 (34:30):
Touchdown, touchdown, touchdown, field goal near sixty four yard or
touchdown field goal, touchdown, first eight drive to the San
Francisco forty nine ers last night. Two sides of a movie.
If you don't mind, Caleb, let's cue this up from
Philip Rivers post game last night kind of an expansion
on the clip you heard right there in the intro.
Speaker 11 (34:52):
Yeah, I know that, you know, from a personal standpoint,
it'll be short lived. You know it'll be over and hurry,
which I told you all from the beginning. I'm gonna
I will be able to live with the results whatever
they are, and that necessarily mean I'm okay with them
and I don't care you know about them.
Speaker 3 (35:07):
So yeah, no, it is.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
This week felt like a regular in week mode.
Speaker 11 (35:11):
It felt a little bit like I've been here a
while in terms of the preparation and the flow.
Speaker 7 (35:15):
During the week.
Speaker 11 (35:15):
And you know, again, it's been I'm torn of how
to express it, because it's been a blast. It's been
a blast to prepare and to go stick and get
ready and go out there and warm up and do.
Speaker 3 (35:28):
All that with these guys again.
Speaker 11 (35:29):
But again, the name of the game is not you know,
go have a good time. It's helped find a way
to lead your team to win. And we've come up
short here these first two, but we've been I've been
a part of less percentage chances of getting in and
got in before. So you'll you'll certainly won't hear me
(35:50):
losing hope here as we prepare next week.
Speaker 3 (35:53):
Yeah, I need another hour before we break down a
playoff scenario. I can't. I can't.
Speaker 6 (35:58):
That's what makes you and Philip River the different man.
Speaker 3 (36:01):
I can't go there just yet.
Speaker 6 (36:02):
Philip can't give up, Hope man.
Speaker 3 (36:04):
Now this from Connor.
Speaker 4 (36:05):
Half the game last night was enjoyable to watch with
all the talk by Philip Rivers pre snap, but the
other half was like watching the San Francisco forty nine.
Speaker 3 (36:14):
Ers have a walkthrough.
Speaker 6 (36:17):
Pretty much.
Speaker 3 (36:19):
I think Connor just summed up the night.
Speaker 4 (36:21):
I could sign off right now and just repeat that
here for the next hour and forty.
Speaker 5 (36:24):
I'm trying to think of moments where they actually felt
resistance in the game a lot too. Strip that's one,
that's one they didn't. That's one right that they didn't.
A punt it in that game. What stopped them was
the crossbar in the first half and when brock Party
(36:46):
slightly over the receiver and cam Binam intercepted it.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
You know what's so crazy?
Speaker 10 (36:51):
Not punting used to be the Colts thing, that used
to be our thing, and now we have so someone
else coming into our house and doing it to us
as a fan.
Speaker 1 (37:04):
That's just got to make you sick. It makes me sick.
Speaker 3 (37:07):
I don't know if you guys.
Speaker 4 (37:07):
Felt this way late in the game, but you know,
for those that went to bed, the Cults are down
fourteen and they're driving.
Speaker 3 (37:15):
They have a promising drive.
Speaker 4 (37:17):
If I remember correctly, they had two timeouts and still
had the two mid of warning. Like in a vacuum,
your team is still very much in the game.
Speaker 3 (37:28):
You score there.
Speaker 4 (37:29):
Shane Sage is not a believer in this, but some
people say, hey, you go for two there, try to
get the two point conversion. Maybe you cut it to six,
and now all of a sudden, if you get a stop,
you have a touchdown drive for the win, if Blake
Groupy can make the extra point. I don't know how
you guys felt emotionally, but I thought to myself at
that point, I'm like, there's no chance to Cult to
win in this game, and like the offense had moved
(37:50):
it pretty well.
Speaker 3 (37:50):
No Rivers ends up throwing a pick six.
Speaker 4 (37:52):
I thought it was kind of an unfortunate way to
end a night that he certainly was much much better
than that. But like, I didn't feel any sort of
I guess optimism at that moment. I'm like, yeah, this
game is not this game's gonna end in the laws.
I don't know necessarily how it's going to look, but
(38:13):
there's no way the Colts A score the touchdown, B
get the stop, and then C score the next touchdown,
which in reality, I mean, you're down fourteen. You got
three chances to stop the clock. Like, it's not that
crazy of an idea.
Speaker 5 (38:26):
It is when you have a defense like that, And
that's the point. I think you're trying to make four.
Speaker 6 (38:32):
Hundred and forty yards. That was the most a couple
with like it.
Speaker 4 (38:37):
It's so much pressure that you continue to put in
the offense, like the offense is going to crack at
some point.
Speaker 5 (38:41):
Yeah, you're asking the way I looked at it, and
I felt like this really early on in the first half.
It was probably right after the Mere Abdula fumble and
they came down and scored a touchdown to making fourteen
and fourteen. After that, I'm like, okay, well, you responded well,
but how well can you hold serve if the other
side is smashing a ball to like their Serena Williams like,
(39:05):
I mean, how many times can you realistically any team?
I think we'll kind of have it hard if you
got to go down there and score a touchdown every
single time, because you know your defense can't hold water
or is the forest Buckton said can't stop a nosebleed.
Speaker 6 (39:21):
So that was very telling to me.
Speaker 5 (39:24):
And again just another example of this team folding in
a big, big moment. I'm trying to think of the
marquee wins in the Shan Steken era the last three years,
and what are they at this point in the year.
He's had big wins. I don't want to dismiss laving
this earlier. This year, you've had some key wins over
(39:46):
good teams.
Speaker 4 (39:47):
No, but I'd argue one of the biggest constants is
awful December January loss.
Speaker 3 (39:53):
That's what I mean that you.
Speaker 6 (39:54):
Have to have.
Speaker 4 (39:55):
And again, this is a different type of thing like
losing to Jake Browning, losing to Taylor Heineke, using to
Drew Locke.
Speaker 3 (40:01):
That's in a different bucket.
Speaker 4 (40:03):
Last night for me was in your own building, prime time,
first time in three years. You know, rock party is
certainly not those quarterbacks, but just to get your ass
royally kicked in the other facets of the game. And again,
this is where I think Stiken has some real issues
as a head coach, James he has to be. Can
(40:24):
you imagine how involved he has to be offensively right
now with rivers?
Speaker 6 (40:28):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (40:30):
How is there enough time in the day to manage
the rest of the operation, whether that is defensively, it's
whether that is like, there's so much on his plate
as the head coach in the playoff, and again he
has accepted this, he has wanted this, And look, there
are a lot of coaches around the league. San Francisco's
got one of them that puts a lot on the plate.
Speaker 3 (40:53):
So I don't know.
Speaker 4 (40:54):
Maybe this is a Robert Sala lu Anrimo thing, but
to me, it's the inability for your team to seize
the December January moment. Yeah, that's been a three year constant,
and frankly, it's probably been a constant before he got here,
if we're gonna be totally honest.
Speaker 3 (41:10):
So maybe that's more of a ballad thing with the
roster he's built than anything. But I do.
Speaker 4 (41:17):
Struggle with that with Stiking, Like if you graded him
as a play caller from last night, you'd give him
close to an A if not an A. If you
grate him as a head coach though, that's a totally
different grade. I mean, how does your defense no show
like that against an all like the San Francisco offense
is not the greatest show on turf?
Speaker 6 (41:33):
And mostly you sure boy.
Speaker 4 (41:35):
Without their star whiteout last night too, or I should
say they're they're number one wide out. So that's the
stiking part of it.
Speaker 7 (41:41):
That just.
Speaker 1 (41:44):
I just shake my head at the head coaching.
Speaker 4 (41:48):
Responsibilities, not the play caller, not the offensive game planner,
the head coach you oversee it all, and part of
it is is your team ready to meet the moment?
Like kurtz Signett's bunch, they meet the moment every single
time they meet the moment.
Speaker 3 (42:06):
That is a key, key part in I think being
a head coach.
Speaker 4 (42:10):
And from the onset last night, you didn't meet anything
outside of certainly the offensive side of the ball.
Speaker 6 (42:16):
So here's a question for you.
Speaker 5 (42:18):
Because we all, I believe, picked the forty nine ers
to win that game yesterday, and granted that would probably
mean that we think that they're going to lose out
the rest of the way, does it matter the fashion
in which you do so, Like if we're sitting here
today talking about a yeah, twenty seven twenty three loss.
Does that change how you view this regime or this
(42:41):
end of season collapse.
Speaker 4 (42:43):
It's a good question. It's one that I've asked myself.
I think I've asked some of our guests here over
the last couple of weeks, like, should four weeks of
a Philip Rivers off the couch era have this great
inflection point of.
Speaker 3 (42:55):
How you evaluate him? I pardon me, thinks no.
Speaker 4 (42:59):
But again, James, I mean I brought last year at
the end of the season that Gus Bradley and Chris
Ballard should go like.
Speaker 8 (43:07):
Also, can I say this real quick, I'm trying not
to be numb to like my Ballad thought, like I've
thought he didn't deserve a ninth year, So of course
I don't think he deserves a tenth year after watching
this unfold in the manner that it has.
Speaker 3 (43:18):
So yeah, sorry Dounterrup, but no.
Speaker 6 (43:21):
You're fine.
Speaker 5 (43:22):
I think when you brought up Gus Bradley, here's a
scene for you, Caleb and Kevin sitting there in the
press box, and you know how for those who don't
attend the game, Actually I should break this down, but
where I sit in the press box, it's kind of
near the elevator, and when you get off the elevator
and you walk right across, this's where my seat is.
So I see everyone come through the press box because
(43:42):
they literally have to walk past me to go anywhere
in there.
Speaker 6 (43:45):
And at the end of the game, when the.
Speaker 5 (43:48):
Coaches are all coming out and getting ready to go downstairs,
it's talk about Gus Bradley and his defense. The guy
I see walking by me on the victorious side this
time is Gus Bradley, who's an assistant with the forty
nine ers.
Speaker 6 (44:00):
I thought that was such a funny moment. Wave to him.
Speaker 5 (44:04):
Nice guy, But boy, he's probably thinking, well, you got
rid of me just to have the exact same thing
happen with it. Probably his mind a lot more resources
than I ever got.
Speaker 3 (44:12):
As I said that was funny, is a key and greedy? No,
I think the question asked funny.
Speaker 5 (44:18):
Caleb like, not not the funny funny, but I was like, boy,
that's funny.
Speaker 6 (44:21):
Looking.
Speaker 4 (44:22):
I think the question that you asked is an important
one because again, like who cares? I guess, in my
opinion is how does Carl Rosa Gordon feel it? And
that's why I go back to what I was saying
a little bit earlier in the eight o'clock hour, James,
what really pissed her dad off was embarrassment in primetime.
Speaker 3 (44:39):
How would you define last night an embarrassment in primetime?
Speaker 4 (44:44):
So, you know, because that's all that really matters at
the end of the day is you know, does she
have is she bothered by it? And again, the embarrassment
last night was not that a forty four year old
dude was tripping and falling, and you know, it was
the offense, it was the defense, it was a healthy
front seven. It was you know, other facets of the
(45:05):
game that didn't meet it. So it's again, it's one
I've thought about. It's one that I've struggled with a bit,
but it's probably fair to bring up, you know, And
I'll coming into last night, I didn't get the impression
that necessarily there would be changes, but who knows. Caleb
had said a quick morning checked out, all right, three
positives from you two from last night.
Speaker 3 (45:27):
Caleb. We're gonna put you on the hot seat first.
Speaker 10 (45:28):
Oh man, you know what I thought the receivers, Josh
Downs and Alec Pierce.
Speaker 1 (45:34):
I thought their effort was there all night.
Speaker 10 (45:36):
And you kind of alluded to it earlier, just kind
of the way the yards after catch worked out. Some
of that goes to Rivers, but like they fought for
first downs, they made big plays. I thought their effort
was elite and I really appreciated watching that.
Speaker 6 (45:49):
James Blake groupie.
Speaker 5 (45:52):
I thought that he did a fantastic job as a
kicker yesterday and quietly has put to bed one of
the other issues that popped up through the season.
Speaker 3 (46:00):
Yeah, and I'll throw Rivers in there.
Speaker 4 (46:02):
I mean, just from a positive standpoint, and I don't
think I'm grading him on the forty four year old scale.
I think as an NFL quarterback, he played pretty good
football for you last that was NFL good. I know,
the pick six, you know, makes it look a little
bit different at the end there, But still he did
a lot. I mean, and again, guys, down your left tackle,
your right tackle, and your center loses or leaves on
(46:22):
the second snap of the game, So we get it
in the offensive line a little bit here.
Speaker 5 (46:25):
So Philip was going to chase him down there for
a second on the pick six and just lost a
couple of wheels.
Speaker 4 (46:30):
I did see he waited for d winters for the
game to compliment him on that pick six, pretty Philip
Rivers like post game all right, Pacers a hell of
an effort really until the fourth quarter last night, they
actually had a notable lead on the Boston Celtics, could
not close it out there in Boston. So they will
have now the Bucks coming up tonight in a back
to back.
Speaker 3 (46:49):
They are right around to pick them against the Bucks.
Speaker 4 (46:53):
So late travel last night, Rick Carlisle shot me text
about three thirty saying, Hey, can we maybe postpone it
so we'll have Rick join coming up next week on
the show. But Pacers and Bucks in action and they'll
see the Celtics again. That's coming up on Friday. College
basketball from yesterday, Butler and Indiana both get the pre
Christmas victories that I certainly would have loved for my
(47:15):
team to have gotten a few days back. Butler all
over the New Jersey Institute of Technology. I believe at
one point the score was seventeen to nothing. Great balance
from the Bulldogs in that one. So that's a pretty
good non conference for them. The Boise State loss will
be one that definitely they would have liked back, but
all in all, it's a pretty good non conference here
(47:35):
for Butler and then Indiana over Sienna. Nick Dorn starting
to come on a little bit here for the Hoosiers.
I know there's some big time intrigue from him and
transfer from Elon coming off the bench. Fry you a
little banged up in the offseason, So we'll see if
that can translate to the Big ten players. Now, it's
quite a long time off for Indiana before they restart
the Big Ten. Much more on last night, We'll continue
(47:57):
to take your calls, play some audio. It is the
fan morning show here on a Tuesday.
Speaker 5 (48:02):
Sang, how do you explain that defensive performance given the
stakes of this game.
Speaker 2 (48:06):
Yeah, we got to be better. That starts with me.
Got to be better, bottom line. We can't give up
that many yards. They scored a lot of points, went
up and down the field. We got to get that
cleaned up in a hurry.
Speaker 7 (48:16):
You know.
Speaker 2 (48:17):
It's you know, our defense played great last week and
then this week got to be better and starts with me,
bottom line.
Speaker 3 (48:22):
Shane Second.
Speaker 4 (48:23):
Last night, after the forty eight to twenty seven loss,
officially eliminated from the AFC South. At some point in
the nine o'clock hour, we will get to quite the
interesting playoff scenario that the Colts still have. With two
weeks left, I can't give myself to go there though
before nine o'clock, so we'll do that.
Speaker 3 (48:40):
I do want to give make sure I do this
before we get to the end of the show.
Speaker 4 (48:43):
Massive thank you to Caleb Zuver, Mark Dydon, Eddie Garrison,
Nathaniel Finch, Kurt Gerald's, James Adams, all of our engineers
behind the scenes, all of our producers, board ops. It's
been quite the ever moving buildings, new operating system. So
a big, big thank you to people behind the scenes
(49:05):
because I know it hasn't been easy. And also thank
you to our listeners because I know there's been some
hurdles and some hiccups and we appreciate your your patients.
But thank you to all those involved. Love the new studio,
love the new setup, but we've definitely had some expected hiccups,
I guess, and so appreciate everybody behind the scenes and
to the listeners as well for bearing with us here
(49:27):
over the last.
Speaker 3 (49:28):
Week or so.
Speaker 5 (49:29):
Yeah, Eddie Garrison, who I love, excluded from that list.
You still got some work to do, some things to
you know, get through some levels to get to so.
Speaker 3 (49:38):
At Romeoville Kid on Twitter Eddie Garrison, I don't.
Speaker 6 (49:41):
Worry he'll be choking me out when the next time
I see him.
Speaker 1 (49:43):
Eddie Garrison and Richard Sherman, I'll say my my love.
Speaker 5 (49:49):
Eddie Garrison runs DEVI. I remember doing my first show
with Eddie years ago at this point.
Speaker 6 (49:54):
So yeah, we've literally changed buildings since then.
Speaker 5 (49:56):
So shout out to all the guys behind the scenes
who make us sound good on these airwaves.
Speaker 4 (50:00):
Eddie just bills Mafia James on this table here and
about it when he gets in the building.
Speaker 5 (50:05):
Look, I told you I was very diplomatic growing up.
You know, the weight class didn't help when it comes
to fighting, so I knew when to pick and choose
my battles.
Speaker 3 (50:12):
I believe you.
Speaker 4 (50:14):
Part of me wants to cop out and throw the
question back at you, but I think you asked the question.
Speaker 6 (50:17):
Right, I'll throw it at me. I'm sick of these
people are asking me the same question.
Speaker 1 (50:21):
How much are injuries a valid excuse?
Speaker 3 (50:24):
Right first? If you want me to no, no, no,
you you asked the question, you.
Speaker 4 (50:29):
Know, I think on the egregious scale of nine years
of Chris Ballard, is this season a top the list.
Speaker 3 (50:37):
No, not at all.
Speaker 4 (50:38):
I don't think it's maybe one of the top two
or three seasons either. But there are teams and honestly,
probably the two teams most relevant to the culture right now,
i e. Your opponent last night and the team that
is currently above you in the playoffs and it's likely
to make the playoffs over you, Houston and losing their
(50:59):
starting quarterback as well and winning without him for several games,
there's an element of you have to overcome some of that,
and you know when you look at the schedule, it's
going to play out in the manner that you had
a very easy first half schedule period and certainly you
(51:21):
pass that with Flying Colors, but the question was always
going to be could you sustain it at some level?
And as the schedule started to stiffen, you wilted. And
you know, the injury excuse has always been a tough
one for me because James like have the Colts hats
some big time injuries. Certainly, technically, if you want to
be technical, you were out of the playoffs when Daniel
(51:42):
Jones towards Achilles. Now is he battling through obviously a
leg injury. Yeah, But like you were out at that moment,
and you've had pristine health at the skill players. You
know what happens if Jonathan Taylor has normal running back health.
What happens if your offensive line for thirteen or fourteen
games was barely touched?
Speaker 1 (52:03):
Like?
Speaker 4 (52:04):
Are we going to continue to go down this path?
Daniel Jones has really never been healthy and playing at
an acceptable level in his.
Speaker 3 (52:10):
Entire NFL career? Is that something I was just supposed
to expect.
Speaker 4 (52:14):
What happened over the final two months of the season.
So I, again, on the egregious scale, are there other
seasons there? But to say right now that this regime
deserves another crack at it because of injuries and because
you don't want to give a new GM draft classes
that won't have first round picks doesn't sound like a
(52:35):
very ringing endorsement on why those people deserve to be back.
Speaker 5 (52:39):
I think I'm probably with you on that one. I
do think it is a nuanced conversation. But we don't
live life in a vacuum. If this was just year one,
one season, I could get with the Okay, injuries crept
up on you.
Speaker 6 (52:56):
You couldn't predict the future.
Speaker 5 (52:58):
The Achilles, the fracture fibula Sauce Gardner in this calf,
I have to ask myself, now, Okay, are you playing
again this year given the nature of those injuries and
what we saw that lead to with Tyre's halliburn And
you know, certainly don't want the cash trying to turn
into an Achilles tear. But point being Kevin, it's hard
(53:19):
to find a silver lining or a certain level of grace.
We should extend this regime well. And also to and
you know, thank you to listener Eric for pointing this
out too. Maybe if there was more like on the resume,
you could excuse us a little bit, more like what
if you had whatever two or three year run where
(53:42):
you won the division a couple of times. Maybe you
want a playoff game, maybe you showed some late season promise,
but like that's not there.
Speaker 3 (53:50):
Yeah, you know what, and you have to search long
and hard for it again.
Speaker 4 (53:52):
You know, when I asked about that question the combine,
what do you feel like your greatest accomplishment has been
as a GM Correct if I'm wrong, but I believe
he went back to either twenty eighteen or twenty twenty.
Speaker 3 (54:03):
Yeah, I mean we're now in the year twenty twenty five.
Speaker 4 (54:06):
Does two months of good football all of a sudden
say let's go year ten, baby, Let's run it back
now again? These are all my thoughts. I want to
make that very clear. I mean, you asked this question
to us right here. I am very torn. I guess
unknown on exactly what the powers that be will do,
(54:31):
but I just sure there's context to it, and I'm
not going to ignore the injuries. But to me, there's
just a lot. I guess I'm the naughty list. If
you will that, it's hard to.
Speaker 5 (54:43):
Overlook the naughty list. Does that get broken out in
the bone household? Do you use that as a little
bit of a web huge threat?
Speaker 3 (54:51):
Yeah, it's a huge. It's honestly probably my greatest weapon
right now.
Speaker 1 (54:53):
Is there an Elf on the shelf in the bone house?
Speaker 3 (54:55):
Sure?
Speaker 4 (54:56):
Yeah, Emily moved to Where did Emily? All of a sudden,
I looked at the In my mind, Emily was moving
last night. I think she's on top of this math
that Nelly sits on, which I think will really rattle
Max when he sees that.
Speaker 3 (55:09):
This morning. I can hear him screaming, it's gotta following
them up.
Speaker 4 (55:15):
You would bring them back because of why, Like when
I hear that, I think that thought that argument people
meet it with, well, you don't have your two first
round picks, so what's the only reason I And I'm
like white a minute, is that a ringing endorsement?
Speaker 5 (55:30):
But you don't know if it's a ringing the endorsement,
but I think it is already commitment to what you.
Speaker 6 (55:37):
We're going to do.
Speaker 4 (55:37):
Anyway, which that gets into a little bit of a
commitment this and maybe we need to have a bigger conversation,
maybe we should wait till the season ends. But James,
I hear you out on that point, and that to
me is a little bit more of the alarming Carly
Urse say Gordon side of it. I don't know, maybe
hindsight's twenty twenty, but like for her to sign off
(55:58):
on that trade was quite the backing of again not
only saws Gardner or the player, but Daniel Jones is
your franchise quarterback, and Chris Baward and Shane Stikeen in
the positions that they are, and as an owner, that's
a bit alarming two months into it that you felt
like whatever everything had been turned around or however you
(56:20):
wanted to define it to make that massive of a trade,
and for you to say, well, because we did it,
we can't now go back on it.
Speaker 6 (56:32):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (56:33):
That sounds like dangerous leading from me. And I've said
this quite often before. So much of I think people
in positions of authority like that is you have to
admit when you're wrong, and that's really difficult to do.
Like it took Chris Bouard a long time to admit that, oh,
maybe I should spend a little bit more free agency.
I've used this example before. It Kevin Pritchard over the Pacers.
It took him a little while to say, you know what,
(56:54):
Sabonis and Turner, we probably should stop that. And then
once he did, he found gold.
Speaker 5 (57:03):
So like that, I don't know, is that good business
if you signed off on the deal, if you said
let's do this and it didn't work out, let's get
rid of you. Like I'm not saying it's bad business,
but it certainly is an interesting move.
Speaker 3 (57:19):
I hear you out.
Speaker 4 (57:19):
But again, what's the business that that person has accomplished
that you're then banking on?
Speaker 3 (57:27):
Like where is the resident?
Speaker 6 (57:29):
Like it goes back to that commentary you said.
Speaker 3 (57:32):
I mean when you get into the GM hired and lack.
Speaker 6 (57:34):
Of resume makes it hard.
Speaker 4 (57:35):
When you get in the gms that hired the same
year as Chris Ballard, the man on the other sideline
last night, John Lynch, the man in Buffalo, and Brandon
Bean and the man in Kansas City and Bread Beach.
You went to weay resumes, Veach, Lynch, Bean, the Ballard.
If I were a ballad and I was in a
classroom I'd be running to get out of that classroom
(57:55):
before those popped up on the screen. To see what
Kansas City, Buffalo and San Francisco I have done in
the time that I've been GM much more.
Speaker 1 (58:04):
Nine o'clock hour, one final hour here before we head
to Christmas.
Speaker 6 (58:06):
It is only one of them won a Super Bowl.
You're listening to the Best of the Fan morning show
on ninety three five and one oh seven five the Fan.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
You look into that and obviously we got to win
one on one matchups as we get going every game.
You know, let's it, this game is about one on
ones and winning the game within the game and keep
working those you know, pass rush stuff and practice. So
then come to life, you know on Sundays and Monday nights.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Yeah, I don't think there's been a more damning.
Speaker 4 (00:25):
Element in the Chris Ballad era James than the lack
of a pass rush. The investments are rich, they are
draft picks, they are money both and yet Rock Party
has hit oon time last night. To me, that's probably
(00:45):
the big Like, you know, if you're weighing the roster,
you're evaluating position groups all of that. You know, you
obviously got big sample size that tell you the story
of no division titles and one playoff win and two
playoff appearances and all of that. But if you want
to kind of get into position groups itself. To me,
and last night the whole nation saw it just a
library quiet pass rush.
Speaker 5 (01:07):
Not enough in that department at all. I get that
the Forest Buckner was coming back from the neck injury.
He didn't look like he was himself. But the rest
of that group, what.
Speaker 6 (01:16):
Is your excuse?
Speaker 5 (01:18):
You haven't even earned the grace that perhaps Buckner has
given his resume the last few years and what he's
played through the last few years. But Quitty pay can't
find you to lat too. Did have the stripsack. Other
than that, where are you? And it felt like again
brock Purdy was pretty much going through like a seven
on seven drill at times.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
I think he went through his progressions twice.
Speaker 4 (01:40):
Yeah, he had a ton of te back through let
me scan back one, two, three, four.
Speaker 5 (01:44):
And again when it came down to the other side
of that lack of pressure, the let's get the ball
out there in the air and see what happens. You
have nobody who can make a play on the ball
outside of cam Binham who caught an interception that was
on an overthrown pass lightly. They wasn't even like, you're
not to take anything away from cam bind him, not
to say it was his fault. He caught an interception,
which you're supposed to do. But my point is you
(02:08):
all didn't make any plays in the air either, So
I mean outside of a cosmetic interception at the end
of the game.
Speaker 6 (02:16):
You got be handedly.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
Yeah on defense off the dude's fingertips that contributed to that.
We don't have a show tomorrow or Thursday, James. So
I know this question would inevitably pop up, and just
I don't want to get full into the playoff scenarios
just yet, but the Colts could be eliminated before they
kick off on Sunday. Yes, the Texans play the Chargers
(02:39):
Saturday afternoon. If the Chargers lose to the Texans, if
the Texans win, then that would officially eliminate the Colts
from the playoffs. Now, obviously, by that point, whatever that
is Saturday at seven pm, you will have done all
your prep for Jacksonville this week. You play at one
o'clock on Sunday. I think it would be hard to
(02:59):
all of a sud sudden, you know, yank the wheel
per se, and you know, have a massive one pint
eighty in shifting what you're going to do plan wise.
I still remain under the impression that it will be
Philip Rivers as a starter and Riley Leonard as the
backup on Sunday, and part of me thinks that'll be
the case again in week eighteen. Maybe if you were eliminated,
(03:21):
you'd flip flop that. But anything I guess changed for
you at all, whether you want to go Rivers, Leonard
or the inevitable Anthony Richardson, questions that will come.
Speaker 6 (03:33):
Well, let's start with the end there.
Speaker 5 (03:35):
Anthony Richardson, I would highly doubt plays again this year,
just given the severity of the eye injury and the
limitations that he has visually. Again, I don't know what
those limitations exactly are because I'm not in his body
and seeing through his eyes, but from what I understand
what I've gathered, it is perhaps more significant than I
(03:57):
initially thought, or others, you know, from the outsome looking
in might have initially thought. So let's just rule him
out for that reason. And then looking at the decision
between Riley Leonard or Philip Rivers, I just think that
until they're mathematically eliminated, you're not gonna get a real
pushback from Shane on the idea of starting Philip. And
(04:20):
quite honestly, after Philip played, I thought as well as
he did yesterday, I don't feel as worried about it
as I did after the Seattle game. After the Seattle game,
I think there was an argument you could make like, Okay,
is this enough? Is this all we're gonna get from
the old guy? And if that is the case, then
Riley might be a better option. But I thought Philip
(04:42):
played his butt off yesterday and gave this team a
legitimate chance to win.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Yeah, and I was dead wrong.
Speaker 4 (04:47):
I mean, my hand is raised again with Philip Rivers
and the ability to push it a little bit more
down the field.
Speaker 5 (04:53):
Well, we both got a middle finger along with the
rest of the beat. When they first out of the
game was a first player with the st on the field.
Speaker 6 (05:00):
I laughed at that, honestly.
Speaker 4 (05:01):
And again there were a couple of deep balls that
you know, looked like the old wounded duck falling out
of the sky that you know didn't have. It was like, okay,
pray for the defensive pass interference underthrow. Is that is
that kind of way you're hoping for? There on a
couple of those deep shots. But like you go back
to that opening drive and one thing that Rivers does
just unbelievably well is he gives guys chances after the catch,
(05:25):
like they got into the third and I forget what
it was, maybe third and eight, and he gets it
a tailor right in stride. Boom, there's a bunch of
yak first down. Even the Josh downs ball on like
the third and whatever that was eleven or twelve. He
just throws it to the right shoulder every time, and
I'm not saying right, like literally his right side. Whichever
shoulder is going upfield or needs to be going upfield.
(05:49):
He does that, and again it wobbles, It looks a
little odd, but it as long as it gets there
somewhat on time. It allows guys the opportunity to make
a play. And I'll go back to the third and
goal touchdown to Pierce. I mean, James, that was a
what third and goal from the sixteen?
Speaker 3 (06:07):
That is a give up play.
Speaker 4 (06:09):
You rarely see teams take end zone shots on third
and goal from the sixteen, like that's a risky play.
And yet the anticipation to throw that ball well before
Alec Peerce is even making his break. And then again,
if you go back, there's some unbelievable still shots of
(06:30):
the catch and Pierce of course just being Pierce, and
as if I feel like I've been a broken record
all year, long he continues to add to his payday
that's coming this offseason.
Speaker 5 (06:40):
Yeah, we were talking about it after the game, Kevin,
who are the winners of last night? And I think
me and Stephen Holder were joking about how the winners
were the forty nine ers and Alec Pierce and his agent,
Oh easily easily Yeah, like after that slim Pickens, Yes, yeah,
well said I'll give them to Blake groupie.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
But that's that's probably where I will stop.
Speaker 4 (07:01):
But like those throws from Rivers early in the game,
and you know, again, it's just kind of some second
level stuff, and they brought tempo.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
I thought he ESPN did a wonderful.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
Job of Buck and Aikman silencing themselves when Rivers was
at the line of scrimmage and he he sounded like
homeboy here at the ISO. Jack is it everly? Is
this our dude here at Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. I mean,
he was a maestro at the line. Just it was
tempo to get Rivers into twenty five seconds of chess matches,
(07:34):
That's what it was. It wasn't tempo to like, you know,
necessarily keep a personnel grouping on the field. Maybe that
had a little bit to do with it. It was
more of just let's let that wizard operate at the
line of scrimmage. Yeah, and he was able to do that. So,
you know, again, from an offensive game plan standpoint, the.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Cults were bullish.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
They were adamant, we're gonna we feel like we can
do more stuff. We feel like we can hit a
couple more chunks. I was very skeptical and they did that. Now,
when you get into the other Shane psych in evaluation marks,
it's not as glowing. But James I did not think
the offense could produce like that, especially if you had
(08:13):
have told me before the night Jonathan Taylor's gonna have
a season low two point nine yards per carry and
you're gonna lose your starting center on the second snap
of the game. I mean you were down your left tackle,
your center, your right tackle. Taylor has his least efficient
night of the year, and you score twenty seven.
Speaker 7 (08:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (08:34):
I had to go back and look, Kevin. Twenty seven
points were their most in a game since their last
win back in Berlin.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
So well, hell, it's probably the most in regulation?
Speaker 7 (08:43):
Was it?
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Did they get higher than that?
Speaker 6 (08:45):
And even regulation it's a good point I didn't go
back in that that far.
Speaker 5 (08:49):
I was trying to, you know, keep it short and
sweet there, you know, the late night writing, but point being, yeah,
that's enough to win that game.
Speaker 6 (08:58):
And defensively, you just failed to show up.
Speaker 5 (09:00):
And I talking assire Franklin talking to Forest Buckner, actually
thought to Forest Buckner summed everything up in about seven
words yesterday.
Speaker 6 (09:08):
I used it in my story. I'm gonna pull it
up here.
Speaker 5 (09:11):
And he was asked how frustrating is this loss? And
his response in full was it's the worst because it's
the latest.
Speaker 6 (09:25):
And you never hear.
Speaker 5 (09:28):
Buckner be that Kurt or that short with any answer,
but you could tell he was seething at the idea
of having another collapse, and obviously after last night, having
it happen at the hands of a defense that might
as well have stayed at home.
Speaker 4 (09:45):
Yeah, again, a horrific defensive effort. I think I want
to play this Philip Rivers audio here because and this
has largely been the conversation James, at least for myself
and I think for the show in general over the
last ten days of like, you have two different movies
we're watching here. The Rivers movie is incredible, and again
(10:08):
it added scenes last night that I didn't think were possible.
You know, It's funny Troy Aikman gave him the Himmy
award before the game he started last night on Monday
Night Countdown, and Rivers joked with him. He goes, I
gotta be the first dude that threw for one hundred
and twenty yards and loss and get an award for that.
Speaker 5 (10:28):
And we're treating him like he was again a senior
citizen at the old folks homes.
Speaker 6 (10:34):
Say, okay, he won bingo.
Speaker 4 (10:36):
Right, And that's where, like the Rivers thing is cute,
it's fun to watch and it's really cool, but you
also have the other movie that's like, holy bleep, they've
lost five in a row. You know how many events
Lucas Oil Stadium was hosted since the last time the
(10:56):
Colts hosted a home playoff game, and that will continue
to happen here.
Speaker 5 (11:00):
Who is that listener who said the Hoosias are going
to have the last win of the two teams in
Lucas Oil Stadium, right.
Speaker 4 (11:07):
Which very well could happen if the Colts don't win
here on Sunday against Jacksonville in the home finale It's
that's where I think it's like you're just kind of
torn in the day after a game of you want
to acknowledge Rivers, but also this franchise is now teetering
on the biggest collapse the NFL has seen in years.
You said it to me during the break, James, how
many teams since the NFL merged in nineteen seventy have
(11:29):
had a collapse like this?
Speaker 8 (11:32):
Five?
Speaker 5 (11:32):
And so the Colts would be the sixth team to
start seven to one and miss the playoffs. That is
six teams over the last fifty five years. Come on, man, Like,
when I put it like that, I'm like, WHOA, there
might need to be some changes.
Speaker 7 (11:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (11:53):
Again, it's five straight losses, it's six of seven, the
AFC South elimination.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
With two weeks left and last year with three weeks left.
Speaker 4 (12:03):
That's not lost to me either, Like you're not in
a division with Mahomes or Allen or you know, healthy
Lamar Jackson. I mean, you're in the AFC South, and
yet I know this year obviously it's been a better division,
but it's not like Houston won whatever fourteen games last
year and you were eliminated.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
With three weeks to go. I mean three weeks to go, that's.
Speaker 4 (12:19):
A long time in the NFL, and you're out of there.
And now this week, with two weeks this year, with
two games ago, you're also out of out of there.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
Like that to me would resonate a whole whole lot. Caleb,
it's hit up some on.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
The phone line here, so we got Courtney.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
Is that right?
Speaker 4 (12:37):
Let's lead off here with Courtney on this Tuesday morning?
What's up Courtney?
Speaker 7 (12:41):
Hey, what's happening? I got my brother in here, Sorr
with me.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
What's up Courtney's brother?
Speaker 7 (12:49):
What's going on? Man? Uh? Yeah, I watched well, I
watched that game, bro, and.
Speaker 9 (12:57):
That was that defense was hor rif Zire Franklin just
really disappointed me after that deserve.
Speaker 7 (13:05):
I don't know if that deserves.
Speaker 9 (13:07):
He needs to leave because he spends too much on
the podcast, especially with Jeff t on five to twenty.
Speaker 7 (13:13):
He needs to get off that.
Speaker 9 (13:14):
And focus on his game and we need a better
pass rush.
Speaker 7 (13:19):
Quickie pay is not showing up.
Speaker 9 (13:21):
I don't know what's going on with him, and it
was just a whole overall disaster.
Speaker 5 (13:25):
Man.
Speaker 9 (13:26):
I'm so very disappointed, especially when Phil Rivers had played
his butt off the night. He really impressed me last night,
like he really did a.
Speaker 7 (13:35):
Good job for all of that.
Speaker 9 (13:39):
For him to go out there and put up that
many points to put out that good performance for the
defense just s going that off. It's embarrassing, man, Like,
there's got to be some changes. They need to be
some changes.
Speaker 4 (13:50):
Thank you Courney for the call. Appreciated, best to you
and your brother. Yeah, the linebacker play awful last night,
Jermaine Pratt early on, certainly.
Speaker 5 (13:58):
But do you remember what you asked me yesterday about
what was I worried about any of those guys being
lined up against George Kittle or Christian McCaffrey in space
They physically can't do it.
Speaker 4 (14:09):
It was the first play was that where Kittle kind
of went over Pratt and made a play Like Pratt
kind of lost it down the field.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
Kittle made that play.
Speaker 4 (14:16):
Yeah, it just you know, I think we had questions
about the linebacker position entering the year, and we continue
to have those questions. It was probably the group you
had the most questions about entering the year. And that's
why I go back to the front seven. I mean,
you are healthy there, you have invested so much. I
mean you were to talked first second round picks, whether
it's Quitty Pay, whether it's lowed to lat To, whether
(14:37):
it's Taekwon Lewis, whether it's Beforrest Buckner. You obviously traded
a first round pick also for Buckner. You know, j
T twomlo out. You know, this year has been a
very quiet I think the thought there with him was
he was such a decorated college player, he could come
in here and maybe impact.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
A little bit earlier.
Speaker 4 (14:52):
Yeah, same with Lat two, Like Lot two and uh Tomla,
we're not drafted as projects. They were very compost players,
and the thought there was they could give you a
little bit more early.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
On supposed to be due.
Speaker 4 (15:05):
You know, banking on Samson Ebcom coming off the torn
Achilles was very wishful thinking. And if you just look,
I don't have it in front of me, James, but
I believe it's a top five money.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
Defense in the NFL.
Speaker 4 (15:19):
Like even if you don't consider the draft picks, which
you know, if you compare the starting eleven from whatever
San Francisco for example, to Indy, it's totally different from
where they're at from a health standpoint. And I'm gonna
point back to that front seven, because I get it,
you're without Javeri's Ward, You're without Sauce Gardner.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
You're gonna have some issues there.
Speaker 4 (15:38):
But to now Christian McCaffrey have a night that he
really hasn't had all year running the football, let alone
one quarterback hit in thirty four pass attempts just horrific
from the defense.
Speaker 5 (15:49):
I will say this to Courtney's point and again shout
out to you for the call.
Speaker 6 (15:54):
It is a bad look when.
Speaker 5 (15:58):
One of your team captains is on a podcast on
a weekly basis talking trash about other teams and recapping
the trash talk you had with those guys on the
field and what you're gonna do to them and how
you're how you should be viewed or feared or whatever
(16:18):
respected and you're still losing. That's not a good look.
And I do wonder if that is something that rubs
other people the wrong way within the organization, because like
here is incredible story seventh round pick. I think it
does all pro all that, but yeah, I can't imagine
(16:40):
that after you, for example, last week, you all lose
to the Seattle Seahawks and you go on to some
podcasts and you're talking about trash talking some offensive linemen
on the Seattle Seahawks, and people are probably thinking you
or thinking of you as someone who's not serious because
you've lost four straight games and then you go out
there and get embarrassed on naw television and you lose
(17:02):
your fifth straight game. So yeah, I think there's a
lot of like splintering things that are going on with
this team. And at some point you got to look
at these guys. And I forgot who said it first.
It might have mean you or somebody else on the
beat that I was talking to about this, Kevin, this
corps of players when you look at the Forest Buck news,
Iar Franklin, Kennymore, Quentin Nelson, whoever else all these people.
(17:26):
I am not saying get rid of Quentin Nelson, you know,
Hall of Famer, But my point is they don't win
these games. They don't win big games. So at some
point you got to be looking at all, right, if
it ain't with this group, then we got to figure
out how to reload and move on and do something different,
Because in my mind, I'm thinking to myself, if you
try to convince people to run this back next year
(17:49):
and everyone's a year older and Daniel Jones is coming
off of torn Achilles.
Speaker 6 (17:54):
What the heck are you actually selling people well?
Speaker 4 (17:55):
And also the justification that I've heard to whatever not
making changes is you can't give a new GM back
to back drafts without first round picks. And it's like,
in what way, shape or form is that a ringing
endorsement on Chris Ballard? Like it kind of goes back
(18:16):
to the combine conversation we had with Ballard of like
why do you feel like you're getting a ninth year?
Why do you feel like you haven't gotten done? And
those answers are not met with like this strong conviction
no or this like oh wow, that's a really key
important building piece that you know what, maybe it might
turn out in a positive direction. Like again, if we
(18:38):
have this conversation on August twenty third, and you told me, hey,
the cold season's gonna play out, they'll be eliminated from
the AFC South with two games to go, they potentially
could have their playoff hopes over by the time they
kick off on Sunday, they'll have the biggest collapse you
just pointed out since whatever nineteen seventy. They don't have
(19:00):
their two first round picks for the next two years.
Their quarterback situation I think might be okay, But then again,
the dude can't stay healthy, the dude being Daniel Jones,
right exactly, Yeah, right, Yeah, that's probably a very important
clarification by you.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
And yet you get a tenth crack at it. But
that's tough. That to me just makes no sense.
Speaker 4 (19:27):
But you know, again with Carli ers Gordon, there is
just an unknown element to it, and I think there's
a little bit of like nervous energy of for two months, James,
was it going so well that you got away from
this potential reality and now you don't want to seriously
entertain it, you know, And now it's a very scared
(19:48):
tactic to probably be a business leader. But that is
a thought that has crossed my mind. It's like, you know,
when you green light the sauce Gardener trade, you're saying,
this is our group and again the Sauce Gardner trade.
To go back to it, not only did you say
we believe in Sauce Gardner as a player, of course,
(20:08):
but you also said we believe in the quarterback position,
unquestionably in the direction that it's going, and we believe
in the powers at B I E.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
R GM and our head. Like you said all of
that with the Gardner.
Speaker 4 (20:21):
You can look at the Gardener trade and say, hey,
by trading two first round picks and Adi Mitchell, you're trading.
Speaker 3 (20:25):
What three, let's call it four players.
Speaker 4 (20:28):
Knowing Ballard, he probably would have traded back with one
of those first round picks. You basically traded four top
fifty players in a draft for one. Like, if you
want to put the trade up on a whiteboard, what
did you bring in? What's leaving? But you also said
two massive other things in that move. You said that
Daniel Jones is the side of the building guy. He
(20:50):
can stay healthy, his quality of play is great over
the course of four months of an NFL season. All
of that and then the Ballad and Siching thing is
what you said. Now fast forward here six weeks later,
the quarterback questions obviously are there, and you're in the
midst of the biggest.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
Collapse and last night's collapse.
Speaker 4 (21:07):
James was so rooted in Ballard's building, the defensive side
of the ball, the front seven not showing up in
a primetime game. That's route I mean, that's been his baby. Again,
look at the investment.
Speaker 6 (21:20):
Look at the.
Speaker 4 (21:21):
Investments on the defensive side of the ball, particularly in
the front seven, and if I were Carl ras Gordon,
that would make me pause long and hard today looking
in the.
Speaker 5 (21:29):
Mirror, absolutely, and I can't really disagree with any points
that you just made. The other thing, Kevin, when I
think about the Sauce trade, that was after the worst
game of the year that they had up until that point,
I believe Daniel might have had five turnovers if I
(21:51):
remember correctly, was five turnovers for Daniel, I think six
for the team and that loss in Pittsburgh, and I
remember riding after that game. I'm not saying I'm some
genius because many of those listening probably says.
Speaker 6 (22:02):
The same thing.
Speaker 5 (22:05):
When you made the Sauce trade right after that, you
basically gave up your exit ramp if you were still
gonna play the whole. Let's just see how this goes.
Types of thing you said after his worst game of
the year, we believe in this, dude, and we believe
that's that's an anomaly, that's just a one off.
Speaker 6 (22:24):
And perhaps maybe it was to a degree like.
Speaker 5 (22:26):
We couldn't have seen the future and said, oh, it's
gots gonna get hurt and play with a fractured leg
and teres Achilles all that. But even then he was
already he was gonna taper off. He started taper off,
and you were like, Nope, full steam ahead. This is
our group. We got this, which at the time I
was with it. Hey, you got a window that's open.
The AFC looks wounded this year. It is wounded this
(22:47):
year without Patrick Mahomes obviously, so here's your shot. But
this is a results based business, and the results that
you have now might change the calculation and what you
do moving forward with this regime, this group, because it
is very hard to sell from a player perspective, because
these dudes don't win. From a coach perspective, I don't
(23:09):
know how many coaches stay around after their first three
years without making the playoffs. Granted again, he's also had
a lot of things going on. I want to dismiss that.
And also, Chris Ballard, you're in year what is this nine?
And it hasn't been fruitful.
Speaker 4 (23:27):
We'll get to a few more phone calls here coming
up eight o'clock hour. Do you want to get to
a little bit more audio from last night as we
continue to recap this. By the way, it's a ball
me Tuesday out there. Hopefully this will create some smooth
traveling for people this week here in what looks to
be a quite the unusual Christmas weather that we're about
to have.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
I think one more thing to.
Speaker 4 (23:47):
Add, kind of James to that point, and it's something
I mentioned to lead off the show, and I'll reiterate
it here again. Carl Orse Gordon, we don't know deep down,
like we don't know there is a little past precedent
with her at this level.
Speaker 3 (24:02):
But one thing we do know about her father.
Speaker 4 (24:05):
One of the things that frustrated him the most was
when the opportunities and again they haven't been many lately,
certainly three years since you're on Monday Night football, when
the opportunities for his team to play in primetime showed
up and they got embarrassed.
Speaker 3 (24:21):
That bothered him endlessly.
Speaker 4 (24:24):
And obviously there are elements to the daughters that they
want to do differently than their father, but there are
also a lot of core tenants that he has that
they agree with. And I am curious watching that game unfold,
particularly the defensive side of the ball, and again that
front seven.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
Do they have the same level of bothersome.
Speaker 4 (24:47):
I guess, for lack of a better term, that I
know their father would have watching all of that unfold.
And again, even if you don't play the embarrassment card
necessarily as much as Jim would have, what about financially,
I mean, we just watched this entire city absolutely come
to life with the Pacers playoff run, and those home environments, James,
(25:10):
that you were in many times were absolutely electric, and
not just from the financial pockets for the Simons in
getting home game after home game after home game, but
like the goodwill of people experiencing that, and now here
you are eleven years removed from the last time we've
walked into Lucas Soil Stadium in a meaningful January game. Like,
(25:34):
even if you can't quantify the good will that that
does for your fan base, what about financially getting a
home play? I mean, if anybody I get why people
are obsessed with wanting to see.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
Their team in primetime.
Speaker 4 (25:46):
Like if you watched ESPN from six o'clock on last night,
it is a walking billboard for your city, for your franchise.
They gave more love to the Colts than they did
the forty nine Ers pre game by far, it is
such an unbelievable advertisement for your city, for your franchise, etc.
Speaker 7 (26:05):
Etc.
Speaker 4 (26:06):
And then with tons of red in your building, you
get dog walked by a team that had not been
doing that offensively all year long. Again, how if this
was a teetering decision for Carli ERSA Gordon, does that
impact it at all? There's part of it that says,
I don't necessarily think a week sixteen game and year
(26:27):
nine of a regime should have great impact. But this
has come from someone that thought Chris Baler should't have
gote a year nine either. So you know, maybe I'm
not the best person to ask.
Speaker 3 (26:39):
Much more on this.
Speaker 4 (26:39):
We'll get into it here in the eight o'clock hour
coming up, Kevin bow and James Boyd Caleb Zuber on
a Tuesday. Only thing worse than the Colts defense last
night is yours truly attempting to wrap a Christmas present.
Caleb Zuver, thank you for that intro. I thought that
Rivers quote certainly hit home pretty accurately right there. You
(27:02):
got two different movies right now. One's a fun Hallmark
movie and the other one is typical with what we're
used to from present day Indianapolis Colts, certainly in the
Chris Ballard era. Good Tuesday morning tea, it's ball me.
If you haven't been outside, you'll go shirts. You might
play golf on Christmas with what this weather looks like.
Kevin Bowen, James Boyd and Caleb Zuber again filling in
for Mark dyketon plenty to get to here as we
(27:25):
dissect last night forty eight twenty seven, the final score there,
James Boyd one quarterback hit on thirty four pass attempts
for brock Purty. They didn't encounter their first third down
San Francisco until the third drive of the game, and
that was because of a drop. And Christian McCaffrey had
(27:49):
what the two games over four yards per cary all year,
maybe it was three, and he was nearly six yards
per carry last night. Just an utterly horrific defensive effort
on a night that my hand is raised because Philip Rivers,
you showed me something that I didn't think you had.
Speaker 5 (28:05):
So you told me that one of the things I'll
have to learn when I become a father someday is
about the blowouts when you have the young child, you're
burping them or whatever, and get that sound, a little
rumble in the stomach, and boy, the pamper is decimated.
I say that because the way Zire Franklin described yesterday's
(28:28):
game was.
Speaker 6 (28:30):
With the S word. It was a bleepy day.
Speaker 5 (28:33):
And I was thinking to myself, that's true. That might
have been a newborn blowout right there, because this is
unacceptable for this group. And I don't really know how
you square that. And the scene I'll kind of paint
for you all is you have Philip Rivers, one of
(28:55):
the last guys out of the locker room, and he's
putting on his clothes and looks like he can go
drive a truck after the game or something. And he's
pulling his clothes and you know, everyone's going up to
him and give him some dap and hey, thank you
for you know what you're doing, and this and that,
and just that scene of him sitting in his locker
by himself and he's kind of like staring off, probably
(29:15):
thinking about like all the million things that could have
gone a different way in the game, or how his
career has kind of taken this crazy turn near the
end of it. And it may not be for something
not to say that those are his words, but in
my mind, I'm thinking to myself, I know he will
be grateful, and he said that, you know, when loser
draw I came back, I'll live with the results. But boy,
(29:37):
it's got a way on him to know, like, man,
I might be playing pretty good football right now and
it might not even matter because we can't win a game.
And that's one of the things he kept saying repeatedly
after last night starts. We have to win a game.
Not we gotta go on a run. We gotta you know,
prove it doubter or is wrong. We gotta shock the world.
(29:58):
It was we have to to win a single game,
which the tone of that was just so jarring to me.
Speaker 4 (30:05):
Yeah, and James, one week after your blueprint around Rivers
couldn't have been more flawless. It was the exact opposite
last night. The defense an absolute abomination. And then I
thought the Amir Abdullah fumble on the kick return it
changed everything. I don't know why, but it felt like
it was like a ten to fourteen point turnover.
Speaker 3 (30:27):
It just well, you know.
Speaker 5 (30:28):
Why, this is why I think you feel like that
for me personally. So you turn the ball over there.
Speaker 3 (30:35):
So it's seven to seven to set at all off.
Speaker 5 (30:39):
A mere Abdullah, who was great last week, by the way,
has the turnover, the fumble he lost fumble, he laune the.
Speaker 6 (30:46):
Yeah, it was great play. That happens.
Speaker 5 (30:49):
They go and score to go up fourteen to seven,
and even though the Colts came back and matched at
fourteen fourteen, in the back of my mind, I was thinking,
oh boy, this is if it becomes a shootout, a
bad bad turnover because us they got the ball come
out of the half. So even if you had made
it to the first half right kind of unscathed. After that,
you're like, okay, we get the ball first to start
the second half, we can go to That did not happen.
(31:11):
They got the ball to start second half and they
went down to score again.
Speaker 4 (31:14):
Well, the thought is from Shane Syke, and I know
a lot of people disagree on this. The thought with
him is right now we need to play from ahead.
Speaker 9 (31:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (31:21):
I blame him for that, so we're gonna take the ball.
Speaker 4 (31:23):
Yeah, but we got to play from ahead, and for
that early in the game, for you to then be
playing from behind, it just forces so much pressure elsewhere
and like inevitably, this offense is not going to be flawless,
flawless for forty eight y or for sixty minutes. Clearly
we saw that. And you know Jonathan Taylor having his
least efficient rushing night of the season. Obviously you're down
(31:45):
several key offensive linemen right now. That is contributing to it.
You know, a couple other things for me defensively that
I thought define the night and would be so bothersome
right now and evaluating the defensive effort from last night, James,
you going to have time again. You've gotten your ass
kicked in the first half. Well, what was the score half,
twenty four to seventeen twenty four?
Speaker 3 (32:05):
You're given up?
Speaker 4 (32:06):
Yes, I believe so okay, so twenty four points you
give up in the first half. Kittle is having a
career night against you, and the first play the second
half is right back to Kittle for a huge chump
like to me of all the you know if anybody
Kittle did it to you on what the first play
of the game or the second play of the game
(32:26):
when he goes over Jermaine Pratt for that catch and
then he comes out at halftime and he makes that
play and then you get them into a third and
goal from like the nine later on in the second half,
and of all the coverage, bust of all the breakdowns,
you're gonna have the breakdowns, not for Brian Robinson to
get open or Jake Tungus to get open, or Kyle
us Check to get open, or Juwan Jennings or Sky Moore.
(32:50):
The breakdown is to allow Christian McCaffrey to strut into
the end zone like those two plays, second half plays
after they have wit than Yeah, for the first thirty
minutes they come out, they throw it to their star
tight end. He makes a big play in the first
play the second half, just so fitting. And then the
third and goal to Christian McCaffrey on a just a
(33:14):
total breakdown. Not McCaffrey breaking dude's ankles with a hell
of a play, just walks right in the end zone
to really, you know, I get the cult tide to
drive there at the end until the Rivers picked sixth.
Speaker 3 (33:25):
But I thought that was a dagger.
Speaker 5 (33:26):
And this is where I need Caleb to chime in again,
because they scored twice on that possession. Yeah, man, it's
it's unbelievable.
Speaker 10 (33:36):
Kyle Shanahan was smiling the whole game, because of how
easy it was, and there's no greater example. Then on
second in goal, they throw to Jake Tungus in the
back of the end zone and they rule it incomplete.
It's a great play by Purdy, by the way, like
he was rolling to his right, so a great yes,
and he does it and they initially rule it incomplete,
(34:00):
and then they show the replay on the broadcast and
it's like, hold on a second. There's turf pellets flying
up like I think he got his other foot down.
And San Francisco did not complain to the refs. They
just got back in the huddle and they're like, you
know what, it's third and goal from the ten or
twelve or whatever, and we're just gonna go score because
(34:21):
it's that easy right now, No no problem, We'll just
throw it. I think this was McCaffrey the next play.
It's that's how easy it was last night.
Speaker 4 (34:30):
Touchdown, touchdown, touchdown, field goal near sixty four yard or
touchdown field goal, touchdown, first eight drive to the San
Francisco forty nine ers last night. Two sides of a movie.
If you don't mind, Caleb, let's cue this up from
Philip Rivers post game last night kind of an expansion
on the clip you heard right there in the intro.
Speaker 11 (34:52):
Yeah, I know that, you know, from a personal standpoint,
it'll be short lived. You know it'll be over and hurry,
which I told you all from the beginning. I'm gonna
I will be able to live with the results whatever
they are, and that necessarily mean I'm okay with them
and I don't care you know about them.
Speaker 3 (35:07):
So yeah, no, it is.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
This week felt like a regular in week mode.
Speaker 11 (35:11):
It felt a little bit like I've been here a
while in terms of the preparation and the flow.
Speaker 7 (35:15):
During the week.
Speaker 11 (35:15):
And you know, again, it's been I'm torn of how
to express it, because it's been a blast. It's been
a blast to prepare and to go stick and get
ready and go out there and warm up and do.
Speaker 3 (35:28):
All that with these guys again.
Speaker 11 (35:29):
But again, the name of the game is not you know,
go have a good time. It's helped find a way
to lead your team to win. And we've come up
short here these first two, but we've been I've been
a part of less percentage chances of getting in and
got in before. So you'll you'll certainly won't hear me
(35:50):
losing hope here as we prepare next week.
Speaker 3 (35:53):
Yeah, I need another hour before we break down a
playoff scenario. I can't. I can't.
Speaker 6 (35:58):
That's what makes you and Philip River the different man.
Speaker 3 (36:01):
I can't go there just yet.
Speaker 6 (36:02):
Philip can't give up, Hope man.
Speaker 3 (36:04):
Now this from Connor.
Speaker 4 (36:05):
Half the game last night was enjoyable to watch with
all the talk by Philip Rivers pre snap, but the
other half was like watching the San Francisco forty nine.
Speaker 3 (36:14):
Ers have a walkthrough.
Speaker 6 (36:17):
Pretty much.
Speaker 3 (36:19):
I think Connor just summed up the night.
Speaker 4 (36:21):
I could sign off right now and just repeat that
here for the next hour and forty.
Speaker 5 (36:24):
I'm trying to think of moments where they actually felt
resistance in the game a lot too. Strip that's one,
that's one they didn't. That's one right that they didn't.
A punt it in that game. What stopped them was
the crossbar in the first half and when brock Party
(36:46):
slightly over the receiver and cam Binam intercepted it.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
You know what's so crazy?
Speaker 10 (36:51):
Not punting used to be the Colts thing, that used
to be our thing, and now we have so someone
else coming into our house and doing it to us
as a fan.
Speaker 1 (37:04):
That's just got to make you sick. It makes me sick.
Speaker 3 (37:07):
I don't know if you guys.
Speaker 4 (37:07):
Felt this way late in the game, but you know,
for those that went to bed, the Cults are down
fourteen and they're driving.
Speaker 3 (37:15):
They have a promising drive.
Speaker 4 (37:17):
If I remember correctly, they had two timeouts and still
had the two mid of warning. Like in a vacuum,
your team is still very much in the game.
Speaker 3 (37:28):
You score there.
Speaker 4 (37:29):
Shane Sage is not a believer in this, but some
people say, hey, you go for two there, try to
get the two point conversion. Maybe you cut it to six,
and now all of a sudden, if you get a stop,
you have a touchdown drive for the win, if Blake
Groupy can make the extra point. I don't know how
you guys felt emotionally, but I thought to myself at
that point, I'm like, there's no chance to Cult to
win in this game, and like the offense had moved
(37:50):
it pretty well.
Speaker 3 (37:50):
No Rivers ends up throwing a pick six.
Speaker 4 (37:52):
I thought it was kind of an unfortunate way to
end a night that he certainly was much much better
than that. But like, I didn't feel any sort of
I guess optimism at that moment. I'm like, yeah, this
game is not this game's gonna end in the laws.
I don't know necessarily how it's going to look, but
(38:13):
there's no way the Colts A score the touchdown, B
get the stop, and then C score the next touchdown,
which in reality, I mean, you're down fourteen. You got
three chances to stop the clock. Like, it's not that
crazy of an idea.
Speaker 5 (38:26):
It is when you have a defense like that, And
that's the point. I think you're trying to make four.
Speaker 6 (38:32):
Hundred and forty yards. That was the most a couple
with like it.
Speaker 4 (38:37):
It's so much pressure that you continue to put in
the offense, like the offense is going to crack at
some point.
Speaker 5 (38:41):
Yeah, you're asking the way I looked at it, and
I felt like this really early on in the first half.
It was probably right after the Mere Abdula fumble and
they came down and scored a touchdown to making fourteen
and fourteen. After that, I'm like, okay, well, you responded well,
but how well can you hold serve if the other
side is smashing a ball to like their Serena Williams like,
(39:05):
I mean, how many times can you realistically any team?
I think we'll kind of have it hard if you
got to go down there and score a touchdown every
single time, because you know your defense can't hold water
or is the forest Buckton said can't stop a nosebleed.
Speaker 6 (39:21):
So that was very telling to me.
Speaker 5 (39:24):
And again just another example of this team folding in
a big, big moment. I'm trying to think of the
marquee wins in the Shan Steken era the last three years,
and what are they at this point in the year.
He's had big wins. I don't want to dismiss laving
this earlier. This year, you've had some key wins over
(39:46):
good teams.
Speaker 4 (39:47):
No, but I'd argue one of the biggest constants is
awful December January loss.
Speaker 3 (39:53):
That's what I mean that you.
Speaker 6 (39:54):
Have to have.
Speaker 4 (39:55):
And again, this is a different type of thing like
losing to Jake Browning, losing to Taylor Heineke, using to
Drew Locke.
Speaker 3 (40:01):
That's in a different bucket.
Speaker 4 (40:03):
Last night for me was in your own building, prime time,
first time in three years. You know, rock party is
certainly not those quarterbacks, but just to get your ass
royally kicked in the other facets of the game. And again,
this is where I think Stiken has some real issues
as a head coach, James he has to be. Can
(40:24):
you imagine how involved he has to be offensively right
now with rivers?
Speaker 6 (40:28):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (40:30):
How is there enough time in the day to manage
the rest of the operation, whether that is defensively, it's
whether that is like, there's so much on his plate
as the head coach in the playoff, and again he
has accepted this, he has wanted this, And look, there
are a lot of coaches around the league. San Francisco's
got one of them that puts a lot on the plate.
Speaker 3 (40:53):
So I don't know.
Speaker 4 (40:54):
Maybe this is a Robert Sala lu Anrimo thing, but
to me, it's the inability for your team to seize
the December January moment. Yeah, that's been a three year constant,
and frankly, it's probably been a constant before he got here,
if we're gonna be totally honest.
Speaker 3 (41:10):
So maybe that's more of a ballad thing with the
roster he's built than anything. But I do.
Speaker 4 (41:17):
Struggle with that with Stiking, Like if you graded him
as a play caller from last night, you'd give him
close to an A if not an A. If you
grate him as a head coach though, that's a totally
different grade. I mean, how does your defense no show
like that against an all like the San Francisco offense
is not the greatest show on turf?
Speaker 6 (41:33):
And mostly you sure boy.
Speaker 4 (41:35):
Without their star whiteout last night too, or I should
say they're they're number one wide out. So that's the
stiking part of it.
Speaker 7 (41:41):
That just.
Speaker 1 (41:44):
I just shake my head at the head coaching.
Speaker 4 (41:48):
Responsibilities, not the play caller, not the offensive game planner,
the head coach you oversee it all, and part of
it is is your team ready to meet the moment?
Like kurtz Signett's bunch, they meet the moment every single
time they meet the moment.
Speaker 3 (42:06):
That is a key, key part in I think being
a head coach.
Speaker 4 (42:10):
And from the onset last night, you didn't meet anything
outside of certainly the offensive side of the ball.
Speaker 6 (42:16):
So here's a question for you.
Speaker 5 (42:18):
Because we all, I believe, picked the forty nine ers
to win that game yesterday, and granted that would probably
mean that we think that they're going to lose out
the rest of the way, does it matter the fashion
in which you do so, Like if we're sitting here
today talking about a yeah, twenty seven twenty three loss.
Does that change how you view this regime or this
(42:41):
end of season collapse.
Speaker 4 (42:43):
It's a good question. It's one that I've asked myself.
I think I've asked some of our guests here over
the last couple of weeks, like, should four weeks of
a Philip Rivers off the couch era have this great
inflection point of.
Speaker 3 (42:55):
How you evaluate him? I pardon me, thinks no.
Speaker 4 (42:59):
But again, James, I mean I brought last year at
the end of the season that Gus Bradley and Chris
Ballard should go like.
Speaker 8 (43:07):
Also, can I say this real quick, I'm trying not
to be numb to like my Ballad thought, like I've
thought he didn't deserve a ninth year, So of course
I don't think he deserves a tenth year after watching
this unfold in the manner that it has.
Speaker 3 (43:18):
So yeah, sorry Dounterrup, but no.
Speaker 6 (43:21):
You're fine.
Speaker 5 (43:22):
I think when you brought up Gus Bradley, here's a
scene for you, Caleb and Kevin sitting there in the
press box, and you know how for those who don't
attend the game, Actually I should break this down, but
where I sit in the press box, it's kind of
near the elevator, and when you get off the elevator
and you walk right across, this's where my seat is.
So I see everyone come through the press box because
(43:42):
they literally have to walk past me to go anywhere
in there.
Speaker 6 (43:45):
And at the end of the game, when the.
Speaker 5 (43:48):
Coaches are all coming out and getting ready to go downstairs,
it's talk about Gus Bradley and his defense. The guy
I see walking by me on the victorious side this
time is Gus Bradley, who's an assistant with the forty
nine ers.
Speaker 6 (44:00):
I thought that was such a funny moment. Wave to him.
Speaker 5 (44:04):
Nice guy, But boy, he's probably thinking, well, you got
rid of me just to have the exact same thing
happen with it. Probably his mind a lot more resources
than I ever got.
Speaker 3 (44:12):
As I said that was funny, is a key and greedy? No,
I think the question asked funny.
Speaker 5 (44:18):
Caleb like, not not the funny funny, but I was like, boy,
that's funny.
Speaker 6 (44:21):
Looking.
Speaker 4 (44:22):
I think the question that you asked is an important
one because again, like who cares? I guess, in my
opinion is how does Carl Rosa Gordon feel it? And
that's why I go back to what I was saying
a little bit earlier in the eight o'clock hour, James,
what really pissed her dad off was embarrassment in primetime.
Speaker 3 (44:39):
How would you define last night an embarrassment in primetime?
Speaker 4 (44:44):
So, you know, because that's all that really matters at
the end of the day is you know, does she
have is she bothered by it? And again, the embarrassment
last night was not that a forty four year old
dude was tripping and falling, and you know, it was
the offense, it was the defense, it was a healthy
front seven. It was you know, other facets of the
(45:05):
game that didn't meet it. So it's again, it's one
I've thought about. It's one that I've struggled with a bit,
but it's probably fair to bring up, you know, And
I'll coming into last night, I didn't get the impression
that necessarily there would be changes, but who knows. Caleb
had said a quick morning checked out, all right, three
positives from you two from last night.
Speaker 3 (45:27):
Caleb. We're gonna put you on the hot seat first.
Speaker 10 (45:28):
Oh man, you know what I thought the receivers, Josh
Downs and Alec Pierce.
Speaker 1 (45:34):
I thought their effort was there all night.
Speaker 10 (45:36):
And you kind of alluded to it earlier, just kind
of the way the yards after catch worked out. Some
of that goes to Rivers, but like they fought for
first downs, they made big plays. I thought their effort
was elite and I really appreciated watching that.
Speaker 6 (45:49):
James Blake groupie.
Speaker 5 (45:52):
I thought that he did a fantastic job as a
kicker yesterday and quietly has put to bed one of
the other issues that popped up through the season.
Speaker 3 (46:00):
Yeah, and I'll throw Rivers in there.
Speaker 4 (46:02):
I mean, just from a positive standpoint, and I don't
think I'm grading him on the forty four year old scale.
I think as an NFL quarterback, he played pretty good
football for you last that was NFL good. I know,
the pick six, you know, makes it look a little
bit different at the end there, But still he did
a lot. I mean, and again, guys, down your left tackle,
your right tackle, and your center loses or leaves on
(46:22):
the second snap of the game, So we get it
in the offensive line a little bit here.
Speaker 5 (46:25):
So Philip was going to chase him down there for
a second on the pick six and just lost a
couple of wheels.
Speaker 4 (46:30):
I did see he waited for d winters for the
game to compliment him on that pick six, pretty Philip
Rivers like post game all right, Pacers a hell of
an effort really until the fourth quarter last night, they
actually had a notable lead on the Boston Celtics, could
not close it out there in Boston. So they will
have now the Bucks coming up tonight in a back
to back.
Speaker 3 (46:49):
They are right around to pick them against the Bucks.
Speaker 4 (46:53):
So late travel last night, Rick Carlisle shot me text
about three thirty saying, Hey, can we maybe postpone it
so we'll have Rick join coming up next week on
the show. But Pacers and Bucks in action and they'll
see the Celtics again. That's coming up on Friday. College
basketball from yesterday, Butler and Indiana both get the pre
Christmas victories that I certainly would have loved for my
(47:15):
team to have gotten a few days back. Butler all
over the New Jersey Institute of Technology. I believe at
one point the score was seventeen to nothing. Great balance
from the Bulldogs in that one. So that's a pretty
good non conference for them. The Boise State loss will
be one that definitely they would have liked back, but
all in all, it's a pretty good non conference here
(47:35):
for Butler and then Indiana over Sienna. Nick Dorn starting
to come on a little bit here for the Hoosiers.
I know there's some big time intrigue from him and
transfer from Elon coming off the bench. Fry you a
little banged up in the offseason, So we'll see if
that can translate to the Big ten players. Now, it's
quite a long time off for Indiana before they restart
the Big Ten. Much more on last night, We'll continue
(47:57):
to take your calls, play some audio. It is the
fan morning show here on a Tuesday.
Speaker 5 (48:02):
Sang, how do you explain that defensive performance given the
stakes of this game.
Speaker 2 (48:06):
Yeah, we got to be better. That starts with me.
Got to be better, bottom line. We can't give up
that many yards. They scored a lot of points, went
up and down the field. We got to get that
cleaned up in a hurry.
Speaker 7 (48:16):
You know.
Speaker 2 (48:17):
It's you know, our defense played great last week and
then this week got to be better and starts with me,
bottom line.
Speaker 3 (48:22):
Shane Second.
Speaker 4 (48:23):
Last night, after the forty eight to twenty seven loss,
officially eliminated from the AFC South. At some point in
the nine o'clock hour, we will get to quite the
interesting playoff scenario that the Colts still have. With two
weeks left, I can't give myself to go there though
before nine o'clock, so we'll do that.
Speaker 3 (48:40):
I do want to give make sure I do this
before we get to the end of the show.
Speaker 4 (48:43):
Massive thank you to Caleb Zuver, Mark Dydon, Eddie Garrison,
Nathaniel Finch, Kurt Gerald's, James Adams, all of our engineers
behind the scenes, all of our producers, board ops. It's
been quite the ever moving buildings, new operating system. So
a big, big thank you to people behind the scenes
(49:05):
because I know it hasn't been easy. And also thank
you to our listeners because I know there's been some
hurdles and some hiccups and we appreciate your your patients.
But thank you to all those involved. Love the new studio,
love the new setup, but we've definitely had some expected hiccups,
I guess, and so appreciate everybody behind the scenes and
to the listeners as well for bearing with us here
(49:27):
over the last.
Speaker 3 (49:28):
Week or so.
Speaker 5 (49:29):
Yeah, Eddie Garrison, who I love, excluded from that list.
You still got some work to do, some things to
you know, get through some levels to get to so.
Speaker 3 (49:38):
At Romeoville Kid on Twitter Eddie Garrison, I don't.
Speaker 6 (49:41):
Worry he'll be choking me out when the next time
I see him.
Speaker 1 (49:43):
Eddie Garrison and Richard Sherman, I'll say my my love.
Speaker 5 (49:49):
Eddie Garrison runs DEVI. I remember doing my first show
with Eddie years ago at this point.
Speaker 6 (49:54):
So yeah, we've literally changed buildings since then.
Speaker 5 (49:56):
So shout out to all the guys behind the scenes
who make us sound good on these airwaves.
Speaker 4 (50:00):
Eddie just bills Mafia James on this table here and
about it when he gets in the building.
Speaker 5 (50:05):
Look, I told you I was very diplomatic growing up.
You know, the weight class didn't help when it comes
to fighting, so I knew when to pick and choose
my battles.
Speaker 3 (50:12):
I believe you.
Speaker 4 (50:14):
Part of me wants to cop out and throw the
question back at you, but I think you asked the question.
Speaker 6 (50:17):
Right, I'll throw it at me. I'm sick of these
people are asking me the same question.
Speaker 1 (50:21):
How much are injuries a valid excuse?
Speaker 3 (50:24):
Right first? If you want me to no, no, no,
you you asked the question, you.
Speaker 4 (50:29):
Know, I think on the egregious scale of nine years
of Chris Ballard, is this season a top the list.
Speaker 3 (50:37):
No, not at all.
Speaker 4 (50:38):
I don't think it's maybe one of the top two
or three seasons either. But there are teams and honestly,
probably the two teams most relevant to the culture right now,
i e. Your opponent last night and the team that
is currently above you in the playoffs and it's likely
to make the playoffs over you, Houston and losing their
(50:59):
starting quarterback as well and winning without him for several games,
there's an element of you have to overcome some of that,
and you know when you look at the schedule, it's
going to play out in the manner that you had
a very easy first half schedule period and certainly you
(51:21):
pass that with Flying Colors, but the question was always
going to be could you sustain it at some level?
And as the schedule started to stiffen, you wilted. And
you know, the injury excuse has always been a tough
one for me because James like have the Colts hats
some big time injuries. Certainly, technically, if you want to
be technical, you were out of the playoffs when Daniel
(51:42):
Jones towards Achilles. Now is he battling through obviously a
leg injury. Yeah, But like you were out at that moment,
and you've had pristine health at the skill players. You
know what happens if Jonathan Taylor has normal running back health.
What happens if your offensive line for thirteen or fourteen
games was barely touched?
Speaker 1 (52:03):
Like?
Speaker 4 (52:04):
Are we going to continue to go down this path?
Daniel Jones has really never been healthy and playing at
an acceptable level in his.
Speaker 3 (52:10):
Entire NFL career? Is that something I was just supposed
to expect.
Speaker 4 (52:14):
What happened over the final two months of the season.
So I, again, on the egregious scale, are there other
seasons there? But to say right now that this regime
deserves another crack at it because of injuries and because
you don't want to give a new GM draft classes
that won't have first round picks doesn't sound like a
(52:35):
very ringing endorsement on why those people deserve to be back.
Speaker 5 (52:39):
I think I'm probably with you on that one. I
do think it is a nuanced conversation. But we don't
live life in a vacuum. If this was just year one,
one season, I could get with the Okay, injuries crept
up on you.
Speaker 6 (52:56):
You couldn't predict the future.
Speaker 5 (52:58):
The Achilles, the fracture fibula Sauce Gardner in this calf,
I have to ask myself, now, Okay, are you playing
again this year given the nature of those injuries and
what we saw that lead to with Tyre's halliburn And
you know, certainly don't want the cash trying to turn
into an Achilles tear. But point being Kevin, it's hard
(53:19):
to find a silver lining or a certain level of grace.
We should extend this regime well. And also to and
you know, thank you to listener Eric for pointing this
out too. Maybe if there was more like on the resume,
you could excuse us a little bit, more like what
if you had whatever two or three year run where
(53:42):
you won the division a couple of times. Maybe you
want a playoff game, maybe you showed some late season promise,
but like that's not there.
Speaker 3 (53:50):
Yeah, you know what, and you have to search long
and hard for it again.
Speaker 4 (53:52):
You know, when I asked about that question the combine,
what do you feel like your greatest accomplishment has been
as a GM Correct if I'm wrong, but I believe
he went back to either twenty eighteen or twenty twenty.
Speaker 3 (54:03):
Yeah, I mean we're now in the year twenty twenty five.
Speaker 4 (54:06):
Does two months of good football all of a sudden
say let's go year ten, baby, Let's run it back
now again? These are all my thoughts. I want to
make that very clear. I mean, you asked this question
to us right here. I am very torn. I guess
unknown on exactly what the powers that be will do,
(54:31):
but I just sure there's context to it, and I'm
not going to ignore the injuries. But to me, there's
just a lot. I guess I'm the naughty list. If
you will that, it's hard to.
Speaker 5 (54:43):
Overlook the naughty list. Does that get broken out in
the bone household? Do you use that as a little
bit of a web huge threat?
Speaker 3 (54:51):
Yeah, it's a huge. It's honestly probably my greatest weapon
right now.
Speaker 1 (54:53):
Is there an Elf on the shelf in the bone house?
Speaker 3 (54:55):
Sure?
Speaker 4 (54:56):
Yeah, Emily moved to Where did Emily? All of a sudden,
I looked at the In my mind, Emily was moving
last night. I think she's on top of this math
that Nelly sits on, which I think will really rattle
Max when he sees that.
Speaker 3 (55:09):
This morning. I can hear him screaming, it's gotta following
them up.
Speaker 4 (55:15):
You would bring them back because of why, Like when
I hear that, I think that thought that argument people
meet it with, well, you don't have your two first
round picks, so what's the only reason I And I'm
like white a minute, is that a ringing endorsement?
Speaker 5 (55:30):
But you don't know if it's a ringing the endorsement,
but I think it is already commitment to what you.
Speaker 6 (55:37):
We're going to do.
Speaker 4 (55:37):
Anyway, which that gets into a little bit of a
commitment this and maybe we need to have a bigger conversation,
maybe we should wait till the season ends. But James,
I hear you out on that point, and that to
me is a little bit more of the alarming Carly
Urse say Gordon side of it. I don't know, maybe
hindsight's twenty twenty, but like for her to sign off
(55:58):
on that trade was quite the backing of again not
only saws Gardner or the player, but Daniel Jones is
your franchise quarterback, and Chris Baward and Shane Stikeen in
the positions that they are, and as an owner, that's
a bit alarming two months into it that you felt
like whatever everything had been turned around or however you
(56:20):
wanted to define it to make that massive of a trade,
and for you to say, well, because we did it,
we can't now go back on it.
Speaker 6 (56:32):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (56:33):
That sounds like dangerous leading from me. And I've said
this quite often before. So much of I think people
in positions of authority like that is you have to
admit when you're wrong, and that's really difficult to do.
Like it took Chris Bouard a long time to admit that, oh,
maybe I should spend a little bit more free agency.
I've used this example before. It Kevin Pritchard over the Pacers.
It took him a little while to say, you know what,
(56:54):
Sabonis and Turner, we probably should stop that. And then
once he did, he found gold.
Speaker 5 (57:03):
So like that, I don't know, is that good business
if you signed off on the deal, if you said
let's do this and it didn't work out, let's get
rid of you. Like I'm not saying it's bad business,
but it certainly is an interesting move.
Speaker 3 (57:19):
I hear you out.
Speaker 4 (57:19):
But again, what's the business that that person has accomplished
that you're then banking on?
Speaker 3 (57:27):
Like where is the resident?
Speaker 6 (57:29):
Like it goes back to that commentary you said.
Speaker 3 (57:32):
I mean when you get into the GM hired and lack.
Speaker 6 (57:34):
Of resume makes it hard.
Speaker 4 (57:35):
When you get in the gms that hired the same
year as Chris Ballard, the man on the other sideline
last night, John Lynch, the man in Buffalo, and Brandon
Bean and the man in Kansas City and Bread Beach.
You went to weay resumes, Veach, Lynch, Bean, the Ballard.
If I were a ballad and I was in a
classroom I'd be running to get out of that classroom
(57:55):
before those popped up on the screen. To see what
Kansas City, Buffalo and San Francisco I have done in
the time that I've been GM much more.
Speaker 1 (58:04):
Nine o'clock hour, one final hour here before we head
to Christmas.
Speaker 6 (58:06):
It is only one of them won a Super Bowl.
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