Tuesday 12/23 - Colts collapse continues after Monday Night Football loss - The Fan Morning Show

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
They seized a fan morning show with Kibi Shab and
Jeff Rivers goes out of the gun row on the
left hash three receivers go to the right side.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
Here's the flag on the play.

Speaker 1 (00:11):
Rivers has a free shot, throws into the end zone.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Touchdown in the fact of the end zone.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
It's Alan Pierce and the plate covers twenty yards to
the house.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
And the Pones guard touchdown on their.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
Opening drive of the game. Five live three guard on
the left side.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
That's the wide side of the field.

Speaker 1 (00:28):
Quarterback back's to throw plants look it throws over the
middle end of the end zone. He's got a man
for a touchdown. That's DeMarcus Robinson and just like that,
San Francisco has answered the touchdown.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
By the Colts.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
A mere abduo on the return for the Colts, rumbling
across the twenty five.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
He may have lost the ball.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
It's available inside the thirty. There's a penalty on the plate.
San Francisco's celebrating a recovery and his second in goal
with the two following the time out. San Francisco going
left to right shotgun stat for party five step drop
Rose fights out of the goal line touchdown.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
That's Christian McCaffrey.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
He finds the end zone on a two yard pass
from Purty four down lineman for San Francisco Rivers out
of the gun. Back's the past, he's got time. He
throws up into the end.

Speaker 3 (01:12):
Zone and patch down.

Speaker 4 (01:14):
Here's a gain touchdown for two tonight for all at
piers did that covers sixteen yards to the house.

Speaker 5 (01:20):
I thought he was on fire whole game. He managed
the offense at the line of scrimmageet some no huddle
stuff with him getting this down to the right place,
you know, for it's in the right spots.

Speaker 6 (01:29):
Every time I'm down flying to the right side, they
think it to nobody pretty rolling to his right, scanning looking,
he's at the fifteen yard line, throws across his body
into the end zone and that is a catch for
a touchdown.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
And that is George Kettle the tight end. Purdy goes
out of the gun and two receivers go to the
right side. Shotgun snap for the quarterback. There comes the
rush by the Colts. He throws left left tight on
down touchdown Rivers shotgun step quick throw and it's picked
off the intercept the bight Dve winners, and he's gonna go.
He's got nobody in front of him down the right sideline,
he's gonna score. It's gonna be a pick six like

(02:03):
d winners, and that is gonna give San Francisco forty
seven points and the defense gets involved in a scoring party.

Speaker 5 (02:14):
Obviously, we gotta find ways to win, especially in November
and December. That's where you win games, and that's where
you're making the playoffs.

Speaker 6 (02:19):
So we gotta do a better job than I always
do a.

Speaker 7 (02:20):
Better job than that.

Speaker 8 (02:21):
I'm torn of how to express it because it's been
a blast. It's been a blast to prepare and to
can go so you can get ready and go out
there and warm up and do all that with these
guys again.

Speaker 2 (02:29):
But again, the maybe of the game.

Speaker 8 (02:31):
Is not, you know, go have a good time. This
helped find a way to lead your team to win,
and we've come up short here.

Speaker 4 (02:37):
These first two, two very different movies continue to play
out as we end the twenty twenty.

Speaker 2 (02:48):
Five Cult season eleven straight years without a home playoff game.
If I were the decision makers over there on West
fifty sixth Street, that would be a pretty hard one
to or not only just from a fandom standpoint, but
also from a financial standpoint. Good Tuesday morning to you.
We'll dissect it all here coming up. This will be
our final show until Friday. Caleb Zuber, great work there

(03:12):
on the intro. Much appreciative. I know it was a
long night for all parties involved. How about a little
Christmas gift here to start and Caleb, I guess we'll
just bet on people showing integrity on this Tuesday morning.
I'd love if we could give away a four pack
of tickets here, maybe to dad with daughter or daughters plurally.

(03:34):
James Boy the number one rank Yukon Huskies inside of
Hinklefield House coming up on Sunday, Ashland Shade among others
for Gina Rim and company in the building. So how
about a four pack butler Yukon women again that is
a number one ranked team and all the land taking
on Austin Parkinson's bunch coming out that Sunday four o'clock.
So fast fingers Caleb three one, seven, two, three, nine,

(03:55):
ten seventy. If your dad and you've forgotten gifts maybe
for your daughter or daughters plurally, how about that right there? Nice?
It'll starts with this Tuesday James, good morning.

Speaker 9 (04:06):
I'm doing good, I will say, speaking of birthdays and
gifts in the holidays. So I found out talking to
my parents, you all, that my twin sister got a
birthday dinner out of them, maybe a couple of days ago.
Talking to my dad and he's like, yeah, we give
your sister out to dinner. We didn't do anything for
a thirtieth birthday, you know. I was like, what are

(04:27):
you talking about? Our birthday was a December fifth. This
was two weeks ago. So she's got a free meal
out of them. So yeah, I guess the other parents
out there who might have forgotten, here's your chance to
not have to pay up yourself.

Speaker 2 (04:38):
Looks like somebody's tally marking a little bit here on
the Boyd family.

Speaker 9 (04:42):
Oh yeah there, And look, my sister goes out to you.
She ain't going on McDonald's. You know, she's going somewhere.
What you gotta get a reservation in?

Speaker 2 (04:48):
Well, sounds like she was brock perty against the Colts
defense last night. That that is true two different movies.
James and I thought the Philip Rivers quote, and we'll
maybe expand on that quote here throughout the morning. But
my hand is raised. I didn't think Philip Rivers had
that in him. Last night. He showed me a lot
more than I expected, particularly early in that game. That

(05:11):
that second touchdown alec Pears just I'm still in awe
of watching that ball gets alec Peers for the score,
but defensively, just an utterly horrific effort. I thought the
game really turned on the a Mir Abdullah kick return.
It just seemed like, I don't know, for some reason,
that just sucks so much life out of what was,

(05:33):
you know, a great, great start, and now here we
are once again eliminated from the division, once again eliminated
from the AFC South, with multiple games left in the season.
That's not lost on me either. Happened last year with
three games left, It's happening this year with two games left.
And I don't even know if I should even bring
up playoff scenarios, but those are kind of my overall
thoughts here on this Tuesday morning.

Speaker 9 (05:52):
Yeah, that was just another.

Speaker 2 (05:58):
Game.

Speaker 9 (05:59):
That's part for the for this team over the last
few years, they do not win these types of games,
and it's frustrating because you can look at a number
of things. I think this year the excuse and it
is a valid one to a degree, would be that
you had a lot of key injuries to keep players.
But at the same time, to go out there and
know your seasons on the line, essentially last night and

(06:20):
have that sort of defensive performance is inexcusable. And trying
to get a decent answer from anybody about why that happened,
why these things continue to happen, whether it's the offense
not showing up one day or the defense not showing
up someday, who cares? At this point, it feels like,
like you said when we open the show, there's a

(06:43):
lot of questions for a lot of the bigger parties
to answer because this core of players that you have
don't win in these moments.

Speaker 2 (06:52):
Yeah, and when you say cores, it extends much more
to just, you know, necessarily the people at the top.
I mean, obviously they are at the top, but yeah,
these are the third contract guys. That's what I meant.
You know, captains of your football team that really have
had little change over over the years. And yes, when
these games do arise, and that's where you know the
Shane Steiken element. For example, you have to separate yes

(07:13):
offensive game plan last night and the ability to score
twenty seven points brilliant, But you're also the head coach
of the football team, and when you consider all fastest
of the game, there's just too much there that continue
to fail in the critical junctures of the season. And
you know, again there's no better example of a team
overcoming injuries than that team on the visiting sideline last night.

(07:34):
The defense again just an absolute abomination. The fact that
they didn't encounter their first third down until the third
drive of the game, and that was because of a drop,
was just unbelievable. Balance like none other. I think two
plays that really frustrated me defensively James were in the
second half. You obviously get your doors blown off on

(07:54):
the first half. Defensively he first played the second half
boom kittle down the scene. It's like that dude torched
you in the first half. I would have thought that
key would be, you know, written in whatever Times New
Romans seventy two font on the old halftime board. And
then how about the third and I believe it was

(08:14):
eight or nine touchdown to Christian McCaffrey there on what
looked to be a blown assignment, Like if you that
was not McCaffrey being elite athlete. That was not Christian
McCaffrey being you know, a player that you know will
likely hear his name in Canton one day. That blown assignment,
like you know him whatever, you know, stopping Jermaine Pratt

(08:38):
in his tracks or AA Franklin in his tracks, that's
obviously gonna happen. But to have those mental breakdowns in
the second half after you just got your ass kicked
for the first thirty minutes of the game, that to
me was just a cherry on top for just such
a pathetic, pathetic defensive effort. I don't care I about
was run defense. I don't care if it was trying

(08:58):
to touch rock party one quarterback hit the entire game
on him. Whatever San Francisco wanted to do, they did.

Speaker 9 (09:05):
Going back to the Christian McCaffrey receiving touchdown to highlight
how bad the defense was. Kevin they scored twice on
that drive because the play before, Jake Tongis, their other
tight end, makes a great catch.

Speaker 2 (09:24):
They don't challenge it.

Speaker 9 (09:26):
We were all in the press box like, wait a second,
that's a catch. And I couldn't believe that Kyle Shanahan
did not throw a challenge flag and didn't go to
bat for his guy because, as they showed on the broadcast,
which I had pulled up on my laptop, it was
clearly two feet in toe tap toe drag swag as
they call it, and it's a touchdown.

Speaker 2 (09:46):
And they're so confident in their offense that they're like.

Speaker 9 (09:49):
You know what, we don't even want to waste the
opportunity of getting the flag out of our pocket, James,
We'll just call it again and score again.

Speaker 10 (09:56):
That could I just want to jump here, because that
is what I was saying to myself last night.

Speaker 2 (10:01):
My dad and are talking. That's exactly what I said.

Speaker 10 (10:02):
They didn't even worry about challenging it because that's how
easy it was. It's third and goal from you know,
ten yards out. Right after that, they're like, yeah, we'll
just we'll just score in the next play anyway. It's
no worries he'll take more time off the clock. We'll
get out of here quicker. It's unbelievable, it's so true.

Speaker 2 (10:16):
The ease at which they operated last night stood out
to me. It just was it was ho hum. And again,
for those that have not been following the forty nine
ers religiously this year. Christian McCaffrey has not looked like
that this season. He has not run the football anywhere
close to the level that he ran last night. They
were without their number one white out, and you know,
I'm looking at a Colt's defense. Unless I'm missing something,

(10:37):
I don't see any injuries in that front seven. And
brock Perty could have played with a hell he seemingly
played with the red jersey on.

Speaker 9 (10:44):
Yeah, so one play they actually did make Lato with
the stripsack. Of course, George Kittle catches the fumble and
still games three yards. But nevertheless, that's not enough for
an entire sixty minute game.

Speaker 2 (10:57):
No, absolutely not so again, official Nation from the AFC South.
Happened last night for the Colts. That is now eleven
straight seasons without winning a division that you know this
year doesn't fall into this category, but has clearly been
the easiest division in the AFC over the last you know,
decade plus. Now. I guess at some point today I

(11:18):
can't even get myself a stomach. What the playoffs situation
looks like? The Colts will have a quick turnaround here
short week. They think it little banged up Last night,
a couple of injuries. Certainly throughout the game. It'll be
Colts and Jags coming up on Sunday, so we'll get
to all of it. And I just you know, big
picture thought for me, James. You know, when we've discussed

(11:43):
it in recent days, recent weeks, I have said that
I don't get the impression internally that the powers that
be are worried. But sitting there watching last night, if
we know one thing about Jim Mersay, he was really
by when his team got embarrassed in primetime. This team

(12:03):
doesn't show up in primetime very much. I mean, it's
been three years since Adam Monday Night football game.

Speaker 9 (12:08):
I told y'all they had me standing up burning the
midnight off for this.

Speaker 2 (12:12):
For this and last night they were embarrassed, Yes, in primetime.
And what's the trickle down effect now to his daughters?
Do his daughters feel the same way? Is there? Did
there need to be one of those efforts to get
them to say, you know what that Sauce Gardner trade. Yeah,
we shouldn't have greenlighted that. You know, is any of

(12:34):
that there? And just take Chris Bauer's words eleven months ago.
I mean, I'm pretty sure James. The quote was, we're
not close. Eight and nine is not close enough. Where
are they right now? They're on the verge of going
eight and nine after being eight and two and staring

(12:56):
at the biggest collapses at the NFL scene and over
a decade. So we'll get to all of it here
on this Tuesday morning, late late travel back for the Pacers.
So Rick Carlisle text me about three point thirty something
in the morning last night, like he we just pushed
a next week Pacers actually a valiant effort until the
fourth quarter. For those looking for entertaining losses, you got
one in Boston last night. Pacers will play tonight inside

(13:18):
a Gamebridge Field House with the Bucks. We'll hit on
that here on the morning check down, a little bit
of college hoops as well. On this Tuesday morning. We'll
certainly get to as many calls and text messages as
we can throughout this Tuesday morning. Save travels everybody out
there on this Christmas Eve eve. It is hell, it's balmy.
I was sweating by the time I got to the

(13:39):
car this morning. I'll take it, honestly, Yeah, boy, you
go short to the T shirt here coming up on
this Tuesday Kevin Bow and James Board Caleb Zuber coming
at you all right. The final score last night, forty
eight twenty seven inside of Lucas Soil Stadium, the Colt
skit absolutely dominated on the defensive side of the ball,
special teams and abomination and as well kick return and

(14:02):
kick coverage specifically on that's This was Shane steichen Field
and one from James Boyd afterwards say, how do.

Speaker 9 (14:08):
You explain that defensive performance given the stakes of this game.

Speaker 5 (14:12):
Yeah, we gotta be better. That starts with me. Gotta
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 2 (14:23):
You know.

Speaker 5 (14:23):
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 2 (14:28):
The first eight San Francisco drives of the game yesterday,
James touchdown, touchdown, touchdown, field goal, miss field goal off
the crossbar from sixty four yards come back in the
third quarter, touchdown, field goal, touchdown.

Speaker 9 (14:42):
So the only thing that stopped him really was the crossbar.
Other than that, they would have kept scoring.

Speaker 2 (14:47):
The loudest crossbar in the NFL. I swear when that
uprad's been smoked this year, I swear it's the loudest boy.
Alec Pierce sets a positive blake groupie and not, well,
you know you got it again. My hand is raised,
Philip Rivers. I did not know you had that in
you hands. Great them enough, He gave them enough.

Speaker 9 (15:07):
In my opinion, I'm not trying to get up here
and give you any you know, Constellation prizes. But the
dude played well enough, not just for his age, before
any quarterback in the lead to go out there when.

Speaker 2 (15:17):
Yeah, I think that's a key ingredient. You know again,
you know you got to be careful to great ahm
on a scale and it's like no, no, no, that first quarter,
that dude was just balling. Yeah, just NFL quarterback balling
out there. The Colts eliminated from the AFC South for
the eleventh straight year. Yes, they can still make the
playoffs at some point today. I don't know when it'll be.
I'll try to somehow share how that is possible, but

(15:40):
I just don't have the gunction to do it. Here.
At seven twenty one in the mornings, We're alive. Kevin yeah, exactly,
I need strength of victory. Is that? Oh God, is
that correct? Is that what we got to crunch?

Speaker 9 (15:52):
At some point I was gonna say victory in this market.

Speaker 2 (15:55):
Yeah, well, I guess it's got to be victory's plural
before strength of victory even happens. So, uh yeah, that
probably is not gonna happen. Pacers lose last night in
Boston one O three ninety five. They actually really an
impressive first half, uh, and then the second half it
really got away from them, only thirteen points in the
fourth quarter of that one. It is a back to back.

(16:16):
It's Miles Turner in the Bucks. It's actually a Pickham
game tonight again, no Jannis, He's been out now for
a couple of weeks. So we will see how Miles
Turner gets the old Christmas reaction from Pacers fans tonight
inside of game bridge Fieldhouse College hoops. Yesterday, I had
Rosy Bone and Max Bone at Hinkle and let me
tell you, I asked you at New Jersey Institute of

(16:37):
Technology if we could give them a competitive game. James Boyd.
I'm thinking that we maybe could have given them a
competitive game. He stopped this.

Speaker 9 (16:50):
I don't even know what the final score was. Can
you hit me with that?

Speaker 2 (16:52):
Uh? One oh one to fifty two? Oh baby, it
was seventeen nothing. They go miss free throw this field
free throw, so you get free tacos before they've even
scored a point in the game. Another dude, I think
I split the free throws. Another dude went to the
line and he missed his first. I was rooting for
him to hit the second. I'm like, I can't. This

(17:13):
is too much embarrassment for me. It's seventeen I mean,
Rosie bones on Cloud nine. You think it's the greatest
thing in the world, it's seventeen nothing.

Speaker 9 (17:20):
There was nothing better than Rosie Bown praying on somebody's downfall.

Speaker 2 (17:24):
Seeing your kids reaction if they get on the Jumbo
trono to sporting event. That's one of the ultimate highs.
I I didn't know it was possible, but Rosie was
thrilled yesterday when she got up there ran in a
listener Michael at halftime, his three boys. Good to chat
with him. So Hinkle afternoon. Very nice for the Bulldogs.
Pretty solid non conference for them, and Indiana over Sienna

(17:45):
last night. It was kind of a sneaky Siena team
record wise, So nice work from Darren Devreese company before Christmas.

Speaker 9 (17:51):
When you said sneaky, I was like, do you have
a bunch of like six to one white guys.

Speaker 2 (17:54):
Actual rot Perty in the open field, Oxy and Spunk. Yeah,
Alex Pierce down the sideline seventy seven fifty three for
the Hoosiers. So again, it'll be quiet now from a
college basketball standpoint with Christmas here, perdue next in action
on Monday, Butler next in action on Tuesday, and it's

(18:14):
a long break for Darren to b Rezon company, nothing
until a week from Sunday. IU and Washington James News
item wise, I really don't have much else for you.
I saw Eugene Hilton in the transfer portal there to
wise Son, so was at Wisconsin his first year, so

(18:35):
I don't think officially going the portal, but I saw
that report yesterday. Anything else for you as a cult
transition to a short week.

Speaker 9 (18:44):
Not on that front really, just I guess just what
we saw last night.

Speaker 2 (18:50):
And DK metcalf, is that appeal going to bring it
down to one game? Is that the thought two games?
Or do you think that a hold?

Speaker 9 (18:55):
I think he's trying to get it appealed to a
point where he doesn't get suspended. I guess he report
or that that fan that he got into it with
he previously told security about which I'm thinking that guy
came from Seattle all the way there and we're in
a big he said, she said. All that stuff is't
adding up to me. But bottom lines, I think it'll
be upheld at that point. You cannot put your hands
on a fan and expect that to go well for you.

(19:17):
The crazy part about that is if he does have
the suspension upheld, it will avoid I think forty million
dollars is guaranteed in his contract. He could still get
it if he gets the certain threshold for the money,
but the guaranteed part of it is gone now if
he could suspend it. So that's a very costly decision
that he just made.

Speaker 2 (19:37):
And again we're still deciding the AFC North winner. We've
decided pretty much everything in the AFC at this point,
but Pittsburgh Baltimore that is still left to be decided there.
Who will be the I think it's in all likelihood
the four seed there and the AFC North rep all
right coming up the other side. Much more from last night.
What do you make of the Colt's performance? What do
you make of Philip Rivers? We'll hit it all next.

(19:59):
It's fan morning show on a Tuesday.

Speaker 7 (20:03):
You look into that.

Speaker 5 (20:03):
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 they come to life,
you know on Sundays and Monday nights.

Speaker 2 (20:17):
You know, I don't think there's been a more damning
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 Perty
has hit oon time last night. To me, that's probably

(20:41):
the big Like, you know, if you're weighing the roster,
you're evaluating position groups, all of that. You know 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 9 (21:03):
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 is your excuse? 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

(21:24):
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 2 (21:35):
I think he went through his progressions twice. Yeah, he
had a ton of time back there. Let me scan
back one, two, three, four.

Speaker 9 (21:40):
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 Binam who caught an interception that was
on an overthrown pass.

Speaker 2 (21:56):
Slightly.

Speaker 9 (21:56):
It wasn't even like you're not taking anythingway from cam Biningham,
not to say it was his fault. He caught an interception,
which you're supposed to do. But my point is you
all didn't make any plays in the air either, So
I mean outside of a cosmetic interception at the end
of the game, you got be handedly.

Speaker 2 (22:14):
Yeah on defense off 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

(22:35):
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

(22:55):
all of a sudden, you know, yank the wheel per
se and you know, have a massive one and shifting
what you're going to do plan wise. I still remain
under the impression that it will be Philip Rivers as
the starter and Riley Leonard as the backup on Sunday
and part of me thinks that'll be the case again

(23:16):
in week eighteen. Maybe if you were eliminated, 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 9 (23:29):
Well, let's start with the end there. 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 initially thought, or others,

(23:55):
you know, from the outside 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 quite honestly, after Philip played, I

(24:18):
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 played his butt off yesterday and

(24:40):
gave this team a legitimate chance to win.

Speaker 2 (24:42):
Yeah, and I was dead wrong. I mean, my hand
is raised again with Philip Rivers and the ability to
push it a little bit more down the field.

Speaker 9 (24:49):
Well, I fel like we both got a middle finger
along with the rest of the beat. When they first
out of the game was a first player game shot
down the field.

Speaker 2 (24:56):
I laughed at that, honestly. And again there were a
couple of de 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

(25:18):
is he gives guys chances after the catch 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,

(25:39):
like literally his right side. Whichever shoulder is going upfield
or needs to be going upfield. 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

(26:01):
from the sixteen? That is a give up play. 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

(26:23):
you go back, there's some unbelievable still shots of 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 9 (26:36):
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 Peerson his.

Speaker 2 (26:46):
Agent, Oh easily easily. Yeah, like after that Slim Pickens, Yes, yeah,
well said I'll give them to Blake groupie. But that's
that's probably where I will stop. 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. I thought ESPN did a wonderful job of

(27:08):
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, That's

(27:31):
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
cults were bullish. They were adamant, we're gonna we feel

(27:51):
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 the Shane Stikeen evaluation marks, it's not as glowing.
But James I did not think the offense could produce
like that, especially if you had have told me before
the night Jonathan Taylor's gonna have a season low two

(28:12):
point nine yards per kerry 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. Yeah. I had to go
back and look, Kevin.

Speaker 9 (28:31):
Twenty seven points were their most in a game since
their last win back in Berlin.

Speaker 2 (28:37):
So well, hell, it's probably the most in regulation.

Speaker 7 (28:40):
Was it?

Speaker 2 (28:40):
Did they get higher than that? And even regulation.

Speaker 9 (28:43):
It's a good point. I didn't go back in that
that far. 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,
and defensively, you just failed to show up. And I
talking asire Franklin talking into Forest Buckner. I actually thought
the Forest buck Ner summed everything up in about seven

(29:03):
words yesterday I used it in my story. I'm gonna
pull it up here. And he was asked how frustrating
is this loss? And his response in full was it's
the worst because it's the latest. And you never hear

(29:24):
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 2 (29:41):
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, Rivers movie is incredible, and again it

(30:05):
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, and.

Speaker 9 (30:25):
We're treating him like he was again a senior citizen
at the old folks homes.

Speaker 2 (30:30):
See, Okay, he won bingo, 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

(30:52):
since the last time the Colts hosted a home playoff game,
and that will continue to happen here.

Speaker 9 (30:56):
Who is that listener who said the Hoosias are going
to have the last one of the two teams in
Lucas Oil Stadium.

Speaker 2 (31:03):
Right, 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

(31:25):
had a collapse like this? Five?

Speaker 9 (31:29):
And so the Colts will 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 2 (31:49):
Yeah. Again, it's five straight losses, it's six of seven,
the AFC South elimination with two weeks left and last
year with three weeks left. That's not at 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

(32:10):
won whatever fourteen games last year and you were eliminated
with three weeks to go, I mean three weeks to go.
That's 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.
Like that to me would resonate a whole whole lot. Caleb,
it's hit up some on the phone line here, so

(32:31):
we got Courtney. Is that right? Let's lead off here
with Courtney on this Tuesday morning. What's up Courtney? Hey,
what's happening?

Speaker 3 (32:38):
I got my brother in here, Sorr with me.

Speaker 2 (32:42):
What's up Courtney's brother?

Speaker 3 (32:45):
What's going on?

Speaker 7 (32:45):
Man? Uh?

Speaker 3 (32:50):
Yeah? I watched well, I watched that game, bro, and
that was That defense was horrific. Zire Franklin just really
disappointed me to that deserve. I don't know if that
that deserves. He needs to leave because he spends too
much on the podcast, especially with Jeff t on five
to twenty. He needs to get off that and focus

(33:11):
on his game and we need a better pass rush.
Quee Pay is not showing up. I don't know what's
going on with him, and it was just a whole
overall disaster.

Speaker 10 (33:22):
Man.

Speaker 3 (33:22):
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 good job for all of that.
For him to go out there and put up that
many points, to put out that good performance for the defense,
just squad that off. It's embarrassing, man, Like, there's got

(33:43):
to be some changes. They need to be some changes.

Speaker 2 (33:46):
Thank you Courtney for the call. Appreciated, best to you
and your brother. Yeah, the linebacker play awful last night.
Jermaine Pratt early on, certainly, But do you remember what
you asked me yesterday?

Speaker 9 (33:56):
What was I worried about any of those guys being
against George Kittle or Christian McCaffrey in space They physically
can't do it.

Speaker 2 (34:05):
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. Kittle made that play. 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

(34:28):
you were to talk first second round picks, whether it's
Quitty Pay, whether it's lowed To lat To, whether it's
Taekwon Lewis, whether it's the Forrest 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 a little bit earlier.

Speaker 8 (34:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (34:48):
Same with Lat two, like Lot two and uh Tomala,
we're not drafted as projects. They were very complished collegian players. Yeah,
and the thought there was they could give you a
little bit more Lyon's supposed to be dude, you know,
banking on Samson Ebacom coming off the torn Achilles was
very wishful thinking. And if you just look, I don't

(35:08):
have it in front of me, James, but I believe
it's a top five money defense in the NFL. Like
even if you don't consider the draft picks, which you know,
if you compared 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

(35:28):
to that front seven because I get it. You're without
Javeri's Ward, You're without Sauce Gardner. You're gonna have some
issues there. But to now Christian McCaffrey have a night
that he really hasn't had all year running the football,
let alone one quarterback head in thirty four pass attempts
just horrific from the defense.

Speaker 9 (35:45):
I will say this to Courtney's point and again shout
out to you for the call. It is a bad
look when 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

(36:08):
on the field and what you're going to do to
them and how you're how you should be viewed or
feared or whatever 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

(36:32):
think it does the way all pro all that, but yeah,
I can't imagine that after you, for example, last week,
you all lose to the Seattle Seahawks and you go
on to some podcast 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

(36:53):
you go out there and get embarrassed on national television
and you lose 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 been you or somebody
else on the beat that I was talking to about this, Kevin,

(37:14):
this corps of players when you look at the Forest
Buck news, Iar Franklin, Kennymore, Quentin Nelson, whoever else, all
these people. 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

(37:35):
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, and everyone's a year older and Daniel Jones
is coming off of torn Achilles. What the heck are
you actually selling people well?

Speaker 2 (37:51):
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

(38:12):
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

(38:34):
have this conversation on August twenty third, and you told me, hey,
the cold season's going to 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

(38:55):
have their two first round picks for the next two years.
They're quarterbacks. 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, and yet you get a tenth crack

(39:16):
at it. But that's tough. That to me just makes
no sense. 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

(39:39):
don't want to seriously entertain it, you know, And now
it's a very scared 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

(39:59):
the Sauce Gardner trade. To go back to it, not
only did you say we believe in sauce Gardner as
a player, of course, but you also said we believe
in the quarterback position unquestionably, and the direction that it's
going and we believe in the powers at B I E.
R GM and our head. Like you said all of
that with the Gardner. You can look at the Gardener
trade and say, hey, by trading two first round picks

(40:20):
and Ady Mitchell, you're trading what three, let's call it
four players. 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

(40:40):
said two massive other things in that move. You said
that Daniel Jones is the side of the building guy.
He 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 Ssiching thing
is what you said. Now fast forward here six weeks later,
the quarterback questions obviously are there, and you're in the

(41:01):
midst of the biggest collapse and last night's collapse. 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 investments. Look at the investments on the
defensive side of the ball, particularly in the front seven.
And if I were Carl ras Gordon, that would make

(41:22):
me pause long and hard today looking in the.

Speaker 9 (41:25):
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

(41:48):
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. And I'm not saying I'm
some genius because many of those listening probably.

Speaker 2 (41:58):
Said the same thing.

Speaker 9 (42:01):
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.

Speaker 2 (42:15):
Game of the year.

Speaker 9 (42:16):
We believe in this, dude, and we believe that's that's
an anomaly, that's just a one off. And perhaps maybe
it was to a degree like we couldn't have seen
the future and said, oh, it's gots gonna get hurt
and play with the 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

(42:36):
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 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,

(42:57):
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 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 2 (43:23):
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. I think one more thing to add, kind

(43:44):
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 obviously with
her at this level. But one thing we do know
about father. One of the things that frustrated him the
most was when the opportunities and again they haven't been

(44:08):
many lately, certainly three years since you were on Monday
Night football, when the opportunities for his team to play
in primetime showed up and they got embarrassed. That bothered
him endlessly. And obviously there are elements to the daughters
that they want to do differently than their father, but

(44:28):
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. Do they have the same
level of bothersome I guess, for lack of a better term,
that I know their father would have watching all of

(44:49):
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, that you were in many times
were absolutely electric, and not just from the financial pockets

(45:13):
for the Simons in getting home game after home game
after home game, but like the good will 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, even if you can't
quantify the good will that that does for your fan base,

(45:34):
what about financially getting a home play? I mean, if
anybody I get why people are obsessed with wanting to
see their team in primetime, 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, like it is such an

(45:57):
unbelievable advertisement for your city, for your franchise, et cetera,
et cetera, 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 you that says,

(46:20):
I don't necessarily think a week sixteen game and year
nine of a regime should have great impact. But this
has come from someone that thought Chris Bald shouldn't have
gote a year nine either. So you know, maybe I'm
not the best person to ask much more on this.
We'll get into it here in the eight o'clock hour
coming up, Kevin Bow and James Boyd Caleb Zuber on

(46:40):
a Tuesday. Only thing worse than the Colts defense last
night is yours truly attempting to wrap a Christmas present.
Caleb Zuber, thank you for that intro. I thought that
Rivers quote certainly hit home pretty accurately. Right there. You
got two different movies right now. One's a fun Hallmark movie,

(47:01):
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 to you. 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 diked in plenty to get to here as

(47:21):
we 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

(47:45):
had what the two games over four yards per carry
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 did
that you had.

Speaker 9 (48:01):
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

(48:24):
game was with the S word. It was a bleepy day.
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 sin I'll kind of paint

(48:46):
for you all is you have Philip Rivers, one of
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 this crow, 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,

(49:06):
and just that scene of him sitting in his locker
by himself and he's kind of like staring off, probably
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,

(49:26):
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, 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.

Speaker 2 (49:47):
We have to win a game, not we gotta go
on a run.

Speaker 9 (49:51):
We gotta you know, prove a doubter is wrong, we
gotta shock the world.

Speaker 2 (49:55):
It was we have to.

Speaker 9 (49:56):
Win a single game, which the then of that was
just so jarring to me.

Speaker 2 (50:02):
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. It

(50:23):
just well, you know.

Speaker 9 (50:25):
Why, this is why I think you felt like that
to me, personally, so you turn the ball over there.

Speaker 2 (50:31):
So it's seven to seven to set at all off.

Speaker 9 (50:34):
Return a mere Abdullah, who was great last week, by
the way, has the turnover the fumble he lost fumble,
he laune the.

Speaker 2 (50:42):
Yeah, it was great play. That happens.

Speaker 9 (50:45):
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.

Speaker 2 (50:55):
Because they got the ball come out of the half.

Speaker 9 (50:59):
So even if you had 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. They got the ball to
start second half and they went down to score again.

Speaker 2 (51:10):
Well, the thought is from Shane Styke, and I know
a lot of people disagree on this. The thought with
him is right now we need to play from ahead. Yeah,
blame him for that, so we're gonna kick the ball. 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,

(51:31):
flawless for forty eight 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 several
key offensive linemen right now. That is contributing to it.
You know, a couple of 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,

(51:55):
you go into halftime again, you've gotten your ass kicked
in the first half. Well, what was the score half time?
Twenty four to seventeen twenty four? You're given up? 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 chunk like

(52:15):
to me, of all the got you know if anybody
Kittle did it to you on what the first play
of the game or the second play of the game
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

(52:38):
get open or Jake Tungus to get open, or Kyle
Uscheck to get open, or Juwan Jennings or Sky Moore.
The breakdown is to allow Christian McCaffrey to strut into
the end zone like those two plays, second half plays,
after they have whipped you, yeah, for the first thirty
minutes they come out, they throw it to their star

(53:01):
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
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 cultid to drive
there at the end until the Rivers picked six. But

(53:21):
I thought that was a dagger.

Speaker 9 (53:22):
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. 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.

Speaker 2 (53:44):
Rule it incomplete.

Speaker 10 (53:45):
It was a great play by Purdy by the way,
like he was rolling to his right, so great that yes,
and he does it and they initially rule it incomplete,
and then they show the replay on the broadcast and
it's like, hold on, at there's turf pellets flying up,
like I think he got his other foot down. And

(54:06):
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 it's that easy
right now, No no problem, We'll just throw it. I
think dud was McCaffrey the next play. It's that's how
easy it was.

Speaker 2 (54:25):
Last night. 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

(54:47):
in the intro.

Speaker 8 (54:48):
Yeah, I know that, you know, from a personal standpoint,
it will be short lived. You know, it'll be over
and hurry, which I told yall from beginnea. I'm gonna
I will be able to live with the results whatever
they are. And that necessarily mean I'm I'm okay with
them and I don't care you know about them. So yeah, no,
it is this week felt like a regular in week mode.
It felt a little bit like I've been here a

(55:09):
while in terms of the preparation and the flow during
the week. And you know, again it's been uh it's
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 all that with these guys again.

Speaker 2 (55:25):
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.

Speaker 8 (55:32):
And we've come up short here these first two.

Speaker 2 (55:34):
But uh, we've been I've been a part of.

Speaker 8 (55:39):
Less percentage chances of getting in and got in before,
so you'll you'll certainly won't hear me losing hope here
as we prepare next week.

Speaker 2 (55:49):
Yeah, I need another hour before we break down a
playoff scenario. I can't. I can't. That's what makes you
and Philip Rivers different. Man. I can't go there just yet.
Philip can't give up hope. Now, this from Connor. 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 ers

(56:10):
have a walkthrough pretty much. I think Connor just summed
up the night. I could sign off right now and
just repeat that here for the next hour and forty.

Speaker 9 (56:21):
I'm trying to think of moments where they actually felt
resistance in the game a lot too.

Speaker 2 (56:24):
Strip that's one, that's one did they didn't? That's one
right that they didn't. A punt it in that game.

Speaker 9 (56:36):
What stopped them was the crossbar in the first half
and when brock Party slightly over the receiver and cam
Binam intercepted it.

Speaker 10 (56:46):
You know what's so crazy? Not punting used to be
the Colts thing, that used to be our thing, and
now we have someone else coming into our house and
doing it to us as a fan, that's just got
to make you sick.

Speaker 2 (57:02):
It makes me sick. I don't know if you guys
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. They have a promising drive. 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. You score there.

(57:25):
Shane Sack 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
group he 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 culture
win in this game, and like the offense had moved

(57:46):
it pretty well, No Rivers ends up throwing a pick six.
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.

(58:07):
I don't know necessarily how it's going to look, but
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 9 (58:22):
It is when you have a defense like that, And
that's the point I think you're trying to make four
hundred and forty yards. That was the most a couple.

Speaker 2 (58:32):
With, Like it's so much pressure that you continue to
putting the offense like the offense is going to crack
at some point.

Speaker 9 (58:37):
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
fourteen after that and like, okay, well you responded, well,
but how well can you hold serve if the other
side is smashing the ball to Like there's Serena Williams, like, I.

Speaker 2 (59:01):
Mean, how many times.

Speaker 9 (59:02):
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. So that was very telling
to me. And again just another example of this team

(59:25):
folding in a big, big moment. I'm trying to think
of the marquee wins in the Shan Steiken era the
last three years, and.

Speaker 2 (59:35):
What are they at this point in the year.

Speaker 9 (59:38):
He's had big wins. I don't want to dismiss laving
this earlier. This year, you've had some key wins over
good teams.

Speaker 2 (59:43):
No, but I'd argue one of the biggest constants is
awful December January loss. That's what I mean that you
have to have. And again, this is a different type
of thing like losing to Jake Browning, losing to Taylor Heineke,
losing to Drew Locke, that's in a different bucket. Last
night for me, he was in your own building, prime time,
first time in three years. You know, rock party is

(01:00:06):
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
you imagine how involved he has to be offensively right
now with rivers? Yeah? How is there enough time in

(01:00:27):
the day to manage the rest of the operation, whether
that is defensively, whether that is like, there's so much
on his plate as the head coach and the playgoff.
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

(01:00:48):
on the plate. So I don't know. Maybe this is
a Robert Sala Louannarrimo thing, but to me, it's the
inability for your team to seize the December Jane 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. So maybe that's more of a ballad
thing with the roster he's built than anything. But I

(01:01:11):
do 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? Like it's an all, Like the San
Francisco offense is not the greatest show on turf? And
there mostly you sure boy without their star whiteout last

(01:01:32):
night too, or I should say they're they're number one
wide out. So that's the stiking part of it. That
just I just shake my head at the the head
coaching 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?

(01:01:55):
Like kurtz Signett's bunch, they meet the moment every single
time they meet the moment. That is a key, key
part in I think being a head coach. And from
the onset last night, you didn't meet anything outside of
certainly the offensive side of the ball.

Speaker 9 (01:02:12):
So here's a question for you, 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

(01:02:35):
this regime or this end of season collapse.

Speaker 2 (01:02:39):
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 weeks, like, should four weeks of a
Philip Rivers off the couch era have this great inflection
point of how you evaluate him? I pardon me, thinks no.
But again, James, I mean I wrote last year at
the end of the season that goes Bradley and Chris

(01:03:00):
Baler should go like 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.
So yeah, sorry, done, r up, But no, you're fine.

Speaker 9 (01:03:18):
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

(01:03:38):
they literally have to walk past me to go anywhere
in there.

Speaker 2 (01:03:41):
And at the end of the game, when.

Speaker 9 (01:03:44):
The 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 Victoria's
side this time is Gus Bradley, who's an assistant with
the forty nine ers.

Speaker 2 (01:03:57):
I thought that was such a funny moment, waved to him.

Speaker 9 (01:04:00):
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.

Speaker 2 (01:04:07):
More resources than I ever got. As I said that.

Speaker 9 (01:04:11):
Was funny, is a key and great and no, I
think the question you asked funny. Caleb like, not not
the funny funny, but I was like, boy, that's funny.

Speaker 2 (01:04:18):
Looking 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.
How would you define last night an embarrassment in primetime? So,

(01:04:42):
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 se.
It was you know, other facets of the game that

(01:05:03):
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. Caleb. We're gonna put you

(01:05:24):
on the hot seat first.

Speaker 10 (01:05:25):
Oh man, you know what I thought. The receivers Josh
downs and Alec Pierce. I thought their effort was there
all night, 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 2 (01:05:45):
James Blake groupie.

Speaker 9 (01:05:48):
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 throughout the season.

Speaker 2 (01:05:56):
Yeah, and I'll throw Rivers in there. I mean, just
from a positive stand point, 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 the

(01:06:19):
second slf of the game, so we get in on
the offensive line a little bit here.

Speaker 9 (01:06:21):
So Philip was going to chase him down there for
a second on the pick six and just lost a
couple of wheels.

Speaker 2 (01:06:27):
I did see he waited for de 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. They are right around to pick them against

(01:06:49):
the Bucks. 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 Joins coming up next
week on the show. But Pacers in Buck in action
and they'll see the Celtics again. That's coming up on Friday.
College basketball from yesterday Butler in Indiana both get the
pre Christmas victories that I certainly would have loved for

(01:07:11):
my 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 for Butler and then Indiana over Sienna. Nick Dorn

(01:07:35):
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
to take your calls, play some audio. It is the
fan Morning Show here on a Tuesday.

Speaker 1 (01:07:58):
Four down Lineman for San Francisco Rivers. Out of the gun,
back's the past, he's got time, he thlows up into
the end zone.

Speaker 4 (01:08:05):
It touts down Pierce to again tux temper two tonight
fred Alett Pierce did it covers sixteen yards to the house.

Speaker 2 (01:08:13):
Certainly one of the highlights from last night's that was
a third and goal from the sixteen and James Boyd
I that might be the Rivers play that I'll remember
the most from the forty four year old experience here.
Obviously see how the final two weeks play out. But
the anticipation to throw that ball and look, that thing

(01:08:35):
was not you know, a vortex spiral by any means.
But that then got to Alec Pierce. And there's some
great still shots of Pierce kind of you know, almost
pressing the ball against the forty nine ers dB there
to make the touchdown. Good things happen when you target
Alec Pearce and that decision, you know that that often
could be a give up play. Third and goal from

(01:08:56):
the sixteen. That was big league, big lead from Philip
Rivers right there.

Speaker 9 (01:09:02):
Just an awesome play, and again Alex Pierce catches everything.
He's going to get a big bag of money.

Speaker 2 (01:09:09):
And he would get a stat for how many times
he draws a flag to that too.

Speaker 9 (01:09:14):
You know what he was whooping whoever that cornerback was.
I think it was number twenty eight for the forty
nine ers. I believe he was filling in for an
injured cornerback, and boy, Alec beat him like a drum
over and over again. And I thought that again. Winners
and losers last night, winners, forty nine ers, Alec Pearson
his check book, losers everybody else in the Colts.

Speaker 2 (01:09:36):
I mean, I think our audience knows that I've kind
of been here for a long time now, but I
wanted to write it last night and kind of wanted
to take away from the game like he has got
to be a definite bringback guy. And weirdly, I think
the Daniel Jones injury James has opened up potentially some
finances to either throw to Piers or if you want
to use that for Like, I don't think it's that

(01:09:57):
crazy to franchise tag him.

Speaker 9 (01:09:58):
I was going to ask you that question and I
we were talking about in the press box last night,
and I believe that is a serious option.

Speaker 2 (01:10:06):
And if you're making him negotiate, you would put him
into some big time whiteout category. But like, let's be honest, James,
they tagged Michael Pittman initially.

Speaker 9 (01:10:14):
Yeah, and you can still negotia, but it basically gives
you like, hey, you're mine and you ain't going nowhere.
I would not be surprised if they tagged him, and honestly,
I might prefer it just to make sure he ain't
going to where, because I can't think of anybody else
being used with the tag Daniel Jones that goes out
the windows.

Speaker 2 (01:10:32):
Some of these tears as achilles, right right, Yeah, I
think you're on that. Caleb. Let's get back to the
phone lines. Who you got for us? I know you've
been feeling the ton so just lead us wherever you want.

Speaker 10 (01:10:42):
Yeah, we're gonna go with John. He's been on hold
for a long time.

Speaker 2 (01:10:45):
What's up John?

Speaker 11 (01:10:49):
Good morning, gentlemen. I was originally gonna call in and
hammer home some points about the pass rush, and you know,
we talk about this every year, and behind quarterback, it's
the second most important position on the roster. You know, pressure,

(01:11:09):
beach coverage, you affect even elite secondaries, breakdown at the
QB has time. Pass rushers affect every drop back. It
travels in big games when you you know, can have
a consistent pass rush, which obviously Colts haven't had. But
I want to talk a bit about the fan perspective
and thinking about this time last year on the show

(01:11:31):
and how you all are talking about the fan perspective
and fans becoming angry and hopefully not becoming apathetic. And
I was just thinking about this season overall and how
special it was the first half and how keyten I
was for really the most excited. I was to watch

(01:11:53):
the Colts every week probably since I was in sixth grade,
and it's been you know, going on seventeen years. And
to experience that joy and to experience this pain now
and this frustration makes me think that the next step
in my fandom is this apathy. Because we have this
offensive play caller who can take a guy like Philip

(01:12:14):
Rivers off the street and have a game plan that
can put up points where you can sustrain drives and
pretty much give you everything out that you want out
of your offense. You have a quarterback that can actually
operate it. But yet we're still in the same position
at the end of the year and it just absolutely sucks,
and you think, what kind of overhaul do we need.

(01:12:38):
Is Shane a guy that you can move forward with,
that's a big question. But can you get an offensive
mind that can work better than Thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:12:49):
John for the call. Appreciate it. I think I got
the general gist of it, James, your pulse fandom right now. Apathy,
frustration and injuries are an excuse. A valid excuses should
say the river story is cute and it's covering up
everything else where do you kind of go.

Speaker 9 (01:13:12):
I do think there is a certain level of apathy
that you're gonna get after a while, because when writing
my column from last night, when reading through the comments,
whether it's in our YouTube chat here this morning or
the text line or the comments on my stories, there

(01:13:34):
are people who are saying, you know what, why did
I even get my hopes up?

Speaker 2 (01:13:37):
Because they do this every year.

Speaker 9 (01:13:40):
And that's what is the scariest part about this franchise.
And I wrote it last night, A once proud franchise
is now this mediocre, middling kind of afterthought in my opinion,
like when do we think about the Colts in the
grand scheme of the NFL landscape. It happened, I thought

(01:14:01):
for better part of a month earlier this year when
they started off very hot and kind of shocked the
NFL world a bit, and obviously it happened again when
Philip Rivers come out of retirement. On a year to
year basis, man, nobody is afraid of this team anymore.
Nobody fears this team anymore, nobody has faith that they're
going to figure it out because they just haven't done
it in so long, and those years, he continue to

(01:14:22):
get further and further away and those years I'm referencing
are the glory years. I mean people who bring up,
you know, the Super Bowls and AFC Championship game appearances
and deep playoff runs. I mean I was a kid
when that stuff happened, and I do think after a while,
it's hard not to become apathetic. And that is probably

(01:14:43):
what the coach don't want from their fan base, and
any fan base shouldn't want that because they don't care.
Man Like, it's hard to sell anything.

Speaker 2 (01:14:51):
Yeah, I'll go back to a couple comments Chris Ballard
had at the end of the last season James, and
he was adamant I would say, arguably probably two to
three things out over the rest. One was, you know,
he certainly mentioned the need to do some things differently
from a free agency standpoint, and he did. But you know,
he also mentioned, from a big picture point of view,
we have got to find a way to win games

(01:15:13):
late in the season more he was adamant about that.
The other comment he made was in discussion about being
close and again, you were eliminated from the AFC South
for three weeks to go last year, and that was
not a Texans team. That was what fourteen to three
or anything like that. But he was very clear. And
again the words and week after the season end make

(01:15:35):
for juicy headlines of you know, close as losing on
the last play of the Super Bowl, going eight to
nine is not close. Lo, And behold, we sit here
with two weeks left in the regular season, and I
think there's probably a decent chance this team goes eight
and nine. And so those two really stand out to me.

(01:15:55):
And then if I were, you know, John, I think
was kind of getting to this point, you know, if
I were the Ersay daughters, and I think to myself,
here in what two weeks will be the eleventh eleven
year anniversary of a home playoff game, and James, just

(01:16:15):
look at our state. The Pacers a game away from
an NBA title, the Fever, a game away from playing
in the WNBA finals. I you football, I you football,
A Big Ten championship in that building. I'd say that's
twice for sure, the number one seed here in the
college football playoff. Notre Dame plays for national championship in football,

(01:16:37):
Perdue plays for national championship in basketball. Helped Purdue made
the Big Ten title in football few years ago. In
that time straight if you want to you know, I
you basketball as in the tail spin of all tailspins,
they've won an NCAA tournament game since you last multiple
nca tournament games, and.

Speaker 9 (01:16:54):
We put it like that, Yeah, since you.

Speaker 2 (01:16:55):
Last hosted a home playoff game like winning, I ain't
think about that. Hold up that right there is the
one that gets me the most. I mean, hell, it's
not look at that program like, oh man, they have
me anything in forever, right, I mean Lucas all the
stains hosted a swim meet more recently than they have
a home playoff game. Like to me, when you go

(01:17:16):
through a list like that, it's embarrassing enough. But also
if I were the people in charge of running the business,
the financial component would really bother me that And I
get it's the NFL blah blah blah, but like having

(01:17:37):
your home stadium experience a playoff game financially is huge
and also just all the good will you get. I
said this earlier in the show. You know it's a
first time the colt it's been on Monday Night Football
in three years. Whether you hear Joe Buck talk to
us yesterday on the show where you watch ESPN's programming
from six o'clock until kickoff last night. It is an

(01:17:58):
absolute visit, indeed, Dream Colts franchise, dream to see the
amount of attention that your franchise gets when you're viewed
as worthy of a primetime game. Yeah, and I'm talking.
There's cam Binham on the field with Ryan Clark and
Marcus Spears. There's all of a sudden, Nick Cross getting
a one minute talk about his season so far, the

(01:18:21):
unbelievable story of Morgan the cheerleader and signing with the
young boy Mark that Joe Buckan mentioned yesterday with us
like the amount of just incredible exposure your franchise gets
when they earn the right to be in these primetime games,
playoff games, every want to look at it. That would
not be lost unde either. And that's probably where I

(01:18:42):
sit right now. It's just again, I thought chang should
have happened last year. So for me, I'm trying not
to be as numb to like, no, no, no, Kevin,
you need to give the same sort of attention that
you did this time last year because the results in
a bottom line business are once again trending in that direction.
But you know from the dollars and cents that would

(01:19:02):
be really bothersome, especially when you hear a list like
that of all of the teams in our market the matter,
some clearly more than others, but all of them. You know,
if you sat here right now and James and said,
of all the teams we talk about on these airwaves,
the two most disappointing over the last decade, you would
have probably said, I you basketball, to your point, and

(01:19:25):
then the second one you probably would have said is
Colts football for sure. I mean, everybody else is above it,
even Produe football as big of a laughing sock as
they've been the last couple of years, Jeff Brahm had
them at a level in the last decade that is
a level the Colts would dream of of getting into
the postseason, winning a playoff game, hosting, you know, a

(01:19:45):
home playoff game, all that. How much do you think
injuries are a factor.

Speaker 9 (01:19:52):
That's one where this year in particular, Yeah, if you're
looking at in a vacuum and we gotta get to break.
But that's one thing I definitely want to ponder on
the other side of that thing.

Speaker 2 (01:20:00):
Yeah, no, no, no, I don't want to ignore it either.
Let's get to that here. Coming up on the other side.
This is the fan Morning show here on a Tuesday.
Kevin Bowen, James Board and Caleb Zuber.

Speaker 9 (01:20:10):
Sang, how do you explain that defensive performance given the
stakes of this game.

Speaker 5 (01:20:14):
Yeah, we gotta be better. That starts with me. Gotta
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 (01:20:25):
You know.

Speaker 5 (01:20:25):
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 2 (01:20:31):
Shane Second. Last night, after the forty eight to twenty
seven Laws 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. I
do want to give make sure I do this before
we get to the end of the show. Massive thank

(01:20:52):
you to Caleb Zuber, Mark Dyton, Eddie Garrison, Nathaniel Finch,
Kurt Gerald, James Adams, all of our engineers behind the scenes,
all of our producers, board ops. It's been quite the endeavor,
moving buildings, new operating system. So a big, big thank

(01:21:12):
you to people behind the scenes 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

(01:21:33):
as well for bearing with us here over the last
week or so.

Speaker 9 (01:21:37):
Yeah, Eddie Garrison, who I love, excluded it from that list.
You still got some work to do, some things to
you know, get through some levels to get to so.

Speaker 2 (01:21:46):
At Romeoville Kid on Twitter Eddie Garrison, I don't worry.

Speaker 9 (01:21:50):
He'll be choking me out when the next time I
see him.

Speaker 10 (01:21:52):
Eddie Garrison and Richard Sherman Joy, I'll say.

Speaker 9 (01:21:57):
My love Eddie Garrison, runs DEVI I remember doing My
Friend a show with Eddie years ago at this point.

Speaker 2 (01:22:02):
So yeah, we've literally changed buildings since then.

Speaker 9 (01:22:05):
So shout out to all the guys behind the scenes
who make us sound good on these airwaves.

Speaker 2 (01:22:08):
Eddie just builds mafia James on this table here and
about it is possible when he gets in the building. Look,
I told you I was very diplomatic growing up.

Speaker 9 (01:22:16):
You know, the weight class didn't help when it comes
to fighting, so I knew would to pick and choose
my battles.

Speaker 2 (01:22:21):
I believe you. Part of me wants to cop out
and throw the question back at you, but I think
you asked the question right, I'll throw it at me.
I'm sick of these people are asking me the same question.
How much are injuries a valid excuse? Right first? If
you want me to no, no, no, you you asked
the question, you know. I think on the egregious scale
of nine years of Chris Ballard, is this season atop

(01:22:44):
the list? No, not at all. 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 the cults right now.

Speaker 10 (01:23:00):
I e.

Speaker 2 (01:23:00):
Your opponent last night and the team that is currently
above you in the playoffs and is likely to make
the playoffs over you, Houston and losing their 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

(01:23:21):
going to play out in the manner that you had
a very easy first half schedule period and certainly you
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

(01:23:41):
you know, the injury excuse has always been a tough
one for me because James, like have the Colts had
some big time injuries. Certainly, technically, if you want to
be technical, you were out of the playoffs when Daniel
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

(01:24:04):
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? Like, 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
entire NFL career? Is that something I was just supposed
to expect what happened over the final two months of
the season. So I again, on the egregious scale, are

(01:24:28):
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 very ringing endorsement on why those people deserve
to be back.

Speaker 9 (01:24:48):
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 you
year one, one season, I could get with the Okay,
injuries crept up on you. You couldn't predict the future,
the Achilles, the fracture, fibula, sauce gardner in this calf.

(01:25:11):
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
to find a silver lining or a certain level of
grace we should extend this regime.

Speaker 2 (01:25:34):
Well and also too, 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 you won the division
a couple times, maybe you won a playoff game, maybe

(01:25:54):
you showed some late season promise, but like that's not there. Yeah,
you know what, and you have to search long and
hard for it again. 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 you went back to either twenty eighteen
or twenty twenty. Yeah, I mean we're now in the
year of twenty twenty five. Does two months of good

(01:26:15):
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

(01:26:38):
will do, 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 overlook.

Speaker 9 (01:26:54):
The naughty list. Does that get broken out in the
Bowing household? Do you use that as a little bit
of a web.

Speaker 2 (01:26:59):
Huge threat to It's honestly probably my greatest weapon right now.

Speaker 10 (01:27:02):
Is there an elf on the shelf from the ball
in house?

Speaker 7 (01:27:04):
Sure?

Speaker 2 (01:27:04):
Okay, yeah, yeah, Emily moved to where did Emily? All
of a sudden I looked out of the corner of my
eye and 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
this morning. I can hear him screaming, it's gotta following
them up. You would bring them back because of why?

(01:27:27):
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 the only reason I
and I'm like white a minute, is that a ringing endorsement?

Speaker 9 (01:27:39):
I don't know if it's a ringing the endorsement, but
I think it is already commitment to what you.

Speaker 2 (01:27:45):
We're going to do 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 Urth say Gordon side of it.
I don't know, maybe hindsight's twenty twenty, but like for
her to sign off on that trade was quite the

(01:28:10):
backing of again not only saws Gardner or the player,
but Daniel Jones is your franchise quarterback, and Chris Baward
and Shane Stiken 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 wanted to define it to make

(01:28:31):
that massive of a trade, and for you to say, well,
because we did it, we can't now go back on it.
I don't know. 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

(01:28:54):
time to admit that, oh, maybe I should spend a
little bit more free agency. I've used this example before.
It kept and Prichard over the Pacers. It took him
a little while to say, you know what, Sabonis and Turner,
we probably should stop that. And then once he did,
he found gold.

Speaker 9 (01:29:12):
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.

Speaker 2 (01:29:21):
Like I'm not saying it's bad.

Speaker 9 (01:29:24):
Business, but it certainly is an interesting move.

Speaker 2 (01:29:27):
I hear you out. But again, what's the business that
that person has accomplished that you're then banking on? Like
where is the resident?

Speaker 9 (01:29:37):
Like it goes back to that commentary you said.

Speaker 2 (01:29:40):
I mean when you get into the GM hired.

Speaker 9 (01:29:42):
A lack of resume makes it hard.

Speaker 2 (01:29:43):
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 weaar 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 before

(01:30:04):
those popped up on the screen. To see what Kansas City,
Buffalo in San Francisco I've done in the time that
I've been GM much more. Nine o'clock hour, one final
hour here before we head to Christmas. It is only
one of them won a Super Bowl? Is this Green Day?
That it is? Gosh? I do love Green Day.

Speaker 10 (01:30:24):
It's a great song.

Speaker 2 (01:30:27):
I've even got a Green Day CD am I stocking
one year.

Speaker 10 (01:30:31):
That's what this last two months has felt like. You're
just walking along a street broken dreams of division titles
and playoff berths.

Speaker 2 (01:30:41):
That's what it feels like. Man Well said right there,
that's Caleb Zoomer filling in from Mark Dighton, Kevin Bow
and James boyd Uh Friday. We will be back. That'll
be our next show as we look ahead, and James,
I guess is it time to talk playoff chances? I
had to get through the first two hours.

Speaker 9 (01:31:02):
Yes, because Philip Rivers said he's come back from slimmer odds. Okay,
he might be a slimmer man back then, so I
don't Nevertheless, the Philip Rivers we trust.

Speaker 2 (01:31:11):
I don't know if I can explain this in very
simple terms, so feel free to interject if you feel
like I am struggling.

Speaker 12 (01:31:20):
I'm already confused, all right, So the Colts have to
have three games go their way to start, Okay, before
we go anywhere else.

Speaker 2 (01:31:31):
Let's start with these three games. Saturday, you have to
have the Chargers beat the Texans. If the Texans win
over playoff hopes, then on Sunday, the Colts have to
beat the Jaguars inside of Lucosolo Stadium. Correct for me
if I'm wrong. Jacksonville still is playing for the AFC
South title, right, it's them or Houston, I believe. So, yes,

(01:31:52):
the Colts are eliminated from the South, but Jacksonville is
still playing for something, so that game needs to go
the Colts way, and the Colts then need to beat
Houston week eighteen in Houston. So those are the three
games before we go anywhere else, before we start talking
strength of victory tiebreaker, those three things need to go

(01:32:16):
the Colts way. If that happens, Chargers over Texans, Colts
over Jags, Colts over Texans. That then gets the Colts
and the Texans both at ten and seven. So now
we start getting into tiebreakers, James, they will have split
head to head, they will have the same divisional record,

(01:32:36):
they'll have the same record of common games, they'll have
the same record conference record wise. So that brings us
all the way down to strength of victory. And this
is where I passed the baton to you to explain, brother,
I dropped that baton. Was that the most group project

(01:32:58):
thing of like, you know, here we are for two weeks,
we've really worked on and then I'm like, hey, man,
can you finish those last ten pages? You know what's crazy.

Speaker 9 (01:33:08):
I actually had this experience in college and I did
not finish those last ten pages.

Speaker 2 (01:33:12):
Went to the professor and told her.

Speaker 9 (01:33:13):
Hey, this girl story you told yesterday, No, this is
the truth, A different story, no, no joke. I had
a college class my senior year when I was graduating.
We had a twenty page paper to write, and I
got paired with this girl. We were supposed to write
this together. It was some kind of like health class
or something. And I remember messing her and trying to

(01:33:34):
email her and trying to set things up to like
get this stuff done, and she didn't respond ever, and
So I remember going to my teacher and telling her, yo,
I'm not writing twenty pages, I'll write you ten. And
I threw under the bus and got it that class.
So I almost want to throw you under the bus there,

(01:33:54):
because I'm so confused still about this playoff scenario.

Speaker 2 (01:33:57):
So we have the three games, right, Chargers over Texans,
Colts over Jags, Colts over Texans. Now we get into
strength of victory and to simplify it, basically, go through
the Colts schedule and you need to cheer for the
teams the Colts have already beaten. Go through the Texans
that would strengthen their victory.

Speaker 7 (01:34:17):
Right.

Speaker 2 (01:34:18):
This is like back in the BCS College Formula days.

Speaker 9 (01:34:20):
Right, Okay, I got I'm following, and you're cheering against
the teams that the Texans have beat.

Speaker 2 (01:34:27):
That's how you have to look at it over the
final two weeks. So, for example, the Colts really need
to root for the Denver Broncos. In the final couple
weeks they beat the Broncos. The Texans did not. They
need to really root for, or I should say against,
actually the Kansas City Chiefs because the Colts did not
beat the Chiefs, but the Texans did beat the Chiefs.

(01:34:50):
So on the list of teams you want to root for, Dolphins, Broncos, Falcons,
those are teams the Colts beat this year, Houston did not.
You want to root against the team you just lost
to last night, the forty nine Ers, the Ravens, and
the Bills, along with the Chiefs. Those are teams that

(01:35:11):
the Texans have beat and the Colts haven't. So it
gets very complicated very quickly.

Speaker 9 (01:35:18):
I was gonna say if you got telling me, I
got a cheer for the Chiefs to win in the
game the rest of the year.

Speaker 2 (01:35:22):
Boy, No, No, you want the Chiefs to lose because
the Texans beat them. You did not. The Colts did
not beat them. Oh, it's the inverse. Okay, I got you.
I'm sorry. Now, who's confusing who? Now?

Speaker 9 (01:35:39):
I'm a I'm losing it. I'm losing I had it
for a little bit, but I'm losing it.

Speaker 2 (01:35:42):
I probably could have done that in a better way,
but I got nothing for you. Again, you could be
eliminated by seven o'clock Saturday night by the time the
Colts walked back.

Speaker 9 (01:35:53):
One day at a time, Right, what's the next thing
that needs to happen. So the next thing that needs
to happen is what.

Speaker 2 (01:35:58):
Where is that game? Caleb Chargers, Texans? Do you have
any idea on that? Give us a spread on that.
Chargers are still potentially playing for the AFC West. So
the Chargers have a lot of.

Speaker 9 (01:36:08):
One seven of their last eight, which is crazy because
they've had no offensive line basically all year.

Speaker 2 (01:36:12):
A lot to play for.

Speaker 10 (01:36:14):
I think Houston's you know it's in uh in La.

Speaker 2 (01:36:17):
What's the spread? Chargers by a point or two.

Speaker 10 (01:36:21):
First thing that popped up was ticket sales.

Speaker 2 (01:36:22):
Hold on a reminder, We've got three Christmas games coming
up Thursday, so once you hate your family, you can
view that. And then Saturday we have we have a
couple of games.

Speaker 9 (01:36:34):
How long is it to you get a little tired
of the family?

Speaker 2 (01:36:38):
Allowed to say on here?

Speaker 9 (01:36:39):
I said, I ain't married after about three hours man,
So so.

Speaker 10 (01:36:44):
We don't have to answer that question. The Houston's Houston
Texans are favored by one and a half.

Speaker 2 (01:36:50):
Favorite. I love my fan, I love I'm so lucky,
love my family, love my in laws. Like I said,
I'm mad the Notre Dame lost to Fort Wayne. That's
why Christmas is ruined for me. So I love the
mont always liked them. That's a little distinction there, man.
I don't know if you can quantify it, but it
just felt like that a mere Abdola fumble yesterday James
just sucked the absolute life out of what you had created.

(01:37:13):
So and I know the score was seven to seven
and it was a fumble with what five minutes ago
in the first quarter, Is that really that big of
a game changing play? But it just felt like once
you played from behind, oh boy, you were climbing everest.

Speaker 9 (01:37:31):
Yeah, it did feel like that. And I know it's
certainly something that you don't plan on doing, but boy,
that mistake in that moment, especially knowing that your margin
for error down the stretch here is so slim, it's
hard to recover from that. And again you're asking your
offense to hold serve the entire game. That was not

(01:37:52):
going to happen. They weren't going to score a touchdown
in every single possession, go off to a great start,
and ideally that was supposed to be a fourteen to seven.

Speaker 2 (01:37:59):
Start, not a fourteen fourteen start.

Speaker 9 (01:38:02):
But in the end, I guess it really didn't matter
because you couldn't stop anybody anyways, I was.

Speaker 2 (01:38:06):
A little surprised they changed up the offensive line as
much as they did. I know we had hinted at
that quite a bit throughout the week that that was
a direction they were going to go. But part of
me thought, you should have just kept the five that
ended the game on Sunday against Seattle. I get the
Tanner borderline, he got hurt on the second snap, but
they'd moved three offensive linemen and they only really needed

(01:38:29):
to do one given their injury situation. Man the Jonathan Taylor,
how much do you just shock that up to life
with Philip Rivers means the Colts have to run out
of shotgun all day long, and it's like a drawplay
to Taylor or there's no run threat at quarterback. What
do you I mean? Two point nine that's the least
efficient day of his season. I definitely think.

Speaker 9 (01:38:50):
It's part of it because you can't expect Philip Rivers
to line up under center and.

Speaker 2 (01:38:57):
Make some things happen.

Speaker 9 (01:38:59):
I think he needs to and that certainly helped him
dissect the defense yesterday. But yeah, no one's gonna fall
for a zone read with Philip Rivers. You're not gonna
run that You're not gonna do a run pass option
with Philip Rivers, and with the way that defenses are
playing them, they're going to force JT to have to
be a superhuman to get any yards. The only reason

(01:39:20):
he got the end zone yesterday is because Philip Rivers
threw the ball down to the one yard line. He
just plunged it in from there. So tough slighting for him.
But yeah, for a guy who was in the MVP
conversation halfway through the year, offensive Player of the Year shooting,
none of that is happening at this point. I think
that he probably still earns a Pro Bowl.

Speaker 2 (01:39:39):
No, and maybe in All Pro night Pro Bowl announced
at ten AM, right, Is that true?

Speaker 9 (01:39:44):
I believe so yeah. I mean I did not check it.
I would I did tweet out last night though. Philip
Rivers get him in there. We know, you know in
the NBA they had like the uh it's like the
one year they had like the all time selections.

Speaker 2 (01:39:57):
It was like Kobe I think got one the greatest players.

Speaker 9 (01:40:00):
Well no, not that, No, they literally got like charity
invites to the All Star Game sixteen year. Yeah, and
like Dirt Nevinski got one more dunkin. Yeah, let's get
Philip it to the Pro Bowl. He'd bring the interview.

Speaker 10 (01:40:14):
Hey, Tyler Huntley made a Pro Bowl one year, so
it's not a question.

Speaker 2 (01:40:19):
She was the last Pro Bowl quarterback for this team.
I'll have you know. Does Philip Rivers start Week one
of the twenty twenty sixth season for the Colts? Oh? Boy,
stop this?

Speaker 9 (01:40:27):
No, no, no, my goodness.

Speaker 2 (01:40:32):
He I feel like is it that quick of a no?
I mean you gave me a quick note.

Speaker 10 (01:40:39):
I do feel like though he's been he's been kind
of talking like this is he wants to go back
and coach his high school team.

Speaker 2 (01:40:45):
Let's be honest, his high school team's gonna have what
little sisters of the poor Week one. She doesn't need
to be back for that. Gunner's gonna throw for four fifteen. No,
don't even worry about.

Speaker 9 (01:40:57):
Didn't we have coach Simon on last We shan't even
try something like that. I would hand him a box
and tell him get out of my face.

Speaker 2 (01:41:04):
Y'all can go. Anthony Richardson will be wearing another jersey
this time next year. Daniel Jones rehabbing the Achilles. Are
we back to either Riley Leonard or Philip Rivers for
a week one of next year. I asked that in
all seriousness.

Speaker 9 (01:41:20):
And I'm telling you in all seriousness to stop playing
with me. I love, you know, the older crowd. I
love all the old folks to get out there. Nothing
against I don't have any you know, ageus beliefs.

Speaker 2 (01:41:31):
But no, he looks like this for two weeks of practice.
What could he look like with two months of off
season work? Here slip down a little bit and raised
in all seriousness on well, I am kind of serious
in the week one thing, but I don't have time
for that today. My hands raised on Rivers from last night.
It just, you know, obviously when he tried to get

(01:41:53):
the true go balls, I'm trying to think there was
one to Downs and one to Pittman, like that was
a wounded duck. But he got some second level throws
that I didn't think he would get, and that was
the part of the offense the Colts were adamant they
were going to get and they did that, and that
to me is just a huge credit to Rivers and
certainly Stichen as a play caller. You know, I mentioned

(01:42:15):
this to lead off the show. River's ability to always
throw to the guy's right shoulder. And again I'm not
saying right like the right side of your body. I'm
saying you're running up field, I'm gonna make sure that
ball is in stride. You go back to those two
third longs on nobody drive. The Colts got into awful
third down situations. It was third and eight, third and twelve.

(01:42:36):
That's a disaster given Philip rivers lack of movement. I
believe Maddy Bone has been quoted of it looks like
a mom six weeks postpartum watching Philip Rivers try to move.
I think when you've had three kids, you're allowed to
say that that's crazy. Again, that's Matty Boone if you
want to direct quote her on that there. But you
know you got in the third and eight and the

(01:42:56):
third and twelve James and I thought, oh boy, this
is this is gonna get ugly. I mean, this is
not going to go well. And boom Taylor and stride
first down, Boom downs right shoulder, gets up the field
first down. Next thing you know, you're humming. And then
he gets the off sides call and takes the shots
to Piers. I mean, you couldn't have scripted a better
you know, opening drive and then the second drive. I

(01:43:18):
know we played the clip earlier, but the third and
goal from the sixteen to Piers no chance and the
margin for air is so slim like you obviously sal
throws as the game moved along with the windows shrunk
and shout out to CJ. West, the IU defensive tackle
getting his first career sack, splitting that double team and
getting the Rivers And obviously the mobility is there and

(01:43:39):
in the pick six wasn't good by any means, but
still I did not think Rivers could do that. Was
highly skeptical of this offense looking different than it did
in Seattle, but it definitely did.

Speaker 9 (01:43:52):
Yeah, I mean, boy, the night and day difference is
between what we saw from the Colts offense last week
to what we saw last not at least early on
and in the defense last week to what the defense
we saw last night. Boy, that is a hard pealed
a swallow.

Speaker 2 (01:44:08):
And again San Friend's defense. We talked about it a
lot yesterday. On paper, there was an ability to get
to them or sack team in the NFL had struggled
against the run down their top corner. Like if you
looked at that in a normal NFL game week, you'd say,
oh boy, there's a chance there. But again, would this
Colts offense be able to exploit that? And I thought

(01:44:31):
I thought they did. And again I really shout out
to Joe Buck and Troy Ackman. I mean I'm biased here.
I thought Buck was really good with us yesterday. If
you missed out on the podcast a lot I you
talk as well, that's up on the Fan Morning Chick
that out podcast page. But you know, I thought ESPN
did a wonderful job letting Philip Rivers just take over

(01:44:53):
the broadcast really when he was at the line of scrimmage,
like I kind of nerd out over that stuff, and
it was clear the game plan was, let's go tempo,
let's get Rivers the line of scrimmage with twenty eight
on the play clock, and let's just let him maestro
it Jack Everley from the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. That's what
he's gonna do. He's just gonna dissect the ditect. And

(01:45:14):
River said he actually screwed up on the pick six.
He said he had called out that phrase to Tyler
Warren earlier in the game, called it out again and
the forty nine Ers linebacker de Winters jumped that route
and that was the pick six there. But that was
the maestro stuff from Rivers the line of scrimmage.

Speaker 10 (01:45:32):
I just feel like you don't see that anymore, do you.
I mean it felt like a throwback to No, And
so that's what was so cool.

Speaker 2 (01:45:39):
Yeah, not to that level.

Speaker 10 (01:45:42):
No.

Speaker 2 (01:45:42):
And the thing is like it's necessary to you know,
like some teams I think would be a little nervous, like,
oh boy, is that too much to put on the
quarterbacks to play? But like the Colts have to create
an offensive advantage somewhere right now. They're not doing with
a run game. They're not gonna do it with shots
down the field. You have to have a quarterback throw
with anticipation. Well, how do you throw with anticipation? You
have to know what the coverage is. And I think

(01:46:04):
that's what Rivers did a really good job of so
and I didn't see that coming at all. We got
a couple of calls to get to We'll still get
to that here, and let's go ahead and hit a
morning checkdown. Pacers back in action tonight. It's Miles Turner
inside of Gamebridge Field House for the second time this season.

(01:46:26):
James Boyd on the Boo bird level. What will we
get for mister Turner.

Speaker 9 (01:46:30):
On the Richter scale, I'll give you about a seven.
It's an out of ten if that's the Richter scale,
I mean that is correct.

Speaker 2 (01:46:37):
Called the first game like a ten, ten out of ten,
but seven, Yeah, you're still getting boo brother. PACER's almost
shot the world last night in Boston. They were a
ten point underdog, had a huge lead and it got
away majorly though in the second half. Thirteen points in
the fourth quarter for them. Just an awful second half offensively.
After again they had built a great lead, they shot

(01:46:57):
the hell out of it to start the game there.
So back to back for them that they'll take on
the Celtics coming up on Friday. Shout out to Hinklefield
House yesterday. It took Rozie and Max to the game,
Ran and a listener Michael and has three sons at halftime,
enjoyed chatting with him. Very balanced from Butler as they
rolled New Jersey Institute of Technology. James, you've been to

(01:47:18):
a couple high school basketball games this season, correct, Yes,
I have. Does the crowd react to sixty seven points
in those buildings like they did inside of Hinkle yesterday.
You know what's crazy? I haven't noticed it. No, I'm
not at a high school game. I mean you would
you would have thought Blue had just taken a poop
on the court. People went nuts so much when it

(01:47:40):
got to six. So it was Rosie one of them.
Oh yeah, she's doing the little Max's got Dorito's all
over his face and then he starts doing it. I'm like,
is there anything worse than that epidemic? And now did
I hear it's moved to forty one? Well, this is
news to me. That's definitely. Don't quote me. I'm relaying
five year old jargon here. Let's hear it. That's what

(01:48:01):
I've been told. Oh oh lord, trust me. We're gonna
go through all all the numbers. We're gonna get the
Roman numerals.

Speaker 9 (01:48:07):
Sports where like you know, Kevin walks in with the skateboard.

Speaker 2 (01:48:11):
Hello, kids, had on hearing iye you over Siena down
at Assembly Hall there. It's a long time offer Darren
Derez and company. Nick dorn I like what he has
shown here since coming back from injury. We'll see if
you can tap into any of that here in the
Big Ten as a restart that And did you see
the Notre Dame USC series is on the shelf for

(01:48:33):
the foreseeable future.

Speaker 9 (01:48:36):
I did see this. What are your thoughts on that?

Speaker 2 (01:48:38):
Well, I'm obviously biased, That's what I want to know. Yeah,
I agree with Keihon Johnson. I think you've grown to
know with me, James. Something I love in college sports.
I love the entertainment of the non conference on campus
atmospheres we get. Yeah, go back to Week one of
the college football season this year, like Ohio State. You know,

(01:49:01):
we had three top ten games right out of the
gay Notre Dame at Miami. I forget what the other
one was, LSU, Clemson maybe, Like I think that is
what helps make college sports unique and really cool, and
I feel like we're starting to lose more of that. Like,
if you're a USC fan, do you really care about
your team going to play Purdue or your team traveling
to even like get on a plane and go play

(01:49:21):
at Penn State. That's kind of cool. But like Notre
Dame's got history with you and that's rich. And I
thought Keejon Johnson was accurate yesterday and being like why
are we running from this? Like, I think there's a
level of Texas did not miss the playoff because they
lost at Ohio State. They missed the playoff because they
lost to Florida, Like, let's let's get through all of
that here. Miami made the playoff because they had a

(01:49:44):
very quality win over Notre Dame to start the season.
Like that helps you, that is what improves your resume here.
So I just don't. I think college expansion has really
hurt the rivalries and these sorts of games sticking on
the schedule here. Now, technically, I guess by you would
have been a better win for Notre Dame than you'll
see would have last year. I could argue with you

(01:50:06):
on that, but like, think about how I you basketball
fans reacted to Kentucky going off the schedule for a
decade plus and knowing how deep that rivalry is. That
that's what I'm getting, Like, I don't want to lose that,
and I get we're probably gonna lose it, and I
get the Notre Dame needs the game more than you
will see me needs the game. I'm not gonna be,
you know, ignorant to that fact, but I just don't
like seeing it, and I would say that if it

(01:50:27):
was whatever, you know, if Auburn and Alabama were in
different conference. I'm trying to think of, like, what's a
good rivalry, like when Oklahoma and Texas were not together
in the same conference there, you know, or if if ever,
I probably should say, you know, if Georgia Georgia Tech
had more of that, feel too, Iteah, I would feel
that way about that. All right, let's do it. Uh here,

(01:50:48):
come up on the other side, we'll continue to get
to the phone lines. Recap what happened last night Colts
and forty nine ers. It is the fan morning Hill
here on a Tuesday, Philip Rivers of the game last night. Yeah,
for those that went to bed, Colts were driving. What
was that pick six James like through thirty to go
something like that. Yeah, just under four in the game.

(01:51:09):
So again, the thought there is he punts that in
what maybe a minute after that two thirty to go?
You had two timeouts and a two point conversion. This
is where you answer your joke about the Colts defense
getting a stop. I mean, hell, you probably would have
on site kicked it. That's probably ho much faith you
would add in your defense at that point there. So
Philip rivers last night. My expectation is he definitely starts Sunday, right,

(01:51:32):
your expectation he starts next year, so of course you
starts Sunday. I asked the question, to be fair, asked it,
did not answer it, just ask it. That's why I
like to ask the question and then don't have to
answer it. But you just leave me with the grenade.
The only practice once this week?

Speaker 7 (01:51:46):
Right?

Speaker 2 (01:51:46):
Do I see that?

Speaker 7 (01:51:47):
Correct?

Speaker 2 (01:51:47):
Walk through Tomorrow, practice, Friday, nothing Thursday. There you have
it with Christmas, short week, short week with Jacksonville here.
So again, technically the.

Speaker 9 (01:51:57):
Colts say Phillip don't need practice could.

Speaker 2 (01:52:00):
Be eliminated before they kick off Sunday. Chargers Texans, we
might have to get a Chargers chant going here before
the end of the show, Caleb, if we can find
some nice audio here. Uncle Moe's been hanging in there
for a while, Uncle Mo about this? What's up?

Speaker 7 (01:52:16):
Mo? Well, as you had to be hanging here because
I was sitting here waiting. Caleb's mom and myself were
sitting here waiting to see what he was going to
say about Christmas and having the family around. How long before?

Speaker 2 (01:52:30):
Yeah, he didn't answer that part now that No.

Speaker 7 (01:52:35):
Yeah, so I wanted to talk about the insanity of
repeating everything and all the things that went on. You know,
Shane keeps saying the same excuses over and over. The
season has come to where it is quit at the
end of the season. We never get anything done. In December,
the failures of the season were going to be eight

(01:52:56):
and nine. Heck, we even brought back Philip Rivers repeat
you know, and you guys had said something earlier about
whether or not missus Ursay would do anything after she
had signed off. Well, you know, out in the real world,
I believe that if businesses admit they made a mistake,
they do that no matter what, and then they make

(01:53:17):
a change. I mean, our defense last night, where was
Jalen Jones and Carlis when things weren't working? Where was
the safety blitzes and all that? We just kept doing
things over and over and over And that's an insanity thing,
and it just frustrates me as a fan for so
long and just watching it go on and on and

(01:53:40):
on and on and on and nobody making a change.

Speaker 2 (01:53:43):
Well, nod in my head and a lot of that.

Speaker 8 (01:53:45):
MO.

Speaker 2 (01:53:46):
Merry Christmas to you. You've got an incredible son. This
is mo the father of Caleb. He does excellent, excellent
work up. The Zuber family has a great Christmas.

Speaker 7 (01:53:54):
Well, I appreciate you guys, and Merry Christmas to all
of you too, And thanks for taking care of my
uncle Moe.

Speaker 2 (01:54:01):
Right there, shout out Uncle Moe ran the Colts five
K with us on the hot line. I was gonna say,
he's got some history with James Boy. I'll tell you what.
For Colts fans, I don't know, Mo. I think they
hear that call and they say I can listen to
him to talking to talk. Yeah, is he doing a
Christmas Mass in a gym somewhere coming up the next
couple days. I could listen to Mo' it's.

Speaker 10 (01:54:21):
Funny too, Kevin like all my Colts friends, and I
like he is the north Star like for all of us.
How he's feeling is usually how all of us are feeling. So,
I mean, I think he makes a lot of interesting
points there.

Speaker 9 (01:54:35):
One of them that he makes is the Jaylen Jones point.
And there was probably ten plays in that game where
I'm just thinking to myself, I understand your cornerback room
is depleted, but where the heck is Jalen Jones.

Speaker 2 (01:54:54):
You want to go over these cornerback snap counts from yesterday, James,
please do because I've looked at him yet. Yeah. So
you did see Jones in coverage on George Kittle. I
believe that was got the one rare stop. So your
cornerback snap counts. Makai Blackman played forty six of sixty six,
Jonathan Edwards forty five of sixty six. Boy, he seems

(01:55:14):
like Kenny Moore has been so quiet thirty five for him. Uh,
and then you had uh do we go all the
way to Jones next? Oh my gosh, Jones with four snaps?
Four snaps out of sixty six. How many did Cameron
Mitchell get? I forgot about Mitchell forty three?

Speaker 9 (01:55:32):
See so if I'm looking out to respect to him,
but Jalen Jones, black.

Speaker 2 (01:55:37):
And Edwards forty five, Mitchell forty three, Kenny Moore thirty five.
Kenny Moore got the fourth most cornerback snaps.

Speaker 9 (01:55:46):
Look, man, that might be a slot thing or different
packages you're throwing out there, whatever the case may be.
Still he's got to play more than what he did yesterday.
And people were telling me all he played poorly. I
don't care at that point, because the guys that you're
putting out there, they're playing poorly with no resume.

Speaker 2 (01:56:03):
That's the other thing that was frustrating me.

Speaker 9 (01:56:05):
I'm watching him like I understand if, like, for example,
the Forest Buckner didn't look like the Forest Buckner yesterday
coming off ir You can criticize his level of play,
but at least he has a resume that warrns him
staying out there.

Speaker 2 (01:56:17):
The amount of.

Speaker 9 (01:56:18):
Times that I looked up and I was like, man,
is that Camra Mitchell getting coverage? Where the heck is
Jaylen Jones? The guy started for the better part of
two seasons. You mean to tell me he's not good
enough for the Winter Removes Defense. That is something I
look forward to asking more about. I did ask Shane
about it after the game, and I'm getting fired up
about it just because I feel like it's frustrating to
try to tell us that, oh, it's a matchup base

(01:56:41):
thing bump that the matchups cannot be telling you that
Camra Mitchell is better than Jaylen Jones unless Jalen Jones
is like the worst cornerback ever in practice. I don't
want to see the other guy be playing over him anymore.

Speaker 2 (01:56:53):
Yeah, I would agree to things there. First off, Yes
on Jalen Jones and too, just more of Kenny Moore
in general, I'd rather have them out there than the others.
When you consider the fourth most snaps. I get the
Jalen Jones had some struggles in Jacksonville a few weeks ago,
but still it's not deserving of those snaps. It's not
like the other guys are playmaking to the level to
where you're at now we get into all this corner combo.

(01:57:16):
You are down Sauce Gardner and Javeri's ward right now.
My biggest issue, and this comes back to probably a
big picture point of view, because you know, you can
point to lack of division titles, lack of playoff appearances,
lack of playoff wins, however you want to slice it
from a win loss record playoff resume. I think it's

(01:57:38):
a fair argument to say the position group that Chris
Ballard believes the most in is the defensive line and
James Boyd, I'm watching a group with seven draft picks
in rounds one, two, and three in that defensive line room.
If you look at that defensive line room, it's like

(01:58:01):
walking into an sec sorority house. I mean it is
littered with rich investments. Wow, draft, I don't know if
that was a good analogy. Kind of like that you
could tell that the Boone household has been struggling on
some sleep lately. When I'm when I'm throwing that out
there at nine forty, was it good or not? I
thought anything hilarious?

Speaker 10 (01:58:21):
Man?

Speaker 2 (01:58:21):
Yeah, I see all these sorority tiktoks. I must say
that you have won funny money. Yeah, funny money is
probably a good way to put it.

Speaker 9 (01:58:28):
It cost to be in those sororities, that's for sure.

Speaker 2 (01:58:32):
And look it costs to be in that cult D
line room draft pick and money. Yeah, I mean it
is rich with investments, littered with major resources, and they
don't even sneeze on brock party. Trevor Lawrence in a
game with rain. The only reason you knew he was
playing outdoors was because of the rain a few weeks
back now because the Colts hit him. And that to

(01:58:55):
me is you get into the evaluation of Chris Ballard
as as a whole again. I think it was enough
on the win lost playoff resume to provide a proper
answer for you. But if I'm Carl Ersa Gordon, I'm
looking at the Chris Bauer blueprint that he presented me
back in twenty seventeen or twenty sixteen. I'm setting myself

(01:59:16):
Wait a minute, I sit here now nine years into
your era, and I think I can make an argument
that the defensive line, given the investments, has been the
biggest disappointment. I think that's another kind of jarring element
to evaluating him. It's a that D line group I
would argue rather annually as disappointed. And last night was

(01:59:41):
the whole Boy, I got to see it. Yeah, I
mean McCaffrey just gashed him. I mean six and eight
and five and ten, and I mean he hasn't been
doing that all year and party, I mean he had
shout out to Connor sent us the text earlier in
the show. I felt like I was watching San Francisco
by a walk through out there.

Speaker 9 (02:00:02):
Yeah, he was chilling. He basically was on an island,
Pina coladas and everything.

Speaker 2 (02:00:09):
Boy, Kittle's a dog. Kittle's really good.

Speaker 9 (02:00:13):
I will say this too. The couple of throws that
were kind of in traffic yesterday, their players came down
with them.

Speaker 2 (02:00:20):
Right, And that's a whiteout group that's not heralded. But Jennings.
Who's the other one that I'm forgetting besides Jennings? Was
it Robinson?

Speaker 7 (02:00:27):
Maybe?

Speaker 2 (02:00:28):
Did he have the first touchdown? I think it was
hell sky Moore. I forgot sky Moore was even on
San Francisco. He made a couple of those catches.

Speaker 9 (02:00:34):
The only one who does that for the Colts is
Alec Pierce. It felt like he'll go get the ball.

Speaker 2 (02:00:40):
Where should your rooting interests lie? If you still want
the Colts in the playoffs, will throw it at you
one more time. Morning show here on a Tuesday, boy,
I must say, Caleb Zuber, you've been outstanding and filling
in from Mark Dighton here lately. Caleb informed us during
the break James he was gonna come back with some
Christmas music. On the list of Christmas songs, this one

(02:01:04):
it's about like the Colts defense last night, whoa whoa,
whoa dang dang. I mean, come on, what you want
little Michael Jackson sand I mean give me.

Speaker 3 (02:01:18):
Comment.

Speaker 2 (02:01:19):
I do like that song though that sounded like Philip
Rivers scrambling is what he just?

Speaker 11 (02:01:23):
I don't know.

Speaker 9 (02:01:25):
We we we two to one on this one.

Speaker 2 (02:01:28):
Gosh, give me joy to the world or something. Joy
to the world. Come on that, but have been way
worse last night. Joy to the world. The sky is
falling in Indianapolis, haven't you heard? Should we go over
playoff scenarios again?

Speaker 10 (02:01:42):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (02:01:42):
My goodness? Yes, uh Caleb, one clip for who the
Colts need to root for this weekend? Go Charga Scow.
That's so good. Well one more time, go Chargia Scow.
There you go. Saturday four point thirty. You need Chargers

(02:02:02):
over Texans. So again, those three games before we get
to strength of victory, which makes my head want to
absolutely explode. Those three games the Colts need to get
to the craziest tiebreaker of all tiebreakers. You need Chargers
over Texans on Saturday, you need Colts over Jags on Sunday.
And if those two happened, then you need Colts over

(02:02:23):
Texans in Houston week eighteen. If all that happens, we
get into strength of victory and good luck deciding that.
You imagine being the NFL employee that has to do
that math.

Speaker 9 (02:02:37):
And believe it or not, they do have someone who
has to be on top of that stuff. Boy, imagine
what kind of degree do you need for that.

Speaker 10 (02:02:45):
That and making the schedule I feel like two of
the harder, harder jobs. I feel like, I know the
schedule is usually lined out like Okay, this division plays
this division. But to get it all match up with
like road trips and all that, that's seems impossible to me.

Speaker 9 (02:03:01):
When we talked to Milanni Lowe, certainly smarter than me,
what was it, Colts president of football Ops. She was
telling us about the Germany game preparation.

Speaker 2 (02:03:10):
I was thinking, boy, her job is very hard. I
asked this in all seriousness, James, we are going to
get Pro bowlers announced at the top of the hour.
Give me your Colts twenty twenty five Pro bowlers.

Speaker 9 (02:03:28):
Jonathan Taylor, Quentin Nelson. I think that might be Warren maybe,
but I'm not hold my breath on it.

Speaker 2 (02:03:42):
He was fourth in fan vote, Cam Bye him was
fifth and fan vote again, that's one third of it.
Fan player and coach add up to it. Quentin Nelson's sixth,
Nick Cross. I was surprised to see ninth.

Speaker 7 (02:03:55):
J T.

Speaker 2 (02:03:55):
Nelson. Yeah, nod in my head at that. Again, I
would say Warren would be the.

Speaker 9 (02:04:01):
I think the only two for sure that I would
expect to be on that list, are JT and Quentin?
Anybody else is probably a bonus. And honestly, after last.

Speaker 2 (02:04:12):
Night, how many people pro bowlers said in their car
when I asked you twenty twenty five pro bowlers, who
the bleep cares? And maybe not bleep aboud say over? Under?
Twelve and a half people in their car said that
I'm taking the over. Yeah, we got a good listening crowd.

(02:04:32):
I'm taking the over. Who knows? Maybe they're in the
Christmas spirit after hearing that electricity that Caleb brought us back.

Speaker 10 (02:04:36):
In with, Oh good is you know you're off for
the rest of the week. Heavy, You're not in on Friday.

Speaker 2 (02:04:42):
This is gonna be a sour taste left? Am I here?
Am I screwging it up? Yeah? But I mean it was.

Speaker 10 (02:04:48):
It probably could have been a better selection. I'm not
gonna lie, but I do love that song.

Speaker 7 (02:04:53):
Though.

Speaker 2 (02:04:56):
Tell you what, boys, I need socks and underwear. I mean,
does there anything say I'm old? I need socks in underwear.

Speaker 9 (02:05:01):
Yeah, I ain't gonna lie. Brother, you sound low, but
that's about what you know the rents want.

Speaker 2 (02:05:06):
I mean, hell, I got gray hair. I've had a
hair transplant. I mean, I guess I kind of fit
the script right. How about this hat though? Are you
Are you liking this Santa hat that I'm rocking here?

Speaker 9 (02:05:15):
I think you look great in the Santa hat. My
mom is big into Santa hat. She has a collection.
Oh really yeah, shout out Laurena boy. She will be
rocking a Santa hat or a Christmas head of a
different variety every day throughout the rest of the year.

Speaker 2 (02:05:29):
I guess we should note James that was probably the
most injured game the Colts have had all season. I'm
trying to think of my guys who dropped during the game. Correct,
Canna Bordelini second snap. That was a scary play. Honestly, Yeah,
that was his first miss time of belief due to
injury right this season. I believe so so Danny Pincer,
the ball State product, came in there. Uh fill me in.

(02:05:52):
JT Twumalowau oblique injury for him. I believe that was
on a kickoff. So the second round just appointing, frankly
rookie season for him. I think it's fair to say
we'll see if it continues. Drew Ogo Tree with a
neck boy Rivers peppered him with a couple of targets
there on that one.

Speaker 9 (02:06:09):
Yeah, but anytime you hear Nick get a little anty there,
Dalton Tucker brief came back into the game.

Speaker 2 (02:06:16):
Yeah. So I guess the two that will monitor this
week James will be Bernard Ryman and Sauce Gardner. I
think when Sauce first got hurt, it was always this
Jacksonville game that was kind of going to be circled.
So we'll see about that.

Speaker 9 (02:06:28):
And then Bury did definitively say he believes saus will
play again this.

Speaker 2 (02:06:33):
Year and again, just to clear up everything from a
playoff situation standpoint, While the Colts could technically be eliminated
by kickoff on Sunday, they wouldn't know that until like
seven pm Saturday. Well seven pm Saturday, you've done ninety
eight percent of your preparation for that game. So even

(02:06:55):
if all of a sudden the Texans beat the Chargers,
I still would think Rivers would start Sunday and you
would probably stick with whatever plan you've had throughout that week.
I couldn't say I couldn't foresee just and all of
a sudden, a huge flip of the script there for
those that went to bed last night. Riley Leonard did
play the final three minutes. Nothing noteworthy. I think the

(02:07:16):
Colts turnover on downs if I remember correctly, at that
point of the game. But just some things to monitor
all week long again the Colts. It'll be a short
week with Jacksonville coming in here on Sunday. Reminder, we've
got Pacers and Celtics on these airwaves coming up tonight,
and yes, I will be out Friday. It is yourself,
James Boyd and Greg Rakestraw correct, yes, her, so that

(02:07:38):
would be coming up on Friday. So instead of eight
o'clock with Rake, you got the whole damn three hours
with him.

Speaker 9 (02:07:43):
Looking forward to it now, first time doing a full
show with him, so shout out to the goat.

Speaker 10 (02:07:48):
Here's my question to you guys as we go into Christmas.
I know the NFL is trying to make Christmas their day.
Are you guys watching the NFL or the NBA on Christmas?
I'm an NBA guy personally because that's just what I
grew up on. But I feel like the NFL in
the NFL games this year, if you look at them
on Christmas, not very good. So I don't know what

(02:08:08):
you guys are watching on Christmas Day, but I'm curious.

Speaker 2 (02:08:13):
Let's rattle off that Christmas slate here, James, before you
go ahead and chime in on that one. So three
games Cowboys, Commanders, Lions, Vikings, Broncos Chiefs, Yuck, Yuck and yuck.
You weren't lying, kleb Lions Vikings? Is that like a
battle for a playoff spot?

Speaker 7 (02:08:31):
And eight?

Speaker 10 (02:08:32):
I kind of didn't know the Vikings were seven and eight.
I don't know what that says me, but I'm kind
of shocked.

Speaker 2 (02:08:38):
And then we got the two games Saturday. James, what
are you doing viewing wise?

Speaker 9 (02:08:42):
I'm a degenerate. I'll be watching the NFL mostly.

Speaker 2 (02:08:45):
Wow, James, I didn't have that for you.

Speaker 9 (02:08:47):
Is Lebron playing, I'll watch Lebron or Steph Curry if
they're playing.

Speaker 10 (02:08:51):
I think they're like the five o'clock.

Speaker 9 (02:08:53):
Yeah, I'll probably switch over for like my goats of
this era. So if it's Kevin Durant, Lebron or Steph Curry,
I'll tune in. But yeah, other than that, I yeah, Unfortunately,
they've they've got me hooked. Ian watches the horrible NFL game. Now, Okay,
you guys need to spend more time with your family.

Speaker 2 (02:09:11):
Oh, here we go. I have time for the NFL
games man who cares. He's the only staying this because
Nelly doesn't have a choice right now. Here's a Notre
Dame basketball lost to Fort Wayne Man about being grateful
and cherish love and the memories not going golfing. Gosh,
I wish and how great would that be? I did
see multiple golf courses are open right now. James Boyd,

(02:09:32):
thank you. Caleb Zuber, thank you as well. Get to
watch Nelly for a little bit. Imagine James could how
quickly did he laugh at that? Oh my gosh, changing
if you miss it, Joe Buck was on our podcast.
It was on the show yesterday, a lot of stuff.
I don't think he's very time sensitive, so check that
out on the podcast. Everybody, have an awesome, awesome Christmas.
If we don't talk to you for whatever till New Year's,

(02:09:55):
happy New Year as well. Thank you to all of
our producers behind the scenes. People, Merry Christmas, safetyvels. Everybody

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Tuesday 12/23 - Colts collapse continues after Monday Night Football loss

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Tuesday 12/23 - Colts collapse continues after Monday Night Football loss