November 25, 2025 • 10 mins
‘Locked On Colts’ Host Derek Shultz Joins Ahead of Texans vs Colts Match Up
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Eleven o two. Sports Talk seven nine eight is the
Matt Thomas Show with Boss. Were coming to you today
from Phoenix, Arizona, where Rockets beat the Suns last night
in the city of San Francisco. Tomorrow to play the
Golden State Warriors. But now we're gonna spend some time
talking about the football scene, and we'll do that with
our friend, longtime front of the show, Derek Schultz nine
(00:20):
at Schultz nine seven five. He is with Locked On Colts,
He's Golden Black com He's life at Purdue. I mean,
how many jobs? I mean I ask you this every year.
Are you up in like nine jobs now? Derek Schultz?
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Yeah, it's probably too much. I have an eight year
old son, which would be I guess the biggest shob
of all right, but yeah, it's it's getting up there.
I think I'm reaching my approaching my band with maximum
for sure.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Really quick thirty seconds on this you go from the
Indiana Pacers winning the Eastern Conference with team that might
lose sixty games in one year. How brutal is that
for a transition.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
It's brutal. But the hope is is that you know
they're the ninety seven Spurs all over again, right and
everything gets back to normal right away. But yeah, it's
they've lost all the momentum and buzz and it's stakes.
It's stakes for the fan base, and the cults are
pretty good again. So it's it's been a tough slot
to the pacer of no doubt.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
All Right, Derek, tell me about the Colts. I don't
think anybody anticipated them being off to the start they are.
And look, they have been on top of the AFC
South or about since the start. What did you think
about this team going in? And I'm going to assume
that you are beyond related on how they've turned out
so far with a handful of week's left to go
in the season.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Yeah, I think I thought what most people saw it. Okay,
here we go. Here's another team that is not devoid
of talent, but they've got enough talent to go a
nine to nine and eight and not matter for the
tenth straight year, eleven straight year. However long it's been,
they haven't won this division since twenty fourteen. They've won
one playoff game over that span, and they've largely been
stuck in the NFL's purgatory. You know, the old saying
(01:52):
is be good or be bad, just don't be ordinary.
And the Colts have been really ordinary over the last
couple of years. So you know, to jump out to
a seven and one in eight and two start was
a very nice surprise around these parts. And you know,
they're still in good position now, even struggling a little
bit over the past three weeks. But you know the
fact that, Matty, they were the most efficient offense in
(02:14):
the NFL this entire century through the first eight games.
If you're asking me if I had any idea that
they would be better on offense in the two thousand
and seven Patriots, albeit over an eight week stretch, I
would have leapt out of the room. So yeah, I mean,
this is this success so far, for the most part,
has come out of nowhere. But then you kind of
look at it and you know, Jonathan Taylor's been a
good player for a long time, the Forrest Bucker has
(02:34):
been a good player for a long time. It's a
lot of the same names and faces. It's just you know,
Daniel Jones really stabilized a quarterback position that had been
grossly unstable over the last decade or so, to say
the least, we.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Have seen a fair amount of the Colt so far
this year, and obviously a lot of folks saw the
game against the Chiefs on Sunday. Daniel has been excellent.
I wouldn't give him a ten, but I'd give him
an eight out of ten. And I think going in
people thought Daniel Jones was just trying to hold onto
his NFL crew by signing a deal with the Colts.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Yeah, I think on a ten ad, I'm sorry about
my job, let me go somewhere else. I think a
lot of Amazon deliveries here kids the season, right, I
think that there had been a lot of you know,
when when you look at Jones and playing in New York,
there was a lot of a special you know, the
section of his game, and you wondered how much was
(03:29):
the player and how much was actually the organization. And
I think it turns out that probably a lot of
it was just the fact that the Giants are one
of the worst run organizations in American pro sports. But yeah, Jones,
Jones being a solid B has been better than what
the Colts have had because, frankly, you know, Anthony Richardson
has been a d or an S and you know,
(03:50):
to upgrade a couple of letter grades the way that
he has Again, it's about stability, it's it's not even
really about raising the ceiling, which is all that we
talked about in this town of Richardson. Oh just wait,
he's gonna hit and man, is that whatsism? And watch
that for his ceiling. Well, the problem is is that
the floor was so far down that you know, you
couldn't even see it. And with Jones, at the very
(04:12):
least you knew that the floor was solid, your footing
was going to be solid. And he's been even more
than that. I mean, at times he's looked like a
you know, a Pro Bowl level I guess player. Now
that hasn't happened the last three weeks, but when you
just look at his numbers and the efficiency in the
way that he's commanded the pocket, he's been all the
(04:34):
things that he was not in New York even in
twenty twenty two, he never played to this level through
the first ten games here that he has in Indianapolis.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Derek Schultz locked on Colts with us here on the
Matt Thomas Show at eleven six. All right, so you've
mentioned the last three weeks come from behind win against
the Falcons, of Berlin, the home of the road laws
at the Steelers and then a road laws at Kansas City?
Are are there chinks in the armor? Is it? The
moment is too big? It's not Daniel Jones fault exclusively.
(05:04):
And the one thing that I noticed, and granted again,
I'm I watched the game on Sunday on the red zones.
I was only catching the the parts of the game.
It felt like that Jonathan Taylor could have been used
a lot more in the second half against Kansas City
to keep the Chiefs off the field.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Were you suggesting that Jonathan Taylor should have carried the
ball more than once in the fourth quarter, Matt, Is
that what you're is that what you're saying?
Speaker 1 (05:26):
And a football god, But I'm gonna go to kind
of go with that if it's okay with you, I mean.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Come on, yeah, you go. Yeah, You're one hundred and
fifty percent right. And that's been the main takeaway from
this game, you know, as we've been kind of looking
back on Sunday on Monday and Tuesday and sports socc
radio circles and podcasts and all that has been the
fact that they just they ignored the best player that
they have, and that's what Taylor's look. You know, Steve
Stuglow decided and he's a Hall of Fame coordinator. He's
(05:55):
done an unbelievable job. He decided that he was going
to die before he would like Jonathan Taylor or beat them.
And that's fine. We've seen teams do that and stack
the box and all that. But even running into a
brick wall when he's got an eleven point lead in
the fourth quarter, the utility of running the ball means
that you're also eating clocks. So even if you're not
necessarily gaining yards in big chunks, you can at least
take some time off the clock and not give Patrick
(06:17):
Mahomes more chances, more bites at the apple if you will.
So it's you know, I think Shane Ssykeen is the
gifted offensive mind. He's done a wonderful job scheming up
this team and there's a reason why they were the
most efficient offense in the twenty first century through the
first eight games. A lot of that had to do
with psych and his smarts. But I do think that
just like all NFL coaches, he thinks himself sometimes, and
(06:37):
I think the outthought himself a lot on Sunday, but
ball absolutely should have been to Jonathan Taylor's hands more
and the Colts went three and out four straight drives,
and that allowed the Chiefs to sneak back into the
game and eventually, you know, kind of stayed their season
by winning that game in overtime.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
I'm presuming that the Cults are preparing for CJ. Stroud.
We certainly are, and again he's got a clear concussion protocol.
We think we would he would have done so if
the Texans Bills game was on Sundays compared to Thursday.
With that being said, describe in the audience back here
your general thoughts about the pass rush that the Colts
have provided their team so far this year.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Uh can I can I give you a phrase for
the Colts pass rush, because I'm a phrase that pops
into my mind and it's it's fine. You know, it's
not bad, it's certainly not good. I'll give you some optimism, well,
I guess not optimism that you're in Houston, but optimism
(07:33):
for folks here in Indianapolis is that Leaku Latu has six
sacks or five sacks in his last six games, which
I know doesn't sound like much but that's a big
step forward for a guy that they used the first
round pick on two years ago and who they really
wanted to pop this year. He's really starting to show
some signs and he's not only pressuring the quarterback where
he's getting home. Quinny Page is the guy. He's a
first round guy that they took on a Michigan a
(07:54):
couple of years ago, who's a perfectly adequate NFL player,
but not a guy who's going to keep anybody up
at night. And they have filled out their depth and
injury wise, they got said they're gonna get sense and comback.
You know, Taekwon Lewis might come back as well, so
they have some veteran depth as well. But I think overall,
I mean, if you're grading all of the pass rushes
in the NFL, the Colts would probably be somewhere square
(08:16):
lead in the middle. That said, which our various award
and now saus Gardner, they're they're much more apt to
be successful in the defensive secondary, and I think with
better coverage there's a chance that that pass rush numbers wise,
does a little bit better than it has through the
first half. Through the halfway point of the season, all right.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
For I let you run. So how does things play out?
I wouldn't say it's a pivotal game, more so for
the Texans than it would be for the Colts. Indian
Apple still holds onto a one game lead. I'm not
sold on Jacksonville. Don't know how you feel about him, Derek,
But if I'm a Colts fan, I'm not worried about it,
and for that matter, the Texan shouldn't be worried. But
how do you see this thing playing out? I like
to get to the crystal ball for you.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
I agree with you on Jacksonville. I like these conversations
because we're in the trust trees, so we can just
both talk about the Jaguars behind their back whenever we
get together like this. Look, I think it's I understand
from a standing standpoint, You're right, it's not a critical
game to the Colts, but in a way it is.
You know, they've lost two of three. They have a
murderous finishing stretch here where they have Houston twice, Jacksonville twice,
(09:18):
a good San Francisco team, and then they have to
go at Seattle, so all their layouts are done. There's
no Raiders, there's no Dolphins, there's no Titans game that's
coming to save the Colts. They're done with all of that,
So they really have to protect their home fields and
win a division home game if they're going to want
to hold on here. So I do think it's a
big game for the Colts. And this is what I
always do with this matchup. I lean towards the home team.
(09:40):
Colts are unbeing at home. Their offense has been much
much better at home than on the road, albeit against
some of those same teams I just talked about Raiders, Dolphins, Titans,
teams like that. But I do think the Colts find
a way to get it done at home. But I'd
belign to you if I said that people in Indie
Matt weren't weren't swlating right now. They are sweat and
big time, and they're sweating Houston much more than their
sweating Jacksonville.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
That is for sure. Happy holidays you, the family and
the dog, and we will talk in probably closer to
the final week of the season. I hope for both
sides it means something, honestly, because those you know, those
Week eighteen games that you bring in subs, you're like
nobody cares about this game, so hopefully it'll mean something.
Thank you for the time Friend, as always takes that
take care
Eleven o two. Sports Talk seven nine eight is the
Matt Thomas Show with Boss. Were coming to you today
from Phoenix, Arizona, where Rockets beat the Suns last night
in the city of San Francisco. Tomorrow to play the
Golden State Warriors. But now we're gonna spend some time
talking about the football scene, and we'll do that with
our friend, longtime front of the show, Derek Schultz nine
(00:20):
at Schultz nine seven five. He is with Locked On Colts,
He's Golden Black com He's life at Purdue. I mean,
how many jobs? I mean I ask you this every year.
Are you up in like nine jobs now? Derek Schultz?
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Yeah, it's probably too much. I have an eight year
old son, which would be I guess the biggest shob
of all right, but yeah, it's it's getting up there.
I think I'm reaching my approaching my band with maximum
for sure.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Really quick thirty seconds on this you go from the
Indiana Pacers winning the Eastern Conference with team that might
lose sixty games in one year. How brutal is that
for a transition.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
It's brutal. But the hope is is that you know
they're the ninety seven Spurs all over again, right and
everything gets back to normal right away. But yeah, it's
they've lost all the momentum and buzz and it's stakes.
It's stakes for the fan base, and the cults are
pretty good again. So it's it's been a tough slot
to the pacer of no doubt.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
All Right, Derek, tell me about the Colts. I don't
think anybody anticipated them being off to the start they are.
And look, they have been on top of the AFC
South or about since the start. What did you think
about this team going in? And I'm going to assume
that you are beyond related on how they've turned out
so far with a handful of week's left to go
in the season.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Yeah, I think I thought what most people saw it. Okay,
here we go. Here's another team that is not devoid
of talent, but they've got enough talent to go a
nine to nine and eight and not matter for the
tenth straight year, eleven straight year. However long it's been,
they haven't won this division since twenty fourteen. They've won
one playoff game over that span, and they've largely been
stuck in the NFL's purgatory. You know, the old saying
(01:52):
is be good or be bad, just don't be ordinary.
And the Colts have been really ordinary over the last
couple of years. So you know, to jump out to
a seven and one in eight and two start was
a very nice surprise around these parts. And you know,
they're still in good position now, even struggling a little
bit over the past three weeks. But you know the
fact that, Matty, they were the most efficient offense in
(02:14):
the NFL this entire century through the first eight games.
If you're asking me if I had any idea that
they would be better on offense in the two thousand
and seven Patriots, albeit over an eight week stretch, I
would have leapt out of the room. So yeah, I mean,
this is this success so far, for the most part,
has come out of nowhere. But then you kind of
look at it and you know, Jonathan Taylor's been a
good player for a long time, the Forrest Bucker has
(02:34):
been a good player for a long time. It's a
lot of the same names and faces. It's just you know,
Daniel Jones really stabilized a quarterback position that had been
grossly unstable over the last decade or so, to say
the least, we.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Have seen a fair amount of the Colt so far
this year, and obviously a lot of folks saw the
game against the Chiefs on Sunday. Daniel has been excellent.
I wouldn't give him a ten, but I'd give him
an eight out of ten. And I think going in
people thought Daniel Jones was just trying to hold onto
his NFL crew by signing a deal with the Colts.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Yeah, I think on a ten ad, I'm sorry about
my job, let me go somewhere else. I think a
lot of Amazon deliveries here kids the season, right, I
think that there had been a lot of you know,
when when you look at Jones and playing in New York,
there was a lot of a special you know, the
section of his game, and you wondered how much was
(03:29):
the player and how much was actually the organization. And
I think it turns out that probably a lot of
it was just the fact that the Giants are one
of the worst run organizations in American pro sports. But yeah, Jones,
Jones being a solid B has been better than what
the Colts have had because, frankly, you know, Anthony Richardson
has been a d or an S and you know,
(03:50):
to upgrade a couple of letter grades the way that
he has Again, it's about stability, it's it's not even
really about raising the ceiling, which is all that we
talked about in this town of Richardson. Oh just wait,
he's gonna hit and man, is that whatsism? And watch
that for his ceiling. Well, the problem is is that
the floor was so far down that you know, you
couldn't even see it. And with Jones, at the very
(04:12):
least you knew that the floor was solid, your footing
was going to be solid. And he's been even more
than that. I mean, at times he's looked like a
you know, a Pro Bowl level I guess player. Now
that hasn't happened the last three weeks, but when you
just look at his numbers and the efficiency in the
way that he's commanded the pocket, he's been all the
(04:34):
things that he was not in New York even in
twenty twenty two, he never played to this level through
the first ten games here that he has in Indianapolis.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Derek Schultz locked on Colts with us here on the
Matt Thomas Show at eleven six. All right, so you've
mentioned the last three weeks come from behind win against
the Falcons, of Berlin, the home of the road laws
at the Steelers and then a road laws at Kansas City?
Are are there chinks in the armor? Is it? The
moment is too big? It's not Daniel Jones fault exclusively.
(05:04):
And the one thing that I noticed, and granted again,
I'm I watched the game on Sunday on the red zones.
I was only catching the the parts of the game.
It felt like that Jonathan Taylor could have been used
a lot more in the second half against Kansas City
to keep the Chiefs off the field.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Were you suggesting that Jonathan Taylor should have carried the
ball more than once in the fourth quarter, Matt, Is
that what you're is that what you're saying?
Speaker 1 (05:26):
And a football god, But I'm gonna go to kind
of go with that if it's okay with you, I mean.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Come on, yeah, you go. Yeah, You're one hundred and
fifty percent right. And that's been the main takeaway from
this game, you know, as we've been kind of looking
back on Sunday on Monday and Tuesday and sports socc
radio circles and podcasts and all that has been the
fact that they just they ignored the best player that
they have, and that's what Taylor's look. You know, Steve
Stuglow decided and he's a Hall of Fame coordinator. He's
(05:55):
done an unbelievable job. He decided that he was going
to die before he would like Jonathan Taylor or beat them.
And that's fine. We've seen teams do that and stack
the box and all that. But even running into a
brick wall when he's got an eleven point lead in
the fourth quarter, the utility of running the ball means
that you're also eating clocks. So even if you're not
necessarily gaining yards in big chunks, you can at least
take some time off the clock and not give Patrick
(06:17):
Mahomes more chances, more bites at the apple if you will.
So it's you know, I think Shane Ssykeen is the
gifted offensive mind. He's done a wonderful job scheming up
this team and there's a reason why they were the
most efficient offense in the twenty first century through the
first eight games. A lot of that had to do
with psych and his smarts. But I do think that
just like all NFL coaches, he thinks himself sometimes, and
(06:37):
I think the outthought himself a lot on Sunday, but
ball absolutely should have been to Jonathan Taylor's hands more
and the Colts went three and out four straight drives,
and that allowed the Chiefs to sneak back into the
game and eventually, you know, kind of stayed their season
by winning that game in overtime.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
I'm presuming that the Cults are preparing for CJ. Stroud.
We certainly are, and again he's got a clear concussion protocol.
We think we would he would have done so if
the Texans Bills game was on Sundays compared to Thursday.
With that being said, describe in the audience back here
your general thoughts about the pass rush that the Colts
have provided their team so far this year.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Uh can I can I give you a phrase for
the Colts pass rush, because I'm a phrase that pops
into my mind and it's it's fine. You know, it's
not bad, it's certainly not good. I'll give you some optimism, well,
I guess not optimism that you're in Houston, but optimism
(07:33):
for folks here in Indianapolis is that Leaku Latu has six
sacks or five sacks in his last six games, which
I know doesn't sound like much but that's a big
step forward for a guy that they used the first
round pick on two years ago and who they really
wanted to pop this year. He's really starting to show
some signs and he's not only pressuring the quarterback where
he's getting home. Quinny Page is the guy. He's a
first round guy that they took on a Michigan a
(07:54):
couple of years ago, who's a perfectly adequate NFL player,
but not a guy who's going to keep anybody up
at night. And they have filled out their depth and
injury wise, they got said they're gonna get sense and comback.
You know, Taekwon Lewis might come back as well, so
they have some veteran depth as well. But I think overall,
I mean, if you're grading all of the pass rushes
in the NFL, the Colts would probably be somewhere square
(08:16):
lead in the middle. That said, which our various award
and now saus Gardner, they're they're much more apt to
be successful in the defensive secondary, and I think with
better coverage there's a chance that that pass rush numbers wise,
does a little bit better than it has through the
first half. Through the halfway point of the season, all right.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
For I let you run. So how does things play out?
I wouldn't say it's a pivotal game, more so for
the Texans than it would be for the Colts. Indian
Apple still holds onto a one game lead. I'm not
sold on Jacksonville. Don't know how you feel about him, Derek,
But if I'm a Colts fan, I'm not worried about it,
and for that matter, the Texan shouldn't be worried. But
how do you see this thing playing out? I like
to get to the crystal ball for you.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
I agree with you on Jacksonville. I like these conversations
because we're in the trust trees, so we can just
both talk about the Jaguars behind their back whenever we
get together like this. Look, I think it's I understand
from a standing standpoint, You're right, it's not a critical
game to the Colts, but in a way it is.
You know, they've lost two of three. They have a
murderous finishing stretch here where they have Houston twice, Jacksonville twice,
(09:18):
a good San Francisco team, and then they have to
go at Seattle, so all their layouts are done. There's
no Raiders, there's no Dolphins, there's no Titans game that's
coming to save the Colts. They're done with all of that,
So they really have to protect their home fields and
win a division home game if they're going to want
to hold on here. So I do think it's a
big game for the Colts. And this is what I
always do with this matchup. I lean towards the home team.
(09:40):
Colts are unbeing at home. Their offense has been much
much better at home than on the road, albeit against
some of those same teams I just talked about Raiders, Dolphins, Titans,
teams like that. But I do think the Colts find
a way to get it done at home. But I'd
belign to you if I said that people in Indie
Matt weren't weren't swlating right now. They are sweat and
big time, and they're sweating Houston much more than their
sweating Jacksonville.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
That is for sure. Happy holidays you, the family and
the dog, and we will talk in probably closer to
the final week of the season. I hope for both
sides it means something, honestly, because those you know, those
Week eighteen games that you bring in subs, you're like
nobody cares about this game, so hopefully it'll mean something.
Thank you for the time Friend, as always takes that
take care
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