00:00Ben Solak, who you talked to him at the Greenbrier, right?
00:04I did.
00:05He was at the Greenbrier covering the Texans.
00:07Yeah.
00:08And I gave him.
00:09I wanted him to have the good experience of talking to an old, grizzled NFL veteran in the days of yore.
00:17Yeah.
00:18So I tested him a little bit.
00:19Yeah.
00:20And he kind of looked shocked and taken aback at the language I was using.
00:23He's definitely one of these gentle, young people.
00:26Yeah.
00:26And we're shocked to hear some of the vocabulary I was using.
00:30So I felt like I did a service to him.
00:33I think you toughened him up a little bit.
00:34I think so.
00:35I think so.
00:36Because here he comes in this take right here.
00:40I want to say what I said to him, but I can't.
00:43No, you can't.
00:43It's early in the morning.
00:44I know.
00:45But I used some choice words.
00:47I don't think you can even allude to it.
00:50No, I don't think I can.
00:52Yeah.
00:53Because I remember it.
00:55Here's Ben Solak yesterday.
00:56I believe on SportsCenter.
00:58And they were talking about the Colts and the Texans game.
01:01And if you're a Texan fan, I think this is audio that should get you excited for the game on Sunday.
01:06What do the numbers say about why Indy's offense has been struggling as of late?
01:12It starts with pressure.
01:13Daniel Jones performed a lot worse under pressure than he was previously.
01:17First eight weeks of the season.
01:18On pressure dropbacks, he was taking a sack on 8%, 7% of his dropbacks.
01:22A ludicrous figure.
01:23The last four weeks, it's over 30%.
01:26And this Chiefs game was the game where Shane Steichen said, no, listen, no more sacks.
01:31They were in max protection, Jay, on 34% of Daniel Jones' dropbacks.
01:35That's the most for any quarterback in any game this season.
01:39They had a time to throw Daniel Jones of 2.4 seconds, the fastest of any game so far this season.
01:44They took the offense out of his hands, the passing attack out of his hands, in a way they had not previously to this point in the year.
01:50And they coached really cautiously as well.
01:52Shane Steichen tends to be one of the most aggressive fourth-down decision-makers in football, but he punted on a fourth-and-three at midfield, another one at midfield.
02:00He kicked field goals on a fourth-and-four and a fourth-and-six.
02:03They were afraid of the ball being in Daniel Jones' hands in this game.
02:06And for that reason, these offensive concerns to me are very serious for the Colts.
02:09They have two games against the Texans coming up, two games against the Jaguars.
02:12I'm worried about their seat there at the top of the AFC South.
02:15I'm guessing we're going to see a whole lot of what he was just talking about against the Texans.
02:19Yeah, because he is banged up.
02:21He's got this fibula injury, and if you watched that game last week, you saw when he ran, he did not look like the same guy.
02:29And it was funny.
02:30It was ironic.
02:31On one of the plays, old Jim Nance there did the required, as Daniel Jones took off running, Jim Nance had to remind the viewers that this white guy can run.
02:42Because he can run.
02:43I know.
02:44He's like one of the most prolific runners in the league.
02:48There was a time that was all he could do.
02:51Despite his whiteness, yes, Jim Nance, we understand he can run.
02:55But as he was running, he wasn't running the way you know that he's capable of running.
03:00He looked real tentative.
03:01He kind of had a hitch in his giddy-up.
03:04There was a third-and-one where he ran for the first down and easily could have run for another five yards if he'd actually sprinted.
03:10But he kind of ambled to the first down marker.
03:14So, like, he is still a running threat, but he's very limited.
03:19And I think part of what they're having to do now is account for that.
03:24And all those stats that Ben Solak brought up are correct.
03:28I mean, he got sacked.
03:29Last week, he didn't get sacked at all.
03:31And they were taking great pains and measures to not let him get sacked.
03:35But he'd gotten sacked 12 times in the three previous games.
03:39Oh, no, I'm sorry, 15 times.
03:41He got sacked three times versus the Titans, five times versus the Steelers, and seven times versus the Falcons.
03:47So, 12 in two games, 15 in three games.
03:50They were looking at the trend, and it was on its way up towards nine.
03:53It went from three to five to seven.
03:56Yeah.
03:56And they took great measures to keep him from getting sacked again.
04:01But I think he's just not as mobile as he was.
04:04And then also, what the Steelers and Chiefs did especially was say, all right, we're going to take Jonathan Taylor out of the game.
04:11Let's see how you do then, nerd boy.
04:13Yep.
04:13And he wasn't so good in those games.
04:17My biggest question, honestly, Sean, if you want to add another Notre Dame guy to your Christmas card, we might see a little Riley Leonard in this game.
04:24We might.
04:25Just some packages maybe in the game because he can run the football.
04:28Or if Daniel Jones goes out.
04:30Oh, because he gets hurt.
04:31We'll see what the injury report is today.
04:33But it went from a calf injury before the game to now it's a fibula injury.
04:41And I think the thing, I don't know how many, I guess you could get a deep bone bruise on your fibula, but I would guess that it's, there's also a chance it could be a stress fracture or something.
04:51Yeah.
04:51Which you can play on, but it's dicey.
04:55Fibula sounds worse.
04:57Calf is scary if you're a Colts fan just because it's soft tissue and it could be a long-term thing.
05:01Well, you go thinking about the NBA.
05:03Yeah.
05:03And what happens with calf issues these days?
05:05Achilles.
05:05It feels like every guy with a calf issue tears his Achilles tendon.
05:08That's exactly right.
05:09That's exactly right.
05:10So, yeah, look, they may be one, they're a breath away from Riley Leonard being the quarterback in this game.
05:15And I can tell you, he ain't ready to be a quarterback against this Texans defense at all.
05:20At all.
05:21So that's the, it's, they have these very real receiving threats on the outside.
05:27Yeah.
05:27You know, the likes of which the Texans did not see the last couple weeks.
05:31The Texans caught a little bit of a break.
05:33And not having Jalen Petrie for two games where, or the last two games at least, versus the Titans and the Bills, they just don't, they don't have a lot of outside threats.
05:45Yep.
05:45They really don't have a lot of receiver, receiver weaponry.
05:49The Colts are different.
05:50They have a whole lot of threats.
05:51It's just a matter of right now, as of late, Colts haven't really had time to get the ball to them.
05:57Or Daniel Jones hasn't been as accurate when throwing.
06:00You know, last week when they were getting the ball out of his hands real quickly, he didn't look so hot.
06:04You know, like, and I don't know if the fibula is affecting his accuracy, but it's, this is a different Colts team than we saw the first half of the season.
06:12How would you, how would you rank the receiving threats on the Colts?
06:17Like, who's the scary, is Tyler Warren's the scariest one to me, just because the Texans and covering tight ends hasn't always jibed too much.
06:25It hasn't always jibed, but like, the Texans this year have done a good job of kind of putting a bottle on things and not allowing the big plays as often.
06:33I don't think that, like, Tyler Warren's going to catch a deep ball down the seam.
06:38I think they could feed him a steady diet of stuff over the middle.
06:41Yeah.
06:42And maybe it'll do some damage.
06:44But I'd be more worried about just the combination of Pierce and Pittman and Josh Downs.
06:51That you're, you're still, as long as Jalen Petrie comes back, that's fine, because then you got Kamari Lasseter and Derek Stingley on the outside.
07:03And it's, they'll get theirs if, if the Colts go back to playing the way they were earlier in the season.
07:10The biggest problem, though, is Daniel Jones, the last few weeks when he's getting pressured, those stats that Solak was talking about, when pressured, he's getting sacked 30% of the time.
07:21That's crazy.
07:22Yeah.
07:23That's a crazy number.
07:24So, I mean, and when they do, when they're operating at their best, they're doing it with play action, which means that, hey, you know, they're, Jonathan Taylor is doing his damage.
07:34But at times, teams are trying to stop Jonathan Taylor, and they're getting those shots downfield.
07:39The last few weeks, teams have just bottled up Jonathan Taylor, and when Elvis and it's second long, third and long, and the play action isn't as effective, then Daniel Jones isn't as effective.
07:51He's really, he might be turning into a pumpkin before our eyes.
07:54Yeah.
07:54Yeah, we'd be waiting for him.
07:55And I would like to, on three days after Thanksgiving, just really, just completely mash that pumpkin weird-eyed Daniel Jones.
08:03Okay, we got some Daniel Jones texts coming in here.
08:07Daniel Jones is injured.
08:08Y'all better start collecting bail money for Aziz Alshire.
08:11Oh, God.
08:14It's not bail money.
08:15It's fine money.
08:16He's not going to jail, all right?
08:17What are the odds that he's, that Aziz Alshire is suspended after this game?
08:26It's a non-zero.
08:27It's always non-zero.
08:29Yeah, with Aziz.
08:30Aziz, someone says, not sure Daniel Jones can run fast enough to tear his Achilles.
08:35He's, he's pretty athletic.
08:37He's fast.
08:38Like, right this moment, they're saying, like, no, I don't, don't, don't do that thing.
08:42That's the thing where you assume that just because he looks like a nerd and he's a white guy, that he's not fast.
08:46I think that's what they're doing.
08:47Yeah, I think that's what they're doing.
08:48He's really fast.
08:49Yeah.
08:49Okay, so Jim Nance was a pro, Jim Nance was correct to remind the audience that Daniel Jones can actually run.
08:55Or at least this texter, you know, and the likes of this texter.
08:59Just because he looks so nerdy, don't be mistaken.
09:02Mistake his nerdiness for impotence in the run game.
09:05For kindness.
09:06So, concerning Daniel Jones, this is a text.
09:10The most comical thing is hearing folks in the media saying he's in the MVP conversation.
09:14Absolutely hysterical.
09:15I don't know that he's in the MVP conversation anymore.
09:18I think, honestly, I think Jonathan Taylor, despite the fact that he didn't do much against Kansas City, as Colts go, there's way more chatter about should Jonathan Taylor be considered in the MVP race than Daniel Jones.
09:33I think the MVP race right now feels like it's Matthew Stafford, Drake May, you know, Josh Allen.
09:39Yeah, that was early in the season.
09:41It was, I mean, it was a legitimate conversation early in the season.
09:43Daniel Jones was putting up ridiculous numbers.
09:45The big question was, all right, how long is this going to keep up?
09:48I think that to really overly simplify it, this is what's going on with the Colts right now.
09:56Shane Steichen is a really good play caller.
09:58Shane Steichen's really good at getting the absolute most out of a quarterback.
10:01But much like we've seen with Trevor Lawrence, like in the past with, say, Doug Peterson, there's only so much he can do with a limited amount.
10:10And I think he got the absolute most out of Daniel Jones early in the season.
10:14But now you've got half season's worth of film on him.
10:19And the other thing where the Colts have kind of been exposed by is they don't, Jonathan Taylor is an awesome running back,
10:26but they're not a good enough rushing unit to run the ball versus loaded boxes.
10:32And Shane Steichen really veers away from it.
10:35So he doesn't like to run Jonathan Taylor when there's eight men in the box.
10:39And defenses know that.
10:41So they can kind of set the table a little bit.
10:44All right, we're going to show eight men in the box.
10:46Guess what, guys?
10:47They're going to pass the ball.
10:48Yep.
10:48You know, the Chiefs did a great job.
10:50The Chiefs did a great job of understanding when Daniel Jones was checking from a run to a pass.
10:58So they would show blitz.
11:01They would show a safety, walked up to the line of scrimmage.
11:03Daniel Jones would check to a pass.
11:05And then all of a sudden the Chiefs check out of their blitz and play coverage.
11:10And I think that's what's starting to happen.
11:11The Chiefs are a very smart defense.
11:14Steve Spagnuolo is great at doing stuff like that.
11:16But you can kind of dictate terms to this Colts offense because there's certain things that Shane Steichen wants to do and doesn't want to do.
11:27And he doesn't want to run Jonathan Taylor into a loaded box.
11:30Yep.
11:30So you can kind of show them the look that you want to create the situation you want and then play the tendencies.
11:36Yep.
Comments