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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Colts Daily Update.
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Speaker 2: The latest news with the Indianapolis Colts. Welcome into the Colts Daily Update here on 93.5 and 107.5. The fan, the Colts Daily Update presented by Meijer, the official super center of the Indianapolis Colts and proud sponsor of hundreds of local sports teams across the Midwest. Kind of an eerie little music.
00:00:21
Speaker 1: Is this Colts Daily Update or like the new season of Stranger Things?
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Speaker 2: That's what I thought. A little eerie on the music. But hey, here we are. It's the Colts Daily Update. And you know what? It's a Wednesday. It's a Wednesday. So that means all of the noise that's been going on over the last couple days, now the Colts get back on the practice field. Some of that noise is quieted down now because you're seeing players on the football field as they're preparing for the Dallas Cowboys coming to town on Sunday. And that game is brought to you by Lucas Oil, the official oil products of the Indianapolis Colts. Lucas Oil, it works. And as we gear up for the Cowboys game in kind of this last stretch here, Matt, I thought you had a wonderful idea to talk about the, if you will, second-half survival kit that the Colts need to kind of establish.
00:01:06
Speaker 1: You've got this nine-week... It just feels like they're in survival mode.
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Speaker 2: Right, and that's kind of where you are. So I liked this idea here. So we're going to take it and run with it. We're going to play some sound from the locker room that kind of adds to what this is. But essentially, as it sits, you've got nine games left. This team is kind of heading off into the wilderness for this final nine games. So we're going to talk about what absolutely must come with them during this, as you just mentioned, this survival time that you're in to close out the season. So four items in the bag. You've got a compass, a flashlight, a first aid kit, and an emergency signal. We're going to start here with the compass. So I'm going to play a cut here from the guy who's at the top, kind of giving them direction in Shane Steichen, talking about how to coach through all these trade requests and everything that's been going on.
00:01:53
Speaker 3: As the coach, obviously you've got to stay steady through all this. Obviously we've got a trade deadline, a lot of speculation out there. trade deadline ends next Tuesday. So you get through all that stuff and then you go, you know what I mean? But the part of it is just staying steady through all this.
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Speaker 2: So I think, you know, he definitely has to provide the Colts with the direction over these final nine games, but more from just a player standpoint, who is the player capable of standing up and leading this team, Matt?
00:02:17
Speaker 1: That's a good question. I think we're still kind of wondering that because the Colts did lose two pillar players last week in those trades and DeForest Buckner and Quentin Nelson and And they obviously still have remaining captains still on the roster, but those guys were steadying forces when it comes to upholding the standard. And here's the thing about leadership. You know, what I've learned playing sports, you can't just take the leadership crown and put it on someone else's head and say, here you go, you're the leader now. You know, you're going to replace DeForest Buckner in terms of leadership. It don't work like that.
00:02:52
Speaker 2: Right.
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Speaker 1: You've been on teams. I've been on teams, Casey. It has to happen naturally. It has to happen organically. You just, you flat out can't fake the locker room. Culture doesn't win you games alone. At the end of the day, this is about Jimmy's and Joe's, you know, but I do think culture is important when it comes to the preparation. You know, what are we about? How professional are we? How serious do we take our business? You know, so the natural candidates for You know, guys to lean on right now, you've got Cam Bynum, Daniel Jones, Jonathan Taylor, Tanner Bortolini, Grover Stewart. I mean, these are the guys that just flat out have to lead to a higher degree right now. But, you know, leadership and culture, it only gets you so far. You internally, as a person, as a player, you've got to do your part. That preparation culture part is really what separates you that the winning teams and losing teams when it comes to just doing the little things right in the NFL is a series of, because of parity in the league, is a series of trying to do little things right to try to get you wins on Sundays.
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Speaker 2: I think you're exactly right. And I know that one of the things that was brought up today is this is the one-year anniversary of the Sauce-Garner trade. So if you go back 12 months from right now and you think about the leaders that were on this team, you had guys like Kenny Moore, Zaire Franklin, Quentin Nelson, DeForest Buckner, you think about four of those guys are gone, and those were guys that were leaders for multiple years. So I think that's a really good point that you can't just take the crown, move it to somebody else, because this is, in some ways... You gotta earn it. You gotta earn it, and it's untreaded water for some of these guys. Yeah, Cam Bynum, he is a great leader, but he is still also relatively new to this team, to this organization, still trying to get his footprint and everything. So I think that's a really, really good point when you think about who is on pace to lead this team. Now, one of the next items inside your bag, I want to go both of us here. So I'll see who your response is. I'll see who mine is, but the flashlight. So when you think about these young players that could be a bright spot over the final nine games, who are you starting with, Matt?
00:04:56
Speaker 1: Well, you know, going back to the compass though, and that leadership, conversation why can't some of the young guys right that's a great point you
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know like you said i i've been on teams where you know the upperclassmen they're not doing a good job of leading and i've seen young guys say watch out this ain't it so in that regard why not justin wally you know i know he's hurt but you know in the bigger sense of things why not caden curry you know and speaking of curry to answer your question about the flashlight it's time for him to start i agree You know what I mean? Like, you've got nothing to lose. Your edge rush group has three and a half sacks total on the season. Caden Curry's got the motor that just doesn't quit. So he might be raw. In fact, he is. He may not be perfect, but you've got to see what you've got. The other guys in front of him have just been way too inconsistent. Adetamu Adebare alone, who, by the way, got the contract extension yesterday, Adetamu Adebare alone has more sacks this year than the Colts' edge rushers combined.
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Speaker 2: Right.
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Speaker 4: So.
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Speaker 1: I think it's time to play Caden Curry more. I think it's time to play George Gumbs Jr.
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Speaker 4: More.
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Speaker 1: Seth McGowan's been a bright light. By season's end, you're going to see what you've got more in Jalen Farmer. And I think on offense, it's time to play Deion Burks. You've got to play Deion Burks more. I think it's time to play Ashton Doolin more because you are starved on offense for the need of more big plays. At least those guys have speed. And if you can scheme them up and get them a free release off the line of scrimmage, from a creativity standpoint then I think you have something so I think that's where we're at.
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Speaker 2: I'm glad you bring up Caden Curry because he was kind of my idea as the flashlight and a player that can give you a little bright spot and here's Caden Curry talking about getting a little bit more playing time and have a little more confidence.
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Speaker 4: I feel like always when you get more into a season and you get more into a defensive scheme and just the more you learn the faster it is out there I mean the less time is taken to kind of remember what's going on and you You get to spend more time on the offensive side. You get to see their personality. You get to see what type of plays they're in, what you get, what you cannot get and anticipate. Kind of just going out there and playing fast.
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Speaker 2: You know, one of the things that always has been impressive to me about Caden Curry throughout this, you know, it's a young part of his career. He's only, you know, nine, eight games in, but the motor is something that you cannot fake. And that is something that he's a high character football IQ. Shane Steichen talked about that motor and never stopping. And I think that has really been a good thing for him to earn a little bit more and more playing time because he's When you're just relentless, it just makes you want to get more and more opportunities. So we'll see how Caden Curry gets more opportunities on the football field moving forward. All right, the first aid kit, Matt. So what needs immediate repair? What's the most urgent football problem for the Colts? And then what position group is the most in need of immediate attention?
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Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, I heard somebody ask today, what's more broken, the Colts offense or the Colts defense? And somebody said offense. See, to me, on offense, at least you can point to the loss of a foundational piece in Alec Pierce.
00:07:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, I would agree.
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Speaker 4: Right?
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Speaker 1: Because Pierce is coming back either this season or next season, right? He's under contract, just got the big deal. On defense, I think the reality is there. You don't have the missing foundational piece that you can point to like the offense can. Not that you're making an excuse on offense, right? You get what I'm saying.
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Speaker 4: Right.
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Speaker 1: The pass rush just hasn't been good enough. And that was our biggest... lingering question about the defense coming into the season. The linebacker core has been very inconsistent. The middle of the field in the passing game has been very exposed. The reason why the Colts only have four takeaways on the season is their lack of pass rush. And you've seen it, right? Their last two takeaways on the season on defense, the overthrow by Cam Ward against Tennessee, and then the strip sack last week against Jacksonville, what led to it? It was the pass rush. You finally got it, right? So, you know... You don't have to be Vince Lombardi to figure out where the lack of takeaways start. The pass rush is their most urgent problem. When you talk about this first aid kit, it's got to be addressed in a big way in the offseason. I don't know if it can be really fixed during the season. That's why I say you've got to start seeing what you have more in the young guys and let them play, let them develop, and see what you've got.
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Speaker 2: There you go. There's the second half survival kit. I like that, Matt. That was fun. And I would agree because not necessarily it's getting tough to talk about this team, but I think we've got to find ways to really keep the, I don't even know what I'm trying to say here, but the perspective on what it is. And I think that's a really good way to tie everything in because this is where you are. You've got nine games left. You've got to put up. a better product than what you've done the last couple of weeks. And that's what I think this, this little exercise was able to do for us to identify some areas to really highlight as the, as the team moves forward, because you've got a very winnable game on Sunday against the Dallas Cowboys, a team that is struggling just like the culture back at home. It'd be really good to get off this mat here of four straight losses. Colts fans, you can get up to date on the player stats and trends for this year by using the NFL IQ and the AI assistant NFL IQ is built on Amazon quick. Now looking at the practice report from today, the Colts had their first practice of the week. Akeem Davis-Gaither, Drew Ogletree, and Justin Wally all missed practice with knee injuries. Wally didn't play last week with that injury. Anthony Gould, he's missed the last two games with a concussion. He was back at full today. Well, that'll do it for the Colts Daily Update. For Matt Taylor, I'm Casey Vallier. Good luck to the Pacers tonight. They're in Memphis taking on the Grizzlies. Pacer pregame starts on and about an hour at 7.30 right here on 93.5 and 107.5 The Fan.