Source: January 4, 2015: Lucas Oil Stadium with the Wild Card logo painted on the field before a NFL AFC Wild Card football game between the Indianapolis Colts and Cincinnati Bengals at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, IN. (Photo by Zach Bolinger/Icon Sportswire/Corbis/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
At long last, the NFL playoffs have arrived; unfortunately, the Indianapolis Colts will not be participating.
During Thursday’s edition of The Ride With JMV, former Colts coach and current Colts radio color analyst Rick Venturi joined the show to give his yearly review of the Colts season. Rick spoke specifically about feeling optimism for the Colts future following 2023.
“I think two things can be true. You can be very optimistic about the Colts’ future, which I am. Go out, buy season tickets, you’re going to enjoy it. But at the same time, as an analyst, I can tell it like it is. I can say ‘Okay, we won because of this, and we won in spite of this.’ and what I think is really important is that the Colts don’t gloat on this, they don’t gloat on the sunshine of improvement at this moment. They can be pleased with it to some degree, but I mean you lost the game that mattered. The one game that mattered in the whole season, when it was on the line, and basically Houston outplayed us in the 4th quarter, and did things that we’ve got to do something about, because in some ways, that game in a way is a microcosm that exposed a lot of the issues that we have as a team that need to be fixed.”
Rick also dove into his thoughts on Colts defensive coordinator Gus Bradley and his defensive scheme.
“You know, week after week, we make kings out of quarterbacks. It’s not just Stafford, or Lawrence, or certainly the young kid last week Stroud who’s going to be a superstar. But no, it’s P.J Walker, it’s Heinicke, it’s Browning. I mean, O’Connell looked like Unitas. So, you’ve got to answer the question; to me, if you’re going to hold players accountable, then you also have to hold scheme and coaches accountable. And I’ll tell you what, this is a what I call a generic, predictable scheme that is non-challenging. It doesn’t challenge receivers on the outside, it doesn’t challenge receivers on the inside. To me, you address it one of two ways. You either demand a philosophical change from top to bottom, or you change the guy who’s making the decision.”
Thursday’s show was also the final edition of the Larceny Locks and Lunazul Tequila Shots, where JMV and betting analyst Brent Holverson give their picks for the upcoming NFL weekend. Here are my picks for NFL Wild Card weekend!
SATURDAY
(11-6) Cleveland Browns @ (10-7) Houston Texans: 23-20 Texans
(11-6) Miami Dolphins @ (11-6) Kansas City Chiefs: 17-13 Chiefs
SUNDAY
(10-7) Pittsburgh Steelers @ (11-6) Buffalo Bills: 17-10 Bills
(9-8) Green Bay Packers @ (12-5) Dallas Cowboys: 28-17 Cowboys
(10-7) Los Angeles Rams @ (12-5) Detroit Lions: 31-21 Lions
MONDAY
(11-6) Philadelphia Eagles @ (9-8) Tampa Bay Buccaneers: 24-13 Eagles
Listen to JMV and Brent’s picks, as well as JMV’s conversation with Rick Venturi and more down below, and tune into The Ride With JMV weekdays from 3-6pm on 93.5/107.5 The Fan!
