ColtsSpeak: Luke Matthews
PhilB: How are you feeling about your Colts today?
Luke: Well, after last Sunday, a little all over the place I’d say. I think that’s the best way to describe the team right now. Our defense obviously looks incredibly strong. We’ve got guys like Bobby Okereke and Anthony Walker who are coming in and making huge plays, even without Darius Leonard. It’s great to see the defense, all sections of the defense just dominating. But right now, it’s definitely a little concerning on offense, to say the least.
PhilB: I guess we should bring up the elephant in the room and ask you what you think about quarterback Philip Rivers?
Luke: I was one of his biggest supporters of being signed here when it all first happened. I was trying to convince my brothers, my friends, and everyone, getting ‘em on board, ‘Hey, he’s going to work out. He’s going to be great with (head coach Frank) Reich and (offensive coordinator Nick) Sirianni. Today, now that I’m sitting here, I don’t know if I feel the same way. If you look at his season stats so far that they’re as bad as they’re being made out to be, but when you watch the games, the picks that he’s had have been so crucial. It’s kind of disappointing whenever you consider we paid $25 million and he’s supposed to be a 17-year vet that’s coming in and minimizing those mistakes. I think at this point, I’d rather have a rookie like Jacob Eason making those mistakes.
PhilB: That’s a good point. I’m afraid the Colts are invested in Rivers. I know some people are clamoring for backup Jacoby Brissett in social media in the last few days. Where do you stand on that?
Luke: I think they have a valid reason. If you watch the game on Sunday, what’s more concerning to me than Rivers’ play right now is how the coaching staff is going about handling it. You see Reich’s comments after the (Browns) game, when asked about Rivers’ play, he’s said he’s doing nothing wrong, he’s playing good football. To me, that was a little alarming. I love coach Reich. I think he’s very intelligent. But I don’t see how you watch that game and then you think that afterward. A little more honesty and a little more transparency from the coaching staff would be nice to see right now. Brissett, I think he’d probably be an upgrade as it stands, but I understand the coaching staff sees more than I do and they would know best. But right now, it does seem they’re overly invested in Rivers and not wanting to be as honest and transparent as they possibly could be.
PhilB: I’ve covered these guys for almost as long as you’ve been alive, and I’ve never in all my years understood why there’s that tendency to always feel the need to accentuate the positive. Are we to believe players are so sensitive that you can’t just come out and say, ‘Hey, he made a couple of bad plays, they were critical, and he’ll be the first one to admit it.’ Ironically, Philip wasn’t the first one to admit it. He was snippy with us. Philip is being paid $25 million, he knows what he signed up for. Are you really worried about offending your quarterback by saying, ‘We can’t have the pick-six. We’ve got to clean that up. It was a crucial mistake.’
Luke: Absolutely, and on with that point, isn’t that part of the reason why we brought him in? He’s 38 years old. We brought him in here to be the guy who can handle that, who can take the fall, who can be the leader who says, ‘Hey, that was on me today, guys. I made that mistake.’ And when they’re asking about T.Y. Hilton and why he isn’t playing so great, take that one and don’t put that on Hilton. After the game Sunday, you may have been involved with the postgame presser when they were talking to Philip, when you hear his responses saying, ‘We didn’t get it done today’ and ‘Oh man, I wish I would have just held on for a second because Jack Doyle was sure going to be there,’ it just kind of sounded defensive and doesn’t sound like a 17-year vet. The whole crack on Eason was that he was immature and he was a little too cocky. But right now, what are you hearing from Philip Rivers? It sounds like he can’t accept the fact that he’s the one struggling in our offense right now. If he’s going to be the starter, that’s fine, but he definitely has work to do, and they need to do it quick before we hit that bye.
PhilB: I hate to bring up a name to you, and I’m not trying to stab at an old wound — and believe me, it’s an old wound in our house — but one of the many thinks I generally appreciated about Andrew Luck is he always said more than anything, and I believe this about him, his No. 1 priority was not to let his teammates down. He apologized to a fault and took blame for things even when they weren’t his fault. So it’s a weird kind of flip in that we have to deal with a guy like this. I wanted to hear Rivers say, ‘I screwed up on that pick-six.’ I need more than him saying, ‘It wasn’t a good play.’ I know it wasn’t a good play. Everybody and their mother knew it wasn’t a good play. Say, ‘I panicked.’ He stepped up in the pocket both times he got picked, and if he didn’t get picked on the second one by one guy, there was another guy there in front of Mo Alie-Cox, so I don’t know what you could have been looking at.
Luke: That was an awful pass.
PhilB: That’s the problem. The four picks in the two losses — you don’t blame the one against the Vikings because Mo Alie-Cox just coughed it up — but the four picks in the two losses were just bad interceptions. I don’t want to hear him accentuate the positives. I want him to say he expects more of himself and he hates to let his team down. I don’t hear that. I hear a seasoned professional saying, ‘Well, that’s just football, guys. We’ll get ready and play the next one.’
Luke: Right, and he’s been kind of consistent with everything this year, every time he comes out and is talking, he’s pointing out every little detail he can about the offense, ‘Hey we did this,’ or ‘Hey, we’re doing great at this’ or whatever it may be. He’s never one to say there was this play, this play, and this play where ‘I messed up and here’s how I messed up,’ and I’m going to get back to the drawing board and fix it. We keep hearing that cheesy line about getting back to the drawing board and fix it, but we don’t hear any sort of, ‘Here’s what we did wrong’ and ‘Here’s how we’re acknowledging it.’ Like you said, coming from the Andrew Luck and Peyton Manning days, that’s not something I was used to as a Colts fan. I think it just adds a little extra sting to it when it’s now Philip Rivers wearing our uniform and he’s kind of changing our culture there. I’m not a big fan of that. I also think it’s kind of counter-intuitive to what Reich and GM Chris Ballard preach every day. It’s hard for me to see Reich defending it so passionately.
PhilB: Frank sold Chris on Rivers, I’m convinced of it. And I don’t blame him. They wouldn’t have been thinking about Rivers and Frank wouldn’t have sold Chris on this if he wasn’t convinced Rivers was a step up from Jacoby. They thought Jacoby had a ceiling and was limited. Believe me, by the end of the year last year, I was so tired of Jacoby’s lack of vision, it distressed me beyond belief. So I’m not against them taking a shot. Serious, $25 million for a one-year flyer, OK, I’ll give them credit for taking a shot. But don’t keep pushing and selling the narrative. They can say the media is wrong and we’re knee-jerk reactionaries and don’t know what we’re talking about, but I think most fans see the same thing and we’re not exactly having to sell you on the points we’re making.
Luke: Exactly, and when you look at the response after what you said about that last game, I was one of his biggest proponents coming into this season. I think it was a great move, on paper, coming in.
PhilB: Yeah, I was going to keep an open mind. I looked at every one of his 20 interceptions last year, and believe me, some of them distressed me, but I told myself, ‘You’ve got to keep an open mind. You’ve got to think the football guys know more about it than I do, so we’ll see what happens.’
Luke: Right, and my whole posture with it was, ‘Hey, let’s give him a chance. Let’s see. I think Reich and Sirianni may be onto something here.’ But I want to see that transparency and that honesty. If we’re going into Week 6 and he’s playing some bad football, I’d at least like to hear from those guys saying, ‘Hey, we acknowledge that this guy is playing some bad football and we’re going to do whatever it takes to figure it out.’ It sounds a little bit defensive. We know that these guys are the ones who brought him in. We know he’s their guy. It’s a little concerning for me when I think about the future of this season. I’m wondering are they going to be willing to bench him if he keeps this play up for the entire season? And I hate to say it, I love Frank, but will his pride get in the way of making a good football decision? That’s kind of scary for me right now.
PhilB: Yeah, I don’t think we need to hear more of how Philip is a Hall of Fame quarterback. Well, then, I want to see him play like it. Because, frankly, the last two really good quarterbacks here in my mind were Hall of Famers. Peyton is going in and Andrew would have gone in if the Colts didn’t get him beat up. I try to tell people the bar is kind of set high here by all of us. If we were somewhere else and had never seen a great quarterback in ages, that would be one thing. But we’ve seen what great looks like, and this ain’t it.
Luke: There’s no fooling us. At the same time, the whole sales pitch has been about all he’s done with the Chargers throughout his career. To be fair, that’s all he’s ever had. But at the same time, I’m not so concerned with what he did with the Chargers. I’m concerned with what he’s doing right now with the Colts. We need to be able to put the past in the past and look at this current season with a fresh set of eyes and just see what kind of quarterback play we’re getting. If his name wasn’t Philip Rivers and he didn’t have a relationship with Reich, would they be as steadfast with him and as passionate about starting him as they are right now? I’d honestly have to say I don’t think so.
PhilB: That’s a great point. I hadn’t even thought about that.
Luke: That’s kind of what’s been troubling me ever since Sunday. Did we just get ourselves in a situation where Ballard allowed Frank to go get his guy, so to speak, and he went and got his guy but now it’s not working out and he’s not willing to let it go? Looking at the next few weeks, we’ve got the Bengals, then the bye week, then we come back at the Lions. After that, Week 9 to Week 12 is a really tough stretch. We have the Ravens, Titans, Packers, and then the Titans again. If we can’t figure out our QB situation, and really figure it out in the next three weeks, we’re going to have some trouble going into that four-week stretch.
PhilB: That’s the part that really disturbs me. The Colts haven’t played a top defense yet, and Rivers has had trouble with the Jaguars and Browns. Let’s face it, the Colts defense won three games in a row on its won. The defense made it easy. All Rivers had to do was hand it off and make a few throws. It wasn’t taxing.
Luke: I look at the last game on Sunday, geez, the defense did everything it possibly could to keep us in that game. Even after he threw the pick-six and even after the safety, we got a pick right after that. The defense did all its could.
PhilB: Yeah, the defense without Darius Leonard had a bad first half, then it comes back and Baker Mayfield has 19 passing yards and two completions in the second half and the Colts picked him twice. The Browns were limping to the finish line and the Colts offense gives them nine points.
Luke: Then you just remember the fact that you signed this guy for $25 million. I feel like that was a game like we would see last year, and all Colts fans would be just tearing Brissett apart for it after the game, saying, ‘Hey, we need to be looking for a new QB now.’ But Rivers gets to come in and do that and kind of be smug about it afterward, and it’s not even a question if he’s going to be the quarterback next week. I think that’s a little unfair. Also, if you consider last season with Brissett and all the headaches we had with that, if you had this same defense right now and you have a fresh Brissett who is healthy, I’m going to have to say as it stands currently in this season, I like our chances better with that than I do with the way Rivers is playing right now. If they get it together and change some of the offensive play-calling and kind of get the offense a little more coming for the throat, then maybe it changes. But where it stands right now, if you had last year’s Brissett and this year’s defense, we’re looking at a different situation right now going into Week 6.
PhilB: I think they’ll win Sunday against the Bengals. People will feel better. Well, some people will. Then after the bye, the Colts go to Detroit. If they don’t win there, then the alarm bells are ringing louder. And like you said, the stretch after that, then you’re going to face a real good defense in Baltimore. A couple of them with the Titans. And Green Bay isn’t a pushover, either. Except for against Kansas City, Baltimore has been throttling teams on defense.
Luke: That’s the scariest matchup for me right now. I’m terrified of that matchup. And the Baltimore offense is extremely hot, too. They’re not going to waste many possessions. Our defense is great, but if we’re putting our defense on the field as much as we did on Sunday, I don’t know how we’re going to keep up with the offense we have now.
PhilB: Let me ask you this. I’m guessing you like what GM Chris Ballard has done rebuilding, the trade for DeForest Buckner, some of the draft picks have been promising, Rodrigo Blankenship has kicked the ball well, do you feel the Colts are in good hands with Ballard? And if so, the biggest question is Ballard’s relationship with Frank Reich, and the job Reich is doing compared to Ballard?
Luke: The first part, absolutely, I think Ballard is one of the best executives in the league. I think he’s a phenomenal drafter. Look at the not-so-popular aspects of this draft. Our special teams draft was incredible this year. Rodrigo was undrafted, and linebacker Jordan Glasgow was drafted in the sixth round and he’s proven to be really valuable on special teams. And you have the 101-yard return from Isaiah Rodgers, a sixth-round guy.
PhilB: That was sweet.
Luke: Oh yeah, that was awesome to see. That was great. You see (special-teams coach) Bubba Ventrone running on the sidelines with Rodgers. Ballard is one of the best executives in the league. We’re incredibly fortunate to have him. I think Reich is a great coach as well. But I will say this season is going to be a good litmus test for us to really kind of feel out is Reich 100 percent about the mantra he’s instilled? What we see on the tape and what we put on the field speaks for itself. If he really is about that, then we’ll see this season. I think right now, it’s a little early to pull out pitchforks for Rivers and for Reich or whomever else, but I am a little concerned with the comments made Sunday. I am a little concerned with the play-calling so far this season. But ultimately, I do think Reich is a great coach. I think with where we’re at right now and our staff has put us in a good position, especially with Ballard. You have to assume that when Ballard is watching on Sunday, he’s kind of crawling in his skin, seeing this play from Rivers. I’m a little concerned with how this relationship is going to go on throughout this season if Reich is refusing to look another way.
PhilB: If I talked to Ballard in an interview right now, he would be protective of everybody, that’s his nature, he will defend the ‘Shoe’ because he doesn’t want us to detect any chinks in the armor. But privately, he’s a wolf who just bit off one of his paws after that pick-six. I would blame him one iota if he walked up to Reich and said, ‘What was Rivers thinking? How could he make that throw?’
Luke: That’s something I was talking to my brothers about, I was thinking, ’How do you think Ballard feels right now, watching this game?’ I would have paid to be a fly on the wall wherever he was watching that game. I was sure he was just livid. You pay a guy $25 million specifically for the point of these mistakes not happening. How does a veteran make this kind of mistake? When you see a veteran like that panicking, and the biggest thing for me this year I can’t stand is how he telegraphs the receiver he’s going to, and all of the issues he’s having, and again this whole season they’re saying we’re still winning games and he’s not doing that bad of a job, but when you look at the mistakes he is making, those are exactly the mistakes you worry about from a rookie. You brought him in to minimize those mistakes. It’s so obvious to us. It’s getting hard to defend it. It’s getting hard to be sold on that at this point.
PhilB: I suppose we talked too much about Rivers, but is there something else you’d like to say to summarize. Ballard keeps chipping away at it. I’m guessing he’ll figure something out about quarterback eventually.
Luke: I honestly think we’re in great hands. I still think that we could still have a positive outlook for this season. It’s easy to see a bad game on Sunday and panic and fire the alarms and everyone freaks out, then watch, we’ll come out on Sunday and if we have a great game, everybody will be calm about it. We obviously have a clear issue going on with our QB, but if you look around the rest of our team, there’s a lot to be excited about. The defense is the best I’ve seen as a Colts fan I think in my entire life. The depth in all positions despite maybe the offensive line is incredible. And another thing, people need to understand the offensive line hasn’t been quite performing as it was last year, and it will get to that point. There are a lot of aspects of this team right now that maybe aren’t exactly where they’re going to be, but they’re getting there. I think we have a lot to be happy about and excited about as Colts fans.
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