November 11, 2024 • 43 mins
Vibes are high as Rob King, Craig Wolfley, and Matt Williamson recap the Steelers incredible victory against the Commanders on Sunday as the black and gold remain in first place in the AFC North.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Steelers Point After Show on wdb E Pittsburgh,
brought to you by your neighborhood Ford Store. The F
one fifty is the official truck of the Pittsburgh Steelers
by Brian Patton and associates. It's all about the benefits
by the Steelers Pro Shop. Get it direct from the
team at shop dot Steelers dot com and by Clearview
Federal Credit Union get the financial answers you need. And
(00:22):
now here are your hosts, Rob King, Craig Wolfley and
Matt Williamson.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
And thank you very much for being with us on
the Point After here in this Tothers Audio and network
Following this Tothers twenty eight to twenty seven win on
the road against the first place Washington Commanders. It was
the leaders of the AFC North You're Steelers against the
leaders of the NFC East of Washington Commanders SS win
twenty eight twenty seven. Alongside Matt Williamson and Craig Wolfley.
(00:48):
I'm Rob King, and our first reaction is brought to
you by First National Bank. Let's get started, member FDIC
wolf as always, let's get started with you and your
first impressions on the Steelers victory over the Commanders.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Man, that was just such a rip roaring game. I
was having just the best time hanging out in the
booth with you, king Er, you know, I gotta tell you,
that was really an example of, in my mind, what
a future Hall of Fame quarterback does versus a rookie
who could well be a Rookie of the Year candidate,
I would think, you know. And that difference between the two,
one able to make the plays at the crucial times,
(01:23):
one that didn't quite be able to do it. That
was offset also by a defense that rose to the
occasion to make crucial stops and one that didn't come
as close to making those crucial stops as the other.
I mean to me, that's where the whole thing comes
down to. And it was just magnificent job by Mike
(01:43):
Tomlin and the crew there and getting these guys pointed
in the right direction and keeping them behind, keeping them
between the white lines.
Speaker 4 (01:50):
Matt, it'd be an awesome environment you guys were at.
I mean, it just looked like a fun day of
good football, playoff caliber teams. As Wolf mentioned, the old
veteran quarterback who still has it, then the young Pop
and stealer Nation taking over, and there's a lot of
things done peel most of them positive obviously, But I
thought what was crucial in this game was there was
(02:11):
probably rob seven to ten massive plays, you know that
could have kind of gone either way in the end.
You know, that last one was zach Ertz wasn't quite
there at the first down marker. I mean, that was
one of them. There was a ton of huge plays
in this game. Two on special teams.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Yeah it was. And you know, before we get too
far down the line, and it was a great atmosphere
filled with not only the things you mentioned, but a
twenty eight dollars nacho plate that was imbibed involved by
the students fans in front of us. I peered over
the top after we saw him struggling off. I think
it took three people to carry the nacho plate up
the stairs into the position right below us. And I
(02:53):
leaned down after midway through the first quarter to see,
you know, what kind of progress he were making. It
It was gone nowhere to be found. Goho Steelers, fans,
uh matt Worth. It looked like a lot a lot
of not shows, you know, So I did want to
ask you this Matt before we get too far down
the road. You know, I brought up this point because
(03:14):
I've been thinking about a lot recently in terms of
what Russell Wilson means to the Steelers, and I wonder,
you know, nationally, Mike Tomlin has a tremendous reputation. We
know that. Of course, locally, any team, any fan base
is going to be more critical and more praiseworthy of
their own than anybody else. So you know, Mike Tomlin, Hey,
(03:34):
he can't get him. He can't get him in, you know,
deep into the playoffs and all these other things. And
you know, you've had this stat about how well they've
done in you know, one score games, and you think
about how he's been able to manufacture victories without a
quarterback like Russell Wilson. This is a reminder of what
a nine time Pro bowler and a potential future Hall
(03:55):
of Fame quarterback looks like under center. It's been a
while maybe we forgot what it looks like. I think
some of the aggressive nature of his play calls. Early
on in his career, Matt he was viewed as a
very aggressive coach, and then that camed a little bit
in the in the subsequent seasons, and I'm wondering, you know,
that reputation, you know, and of course we're talking about this,
(04:17):
you know, the statistical things going forward and fake punts
and that sort of thing. But I think now we're
seeing that's very much as nature because he's got a
quarterback he trusts the aggressive calls as far as going
forward on fourth down in your own territory, not that
he didn't do it before, but I don't know, a
lot of these things seem to be adding up to
me that you know, maybe some fans will have an
(04:39):
appreciation and maybe I even have a greater appreciation of
what he was able to accomplish the last several years
without that top notch type of quarterback.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
Yeah, I don't have a ton to add to that.
I think you said that really really well. But I mean,
it seems like no matter what ingredients you give Mike Tomlin,
he's gonna make a pretty darn good meal.
Speaker 5 (04:59):
And you know know I mean, and.
Speaker 4 (05:01):
Has such a great feel for his team, the whole
vibe of the organization from owner to those of the people,
you know, taking care of the fields and mopping the
floors and lunch. I mean everybody just has a great
feel for his environment. And one thing I've stressed about
Tomlin that I very much believe, and I mean it
(05:23):
is a massive compliment, is if you give him a
bottom ten quarterback situation, he wins more than he loses
and he usually gets you to the playoffs. But if
you give him a top ten quarterback situation, they're in
the hunt for the Super Bowl.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Right, great deal. Yeah, And to extend that analogy, Wolf,
if you give him twenty eight dollars worth of nacho material,
he'll give you a forty dollars plate of nachos. I mean,
it really is. I don't know if that really worked.
It sounded better in my head. Wolf. Anything else to
add to that about Mike Tomlin and the job he's
done and this this team, you know, in general, as
(06:01):
we circle back to what this victory means, it really has.
I felt like going into the break it had the
feel of a team that could do some damage once
it got to the playoffs. You have to get there first.
This was a big win and I think an indicator
that you can go on the road, as you might
have to do in the playoffs and play a top
notch team and come away.
Speaker 5 (06:20):
With a victory.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
There's no question about it. And I think what really
kind of sealed the deal in my mind was when
the Steelers got down ten points, I didn't feel it
like they're at all in trouble. I thought, you know,
you still have this opportunity to be able to implement
what you need to do. Go about your business and
take the ball away or put the ball in the
end zone. Whatever it is that you need to do,
they were fully capable of doing. And that only comes
(06:42):
when you have a sense at the end of the
road that there's something bigger lying for you. That comes
from a team that has now been through you know,
a good number of contests have sweated out, you got blood,
sweat and tears cementing you together, and they are forming
and performing like a team that is capable of doing
something serious at the end of the year. What that is,
(07:03):
we'll see, you know. But as we progress along the road,
and as each week presents a lesson to these guys,
they pick up the lesson, they seem to take it
in and then perform better for it. And what I
liked that I that.
Speaker 5 (07:17):
I loved most of all was the fact that you.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Outdominated a dominating time of possession team, and you did
so in a way what I thought was so huge
because the Steelers performed better on the road time of
possession then they do at home, and the and the
wash Cooms are better on the road than the time
then at home. And if I got that right, Matt,
(07:40):
because you know, I get myself in those those circles.
You know, one of them did better on the road,
one of them did better at home, and they reversed
it in a sense that you know, they were able
to do something.
Speaker 5 (07:50):
Somebody something had to give, somebody had.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
To win the time of possession Steelers did thirty six
thirty Yeah, is huge to a team like that, especially
paid off in the game.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Yeah, it did. That's exactly right. And I think about it,
you know when I think of time and possession and look,
three point three yards per carry. This Steelers want to
do better than that. But they stuck with it forty
three runs. And you know, sometimes we'll bring up the
boxing analogy that's like going to the body and then
later you hope those hands come down and to protect
the body or your wear out the opponent, and it
pays off in the long run. But the other thing
about hither boxing analogy that I would bring up, Matt
(08:24):
is that you know, everybody wants the perfect game, and
I think most fans are really thrilled with the outcome yesterday,
and it was an exciting game obviously, but even within that,
I think, boy, I'd love to see this dominating stretch. Well,
it just it doesn't happen. You know, it doesn't happen
that often. If you watch two evenly matched fighters, then
(08:45):
one fighter is not gonna win twelve rounds to none,
you know what I mean. It's a point or two
either way. You lost the middle rounds, you got staggered
and almost knocked out in the eighth, but you rallied back,
you know what I mean. That's just the nature of competition.
When you get too even the match teams that it's
not going to be the Oh we executed every We
scored touchdowns in every drive and held them to three
(09:06):
and ounce on every drive. These things are gonna happen,
and at the end of the day, you still got
to get.
Speaker 5 (09:11):
That w one.
Speaker 4 (09:12):
And I'm far from an expert on Major League Baseball,
Hockey NBA, but you do see those games a lot
more in those sports, you know, or stretches like that,
where you don't in football, because first of all, it's
such a physical game and you only play once a
week and you gear up and it's so different, you know,
for play caller to play caller and game planning. But
(09:34):
I also think you can't ever forget that the league,
starting with the commissioner all the way down once as
much parody as possible. So to expect dominance week after
week and have perfect games really is not how this
league is designed, let alone any any of the teams.
And we were talking about Tomlin a little bit ago,
and I think we all know Cam Hayward as you know,
the leader of this team, and you know has a
(09:56):
trickle down effect as well in the locker room. But
to mass important, But I just wanted to call out
the two Edge guys and Preston Smith as well. But
Watt and high Smith are tremendous football players. We know that,
But they're also such smart players and unselfish players, like
their stats have not blown us away lately.
Speaker 5 (10:17):
I mean, if TJ.
Speaker 4 (10:17):
Watt every snap all he cared about was getting a sack,
he'd have a lot more sacks. But instead they played
the team game. They bought in. They kept Jayden Daniels
in the pocket. They're not letting him run with the football.
He ends up with five rushing yards. That's doing it
for their teammates. You know they're doing all the dirty
work too.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Yes, And I think the other thing on that Matt too,
is that And again, we just saw some of the replays.
You know, we're up there calling the game and they've
got the replay monitor, but we're paying attention to what's
going on in the field. But they had a little
bit of a package and I didn't see all of it,
but showing you know, TJ. Watt not only getting chipped,
but then getting double teamed. And think about that. So
(10:57):
if you maintain your rush integrity, by the way, come
up with some big plays when you needed a couple
quarterback hits late that were vital for the Steelers. We
you absolutely had to have him. But he contains a
quarterback that doesn't show up on the statu sheet. What
also doesn't show up on his stat sheet is if
you're double teaming him, then maybe Cam Hayward's getting one
blocker and guess what Cam Hayward at two blocks or
(11:18):
two sacks. He's a good player next to you. And
then if you are, if Eckler or Ertz has to
chip you, well that helps your coverage guys. So not
only can you make an impression on the game, but
you can help two of your other teammates to make
impressions on the game. And when you're surrounded by as
many good football players as TJ. Watt is, that's going
(11:40):
to bear fruit for you.
Speaker 4 (11:41):
Yeah, and this is also really applies to the upcoming
opponent obviously with Lamar Jackson, but you know, you know,
really just looking at this game, all the read option
that these teams do with the super mobile quarterbacks at
high percentage of the time they're reading TJ. Or high
Smith and high Smith and those guys are playing it
obviously down from the defensive coaching staff that we want
(12:03):
the running backs carrying the ball. We're gonna play defense
and basically scream it to the Hilltops that we're not
gonna let the quarterbacks run. We want the ball to
get handed or pitched to the running back. Well, Patrick
Queen's in those meetings too and knows these things, you know,
so he's key and on the back, you know, right.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
I wondered if maybe, well if that was a reason
and again not an excuse, but part of a reason
why Tracy had the big game for the Giants.
Speaker 5 (12:25):
Oh, it absolutely was.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
I mean we talked about it earlier, like Jones had
big you know, people maybe don't think of Jones in
quite the same way. And he's more of a hammer runner.
I mean, my goodness, he's like he's like Eddie George,
you know, he's more of a big a big rangye
you know, guy, Yeah, he's gonna run India as opposed
to sliding by you. But you know, they negated Jones,
they negated Daniels, and now those are two wonderful warmups
(12:48):
for hopefully trying to do the same to Lamar Jackson.
But you know, again, and going back to what I
was saying to Matt here, you know, the other guys
are getting paid to the other guys have good players
as well. The Washington Commanders, I'm sure they're thinking, man,
if we got a break or two, we could have
won that game. And they could have. They're a good team.
They're worthy of being able to give another good team
(13:09):
a really good game. And the Giants look Tracy, you know,
I saw him at the beginning of the season, and
I was talking about this with I think Matt, you
know is that I watch I get to watch an
entire season in five days, right like what you watch
a season unfold for a team, because I'm watching them
leading up to that game. So I'm watching Tracy early
on and I was talking to Matt and Dale on
(13:31):
Thursday and I was like, I don't know, he doesn't
look like all that good to me, and they were like,
hang on a second now. And then I watched his
next several games and I'm like, wait a minute, this
guy's pretty good. And sure enough, he was pretty good.
Look again, they're trying to beat you too. They're not
just you know, they're not going to just stay one dimensional.
They're not only going to do one thing. And but
but I think you know, by and large, this Tod's defense,
(13:53):
coupled with the offense and then tripled with the special teams,
it's been a winning formula.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
I mean, I couldn't agree more. Everyone is very bought in,
and I'm not knocking the former quarterbacks. But we started
the show talking about Wilson effect. I think that has
a lot to do with it too. I mean, it's
more of a bend like feeling in the huddle, off
the field, all those things we saw the camp, just
the way he walks around.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
Right, you know, let me just say this too. They
by minimizing Jaden Daniel's double edged sword that he's capable
of producing. You know, you're talking about the RPOs and
the mesh points so forth. The mesh point, you you know,
you can crash it, you can slow play it, but
you've got to be in constant communication. That's call has
got to come from the sidelines. It's got to come
from the players, from from the defensive end on that side,
(14:43):
to the inside linebackers and the safeties, whoever's crept up
in the box, so that you have absolute knowledge of
who's got the mesh point and who's got the whatever's left,
you know what I mean. So in that point, I
think it was a great job by the defense to
beat very clear about what responsibilities were.
Speaker 4 (15:02):
Who's Yeah, it's a smart and unselfish defense, yes, yeah, yep.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
And by the way we are, we're just getting started
and I'm you know, thinking about the name of the show,
and I'm thinking about that touchdown pass at the end,
and the guy celebrating a little bit in the end zone,
and I was like, get off the field so they
can kick the point after, which is what they needed
to win the game. Don't get a penalty and make
it any more difficult for Boswell, not that he wouldn't
(15:27):
have drove it through anyway. Steelers win twenty eight to
twenty seven. Weird. Just as I mentioned, getting started, will
continue with more with Craig Wolfley and Matt Williamson on
the point after on the Steelers Audio Network.
Speaker 5 (15:39):
Back to the point after on DVD.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
Wilson settles, back, raises the foot, gets the snap back
to pass looking gonna floated up left for Williams And
why are you going up in the end zone? You
wanna throw? You wanna catch? Mike Williams did his first
game in a Steelers uniform, has holed in a thirty
two yard touchdown stripe from Russell Wilson, and the play
(16:05):
of the game is brought to you by S and
T Bank, proudly serving our community since nineteen oh two.
stBank dot com S and T Bank member Fdi C.
Wolf I thought that I thought the Pickens catch couldn't
be overshadowed because it was just a remarkable twisting catch
in the back of the end zone and you know,
(16:26):
falling flat on your back, one hand on it, then
two hand on it, and to be able to hang
on through the catch. I mean, Pickens is just he's
showing again. He's just a special player. But that took
the cake. That that topped it.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
There's no question about it. It was just a awesomeman. I
apologize for stepping on your lines.
Speaker 5 (16:44):
Because I've jumped up.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
If there had been a roof over my head, I
would have drilled myself and knocked myself out because I
was so excited by that catch.
Speaker 5 (16:52):
It was dynamite. And by the way, I do have
a bone to pick with you.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
I just realized.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
You know, he said, no boxer lout goes and loses
twelve rounds. I'm sorry, but I remember Randall text Cob
lost to Larry Holmes, and he lost all twelve or
fifteen rounds. I can't remember.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Yeah, I remember that fight. I'm talking about too. Evenly
match text Cob.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
Nobody took punches like text Cop. Let me tell you something, Okay.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
All you need to do is go watch Raising Arizona tonight.
This guy could be flung off a motorcycle at top
speed and survive anyway, go ahead, yes, yes.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
But you know the amazing thing about that was then
another example of what a Hall of Famer looks like
out on the field.
Speaker 5 (17:31):
You know, in the huddle.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
First of all, you lose Calvin Austin, all right, So
that play had been worked and designed for Calvin. That
was gonna be Calvin's play. They'd run it and practice
and so forth. So what happens You got Mike Williams.
Are gonna put him in the game because Calvin got
hurt on the play before two plays before. So you're
gonna take your six to four guy, put him out
(17:52):
there on the left side. And it's all because Russ
is No, I want Mike out there, and I'm gonna
put the ball to him, and he did.
Speaker 5 (17:59):
I mean, I just can't even tell you what I mean.
That's that's like.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
Babe Ruth calling his shot, you know what I mean,
just saying, Hey, I'm gonna take this wide receiver, this
guy that I only had a week's three practices with,
and I'm gonna put him out there and I'm gonna
drop the ball where he ain't gonna miss it. And
I know he's he's a great player and he's not
going to miss it, and it all came together.
Speaker 4 (18:21):
Yeah, it's a lot of trust, you know, from all
those guys, and you just expand upon it. I wasn't
in the locker room, but just reading some of the quotes,
I guess several of the reporters, Oh, that's something you
and Russ worked on in during practice, you know, stutter go.
He's like, no, I haven't never run that route as
a Steeler yet there's like drown it up in the dirt. Yeah,
there you go.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Yeah, it's you know, and I want to get back
to a couple of these things. But uh, Wolf, I
will say this, of the three of us, only one
of us has been in the huddle with a guy
like Terry Bradshaw. Oh yeah, I think that's accurate.
Speaker 5 (18:56):
Bat right, Yeah, Oh that's pretty safe.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Say what is that kind of well? What does that?
What does that do to a team when you have
a quarterback or that confidence level but not just confidence level.
I think most guys are confident when they get out there,
but the pedigree and the knowledge in the huddle that Okay,
he's got this, because this isn't the first time he's
going to try to do this.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
You got ten pairs of eyeballs staring at the quarterback
and all those guys want to know for sure, kid,
you have confidence in this man?
Speaker 5 (19:24):
Do you believe in this man?
Speaker 3 (19:25):
And there are certain guys that you know they raise
that expectation level because they deliver, and Russ is one
of those guys that does it. You know he's able
to deliver and that he's got a proven track record
of that, and that just inspires the rest of the
eyeballs in that huddle to go and do the job
and do it to the max effort, because you really
(19:46):
believe this guy can pull your fanny out of the
fire at any given moment, no matter what the situation is.
There's belief there that in hanging together, positive things will
result if you just do your job. And that's the
bottom line, and that's all any player can ask for
is the ability to have each and every guy win
their one eleventh. And you got the one guy out
(20:06):
there who's winning more of his one eleventh than the
other guy, and the other on the opposite team is
winning his one eleventh.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
And getting back to something we were saying earlier, Matt. Look,
I thought that the if the Steelers hit that fake punt,
you know, maybe Pierre makes one guy miss and you know,
takes it to the house, or or you score a
touchdown there, that could have been a huge momentum. That
could have been something a blow from which Amnum swing,
(20:34):
a blow from which the Commanders might not have been
able to recover. They did recover, they came back, they scored.
But in the past, it just feel it felt like
to win a game against the top team. And listen,
Mike Tomlin now has more wins in the last couple
of years over teams that are five games or more
over five hundred. Nobody has more, right, That's that's impressive
(20:56):
when you're talking about a team that is not, you know,
has not been a twelve, thirteen to fourteen win team.
That having been said, it felt like in the past, Okay,
we got to hit a special team's play, we gotta
win the turnover battle, something's got to happen in down ten.
You know, Yeah, the momentum wasn't going your way. You're
not saying, ah, we got this, but I think still
(21:19):
having some confidence that you can come back from a
situation like that that you're not sitting there, as I
jokingly said earlier, thinking well, you know, how do we
kick four field goals and overcome this ten point deficit
in a quarter and a half. You don't have to
think that way anymore, and I think that that can
have a permeating effect on the rest of your team,
the players and the coaches, how the game is coached,
(21:41):
how the game is played.
Speaker 5 (21:42):
Oh, without question.
Speaker 4 (21:43):
And we've all dealt, you know, dug into the stats
and they don't really apply as much anymore. But really,
over the last handful of years, this team loses a
turnover battle, they lose. You know, if they lose the
sack battle, they lose, you know what I mean, Like,
there's all these strong tendencies that you're always swimming upstream
because one interception ruins your game, you know. And it's
(22:05):
just such a fine line in such a difficult way
to play this game because there's always gonna be bad bounces.
But now you touchdowns aren't irregular, passing touchdowns aren't irregular.
Speaker 5 (22:16):
I mean, it's.
Speaker 4 (22:18):
Amazing to me how the Steelers really you open the
show by saying this, I mean, it's amazing to me
how well the Steelers survived without essential things like passing touchdowns,
you know, like they're kind of important, you.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
Know, actually touchdowns in general coming here, Yes, passing touchdowns,
well that.
Speaker 4 (22:38):
One year, thirteen the next, I mean, come.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
On, yeah, a little bit like the Dodo bird are
out here hard to find. But again, let's let's then
wolf talk about this special team's call, the fake punt,
And of course it's you know, there's been different opinions
on it, you know, I think it's you know, it's
safe to say it's a great call if it works,
(23:02):
and a bad call if it doesn't work. Right, I
don't want to go there. I love the call. And
again without it being I think there's some there's some
good side effects from it. First of all, it is
letting your team know that you have confidence in them.
You have confidence in your defense, you have confidence in
your offense, you have confidence in your special teams. It's
not just a special teams thing to me. I don't
(23:23):
want to read too much into it, but that's what
it feels like to me. And it also plants a
seed in the minds of future opponents. Hey, these guys
are wildly unpredictable. We don't know what they're going to do.
And I don't think that's a bad notion to plan
in an opponent's mind as well. Am I overthinking these things?
Speaker 3 (23:40):
No, not at all, and I think it's correct. Look,
you go for it on a on a fake punt
in your own end zone and a visiting team's place
when there's a lot of moving parts of that that
could go wrong.
Speaker 5 (23:52):
I mean, they had no idea.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
They knew that the possibility existed that the guy over
the gunner would would you know, fall off and come
on the rush, But you didn't know for certain, and
you know, and you had to make a decision on that,
and it was decided to enact it and make sure
that everybody got the communication and that the ability for
this special Team's unit to pull it off. There had
(24:14):
to be high confidence. Why wouldn't there be. Look what
Danny's done with his Special Team's special Forces. They've got
the job done in so many ways in returns and blocks,
what have you. You got high confidence in this play
and that play had I would guess, had about a
ninety five percent probability of being complete based on the formation,
(24:36):
how it came about, And it was just unfortunate James
Pierre uh wasn't able to pull that ball in now.
And by the way, to his credit, he bounced back
and made some plays in the fourth quarter that I
thought in the second half, I thought, Okay, good for him,
you know, because that's a tough pill, in a bitter
pill to swallow when you you know, hornswaggle something like that,
(24:58):
and it doesn't turn out right. But the fact of
the matter was, it does show that you're ready to
go for it all, that there was not going to
be any card left untouched on the table in this game,
that everything was going to be tried and used to
get a win.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
Mike Tomlin calls it not living in your fears, right,
And I'll add one more thing to that, Matt about
when it came. It came following consecutive three and outs
from Washington, it would have been very easy to say,
boot it away, get another three and out, let's try
this offense thing again. Remember they scored the touchdown, they
forced another three and out. So you know the fact
(25:35):
that it not only came in your own territory on
the road, hostile environment all that first quarter, you know,
your own fifteen yardland, but it also came at a
time when your defense had done what you wanted it
to do, and so it would be easy to say,
boot it away and let's try this again. And I
haven't asked yet where you come down on the fake punt.
Speaker 4 (25:55):
Well, I don't know this is a fact, but my
hunch is that's been in play since week one. You know,
if they're going to give you that look with an
uncovered gunner. And I'll be very honest, I do not
watch Special teams tape. I kind of just you know,
eyeball it like everybody else. But if they're going to
give you that play, you take it. You know, you
(26:17):
check to it. Kill a Brew's the personal protector and
he checks to it is the way I interpreted it,
And like Wolfe said, I think it's going to be
completed ninety five percent of the time. I mean, that
wasn't a John Elway Dan Marino pass. But Pierre's a
capable I mean, I'm sure there's people out there going
you have a safety throw to a cornerback, how do
you expect that to work? No, I'm having an athlete
(26:37):
throw to an athlete that most high school kids would
have caught that ball. I mean and Pierre would catch
it ten out of eleven or ninety nine percent of
the time. You know, I mean, it's not a difficult
play to make. Just didn't go their way right.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
So one other thing that I thought that I really
liked in this game. And again, you know, everyone's talking
about the fake punt because it didn't work right. I've
heard fewer people talking about the fact that, once again
the Steelers, on the drive in which they wound up
fumbling the ball away, they had a fourth and one
(27:10):
from their own forty three yard line, they call a
time out and they go for it, right, So if
you don't get it there, now the Commanders are one
first down away from taking another three to four minutes
off the clock and kicking a field goal that puts
you up nine, that puts the game away in all likelihood. Instead,
(27:36):
you go on that drive. Yes, you fumble it later on,
but you get the ball back and then of course
you score the big touchdown to win. But you know,
very few people that I've heard are talking about wolf
that going forward on fourth and one inside your own
territory when a not getting that would be I don't
know if it would be catastrophic, but man, that would
(27:56):
have been hard to come back from two scorers in
a limited amount of time when you just use you
would have been down to one time out at that
at that point of the game. So kudos, I think again,
kudos to them going forward and a sign again that
this this team is you know, Mike Tomlin is aggressive
and he's uh, he's willing to go for it. He's
willing to do the unexpected or the unconventional.
Speaker 5 (28:19):
There's no question.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
I think you said it all perfectly well and laid
out the reasons for it. The fact that you out
forth downed the only team that had been eleven for
eleven in the league on fourth downs says something else
about you. You're willing to gamble and go for it,
knowing again the facts that you just laid out. Kinger
So in my mind, this is this is what happens
(28:40):
when you get a Hall of Fame quarterback in your huddle.
I mean, you're willing to do things that maybe with
some other lesser quarterbacks you're not willing to do. You know,
And I'm not pointing any fingers at anybody. I'm simply saying,
when you have that guy in the huddle who's capable
of producing like a Terry Bradshaw, like a Ben Roethlis.
(29:00):
You know, that gives you a lot more latitude in
being able to try things and do things that normally
maybe you play things a little closer to the vest
just because you're not sure of the scoring punch and
power and what the mindset is of your quarterback, because
the quarterback speaks for the whole offensive unit, you know,
I mean, he is that guy. And when Russ steps
(29:21):
into the huddle, you can see that he's quickly you know,
everybody's paying attention to him, and that he is the
big guy. You know, the same thing with Bradshaw. Bradshaw
was very much in the huddle. Just shut up and listen, Okay,
you know that's the way it is. That's cool.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
Students. Remember the final score of twenty eight to twenty seven.
More still to come when we continue in the point
after on the Steers Audio Network.
Speaker 5 (29:45):
Back to the point after on DV.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
Janiels gets a snap play action pass pressure from Cam
Hayward and he takes him down a sack back in
Commander's territory by Captain Cam Hayward Man. The sack hunger
segment is brought to you by the Greater Pittsburgh Community
Food Bank. Get food, volunteer or donate at Pittsburgh Foodbank
(30:09):
dot org. Matt Williamson don't know if the weather had
something to do with it. We saw a lot of
slipping around on the field or just the pass rush.
And you know, as you alluded to earlier, the guys
staying in their lanes and not allowing Daniels out again,
he can make plays on the edge, not only with
his feet but looking down the field. You know, add
it all up and it adds up to a nice
(30:30):
job defensively against the Commander's passing attack.
Speaker 4 (30:33):
There were a couple of things I really liked that
were a little different than what we've seen schematically, too,
is you know, it's been pretty well documented that the
Steelers run defense was a little worrisome coming into this game,
especially up the middle when they're in nickel. Well, in
early downs they had a Landon Roberts out there in Nickel.
It's a great change. I mean, that's kind of things
(30:54):
you do in the bye. You know that if it's
not third and eight or longer, we're gonna have robertson
there in the nickel there is a little bit more
of an enforcer between the tackles, and that worked out well.
We talked about the plan to not let Daniels, much
like Jones and hopefully much like Lamar, to be the
main ball carrier and the guy that's improving, and he
(31:15):
ends up with five rushing yards. I've been a little
critical too that they've been very vanilla with their coverage schemes.
You know, they drop seven, they play cover three at
the highest rate in the league, and they out execute you.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
Well.
Speaker 5 (31:28):
I saw a lot more robber.
Speaker 4 (31:30):
Concepts, different things to make Daniels at least question where
he's going with the football, and to his credit, he
made a lot of tight window throws. And you know,
we mentioned too that the opponents get paid. Terry mclaurin's
really good, you know, and he was one of the
best players in the field too.
Speaker 5 (31:46):
You Know.
Speaker 3 (31:46):
The other thing we got to consider too is, I
know that field is a little bit slippery. Some guys
didn't seem to bother cam at all.
Speaker 5 (31:55):
Watch you watch what he did to.
Speaker 3 (31:57):
Nick Algready and I'm sitting there going that guy for
the commanders, I'm not going that is a one arm
stab power lockout bull rush circa the twenty first century,
you know, I mean, just totally different than anything back
in my era. And it's amazing how he can, at
the in his fourteenth season, take a young buck and
(32:18):
take that three hundred pound cheese whopper and put him
in the lap of the quarterback time and time again,
even to the point where he had two sacks. Look,
that's just dynamic. That's awesome. That's what you do when
you lead from the front, and that's what the Steelers need,
guys like big general, you know, a Landon Roberts, like
Matt was talking about. This guy started off in the
first series on a downhill bang scraping in the B
(32:41):
gap or yeah, in the B gap one time, and
then it did a remember watching again, it was Ellagretty
double teaming and he comes off this guy and like
seconds after a Landon was already passed him, you know,
I mean, it's like he was buying him, made the
hit in the backfield, dropped him for a loss.
Speaker 5 (33:00):
But those type of things are huge when you've got
an offensive machine like Washington has.
Speaker 4 (33:06):
And I don't think the field conditions slowed down Patrick
Queen at all too. He looked like it shot out
of a missile and shot like a missile.
Speaker 5 (33:12):
Yeah. I thought it was his best Games of Stealer too.
Speaker 2 (33:14):
Patrick Queen and Deshaun Elliott's another guy, Matty. I think
it's just these guys are so noticeable.
Speaker 4 (33:19):
They really are, and it's easy to group them all
together because they're new additions. But it's apparent, you know
that they upgraded. The front office deserves a little pat
on the back for.
Speaker 5 (33:29):
Those guys too.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
You know, well that was that was gonna be my
next one for you, Matt, because you know, Omar Khan
is far too modest. If I had engineered those trades,
I'd be like, you know, after that that throwback past
the Damie Brown that just crushed the commander's momentum, Preston
Smith makes the tackle, I think there's piece of me.
I made that trade, and then Mike Williams catches the
(33:52):
touchdown pass to win it. I made that trade too,
But you know he's too modest to say that or
to even think that the true is a collaborative effort.
But you're right, Matt. I mean, congratulations kudas to him
and his staff because not only the impact that they
made in the offseason, moves, but then to have the
agility to bring guys in who immediately are paying dividends.
And Preston Smith, look, you know, you get a high
(34:14):
ankle sprain and we don't know the diagnosis right now
for Alex high Smith as we're taping the show, I
don't know it. Hopefully you know it's something that's only
going to sideline him for a couple of weeks. But
if you get a bad sprain like that, it's gonna
sideline you a couple of weeks and hopefully Nick Herbie
comes back. But here's Preston Smith ready to make a
big contribution. Just you know, kudos to the relentless nature
(34:37):
of that staff. And I know Mike Tomlin's involved in
those decisions as well, and I'm sure when they go
out and make a trade it'll go down to coordinators
and that sort of thing. But Matt, you've been much
closer to this than I think Wolf or I have.
What does happen there, and by the way, you know,
kudos to Omarkan. I'm sure you want to say that
as well. But what does happen at the trade deadline
(34:58):
as far as who is conferred with and how a
comes about well.
Speaker 4 (35:01):
I was in the league one year and by the
trade deadline, we had fired our head coach and we're
about the worst team in the league and we're dumping
anybody that anybody wanted in Cleveland. So it's a little
different situation. That was Ben's rookie year for you guys
keeping steward at home. But I mean, you're right. I mean,
Omar didn't know that Wilson's gonna draw it up in
(35:23):
the sand, that he's throwing the game winner to Mike
Williams at the trade deadline. He didn't know that Heysmith's
going to go down. But you play the numbers and
you make your team as good as you possibly can.
And I really appreciate how well he always churns the
bottom of the roster. And this seems like a small detail,
but one of my huge concerns a training camp was
they don't have any gunners. You know where the gunners
(35:44):
coming from. You go get a guy like Scornic who
makes plays on special teams. I mean that's a nice
addition too. He's not a big name guy with a
beautiful football card like Mike Williams was the top ten pick,
but you give me, the Pierre's and Scornics doing the
dirty work that weren't run the team originally. That goes
a long way. You know, it's amazing. Here's the thing
(36:06):
he just brings up Scornic. The fact was he was
watching the punt returner what's his name, just Escase at
the moment he.
Speaker 3 (36:13):
Was watching, Yeah, the keys, that's right, all my kis.
So he's watching him in warm ups and he's having
trouble judging the wind and he botches a couple of
the punts in pre in you know, in pregame warm ups.
I'm thinking to myself, that is a massive insight into
what these guys are doing. They're not out there just
warming up stuff Like I mean, I remember back in
(36:35):
my day it was just you know.
Speaker 5 (36:36):
Head butt head but head but you know sort of thing. Right,
these guys are watching and doing and then to be
able to capitalize on it, knowing that this guy's got
a problem at least in tracking the ball and the
winds that were there, I thought was just outstanding work.
Speaker 2 (36:53):
So, uh, we don't want to gloss over this victory
because let's get just one final thoughts on the victory
before we move on a little bit to Baltimore because
it is the first division game of the year. Matt,
what do you think do seven and two win means
seven to two record? Now? And this went over the Commanders, mean,
does it mean anything more to you? Does it put
the Steelers in a different category for you? Or do
(37:15):
you think maybe they're gonna be perceived a little bit
different nationally as well?
Speaker 5 (37:18):
Well?
Speaker 4 (37:19):
A couple things is you know, Dale and I mentioned
this on the drive several times that we really thought
going into this game that the two head coaches involved
in Pittsburgh and Washington were very much in the coach
of the Year battle and very deserved and the winner
of this could maybe get some more kudos that way.
And I know people aren't concerned about the future of
the Commanders, but they got to go to Philly on Thursday.
(37:42):
I mean, so that's as big a game for them
as this Ravens is for the Steelers in terms of
divisional meaningful games and all those type of things. It's
Ravens week, I mean, so, I mean, Wolf could probably
speak this better than us, But I mean, just when
the biggest rivals on board here, this game's probably gonna
(38:02):
be thirteen to three or something like that, like it
always is, even though the Ravens have an elite offense
in a worry some defense. And I really think everything's
trending really strong for the Steelers and that they were
almost the point now where the playoffs are a foregone conclusion,
that you know, how big can this thing get for them?
Speaker 5 (38:21):
Yeah? I would Matt's spot on. Look, here here's the
point it.
Speaker 3 (38:25):
This game simply confirmed to me what you need when
you've got You don't have a chance at the super
Bowl unless you have a franchise caliber quarterback.
Speaker 5 (38:34):
I mean that's just it.
Speaker 3 (38:35):
You know, they can be tremendous athletes, it can be
you know, good to fair and so forth. But unless
you have a Pro Bowl Hall of Fame caliber quarterback,
you got issues and getting to the super Bowl.
Speaker 5 (38:48):
And you know what we got, We got one. That's
what I think.
Speaker 4 (38:52):
Not to put a damper on things, but there's a
chance that the other six quarterbacks in the AFC are Mahomes, Alan, Lamar, Stroud,
Herbert and Burrow. Like it doesn't get any I mean
that's ridiculously and now you can hang with those guys.
Speaker 6 (39:10):
Yeah exactly, Yeah, and uh it does make it does
make As I'm the conversation with my son about this,
and we're kind of, you know, lining up the AFC,
and there's been a lot made about, you know, sort
of the top heavy NFC and those teams being really elite.
Speaker 2 (39:24):
But man, if Cincinnati sneaks into the playoffs, or if
you got to face Herbert and the Chargers with that
defense and a quarterback of that caliber, I mean, the
AFC is gonna be tough. I would just as soon
see Frankly, I would And maybe I'm over stating how
good I think Cincinnati, how talented I think Cincinnati is.
(39:45):
I would just as soon not see them in the
playoffs because of the quarterback, Right, Yeah, I don't want
to wish. I don't want to wish on an opponent,
but I don't want to see them. That's that's kind
of where I and hey, listen, you could do a
big part of that by by taking them out. So
Wolf Raven's week, what does it feel like? And again,
(40:09):
has this been a little bit of a warm up
act for the Steelers getting mobile quarterbacks like Daniel Jones
and Jadeen Daniels before you get Lamar and you had
that familiarity with Lamar, and I'd also say it probably
helped you deal with those other guys.
Speaker 4 (40:23):
But the fact that you Lamar is so weird for
I mean, he beats every NFCA team because they've never
seen him. Well, I think they have put the Lamar
rules on Jones and especially Daniels, you know, they're used
to it.
Speaker 5 (40:34):
Absolutely. I think you're you're one hundred percent.
Speaker 2 (40:35):
Man.
Speaker 3 (40:36):
Look, you know, here's the thing about it. You know
that it's the two trains, one track sort of thing.
That's the mindset going in. I love the game because
it reminds me of the old Cleveland days when you
had the Turnpike rivalry, which of course the Baltimore Birdies
are the old Cleveland Browns basically that's the bloodlines. But
that was that sort of intensity, you know, and intensity
(40:58):
is everything in a game.
Speaker 5 (40:59):
Man.
Speaker 3 (41:00):
Everybody goes into the game at different levels of RPMs
in their gord. Let me tell you something, everybody's humming
when it comes to this game. This is one of
these games where you you know, you don't have to
worry about cheap shots because they're going to happen, and
you don't have to send a forget me not or
I'm sorry, bouquet of flowers after, you know.
Speaker 5 (41:18):
Because it's just what it is.
Speaker 3 (41:20):
It's it's gonna be, you know, double fisted, two chin
strap type of action. And I think it's one of
these games that you really want to lean into as
far as your enthusiasm because it is going to be
raucous and crazy.
Speaker 5 (41:34):
And I look forward to it.
Speaker 2 (41:36):
Matt.
Speaker 5 (41:38):
Oh, I look forward to it as well.
Speaker 4 (41:39):
I mean, six division games ahead of you, You get
to go to Philly, which has never been the Steeler's friend,
and then you have Casey here with Santa Claus on Christmas.
I mean, so we're just getting warmed up here for
the rest of season.
Speaker 2 (41:53):
Yeah. And I you know, made the point earlier that
you think about the Gauntlet, and everybody talked about it
as soon as the schedule came out. Hey, this is
gonna be brutal after the bye week, especially after Washington, right.
Speaker 5 (42:07):
Yeah, right.
Speaker 2 (42:12):
Now, Having said that, the Browns look worse than we
probably projected them to be, but that's still division games.
That's still gonna get your get your attention. But this
strength to schedule is brutal. But boy, it sure is
fun to play a game like yesterday and and uh,
you know some of the players talking about having a
little bit of a playoff vibe in that atmosphere. You know,
(42:33):
tough on the schedule part, but man, does it make
every weekend fun.
Speaker 3 (42:38):
There's no question about it, no question about it. And
it's exciting. And I gotta say one more thing. You know,
the fact that you got some healthy bodies back was
so big against Zach Frasier, Cordero Patterson, those those types
of things those guys back was were important. Besides the
Preston Smiths and the Mike Williams and all. It all
came together in a beautiful way. And certainly you look
(43:02):
for more of that gum this weekend when the Raven Nights.
Speaker 4 (43:05):
Hopefully Herbig's back this weeeah, yeah, well that would be nice.
I think there's a chance.
Speaker 2 (43:10):
Yeah, yeah, that appears to be the case that they're hoping.
He's trending in that direction. Maybe not quite as optimistic
about the potential return of Alex Heismith. This week. Hey, guys,
gear up with the latest game day necessities the official
Studer pro shops. Get the latest Sideline apparel, jerseys, terrible towels,
authentic memorabilia and custom exclusives you can only find directly
(43:32):
from the team. Visit one of the official Students pro
shops located at Akroscher Stadium, Grove City Premium Outlets, or
Tanger Outlets, or gear up online at shop dot Steelers
dot com. For Matt Williamson, for Craig Wolfley, for our
producer Justin Miller, I'm Rob King. We thank you for
listening to the point after on the Steelers Audio Network
Welcome to the Steelers Point After Show on wdb E Pittsburgh,
brought to you by your neighborhood Ford Store. The F
one fifty is the official truck of the Pittsburgh Steelers
by Brian Patton and associates. It's all about the benefits
by the Steelers Pro Shop. Get it direct from the
team at shop dot Steelers dot com and by Clearview
Federal Credit Union get the financial answers you need. And
(00:22):
now here are your hosts, Rob King, Craig Wolfley and
Matt Williamson.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
And thank you very much for being with us on
the Point After here in this Tothers Audio and network
Following this Tothers twenty eight to twenty seven win on
the road against the first place Washington Commanders. It was
the leaders of the AFC North You're Steelers against the
leaders of the NFC East of Washington Commanders SS win
twenty eight twenty seven. Alongside Matt Williamson and Craig Wolfley.
(00:48):
I'm Rob King, and our first reaction is brought to
you by First National Bank. Let's get started, member FDIC
wolf as always, let's get started with you and your
first impressions on the Steelers victory over the Commanders.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Man, that was just such a rip roaring game. I
was having just the best time hanging out in the
booth with you, king Er, you know, I gotta tell you,
that was really an example of, in my mind, what
a future Hall of Fame quarterback does versus a rookie
who could well be a Rookie of the Year candidate,
I would think, you know. And that difference between the two,
one able to make the plays at the crucial times,
(01:23):
one that didn't quite be able to do it. That
was offset also by a defense that rose to the
occasion to make crucial stops and one that didn't come
as close to making those crucial stops as the other.
I mean to me, that's where the whole thing comes
down to. And it was just magnificent job by Mike
(01:43):
Tomlin and the crew there and getting these guys pointed
in the right direction and keeping them behind, keeping them
between the white lines.
Speaker 4 (01:50):
Matt, it'd be an awesome environment you guys were at.
I mean, it just looked like a fun day of
good football, playoff caliber teams. As Wolf mentioned, the old
veteran quarterback who still has it, then the young Pop
and stealer Nation taking over, and there's a lot of
things done peel most of them positive obviously, But I
thought what was crucial in this game was there was
(02:11):
probably rob seven to ten massive plays, you know that
could have kind of gone either way in the end.
You know, that last one was zach Ertz wasn't quite
there at the first down marker. I mean, that was
one of them. There was a ton of huge plays
in this game. Two on special teams.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Yeah it was. And you know, before we get too
far down the line, and it was a great atmosphere
filled with not only the things you mentioned, but a
twenty eight dollars nacho plate that was imbibed involved by
the students fans in front of us. I peered over
the top after we saw him struggling off. I think
it took three people to carry the nacho plate up
the stairs into the position right below us. And I
(02:53):
leaned down after midway through the first quarter to see,
you know, what kind of progress he were making. It
It was gone nowhere to be found. Goho Steelers, fans,
uh matt Worth. It looked like a lot a lot
of not shows, you know, So I did want to
ask you this Matt before we get too far down
the road. You know, I brought up this point because
(03:14):
I've been thinking about a lot recently in terms of
what Russell Wilson means to the Steelers, and I wonder,
you know, nationally, Mike Tomlin has a tremendous reputation. We
know that. Of course, locally, any team, any fan base
is going to be more critical and more praiseworthy of
their own than anybody else. So you know, Mike Tomlin, Hey,
(03:34):
he can't get him. He can't get him in, you know,
deep into the playoffs and all these other things. And
you know, you've had this stat about how well they've
done in you know, one score games, and you think
about how he's been able to manufacture victories without a
quarterback like Russell Wilson. This is a reminder of what
a nine time Pro bowler and a potential future Hall
(03:55):
of Fame quarterback looks like under center. It's been a
while maybe we forgot what it looks like. I think
some of the aggressive nature of his play calls. Early
on in his career, Matt he was viewed as a
very aggressive coach, and then that camed a little bit
in the in the subsequent seasons, and I'm wondering, you know,
that reputation, you know, and of course we're talking about this,
(04:17):
you know, the statistical things going forward and fake punts
and that sort of thing. But I think now we're
seeing that's very much as nature because he's got a
quarterback he trusts the aggressive calls as far as going
forward on fourth down in your own territory, not that
he didn't do it before, but I don't know, a
lot of these things seem to be adding up to
me that you know, maybe some fans will have an
(04:39):
appreciation and maybe I even have a greater appreciation of
what he was able to accomplish the last several years
without that top notch type of quarterback.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
Yeah, I don't have a ton to add to that.
I think you said that really really well. But I mean,
it seems like no matter what ingredients you give Mike Tomlin,
he's gonna make a pretty darn good meal.
Speaker 5 (04:59):
And you know know I mean, and.
Speaker 4 (05:01):
Has such a great feel for his team, the whole
vibe of the organization from owner to those of the people,
you know, taking care of the fields and mopping the
floors and lunch. I mean everybody just has a great
feel for his environment. And one thing I've stressed about
Tomlin that I very much believe, and I mean it
(05:23):
is a massive compliment, is if you give him a
bottom ten quarterback situation, he wins more than he loses
and he usually gets you to the playoffs. But if
you give him a top ten quarterback situation, they're in
the hunt for the Super Bowl.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Right, great deal. Yeah, And to extend that analogy, Wolf,
if you give him twenty eight dollars worth of nacho material,
he'll give you a forty dollars plate of nachos. I mean,
it really is. I don't know if that really worked.
It sounded better in my head. Wolf. Anything else to
add to that about Mike Tomlin and the job he's
done and this this team, you know, in general, as
(06:01):
we circle back to what this victory means, it really has.
I felt like going into the break it had the
feel of a team that could do some damage once
it got to the playoffs. You have to get there first.
This was a big win and I think an indicator
that you can go on the road, as you might
have to do in the playoffs and play a top
notch team and come away.
Speaker 5 (06:20):
With a victory.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
There's no question about it. And I think what really
kind of sealed the deal in my mind was when
the Steelers got down ten points, I didn't feel it
like they're at all in trouble. I thought, you know,
you still have this opportunity to be able to implement
what you need to do. Go about your business and
take the ball away or put the ball in the
end zone. Whatever it is that you need to do,
they were fully capable of doing. And that only comes
(06:42):
when you have a sense at the end of the
road that there's something bigger lying for you. That comes
from a team that has now been through you know,
a good number of contests have sweated out, you got blood,
sweat and tears cementing you together, and they are forming
and performing like a team that is capable of doing
something serious at the end of the year. What that is,
(07:03):
we'll see, you know. But as we progress along the road,
and as each week presents a lesson to these guys,
they pick up the lesson, they seem to take it
in and then perform better for it. And what I
liked that I that.
Speaker 5 (07:17):
I loved most of all was the fact that you.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Outdominated a dominating time of possession team, and you did
so in a way what I thought was so huge
because the Steelers performed better on the road time of
possession then they do at home, and the and the
wash Cooms are better on the road than the time
then at home. And if I got that right, Matt,
(07:40):
because you know, I get myself in those those circles.
You know, one of them did better on the road,
one of them did better at home, and they reversed
it in a sense that you know, they were able
to do something.
Speaker 5 (07:50):
Somebody something had to give, somebody had.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
To win the time of possession Steelers did thirty six
thirty Yeah, is huge to a team like that, especially
paid off in the game.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Yeah, it did. That's exactly right. And I think about it,
you know when I think of time and possession and look,
three point three yards per carry. This Steelers want to
do better than that. But they stuck with it forty
three runs. And you know, sometimes we'll bring up the
boxing analogy that's like going to the body and then
later you hope those hands come down and to protect
the body or your wear out the opponent, and it
pays off in the long run. But the other thing
about hither boxing analogy that I would bring up, Matt
(08:24):
is that you know, everybody wants the perfect game, and
I think most fans are really thrilled with the outcome yesterday,
and it was an exciting game obviously, but even within that,
I think, boy, I'd love to see this dominating stretch. Well,
it just it doesn't happen. You know, it doesn't happen
that often. If you watch two evenly matched fighters, then
(08:45):
one fighter is not gonna win twelve rounds to none,
you know what I mean. It's a point or two
either way. You lost the middle rounds, you got staggered
and almost knocked out in the eighth, but you rallied back,
you know what I mean. That's just the nature of competition.
When you get too even the match teams that it's
not going to be the Oh we executed every We
scored touchdowns in every drive and held them to three
(09:06):
and ounce on every drive. These things are gonna happen,
and at the end of the day, you still got
to get.
Speaker 5 (09:11):
That w one.
Speaker 4 (09:12):
And I'm far from an expert on Major League Baseball,
Hockey NBA, but you do see those games a lot
more in those sports, you know, or stretches like that,
where you don't in football, because first of all, it's
such a physical game and you only play once a
week and you gear up and it's so different, you know,
for play caller to play caller and game planning. But
(09:34):
I also think you can't ever forget that the league,
starting with the commissioner all the way down once as
much parody as possible. So to expect dominance week after
week and have perfect games really is not how this
league is designed, let alone any any of the teams.
And we were talking about Tomlin a little bit ago,
and I think we all know Cam Hayward as you know,
the leader of this team, and you know has a
(09:56):
trickle down effect as well in the locker room. But
to mass important, But I just wanted to call out
the two Edge guys and Preston Smith as well. But
Watt and high Smith are tremendous football players. We know that,
But they're also such smart players and unselfish players, like
their stats have not blown us away lately.
Speaker 5 (10:17):
I mean, if TJ.
Speaker 4 (10:17):
Watt every snap all he cared about was getting a sack,
he'd have a lot more sacks. But instead they played
the team game. They bought in. They kept Jayden Daniels
in the pocket. They're not letting him run with the football.
He ends up with five rushing yards. That's doing it
for their teammates. You know they're doing all the dirty
work too.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Yes, And I think the other thing on that Matt too,
is that And again, we just saw some of the replays.
You know, we're up there calling the game and they've
got the replay monitor, but we're paying attention to what's
going on in the field. But they had a little
bit of a package and I didn't see all of it,
but showing you know, TJ. Watt not only getting chipped,
but then getting double teamed. And think about that. So
(10:57):
if you maintain your rush integrity, by the way, come
up with some big plays when you needed a couple
quarterback hits late that were vital for the Steelers. We
you absolutely had to have him. But he contains a
quarterback that doesn't show up on the statu sheet. What
also doesn't show up on his stat sheet is if
you're double teaming him, then maybe Cam Hayward's getting one
blocker and guess what Cam Hayward at two blocks or
(11:18):
two sacks. He's a good player next to you. And
then if you are, if Eckler or Ertz has to
chip you, well that helps your coverage guys. So not
only can you make an impression on the game, but
you can help two of your other teammates to make
impressions on the game. And when you're surrounded by as
many good football players as TJ. Watt is, that's going
(11:40):
to bear fruit for you.
Speaker 4 (11:41):
Yeah, and this is also really applies to the upcoming
opponent obviously with Lamar Jackson, but you know, you know,
really just looking at this game, all the read option
that these teams do with the super mobile quarterbacks at
high percentage of the time they're reading TJ. Or high
Smith and high Smith and those guys are playing it
obviously down from the defensive coaching staff that we want
(12:03):
the running backs carrying the ball. We're gonna play defense
and basically scream it to the Hilltops that we're not
gonna let the quarterbacks run. We want the ball to
get handed or pitched to the running back. Well, Patrick
Queen's in those meetings too and knows these things, you know,
so he's key and on the back, you know, right.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
I wondered if maybe, well if that was a reason
and again not an excuse, but part of a reason
why Tracy had the big game for the Giants.
Speaker 5 (12:25):
Oh, it absolutely was.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
I mean we talked about it earlier, like Jones had
big you know, people maybe don't think of Jones in
quite the same way. And he's more of a hammer runner.
I mean, my goodness, he's like he's like Eddie George,
you know, he's more of a big a big rangye
you know, guy, Yeah, he's gonna run India as opposed
to sliding by you. But you know, they negated Jones,
they negated Daniels, and now those are two wonderful warmups
(12:48):
for hopefully trying to do the same to Lamar Jackson.
But you know, again, and going back to what I
was saying to Matt here, you know, the other guys
are getting paid to the other guys have good players
as well. The Washington Commanders, I'm sure they're thinking, man,
if we got a break or two, we could have
won that game. And they could have. They're a good team.
They're worthy of being able to give another good team
(13:09):
a really good game. And the Giants look Tracy, you know,
I saw him at the beginning of the season, and
I was talking about this with I think Matt, you
know is that I watch I get to watch an
entire season in five days, right like what you watch
a season unfold for a team, because I'm watching them
leading up to that game. So I'm watching Tracy early
on and I was talking to Matt and Dale on
(13:31):
Thursday and I was like, I don't know, he doesn't
look like all that good to me, and they were like,
hang on a second now. And then I watched his
next several games and I'm like, wait a minute, this
guy's pretty good. And sure enough, he was pretty good.
Look again, they're trying to beat you too. They're not
just you know, they're not going to just stay one dimensional.
They're not only going to do one thing. And but
but I think you know, by and large, this Tod's defense,
(13:53):
coupled with the offense and then tripled with the special teams,
it's been a winning formula.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
I mean, I couldn't agree more. Everyone is very bought in,
and I'm not knocking the former quarterbacks. But we started
the show talking about Wilson effect. I think that has
a lot to do with it too. I mean, it's
more of a bend like feeling in the huddle, off
the field, all those things we saw the camp, just
the way he walks around.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
Right, you know, let me just say this too. They
by minimizing Jaden Daniel's double edged sword that he's capable
of producing. You know, you're talking about the RPOs and
the mesh points so forth. The mesh point, you you know,
you can crash it, you can slow play it, but
you've got to be in constant communication. That's call has
got to come from the sidelines. It's got to come
from the players, from from the defensive end on that side,
(14:43):
to the inside linebackers and the safeties, whoever's crept up
in the box, so that you have absolute knowledge of
who's got the mesh point and who's got the whatever's left,
you know what I mean. So in that point, I
think it was a great job by the defense to
beat very clear about what responsibilities were.
Speaker 4 (15:02):
Who's Yeah, it's a smart and unselfish defense, yes, yeah, yep.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
And by the way we are, we're just getting started
and I'm you know, thinking about the name of the show,
and I'm thinking about that touchdown pass at the end,
and the guy celebrating a little bit in the end zone,
and I was like, get off the field so they
can kick the point after, which is what they needed
to win the game. Don't get a penalty and make
it any more difficult for Boswell, not that he wouldn't
(15:27):
have drove it through anyway. Steelers win twenty eight to
twenty seven. Weird. Just as I mentioned, getting started, will
continue with more with Craig Wolfley and Matt Williamson on
the point after on the Steelers Audio Network.
Speaker 5 (15:39):
Back to the point after on DVD.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
Wilson settles, back, raises the foot, gets the snap back
to pass looking gonna floated up left for Williams And
why are you going up in the end zone? You
wanna throw? You wanna catch? Mike Williams did his first
game in a Steelers uniform, has holed in a thirty
two yard touchdown stripe from Russell Wilson, and the play
(16:05):
of the game is brought to you by S and
T Bank, proudly serving our community since nineteen oh two.
stBank dot com S and T Bank member Fdi C.
Wolf I thought that I thought the Pickens catch couldn't
be overshadowed because it was just a remarkable twisting catch
in the back of the end zone and you know,
(16:26):
falling flat on your back, one hand on it, then
two hand on it, and to be able to hang
on through the catch. I mean, Pickens is just he's
showing again. He's just a special player. But that took
the cake. That that topped it.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
There's no question about it. It was just a awesomeman. I
apologize for stepping on your lines.
Speaker 5 (16:44):
Because I've jumped up.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
If there had been a roof over my head, I
would have drilled myself and knocked myself out because I
was so excited by that catch.
Speaker 5 (16:52):
It was dynamite. And by the way, I do have
a bone to pick with you.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
I just realized.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
You know, he said, no boxer lout goes and loses
twelve rounds. I'm sorry, but I remember Randall text Cob
lost to Larry Holmes, and he lost all twelve or
fifteen rounds. I can't remember.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Yeah, I remember that fight. I'm talking about too. Evenly
match text Cob.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
Nobody took punches like text Cop. Let me tell you something, Okay.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
All you need to do is go watch Raising Arizona tonight.
This guy could be flung off a motorcycle at top
speed and survive anyway, go ahead, yes, yes.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
But you know the amazing thing about that was then
another example of what a Hall of Famer looks like
out on the field.
Speaker 5 (17:31):
You know, in the huddle.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
First of all, you lose Calvin Austin, all right, So
that play had been worked and designed for Calvin. That
was gonna be Calvin's play. They'd run it and practice
and so forth. So what happens You got Mike Williams.
Are gonna put him in the game because Calvin got
hurt on the play before two plays before. So you're
gonna take your six to four guy, put him out
(17:52):
there on the left side. And it's all because Russ
is No, I want Mike out there, and I'm gonna
put the ball to him, and he did.
Speaker 5 (17:59):
I mean, I just can't even tell you what I mean.
That's that's like.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
Babe Ruth calling his shot, you know what I mean,
just saying, Hey, I'm gonna take this wide receiver, this
guy that I only had a week's three practices with,
and I'm gonna put him out there and I'm gonna
drop the ball where he ain't gonna miss it. And
I know he's he's a great player and he's not
going to miss it, and it all came together.
Speaker 4 (18:21):
Yeah, it's a lot of trust, you know, from all
those guys, and you just expand upon it. I wasn't
in the locker room, but just reading some of the quotes,
I guess several of the reporters, Oh, that's something you
and Russ worked on in during practice, you know, stutter go.
He's like, no, I haven't never run that route as
a Steeler yet there's like drown it up in the dirt. Yeah,
there you go.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Yeah, it's you know, and I want to get back
to a couple of these things. But uh, Wolf, I
will say this, of the three of us, only one
of us has been in the huddle with a guy
like Terry Bradshaw. Oh yeah, I think that's accurate.
Speaker 5 (18:56):
Bat right, Yeah, Oh that's pretty safe.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Say what is that kind of well? What does that?
What does that do to a team when you have
a quarterback or that confidence level but not just confidence level.
I think most guys are confident when they get out there,
but the pedigree and the knowledge in the huddle that Okay,
he's got this, because this isn't the first time he's
going to try to do this.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
You got ten pairs of eyeballs staring at the quarterback
and all those guys want to know for sure, kid,
you have confidence in this man?
Speaker 5 (19:24):
Do you believe in this man?
Speaker 3 (19:25):
And there are certain guys that you know they raise
that expectation level because they deliver, and Russ is one
of those guys that does it. You know he's able
to deliver and that he's got a proven track record
of that, and that just inspires the rest of the
eyeballs in that huddle to go and do the job
and do it to the max effort, because you really
(19:46):
believe this guy can pull your fanny out of the
fire at any given moment, no matter what the situation is.
There's belief there that in hanging together, positive things will
result if you just do your job. And that's the
bottom line, and that's all any player can ask for
is the ability to have each and every guy win
their one eleventh. And you got the one guy out
(20:06):
there who's winning more of his one eleventh than the
other guy, and the other on the opposite team is
winning his one eleventh.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
And getting back to something we were saying earlier, Matt. Look,
I thought that the if the Steelers hit that fake punt,
you know, maybe Pierre makes one guy miss and you know,
takes it to the house, or or you score a
touchdown there, that could have been a huge momentum. That
could have been something a blow from which Amnum swing,
(20:34):
a blow from which the Commanders might not have been
able to recover. They did recover, they came back, they scored.
But in the past, it just feel it felt like
to win a game against the top team. And listen,
Mike Tomlin now has more wins in the last couple
of years over teams that are five games or more
over five hundred. Nobody has more, right, That's that's impressive
(20:56):
when you're talking about a team that is not, you know,
has not been a twelve, thirteen to fourteen win team.
That having been said, it felt like in the past, Okay,
we got to hit a special team's play, we gotta
win the turnover battle, something's got to happen in down ten.
You know, Yeah, the momentum wasn't going your way. You're
not saying, ah, we got this, but I think still
(21:19):
having some confidence that you can come back from a
situation like that that you're not sitting there, as I
jokingly said earlier, thinking well, you know, how do we
kick four field goals and overcome this ten point deficit
in a quarter and a half. You don't have to
think that way anymore, and I think that that can
have a permeating effect on the rest of your team,
the players and the coaches, how the game is coached,
(21:41):
how the game is played.
Speaker 5 (21:42):
Oh, without question.
Speaker 4 (21:43):
And we've all dealt, you know, dug into the stats
and they don't really apply as much anymore. But really,
over the last handful of years, this team loses a
turnover battle, they lose. You know, if they lose the
sack battle, they lose, you know what I mean, Like,
there's all these strong tendencies that you're always swimming upstream
because one interception ruins your game, you know. And it's
(22:05):
just such a fine line in such a difficult way
to play this game because there's always gonna be bad bounces.
But now you touchdowns aren't irregular, passing touchdowns aren't irregular.
Speaker 5 (22:16):
I mean, it's.
Speaker 4 (22:18):
Amazing to me how the Steelers really you open the
show by saying this, I mean, it's amazing to me
how well the Steelers survived without essential things like passing touchdowns,
you know, like they're kind of important, you.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
Know, actually touchdowns in general coming here, Yes, passing touchdowns,
well that.
Speaker 4 (22:38):
One year, thirteen the next, I mean, come.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
On, yeah, a little bit like the Dodo bird are
out here hard to find. But again, let's let's then
wolf talk about this special team's call, the fake punt,
And of course it's you know, there's been different opinions
on it, you know, I think it's you know, it's
safe to say it's a great call if it works,
(23:02):
and a bad call if it doesn't work. Right, I
don't want to go there. I love the call. And
again without it being I think there's some there's some
good side effects from it. First of all, it is
letting your team know that you have confidence in them.
You have confidence in your defense, you have confidence in
your offense, you have confidence in your special teams. It's
not just a special teams thing to me. I don't
(23:23):
want to read too much into it, but that's what
it feels like to me. And it also plants a
seed in the minds of future opponents. Hey, these guys
are wildly unpredictable. We don't know what they're going to do.
And I don't think that's a bad notion to plan
in an opponent's mind as well. Am I overthinking these things?
Speaker 3 (23:40):
No, not at all, and I think it's correct. Look,
you go for it on a on a fake punt
in your own end zone and a visiting team's place
when there's a lot of moving parts of that that
could go wrong.
Speaker 5 (23:52):
I mean, they had no idea.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
They knew that the possibility existed that the guy over
the gunner would would you know, fall off and come
on the rush, But you didn't know for certain, and
you know, and you had to make a decision on that,
and it was decided to enact it and make sure
that everybody got the communication and that the ability for
this special Team's unit to pull it off. There had
(24:14):
to be high confidence. Why wouldn't there be. Look what
Danny's done with his Special Team's special Forces. They've got
the job done in so many ways in returns and blocks,
what have you. You got high confidence in this play
and that play had I would guess, had about a
ninety five percent probability of being complete based on the formation,
(24:36):
how it came about, And it was just unfortunate James
Pierre uh wasn't able to pull that ball in now.
And by the way, to his credit, he bounced back
and made some plays in the fourth quarter that I
thought in the second half, I thought, Okay, good for him,
you know, because that's a tough pill, in a bitter
pill to swallow when you you know, hornswaggle something like that,
(24:58):
and it doesn't turn out right. But the fact of
the matter was, it does show that you're ready to
go for it all, that there was not going to
be any card left untouched on the table in this game,
that everything was going to be tried and used to
get a win.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
Mike Tomlin calls it not living in your fears, right,
And I'll add one more thing to that, Matt about
when it came. It came following consecutive three and outs
from Washington, it would have been very easy to say,
boot it away, get another three and out, let's try
this offense thing again. Remember they scored the touchdown, they
forced another three and out. So you know the fact
(25:35):
that it not only came in your own territory on
the road, hostile environment all that first quarter, you know,
your own fifteen yardland, but it also came at a
time when your defense had done what you wanted it
to do, and so it would be easy to say,
boot it away and let's try this again. And I
haven't asked yet where you come down on the fake punt.
Speaker 4 (25:55):
Well, I don't know this is a fact, but my
hunch is that's been in play since week one. You know,
if they're going to give you that look with an
uncovered gunner. And I'll be very honest, I do not
watch Special teams tape. I kind of just you know,
eyeball it like everybody else. But if they're going to
give you that play, you take it. You know, you
(26:17):
check to it. Kill a Brew's the personal protector and
he checks to it is the way I interpreted it,
And like Wolfe said, I think it's going to be
completed ninety five percent of the time. I mean, that
wasn't a John Elway Dan Marino pass. But Pierre's a
capable I mean, I'm sure there's people out there going
you have a safety throw to a cornerback, how do
you expect that to work? No, I'm having an athlete
(26:37):
throw to an athlete that most high school kids would
have caught that ball. I mean and Pierre would catch
it ten out of eleven or ninety nine percent of
the time. You know, I mean, it's not a difficult
play to make. Just didn't go their way right.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
So one other thing that I thought that I really
liked in this game. And again, you know, everyone's talking
about the fake punt because it didn't work right. I've
heard fewer people talking about the fact that, once again
the Steelers, on the drive in which they wound up
fumbling the ball away, they had a fourth and one
(27:10):
from their own forty three yard line, they call a
time out and they go for it, right, So if
you don't get it there, now the Commanders are one
first down away from taking another three to four minutes
off the clock and kicking a field goal that puts
you up nine, that puts the game away in all likelihood. Instead,
(27:36):
you go on that drive. Yes, you fumble it later on,
but you get the ball back and then of course
you score the big touchdown to win. But you know,
very few people that I've heard are talking about wolf
that going forward on fourth and one inside your own
territory when a not getting that would be I don't
know if it would be catastrophic, but man, that would
(27:56):
have been hard to come back from two scorers in
a limited amount of time when you just use you
would have been down to one time out at that
at that point of the game. So kudos, I think again,
kudos to them going forward and a sign again that
this this team is you know, Mike Tomlin is aggressive
and he's uh, he's willing to go for it. He's
willing to do the unexpected or the unconventional.
Speaker 5 (28:19):
There's no question.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
I think you said it all perfectly well and laid
out the reasons for it. The fact that you out
forth downed the only team that had been eleven for
eleven in the league on fourth downs says something else
about you. You're willing to gamble and go for it,
knowing again the facts that you just laid out. Kinger
So in my mind, this is this is what happens
(28:40):
when you get a Hall of Fame quarterback in your huddle.
I mean, you're willing to do things that maybe with
some other lesser quarterbacks you're not willing to do. You know,
And I'm not pointing any fingers at anybody. I'm simply saying,
when you have that guy in the huddle who's capable
of producing like a Terry Bradshaw, like a Ben Roethlis.
(29:00):
You know, that gives you a lot more latitude in
being able to try things and do things that normally
maybe you play things a little closer to the vest
just because you're not sure of the scoring punch and
power and what the mindset is of your quarterback, because
the quarterback speaks for the whole offensive unit, you know,
I mean, he is that guy. And when Russ steps
(29:21):
into the huddle, you can see that he's quickly you know,
everybody's paying attention to him, and that he is the
big guy. You know, the same thing with Bradshaw. Bradshaw
was very much in the huddle. Just shut up and listen, Okay,
you know that's the way it is. That's cool.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
Students. Remember the final score of twenty eight to twenty seven.
More still to come when we continue in the point
after on the Steers Audio Network.
Speaker 5 (29:45):
Back to the point after on DV.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
Janiels gets a snap play action pass pressure from Cam
Hayward and he takes him down a sack back in
Commander's territory by Captain Cam Hayward Man. The sack hunger
segment is brought to you by the Greater Pittsburgh Community
Food Bank. Get food, volunteer or donate at Pittsburgh Foodbank
(30:09):
dot org. Matt Williamson don't know if the weather had
something to do with it. We saw a lot of
slipping around on the field or just the pass rush.
And you know, as you alluded to earlier, the guys
staying in their lanes and not allowing Daniels out again,
he can make plays on the edge, not only with
his feet but looking down the field. You know, add
it all up and it adds up to a nice
(30:30):
job defensively against the Commander's passing attack.
Speaker 4 (30:33):
There were a couple of things I really liked that
were a little different than what we've seen schematically, too,
is you know, it's been pretty well documented that the
Steelers run defense was a little worrisome coming into this game,
especially up the middle when they're in nickel. Well, in
early downs they had a Landon Roberts out there in Nickel.
It's a great change. I mean, that's kind of things
(30:54):
you do in the bye. You know that if it's
not third and eight or longer, we're gonna have robertson
there in the nickel there is a little bit more
of an enforcer between the tackles, and that worked out well.
We talked about the plan to not let Daniels, much
like Jones and hopefully much like Lamar, to be the
main ball carrier and the guy that's improving, and he
(31:15):
ends up with five rushing yards. I've been a little
critical too that they've been very vanilla with their coverage schemes.
You know, they drop seven, they play cover three at
the highest rate in the league, and they out execute you.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
Well.
Speaker 5 (31:28):
I saw a lot more robber.
Speaker 4 (31:30):
Concepts, different things to make Daniels at least question where
he's going with the football, and to his credit, he
made a lot of tight window throws. And you know,
we mentioned too that the opponents get paid. Terry mclaurin's
really good, you know, and he was one of the
best players in the field too.
Speaker 5 (31:46):
You Know.
Speaker 3 (31:46):
The other thing we got to consider too is, I
know that field is a little bit slippery. Some guys
didn't seem to bother cam at all.
Speaker 5 (31:55):
Watch you watch what he did to.
Speaker 3 (31:57):
Nick Algready and I'm sitting there going that guy for
the commanders, I'm not going that is a one arm
stab power lockout bull rush circa the twenty first century,
you know, I mean, just totally different than anything back
in my era. And it's amazing how he can, at
the in his fourteenth season, take a young buck and
(32:18):
take that three hundred pound cheese whopper and put him
in the lap of the quarterback time and time again,
even to the point where he had two sacks. Look,
that's just dynamic. That's awesome. That's what you do when
you lead from the front, and that's what the Steelers need,
guys like big general, you know, a Landon Roberts, like
Matt was talking about. This guy started off in the
first series on a downhill bang scraping in the B
(32:41):
gap or yeah, in the B gap one time, and
then it did a remember watching again, it was Ellagretty
double teaming and he comes off this guy and like
seconds after a Landon was already passed him, you know,
I mean, it's like he was buying him, made the
hit in the backfield, dropped him for a loss.
Speaker 5 (33:00):
But those type of things are huge when you've got
an offensive machine like Washington has.
Speaker 4 (33:06):
And I don't think the field conditions slowed down Patrick
Queen at all too. He looked like it shot out
of a missile and shot like a missile.
Speaker 5 (33:12):
Yeah. I thought it was his best Games of Stealer too.
Speaker 2 (33:14):
Patrick Queen and Deshaun Elliott's another guy, Matty. I think
it's just these guys are so noticeable.
Speaker 4 (33:19):
They really are, and it's easy to group them all
together because they're new additions. But it's apparent, you know
that they upgraded. The front office deserves a little pat
on the back for.
Speaker 5 (33:29):
Those guys too.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
You know, well that was that was gonna be my
next one for you, Matt, because you know, Omar Khan
is far too modest. If I had engineered those trades,
I'd be like, you know, after that that throwback past
the Damie Brown that just crushed the commander's momentum, Preston
Smith makes the tackle, I think there's piece of me.
I made that trade, and then Mike Williams catches the
(33:52):
touchdown pass to win it. I made that trade too,
But you know he's too modest to say that or
to even think that the true is a collaborative effort.
But you're right, Matt. I mean, congratulations kudas to him
and his staff because not only the impact that they
made in the offseason, moves, but then to have the
agility to bring guys in who immediately are paying dividends.
And Preston Smith, look, you know, you get a high
(34:14):
ankle sprain and we don't know the diagnosis right now
for Alex high Smith as we're taping the show, I
don't know it. Hopefully you know it's something that's only
going to sideline him for a couple of weeks. But
if you get a bad sprain like that, it's gonna
sideline you a couple of weeks and hopefully Nick Herbie
comes back. But here's Preston Smith ready to make a
big contribution. Just you know, kudos to the relentless nature
(34:37):
of that staff. And I know Mike Tomlin's involved in
those decisions as well, and I'm sure when they go
out and make a trade it'll go down to coordinators
and that sort of thing. But Matt, you've been much
closer to this than I think Wolf or I have.
What does happen there, and by the way, you know,
kudos to Omarkan. I'm sure you want to say that
as well. But what does happen at the trade deadline
(34:58):
as far as who is conferred with and how a
comes about well.
Speaker 4 (35:01):
I was in the league one year and by the
trade deadline, we had fired our head coach and we're
about the worst team in the league and we're dumping
anybody that anybody wanted in Cleveland. So it's a little
different situation. That was Ben's rookie year for you guys
keeping steward at home. But I mean, you're right. I mean,
Omar didn't know that Wilson's gonna draw it up in
(35:23):
the sand, that he's throwing the game winner to Mike
Williams at the trade deadline. He didn't know that Heysmith's
going to go down. But you play the numbers and
you make your team as good as you possibly can.
And I really appreciate how well he always churns the
bottom of the roster. And this seems like a small detail,
but one of my huge concerns a training camp was
they don't have any gunners. You know where the gunners
(35:44):
coming from. You go get a guy like Scornic who
makes plays on special teams. I mean that's a nice
addition too. He's not a big name guy with a
beautiful football card like Mike Williams was the top ten pick,
but you give me, the Pierre's and Scornics doing the
dirty work that weren't run the team originally. That goes
a long way. You know, it's amazing. Here's the thing
(36:06):
he just brings up Scornic. The fact was he was
watching the punt returner what's his name, just Escase at
the moment he.
Speaker 3 (36:13):
Was watching, Yeah, the keys, that's right, all my kis.
So he's watching him in warm ups and he's having
trouble judging the wind and he botches a couple of
the punts in pre in you know, in pregame warm ups.
I'm thinking to myself, that is a massive insight into
what these guys are doing. They're not out there just
warming up stuff Like I mean, I remember back in
(36:35):
my day it was just you know.
Speaker 5 (36:36):
Head butt head but head but you know sort of thing. Right,
these guys are watching and doing and then to be
able to capitalize on it, knowing that this guy's got
a problem at least in tracking the ball and the
winds that were there, I thought was just outstanding work.
Speaker 2 (36:53):
So, uh, we don't want to gloss over this victory
because let's get just one final thoughts on the victory
before we move on a little bit to Baltimore because
it is the first division game of the year. Matt,
what do you think do seven and two win means
seven to two record? Now? And this went over the Commanders, mean,
does it mean anything more to you? Does it put
the Steelers in a different category for you? Or do
(37:15):
you think maybe they're gonna be perceived a little bit
different nationally as well?
Speaker 5 (37:18):
Well?
Speaker 4 (37:19):
A couple things is you know, Dale and I mentioned
this on the drive several times that we really thought
going into this game that the two head coaches involved
in Pittsburgh and Washington were very much in the coach
of the Year battle and very deserved and the winner
of this could maybe get some more kudos that way.
And I know people aren't concerned about the future of
the Commanders, but they got to go to Philly on Thursday.
(37:42):
I mean, so that's as big a game for them
as this Ravens is for the Steelers in terms of
divisional meaningful games and all those type of things. It's
Ravens week, I mean, so, I mean, Wolf could probably
speak this better than us, But I mean, just when
the biggest rivals on board here, this game's probably gonna
(38:02):
be thirteen to three or something like that, like it
always is, even though the Ravens have an elite offense
in a worry some defense. And I really think everything's
trending really strong for the Steelers and that they were
almost the point now where the playoffs are a foregone conclusion,
that you know, how big can this thing get for them?
Speaker 5 (38:21):
Yeah? I would Matt's spot on. Look, here here's the
point it.
Speaker 3 (38:25):
This game simply confirmed to me what you need when
you've got You don't have a chance at the super
Bowl unless you have a franchise caliber quarterback.
Speaker 5 (38:34):
I mean that's just it.
Speaker 3 (38:35):
You know, they can be tremendous athletes, it can be
you know, good to fair and so forth. But unless
you have a Pro Bowl Hall of Fame caliber quarterback,
you got issues and getting to the super Bowl.
Speaker 5 (38:48):
And you know what we got, We got one. That's
what I think.
Speaker 4 (38:52):
Not to put a damper on things, but there's a
chance that the other six quarterbacks in the AFC are Mahomes, Alan, Lamar, Stroud,
Herbert and Burrow. Like it doesn't get any I mean
that's ridiculously and now you can hang with those guys.
Speaker 6 (39:10):
Yeah exactly, Yeah, and uh it does make it does
make As I'm the conversation with my son about this,
and we're kind of, you know, lining up the AFC,
and there's been a lot made about, you know, sort
of the top heavy NFC and those teams being really elite.
Speaker 2 (39:24):
But man, if Cincinnati sneaks into the playoffs, or if
you got to face Herbert and the Chargers with that
defense and a quarterback of that caliber, I mean, the
AFC is gonna be tough. I would just as soon
see Frankly, I would And maybe I'm over stating how
good I think Cincinnati, how talented I think Cincinnati is.
(39:45):
I would just as soon not see them in the
playoffs because of the quarterback, Right, Yeah, I don't want
to wish. I don't want to wish on an opponent,
but I don't want to see them. That's that's kind
of where I and hey, listen, you could do a
big part of that by by taking them out. So
Wolf Raven's week, what does it feel like? And again,
(40:09):
has this been a little bit of a warm up
act for the Steelers getting mobile quarterbacks like Daniel Jones
and Jadeen Daniels before you get Lamar and you had
that familiarity with Lamar, and I'd also say it probably
helped you deal with those other guys.
Speaker 4 (40:23):
But the fact that you Lamar is so weird for
I mean, he beats every NFCA team because they've never
seen him. Well, I think they have put the Lamar
rules on Jones and especially Daniels, you know, they're used
to it.
Speaker 5 (40:34):
Absolutely. I think you're you're one hundred percent.
Speaker 2 (40:35):
Man.
Speaker 3 (40:36):
Look, you know, here's the thing about it. You know
that it's the two trains, one track sort of thing.
That's the mindset going in. I love the game because
it reminds me of the old Cleveland days when you
had the Turnpike rivalry, which of course the Baltimore Birdies
are the old Cleveland Browns basically that's the bloodlines. But
that was that sort of intensity, you know, and intensity
(40:58):
is everything in a game.
Speaker 5 (40:59):
Man.
Speaker 3 (41:00):
Everybody goes into the game at different levels of RPMs
in their gord. Let me tell you something, everybody's humming
when it comes to this game. This is one of
these games where you you know, you don't have to
worry about cheap shots because they're going to happen, and
you don't have to send a forget me not or
I'm sorry, bouquet of flowers after, you know.
Speaker 5 (41:18):
Because it's just what it is.
Speaker 3 (41:20):
It's it's gonna be, you know, double fisted, two chin
strap type of action. And I think it's one of
these games that you really want to lean into as
far as your enthusiasm because it is going to be
raucous and crazy.
Speaker 5 (41:34):
And I look forward to it.
Speaker 2 (41:36):
Matt.
Speaker 5 (41:38):
Oh, I look forward to it as well.
Speaker 4 (41:39):
I mean, six division games ahead of you, You get
to go to Philly, which has never been the Steeler's friend,
and then you have Casey here with Santa Claus on Christmas.
I mean, so we're just getting warmed up here for
the rest of season.
Speaker 2 (41:53):
Yeah. And I you know, made the point earlier that
you think about the Gauntlet, and everybody talked about it
as soon as the schedule came out. Hey, this is
gonna be brutal after the bye week, especially after Washington, right.
Speaker 5 (42:07):
Yeah, right.
Speaker 2 (42:12):
Now, Having said that, the Browns look worse than we
probably projected them to be, but that's still division games.
That's still gonna get your get your attention. But this
strength to schedule is brutal. But boy, it sure is
fun to play a game like yesterday and and uh,
you know some of the players talking about having a
little bit of a playoff vibe in that atmosphere. You know,
(42:33):
tough on the schedule part, but man, does it make
every weekend fun.
Speaker 3 (42:38):
There's no question about it, no question about it. And
it's exciting. And I gotta say one more thing. You know,
the fact that you got some healthy bodies back was
so big against Zach Frasier, Cordero Patterson, those those types
of things those guys back was were important. Besides the
Preston Smiths and the Mike Williams and all. It all
came together in a beautiful way. And certainly you look
(43:02):
for more of that gum this weekend when the Raven Nights.
Speaker 4 (43:05):
Hopefully Herbig's back this weeeah, yeah, well that would be nice.
I think there's a chance.
Speaker 2 (43:10):
Yeah, yeah, that appears to be the case that they're hoping.
He's trending in that direction. Maybe not quite as optimistic
about the potential return of Alex Heismith. This week. Hey, guys,
gear up with the latest game day necessities the official
Studer pro shops. Get the latest Sideline apparel, jerseys, terrible towels,
authentic memorabilia and custom exclusives you can only find directly
(43:32):
from the team. Visit one of the official Students pro
shops located at Akroscher Stadium, Grove City Premium Outlets, or
Tanger Outlets, or gear up online at shop dot Steelers
dot com. For Matt Williamson, for Craig Wolfley, for our
producer Justin Miller, I'm Rob King. We thank you for
listening to the point after on the Steelers Audio Network
Popular Podcasts
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy And Charlamagne Tha God!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Decisions, Decisions
Welcome to "Decisions, Decisions," the podcast where boundaries are pushed, and conversations get candid! Join your favorite hosts, Mandii B and WeezyWTF, as they dive deep into the world of non-traditional relationships and explore the often-taboo topics surrounding dating, sex, and love. Every Monday, Mandii and Weezy invite you to unlearn the outdated narratives dictated by traditional patriarchal norms. With a blend of humor, vulnerability, and authenticity, they share their personal journeys navigating their 30s, tackling the complexities of modern relationships, and engaging in thought-provoking discussions that challenge societal expectations. From groundbreaking interviews with diverse guests to relatable stories that resonate with your experiences, "Decisions, Decisions" is your go-to source for open dialogue about what it truly means to love and connect in today's world. Get ready to reshape your understanding of relationships and embrace the freedom of authentic connections—tune in and join the conversation!