January 6, 2025 • 44 mins
Rob King, Craig Wolfley, and Matt Williamson recap the Steelers' fourth consecutive loss to end the season and look ahead toward the wildcard matchup against the Baltimore Ravens.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Steelers Point After Show on w dB
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(00:21):
And now here are your hosts, Rob King, Craig Wolfley
and Matt Williamson.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
And we thank you for being with us on the
Point After on the See's Audio network as just announced
alongside Craig Williams, Craig Williamson, Wow, Craig Wolfley and Matt Williams.
And I'm Rob King. Hi, guys, how you doing good? Good?
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Absolutely just fine, bro good.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
I think I got the name straight. Another four or
five years of doing this, I'll have it down to
a science. Guys. I wanted to ask you, well, if
you and I have talked a bunch, we did the
game together. So I'm gonna I'm gonna reverse field here
and I'm gonna get our first reaction to you by
first National Bank. Let's get started. Member fdiic from Matt First, Matt,
(01:06):
your thoughts on what you witnessed on Saturday night against
the Bengals.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
Well, I guess there's some good and bad. As always
some of these Monday shows, you can be super negative
or super positive, and that's probably not the best way
to handle things. So I want to start of the
Steeler defense, though, which I thought was mostly very very positive.
I mean, the opening drive was disheartening, and the slow
starts for this team overall were starting to get a
little mind boggling. But I thought the defense did really
(01:35):
really well against what I think is an elite offense.
I mean, you hold Joe Burrow to nineteen points, and
the playmakers really show up on that side of the ball.
Batted balls, you know, interceptions, tip pass is great, tackling,
I mean all kinds of stuff like that, where the
offense is sort of the opposite, Like, who's the playmakers
here on this side of the ball. We know who
they are on defense, and they showed up huge and
(01:56):
that's why this game was as competitive as it was.
But the offense was really frustrating, with the exception of
maybe one drive when they kind of took the hurry
up approach, and you know, Pickens was really hard to understand.
I mean, what's going on there? I mean, was he
just checked out? I don't know. The quarterbacks starting to
show some wartz. I don't know what the strengths of
(02:18):
the offense are. Friar Moose playing well, but you mean
some of the guys that have stepped up haven't lately,
and unfortunately, when that side of the ball you can't
cite while they're playing one of the best teams in
the league. I mean, they're playing a pretty poor offense
and you should be the better team when you had
the football. And then lastly, Boswell's amazing and gives you
(02:38):
an advantage in that department against everybody, and rightfully he
should be the Pro Bowl kicker. But the special team's
advantage has kind of been nullified lately too. It's kind
of just been even steven on that side, and you're
not getting the turnovers as much and not winning the
margins as we often talk about.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
Rob Wow.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
So, I well, that sounds like a lot of stuff
we were discussing today.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
It's very similar now. I mean, you could just dittoh
the whole thing normally. I mean, I think there's a
couple of things though that I found really remarkable, and
one of them was that Captain Cam played with the flu.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
Yeah find that afterwards.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
Wow, I'm watching him and I'm like, going, this, dude's
pointing hard, do it, you know, going right to the limit.
And then you find out he had the flu. I
hope he leaned in close on a couple of those
guys and went, you know all, I will tell you this,
I have seen I have seen projectile vomiting during the
game tounch Iak and laid one on a nose tackle
(03:36):
from Cleveland, and I don't think he's recovered yet. Let
me tell you if.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
Burrow wakes up of the sniffles this morning, yeah yeah, right, yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
He did play a terrific game. And I think wolf
as I look at the team, and you know, we're gonna,
I'm sure be turning our attention to the Ravens because
we all have a great deal familiarity with them. Uh.
It is still the point after, though. We need to
get to the point after. And I think that you know,
if you tell me Joe Burrow and company, you're gonna
(04:06):
hold him in nineteen points out of Saturday night. There's
no way I'm not thinking you're winning that game at
Akrosher Stadium. And of course they didn't because they ly
scored seventeen. Is it pretty much now, hey, that we
feel good about this defense now and let's get on
(04:27):
into the playoffs and let's get the offense figured and
let's get going.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Well, I think here here's the thing. Number one, Joe
Burrow was on a tear. He was on a what
eight game tear of three touchdowns or more in a
row and two and fifty yards and more right, no
one's ever done that exactly. So you're looking at it
and I look and go, by golly, we got more
touchdowns than they did. You know what I mean? They
got what three field goals? We had two touchdowns something
(04:51):
like that. I mean a little it's a little, I know,
it's like a little victory, but it's something that you
look at. Go okay, maybe with the worm is learning here,
you know, maybe we're going to get some of those
those bouncing balls on the ground and maybe get an interception.
Maybe things turn there. All I know is this, you know,
I know we're not exactly where we want to be,
(05:13):
being the Steelers want you know, you want to win
the division and and so forth. But the fact is
you're in the playoffs. You're there, and you've got to
have a quick, you know, release of everything behind you
and move forward. And I know Mike Tomlin says, you know,
you got to take the lessons learned from this game. Yes,
you do, okay, but you've got to move forward with
a lot of vim and bigger because you've got the
(05:34):
rat Birds that are sitting there in Baltimore waiting on
you at eight o'clock and you want to go in
there and you want to beat them. I mean, the
Steelers are fifteen and fourteen at M and T Banks Stadium.
You know, that's that's pretty decent. You know, You've you've
got a history of playing pretty good football.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
There, you do. And I'm beginning to wonder now, Matt,
and you know, as much as you know, when we're
having these conversations after the last three games, I think
we were all kind of leaning toward, Hey, the offense
isn't doing its part in the you know, the Seesaw battle,
whatever you want to call it, the working in conjunction
(06:09):
of the teamwork portion of things. You know, you do
your job, they do their job, and together it works
out to a victory. You know, as I look back
now at these last three games, because you went into
that game scoring a lot of points and not giving
up a lot of points, and then you gave up
a lot of points and didn't score a lot of points.
(06:30):
So the average score in those last three games prior
to this one was thirty to thirteen and a third.
You know, so that's not good enough defense, and that's
not good enough offense. But you know, the hand and
glove work that needs to happen the two sides a
complementary part of football. I'm starting to lean more towards
(06:51):
saying not that fingers need to be pointed that this
was more of the offense and the defense. I mean,
you go five straight three and outs to begin the
game in Philadelphia. You're putting your defense in an awfully
difficult spot. You know, you fumble inside the five yard line,
you throw an interception after what I thought was a
dubious holding call in the end zone. Things like that.
(07:12):
You have an opportunity last night to march down the
field and win the game with a field goal, and
you don't really come close I'm I'm, you know, beginning
to think about wrapping up these last four games and
saying it's more on the offense and if they can
get that part straightened out. We could talk about the
special teams in a minute, but just offense defense that
(07:33):
that it's the offense right now that's letting the team down.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
More one PC.
Speaker 4 (07:36):
And you know, that three game stretch was brutal. We
knew it was gonna be brutal. It was worse than
we even thought. Three and eleven days, all those things
against super Bowl type teams. But you couldn't explain that
away for this Bengals game because you had a nice
long week to kind of get things right and be
fresh and come out hot. And I don't understand the
slow starts at all. And frankly, you know, despite that
(07:59):
slow start defense, you only level nineteen points to Joe Burrow.
I mean, I just keep coming back to that over
and over, and you hit him a lot, and you
made plays and you tackled and it was pretty strong,
fundamental football, you know, from top to bottom of the defense,
with a lot of splash mixed in. But it is
the offense. I mean, I just don't know what's the
(08:19):
offense good at right now? What's the calling card? What
can you lean on? You know, I do a Thursday
show with Mike Pursuda and Merril Hodge, and I'm sure
Wolf can you know attest this better than me? But
Merrow always said, like when the going got tough in
the Chuck Nol days, they would go back to their
three or four best running plays and just start from there.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
Again.
Speaker 4 (08:40):
You know, we're gonna be the best we could possibly
be on Outside Jones or whatever it is, and then
we're gonna take the offense from there and just start
at that root level. And makes some sense. I mean,
maybe that's the way that the tactics they have to
take going into this game.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
Well, it makes a lot of sense. So I had
a conversation with Jeff Hardings back on the bus to
Super Bowl forty. I'm sitting with him, riding with him,
and we were talking about the fact that they were
compressing the playbook and taking the best three to five plays.
I wish Max was here to talk about this, but
you know, uh, the boss play, the one that Willie
Parker scored on the seventy five yard you know, I
(09:14):
mean that was a play that they ran against any
They what they wanted to do is have plays that
could run against any defense, and it would not be
something that you know, required a calculus to be able
to figure out when you make your calls. And they
rode through those playoffs back in five on the on
the strengths of you know, compressing their playbook to the
(09:34):
ones that they did best. And maybe that is Merrill
may well have a point here that maybe that is
something they can look to what's.
Speaker 4 (09:42):
Your bread and butter and start again?
Speaker 2 (09:44):
You start over, and I wonder if that involves personnel too,
you know, do you start thinking about, Hey, who are
our playmakers and how do we get in the ball more.
Speaker 4 (09:55):
Mike Williams comes to mind in that regard. Yeah, that
it might be time that you put you traded for
him for a reason. You showed up in a splashy
way in this one. He's a big, physical guy built
for AFC North and playoff football. And I'm not saying
instead of pickings, but in addition to you.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Know, yeah, I mean they I think you know that's
again when I go back to where's the team heading
into the playoffs. One of the things that Matt pointed
out Wolf has pointed out in the past, is the
defense defends best at defends least, and so they've got
to get back to winning time in possession battle. You know,
(10:33):
Mike Thomas been asked about that. It begins with getting
first downs. And you wonder if at the beginning of
this game they thought that, look, if we can win
the time of possession battle, keep Joe Burrow off the field.
But then, you know, and again I don't know whether
that was their thinking as to why they ran them
all so much. Hey, let's get into third and manageable.
You know, maybe we get into third and two, or
(10:54):
maybe we could pick up six yards on a first
down and then we can run or passes we want to,
and they couldn't get that traction going. And I don't
know if that was part of their thinking. But regardless
of what that is, fast starts, better starts, fewer three
and outs are things that are going to help this
defense be a better.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
Defense, unquestionably. So, Look, the Steelers are now owen to
nineteen on opening offensive drives and touchdowns scoring. The last
guy to lead a touchdown drive was Mason Rudolph last
year in Week sixteen, when he hit the pickings with
that eighty six yard in breaking route and they scored
a touchdown. Y you know, I mean way too long. Yes,
(11:32):
nineteen straight games, my gosh, you know, I mean, that's
that's too much. And the defense bears the brunt of that.
And so certainly you need to come out and you've
got to find some way to get started faster. Hey,
they closed out the game like the ten and three
team that we saw. They unfortunately got behind like the
ten and sixteen that we've seen or ten Yeah, the
(11:54):
ten and seven now team that we've seen. So the
fact is they've got to get back to the roots
of what they were doing and do it successfully. And
you can do it. Look, here's my whole thing. The
same guys, the very same guys are here at ten
and seven, but they were there at ten and three.
You know, it's not like they forgot how to play football.
It's not like everybody's injured. They certainly are capable of
(12:16):
turning this around. I'm always optimistic about that. I've always been.
I've always felt that way as a player because of
the people that I was surrounded by and the people
that I grew up under from Chuck Nolan down about
the fighting spirit of a man, and you can't base
it on just mere calculations. There's more to it than that.
I really believe in the power of Hey, the next snap,
(12:38):
the next game can turn things around. And I still
believe that.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
Rob.
Speaker 4 (12:42):
I don't get back to time possession a little bit,
because I remember even last Monday when we did the show,
that was probably our theme. You know, you got to
get back to controlling the football, getting first downs. Don't
let this defense be on the field as long as
it has been going into this game. And in the end,
they only possessed the football for twenty two minutes game
and I mean really really low. And I do think
(13:04):
to your point, and that's what words in your mouth,
but a lot of you know, first down runs. They
went a really long stretch until they threw the first
pass on first down, and more nausey than Warren was
probably geared towards time of possession, physicality and you know,
land some body blows early and then you know, control
the game the fourth quarter, which has been their recipe
(13:24):
for a lot of the year. But frankly, it didn't work.
You know, I mean, it's easy to it doesn't mean,
it was a bad plan, but it didn't work. And
then all of a sudden you start spiraling.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
You know, yeah, I think that's a great point. I
didn't even interrupted it. I'm sorry, yeah, but I mean
we were lauding the team earlier for how well they
played in the second half. Right, great they were in
the third quarter. Hadn't given up a third quarter point? Well,
some of that is probably attributable to the formula that
we saw them try to employ the last few weeks,
which is land some body blows early, It's okay if
(13:56):
we're not scoring points to the judges, that's okay because
later in the game it's going to be a factor.
And I think if we're gonna be if we're gonna say, hey,
they need to be more aggressive. Now, you know, we
have to remember that that was a formula I think
a part of the formula for success. Again, we're talking
about a defense not geting up points in the third
quarter because it wasn't out as much because you were
(14:17):
running the ball. So I don't think it's take everything
you've done and throw it out the window. But maybe
it's tweaked a little bit, and just whatever it is,
and whether it's execution wolf or game plan figured out
a way. I think you just have to figure out
a way to get.
Speaker 4 (14:33):
It done, rob real quick.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Though.
Speaker 4 (14:35):
The game that they zagged though and came out throwing
was their best offensive performance, and it was against the Bengals,
you know, like so ironically or not ironically. And then
I went and I figured it out. I mean, over
this four game losing streak, there's two hundred and forty
minutes of game time sixty times four. They've had the
(14:55):
ball for just over one hundred and one minutes out
of two hundred and forty. I mean, like, that's rough
man really wrong.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
Yeah, and that's that's a weary legged defense. Yeah right,
you know.
Speaker 4 (15:04):
And and the deed didn't crumble.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
Right, Okay, Well, we have a lot more to get
to uh and you know what, We're gonna get to it.
And that is when we continue on the point after
on this shit is audio Network back.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
To the point after on dv E.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Wilson back throwing to the right as a man wide open.
Speaker 5 (15:23):
It's friar moove and he's in for the score at
the eight oh seven mark, touchdown Pittsburgh.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Well, our play of the game is brought to you
by S and T Bank, proudly serving our community since
nineteen o two. St bank dot com S and T
Bank member fd I c Uh. Pat Tryermuth had himself
a really strong game. He's gonna finish as the reception
leader for the students because he had eight. He came
into the game one behind George Pickens, who only had
(15:53):
one catch for no yards. I will say this a
disjointed field to this game because his finding game is
Friar Momo had and he's really come on strong towards
the end of the season. You know there he also
had a drop well at the end of the game. Now,
whether they could have whether they could have taken a knee,
got up and spiked one, I still don't know whether
that would have been possible. But you know, again, it
(16:16):
was just one of those games against the Bengals.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
Well, you know, I had the opportunity to do a
show with Pat. I got to know him pretty well,
and I know even today that's got to be bugging
and living bit jeepers out of him because he prides
himself on being a catchworthy target. He is a guy
that hey like, I said. Travis Kelcey said Hey, he's
one of my favorite tight ends to watch, you know,
I mean, let's says something about you, and he certainly performed.
(16:41):
And I've been long saying that. You know, if his
targets got up in the eight to eleven range somewhere
in there on a fairly regular basis, I'm sorry there.
You know, there's more than one Travis Kelcey in the
in the NFL. Not I'm not saying to put him
on exactly on power, I think, but his numbers would
would climb dramatically and he would have a lot of
(17:03):
useful how to make it very useful targeting for quarterbacks
because he makes himself very quarterback friendly.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
Well he's on the offense. It runs of all the
second Hirish percentage behind only Philadelphia. So it's hard when
you're trying to spread the ball around a little bit
to come up with a lot of sure numbers. Oh yeah,
and not to compare with these guys, but you know,
you think about Swan and Stalwarts, Well, we all knew
they were great. Everybody knew they were great. They weren't
(17:32):
putting up mind boggling numbers because for a lot of
their careersyers were running the ball, you know. So you know,
there's only so many numbers you can put up when
the ball is not being thrown in your direction.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
So I can't tell you the number of times being
on the sidelines early on when Chuck would be there
and you'd hear he's watched Terry throw in the triple
coverage or something like that, when Swan or Stalwart. Then
you hear Chuck go no, no, no, no, no, oh, good
job made the great catch, you know.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
Yeah, so Matt, you mentioned special teams and it hasn't
been as good and it is an area that they
need to tighten up. You had a great statistic in
Matt's stats, and I looked it up. I applied some
logic from the punting game a year ago and took
your thirteen yards per game in penalties and put it
(18:20):
onto the offense. Right, So if you give the offense
to thirteen yards of penalties fewer that the students committed
in the other teams, So the Steiers are plus thirteen
yards per game in the penalty yard department. The offense
moved from sixteenth overall to fourteen. That's up two spots.
Speaker 4 (18:36):
That's a lot.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
So, yeah, that's a lot. And now if you start
to think about special teams, well there's another little addition,
another little bump to your team, and of course the
turnovers as well. But the special teams, with the exception
of Boswell, hasn't been quite as crisp as.
Speaker 4 (18:52):
It No, it hasn't, and real quick on Friar Mooth.
I do think they may have found something there too.
And I mean maybe they are a very high run
percentage team and that's how they're built, and I get that.
But he's gonna get targets. I mean, I don't know
that eight targets is going to be out of the
norm going forward, because he just keeps proving he can
handle it. As for the special teams, this is by
(19:14):
no means a knock on Danny Smith or the special
teams unit, because I do think he's a great special
teams coach. I give Tomlin in the front office credit
for keeping five core special teams players. Not every team
does that. Sometimes they just give you who the backup
linebacker is, you know, like they make a concerted effort
to keep the killer Brews and Matti Kaevich's that are
(19:36):
some of the best at their craft. But to be honest,
the insane number or the insane production they were getting
on special teams for a lot of the year is unsustainable.
You're not gonna block a kick a game, you know,
You're not gonna block two kicks a month, you know,
things like that. Boz has been the constant and that's
been unbelievable and it's a historic season for him. I
(19:58):
think they really did a nice job of finding a
replacement for Johnston, who I was super excited about as
a you know, I remember you talking about in the
in the summer, just the changing in punt average, you know,
from harvand to Johnston could save you a first down
a game, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
And it was what he was in the it was
I think it was close to twenty yards a game.
Speaker 4 (20:18):
Yeah, I mean that's a ton. It's a ton. And
it looks like Weightman was a nice fine So I'm
not blaming him at all. But it's a hard thing
to sustain, you know, to have a great special teams
advantage on what twelve plays a game or something like that.
So that's kind of just sort of falling back to
the mean. I'm not worried about teams. It's just a
hard thing to rely on. As you know, this is
(20:39):
gonna be one of the foundations of victories.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
You know, Yeah, I think if you, Matt, if you
were to tell me, and the other constant until recently
had been the coverage unit. It's a coverage unit for outstanding.
It's a reason one of the reasons, and part of
it is Core this weightment. Part of it is what
they want Core, this weightman to do. But uh, you
know he is. He was in the top ten in
(21:02):
the league in net and he was in the twenties
and punting average. That tells you your your units are
getting down there and covering well. It doesn't feel like
the coverage has been quite as good now. Maybe that's
the fact that you're playing three of the best teams
in the league and they're also going to be good
at those little things. You don't get to be the
best in the league by not being at least good
(21:23):
at some of the little.
Speaker 4 (21:24):
Things and weather changes. That has a big effect on
special teams as well, I mean, especially being an outdoor
Northeastern team. Not that I think either kickers had a
hard time with that. I don't know. I'm not a
special teams analyst or expert by any stretch, But I
do think that the coverage teams need to be a
(21:45):
little better. Obviously you can't put you know, the ball
on the ground either, right.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
And well you know I think that uh, you know,
timeliness of things too. Now, uh keanum Benton picked a
great time to come up with it first sack of
the game, right, But when you kick off after making
it nineteen seventeen and you know you need to force
him into a three and out, you don't want to
see the other team return the ball to the forty
four yard line. No. Overall, when you look at the
(22:12):
special teams in Calvin Austin, who is we know we're
big fans of Calvin Austin. Tough guy, not a fumbler.
He fumbled and they recovered. So there were some things
in the special teams, in the timeliness factor, in the
field position factor that again you would like to see
tightened up in the playoffs. So if it's not going
(22:32):
to be a huge advantage, it can't be a negative either.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
No, there's no question about it. And special teams is
more want to than how to? It really is. I mean,
having played that and been on it and everything else
you understand that it's really an extreme desire, and it's
not that these guys aren't wanting to, but you know,
sometimes you can want to in the wrong way and
get out of your lane or not carry out your
(22:58):
assignment correctly and things. And let's just face it, as
Matt said, you got twelve plays a game thereabouts. It
could be as little as eight or nine something like that,
you know, But the fact of the matter is, it's
always going to be the slight variables because it's not
like you can statistically program a punt block, a punt,
a field goal block, you know, a touchdown return here
(23:21):
and there and do so in a manner that's going
to be you know, you call it in the huddle
and okay, touchdown left or whatever. No, it's not going
to happen that way. It's special teams are the special
teams because the teams are special. How's that there?
Speaker 2 (23:33):
You go, Well, you know, by the way they're coaching
the I was talking to James Pierre and I said, man,
what makes a good gunner? And he said, listening to
your coaches. I was like, wow, that's that's not the
answer I was expecting. But that's an unbelievably great answer.
You know, so, Matt, I think that I want to
get back to having optimism about the team, about the
(23:56):
Steelers in the playoffs, and I think we're all hunting
for signed the last four weeks because that's what you
have to do when the team loses four games in
a row. I still think this that I still have
that memory in my mind, the team putting up points,
certainly the performance in Cincinnati. But you know, and I've
had this discussion with people. Somebody said to me, out
(24:17):
same old students are ten and seven. Last year, they're
ten and seven. This year, well is scrapped and claude
to get to ten and seven, they were ten and
three this year. They ran into a buzz saw, a
bad schedule, whatever you want to say. At the end
of the season, didn't play well however you want to put it.
But when I think of that stretch of seven games
prior to this four game losing streak, in which the
students averaged over twenty eight points per game, the look
(24:39):
of it, the feel of it, the statistics of it,
and then I think about the bedrock of what they've
had to do to be successful still being in place,
you know, the special teams, the turnover battle, your plus fifteen.
Even after these last four games, are were going in
to the game against Cincinnati, you know, all the yard
(25:00):
the penalty yardage, all these little things we talk about. Well,
the Steelers needed all those things in the last couple
of years just to beat sort of the average teams.
But it was very difficult for them to keep pace
with the top teams on a consistent basis. They could
beat at Baltimore, they could beat at Cincinnati, but every
once in a while, you face a team that's just
going to score some points. And it's why going to
(25:22):
Buffalo last year, I felt like, you know, four or
five extraordinary things had to go well for the Steelers
for them to even be in the game. I don't
feel that way anymore. I don't feel that way about Baltimore.
I don't feel that way about you. If you beat Baltimore,
take on Buffalo in the next game, I don't feel
that way about that either. But I do think that
if you shore up these things, if you call it
(25:43):
getting some bounces, but go back to, you know, doing
the things that they've done well, winning the turnover battle,
winning or at least drawing on special teams, winning or
drawing in the penalty yardage game, that they have the
capability to keep pace when another team, if inevitably along
a playoff run, that opponent is going to score a
(26:06):
bunch of points, you know, twenty five seven, twenty eight points.
Speaker 4 (26:09):
Yeah, a lot to digest there. And I do think
that penalties, special teams and turnovers should still favor the
Steelers going forward. I mean, they're still good in those departments.
And just want to throw this out here too. I mean,
the Ravens penalties are like the worst in the league
basically for the year. I mean, that's one of their
big weaknesses. Lamar doesn't turn the ball over, but you know,
(26:31):
while he doesn't throw a lot of interceptions, he does
fumble a fair amount. But you're right, I mean, it
wasn't that long ago where this offense was humming pretty good,
you know, I mean, what was it about a month ago?
We were talking about it as vastly improved and they
can hang with the big dogs now. And this isn't
the the slog of an offense we were accustomed to,
you know, the last couple of years. That they can
(26:53):
make plays down the field, they can beat you with
a run and pass. We haven't seen it. I think
the quarterback play has declined and is a little worrisome,
especially when you're gonna do battle with Burrow and then
Lamar and MVP type of guys. But it's not all
on Wilson either, you know, I mean running the ball
with more consistency, protecting his blind side, you know, catching
(27:16):
passes that hit him in the hands. The fundamental stuff
has to get back to where you're where it was then,
and back to our previous conversation, maybe you just shrink
the playbook and go back to what you're good at.
Speaker 3 (27:27):
Not to mention that I think, Oh, I was just
going to say. You know, the thing about it too
is I would love to see Russ get the ball
out of his hands a little bit earlier, you know.
And in the fact is there's a couple of sacks. Hey,
I know there was some real spotty protection there at times.
You got to get rid of the ball, you know,
you got to get rid of the ball somehow. You know,
you can't take that negative yardage. And one of the
(27:49):
things that that I was really this morning, you know,
I couldn't, I couldn't hardly sleep, so I'm I'm up
at you know, early this morning watching tape and watching
over and I couldn't help but notice how.
Speaker 4 (27:59):
Fast Burrow got the ball out of his hand ridiculously.
Speaker 3 (28:02):
I mean I timed a couple of those at one
point eight, one point seven. I mean, no, you can't
touch him. TJ Watt Cody Ford bailed on picking up
TJ to pick up an inside rusher for whatever reason,
I have no idea. He didn't even turn on on TJ,
and TJ couldn't get to Burrow before Burrow on to
(28:23):
the ball. Yeah, I touched it. It was just amazing.
And that's one of the qualities that makes you know,
in this day and age quarterbacks so very efficient, so
very great, is their ability to be able to read
that instantly like a jet fighter pilot man, taking in
all that the essential elements of what you got to know,
and then delivering the rock as you should, you know,
And that I just I'd love to see because you
(28:45):
go back to the the Cincinnati game. First one rush
was getting that ball out of his hand under two
and a half. So I'm just thinking that that would
be something maybe that would help.
Speaker 4 (28:55):
At the backup. Wolfe's point too, Rob. I mean that
Burrow performing and the one by Mahomes the week before
were two of the absolute Maestro Picasso get the ball
out of your hand performances by any quarterback in any
game this year. And I don't think that was a
Steeler problem as much as sometimes you just get their
(29:16):
best day, you know what I mean. And and by
the way, they're also good at extending if what would
have got there. These guys are hard to get on
the ground and the Steelers could definitely use more of
that because I'm seeing too much indecision and late in
the down I think Wilson hasn't been nearly as effective
as early in the That.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
Okay, a lot to get to, including a preview of
the game coming up against the Ravens. This is the
point after on the Steelers Audio Network.
Speaker 4 (29:43):
Back to the point after on DV Burrow.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
Back looking flushed, rolling right now back to the luck
that he tripped up, got it for the sack.
Speaker 5 (29:54):
What a time prefend to get his first.
Speaker 3 (29:57):
Sack of the season.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
The Zack Hunter segment is brought to you by the
Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank. Get food, volunteer, donate at
Pittsburgh food Bank dot org Man. That was a big
sack by Keanu Benton and good to see him Wolf
getting getting into the picture and getting that first sack
of the season.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
No question about it.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
You know.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
One of the things that we can look forward to
is greater growth from Keno Benton. He is really taking
his game up several steps and done a nice job.
And he's he's more than just a club you know
what I mean. When he came in, I always used
to have him go the man clubs like he's swinging
a Louisville slugger, you know what I mean in thick
bodies move when he clubs, well, he's more than just that. Now,
(30:39):
watched him on the it was the first series of
the game and they came along with was a can't no.
Or Orlando Brown came tried to trap him. He stuffed
the but jeepers out of him. I mean, rock to
his world for for ken or Rock you know, Orlando
Brown was like three seventy or something like that. That
takes a lot of girth and a lot of grit
(31:00):
and of the teeth and what a job he did.
So I just like the way he's progressing. He's one
of the real bright spots on that defense that's growing.
Speaker 2 (31:10):
Well, Matt, I'd still like to go back to this.
I'd like to see this rested. I want to just
make sure that we that they understood the point I
was making earlier, that the students are there are still
doing a lot of things better. If that offense can
get back in gear, I think they can get back
to playing with teams. And I think that Baltimore one
(31:31):
way or the other. I don't want to ever say
a Baltimore team that's playing as well as Baltimore is
a great opponent to get in the first round, but
because of the familiarity, because of some success they've had,
because of schematics, and I don't know whether schematics has
been an issue as to why the Seaons offense has
struggled a little bit, But for those reasons, you know,
(31:52):
I'm optimistic this offense can get going and that this
offense can produce points if needed in the postseason. I
think that's the point I was making, is that last year,
so much would have had to go right for you
to keep pace with a team. But I think they
just need to get back to what they were doing
several weeks ago. I don't know if I'm paying too
rosie of a picture, but hopefully, you know, knowing Baltimore
(32:15):
will help you feel comfortable.
Speaker 4 (32:17):
It is a bit of a rosy picture consider what
we've seen of late, you know, I mean a lot
of these guys, you know, these coordinators will watch the
last four games, and that's a lot different than you know,
much of the season, especially with Wilson behind center. But
to your point, I mean, we've at least seen it
with this group. This isn't Duck or Rudolph or Pickett
and those leg groups where every first down seemed like
(32:38):
a major accomplishment. I mean, this group has been a
at least league average unit and at times much better
than that. Now this opponent is fearsome. I mean, they're
playing really, really well, and they're playing their best football
of the year. They're pretty healthy. But they're also familiar,
as you mentioned, you know, which, I was thinking about
(32:59):
this thing Harbaugh's eyes, like, man, we're playing great right now,
but we're gonna either get the Steelers or my brother's
gonna show up here. Like, is there anyone in the
world who knows me better than Tomlin and my brother?
You know, Like can't we just get some abnormal team
that we're better than and wipe the floor with them. Instead,
we got to play these super familiar foes and it
ends up being Tomlin, who I'm sure is going to
(33:22):
have something for him, you know what I mean. I mean,
I do think the familiarity is good for where the
Steelers are at right now.
Speaker 3 (33:26):
Let me just say we have the one problem we
have is we've They've got this new spectacular secondary member
named Michael Pierce. I've never seen how about three and
seventy pound cornerback defensive, but I couldn't believe it watching
him with that ball that was It was like he
was holding on to lunch.
Speaker 4 (33:45):
It looks so little the rest of the Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
Here's jenying. You know. Going back many years, I was
in some film sessions where I remember I was asked
by a coach, didn't you see that guy? Well, yeah,
when I threw an interception. When I threw an interception,
of course I didn't, or I wouldn't have thrown it. You
know what am I going to say? Of course I
didn't see him. I don't know how you miss Michael Pierce.
(34:12):
I don't know how you can go I don't know
how you can say in that in that coub session,
I just didn't see him coaching the hard Gotta missapace
takes up he takes up a lot of space, you know, Matt,
when you look at this team, uh, this Ravens team,
you know, going into the game against the Steelers, we
didn't know it then, but they just were in the
process of fixing the back end of their secondary. Yeah,
(34:34):
it had been a huge problem for him. Well it's
not a huge problem anymore. You can't run on them,
and you can no longer just go back and throw
the ball deep and expect to have success.
Speaker 4 (34:46):
Yeah, people are gonna like hearing this, But really, since
that game, they've been basically the best defense in the league.
I mean, they haven't played a murderers row. I mean
that Browns team was pretty rough. I mean, if you
Michael Pierce, it's not the greatest quarterback effort I ever saw.
But still their numbers are tremendous since they played the Steelers.
And I think there's a couple of things about it
(35:06):
is you know, you mentioned they they made some personnel changes.
They made more defined roles. Humphrees the slot and Hamilton's
the free and they switched out another safety and switched
out a linebacker. But the big key is whether it's
personnel driven or just you know, coaches getting their feet
under them too. Is they used to blow so many coverages,
(35:28):
you know, the back end of the defense was always
had their palms in the air. You know, you got them,
I got them. You know, they gave away a lot
of stuff that they're not now. And even on offense,
Like I was really worried about their offensive line coming
into the into the league, into the year, and they've
seemed to have a pretty good firm grasp of it now.
I mean, it's a good unit. I mean, and Lamar
(35:49):
and Henry sure help those things. But they've corrected problems
that are rapid rate. Even Tucker's making kicks again.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
Yeah, the other one they corrected Wolfy and I don't like. Yeah,
Tucker's making kicks again. You know, we were talking about
this before the game in Baltimore, like how much longer
are they going to keep Lamar Jackson down for every
game he's down against the Steelers and non productive, losing,
(36:18):
not playing well in conjunction with losing. It's going to
get further and further into his head. But it probably
would only take one for him to feel a burden
lifted off his shoulders. Well, he had to won in Baltimore.
He and Derrick Henry, who in a couple of meetings
against the Steelers, they got a pretty decent job on him.
(36:40):
Those guys were there, they showed up, and I think
if there was any sort of Steelers shadow over them,
maybe that shadow is lifted a little bit.
Speaker 3 (36:49):
Well it may, but the Steelers are still fifteen and
fourteen against the Ravens in Baltimore. They've won four of
the past five and six of the past eight in
M and T Bank. So the fact is you still
got that puncher's chance of going in and doing what
you did last year with Mason Rudolph at the home.
You know again, I just always to me, this is
(37:11):
always one of the most exciting times to be a
football player. When you're going into an opposing you know,
city and a visiting stadium and you've got everything on
the line and there's so much pressure, and man, you
live for that. I mean, it's that opportunity to rewrite
what happened during the season maybe and and really start
(37:34):
something special. And you you only have so many of
those opportunities, and I hope and pray that they're able
to put the best foot forward and get some traction
as you talked about, and get something going. But man
to realize what lays before you. I mean, you can
make history here, you really can. And just to have
that opportunity, it's such and it's such a privilege, and
(37:55):
I hope that these guys really grasp that and have
an understanding of you know what, It's not about what's
already happened. It's about what can where can we go
from here?
Speaker 4 (38:04):
And rob you know, just you know, the Lamar situation too,
I find interesting because going into the most recent Steeler
Ravens game, I'm sure all week he heard why are
you good against thirty teams except this one? And do
the Steelers have your number? And what do they do?
And why can't you beat the Steelers and blah blah blah. Well,
this week he's gonna get why aren't you winning? Why
(38:24):
don't why don't you win every playoff game?
Speaker 2 (38:26):
Ever?
Speaker 4 (38:26):
You know, like his playoff success isn't great. I mean
he's the only two time MVP to not have a
Super Bowl title. I think he's two and four in
the postseason. And that's not all him. I mean, I
say this all the time. I mean, playoff wins are
so hard to come and come, you know, to get.
But you know he's gonna be to listening to that
all week, and then I'm sure people are gonna be like,
and it's the Steelers, you don't do as well against them.
(38:48):
But leading into that last game, I kind of forgot
a kick out of it, and I said it a
bunch too. I'm like, yes, the Steelers do a wonderful
job on Lamar. The familiarity is really important with this guy.
They scheme it well. They've got a lot of really
good football players on defense. But if you're listening to
this a month ago and thought you're gonna hold Lamar
Jackson down for the next decade and be the only
(39:09):
team that he can't do well against your nuts, he's
too good, right.
Speaker 2 (39:14):
Well, I will say this, I do think some of
that pressure is there, yeah, And I do think that
he could be reminded of it. If this he's gonna
be going back to what we talked about, you come
out if you know you're on your first possession on defense,
on offense, you come out and you do something right.
You march down, you score some points, you take some
time off the clock, and whether they are for sure
(39:38):
yeah and Lamar, whether Lamar has a possession before that
or or has to sit around on the sidelines and
wait for that regardless, if you can, if you can
remind him, hey, you know what, go ahead and keep
because we got two guys in the edge. Uh, you're
not going to get by. You know, high Smith and
and Watt do a tremendous job against Jackson. You know,
(40:02):
this stuff can maybe start to crop up mid game
if you can remind him that, yep, we have your number,
and yes you're two and four in the playoffs.
Speaker 4 (40:14):
I mean, he's not out of the woods either. I mean,
he's a tremendous football player, but he's still very conscious,
I'm sure of his legacy and has a lot of
pressure on him. And now he's highly compensated and he's
in MVP. Can't category. All wonderful problems to have, but
it's not too terrible. But they also doesn't have Zay Flowers.
And I bet that he's not thrilled that the Steelers
(40:36):
are coming to town. I'm sure he's confident and you know,
in in a good mind space, and they should be,
but probably not the defense he wanted to see.
Speaker 2 (40:44):
No, and and Wolf Bateman's come on. Mark Andrews has
come on. They still have Isaiah likely as a target,
but Jay Flowers is their guy, that's their guy, and
without him, and it looks it looks like he's gonna
have a tough time playing this week. It looks like
they're hoping they get by the students and maybe get
him the following week, but it doesn't look very promising
(41:06):
for him to play. That will be significant, I think
for the Ravens, and I think that the students can
scheme and perhaps be a little more aggressive because of that.
Speaker 3 (41:18):
There's no doubt in my mind that that's gonna shift
some targeting. I mean, I would think that Mark Andrews
is gonna be targeted a little bit more, maybe some
more to the checkdowns, to the backs, that sort of thing.
Who knows, certainly, I doubt it'll be Patrick.
Speaker 4 (41:31):
Ricard, probably not.
Speaker 3 (41:35):
But you know the fact is, you know when you
see Asay Flowers go down, then you know you realize
that's that's somebody of real consequence. They also had what
Nelson Aguilar I think I'm not sure what his status is. Yeah,
I thought he was up, but he was another veteran guy.
And so listen, you know, when you got a quarterback
who is m VP caliber, he's gonna put the ball
(41:56):
where you know, even I could catch it.
Speaker 4 (41:59):
And if you remember these meetings too well, especially the
most recent one without Elliott, they took Minka and really
situationally put him on Andrews a lot of third down,
a lot of red zone, and Flowers is their top guy.
But Andrews has always been Jackson's wild bee. I mean,
he's always been his kelsey. You know, they came in
the league together. I think a huge key and it
(42:21):
makes it easier without Flowers is if you can take
Andrews out of the equation to some degree, really limit him,
the passing game probably won't destroy you. Now, Henry's another
issue altogether, But you know we saw that and.
Speaker 2 (42:35):
This judents have had good success against Mark Andrews. He
finally scored his first touchdown against it. But I agree
with you, Matt that you know, look, we saw it
with Pickens. Right when Pickens is out, suddenly everything's every
you know, every receiver is getting a little bit better
player against him than he normally does, because Pickens is
going to take up the best guy and probably a
(42:57):
little more attention than that as well. And and in
this instance that's Flowers, and Flowers is going to be out.
And now you know Bateman's gonna get more attention. And
you know Weber up is going to be up. NeXT's
got to be Tylon Wallace, who's had some big games. Well,
you know you have big games, and you know you're
(43:17):
the fourth or fifth target. That's one thing. Because you
have the fourth or fifth best guy target covering you.
What happens now if you have the second best guy
covering you had a little more attention. So these things
are all going to be very, very interesting to keep
an eye on. Guys. I can't wait.
Speaker 3 (43:32):
Yes, we got Steelers Ravens coming here we go. What
a bonus traces.
Speaker 2 (43:41):
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(44:05):
our producer Justin Miller, I'm Rob King. We thank you
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(00:21):
And now here are your hosts, Rob King, Craig Wolfley
and Matt Williamson.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
And we thank you for being with us on the
Point After on the See's Audio network as just announced
alongside Craig Williams, Craig Williamson, Wow, Craig Wolfley and Matt Williams.
And I'm Rob King. Hi, guys, how you doing good? Good?
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Absolutely just fine, bro good.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
I think I got the name straight. Another four or
five years of doing this, I'll have it down to
a science. Guys. I wanted to ask you, well, if
you and I have talked a bunch, we did the
game together. So I'm gonna I'm gonna reverse field here
and I'm gonna get our first reaction to you by
first National Bank. Let's get started. Member fdiic from Matt First, Matt,
(01:06):
your thoughts on what you witnessed on Saturday night against
the Bengals.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
Well, I guess there's some good and bad. As always
some of these Monday shows, you can be super negative
or super positive, and that's probably not the best way
to handle things. So I want to start of the
Steeler defense, though, which I thought was mostly very very positive.
I mean, the opening drive was disheartening, and the slow
starts for this team overall were starting to get a
little mind boggling. But I thought the defense did really
(01:35):
really well against what I think is an elite offense.
I mean, you hold Joe Burrow to nineteen points, and
the playmakers really show up on that side of the ball.
Batted balls, you know, interceptions, tip pass is great, tackling,
I mean all kinds of stuff like that, where the
offense is sort of the opposite, Like, who's the playmakers
here on this side of the ball. We know who
they are on defense, and they showed up huge and
(01:56):
that's why this game was as competitive as it was.
But the offense was really frustrating, with the exception of
maybe one drive when they kind of took the hurry
up approach, and you know, Pickens was really hard to understand.
I mean, what's going on there? I mean, was he
just checked out? I don't know. The quarterbacks starting to
show some wartz. I don't know what the strengths of
(02:18):
the offense are. Friar Moose playing well, but you mean
some of the guys that have stepped up haven't lately,
and unfortunately, when that side of the ball you can't
cite while they're playing one of the best teams in
the league. I mean, they're playing a pretty poor offense
and you should be the better team when you had
the football. And then lastly, Boswell's amazing and gives you
(02:38):
an advantage in that department against everybody, and rightfully he
should be the Pro Bowl kicker. But the special team's
advantage has kind of been nullified lately too. It's kind
of just been even steven on that side, and you're
not getting the turnovers as much and not winning the
margins as we often talk about.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
Rob Wow.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
So, I well, that sounds like a lot of stuff
we were discussing today.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
It's very similar now. I mean, you could just dittoh
the whole thing normally. I mean, I think there's a
couple of things though that I found really remarkable, and
one of them was that Captain Cam played with the flu.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
Yeah find that afterwards.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
Wow, I'm watching him and I'm like, going, this, dude's
pointing hard, do it, you know, going right to the limit.
And then you find out he had the flu. I
hope he leaned in close on a couple of those
guys and went, you know all, I will tell you this,
I have seen I have seen projectile vomiting during the
game tounch Iak and laid one on a nose tackle
(03:36):
from Cleveland, and I don't think he's recovered yet. Let
me tell you if.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
Burrow wakes up of the sniffles this morning, yeah yeah, right, yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
He did play a terrific game. And I think wolf
as I look at the team, and you know, we're gonna,
I'm sure be turning our attention to the Ravens because
we all have a great deal familiarity with them. Uh.
It is still the point after, though. We need to
get to the point after. And I think that you know,
if you tell me Joe Burrow and company, you're gonna
(04:06):
hold him in nineteen points out of Saturday night. There's
no way I'm not thinking you're winning that game at
Akrosher Stadium. And of course they didn't because they ly
scored seventeen. Is it pretty much now, hey, that we
feel good about this defense now and let's get on
(04:27):
into the playoffs and let's get the offense figured and
let's get going.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Well, I think here here's the thing. Number one, Joe
Burrow was on a tear. He was on a what
eight game tear of three touchdowns or more in a
row and two and fifty yards and more right, no
one's ever done that exactly. So you're looking at it
and I look and go, by golly, we got more
touchdowns than they did. You know what I mean? They
got what three field goals? We had two touchdowns something
(04:51):
like that. I mean a little it's a little, I know,
it's like a little victory, but it's something that you
look at. Go okay, maybe with the worm is learning here,
you know, maybe we're going to get some of those
those bouncing balls on the ground and maybe get an interception.
Maybe things turn there. All I know is this, you know,
I know we're not exactly where we want to be,
(05:13):
being the Steelers want you know, you want to win
the division and and so forth. But the fact is
you're in the playoffs. You're there, and you've got to
have a quick, you know, release of everything behind you
and move forward. And I know Mike Tomlin says, you know,
you got to take the lessons learned from this game. Yes,
you do, okay, but you've got to move forward with
a lot of vim and bigger because you've got the
(05:34):
rat Birds that are sitting there in Baltimore waiting on
you at eight o'clock and you want to go in
there and you want to beat them. I mean, the
Steelers are fifteen and fourteen at M and T Banks Stadium.
You know, that's that's pretty decent. You know, You've you've
got a history of playing pretty good football.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
There, you do. And I'm beginning to wonder now, Matt,
and you know, as much as you know, when we're
having these conversations after the last three games, I think
we were all kind of leaning toward, Hey, the offense
isn't doing its part in the you know, the Seesaw battle,
whatever you want to call it, the working in conjunction
(06:09):
of the teamwork portion of things. You know, you do
your job, they do their job, and together it works
out to a victory. You know, as I look back
now at these last three games, because you went into
that game scoring a lot of points and not giving
up a lot of points, and then you gave up
a lot of points and didn't score a lot of points.
(06:30):
So the average score in those last three games prior
to this one was thirty to thirteen and a third.
You know, so that's not good enough defense, and that's
not good enough offense. But you know, the hand and
glove work that needs to happen the two sides a
complementary part of football. I'm starting to lean more towards
(06:51):
saying not that fingers need to be pointed that this
was more of the offense and the defense. I mean,
you go five straight three and outs to begin the
game in Philadelphia. You're putting your defense in an awfully
difficult spot. You know, you fumble inside the five yard line,
you throw an interception after what I thought was a
dubious holding call in the end zone. Things like that.
(07:12):
You have an opportunity last night to march down the
field and win the game with a field goal, and
you don't really come close I'm I'm, you know, beginning
to think about wrapping up these last four games and
saying it's more on the offense and if they can
get that part straightened out. We could talk about the
special teams in a minute, but just offense defense that
(07:33):
that it's the offense right now that's letting the team down.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
More one PC.
Speaker 4 (07:36):
And you know, that three game stretch was brutal. We
knew it was gonna be brutal. It was worse than
we even thought. Three and eleven days, all those things
against super Bowl type teams. But you couldn't explain that
away for this Bengals game because you had a nice
long week to kind of get things right and be
fresh and come out hot. And I don't understand the
slow starts at all. And frankly, you know, despite that
(07:59):
slow start defense, you only level nineteen points to Joe Burrow.
I mean, I just keep coming back to that over
and over, and you hit him a lot, and you
made plays and you tackled and it was pretty strong,
fundamental football, you know, from top to bottom of the defense,
with a lot of splash mixed in. But it is
the offense. I mean, I just don't know what's the
(08:19):
offense good at right now? What's the calling card? What
can you lean on? You know, I do a Thursday
show with Mike Pursuda and Merril Hodge, and I'm sure
Wolf can you know attest this better than me? But
Merrow always said, like when the going got tough in
the Chuck Nol days, they would go back to their
three or four best running plays and just start from there.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
Again.
Speaker 4 (08:40):
You know, we're gonna be the best we could possibly
be on Outside Jones or whatever it is, and then
we're gonna take the offense from there and just start
at that root level. And makes some sense. I mean,
maybe that's the way that the tactics they have to
take going into this game.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
Well, it makes a lot of sense. So I had
a conversation with Jeff Hardings back on the bus to
Super Bowl forty. I'm sitting with him, riding with him,
and we were talking about the fact that they were
compressing the playbook and taking the best three to five plays.
I wish Max was here to talk about this, but
you know, uh, the boss play, the one that Willie
Parker scored on the seventy five yard you know, I
(09:14):
mean that was a play that they ran against any
They what they wanted to do is have plays that
could run against any defense, and it would not be
something that you know, required a calculus to be able
to figure out when you make your calls. And they
rode through those playoffs back in five on the on
the strengths of you know, compressing their playbook to the
(09:34):
ones that they did best. And maybe that is Merrill
may well have a point here that maybe that is
something they can look to what's.
Speaker 4 (09:42):
Your bread and butter and start again?
Speaker 2 (09:44):
You start over, and I wonder if that involves personnel too,
you know, do you start thinking about, Hey, who are
our playmakers and how do we get in the ball more.
Speaker 4 (09:55):
Mike Williams comes to mind in that regard. Yeah, that
it might be time that you put you traded for
him for a reason. You showed up in a splashy
way in this one. He's a big, physical guy built
for AFC North and playoff football. And I'm not saying
instead of pickings, but in addition to you.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Know, yeah, I mean they I think you know that's
again when I go back to where's the team heading
into the playoffs. One of the things that Matt pointed
out Wolf has pointed out in the past, is the
defense defends best at defends least, and so they've got
to get back to winning time in possession battle. You know,
(10:33):
Mike Thomas been asked about that. It begins with getting
first downs. And you wonder if at the beginning of
this game they thought that, look, if we can win
the time of possession battle, keep Joe Burrow off the field.
But then, you know, and again I don't know whether
that was their thinking as to why they ran them
all so much. Hey, let's get into third and manageable.
You know, maybe we get into third and two, or
(10:54):
maybe we could pick up six yards on a first
down and then we can run or passes we want to,
and they couldn't get that traction going. And I don't
know if that was part of their thinking. But regardless
of what that is, fast starts, better starts, fewer three
and outs are things that are going to help this
defense be a better.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
Defense, unquestionably. So, Look, the Steelers are now owen to
nineteen on opening offensive drives and touchdowns scoring. The last
guy to lead a touchdown drive was Mason Rudolph last
year in Week sixteen, when he hit the pickings with
that eighty six yard in breaking route and they scored
a touchdown. Y you know, I mean way too long. Yes,
(11:32):
nineteen straight games, my gosh, you know, I mean, that's
that's too much. And the defense bears the brunt of that.
And so certainly you need to come out and you've
got to find some way to get started faster. Hey,
they closed out the game like the ten and three
team that we saw. They unfortunately got behind like the
ten and sixteen that we've seen or ten Yeah, the
(11:54):
ten and seven now team that we've seen. So the
fact is they've got to get back to the roots
of what they were doing and do it successfully. And
you can do it. Look, here's my whole thing. The
same guys, the very same guys are here at ten
and seven, but they were there at ten and three.
You know, it's not like they forgot how to play football.
It's not like everybody's injured. They certainly are capable of
(12:16):
turning this around. I'm always optimistic about that. I've always been.
I've always felt that way as a player because of
the people that I was surrounded by and the people
that I grew up under from Chuck Nolan down about
the fighting spirit of a man, and you can't base
it on just mere calculations. There's more to it than that.
I really believe in the power of Hey, the next snap,
(12:38):
the next game can turn things around. And I still
believe that.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
Rob.
Speaker 4 (12:42):
I don't get back to time possession a little bit,
because I remember even last Monday when we did the show,
that was probably our theme. You know, you got to
get back to controlling the football, getting first downs. Don't
let this defense be on the field as long as
it has been going into this game. And in the end,
they only possessed the football for twenty two minutes game
and I mean really really low. And I do think
(13:04):
to your point, and that's what words in your mouth,
but a lot of you know, first down runs. They
went a really long stretch until they threw the first
pass on first down, and more nausey than Warren was
probably geared towards time of possession, physicality and you know,
land some body blows early and then you know, control
the game the fourth quarter, which has been their recipe
(13:24):
for a lot of the year. But frankly, it didn't work.
You know, I mean, it's easy to it doesn't mean,
it was a bad plan, but it didn't work. And
then all of a sudden you start spiraling.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
You know, yeah, I think that's a great point. I
didn't even interrupted it. I'm sorry, yeah, but I mean
we were lauding the team earlier for how well they
played in the second half. Right, great they were in
the third quarter. Hadn't given up a third quarter point? Well,
some of that is probably attributable to the formula that
we saw them try to employ the last few weeks,
which is land some body blows early, It's okay if
(13:56):
we're not scoring points to the judges, that's okay because
later in the game it's going to be a factor.
And I think if we're gonna be if we're gonna say, hey,
they need to be more aggressive. Now, you know, we
have to remember that that was a formula I think
a part of the formula for success. Again, we're talking
about a defense not geting up points in the third
quarter because it wasn't out as much because you were
(14:17):
running the ball. So I don't think it's take everything
you've done and throw it out the window. But maybe
it's tweaked a little bit, and just whatever it is,
and whether it's execution wolf or game plan figured out
a way. I think you just have to figure out
a way to get.
Speaker 4 (14:33):
It done, rob real quick.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Though.
Speaker 4 (14:35):
The game that they zagged though and came out throwing
was their best offensive performance, and it was against the Bengals,
you know, like so ironically or not ironically. And then
I went and I figured it out. I mean, over
this four game losing streak, there's two hundred and forty
minutes of game time sixty times four. They've had the
(14:55):
ball for just over one hundred and one minutes out
of two hundred and forty. I mean, like, that's rough
man really wrong.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
Yeah, and that's that's a weary legged defense. Yeah right,
you know.
Speaker 4 (15:04):
And and the deed didn't crumble.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
Right, Okay, Well, we have a lot more to get
to uh and you know what, We're gonna get to it.
And that is when we continue on the point after
on this shit is audio Network back.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
To the point after on dv E.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Wilson back throwing to the right as a man wide open.
Speaker 5 (15:23):
It's friar moove and he's in for the score at
the eight oh seven mark, touchdown Pittsburgh.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Well, our play of the game is brought to you
by S and T Bank, proudly serving our community since
nineteen o two. St bank dot com S and T
Bank member fd I c Uh. Pat Tryermuth had himself
a really strong game. He's gonna finish as the reception
leader for the students because he had eight. He came
into the game one behind George Pickens, who only had
(15:53):
one catch for no yards. I will say this a
disjointed field to this game because his finding game is
Friar Momo had and he's really come on strong towards
the end of the season. You know there he also
had a drop well at the end of the game. Now,
whether they could have whether they could have taken a knee,
got up and spiked one, I still don't know whether
that would have been possible. But you know, again, it
(16:16):
was just one of those games against the Bengals.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
Well, you know, I had the opportunity to do a
show with Pat. I got to know him pretty well,
and I know even today that's got to be bugging
and living bit jeepers out of him because he prides
himself on being a catchworthy target. He is a guy
that hey like, I said. Travis Kelcey said Hey, he's
one of my favorite tight ends to watch, you know,
I mean, let's says something about you, and he certainly performed.
(16:41):
And I've been long saying that. You know, if his
targets got up in the eight to eleven range somewhere
in there on a fairly regular basis, I'm sorry there.
You know, there's more than one Travis Kelcey in the
in the NFL. Not I'm not saying to put him
on exactly on power, I think, but his numbers would
would climb dramatically and he would have a lot of
(17:03):
useful how to make it very useful targeting for quarterbacks
because he makes himself very quarterback friendly.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
Well he's on the offense. It runs of all the
second Hirish percentage behind only Philadelphia. So it's hard when
you're trying to spread the ball around a little bit
to come up with a lot of sure numbers. Oh yeah,
and not to compare with these guys, but you know,
you think about Swan and Stalwarts, Well, we all knew
they were great. Everybody knew they were great. They weren't
(17:32):
putting up mind boggling numbers because for a lot of
their careersyers were running the ball, you know. So you know,
there's only so many numbers you can put up when
the ball is not being thrown in your direction.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
So I can't tell you the number of times being
on the sidelines early on when Chuck would be there
and you'd hear he's watched Terry throw in the triple
coverage or something like that, when Swan or Stalwart. Then
you hear Chuck go no, no, no, no, no, oh, good
job made the great catch, you know.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
Yeah, so Matt, you mentioned special teams and it hasn't
been as good and it is an area that they
need to tighten up. You had a great statistic in
Matt's stats, and I looked it up. I applied some
logic from the punting game a year ago and took
your thirteen yards per game in penalties and put it
(18:20):
onto the offense. Right, So if you give the offense
to thirteen yards of penalties fewer that the students committed
in the other teams, So the Steiers are plus thirteen
yards per game in the penalty yard department. The offense
moved from sixteenth overall to fourteen. That's up two spots.
Speaker 4 (18:36):
That's a lot.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
So, yeah, that's a lot. And now if you start
to think about special teams, well there's another little addition,
another little bump to your team, and of course the
turnovers as well. But the special teams, with the exception
of Boswell, hasn't been quite as crisp as.
Speaker 4 (18:52):
It No, it hasn't, and real quick on Friar Mooth.
I do think they may have found something there too.
And I mean maybe they are a very high run
percentage team and that's how they're built, and I get that.
But he's gonna get targets. I mean, I don't know
that eight targets is going to be out of the
norm going forward, because he just keeps proving he can
handle it. As for the special teams, this is by
(19:14):
no means a knock on Danny Smith or the special
teams unit, because I do think he's a great special
teams coach. I give Tomlin in the front office credit
for keeping five core special teams players. Not every team
does that. Sometimes they just give you who the backup
linebacker is, you know, like they make a concerted effort
to keep the killer Brews and Matti Kaevich's that are
(19:36):
some of the best at their craft. But to be honest,
the insane number or the insane production they were getting
on special teams for a lot of the year is unsustainable.
You're not gonna block a kick a game, you know,
You're not gonna block two kicks a month, you know,
things like that. Boz has been the constant and that's
been unbelievable and it's a historic season for him. I
(19:58):
think they really did a nice job of finding a
replacement for Johnston, who I was super excited about as
a you know, I remember you talking about in the
in the summer, just the changing in punt average, you know,
from harvand to Johnston could save you a first down
a game, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
And it was what he was in the it was
I think it was close to twenty yards a game.
Speaker 4 (20:18):
Yeah, I mean that's a ton. It's a ton. And
it looks like Weightman was a nice fine So I'm
not blaming him at all. But it's a hard thing
to sustain, you know, to have a great special teams
advantage on what twelve plays a game or something like that.
So that's kind of just sort of falling back to
the mean. I'm not worried about teams. It's just a
hard thing to rely on. As you know, this is
(20:39):
gonna be one of the foundations of victories.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
You know, Yeah, I think if you, Matt, if you
were to tell me, and the other constant until recently
had been the coverage unit. It's a coverage unit for outstanding.
It's a reason one of the reasons, and part of
it is Core this weightment. Part of it is what
they want Core, this weightman to do. But uh, you
know he is. He was in the top ten in
(21:02):
the league in net and he was in the twenties
and punting average. That tells you your your units are
getting down there and covering well. It doesn't feel like
the coverage has been quite as good now. Maybe that's
the fact that you're playing three of the best teams
in the league and they're also going to be good
at those little things. You don't get to be the
best in the league by not being at least good
(21:23):
at some of the little.
Speaker 4 (21:24):
Things and weather changes. That has a big effect on
special teams as well, I mean, especially being an outdoor
Northeastern team. Not that I think either kickers had a
hard time with that. I don't know. I'm not a
special teams analyst or expert by any stretch, But I
do think that the coverage teams need to be a
(21:45):
little better. Obviously you can't put you know, the ball
on the ground either, right.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
And well you know I think that uh, you know,
timeliness of things too. Now, uh keanum Benton picked a
great time to come up with it first sack of
the game, right, But when you kick off after making
it nineteen seventeen and you know you need to force
him into a three and out, you don't want to
see the other team return the ball to the forty
four yard line. No. Overall, when you look at the
(22:12):
special teams in Calvin Austin, who is we know we're
big fans of Calvin Austin. Tough guy, not a fumbler.
He fumbled and they recovered. So there were some things
in the special teams, in the timeliness factor, in the
field position factor that again you would like to see
tightened up in the playoffs. So if it's not going
(22:32):
to be a huge advantage, it can't be a negative either.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
No, there's no question about it. And special teams is
more want to than how to? It really is. I mean,
having played that and been on it and everything else
you understand that it's really an extreme desire, and it's
not that these guys aren't wanting to, but you know,
sometimes you can want to in the wrong way and
get out of your lane or not carry out your
(22:58):
assignment correctly and things. And let's just face it, as
Matt said, you got twelve plays a game thereabouts. It
could be as little as eight or nine something like that,
you know, But the fact of the matter is, it's
always going to be the slight variables because it's not
like you can statistically program a punt block, a punt,
a field goal block, you know, a touchdown return here
(23:21):
and there and do so in a manner that's going
to be you know, you call it in the huddle
and okay, touchdown left or whatever. No, it's not going
to happen that way. It's special teams are the special
teams because the teams are special. How's that there?
Speaker 2 (23:33):
You go, Well, you know, by the way they're coaching
the I was talking to James Pierre and I said, man,
what makes a good gunner? And he said, listening to
your coaches. I was like, wow, that's that's not the
answer I was expecting. But that's an unbelievably great answer.
You know, so, Matt, I think that I want to
get back to having optimism about the team, about the
(23:56):
Steelers in the playoffs, and I think we're all hunting
for signed the last four weeks because that's what you
have to do when the team loses four games in
a row. I still think this that I still have
that memory in my mind, the team putting up points,
certainly the performance in Cincinnati. But you know, and I've
had this discussion with people. Somebody said to me, out
(24:17):
same old students are ten and seven. Last year, they're
ten and seven. This year, well is scrapped and claude
to get to ten and seven, they were ten and
three this year. They ran into a buzz saw, a
bad schedule, whatever you want to say. At the end
of the season, didn't play well however you want to put it.
But when I think of that stretch of seven games
prior to this four game losing streak, in which the
students averaged over twenty eight points per game, the look
(24:39):
of it, the feel of it, the statistics of it,
and then I think about the bedrock of what they've
had to do to be successful still being in place,
you know, the special teams, the turnover battle, your plus fifteen.
Even after these last four games, are were going in
to the game against Cincinnati, you know, all the yard
(25:00):
the penalty yardage, all these little things we talk about. Well,
the Steelers needed all those things in the last couple
of years just to beat sort of the average teams.
But it was very difficult for them to keep pace
with the top teams on a consistent basis. They could
beat at Baltimore, they could beat at Cincinnati, but every
once in a while, you face a team that's just
going to score some points. And it's why going to
(25:22):
Buffalo last year, I felt like, you know, four or
five extraordinary things had to go well for the Steelers
for them to even be in the game. I don't
feel that way anymore. I don't feel that way about Baltimore.
I don't feel that way about you. If you beat Baltimore,
take on Buffalo in the next game, I don't feel
that way about that either. But I do think that
if you shore up these things, if you call it
(25:43):
getting some bounces, but go back to, you know, doing
the things that they've done well, winning the turnover battle,
winning or at least drawing on special teams, winning or
drawing in the penalty yardage game, that they have the
capability to keep pace when another team, if inevitably along
a playoff run, that opponent is going to score a
(26:06):
bunch of points, you know, twenty five seven, twenty eight points.
Speaker 4 (26:09):
Yeah, a lot to digest there. And I do think
that penalties, special teams and turnovers should still favor the
Steelers going forward. I mean, they're still good in those departments.
And just want to throw this out here too. I mean,
the Ravens penalties are like the worst in the league
basically for the year. I mean, that's one of their
big weaknesses. Lamar doesn't turn the ball over, but you know,
(26:31):
while he doesn't throw a lot of interceptions, he does
fumble a fair amount. But you're right, I mean, it
wasn't that long ago where this offense was humming pretty good,
you know, I mean, what was it about a month ago?
We were talking about it as vastly improved and they
can hang with the big dogs now. And this isn't
the the slog of an offense we were accustomed to,
you know, the last couple of years. That they can
(26:53):
make plays down the field, they can beat you with
a run and pass. We haven't seen it. I think
the quarterback play has declined and is a little worrisome,
especially when you're gonna do battle with Burrow and then
Lamar and MVP type of guys. But it's not all
on Wilson either, you know, I mean running the ball
with more consistency, protecting his blind side, you know, catching
(27:16):
passes that hit him in the hands. The fundamental stuff
has to get back to where you're where it was then,
and back to our previous conversation, maybe you just shrink
the playbook and go back to what you're good at.
Speaker 3 (27:27):
Not to mention that I think, Oh, I was just
going to say. You know, the thing about it too
is I would love to see Russ get the ball
out of his hands a little bit earlier, you know.
And in the fact is there's a couple of sacks. Hey,
I know there was some real spotty protection there at times.
You got to get rid of the ball, you know,
you got to get rid of the ball somehow. You know,
you can't take that negative yardage. And one of the
(27:49):
things that that I was really this morning, you know,
I couldn't, I couldn't hardly sleep, so I'm I'm up
at you know, early this morning watching tape and watching
over and I couldn't help but notice how.
Speaker 4 (27:59):
Fast Burrow got the ball out of his hand ridiculously.
Speaker 3 (28:02):
I mean I timed a couple of those at one
point eight, one point seven. I mean, no, you can't
touch him. TJ Watt Cody Ford bailed on picking up
TJ to pick up an inside rusher for whatever reason,
I have no idea. He didn't even turn on on TJ,
and TJ couldn't get to Burrow before Burrow on to
(28:23):
the ball. Yeah, I touched it. It was just amazing.
And that's one of the qualities that makes you know,
in this day and age quarterbacks so very efficient, so
very great, is their ability to be able to read
that instantly like a jet fighter pilot man, taking in
all that the essential elements of what you got to know,
and then delivering the rock as you should, you know,
And that I just I'd love to see because you
(28:45):
go back to the the Cincinnati game. First one rush
was getting that ball out of his hand under two
and a half. So I'm just thinking that that would
be something maybe that would help.
Speaker 4 (28:55):
At the backup. Wolfe's point too, Rob. I mean that
Burrow performing and the one by Mahomes the week before
were two of the absolute Maestro Picasso get the ball
out of your hand performances by any quarterback in any
game this year. And I don't think that was a
Steeler problem as much as sometimes you just get their
(29:16):
best day, you know what I mean. And and by
the way, they're also good at extending if what would
have got there. These guys are hard to get on
the ground and the Steelers could definitely use more of
that because I'm seeing too much indecision and late in
the down I think Wilson hasn't been nearly as effective
as early in the That.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
Okay, a lot to get to, including a preview of
the game coming up against the Ravens. This is the
point after on the Steelers Audio Network.
Speaker 4 (29:43):
Back to the point after on DV Burrow.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
Back looking flushed, rolling right now back to the luck
that he tripped up, got it for the sack.
Speaker 5 (29:54):
What a time prefend to get his first.
Speaker 3 (29:57):
Sack of the season.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
The Zack Hunter segment is brought to you by the
Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank. Get food, volunteer, donate at
Pittsburgh food Bank dot org Man. That was a big
sack by Keanu Benton and good to see him Wolf
getting getting into the picture and getting that first sack
of the season.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
No question about it.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
You know.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
One of the things that we can look forward to
is greater growth from Keno Benton. He is really taking
his game up several steps and done a nice job.
And he's he's more than just a club you know
what I mean. When he came in, I always used
to have him go the man clubs like he's swinging
a Louisville slugger, you know what I mean in thick
bodies move when he clubs, well, he's more than just that. Now,
(30:39):
watched him on the it was the first series of
the game and they came along with was a can't no.
Or Orlando Brown came tried to trap him. He stuffed
the but jeepers out of him. I mean, rock to
his world for for ken or Rock you know, Orlando
Brown was like three seventy or something like that. That
takes a lot of girth and a lot of grit
(31:00):
and of the teeth and what a job he did.
So I just like the way he's progressing. He's one
of the real bright spots on that defense that's growing.
Speaker 2 (31:10):
Well, Matt, I'd still like to go back to this.
I'd like to see this rested. I want to just
make sure that we that they understood the point I
was making earlier, that the students are there are still
doing a lot of things better. If that offense can
get back in gear, I think they can get back
to playing with teams. And I think that Baltimore one
(31:31):
way or the other. I don't want to ever say
a Baltimore team that's playing as well as Baltimore is
a great opponent to get in the first round, but
because of the familiarity, because of some success they've had,
because of schematics, and I don't know whether schematics has
been an issue as to why the Seaons offense has
struggled a little bit, But for those reasons, you know,
(31:52):
I'm optimistic this offense can get going and that this
offense can produce points if needed in the postseason. I
think that's the point I was making, is that last year,
so much would have had to go right for you
to keep pace with a team. But I think they
just need to get back to what they were doing
several weeks ago. I don't know if I'm paying too
rosie of a picture, but hopefully, you know, knowing Baltimore
(32:15):
will help you feel comfortable.
Speaker 4 (32:17):
It is a bit of a rosy picture consider what
we've seen of late, you know, I mean a lot
of these guys, you know, these coordinators will watch the
last four games, and that's a lot different than you know,
much of the season, especially with Wilson behind center. But
to your point, I mean, we've at least seen it
with this group. This isn't Duck or Rudolph or Pickett
and those leg groups where every first down seemed like
(32:38):
a major accomplishment. I mean, this group has been a
at least league average unit and at times much better
than that. Now this opponent is fearsome. I mean, they're
playing really, really well, and they're playing their best football
of the year. They're pretty healthy. But they're also familiar,
as you mentioned, you know, which, I was thinking about
(32:59):
this thing Harbaugh's eyes, like, man, we're playing great right now,
but we're gonna either get the Steelers or my brother's
gonna show up here. Like, is there anyone in the
world who knows me better than Tomlin and my brother?
You know, Like can't we just get some abnormal team
that we're better than and wipe the floor with them. Instead,
we got to play these super familiar foes and it
ends up being Tomlin, who I'm sure is going to
(33:22):
have something for him, you know what I mean. I mean,
I do think the familiarity is good for where the
Steelers are at right now.
Speaker 3 (33:26):
Let me just say we have the one problem we
have is we've They've got this new spectacular secondary member
named Michael Pierce. I've never seen how about three and
seventy pound cornerback defensive, but I couldn't believe it watching
him with that ball that was It was like he
was holding on to lunch.
Speaker 4 (33:45):
It looks so little the rest of the Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
Here's jenying. You know. Going back many years, I was
in some film sessions where I remember I was asked
by a coach, didn't you see that guy? Well, yeah,
when I threw an interception. When I threw an interception,
of course I didn't, or I wouldn't have thrown it. You
know what am I going to say? Of course I
didn't see him. I don't know how you miss Michael Pierce.
(34:12):
I don't know how you can go I don't know
how you can say in that in that coub session,
I just didn't see him coaching the hard Gotta missapace
takes up he takes up a lot of space, you know, Matt,
when you look at this team, uh, this Ravens team,
you know, going into the game against the Steelers, we
didn't know it then, but they just were in the
process of fixing the back end of their secondary. Yeah,
(34:34):
it had been a huge problem for him. Well it's
not a huge problem anymore. You can't run on them,
and you can no longer just go back and throw
the ball deep and expect to have success.
Speaker 4 (34:46):
Yeah, people are gonna like hearing this, But really, since
that game, they've been basically the best defense in the league.
I mean, they haven't played a murderers row. I mean
that Browns team was pretty rough. I mean, if you
Michael Pierce, it's not the greatest quarterback effort I ever saw.
But still their numbers are tremendous since they played the Steelers.
And I think there's a couple of things about it
(35:06):
is you know, you mentioned they they made some personnel changes.
They made more defined roles. Humphrees the slot and Hamilton's
the free and they switched out another safety and switched
out a linebacker. But the big key is whether it's
personnel driven or just you know, coaches getting their feet
under them too. Is they used to blow so many coverages,
(35:28):
you know, the back end of the defense was always
had their palms in the air. You know, you got them,
I got them. You know, they gave away a lot
of stuff that they're not now. And even on offense,
Like I was really worried about their offensive line coming
into the into the league, into the year, and they've
seemed to have a pretty good firm grasp of it now.
I mean, it's a good unit. I mean, and Lamar
(35:49):
and Henry sure help those things. But they've corrected problems
that are rapid rate. Even Tucker's making kicks again.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
Yeah, the other one they corrected Wolfy and I don't like. Yeah,
Tucker's making kicks again. You know, we were talking about
this before the game in Baltimore, like how much longer
are they going to keep Lamar Jackson down for every
game he's down against the Steelers and non productive, losing,
(36:18):
not playing well in conjunction with losing. It's going to
get further and further into his head. But it probably
would only take one for him to feel a burden
lifted off his shoulders. Well, he had to won in Baltimore.
He and Derrick Henry, who in a couple of meetings
against the Steelers, they got a pretty decent job on him.
(36:40):
Those guys were there, they showed up, and I think
if there was any sort of Steelers shadow over them,
maybe that shadow is lifted a little bit.
Speaker 3 (36:49):
Well it may, but the Steelers are still fifteen and
fourteen against the Ravens in Baltimore. They've won four of
the past five and six of the past eight in
M and T Bank. So the fact is you still
got that puncher's chance of going in and doing what
you did last year with Mason Rudolph at the home.
You know again, I just always to me, this is
(37:11):
always one of the most exciting times to be a
football player. When you're going into an opposing you know,
city and a visiting stadium and you've got everything on
the line and there's so much pressure, and man, you
live for that. I mean, it's that opportunity to rewrite
what happened during the season maybe and and really start
(37:34):
something special. And you you only have so many of
those opportunities, and I hope and pray that they're able
to put the best foot forward and get some traction
as you talked about, and get something going. But man
to realize what lays before you. I mean, you can
make history here, you really can. And just to have
that opportunity, it's such and it's such a privilege, and
(37:55):
I hope that these guys really grasp that and have
an understanding of you know what, It's not about what's
already happened. It's about what can where can we go
from here?
Speaker 4 (38:04):
And rob you know, just you know, the Lamar situation too,
I find interesting because going into the most recent Steeler
Ravens game, I'm sure all week he heard why are
you good against thirty teams except this one? And do
the Steelers have your number? And what do they do?
And why can't you beat the Steelers and blah blah blah. Well,
this week he's gonna get why aren't you winning? Why
(38:24):
don't why don't you win every playoff game?
Speaker 2 (38:26):
Ever?
Speaker 4 (38:26):
You know, like his playoff success isn't great. I mean
he's the only two time MVP to not have a
Super Bowl title. I think he's two and four in
the postseason. And that's not all him. I mean, I
say this all the time. I mean, playoff wins are
so hard to come and come, you know, to get.
But you know he's gonna be to listening to that
all week, and then I'm sure people are gonna be like,
and it's the Steelers, you don't do as well against them.
(38:48):
But leading into that last game, I kind of forgot
a kick out of it, and I said it a
bunch too. I'm like, yes, the Steelers do a wonderful
job on Lamar. The familiarity is really important with this guy.
They scheme it well. They've got a lot of really
good football players on defense. But if you're listening to
this a month ago and thought you're gonna hold Lamar
Jackson down for the next decade and be the only
(39:09):
team that he can't do well against your nuts, he's
too good, right.
Speaker 2 (39:14):
Well, I will say this, I do think some of
that pressure is there, yeah, And I do think that
he could be reminded of it. If this he's gonna
be going back to what we talked about, you come
out if you know you're on your first possession on defense,
on offense, you come out and you do something right.
You march down, you score some points, you take some
time off the clock, and whether they are for sure
(39:38):
yeah and Lamar, whether Lamar has a possession before that
or or has to sit around on the sidelines and
wait for that regardless, if you can, if you can
remind him, hey, you know what, go ahead and keep
because we got two guys in the edge. Uh, you're
not going to get by. You know, high Smith and
and Watt do a tremendous job against Jackson. You know,
(40:02):
this stuff can maybe start to crop up mid game
if you can remind him that, yep, we have your number,
and yes you're two and four in the playoffs.
Speaker 4 (40:14):
I mean, he's not out of the woods either. I mean,
he's a tremendous football player, but he's still very conscious,
I'm sure of his legacy and has a lot of
pressure on him. And now he's highly compensated and he's
in MVP. Can't category. All wonderful problems to have, but
it's not too terrible. But they also doesn't have Zay Flowers.
And I bet that he's not thrilled that the Steelers
(40:36):
are coming to town. I'm sure he's confident and you know,
in in a good mind space, and they should be,
but probably not the defense he wanted to see.
Speaker 2 (40:44):
No, and and Wolf Bateman's come on. Mark Andrews has
come on. They still have Isaiah likely as a target,
but Jay Flowers is their guy, that's their guy, and
without him, and it looks it looks like he's gonna
have a tough time playing this week. It looks like
they're hoping they get by the students and maybe get
him the following week, but it doesn't look very promising
(41:06):
for him to play. That will be significant, I think
for the Ravens, and I think that the students can
scheme and perhaps be a little more aggressive because of that.
Speaker 3 (41:18):
There's no doubt in my mind that that's gonna shift
some targeting. I mean, I would think that Mark Andrews
is gonna be targeted a little bit more, maybe some
more to the checkdowns, to the backs, that sort of thing.
Who knows, certainly, I doubt it'll be Patrick.
Speaker 4 (41:31):
Ricard, probably not.
Speaker 3 (41:35):
But you know the fact is, you know when you
see Asay Flowers go down, then you know you realize
that's that's somebody of real consequence. They also had what
Nelson Aguilar I think I'm not sure what his status is. Yeah,
I thought he was up, but he was another veteran guy.
And so listen, you know, when you got a quarterback
who is m VP caliber, he's gonna put the ball
(41:56):
where you know, even I could catch it.
Speaker 4 (41:59):
And if you remember these meetings too well, especially the
most recent one without Elliott, they took Minka and really
situationally put him on Andrews a lot of third down,
a lot of red zone, and Flowers is their top guy.
But Andrews has always been Jackson's wild bee. I mean,
he's always been his kelsey. You know, they came in
the league together. I think a huge key and it
(42:21):
makes it easier without Flowers is if you can take
Andrews out of the equation to some degree, really limit him,
the passing game probably won't destroy you. Now, Henry's another
issue altogether, But you know we saw that and.
Speaker 2 (42:35):
This judents have had good success against Mark Andrews. He
finally scored his first touchdown against it. But I agree
with you, Matt that you know, look, we saw it
with Pickens. Right when Pickens is out, suddenly everything's every
you know, every receiver is getting a little bit better
player against him than he normally does, because Pickens is
going to take up the best guy and probably a
(42:57):
little more attention than that as well. And and in
this instance that's Flowers, and Flowers is going to be out.
And now you know Bateman's gonna get more attention. And
you know Weber up is going to be up. NeXT's
got to be Tylon Wallace, who's had some big games. Well,
you know you have big games, and you know you're
(43:17):
the fourth or fifth target. That's one thing. Because you
have the fourth or fifth best guy target covering you.
What happens now if you have the second best guy
covering you had a little more attention. So these things
are all going to be very, very interesting to keep
an eye on. Guys. I can't wait.
Speaker 3 (43:32):
Yes, we got Steelers Ravens coming here we go. What
a bonus traces.
Speaker 2 (43:41):
Hey gear up with the latest game day necessities. The
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terrible towels, authentic memorabilia and custom exclusives you can only
find directly from the team. Visit one of the Official
Students pro shops, located at Akrosher Stadium, Grove City, Premium
Mount Let's or tanng Route Let's or gear up online
a shop dot Steelers dot com for Craig Wolfley, Matt Williamson,
(44:05):
our producer Justin Miller, I'm Rob King. We thank you
for listening to the point after on the Steelers Audio
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