January 13, 2025 • 48 mins
Rob King, Craig Wolfley, and Matt Williamson gather around for the final Point After of the year as the crew recaps the loss to the Balitmore Ravens and where the Steelers go from here as they head into the offseason.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Steelers Point after show on WDBD Pittsburgh,
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(00:21):
now here are your hosts, Rob King, Craig Wolfley, and
Matt Williamson.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Coming to you. After the Steelers twenty eight to fourteen
Wildcard round loss to the Baltimore Ravens that endz the
Tous twenty twenty four season. Our first reaction is brought
to you by First National Bank. Let's get started, member
fdiic Wolf. Before we start thinking bigger picture and things
like that, let's dive into what you saw standing two
(00:50):
peek to my right from the press box in Baltimore
and what transpired on Saturday night.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Well, I think I saw what you saw going a
little deeper. Yeah, yeah, okay, But the fact is, you
know here, here's the deal. Coach Tomins said it right
from the beginning of last week. If you can't stop
the run, you can't win. And quite frankly, that's the
message in a bottle. That's the story, that's almost the
(01:19):
entire story of the evening, because I've never seen an
onslaught like that of what two hundred and ninety nine
yards rushing yards?
Speaker 2 (01:28):
That really lamar Neil then made it two ninety, right, which.
Speaker 4 (01:31):
Was nice of him.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you know exactly so. But I mean,
I look at it, and here's the thing that the
one that that hit me was the next Gen stats
where Derrick Henry gained one hundred and fifty seven of
his one hundred and eighty six yards after contest. Yeah,
that blew me away, absolutely blew me away. And so
I would say, if anything, the entirety of the story
(01:52):
written by the Baltimore Ravens was the fact that they
are a juggernaut of a running team.
Speaker 4 (01:58):
No question. Man, I mean, I think we're crazy if
we don't give credit to the opponent. That's a really,
really good football team with two superheroes in the backfield
that are playing at the height of their powers, and
Henry's numbers late in the year playoffs are ridiculously good
throughout his career. He gets really hard to tackle when
the weather gets bad and fatigue sets into teams. But
(02:22):
that wasn't good enough. I mean, there's just no way
around it. I mean, the obviously in this game, they
were keying the quarterback in a big way, or you know,
I mean they've gone back and forth on this readoption.
Are they going to keep the quarterback? They're going to
keep the running back? And there's ways around it. You
know that if the edge guys crash hard on the quarterback,
(02:43):
well then your linebackers need to scrape and take the
running back. Didn't really happen. You know, Henry got going
before they got there, or he ran right through him.
As Wolf said, all the yards after contact is far
too much. We've seen a lot of slow starts out
of the Steelers of late, and they took it to
an level on this one. In terms of starting poorly.
That first half was really difficult.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
To watch, you know, Wolf, When I think back about
the long drives the Ravens had in this game, and
then I think back to the long drives the Eagles had,
and I'm going to talk about the offense in a moment,
but let's continue to talk about the defense, because there
were some moments the offense could have done some things too,
but I was shocked. At times Philadelphia could almost explain away, hey,
(03:28):
they're exhausted the five to three and outs. But then
we kind of saw something very similar in this last game.
There were things that transpired in between that made me
think that this wasn't going to happen. I thought that
the students had a real chance to win this game.
I really truly believed that, but they just could not
(03:48):
find a way to stop that running attack. And when
I think about the personnel the Stealers have, and I
know the Ravens run a roll, but frankly, that shocks me.
What we saw on Saturday night. I did not expect
to see that.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
Well, there's no doubt in my mind. And we were
both talking pregame the same exact way. You know, you
expect to see a really tight game, you know, guys
just smashing it up out there and haven at it.
And I really thought that was exactly what we were going
to see. But you know when you see touchdown drives
of ninety five, eighty five, ninety and seventy yards, yeah,
zooks man, that's that's you know, I didn't think Ronnie
(04:25):
Stanley was in that good of shape to be able to,
you know, be able to do all those drives, but
he obviously is. And it's unfortunate for the Steelers that,
you know, you run into a buzzsaw that was absolutely
primed to go right at this point in time, at
this in the in the season, it's uh, I don't know.
I mean, I trying to find a reason or anything
(04:45):
like that just simply doesn't seem to get the answer
at all. There's more at this point, there are a
lot more questions than answers, that's for sure.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
You know, Matt, I think sometimes a team just gets
things rolling downhill. And I really thought the Steelers would recroup.
I thought they were a little bit against Cincinnati. Who knows,
if they beat Cincinnati, maybe they get they feel better
going into that game. Maybe it's a different outcome. I
don't know, But we have talked about this, you know,
the Steelers defensive line. I think you describe it as
the best in the business when you consider TJ. Watton
(05:15):
Highsmith as defensive lineman, as part of a front four,
part of a front five. You know, Patrick Queen you
sign them to the biggest deal free agent deal in
team history, and you have a Landon Roberts and you
have Peyton Wilson, se you feel good about those linebackers.
You have Minkah Fitzpatrick and you have Deshaun Elliott. In
the middle of the field. You have Joey Porter, who,
yes he got whistled for a couple of penalties, but
(05:37):
I think we all believe he's a really nice young cornerback.
It just doesn't add up to seeing what I saw
on Saturday night. It doesn't. It doesn't compute that that
defense couldn't find a way to stem the tide. I thought,
I said this after the Philadelphia game. I would have
(05:57):
felt more comfortable if they'd stem the tide at some
point in that game, just you know, get the offensive
ball back one more time. They didn't do that, and
they just could not find on these length of the field, wearying,
backbreaking drives, a way to get off the field. And that, frankly,
that surprised me. With the person Elvis dealers.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
At very surprising and very alarming. And I know Wolf's
been on the other side of this, but I mean
we've seen a lot of times in Steelers history where
they're just handed to Bettest over and over and the
defense is helpless. I mean, rarely are the Steelers as
an organization the nail in that they're usually the hammer
in our lifetimes. And I'm sure it's the most empowering
(06:37):
feeling ever as a guard Wolf or as a Henry
or as a vetist or whatever to know that they
are at your mercy. And Ravens didn't even hide it.
I mean, what a thirteen play drive where they just
hand it off over and over and over and just
kind of laugh in your face. Now, I think everyone's
the blame. I mean, the second level tackling was really
really poor. But it also shocked me when digging in
(07:00):
to some of the numbers today too, though, that they
hardly ever put a third receiver on the field. I
mean really low number, like ten percent of the snaps,
which we knew was coming with Flowers out, but still
the Steelers played Nickel a lot, you know, like if
you're in a barroom brawl, you got to bring your
biggest guys, you.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Know, I agree, And that does surprise me. I wasn't
aware of that statistic. Yeah, it seemed like the card
was out there a ton and.
Speaker 4 (07:28):
I don't know they had a six offensive lineman out
there a high percentage of time too, you know, big
big people.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Yeah, and it is a wolf. To Matt's point, it
is a fun way to play football. I think if
you're the hammer and not the nail or. I think
as a fan, it is a very very fun You know,
when you're used to students football running the football, you
know that tradition starting. And let's face it, when the
(07:55):
students started to really get great in the early seventies
before the rules were changed, it was about Franco Harrison,
Rocky Blyer and running at teams and playing phenomenal defense.
And it felt, you know, it felt like this Deelers
might get to that point. We saw signs that maybe
before that four game losing streak, the running game was
(08:16):
gonna get going and the defense was where you needed
it to be. It didn't work out that way, but
speak to what it's like to be on that side
of things, Wolf, because you were on that side of
things sometimes.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
Well, the beauty of it is watching the other guys
just kind of melt before you, you know what I mean.
That's what's so great about the rushing attack. It takes
the heart and soul out of a defense. You know,
a pass over the top, things like that that happen
you is get zinged. You know, Okay, you get it.
But when you are being constantly hounded by blockers, by
(08:49):
the running back who's pounding every time you tackle him,
he's hurting somebody basically, you know what I mean, because
he's such a formidable force, and you know, then to
have the offensive line go on and just keep pounding.
I mean, I used to love it because you'd be
in the huddling you could hear them going, they're gonna
run the ball. Yeah, you know you're gonna run the ball.
Stop it right, you know. But you get up there
(09:11):
and and the next thing you know, they're they're they're
cussing at each other, and you know they're getting up slowly,
and their body language says, I'm just looking for a
place to lie down, is what I'm doing. You know.
That's when you know you got them. That's when you
know you can put the boots to them. That's when
you know is an offensive unit and an offensive line
that you're about ready for the coupdi g ra, which is,
(09:31):
you know, the finishing blow and it really was administered
by Derrick Henry when the Steelers closed to twenty one
to seven, and he took off on that forty four yarder,
I mean right straight down the middle of the field,
and I just that truly was a backbreaker. And that's
what back in my day, you always look for that
as an offensive lineman. You want that one coupdi g ra,
(09:52):
that one finishing blow.
Speaker 4 (09:54):
And that's what I say about this guy too. Is
missing a tackle on Jerome or Earl Campbell or all
those guys was horrible, and they make you pay. This
guy opens up his stride and just runs away from
everybody he's taking at the house.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Yeah he is. He's a special guy. Uh well, if
one more thing on that subject. You know, I always
found it interesting, and you know, sometimes people will say
in sports is you know, there's been a recent in
the last maybe couple of decades about you know, people
trying to undermine the notion of momentum. It doesn't really exist.
And you know, and I think that what we saw
(10:28):
on Saturday night flies in the face of that, what
we saw with Jerome bettis I can't help but think that,
you know, I know that the running backs are administering
more than they're taking. But those linemen are charging into
each other, you know, and they're expending the same amount
of energy. And yet you look out there, it feels
(10:50):
to me like they're expending the same amount of energy.
But when you look out there, the offensive lineman or
they're they're they have fire in their eyes, and the
defensive guys have their hands on their hips and you
know what, they're never steps to shooting out offensive lineman.
You'll see defensive lineman running in and out. You'll see
linebackers running in and out. That just tells me that
it's a lot of that has just got to be
(11:12):
about the feel and the momentum of the game. And
imposing your will is an indication that momentum is a
very real thing.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
It's exciting and to be part of it is something
that is magnificent. And what we saw was a team
that was virtually laying it out before is what it
looks like to be able to go and put the
finishing touches to a team. And it's it's a shame,
you know. I really thought the Steelers were going to
come in and do a lot more than what they did.
(11:42):
I thought that there would be they would be able
to run the ball. They got behind so fast it
became one dimensional. But certainly it is. It's it's I
can't even begin to describe to you what it's like
to come to the line of scrimmage looking at the
other guys where they're just like going, okay, just just
just finish, all right, let's.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Just get on it, you know.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
And it's just I'm not saying that's what the Steels
were saying last night or on Saturday night, but the
point being is just that once that momentum gets kicked
up and going, you know, it's like Mike Tomlin says,
I'd much rather say gidy up than I'm sorry, I
say whoa than get y up, because trying to restart
to get that that momentum going is extremely difficult if
(12:23):
another team is already kind of feeding on you.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
You know, Matt, you're in an interesting position because you're
very much part of the statistics community, and yet you
also work for an NFL team in a scouting department.
And sometimes we've seen those two things be at loggerheads
and sports, right, you know, the the the statisticians want
to scout using statistics, for example, and the scouts want
(12:49):
to say, well, no, you have to be able to
see somebody in person and talk to them and get
a feel for their character and and do they pass
the quote unquote eye test, which can't be measured necessarily
by statistics. But again, when I look at a game
like this, I don't know how you feel about it.
I don't know. You know, you got a foot in
the statistic world and a foot in the scouting world
(13:09):
what you feel about the notion of momentum. But I
mean I look at a game like that and think
that's that had a big part to do it. The
momentum the Ravens got going had a big part to
play in their victory. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:21):
And I don't need to tell everyone about my background
or my view on football or any of those things.
I have taken the stats thing a little over the
top lately, as you guys know it, and I use
it as a wonderful tool to get an idea about
teams and preview things and review things. But to say
something like momentum doesn't exist, Like, I have respect for
Bill Barnwell. He works for ESPN, and he wrote an
(13:43):
article many thousand words about how momentum and football doesn't exist,
and there's nothing I could disagree with more. Yeah, I
mean I think that's utterly insane. Or even some of
the stats stuff like well you should go forward on
fourth and one on this occasion every time? Well not
if you can't block Aaron Donald, you know what I mean?
Like what player are you gonna call? Or the winds
(14:05):
blown away crazy or your left guard's hurt or whatever
it is. I mean, like their guidelines. So that's all
it is, all it is. I mean, there's a very
human element to this, and we saw that in spades
on Saturday Night, right.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
You know what, Since we're gonna talk a little, we're
gonna talk more students, but I may want to follow
up on that conversation about something that I've been noticing
a lot with a lot of coaches when it comes
to going for it and not going for But we're
gonna do that. We're gonna dig much more into this
final loss for the students to conclude their twenty twenty
four season. Let me continue in the point after on
(14:40):
the Students Audio Network, back.
Speaker 4 (14:43):
To the point after on DVD.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
Wilson has time lost towards the end zone, has a
man fan Jefferson touchdown. Oh what a throw and Jefferson
hauls it in in the end zone and the Steelers
at dieighto five marker the third quarter have some I
like to play of the game is brought to you
by S and T Bank, proudly serving our community since
(15:08):
nineteen oh two. St Bank dot com S and T
Bank member Fdice. Well, if I want to get back
to that touchdown, I did want to follow up with
Matt on something that I've noticed a lot of coaches
are doing now, and they're almost invariably younger coaches. There
are some veteran coaches that'll do this too, But this
new wave thinking of, you know, giving up what we
(15:30):
think of now as a sure three points. I mean,
most kickers are so automatic inside save forty yards. And
I was having this conversation with somebody else. Okay, so
let's say you have the ball fourth and two at
the opposing teams twenty four and it says, hey, go
for it here, you know, instead of kicking what is
almost to surefield. Well, at that point, you know, forty
(15:52):
yards or thereabouts. And I think to myself a couple
of things there. First of all, I always love to have,
you know, give me the three points, I'll take them. Secondly,
just because you pick up the first down doesn't mean
you won't eventually get that you're eventually going to get
a touchdown. You might be kicking a field goal four
plays later. You know, you could fumble or turn them
(16:13):
all over. I'm sure they take all these statistical things
into account, but one of the things that I'm not
sure they do is momentum. And I think that there
are some people that want to think your player, just
play will make the decision. It doesn't work that way.
Players aren't robots. They don't think about it in those terms.
So I think it's really interesting because we're seeing a
(16:34):
lot of teams, in my opinion, leading points out on the.
Speaker 4 (16:38):
Field one hundred percent. I mean, like the Washington Tampa
game was a good example, even just last night though,
the most recent football game played. Washington turns down a
field goal attempt that probably goes through the upright, so
you know, like you said, these are high percentage guys,
and then they're chasing it the rest of the day,
you know, So they did it again later in the game.
(17:00):
Point they're zero for two on fourth downs, where they
could have had six points in their pocket, and there
is some Monday morning quarterbacking involved, and then they go
down and they do it again, and this time they score,
so they made up for it. But instead of nine
points they would have, they ended up with seven, you know.
And sometimes it's that simple. And I don't believe in
(17:20):
the fourth down go for it chart. To me, that
is much more of how the game is going. Knowing
your players, can I get these guys blocked? I mean
speaking to other teams, you know, the Lions are becoming
so famous for always going to go for it on
fourth down. Maybe that's just who Dan Campbell is. But
I bet having Penny Sool has a lot to do
(17:42):
with it, too, right, you know.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
What I mean. But it also could have cost them
a trip to the super Bowl.
Speaker 4 (17:48):
Last year, right, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
So you know at some point and I think that's
h and well we're gonna get back to this game.
But I think it's a very interesting question because.
Speaker 4 (17:58):
Roll let me throw one thing I do though that Yeah.
One advantage though is third and seven for the Lions
can be a rundown though, you know, like you know,
if you're playing with four downs, you can handle your
third downs differently and how much your analytics accounts for that.
But I think it is something that's not right, you know.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
I agree. I think the other thing is well, and
we'll get back to this game. But I think it's
interesting because we're seeing it happen a lot in the playoffs,
and we hope we're talking about a deep seal of
his playoff run next year. But I also think that
a team has to totally buy in, They have to
completely turn off their own biases, because it isn't just
(18:41):
as much as you're just trying to concentrate on your job.
The players have a bigger picture. Now. Maybe Dan Campbell
feels and he's got a great feel for his team.
He's done a marvelous job the Lion obviously, but maybe
he feels like, Okay, this is this is our identity,
and everybody's bought into this identity, and if we don't
(19:01):
go forward here, they're going to be looking around saying, well,
who are we?
Speaker 3 (19:04):
What happened?
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Maybe it's momentum the other way, because you've built it
up so much that this is our identity. But I
think to discount the fact that players are thinking about
that to count on the fact that the players are
only thinking about their job. They're playing in a vacuum.
They're not aware of the crowd, they're not aware of momentum,
they're not aware of the guy across from them. I
(19:27):
think that's I don't know, it's I think it's an
interesting question, but I'm not sure I buy it all
one hundred percent.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
No, you know, I always go what comes down to
the best. Most successful coaches, to me, are the ones
that still go by their gut instinct. They know they're guys.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
They know.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
How many times have we heard Mike Tomins say over
the past couple how many years you know, at different
instances when he didn't go for it, and he said,
I'm not living in my fears. Nothing that I've seen
out here today convinces me that we're cap making the
first down.
Speaker 4 (20:01):
Yeah, yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
I mean he's taking a game by game, you know,
by example, what have you, and you know it's simply
putting it out there. Look, I've not seen it, you know.
Chuck Nole used to say to us, you earn the
right to go for it on fourth down. I mean,
that's a right that you earn because you've shown that
you can do it and you're capable of pressing the
pile and moving it back at the appropriate times. And
(20:25):
certainly I think with Mike, with with some other coaches
like Dan Campbell, I think they got a great feel
for their players and they know what they're capable of doing.
Speaker 4 (20:34):
One thing about Cambells, I want to throw out there
and this is a lion show. But he's bought into
it so much that he's in the deep end, Like
he almost doesn't even have a choice anymore, you know,
like if he doesn't go for it on a reasonable
fourth down opportunity, his players are going to start looking
at him side eye, like I know they're super successful
and maybe he's coach of the year. I just think
(20:56):
that's a dangerous path. Or now he's not even hardly
even making decisions anymore, you know, he's just in right.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
And then if he does make a decision that's contrary
to that right, the player say right exactly, yeah, lost
faith in its right? Yes. Anyway, interesting dynamic. Well, if
I want to go back to that touchdown and so
the Serions score there, they get some life and then
Baltimore quickly comes back. And it was interesting because Matt
(21:25):
Wolfe and I were talking about how the Ravens came out.
They had a twenty one to Zhering lead, and again
we'll keep peeling back on decisions that were made, different
things that happened, and it seemed like they came out
of the third quarter very conservatively, and sometimes when that happens,
a team loses that momentumer that focus or that feel
that we're talking about. Well, the Suonar score touchdown, and
(21:47):
the Ravens make it very clear they haven't lost that
field by immediately marching down and scoring a touchdown after
that passed the Van Jefferson. Well, then wolf the Steelers
hit the big play to Pickings down the side of
the phenomenal play by George Pickens. Just I mean, he
makes some of those plays like that look just unbelievably easy,
and it wasn't that easy. And then the Steelers got that.
(22:10):
They finally got a three and out on the Ravens
next drive, and I thought it was the drive that
followed that up for the Steelers that was kind of
their last realistic chance if they go down there, and
they did pick up a first down and then they
turned the ball over on downs if they go down
there and score. They got the ball with about two
(22:32):
and a half minutes left in the four in the
third quarter, they go down and score there. Now Baltimore
is looking over their shoulder. Perhaps now that momentum does
feel in favor of the Steelers. Now you don't need
a three and out. Well, if you just need to stop,
you need to get the ball back. You don't know
any kind of stop, any kind of non point scenario.
And you still got half of a quarter to try
(22:54):
to tie the game up. So I thought that final
three and out at the end of it, or not
a three and out after the three and after the rape,
I thought that final drive for this years, with the
attempt to cut it to seven and and coming up short,
was kind of the last gas.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
It pretty much was, as far as I can remember,
you know, in the hole is it progressed and unfolded
before us, you know, And it was really you felt
like there was a momentum shift, you know, like yeah,
maybe maybe it wasn't the declaratorv you know, and in
other words, it wasn't like way we're going to win
this thing, but it was going to be one of
(23:32):
those game. Hey, we got some hope here, you know,
and then unfortunately it came to a grinding halt. But
certainly you know again, I go bet when when you
are able to, like you know, when when you have
a team closing in on you and then you strike
back four plays later with a forty four yards straight
down the middle. And I mean it looked like he
(23:53):
ran right at the goalpost for crying out loud, right,
and he didn't waiver much if any That's that really
kicks in the teeth what you're trying to do to
come back, and it really takes a huge amount of
juice out of you.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Well, Matt, I think that, you know, if somebody were
to ask me, and I was asked what's going on
with the Seelers during the four game losing streak? What
seems to be at issue here? The offensive and defensive
numbers coming out of the buy and then going into
those last four games were both highly inverted. The points
(24:33):
per game that had been very low and among the
league leaders elevated the points per game that had been
over twenty eight points per game with Russell Wilson excuse me,
as a starting quarterback, which would have put you, I think,
in the top five of the league. Suddenly those diminished,
so the numbers were going in the wrong direction as
they passed each other. Now, part of that, again was
(24:53):
the level of competition, for sure, But I thought, you know,
I was asked about that and I thought, you know what.
I just think the offense put the defense into many
difficult positions, too many three outs, three and outs in
Philadelphia untimely three and outs, one to begin the half
against Kansas City in the first half, one to begin
(25:14):
the second half of the three and out when you're
trying to get back into the game or potentially take
a league late in the game against Cincinnati, an opportunity
to come down getting field goal range and win that game.
I'm not you know. I was shocked by what happened
defensively on Saturday night, and it's got me rethinking what
happened during those that four game losing streak. But there
(25:36):
were times the offense needed to be more and it
just wasn't. And I thought that instance, if the offense
could have come through one time there, I would have
loved to have watched the last twelve minutes of that
fourth quarter because I think we would have had a
game on our hands. And they just they just they
just could not score points over the last five games.
Speaker 4 (25:59):
Yeah, there's a lot to unpacked there. I mean I
always make it. Yeah, no, no, I mean I always
make a bevy of halftime notes, and at this game,
I don't think any of us will say that that
wasn't a miserable, miserable first half. I wrote things like, man,
they have not even crossed the midfield yet, or are
that I actually typed are the Steelers going to score
(26:20):
a point today? I was really leaning towards no at halftime,
And so I do give them credit that they came
out firing and didn't totally go into a shell and
the passing game emerged. And say what you want about
George Pickens, but he rebounded in a huge way after
his last game. But we've talked a lot about this
on these Mondays, unfortunately a lot of them in a row.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
Here.
Speaker 4 (26:43):
The time of possession. You know, we talked about like
scouting with your heart and your eyes as opposed to analytics.
But I mean there's been three hundred minutes storing this
losing street sixty minutes times five, and they've had the
ball for over just a little over one hundred and
twenty one of the three hundred minutes. And now that's
(27:03):
a stat but to me, that's a symptom. That's like
going to the doctor and saying, we have this time
of possession problem. Doc, what's the real root of the
disease or the problem? And it's on both sides of
the ball. You know, they're not getting off the field,
they're not getting there's no complimentary football going on. One
side's not picking up the other. So you know, the
(27:25):
root of the problem is twofold and it's both sides
of the ball enduring this stretch.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
Right. I really thought, Matt if they could solve the offense,
it would help the defense. And yet the defense didn't
help itself in that first half against Baltimore either. So
I think that, you know, you could see that. Certainly,
I think the five to three and outs at the
beginning of the Philadelphia game caused the defense to be
exhausted in the second half of that game. Certainly, three
(27:51):
games in eleven days doesn't help a defense to recover,
and guys being nicked up and not having enough time
to recover all those things. But it is you know
what we saw on Saturday night. I think underscores exactly
what you're saying that, Yes, it would have been great
to see the offense march down the field and Calvin
(28:11):
Austin came within a whisker of maybe breaking a punt
return for a touchdown. That was an exciting fourteen yard
return there. But frankly, when it comes down to it,
you know, I was leaning toward the offense has to
do more, but as it turned out, both sides just
wound up the season in a slump.
Speaker 3 (28:33):
Well, think about this. In the first half, the Steels
ran just eighteen plays. Yeah, eighteen Oh, I mean that's
that's one drive, right, you.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
Know, the Ravens at nineteenth first down and the Steelers
at eighteen plays in the first half.
Speaker 4 (28:49):
It's one of the biggest first down discrepancies in like
playoff history, and the number of first downs that the
Ravens created compared.
Speaker 3 (28:56):
To the Steelers four that came off Yeah, go ahe
twenty four of their first thirty two plays. We're all runs,
all runs, right, I mean you got to be kidding me. Yeah,
I would have loved to play in that offense, right right.
You know, that's you love that ability to build to
pound pound and pound away and so you know, unfortunately
(29:16):
they they were they put it on the Steelers Saturday night.
But the fact is, you know, we still got to
remember there are still good things going on. And I
understand people are down about it. I I my dobber
was down this morning. I woke up nuts, you know,
and and everything. But there are still performances that came
through and you know, maybe we'll talk about them later.
(29:37):
I don't know, but yeah we will. Okay, So I'll
just leave it at that. But you know, I don't
want everybody to be down about it, because you know what,
there's still guys on this team that show a lot
of pride and and they were out there slugging away
and going after it and trying to lead a comeback man.
And that's you know, that's what it is. It's all about.
You gotta be you know, you can't stay down. You
(29:59):
got to get back up and fight.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
Well, I'm going to be a downer for one more second,
because what we saw in the first half against Baltimore,
you know, followed a week after the Steelers played at Cincinnati.
Bengals defense it's not nearly as talented as a Ravens defense.
I believe Matt, if memory serves me correct, they had
ninety two yards of offense going into the fourth quarter.
(30:22):
Ninety two yards of offense. Yeah, So that's that tells
me that side. That side needs some attention in the offseason.
Speaker 4 (30:30):
A lot of attention. And I think, no matter, I mean,
it has to start at the head coach, but also
the coordinators and the running back coach and the safety
coach and special teams coach and everybody. These slow starts
can't happen, you know. I mean, if you have Mahomes
or Allen or Burrow and you start games, you know,
behind the eight ball. Okay, maybe you can gun sling
(30:51):
your way out of there, but for whatever reason, you
can't go an entire season without having a touchdown on
the opening drive or being as soft as they were
on defense on opening drives.
Speaker 2 (31:04):
You know.
Speaker 4 (31:04):
I mean, this team's just not built that way.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
Okay, So we'll talk about some of the things that
went right for the Steelers and maybe what the offseason
is going to look like. Let me continue in the
point after on the Steelers audio network.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
Back to the point after on DV play.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
Action pass and roll to the left, looking he's under pressure,
and town. He goes sack back inside the twenty yard line.
High Smith got their first, got some help from lot
and a sack. To begin this series, The Sack Hunger
segment is brought to you by the Greater Pittsburgh Community
Food Bank. Get food, volunteer or donate at Pittsburgh Food
(31:44):
Bank dot org. Thanks for being with us on the
point after and uh, you know, guys, we just we
we didn't see as many sacks wolf this year as
I thought we're going to see out of the Steers
defense with the tremendous ad dressers that they have.
Speaker 3 (31:59):
Yeah, that's absolutely true. And as you know, it's a
couple of things to it. I mean there's really three
elements to it. One's the offensive line, one's the quarterback
getting rid of the ball, and the other is the
even more adherence to chipping both outside guys. The two
Jedi rusher rushers there. Man, I mean, you've got well
you've got to fight your way through two guys. Yeah,
(32:21):
it's a little bit ridiculous. I can't even imagine how frustrating.
And then to watch, you know, there's a certain amount
of legal theftory of jerseys that's going on out there.
I'm it's like I keep saying, you know, Dad, gummt,
I'd love to play in that. I mean, I should
be given a letter of apology for every holding cole
I ever got back and then compared to what they
(32:42):
can get away with today. But certainly, you know, I
think those three elements come into play, and it affected
the Steelers this year's It probably does all the other teams, sure,
but the higher talented, high higher valued guys, they get
a little more attention.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
Yeah, I think, Matt, when we look back this year
and we think about what's gonna happen in the offseason,
it's gonna be interesting to note that the Steelers gave up.
You know, there are times where they gave up a
ton of passing yards and couldn't get home and couldn't
generate enough pass rush to disrupt the opposing passer, or
(33:17):
maybe it's enough coverage downfield or what have you. And
then conversely, offensively, while they were able in a game
like Cincinnati to win in a shootout, and I think
probably as I look back at the season, to me,
that's kind of a high watermark for the Steelers because
I thought that that was the indication that they could
score with teams. You know, inevitably, if your playoff run
(33:41):
is looking like Baltimore, Buffalo, Kansas City, and Philadelphia, well
somewhere in there, you're probably gonna need to score thirty
points to win. Yep. And I thought the Steers were
more capable of that this year than they've been in
the past years. And for whatever reason, and again level
of competition, some injuries probably threw off their timing out
(34:03):
of little things, but that high water mark, that ten
and three start had been really believing that they could
make a good long run in the playoffs, and somehow
they either have to get back to that or they
have to figure out somehow what happened in these last
four games offensively and defensively and try to get to
work on fixing it in the offseason.
Speaker 4 (34:24):
Yeah, and I urge our listeners to remember those days.
I mean, those things happened, These players did that. I mean,
that's not fiction, that's not ten years ago. I mean
that happened with the same group of players. And then
they ran into a buzzsaw and played their worst football
of the year at the wrong time of the year
against the best teams in the league. I mean, I
(34:46):
would not be shocked if one or two of the
teams they've played recently is in the final game, you know,
and Baltimore looks like a Super Bowl team to me.
That being said, you need to figure out how do
we compete with these teams? And I hate to say
it in this term, but think about who's eliminated the
(35:06):
Steelers the last three years, Baltimore, Buffalo, Kansas City, none
of which were super competitive games, all in their building.
Lamar Alan Mahomes like, if you don't have one of
those guys, and fortunately for Cincinnati they do, but I
don't think anybody else does. You really need to come
up with left handed waves to at least even compete
(35:29):
with these guys. I mean, those four quarterbacks, to me,
are insanely difficult to play against. And I don't know
what the law, what the answer is to hang against them.
I mean, you're always going to be a quarterback disadvantage
in the AFC once twice three times on your way
to the Super Bowl, even if you have a good guy,
(35:50):
you know, and it's a little disheartening. I mean, it's
almost like having Bo Jackson and Techno Bowl back when
you know, like it's like the glitch.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (35:59):
I mean they put a lot of pressure on Lamar
at times, but they didn't get him on the ground.
You know, they put a lot of pressure on Burrow,
but they didn't put them on the ground. I mean
those guys are really hard to play against.
Speaker 2 (36:09):
Yeah, and then you throw in a strowd. You know,
bow Knicks gives Denver some hope even though they were
also eliminated. I really thought Wolf and I'm I still
believe to some degree that the Steelers are closer now
than they've been the last several years, in which you know,
I talked about this in the pregame show. You go
(36:29):
up to Buffalo and you felt like leading up out
of the pregame show, but leading up to the game
against Baltimore, you go into the game against Buffalo thinking
how many things have to go right for us to win?
I when I.
Speaker 4 (36:43):
I mean, Mason Rudolph without TJ. Watt against Josh Allen
doesn't sound great.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
It doesn't. And when I think of when I think
of this game, I didn't think all that much had
to go right for the students. I still believe they
were that team that got off to the ten and
three start. Well, I still believe in my heart, I
don't know what happened. I still think it's a closer team.
And yet just look at the score. The evidence says
(37:12):
that it's not. The score says that it's not closer.
But I still feel that it's closer than it's been
over the last couple of years. But still not there yet.
Speaker 3 (37:20):
No, still not there yet. But given a lot of hope,
ten wins says something. I don't care what you say.
Ten wins in the NFL is a big deal, all right,
And for them to go out and accomplish that, hey, kudos.
And I understand it's far short of the standard that
they publicly want to achieve. It's not what they want.
(37:40):
But you know, the fact is they got ten wins.
Now there's a reason they got those ten wins, and
you break down the reasons why, and then you got
to look at why they didn't and why this collapse
handed happened at the end of the year. And that's again,
it's going to take a lot of research. This is
Matt's department. This is going to be I mean, you
think about it. The coaches are gonna get together here soon,
(38:02):
and at some point in time you're gonna have all
these exit interviews and all these metrics coming into play,
and all these things that we're not gonna hear about.
But the fact is those things are gonna lead to
people gaining a job or losing a job in the future.
Speaker 4 (38:16):
Here and Rob, we're gonna hear a ton real quick,
We're here a ton about they need another receiver, opposite pickings,
they need more playmakers. I'll never fight anybody on that,
There's no doubt in my mind. But I remember previewing
Eagles Steelers. You know, they were the two run heaviest
teams in the league going into that game. And going
(38:36):
into that game, the Steelers averaged three point nine yards
of carry and the Eagles were at like six. You know, Like,
if you're gonna run the ball so voluminously, that's my
favorite run word. Three point nine ain't gonna cut it,
you know, I mean, but if you get the four
to four, that's a big difference when you run the
ball at the top of the league. You know, Like
(38:56):
some of it's just fundamentals that I'm sure Wolf will
agree with. Just if you could run the ball, if
that's the backbone of your offense that travels you know,
you know, that keeps you in games, that raises the floor,
that keeps your defense off the field a little bit.
I don't know if people be talking about this run
game needs to step up, but if it did, the
passing game would be a little better, the defense would
(39:18):
be a little fresher. You'd go on the road on
these games and be more competitive. I mean, I think
that's a good place to start.
Speaker 3 (39:24):
And one of the things, let me just say this,
it's like Andy Weddell the GM said, you know, the
fact is big, physical, punishing offensive lines. Just to support
what Matt said, they travel well, I mean in and
out of games, and you know, whether you're at home
or away, the punishing, blow by blow thing, that's that's
something that you you know, that becomes a prideful thing
(39:46):
on an offensive line. You'd strive for that and you're
known by that. You know, to sit back and pass
protect is you know, that's that's the other half of
the coin, you know. I mean, I much I would
much rather be the hammer than the nail, you know.
And when you're sitting back and pass, it's a little
bit different. And sometimes you can get taken away by
the crowd if you have a home crowd. That's I'm
(40:07):
sorry you have an away crowd. It creates problems and
getting the snap count and everything else. It gives the
defensive edge rushers a jump on the offensive tackles and
that sort of thing, whereas coming off on a run thing.
At least you're moving forward into combative positions. You're not
dropping back and hoping, you know, to be able to
make sure that you hear the snapcount. Why I forget
(40:28):
to kind of fall back in the eighties and in
the early nineties when he didn't have the snapcount such
as it is. But you know, the point being is
offensive lines good punishing. Offensive lines are physical, and they
bring a dominance that can be done week by week.
Look what Philly did, and I'm not even talking about
just Sakuon. Look what that offensive line does.
Speaker 4 (40:49):
And that's what the that's where their first round picks
have gone and second round picks and McCormick and yes,
you know, I mean that's a work in progress.
Speaker 2 (40:57):
It is a work in progress. And don't forget that
one of their first picks, Foutano, who is slated to
start a right tackle, got hurt. They had an injury
at the right guard position with their starter he got hurt,
and you know, for a while, it didn't look like
that was gonna matter. And I started to think about
that and thought, well, maybe it did matter more than
we thought. And it'll be interesting to see how they
continue to assess that. Because James Andels is going to
(41:18):
be a free agent, Dan Moore is going to be
a free agent. You can cover it with the guys
you have. Now you're probably gonna potentially have to go
out and get some depth. I do think that's interesting.
I think one of the things when we talk about Baltimore,
talk about Philadelphia, you know what age they're running attack
so greatly. First of all, you have two superlative running backs,
but look, Derrick Henry appeared to be in decline sa
(41:40):
Kuon Barkley injury problems and his numbers decreasing a little bit.
For the Giants, Well, you have great offensive lines, yes,
but you also have running quarterbacks and that makes a
huge difference in a running game. So how they assess
that and how close they think they are, because if
they want to be a running team, if you get
some health on the offensive line and in a rich
(42:03):
running back class, you go out and get another running back.
It might be enough. It might be enough right there
for you to be the kind of running team you want.
You have a guy like Darnel Washington who's just a
fabulous blocker, the tight end position, Pat Pryormouth, guys you
can rotate in there. Maybe that's you know, hopefully not
(42:24):
that far away from being fixed and being the kind
of asset that can help the Steelers. I think it's
going to be hard to get those kind of yards
per carry if you don't have that running type of quarterback.
But I still think you can obviously be an effected
running team, a more affective and efficient running team. Uh,
you know, the the voluminousness. I hope that's a word
(42:46):
matt or together with with more effectiveness.
Speaker 4 (42:51):
Yeah, And again, I think regular season is one thing.
All all issues, all talents, all coaching gets my defied
in the playoffs of course, probably too much, but it does.
And we saw that all weekend. You know, the Chargers
issues were probably I mean a lot of these teams
look like they didn't quite belong, you know. And if
(43:12):
you're looking big picture, and how can this team win
a Super Bowl without Mahomes, Allen Burrow or Lamar, which
they're not going to have next year. I mean maybe
one day they'll be a back to having been type guy.
I mean, what comes around, goes around type of thing.
You better have a really good running game that can
at least control the flow of the game. And I
think you have to have an elite defense. Now, those
(43:35):
things have not been obvious the last month plus, but
I also don't think those two aspects are that far
away either. I still think you have great defensive talent,
and I also think you have an O line in progress.
Speaker 2 (43:49):
You know, I totally agree and will if you talked
about the positives and there we are. I mean, I
don't want to come out at this with a polyann angle,
but I'm looking at tennant three. I'm looking at the
way they invested the draft picks. I'm looking at the
Pro bowlers on this team. I'm looking at the guys
who aren't Pro Bowlers, but guys like the Shaun Elliott,
(44:10):
Joey Porter, Keanu, Benton, Landon Roberts, Peyton Wilson. There is
a lot of quality. There are a lot of quality
players on that defense. I don't think it's that far
away from being a defense that can go out there
and slam the door a couple of times and come
up with that stop in Philadelphia, or you know, come
(44:32):
up with that third down stop early in the game
in Baltimore that allows your offense to get its traction.
I believe Matt is correct. I think both those things
that you want to be aren't as far away as
they seem now as a team ends the season with
the five dame losing streak.
Speaker 3 (44:46):
Absolutely, you know, again and again, I always wear the
player's cap. I'm sorry, I just can't divest myself of
having been a player one time, so many decades ago.
But the fact of the matter is, you have simism
after you've gone this far. Sure, it's a crushing defeat
the day after the game when you wake up and
realize that dream of going to uh, you know, Lombardi
(45:08):
Land and lifting the Lombardi Trophy it's over for this year.
But it also fuels the speculation in your mind that, hey,
you know what another year adding a couple elements with
with the same sort of ability to you know, get
everybody on board, moving in one direction and trying to
avoid you know, the collapse towards the end. That sort
(45:29):
of thing I still I still can't wrap my brain
around it that you could have that those collapses and
I and I defy anyone to show me where they
change their habits. In December. Yeah, I mean I watched practice.
I said, well, you know, you see it. They're they're
just they're doing it, getting it done, and then these
these collapses happen. Now you have to figure that some
of it has to do with some getting nicks and
(45:51):
everything else, but you know, it's got to be one
of the most frustrating things, and that's something they've got
to address. But as I said when we started this off,
there's more questions than answers right now. But you know,
you're I think you're closer this year than you were
last year, all right, I mean that's pretty simple, you know.
So you just you got to just keep making some
piecemeal movements and adding some players here and there, and
(46:13):
then you move forward.
Speaker 4 (46:16):
And rob real quick too. I mean, I think I
do believe Omar has now had and Andy have had
two draft classes. Both have looked like they're highly successful.
This latest one. Three of your draft picks you've got
zero snaps out of you know, those guys are all
gonna be like incoming rookies next year, you got a
ton of cash space. You're gonna have a second year
with what I think is an improved offensive coordinator. There's
(46:39):
a lot of things to work out, but I also
think you have a better foundation than he did a
year or two ago to get to where you need
to be.
Speaker 2 (46:46):
Thank you for making us all feel better. Both of
you guys, good stuff.
Speaker 4 (46:50):
Right, But now Cam Hayward Older and TJ. Watson let
me say, then we got to go. I got I
got to say this quickly. I gotta say it quickly.
Tip of the cap to Captain Cam. He was captain courageous.
Speaker 3 (47:06):
Look, nobody goes out there gets doinked, has to go
in get checked.
Speaker 2 (47:10):
You know.
Speaker 3 (47:10):
See if the old noggin's doing well, noginologist says, yeah,
he could have easily checked out. Comes back in what
ten tackles? Two tackles for a loss? You lead from
the front. Golly, it was just it was awesome. It's
inspiring to an old guy like B two C. I
hate to say Cam, but an old guy like you,
But what a job. And that was great. And I
(47:30):
think same way with Russ Wilson and that second half.
What he did so.
Speaker 2 (47:36):
Later game day necessities at the official Studess pro shops.
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Let's or gear up online at shop dot Steelers dot com.
(47:59):
Wolf and that another and Justin Miller, our great producer,
another great year, guys, Thank you very much.
Speaker 3 (48:06):
Really enjoyed it absolutely same here brother, thanks.
Speaker 2 (48:10):
That is the point after for the final edition here
on twenty twenty four on the Steelers Audio Network
Welcome to the Steelers Point after show on WDBD Pittsburgh,
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(00:21):
now here are your hosts, Rob King, Craig Wolfley, and
Matt Williamson.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Coming to you. After the Steelers twenty eight to fourteen
Wildcard round loss to the Baltimore Ravens that endz the
Tous twenty twenty four season. Our first reaction is brought
to you by First National Bank. Let's get started, member
fdiic Wolf. Before we start thinking bigger picture and things
like that, let's dive into what you saw standing two
(00:50):
peek to my right from the press box in Baltimore
and what transpired on Saturday night.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Well, I think I saw what you saw going a
little deeper. Yeah, yeah, okay, But the fact is, you
know here, here's the deal. Coach Tomins said it right
from the beginning of last week. If you can't stop
the run, you can't win. And quite frankly, that's the
message in a bottle. That's the story, that's almost the
(01:19):
entire story of the evening, because I've never seen an
onslaught like that of what two hundred and ninety nine
yards rushing yards?
Speaker 2 (01:28):
That really lamar Neil then made it two ninety, right, which.
Speaker 4 (01:31):
Was nice of him.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you know exactly so. But I mean,
I look at it, and here's the thing that the
one that that hit me was the next Gen stats
where Derrick Henry gained one hundred and fifty seven of
his one hundred and eighty six yards after contest. Yeah,
that blew me away, absolutely blew me away. And so
I would say, if anything, the entirety of the story
(01:52):
written by the Baltimore Ravens was the fact that they
are a juggernaut of a running team.
Speaker 4 (01:58):
No question. Man, I mean, I think we're crazy if
we don't give credit to the opponent. That's a really,
really good football team with two superheroes in the backfield
that are playing at the height of their powers, and
Henry's numbers late in the year playoffs are ridiculously good
throughout his career. He gets really hard to tackle when
the weather gets bad and fatigue sets into teams. But
(02:22):
that wasn't good enough. I mean, there's just no way
around it. I mean, the obviously in this game, they
were keying the quarterback in a big way, or you know,
I mean they've gone back and forth on this readoption.
Are they going to keep the quarterback? They're going to
keep the running back? And there's ways around it. You
know that if the edge guys crash hard on the quarterback,
(02:43):
well then your linebackers need to scrape and take the
running back. Didn't really happen. You know, Henry got going
before they got there, or he ran right through him.
As Wolf said, all the yards after contact is far
too much. We've seen a lot of slow starts out
of the Steelers of late, and they took it to
an level on this one. In terms of starting poorly.
That first half was really difficult.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
To watch, you know, Wolf, When I think back about
the long drives the Ravens had in this game, and
then I think back to the long drives the Eagles had,
and I'm going to talk about the offense in a moment,
but let's continue to talk about the defense, because there
were some moments the offense could have done some things too,
but I was shocked. At times Philadelphia could almost explain away, hey,
(03:28):
they're exhausted the five to three and outs. But then
we kind of saw something very similar in this last game.
There were things that transpired in between that made me
think that this wasn't going to happen. I thought that
the students had a real chance to win this game.
I really truly believed that, but they just could not
(03:48):
find a way to stop that running attack. And when
I think about the personnel the Stealers have, and I
know the Ravens run a roll, but frankly, that shocks me.
What we saw on Saturday night. I did not expect
to see that.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
Well, there's no doubt in my mind. And we were
both talking pregame the same exact way. You know, you
expect to see a really tight game, you know, guys
just smashing it up out there and haven at it.
And I really thought that was exactly what we were going
to see. But you know when you see touchdown drives
of ninety five, eighty five, ninety and seventy yards, yeah,
zooks man, that's that's you know, I didn't think Ronnie
(04:25):
Stanley was in that good of shape to be able to,
you know, be able to do all those drives, but
he obviously is. And it's unfortunate for the Steelers that,
you know, you run into a buzzsaw that was absolutely
primed to go right at this point in time, at
this in the in the season, it's uh, I don't know.
I mean, I trying to find a reason or anything
(04:45):
like that just simply doesn't seem to get the answer
at all. There's more at this point, there are a
lot more questions than answers, that's for sure.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
You know, Matt, I think sometimes a team just gets
things rolling downhill. And I really thought the Steelers would recroup.
I thought they were a little bit against Cincinnati. Who knows,
if they beat Cincinnati, maybe they get they feel better
going into that game. Maybe it's a different outcome. I
don't know, But we have talked about this, you know,
the Steelers defensive line. I think you describe it as
the best in the business when you consider TJ. Watton
(05:15):
Highsmith as defensive lineman, as part of a front four,
part of a front five. You know, Patrick Queen you
sign them to the biggest deal free agent deal in
team history, and you have a Landon Roberts and you
have Peyton Wilson, se you feel good about those linebackers.
You have Minkah Fitzpatrick and you have Deshaun Elliott. In
the middle of the field. You have Joey Porter, who,
yes he got whistled for a couple of penalties, but
(05:37):
I think we all believe he's a really nice young cornerback.
It just doesn't add up to seeing what I saw
on Saturday night. It doesn't. It doesn't compute that that
defense couldn't find a way to stem the tide. I thought,
I said this after the Philadelphia game. I would have
(05:57):
felt more comfortable if they'd stem the tide at some
point in that game, just you know, get the offensive
ball back one more time. They didn't do that, and
they just could not find on these length of the field, wearying,
backbreaking drives, a way to get off the field. And that, frankly,
that surprised me. With the person Elvis dealers.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
At very surprising and very alarming. And I know Wolf's
been on the other side of this, but I mean
we've seen a lot of times in Steelers history where
they're just handed to Bettest over and over and the
defense is helpless. I mean, rarely are the Steelers as
an organization the nail in that they're usually the hammer
in our lifetimes. And I'm sure it's the most empowering
(06:37):
feeling ever as a guard Wolf or as a Henry
or as a vetist or whatever to know that they
are at your mercy. And Ravens didn't even hide it.
I mean, what a thirteen play drive where they just
hand it off over and over and over and just
kind of laugh in your face. Now, I think everyone's
the blame. I mean, the second level tackling was really
really poor. But it also shocked me when digging in
(07:00):
to some of the numbers today too, though, that they
hardly ever put a third receiver on the field. I
mean really low number, like ten percent of the snaps,
which we knew was coming with Flowers out, but still
the Steelers played Nickel a lot, you know, like if
you're in a barroom brawl, you got to bring your
biggest guys, you.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Know, I agree, And that does surprise me. I wasn't
aware of that statistic. Yeah, it seemed like the card
was out there a ton and.
Speaker 4 (07:28):
I don't know they had a six offensive lineman out
there a high percentage of time too, you know, big
big people.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Yeah, and it is a wolf. To Matt's point, it
is a fun way to play football. I think if
you're the hammer and not the nail or. I think
as a fan, it is a very very fun You know,
when you're used to students football running the football, you
know that tradition starting. And let's face it, when the
(07:55):
students started to really get great in the early seventies
before the rules were changed, it was about Franco Harrison,
Rocky Blyer and running at teams and playing phenomenal defense.
And it felt, you know, it felt like this Deelers
might get to that point. We saw signs that maybe
before that four game losing streak, the running game was
(08:16):
gonna get going and the defense was where you needed
it to be. It didn't work out that way, but
speak to what it's like to be on that side
of things, Wolf, because you were on that side of
things sometimes.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
Well, the beauty of it is watching the other guys
just kind of melt before you, you know what I mean.
That's what's so great about the rushing attack. It takes
the heart and soul out of a defense. You know,
a pass over the top, things like that that happen
you is get zinged. You know, Okay, you get it.
But when you are being constantly hounded by blockers, by
(08:49):
the running back who's pounding every time you tackle him,
he's hurting somebody basically, you know what I mean, because
he's such a formidable force, and you know, then to
have the offensive line go on and just keep pounding.
I mean, I used to love it because you'd be
in the huddling you could hear them going, they're gonna
run the ball. Yeah, you know you're gonna run the ball.
Stop it right, you know. But you get up there
(09:11):
and and the next thing you know, they're they're they're
cussing at each other, and you know they're getting up slowly,
and their body language says, I'm just looking for a
place to lie down, is what I'm doing. You know.
That's when you know you got them. That's when you
know you can put the boots to them. That's when
you know is an offensive unit and an offensive line
that you're about ready for the coupdi g ra, which is,
(09:31):
you know, the finishing blow and it really was administered
by Derrick Henry when the Steelers closed to twenty one
to seven, and he took off on that forty four yarder,
I mean right straight down the middle of the field,
and I just that truly was a backbreaker. And that's
what back in my day, you always look for that
as an offensive lineman. You want that one coupdi g ra,
(09:52):
that one finishing blow.
Speaker 4 (09:54):
And that's what I say about this guy too. Is
missing a tackle on Jerome or Earl Campbell or all
those guys was horrible, and they make you pay. This
guy opens up his stride and just runs away from
everybody he's taking at the house.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Yeah he is. He's a special guy. Uh well, if
one more thing on that subject. You know, I always
found it interesting, and you know, sometimes people will say
in sports is you know, there's been a recent in
the last maybe couple of decades about you know, people
trying to undermine the notion of momentum. It doesn't really exist.
And you know, and I think that what we saw
(10:28):
on Saturday night flies in the face of that, what
we saw with Jerome bettis I can't help but think that,
you know, I know that the running backs are administering
more than they're taking. But those linemen are charging into
each other, you know, and they're expending the same amount
of energy. And yet you look out there, it feels
(10:50):
to me like they're expending the same amount of energy.
But when you look out there, the offensive lineman or
they're they're they have fire in their eyes, and the
defensive guys have their hands on their hips and you
know what, they're never steps to shooting out offensive lineman.
You'll see defensive lineman running in and out. You'll see
linebackers running in and out. That just tells me that
it's a lot of that has just got to be
(11:12):
about the feel and the momentum of the game. And
imposing your will is an indication that momentum is a
very real thing.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
It's exciting and to be part of it is something
that is magnificent. And what we saw was a team
that was virtually laying it out before is what it
looks like to be able to go and put the
finishing touches to a team. And it's it's a shame,
you know. I really thought the Steelers were going to
come in and do a lot more than what they did.
(11:42):
I thought that there would be they would be able
to run the ball. They got behind so fast it
became one dimensional. But certainly it is. It's it's I
can't even begin to describe to you what it's like
to come to the line of scrimmage looking at the
other guys where they're just like going, okay, just just
just finish, all right, let's.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Just get on it, you know.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
And it's just I'm not saying that's what the Steels
were saying last night or on Saturday night, but the
point being is just that once that momentum gets kicked
up and going, you know, it's like Mike Tomlin says,
I'd much rather say gidy up than I'm sorry, I
say whoa than get y up, because trying to restart
to get that that momentum going is extremely difficult if
(12:23):
another team is already kind of feeding on you.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
You know, Matt, you're in an interesting position because you're
very much part of the statistics community, and yet you
also work for an NFL team in a scouting department.
And sometimes we've seen those two things be at loggerheads
and sports, right, you know, the the the statisticians want
to scout using statistics, for example, and the scouts want
(12:49):
to say, well, no, you have to be able to
see somebody in person and talk to them and get
a feel for their character and and do they pass
the quote unquote eye test, which can't be measured necessarily
by statistics. But again, when I look at a game
like this, I don't know how you feel about it.
I don't know. You know, you got a foot in
the statistic world and a foot in the scouting world
(13:09):
what you feel about the notion of momentum. But I
mean I look at a game like that and think
that's that had a big part to do it. The
momentum the Ravens got going had a big part to
play in their victory. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:21):
And I don't need to tell everyone about my background
or my view on football or any of those things.
I have taken the stats thing a little over the
top lately, as you guys know it, and I use
it as a wonderful tool to get an idea about
teams and preview things and review things. But to say
something like momentum doesn't exist, Like, I have respect for
Bill Barnwell. He works for ESPN, and he wrote an
(13:43):
article many thousand words about how momentum and football doesn't exist,
and there's nothing I could disagree with more. Yeah, I
mean I think that's utterly insane. Or even some of
the stats stuff like well you should go forward on
fourth and one on this occasion every time? Well not
if you can't block Aaron Donald, you know what I mean?
Like what player are you gonna call? Or the winds
(14:05):
blown away crazy or your left guard's hurt or whatever
it is. I mean, like their guidelines. So that's all
it is, all it is. I mean, there's a very
human element to this, and we saw that in spades
on Saturday Night, right.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
You know what, Since we're gonna talk a little, we're
gonna talk more students, but I may want to follow
up on that conversation about something that I've been noticing
a lot with a lot of coaches when it comes
to going for it and not going for But we're
gonna do that. We're gonna dig much more into this
final loss for the students to conclude their twenty twenty
four season. Let me continue in the point after on
(14:40):
the Students Audio Network, back.
Speaker 4 (14:43):
To the point after on DVD.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
Wilson has time lost towards the end zone, has a
man fan Jefferson touchdown. Oh what a throw and Jefferson
hauls it in in the end zone and the Steelers
at dieighto five marker the third quarter have some I
like to play of the game is brought to you
by S and T Bank, proudly serving our community since
(15:08):
nineteen oh two. St Bank dot com S and T
Bank member Fdice. Well, if I want to get back
to that touchdown, I did want to follow up with
Matt on something that I've noticed a lot of coaches
are doing now, and they're almost invariably younger coaches. There
are some veteran coaches that'll do this too, But this
new wave thinking of, you know, giving up what we
(15:30):
think of now as a sure three points. I mean,
most kickers are so automatic inside save forty yards. And
I was having this conversation with somebody else. Okay, so
let's say you have the ball fourth and two at
the opposing teams twenty four and it says, hey, go
for it here, you know, instead of kicking what is
almost to surefield. Well, at that point, you know, forty
(15:52):
yards or thereabouts. And I think to myself a couple
of things there. First of all, I always love to have,
you know, give me the three points, I'll take them. Secondly,
just because you pick up the first down doesn't mean
you won't eventually get that you're eventually going to get
a touchdown. You might be kicking a field goal four
plays later. You know, you could fumble or turn them
(16:13):
all over. I'm sure they take all these statistical things
into account, but one of the things that I'm not
sure they do is momentum. And I think that there
are some people that want to think your player, just
play will make the decision. It doesn't work that way.
Players aren't robots. They don't think about it in those terms.
So I think it's really interesting because we're seeing a
(16:34):
lot of teams, in my opinion, leading points out on the.
Speaker 4 (16:38):
Field one hundred percent. I mean, like the Washington Tampa
game was a good example, even just last night though,
the most recent football game played. Washington turns down a
field goal attempt that probably goes through the upright, so
you know, like you said, these are high percentage guys,
and then they're chasing it the rest of the day,
you know, So they did it again later in the game.
(17:00):
Point they're zero for two on fourth downs, where they
could have had six points in their pocket, and there
is some Monday morning quarterbacking involved, and then they go
down and they do it again, and this time they score,
so they made up for it. But instead of nine
points they would have, they ended up with seven, you know.
And sometimes it's that simple. And I don't believe in
(17:20):
the fourth down go for it chart. To me, that
is much more of how the game is going. Knowing
your players, can I get these guys blocked? I mean
speaking to other teams, you know, the Lions are becoming
so famous for always going to go for it on
fourth down. Maybe that's just who Dan Campbell is. But
I bet having Penny Sool has a lot to do
(17:42):
with it, too, right, you know.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
What I mean. But it also could have cost them
a trip to the super Bowl.
Speaker 4 (17:48):
Last year, right, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
So you know at some point and I think that's
h and well we're gonna get back to this game.
But I think it's a very interesting question because.
Speaker 4 (17:58):
Roll let me throw one thing I do though that Yeah.
One advantage though is third and seven for the Lions
can be a rundown though, you know, like you know,
if you're playing with four downs, you can handle your
third downs differently and how much your analytics accounts for that.
But I think it is something that's not right, you know.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
I agree. I think the other thing is well, and
we'll get back to this game. But I think it's
interesting because we're seeing it happen a lot in the playoffs,
and we hope we're talking about a deep seal of
his playoff run next year. But I also think that
a team has to totally buy in, They have to
completely turn off their own biases, because it isn't just
(18:41):
as much as you're just trying to concentrate on your job.
The players have a bigger picture. Now. Maybe Dan Campbell
feels and he's got a great feel for his team.
He's done a marvelous job the Lion obviously, but maybe
he feels like, Okay, this is this is our identity,
and everybody's bought into this identity, and if we don't
(19:01):
go forward here, they're going to be looking around saying, well,
who are we?
Speaker 3 (19:04):
What happened?
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Maybe it's momentum the other way, because you've built it
up so much that this is our identity. But I
think to discount the fact that players are thinking about
that to count on the fact that the players are
only thinking about their job. They're playing in a vacuum.
They're not aware of the crowd, they're not aware of momentum,
they're not aware of the guy across from them. I
(19:27):
think that's I don't know, it's I think it's an
interesting question, but I'm not sure I buy it all
one hundred percent.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
No, you know, I always go what comes down to
the best. Most successful coaches, to me, are the ones
that still go by their gut instinct. They know they're guys.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
They know.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
How many times have we heard Mike Tomins say over
the past couple how many years you know, at different
instances when he didn't go for it, and he said,
I'm not living in my fears. Nothing that I've seen
out here today convinces me that we're cap making the
first down.
Speaker 4 (20:01):
Yeah, yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
I mean he's taking a game by game, you know,
by example, what have you, and you know it's simply
putting it out there. Look, I've not seen it, you know.
Chuck Nole used to say to us, you earn the
right to go for it on fourth down. I mean,
that's a right that you earn because you've shown that
you can do it and you're capable of pressing the
pile and moving it back at the appropriate times. And
(20:25):
certainly I think with Mike, with with some other coaches
like Dan Campbell, I think they got a great feel
for their players and they know what they're capable of doing.
Speaker 4 (20:34):
One thing about Cambells, I want to throw out there
and this is a lion show. But he's bought into
it so much that he's in the deep end, Like
he almost doesn't even have a choice anymore, you know,
like if he doesn't go for it on a reasonable
fourth down opportunity, his players are going to start looking
at him side eye, like I know they're super successful
and maybe he's coach of the year. I just think
(20:56):
that's a dangerous path. Or now he's not even hardly
even making decisions anymore, you know, he's just in right.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
And then if he does make a decision that's contrary
to that right, the player say right exactly, yeah, lost
faith in its right? Yes. Anyway, interesting dynamic. Well, if
I want to go back to that touchdown and so
the Serions score there, they get some life and then
Baltimore quickly comes back. And it was interesting because Matt
(21:25):
Wolfe and I were talking about how the Ravens came out.
They had a twenty one to Zhering lead, and again
we'll keep peeling back on decisions that were made, different
things that happened, and it seemed like they came out
of the third quarter very conservatively, and sometimes when that happens,
a team loses that momentumer that focus or that feel
that we're talking about. Well, the Suonar score touchdown, and
(21:47):
the Ravens make it very clear they haven't lost that
field by immediately marching down and scoring a touchdown after
that passed the Van Jefferson. Well, then wolf the Steelers
hit the big play to Pickings down the side of
the phenomenal play by George Pickens. Just I mean, he
makes some of those plays like that look just unbelievably easy,
and it wasn't that easy. And then the Steelers got that.
(22:10):
They finally got a three and out on the Ravens
next drive, and I thought it was the drive that
followed that up for the Steelers that was kind of
their last realistic chance if they go down there, and
they did pick up a first down and then they
turned the ball over on downs if they go down
there and score. They got the ball with about two
(22:32):
and a half minutes left in the four in the
third quarter, they go down and score there. Now Baltimore
is looking over their shoulder. Perhaps now that momentum does
feel in favor of the Steelers. Now you don't need
a three and out. Well, if you just need to stop,
you need to get the ball back. You don't know
any kind of stop, any kind of non point scenario.
And you still got half of a quarter to try
(22:54):
to tie the game up. So I thought that final
three and out at the end of it, or not
a three and out after the three and after the rape,
I thought that final drive for this years, with the
attempt to cut it to seven and and coming up short,
was kind of the last gas.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
It pretty much was, as far as I can remember,
you know, in the hole is it progressed and unfolded
before us, you know, And it was really you felt
like there was a momentum shift, you know, like yeah,
maybe maybe it wasn't the declaratorv you know, and in
other words, it wasn't like way we're going to win
this thing, but it was going to be one of
(23:32):
those game. Hey, we got some hope here, you know,
and then unfortunately it came to a grinding halt. But
certainly you know again, I go bet when when you
are able to, like you know, when when you have
a team closing in on you and then you strike
back four plays later with a forty four yards straight
down the middle. And I mean it looked like he
(23:53):
ran right at the goalpost for crying out loud, right,
and he didn't waiver much if any That's that really
kicks in the teeth what you're trying to do to
come back, and it really takes a huge amount of
juice out of you.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Well, Matt, I think that, you know, if somebody were
to ask me, and I was asked what's going on
with the Seelers during the four game losing streak? What
seems to be at issue here? The offensive and defensive
numbers coming out of the buy and then going into
those last four games were both highly inverted. The points
(24:33):
per game that had been very low and among the
league leaders elevated the points per game that had been
over twenty eight points per game with Russell Wilson excuse me,
as a starting quarterback, which would have put you, I think,
in the top five of the league. Suddenly those diminished,
so the numbers were going in the wrong direction as
they passed each other. Now, part of that, again was
(24:53):
the level of competition, for sure, But I thought, you know,
I was asked about that and I thought, you know what.
I just think the offense put the defense into many
difficult positions, too many three outs, three and outs in
Philadelphia untimely three and outs, one to begin the half
against Kansas City in the first half, one to begin
(25:14):
the second half of the three and out when you're
trying to get back into the game or potentially take
a league late in the game against Cincinnati, an opportunity
to come down getting field goal range and win that game.
I'm not you know. I was shocked by what happened
defensively on Saturday night, and it's got me rethinking what
happened during those that four game losing streak. But there
(25:36):
were times the offense needed to be more and it
just wasn't. And I thought that instance, if the offense
could have come through one time there, I would have
loved to have watched the last twelve minutes of that
fourth quarter because I think we would have had a
game on our hands. And they just they just they
just could not score points over the last five games.
Speaker 4 (25:59):
Yeah, there's a lot to unpacked there. I mean I
always make it. Yeah, no, no, I mean I always
make a bevy of halftime notes, and at this game,
I don't think any of us will say that that
wasn't a miserable, miserable first half. I wrote things like, man,
they have not even crossed the midfield yet, or are
that I actually typed are the Steelers going to score
(26:20):
a point today? I was really leaning towards no at halftime,
And so I do give them credit that they came
out firing and didn't totally go into a shell and
the passing game emerged. And say what you want about
George Pickens, but he rebounded in a huge way after
his last game. But we've talked a lot about this
on these Mondays, unfortunately a lot of them in a row.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
Here.
Speaker 4 (26:43):
The time of possession. You know, we talked about like
scouting with your heart and your eyes as opposed to analytics.
But I mean there's been three hundred minutes storing this
losing street sixty minutes times five, and they've had the
ball for over just a little over one hundred and
twenty one of the three hundred minutes. And now that's
(27:03):
a stat but to me, that's a symptom. That's like
going to the doctor and saying, we have this time
of possession problem. Doc, what's the real root of the
disease or the problem? And it's on both sides of
the ball. You know, they're not getting off the field,
they're not getting there's no complimentary football going on. One
side's not picking up the other. So you know, the
(27:25):
root of the problem is twofold and it's both sides
of the ball enduring this stretch.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
Right. I really thought, Matt if they could solve the offense,
it would help the defense. And yet the defense didn't
help itself in that first half against Baltimore either. So
I think that, you know, you could see that. Certainly,
I think the five to three and outs at the
beginning of the Philadelphia game caused the defense to be
exhausted in the second half of that game. Certainly, three
(27:51):
games in eleven days doesn't help a defense to recover,
and guys being nicked up and not having enough time
to recover all those things. But it is you know
what we saw on Saturday night. I think underscores exactly
what you're saying that, Yes, it would have been great
to see the offense march down the field and Calvin
(28:11):
Austin came within a whisker of maybe breaking a punt
return for a touchdown. That was an exciting fourteen yard
return there. But frankly, when it comes down to it,
you know, I was leaning toward the offense has to
do more, but as it turned out, both sides just
wound up the season in a slump.
Speaker 3 (28:33):
Well, think about this. In the first half, the Steels
ran just eighteen plays. Yeah, eighteen Oh, I mean that's
that's one drive, right, you.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
Know, the Ravens at nineteenth first down and the Steelers
at eighteen plays in the first half.
Speaker 4 (28:49):
It's one of the biggest first down discrepancies in like
playoff history, and the number of first downs that the
Ravens created compared.
Speaker 3 (28:56):
To the Steelers four that came off Yeah, go ahe
twenty four of their first thirty two plays. We're all runs,
all runs, right, I mean you got to be kidding me. Yeah,
I would have loved to play in that offense, right right.
You know, that's you love that ability to build to
pound pound and pound away and so you know, unfortunately
(29:16):
they they were they put it on the Steelers Saturday night.
But the fact is, you know, we still got to
remember there are still good things going on. And I
understand people are down about it. I I my dobber
was down this morning. I woke up nuts, you know,
and and everything. But there are still performances that came
through and you know, maybe we'll talk about them later.
(29:37):
I don't know, but yeah we will. Okay, So I'll
just leave it at that. But you know, I don't
want everybody to be down about it, because you know what,
there's still guys on this team that show a lot
of pride and and they were out there slugging away
and going after it and trying to lead a comeback man.
And that's you know, that's what it is. It's all about.
You gotta be you know, you can't stay down. You
(29:59):
got to get back up and fight.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
Well, I'm going to be a downer for one more second,
because what we saw in the first half against Baltimore,
you know, followed a week after the Steelers played at Cincinnati.
Bengals defense it's not nearly as talented as a Ravens defense.
I believe Matt, if memory serves me correct, they had
ninety two yards of offense going into the fourth quarter.
(30:22):
Ninety two yards of offense. Yeah, So that's that tells
me that side. That side needs some attention in the offseason.
Speaker 4 (30:30):
A lot of attention. And I think, no matter, I mean,
it has to start at the head coach, but also
the coordinators and the running back coach and the safety
coach and special teams coach and everybody. These slow starts
can't happen, you know. I mean, if you have Mahomes
or Allen or Burrow and you start games, you know,
behind the eight ball. Okay, maybe you can gun sling
(30:51):
your way out of there, but for whatever reason, you
can't go an entire season without having a touchdown on
the opening drive or being as soft as they were
on defense on opening drives.
Speaker 2 (31:04):
You know.
Speaker 4 (31:04):
I mean, this team's just not built that way.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
Okay, So we'll talk about some of the things that
went right for the Steelers and maybe what the offseason
is going to look like. Let me continue in the
point after on the Steelers audio network.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
Back to the point after on DV play.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
Action pass and roll to the left, looking he's under pressure,
and town. He goes sack back inside the twenty yard line.
High Smith got their first, got some help from lot
and a sack. To begin this series, The Sack Hunger
segment is brought to you by the Greater Pittsburgh Community
Food Bank. Get food, volunteer or donate at Pittsburgh Food
(31:44):
Bank dot org. Thanks for being with us on the
point after and uh, you know, guys, we just we
we didn't see as many sacks wolf this year as
I thought we're going to see out of the Steers
defense with the tremendous ad dressers that they have.
Speaker 3 (31:59):
Yeah, that's absolutely true. And as you know, it's a
couple of things to it. I mean there's really three
elements to it. One's the offensive line, one's the quarterback
getting rid of the ball, and the other is the
even more adherence to chipping both outside guys. The two
Jedi rusher rushers there. Man, I mean, you've got well
you've got to fight your way through two guys. Yeah,
(32:21):
it's a little bit ridiculous. I can't even imagine how frustrating.
And then to watch, you know, there's a certain amount
of legal theftory of jerseys that's going on out there.
I'm it's like I keep saying, you know, Dad, gummt,
I'd love to play in that. I mean, I should
be given a letter of apology for every holding cole
I ever got back and then compared to what they
(32:42):
can get away with today. But certainly, you know, I
think those three elements come into play, and it affected
the Steelers this year's It probably does all the other teams, sure,
but the higher talented, high higher valued guys, they get
a little more attention.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
Yeah, I think, Matt, when we look back this year
and we think about what's gonna happen in the offseason,
it's gonna be interesting to note that the Steelers gave up.
You know, there are times where they gave up a
ton of passing yards and couldn't get home and couldn't
generate enough pass rush to disrupt the opposing passer, or
(33:17):
maybe it's enough coverage downfield or what have you. And
then conversely, offensively, while they were able in a game
like Cincinnati to win in a shootout, and I think
probably as I look back at the season, to me,
that's kind of a high watermark for the Steelers because
I thought that that was the indication that they could
score with teams. You know, inevitably, if your playoff run
(33:41):
is looking like Baltimore, Buffalo, Kansas City, and Philadelphia, well
somewhere in there, you're probably gonna need to score thirty
points to win. Yep. And I thought the Steers were
more capable of that this year than they've been in
the past years. And for whatever reason, and again level
of competition, some injuries probably threw off their timing out
(34:03):
of little things, but that high water mark, that ten
and three start had been really believing that they could
make a good long run in the playoffs, and somehow
they either have to get back to that or they
have to figure out somehow what happened in these last
four games offensively and defensively and try to get to
work on fixing it in the offseason.
Speaker 4 (34:24):
Yeah, and I urge our listeners to remember those days.
I mean, those things happened, These players did that. I mean,
that's not fiction, that's not ten years ago. I mean
that happened with the same group of players. And then
they ran into a buzzsaw and played their worst football
of the year at the wrong time of the year
against the best teams in the league. I mean, I
(34:46):
would not be shocked if one or two of the
teams they've played recently is in the final game, you know,
and Baltimore looks like a Super Bowl team to me.
That being said, you need to figure out how do
we compete with these teams? And I hate to say
it in this term, but think about who's eliminated the
(35:06):
Steelers the last three years, Baltimore, Buffalo, Kansas City, none
of which were super competitive games, all in their building.
Lamar Alan Mahomes like, if you don't have one of
those guys, and fortunately for Cincinnati they do, but I
don't think anybody else does. You really need to come
up with left handed waves to at least even compete
(35:29):
with these guys. I mean, those four quarterbacks, to me,
are insanely difficult to play against. And I don't know
what the law, what the answer is to hang against them.
I mean, you're always going to be a quarterback disadvantage
in the AFC once twice three times on your way
to the Super Bowl, even if you have a good guy,
(35:50):
you know, and it's a little disheartening. I mean, it's
almost like having Bo Jackson and Techno Bowl back when
you know, like it's like the glitch.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (35:59):
I mean they put a lot of pressure on Lamar
at times, but they didn't get him on the ground.
You know, they put a lot of pressure on Burrow,
but they didn't put them on the ground. I mean
those guys are really hard to play against.
Speaker 2 (36:09):
Yeah, and then you throw in a strowd. You know,
bow Knicks gives Denver some hope even though they were
also eliminated. I really thought Wolf and I'm I still
believe to some degree that the Steelers are closer now
than they've been the last several years, in which you know,
I talked about this in the pregame show. You go
(36:29):
up to Buffalo and you felt like leading up out
of the pregame show, but leading up to the game
against Baltimore, you go into the game against Buffalo thinking
how many things have to go right for us to win?
I when I.
Speaker 4 (36:43):
I mean, Mason Rudolph without TJ. Watt against Josh Allen
doesn't sound great.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
It doesn't. And when I think of when I think
of this game, I didn't think all that much had
to go right for the students. I still believe they
were that team that got off to the ten and
three start. Well, I still believe in my heart, I
don't know what happened. I still think it's a closer team.
And yet just look at the score. The evidence says
(37:12):
that it's not. The score says that it's not closer.
But I still feel that it's closer than it's been
over the last couple of years. But still not there yet.
Speaker 3 (37:20):
No, still not there yet. But given a lot of hope,
ten wins says something. I don't care what you say.
Ten wins in the NFL is a big deal, all right,
And for them to go out and accomplish that, hey, kudos.
And I understand it's far short of the standard that
they publicly want to achieve. It's not what they want.
(37:40):
But you know, the fact is they got ten wins.
Now there's a reason they got those ten wins, and
you break down the reasons why, and then you got
to look at why they didn't and why this collapse
handed happened at the end of the year. And that's again,
it's going to take a lot of research. This is
Matt's department. This is going to be I mean, you
think about it. The coaches are gonna get together here soon,
(38:02):
and at some point in time you're gonna have all
these exit interviews and all these metrics coming into play,
and all these things that we're not gonna hear about.
But the fact is those things are gonna lead to
people gaining a job or losing a job in the future.
Speaker 4 (38:16):
Here and Rob, we're gonna hear a ton real quick,
We're here a ton about they need another receiver, opposite pickings,
they need more playmakers. I'll never fight anybody on that,
There's no doubt in my mind. But I remember previewing
Eagles Steelers. You know, they were the two run heaviest
teams in the league going into that game. And going
(38:36):
into that game, the Steelers averaged three point nine yards
of carry and the Eagles were at like six. You know, Like,
if you're gonna run the ball so voluminously, that's my
favorite run word. Three point nine ain't gonna cut it,
you know, I mean, but if you get the four
to four, that's a big difference when you run the
ball at the top of the league. You know, Like
(38:56):
some of it's just fundamentals that I'm sure Wolf will
agree with. Just if you could run the ball, if
that's the backbone of your offense that travels you know,
you know, that keeps you in games, that raises the floor,
that keeps your defense off the field a little bit.
I don't know if people be talking about this run
game needs to step up, but if it did, the
passing game would be a little better, the defense would
(39:18):
be a little fresher. You'd go on the road on
these games and be more competitive. I mean, I think
that's a good place to start.
Speaker 3 (39:24):
And one of the things, let me just say this,
it's like Andy Weddell the GM said, you know, the
fact is big, physical, punishing offensive lines. Just to support
what Matt said, they travel well, I mean in and
out of games, and you know, whether you're at home
or away, the punishing, blow by blow thing, that's that's
something that you you know, that becomes a prideful thing
(39:46):
on an offensive line. You'd strive for that and you're
known by that. You know, to sit back and pass
protect is you know, that's that's the other half of
the coin, you know. I mean, I much I would
much rather be the hammer than the nail, you know.
And when you're sitting back and pass, it's a little
bit different. And sometimes you can get taken away by
the crowd if you have a home crowd. That's I'm
(40:07):
sorry you have an away crowd. It creates problems and
getting the snap count and everything else. It gives the
defensive edge rushers a jump on the offensive tackles and
that sort of thing, whereas coming off on a run thing.
At least you're moving forward into combative positions. You're not
dropping back and hoping, you know, to be able to
make sure that you hear the snapcount. Why I forget
(40:28):
to kind of fall back in the eighties and in
the early nineties when he didn't have the snapcount such
as it is. But you know, the point being is
offensive lines good punishing. Offensive lines are physical, and they
bring a dominance that can be done week by week.
Look what Philly did, and I'm not even talking about
just Sakuon. Look what that offensive line does.
Speaker 4 (40:49):
And that's what the that's where their first round picks
have gone and second round picks and McCormick and yes,
you know, I mean that's a work in progress.
Speaker 2 (40:57):
It is a work in progress. And don't forget that
one of their first picks, Foutano, who is slated to
start a right tackle, got hurt. They had an injury
at the right guard position with their starter he got hurt,
and you know, for a while, it didn't look like
that was gonna matter. And I started to think about
that and thought, well, maybe it did matter more than
we thought. And it'll be interesting to see how they
continue to assess that. Because James Andels is going to
(41:18):
be a free agent, Dan Moore is going to be
a free agent. You can cover it with the guys
you have. Now you're probably gonna potentially have to go
out and get some depth. I do think that's interesting.
I think one of the things when we talk about Baltimore,
talk about Philadelphia, you know what age they're running attack
so greatly. First of all, you have two superlative running backs,
but look, Derrick Henry appeared to be in decline sa
(41:40):
Kuon Barkley injury problems and his numbers decreasing a little bit.
For the Giants, Well, you have great offensive lines, yes,
but you also have running quarterbacks and that makes a
huge difference in a running game. So how they assess
that and how close they think they are, because if
they want to be a running team, if you get
some health on the offensive line and in a rich
(42:03):
running back class, you go out and get another running back.
It might be enough. It might be enough right there
for you to be the kind of running team you want.
You have a guy like Darnel Washington who's just a
fabulous blocker, the tight end position, Pat Pryormouth, guys you
can rotate in there. Maybe that's you know, hopefully not
(42:24):
that far away from being fixed and being the kind
of asset that can help the Steelers. I think it's
going to be hard to get those kind of yards
per carry if you don't have that running type of quarterback.
But I still think you can obviously be an effected
running team, a more affective and efficient running team. Uh,
you know, the the voluminousness. I hope that's a word
(42:46):
matt or together with with more effectiveness.
Speaker 4 (42:51):
Yeah, And again, I think regular season is one thing.
All all issues, all talents, all coaching gets my defied
in the playoffs of course, probably too much, but it does.
And we saw that all weekend. You know, the Chargers
issues were probably I mean a lot of these teams
look like they didn't quite belong, you know. And if
(43:12):
you're looking big picture, and how can this team win
a Super Bowl without Mahomes, Allen Burrow or Lamar, which
they're not going to have next year. I mean maybe
one day they'll be a back to having been type guy.
I mean, what comes around, goes around type of thing.
You better have a really good running game that can
at least control the flow of the game. And I
think you have to have an elite defense. Now, those
(43:35):
things have not been obvious the last month plus, but
I also don't think those two aspects are that far
away either. I still think you have great defensive talent,
and I also think you have an O line in progress.
Speaker 2 (43:49):
You know, I totally agree and will if you talked
about the positives and there we are. I mean, I
don't want to come out at this with a polyann angle,
but I'm looking at tennant three. I'm looking at the
way they invested the draft picks. I'm looking at the
Pro bowlers on this team. I'm looking at the guys
who aren't Pro Bowlers, but guys like the Shaun Elliott,
(44:10):
Joey Porter, Keanu, Benton, Landon Roberts, Peyton Wilson. There is
a lot of quality. There are a lot of quality
players on that defense. I don't think it's that far
away from being a defense that can go out there
and slam the door a couple of times and come
up with that stop in Philadelphia, or you know, come
(44:32):
up with that third down stop early in the game
in Baltimore that allows your offense to get its traction.
I believe Matt is correct. I think both those things
that you want to be aren't as far away as
they seem now as a team ends the season with
the five dame losing streak.
Speaker 3 (44:46):
Absolutely, you know, again and again, I always wear the
player's cap. I'm sorry, I just can't divest myself of
having been a player one time, so many decades ago.
But the fact of the matter is, you have simism
after you've gone this far. Sure, it's a crushing defeat
the day after the game when you wake up and
realize that dream of going to uh, you know, Lombardi
(45:08):
Land and lifting the Lombardi Trophy it's over for this year.
But it also fuels the speculation in your mind that, hey,
you know what another year adding a couple elements with
with the same sort of ability to you know, get
everybody on board, moving in one direction and trying to
avoid you know, the collapse towards the end. That sort
(45:29):
of thing I still I still can't wrap my brain
around it that you could have that those collapses and
I and I defy anyone to show me where they
change their habits. In December. Yeah, I mean I watched practice.
I said, well, you know, you see it. They're they're
just they're doing it, getting it done, and then these
these collapses happen. Now you have to figure that some
of it has to do with some getting nicks and
(45:51):
everything else, but you know, it's got to be one
of the most frustrating things, and that's something they've got
to address. But as I said when we started this off,
there's more questions than answers right now. But you know,
you're I think you're closer this year than you were
last year, all right, I mean that's pretty simple, you know.
So you just you got to just keep making some
piecemeal movements and adding some players here and there, and
(46:13):
then you move forward.
Speaker 4 (46:16):
And rob real quick too. I mean, I think I
do believe Omar has now had and Andy have had
two draft classes. Both have looked like they're highly successful.
This latest one. Three of your draft picks you've got
zero snaps out of you know, those guys are all
gonna be like incoming rookies next year, you got a
ton of cash space. You're gonna have a second year
with what I think is an improved offensive coordinator. There's
(46:39):
a lot of things to work out, but I also
think you have a better foundation than he did a
year or two ago to get to where you need
to be.
Speaker 2 (46:46):
Thank you for making us all feel better. Both of
you guys, good stuff.
Speaker 4 (46:50):
Right, But now Cam Hayward Older and TJ. Watson let
me say, then we got to go. I got I
got to say this quickly. I gotta say it quickly.
Tip of the cap to Captain Cam. He was captain courageous.
Speaker 3 (47:06):
Look, nobody goes out there gets doinked, has to go
in get checked.
Speaker 2 (47:10):
You know.
Speaker 3 (47:10):
See if the old noggin's doing well, noginologist says, yeah,
he could have easily checked out. Comes back in what
ten tackles? Two tackles for a loss? You lead from
the front. Golly, it was just it was awesome. It's
inspiring to an old guy like B two C. I
hate to say Cam, but an old guy like you,
But what a job. And that was great. And I
(47:30):
think same way with Russ Wilson and that second half.
What he did so.
Speaker 2 (47:36):
Later game day necessities at the official Studess pro shops.
Get the latest Sideline apparel, Jersey's Terrible towels, authentic memorphilia,
and custom exclusives you can only find directly from the team.
Visit one of the official Students pro shops located at
Akroshuer Stadium, Grove City Premium, Mountain Let's or Tanger out
Let's or gear up online at shop dot Steelers dot com.
(47:59):
Wolf and that another and Justin Miller, our great producer,
another great year, guys, Thank you very much.
Speaker 3 (48:06):
Really enjoyed it absolutely same here brother, thanks.
Speaker 2 (48:10):
That is the point after for the final edition here
on twenty twenty four on the Steelers Audio Network
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