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Speaker 1: You were tunes about Drive on your home of the

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Speaker 1: Black and Goal Steelers Nation Radio. Welcome back to the Drive.

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Speaker 1: I'm Dale Lally here with Matt Williamson. It is a

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Speaker 1: lovely Monday here. We're a week away from Steelers training

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Speaker 1: camp reporting date. I can't wait. I know, I know

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Speaker 1: you're looking forward to it as well, Matt. Uh, We're

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Speaker 1: both ready to go. Uh. A couple of teams rookies

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Speaker 1: did report today. I believe it was the Raiders and

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Speaker 1: the Bills rookies Hall of Fame teams. Yeah, I believe. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: so they their rookies could report early. Uh. Man. I

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Speaker 1: want to talk about a story that Bucky Brooks road

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Speaker 1: and it's called the one chaos team in each division. Okay,

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Speaker 1: And you know he means by chaos a team that

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Speaker 1: maybe something not a lot is expected of, or they

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Speaker 1: haven't been a major player in recent years, but they

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Speaker 1: could really upset the apple cart this season. Okay. I

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Speaker 1: mean the Bengals last year are a great example. Right.

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Speaker 1: You know I've been asked four thousand times, who's the

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Speaker 1: Who's the Bengals from this year? Is that the Lions?

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Speaker 1: Or mean like it doesn't happen every year? Folks that

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Speaker 1: somebody picks on top five and then goes the Super Bowl.

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Speaker 1: But there are teams that are can cause chaos. There's

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Speaker 1: a good way putting it. I think, you know, it

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Speaker 1: can can mess up the way you look at things.

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Speaker 1: When he picked one team from each division, and I

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Speaker 1: bring this up because he mentioned the Steelers is the

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Speaker 1: team in the a f C North that could be there,

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Speaker 1: and I think they they fit the description. Even though

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Speaker 1: they were a playoff team last year. A lot of

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Speaker 1: people aren't expecting a lot from the Steelers this year.

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Speaker 1: In fact, you see the predictions for the for the

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Speaker 1: Steelers are all over the board. Yeah, most like it. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: because when you said, I have not seen this article.

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Speaker 1: So when you said a chaos team, I immediately he thought, well,

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Speaker 1: the Steelers are probably my last pick in the North

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Speaker 1: because the Watson situation in Cleveland, that's chaotic for their

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Speaker 1: team in their building, the Bates thing, the Lamar thing,

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Speaker 1: there's some things that could cause waves within those three

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Speaker 1: respective buildings, chaos from within. But when you described it

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Speaker 1: of how they can rock the boat in terms of

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Speaker 1: what the pundits are predicting, and you know, everyone said,

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Speaker 1: you know, you get a lot of Steelers are only

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Speaker 1: gonna win six or seven games. They're the easy team

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Speaker 1: to plug in at number four in the North. Don't

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Speaker 1: be so sure. They could cause chaos for your predictions. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: And and and he's you know, he brings up. He said, Look,

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Speaker 1: they've got a the pieces are in place. On defense.

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Speaker 1: He got t J, he got camera Hayward, he got

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Speaker 1: Makea Fitzpatrick along with a good, you know, supporting cast.

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Speaker 1: He had Brian Florist to the coaching staff along with

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Speaker 1: Terrell Austin. Um. They're gonna come up with some stuff,

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Speaker 1: he said. And he expects the offense to even though

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Speaker 1: it might be more conservative. I don't know if it

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Speaker 1: is going to be more conservative. I think pretty conservative.

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Speaker 1: I mean, I know the past percentage was high. That

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Speaker 1: makes it sound like it was risky, but office was

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Speaker 1: really conservative. Yeah. I mean with the style of play,

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Speaker 1: get it out the receivers now, or throw a deep

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Speaker 1: ball down the sideline, but don't attack much, or don't

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Speaker 1: attack the middle, right. I mean, yeah, they threw the

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Speaker 1: ball a lot, but that doesn't mean that they were

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Speaker 1: living on the edge. Yeah. I've I've been asked a

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Speaker 1: lot to you know, do you do I expect the

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Speaker 1: Steelers to run the ball more or you know, throw

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Speaker 1: the ball less this year. I don't know that I

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Speaker 1: expect a massive shift in the in the percentage, in

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Speaker 1: the percentages. No, I bet they run the ball a

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Speaker 1: little more. I mean, I don't think they'll be a

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Speaker 1: top five pass happy team. But Canada's a forward thinker,

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Speaker 1: and they've seven weapons. I think if you factor in

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Speaker 1: the quarterbacks running the ball, yeah, they're going to run

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Speaker 1: the ball because you know Roethlisberger's main runch. They had

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Speaker 1: fifty five yards rushing last year. Is a team from

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Speaker 1: the quarterback position, Yeah, the three or four hundred this year, right.

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Speaker 1: I mean that that in itself is going to be

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Speaker 1: more running, But it doesn't necessarily mean that the offense

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Speaker 1: is going to be that much different in terms of

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Speaker 1: the balance. No, I think they'll be better if throwing

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Speaker 1: the ball than running the ball. Probably. I mean, I'm

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Speaker 1: not gonna put my whole reputation on that. It's just

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Speaker 1: I really liked the five receivers they can put out there. No,

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Speaker 1: I do too, Yeah, but to see yeah, and you know,

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Speaker 1: Bucky says, look, I you know a lot of people

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Speaker 1: are thinking that Mike Tomlin is due for his first

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Speaker 1: losing season. He said, I'm not sure I'd personally make

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Speaker 1: that bet. Yeah, that's a hold on, you know. I mean,

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Speaker 1: even if they start out slow, you can absolutely see

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Speaker 1: this team, considering how young they are on offense. It's

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Speaker 1: figuring it out in those last two months, start to

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Speaker 1: string some wins together and all those people with the

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Speaker 1: undertotal or going uh, I mean, the only one out

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Speaker 1: of two wins to finish the season and somehow Tomlin

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Speaker 1: seeks him in the playoffs again, you know. I mean,

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Speaker 1: it'd be a hard team for me to bet against.

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Speaker 1: I mean, the Patriots are hard team for me to

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Speaker 1: bet against. I have no respect for their roster whatsoever.

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Speaker 1: But if I have hard earned dollars in my hands,

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Speaker 1: betting against Belichick is not the best solution. They are

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Speaker 1: safer ones that Yeah, it's not the best way to

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Speaker 1: make money over the years. You know, his team and

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Speaker 1: the if she East is the Miami Dolphins. They were

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Speaker 1: gonna picked two in the tier. Point about the Yeah,

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Speaker 1: a lot of variants. I mean, if two is this

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Speaker 1: is sort of truth of Steelers. If two is the

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Speaker 1: twentie best quarterback in the league, they can cause problems.

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Speaker 1: You know, I don't think they could be a super

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Speaker 1: Bowl contender. I don't think he could be a top

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Speaker 1: ten quarterback. But if he's pretty decent and those big

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Speaker 1: play guys are hitting, they could cause problems for any

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Speaker 1: opponent any week. Yeah, I agree. Uh. In the f

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Speaker 1: C South, the chaos, it's the Jaguars. Yeah, me too. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I don't want to have a huge Jags conversation, but

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Speaker 1: I'm really warming up to them. And this is the

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Speaker 1: total opposite conversation of Tomlin Belichick. You know, you can

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Speaker 1: lose a lot of money betting on the Jags, but

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Speaker 1: like their front seven has gotten really big and physical. Well,

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Speaker 1: who's in their division Jonathan Taylor and Derrick Henry. They

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Speaker 1: overpaid for a lot of guys on offense, but at

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Speaker 1: least they now have professionals around Lawrence, and deep down,

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Speaker 1: I'm a Lawrence believer, and I think Peterson's an NFL coach.

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Speaker 1: I mean, did anyone get a better coaching upgrade from

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Speaker 1: last year than Jacksonville? Yeah? Probably not. Right. In the

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Speaker 1: a f C West, he is the Raiders. Mm hmm.

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Speaker 1: That's a tough division because expectations are so high for

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Speaker 1: all and I guess they're the ones with the least expectations. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I guess. I mean, if you're looking at it from

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Speaker 1: that perspective, that makes sense. People are saying Denver, people

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Speaker 1: are saying the Broncos are a potential super Bowl team.

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Speaker 1: People are saying the Chargers are potential super Bowl team.

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Speaker 1: Obviously the Chiefs. So I guess the Raiders will be

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Speaker 1: the one that that you look at and say, well,

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Speaker 1: they they're the one team that probably can't make it

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Speaker 1: to the super Bowl. Yeah. I just think if Wilson

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Speaker 1: is a hit there, they could win a division. But

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Speaker 1: there's a little more variance around Denver than there is

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Speaker 1: the Chargers or especially the Chiefs. I think we all

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Speaker 1: know what we're gonna get from the Chiefs. I mean,

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Speaker 1: they're gonna win double digit games. Yeah, you would think so.

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Speaker 1: And you know that that division is gonna be difficult though,

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Speaker 1: and oh yeah we said it a hundred times. Somebody

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Speaker 1: in that division is gonna go one and five or

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Speaker 1: two and four in the division. I mean, you hope

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Speaker 1: you don't have a Ravens like team from last year

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Speaker 1: that gets is it near the top of league and

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Speaker 1: injuries because you could lose eight in a row. You know,

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Speaker 1: if you're without your key guy for two months or something,

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Speaker 1: you could be lost and forgotten. Yeah, and that's that's

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Speaker 1: always the quick key variable. Moving over to the NFC, Uh,

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Speaker 1: he has in the East the Washington Commanders. Mhm. My

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Speaker 1: hood pick in the East would be the Giants. Yeah right,

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Speaker 1: It's kind of just maybe Wentz is a little better

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Speaker 1: than he's been more Eagles version of Wentz. The roster

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Speaker 1: is not terrible. I mean, they could ruin the Cowboys

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Speaker 1: or Eagles day. I guess that's the pick I would make.

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Speaker 1: There's not an obvious one there for me either though. Uh.

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Speaker 1: In the NFC North, it's the Lions absolutely. I mean

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Speaker 1: we saw them come here and tie the Steelers, playing

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Speaker 1: their brand of football, being hard to play against, and

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Speaker 1: their roster is much better now, you know. I mean

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Speaker 1: they're I think their offense is pretty legit and they

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Speaker 1: probably won't beat themselves with a ton of turnovers and

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Speaker 1: things like that. Yeah. Uh. In the NFC South, it's

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Speaker 1: the Carolina Panthers. Agree. I think they're a borderline playoff

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Speaker 1: team in a week conference. Yeah, I think if you

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Speaker 1: look at you know, adding Baker Mayfield that although they did.

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Speaker 1: You know, they announced their GM announced last week that

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Speaker 1: there will be an open competition between Baker Mayfield and

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Speaker 1: Sam Donald. Um. Yeah, I'd be shocked If Mayfield doesn't

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Speaker 1: I'd be Yeah, I'd be late to the party. That's

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Speaker 1: the problem. You know, he hasn't worked. You know, the

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Speaker 1: training camp is going to be all about getting Baker

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Speaker 1: Mayfield ready to go, but you also have to give

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Speaker 1: snaps to Sam Donald because he's your incumbent guy. I

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Speaker 1: was talking about this on another podcast. It's kind of

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Speaker 1: like the Steelers, like, oh, by the way, you drafted

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Speaker 1: a quarterback that you traded up for too in Carolina.

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Speaker 1: I mean snap counts and practice reps and participation in

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Speaker 1: Carolina is going to be really hard to divvy out

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Speaker 1: because they all deserve it, right right. Donald's kind of

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Speaker 1: the routolf, you know, Baker's kind of your ribisky, and

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Speaker 1: Coral's kind of your picket. Yeah. So it's it's it's

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Speaker 1: an interesting dynamic. Um in the NFC West, it's the

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Speaker 1: Arizona Cardinals. It can't be the Seahawks campus Seahawks are

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Speaker 1: terrible and the Rams of Super Bowl champs. In the

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Speaker 1: NFC Championship Game last year, so kind of by default,

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Speaker 1: I thought about the Niners. Just if if Lance is

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Speaker 1: really good versus Lance is really bad. Yeah, but the

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Speaker 1: Cardinals are one of the highest variance teams in the league.

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Speaker 1: To me, so too. I mean, yeah, they're kind of

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Speaker 1: always start the season well, they get a bunch of

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Speaker 1: young guys and a bunch of old I think there's

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Speaker 1: not much in between. Yeah, I trust the coach, mostly

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Speaker 1: trust the quarterback, but they always are not the same

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Speaker 1: at the end of the year as they are at

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Speaker 1: the beginning. Yeah. I mean, if they string it all

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Speaker 1: together and everything lines up for him this year, yeah,

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Speaker 1: they could be you know, double digit wins, maybe win

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Speaker 1: a division. Let's talk about this now happening. Let's talk

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Speaker 1: about so of those eight teams, you had the Dolphins,

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Speaker 1: the Steelers, the Jaguars, the Raiders, Washington, Detroit, Carolina in Arizona. Mhm,

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Speaker 1: which one is the best team? Arizona? I thought, you're

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Speaker 1: gonna ask me, what if you bet on one to

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Speaker 1: win the Super Bowl? Who would you bet on? And

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Speaker 1: you don't want about any of them? That's kind of

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Speaker 1: the point of the exercise. I think I'd pick Arizona,

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Speaker 1: and then the Steelers I just said it was better

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Speaker 1: the Raiders. I think the Steelers come out very well

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Speaker 1: in that list. And yet again the pundits nationally talking

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Speaker 1: about them are saying five, you know, we when we've

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Speaker 1: done mocked drafts, mock drafts, the drafting in the top ten. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: with the sixth overall pick, the Steelers are gonna take

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Speaker 1: a corner, you know, Like I don't think they're picking

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Speaker 1: in the top six or right. You know. Um, again,

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Speaker 1: their schedule is probably the hardest of all those, you know,

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Speaker 1: with how what we know right this minute subject to change,

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Speaker 1: of course. Um, but I trust the organization, the head

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Speaker 1: coach more than I do Washington, Caroline, at Detroit, you know, Jacksonville.

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Speaker 1: I mean who's lost more games in Detroit and Jacksonville? Right, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I mean I'm not that high on the Raiders either. No,

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Speaker 1: I'm not either. And I think, you know, I do

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Speaker 1: think that the Steelers are not that they're competitive, right,

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Speaker 1: and that's that's yeah. And I think that there's something

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Speaker 1: to a franchise knowing how to win. Oh, I think

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Speaker 1: there's a time to that. And even Ben on his

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Speaker 1: last legs had that, you know, in his back pocket.

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Speaker 1: And Tomlin absolutely has that and we are growing pains

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Speaker 1: on offense. I mean, there's no question about it. But

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Speaker 1: you know, and they have a lot of tough games.

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Speaker 1: There's a lot many lay up games on the schedule.

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Speaker 1: But I can't see them week after week being wow,

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Speaker 1: they lost my two touchdowns. That's better than last week.

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Speaker 1: You know, like, I don't think that's the season goes.

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Speaker 1: You know. And one of the one of the things

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Speaker 1: about coaching and what good coaches do is coached to

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Speaker 1: their talent mm hm. Whereas okay, let's let's we're talking

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Speaker 1: about the Cardinals are on this list. So you have

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Speaker 1: a guy like Cliff Kingsbury who wants to come in

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Speaker 1: and run his offense. Yeah, and so he's gotta do that.

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Speaker 1: We gotta run, we gotta run this offense. We gotta

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Speaker 1: do things this way because it's my offense, is what

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Speaker 1: I do. Yeah. I know you just after Josh Rosen,

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Speaker 1: but sorry, I have no use for him. We need

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Speaker 1: to get my guy. We need to get my guy

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Speaker 1: in there. Yeah. Changes. You know, whereas a team like

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Speaker 1: the Steelers are, I think Mike Tomlin will do with

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Speaker 1: this team what this team does best. Again, he says

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Speaker 1: it all the time. If we have red paint, red paint,

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Speaker 1: We're gonna paint the barn red. Yeah, And I think,

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Speaker 1: you know, Belichick is the master of this and Tomlin's

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Speaker 1: right there with them. There's an art to not losing

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Speaker 1: games in the NFL. Like, Okay, you're gonna give me

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Speaker 1: a hard time for not going for it on fourth

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Speaker 1: down enough, But I realized there's a lot of paths

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Speaker 1: that I can lose this game. And to me, the

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Speaker 1: perfect example was the duck Hodges here. You know, like

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Speaker 1: we we know we're walking into a gunfight with with

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Speaker 1: the a knife, you know, but they've got six bullets,

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Speaker 1: we got one. We gotta make account and yeah, and

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Speaker 1: if that means just extending the game, fighting to live

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Speaker 1: another day and not being super aggressive, I'm gonna do

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Speaker 1: everything I can not to lose where I think that's

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Speaker 1: something that analytics folks can overlook, Like, yeah, the pain,

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Speaker 1: the sheets, the spreadsheets tell us to go for it

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Speaker 1: here or do this or do that or whatever. And

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Speaker 1: to me, sometimes you just have to be like I

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Speaker 1: don't know many cards in my hand, and I gotta

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Speaker 1: bluff my way through this hand without losing a fortune,

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Speaker 1: you know what I mean? You know, I keep going

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Speaker 1: back to that season and and people ask me, well,

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Speaker 1: how could the Steelers be better this year than they

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Speaker 1: were last year? And how could they do how can

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Speaker 1: they win games? And I keep going back to that

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Speaker 1: season and looking at how the Steelers won that year

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Speaker 1: and their schedule was the schedule was not easy that

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Speaker 1: year either, when you know, I mean, the division has

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Speaker 1: been good for a long time now, and right right right,

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Speaker 1: I mean they played the Patriots, they played the Seahawks

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Speaker 1: when the Seahawks were good. They played the forty niners

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Speaker 1: in San Francisco. That's always a nightmare for them. Yes,

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Speaker 1: they went over in three in those games. Uh, you know,

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Speaker 1: but you played the Ravens twice. You lost in overtime

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Speaker 1: in one of those games, and and the Hodges had

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Speaker 1: to come in and relief and used to You played

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Speaker 1: the Chargers in Los Angeles. You won that game with

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Speaker 1: Doc Hodges. The Dolphins, the Colts, the Rams beat the Rams.

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Speaker 1: I mean that was a good Rams team that they beat. Uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, I'm sure if you would ever give Tomlin

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Speaker 1: truths here or the coaching staff, I bet there's some

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Speaker 1: plane rides home or meetings on Monday, or they're like

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Speaker 1: I don't know how we pulled that one out, but okay,

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Speaker 1: you know, we stuck with a plan and didn't shoot

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Speaker 1: ourselves in foot and when it came down to a

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Speaker 1: field goal here or there, our guy made it and

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Speaker 1: they didn't. Then, boy, we were not the better team

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Speaker 1: that day, but we figured out a way to win.

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Speaker 1: And that's not easy to do. Yeah, I mean, that's

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Speaker 1: that's the bottom line. It doesn't have to be pretty.

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Speaker 1: But again, I think if you if you do what's

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Speaker 1: your team can do and accentuate those parts of the

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Speaker 1: game as opposed to having your quarterback out there and

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Speaker 1: try to do something he's not capable of, or having

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Speaker 1: your your defensive players go out there and try to

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Speaker 1: do a perform a game plan that they're not capable of.

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Speaker 1: I can't remember this better than me, but what were

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Speaker 1: what was the quote after Duck Hodges got his first win?

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Speaker 1: You know some when he guys asked him he didn't

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Speaker 1: kill us, you know, Tom? Yeah right, he didn't kill us?

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Speaker 1: Like great, No, I didn't kill us the whole key

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Speaker 1: no negative. You know they beat the Chargers with Philip

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Speaker 1: Rivers game Oh yeah right, you know, I mean it

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Speaker 1: squeaked one out right like Vegas odds, if they play

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Speaker 1: that game a hundred times that the Steelers should be

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Speaker 1: a dog every time. Yeah, I mean, you know, but

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Speaker 1: they you know, they did. You know, I look at

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Speaker 1: that game to win over the rams Um again, a

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Speaker 1: good rams team, and they beat them seventeen to twelve.

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Speaker 1: I mean, it's it was. It wasn't pretty, but they

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Speaker 1: found ways to win those games. Play well on special teams,

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Speaker 1: winning the margins. You know, maybe possess the football a

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Speaker 1: little longer, or you know, don't play as fast as

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Speaker 1: you would have shortened the game. You know, don't take

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Speaker 1: a dumb penalty. You know that those type of things

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Speaker 1: that don't always show up in the statue, you know. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: so you know, I do think that you know, obviously

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Speaker 1: it's going to be different this year for the Steelers,

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Speaker 1: but I do think that they will figure out some ways,

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Speaker 1: whether that be the you know, design runs for troubisky

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Speaker 1: or you know, anything to move that you know, move

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Speaker 1: the chains, that kind of stuff that they'll make. This,

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Speaker 1: They'll they'll fight, they'll figure things out, they'll figure out

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Speaker 1: ways to win games that they probably shouldn't win. And

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Speaker 1: you can look at every game on that on that schedule, say, yeah,

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Speaker 1: they probably shouldn't won, right, right, right, And if they

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Speaker 1: ended up as a two or three win team, I

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Speaker 1: don't think anyone had been like, boy, Tom, it's a

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Speaker 1: bad coach. I mean, it's kind of you know, if

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Speaker 1: you if you remember again when when Ben Roethlisberger went down,

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Speaker 1: people were predicting a five win season. People a top

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Speaker 1: They're gonna have a top five draft pick. When they

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Speaker 1: made the train for making Fitzpatrick, how can you trade

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Speaker 1: that pick away? You know it's gonna be a top

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Speaker 1: it's gonna be a top five pick, a top ten pick. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: And initially I kind of felt that way as well.

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Speaker 1: But I remember you and I do in the drive

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Speaker 1: back then, we would go through the league and be like, well,

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Speaker 1: they're still better than the Jags, They're still better than

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Speaker 1: the Giants, you know, And we came up with eight

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Speaker 1: to ten teams that we were pretty confident that the

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Speaker 1: Steelers would pick later then, you know that, And a

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Speaker 1: lot of that was just because of the structure of

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Speaker 1: the organization and the coach and the culture. Yeah, so

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Speaker 1: I think that goes a long way, um, and I

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Speaker 1: think it will again this year. I think, you know,

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Speaker 1: when you talk about how they can be better than

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Speaker 1: last year, I don't know. I mean, I don't know

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Speaker 1: if they're gonna win more than the nine games that

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Speaker 1: they won last year. I think the roster is better

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Speaker 1: it was last year. But I think the roster is

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Speaker 1: definitely better than it was a year ago. I wrote

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Speaker 1: an article today or returned. I think it's going live today.

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Speaker 1: The Steelers would have killed for Mason Cole last year.

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Speaker 1: Is not good. He's not a special player. But if

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Speaker 1: he was on the team last year, you know, won

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Speaker 1: the starting center job and wouldn't have lost it, or

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Speaker 1: Green would have lost the starting center job in week

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Speaker 1: two or three and they would have had a legit

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Speaker 1: guy come in and that position wouldn't been a problem.

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Speaker 1: I mean that. And they signed five guys better than

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Speaker 1: Mason Cole this year, you know what I mean? Like

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Speaker 1: that slow on the list of good editions, but boy,

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Speaker 1: could they have used him a year ago? Absolutely? So. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I think that's what when you look at what this

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Speaker 1: team can be this year. Um, you know, I think

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Speaker 1: with with as as young as this offense is, uh

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Speaker 1: and as as good as I think the defense is

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Speaker 1: going to be, Um, go back and look at that

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Speaker 1: twenty nineteen seasons say okay, this maybe it is going

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Speaker 1: to look something like this, but maybe maybe with a

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Speaker 1: few more wins, because I think you have you have

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Speaker 1: better quarterbacking than you had in that season. I just

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Speaker 1: think the offense is so much harder to play against

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Speaker 1: than that season or last season that we're gonna see

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Speaker 1: things on offense. And I'm not talking about flee flicker

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Speaker 1: double reverses. Matt Canada is drawing up stuff on the napkins.

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna talk about basic NFL stuff that they couldn't

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Speaker 1: run right right, I mean they had to. I can

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Speaker 1: remember Kevin Colbert talking about that uh and in training

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Speaker 1: camp he we've always come back and have a uh

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Speaker 1: sit down with the writers. And we didn't do it

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Speaker 1: in training camp that year, but we did. We we

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Speaker 1: did it in training camp, but it was not at

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Speaker 1: the back in the dorms. But he said, look, our

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Speaker 1: our our goal when when Ben got hurt, the defense

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Speaker 1: had to give up less than seventeen points a game

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Speaker 1: coming in. If it's the twenty, we're in trouble. We

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Speaker 1: know it. The goal. Every coaching decision reflects that, the

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Speaker 1: goal with Devil with the Codges at quarterback was to

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Speaker 1: give up thirteen or fewer. That's unbelievably hard, absolutely, but

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Speaker 1: they did it. I mean, if you look at it,

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Speaker 1: you know that. You know, they gave up a game

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Speaker 1: where they where they gave up three seventeen against the Chargers,

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Speaker 1: fourteen against the Dolphins, twelve against the the the Rams.

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Speaker 1: They did give up twenty four against the coltson one um,

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Speaker 1: but twelve against the Rams, ten against the Bengals, thirteen

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Speaker 1: against the Browns, seventeen against the Cardinals, seventeen against the

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Speaker 1: Bills even though they lost their game, sixteen against the Jets,

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Speaker 1: even though they lost that game. Um, you know, so

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Speaker 1: the defense are playing out of its mind. Oh, I'm

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Speaker 1: pulling it up now that Buffalo was the best team

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Speaker 1: in the league last year. They allowed seventeen points a game.

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Speaker 1: There were four teams that allowed under twenty Buffalo, New England, Denver,

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Speaker 1: New Orleans, and that was clearly tops in the league.

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Speaker 1: You know how hard it is to keep teams under

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Speaker 1: twenty nowadays. I mean there's ten teams that allowed twenty

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Speaker 1: five or more. You know, keep teams under twenty is

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Speaker 1: elite defense in today's NFL, let alone under thirteen Are

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Speaker 1: you kidding me? Yeah, absolutely right, But that is going

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Speaker 1: to do it for today's show. Matt One quick other

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Speaker 1: note too, Sometimes the other coach knows it too, Like so,

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Speaker 1: you know, a two yard run by nausey looks like

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Speaker 1: a failed play, but Tom One is thinking about it.

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Speaker 1: Of well, that's thirty seconds longer. I'm alive. You know

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Speaker 1: that that didn't sink to the bottom. And everyone the

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Speaker 1: stadium knows you're gonna run the ball, or did the

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Speaker 1: other team knows you're gonna run the ball. They stacked

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Speaker 1: the box, they tackle the guy for a two yard game. Okay,

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Speaker 1: but that's thirty seconds longer. I'm still alive. That's important, absolutely,

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Speaker 1: absolutely possessing the football. And if you look at last

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Speaker 1: year's possession time of possession numbers for the Steelers, they

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Speaker 1: were actually underwater in that one. They were below thirty

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Speaker 1: minutes per game. I bet that changes and they've typically

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Speaker 1: always been above thirty minutes, you know, often in the

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Speaker 1: top five. Um, you know, thirty two three, thirty four

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Speaker 1: minutes of game time of possession. That there was a

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Speaker 1: double way me last year. That's bad offense combined with

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Speaker 1: bad run defense. Yeah, the killer cut it absolutely but

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Speaker 1: as I mentioned this, that's gonna do it for today show.

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Speaker 1: So for my partner Matt Williamson, I am Dale Lolly.

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Speaker 1: We thank you for listening to this edition of the

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Speaker 1: Drive on Steelers Nation Radio