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Speaker 1: Welcome to the drive. I am Dale Lali. Uh it

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Speaker 1: is a Monday. I'm here, of course with Matt Williamson

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Speaker 1: as I am every day between four and six, and uh,

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Speaker 1: well Matt. The Steelers finally put points on the board,

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Speaker 1: finally hit the thirty point mark for the first time

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Speaker 1: since November twenty one of last year, which would be

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Speaker 1: one year ago today, and much like that game, they lose, uh,

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Speaker 1: losing to the Cincinnati Bengals thirty seven thirty. Um. Some

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Speaker 1: some positives to come out of the game. Some obviously,

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Speaker 1: some negatives when you lose like that, but uh, this

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Speaker 1: is the situation is now they're three and seven and

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Speaker 1: well onto Indianapolis. Yeah, exactly. Um, certainly a lot of positives.

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Speaker 1: I mean, there is progress with many aspects of this team.

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Speaker 1: But of course everyone harps on which I get. It's

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Speaker 1: a result space business. That you let up thirty seven

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Speaker 1: points to a Bengals team that lost mixing seven or

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Speaker 1: eight snaps in and didn't have Jamaar Chase and pick

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Speaker 1: it in the offense in the second half was terrible.

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Speaker 1: That wasn't good enough. Yeah, that's right. Lost. I mean,

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Speaker 1: Joe Burrow was the best player on the field. He

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Speaker 1: was an absolutely tremendous um performance by him, even though

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Speaker 1: he was missing some of his best weapons. Um, that's

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Speaker 1: scary going forward because the quarterbacks in this division, in

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Speaker 1: this conference are unbelievably strong and look like they're only

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Speaker 1: getting better. But there's things to build off. I mean,

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Speaker 1: I think you and I don't harp on just the positives,

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Speaker 1: just the negatives on these mondays win or lose, And

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Speaker 1: today is a perfect example. Yeah, I mean we we

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Speaker 1: do try to, uh you know, look at both sides

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Speaker 1: of this thing. And uh so, so let's take a

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Speaker 1: look at some of the positives now, Uh for the

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Speaker 1: second game in a row, can he pick it? No turnovers? Now,

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Speaker 1: that doesn't mean that he was perfect or anything of

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Speaker 1: the sword. I thought he missed some throws in this game,

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Speaker 1: Um that he know he needs to make. But you know,

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Speaker 1: again your twenties or forty two sixty five yards and

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Speaker 1: a touchdown, Um, you know is a passer rating of

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Speaker 1: eighty six. At one point he was over a hundred

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Speaker 1: in this game. Uh, they ran the ball effectively once again. Uh.

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Speaker 1: Naji Harris looks like he is uh a different back

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Speaker 1: right now because since they've come out of the break

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Speaker 1: and I thought he I thought he started to show that,

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Speaker 1: uh just before the Uh you know, they had their

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Speaker 1: bye week as well. But he looks like he's uh

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Speaker 1: just different here. They're they're running him more downhill, which

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Speaker 1: suits his style a lot better. You don't see as

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Speaker 1: much sideways running with him now. Um, you know, if

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Speaker 1: Friar muth is Friar Muth. I thought the offensive line

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Speaker 1: came off the ball again, well, um, they stopped to run.

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Speaker 1: They won the turnover battle, they won on third downs.

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Speaker 1: The one area where they didn't win was A on

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Speaker 1: the scoreboard, but B in terms of yards per play allowed. Uh, yeah,

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Speaker 1: the Bengals were a full yard ahead of them. Uh.

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Speaker 1: The Steelers average five point two yards per play. The

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Speaker 1: Bengals average six point three. Yeah. And let's just kind

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Speaker 1: of maybe pick through those one by one. I mean,

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Speaker 1: that's we're going to pick. Let's go with pick it.

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Speaker 1: I mean the uh, there were three things I thought

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Speaker 1: were very positive from Kenny's play yesterday and you kind

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Speaker 1: of touched on him. Is once again, no turnovers. I mean,

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Speaker 1: if this team loses turnover battles, especially to a team

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Speaker 1: that was in the Super Bowl last year, they're they're

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Speaker 1: not going to be in games right now, I mean

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Speaker 1: with where the state of the team and quarterback are.

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Speaker 1: But I thought his decision making was good and he

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Speaker 1: didn't put the ball in harm's way in the bottom

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Speaker 1: line is they did not turn the ball her phenomenal great.

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Speaker 1: That's step one good. Um. The thing that I was very,

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Speaker 1: very critical of Picket in the Saints game was his

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Speaker 1: play from the pocket. Um. I thought he felt rush

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Speaker 1: that weren't there. I thought he ran in the blitzer

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Speaker 1: pass rushers. I thought he dropped his eyes, ran unnecessarily

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Speaker 1: discarded the play too early. I thought that was much

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Speaker 1: better in this game. I liked how he navigated the pocket,

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Speaker 1: especially compared to the Saint situation, a great deal. So

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Speaker 1: that was a big step forward. Now it doesn't mean

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Speaker 1: that every week's didn't go forward. And then the other

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Speaker 1: things to Picket too is he attacked one on one

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Speaker 1: matchup and that sounds easy. But I have not seen

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Speaker 1: the twenty two you were there, maybe of a better

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Speaker 1: feeling for this than I do. But my hunch watching

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Speaker 1: the game twice from the TV copy was Cincinnati treated

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Speaker 1: the Ante Johnson like a number one receiver and didn't

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Speaker 1: you know and so that always leaves a ripple effect.

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Speaker 1: And when he had Pickens one on one, he went there.

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Speaker 1: When he had Fiarmo with one on one, he went there.

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Speaker 1: And as a result, Johnson didn't have great numbers and

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Speaker 1: that might blow people away. Why would anyone treat the

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Speaker 1: Auntie Johnson like a number one receiver? Because he is

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Speaker 1: and he's open all the time. The teams that know

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Speaker 1: him treat him that that way. And if you watch tape,

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Speaker 1: everyone treats Johnson with great respect. And Pickett realized that

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Speaker 1: and attacked one on one matchups, which a lot of

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Speaker 1: quarterbacks won't, especially young ones. I'd still like to see

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Speaker 1: them scheme up some things for Deante Johnson in those situations. Uh.

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Speaker 1: You know, there was a quote that I used in

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Speaker 1: my My ten Thoughts from Zach Taylor. Uh te Higgins

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Speaker 1: was not targeted in the first quarter of this game,

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Speaker 1: and then they came out in there for the Bengals

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Speaker 1: came out in their first possession of the second quarter,

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Speaker 1: Higgins was targeted four consecutive times. Yeah, And Zach Taylor

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Speaker 1: was asked about that and he said, hey, you know,

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Speaker 1: t came to me and and uh said he had

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Speaker 1: you know, some ideas on some routes there that he

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Speaker 1: thought he could beat get open on, and obviously he did.

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Speaker 1: They were going with matchups they were getting. They put

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Speaker 1: him in the slot. It's tougher to double team a

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Speaker 1: guy out of the slot, and it gave them some

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Speaker 1: some matchups that you know, he was able to win

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Speaker 1: pretty consistently. And he ends up with nine catches for

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Speaker 1: a hundred and forty plus yards UH in the game

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Speaker 1: on thirteen targets after not being targeted at all forty

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Speaker 1: eight yards at all in the first quarter. Very interesting

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Speaker 1: and I'm not contradicting you. I'm just curious that were

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Speaker 1: the Steelers. I mean, at the end of the day,

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Speaker 1: nobody cares about our fantasy teams or Deonte stat line.

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Speaker 1: You know, did the Steelers like the Bengals? To me,

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Speaker 1: if it's not Higgins without chasing the in the mix, well,

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Speaker 1: they don't have enough to beat you. So let's scheme

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Speaker 1: things up for Tea. Okay, And he's a very very

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Speaker 1: good player. And another a conversation we need to have

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Speaker 1: is Steelers coverage verse top twenty type receivers has not

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Speaker 1: been good this year. It was not again in this one.

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Speaker 1: But I wonder and I'm not defending the Steelers on

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Speaker 1: this this one. I'm just wondering what their thought processes,

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Speaker 1: which will never know, of course, is if you're gonna

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Speaker 1: put that much attention to Deonte, we'll live with it

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Speaker 1: and we'll take the one on one matchups elsewhere and

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Speaker 1: this just won't be his day. But I'm with you

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Speaker 1: in terms of scheming things up for your best players.

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Speaker 1: Is it hasn't been a strength of THEE No. I

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Speaker 1: think you know you can't allow the other team to

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Speaker 1: dictate necessarily where the football goes. If you remember, I

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Speaker 1: mean Antonio Brown was constantly double teamed during his time,

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Speaker 1: always but Ben Roethlisberger. He and Ben Roethlisberger figured out

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Speaker 1: ways to get him the football and it didn't matter

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Speaker 1: that he was double teamed. I mean, when one of

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Speaker 1: the guys double teaming Deante Johnson is Mike Hilton down

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Speaker 1: the field, right, I'm still throwing yeah, Mike Hilton and

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Speaker 1: the safety is not is not a true double team.

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Speaker 1: It just isn't. And I think that's the young quarterback

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Speaker 1: not trusting his star receiver to make a play in

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Speaker 1: those kind of situations, you know. So I'd like to

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Speaker 1: see them not allow the other team to take their

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Speaker 1: best guy out of the game. I think that's a

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Speaker 1: strong point. That a strong point. And real quick along

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Speaker 1: those lines is you know what you could do? I

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Speaker 1: mean many, there's many route concepts you could do too.

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Speaker 1: Like you said, we rarely see Pickings or Deonte in

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Speaker 1: the slot. It's harder to double out of the slot.

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Speaker 1: A lot of corners won't follow. We don't see a

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Speaker 1: lot of bunch sets like they used to run a

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Speaker 1: ton of bunch with a b you know. And it's

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Speaker 1: just we have three guys in a bunch, and how

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Speaker 1: am I gonna double with this one because I gotta

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Speaker 1: react to the other two like some of those types

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Speaker 1: of stuff, because you can't put you can't put four

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Speaker 1: or five guys over top of the of the bunch

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Speaker 1: because we just run the ball the other way. That's

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Speaker 1: of that, you know, And it's you know, you're reacting

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Speaker 1: to something super quick, like okay, two of us have him,

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Speaker 1: but this guy's ran across the writt in front of face,

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Speaker 1: and how do I get back? I mean, it's just

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Speaker 1: a lot happening quickly. Yeah. I thought the other thing

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Speaker 1: that the Bengals did and did well was targeting the

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Speaker 1: running backs. Um. P Ryan of course had three touchdowns.

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Speaker 1: He had four catches for fifty two yards on four targets.

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Speaker 1: Joe Mixon three catches for forty two yards on three targets.

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Speaker 1: So Joe Burrow when targeting the running backs was seven

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Speaker 1: for seven for ninety four yards. That just as much

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Speaker 1: as as Tee Higgins is the reason why you lost

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Speaker 1: the game, because then none of their other receivers did anything.

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Speaker 1: Tyler Boyd was not exist. Tyler Boyd was two two burrows,

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Speaker 1: two for seven for forty two yards. Targeting Tyler Boyd. Uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, I don't think it as first catch the

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Speaker 1: fourth quarter. He didn't. He was non existent. But those

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Speaker 1: those run after the catch. Burrow through three passes. I

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Speaker 1: don't know if you knew this stat, Matt three three

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Speaker 1: passes at or behind the line of scrimmage, and all

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Speaker 1: three went for touchdowns. Yeah, that can't happen. It can't happen.

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Speaker 1: And they were all the p Ryan. Um, you know,

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Speaker 1: that's all yards after the catch. You've got to get

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Speaker 1: that guy in the ground. Yeah. Absolutely. I thought that

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Speaker 1: was a huge problem with the defense overall, was run

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Speaker 1: after catch, but particularly to the backs, particularly the p

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Speaker 1: Rhyan And it's not just one person's problem, but Spillane

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Speaker 1: deserves a lot of playing for this stuff. And and

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Speaker 1: he's still continuing. You know, looking at the snap counts today,

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Speaker 1: he's playing almost I mean, the three inside linebackers basically

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Speaker 1: played the exact same numbers of snaps. He played thirty eight,

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Speaker 1: Bush played thirty five, Jack played forty one. Like, I

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Speaker 1: don't understand that distribution, especially when you have three safeties

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Speaker 1: available now, and I mean, I just can't have him

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Speaker 1: in coverage anymore. And he's not the only one to

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Speaker 1: blame for those after the after the catch stats that

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Speaker 1: are ugly, But um, I think that would be the

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Speaker 1: step in the right direction, is demoting him. Yeah, I

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Speaker 1: mean those typically those running back catches. Though, if you're

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Speaker 1: a man to man defense, even if you're not in

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Speaker 1: man defense, that's the linebackers, that's their job. That's why

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Speaker 1: I singled that out. Yeah, And again I don't think

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Speaker 1: it was necessarily Jack and Bush who were being targeted

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Speaker 1: in those situations. It was more to the lane because

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Speaker 1: you know, early in the game, p Rhyn's in there

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Speaker 1: on passing downs. He's there passing down back. Um, you

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Speaker 1: know so that that's you know, that's just a mismatch.

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Speaker 1: It just is. It just is, and I'm surprised it

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Speaker 1: hasn't been exploited more this year. Like the Saints game

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Speaker 1: comes to mind. If you watch the tape, Spillane on

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Speaker 1: Kamara is not even competitive and for whatever reason, the

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Speaker 1: ball didn't go to Kamara as much as it should have.

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Speaker 1: I'm sure they regretted that on Monday when they watched

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Speaker 1: the tape. But there's many instances and if he's out

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Speaker 1: there for thirty eight snaps and sure they blitz him

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Speaker 1: a lot on those situations, and it's dime and there's

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Speaker 1: a lot of other good coverage people out there, but

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Speaker 1: if there are there's a weak link. Burrow and those

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Speaker 1: type of guys, the cerebral quarterbacks are going to attack

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Speaker 1: it relentlessly. Yeah, but if you take those, you take

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Speaker 1: those running back catches out of the equation, and obviously

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Speaker 1: can Burrows then seventeen of thirty uh for forty yards

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Speaker 1: in the game. Yeah, again, one touchdown and two interceptions,

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Speaker 1: you probably win the game. And the Bengals fans are like, boy,

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Speaker 1: we really miss Chase and we need one more weapon.

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Speaker 1: And you know why, is uh that receiver whose name

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Speaker 1: I escaped me that played a lot in this game.

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Speaker 1: Why is he outing there that much? Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: And it's a different narrative. But you can't take those out.

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Speaker 1: And I'm not saying you're implying that you do. But

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Speaker 1: if you just tackle the catch or allow three or

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Speaker 1: four yard games, they're just don't the big stuff. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's tough to not give up a catch in no

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Speaker 1: situations because the throws obviously a quick throw um. But

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Speaker 1: he can't allow ninety four yards to the to the

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Speaker 1: running backs. He just can't those. That's I mean, that's

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Speaker 1: almost all run after the catch. Yeah, and you're gonna

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Speaker 1: see it again and again and again until you stop it. Now. No. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: Ryan's a fine player, but he's not Christie McCaffrey or tomorrow.

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Speaker 1: I mean, it's seven career touchdowns coming into this season,

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Speaker 1: m he had three. That's boggles the mind. Yeah. No,

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Speaker 1: that was a problem obviously, and I mean their their

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Speaker 1: ability to defend Higgins as well as that, to me,

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Speaker 1: were really the big problems with the defense. Like I know,

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Speaker 1: people are killing the defense, and the big narrative is

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Speaker 1: this is the most expensive defense in the league, they

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Speaker 1: have to carry the team. I get that, and they

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Speaker 1: did not play as well as they should. But much

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Speaker 1: of the game the defense was not a problem to me.

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Speaker 1: I thought the defense was very competitive for a large

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Speaker 1: portion of that game, if not at one point, I

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Speaker 1: thought they were controlling the line of scrimmage too. Yeah. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: they gave up to ninety plus yard drives. I mean

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Speaker 1: those those hurt um, But there was another signal before

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Speaker 1: the second ninety plus yard drive. They get a three

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Speaker 1: and out on the ball that was you know, it

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Speaker 1: had the Bengals punting from you know, inside their own

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Speaker 1: twenty and got the the offensive all back at midfield.

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Speaker 1: And again the offense doesn't do anything with that um

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Speaker 1: they get. They get a run from Nagy Harris for

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Speaker 1: thirteen yards, then they get a holding penalty, then they

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Speaker 1: get the ineligible downfield first and twenty five, and you

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Speaker 1: don't get any of it back until four and third down.

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Speaker 1: Like you gotta it's first and twenty five, you gotta

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Speaker 1: at least get yourself back in the field goal range. Yeah. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: And I read your column on Steelers dot Com with

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Speaker 1: the ten thoughts, and I didn't realize it until reading

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Speaker 1: what you said, head and I'm trying to find it now.

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Speaker 1: You probably know better than I do, but you know

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Speaker 1: those those two drives were and ninety three yards, but

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Speaker 1: there were many and because I can't find the number

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Speaker 1: in front of me, um Steeler offensive drives that were

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Speaker 1: what seven seconds or less? Brutal? I mean again, the

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Speaker 1: third quarter was was a complete waste of offense for

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Speaker 1: the Steelers and four four possessions and for three and ounce,

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Speaker 1: you know, including one in which t J what makes

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Speaker 1: an interception? The first play coming out of that, The

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Speaker 1: first play coming out of that is a throw into

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Speaker 1: the end zone to Zach Gentry with three guys around them.

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Speaker 1: I looked at Jerry Duelux sitting next to me, and

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Speaker 1: I said, I'm not sure. I don't know what I'm

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Speaker 1: more surprised by that the fact that the Steelers ran

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Speaker 1: Zack Gentry down the seam. And I believe Friar Muth

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Speaker 1: was hurting at that point. He took knee to this

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Speaker 1: to the stomach. Yeah. Uh, but you run a play

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Speaker 1: that has Zach Gentry running to the end zone and

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Speaker 1: then you throw the ball into triple coverage. Was Zach

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Speaker 1: Gentry to Zach Gentry I don't know if that's more

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Speaker 1: surprising or the fact that the Bengals triple coverage Zach

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Speaker 1: Gentry just the way it went, or they all read

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Speaker 1: pickets something, because there's just no way that that that

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Speaker 1: you know, that happens. The ball has got to go

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Speaker 1: somewhere else, and you know it can't go the result

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Speaker 1: of that, No, it can't go into triple coverage to

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Speaker 1: to Zach Gentry, who's a fine player, but that is

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Speaker 1: not his you know, no, no, uh, and that play

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Speaker 1: wasn't you know. And it's just those are the little things.

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Speaker 1: You know. Again, you get three points out of that,

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Speaker 1: and that looks great, Okay, now it's but you gotta

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Speaker 1: get more out of that. The the offense and the

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Speaker 1: defense gave you the ball to twenty, you gotta cash

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Speaker 1: that in. You gotta cash that in. Yeah. I thought

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Speaker 1: field position um return games were big aspects of this

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Speaker 1: as well. Uh. Here's the number you cited was five

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Speaker 1: of the Steelers eight second half drives went for ninety

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Speaker 1: seven seconds or fewer. Five of eight were a minute

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Speaker 1: and a half or less. And I know when you

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Speaker 1: look at the end of the statueet boy, time and

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Speaker 1: possession was pretty equal defense. Wasn't on the field ninety

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Speaker 1: plays like they were against the Bengals the first time around.

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Speaker 1: They there's no excuse for being tired. Give me five

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Speaker 1: minutes so I can finish my gatorade and go back out.

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Speaker 1: You know, during the third quarter, you know, I mean

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Speaker 1: it was rough. Yeah, yeah, you can't, especially after you

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Speaker 1: know you moved. If you look at the first half,

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Speaker 1: they went three and out on their opening possession. Okay,

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Speaker 1: so did the Bengals. Then it turned into ice. You know,

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Speaker 1: I score youth score. I score youth score until the

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Speaker 1: interception by the Steelers and they go down and they

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Speaker 1: get the field goal at the end of the half,

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Speaker 1: and you're thinking, okay, first of all, they got twenty

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Speaker 1: points and a half. Secondly, they've they've regained the momentum here.

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Speaker 1: They gained a little momentum because now they've got the

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Speaker 1: ball coming out of the half there up to seventeen.

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Speaker 1: And then you come out in the second half and

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Speaker 1: you run three plays, get one yard and punt. Yeah, brutal.

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Speaker 1: You get the ball back. You get the ball back.

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Speaker 1: You go three play six yards, punt, three play six yards, punt,

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Speaker 1: interception four yards six four place six yards in a

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Speaker 1: field goal. That's just not good enough. No, that's not

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Speaker 1: good enough. I mean, it seems to be a lot

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Speaker 1: of debate today of who's more to blame the offense

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Speaker 1: or the defense, and everyone's just accustomed to blaming the offense.

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Speaker 1: But it's they go hand in hand. I mean, the

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Speaker 1: complimentary football wasn't there. When the defense does a good

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Speaker 1: thing and gets you a good field position, you don't

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Speaker 1: make it count. You know, you don't put the dagger in.

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Speaker 1: And you know, when the offense was rolling great, and

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Speaker 1: then it just stalls in the second half and forces

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Speaker 1: the defense into a really difficult situation and Burrows heating

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Speaker 1: up and they're figuring out ways to get at the

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Speaker 1: Higgins tackling slacking as we started the conversation with, and

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Speaker 1: that ends up in losses. Yeah, just um again, you're

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Speaker 1: you know, it's it's difficult to beat uh good young

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Speaker 1: quarterbacks in those situations and and and not even young,

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Speaker 1: just a good quarterback in those situations. In fact, if

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Speaker 1: you look at the the two quarterbacks the last the

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Speaker 1: last two times the Steelers have scored thirty points thirty

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Speaker 1: or more points, they lost to the Chargers, who obviously

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Speaker 1: have a good young quarterback, and now they've lost to

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Speaker 1: the Borough in the in the Bengals, you can't waste

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Speaker 1: those opportunities. But you know, that's just today's NFL. The

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Speaker 1: difference in this one, to me, though, was the fact

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Speaker 1: that the Steelers in that game last year against Herbert

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Speaker 1: and the Chargers, they scored twenty seven points in the

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Speaker 1: fourth quarter of that game. It was not it was

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Speaker 1: not necessarily a competitive game over you know, throughout the

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Speaker 1: course of the game. This one was competitive throughout the

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Speaker 1: course of the game. M until you had that dead period.

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Speaker 1: You know, It's just you can't have a dead period

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Speaker 1: against a good quarterback. See what was my biggest takeaway

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Speaker 1: from that game? And you mentioned the Chargers, and to me,

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Speaker 1: Burrow and Herbert are on the same level of these

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Speaker 1: guys are great players right now, but they're not quite Mahomes.

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Speaker 1: Nobody is. They're not quite the best. And if you

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Speaker 1: watch Sunday Night Football, Herbert drives his team down with

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Speaker 1: like two minutes in, gets a score. They go up

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Speaker 1: by four. I think it was more than three they had.

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Speaker 1: And Herbert, Yeah, Herbert's fist pumping and psychist can be

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Speaker 1: Mahomes looks like he's just like smoking a cigarette on

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Speaker 1: the sideline board, like just rolled out of bed and

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Speaker 1: he's ready, Okay, I do this again, and you gave

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Speaker 1: me two whole minutes to do it like and he's

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Speaker 1: still had two timeouts. You right, right, right, And that's

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Speaker 1: just what the league is. You know. For Burrow and

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Speaker 1: Herbert to get to the Mahomes level Bowl is a

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Speaker 1: huge mother may I step forward, you know, for Piket

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Speaker 1: and I'm not killing Kenny to get to the Borough level,

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Speaker 1: it's three steps forward, you know. I mean, it's just

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Speaker 1: when you have one of those dudes, it's fruit. I mean,

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Speaker 1: it's a massive advantage. Oh, it definitely is. There's no

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Speaker 1: doubt about that. And um, you know, well the Steelers

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Speaker 1: will live to play again. Neither one of us expected

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Speaker 1: them to sweep the Bengals this year. We both picked

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Speaker 1: the Bengals to win this game. Actually both picked him

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Speaker 1: and win the first game too. I think I mightna

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Speaker 1: picked it upset. Now I did think I did pick

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Speaker 1: it upset. There didn't I that I don't. I think

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Speaker 1: I did because of the offensive line stuff. Um, but anyways, uh,

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Speaker 1: just uh, you know it was there for them to win,

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Speaker 1: and they just let it slip out of their grasp.

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Speaker 1: The you know so. And there was a lot of good.

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Speaker 1: There was a little more bad than there was good.

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Speaker 1: The results are bad, um and this where do we

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Speaker 1: go from here? Just keep turning them out and try

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Speaker 1: to get better. Yeah, roll into the the next one.

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Speaker 1: See if he can beat the Indian Athlis Colts. On

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Speaker 1: Monday night, you could check out the Steelers Weekend Review.

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Speaker 1: It's hosted by Wesley Juhler. It's a recap of the

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Speaker 1: previous game as well as a look at the Steeler's

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Speaker 1: next opponent. New episodes strup every Tuesday. They're available on

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Speaker 1: the Steeler's mobile app, the I Heart Radio app, and

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Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcast. He is Matt Williamson. I

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Speaker 1: am Dale Lali. You're listening to the Drive here on

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Speaker 1: Steelers Nation Radio. We're gonna take a break. We'll be

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Speaker 1: back with more right after this