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Speaker 1: now here are your hosts, Rob King, Craig Wolfley, and
Speaker 1: Matt Williamson.
Speaker 2: Thanks for joining us for the Point After on this
Speaker 2: Steelers Audio Network alongside, as you heard, Matt Williamson and
Speaker 2: Craig Wolfley. I'm Rob King, Thanks very much for being
Speaker 2: with us. Steelers losing their first game of the season.
Speaker 2: They lose on the road twenty seven to twenty four
Speaker 2: to the Indianapolis Colts. Our first reaction is brought to
Speaker 2: you by First National Bank. Let's get started, member FDIC
Speaker 2: wolf Let's get started with you your thoughts on this
Speaker 2: twenty seven to twenty four defeat.
Speaker 3: Well, I'd have to say from the very first throw
Speaker 3: of the game, when Anthony Richardson threaded that ball over
Speaker 3: the top, but Joey Porter's fingertips in front of Mika
Speaker 3: and it just dropped in that thirty two yarder, which
Speaker 3: you know, it's like you talked about in the We
Speaker 3: talked about in the open was the fact that he'll
Speaker 3: make the spectacular throw and then kind of clang the
Speaker 3: ordinary throws. From that moment to the moment that, you know,
Speaker 3: the very first play when Justin Field's.
Speaker 4: Got on the center and.
Speaker 3: Zach stepped on his foot and the thing kind of
Speaker 3: went sideways, you had this uneasy feeling that things were
Speaker 3: not gonna go very smooth, and it certainly kind of
Speaker 3: turned out to be that way, and certainly for the.
Speaker 4: Steelers, when you dig.
Speaker 3: Yourself a seventeen to nothing hole, you got a lot
Speaker 3: of whole filling to do and they just came up short,
Speaker 3: though they.
Speaker 4: Made a valiant I try it bringing it back, Matt.
Speaker 5: Yeah, reiterate a lot of the same things. I mean
Speaker 5: that the start was rough. I mean just I'm sure
Speaker 5: it was this way live, but watching it on TV,
Speaker 5: it looked like the Colts were playing at a different
Speaker 5: speed than the Steelers. On both sides of the ball.
Speaker 5: They were flying around, they were generating chunk, plays time
Speaker 5: and time again on the first couple drives, and before
Speaker 5: you knew it was seventeen nothing, and then too many
Speaker 5: mistakes from that point on, you know, I mean botch
Speaker 5: snaps in the field's loss of twenty yards, slash fumble
Speaker 5: and turnovers and failed fourth down attempts. That being said,
Speaker 5: when I rewatched it, I had more optimism than I
Speaker 5: thought rewatching the game, I mean early or late.
Speaker 4: And here's why.
Speaker 5: I mean, when's the last time we've seen over four
Speaker 5: hundred yards of offense or where would the offenses of
Speaker 5: the last five years have ben Ben? If I told
Speaker 5: you they're losing seventeen nothing, they can barely run the ball,
Speaker 5: they're losing the turnover battle substantially, and they handed the
Speaker 5: Colts two possessions on failed fourth down attempts, I would
Speaker 5: have told you they lost fifty to nothing. And they
Speaker 5: came back and stormed back and played quite well. I
Speaker 5: think there's much positive as negative to take away from this.
Speaker 4: Game, you know.
Speaker 2: And I think that if I look back at this game,
Speaker 2: I think I can isolate any number of plays and
Speaker 2: think if any one of those had gone this steerer's way.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and you can't look clean.
Speaker 4: Play the game.
Speaker 5: Like Wolfe said, what if Porter just tips that ball
Speaker 5: and it's one, It's different, you know.
Speaker 2: Right Well, I'll even say this, what if what if
Speaker 2: Richardson throws that ball where he wants to? Because I
Speaker 2: can't imagine he was saying, Hey, I'm gonna have my
Speaker 2: receiver climb the ladder thirty two yards downfield and I'm
Speaker 2: gonna put it into a tiny hole where he's gonna
Speaker 2: leap and make the grab. I think it's sailed on
Speaker 2: it because when I look at Richardson, it looks to
Speaker 2: me like most of his throws, most of his Aarin
Speaker 2: throws have been high this year. I think if he
Speaker 2: drilled that in the way he wanted to, I don't
Speaker 2: think he ever saw Porter was a Porter undercutting that route.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I don't remember.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So you know when I see and then Joey
Speaker 2: had an opportunity get to get an interception would have
Speaker 2: been a tough one, made a great break on the
Speaker 2: ball to Pittman that that Flacco through in the end zone.
Speaker 2: You know the force fumble by Jalen Elliott that I
Speaker 2: thought Patrick Queen and maybe a couple of other Steelers
Speaker 2: had an opportunity to recover. And I'm not trying to
Speaker 2: single out guys and say these are terrible plays by guys,
Speaker 2: because these things happen in the course of the game.
Speaker 2: You know, the third and twelve or the third and ten,
Speaker 2: you know, after the Hayward near sack of Flacco, the
Speaker 2: third and ten in first down by the Colts, who
Speaker 2: are very good on third down, that leads to that
Speaker 2: drive being kept alive. Of course, there's the play they
Speaker 2: call on Minko, which I think a lot of us
Speaker 2: thought was a was a questionable call it best, but
Speaker 2: just that one play on the third and ten to
Speaker 2: get the first down, the fields play that you mentioned
Speaker 2: pickings trying to get more and extending and and you know,
Speaker 2: maybe should have tucked that well in retrospect, obviously should
Speaker 2: have tucked that ball away. You know, even at the
Speaker 2: end of the game, the fumble, they're the snap that
Speaker 2: was errant. You know, Naji Harris, should he still bad
Speaker 2: of boundary? He was looking to get more. You know,
Speaker 2: any one of those plays, any one of those plays
Speaker 2: goes to Steelers' way, and I think they win the game.
Speaker 2: And it just felt like it felt like the beginning.
Speaker 2: The first impression you get is my goodness, are they
Speaker 2: being outplayed? And then after that moment when they were
Speaker 2: being outplayed, I didn't think they were outplayed at all,
Speaker 2: and I thought they had ample opportunities. You know, you
Speaker 2: get that first impression and it just feels so lopsided.
Speaker 2: Like Wolfe said, you had this big hole to dig
Speaker 2: out of. It felt like if any one of those
Speaker 2: plays went the Steelers way and they just didn't, it
Speaker 2: just and it didn't feel like the It didn't feel
Speaker 2: to me like you could have said that on the
Speaker 2: other end, there weren't any plays where, oh my gosh,
Speaker 2: how did that Colt skuy miss that tackle or how
Speaker 2: did he drop that interception? Or why didn't he scoop
Speaker 2: up that fumble? It just in the end it to me,
Speaker 2: it's a little bit of kind of one of those games.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 3: The interesting thing, First of all, Matt is exactly correct.
Speaker 3: There was as much positive as there was negative. Then
Speaker 3: just that the negative happened up early and they got
Speaker 3: buried by it. Number one thing that kind of I
Speaker 3: was reflected on as I watched a film both the
Speaker 3: offensive and defensive line for the Steelers. The pad level
Speaker 3: seemed a bit high, don't know, why don't know exactly
Speaker 3: what I was kind of marking it against. But to me,
Speaker 3: there was just a lot of instances of some of
Speaker 3: those things going on, and I think as a game
Speaker 3: more on, they got more into a groove. I thought
Speaker 3: they were much better in the second half than the
Speaker 3: first half. The fact of the matter is, you know,
Speaker 3: I thought Justin Fields did a great job of marshaling
Speaker 3: a you know, a comeback, and it's unfortunate they got
Speaker 3: caught in a couple of situations, one being the snap,
Speaker 3: the other being that fumble. By the way, I still
Speaker 3: contend I think his forearm was on the ground when
Speaker 3: he got touched and the ball came loose after that.
Speaker 3: But you know, that's for another day, in another time.
Speaker 3: But certainly, and we could be splitting hairs there literally
Speaker 3: on that thing, you know. But the point being is,
Speaker 3: I thought they marshaled the great comeback and went after it.
Speaker 3: And you know what, this could serve a better purpose
Speaker 3: down the line than it did, you know, for the
Speaker 3: Steelers yesterday, you know, and just.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna jump in her real quick man. And the
Speaker 2: reason when I look at that Fields play, you know
Speaker 2: they're in field goal range. So if you're justin fields
Speaker 2: and you see the pressure coming and you do what
Speaker 2: we saw Flacco do once or twice, and that's just
Speaker 2: you know, fling the ball away. Remember that play where
Speaker 2: we just got outside of the tackle box and threw
Speaker 2: it to the right and there was absolutely nobody around,
Speaker 2: but they ruled the.
Speaker 6: Gout outside of the tackle box.
Speaker 2: You know, if you just simply throw that ball away,
Speaker 2: and again easy to say, simple, and but you know
Speaker 2: you're in field goal range and you lost by three points,
Speaker 2: you wind up getting, of course no points because you
Speaker 2: you turned the ball over it.
Speaker 6: That's why that play loomed large to me.
Speaker 2: And I'll also say this about fields and about pickings
Speaker 2: and about Nagy and some of the decisions they make.
Speaker 6: It's very easy.
Speaker 2: Look when they don't work, you shouldn't have done it.
Speaker 6: And it's a cruel world. But that's the way it goes.
Speaker 2: However, if Pickens, you know, breaks that tackle, goes into
Speaker 2: the end zone, extends that football, it hits the pylon
Speaker 2: and it's a touchdown. If Nage shakes out of a tackle,
Speaker 2: gets up the sideline, picks up a first down, you're
Speaker 2: one more pass away and you boot one and Boswell
Speaker 2: gets you into overtime or maybe more cauld you still
Speaker 2: have a time out in your pocket. I mean, you know,
Speaker 2: if Fields gets out of that rush situation, pulls off
Speaker 2: a miracle, finds a guy breaking downfield, but none of
Speaker 2: those things happen. And so when none of those things happen,
Speaker 2: the results are negative plays that if you had avoided them,
Speaker 2: might have made the difference. And I think I would
Speaker 2: contend would have made the difference in this game.
Speaker 5: Yeah, just recently, last time, you said a lot of
Speaker 5: really good game of inches examples in this game that
Speaker 5: went those Colts away and not the Steelers, And sometimes
Speaker 5: in that regard is just not your day. But I
Speaker 5: also think that the Colts were sort of a desperate
Speaker 5: team too. I mean, the energy that they played with
Speaker 5: to start this game can't be forgotten or discarded. I
Speaker 5: mean they came out flying on both sides of the ball.
Speaker 5: I thought their speed, their intensity was really really good.
Speaker 5: And I give credit to downs, Pittman and Flacco. I
Speaker 5: mean it seemed like every one of those throws, especially
Speaker 5: on third downs, weren't wide open. I mean, you talk
Speaker 5: about threading the eagle and living on the razor's edge
Speaker 5: as a passer. I mean Flacco has gotten like that
Speaker 5: late in his career where he doesn't care anymore. I
Speaker 5: was on the couch last year. I'm gonna come in
Speaker 5: with the Browns and just throw it all over the yard.
Speaker 5: Something bad happens.
Speaker 4: Who cares?
Speaker 5: And they were very precise in those instances. And you know,
Speaker 5: in this league, when a quarterback and receiver humming, it
Speaker 5: almost doesn't matter what the coverage is at times.
Speaker 2: Well, that's a great point, and I do think that,
Speaker 2: you know, the urgency is something we talked about that
Speaker 2: I just kind of made mention of it in the open.
Speaker 2: I hope we mentioned it a couple more times throughout
Speaker 2: the course of the broadcast. But it just feels in
Speaker 2: the NFL when a team, you know, doesn't think they're
Speaker 2: a one and two team. The Colts came out after
Speaker 2: that win against the Bears and said, look, we're not
Speaker 2: a one and two football team.
Speaker 6: We're a better football.
Speaker 4: Team than that.
Speaker 6: And they believe that, and they believe that they are.
Speaker 2: You know, AFC South contenders, well man two and two,
Speaker 2: you can see AFC South contender from there one in three,
Speaker 2: boy oh boy, that's even in that division. That's a
Speaker 2: bad hole to be in. So I do think that
Speaker 2: in a game, in a league in which the competition
Speaker 2: between teams is so slender, we see upsets every single week,
Speaker 2: that the close play is not going your way or
Speaker 2: and or the other team having that extra sense of
Speaker 2: my goodness, this is a huge game for us. That urgency. Well,
Speaker 2: if I do think those things are enough, are factors enough?
Speaker 2: You lose the turnover battle two to nothing? Factors enough?
Speaker 2: When for most teams that's enough, that's gonna that is
Speaker 2: gonna tilt for most I should say that's gonna tilt
Speaker 2: it one way or the other. I'm glad Matt mentioned that.
Speaker 2: That sense of desperation.
Speaker 3: Oh, there's no question about it. Look, I've long said
Speaker 3: many many times, not every player enters the ire in
Speaker 3: end with the same mental RPMs as they did the
Speaker 3: week before. That's just a fact of life. You know,
Speaker 3: those guys on the field, they have lives too, and
Speaker 3: there's a lot of things going on off the field
Speaker 3: in their own personal lives. It can be negative, it
Speaker 3: can be positive. The fact of the matter is you
Speaker 3: have to block those things out and go and do
Speaker 3: your job, and part of that is getting yourself mentally ready,
Speaker 3: and that means an excitation level to match what the
Speaker 3: intensity going around you is. And not everybody does it
Speaker 3: the same way. Not everybody does it well, you know,
Speaker 3: And so a lot of times you see these the
Speaker 3: disparity and what's going on, that's just simply a function
Speaker 3: of some people not being at the same level of
Speaker 3: intensity that they were before. You know, and you'll see
Speaker 3: that that's the human nature of this game. That's why
Speaker 3: you play the game every week. You know that that
Speaker 3: long time saying, you know that that's why they play
Speaker 3: the game, It's true.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And you know, again, it sets up an interesting
Speaker 2: matchup for the Cowboys because I think the Steelers might
Speaker 2: suddenly feel that way this Sunday, like, well, wait a minute,
Speaker 2: a minute, we don't want to undo the entirety of
Speaker 2: our three and oh start. Then again, Dallas, they feel
Speaker 2: like they're getting something going. The mentality part of the play,
Speaker 2: I think is going to come in and perhaps be
Speaker 2: a significant portion of what we see on Sunday night.
Speaker 2: And again, Matt, there's a lot to like about the Steelers' performance,
Speaker 2: and I think we're gonna get to that. But now
Speaker 2: you're a three and one football team and We're obviously
Speaker 2: going to be talking a lot about the quarterback position,
Speaker 2: and we could talk about that next segment, but again,
Speaker 2: this team is three and one now, and you know,
Speaker 2: you kind of have to hit the reset button.
Speaker 5: Yeah, but you mentioned the quarterback position, and that's where
Speaker 5: I wanted to go next to is that through three starts,
Speaker 5: they never asked fields just to take the team over
Speaker 5: in a bend like manner or you know, and I'm
Speaker 5: not comparing him to Ben that's a bad example, but
Speaker 5: this game got to the point where, ok, justin you're
Speaker 5: the guy, you need to take this thing over, and
Speaker 5: he proved pretty capable of doing that.
Speaker 4: I thought that was encouraging. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, I think that's a great point because of the
Speaker 3: fact he didn't shy away, and you know, there was
Speaker 3: a couple of mistakes he made. Yeah, but you're gonna
Speaker 3: have that. Yeah, you know, I mean even Bended, who
Speaker 3: by the way, was in attendance there.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was good to see him. I wish they
Speaker 3: could have rushed them out at halftime, maybe, you know,
Speaker 3: get him suited up.
Speaker 4: Well.
Speaker 2: We will definitely be tackling a little bit of the
Speaker 2: quarterback position, some other plays, some other elements of miss game,
Speaker 2: looking forward a little bit to the game coming up
Speaker 2: on Sunday and against the Cowboys when we continue on
Speaker 2: the Point After on this year, there's audio Network.
Speaker 4: Back to the Point After on DVD.
Speaker 7: Fields back to pass fields, fires underneath, it's fire Mooth
Speaker 7: and fire mooth his eating for the score touchdowns with
Speaker 7: three forty remaining here in the fourth quarter.
Speaker 6: To play.
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Speaker 2: Fdi C and man oh Man.
Speaker 6: I thought the Steers had well, they did.
Speaker 2: They had a great chance to win the ballgame right
Speaker 2: then and there, Wolf, And it just felt like there
Speaker 2: were times in which the momentum was really going into
Speaker 2: Steelers favor, and that was.
Speaker 3: One of them, no question about it. And of course
Speaker 3: you go to the man, the myth, the moth as
Speaker 3: I like to say, And the fact is he did
Speaker 3: a great job of in that little curl and then
Speaker 3: fighting his way backwards into the end zone. Great job.
Speaker 3: That's what tied end play is all about, coming through
Speaker 3: when things are a little bit tight, and he did,
Speaker 3: indeed do it and I really thought that might be
Speaker 3: one of the catalysts to you know, coming back and
Speaker 3: being able to complete the whole comeback with little victory.
Speaker 4: But it came up short.
Speaker 2: You know, Matt, when you get yourself behind seventeen to nothing.
Speaker 2: I'm going to go back to one more part of
Speaker 2: this game that I thought was a big reason that
Speaker 2: the Colts won. You had Flacco in trouble, incomplete pass,
Speaker 2: you just cut the lead to seventeen to ten. Then
Speaker 2: Cam Hayward, I thought he had Flacco. I wouldn't have
Speaker 2: been surprised as he called him in the grasp, you know,
Speaker 2: and said he's down. We got to protect these quarterbacks.
Speaker 2: Somehow he shrugs it off. So instead of third and
Speaker 2: say sixteen or seventeen, it's third and ten. And then
Speaker 2: the completion to pick up the first down, I thought
Speaker 2: that was just a backbreaker. And then to go down
Speaker 2: and you get the call on Minca, which again I
Speaker 2: didn't hear what Jens Terotor said. I have not had
Speaker 2: an opportunity to watch the game back, so I don't
Speaker 2: know if they thought that was a good call. It
Speaker 2: felt to me like Minca was trying to pull up
Speaker 2: ad Mitchell wanted no part of catching that ball, and
Speaker 2: I thought that was kind of a tough call against
Speaker 2: the Steelers. But that drive, to me, you had all
Speaker 2: the momentum going. It felt like you'd overcome the fumble,
Speaker 2: they missed a field goal. It felt like everything was
Speaker 2: going your way. I should point that out. They did
Speaker 2: miss a field goal, so I said, everything seemed to
Speaker 2: go against the students. They did miss a field goal,
Speaker 2: so that was that could have been significant in this game.
Speaker 2: But I thought that drive was kind of the one
Speaker 2: where they, oh, we have to reset and we're back
Speaker 2: down to being back to being fourteen down again.
Speaker 4: Could agree more.
Speaker 5: And I'm glad you mentioned the missed field goal because
Speaker 5: I think people know that I count miss field goals
Speaker 5: and miss fourth dound opportunities as turnovers, and that was
Speaker 5: really the only negative and that that department for Indie
Speaker 5: all day. I'm pretty sure Jeane's terator thought it was
Speaker 5: a no call. I mean I was watching it live
Speaker 5: and I was paying attention, but I think that was
Speaker 5: his opinion. I tend to agree. But the Kyward and
Speaker 5: Menca plays are two more examples like you did to
Speaker 5: start the show of the game of interest. Things that
Speaker 5: went against them, and the timing was just brutal because
Speaker 5: it did detract.
Speaker 4: From the momentum, there's no question. Yeah. And the thing
Speaker 4: about it is, let me just say this.
Speaker 3: You know, what is he supposed to do when you're
Speaker 3: when you're rolling safety over the top like that coverage?
Speaker 4: How do you pull off? If you don't, you gotta
Speaker 4: have air brakes? And he tried. Oh yeah, I mean, oh, he.
Speaker 3: Could have laid him outright big time and he was
Speaker 3: definitely he didn't hit through him. Man, He actually ricocheted
Speaker 3: backwards because he pulled off, which actually was more detrimental
Speaker 3: to him than it would have been to the receiver.
Speaker 3: But the fact is when you do that, I just
Speaker 3: I think you put such a state of confusion on
Speaker 3: the defensive backs because now there it's it's again, where
Speaker 3: is that? The gray area is all over the place
Speaker 3: as far as what do you hit and how do
Speaker 3: you hit?
Speaker 4: Well.
Speaker 2: The other thing, too, was the actions of a d
Speaker 2: Mitchell I thought made it look again worse like that ball.
Speaker 2: If ad Mitchell laid out and dove for that ball,
Speaker 2: would you have gotten a hand on it?
Speaker 6: I don't know.
Speaker 2: But he pulled up and pulled his hands back, but
Speaker 2: make it fitzpatches. The game is not played in slow motion.
Speaker 2: He doesn't have an opportunity to see that. Adi Mitchell
Speaker 2: is pulling his hands back, wants no point of trying
Speaker 2: to make the catch. He thinks he's going to be
Speaker 2: arriving there, you know, relatively close to the time the
Speaker 2: ball is arriving there, and he wants to jar it loose.
Speaker 2: And now ad Mitchell decides that those those hands are
Speaker 2: instead of extending him, he wants to put him in
Speaker 2: his pockets. I mean, I thought that added to making
Speaker 2: it look bad, the fact that ad Mitchell didn't, you know,
Speaker 2: sell out to try to catch that ball.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I tend to agree.
Speaker 5: And that being said, I mean I think that still
Speaker 5: is called in this league more often than not. Player safety,
Speaker 5: all those things. But I mean, to Wolfe's point, Mica
Speaker 5: could have struck him. I mean, he didn't strike him
Speaker 5: at all. There was a collision, there was a glorified bump,
Speaker 5: but he was pulling back. I mean, you know, we're
Speaker 5: splitting airs.
Speaker 6: I guess I get.
Speaker 2: I think if you're gonna make a call in this
Speaker 2: game against Minka, I might have been more okay with
Speaker 2: the one in which richardson slid that was not called
Speaker 2: and Mica again was trying.
Speaker 6: To pull up and what happened.
Speaker 2: He was injured on ka because he I think he
Speaker 2: made a little bit of contact with the with the head.
Speaker 2: So if you're gonna tell me that's a penalty in
Speaker 2: today's NFL, maybe throw your hands up and say, well,
Speaker 2: I guess that's a penalty anyway.
Speaker 6: It is what it is.
Speaker 2: It went against him. You know, I don't want to
Speaker 2: I don't think we ever want to be in a
Speaker 2: position to blame the officials because there are plenty of
Speaker 2: things the students could have done.
Speaker 3: Oh no, I think we could be in position to
Speaker 3: blame something. I know, he's a player back in my day. Yeah,
Speaker 3: there's a couple of times I really wanted to blame
Speaker 3: the official.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I wanted to point out a couple of guys.
Speaker 2: And we started this segment with the firing with touchdown
Speaker 2: reception and Matt, I'll start with you in this one.
Speaker 2: He just continues to be a steady eddie and you know,
Speaker 2: he's getting a lot of receptions and when you you know,
Speaker 2: obviously health for him is a factor, But when you
Speaker 2: think about scheme and you think about quarterback play. You
Speaker 2: were just talking about Pittman, right, and why is Pittman struggling?
Speaker 2: And this is a guy who you went from eighty
Speaker 2: eight catches to ninety nine catches to old one hundred
Speaker 2: catches last year and he hasn't found any tracks this year. Well,
Speaker 2: you've got one of the most inaccurate quarterbacks in the league. Meanwhile,
Speaker 2: for the Steelers, Justin Fields has been very accurate the
Speaker 2: game plan. You know, we know Arthur Smith likes to
Speaker 2: target the tight end and Friarmuth, you know, nice big
Speaker 2: contract extension. He's gonna be here for a while, and
Speaker 2: he has just been a steady part of his game plan.
Speaker 2: This is his first touchdown of the year, but you know,
Speaker 2: four catches in each of the first three games and
Speaker 2: now five catches in this one.
Speaker 5: Yeah, And I think quarterback has a lot to do
Speaker 5: with the Pittman situation. Pittman thrived with Minshew and Flacco,
Speaker 5: but not the other guys. So maybe one of those
Speaker 5: things isn't like the other. And you beat me to
Speaker 5: it on friar Mouth. He's the only tight end in
Speaker 5: the league this year that has four or more catches
Speaker 5: in each game. And I think there's something to be
Speaker 5: said for a steadiness of reliability. I think were some
Speaker 5: of the words you used there and the middle of
Speaker 5: the field presence, and I think he's worth every dollar.
Speaker 4: And not to throw a negative.
Speaker 5: Spin on it, though, but I felt in this game
Speaker 5: more than the others. Sure it would have been nice
Speaker 5: to have a better number two receiver.
Speaker 4: Interesting, can I say this.
Speaker 3: I do enjoy the fact that because we were talking
Speaker 3: tight ends, anybody that didn't see Darnell Washington's run.
Speaker 4: He caught that ball.
Speaker 3: Twenty yards and you know, he he down that roll
Speaker 3: up and he straight armed the guy. He hurtled the
Speaker 3: guy and then he ran over a guy. It was
Speaker 3: a trifecta of busting tackles. It was a beautiful thing
Speaker 3: to see. I hope that leads to more. I think
Speaker 3: it's very important that you have Mooth doing what he did,
Speaker 3: and now you've got Darnell Washington again. That's going to
Speaker 3: bring more credence and more explosiveness I think to the
Speaker 3: offense when you go twelve or thirteen personnel.
Speaker 5: And one more nugget. I thought nause is a receiver
Speaker 5: was good stuff too.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I was going to get to that because
Speaker 2: that's the second straight week, and I'll get back to Darnell. Well,
Speaker 2: let's get back let's finish off the tight end position,
Speaker 2: because you know, earlier in the season, I can't remember
Speaker 2: it's on this show or another where I thought, you know, hey,
Speaker 2: Darnell can this could be a guy who leaps up.
Speaker 6: To thirty catches this year.
Speaker 2: And people, you know, I got some some arched eyebrows
Speaker 2: of that comment. But it only takes a catch and
Speaker 2: a half a game to get to thirty, you know,
Speaker 2: relatively speaking, somewhere around that number.
Speaker 6: A little bit more than that.
Speaker 2: But you know, Darnell with two receptions in this game,
Speaker 2: needs a few more to get to my thirty. But
Speaker 2: if they're gonna if he's gonna score touchdowns and he's
Speaker 2: gonna show this kind of ability in the open field,
Speaker 2: he's a massive target. He is proven to be pretty dark,
Speaker 2: sure handed. I think he's you know, wolf, he's an
Speaker 2: interesting guy.
Speaker 4: Oh he is.
Speaker 3: I mean, you take a look at the size of
Speaker 3: the power. When he started turning up north and south
Speaker 3: and those defensive backs started to close on him, they
Speaker 3: didn't want any part of all. You know, I mean,
Speaker 3: that is a big man coming at you and you
Speaker 3: know what to hurdle a guy. Yeah it sounds, yeah,
Speaker 3: it sounds incredible, but that's because the guy doesn't really
Speaker 3: want to take him on. You know, I'm you're going
Speaker 3: low and hoping you get a nice bang on him
Speaker 3: and take him out of bounds. But you know, the
Speaker 3: right arm, he just put the guy down with you
Speaker 3: talk about an angry straight arm. That was a beautiful job.
Speaker 3: So again it was really a nice one to two punch.
Speaker 3: And again I go back to, you know, the gronk,
Speaker 3: the Hernandez type of offense that was available back in
Speaker 3: the New England days. I think you could have a
Speaker 3: similar things going on here between you know, Mouth and
Speaker 3: Mount Washington.
Speaker 2: Well, it sounds wonderful to me. Now let's get back Matt.
Speaker 2: Then to that point you're making about Nagy and about
Speaker 2: the second receiver that that number sort of legitimate number
Speaker 2: two threat. And then you know, we can't let this
Speaker 2: go completely without talking about George Pickens. But you know,
Speaker 2: seventy four catches for Nagy in his rookie season, then
Speaker 2: it was forty one, then it was twenty nine, and
Speaker 2: now in back to back weeks we have seen him
Speaker 2: targeted more frequently. Now he's not on pace to have
Speaker 2: seventy four again, but he's on.
Speaker 6: Pace to have forty five or fifty.
Speaker 2: And you know, he's a guy who's very capable in
Speaker 2: the receiving game. For fifty four, the thirty two yarder
Speaker 2: was I believe the second longest of his career.
Speaker 6: You know, he is a guy again.
Speaker 2: So Arthur Smith doesn't have that number two receiver, but
Speaker 2: he does have a lot of the elements that it
Speaker 2: appears that he likes when he's running an offense, which
Speaker 2: is tight ends that can catch the ball, running backs
Speaker 2: who can catch the ball, and he's got the acumen
Speaker 2: to kind of screen scheme around the fact that they
Speaker 2: don't maybe have that quote unquote you know, number two
Speaker 2: receiver one hundred percent.
Speaker 5: And that's by design. I mean, that's a coach front
Speaker 5: office communication that, Hey, if we're going to be short somewhere,
Speaker 5: I can make do without Brandon Ayuk, you know what
Speaker 5: I mean. I mean, it would be great if I
Speaker 5: had him, that would complete things. But with the tight
Speaker 5: ends and the running backs, I can make do with
Speaker 5: my scheme and a good running game, which I'm sure
Speaker 5: we'll get to. Is also a little worrisome As for nause, Yeah,
Speaker 5: he got a ton of balls as a rookie, but
Speaker 5: the degree of difficulty was really low. I mean they
Speaker 5: were just two point one seconds. Ben wanted to get
Speaker 5: it out of his hands, dumped it to him, and really,
Speaker 5: since then, I thought his receiving skills are untapped here
Speaker 5: because as a prospect coming out of Bama, he would
Speaker 5: run semi wide receiver routes. He has a huge catching radius,
Speaker 5: really soft hands, catch the ball away from his frame,
Speaker 5: and he can run over defensive backs in space.
Speaker 4: So I think that's here to stay.
Speaker 6: Well.
Speaker 2: I like that, and I also like George Pickens, who
Speaker 2: you know, had his first one hundred yard game. But again,
Speaker 2: you know, sometimes we have to be careful with statistics
Speaker 2: because you know, you go, first of all, look at
Speaker 2: who he played in his first two weeks, outstanding cover
Speaker 2: corners and you know, kind of a dubious you look,
Speaker 2: very good numbers in the first week, right, very good numbers,
Speaker 2: but he also got you know, called for kind of
Speaker 2: a dubious offensive pass interference in the call. Otherwise that's
Speaker 2: his first hundred yard game. Last week he has a
Speaker 2: long pass or two weeks ago in Denver, has a
Speaker 2: long pass going against her tan called back because of
Speaker 2: a penalty that was you know, committed by an offensive lineman,
Speaker 2: and then has a touchdown callback so and then had
Speaker 2: an OPI in that game, a DPI in that game.
Speaker 2: So he has had an influence beyond what the numbers
Speaker 2: next to his you know, line score or his line
Speaker 2: score next to his name are going to say.
Speaker 6: He has had a bigger influence.
Speaker 2: So I was really happy to see him have his
Speaker 2: first one hundred yard game despite the fumble. I thought, again,
Speaker 2: he was really really evident for the Steelers.
Speaker 4: No question about it.
Speaker 3: You know, the thing about this young man, he is
Speaker 3: so gifted, has so many attributes. He's just got to
Speaker 3: functionally put them together in a way that really packages
Speaker 3: the great characteristics that he brings to bear in each
Speaker 3: and every game. And one of them is an unbelievable,
Speaker 3: unbelievable ability of tracking the ball. You know, I don't
Speaker 3: know how he does it. Sometimes it's like a he's
Speaker 3: got some type of homing pigeon thing going on with
Speaker 3: that ball, but.
Speaker 4: He sees it.
Speaker 3: He's able to squeeze the sharman and do a great
Speaker 3: job of bringing that ball in. I think he's learning
Speaker 3: the nuances of being an offensive past receiver in the
Speaker 3: sense of when you know, at the top of the stems,
Speaker 3: how much of a little shall we say, a little
Speaker 3: push you can get away with, and not to extend
Speaker 3: his hands and things that you know, top flight receivers
Speaker 3: practice on a weekly basis, and I think the young
Speaker 3: man is coming together. He's just got to make sure
Speaker 3: that he keeps his his cool and he stays collected.
Speaker 3: You know, he used to have a coach. You say,
Speaker 3: you know, to be to be a player, you've got
Speaker 3: to be hot in the heart and cool in the head.
Speaker 3: And that's exactly what it is. You've got to maintain
Speaker 3: that coolness about you. And that's just something that will
Speaker 3: benefit you as a as a wide receiver.
Speaker 2: Okay, we still haven't gotten to the quarterback position, which
Speaker 2: we will. We haven't attacked the run, the running of
Speaker 2: the Steelers which was not I think where they expected
Speaker 2: it to be in one category, but was encouraging in
Speaker 2: another category. And we also had the defense we haven't addressed.
Speaker 2: So we still have plenty to get to. On the
Speaker 2: point after on this there's audio network back.
Speaker 4: To the point after on DVD.
Speaker 7: Roco gets the snack looking left under press or at down.
Speaker 7: He goes, it's Hayward and it's her big teaming up
Speaker 7: with a sack that Steelers needed.
Speaker 2: The Sack Hunger segment is brought to you by the
Speaker 2: Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank. Get food, volunteer or donate
Speaker 2: at Pittsburgh Foodbank dot org. They needed that sack, but
Speaker 2: it felt like they needed more wolf from this defense
Speaker 2: at times.
Speaker 6: Yesterday.
Speaker 2: They needed to come up with a turnover second consecutive game.
Speaker 2: They haven't done that. No turnovers, a couple of sacks
Speaker 2: that you know, but they needed one that made a difference,
Speaker 2: and that was a big one. But they could have
Speaker 2: used one or two more and didn't get them. And
Speaker 2: I'm sure this is a performance to Steelers defense giving
Speaker 2: up twenty seven points, coming in as the highest ranked
Speaker 2: defense in the league as far as scoring in yards
Speaker 2: per game.
Speaker 6: They're not going to be pleased with this overall effort.
Speaker 4: I wouldn't think, no, not at all.
Speaker 3: And there's not a man in the defensive unit doesn't
Speaker 3: think they could have up their game in some way,
Speaker 3: shape or form. Look, it was a heck of a
Speaker 3: job by Flacco when he checked in and which, by
Speaker 3: the way, I still want to see his birth certificate
Speaker 3: because I think that guy's been thirty nine for the
Speaker 3: last five years that I've seen him play.
Speaker 5: You know, It's just well, if I recruited him at
Speaker 5: Audubon High School way back when, Okay, I don't know.
Speaker 4: I mean it seems like longer ago than that.
Speaker 5: He seems like he should be at guys in the league.
Speaker 4: Guy still recruited.
Speaker 3: Oh but you know it was a great sack, you know,
Speaker 3: and they needed some more. They could have had some more.
Speaker 3: He had some. I would say this if anybody saw
Speaker 3: the holding call that didn't get called on Braiden Smith
Speaker 3: on the touchdown pass.
Speaker 4: That Flacko through. I think it was Flacko through it. It
Speaker 4: might have been Richardson.
Speaker 3: And near the beginning of the game when he literally
Speaker 3: put a seat belt on TJ.
Speaker 4: Watt, I couldn't believe it.
Speaker 3: I mean, he swam over the top of Braiden Smith
Speaker 3: and Braiden just turned around and grabbed him with both
Speaker 3: hands around the waist from behind. Now, I understand that
Speaker 3: I've done that before, but I've been called for that,
Speaker 3: you know what I mean.
Speaker 4: So to me, it was really irked me.
Speaker 3: That you would go with some of the calls that were,
Speaker 3: you know, kind of dubious in my mind, like the
Speaker 3: make a hit and so forth. And yet how can
Speaker 3: you miss the number one sack monster in the league,
Speaker 3: that being TJ. Watt getting you know, tackled from behind
Speaker 3: by the right offensive tackle when the side judge is
Speaker 3: standing right there.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Unfortunately, Yes, that there's some things that could have happened
Speaker 2: out there. They didn't happen, so unfortunately the Steelers losing
Speaker 2: twenty seven to twenty four.
Speaker 6: Matt, there's a couple of things.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna get you guys both on the quarterback play,
Speaker 2: but I want you to lead off on the rushing
Speaker 2: attack because I loved the fact that they unleashed fields
Speaker 2: with some more design runs ten for fifty five two touchdowns.
Speaker 2: I also loved the fact that cord Aero Patterson had
Speaker 2: seven point two yards per carry, but Nagy was really
Speaker 2: bottled up thirteen carries just nineteen yards for the Steelers'
Speaker 2: lead back.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I don't have a lot to add. I mean
Speaker 5: that patterson injection of energy was great, much like Warren
Speaker 5: used to provide, and I'm sure will again sooner than later.
Speaker 5: I'm glad you mentioned fields and the designed runs because
Speaker 5: it's such a weapon and they haven't really had to
Speaker 5: dip their toe into that water all that much through
Speaker 5: the first three games. And I don't one hundred percent
Speaker 5: blame nausey. I mean, I didn't see a lot of
Speaker 5: running room there. I mean, he's had a lot of workload,
Speaker 5: and he's got to be a little sore and hurting
Speaker 5: a little bit at this point through the season. But
Speaker 5: that's what that's why he's here. I mean, he's a reliable,
Speaker 5: durable pounder. And I do think though, that the rules
Speaker 5: are different for him when he's in the game compared
Speaker 5: to Quartererill Patterson or even Warren in the past. That
Speaker 5: defense is definitely key the run and play the run
Speaker 5: a little bit different when he's in the backfield.
Speaker 3: I just think that Naj is a lot more the
Speaker 3: year than the other guys are. I mean, Corterell, when
Speaker 3: you look at him, his ability to see the cutback,
Speaker 3: he hit the cutback and several times, and I'm not
Speaker 3: so sure that I think it's like Matt said, there
Speaker 3: there might be different rules for him because Dodgy is
Speaker 3: the demolition man. I mean, this guy, he just blows
Speaker 3: into the hole and things start flying, and sometimes it
Speaker 3: works good, sometimes not so good. But I will say
Speaker 3: this again, over the first three games, we've not seen
Speaker 3: anybody compete harder than Naji Harris. The guy has really
Speaker 3: done a great job of trucking along there and doing
Speaker 3: some real yeoman's work and wearing down a defense and
Speaker 3: so forth. And I think it was a nice complimentary
Speaker 3: thing to get Patterson out there with a little bit
Speaker 3: of cutback. And it's a shame that he wasn't able
Speaker 3: to finish the game because I got a feel and
Speaker 3: things could have been different with him.
Speaker 4: And the old line was far from perfect and run
Speaker 4: blocking to right.
Speaker 2: And I think complimentary is a great word to use,
Speaker 2: because I've been mulling this over a lot, you know,
Speaker 2: And I think we've talked about this a little bit.
Speaker 2: Jalen Warren with him credible numbers and the one I
Speaker 2: always bring up. The thing I always bring up is
Speaker 2: the Cowboys situation. I know it's tough because Pollard was
Speaker 2: coming off a broken leg, but it was a couple
Speaker 2: of years ago where is Equel Elliott was the main
Speaker 2: guy and Poward was averaging about six yards of carry
Speaker 2: and you know you're watching Cowboys games thinking, man, they
Speaker 2: should give them ball more to Pollard. I mean, he's
Speaker 2: just so explosive every time he gets the ball. But
Speaker 2: it's a little bit different. Maybe when you're getting thirty
Speaker 2: carries or twenty five carries a game, maybe some of
Speaker 2: that explosiveness ebbs and maybe it doesn't only ebb on,
Speaker 2: you know, in a per game basis, but in a
Speaker 2: cumulative basis as well, so that if it accumulates that
Speaker 2: week eight or week nine, you've been taking more of
Speaker 2: a beating, maybe you're slower, and maybe that average rush
Speaker 2: comes down. So the complimentary running back situation, it's it's different.
Speaker 2: I mean, obviously it used to be in the league.
Speaker 2: You know, you had your bell cow and he was
Speaker 2: going to get the ball twenty five yards and you
Speaker 2: might spell him occasionally.
Speaker 6: Now I have a hard.
Speaker 2: Time sometimes figuring out what's what, who's who, and what
Speaker 2: numbers are real when you have a tandem running back situation,
Speaker 2: as many teams in the league now have.
Speaker 5: So to expand on that, Rob, I really thought Nause's
Speaker 5: best season, whether the stats bear it out or not,
Speaker 5: I don't care, was last year when he was about
Speaker 5: sixty percent of the touches, you know, and Warren is
Speaker 5: a great compliment and is missed. I'd love to see
Speaker 5: him back in the action sooner than later. Patterson was
Speaker 5: very impressive as well. Side note, Patterson and Darnell Washington
Speaker 5: are way bigger than people think they are. And by
Speaker 5: the way, there are huge human beings for their respective
Speaker 5: positions and unique individuals. But I would like to see
Speaker 5: I mean, once Patterson got hurt too, I mean, nause
Speaker 5: wasn't of success before that, but once Patterson came out
Speaker 5: of the game, he was really the only show in
Speaker 5: town too. I mean, it was an ideal situation for Nausey.
Speaker 3: And let's remember one thing, Rob talking about the offensive line,
Speaker 3: I mean, you got a young guy, Mason McCormick making
Speaker 3: his first start. You got a center making his fourth start.
Speaker 3: You got the right guard that ended up playing Spencer Anderson,
Speaker 3: who's the second year guys playing next to a guy
Speaker 3: that's in his second year, Rodert Jones. So I mean
Speaker 3: there's a lot of youth in this offensive line that
Speaker 3: lacks a lot of experience in game brains, and so
Speaker 3: for them to go out and slug it out, hey,
Speaker 3: I thought they played hard. They played very hard now
Speaker 3: as effective as they can be. No, I think a
Speaker 3: lot more good is coming, but it's one of those
Speaker 3: things you got to get some experience too.
Speaker 6: Well.
Speaker 2: You better get experienced fast, because you know now with
Speaker 2: the news that James Daniels looks like he's out for
Speaker 2: the year, Faltano is out, it sounds like for the
Speaker 2: regular season. Nick Herbig Nate Herbig was lost earlier in
Speaker 2: the year for the season. These are difficult losses for
Speaker 2: a team that seemed to have wolf enviable depth at
Speaker 2: the offensive line, and that depth is getting low now
Speaker 2: because you've got three guys out for the year.
Speaker 3: There's no question about it. And these guys are gonna
Speaker 3: have to be stalwarts. They're gonna have to play, and
Speaker 3: they're gonna have to get better. But I got confidence
Speaker 3: that they will, having watched these guys since they've come
Speaker 3: here and to watch them gradiently work through training camp
Speaker 3: in the in the first second year guys, and then
Speaker 3: the rookies this year, it's sitting. It's hard to call
Speaker 3: Zach Frasier a rookie, but he is a rookie, you know.
Speaker 3: And Mason McCormick did a pretty darn fine job for
Speaker 3: a young guy out there. He had some a couple
Speaker 3: of plays that you'd like to take back, but everybody
Speaker 3: has got plays that you want to take back. The
Speaker 3: fact of the matter is these guys have to gel
Speaker 3: and they have to make sure they're on the same page.
Speaker 3: And you got a lot of youth with a lot
Speaker 3: of enthusiasm, shall we say. And when you have guys
Speaker 3: that you know, Brojo was sheriff in the pile pretty good,
Speaker 3: you know, but you got to be careful because you've
Speaker 3: got to be selective about it, and you can't miss
Speaker 3: fire and hit somebody in the back. That's that's a
Speaker 3: judgment thing, but that's youth. That's guys trying to help,
Speaker 3: trying to you know, get down there and protect their teammate.
Speaker 3: And I saw at one point in time where Brojo
Speaker 3: got into it and Mason pulled them off. Then several
Speaker 3: plays later it's it's Mason's into it with somebody and
Speaker 3: you got Brojoe going pulling him off. So this is
Speaker 3: a collect this is an inexperienced offensive line that needs
Speaker 3: to get better. Will get better. I have every confidence
Speaker 3: in the world, and we'll see what happens here.
Speaker 5: Coming up with the Cowboys and rob along those lines.
Speaker 5: Something GM's fear most are cluster injuries. You know, like
Speaker 5: last year at the end of the season, linebacker and safety,
Speaker 5: they're just pulling guys off the street, you know, to
Speaker 5: get through game day. And you can kind of do
Speaker 5: that at that position. You can't with offensive linemen. There
Speaker 5: aren't quality offensive linemen that are unemployed right now. So
Speaker 5: it does look like Cmal who's not far away, which
Speaker 5: is great and his better leadership would go a long
Speaker 5: way too, but they might be, you know, a one
Speaker 5: more injury away from Defcon three.
Speaker 2: Or don't say yes, Yeah say it, Matt, You're absolutely right,
Speaker 2: and you know when you think about the injuries, he said,
Speaker 2: And look, the Colts have no sympathy, right nurse. They
Speaker 2: lost Juju Brentz, they lost Kenny Moore, their Pro Bowl corner.
Speaker 2: They're down their top three pass rushing defensive ends who
Speaker 2: accumulated twenty six and a half sacks to Forrest Buck.
Speaker 2: I mean, you know they listen, they've got their share
Speaker 2: of injuries. But you know, stepping outside of that game
Speaker 2: and looking forward, you know, with you feel great about, Hey,
Speaker 2: we got three really good edge rushers. We have nine
Speaker 2: or ten really good offensive linemen we feel good about. Yeah,
Speaker 2: we got to bring somebody along at that cornerback position. Well,
Speaker 2: that's somebody. Corey Trice is hurt. He got you know,
Speaker 2: high Smith is out an outside linebacker. Herbig wind up
Speaker 2: finishing the game with the taped ankle. You're down three
Speaker 2: offensive linemen. It's it's it's a bad run that needs
Speaker 2: to end. On the injury front for the Steelers.
Speaker 4: Hopefully number two running backs not a problem.
Speaker 6: Yes, exactly right.
Speaker 2: I forgot to even mention that Warren Warren has not
Speaker 2: really been able to be a factor this year because
Speaker 2: of his injury. So that's another big loss. And then
Speaker 2: now Cordero Patterson. And again there's a position you felt
Speaker 2: great about. Three running but Naji Jalen Warren and cord
Speaker 2: Aero Patterson. Wow, it's hard to do much better than that. Well,
Speaker 2: hopefully these guys, some of these guys are are healthy.
Speaker 2: You're going to get healthy or can come back soon.
Speaker 2: So before we get too far to the end of
Speaker 2: the game or end of the show. Can't fit it in, Matt,
Speaker 2: I did want to ask about fields because everyone's going
Speaker 2: to be asking the question, should he get the start again?
Speaker 6: On Saturday. He's three and one.
Speaker 2: Statistically, this was his best game twenty two of thirty
Speaker 2: four a touchdown, he had a one oh four rating,
Speaker 2: and again when they talk about rating, that does not
Speaker 2: include the two touchdowns he ran for in this game,
Speaker 2: so you can add that to his resume as well
Speaker 2: for his overall value. So it's going to be interesting.
Speaker 2: We don't even know for sure if Russell Wilson's going
Speaker 2: to be healthy for this game, but Fields doesn't seem
Speaker 2: like he's done anything to lose the job. Now, again,
Speaker 2: this is Mike Tomlins's decision. But I think the other
Speaker 2: thing when you're evaluating Fields, you are trying to make
Speaker 2: the ascertain. You're trying to ascertain if he is a
Speaker 2: guy who is getting better week after week, is he's
Speaker 2: stacking up blocks so that you know things you're moving
Speaker 2: in the right trajectory in this guy is going to be,
Speaker 2: you know, a real player for you as you go
Speaker 2: along and as you win week by week, but also
Speaker 2: a guy who's got upside as the season rolls on.
Speaker 5: So I would very much understand either decision Wilson Versfield's,
Speaker 5: assuming Russ is ready, and frankly, I wouldn't be critical
Speaker 5: of either decision. I'm not sure where I would go.
Speaker 5: I'm not in the building every day. But the latter
Speaker 5: half of your question, I think is very apparent that
Speaker 5: he gets better rapidly. Fields we're talking about, and especially
Speaker 5: I'm sure a lot of folks around here didn't study
Speaker 5: his Bear's tape or study him as a Bear as
Speaker 5: much as I did. He's a night and day different
Speaker 5: player than that. Yeah, I mean, he is way more comfortable,
Speaker 5: He's way more in control, He's much more accurate. The
Speaker 5: ball comes out of his hands quicker and crisper. He
Speaker 5: is getting a lot better at a rapid pace. Ask
Speaker 5: any Bears fans to watch him in a ceiler uninform.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think, well, if this is one of
Speaker 2: those instances in which Mike Tomlin seems to have great
Speaker 2: feel for the right decision to make, I agree with Matt.
Speaker 2: I'm I think it's again. If I'm guessing, I think
Speaker 2: it's going to be Fields. But I think Mike Tomlin's
Speaker 2: got a great feel for knowing when to make a
Speaker 2: move like this.
Speaker 3: In my experience in and around this league, the best
Speaker 3: coaches are the coaches, in my mind, that still trust
Speaker 3: their gut instinct. You know, there's kind of like the
Speaker 3: thought process that's more universal, people like, oh, you do this,
Speaker 3: do that.
Speaker 4: But it's the coaches.
Speaker 3: That rely on that gut instinct that in my mind,
Speaker 3: it rises to the level of that's what makes great
Speaker 3: coaches great because they can make those decisions and intrinsically
Speaker 3: they they have knowledge about something that maybe some of
Speaker 3: his dummies like me don't seem to understand. But he's got,
Speaker 3: you know, some insight to it. And I really believe
Speaker 3: that justin like, just like Matt said, if you go
Speaker 3: back to a Chicago tape and then you look at
Speaker 3: this when you see.
Speaker 4: Him throw the ball on time.
Speaker 3: Now, sometimes he gets a little bit long in the
Speaker 3: tooth sitting in the pocket, but that's again that's been
Speaker 3: whittled down. He was before over three seconds, and then
Speaker 3: he got it down below three, and then round two
Speaker 3: and a half and so forth. They roll with him,
Speaker 3: which I love because now you change, you know, the
Speaker 3: points of the launch point for him, and defensive lineman
Speaker 3: can't find, you know, just fire off to the X
Speaker 3: sitting seven yards deep. And the fact is he is
Speaker 3: very very good at tucking that ball and running And
Speaker 3: I love the fact that you can go wildcat with
Speaker 3: him in there in a sense, just tucking that ball
Speaker 3: and go and you pull the guard around, he leads
Speaker 3: up and you get behind one of those big burly
Speaker 3: guards and you get whatever yarded you can get. And
Speaker 3: I think that adds to the offense and the fact
Speaker 3: that he's throwing the ball well and practicing ball security.
Speaker 3: Now he had an issue with it that kind of
Speaker 3: crept up on him in this fourth game a little bit,
Speaker 3: But for the most part he's been doing marvelous as
Speaker 3: far as protecting the ball. I don't see anything that
Speaker 3: would you point to and say, hey, you got to
Speaker 3: get him out of here. Because of that.
Speaker 2: Interesting stuff and interesting this game an important game. Look,
Speaker 2: the Steelers want to validate this three and one start.
Speaker 2: They're at home. It's a great traditional rivalry against Dallas.
Speaker 2: Dallas at two and two, they don't want to fall
Speaker 2: any further behind the team we all knew would be
Speaker 2: leading the NFC East, and of course that's the Washington
Speaker 2: Commanders with a three and one record. You know, so
Speaker 2: interesting game for both teams, great rivalry games. Sunday night,
Speaker 2: Akroscher Stadium. It's going to be a blast. Gear up
Speaker 2: with the latest game day necessities. At the Official Steelers
Speaker 2: pro Shops. Get the latest Sideline apparel, jerseys, Terrible tiles,
Speaker 2: authentic memorabilia, and custom exclusives you can only find directly
Speaker 2: from the team. Visit one of the Official Steelers pro
Speaker 2: shops located at Akroscher Stadium, Grove City, Premium, Mountlets or
Speaker 2: tang ral Let's, or gear up online at shop dot
Speaker 2: Steelers dot com. Four Craig Wolfley and Matt Williamson, I'm
Speaker 2: Rob King. We thank you for listening to the point
Speaker 2: after on the Steelers Audio Network.