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Speaker 1: This is the Drive with Dale Lolly and Matt Williamson

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Speaker 1: on Home of the Black and Gold Steelers Nation Radio.

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Speaker 1: And we are back on Dale Lolly here with Matt

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Speaker 1: Williamson as we are every Wednesday. We'll be joined by

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Speaker 1: the ray of sunshine, Bobbiola. However, you don't, Bob you

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Speaker 1: feeling a ray of sunshine like? It's been very nice today?

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Speaker 1: Are you feeling in a sunshiny mood? Oh? Yeah? Especially

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Speaker 1: after a tie to a one list Detroy Lions team.

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Speaker 1: What could be more sunny than that? I bet you

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Speaker 1: weren't super cheery on Sunday. And when it was all

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Speaker 1: said and done, no, um, you know it was. It was.

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Speaker 1: I found it very frustrating because you know, I get

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Speaker 1: the you know, the late um substitution and quarterback, and

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Speaker 1: it's a fairly significant difference between Ben Roethlisberger and anyone

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Speaker 1: on on the roster, and it's still happened to be

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Speaker 1: Mason Rudolf. I mean, I'm not here to bash Mason Rudolph,

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Speaker 1: but um, I think that what we all learned, if

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Speaker 1: we didn't already know this, but what we all learned

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Speaker 1: last Sunday was Ben Roethlisberger. I don't care if he's

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Speaker 1: thirty nine years old or not. He's still the guy

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Speaker 1: that gives still is the best chance to win games.

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Speaker 1: And so um, you know, Mason Rudolf what he is

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Speaker 1: or is not all due respect to him when he

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Speaker 1: is not as Ben roethlisbergner. And so that is a

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Speaker 1: significant I think I've just been to have to make

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Speaker 1: it again, as I mentioned, and twenty four hours before

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Speaker 1: kickoff probably less, so there was that as well. But

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Speaker 1: all with all of that, you know, hey Deante Johnson,

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Speaker 1: hold onto the ball, you know, hey Pat Fireman, hold

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Speaker 1: onto the ball. Uh, and they probably win with the

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Speaker 1: kicker that they have and the way he's been kicking lately.

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Speaker 1: And so you know, I think that the tonner of

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Speaker 1: the conversation would be decidedly different if Chris Boswell comes

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Speaker 1: on and either the end of regulation or in overtime

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Speaker 1: in thanks through a fifty yards field goal, and it's

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Speaker 1: nineteen sixteen. Um, you know, despite the warts, you know,

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Speaker 1: giving up two hundred yards rushing uh in a first

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Speaker 1: half plus five minutes of the third quarter. You know,

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Speaker 1: the miss tackles all up and down the lines from

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Speaker 1: soup to nuts, of all the mistakes that were made

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Speaker 1: and opportunity squandered. Um, you know, there's just something about

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Speaker 1: that that doesn't stings my If he ended up winning

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Speaker 1: the game, well, Al Davis said justly, so, um you know,

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Speaker 1: uh so yeah, that has me in the mood that

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Speaker 1: I have been in for probably the last seventy two hours.

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Speaker 1: So you don't live by the twenty four hour role.

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Speaker 1: Oh no, I mean I have much more time to

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Speaker 1: wine and complain in just twenty four hours. You know.

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Speaker 1: One person UM sent me in a submission to ask

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Speaker 1: and answered and he said that, you know, one of

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Speaker 1: his disappointments was all of the money he had to

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Speaker 1: put the contribute to the swear jar in his house

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Speaker 1: while he was watching the game. And I just pointed

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Speaker 1: out to him, I said, I'm just happy that you

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Speaker 1: can't get charged to put money in the swear jar

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Speaker 1: for what you're thinking, because that would have bankrupted me.

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Speaker 1: Had a pretty quick so, Bob, what do they do? Uh?

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Speaker 1: You mentioned the the rushing yards allowed. That's now a

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Speaker 1: couple of times this year where they've gotten just gouged

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Speaker 1: on the ground and it's been mis tackles being the issue.

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Speaker 1: I know a lot of people say when I need

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Speaker 1: to go in pads and do all that stuff. I

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Speaker 1: can't do it. The NFL p A would go crazy

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Speaker 1: if if Mike Toman put him in pads a couple

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Speaker 1: of days this week. It's against the rules from Oklahoma's

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Speaker 1: all day. So short of doing that, how do you

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Speaker 1: fix this? I don't I don't have an answer. I mean,

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Speaker 1: I'm not trying to talk the question. I honestly don't know.

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Speaker 1: Because if I thought I had an idea that wasn't stupid,

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Speaker 1: I tell you, UM, I don't know. I don't think.

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Speaker 1: There are some things I suspect. Um. I don't think

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Speaker 1: the defensive line when I when I okay, from this

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Speaker 1: point of this UM appearance on your show forward, every

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Speaker 1: time I'm talking about the defensive line, what I mean

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Speaker 1: is the defensive line except Tim Hayward, to keep saying

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Speaker 1: and over again, the big guys bounds. Yeah, yeah, well

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Speaker 1: but except for Cam, they're not playing well. I don't

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Speaker 1: think at all. I mean, I just don't see the um,

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Speaker 1: you know, And I don't know that it's just occupying

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Speaker 1: blockers or but I mean, there has to be some

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Speaker 1: UM better play in terms of being difficult to move

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Speaker 1: um you know, staying in the gaps and all that

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Speaker 1: other stuff. But it just seems to me that you know,

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Speaker 1: a lot of attention and criticism has been falling on

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Speaker 1: the inside linebackers. Um. There are too many instances for

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Speaker 1: me of you know, Detroit Lions offensive lineman coming off

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Speaker 1: the ball and having a free, free path to those guys.

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Speaker 1: Not only that, but you know, then you then the

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Speaker 1: safeties get well, they make a missed tackle, the guys

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Speaker 1: coming at you at full speed. These guys, these guys

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Speaker 1: are getting through the line of scrimmage at full you know,

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Speaker 1: and like they're like you're running a forty yard dash

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Speaker 1: at the NFL scouting combine. It's gonna be difficult to

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Speaker 1: get him on the ground in those situations. Yeah, and

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Speaker 1: you know a lot of times in those situations situations

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Speaker 1: as well, because running back to have a two way go,

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Speaker 1: you know, it's not where you you know, there's there's

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Speaker 1: not And maybe again this is the gap in pequity

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Speaker 1: we're talking about. But if you're in the open field

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Speaker 1: with a guy, um, and he can go left or right, right, right,

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Speaker 1: the degree of difficulty, you know, watch it up considerably.

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Speaker 1: So but I'm not absolving you know, mis tackles especially

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Speaker 1: I think in the number that we were watching on Sunday,

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Speaker 1: um that that that just can't continue to happen. And

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Speaker 1: the problem deal, as you mentioned, it's not getting fixed.

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Speaker 1: You know, this is this has been a recurring situation

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Speaker 1: at various games. You know, it's not every game all

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Speaker 1: the time, but it's also not a situation where you

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Speaker 1: can say, well, since um, the Denver game, there haven't

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Speaker 1: been any mistanicles and I just picked a game out,

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Speaker 1: you know, like four four weeks ago or so, uh

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Speaker 1: and and not to me, is is disturbing, disappointing because

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Speaker 1: it doesn't seem that the that the lessons that they

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Speaker 1: have to learn are being retained. Um, you know whatever

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Speaker 1: they're like against Cleveland, Um, that was I thought a

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Speaker 1: very very good example of solid run defense. And I

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Speaker 1: believe that the Browns running game is far superior to Detroits. Well,

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Speaker 1: that's the thing that's that to me, Bob, is perhaps

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Speaker 1: the most disappointing about it because you see stretches even

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Speaker 1: in games. In the first quarter, the Lions have six

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Speaker 1: carries for twenty yards. After that's that touchdown drive to

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Speaker 1: open the second half, they had thirty yards on eighteen

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Speaker 1: carries and even the Seattle game quarter game was that

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Speaker 1: the quarter was you know, the second third quarter were awful,

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Speaker 1: but then the rest of the if it you know,

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Speaker 1: they averaged like a yard and a half a carry.

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Speaker 1: So the capability is there, but it's not. The consistency

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Speaker 1: is not. I can't I can't agree with you more.

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Speaker 1: And but I don't know. I don't know how to

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Speaker 1: fix it. I don't, um, and there's not gonna be

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Speaker 1: anybody riding in on a white horse either. So whatever

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Speaker 1: you have now on the field is what you're gonna

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Speaker 1: have on the field. And um, I forget what game

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Speaker 1: it was, but um, part of the opponent's strategy and

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Speaker 1: running the ball was come to the line of scrimmage,

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Speaker 1: look what Cam Hayward is and run it the other way.

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Speaker 1: I mean, if that's if that's if your defense is

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Speaker 1: so poorous that you know, staying away from one guy

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Speaker 1: is the difference between success and failure. The defense has problems, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: he's getting near and donald treatment. Now that's not hard

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Speaker 1: to play against. You know, you gotta there's and there

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Speaker 1: isn't an answer, Like I kind of I'm kind of

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Speaker 1: impressed with bugs and especially louder Milk for being young

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Speaker 1: depth players, but not like, oh they're the next coming

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Speaker 1: of They gotta plays Hampton Aaron Smith, right, yeah, And

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Speaker 1: you know and the other uh, you know, compounding the

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Speaker 1: problem against the Tory was, you know, you didn't have,

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Speaker 1: um the quarterbacks who can eraise some of those mistakes,

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Speaker 1: you know, and hit some passes and you know, score

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Speaker 1: some points and then maybe kind of reduce the fervor

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Speaker 1: that the other team has for running the ball because

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Speaker 1: they're thinking looking up at the scoreboard, looking at the clock.

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Speaker 1: You know, hey, we can't run fourteen plays in eight

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Speaker 1: minutes for seventy five yards. We've got to score a

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Speaker 1: little quickly there, because you know, we gotta keep up.

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Speaker 1: And so you know, that wasn't happening either, um labs

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Speaker 1: along those lines. I mean, even if it's a monsoon.

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Speaker 1: And I understand the Steelers run defense was way below

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Speaker 1: the line and especially attacking tackling in general. But if

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Speaker 1: you play seventy minutes against the Lions and only let

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Speaker 1: up sixteen points to your point, you should probably win

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Speaker 1: that game. Sure, but you know, don't the were done.

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Speaker 1: There were the other things, you know, don't tumble the

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Speaker 1: ball how about don't don't don't snap the ball over

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Speaker 1: the quarterback's head when you have great feel position, you know,

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Speaker 1: don't rough the poster, don't run into the kicker. You know,

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Speaker 1: there were so many things that were just you know,

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Speaker 1: I would term you know, knucklehead kind of plays that

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Speaker 1: you know, it's that's how I believe that's how all

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Speaker 1: of these upsets are happening in the NFL. I mean,

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Speaker 1: there's the whole thing. The whole business model of the

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Speaker 1: NFL is built around parody. You know, the draft, the scheduling,

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Speaker 1: the salary cap, all of that stuff is designed to

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Speaker 1: bring teams closer to eight minutes you know, either way,

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Speaker 1: either from the bottom up or from the top time

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Speaker 1: uh than sixteen and oh or twelve and four anything. Um.

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Speaker 1: But then on top of that, you know it's unforced

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Speaker 1: airs by the favorite or the better team or you know,

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Speaker 1: however you wanted to distinguish that two teams in that

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Speaker 1: kind of matchup, and you know, fumble in the ball

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Speaker 1: and some of those penalties. Um, you know, you can't

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Speaker 1: help the other team to that degree. And you know,

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Speaker 1: really in a lot of ways, and I do that

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Speaker 1: the game against the lines more as a loss because kys,

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Speaker 1: I think you can, you know how of a feeling

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Speaker 1: about them one way or the other based on uh,

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Speaker 1: the opponent and the way you played to achieve that result.

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Speaker 1: So looking at the Lions and how the Steelers played

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Speaker 1: to get that high, UM, I would consider it. You

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Speaker 1: know that it felt more like a loss. Um. So

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Speaker 1: you know again, UM, I got nothing chery for you today,

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Speaker 1: so Bob. But obviously the Steelers dealing with some some

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Speaker 1: COVID stuff here this week. So are the Chargers. They

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Speaker 1: just put a third defensive lineman defensive tackle, second defensive tackle,

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Speaker 1: Christian Covington on the on the COVID list today along

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Speaker 1: with Jerry Tillery. Hillery plays of their defensive snaps. Covington

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Speaker 1: plays of their defense or snaps. Oh no, oh. By

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Speaker 1: the way, that that guy named Bosa who plays for

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Speaker 1: them on the COVID list as well. He's not vaccinated apparently. UM,

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Speaker 1: not to mention this run defense is really really Yeah,

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Speaker 1: the defense was bad with these guys. Um, you know,

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Speaker 1: are the Steelers gonna come out and run the football

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Speaker 1: in this game? I know there was a lot of

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Speaker 1: teeth gnashing, uh going on after this last game about

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Speaker 1: the fifty passes in the rain. Some of that was situational,

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Speaker 1: you know, it was it was actually you know, they

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Speaker 1: had thirteen passes in overtime because of where they were

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Speaker 1: getting the football in time was a factor. But this

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Speaker 1: is a game that screams forty fifty runs. Do they

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Speaker 1: trust anybody on the roster, be other not named naj

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Speaker 1: Harris to run? I mean, is that part of the problem. Well,

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Speaker 1: I mean, you know, I don't care, you know, don't

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Speaker 1: give it to anybody else. Um, you know, run the ball,

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Speaker 1: run the ball, run the ball, run the ball. I

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Speaker 1: mean that's didn't get off the bus running the ball. Um.

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Speaker 1: You know, the only air travels the airplane that takes

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Speaker 1: you from Pittsburgh to Los Angeles. Outside of that, it

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Speaker 1: should all be on the ground. Uh. And you know

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Speaker 1: these are some of the things that you know, I've

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Speaker 1: never understand about understood about NFL football. And you know

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Speaker 1: this isn't a Mad Canada saying this is uh, every

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Speaker 1: offensive coordinator in the history of the of the league thing. Um,

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Speaker 1: you know, I I don't There's no rule and I've checked,

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Speaker 1: there's no rule against you know, just running the ball

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Speaker 1: all the time. That's what the Lions did Sunday and seven.

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Speaker 1: Run the ball. Just keep running it, um. And uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, regardless of the the situation. You know it's

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Speaker 1: the two starting guards being on the injury report. Uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, put in Joe Egg, put in b J. Finney,

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Speaker 1: whatever it is, half an hour, um, and run the

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Speaker 1: ball because the Chargers the only reason they're only thirty

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Speaker 1: second in the league. And run defenses. There's only thirty

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Speaker 1: two teams because if there were more teams, they would

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Speaker 1: be worse than seconds. There's worse than the next closest team,

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Speaker 1: right and and again you know there's there are so

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Speaker 1: many reasons why. You know, the Chargers are bad at it,

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Speaker 1: so you run the ball. They're good on offense, so

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Speaker 1: you run the ball to keep Herbert and Keenan Allen

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Speaker 1: and Ekeler, Austin Ekeler and those people on the sideline.

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Speaker 1: I mean there's just you know, you may not have been,

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Speaker 1: so you run the ball. You may have been, but

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Speaker 1: he hasn't practiced all week. Run the ball, I mean anything,

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Speaker 1: And the answer to every question is running the ball,

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Speaker 1: the ball, and just do it and do it and

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Speaker 1: do it and do it. Um. But you know, as

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Speaker 1: I said that doesn't seem to be something that's done

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Speaker 1: in the NFL, not just by the Steelers, but any team.

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Speaker 1: So I don't know if we're just uh, you know,

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Speaker 1: braying at the wind. Year was this, But to me

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Speaker 1: it just seems, um, you know, a no brainer, and

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Speaker 1: you just keep doing it. You hope that your defense

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Speaker 1: doesn't allow you or put you behind fourteen nothing at

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Speaker 1: the middle of the first quarter, because then he's got problems.

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Speaker 1: I don't even care to continue to run the ball.

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Speaker 1: Quargers could do that a lot easier than a Russell

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Speaker 1: Wilson less Seattle team or Denver or the Lions, you know,

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Speaker 1: I mean, you could get down the game. Script might

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Speaker 1: be a problem if it goes wrong, goes um, but

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Speaker 1: you know again, I would, I would really. You know,

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Speaker 1: this is a game where uh, like you were talking

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Speaker 1: about what the Lions were doing. You know, third and four,

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Speaker 1: third and five, third and six to me are running downs.

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Speaker 1: And if you got to run it twice when it

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Speaker 1: twice um, because you know the Chargers aren't very good

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Speaker 1: on four downs either defense. Um, But you know, hey,

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Speaker 1: I I've I've beaten this drum for years with different

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Speaker 1: teams and different coordinators and different running backs and all

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Speaker 1: that stuff. That was always my philosophy with Jerome Bennett

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Speaker 1: and Chan Gaily just had no interest in that, you know.

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Speaker 1: I mean it's I don't know if it's not sexy enough,

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Speaker 1: or they don't feel it's challenging enough, or they want

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Speaker 1: to show how smart they are, you know, whatever it is, um,

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Speaker 1: but run the ball. That's gonna be on your on

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Speaker 1: your tombstone, Bob. Run the ball but tattooed on my

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Speaker 1: forehead day and you could just show my picture rem like,

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Speaker 1: oh you couldn't, can't pay your bills, pay me your

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Speaker 1: place got hit by lightning? Pay me? Like the answer

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Speaker 1: is the same, no matter what. I love it. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: there's a little expletive before that usually, but that's all

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Speaker 1: good fellows who says it to right swear at least

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Speaker 1: in his mind. There you go, that's why the swear

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Speaker 1: gets so fair. Well, let's spend it a little positive

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Speaker 1: And it kind of correlates to that too. After what

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Speaker 1: I thought was a step back against the Bears, I

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Speaker 1: was pretty impressed all in all with the offensive line.

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Speaker 1: I mean, I don't expect them to be Mono's and

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Speaker 1: hand out there, but I do think they're gradually getting

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Speaker 1: better as a unit, including Hassan, Howard and Haig coming

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Speaker 1: into guards. Um. Yeah, except for the snaps, yeah, you know,

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Speaker 1: because that's the bad snap was really bad. But there

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Speaker 1: were a lot of There were several there was a

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Speaker 1: recurrent high and wide. I mean, if you know, if

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Speaker 1: Ken Green was a starting pitcher in baseball, he would

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Speaker 1: have walked about nine guys he hit the mascot sharp

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Speaker 1: snaps um so uh and and you know, I don't

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Speaker 1: I don't necessarily understand that either. You know, why that

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Speaker 1: has to be like that? Why does it have to

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Speaker 1: be shotgun over time? That was the thing I had

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Speaker 1: a problem with. I thought with Rudolph in there would

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Speaker 1: see a lot more under center. And it was even

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Speaker 1: a note I made before the game, like keep track

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Speaker 1: of how much they're under center, And it was a

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Speaker 1: lot less than I expected. Well, you know what I thought,

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Speaker 1: you know, after um mentally contributing to the swear jar,

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Speaker 1: I thought, well made because of Rudolph's college um history,

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Speaker 1: the way he played there in college was all shotgun,

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Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure. And then the fact that you know,

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Speaker 1: the the idea to plan, the expectation was that Ben

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Speaker 1: was going to be the starting quarterback, so you didn't

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Speaker 1: have a whole lot of time to adjust a lot

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Speaker 1: of the other things to Mason Rudolph, and so that

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Speaker 1: was why maybe that was it was so shotgun formation heavy.

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Speaker 1: But now you know, as Mike Commin said Tuesday, we're

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Speaker 1: going to form a play for Masons. Okay, good put

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Speaker 1: him under center and run the ball. Uh and uh

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Speaker 1: because you know those slants to Deante Johnson that then

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Speaker 1: was hitting, you know, the uh put away the Cleveland game,

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Speaker 1: I think it was late and then one other one

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Speaker 1: when they needed the first time to go to victory formation.

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Speaker 1: Those slants, you know, the couple of those were open

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Speaker 1: before the one that he caught and unfumbled, and he

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Speaker 1: would have been still running the first time that Rudolph

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Speaker 1: overthrew him on there was nobody in the middle of

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Speaker 1: the field. That was a touchdown. And when you have again,

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Speaker 1: when you have a situation with your wide receiver depth chart,

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Speaker 1: was it was necessary to target Ray Ray McCloud twelve

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Speaker 1: times the ball or if you're gonna target Ray Ray,

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Speaker 1: don't bounce it into him when he's wide opening the

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Speaker 1: end zone. We're just run the ball. Just again, you know,

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Speaker 1: there's just seems to me to be too many of

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Speaker 1: them horse stairs coupled with UM, you know what I

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Speaker 1: and if he planned to me. But again I will

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Speaker 1: acknowledge that the situation of um, you know, all of

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Speaker 1: a sudden you don't have Roethlisberger. UM can you know,

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Speaker 1: com mitigate some of those problems in my head with

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Speaker 1: the plan um with no time whatsoever to even I

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Speaker 1: don't even try to adjust it for real. Um So

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Speaker 1: because there's a less than twelve hours you're you're playing

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Speaker 1: a game when you find out he can't play. Um,

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Speaker 1: so that's what I would have done. Um, I don't know.

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Speaker 1: I just especially when Ben's not playing, your best offensive

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Speaker 1: or your best offensive player, where is number twenty two?

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Speaker 1: He should have the ball the most. He might be

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Speaker 1: your best offensive player. When Ben is playing, it's arguable

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Speaker 1: he's that he's been that important to the team this year.

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Speaker 1: UM yeah, I you know. One of the that was

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Speaker 1: one of the arguments that I that I got Bob

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Speaker 1: was that, well they should have changed things up, Like

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Speaker 1: change things up, you can't. How much time do they think?

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Speaker 1: Do people think there isn't a day you can't just

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Speaker 1: we're just old. Well, we got this Mason plan sitting

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Speaker 1: here on the side. We get this one ready to go.

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Speaker 1: Like you get six hours a week to practice, right,

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Speaker 1: there's not much prep time. People don't think that, you know,

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Speaker 1: I don't understand when you have to teach more than

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Speaker 1: one guy correct. It's the same thing when you when

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Speaker 1: when people make your argument, why don't you have your

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Speaker 1: best cornerback? Follow that there the other team's best receiver.

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Speaker 1: It also makes the job different for the other ten

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Speaker 1: guys on the field defensively, they gotta be on the

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Speaker 1: same page. Right, And in one of the situations that

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Speaker 1: we're looking at for Sunday's game with Justin Herbert is

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Speaker 1: no Minka. You know, how does that impact um? Because

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Speaker 1: I don't think there's one player on the Steelers losses

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Speaker 1: that you can put in to fill Minica's job, you know,

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Speaker 1: and being like an all situations free safety, you know

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Speaker 1: to a level that he would play the position. So

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Speaker 1: if you split them up, maybe you know, run situations

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Speaker 1: and path and situations will be thinks that the Chargers

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Speaker 1: are going to cooperate with that. That's that's how you

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Speaker 1: that That's how you end up with John Bostick on

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Speaker 1: Keenan l on a whole bunch of times right because offenses,

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Speaker 1: and this has been for twenty years now, offenses don't

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Speaker 1: use down in distance situations the way the Houston where

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Speaker 1: first intent was, you know, fifty to a rundown. They

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Speaker 1: don't care. Don't never run the ball, you know. I mean,

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Speaker 1: if if you can tendue to put um you know,

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Speaker 1: base personnel out there, and you have a run stuffing

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Speaker 1: free safety, you saink justin Herbert's not going to be

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Speaker 1: flowing the ball to Keenan all and every down. I

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Speaker 1: mean you know, um and and the the Chargers coaches

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Speaker 1: that there, that'd be fine with that pitch and catch

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Speaker 1: because quarterbacks now complete over their passes, so why wouldn't they. Um.

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Speaker 1: So yeah, there's there's that at work too, you know,

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Speaker 1: with the kind of a fly in the appointment plan

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Speaker 1: where you don't get the cooperation from this opponents that

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Speaker 1: you know you would like when you want to have

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Speaker 1: I don't know, your run stuffing inside linebackers on the

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Speaker 1: field for rundowns, in your coverage inside linebackers on the

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Speaker 1: field for pathic downs, because there's no there's no shoe.

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Speaker 1: The way to know which is a rundown, which is

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Speaker 1: a passing down anymore. People pick up on that stuff

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Speaker 1: pretty quick. Yeah, absolutely, Yeah, we got Let you go, Bob,

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Speaker 1: You've got a final message for us here today. We're there,

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Speaker 1: you go there. It is pretend this is Ohio State,

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Speaker 1: Michigan seven. He is the Great Bob Labriola, editor of

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Speaker 1: Steelers Digested, Steelers dot Com. We appreciate him stopping by

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Speaker 1: as he does every Wednesday. I'm dale ally here with

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Speaker 1: Matt Williamson. Will be back with Moore right after this.

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Speaker 1: On the Drive is Black and Gold fan heven On