1.13.26 Randy Baumann and the DVE Morning Show FULL SHOW

Tim Benz, Gene Steratore, Top Plays from Steelers/Texans, Rob King Live In-Studio for a Sour Power Hour, and more

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:13):
W dv E, Pittsburgh, an iHeartRadio station guaranteed human.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Rogers steps up, and Rogers is sacked and the ball
is loose, and it's picked up by Sheldon Rankins, and
Rankins is sprinting down the field and Rankins has scored
a Houston Texans touchdown.

Speaker 3 (00:42):
And with that, the game was pretty much over for
the Pittsburgh Steelers. Aaron Rodgers fumbling there and giving up
a defensive touchdown. It would be the first of two
that quarter, and Aaron Rodgers career with the Pittsburgh Steelers
may have culminated with a pick six in which he

(01:03):
totally whisked out on the tackle.

Speaker 4 (01:06):
And that, to me was when I realized, oh, he's done.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
This was it.

Speaker 3 (01:10):
He's not even gonna try to make that tackle, because
why would he.

Speaker 4 (01:14):
He's done playing.

Speaker 5 (01:17):
Yeah, I mean he might be done playing, but we're
beginning an off season that's gonna be at minimum three
months of Aaron Rodgers Like, well, if I did come back,
here's how I would do.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
It have to be lots of changes.

Speaker 5 (01:34):
You're gonna have to think about this one.

Speaker 6 (01:36):
Yeah, I'm gonna, you know, get with my family and
walk under a blanket on the beach for five months,
yell about Calvin Austin running the wrong route.

Speaker 3 (01:45):
I mean, Aaron Rodgers was pissed off all night, and
I don't really blame him. I mean, he didn't have
a lot of protection. This's a great defense, make no
mistake about it. Didn't have a lot of protection last
night when he did have time, though there were times
Aaron was missing wide open guys. I mean he was
making it harder for them because he did not have

(02:06):
a great game. But nobody on the offense did, save
for Gainwell and Warren, who I still don't understand why
we just didn't run the Bejesus out of those guys.
But you know, the Steelers took some shots downfield. Eventually,
they threw it to Mooth eventually. But I think there
are so many problems with this team, Arthur Smith's very

(02:29):
one dimensional offense.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
It's just I mean, the dink and dunk king.

Speaker 3 (02:35):
And maybe that's only because they never went out and
got a second receiver second year in a row. That
Omar and Mike Tomlin thought they'd be okay with just
one receiver threat, or maybe they thought John new Smith
would be more failed experiment on John hu failed, didn't
go well, Aaron Rodgers failed failed experiment. I think he

(02:57):
was much more promising had they surrounded him with some
better assets than Russell Wilson would have been. But enough
with this. Let's you know, we need the Drake May,
we need a bow Knicks. We need one of those
young guys to come in here and develop and play
at a level that is necessary to win in the NFL.

(03:18):
The Steelers haven't had that in a long time since
before Ben's elbow injury. And it's maddening right now to
see this wound back and a lot of questions as
to whether Mike Tomlin will be back. I mean a
little overreaction Tuesday here, but I just don't see how
anybody thinks it's gonna be any different going forward that

(03:40):
the old way of doing things isn't working now. I'm
sure Michael had plenty of reasons when he comes in
here as to why it wouldn't be such a bad
thing if they brought Mike back. They are going to
bring Mike back unless Mike wants to walk away.

Speaker 4 (03:56):
That's pretty much a short at this point.

Speaker 3 (04:00):
But it feels like we are stuck in a loop
of mediocrity. It's like the Pirates are in a loop
of futility?

Speaker 5 (04:12):
Are the Steelers in.

Speaker 3 (04:13):
That much of a different one currently? Other than it's
only been nine years instead of thirty nine years.

Speaker 5 (04:19):
Playoff futility a different level, a higher echelon of futility.

Speaker 3 (04:24):
Championships still eluding them by a great deal.

Speaker 5 (04:28):
Yeah. I feel a little stupid having celebrated so hard
after the Ravens win.

Speaker 3 (04:33):
Now, don't don't. Don't get mad at yourself for that.
Beating the Ravens is always cost for celebration.

Speaker 5 (04:39):
No, yeah, it was if you waited to me, No, no, no,
you kept the Ravens out of the playoffs and got
their coach fighters All right, you're right, that's it. This
was the coach.

Speaker 3 (04:52):
I mean, there was a lot to celebrate there, Tad,
But don't forget that might have been for us the
goalpost game. You know, that might have been the fans
rushing the field in college football and taking the goalpost down.

Speaker 6 (05:04):
You never win the next week after that happens, and
you know they might have I.

Speaker 3 (05:09):
Almost use a metaphor that would have got us in
trouble but used up all of.

Speaker 6 (05:14):
Their emotional Yeah, yes, there we go.

Speaker 5 (05:20):
Thanks Sammy, you know what I'm talking about. It's all
gone now, Yeah, it's all gone now.

Speaker 3 (05:29):
I need to build this up from my refractory period
for the does that have a progesteron blocker? I need
some of that te goo that Porky puts on his neck. Anyways,
it's disappointing, no doubt about it. We did get an

(05:50):
entire weeknd of football full of hope, so there was
that too.

Speaker 4 (05:53):
You're watching playoff football and.

Speaker 5 (05:55):
Thinking this could be us.

Speaker 7 (05:56):
The Bears did that could be us.

Speaker 3 (05:57):
Look at all this fun that everybody's having. You could
get back to having fun again. And the way that
game started, I thought.

Speaker 6 (06:03):
Oh my god, we're gonna win this game. We are
gonna win this game. Yeah, and then that defense stiffened up.
And I don't understand the play calling with Arthur Smith.
They they are a tough team to run on.

Speaker 3 (06:16):
And you know, I understand how great of a defense
that is. But no defense in the NFL should make
you look as bad as the Steelers offense looked last night.

Speaker 4 (06:27):
It was just pitiful.

Speaker 3 (06:29):
DK Metcalf coming off a two game suspension, dropping a huge,
huge throw from Aaron Rodgers. I mean it would have
gone for a big game at a time they needed
it to. That ended up being a minimum ten point
turnaround because they took the ball down and scored.

Speaker 4 (06:47):
I think that was their ninety two yard drive there
following that.

Speaker 5 (06:50):
Yeah, the Metcalf play was the one that I kept
coming back to. It is like, oh, if we had
just done that.

Speaker 4 (06:56):
You know, but when you're doing that, like, but that's
how bad thing, that's a feudal things were.

Speaker 5 (07:00):
Yeah, you know, it's like, oh, if we had just
got that one, remember that opportunity we.

Speaker 3 (07:04):
Had, maybe that would have that would have kicked in
all of our momentum.

Speaker 4 (07:08):
But they had the momentum and they pissed it away.

Speaker 3 (07:11):
Steelers lose thirty to six, thirty to six. They gave
up twenty three points in the fourth quarter.

Speaker 4 (07:22):
The pit so not exactly.

Speaker 6 (07:23):
They forgot to do that thing where you hold four
fingers up in the air after the third quarter. That's
why they're like, we forgot what quarter was ceedars Stroud
stunk and he still had two hundred and fifty yards.

Speaker 8 (07:37):
That was the biggest in tellus he sucked, yeah for
a majority of the game, and we couldn't do anything
with it.

Speaker 4 (07:45):
Defense made him stink though.

Speaker 3 (07:47):
I mean, you know, I saw a lot of people
railing on the defense because I think they just got
worn down. Yeah, they gave up yards, but it was
ben don't break and they were getting turnovers.

Speaker 4 (07:56):
I mean I thought that I thought the defense.

Speaker 3 (08:00):
Had a good enough game for the Steelers to win
if the offense could do anything. They never made the
Texans play from behind, just a joke.

Speaker 5 (08:09):
I mean, three turnovers, you know, And I find myself
doing this all the time, and I hate it. It's
like it's a bad habit to get into. But if
you told me before the game they're gonna get they're
gonna be plus three, well, I know, at one point
plus three and turnovers and the final score is going
to be thirty to six, I would be like thirty
to six Steelers.

Speaker 6 (08:28):
Right, Yeah, Christian Kirk diced them up one hundred and
forty four yards receiving last night.

Speaker 5 (08:32):
Christian Kirk was in the Steelers wide receiver two sweepstakes.
Which makes that even more frustrating is that he was
the guy that, you know, everyone was linking to the
Steelers as the possible robin to DK's back batman, and
you know, and then he slaughtered them last night, destroyed.

Speaker 3 (08:51):
Absolutely destroyed him eight catches last night. I mean, the
Steelers had every scenario they could have wanted to win
that game except having a capable offense. The offensive joke
and the offensive line, by the way, picked their picked
up bad night for.

Speaker 6 (09:06):
Their worst performance of the season. Troy five time, I've
never seen him that bad. No, he's the steady Eddies.
The young Rock got absolutely owned all night. The same
with Mason McCormick. I mean, Mason McCormick had a bad night.
Dylan Cook as good as he's been. You know, there's

(09:26):
only so much you can ask of a guy who's
fifth on your death chart or fourth on your death
chart against all pros like that that you had coming
off the edges.

Speaker 1 (09:35):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (09:36):
I feel somewhat released, you know, I don't know what
stage of grief I'm in right now. I'm not as
angry as I thought i'd be, because I don't think I
really believe this team was going to be good enough.
What I will be angry with is if this team
doesn't make changes and it's not going to be at
the coaching level, but their talent assessment is just poor

(09:56):
John new Smith was a joke this year. He was
in absolute embarrassment DK Metcalf. Unless you get him any
somebody else, he is not going to pay dividends. He
basically was like a more I don't know, polite George Pickens.

(10:17):
You know when he did you in trouble, you go, oh, yes, ma'am,
yes sir. And he was great interview, nice fella. Yeah,
you know, he seems like he's like cool to hang
around with and everything, but he can't do it by himself.

Speaker 1 (10:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (10:29):
And Aaron Rodgers at forty two.

Speaker 3 (10:32):
I just think there was more good than bad from
Aaron Rodgers this year, but it was a far cry
from where he was. And last night I did not
think he was great. I don't think he thought he
was great. He did not have a lot of help.
He had receivers running in the wrong routes. You saw
him screaming, do your fin job. They weren't on the
same page. Okay, so you're running this back or do

(10:52):
you pray Arthur Smith gets a job somewhere else And
if so, do you bring in Mike McDaniel.

Speaker 8 (10:59):
The annual thing is interesting. If Aaron stays, for sure.

Speaker 3 (11:04):
Would hate him James Harrison already said no, f and way. Well,
not that he gets to make any decisions, but that
gives you the idea of what some of the Steelers
alum think.

Speaker 8 (11:16):
Arthur Smith wants to go to the Titans.

Speaker 3 (11:19):
Right, I mean I think he wants a head coaching
job if it'll become available.

Speaker 4 (11:24):
He did not do himself any favors with that.

Speaker 5 (11:25):
Yeah night, how would he get one? This is my question.

Speaker 6 (11:28):
I don't think he's interviewing for any other job except
that one. That doesn't mean you have to keep in oc.

Speaker 5 (11:34):
But it feels like it's the only way for them
that Bill part ways.

Speaker 3 (11:37):
Did they ever catch fire or have a rhythm this year?
So he's like one or two games?

Speaker 5 (11:42):
They won three in a row at the end, right.

Speaker 4 (11:44):
No, But I mean offensively, we were like here they
come again.

Speaker 3 (11:48):
Oh yeah, I thought they got away from the run
all year, which was the thing that they should have
been building around.

Speaker 6 (11:55):
You know, I don't know what it ended up being.
You know, thirty three passes last night, you know, they.

Speaker 5 (12:01):
Were down a lot.

Speaker 6 (12:02):
They just had to throw a non stop there at
the end. But Mason Rudolph was one for one by
the way, you know, quarterback rating of seventy nine point two.
Aaron Rodgers rating last night was fifty point eight in
his likely last game in the NFL. Wolf Is it
his last game? That's what remains to be seen, I hope.
So what if it's only his last game for the Steelers?

(12:26):
Would you like to see him go play for somebody else?
I would, just so you can go now you have him.

Speaker 5 (12:31):
Yeah. I felt I feel like when sometimes if they're
behind the sticks or they're you know, behind the sticks
metaphorically like Okay, we got to get it back here.
Rogers this year was like the master of let's get
it all back on one play and then miss deep,

(12:52):
miss deep again, third and ten.

Speaker 1 (12:54):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (12:54):
I felt like that happened all year when the defense
needed them to eat clock. Yeah, so they could get oxygen.
They just weren't doing it for him. Yeah, Michael have
more on it. A disappointing night, a very cold night
at Akershuer Stadium, but C. J. Stradden now approves his
record to two and three when the temperature is below

(13:15):
forty degrees, So there's that.

Speaker 4 (13:18):
Where was the priest with the holy water last night?

Speaker 6 (13:20):
Huh?

Speaker 8 (13:20):
Yeah? Yeah? Or was he? Where was he last night
and not blessing any one.

Speaker 6 (13:25):
That should have been the halftime show. Just the priest
out there soaking the field. Yeah, and they could throw
a frisbee to him like he's one of those frisbee
dogs and he'd run out and catch it. But they're
holy water the whole way. Anyways, it was a good
run seeing La Troban's seven.

Speaker 3 (13:45):
Months all right, Abby's got a news update for you.
We'll talk with Tim Bens in a little bit. He
is not real thrilled.

Speaker 6 (13:54):
I don't think with the idea of bringing back what
we just saw, she'd stare a tour.

Speaker 3 (13:59):
There are some questions plays last night. You know that
fumble for a touchdown the big guy touchdown there? You know,
I'm not a big man touchdown always entertaining unless it
happens to you.

Speaker 5 (14:09):
Oh, when it happens to you, it's yeah, what are
we doing?

Speaker 3 (14:12):
But Aaron Rodgers took a pretty decent shot to the
head on that one. Rob King will also join us
for a power hour of Stealer Talk. Abby's got your
news right now. Tad Whistle's hanging out with this lavin studio. Abby,
what's up news?

Speaker 8 (14:23):
This hour brought to you by your neighborhood Ford Store,
cloudy and breezy today rain this evening, and I of fifty.
Instagram maintains there was not a major security breach over
the weekend, but an outside firm disagrees. Sunday, malware Bites
said that users were inundated with fake emails telling them
to reset passwords because cyber criminals hacked over seventeen million accounts.

(14:46):
I got this fake email.

Speaker 4 (14:48):
I got it twice, and I clicked on it.

Speaker 8 (14:49):
I did too. Yeah, they believe the hackers took advantage
of a vulnerability in the Instagram AIP.

Speaker 4 (14:56):
It took me to the actual site.

Speaker 8 (14:59):
Same, so super confused, and I kept waiting for the like, gotcha, dummy,
But I never got it, and so I still have
done nothing about it. So I'm not really sure what
to do because Instagram didn't send anything to follow up
saying hey, by the way, you were half stupid. Listen

(15:20):
to me.

Speaker 6 (15:21):
I have all of your dirty pictures.

Speaker 8 (15:24):
You are filth.

Speaker 6 (15:25):
I am going to send all of your filths to
your family and friends if you do not send five
thousand dollars to me immediately.

Speaker 8 (15:31):
I liked the second one Power Byke, says the leak
databases contained usernames, email addresses, phone numbers, and in some
cases physical addresses that it's already uh selling on the
dark web. Instagram's parent company, Meta was a bit vague
when it said that it fixed an issue that let
an external party request password emails for some people. So again,

(15:54):
we really don't know what happened here. But every year
a company called nord pass goes through all the lists
of hacked passwords that get leaked on the Internet to
figure out the most common, easy and hackable passwords that
people are using. Believe it or not, once again, still
the most common passwords for people are still admin password

(16:16):
and one, two, three, four, five, six.

Speaker 5 (16:18):
You got to be kidding me, not just a spaceball's joke.

Speaker 1 (16:24):
That's that's pretty funny.

Speaker 8 (16:25):
So here are eight password trends that you can leave
in twenty twenty five. Okay, because I guess with this service,
they said that there are a few new password trends,
and you know, companies certainly like force you to do
to certain things. But here are the eight password trends
you can leave in twenty twenty five. One is special characters.

(16:46):
This is increasingly a requirement everywhere. The common one is
people use the at sign like and they use it
in the word password, and that's one that they say,
just like stop doing that. Everybody does that, so like
that's a common one whenever you still want to use password,
and they just use the a password equivalents things like
secret code, passcode, past key, or the word password in

(17:11):
other languages. It's not as clever as you think it is.

Speaker 5 (17:16):
Password.

Speaker 8 (17:20):
But I say it patriotic sentiments.

Speaker 1 (17:27):
Jesus.

Speaker 8 (17:27):
Some people are incorporating the names of their country, heritage,
or even political groups and movements. I guess that's easy
to guess somehow. Names and numbers. Names are two variable
to or to make lists of the most common passwords,
it's not difficult to connect the dots on the names
that you tend to use, especially if they're names of
people that you're related to and you regularly reuse them,

(17:51):
just with different numbers.

Speaker 4 (17:52):
I gotta be honest with you.

Speaker 3 (17:53):
I never thought anybody was like sitting down with a
list of tendencies that people have so much as there's
some I bought that's just continually attacking, just.

Speaker 8 (18:04):
Just guessing things over and over.

Speaker 1 (18:06):
Right.

Speaker 8 (18:06):
That's what I thought, too, is it wasn't like going like, Ooh,
what's Randy into.

Speaker 6 (18:11):
Right, Randy three sixteen?

Speaker 3 (18:13):
Yeah, No, wait a minute, do you not get me
down that rabbit hole because John three to sixteen played
a big role in the outcome of last night's game.

Speaker 4 (18:20):
Sorry, I'm in conspiracy theory.

Speaker 8 (18:22):
Twitter, Randy rabbit hole three sixteen exactly lucky numbers, They said,
the only thing worse than your preferred lucky number is
your birthday. Brand loyalty is something they tell you to
stay away from. But I don't know who's writing Netflix for.

Speaker 5 (18:38):
Netflix loyalty, bud light, I deserve.

Speaker 8 (18:45):
Sports fanatics of all hobbies, Sports teams and players are
the most popular in rankings for passwords Steeler gal my
birth year. I can see that actually being something.

Speaker 4 (18:57):
Yeah do, Cherry loves Steelers nineteen seventy four.

Speaker 8 (19:00):
And the final thing on the list is swear words.
People use swear words a lot. Fel Steelers nineteen sev
That also makes sense to me, now that I think
about it. Claudia and breezy today with rain this evening,
it's a high of fifteen.

Speaker 4 (19:11):
I mean a lot of talk about whether it's getting
run back.

Speaker 3 (19:13):
Last night after the game, Aaron Rodgers postgame comments not
sure if you saw those. I mean I turn off
Stev with the bed, so I only saw them. Bay
he's I think he's gonzo, but he was also very angry.

Speaker 5 (19:25):
Yeah, he's pissed.

Speaker 3 (19:26):
He is very angry last night, and who could blame him? Well,
join the club, Aaron, Mike's got more on last night
Steelers lost. Tim Banz will join us too. That's it
for your Pittsburgh Steelers twenty five twenty six campaign. And
now what will Art Rooney and company come up with
to try and restore Steeler Nation to its rightful place

(19:46):
amongst contenders in the AFC. Not just the AFC North,
I mean the conference. We have not sniffed a playoff
victory in two presidential administrations.

Speaker 6 (19:59):
That's a lot.

Speaker 3 (20:01):
Mike's got your sports when we come back here, because
we all lick our wounds and our double pissed that
we had to stay up until eleven thirty. It'll watch
that all on FULD. When did you did you watch
till the bitter end?

Speaker 5 (20:12):
I didn't go to bed till one, Yeah, I was.
I was midnight when I went to bed.

Speaker 8 (20:15):
Yeah, I couldn't.

Speaker 1 (20:16):
I was pissed.

Speaker 5 (20:17):
I was pissed.

Speaker 8 (20:18):
Yeah, I was pissed and I needed to watch stuff. Yeah,
and then I got in on Twitter, and you know,
I was also going down the rabbit hole. I couldn't stop.

Speaker 4 (20:26):
It's the worst. All right, quick break.

Speaker 6 (20:28):
Michael joined this year live from the Down's Appliances Studios,
where Pittsburgh shops for appliances.

Speaker 1 (20:34):
This is w DVE Pittsburgh Blue. We all bring me down.

Speaker 9 (20:41):
The show that has always been pure Pittsburgh is the
DV Electric Lunch. Pittsburgh has decide the menu every day
in the all Request Electric Lunch with Michelle Michaels.

Speaker 6 (20:53):
So let me know what you guys need.

Speaker 10 (20:55):
On DV from the Sedon Hill University Weather Center. Schedule
your visit today.

Speaker 1 (21:01):
This report is sponsored by NJM Insurance.

Speaker 5 (21:04):
Got to be partly cloudy to mostly cloudy today high
a fifty.

Speaker 11 (21:11):
Mike Pursuda with your sports here in the wake of
Steelers Texans a thirty to six loss in the Wildcard
round and that wraps up wild Card weekend.

Speaker 12 (21:22):
Mike sports Is are brought to you by Bridgeville Pliants.

Speaker 1 (21:26):
Let's get to the particular.

Speaker 12 (21:28):
Statistically, Steelers now have the longest active playoff losing streak
in the NFL or thirty to six loss to the
Texans last night. Uh, snapped a tie with Miami at
six games apiece.

Speaker 5 (21:40):
Got to be pretty good to lose twenty games in
Major League Baseball, right, Mike.

Speaker 12 (21:43):
Steelers are the first team in NFL history to lose
five consecutive playoff.

Speaker 1 (21:47):
Games by double digits.

Speaker 5 (21:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 12 (21:50):
Last night's loss also snapped the Steelers streak of twenty
three consecutive home Monday Night wins that dates back to
nineteen ninety two. Mike Tomlin has now gone nine consecutive
seasons without winning a playoff game. That's the third longest
season streak without winning a playoff game by a head
coach with one team in the Super Bowl era. He

(22:11):
trails Marvin Lewis and Jim Mora hm and uh little
Cherry on top of the craft Sunday that picked six
at the end of the game was Aaron Rodgers first
in postseason play.

Speaker 6 (22:25):
Yeah, he could have tackled the guy. I mean, you know,
would helped. Really, did you see him?

Speaker 1 (22:31):
Yeah?

Speaker 6 (22:31):
At that point, what's push him out of bounce something?
You just delayed them. I'm not saying that changes the game, Mike.
I'm saying a lot of other things to complain about.

Speaker 3 (22:44):
You.

Speaker 4 (22:44):
No, I'm just speaking to that statistic.

Speaker 1 (22:47):
Uh.

Speaker 12 (22:48):
As for the reaction, the Houston defense did what the
Houston defense does, and things wound up collapsing off the
edge for the Steelers.

Speaker 1 (22:57):
Here's Mike Tomlin. You know, it certainly was a step back.

Speaker 13 (23:00):
I respect obviously their front and their capabilities and so forth,
but we certainly didn't play to our desires today. And
it wasn't like they were they were they were pressing
a lot. They weren't. That's not the style their four
man rush group. But it certainly was significant.

Speaker 12 (23:17):
And the Steelers' response, or I shouldn't even say the
response they're planned for it.

Speaker 1 (23:23):
I don't want to put this as bad as the.

Speaker 12 (23:26):
Defensive game plan was in Baltimore last year, this was
the offensive a clip.

Speaker 5 (23:31):
I would agree.

Speaker 12 (23:32):
They trusted their tackles against the two best at rushers
in the game, the best tag team, not number one
and number two at rushers. But you knew coming in
that those guys could destroy you, and job one had
to be not getting destroyed. And the first couple of
downs there was a little help on the left side.
They left Troy on the right to pretty much be

(23:54):
Troy Favetanu.

Speaker 1 (23:55):
And the longer the game went, the worst it got.

Speaker 12 (23:58):
And uh the play that sums it up on a
lot of levels to me, Third and twelve from the
Steelers forty three eleven thirty four left in the fourth quarter.
They're down ten to six at this point. Throughout the
Pittsburgh forty three, third and twelve, they've been trying to
get third and nine, third.

Speaker 1 (24:17):
And twenty one, third and eight all night. Nothing's working.

Speaker 12 (24:22):
They went empty, set, sack, strip, scoop score ballgame. Whereas
I would have thought, and I would have hoped at
that point run it wish they should have been doing
all night anyway on it.

Speaker 1 (24:37):
And they got away.

Speaker 12 (24:38):
From that punnet, try to flip the field and then
get the ball back and steal the game with the
drive late kind of like the way the Cleveland game
played out, except they didn't finish the Cleveland drive. In Cleveland,
they maniacally protected and couldn't score a touchdown as a result.
Last night, they rolled the dice that they could protect

(24:58):
without anything special extra, no no allowance for what they
were up against, and they couldn't score touchdown. That's malpractice,
So I guess We've gone from too hot to too cold.

Speaker 1 (25:11):
They go, maybe next year will be just row.

Speaker 5 (25:14):
Next year's the goalie lost year. I think we'll be fine.

Speaker 12 (25:17):
The postseason agety continues, particularly for TJ. Watt, who was well,
he's never experienced anything else.

Speaker 1 (25:25):
I mean, this is still fresh man.

Speaker 13 (25:27):
It's extremely frustrating, extremely frustrating.

Speaker 12 (25:32):
Now the off season questions commence, and no doubt the
biggest one of those is going to involve whether Aaron
Rodgers is done playing and if not, if he's done
playing here.

Speaker 14 (25:43):
No, I mean, I'm not going to make any emotional decisions. Disappointed,
you know, obviously it's such a fun year. You know,
a lot of adversity, but a lot of a lot
of fun. Been a great year, you know, overall my
life in the last they last year, and this is
you know, really part of that coming here and being
part of this team. So it's disappointing to be sitting
here with the season over.

Speaker 3 (26:06):
We talked about him being a bridge quarterback possibly next
year if he wants to come back to help develop
whoever they end up getting in the draft, assuming they
do go all in on a quarterback in this year's draft.
That being said, Mike, do you look around for another option?
If Aaron Rodgers does want to come back, is that
the decision.

Speaker 12 (26:27):
I would have no problem with him coming back. I
thought he just had no time last night. I didn't
think he had a chance, and I mentioned, you know,
going empty set on third and twelve. I think suicidal
against those guys, the one at the end of the
second quarter. Ironic that one time Cook actually blocked will

(26:50):
Anderson into the ground and was lying on top of him,
and when Rodgers went to escape, he ran into the
pile on that third down. I don't know if he
could have got out onto the wing if anything would
have developed, and I just I would have thought, well,
my plan would have been to outlast the Texans, realizing
that they have a huge advantage from the pressure components.
I'm just not going to let that destroy the game.

(27:12):
I'm gonna run, run, run, punt, run, run, run, punt
because I'm thinking they're not going to score on me either.
I'll make this thing six to three if I have to,
but to let that unfold the way it did last night,
and I don't want to let the defense off the
hook either, because the defense got run on by Woody.

Speaker 5 (27:29):
Marx by the third quarter.

Speaker 12 (27:32):
The turnovers, you know, kind of saved face on the
scoreboard for a while, but they were they were being
dictated to and they were being pushed and controlled.

Speaker 1 (27:44):
So it wasn't good.

Speaker 4 (27:46):
No, it was bad, very bad.

Speaker 3 (27:48):
Steeler fans went from the elation of beating the Ravens
to the realization of what actually is in terms of
the composition of this team. And that's where I think
the biggest problem is. I think coaching is the second
issue to deal with on this team. To me, talent
assessment is their biggest problem.

Speaker 12 (28:10):
Yeah, I think that's I think that's everybody's biggest challenge,
but it's it's clearly this team's biggest issue. They didn't
Roban Wilson was a healthy scratch again last night on
a team that is picking up wide receiver was picking
up wide receivers off the street because it was an
insufficient wide receiver room.

Speaker 1 (28:30):
Caleb johnsons, I.

Speaker 12 (28:32):
Mean it's like they got two good running backs. I
mean that's not ideal, but the wide receiver one. I mean,
third round pick on that guy. For two years, They've
had problems Roman Wilson for two years. I've had problems
with wide receiver. He has been a zero factor.

Speaker 6 (28:48):
I didn't understand it when they got him. I did
not understand that.

Speaker 1 (28:53):
Pick.

Speaker 12 (28:54):
No, he's really productive in college and he measured well.
And you know, not everybody hits he did. It's going
to be like Hunter Renfro or one of those guys.
He was not just the whole composition of it. I mean,
you can have one small guy, you can't have three,
all right.

Speaker 3 (29:10):
Tim Benz joins us when we come back, abab you'll
have your k news coming up at the top of
the hour.

Speaker 8 (29:14):
How Amman paid tribute to David Bowie on the tenth
anniversary of his passing in ways that we are trying
to stress less In twenty twenty.

Speaker 3 (29:22):
Six, Jean Sterotour is going to be joining us at
seven forty five today.

Speaker 9 (29:26):
No matter how you listen, DVE is always there. Listen
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Speaker 1 (29:36):
Why don't two point five.

Speaker 8 (29:37):
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Speaker 3 (29:47):
One two twenty five DVE Tim Benz brought to you
by Don's Appliances, where Pittsburgh shops for appliance is from
Trip Live Sports. Benzi, let me let me start by
asking you this pointing the finger of blame, do you
way more towards the game plan or the execution for

(30:08):
the Steelers.

Speaker 15 (30:11):
Well, Mike Tomlin looked so down after that game last night.
I really thought he needed to hold his head up.
So I just ran up to him and gave him
a big wet kiss on the mouth. Instead of by
I just bypassed the whole pep talk that that woman
in Jacksonville gave the coach Liam Cohen there, and I
just decided to kiss him on the face. And then

(30:33):
when Aaron Rodgers got the podium, I just gave him
a reach around. I mean, I thought that was Yeah,
that's that's what the Internet keeps telling me. This postgame
press conference are for, for genuine human reaction.

Speaker 4 (30:45):
I'm glad that you.

Speaker 1 (30:49):
Yeah, did you?

Speaker 15 (30:53):
I kind of thought it yesterday?

Speaker 16 (30:55):
Was I thought?

Speaker 15 (30:58):
On the offensive side of the they held their own
against the great pass rushers of Houston until was it
the second drive of the third quarter. It's kind of
funny because I tweeted it out. I said so far,
and I put so far in like asterisks and exclamation
points and caps in bold, because it just it felt

(31:20):
like it still could be coming. You know, the Steelers
front seven is winning the battle because they had the
two strip sacks and three sacks overall, Whereas I think
by that point Rogers when it came to Hunter and
Anderson at least had been touched behind the line of
scrimmage once by those guys the whole game, and then
the damn broke. I just thought that the Steelers offensive

(31:42):
line broke about thirty five minutes into the game and
they never got it back. So that's on the players schematically,
you know, they they never figured it out. They never
figured out how to push the ball across the chains effectively.
They never figured out how to hand all third downs.
They never figured out how to stay away from Petrie.

(32:04):
I mean that might God, that guy was all over
the field last night for Houston and then on defense.
I don't know what that was, Mike, Maybe you can
tell me. I might just be missing. I asked TJ. Watt,
and he was so flummixed by a lack of answers
that I thought his answer was actually extremely revealing and

(32:25):
honest that they got their asses kicked by a Texans
offensive line that's not supposed to be any good and
a run game that's marginal on its best day. Like,
I don't think they got schemed in that run game.
They just got pushed around and that's not supposed to happen.

Speaker 1 (32:43):
Yeah, that's how I saw that.

Speaker 12 (32:45):
The fourth round running back Wooden Marks from USC had
eighty eight yards by the third quarter, which was more
than he had in any game all season.

Speaker 16 (32:55):
Correct.

Speaker 15 (32:56):
Yeah, and they wound up with one hundred and sixty
four yards rushing.

Speaker 12 (32:59):
Yeah, kind of stopped the bleeding temporarily, But I don't
think it was well. The defense played well left to win.
They only gave up seventeen points. They got physically pushed around.

Speaker 15 (33:10):
I don't know if you guys saw the meme that's
going around from that NFL Memes page. It's not fit
for human eyes, but it's just a still shot that
they created of the Steelers' last seven playoff games and
the scores where they took a picture of them from
the broadcast when the Steelers were at their greatest deficit.

(33:31):
It's a montage. It's just a still shot montage. You're like,
oh my god, it really has been that bad. I'll
tell you where I didn't like the scheme at all,
and that was the approach that they took to the
run game again. Like, I know that their yards per
carrie wasn't great, but I don't know what it felt
like to you guys. It felt like to me they

(33:53):
were still more effective in creating running lanes for the
backs than they were completing the wide open passes.

Speaker 5 (34:01):
That they had.

Speaker 15 (34:02):
Like, you know, they had an opportunity to be up
at least ten nothing, nine to nothing with three field
goals at the end of that first quarter, but they
were missing passes less than right Whereas I thought there
were alleys to be run in that first quarter, and
they didn't run up with Gainwell and Warren early.

Speaker 3 (34:21):
I thought, But hasn't that I mean, I was tweeting
URTFB for the last month. I don't think they were
running the ball enough all fricking year. And I don't
know how they reassessed each week and didn't say, well,
you know, what would have been better if we would
have just stuck with the run control the clock. That
has worked well for them, especially last night, Mike, Like

(34:43):
you said, lives to fight another day, don't let.

Speaker 12 (34:46):
Their defense score on you, which they're highly capable of doing.

Speaker 6 (34:50):
Fourteen points for them last night.

Speaker 4 (34:56):
Under the cross under.

Speaker 15 (34:58):
Did that cost the over under for some people?

Speaker 6 (35:02):
Some precincts okay, good, Well some precincts, yeah, that's the key.

Speaker 15 (35:09):
But well, the live to fight another Day thing was
something that C J. Stroud did not employ. I mean, like,
they got three turnovers against a team that never turns
the ball over, and they couldn't cash them in at any points. Like,
if this wasn't such a defining moment of their playoff ineptitude,
that would be the biggest talking point to if this

(35:30):
is a game that just happens in October, You're saying
that team never turns the ball over, they got the
ball back bunch, and they still couldn't put points on
the board. What's going on? But instead, you know, I know,
I was giving you guys a little bit agrief when
I was on with you last week after Baltimore, because
I don't I think we maybe overreacted to the Baltimore
win in the sense that calling it a playoff win

(35:52):
was almost like preemptively making ourselves feel better about what
was about to happen because we know this team is failures.

Speaker 12 (36:01):
I can just I can just tell you from my perspective, Tim,
I called it a playoff win because it was winner
go home. I was not trying to forecast failure well
or protect against failure. I just think by definition it
was a playoff game. You win your gat.

Speaker 15 (36:18):
Yeah, well it doesn't count as ledger and I've got
a seven game losing streak now in nine straight years
without a playoff victory.

Speaker 3 (36:25):
Tim Ben's brought to you by Don's Appliances this morning
on DV. Benzie, thanks so much and appreciate you propping
up Mike Tomlin like that.

Speaker 15 (36:32):
Yeah, Hey, anything I can do because those of us
in the media, it's our job to, for the good
of the community, make the team feel better about itself.

Speaker 4 (36:41):
Glad you finally come to that realization. Welcome on board.

Speaker 17 (36:45):
It's time for the Steelers Daily Report on DVE, brought
to you by Calli and Pizza and Draft Holes, three
time world pizza champions and Steelers Pro Shop. Get it
direct from the team at shop dot Steelers dot com.
Here's Tom Offerman.

Speaker 18 (36:59):
The Steelers season end Monday night at the hands of
the Houston Texans. Thirty to six was your final score.
Houston's defense was as advertised, as they completely shut down
the Steelers offense, holding them to just one hundred and
seventy five yards of total offense and.

Speaker 1 (37:11):
Limiting them to just two for fourteen on third downs.

Speaker 18 (37:15):
The Texans pass rush was all over Aaron Rodgers, who
threw for just one hundred and forty six yards on
seventeen to thirty three passing. Houston sacked Rodgers four times
and had twelve quarterback hits. They also tacked on eight
tackles for loss as they completely blew up the Steelers
offensive line all night long. Defensively, the Steelers played decently
well in a game that entered the fourth quarter with
Houston leading just seven to six.

Speaker 1 (37:35):
They got adequate pressure on CJ.

Speaker 18 (37:36):
Strouds, sacking him three times and forced multiple turnovers. But
the biggest flaw by far on that side of the
ball was the inability to stop the run. Houston, who
averaged just three point nine yards per carry during the
regular season, averaged five point three against the Steelers as
they racked up one hundred and sixty four yards on
thirty one carries.

Speaker 1 (37:53):
And one rushing touchdown.

Speaker 18 (37:55):
The loss means the Steelers now have lost seven playoff
games straight as they continue to search for their first
season wins since the twenty sixteen season. I'm Tom Aframan
with the Steelers Report.

Speaker 9 (38:06):
Frock WDVEE, Pittsburgh at iHeartRadio station guaranteed human.

Speaker 7 (38:20):
Game Wills to his left, gets a snap back to
past four man rush.

Speaker 2 (38:23):
Rogers pumps throws and it is intercepted, picked off and
running back the other way. It's Bullock and Bullock down
the left sideline. Rogers tries to pump him. Bullock knocks
off of Rogers and sprints into the end zone.

Speaker 7 (38:36):
The coupde gras a fifty.

Speaker 2 (38:38):
One yard interception return, and the Texans have turned this
game into a route.

Speaker 3 (38:43):
Will that be the last throw that Aaron Rodgers ever
attempts in the NFL? Will that be the end of
a Hall of Fame career for mister Rogers.

Speaker 4 (38:59):
Mason Rudolph went in after that and cleaned up, So
that was it for it.

Speaker 3 (39:02):
I thought he would have tried to get him a
Bullock out of bounds a little bit, you know more,
you know, well, he would have tried harder to tackle
him and he just kind of olaid him, And I know,
I don't think that changes the outcome of the game.
Just his career doesn't have to end on that ugly
of a note.

Speaker 5 (39:19):
We'll find out if this is it for Rogers minutes
before the draft. That's really how it feels. It's gonna
be Rogers Watch all over again. And I like.

Speaker 3 (39:33):
The idea that like he's like because he said last night, like, oh,
you know, I'm not gonna make any emotional decisions.

Speaker 8 (39:40):
I'm just gonna those are the only decisions he makes,
you know, exclusively makes emotional decisions.

Speaker 3 (39:49):
And then like him just like walking on the beach
with the sad Hulk music playing behind him, or any
with a with a blanket and that dog that follows
him around that it might not be his dog.

Speaker 1 (40:05):
I don't know.

Speaker 8 (40:06):
It's not his dog, it's not his wife.

Speaker 6 (40:09):
I don't want to make fun of his wife's situation because.

Speaker 5 (40:12):
I don't think she was at that game.

Speaker 4 (40:15):
Maybe she's at all of them, and you just don't know.

Speaker 3 (40:18):
Here's my My take has always been, she wears the
steely mcbeam costume so that she can freely move him
on Steeler Nation. Oh my god, Yeah, exactly so that
he knew he could always look over to Steely and
tug his ear and she would, you know, wind right
back then.

Speaker 8 (40:37):
I have to tell you that raise Awadney and I
when we were off Mike yesterday kept saying that like,
if the result of last night's game didn't go well,
that we were going to pull the Uh.

Speaker 5 (40:48):
I never liked him.

Speaker 8 (40:50):
Like whenever your friend is dating somebody, yeah, kind of
have like a side eye about.

Speaker 5 (40:56):
If it doesn't go well, then be like.

Speaker 1 (40:58):
I always hated the kind of thing.

Speaker 8 (41:00):
And then if you get back together with him, be like, no, no,
I hate it the way he treated you.

Speaker 16 (41:06):
Yeah, that's what I meant.

Speaker 3 (41:08):
I think he's far from the biggest problem the Steelers
have right now. Running this back again next year is
going to be tough. Oh it's going to be tough.
Like with the Buckos, you just you're completely immune to
their futility. I mean, what they've done in this postseason
makes me think, hey, maybe this will be a fun
Bucko season. But we've just been beaten down by them

(41:31):
so much that the belief that they would actually change
anything long exited. So seeing it get run back the
same way each and every year is.

Speaker 1 (41:39):
Like, yep, they go again. What a shame.

Speaker 6 (41:41):
But there was this belief that the Steelers could turn
it around for those first four or five years. In
the last two or three it's been Hey, what the
what are we doing here?

Speaker 5 (41:50):
What is going on?

Speaker 3 (41:51):
And then there was something this year about Okay, maybe
we're making the right steps and moving forward and we're
getting the right talent because Mike tom came on this
radio show and said this defense would be historic, and
he was right for all the wrong reasons, because they
were historically bad at points and offensively, You're like, all right.

Speaker 6 (42:11):
Aaron Rodgers.

Speaker 3 (42:12):
We didn't know if he was going to be going
on McAfee and causing the distraction each week, and then
lo and behold, he didn't do any of that, and
he made it just about football and he became exactly
the guy they needed in the locker room because they
needed a daddy in there. They desperately did. And you
just saw everybody gravitate to him, like, oh, he's the best.
You know, there's a celebrity component to it, and all
his NFL success, it makes sense that everyone gravitated toward him,

(42:36):
and like he did the opposite of what he did
in New York. He seemed to really embrace that and
make it all about football. And maybe that's just a
little bit because Pittsburgh is that special of an environment.
So I thought, Okay, this is going to be good enough.
But my god, Arthur Smith's offense and lack of realization

(42:57):
that the two best components you have our game.

Speaker 6 (43:01):
Well and Warren and why we're not.

Speaker 3 (43:03):
Going through them all f and day, especially in a
game like that last night.

Speaker 6 (43:08):
Live to fight another day, punt if you have to.

Speaker 1 (43:11):
CJ.

Speaker 3 (43:11):
Stroud wanted to lose that game. It was a battle
of who is going to lose this game? Now, who's
gonna win it?

Speaker 1 (43:17):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (43:18):
CJ. Stroud looked like he had never played football for
stakes before ever. And just like the eye off the ball,
the snaps that he was dropping, Oh yeah, that's not
the It's like a bach in baseball, like you get
one in ten games and he had three last night.

Speaker 3 (43:37):
Offense couldn't capitalize on any of it. I mean, I
can't remember what our our points on turnovers were.

Speaker 1 (43:42):
I think I think it was three.

Speaker 4 (43:45):
I'm not sure if it was all six of our
six points at Tjy.

Speaker 5 (43:48):
Pumper recovery it's three points.

Speaker 3 (43:49):
Yeah, so Aaron Rodgers and the offense couldn't do anything.
DK Metcalf. Doesn't matter if DK's there, if they don't
have a number two. Gross negligence on Omar and Mike
Tomlin to not come up with a number two for
the second year in a row. I don't know how
you watched that last year with George Pickens and thought,
now we can do it again.

Speaker 5 (44:08):
If it's Dkay, it doesn't matter who it is to me.

Speaker 3 (44:11):
Jerry Rice in his prime, he had an offensive line
that was work in progress, but got enough done up
until that game last night in which they got absolutely manhandled.
But without Darnell Washington there, they seemed to be okay
with letting the line fen from themselves and not giving
the Edges any help.

Speaker 6 (44:29):
They started to in the beginning of the game, and
then they got away from it. And when did they
look good?

Speaker 5 (44:33):
In the beginning of the game.

Speaker 4 (44:35):
They were first.

Speaker 3 (44:37):
Drive, it looked like they were gonna roll right down
and score, and then they did on the second one.
Oh so aggravating it just it felt like they had
an opportunity to understand what was working and stick with
that kind of game plan and I'm not sure what
Arthur Smith thought. Why he thought dropping his forty two
year old quarterback back without you know, help enough times

(44:59):
and then empty seven on third and long and just
let them get teed off on I think terrible job
by the coaches last night. Number one game plan, bad
execution by the offensive line. Well, the old John mckaylyne,
I'm in favor of it. They were bad last night,
really bad, and they weren't doing anything special. There was
just four guys who were beating the hell out of them.

(45:21):
So the Steel season comes to an end, and I
hate to say that, you're probably going to see a
lot of the same people in charge next year. But
I cannot see them making a change as a business.
This is a successful formula for now. But I know
they were the fire Tomlin chance again last night. Do
you want to go through another season of that? If
things go wrong? What do you do to ensure that

(45:44):
they get off to a good start and stay there
next year? If you stay the course with Mike Tomlin,
who is it in the draft that you think you're
going to jump up and get You're a playoff team,
You're not gonna have a high draft position you're gonna
have to trade away all of those picks.

Speaker 4 (45:57):
You have to try and move up. What if you can't?
And do you take someone just because who do you love?

Speaker 5 (46:02):
Right now?

Speaker 3 (46:04):
A lot of people have Mendoza's the Heisman Trophy winner
as a third or fourth round guy.

Speaker 4 (46:10):
Who's the NFL quarterbow.

Speaker 3 (46:12):
I don't know about it was number one man. There's
there's there's guys saying like, I'm not saying he won't
go in that round.

Speaker 1 (46:21):
I'm saying he's.

Speaker 5 (46:22):
Kind of like the Kenny Pickett thing. Yeah, exactly, he's
made jump the gun yet, right, Uh.

Speaker 4 (46:26):
No, he'll go in the first round.

Speaker 3 (46:28):
But they're grading him like, you know, actually if you
take the hype away, which I don't. I never understood
that part. Like the reason there's hype is because he's good.
But is the NFL good?

Speaker 4 (46:40):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (46:40):
Aaron Rodgers definitely was, but he lost a step and
was vulnerable last night. He was pissed off. He didn't
have anybody open. What are you gonna do? Adam Thielen
was running in quicksand and Roman Wilson couldn't even get
a helmet.

Speaker 5 (46:56):
Fealen was like our you know, the guy most productive
receiver last night. I'm terrified at what might happen with
quarterback next year.

Speaker 4 (47:10):
What if it's Aaron Rodgers.

Speaker 5 (47:12):
I feel like it's Aaron Rodgers or Mac Jones right now,
or some mac Jones equivalent. And I'm not pumped about
that either. I don't know if it's Aaron Rodgers, and
I guess it would depend who's behind him.

Speaker 6 (47:27):
Kyler Murray.

Speaker 5 (47:29):
Kyler Murray is the antithesis of what Tomlin thinks of
when he thinks about a quarterback.

Speaker 3 (47:33):
Right, Yes, Kyler Murray would be his all time favorite
receiver short right?

Speaker 5 (47:39):
How are they going to bring Kyler Murray in? And
Calvin Austin is just towering over it.

Speaker 3 (47:45):
He's like Calvin Austen like, hey, can you get that
tape off the top shelf for me?

Speaker 1 (47:49):
Please?

Speaker 8 (47:50):
If it is Aaron Rodgers but it's not Arthur Smith,
are you excited?

Speaker 4 (47:56):
It depends who it is.

Speaker 3 (47:57):
Mike McDaniel and Aaron Rodgers with an actual legitimate receiving corps.

Speaker 4 (48:02):
Fine, But John Usmith was a joke.

Speaker 3 (48:04):
They didn't throw the ball to Friar Mouth all year
after paying him, and you know Mouth was the most
exciting tight end they had and that was largely a
component of what he was.

Speaker 4 (48:11):
Doing in the running game.

Speaker 1 (48:13):
We had all these tight ends and No.

Speaker 4 (48:14):
Number two, and we never used them.

Speaker 3 (48:16):
John Newsmith's abject failure, just an absolute joke all year.

Speaker 4 (48:20):
Wasn't even blocking what he was supposed to.

Speaker 3 (48:23):
I mean there were one or two times where he
came through and they used him interestingly on Samanda rounds
and things like that, but by and large failure. Their
free agent pickups were a disaster. Darius Slay was watching
the game in Philadelphia on the sidelines this weekend as
a member of the Buffalo Bills. It's not coaching that's

(48:44):
the biggest problem. It's talent assessment. They're awful at it.
They are terrible at it.

Speaker 6 (48:50):
Is does Peyton Wilson make you think he's going to
be the second Coming?

Speaker 4 (48:53):
He can't play on rundowns.

Speaker 5 (48:56):
The hype around Peyton Wilson in the office isn't in
camp was crazy.

Speaker 3 (49:02):
Patrick Wilson probably led and tackles this year or not.
Patrick was Patrick Queen. Yeah, but is he worth the
biggest free agent contract that we've ever given anybody before?
Dk Eckles made more plays on defense than a lot
of the big name guys. Jalen Ramsey ended up using

(49:23):
its safety all year. You thought he was going to
be another shutdown corner. Joey Porter Jr. Awesome and another
awesome game last night. Yeah, but defensively like Harmon, Okay,
he's great. Cam had an unbelievable year again, you know,
second team All Pro. The edge rushers are great. There's
a lot of holes on defense that I think also

(49:46):
with TJ. Watt, I'm not sure that they ever utilize
him in a way that gets him from being chipped
and rendered ineffective too often in a game. The Browns
do things to get Miles Garrett freed up, and I
don't think defensively the Steelers did anything interesting to do
that for TJ.

Speaker 1 (50:05):
Watt.

Speaker 3 (50:05):
I don't know if it's like a Sydney Crosby thing,
like hmm, I don't want to play there now, this
is how I do it, Or if it's just Tara
Austin going no, he'll be okay, and he'll take two
or three guys and then everyone else will do their job.

Speaker 5 (50:17):
Yeah, I could see that.

Speaker 3 (50:19):
Pat Meyer, I used to bash all the time, but
I thought that offensive line came pretty far this year.

Speaker 4 (50:23):
Until last night, and they were terrible.

Speaker 6 (50:26):
Jalen Warren revelation Kenny Gainwell best pickup they've had, and
I mean there's a reason he's the team MVP.

Speaker 3 (50:33):
Andy on special teams weightment over Cam Johnson. Great decision. Yeah,
but they never had a threat as a returner.

Speaker 4 (50:43):
They don't have any.

Speaker 3 (50:46):
Explosive players on offense. I don't understand what's gonna change
if we move forward with the same regime. I just
don't unless you think, like, well, it's there's a percentage
of a chance that you need to have. You need
a lottery ticket, and Mike Tomlin gets you that lottery

(51:07):
ticket every year, and then it's anybody's ballgame. And that
seems to be their mo o. We're good enough to
get to the dance and then maybe we'll get laid.
But they forgot there's more to it.

Speaker 5 (51:21):
Yeah, you more likely to be back next year Arthur
Smith or Terror Austin.

Speaker 4 (51:29):
I feel like Terall Austin is more likely to be
back than Arthur Smith.

Speaker 3 (51:33):
Because of opportunity for Arthur Smith, and I wouldn't be
surprised if he jumps ship if given a parallel opportunity,
if able, but he's not like getting interviewed by every team, right,
he interviewed by the Titans. It's not like he's on
the coaching carousel unless people were waiting to find out.

Speaker 1 (51:55):
But I don't think.

Speaker 3 (51:55):
I don't think anything's gonna change. I think they're just
gonna say, no, all right, we know what we did
wrong last year, and we got to try to do better.
And it just boils down a talent assessment. Way too
many misses in the draft, way too many. You look
at some of these teams that are being effective in
the postseason, and they are loaded for bear, with solid
players all over the board.

Speaker 6 (52:14):
The Steelers have guys who you're like, wow, hopefully you'll
be able to figure it out.

Speaker 3 (52:19):
You know, they're thirty five years old, and a Sante
Samuel trying to avoid any contact in the secondary last night,
driving me absolutely nuts.

Speaker 4 (52:28):
There's only so much you can do about injury.

Speaker 6 (52:30):
But their talent assessment has just been so garbage for
a couple of years. And I hate to keep harping
on it, but I'm pissed, just like everybody else who
didn't sleep and stayed up and watch that last night.
I don't want Aaron Rodgers to return because it's just
a there's a ceiling on this, I agree, And how
he made it through this year, I don't know. It's

(52:50):
a miracle to me.

Speaker 3 (52:52):
He's not the kind of forty two that you're like
Tom Brady, like, oh, he can come back. And I
think he could come back and still throw the ball.
And even though he was a little more mobile than
I thought he would be in the last couple of
weeks especially, I think he's gonna get better at it.
He's just you're just waiting to put your backup in

(53:13):
with Aaron Rodgers next next year. Somehow you survived this year.
And he wasn't great when he did have open receivers
last night and a few times this year. You know
that the Browns game, the Browns game, the Chargers game,
when he was off the entire time. This was another
huge second half let down. And like when I think

(53:34):
about the scoring chart of last night's game, down seven
to six, Okay, we can manufacture a bs field goal here,
down ten to six, well, still totally possible. When they
went down eleven, it felt like they were down by
a thousand points.

Speaker 4 (53:51):
No scoring.

Speaker 3 (53:52):
In the third quarter, they gave up twenty three to
the Texans in the fourth quarter last.

Speaker 4 (53:57):
Night, I collapse.

Speaker 3 (53:59):
Jequavius marks one hundred and twelve yards rushing, Christian Kirk
destroyed them one hundred and forty four yards receiving, And
the defense wasn't really the problem. The offense never made
you think they were going to be a threat. That's
a very good defense. They should have been able to
do more than that. Where Wasmuth? How do you not

(54:22):
work him into the equation a little bit more? Just
a very unevent un un inventive offense from Arthur Smith.
See some of the plays that houstons running and you're like, yeah,
that got that guy open right there. It's a nice uh,
nice route, Like what routes was was John new Smith

(54:43):
running all year long, free yard out in the flat
turn around.

Speaker 1 (54:48):
And wait what they did?

Speaker 4 (54:52):
Why did we get this guy?

Speaker 1 (54:54):
Why did we spend all this money on this dude?

Speaker 6 (54:56):
Wait and never look ready.

Speaker 5 (55:01):
Miss blocks, Yeah, fall start, critical false start last night,
absolute joke.

Speaker 3 (55:08):
But Mike Tomlin is a Hey, he's a Hall of
Fame coach and he's coming back if he wants to.

Speaker 4 (55:12):
Everybody knows that.

Speaker 1 (55:14):
The question is does he want to?

Speaker 8 (55:18):
With how many firings we've seen and this little like
you know, spin the lazy season in the AFC, like
I mean other coaches that are available, like has your
mind been running at all?

Speaker 15 (55:30):
Here?

Speaker 4 (55:31):
They missed the big chance for the coach that their
next Chuck No. Was Mike Ramble.

Speaker 3 (55:36):
And when he was available, it was like bad timing
because you knew that Tomlin hadn't done enough to get
fired yet, but he was headed in that direction and
they had a guy who could have been the perfect
Steeler coach, and uh, it was not to be. Now,
Like Damashek was saying, Ben Johnson was, I'm not so sure.

(55:58):
I mean, what Ben Johnson is doing in Chicago remarkable
and with that team it works. I'm not so sure
if he is going to be the guy long term.
I don't know about his style yet, you know, like
there's not I'm not sure if that works when there's.

Speaker 4 (56:11):
Less talent on the team. I feel like he could
lose a team. I don't know yet. He might be
the second coming.

Speaker 3 (56:19):
But Rabel is a guy who gets teams who aren't
that great to play way above their talent level, I think,
and he gets guys to believe that Patriots team is
pretty well coached and what he's done with Drake May
in terms of developing a quarterback, which is what you're
gonna need someone to do.

Speaker 4 (56:36):
Who is Tomlin developed?

Speaker 5 (56:40):
Not Mason?

Speaker 6 (56:43):
Hey, he was one for one last night. He's got
a QBR seventy one. Don't you besmirch Mason?

Speaker 1 (56:48):
I'm not.

Speaker 3 (56:49):
And his mustache and all the mirth that he brought
to that locker room. Mason and his mirth were one
of the few bright spots this year.

Speaker 5 (57:00):
When he went in the game, I opened Twitter out
of boredom and was immediately comforted by the picture of
him holding the jackfruit in overalls.

Speaker 6 (57:10):
With penny loafers on. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I didn't even
know people wear penny loafers. And do you put the
penny in the penny loafer?

Speaker 8 (57:17):
Mason does and that's all that matters.

Speaker 4 (57:21):
Thank God for Mason's mirth.

Speaker 3 (57:23):
The Steelers with another disappointing one and done in the postseason.

Speaker 5 (57:28):
This was a winnable game for them, and that was
the frustrating part. When it was seven to six.

Speaker 3 (57:34):
Pat muldowney, who's pittsburgher who's been working for Fox had
worked for Fox Sports for many year, tweeted out last night.
I don't know how to explain this to somebody who's
not watching, but the Steelers are currently getting their ass
kicked seven to six, and I thought that was the
perfect description of that game.

Speaker 4 (57:52):
At no point did you believe that they were going
to start rolling on that Houston defense.

Speaker 6 (57:57):
There was exposing us.

Speaker 3 (57:59):
If I was Miko Ryan, in fact, I would have
been way more conservative with the Houston offense because the
only trouble they were getting in was c J.

Speaker 6 (58:07):
Stroud making colossal mistakes.

Speaker 5 (58:09):
I think they simplified when CJ. Stroud was starting to
get the yips there, they you know, they shortened the
playbook and did things that he was absolutely going to complete.

Speaker 4 (58:21):
I mean never, we never go downfield. Never the end
of the game.

Speaker 3 (58:26):
They did out of desperation. At that point's too late.
There's no weapons, the team is poorly constructed. They got
to figure this out, and I'm sure they will. And
I feel really good about this year.

Speaker 1 (58:38):
Guys.

Speaker 3 (58:39):
I'm just saying, you know, we'll be back and we'll
feel good about whatever the hell they're doing.

Speaker 6 (58:45):
And at the time, we're idiots. Everything they did seemed
like it was great.

Speaker 19 (58:49):
Darius Slay was on a Super Bowl champion last year,
our secondary and now we got Ramsey back there too. Dude,
it's gonna be nuts. Wan Thornhill was just banged up exactly,
and it was.

Speaker 1 (59:01):
It was a nightmare.

Speaker 4 (59:02):
They're free agents.

Speaker 3 (59:03):
That I mean they batted what probably like five hundred
on free agent pickups this year.

Speaker 16 (59:06):
Yeah, what.

Speaker 1 (59:09):
Which isn't good enough?

Speaker 3 (59:10):
Yeah, I mean, I mean five hundred played, you know
what I mean, not like five hundred like they were
great and you know the other.

Speaker 4 (59:17):
Half weren't count.

Speaker 5 (59:18):
Dugger is a hit. Dougger is a hit.

Speaker 4 (59:20):
They couldn't even get on the field though the last
couple of weeks.

Speaker 3 (59:22):
Yeah, I don't know if something was up with him
or not, but I thought the first couple of weeks
he made his splash. Yeah, I think that. You know,
not having Elliott was big. Ah man, Yes, that really
screwed things up. But at no point going into the
season where you're like the corner stone on the defense
is gonna be Elliott. No impact player though, Yep, Ecles

(59:44):
was the same way. Eckles would always make a big play,
came up with another big one last night, and then
he would get hurt and be out for two weeks
every single time. The problem is it's going to be
super annoying to listen to the Mike Tomlin discourse for
another year.

Speaker 4 (59:57):
If he's coming back, I terrible.

Speaker 3 (01:00:00):
It's just going to be overwhelming because I don't know
if there's any Steeler fans who are super excited to
see Mike Tomlin come back right now.

Speaker 4 (01:00:12):
And that's a problem.

Speaker 5 (01:00:14):
But he's got another year, Yeah he's not. I mean,
so it would have.

Speaker 8 (01:00:19):
To be him choosing at this point.

Speaker 4 (01:00:21):
It's him choosing, and your fan base is not excited
about it.

Speaker 1 (01:00:25):
They were.

Speaker 4 (01:00:25):
There was a smattering of fire Tomlin going on again
last night, but.

Speaker 5 (01:00:29):
Not as bad as the Bills game.

Speaker 4 (01:00:30):
No, okay, And that's a tough position to be in.

Speaker 3 (01:00:35):
You have to really put together an incredible squad and
last year that was the predicament they were in and
their their end result did not bear out.

Speaker 5 (01:00:47):
Again.

Speaker 3 (01:00:48):
This year was a failure the Aaron Rodgers experiment. I
guess you could call it a failure because they didn't
win a playoff game. And if they had Mason Rudolph
as their starting quarterback this year, how much different would
it have been.

Speaker 5 (01:01:00):
I don't know.

Speaker 6 (01:01:01):
They might not even made the postseason, but they would
have had a better draft position.

Speaker 4 (01:01:05):
So it's this constant purgatory.

Speaker 3 (01:01:09):
Of never good enough to do anything substantial in the
postseason and never bad enough to make wholesale changes. And
that's what it's like to be a Pittsburgh Steeler fan
for an entire generation of Steeler fans. Now at this point,
we're coming up on ten frickin' years. That is a

(01:01:32):
lot and part of what I think the elation of
what last week was. Certainly it was knocking the Ravens out.
Like I said, the manner in which that game unfolded,
it was just so drama filled, got Harbaugh fired, felt
like a playoff game because it's winning. In part of
it was just remembering that we used to have that

(01:01:53):
feeling all the time, but forgetting what it was like,
and the whole town remembered we used to do you
like this every year. Four years we'd go into the
playoffs and we were gonna win one, maybe two games,
and it was just get to the championship game and
then you know, that is your lottery ticket. Now it's

(01:02:14):
like we might sneak into the wild card if Houston
can beat Indianapolis with their backup quarterback, and then if
the Chargers, you know, all of these scenarios have to
play out for us to even sniff the postseason A.
Winning the AFC North this year atop the division, taking
the AFC North crown felt like, finally, okay, we determined

(01:02:39):
our own destiny.

Speaker 1 (01:02:40):
This year is gonna be different notes not.

Speaker 5 (01:02:45):
So frustrating.

Speaker 4 (01:02:48):
Yeah, how do you run that back again?

Speaker 1 (01:02:51):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:02:52):
I mean you have to look at it without emotion
and from a business standpoint, where their butts in the
sea eat all year. Of course, stadium's packed. They win
enough games that plenty of people go. Television ratings pretty high.

(01:03:13):
People love the Steelers, put them in primetime quite a bit.
It's the bob nutting thing.

Speaker 6 (01:03:20):
At some point, Well, we're making a lot of money doing.

Speaker 1 (01:03:24):
This, but at some point it's going to turn around.

Speaker 5 (01:03:29):
It's the slow creep into the vibe and energy that
they have now. It's like if you zapped yourself back
to ten years ago when they beat the Chiefs, which
they had to do because Alex Smith was the quarterback.

Speaker 6 (01:03:42):
That's a must win play.

Speaker 5 (01:03:43):
Yeah yeah, and then you know comparing that feeling to now, Yeah,
the slow just the amount of Tomlin detractors, the everything
going on, Oh no, franchise quarterback Steelers Twitter is.

Speaker 3 (01:03:58):
Going to be unbare urable for another year. But this
three week period here going into the super Bowl is
gonna be I might have to mute eight hundred accounts.

Speaker 1 (01:04:11):
Yeah, this is gonna be the same thing.

Speaker 3 (01:04:13):
Get rid of them doing the same thing over and
over and expecting a different result is a definition of insanity.

Speaker 5 (01:04:21):
I yet news stories when podcasters hire skyriders to do
fire Tomlin.

Speaker 3 (01:04:28):
Yeah, yeah, well that's what I thought it had been
funny is you know how the controversy over Liam Cohen
having that woman from the Jacksonville Free Press in there going.

Speaker 1 (01:04:38):
You did good baby, you know whatever.

Speaker 3 (01:04:40):
She was like, you know yeah, she was like, you know,
a hilariously sort of comforting woman in the press room,
which created that whole you know, kerfuffal online, which I
think is insane. But the Steelers version of that would
have been like Kevin Adams and Jersey Jerry going, Hey,
I just want to let you know that we put

(01:05:01):
together a go fund me to buy billboards to say
you suck and you should be fired all over so
hang your head low and just we just want to.

Speaker 5 (01:05:08):
Let you know that we are fomenting a movement to
get you out of town.

Speaker 6 (01:05:15):
So just so you know that, I don't have a question. Actually,
this is what the pressure room is now. We just
tell you whether you're good or bad. In your bad
and you suck and we hate you.

Speaker 3 (01:05:26):
And there's goetna be t shirts that we're selling right
now on our website that say tire Fomlin.

Speaker 5 (01:05:34):
My quick announcement for you just not engaging him in
a question. My quick announcement. We're going to buy the
pond of hockey billboard and we're going to defame you.
We're going to come after you pretty hard. Nothing's off limits,
So just you know, keep an eye out. Early next
week is what it's looking like it and that's my time.

(01:05:55):
I'll turn it over to you, coach. Yeah yeah, Steelers
Round dot com over here.

Speaker 3 (01:06:01):
Just want to let you know we are praying for
your demise as a coach, hoping that you're really deciding
to go into TV this year.

Speaker 1 (01:06:10):
I have no question.

Speaker 6 (01:06:10):
This is comments, this is what people want.

Speaker 3 (01:06:14):
I just want to let you know that we're tired
of your BS and that you play old, old people
who aren't good anymore because they're they like you because
you hired them. Like collecting old dogs that nobody wants
to adopt. No question at this time. It's just that
you're terrible.

Speaker 5 (01:06:30):
Thank you, Mike Steelerarsenal dot blogspot dot com. I just
want to say I actually we held a seance last night.
I paid a few Wiccan priestesses to curse you and
a family again. Not a question, not a question, just

(01:06:56):
bad job. Just wanted to say, bad job.

Speaker 1 (01:06:58):
That's it.

Speaker 6 (01:06:59):
Live from the Don's Appliances Studios, where Pittsburgh shops for appliances.

Speaker 1 (01:07:04):
This is w DVEE Pittsburgh. Can you play the greatest
song in the world for me only if you can
dick it.

Speaker 6 (01:07:12):
Let us know your lunch requests on our socials phone
or the talkback.

Speaker 1 (01:07:16):
Button on the iHeart radio app that one you picked.
This songs on the Electric.

Speaker 10 (01:07:21):
Lunch at noon on DV from the Seedon Hill University
Weather Center.

Speaker 1 (01:07:26):
Schedule your campus visit today.

Speaker 8 (01:07:29):
This report is sponsored by Mattress Firm.

Speaker 4 (01:07:31):
Gotta be partly clouding to mostly.

Speaker 6 (01:07:33):
Okay, all right, you know, look, we're we're calming down.

Speaker 1 (01:07:36):
It could be fine.

Speaker 4 (01:07:37):
No, no, we're not.

Speaker 3 (01:07:39):
The more I see online the angry I'm getting Mike
pursuit of joining us now for postgame reaction from last night,
Steelers lost to the Houston Texas thirty to six at
Acriscuer Stadium, and the crowd was never really into it
in the second half, and who could blame.

Speaker 12 (01:07:57):
Them, didn't have a reason to get into it. Yeah,
it did feel like they were a million miles behind
when it was seven to six. Yeah, and ten six,
but the potential was there to steal the game, and
they just couldn't even again like the Cleveland game, couldn't
come up with one touchdown.

Speaker 1 (01:08:14):
Hard to win that way.

Speaker 4 (01:08:15):
I just don't know what you how do you say? Okay,
Arthur Smith, let's do that again.

Speaker 12 (01:08:21):
Yeah, I think there are going to be changes. I
don't think it'll be the head coach unless he wants
to change. And Mike Tomlin well, in the midst of
his immediate aftermath, I should say, of his seventh straight
playoff disappointment, he wasn't really interested in contemplating his future.

Speaker 13 (01:08:40):
I'm not even in that mindset as I sit here tonight.
I'm more in the mindset of what transpired in this stadium.
And you know, certainly what we did and didn't do,
not a big picture mentality.

Speaker 1 (01:08:51):
Is he here tonight?

Speaker 12 (01:08:53):
Aaron Rodgers wasn't much interested in contemplating his future either,
but Rodgers was adamant and extensive and insisting there shouldn't
be any question about Tomlin.

Speaker 14 (01:09:04):
I mean this, this league has changed a lot my
twenty one years. You know, when you hear conversation about
the the Mike Tomlin's of the world, Matt Lafleur's of
the world, those are just two that kind of played
for And when I first got in the league, there
wouldn't be a conversation about whether those guys were on

(01:09:26):
the hot seat, you know. But the way that the
league is covered now and the way that there's snap
decisions and validitally given to the you know, the Twitter
experts and all the you know experts on TV now
who who who make it seem like they know what
the hell they're talking about. To me, that's an absolute joke.

(01:09:46):
And for either of those two guys to be on
the hot seat is is really an apropos of where
we're at as a society and the league. Because obviously
Matt's done a lot of great things and we had
a lot of success. Mike T's had more success, and
damn there anybody in the league you know from for

(01:10:07):
the last nineteen twenty years and more than that. Though,
when you have the right guy and the culture is right,
you don't think about making a change. But there's a
lot of pressure that comes from the outside, and obviously
that sways decisions from time to time. But it's not
how I would do things, and not how the league.

Speaker 1 (01:10:26):
Used to be.

Speaker 12 (01:10:28):
Rogers apparently had set his piece regarding Mike Tomlin at
that juncture, because another thing he wasn't interested in entertaining
was a follow up question about Tomlin.

Speaker 14 (01:10:40):
And I've answered that a number of times. I've talked
extensively about I feel about Mike and I.

Speaker 5 (01:10:48):
And I just did that an answer so ool, sassy.

Speaker 6 (01:10:55):
Keet that woman from Jacksonville up here, Yeah, jack the
Jacksonville love fest right the hot seat.

Speaker 8 (01:11:06):
Maybe you do all the drugs now, you take all
the time you need, You get in the darkness and
you do whatever you need.

Speaker 1 (01:11:12):
You trib fun with that in the press box before
the game. I'm sure.

Speaker 4 (01:11:21):
The contests of the press is.

Speaker 1 (01:11:24):
Society. People are defending it, particularly people in the media.

Speaker 3 (01:11:28):
I just have well, I think that, Uh, I think
that it's a lot of people arguing different points that
you know that. I think people are genuinely okay with
positivity and any sort of kindness sentiment being expressed. It's

(01:11:48):
just context, that's all, and people's misunderstanding what context is
or is. Like McAfee and those guys were like, this
is the greatest thing ever, but that is that. Well,
I mean I like all those guys. I like all
those guys, but like, I think they do a job
separate of what the job is being done in there,

(01:12:10):
do you know what I mean? Like it would be
like if somebody burst into a an operating room and
they were like, you know what, I just want to.

Speaker 6 (01:12:20):
Let the patient know before he goes under. You're doing
great and everything's fine.

Speaker 3 (01:12:23):
It's like, okay, this that that's a nice sentiment, but
we're actually doing something different in here than what you're doing.
And the difference is is that the old media and
this the newer media have been sort of melded together
in a way like that in a way that the
old media is not really okay with and they're kind

(01:12:49):
of getting the bank together. Yeah, no, I agree on level,
but it's it's not just sports.

Speaker 6 (01:12:55):
Yes, and this is a minor and that's where people like,
we're so outraged the little hair sticking out of the
goiter on your nose, right, I mean yeah, but if
you have a nose goiter, I just want to say,
you know, I had mine removed from the doctor will
up in Wexford.

Speaker 1 (01:13:13):
Yes, now I get it. I get it.

Speaker 6 (01:13:17):
It's a very frustrating morning, frustrating day, frustrating to be
a Stealer fan right now, losing in a valiant effort.

Speaker 4 (01:13:25):
I would have been okay with Now you wouldn't more
than this because it's.

Speaker 13 (01:13:33):
Now.

Speaker 4 (01:13:33):
It doesn't point to like we've never learned our lesson.

Speaker 8 (01:13:39):
Yeah, it's a Randy's point. It makes it so that
we don't have any assurances that anything will change.

Speaker 4 (01:13:51):
Exactly we went are How many of those do you
have in life? Assurance?

Speaker 6 (01:13:59):
You trying to trust me?

Speaker 12 (01:14:02):
If they got beat twenty seven to twenty six on
a fifty nine yard field goal at the gun, you'd
feel worse and just you're gonna be picking three or
four plays.

Speaker 1 (01:14:10):
Why did they do this?

Speaker 3 (01:14:11):
Did they do that?

Speaker 1 (01:14:12):
Oh my god, we're so close?

Speaker 4 (01:14:14):
Well, okay, we were so close?

Speaker 3 (01:14:16):
Is not something I uttered at all last night and
we were down by one point for most of the game,
and I was like, we're getting our ass kick, yeah,
and we're down by a point.

Speaker 4 (01:14:25):
How is Houston not up by twenty? Asked meat belt?

Speaker 1 (01:14:32):
All right? Do you have to do phrase now something
like that? Look it is now.

Speaker 4 (01:14:36):
It's to ask spelled to ask, not ask meat belt.

Speaker 8 (01:14:42):
It is now and now it's asked meat belt Now.

Speaker 3 (01:14:44):
That's kinky wrestling in Lawrence fell ass wet belt belt
Ass screwed.

Speaker 1 (01:14:50):
That up because Ma Man gave me a lot of
experience with that.

Speaker 4 (01:14:53):
Jean's sterotor joining us when we come back here.

Speaker 1 (01:14:55):
On DV, we get it.

Speaker 6 (01:14:57):
Some of you tune in at one O two point
five and others listen to their smart device.

Speaker 1 (01:15:02):
No matter how you listen, it's for.

Speaker 6 (01:15:05):
Rocker is w DV is always rocked and always well rocked.

Speaker 8 (01:15:09):
Dv E Playoff Football hits different than.

Speaker 6 (01:15:13):
Raders one er two point five DV.

Speaker 3 (01:15:19):
Our next guest is brought to you by Schneider Down.
See what big thinking with a personal focus can do
for you from the NFL on CBS.

Speaker 6 (01:15:31):
It's Geneing the reviewing mescy geez Ratar Morny Gino, how
are you.

Speaker 16 (01:15:40):
The Reds it going, buddy?

Speaker 5 (01:15:41):
I mean, I'm miserable. That was awful.

Speaker 3 (01:15:45):
It doesn't give me any hope that anything's ever gonna change,
and it just seems like I'm rooting for. You know,
two of the three teams I'm rooting for won't learn
anything from their mistakes, and I'm doomed to be in
this Sissifian uh fan.

Speaker 6 (01:15:59):
It's period the rest of my life.

Speaker 1 (01:16:04):
Other than that the D I mean, how things going, Yeah, yeah,
pretty good? I mean New Year's back.

Speaker 6 (01:16:09):
You can't really complain. Well, let me let me let
me let.

Speaker 1 (01:16:14):
Me ask you this.

Speaker 3 (01:16:15):
You know, the first one I want to ask you
about is the Calvin Austin play where you know, Aaron
and Calvin were trying to get.

Speaker 4 (01:16:23):
A p I call there and who was the It
was a Dean Blanding.

Speaker 1 (01:16:29):
Who was on the I don't know is that the game?

Speaker 4 (01:16:31):
I don't know who's the official.

Speaker 1 (01:16:33):
DFP last night? I think is Russell York Russe.

Speaker 3 (01:16:37):
He said oh yeah, He's like, oh yeah, no, no,
this is not passing interference. Their feet got tangled.

Speaker 6 (01:16:42):
No interference, but you can see the dB kind of
yanking his shoulder passed down his shoulder.

Speaker 1 (01:16:46):
Grabbing a turn. What's the Eugene.

Speaker 16 (01:16:49):
I think that the ball was two and a half
fiords in front of Calvin Austin, and I'm just perplexed
from a football standpoint that he slowed down at that point.
On agreed, and to me it appeared that he was
looking to play make a play for a foul instead
of making a play on a ball. When you had
a step on your d back and the ball was

(01:17:10):
thrown ahead of you to accelerate, why are you decelerating
five yards before the catch point to try to draw
something when the football is in front of you and
your defensive back is behind you.

Speaker 1 (01:17:23):
Wait a minute.

Speaker 12 (01:17:24):
You trying to say that it's not always the official
screwed up, that sometimes the players aren't good enough that
it's their own fault.

Speaker 4 (01:17:31):
Can't both be true?

Speaker 16 (01:17:33):
Yeah, sometimes we make these slit second decisions and then
we get to watch them over and over again and
ask the big whyse I thought there's some contact there?
I quite honestly, I really didn't think there was a
lot of pass interference situation on that play. I think
the football is in front of him, and I think
they're trying to. I think they're trying to play for
a penalty on the play, like I said, on a

(01:17:56):
route where he beat he beat his d back. I
mean he had a step on and you got a
quarterback at that point. That's letting this rock go, knowing
your speed, knowing your timing, and knowing where that football
should be provided you continue to finish your route. And
I think he pulls up and I think that's the
difference in the yard and a half. Now, whether he
makes the player or not, I can't tell you that,

(01:18:16):
but it was rather perplexing that he pulled up five
yards before that football got to where it got and
that football was a yard and a half in front
of him.

Speaker 1 (01:18:24):
That's one of those things like winners want the ball,
you know, and and.

Speaker 3 (01:18:29):
Well, look, the fear gets gets into you sometimes, and
I think you think you can kind of weasele your
way into a big play like Limas Swede.

Speaker 4 (01:18:37):
But I like Calvin Austin a lot.

Speaker 1 (01:18:40):
I agree with you there also. I think it was interference.

Speaker 6 (01:18:43):
Okay, so this the other thing, the fumble, stripsack touchdown,
the big man touchdown for the Houston Texans last night,
Aaron Rodgers appeared to take a shot to the head.

Speaker 1 (01:18:55):
Jean, let's say you.

Speaker 16 (01:18:57):
Yeah, but you're also now at that place you're kind
of tucking it away, and there's a lot of bodies
that that's a really hard play, the ref rand because
as he did, Yeah, it's it is a hard play,
you know, I don't I don't know that that's a
roughing the pass or play when that when that pocket
collapses like that an arms stark failing in there, and
you're you're you don't feel as much like a defenseless

(01:19:20):
player passer and in that moment, I would say, but
again looking back as their contact to his head, Yes,
I don't know though that it didn't feel like it
jumped off. Let's put it this way. I didn't feel
like it jumped off the screen at me. As you
watched that collapse, you know, it looked like a football.

Speaker 1 (01:19:37):
Play, you know. Yeah, gee none.

Speaker 12 (01:19:40):
Still a related question, have you ever had an analyst
situation such as the one you had at the end
of the first half in Jacksonville?

Speaker 1 (01:19:50):
And what's your regard like you would how do you mean?

Speaker 12 (01:19:53):
Yeah, did they get the snap off and one of
the guys off side?

Speaker 1 (01:19:56):
Now that was wild. I was watching that night.

Speaker 6 (01:19:59):
Yeah, do you have access to anything that we don't
see or.

Speaker 1 (01:20:03):
Is it just no no, because we don't go to tents, Mike.

Speaker 16 (01:20:06):
You know, I just started to rewind feverishly trying to
put the play in its proper bucket. Because when the
defense on a hurry up situation is behind the offensive
line and trying to get between tackles or guards to
get back online, and they end up because the offense
is legally set and a defensive players either trying to
wiggle through like he's in a crowd of people and

(01:20:26):
get between a tackle and a guard or something, but
he's on the offensive side.

Speaker 1 (01:20:30):
Of the ball.

Speaker 16 (01:20:31):
It is a dead ball file that immediately is blown
dead as soon as the censor starts to move the
football because he basically, by rule, is kind of what
we would call unabated because he's on the wrong side
of the football. So it has nothing to do with
the ball being spiked. It has nothing to do with
how long it takes him to snap the rocket. It's
all down to as soon as that center starts to
move the football, it's over. It's a dead play. And

(01:20:53):
it is really like if that was a frame by
frame play in the center does just start to hitch
even kind of what would be an illegal snap, right,
I mean or something and the defenses on the other side,
and again all the great technology, does it mean now
every stadium gets retrofitted with tens of a second inside
of one second?

Speaker 1 (01:21:13):
You know, because is there one? There is there? Zero?
There we in that space in between and what does
that mean? Thing?

Speaker 16 (01:21:21):
I think most times more than not, probably in the past,
just because you know, we don't die sick things are happening.
Back then, this was just a half overplay, you know,
and then you didn't go all the way down.

Speaker 1 (01:21:31):
The rabbit hole.

Speaker 16 (01:21:32):
But we know how we live in this day and
age with every hundredth of a second is as a
light year. So it was really close, and I really
thought that the center kind of flinched before I could
see a full zero, you know, where it sat in
between there.

Speaker 1 (01:21:45):
I couldn't tell you.

Speaker 3 (01:21:47):
How did you feel the weekends officiating went like from
a grade standpoint, yeah, there, you know, there was you know,
Mike just reference one of the questionable scenarios. That was
a bald don't lie moment though with Kim Little missing
the field goal after it was you know, but yeah,
what did you think by in large of the Zebra's

(01:22:07):
job this weekend.

Speaker 16 (01:22:09):
I thought it was you know, look, I talked to
a good bit of them, not that it meant that much,
but I really did think that this week was played
where they kind of fished for the whales and not
the minnos. Overall, you know, it didn't feel like a
bunch of ticky toc stuff. I thought they let d
Bachs play, and I thought they refereed and got big
plays right and manage games, and I thought it was

(01:22:31):
just this was maybe the most exciting I thought, outside
of really the last two games where the points spread
changed after three quarters of football and the score maybe
wasn't a reflection of the majority of the game, which
was one possession games, and then the other ones were
just unbelievable wild card games. And no one is really
talking about officiating today, right, like nobody impacted the outcome

(01:22:56):
of the game this week. That's kind of the space
you live in right now for the next couple of weeks,
is you know, be anonymous, get your stuff right. Yep,
there's gonna be a couple of hiccups. Let's not miss
the big ones. Get the big ones leave the little
stuff alone. And I thought they did that this week.

Speaker 3 (01:23:12):
First four games pretty good, last two not so great.
But man, the entertainment value of those first four games
pretty incredible.

Speaker 1 (01:23:21):
Yes, one percent.

Speaker 16 (01:23:22):
I think we've got good matchups going ahead. And you know,
last night it's a hard game. Man, it's seven to six,
and it's a you know, it's an ass kicking kind
of game and nasty game and and it makes every
little play.

Speaker 1 (01:23:33):
I thought the DK drop early in.

Speaker 16 (01:23:35):
The game looking back now, naturally right, Like it's like
when you have games like that, it's that one drive
where that one scenario and CJ. Stroud looked as shook
as you could see a quarterback look. And that wasn't
just because he was nervous about being in the playoffs.
It's because he was looking to see where TJ. Hassmit
that someone was as the ball was being snapped.

Speaker 1 (01:23:55):
You know he was, he was that concerned.

Speaker 16 (01:23:58):
You can see that human element cut creeping in those
zoom and plays in his eyes, wondering where the next
threat was coming from, and the tables set in so
many ways, you just needed to get over the hump.
But I don't know what point, Mikey, you would know
the stats, but third down conversions, right, and games like that,
it's extended drive. It's one more possession, maybe one more series,

(01:24:20):
so I can punt the football from the forty and
not my own twenty, which flips a game like that.

Speaker 1 (01:24:26):
You know, it's a different type of game.

Speaker 16 (01:24:28):
And at the end, that defense just created turnovers that
we're used to seeing our defense create when we may
not have a great offensive day, which they did early.
You know, Houston's defense did it and did what we
normally do too and get points out of it. Like
if you guys can't score tonight, will score for you.

Speaker 1 (01:24:47):
And I thought Houston did that.

Speaker 12 (01:24:49):
See and I'm glad you used the plural and third
down conversions because they did get two of them.

Speaker 1 (01:24:54):
There were two of them, Like is that what the finals?
There you go?

Speaker 6 (01:25:01):
When they got one in the it was like like
in the second half to Scantlon, like it felt like
a glass of water in the desert, and it was
like a way late in the game, like, oh my god, I.

Speaker 1 (01:25:16):
Never thought that was gonna happen.

Speaker 6 (01:25:17):
We converted. That's why I described the Steelers offense last
night as a fish flopping around on the deck of
a boat.

Speaker 4 (01:25:26):
With no chance of getting back in the waters.

Speaker 6 (01:25:29):
Were trying nothing, just can't get over the side of
the boat.

Speaker 12 (01:25:34):
I would describe it as a fish that you told
before the game, don't bite the hole, and then it was.

Speaker 1 (01:25:43):
All bloody and dead.

Speaker 6 (01:25:45):
Gina Gino the Steelers.

Speaker 16 (01:25:53):
I know it looks like a nice worm, but there
really is a hawk in there, don't.

Speaker 3 (01:25:58):
I hope a couple of guys around here get the
hook going in the next year, Jean, But you're not
getting the hook where you're not off the hook. We're
getting you back on next week for more analysis as
we had in the playoffs. Good slady games, Bill's Broncos
forty nine or Seahawks, Texans, Patriots and Rams Bears.

Speaker 4 (01:26:16):
This weekend Jeans Terrator brought to you by Schneider Downs this.

Speaker 1 (01:26:19):
Morning on DV. Thanks g No, thanks fellas. Take care.

Speaker 4 (01:26:23):
We'll see you all right on the way for you.
Abby's got a news update.

Speaker 8 (01:26:26):
We're a little prickly this morning. We're gonna talk about
stressors that folks they are not bringing into twenty twenty six.

Speaker 6 (01:26:31):
Rob came with a power hour stealer talk coming up.
So sometimes the biggest business challenges are the ones you
don't even know you have Schnyder downs helps clients solve
those challenges. Tax and accounting, Digital Cozberg.

Speaker 1 (01:26:42):
And iHeartRadio Station Guaranteed Human.

Speaker 7 (01:26:54):
Gets to snap kids to Mark.

Speaker 2 (01:26:55):
Stretch played with the right, cuts back to the left,
and Mark's is able to burst through and get into
the end.

Speaker 7 (01:27:01):
Zone for a Texan score.

Speaker 2 (01:27:02):
Slams the football against the far side of the stands
and nineteen carries one hundred and twelve yards, a career
high for Woody March.

Speaker 7 (01:27:12):
And that touchdown is pretty much gonna end this one.

Speaker 3 (01:27:16):
I can't even make fun of what he marks his
name right now because he kicked our ass so much.
Last night the Steelers, they had a cool drone show
at halftime.

Speaker 8 (01:27:26):
You know there's that Oh yeah, you sent that to
me that that was cool.

Speaker 5 (01:27:30):
Yeah, what did the drones do?

Speaker 3 (01:27:33):
Waved the white flag, it said fire Tomlin really big. Yeah,
that'll be the next thing that happens. We got to
go fund me together. We're gonna have a drone show
during the draft that says fire tom One. I don't
think that that's what's gonna happen right now. I think

(01:27:55):
that this is up to coach Tomlin. I don't see
the organization firing, but let's just say they did, and
then the Steelers could hire John Harbaugh, and then the
Ravens could hire Tomlin, and then the Browns would rehire Stefanski.

Speaker 1 (01:28:11):
Bring them back.

Speaker 6 (01:28:11):
We decided you passed the test.

Speaker 3 (01:28:13):
Ye.

Speaker 5 (01:28:15):
Pasloman was like, I walked past the homeless guy.

Speaker 1 (01:28:17):
He said, I should rehire him? So I did.

Speaker 6 (01:28:20):
Did you sell your house?

Speaker 7 (01:28:22):
Not yet.

Speaker 5 (01:28:23):
We're getting it right. We're doing some staging photos. We'll
pull the listing. You're coming back, buddy, but it looks
like it might all be coming back here. I don't
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (01:28:36):
Why some things occurred this year.

Speaker 6 (01:28:37):
I don't know why John HW Smith had eight million
more snaps than Pratt Fryarmouth he had won.

Speaker 4 (01:28:42):
I thinkth had one target last night. I don't get it.

Speaker 5 (01:28:45):
There's like a there's a fifteen minute YouTube video out there.
Maybe it's not fifteen minutes. There is a YouTube video
out there that I began to watch like a month
ago that details Arthur Smith's love of John hus Smith
and how he's like, you know, taking him to all
his stops in the league.

Speaker 3 (01:29:02):
You just say, like Kenny Wood, he's taking to all
his family events. You get in this racer car and
I'll get in this one. No, I don't, Johnny Smith
tells me.

Speaker 5 (01:29:20):
On the jail trail. Uh, he caught Johnny Smith caught
eighty eight balls from hapless TUA last year. Doesn't that
It sounds crazy crazy that you you must be elite
to do something like that.

Speaker 3 (01:29:36):
I don't understand what John new Smith's role on this
team was all year long. I don't understand why we
didn't use Pat Friar muth Moore when we had no
number two wide receiver that was worth a bleep. I
don't understand so much of what occurred this year. It
is baffling to me that we're going to run this
back the second year in a row without having a

(01:29:57):
number two wide receiver. That is is malpractice. That is
gross negligence. You can't do stuff like that not learn
from it and keep moving forward and think we'll be
able to overcompensate.

Speaker 4 (01:30:11):
Don't worry about it.

Speaker 3 (01:30:13):
No, we got all these tight ends Darnel Washington, Pratt,
Firemouth and John new Smith. Oh yeah, you need to
do some interesting things with the three tight ends.

Speaker 1 (01:30:22):
No, not really, We're gonna use one to block.

Speaker 6 (01:30:24):
We're not gonna play the other one and the other
guy We're gonna throw him out in the flat four
yards and tell him just turn around.

Speaker 1 (01:30:30):
Does turn around every play You're.

Speaker 5 (01:30:31):
Probably gonna get tackled for a two yard loss.

Speaker 1 (01:30:34):
But when things go bad, we'll throw it to you.

Speaker 5 (01:30:35):
Do I have to block only when you want to,
only when you want to? John Ewin Friarmuth both making
top ten money for tight ends just sort of disturbing.
Did you see the shot of uh Art Rooney Sr.
And Omar up Omar sort of like just hands folded
like this? This isn't good?

Speaker 1 (01:30:57):
Yes, not good?

Speaker 3 (01:31:00):
Sad Daddy wore books chili up in there. Yeah, well,
I just wonder how much of it And I thought
this at the end of the the last GMS of
Kevin's run there as GM is how much of it
was Tomlin?

Speaker 4 (01:31:18):
How much of it is him saying that's who I.

Speaker 1 (01:31:19):
Want in the draft?

Speaker 5 (01:31:21):
This is the free agent I want.

Speaker 3 (01:31:22):
I know he's got a lot of power, but the
talent assessment on this team has been bad since Colbert's
second to last year. They're bringing in the wrong free
agents guys like for everyone that makes a big splash
there's two guys that are you know, don't make it
to the end of the season. How many free agents
do we have that didn't make the end of the

(01:31:43):
season this year, one because of injury, and.

Speaker 4 (01:31:45):
Two that quit the sport. Quit this, Slay Sleigh just quit.

Speaker 3 (01:31:51):
It was like when Dennis Martinez retired from baseball in
the sixth inning of a Pirates game. He's like, rather
than watch this occur anymore, I'm going to quit playing
the sport.

Speaker 5 (01:32:01):
He had his Pirates jersey off before he got out.

Speaker 6 (01:32:03):
Of the dugout and was in a car on the
way back to the Dominican Republic before the seventh inning.

Speaker 5 (01:32:10):
A number of Steelers and yeah, and Sleigh was highly
was well compensated. And the irony for Sleigh is that
he went to that Eagles game as a member of
the Bills and the Bills are still in it.

Speaker 3 (01:32:21):
It's so funny. That is hilarious. Yeah, and he can't
play for the Bills either at this point because of
the designation they have on him. So he just became
man without a country. That was the weirdest exit from football.
He's like, nah, I don't want to go to Buffalo.
It's cold.

Speaker 5 (01:32:38):
They might go to the Super Bowl. I mean, I
hope they do now to spite slay what I don't know.
I don't understand how the Eagles are like, yes, you're
coming to town, get your field passes, shake some hands,
wave super Bowl champion last year. I guess so, But
is a I don't know. Did anyone ask him, like, hey, man,

(01:32:58):
shouldn't you uh huh chill out playing for Buffalo?

Speaker 1 (01:33:02):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:33:03):
Either play or chill out? Stop the press tour. Yeah,
it's kind of like when you call him sick for school,
you can't go to the mall. I guess they don't
pretend to be sick. I'm sick too my stomach. I'm
watching Tremors on USA and drinking ginger ale. Do you
want Aaron Rodgers back? No?

Speaker 6 (01:33:19):
Do you want Aaron Rodgers back? I think it would
be kind of fun.

Speaker 4 (01:33:24):
It's not personal. It's just what is that talking about
running it back.

Speaker 3 (01:33:27):
Let's say they get a big named quote whatever, they
maneuver and get themselves the quarterback they.

Speaker 6 (01:33:34):
Want in the first round, whoever that might be. Do
you want Aaron Rodgers to come back and have this
guy learn from him?

Speaker 5 (01:33:41):
Can he can he do that? Is he capable of
doing that, He capable of being a backup.

Speaker 1 (01:33:49):
I don't know Will Howard.

Speaker 3 (01:33:50):
You know, he said he'd spend a lot of time
with Will Howard. I'm not so sure that Will Howard
is the answer. You know, the the odds and it's
tim A lot of people are a lot of.

Speaker 6 (01:34:01):
People are sure that he's the answer. He's right there
on the roster, they keep saying.

Speaker 5 (01:34:05):
But I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:34:06):
And who am I to say that.

Speaker 3 (01:34:08):
The Steelers have any ability to assess whether he is
or he isn't, because I'm just sitting near bitching about
the fact that they have such a terrible track record
of talent assessment over the last seven years.

Speaker 5 (01:34:21):
The fact that Will Howard didn't play this year proved right.

Speaker 3 (01:34:27):
This is the brain trust that brought in Kendrick Green
to be Ben's center in his last year.

Speaker 6 (01:34:36):
Yeah, Abby's face just.

Speaker 3 (01:34:37):
Went Kendrick Green, don't even say the name anyways. All right, well,
Rob King will come in, we'll do a power hour
of Steeler talk. I want to let you guys know
that we are doing another ramble coming up on January
twenty fourth, two saturdays from now, and it's a killer
lineup and it's the band north Side is opening up
and they're worth the price of admission, and the ramble
Horns are going to sit in with them, and they're

(01:34:58):
going to do a bunch of sittings with other players.

Speaker 4 (01:35:00):
So they're doing a little little.

Speaker 3 (01:35:01):
Mini Ramble of their own there to open up with
some of the funkiest tunes you ever heard. But because
of Bob Weir's passing this weekend, we kind of gutted
the set list and then filled it full of Bob
Weir songs. So there's going to be like a really
significant tribute to Bob Weir at the next Ramble, and
I'm really excited to hear some of the interpretations from

(01:35:22):
some of these local artists. Clinton Kleg will be there,
josh Va Bannets is going to be there, Jeff Taylor,
Addie Twigg, and you know, Mike minda Rob, James Nick
Gucker is going to be there, Vince Wiley, Andre Costello,
and Eric Weiningrad. Pappy from the Cause is going to

(01:35:43):
join us, of course, because if we're going to do
some dead we gotta have Pappy jump on board.

Speaker 8 (01:35:46):
So I was wondering if anybody besides you that you
would Mark as like a significant Dead fan.

Speaker 4 (01:35:52):
No, but you know what's cool about that.

Speaker 3 (01:35:53):
And I was thinking, like, what's great about Bob's contribution
to the Dead is that he brought so much of
that Bakersfield country, the Marty Robbins kind of vibe, the
Buck Owens thing, that it really was. Like one critic
said yesterday that his bringing that western country into the

(01:36:17):
Dead's repertoire helped start what is now Americana, and I
thought about it, I'm like, yeah, it's actually probably very true.
I mean, the Birds had as much to do with that,
and Graham Parsons as well, but that was a big
part of it. And so the people who are on
that stage are well versed in Americana and roots rock
and stuff like that. So not everything needs to be

(01:36:37):
spaced out, you know, jam session if it's a Dead song,
But there will be some of that, I'm sure with
Mike Minda getting to play Jerry Garcia, I can't wait
to hear that.

Speaker 4 (01:36:49):
But those songs stand on their own, you know, And
that's I think what.

Speaker 3 (01:36:53):
Bob Weir was trying to do at the end a
whole lot with the Wolf Brothers, especially if you go
listen to those Wolf Brothers recordings.

Speaker 6 (01:36:59):
They're on you know, all the streaming platforms. He did
such cool versions of all those songs.

Speaker 3 (01:37:04):
It's so much, I think better than what Dead and
Company was doing, because when he slowed him down all
those songs, people call him dead and slow. You know,
they didn't love that. You know, the band wasn't ripping
through you know, tunes that they're used to boogey in
pretty fast too. That approach really works with the instrumentation
of the Wolf Brothers, in which there was no lead guitar.
There were strings in a horn section in Don Wah's arrangements,

(01:37:27):
and it's really cool. So maybe it'll oh in some
cases a little more to that iteration of those songs,
but by and large, I'm excited for it. Tickets on
sale at the Thunderbird Music Hall right now. It's January
twenty fourth, the next Ramble with a whole bunch of
Pittsburgh superstars showing up.

Speaker 4 (01:37:45):
Join us, won't you?

Speaker 8 (01:37:46):
News This hour brought to you by Window Nation. Cloudy
and breezy today, with rain this evening high of fifty,
y'all actually stick with a little bit of music news here. Ammon,
the widow of David Bowie commemorated the tenth anniversary of
his passing by getting a new tattoo inspired by his
album Blackstar, which was the last album that he did.

(01:38:07):
But The tattoo features a minimalist black shape that kind
of looks like stars, but it spells out Bowie in
this abstract way. But Aman shared a video of the
tattooing process on Instagram, expressing her enduring grief and love
for David, stating that the pain didn't vanish, it left
its in its place, a loving, permanent mark. David passed

(01:38:29):
away on January tenth of twenty sixteen after a private
battle with cancer, as confirmed in a statement on his
official Facebook page. But they married in nineteen ninety two.
They had met in nineteen ninety and they had a
daughter named Alexandria Zahara Jones in two thousand and Aman
says she still considers herself married to Bowie, emphasizing through

(01:38:49):
my memory, my love lives.

Speaker 6 (01:38:52):
Fun fact the Blackstar record, the band that performed that
record toured the record after Bowie's death, and the singer
they hired was Jeff Taylor, who is going to be
performing on The Ramble coming up on January twenty fourth.

Speaker 5 (01:39:07):
Wow, you are kidding me.

Speaker 8 (01:39:09):
Nope, he performed on that.

Speaker 6 (01:39:11):
Yeah, he did the Black Store, Black Black Star tour
after Bowie died.

Speaker 3 (01:39:16):
That's who the singer was. They put him out so
but it wasn't like a Bowie tour. It was because
Bo's dad, but it was the band that recorded that.
They wanted to tour those songs around and they did
and they had. Jeff was the singer and he'll be
apart and now he's now he's Dormont's own and anyways,
he'll be there at the Ramble on the twenty fourth.

Speaker 4 (01:39:34):
As well Max Somerville from the Charles.

Speaker 3 (01:39:37):
Wesley Godwin Band who's returning to Pittsburgh, and also Zoob
the return of Nathan Zuob. So sorry to keep bringing
it back to the Ramble.

Speaker 1 (01:39:44):
But no.

Speaker 8 (01:39:45):
Appropriately So, wow, Jeff's a great choice for that. That's fantastic.
I saw a lot of love for David Bowie, like
throughout the weekend. I actually had not realized that it
was the anniversary he died on his birthday?

Speaker 1 (01:39:58):
Right?

Speaker 8 (01:40:00):
Was January tenth his birthday?

Speaker 1 (01:40:01):
Yeah? Or the knife? Yeah?

Speaker 8 (01:40:05):
Wow, I told you. Over the weekend I went and
saw Labyrinth. They were doing like a fortieth anniversary of Labyrinth, yeah,
being released, And.

Speaker 5 (01:40:13):
I had no idea.

Speaker 8 (01:40:16):
Yeah, I had no idea that that was in conjunction with.

Speaker 3 (01:40:19):
Like the January eighth was his birthday January twenty guy,
so it's two days after his birthday. But so you
got to see the cod piece on even bigger.

Speaker 1 (01:40:30):
Pretty cool. Yeah, that thing.

Speaker 8 (01:40:31):
I was thinking, like I, you know, with my child
there and everything, I'm like, that's going to be a
midnight conversation.

Speaker 5 (01:40:37):
So you saw it with your kid, Yeah, okay, does
it hold up for kids?

Speaker 8 (01:40:43):
You know, here's the thing. You know, we're battling. And
I did have this conversation with her because I felt
like we needed to where I was explaining to her,
you know, most of what you see, she's super into animation,
and she actually takes animation classes. So she's using programs
to create animation because she likes to not only draw
her own cartoons, but now she's animating them. And so
I was explaining to her, like, you know, the programs

(01:41:04):
that you're using where you're doing animation and all the
things that you see with CGI and cartoons, Like you
have to remember when we see this movie, these are puppets. Yeah,
So when you try to appreciate what you're seeing, I
want you to remember there are either people in those
costumes or there are things like people behind the scenes
that are pulling things like So the fact that you're

(01:41:24):
seeing it it should be all the more impressive of
how difficult that is to make something move in that
way where you really can't cheat it in any way.

Speaker 20 (01:41:32):
Right.

Speaker 8 (01:41:33):
So I think she was seeing it and appreciating it,
but I don't know that it had the lasting impression
on her where it broke my brain as a kid.

Speaker 5 (01:41:42):
Was there a novel component because kids see less puppetry
than I felt like when I saw Labyrinthine, Stone to
the Bone and the first time, the first fifteen times, sure,
I was like, it's puppets. Yeah, I've seen puppets before,
but you know, kids probably don't see that many puppets.

Speaker 8 (01:41:59):
I don't think they do. I didn't see a huge
impact on her. Over the Christmas break. When I played
the Muppet Christmas Carol for her, I was like, oh
my god, this is gonna blow her mind. And she
just didn't seem engaged with it at all, And I'm like, oh, bummer, bummer.
So I was hoping for a little bit of a
better result, and I mentioned it to Randy too. There's

(01:42:20):
a part in Labyrinth where there's these like creatures. I
have no idea what the point of the scene is.
I still don't. Yeah, there's like these fire creatures that
pop off their heads, you know what I'm talking about,
the like and they just sing to her and like
it's called They're called okay, and they just pop off

(01:42:41):
their heads. And I as soon as that scene started,
I had completely forgotten about it. I just leaned over
to Edie and I'm like, this movie is about to
go off the rails. And she was like, what's gonna happen.
I'm like just waiting. They're like popping out their eyeballs
and pulling their heads off and stuff, and she's like,
what is happening. I'm like, it's insane, right, She's like,
this is a little cringe. I'm like, it's a little
red I don't I don't know what to tell you.

Speaker 4 (01:43:03):
It's basically like what I envision Aaron Rodgers' weekend.

Speaker 3 (01:43:09):
Is he Bowie or Jennifer Kahn, Jennifer Connolly, Okay, yeah,
he's Jennifer Connolly and He's just sitting around a fire
campfire somewhere, and all of these like big like demon
bird characters are dancing around him and ripping out their
eyeballs and pointing out.

Speaker 6 (01:43:24):
And he's like, okay, I understand good, I'm gonna get
that as a tattoo.

Speaker 5 (01:43:29):
And football is the baby and we've got to take
care of the baby.

Speaker 1 (01:43:38):
Man. And uh, I'm the cod piece.

Speaker 8 (01:43:45):
Cloudy and breezy today with rain this evening, it is
a high of fifty.

Speaker 1 (01:43:48):
Some good things happened.

Speaker 2 (01:43:49):
I thought there was a chance that gets a snap
will give and now it's going to be a fleet
flicker shroud back pressure coming and the ball is out.

Speaker 11 (01:43:59):
For the Staylors.

Speaker 5 (01:44:01):
Line.

Speaker 2 (01:44:04):
The pressure came from Sawyer and why Black snatched it
down the air.

Speaker 4 (01:44:09):
That was at the point of the game.

Speaker 6 (01:44:10):
Where it was still like, okay, who's gonna stop making mistakes?
Surely it'll be us, and we'll capitalize on their mistakes
and we'll get back ahead and all will be right
with the world and order will be restored. I hate
saying this because it was so early in the game,
but if DK Metcalf doesn't drop that ball, we are

(01:44:31):
headed for a ten nothing lead and all the momentum
in a completely different situation with a flummixed quarterback on
the other side who was likely to make another mistake. Instead,
they went ninety two yards and went ahead seven to three.

Speaker 5 (01:44:49):
Yeah, perhaps even more rattled had they been down ten nothing.

Speaker 16 (01:44:52):
I you know.

Speaker 5 (01:44:53):
Another a bad indicator when watching the game is when
TJ recovered that fumble, like, ah, that's great. I wish
he would have picked it up. Could he have? Could
he have scooped it?

Speaker 6 (01:45:05):
Could he have scooped it and ran with it?

Speaker 5 (01:45:06):
Because we get in Do we need that?

Speaker 1 (01:45:08):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:45:09):
So we would have needed anyways, all right, Michael, join
us here when we come back. Rob came with a
power hour of Steeler talk. Still to come here as
we bid farewell to the twenty twenty five twenty sixth season,
and will we run it back with Aaron Rodgers what
he has to say about that coming up?

Speaker 1 (01:45:26):
I like to hear.

Speaker 9 (01:45:27):
The Doobie Brothers Socialist Phone or the talk back button
on the iHeart radio app is how you reach us
with your requests. You build the menu bare Rocket weekdays
at noon on the DVE Electric Lunch from.

Speaker 1 (01:45:40):
The Bridgeville Appliance Weather Center.

Speaker 10 (01:45:42):
Start the new Year with new home appliances personalized to
fits your style, old, modern or traditional.

Speaker 1 (01:45:48):
All at Bridgeville applying.

Speaker 6 (01:45:49):
Mike Pasuda with a recap of Houston thirty Pittsburgh six, Pittsburgh,
you have a problem.

Speaker 1 (01:46:01):
That you can turn on.

Speaker 4 (01:46:02):
It's here.

Speaker 6 (01:46:04):
Look, they never achieved liftoff last night, Mike.

Speaker 1 (01:46:06):
They did not.

Speaker 3 (01:46:09):
That was the that was callingers. Hey, guys, is it
too far wrong that it was tragedy too soon? I
was in seventh grade. That was a long time ago.
I felt like, when there's enough time. That was the
most sass kick in seven to six games?

Speaker 5 (01:46:27):
It was.

Speaker 3 (01:46:27):
I told you, I saw that tweet last night, and
I'm like, that is the perfect way to describe it.
How do I tell somebody my team is getting their
ass kicked? Seven to six.

Speaker 12 (01:46:34):
Sports that are brought to you by Bridgeville applies to
Miko Rise, the Texans head coach and the author of
that thirty to six Texans victory over the Steelers last
night at Actor sure thought his team authored up quote
the best performance we've had in our team history. Defensively, Uh,

(01:46:56):
he might not be wrong. They smashed the Steelers at
any in all turns and scored two touchdowns while allowing
none historic and I think they could still be playing
and the Steelers still wouldn't have a touchdown.

Speaker 3 (01:47:09):
So the Steelers could score no touchdowns against the Browns
or the Texans.

Speaker 12 (01:47:16):
Correct, Riley Leonard did right, Yeah, Texas didn't give a
damn about that game. I think the moral of that
story is it's when you play a team with great
pass rush and great corners, you maybe need great receivers.

Speaker 3 (01:47:34):
They don't have that. They have one very very good
receiver who dropped the ball when we really needed him
to catch it. Maybe the quarnerback this year de Kalen
apparently he hates that.

Speaker 1 (01:47:48):
Lester has blue hair.

Speaker 12 (01:47:49):
Through that might have been a Steelers defense not awful,
but not up to standard. Not a winning performance, and
I'm not given a defensive pass. I know they held
used to the seventeen points and kind of the magic
number for the Texans was twenty. They had fifteen wins
in a row when they scored twenty or more points.
Now thanks to thirteen points from the defense, sixteen in

(01:48:13):
a row. But the Steelers did not accomplish what they
wanted to defensively, starting with stopping the run, which is
always job one and continuing with the edge group not being.

Speaker 1 (01:48:26):
The best edge group on the field.

Speaker 12 (01:48:28):
They weren't bad, but they were not the Neil Hunter
and Will Anderson Junior TJ.

Speaker 1 (01:48:33):
Watt.

Speaker 12 (01:48:33):
By the time he met media in the wake of
Texans thirty Steelers six was exhausted, exasperated, and lacking any
kind of long term answers about The only thing well
it was certain of was where the search for clarity
would begin. In terms of his approach to trying to
escape the Steelers' nightmares postseason narrative, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:48:53):
It's always evolving, going to have to be a hard
look in the mirror, continue to evolve and do things differently.

Speaker 12 (01:49:00):
But I'm gonna take this one in. Man, this sucks hard.
Look in the mirror. I didn't notice that he was
getting chipped constantly or not. But you know, while there
was some edge pressure on the Steelers part and it
got to C. J. Stroud periodically, Rogers was on Aaron

(01:49:22):
Rodgers was under siege. Yeah, and that helped turn the game.
What was among the Steelers who didn't see what transpired
at Actorsure Stadium last night?

Speaker 1 (01:49:33):
Coming?

Speaker 5 (01:49:35):
I feel great, confidence was great, execution and practice was great.
Meetings were great, camaraderie was great.

Speaker 1 (01:49:44):
Thought it was gonna be a different story instead the
same old story.

Speaker 3 (01:49:50):
I don't know what would lead anybody to believe that
things are going to be different right now. And I
like Mike Sports, I know, I like Mike Tomlin.

Speaker 4 (01:49:59):
I I just don't understand how it is that he
gets to call his own shots here.

Speaker 12 (01:50:05):
That is well, because there's a body of work Randall,
I know I've heard that so many times and it's like, well,
that's why I'm bringing it up so that you can respond.
His career is not the last nine years, it's the
last nineteen. I'm not endorsing him right now. I'm not
firing him right now. They have a lot of stuff

(01:50:27):
to sort through. I got some stuff to sort through.
But the amazement, could he still be the coach? Well,
because he's the ninth winningest coach in history, in history,
not the Steelers, the NFL. He's won a Super Bowl
and been to another. It's not a lot of guys
walk on the planet that have been to two Super Bowls.
He has never had a losing season. Go ahead, fan base,

(01:50:50):
that's your cure to laugh and say that doesn't matter.
I was at Akroser Stadium when they beat the Ravens.
I'm here to tell you the regular season matters, and
you people know that as well as I do, even
if you refuse to acknowledge it.

Speaker 1 (01:51:02):
That's why he's still the coach for now. But I'd
like to fire him because it feel good right now.

Speaker 3 (01:51:09):
Ye sure, what have you considered, Randy, And it would
just be yeah, there would be a great you know,
I might regret it later.

Speaker 12 (01:51:16):
My biggest problem with this is the West right now
feels so good, and you know, I mean, look, you
look at some of these playoff games, all right. Ben
Roethlisberger threw four interceptions against Cleveland.

Speaker 4 (01:51:28):
In twenty twenty fum to start.

Speaker 12 (01:51:31):
They went into Buffalo with Mason Rudolph as their quarterback
and not having TJ.

Speaker 1 (01:51:36):
Watt.

Speaker 12 (01:51:36):
They went into Kansas City when the Chiefs were at
the height of their power. These are not games they
were supposed to win, and slipped on a banana peel. Now,
the Jacksonville game in twenty seventeen Blake Bortles. That was
a horrible loss, but they'd also just lost Brian Shazier
about five weeks ago, and that sort of shot the
hell out of their defense, which was the problem. Then
last night they were home underdogs. They got smashed and bashed.

(01:52:01):
That's not supposed to happen. But that's not a game
they were supposed to win.

Speaker 6 (01:52:07):
Well, they did not do that. Yeah, they lived up
to that expectation that it would have been nice to
get a touchdown.

Speaker 12 (01:52:16):
It would have been nice to not look at the
Houston Texas and say, well, these guys are really really
good on the edge, but we can block them with
a guy who had never played before five weeks ago,
and with the second year player who's basically in his
rookie season.

Speaker 3 (01:52:30):
There were times when Aaron Rodgers last year, there was
times when Aaron Rodgers had time and nobody was open
or he was missing guys, and there's no number two guys.
This is a poorly constructed team for the second year
in a row. Who does that fall on. That's their
biggest problem is the construction.

Speaker 1 (01:52:47):
Of this team.

Speaker 6 (01:52:48):
They don't they it's not even like, wow, they miss
on guys. They didn't go get a number two guy.

Speaker 12 (01:52:54):
Well, they didn't go get one because they're trying to
keep the draft capital to go get a quarterback, which
everybody's going to be screaming for next spring.

Speaker 1 (01:53:02):
So it had.

Speaker 12 (01:53:04):
It wouldn't have been a problem if they hadn't whiffed
on Roman Wilson, but they did. It wouldn't have been
a problem if Calvin Austin had been a legit number
two receiver like they were all insisting he was in there,
or if.

Speaker 3 (01:53:14):
They knew what they had in Kenny Gaine, well maybe
you don't have to draft Caleb Johnson.

Speaker 1 (01:53:19):
Yeah, that's a good point, somebody. I don't think they
knew what they hadn't Kenny.

Speaker 4 (01:53:23):
They did it.

Speaker 6 (01:53:23):
They keep saying they did, because talent assessment is not
there Forte, which is really the most important part of
constructing a football team is knowing who's good and who's not.

Speaker 5 (01:53:35):
And I think they got guys on the roster who
are good and they're not even using them.

Speaker 1 (01:53:39):
Friar Mooth.

Speaker 12 (01:53:41):
My biggest problem though, is that the defensive game plan
against the Ravens last year and the offensive game plan
against Houston last night. I think those were two major
contributors to those playoff.

Speaker 1 (01:53:52):
The backles totally agree.

Speaker 12 (01:53:54):
If I'm an't rooting and I'm trying to find some answers,
I start.

Speaker 6 (01:53:57):
There, how are you not just pounding the rock last night?
Don't know the whole fricking game, beat them three two.
If you have to go to the line, okay, then
you let Aaron Rodgers change things up.

Speaker 12 (01:54:11):
You know, here's here's the stuff that happened that we
were pretty certain, even us the amateurs, and you know,
from casual fans to people who think we study this
and know what we're talking about. You knew those guys
were hell on earth coming off the edge, right, game wreckers.
You knew that you probably suspected if you were looking
at it honestly, that all that checkdown stuff they did

(01:54:32):
to the running backs all year wasn't going to work
against the defense. This path, this fast, the flanker screens
and a little team off downs the negative.

Speaker 4 (01:54:41):
Play off on that.

Speaker 12 (01:54:42):
And then the third thing is you know your receivers
by now are not what you thought they were. So
you got basically one option, try to outlast them by
running the ball and playing defense. And you had a
chance to play defense better than them if you didn't
try to play into their strength.

Speaker 3 (01:55:00):
I didn't have a huge problem with the defense other
than they were out there for too long, and that
was a lot to ask for them.

Speaker 4 (01:55:06):
They still came up.

Speaker 3 (01:55:07):
With big plays, whether it was CJ's croud screwing up
or them making them screw up. You know, those interceptions
he threw wasn't just because he was making a bad throw.
It was he was under duress.

Speaker 12 (01:55:20):
So but I didn't get past the woody marks hundred
and twelve yards rushing on nineteen carries. Welcome to the NFL.
I think we were joking about that before the game.
I called him just a guy, and he said, oh,
I'll probably it's coming out party.

Speaker 5 (01:55:33):
That's right.

Speaker 3 (01:55:36):
Guess what here, We are all right on the way
for you. Rob came with a power hour Steeler talk.
But first, Mike, we're all gonna need to try to
make some hey while the sun shines this coming weekend.
After the result of that game last night.

Speaker 1 (01:55:49):
You know, I get it.

Speaker 12 (01:55:50):
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Speaker 17 (01:57:00):
Saturday, January twenty fourth, DVE presents Randy Bauman's Ramble live
at the Thunderbird Music Call Over twenty five local musicians
coming together for an epic throwdown of rock and soul
in the spirit of Levon Helm's Midnight Rambles, and this
show will feature an extensive tribute to The Grateful Dead's
Bob Weird featuring Clinton Clay, Attie Twig, Max Somerville, Josh Raabannons,

(01:57:21):
Sarah Siblat, Nathan Zoo, Gibson, Mercisco, Mike Minde, Rob James,
John Pergle and Moore north Side featuring the Ramble Horns
will open the show at eight pm. Get tickets at
the Thunderburg Music Called Box Office, Thunderbird Music Call dot
com and DVE dot Com. January twenty four at the
Thunderbird Music Hall, A good time Randy Bauman's Ramble returns

(01:57:42):
brought to you by d VE E.

Speaker 2 (01:57:45):
Rob King Here, Staying connected to your Steelers has never
been easier.

Speaker 4 (01:57:51):
You're Radio home of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Why out two
point five dv E.

Speaker 6 (01:57:57):
Well, top five plays of the game aren't so fun
when the result is as bad as it was for
the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Speaker 4 (01:58:04):
But let's get started here.

Speaker 3 (01:58:06):
Abby Crisner in my pursuit of Ted Whistle joining me
Randy Bauman here in the studio at number five, two
oh nine left in the first quarter.

Speaker 4 (01:58:15):
For some reason, the Texans resort to trickery.

Speaker 1 (01:58:21):
I don't know who they.

Speaker 3 (01:58:22):
Thought they were playing, and they had a touchdown waiting
to happen.

Speaker 4 (01:58:27):
If not for the modern day warrior, Jack Sawyer.

Speaker 2 (01:58:32):
Crowd gets a snap, will give and now it's going
to be a flea flicker, shroud back, pressure coming hit
and the balls out right.

Speaker 1 (01:58:39):
Black pats it for the Scalers at the forty five
year line. O.

Speaker 2 (01:58:46):
The pressure came from Sawyer and why Black snatched it out.

Speaker 16 (01:58:51):
Of the air.

Speaker 3 (01:58:52):
Okay, that was one of those plays I was telling
you about where I felt like, all right, as soon
as they stopped making mistakes, you know, so maybe.

Speaker 1 (01:59:00):
We'll be in trouble with they're still making them.

Speaker 6 (01:59:02):
So it's capitalize and the Steelers could have done that
at the paths.

Speaker 1 (01:59:07):
To Metcalf two plays later to the Houston thirty four and.

Speaker 3 (01:59:11):
He dropped it momentum killer. They could have gone up
nothing there at least six at number four with six
point twenty left in the second after they punted away
to the Houston Texans, and then they drive ninety two
yards for a touchdown, and it looks like, oh boy,
are they gonna start turning up against US.

Speaker 4 (01:59:32):
No, Keanu Benton says, eh.

Speaker 2 (01:59:36):
Took second and six and Stroud drops a snap back
to pass looking steps up and flings the ball forward.
The Steelers are gonna think this is a fumble with
blood on top of it, and the officials are saying
it is a fumble at the twenty one yard line
and DJ one has recovered.

Speaker 3 (01:59:55):
Okay, they kept giving you chances to stay in the game.
It was seven to three at that point Steelers got
the ball. Was that when they went down and kicked
the second field goal that is well went down? Is
three plays of nothing.

Speaker 12 (02:00:10):
Take place for four yards, Yeah, four years, including a
fourth down conversion. When I was thinking kick it, kick it,
don't don't be stupid, kick it, ended up kicking it anyway.

Speaker 5 (02:00:21):
We needed the priest to come out with the holy
water right then he needs to throw it.

Speaker 6 (02:00:25):
There were two on hand last night. Well, they didn't
do their job. Bad bad job by the pre Even
the priests under performed last night. Number three play of
the game, ten thirty two of the third quarter. It
looked like the Texans once again. We're about to push
the ball in the end zone and start to create
some distance between them and the team that they were
badly out playing.

Speaker 5 (02:00:46):
But Brandon Eckles makes another big play.

Speaker 2 (02:00:50):
Gets a snap back the pass looking left, now back
to the right, has time stepping up, dancing in the pocket,
sling sidar and is it picked off? Holy macro Eckles
somehow came up with a tumbling interception inside the five
yard line.

Speaker 5 (02:01:06):
What a catch on the I.

Speaker 6 (02:01:09):
Int by Eckles.

Speaker 5 (02:01:10):
You know, they were gassed from that first half.

Speaker 3 (02:01:13):
The second quarter especially was brutal, and then they had
to you know, contend with the Texans getting the ball
to start the second half.

Speaker 6 (02:01:20):
And they still were bend not break, and this defense
still made some places.

Speaker 3 (02:01:25):
I'm not beating as hard on the defense as everyone
else because Tom has always been a bend, don't break guy,
and they came up with the big plays.

Speaker 4 (02:01:31):
Wouldn't matter. They're still in the game.

Speaker 6 (02:01:33):
It's seven to six there, number two not that, but
they converted a third down after that.

Speaker 4 (02:01:41):
We know to Marquez Valdez, Scantlon was the first one.

Speaker 5 (02:01:45):
Excell Valdez.

Speaker 3 (02:01:46):
Yeah, it was not quite that big of a disaster
for him this year here, but during near close number
two play of the game, Tad, as you said, the
fact that Christian Kirk was in the conversation to be
the Steelers number two guy, and then it didn't end
up happening this year when they desperately needed that, and
he was the guy killed us to burn them last night.

(02:02:09):
Third and fifteen, forty three seconds left in the third quarter.

Speaker 4 (02:02:13):
To me, this was the game number two Christian Kirk
from c J. Stroud.

Speaker 2 (02:02:20):
Droud gets a snap five man rush coming steps up
past time, throws out to the right as a man
breaking free, and it's caught by Kirk inside Steelers territory.
The pass rush didn't get home and Kirk broke wide
open and a third and fifteen conversion all the way
down to the thirty three yard line of his Steelers,

(02:02:42):
a forty nine yard pickup.

Speaker 4 (02:02:45):
Forty nine yard pickup.

Speaker 12 (02:02:47):
You know, while we were raging against the evaluations machine,
we didn't get around to talking about Kyle Dugger, but
when he first got here was being credited for helping
solidify things on the back end with Ramsey. By the
end of the Baltimore game, he was watching and Chuck
Clark was playing and I think the only reason he
was playing at that juncture was because Chuck.

Speaker 1 (02:03:05):
Clark got hurt.

Speaker 3 (02:03:06):
It's exactly And if you watch that play, he did
such a horrific job of capping that route and getting
a late start.

Speaker 6 (02:03:15):
It is mind boggling that he was misplaying at that poorly.
But he was not alone last night.

Speaker 3 (02:03:23):
There are a lot of people miss playing on crucial downs.
You'll never You'll never miss, not with this defense or
this offense for that matter. And the number one play
of the game, I mean, Oklahoma, I don't no Carosel.
You're the musical guy, not me. You like all of
that fruity stuff. Number one play of the game.

Speaker 1 (02:03:45):
We all know what it was.

Speaker 3 (02:03:46):
And you get this big man touchdown on you. It's
just hard to come back from this morally. If nothing else.

Speaker 2 (02:03:54):
Rogers steps up, and Rogers is sacked, and the ball
is loose and it's picked up by Sheldon Ranks and
Rankins is sprinting down the field and Rankins has scored
Houston Texans touchdown.

Speaker 12 (02:04:07):
I hate that play more than any play in the
entire season. Third and twelve. They've done nothing all night.
What do you think is going to happen if you
go empty spread there. I still think that's what's gonna happen.
I disagree with Jeans terrator two. I mean he Aaron
Rodgers clearly took a shot to the head on that one.

(02:04:27):
I think you got to call it. That's why the
rule is there. And if you're not calling that, they
don't even.

Speaker 1 (02:04:32):
Have the rule.

Speaker 3 (02:04:34):
And yes, I do love show tunes. I mean, on
Friday night I watched them. That's the movie about Rogers
and Hammerstein. You know, I don't know that much. I'm
still not as well. You're singing down from heaven to
his daughter, Well, somebody singing down to the Steelers' front
office and tell them to get.

Speaker 1 (02:04:52):
People that I don't know. You don't know this stuff.

Speaker 12 (02:04:56):
No, you know a lot of old person stuff for
a guy who Yeah, sometimes i'd have thought you'd have known.

Speaker 5 (02:05:01):
That a whiff.

Speaker 4 (02:05:04):
Not the super fruity stuff though, just the regular.

Speaker 5 (02:05:06):
Yeah, the cool musical stuff, yeah, Jesus Christ, Superstar, Tommy,
Carousel and Oklahoma.

Speaker 1 (02:05:14):
That's it.

Speaker 3 (02:05:15):
I mean, just an awful end to the Steelers season
last night at home, in front of a crowd that
was ready to explode. Unlike the week before, which was
essentially a playoff game win and you're in.

Speaker 4 (02:05:27):
Tickets were not cheap.

Speaker 3 (02:05:29):
Getting into that game was pricey last night, and they
still put sixty five thousand people into the stands sixty.

Speaker 12 (02:05:35):
Seven sixty seven, Yeah, two hundred and ninety seven and
ninety seven sixty seven. Sorry, just to sleep deprived of
all of you, and nothing's making sense. Very few Texans fans,
although you wouldn't have known that if you're doing the
postgame show and the only people left were Texans fans
surrounding the TV thing.

Speaker 1 (02:05:57):
On the field.

Speaker 3 (02:05:57):
So you and Charlie were there to see all of that, Huh, yes,
we were, Man, Howley, did you guys take the post
game to last night o'clock? Yeah?

Speaker 6 (02:06:05):
Wow, Well, good on you once again for getting an
hour and a half asleep and coming in here and
doing the morning show after.

Speaker 4 (02:06:10):
Is this the fourth night game we've had this year?

Speaker 1 (02:06:13):
I not, it's the last.

Speaker 6 (02:06:16):
It is a power hour with Rob King, voice of
the Steelers, the voice of all of those calls you
just heard here on the flagship DV.

Speaker 9 (02:06:24):
That's next, Chad Tyson turns your car into a sonic
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commercial free hour at three afternoons with Chad Tysudden on DVE.

Speaker 8 (02:06:42):
Hey, it's abby and just a while back, I had
zero res parked in front of my house because they
were doing an air duct cleaning for rules.

Speaker 17 (02:06:48):
Just enter this nationwide keyword at DVE dot com.

Speaker 1 (02:06:51):
Happy. That's happy. Enter it now at DVE dot com
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Speaker 2 (02:07:02):
Human Rodgers gets to snap back hit as he throws,
ball is loose and McCormick scrambles back to the thirty
yard line and lands on top of it.

Speaker 7 (02:07:16):
It's Daniel Hunter who had to hit on Rogers.

Speaker 4 (02:07:19):
Daniel Hunter was insane last night.

Speaker 3 (02:07:24):
The edges were just so tough for the Houston, Texas
joining us right now for a power hour of Steel
Talk Steel just about steel.

Speaker 8 (02:07:33):
Specific.

Speaker 6 (02:07:34):
Yeah, well, we just feel like metal Talk might be
better than what we had to last night. It's brought
to you by Ford this half hour your neighborhood Ford Store.
The F one fifty, the official truck of the Pittsburgh
Steelers who got trucked in the fourth quarter.

Speaker 3 (02:07:49):
They allowed twenty three points last night, they couldn't get
in the end zone.

Speaker 1 (02:07:54):
That was no good.

Speaker 3 (02:07:55):
So, Rob, the season comes to an end, and would
you say, let's just do a big, old broad brush
stroke here Aaron Rodgers bringing him in the right move
or might they have been better served going elsewhere? I mean,
given what was out there, they were looking at Justin

(02:08:15):
Fields Sam Darnold, which had a pretty hefty price tag
affixed to it, and then you that's your guy, that's
your guy for four or five years, right, you know
that you're you're really sailing with him, or given that
they wanted to start with somebody younger, and seems like
they've had their mindset on this.

Speaker 4 (02:08:32):
Was this still the way to go despite.

Speaker 6 (02:08:34):
The outcome, Well, you know, there were there were moments
of the season where he looked phenomenal. He looked the
best we've seen since Ben, you know, in the latter
years of his prime. Agree, he just he looked great. Cincinnati,
he looked great, and he led him back against the Jets.
There were moments down the stretch where I thought he
looked really good. You know, they offered Justin Fields a

(02:08:55):
contract and he didn't take it. You know, some people
wanted Russell Wilson back got benched by the Giants. You know,
he was on Anderson Cooper's New Year's Eve celebration and
Sam Donald. They wanted to talk to Sam Donald. My
understanding is that Sam Donald met with the Seattle first,
got an offer and just went there.

Speaker 5 (02:09:14):
So you never even had an opportunity.

Speaker 6 (02:09:16):
So, you know, people say, people could say this or
that about Okay, what's the solution, you know, and listen,
it's not up to us to have the solution, right, uh,
you know, but have some sort of idea of what
is a possible solution, like, you know, go out and
get a safety Okay, well who I mean that, you know,
and then and balancing you know that question as a

(02:09:37):
fan with uh, you know who with maybe some answers.
So I don't know what other answers there would have
been out there. I think that at a lot there
was a lot of times where Anon Rodgers looked great
and last night, you know, they they got into bad
down in distances, which Mike Tomlins said before the end
he was talking to Bob Labriella, we can't do that.

Speaker 5 (02:09:59):
Well, that's what they did well.

Speaker 3 (02:10:01):
To me, that is a component of not game planning
or play calling efficiently for the circumstances. To me, I've
watched Aaron Rodgers constantly yelling at receivers, running round wrong routes,
guys having trouble, you know, with different formations that they're
trying to implement.

Speaker 6 (02:10:22):
But the running game has never had an issue.

Speaker 3 (02:10:25):
And why they weren't leaning on the running game to
set up the occasional pass and just pound the rock
and when you had to punt, you punt Corlis Weightman
was fantastic and he was flipping the field for you.
Why on earth do you approach that game anyway? I
think at one point it was like first sixteen plays
or eleven dropbacks.

Speaker 1 (02:10:45):
Yeah, you know, they came out.

Speaker 4 (02:10:47):
I think the first play the game was a Jalen
Warren first down run.

Speaker 5 (02:10:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (02:10:51):
And you know, Max and I were talking about this
before the game. You know, when you have a defense
it's as fast and as aggressive as Houston's. To me,
you have to run at them, not away from them,
because they will they will track you down.

Speaker 1 (02:11:05):
You know they will. They will.

Speaker 6 (02:11:07):
You know they will find you. So you have to
run it at them. And even that's obviously not easy.
But I'm always in the run the ball more school.

Speaker 5 (02:11:16):
I mean I said this. I don't know it was
last week.

Speaker 6 (02:11:19):
If the Steelers had seventy five plays and ran it
seventy four times, I would have said they should have
run it more. Yeah, you know, I mean that's just
the way I feel about it. I thought this was
going to be I thought this was going to be
a slog fest. You know, both teams getting into third
and five, third and six, take a shot, don't have
the shot, It's ok to punt it away. Play defense,

(02:11:40):
you know, try to win the field the field position game.
Make the occasional play like the past the DK Metcalf
haul that in. When you've got the opportunity to make
the big plays. You know, it's important in every game.
Like we saw against Cleveland when the Steelers were three
for fifteen on third down, how important that was. They
still let you answers to win that game. The better

(02:12:02):
the opponent is, and Houston's a very good opponent they've
now won ten straight games, the better you have to
be at situational football. Mike Tomlin calls them the weighty downs.
So you were better than them in the red zone.
They were both about the same. I think on third
downs and so little things. You know, they value rushing

(02:12:24):
the passer and trying to turn the ball over. And
so this Juders were doing some of those things right.
They were doing a better job of getting the turnovers.
That's the team that has the second fewest giveaways in
the second best turnover margin in the NFL. The Texans,
you were doing some of those things, but you weren't
winning on third down. You weren't winning in the red

(02:12:45):
zone those moments in a game like this, And who
knows what happens if, you know, instead of being down
seven to six in the fourth with the momentum kind
of surging against you, what if you're up thirteen to six.
You know what I mean, how's the game played differently?
What happened is is this game war on. The Texans

(02:13:06):
began to dictate what the Steelers had to do. Think
about all the great and I've described the Steelers defense
that way. They're great defenses that way so many times
over the years. You know, you get your own Bettis
and you're pounding away and now you get a little
bit of a lead, and now the other teams got
to pass, and your defense is well rested and you're

(02:13:26):
in trouble.

Speaker 5 (02:13:27):
That's what happened with the Steelers last night.

Speaker 6 (02:13:29):
They ran into a Steelers defense that was kind of
like the Steelers defenses of their prime. They only have
to rush for they don't need to blitz, and they
are super fast. And when you're behind, or when you're
in third and long, when they get to dictate to you,
you're in big trouble.

Speaker 5 (02:13:48):
And that's what happened last night.

Speaker 6 (02:13:50):
Given that they have no number two wide receiver, no
proven guy, no real threat, we all assumed that the
tight ends would be a big part of this offense
all year life.

Speaker 3 (02:14:00):
What was John New's stance last year? Tad eighty eight
grams from Tua. I thought he was going to be
their second leading receiver. Smith, how did he get relegated
to whatever the hell it is that they had him doing?

Speaker 4 (02:14:11):
And Friarmouth was a non factor? Do you like now?

Speaker 6 (02:14:15):
All I was told about Arthur Smith is he loves
tight ends like you know Charlie Batchlake snowstorms.

Speaker 3 (02:14:22):
You know, he gets giddy from tight ends. And I
didn't see any efficient use of tight ends at all.
And you thought it was going to be prominent and
last night would have been the game. I thought I
would have seen that when they did decide to throw
gotten it out. Is that in your opinion?

Speaker 6 (02:14:42):
Do you think because that's what Arthur Smith wanted or
because Aaron Rodgers didn't feel comfortable with that tight end group.

Speaker 1 (02:14:52):
I don't know that. It's a good question. I really
don't know. I thought that.

Speaker 4 (02:14:56):
Because he's used tight ends in the past. It is
like he hasn't done that.

Speaker 1 (02:14:59):
Yeah, there are two things.

Speaker 6 (02:15:00):
And again I don't know the whys on this, but
if I'm a fan looking, I'm like, well, okay, so
Friar Muths is a sixty catch guy right when he's
healthy and he gives you a full season, he's a
sixty catch guy. He signed to do a contract extension.
I kind of expect sixty catches and he didn't come
close to that. The other one was they drafted Roman
Wilson in the third round last year. He obviously lost,

(02:15:23):
you know, lost the season due to injury. I thought
in the five or six game stretch that they used
me at a couple of touchdowns. I thought he showed
some ability to stretch the field a little bit, you know,
to run. It's uh, you know, and this is nothing
against theal And and mvs who were in the latter
stages of their career, but they aren't guys that can

(02:15:45):
that are gonna, you know, stretch the defense and scare
you anymore. I thought Roman Wilson showed some of those tendencies.
But for whatever reason, he I don't know if he
fell out of favor or what happened, but he just
stopped being used.

Speaker 4 (02:15:59):
And I thought that that was a guy.

Speaker 6 (02:16:01):
You know, if you're looking at who can step up
and be a guy, well, he was the most He
and Calvin Austin were the most obvious guys in the roster.
Calvin got hurt and that's when Roman Wilson emerged and
I thought, Okay, well, maybe maybe out of this injury,
you're gonna be able to get something good. Roman Wilson's
going to be able to come out there and run free.
I mean, you know, one of the things about that
you saw with Seattle, and fans have talked about this

(02:16:23):
a lot, Randy, is that last year, what happens if
Pickens gets hurt? Right, this year, what happens if DK Well,
in this case, he gets hurt, but in this case
he was suspended for two games. Who's there to pick
it up. Well, the Texans have Nico Collins, right, and
he's a pro bowler. He gets hurt, goes out of
the game. We have Christian Kirk who's a good player

(02:16:46):
and been a really good player. You have a second
round picking Jaden Higgins. You have a third round pick
in Jalenole who's being effective. You have additional weapons. Dalton
Schultz didn't even kill this too this last night, and
he's a third leading receiver among tight ends in the NFL.
They had more options that could get down the field
and make plays in their in their arsenal players and
this yeelers either uh don't have that. I mean, it

(02:17:09):
doesn't look to me. And again I don't. I don't
watch the game the same way I would as if
I'm a fan. It doesn't look to me like there's
a lot of guys open, like I know, the guys
running wide open. No, they're not bad guys running wide
open last night Seattle think, But I don't know how
much of that is well. And also it looked like
play design. They had just some some play designs that
look like oh yeah, oh is it second and three?

(02:17:29):
You know, and they would run like, you know, a
quick route out of the backfield for an easy pluto.
Guys got one on one beats that you know, beats
the defender drops in for a first down.

Speaker 4 (02:17:40):
There, everything we do on offense looks so labored.

Speaker 3 (02:17:44):
It just seems like, I don't know, it's so it
feels so antiquated all of the things we're doing.

Speaker 4 (02:17:49):
That's why I don't know if they're gonna.

Speaker 6 (02:17:52):
Reboot what we just saw for twenty twenty six season,
and that remains to be seen.

Speaker 4 (02:17:58):
There were some positives on the year, though.

Speaker 3 (02:18:00):
I thought the offensive line was gonna be a liability,
and last night they were. But that seemed to me
to be a big step backwards for them. Up to
that point, I thought they were progressively progressing nicely, and
I think Steeler fans can feel pretty good about the
offensive line going forward, a young group who got better.

Speaker 1 (02:18:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (02:18:20):
By the way, just an aside, because part of the
part of the reason that the offensive line had trouble
is because their defensive line is resane good yes and
Joe and Petree man oh man, is that dude, I
mean killed the Holy mackerels? He good player again. Mike
tom Win mentioned him on Tuesday. And you know they're

(02:18:41):
all their all their secondary guys can run, they're young,
they can run, and they are aggressive. I mean Lassiter
is not a big guy, but he has zero regard
for his own health. I mean that little guy will
come up and pop you Petrie. I mean they're super aggressive,
super fast. And you know I said this before the game.

(02:19:03):
You know, you talk about the offensive line like their
second unit, their second defensive line could start on it
would be like there's a lot of teams would be like,
I'll take Derek Barnett and Diniko Watry and Nate Kwan
Jones yet as my starting defensive line.

Speaker 5 (02:19:19):
Sign me up.

Speaker 4 (02:19:20):
Yeah, I'll take that. They're just so deep, you know.
So was it a step backward?

Speaker 6 (02:19:27):
Sure, you get game one, he gave up four sacks,
but makeson I mean every one of them got owned
at one.

Speaker 1 (02:19:33):
Ye oh sure they did, Sure they did.

Speaker 6 (02:19:34):
But they didn't put themselves in good positions either, you know,
like I thought going into this game, like I said,
you know, third and six is not a terrible thing, right,
It's not a terrible thing. Third and eleven, third and twelve.
There was one time in the second half and uh,
so Mark Oxen riders doing our stats average. Brother, he's

(02:19:54):
a really really good stats guy.

Speaker 1 (02:19:56):
So he was.

Speaker 6 (02:19:57):
He was it was like third nine, third and twelve,
third and eleven, third and eleven, and I'm like that
that's just not you can't be there. That's not gonna
help your offensive line. You know, sometimes those other guys
are really good too, but this.

Speaker 3 (02:20:10):
Would be in trouble and then he just throw it,
you know, to John Whu who's two yards deep, and
he'd catch it at his knees and then get tackled.

Speaker 4 (02:20:18):
Right, what good did that do us?

Speaker 1 (02:20:20):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (02:20:21):
And why is John hu Smith there? Like, so, why
isn't that a Kenny Gainwell?

Speaker 3 (02:20:29):
Why is the tight end guy who had eighty eight
passes and nine touchdowns last year?

Speaker 6 (02:20:34):
Yeah, So to go back on the offensive line, you know,
I do think there's a lot to like that. I mean,
Foutanu even though he's a second year player, he's a rookie.
Mason McCormick, second year player, Zach Frazer, second year player,
Dylan Cooks played what five games now, you know, and
seem Alo's just a pro. So, you know, I we're

(02:20:55):
sort of transitioning between what happened last night, and and
what does the future look like. I know we're we're
kind of in that netherland right now of evaluating the
season and the team, But I do like I think that,
you know, they've made it clear the last three years,
with since Omarkan has taken over a general manager and
Andy Widel came in to help him out and the

(02:21:15):
rest of the staff, they have made a concerted effort
to get better along the lines both sides, and I
think they have.

Speaker 4 (02:21:23):
I think they've gotten better now.

Speaker 3 (02:21:25):
And they've gotten play from Cam Hayward that I don't
even think anybody expected.

Speaker 6 (02:21:29):
He was incredible down the stretch. I think that they,
you know, they probably need to continue to do that. Yeah,
they need a wide receiver, they need a quarterback, but
they're going to have to just keep I think every
year they're going to just keep adding guys in the
offensive and defensive lines. And last night was a good
example of why you still want to get better there.

(02:21:50):
Mike's going to join us here in just one minute.
We'll take a quick break.

Speaker 3 (02:21:53):
This half hour a Steeler Talk was brought to you
by your neighborhood Ford store, the f one fifty, the
official truck of the Pittsburgh steel There's more from last
night's lost to the Texans and a recap of the
twenty twenty five sixth season, What worked, what didn't work, and.

Speaker 6 (02:22:10):
You know, there's a couple of things that I'm I
think we can hold our hat on. We just mentioned
that lines getting fortified there and Kenny Gainwell your MVP,
and Jalen Warren.

Speaker 4 (02:22:20):
Those are two tough guys who I still.

Speaker 6 (02:22:22):
Don't understand why the offense wasn't going through them first
and foremost. But maybe they learned their lesson from that. Yeah,
I think there are I mean, in the in the
ashes of last night's loss, I still think we can
sift through and see some things.

Speaker 4 (02:22:34):
I think there was there's a phoenix rising from the ashes.

Speaker 1 (02:22:37):
Wrong, I hope, So man, I hope.

Speaker 21 (02:22:39):
So Steelers fans, your team is a powerhouse. Are you
ready to throw another great game here in the steel City? Absolutely?
And let's take sports. Yeah, we're still fight off. I
tell you you're Kingy Shrolkons.

Speaker 3 (02:22:54):
It's a power hour Steeler Talk with Rob King, live
and studio voice of the Steelers here on the Steelers
Audio Network.

Speaker 4 (02:23:00):
This half hour is brought to you by Clearview.

Speaker 3 (02:23:03):
Federal Credit Union supporting their community every step of the
way through touchdowns for hope. Clearview will donate five hundred
dollars to the Light of Life Rescue Mission for every
Black and Gold touchdown scored this season. Visit CLEARVIEWFCU dot
org slash touchdown to learn more and Kinger, we have
Mike Persuda joining the fray.

Speaker 12 (02:23:22):
Here Sports us Up brought to you by Bridgeville Applied.

Speaker 1 (02:23:26):
It's one more.

Speaker 12 (02:23:26):
In terms of your post game SoundBite reaction from Texans
thirty Steelers six, this is Mike Tomlin, when asked if
he had a message to the fans in the wake
of a ninth straight season without a playoff.

Speaker 13 (02:23:41):
Dub again, when you don't get it done, words are cheap.
It's about what you do or you don't do. And
so I appreciate the question, but people talk too much
in our business.

Speaker 3 (02:23:54):
Either do you don't? Well, he is good at losing.
I will say that, no, I mean it like, he's
not an excuse maker. When the fans chant fire Tomlin,
He's like, I get it, I understand it. There's a
high expectation. He doesn't whine. I will say that, but

(02:24:16):
it's cold comfort.

Speaker 12 (02:24:19):
You know a lot of speculation about Mike Tomlin all season,
and that's not going to go away. In the wake
of Texans thirty Steelers six, this was interesting. Tomlin appeared
on The Rich Eisen Show before the Ravens game and
he was asked about possibly doing television at some point.
Here's what he had to say about that quote. I'm institutionalized, man,

(02:24:44):
I gotta have it. I just love the challenges that
week in and week out that this job provides, the
growth and it the collective growth, the individual growth. A
lot of lessons I've learned in life have kind of
been through my football experience. I've been on a team
every year of my life since nineteen eighty and so
I really appreciate it. I haven't seen anything from training camp,

(02:25:08):
well really from OTA's on that led me to suspect
his enthusiasm energy all into the job was waning. So
I think he's still the guy he's been now. His effectiveness.
We just said they haven't won a playoff game in
nine years. It's a little more recent than that.

Speaker 1 (02:25:28):
Okay.

Speaker 12 (02:25:29):
Just feels like Mike Tomlin is now the author of
the longest active playoff losing streak in the NFL the Steelers.

Speaker 1 (02:25:37):
He wanted historic.

Speaker 12 (02:25:38):
At the start of the year, Steelers became the first
team in NFL history to lose five consecutive playoff games
by double digits.

Speaker 3 (02:25:45):
You know when he said that to us at camp.
It was on this show that Mike Tomlin made the
declaration we have a chance to be historic. I felt
like one of the kids in Christmas Vacation when Clark's like,
We're gonna get a new swimming pool. I'm like, historic, Really,
this is.

Speaker 1 (02:26:03):
Gonna be great.

Speaker 6 (02:26:04):
Oh my god, I got sucker right back in, bought
all the way back in, and.

Speaker 1 (02:26:10):
Then in the fool me once, no bonus, no pool.

Speaker 6 (02:26:13):
Shame on you fool me eight seasons in a row
with five straight double digit losses.

Speaker 1 (02:26:19):
Won't get fooled again. You won't get hold again.

Speaker 6 (02:26:23):
Doing a hell of a job, doing a hell of
a job.

Speaker 1 (02:26:27):
Key the thing that I continue and this.

Speaker 12 (02:26:31):
Has gone on for as long as this Mike Tomlin
angst has started the parko late, and that's been a
couple of seasons now, the complete lack of postseason success.
They look like Charlie Brown trying to kick the football
and Lucy just pulls it away in those nine years
when they have not won a playoff game. The Steelers

(02:26:51):
are fourth in the NFL and regular season victories one
hundred and one, sixty two and two. Baltimore is one
hundred and three and sixty two just the head of
the Steelers, and Baltimore has gotten rid of John Harbaugh.
Buffalo's one oh five and fifty nine. And I think
Sean mcdermot's seat was getting hot before they went into

(02:27:14):
Jacksonville one. I think he's probably okay now, I would
think if it was indeed hot. I don't know so
much of the speculation. You don't know what's real it isn't.
But the regular season success is real. The regular season
success is significant. The regular season success keeps us talking
about it for four or five months at a time.
And to go from the euphoria that Ravens game and

(02:27:38):
the whole week. I mean, I was listening to madd
yesterday even he was talking about the energy in town
and how different it was and how people were actually
believing that there was a chance this time, and then
they just went off the cliff again. I at this
particular point in time, after two hours of sleep and

(02:27:58):
six months of the season, I can't make sense of
the night.

Speaker 1 (02:28:03):
I don't have any more profound.

Speaker 3 (02:28:04):
I mean, I think it came down to, honestly, the
game play and last night was not complimentary to the
talent level of the players they had on the field.

Speaker 12 (02:28:15):
I would concur there are too much faith in their guys.
They overestimated what they were ready for. I don't think
they're underestimated Houston, because no, we were talking about that.

Speaker 4 (02:28:24):
All week, and no they didn't.

Speaker 6 (02:28:25):
But I don't understand how you didn't just run the
ball NonStop and h third and third and eight. No,
now it's fourth and two or fourth and three. All right,
Well we're in our own territory.

Speaker 4 (02:28:40):
We're gonna punt it. Weightman's flipping the field for you.
Let the de CJ.

Speaker 6 (02:28:44):
Stroud was rattling, particularly after you saw how rattled he
was at that point.

Speaker 4 (02:28:49):
How do you not get more conservative on offense?

Speaker 3 (02:28:51):
Because I was saying it to you all week, Mike,
I thought what was gonna happen was our defense was
gonna set up our offense with good field position, and
we should get three field goals in a touchdown and
win this game sixteen to ten.

Speaker 7 (02:29:02):
And it was headed in that direction.

Speaker 6 (02:29:03):
If you don't leave them on the field for how
what was their time and possession last night for the
Texans thirty two twenty two? God, I thought it was
I thought it would have been like four.

Speaker 3 (02:29:16):
But I don't understand what they see different from what
my lion eyes are seeing.

Speaker 12 (02:29:24):
It's funny, though, you know a fine line between being
too conservative and letting the defense dictate to you. Oh, well,
we can't block this guy, so we better not give
him a chance to make a tackle and having faith
to your guys and being aggressive. You know they went
at Denzel Ward three times in a row in Cleveland
on that Gal and Rogers won all ones.

Speaker 6 (02:29:47):
Though, right, well, we talked with mvs versus one of
the best corners in the game.

Speaker 12 (02:29:52):
So would you throw it to Scotty Miller against one
of the other best corners in the game.

Speaker 1 (02:29:56):
I would run the ball on first down. They were
running all over them.

Speaker 12 (02:30:04):
Except the second down throw was there, and I know
that didn't execute it. Jane really got me thinking Jeane's
territory when he was on the show today and he
talked about the Calvin.

Speaker 6 (02:30:14):
Austin Calvinhawsin did come up lame on that one. He
should have No he got grabbed, did he.

Speaker 12 (02:30:21):
He sleeps down a little bit, But is he judging
the ball or trying to draw a foul that I
don't know.

Speaker 4 (02:30:26):
I thought he was trying to and that was Gene's point.

Speaker 1 (02:30:28):
Yeah, Gene.

Speaker 12 (02:30:29):
But he definitely got turned and then there goes your
speed because you can't run with your torso twisted sideways.
It's a fifty to fifty call. But the point on
that play is it was the same thing I've been
bitching about all morning. It was third and long and
they tried to block it with five and they did.
It's a few times he had a perfectly clean pocket,

(02:30:50):
he had all the time to throw, set himself, let
it rip. You gotta hit those one on ones when
you know, not all of them, but you got to
hit a couple of them, got to hit some splash
and they just weren't able to do it even once
last night.

Speaker 3 (02:31:05):
The Calvin Austin play, I think he did slow up
to try and draw the penalty. I think he did
draw the penalty and it should have been called also
if he decides to run through that or fights.

Speaker 12 (02:31:16):
So it almost like it almost looked like a hockey
play where a guy goes down too easy when he
gets bumped in.

Speaker 3 (02:31:21):
I don't yeah, I don't think a ref should have
looked at that play and gone now he's sloid up
and tried to draw the penalty. I think the ref
should have thrown the flat. I don't think that's how
they're supposed to tell you. That's what I'm saying. Yeah,
but I think Jean's interpretation of what happened is correct.
But that doesn't mean there should have been a flag.
Same thing for the stripsack touchdown by the big man
Rankins that should have been hit to the head quarterback,

(02:31:42):
personal foul, first down Steelers.

Speaker 1 (02:31:44):
I gotta get another look at that one.

Speaker 5 (02:31:45):
But his helmet almost came off.

Speaker 1 (02:31:47):
You know.

Speaker 12 (02:31:48):
The point is they got annihilated last night, and there's
still a couple of plays here and there worth If
only this one had worked out the you as you've
been talking about today. If Metcalf catches that ball, what
if they go and up going up.

Speaker 6 (02:32:00):
Six, Well, he's running to the it's first and ten
of the twenty five yard line. If he catches that ball,
he might have scored. Actually he might have. There's only
one guy behind him. He dropped it at the thirty four.
He was pretty open, he was there's only one defender
back on that. He might have turned it up and scored,
but he certainly they certainly would have at least been
a field goal range.

Speaker 1 (02:32:18):
Well, you know we don't pay him enough.

Speaker 5 (02:32:22):
Oh wait, we paid so much. Quick break will be
right back more with Rob King.

Speaker 4 (02:32:26):
It's Max Starks for my friends at Clearview Federal Credit Union.

Speaker 12 (02:32:29):
Clearview is here to help you reach your financial goals
and support our community every step of the way.

Speaker 6 (02:32:43):
It's your radio home of the Steelers.

Speaker 3 (02:32:45):
One out two point five DVE and that's a rap
on the twenty five to twenty six season. After losing
to the Houston Texans last night thirty to six at home,
it's Mike Tomlin's fifth straight playoff loss by double digits.

Speaker 4 (02:32:58):
And then historic. It is historic, no question about it.

Speaker 3 (02:33:03):
We have Rob King Voice of the Steelers with us
and Mike Persuda, who is the host of the postgame
show on the Steelers Audio Network, and Mike Kinger and
I were wondering kicking around what was the tenor of
the calls last night, because I would imagine it's a
whole lot of what we would expect people being sick
and tired of being sick and tired.

Speaker 12 (02:33:22):
You know, it was not And apologies for not charting
one because there was one guy who waited a while.
I should have written down which call this was, but
I didn't do it for whatever reason. But he asked
a serious question and I gave an answer, and then
Charlie gave an answer, and then he yelled.

Speaker 1 (02:33:41):
Stealer, suck, Ravens fluck.

Speaker 4 (02:33:45):
And hung up.

Speaker 1 (02:33:46):
Okay, well glad you got that off your ches.

Speaker 4 (02:33:50):
Would you rather lost to the Ravens and not have
that game?

Speaker 16 (02:33:53):
Not me?

Speaker 1 (02:33:53):
No, No way, for sure, way had.

Speaker 12 (02:33:56):
We took nineteen calls from ten different states, including multiple
calls from Jersey, Texas, and California, and.

Speaker 1 (02:34:06):
Probably three or four Tomlin's.

Speaker 16 (02:34:08):
Got to go.

Speaker 12 (02:34:08):
This ain't working. It's never going to change. But the
rest of it was just you know, disappointment and how
do they get better? And some game stuff, you know,
should that have been a penalty on the Austin play
and why didn't they do this? Or why didn't they
do that? And a lot of them, why didn't they
do this? I said, geez, I don't know. I would
have Yeah, like you had a mostly they run the

(02:34:30):
ball stuff and they you know, don't leave your quarterback
back there to get killed.

Speaker 1 (02:34:35):
On third and long. Uh.

Speaker 3 (02:34:38):
I do think that they were a poorly constructed roster,
and they worked around it a lot to their advantage
this year. Last night, I think the game plan was
just wrong. King Heer, what was the stat you had
for coming out of the second half.

Speaker 6 (02:34:51):
I had first twenty two plays, five rush, seventeen pass.
That's to me just side by the way he asked
about Aaron Rodgers. I will say this one thing. I
think I think all those guys were really glad to
have Aaron Rodgers to play.

Speaker 4 (02:35:05):
Out a doubt.

Speaker 1 (02:35:06):
You know.

Speaker 6 (02:35:07):
I think for the players, this was a very fun year.

Speaker 5 (02:35:13):
Yeah, I think I think it was cool.

Speaker 1 (02:35:15):
You know.

Speaker 6 (02:35:16):
I was talking to Spencer Anderson after he caught a pass,
and I was like, hey, man, lineman catching a pass,
you know, like like my head of lineman roommate in college.

Speaker 1 (02:35:26):
He just wanted to fall on a fumble in the
end zone. That was like his dream.

Speaker 4 (02:35:30):
And I'm like, you know, so like there's not a
lot of big dreams here when you're alignment.

Speaker 1 (02:35:34):
He got to block people, you know.

Speaker 6 (02:35:36):
And I was like, hey, maybe he caught a pass
and he was like, and he goes I caught a
pass from Aaron Rodgers like that. It's just the way
that they they hold this guy in such highest team
ats just one tiny example.

Speaker 5 (02:35:49):
I'm sure every player down the roster will tell you
how cool it was.

Speaker 1 (02:35:52):
I just want to know.

Speaker 4 (02:35:54):
Why certain players weren't featured more.

Speaker 3 (02:35:57):
I want to know was it Mooth or was it
Aaron Rodgers, or was it Arthur Smith that was reluctant
to roll out Fiarmuth like we thought.

Speaker 4 (02:36:07):
They were going to. Or John new Smith the way
he'd been used in the past.

Speaker 3 (02:36:11):
And then still dropping back wouldn't thrown the ball way
more than you'd think they would. Given the stat we're
just talking about about.

Speaker 4 (02:36:19):
The lack of using tight ends.

Speaker 3 (02:36:20):
You'd think if they were throwing as much as they
are oftentimes, it would be through tight ends.

Speaker 4 (02:36:25):
And that wasn't the case you would think.

Speaker 12 (02:36:26):
And also I didn't just hear this, I saw it
when I studied John Us Smith. He lined up a
wide receiver a lot in Miami.

Speaker 1 (02:36:35):
That's how he caught.

Speaker 12 (02:36:37):
Eighty eight balls for eight hundred and something yards and
eight touchdowns.

Speaker 1 (02:36:42):
And with the lack of receivers here. Why didn't they
just do that more? I thought he was going to
be a slot guy.

Speaker 6 (02:36:47):
I basically thought that's what they're gonna do, is line
himup in the slot, and that I thought he was
going to be the second leading receiver behind DK.

Speaker 4 (02:36:54):
You know, they missed Darnell Washington. They utilized him a lot.

Speaker 6 (02:36:57):
But you know, Gamewell had I think four point seven
yards for Kerry after the first three weeks of the season.
Remember the S two has had trouble running the ball early,
and then Joe Warren got banged up, didn't play against Minnesota,
then came back. He averaged four point nine yards to carry.
After that, the running game was effective over the last
thirteen to fourteen games of the season.

Speaker 4 (02:37:16):
I thought it was a little underutilized.

Speaker 1 (02:37:18):
I couldn't agree more, particularly last night.

Speaker 12 (02:37:20):
I mean, I would have been playing if I'm losing
seven to six or even ten to six in the
fourth quarter. I keep going back to that third and long.
It's just that that sacks strip scoop score. You're just
you're killing yourself. You're you're inviting disaster. When you set
that were they gonna throw along?

Speaker 6 (02:37:36):
There was that nothing breaks the defense down quite like
running all over them. Yes, which is what the Texans
did better than I thought. I mean, mostly to me,
the offense needed to help the defense out in this game.
But there's no way I saw Woody Marx, who'd come
in with the highest seventy four yards in his career
doing he was.

Speaker 4 (02:37:58):
At one hundred the third quarter, to be able to run.
I did not see that coming.

Speaker 6 (02:38:02):
I thought the team that would be more effective running
would be the Steelers, and that would be one of
those little factors. I we're talking about third down point,
but that helps you on third down, Right, you're running
the football and you're being effective, you get into third
and two, third and three. That's what Houston did. The
Steelers were constantly third and nine, third and eleven, third
and twelve. That's a tough way to make it thought.

Speaker 12 (02:38:23):
I thought they were gonna win both trenches because I
thought I had mad respect for Hunter and Anderson.

Speaker 1 (02:38:29):
But I thought them.

Speaker 12 (02:38:30):
Playing on the road and the Steelers having the advantage
of Houston having to go silent. I thought Watt, high
Smith and Herbie would feast. And they didn't win either.
So they lost the offensive trench, they lost the defensive trench,
their edge was not superior, which they thought it had

(02:38:50):
to be, and then they could not overcome. I was
very skeptical that the stuff in the flat was going
to work, although he even said in this press conference
on Tuesday he relied on that heavily all year. The
little checkdowns in the back, making a guy miss and
turning a short catch into a bigger play, Well, you
take that out of the equation, where does it go?

Speaker 1 (02:39:11):
The answer is nowhere.

Speaker 3 (02:39:13):
Special thanks to Tim Ben's Jean Sterator and Rob King
talking Steelers. And that's a rap on the twenty five
twenty six season for your Pittsburgh Steelers.

Speaker 4 (02:39:22):
Let's get Pence, Let's go Pens, Let's go Box.

Speaker 6 (02:39:25):
I like the offseason Pirates are so far so had
another guy or too, and let's go man. Yeah, I'm
just gonna go and pretend to not be completely pissed
the rest of the day.

Speaker 3 (02:39:34):
That's fine. I know I didn't believe they could make
a little bit of a run. No, I wasn't sitting
telling everybody Saturday, you know, if the Bills.

Speaker 1 (02:39:44):
Win and the Chargers, I know we got a I
think we can beat him.

Speaker 6 (02:39:52):
And I'm just saying, don't be surprised if Aaron Rodgers.

Speaker 3 (02:39:56):
I don't feel dumb for thinking that and telling everybody
all day Saturday.

Speaker 12 (02:40:01):
Well, I did say this on the pregame last night.
Starts agreed with me, and technically it's not wrong. I
said the Houston game was gonna be harder to win
than I thought the New England game would be. If
they could survive the Houston game. We'll never know if
you were right, Mike.

Speaker 1 (02:40:17):
We won't. We should just assume. I am Yeah, Ted,
Thanks for coming in.

Speaker 4 (02:40:20):
I know you pulled an onliner two.

Speaker 1 (02:40:22):
Absolutely yeah, and come back tomorrow.

Speaker 5 (02:40:24):
See you tomorrow. Yeah, well, you know a lot.

Speaker 4 (02:40:26):
It would be much better boots tomorrow.

Speaker 6 (02:40:28):
We'll forget all about this.

Speaker 4 (02:40:29):
By Dan Abbey.

Speaker 1 (02:40:30):
What fine finish you say?

Speaker 6 (02:40:35):
Classy Pittsburgh, don't touch your face?

Speaker 5 (02:40:37):
I got him, Taday baby, So now you gotta call
me Ronald?

Speaker 6 (02:40:41):
Would you not eat my pants?

Speaker 5 (02:40:43):
Ronald? Oh?

Speaker 1 (02:40:48):
Why goggle it?

Speaker 17 (02:40:53):
It's time for the Steelers Daily Report on DV, brought
to you by cally Ante Pizza and Draft Holes. Three
time world peat. That's the champions and Steelers Pro Shop.
Get it direct from the team at Shop Dog Steelers
dot com. Here's Tom Opperman.

Speaker 18 (02:41:06):
The Steelers season ended Monday night at the hands of
the Houston Texans. Thirty to six was your final score.
Houston's defense was as advertised, as they completely shut down
the Steelers offense, holding them to just one hundred and
seventy five yards of total offense.

Speaker 1 (02:41:19):
And limiting them to just two for fourteen on third downs.

Speaker 18 (02:41:22):
The Texans pass rush was all over Aaron Rodgers, who
threw for just one hundred and forty six yards on
seventeen to thirty three passing. Houston sacked Rodgers four times
and had twelve quarterback hits. They also tacked on eight
tackles for loss as they completely blew up the Steelers
offensive line all night long. Defensively, the Steelers played decently
well in a game that entered the fourth quarter with
Houston leading just seven to six. They got adequate pressure

(02:41:43):
on CJ. Strouds, sacking him three times and forced multiple turnovers.
But the biggest flaw by far on that side of
the ball was the inability to stop the run. Houston,
who averaged just three point nine yards per kerry during
the regular season, averaged five point three against the Steelers
as they racked up one hundred and sixty four yards
on thirty one kiss and one rushing touchdown. The lost
means of Steelers now have lost seven playoff games straight

(02:42:05):
as they continue to search for their first postseason win
since the twenty sixteen season.

Speaker 6 (02:42:10):
I'm Tom Aframan with the Steelers Report.

Speaker 2 (02:42:13):
Rob King here for Calienti pizza and draft ass. Offenses
can't move the ball where they get stuck by the defense,
and you won't move off the couch after you get
stuffed by the Caliente stuffed crust pizza. Right now, just
twenty two bucks for a large two topic at Caliente,
the official pizza of.

Speaker 10 (02:42:27):
Wdve from the Root for your insurance traffic center, your
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Speaker 5 (02:42:34):
This report is sponsored by Staples.

Speaker 20 (02:42:37):
After most of us had a late night, looks like
a lot of people are having a late start. We
still have break lights for delays. Parkway West coming down
the hill into the tunnels to slow ride Parkways slow
at the tunnels both directions. Sodown's on the North Shore
Express to the four to Cambridge. I'm Bonnie Diver Total traffic.

Speaker 5 (02:42:52):
It's a new year and Staples has