HR 1 - Matt Williamson Joins the Show, The Big Money Bozos

Mark talks more about the Steelers loss last night, including about the Big Money Bozos. Matt Williamson joins the show to talk about the Steelers flat effort in LA

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the Mark Man Show.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
We got Matt Williamson joining me at three thirty right now,
I want your angst like it's hard for me to
hide that I think this is hilarious.

Speaker 1 (00:10):
It's hard for me to hide that.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Mike Tomlin and Omar Khant and Art Rooney are reaping
what they sewed. They're getting exactly what they deserve, and
so were you, Because year after year you think this
team's great, and year after year it sucks.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
Doesn't suck, Mushy middle I coined that term.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Actually, Tom McMillan, the Penguin's vice president retired, He coined
that term. But I'm gonna steal it. I'm taking it
back for the black Man. Chris rock In the in
Jay and cycle Bob strike back.

Speaker 1 (00:42):
And we got.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
Anthony Mantham from the Penguins. He's off the hot start
eight goals. He joins us at four o'clock, and then
the old two nineer Phil Burke at four thirty to
talk hockey bit. Right now, we are talking Steelers angst,
So get your calls in at four one two damn,
I got it on eight three three four one two
WXDX eight three three four one two w XDX. Let's

(01:08):
talk about the big money bozos, TJ Watt and DK Metcalf.
TJ one had a garbage time sack yesterday. He was
otherwise invisible. He said, major impact in one game all year.
That's one out of nine decent impacted two others little
impact in six games. I guess forty one million. Don't
buy what it used to. DK Metcalf is also getting

(01:31):
quarterback money. He had three catches for thirty five yards
at LA. He's averaged this figures so pathetic. He's averaged
fifty five yards per game receiving. He said, one game
of over one hundred yards catching the ball. If you
want to boil the Steelers mediocrity, their disappointment, their status

(01:53):
is just overpaid, over too much ego. I mean, those
two just they take the cake. They make the most
and don't do the most. They're the big money bozos
and in terms of being the best, in terms of
doing the most, rather they do a lot closer to
the least. Again, call the show eight three to three,

(02:18):
four one two WXDX. They're just so much, there's so
many ways to pile on, and I'm gonna I mean,
I mean, do I think it's fun in a way.
Do I get angry though, Yeah, I get angry too,
you know. I get angry because they could have fixed
this over the past how many years, and they just

(02:39):
declined to they could have got a better coach and
fretting up better. Well, yeah, better in a different I mean,
that'st thing with the Penguins.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
It's different.

Speaker 2 (02:47):
It's not stale, and people are responding, players are responding.
Even Eric Carlson is playing fundamentally sound two hundred foot
hockey except on that winning goal La scored on Sunday
without take what I can get. And even Carlson listen,
already said about the coach buried Sullivan buried them, buried them.

Speaker 1 (03:07):
He said about Dan Mues.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
These coaches, you do the things you're good at, and
not the thing that someone tells you to do that
you can't. And people are misinterpreting that like that Sully
was telling Carlson to do things he couldn't. It's actually
quite the opposite. He was telling Ryan Graves to do
things he couldn't. He was telling the bummy guys, Yeah,
activate pitch all the time, one size fits all.

Speaker 1 (03:32):
I mean, I'm not sure carl was the guy to
say that, because his last.

Speaker 2 (03:34):
Two years have been just terrific his first two years
with the Penguins, but he's pretty good this year, and
he's right MWS and freshening things up and no longer
being stale has made a big difference for the Penguins.

Speaker 1 (03:46):
Could that help?

Speaker 2 (03:46):
The Steelers will never effing know, and when we do know,
they'll be buried so deep it won't matter for half
a decade at least. But in terms of polling on
in terms of just you know, stuff that they're doing wrong.
Here's another one, you know who's a hidden villain in
this Oppenheimer Arthur Smith. And like, I mean, yeah, he

(04:08):
gets criticized, but he's so far down the list of
the hate parade, but he deserves any criticism he gets.

Speaker 3 (04:15):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (04:16):
The offense was supposed to supposed to maximize. I'm so mad.

Speaker 2 (04:20):
I'm like stuttering, I'm mumbling, tranquilo, calm down, talk legibly.
Oppenheimer's offense was supposed to maximize that group of three
tight ends. And it turns out the number one guy
is the big lug. And I'm sorry, I know you
love him Mount Washington and all that his only talent

(04:41):
is being big, and that's a considerable talent, but I'm
not sure it's enough to be the number one tight end.
Friarmouth is being used like man John who has disappeared
in last night.

Speaker 1 (04:54):
This offense is supposed to be built around the tight ends.

Speaker 2 (04:57):
We thought supposed to be build around the tight ends,
and last night the tight ends caught five balls for
fifty one yards. There is nothing interesting or effective about
the Steelers offense, let alone revolutionary. Almost everything about the

(05:17):
Steelers is failing.

Speaker 1 (05:21):
Again.

Speaker 2 (05:22):
Your thoughts get mad. It'll be fun eight three to
three four one two WXDX. I hate that phone number
confuses me. The area code is in middle of the number.
I bet it keeps people from calling U pidos Notre Dame.
On Saturday, College game Day is coming to Pittsburgh. It's

(05:43):
a high profile situation. Our doozy usually f's up. We
will talk more Penguins later. Penguins played okay at New
Jersey on Saturday and at home against LA yesterday. Probably
deserved more than the one point they got. Morishoff made
his debut and did well yesterday, let in.

Speaker 1 (06:02):
One kind of soft goal.

Speaker 2 (06:04):
Shilloffs let in two out of two in the shootout
loss at New Jersey Saturday, two shootout attempts by New
Jersey both goals. So far this season he's a lot
seven out of eight shootout attempts. He is, needless to say,
zero and three in the shootout. He's got to be
subed out for shootouts. Whoever, the backup goalie is even

(06:27):
Jarr who's not good at shootouts.

Speaker 1 (06:29):
When it comes to shootouts, Shotoffs.

Speaker 2 (06:31):
Makes Jarry look like Flurry, and he's got to, like
mus has got to sub in the other goalie for
Shotoffs in the shootouts, but he won't because they don't
want the starting goalie to get mad. But they really
don't have a starting goalie who cares if one gets mad.
And I argued this was Sully before in like the
hallway at the game, saying that, you know Jari's terrible shootouts,

(06:54):
put in you know the other guy who was the
other guy last year, oh Najelkovic, and he was boy,
that's like Russian rule out with the whole bunch of
bullets in the chamber. Sally's arking was, well, you don't
want to bring that guy in cold, and I said, well, okay.
When overtime starts to three on three, Tell the backup
to go stretch in the hallway, and goalie's coming cold

(07:17):
all the time when the other goalie gets hurt, what's
the freaking difference? And you will recall the Penguins were
way out of the playoff spots last year, but the
year before that, I think they were three points out.
The year before that they were two points out, and
the shootout points cost them because they were bad in
the shootouts. Then they don't have any real good shootouts shooters.
Dan Bosma was an awful coach, but he understood the

(07:39):
value of shootouts. The Penguins practiced them all the time.
The Penguins now do not practice shootouts at all. Didn't
undersell Itvan either, And when I say it all, I
mean they don't practice them at all as a never.
And Ray Shiro the GM before Rutherford, he understood the

(07:59):
vale with shootouts. He had Eric Christensen on who was
a great shootout guy. He had Uc Jokin and after
that it was a great shootout guy. The Penguins would
get six or seven points from shootouts a year that
this team just isn't gonna get. And like I know,
like Sully always would think, and I bet mused us too. Well,
you know you want your fourth line to be, you know,

(08:22):
penalty killers and good checkers and all around players. Shut
the frig up. Okay, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter
even a little bit who the goddamn fourth line, right
wing or left wing is.

Speaker 1 (08:31):
If they can do one thing right, that's all you need.

Speaker 2 (08:35):
And people want that guy to be a penalty killer,
that's the traditional viewpoint.

Speaker 1 (08:39):
What if he's a great shootot guy.

Speaker 2 (08:42):
The great shootout guy will get you just as many
points in a season, if not more than a great
penalty killer. I'm a thousand percent right about this. I
shouldn't make the decision for them because I know they
will not.

Speaker 1 (08:52):
Do what's right. Well, we jumped ahead to the Hockey Talk,
and I for one enjoyed it.

Speaker 2 (08:57):
Uh, get your calls in now to tell me how
piss off you are about the Steelers, and I'll laugh
at you because nothing's going to change. And then we
have Matt Williamson on and he'll get it right at
the bottom of the hour, one O five to nine.

Speaker 1 (09:09):
Geez, Mark Madden.

Speaker 3 (09:11):
Double m mark it afternoon to Mark Madden, what do
you want what do you want?

Speaker 1 (09:16):
Damn it? The exit one O five nine. Here's a
tweet from that guy Scarps who used.

Speaker 2 (09:23):
To work for the Steelers in p R Ryan Scarpino.

Speaker 1 (09:27):
His name is.

Speaker 2 (09:28):
For years, I've been called a hater or negative or
whichever insult you throw at me because if your insecurities.
The sad part is I've been saying the same things
about this team and it keeps happening.

Speaker 1 (09:40):
They just keep running it back. That's how I feel too.

Speaker 2 (09:44):
I know what's wrong and they won't fix it because
they think it's right. Same old crap, no plaelduins for
seven years, it's gonna be eight. They brought in the
old guys to go all in, except they didn't really
go all in because they didn't make a move at
the trade deadline, which is what happens when you have
a bean Connor is the GM not a football gu
I'm not going to make a football move. He's worried

(10:06):
about how it reflects on the bottom line, which shoots
Start Rooney the.

Speaker 1 (10:09):
Second right down to the ground.

Speaker 2 (10:11):
The criticism of this team are a thousand percent accurate
from Scarps, from me, from whoever has the balls to
make them.

Speaker 1 (10:19):
But not many do.

Speaker 4 (10:22):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (10:24):
Here's the foot fetish guy, Rex Ryan on ESPN putting
the boots.

Speaker 1 (10:28):
To the Steelers. Get it, foot.

Speaker 2 (10:29):
Fetish boots putting the boots the Steelers for that.

Speaker 1 (10:36):
Keep playing it?

Speaker 4 (10:37):
And I should have gone asleep because I watched this game. Why,
I have no idea Like Aaron Rodgers looks awful. Okay,
the receiver's stunk too, though, I mean the one dude
with the feet for hands. But I literally can we
We saw a couple where guys actually were open. Uh,
there were a million where they were just getting beat
up all over the field. So to me that they

(10:58):
had no receivers all right, I like the running back,
but for some reason they don't run the ball. Maybe
Aaron's checking out the pat I mean, give it one
of those little deals.

Speaker 3 (11:06):
Again.

Speaker 1 (11:07):
I can't stand watching it.

Speaker 4 (11:08):
And their defense actually played better than they have been,
but they're still terrible.

Speaker 2 (11:16):
It was a one hundred percent Excreman show and the
Steelers only got the one receiver DK but he sucks.
He's a bust for big money. The Steelers did ditch
the run again, and they are a bland, boring team
to watch offensively, and Arthur Smith has taken all that

(11:38):
depth of tight end like I just talked about, and
turned it into a large steamy pile of tight end
smelling crap. The OC is not actually coordinating. So Rex
Ryan right on the money with all that uh as
I talked about earlier. Pit host Notre Dame on Saturday.
College Game Day is coming to Pittsburgh. It's a high

(12:01):
profile situation. Ardougally usually fs up and talk of the devil.
Listen to this quote from Nardoozi. Somebody asked them if
it's a must win game for pitt He said, quote,
absolutely not.

Speaker 1 (12:14):
It's not an acc game.

Speaker 2 (12:16):
They could put one hundred up on us as long
as we win the next two.

Speaker 1 (12:20):
Unquote.

Speaker 2 (12:22):
You got this huge game, Notre Dame coming to town,
all their fans. It's gonna be sold out, gonna be
brimming to the gills with not only Pit fans, but
Notre Dame fans. It'll be like a neutral site game.
In fact, Notre Dame fans might take over Aquasure. And
the head coach of pitt says it doesn't matter if
they win or lose. What a friggin' ass hat not

(12:45):
to be critical. Our football guru, Matt lays them up
next to one oh five nine.

Speaker 5 (12:50):
One oh five nine d X has your shot at
x dra a cash because we're nice. Thirteen times a day,
nine am through nine pm, The X will give you
the keyword at the top of every hour enterated wxdx
dot com and you could win one thousand dollars jesting you.

Speaker 1 (13:05):
Can spread it on the bed and roll around at
one thousand dollars or whatever. It's your money.

Speaker 5 (13:09):
Listen all day for your chance it some extra cash
on one.

Speaker 1 (13:13):
Oh five nine The X. This is Doug Gottlieb.

Speaker 2 (13:17):
Here's what's trending from the Iheartsports Network.

Speaker 1 (13:19):
Presented by Mercedes Benz.

Speaker 6 (13:21):
Football first, we're Week ten of the NFL season wraps
up tonight. It'll be the Eagles and the Packers duking
it out in an NFC class.

Speaker 1 (13:27):
That one's in Green Bay.

Speaker 6 (13:29):
It is in the College Football Coaches Pull for the
first time this season, broke in at number twenty three.

Speaker 1 (13:34):
Anther said to host Notre Dame.

Speaker 6 (13:36):
That's a sweet and college basketball it rolls on tonight
with Pitt hosting Eastern Michigan in search of a third
straight win, while Robert Morris welcomes Geneva.

Speaker 1 (13:44):
I'm Scott Davidson.

Speaker 6 (13:45):
Despite wintry conditions in heavy traffic, the holidays have to
go on.

Speaker 1 (13:50):
And now the super genius Mark Madden.

Speaker 2 (13:53):
Hey, what's that?

Speaker 3 (13:53):
Mark DX?

Speaker 1 (13:59):
At one five nine.

Speaker 2 (14:03):
Steelers lost in LA last night. Looked pretty bad doing it,
joining me now to talk about it. He's our football guru.
He's the former pro in college scout. Matt Williamson, Matt,
what went bad for Rogers?

Speaker 1 (14:16):
Was it just a bad game?

Speaker 2 (14:17):
He's not had one yet this year, but he looked
really sloppy and disheveled, which is unlike him.

Speaker 3 (14:23):
Yeah, and it was clearly his worst game. And I'm
sure he would tell you that. Anyone watching would tell
you that, coaching staff would say it, tell you that
is it a one off? I hope So in a
very minor way. He's been slightly slightly trending the wrong
direction the last couple of weeks. So I fear and

(14:45):
I'm not implying that this is a case, because I
don't believe it to be true. Is the or the
Riggers of the season starting to take their toll a
little bit on an older guy? Maybe? I also think
there could be something to Rogers is zero to five
against Harbaugh. Does Harbaugh have something have a trick up
his sleeve about Rogers that he just has his number? Maybe,

(15:09):
But I also think, you know, Rogers dealing with early pressure,
you know, poor protection right off the bat had him
a little more rattled than usual, and frankly, he just
missed a lot more throws than he usually does. So
I'm gonna I'm gonna look at the Bengals as the
perfect get right defense to get all those things out
of your system, and the Chargers deserve some credit to

(15:32):
their defense. Played a really sound game, and I was
kind of obvious that the Steelers are really lacking for
a second receiver right now.

Speaker 2 (15:41):
Well, I think you're right on the money with all that,
and I still can't believe they didn't get a second
receiver at the deadline. But staying with Rogers looking rattled, Matt,
I agree. I thought the early pressure, especially the Chargers
got max pressure on Rogers for most of the night
without blitzing once, which I think probably had Rogers a
bit nerved. No old quarterback wants to get hit, but

(16:03):
it's the first game where I really felt like he
was going out of his way to avoid it, you know,
getting rid of the ball hitting the deck to lessen
the impact of the hit. And I've also considered that
maybe we've overrated how he's played up till now just
a little bit, because his numbers haven't really added up
except for touchdown passes.

Speaker 1 (16:22):
And he's been maybe more opportunistic than.

Speaker 3 (16:24):
Great, So, like the advanced numbers will tell you that quote,
when pressured, he's been one of the worst quarterbacks in
the league all year now. He's been under pressure less
than any any quarterback in the league because the line
has played better than this for the most part, I

(16:46):
mean definitely better than they did last night. And the
ball comes out so quick, so he has not had
to deal with pressure that much. And his numbers when
pressured are pretty bad, so you wonder if that's just
who he is at this point. When the Steelers signed him,
I went back and I watched every one of his
snaps with the Jets, and there were times, and this

(17:07):
is true for a lot of quarterbacks his age over
the last ten to fifteen years, and probably including Ben,
that they don't like getting hit as much as they
did back in the day. And there was quite a
few instances with the Jets where I just need to
get on my hands. I don't want to get take
the hit. And I hadn't seen any of that, to
be honest with you, in a Steeler uniform until maybe

(17:29):
last night, and I don't like it. I mean, I
think that's room for concern for sure. Now, it wouldn't
shock me one bit if he rebounds in a huge
way and plays really really well and makes big time
throws as he did. But I thought that the Chargers,
without blitz, as you mentioned, were able to flood the

(17:51):
shorter intermediate zones and take away his first read more
than he's been accustomed. And what worries me is I
think that what they need to do, and I just
don't know if they can do it or not, is
you might have to throw the ball down the field
a little bit more because I think you're going to
see a lot of zone coverage crowding the line of

(18:12):
scrimmage without much blitz until you can throw people out
of it.

Speaker 1 (18:17):
You mentioned that the O line had a bad night.

Speaker 2 (18:19):
I think that was pretty obvious in what ways did
have a bad night, And one thing they did I
didn't like. They abandoned the jumbo package pretty much after
a few plays and I understand that because you're trailing,
but I didn't like them flipping Spencer Anderson from guard
to the tackle eligible and putting in the Jabbroni at guard.
That put two guys in kind of not uncomfortable because

(18:40):
Anderson's done a bino what I mean, I'd rather just
change it for one guy than two guys.

Speaker 3 (18:45):
Yeah, I'm not sure what the answer is for that,
because it's something I talked about a lot, and basically
people at practice told me this is how they're going
to handle it, which I sort of understand because I
think the other option is putting Calvin Anderson as you're
the offensive lineman. But he's definitely not one of your
best eleven players, you know, and I guess he's done

(19:06):
a little bit of it in his career, but not
nearly as much as Spencer. And I don't know if
you know this, because I didn't know it until an
hour ago, but there's a rule that if Anderson Spencer
goes from left guard to anyone, if you go in
as a eligible tackle eligible player, you have to sit

(19:29):
out of rep before you can go back to being
an offensive lineman. Max Starks told me that I didn't
know that answer. I never knew that before. So not
only is that way kind of make you worse at
both spots, but Den Anderson had to go out of
the game for one snap while Pete would play left
guard before he could go back to a normal left

(19:49):
guard spot. Wow.

Speaker 2 (19:51):
That and then the whole thing, to me is just overthinking.
And when you pile on top of that, I thought
Roderick Jones was awful. I thought he was just whipping
on blocks that was so obvious to see on.

Speaker 1 (20:01):
The network feed.

Speaker 3 (20:03):
Yeah, and it wasn't Falton Who's best day Now, I
really do like the Chargers edge defenders, those pass rushers,
but still it was I mean, frankly, I mean, it's
easy to blame Rogers, and he deserves much blame for
this particular game, but the reason the Steelers lost was
the Steeler passing game was miserable and basically all facets

(20:25):
if the guy's catching the ball, the guy's blocking, the
guy throwing the ball. It was by far the worst
we've seen.

Speaker 1 (20:32):
And in that vein.

Speaker 2 (20:32):
And I ask you this question all the time, Matt,
so bear with me. DK Metcalf's a bust, He's disappeared.
What's going on? Again last night.

Speaker 3 (20:42):
Yeah, and a week ago we had this conversation and
I told you people there basically thought that he was
playing through a very bad illness and was a decoy.
So I can explain that away. I mean, okay, I
give you credit for even going out there if you're
not close to being who you are. And I don't
think he's a bust. I think he's a good football player.

(21:03):
But one thing that bothers me. This isn't exactly what
you ask, but one thing that bothers me is they
seem to think that he's George Pickens or Larry Fitzgerald
at the catch point. He's not a good contested receiver.
He does a lot of things right, well, he's big,
he's fast, he can get behind the defense, but he

(21:24):
is not a go up and get it contested receiver
despite his size and strength. It's just not what he
does well. I mean, he's good with the ball in
his hands. And the other thing I think it's really
worrisome is a lot of people, including myself, thought when
we talk about this, they need a second receiver. Okay,

(21:44):
and I think that there's some truth to that for sure,
but a lot of people would say well, what if
Metcalf gets hurt, That's when you'll really see you need
a second receiver. Yes, but I think what's happening now,
even when he's out there is coverage is roll his
way so dramatically, and it's getting even more dramatic that

(22:05):
he's basically doubled more than anyone in the league in
some way, shape or form, because no one has any
respect for the other wideouts.

Speaker 2 (22:13):
I think what's also happened to Matt And you know
it wasn't said in so many words, but we thought
this offense would revolve around a group of three pretty
good tight ends, and they're all pretty much invisible. They're
not nearly as much a part of the attack as
I thought.

Speaker 1 (22:26):
They would be.

Speaker 3 (22:28):
Johnny Smith, to me, is the biggest culprit thing.

Speaker 2 (22:30):
Yeah, but really all of them that. I mean, look
at Washington last year.

Speaker 3 (22:33):
One catch, I know, and frankly Washington's snaptotals were down too,
which again made me think they got away from the
run too early. I think Friarman's playing fine and probably
gets too bad a wrap around here.

Speaker 1 (22:47):
Yeah, but the numbers, the numbers.

Speaker 3 (22:51):
He plays the Bengals, right, I'm with you. The tight
end room as a whole should give you more.

Speaker 2 (22:58):
We're talking about Williamson brought us by the Steelers Pro
Shop get it direct from the team at shop dot
Steelers dot com. People are saying that the offense let
the defense down, and I think that's true to some degree.

Speaker 1 (23:09):
But how good did the defense play?

Speaker 2 (23:11):
I mean, five sacks but only for twenty one yards lost,
did no takeaways to drop picks as well.

Speaker 3 (23:17):
Yeah, they did leave some big plays on the field,
namely the interceptions. Eccles had a tough day, especially when
he lined up against mconkey, and I'm not super worried
about him. I never thought he was Rod Winson or
melt Blunt, but I still think he's a decent enough player.
He you know, he had a tough matchup there and

(23:37):
didn't excel with it. One thing that worried me about
the defense is some of the holes that Ydell was
running through were way too big. But to me, they's
on the field way too much, and that's been a
that's been a problem all year long. The biggest problem
with this team to me is time of possession. They're

(23:58):
they're they run the fewest offensive plays in the entire league.
And early in the season, I blame the defense for
the time of possession problems. They couldn't get off the
field long drives. Lately it's been the offense just can't
get first downs. So I think the defense has gotten better.
I like how the changes they've made, especially these past

(24:20):
two weeks, Ramsey at safety in particular, things of that nature.
But they're asking the defense to be out there thirty
five thirty six minutes a game and play more snaps
than any team in the league. And if you extrapolated
through the course of the season, it's almost like the
defense through an eighteen game schedule is going to play

(24:40):
like a twenty one game schedule, and it's only gonna
get worse if you're out there that much, all.

Speaker 1 (24:45):
Right, because it's old guys.

Speaker 2 (24:46):
I mean, on both sides the ball, there are some
old guys, and they're not gonna get fresher, They're not
going to improve, They're just gonna get older and more tired.

Speaker 1 (24:53):
Now you mentioned Ramsey.

Speaker 3 (24:54):
And injuries are gonna pop up.

Speaker 2 (24:56):
And you know, right, no question you mentioned Ramsey. Did
he regress its safety? I'm not sure. I do know
in a couple you know, big plays for la he
was at the scene of the crime.

Speaker 3 (25:10):
I think he's in his right role. I like him
a lot as a safety. I thought him and Doug
are both played pretty high quality games. I'm gonna have
a hard time nitpicking the defense, I really am. I
mean there's a couple of little things, I mean the
holes that Videl ran through, Ecles dropping an interception or two.
But overall, I thought this was a winning defense performance.

(25:33):
And Ramsey's right in the midst of that.

Speaker 2 (25:36):
Yeah, and you can't cont on takeaways as what point
out after the game. But then again, what I mean,
that's one guy I will complain about night. I don't
think it's nitpicking when you make as much money as
he does. Matt, he didn't do nothing until that garbage
time sack.

Speaker 3 (25:50):
Yeah, and he's been a little slow, that's for sure. No,
I won't fight you on that. I mean, considering if
you when you would you judge him against the best
stuff at play in the world, which he's supposed to be.
I don't think he's still at that level. I think
he's still a very high quality player. And when you
watch the All twenty two, every team that the Steelers
play judge him accordingly except for Colts for whatever reason.

(26:14):
And I think that's the biggest compliment, is what do
other coaches think of your guy? But he still isn't
overcoming the immense attention he gets, like he once did.

Speaker 2 (26:27):
I gotta get back to Rogers for one second, because
there's there's so much d un pack with that game
he played.

Speaker 1 (26:31):
What about that safety? What was he thinking? I mean,
that's what I thought it was about all that, I'm characteristic.
He looked like dan Orlowski for Heck's sake.

Speaker 3 (26:39):
Yeah, I don't know. I can't explain that away at all.
I thought that was ninety nine point nine percent on him,
spatial awareness and always doing comfortableness. I mean, he showed
none of those things which are really his specialties at
this point. I don't have that answer because he did.
He looks like if he just wants that game of Rogers, oh,

(27:01):
you would think he's a different player than everything else
he's done here well.

Speaker 1 (27:05):
And moving forward.

Speaker 2 (27:07):
If there's something rattling him for a reason we don't
know about her, if he's lost confidence in the team,
which I think there were signs of frustration visible during
the game and when he spoke afterwards, then that's real
trouble because so far, I mean, he hasn't played spectacular Matt,
but he's really been the glue that's held them together.

Speaker 3 (27:26):
Yeah, And I think that was a huge problem with
the offense too, is when they look to the huddle
at the Hall of Famer, who's been the stabilizing force
that have you know, raised the offensive ships and he
didn't have it. I think everyone else kind of looked
at themselves and thought, oh, no, you know, what, what
can we do now? You know? And that is worrisome.

(27:47):
If he starts to go downhill, I don't know who's
capable of stepping up on that offense and really raising
those around them. Like I really like Jalen Warren. I
love Jalen Warren. I've been lobbying for since he been
here to play more and more and more. But if
he's your best offensive player, you got problems, you know
what I mean. I mean, he's not Saquon Bark but
he's not Jim Brown, you know. I Mean he's a

(28:09):
good player, he's a really good player, but he can't
be the one that raises all ships on offense.

Speaker 1 (28:15):
Baltimore's really coming on, aren't they?

Speaker 2 (28:17):
I mean, the Steelers still have a game lead, but
Baltimore catching them. Boy, if it doesn't, if it's not inevitable,
Mattter kind of feels that way.

Speaker 3 (28:26):
Inevitable is about the word I was about to use
to beb to it, like they're better than the Steelers.
They're playing better than the Steelers I think they play
the Browns and Jets the next two weeks. I mean,
I have a feeling they'll be in first place when
we talk Monday in three weeks from now.

Speaker 2 (28:41):
Is there a great team in the AFC. I think
there's some good teams, but the ones we expected to
be great aren't right.

Speaker 3 (28:48):
Now, I don't think there is. I'm not sure there's
any great teams in the league. I look at Seattle,
the Rams, maybe the Eagles to Night, maybe the Lions,
but especially in the AFC, great team No, I definitely
don't think so. And maybe this will make Seler fans
feel a little better. But it's so obvious now that

(29:10):
this is such a week the week league, you know
that Buffalo loses to Miami handily. You know the Packers
lose the Carolina last week handily. That I can tell
you who the six garbage teams are. I can't tell
you who the six best teams are.

Speaker 1 (29:27):
Yeah, I'm the same way. But the one disclaimer I
will add. Earlier in the show, I.

Speaker 2 (29:33):
Was talking about which teams I thought the Steelers couldn't
couldn't beat in the playoff game, and the list would
was extremely short.

Speaker 3 (29:42):
Yeah, that's an interesting exercise, and I would have put
the two days ago. I would have put the Chargers
on the team that they could beat. Now I don't
feel that good.

Speaker 4 (29:53):
At all about it.

Speaker 3 (29:54):
I probably wouldn't. I would not put the Chiefs, the Broncos,
the Bills, maybe the Patriots. I wouldn't with the Ravens,
you know, right, I mean of potential playoff teams, I
don't like hardly any of those matchups.

Speaker 1 (30:07):
Yeah, the weird one would be the Broncos.

Speaker 2 (30:10):
Like, don't wrong, I think they have a real good team, Matt,
But that's the kind of game where if the Broncos
didn't have a good game offensively, it could wind up
being ten to seven.

Speaker 3 (30:17):
And they're a very frustrating offense to watch too, and
so is Nicks. But it's maybe the best defense in
the league.

Speaker 2 (30:25):
I feel like they gotta beat Cincinnati and all totally
falls apart if they get swept by Cincinnati, beat by
Flaco twice, if they collapsed, I won't even blame them.

Speaker 3 (30:35):
I would get it too. Again. You could probably say
this every Monday we chat, but this game seems more
important than any of the others to this point. I mean,
if you can move the ball and score a ton
of points against a garbage defense and contain an offense
that's pretty one dimensional and beat the team, you should.

(30:57):
I still believe they should beat the Bengals. Okay, you
know that's some really good mouthwash. If you lose like
you did to them the last time around, I have
a feeling it could get pretty ugly.

Speaker 2 (31:07):
Yeah, Flaco's been their bogey quarterback for how long? I mean,
I expect it to be the game. And what makes
it weird is still is Burrow practice today. I don't
know if his return is imminent, but the Bengals are
going to see this as a game where if we
win this and Joe's back pretty soon, we could still
get back in the division race.

Speaker 3 (31:25):
Oh yeah, I mean, just getting Burrow on the practice
field has to jolt that entire organization. And they're coming
off a bye all the lot, they're bumps and bruises
probably go away. Now they're on a two game losing streak,
but Flaco's played really well. I didn't see that coming
at all.

Speaker 2 (31:43):
Are the Steelers well coached at this point and last
night in particular.

Speaker 3 (31:48):
Last night, no, I frankly, I don't know that the
coaching was horrendous in this game. There was a lot
of time throughout the season where I did not understand
the defensive game plan and what they've been asking the
defense to do. And I think that that stuff's gotten
a lot better. But I definitely think the Chargers staff

(32:12):
was more impressive. I mean, without question. I mean, like
you mentioned to start to show that they made Rogers
hold the football longer than he wanted and got pressure
with four and crowded the line of scrimmage, you know,
in zone coverage, and the Steelers didn't really have an
answer to that, and they made Rogers uncomfortable, which is

(32:32):
really really hard to do. That that reflects on the
Chargers coaching staff, well.

Speaker 4 (32:37):
I do.

Speaker 2 (32:37):
I do think the Steelers coaching ain't been great this year,
especially the offense with the tight ends. We talked about
some of that, but I will say this nobody coached
Aaron Rodgers to take that safety last night, for example.

Speaker 3 (32:49):
Well one thousand percent, and no question about it. Like
one thing I've been talking about, and I'm not trying
to pile on Rogers, is I would like to see
that for whatever however you get there, you can't run
fifty five plays a game on offense. That's the lowest
in the league. No matter what happens in today's tonight's game,
you're gonna be the lowest number of plays run on

(33:09):
offense this week, I mean for the season. And to me,
that means you have to run the fall better. And
I love what Rogers has done, but my hunch is
he's calling air. He's opting out of run plays at
the line of scrimmage because I know Arthur Smith isn't
doing it, you know what I mean, Like, I think

(33:31):
you have to get back to basics and get a
run game going or this season is in big trouble. Matt.

Speaker 2 (33:37):
I want to leave you with this thought, Blitzberg that
the fan website they just tweeted John Smith has a
Pro Bowl season with the Dolphins, and the Steelers trade
for him but never use them.

Speaker 1 (33:47):
It's insane.

Speaker 2 (33:48):
I mean that's a lot of things in the nutshell,
isn't it?

Speaker 3 (33:52):
It is? But it also goes back to what I
was just saying, Like I am so often asked during
the course of the week, why doesn't Metcalf have more targets?
Why isn't Johnny Smith playing more? Why does Darnel Washington
not have enough snaps? Why doesn't Warren get more touches? Said?
You run this fifty five plays a game. You don't
You're not on. You don't snap the ball enough to

(34:12):
get all these guys to what they really should deserves.
The team problem.

Speaker 2 (34:17):
Matt, great stuff. I'm sure we'll be equally confused next
week and we'll.

Speaker 1 (34:20):
Do it again, all right.

Speaker 3 (34:22):
Sounds like a player, man.

Speaker 2 (34:23):
That's Matt Williamson. Brought to us by the Steelers Pro Shop.
Get it direct from the team at shop dot Steelers
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Speaker 5 (34:45):
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Speaker 1 (34:55):
Should all my money be in checked