October 17, 2025 • 32 mins
Tim Benz in for Mark Madden. Tim continues to break down the Steelers game against the Bengals on Thursday Night Football. He plays a soundbite from a prominent Browns player voicing displeasure with field at Acrisure last week.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Radio and podcasts.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Free never sounded so good.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
There's two things I want to say to open up
the three o'clock hour here, Tim Benson from Mark Madden
one O five nine the X. First of all, my
nipples are fine. Secondly, I got to talk about Joe
Flacco and what I saw on the postgame interview last night.
After the Steelers lost in Cincinnati thirty three to thirty
one on Thursday Night Football, Flacco was conducting an interview
(00:32):
on the field with the Prime Network video team all
seventeen hosts on the desk and Jamar Chase and Joe
Flacco at the same time. And while Flacco was speaking,
a large group of remaining fans started chanting thank you Cleveland,
Thank you Cleveland, over and over and over again. Then
(00:55):
they started seeing some other chant that was, well, gosh,
I can't rep okay that one on the air, but
something you Pittsburgh, Something you Pittsburgh.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
And I'm thinking to myself, hmm.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
So Flacco's doing this interview basically at the same time
that Mike Tomlin is wrapping up his postgame press conference,
and as I'm sure he was walking away from his
interview session, he was muttering something else about Cleveland. That
sounded a lot more like that second chance and second chant,
if I could do it in English. You know, all
of Tomlin's fears about Flacco going to Cincinnati from Cleveland,
(01:34):
they manifested on Thursday, and for the thirteenth time, thirteenth time,
Flaco beat the Pittsburgh Steelers. This time it occurred barely
a week after he arrived in Cincinnati. The Steelers, they
built up what a month of goodwill, and I feel
(01:56):
like it's just been flushed right down the toilet. So
let's get into everything that went wrong in this game,
and we'll go primarily on the defensive side first, then
we'll work our way over to the offense. There was
a little offensive graping to be had, but mainly this
was a defensive disaster. And it all goes to the
(02:16):
paranoia about Joe Flacco.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Paranoia.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
It'll destroy you, and it destroyed the Steelers last night.
If you go back to Tomlin's Flaco comments, the ones
about Anthony Richardson, not just the ones about Andrew Berry,
but the ones about Anthony Richardson in advance of this
game that the Steelers played in Cincy, let's rewind the
tape a little bit to their trip out to Dublin
(02:41):
and the press conference that Tomlin had before that, when
he started talking about his memories of telling the team
to keep Anthony Richardson upright so Flacco didn't enter the game.
Now we had kind of heard about that, that there
were some rumblings about that. I think Tomlin might have
even made an allusion to that or said it off
the record or after the season. There's something that's not
(03:02):
the first time that was set out loud. So it
didn't really quite smack people in the face to the
degree that it should have, at least in talking about Flacko,
because we weren't ready to start talking about Cleveland yet.
I'm sure we would have brought it up before the
Cleveland game, but it wasn't sitting there on a tee
just yet. It was more like, cheez, that was a
nasty thing to say about Anthony Richardson. That was catching
(03:23):
astray out of nowhere for that guy. But if you
go back to those comments in advance of the Dublin game,
when he was drawing an analogy to JJ McCarthy and
Carson Wentz, Tomlin told on himself. Tomlin revealed something there.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
I knew. He thought it was a fleeting comment that
more or.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
Less was a good way to illustrate a story and
spin a yarn about the quarterback situation with Wentz, and
maybe big up Wentz a little bit, so it looked
like he was saying good things about the opposition before
the trip out to Dublin. But Tomlin told on himself
when it came that level of concern about Flacco, that
was a look in the window. That concern turned into
(04:06):
paranoia this week when he chastised Andrew Berry, the general
manager of the Browns, for trading Flacco to Cincinnati. The
Steelers proceeded to play against Flacco as if they were
paralyzed by fear over.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Him running the Bengals offense.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
The Steelers acted like they weren't facing Joe Flacco, that
they were facing Joe Cool, Joe Burrow, or Joe Montana.
Like I said before, and Jamar Chase, Well, if Flacco
looked like Joe Montana, then Chase looked like Jerry Rice.
Sixteen passes on twenty three targets for one hundred and
sixty one yards in a touchdown. He could have thrown
(04:44):
the ball to Chase fifty times. I'm not exaggerating. You
could basically have doubled that number. But Chase Brown was running,
got to keep him involved. Te Higgins is on the
other side, he had ninety six yards receiving, got to
keep him involved. They literally kind of like what the
Steelers been doing all year playing with one receiver in DK.
That approach of what Flacco did with Chase is moving
(05:08):
forward what Rogers should do with Dkay. But t wasn't
bad either, was he touchdown ninety six yards six receptions,
basically the game winning catch. So Flacco finishes with what
three forty two, three touchdowns, thirty one to forty seven,
a passer rating of one zero eight point six, and yes,
(05:28):
he even ran for thirteen yards.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
That looked like it was going to be a huge play.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
It kind of got lost in the mix, but what
a dagger that would have been if Cincinnati ended up
finishing that drive. So Flacco's now five hundred lifetime against
the Steelers, including postseason games, and apparently he's going to
live rent free in Tomlin's head for all eternity. But
it is my belief that Tomlin started to lose this
(05:56):
game on Monday, or maybe he even started to lose
that game on the way back to his house from
the Cleveland game. I don't know, but on Monday at
that press conference, that's when this loss started. When Tomlin
kicked the hornet's nest, had everybody buzzing about how much
(06:18):
of a boogieyman Flaco was. And I think the players
hurt it. I think the players bought into it. I
think the players turned him into way too much. I
think if that was an attempt to get the player's
attention to say, hey, the Bengals don't stink as bad
anymore because Flacco is in there because instead of Jake Browning,
then it backfired and he didn't need to do it
to that degree, but he did eight three, three, four,
(06:40):
one two ninety nine thirty nine. And then he get
to the run game. The Bengals had the worst rushing
yardage per game average in football fifty six yards per game,
thirty yards worse than any other team in football, and
then on Thursday they put up one for two on
twenty three attempts. As a team, Chase brown he hadn't
(07:01):
exceeded forty seven yards all year. He winds up in
one oh eight at one point in the fourth quarter.
During the broadcast, Kirk Herbstreet pointed out, this number is
ridiculous when you're supposed to be ready for the other
team to run. Even when they've got a hot quarterback
and two great receivers, you kind of think run on
first and ten. They averaged eleven yards per carry on
first and ten runs. The Steelers rush defense had become
(07:24):
a punchline around these parts based on the failures at
the end of the twenty twenty four season. That carried
over through the first three weeks of twenty twenty five,
when they gave up four hundred and eighteen yards to
the Jets, Seahawks and the Patriots. Out of the Patriots,
on was a little fluky, Drake May had some scrambles
on passing plays.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Not the same thing, but it's in the mix.
Speaker 4 (07:46):
Now.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
Minnesota and Cleveland, you watch those two games, you're thinking, oh, well,
maybe things are fixed. You watch those two games and
maybe you think to yourself, Okay, a little bit of
a carryover. They got Harmon in there, now are getting better.
They only averaged sixty seven yards those two teams against
the Steelers run defense. It looked like you'd gotten over
the trauma, well, so much of that notion and in
(08:09):
all the defense passing game, run game they allowed four
hundred and seventy yards against Cincinnati, And the biggest thing
about that is the big play defensive players totally absent
in this game. The Bengals ran seventy two plays, the
Steelers created, no turnovers, two sacks, one reel early, one
(08:31):
reel eight, nothing in between, and three tackles for loss TJ.
Watt had one tackle with half a sack, and there
was like fifty five minutes of the game where you
didn't know he was there.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
He was getting shut out until late in the fourth quarter.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
For all the crap we gave Miles Garrett coming off
of his performance in Pittsburgh with Cleveland, Watt basically just
turned in the same thing against Cincinnati.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
They split that big.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Sack with Hayward, so it felt like he had more
of an packed Hayward, by the way, only had two
solo tackles along with that half sack. But the alleged
vaunted pass rush that looked like it had woken up
against Minnesota and Cleveland sixteen quarterback hicks six sacks last
week against Cleveland, it got to Flacco behind a leaky
(09:17):
offensive line just twice herbig that Pro Bowl push, well
that's on pause. Didn't play much. One solo tackle, no sacks,
one quarterback hit Harmon. He was a real spark at first.
I don't know what for two weeks since he's been
back from injury. Not on Thursday. Two tackles and a
(09:38):
goose egg. Besides that, and the reconfigured secondary, which was
allegedly built, was stopping Higgins and Chase. In mind, it
was roasted all night, Ramsey Slay, Joey Porter Junior. They
took turns getting torn apart. The Steelers create no turnovers,
(09:59):
and yet the Bengals have a league leading eleven giveaways.
There were eight of fifteen on third down conversions, and
they held onto the ball for over thirty four minutes.
So none of the big play aspect of the Steelers
that we saw against Cleveland and against Minnesota and frankly
against the Jets and Patriots too, none of that existed
(10:19):
against a team that's ripe to allow those things to
ruin their offensive flow, and the Steelers never let it
come to fruition even on offense. Rogers, Yeah, he hit
Pat fayre move for the sixty eight yard touchdown and
DK of the thirty nine yard reception, but Metcalf was
really quiet after that.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Just two more catches and eleven more yards.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
And then the last thing I want to say about this,
and maybe we'll get into the offense specifically more later
on in the show. But yet again, penalties were a
problem for the Steelers, not as bad as last week.
It was seven as opposed to ten. I think it
was six in the first half. They cleaned it up
in the second half, but they were costly. You know,
(11:03):
the tush push thing was costly. But they got the
penalty there that erased a first down and resulted in
a field goal instead of a first down, keeping a
drive alive that could have turned into a touchdown. And
of course that play that tush push had to exist
because a war in touchdown was erased due to a
hold by Zach Frasier. Then again, I guess you could argue,
and you'd probably be right. Would Ward have even gotten
(11:24):
into the end zone if it weren't from the hole
for Fraser in the first place. So I know, that's
a lot to get to, that's a lot to digest,
or you can just say Hey, the defense sure sucks again,
doesn't it? And that'll be fine too. Eight three, three,
four one two ninety nine thirty nine. Scott calling from Aliquippa.
You're on one o five nine.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
The x's up, Tim, How you doing good? Scott?
Speaker 5 (11:48):
I never felt this way at a game on There
was no lack of confidence on the defense. I mean,
it was almost to the point where I thought Friar.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Moves should have slid because you just just.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
Know that Plaka was gonna okay, it's a time out
of time about because like I was waiting for somebody to
say that. Tom and I addressed this in the two
o'clock hour. It's not the same thing as what Higgins did.
They needed a touchdown there. It wasn't Higgins sliding to
set up a twenty four yard chip shot field goal.
There's no guarantee they're going to score a touchdown.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
That wasn't a.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
Play that you talk to the ball carrier and say
get down because you get a.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Chip shot green goal. So like, you know, I know
what you're saying, Like.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
It does, it does go through your head because you're
thinking to yourself, they're just gonna allow a score anyway.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
But It's not like they're gonna be able.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
To wind off the entire time on the clock when
they did that, So like Cincinnati was still going to
get the ball back and still have a chance to
kick a field goal, take the seven, and then rely
on your one hundred and fifty eight million dollar defense
to make a friggin stop Like that shouldn't be part
of the annalysis.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Yeah, go ahead, So we're foign too, right.
Speaker 5 (12:57):
That was an absolutely terrible game. Three games are really
going to define this, right, I mean, if we go
one and two, or if we go two and one,
or if we go zero to three, right, I think
we're really going to see what this team's about in
the next three games, because this is the real test,
don't you think?
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Yes?
Speaker 4 (13:13):
I do.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
I mean, I think you're facing three teams that are
very likely playoff teams. The Packers might be the biggest
question just because of the state of the NFC versus
the state of the AFC. But I do think you're
facing three teams that are all going to be in
the playoff mix at the very least come January, and
I feel like they're gonna be fortunate to go one
and two. Honestly, if they had eked out that win
last night against Cincinnati, even if they won it convincingly,
(13:35):
I might have told you they'd be lucky to go
one and two. But generally speaking, this happens with Tomlin
Steelers teams. Right, they lose this game every year.
Speaker 6 (13:44):
Happen last year?
Speaker 5 (13:46):
Often, it happens almost every year.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
Yes, they go six and one with Russ and they
lose the game to the Browns. You're saying, how do
that happen? And then of course they lose five in
a row thanks to call Scott eight three to three,
four one two ninety nine, thirty nine. Speaking of the
comps to last year, I want to address that week
come back because there's a little numerical nugget that we
need to focus on as it relates to the Steelers.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
We'll do that week come back. One O five nine
The X.
Speaker 7 (14:12):
It's the Pens against the Sharks. Game time is at ten,
Our coverage starts at nine. Listen to every game and
the best Pens coverage on your home of the Pittsburgh
Penguins one O five nine b X iHeartRadio All three.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
At the X at one O five nine.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
Jeer, I wonder if pro Football Talk's gonna have the
Steelers in their top five power rankings again this week.
Hough does that look silly? Eight three three four one
two ninety nine thirty nine. I want your response to
what the Steelers did last night, what the Steelers didn't
do last night, and what the Steelers have to do
now to regain all that goodwill that they built up
(15:00):
over the first month of the season.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
That's actually kind of where I want to focus here now.
Speaker 4 (15:05):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
If you just want to.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
Bitch about the defense, bitch about the defense, I'm here
with you. Eight three three four one two ninety nine
thirty nine. If you want to talk about how the
offense screwed up here and there a little bit, we're
gonna get into that. There is room to discuss there.
I'll do it with you too. Eight three three four
one two ninety nine thirty nine. But if you want
to talk big picture, and I know Mike Tomlin's not
(15:26):
a big picture guy, he said that, although I don't
know how that jibes with what happened this past week
with the whole Flacco thing, But if you look big picture,
where the Steelers are. I will pose this question to listeners.
If you were somebody that was buying in before last night.
If you were someone who saw a Pro Football Talk
(15:49):
this week and said, yeah, Steelers rated fifth in the
power rankings, that's about.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Right, that's where they should be.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
If you are that person, say the last night's loss
flush all that. I have a hard time speaking to
that because I'm not that person, but I would think
that it should. But I do want to hear from
you if you were a true believer going into last night, was.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Your faith tested?
Speaker 3 (16:16):
Or do you just chalk it up to a divisional
road game Thursday night? It happens, It's happened to Tom
when this whole time he's been coaching the Steelers, and hey,
did you hear he's never had a losing season eight three, three,
four one two ninety nine thirty nine there.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Because I want you to consider this.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
If you're still bought in and you still think that
this year is going to be different, well let's consider
a few things. They're four and two right now, that's
what they were. When Justin Fields is a quarterback, Aaron
Rodgers has won four of his first six games as
(16:54):
the Steels quarterback. And that's good. And he's been good,
very good. Better than I expected. If you go down
the list of everything that's wrong with the Steelers, I
got to go a while before I get to Aaron Rodgers,
that's for sure, And I don't even know if I
get to Aaron Rodgers at all. For the most part,
he's been very good. I did see a few cracks
last night when he came to his temperament dealing with
(17:16):
the teammates and kind of keeping as cool during a
game when players screw up, whether that's Roderick Jones jumping
on his back like a lunatic or Jalen Warren screwing
up apparently on the flea flicker. At least that's the
tale that was told. Warranted reasons to be upset, sure,
but he's also the guy that chucked that interception for
(17:37):
no apparent reason, way over DK Metcalf's head and to
awaiting safety.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
So Rogers isn't without blame.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
But he's been very good, and he made some really
nice plays last night, especially that throw that he made
to DK Metcalf and then moving around the way that
he did before finding John hu Smith for that touchdown.
But for as much as we're singing his praises, we
do remember that Russ Wilson won six of his first
seven games here, don't we. I feel like I constantly
(18:05):
bring that up, whether I'm here hosting for Mark or
on nine seventy or writing in the trip, like I
feel it's my duty to remind people that we liked
Russell Wilson a lot for a while too, and people
like to pretend that we didn't because this year is different.
This year's better Russ. It's amazing Tomlin got him to
(18:25):
ten wins with Russ, and Fields they are where they
were with Fields last year. Russ won six of his
first seven. You know, I said this about Rogers when
he eventually got signed, and I said this about Rogers
before he got signed that if you want to make
the argument to go through everything that they went through
(18:48):
to get Rogers, the argument is he's probably good enough
that you're never gonna get the zero to five stretch
that Russ allowed to happen. From his point of view,
it wasn't all Russ by far. It was mainly the
defense last year, just like it was last night. But
Russ did contribute to a certain degree by just not
being good enough anymore as the quarterback. So I always
(19:10):
thought that Rogers was gonna be good enough that zero
to five would never happen under his watch. But I
also wondered out loud, is he ever gonna give him
a stretch where they've won six to seven and he's
the biggest reason why, because that was kind of the
case with Russ, as much as we pretend like it
never happened. And so far for and two has been
pretty good, but it wasn't good enough for justin Fields,
(19:34):
not just in terms of him getting benched for Russ,
but in terms of them wanting to give him money
to the degree that the Jets did, upon further review,
probably a good idea they didn't. Probably a good idea
that they have Rogers at a better number. I'm not
trying to make that correlation. I'm just trying to couch
some of the belief that people automatically feel things have
(19:55):
to be better because they're better at the quarterback position.
It's got to translate the wins, not just in the
manner I just described to the regular season, but it's
got to be for a postseason victory too. Mark's calling
from Mars Mark, you're on one to five nine.
Speaker 6 (20:10):
The X.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
Any thanks for taking my call. I try not to
get too high or too low through the season. Each
game is a small sample size, but I'm feeling pretty
down about the game yesterday. I think they gave up
so much. And I don't know if I harken back
to Tomlin against Brady, where he's just afraid of what
(20:35):
they're going to do, so they don't like there was
no pressure. I don't know how many backs we had
rushing the quarterback, but it didn't seem like that.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
Well. Yeah, and we've talked about that a lot from
an offensive perspective this year, that their offense has felt
limited because they've been trying to coach away from what
they can't do right, Like they can't pass protect, so
Rogers has to get rid of the ball fast. They
don't have a number two widers, so everything has to
go to DK. They can't play Friarmouth as much as
(21:05):
they probably want, as much as they probably want to,
because they have to put Spencer Anderson and Darnell Washington out.
There are blocks, like they coach away from opening it
up because they have to be conservative and protect Rogers
and this you're right, the same thing happened on defense
last night because they were so paranoid about what was
going to happen if they rushed Flacco that they were
(21:26):
gonna get burned and he would complete a lot of
passes to Higgins and Chase. So they played coverage, and
guess what happened. He completed a lot of passes to
Higgins and Chase.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
It was gonna happen anyway, Gore.
Speaker 6 (21:39):
And to your point, there's sometimes where I feel like
this offense looks interesting where there's there's there someone gets
a reception that I forgot that they were even.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
On the team. And then there's another time where they
you have to turn the DK and quadruple coverage that
you have to force that in. It just it seems
like there's things don't add up. I'll leave it there right.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
You know what, we got to talk about the offense
a little bit too. We'll do that's a good segue.
We'll talk about the offense and their role in this.
We come back one of five nine the X.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
The Spirits Summer News. Join us for the XS Halloween.
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Clues on Thursday, October thirtieth. The Cup sets sale at
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All night.
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Tickets are on sale now at Gateway clipper dot com.
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This is Atino Mobile. This is What's trending from Iheartsports,
presented by Levin Furniture and Mattress.
Speaker 9 (23:02):
The Steelers three game winning streak hits over after they
were stunned by the Bengals on Thursday Night.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
Football Pittsburgo hosts Green Bay next Sunday.
Speaker 9 (23:10):
Terry Smith makes his Penn State head coaching debut tomorrow
at Iowa.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
After James Franklin's firing bom Pitt, they.
Speaker 9 (23:16):
Visit Syracuse and with rumors of other job offers swirling,
Indiana football coach Kurt Signetti has signed an eight year,
ninety three million dollar extension. I'm Scott David said. It's
the anniversary sale and always a component of any nice date.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
Thank you for making my day.
Speaker 8 (23:31):
Yeah, what you said the exit one oh five nine.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
Clearly, the Steelers defense was the biggest culprit in the
club's thirty three thirty one loss to the Cincinnati Bengals
on Thursday night. But as the recently departed, as Freeley
once wrote for Kiss, as you're hearing right now, there
are two sides of a coin. And let's talk about
(23:59):
what happened with the Steelers offense last night. Yeah, I know,
two hundred and fifty eight yards on twenty two receptions
for t Higgins and Jamar Chase. They allowed one hundred
and forty two yards of rushing to Chase Brown, who
had been an absentee lead back basically for the Bengals
throughout the course of this season, four hundred and seventy
(24:19):
yards in total defense.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
They allowed what else happened? Oh yeah, Joe Flacco.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
Re emerged again and beat the Steelers for a thirteenth time.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
How do you do that?
Speaker 3 (24:28):
Throwing for over three hundred yards and looking like he
was en route to another Super Bowl, like he took
the Ravens to what was that now, uh, fifteen years ago,
whatever it might have been. So, yeah, the defense is
the biggest point of analysis. The defense is the biggest gripe.
It was like ninety percent of the reason why the
(24:50):
Steelers lost last night. So let's talk about the other
ten because there were some offensive things that are worth
discussing here, and one thing that we do have to acknowledge.
Even though I just talked about how well Aaron Rodgers
is playing, he threw two interceptions, one of them not
on him, that was on DK. DK has to hold
(25:10):
onto that ball as great of a play as it
was from the defensive back who took it away from him.
Turner made a fantastic play in wrangling that ball free,
and it was a good ball by Rogers and DK
for being the most physical receiver in the league.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
According to Man, he.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
Just has to hold onto that ball. The other throw,
kind of like some analysts pointed out. I think it
was Ryan Fitzpatrick who said, at first, not a great
throw to make in that pattern.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
If you're gonna go fifty to fifty.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
On it, don't do it when it's not really fifty
to fifty because the safety has nobody else to guard.
There was nobody else to take the safety's eyes away,
so it became one on two and Rogers just overthrew
him anyway, and you got what. You got, a turnover,
which the Steelers, as we all know, are allergic to,
and then you get two when you can't get any yourself,
and that's a big reason why they lost the game.
(25:59):
So those issues aside, I still would have liked to
have seen Metcalf involve more. He had the great thirty
nine yard reception, fantastic throwing catch, but then besides that,
just five targets fifty yards the night, so I only
had eleven other yards after the thirty nine yarder beyond Metcalf.
Same old story when it comes to the wide receivers.
(26:20):
Roman Wilson did have a big third down catch for
thirteen yards. He did have a big catch that got
wiped out by the Broderick Jones hold. That wasn't his
fault so he flashed. But come on, what are we
talking about. Aside from that thirteen yarder for Wilson, he
and Miller and Scornack and Keishawn Williams combined for just
two more catches in thirteen yards. Yeah, they still need
(26:43):
another wide receiver if they're going to be a serious
playoff contender. But how do we talk about serious playoff
contenders of the defense like that. I know, just get
another wide receiver. You need one anyway. Eight three, three,
four one two ninety nine thirty nine. Here's something else
the Steelers have to be criticized for when it comes
to their offensive approach yesterday, as good as it was
(27:06):
in terms of points and total yards and everything else,
they don't do tricky well. They don't do cute well.
They don't outsmart you well. Like you know, the tush push.
I liked it the first time I saw it. It
was interesting, but they screwed it up. So, like you know,
the Eagles are ninety nine out of one hundred on
(27:28):
their tush pushes. The Steelers are one for two. They
screwed it up with a penalty. And I don't think
it was just McCormick. I think Vaotanam moved too. If
not first, what else happened? Oh yeah, there's that overly tricky,
overly intricate play that they ran to Darnell Washington, Like
you're gonna throw him a screen.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
Like that, Just he doesn't need to juke and shake people.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
Just let him run over guys or get open, turn
around and look for the ball to hit him in
the hands. And of course they also screwed up the
flea flicker, which apparently everybody else knew what's checked out of.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
And Jalen Warren didn't.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
But we always talk about communication problems on defense. I
guess there was an issue there on offense as well.
And whatever you do, I know people want to do this,
and this might be a theme throughout the day if
somebody really wants.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
To make the case for it.
Speaker 3 (28:19):
One area of blame on the offense that I don't
think is appropriate is I've heard it twice already. We've
only taken two or three phone calls in the first
hour so far because we've had so much to go
over to set the table. But I've already heard a
couple of times, had it on Twitter, had it in
my email, so I've gotten in multiple places. This notion
that Pat Fryarmuth should have gone down to me is bonkers.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
T Higgins.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
Yes, Pat Fryarmuth, No, I know you're saying that, and
you're thinking that because you have a defeatist attitude about
the defense, and you should, but that's not the offense's fault.
This is going back to like two thousand and two
when they were winning games thirty something to thirty something
when Maddox was the quarterback. I scored too quick. Their
defense costs a high hundred and fifty eight million dollars.
(29:01):
Stop somebody. I saw dan Orlowski's tweet, the ESPN analyst
and former quarterback. He said, I really should bring this
up because I want to make sure I get this
exactly right. He was talking about how bad the Steelers
looked on tape. You know, that game ended pretty late
last night. I'll give him credit.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
He was up. It looks like at six o'clock in
the morning.
Speaker 3 (29:20):
He tweeted this at six twenty three in the morning,
so he must have been watching tape pretty extensively in
the four or five o'clock hour. And he tweets out,
if you saw the whole game, the Steelers defensive tape
is shocking. It's only shocking if you're allowing yourself to
be shocked because you've been in denial over what you
watched the last few years. But here we are back
(29:41):
to the defense again, where I meant to spend this
segment talking about the offense, but I guess I've said
enough the whole thing about them trying to be tricky,
Like they don't do tricky well. They got to be
careful when they try to be tricky. And I'll ask
this question, and this is a legitimate question. Is a
little hindsight, it's a little second guessing. But I did
(30:03):
think about it when Rogers threw the interception after Cincinnati
had just scored, like, do they really need to get
into a pinball wizard game with Jamar Chase and t Higgins,
Like was that the best time to dial up the
deep shot?
Speaker 2 (30:16):
Or do you try to run Warren there?
Speaker 3 (30:18):
Because maybe if you just kept it on the ground,
Warren as a career high and you get the same
effect of scoring the touchdown that you're going for in
one big chunk because Warren has demoralized them early running
the football because he was moving last night. I loved
the way Warren played last night again. Eight three to three, four,
nine thirty nine. Let's go to terminator. Who's calling from Washington? Terminator,
(30:40):
you're on one O five nine the.
Speaker 6 (30:42):
X, Hey out the ball.
Speaker 4 (30:44):
I just wanted to make a comment that game is
kind of sickening to watch last night, But you got
to give it up to Cincinnati because they came to
play and they played way better than the Steelers did.
They outplayed us. That's just what it boils down to.
Fire mouth, and Warren had an excellent game. The rest
of the team sucked.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
Him up in.
Speaker 3 (31:02):
I thought Rogers was good aside from the pick. I
thought he made a lot of plays. I thought he
was good aside from the interception. And you know, the
offensive line, for its woes, he didn't get sacked last night,
did he. They opened up a lot of holes for
warn didn't they. So I mean, I do think a
lot went right on offense. But I know what you're saying.
I just can't be reductive enough to say, hey, tip
your cap to the other team when that was a
(31:23):
game that the Steelers were supposed to win on the road,
because that quarterback had been there for ten minutes, and
even though he's an experienced guy, you've got to be
able to figure out some sort of way to get around.
I know they he's beaten them a dozen times going
to that game. Well he's lost to him thirteen times too.
You've beaten that guy thirteen times. In that situation, it
calls for a fourteenth win over that quarterback. Seriously, four
(31:47):
one two, Well, that's true A three, three, four one
two ninety nine thirty nine. You could tweet me as
well at Tim Benn's PGH tell you what we're gonna
break a little bit early. We got Charlie Batch. At
the top of the hour, we'll get his analysis. I
do want to let the next segment breathe a little
bit because there is some news coming out from Cleveland
about their reaction to what we talked about at length
(32:09):
over this week about the turf at Akroscher Stadium. So
they've got some things to say that you might want
to hear. This is one oh five nine The X one.
Speaker 8 (32:18):
Oh five nine d X has your shot at x
dra cash because we're nice. Thirteen times a day, nine
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You can spread it on the bed and roll around
at one thousand dollars or whatever, it's your money.
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Listen all day for your chance at some extra cash.
On one oh five to nine the X Romo West
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Radio and podcasts.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Free never sounded so good.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
There's two things I want to say to open up
the three o'clock hour here, Tim Benson from Mark Madden
one O five nine the X. First of all, my
nipples are fine. Secondly, I got to talk about Joe
Flacco and what I saw on the postgame interview last night.
After the Steelers lost in Cincinnati thirty three to thirty
one on Thursday Night Football, Flacco was conducting an interview
(00:32):
on the field with the Prime Network video team all
seventeen hosts on the desk and Jamar Chase and Joe
Flacco at the same time. And while Flacco was speaking,
a large group of remaining fans started chanting thank you Cleveland,
Thank you Cleveland, over and over and over again. Then
(00:55):
they started seeing some other chant that was, well, gosh,
I can't rep okay that one on the air, but
something you Pittsburgh, Something you Pittsburgh.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
And I'm thinking to myself, hmm.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
So Flacco's doing this interview basically at the same time
that Mike Tomlin is wrapping up his postgame press conference,
and as I'm sure he was walking away from his
interview session, he was muttering something else about Cleveland. That
sounded a lot more like that second chance and second chant,
if I could do it in English. You know, all
of Tomlin's fears about Flacco going to Cincinnati from Cleveland,
(01:34):
they manifested on Thursday, and for the thirteenth time, thirteenth time,
Flaco beat the Pittsburgh Steelers. This time it occurred barely
a week after he arrived in Cincinnati. The Steelers, they
built up what a month of goodwill, and I feel
(01:56):
like it's just been flushed right down the toilet. So
let's get into everything that went wrong in this game,
and we'll go primarily on the defensive side first, then
we'll work our way over to the offense. There was
a little offensive graping to be had, but mainly this
was a defensive disaster. And it all goes to the
(02:16):
paranoia about Joe Flacco.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Paranoia.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
It'll destroy you, and it destroyed the Steelers last night.
If you go back to Tomlin's Flaco comments, the ones
about Anthony Richardson, not just the ones about Andrew Berry,
but the ones about Anthony Richardson in advance of this
game that the Steelers played in Cincy, let's rewind the
tape a little bit to their trip out to Dublin
(02:41):
and the press conference that Tomlin had before that, when
he started talking about his memories of telling the team
to keep Anthony Richardson upright so Flacco didn't enter the game.
Now we had kind of heard about that, that there
were some rumblings about that. I think Tomlin might have
even made an allusion to that or said it off
the record or after the season. There's something that's not
(03:02):
the first time that was set out loud. So it
didn't really quite smack people in the face to the
degree that it should have, at least in talking about Flacko,
because we weren't ready to start talking about Cleveland yet.
I'm sure we would have brought it up before the
Cleveland game, but it wasn't sitting there on a tee
just yet. It was more like, cheez, that was a
nasty thing to say about Anthony Richardson. That was catching
(03:23):
astray out of nowhere for that guy. But if you
go back to those comments in advance of the Dublin game,
when he was drawing an analogy to JJ McCarthy and
Carson Wentz, Tomlin told on himself. Tomlin revealed something there.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
I knew. He thought it was a fleeting comment that
more or.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
Less was a good way to illustrate a story and
spin a yarn about the quarterback situation with Wentz, and
maybe big up Wentz a little bit, so it looked
like he was saying good things about the opposition before
the trip out to Dublin. But Tomlin told on himself
when it came that level of concern about Flacco, that
was a look in the window. That concern turned into
(04:06):
paranoia this week when he chastised Andrew Berry, the general
manager of the Browns, for trading Flacco to Cincinnati. The
Steelers proceeded to play against Flacco as if they were
paralyzed by fear over.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Him running the Bengals offense.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
The Steelers acted like they weren't facing Joe Flacco, that
they were facing Joe Cool, Joe Burrow, or Joe Montana.
Like I said before, and Jamar Chase, Well, if Flacco
looked like Joe Montana, then Chase looked like Jerry Rice.
Sixteen passes on twenty three targets for one hundred and
sixty one yards in a touchdown. He could have thrown
(04:44):
the ball to Chase fifty times. I'm not exaggerating. You
could basically have doubled that number. But Chase Brown was running,
got to keep him involved. Te Higgins is on the
other side, he had ninety six yards receiving, got to
keep him involved. They literally kind of like what the
Steelers been doing all year playing with one receiver in DK.
That approach of what Flacco did with Chase is moving
(05:08):
forward what Rogers should do with Dkay. But t wasn't
bad either, was he touchdown ninety six yards six receptions,
basically the game winning catch. So Flacco finishes with what
three forty two, three touchdowns, thirty one to forty seven,
a passer rating of one zero eight point six, and yes,
(05:28):
he even ran for thirteen yards.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
That looked like it was going to be a huge play.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
It kind of got lost in the mix, but what
a dagger that would have been if Cincinnati ended up
finishing that drive. So Flacco's now five hundred lifetime against
the Steelers, including postseason games, and apparently he's going to
live rent free in Tomlin's head for all eternity. But
it is my belief that Tomlin started to lose this
(05:56):
game on Monday, or maybe he even started to lose
that game on the way back to his house from
the Cleveland game. I don't know, but on Monday at
that press conference, that's when this loss started. When Tomlin
kicked the hornet's nest, had everybody buzzing about how much
(06:18):
of a boogieyman Flaco was. And I think the players
hurt it. I think the players bought into it. I
think the players turned him into way too much. I
think if that was an attempt to get the player's
attention to say, hey, the Bengals don't stink as bad
anymore because Flacco is in there because instead of Jake Browning,
then it backfired and he didn't need to do it
to that degree, but he did eight three, three, four,
(06:40):
one two ninety nine thirty nine. And then he get
to the run game. The Bengals had the worst rushing
yardage per game average in football fifty six yards per game,
thirty yards worse than any other team in football, and
then on Thursday they put up one for two on
twenty three attempts. As a team, Chase brown he hadn't
(07:01):
exceeded forty seven yards all year. He winds up in
one oh eight at one point in the fourth quarter.
During the broadcast, Kirk Herbstreet pointed out, this number is
ridiculous when you're supposed to be ready for the other
team to run. Even when they've got a hot quarterback
and two great receivers, you kind of think run on
first and ten. They averaged eleven yards per carry on
first and ten runs. The Steelers rush defense had become
(07:24):
a punchline around these parts based on the failures at
the end of the twenty twenty four season. That carried
over through the first three weeks of twenty twenty five,
when they gave up four hundred and eighteen yards to
the Jets, Seahawks and the Patriots. Out of the Patriots,
on was a little fluky, Drake May had some scrambles
on passing plays.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Not the same thing, but it's in the mix.
Speaker 4 (07:46):
Now.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
Minnesota and Cleveland, you watch those two games, you're thinking, oh, well,
maybe things are fixed. You watch those two games and
maybe you think to yourself, Okay, a little bit of
a carryover. They got Harmon in there, now are getting better.
They only averaged sixty seven yards those two teams against
the Steelers run defense. It looked like you'd gotten over
the trauma, well, so much of that notion and in
(08:09):
all the defense passing game, run game they allowed four
hundred and seventy yards against Cincinnati, And the biggest thing
about that is the big play defensive players totally absent
in this game. The Bengals ran seventy two plays, the
Steelers created, no turnovers, two sacks, one reel early, one
(08:31):
reel eight, nothing in between, and three tackles for loss TJ.
Watt had one tackle with half a sack, and there
was like fifty five minutes of the game where you
didn't know he was there.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
He was getting shut out until late in the fourth quarter.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
For all the crap we gave Miles Garrett coming off
of his performance in Pittsburgh with Cleveland, Watt basically just
turned in the same thing against Cincinnati.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
They split that big.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Sack with Hayward, so it felt like he had more
of an packed Hayward, by the way, only had two
solo tackles along with that half sack. But the alleged
vaunted pass rush that looked like it had woken up
against Minnesota and Cleveland sixteen quarterback hicks six sacks last
week against Cleveland, it got to Flacco behind a leaky
(09:17):
offensive line just twice herbig that Pro Bowl push, well
that's on pause. Didn't play much. One solo tackle, no sacks,
one quarterback hit Harmon. He was a real spark at first.
I don't know what for two weeks since he's been
back from injury. Not on Thursday. Two tackles and a
(09:38):
goose egg. Besides that, and the reconfigured secondary, which was
allegedly built, was stopping Higgins and Chase. In mind, it
was roasted all night, Ramsey Slay, Joey Porter Junior. They
took turns getting torn apart. The Steelers create no turnovers,
(09:59):
and yet the Bengals have a league leading eleven giveaways.
There were eight of fifteen on third down conversions, and
they held onto the ball for over thirty four minutes.
So none of the big play aspect of the Steelers
that we saw against Cleveland and against Minnesota and frankly
against the Jets and Patriots too, none of that existed
(10:19):
against a team that's ripe to allow those things to
ruin their offensive flow, and the Steelers never let it
come to fruition even on offense. Rogers, Yeah, he hit
Pat fayre move for the sixty eight yard touchdown and
DK of the thirty nine yard reception, but Metcalf was
really quiet after that.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Just two more catches and eleven more yards.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
And then the last thing I want to say about this,
and maybe we'll get into the offense specifically more later
on in the show. But yet again, penalties were a
problem for the Steelers, not as bad as last week.
It was seven as opposed to ten. I think it
was six in the first half. They cleaned it up
in the second half, but they were costly. You know,
(11:03):
the tush push thing was costly. But they got the
penalty there that erased a first down and resulted in
a field goal instead of a first down, keeping a
drive alive that could have turned into a touchdown. And
of course that play that tush push had to exist
because a war in touchdown was erased due to a
hold by Zach Frasier. Then again, I guess you could argue,
and you'd probably be right. Would Ward have even gotten
(11:24):
into the end zone if it weren't from the hole
for Fraser in the first place. So I know, that's
a lot to get to, that's a lot to digest,
or you can just say Hey, the defense sure sucks again,
doesn't it? And that'll be fine too. Eight three, three,
four one two ninety nine thirty nine. Scott calling from Aliquippa.
You're on one o five nine.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
The x's up, Tim, How you doing good? Scott?
Speaker 5 (11:48):
I never felt this way at a game on There
was no lack of confidence on the defense. I mean,
it was almost to the point where I thought Friar.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Moves should have slid because you just just.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
Know that Plaka was gonna okay, it's a time out
of time about because like I was waiting for somebody to
say that. Tom and I addressed this in the two
o'clock hour. It's not the same thing as what Higgins did.
They needed a touchdown there. It wasn't Higgins sliding to
set up a twenty four yard chip shot field goal.
There's no guarantee they're going to score a touchdown.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
That wasn't a.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
Play that you talk to the ball carrier and say
get down because you get a.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Chip shot green goal. So like, you know, I know
what you're saying, Like.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
It does, it does go through your head because you're
thinking to yourself, they're just gonna allow a score anyway.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
But It's not like they're gonna be able.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
To wind off the entire time on the clock when
they did that, So like Cincinnati was still going to
get the ball back and still have a chance to
kick a field goal, take the seven, and then rely
on your one hundred and fifty eight million dollar defense
to make a friggin stop Like that shouldn't be part
of the annalysis.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Yeah, go ahead, So we're foign too, right.
Speaker 5 (12:57):
That was an absolutely terrible game. Three games are really
going to define this, right, I mean, if we go
one and two, or if we go two and one,
or if we go zero to three, right, I think
we're really going to see what this team's about in
the next three games, because this is the real test,
don't you think?
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Yes?
Speaker 4 (13:13):
I do.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
I mean, I think you're facing three teams that are
very likely playoff teams. The Packers might be the biggest
question just because of the state of the NFC versus
the state of the AFC. But I do think you're
facing three teams that are all going to be in
the playoff mix at the very least come January, and
I feel like they're gonna be fortunate to go one
and two. Honestly, if they had eked out that win
last night against Cincinnati, even if they won it convincingly,
(13:35):
I might have told you they'd be lucky to go
one and two. But generally speaking, this happens with Tomlin
Steelers teams. Right, they lose this game every year.
Speaker 6 (13:44):
Happen last year?
Speaker 5 (13:46):
Often, it happens almost every year.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
Yes, they go six and one with Russ and they
lose the game to the Browns. You're saying, how do
that happen? And then of course they lose five in
a row thanks to call Scott eight three to three,
four one two ninety nine, thirty nine. Speaking of the
comps to last year, I want to address that week
come back because there's a little numerical nugget that we
need to focus on as it relates to the Steelers.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
We'll do that week come back. One O five nine
The X.
Speaker 7 (14:12):
It's the Pens against the Sharks. Game time is at ten,
Our coverage starts at nine. Listen to every game and
the best Pens coverage on your home of the Pittsburgh
Penguins one O five nine b X iHeartRadio All three.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
At the X at one O five nine.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
Jeer, I wonder if pro Football Talk's gonna have the
Steelers in their top five power rankings again this week.
Hough does that look silly? Eight three three four one
two ninety nine thirty nine. I want your response to
what the Steelers did last night, what the Steelers didn't
do last night, and what the Steelers have to do
now to regain all that goodwill that they built up
(15:00):
over the first month of the season.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
That's actually kind of where I want to focus here now.
Speaker 4 (15:05):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
If you just want to.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
Bitch about the defense, bitch about the defense, I'm here
with you. Eight three three four one two ninety nine
thirty nine. If you want to talk about how the
offense screwed up here and there a little bit, we're
gonna get into that. There is room to discuss there.
I'll do it with you too. Eight three three four
one two ninety nine thirty nine. But if you want
to talk big picture, and I know Mike Tomlin's not
(15:26):
a big picture guy, he said that, although I don't
know how that jibes with what happened this past week
with the whole Flacco thing, But if you look big picture,
where the Steelers are. I will pose this question to listeners.
If you were somebody that was buying in before last night.
If you were someone who saw a Pro Football Talk
(15:49):
this week and said, yeah, Steelers rated fifth in the
power rankings, that's about.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Right, that's where they should be.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
If you are that person, say the last night's loss
flush all that. I have a hard time speaking to
that because I'm not that person, but I would think
that it should. But I do want to hear from
you if you were a true believer going into last night, was.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Your faith tested?
Speaker 3 (16:16):
Or do you just chalk it up to a divisional
road game Thursday night? It happens, It's happened to Tom
when this whole time he's been coaching the Steelers, and hey,
did you hear he's never had a losing season eight three, three,
four one two ninety nine thirty nine there.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Because I want you to consider this.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
If you're still bought in and you still think that
this year is going to be different, well let's consider
a few things. They're four and two right now, that's
what they were. When Justin Fields is a quarterback, Aaron
Rodgers has won four of his first six games as
(16:54):
the Steels quarterback. And that's good. And he's been good,
very good. Better than I expected. If you go down
the list of everything that's wrong with the Steelers, I
got to go a while before I get to Aaron Rodgers,
that's for sure, And I don't even know if I
get to Aaron Rodgers at all. For the most part,
he's been very good. I did see a few cracks
last night when he came to his temperament dealing with
(17:16):
the teammates and kind of keeping as cool during a
game when players screw up, whether that's Roderick Jones jumping
on his back like a lunatic or Jalen Warren screwing
up apparently on the flea flicker. At least that's the
tale that was told. Warranted reasons to be upset, sure,
but he's also the guy that chucked that interception for
(17:37):
no apparent reason, way over DK Metcalf's head and to
awaiting safety.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
So Rogers isn't without blame.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
But he's been very good, and he made some really
nice plays last night, especially that throw that he made
to DK Metcalf and then moving around the way that
he did before finding John hu Smith for that touchdown.
But for as much as we're singing his praises, we
do remember that Russ Wilson won six of his first
seven games here, don't we. I feel like I constantly
(18:05):
bring that up, whether I'm here hosting for Mark or
on nine seventy or writing in the trip, like I
feel it's my duty to remind people that we liked
Russell Wilson a lot for a while too, and people
like to pretend that we didn't because this year is different.
This year's better Russ. It's amazing Tomlin got him to
(18:25):
ten wins with Russ, and Fields they are where they
were with Fields last year. Russ won six of his
first seven. You know, I said this about Rogers when
he eventually got signed, and I said this about Rogers
before he got signed that if you want to make
the argument to go through everything that they went through
(18:48):
to get Rogers, the argument is he's probably good enough
that you're never gonna get the zero to five stretch
that Russ allowed to happen. From his point of view,
it wasn't all Russ by far. It was mainly the
defense last year, just like it was last night. But
Russ did contribute to a certain degree by just not
being good enough anymore as the quarterback. So I always
(19:10):
thought that Rogers was gonna be good enough that zero
to five would never happen under his watch. But I
also wondered out loud, is he ever gonna give him
a stretch where they've won six to seven and he's
the biggest reason why, because that was kind of the
case with Russ, as much as we pretend like it
never happened. And so far for and two has been
pretty good, but it wasn't good enough for justin Fields,
(19:34):
not just in terms of him getting benched for Russ,
but in terms of them wanting to give him money
to the degree that the Jets did, upon further review,
probably a good idea they didn't. Probably a good idea
that they have Rogers at a better number. I'm not
trying to make that correlation. I'm just trying to couch
some of the belief that people automatically feel things have
(19:55):
to be better because they're better at the quarterback position.
It's got to translate the wins, not just in the
manner I just described to the regular season, but it's
got to be for a postseason victory too. Mark's calling
from Mars Mark, you're on one to five nine.
Speaker 6 (20:10):
The X.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
Any thanks for taking my call. I try not to
get too high or too low through the season. Each
game is a small sample size, but I'm feeling pretty
down about the game yesterday. I think they gave up
so much. And I don't know if I harken back
to Tomlin against Brady, where he's just afraid of what
(20:35):
they're going to do, so they don't like there was
no pressure. I don't know how many backs we had
rushing the quarterback, but it didn't seem like that.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
Well. Yeah, and we've talked about that a lot from
an offensive perspective this year, that their offense has felt
limited because they've been trying to coach away from what
they can't do right, Like they can't pass protect, so
Rogers has to get rid of the ball fast. They
don't have a number two widers, so everything has to
go to DK. They can't play Friarmouth as much as
(21:05):
they probably want, as much as they probably want to,
because they have to put Spencer Anderson and Darnell Washington out.
There are blocks, like they coach away from opening it
up because they have to be conservative and protect Rogers
and this you're right, the same thing happened on defense
last night because they were so paranoid about what was
going to happen if they rushed Flacco that they were
(21:26):
gonna get burned and he would complete a lot of
passes to Higgins and Chase. So they played coverage, and
guess what happened. He completed a lot of passes to
Higgins and Chase.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
It was gonna happen anyway, Gore.
Speaker 6 (21:39):
And to your point, there's sometimes where I feel like
this offense looks interesting where there's there's there someone gets
a reception that I forgot that they were even.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
On the team. And then there's another time where they
you have to turn the DK and quadruple coverage that
you have to force that in. It just it seems
like there's things don't add up. I'll leave it there right.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
You know what, we got to talk about the offense
a little bit too. We'll do that's a good segue.
We'll talk about the offense and their role in this.
We come back one of five nine the X.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
The Spirits Summer News. Join us for the XS Halloween.
Speaker 8 (22:19):
Clues on Thursday, October thirtieth. The Cup sets sale at
eight pm. Which why He's it from the Clinton's playing
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from every ticket sold goes to the Marie Elamuse Foundation.
Showing the crew for this twenty one year older events
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Speaker 2 (22:41):
All night.
Speaker 8 (22:43):
Tickets are on sale now at Gateway clipper dot com.
The XES Halloway on the Gateway Clipper sponsored by Disaster
Restoration Services. We'll see you on October thirty.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
This is Atino Mobile. This is What's trending from Iheartsports,
presented by Levin Furniture and Mattress.
Speaker 9 (23:02):
The Steelers three game winning streak hits over after they
were stunned by the Bengals on Thursday Night.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
Football Pittsburgo hosts Green Bay next Sunday.
Speaker 9 (23:10):
Terry Smith makes his Penn State head coaching debut tomorrow
at Iowa.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
After James Franklin's firing bom Pitt, they.
Speaker 9 (23:16):
Visit Syracuse and with rumors of other job offers swirling,
Indiana football coach Kurt Signetti has signed an eight year,
ninety three million dollar extension. I'm Scott David said. It's
the anniversary sale and always a component of any nice date.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
Thank you for making my day.
Speaker 8 (23:31):
Yeah, what you said the exit one oh five nine.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
Clearly, the Steelers defense was the biggest culprit in the
club's thirty three thirty one loss to the Cincinnati Bengals
on Thursday night. But as the recently departed, as Freeley
once wrote for Kiss, as you're hearing right now, there
are two sides of a coin. And let's talk about
(23:59):
what happened with the Steelers offense last night. Yeah, I know,
two hundred and fifty eight yards on twenty two receptions
for t Higgins and Jamar Chase. They allowed one hundred
and forty two yards of rushing to Chase Brown, who
had been an absentee lead back basically for the Bengals
throughout the course of this season, four hundred and seventy
(24:19):
yards in total defense.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
They allowed what else happened? Oh yeah, Joe Flacco.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
Re emerged again and beat the Steelers for a thirteenth time.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
How do you do that?
Speaker 3 (24:28):
Throwing for over three hundred yards and looking like he
was en route to another Super Bowl, like he took
the Ravens to what was that now, uh, fifteen years ago,
whatever it might have been. So, yeah, the defense is
the biggest point of analysis. The defense is the biggest gripe.
It was like ninety percent of the reason why the
(24:50):
Steelers lost last night. So let's talk about the other
ten because there were some offensive things that are worth
discussing here, and one thing that we do have to acknowledge.
Even though I just talked about how well Aaron Rodgers
is playing, he threw two interceptions, one of them not
on him, that was on DK. DK has to hold
(25:10):
onto that ball as great of a play as it
was from the defensive back who took it away from him.
Turner made a fantastic play in wrangling that ball free,
and it was a good ball by Rogers and DK
for being the most physical receiver in the league.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
According to Man, he.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
Just has to hold onto that ball. The other throw,
kind of like some analysts pointed out. I think it
was Ryan Fitzpatrick who said, at first, not a great
throw to make in that pattern.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
If you're gonna go fifty to fifty.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
On it, don't do it when it's not really fifty
to fifty because the safety has nobody else to guard.
There was nobody else to take the safety's eyes away,
so it became one on two and Rogers just overthrew
him anyway, and you got what. You got, a turnover,
which the Steelers, as we all know, are allergic to,
and then you get two when you can't get any yourself,
and that's a big reason why they lost the game.
(25:59):
So those issues aside, I still would have liked to
have seen Metcalf involve more. He had the great thirty
nine yard reception, fantastic throwing catch, but then besides that,
just five targets fifty yards the night, so I only
had eleven other yards after the thirty nine yarder beyond Metcalf.
Same old story when it comes to the wide receivers.
(26:20):
Roman Wilson did have a big third down catch for
thirteen yards. He did have a big catch that got
wiped out by the Broderick Jones hold. That wasn't his
fault so he flashed. But come on, what are we
talking about. Aside from that thirteen yarder for Wilson, he
and Miller and Scornack and Keishawn Williams combined for just
two more catches in thirteen yards. Yeah, they still need
(26:43):
another wide receiver if they're going to be a serious
playoff contender. But how do we talk about serious playoff
contenders of the defense like that. I know, just get
another wide receiver. You need one anyway. Eight three, three,
four one two ninety nine thirty nine. Here's something else
the Steelers have to be criticized for when it comes
to their offensive approach yesterday, as good as it was
(27:06):
in terms of points and total yards and everything else,
they don't do tricky well. They don't do cute well.
They don't outsmart you well. Like you know, the tush push.
I liked it the first time I saw it. It
was interesting, but they screwed it up. So, like you know,
the Eagles are ninety nine out of one hundred on
(27:28):
their tush pushes. The Steelers are one for two. They
screwed it up with a penalty. And I don't think
it was just McCormick. I think Vaotanam moved too. If
not first, what else happened? Oh yeah, there's that overly tricky,
overly intricate play that they ran to Darnell Washington, Like
you're gonna throw him a screen.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
Like that, Just he doesn't need to juke and shake people.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
Just let him run over guys or get open, turn
around and look for the ball to hit him in
the hands. And of course they also screwed up the
flea flicker, which apparently everybody else knew what's checked out of.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
And Jalen Warren didn't.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
But we always talk about communication problems on defense. I
guess there was an issue there on offense as well.
And whatever you do, I know people want to do this,
and this might be a theme throughout the day if
somebody really wants.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
To make the case for it.
Speaker 3 (28:19):
One area of blame on the offense that I don't
think is appropriate is I've heard it twice already. We've
only taken two or three phone calls in the first
hour so far because we've had so much to go
over to set the table. But I've already heard a
couple of times, had it on Twitter, had it in
my email, so I've gotten in multiple places. This notion
that Pat Fryarmuth should have gone down to me is bonkers.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
T Higgins.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
Yes, Pat Fryarmuth, No, I know you're saying that, and
you're thinking that because you have a defeatist attitude about
the defense, and you should, but that's not the offense's fault.
This is going back to like two thousand and two
when they were winning games thirty something to thirty something
when Maddox was the quarterback. I scored too quick. Their
defense costs a high hundred and fifty eight million dollars.
(29:01):
Stop somebody. I saw dan Orlowski's tweet, the ESPN analyst
and former quarterback. He said, I really should bring this
up because I want to make sure I get this
exactly right. He was talking about how bad the Steelers
looked on tape. You know, that game ended pretty late
last night. I'll give him credit.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
He was up. It looks like at six o'clock in
the morning.
Speaker 3 (29:20):
He tweeted this at six twenty three in the morning,
so he must have been watching tape pretty extensively in
the four or five o'clock hour. And he tweets out,
if you saw the whole game, the Steelers defensive tape
is shocking. It's only shocking if you're allowing yourself to
be shocked because you've been in denial over what you
watched the last few years. But here we are back
(29:41):
to the defense again, where I meant to spend this
segment talking about the offense, but I guess I've said
enough the whole thing about them trying to be tricky,
Like they don't do tricky well. They got to be
careful when they try to be tricky. And I'll ask
this question, and this is a legitimate question. Is a
little hindsight, it's a little second guessing. But I did
(30:03):
think about it when Rogers threw the interception after Cincinnati
had just scored, like, do they really need to get
into a pinball wizard game with Jamar Chase and t Higgins,
Like was that the best time to dial up the
deep shot?
Speaker 2 (30:16):
Or do you try to run Warren there?
Speaker 3 (30:18):
Because maybe if you just kept it on the ground,
Warren as a career high and you get the same
effect of scoring the touchdown that you're going for in
one big chunk because Warren has demoralized them early running
the football because he was moving last night. I loved
the way Warren played last night again. Eight three to three, four,
nine thirty nine. Let's go to terminator. Who's calling from Washington? Terminator,
(30:40):
you're on one O five nine the.
Speaker 6 (30:42):
X, Hey out the ball.
Speaker 4 (30:44):
I just wanted to make a comment that game is
kind of sickening to watch last night, But you got
to give it up to Cincinnati because they came to
play and they played way better than the Steelers did.
They outplayed us. That's just what it boils down to.
Fire mouth, and Warren had an excellent game. The rest
of the team sucked.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
Him up in.
Speaker 3 (31:02):
I thought Rogers was good aside from the pick. I
thought he made a lot of plays. I thought he
was good aside from the interception. And you know, the
offensive line, for its woes, he didn't get sacked last night,
did he. They opened up a lot of holes for
warn didn't they. So I mean, I do think a
lot went right on offense. But I know what you're saying.
I just can't be reductive enough to say, hey, tip
your cap to the other team when that was a
(31:23):
game that the Steelers were supposed to win on the road,
because that quarterback had been there for ten minutes, and
even though he's an experienced guy, you've got to be
able to figure out some sort of way to get around.
I know they he's beaten them a dozen times going
to that game. Well he's lost to him thirteen times too.
You've beaten that guy thirteen times. In that situation, it
calls for a fourteenth win over that quarterback. Seriously, four
(31:47):
one two, Well, that's true A three, three, four one
two ninety nine thirty nine. You could tweet me as
well at Tim Benn's PGH tell you what we're gonna
break a little bit early. We got Charlie Batch. At
the top of the hour, we'll get his analysis. I
do want to let the next segment breathe a little
bit because there is some news coming out from Cleveland
about their reaction to what we talked about at length
(32:09):
over this week about the turf at Akroscher Stadium. So
they've got some things to say that you might want
to hear. This is one oh five nine The X one.
Speaker 8 (32:18):
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dra cash because we're nice. Thirteen times a day, nine
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Dot com and you could win one thousand dollars jesting.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
You can spread it on the bed and roll around
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Listen all day for your chance at some extra cash.
On one oh five to nine the X Romo West
North Shore and one oh five
Speaker 2 (32:45):
Nine The X Present
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