October 17, 2025 • 42 mins
Tim Benz in for Mark Charlie Batch joins to talk about the Steelers loss against the Bengals last night. Mr Friday Afternoon makes his football picks
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback and Steeler's Audio Network postgame show
host Charlie Batch joining me right now here on one
oh five nine the X Tien Ben's in for Mark Madden.
Charlie go to talk to you again. You took good
hey real quick before he gets the game last night.
Can I run that quote from Betonio by you? You
were involved with the players union? What sort of role
(00:21):
does the union have when it comes to complaints about
field conditions? Where does that whole thing go from here?
Do you think?
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Yeah? Typically the player reps are the ones who have
the conversations, and it really works his way up. They
talked to the Executive Committee and then ultimately executive director
and if they go over field conditions, and then from
there they'll reach out to the NFL and start those discussions.
I know, far as where they are, as far as
where they are now. Ultimately, I'm sure the Steelers will say, hey,
(00:47):
the field is now being redone and we won't have
that issue movie too forward. So I think this is
going to close pretty quick.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Now.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
You're close with Ben Roethlisberger. He wants to kick pit
out and have their own stadium built on campus. In Oakland.
Do you think Ben will pony up the dollars to
make that happen, Charlie, it will be Ben Roethlisberger field
in Oakland.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
No, highly doubt that. If he was an alumni, that's
a different story. But you know, it's just funny whenever
he stated it. But again, I mean, he's not the
only one to feel that way. It's just the fact
that somebody needed to have the head one to be
able to have a conversation started going again.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
What'd you think last night? I specifically want to ask
you two questions, and I want to know if I'm
reacting the right way if you agree on either of
these points. The first of one is, I admit this
is hindsight, and I don't think the offense is primarily
at fault. Obviously it's the defense, right, But Jalen Warren,
should they have run him a little bit more during
that game? What do you think?
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Yes, if that flea flicker didn't happen, that debacle there,
I think that would have been because that play could
have easily went for four or five yards. Maybe he
bust out of the inn. It could have been a
bigger game, and that kind of disrupted the flow of
them offensively, and Jalen just bought out busted he missed it,
to say, he missed the signal. Everybody else on the
offense they received it, but he did not. And that's
(01:57):
why you saw the reaction of a Maaron Rodgers because
of that.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
I know that I've talked about it, a lot of
other people have talked about it as it relates to
getting the ball down the field and taking more shots.
So I don't want to sound like a hypocrite and
then turn around this week and say, well, you should
have run more, you should have run more. But the
one time it leapt out at me, Charlie was maybe
the sequence that started right after the Bengals scored their
first touchdown and Aaron Rodgers went down the sideline and
(02:25):
tried the deep shot there and he threw the interception.
Like there, it kind of felt like, Hey, do you
really want to get into a pinball game with the
Bengals or would this be a good time to give
it to Warren since he seems to have a little
something and your control in the line of scrimmage. That's
maybe where I thought would be a good time for
them to run him a.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Bit more absolutely, And that's one of those things. Of course, obviously,
you know, you got to live with the resultage of
the quarterback. He threw the interception, he would love to
have that bag, but that play happened on first down,
so defense just give up points and then here you
are now turning the football back over. And it was
just tough because if you go back and watch it
from the aerial, when you look at the design of
the play, yes, you're trying to hit DK, but if
(03:01):
you would look from the right to the rights, out
to left, I think it was Roman Wilson was coming
on a deep crossing route and that naturally draw through
the safety towards the closer the d DKAY and then
ultimately that pass was thrown a little bit in the
middle of the field and it was an easy interception
for the safety.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Charny the other decision that I wanted to ask you about,
and I'm actually on board with what they did. I
know some people hated the punt, it actually worked out
for the reasons why. I think they punted late in
the game. How did you feel about it?
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Yeah, I thought as I was watching that about that
maybe that was four down territory for the Steelers to
go for it there, because yeah, you canna make the stop,
but again, Tom is more precious than anything else. And ultimately,
even though they were are by the rebound score, it
was just one of those situations where I was like,
I was with you. I thought they should have went
on that thought they should have went for it on
fourth down to that punting.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Okay. The one complaint that I heard from fans that
I really don't agree with, and I want to get
your take on this one too, is Friarmouth. I think
people saw t Higgins go down and say that was
the wise move. People had such little face in the
defense and how it was playing. I've heard some complaints
that friar Mouth should have gone down. I think that
was too early in the game. They needed seven. You
(04:12):
get seven when you can get seven. I think did
you have any thoughts on that? Do you think you
should have slid? Because I think it was just right
to go in and get the touchdown when you can.
It's seven, not three. I think it's a different kettle
of fish.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Yeah, this is tough because it's easier, you know, in hinsight, yes,
that's the perfect strategy. That you would have, but typically
you don't have those conversations until you're really in four
minute football where you're just trying to drain the clock,
run the football out, and bleed the clock out. Those
type of things didn't occur because if fire muss shoes,
he fairly has been part of the game plan. So
if you think he's not going to score when he
(04:43):
said wide open in the middle of the field, you're
sadly mistaken. So, yes, I can understand that, but that's
where you hope your defense is going to go out
there and make a stop. That didn't happen. But when
you look at T Higgins, I mean, that was as
smart of a play as that anybody could have possibly done,
because if he scores, Pittsburgh probably wars and wins the
game there, even though they have the hell Mary attempt
at the end of the ball game. But that was
(05:05):
a very smart play by.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
T.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Higgins.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Yeah, on that point, Charlie, I was watching that, I thought, yeah,
that is a smart play. It's the right way to
do it. It's going to be a chip shot field goal.
But I do have to admit I've seen the Bengals
blow games against the Steelers in Cincinnati so many times
it went through my mind that they were going to
duff the snap or the hold, or he was going
to jink it off the upright or something. It did
go through my head.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
It went through mine. I said, you're going to miss
this only because they were attempting on a fourth down
and you typically sometimes we attempted on third down. But
I want to go back to one more point on
the T Higgins play. It kind of reminded me of
a few years ago whenever we were open to the
season opener against the Falcons, and if you remember at
the end of the game, and it typically veterans do this,
remember Mika Fitspatcher, he caught the interception, but he easily scored,
(05:50):
but he ran out of bounds to make sure that
the offense kneeled the ball down and led the clock
out and not put your defense on the field. That
was with that play reminded me, even though we were
on the opposit side of it. That was what I
reminded of and that's why veteran like T Higgins did
what he did.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Charlie Batch with US Steelers Audio Network postgame show host,
former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback what did you see from the
attempt at coverage on Chase and Higgins and why did
it go awry?
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Charlie, Yeah, it was so twenty two completions of piece.
I mean, this is why you bought your you know
the Jalen Ramsey's in you're the Darius Slays in then
you for this particular game and Joe Flacco veteran guy
he read he did not miss a coverage as their
relations to what the defense was trying to do and
confusing him anytime. The big play that he hit down
(06:38):
the middle of the field to the tight end they
were doubling the stars. You had both safety coming out
the middle of the field and it less Slay in
the buying and you hit him down the field, but
in the manner of unknowing where the ball was going
to go on up this the most of the thirst
disturbing play for me, was at the end of the
ball game, whenever they were a miscommunication that was happening
on the defensive side. They just did this a couple
(07:00):
of weeks ago against the Vikings at the end of
the game where they led and that was the Jordan
Addison play wherever Pat was Peyton Wilson tracking down. It
was a busted coverage. Here you are on that particular play,
you could see Patrick Queen, He's trying to change the coverage.
People on the right side solid. He moves Cole Hookum
over to the left. That side plays man and man.
(07:22):
Don't Again, I don't care what defense you play. It
just has to be the same defense. And when you
allow Jamar Chase to be that wide open, that's a
problem and ultimately cost him the game.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Tell me if you disagree with this, But you know,
from my novice point of view of looking at it,
certainly as opposed to you, my thought was they were
so concerned about what they were going to do coverage wise,
they kind of forgot to get creative in the past
rush department, right. I just didn't see much creativity there,
at least none that worked. What did you think?
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Yeah, I really thought going into the game. You know
this is sometimes you get into your own way, right,
You're like, the offensive line is just so bad. Our
defensive front, we don't don't even any to blitz because
we're now going to apply to pressure to Flacco. Everybody
else has been doing it, why not us? But yet
they figured out a way to actually pick up the protection.
You saw two men, you know, they had two different
defensive line in that time. You have four linebackers on
(08:13):
the field. These are things that you know, Again, coverage wise,
I just thought that in some cases that they overthought
themselves and they got burnt by it because the Bengals
were ready for it. And again, Flato was getting the
ball out of his hands, and that's the advantage that
you have as a veteran quarterback.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
I thought once or twice, Charlie I noticed specifically on
a play that they highlighted on the television feed, it
looked like they brought Elliott once and then delayed Queen,
sort of like they were anticipating that Elliott would get
picked up and then Queen would go through whatever hole
was opened. But that took so long that Flacco just
(08:47):
got rid of the ball. Anyway, it was almost like
they were blitzing but not gaining the advantage of speeding
up the clock form at.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
All correct if you go back, I think it may
have been their first or second possession. They actually ran
that blitz and Patrick Queen was green dog and because
he thought that back was actually gonna block and he
actually slipped out and Flacco hitting, but Brown dropped it,
and that was one of those ones you just said, oooh,
if you'd have hit that plate, that would have been
additional thirty yards. But again they had to pun the
football in that drive. The Steelers won up ten nothing.
(09:15):
So again, these are things that ultimately play where you're
kind of out here playing checker, trying to figure out
how you can gain an advantage.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
However, this game was gonna go, Charlie, whatever permutation came
into play. If you had kind of taken a crystal
ball and told me the next morning that, yeah, the
Steelers are gonna lose. Flacco was gonna be good. The
wide receivers were gonna be good. It's gonna be higher
scoring than what the odds makers are suggesting. I want
to say, Okay, I can squint and see that happening.
One thing I couldn't see was for as bad as
(09:45):
the Steelers run defense had been, I thought it was
at least fixed to the point that they could contain
Chase Brown and a Cincinnati rush attack. You shouldn't even
say the word rush attack. That's not a proper way
to say what they were doing on the ground. I
can't believe they let up the ease with which they
had on offense for the Bengals to run the ball.
(10:06):
That should not have been part of the calculus.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Especially the way that the defense or the run defense.
But the Steelers have been trump trending upward because of
Derek Harmon returning somebody. There is absolutely no way that
Brown is that offensive line is going to be able
to block them. But you dun bow, we were wrong
and stop for sure they were going to take away
that running game, make Flacco beat you down the field,
which ultimately he did, but again, just not giving up
to the amount of yards that you're giving up in
(10:30):
the running game, that just was atrocious. And that's let's
let you know, even when Flacco is running for twelve
yards at the end of the game, you know, like,
really this.
Speaker 4 (10:38):
Is ruberre doing.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
But these are things that happen, and it's just really
it's concerning right now because it's kind of raising the
alarm for a lot of people because one defensive the defense,
you thought you had it fixed, but now these leaks
are starting to happen again.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
You know, we're sort of speaking a few seconds ago
about maybe them overthinking some things or thinking themselves into
oblivion at times? Did they do that? Did Tomlin do that?
Starting on Monday with his whole reaction to Andrew Berry
and all that, Like, Were the seeds planted that this
was going to be a problem early in the week
psychologically before we even got to game.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Day, more psychologically for coach Tomlin at that point because
the players, a lot of them probably had never played
against Flacco before. So these, you know, when you have
those type of conversations that are going on. Of course,
now you bring that veteran president a lot of these
coverages that you're trying to confuse young quarterbacks with, you know, changes,
you know, because of his experience. But I think ultimately,
(11:33):
when you look at it, I think in hindsight you
can honestly say, Andrew Berry, you're probably saying, get them, Yeah,
that's why I did it. So however it unfolds you.
You have to see the Bengals here in another three
or four weeks, and now you better get this win
when they come back. Ashore.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
Two things about friar Mouth. Why does he play so
well against Cincinnati And do you think this lays a
foundation for him being woven back in the offense more
as the weeks go along here.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Yeah, so I'm a huge Pat fire Moove fan, and
you know, want to see him out there engaging be
For whatever reason, he's slipped into the donalk house wasn't
playing a lot. But the one thing that he may
not get credit for until people go back and watch
the game, he blocked his tail off in this game.
Even though he had over one hundred yards, he blocked
his tail off. He would help spring Jalen Warm multiple
times in that running game, and I'm hoping that's the
(12:19):
performance that he had. We're going to see him more
involved in this offense movie forward.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Matchup wise going in, do you think there was a
reason why Herbig didn't play more or do you think
that was an in game field thing.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
I think probably was the in game field thing. And ultimately,
you know, I know Nick Herbert, he's been playing well
and he deserves those extra refs that he's getting. But
you're paying Alex Hausman for a reason, and ultimately money
overseats pretty much everything else, and that's why you're going
to see Alex continue to be out there. And as
long as he's healthy, he's going to be the guy.
And he has to stay healthy because you know, at
this particular point, Yeah, it's one thing to have a
(12:52):
you know, get a break and you get a spill
on where the pass rush is. But Alex Smith has
to be that guy because they're a lot more stout
against the run with Herbert Gives at this point of
his career.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
I'll end on a big picture question here, Charlie, who
are the Steelers right now? I mean, do you look
at them and say, this is a team that's still
likely to win the division and can right the ship
against three likely playoff teams here over the next three weeks,
or are we looking at them having to do what
their division foes have done and try to rebound from
(13:23):
a really tough stretch.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
I think right now we're trying to figure it out,
and I honestly don't have an answer as it relates
to who this team truly is. All I know is
the next probably five of six weeks, this team will
start to reveal itself as a relations to who they
truly are because the schedule doesn't get any easier. The
good part is that everything is right in front of
you as far as the goals that you want to
accomplish and you talk about those playoff teams in the AFC.
(13:46):
You have the majority of them on your schedule, so
handle your business and you know, and ultimately hopefully they
can get to that point of you know, being you know,
the conversations for that number one seed. But this next
month would definitely show either they're a contender or pretender.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
If they do get caught from behind by one of
their divisional foes. Is it Cincinnati now at Flacco or
is it just the Ravens getting healthier?
Speaker 2 (14:07):
Do you think? Yeah, I think it's pretty much Cincinnati
right now as we discussed this at this point. But again,
if the Baltimore, the Ravens are going to play spoiler
toward the end of the season as they get healthy,
if they're out of the playoff contention, they're going to say, hey,
if we're going home, we're taking everybody else with us
and we're going to spoil everybody's Christmas. So you just
old that's why this game you had to win to
create that separation. So now you don't have any flaws
(14:30):
that you head into the later part of the season.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Charlie, good catching up with you again. Glad we can
do this. Appreciate you coming on.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Heah, I appreciate it. Thanks for having me, all right.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
Charlie Batch, Steelers Audio Network postgame show host also former
Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback. He is brought to us by eighty
four Lumber Dynasty, partner of the Pittsburgh Steelers. I want
to investigate that question that I just asked, Charlie. I
saw some people calling in about what Potonio said about
the field at Akrosher Stadium. If you want to get
in those thoughts to anything you heard from Charlie that
(15:02):
you thought was interesting and noteworthy to continue talking about,
we can eight three, three, four one two ninety nine,
thirty nine. But I want to get to that conversation
about who the Steelers really are. I want to get
to that conversation about where they really are right now
in the North and if this lead that they built
up is going to evaporate. Is it now going to
go to Flacco and the Bengals after we wrote them
(15:23):
off prior to the trade. We're all waiting to see
if the Ravens are gonna get healthy? Is it really
the Bengals you gotta worry the most about? One five
nine The X Tomorrow Nights 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 in the Pittsburgh Penguins one O five nine
(15:46):
The X. He's money Mark. I think I gotta start
with pull pork Nachos fantastic The X.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
At one O five nine.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
When I was filling in for Mark tim Ben's infro
Mark Today earlier in the week when he was sick,
happened to stumble across the Pro Football Talk power rankings,
and those power rankings had the Steelers fifth. I was
obviously skeptical, and I think I was proven right to
(16:25):
be skeptical last night based on how they played against
the Cincinnati Bengals. So let me ask you this question.
We all know they're not the fifth best team in football.
We know that they never were the fifth best team
in football. There's a difference between doing power rankings based
on who has performed the best so far over a
small sample size of a third or a fourth of
(16:47):
the season, and who we really think is going to win.
As flawed as the Chiefs are as flawed as the
Bills are as flawed as the Eagles are You're not
going to pick the Steelers on a neutral field against
any of those three teams. I wouldn't have before Thursday night.
I sure as hell won't after I saw what I
saw last night. But I want to pose this question
(17:10):
that you can answer at eight three three four one
two ninety nine thirty nine. I just brought it up
with Charlie Batch, and I want to see what your
thoughts are. As skeptical as you might be about the
Steelers because they play in a division that's as broken
as theirs is, do you think that they can or
(17:31):
will still win it? And if they don't, who's gonna
catch them? Eight three three four one two ninety nine
thirty nine. I think they probably still will end up
catch winning the division. If they get caught, it's probably Cincinnati.
(17:54):
But I'm not gonna sure myself or try to assure
you that it will be. It's still could be the
Ravens if they get healthy. Is Sophie the Ravens If
Lamar Jackson comes back and the rest of the division
hangs close enough to them that they can catch up.
The thing about this part of the conversation is Flacco's
not gonna do this to anybody but the Steelers. Like
(18:17):
this is a Steeler specific thing that we're dealing with
right now. With Joe Flacco. This isn't like you're not
gonna see he certainly didn't from Green Bay. You're not
gonna see Flacco do this to the rest of the league.
I don't think. As good as Chase and Higgins are,
other teams are gonna figure out a way to speed
up the clock. Other teams are gonna figure out a
way to make him throw the ball more quickly before
(18:38):
those guys have a chance to get open down the field.
They're gonna be more creative in their blitz packages, They're
gonna be more creative in their pass rush. They're gonna
be better covering so four can get home. Like that
is a what we just saw last night is not
an ascending Bengals team so much as it is a
bad matchup nightmare for the Steelers. And the Seeds were
(18:58):
planted to make it such based on Tomlin's reaction on Monday,
And maybe we haven't talked about that enough, and that
might be on me at four to twenty five and
a half here, because there were so many things that
the players did poorly, and there were so many I
can't believe what I'm watching moments from that defense in
(19:21):
the sixty minutes of the game last night. We probably
haven't talked enough about how Tomlin approached this week because
that was a canned, planned response. Let's be honest, right,
and maybe I'll open the phone lines on that topic too.
Relating to Tomlin eight three, three, four, one two nine
(19:42):
thirty nine, how culpable is he for what happened last
night based on his approach at the press conference on Monday,
Because I think the seeds of concern were sown within
that defense three days before they left for Cincinnati. Because
Tomlin never does what he did on Monday, never except
(20:07):
three weeks ago when he talked about the same guy
with Joe Flacco when he brought up the Anthony Richardson conversation.
So he's obviously got this thing in his head about
this quarterback that nobody else in the rest of the
league seems to be all that concerned about. You know,
he could have gone anywhere during the offseason. The Steelers
could have gotten him. I mean, my god, if they're
(20:28):
so afraid of him, they should get him. Maybe not
this offseason, but go ahead and get him next year.
If Aaron Rodgers retires and you can't draft the guy,
at least we have to stop we can stop hearing
about how dangerous he is. But I do think there
is some legitimacy to the belief that he and the
coaching staff got so far in the heads of his
own players that they were sort of paralyzed by insecurity
(20:53):
and doubt over how they were going to face Flacco
because he turned into this big thing where he called
out an opposing GM for making a trade. I mean,
I think there's some legitimacy to that part of the conversation.
Let alone the game plan, let alone the tactics, let
alone how they approached the game once they got there.
But maybe one hand washes the other there, doesn't it.
(21:14):
He's talked himself into being that the trade was so
offensive to him that he turned Flacco into a bigger
deal than what he is, and that's how they approached
the game defensively, and you got what you got, which
was Flacco throwing for over three hundred yards and putting
thirty three points on the board. You could tweet me
on that front two at Tim Ben's pgh. We're gonna
(21:38):
hear from Mike de Corsi coming up a little bit
later on Friday Football show that he does with me
each and every Friday before Steelers games. But this case
was like a postgame show. We're gonna run part of
that back. Mike's on with Mark once a week, Rudy
and Fox Chapel. You're on one of five nine the X.
Speaker 4 (21:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
I don't know if you or anybody else has discussed
maybe the possible of the bye week affecting their performance.
Maybe they were boozing too much, smoking too much grass.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
Having they played coming out of the bye. They played
coming out of the bye. They beat Cleveland coming out
of the bye, but that's Cleveland. I mean, Oh, so
they had two by weekends in a rows. They were
smoking grass and drunk while they were beating Cleveland and
hitting Dylan Gabriel sixteen times. Yeah, thanks, got I squeezed
(22:27):
that one in, mister Friday Afternoon, speaking of boozing and
drinking too much, smoking lots of dope, mister Friday Afternoon.
Next twenty five nine The X the Spirit's Summer News.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
Joining us for the X is Halloween Clues.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
On Thursday, October thirtieth.
Speaker 5 (22:46):
The cru says sale at eight pm, which why he's
it from the Klinton's playing all your nineties favorites same
dollars and fifty nine cents from every ticket sold goes
to the Mary Ella Mute Foundation or crew for this
twenty one and dressing your Halloween best to score prizes
all night fo Tickets are on sale.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
Now at Gateway Clipper dot com the Exes Hallow Way
on the.
Speaker 5 (23:12):
Gateway Clipper sponsored by Disaster Restoration Services.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
We'll see you one October thirty.
Speaker 6 (23:20):
From the one oh five nine the ex Weather Center.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
This report is sponsored by Staples. It's gonna be partly
cloudy tonight, then mostly time for mister Friday Afternoon, who
went three and two last week, thirteen and seventeen on
the season. So that means with two losses last week,
mister Friday Afternoon needs two contumn two electric shocks. Oh oh,
(23:50):
at the end of the season, mister Friday Afternoon, do
you have to be shocked for every loss you have?
Is you gonna be like riding the Green Mile in
week eighteen?
Speaker 4 (23:58):
Well that's not accurate. That's a abuse.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
Well it's abused.
Speaker 4 (24:02):
Madden. By the way, Where's where's Madden?
Speaker 1 (24:04):
Madden's in Liverpool.
Speaker 4 (24:08):
A soccer game.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
Yeah, he faked in illness early in the week and
then he went to Liverpool.
Speaker 4 (24:13):
Interesting, is he gonna be at the Is he gonna
be in trouble with HR?
Speaker 1 (24:18):
I don't think we have HR. I think we actually
fired HR. I think we run our own ship now,
which is kind of weird because no one's usually in
charge around this place anyway. So I guess it makes
sense now that I say it out loud.
Speaker 4 (24:30):
All right, I'm gonna talk to HR.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Well you are a part of HR. Now that you
say that, I forgot about that. Technically, your contract, which
I'm told is not iron clad, is run.
Speaker 4 (24:39):
But it is iron clad. Who told you is not
iron clad?
Speaker 1 (24:43):
Tom told me that right before you came on.
Speaker 4 (24:45):
Oh no, no, Madden been told me it is iron clad.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
Oh all right, Well I'll double check with the HR
department that no longer exists to see if it is
in fact iron clad. Now you get to pick three
games this week, but you don't get the Steelers game.
What would you have.
Speaker 4 (24:59):
PILL had today? I had Cincinnati last night.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
Well it doesn't count. You can't do that. Now, that's
not how it works.
Speaker 4 (25:04):
You can't wait. Why didn't you call me on Thursday?
It's like a mid the Steeler game. Pick.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
It says right here, mister, Friday afternoon. And I wasn't
on yesterday, so I'm the one that was entrusted with
doing this bit. If I come on Thursday, maybe I
would have made an adjustment. But it says here Friday afternoon,
and according to HR, I have to do your slot
on your given day or else it violates the contract,
which would no longer be ironclad. Well that's a cheap shot,
(25:30):
so you don't get the ad. Well, I would say
advantage of the Steelers game, but we saw what happened
last night. You still need three games. Let's start with
your lock of the week for this week, which can't
be the Steeler game.
Speaker 4 (25:42):
Okay, well, of course it can't be the steel game.
It's already played. Let's pick the Falcons plus one and
a half at San Francisco.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
That's a weird game because like, these are two teams
that have no idea which one is really real. I
know what isn't real, and that's the Buffalo run defense.
And Bijon went crazy last last week. I don't know
if he's gonna be able to do the same thing
against San Francisco that was just a great matchup last week.
Speaker 4 (26:04):
Well or losing Warner hurts a lot because they love
They've Lostn't in the span of three weeks and lost
boson Warner. I think I'd rather five at their top
six defensive players are out. The wide receiving core is
still decimating. You know, Kittle's coming back this week. Their
quarterbacks are playing. Max Joneses been playing hurt and he's
been very effective, but he's still been playing hurt. Birdie's
(26:26):
not Berdie's not ready yet. And the Falcons have get
you know, everybody felt the Falcon's defensive stint coming into
the year, Like if you had fantasy football drafts, you
were targeting the Falcons defense at your players, like you know,
we're looking to, you know, draft guys that play the
Falcons right. They have. They have given the least amount
of yards to see in the NFL. And that's not
(26:48):
an accident. I mean they shut down Josh Allen. You
could just tell that the defensive line, which has been
terrible and been years past, they're They're tenacious pass rush,
pass rush, they disrupt everything they're excellent safeties or they
got a good cornerback, and they have explosive player. They
have an offense which you know they're making Panics a
(27:10):
game manager, but they have the type of tools that
that that could involve themselves in a shoot unnecessary. They
haven't had to have a shootout this year yet most
think they're smothering.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
Most importantly, how do you think George Kittle is gonna
perform if he doesn't have his smelling salts or has
that been resolved? Does he allowed to have his smelling
salts again?
Speaker 4 (27:27):
I don't I don't know. I don't think they're supposed
to have to smelling selves that they cheat. It's this
first game back. The Falcons am been excellent against side
ends this year. You know, mccaffery's not even averaging four
yards of carry. It's just I don't know. I'm gonna
ride the momentum here with Atlanta. They uh, they played
played a damaged team and like at San Francisco, I
(27:49):
think he's just trying to get sort and get back
in good health. Look quick for Atlanta to win this.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
Game, all right. So that's the lock of the week.
What's the daily double?
Speaker 4 (28:00):
We're playing we're playing an injuries u or travel situation
that worked last week. We're gonna play against that that
short strip, uh, the short week with the So the
Denver went overseas, and it's kind of weird. As they've
been doing more overseas games. They usually gave the team
(28:20):
that went overseas a week's rest when they came back.
The past couple of years have had so many of
these games, and because of scheduling, they haven't really been
able to do that. Uh yeah, yeah, well they got it,
but I'm just saying that not all the teams are
getting it. You know, last week we had the situation
where uh you know, Cleveland, who's in that spot?
Speaker 1 (28:42):
Minnesota?
Speaker 4 (28:44):
Uh no minute? Who to Minnesota playoffs back against So
the Browns came back against the Steelers. The Steelers had
that we're doing the same spot. Steelers had extra rest
against a team coming back with no rest on on
the on the overseas week. The Giants play on Thursday.
That it's extra rest. It's not been complete two weeks,
but they're are. You know, the bone Nicks has not
(29:07):
been playing good at all. That offense is not good
and you can just tell the Giants are re energize
with with scatted bow and Ben and Jackson Dart. Uh
in this game, the defense loves that loves them. They're
playing hard on defense. We're just going to bet against
that travel. So Denver probably wins. But but this is
gonna stay close because Denver isn't scorn enough to beat
(29:29):
anybody by margin.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
All right, is it really all that or are you
just making the Giants the daily double because of Jackson
Dart's mom.
Speaker 4 (29:38):
No, I'm not gonna make that the daily double.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
Oh that's not the daily double.
Speaker 4 (29:42):
No, that's not the daily double.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
Okay, so then that's just your extra games. So what's
your daily double? Pick days?
Speaker 4 (29:48):
Uh, we're going to play such another situational uh uh thing.
So so coaches that have been overseas at least two times,
okay against coaches that have never been overseas are seven
to zero in that spot. Okay, Now, jack Ville has
been overseas a lot, but this is lyon there against
(30:12):
against what's his name? Who did his last two trips?
Speaker 1 (30:19):
Did we just give his cell phone the electric shock? Tom?
Speaker 4 (30:24):
What? Now?
Speaker 1 (30:24):
Your your cell phone was cutting out? So say that again?
You're doing rams and Jaguars, Is that right?
Speaker 4 (30:29):
Yeah, Rams, the Jaguars because Sean McVay has been over
been overseas and his teams have won a combined score
I think it was forty seven or fifty seven to ten.
He's one of the best overseas coaches. Lion Cohen has
never been over there. Coaches that have never been over
there against coaches that have been over there two times
or more are owing seven. So since a good situational spot.
The good team. I don't even care if Whoka doesn't
(30:50):
play because they're an uptight team. They're very well coached,
you know who. They've still got Davonte Adams and Conmen
Williams that they'll feed them. Uh take uh take the Rams.
I think the Jaguars're gonna start coming back down to
earthier that you reach.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
So Atlanta plus one and a half the Giants plus seven,
the Rams minus three. I get to assign the super
collider to make us picks the doubled value, I'm gonna
go with. I don't have as much faith in Atlanta
at plus one and a half, so I'm gonna go
with Atlanta as plus one and a half is the
super collider.
Speaker 4 (31:25):
Okay, so we gotta we got the lock of the
week and the super collider is Atlanta?
Speaker 1 (31:32):
Is that okay? Is that allowed? Or do I have
to change course here?
Speaker 4 (31:34):
That that's funny? Just remember that the rams are the
daily double.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
The rams are daily double. Right, yeah, right, and we
just doubled up.
Speaker 4 (31:45):
I mean you could have, but let's also not Let's
also not forget that these ticks have been made with
zero doubt.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
And all of them are ironclad. Mister Friday afternoon, you're
on one O five nine the.
Speaker 5 (31:56):
X one O your shot at x DR cash.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
See what I did there?
Speaker 5 (32:03):
Thirteen times a day, nine am through nine p d
X will give you the keyword at the top of
every hour. Enter it at wxdx dot com and you
could win one thousand dollars.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
With that much money, you could buy like ten coffees.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
You know what I was homeschool.
Speaker 4 (32:18):
I'm not good at mouth.
Speaker 5 (32:19):
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on one oh five nine d X.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
Joint fonts are commading.
Speaker 5 (32:27):
Yeah, but I'll be popular at Pittsburgh yet, I think
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Speaker 1 (32:34):
Fantastic d X at one O five nine brought just
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reliable natural gas energy, People's Hyphengas dot Com. Tim Benz
Infro Mark coming up in the five o'clock hour, We're
gonna hear from Mike de Corsi from my Friday Football show.
Mike's on weekly with Mark and he's on weekly with me,
and we broke down the entire game from last night.
Let's take a quick five minute respite from All Steelers,
(33:18):
All the Time today. A couple other items, including the Penguins,
who you can hear on one O five to nine,
The X tomorrow against the San Jose Sharks. It's the
last of their three game California swing before they're back
against Vancouver on Tuesday. Here on one O five to.
Speaker 4 (33:33):
Nine the X.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
They won against the Kings last night four to two.
And I guess they did with Kindle what they did
with Brunick where they intentionally scratched him. So these guys
are like on the Paul Skeins pitch count treatment or
something like that. It's happening in the vacuum of a
year where they're not supposed to be good anyway. So
that kinda calms me down a little bit about this also,
(34:02):
we're talking about I think an overall big picture view
of where the Penguins are going that if they have
a plan to sort of space out how many games
they play, that suggests to me that the plan is
to have them here for as long as possible beyond
the nine games. So if that's the case, then I
(34:23):
feel better about it. Or else why why not just
get nine and send them back? So that's encouraging to me.
And you know, this stuff is gonna take care of itself.
I mean, let's say that they both are up here
for the whole season. They are gonna have these healthy
scratch games just for the sake of not burning them out.
That's gonna take care of itself. Because La Tang's gonna
(34:43):
get hurt, a bunch of forwards are gonna get hurt.
They don't have enough at either position anyway, so they're
gonna have to play. They're not gonna have the option
to scratch them. So if they have the option to
do it now early, it's not the biggest deal in
the world. I guess it still makes me say, Okay,
you're probably overthinking this, but whatever, go ahead and do it.
I'm not gonna get my dander up about it. Something
(35:05):
else hockey related before we get back to the Steelers,
and one actual quick baseball note that I found interesting.
The RMU hockey team opened its season last night. They
put against Michigan number three, number four in the country
based on what pole you're looking. Colonials did well. They
were winning two to one. They were tied to two
heading in the third. They give up a goal midway
(35:26):
through the thirds, they were down three to two, pulled
the goalie and they lost four to two. Actually, the
guy that scored, TJ. Hughes. He was a recruit, excuse me,
a recruit that was coming to RMU that was good
enough to end up playing at Michigan. So if that
tells you where they were going before that program got
shut down for two years while it was such a
kick in the teeth beyond obvious reasons. There you go.
(35:49):
Michael Felsing from Pittsburgh scored, so that's good to see.
And Robert Morris tough way to start. They got Michigan
and Notre Dame before their first home game on Halloween
against Niagara, so they're really getting tested early. The baseball
item before we get back to the Steelers. Tyler Glass
now pitching for the LA Dodgers. Last night, Glass now
(36:11):
five and two thirds innings. He ends up giving up
just one earned run, three hits, three walks, eight strikeouts
to beat the Brewers, and now the Dodgers are on
the cusp of going back to the World Series. Here's
Glass now after the game.
Speaker 4 (36:26):
Tyler, congratulations, you had to watch lastco season from the dugout.
Speaker 1 (36:30):
How much better is this?
Speaker 6 (36:31):
It's incredible. Yeah, to be a part of this, this
incredible group of guys. Just being in my hometown, it's
a pretty surreal feeling.
Speaker 1 (36:37):
I feel great. You looked more confident at the night.
When on, How did limiting the damage early that uni grew? Yeah,
months he saved me right there.
Speaker 6 (36:45):
I think early on a little like you said, not
early in the groove, rhythm was a little off, and
I think has the game kept going, I leaned on
that slider, Oh sorry, I leaned on the sinker a
lot and kind of got me more timed up and I.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
Was good to go.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
And I'll just say something real quick about this. First
of all, I like Glass now when is here? He
drove me crazy as a pitcher. But I really liked
him in Pittsburgh and liked the fact that he's had
some success in his iterations in Tampa in LA Beyond,
of course, he still had the injury issues, but I'm
glad to see him have some success in his hometown
with the Dodgers. And he's still got really good stuff.
(37:18):
And he also had a good series against the Phillies
where he came out of the bullpen to relieve show
Away for an inning and a half and put up
zeros and had a strong start over six innings against
the Phillies as well. So they'll close out that series.
And I saw someone from down the dial tweet this,
and you know, it was kind of like the tone
of the tweet was, oh, it's big market beaten up
(37:39):
on small market LA, beating up in Milwaukee. Stop stop stop.
And I know that's like passive defense of the Pirates
on the Pirates flagship station. But stop, that's not what
this is. This is an NL Championship series. That team,
the Brewers, got this far. This isn't about payroll. But
it's won best of seven series. The Pirates beat the
(38:01):
Dodgers a couple times this year. Okay, that's not what
the friggin Brewers came out of a division that have
the Cubs in it and the Cardinals, who're not a
big market. If they spend big, that's not a factor here,
all right, Like, let's not play that that sad song
on behalf of the small market teams here. Now, there's
(38:22):
different times. Let's worry about that when the CBA is up.
That's not what this is about. The Dodgers just might
be better. Eight three three, four thirty nine. Kevin's calling
from the North Hills. Kevin, you're on one o five
nine the X.
Speaker 2 (38:36):
Hey, Tim, how are you good?
Speaker 4 (38:39):
Yeah?
Speaker 7 (38:39):
The Dodgers might not just be better, they are better.
I mean I think this is their thirteenth posts. He's
in appearance. They're they're looking to repeat for sure. But
my question for you, Tim is about the Steelers. If
the hallmark of the like a championship team is that
you make adjustments and get better as the year goes on.
So you we could speak come playoff time. Do you
(39:04):
really see that happening with Tomlin and Austin and this defense,
which with the way they coach this defense.
Speaker 1 (39:11):
Well, if you frame it that way, no, But I
also think there's a player component to this in Maybe
this is something to do with adjustments, or maybe it's
just how things work. When they've got an eighteen week,
seventeen game season, this is usually the time when the
defense is great, and I thought we had started to
see that over the last two and a half weeks,
(39:32):
where the defense was flying around, making plays, hitting guys hard,
jarring the ball loose, sacking the quarterback, putting themselves in
position for turnovers. This time of year, October November is
usually when the defense ascends. Then they get banged up,
they have some injury attrition, their bodies break down, and
they just aren't as good at the back half of
the seasons. Part of the reason why they collapse all
(39:52):
the time. It's not always about the quarterback and the offense.
In fact, it's usually in the back half of the
year more about the defense. Does that have to do
with coaching adjustments, I don't know. Maybe, or maybe it's
because they are too reliant on the defense when they're
usually pretty good in October and November. All I know
is this kind of loss that they have usually happens
(40:12):
in the early part of the season where they're trying
to figure things out offensively, or it happens in the
back half of the season when they start to deteriorate.
To have a loss like this in this part of
the calendar, to me is bad, not just because it's
a divisional loss, but because these are usually this is
usually the time of the Steelers make Hay. So it
(40:34):
did catch my attention on a lot of levels.
Speaker 7 (40:38):
Yeah, and you know, we play in the AFC. There's
so many good quarterbacks and potentially good passing offenses that
we would have to go through to make a serious
championship run.
Speaker 1 (40:49):
That let me ask you this, I hope I'm I'll
redirected to you this very topic because I was going
to get into this anyway to open up the next hour.
So I'll just start you off with it. What are
they doing that? What's their record the next three weeks
after what you saw last night? What's their record the
next three weeks against green Bay Indian the Chargers.
Speaker 7 (41:10):
I think I actually think they'll they'll they'll fingers and
toes crushed that you know, they'll play well against green
Bay next week at home, uh, you know, with the
kind of the mini buy and just to hangover from the.
Speaker 2 (41:23):
Sting of this loss.
Speaker 7 (41:24):
So I think they'll they'll win that game, I really do,
and then probably one and one and those those other two.
So I'm especially with the way Rogers is playing now,
so I'm hoping in the offensive lines as well that they'll.
Speaker 2 (41:38):
Be two and one.
Speaker 1 (41:39):
I appreciate it. Eight three, three, four, one two nine.
I'm going one and two. I've got some concerns about
how this whole green Bay thing is gonna hang over Rogers,
and if he forces the offense and forces passes like
we saw on the deep ball to DK, this will
be I think the biggest test of where Rogers is
(42:01):
emotionally and mentally is this game coming up against Green Bay.
Even he said it himself, the green Bay game is
a bigger deal than the Jets game. Now, if you
use the Jets game as the launching points that it
was great against the New York is gonna be even
better against Green Bay? Yeah, I hope so. But unlike
that last caller, they've got to be asking questions about
(42:23):
the defense, a lot of questions about the defense, because
if you looked at the last two weeks and thought
a lot of things were solved, and you see regression
like that against a team that was primed to be
kicked to the curb and beaten down unless you talked
yourself into the Flacco angle like they did. Then I
(42:43):
don't know what you throw at that defense to fix
it against perceptibly three much better teams that all could
be in the playoffs next year, So I'm going with
one and two.
Former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback and Steeler's Audio Network postgame show
host Charlie Batch joining me right now here on one
oh five nine the X Tien Ben's in for Mark Madden.
Charlie go to talk to you again. You took good
hey real quick before he gets the game last night.
Can I run that quote from Betonio by you? You
were involved with the players union? What sort of role
(00:21):
does the union have when it comes to complaints about
field conditions? Where does that whole thing go from here?
Do you think?
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Yeah? Typically the player reps are the ones who have
the conversations, and it really works his way up. They
talked to the Executive Committee and then ultimately executive director
and if they go over field conditions, and then from
there they'll reach out to the NFL and start those discussions.
I know, far as where they are, as far as
where they are now. Ultimately, I'm sure the Steelers will say, hey,
(00:47):
the field is now being redone and we won't have
that issue movie too forward. So I think this is
going to close pretty quick.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Now.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
You're close with Ben Roethlisberger. He wants to kick pit
out and have their own stadium built on campus. In Oakland.
Do you think Ben will pony up the dollars to
make that happen, Charlie, it will be Ben Roethlisberger field
in Oakland.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
No, highly doubt that. If he was an alumni, that's
a different story. But you know, it's just funny whenever
he stated it. But again, I mean, he's not the
only one to feel that way. It's just the fact
that somebody needed to have the head one to be
able to have a conversation started going again.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
What'd you think last night? I specifically want to ask
you two questions, and I want to know if I'm
reacting the right way if you agree on either of
these points. The first of one is, I admit this
is hindsight, and I don't think the offense is primarily
at fault. Obviously it's the defense, right, But Jalen Warren,
should they have run him a little bit more during
that game? What do you think?
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Yes, if that flea flicker didn't happen, that debacle there,
I think that would have been because that play could
have easily went for four or five yards. Maybe he
bust out of the inn. It could have been a
bigger game, and that kind of disrupted the flow of
them offensively, and Jalen just bought out busted he missed it,
to say, he missed the signal. Everybody else on the
offense they received it, but he did not. And that's
(01:57):
why you saw the reaction of a Maaron Rodgers because
of that.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
I know that I've talked about it, a lot of
other people have talked about it as it relates to
getting the ball down the field and taking more shots.
So I don't want to sound like a hypocrite and
then turn around this week and say, well, you should
have run more, you should have run more. But the
one time it leapt out at me, Charlie was maybe
the sequence that started right after the Bengals scored their
first touchdown and Aaron Rodgers went down the sideline and
(02:25):
tried the deep shot there and he threw the interception.
Like there, it kind of felt like, Hey, do you
really want to get into a pinball game with the
Bengals or would this be a good time to give
it to Warren since he seems to have a little
something and your control in the line of scrimmage. That's
maybe where I thought would be a good time for
them to run him a.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Bit more absolutely, And that's one of those things. Of course, obviously,
you know, you got to live with the resultage of
the quarterback. He threw the interception, he would love to
have that bag, but that play happened on first down,
so defense just give up points and then here you
are now turning the football back over. And it was
just tough because if you go back and watch it
from the aerial, when you look at the design of
the play, yes, you're trying to hit DK, but if
(03:01):
you would look from the right to the rights, out
to left, I think it was Roman Wilson was coming
on a deep crossing route and that naturally draw through
the safety towards the closer the d DKAY and then
ultimately that pass was thrown a little bit in the
middle of the field and it was an easy interception
for the safety.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Charny the other decision that I wanted to ask you about,
and I'm actually on board with what they did. I
know some people hated the punt, it actually worked out
for the reasons why. I think they punted late in
the game. How did you feel about it?
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Yeah, I thought as I was watching that about that
maybe that was four down territory for the Steelers to
go for it there, because yeah, you canna make the stop,
but again, Tom is more precious than anything else. And ultimately,
even though they were are by the rebound score, it
was just one of those situations where I was like,
I was with you. I thought they should have went
on that thought they should have went for it on
fourth down to that punting.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Okay. The one complaint that I heard from fans that
I really don't agree with, and I want to get
your take on this one too, is Friarmouth. I think
people saw t Higgins go down and say that was
the wise move. People had such little face in the
defense and how it was playing. I've heard some complaints
that friar Mouth should have gone down. I think that
was too early in the game. They needed seven. You
(04:12):
get seven when you can get seven. I think did
you have any thoughts on that? Do you think you
should have slid? Because I think it was just right
to go in and get the touchdown when you can.
It's seven, not three. I think it's a different kettle
of fish.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Yeah, this is tough because it's easier, you know, in hinsight, yes,
that's the perfect strategy. That you would have, but typically
you don't have those conversations until you're really in four
minute football where you're just trying to drain the clock,
run the football out, and bleed the clock out. Those
type of things didn't occur because if fire muss shoes,
he fairly has been part of the game plan. So
if you think he's not going to score when he
(04:43):
said wide open in the middle of the field, you're
sadly mistaken. So, yes, I can understand that, but that's
where you hope your defense is going to go out
there and make a stop. That didn't happen. But when
you look at T Higgins, I mean, that was as
smart of a play as that anybody could have possibly done,
because if he scores, Pittsburgh probably wars and wins the
game there, even though they have the hell Mary attempt
at the end of the ball game. But that was
(05:05):
a very smart play by.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
T.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Higgins.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Yeah, on that point, Charlie, I was watching that, I thought, yeah,
that is a smart play. It's the right way to
do it. It's going to be a chip shot field goal.
But I do have to admit I've seen the Bengals
blow games against the Steelers in Cincinnati so many times
it went through my mind that they were going to
duff the snap or the hold, or he was going
to jink it off the upright or something. It did
go through my head.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
It went through mine. I said, you're going to miss
this only because they were attempting on a fourth down
and you typically sometimes we attempted on third down. But
I want to go back to one more point on
the T Higgins play. It kind of reminded me of
a few years ago whenever we were open to the
season opener against the Falcons, and if you remember at
the end of the game, and it typically veterans do this,
remember Mika Fitspatcher, he caught the interception, but he easily scored,
(05:50):
but he ran out of bounds to make sure that
the offense kneeled the ball down and led the clock
out and not put your defense on the field. That
was with that play reminded me, even though we were
on the opposit side of it. That was what I
reminded of and that's why veteran like T Higgins did
what he did.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Charlie Batch with US Steelers Audio Network postgame show host,
former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback what did you see from the
attempt at coverage on Chase and Higgins and why did
it go awry?
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Charlie, Yeah, it was so twenty two completions of piece.
I mean, this is why you bought your you know
the Jalen Ramsey's in you're the Darius Slays in then
you for this particular game and Joe Flacco veteran guy
he read he did not miss a coverage as their
relations to what the defense was trying to do and
confusing him anytime. The big play that he hit down
(06:38):
the middle of the field to the tight end they
were doubling the stars. You had both safety coming out
the middle of the field and it less Slay in
the buying and you hit him down the field, but
in the manner of unknowing where the ball was going
to go on up this the most of the thirst
disturbing play for me, was at the end of the
ball game, whenever they were a miscommunication that was happening
on the defensive side. They just did this a couple
(07:00):
of weeks ago against the Vikings at the end of
the game where they led and that was the Jordan
Addison play wherever Pat was Peyton Wilson tracking down. It
was a busted coverage. Here you are on that particular play,
you could see Patrick Queen, He's trying to change the coverage.
People on the right side solid. He moves Cole Hookum
over to the left. That side plays man and man.
(07:22):
Don't Again, I don't care what defense you play. It
just has to be the same defense. And when you
allow Jamar Chase to be that wide open, that's a
problem and ultimately cost him the game.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Tell me if you disagree with this, But you know,
from my novice point of view of looking at it,
certainly as opposed to you, my thought was they were
so concerned about what they were going to do coverage wise,
they kind of forgot to get creative in the past
rush department, right. I just didn't see much creativity there,
at least none that worked. What did you think?
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Yeah, I really thought going into the game. You know
this is sometimes you get into your own way, right,
You're like, the offensive line is just so bad. Our
defensive front, we don't don't even any to blitz because
we're now going to apply to pressure to Flacco. Everybody
else has been doing it, why not us? But yet
they figured out a way to actually pick up the protection.
You saw two men, you know, they had two different
defensive line in that time. You have four linebackers on
(08:13):
the field. These are things that you know, Again, coverage wise,
I just thought that in some cases that they overthought
themselves and they got burnt by it because the Bengals
were ready for it. And again, Flato was getting the
ball out of his hands, and that's the advantage that
you have as a veteran quarterback.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
I thought once or twice, Charlie I noticed specifically on
a play that they highlighted on the television feed, it
looked like they brought Elliott once and then delayed Queen,
sort of like they were anticipating that Elliott would get
picked up and then Queen would go through whatever hole
was opened. But that took so long that Flacco just
(08:47):
got rid of the ball. Anyway, it was almost like
they were blitzing but not gaining the advantage of speeding
up the clock form at.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
All correct if you go back, I think it may
have been their first or second possession. They actually ran
that blitz and Patrick Queen was green dog and because
he thought that back was actually gonna block and he
actually slipped out and Flacco hitting, but Brown dropped it,
and that was one of those ones you just said, oooh,
if you'd have hit that plate, that would have been
additional thirty yards. But again they had to pun the
football in that drive. The Steelers won up ten nothing.
(09:15):
So again, these are things that ultimately play where you're
kind of out here playing checker, trying to figure out
how you can gain an advantage.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
However, this game was gonna go, Charlie, whatever permutation came
into play. If you had kind of taken a crystal
ball and told me the next morning that, yeah, the
Steelers are gonna lose. Flacco was gonna be good. The
wide receivers were gonna be good. It's gonna be higher
scoring than what the odds makers are suggesting. I want
to say, Okay, I can squint and see that happening.
One thing I couldn't see was for as bad as
(09:45):
the Steelers run defense had been, I thought it was
at least fixed to the point that they could contain
Chase Brown and a Cincinnati rush attack. You shouldn't even
say the word rush attack. That's not a proper way
to say what they were doing on the ground. I
can't believe they let up the ease with which they
had on offense for the Bengals to run the ball.
(10:06):
That should not have been part of the calculus.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Especially the way that the defense or the run defense.
But the Steelers have been trump trending upward because of
Derek Harmon returning somebody. There is absolutely no way that
Brown is that offensive line is going to be able
to block them. But you dun bow, we were wrong
and stop for sure they were going to take away
that running game, make Flacco beat you down the field,
which ultimately he did, but again, just not giving up
to the amount of yards that you're giving up in
(10:30):
the running game, that just was atrocious. And that's let's
let you know, even when Flacco is running for twelve
yards at the end of the game, you know, like,
really this.
Speaker 4 (10:38):
Is ruberre doing.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
But these are things that happen, and it's just really
it's concerning right now because it's kind of raising the
alarm for a lot of people because one defensive the defense,
you thought you had it fixed, but now these leaks
are starting to happen again.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
You know, we're sort of speaking a few seconds ago
about maybe them overthinking some things or thinking themselves into
oblivion at times? Did they do that? Did Tomlin do that?
Starting on Monday with his whole reaction to Andrew Berry
and all that, Like, Were the seeds planted that this
was going to be a problem early in the week
psychologically before we even got to game.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Day, more psychologically for coach Tomlin at that point because
the players, a lot of them probably had never played
against Flacco before. So these, you know, when you have
those type of conversations that are going on. Of course,
now you bring that veteran president a lot of these
coverages that you're trying to confuse young quarterbacks with, you know, changes,
you know, because of his experience. But I think ultimately,
(11:33):
when you look at it, I think in hindsight you
can honestly say, Andrew Berry, you're probably saying, get them, Yeah,
that's why I did it. So however it unfolds you.
You have to see the Bengals here in another three
or four weeks, and now you better get this win
when they come back. Ashore.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
Two things about friar Mouth. Why does he play so
well against Cincinnati And do you think this lays a
foundation for him being woven back in the offense more
as the weeks go along here.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Yeah, so I'm a huge Pat fire Moove fan, and
you know, want to see him out there engaging be
For whatever reason, he's slipped into the donalk house wasn't
playing a lot. But the one thing that he may
not get credit for until people go back and watch
the game, he blocked his tail off in this game.
Even though he had over one hundred yards, he blocked
his tail off. He would help spring Jalen Warm multiple
times in that running game, and I'm hoping that's the
(12:19):
performance that he had. We're going to see him more
involved in this offense movie forward.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Matchup wise going in, do you think there was a
reason why Herbig didn't play more or do you think
that was an in game field thing.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
I think probably was the in game field thing. And ultimately,
you know, I know Nick Herbert, he's been playing well
and he deserves those extra refs that he's getting. But
you're paying Alex Hausman for a reason, and ultimately money
overseats pretty much everything else, and that's why you're going
to see Alex continue to be out there. And as
long as he's healthy, he's going to be the guy.
And he has to stay healthy because you know, at
this particular point, Yeah, it's one thing to have a
(12:52):
you know, get a break and you get a spill
on where the pass rush is. But Alex Smith has
to be that guy because they're a lot more stout
against the run with Herbert Gives at this point of
his career.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
I'll end on a big picture question here, Charlie, who
are the Steelers right now? I mean, do you look
at them and say, this is a team that's still
likely to win the division and can right the ship
against three likely playoff teams here over the next three weeks,
or are we looking at them having to do what
their division foes have done and try to rebound from
(13:23):
a really tough stretch.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
I think right now we're trying to figure it out,
and I honestly don't have an answer as it relates
to who this team truly is. All I know is
the next probably five of six weeks, this team will
start to reveal itself as a relations to who they
truly are because the schedule doesn't get any easier. The
good part is that everything is right in front of
you as far as the goals that you want to
accomplish and you talk about those playoff teams in the AFC.
(13:46):
You have the majority of them on your schedule, so
handle your business and you know, and ultimately hopefully they
can get to that point of you know, being you know,
the conversations for that number one seed. But this next
month would definitely show either they're a contender or pretender.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
If they do get caught from behind by one of
their divisional foes. Is it Cincinnati now at Flacco or
is it just the Ravens getting healthier?
Speaker 2 (14:07):
Do you think? Yeah, I think it's pretty much Cincinnati
right now as we discussed this at this point. But again,
if the Baltimore, the Ravens are going to play spoiler
toward the end of the season as they get healthy,
if they're out of the playoff contention, they're going to say, hey,
if we're going home, we're taking everybody else with us
and we're going to spoil everybody's Christmas. So you just
old that's why this game you had to win to
create that separation. So now you don't have any flaws
(14:30):
that you head into the later part of the season.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Charlie, good catching up with you again. Glad we can
do this. Appreciate you coming on.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Heah, I appreciate it. Thanks for having me, all right.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
Charlie Batch, Steelers Audio Network postgame show host also former
Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback. He is brought to us by eighty
four Lumber Dynasty, partner of the Pittsburgh Steelers. I want
to investigate that question that I just asked, Charlie. I
saw some people calling in about what Potonio said about
the field at Akrosher Stadium. If you want to get
in those thoughts to anything you heard from Charlie that
(15:02):
you thought was interesting and noteworthy to continue talking about,
we can eight three, three, four one two ninety nine,
thirty nine. But I want to get to that conversation
about who the Steelers really are. I want to get
to that conversation about where they really are right now
in the North and if this lead that they built
up is going to evaporate. Is it now going to
go to Flacco and the Bengals after we wrote them
(15:23):
off prior to the trade. We're all waiting to see
if the Ravens are gonna get healthy? Is it really
the Bengals you gotta worry the most about? One five
nine The X Tomorrow Nights 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 in the Pittsburgh Penguins one O five nine
(15:46):
The X. He's money Mark. I think I gotta start
with pull pork Nachos fantastic The X.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
At one O five nine.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
When I was filling in for Mark tim Ben's infro
Mark Today earlier in the week when he was sick,
happened to stumble across the Pro Football Talk power rankings,
and those power rankings had the Steelers fifth. I was
obviously skeptical, and I think I was proven right to
(16:25):
be skeptical last night based on how they played against
the Cincinnati Bengals. So let me ask you this question.
We all know they're not the fifth best team in football.
We know that they never were the fifth best team
in football. There's a difference between doing power rankings based
on who has performed the best so far over a
small sample size of a third or a fourth of
(16:47):
the season, and who we really think is going to win.
As flawed as the Chiefs are as flawed as the
Bills are as flawed as the Eagles are You're not
going to pick the Steelers on a neutral field against
any of those three teams. I wouldn't have before Thursday night.
I sure as hell won't after I saw what I
saw last night. But I want to pose this question
(17:10):
that you can answer at eight three three four one
two ninety nine thirty nine. I just brought it up
with Charlie Batch, and I want to see what your
thoughts are. As skeptical as you might be about the
Steelers because they play in a division that's as broken
as theirs is, do you think that they can or
(17:31):
will still win it? And if they don't, who's gonna
catch them? Eight three three four one two ninety nine
thirty nine. I think they probably still will end up
catch winning the division. If they get caught, it's probably Cincinnati.
(17:54):
But I'm not gonna sure myself or try to assure
you that it will be. It's still could be the
Ravens if they get healthy. Is Sophie the Ravens If
Lamar Jackson comes back and the rest of the division
hangs close enough to them that they can catch up.
The thing about this part of the conversation is Flacco's
not gonna do this to anybody but the Steelers. Like
(18:17):
this is a Steeler specific thing that we're dealing with
right now. With Joe Flacco. This isn't like you're not
gonna see he certainly didn't from Green Bay. You're not
gonna see Flacco do this to the rest of the league.
I don't think. As good as Chase and Higgins are,
other teams are gonna figure out a way to speed
up the clock. Other teams are gonna figure out a
way to make him throw the ball more quickly before
(18:38):
those guys have a chance to get open down the field.
They're gonna be more creative in their blitz packages, They're
gonna be more creative in their pass rush. They're gonna
be better covering so four can get home. Like that
is a what we just saw last night is not
an ascending Bengals team so much as it is a
bad matchup nightmare for the Steelers. And the Seeds were
(18:58):
planted to make it such based on Tomlin's reaction on Monday,
And maybe we haven't talked about that enough, and that
might be on me at four to twenty five and
a half here, because there were so many things that
the players did poorly, and there were so many I
can't believe what I'm watching moments from that defense in
(19:21):
the sixty minutes of the game last night. We probably
haven't talked enough about how Tomlin approached this week because
that was a canned, planned response. Let's be honest, right,
and maybe I'll open the phone lines on that topic too.
Relating to Tomlin eight three, three, four, one two nine
(19:42):
thirty nine, how culpable is he for what happened last
night based on his approach at the press conference on Monday,
Because I think the seeds of concern were sown within
that defense three days before they left for Cincinnati. Because
Tomlin never does what he did on Monday, never except
(20:07):
three weeks ago when he talked about the same guy
with Joe Flacco when he brought up the Anthony Richardson conversation.
So he's obviously got this thing in his head about
this quarterback that nobody else in the rest of the
league seems to be all that concerned about. You know,
he could have gone anywhere during the offseason. The Steelers
could have gotten him. I mean, my god, if they're
(20:28):
so afraid of him, they should get him. Maybe not
this offseason, but go ahead and get him next year.
If Aaron Rodgers retires and you can't draft the guy,
at least we have to stop we can stop hearing
about how dangerous he is. But I do think there
is some legitimacy to the belief that he and the
coaching staff got so far in the heads of his
own players that they were sort of paralyzed by insecurity
(20:53):
and doubt over how they were going to face Flacco
because he turned into this big thing where he called
out an opposing GM for making a trade. I mean,
I think there's some legitimacy to that part of the conversation.
Let alone the game plan, let alone the tactics, let
alone how they approached the game once they got there.
But maybe one hand washes the other there, doesn't it.
(21:14):
He's talked himself into being that the trade was so
offensive to him that he turned Flacco into a bigger
deal than what he is, and that's how they approached
the game defensively, and you got what you got, which
was Flacco throwing for over three hundred yards and putting
thirty three points on the board. You could tweet me
on that front two at Tim Ben's pgh. We're gonna
(21:38):
hear from Mike de Corsi coming up a little bit
later on Friday Football show that he does with me
each and every Friday before Steelers games. But this case
was like a postgame show. We're gonna run part of
that back. Mike's on with Mark once a week, Rudy
and Fox Chapel. You're on one of five nine the X.
Speaker 4 (21:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
I don't know if you or anybody else has discussed
maybe the possible of the bye week affecting their performance.
Maybe they were boozing too much, smoking too much grass.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
Having they played coming out of the bye. They played
coming out of the bye. They beat Cleveland coming out
of the bye, but that's Cleveland. I mean, Oh, so
they had two by weekends in a rows. They were
smoking grass and drunk while they were beating Cleveland and
hitting Dylan Gabriel sixteen times. Yeah, thanks, got I squeezed
(22:27):
that one in, mister Friday Afternoon, speaking of boozing and
drinking too much, smoking lots of dope, mister Friday Afternoon.
Next twenty five nine The X the Spirit's Summer News.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
Joining us for the X is Halloween Clues.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
On Thursday, October thirtieth.
Speaker 5 (22:46):
The cru says sale at eight pm, which why he's
it from the Klinton's playing all your nineties favorites same
dollars and fifty nine cents from every ticket sold goes
to the Mary Ella Mute Foundation or crew for this
twenty one and dressing your Halloween best to score prizes
all night fo Tickets are on sale.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
Now at Gateway Clipper dot com the Exes Hallow Way
on the.
Speaker 5 (23:12):
Gateway Clipper sponsored by Disaster Restoration Services.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
We'll see you one October thirty.
Speaker 6 (23:20):
From the one oh five nine the ex Weather Center.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
This report is sponsored by Staples. It's gonna be partly
cloudy tonight, then mostly time for mister Friday Afternoon, who
went three and two last week, thirteen and seventeen on
the season. So that means with two losses last week,
mister Friday Afternoon needs two contumn two electric shocks. Oh oh,
(23:50):
at the end of the season, mister Friday Afternoon, do
you have to be shocked for every loss you have?
Is you gonna be like riding the Green Mile in
week eighteen?
Speaker 4 (23:58):
Well that's not accurate. That's a abuse.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
Well it's abused.
Speaker 4 (24:02):
Madden. By the way, Where's where's Madden?
Speaker 1 (24:04):
Madden's in Liverpool.
Speaker 4 (24:08):
A soccer game.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
Yeah, he faked in illness early in the week and
then he went to Liverpool.
Speaker 4 (24:13):
Interesting, is he gonna be at the Is he gonna
be in trouble with HR?
Speaker 1 (24:18):
I don't think we have HR. I think we actually
fired HR. I think we run our own ship now,
which is kind of weird because no one's usually in
charge around this place anyway. So I guess it makes
sense now that I say it out loud.
Speaker 4 (24:30):
All right, I'm gonna talk to HR.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Well you are a part of HR. Now that you
say that, I forgot about that. Technically, your contract, which
I'm told is not iron clad, is run.
Speaker 4 (24:39):
But it is iron clad. Who told you is not
iron clad?
Speaker 1 (24:43):
Tom told me that right before you came on.
Speaker 4 (24:45):
Oh no, no, Madden been told me it is iron clad.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
Oh all right, Well I'll double check with the HR
department that no longer exists to see if it is
in fact iron clad. Now you get to pick three
games this week, but you don't get the Steelers game.
What would you have.
Speaker 4 (24:59):
PILL had today? I had Cincinnati last night.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
Well it doesn't count. You can't do that. Now, that's
not how it works.
Speaker 4 (25:04):
You can't wait. Why didn't you call me on Thursday?
It's like a mid the Steeler game. Pick.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
It says right here, mister, Friday afternoon. And I wasn't
on yesterday, so I'm the one that was entrusted with
doing this bit. If I come on Thursday, maybe I
would have made an adjustment. But it says here Friday afternoon,
and according to HR, I have to do your slot
on your given day or else it violates the contract,
which would no longer be ironclad. Well that's a cheap shot,
(25:30):
so you don't get the ad. Well, I would say
advantage of the Steelers game, but we saw what happened
last night. You still need three games. Let's start with
your lock of the week for this week, which can't
be the Steeler game.
Speaker 4 (25:42):
Okay, well, of course it can't be the steel game.
It's already played. Let's pick the Falcons plus one and
a half at San Francisco.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
That's a weird game because like, these are two teams
that have no idea which one is really real. I
know what isn't real, and that's the Buffalo run defense.
And Bijon went crazy last last week. I don't know
if he's gonna be able to do the same thing
against San Francisco that was just a great matchup last week.
Speaker 4 (26:04):
Well or losing Warner hurts a lot because they love
They've Lostn't in the span of three weeks and lost
boson Warner. I think I'd rather five at their top
six defensive players are out. The wide receiving core is
still decimating. You know, Kittle's coming back this week. Their
quarterbacks are playing. Max Joneses been playing hurt and he's
been very effective, but he's still been playing hurt. Birdie's
(26:26):
not Berdie's not ready yet. And the Falcons have get
you know, everybody felt the Falcon's defensive stint coming into
the year, Like if you had fantasy football drafts, you
were targeting the Falcons defense at your players, like you know,
we're looking to, you know, draft guys that play the
Falcons right. They have. They have given the least amount
of yards to see in the NFL. And that's not
(26:48):
an accident. I mean they shut down Josh Allen. You
could just tell that the defensive line, which has been
terrible and been years past, they're They're tenacious pass rush,
pass rush, they disrupt everything they're excellent safeties or they
got a good cornerback, and they have explosive player. They
have an offense which you know they're making Panics a
(27:10):
game manager, but they have the type of tools that
that that could involve themselves in a shoot unnecessary. They
haven't had to have a shootout this year yet most
think they're smothering.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
Most importantly, how do you think George Kittle is gonna
perform if he doesn't have his smelling salts or has
that been resolved? Does he allowed to have his smelling
salts again?
Speaker 4 (27:27):
I don't I don't know. I don't think they're supposed
to have to smelling selves that they cheat. It's this
first game back. The Falcons am been excellent against side
ends this year. You know, mccaffery's not even averaging four
yards of carry. It's just I don't know. I'm gonna
ride the momentum here with Atlanta. They uh, they played
played a damaged team and like at San Francisco, I
(27:49):
think he's just trying to get sort and get back
in good health. Look quick for Atlanta to win this.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
Game, all right. So that's the lock of the week.
What's the daily double?
Speaker 4 (28:00):
We're playing we're playing an injuries u or travel situation
that worked last week. We're gonna play against that that
short strip, uh, the short week with the So the
Denver went overseas, and it's kind of weird. As they've
been doing more overseas games. They usually gave the team
(28:20):
that went overseas a week's rest when they came back.
The past couple of years have had so many of
these games, and because of scheduling, they haven't really been
able to do that. Uh yeah, yeah, well they got it,
but I'm just saying that not all the teams are
getting it. You know, last week we had the situation
where uh you know, Cleveland, who's in that spot?
Speaker 1 (28:42):
Minnesota?
Speaker 4 (28:44):
Uh no minute? Who to Minnesota playoffs back against So
the Browns came back against the Steelers. The Steelers had
that we're doing the same spot. Steelers had extra rest
against a team coming back with no rest on on
the on the overseas week. The Giants play on Thursday.
That it's extra rest. It's not been complete two weeks,
but they're are. You know, the bone Nicks has not
(29:07):
been playing good at all. That offense is not good
and you can just tell the Giants are re energize
with with scatted bow and Ben and Jackson Dart. Uh
in this game, the defense loves that loves them. They're
playing hard on defense. We're just going to bet against
that travel. So Denver probably wins. But but this is
gonna stay close because Denver isn't scorn enough to beat
(29:29):
anybody by margin.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
All right, is it really all that or are you
just making the Giants the daily double because of Jackson
Dart's mom.
Speaker 4 (29:38):
No, I'm not gonna make that the daily double.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
Oh that's not the daily double.
Speaker 4 (29:42):
No, that's not the daily double.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
Okay, so then that's just your extra games. So what's
your daily double? Pick days?
Speaker 4 (29:48):
Uh, we're going to play such another situational uh uh thing.
So so coaches that have been overseas at least two times,
okay against coaches that have never been overseas are seven
to zero in that spot. Okay, Now, jack Ville has
been overseas a lot, but this is lyon there against
(30:12):
against what's his name? Who did his last two trips?
Speaker 1 (30:19):
Did we just give his cell phone the electric shock? Tom?
Speaker 4 (30:24):
What? Now?
Speaker 1 (30:24):
Your your cell phone was cutting out? So say that again?
You're doing rams and Jaguars, Is that right?
Speaker 4 (30:29):
Yeah, Rams, the Jaguars because Sean McVay has been over
been overseas and his teams have won a combined score
I think it was forty seven or fifty seven to ten.
He's one of the best overseas coaches. Lion Cohen has
never been over there. Coaches that have never been over
there against coaches that have been over there two times
or more are owing seven. So since a good situational spot.
The good team. I don't even care if Whoka doesn't
(30:50):
play because they're an uptight team. They're very well coached,
you know who. They've still got Davonte Adams and Conmen
Williams that they'll feed them. Uh take uh take the Rams.
I think the Jaguars're gonna start coming back down to
earthier that you reach.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
So Atlanta plus one and a half the Giants plus seven,
the Rams minus three. I get to assign the super
collider to make us picks the doubled value, I'm gonna
go with. I don't have as much faith in Atlanta
at plus one and a half, so I'm gonna go
with Atlanta as plus one and a half is the
super collider.
Speaker 4 (31:25):
Okay, so we gotta we got the lock of the
week and the super collider is Atlanta?
Speaker 1 (31:32):
Is that okay? Is that allowed? Or do I have
to change course here?
Speaker 4 (31:34):
That that's funny? Just remember that the rams are the
daily double.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
The rams are daily double. Right, yeah, right, and we
just doubled up.
Speaker 4 (31:45):
I mean you could have, but let's also not Let's
also not forget that these ticks have been made with
zero doubt.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
And all of them are ironclad. Mister Friday afternoon, you're
on one O five nine the.
Speaker 5 (31:56):
X one O your shot at x DR cash.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
See what I did there?
Speaker 5 (32:03):
Thirteen times a day, nine am through nine p d
X will give you the keyword at the top of
every hour. Enter it at wxdx dot com and you
could win one thousand dollars.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
With that much money, you could buy like ten coffees.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
You know what I was homeschool.
Speaker 4 (32:18):
I'm not good at mouth.
Speaker 5 (32:19):
Listen all day for your chance at some extra cash
on one oh five nine d X.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
Joint fonts are commading.
Speaker 5 (32:27):
Yeah, but I'll be popular at Pittsburgh yet, I think
I gotta start with pull pork nachos.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
Fantastic d X at one O five nine brought just
buy People's Natural Gas. People's an essential utilities company, safe
(32:55):
reliable natural gas energy, People's Hyphengas dot Com. Tim Benz
Infro Mark coming up in the five o'clock hour, We're
gonna hear from Mike de Corsi from my Friday Football show.
Mike's on weekly with Mark and he's on weekly with me,
and we broke down the entire game from last night.
Let's take a quick five minute respite from All Steelers,
(33:18):
All the Time today. A couple other items, including the Penguins,
who you can hear on one O five to nine,
The X tomorrow against the San Jose Sharks. It's the
last of their three game California swing before they're back
against Vancouver on Tuesday. Here on one O five to.
Speaker 4 (33:33):
Nine the X.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
They won against the Kings last night four to two.
And I guess they did with Kindle what they did
with Brunick where they intentionally scratched him. So these guys
are like on the Paul Skeins pitch count treatment or
something like that. It's happening in the vacuum of a
year where they're not supposed to be good anyway. So
that kinda calms me down a little bit about this also,
(34:02):
we're talking about I think an overall big picture view
of where the Penguins are going that if they have
a plan to sort of space out how many games
they play, that suggests to me that the plan is
to have them here for as long as possible beyond
the nine games. So if that's the case, then I
(34:23):
feel better about it. Or else why why not just
get nine and send them back? So that's encouraging to me.
And you know, this stuff is gonna take care of itself.
I mean, let's say that they both are up here
for the whole season. They are gonna have these healthy
scratch games just for the sake of not burning them out.
That's gonna take care of itself. Because La Tang's gonna
(34:43):
get hurt, a bunch of forwards are gonna get hurt.
They don't have enough at either position anyway, so they're
gonna have to play. They're not gonna have the option
to scratch them. So if they have the option to
do it now early, it's not the biggest deal in
the world. I guess it still makes me say, Okay,
you're probably overthinking this, but whatever, go ahead and do it.
I'm not gonna get my dander up about it. Something
(35:05):
else hockey related before we get back to the Steelers,
and one actual quick baseball note that I found interesting.
The RMU hockey team opened its season last night. They
put against Michigan number three, number four in the country
based on what pole you're looking. Colonials did well. They
were winning two to one. They were tied to two
heading in the third. They give up a goal midway
(35:26):
through the thirds, they were down three to two, pulled
the goalie and they lost four to two. Actually, the
guy that scored, TJ. Hughes. He was a recruit, excuse me,
a recruit that was coming to RMU that was good
enough to end up playing at Michigan. So if that
tells you where they were going before that program got
shut down for two years while it was such a
kick in the teeth beyond obvious reasons. There you go.
(35:49):
Michael Felsing from Pittsburgh scored, so that's good to see.
And Robert Morris tough way to start. They got Michigan
and Notre Dame before their first home game on Halloween
against Niagara, so they're really getting tested early. The baseball
item before we get back to the Steelers. Tyler Glass
now pitching for the LA Dodgers. Last night, Glass now
(36:11):
five and two thirds innings. He ends up giving up
just one earned run, three hits, three walks, eight strikeouts
to beat the Brewers, and now the Dodgers are on
the cusp of going back to the World Series. Here's
Glass now after the game.
Speaker 4 (36:26):
Tyler, congratulations, you had to watch lastco season from the dugout.
Speaker 1 (36:30):
How much better is this?
Speaker 6 (36:31):
It's incredible. Yeah, to be a part of this, this
incredible group of guys. Just being in my hometown, it's
a pretty surreal feeling.
Speaker 1 (36:37):
I feel great. You looked more confident at the night.
When on, How did limiting the damage early that uni grew? Yeah,
months he saved me right there.
Speaker 6 (36:45):
I think early on a little like you said, not
early in the groove, rhythm was a little off, and
I think has the game kept going, I leaned on
that slider, Oh sorry, I leaned on the sinker a
lot and kind of got me more timed up and I.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
Was good to go.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
And I'll just say something real quick about this. First
of all, I like Glass now when is here? He
drove me crazy as a pitcher. But I really liked
him in Pittsburgh and liked the fact that he's had
some success in his iterations in Tampa in LA Beyond,
of course, he still had the injury issues, but I'm
glad to see him have some success in his hometown
with the Dodgers. And he's still got really good stuff.
(37:18):
And he also had a good series against the Phillies
where he came out of the bullpen to relieve show
Away for an inning and a half and put up
zeros and had a strong start over six innings against
the Phillies as well. So they'll close out that series.
And I saw someone from down the dial tweet this,
and you know, it was kind of like the tone
of the tweet was, oh, it's big market beaten up
(37:39):
on small market LA, beating up in Milwaukee. Stop stop stop.
And I know that's like passive defense of the Pirates
on the Pirates flagship station. But stop, that's not what
this is. This is an NL Championship series. That team,
the Brewers, got this far. This isn't about payroll. But
it's won best of seven series. The Pirates beat the
(38:01):
Dodgers a couple times this year. Okay, that's not what
the friggin Brewers came out of a division that have
the Cubs in it and the Cardinals, who're not a
big market. If they spend big, that's not a factor here,
all right, Like, let's not play that that sad song
on behalf of the small market teams here. Now, there's
(38:22):
different times. Let's worry about that when the CBA is up.
That's not what this is about. The Dodgers just might
be better. Eight three three, four thirty nine. Kevin's calling
from the North Hills. Kevin, you're on one o five
nine the X.
Speaker 2 (38:36):
Hey, Tim, how are you good?
Speaker 4 (38:39):
Yeah?
Speaker 7 (38:39):
The Dodgers might not just be better, they are better.
I mean I think this is their thirteenth posts. He's
in appearance. They're they're looking to repeat for sure. But
my question for you, Tim is about the Steelers. If
the hallmark of the like a championship team is that
you make adjustments and get better as the year goes on.
So you we could speak come playoff time. Do you
(39:04):
really see that happening with Tomlin and Austin and this defense,
which with the way they coach this defense.
Speaker 1 (39:11):
Well, if you frame it that way, no, But I
also think there's a player component to this in Maybe
this is something to do with adjustments, or maybe it's
just how things work. When they've got an eighteen week,
seventeen game season, this is usually the time when the
defense is great, and I thought we had started to
see that over the last two and a half weeks,
(39:32):
where the defense was flying around, making plays, hitting guys hard,
jarring the ball loose, sacking the quarterback, putting themselves in
position for turnovers. This time of year, October November is
usually when the defense ascends. Then they get banged up,
they have some injury attrition, their bodies break down, and
they just aren't as good at the back half of
the seasons. Part of the reason why they collapse all
(39:52):
the time. It's not always about the quarterback and the offense.
In fact, it's usually in the back half of the
year more about the defense. Does that have to do
with coaching adjustments, I don't know. Maybe, or maybe it's
because they are too reliant on the defense when they're
usually pretty good in October and November. All I know
is this kind of loss that they have usually happens
(40:12):
in the early part of the season where they're trying
to figure things out offensively, or it happens in the
back half of the season when they start to deteriorate.
To have a loss like this in this part of
the calendar, to me is bad, not just because it's
a divisional loss, but because these are usually this is
usually the time of the Steelers make Hay. So it
(40:34):
did catch my attention on a lot of levels.
Speaker 7 (40:38):
Yeah, and you know, we play in the AFC. There's
so many good quarterbacks and potentially good passing offenses that
we would have to go through to make a serious
championship run.
Speaker 1 (40:49):
That let me ask you this, I hope I'm I'll
redirected to you this very topic because I was going
to get into this anyway to open up the next hour.
So I'll just start you off with it. What are
they doing that? What's their record the next three weeks
after what you saw last night? What's their record the
next three weeks against green Bay Indian the Chargers.
Speaker 7 (41:10):
I think I actually think they'll they'll they'll fingers and
toes crushed that you know, they'll play well against green
Bay next week at home, uh, you know, with the
kind of the mini buy and just to hangover from the.
Speaker 2 (41:23):
Sting of this loss.
Speaker 7 (41:24):
So I think they'll they'll win that game, I really do,
and then probably one and one and those those other two.
So I'm especially with the way Rogers is playing now,
so I'm hoping in the offensive lines as well that they'll.
Speaker 2 (41:38):
Be two and one.
Speaker 1 (41:39):
I appreciate it. Eight three, three, four, one two nine.
I'm going one and two. I've got some concerns about
how this whole green Bay thing is gonna hang over Rogers,
and if he forces the offense and forces passes like
we saw on the deep ball to DK, this will
be I think the biggest test of where Rogers is
(42:01):
emotionally and mentally is this game coming up against Green Bay.
Even he said it himself, the green Bay game is
a bigger deal than the Jets game. Now, if you
use the Jets game as the launching points that it
was great against the New York is gonna be even
better against Green Bay? Yeah, I hope so. But unlike
that last caller, they've got to be asking questions about
(42:23):
the defense, a lot of questions about the defense, because
if you looked at the last two weeks and thought
a lot of things were solved, and you see regression
like that against a team that was primed to be
kicked to the curb and beaten down unless you talked
yourself into the Flacco angle like they did. Then I
(42:43):
don't know what you throw at that defense to fix
it against perceptibly three much better teams that all could
be in the playoffs next year, So I'm going with
one and two.
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