November 11, 2025 • 12 mins
Labs and Tom talk about the Steelers loss to the Chargers then get into this weeks questions.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is asked and answered questions with Tom Upperman and
Steelers Digest editor Bob Labriola.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Steelers lose a tough one to the LA Chargers on
Sunday Night Football. They now sit at five and four
and hold a one game lead over the Ravens in
the AFC North. Labs best to characterize that game against
the Chargers as a very tough day for the offense
and more specifically, a very tough day for the quarterback,
Aaron Rodgers.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Yeah. I mean in terms of, you know, watching the
game on TV and then seeing the stats that they
were putting up. I mean there was a point into
the fourth quarter where you know, they were Aaron Rodgers
statistics represented career lows in like, you know, number of
(00:49):
completions and I don't remember them all passer rating. I mean,
this is the guy's played a lot of seasons, so
looking at you know, one particular performance that was almost
over representing career lows for him and a lot of that,
excuse me, passing statistics is awful. It's ugly, and you know,
(01:16):
I mean this is the way it was really when
Ben Roethlisberger was the quarterback too. When the quarterback is bad,
you really don't have much of a chance to win.
And that's certainly the case with this team with Aaron Rodgers,
this offense. You know the fact that it's tight end
(01:37):
centric in terms of it's eligible receivers. It's thin and
wide receiver after DK Metcalf, you know, you're not going
to be able to line up and just run the
ball on teams when they know you're going to run
the ball. Even though Jalen Warren continues to play well.
(02:00):
So you got to have Aaron Rodgers doing his thing,
you know, delivering on time, on target, you know, kind
of getting a good sense of what the defense is
doing when he gets up to the line of scrimmage
or the offense gets up to the line of scrimmage
and he's in the shotgun. And you know, all due
(02:23):
respect to do respect to Mason Rudolph, that's not his game.
And so I don't think you know, if if Aaron
Rodgers would be abducted by aliens and disappear, you know,
I don't think that, even though some fans might think
we'll just you know, bench him. That's there's you're you're
(02:47):
too far down the path with this particular offense. With
this particular kind of quarterback to just change in November.
So hopefully he's better this Sunday against the Bengals, you know,
because you know just a lot of these statistics. I mean,
there were two for eleven on third down. They didn't
(03:08):
convert a third down into the fourth quarter, middle of
the fourth quarters. That's awful. Once again, the other team
ran a lot more plays, almost twenty more Sunday night
by the Chargers, the time of possession fifteen minutes in
favor of the Chargers. You know, that doesn't do your
(03:30):
defense any good either, being on the field for all
that many more plays and all that much more time. So, yeah,
the offense did not carry its weight on Sunday night,
And you know that's the outcome when you're playing a
decent team in the Los Angeles Chargers are certainly that.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
No question. And you know, the quarterback in his career
and so far this season, has given you a pretty
good track record to think he will bounce back next
week and give you a better performance against the And
as you said, Steelers offense and the Steelers team in
general certainly needs that to be the case. Let's get
to this week's batch of questions. Our first one comes
from Ernie Vincent from Kendallville, Indiana. Would you explain why
(04:11):
we kicked the ball out of bounds on purpose on
a kickoff in the fourth quarter of the game against
the Colts.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Okay, that situation. It came with fourteen minutes left in
the fourth quarter. Just to recap, the Steelers had just
scored a touchdown and the extra point which made it
twenty seven to seven. So that's a three score game.
So there was an unnecessary roughness penalty on the Colts
(04:43):
on the touchdown. So then you're given the option to
take the penalty on the conversion or kickoff. You know,
a two point conversion. It makes if you make it,
it's twenty eight to seven. You know that's there's really
no different than twenty seven to seven. So anyway, the
(05:06):
Steelers elected to take the penalty on the kickoff. So
instead of kicking off at the thirty five, Boswell's kicking
off with the fifty. So the rules are, if it's
a touchback in the end zone, the receiving team gets
the ball to thirty five. If the ball is kicked
out of bounds illegally quote unquote, the penalty is the
(05:30):
receiving team gets the ball twenty five yards from the
spot where it was kicked. Okay, so doing your quick
arithmetic there out of the end zone, they get the
ball to thirty five out of bounds twenty five yards
from where he kicked off, which was the fifty at
the twenty five. So that saved your defense ten yards
(05:51):
of field position. That's why they did it.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Jd Akers from Nixon, Missouri. Now that the trade deadline
is gone, can you explain how players can be added
to the roster only free agents only in case of injury.
Were you surprised the quarterback needy team did not trade
for Mason Rudolph?
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Okay, the trading deadline is passed, So teams looking to
acquire players they signed free agents you know who's ever
out there, or players off the other team's practice squads,
which is what the Steelers did when they signed defensive
tackle Broderick Martin Rhodes from the Chiefs practice squad to
(06:32):
the active roster. Now you can any players cut now
by team since the trading deadline is passed, they have to.
They go into the waivers system everybody, so and that
you claim team, you claim players off waivers in reverse
(06:53):
order of the standings, so you know there's that way
as well. Those are the way. Why didn't any team
trade for Mason Rudolph. There were no quarterbacks starting. There
were no starting jobs open, you know, in the in
the run up to the trading deadline. And I'm not
talking about you know, a guy who might be injured
(07:15):
and out for a little bit. I mean, that's not
what I consider a starting job. So any trade for
Mason Rudolph would be to Adam as a backup. You're
not going to get my A team's not going to
offer much in a trade for a guy who's just
coming in to be a backup. And if you're a
(07:36):
team that has a backup that you like and you trust,
what you would be getting for him in a trade
isn't worth it. So I mean that's that's why.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Yeah, And I mean I hope he doesn't have to play,
because that would mean Aaron Rodgers plays all seventeen games
this season. But teams aren't exactly rushing to the phones
to get rid of a various stabs quality backup quarterback.
That's a very valuable thing to have on.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Your own right exactly.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Dave Bucco from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Beanie Bishop had a seemingly
successful rookie year for the Steelers. What transpired that he
was relegated to the practice squad this year and eventually
released this week. I know we made several veteran acquisitions
to strengthen the secondary this offseason, but even with multiple
weeks of the secondary dipping into the depth chart, would
he not have been a viable replacement to at least
(08:27):
come off of the practice squad?
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Okay? You know, again, no disrespect to Beanie Bishop, seriously,
but he didn't make the roster coming out of training
camp because there were better players competing for those same slots.
And that's just the harsh reality of life as an
NFL player. You know, Beanie Bishop was a slot corner, Okay.
(08:54):
Jalen Ramsey was starting at slot corner when the season opened.
Behind him was Brandon eccles. So you know, those are
better players and let's just let's let me Okay, there's
that now, just to go through Beanie Bishop's process here. Okay,
(09:17):
So he was waived after you know, coming out of
training camp, nobody claimed him. You know, there's thirty one
other teams that had a shot, so he was not claimed.
So the Steelers then signed him to their practice squad.
When he's on the practice squad, any team on around
(09:39):
the league has a chance to sign him. Okay, they
can either you know, sign him directly to the roster.
So nobody was interested. And then the other thing working
against Beanie Bishop all along has been he's not an
asset on special teams. Not that he had the b
(10:01):
Miles kill a Brew reincarnated, but he just provides no
real help in that phase of the game, and backup
defensive backs have to be able to contribute on special teams. So,
you know, Beanie Bishops is still out of football. I
you know, I understand Steelers fans have a soft spot
(10:22):
in their heart for him, and he did not you know,
he did have you know, a couple of decent games
last season with takeaways, but you know, he wasn't drafted.
You know, as they say in the scouting world, he's
just a guy. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
You know, again like Beanie Bishop, he was a good
contributor last year. But you see the desperation this team
has in their defensive backfield if they think Beanie Bishop
could play at all or could be helpful at all.
I'd be throwing them out there. They need a lot
of help. Jim Neil from Fayetteville, Tennessee, could you explain
timekeeping for me? Early in a recent game, I noticed
(11:03):
the clock did not stop when someone ran out of bounds.
I thought that was always a clock stopper.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Okay, here's the rules. If the player with the ball
goes out of bounds, the clock only stops on plays
like that, in the final two minutes of the first
half and the final five minutes of the second half.
All the other times when the player with the ball
goes out of bounds, the clock can be stopped briefly
(11:30):
until it's spotted by the officials, but then the clock
will be started again.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Dana Fisher from Rockport, Maine has our last question. How
much longer does Will Howard have in the twenty one
day practice window in terms of coming off of ir
timely question?
Speaker 1 (11:51):
Because Will Howard had his twenty one day windows started
on October the twenty first, and so twenty one days
from October where the first is today, which is November
the eleventh, So we should be hearing something about Will
Howard this week. He has been practicing and they do
(12:14):
have to make a decision. They either have to activate
him to the roster fifty three meter roster, or he
stays on IR and he's lost for the rest of
the season.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
That'll do it for us today. Thanks as always for
giving us a listen. Steelers try to bounce back as
they host the Cincinnati Bengals Sunday. It's a one o'clock kickoff.
I'll get things started at nine on DV Labs Mike
Brezuda Injury Dulac takeover at eleven, lead you right in
to Steelers and Bengals. If you want to question heard
and answered on a future edition of this podcast, get
(12:46):
it into Labs now and we'll talk to you next
week on Aston Answered
This is asked and answered questions with Tom Upperman and
Steelers Digest editor Bob Labriola.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Steelers lose a tough one to the LA Chargers on
Sunday Night Football. They now sit at five and four
and hold a one game lead over the Ravens in
the AFC North. Labs best to characterize that game against
the Chargers as a very tough day for the offense
and more specifically, a very tough day for the quarterback,
Aaron Rodgers.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Yeah. I mean in terms of, you know, watching the
game on TV and then seeing the stats that they
were putting up. I mean there was a point into
the fourth quarter where you know, they were Aaron Rodgers
statistics represented career lows in like, you know, number of
(00:49):
completions and I don't remember them all passer rating. I mean,
this is the guy's played a lot of seasons, so
looking at you know, one particular performance that was almost
over representing career lows for him and a lot of that,
excuse me, passing statistics is awful. It's ugly, and you know,
(01:16):
I mean this is the way it was really when
Ben Roethlisberger was the quarterback too. When the quarterback is bad,
you really don't have much of a chance to win.
And that's certainly the case with this team with Aaron Rodgers,
this offense. You know the fact that it's tight end
(01:37):
centric in terms of it's eligible receivers. It's thin and
wide receiver after DK Metcalf, you know, you're not going
to be able to line up and just run the
ball on teams when they know you're going to run
the ball. Even though Jalen Warren continues to play well.
(02:00):
So you got to have Aaron Rodgers doing his thing,
you know, delivering on time, on target, you know, kind
of getting a good sense of what the defense is
doing when he gets up to the line of scrimmage
or the offense gets up to the line of scrimmage
and he's in the shotgun. And you know, all due
(02:23):
respect to do respect to Mason Rudolph, that's not his game.
And so I don't think you know, if if Aaron
Rodgers would be abducted by aliens and disappear, you know,
I don't think that, even though some fans might think
we'll just you know, bench him. That's there's you're you're
(02:47):
too far down the path with this particular offense. With
this particular kind of quarterback to just change in November.
So hopefully he's better this Sunday against the Bengals, you know,
because you know just a lot of these statistics. I mean,
there were two for eleven on third down. They didn't
(03:08):
convert a third down into the fourth quarter, middle of
the fourth quarters. That's awful. Once again, the other team
ran a lot more plays, almost twenty more Sunday night
by the Chargers, the time of possession fifteen minutes in
favor of the Chargers. You know, that doesn't do your
(03:30):
defense any good either, being on the field for all
that many more plays and all that much more time. So, yeah,
the offense did not carry its weight on Sunday night,
And you know that's the outcome when you're playing a
decent team in the Los Angeles Chargers are certainly that.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
No question. And you know, the quarterback in his career
and so far this season, has given you a pretty
good track record to think he will bounce back next
week and give you a better performance against the And
as you said, Steelers offense and the Steelers team in
general certainly needs that to be the case. Let's get
to this week's batch of questions. Our first one comes
from Ernie Vincent from Kendallville, Indiana. Would you explain why
(04:11):
we kicked the ball out of bounds on purpose on
a kickoff in the fourth quarter of the game against
the Colts.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Okay, that situation. It came with fourteen minutes left in
the fourth quarter. Just to recap, the Steelers had just
scored a touchdown and the extra point which made it
twenty seven to seven. So that's a three score game.
So there was an unnecessary roughness penalty on the Colts
(04:43):
on the touchdown. So then you're given the option to
take the penalty on the conversion or kickoff. You know,
a two point conversion. It makes if you make it,
it's twenty eight to seven. You know that's there's really
no different than twenty seven to seven. So anyway, the
(05:06):
Steelers elected to take the penalty on the kickoff. So
instead of kicking off at the thirty five, Boswell's kicking
off with the fifty. So the rules are, if it's
a touchback in the end zone, the receiving team gets
the ball to thirty five. If the ball is kicked
out of bounds illegally quote unquote, the penalty is the
(05:30):
receiving team gets the ball twenty five yards from the
spot where it was kicked. Okay, so doing your quick
arithmetic there out of the end zone, they get the
ball to thirty five out of bounds twenty five yards
from where he kicked off, which was the fifty at
the twenty five. So that saved your defense ten yards
(05:51):
of field position. That's why they did it.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Jd Akers from Nixon, Missouri. Now that the trade deadline
is gone, can you explain how players can be added
to the roster only free agents only in case of injury.
Were you surprised the quarterback needy team did not trade
for Mason Rudolph?
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Okay, the trading deadline is passed, So teams looking to
acquire players they signed free agents you know who's ever
out there, or players off the other team's practice squads,
which is what the Steelers did when they signed defensive
tackle Broderick Martin Rhodes from the Chiefs practice squad to
(06:32):
the active roster. Now you can any players cut now
by team since the trading deadline is passed, they have to.
They go into the waivers system everybody, so and that
you claim team, you claim players off waivers in reverse
(06:53):
order of the standings, so you know there's that way
as well. Those are the way. Why didn't any team
trade for Mason Rudolph. There were no quarterbacks starting. There
were no starting jobs open, you know, in the in
the run up to the trading deadline. And I'm not
talking about you know, a guy who might be injured
(07:15):
and out for a little bit. I mean, that's not
what I consider a starting job. So any trade for
Mason Rudolph would be to Adam as a backup. You're
not going to get my A team's not going to
offer much in a trade for a guy who's just
coming in to be a backup. And if you're a
(07:36):
team that has a backup that you like and you trust,
what you would be getting for him in a trade
isn't worth it. So I mean that's that's why.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Yeah, And I mean I hope he doesn't have to play,
because that would mean Aaron Rodgers plays all seventeen games
this season. But teams aren't exactly rushing to the phones
to get rid of a various stabs quality backup quarterback.
That's a very valuable thing to have on.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Your own right exactly.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Dave Bucco from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Beanie Bishop had a seemingly
successful rookie year for the Steelers. What transpired that he
was relegated to the practice squad this year and eventually
released this week. I know we made several veteran acquisitions
to strengthen the secondary this offseason, but even with multiple
weeks of the secondary dipping into the depth chart, would
he not have been a viable replacement to at least
(08:27):
come off of the practice squad?
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Okay? You know, again, no disrespect to Beanie Bishop, seriously,
but he didn't make the roster coming out of training
camp because there were better players competing for those same slots.
And that's just the harsh reality of life as an
NFL player. You know, Beanie Bishop was a slot corner, Okay.
(08:54):
Jalen Ramsey was starting at slot corner when the season opened.
Behind him was Brandon eccles. So you know, those are
better players and let's just let's let me Okay, there's
that now, just to go through Beanie Bishop's process here. Okay,
(09:17):
So he was waived after you know, coming out of
training camp, nobody claimed him. You know, there's thirty one
other teams that had a shot, so he was not claimed.
So the Steelers then signed him to their practice squad.
When he's on the practice squad, any team on around
(09:39):
the league has a chance to sign him. Okay, they
can either you know, sign him directly to the roster.
So nobody was interested. And then the other thing working
against Beanie Bishop all along has been he's not an
asset on special teams. Not that he had the b
(10:01):
Miles kill a Brew reincarnated, but he just provides no
real help in that phase of the game, and backup
defensive backs have to be able to contribute on special teams. So,
you know, Beanie Bishops is still out of football. I
you know, I understand Steelers fans have a soft spot
(10:22):
in their heart for him, and he did not you know,
he did have you know, a couple of decent games
last season with takeaways, but you know, he wasn't drafted.
You know, as they say in the scouting world, he's
just a guy. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
You know, again like Beanie Bishop, he was a good
contributor last year. But you see the desperation this team
has in their defensive backfield if they think Beanie Bishop
could play at all or could be helpful at all.
I'd be throwing them out there. They need a lot
of help. Jim Neil from Fayetteville, Tennessee, could you explain
timekeeping for me? Early in a recent game, I noticed
(11:03):
the clock did not stop when someone ran out of bounds.
I thought that was always a clock stopper.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Okay, here's the rules. If the player with the ball
goes out of bounds, the clock only stops on plays
like that, in the final two minutes of the first
half and the final five minutes of the second half.
All the other times when the player with the ball
goes out of bounds, the clock can be stopped briefly
(11:30):
until it's spotted by the officials, but then the clock
will be started again.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Dana Fisher from Rockport, Maine has our last question. How
much longer does Will Howard have in the twenty one
day practice window in terms of coming off of ir
timely question?
Speaker 1 (11:51):
Because Will Howard had his twenty one day windows started
on October the twenty first, and so twenty one days
from October where the first is today, which is November
the eleventh, So we should be hearing something about Will
Howard this week. He has been practicing and they do
(12:14):
have to make a decision. They either have to activate
him to the roster fifty three meter roster, or he
stays on IR and he's lost for the rest of
the season.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
That'll do it for us today. Thanks as always for
giving us a listen. Steelers try to bounce back as
they host the Cincinnati Bengals Sunday. It's a one o'clock kickoff.
I'll get things started at nine on DV Labs Mike
Brezuda Injury Dulac takeover at eleven, lead you right in
to Steelers and Bengals. If you want to question heard
and answered on a future edition of this podcast, get
(12:46):
it into Labs now and we'll talk to you next
week on Aston Answered
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