December 4, 2024 • 20 mins
Bob Labriola and Tom Opferman talk about the Steelers shootout win against Cincy then get to this weeks questions
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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 (00:09):
Thanks to an offensive explosion, the Steelers go into Cincinnati
and win forty four to thirty eight, and Labs, I know,
they put up points throughout this season. They scored thirty
against the Raiders, they beat the Commanders twenty eight to
twenty seven.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
But this was a.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Legitimate shootout, back and forth, up and down the field
they go. And it was really refreshing to see the
Steelers win a game like that for a change, because
the past few years they usually get left in the
dust in those type of games.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Yeah, you can, you could say that. I mean, it
was certainly nothing, you know, like a Matt Cannada Kenny
Picktt offense. We saw, you know, Arthur Smith I thought,
you know, I had his best game maybe, and Russell
Wilson was Now everybody sees why you know you signed
(00:57):
him in the first place, Why why it went to
him after the four and two start? And really what
this offense is capable of doing, you know with him there?
I mean, you know, and the thing that was really
impressive to me was this the way that the offense
(01:18):
responded several times over the early parts of the game.
You know, there was the pick six, You're down seven
to nothing, the offense goes seventy yards in seven plays
and it's seven to seven. Okay. Then there was a
then the Bengals scored, took a fourteen to seven lead,
(01:40):
and the offense took the kickoff, went seventy yards in
ten plays, twenty three yard pass to Calvin Austin, fourteen
to fourteen, you know, and then it was the Bengals
scored again, went up twenty one to fourteen. They went
offense on the next series sixty eight yards in five plays,
nause hairs ten yard touchdown run twenty one twenty one.
(02:03):
So you know, the Steelers were taking some punches early,
but the offense was able to, you know, counter with
some punches of their own. And that's the kind of
that's the kind of offense you need, in my opinion,
to win games in the NFL in November and December.
(02:26):
It's just you gotta be able to score in the
thirties or at least threaten the opponent that you can't
do that make them play you with that respect, because
then you know, if you can, if they're if the
(02:47):
opponent is has to be leery of you scoring in
the thirties, then they can't stack the box with nine people.
They can't send their safeties and inside linebackers running down
hill on every first down play. They can't do a
lot of that stuff that we saw in the you know,
(03:07):
the Matt Canada era, or you know, maybe in the
early part of this season too, So you know, this
is what they're gonna kind of need. And I also
just real quick here, I don't want to go overboard
on this, but I thought the defense was exactly the
kind of defense that you need to play against these
(03:30):
good teams too, because you know, I get the Bengals
were bad on defense themselves, but that offense is a
big time offense, and you cannot get too caught up
in trying to shut that offense down. You know, giving
up yards, giving up some plays, that's gonna happen, but
there are going to come some significant moments in the
(03:51):
game where your stars need to make star plays and
those five or six snaps where you either get takes,
aways or you know, sacks at critical times. Those kinds
of things. That's good enough defense now to win because
you're not gonna You're not going to go to Philadelphia
(04:13):
and think, well, we'll hold you know, Jalen Hurts and
Saquon Barkley and A J. Brown and those people to
you know, less than twenty points. So that's the way,
in my opinion, that's the way you have to play.
And it was good to see the Steelers do that
in a fairly convincing way, and on the heels of
(04:34):
their worst performance of the season by far that Thursday
night in Cleveland.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
Yeah, I completely agree.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
And now they have the opportunity, with the Ravens being
on a buy this week, get a win against Cleveland
at home open up a two game lead over the
Ravens in the AFC North Race. But before we get
to the Browns game and taking care of business there,
we got to get to our questions today. Our first
one comes from marios Ina from Palm Bay, Florida. Have
the Steelers can say using Justin Fields in a slash
(05:02):
role like they did with Cordell Stewart. Coach Mike Tomlin
keeps saying he wants to utilize Fields's talent.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Okay, Well, the way I look at it, there's one
very significant factor that was present in nineteen ninety five
that is not present in twenty twenty four, and that
is this Cordel Stewart was the fourth quarterback on the
fifty three meter roster. Okay, fourth, they had Neil O'Donnell,
(05:29):
Mike tom Zach, Jim Miller, and Cordell Stewart was a rookie.
So as the fourth quarterback, Cordell Stewart had nothing to
do during the week. Nothing he was you know, he
was drafted, I believe because of his talent. And Jim
Miller as that was kept because of the situation at
(05:50):
the time was O'Donnell and tom Zach could have were
going or were slated to become unrestricted free agents after
the nineteen ninety five season, and so you know, the
Steelers didn't want to be have their quarterback depth chart
decimated by free agency, so they kept four. Okay, So now,
(06:12):
since Cordell Stewart has nothing to do, when they were
hit by injuries at wide receiver, he was asked, hey,
can you fill in run some patterns, you know, just
kind of help us get through practice. Sure, he says,
all right. Then he starts doing it and they couldn't
cover him. Okay, So then it becomes well, let's see
where this goes, and then it becomes a package. Okay,
(06:36):
that's known come to be known as Slash with Fields.
I mean, he's got a full week of work every
week because he's the backup, so you know, he's got
to be ready and studying and all that stuff in
case Russell Wilson gets hurt because if he does, Fields
is now the quarterback and he's got to play. So
(06:57):
there isn't that ability to play with it in practice
as much as they could with Steward in the slash role.
And so that's why, you know, I just I don't
see that happen.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
You mean they can't just like throw Fields out there
on a whim play wide receiver, Hey, run a dig
route for us, please?
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Well that's you can do that on your Madden Madden
twenty twenty four. Maybe, you know, I don't know how
you you know, programmed players. Here, I'm going to start
sounding like the old man, and I am talking about
video games. So I'm just gonna start. I'll just stop.
I'll just say maybe you could do it on Madden,
but in the real in real life, no, you can't
(07:34):
just do that.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Abe Trudeau from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Not that Russell Wilson had
a disastrous season with the Broncos in twenty twenty three,
but would he be eligible for Comeback Player of the
Year honors this season?
Speaker 1 (07:47):
He would not. The Associated Press, which administers that award
as well as some others, they changed the criteria for
the award following a two year span where if you know,
Smith wanted in twenty twenty two and Joe Flacco wanted
in twenty twenty three, and both of those guys were
(08:10):
had really good seasons after having their career take a dip,
so which is kind of similar to what we're looking
at with Russell Wilson based on Denver and now. And
so the Associated Press got together and sent out a
thing to the voters or whatever that they're supposed to
consider a resilience in overcoming things like illness or injury,
(08:34):
you know, those kind of things in voting for this
Comeback Player of the Year award. Russell Wilson doesn't seem
to qualify under those new rules.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Kim Owens from Frederick, Maryland, I hear a lot about
the salary cap. Are contracts approved by the league before
they are official in order to not allow a team
to go over the cap. If not, what is the
penalty for going over?
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Okay, with these kind of situations, let me start with this.
The league's preferred method of handling these kinds of things
is preventative rather than punitive. So, if you sign a
player to a contract that puts you over the cap,
you know you have to file it with the league.
The league will look at it and they have, you know,
their people there in New York, their capologists or whatever,
(09:19):
and they know pretty quickly that this is a contract
that puts you over the cap. They'll contact the team
and say, hey, this puts you over the cap, and
they won't approve it, but they give you time to
figure it out. Rather than letting you do it and
then playing, hih got you, you're over the cap. Now
(09:40):
we're going to punish you whatever. I mean, they would
rather that never happen. And so that's the way, that's
the thinking. That's the general procedure for those kind of things.
As I said, preventative rather than punitive.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Keith Miller from cant In, North Carolina. Mike Williams gets
in for one play in his first game. Okay, he
still needs to learn the offense in his second game,
but him not being thrown to at all now either
means it was a bad trade. He and Russell Wilson
are on different pages or what.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Or maybe fans expectations were way too high in the
first place and then they just lost their minds after
Mike Wilson's play Mike Williams, excuse me, Mike Williams play
in the game against the Commanders in Washington. I mean,
you know, the assumption that Mike Williams was a top
of the depth chart acquisition by the Steelers at the
(10:39):
trade deadline, that was never accurate. You know, fans were
all excited about getting a number two receiver, Brandon Aiyuk,
you know, whatever the names were, the fantasy thing of
DK Metcalf, you know, all of those names that were
being thrown around at that time throughout the process. You know,
just because they ended up getting one doesn't mean that
(11:00):
he was necessarily going to be on the level of
these other guys that were either rumored the Steelers were
rumored to be interested in, or they were actually interested in,
but it didn't work out for whatever reason. So you know,
when you look at Mike Williams. Okay, he's thirty years
old now. In the nine games with the Jets before
(11:23):
the trade, Mike Williams played like three hundred snaps. He
was targeted twelve times and then twelve receptions. I mean,
he was a back up there, So why.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Then went out and traded for another receiver to move
him even further down the tap of chart labs right right?
Speaker 1 (11:42):
So I mean, you know, I don't want to rip
Mike Williams, and you know, there there could be a
time when the Steelers you know, want to or need
to go to him more often. But you know, I
think it's gonna have to be an injury or whatever.
So again, I don't think he's a bad a bad player.
(12:08):
I don't think it was a bad trade. I don't
think they really gave up that much form fifth round pick.
I think of what it was. And if you have
an injury at that spot and you need somebody, you're
not going to find him on the waiver wire, and
so you've got to make a trade by the deadline,
that's what you could do. So you do it. But
you know, I just think fans are you know, they're
(12:30):
it's it's just too much it's not what he is
and expecting him to be that is not fair to him.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
Look, Russell Wilson hit ten different receivers including running backs,
in the game against the Bengals. If Mike Williams was open,
I think Russell Wilson will be throwing him the football.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
He has no qualms in spreading that thing around.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Well, and here's here's another thing that I don't really
understand necessarily about the way you know, pass offenses operate
at the NFL level. You know, there are some kinds
of routes where you're asking the receiver to read the
coverage along with the quarterback and then they have to
(13:16):
make adjustments instantaneously in real time, and the quarterback will
throw the ball based on what he read where he
read the weak spot of the coverage to be, and
the receiver is expected to be there having seen yes,
because if not, then you're throwing interceptions. So you know,
(13:38):
I'm not saying, you know, Mike Williams can't learn the
offense or you know, whatever it is. But once again,
I don't know that you developed this rapport with the
quarterback and understand the intricacies of the playbook beyond you know,
like in that Washington game, Russell Wilson told him, run
this route, look for the ball this way, I'll get
(14:01):
it to you. I mean, not all routes are like that.
It doesn't happen all the time. So, as I said,
I just think, you know, people, their expectations are what
have really created this disconnect between you know, why isn't
he getting the ball?
Speaker 3 (14:21):
Keith A.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Weimer from Youngstown, Ohio. Is there any searchable stat that
would reveal the one lost record when Chris Boswell misses
a field goal? It might just be a perception thing
on my part, but it seems to me like Bo's
missus Steelers lose, which is certainly not to assign blame
to him. He's great and in the grand scheme of things,
his misses are few and far between. Just seems to
(14:42):
be a correlation as all.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Well. Okay, in the NFL, missed field goals are squandered
scoring opportunities, and squandering scoring opportunities in an NFL game
because of the number of games that are close, one
possession kind of games. And you know, we see every
week the NFL patting itself on the back for the
(15:07):
number of close games it has had in that week
of the schedule, et cetera, et cetera. So a field
goal kicker misses an excuse me, a kicker misses a
field goal, that's a squandered scoring opportunity. And if the
game is closed, then maybe you lose. But you know,
in games Chris Boswell is in is he has been
(15:31):
in the NFL for nine plus seasons. The Steelers are
fourteen fourteen and one in games where he misses a
field goal. I don't know what that means, but that's
the stat.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
Tim Gary from Portland, Oregon. What's the status of Troy
Fatanu in Roman Wilson. I haven't heard much lately.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
Both Troy file Atanu and Roman Wilson are on I
are okay. So when players are on ir there's really
nothing to hear until they're designated to return and then
begin to practice again. There are no you know, the
NFL has rules for reporting injuries and practice reports, participation
(16:15):
and all that kind of stuff, but when you're on
injury reserve, there are none of those things. So teams
do not generally provide a lot of health updates that
are not required by the league. That's just the way
it is. So I don't think we're going to hear
anything about Filow Tunnel and Roman Wilson until something happens.
(16:40):
And I would imagine that something that would happen would
have to be some sort of injury or hole in
the roster as it is for them then to be
designated to return. So until that happens, I don't think
we're gonna there's nothing to hear.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
And our final question today from Rich Dishes from Shelby, Ohio.
Offenses will sling the ball down the sideline to a
receiver in hopes of a catch or a pass interference penalty,
and we've seen many ticky, tacky pass interference calls. Are
the rules different on hill mary plays?
Speaker 1 (17:22):
No, the rules for pass interference are the same whether
it's a quick slant pass on the first snap of
the game or hill mary on the last. But NFL officials,
whether fans like this or not, whether they want to
accept it or not, are very leery of making, uh,
(17:45):
calling a penalty that that could definitely impact the outcome
of a game on one snap, you know, you could
you know, holding penalty or you know, because a hail
mayor by definition usually is in the end zone. So
if you call pass interference on that play. The offense
(18:08):
gets the ball at the one yard line. That seemed
you know, that's that's a very significant penalty for pushing
and shoving on one play after sixty minutes of otherwise
two teams going at each other. Now again, I'm not
(18:29):
saying it's right or wrong or whatever. I'm just saying
what it is. Yeah, they don't like to make those calls,
and so I don't know. I can't even remember if
I've ever seen pass interference on a hail marreor No.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
It's killed the man with a football when you get
into that end zone.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
So that's that's just the way it is.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
It's funny, though, you know, I agree with you ref
swallow the whistles in those weighty moments because they don't
want to affect the outcome directly. But a lot of
the times by swallowing the whistles and letting an egregious
penalty go, they're letting me, how come, be affected by
their referee.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
It's they can't win well either way with me. I
don't like them. I don't like those zeros.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
Last, inconsistent and arbitrary. Those are the two adjectives you
can use. That should be I don't know, tattooed on
every on every ref's forehead or every official's forehead, because
that's that's what they are, and that's you know, the league.
I don't know, I won't say that. Let's say this,
(19:35):
they condone it. I don't know that they set it
up that way on purpose, but they condone it. And
you know, as you mentioned on a hail Mary, that
I've never seen offensive interferenceyru. So if just to say,
and I'm using names because you know, Steelers fans are
(19:55):
familiar with the names. In particular, if George Pickens had
pushed Nusim out of the way and went up and
caught the pass, it's a touchdown. They're not gonna throw
the flag on that either. So, as you mentioned, it's
a free for all on those plays.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
Steelers look for revenge this Sunday at Acrotur Stadium, the
Cleveland Browns come to town one pm.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
Kickoff. Labs is on the air at eleven AM with Jerry.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Doulack and Mike Persuda for the Steelers Audio Network pregame show.
Looking forward to you listening to the game then and
looking forward to talking to you next week.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
On another edition of Aston answered
This is asked and answered questions with Tom Upperman and
Steelers Digest editor Bob Labriola.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Thanks to an offensive explosion, the Steelers go into Cincinnati
and win forty four to thirty eight, and Labs, I know,
they put up points throughout this season. They scored thirty
against the Raiders, they beat the Commanders twenty eight to
twenty seven.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
But this was a.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Legitimate shootout, back and forth, up and down the field
they go. And it was really refreshing to see the
Steelers win a game like that for a change, because
the past few years they usually get left in the
dust in those type of games.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Yeah, you can, you could say that. I mean, it
was certainly nothing, you know, like a Matt Cannada Kenny
Picktt offense. We saw, you know, Arthur Smith I thought,
you know, I had his best game maybe, and Russell
Wilson was Now everybody sees why you know you signed
(00:57):
him in the first place, Why why it went to
him after the four and two start? And really what
this offense is capable of doing, you know with him there?
I mean, you know, and the thing that was really
impressive to me was this the way that the offense
(01:18):
responded several times over the early parts of the game.
You know, there was the pick six, You're down seven
to nothing, the offense goes seventy yards in seven plays
and it's seven to seven. Okay. Then there was a
then the Bengals scored, took a fourteen to seven lead,
(01:40):
and the offense took the kickoff, went seventy yards in
ten plays, twenty three yard pass to Calvin Austin, fourteen
to fourteen, you know, and then it was the Bengals
scored again, went up twenty one to fourteen. They went
offense on the next series sixty eight yards in five plays,
nause hairs ten yard touchdown run twenty one twenty one.
(02:03):
So you know, the Steelers were taking some punches early,
but the offense was able to, you know, counter with
some punches of their own. And that's the kind of
that's the kind of offense you need, in my opinion,
to win games in the NFL in November and December.
(02:26):
It's just you gotta be able to score in the
thirties or at least threaten the opponent that you can't
do that make them play you with that respect, because
then you know, if you can, if they're if the
(02:47):
opponent is has to be leery of you scoring in
the thirties, then they can't stack the box with nine people.
They can't send their safeties and inside linebackers running down
hill on every first down play. They can't do a
lot of that stuff that we saw in the you know,
(03:07):
the Matt Canada era, or you know, maybe in the
early part of this season too, So you know, this
is what they're gonna kind of need. And I also
just real quick here, I don't want to go overboard
on this, but I thought the defense was exactly the
kind of defense that you need to play against these
(03:30):
good teams too, because you know, I get the Bengals
were bad on defense themselves, but that offense is a
big time offense, and you cannot get too caught up
in trying to shut that offense down. You know, giving
up yards, giving up some plays, that's gonna happen, but
there are going to come some significant moments in the
(03:51):
game where your stars need to make star plays and
those five or six snaps where you either get takes,
aways or you know, sacks at critical times. Those kinds
of things. That's good enough defense now to win because
you're not gonna You're not going to go to Philadelphia
(04:13):
and think, well, we'll hold you know, Jalen Hurts and
Saquon Barkley and A J. Brown and those people to
you know, less than twenty points. So that's the way,
in my opinion, that's the way you have to play.
And it was good to see the Steelers do that
in a fairly convincing way, and on the heels of
(04:34):
their worst performance of the season by far that Thursday
night in Cleveland.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
Yeah, I completely agree.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
And now they have the opportunity, with the Ravens being
on a buy this week, get a win against Cleveland
at home open up a two game lead over the
Ravens in the AFC North Race. But before we get
to the Browns game and taking care of business there,
we got to get to our questions today. Our first
one comes from marios Ina from Palm Bay, Florida. Have
the Steelers can say using Justin Fields in a slash
(05:02):
role like they did with Cordell Stewart. Coach Mike Tomlin
keeps saying he wants to utilize Fields's talent.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Okay, Well, the way I look at it, there's one
very significant factor that was present in nineteen ninety five
that is not present in twenty twenty four, and that
is this Cordel Stewart was the fourth quarterback on the
fifty three meter roster. Okay, fourth, they had Neil O'Donnell,
(05:29):
Mike tom Zach, Jim Miller, and Cordell Stewart was a rookie.
So as the fourth quarterback, Cordell Stewart had nothing to
do during the week. Nothing he was you know, he
was drafted, I believe because of his talent. And Jim
Miller as that was kept because of the situation at
(05:50):
the time was O'Donnell and tom Zach could have were
going or were slated to become unrestricted free agents after
the nineteen ninety five season, and so you know, the
Steelers didn't want to be have their quarterback depth chart
decimated by free agency, so they kept four. Okay, So now,
(06:12):
since Cordell Stewart has nothing to do, when they were
hit by injuries at wide receiver, he was asked, hey,
can you fill in run some patterns, you know, just
kind of help us get through practice. Sure, he says,
all right. Then he starts doing it and they couldn't
cover him. Okay, So then it becomes well, let's see
where this goes, and then it becomes a package. Okay,
(06:36):
that's known come to be known as Slash with Fields.
I mean, he's got a full week of work every
week because he's the backup, so you know, he's got
to be ready and studying and all that stuff in
case Russell Wilson gets hurt because if he does, Fields
is now the quarterback and he's got to play. So
(06:57):
there isn't that ability to play with it in practice
as much as they could with Steward in the slash role.
And so that's why, you know, I just I don't
see that happen.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
You mean they can't just like throw Fields out there
on a whim play wide receiver, Hey, run a dig
route for us, please?
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Well that's you can do that on your Madden Madden
twenty twenty four. Maybe, you know, I don't know how
you you know, programmed players. Here, I'm going to start
sounding like the old man, and I am talking about
video games. So I'm just gonna start. I'll just stop.
I'll just say maybe you could do it on Madden,
but in the real in real life, no, you can't
(07:34):
just do that.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Abe Trudeau from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Not that Russell Wilson had
a disastrous season with the Broncos in twenty twenty three,
but would he be eligible for Comeback Player of the
Year honors this season?
Speaker 1 (07:47):
He would not. The Associated Press, which administers that award
as well as some others, they changed the criteria for
the award following a two year span where if you know,
Smith wanted in twenty twenty two and Joe Flacco wanted
in twenty twenty three, and both of those guys were
(08:10):
had really good seasons after having their career take a dip,
so which is kind of similar to what we're looking
at with Russell Wilson based on Denver and now. And
so the Associated Press got together and sent out a
thing to the voters or whatever that they're supposed to
consider a resilience in overcoming things like illness or injury,
(08:34):
you know, those kind of things in voting for this
Comeback Player of the Year award. Russell Wilson doesn't seem
to qualify under those new rules.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Kim Owens from Frederick, Maryland, I hear a lot about
the salary cap. Are contracts approved by the league before
they are official in order to not allow a team
to go over the cap. If not, what is the
penalty for going over?
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Okay, with these kind of situations, let me start with this.
The league's preferred method of handling these kinds of things
is preventative rather than punitive. So, if you sign a
player to a contract that puts you over the cap,
you know you have to file it with the league.
The league will look at it and they have, you know,
their people there in New York, their capologists or whatever,
(09:19):
and they know pretty quickly that this is a contract
that puts you over the cap. They'll contact the team
and say, hey, this puts you over the cap, and
they won't approve it, but they give you time to
figure it out. Rather than letting you do it and
then playing, hih got you, you're over the cap. Now
(09:40):
we're going to punish you whatever. I mean, they would
rather that never happen. And so that's the way, that's
the thinking. That's the general procedure for those kind of things.
As I said, preventative rather than punitive.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Keith Miller from cant In, North Carolina. Mike Williams gets
in for one play in his first game. Okay, he
still needs to learn the offense in his second game,
but him not being thrown to at all now either
means it was a bad trade. He and Russell Wilson
are on different pages or what.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Or maybe fans expectations were way too high in the
first place and then they just lost their minds after
Mike Wilson's play Mike Williams, excuse me, Mike Williams play
in the game against the Commanders in Washington. I mean,
you know, the assumption that Mike Williams was a top
of the depth chart acquisition by the Steelers at the
(10:39):
trade deadline, that was never accurate. You know, fans were
all excited about getting a number two receiver, Brandon Aiyuk,
you know, whatever the names were, the fantasy thing of
DK Metcalf, you know, all of those names that were
being thrown around at that time throughout the process. You know,
just because they ended up getting one doesn't mean that
(11:00):
he was necessarily going to be on the level of
these other guys that were either rumored the Steelers were
rumored to be interested in, or they were actually interested in,
but it didn't work out for whatever reason. So you know,
when you look at Mike Williams. Okay, he's thirty years
old now. In the nine games with the Jets before
(11:23):
the trade, Mike Williams played like three hundred snaps. He
was targeted twelve times and then twelve receptions. I mean,
he was a back up there, So why.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Then went out and traded for another receiver to move
him even further down the tap of chart labs right right?
Speaker 1 (11:42):
So I mean, you know, I don't want to rip
Mike Williams, and you know, there there could be a
time when the Steelers you know, want to or need
to go to him more often. But you know, I
think it's gonna have to be an injury or whatever.
So again, I don't think he's a bad a bad player.
(12:08):
I don't think it was a bad trade. I don't
think they really gave up that much form fifth round pick.
I think of what it was. And if you have
an injury at that spot and you need somebody, you're
not going to find him on the waiver wire, and
so you've got to make a trade by the deadline,
that's what you could do. So you do it. But
you know, I just think fans are you know, they're
(12:30):
it's it's just too much it's not what he is
and expecting him to be that is not fair to him.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
Look, Russell Wilson hit ten different receivers including running backs,
in the game against the Bengals. If Mike Williams was open,
I think Russell Wilson will be throwing him the football.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
He has no qualms in spreading that thing around.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Well, and here's here's another thing that I don't really
understand necessarily about the way you know, pass offenses operate
at the NFL level. You know, there are some kinds
of routes where you're asking the receiver to read the
coverage along with the quarterback and then they have to
(13:16):
make adjustments instantaneously in real time, and the quarterback will
throw the ball based on what he read where he
read the weak spot of the coverage to be, and
the receiver is expected to be there having seen yes,
because if not, then you're throwing interceptions. So you know,
(13:38):
I'm not saying, you know, Mike Williams can't learn the
offense or you know, whatever it is. But once again,
I don't know that you developed this rapport with the
quarterback and understand the intricacies of the playbook beyond you know,
like in that Washington game, Russell Wilson told him, run
this route, look for the ball this way, I'll get
(14:01):
it to you. I mean, not all routes are like that.
It doesn't happen all the time. So, as I said,
I just think, you know, people, their expectations are what
have really created this disconnect between you know, why isn't
he getting the ball?
Speaker 3 (14:21):
Keith A.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Weimer from Youngstown, Ohio. Is there any searchable stat that
would reveal the one lost record when Chris Boswell misses
a field goal? It might just be a perception thing
on my part, but it seems to me like Bo's
missus Steelers lose, which is certainly not to assign blame
to him. He's great and in the grand scheme of things,
his misses are few and far between. Just seems to
(14:42):
be a correlation as all.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Well. Okay, in the NFL, missed field goals are squandered
scoring opportunities, and squandering scoring opportunities in an NFL game
because of the number of games that are close, one
possession kind of games. And you know, we see every
week the NFL patting itself on the back for the
(15:07):
number of close games it has had in that week
of the schedule, et cetera, et cetera. So a field
goal kicker misses an excuse me, a kicker misses a
field goal, that's a squandered scoring opportunity. And if the
game is closed, then maybe you lose. But you know,
in games Chris Boswell is in is he has been
(15:31):
in the NFL for nine plus seasons. The Steelers are
fourteen fourteen and one in games where he misses a
field goal. I don't know what that means, but that's
the stat.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
Tim Gary from Portland, Oregon. What's the status of Troy
Fatanu in Roman Wilson. I haven't heard much lately.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
Both Troy file Atanu and Roman Wilson are on I
are okay. So when players are on ir there's really
nothing to hear until they're designated to return and then
begin to practice again. There are no you know, the
NFL has rules for reporting injuries and practice reports, participation
(16:15):
and all that kind of stuff, but when you're on
injury reserve, there are none of those things. So teams
do not generally provide a lot of health updates that
are not required by the league. That's just the way
it is. So I don't think we're going to hear
anything about Filow Tunnel and Roman Wilson until something happens.
(16:40):
And I would imagine that something that would happen would
have to be some sort of injury or hole in
the roster as it is for them then to be
designated to return. So until that happens, I don't think
we're gonna there's nothing to hear.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
And our final question today from Rich Dishes from Shelby, Ohio.
Offenses will sling the ball down the sideline to a
receiver in hopes of a catch or a pass interference penalty,
and we've seen many ticky, tacky pass interference calls. Are
the rules different on hill mary plays?
Speaker 1 (17:22):
No, the rules for pass interference are the same whether
it's a quick slant pass on the first snap of
the game or hill mary on the last. But NFL officials,
whether fans like this or not, whether they want to
accept it or not, are very leery of making, uh,
(17:45):
calling a penalty that that could definitely impact the outcome
of a game on one snap, you know, you could
you know, holding penalty or you know, because a hail
mayor by definition usually is in the end zone. So
if you call pass interference on that play. The offense
(18:08):
gets the ball at the one yard line. That seemed
you know, that's that's a very significant penalty for pushing
and shoving on one play after sixty minutes of otherwise
two teams going at each other. Now again, I'm not
(18:29):
saying it's right or wrong or whatever. I'm just saying
what it is. Yeah, they don't like to make those calls,
and so I don't know. I can't even remember if
I've ever seen pass interference on a hail marreor No.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
It's killed the man with a football when you get
into that end zone.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
So that's that's just the way it is.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
It's funny, though, you know, I agree with you ref
swallow the whistles in those weighty moments because they don't
want to affect the outcome directly. But a lot of
the times by swallowing the whistles and letting an egregious
penalty go, they're letting me, how come, be affected by
their referee.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
It's they can't win well either way with me. I
don't like them. I don't like those zeros.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
Last, inconsistent and arbitrary. Those are the two adjectives you
can use. That should be I don't know, tattooed on
every on every ref's forehead or every official's forehead, because
that's that's what they are, and that's you know, the league.
I don't know, I won't say that. Let's say this,
(19:35):
they condone it. I don't know that they set it
up that way on purpose, but they condone it. And
you know, as you mentioned on a hail Mary, that
I've never seen offensive interferenceyru. So if just to say,
and I'm using names because you know, Steelers fans are
(19:55):
familiar with the names. In particular, if George Pickens had
pushed Nusim out of the way and went up and
caught the pass, it's a touchdown. They're not gonna throw
the flag on that either. So, as you mentioned, it's
a free for all on those plays.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
Steelers look for revenge this Sunday at Acrotur Stadium, the
Cleveland Browns come to town one pm.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
Kickoff. Labs is on the air at eleven AM with Jerry.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Doulack and Mike Persuda for the Steelers Audio Network pregame show.
Looking forward to you listening to the game then and
looking forward to talking to you next week.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
On another edition of Aston answered
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