October 21, 2025 • 19 mins
Labs and Tom talk about the Steelers loss to the Bengals last Thursday night, and then get into this week's batch of questions.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is asked and answered questions with Tom Upperman and
Steelers Digest editor Bob Labriola.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Tough loffs for the Steelers on Thursday Night football against Cincinnati,
a game that feels like it's an eternity ago by now.
Thirty three to thirty one was the final score, Labs.
The offense did some very good things for the Steelers
in this game. Unfortunately, the defensive side of the ball
had trouble finding answers to Jamar Chase, that's a difficult
(00:32):
thing for all thirty one other teams in the NFL
to have to accomplish as well.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Yeah, I mean, and I really think the defensive problems
started with a complete inability to deal with what was
before kickoff number thirty second ranked running attack in the NFL.
And as Mike Persuda likes to say, you know why
their running attack wasn't thirty third because there's only thirty
(00:58):
two teams in the league. You know, Chase Brown had
a I won't say a career game, but eleven carries
one hundred and eight yards nine point eight yard average.
I mean, he came into the game averaging two point
seven yards of carry. You know, the Bengals as a
team rushed for one hundred and forty two yards six
(01:20):
point two per carry, and it's not like their rushing attack,
you know, it was benefiting from a quarterback who's mobile,
you know. I mean the running.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Game was you saw that run in the fourth quarter,
Oh dust of the cobwebs off a little bit.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Yeah, but uh, you know, the Bengals running game pretty
much was you know, take the snap, hand it to
somebody else, and it was just too effective and too
effective on a consistent basis to really put the Bengals
(01:58):
offense in a lot of the kinds of situations where
the Steelers could unleash their pressure. And you know, again,
Joe Flacco is accurate, he's on time, he's savvy, but
he is not mobile and you know where he's going
to be in the pocket. He's a you know, not
a moving target. And if you're not getting after him,
(02:22):
Jamar Chase and T Higgins will kill you, will kill
any team that can't get pressure on the quarterback. So, uh,
you know, bad day, bad performance by the defense, you know.
And I as the game was going on, you know,
I was thinking, you know, remember last year as recently
(02:44):
as last year kind of worrying about an inability to
win games because it couldn't score twenty or more points.
Last Thursday, it was an inability to win a game
where you scored more than thirty, So kind of flipped around.
(03:06):
I don't know that it either one is better than
the other. But as you mentioned, the offense I thought
was representative enough, certainly running the ball, throwing the ball
Aaron Rodgers four touchdown passes. He did throw a couple
of interceptions, one of them DK Metcalf has to hold
(03:29):
onto that ball along the sideline and me just secure
the catch. And it wasn't like either those interceptions turned
the ball over and set up the Bengals offense with
a short field either. So again, unacceptable performance by the defense.
And you know, I don't know that the challenge for
(03:51):
that defense gets any easier on Sunday night at Akrosure
when the Green Bay Packers come to town.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Well, it certainly doesn't when it comes to start the run.
Josh Jacobs a much better back than Chase Brown. The
Packers a much better team running the football than the Bengals,
because as you mentioned, every team is better than the
Bengals at running the football. I do like looking at
the silver linings from that game though, and looking at
the offense labs, Jalen Warren had a fantastic game on
the ground. He was really getting whatever he wanted running
(04:20):
the football. I thought maybe they would want to lean
on that a little bit more than they did. But hey,
hindsight's twenty twenty and Pat Friarmouth has been hearing it
for weeks. I mean, the noise around eighty eight has
been loud. His usage, what's going on with him? Big,
big time performance out of Pat Friarmouth.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Yeah, five catches, one hundred and eleven yards, That sixty
eight yard touchdown gave the Steelers a lead, A heck
of a throw, heck of an effort by Firemuth getting
into the end zone too. And you know, when it
comes to noise surrounding receivers eligibles and their usage or
(04:56):
their targets or any of that stuff, I've really just
come to to accept Aaron Rodgers judgment. When you're open,
he'll get you the ball when it's your turn. Be
ready and catch it when it comes to you. Because
the way he's playing, the way he's seeing it, reading
it really is it's quarterback play at a pretty high level.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
I agree, it's really incredible to watch his fourteen touchdown
passes already on the season. It's good for third in
the NFL. Kevin Karasinski has our first question of the day.
He writes to us from ali Quippa, Pennsylvania. Are you
guys going to use Will Howard at any point of
the season?
Speaker 3 (05:39):
There?
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Are you guys not going to play him for the
rest of the season? Hold on, he says, you guys like,
are we gonna have him on the podcast? Maybe? Yeah,
it might be open to that.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Yeah, I'll let you handle that one.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
You know, as I said, the quarterback play for the
Steelers has been at a very high level this season.
And you know, the whole time to give rookie sixth
round picks playing time to see what they can do,
I mean that happens during the preseason.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
The preseason is over.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
These games count, and so I don't expect to see
Will Howard get any playing time unless there are a
couple of serious injuries. And I mean I don't mean that,
you know, to rip Will Howard or you know, discount
what he might become or any of that stuff. I mean,
you know, he was fighting for the number three job
(06:31):
in training camp, he got injured, didn't get to play
at all in the preseason. He's on ir. You know,
even if they would bring him up to be the
you know, the third quarterback on the fifty three meter roster,
you don't just put him in to see what he
can do. I just, I mean, it's just that doesn't happen.
(06:51):
So you know, I hope Will Howard's first action comes
next August at Saint Vincent College when you and I
are doing the daily training camp report, and you know, this.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Is still a great opportunity for Will Howard. I mean,
he can just be a sponge all year and soak
up what we're seeing out of Aaron Rodgers. There's not
better people to emulate when it comes to playing that
position than he is, and he's playing at such a
high level. So you know, this is still a good
opportunity for If you're a Will Howard fan, You're not
going to see him play this year, but at least
(07:25):
have the knowledge that he's getting a great education.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
You're right, and Aaron Rodgers is willing to teach, yes
if you if you are interested and ask him questions
or whatever. He is willing to teach, and so yes,
it is an opportunity. But again, as I said, using
him at this, you know, I mean, how could you
(07:48):
the guy didn't even take a snap in the preseason
and put him in the regular season. Now he's playoffs.
You know, the playoffs often come down to tiebreakers. I'm sorry,
I'm not interested in, you know, seeing what a sixth
round pick can do when the quarterback and the starting
quarterback is playing as well as he is.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Chris Welburn from Glastonbury, Connecticut. Please clarify when the inactive
game day roster decisions are required, when are they made
public or release to the media.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Okay, According to the NFL rules, teams must submit their
game day in actives to the NFL ninety minutes before
kickoff of the game. So if it's and it's you know,
they don't round the time either. If kickoff is at
eight fifteen, it's ninety minutes before eight fifteen. They don't say,
well at eight or eight thirty. You know, it's not
a it's not a fund fudge ble time. So you
(08:46):
got to do it ninety minutes before you report them
to the NFL. Now, there's no reason or there's no
rule when those inactives are to be lead to be
released to the media or the public, So you know,
I don't know how other teams do it. I know
the Steelers are pretty prompt with when getting those either
(09:09):
on the website or on their social media platforms out
as soon as you know, ninety minutes before kickoff is
is humanly possible.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Jerry Lutz from Red Deer, Alberta, Canada. Follow up to
your stat about there being only fourteen number one overall
picks since nineteen thirty six who have earned selection to
the Pro Football Hall of Fame? Can you name them please?
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Okay, I'm giving them to you in chronological order of
being drafted. Bill Dudley nineteen forty two, Charlie Trippy nineteen
forty five, Chuck Bednrick nineteen forty nine, Paul Horning nineteen
fifty seven, Ron Yery nineteen sixty eight, OJ Simpson nineteen
sixty nine, Terry Bradshaw you might have heard of him,
(09:58):
nineteen seventy, Leroy Selman nineteen seventy five, Earl Campbell nineteen
seventy eight, John Elway nineteen eighty three, Bruce Smith nineteen
eighty five, Troy Aikman nineteen eighty nine, Orlando Pace nineteen
ninety seven, and Peyton Manning nineteen ninety eight. Now there's
a fifteenth player, Buck Buchanan. He was the number one
(10:21):
overall pick of the of the nineteen sixty three AFL
draft and that was before the common draft era, So
based on you know, the stats kept by Pro Football
Hall of Fame, that one doesn't count. So there's I
(10:42):
gave you fourteen Buck buchanans a fifteenth just mentioning him
because you know, he technically qualifies as a number one
overall pick. But since there was a number on one
overall pick of the NFL draft in nineteen sixty three too,
you know, it just doesn't count.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Jack G. Foster from Round Up, Montana. I have recently
been watching old clips of the best plays in Steelers history.
Antonio Brown is in several of those clips. He was
a great receiver until what I believe was too many
concussions affected him. My question is, what is your opinion
of him being inducted into the Pro Football Hall of
Fame or the Steelers Hall.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
Of Fame, Hall of Honor Steelers Hall of Honor. Sorry,
that's okay, Just one.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
That's my fault, not Jack G. Foster's fault.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
I understand, I wear it.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Jack apologies, your question was written immaculately.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
As far as the Hall of Fame, there's currently a
backloger receivers. Guys who are eligible. They have stats that
in the past used to be the benchmarks for receivers
to get into the Hall of Fame. But with the
emphasis on passing in the fel the way that the
(12:01):
game is now legislated, you know, I don't know that
they're never going to clean up this backlog of receivers,
and I don't know that the benchmark statistics are now
recognized as they once were, you know, for receivers to
get in. So I just not I'm just not pointing
to Antonio Brown. I'm pointing to all receivers. Iines Ward
(12:25):
is in this situation as well. His statistics surpass a
lot of the benchmarks that used to be the ones
that automatically got you into the Pro Football.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
Hall of Fame.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
So U it's going to it's difficult for receivers now
to get inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
As for the Steelers Hall of Honor, I'm on the
selection committee, and so as a result, I just see
it as inappropriate for me to comment on anyone's chances
of being inducted into the Hall of Honor.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Mike Curve from Kema, Texas. Late in the fourth quarter
of the Bengals game, t Higgins caught a ball and
had a clear run to the end zone. Rather than
taking the touchdown, he gave himself up to run down
the clock and kick a field goal and win the game,
not giving the Steelers and Aaron Rodgers a chance with
extra time on the clock to do the same. My
question is why couldn't Pat Fryermuth do the same when
(13:21):
he was running open for a touchdown? He could have
given himself up at the one yard line to allow
the running down of the clock and giving the Steelers
a much better chance of winning the game.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Huge difference in those two circumstances. The way I see it,
T Higgins's twenty eight yard catch and run in which
he gave himself up at the Steelers seven yard line
came with one minute and thirty nine seconds left. Okay,
so that's after the two minute warning timeout, and at
that point the Steelers were down to one time out left,
(13:53):
the ball was at the seven yard line and the
Bengals only needed a field goal to win. So in
that situation, you know, he gives himself up, which was
a smart thing to do. But all the Bengals had
to do was take a knee until it was time
to kick the field goal, and their placekicker Evan McPherson,
(14:14):
his career success rate is eighty one point nine percent.
To me, that was a very low risk proposition for
the Bengals. Okay, Now for the Steelers, Pat Fryermouth's touchdown
came with two minutes and twenty one seconds left. At
that point, the Bengals had two timeouts and the two
(14:35):
minute warning, so that's three timeouts and the Steelers were
trailing thirty to twenty four, and so they needed a touchdown.
You cannot assume a touchdown with the same certainty with
which you can assume a less than forty eight yard
field goal by a veteran placekicker in perfect weather conditions.
So you know, okay, it goes down at the one
(14:56):
yard line on the next play. You hypothetically, here, next play,
Aaron Rodgers is going to hand the ball to Jalen Warren,
an offensive lineman steps on his foot, he falls down,
maybe fumbles. Maybe there's a fumble. I mean, maybe the
Steelers end up losing some yards. Okay, now you know.
Now it's not at the one yard l anymore. It's
(15:18):
at the three or four, and you know what happens.
There's just too many variables when you need a touchdown
to start worrying about. You know, let's run clock, especially
when the other side has three timeouts. I mean, getting
the end zone. They did their job. Then the kickoff
team did its job. The defense field miserably.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
Yeah, I agreed, And that's my exact philosophy on that
situation too. You don't mess around with touchdowns. I like
being a little savvy like T. Higgins was when it
comes to killing a clock and getting a field goal.
But touchdowns it's just too risky. You illustrated perfectly, so
many things could go wrong. You just got to get
in the end zone. When you get in the end zone,
and the Steelers defense is supposed to be good enough
(16:03):
to hold a lead that Pat fryar Muth and Aaron
Rodgers in the offense gave them. Our final question today
comes from Bill Pacaca from Elizabethtown. Pennsylvania. My question relates
to the Steelers working out someone they might consider a
sign to the practice squad. What would that workout look like,
what duration would that workout last, and what specifically do
they require someone to do.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
Okay, those workouts, you know, oftentimes take place on you know,
Monday or Tuesday, and they're at the upmc rooney Sports Complex.
They do them in the indoor facility. Usually the supervision
is done by members of the scouting department, and you know,
(16:45):
the workouts they vary based on, you know, what position
the guide plays. So as an example, I mean, you're
not going to give a offensive linean the same kind
of workout.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
That you would give a defensive back.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
So they have them do drills commensurate with the position
they play.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
Whoever these tryout people are.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
And you know, they the drills measure basic excuse me,
basic fitness and movement. If there's any medical issues, you know,
the guy may be examined, there may be some visit
to the doctor or whatever involved, and it lasts as
(17:33):
long as it lasts. I mean, these guys, they're not
they're not trying to recreate the scouting combine or anything.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
But you want to.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
Have gathered the appropriate information and enough information to present
up the chain for the decision makers to decide whether
they want to sign this guy or not. And of course,
as everything, it's videoed, so the video department is they're
shooting it so in case anybody else wants to watch it.
(18:03):
It's not like the assistant coaches Mike Tomlin and Omar
conn are there. So if they want to watch it
to see something in particular, as I said, if there
was an injury or some issue with this player, whatever
it might be, I don't know. Is again I can't
think of what it might be, but if there is,
(18:24):
they can watch that part of the workout to see
how it looks.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
Before they sign him.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
Steelers welcome the Green Bay Packers to town for Sunday
night football at Akrossur Stadium Labs. You think the quarterback
is going to have a little extra juice going into
this one facing off against the old team, just a little.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
Bit should be And you know, as Aaron Rodgers, it
is continuing to move up, you know, all time lists
with every game he plays. He needs this win to
become one of the few quarterbacks to have victories over
all thirty two teams like for example, Ben Roethlisberger came
(19:05):
up one team short because he played his entire career
with one team.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
And thank God for that. Wouldn't trade that for anything
in the world. Sorry, Ben, that's one record that I
don't want you to have ever, and you'll never have ever,
So that's good news. Rogers tries to join that class though.
On Sunday Night. Kickoff is at eight twenty between the
Steelers and the Packers. For Bob Labriola, I'm Tom Oferman.
Thanks for listening. Get your questions in now and maybe
you'll hear them on the next edition of Aston Answered
This is asked and answered questions with Tom Upperman and
Steelers Digest editor Bob Labriola.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Tough loffs for the Steelers on Thursday Night football against Cincinnati,
a game that feels like it's an eternity ago by now.
Thirty three to thirty one was the final score, Labs.
The offense did some very good things for the Steelers
in this game. Unfortunately, the defensive side of the ball
had trouble finding answers to Jamar Chase, that's a difficult
(00:32):
thing for all thirty one other teams in the NFL
to have to accomplish as well.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Yeah, I mean, and I really think the defensive problems
started with a complete inability to deal with what was
before kickoff number thirty second ranked running attack in the NFL.
And as Mike Persuda likes to say, you know why
their running attack wasn't thirty third because there's only thirty
(00:58):
two teams in the league. You know, Chase Brown had
a I won't say a career game, but eleven carries
one hundred and eight yards nine point eight yard average.
I mean, he came into the game averaging two point
seven yards of carry. You know, the Bengals as a
team rushed for one hundred and forty two yards six
(01:20):
point two per carry, and it's not like their rushing attack,
you know, it was benefiting from a quarterback who's mobile,
you know. I mean the running.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Game was you saw that run in the fourth quarter,
Oh dust of the cobwebs off a little bit.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Yeah, but uh, you know, the Bengals running game pretty
much was you know, take the snap, hand it to
somebody else, and it was just too effective and too
effective on a consistent basis to really put the Bengals
(01:58):
offense in a lot of the kinds of situations where
the Steelers could unleash their pressure. And you know, again,
Joe Flacco is accurate, he's on time, he's savvy, but
he is not mobile and you know where he's going
to be in the pocket. He's a you know, not
a moving target. And if you're not getting after him,
(02:22):
Jamar Chase and T Higgins will kill you, will kill
any team that can't get pressure on the quarterback. So, uh,
you know, bad day, bad performance by the defense, you know.
And I as the game was going on, you know,
I was thinking, you know, remember last year as recently
(02:44):
as last year kind of worrying about an inability to
win games because it couldn't score twenty or more points.
Last Thursday, it was an inability to win a game
where you scored more than thirty, So kind of flipped around.
(03:06):
I don't know that it either one is better than
the other. But as you mentioned, the offense I thought
was representative enough, certainly running the ball, throwing the ball
Aaron Rodgers four touchdown passes. He did throw a couple
of interceptions, one of them DK Metcalf has to hold
(03:29):
onto that ball along the sideline and me just secure
the catch. And it wasn't like either those interceptions turned
the ball over and set up the Bengals offense with
a short field either. So again, unacceptable performance by the defense.
And you know, I don't know that the challenge for
(03:51):
that defense gets any easier on Sunday night at Akrosure
when the Green Bay Packers come to town.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Well, it certainly doesn't when it comes to start the run.
Josh Jacobs a much better back than Chase Brown. The
Packers a much better team running the football than the Bengals,
because as you mentioned, every team is better than the
Bengals at running the football. I do like looking at
the silver linings from that game though, and looking at
the offense labs, Jalen Warren had a fantastic game on
the ground. He was really getting whatever he wanted running
(04:20):
the football. I thought maybe they would want to lean
on that a little bit more than they did. But hey,
hindsight's twenty twenty and Pat Friarmouth has been hearing it
for weeks. I mean, the noise around eighty eight has
been loud. His usage, what's going on with him? Big,
big time performance out of Pat Friarmouth.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Yeah, five catches, one hundred and eleven yards, That sixty
eight yard touchdown gave the Steelers a lead, A heck
of a throw, heck of an effort by Firemuth getting
into the end zone too. And you know, when it
comes to noise surrounding receivers eligibles and their usage or
(04:56):
their targets or any of that stuff, I've really just
come to to accept Aaron Rodgers judgment. When you're open,
he'll get you the ball when it's your turn. Be
ready and catch it when it comes to you. Because
the way he's playing, the way he's seeing it, reading
it really is it's quarterback play at a pretty high level.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
I agree, it's really incredible to watch his fourteen touchdown
passes already on the season. It's good for third in
the NFL. Kevin Karasinski has our first question of the day.
He writes to us from ali Quippa, Pennsylvania. Are you
guys going to use Will Howard at any point of
the season?
Speaker 3 (05:39):
There?
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Are you guys not going to play him for the
rest of the season? Hold on, he says, you guys like,
are we gonna have him on the podcast? Maybe? Yeah,
it might be open to that.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Yeah, I'll let you handle that one.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
You know, as I said, the quarterback play for the
Steelers has been at a very high level this season.
And you know, the whole time to give rookie sixth
round picks playing time to see what they can do,
I mean that happens during the preseason.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
The preseason is over.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
These games count, and so I don't expect to see
Will Howard get any playing time unless there are a
couple of serious injuries. And I mean I don't mean that,
you know, to rip Will Howard or you know, discount
what he might become or any of that stuff. I mean,
you know, he was fighting for the number three job
(06:31):
in training camp, he got injured, didn't get to play
at all in the preseason. He's on ir. You know,
even if they would bring him up to be the
you know, the third quarterback on the fifty three meter roster,
you don't just put him in to see what he
can do. I just, I mean, it's just that doesn't happen.
(06:51):
So you know, I hope Will Howard's first action comes
next August at Saint Vincent College when you and I
are doing the daily training camp report, and you know, this.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Is still a great opportunity for Will Howard. I mean,
he can just be a sponge all year and soak
up what we're seeing out of Aaron Rodgers. There's not
better people to emulate when it comes to playing that
position than he is, and he's playing at such a
high level. So you know, this is still a good
opportunity for If you're a Will Howard fan, You're not
going to see him play this year, but at least
(07:25):
have the knowledge that he's getting a great education.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
You're right, and Aaron Rodgers is willing to teach, yes
if you if you are interested and ask him questions
or whatever. He is willing to teach, and so yes,
it is an opportunity. But again, as I said, using
him at this, you know, I mean, how could you
(07:48):
the guy didn't even take a snap in the preseason
and put him in the regular season. Now he's playoffs.
You know, the playoffs often come down to tiebreakers. I'm sorry,
I'm not interested in, you know, seeing what a sixth
round pick can do when the quarterback and the starting
quarterback is playing as well as he is.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Chris Welburn from Glastonbury, Connecticut. Please clarify when the inactive
game day roster decisions are required, when are they made
public or release to the media.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Okay, According to the NFL rules, teams must submit their
game day in actives to the NFL ninety minutes before
kickoff of the game. So if it's and it's you know,
they don't round the time either. If kickoff is at
eight fifteen, it's ninety minutes before eight fifteen. They don't say,
well at eight or eight thirty. You know, it's not
a it's not a fund fudge ble time. So you
(08:46):
got to do it ninety minutes before you report them
to the NFL. Now, there's no reason or there's no
rule when those inactives are to be lead to be
released to the media or the public, So you know,
I don't know how other teams do it. I know
the Steelers are pretty prompt with when getting those either
(09:09):
on the website or on their social media platforms out
as soon as you know, ninety minutes before kickoff is
is humanly possible.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Jerry Lutz from Red Deer, Alberta, Canada. Follow up to
your stat about there being only fourteen number one overall
picks since nineteen thirty six who have earned selection to
the Pro Football Hall of Fame? Can you name them please?
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Okay, I'm giving them to you in chronological order of
being drafted. Bill Dudley nineteen forty two, Charlie Trippy nineteen
forty five, Chuck Bednrick nineteen forty nine, Paul Horning nineteen
fifty seven, Ron Yery nineteen sixty eight, OJ Simpson nineteen
sixty nine, Terry Bradshaw you might have heard of him,
(09:58):
nineteen seventy, Leroy Selman nineteen seventy five, Earl Campbell nineteen
seventy eight, John Elway nineteen eighty three, Bruce Smith nineteen
eighty five, Troy Aikman nineteen eighty nine, Orlando Pace nineteen
ninety seven, and Peyton Manning nineteen ninety eight. Now there's
a fifteenth player, Buck Buchanan. He was the number one
(10:21):
overall pick of the of the nineteen sixty three AFL
draft and that was before the common draft era, So
based on you know, the stats kept by Pro Football
Hall of Fame, that one doesn't count. So there's I
(10:42):
gave you fourteen Buck buchanans a fifteenth just mentioning him
because you know, he technically qualifies as a number one
overall pick. But since there was a number on one
overall pick of the NFL draft in nineteen sixty three too,
you know, it just doesn't count.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Jack G. Foster from Round Up, Montana. I have recently
been watching old clips of the best plays in Steelers history.
Antonio Brown is in several of those clips. He was
a great receiver until what I believe was too many
concussions affected him. My question is, what is your opinion
of him being inducted into the Pro Football Hall of
Fame or the Steelers Hall.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
Of Fame, Hall of Honor Steelers Hall of Honor. Sorry,
that's okay, Just one.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
That's my fault, not Jack G. Foster's fault.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
I understand, I wear it.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Jack apologies, your question was written immaculately.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
As far as the Hall of Fame, there's currently a
backloger receivers. Guys who are eligible. They have stats that
in the past used to be the benchmarks for receivers
to get into the Hall of Fame. But with the
emphasis on passing in the fel the way that the
(12:01):
game is now legislated, you know, I don't know that
they're never going to clean up this backlog of receivers,
and I don't know that the benchmark statistics are now
recognized as they once were, you know, for receivers to
get in. So I just not I'm just not pointing
to Antonio Brown. I'm pointing to all receivers. Iines Ward
(12:25):
is in this situation as well. His statistics surpass a
lot of the benchmarks that used to be the ones
that automatically got you into the Pro Football.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
Hall of Fame.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
So U it's going to it's difficult for receivers now
to get inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
As for the Steelers Hall of Honor, I'm on the
selection committee, and so as a result, I just see
it as inappropriate for me to comment on anyone's chances
of being inducted into the Hall of Honor.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Mike Curve from Kema, Texas. Late in the fourth quarter
of the Bengals game, t Higgins caught a ball and
had a clear run to the end zone. Rather than
taking the touchdown, he gave himself up to run down
the clock and kick a field goal and win the game,
not giving the Steelers and Aaron Rodgers a chance with
extra time on the clock to do the same. My
question is why couldn't Pat Fryermuth do the same when
(13:21):
he was running open for a touchdown? He could have
given himself up at the one yard line to allow
the running down of the clock and giving the Steelers
a much better chance of winning the game.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Huge difference in those two circumstances. The way I see it,
T Higgins's twenty eight yard catch and run in which
he gave himself up at the Steelers seven yard line
came with one minute and thirty nine seconds left. Okay,
so that's after the two minute warning timeout, and at
that point the Steelers were down to one time out left,
(13:53):
the ball was at the seven yard line and the
Bengals only needed a field goal to win. So in
that situation, you know, he gives himself up, which was
a smart thing to do. But all the Bengals had
to do was take a knee until it was time
to kick the field goal, and their placekicker Evan McPherson,
(14:14):
his career success rate is eighty one point nine percent.
To me, that was a very low risk proposition for
the Bengals. Okay, Now for the Steelers, Pat Fryermouth's touchdown
came with two minutes and twenty one seconds left. At
that point, the Bengals had two timeouts and the two
(14:35):
minute warning, so that's three timeouts and the Steelers were
trailing thirty to twenty four, and so they needed a touchdown.
You cannot assume a touchdown with the same certainty with
which you can assume a less than forty eight yard
field goal by a veteran placekicker in perfect weather conditions.
So you know, okay, it goes down at the one
(14:56):
yard line on the next play. You hypothetically, here, next play,
Aaron Rodgers is going to hand the ball to Jalen Warren,
an offensive lineman steps on his foot, he falls down,
maybe fumbles. Maybe there's a fumble. I mean, maybe the
Steelers end up losing some yards. Okay, now you know.
Now it's not at the one yard l anymore. It's
(15:18):
at the three or four, and you know what happens.
There's just too many variables when you need a touchdown
to start worrying about. You know, let's run clock, especially
when the other side has three timeouts. I mean, getting
the end zone. They did their job. Then the kickoff
team did its job. The defense field miserably.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
Yeah, I agreed, And that's my exact philosophy on that
situation too. You don't mess around with touchdowns. I like
being a little savvy like T. Higgins was when it
comes to killing a clock and getting a field goal.
But touchdowns it's just too risky. You illustrated perfectly, so
many things could go wrong. You just got to get
in the end zone. When you get in the end zone,
and the Steelers defense is supposed to be good enough
(16:03):
to hold a lead that Pat fryar Muth and Aaron
Rodgers in the offense gave them. Our final question today
comes from Bill Pacaca from Elizabethtown. Pennsylvania. My question relates
to the Steelers working out someone they might consider a
sign to the practice squad. What would that workout look like,
what duration would that workout last, and what specifically do
they require someone to do.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
Okay, those workouts, you know, oftentimes take place on you know,
Monday or Tuesday, and they're at the upmc rooney Sports Complex.
They do them in the indoor facility. Usually the supervision
is done by members of the scouting department, and you know,
(16:45):
the workouts they vary based on, you know, what position
the guide plays. So as an example, I mean, you're
not going to give a offensive linean the same kind
of workout.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
That you would give a defensive back.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
So they have them do drills commensurate with the position
they play.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
Whoever these tryout people are.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
And you know, they the drills measure basic excuse me,
basic fitness and movement. If there's any medical issues, you know,
the guy may be examined, there may be some visit
to the doctor or whatever involved, and it lasts as
(17:33):
long as it lasts. I mean, these guys, they're not
they're not trying to recreate the scouting combine or anything.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
But you want to.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
Have gathered the appropriate information and enough information to present
up the chain for the decision makers to decide whether
they want to sign this guy or not. And of course,
as everything, it's videoed, so the video department is they're
shooting it so in case anybody else wants to watch it.
(18:03):
It's not like the assistant coaches Mike Tomlin and Omar
conn are there. So if they want to watch it
to see something in particular, as I said, if there
was an injury or some issue with this player, whatever
it might be, I don't know. Is again I can't
think of what it might be, but if there is,
(18:24):
they can watch that part of the workout to see
how it looks.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
Before they sign him.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
Steelers welcome the Green Bay Packers to town for Sunday
night football at Akrossur Stadium Labs. You think the quarterback
is going to have a little extra juice going into
this one facing off against the old team, just a little.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
Bit should be And you know, as Aaron Rodgers, it
is continuing to move up, you know, all time lists
with every game he plays. He needs this win to
become one of the few quarterbacks to have victories over
all thirty two teams like for example, Ben Roethlisberger came
(19:05):
up one team short because he played his entire career
with one team.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
And thank God for that. Wouldn't trade that for anything
in the world. Sorry, Ben, that's one record that I
don't want you to have ever, and you'll never have ever,
So that's good news. Rogers tries to join that class though.
On Sunday Night. Kickoff is at eight twenty between the
Steelers and the Packers. For Bob Labriola, I'm Tom Oferman.
Thanks for listening. Get your questions in now and maybe
you'll hear them on the next edition of Aston Answered
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