December 1, 2025 • 43 mins
Max and Rob try to find some positives after the Steelers' loss to the Bills Sunday afternoon.
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
This is in the Locker Room with King and Starks
on Steelers Nation Radio, presented by your neighborhood Ford Store.
The F one point fifty is the official truck of
the Pittsburgh Steelers and by Steelers Pro Shop. Get it
direct from the team at the Steelers Pro Shop at
shop dot Steelers dot com.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
It's a snap back to pass looking right on a
little cross and is it intercepted? It's picked off somehow
someway brahandon Eckles came away with the interception. Oh, those
are the glory days of yesterday's game. Early on when
the Steelers had that seven to nothing lead, carried a
seven nothing lead for a while and then it just
(00:48):
it just fell apart. And even as it was falling apart,
the signs weren't particularly good in the first half, and
they were not good at all in the second half
as the Steelers dropped the six and six briefly held
first place in the AFC North once again, and now
fall back into a virtual tie with the Ravens. Although
I think they've got the tiebreakers. The Ravens have the edge,
(01:10):
no no matter, I mean, the two teams are gonna
decide it on the field beginning on Sunday. Thanks very
much for being with us in the locker room. Max
does does this game feel any better to you this
morning than it did when we were exiting the the
broadcast booth last night?
Speaker 3 (01:30):
No, not at all. I mean this was this is
a tough bild swallow Ganger. There's a tough game to watch,
tough game to rewatch.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
And.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
You know there there there's a lot of you know, speculation,
and people are you know, they have their feelings.
Speaker 4 (01:55):
We're in their feelings today.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
I'm just gonna call it in your in our feelings Monday,
uh because even you know, after the game, getting up
this morning and interacting with people, everybody has a you know,
is just kind of distraught on what they saw and
(02:19):
listen and I get it. It was not a good game.
It was not a good game. I don't feel good
about it. And you know, I always say this, right,
we had twenty four hours to celebrate or commiserate.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
That's what we're going to get at. You know, we will.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
Handle that today and you know we'll be taking calls later.
But you know, it's one of those things that you
just you got to kind of get through that that bitter,
ugly truth of the fact that we are not a
consistently good football team.
Speaker 4 (02:51):
We're not.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
We have moments, and when we are on, we're on,
but when we are off, we are off. And you know,
at this point we've got we still control our own destiny.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
But it's gonna take a gut check.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
You know, something's gonna have to drop sackwise, and you're
gonna have to make a decision about who you want
to be. And this is this is that critical time.
I mean, this is the guy to have a moments.
December football is upon us and December you either rise
or you either fall.
Speaker 4 (03:29):
So if this is if this is, if this is
the last of.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
The falling moments, cool, But if it's not, you know
there are gonna be some hard truths that come out
if if they can't figure out how to put everything together.
Speaker 4 (03:44):
And when I.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
Say, you know it, it's not just players, because I
know Aaron Rodgers said that about the players as well.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
Coaches have to make that decision as well too.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
It has to be a combined front and a combined
group effort.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Max mentioned the phone calls, and we do take him
here on Monday in the locker room, Mondays and Fridays.
We'll see if we expand that, but for now, those
are the days for you to give us a call
at four one two nine, one nine, one three one six.
And you know, Max, the third quarter has not been
good to the Steelers, but frankly, the first half, despite
(04:23):
the fact that they led seven to three, the first
half was not good for the Steelers either. They were
out gained one seventy six to eighty seven. The Bills
ran thirty eight offensive plays. The Steelers ran twenty two
offensive plays. They were out rushed one hundred and twenty
five to thirty three in the first half. So you
(04:44):
know this. In the past, I have been more critical
of the offense not doing its part to keep the
defense off the field. Uh winning the time of possession
only twice in their twelve games, running more plays than
their opponents only one, and I think that was last
week against Chicago if I'm not mistaken, or maybe it
was against Cincinnati. They you know, they just have not
(05:06):
out snapped the other team. So people say, we need
more jail and Warren, we need more Pat Fryermuth, we
need more John new Smith, we need more dk metcalf Well,
we need more ball. You know, if we don't have
the ball, they can't have the ball. Those guys can't
get the ball. But yesterday's game, this felt different to me.
I think both units were equally to blame. Clearly, the
(05:29):
offense did pretty much next to nothing in the game,
and the defense was being gouged from the very first play.
James Cook starts left, bounces it right, and then that
was like on replay all night long. Start left, bounce
it right, start left, bounce it right, start left, bounce
it right. They didn't stop. I mean, they had one
(05:50):
hundred and twenty five yards rushing in the first half.
So this was just a game in which it never
got going offensively or defensively. And I think you can,
you know, wherever you want to, you know, play the
blame game. You can spread the blame equally between those
two units, in my opinion.
Speaker 4 (06:09):
No, you're absolutely right.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
I mean, there was really no bright spots. You know,
there were moments, but no unit was a bright spot yesterday.
And I'll even love in special teams, you know, I mean, granted,
you know, Boz and I didn't get to do anything
really Boz like, I mean, he kicked the ball off
twice and he kicked an extra point.
Speaker 4 (06:32):
That was about it for the Wizard of Oz.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
Corliss struggled once again back to back weeks, you know,
averaging only forty yards of punt.
Speaker 4 (06:43):
That's not going to get it done. So you know
he's gonna have to work on that as well. But
to your.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
Point, you know, I read James James Cook, you know,
in his postgame interview talked about we knew what we
were gonna do. We were we were going to test
the edges and what did I tell you about our
perimeter tackling?
Speaker 4 (07:03):
I told you just questionable at best.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
And you know Jalen Ramsey helped, you know, make some
of that a little bit better.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
Well, that's exactly what James Cook said.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
He said, we knew how bad a tacklers they were
on the perimeter, so if we got to the outside,
we were going we were going to we were going
to do that and press them the entire time. That's
why they kept run the same play and getting to
the outside because they were playing on the bad eye
discipline and poor tackling on the perimeter.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Yeah, and the edges weren't getting set. And then you
know Joey Porter Junior made a couple of nice tackles
in the second half, had to. I mean, he was
out there on an island with James Cook and that's
that's a lonely place to be. And I thought Joey
Porter did a nice job on those tackles. But I
was surprised they could just bounce it outside routinely. You know, look,
they did a lot of it felt like they ran
(07:50):
two plays up the middle with some double team blocking
and gaping holes and then bouncing it to the outside,
usually to the right with ga holes. And so I
don't know whether you know, again, I don't know. I'm
not watching. As I've said many times in these airwaves,
I'm not watching. I'm watching the ball. I have to
(08:12):
follow the ball. That's my job. I don't have the
luxury of saying, hey, uh did this do this is
at the snap? Did they roll into a from a
cover two into a cover three look or a single
high look or you know. I don't have that luxury.
So I don't know why they were able to get
to the edge again and again and again. I can imagine,
you know, if you're seeing the ball run up the middle,
(08:32):
you want to kind of try to get there and
help out. But you know, it's kind of like when
I think about it now, it's kind of like what
the Rams have done so successfully over the years. You know,
they'll they'll bring a guy in motion, you know, Pooka
Nakua and you know or Cooper Cup, you know, these
these really good blocking wide receivers. They'll bring him in
motion and they'll they'll do one of two things. They'll
(08:55):
either bounce it outside or they will run it right
up the middle. And that's what the Bills. It seemed
like they had two running place. Run it up the middle,
bounce it outside.
Speaker 4 (09:06):
And you know, it was.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
A little bit more sophisticated than that, but but it
was the same exact concept that you're talking about. It
was also backside pursuit angles. You know, Peyton Wilson struggled
a little bit yesterday and staying backside and not overshooting
the front side a gap, and that was that.
Speaker 4 (09:35):
Was an issue. It was an issue.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
Because there was no backside relief on that cutback and because.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
Of that, you put Joey Porter Jr.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
In that quandary on the backside where he had he
he had he had to play outside and then if
he did play you know, inside angle on that backside
hook block, then that's when it bounced outside.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
So it was like, darned if you do, darned if
you don't. They were going to hurt you either way.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
And like you said, that's what we used to run
was thirty four base or thirty five base with Hines
Ward and Heines was a guy that would kick.
Speaker 4 (10:15):
Out to allow for that backside cutoff. It's just we
never you know.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
Now, Willie Parker was that guy that that would break
it all the way out to the to the D gap,
but usually everybody else usually held a tighter track on
the backside cutoff.
Speaker 4 (10:27):
He usually came back back.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
You know, you went front side B to A and
then pressed back to backside B two C on the cutback.
James Cook just said, you know what, I'm just gonna
take it all the way to the outside to the
D gap and go that way. But similar concepts that
were ran, and you know, ones that should have been
easier to.
Speaker 4 (10:47):
Snuff out, but you know it was. It was.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
It was a bad showing and they really exposed one
of the weaknesses of our team, which was perimeter tackling.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
You know, there were a few times in that game
where to your point, where they cut it up in
the contain man and basically became off tackle instead of
a round and and that was effective too, Right, So,
like you said, you're making a choice series a defender.
You know, if you crash down and they bounce it
outside and there's nobody there, or if you try to
hold the edge and they cut it inside and there's
still nobody there. You know, I think that you know,
(11:20):
we see this a lot. We see it with the
pitch that starts to the left and the guy cuts
it back to the right. But this this, uh, I mean,
if I'm not mistaken, Max, these are designed cutbacks, right,
you get and it would make sense, and you can
give me the football one on one, But it seems
to me that it's a let's flow left right and
that that stops like if you just take the ball
(11:41):
and pitch it right now. Everybody now, Cam Hayward is
running down the line of scrimmage in backside pursuit High Smith.
If there's a hesitation, maybe he gets around the edge.
Everyone's pursuing down the line. But if you fake, if
you start blocking left, those guys are kind of holding
their ground or maybe even moving in that direction defensively.
(12:03):
And now it's a designed cutback, and you know, your
your guys, if your guys on the what appears to
be the backside but is really the front side of
the play, can get a block or two. Now you've
that that sort of flow to the left has taken
has taken half the field out of play. Those guys
aren't pursuing back down the line of scrimmage to get
(12:24):
you Is that a simplification of it? Is that what
it is? Or is it is it something different? That's
because it certainly looks like it's a designed cutback.
Speaker 4 (12:34):
Yeah, no, I mean it. Well, every every zone style
play has.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
A cutback element too, okay, right, you know, and the
running backs taught to read the flow. So if you're
fast flow over the top of the linebackers as you're
as you're making your as you'r as you're sending the
ball to the original direction, that's when the cutback lane happens.
That you're watching for that backside guard or that backside
tackle to either have a hook or a pin on
(13:03):
that on the flow of that backside defensive tackle, because
that's what's gonna determine where your cutback lane is, and
you'll have flow that you can cut and just be
tight and it be subtle, or you can cut and
just say, you know what, we're gonna kick this out.
And you can also have that backside tight end, you know,
(13:26):
run run more of of of a bluff block to
get the linebacker to jump inside or whoever the edge
or emol defender is in man of the line of
scrimmage to jump inside where you kind of delay and
pretend to like half block and then the guy takes
the inside edge and then you pin him right. So
(13:46):
there's a lot of different concepts on that. Theirs looked
to be just normal flow. And James Cook just said,
when I get the cutback, I'm cutting it all the
way back like that was just his predetermined mind sets
a running back that if I can't keep it front side,
I'm going to take it all the way back.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
So there is a front side. So all those plays
it started left and cut back right, which felt like
and I haven't gone back and looked at it, but
it felt like every run right, you know, and sometimes
it would cut back through the through the a gap
right on on what it appeared to me to be
the backside. But are you telling me that he could
(14:26):
have stayed running left, that that play has an element
in which he could run left, or or he's just choosing.
It's a designed cutback and he's choosing whether to go
a a gap back to the right or bounce it outside.
Could he have stayed left or is it a So
it's not a designed cutback.
Speaker 4 (14:45):
Now, it's not predesigned.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
So they were actually stopping. So they were stopping it
on the front side because he always cut back. Actually,
I can't think of a single play there probably some existed.
I can't think of a single play where he's got
it left and ran left. It felt like everything started
left to cut back right.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
Yeah, he made a decision on a lot of it
because of the flow, and it's just but it's just inside.
It's just inside zone. That's all they were running, just
his own play. Because all of your elements for the
blocking aspects, you had the double teams that were working,
you know, tackling guard, well, tackling guard on the backside,
but it was tight end, tight end and tackle on
(15:26):
the left.
Speaker 4 (15:27):
Working, working, working, Uh, you know, we.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
Could call it a C block up to up to
the up to the front side backer. You had guard
guard center working to the backside backer, and then you
had backside guard taking his angle. Safety down in the box,
backside tackle taking that guy tight end had the inn
man of the line of scrimmage and you know they're
(15:50):
running flow there. So in his own play, you could
pick any hole as long as the flow is there,
and your cutback is determined by how by how much
over pursuit those linebackers or safety that's down in the
box plays forward allows for the cutback. If they're delayed,
you keep it front side right because you've got all
(16:11):
of you got all of your wall angles created. So
that was so that was something that they worked on
and like you said, it looked effortless and it looked
like he just made a decision to do that, but
they had keys and tendencies.
Speaker 4 (16:25):
So a lot of it depending on where was Peyton Wilson.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
And Peyton Wilson we know is a fast trigger and
a guy who's going to run, you know, run an
id ball. He was. He was definitely flowing over the top,
which allowed for those backside cutbacks to be so great.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
And they were and they were effective, as you know,
we had the statistic last night the most rushing yards
at home for this Steers since nineteen seventy five, also
against the Bills when OJ Simpson, I believe must have
been the running back in seventy five ran for over
three hundred against his Steelers in Pittsburgh. So a discouraging
loss for sure. We're gonna spend a little time moping.
(17:04):
We're gonna spend a little time taking your phone calls
as well at four one two nine one nine one
three one six when we continue in the Locker Room
presented by your neighborhood Ford Store and the Steelers Pro
Shop on Stevilize Nation Radio, part of the Steelers Audio Network.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
This is in the locker Room with King and Starks
on Steelers Nation Radio presented by your neighborhood Ford Store.
The F one point fifty is the official truck of
the Pittsburgh Steelers and by Steelers Pro Shop. Get it
direct from the team at the Steelers Pro Shop at
Shop dot Steelers dot com.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Commiserating in the locker room, Yeah, come join us. It's
a communal effort. It just doesn't feel any better today
than it did last night. You know, still.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
Feelshchy's it does.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
I mean I can. There's just a laundry list of issues,
you know. Some of them were smaller that cropped up,
you know, three unsportsman like conduct penalties. You can't have that,
you know. And and there was one at the end
of the first half on Peyton Wilson after the kickoff.
And you have used your timeouts like and so you could, Hey,
(18:23):
should the students be using your timeouts here?
Speaker 4 (18:25):
Right?
Speaker 2 (18:25):
They're being super aggressive at the end of the first half. Yep,
they could have the Bills could have gotten a first
down inside the one yard line, but Mike Tomlin was
very aggressive using the timeouts. It paid off. You've got
fifty one seconds left, you're gonna get the ball at
your own twenty six yard line. Hey, let's get a
couple first downs. Let's throw the ball out the field,
let's use the sideline to watch it twice. Let's get
(18:48):
Bozz out there. Let's get a touchdown lead, and then
let's make it a two score lead when we start
the third quarter, which you could talk about in a minute.
But then you get the penalty that sets you back.
It's you just you can't have we have things like that.
Three unsportsmanlike penalties. That's not good Max.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
And you know, we would have been in the same
situation that we were a week ago at the end
of the game with that same thing. You need the
timeout or you need a spike down to be able
to get your kicker out there on the field and
switch out to a k ball right right. So we
essentially did the same thing, except for this time. It
wasn't an injury to James Pierre that lost the time out.
(19:25):
It was we had to utilize that because of the choices.
Speaker 4 (19:30):
Of certain individuals to get the ball backed up.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
You know, you go from that nice field position to
now you know, deepen your own territory or what I
call the two first down zone where you know, minimally
when you started driving that area, you have to get
two first downs to justify it being successful so you
can flip the field right in field position. So yeah,
it was just poor execution on the side of just
(19:53):
thinking and performing. The extra stuff is selfish stuff.
Speaker 4 (20:00):
Happened, a lot of selfish stuff.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
It's one thing to get a penalty, right, a hold
in the heat of action and you try to stop
a guy from making a play like I get the
holds right, you know, but when it comes to the
after the whistle stuff, that's unnecessary. The he he hurt
my feelings or he he he was too aggressive, so
(20:25):
I decided to take it a step further. Right, these
are those self aggressive And listen, I'm not saying I'm
perfect here, and you know I've committed plenty of penalties
in my career. I'm not saying that. But at the
same time, a lot of that can be self inflicted.
The effort ones I'm fine with, right, you know, effort penalties,
(20:47):
they happen, right if you get the PI. I understand that, right,
Because you're hand fighting, you don't know what's too far
and not enough, and the other guy's doing stuff and
you're doing that. It's the personal foul unnecessary, right. It
says it there in the play. Necessary roughness, Yeah, this's
(21:08):
never necessary roughness. That That is a movie with Scott
Baculo and Sindbad and Company and Kathy Ireland. Right, I
remember that it was a great one. Oh great sports company?
Was it?
Speaker 2 (21:20):
I think?
Speaker 4 (21:20):
So?
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Okay, I think so, I've never heard of it. Necessary roughness,
necessary roughness.
Speaker 4 (21:24):
Yeah, go look it up. It's a good one.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
But that those those are things pre snap penalties obviously
are another one. I'll never be those are those are
that's in the deadly sins, right, you know, gotta be
able to stay on sides, not false start and you
gottaut line up off sides or jump off sides. Like
those are ones where it's like, those are things that
don't require as much skill and attention. So those in
(21:50):
personal penalties, So anything before the whistle, anything after the whistle,
that's where I kind of struggle with the stuff in
between the whistles.
Speaker 4 (21:59):
We can are argue that one.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
So I just looked up necessary roughness. Yeah, and uh
so thirty five percent on Rotten Tomatoes and that's not
good now. But here, but let me say this, let
me say this, I'm becoming more of an imb D okay.
And there so Roger Ebert, yes, it can be alive.
Speaker 4 (22:23):
Back then, he gave.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
It three out of four. Okay, so he gave it.
He was one of those people that liked it. I
m b d gave it a six point two. I'll
say this if I see a movie that's like ninety
percent on Rotten Tomatoes and like six point two, and
I m b this is a recent. This is a
recent thing for me. My tendency is to think I'm
probably not going to like it. Yeah, but if I
(22:46):
but if it's going to get very serious, it marks.
Speaker 3 (22:48):
Very very monotone. And you know that the subject matter
is a heavy one.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
You know, I don't mind a heavy one. I don't
mind heavy one our cagion.
Speaker 3 (22:57):
But they by the only way you're gonna get a
ninety percent, I mean, really is it's gonna have to
be some type of historical reference or biopic that can
be referenced to compare against when it comes to a
sports comedy of unbelievable for portions like Scott Back was
like thirty five year old quarterback that never used his eligibility.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
You know what I'm saying that that was the story.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
Yeah, it's a farst type of deal at a university
that hasn't won another you know and forever, right you know,
so you know, and it's a sports comedy. So it's
not going to get a rotten to It's not gonna
get a rotten tomatoes because it's not hardcore hitting stuff.
Speaker 4 (23:30):
It's like watching National Lampoons.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
There is too much. There is too much of that.
I remember they did the and and I'll bring it
back here in a moment. But they did the Greatest
oh is years ago, the greatest movies of all time, right,
thee hundred greatest Movies. It was the first one they did.
I don't know. It was back in the eighties or nineties,
whatever it was. And I remember watching it and they
they were going to mel Brooks on occasion and you know,
(23:53):
they're counting now number thirty two, and you know, and
then mel Brooks said, where are the comedies? And I
will tell you, as somebody who was an English literature
major in college, I like to read. I like movies.
I think it is way way easier to make a
tear jerker than it is to make a good comedy.
It's way easier to write a serious book than it
(24:16):
is to write a comedic book. Yeah, it is hard
to do, and it's underappreciated.
Speaker 4 (24:21):
No, I completely agree.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
And I think you know when you say, when you
say the one hundred greatest, it's.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
Like to who exactly.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
So it's such a subject, right because I could tell
you one of my favorite movies all time, Guarantee, is
now on the dred one hundred Greatest Movies of all Time,
which is Coming to America. Okay, but you would think,
oh man, that's such a big hit, right right, that's
definitely I could end up in one hundred grade. There
was zero Oscar nominations for that, right movie. But I
(24:49):
enjoy it anytime I watch it. It was funny, it
was personal to me, you know, and it's something that
it was just very you know, near and dear to
my childhood and upbringing, you know, for one of one
of the movies that I just absolutely enjoyed to this day.
You know, I love trading places. Right, There's a lot
of Eddie Murphy. There's a lot of National lampoons in
there in my favorite movies that you know, That's probably
(25:10):
why I'm not as as serious of a guy, because
those are the movies that I see, you know that
I gravitate.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
Towards here is the other way around. You gravitate towards
him because you're not that Yeah, because because I'm that serious.
In which one? Which one is the one with the
barber shop Coming to America?
Speaker 4 (25:25):
America?
Speaker 3 (25:25):
That is a tremendous and Eddie played all those different
characters with a little bit of our Cineo played two
of my.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (25:33):
Our Cineo played multiple, Eddie played multiple, and I thought
it was just it was fun to see that. And
then you know, there's a lot of people like John.
I love John Amos in that movie as the dad,
you know, and now as I'm older, as a debt,
I can relate, you know, to those moments. So it
was just and I think that's some of the things
where you look at and you're like, well, yeah, I can,
(25:53):
I could. You know, it's easy to say, Ben Her
is probably right, you know what I'm saying, like, oh,
that's gonna be one of the greatest movies of all time.
Speaker 4 (26:01):
I fell asleep.
Speaker 3 (26:02):
I don't know if I've actually finished been her like
in the same sitting in my entire life.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
Yeah, I think he wins the chariot race. I think
I don't want I don't want to give it. I
think he wins the chariot race. But you know what,
the only reason I and my wife rolls her eyes
when I go to the to the rankings, and the
only reason I do it is because, uh, my time
is very short right now and has been for quite
(26:27):
some time now. If I retire or semi retire whatever,
and I have more time. I love going to the
movie theaters. Love going to the movie theater, but I
only go now on rare occasions because it's time consuming.
You know, it's a two hour movie, but it's probably
four hours of my day, you know what I mean
to go to a movie or even even to watch one.
(26:48):
I mean there are times where if I'm watching a
movie or a show and I'm like, I don't really
like this. I'm like, I could be getting a jumpstart
on the Dolphins game, you know what I mean, or
something like or I could be writing another chapter of
my next book. Yes, so there's there's these other things
that are involved. Anyway, Uh, the rotten tomatoes and I
m b D to bring it back to our game.
(27:10):
The ratings would not be good. They would be they
would be low yesterday.
Speaker 4 (27:14):
Oh, they would be absolutely rotten.
Speaker 3 (27:17):
Yes, it would not be spoiled on delivery.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
Yes, I'm trying to think. They would be Aragon low. Yeah, Aragon.
Aragon did not get. That was the famous I Get
fantasy book. They made a new movie and had a
great cast and didn't didn't like it.
Speaker 4 (27:33):
It tanked.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
It was so bad because that was with Dennis Quaid, right, wasn't.
Speaker 4 (27:38):
He in that one?
Speaker 2 (27:38):
I know Jeremy Irons was in it, but because he
was the dragon, I didn't think it was I didn't
think it was that terrible. It got killed in the rings. Yeah,
I gotta look that up. Now we're gonna get we
are going to get back.
Speaker 3 (27:53):
We are going to get back to football.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
But okay, we're gonna compare. We're going to compare yesterday.
Just the results in the stars.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
Movie reviews will be every uh day as well.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
After a Aragon movie, Uh, fifteen percent on Rotten To me,
it was five point one on I m b D.
I give it. Yeah, what what was the cast?
Speaker 4 (28:14):
Cast? Who all was in there? Oh? Boy, let's see here.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Jeremy Irons, Ede Spiliers, John Malkovich was he was the voice.
I think he was.
Speaker 3 (28:25):
He was the voice of the dragon map. So I
got to confuse with the other. There was a Rachel
Wise that had that, because they had Sean Connery had
the voice of one of the It was a different
movie though, So as I look at these, Rachel Wise is, Yeah,
rachelis fairly Weiss is a fairly famous actress.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
John Malcovitch, Jeremiro anyway, we're not giving good reviews to
yesterday's performance.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
We are not, we are not. Yeah, King and Stark's
aka the Cisco.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
And of.
Speaker 4 (28:51):
The football reviewers.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
Yeah, not good reviews. Did not get We are going
to We're going to battle through this and and uh,
I always say, try to find some positives, but again
I'm not really sure I can find any.
Speaker 4 (29:04):
Brandon Ekel's interception.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
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(29:27):
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Phone lines are open for your phone calls four one
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Speaker 1 (29:52):
The locker Room with Kenyon Starks on Steelers Nation Radio,
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Speaker 2 (30:11):
And welcome back inside the locker room. Four one two nine,
one one six. Getting to the phone lines and getting
to one leading it off for us in South Carolina?
How are you in today? One?
Speaker 4 (30:24):
Hello?
Speaker 5 (30:24):
One?
Speaker 2 (30:26):
Hey, hmmm, we have some fun. Yeah, try again, one one,
Try to give us a call back.
Speaker 5 (30:39):
Come.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
Uh, let's go to Darryl and Hawaii and try this. Daryl,
how you doing? Thanks for being with us in the
locker room.
Speaker 5 (30:46):
I'm doing good. Welcome to the morning capital of the world. Anyway,
I just have a suggestion. You know what we need
is a backup quarterback that's mobile, because all the top
teams they have mobile quad back. That helps the sense
of line. You know, when there's nobody open, you know,
you have a chance to run. And what we could
(31:08):
have got with a cheap trade I thought would have
been Joe Milton. You know Joe Milton. He's a big guy,
hard to get down, he has a strong arm. He
just needs some good coaching. And you know in some
of the games that he did in preseason he shined
really well. You know, he has some really good qualities,
just need some good coaching. But the good things that
we had, like when we had been what was the
(31:28):
best thing about him his ability to run and extend
plays and hard to get down. All the top teams
right now all have mobile quarterbacks, straight knee ability to run,
bon Nick's ability to run, Josh, you know, Alan ability
to run and hard to bring down. So the thing
about it is that Aaron is really good. You know,
he's a good thrower and everything, but he's forty two
(31:49):
and he can't run like he used to. He used
to be able to extend plays and run too, but
you know, at forty two, we don't expect him to
do that. But with a person to ability to run,
he helps up offensive line, he helps out the receivers
just a couple more seconds more, you know, makes a
big difference. And like one or two plays, you know,
big plays first downs would have made a big difference
(32:11):
in the game, like they had justin fields last year,
and they coached are really good. He didn't have that
many turnovers, but his ability to run change the game too.
How many times he made thirty forty yard runs and
changed the whole tempo of the game. Just that Loan
just brings the whole team up to a whole different
level and gives them hope, you know, getting pounded and pounded.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
Can I ask your quick question, Darryl, Darryl sure, are
you actually calling us from Hawaii right now? Are you
in Hawaii right now?
Speaker 5 (32:40):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (32:41):
I mean what time is what time? What time is
it yesterday? Is it still some five?
Speaker 5 (32:48):
Forty five?
Speaker 2 (32:49):
Okay? Five? All right, okay, okay, all right, Hey, thank
you very much. And I think I think it's a
great topic. So Darryl, thank you very much. And I
think that you know, Mike Tomlin has professed desire I
believe to get a mobile quarterback. You know, look, everybody
sees the trend. Everybody sees how difficult it is. You know, CJ.
Stroud is more of a pocket guy. But when you
(33:09):
think of you know, Jaden Daniels, you think of Drake May,
you think of bow Nicks, Caleb Williams. These guys can
all get out and run. Now you have to be
able to throw and then run. I think if you
asked any offensive coordinator, what do you want, Well, you
got to be able to throw first and then run.
I mean, Joe Burrow is you wouldn't consider him an
(33:32):
unbelievably mobile guy, but he does have good footwork. He
can evade the rush, but he's looking always to throw.
He can still run a little bit if he needs to.
But I think the mobility element is something that is
become more and more prevalent at the quarterback position. And
I believe that the students would like to get a
guy like that. But you have to be able to
(33:52):
throw first. I mean, you know Justin Fields. I love
Justin Fields. And they were foreign too with him at
the quarterback last year. He got benched by the Jets
this year after they signed him to be their guy.
Speaker 3 (34:02):
Yeah, exactly, And I mean and the Steelers wanted to
bring him back, but they didn't want to pay the
premium that the Jets paid, right, you know, to do it.
And like you said, now you're looking at it, you're like, well, huh,
you know, should you have if you had had a
more team friendly contract, would you have been able to
keep him? Possibly? But you didn't have that option. So
you know, you look at the field, it was it
(34:22):
was Kirk Cousins. Where's Kirk Cousins right now sitting on
the bench for the Atlanta Falcons who just got beat
yesterday again. So you know, Aaron was the option that
you had. But I think also, you know, Aaron is
that guy who can still sling it. I would not
say that his arm talent has deteriorated, but you know,
(34:45):
it's one of those things where a less than one
hundred percent Aaron Rodgers out there yesterday, would that been
the best thing for the team. Well, now, hindsight's always
twenty twenty, right, you know. And I talked about the
complexities of a lack of complexity that you established when
you're just strictly a shotgun team. That's why the NFL
does not do that. That's why they harp on guys
(35:06):
when they get to the league. Can you go from
under center? That's why they preach it. Even for a
guy like a Kyler Murray out in Arizona.
Speaker 4 (35:14):
I live out there.
Speaker 3 (35:14):
I've covered him and watched Kyler Murray like he was
so resistant to change and he wouldn't get out of
shotgun and Cliff Kingsbury ended up getting canned because of
it because they play caterd to it and now you
see him now more under center before he got injured,
because you need that element. You have to have under
the center elements, and it takes half of your playbook
(35:36):
away from you, or the anonymity factor when you're solely
in shotgun.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
I also believe that it's nice for a team that's competitive,
that wants to compete to have their backup quarterback play
a similar style. So you know, if, for example, if
Josh Allen goes down with an injury, well, Mitch Trubisky's
a guy, a mobile guy that can You don't have
to change your playbook. You have to say, well, we
can't do any quarterback keepers with Mitch Trubisky. That's part
(36:01):
of our offensive package. So you know, Mason Rudolph is
a pocket guy. You know, Aaron Rodgers, I mean, I'm
I'm just painting them with the broad brush. Now, he's
a pocket guy. It's your backup guy. You don't have
to change anything or everything. It wasn't Joe Flacco Lamar
Jackson right exactly.
Speaker 3 (36:19):
You had to where you literally had to change the
offensive play calling and the plays that were available to
them because they were so different, right, And eventually you
knew Lamar Jackson was going to be your future. Where's
Joe Flacco was just for now until right? You know,
and I think that's where you know you get to it.
The easier transition was, I would say, Tony Romo and
(36:43):
Dak Prescott. Right, Dak was a was a pocket quarterback
that could move around in the pocket, but he's not
necessarily a runner. Right, Right, There's two different guys but
similar styles. Right, But what you saw was you had
to literally change the entire offense from Joe Flatt go
to Lamar Jackson, I think just for comparison purposes. So
(37:04):
for Aaron Rodgers, right, Nason Rudolph is very similar in
that respect to how they go about running an offense.
Speaker 4 (37:11):
So now you change it.
Speaker 2 (37:12):
And again, if you had a young guy and you
had a package of plays for him and you were
bringing him along, that great different. But usually if you're
doing that, it's because you're not very good. So if
you're very good, you want to be able to compete exactly.
All right, let's go to Greg and Richmond, Virginia. Greg,
thanks for being with us in the locker room.
Speaker 4 (37:31):
Hey, good morning, guys.
Speaker 6 (37:32):
Uh not a not a two good morning. I was
having a good weekend and then Sunday came around and
I uh know, im, I get dressed Sarah Sunday morning,
put my mask Dog's jersey on. Getting But for some reason,
my wife had me hanging Christas lights and we didn't
come on to four o'clock. So I waited around four o'clock,
(37:54):
hung the lights up. Didn't when the game was about
to come.
Speaker 3 (37:56):
Out, I didn't.
Speaker 6 (37:57):
I just kept what I had on. I didn't have
no all of myself sweatpants, no stealer gear. And I
hate to stay this, but I knew we was gonna
lose this game. For some reason, they didn't the field right. Uh,
even though they was down to officive tackles that means nothing.
Three before Chicago was down three linebackers, that meant nothing.
San Diego officer Lineman was out, that means nothing. We
(38:20):
just and it was embarrassing to me to tell you
the truth. And uh, I was just.
Speaker 4 (38:24):
Proud to think, what are we gonna do.
Speaker 6 (38:26):
If Josh Allen ran the ball like that on us?
Speaker 3 (38:28):
What's what's tomorrow?
Speaker 6 (38:29):
Jackson gonna do it to us next week. I mean
it's and I don't want to say it's common, and
Arthur Smith it's. I guess the titles of players that
we have are not making the plays and not getting open.
And my last thing is did it did fire move
play yesterday?
Speaker 4 (38:47):
Did he? I don't remember catching any bottle? He he
lined up in the formation.
Speaker 2 (38:53):
Before and Greg, thank you for the call. Before we
before we let you go. Then before Max answers your questions.
How did the lights look? Do they look good?
Speaker 1 (39:05):
Good?
Speaker 3 (39:05):
Okay, there we go. We're looking for some positives your
Steelers gear. At least make sure that the stuff that
you did to not get the Steelers gear looks good.
Speaker 2 (39:17):
Daryl's having breakfast in Hawaii. That's good.
Speaker 4 (39:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:20):
Greg's lights look good down in Richmond, Virginia.
Speaker 3 (39:23):
That's good. Yeah, thanks Greig, all right, appreciate Greg. So yeah,
I mean we didn't have we didn't possess the ball
locked up to incorporate Pat Fryer.
Speaker 2 (39:35):
And you almost wonder too at some point, you know,
if you are mixing and matching so much like I
was a believer that they had the number two receiver
on this team because they could have the matchups and
and they could find ways to exploit a defense. You know,
(39:55):
you got a number two corner that can do something
with Calvin Austin. Okay, well then you run Roman Wilson
in the slot, or or they go smaller and you
go john Us Smith and he gives you that size
advantage in the slot. And the offense is I think
it's safe to say it's never really clicked. There's been moments,
but it's never really clicked consistently for the team. And
it makes you wonder, you know, do they have to
(40:18):
make some personnel decisions. I mean, you're splitting between Warren Gainwell,
you're splitting between Friarmouth and Smith and Washington, and you're
trying to find that combination at the second wide receiver
and the third wide receiver. Maybe less would be more.
I don't know. I just think right now, and Mike
Tomlin kind of alluded to this, nothing can be off
(40:39):
the table to try to make you get better.
Speaker 3 (40:41):
Well, and I think on top of that, right, you know,
you look at it and Darna Watshington was our leading
receiver yesterday and we didn't really activate him to the
fourth quarter, right, I mean, he had forty five yards
receiving on two catches and punish guys. It's like, why
did it take to the fourth quarter to get him.
I know you threw that earlier pass to him and
(41:02):
he was falling forward. It hit and hit off his
shoulder because he was falling forward when he delivered the
pass for whatever reason. But pat ryem Move didn't get
a single target yesterday. That that that that's a sixty
cat and a guy that you paid a lot of
money to to not be catching the football. Roman Wilson
(41:23):
got targeted early, but you know you had that one
throw where as soon as he broke out that ball
was already in the air, and I felt like it
was a little bit too soon that Aaron released that ball.
Speaker 4 (41:32):
Yes, that.
Speaker 3 (41:35):
DK right. I mean you're trying to get him an action,
but you're not really putting him in the best position
for his skill set.
Speaker 4 (41:42):
Right.
Speaker 3 (41:42):
He's a he's a catch and run type of guy,
so you have to get quicker, easier passes to him
to get him in the motion of the game. And
they did a good job and Ben Benford was was
on him almost exclusively, and it was a tough job
because you saw that Christian Benford did right, I mean,
he blizzed. He recovered a fumble and got a touchdown.
In the very next series he got an interception. Yep,
(42:04):
he's a hell of a corner, you know, so you
take him out. Who else is going to activate? Right,
Calvin Austin. There was frustration when remember when in the
third quarter, what was at he broke out, you know,
Aaron broke out of the coverage, got pressure and he
was trying to send Calvin across at Calvin.
Speaker 4 (42:21):
Was supposed to keep running.
Speaker 3 (42:22):
He stopped on the reception, ball goes low into the
inside of him, and there was like no, no, He's
like keep going, keep going, And he was frustrated coming out.
So there is a lack of connection there for whatever
purposes are at for a team that sucked, let's just
call it. They sucked it at stopping the run. We
(42:44):
didn't utilize the run enough in that moment. I mean, honestly,
we should have done what Buffalo did to us. Right,
whatever the weakness is, just attack it and just over
overdo it. Now, we said at the beginning of this game,
just like we said at the beginning of last week,
we've placed two teams that are poor against the run,
Run the Football RTFF.
Speaker 2 (43:06):
I've got I've got I've got a question on that
very topic, but it's gonna have to wait till after
the break. We're taking your phone calls four one, two nine.
We're in the Locker Room, presented by our neighborhood Ford
Store and the Students Pro Shop on Studars Nation Radio,
a part of the Students Audio Network.
This is in the Locker Room with King and Starks
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Speaker 2 (00:25):
It's a snap back to pass looking right on a
little cross and is it intercepted? It's picked off somehow
someway brahandon Eckles came away with the interception. Oh, those
are the glory days of yesterday's game. Early on when
the Steelers had that seven to nothing lead, carried a
seven nothing lead for a while and then it just
(00:48):
it just fell apart. And even as it was falling apart,
the signs weren't particularly good in the first half, and
they were not good at all in the second half
as the Steelers dropped the six and six briefly held
first place in the AFC North once again, and now
fall back into a virtual tie with the Ravens. Although
I think they've got the tiebreakers. The Ravens have the edge,
(01:10):
no no matter, I mean, the two teams are gonna
decide it on the field beginning on Sunday. Thanks very
much for being with us in the locker room. Max
does does this game feel any better to you this
morning than it did when we were exiting the the
broadcast booth last night?
Speaker 3 (01:30):
No, not at all. I mean this was this is
a tough bild swallow Ganger. There's a tough game to watch,
tough game to rewatch.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
And.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
You know there there there's a lot of you know, speculation,
and people are you know, they have their feelings.
Speaker 4 (01:55):
We're in their feelings today.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
I'm just gonna call it in your in our feelings Monday,
uh because even you know, after the game, getting up
this morning and interacting with people, everybody has a you know,
is just kind of distraught on what they saw and
(02:19):
listen and I get it. It was not a good game.
It was not a good game. I don't feel good
about it. And you know, I always say this, right,
we had twenty four hours to celebrate or commiserate.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
That's what we're going to get at. You know, we will.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
Handle that today and you know we'll be taking calls later.
But you know, it's one of those things that you
just you got to kind of get through that that bitter,
ugly truth of the fact that we are not a
consistently good football team.
Speaker 4 (02:51):
We're not.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
We have moments, and when we are on, we're on,
but when we are off, we are off. And you know,
at this point we've got we still control our own destiny.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
But it's gonna take a gut check.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
You know, something's gonna have to drop sackwise, and you're
gonna have to make a decision about who you want
to be. And this is this is that critical time.
I mean, this is the guy to have a moments.
December football is upon us and December you either rise
or you either fall.
Speaker 4 (03:29):
So if this is if this is, if this is
the last of.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
The falling moments, cool, But if it's not, you know
there are gonna be some hard truths that come out
if if they can't figure out how to put everything together.
Speaker 4 (03:44):
And when I.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
Say, you know it, it's not just players, because I
know Aaron Rodgers said that about the players as well.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
Coaches have to make that decision as well too.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
It has to be a combined front and a combined
group effort.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Max mentioned the phone calls, and we do take him
here on Monday in the locker room, Mondays and Fridays.
We'll see if we expand that, but for now, those
are the days for you to give us a call
at four one two nine, one nine, one three one six.
And you know, Max, the third quarter has not been
good to the Steelers, but frankly, the first half, despite
(04:23):
the fact that they led seven to three, the first
half was not good for the Steelers either. They were
out gained one seventy six to eighty seven. The Bills
ran thirty eight offensive plays. The Steelers ran twenty two
offensive plays. They were out rushed one hundred and twenty
five to thirty three in the first half. So you
(04:44):
know this. In the past, I have been more critical
of the offense not doing its part to keep the
defense off the field. Uh winning the time of possession
only twice in their twelve games, running more plays than
their opponents only one, and I think that was last
week against Chicago if I'm not mistaken, or maybe it
was against Cincinnati. They you know, they just have not
(05:06):
out snapped the other team. So people say, we need
more jail and Warren, we need more Pat Fryermuth, we
need more John new Smith, we need more dk metcalf Well,
we need more ball. You know, if we don't have
the ball, they can't have the ball. Those guys can't
get the ball. But yesterday's game, this felt different to me.
I think both units were equally to blame. Clearly, the
(05:29):
offense did pretty much next to nothing in the game,
and the defense was being gouged from the very first play.
James Cook starts left, bounces it right, and then that
was like on replay all night long. Start left, bounce
it right, start left, bounce it right, start left, bounce
it right. They didn't stop. I mean, they had one
(05:50):
hundred and twenty five yards rushing in the first half.
So this was just a game in which it never
got going offensively or defensively. And I think you can,
you know, wherever you want to, you know, play the
blame game. You can spread the blame equally between those
two units, in my opinion.
Speaker 4 (06:09):
No, you're absolutely right.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
I mean, there was really no bright spots. You know,
there were moments, but no unit was a bright spot yesterday.
And I'll even love in special teams, you know, I mean, granted,
you know, Boz and I didn't get to do anything
really Boz like, I mean, he kicked the ball off
twice and he kicked an extra point.
Speaker 4 (06:32):
That was about it for the Wizard of Oz.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
Corliss struggled once again back to back weeks, you know,
averaging only forty yards of punt.
Speaker 4 (06:43):
That's not going to get it done. So you know
he's gonna have to work on that as well. But
to your.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
Point, you know, I read James James Cook, you know,
in his postgame interview talked about we knew what we
were gonna do. We were we were going to test
the edges and what did I tell you about our
perimeter tackling?
Speaker 4 (07:03):
I told you just questionable at best.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
And you know Jalen Ramsey helped, you know, make some
of that a little bit better.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
Well, that's exactly what James Cook said.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
He said, we knew how bad a tacklers they were
on the perimeter, so if we got to the outside,
we were going we were going to we were going
to do that and press them the entire time. That's
why they kept run the same play and getting to
the outside because they were playing on the bad eye
discipline and poor tackling on the perimeter.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Yeah, and the edges weren't getting set. And then you
know Joey Porter Junior made a couple of nice tackles
in the second half, had to. I mean, he was
out there on an island with James Cook and that's
that's a lonely place to be. And I thought Joey
Porter did a nice job on those tackles. But I
was surprised they could just bounce it outside routinely. You know, look,
they did a lot of it felt like they ran
(07:50):
two plays up the middle with some double team blocking
and gaping holes and then bouncing it to the outside,
usually to the right with ga holes. And so I
don't know whether you know, again, I don't know. I'm
not watching. As I've said many times in these airwaves,
I'm not watching. I'm watching the ball. I have to
(08:12):
follow the ball. That's my job. I don't have the
luxury of saying, hey, uh did this do this is
at the snap? Did they roll into a from a
cover two into a cover three look or a single
high look or you know. I don't have that luxury.
So I don't know why they were able to get
to the edge again and again and again. I can imagine,
you know, if you're seeing the ball run up the middle,
(08:32):
you want to kind of try to get there and
help out. But you know, it's kind of like when
I think about it now, it's kind of like what
the Rams have done so successfully over the years. You know,
they'll they'll bring a guy in motion, you know, Pooka
Nakua and you know or Cooper Cup, you know, these
these really good blocking wide receivers. They'll bring him in
motion and they'll they'll do one of two things. They'll
(08:55):
either bounce it outside or they will run it right
up the middle. And that's what the Bills. It seemed
like they had two running place. Run it up the middle,
bounce it outside.
Speaker 4 (09:06):
And you know, it was.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
A little bit more sophisticated than that, but but it
was the same exact concept that you're talking about. It
was also backside pursuit angles. You know, Peyton Wilson struggled
a little bit yesterday and staying backside and not overshooting
the front side a gap, and that was that.
Speaker 4 (09:35):
Was an issue. It was an issue.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
Because there was no backside relief on that cutback and because.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
Of that, you put Joey Porter Jr.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
In that quandary on the backside where he had he
he had he had to play outside and then if
he did play you know, inside angle on that backside
hook block, then that's when it bounced outside.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
So it was like, darned if you do, darned if
you don't. They were going to hurt you either way.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
And like you said, that's what we used to run
was thirty four base or thirty five base with Hines
Ward and Heines was a guy that would kick.
Speaker 4 (10:15):
Out to allow for that backside cutoff. It's just we
never you know.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
Now, Willie Parker was that guy that that would break
it all the way out to the to the D gap,
but usually everybody else usually held a tighter track on
the backside cutoff.
Speaker 4 (10:27):
He usually came back back.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
You know, you went front side B to A and
then pressed back to backside B two C on the cutback.
James Cook just said, you know what, I'm just gonna
take it all the way to the outside to the
D gap and go that way. But similar concepts that
were ran, and you know, ones that should have been
easier to.
Speaker 4 (10:47):
Snuff out, but you know it was. It was.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
It was a bad showing and they really exposed one
of the weaknesses of our team, which was perimeter tackling.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
You know, there were a few times in that game
where to your point, where they cut it up in
the contain man and basically became off tackle instead of
a round and and that was effective too, Right, So,
like you said, you're making a choice series a defender.
You know, if you crash down and they bounce it
outside and there's nobody there, or if you try to
hold the edge and they cut it inside and there's
still nobody there. You know, I think that you know,
(11:20):
we see this a lot. We see it with the
pitch that starts to the left and the guy cuts
it back to the right. But this this, uh, I mean,
if I'm not mistaken, Max, these are designed cutbacks, right,
you get and it would make sense, and you can
give me the football one on one, But it seems
to me that it's a let's flow left right and
that that stops like if you just take the ball
(11:41):
and pitch it right now. Everybody now, Cam Hayward is
running down the line of scrimmage in backside pursuit High Smith.
If there's a hesitation, maybe he gets around the edge.
Everyone's pursuing down the line. But if you fake, if
you start blocking left, those guys are kind of holding
their ground or maybe even moving in that direction defensively.
(12:03):
And now it's a designed cutback, and you know, your
your guys, if your guys on the what appears to
be the backside but is really the front side of
the play, can get a block or two. Now you've
that that sort of flow to the left has taken
has taken half the field out of play. Those guys
aren't pursuing back down the line of scrimmage to get
(12:24):
you Is that a simplification of it? Is that what
it is? Or is it is it something different? That's
because it certainly looks like it's a designed cutback.
Speaker 4 (12:34):
Yeah, no, I mean it. Well, every every zone style
play has.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
A cutback element too, okay, right, you know, and the
running backs taught to read the flow. So if you're
fast flow over the top of the linebackers as you're
as you're making your as you'r as you're sending the
ball to the original direction, that's when the cutback lane happens.
That you're watching for that backside guard or that backside
tackle to either have a hook or a pin on
(13:03):
that on the flow of that backside defensive tackle, because
that's what's gonna determine where your cutback lane is, and
you'll have flow that you can cut and just be
tight and it be subtle, or you can cut and
just say, you know what, we're gonna kick this out.
And you can also have that backside tight end, you know,
(13:26):
run run more of of of a bluff block to
get the linebacker to jump inside or whoever the edge
or emol defender is in man of the line of
scrimmage to jump inside where you kind of delay and
pretend to like half block and then the guy takes
the inside edge and then you pin him right. So
(13:46):
there's a lot of different concepts on that. Theirs looked
to be just normal flow. And James Cook just said,
when I get the cutback, I'm cutting it all the
way back like that was just his predetermined mind sets
a running back that if I can't keep it front side,
I'm going to take it all the way back.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
So there is a front side. So all those plays
it started left and cut back right, which felt like
and I haven't gone back and looked at it, but
it felt like every run right, you know, and sometimes
it would cut back through the through the a gap
right on on what it appeared to me to be
the backside. But are you telling me that he could
(14:26):
have stayed running left, that that play has an element
in which he could run left, or or he's just choosing.
It's a designed cutback and he's choosing whether to go
a a gap back to the right or bounce it outside.
Could he have stayed left or is it a So
it's not a designed cutback.
Speaker 4 (14:45):
Now, it's not predesigned.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
So they were actually stopping. So they were stopping it
on the front side because he always cut back. Actually,
I can't think of a single play there probably some existed.
I can't think of a single play where he's got
it left and ran left. It felt like everything started
left to cut back right.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
Yeah, he made a decision on a lot of it
because of the flow, and it's just but it's just inside.
It's just inside zone. That's all they were running, just
his own play. Because all of your elements for the
blocking aspects, you had the double teams that were working,
you know, tackling guard, well, tackling guard on the backside,
but it was tight end, tight end and tackle on
(15:26):
the left.
Speaker 4 (15:27):
Working, working, working, Uh, you know, we.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
Could call it a C block up to up to
the up to the front side backer. You had guard
guard center working to the backside backer, and then you
had backside guard taking his angle. Safety down in the box,
backside tackle taking that guy tight end had the inn
man of the line of scrimmage and you know they're
(15:50):
running flow there. So in his own play, you could
pick any hole as long as the flow is there,
and your cutback is determined by how by how much
over pursuit those linebackers or safety that's down in the
box plays forward allows for the cutback. If they're delayed,
you keep it front side right because you've got all
(16:11):
of you got all of your wall angles created. So
that was so that was something that they worked on
and like you said, it looked effortless and it looked
like he just made a decision to do that, but
they had keys and tendencies.
Speaker 4 (16:25):
So a lot of it depending on where was Peyton Wilson.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
And Peyton Wilson we know is a fast trigger and
a guy who's going to run, you know, run an
id ball. He was. He was definitely flowing over the top,
which allowed for those backside cutbacks to be so great.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
And they were and they were effective, as you know,
we had the statistic last night the most rushing yards
at home for this Steers since nineteen seventy five, also
against the Bills when OJ Simpson, I believe must have
been the running back in seventy five ran for over
three hundred against his Steelers in Pittsburgh. So a discouraging
loss for sure. We're gonna spend a little time moping.
(17:04):
We're gonna spend a little time taking your phone calls
as well at four one two nine one nine one
three one six when we continue in the Locker Room
presented by your neighborhood Ford Store and the Steelers Pro
Shop on Stevilize Nation Radio, part of the Steelers Audio Network.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
This is in the locker Room with King and Starks
on Steelers Nation Radio presented by your neighborhood Ford Store.
The F one point fifty is the official truck of
the Pittsburgh Steelers and by Steelers Pro Shop. Get it
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Speaker 2 (17:46):
Commiserating in the locker room, Yeah, come join us. It's
a communal effort. It just doesn't feel any better today
than it did last night. You know, still.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
Feelshchy's it does.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
I mean I can. There's just a laundry list of issues,
you know. Some of them were smaller that cropped up,
you know, three unsportsman like conduct penalties. You can't have that,
you know. And and there was one at the end
of the first half on Peyton Wilson after the kickoff.
And you have used your timeouts like and so you could, Hey,
(18:23):
should the students be using your timeouts here?
Speaker 4 (18:25):
Right?
Speaker 2 (18:25):
They're being super aggressive at the end of the first half. Yep,
they could have the Bills could have gotten a first
down inside the one yard line, but Mike Tomlin was
very aggressive using the timeouts. It paid off. You've got
fifty one seconds left, you're gonna get the ball at
your own twenty six yard line. Hey, let's get a
couple first downs. Let's throw the ball out the field,
let's use the sideline to watch it twice. Let's get
(18:48):
Bozz out there. Let's get a touchdown lead, and then
let's make it a two score lead when we start
the third quarter, which you could talk about in a minute.
But then you get the penalty that sets you back.
It's you just you can't have we have things like that.
Three unsportsmanlike penalties. That's not good Max.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
And you know, we would have been in the same
situation that we were a week ago at the end
of the game with that same thing. You need the
timeout or you need a spike down to be able
to get your kicker out there on the field and
switch out to a k ball right right. So we
essentially did the same thing, except for this time. It
wasn't an injury to James Pierre that lost the time out.
(19:25):
It was we had to utilize that because of the choices.
Speaker 4 (19:30):
Of certain individuals to get the ball backed up.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
You know, you go from that nice field position to
now you know, deepen your own territory or what I
call the two first down zone where you know, minimally
when you started driving that area, you have to get
two first downs to justify it being successful so you
can flip the field right in field position. So yeah,
it was just poor execution on the side of just
(19:53):
thinking and performing. The extra stuff is selfish stuff.
Speaker 4 (20:00):
Happened, a lot of selfish stuff.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
It's one thing to get a penalty, right, a hold
in the heat of action and you try to stop
a guy from making a play like I get the
holds right, you know, but when it comes to the
after the whistle stuff, that's unnecessary. The he he hurt
my feelings or he he he was too aggressive, so
(20:25):
I decided to take it a step further. Right, these
are those self aggressive And listen, I'm not saying I'm
perfect here, and you know I've committed plenty of penalties
in my career. I'm not saying that. But at the
same time, a lot of that can be self inflicted.
The effort ones I'm fine with, right, you know, effort penalties,
(20:47):
they happen, right if you get the PI. I understand that, right,
Because you're hand fighting, you don't know what's too far
and not enough, and the other guy's doing stuff and
you're doing that. It's the personal foul unnecessary, right. It
says it there in the play. Necessary roughness, Yeah, this's
(21:08):
never necessary roughness. That That is a movie with Scott
Baculo and Sindbad and Company and Kathy Ireland. Right, I
remember that it was a great one. Oh great sports company?
Was it?
Speaker 2 (21:20):
I think?
Speaker 4 (21:20):
So?
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Okay, I think so, I've never heard of it. Necessary roughness,
necessary roughness.
Speaker 4 (21:24):
Yeah, go look it up. It's a good one.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
But that those those are things pre snap penalties obviously
are another one. I'll never be those are those are
that's in the deadly sins, right, you know, gotta be
able to stay on sides, not false start and you
gottaut line up off sides or jump off sides. Like
those are ones where it's like, those are things that
don't require as much skill and attention. So those in
(21:50):
personal penalties, So anything before the whistle, anything after the whistle,
that's where I kind of struggle with the stuff in
between the whistles.
Speaker 4 (21:59):
We can are argue that one.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
So I just looked up necessary roughness. Yeah, and uh
so thirty five percent on Rotten Tomatoes and that's not
good now. But here, but let me say this, let
me say this, I'm becoming more of an imb D okay.
And there so Roger Ebert, yes, it can be alive.
Speaker 4 (22:23):
Back then, he gave.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
It three out of four. Okay, so he gave it.
He was one of those people that liked it. I
m b d gave it a six point two. I'll
say this if I see a movie that's like ninety
percent on Rotten Tomatoes and like six point two, and
I m b this is a recent. This is a
recent thing for me. My tendency is to think I'm
probably not going to like it. Yeah, but if I
(22:46):
but if it's going to get very serious, it marks.
Speaker 3 (22:48):
Very very monotone. And you know that the subject matter
is a heavy one.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
You know, I don't mind a heavy one. I don't
mind heavy one our cagion.
Speaker 3 (22:57):
But they by the only way you're gonna get a
ninety percent, I mean, really is it's gonna have to
be some type of historical reference or biopic that can
be referenced to compare against when it comes to a
sports comedy of unbelievable for portions like Scott Back was
like thirty five year old quarterback that never used his eligibility.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
You know what I'm saying that that was the story.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
Yeah, it's a farst type of deal at a university
that hasn't won another you know and forever, right you know,
so you know, and it's a sports comedy. So it's
not going to get a rotten to It's not gonna
get a rotten tomatoes because it's not hardcore hitting stuff.
Speaker 4 (23:30):
It's like watching National Lampoons.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
There is too much. There is too much of that.
I remember they did the and and I'll bring it
back here in a moment. But they did the Greatest
oh is years ago, the greatest movies of all time, right,
thee hundred greatest Movies. It was the first one they did.
I don't know. It was back in the eighties or nineties,
whatever it was. And I remember watching it and they
they were going to mel Brooks on occasion and you know,
(23:53):
they're counting now number thirty two, and you know, and
then mel Brooks said, where are the comedies? And I
will tell you, as somebody who was an English literature
major in college, I like to read. I like movies.
I think it is way way easier to make a
tear jerker than it is to make a good comedy.
It's way easier to write a serious book than it
(24:16):
is to write a comedic book. Yeah, it is hard
to do, and it's underappreciated.
Speaker 4 (24:21):
No, I completely agree.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
And I think you know when you say, when you
say the one hundred greatest, it's.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
Like to who exactly.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
So it's such a subject, right because I could tell
you one of my favorite movies all time, Guarantee, is
now on the dred one hundred Greatest Movies of all Time,
which is Coming to America. Okay, but you would think,
oh man, that's such a big hit, right right, that's
definitely I could end up in one hundred grade. There
was zero Oscar nominations for that, right movie. But I
(24:49):
enjoy it anytime I watch it. It was funny, it
was personal to me, you know, and it's something that
it was just very you know, near and dear to
my childhood and upbringing, you know, for one of one
of the movies that I just absolutely enjoyed to this day.
You know, I love trading places. Right, There's a lot
of Eddie Murphy. There's a lot of National lampoons in
there in my favorite movies that you know, That's probably
(25:10):
why I'm not as as serious of a guy, because
those are the movies that I see, you know that
I gravitate.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
Towards here is the other way around. You gravitate towards
him because you're not that Yeah, because because I'm that serious.
In which one? Which one is the one with the
barber shop Coming to America?
Speaker 4 (25:25):
America?
Speaker 3 (25:25):
That is a tremendous and Eddie played all those different
characters with a little bit of our Cineo played two
of my.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (25:33):
Our Cineo played multiple, Eddie played multiple, and I thought
it was just it was fun to see that. And
then you know, there's a lot of people like John.
I love John Amos in that movie as the dad,
you know, and now as I'm older, as a debt,
I can relate, you know, to those moments. So it
was just and I think that's some of the things
where you look at and you're like, well, yeah, I can,
(25:53):
I could. You know, it's easy to say, Ben Her
is probably right, you know what I'm saying, like, oh,
that's gonna be one of the greatest movies of all time.
Speaker 4 (26:01):
I fell asleep.
Speaker 3 (26:02):
I don't know if I've actually finished been her like
in the same sitting in my entire life.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
Yeah, I think he wins the chariot race. I think
I don't want I don't want to give it. I
think he wins the chariot race. But you know what,
the only reason I and my wife rolls her eyes
when I go to the to the rankings, and the
only reason I do it is because, uh, my time
is very short right now and has been for quite
(26:27):
some time now. If I retire or semi retire whatever,
and I have more time. I love going to the
movie theaters. Love going to the movie theater, but I
only go now on rare occasions because it's time consuming.
You know, it's a two hour movie, but it's probably
four hours of my day, you know what I mean
to go to a movie or even even to watch one.
(26:48):
I mean there are times where if I'm watching a
movie or a show and I'm like, I don't really
like this. I'm like, I could be getting a jumpstart
on the Dolphins game, you know what I mean, or
something like or I could be writing another chapter of
my next book. Yes, so there's there's these other things
that are involved. Anyway, Uh, the rotten tomatoes and I
m b D to bring it back to our game.
(27:10):
The ratings would not be good. They would be they
would be low yesterday.
Speaker 4 (27:14):
Oh, they would be absolutely rotten.
Speaker 3 (27:17):
Yes, it would not be spoiled on delivery.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
Yes, I'm trying to think. They would be Aragon low. Yeah, Aragon.
Aragon did not get. That was the famous I Get
fantasy book. They made a new movie and had a
great cast and didn't didn't like it.
Speaker 4 (27:33):
It tanked.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
It was so bad because that was with Dennis Quaid, right, wasn't.
Speaker 4 (27:38):
He in that one?
Speaker 2 (27:38):
I know Jeremy Irons was in it, but because he
was the dragon, I didn't think it was I didn't
think it was that terrible. It got killed in the rings. Yeah,
I gotta look that up. Now we're gonna get we
are going to get back.
Speaker 3 (27:53):
We are going to get back to football.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
But okay, we're gonna compare. We're going to compare yesterday.
Just the results in the stars.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
Movie reviews will be every uh day as well.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
After a Aragon movie, Uh, fifteen percent on Rotten To me,
it was five point one on I m b D.
I give it. Yeah, what what was the cast?
Speaker 4 (28:14):
Cast? Who all was in there? Oh? Boy, let's see here.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Jeremy Irons, Ede Spiliers, John Malkovich was he was the voice.
I think he was.
Speaker 3 (28:25):
He was the voice of the dragon map. So I
got to confuse with the other. There was a Rachel
Wise that had that, because they had Sean Connery had
the voice of one of the It was a different
movie though, So as I look at these, Rachel Wise is, Yeah,
rachelis fairly Weiss is a fairly famous actress.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
John Malcovitch, Jeremiro anyway, we're not giving good reviews to
yesterday's performance.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
We are not, we are not. Yeah, King and Stark's
aka the Cisco.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
And of.
Speaker 4 (28:51):
The football reviewers.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
Yeah, not good reviews. Did not get We are going
to We're going to battle through this and and uh,
I always say, try to find some positives, but again
I'm not really sure I can find any.
Speaker 4 (29:04):
Brandon Ekel's interception.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
Well done. Gear up with the latest game data necessities,
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(29:27):
It's Studis Pro Shop at shop dot Steelers dot com.
Phone lines are open for your phone calls four one
two nine, one nine one three one six when we
return in the Locker Room presented by our neighborhood Forard
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part of the Steelers Audio Network, Please pause give.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
The locker Room with Kenyon Starks on Steelers Nation Radio,
presented by your neighborhood Forward Store. The F one is
the official truck of the Pittsburgh Steelers and by Steelers
Pro Shop. Get it direct from the team at the
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Speaker 2 (30:11):
And welcome back inside the locker room. Four one two nine,
one one six. Getting to the phone lines and getting
to one leading it off for us in South Carolina?
How are you in today? One?
Speaker 4 (30:24):
Hello?
Speaker 5 (30:24):
One?
Speaker 2 (30:26):
Hey, hmmm, we have some fun. Yeah, try again, one one,
Try to give us a call back.
Speaker 5 (30:39):
Come.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
Uh, let's go to Darryl and Hawaii and try this. Daryl,
how you doing? Thanks for being with us in the
locker room.
Speaker 5 (30:46):
I'm doing good. Welcome to the morning capital of the world. Anyway,
I just have a suggestion. You know what we need
is a backup quarterback that's mobile, because all the top
teams they have mobile quad back. That helps the sense
of line. You know, when there's nobody open, you know,
you have a chance to run. And what we could
(31:08):
have got with a cheap trade I thought would have
been Joe Milton. You know Joe Milton. He's a big guy,
hard to get down, he has a strong arm. He
just needs some good coaching. And you know in some
of the games that he did in preseason he shined
really well. You know, he has some really good qualities,
just need some good coaching. But the good things that
we had, like when we had been what was the
(31:28):
best thing about him his ability to run and extend
plays and hard to get down. All the top teams
right now all have mobile quarterbacks, straight knee ability to run,
bon Nick's ability to run, Josh, you know, Alan ability
to run and hard to bring down. So the thing
about it is that Aaron is really good. You know,
he's a good thrower and everything, but he's forty two
(31:49):
and he can't run like he used to. He used
to be able to extend plays and run too, but
you know, at forty two, we don't expect him to
do that. But with a person to ability to run,
he helps up offensive line, he helps out the receivers
just a couple more seconds more, you know, makes a
big difference. And like one or two plays, you know,
big plays first downs would have made a big difference
(32:11):
in the game, like they had justin fields last year,
and they coached are really good. He didn't have that
many turnovers, but his ability to run change the game too.
How many times he made thirty forty yard runs and
changed the whole tempo of the game. Just that Loan
just brings the whole team up to a whole different
level and gives them hope, you know, getting pounded and pounded.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
Can I ask your quick question, Darryl, Darryl sure, are
you actually calling us from Hawaii right now? Are you
in Hawaii right now?
Speaker 5 (32:40):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (32:41):
I mean what time is what time? What time is
it yesterday? Is it still some five?
Speaker 5 (32:48):
Forty five?
Speaker 2 (32:49):
Okay? Five? All right, okay, okay, all right, Hey, thank
you very much. And I think I think it's a
great topic. So Darryl, thank you very much. And I
think that you know, Mike Tomlin has professed desire I
believe to get a mobile quarterback. You know, look, everybody
sees the trend. Everybody sees how difficult it is. You know, CJ.
Stroud is more of a pocket guy. But when you
(33:09):
think of you know, Jaden Daniels, you think of Drake May,
you think of bow Nicks, Caleb Williams. These guys can
all get out and run. Now you have to be
able to throw and then run. I think if you
asked any offensive coordinator, what do you want, Well, you
got to be able to throw first and then run.
I mean, Joe Burrow is you wouldn't consider him an
(33:32):
unbelievably mobile guy, but he does have good footwork. He
can evade the rush, but he's looking always to throw.
He can still run a little bit if he needs to.
But I think the mobility element is something that is
become more and more prevalent at the quarterback position. And
I believe that the students would like to get a
guy like that. But you have to be able to
(33:52):
throw first. I mean, you know Justin Fields. I love
Justin Fields. And they were foreign too with him at
the quarterback last year. He got benched by the Jets
this year after they signed him to be their guy.
Speaker 3 (34:02):
Yeah, exactly, And I mean and the Steelers wanted to
bring him back, but they didn't want to pay the
premium that the Jets paid, right, you know, to do it.
And like you said, now you're looking at it, you're like, well, huh,
you know, should you have if you had had a
more team friendly contract, would you have been able to
keep him? Possibly? But you didn't have that option. So
you know, you look at the field, it was it
(34:22):
was Kirk Cousins. Where's Kirk Cousins right now sitting on
the bench for the Atlanta Falcons who just got beat
yesterday again. So you know, Aaron was the option that
you had. But I think also, you know, Aaron is
that guy who can still sling it. I would not
say that his arm talent has deteriorated, but you know,
(34:45):
it's one of those things where a less than one
hundred percent Aaron Rodgers out there yesterday, would that been
the best thing for the team. Well, now, hindsight's always
twenty twenty, right, you know. And I talked about the
complexities of a lack of complexity that you established when
you're just strictly a shotgun team. That's why the NFL
does not do that. That's why they harp on guys
(35:06):
when they get to the league. Can you go from
under center? That's why they preach it. Even for a
guy like a Kyler Murray out in Arizona.
Speaker 4 (35:14):
I live out there.
Speaker 3 (35:14):
I've covered him and watched Kyler Murray like he was
so resistant to change and he wouldn't get out of
shotgun and Cliff Kingsbury ended up getting canned because of
it because they play caterd to it and now you
see him now more under center before he got injured,
because you need that element. You have to have under
the center elements, and it takes half of your playbook
(35:36):
away from you, or the anonymity factor when you're solely
in shotgun.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
I also believe that it's nice for a team that's competitive,
that wants to compete to have their backup quarterback play
a similar style. So you know, if, for example, if
Josh Allen goes down with an injury, well, Mitch Trubisky's
a guy, a mobile guy that can You don't have
to change your playbook. You have to say, well, we
can't do any quarterback keepers with Mitch Trubisky. That's part
(36:01):
of our offensive package. So you know, Mason Rudolph is
a pocket guy. You know, Aaron Rodgers, I mean, I'm
I'm just painting them with the broad brush. Now, he's
a pocket guy. It's your backup guy. You don't have
to change anything or everything. It wasn't Joe Flacco Lamar
Jackson right exactly.
Speaker 3 (36:19):
You had to where you literally had to change the
offensive play calling and the plays that were available to
them because they were so different, right, And eventually you
knew Lamar Jackson was going to be your future. Where's
Joe Flacco was just for now until right? You know,
and I think that's where you know you get to it.
The easier transition was, I would say, Tony Romo and
(36:43):
Dak Prescott. Right, Dak was a was a pocket quarterback
that could move around in the pocket, but he's not
necessarily a runner. Right, Right, There's two different guys but
similar styles. Right, But what you saw was you had
to literally change the entire offense from Joe Flatt go
to Lamar Jackson, I think just for comparison purposes. So
(37:04):
for Aaron Rodgers, right, Nason Rudolph is very similar in
that respect to how they go about running an offense.
Speaker 4 (37:11):
So now you change it.
Speaker 2 (37:12):
And again, if you had a young guy and you
had a package of plays for him and you were
bringing him along, that great different. But usually if you're
doing that, it's because you're not very good. So if
you're very good, you want to be able to compete exactly.
All right, let's go to Greg and Richmond, Virginia. Greg,
thanks for being with us in the locker room.
Speaker 4 (37:31):
Hey, good morning, guys.
Speaker 6 (37:32):
Uh not a not a two good morning. I was
having a good weekend and then Sunday came around and
I uh know, im, I get dressed Sarah Sunday morning,
put my mask Dog's jersey on. Getting But for some reason,
my wife had me hanging Christas lights and we didn't
come on to four o'clock. So I waited around four o'clock,
(37:54):
hung the lights up. Didn't when the game was about
to come.
Speaker 3 (37:56):
Out, I didn't.
Speaker 6 (37:57):
I just kept what I had on. I didn't have
no all of myself sweatpants, no stealer gear. And I
hate to stay this, but I knew we was gonna
lose this game. For some reason, they didn't the field right. Uh,
even though they was down to officive tackles that means nothing.
Three before Chicago was down three linebackers, that meant nothing.
San Diego officer Lineman was out, that means nothing. We
(38:20):
just and it was embarrassing to me to tell you
the truth. And uh, I was just.
Speaker 4 (38:24):
Proud to think, what are we gonna do.
Speaker 6 (38:26):
If Josh Allen ran the ball like that on us?
Speaker 3 (38:28):
What's what's tomorrow?
Speaker 6 (38:29):
Jackson gonna do it to us next week. I mean
it's and I don't want to say it's common, and
Arthur Smith it's. I guess the titles of players that
we have are not making the plays and not getting open.
And my last thing is did it did fire move
play yesterday?
Speaker 4 (38:47):
Did he? I don't remember catching any bottle? He he
lined up in the formation.
Speaker 2 (38:53):
Before and Greg, thank you for the call. Before we
before we let you go. Then before Max answers your questions.
How did the lights look? Do they look good?
Speaker 1 (39:05):
Good?
Speaker 3 (39:05):
Okay, there we go. We're looking for some positives your
Steelers gear. At least make sure that the stuff that
you did to not get the Steelers gear looks good.
Speaker 2 (39:17):
Daryl's having breakfast in Hawaii. That's good.
Speaker 4 (39:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:20):
Greg's lights look good down in Richmond, Virginia.
Speaker 3 (39:23):
That's good. Yeah, thanks Greig, all right, appreciate Greg. So yeah,
I mean we didn't have we didn't possess the ball
locked up to incorporate Pat Fryer.
Speaker 2 (39:35):
And you almost wonder too at some point, you know,
if you are mixing and matching so much like I
was a believer that they had the number two receiver
on this team because they could have the matchups and
and they could find ways to exploit a defense. You know,
(39:55):
you got a number two corner that can do something
with Calvin Austin. Okay, well then you run Roman Wilson
in the slot, or or they go smaller and you
go john Us Smith and he gives you that size
advantage in the slot. And the offense is I think
it's safe to say it's never really clicked. There's been moments,
but it's never really clicked consistently for the team. And
it makes you wonder, you know, do they have to
(40:18):
make some personnel decisions. I mean, you're splitting between Warren Gainwell,
you're splitting between Friarmouth and Smith and Washington, and you're
trying to find that combination at the second wide receiver
and the third wide receiver. Maybe less would be more.
I don't know. I just think right now, and Mike
Tomlin kind of alluded to this, nothing can be off
(40:39):
the table to try to make you get better.
Speaker 3 (40:41):
Well, and I think on top of that, right, you know,
you look at it and Darna Watshington was our leading
receiver yesterday and we didn't really activate him to the
fourth quarter, right, I mean, he had forty five yards
receiving on two catches and punish guys. It's like, why
did it take to the fourth quarter to get him.
I know you threw that earlier pass to him and
(41:02):
he was falling forward. It hit and hit off his
shoulder because he was falling forward when he delivered the
pass for whatever reason. But pat ryem Move didn't get
a single target yesterday. That that that that's a sixty
cat and a guy that you paid a lot of
money to to not be catching the football. Roman Wilson
(41:23):
got targeted early, but you know you had that one
throw where as soon as he broke out that ball
was already in the air, and I felt like it
was a little bit too soon that Aaron released that ball.
Speaker 4 (41:32):
Yes, that.
Speaker 3 (41:35):
DK right. I mean you're trying to get him an action,
but you're not really putting him in the best position
for his skill set.
Speaker 4 (41:42):
Right.
Speaker 3 (41:42):
He's a he's a catch and run type of guy,
so you have to get quicker, easier passes to him
to get him in the motion of the game. And
they did a good job and Ben Benford was was
on him almost exclusively, and it was a tough job
because you saw that Christian Benford did right, I mean,
he blizzed. He recovered a fumble and got a touchdown.
In the very next series he got an interception. Yep,
(42:04):
he's a hell of a corner, you know, so you
take him out. Who else is going to activate? Right,
Calvin Austin. There was frustration when remember when in the
third quarter, what was at he broke out, you know,
Aaron broke out of the coverage, got pressure and he
was trying to send Calvin across at Calvin.
Speaker 4 (42:21):
Was supposed to keep running.
Speaker 3 (42:22):
He stopped on the reception, ball goes low into the
inside of him, and there was like no, no, He's
like keep going, keep going, And he was frustrated coming out.
So there is a lack of connection there for whatever
purposes are at for a team that sucked, let's just
call it. They sucked it at stopping the run. We
(42:44):
didn't utilize the run enough in that moment. I mean, honestly,
we should have done what Buffalo did to us. Right,
whatever the weakness is, just attack it and just over
overdo it. Now, we said at the beginning of this game,
just like we said at the beginning of last week,
we've placed two teams that are poor against the run,
Run the Football RTFF.
Speaker 2 (43:06):
I've got I've got I've got a question on that
very topic, but it's gonna have to wait till after
the break. We're taking your phone calls four one, two nine.
We're in the Locker Room, presented by our neighborhood Ford
Store and the Students Pro Shop on Studars Nation Radio,
a part of the Students Audio Network.
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