September 9, 2025 • 46 mins
Max and Rob share their thoughts on MNF and the weekend as a whole and discuss the state of the team heading into the upcoming week.
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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 Forward Store.
The F one fifty is the official truck of the
Pittsburgh Steelers and by Steelers Pro Shop. Get it direct
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dot Steelers dot com.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
And hello everybody, thank you very much for being with
us inside the locker room along with Max Starks. I'm
Rob King. We were spanning the globe to bring you
coverage today. Max, how are you doing?
Speaker 3 (00:41):
I'm doing okay, Rob, how are you doing today?
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Just okay?
Speaker 4 (00:46):
Yeah, I didn't get as much sleep as I would
have liked. Uh, but I'm still trying to build back
up on my on my sleep scale. So so yeah,
so we're getting there, feeling a little bit better, you know,
and but ready to rocket roll man, ready to finally
put a button on week one and then start start
(01:08):
charging towards week two as we take on the Seahawks.
So when I kind of look at everything, you know,
had a chance to watch the tape last night, just
saw some things. We'll just put it at that. We'll
talk about that as the show progressive. But I saw
some things.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
I can't wait to hear what those things were to
let everybody know. Of course, Max is in Arizona. I
drove by M and T Bank Stadium last night at
about seven thirty.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Max.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Down here in Baltimore. I'm here for the calling a
Bucos game tomorrow. Greg Brown, the long time and phenomenal
play by play guy for the Pirates, is getting an award,
so we're gonna switch places. He'll be back here tomorrow.
I'll be back in the burg tomorrow doing the show,
leaving after the game tonight to get back. But yeah,
drove by M and T Bank Stadium last night. That
was so I'm behind enemy lines here, Max. That's where
(01:59):
I am coming and coming, and I'm not into the
locker room. I'm behind enemy lines. I've been dropped down.
Oh my goodness to infiltrate Ravens Country.
Speaker 4 (02:08):
Well, I mean you should also go infiltrate some uh
some crab cakes as well.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Yeah, you should check that out.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
I am not a big crabcake guy. I'm not that
fond of.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Yeah, so.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Category Khy had had some crad He's an Arizona guy
by the way we're talking about. He's a huge Steelers fan.
So we watched the first half of the game after
I got in, and he had a crab cake and
said he saw you once. I think he. I think
he came up and talked to you in Arizona. He
lives out in Arizona. Uh, former pirate player, great, great guy,
(02:50):
part of our broadcast team.
Speaker 4 (02:51):
Huge y Yeah yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Yeah, uh he's uh, he's a huge. But anyway, he
had the crab cakes. I just max like, for whatever reason,
there's a couple of foods that I just can't I
can't get there, and that's one of them. I love lobster, Okay,
you know I'm not a Yeah I do, but they
like the crab cake. I like, uh, you know the
crab legs. You get those alasking king krab leg I
(03:17):
like those. For some reason, I just can't get there.
I went crabbing once by the way where you go
out with a net and catch them. It was an
absolute blast. But I just turned them over to the
other people and let them eat them.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
They're just not for whatever reason, they're just not quite
my thing.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
So you're not a lump like kind of like knuckle
and claw meat. You like the longer pieces of.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
No, no, no, if you give me the lobster. Yeah, if
you give me the lobster, I'm eating at all. Like
you know, I'm eating the legs and I'm getting that
little whatever whatever's in the legs and all that stuff.
I'm eating the claws of the lobster. You know, the
course of tail is a little bit better. But but
I'm meeting the claw eating at all. I just for
for whatever reason. Uh, the crab cake thing is now
(04:02):
lump crab meat. I don't know if I've ever had it.
You know, they always put it in. When they put
it in the crab cake, that tells me that it's
probably not as good, uh, in lump form, because I
don't know there's a lobster. Well there's lobster rolls, though,
isn't there. Yes, maybe I'm a little okay, all right,
maybe you'll have to give.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
A lot of crab me to try. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (04:23):
And here's the thing, especially if you do like a
warmed just lump crab meat with a little bit of butter.
Oh yeah, a little bit of old bay on top
of it.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
Yeah, I mean a lot of a lot of bit
of butter. Uh and the old bay. I could take
your leave. But it's a lot of bit of butter.
That's the key, right there, a lot of bit of
But we're honoring our we're honoring the late great Craig
Wolfy by talking food here. I know wolf would be
would be digging a food conversation.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
Oh, he'd be over the moment.
Speaker 4 (04:51):
He'd still wonder about your crab cake thing, but he would,
he would, he would have tried to delve in it more.
But I'm I was like, I'm going to respect you know,
people their own tastes.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
Uh And I could see to look up.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Yeah, oh exactly, you don't like crab could jaw open
a little bit? What?
Speaker 3 (05:10):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (05:11):
So did you watch any of the Monday Night game
last night?
Speaker 4 (05:16):
I watched all of the Monday Night Game last night
because I had the post game for Serious XIM.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
So yeah, I saw.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
That's why you didn't get it. That's why you didn't
get a good night sleepless.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
That's another reason.
Speaker 4 (05:27):
But it was only eleven o'clock my time, okay, So
so yeah, the beauty of the beauty of being on.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
The Pacific time zone. Now, if I had I been
on the East coast, would have been miserable, right, So yeah,
because I was.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
I think the game ended about eleven, about eleven thirty
local time. That's when I that's when I shut her off.
Interesting game and again early season football so interesting. You
know the Bears, they made all those those off season moves,
and you know, Caleb Williams started to come on toward
the end of last season, and I think, you know,
(06:05):
I'm one of the people that thought, hey, the Bears
could take you know, it's a really really tough division.
You could take a step forward and not win that
many more games. But count me in the camp of
you know, as you look around in the league, you know, like,
I think the Jets are gonna be I don't know
they're gonna win eleven games, but I think they're going
to be a pain in the neck. I think Jacksonville
(06:25):
has a chance to be pretty good. You know, we
talked about that for the season starts. Just they've got
so many weapons, They've got a really good offensive minded
coach for Trevor Lawrence and those guys that doesn't work,
I don't know what they're gonna do because they've just
got a lot invested in Lawrence in that offense. I
think they're gonna be decent and and you know the Bear,
the whole Bears, Patriots, you know, the teams that have
(06:45):
the young quarterbacks, and adding to it, I think I
was I'm more in the Bears camp, like I like
what they did, and I like Caleb Williams, and it
looked like, you know, wow, hey, move over, af NFC North.
We got a new share in town. And all of
a sudden, the Vikings do what the Vikings do and
came back and won it.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
It was it was a game.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
I mean, it was literally a tale of three quarters
and one quarter. That's essentially that was three quarters of it.
If you're watching it, Bears Bears, Bears, duh, Bears, Bears,
Bears the Bears right, because it was.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
It was dominating on defense.
Speaker 4 (07:27):
JJ McCarthy just looked like he was just completely lost
for most of the game.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
And he did.
Speaker 4 (07:34):
The Bears were doing everything in their power except scoring.
Caleb Williams missed some very wide open receivers on some plays,
and that's ultimately what kind of cost them in this
game was they let the Vikings stick around. They let
the Vikings hang in there and tough it out, so
(07:56):
to speak.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
Yep.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
And and then that that end of the half, that
twenty eight yard pass right before the end of half
to put to put the Vikings in position for for
Santos to kick, to kick that fifty nine yarder, and
they made it.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
And now that's a ten to six ball game going
to half.
Speaker 4 (08:17):
That was a momentum shift for the Vikings and the
second half started getting a little bit better. The run
game started to pick up for the Vikings. Jordan Mason
started making some moves. Aaron Jones caught a couple of passes,
had a couple of rushes. Now the Vikings have confidence.
And then the Bears offensively, you know they're just styming now.
(08:43):
Flores and Or say, coach Flow is bringing more, is
bringing more blitz. The interior guys are starting to win
their one on one blocks. Javon Hargrave you might know
that name from Steeler history. Yes he's there. Uh and
Jonathan Allen, both boy boy dogs that can go. And
they started they started giving that the Chicago Bears offensive
(09:05):
line some issues and then now you get you get
two sacks on I Caleb Williams.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Now you pressure him out of the pocket.
Speaker 4 (09:13):
Now he's throwing the ball all hard and getting deflected.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
I mean it would. And then J. J.
Speaker 4 (09:19):
McCarthy started making some plays and then he and then
the biggest one I think was you know when he
when he when he ran that that that quarterback rpo
option out the right side, there was a two way
go and he was like, oh, I'm just trying to
get the first down. And the next thing, you know,
he put his foot in the ground and went north
and south a little bit more to the left and
got into the end zone. That was a momentum shift.
I mean, they scored twenty one points in the fourth
(09:40):
quarter to win that game. So yeah, that bike, he's squad. Hey,
and we're gonna see those guys. That's our that's our
rotating NFC division. We're gonna see both those teams this year.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Right yep. You know, uh, I think I think that
was a perfect description. And by the way, you know
when you talk about the heck they missed passes by
Caleb Williams, you know, right before the two minute warning.
I think it was the second play in that driver.
You know, it was right after Comet made that incredible
(10:11):
catch over the middle and Williams had a guy in
a wheel the wreck on up the left sideline. I mean,
if he hits him there, it's a touchdown and you
can play it. Honest, you can kick it off. You
still have time. You got it. You know, you got
a time out left. You hat the two minute warning.
They probably would have had to run a play before
the two minute warning. You know, you could have gotten
(10:33):
the ball back with a puncher's chance and decent field
position in a minute left. And Williams just overshot him.
I mean, I can't remember who the receiver was, but
he was wide open. That's a touchdown. Max. He missed
a touchdown that that could have at least given you
a chance before the game ended to do something.
Speaker 4 (10:53):
You know, absolutely, it was something that this is what
he's gonna have to learn this. And you saw the
principles of the Ben Johnson offense in that first half.
The movement, the trick plays, the the ability to throw
(11:13):
multiple layers at you and once you block one thing,
another thing pops open. I mean, it was it was
what I was expecting to see, kind of what I
normally expect from the Lions that I did not see
in that Lions game on Sunday when I was watching
the highlights is what I saw in the Chicago game,
and you felt a comfortability with with Kleb and the
(11:36):
movement and you know some of some of his decisions
to rush and but there was a lot of miss
things that got to clean up. And I get it's
the first game, right, new coordinator, new quarterback, new team offenses.
For a large degree, that's gonna that's gonna be it.
But it's a very skillful team. And they have a
(11:57):
lot of weapons. I mean, when you look around, you
have a Doomsday and you have Swift, if you have Comet.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
You have Lovelin.
Speaker 4 (12:06):
Right, they had a lot of weapons that once he
finally unlocks galabilities and locks how to use them, it's
going it's gonna be really fun to watch them, except
for when they play US. They're gonna do bad in
November against US, just saying, but every other game they're
gonna be good.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
You know.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
And I as I was watching that game in that
fourth quarter, it occurred to me that you know, you
have the I mean, you know, Mike Tomlin's hardly an
old guy, but you know I put him in the
old guard of great coaches. You know guys that you
know you would love to have coaching your team. You know,
(12:40):
the guy out in Kansas City's pretty good dude, right, Uh.
And so you know there's a there's a few of those,
and then there's the uh, you know, some of the
younger guys. Uh, you know, Sirianni, Sean McDermott. I think
in Buffalo is a great coach. Kevin O'Connell. Man, I mean,
I just think this guy's great coach. I think he's
(13:01):
one of those guys that will will take a team
and and find a way to win with him, you know.
And I understand he's had some talent, but as I'm
watching that comeback, I'm thinking to myself, Man, oh man,
this this is a Bears team that's got a ton
of momentum going into the season, a ton of momentum
going into that game. You got a rookie quarterback and
(13:22):
you somehow found a way. And also too, I think
you know, they drafted McCarthy obviously to be the guy,
but that was an interesting decision that they made in
the offseason to move on from a quarterback that got them,
you know, deep into the season, really deep into the season.
And Sam Darnold, a former you know, high number one
overall pick himself or high first round pick himself. You know,
(13:46):
you start to think, okay, well he's maybe maybe he's
kind of you know, living up to that billing.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
I think it was.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
PFF had him rate as the highest quarterback that ever
had at that point or something something along those lines,
extremely highly rated, a lot of controversy overtaking Ba Baker
maybe ahead of him in that draft, and then uh,
you know, to move on from him was a gutsy
personnel decision. It wasn't the safe play. And here you are,
(14:13):
You're the Vikings. You came back and you're one to zero,
and that's you know, that is going to be some
matchup in Dublin.
Speaker 4 (14:21):
It is going to be a great matchup in Dublin.
And once again, I mean, I think all the things
you laid out, like the Vikings, like going all in
and not even bringing in somebody to compete with JJ,
mccarthur say nope, the dark guy, yep, let him just be.
And you kind of saw that throughout the game with
Kevin mcconnoch. Everybody was supportive of JJ. They were rooting
(14:44):
him on even when he was playing terrible at the
beginning of the game. He wasn't speeding up his progressions.
It looked slow, indecisive. He was getting pressured and the
offense was not moving at all. I think they I
think by the time they finished the first half, I
think it was like fifty two yards of offense until
the twenty eight yarder that brought them up you know
(15:05):
in the eighties. But before that, the Bears had him
bottled up. They had him bottled like Heine's ketchup, and
he could he couldn't figure out a way to get out,
and it was it was like, it was like, oh man,
I was like, you know, I even had the comment
in my head.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
I was like, like, boy, I hope they.
Speaker 4 (15:22):
Have Sam Donald on speed dial or the Seattle Seahawks
front office on speed doll.
Speaker 3 (15:26):
They're gonna need to They're gonna need to do a
swap roof.
Speaker 4 (15:29):
Wish of my bad or something, I don't know to
get Sam Donald back there because this offense is not running.
And then, you know, that's why this game of football.
Sixty minutes that second half it started to get marginally
better than that fourth quarter, it just exploded. It's like
when you hit the little fifty seven on the glass
bottle was turned upside down the ketchup starts coming out.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
That's what that was. They hit the fifty seven.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
Button and they pounded with that palm of the hand
and the ketchup started flowing on the French fries.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
I mean, it was it was crazy to watch that
four quarter those any more mores they scored, Yeah, it was.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
It was impressive. And again, look, man, I don't want
to read too much into body language, but when when
McCarthy had that run, and it was you know, you know,
I think a lot of quarterbacks may be tiptoe out
of bounds there, you know what I mean. We've seen
Patrick Mahomes. Well, Patrick Mahomes will lower the shoulder and
(16:25):
you know he try to barge his way in and
some guys will and you know, some guys probably would
have been very content just to step out of bounds
and say, hey, man, I did my job. He wasn't content.
He barreled his way into the end zone. And again
the body language thing, like, I don't know what to
make of it, but it just I mean, his teammates
just all crowded around him. You could, you know, there
(16:47):
was some excitement and I don't know, it just felt
like they know he's the guy somehow, you.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
Know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
Again, I don't want to read too much into the
moment because it was a big moment and he scored,
and probably anybody would have gotten that reaction, but I
don't know. I just when I saw that, I'm like, ooh, man,
it sounds like his teammates are all in on him,
which is hugely important if you're the quarterback. Obviously.
Speaker 4 (17:11):
Exactly, it's actually pretty crazy, and it was a fourteen yarder.
You're thinking, I'm just trying to get to the first
down marker. I keep the drive alive. And then something
once he got to that first down marker. I don't
know what clicked, light bulb or something else, but like
I said, he stuck that left foot in the ground
and got north and south and plowed his way forward.
(17:34):
And then it was just it was a different gear.
It's when you go from being safe to no risk
it no biscuit. Like that was like the click in
his head and he went and charged full for like
you said, drop the shoulder. He's already a big physical guy.
Why not get big and physical in this moment? Like
you need a spark, you need to start hurrying this up.
(17:57):
Why waste more time by just going out of bounds
or taking you know, take taking taking, you know, taking
a shot and going to the ground. Just end it
right now, let's get another score on And that was
a good shift, especially for a young guy.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
No.
Speaker 4 (18:12):
I remember when Ben, you know, when Ben would scramble
and he would he would try, he'd rumble, bumble and
stumble and get his way downfield, and he was like, nope,
I got to get this extra yard right or I'm
not quite at the sticks. I need to make sure
I'm over and pass the sticks. That's the mentality when
you see the mark of good quarterbacks. Those are decisions
that they make and it usually ends up working out
(18:33):
well for the team.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
And it did last night for the Vikings.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
It did again. I don't want to overreact too much.
I guess my reaction from this game would be they're
both going to be trouble. You know, Chicago's going to
have to improve, and you know you're extrapolating in week one,
but going back to the end of last season and
then and then moving into this season and you know,
(18:58):
new coach and a lot of new personnel there, you
would think that that's probably a team that's going to
be trouble. As they move on, it's going to get
increasingly better. But you'd rather be Minnesota, who I think
is also going to get better and they're wan to
know and they've won a division game, and they've won
that division game on the road. But I just think,
(19:22):
you know, as people look at the best divisions in football,
I think everyone's used to kind of, you know, putting
the AFC North in there, and right now I think
it's a three headed monster in the AFC North. I
don't know what to make of Cleveland. We'll see, maybe
there's more there. They certainly gave Cincinnati all they wanted.
But I think when you look at four teams who
are all going to be really good, not just competitive,
(19:44):
not just like, hey it's the AFC South, you know
someone's got to win it and it's wide open. I mean,
like all four teams are really good, I think that
might be the NFC North this year, that they might
be the one that's got four teams where you're like, man,
all four of these teams could make the playoffs.
Speaker 4 (20:01):
It is going to be a barn burner NFC North,
as West and AFC North, I think those three divisions.
The lion's share of the playoff teams when it's all
said then, will probably be those three divisions. But it
is some good football overall. There's a lot of better
(20:21):
teams this year. The challenges are going to be many,
and for the Steelers, this is not gonna be U Slows.
You got the NFC North as your draw this year,
so you know, we've got to go to Chicago, to Detroit,
we play Minnesota in Ireland, and green Bay comes to
us on a Sunday night game that they're all going
to be must see TV watching way affairs, and there's
(20:46):
no gimmes in this division. Yeah, So you know for
the steelers's gonna be a great challenge for us. And
that's a common opponent. When we talk about differentiating ourselves
from the field and the AFC North from the Cincinnatis
from the Baltimore is of the world world, it's going
to happen not not only in division play, but these
common opponents as well. And so the Steelers, you know,
(21:07):
have to do well in these moments because I feel
like it is going to come down to tiebreakers when
it comes to December for the AFC North Crown.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
Yeah, I think when you're when you're looking at games
that you know, you you feel like you should win.
Every team's got a game they feel like they should win,
that they should lose. But boy, you better keep that
at like one, you know what I mean. I mean,
there's because you're right, and you know and I'm you know,
I'm glad you mentioned the AFC West because you know,
(21:38):
we began this discussion by talking about or you know,
interjected in there at least I did about really good
coaches in the NFL. Great coaches in the NFL. You know,
a coach comes in and organizes things. You never know
that a new, first time coach, You like, you don't
know what Aaron Glenn's going to do in New York.
I think we have a pretty good idea of what
their blueprint is going to be. But Pete Carroll is
(21:59):
a first time coach. You know, you just have to
feel like he's gonna get in there to Vegas and
organize things in a certain way and find ways to
be just a real again. I don't know whether they're
gonna have a huge amount of wins, but they might
sort of be the Jets of the a f C West,
where They're just they're just a pain. And if you
don't beat them, and you and you leave the door
(22:22):
open and in any way beat yourself, they'll they'll step
through that door. So I'm glad you mentioned them because
I mean, I would think I think for most people,
that's the weak link and maybe you know, makes them,
you know, sort of parallel with it with the thought
that Cleveland's gonna be the weak link. And again we
don't know how they play. Vegas is gonna be the
weak link. So a f C North, a f C West.
(22:43):
But I think I don't know how much of a
weeklink Vegas is gonna be. And after week one, Max,
I don't know how much of a week link Cleveland's
gonna be either. I don't know.
Speaker 4 (22:53):
And we're going to see the fighting Joe flack over,
We're gonna see.
Speaker 3 (22:57):
Yeah, are our guys something going right now?
Speaker 4 (23:01):
I mean, they just they hurt themselves, They shot themselves
on the foot. They should have beaten Cincinnati. You know,
Joe Burrow was one in nine in the first two
games of the season in his career. Wow, he just
became two and nine. That is wild.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
Well, and you wonder if at any point the knowledge
of what a poor starting team they've been traditionally kind
of work their way into their psyche. Maybe that's something
they just kind of needed to get over, and the
floodgates will open.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
I don't know, but you know.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
And this is the great thing about about sports, This
is what I love so much about sports, is that
you gotta play.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
Man.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
It's not like that. It's not like seventy thousand people
jam into a stadium and two people with laptops run
out and sit across from each other from midfield and
punching a bunch of numbers and a guy stands up
and raises his fist in the air.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
We win.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
That's the way it works, man. You can say anything
you want about how it looks on paper, how it
looks on a computer, whatever you want. Athletes have to
go out there and play. They have to be coached,
they have to be prepared. Things have to happen, you
have to have luck. Your guys have to improve, maybe
the other guys players improve, or there's just so much
(24:22):
that goes into it, and it's what makes it so wonderful.
You still got to go out and play. So it's
week one. We don't know, but it's kind of fun
to talk about what we think might happen.
Speaker 3 (24:33):
Yeah, it is fun.
Speaker 4 (24:34):
And like you said, you're extrapolating and you're trying to
figure out everything and I am. I'm sitting there trying
to just project and you can't. That's the beauty of this, right.
As much as you try and think that you're gonna know,
you never know. And you know we're gleaning a lot
(24:57):
from one game, and we know that this is extremely
small sample size to make determinations about teams. But after
week one you could feel great or you can feel
terrible because half the league has a win, the other
half does not. They're still searching for their first win.
So hope springs eternal for the one and oh teams
(25:17):
and the zero to one teams feel like doom and
gloom for right now. But that's why you have a
seventeen game regular season schedule, that's why you have eighteen
weeks of football, is to figure out by the end
of it who has more wins than losses. And a
loss at the beginning of season doesn't necessarily mean it's
a setback for the whole year. It just means that, hey,
(25:41):
we're not as close as we thought we were coming
out of training camp, that's all it means. And we
got to work extra. And the teams that work extra
and put the extra effort in are the teams that
always rise to the top by the end of the season.
The cream always rises to the top of December. As
Mike Tommys always say, and you want to be.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
Yeah, yeah, I'm sorry to me to cut you off.
He's Max Starks. I'm rob king. Uh, Bob Labriola joining us.
It's a Lab's Tuesday.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
Yes, record to that, yep, asked and answered, Bob Labriola
will be on with us. So yeah, it's gonna be
a fun day.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
Can't wait. We're gonna have Optimist Prime. I think I
got it right today, right, Optimist Prime. There we go, Yeah,
stop top of the Okay, Optimist Prime in the second
hour is gonna make it appearance. We get all kinds
of fun stuff. It'll be fun to get labed and listen.
Max said he watched some tape last night and has
some additional insight which I don't know yet. We haven't.
I can't wait to hear it. But I'm gonna have
(26:37):
to wait for a couple of minutes because we have
to take a break, so we're gonna get those insights
from Max Starks. At second, we continue insucking from with
King and Starks present of our neighborhood Ford Store here
on the Steelers Audio Network.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
This is in the locker Room with King and Starks
on Steelers Nation Radio, presented by your neighborhood Forward Store.
The F one 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 (27:17):
And we thank you very much for being with us
inside the locker room with King and Starts. And I
am in Baltimore. Max is in Arizona.
Speaker 3 (27:26):
I'm here.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
I'm on a reconnaissance mission see how the thing after
their own one start. And while here, I'm also gonna
call the Pirates game tonight. But but just try to
get a feel for what's going on. You know what
I didn't see as I went out for a morning
walk along the bay, I didn't see any Ravens jerseys, Max,
not one, not one. I think the people are down
(27:49):
in the dabber right now after their own one start.
And you're not gonna make a pro I'm gonna make
a broad general I'm gonna do.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
Okay, that's it.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
Odd generalization.
Speaker 4 (28:02):
Yeah, no, I mean, and they should feel bad. You know,
Baltimore is not Pittsburgh, and you know, as good as
they are, you can't beat the can't beat the Buffalo Bills.
So Steeler fans out there just remember, I know we've
had our struggles with Buffalo. Hey, that Crabcake City is
having the same problems. So that team in Buffalo is
(28:23):
pretty good. But I will say this, who has a
better record right now?
Speaker 3 (28:28):
Now?
Speaker 4 (28:28):
Granted, Cincinnati technically is the top of our division right
now because they beat Cleveland, so that's a division win,
So their win technically is better than ours. Even though
I think that Jets team is going to be problems
for a lot of folks, uh this season. You know,
we're looking at how how this is gonna shape out,
(28:49):
But the Steelers are in a good position. You got
a conference win, you got a common opponent win. That's
gonna that's that division we have this year, the AFC East.
So we're gonna we're we're gonna have our hands full
as well, but you know we're we're on the right
side of things and Baltimore's got to figure out a way. Then,
even with Derek Henry rushing for almost one hundred and
seventy yards, still couldn't pull that game out.
Speaker 3 (29:11):
So this goes to show you.
Speaker 4 (29:14):
Run game ain't everything in this and the Steelers we
had our struggles with the run game, but you know
we got a man. We got number eight back there.
He makes a lot of things happen, got things going.
I think this team is going to get better with
the run game. Just got to be patient, Max.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
Yeah, I agree, I totally agree, and I'm eager. Now
I'm like a kid. I'm interrupting Max because I'm like
the kid who comes downstairs and you you're you know,
you're you got the handrail and you got the little
spindles in between. You're peering in between to see if
Santa Clauses come to leave some presence under the tree.
Max has watched additional tape and has some presence under
(29:52):
the tree. Max, what did you see with your additional
watching of the team.
Speaker 4 (29:59):
I am hoping that people don't take this as as
finding the lumps of coal, because it's not that, but
it is critiques. Now, remember for a critique, it is
to help you get better. It is not to pour
on you. Some people take critiques as oh man, this
(30:20):
guy's ragging on us, Why can't you why can't you
just see a sunny day for a sunny day.
Speaker 3 (30:26):
But it's tough to watch certain.
Speaker 4 (30:30):
Things and not let me let me interject, Let me yeah,
let me interject there, and let.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
Me just say that you're absolutely right, And the sooner
everybody in life understands that there's a difference between constructive
criticism and rude behavior. This is not rude behavior. This
is constructive criticism. And the minute you realize that someone's
just trying to get you better and help you out
(30:58):
and point out the things you can get better are
at and you embrace that, the better life becomes there.
I'm just gonna I'm going to put that out there.
Speaker 4 (31:08):
I appreciate that, Thank you, Kinger, because I think a
lot of people could get enamored with those things like,
oh man, and everybody's looking for clickbait and everybody's looking
for the salacious headline.
Speaker 3 (31:20):
And I don't operate that way.
Speaker 4 (31:22):
And I know that in the past at points I've
had to deal with that where people have tried to
miscontrue and tried to twist it for their own benefit.
And you know, I'm here to say, you know, pooh
pooh on you. I'm just gonna put it that way.
Speaker 3 (31:41):
So what do you have?
Speaker 2 (31:42):
And it doesn't sound it doesn't It sounds like there's
gonna be some sounds like there's gonna be some things
some people need to work on.
Speaker 3 (31:49):
There is uh. It starts and it ends with the run.
Speaker 4 (31:55):
And when I say it like that, that means that
at both sides of the ball have to work on
run offense and run defense.
Speaker 3 (32:06):
Let me take the offensive side of the ball. First.
Guys are.
Speaker 4 (32:14):
Not totally getting the concept completely in the run game.
And I know, hey, you had all a training camp
to work this out. You have fifteen practices. Fifteen practices
is not a lot. I hate to tell you that.
To get the run game going and live action, full
speed action is a whole different thing. And this is
(32:37):
the first time all five guys in the offensive line
are working together in their current positions, and there's a
little bit of a disconnect. And I'm gonna be honest
here and here's the first critique and challenge I'm going
to offer Roderick Jones. It's been a good start, but
(33:04):
it's got to get better. It's got to get better.
It's got to get better quicker because there's some small
things on the angles and and listen, I'm old I'm
old school, and I get that, and I know that
guys are going to be like, man, why are you know?
Speaker 3 (33:19):
This is how the game is played.
Speaker 4 (33:21):
Last time I checked, when you get in a three
point stance, you have better leverage than a two point stance.
Speaker 3 (33:27):
That's just me. I'm old school. I'm dogging in that approach.
Speaker 4 (33:32):
You will always get better, push better, pop, better explosiveness
from a three point stance. Too much two point stance stuff.
And listen, listen, it goes across the board. I mean
when you're running more shotgun, you're running more pistol in
the league. Yeah, it's not ideal to be in a
three point stance, right, you can't see as much.
Speaker 3 (33:53):
Defenses are moving a lot more.
Speaker 4 (33:55):
But that's when it comes to trusted across the board
for a lot of those things. When there is a
tight end to your side and you're running the football,
you should be in a three point stance. I don't care.
I don't care if the other team knows it. Whatever,
you still got to whip me and beat me to
prove me otherwise wrong. And that's the one thing that
kind of just bothers me at times about it. It's
(34:17):
too much two point stance and you don't have the
explosion of the pop.
Speaker 3 (34:21):
And Broderick is not strong enough.
Speaker 4 (34:23):
Weight room wise yet to do everything from a two
point stance. He has the quickness, he has the tenacity,
but it's not efficient. And that's what I need him
to hopefully get better at as the season progresses and
understand those opportunities. I get it. It looks way cooler.
(34:44):
It's more comfortable to be in a two point stance.
Trust me, I know, I'm six eight. Going all the
way down to put your hand in the dirt is
a long way. That is like the that's the escalator
down right. You know it takes it takes a lot
of effort, But I can tell you you are stronger,
you are better, and you are more physical when you
(35:08):
have that opportunity. And I'm just hoping that, you know,
he will develop that he will work on that and
continue to progress that because the first the first quarter
of this game, from what I watched, it was just
he got beat on that first sack by Quinn Williams
(35:31):
and some of the run game fits, he kind of
guys got edged off of him.
Speaker 3 (35:36):
They disengaged from him. He didn't have that pop in
that snap.
Speaker 4 (35:41):
That he had at the right tackle position when he
was using more of his three point stance.
Speaker 3 (35:46):
Went another thing, inside moves. Inside moves whipped.
Speaker 4 (35:52):
A lot of the guys on the line, and and
it wasn't like, oh there's a predetermined slant suspend move.
It's side rip move. Guys have to get stouter and
learn how to use their post leg. So when I
say post and me just be very specific here, kinger
post is the inside leg that's up. So if you're
(36:13):
a right tackle or a right guards your left leg.
If you're a left tackle or a left guard, it
is your right leg. And if you're Zach Frasier, you
just pray to God because you're parallel post leg, inside
leg leg closest to quarterback, so to speak, that leg
should be high. So when a guy redirects to your
(36:34):
inside via spin, via swim move, via arm over, whatever
you want to call it, you should be posting that
leg up and in and a lot of times it's
the effort in the mindset to let that leg go
because you don't want it to drop. You can take parallel,
(36:57):
you can take an up and in action. So but
the second you drop that leg to the inside, that's
like swinging open the saloon door to the quarterback. And
that's one of the things that I noticed with with
Roderick and with and with a couple of the guys
that that are that that when that leg drops, you're
(37:17):
you're You're in deep doo doo and there's no way
to really get out of it except for trying and
just run the guy as hard as you can and
pray that the quarterback sees it that he could step
around it. But there's a little bit too much uneasiness
for the team in that moment when guys do that,
and that puts additional stress on the entire offense. So
(37:40):
you've got to work that move a little bit better.
And those are some of my critiques offensively. Now defensively,
I think that we should reserve that for the second
hour because I can't because that's going to take a
little bit and I know that we have labs at
the top of the hour so on to make sure
we don't kind of kill the entire segment with going
on this, but I'll stay on the office out of
the ball. I think for Aaron, Aaron has to get
(38:04):
more comfortable with the guys in front of him.
Speaker 3 (38:06):
He had some happy feed.
Speaker 4 (38:07):
In moments, and it looks like a little bit of
panic when he starts to get there.
Speaker 3 (38:11):
The pocket stars collapse.
Speaker 4 (38:12):
He started to move, and you know he was definitely
taking some hiss because guys weren't creating that picket fence
for him every time at one of those I mean,
Quinn Williams was having a heck of a day on Sunday.
He and once again rightfully so he is. He is
a game wrecker. But at some point, when you get
(38:34):
the double teams on it, you have to make him pay.
And that's what I talked about Kinger the run game
and everything. I'm supposed to tender rize those defensive linemens,
so it takes a little bit of edge off the rush.
They were not tenderizing, and a lot of the run
game concepts, like the outside stretch zone, they're not quite
there yet. You know, Zach Frazier, as good as Zach is,
(38:57):
you know, Zach was having some struggles when he was
when they were leaving him wide open in the run game,
he was having to go chase like the front side
backer and sometimes even the backside back like he was.
He was lost in the sauce a little bit on
that second level. So you need to bring the fight
to him. He he he is. He is a phone
booth champion. Bring the phone booth to him. Stop making
(39:20):
him chase a block and a half to get to
the next phone booth. That that's a schematic and concept thing. Hey, listen,
the Jets have very fast flow linebackers, so it's not like,
oh man, you know, but he's already putting it in
a disadvantageous position. Help him out by keeping the concept
(39:41):
tighten inside the outside zone that we were trying to run,
it just wasn't there because the angles were bad. The
concept was, you know, we were pushed one guy out
too far and maybe you need to bring a guy
in motion to bump back the call backwards a little bit.
But that was another one that was just a struggle,
and that's why we didn't get as many yurs as
(40:03):
we wanted in the run game.
Speaker 3 (40:04):
We left a lot of meat on the bone.
Speaker 4 (40:05):
So to speak, and it made a lot of the
reds tough for the backs because the backs are having
to go so wide and with the pursuit angles trying
to cut back, you were cutting back into bodies. You know,
gain Well and Jalen both had that issue early on,
and I would have liked to have seen a more
tight zone so you can get a body on a body,
get quality double teams at the point on the first line,
(40:27):
and then work that guy up into the second line defender.
You know, when you got six hundred pounds on three
hundred pounds, it's a lot easier to move that sled
than three hundred three hundred, Right, It's it's got to
be some cleaner, simpler concepts, And that's one thing I saw.
It was just a little bit too much sophistication, I feel,
for this early in the year.
Speaker 2 (40:48):
Yeah, so uh there there's a boy, there's a lot
to get to because the offensive line, max I think
is you know, again, as you go around the team
and you talk about the fans concerned, you know the
receiver position, you know, Aaron Rodgers, you know that offensive
line is down the list for a lot of fans,
especially I think in the tackle position because you have
(41:10):
Troy Foutowan who's starting as a first year guy, because
Broderick Jones is moving from left side to right, and
you have a couple of second year starters too at
center in the right guard position. So we have a
lot to get to on this offensive line. We're going
to continue to get to this because it's a huge, huge,
you know, area for a team, not just for the
(41:33):
Steelers but for every team, but certainly for the Steelers.
So we're going to get to that. We have more
to get to as well concerning this game recently played,
the victory over the Jets. Bob Labriol is going to
be joining us a little bit so much still the comments,
We continue inside the locker Room with King and Starks,
brought to you by your neighborhood Ford Store here on
the Steelers Audio Network.
Speaker 1 (41:56):
This is in the Locker Room with Kenyon Starks on
Steelers Nation Radio, presented by your neighborhood Forward Store. The
F one 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 (42:19):
Welcome back inside the locker room with King and Starks
and Max reports, I, you know, top flight NFL insider
type of guys. So you have Ian Rappaport Mike Garofflo
reporting that the Steelers are close to signing or expected
(42:41):
to sign Jabro Peppers, who was a you know, a
surprise cut Byland again. You know, new new Startland, do
new thing up there. Peppers is a guy who was
the first round pick of Cleveland back in seventeen. He's
now twenty nine years old. Played six games last year
in New England, started a six, started all fifteen games
(43:03):
a year before. He's he's pretty much been a solid
NFL starter throughout the course of his career. Again, not
in guy, not an old guy though either. You know,
he's twenty nine, will be thirty in a couple of weeks. Now,
of course you think about this and you think injuries
(43:23):
that happened Sunday and trying not to put two and
two together. But your thoughts on what Jabrill Peppers and
the Sun might mean for the.
Speaker 4 (43:33):
Team, Well, I think we bring in a Jabrill Peppers.
He's a guy that's physical, he's he's gotten better over
the years. You know, early on in Cleveland, days and everything,
didn't quite have the fit. But since he's been with
the Patriots, it's been it's been one that you know,
he had a breakout year and twenty three last year
(43:54):
a little bit limited with with some injuries. Last season
was as effective. But he's tough, he's a leader in
that secondary. He flies around, very instinctual player. And I
think this also, you know, kind of signals that Sean
Elliot's gonna be out for a little bit and you
need you need some reinforcements in there. And I think
(44:15):
this is what that signing kind of signals.
Speaker 3 (44:18):
And you know, to have.
Speaker 4 (44:19):
A guy like that on the streets, that's a pretty
that's a pretty good that's a pretty good guy to
have come and and and do your substitute teaching. You
know what I'm saying, Like to have to have a
guy of Jabrill Pepper's skill set to be be available,
that was heads up.
Speaker 3 (44:35):
Smart player.
Speaker 4 (44:35):
Gotta gotta tip the cap again to Andy Widel and
Sheldon White and Omar Kahan for scouring and being ready
and creating those short lists of guys that they can
call in and apparently, you know, according to Ian Rappaport
and Mike Garifolo. Uh, they've already agreed to terms. So
this guy will be here. Today's the off day, and
(44:56):
Wednesday you'll see him. You'll see him in uniform. You'll
see him on the field get reps and ready to
try and do battle and and take on take on
the Seattle Seahawks. So uh, I think it's I think
it's very a very good signing, very good signing for
the Steelers. And that's going to add, you know, some
veteran leadership and some depth there, uh in the secondary.
Speaker 3 (45:16):
And yeah, you know.
Speaker 4 (45:18):
The next thing is I hope shot Elliott, you know,
recovers fully. I'm never gonna say quickly, I see them
recover fully because guys can can can rush back quickly
and cause even more damage. I want a full recovery
to get him back in the fold because he is
a difference maker, he is a leader in that secondary.
He has a hammer, and you got to make sure
(45:38):
you got you gotta got a lot of hammerscause we've
got a lot a lot of nails out there, a
lot of nails that they need to be hit for
the opposing teams.
Speaker 3 (45:46):
So I wish him a full.
Speaker 4 (45:48):
Recovery and excited for jail Peppers to put his hand
in the pile.
Speaker 2 (45:54):
Yeah, I mean this, Shawn is such a good player
and they gave him a contract extension for a reason
this off season, and you hope it's you know, you
hope it's not. I mean, he's walking around after it.
But we don't know. I mean, we're not you know.
And again, keep in mind that Mike Tomlin's press conference
is coming up today at noon. He usually begins at
press conference with an update on the injury front, so
(46:17):
that is something we're all going to want to keep
an eye on, and like you said, hopefully for a
good full recovery from Deshaun Elliott, who's a really important
player on this team. And again I agree with you
to have a guy like Peppers and be able to
bring him into your team, that's that is that should
be a positive for the Steelers for sure. Okay, so
(46:39):
we're going to take a break. Bob Labrielle is going
to be joining us at the top of the hour.
We still have much more of Max's film breakdown to come, uh,
which is which is always interesting and exciting stuff. So
we're gonna get all that and as we continue on
inside the locker, Room with King and Starks, presented by
your neighborhood Ford store here on the Steelers Audio Network
This is in the Locker Room with King and Starks
on Steelers Nation Radio, presented by your neighborhood Forward Store.
The F one 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 (00:29):
And hello everybody, thank you very much for being with
us inside the locker room along with Max Starks. I'm
Rob King. We were spanning the globe to bring you
coverage today. Max, how are you doing?
Speaker 3 (00:41):
I'm doing okay, Rob, how are you doing today?
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Just okay?
Speaker 4 (00:46):
Yeah, I didn't get as much sleep as I would
have liked. Uh, but I'm still trying to build back
up on my on my sleep scale. So so yeah,
so we're getting there, feeling a little bit better, you know,
and but ready to rocket roll man, ready to finally
put a button on week one and then start start
(01:08):
charging towards week two as we take on the Seahawks.
So when I kind of look at everything, you know,
had a chance to watch the tape last night, just
saw some things. We'll just put it at that. We'll
talk about that as the show progressive. But I saw
some things.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
I can't wait to hear what those things were to
let everybody know. Of course, Max is in Arizona. I
drove by M and T Bank Stadium last night at
about seven thirty.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Max.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Down here in Baltimore. I'm here for the calling a
Bucos game tomorrow. Greg Brown, the long time and phenomenal
play by play guy for the Pirates, is getting an award,
so we're gonna switch places. He'll be back here tomorrow.
I'll be back in the burg tomorrow doing the show,
leaving after the game tonight to get back. But yeah,
drove by M and T Bank Stadium last night. That
was so I'm behind enemy lines here, Max. That's where
(01:59):
I am coming and coming, and I'm not into the
locker room. I'm behind enemy lines. I've been dropped down.
Oh my goodness to infiltrate Ravens Country.
Speaker 4 (02:08):
Well, I mean you should also go infiltrate some uh
some crab cakes as well.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Yeah, you should check that out.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
I am not a big crabcake guy. I'm not that
fond of.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Yeah, so.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Category Khy had had some crad He's an Arizona guy
by the way we're talking about. He's a huge Steelers fan.
So we watched the first half of the game after
I got in, and he had a crab cake and
said he saw you once. I think he. I think
he came up and talked to you in Arizona. He
lives out in Arizona. Uh, former pirate player, great, great guy,
(02:50):
part of our broadcast team.
Speaker 4 (02:51):
Huge y Yeah yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Yeah, uh he's uh, he's a huge. But anyway, he
had the crab cakes. I just max like, for whatever reason,
there's a couple of foods that I just can't I
can't get there, and that's one of them. I love lobster, Okay,
you know I'm not a Yeah I do, but they
like the crab cake. I like, uh, you know the
crab legs. You get those alasking king krab leg I
(03:17):
like those. For some reason, I just can't get there.
I went crabbing once by the way where you go
out with a net and catch them. It was an
absolute blast. But I just turned them over to the
other people and let them eat them.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
They're just not for whatever reason, they're just not quite
my thing.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
So you're not a lump like kind of like knuckle
and claw meat. You like the longer pieces of.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
No, no, no, if you give me the lobster. Yeah, if
you give me the lobster, I'm eating at all. Like
you know, I'm eating the legs and I'm getting that
little whatever whatever's in the legs and all that stuff.
I'm eating the claws of the lobster. You know, the
course of tail is a little bit better. But but
I'm meeting the claw eating at all. I just for
for whatever reason. Uh, the crab cake thing is now
(04:02):
lump crab meat. I don't know if I've ever had it.
You know, they always put it in. When they put
it in the crab cake, that tells me that it's
probably not as good, uh, in lump form, because I
don't know there's a lobster. Well there's lobster rolls, though,
isn't there. Yes, maybe I'm a little okay, all right,
maybe you'll have to give.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
A lot of crab me to try. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (04:23):
And here's the thing, especially if you do like a
warmed just lump crab meat with a little bit of butter.
Oh yeah, a little bit of old bay on top
of it.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
Yeah, I mean a lot of a lot of bit
of butter. Uh and the old bay. I could take
your leave. But it's a lot of bit of butter.
That's the key, right there, a lot of bit of
But we're honoring our we're honoring the late great Craig
Wolfy by talking food here. I know wolf would be
would be digging a food conversation.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
Oh, he'd be over the moment.
Speaker 4 (04:51):
He'd still wonder about your crab cake thing, but he would,
he would, he would have tried to delve in it more.
But I'm I was like, I'm going to respect you know,
people their own tastes.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
Uh And I could see to look up.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Yeah, oh exactly, you don't like crab could jaw open
a little bit? What?
Speaker 3 (05:10):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (05:11):
So did you watch any of the Monday Night game
last night?
Speaker 4 (05:16):
I watched all of the Monday Night Game last night
because I had the post game for Serious XIM.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
So yeah, I saw.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
That's why you didn't get it. That's why you didn't
get a good night sleepless.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
That's another reason.
Speaker 4 (05:27):
But it was only eleven o'clock my time, okay, So
so yeah, the beauty of the beauty of being on.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
The Pacific time zone. Now, if I had I been
on the East coast, would have been miserable, right, So yeah,
because I was.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
I think the game ended about eleven, about eleven thirty
local time. That's when I that's when I shut her off.
Interesting game and again early season football so interesting. You
know the Bears, they made all those those off season moves,
and you know, Caleb Williams started to come on toward
the end of last season, and I think, you know,
(06:05):
I'm one of the people that thought, hey, the Bears
could take you know, it's a really really tough division.
You could take a step forward and not win that
many more games. But count me in the camp of
you know, as you look around in the league, you know, like,
I think the Jets are gonna be I don't know
they're gonna win eleven games, but I think they're going
to be a pain in the neck. I think Jacksonville
(06:25):
has a chance to be pretty good. You know, we
talked about that for the season starts. Just they've got
so many weapons, They've got a really good offensive minded
coach for Trevor Lawrence and those guys that doesn't work,
I don't know what they're gonna do because they've just
got a lot invested in Lawrence in that offense. I
think they're gonna be decent and and you know the Bear,
the whole Bears, Patriots, you know, the teams that have
(06:45):
the young quarterbacks, and adding to it, I think I
was I'm more in the Bears camp, like I like
what they did, and I like Caleb Williams, and it
looked like, you know, wow, hey, move over, af NFC North.
We got a new share in town. And all of
a sudden, the Vikings do what the Vikings do and
came back and won it.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
It was it was a game.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
I mean, it was literally a tale of three quarters
and one quarter. That's essentially that was three quarters of it.
If you're watching it, Bears Bears, Bears, duh, Bears, Bears,
Bears the Bears right, because it was.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
It was dominating on defense.
Speaker 4 (07:27):
JJ McCarthy just looked like he was just completely lost
for most of the game.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
And he did.
Speaker 4 (07:34):
The Bears were doing everything in their power except scoring.
Caleb Williams missed some very wide open receivers on some plays,
and that's ultimately what kind of cost them in this
game was they let the Vikings stick around. They let
the Vikings hang in there and tough it out, so
(07:56):
to speak.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
Yep.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
And and then that that end of the half, that
twenty eight yard pass right before the end of half
to put to put the Vikings in position for for
Santos to kick, to kick that fifty nine yarder, and
they made it.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
And now that's a ten to six ball game going
to half.
Speaker 4 (08:17):
That was a momentum shift for the Vikings and the
second half started getting a little bit better. The run
game started to pick up for the Vikings. Jordan Mason
started making some moves. Aaron Jones caught a couple of passes,
had a couple of rushes. Now the Vikings have confidence.
And then the Bears offensively, you know they're just styming now.
(08:43):
Flores and Or say, coach Flow is bringing more, is
bringing more blitz. The interior guys are starting to win
their one on one blocks. Javon Hargrave you might know
that name from Steeler history. Yes he's there. Uh and
Jonathan Allen, both boy boy dogs that can go. And
they started they started giving that the Chicago Bears offensive
(09:05):
line some issues and then now you get you get
two sacks on I Caleb Williams.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Now you pressure him out of the pocket.
Speaker 4 (09:13):
Now he's throwing the ball all hard and getting deflected.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
I mean it would. And then J. J.
Speaker 4 (09:19):
McCarthy started making some plays and then he and then
the biggest one I think was you know when he
when he when he ran that that that quarterback rpo
option out the right side, there was a two way
go and he was like, oh, I'm just trying to
get the first down. And the next thing, you know,
he put his foot in the ground and went north
and south a little bit more to the left and
got into the end zone. That was a momentum shift.
I mean, they scored twenty one points in the fourth
(09:40):
quarter to win that game. So yeah, that bike, he's squad. Hey,
and we're gonna see those guys. That's our that's our
rotating NFC division. We're gonna see both those teams this year.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Right yep. You know, uh, I think I think that
was a perfect description. And by the way, you know
when you talk about the heck they missed passes by
Caleb Williams, you know, right before the two minute warning.
I think it was the second play in that driver.
You know, it was right after Comet made that incredible
(10:11):
catch over the middle and Williams had a guy in
a wheel the wreck on up the left sideline. I mean,
if he hits him there, it's a touchdown and you
can play it. Honest, you can kick it off. You
still have time. You got it. You know, you got
a time out left. You hat the two minute warning.
They probably would have had to run a play before
the two minute warning. You know, you could have gotten
(10:33):
the ball back with a puncher's chance and decent field
position in a minute left. And Williams just overshot him.
I mean, I can't remember who the receiver was, but
he was wide open. That's a touchdown. Max. He missed
a touchdown that that could have at least given you
a chance before the game ended to do something.
Speaker 4 (10:53):
You know, absolutely, it was something that this is what
he's gonna have to learn this. And you saw the
principles of the Ben Johnson offense in that first half.
The movement, the trick plays, the the ability to throw
(11:13):
multiple layers at you and once you block one thing,
another thing pops open. I mean, it was it was
what I was expecting to see, kind of what I
normally expect from the Lions that I did not see
in that Lions game on Sunday when I was watching
the highlights is what I saw in the Chicago game,
and you felt a comfortability with with Kleb and the
(11:36):
movement and you know some of some of his decisions
to rush and but there was a lot of miss
things that got to clean up. And I get it's
the first game, right, new coordinator, new quarterback, new team offenses.
For a large degree, that's gonna that's gonna be it.
But it's a very skillful team. And they have a
(11:57):
lot of weapons. I mean, when you look around, you
have a Doomsday and you have Swift, if you have Comet.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
You have Lovelin.
Speaker 4 (12:06):
Right, they had a lot of weapons that once he
finally unlocks galabilities and locks how to use them, it's
going it's gonna be really fun to watch them, except
for when they play US. They're gonna do bad in
November against US, just saying, but every other game they're
gonna be good.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
You know.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
And I as I was watching that game in that
fourth quarter, it occurred to me that you know, you
have the I mean, you know, Mike Tomlin's hardly an
old guy, but you know I put him in the
old guard of great coaches. You know guys that you
know you would love to have coaching your team. You know,
(12:40):
the guy out in Kansas City's pretty good dude, right, Uh.
And so you know there's a there's a few of those,
and then there's the uh, you know, some of the
younger guys. Uh, you know, Sirianni, Sean McDermott. I think
in Buffalo is a great coach. Kevin O'Connell. Man, I mean,
I just think this guy's great coach. I think he's
(13:01):
one of those guys that will will take a team
and and find a way to win with him, you know.
And I understand he's had some talent, but as I'm
watching that comeback, I'm thinking to myself, Man, oh man,
this this is a Bears team that's got a ton
of momentum going into the season, a ton of momentum
going into that game. You got a rookie quarterback and
(13:22):
you somehow found a way. And also too, I think
you know, they drafted McCarthy obviously to be the guy,
but that was an interesting decision that they made in
the offseason to move on from a quarterback that got them,
you know, deep into the season, really deep into the season.
And Sam Darnold, a former you know, high number one
overall pick himself or high first round pick himself. You know,
(13:46):
you start to think, okay, well he's maybe maybe he's
kind of you know, living up to that billing.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
I think it was.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
PFF had him rate as the highest quarterback that ever
had at that point or something something along those lines,
extremely highly rated, a lot of controversy overtaking Ba Baker
maybe ahead of him in that draft, and then uh,
you know, to move on from him was a gutsy
personnel decision. It wasn't the safe play. And here you are,
(14:13):
You're the Vikings. You came back and you're one to zero,
and that's you know, that is going to be some
matchup in Dublin.
Speaker 4 (14:21):
It is going to be a great matchup in Dublin.
And once again, I mean, I think all the things
you laid out, like the Vikings, like going all in
and not even bringing in somebody to compete with JJ,
mccarthur say nope, the dark guy, yep, let him just be.
And you kind of saw that throughout the game with
Kevin mcconnoch. Everybody was supportive of JJ. They were rooting
(14:44):
him on even when he was playing terrible at the
beginning of the game. He wasn't speeding up his progressions.
It looked slow, indecisive. He was getting pressured and the
offense was not moving at all. I think they I
think by the time they finished the first half, I
think it was like fifty two yards of offense until
the twenty eight yarder that brought them up you know
(15:05):
in the eighties. But before that, the Bears had him
bottled up. They had him bottled like Heine's ketchup, and
he could he couldn't figure out a way to get out,
and it was it was like, it was like, oh man,
I was like, you know, I even had the comment
in my head.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
I was like, like, boy, I hope they.
Speaker 4 (15:22):
Have Sam Donald on speed dial or the Seattle Seahawks
front office on speed doll.
Speaker 3 (15:26):
They're gonna need to They're gonna need to do a
swap roof.
Speaker 4 (15:29):
Wish of my bad or something, I don't know to
get Sam Donald back there because this offense is not running.
And then, you know, that's why this game of football.
Sixty minutes that second half it started to get marginally
better than that fourth quarter, it just exploded. It's like
when you hit the little fifty seven on the glass
bottle was turned upside down the ketchup starts coming out.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
That's what that was. They hit the fifty seven.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
Button and they pounded with that palm of the hand
and the ketchup started flowing on the French fries.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
I mean, it was it was crazy to watch that
four quarter those any more mores they scored, Yeah, it was.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
It was impressive. And again, look, man, I don't want
to read too much into body language, but when when
McCarthy had that run, and it was you know, you know,
I think a lot of quarterbacks may be tiptoe out
of bounds there, you know what I mean. We've seen
Patrick Mahomes. Well, Patrick Mahomes will lower the shoulder and
(16:25):
you know he try to barge his way in and
some guys will and you know, some guys probably would
have been very content just to step out of bounds
and say, hey, man, I did my job. He wasn't content.
He barreled his way into the end zone. And again
the body language thing, like, I don't know what to
make of it, but it just I mean, his teammates
just all crowded around him. You could, you know, there
(16:47):
was some excitement and I don't know, it just felt
like they know he's the guy somehow, you.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
Know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
Again, I don't want to read too much into the
moment because it was a big moment and he scored,
and probably anybody would have gotten that reaction, but I
don't know. I just when I saw that, I'm like, ooh, man,
it sounds like his teammates are all in on him,
which is hugely important if you're the quarterback. Obviously.
Speaker 4 (17:11):
Exactly, it's actually pretty crazy, and it was a fourteen yarder.
You're thinking, I'm just trying to get to the first
down marker. I keep the drive alive. And then something
once he got to that first down marker. I don't
know what clicked, light bulb or something else, but like
I said, he stuck that left foot in the ground
and got north and south and plowed his way forward.
(17:34):
And then it was just it was a different gear.
It's when you go from being safe to no risk
it no biscuit. Like that was like the click in
his head and he went and charged full for like
you said, drop the shoulder. He's already a big physical guy.
Why not get big and physical in this moment? Like
you need a spark, you need to start hurrying this up.
(17:57):
Why waste more time by just going out of bounds
or taking you know, take taking taking, you know, taking
a shot and going to the ground. Just end it
right now, let's get another score on And that was
a good shift, especially for a young guy.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
No.
Speaker 4 (18:12):
I remember when Ben, you know, when Ben would scramble
and he would he would try, he'd rumble, bumble and
stumble and get his way downfield, and he was like, nope,
I got to get this extra yard right or I'm
not quite at the sticks. I need to make sure
I'm over and pass the sticks. That's the mentality when
you see the mark of good quarterbacks. Those are decisions
that they make and it usually ends up working out
(18:33):
well for the team.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
And it did last night for the Vikings.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
It did again. I don't want to overreact too much.
I guess my reaction from this game would be they're
both going to be trouble. You know, Chicago's going to
have to improve, and you know you're extrapolating in week one,
but going back to the end of last season and
then and then moving into this season and you know,
(18:58):
new coach and a lot of new personnel there, you
would think that that's probably a team that's going to
be trouble. As they move on, it's going to get
increasingly better. But you'd rather be Minnesota, who I think
is also going to get better and they're wan to
know and they've won a division game, and they've won
that division game on the road. But I just think,
(19:22):
you know, as people look at the best divisions in football,
I think everyone's used to kind of, you know, putting
the AFC North in there, and right now I think
it's a three headed monster in the AFC North. I
don't know what to make of Cleveland. We'll see, maybe
there's more there. They certainly gave Cincinnati all they wanted.
But I think when you look at four teams who
are all going to be really good, not just competitive,
(19:44):
not just like, hey it's the AFC South, you know
someone's got to win it and it's wide open. I mean,
like all four teams are really good, I think that
might be the NFC North this year, that they might
be the one that's got four teams where you're like, man,
all four of these teams could make the playoffs.
Speaker 4 (20:01):
It is going to be a barn burner NFC North,
as West and AFC North, I think those three divisions.
The lion's share of the playoff teams when it's all
said then, will probably be those three divisions. But it
is some good football overall. There's a lot of better
(20:21):
teams this year. The challenges are going to be many,
and for the Steelers, this is not gonna be U Slows.
You got the NFC North as your draw this year,
so you know, we've got to go to Chicago, to Detroit,
we play Minnesota in Ireland, and green Bay comes to
us on a Sunday night game that they're all going
to be must see TV watching way affairs, and there's
(20:46):
no gimmes in this division. Yeah, So you know for
the steelers's gonna be a great challenge for us. And
that's a common opponent. When we talk about differentiating ourselves
from the field and the AFC North from the Cincinnatis
from the Baltimore is of the world world, it's going
to happen not not only in division play, but these
common opponents as well. And so the Steelers, you know,
(21:07):
have to do well in these moments because I feel
like it is going to come down to tiebreakers when
it comes to December for the AFC North Crown.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
Yeah, I think when you're when you're looking at games
that you know, you you feel like you should win.
Every team's got a game they feel like they should win,
that they should lose. But boy, you better keep that
at like one, you know what I mean. I mean,
there's because you're right, and you know and I'm you know,
I'm glad you mentioned the AFC West because you know,
(21:38):
we began this discussion by talking about or you know,
interjected in there at least I did about really good
coaches in the NFL. Great coaches in the NFL. You know,
a coach comes in and organizes things. You never know
that a new, first time coach, You like, you don't
know what Aaron Glenn's going to do in New York.
I think we have a pretty good idea of what
their blueprint is going to be. But Pete Carroll is
(21:59):
a first time coach. You know, you just have to
feel like he's gonna get in there to Vegas and
organize things in a certain way and find ways to
be just a real again. I don't know whether they're
gonna have a huge amount of wins, but they might
sort of be the Jets of the a f C West,
where They're just they're just a pain. And if you
don't beat them, and you and you leave the door
(22:22):
open and in any way beat yourself, they'll they'll step
through that door. So I'm glad you mentioned them because
I mean, I would think I think for most people,
that's the weak link and maybe you know, makes them,
you know, sort of parallel with it with the thought
that Cleveland's gonna be the weak link. And again we
don't know how they play. Vegas is gonna be the
weak link. So a f C North, a f C West.
(22:43):
But I think I don't know how much of a
weeklink Vegas is gonna be. And after week one, Max,
I don't know how much of a week link Cleveland's
gonna be either. I don't know.
Speaker 4 (22:53):
And we're going to see the fighting Joe flack over,
We're gonna see.
Speaker 3 (22:57):
Yeah, are our guys something going right now?
Speaker 4 (23:01):
I mean, they just they hurt themselves, They shot themselves
on the foot. They should have beaten Cincinnati. You know,
Joe Burrow was one in nine in the first two
games of the season in his career. Wow, he just
became two and nine. That is wild.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
Well, and you wonder if at any point the knowledge
of what a poor starting team they've been traditionally kind
of work their way into their psyche. Maybe that's something
they just kind of needed to get over, and the
floodgates will open.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
I don't know, but you know.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
And this is the great thing about about sports, This
is what I love so much about sports, is that
you gotta play.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
Man.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
It's not like that. It's not like seventy thousand people
jam into a stadium and two people with laptops run
out and sit across from each other from midfield and
punching a bunch of numbers and a guy stands up
and raises his fist in the air.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
We win.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
That's the way it works, man. You can say anything
you want about how it looks on paper, how it
looks on a computer, whatever you want. Athletes have to
go out there and play. They have to be coached,
they have to be prepared. Things have to happen, you
have to have luck. Your guys have to improve, maybe
the other guys players improve, or there's just so much
(24:22):
that goes into it, and it's what makes it so wonderful.
You still got to go out and play. So it's
week one. We don't know, but it's kind of fun
to talk about what we think might happen.
Speaker 3 (24:33):
Yeah, it is fun.
Speaker 4 (24:34):
And like you said, you're extrapolating and you're trying to
figure out everything and I am. I'm sitting there trying
to just project and you can't. That's the beauty of this, right.
As much as you try and think that you're gonna know,
you never know. And you know we're gleaning a lot
(24:57):
from one game, and we know that this is extremely
small sample size to make determinations about teams. But after
week one you could feel great or you can feel
terrible because half the league has a win, the other
half does not. They're still searching for their first win.
So hope springs eternal for the one and oh teams
(25:17):
and the zero to one teams feel like doom and
gloom for right now. But that's why you have a
seventeen game regular season schedule, that's why you have eighteen
weeks of football, is to figure out by the end
of it who has more wins than losses. And a
loss at the beginning of season doesn't necessarily mean it's
a setback for the whole year. It just means that, hey,
(25:41):
we're not as close as we thought we were coming
out of training camp, that's all it means. And we
got to work extra. And the teams that work extra
and put the extra effort in are the teams that
always rise to the top by the end of the season.
The cream always rises to the top of December. As
Mike Tommys always say, and you want to be.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
Yeah, yeah, I'm sorry to me to cut you off.
He's Max Starks. I'm rob king. Uh, Bob Labriola joining us.
It's a Lab's Tuesday.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
Yes, record to that, yep, asked and answered, Bob Labriola
will be on with us. So yeah, it's gonna be
a fun day.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
Can't wait. We're gonna have Optimist Prime. I think I
got it right today, right, Optimist Prime. There we go, Yeah,
stop top of the Okay, Optimist Prime in the second
hour is gonna make it appearance. We get all kinds
of fun stuff. It'll be fun to get labed and listen.
Max said he watched some tape last night and has
some additional insight which I don't know yet. We haven't.
I can't wait to hear it. But I'm gonna have
(26:37):
to wait for a couple of minutes because we have
to take a break, so we're gonna get those insights
from Max Starks. At second, we continue insucking from with
King and Starks present of our neighborhood Ford Store here
on the Steelers Audio Network.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
This is in the locker Room with King and Starks
on Steelers Nation Radio, presented by your neighborhood Forward Store.
The F one 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 (27:17):
And we thank you very much for being with us
inside the locker room with King and Starts. And I
am in Baltimore. Max is in Arizona.
Speaker 3 (27:26):
I'm here.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
I'm on a reconnaissance mission see how the thing after
their own one start. And while here, I'm also gonna
call the Pirates game tonight. But but just try to
get a feel for what's going on. You know what
I didn't see as I went out for a morning
walk along the bay, I didn't see any Ravens jerseys, Max,
not one, not one. I think the people are down
(27:49):
in the dabber right now after their own one start.
And you're not gonna make a pro I'm gonna make
a broad general I'm gonna do.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
Okay, that's it.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
Odd generalization.
Speaker 4 (28:02):
Yeah, no, I mean, and they should feel bad. You know,
Baltimore is not Pittsburgh, and you know, as good as
they are, you can't beat the can't beat the Buffalo Bills.
So Steeler fans out there just remember, I know we've
had our struggles with Buffalo. Hey, that Crabcake City is
having the same problems. So that team in Buffalo is
(28:23):
pretty good. But I will say this, who has a
better record right now?
Speaker 3 (28:28):
Now?
Speaker 4 (28:28):
Granted, Cincinnati technically is the top of our division right
now because they beat Cleveland, so that's a division win,
So their win technically is better than ours. Even though
I think that Jets team is going to be problems
for a lot of folks, uh this season. You know,
we're looking at how how this is gonna shape out,
(28:49):
But the Steelers are in a good position. You got
a conference win, you got a common opponent win. That's
gonna that's that division we have this year, the AFC East.
So we're gonna we're we're gonna have our hands full
as well, but you know we're we're on the right
side of things and Baltimore's got to figure out a way. Then,
even with Derek Henry rushing for almost one hundred and
seventy yards, still couldn't pull that game out.
Speaker 3 (29:11):
So this goes to show you.
Speaker 4 (29:14):
Run game ain't everything in this and the Steelers we
had our struggles with the run game, but you know
we got a man. We got number eight back there.
He makes a lot of things happen, got things going.
I think this team is going to get better with
the run game. Just got to be patient, Max.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
Yeah, I agree, I totally agree, and I'm eager. Now
I'm like a kid. I'm interrupting Max because I'm like
the kid who comes downstairs and you you're you know,
you're you got the handrail and you got the little
spindles in between. You're peering in between to see if
Santa Clauses come to leave some presence under the tree.
Max has watched additional tape and has some presence under
(29:52):
the tree. Max, what did you see with your additional
watching of the team.
Speaker 4 (29:59):
I am hoping that people don't take this as as
finding the lumps of coal, because it's not that, but
it is critiques. Now, remember for a critique, it is
to help you get better. It is not to pour
on you. Some people take critiques as oh man, this
(30:20):
guy's ragging on us, Why can't you why can't you
just see a sunny day for a sunny day.
Speaker 3 (30:26):
But it's tough to watch certain.
Speaker 4 (30:30):
Things and not let me let me interject, Let me yeah,
let me interject there, and let.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
Me just say that you're absolutely right, And the sooner
everybody in life understands that there's a difference between constructive
criticism and rude behavior. This is not rude behavior. This
is constructive criticism. And the minute you realize that someone's
just trying to get you better and help you out
(30:58):
and point out the things you can get better are
at and you embrace that, the better life becomes there.
I'm just gonna I'm going to put that out there.
Speaker 4 (31:08):
I appreciate that, Thank you, Kinger, because I think a
lot of people could get enamored with those things like,
oh man, and everybody's looking for clickbait and everybody's looking
for the salacious headline.
Speaker 3 (31:20):
And I don't operate that way.
Speaker 4 (31:22):
And I know that in the past at points I've
had to deal with that where people have tried to
miscontrue and tried to twist it for their own benefit.
And you know, I'm here to say, you know, pooh
pooh on you. I'm just gonna put it that way.
Speaker 3 (31:41):
So what do you have?
Speaker 2 (31:42):
And it doesn't sound it doesn't It sounds like there's
gonna be some sounds like there's gonna be some things
some people need to work on.
Speaker 3 (31:49):
There is uh. It starts and it ends with the run.
Speaker 4 (31:55):
And when I say it like that, that means that
at both sides of the ball have to work on
run offense and run defense.
Speaker 3 (32:06):
Let me take the offensive side of the ball. First.
Guys are.
Speaker 4 (32:14):
Not totally getting the concept completely in the run game.
And I know, hey, you had all a training camp
to work this out. You have fifteen practices. Fifteen practices
is not a lot. I hate to tell you that.
To get the run game going and live action, full
speed action is a whole different thing. And this is
(32:37):
the first time all five guys in the offensive line
are working together in their current positions, and there's a
little bit of a disconnect. And I'm gonna be honest
here and here's the first critique and challenge I'm going
to offer Roderick Jones. It's been a good start, but
(33:04):
it's got to get better. It's got to get better.
It's got to get better quicker because there's some small
things on the angles and and listen, I'm old I'm
old school, and I get that, and I know that
guys are going to be like, man, why are you know?
Speaker 3 (33:19):
This is how the game is played.
Speaker 4 (33:21):
Last time I checked, when you get in a three
point stance, you have better leverage than a two point stance.
Speaker 3 (33:27):
That's just me. I'm old school. I'm dogging in that approach.
Speaker 4 (33:32):
You will always get better, push better, pop, better explosiveness
from a three point stance. Too much two point stance stuff.
And listen, listen, it goes across the board. I mean
when you're running more shotgun, you're running more pistol in
the league. Yeah, it's not ideal to be in a
three point stance, right, you can't see as much.
Speaker 3 (33:53):
Defenses are moving a lot more.
Speaker 4 (33:55):
But that's when it comes to trusted across the board
for a lot of those things. When there is a
tight end to your side and you're running the football,
you should be in a three point stance. I don't care.
I don't care if the other team knows it. Whatever,
you still got to whip me and beat me to
prove me otherwise wrong. And that's the one thing that
kind of just bothers me at times about it. It's
(34:17):
too much two point stance and you don't have the
explosion of the pop.
Speaker 3 (34:21):
And Broderick is not strong enough.
Speaker 4 (34:23):
Weight room wise yet to do everything from a two
point stance. He has the quickness, he has the tenacity,
but it's not efficient. And that's what I need him
to hopefully get better at as the season progresses and
understand those opportunities. I get it. It looks way cooler.
(34:44):
It's more comfortable to be in a two point stance.
Trust me, I know, I'm six eight. Going all the
way down to put your hand in the dirt is
a long way. That is like the that's the escalator
down right. You know it takes it takes a lot
of effort, But I can tell you you are stronger,
you are better, and you are more physical when you
(35:08):
have that opportunity. And I'm just hoping that, you know,
he will develop that he will work on that and
continue to progress that because the first the first quarter
of this game, from what I watched, it was just
he got beat on that first sack by Quinn Williams
(35:31):
and some of the run game fits, he kind of
guys got edged off of him.
Speaker 3 (35:36):
They disengaged from him. He didn't have that pop in
that snap.
Speaker 4 (35:41):
That he had at the right tackle position when he
was using more of his three point stance.
Speaker 3 (35:46):
Went another thing, inside moves. Inside moves whipped.
Speaker 4 (35:52):
A lot of the guys on the line, and and
it wasn't like, oh there's a predetermined slant suspend move.
It's side rip move. Guys have to get stouter and
learn how to use their post leg. So when I
say post and me just be very specific here, kinger
post is the inside leg that's up. So if you're
(36:13):
a right tackle or a right guards your left leg.
If you're a left tackle or a left guard, it
is your right leg. And if you're Zach Frasier, you
just pray to God because you're parallel post leg, inside
leg leg closest to quarterback, so to speak, that leg
should be high. So when a guy redirects to your
(36:34):
inside via spin, via swim move, via arm over, whatever
you want to call it, you should be posting that
leg up and in and a lot of times it's
the effort in the mindset to let that leg go
because you don't want it to drop. You can take parallel,
(36:57):
you can take an up and in action. So but
the second you drop that leg to the inside, that's
like swinging open the saloon door to the quarterback. And
that's one of the things that I noticed with with
Roderick and with and with a couple of the guys
that that are that that when that leg drops, you're
(37:17):
you're You're in deep doo doo and there's no way
to really get out of it except for trying and
just run the guy as hard as you can and
pray that the quarterback sees it that he could step
around it. But there's a little bit too much uneasiness
for the team in that moment when guys do that,
and that puts additional stress on the entire offense. So
(37:40):
you've got to work that move a little bit better.
And those are some of my critiques offensively. Now defensively,
I think that we should reserve that for the second
hour because I can't because that's going to take a
little bit and I know that we have labs at
the top of the hour so on to make sure
we don't kind of kill the entire segment with going
on this, but I'll stay on the office out of
the ball. I think for Aaron, Aaron has to get
(38:04):
more comfortable with the guys in front of him.
Speaker 3 (38:06):
He had some happy feed.
Speaker 4 (38:07):
In moments, and it looks like a little bit of
panic when he starts to get there.
Speaker 3 (38:11):
The pocket stars collapse.
Speaker 4 (38:12):
He started to move, and you know he was definitely
taking some hiss because guys weren't creating that picket fence
for him every time at one of those I mean,
Quinn Williams was having a heck of a day on Sunday.
He and once again rightfully so he is. He is
a game wrecker. But at some point, when you get
(38:34):
the double teams on it, you have to make him pay.
And that's what I talked about Kinger the run game
and everything. I'm supposed to tender rize those defensive linemens,
so it takes a little bit of edge off the rush.
They were not tenderizing, and a lot of the run
game concepts, like the outside stretch zone, they're not quite
there yet. You know, Zach Frazier, as good as Zach is,
(38:57):
you know, Zach was having some struggles when he was
when they were leaving him wide open in the run game,
he was having to go chase like the front side
backer and sometimes even the backside back like he was.
He was lost in the sauce a little bit on
that second level. So you need to bring the fight
to him. He he he is. He is a phone
booth champion. Bring the phone booth to him. Stop making
(39:20):
him chase a block and a half to get to
the next phone booth. That that's a schematic and concept thing. Hey, listen,
the Jets have very fast flow linebackers, so it's not like,
oh man, you know, but he's already putting it in
a disadvantageous position. Help him out by keeping the concept
(39:41):
tighten inside the outside zone that we were trying to run,
it just wasn't there because the angles were bad. The
concept was, you know, we were pushed one guy out
too far and maybe you need to bring a guy
in motion to bump back the call backwards a little bit.
But that was another one that was just a struggle,
and that's why we didn't get as many yurs as
(40:03):
we wanted in the run game.
Speaker 3 (40:04):
We left a lot of meat on the bone.
Speaker 4 (40:05):
So to speak, and it made a lot of the
reds tough for the backs because the backs are having
to go so wide and with the pursuit angles trying
to cut back, you were cutting back into bodies. You know,
gain Well and Jalen both had that issue early on,
and I would have liked to have seen a more
tight zone so you can get a body on a body,
get quality double teams at the point on the first line,
(40:27):
and then work that guy up into the second line defender.
You know, when you got six hundred pounds on three
hundred pounds, it's a lot easier to move that sled
than three hundred three hundred, Right, It's it's got to
be some cleaner, simpler concepts, And that's one thing I saw.
It was just a little bit too much sophistication, I feel,
for this early in the year.
Speaker 2 (40:48):
Yeah, so uh there there's a boy, there's a lot
to get to because the offensive line, max I think
is you know, again, as you go around the team
and you talk about the fans concerned, you know the
receiver position, you know, Aaron Rodgers, you know that offensive
line is down the list for a lot of fans,
especially I think in the tackle position because you have
(41:10):
Troy Foutowan who's starting as a first year guy, because
Broderick Jones is moving from left side to right, and
you have a couple of second year starters too at
center in the right guard position. So we have a
lot to get to on this offensive line. We're going
to continue to get to this because it's a huge, huge,
you know, area for a team, not just for the
(41:33):
Steelers but for every team, but certainly for the Steelers.
So we're going to get to that. We have more
to get to as well concerning this game recently played,
the victory over the Jets. Bob Labriol is going to
be joining us a little bit so much still the comments,
We continue inside the locker Room with King and Starks,
brought to you by your neighborhood Ford Store here on
the Steelers Audio Network.
Speaker 1 (41:56):
This is in the Locker Room with Kenyon Starks on
Steelers Nation Radio, presented by your neighborhood Forward Store. The
F one 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 (42:19):
Welcome back inside the locker room with King and Starks
and Max reports, I, you know, top flight NFL insider
type of guys. So you have Ian Rappaport Mike Garofflo
reporting that the Steelers are close to signing or expected
(42:41):
to sign Jabro Peppers, who was a you know, a
surprise cut Byland again. You know, new new Startland, do
new thing up there. Peppers is a guy who was
the first round pick of Cleveland back in seventeen. He's
now twenty nine years old. Played six games last year
in New England, started a six, started all fifteen games
(43:03):
a year before. He's he's pretty much been a solid
NFL starter throughout the course of his career. Again, not
in guy, not an old guy though either. You know,
he's twenty nine, will be thirty in a couple of weeks. Now,
of course you think about this and you think injuries
(43:23):
that happened Sunday and trying not to put two and
two together. But your thoughts on what Jabrill Peppers and
the Sun might mean for the.
Speaker 4 (43:33):
Team, Well, I think we bring in a Jabrill Peppers.
He's a guy that's physical, he's he's gotten better over
the years. You know, early on in Cleveland, days and everything,
didn't quite have the fit. But since he's been with
the Patriots, it's been it's been one that you know,
he had a breakout year and twenty three last year
(43:54):
a little bit limited with with some injuries. Last season
was as effective. But he's tough, he's a leader in
that secondary. He flies around, very instinctual player. And I
think this also, you know, kind of signals that Sean
Elliot's gonna be out for a little bit and you
need you need some reinforcements in there. And I think
(44:15):
this is what that signing kind of signals.
Speaker 3 (44:18):
And you know, to have.
Speaker 4 (44:19):
A guy like that on the streets, that's a pretty
that's a pretty good that's a pretty good guy to
have come and and and do your substitute teaching. You
know what I'm saying, Like to have to have a
guy of Jabrill Pepper's skill set to be be available,
that was heads up.
Speaker 3 (44:35):
Smart player.
Speaker 4 (44:35):
Gotta gotta tip the cap again to Andy Widel and
Sheldon White and Omar Kahan for scouring and being ready
and creating those short lists of guys that they can
call in and apparently, you know, according to Ian Rappaport
and Mike Garifolo. Uh, they've already agreed to terms. So
this guy will be here. Today's the off day, and
(44:56):
Wednesday you'll see him. You'll see him in uniform. You'll
see him on the field get reps and ready to
try and do battle and and take on take on
the Seattle Seahawks. So uh, I think it's I think
it's very a very good signing, very good signing for
the Steelers. And that's going to add, you know, some
veteran leadership and some depth there, uh in the secondary.
Speaker 3 (45:16):
And yeah, you know.
Speaker 4 (45:18):
The next thing is I hope shot Elliott, you know,
recovers fully. I'm never gonna say quickly, I see them
recover fully because guys can can can rush back quickly
and cause even more damage. I want a full recovery
to get him back in the fold because he is
a difference maker, he is a leader in that secondary.
He has a hammer, and you got to make sure
(45:38):
you got you gotta got a lot of hammerscause we've
got a lot a lot of nails out there, a
lot of nails that they need to be hit for
the opposing teams.
Speaker 3 (45:46):
So I wish him a full.
Speaker 4 (45:48):
Recovery and excited for jail Peppers to put his hand
in the pile.
Speaker 2 (45:54):
Yeah, I mean this, Shawn is such a good player
and they gave him a contract extension for a reason
this off season, and you hope it's you know, you
hope it's not. I mean, he's walking around after it.
But we don't know. I mean, we're not you know.
And again, keep in mind that Mike Tomlin's press conference
is coming up today at noon. He usually begins at
press conference with an update on the injury front, so
(46:17):
that is something we're all going to want to keep
an eye on, and like you said, hopefully for a
good full recovery from Deshaun Elliott, who's a really important
player on this team. And again I agree with you
to have a guy like Peppers and be able to
bring him into your team, that's that is that should
be a positive for the Steelers for sure. Okay, so
(46:39):
we're going to take a break. Bob Labrielle is going
to be joining us at the top of the hour.
We still have much more of Max's film breakdown to come, uh,
which is which is always interesting and exciting stuff. So
we're gonna get all that and as we continue on
inside the locker, Room with King and Starks, presented by
your neighborhood Ford store here on the Steelers Audio Network
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