December 31, 2024 • 41 mins
Max and Wolf begin to look ahead to Saturday’s clash with the Bengals, and how you get back to business after a few straight losses
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
This is in the Locker Room, presented by Ford and
brought to you by AKRA Sure, the official insurance and
cybersecurity partner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, by Bett MGM, Huntington Bank, PNC, PEPSI,
and by FedEx. Where now meets next? Now here's Craig
Wilfley and Max Starks.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
These guys in his locker mark given up. Yeah, they're
not giving in. There's so much to still look forward to.
There's still a chance, you know. I was telling the
guys in locker room about that. You know, just like
you know in every season, there's there's moments, but we
still got an unbelievable chance to do some great things.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
And that's the voice of reason.
Speaker 4 (00:41):
That's the voice of elcopy time, that's the voice of
your quarterback. That's what you gotta do. If you want
to roll forward. You gotta have that confidence. You got
to have that belief. You got to have that sort
of resilience that is born of many years in the NFL.
He has certainly weathered storms before, as have some of
the players in It's always important to be able to, Oh,
(01:02):
if you want to get Reo speedwag and a little
Kevin Cronen, who I met, by the way, I didn't
meet him at one time. You know, riding the storm out,
you got to ride the storm of three losses in
a row out. You've got to take it on the
Bengals at Acro sure this Saturday at eight o'clock, and
you got to put these guys away because Joe Burrow
(01:23):
is hotter than a bowl of Texas chili.
Speaker 5 (01:27):
Yeah I would.
Speaker 6 (01:27):
I would say he's hotter than a bowl of jalapenos.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
We could throw that on top of the Texas chili. Huh.
Speaker 5 (01:35):
Now we're talking about good eating. That is goat right there?
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Can you handle halipinos still at your age?
Speaker 5 (01:41):
Yes? I still can't.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
See they smoked me.
Speaker 7 (01:44):
You know.
Speaker 4 (01:44):
See, here's the thing Tounch told me years ago, because
I grew up eating all the hot sauce, wings, everything,
and then through my twenties, you know, we're teammates and
everything like that, and into my thirties and he would
always laugh and go, yeah, don't worry about it. You
keep pranking it up there, buddy, and you know what,
it's gonna hit you in the end. You're gonna and
I'm at that point now where it's the hot sauce
(02:06):
is a little bit rough.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
I mean the Hali pino stuff is even rougher.
Speaker 6 (02:11):
Yeah, well, I mean, you know, like you said, pallets change,
and I'm sure Wolf, you know you you were you
were probably excessive. I'm sure just like world's strongest man,
you're probably going for world's toughest eater.
Speaker 5 (02:24):
So I can see that. I can see that.
Speaker 6 (02:27):
And being in Buffalo, I mean, you know, sauce I feel.
Speaker 5 (02:32):
Like is a little bit it's a little bit more.
Speaker 6 (02:36):
With sauce versus the actual like whole pepper right in
cooking application. I believe it hits a little bit differently.
And did you de seat it? Is it full seeds?
There's a lot of other factors in it. But yeah, no,
I mean because I like, I love like shashido peppers
and stuff like that, you know, and those can have
(02:58):
varying degrees. You don't know if it's be mild or
hot until you bite it. So I like the mystery
in that really. But yeah, no, I still I still
rather enjoy spicy foods.
Speaker 7 (03:10):
You know.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
The interesting thing is is I remember years ago, you know,
I got hit with a I got a bucket of
wings up in Buffalo, you know, brought them home and
they were they were volcanic. I mean they were nuclear.
I went for the hottest one and it was a bucket,
so you got fifty wings, right. I managed to get
(03:32):
through like like ten of them, and you know, my
youngest brother Dale ate the final like thirty some I
was sweating it out. I was like done. And this
was in my twenties. And my youngest brother, you know,
he was like just killed him and he walked through
it like it was nothing, and I was like, you
(03:53):
gotta be kidding me. I've never seen that before. That
was like amazing. He would have been good at one
of them food shows, yeah.
Speaker 5 (04:02):
Or that was it Hot Ones TV show or whatever.
Speaker 6 (04:05):
They do something like that podcast hot Ones where you
have to do like the varying degrees of hot sauce
with the chicken wing.
Speaker 5 (04:13):
And then it's also like the one chip challenge and
stuff like that, like oh yeah, the one chip extream hots.
Speaker 8 (04:18):
Yeah I can't but yeah no, but I mean yeah,
that that would that would get I don't do like
hot for the sake of hot things, you know what
I'm saying, Like.
Speaker 6 (04:30):
I do it for flavoring. I love like the caging
type of spice I like. I like a good spice
to say hello.
Speaker 5 (04:38):
How you doing.
Speaker 6 (04:38):
Maybe a little bit of nose or brow sweat involved
because of it, but I'm not I'm.
Speaker 5 (04:45):
Not trying to burn my nostrils off volcanic or something
like that.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
All right, Now, Like jumbalaya, you can go for a
good spicy jumbalaya.
Speaker 6 (04:53):
Oh yeah, throw a little crystal or some Louisiana hot
sauce on it.
Speaker 4 (04:57):
Absolutely, Okay, Yeah, I go on the Louisiana hot sauce anymore,
just on a counter.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
I'm old.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
But the fact was, I remember back in my heyday. Yeah,
I used to like to just pile drive that hot
sauce on there and just you just have ad it
with that jumble eye.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
That stuff is so good.
Speaker 5 (05:14):
Oh it is.
Speaker 6 (05:15):
It is now one of the things that we had
during my Oh let's see how I put this freshman
year of college. Uh, right of passage, you know, that's
what we'll call it.
Speaker 5 (05:26):
Right of passage?
Speaker 3 (05:27):
Well, okay, okay, because.
Speaker 5 (05:29):
If you use an H word, it's a bad word.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
Yeah right, I hear you.
Speaker 6 (05:33):
Yeah, But you know, every pressure had to prove themselves, sure,
and one particular night full of personal challenges. Shall we say,
gotlet of events.
Speaker 5 (05:48):
Uh.
Speaker 6 (05:49):
One of the things that you had to endure was
you had to drink a bottle of hot sauce.
Speaker 5 (05:55):
No wow, getting oh boy, distracted in your upper body region.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
You got it? Got it? So you take punches while
you're drink.
Speaker 6 (06:04):
Yeah, why while you're trying to drink a bottle of
hot Yeah okay, Me and my buddy John Cologne finished it.
Speaker 5 (06:10):
No problem.
Speaker 4 (06:13):
My gosh, that's that's like legendary. I mean, my habits. Man,
that's just you stand back. You think now on the
other end of you go, how stupid.
Speaker 5 (06:23):
Was I Yeah, you're you're like what was I think?
I mean, I just imagine what you're going.
Speaker 6 (06:29):
It's like, how do you how do you how do
you effectively go to sleep? Because now you just kind
of kind of just you know, moltenized your your your inside.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Yeah, it's it's like lava on the inside.
Speaker 5 (06:44):
Yeah exactly. There's no Carroc's, there's there's.
Speaker 6 (06:47):
No you know, celery with a blue cheese or there's
no apper teeth type of deal here.
Speaker 5 (06:53):
It was just a straight bottle of hot sauce.
Speaker 4 (06:56):
Oh man, Yeah, I would imagine blackened the bowl.
Speaker 7 (07:02):
It was.
Speaker 6 (07:05):
I can't even sit on it. You're right, it was
like rocket fuel. Yeah, no, that was you know, try
trying to just hold on. You need a seat belt
for the toilet, you know what I'm saying. So it
was it was a little rough.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
My one of my roommates, his father used to grow
these firecracker peppers.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
All right.
Speaker 4 (07:24):
So these peppers were, you know, the kind that I
don't know if like ghost peppers are a real thing
or something I've heard about.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
I never tried it.
Speaker 4 (07:32):
They are, Okay, okay, these were These were peppers that
are just so hot. You've got to make sure that
you only you chop them up very finely and and
use just a little and a whole bunch of like
a big big thing of spaghetti sauce.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
You know.
Speaker 4 (07:47):
So anyhow, my buddy he chopped them up a little
bit and put in, uh, made some spaghetti one night,
and I got to tell you the one thing he
forgot before he went to the bathroom. And I can
only tell you that man suffered in ways a man
should not suffer. Oh geez, yeah, I'll just I'll say
no more. There you go, yeah there, you know, we
(08:10):
just fire off that cannon shot, because let me tell
you something, taking a cannon to the chest would have
been better endured than what that man had to go through.
Then oh man, gosh, okay, we gotta go to break
down no more. I don't know how I got so
sidetracked on that, but that's the opening SALEO. Here in
(08:31):
the locker room, we're coming back with more. We have
the great Alvaro Martin is gonna be or al Martin,
the International Man of Mystery, is going to be up
next right here in the locker room.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
This is in the locker Room, presented by Ford and
brought to you by ACRO Shure, the official insurance and
cybersecurity partner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, by Bett MGM, Huntington Bank, PNC, PEPSI,
and by Bedex. Where now meets next? Now here's Craig
Wolfley and Max Stark's.
Speaker 6 (09:31):
All right back inside the locker room here and we
are joined by the one the only, Albaro Martine aka
the Spanish Voice of the Steelers and al Ro. Pleasure
to have you on, but glad glad to hear from you,
(09:54):
and of course you know glad that we still have
football going meaningful, football still being played to close out
the regular season against the Bengals, who are trying to
get into that last coveted playoff spot.
Speaker 7 (10:09):
Well, it's great to talk to you, guys. I'm talking
to you guys today from Santa Fe, which is a
suburb of Mexico City. This area is actually pretty posh,
pretty nice. Wow, big big hotels, great restaurants. It's kind
of a suburb. Believe it or not. It used to
be the city dump in Mexico. They cleaned it up,
they paved it over, and they built this city with
(10:32):
huge towers, residential areas. It's it's unbelievable. All the best
hospitals are here. So it's just a bit away from
the center of Mexico. But I'm getting ready for the
last game of the regular season. Uh, and I can't.
We're inside the locker room. So have we gotten rid
of the stench yet?
Speaker 3 (10:49):
That bad boy out Let me tell.
Speaker 7 (10:51):
You, Let me let me ask you guys, because you've
been through this before. Tell me about team meetings. Tell
me about the purpose of the value of it and
the results of it, and maybe some anecdotes that you
can tell, maybe without naming names. That kind of sticked
your mind.
Speaker 4 (11:09):
I can tell you I've been in I think it
was two team meetings in my entire career. One was nonsensical.
It was called by people that don't matter and people
that you know, there's certain people that talk to talk,
but don't walk the walk. And then there was the
one that Joe Green spoke at and let me tell
(11:30):
you something, he had everybody's attention. And I'll just leave
it at that, but he had everybody's attention in that room.
Speaker 7 (11:41):
What about you, Max?
Speaker 5 (11:43):
Uh?
Speaker 6 (11:45):
Yeah, those are subsisitive times. I mean, you know, we
have a famous one that happened. There was a player's
only meeting my second year in the league. Joey Porter
called it. And let's just say that was that was
a very revealing meeting. And then I mean and then
you know, for coach Tomlin, I've been in. I've been
(12:06):
in those meetings with him. You know, Coach Tomlin not
as uh not as uh I would say colorful in
his commentary, but when he spoke, you got you got the.
Speaker 5 (12:20):
Brevity of the situation. There was no there was no room.
Speaker 6 (12:23):
For interpretation of some latitudes. But I mean, you know,
some of those meetings are tough. I mean, you know,
I've been in those meetings with Coach Cower back in
oh five when we were on a three game losing
streak towards a back you know, third fourth quarter so
to speak of the season, and we had the guy
(12:45):
to have it, you know, pretty much starting all of
November to even give us a shot at it. And
you know, those meetings, we we called that that was
a windshield wiper type of meetings because Coach cow or
you were the spit was gonna fly and the channel is.
Speaker 5 (13:04):
Going to be on the lose, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 6 (13:06):
And so you had you had to mind your p's
and q's.
Speaker 7 (13:12):
Now, obviously you said you had a three game rules
and speak. What about you, Craig. Did the meetings in
the end change things fundamentally?
Speaker 4 (13:20):
I would say, Joe moved the needle, you know, and
things things started to change.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
Uh, the other No, nothing, I mean, it was.
Speaker 4 (13:29):
Just zippo, not a you know, it's why were we here?
You know, it was just one of those things. So
that that's just better left unside.
Speaker 7 (13:39):
So who's who speaks makes a tremendous amount of difference.
You and I are not in the locker room in
the Steelers locker room this year. But who would be
your candidate to speak up and everybody to kind of
turn and say wow. You know, typically this person doesn't
really speak up that much when they do, and it's
heartfelt because he's something and he's probably right. I've got
(14:03):
a candidate. I don't know if you guys have your
own candidates.
Speaker 4 (14:05):
Oh yeah, it be Cam Hayward. Come on, ye, I mean,
come on, there's who else. I mean, that's as close
he's He is the next generational lion king. You know
that every team has generally has a lion king somewhere
in it's in its organization. As a player, you know,
there's that guy that has manifestly looked at as the leader,
(14:28):
unquestioned on by both the offense and defense, and that
would be Cam.
Speaker 5 (14:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (14:35):
I got it with Cam as well. I mean you know, granted, now,
would a TJ. Watt speech have an effect? Yes, you know,
TJ's a man of very few words. Like you said,
you listened to a few words he will give you.
Speaker 5 (14:48):
But as far as somebody being able to.
Speaker 6 (14:51):
Rally the troops right to lead them in the battle,
I think Cam is that war daddy.
Speaker 5 (14:56):
He has he has been one of those.
Speaker 6 (14:58):
Guys that has been and bearing the brunt of success
and failure for the Steelers for a while, you know,
and I think I think that experience that time served,
so to speak, is one of one of the biggest
things that you you know, you can't take it for
(15:19):
granted what he brings to the table. And he's one
that also he enjoys the words game.
Speaker 5 (15:27):
He enjoys using words just like.
Speaker 6 (15:30):
Coach Tonland and being able to get a rise out
of guys I know he and he draws the ultimate
of respects, both offensively as well as defensively.
Speaker 7 (15:41):
I'm gonna I'm gonna throw in a name that I
don't think it's going to be at that level, but
I do believe if he ever spoke up, giving his
personality and given his achievements, he would move the needle.
I don't know how much, but he would definitely get
everybody's attention. And that would be the guy who's responsible
for about a third of the points of the team,
Chris Boswell. I think he's got the personality and he's
(16:03):
got he's got the interventions in the past that he
doesn't say much, but when he's bothered, he's pretty caustic.
He won't need any guff and he'll tell you straight.
And if ever in that meeting, Chris Bosswell spoke up.
I think people turned him and go, hmm, food for
thought here, because he has I think he's got. He
doesn't play you know, main downs like an offensive player
(16:24):
or a defensive player. But you cannot argue with what
kind of a pro he is and how not, how
no nonsense he is. It's just right down. He's just grounded.
And those really it's grounding. These meetings really are teams
looking for grounding, like they've lost their footing and they
just need to be connected to reality. And other than that,
(16:48):
they just have to play better and and and and
by the way, they also have to recover. I mean
people are talking about, ah my goodness, the Bengals have
had five prime time games. That's a rough chedule. And
it's like, hold my beer, man, you show you what.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
We or no, we're gonna take a moment. Well played
on that one. I like that. That was good.
Speaker 7 (17:15):
Yeah. Or if they say in friends, it's wus why
you know, come on.
Speaker 4 (17:20):
Man, you can't warn me when you're gonna start making
me laugh. And I'm gonna spit beer all beer. I'm
gonna coffee, spit coffee all over.
Speaker 5 (17:28):
What was it that mug lest.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
It's coffee. It's reason why.
Speaker 7 (17:34):
The reason why Craig. The reason why Craig said that
is we're all already in Dublin, already thinking Dublin, and
right now you can have a beer in doublin.
Speaker 5 (17:43):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
Listen to you, man, you you've got an answer for everything.
Speaker 7 (17:48):
That's right. I'm actually working on my brogue. I'm trying
to get my brogue a little bit.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
Better Spanish brogue. That's right.
Speaker 5 (17:56):
You know.
Speaker 7 (17:56):
They roll the rs. That's half, that's half the game.
Speaker 4 (18:00):
This is going, this is uncharted stuff we're going to
right now.
Speaker 5 (18:05):
Oh my god.
Speaker 6 (18:07):
Well, to be back on trash, Yes, Chris Boswell is
uh is one that I think it would certainly.
Speaker 5 (18:15):
Yeah, it would raise eyebrows for sure.
Speaker 6 (18:19):
And you're also one of your the leading point getter
on the team, so I think the cash and credibility
is there, you know. And he's a guy that's long
tenured with this team, so yeah.
Speaker 5 (18:32):
His his words I believe would have an effect as well.
Speaker 7 (18:34):
So I agree. But in the end, in the end,
how much of changing the course, getting rid of the
bad habits rely on the coaches or on the players.
I mean, at some point, is it a matter of
just saying personal stock, Ok, they really I've been blowing it.
Here's the video. I can't fight that video. It's pretty
(18:55):
clear that what I'm doing is not conducive to winning,
or as a matter of the players kind of getting
on each other and saying, if you do that one
more time against you know.
Speaker 4 (19:06):
The thing is the accountability factor, and it can't be
something that you just now start to say, hey, you've
got to be more accountable. When you got cover three
and you're playing your zone, you get no. I mean,
this has got This is something that started way back
in training camp and the OTAs things like that that
you you build towards it and as you move along.
Right now, they're in a world of hurt from coming
(19:28):
off of three games again in that shortened time period.
But they've just not performed to the level that they're
accustomed to, and everybody knows it. And you've got to
take personal accountability and make sure that you are crossing
the t's and dot and the eyes and your own
responsibilities and bring it forward for game day. That's that's
(19:49):
where they're at it. It's it's the Yoda principle, do
or do not. There is no trying. You either get
the job done or you don't.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
Do or do not.
Speaker 7 (20:00):
Which which units performance It's not talking about individitals, but
which units performance would be responsible for the for this turnaround.
Expect the turnaround and the change in course. If I
know their individual players are key obviously, but if you
were to single out this unit has to play really
(20:20):
so much better for them to get back into the
wing game.
Speaker 5 (20:25):
Well, I think I.
Speaker 6 (20:26):
Think more so that it has to be you know,
offense has to show up and help the defense out right.
One of the reasons why we've kind of struggle. And
I go back to that Baltimore game. You know this
game is tied up turnovers, right, I mean, you know,
(20:49):
a pick six at a critical moment hurts astoundingly bad.
They've been forcing the fumbles. They need to come away
with the recoveries as well off of those force fumbles.
And you know, if after that Minka interception, if you
do actually go down the field and score, I think
(21:12):
you would have created that doubt in Baltimore all over again.
But Marlon Humphreys undercuts the route, picks the ball off,
picks six. That pretty much sealed the game there, just
like a fumble sealed it and Philly. You know, it's
just it's like those are the things. When you eliminate
(21:35):
those type of mistakes, you play faster, you play freer,
you played better. But when it's full slow float, it's, well,
it's tough. And I think that's why time off will
help refocus and heal. But to get back to the
(21:58):
level that we're used to is taking care of the
football and also taking care of the opponent's football.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
For them, you know.
Speaker 4 (22:05):
And now I'll jump in and just say, you know,
you go one game back even further the Eagles when
they couldn't the defense couldn't get off the field in
a ten minute drive to seal the game. Look, there's
enough blame to spread over everybody. Everybody's got a hand
in a pile. For me, I can't sit there and say, well,
the offense has got to do this and the defense's
got to do that, because they're both equally part of
(22:26):
this unit of this team called the Steelers. So each
one has to hold up their end of the bargain.
And for the Steelers, Look, they've had what ten to
three and outs over the last three games. Yeah, zooks man,
that's a lot on the defense. But at the same time,
the defense has got to be able to get off
the field too. And time of possession is one of
those indicators, but it's not everything, but it's certainly dominating.
(22:49):
The time of possession is going to be important this
weekend because the more you can keep Joe Burrow on
the sideline, the better opportunity you're going to have to
come away with a win.
Speaker 7 (22:58):
Yeah, and so what sense if I had to pick
one unit that has to get better, not that they're
playing poorly, poorly, it would be the offensive line for
those reasons, if they actually do their job, less pressure
behind them, the guy behind them, more in time of possession,
shorter third downs. It just that's the way Pittsma has
been winning. And really it's their game this year, the
(23:21):
twenty twenty four Steeters, that's their game. That's what they
play for. You can call it identity. I don't believe
in that funny, that's what they call it now. On
the other side, you mentioned you mentioned taking care of
turnovers and not turning all over to the opponent. Cincinnati
coach Downland mentioned that yesterday. In the last four weeks
actually did the accounting, they've turned twelve opponent balls over.
(23:45):
That's a lot of free per game. And it coincides
with the insertion of Chris Jenkins as a nose tackle
and he, by the way, was the leading tackler for
what it's worth in their loss against Pittsburgh earlier in
the year. It just it just it happens to match
(24:07):
his arrival with this area. They're getting a little bit
better in terms of preventing third down conversions. They're kind
of the same in the red zone. They're still allowing
a bunch of yards, maybe a little bit less, but
it's the turnovers and it's mostly interceptions. And when I
see mostly interceptions, I'm just thinking, you know, fast protection
(24:29):
and fast pressure.
Speaker 6 (24:31):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 7 (24:32):
It's really remarkable. I mean, they had six takeaways again
against Tennessee six right, two against Dallas, three against Cleveland,
and one against Denver, and uh and that's new. That
that that that was not there before and if you're
(24:52):
zooming up the ranks. As a matter of fact, in
those four weeks, those twelve takeaways lead the NFL or
what it. And I know the opponents are not necessarily
you know, playoff teams here, but it's a notable, notable
trend that they're getting very very good at, particularly intercepting balls.
(25:13):
That's been their strength. I think they've had about four
Tumbel recoveries but eight interceptions. They had a game with
four interceptions, so they've been they've been doing well in
that category, and that's something that Theeeders have to really
be mindful here and understand exactly why that happens. I
think it's that unk tackle Jenkins.
Speaker 4 (25:32):
Well, the thing is, you got I think the Bengals
have what fifteen interceptions if I've you know, put in
the correct things, yeah for the google right, yeah, fifteen
you know, And to think about it is, yeah, part
of it is pressure, but they've also spent they spent
a lot of money getting good corners and their secondary
and so forth. The fact is interceptions are big. And
(25:53):
think about it. Since the russ game, you know, in
December first, when he lit them up for over four
hundred yards, that's when they started this turnover thing. You know,
they've got twelve turnovers since that game. And this is
what I mean when this is this is kind of
like the worm turned for them, well for the Steelers
that hadn't. I mean, you got against Baltimore, against was
(26:15):
the Eagles, and and so forth. You had four balls
hit hit the ground and the Steelers were not able
to come up with any of them, you know, I
mean those things. It's like you got to stay dedicated
to the ball searching and ball security drills you do
every single day, and you've got to be dedicated to
that with the faith knowing that if you're getting it
(26:36):
done in practice, it'll happen in a game sooner or later.
And it's kind of like you know, sex and interceptions,
they come in bunches, you know, and it'll it'll turn around.
But we've been through a stretch these three games where
the turnovers have gone from three to two to one
each and every game they's gone downhill.
Speaker 3 (26:54):
It's crazy.
Speaker 7 (26:55):
Yeah, And again I would say I remind you these
four games Cincinnati were against Dallas already out of the playoffs, Tennessee,
don't time to voice any breath on them, Cleveland, and
finally Denver that was the game that that that that
was the really outstanding game. But other than that, these
are fairly weak opponents. And I I there's a little
(27:18):
bit of me that says that that Gauntlett that they
had to run through had them just beat up and
slowed down enough. I have to think that way. I
have to think that if that had that same ball
had been lose the same way in Week four, it
would have ended up in Steelers' hands. I just I
just think that way. I mean, I just think the
steam needs a lot of rest. They're getting some now.
(27:40):
Of course they could have been on someday, but no, no, no, no,
but have them played on the South. But I guess
that's one Saturday night.
Speaker 5 (27:47):
Don't forget that Saturday night is.
Speaker 7 (27:50):
Exactly play in the morning.
Speaker 5 (27:56):
Yeah, I mean it's and like you said that that
is that's true. That's wild. You know, they played three.
Speaker 6 (28:04):
Games in eleven days. It's not just like three Ani games.
It was not three Pa. It wasn't a couple of
Patty cakes missing there mixing there with a good team.
Speaker 5 (28:13):
This is like the beginning of like power for football
in college.
Speaker 6 (28:16):
You know where you schedule D one double A and
you know schools out the paycheck schools, right, you know,
they went through a gauntlet of good teams. You're talking
about three of the top five teams in the NFL,
top two running backs in the NFL.
Speaker 5 (28:35):
In back to back weeks.
Speaker 6 (28:38):
That's a big challenge, especially when you're asked to keep pace.
You can't do a low scoring affair. Your defense just
has to come up with a timely turnover like Minka
did in Baltimore. And you know, the one turnover, of course,
is notable in the Chiefs game was a two point
conversion that was intercepted by Corey Trice. I would have
(29:03):
loved that, like thirty yards ago, I would have loved
that in those moments. But you're right, it's a team
that is predicated on opportunistic, short feel, change of pace
type of series.
Speaker 5 (29:19):
But at the.
Speaker 6 (29:20):
Same time, you know, I look at it and I'm
just like, you know, this was this was supposed to
be par for the course when you play these teams this.
Speaker 5 (29:30):
Way on that much rest.
Speaker 6 (29:32):
So I'm I'm I'm with Wolf, where you know, helped
his wealth and they're starting to they're starting to get
some over their wealth back with this extended time off.
Speaker 4 (29:46):
Absolutely now, but I will say this because this step
step came from uh the Bengals Dot com is crazy.
Speaker 5 (29:53):
But can you guys hear me?
Speaker 3 (29:55):
Yeah? Well got you? You got me? What are you there? Max?
Speaker 5 (29:59):
Hello?
Speaker 3 (30:00):
I think we just might have lost Max. But let
me continue with this.
Speaker 4 (30:04):
When the Bengals, the Bengals can win, right in the
Borough era, when the Bengals force two or more two
turnovers versus the Steelers are three and zero, all right,
When they force just one or none takeaways, the Bengals
are one and five. So it tells you that ball
security at least has a history in this Bengals Steelers
matchup in the Joe Burrow era. And one of the
(30:26):
ways you can do that is you've got to stay
dedicated to the ball searching takeaways that you've had in
the past, and you've got to predicate that on the
faith that doing the work will show out in a game.
And at some point, as I've said, the worm will
turn Alvaro and it's got to, you know, sooner or later,
it's got to that ball starts rolling towards you instead
away from you.
Speaker 7 (30:47):
Yeah, the hungry dog is a fast dog. That half
steff you are missing now with three losses in a
row and really trying to get a better position for
the playoffs. It's got to make them hungry and the
fact that everyone's back in a little bit more rested. Now.
I hear about the three games and how tough they were,
and I agree with that, but let's not forget none
(31:08):
of the other three teams playing on Christmas had four
division games immediately leaning up to the three game guardment right,
and every game I don't care if your opponent's week
requires a lot of intensity, because, as everybody knows, division
games can't count for two count double, so you better
win those if you want to be in the playoffs
and be in a good position. And then then you
(31:29):
start looking, guys at the list of candidates for MVP
for the year, and two of them are quarterbacks in
the AFC North. You just hope that Cleveland doesn't hit
the lottery with a quarterback in the next draft. I mean,
you just have to hit like, please, please, please, can't be,
can't be. You know, people ask, well, why come Pittsburgh
(31:52):
spend so much money on their defensive personnel, and I'm like,
let me introduce you Exhibit one, Lamar Jackson. Exhibit two.
You know, Joey Borrow, yep, I mean, what do you
expect that's what you've got. And it's not easy. It's
not easy, No, And they're both deserving candidates for the MVP.
Speaker 4 (32:10):
Both well, there's no doubt about it. Right now, Joe
Burrow is playing his finest football of his career. You know,
forty two touchdowns against eight interceptions. Are you kidding me?
I mean, that's ridiculous. He's I mean, he has an
opportunity to go over five thousand yards, which you know
would that'd be a bummer. But you know, he's got
a basically a one ten rating eleven games of one
(32:33):
hundred plus in his quarterback rating. He's only got five
games out of sixteen that he's played where he's below
his lowest average. His lowest game rating was in eighty
four eighty five versus the Eagles when they lost thirty
seven to seventeen.
Speaker 3 (32:48):
I mean, this guy is on a tag, yeah.
Speaker 7 (32:50):
With a beat up with a beat up left tackle, yep,
who's playing on broken bones. They were fused in his
growth spurt with a rookie right tackle with two other
tackles who would have played. One of them would have
started on ir and let's just be terrible. The rest
of that line won't make the Pro Bowls. And it
(33:11):
just tells you you know what kind of a player
he is. And and I should say, you know, remember
he both at Ohio State. He didn't like Ohio State.
That's his home state stream school.
Speaker 4 (33:23):
Sorry, I didn't like Ohio State either after we lost
it fifty two to twenty five or twenty six in
nineteen seventy nine.
Speaker 3 (33:32):
Them have is that.
Speaker 4 (33:32):
Senior at Syracuse University we played there. I left Ohio
State not liking them either.
Speaker 7 (33:39):
Well, after that game they ran out of a room
in the helmets and put Buckeyes. You know, they just
had a ball. But the thing is that, you know,
that's the kind of player he is. And I wonder
would you give him the vote for the MVP instead
of Lamar Jackson or maybe Josh Allen and anybody else.
Speaker 4 (33:57):
Oh, I think he's right there with It's it's what
you've tell you. I would suppose for each of the
people voting, you know, I mean, I don't know, I mean,
each one brings so much to the dance. It's it's
just incredible really when you think about it, you know,
I mean, these guys are really high level performers, high
end performers. That just you know, they just rocky. You
(34:20):
take a look at their status and you go wow,
and I know And here's the other thing.
Speaker 3 (34:23):
I go back to.
Speaker 4 (34:25):
You think at the end of it, you also got
the receivers, not just the quarterback. I mean, think about it.
Joey Porter had five pi's while guarding T. Higgins, you
know what I mean, It's just like you can't forget
about that. Three of them, I'm sorry, three of them
were against T Higgins and he had two against somebody else.
(34:46):
But you know what, that's there's a lot of pressure there,
you know. I mean, Joey's got to come back and
Joey's got to be able to do what he needs
to do, which I have every bit of confidence that
he can do it. But the fact of the matter
is you've got a great quarterback and you got two
great receivers there. You know that that's kind of offsets
an offensive line too.
Speaker 7 (35:08):
Yeah, it's gonna be a very hard game. I think
those communication breakdowns in the secondary good problem. They're not
just breakdowns. They're they're they're you're putting that position, they're
play designed by the opponent, and then they catch you
with tough situations or sometimes they just catch you in
the rules and they exploit your rules against you, and
(35:29):
I don't think necessarily. I mean, the breakdowns look so awful,
awful because the guy's just catching the ball with no
one within ten yards that you always mean to think, well,
somebody blew blew it on the on the Steeler side,
and that's in the end bottom line. It's true, that's
what it was. But the play design makes it very
very hard to stop plays. In other words, maybe he'll
(35:51):
catch a touchdown with a guy three yards away or
one yard away, but still not close enough to really
stop that touchdown from being scored. Yeah, it's very tough.
Speaker 4 (36:01):
It is very tough, but you know what, that's that's
the game that's gonna be handed out. It's gonna be
one of those tough, tough afternoons and they're gonna have
to You're gonna have to be resilient and you're gonna
have to be like Mike Tomlins said the last time. Yeah,
you know, it's like playing shack hack a shack. You're
gonna take some fouls, you know you're gonna have to.
But you know what, we got to move on. We
got a heartbreak coming up, Alvarro, thank you so very
(36:23):
much for joining us. We'll see you, uh what Saturday
night at the Ballyard.
Speaker 7 (36:29):
That's right, it's gonna be coold.
Speaker 3 (36:30):
Bundle up, bundle up, brother, you know it, all right.
It ain't gonna be no no, no warm area for you,
my friend.
Speaker 5 (36:39):
That's right.
Speaker 4 (36:40):
And and happy New Year to all of you guys. Absolutely,
thank you so very much. All right, that's Alvara Martin
of the Steelers Game Day Spanish game Day Radio Network,
and we'll be back with more after this as we
go to a break. You're listening to in the Locker
Room the Steelers Audio Network.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
This is in the Locker Room, presented by Ford and
brought to you by acro Shure, the official insurance and
cybersecurity partner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, by BET MGM, Huntington Bank, PNC, PEPSI,
and by FedEx. Where now meets next? Now here's Craig
Wilfley and Max Stark's.
Speaker 4 (37:51):
Welcome everybody, and of course it's that time to educate
and Edumacation starts with word of the day. Yes, the
(38:11):
word of the day is lucu lacubrates lacubrates or lucubrate.
I didn't quite get which emphasis on which salable.
Speaker 3 (38:20):
Uh, we got there.
Speaker 4 (38:21):
But it is lucubrate, and it means to it's a
verb write or study, especially by night, to produce scow
scholarly written material. Now to me, it's about study, especially
by night, because I had one time that I lucubrated
through the night, meaning I crammed the night for a test.
And you know what, I failed the test, Max. I mean,
(38:44):
I know, amazingly enough, right, And I came out of
that thinking I pulled an all nighter. Right, I can
flunk a test like that without staying up all night,
and which is what I did, Which tells you about
my academic career. So if you're gonna, if you're gonna
Luca bra lucubrating, yeah I wasn't.
Speaker 3 (39:04):
I did not lucubrate.
Speaker 5 (39:05):
Well, yeah I was.
Speaker 7 (39:09):
I was.
Speaker 5 (39:09):
I was like you know, normally, I was like, I
was like, oh, Luca, Luca braid. Maybe maybe that made
us a new drinking game, but no, it's not. Okay,
here we go.
Speaker 6 (39:23):
You know, when when it comes time for very tough situations,
sometimes you have to lucubrate to make yourself well versed.
Speaker 5 (39:32):
For the task at hand on Morrow.
Speaker 3 (39:38):
That works, That works better than what I had.
Speaker 6 (39:41):
Yeah on Morrow, like that was a fancy part that
was like that was really uh yeah, I was definitely
challenging myself with that one, and it hit, it hit,
But no, I think you know, that's kind of how
this where the Steelers are, you know, in that stretch. Yeah, yeah,
(40:01):
you had the lucubrate to get ready because when you
have a game in four days after coming off of
another game, that's not a lot of time. And it
was an away game, you know, traveling. You know that
that's the only time you had was in the evening.
I mean I used to I used to do my
best studying in the evening. So you could say that
I benefited from lucubrating during my football career, you know,
(40:27):
at home watching film and stuff.
Speaker 3 (40:30):
I don't know whether you would call it lucubrate or
a lubricate.
Speaker 5 (40:34):
That well you could.
Speaker 6 (40:36):
I mean, here's the thing, you could do both simultaneously,
right Wolf.
Speaker 3 (40:40):
I wouldn't know, you know, I meant no, of.
Speaker 6 (40:43):
Course, not because you were you were such an angel.
You know, you stayed at home. You never went, you know,
out to any of these places where you met these
celebrities and stuff.
Speaker 3 (40:54):
Absolutely not.
Speaker 4 (40:55):
But you know what, we got to move on because
we got the great Jim Wexel checking in coming at
the top of the hour here, so it's the Power
Hour with Max coming up next. Don't go away because
he's already Luca Brading. We'll be back after this
This is in the Locker Room, presented by Ford and
brought to you by AKRA Sure, the official insurance and
cybersecurity partner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, by Bett MGM, Huntington Bank, PNC, PEPSI,
and by FedEx. Where now meets next? Now here's Craig
Wilfley and Max Starks.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
These guys in his locker mark given up. Yeah, they're
not giving in. There's so much to still look forward to.
There's still a chance, you know. I was telling the
guys in locker room about that. You know, just like
you know in every season, there's there's moments, but we
still got an unbelievable chance to do some great things.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
And that's the voice of reason.
Speaker 4 (00:41):
That's the voice of elcopy time, that's the voice of
your quarterback. That's what you gotta do. If you want
to roll forward. You gotta have that confidence. You got
to have that belief. You got to have that sort
of resilience that is born of many years in the NFL.
He has certainly weathered storms before, as have some of
the players in It's always important to be able to, Oh,
(01:02):
if you want to get Reo speedwag and a little
Kevin Cronen, who I met, by the way, I didn't
meet him at one time. You know, riding the storm out,
you got to ride the storm of three losses in
a row out. You've got to take it on the
Bengals at Acro sure this Saturday at eight o'clock, and
you got to put these guys away because Joe Burrow
(01:23):
is hotter than a bowl of Texas chili.
Speaker 5 (01:27):
Yeah I would.
Speaker 6 (01:27):
I would say he's hotter than a bowl of jalapenos.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
We could throw that on top of the Texas chili. Huh.
Speaker 5 (01:35):
Now we're talking about good eating. That is goat right there?
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Can you handle halipinos still at your age?
Speaker 5 (01:41):
Yes? I still can't.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
See they smoked me.
Speaker 7 (01:44):
You know.
Speaker 4 (01:44):
See, here's the thing Tounch told me years ago, because
I grew up eating all the hot sauce, wings, everything,
and then through my twenties, you know, we're teammates and
everything like that, and into my thirties and he would
always laugh and go, yeah, don't worry about it. You
keep pranking it up there, buddy, and you know what,
it's gonna hit you in the end. You're gonna and
I'm at that point now where it's the hot sauce
(02:06):
is a little bit rough.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
I mean the Hali pino stuff is even rougher.
Speaker 6 (02:11):
Yeah, well, I mean, you know, like you said, pallets change,
and I'm sure Wolf, you know you you were you
were probably excessive. I'm sure just like world's strongest man,
you're probably going for world's toughest eater.
Speaker 5 (02:24):
So I can see that. I can see that.
Speaker 6 (02:27):
And being in Buffalo, I mean, you know, sauce I feel.
Speaker 5 (02:32):
Like is a little bit it's a little bit more.
Speaker 6 (02:36):
With sauce versus the actual like whole pepper right in
cooking application. I believe it hits a little bit differently.
And did you de seat it? Is it full seeds?
There's a lot of other factors in it. But yeah, no,
I mean because I like, I love like shashido peppers
and stuff like that, you know, and those can have
(02:58):
varying degrees. You don't know if it's be mild or
hot until you bite it. So I like the mystery
in that really. But yeah, no, I still I still
rather enjoy spicy foods.
Speaker 7 (03:10):
You know.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
The interesting thing is is I remember years ago, you know,
I got hit with a I got a bucket of
wings up in Buffalo, you know, brought them home and
they were they were volcanic. I mean they were nuclear.
I went for the hottest one and it was a bucket,
so you got fifty wings, right. I managed to get
(03:32):
through like like ten of them, and you know, my
youngest brother Dale ate the final like thirty some I
was sweating it out. I was like done. And this
was in my twenties. And my youngest brother, you know,
he was like just killed him and he walked through
it like it was nothing, and I was like, you
(03:53):
gotta be kidding me. I've never seen that before. That
was like amazing. He would have been good at one
of them food shows, yeah.
Speaker 5 (04:02):
Or that was it Hot Ones TV show or whatever.
Speaker 6 (04:05):
They do something like that podcast hot Ones where you
have to do like the varying degrees of hot sauce
with the chicken wing.
Speaker 5 (04:13):
And then it's also like the one chip challenge and
stuff like that, like oh yeah, the one chip extream hots.
Speaker 8 (04:18):
Yeah I can't but yeah no, but I mean yeah,
that that would that would get I don't do like
hot for the sake of hot things, you know what
I'm saying, Like.
Speaker 6 (04:30):
I do it for flavoring. I love like the caging
type of spice I like. I like a good spice
to say hello.
Speaker 5 (04:38):
How you doing.
Speaker 6 (04:38):
Maybe a little bit of nose or brow sweat involved
because of it, but I'm not I'm.
Speaker 5 (04:45):
Not trying to burn my nostrils off volcanic or something
like that.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
All right, Now, Like jumbalaya, you can go for a
good spicy jumbalaya.
Speaker 6 (04:53):
Oh yeah, throw a little crystal or some Louisiana hot
sauce on it.
Speaker 4 (04:57):
Absolutely, Okay, Yeah, I go on the Louisiana hot sauce anymore,
just on a counter.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
I'm old.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
But the fact was, I remember back in my heyday. Yeah,
I used to like to just pile drive that hot
sauce on there and just you just have ad it
with that jumble eye.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
That stuff is so good.
Speaker 5 (05:14):
Oh it is.
Speaker 6 (05:15):
It is now one of the things that we had
during my Oh let's see how I put this freshman
year of college. Uh, right of passage, you know, that's
what we'll call it.
Speaker 5 (05:26):
Right of passage?
Speaker 3 (05:27):
Well, okay, okay, because.
Speaker 5 (05:29):
If you use an H word, it's a bad word.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
Yeah right, I hear you.
Speaker 6 (05:33):
Yeah, But you know, every pressure had to prove themselves, sure,
and one particular night full of personal challenges. Shall we say,
gotlet of events.
Speaker 5 (05:48):
Uh.
Speaker 6 (05:49):
One of the things that you had to endure was
you had to drink a bottle of hot sauce.
Speaker 5 (05:55):
No wow, getting oh boy, distracted in your upper body region.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
You got it? Got it? So you take punches while
you're drink.
Speaker 6 (06:04):
Yeah, why while you're trying to drink a bottle of
hot Yeah okay, Me and my buddy John Cologne finished it.
Speaker 5 (06:10):
No problem.
Speaker 4 (06:13):
My gosh, that's that's like legendary. I mean, my habits. Man,
that's just you stand back. You think now on the
other end of you go, how stupid.
Speaker 5 (06:23):
Was I Yeah, you're you're like what was I think?
I mean, I just imagine what you're going.
Speaker 6 (06:29):
It's like, how do you how do you how do
you effectively go to sleep? Because now you just kind
of kind of just you know, moltenized your your your inside.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Yeah, it's it's like lava on the inside.
Speaker 5 (06:44):
Yeah exactly. There's no Carroc's, there's there's.
Speaker 6 (06:47):
No you know, celery with a blue cheese or there's
no apper teeth type of deal here.
Speaker 5 (06:53):
It was just a straight bottle of hot sauce.
Speaker 4 (06:56):
Oh man, Yeah, I would imagine blackened the bowl.
Speaker 7 (07:02):
It was.
Speaker 6 (07:05):
I can't even sit on it. You're right, it was
like rocket fuel. Yeah, no, that was you know, try
trying to just hold on. You need a seat belt
for the toilet, you know what I'm saying. So it
was it was a little rough.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
My one of my roommates, his father used to grow
these firecracker peppers.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
All right.
Speaker 4 (07:24):
So these peppers were, you know, the kind that I
don't know if like ghost peppers are a real thing
or something I've heard about.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
I never tried it.
Speaker 4 (07:32):
They are, Okay, okay, these were These were peppers that
are just so hot. You've got to make sure that
you only you chop them up very finely and and
use just a little and a whole bunch of like
a big big thing of spaghetti sauce.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
You know.
Speaker 4 (07:47):
So anyhow, my buddy he chopped them up a little
bit and put in, uh, made some spaghetti one night,
and I got to tell you the one thing he
forgot before he went to the bathroom. And I can
only tell you that man suffered in ways a man
should not suffer. Oh geez, yeah, I'll just I'll say
no more. There you go, yeah there, you know, we
(08:10):
just fire off that cannon shot, because let me tell
you something, taking a cannon to the chest would have
been better endured than what that man had to go through.
Then oh man, gosh, okay, we gotta go to break
down no more. I don't know how I got so
sidetracked on that, but that's the opening SALEO. Here in
(08:31):
the locker room, we're coming back with more. We have
the great Alvaro Martin is gonna be or al Martin,
the International Man of Mystery, is going to be up
next right here in the locker room.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
This is in the locker Room, presented by Ford and
brought to you by ACRO Shure, the official insurance and
cybersecurity partner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, by Bett MGM, Huntington Bank, PNC, PEPSI,
and by Bedex. Where now meets next? Now here's Craig
Wolfley and Max Stark's.
Speaker 6 (09:31):
All right back inside the locker room here and we
are joined by the one the only, Albaro Martine aka
the Spanish Voice of the Steelers and al Ro. Pleasure
to have you on, but glad glad to hear from you,
(09:54):
and of course you know glad that we still have
football going meaningful, football still being played to close out
the regular season against the Bengals, who are trying to
get into that last coveted playoff spot.
Speaker 7 (10:09):
Well, it's great to talk to you, guys. I'm talking
to you guys today from Santa Fe, which is a
suburb of Mexico City. This area is actually pretty posh,
pretty nice. Wow, big big hotels, great restaurants. It's kind
of a suburb. Believe it or not. It used to
be the city dump in Mexico. They cleaned it up,
they paved it over, and they built this city with
(10:32):
huge towers, residential areas. It's it's unbelievable. All the best
hospitals are here. So it's just a bit away from
the center of Mexico. But I'm getting ready for the
last game of the regular season. Uh, and I can't.
We're inside the locker room. So have we gotten rid
of the stench yet?
Speaker 3 (10:49):
That bad boy out Let me tell.
Speaker 7 (10:51):
You, Let me let me ask you guys, because you've
been through this before. Tell me about team meetings. Tell
me about the purpose of the value of it and
the results of it, and maybe some anecdotes that you
can tell, maybe without naming names. That kind of sticked
your mind.
Speaker 4 (11:09):
I can tell you I've been in I think it
was two team meetings in my entire career. One was nonsensical.
It was called by people that don't matter and people
that you know, there's certain people that talk to talk,
but don't walk the walk. And then there was the
one that Joe Green spoke at and let me tell
(11:30):
you something, he had everybody's attention. And I'll just leave
it at that, but he had everybody's attention in that room.
Speaker 7 (11:41):
What about you, Max?
Speaker 5 (11:43):
Uh?
Speaker 6 (11:45):
Yeah, those are subsisitive times. I mean, you know, we
have a famous one that happened. There was a player's
only meeting my second year in the league. Joey Porter
called it. And let's just say that was that was
a very revealing meeting. And then I mean and then
you know, for coach Tomlin, I've been in. I've been
(12:06):
in those meetings with him. You know, Coach Tomlin not
as uh not as uh I would say colorful in
his commentary, but when he spoke, you got you got the.
Speaker 5 (12:20):
Brevity of the situation. There was no there was no room.
Speaker 6 (12:23):
For interpretation of some latitudes. But I mean, you know,
some of those meetings are tough. I mean, you know,
I've been in those meetings with Coach Cower back in
oh five when we were on a three game losing
streak towards a back you know, third fourth quarter so
to speak of the season, and we had the guy
(12:45):
to have it, you know, pretty much starting all of
November to even give us a shot at it. And
you know, those meetings, we we called that that was
a windshield wiper type of meetings because Coach cow or
you were the spit was gonna fly and the channel is.
Speaker 5 (13:04):
Going to be on the lose, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 6 (13:06):
And so you had you had to mind your p's
and q's.
Speaker 7 (13:12):
Now, obviously you said you had a three game rules
and speak. What about you, Craig. Did the meetings in
the end change things fundamentally?
Speaker 4 (13:20):
I would say, Joe moved the needle, you know, and
things things started to change.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
Uh, the other No, nothing, I mean, it was.
Speaker 4 (13:29):
Just zippo, not a you know, it's why were we here?
You know, it was just one of those things. So
that that's just better left unside.
Speaker 7 (13:39):
So who's who speaks makes a tremendous amount of difference.
You and I are not in the locker room in
the Steelers locker room this year. But who would be
your candidate to speak up and everybody to kind of
turn and say wow. You know, typically this person doesn't
really speak up that much when they do, and it's
heartfelt because he's something and he's probably right. I've got
(14:03):
a candidate. I don't know if you guys have your
own candidates.
Speaker 4 (14:05):
Oh yeah, it be Cam Hayward. Come on, ye, I mean,
come on, there's who else. I mean, that's as close
he's He is the next generational lion king. You know
that every team has generally has a lion king somewhere
in it's in its organization. As a player, you know,
there's that guy that has manifestly looked at as the leader,
(14:28):
unquestioned on by both the offense and defense, and that
would be Cam.
Speaker 5 (14:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (14:35):
I got it with Cam as well. I mean you know, granted, now,
would a TJ. Watt speech have an effect? Yes, you know,
TJ's a man of very few words. Like you said,
you listened to a few words he will give you.
Speaker 5 (14:48):
But as far as somebody being able to.
Speaker 6 (14:51):
Rally the troops right to lead them in the battle,
I think Cam is that war daddy.
Speaker 5 (14:56):
He has he has been one of those.
Speaker 6 (14:58):
Guys that has been and bearing the brunt of success
and failure for the Steelers for a while, you know,
and I think I think that experience that time served,
so to speak, is one of one of the biggest
things that you you know, you can't take it for
(15:19):
granted what he brings to the table. And he's one
that also he enjoys the words game.
Speaker 5 (15:27):
He enjoys using words just like.
Speaker 6 (15:30):
Coach Tonland and being able to get a rise out
of guys I know he and he draws the ultimate
of respects, both offensively as well as defensively.
Speaker 7 (15:41):
I'm gonna I'm gonna throw in a name that I
don't think it's going to be at that level, but
I do believe if he ever spoke up, giving his
personality and given his achievements, he would move the needle.
I don't know how much, but he would definitely get
everybody's attention. And that would be the guy who's responsible
for about a third of the points of the team,
Chris Boswell. I think he's got the personality and he's
(16:03):
got he's got the interventions in the past that he
doesn't say much, but when he's bothered, he's pretty caustic.
He won't need any guff and he'll tell you straight.
And if ever in that meeting, Chris Bosswell spoke up.
I think people turned him and go, hmm, food for
thought here, because he has I think he's got. He
doesn't play you know, main downs like an offensive player
(16:24):
or a defensive player. But you cannot argue with what
kind of a pro he is and how not, how
no nonsense he is. It's just right down. He's just grounded.
And those really it's grounding. These meetings really are teams
looking for grounding, like they've lost their footing and they
just need to be connected to reality. And other than that,
(16:48):
they just have to play better and and and and
by the way, they also have to recover. I mean
people are talking about, ah my goodness, the Bengals have
had five prime time games. That's a rough chedule. And
it's like, hold my beer, man, you show you what.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
We or no, we're gonna take a moment. Well played
on that one. I like that. That was good.
Speaker 7 (17:15):
Yeah. Or if they say in friends, it's wus why
you know, come on.
Speaker 4 (17:20):
Man, you can't warn me when you're gonna start making
me laugh. And I'm gonna spit beer all beer. I'm
gonna coffee, spit coffee all over.
Speaker 5 (17:28):
What was it that mug lest.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
It's coffee. It's reason why.
Speaker 7 (17:34):
The reason why Craig. The reason why Craig said that
is we're all already in Dublin, already thinking Dublin, and
right now you can have a beer in doublin.
Speaker 5 (17:43):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
Listen to you, man, you you've got an answer for everything.
Speaker 7 (17:48):
That's right. I'm actually working on my brogue. I'm trying
to get my brogue a little bit.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
Better Spanish brogue. That's right.
Speaker 5 (17:56):
You know.
Speaker 7 (17:56):
They roll the rs. That's half, that's half the game.
Speaker 4 (18:00):
This is going, this is uncharted stuff we're going to
right now.
Speaker 5 (18:05):
Oh my god.
Speaker 6 (18:07):
Well, to be back on trash, Yes, Chris Boswell is
uh is one that I think it would certainly.
Speaker 5 (18:15):
Yeah, it would raise eyebrows for sure.
Speaker 6 (18:19):
And you're also one of your the leading point getter
on the team, so I think the cash and credibility
is there, you know. And he's a guy that's long
tenured with this team, so yeah.
Speaker 5 (18:32):
His his words I believe would have an effect as well.
Speaker 7 (18:34):
So I agree. But in the end, in the end,
how much of changing the course, getting rid of the
bad habits rely on the coaches or on the players.
I mean, at some point, is it a matter of
just saying personal stock, Ok, they really I've been blowing it.
Here's the video. I can't fight that video. It's pretty
(18:55):
clear that what I'm doing is not conducive to winning,
or as a matter of the players kind of getting
on each other and saying, if you do that one
more time against you know.
Speaker 4 (19:06):
The thing is the accountability factor, and it can't be
something that you just now start to say, hey, you've
got to be more accountable. When you got cover three
and you're playing your zone, you get no. I mean,
this has got This is something that started way back
in training camp and the OTAs things like that that
you you build towards it and as you move along.
Right now, they're in a world of hurt from coming
(19:28):
off of three games again in that shortened time period.
But they've just not performed to the level that they're
accustomed to, and everybody knows it. And you've got to
take personal accountability and make sure that you are crossing
the t's and dot and the eyes and your own
responsibilities and bring it forward for game day. That's that's
(19:49):
where they're at it. It's it's the Yoda principle, do
or do not. There is no trying. You either get
the job done or you don't.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
Do or do not.
Speaker 7 (20:00):
Which which units performance It's not talking about individitals, but
which units performance would be responsible for the for this turnaround.
Expect the turnaround and the change in course. If I
know their individual players are key obviously, but if you
were to single out this unit has to play really
(20:20):
so much better for them to get back into the
wing game.
Speaker 5 (20:25):
Well, I think I.
Speaker 6 (20:26):
Think more so that it has to be you know,
offense has to show up and help the defense out right.
One of the reasons why we've kind of struggle. And
I go back to that Baltimore game. You know this
game is tied up turnovers, right, I mean, you know,
(20:49):
a pick six at a critical moment hurts astoundingly bad.
They've been forcing the fumbles. They need to come away
with the recoveries as well off of those force fumbles.
And you know, if after that Minka interception, if you
do actually go down the field and score, I think
(21:12):
you would have created that doubt in Baltimore all over again.
But Marlon Humphreys undercuts the route, picks the ball off,
picks six. That pretty much sealed the game there, just
like a fumble sealed it and Philly. You know, it's
just it's like those are the things. When you eliminate
(21:35):
those type of mistakes, you play faster, you play freer,
you played better. But when it's full slow float, it's, well,
it's tough. And I think that's why time off will
help refocus and heal. But to get back to the
(21:58):
level that we're used to is taking care of the
football and also taking care of the opponent's football.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
For them, you know.
Speaker 4 (22:05):
And now I'll jump in and just say, you know,
you go one game back even further the Eagles when
they couldn't the defense couldn't get off the field in
a ten minute drive to seal the game. Look, there's
enough blame to spread over everybody. Everybody's got a hand
in a pile. For me, I can't sit there and say, well,
the offense has got to do this and the defense's
got to do that, because they're both equally part of
(22:26):
this unit of this team called the Steelers. So each
one has to hold up their end of the bargain.
And for the Steelers, Look, they've had what ten to
three and outs over the last three games. Yeah, zooks man,
that's a lot on the defense. But at the same time,
the defense has got to be able to get off
the field too. And time of possession is one of
those indicators, but it's not everything, but it's certainly dominating.
(22:49):
The time of possession is going to be important this
weekend because the more you can keep Joe Burrow on
the sideline, the better opportunity you're going to have to
come away with a win.
Speaker 7 (22:58):
Yeah, and so what sense if I had to pick
one unit that has to get better, not that they're
playing poorly, poorly, it would be the offensive line for
those reasons, if they actually do their job, less pressure
behind them, the guy behind them, more in time of possession,
shorter third downs. It just that's the way Pittsma has
been winning. And really it's their game this year, the
(23:21):
twenty twenty four Steeters, that's their game. That's what they
play for. You can call it identity. I don't believe
in that funny, that's what they call it now. On
the other side, you mentioned you mentioned taking care of
turnovers and not turning all over to the opponent. Cincinnati
coach Downland mentioned that yesterday. In the last four weeks
actually did the accounting, they've turned twelve opponent balls over.
(23:45):
That's a lot of free per game. And it coincides
with the insertion of Chris Jenkins as a nose tackle
and he, by the way, was the leading tackler for
what it's worth in their loss against Pittsburgh earlier in
the year. It just it just it happens to match
(24:07):
his arrival with this area. They're getting a little bit
better in terms of preventing third down conversions. They're kind
of the same in the red zone. They're still allowing
a bunch of yards, maybe a little bit less, but
it's the turnovers and it's mostly interceptions. And when I
see mostly interceptions, I'm just thinking, you know, fast protection
(24:29):
and fast pressure.
Speaker 6 (24:31):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 7 (24:32):
It's really remarkable. I mean, they had six takeaways again
against Tennessee six right, two against Dallas, three against Cleveland,
and one against Denver, and uh and that's new. That
that that that was not there before and if you're
(24:52):
zooming up the ranks. As a matter of fact, in
those four weeks, those twelve takeaways lead the NFL or
what it. And I know the opponents are not necessarily
you know, playoff teams here, but it's a notable, notable
trend that they're getting very very good at, particularly intercepting balls.
(25:13):
That's been their strength. I think they've had about four
Tumbel recoveries but eight interceptions. They had a game with
four interceptions, so they've been they've been doing well in
that category, and that's something that Theeeders have to really
be mindful here and understand exactly why that happens. I
think it's that unk tackle Jenkins.
Speaker 4 (25:32):
Well, the thing is, you got I think the Bengals
have what fifteen interceptions if I've you know, put in
the correct things, yeah for the google right, yeah, fifteen
you know, And to think about it is, yeah, part
of it is pressure, but they've also spent they spent
a lot of money getting good corners and their secondary
and so forth. The fact is interceptions are big. And
(25:53):
think about it. Since the russ game, you know, in
December first, when he lit them up for over four
hundred yards, that's when they started this turnover thing. You know,
they've got twelve turnovers since that game. And this is
what I mean when this is this is kind of
like the worm turned for them, well for the Steelers
that hadn't. I mean, you got against Baltimore, against was
(26:15):
the Eagles, and and so forth. You had four balls
hit hit the ground and the Steelers were not able
to come up with any of them, you know, I
mean those things. It's like you got to stay dedicated
to the ball searching and ball security drills you do
every single day, and you've got to be dedicated to
that with the faith knowing that if you're getting it
(26:36):
done in practice, it'll happen in a game sooner or later.
And it's kind of like you know, sex and interceptions,
they come in bunches, you know, and it'll it'll turn around.
But we've been through a stretch these three games where
the turnovers have gone from three to two to one
each and every game they's gone downhill.
Speaker 3 (26:54):
It's crazy.
Speaker 7 (26:55):
Yeah, And again I would say I remind you these
four games Cincinnati were against Dallas already out of the playoffs, Tennessee,
don't time to voice any breath on them, Cleveland, and
finally Denver that was the game that that that that
was the really outstanding game. But other than that, these
are fairly weak opponents. And I I there's a little
(27:18):
bit of me that says that that Gauntlett that they
had to run through had them just beat up and
slowed down enough. I have to think that way. I
have to think that if that had that same ball
had been lose the same way in Week four, it
would have ended up in Steelers' hands. I just I
just think that way. I mean, I just think the
steam needs a lot of rest. They're getting some now.
(27:40):
Of course they could have been on someday, but no, no, no, no,
but have them played on the South. But I guess
that's one Saturday night.
Speaker 5 (27:47):
Don't forget that Saturday night is.
Speaker 7 (27:50):
Exactly play in the morning.
Speaker 5 (27:56):
Yeah, I mean it's and like you said that that
is that's true. That's wild. You know, they played three.
Speaker 6 (28:04):
Games in eleven days. It's not just like three Ani games.
It was not three Pa. It wasn't a couple of
Patty cakes missing there mixing there with a good team.
Speaker 5 (28:13):
This is like the beginning of like power for football
in college.
Speaker 6 (28:16):
You know where you schedule D one double A and
you know schools out the paycheck schools, right, you know,
they went through a gauntlet of good teams. You're talking
about three of the top five teams in the NFL,
top two running backs in the NFL.
Speaker 5 (28:35):
In back to back weeks.
Speaker 6 (28:38):
That's a big challenge, especially when you're asked to keep pace.
You can't do a low scoring affair. Your defense just
has to come up with a timely turnover like Minka
did in Baltimore. And you know, the one turnover, of course,
is notable in the Chiefs game was a two point
conversion that was intercepted by Corey Trice. I would have
(29:03):
loved that, like thirty yards ago, I would have loved
that in those moments. But you're right, it's a team
that is predicated on opportunistic, short feel, change of pace
type of series.
Speaker 5 (29:19):
But at the.
Speaker 6 (29:20):
Same time, you know, I look at it and I'm
just like, you know, this was this was supposed to
be par for the course when you play these teams this.
Speaker 5 (29:30):
Way on that much rest.
Speaker 6 (29:32):
So I'm I'm I'm with Wolf, where you know, helped
his wealth and they're starting to they're starting to get
some over their wealth back with this extended time off.
Speaker 4 (29:46):
Absolutely now, but I will say this because this step
step came from uh the Bengals Dot com is crazy.
Speaker 5 (29:53):
But can you guys hear me?
Speaker 3 (29:55):
Yeah? Well got you? You got me? What are you there? Max?
Speaker 5 (29:59):
Hello?
Speaker 3 (30:00):
I think we just might have lost Max. But let
me continue with this.
Speaker 4 (30:04):
When the Bengals, the Bengals can win, right in the
Borough era, when the Bengals force two or more two
turnovers versus the Steelers are three and zero, all right,
When they force just one or none takeaways, the Bengals
are one and five. So it tells you that ball
security at least has a history in this Bengals Steelers
matchup in the Joe Burrow era. And one of the
(30:26):
ways you can do that is you've got to stay
dedicated to the ball searching takeaways that you've had in
the past, and you've got to predicate that on the
faith that doing the work will show out in a game.
And at some point, as I've said, the worm will
turn Alvaro and it's got to, you know, sooner or later,
it's got to that ball starts rolling towards you instead
away from you.
Speaker 7 (30:47):
Yeah, the hungry dog is a fast dog. That half
steff you are missing now with three losses in a
row and really trying to get a better position for
the playoffs. It's got to make them hungry and the
fact that everyone's back in a little bit more rested. Now.
I hear about the three games and how tough they were,
and I agree with that, but let's not forget none
(31:08):
of the other three teams playing on Christmas had four
division games immediately leaning up to the three game guardment right,
and every game I don't care if your opponent's week
requires a lot of intensity, because, as everybody knows, division
games can't count for two count double, so you better
win those if you want to be in the playoffs
and be in a good position. And then then you
(31:29):
start looking, guys at the list of candidates for MVP
for the year, and two of them are quarterbacks in
the AFC North. You just hope that Cleveland doesn't hit
the lottery with a quarterback in the next draft. I mean,
you just have to hit like, please, please, please, can't be,
can't be. You know, people ask, well, why come Pittsburgh
(31:52):
spend so much money on their defensive personnel, and I'm like,
let me introduce you Exhibit one, Lamar Jackson. Exhibit two.
You know, Joey Borrow, yep, I mean, what do you
expect that's what you've got. And it's not easy. It's
not easy, No, And they're both deserving candidates for the MVP.
Speaker 4 (32:10):
Both well, there's no doubt about it. Right now, Joe
Burrow is playing his finest football of his career. You know,
forty two touchdowns against eight interceptions. Are you kidding me?
I mean, that's ridiculous. He's I mean, he has an
opportunity to go over five thousand yards, which you know
would that'd be a bummer. But you know, he's got
a basically a one ten rating eleven games of one
(32:33):
hundred plus in his quarterback rating. He's only got five
games out of sixteen that he's played where he's below
his lowest average. His lowest game rating was in eighty
four eighty five versus the Eagles when they lost thirty
seven to seventeen.
Speaker 3 (32:48):
I mean, this guy is on a tag, yeah.
Speaker 7 (32:50):
With a beat up with a beat up left tackle, yep,
who's playing on broken bones. They were fused in his
growth spurt with a rookie right tackle with two other
tackles who would have played. One of them would have
started on ir and let's just be terrible. The rest
of that line won't make the Pro Bowls. And it
(33:11):
just tells you you know what kind of a player
he is. And and I should say, you know, remember
he both at Ohio State. He didn't like Ohio State.
That's his home state stream school.
Speaker 4 (33:23):
Sorry, I didn't like Ohio State either after we lost
it fifty two to twenty five or twenty six in
nineteen seventy nine.
Speaker 3 (33:32):
Them have is that.
Speaker 4 (33:32):
Senior at Syracuse University we played there. I left Ohio
State not liking them either.
Speaker 7 (33:39):
Well, after that game they ran out of a room
in the helmets and put Buckeyes. You know, they just
had a ball. But the thing is that, you know,
that's the kind of player he is. And I wonder
would you give him the vote for the MVP instead
of Lamar Jackson or maybe Josh Allen and anybody else.
Speaker 4 (33:57):
Oh, I think he's right there with It's it's what
you've tell you. I would suppose for each of the
people voting, you know, I mean, I don't know, I mean,
each one brings so much to the dance. It's it's
just incredible really when you think about it, you know,
I mean, these guys are really high level performers, high
end performers. That just you know, they just rocky. You
(34:20):
take a look at their status and you go wow,
and I know And here's the other thing.
Speaker 3 (34:23):
I go back to.
Speaker 4 (34:25):
You think at the end of it, you also got
the receivers, not just the quarterback. I mean, think about it.
Joey Porter had five pi's while guarding T. Higgins, you
know what I mean, It's just like you can't forget
about that. Three of them, I'm sorry, three of them
were against T Higgins and he had two against somebody else.
(34:46):
But you know what, that's there's a lot of pressure there,
you know. I mean, Joey's got to come back and
Joey's got to be able to do what he needs
to do, which I have every bit of confidence that
he can do it. But the fact of the matter
is you've got a great quarterback and you got two
great receivers there. You know that that's kind of offsets
an offensive line too.
Speaker 7 (35:08):
Yeah, it's gonna be a very hard game. I think
those communication breakdowns in the secondary good problem. They're not
just breakdowns. They're they're they're you're putting that position, they're
play designed by the opponent, and then they catch you
with tough situations or sometimes they just catch you in
the rules and they exploit your rules against you, and
(35:29):
I don't think necessarily. I mean, the breakdowns look so awful,
awful because the guy's just catching the ball with no
one within ten yards that you always mean to think, well,
somebody blew blew it on the on the Steeler side,
and that's in the end bottom line. It's true, that's
what it was. But the play design makes it very
very hard to stop plays. In other words, maybe he'll
(35:51):
catch a touchdown with a guy three yards away or
one yard away, but still not close enough to really
stop that touchdown from being scored. Yeah, it's very tough.
Speaker 4 (36:01):
It is very tough, but you know what, that's that's
the game that's gonna be handed out. It's gonna be
one of those tough, tough afternoons and they're gonna have
to You're gonna have to be resilient and you're gonna
have to be like Mike Tomlins said the last time. Yeah,
you know, it's like playing shack hack a shack. You're
gonna take some fouls, you know you're gonna have to.
But you know what, we got to move on. We
got a heartbreak coming up, Alvarro, thank you so very
(36:23):
much for joining us. We'll see you, uh what Saturday
night at the Ballyard.
Speaker 7 (36:29):
That's right, it's gonna be coold.
Speaker 3 (36:30):
Bundle up, bundle up, brother, you know it, all right.
It ain't gonna be no no, no warm area for you,
my friend.
Speaker 5 (36:39):
That's right.
Speaker 4 (36:40):
And and happy New Year to all of you guys. Absolutely,
thank you so very much. All right, that's Alvara Martin
of the Steelers Game Day Spanish game Day Radio Network,
and we'll be back with more after this as we
go to a break. You're listening to in the Locker
Room the Steelers Audio Network.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
This is in the Locker Room, presented by Ford and
brought to you by acro Shure, the official insurance and
cybersecurity partner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, by BET MGM, Huntington Bank, PNC, PEPSI,
and by FedEx. Where now meets next? Now here's Craig
Wilfley and Max Stark's.
Speaker 4 (37:51):
Welcome everybody, and of course it's that time to educate
and Edumacation starts with word of the day. Yes, the
(38:11):
word of the day is lucu lacubrates lacubrates or lucubrate.
I didn't quite get which emphasis on which salable.
Speaker 3 (38:20):
Uh, we got there.
Speaker 4 (38:21):
But it is lucubrate, and it means to it's a
verb write or study, especially by night, to produce scow
scholarly written material. Now to me, it's about study, especially
by night, because I had one time that I lucubrated
through the night, meaning I crammed the night for a test.
And you know what, I failed the test, Max. I mean,
(38:44):
I know, amazingly enough, right, And I came out of
that thinking I pulled an all nighter. Right, I can
flunk a test like that without staying up all night,
and which is what I did, Which tells you about
my academic career. So if you're gonna, if you're gonna
Luca bra lucubrating, yeah I wasn't.
Speaker 3 (39:04):
I did not lucubrate.
Speaker 5 (39:05):
Well, yeah I was.
Speaker 7 (39:09):
I was.
Speaker 5 (39:09):
I was like you know, normally, I was like, I
was like, oh, Luca, Luca braid. Maybe maybe that made
us a new drinking game, but no, it's not. Okay,
here we go.
Speaker 6 (39:23):
You know, when when it comes time for very tough situations,
sometimes you have to lucubrate to make yourself well versed.
Speaker 5 (39:32):
For the task at hand on Morrow.
Speaker 3 (39:38):
That works, That works better than what I had.
Speaker 6 (39:41):
Yeah on Morrow, like that was a fancy part that
was like that was really uh yeah, I was definitely
challenging myself with that one, and it hit, it hit,
But no, I think you know, that's kind of how
this where the Steelers are, you know, in that stretch. Yeah, yeah,
(40:01):
you had the lucubrate to get ready because when you
have a game in four days after coming off of
another game, that's not a lot of time. And it
was an away game, you know, traveling. You know that
that's the only time you had was in the evening.
I mean I used to I used to do my
best studying in the evening. So you could say that
I benefited from lucubrating during my football career, you know,
(40:27):
at home watching film and stuff.
Speaker 3 (40:30):
I don't know whether you would call it lucubrate or
a lubricate.
Speaker 5 (40:34):
That well you could.
Speaker 6 (40:36):
I mean, here's the thing, you could do both simultaneously,
right Wolf.
Speaker 3 (40:40):
I wouldn't know, you know, I meant no, of.
Speaker 6 (40:43):
Course, not because you were you were such an angel.
You know, you stayed at home. You never went, you know,
out to any of these places where you met these
celebrities and stuff.
Speaker 3 (40:54):
Absolutely not.
Speaker 4 (40:55):
But you know what, we got to move on because
we got the great Jim Wexel checking in coming at
the top of the hour here, so it's the Power
Hour with Max coming up next. Don't go away because
he's already Luca Brading. We'll be back after this
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