November 24, 2025 • 46 mins
Matt and Wes dissect a disappointing loss to the Bears.
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Your tunes about Drive on your twenty four to seven
home of the Black and Goal Steelers Nation Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Good afternoon, Steelers Nation, It's the Drive on the Steelers
Audio Network. Here on a Monday, West Shooler and Matt
Williamson with you as we have got plenty to discuss.
The Steelers fall the Bears thirty one to twenty eight.
They fall to six and five. They fall out of
the lead in the AFC North, while Chicago remains one
of the hottest teams in the NFL, eight of their
(00:50):
last nine, continuing to stay atop the very tough NFC North.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Matt, I don't really know exactly where to begin.
Speaker 4 (00:59):
Today, so I'm glad you're carrying the puck. I'm just
sitting here waiting to bury one.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Maybe disappointing performance by the defense, disappointing performance by the offense,
I think, even if you give them the benefit of
the grain of salt of the quarterback uncertainty leading up
to kickoff, despite all that, it was still there for them.
They still had the lead at halftime, and just a
(01:28):
game where it felt like Chicago kind of outlasted. The
Steelers made a couple more plays on offense a couple
more plays on defense, a couple more plays and those
weighty moments, and it was enough to in a game
like that, you end up winning and you're feeling great
about yourself. You lose and it feels like the sky
is falling.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
So so many directions to go on this and we will.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
We got plenty of time.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
We won't have a show on Thursday but one day
this week, although by that point we'll be focusing on
Buffalo anyway.
Speaker 4 (01:59):
I guess we had twenty four segments to fill this
week instead of thirty, so we'll have plenty of time
to chat. And we're very appreciative that all you you know,
come and join us. And it sounds like viewership is
you know, listening ship or whatever is going crazy. And
but win or lose Mondays are just so overreactionary, I mean,
(02:21):
and that's part of the beauty of this league because
everyone cares so much and it's one game. And I
say this all the time. If the Pirates lost ten
nothing the day before, nobody cared, you know, like, or
if they win ten nothing, you know, it's one game.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
You move, nobody cares in general, well in general.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
But where I want to go with this and this
is not the candy coat the Steelers situation, because it's
getting kind of dire. And that's just the numbers of
the AFC and the division and all these things, and
the road ahead and get tough, and the road is narrowing?
Is you? And coach like to say a lot and
it's one hundred percent true. But I was it's going
(02:56):
to air tonight. But every Monday I do a review
show with Rob and Pursuda, And in the second segment
it kind of dawned on me. It's like I always
like on Mondays to put myself in the shoes of
the opposing city. Brown's Nation Radio or Bears Nation Radio,
you know what I mean? And right now, if this
(03:17):
was Bears Nation Radio, we would be jubulant. Oh we
would be.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Dancing dominated in the run game on both sides of
the football, dancing in the street.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Their defense scored a touchdown, Yeah right, so down at halftime. Yeah,
still found a way to win.
Speaker 4 (03:30):
Because we got this dude that can you know, we
know too many games we can win in the end.
And we got a coach and we got a quarterback,
and the Bears are in first place and this.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Vaunted Steelers pass rush only got Caleb Williams on the
ground one time.
Speaker 4 (03:43):
We go on and on and on, you know, and
rightfully so, I'm not taking away from the Bears at all,
but they've won so many close games. I'm only talking
about Chicago, but sound like we're on Bears Nation Radio.
They've won so many ridiculously close games against not the
best teams in the league, you know. I mean it's
(04:04):
they didn't edge out the Rams or you know, the Colts,
or you know some of these Seattle or you know,
the best teams in the Eagles, but if they get
two or three bounces that don't quite go their way
during that stretch. And where I'm going with this is
they still have a negative point differential for the season.
The Bears do. And they've won eight out of nine
(04:27):
and they're in first place. I think it's still negative.
It's right around there after this game, and all of
a sudden, you'd be like, man, Bears are doing some
good stuff, but don't know how to win yet, you know.
Like It's my point is almost all these teams, with
maybe the exception of the Rams in this side of things,
(04:49):
and the really terrible teams It is such a fine
line in this league of winning and losing, and I
thought yesterday was a perfect example of that. I thought
it was a pretty evenly played game. Robin Mike both
thought the Steelers were the better team yesterday. I'm not
sure I agree with that part.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
But I'm not sure if I agree.
Speaker 4 (05:06):
Yeah, I was a little shocked they both there.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Again, there's certain elements that you can look at and
you can go that's impressive.
Speaker 4 (05:11):
Yeah, I mean, they were better.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Limiting a top five rushing attack in the league. Impressive.
Speaker 4 (05:16):
All the run game stuff, all the the run game stuff.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
If you would have told us that was going to
play out on Friday.
Speaker 4 (05:23):
We were climbing up.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
Steelers win.
Speaker 4 (05:24):
Yeah, I mean, that's not even how Rob even iw
Rob phased it. He's like, if I told you this
were the rushing totals and these were the time of
possession totals, you'd say the Steelers won handily. I'm like,
thousand and oh, by the way, you have scored on defense.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
I was just going to say, though, too, if you
would have told me that the Steelers offense scored twenty
one points against per a bottom five defense in the NFL.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Right, I would have said, all, well, you're going to
lose that game.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
Yeah, exactly, And oh, by the way, in the way
he phrased it was if I told you the Steelers
scored on defense and won the running battle so.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Drastically, you're like, the time you're winning that game.
Speaker 4 (06:03):
Like, could you paint a picture of the lose. I'm like,
if they lost a turnover differential by like four and
if you factor in four thousands, they did learn lose
the turnover differential by two.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
And Matt Williamson turnover differentially, and.
Speaker 4 (06:15):
Frankly, that might be the difference in the game when
you look back at it. It's that fine a line,
and they did some really good stuff, but they also
have some really big concerns and pursuit of His big
take was self inflicted wounds. You know, like you got
to complete one or two of those deep shots. You know,
like you didn't take many. It was a very controlled
(06:37):
passing game. You didn't throw in the middle field. I'm
very fully aware of that. I get that. But if
you're gonna take shots, you got to complete them, and
you can't have an illegal formation in crucial.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Time and you might win if that right, Make that
mistake right.
Speaker 4 (06:56):
Right right, I mean and goofy little things like the
score ironic, it was a penalty that punt that was
a penalty on the Bears and then they flipped it
and us on TV and no clue what happened. And
that was like a forty yard swing of yardage.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Yep.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
So this was a very close game against the quality opponent.
And Rob even laid it out like big picture Colts Seattle,
Green Bay, Chicago. I'm missing one here in the AFC
that they won New England. You know, like those five
games are against all playoff teams, and if you put
(07:34):
that whole body of work together, you're even with all
of them, you know what I mean, Like some you
lost by a little, some you won by a little.
You're hanging with all those teams. You know, this isn't
he compared it to this isn't going to Buffalo in
the wildcard round, where it's like that's a super Bowl
contender against a playoff contender. You know, like it's a
fine line, but you might be a mistake or two
(07:56):
away from maybe getting a win or two. There.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Let me be be bad cop for a second. There's
a lot of bad because I think. I don't think
you're talking utter rubbish. I don't think you're just speaking nonsense.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
I'm not saying they're a bounce away from winning the
super Bowl.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
The reason why I can't.
Speaker 4 (08:11):
Do that, I'm optimistic, right.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
I can't do the sunshine and rainbow thing today is
because so much of what ailed the Steelers yesterday in
the Windy City, on a beautiful day in the Windy City,
by the way, is the same stuff that's ailed them
and their other four losses.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
That's where I wanted to go to.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
It'd be one thing.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
If it was to steal another Mike Tomlin term, you
know I like to do that. It'd be one thing
if it was popcorn for the Steelers, right right. You
lost this game because you had some really unfortunate injuries,
so that DK got banged up, Roder Jones went out,
Joey Porter Junior went out.
Speaker 4 (08:44):
But it's it's it's wow, you got a punt block
that never happens.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
It's every time the Steelers lose a game like this,
you can always point to the defense didn't make life
difficult enough on the opposition quarterback.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
That's always a big one.
Speaker 4 (08:58):
I thought the pass rush was a little lacking.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
One play aside, and it was a massive play, massive
stripsacked by TJ recovered by her big seven points on
the board. I mean that is a massive splash play.
But that was about it. I mean it was feast.
It was it was two percent feast and ninety eight
percent famine.
Speaker 4 (09:18):
V or at least like eating lightly. Yes, because I
definitely wanted they wanted to keep him in there.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
I wanted a turkey on the table instead.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
It was just like a little charcuterie board off off
to the side with the kids table or something.
Speaker 4 (09:30):
I'm not fighting you, and I am not being good
cop totally because I got a lot of concerns and
a lot of things to be concerned about. And I
even said the pass rush I think was a little lacking.
But I but they also Williams. They kept him in
the pocket and they their goals wasn't to get the
eight sacks. It was make him throw in beach.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
I'll let him run for forty yards.
Speaker 4 (09:51):
And he missed a lot of throws, as he has
all year, and but they only seemed to slow them
down when he missed throws, Like what do we tell you?
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Yeah, same, you know, inability to really make the quarterback
uncomfortable and miscommunication at the worst possible times.
Speaker 5 (10:10):
Right.
Speaker 4 (10:11):
A big thing Mike said is like they still don't
know how to play zone coverage well, you know, and.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
He in the shadow of their own end zone, even
with a field shorter right and big third and long
situations where it's like.
Speaker 4 (10:21):
The DJ Moore touchdown can't happen, can't happen?
Speaker 2 (10:23):
You know that conversion that Chicago had at the end,
it was what third and eight, third and nine, and
they throw they dump it off over the middle.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
And there's you know, nowhere to be found.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
It's like you're standing in the middle of the Sahara
desert with nobody around you.
Speaker 4 (10:35):
Yeah. I keep quoting the show we just did because
I went into that show thinking differently than I came
out of that show. And that's how my Monday's work.
I try to I'm all over the place. I try
to just kind of narrow things down as the day
goes on. And you know, Mike kept harping about, boy,
they still aren't good at z own coverage and mentioned
that every Thursday we do that show with Meryl, and
(10:56):
Meryl brings it up all the time. From tape study
that they will. They dropped to their spot and they're
doing their job. But they're just garden grass, you know,
like there's coach. I'm I'm at the at my landmark.
I'm sitting here doing my job, but there's no one
for you to guard. Go do something else with one,
no one swimming right right, I mean, so go be
(11:19):
a football player.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Then you know what I mean, and then you know
off at the side of the football. It's even with
a consistent run game, which.
Speaker 4 (11:27):
Was great, and Joe Line's really good right.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Now, outstanding, outstanding, And it's not like Mason was sacked
five or six or seven times. He was only sacked twice, right,
I mean, there were only three sacks in total in
this game, and.
Speaker 4 (11:38):
Those two sacks I keep interrupt you, but I'm all
wind up.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
It's like, I know where you're going with this, and
it was go ahead because.
Speaker 4 (11:43):
They're they're scariest dude, sweat, really good player. They gave
up a lot for him, gave me a huge contract,
they won. The planet knows he's good. I loved Darnel Washington,
but he's not He's not a tackle.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
I don't care how big he is.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Right, you can't knocking why receiver when he got the Georgia.
Speaker 4 (12:01):
Yes, and there was two or three plays that didn't
cotally destroy him. Where they're blocking sweats with a running
back that that Warren's great in protection, Washington's great in
protection four running backs and tight ends, not for offensive tackles. Matt.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
It takes a lot to kind of make me demonstrative. Yeah,
one because I'm in the booth doing my job. Yeah,
But two because I know I'm forget preaching to the choir,
I'm preaching to the pastor on this one. I realize,
over the course of a sixty minute NFL game, you're
gonna have good, You're gonna have bad. You're never gonna
dominate someone and play a perfect A plus squeaky cleaner.
Speaker 4 (12:35):
And that defensive coordinator wants to get that match.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Up, absolutely right. But man, the first time, shame on you.
The second time, shame on me. If you like, we
can't we can't have that. We can't have that, and
we cannot ask we cannot. I don't care who the
quarterback is. I don't care if it's Aaron, I don't
care if it's Mason. I don't care if it's Will Howard,
I don't care if it's Matt Williamson or West Shuler
(12:58):
or Tyler vitt Meyer. They you can't just continue to
try and push the ball down the boundary when you
don't have wide receivers that accelerate in that area. It's
square peg and round hole and so you're not using
your your tight ends, which we all thought was going
to be a huge strength over the middle of the field.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
And I mean, just going back built.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Spoiler alert, like, it's not George Pickens running down the
boundary where he can stick out one arm like a
Trappis artist and come up with that's not the game.
That's not the skill set of these wide receivers, which
he has a million things, well, that is not one
of them.
Speaker 4 (13:35):
Just because he's big and fast. That's exactly right catch
point and so any different except for how they are.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
It's so it's it's so much square peg and round
hole stuff on offense.
Speaker 4 (13:52):
And Austin and Wilson are just too small.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
It's it's so much.
Speaker 4 (13:56):
And I'm much and Rudolph through poorly deep yes of course,
I mean which because I'd say so.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
And that's that's been an issue on offense again, whoever
the quarterback is, yeah, and whoever the coordinators are and
all that and that stuff. And then on defense it's
you know, as much as you manage to stymy their
very effective run game, which was a huge key going
into this one.
Speaker 4 (14:18):
So once again, everything else priority won. They actually checked
the Boston games. Stop Johnthon Taylor.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
Two through four or five aggressed went the wrong way.
Speaker 4 (14:26):
Exactly, you know, Priority one. Stop Josh Jacobs did it?
Stop Johnson Taylor did it? Mark Chase did it?
Speaker 5 (14:34):
Did it? Like?
Speaker 4 (14:34):
All right, you know you're doing the hard stuff, but
then all the other priorities are like they're picking you aren't.
Isn't winning football?
Speaker 3 (14:42):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (14:42):
I meant fifteen he averaged less than two yards of carry.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
He's having a great year, right, Modern guy twelve for
forty eight, take that all day.
Speaker 4 (14:54):
Sure Williams didn't kill you with his one yards on
the ground.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
Yeah, yeah, fine, held him under thirty, held him under
forty five.
Speaker 4 (15:00):
One of the best rushing teams in the league.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Right, And even it's not like the receivers killed you either.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
No, but they made plays in in the most opportune
of moments.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
M h.
Speaker 4 (15:11):
I mean it's it's frustrating theyn't get me wrong, but
I think there is two sides to.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
It, and one time in possession battle we did have
that week killing force exactly. No, I don't this game,
and we need to get to a break here and
catch up with Rob talk more about this. This game
in a vacuum, Matt doesn't make me feel all doom
and gloom.
Speaker 4 (15:34):
If this was week one, pretend it's week one, you
know nothing else.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
If it was four or five weeks ago, this game
is not all doom and gloom. Okay, the plays were
there to be made. You did something's good, you did
something's bad. They outlasted you and made more plays down
the stretch upstart team in their home.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
That place was.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Rocking, by the way, couldn't be that was I'm trying
to think off the top of my head, but probably
without a doubt, the best atmosphere that the Steelers have
played in on the road this season.
Speaker 4 (16:02):
Most respect you had for the building.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
Yeah, yeah, so I've told you have met life. It
was it was forty percent Steelers fans. So fi, it's
fifty percent Steelers fans. Yeah, this was fifteen percent Steelers.
Speaker 4 (16:14):
Fans and they're good fans, and they're excited and they're
not mad at they were ready to go.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
I mean again, they haven't had a team like this
in a long time.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
It's a prideful sports city at all, huge sports town.
Speaker 4 (16:23):
Best time in my life since it's got to be
a Bears fan and they're eating it up.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
It is hilarious because Dick has face is all over
that stadium still in Gail Sayers and Walter Payton and
Mike Singletary. That's a testament to how legendary those guys are.
But it's also because they've had bitterly squat since.
Speaker 4 (16:38):
Thirty years, right, Brian, since there hasn't been a lot
to get excited about it.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
You see a lot of uh, Walter Peyton and Mike
Dicka and Brian Urlacker jerseys.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
Yeah, not a lot of new current players.
Speaker 4 (16:51):
It makes sense now.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
The team shop was packed, so I mean, I'm sure
they're starting.
Speaker 4 (16:55):
To flysh right now. Yeah, yeah, right right.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Probably a couple of guys on that d defense as well.
But yeah, I just it's it seems like a reoccurring
episode of when this team struggles. You can kind of
right the struggles. It hasn't been popcorn. This one game, popcorn,
that one game. It's been kind of the same three
or four things that have ailed them. When we're disappointed
on a Monday, I know we.
Speaker 4 (17:19):
Need to roll, but I mean you kind of preface
that by saying if this was one game in week
two or early or whatever. But it is a lot
of the same stuff, and it makes you wonder is
it going to ever get better or is that who
who they are in terms of zone defense, all the
passing stuff in this game, where the run game's gotten
so much better, you know, like, oh, line was bad
(17:40):
the start season. Now ther line's really good.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Like the defense couldn't stop a nosebleed on the ground
to start to start the season. Now run on the
Steelers is third best rushing attack in the league hundred.
Speaker 4 (17:50):
Yards right, right, So those things have gotten better when
we thought, oh well, those things are never any better.
But you're also running out of road, and it's in
the roads.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
The road is narrowing, and there's some tricky twists and
turns on that road. Of course, beginning with this Sunday,
a kind of desperate and angry Buffalo Bills team in
their own right, we'll have plenty of time to get
to that, plenty of time to continue to dissect this game.
Let's talk to Rob King when we return on the
other side. He'll be good cop for us. Rob Kings,
you that that show you do with him in pursuit
(18:20):
of that's like the definition of you've got good cop
on one side, bad cop on the other.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
Rob King's good cop, Mike Pursuit is bad cop.
Speaker 4 (18:28):
Monday nights.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
You're just kind of you know, you're the center with
those two trying to trying to figure out where you're going.
Speaker 4 (18:34):
I think there's some truth to that. Yeah, we'll talk
to the King, which I like it to do it.
I'm glad that we record that is when we do.
To be honest, we'll pull back the curtain because I
like hearing both sides.
Speaker 5 (18:43):
You know.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
Yeah, Hey, good perspective as always, and we'll get that
from Rob King when we return. Rolling along here on
the Drive on a Monday, West Huler Matt Williamson, Steelers
Nation Radio on the Steelers Audio Network, Your tunes.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
About Drive on your twenty four to seven home of
the Black and Gold Steelers Nation Radio.
Speaker 5 (19:25):
Hold Alive, Oh, King in the Castle, King in the Castle,
have a chill, I have a chill.
Speaker 4 (19:35):
Oh go go these Google.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
The King in the Castle needed a little bit of
a levity here on this Monday, so we'll play the
Borat intro for the King now being in the Castle,
Rob King and it's as I feel pretty good. Put
a smile on your face to hear that one again.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
It's been a while.
Speaker 5 (19:51):
Always Ranna, just talk, just talking to you and Matt
put just smile on my face.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
Come on, man, Well that's what we like to hear.
That's what we like to hear.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
We always enjoy catching up with you as well, even
on a little bit of a commiseration. Monday thirty one
to twenty eight, the Steelers fall in Chicago. Matt and
I kind of had a beefy opening segment discussing some
of the good, discussing some of the bad, discussing ways
you could be encouraged, discussing maybe some of the concerning trends.
(20:22):
You know at this point for this team now eleven
games into the year, what's kind of at the top
of your list, King Er, You know you are, I think,
much more professional journalist than Matt and I are. If
you were kind of right in the headline of this game.
From a black and gold standpoint, what would that headline read?
Speaker 5 (20:42):
Ah, I mean six and five, right, you are your record.
I mean unfortunately. You know, Matt and I were discussing
this earlier, and we'll be discussing it later with Mike
Persuda when we do the point after. But you know,
I just look at this team and I see some
of the elements in place for this team to be
(21:03):
better than six and five, And you know, that's your
at the end of the day, you are your record.
That's it, right, your six and five football team, and
you have to live with that. I still have hope though,
when I look at, you know, some of the statistical
areas in which they defeated the Bears. Had you told
me that before the game, I would have signed up
for all of it and thought the students would have
won handily as opposed to losing by three points. You know,
(21:27):
I think that when I look at the good teams
they've played, and you know, with the exception of the Chargers,
they've either beaten top teams or had halftime leads getting
the ball to begin the second half against the other
three teams that have defeated them, And there's a lot
there for me to think if they could just find
a way to get more consistent, and consistency means from
(21:49):
one game to the next, but it also means within
a game. You know, how you can you know, run
it up against the Bears in the first half and
then come out and have what thirteen yards of offense
in the third quarter. I don't have that one figured out.
And if you can figure that out, I think you're
in good shape. So you know, there are a number
(22:10):
of little issues, but there's nothing where I think, to myself,
they're just simply not as good as the other teams.
I don't see that. I hope I'm not seeing it
through black and gold colored glasses, but I just I
haven't seen that, and so that gives me hope that
they can find a way to turn things around. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (22:26):
I want to expand on that because I thought you
said that well when we were chatting earlier about Green Bay, Chicago,
Seattle and the NFC, the Colts, the Patriots in the AFC,
like those five teams and maybe I'm even missing one
are all going to the playoffs. I mean, I'll bet
(22:47):
just about everything I have at this point, maybe one
of them doesn't, but I bet they're all playoff caliber teams. Seattle, Seattle,
the Colts could be Super Bowl caliber teams or at least,
you know, their top five ish teams right now as
it looks, Patriots are really really good. And frankly, if
you combine every snap of all those games, the Steelers
(23:10):
basically were very even with all of them.
Speaker 5 (23:16):
I would I would go so far as to say
that in every one of those games there was there
were ample opportunities for the Steelers to win. Yeah, you know,
and they after you lose Seattle, you rip off three
in a row against the Patriots. The Vikings win that
probably looked a little bit better at the time than
it does now against the Browns, who was twenty three
(23:37):
to nine, But you're never in any danger of losing
that game, you know. So you win four of your
first five. But again, you know, you're up by a
touchdown against Seattle and you get the ball to begin
the second half. I think about that, like, that's the
scenario you want, that's what you write up. And it
was the exact same scenario with the Packers, and the
exact same scenario yesterday with the Bears. All quality teams
(24:02):
and you know when you think about, Okay, at half,
you're up sixteen to seven to the Packers, you put
another score up. It's a three score game. Well, I
mean maybe two touchdowns and two two point conversions. But
you might as well, you know, try to win the lotteries.
Expect that's gonna happen. Instead, you go three and out,
(24:23):
three plays, two yards of punt Seattle, you're up fourteen
to seven. You know, you go down and score, and
that's a two point a two score game.
Speaker 4 (24:32):
Same thing, And Caleb Johnson knows a kickoff roll with
things might go a little differently too.
Speaker 5 (24:38):
Yeah, yeah, for sure, and all those Matt, you're right,
but all those are things like what's going on here?
I don't understand why frustrating that's the case, not like
not like hey man, we're out class like I you know, again,
I've reference this like two years ago. I just thought
this too. Theres weren't as good as the other teams.
They were facing the top teams. They they just didn't
(24:59):
mat some of that's a quarterback position, obviously, but they
just didn't match up against the top teams. I thought
they got closer to that last year, and I think
they're there this year, right, Look, they've played a lot
of high caliber teams and with the exception to the Chargers, right,
I mean, you should at least be three and three
in my opinion, at least three and three against top
(25:22):
quality teams without having been the Chargers. That wasn't a
good game. But with the exception of the Chargers, you
know you've been. You've had ample opportunity to win those games.
You've got ample opportunity to say, hey, we're you know,
four and two or five and one in those games
instead of you know, two and four against the playoff
(25:42):
bound teams. But you are what you are again, It's
not like I'm watching Derek Hunt Henry run for two
hundred and forty yards or whatever, and right, and hey,
you just got out class. You know, I haven't felt
that way at all this year. I thought it was
a better team. I still think it's a better team.
But ultimately, you've got to find a way to sew
(26:03):
up stakes, tighten things up, and find a way to
win games. Because the margin that you built up when
you got off to that four and one start, that's gone.
And in fact, you are now the pursuer instead of
the pursue eet. So that's where you are.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
Yeah, with a with a tough sledding schedule of Buffalo
at home, Baltimore on the road, the Miami Dolphins, who
are suddenly showing some life. You gotta go to Detroit. Hey, Cleveland,
who knows Senor Sanders one to know. Maybe it's a road,
maybe it's a new Yeah. And also on the road
in Cleveland where hey, late December and Cleveland. I'm sure
the weather won't factor into that one and couldn't be
(26:39):
another snow game globe for the Steelers. But Kinger, you know,
to me, so much of this revolves around getting their
playmakers on offense going. You know, if you take away
the defensive touchdown for the Steelers, that's twenty one points
against a Bears defense that statistically is one of the
one of the worst to the National Football League. You
(27:01):
take away the two pick six's or part of me
a pick six in a scoop six against Cincinnati, it's
twenty points against the Bengals defense that is the.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
Worst in the National Football League.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Out in LA you only scored twenty points against Indianapolis
twenty seven, but you had again six turnovers and a
lot of help from your defense. To me, there's again
there's good cut, bad cop reasons for optimism, pessimism.
Speaker 3 (27:27):
Glass half full, glass half empty.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
But when I look at Calvin Austin thirty six yards,
Kenneth Gainwell thirty through the air being your second leading receiver,
Darnell only two receptions for twenty two, DK only five
for twenty two, John hu Smith three for twenty one,
Pat Freyermu three for nineteen. They have got to find
a way to find some playmakers on offense and in
(27:52):
terms of ball catching receiving playmakers, and not just Kenneth Gainwell,
who's been great out of the backfield the last few weeks.
They need more from dcs any more from the rest
of the wide receivers and I think king are one
of the biggest things at this point now eleven games in,
is more consistency with that tight end trio that we
thought was gonna be a real kind of hallmark calling
(28:12):
card of this offense.
Speaker 5 (28:17):
Yeah, I think, you know, as I look at this team,
you know there are Look, there was no way I
think that statistically this years thought the defense is going
to be giving up this many yards and this many points.
I didn't think there was any way. Having said that,
I don't think that the offense has done enough of
as share. You know, this was the first game all
(28:39):
year that the Steelers you know, ran more plays than
the opponent and they won the time back. Okay, so
they won the time of possession battle last year. Last
week thanks to a neil back at the end of
the game. Otherwise it was dead even again Cincinnati. And
I'm not saying that that is a be all and
all statistic. I'm just saying that you need to find
ways to help your defense out right. You need to
(29:02):
be able to keep your defense off the field. Well,
the Steelers largely did that yesterday, for all our criticism,
and yes, they came up with the defensive touchdown for
all our criticism of the offense. And you got to
run the ball more and possess it more. Well they
did that yesterday and the Bear scored thirty one points,
you know, and some of that that's not all on
the defense, you know, because the defense yardage wise, held
(29:24):
the Bears down, and the Bears have had that sort
of it factor knack that I think we're used to
the Steelers having finding ways to win ball games. They're
eight and three and they've been outscored this year. That's crazy,
you know, they've just been able to find that magic.
But do you expect, you know, to give up thirty
one points to a team when you hold them to
(29:45):
what three hundred and twenty four yards of by three
hundred and twenty eight yards of total offense? That doesn't
add up to thirty one points. So I've said this before.
I used a puzzle piece analogy, like I've got all
these puzzle pieces or a math equation, I've got these numbers,
and it just does an add up. You know. I
think in a lot of ways, the Bears are more
than the some of their parts, right, Like how could
(30:07):
you possibly be giving up all these yards and be
dashed on the ground. But defensively points per game, it's
not horrible, not as horrible as the numbers should suggest,
you know. It's not like Caleb Williams is dicing up
opponents and yet they're they're winning football games. They find
a way to win football games. The whole is more
than the sum of their parts, and for the Steelers,
(30:28):
it just feels like that hasn't been the case. Like, I,
you know, one week you know against the Green Bay Packers,
against the Cincinnati Bengals, you're flinging them all all over
the field. This game you run for one hundred and
eighty plus yards one hundred and eighty six yards in
the ground. We've shown, we've seen signs, but it hasn't happened.
And we and the defense has had games they've dominated
(30:50):
and the Steelers. Look, the Steelers won the game in
New England and won the game against the Colts, two
of the top teams in the AFC, thanks to their defense.
It just it doesn't need to be that heroic. It
just needs to I just think it needs to come
together more. And in a game like yesterday, some of
it came together, but not all of it. And then
(31:11):
these losses, it hasn't all been there. Like I said,
they haven't been run out of the building, but they
just haven't been able to put it together in a
way that allows them to win consistently.
Speaker 4 (31:23):
Yeah, and I wanted to touch on something he said too.
And maybe the most shocking big picture thing as we
sit here a couple days away from Thanksgiving is the
yardage they allow on defense. Because I do think they
have a lot of good defensive players, and they have
a great pass rush and they clearly create splash, but
(31:44):
down in and down out. Early in the season, I
thought a lot of it was the run game, the
Jets game. It seems like a million years ago. But
you know, Cam Hayward hadn't practiced, and a lot of
defensive lines across the league are just fatigued. Really early
in the season, run defense has been, but I still don't.
I still expect more from the coverage unit when you
(32:10):
know the ball is going to come out quick, and
that to me is maybe the most frustrating, big picture
thing about the season.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
Real quick, real quick hanger before you get into that
three hundred and eighty three total yards surrendered per game,
that's twenty eighth out of thirty two in the league.
Two hundred and fifty eight pass yards per game, that's
thirty first thirty two league.
Speaker 4 (32:31):
Just the past coverage, as me, frustrated.
Speaker 5 (32:36):
And it doesn't seem possible, does it, right? And you've
got good players back there.
Speaker 4 (32:41):
And not a rash of injuries or you know.
Speaker 5 (32:44):
Yeah, it's mystifying, and you know, again, they found ways
to turn teams over and they found ways to harass
Daniel Jones and you know, after lit them up for
a game, they clamp down. So you know, this week
they stopped the Bears offense on the ground that was
the second best running offense in the NFL, a week
(33:08):
after they shut down Chase and Higgins in that group
in Cincinnati. With what they've been doing in the previous
three games under Joe Flacco, I said, it's it's as
if the ingredients for you know, chili are there and
you put it in the pot and you taste it
and it tastes like squash soup. You like, how is
that possible? The ingredients are all there in the pot.
(33:29):
There they are. I mixed it up, I started, I
made it, and it's it's not chili, it's squashed soup.
That That's what it feels like to me in some ways,
like I'm just I don't know. I don't have an
explanation for it. You know, I don't have an explanation
for the consistency not being there. I will say this,
and again it gives me hope because I do see.
(33:51):
I do see. You know what it's what these units
are capable of. We just haven't seen it on a
consistent basis. And look, you know, the special teams have
been a real plus for this Steelers all season long.
That's been something you can pretty much chalk up in
the in the win column, like especial teams are gonna
be great, right, Well, the coverage units weren't great. The punting, yeah,
(34:14):
the nets cunning wasn't great yesterday. That's that's another small
part where we're talking about them winning the yardage battle. Well,
did you really if you're if you're giving up yardage
in the special teams game because that doesn't get added in,
you know, So I don't know, Guys. Like I said,
I I'm encouraged when I you know, the six and
(34:34):
five record. I just feel like it's a better team
than that, and I just hope that that means there's
better times ahead coming up. With Let's face it, I
mean this game against the Bills, I felt like you
had to win one of these two games. I you know,
if you were going to pick one, I would have
picked the Bills. But if you're gonna you know, as
as far as importance, because it's an AFC game, I
think the Bears. I thought the Steelers were better than
(34:58):
the Bears and we're gonna win the game, and then
you could go in with a little bit of house
money and play the Bills. Now this game is just
looming as extra important. It was important before, and now
I think it's extra important and you go and beat them.
But again with an ature of the NFL. For all
we noticed the Ravens will lose on Thursday night in Cincinnati,
will have a whole new feeling about it. You know,
who knows, guys, But that's the way it feels to me.
(35:18):
Like this, this game against Buffalo has suddenly become a
much more crucial game because the Steelers have have had
opportunities to beat teams that they haven't beaten, you know,
meeting of more recent vintage the Packers and the Bears,
when you were head of the half and had the
ball to begin the second half. But it is what
it is, man, it's six and five. That's your record,
(35:38):
and you got to find a way to move forward.
Speaker 3 (35:41):
No doubt about it.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
Kind enough to join us every single Monday here on
the program the Voice of your Pittsburgh Steelers on the
flagship on the Steelers Audio Network, the Great Rob King
king Er. Thanks for the time, man, enjoy the week
and some family time and Happy Thanksgiving and we'll talk
to you soon.
Speaker 5 (35:58):
I will see you guys soon, but Matt, I will
see you sooner than probably West. But happy Thanksgiving you
guys as well.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
Take care Kinger, Why wowie there he goes good stuff
from Rob king as always. You know, can I just
tell you something Matt real quick for before we go
to break and get back into this and Lab sent
me a week twelve research packet. Yeah, has some actually
I think pretty pretty good nuggets in it that I
want to get into with you as well. Your son's
(36:28):
a freshman in college right now.
Speaker 4 (36:30):
This sport and his brand new Darnell Washington, Jersey yesterday
Darno Washington.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
Did they did kill a guy once again in Chicago yesterday?
Speaker 3 (36:38):
Good lord.
Speaker 4 (36:41):
Man.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
This used to be like my favorite week when I
was that age, when I was that like y Yeah.
Speaker 4 (36:47):
He came home a couple days ago.
Speaker 2 (36:48):
He's had a blast, right because you get you know,
like you'll come home on a Friday or Saturday and
you get the whole you know, you're home for like
eight or nine days. It's great of like, haven't seen
my buddies for the most part since August.
Speaker 3 (37:01):
You know, it's usually not terribly winter.
Speaker 2 (37:04):
Out yet, so it's not like it's seven seven degrees
and freezing. And Christmas Break is different because when you're
in college, Christmas break is like four or five weeks long.
Speaker 3 (37:13):
Like mom and dad expect you to do something, like
you're I'm just gonna.
Speaker 2 (37:16):
Sit around the jobs, get something, get a seasonal job,
do something productive. You're gonna be home for four or
five weeks Thanksgiving Break. It's like, no one says anything
to you.
Speaker 4 (37:25):
You're just home for a week.
Speaker 2 (37:26):
You got the whole week, you got Thanksgiving, got the football,
you got the family. I used to This used to
be like my when I was in when I was
in college, this was like my favorite week of the year.
Speaker 3 (37:36):
I loved it.
Speaker 4 (37:37):
I can. I'm seeing it through his eyes. I mean
he's been home since Thursday night. Yeah, it's like, oh, yeah,
he's in.
Speaker 3 (37:45):
You still had four weeks off. You'd be like, dude,
go find something to do.
Speaker 4 (37:48):
Get out of here, right lawn or something.
Speaker 2 (37:51):
Driveway, go help with the senior home down the road.
I don't know, do something, but yeah, man, Thanksgiving week.
Just that week and getting back together with your buds
for the first time in few months. That was the best.
We've got plenty more to get to. We'll continue to
give some thoughts on this Steelers loss thirty one twenty
eight to the Bears, will obviously go around the league
and look at a very important Week twelve slate of
(38:14):
results in our number two as well. All that and
more as we roll along, Eu'ler Williamson The Drive Steelers
Audio Network.
Speaker 1 (38:29):
Your tune's about Drive on your twenty four to seven
home of the Black and Goal Steelers Nation Radio.
Speaker 2 (38:45):
Back on the drive here closing down the first hour, Matt,
kind of, you know, piggybacking off of a little bit
of what Rob talked about, where you know, in some
ways it feels like it's a better team than six
and five, but you are what your record says you are. Yeah,
and that's just also kind of life in the National
Football League. Sometimes the bounces are going to go your way.
Sometimes they're not. Sometimes kys Didy Chiefs thing right, you're
(39:07):
gonna go win twelve straight one score games and then
lose four or five in a row, although they might
have some life now we'll get to that an hour
number two, Matt. The Steelers have now lost three games
this year when they've scored twenty five points. They're three
and three in games where they score twenty five or
more points.
Speaker 5 (39:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
Yeah, that's the most losses in a season for the
Steelers in such games since twenty eighteen.
Speaker 4 (39:32):
I saw that, Yeah, and it was.
Speaker 2 (39:34):
Obviously a much maligned Steelers defense in twenty eighteen that
was still trying to recover from the loss of Ryan
Shazier and find its identity and was not a very
good unit. The Steelers in twenty three and twenty four
were nine to oh when scoring twenty five plus points.
Speaker 4 (39:52):
I thought that was pretty telling that to me.
Speaker 2 (39:56):
Again, it paints obviously not the most uh, you know,
successful picture for your defense that we all know, you know,
one hundred and sixty million dollars, highest paid defense in
the league. That pendulum swings back to the other side
this week, right, as we've kind of laughed about. But
it almost to me, you've got to find ways to
(40:17):
getting back to what I was kind of asking King
or there. I know that the defense hasn't lived up
to the billing that we all expected coming into this year, right,
but I also think you have got to find ways
to consistently score more points because even when you are
it's not guaranteeing success like it used to. I mean,
we usually Steelers, you know, go out there and score
(40:38):
three or four touchdowns and you're hardly ever gonna lose. Yeah,
they got to find a way to get some more
of these playmakers involved, man other than just Warren and
Kenneth Gainwell agreed.
Speaker 4 (40:48):
So back to that blurb that stuck with me too
of everything that, yeah, it's the one that back it
because it used to be. I pull a lot of
my stats out of there. It's very useful comes straight
from the league. But going into this season, can pretty
much go back to the end of Roethlisberger era that
(41:09):
the magic number was twenty points. Like if the Steelers
got the twenty they won an extremely high percentage of
their games. Yes, now, it didn't happen as much as
a lot of teams, you know, so you had to
grind out low scoring games, and everybody remembers that era.
This era feels different, you know, because they do score
(41:32):
into the twenties and thirties with some regular air much
more often. So you see it and you're like, boy,
you know, Dale, I made the joke for years and years.
It's like they don't throw touchdown passes, you know, they
throw thirteen in a season or something crazy like that.
I mean, Rogers has more than anybody since Ben and
(41:53):
it didn't play yesterday and it's not even Thanksgiving, you
know what I mean. Like, so you see the progress
in Rob's point, you can kind of taste what's there,
you know, like they're I see a lot of reasons
to think that it's not the same Steelers that went
into Buffalo or be by my home. Yeah, that was
the perfect example. It's Henry and Lamar are just running
(42:16):
all over you and like they're not even they're gonna
lose this game ten out of ten times or nine
and a half out of ten, you know, like that
team's just better. That's the Ravens where a lot of
these games it's like you're battling really good teams right
to the end, or you're deficient in a couple areas.
And unfortunately they've been in some of the same areas
of late. But I didn't think that would be the number,
(42:39):
you know, the the or the stat Like that's what
shocks me from the you know in Latrobe, you.
Speaker 2 (42:44):
Think the stat would be when they get they give
up twenty five or more.
Speaker 3 (42:47):
Yeah, right, right, right, then they're they're five hundred.
Speaker 4 (42:50):
Or I wouldn't think they'd scored that many as often
as they did, and I wouldn't think that they lose
as many times, right, And I'm mind applying there like
last year's Bengals or this year bank where you know,
you lose every game thirty six thirty five and it's
a total shootout all the time. But you're right with
the offensive stuff too, Like they're throwing all these deep balls,
(43:12):
well not a lot. They don't throw it deep very often,
but when they do, it's the guys that aren't really
great at contest and catches the metcalf and Austin and
Wilson and I hadn't even thought of this, but pursued it,
brought it up. He's like, well, should Valdos Scantling get
a helmet? And I originally thought, like, I've seen that
(43:34):
show at a lot of different stops and it's not
the answer. But he does that. Well, you know, I
see what they saw on body type. Not just because
he's Rogers buddy, right, He's one of the big problems
with Austin and Wilson to me on the deep balls
is they're just too small, you know, at the catch points,
and Metcalf is not a great catch point receiver despite
(43:57):
his dimensions. I mean that's clear. Pickens was, you know.
I mean, if you're gonna throw deep balls outside the
numbers as a foundation, the guys hauling them in have
to be better at it. And frankly, Rudolph's passing was
just poor in that regard yesterday. You know, I would
love to see what Rogers could have done.
Speaker 5 (44:16):
It was.
Speaker 2 (44:17):
Yeah, it is a combination of not the best quarterback
play and I think just not catering the route tree
to your receiver's best skill sets.
Speaker 4 (44:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (44:29):
Right, and when you combine that with you know, little
to no success or involvement from your tight ends in
the past game. Yeah, that's even with the success on
the ground ninety two for gain Well sixty eight Jalen.
Speaker 4 (44:42):
Yeah, protection was good.
Speaker 3 (44:44):
Yeah, it certainly was.
Speaker 4 (44:46):
I mean, I think no one on the team and
more than thirty six receiving yards thirty six.
Speaker 2 (44:50):
Yeah, only two guys had more than thirty Calvin Austin
and Kenneth Gainwell Well game Well had exactly thirty.
Speaker 4 (44:55):
So that's thirty right, Yeah, yeah, right, but yeah, I
mean seed more production than that. You know, you do numbers.
Speaker 2 (45:03):
Twenty two yards for Darnell twenty two yards or DK Metcalf.
Speaker 3 (45:07):
I mean you tell me between those two.
Speaker 2 (45:10):
If you would to tell me going into this game,
right that Darnell, DK, John U, Pat fryar Mouth, we're
barely going to combine for over eighty yards receiving together.
Speaker 4 (45:21):
The four of them are just big pass came.
Speaker 2 (45:24):
Combined, went for like eighty four eighty I'm trying to
do quick math, eighty four eighty five yards.
Speaker 4 (45:29):
Yeah, well under one hundred for.
Speaker 2 (45:30):
Four guys, and I'm be like, there's no chance and
you're six rush for two hundred and fifty yards to
win the game in the game, right, that's and again.
Speaker 4 (45:40):
And they're not the only ones to blame four.
Speaker 2 (45:42):
No, no, no, no, no, of course, And if this felt
like more of a one off, okay, it was a
backup quarterback.
Speaker 3 (45:47):
It was a weird week in that regard.
Speaker 4 (45:48):
Fine flushed and made an amazing defense or you know.
Speaker 2 (45:52):
But I think we've been underwhelmed in that department pretty
consistently this year, and this was just kind of the
most glaring exit.
Speaker 4 (45:59):
Yeah right, I mean, just give me a little more
from each of them, more collectively, give me twenty five
percent more go along. That might be enough, what it
might be enough.
Speaker 2 (46:07):
Hour in the books, another hour to go, more on
the Steelers defeat in Chicago, and plenty more on a
wild Week twelve around the National Football League. All of that,
As we Roll Along was Shuuler Matt Williamson Halfway Home
on the Drive on Steelers Nation Radio on the Steelers
Audio Network.
Your tunes about Drive on your twenty four to seven
home of the Black and Goal Steelers Nation Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Good afternoon, Steelers Nation, It's the Drive on the Steelers
Audio Network. Here on a Monday, West Shooler and Matt
Williamson with you as we have got plenty to discuss.
The Steelers fall the Bears thirty one to twenty eight.
They fall to six and five. They fall out of
the lead in the AFC North, while Chicago remains one
of the hottest teams in the NFL, eight of their
(00:50):
last nine, continuing to stay atop the very tough NFC North.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Matt, I don't really know exactly where to begin.
Speaker 4 (00:59):
Today, so I'm glad you're carrying the puck. I'm just
sitting here waiting to bury one.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Maybe disappointing performance by the defense, disappointing performance by the offense,
I think, even if you give them the benefit of
the grain of salt of the quarterback uncertainty leading up
to kickoff, despite all that, it was still there for them.
They still had the lead at halftime, and just a
(01:28):
game where it felt like Chicago kind of outlasted. The
Steelers made a couple more plays on offense a couple
more plays on defense, a couple more plays and those
weighty moments, and it was enough to in a game
like that, you end up winning and you're feeling great
about yourself. You lose and it feels like the sky
is falling.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
So so many directions to go on this and we will.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
We got plenty of time.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
We won't have a show on Thursday but one day
this week, although by that point we'll be focusing on
Buffalo anyway.
Speaker 4 (01:59):
I guess we had twenty four segments to fill this
week instead of thirty, so we'll have plenty of time
to chat. And we're very appreciative that all you you know,
come and join us. And it sounds like viewership is
you know, listening ship or whatever is going crazy. And
but win or lose Mondays are just so overreactionary, I mean,
(02:21):
and that's part of the beauty of this league because
everyone cares so much and it's one game. And I
say this all the time. If the Pirates lost ten
nothing the day before, nobody cared, you know, like, or
if they win ten nothing, you know, it's one game.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
You move, nobody cares in general, well in general.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
But where I want to go with this and this
is not the candy coat the Steelers situation, because it's
getting kind of dire. And that's just the numbers of
the AFC and the division and all these things, and
the road ahead and get tough, and the road is narrowing?
Is you? And coach like to say a lot and
it's one hundred percent true. But I was it's going
(02:56):
to air tonight. But every Monday I do a review
show with Rob and Pursuda, And in the second segment
it kind of dawned on me. It's like I always
like on Mondays to put myself in the shoes of
the opposing city. Brown's Nation Radio or Bears Nation Radio,
you know what I mean? And right now, if this
(03:17):
was Bears Nation Radio, we would be jubulant. Oh we
would be.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Dancing dominated in the run game on both sides of
the football, dancing in the street.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Their defense scored a touchdown, Yeah right, so down at halftime. Yeah,
still found a way to win.
Speaker 4 (03:30):
Because we got this dude that can you know, we
know too many games we can win in the end.
And we got a coach and we got a quarterback,
and the Bears are in first place and this.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Vaunted Steelers pass rush only got Caleb Williams on the
ground one time.
Speaker 4 (03:43):
We go on and on and on, you know, and
rightfully so, I'm not taking away from the Bears at all,
but they've won so many close games. I'm only talking
about Chicago, but sound like we're on Bears Nation Radio.
They've won so many ridiculously close games against not the
best teams in the league, you know. I mean it's
(04:04):
they didn't edge out the Rams or you know, the Colts,
or you know some of these Seattle or you know,
the best teams in the Eagles, but if they get
two or three bounces that don't quite go their way
during that stretch. And where I'm going with this is
they still have a negative point differential for the season.
The Bears do. And they've won eight out of nine
(04:27):
and they're in first place. I think it's still negative.
It's right around there after this game, and all of
a sudden, you'd be like, man, Bears are doing some
good stuff, but don't know how to win yet, you know.
Like It's my point is almost all these teams, with
maybe the exception of the Rams in this side of things,
(04:49):
and the really terrible teams It is such a fine
line in this league of winning and losing, and I
thought yesterday was a perfect example of that. I thought
it was a pretty evenly played game. Robin Mike both
thought the Steelers were the better team yesterday. I'm not
sure I agree with that part.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
But I'm not sure if I agree.
Speaker 4 (05:06):
Yeah, I was a little shocked they both there.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Again, there's certain elements that you can look at and
you can go that's impressive.
Speaker 4 (05:11):
Yeah, I mean, they were better.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Limiting a top five rushing attack in the league. Impressive.
Speaker 4 (05:16):
All the run game stuff, all the the run game stuff.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
If you would have told us that was going to
play out on Friday.
Speaker 4 (05:23):
We were climbing up.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
Steelers win.
Speaker 4 (05:24):
Yeah, I mean, that's not even how Rob even iw
Rob phased it. He's like, if I told you this
were the rushing totals and these were the time of
possession totals, you'd say the Steelers won handily. I'm like,
thousand and oh, by the way, you have scored on defense.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
I was just going to say, though, too, if you
would have told me that the Steelers offense scored twenty
one points against per a bottom five defense in the NFL.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Right, I would have said, all, well, you're going to
lose that game.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
Yeah, exactly, And oh, by the way, in the way
he phrased it was if I told you the Steelers
scored on defense and won the running battle so.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Drastically, you're like, the time you're winning that game.
Speaker 4 (06:03):
Like, could you paint a picture of the lose. I'm like,
if they lost a turnover differential by like four and
if you factor in four thousands, they did learn lose
the turnover differential by two.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
And Matt Williamson turnover differentially, and.
Speaker 4 (06:15):
Frankly, that might be the difference in the game when
you look back at it. It's that fine a line,
and they did some really good stuff, but they also
have some really big concerns and pursuit of His big
take was self inflicted wounds. You know, like you got
to complete one or two of those deep shots. You know,
like you didn't take many. It was a very controlled
(06:37):
passing game. You didn't throw in the middle field. I'm
very fully aware of that. I get that. But if
you're gonna take shots, you got to complete them, and
you can't have an illegal formation in crucial.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Time and you might win if that right, Make that
mistake right.
Speaker 4 (06:56):
Right right, I mean and goofy little things like the
score ironic, it was a penalty that punt that was
a penalty on the Bears and then they flipped it
and us on TV and no clue what happened. And
that was like a forty yard swing of yardage.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Yep.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
So this was a very close game against the quality opponent.
And Rob even laid it out like big picture Colts Seattle,
Green Bay, Chicago. I'm missing one here in the AFC
that they won New England. You know, like those five
games are against all playoff teams, and if you put
(07:34):
that whole body of work together, you're even with all
of them, you know what I mean, Like some you
lost by a little, some you won by a little.
You're hanging with all those teams. You know, this isn't
he compared it to this isn't going to Buffalo in
the wildcard round, where it's like that's a super Bowl
contender against a playoff contender. You know, like it's a
fine line, but you might be a mistake or two
(07:56):
away from maybe getting a win or two. There.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Let me be be bad cop for a second. There's
a lot of bad because I think. I don't think
you're talking utter rubbish. I don't think you're just speaking nonsense.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
I'm not saying they're a bounce away from winning the
super Bowl.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
The reason why I can't.
Speaker 4 (08:11):
Do that, I'm optimistic, right.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
I can't do the sunshine and rainbow thing today is
because so much of what ailed the Steelers yesterday in
the Windy City, on a beautiful day in the Windy City,
by the way, is the same stuff that's ailed them
and their other four losses.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
That's where I wanted to go to.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
It'd be one thing.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
If it was to steal another Mike Tomlin term, you
know I like to do that. It'd be one thing
if it was popcorn for the Steelers, right right. You
lost this game because you had some really unfortunate injuries,
so that DK got banged up, Roder Jones went out,
Joey Porter Junior went out.
Speaker 4 (08:44):
But it's it's it's wow, you got a punt block
that never happens.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
It's every time the Steelers lose a game like this,
you can always point to the defense didn't make life
difficult enough on the opposition quarterback.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
That's always a big one.
Speaker 4 (08:58):
I thought the pass rush was a little lacking.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
One play aside, and it was a massive play, massive
stripsacked by TJ recovered by her big seven points on
the board. I mean that is a massive splash play.
But that was about it. I mean it was feast.
It was it was two percent feast and ninety eight
percent famine.
Speaker 4 (09:18):
V or at least like eating lightly. Yes, because I
definitely wanted they wanted to keep him in there.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
I wanted a turkey on the table instead.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
It was just like a little charcuterie board off off
to the side with the kids table or something.
Speaker 4 (09:30):
I'm not fighting you, and I am not being good
cop totally because I got a lot of concerns and
a lot of things to be concerned about. And I
even said the pass rush I think was a little lacking.
But I but they also Williams. They kept him in
the pocket and they their goals wasn't to get the
eight sacks. It was make him throw in beach.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
I'll let him run for forty yards.
Speaker 4 (09:51):
And he missed a lot of throws, as he has
all year, and but they only seemed to slow them
down when he missed throws, Like what do we tell you?
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Yeah, same, you know, inability to really make the quarterback
uncomfortable and miscommunication at the worst possible times.
Speaker 5 (10:10):
Right.
Speaker 4 (10:11):
A big thing Mike said is like they still don't
know how to play zone coverage well, you know, and.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
He in the shadow of their own end zone, even
with a field shorter right and big third and long
situations where it's like.
Speaker 4 (10:21):
The DJ Moore touchdown can't happen, can't happen?
Speaker 2 (10:23):
You know that conversion that Chicago had at the end,
it was what third and eight, third and nine, and
they throw they dump it off over the middle.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
And there's you know, nowhere to be found.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
It's like you're standing in the middle of the Sahara
desert with nobody around you.
Speaker 4 (10:35):
Yeah. I keep quoting the show we just did because
I went into that show thinking differently than I came
out of that show. And that's how my Monday's work.
I try to I'm all over the place. I try
to just kind of narrow things down as the day
goes on. And you know, Mike kept harping about, boy,
they still aren't good at z own coverage and mentioned
that every Thursday we do that show with Meryl, and
(10:56):
Meryl brings it up all the time. From tape study
that they will. They dropped to their spot and they're
doing their job. But they're just garden grass, you know,
like there's coach. I'm I'm at the at my landmark.
I'm sitting here doing my job, but there's no one
for you to guard. Go do something else with one,
no one swimming right right, I mean, so go be
(11:19):
a football player.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Then you know what I mean, and then you know
off at the side of the football. It's even with
a consistent run game, which.
Speaker 4 (11:27):
Was great, and Joe Line's really good right.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Now, outstanding, outstanding, And it's not like Mason was sacked
five or six or seven times. He was only sacked twice, right,
I mean, there were only three sacks in total in
this game, and.
Speaker 4 (11:38):
Those two sacks I keep interrupt you, but I'm all
wind up.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
It's like, I know where you're going with this, and
it was go ahead because.
Speaker 4 (11:43):
They're they're scariest dude, sweat, really good player. They gave
up a lot for him, gave me a huge contract,
they won. The planet knows he's good. I loved Darnel Washington,
but he's not He's not a tackle.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
I don't care how big he is.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Right, you can't knocking why receiver when he got the Georgia.
Speaker 4 (12:01):
Yes, and there was two or three plays that didn't
cotally destroy him. Where they're blocking sweats with a running
back that that Warren's great in protection, Washington's great in
protection four running backs and tight ends, not for offensive tackles. Matt.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
It takes a lot to kind of make me demonstrative. Yeah,
one because I'm in the booth doing my job. Yeah,
But two because I know I'm forget preaching to the choir,
I'm preaching to the pastor on this one. I realize,
over the course of a sixty minute NFL game, you're
gonna have good, You're gonna have bad. You're never gonna
dominate someone and play a perfect A plus squeaky cleaner.
Speaker 4 (12:35):
And that defensive coordinator wants to get that match.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Up, absolutely right. But man, the first time, shame on you.
The second time, shame on me. If you like, we
can't we can't have that. We can't have that, and
we cannot ask we cannot. I don't care who the
quarterback is. I don't care if it's Aaron, I don't
care if it's Mason. I don't care if it's Will Howard,
I don't care if it's Matt Williamson or West Shuler
(12:58):
or Tyler vitt Meyer. They you can't just continue to
try and push the ball down the boundary when you
don't have wide receivers that accelerate in that area. It's
square peg and round hole and so you're not using
your your tight ends, which we all thought was going
to be a huge strength over the middle of the field.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
And I mean, just going back built.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Spoiler alert, like, it's not George Pickens running down the
boundary where he can stick out one arm like a
Trappis artist and come up with that's not the game.
That's not the skill set of these wide receivers, which
he has a million things, well, that is not one
of them.
Speaker 4 (13:35):
Just because he's big and fast. That's exactly right catch
point and so any different except for how they are.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
It's so it's it's so much square peg and round
hole stuff on offense.
Speaker 4 (13:52):
And Austin and Wilson are just too small.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
It's it's so much.
Speaker 4 (13:56):
And I'm much and Rudolph through poorly deep yes of course,
I mean which because I'd say so.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
And that's that's been an issue on offense again, whoever
the quarterback is, yeah, and whoever the coordinators are and
all that and that stuff. And then on defense it's
you know, as much as you manage to stymy their
very effective run game, which was a huge key going
into this one.
Speaker 4 (14:18):
So once again, everything else priority won. They actually checked
the Boston games. Stop Johnthon Taylor.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
Two through four or five aggressed went the wrong way.
Speaker 4 (14:26):
Exactly, you know, Priority one. Stop Josh Jacobs did it?
Stop Johnson Taylor did it? Mark Chase did it?
Speaker 5 (14:34):
Did it? Like?
Speaker 4 (14:34):
All right, you know you're doing the hard stuff, but
then all the other priorities are like they're picking you aren't.
Isn't winning football?
Speaker 3 (14:42):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (14:42):
I meant fifteen he averaged less than two yards of carry.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
He's having a great year, right, Modern guy twelve for
forty eight, take that all day.
Speaker 4 (14:54):
Sure Williams didn't kill you with his one yards on
the ground.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
Yeah, yeah, fine, held him under thirty, held him under
forty five.
Speaker 4 (15:00):
One of the best rushing teams in the league.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Right, And even it's not like the receivers killed you either.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
No, but they made plays in in the most opportune
of moments.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
M h.
Speaker 4 (15:11):
I mean it's it's frustrating theyn't get me wrong, but
I think there is two sides to.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
It, and one time in possession battle we did have
that week killing force exactly. No, I don't this game,
and we need to get to a break here and
catch up with Rob talk more about this. This game
in a vacuum, Matt doesn't make me feel all doom
and gloom.
Speaker 4 (15:34):
If this was week one, pretend it's week one, you
know nothing else.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
If it was four or five weeks ago, this game
is not all doom and gloom. Okay, the plays were
there to be made. You did something's good, you did
something's bad. They outlasted you and made more plays down
the stretch upstart team in their home.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
That place was.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Rocking, by the way, couldn't be that was I'm trying
to think off the top of my head, but probably
without a doubt, the best atmosphere that the Steelers have
played in on the road this season.
Speaker 4 (16:02):
Most respect you had for the building.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
Yeah, yeah, so I've told you have met life. It
was it was forty percent Steelers fans. So fi, it's
fifty percent Steelers fans. Yeah, this was fifteen percent Steelers.
Speaker 4 (16:14):
Fans and they're good fans, and they're excited and they're
not mad at they were ready to go.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
I mean again, they haven't had a team like this
in a long time.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
It's a prideful sports city at all, huge sports town.
Speaker 4 (16:23):
Best time in my life since it's got to be
a Bears fan and they're eating it up.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
It is hilarious because Dick has face is all over
that stadium still in Gail Sayers and Walter Payton and
Mike Singletary. That's a testament to how legendary those guys are.
But it's also because they've had bitterly squat since.
Speaker 4 (16:38):
Thirty years, right, Brian, since there hasn't been a lot
to get excited about it.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
You see a lot of uh, Walter Peyton and Mike
Dicka and Brian Urlacker jerseys.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
Yeah, not a lot of new current players.
Speaker 4 (16:51):
It makes sense now.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
The team shop was packed, so I mean, I'm sure
they're starting.
Speaker 4 (16:55):
To flysh right now. Yeah, yeah, right right.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Probably a couple of guys on that d defense as well.
But yeah, I just it's it seems like a reoccurring
episode of when this team struggles. You can kind of
right the struggles. It hasn't been popcorn. This one game, popcorn,
that one game. It's been kind of the same three
or four things that have ailed them. When we're disappointed
on a Monday, I know we.
Speaker 4 (17:19):
Need to roll, but I mean you kind of preface
that by saying if this was one game in week
two or early or whatever. But it is a lot
of the same stuff, and it makes you wonder is
it going to ever get better or is that who
who they are in terms of zone defense, all the
passing stuff in this game, where the run game's gotten
so much better, you know, like, oh, line was bad
(17:40):
the start season. Now ther line's really good.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Like the defense couldn't stop a nosebleed on the ground
to start to start the season. Now run on the
Steelers is third best rushing attack in the league hundred.
Speaker 4 (17:50):
Yards right, right, So those things have gotten better when
we thought, oh well, those things are never any better.
But you're also running out of road, and it's in
the roads.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
The road is narrowing, and there's some tricky twists and
turns on that road. Of course, beginning with this Sunday,
a kind of desperate and angry Buffalo Bills team in
their own right, we'll have plenty of time to get
to that, plenty of time to continue to dissect this game.
Let's talk to Rob King when we return on the
other side. He'll be good cop for us. Rob Kings,
you that that show you do with him in pursuit
(18:20):
of that's like the definition of you've got good cop
on one side, bad cop on the other.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
Rob King's good cop, Mike Pursuit is bad cop.
Speaker 4 (18:28):
Monday nights.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
You're just kind of you know, you're the center with
those two trying to trying to figure out where you're going.
Speaker 4 (18:34):
I think there's some truth to that. Yeah, we'll talk
to the King, which I like it to do it.
I'm glad that we record that is when we do.
To be honest, we'll pull back the curtain because I
like hearing both sides.
Speaker 5 (18:43):
You know.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
Yeah, Hey, good perspective as always, and we'll get that
from Rob King when we return. Rolling along here on
the Drive on a Monday, West Huler Matt Williamson, Steelers
Nation Radio on the Steelers Audio Network, Your tunes.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
About Drive on your twenty four to seven home of
the Black and Gold Steelers Nation Radio.
Speaker 5 (19:25):
Hold Alive, Oh, King in the Castle, King in the Castle,
have a chill, I have a chill.
Speaker 4 (19:35):
Oh go go these Google.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
The King in the Castle needed a little bit of
a levity here on this Monday, so we'll play the
Borat intro for the King now being in the Castle,
Rob King and it's as I feel pretty good. Put
a smile on your face to hear that one again.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
It's been a while.
Speaker 5 (19:51):
Always Ranna, just talk, just talking to you and Matt
put just smile on my face.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
Come on, man, Well that's what we like to hear.
That's what we like to hear.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
We always enjoy catching up with you as well, even
on a little bit of a commiseration. Monday thirty one
to twenty eight, the Steelers fall in Chicago. Matt and
I kind of had a beefy opening segment discussing some
of the good, discussing some of the bad, discussing ways
you could be encouraged, discussing maybe some of the concerning trends.
(20:22):
You know at this point for this team now eleven
games into the year, what's kind of at the top
of your list, King Er, You know you are, I think,
much more professional journalist than Matt and I are. If
you were kind of right in the headline of this game.
From a black and gold standpoint, what would that headline read?
Speaker 5 (20:42):
Ah, I mean six and five, right, you are your record.
I mean unfortunately. You know, Matt and I were discussing
this earlier, and we'll be discussing it later with Mike
Persuda when we do the point after. But you know,
I just look at this team and I see some
of the elements in place for this team to be
(21:03):
better than six and five, And you know, that's your
at the end of the day, you are your record.
That's it, right, your six and five football team, and
you have to live with that. I still have hope though,
when I look at, you know, some of the statistical
areas in which they defeated the Bears. Had you told
me that before the game, I would have signed up
for all of it and thought the students would have
won handily as opposed to losing by three points. You know,
(21:27):
I think that when I look at the good teams
they've played, and you know, with the exception of the Chargers,
they've either beaten top teams or had halftime leads getting
the ball to begin the second half against the other
three teams that have defeated them, And there's a lot
there for me to think if they could just find
a way to get more consistent, and consistency means from
(21:49):
one game to the next, but it also means within
a game. You know, how you can you know, run
it up against the Bears in the first half and
then come out and have what thirteen yards of offense
in the third quarter. I don't have that one figured out.
And if you can figure that out, I think you're
in good shape. So you know, there are a number
(22:10):
of little issues, but there's nothing where I think, to myself,
they're just simply not as good as the other teams.
I don't see that. I hope I'm not seeing it
through black and gold colored glasses, but I just I
haven't seen that, and so that gives me hope that
they can find a way to turn things around. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (22:26):
I want to expand on that because I thought you
said that well when we were chatting earlier about Green Bay, Chicago,
Seattle and the NFC, the Colts, the Patriots in the AFC,
like those five teams and maybe I'm even missing one
are all going to the playoffs. I mean, I'll bet
(22:47):
just about everything I have at this point, maybe one
of them doesn't, but I bet they're all playoff caliber teams. Seattle, Seattle,
the Colts could be Super Bowl caliber teams or at least,
you know, their top five ish teams right now as
it looks, Patriots are really really good. And frankly, if
you combine every snap of all those games, the Steelers
(23:10):
basically were very even with all of them.
Speaker 5 (23:16):
I would I would go so far as to say
that in every one of those games there was there
were ample opportunities for the Steelers to win. Yeah, you know,
and they after you lose Seattle, you rip off three
in a row against the Patriots. The Vikings win that
probably looked a little bit better at the time than
it does now against the Browns, who was twenty three
(23:37):
to nine, But you're never in any danger of losing
that game, you know. So you win four of your
first five. But again, you know, you're up by a
touchdown against Seattle and you get the ball to begin
the second half. I think about that, like, that's the
scenario you want, that's what you write up. And it
was the exact same scenario with the Packers, and the
exact same scenario yesterday with the Bears. All quality teams
(24:02):
and you know when you think about, Okay, at half,
you're up sixteen to seven to the Packers, you put
another score up. It's a three score game. Well, I
mean maybe two touchdowns and two two point conversions. But
you might as well, you know, try to win the lotteries.
Expect that's gonna happen. Instead, you go three and out,
(24:23):
three plays, two yards of punt Seattle, you're up fourteen
to seven. You know, you go down and score, and
that's a two point a two score game.
Speaker 4 (24:32):
Same thing, And Caleb Johnson knows a kickoff roll with
things might go a little differently too.
Speaker 5 (24:38):
Yeah, yeah, for sure, and all those Matt, you're right,
but all those are things like what's going on here?
I don't understand why frustrating that's the case, not like
not like hey man, we're out class like I you know, again,
I've reference this like two years ago. I just thought
this too. Theres weren't as good as the other teams.
They were facing the top teams. They they just didn't
(24:59):
mat some of that's a quarterback position, obviously, but they
just didn't match up against the top teams. I thought
they got closer to that last year, and I think
they're there this year, right, Look, they've played a lot
of high caliber teams and with the exception to the Chargers, right,
I mean, you should at least be three and three
in my opinion, at least three and three against top
(25:22):
quality teams without having been the Chargers. That wasn't a
good game. But with the exception of the Chargers, you
know you've been. You've had ample opportunity to win those games.
You've got ample opportunity to say, hey, we're you know,
four and two or five and one in those games
instead of you know, two and four against the playoff
(25:42):
bound teams. But you are what you are again, It's
not like I'm watching Derek Hunt Henry run for two
hundred and forty yards or whatever, and right, and hey,
you just got out class. You know, I haven't felt
that way at all this year. I thought it was
a better team. I still think it's a better team.
But ultimately, you've got to find a way to sew
(26:03):
up stakes, tighten things up, and find a way to
win games. Because the margin that you built up when
you got off to that four and one start, that's gone.
And in fact, you are now the pursuer instead of
the pursue eet. So that's where you are.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
Yeah, with a with a tough sledding schedule of Buffalo
at home, Baltimore on the road, the Miami Dolphins, who
are suddenly showing some life. You gotta go to Detroit. Hey, Cleveland,
who knows Senor Sanders one to know. Maybe it's a road,
maybe it's a new Yeah. And also on the road
in Cleveland where hey, late December and Cleveland. I'm sure
the weather won't factor into that one and couldn't be
(26:39):
another snow game globe for the Steelers. But Kinger, you know,
to me, so much of this revolves around getting their
playmakers on offense going. You know, if you take away
the defensive touchdown for the Steelers, that's twenty one points
against a Bears defense that statistically is one of the
one of the worst to the National Football League. You
(27:01):
take away the two pick six's or part of me
a pick six in a scoop six against Cincinnati, it's
twenty points against the Bengals defense that is the.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
Worst in the National Football League.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Out in LA you only scored twenty points against Indianapolis
twenty seven, but you had again six turnovers and a
lot of help from your defense. To me, there's again
there's good cut, bad cop reasons for optimism, pessimism.
Speaker 3 (27:27):
Glass half full, glass half empty.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
But when I look at Calvin Austin thirty six yards,
Kenneth Gainwell thirty through the air being your second leading receiver,
Darnell only two receptions for twenty two, DK only five
for twenty two, John hu Smith three for twenty one,
Pat Freyermu three for nineteen. They have got to find
a way to find some playmakers on offense and in
(27:52):
terms of ball catching receiving playmakers, and not just Kenneth Gainwell,
who's been great out of the backfield the last few weeks.
They need more from dcs any more from the rest
of the wide receivers and I think king are one
of the biggest things at this point now eleven games in,
is more consistency with that tight end trio that we
thought was gonna be a real kind of hallmark calling
(28:12):
card of this offense.
Speaker 5 (28:17):
Yeah, I think, you know, as I look at this team,
you know there are Look, there was no way I
think that statistically this years thought the defense is going
to be giving up this many yards and this many points.
I didn't think there was any way. Having said that,
I don't think that the offense has done enough of
as share. You know, this was the first game all
(28:39):
year that the Steelers you know, ran more plays than
the opponent and they won the time back. Okay, so
they won the time of possession battle last year. Last
week thanks to a neil back at the end of
the game. Otherwise it was dead even again Cincinnati. And
I'm not saying that that is a be all and
all statistic. I'm just saying that you need to find
ways to help your defense out right. You need to
(29:02):
be able to keep your defense off the field. Well,
the Steelers largely did that yesterday, for all our criticism,
and yes, they came up with the defensive touchdown for
all our criticism of the offense. And you got to
run the ball more and possess it more. Well they
did that yesterday and the Bear scored thirty one points,
you know, and some of that that's not all on
the defense, you know, because the defense yardage wise, held
(29:24):
the Bears down, and the Bears have had that sort
of it factor knack that I think we're used to
the Steelers having finding ways to win ball games. They're
eight and three and they've been outscored this year. That's crazy,
you know, they've just been able to find that magic.
But do you expect, you know, to give up thirty
one points to a team when you hold them to
(29:45):
what three hundred and twenty four yards of by three
hundred and twenty eight yards of total offense? That doesn't
add up to thirty one points. So I've said this before.
I used a puzzle piece analogy, like I've got all
these puzzle pieces or a math equation, I've got these numbers,
and it just does an add up. You know. I
think in a lot of ways, the Bears are more
than the some of their parts, right, Like how could
(30:07):
you possibly be giving up all these yards and be
dashed on the ground. But defensively points per game, it's
not horrible, not as horrible as the numbers should suggest,
you know. It's not like Caleb Williams is dicing up
opponents and yet they're they're winning football games. They find
a way to win football games. The whole is more
than the sum of their parts, and for the Steelers,
(30:28):
it just feels like that hasn't been the case. Like, I,
you know, one week you know against the Green Bay Packers,
against the Cincinnati Bengals, you're flinging them all all over
the field. This game you run for one hundred and
eighty plus yards one hundred and eighty six yards in
the ground. We've shown, we've seen signs, but it hasn't happened.
And we and the defense has had games they've dominated
(30:50):
and the Steelers. Look, the Steelers won the game in
New England and won the game against the Colts, two
of the top teams in the AFC, thanks to their defense.
It just it doesn't need to be that heroic. It
just needs to I just think it needs to come
together more. And in a game like yesterday, some of
it came together, but not all of it. And then
(31:11):
these losses, it hasn't all been there. Like I said,
they haven't been run out of the building, but they
just haven't been able to put it together in a
way that allows them to win consistently.
Speaker 4 (31:23):
Yeah, and I wanted to touch on something he said too.
And maybe the most shocking big picture thing as we
sit here a couple days away from Thanksgiving is the
yardage they allow on defense. Because I do think they
have a lot of good defensive players, and they have
a great pass rush and they clearly create splash, but
(31:44):
down in and down out. Early in the season, I
thought a lot of it was the run game, the
Jets game. It seems like a million years ago. But
you know, Cam Hayward hadn't practiced, and a lot of
defensive lines across the league are just fatigued. Really early
in the season, run defense has been, but I still don't.
I still expect more from the coverage unit when you
(32:10):
know the ball is going to come out quick, and
that to me is maybe the most frustrating, big picture
thing about the season.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
Real quick, real quick hanger before you get into that
three hundred and eighty three total yards surrendered per game,
that's twenty eighth out of thirty two in the league.
Two hundred and fifty eight pass yards per game, that's
thirty first thirty two league.
Speaker 4 (32:31):
Just the past coverage, as me, frustrated.
Speaker 5 (32:36):
And it doesn't seem possible, does it, right? And you've
got good players back there.
Speaker 4 (32:41):
And not a rash of injuries or you know.
Speaker 5 (32:44):
Yeah, it's mystifying, and you know, again, they found ways
to turn teams over and they found ways to harass
Daniel Jones and you know, after lit them up for
a game, they clamp down. So you know, this week
they stopped the Bears offense on the ground that was
the second best running offense in the NFL, a week
(33:08):
after they shut down Chase and Higgins in that group
in Cincinnati. With what they've been doing in the previous
three games under Joe Flacco, I said, it's it's as
if the ingredients for you know, chili are there and
you put it in the pot and you taste it
and it tastes like squash soup. You like, how is
that possible? The ingredients are all there in the pot.
(33:29):
There they are. I mixed it up, I started, I
made it, and it's it's not chili, it's squashed soup.
That That's what it feels like to me in some ways,
like I'm just I don't know. I don't have an
explanation for it. You know, I don't have an explanation
for the consistency not being there. I will say this,
and again it gives me hope because I do see.
(33:51):
I do see. You know what it's what these units
are capable of. We just haven't seen it on a
consistent basis. And look, you know, the special teams have
been a real plus for this Steelers all season long.
That's been something you can pretty much chalk up in
the in the win column, like especial teams are gonna
be great, right, Well, the coverage units weren't great. The punting, yeah,
(34:14):
the nets cunning wasn't great yesterday. That's that's another small
part where we're talking about them winning the yardage battle. Well,
did you really if you're if you're giving up yardage
in the special teams game because that doesn't get added in,
you know, So I don't know, Guys. Like I said,
I I'm encouraged when I you know, the six and
(34:34):
five record. I just feel like it's a better team
than that, and I just hope that that means there's
better times ahead coming up. With Let's face it, I
mean this game against the Bills, I felt like you
had to win one of these two games. I you know,
if you were going to pick one, I would have
picked the Bills. But if you're gonna you know, as
as far as importance, because it's an AFC game, I
think the Bears. I thought the Steelers were better than
(34:58):
the Bears and we're gonna win the game, and then
you could go in with a little bit of house
money and play the Bills. Now this game is just
looming as extra important. It was important before, and now
I think it's extra important and you go and beat them.
But again with an ature of the NFL. For all
we noticed the Ravens will lose on Thursday night in Cincinnati,
will have a whole new feeling about it. You know,
who knows, guys, But that's the way it feels to me.
(35:18):
Like this, this game against Buffalo has suddenly become a
much more crucial game because the Steelers have have had
opportunities to beat teams that they haven't beaten, you know,
meeting of more recent vintage the Packers and the Bears,
when you were head of the half and had the
ball to begin the second half. But it is what
it is, man, it's six and five. That's your record,
(35:38):
and you got to find a way to move forward.
Speaker 3 (35:41):
No doubt about it.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
Kind enough to join us every single Monday here on
the program the Voice of your Pittsburgh Steelers on the
flagship on the Steelers Audio Network, the Great Rob King
king Er. Thanks for the time, man, enjoy the week
and some family time and Happy Thanksgiving and we'll talk
to you soon.
Speaker 5 (35:58):
I will see you guys soon, but Matt, I will
see you sooner than probably West. But happy Thanksgiving you
guys as well.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
Take care Kinger, Why wowie there he goes good stuff
from Rob king as always. You know, can I just
tell you something Matt real quick for before we go
to break and get back into this and Lab sent
me a week twelve research packet. Yeah, has some actually
I think pretty pretty good nuggets in it that I
want to get into with you as well. Your son's
(36:28):
a freshman in college right now.
Speaker 4 (36:30):
This sport and his brand new Darnell Washington, Jersey yesterday
Darno Washington.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
Did they did kill a guy once again in Chicago yesterday?
Speaker 3 (36:38):
Good lord.
Speaker 4 (36:41):
Man.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
This used to be like my favorite week when I
was that age, when I was that like y Yeah.
Speaker 4 (36:47):
He came home a couple days ago.
Speaker 2 (36:48):
He's had a blast, right because you get you know,
like you'll come home on a Friday or Saturday and
you get the whole you know, you're home for like
eight or nine days. It's great of like, haven't seen
my buddies for the most part since August.
Speaker 3 (37:01):
You know, it's usually not terribly winter.
Speaker 2 (37:04):
Out yet, so it's not like it's seven seven degrees
and freezing. And Christmas Break is different because when you're
in college, Christmas break is like four or five weeks long.
Speaker 3 (37:13):
Like mom and dad expect you to do something, like
you're I'm just gonna.
Speaker 2 (37:16):
Sit around the jobs, get something, get a seasonal job,
do something productive. You're gonna be home for four or
five weeks Thanksgiving Break. It's like, no one says anything
to you.
Speaker 4 (37:25):
You're just home for a week.
Speaker 2 (37:26):
You got the whole week, you got Thanksgiving, got the football,
you got the family. I used to This used to
be like my when I was in when I was
in college, this was like my favorite week of the year.
Speaker 3 (37:36):
I loved it.
Speaker 4 (37:37):
I can. I'm seeing it through his eyes. I mean
he's been home since Thursday night. Yeah, it's like, oh, yeah,
he's in.
Speaker 3 (37:45):
You still had four weeks off. You'd be like, dude,
go find something to do.
Speaker 4 (37:48):
Get out of here, right lawn or something.
Speaker 2 (37:51):
Driveway, go help with the senior home down the road.
I don't know, do something, but yeah, man, Thanksgiving week.
Just that week and getting back together with your buds
for the first time in few months. That was the best.
We've got plenty more to get to. We'll continue to
give some thoughts on this Steelers loss thirty one twenty
eight to the Bears, will obviously go around the league
and look at a very important Week twelve slate of
(38:14):
results in our number two as well. All that and
more as we roll along, Eu'ler Williamson The Drive Steelers
Audio Network.
Speaker 1 (38:29):
Your tune's about Drive on your twenty four to seven
home of the Black and Goal Steelers Nation Radio.
Speaker 2 (38:45):
Back on the drive here closing down the first hour, Matt,
kind of, you know, piggybacking off of a little bit
of what Rob talked about, where you know, in some
ways it feels like it's a better team than six
and five, but you are what your record says you are. Yeah,
and that's just also kind of life in the National
Football League. Sometimes the bounces are going to go your way.
Sometimes they're not. Sometimes kys Didy Chiefs thing right, you're
(39:07):
gonna go win twelve straight one score games and then
lose four or five in a row, although they might
have some life now we'll get to that an hour
number two, Matt. The Steelers have now lost three games
this year when they've scored twenty five points. They're three
and three in games where they score twenty five or
more points.
Speaker 5 (39:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
Yeah, that's the most losses in a season for the
Steelers in such games since twenty eighteen.
Speaker 4 (39:32):
I saw that, Yeah, and it was.
Speaker 2 (39:34):
Obviously a much maligned Steelers defense in twenty eighteen that
was still trying to recover from the loss of Ryan
Shazier and find its identity and was not a very
good unit. The Steelers in twenty three and twenty four
were nine to oh when scoring twenty five plus points.
Speaker 4 (39:52):
I thought that was pretty telling that to me.
Speaker 2 (39:56):
Again, it paints obviously not the most uh, you know,
successful picture for your defense that we all know, you know,
one hundred and sixty million dollars, highest paid defense in
the league. That pendulum swings back to the other side
this week, right, as we've kind of laughed about. But
it almost to me, you've got to find ways to
(40:17):
getting back to what I was kind of asking King
or there. I know that the defense hasn't lived up
to the billing that we all expected coming into this year, right,
but I also think you have got to find ways
to consistently score more points because even when you are
it's not guaranteeing success like it used to. I mean,
we usually Steelers, you know, go out there and score
(40:38):
three or four touchdowns and you're hardly ever gonna lose. Yeah,
they got to find a way to get some more
of these playmakers involved, man other than just Warren and
Kenneth Gainwell agreed.
Speaker 4 (40:48):
So back to that blurb that stuck with me too
of everything that, yeah, it's the one that back it
because it used to be. I pull a lot of
my stats out of there. It's very useful comes straight
from the league. But going into this season, can pretty
much go back to the end of Roethlisberger era that
(41:09):
the magic number was twenty points. Like if the Steelers
got the twenty they won an extremely high percentage of
their games. Yes, now, it didn't happen as much as
a lot of teams, you know, so you had to
grind out low scoring games, and everybody remembers that era.
This era feels different, you know, because they do score
(41:32):
into the twenties and thirties with some regular air much
more often. So you see it and you're like, boy,
you know, Dale, I made the joke for years and years.
It's like they don't throw touchdown passes, you know, they
throw thirteen in a season or something crazy like that.
I mean, Rogers has more than anybody since Ben and
(41:53):
it didn't play yesterday and it's not even Thanksgiving, you
know what I mean. Like, so you see the progress
in Rob's point, you can kind of taste what's there,
you know, like they're I see a lot of reasons
to think that it's not the same Steelers that went
into Buffalo or be by my home. Yeah, that was
the perfect example. It's Henry and Lamar are just running
(42:16):
all over you and like they're not even they're gonna
lose this game ten out of ten times or nine
and a half out of ten, you know, like that
team's just better. That's the Ravens where a lot of
these games it's like you're battling really good teams right
to the end, or you're deficient in a couple areas.
And unfortunately they've been in some of the same areas
of late. But I didn't think that would be the number,
(42:39):
you know, the the or the stat Like that's what
shocks me from the you know in Latrobe, you.
Speaker 2 (42:44):
Think the stat would be when they get they give
up twenty five or more.
Speaker 3 (42:47):
Yeah, right, right, right, then they're they're five hundred.
Speaker 4 (42:50):
Or I wouldn't think they'd scored that many as often
as they did, and I wouldn't think that they lose
as many times, right, And I'm mind applying there like
last year's Bengals or this year bank where you know,
you lose every game thirty six thirty five and it's
a total shootout all the time. But you're right with
the offensive stuff too, Like they're throwing all these deep balls,
(43:12):
well not a lot. They don't throw it deep very often,
but when they do, it's the guys that aren't really
great at contest and catches the metcalf and Austin and
Wilson and I hadn't even thought of this, but pursued it,
brought it up. He's like, well, should Valdos Scantling get
a helmet? And I originally thought, like, I've seen that
(43:34):
show at a lot of different stops and it's not
the answer. But he does that. Well, you know, I
see what they saw on body type. Not just because
he's Rogers buddy, right, He's one of the big problems
with Austin and Wilson to me on the deep balls
is they're just too small, you know, at the catch points,
and Metcalf is not a great catch point receiver despite
(43:57):
his dimensions. I mean that's clear. Pickens was, you know.
I mean, if you're gonna throw deep balls outside the
numbers as a foundation, the guys hauling them in have
to be better at it. And frankly, Rudolph's passing was
just poor in that regard yesterday. You know, I would
love to see what Rogers could have done.
Speaker 5 (44:16):
It was.
Speaker 2 (44:17):
Yeah, it is a combination of not the best quarterback
play and I think just not catering the route tree
to your receiver's best skill sets.
Speaker 4 (44:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (44:29):
Right, and when you combine that with you know, little
to no success or involvement from your tight ends in
the past game. Yeah, that's even with the success on
the ground ninety two for gain Well sixty eight Jalen.
Speaker 4 (44:42):
Yeah, protection was good.
Speaker 3 (44:44):
Yeah, it certainly was.
Speaker 4 (44:46):
I mean, I think no one on the team and
more than thirty six receiving yards thirty six.
Speaker 2 (44:50):
Yeah, only two guys had more than thirty Calvin Austin
and Kenneth Gainwell Well game Well had exactly thirty.
Speaker 4 (44:55):
So that's thirty right, Yeah, yeah, right, but yeah, I
mean seed more production than that. You know, you do numbers.
Speaker 2 (45:03):
Twenty two yards for Darnell twenty two yards or DK Metcalf.
Speaker 3 (45:07):
I mean you tell me between those two.
Speaker 2 (45:10):
If you would to tell me going into this game,
right that Darnell, DK, John U, Pat fryar Mouth, we're
barely going to combine for over eighty yards receiving together.
Speaker 4 (45:21):
The four of them are just big pass came.
Speaker 2 (45:24):
Combined, went for like eighty four eighty I'm trying to
do quick math, eighty four eighty five yards.
Speaker 4 (45:29):
Yeah, well under one hundred for.
Speaker 2 (45:30):
Four guys, and I'm be like, there's no chance and
you're six rush for two hundred and fifty yards to
win the game in the game, right, that's and again.
Speaker 4 (45:40):
And they're not the only ones to blame four.
Speaker 2 (45:42):
No, no, no, no, no, of course, And if this felt
like more of a one off, okay, it was a
backup quarterback.
Speaker 3 (45:47):
It was a weird week in that regard.
Speaker 4 (45:48):
Fine flushed and made an amazing defense or you know.
Speaker 2 (45:52):
But I think we've been underwhelmed in that department pretty
consistently this year, and this was just kind of the
most glaring exit.
Speaker 4 (45:59):
Yeah right, I mean, just give me a little more
from each of them, more collectively, give me twenty five
percent more go along. That might be enough, what it
might be enough.
Speaker 2 (46:07):
Hour in the books, another hour to go, more on
the Steelers defeat in Chicago, and plenty more on a
wild Week twelve around the National Football League. All of that,
As we Roll Along was Shuuler Matt Williamson Halfway Home
on the Drive on Steelers Nation Radio on the Steelers
Audio Network.
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