November 26, 2025 • 44 mins
Matt and Wes begin looking at the Buffalo Bills, and are joined by Chris Halicke to get his thoughts on this weekend's crucial clash at Acrisure Stadium.
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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 (00:26):
Good afternoon, Steelers Nation. It's the Drive here on the
Steelers Audio Network. West Shooler and Matt Williamson with you
for the next two hours here on a Wednesday, on
the eve of one of the best days of the year.
Of course, tomorrow is Thanksgiving. We will have no show tomorrow.
Will Black bet bit bit bit bit lit Litt will
be back with you on Black Friday. Easy for me
to say, so plenty to get to today, Matt. And
(00:49):
in the spirit of the holiday week, different week, We're
gonna actually start off the program with a guest right
from the jump.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Very giving and.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
It's very giving. And I also think it's fitting because
the Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, future Hall of Famer, missed
last week, of course against the Bears. Just spoke to
assembled members of the media. So let's talk to a
member of the media. It's our buddy, Chris Halleck, of course,
covers the Steelers for dk Pittsburgh Sports. Chris, let's jump
(01:17):
right into it.
Speaker 4 (01:17):
Man.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
After Aaron Rodgers speaking this afternoon, how are we feeling
about his status? For Sunday against the Bills.
Speaker 5 (01:25):
I think it's pretty much the same from his perspective
as it was last week. It's, you know, he didn't
practice today, He's going to try to give it a
go tomorrow for on you know, for Thursday's practice. He's
going to try again on Friday. What he's trying to
do to get ready sounds a lot like what he
did last week. The difference here is not Aaron's perspective,
(01:51):
but Mike Tomlins perspective, because last week he was obviously
non committal for a very very good reason because Aaron
ended up not playing. But while this week it's a
very different story. I mean, Mike Commins said he has
great optimism about Aaron being able to return, and when
Aaron spoke to numbers of the media today, he talked about, like,
(02:13):
what's the thing that's going to change this week that
could help him play, and he just flied outside. It's
just time. It's time to be able to heal and
that that's pretty much it. So in terms of the
process for him, it doesn't change. I think if he
were the one deciding his fate AG's the Bears in Chicago,
(02:35):
he probably would have played but that obviously didn't work out,
So we'll see what happens this week.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
So two other injuries, we already know Broderck Jones is
now we all know Harmon's out. Is why a Black
a direct replacement for Harmon? Or is that a committee situation?
And what do you expect to left tackle?
Speaker 5 (02:54):
Calvin Anderson is going to be at left tackle for sure,
and then when it comes to replacing Harmon, I do
think it's going to be a bit of a committee.
I do think ya Black will get increase reps for
an obvious reason, just because you know, if if whether
that's you know him and like being a full on
(03:15):
replacement for Harmon, then obviously his snapcount is going to
go up. But you know, they got the one guy
and his name is escaping me right now. But the
one guy, yes, the new hyphenated dude. My apology to
that to that player, but he's he's also in the mix.
(03:37):
There there are a number of guys in the mix.
But I do see an increased workload for ya Black.
And the great thing there is that you know throughout
this entire process, you know he's been there for it all.
He knows the defense, He knows the system there. There's
no guessing UH in that regard, so it's a lot
more of just play. So I do think it's gonna
(03:59):
be world of of a you know, committee that's going
to help replace Horman.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
How confident are you in why A Black sticking his
hand in the pile? I think he's been very good,
albeit in small sample sizes. Do you think he can
continue that with a with a larger share of the pie.
Speaker 5 (04:20):
Yeah, absolutely, I think he'll. He'll probably help a little
bit more against the run, and that's going to be
very important going up against the Bills team that currently
ranks number one in the NFL in in rushing. That's
new guys out there that can help stop the run.
And so I think this is a good week for
Wya Black to see an increased UH account his steps.
(04:44):
But again, players continue to grow. I think, you know,
even if he doesn't get back there and actually bring
Josh Allen down at all, maybe he can get those
gigantic mits up in the same way that he did
in Latrobe and bat down a of passes. You know
that there are different ways that guys can impact in
(05:04):
the passing game up front, and that's the one way
that he can do it. He's got really long arms,
he's a really tall dude. I think he can do
pretty good. I've also been pretty impressed with the way
he's played, especially considering that he was a fifth round pick.
There were no high expectations for him coming out of Iowa.
(05:25):
So I think it's a it's a good opportunity for him.
And again, you know, really stressing like the Steelers need
to stop the run this week. They like that. That's
that is paramount. Now. It's not like you want to
stop the run and say, Okay, we want to make
the quarterback feed us, because Josh Allen's pretty capable of
doing that. But still, you definitely the numbers kind of
(05:46):
speak for themselves. When James Cook doesn't run the ball well,
Bills typically don't win as many games as when he
does run well. So stopping the run is still is very,
very important, even though Josh Allen can absolutely do damage
with his arm too.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
Yeah, I wish it was under these circumstances. But I
am excited to see more of the youngster. Yi Black,
I'm impressed. I'm excited about his future. Chris, this isn't
the normal type of question I ask you, but is
this team better in manner zone? I can't figure out
what to do in past defense? Or is there a
coverage scheme you think they should be stronger in or
(06:20):
weaker in or more predominant in. I know you know
this stuff, So dig in.
Speaker 5 (06:25):
Can I Can I go in a different direction? Sure,
because I think I think there are weaknesses to both
with this the way the Steers play them. Yeah. Well,
because in man coverage. Now, there was an exception in
the game against the Bengals when we saw Kyle Duggar
intercept Joe Flacco and run it back for a touchdown. Typically,
(06:50):
when they play man coverage, it's cover one and they're
running man free. There's no hole defender in the middle
of the field, there's no linebacker dropping back and taking
away the middle. There's no safe crashing down and robbing
the middle of the field. That's been very very rare
this year, like I said, and the one real time
it changed was when Kyle Duggery intercepted a pass and
(07:14):
running back for a touchdown. In zone coverages, from what
I've seen and from my conversations with players, they're asking
players to do things that leave little margin for error. Yeah,
and and when that happened that it's the same it's
(07:35):
the same thing whenever we This is kind of the
the bone we were picking. One of the many bones
we were picking about Matt Cannon's offense when he was
the offensive coordinator was there was just so little room
for error on specific concepts that that whether it was
the details of the routes or whatever it was, it
was just so hard to execute plays because everybody, all
(07:59):
eleven guys, have to do their job absolutely perfectly, and
if it wasn't done to perfection, if one guy screwed up,
the whole play was blown up. And that's kind of
what I'm seeing. And that's kind of the reason why
I think there it's been so inconsistent because when they
have executed more often than not, they've looked really really good,
(08:19):
it's like really good. Now, when they haven't been able
to execute this consistently, they've looked really really bad. And
I think that's probably like that's what I deduce for exactly, yeah,
And I think, you know, and but then again, like
sometimes and I know Mike Commins didn't want to get
into it and in his press conference, but then there
(08:40):
are also times in which Ben Johnson just does what
a high school coach would do against spot drop cover
three and you just run four verts that like that's
that's their typical cover three beater, and the Steelers don't
have an answer for it. Like then there's also those
lapses and so it's just there are's not one issue,
and I think that's the that's the problem with this team.
(09:04):
I think it's why we've seen like we don't know
what team is going to show up on Sunday because
they'll play the Colts and they'll look great, they'll be
extra motivated because Jalen Ramsey and John Smith gave a
great speech the night before the game and they were
ready to go and they were motivated, they were sooned in.
And then there have been other games like this past
Sunday where it's just you know, I don't know, I
(09:26):
think I but that's what I deduced from it is
that I just don't think there's a there's a wide
margin for error, and when one guy out of eleven
screws up or doesn't execute it the perfect way, the
whole thing gets blown up.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Chris, last one I've got for you, Where can this
team start to find some momentum, start to find some
level footing on offense, it's been a struggle the last
few weeks. They've averaged less than twenty points per game.
As in offense, if you take away the handful of
defensive touchdowns against the Bengals and the Bears, and of
course just the ten points out there in Los Angeles
(10:05):
on Sunday night football. I mean, I know that there's
a lot of simplicity of get the run game back going,
you get some of the tight ends involved. But we've
been talking about these things for seemingly most of the
second half of the season so far. In your mind,
where does it start for this offense. Where can they
get a little momentum, Where can they get a little confidence?
(10:27):
Who are you looking to to kind of make some
plays and get everybody moving in the right direction.
Speaker 5 (10:33):
I'm looking mainly at the run game, and I understand
that this is a team that just ran for one
hundred and eighty six yards against the Bears. But that
second half it was kind of the same thing, not exactly,
but kind of the same thing that I saw in
the loss to the Packers. They ran the ball really
well in the first half. They really kind of suck
(10:56):
to it. And then the second half they kind of
they have some downs where you think they're gonna run
and then they end up throwing. Like there was the
first down. I don't remember on what series it was
in the second half, but it was in the third quarter. There,
you know, they they run play action and it's not
a play action pass that that has an easy target
(11:17):
if if for whatever reason, your first read or second
read isn't there, and then you take a sack and
now all of a sudden, the run game is completely
taken away from that set of downs because now it's
second long, you have to throw to get to third
and manageable. Then you're at third manageable, you're definitely not
running the ball because you know, I mean, unless you're
I mean, there was the one time they ran on
(11:38):
third and seven, but typically if you're a third and seven,
third and eight, you're not running the ball. Sure, there's
just there's too much of that going on. When I
think both Jalen Warren and Kenneth Gainwell, and I understand
about like the we could talk about the rotation of
Warren and Gainwell. I do think that Gainwell has at
least earned the right to be like for this to
(12:01):
really really be a tandem, if we could talk about
the way they're rotated as being an issue, but with
what they have with Warren and Gamewell and the way
that they're playing and the way that they're running the
ball and the way that they can both be utilized
as pass catchers as well, I really think the offense
needs to run through them and then allow that to
(12:22):
open things up for everybody else. I understand you want
to get DK metcats targets, but I also think that
DK Metcalf's targets can come a little bit easier if
you're forcing the defense to be like, all right, we
have to throw everything we possibly have at stopping the run,
at stopping these two guys out of the backfield, because
(12:42):
I don't I have not seen that commitment to getting
the run game going, even when they run for one
hundred and eighty six yards. So I think that's where
it starts. And the Bills are not good against the run,
So this is another good week for them to try
to really do it. Almost run it add nauseum, like
like to a point where you might get fans to
(13:03):
go like, all right, would you just throw the ball already, Like,
I get it, But I think that's what they need
to do. They need to really really stick to run
on the ball and then allow the targets to manifest themselves.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
Chris piggybacking off this and then we'll get you out
of here after this. How would you divide the labor
amongst the three tight ends? Oh? Man, it's a tough puzzle,
it is.
Speaker 5 (13:27):
It is a tough puzzle because and it's a great
puzzle to have, because you know, Darnell is just so
dangerous in the number of ways. And I also want
to take advantage of Pat Firenmouth and Johnny Smith as well,
because they both do great things. I would still prefer
(13:47):
Darnell to kind of lead the snaps because you can
use him in so many different ways. But yes, absolutely,
because because he's such a good he's such a good
run blocker, and he's obviously shown what he can do
as a pass catcher, especially if you can get a
blocker out in front of him. Can you imagine a
(14:08):
tight end screen where he has, you know, even one
blocker in front of him, Like you're that's a good
way to create an explosive play right there, when it
comes to using Pat and John who I don't know
if it's necessarily about the like the workload, but how
they're using him, like John new Smith last year was
(14:30):
phenomenal after the catch and a lot of the passes
I'm seeing with John who are not putting him in
a position to get yack. They're in a position like
I understand, like they've tried to throw stuff to the
flat or you know, throw screens, and the problem is
they're not good at They're not good at playing those.
They have not been good at executing screens like that
for a long time. So what about some more inbreakers?
(14:53):
I lot some stuff attacking the scene, you know, stuff
like that. Uh, this guy had fifty five. I'm like,
he had eighty eight catches last with fifty five of
those move the chains and I don't even know if
he's gonna get the city five catches like total this year.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
I wouldn't mind seeing them running more horizontal, you know,
get him, try to hit him on the move, going
across the field, you.
Speaker 5 (15:13):
Know, yeah, absolutely, and and that I mean, I think
a lot of people are trying to figure out now
why the middle of the field isn't being used as
awesome as it should, but you know that that's an
entirely different topic that I think we can spend entire
segment on. But yeah, I when it comes to the
tight end, I think I don't know if it's necessarily
(15:34):
the way that they've been divving up the snaps as
it has been, like the proper way to utilize each guy.
I think they've kind of figured it out with Darnell.
I think they're actually using Darnell in a pretty good way.
I think that they could expand on that. But I
think with John who I just I don't see a
lot of opportunities to react with him, and that's something
that I would be trying to take advantage of it
(15:56):
if I had him on my roster.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Excellent stuff as always with our buddy Chris Hallick DK
Pittsburgh Sports. Chris, thank you so much for the time
on a busy Wednesday, and have a great Thanksgiving dude.
We'll talk to you soon.
Speaker 5 (16:08):
Hey, you too, Happy Thanksgiving to you guys.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Take care Chris. There he goes. Awesome stuff from him. Yeah,
a lot of good stuff as always, and plenty to
ponder here as we get closer and closer to kick off.
We'll get back into more of that as we roll along.
When we return on the other side, though, Matt, we're
gonna have a little fun. We're gonna switch gears for
a few minutes. Okay, Best of the West Wednesday, O
best athlete statues I've ever seen? Okay, and there's two
(16:33):
from this past weekend that are gonna get a shout out. Wow,
Ewler Williamson, I'm not sure.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
I don't have any comments on that. I don't know what.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
Okay, there's a few Pittsburgh ones, so you'll have some.
You'll have some, don't don't you worry. Don't you worry.
We'll have some fun with it when we retire in
Ewler Williamson The Drive, Steelers Nation Radio on the Steelers
Audio Network.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
Your tunes about Drive on your twenty four to seven
home of the Black and Goals, Steelers Nation Radio.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
It's back on the drive here as we roll along
on a Wednesday, the night before Thanksgiving, day before Thanksgiving. Everybody,
have some fun. But behave tonight, all right, Matt. Before
we get into Best of the West, some pretty big
news about a big name center. Yeah, returning to the
National Football League.
Speaker 4 (17:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
As we're recording this. My phone just lit up and
Frank Ragnow is coming out of retirement, Like wow.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
I would imagine for the Lions.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
I mean, I assume they own his rights still. I mean,
I assume that's how it goes. He'd retired because of
a myriad of injuries. He must be feeling better and
say I'll help you down stretching into the playoffs. Welcome
back Due.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
It'd be a big boost.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
Brandon Graham's happened Philly.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
It's a great call, and unfortunately that could help the
Lions chances when the Steelers are there about a month
from now.
Speaker 4 (18:02):
Yeah, but the Steelers call probably in the building, out
of the booth. He's close now. You know, Ramon Foster
still around.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
I mean he's in Tennessee, but he, you know, was
around for preseason stuff.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
I think Antonio Brown's a little occupied.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
I don't think that one's gonna moving on.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
Matt Best of the West.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Of the West, A goofy, a goofy ish one for you.
But it's sports related. I like that. You know, as you.
Speaker 3 (18:32):
Always storm in here, I don't know many statues.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
As you always say, I'm sure there will be a
small percentage of people out there that are like, what
the heck, you'll er just talk about the bills. We
don't care, of course, but we have thirty segments a week.
We have thirty segments a week. We like to have
some fun with it. We're switch it up and so simple.
Coolest best athletes with a statue that I've ever seen.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
Okay, now you actually have to walk past them and
be there.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
I've had to actually have seen them in person. Yes,
that's the kicker here, and big shout out to JT.
I went back and looked so on. On Saturday night,
I went to the Chicago Bulls game, hosted a picture
of the Michael Jordan statue and JT on my Instagram
and JT commented and was like, you should do it.
Best of the West, you know, best best athlete statues.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
I'm cool with it.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
I was like, sweet, love it.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
Let's have them. One's pretty awesome.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Though it might be at the top of the list.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
Okay, it's gonna get matches, it's gonna.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Get mentioned for sure. A couple honorable mentions before we
get into the top ten. The Hammer and Hank statue
in Atlanta, Hank Era for the Brakes. I think it
was two years ago. Three years ago, the Steelers played
a preseason game in Atlanta. It was the one where
the offense was like two for two on Kenny Pickett
was humming Cordero Pattison.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
You remember, like every time got the ball they scored.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
It was like, and this was kind of the cherry
on top of just oh my goodness, this offense is
a look out.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
It's in the regular season.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
And they did not since that was in August, it
was obviously still baseball season. Mike Persudo our guy who
you're gonna do a show with here in another hour
or two. It was like to myself and dan Quinlan
was like, come on, we're going to the Braves game.
Let's go. And we had a great time. We went
to the Braves game, pursued and I got beer, bats
and everything. But they have a really cool Braves museum
(20:17):
in the stadium in the bowels of the stadium, and
of course an awesome Hank Aaron statue there. That's just
hammer and Hank.
Speaker 3 (20:25):
Great respect for Henry.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
Aaron absolutely and what he means to just the history
of sport right and of course baseball unbelievable. Unbelievable was
the home run king for so many years, and a
kind of similar the Willie Stargell statue at PNC Park.
Speaker 3 (20:40):
Oh, Pops, I thought that might make it.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Yeah, there's gonna be a P and C Park statue
that's in the top ten. But I'm giving Pops an
honorable mention. And then one that I saw Sunday morning
walking into the.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
Quick I mean, I think there was like a million
years in a row where the National League starting All
Star outfield was Clemenian right, Aaron and left. It's like,
that's a hard one to crack, dude.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
That's one of those old timey things of sport. Like
I I wish the Major League Baseball All Star Game
was still as big as it.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
Yeah, it was.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
It was a massive, big game.
Speaker 3 (21:13):
You can play full war like Pete Rose doesn't have
to run over.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Plate, but ninety nine percent of it. You can absolutely
play full boar. So Pops in an honorable mention, Hammer
and Hank in an honorable mention. And then a really
cool one that I saw Sunday morning outside of Soldier Field,
the Walter Payton statue, and it just says sweetness something
night on the plaque. It might be.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
I mean, if we do best nickname. Someday that's going
to be really high on the list.
Speaker 4 (21:39):
That's not a maybe, that's a good one.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
Top top ten sports nicknames. All right, let's get into
the top ten here. Number ten western Pennsylvania's own, Latrobe's own,
the Arnold Palmer statue at the Latrobe Airport.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
Oh, I would say, is there one at Saint Vincent's.
I don't know about it.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
It's across the street there at the airport. It's really cool.
Speaker 3 (21:59):
I'n't been there for a while, but yeah, it's.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Like him with his golf club and he's got like
this smiling look on his face. Yeah, it's very cool.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
It was probably five years ago, but I just posted
a picture of him on Twitter just smoking a cigarette
being a badass. Really yeah, like as golfers could be.
You know. It's like it's a little different back then
day a little bit.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
Yeah, And we're of course very thankful for his drink
concoction of iced tea and lemonade. A absolute legend icon
of Western Pennsylvania sports, no question. Arnold Palmer, his statue
at the latrob Beairport, his hometown is pretty cool and
pretty unique. Number nine I've kind of got a two
parter here and I've got a couple of these, but
(22:39):
I had shared with you I had been to lambeau
Field before, back in my working in minor league hockey days.
Speaker 4 (22:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
At lambeau Field, there's two really cool statues. The first
is a massive one of Vince Lombardi. This thing's like
ten feet twelve feet tall.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
It was actually this trade is an average statue.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
They're all questions.
Speaker 3 (22:58):
They're probably bigger than they actually human. Oh yeah, most
of them.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
Yeah, absolutely, probably a good eight to ten feet, I
would say, But this this one feels like ten to
twelve feet. It's this mass of Vince Lombardi. He's got
his hands in his trench coat pocket, he's got the
Fedora type hat on. Ye standing outside of the atrium
and it's pretty cool. And then right beside it, they
have a Lambeau Leap statue really where it's a cut
(23:22):
it's a cutout of like what the wall would be,
and it's the statue of Packers fans and you can
do a photo op Lambeau like you're the Leapy Leaper.
It's pretty cool. The combination of those two really cool there.
That's number nine, number eight. I'm gonna go with another
kind of by committee here, and I'm cheating a little
bit because they're more like busts than they are statues.
(23:47):
That's coming up next, okay, but number eight is John
Elway and Terrell Davis at Mile High Stadium.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
There next there.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Next to each other, and it's like a it's not
a full statue, it's like a bust thing. But it's
really cool having those too, next to each other, the cutouts,
and as you know, I love those two guys growing
up as a football fan. So Lway and TD right
next to each other outside a Mile High is number
eight on my list.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
Cool.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
You mentioned the Yankees. They're monuments though Monument Park, and
again this is kind of cheating. It's a little bit,
a little bit like Lay and Terel Davis. It's not
just a pure statue. But if you ever go to
Yankee Stadium, which I did once in twenty and eighteen,
they have a whole area called Monument Park. Now it
closes down an hour before the game starts, so you
(24:37):
got to get into the stadium pretty early to see it.
But it's totally worth it. It's monuments of every Yankees
retired number, which is like twenty some numbers from Rude
Garrettmaggio to Jeter and Mariano Rivera and those guys, they
all have a monument. They all have like a plaque
and their number and a little bit about the player.
(24:59):
It's like almost like.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
A it's kind of like a graveyard on kind of
like a grave.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
I was gonna say a garden to like it up
a little bit, but it's a it's it's awesome that
the history of it, the eras, the years it spans.
It's really pretty with flowers and all kinds of stuff too.
Monument Park at Yankee Stadium checks in at number seven,
like it, you're gonna allow me to be a touch
of touch of Homer here for a second.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
I definitely would, Well, we're gonna do I Also, I
haven't seen them an statues, and I have seen the
ones in Pittsford.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
We're gonna do that with the yins or statues here
in a second. But checking in at number six in
good old Morgantown, West Virginia, the Jerry West statue outside.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
Of the study of You Colisea is West Virginia ever
had a football player good enough to make a statue.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
I mean maybe Chuck Halley or Sam Huff. You know
you heard of those guys. A super Bowl MVP Chuck Halley,
No big deal, it's a long time ago.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
You know.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
You pit guys love to talk about your NFL success.
Have you ever had a Super Bowl MVP?
Speaker 5 (25:50):
Huh?
Speaker 3 (25:50):
That's on even don't even go down that road.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
Have you ever had a Super Bowl MVP? Huh.
Speaker 3 (25:54):
I'm not much a pick guy, but you can't have
that cover.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
I'm going with the NBA MVP WV on the short
list of like seven universities that has produced that both
an NBA and NFL well, Super Bowl and NBA Finals MVP.
But the Jerry West statue outside of the WU colisseum,
I'm cheating a little bit, but come on, he's the
logo of the friggin' NBA.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
That's not cheating.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
That's not cheating. It's the logo of the NBA statue
outside of the WVU colisseum.
Speaker 3 (26:21):
So it's the same pose.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Yes, okay, yeah, it's it's it's really cool. It's got
lights on it, and like when it snows and the
lights are shining, it's awesome. That's number six for me.
The Jerry West logo statue in Morgantown outside of the
Colisseum into the top five. Number five, And if it
wasn't for the history element, this might just be the
(26:42):
purest architecture of a statue I've ever seen Shack statue
outside of whatever they call the Staples Center now Crypto
dot Com Arena or whatever it is in La. It's
Shack like tearing down a basketball rim, like it's a
hanging statue. It's like two handing dunking on the rim
(27:03):
and the backboard. And it's really cool because it's just
so different from what you normally see of a statue.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
Guys, you know, I mean, right.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
That's the post. It's like a statue that's kind of
mounted into the wall and hangs. It's really it's really unique,
and it's really cool. And I grew up loving Shack.
So that one's got that's got a cool angle. That's
number five. All right, now, we're really gonna go touch
a Homer, and Yin's out here for a minute. Number
four the Roberto Clemente statue at PNC Park.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
I mean, you're definitely allowed to be a Homer iconic player.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
It's an awesome statue. He's massive. He's doing the swing
with the baseball bat.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
Yeah, that's a big statue.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
Huge statue. One of the greatest baseball players of all time,
one of the greatest ambassadors of Pittsburgh sports of all time.
Roberto Clemente checks in at number four.
Speaker 3 (27:54):
There's a two hour Clemeny documentary on the History Channel,
like go month or two months, probably longer than I thought. Well,
worse people time to check out.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
It's on History Channel.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
I think it was on the History Channel.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
I don't think I've seen that. I will it's recent, Okay,
I'll have.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
To respect for him if you're especially the younger folks.
I mean again, he's before my time.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
But we're gonna stay here in Pittsburgh. Matt number three
Swiss all Swiss. Oh yeah, split in the two defenders
of the Minnesota North Star's iconic moment that helped the
Penguins capture their first Stanley Cup in franchise history. Right
there on Fifth Avenue. The Lemux statue aws Some checks
(28:34):
in at number three.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
So just a quick side note, especially because you put
those two next to each other. My uncle Clementy died
in ninety one. I was born ninety or seventy three
and seventy one, respectively. My uncle's about ten twelve years
older than me. He's the one that like gotten took.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
Me to three rivers and I've got some uncles like that.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
And it was like a thanksgiving or some event in
him and I are chat and then he's like, oh,
what's my damn password again? He's like Clementy twenty one.
I'm like idel music six like it is. You both
said it like at the exact same time, you know, like,
h my Lemieux is his Clementing.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
Yeah, you know absolutely, Yeah. I love that.
Speaker 3 (29:10):
That's really cool, Like everything's the music. She says, He's
all one.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
This was the toughest part was differentiating my the yinser here.
So I had the yinsers here, So I had Clementy four
Swiss on Swiss three. But you gotta go the Franco
statue at the airport number two.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
I didn't even consider that a statue.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
That might be kind of cheating there a little bit,
but it's it's full color. It's an iconic part of
an of of an airport. Like people like, where's the
Franco statue? Oh yeah, roll into Pittsburgh. It's one of
those things that everybody talks about. It is the most
iconic moment in the century plus long history of the
National Football League, him picking the ball off the ground
(29:49):
for the immaculate reception. Franco checks in at number two.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
It's a great one. I would have even thought of
that as a statue, but just because it's color, you know,
but it definitely counts and it is a statue. I've
regurgitated this joke on this show probably five times over
the years. But I was probably sixteen seventeen eighteen before
I knew. I think I like asked my parents when
we got off the plane. I'm like, who's the guy
(30:14):
next to Franco again? Like this George Washington dumbass?
Speaker 2 (30:18):
Probably a lot of Pittsburgh kids.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
Didn't even pay attention to dude on the other side,
Like who's the guy in the blue cove?
Speaker 4 (30:26):
Right?
Speaker 3 (30:27):
Like I don't. I mean, I passed that thing. Like
we didn't travel much growing up, and maybe twice a
year I was at the at the airport and I
checked out Franco and like, I remember, there's somebody else there.
I was well into my teens or maybe, which is funny,
like who's the other one.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
That's like George Washington speaks to how it is right, right, right,
and how important it is. That's why it's number two
on the list.
Speaker 3 (30:47):
But you see the t Rex and I mean, like
you forget about the other guy, You forget all about
the t Rex and George Washington.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
Then number one, the best there ever was, the best
there ever will be. Twenty Jordan the Airman. Michael Jordan's
is it him?
Speaker 3 (31:02):
Like it's the Jordan logo.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
I mean, it's the most iconic athlete silhouette in the
history of sports. Is the Jordan the Jordan logo.
Speaker 3 (31:13):
I mean, that's the jump man or whatever.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
Most I launched an entire billion dollar brand, made Nike
what Nike is, and the Jordan brand attached to it.
And I told you it just I really like some
of the inscriptions on the statues, Like I love how
for Walter Payton it just says sweetness, big, huge, bold
capital letters, just one word. Michael Jordan's it says Michael
Jordan's the best there ever, was, the best there ever
(31:36):
will be. And I'm like, really good, that's freaking awesome.
Speaker 3 (31:39):
Okay, So I have two I want to throw out there,
neither of which I've seen in person, and one may
not even exist. The Detroit boxing glove that counts as
a statue.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
You know what?
Speaker 3 (31:53):
That would be on the list.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
I didn't think because I have seen that it was
pretty cool. I didn't think about that.
Speaker 3 (31:58):
But that's because it's not a person. But I think
that's good.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
It's a sports statue outside the box. That's a very
outside the box, but very good.
Speaker 3 (32:06):
I don't you would know. I don't actually think this
is standing there, but Balbo at the top of the steps,
it is?
Speaker 2 (32:13):
It is there? Oh yeah, it's not at the top
of the steps anymore. It's at the side of the steps.
That's still right there.
Speaker 3 (32:17):
I thought, I'm almost certain it's not at the top
of the steps.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
I thought about that one. I did that one might
have to be one because it's so iconic in.
Speaker 3 (32:25):
When people run the steps just to do this.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
Yeah, a real athlete. I mean in Philadelphia they fantasy.
You finally won some championships, all right, the Eagles got
two Super Bowls.
Speaker 3 (32:37):
Pretty often.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
You can I confess something for just a minute. Yeah,
I didn't even think about that until you just mentioned.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
I was just trying to think real outside the box.
It real outside the box from movies. I'm like, is
there any from like Major League.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
That might be though the most photo sought after statue.
Speaker 3 (32:54):
That certainly run the steps.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
And that's why there's some complaint now because you can't,
like I mean, you can still run the steps, but
the statues off to the side. They hadn't moved the
statue off to the side because it was such a
tourist attraction, Like people couldn't get in and out of
the art museum because.
Speaker 3 (33:09):
Everyone those three years, people take as many pictures as
the Lincoln Memorial.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
Matt the three years that I lived in Philly, I
would actually my wife and I lived just like a
mile and a half two miles away from that, so
I would always drive that way to get to our
studios on game days when I was working the Eagles broadcasts.
The amount of times on Sundays that like I'd be
trying to get through downtown Philly in that area was
just a traffic jam. Viking Vikings fans or Steelers fans
(33:41):
who they're playing floated with people that are.
Speaker 3 (33:45):
Not Wednesday at noon, Yeah, but I probably somebody there Wednesday.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
Absolutely weekends all the time, holidays like July fourth, Memorial Day,
you name it, packed zoo, forget about it. It's a
really good one by you.
Speaker 3 (33:59):
That's a great one.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
Yeah, hopefully, hopefully my in laws aren't listening right now
on their way out from Philadelphia to spend a couple
of days with us for Thanks.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
Hear about it a lot.
Speaker 2 (34:08):
They'd be very upset with me. But that's your adang, Ma,
that's a good I've seen that probably more aside from
the Pittsburgh statues and the Jerry West statues there. Drove
past that thing almost every day for the three years
that I lived in Philly.
Speaker 3 (34:25):
Is probably some cool one in Oregon or Maine or
something we don't think about it.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
There's some, I mean some great ones across the across
the country. I'm one, no doubt. Like the Pat Tillman
one out of Arizona State is really cool.
Speaker 3 (34:42):
Yeah, I'm sure that'd be a good one.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
Dang is a good one, Matt, to show you up
best of the Matt on a Wednesday. There it is
thanks to to j t On on Instagram. Coolest athlete,
best athlete statues I've ever seen? And uh, some really
cool ones here in Pittsburgh that Michael Jordan won, though
tough to beat man like the most iconic silhouette of
(35:06):
any athlete in sports history. Let's take a break. When
we return. On the other side, we've got the Steelers'
latest practice report across the timeline. Same for the Bills.
Speaker 3 (35:14):
Good. I have not heard anything about the Bills, especially
in a long week. There's some guys I'm interested in.
Speaker 2 (35:19):
There's some interesting stuff in there for the Steelers. There's
some real big stuff in there for Buffalo. We'll do
that when we return. Wesheeler, Matt Williamson, It's the Drive
on Steelers Nation Radio on the Steelers Audio Network, your.
Speaker 1 (35:38):
Tunes about Drive on your twenty four to seven home
of the Black and Goal Steelers Nation Radio.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
All right, real quick, before we get into the injury reports.
We went to break there in the previous segment talking
about statues and our video producer statistician mister do it all. Hey, Matt,
don't tell him I said this, but he's a big
part of the show. Tyler, Mister TV goes, what about
the chief statue here?
Speaker 3 (36:12):
I didn't even think of it either.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
I didn't think of it either for two reasons. One,
I'm never on that side of the stadium like I yeh,
I park over on the science. I've been doing this
for you. I walk past that statue.
Speaker 3 (36:26):
Two, he's not an athlete, that is true.
Speaker 2 (36:29):
I did say best athletes. That's the that's the kicker,
because no one else on there was like an owner
or a except for Jerry West.
Speaker 3 (36:38):
But he was yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
I guess two technically, but he was an athlete. That
saved my bacon by a technicality there. But I also
it's to the Franco thing too. I don't think when
you think of the Pittsburgh Steelers, it's part of why
we love them. You don't think about mascots and all
due respect to our guys Steely mcbeam. You don't think
about and cheerleaders and statues and retired numbers. The Steelers
(37:03):
don't do that stuff.
Speaker 3 (37:04):
Marching bands and nonsense. You know, like you go to.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
You go to Foxborough and there's a Tom Brady statue
and there's they got the six banners hanging up and yeah,
you go to the Link, you go to Philadelphia and
there's a Nick Foles and Doug Peterson's statue and they've
got the banners hanging up Pittsburgh. Don't do that nonsense.
You got our terrible pals and that's it. It's pretty awesome.
It is pretty awesome, cigar and everything. It's pretty sweet.
Speaker 3 (37:29):
But along those lines, like when you sprung that on me,
I start thinking of them. I'm like, well, Clement, you'll
be on there. Even took me a while to come
up with you. And that's my guy. Like, I just
didn't think Pittsburgh statues because it's for those reasons. You know,
it's not, you know, a bunch of hoopla.
Speaker 2 (37:43):
You know, you saved me on the technicality that I
did many times say athletes.
Speaker 3 (37:47):
We'll get on. I wouldn't have thought of it though.
Speaker 2 (37:49):
Miss the Chief statues just in its own category. It
can't be ranked with these amateurs. It's it's in its
own it's in its own league. Obviously, good stuff from
TV the Matt. Let's get into the from TV to
I R. Let's get into the injury report for both
of these teams. You want Bills first or Stillers first.
(38:11):
TV Bills are Stillers, Okay. Buffalo Bills head coach Saan
McDermott said today Dion Dawkins, Spencer Brown will not practice
on Wednesday. Did not practice on Wednesday. Dawkins in concussion protocol,
which is important to note as well. Also Bernard Kincaid
(38:31):
and Curtis Samuel did not practice either. So the linebacker Bernard,
the tight end obviously Dalton Kincaid, and wide receiver Curtis
Samuel did not practice Wednesday.
Speaker 3 (38:42):
Okay, So Dawkins is an excellent left tackle.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
Excellent, one of the more underrated left tackles in the
national football no question.
Speaker 3 (38:51):
He's been kind of a stalwart for years. Unorthodox. I mean,
he just doesn't look the party.
Speaker 2 (38:58):
It looks like a guard all day.
Speaker 3 (39:00):
So I'm pulling up something here real quick.
Speaker 2 (39:03):
You need me to fill a buster for you?
Speaker 3 (39:04):
Yeah, not the moment. We'll talk tackles first, but I'm
just trying to There's some Kincaid numbers I found this morning.
I'm gonna bring up Spencer Brown's also an excellent right tackle.
He's developmental Northern Iowa third round pick. Project.
Speaker 2 (39:18):
The offensive line or the Browns the part of me,
The Bills offensive line is underrated.
Speaker 3 (39:22):
It's very very good, and they develop talent well, you know,
like very different from one six 's eight and looks
like a former tight end that he was, and one's
kind of a round looking guard, but they still get
great production from both. Both were very not healthy for
that Texans eight Sac mess on Thursday night against awesome
edge rushers, but I would say Steelers ed rushers are
(39:44):
in that category or in that neighborhood. Dawkins finished the game,
so concussion was not what I was thinking with him.
Brown did not, and I kind of thought, man, he
might be out a couple of weeks. Just watching the game,
you could tell he was really really hurting. Look a
filibuster for a minute.
Speaker 2 (40:01):
A Look, Well, I was just gonna say, Dawkins in
concussion protocol, typically that's kind of become like a kiss
of death. I wonder, though, with the three extra days
of rest, if he's got more of a chance. He
didn't get a concussion on Sunday, he got it on Thursday.
There's that three extra days of rest factor for Buffalo
coming into this one as well, So I wonder if
(40:22):
that gives Dawkins. I mean, I'm sure it does give
him a greater opportunity to play, and how much that factors.
Speaker 3 (40:29):
In, I'm sure it does. Okay, Kincaid is really important
to them, Oh, big time. Yeah, he's been sort of
a disappointment after being a first round pick until this
year he's really stepped up in a big way. And
him being out these last two weeks maybe three, they've
missed him a lot because he's kind of their closest
(40:51):
thing to a number one receiver. And I saw these numbers,
I was like, Wow, that's a big deal for someone
you don't look of in that light. So in his
eight games with Kincaid, Allen has a seventy two percent
completion percentage and a thirteen to three touchdown to interception ratio.
Really good numbers, but nothing Alan does shocks anybody at
(41:13):
this point.
Speaker 2 (41:14):
Did you hear what Cam Heyward said about him today? No,
he's perhaps the NFL's best superhero, like something along along
those lines. Doesn't better than anybody.
Speaker 3 (41:24):
So in the three games without Kincaid, he's only completing
sixty four percent of his passes as opposed to seventy two,
and he's got a five to six touchdown to interception ratio.
He's got a negative touchdown interception ratio. Now, it's only
three games, but he's super important to them, oh somewhat
by default because they don't really have a number one receiver.
Speaker 2 (41:43):
Here's what we know about Here's what we know about that.
Speaker 3 (41:45):
None of those dudes practice.
Speaker 2 (41:46):
None of those guys practiced. We again will not have
a show tomorrow, but will obviously Friday. Regent revisit injury
reports for your Pittsburg stillers. Not a ton of surprise here.
Metcalf did not practice today with the ankle. I think
you would have maybe like to see him limited, but
that doesn't shock I bet you know. Aaron Rodgers did
(42:09):
not practice today. I bet you that was probably the
plan all along.
Speaker 3 (42:12):
Probably, but I just want to make sure people know
he does not take those veteran Wednesdays.
Speaker 4 (42:17):
No, he did last week with the rest more injury.
Speaker 2 (42:21):
Once again, absolutely, Ben Skronick did not practice with that
shoulder injury today Wednesday.
Speaker 5 (42:29):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (42:29):
And then obviously Roger Jones, Derek Harmon as we already
been they've been, they've been ruled out. Uh, let's see,
and then limited today in practice, Joey Porter Junior with
the hip. So him being out there I think is
a good sign. Alex high Smith limited with the peck
and Cam Hayward limited with an ankle.
Speaker 3 (42:49):
And Cam on a Wednesday I never think anything about
it either way.
Speaker 2 (42:52):
Like like Isaac Samalho was limited with rest.
Speaker 3 (42:56):
He's another one on.
Speaker 2 (42:58):
So Metcalf, Rogers chronic and the two that have been
ruled out Broderick and Derek Harmon did not practice pas Junior,
high Smith, Cam Hayward limited in practice.
Speaker 3 (43:10):
A lot of big names if you combine those two practice,
I mean this whole segment the names were talking about.
Speaker 2 (43:16):
It's that time of year. Two injuries are piling up.
But that's kind of where we stand with what we
know here on this onnes I expected the.
Speaker 3 (43:23):
Bills to be in a little bit better shape on Wednesday,
after a long.
Speaker 2 (43:27):
Week, after three days, get you excited.
Speaker 3 (43:31):
Golden rule on injury reports, folks is Wednesday stuff. Don't
get too excited, but it is noteworthy. High Smith, Porter
Metcalf are the ones I'm kind of keeping an eye
on most of Steelers.
Speaker 2 (43:42):
When we return on Friday. That might be where we
start is with the conversation of here's what Thursday's practice
report looked like, and.
Speaker 3 (43:49):
It might be Roger's completely back, right, be great?
Speaker 2 (43:52):
Yeah, it might be. You know, Joey Porter Junior was
a full practice participant. High Smith was was was full.
However that looks, but yeah, that'll be certainly some thing.
You know, check your social media tomorrow when you're in
the middle of your second or third round of tripto
fans and see what the Thursday practice report looks like.
Hour in the books, another hour ago. When we come
back on the other side, Matt, we have to talk
(44:15):
a little bit about the Thanksgiving games, the Black Friday game.
We've got to do our Buffalo Bills, pick a player,
talk about some Matt's stats. But when we kick off
our number two, what do you say we go around
campus nice for our weekly quarterback college quarterback check in.
We'll do all that and more in our number two
West Shouler Matt Williamson. It's the Drive on Steelers Nation
(44:36):
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 (00:26):
Good afternoon, Steelers Nation. It's the Drive here on the
Steelers Audio Network. West Shooler and Matt Williamson with you
for the next two hours here on a Wednesday, on
the eve of one of the best days of the year.
Of course, tomorrow is Thanksgiving. We will have no show tomorrow.
Will Black bet bit bit bit bit lit Litt will
be back with you on Black Friday. Easy for me
to say, so plenty to get to today, Matt. And
(00:49):
in the spirit of the holiday week, different week, We're
gonna actually start off the program with a guest right
from the jump.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Very giving and.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
It's very giving. And I also think it's fitting because
the Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, future Hall of Famer, missed
last week, of course against the Bears. Just spoke to
assembled members of the media. So let's talk to a
member of the media. It's our buddy, Chris Halleck, of course,
covers the Steelers for dk Pittsburgh Sports. Chris, let's jump
(01:17):
right into it.
Speaker 4 (01:17):
Man.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
After Aaron Rodgers speaking this afternoon, how are we feeling
about his status? For Sunday against the Bills.
Speaker 5 (01:25):
I think it's pretty much the same from his perspective
as it was last week. It's, you know, he didn't
practice today, He's going to try to give it a
go tomorrow for on you know, for Thursday's practice. He's
going to try again on Friday. What he's trying to
do to get ready sounds a lot like what he
did last week. The difference here is not Aaron's perspective,
(01:51):
but Mike Tomlins perspective, because last week he was obviously
non committal for a very very good reason because Aaron
ended up not playing. But while this week it's a
very different story. I mean, Mike Commins said he has
great optimism about Aaron being able to return, and when
Aaron spoke to numbers of the media today, he talked about, like,
(02:13):
what's the thing that's going to change this week that
could help him play, and he just flied outside. It's
just time. It's time to be able to heal and
that that's pretty much it. So in terms of the
process for him, it doesn't change. I think if he
were the one deciding his fate AG's the Bears in Chicago,
(02:35):
he probably would have played but that obviously didn't work out,
So we'll see what happens this week.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
So two other injuries, we already know Broderck Jones is
now we all know Harmon's out. Is why a Black
a direct replacement for Harmon? Or is that a committee situation?
And what do you expect to left tackle?
Speaker 5 (02:54):
Calvin Anderson is going to be at left tackle for sure,
and then when it comes to replacing Harmon, I do
think it's going to be a bit of a committee.
I do think ya Black will get increase reps for
an obvious reason, just because you know, if if whether
that's you know him and like being a full on
(03:15):
replacement for Harmon, then obviously his snapcount is going to
go up. But you know, they got the one guy
and his name is escaping me right now. But the
one guy, yes, the new hyphenated dude. My apology to
that to that player, but he's he's also in the mix.
(03:37):
There there are a number of guys in the mix.
But I do see an increased workload for ya Black.
And the great thing there is that you know throughout
this entire process, you know he's been there for it all.
He knows the defense, He knows the system there. There's
no guessing UH in that regard, so it's a lot
more of just play. So I do think it's gonna
(03:59):
be world of of a you know, committee that's going
to help replace Horman.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
How confident are you in why A Black sticking his
hand in the pile? I think he's been very good,
albeit in small sample sizes. Do you think he can
continue that with a with a larger share of the pie.
Speaker 5 (04:20):
Yeah, absolutely, I think he'll. He'll probably help a little
bit more against the run, and that's going to be
very important going up against the Bills team that currently
ranks number one in the NFL in in rushing. That's
new guys out there that can help stop the run.
And so I think this is a good week for
Wya Black to see an increased UH account his steps.
(04:44):
But again, players continue to grow. I think, you know,
even if he doesn't get back there and actually bring
Josh Allen down at all, maybe he can get those
gigantic mits up in the same way that he did
in Latrobe and bat down a of passes. You know
that there are different ways that guys can impact in
(05:04):
the passing game up front, and that's the one way
that he can do it. He's got really long arms,
he's a really tall dude. I think he can do
pretty good. I've also been pretty impressed with the way
he's played, especially considering that he was a fifth round pick.
There were no high expectations for him coming out of Iowa.
(05:25):
So I think it's a it's a good opportunity for him.
And again, you know, really stressing like the Steelers need
to stop the run this week. They like that. That's
that is paramount. Now. It's not like you want to
stop the run and say, Okay, we want to make
the quarterback feed us, because Josh Allen's pretty capable of
doing that. But still, you definitely the numbers kind of
(05:46):
speak for themselves. When James Cook doesn't run the ball well,
Bills typically don't win as many games as when he
does run well. So stopping the run is still is very,
very important, even though Josh Allen can absolutely do damage
with his arm too.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
Yeah, I wish it was under these circumstances. But I
am excited to see more of the youngster. Yi Black,
I'm impressed. I'm excited about his future. Chris, this isn't
the normal type of question I ask you, but is
this team better in manner zone? I can't figure out
what to do in past defense? Or is there a
coverage scheme you think they should be stronger in or
(06:20):
weaker in or more predominant in. I know you know
this stuff, So dig in.
Speaker 5 (06:25):
Can I Can I go in a different direction? Sure,
because I think I think there are weaknesses to both
with this the way the Steers play them. Yeah. Well,
because in man coverage. Now, there was an exception in
the game against the Bengals when we saw Kyle Duggar
intercept Joe Flacco and run it back for a touchdown. Typically,
(06:50):
when they play man coverage, it's cover one and they're
running man free. There's no hole defender in the middle
of the field, there's no linebacker dropping back and taking
away the middle. There's no safe crashing down and robbing
the middle of the field. That's been very very rare
this year, like I said, and the one real time
it changed was when Kyle Duggery intercepted a pass and
(07:14):
running back for a touchdown. In zone coverages, from what
I've seen and from my conversations with players, they're asking
players to do things that leave little margin for error. Yeah,
and and when that happened that it's the same it's
(07:35):
the same thing whenever we This is kind of the
the bone we were picking. One of the many bones
we were picking about Matt Cannon's offense when he was
the offensive coordinator was there was just so little room
for error on specific concepts that that whether it was
the details of the routes or whatever it was, it
was just so hard to execute plays because everybody, all
(07:59):
eleven guys, have to do their job absolutely perfectly, and
if it wasn't done to perfection, if one guy screwed up,
the whole play was blown up. And that's kind of
what I'm seeing. And that's kind of the reason why
I think there it's been so inconsistent because when they
have executed more often than not, they've looked really really good,
(08:19):
it's like really good. Now, when they haven't been able
to execute this consistently, they've looked really really bad. And
I think that's probably like that's what I deduce for exactly, yeah,
And I think, you know, and but then again, like
sometimes and I know Mike Commins didn't want to get
into it and in his press conference, but then there
(08:40):
are also times in which Ben Johnson just does what
a high school coach would do against spot drop cover
three and you just run four verts that like that's
that's their typical cover three beater, and the Steelers don't
have an answer for it. Like then there's also those
lapses and so it's just there are's not one issue,
and I think that's the that's the problem with this team.
(09:04):
I think it's why we've seen like we don't know
what team is going to show up on Sunday because
they'll play the Colts and they'll look great, they'll be
extra motivated because Jalen Ramsey and John Smith gave a
great speech the night before the game and they were
ready to go and they were motivated, they were sooned in.
And then there have been other games like this past
Sunday where it's just you know, I don't know, I
(09:26):
think I but that's what I deduced from it is
that I just don't think there's a there's a wide
margin for error, and when one guy out of eleven
screws up or doesn't execute it the perfect way, the
whole thing gets blown up.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Chris, last one I've got for you, Where can this
team start to find some momentum, start to find some
level footing on offense, it's been a struggle the last
few weeks. They've averaged less than twenty points per game.
As in offense, if you take away the handful of
defensive touchdowns against the Bengals and the Bears, and of
course just the ten points out there in Los Angeles
(10:05):
on Sunday night football. I mean, I know that there's
a lot of simplicity of get the run game back going,
you get some of the tight ends involved. But we've
been talking about these things for seemingly most of the
second half of the season so far. In your mind,
where does it start for this offense. Where can they
get a little momentum, Where can they get a little confidence?
(10:27):
Who are you looking to to kind of make some
plays and get everybody moving in the right direction.
Speaker 5 (10:33):
I'm looking mainly at the run game, and I understand
that this is a team that just ran for one
hundred and eighty six yards against the Bears. But that
second half it was kind of the same thing, not exactly,
but kind of the same thing that I saw in
the loss to the Packers. They ran the ball really
well in the first half. They really kind of suck
(10:56):
to it. And then the second half they kind of
they have some downs where you think they're gonna run
and then they end up throwing. Like there was the
first down. I don't remember on what series it was
in the second half, but it was in the third quarter. There,
you know, they they run play action and it's not
a play action pass that that has an easy target
(11:17):
if if for whatever reason, your first read or second
read isn't there, and then you take a sack and
now all of a sudden, the run game is completely
taken away from that set of downs because now it's
second long, you have to throw to get to third
and manageable. Then you're at third manageable, you're definitely not
running the ball because you know, I mean, unless you're
I mean, there was the one time they ran on
(11:38):
third and seven, but typically if you're a third and seven,
third and eight, you're not running the ball. Sure, there's
just there's too much of that going on. When I
think both Jalen Warren and Kenneth Gainwell, and I understand
about like the we could talk about the rotation of
Warren and Gainwell. I do think that Gainwell has at
least earned the right to be like for this to
(12:01):
really really be a tandem, if we could talk about
the way they're rotated as being an issue, but with
what they have with Warren and Gamewell and the way
that they're playing and the way that they're running the
ball and the way that they can both be utilized
as pass catchers as well, I really think the offense
needs to run through them and then allow that to
(12:22):
open things up for everybody else. I understand you want
to get DK metcats targets, but I also think that
DK Metcalf's targets can come a little bit easier if
you're forcing the defense to be like, all right, we
have to throw everything we possibly have at stopping the run,
at stopping these two guys out of the backfield, because
(12:42):
I don't I have not seen that commitment to getting
the run game going, even when they run for one
hundred and eighty six yards. So I think that's where
it starts. And the Bills are not good against the run,
So this is another good week for them to try
to really do it. Almost run it add nauseum, like
like to a point where you might get fans to
(13:03):
go like, all right, would you just throw the ball already, Like,
I get it, But I think that's what they need
to do. They need to really really stick to run
on the ball and then allow the targets to manifest themselves.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
Chris piggybacking off this and then we'll get you out
of here after this. How would you divide the labor
amongst the three tight ends? Oh? Man, it's a tough puzzle,
it is.
Speaker 5 (13:27):
It is a tough puzzle because and it's a great
puzzle to have, because you know, Darnell is just so
dangerous in the number of ways. And I also want
to take advantage of Pat Firenmouth and Johnny Smith as well,
because they both do great things. I would still prefer
(13:47):
Darnell to kind of lead the snaps because you can
use him in so many different ways. But yes, absolutely,
because because he's such a good he's such a good
run blocker, and he's obviously shown what he can do
as a pass catcher, especially if you can get a
blocker out in front of him. Can you imagine a
(14:08):
tight end screen where he has, you know, even one
blocker in front of him, Like you're that's a good
way to create an explosive play right there, when it
comes to using Pat and John who I don't know
if it's necessarily about the like the workload, but how
they're using him, like John new Smith last year was
(14:30):
phenomenal after the catch and a lot of the passes
I'm seeing with John who are not putting him in
a position to get yack. They're in a position like
I understand, like they've tried to throw stuff to the
flat or you know, throw screens, and the problem is
they're not good at They're not good at playing those.
They have not been good at executing screens like that
for a long time. So what about some more inbreakers?
(14:53):
I lot some stuff attacking the scene, you know, stuff
like that. Uh, this guy had fifty five. I'm like,
he had eighty eight catches last with fifty five of
those move the chains and I don't even know if
he's gonna get the city five catches like total this year.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
I wouldn't mind seeing them running more horizontal, you know,
get him, try to hit him on the move, going
across the field, you.
Speaker 5 (15:13):
Know, yeah, absolutely, and and that I mean, I think
a lot of people are trying to figure out now
why the middle of the field isn't being used as
awesome as it should, but you know that that's an
entirely different topic that I think we can spend entire
segment on. But yeah, I when it comes to the
tight end, I think I don't know if it's necessarily
(15:34):
the way that they've been divving up the snaps as
it has been, like the proper way to utilize each guy.
I think they've kind of figured it out with Darnell.
I think they're actually using Darnell in a pretty good way.
I think that they could expand on that. But I
think with John who I just I don't see a
lot of opportunities to react with him, and that's something
that I would be trying to take advantage of it
(15:56):
if I had him on my roster.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Excellent stuff as always with our buddy Chris Hallick DK
Pittsburgh Sports. Chris, thank you so much for the time
on a busy Wednesday, and have a great Thanksgiving dude.
We'll talk to you soon.
Speaker 5 (16:08):
Hey, you too, Happy Thanksgiving to you guys.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Take care Chris. There he goes. Awesome stuff from him. Yeah,
a lot of good stuff as always, and plenty to
ponder here as we get closer and closer to kick off.
We'll get back into more of that as we roll along.
When we return on the other side, though, Matt, we're
gonna have a little fun. We're gonna switch gears for
a few minutes. Okay, Best of the West Wednesday, O
best athlete statues I've ever seen? Okay, and there's two
(16:33):
from this past weekend that are gonna get a shout out. Wow,
Ewler Williamson, I'm not sure.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
I don't have any comments on that. I don't know what.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
Okay, there's a few Pittsburgh ones, so you'll have some.
You'll have some, don't don't you worry. Don't you worry.
We'll have some fun with it when we retire in
Ewler Williamson The Drive, Steelers Nation Radio on the Steelers
Audio Network.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
Your tunes about Drive on your twenty four to seven
home of the Black and Goals, Steelers Nation Radio.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
It's back on the drive here as we roll along
on a Wednesday, the night before Thanksgiving, day before Thanksgiving. Everybody,
have some fun. But behave tonight, all right, Matt. Before
we get into Best of the West, some pretty big
news about a big name center. Yeah, returning to the
National Football League.
Speaker 4 (17:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
As we're recording this. My phone just lit up and
Frank Ragnow is coming out of retirement, Like wow.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
I would imagine for the Lions.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
I mean, I assume they own his rights still. I mean,
I assume that's how it goes. He'd retired because of
a myriad of injuries. He must be feeling better and
say I'll help you down stretching into the playoffs. Welcome
back Due.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
It'd be a big boost.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
Brandon Graham's happened Philly.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
It's a great call, and unfortunately that could help the
Lions chances when the Steelers are there about a month
from now.
Speaker 4 (18:02):
Yeah, but the Steelers call probably in the building, out
of the booth. He's close now. You know, Ramon Foster
still around.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
I mean he's in Tennessee, but he, you know, was
around for preseason stuff.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
I think Antonio Brown's a little occupied.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
I don't think that one's gonna moving on.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
Matt Best of the West.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Of the West, A goofy, a goofy ish one for you.
But it's sports related. I like that. You know, as you.
Speaker 3 (18:32):
Always storm in here, I don't know many statues.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
As you always say, I'm sure there will be a
small percentage of people out there that are like, what
the heck, you'll er just talk about the bills. We
don't care, of course, but we have thirty segments a week.
We have thirty segments a week. We like to have
some fun with it. We're switch it up and so simple.
Coolest best athletes with a statue that I've ever seen.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
Okay, now you actually have to walk past them and
be there.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
I've had to actually have seen them in person. Yes,
that's the kicker here, and big shout out to JT.
I went back and looked so on. On Saturday night,
I went to the Chicago Bulls game, hosted a picture
of the Michael Jordan statue and JT on my Instagram
and JT commented and was like, you should do it.
Best of the West, you know, best best athlete statues.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
I'm cool with it.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
I was like, sweet, love it.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
Let's have them. One's pretty awesome.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Though it might be at the top of the list.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
Okay, it's gonna get matches, it's gonna.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Get mentioned for sure. A couple honorable mentions before we
get into the top ten. The Hammer and Hank statue
in Atlanta, Hank Era for the Brakes. I think it
was two years ago. Three years ago, the Steelers played
a preseason game in Atlanta. It was the one where
the offense was like two for two on Kenny Pickett
was humming Cordero Pattison.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
You remember, like every time got the ball they scored.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
It was like, and this was kind of the cherry
on top of just oh my goodness, this offense is
a look out.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
It's in the regular season.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
And they did not since that was in August, it
was obviously still baseball season. Mike Persudo our guy who
you're gonna do a show with here in another hour
or two. It was like to myself and dan Quinlan
was like, come on, we're going to the Braves game.
Let's go. And we had a great time. We went
to the Braves game, pursued and I got beer, bats
and everything. But they have a really cool Braves museum
(20:17):
in the stadium in the bowels of the stadium, and
of course an awesome Hank Aaron statue there. That's just
hammer and Hank.
Speaker 3 (20:25):
Great respect for Henry.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
Aaron absolutely and what he means to just the history
of sport right and of course baseball unbelievable. Unbelievable was
the home run king for so many years, and a
kind of similar the Willie Stargell statue at PNC Park.
Speaker 3 (20:40):
Oh, Pops, I thought that might make it.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Yeah, there's gonna be a P and C Park statue
that's in the top ten. But I'm giving Pops an
honorable mention. And then one that I saw Sunday morning
walking into the.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
Quick I mean, I think there was like a million
years in a row where the National League starting All
Star outfield was Clemenian right, Aaron and left. It's like,
that's a hard one to crack, dude.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
That's one of those old timey things of sport. Like
I I wish the Major League Baseball All Star Game
was still as big as it.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
Yeah, it was.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
It was a massive, big game.
Speaker 3 (21:13):
You can play full war like Pete Rose doesn't have
to run over.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Plate, but ninety nine percent of it. You can absolutely
play full boar. So Pops in an honorable mention, Hammer
and Hank in an honorable mention. And then a really
cool one that I saw Sunday morning outside of Soldier Field,
the Walter Payton statue, and it just says sweetness something
night on the plaque. It might be.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
I mean, if we do best nickname. Someday that's going
to be really high on the list.
Speaker 4 (21:39):
That's not a maybe, that's a good one.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
Top top ten sports nicknames. All right, let's get into
the top ten here. Number ten western Pennsylvania's own, Latrobe's own,
the Arnold Palmer statue at the Latrobe Airport.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
Oh, I would say, is there one at Saint Vincent's.
I don't know about it.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
It's across the street there at the airport. It's really cool.
Speaker 3 (21:59):
I'n't been there for a while, but yeah, it's.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Like him with his golf club and he's got like
this smiling look on his face. Yeah, it's very cool.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
It was probably five years ago, but I just posted
a picture of him on Twitter just smoking a cigarette
being a badass. Really yeah, like as golfers could be.
You know. It's like it's a little different back then
day a little bit.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
Yeah, And we're of course very thankful for his drink
concoction of iced tea and lemonade. A absolute legend icon
of Western Pennsylvania sports, no question. Arnold Palmer, his statue
at the latrob Beairport, his hometown is pretty cool and
pretty unique. Number nine I've kind of got a two
parter here and I've got a couple of these, but
(22:39):
I had shared with you I had been to lambeau
Field before, back in my working in minor league hockey days.
Speaker 4 (22:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
At lambeau Field, there's two really cool statues. The first
is a massive one of Vince Lombardi. This thing's like
ten feet twelve feet tall.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
It was actually this trade is an average statue.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
They're all questions.
Speaker 3 (22:58):
They're probably bigger than they actually human. Oh yeah, most
of them.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
Yeah, absolutely, probably a good eight to ten feet, I
would say, But this this one feels like ten to
twelve feet. It's this mass of Vince Lombardi. He's got
his hands in his trench coat pocket, he's got the
Fedora type hat on. Ye standing outside of the atrium
and it's pretty cool. And then right beside it, they
have a Lambeau Leap statue really where it's a cut
(23:22):
it's a cutout of like what the wall would be,
and it's the statue of Packers fans and you can
do a photo op Lambeau like you're the Leapy Leaper.
It's pretty cool. The combination of those two really cool there.
That's number nine, number eight. I'm gonna go with another
kind of by committee here, and I'm cheating a little
bit because they're more like busts than they are statues.
(23:47):
That's coming up next, okay, but number eight is John
Elway and Terrell Davis at Mile High Stadium.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
There next there.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Next to each other, and it's like a it's not
a full statue, it's like a bust thing. But it's
really cool having those too, next to each other, the cutouts,
and as you know, I love those two guys growing
up as a football fan. So Lway and TD right
next to each other outside a Mile High is number
eight on my list.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
Cool.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
You mentioned the Yankees. They're monuments though Monument Park, and
again this is kind of cheating. It's a little bit,
a little bit like Lay and Terel Davis. It's not
just a pure statue. But if you ever go to
Yankee Stadium, which I did once in twenty and eighteen,
they have a whole area called Monument Park. Now it
closes down an hour before the game starts, so you
(24:37):
got to get into the stadium pretty early to see it.
But it's totally worth it. It's monuments of every Yankees
retired number, which is like twenty some numbers from Rude
Garrettmaggio to Jeter and Mariano Rivera and those guys, they
all have a monument. They all have like a plaque
and their number and a little bit about the player.
(24:59):
It's like almost like.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
A it's kind of like a graveyard on kind of
like a grave.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
I was gonna say a garden to like it up
a little bit, but it's a it's it's awesome that
the history of it, the eras, the years it spans.
It's really pretty with flowers and all kinds of stuff too.
Monument Park at Yankee Stadium checks in at number seven,
like it, you're gonna allow me to be a touch
of touch of Homer here for a second.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
I definitely would, Well, we're gonna do I Also, I
haven't seen them an statues, and I have seen the
ones in Pittsford.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
We're gonna do that with the yins or statues here
in a second. But checking in at number six in
good old Morgantown, West Virginia, the Jerry West statue outside.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
Of the study of You Colisea is West Virginia ever
had a football player good enough to make a statue.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
I mean maybe Chuck Halley or Sam Huff. You know
you heard of those guys. A super Bowl MVP Chuck Halley,
No big deal, it's a long time ago.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
You know.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
You pit guys love to talk about your NFL success.
Have you ever had a Super Bowl MVP?
Speaker 5 (25:50):
Huh?
Speaker 3 (25:50):
That's on even don't even go down that road.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
Have you ever had a Super Bowl MVP? Huh.
Speaker 3 (25:54):
I'm not much a pick guy, but you can't have
that cover.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
I'm going with the NBA MVP WV on the short
list of like seven universities that has produced that both
an NBA and NFL well, Super Bowl and NBA Finals MVP.
But the Jerry West statue outside of the WU colisseum,
I'm cheating a little bit, but come on, he's the
logo of the friggin' NBA.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
That's not cheating.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
That's not cheating. It's the logo of the NBA statue
outside of the WVU colisseum.
Speaker 3 (26:21):
So it's the same pose.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Yes, okay, yeah, it's it's it's really cool. It's got
lights on it, and like when it snows and the
lights are shining, it's awesome. That's number six for me.
The Jerry West logo statue in Morgantown outside of the
Colisseum into the top five. Number five, And if it
wasn't for the history element, this might just be the
(26:42):
purest architecture of a statue I've ever seen Shack statue
outside of whatever they call the Staples Center now Crypto
dot Com Arena or whatever it is in La. It's
Shack like tearing down a basketball rim, like it's a
hanging statue. It's like two handing dunking on the rim
(27:03):
and the backboard. And it's really cool because it's just
so different from what you normally see of a statue.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
Guys, you know, I mean, right.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
That's the post. It's like a statue that's kind of
mounted into the wall and hangs. It's really it's really unique,
and it's really cool. And I grew up loving Shack.
So that one's got that's got a cool angle. That's
number five. All right, now, we're really gonna go touch
a Homer, and Yin's out here for a minute. Number
four the Roberto Clemente statue at PNC Park.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
I mean, you're definitely allowed to be a Homer iconic player.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
It's an awesome statue. He's massive. He's doing the swing
with the baseball bat.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
Yeah, that's a big statue.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
Huge statue. One of the greatest baseball players of all time,
one of the greatest ambassadors of Pittsburgh sports of all time.
Roberto Clemente checks in at number four.
Speaker 3 (27:54):
There's a two hour Clemeny documentary on the History Channel,
like go month or two months, probably longer than I thought. Well,
worse people time to check out.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
It's on History Channel.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
I think it was on the History Channel.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
I don't think I've seen that. I will it's recent, Okay,
I'll have.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
To respect for him if you're especially the younger folks.
I mean again, he's before my time.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
But we're gonna stay here in Pittsburgh. Matt number three
Swiss all Swiss. Oh yeah, split in the two defenders
of the Minnesota North Star's iconic moment that helped the
Penguins capture their first Stanley Cup in franchise history. Right
there on Fifth Avenue. The Lemux statue aws Some checks
(28:34):
in at number three.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
So just a quick side note, especially because you put
those two next to each other. My uncle Clementy died
in ninety one. I was born ninety or seventy three
and seventy one, respectively. My uncle's about ten twelve years
older than me. He's the one that like gotten took.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
Me to three rivers and I've got some uncles like that.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
And it was like a thanksgiving or some event in
him and I are chat and then he's like, oh,
what's my damn password again? He's like Clementy twenty one.
I'm like idel music six like it is. You both
said it like at the exact same time, you know, like,
h my Lemieux is his Clementing.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
Yeah, you know absolutely, Yeah. I love that.
Speaker 3 (29:10):
That's really cool, Like everything's the music. She says, He's
all one.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
This was the toughest part was differentiating my the yinser here.
So I had the yinsers here, So I had Clementy four
Swiss on Swiss three. But you gotta go the Franco
statue at the airport number two.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
I didn't even consider that a statue.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
That might be kind of cheating there a little bit,
but it's it's full color. It's an iconic part of
an of of an airport. Like people like, where's the
Franco statue? Oh yeah, roll into Pittsburgh. It's one of
those things that everybody talks about. It is the most
iconic moment in the century plus long history of the
National Football League, him picking the ball off the ground
(29:49):
for the immaculate reception. Franco checks in at number two.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
It's a great one. I would have even thought of
that as a statue, but just because it's color, you know,
but it definitely counts and it is a statue. I've
regurgitated this joke on this show probably five times over
the years. But I was probably sixteen seventeen eighteen before
I knew. I think I like asked my parents when
we got off the plane. I'm like, who's the guy
(30:14):
next to Franco again? Like this George Washington dumbass?
Speaker 2 (30:18):
Probably a lot of Pittsburgh kids.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
Didn't even pay attention to dude on the other side,
Like who's the guy in the blue cove?
Speaker 4 (30:26):
Right?
Speaker 3 (30:27):
Like I don't. I mean, I passed that thing. Like
we didn't travel much growing up, and maybe twice a
year I was at the at the airport and I
checked out Franco and like, I remember, there's somebody else there.
I was well into my teens or maybe, which is funny,
like who's the other one.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
That's like George Washington speaks to how it is right, right, right,
and how important it is. That's why it's number two
on the list.
Speaker 3 (30:47):
But you see the t Rex and I mean, like
you forget about the other guy, You forget all about
the t Rex and George Washington.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
Then number one, the best there ever was, the best
there ever will be. Twenty Jordan the Airman. Michael Jordan's
is it him?
Speaker 3 (31:02):
Like it's the Jordan logo.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
I mean, it's the most iconic athlete silhouette in the
history of sports. Is the Jordan the Jordan logo.
Speaker 3 (31:13):
I mean, that's the jump man or whatever.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
Most I launched an entire billion dollar brand, made Nike
what Nike is, and the Jordan brand attached to it.
And I told you it just I really like some
of the inscriptions on the statues, Like I love how
for Walter Payton it just says sweetness, big, huge, bold
capital letters, just one word. Michael Jordan's it says Michael
Jordan's the best there ever, was, the best there ever
(31:36):
will be. And I'm like, really good, that's freaking awesome.
Speaker 3 (31:39):
Okay, So I have two I want to throw out there,
neither of which I've seen in person, and one may
not even exist. The Detroit boxing glove that counts as
a statue.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
You know what?
Speaker 3 (31:53):
That would be on the list.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
I didn't think because I have seen that it was
pretty cool. I didn't think about that.
Speaker 3 (31:58):
But that's because it's not a person. But I think
that's good.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
It's a sports statue outside the box. That's a very
outside the box, but very good.
Speaker 3 (32:06):
I don't you would know. I don't actually think this
is standing there, but Balbo at the top of the steps,
it is?
Speaker 2 (32:13):
It is there? Oh yeah, it's not at the top
of the steps anymore. It's at the side of the steps.
That's still right there.
Speaker 3 (32:17):
I thought, I'm almost certain it's not at the top
of the steps.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
I thought about that one. I did that one might
have to be one because it's so iconic in.
Speaker 3 (32:25):
When people run the steps just to do this.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
Yeah, a real athlete. I mean in Philadelphia they fantasy.
You finally won some championships, all right, the Eagles got
two Super Bowls.
Speaker 3 (32:37):
Pretty often.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
You can I confess something for just a minute. Yeah,
I didn't even think about that until you just mentioned.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
I was just trying to think real outside the box.
It real outside the box from movies. I'm like, is
there any from like Major League.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
That might be though the most photo sought after statue.
Speaker 3 (32:54):
That certainly run the steps.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
And that's why there's some complaint now because you can't,
like I mean, you can still run the steps, but
the statues off to the side. They hadn't moved the
statue off to the side because it was such a
tourist attraction, Like people couldn't get in and out of
the art museum because.
Speaker 3 (33:09):
Everyone those three years, people take as many pictures as
the Lincoln Memorial.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
Matt the three years that I lived in Philly, I
would actually my wife and I lived just like a
mile and a half two miles away from that, so
I would always drive that way to get to our
studios on game days when I was working the Eagles broadcasts.
The amount of times on Sundays that like I'd be
trying to get through downtown Philly in that area was
just a traffic jam. Viking Vikings fans or Steelers fans
(33:41):
who they're playing floated with people that are.
Speaker 3 (33:45):
Not Wednesday at noon, Yeah, but I probably somebody there Wednesday.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
Absolutely weekends all the time, holidays like July fourth, Memorial Day,
you name it, packed zoo, forget about it. It's a
really good one by you.
Speaker 3 (33:59):
That's a great one.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
Yeah, hopefully, hopefully my in laws aren't listening right now
on their way out from Philadelphia to spend a couple
of days with us for Thanks.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
Hear about it a lot.
Speaker 2 (34:08):
They'd be very upset with me. But that's your adang, Ma,
that's a good I've seen that probably more aside from
the Pittsburgh statues and the Jerry West statues there. Drove
past that thing almost every day for the three years
that I lived in Philly.
Speaker 3 (34:25):
Is probably some cool one in Oregon or Maine or
something we don't think about it.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
There's some, I mean some great ones across the across
the country. I'm one, no doubt. Like the Pat Tillman
one out of Arizona State is really cool.
Speaker 3 (34:42):
Yeah, I'm sure that'd be a good one.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
Dang is a good one, Matt, to show you up
best of the Matt on a Wednesday. There it is
thanks to to j t On on Instagram. Coolest athlete,
best athlete statues I've ever seen? And uh, some really
cool ones here in Pittsburgh that Michael Jordan won, though
tough to beat man like the most iconic silhouette of
(35:06):
any athlete in sports history. Let's take a break. When
we return. On the other side, we've got the Steelers'
latest practice report across the timeline. Same for the Bills.
Speaker 3 (35:14):
Good. I have not heard anything about the Bills, especially
in a long week. There's some guys I'm interested in.
Speaker 2 (35:19):
There's some interesting stuff in there for the Steelers. There's
some real big stuff in there for Buffalo. We'll do
that when we return. Wesheeler, Matt Williamson, It's the Drive
on Steelers Nation Radio on the Steelers Audio Network, your.
Speaker 1 (35:38):
Tunes about Drive on your twenty four to seven home
of the Black and Goal Steelers Nation Radio.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
All right, real quick, before we get into the injury reports.
We went to break there in the previous segment talking
about statues and our video producer statistician mister do it all. Hey, Matt,
don't tell him I said this, but he's a big
part of the show. Tyler, Mister TV goes, what about
the chief statue here?
Speaker 3 (36:12):
I didn't even think of it either.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
I didn't think of it either for two reasons. One,
I'm never on that side of the stadium like I yeh,
I park over on the science. I've been doing this
for you. I walk past that statue.
Speaker 3 (36:26):
Two, he's not an athlete, that is true.
Speaker 2 (36:29):
I did say best athletes. That's the that's the kicker,
because no one else on there was like an owner
or a except for Jerry West.
Speaker 3 (36:38):
But he was yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
I guess two technically, but he was an athlete. That
saved my bacon by a technicality there. But I also
it's to the Franco thing too. I don't think when
you think of the Pittsburgh Steelers, it's part of why
we love them. You don't think about mascots and all
due respect to our guys Steely mcbeam. You don't think
about and cheerleaders and statues and retired numbers. The Steelers
(37:03):
don't do that stuff.
Speaker 3 (37:04):
Marching bands and nonsense. You know, like you go to.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
You go to Foxborough and there's a Tom Brady statue
and there's they got the six banners hanging up and yeah,
you go to the Link, you go to Philadelphia and
there's a Nick Foles and Doug Peterson's statue and they've
got the banners hanging up Pittsburgh. Don't do that nonsense.
You got our terrible pals and that's it. It's pretty awesome.
It is pretty awesome, cigar and everything. It's pretty sweet.
Speaker 3 (37:29):
But along those lines, like when you sprung that on me,
I start thinking of them. I'm like, well, Clement, you'll
be on there. Even took me a while to come
up with you. And that's my guy. Like, I just
didn't think Pittsburgh statues because it's for those reasons. You know,
it's not, you know, a bunch of hoopla.
Speaker 2 (37:43):
You know, you saved me on the technicality that I
did many times say athletes.
Speaker 3 (37:47):
We'll get on. I wouldn't have thought of it though.
Speaker 2 (37:49):
Miss the Chief statues just in its own category. It
can't be ranked with these amateurs. It's it's in its
own it's in its own league. Obviously, good stuff from
TV the Matt. Let's get into the from TV to
I R. Let's get into the injury report for both
of these teams. You want Bills first or Stillers first.
(38:11):
TV Bills are Stillers, Okay. Buffalo Bills head coach Saan
McDermott said today Dion Dawkins, Spencer Brown will not practice
on Wednesday. Did not practice on Wednesday. Dawkins in concussion protocol,
which is important to note as well. Also Bernard Kincaid
(38:31):
and Curtis Samuel did not practice either. So the linebacker Bernard,
the tight end obviously Dalton Kincaid, and wide receiver Curtis
Samuel did not practice Wednesday.
Speaker 3 (38:42):
Okay, So Dawkins is an excellent left tackle.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
Excellent, one of the more underrated left tackles in the
national football no question.
Speaker 3 (38:51):
He's been kind of a stalwart for years. Unorthodox. I mean,
he just doesn't look the party.
Speaker 2 (38:58):
It looks like a guard all day.
Speaker 3 (39:00):
So I'm pulling up something here real quick.
Speaker 2 (39:03):
You need me to fill a buster for you?
Speaker 3 (39:04):
Yeah, not the moment. We'll talk tackles first, but I'm
just trying to There's some Kincaid numbers I found this morning.
I'm gonna bring up Spencer Brown's also an excellent right tackle.
He's developmental Northern Iowa third round pick. Project.
Speaker 2 (39:18):
The offensive line or the Browns the part of me,
The Bills offensive line is underrated.
Speaker 3 (39:22):
It's very very good, and they develop talent well, you know,
like very different from one six 's eight and looks
like a former tight end that he was, and one's
kind of a round looking guard, but they still get
great production from both. Both were very not healthy for
that Texans eight Sac mess on Thursday night against awesome
edge rushers, but I would say Steelers ed rushers are
(39:44):
in that category or in that neighborhood. Dawkins finished the game,
so concussion was not what I was thinking with him.
Brown did not, and I kind of thought, man, he
might be out a couple of weeks. Just watching the game,
you could tell he was really really hurting. Look a
filibuster for a minute.
Speaker 2 (40:01):
A Look, Well, I was just gonna say, Dawkins in
concussion protocol, typically that's kind of become like a kiss
of death. I wonder, though, with the three extra days
of rest, if he's got more of a chance. He
didn't get a concussion on Sunday, he got it on Thursday.
There's that three extra days of rest factor for Buffalo
coming into this one as well, So I wonder if
(40:22):
that gives Dawkins. I mean, I'm sure it does give
him a greater opportunity to play, and how much that factors.
Speaker 3 (40:29):
In, I'm sure it does. Okay, Kincaid is really important
to them, Oh, big time. Yeah, he's been sort of
a disappointment after being a first round pick until this
year he's really stepped up in a big way. And
him being out these last two weeks maybe three, they've
missed him a lot because he's kind of their closest
(40:51):
thing to a number one receiver. And I saw these numbers,
I was like, Wow, that's a big deal for someone
you don't look of in that light. So in his
eight games with Kincaid, Allen has a seventy two percent
completion percentage and a thirteen to three touchdown to interception ratio.
Really good numbers, but nothing Alan does shocks anybody at
(41:13):
this point.
Speaker 2 (41:14):
Did you hear what Cam Heyward said about him today? No,
he's perhaps the NFL's best superhero, like something along along
those lines. Doesn't better than anybody.
Speaker 3 (41:24):
So in the three games without Kincaid, he's only completing
sixty four percent of his passes as opposed to seventy two,
and he's got a five to six touchdown to interception ratio.
He's got a negative touchdown interception ratio. Now, it's only
three games, but he's super important to them, oh somewhat
by default because they don't really have a number one receiver.
Speaker 2 (41:43):
Here's what we know about Here's what we know about that.
Speaker 3 (41:45):
None of those dudes practice.
Speaker 2 (41:46):
None of those guys practiced. We again will not have
a show tomorrow, but will obviously Friday. Regent revisit injury
reports for your Pittsburg stillers. Not a ton of surprise here.
Metcalf did not practice today with the ankle. I think
you would have maybe like to see him limited, but
that doesn't shock I bet you know. Aaron Rodgers did
(42:09):
not practice today. I bet you that was probably the
plan all along.
Speaker 3 (42:12):
Probably, but I just want to make sure people know
he does not take those veteran Wednesdays.
Speaker 4 (42:17):
No, he did last week with the rest more injury.
Speaker 2 (42:21):
Once again, absolutely, Ben Skronick did not practice with that
shoulder injury today Wednesday.
Speaker 5 (42:29):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (42:29):
And then obviously Roger Jones, Derek Harmon as we already
been they've been, they've been ruled out. Uh, let's see,
and then limited today in practice, Joey Porter Junior with
the hip. So him being out there I think is
a good sign. Alex high Smith limited with the peck
and Cam Hayward limited with an ankle.
Speaker 3 (42:49):
And Cam on a Wednesday I never think anything about
it either way.
Speaker 2 (42:52):
Like like Isaac Samalho was limited with rest.
Speaker 3 (42:56):
He's another one on.
Speaker 2 (42:58):
So Metcalf, Rogers chronic and the two that have been
ruled out Broderick and Derek Harmon did not practice pas Junior,
high Smith, Cam Hayward limited in practice.
Speaker 3 (43:10):
A lot of big names if you combine those two practice,
I mean this whole segment the names were talking about.
Speaker 2 (43:16):
It's that time of year. Two injuries are piling up.
But that's kind of where we stand with what we
know here on this onnes I expected the.
Speaker 3 (43:23):
Bills to be in a little bit better shape on Wednesday,
after a long.
Speaker 2 (43:27):
Week, after three days, get you excited.
Speaker 3 (43:31):
Golden rule on injury reports, folks is Wednesday stuff. Don't
get too excited, but it is noteworthy. High Smith, Porter
Metcalf are the ones I'm kind of keeping an eye
on most of Steelers.
Speaker 2 (43:42):
When we return on Friday. That might be where we
start is with the conversation of here's what Thursday's practice
report looked like, and.
Speaker 3 (43:49):
It might be Roger's completely back, right, be great?
Speaker 2 (43:52):
Yeah, it might be. You know, Joey Porter Junior was
a full practice participant. High Smith was was was full.
However that looks, but yeah, that'll be certainly some thing.
You know, check your social media tomorrow when you're in
the middle of your second or third round of tripto
fans and see what the Thursday practice report looks like.
Hour in the books, another hour ago. When we come
back on the other side, Matt, we have to talk
(44:15):
a little bit about the Thanksgiving games, the Black Friday game.
We've got to do our Buffalo Bills, pick a player,
talk about some Matt's stats. But when we kick off
our number two, what do you say we go around
campus nice for our weekly quarterback college quarterback check in.
We'll do all that and more in our number two
West Shouler Matt Williamson. It's the Drive on Steelers Nation
(44:36):
Radio on the Steelers Audio Network.
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