Hr1: Wednesday Rewind

Matt and Wes give final thoughts and observations on the Steelers win over Minnesota.

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Episode Transcript

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 (00:22):
Good afternoon, Steelers Nation. It's the Drive on the Steelers
Audio Network. We was Shooler and Matt Williamson with you
here on a Wednesday that still somehow feels like a Tuesday.

Speaker 3 (00:31):
Yeah, everything's all messed up.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
On a scale of one to ten. How back are
you mad? How adjusted are you back here? On our
Eastern Standard time and our schedule and everything.

Speaker 3 (00:41):
I would say it's been easier coming home than go.
I never got adjusted there, agree, Yeah, I mean I
just when I thought I was adjusted, I had a
real weird night's sleep and was up and just couldn't sleep,
and I was like, maybe I'm not quite there. Like
when we're done recording here, I might get an hour
and a half at some point this afternoon and then
I think I'll be ready. But I think I was
full of myself for day or so there.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
Yeah, No, absolutely, I'm with you.

Speaker 3 (01:03):
By the way.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
Nice Yeah, watching on YouTube. I got a Steelers Ireland
hat on here. You know, I tend to wear many hats,
and this one is a Steelers Steelers Irish one. But yeah,
about you you justin I would say a little yes
and a little no. It hasn't been as bad as
I thought it was going to be. But it's like
I keep waking up more in the middle of the night. Yeah,

(01:25):
I usually do, like.

Speaker 3 (01:26):
I wasn of that in Ireland. Same, I never had like.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
Toss six correct, a lot of tossing and turning. But
I am with you in the sense of I think
it's definitely easier coming back as opposed to going out.
But getting there. I'm optimistic that by tomorrow, by Thursday,
I'll feel one hundred percent back to normal.

Speaker 3 (01:44):
Yeah. I was happy to have my my lazy boy
and all that kind of stuff in my bed and sure,
so yeah, I'm starting to get there.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
We're gonna talk to our buddy Chris Halleck. He was
in doubling with us, joined us for one of our
live shows at Fitzsimon's Temple Bar here in a few minutes, Matt. Though,
typically we do a Tuesday rewind, which is just some
additional observations from the Steelers previous game after we get
a chance to rewatch and digest a little bit more. So,
what do you say we do a little Tuesday rewind

(02:11):
here on a Wednesday to get a side.

Speaker 3 (02:13):
Sure.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
I had two observations that I wanted to run by
you that I kind of kind of jumped off the
page at me last night when I was rewatching the
of course Steelers twenty four to twenty one win over
the Minnesota Vikings at Croke Park in Dublin. Both have
to do with the offense. Okay, First is, man, it
felt like they were lining up DK Metcalf in the
slot a lot.

Speaker 3 (02:32):
They did. They did.

Speaker 2 (02:33):
Yeah, you probably had some some numbers behind that.

Speaker 3 (02:37):
Yeah. It was the highest percentage I think of any
game in his career.

Speaker 2 (02:41):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (02:42):
And it was maybe fifty percent ish of slot usage
for him, which is significant. I love it. I think
that's a great way. I mean, that's that's that's a
huge trend around the league, is get your best player
better matchups, move them around, especially somebody his size. I mean,
he used to be you put Welker in the slot
and those are slot guys. But you don't see many

(03:03):
Welker Edelmans anymore. I mean you'll see big dudes in
the slot against smaller Hilton guys. That's why the Hiltons
are getting phased out. And you need the Brian Branches
and Ramseys that are two hundred pounds, So I am
all for it. He had good numbers out of the
slot too. Well. He had this touchdime, which.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
Which, hey, that that kind of skews the maybe the
average if you will, sure, but at the same time,
it still counts. I mean, an eighty yard touchdown as
an eighty yard touchdown. I'm with you on that. It's
kind of like the Jordan Addison thing when you look
at some of the Steelers numbers for the defense. Sure
like it is that liar, but it still happened. It's
part of the equation. But that to me seems significant.
I felt like we saw a decent amount of that

(03:41):
Week one against the Jets too.

Speaker 3 (03:43):
Yeah, I have to I have to go back.

Speaker 2 (03:45):
Yeah, that's just like, off the top of my head.

Speaker 3 (03:47):
Not to this level, but yes, and.

Speaker 2 (03:49):
I think he had some success doing that. That's how
they were able to kind of get him away from
Sauce in some of those moments where he had some success.
But I felt like it really jumped off the page
Sunday at Croke Park, And of course the eighty yard
touchdown definitely has a big impact on that. But that's
what I like. I love the approach, don't be static,
right yeah, yeah, like find where the defense has their weaknesses,

(04:10):
where you can make some hay and go attack right
there specifically, and I felt like they did that. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (04:15):
I mean, he's your best pass catcher without question. I mean,
I like the tight ends. You get more from them,
and Austin's been fine, but he's the guy you need
to feature. He's in the guy you need to scheme
up and get layup touches, you know, And I think
moving him around definitely makes that a lot easier. Some
teams won't put their best corner into the slot this period,
you know. I mean that's obviously a week to week thing.

(04:37):
They're a heavy zone team. I think they wanted to
have him work more against safeties and linebackers of course too.
Another Metcalf number, though, is he it seems like he's
breaking out. I mean, he's been putting the ball in
the paint and he had that huge play. Obviously, he
sillly has nine targets over the last two weeks, you know.
I Mean one of the problems with all the offensive

(04:59):
numbers is they're just run enough plays. I mean, this
is a trend. I mean, we've we've talked about a
lot of good but the time of possession stuff still
is problematic, and the number of plays being run is
still too low compared to what the defense has to
a stand. But I would like to see more like
nine targets a game, not nine targets over two games,
you know what I mean?

Speaker 2 (05:17):
Completely agree. Hopefully we're getting there, Like we talked about yesterday,
the I think the concerns and pass pro are certainly
part of that equation.

Speaker 3 (05:24):
They are.

Speaker 2 (05:24):
If you can start to run the ball more effectively
like they did in Dublin as well, I think that
starts to help you in that regard.

Speaker 3 (05:30):
I think it does too. And if you're going to
keep using Anderson as an extra lineman, maybe that helps
your max protection and shots down the field. I mean,
I think it's becoming.

Speaker 2 (05:40):
Not a tell.

Speaker 3 (05:41):
But you see Anderson, you see Washington, You like, here
comes run right right at me. But those guys can
passblock too, you know, they could definitely help in the
pass block game.

Speaker 2 (05:48):
And then maybe once once those tendencies start to show,
here comes the run game, here comes the corn beef
package yesterday, then maybe that's when you can finally start
taking some of those deep shots that you've been waiting for.
Well to off of play action and things like that.
Second thing for you, Matt is kind of a ecosystem
for the offense observation, if you will. I felt like

(06:10):
the Steelers and most successful run game of the season
would obviously a direct correlation. Here had a lot more
success on first and second down than we've seen throughout
the first three games on offense, and that led to
I thought, much better on third downs. Way fewer three
and outs for the Steelers offense in this game.

Speaker 3 (06:29):
I think there were only three. The show sounds Mike
and Rob. Rob mentioned I think there's only three three
and outs, and so I jotted that down. I think
that's one hundred percent true. And they weren't right in
a row, you know, like they were just kind of
scattered and it wasn't like they got a cold patch.
You're right. It's a great observation because you know, I'm

(06:49):
big on success rate. You know, how successful are you
played to play to play, and their success rate as
an offense.

Speaker 2 (06:57):
Probably was the best of the season.

Speaker 3 (06:59):
I think it was best of the season, but it
was one of the top two or three of the
week of any offense of with the thirty two teams,
I mean just getting four or more on first, you know,
half of the down distance on second converting on thirds
and you're right, their early down success rate was also
like in the ninety fourth percentile in the league. I mean,
so the chains and right right right, you know there's

(07:21):
a lot of second and five. I mean that's very managed.

Speaker 2 (07:23):
You got gain well average in five yards of tote. Yeah,
I mean that really I think has a real trickle
down effect for the rest of the office.

Speaker 3 (07:29):
One thousand percent. I thought that was what Those are
real good observations and promising ones. Well, thank you all
about that.

Speaker 2 (07:35):
You know where you have I like it when I
get a compliment from that. What do you say? Shorter
opening segment here because we got our budd Chris Line
on the other side and I want to talk to
him about the game. And then obviously he spent the
week in Dublin as well.

Speaker 3 (07:50):
Here he had a good time.

Speaker 2 (07:51):
So will continue to swap some stories and some memories
and some x's and o's talk with our buddy Chris
Hallick when we return on the other side. Shuler, Matt Williamson.
You are listening to the Drive on Steelers Nation Radio
on the Steelers Audio Network, your tunes.

Speaker 1 (08:12):
About Drive on your twenty four to seven home of
the Black and Goal Steelers Nation Radio.

Speaker 2 (08:34):
To the phone lines, we go here. It is our
Wednesday regular on the Drive. Chris Hallick covers the Steelers
for dk Pittsburgh Sports. Chris, of course, was over in Dublin.
We actually had a couple of nice times of Chris
across the park.

Speaker 3 (08:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (08:49):
He joined us at fitz Simon's Temple Bar for one
of our shows. The three of us went out for
dinner and some drinks one night as well, too, had
some delicious beef stew if I do say so myself, Chris,
what's going on, man, and how you're feeling? You you
knocked off the jet lag or you're back on East
Coast time in a normal schedule. How's it going?

Speaker 4 (09:08):
Oh man, I've had a couple of days on the
South side here covering the team.

Speaker 5 (09:12):
It's been it's been good man.

Speaker 6 (09:13):
Actually, it was my second time traveling overseas like that,
and I thought I handled the jet like this time
a lot better than I did the last time.

Speaker 3 (09:23):
Just give us the overall opinion. I mean, I think
you had a good time. I think you'd enjoyed the
whole festivities. I mean, just give us the overview, mat Brother.

Speaker 5 (09:33):
Oh man, it was great, man, it was phenomenal.

Speaker 2 (09:36):
I thought.

Speaker 6 (09:36):
I thought it was not just like a great atmosphere
at fitz Simon's.

Speaker 5 (09:41):
Obviously, it was great there seeing all the Steelers fans.

Speaker 6 (09:43):
I was around, even whenever you guys weren't or whenever
I wasn't on the show with you guys, just sitting
there watching and how.

Speaker 5 (09:50):
Excited everybody was.

Speaker 6 (09:51):
But then when we get into the stadium and to
see the atmosphere there, I thought it was fantastic. I
thought the team sut off of the energy U hearing
the stadium go crazy with not just like songs like
Zombie by the Cranberrin hit big over there, but also
like hearing them like sing like all the Small Things
by Blank to really loudly and all that. It was

(10:13):
just it was a great time. It was a great,
great week. And I can't wait until they're back there again.
I can't imagine that's gonna be the only comes to
his playing doublin.

Speaker 3 (10:22):
Camp real quick, Chris, I know you went to practice
and we're at that neck of the woods, Wes and
I didn't make it out there, but we heard it
was quite the spectacle to kind of describe to our listeners,
you know, where they practiced and where they stayed. Oh yeah,
So they were at.

Speaker 5 (10:38):
The Carton House, which.

Speaker 4 (10:39):
Was about forty minutes of Elbe and it was really
secluded and like it's a really big.

Speaker 6 (10:46):
Property with like two golf courses and.

Speaker 5 (10:49):
It's really cool, like.

Speaker 6 (10:52):
Old school looking like building, like I almost sayed, like
a castle almost.

Speaker 5 (10:56):
It was just.

Speaker 3 (10:57):
Described to us like a castle.

Speaker 6 (10:58):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Okay, well then maybe.

Speaker 3 (11:01):
It was like similar, yeah, but it was.

Speaker 5 (11:04):
It was really really cool.

Speaker 6 (11:07):
The interior was it was like it was like going
back in time almost a little bit.

Speaker 5 (11:13):
Like the press conference room that we were.

Speaker 6 (11:15):
In was definitely the faintest one I've ever been in,
that's for sure.

Speaker 2 (11:19):
It looked like the Queen was about to speak in
that press conference.

Speaker 4 (11:25):
And even like the media room which was straight across
the hall from there, it was it was like I
feel like like a painting was gonna be uh, you
know on the ceiling.

Speaker 5 (11:36):
Above my head or something like that. It was crazy,
but no, it was. It was. It was a really
cool thing.

Speaker 4 (11:42):
And then to set down onto where they were practicing,
where you know, the pitch that they were on the
grass felt different, it was. It was a pretty cool experience.
And then to see the way they were handling practice.

Speaker 6 (11:56):
I was looking for, like how tired you guys are
going to be, how they were going to be compagan,
or how how like how droopy the eyes were in
I thought the energy was pretty high for it being
like a like a Friday, because the Friday practices are
usually a little bit more laid.

Speaker 5 (12:12):
Back than Wednesday and Thursday.

Speaker 4 (12:14):
But I thought it was a pretty energetic practice for
even a Friday practice. And obviously that energy carried over
into Sunday because it didn't look like they were I mean,
I know, the first off at the series didn't necessarily
go their.

Speaker 5 (12:25):
Way, but the team was ready to put it on Sunday.

Speaker 2 (12:28):
That's for Chris Aleck of dk Pittsburgh Sports with us
here on the Drive on Steelers Nation Radio. Yeah, I
mean everything about it from the team perspective seemed to
go about as smoothly as possible from our perspective as
well too. Like you said, just everything it fits, Simons,
Everything the entire entire trip was was first class. Chris.

(12:49):
Before we uh, before we get into some x's and
o's and some conversation about the game and all that.
Of course, uh what was your personal favorite thing that
you got to do? You know, and your your five
days or so over there?

Speaker 6 (12:59):
And oh man, So I didn't get to do as
much of the like the sight seeing stuff as I
wanted to.

Speaker 5 (13:07):
Uh, I was working quite a bit.

Speaker 6 (13:10):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (13:10):
I did really didn't have a day to like sight
seet or anything. But I think just.

Speaker 6 (13:14):
Getting to to walk around Dublin, to to interact with
many many local people, to ask questions. I'm usually inquisitive
when it comes to this stuff because you know, I've
spent you know, outside of like one like like two
weeks on my honeymoon. I've not really been out of
the country very much. But it was it was really

(13:34):
cool to experience that was my first time in Ireland.
But then to go from like pub to pub having
guinness over there was phenomenal.

Speaker 3 (13:43):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (13:43):
I know, it sounds probably pretty bad if I said
my favorite part of being in Ireland was drinking guinness, but.

Speaker 3 (13:49):
It was pretty high on my lids.

Speaker 6 (13:52):
I mean, it was it was good, and it was
definitely uh it's almost ruined Guinness for for me in
the United States.

Speaker 5 (13:59):
But we'll we'll we'll see.

Speaker 6 (14:01):
We'll see how well I can start pouring it out
of a can at home. Maybe I can actually become
a connoisseur doing it that way. But uh, uh no,
it was it was uh I think just being there.
But I definitely want to go back because I want
to do more things that I want to bring my
my family with me next time, because you know, that's
like that's been on my I think I said, like,
this has been like my wife's like bucket list place

(14:22):
to go, and she's been all over the world. She
was in the Navy, she's been all she's been Hong Kong, Suerport,
she's been all over, but Ireland's always been at the
top of her list. So I'm definitely going back, that's
for sure.

Speaker 3 (14:32):
All Right, enough of the pleasantries. Let's start talking football here, brother.
So we've we've hinted at it all week. I mean,
there there were some significant scheme changes, extras and o'
stuff that they did a little different, but the most
notable was Anderson coming in there as an extra O lineman.
Often right next to Washington. Washington's usage and snap counts

(14:53):
were way up and Friar Moose were way down. Do
you expect all those things to hold up.

Speaker 6 (15:00):
I don't know if they're going to do that every week,
but it's it's good to know that they have that
in the bag to use because I think when it
when it comes down to it, when the run, when
the run game is struggling the way it had been struggling,
you can resort to that and hopefully that that'll kick start.

Speaker 5 (15:17):
The running game. Uh.

Speaker 6 (15:19):
You gotta do whatever, whatever it is. You got to
do something to run the football.

Speaker 5 (15:23):
And I know we talked about that.

Speaker 6 (15:25):
I think even when it's like maybe not the last
time I was on whenever we were all in Ireland together,
but the time before that, I was talking about the
importance of running the ball, and it truly is just
so important because everything else works off of that. The
ability to operate in the quick game and to hit
those catch and runs like we saw with Metcalf. Uh
to be able to then hit play action and hit

(15:47):
those shots over the middle of the field and then
force the defense to bring next to defender down. Uh,
and then you can start taking the top off, being
able to play a lot like like Arthur Smith's offenses
did in Tennessee. But it also starts with running the ball,
and so yeah, you'd like to be able to run
the ball when you're in your twelve personnel with tat
Ryan mus and Johnny Smith.

Speaker 5 (16:06):
But hey, you know, if you.

Speaker 6 (16:07):
Got to use the six offensive lineman along with Darnell
Washington and have that be the way you do it,
then by all means do it. And listen, I think
the NFL is starting to trend back in that direction anyway,
to play with more big upfront, to play more between
the tackles, because you know, defenses had to get so
much smaller and faster to counter all the wide zone stuff.

(16:30):
And now that you know that, hey we can also
line up with a lot of big guys and run
a bunch of duo and attack you downhill. You know,
if the Steelers have that, you know, up their sleeve,
then by all means do it.

Speaker 2 (16:39):
And it worked, No, it certainly did in an impressive
performance from Kenneth Gainwell just one yard shive of one
hundred yards on the ground, but thirty five receiving yards
as well too. To go well over one hundred yards
in all purpose, Chris, One of the things with this offense,
I think a lot of encourage on Sunday, a lot

(17:01):
to be encouraged by, I should say. But one thing
that we're still not seeing is the deep shots. Once again,
what was it, Matt was fifteen yards past the line
of scrimmage? I think it was our sixteen yards.

Speaker 3 (17:12):
Past, three passes past ten yards past the line of
scrimmage and none past twenty here of past twenty, right, Chris.

Speaker 2 (17:19):
I think we know that the lack of run game
and some concerns in past protection have certainly not helped
them in that regard. But as it feels like the
offensive line is getting their footing underneath them a little bits.
They are coming off of now their their best rushing
performance of the season and heading into a bye week,
do you have any optimism that we might see that change,

(17:42):
that we might see some more opportunities for Aaron Rodgers
to go deep, you know, starting a couple of weeks
here against the Browns.

Speaker 6 (17:49):
I think it's a possibility, but I think the way
that they're going about doing it is probably.

Speaker 5 (17:55):
The right way of doing it in today's game. Defenses nowadays.

Speaker 6 (17:59):
Actually, when you look at a defense like Brian Flores
in Minnesota, and he's one of the better defensive coordinators
in the game. So many defenses play with those two
high looks, with those with those two high safeties and
play a lot of cover four, Cover six, Cover two,
and they'll just put a shell over the top and
pretty much force everything underneath. So instead of forcing the
ball downfield, and we've kind of seen what that offense

(18:22):
looks like. You know, last year, it kind of seemed
that the Steelers offense was relying on the ability to
throw the deep ball and that was pretty much it.

Speaker 5 (18:30):
And yeah, it can work at times, but it's way
too valible to be consistent.

Speaker 6 (18:34):
Well, you can get chunk plays and we saw that
in this game through the air by Rogers catching the
ball and getting rid of it immediately. I'm not just
talking about the ady r d to Metcalf them you know,
there was another one on the first actually there were
two of them on the series that led to the
first touchdown where he got rid of the ball to

(18:55):
Metcalf really.

Speaker 5 (18:57):
Really quickly over the middle of the field.

Speaker 6 (18:58):
And then another one that was back shoulder throw it
to the sideline that Rogers also got rid of the
ball pretty quickly. You don't necessarily have to throw the ball.
I love the way Arthur Smith put it yesterday whenever
I asked him that question, he goes, sure, it looks
really pretty when the ball's going, you know, up in
the air for fifty five yards. But if you get
an eighty yard touchdown, not all eighty yard touchdown passes

(19:20):
are created equal. Yes, you can have the ones where
the balls in the air for fifty yards, but if
you have the other one where the balls in the
air for fifteen, and you design a play in which
you create space for a dk metcalf to catch the
ball in stride and then do his thing, well, that
can lead to an eighty r touchdown too.

Speaker 5 (19:38):
So it doesn't always have to be stretching the field.

Speaker 6 (19:41):
But I do think that the more that they're able
to hit those type of passes and the more they're
able to run the ball, they're going to force defenses
to bring extra guys down, which then allows them to
hit things over the top a little bit easier.

Speaker 3 (19:55):
Chris, if Calvin Austin's gonna miss significant time or even
a week, I mean, how do you you think they
make up for his snapcounts it a group effort? Does
one guy step up? How do you think that goes?

Speaker 6 (20:06):
I mean, you can probably do certain things where you
can have a tight end fill in, like where you
might be in eleven personnel normally when Austin's there, but
maybe you'll just be in twelve and have john Why
be that guy. But I think, like the DK Metcalf
touchdown is a perfect example of what I'm talking about,
you cannot use a tight end all the time to

(20:28):
replace even a tight end as versatile as Johnny.

Speaker 5 (20:32):
It just the thing.

Speaker 6 (20:34):
The part of this, and even Metcalf credited Austin for
this on his touchdown, was he created space by the
way he ran his route on the back side of
the play, because he took not only the zone defender underneath,
but also the safety on the backside with him, which
gave all this room for Metcalf to pretty much put

(20:55):
it into his top gear and then.

Speaker 5 (20:57):
Just take off. That doesn't have happen with a player
that's not that's not as fast as Calvin Austin's.

Speaker 6 (21:03):
So I would still think that the next guy's up.
If Austin missus time would be a Scottie Miller or
a Roman Wilson, two guys who are fast, who can
attack middle of the field with speed like that, even
if it's just as a diversion. Because there's still NFL receivers,
defenses can't just look and say, hey, that's Tidy Miller,
that's Roman Wilson. We can ignore those guys. No, you

(21:25):
cannot leave any receiver wide open over the middle of
the field just because, oh, that's not as high caliber
of a receiver. No, if it's a fast guy, you
have to honor that. You have to and if it
can help take a defender away so you can create
room for a DK Nightcap on a on an end
breaking route, or or Pat Firon Ruther, Johnny Smith or

(21:45):
Darnell Washington on something.

Speaker 5 (21:47):
Over the middle, then so be it.

Speaker 6 (21:48):
So I think like Scotty Miller, Roman Wilson would be
the first guys to step up.

Speaker 5 (21:53):
And the good thing is that those.

Speaker 6 (21:55):
Guys maybe not quite as fast as Austin, but they're
still they can still run the run pretty pretty quickly.

Speaker 2 (22:00):
Oh yeah, you know, they certainly can. It's Chris Halleck
from DK Pittsburgh Sports a couple more minutes with him
here on the drive, Chris spinning the block to the
defensive side of the ball. Man. A lot to like
there from what we saw on Sunday. But how about
just you know, off the top, the return of the
Shawn Elliott. I'd say it was timely and much needed

(22:21):
for the Steelers defense.

Speaker 6 (22:23):
Oh yeah, I'm Patrick Queen talked about it after the end,
He's like, that's my guy.

Speaker 5 (22:28):
Yeah, like they they they really really missed him.

Speaker 6 (22:32):
He he brings, Uh, he brings a really really great
presence to that defense.

Speaker 5 (22:36):
I'm not talking about you know.

Speaker 6 (22:37):
Just you know energy, and obviously he brings a lot
of energy, but he's a suret tackler, He's always in
the right spot. He's just a sound football player. And
it's good to have that. And I don't think it's
an accident that, you know, whenever he's played this year
or or even last year, that usually things.

Speaker 5 (22:55):
Go really really well. No, he was.

Speaker 6 (22:58):
He was sorely messed as good as Peppers was in
New England. Uh, And that's a great problem to have
that you know, Hey, if DeShawn needs a needs a break,
or if you don't want to you know, run him
into the ground too much. You want to make sure
if he's he stays healthy, that you have a guy
like Peppers that can play in that spot. But no, Elliott,

(23:19):
He's he got a contract extension for a reason, and
they love having a player like that on the field,
especially with how much he even played on Sunday, which
was quite a bit.

Speaker 3 (23:29):
Chris, last thing I got for you is it's a
good problem to have. But I guess it's not even
a question. I don't know how you keep herbig off
the field. M Yeah, he's game, Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 6 (23:44):
Terrell Austin talked about it today. Linebackers coach talked about
it today. I would like, I mean.

Speaker 5 (23:49):
They, I mean Austin's flat out said.

Speaker 6 (23:52):
We're not going to limit his snaps even after Alex
Heismith comes back. Like they're going to have to find
a way, whether it's a road tation or they deploy
a package in which those three are on the field
more consistently. However you do it, uh, he is he
is playing at a way in a way that's it's
going to force their hand. They cannot keep him on

(24:14):
the sideline too often now, even for a players as
great as TJ. Watt is, You know you don't want
to run him into the ground, you know. Yeah, yeah,
and and maybe that's I remember, you know, throughout the offseason,
you know, we had heard, you know that this team
really really wants to stress having a strong rotation without

(24:36):
having a big drop off in production. That's ideal because
that way, you know, you keep you know, players like
t J.

Speaker 5 (24:43):
Watt and like Cam Hayward and those.

Speaker 6 (24:44):
Guys fresh for more important downs, more crucial downs you know,
late in the second quarter, you know, critical possession downs late.

Speaker 5 (24:54):
Yeah, absolutely want to keep those guys fresh.

Speaker 6 (24:57):
And so when you have a player who's because it's
not like Alex high Smith is some bum, you know,
this guy can play, oh big time.

Speaker 5 (25:05):
He's a really good player.

Speaker 6 (25:07):
And so when you can have especially because her Big
also has experience playing both sides, you know, you can
maybe spell TJ. Watt a little bit more often, you
can spell Alex high Smith a little bit more often.
Knowing that Nick Herbig is a very very productive player
and he's becoming a more well rounded player. He's been
better against the run this year than he was last year,
and that's a big improvement too. So no, they are

(25:29):
going to find ways to keep playing him but also
he's not been the most healthy guy either, so also
you want to be able to have that rotation also
keep him healthy as well.

Speaker 2 (25:40):
It's a great point. Great stuff for our buddy, Chris Aleck.
Make sure you're checking out all of his work. DK
Pittsburgh Sports, one of our regulars here on the drive. Chris.
Thanks for the time, buddy, and enjoy yourself some a
bye weekend breather. How about that?

Speaker 5 (25:55):
That sounds good, guys. I appreciate you having me on.

Speaker 2 (25:58):
See you, buddy, Chris Alex. Great stuff from him. As always,
we had some fun across the pond. Yeah, it's it's okay,
it's all right. Favorite thing about Dublin the Guinness, that's okay.

Speaker 3 (26:07):
That was pretty high on my list too, pretty The
people was good, the games were good, you know, the
sites were good.

Speaker 2 (26:11):
Real quick, for real quick for you best of the
West here, okay on the West. Yeah, my top ten
favorite things about Dublin. Guinness, Guinness, Guinness, the people, Guinness.

Speaker 3 (26:23):
Guinness, Guinness, Guinness Brewery, Guinness Brewery. We need it today.
At some point I need a Guinness Brewery recap. By
the way, the tour, how about this? All right, we'll
do that.

Speaker 2 (26:34):
On the other side, I also want to dig into
some of that wide receiver conversation with you as well too.

Speaker 3 (26:38):
Yeah, I want to dig deeper at that too.

Speaker 2 (26:40):
The absence of Calvin Austin, Let's talk a little Calvin
Austin the third and a little Guinness Factory tour when
we returned to close down the first hour of the Drive. Wesheuler,
Matt Williamson, Steelers Nation Radio on the Steelers Audio Network,
your tunes.

Speaker 1 (26:58):
About Drive on your twenty four to seven home of
the Black and Goal Steelers Nation Radio.

Speaker 2 (27:18):
All right, Matt, so dealer's choice for you here in
our final segment of the first hour. You want the
Guinness talk first, you want the wide receiver conversation first.

Speaker 3 (27:27):
I think the folks want the Guinness talk. I think
you're right, not how yummy they were, But tell me
about everybody.

Speaker 2 (27:33):
Everybody knows that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Well, first I got
to tell you how awesome the people at Guinness were
for hooking me up.

Speaker 3 (27:39):
I know the story, but I want everyone else to
hear it.

Speaker 2 (27:40):
And I'm gonna try to keep it as not graphic
as possible. Okay, So I had my I had a
Guinness tour scheduled for Friday morning at ten am.

Speaker 3 (27:52):
Lees say you had a belly.

Speaker 2 (27:54):
Yes, woke up Friday feeling fantastic, went for a walk
along the water for like twenty thirty minutes. It was awesome,
sun was shining, nice breeze. I'm like, this is going
to be a great day. I'm gonna go have my
Guinness tour. Matt and I are gonna do an awesome show.
It fits Simon's what could be better? I go back
to the hotel. I have a full Irish breakfast at

(28:15):
the hotel. It's about eight thirty in the morning at
this point, eggs, sausage, bacon, black pudding, tomatoes, beans, mushrooms,
the whole full Irish.

Speaker 3 (28:27):
Coach me up on black pudding again.

Speaker 2 (28:29):
It's like a beef and yeah, I thought rain. It
has nothing to do with our concept of pudding.

Speaker 3 (28:35):
Right, It's not like banana pudding.

Speaker 2 (28:38):
No, it's not right. And apparently I've been told that
if you've never had it before, sometimes it doesn't agree
with your stomach. Ah, so maybe that's the spoiler alert.
That's where we're gonna go.

Speaker 3 (28:45):
Here. You have any like crazy blood sausage or any
I didn't do that.

Speaker 2 (28:49):
No, no, no, I didn't do that. Just normal sausage
and nice, nice crispy bacon for those of you that
are born of the Rings fans out there. So I
have this nice walk in the morning, I'm feeling good.
I'd gotten a good night sleep the night before, get
a full Irish breakfast. I'm like, this is great. I'm
going upstairs. I'm gonna shower like half an hour. I'm
going to Guinness like I am, a big smile on
my face, smiling like a butcher's dogs laying. I get

(29:13):
out of the shower, I'm getting dressed. I'm like ten
minutes away from ordering my Uber and I go, oh no,
this just and everybody who's ever had food poisoning or
something like that knows what I'm talking about. It comes
out of nowhere. It's sudden, it's violent, and.

Speaker 3 (29:28):
You're lucky it wasn't ten minutes later, exactly.

Speaker 2 (29:32):
You're right. Actually I never thought about it that way.
But I was very fortunate because if it would have
came ten fifteen minutes later, I might have been cleaning
out some poor Uber driver's car.

Speaker 3 (29:40):
This story could have got much one could have.

Speaker 2 (29:43):
Been much worse. I got this sudden violent wave of
nauseousness and queasiness, and I'm like, oh no, I'm gonna
lose lose my breakfast. Let's just say I lost my
breakfast two or three times. And at this point it's
like a little bit after nine, my guinness towards at ten,
and I'm like, there's no way. My hands are like shaken,
and like at that.

Speaker 3 (30:03):
Point I'd just be like, I need to try to
get myself ready for the radio show.

Speaker 2 (30:07):
I'm like, I at least got time for that, exactly right.
And that was at the forefront of my mind, was like,
Matt and I are supposed to be on air in
six hours. I better go back to bed and sleep
this off and.

Speaker 3 (30:16):
Get out whatever I need to get out exactly.

Speaker 2 (30:18):
Right, which I did. I went back to bed for
about ninety minutes. I drank a power raid. I woke up,
went to the little bodega by our hotel, got a
power raid. It was the way it was. It was.

Speaker 3 (30:29):
We didn't have that conversation deer I bought there. It
was like warm, but anyway, not a.

Speaker 2 (30:35):
Lot of uh, not a lot of refrigeration, not a
lot of trash cans around Ireland that yeah. So I
wake up at about noon after my ninety minute nap,
and fortunately I wake up, I feel completely better again.
Whatever was in my system, I purged it. I got
a ninety minute nap. I woke up and I was like, Okay,
I'm good, I'm fine. Thankfully, this is not going to

(30:56):
be something that's gonna knock me out for the whole day.
Like I don't have to text Matt and our Bos
and be like I got food poisoning. I'm toast. It's
a little after twelve. You and I still have about
where we went on air at three or four, so
I still have some time.

Speaker 3 (31:09):
Ye.

Speaker 2 (31:10):
I'm like, you know what, I missed my Guinness tour.
I was like, but I'm still going worst case scenario.

Speaker 3 (31:14):
I want to miss it.

Speaker 2 (31:15):
Worst case scenario. I'll poke around a little bit. I'll
go to the gift shop.

Speaker 3 (31:18):
I like, anybody can walk in and just do that
correct correct.

Speaker 2 (31:21):
And I was like, you know, I probably missed my tour,
but at least i'll see it. I'll see a few things.
I'll get some stuff at the gift shop. You know,
maybe i'll find a place to have a pint there.
It'll be fine, buy something at the I get there
about twelve thirty ish. I get to the gate, which
is awesome. I mean it's immaculated. Oh it's this massive,
huge gate with Guinness, you know, Saint James's Gate, Dublin

(31:43):
and the Harp and all that stuff. It's unbelievable. There's
signage everywhere on all the walls.

Speaker 3 (31:48):
It's like a beautiful and and it's like a.

Speaker 2 (31:50):
Whole compound that is beautiful and clean and looks like
My favorite kind of architecture is the kind that looks
new and old at the same time. Gotcha, you know
what I mean, Like it looks hundreds of years old,
but it's not like beat up and run down and
down at the same time either. They take good care, right.
So I get there, I go up to the gate,
and again I don't go into graphic detail, but I
kind of tell the lady at the entrance at the

(32:12):
ticket counter what happened. I was supposed to have a
ten am tour. I woke up this morning sick, not
feeling well. I'm doing much better now. I was just
wondering if there's any way I can go in there,
poke my head in there, poke around, maybe get something
at the gift shop. Yeah, she goes, honey, you're going
on the tour. She goes, another one starts in ten minutes,
give me your ticket, scans get in there. Yeah. It

(32:34):
was just like a digital ticket on my phone. You know.
She scans it. She's like, go get your button line
like you're not missing this all right, which was awesome
by it A big shout out to that lady. And
so I got to do the full tour. I got
to do the entire thing. Despite being two and a
half hours late. They still let me hop in with
the twelve thirty group and Matt. It was Disney World

(32:55):
for beer fans.

Speaker 3 (32:56):
It sounds like it.

Speaker 2 (32:56):
Yeah, it was Willie Wonka's chocolate factory for me. It
is seven floors and each floor has a restaurant, a bar,
some kind of tasting experience, some kind of interactive exhibit
about the history or the brewing process or something like that.

Speaker 3 (33:14):
You said, one of them just teaching you how to
pour them.

Speaker 2 (33:17):
There's one where you get like the how exactly you
pour a guinness on the nitro system and you get
a certificate and all that. There's an area where you
can print your face, your selfie, your picture in the
foam on top of the Guinness, which I did, which
was and I'm not even one of those people who
normally is into frivolous stuff like that. It was still
it was very cool, a.

Speaker 3 (33:36):
Little shocky into a WVU symbol.

Speaker 2 (33:38):
Well, I was thinking about I was thinking about it.
I was like, can I upload a picture into here?
Possibly by chance? And so different restaurants on each floor.
Some that are just like you can walk up to
the window and get fish and chips and oysters in
that house stuff. Some that are like nicer sit down restaurants.

Speaker 3 (33:55):
Like date Night, Yes, ye, yes, okay.

Speaker 2 (33:58):
They have a breakfast coffee shop nook in there. I
was like bummed that I had I drank a latte
in the in the cab ride on the way over
the Uber ride, I was like, I wish I would
I gotten a coffee. How many people can say they
got a coffee at Guinness a Guinness factory.

Speaker 3 (34:13):
I mean you mentioned like you just take your laptop
and just sit there and work and put it in
a couple of hours like a Starbucks.

Speaker 2 (34:18):
I was there for three hours. I could have easily
stayed for another three.

Speaker 3 (34:21):
Yeah, and you weren't even like drinking and hanging like.

Speaker 2 (34:25):
I didn't feel short changed. I definitely could have dug
into it a little bit more. I had a beer,
I had my stouty, the one that put the printed selfie. Yes,
but seven stories of seven stories, all the history, all
the exhibits, all the restaurants and tasting experiences and everything
that you can imagine, and it all ends at the
very top of the Guinness Factory, which is a three

(34:46):
hundred and sixty foot view of Dublin. It's all glass
that's on the top floor. Yes, the circle bar they
call it, I believe, is what it's called. And it
is the highest point in Dublin. Because skyscrapers, and you're
their zoning rules or whatever you want to call it,
are much different than ours. Skyscrapers. No, you know, there's
no massive eighty story buildings like like like there is,

(35:08):
you know, here in Pittsburgh and all across the country.
And that was so cool because they have they have
little like graphics on the glass that tell you what
you're looking at. So it's like, here's Krokpark Park. Look
in this direction. Here's Saint Patrick's Cathedral. Look in this direction,
Here's Trinity College. Yeah, here's the mountains on the backside

(35:28):
of Ireland. Yeah, it was so cool. I think even
if you're somebody that's not a big beer drinker, not
a Guinness fan, you would still enjoy it. But like
I said, if you are somebody who's a Guinness fans,
you know you know that I am. It's one of
my two or three favorite beers in the world, and
it was before we went there, and it even is
more so it's probably number one now. I mean, come on,

(35:50):
if you are somebody who just enjoys beer, enjoys stuff
like that, that the history of I mean, they started
bruning in the seventeen hundreds. I told you this. They
signed a nine thousand years, forty a month, pretty good deal.
Now they Guinness ended up buying that property and they
own it now, so that lease is obsolete but larious.

(36:10):
But Arthur Guinness signed a nine thousand year lease for
forty bucks a month. That's it's pretty good business. So
it was the gift shop I think I spent.

Speaker 3 (36:20):
I know you've got some good stuff.

Speaker 2 (36:21):
I think I spent like two hundred euro in the
gift shop. I could have spent eight hundred years.

Speaker 3 (36:25):
You wanted everything ever.

Speaker 2 (36:27):
I bought a Guinness soccer jersey, I got one of
the Guinness pint glasses, and I got Steelers in Dublin
twenty twenty five engraved on the glass. There a bunch
of different magnets and signage and stuff like that for
my fridge and my little little man cave area at home.
It was, like I said, I spent three hours there.
I could have spent another three hours there. It was

(36:50):
such a cool experience. I've gone to a lot of
breweries and done a lot of different tours and stuff
like that, distilleries, breweries. This one I think was the
most well done by far. Like I said, it's like
it's like a Disney World or Willie Wanka's chocolate factory,
however you want to describe it. It was so cool.

Speaker 3 (37:08):
Is there a duff Amusing park on the Simpsons or
something like that there?

Speaker 2 (37:11):
I think there, yes, yes, there is. That's exactly what
it was.

Speaker 3 (37:15):
It was.

Speaker 2 (37:15):
It's like Chocolate World in Hershey, but for for beer drinkers.
So it was. I can't say enough about it, how
great it was, how.

Speaker 3 (37:24):
Cool, how cool the.

Speaker 2 (37:26):
Whole facility was. And then yeah, they were like get
in there, you're doing this tour. Like, what are you
talking about? You paid for it, you have your ticket,
get in there.

Speaker 3 (37:33):
I want everybody here by it. That sounds incredible and
it was.

Speaker 2 (37:35):
It was awesome. Steelers fans everywhere.

Speaker 3 (37:37):
There were so many people walking around the bar, I
mean the bar where we're recording from Fit Simon's. Everyone
either walked in with a little Jamison bag, most with
a Guinness bag, and some obviously with like Steelers Pro
shop ass you know, but everybody had something that were there.
Almost Yes, they did that. The town did well and

(37:58):
selling stuff that weekend.

Speaker 2 (37:59):
My goodness. They printing money, ye print money? Oh my goodness, Matt.
I do want to talk some wide receivers with you
here as well too. What's your You got to buy
a week to assess this. I think that's the good
news for the Steelers. We will, I assume, get more

(38:19):
information on Calvin Austin's status this upcoming Tuesday when Mike
Tommin will have his weekly press conference ahead of the
Browns game. What's your kind of vibe your feel on
that right now? Are you willing to give it because
you still have a few weeks till the trade deadline?
Are you willing to give it some time for the
Roman Wilsons and Scottie Millers of the world. Would you

(38:41):
would you lean on the side of conservative and weight?
And I know this is a harder question now when
we don't have the exact timetable on Calvin Austin, But
are you kind of leaning towards the side of aggressive
as now is the time to pull the trigger and
go get some help.

Speaker 3 (38:54):
A lot of layers here, and I don't even know
if we have time for all of them. And I
don't want to talk about trade names. We could even
talk about that at some other point, but I would
be a little more aggressive on the phones trade wise.
I mean I'd be kicking the tires more several reasons,
you know, like Miami, New Orleans, Oakland, I mean, are Vegas.

(39:14):
I mean a lot of these teams now that might
have thought they were in it, No they're not now,
you know, like their tune might have changed. I'm just
throwing out the name Kobe Myers, you know, like, oh,
we think we're gonna have a good year. We're not
trading Jakobe, We're gonna win the division, blah blah. I'm like, oh, well,
maybe we'll trade you know, you know, like they might might.
More teams might become sellers. Now after four games in,

(39:35):
it'd be pretty easy to see which ones they are. Also,
you're not a seller. You're three to one. The Ravens
are falling apart. The division looks like yours for the taking.
Maybe you push a chip in a future pick in
more and say, let's be a little bit aggressive, let's
make a run and in the trade world too. Like
I don't love the idea of maybe having like two

(39:56):
thirty million wide receivers, but you could, I mean it
considering your quarterback situation, and I do think he'd be
very useful now as well as if you were to
draft a quarterback in the first round, and we have
some quarterback talk coming up this week too, you'd sure
like to walk in with one more receiver if you're
that quarterback too. Side note, I forget who brought this

(40:20):
up to me while we were there. I think it
was Rob actually that we've been counting on a third
round pick in the Russell Wilson move. Well, now that
he got benched, I'm not sure that's guaranteed. So draft
capital might be not quite as strong. It'll maybe it's
a fourth and seven third, you know, so just keep
that in mind of it, meaning to say that since
we got back, but trades aside, and Frankly, I mean

(40:45):
it's a good time too. I mean you could use
it as an excuse with the Austed injury, but it's
also bye week. If you could get him here acclimate
him all during the bye he plays with the team,
I mean, it's a good time to add one as
opposed to at the trade deadline get him ready for
some that's a little tougher. So I mean it works
out well with your buy and it correlates with the
Austin injury. It wasn't a one for one, but after

(41:09):
he got hurt, it was almost Miller replacing him. I
mean the other guys got worked in like they still do,
but in two tight end sets it was mostly Miller.
And I think he's just highly trustworthy and as Chris
mentioned too, he can also really run. I think speed's
important here, but not the Romans slow. All four of
those guys can fly. But I do think Miller's close

(41:30):
to Austin in terms of he can play outside more
than Roman can. Frankly, I don't know their thoughts on
Roman but I do think they're way more encouraged than
his stat line would show. I would think you work
him in a little bit more. I mean, there's some
of these games he's playing eight snaps, ten snaps. I mean,
maybe that goes to twenty, but by hunches it would

(41:51):
be Miller. I'm not even saying that's what I would do.
But I think that they're just so confident that Miller's
been there, done it. Get you through a game or
two or the rest of the year, maybe be Roman
and say okay, yeah, yeah, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (42:06):
I think that they definitely there's a trust factor there
with Scottie Miller, Yes, which they would better, you know, Yeah,
and they would lean on in the short term, they
would lean on, you know, in the in the situation
that transpired at Croke Park.

Speaker 3 (42:22):
Yeah, someone goes down, I can plug them right in,
and Roger trusts them, and you know.

Speaker 2 (42:26):
But I think a lot a lot of things, as
you outline correctly point to if you're man, if you're
going to get aggressive, now is a great time to
do it. Yeah, You've got the bye week to integrate somebody.
You have a incredible opportunity here, Matt. You get the
Browns at home coming back from London. Dylan Gabriel could
be just his second start.

Speaker 3 (42:46):
Ever, I would assume on the road.

Speaker 2 (42:48):
We know how good that Brown's defense is. But even still,
that's a that's one that feels like a you know,
you're you're going to be favored and be able to
take care of business. And then you got the short
week in Cincinnati on Thursday.

Speaker 3 (43:00):
Which doesn't look as scary as it it doesn't schedule
him when the schedule A look at that when the
schedule came out like short weekend, Sincy, come on.

Speaker 2 (43:07):
I'm on right now. Though not as daunting. Again, it's
not going to be a walk in the park. None
of the division games ever are. But it's certainly not
as daunting as it was a few weeks or a
few months ago. By the middle of October five and
one right, two to zero in the Division four and
oh in the AFC.

Speaker 3 (43:23):
Yeah yeah, I mean you would.

Speaker 2 (43:25):
Have your in a great, great uh the spot at
that point.

Speaker 3 (43:31):
Yeah. And again I mean I think one of these
picks will go to a wide receiver either on draft day,
you know, no matter what I mean, you probably have
an off season receiver. Need I doubt that they just
roll back exactly what they have. You know, I think
they'll add one sometime between now and opening day twenty
twenty six, you know, right, you know, I mean that
doesn't sound far fetched at all.

Speaker 2 (43:51):
No, it doesn't. And so certainly something to monitor, certainly
something will keep an eye on. Maybe we'll talk a
little bit more about that next week as well too,
as we roll.

Speaker 3 (43:59):
With a bunch of names and I mean side notes.
I do think the trade deadline across the league might
be busier than ever. I mean, I don't know if
we're gonna talk power ranks today or not, but the
bottom feeders are bad right now.

Speaker 2 (44:09):
I'm glad you said that, Matt, because that's what I
wanted to do with you to start our number two.

Speaker 3 (44:13):
How about that, Let's do it.

Speaker 2 (44:14):
Look at this, we are getting good at this. Let's
start our number two on the other side with some
power rankings here as we are now into the month
of October. We'll get into all of that and more
when we return our number two of the drive. Wes
s Heeler Matt Williamson at Steelers Nation Radio on the
Steelers Audio Network