Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
At least.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
He's the Drive with Dale Lolly and Matt Williamson on
your twenty four to seven home of the Black and
Gold Steelers Nation Radio.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
And welcome to the Drive. I am Dale Lolly, he
is the Matt Williamson and it is another chilly day
here in at Pittsburgh on a Wednesday, that's a Thursday.
For the Steelers' practice purposes. The Steelers had to move
their practice over to Akroschure Stadium today. The field there
is heated, the ones at their practice facility or not,
(00:36):
and they wanted to get an out there was. Yeah,
so that's where they're at. You know, if you look
at the Steelers injury situation, not terrible. Chris Boswell added
to the injury report today with an illness.
Speaker 4 (00:53):
This is the season for illnesses here and there.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
He'll be fine. I bet yeah, that won't be an issue.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
You had.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Roman Wilson still dealing with the He's still on the
inside of his window, I should say, as is Cole Holkoman,
Logan Lee and Calvin Anderson. But all were full participants today.
Speaker 4 (01:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Dante Jackson for the second second, second consecutive day a
full participant. So you're looking at that. Mace McCormick limited
again today, but at least that is you know, he's
able to get through a limited practice broken hand. Yeah,
no reason to rush that. Cam Hayward did not practice
again today with the illness, but that's nothing new. He
(01:42):
doesn't practice on Wednesdays and Thursdays as it is, right.
Speaker 5 (01:45):
And yeah, they played through the blue when probably a
lot worse shape than he is today.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
He'll be just fine. I think that started. He said
that the flu started last Friday, so.
Speaker 4 (01:54):
Wow, okay, he'll be fine.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Uh My. Cole Pruett, however, with the knee, did not
practice today after being limited yesterday, and then Isaac Samalu
was a full participant today after being a DMP yesterday
as a resting veteran.
Speaker 5 (02:09):
That sounds like Prouve. It's really the only one in question. Yeah, yeah,
I mean we'll get to the Ravens here, I'm sure.
But Jackson's interesting in that I expect Porter to follow
Bateman like crazy.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Well, and to that point, once again, the Ravens did
not have Zay Flowers iteme today.
Speaker 4 (02:26):
Yeah, okay, I don't.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Think people are making a big enough deal about this.
Speaker 5 (02:32):
No, it's a really key component to their passing game.
It's a huge component. If you think back to the
last game.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
I think Lamar had two hundred and seven passing yards
in that game, when when the Ravens won and Flowers
had one hundred yards in that game? Six one? Yeah,
what are we? What are we missing here? Why are
people to me? This is very much, very similar to
if you think back, there's there's a correlation here. Twenty fourteen,
(02:59):
Steelers go into the final game of the season needing
to win to clinch the AFC North title and if
they had lost, Baltimore could have passed them. Well, they
didn't lose, They took care of business and Ravens are
now the wild card. Ravens have to come to Pittsburgh
in the wildcard round, Steelers were playing to win. Le'von
(03:21):
Bell gets hurt in that game.
Speaker 4 (03:22):
Okay, we're going with that right, kind of a big deal.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
His first Pro Bowl season and he's unable to play.
The Steelers then have to go out.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
They Flowers for a Pro Bowl season.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Also day Flowers. There's lots of correlations there. Day Flowers
first Pro Bowl season in his second year. This was
Le'vion's second year and he gets hurt, they don't have him,
and they have to go out and basically sign junk
to play as as a starter in a game because
they really didn't have a true backup that year to
(03:55):
le'von le'von. I mean, he had thirteen hundred rushing yards
in eighty three catches that season.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
He was touching the ball all the time, all the time.
He was a huge type of guy.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
Yeah, a huge part of the of the offense there.
So they signed Ben Tait wow off the off the
way off the he was sitting on the couch. Yeah,
they bring him in and start him in that game.
If you remember, he had a fumble in that game.
Speaker 5 (04:16):
Imagine being that situation. Yeah, the Steelers practice squads back then,
you know, right. Yeah, the Steelers end up losing that game.
It was twenty to fifteen at one point early in
the fourth quarter, but they end up losing the game
thirty to fifteen to the wild card teams, the only
time the Ravens.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
Have beat the Steelers in the playoffs. But you didn't
have a guy who accounted for two thousand yards of offense, one.
Speaker 5 (04:40):
Of the most important players. Yeah, maybe the best back
in the league at that point. Yeah, yeah, there there
are some similarities. I mean in that you know, Flowers,
I was in compare it to like when Pickens was out. Yeah,
I mean then that you know, they elected Flowers to
go to the Pro Bowl the AFCU over Pickens. Now
I would take the other Ray Vince pass catchers over
(05:01):
the Steelers, but it's.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
Close, you know, certainly a lot closer.
Speaker 5 (05:05):
Absolutely, And they're different style receivers, of course, Yeah, but
they also fit what those teams are trying to do.
And I also think a huge component I think we
mentioned on Monday is some of these teams are getting
the ball out so fast and attacking. He's the best
one to get the ball to in that instance, you know,
win at the line of scrimmage or bubble screen or
you know RPOs whatever which slants. Yeah, really good with
(05:27):
the ball in his hands, you know. I mean he's
a good route runner downfield too, and you know, but
he would be your quick game guy.
Speaker 4 (05:32):
You know.
Speaker 5 (05:33):
Bateman does everything well, but he's been more of the
deep threat even though he's not a burner, but he's
caught a lot of deep balls. But I think the
ripple effect is so big in that Joey, you got Bateman,
and we're gonna play ten on ten like we're not
even helping.
Speaker 4 (05:47):
You, you know what I mean.
Speaker 5 (05:48):
I mean, and we're expecting you to win a high percentage.
And he's a better player than Bateman. That doesn't mean
that Bateman won't catch balls.
Speaker 4 (05:55):
And then between Minka and Elliott on their tight ends,
it's not so bad. Not so bad.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
In fact, if you if you look at this matchup,
if you take Zay Flowers out of the equation, the
Steelers might have the better pass catchers overall. Well, I
would say so with Pickens pickings in the equation this
time around, which you didn't have the first time.
Speaker 4 (06:14):
Yeah, I agree, I agree.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
I mean he's he is Andrews is good.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
He is good, and likely he's a nice player too.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
Yeah, but having a good year and Bateman's having a
good year.
Speaker 4 (06:24):
That's it though.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
Yeah. In terms of the talent, yeah, Pickens is the
best talent.
Speaker 4 (06:30):
He's the most.
Speaker 5 (06:31):
Dangerous player in the game. Yeah, And frankly, he needs
to be one of the best players in this game.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
This is it.
Speaker 4 (06:36):
You've got to be.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
You can't have what happened last week happened in this game.
If you're going to advance.
Speaker 5 (06:41):
And frankly, I mean with Flowers out it makes it easier.
But if you really trust your safeties on the tight
ends and porter on Flowers, you should be able to
put a lot of big bodies in the box. Yes,
And that's the key is stopping the run here, because
I don't think you're going to see hardly any eleven
with Flowers out of the mix.
Speaker 4 (07:02):
I mean, if so, you're getting into.
Speaker 5 (07:04):
Tyron, you know, Tyler Wallace and lesser players are on
the field, which I don't think the Ravens want to do.
So you're gonna be in a lot of bass, I
would think with big bodies out there anyways, Roberts and
Benton and those guys.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
That don't have to worry all that much about coverage.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Yeah, so there's a bit of a hubbub. Speaking of
George Pickens, there was some cologne, unisex cologne going through
around the Ravens locker room okay this week whatever, And
you can hear as there it's going around there. There's
a video of it, and as it's going around the
(07:43):
locker room once two of the players said it smells
like George Pickens. Okay, I'm kind of inferring that, well,
it's not the and and the other guy replies soft,
and the other guy guy says yeah, just like that.
Now today, this was yesterday today, some of the Ravens players. Oh,
that's not what we meant. No, that's exactly what you meant.
Speaker 5 (08:04):
I assume you meant feminine, you know, like perfumish, you know,
clone whatever you know, but stir in the.
Speaker 4 (08:11):
Pot here soft.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
There's no way to sell saying we said this guy
was soft with that, Like, yeah, you said it. You
got to own it. You want to poke the bear
with that. You could say all you want about George Pickens,
I would say soft might not be the word. He
is a hell of a competitive guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
And if you're going to poke the bear with that,
you better be careful on what you're gonna get.
Speaker 5 (08:31):
Yeah, I mean, I don't think the perfume smelled like
volatile or really talented.
Speaker 4 (08:37):
They soft.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
The word soft was used. Okay, you can try to
apologize for all that that is, as much as you want.
That's what was said. There's no, there's no Oh no,
that's not what we meant. No, you said one of
your guys said it. Now you've got to own it.
Speaker 4 (08:53):
And Merril says this all the time.
Speaker 5 (08:55):
You know, a really talented professional athlete embarrassed on us
stage usually responds in a big way. And I'm sure
everyone the planet knows that's not Picking's best effort. I mean,
not that he was dogging it, but it wasn't his
best game performance, that's for sure. And could he go
into a shell shore, I don't know, but I would
think any little motivations.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
I don't explain that. Yeah, I mean, I just think
that he is so competitive that you know, he's also
the kind of guy who in the past has complained
about like last year and even his rookie season not
making the Pro Bowl. Yeah, yeah, Well, now you're playing
against a team who.
Speaker 4 (09:34):
Was probably probably the last one that made their cut too.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Who had a guy who made the Pro Bowl. There's
you know, it's the same thing with you know, with
the Browns, with you.
Speaker 4 (09:41):
Know, I forgot Judy made it.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
Judy made it as well, Like, yeah, tell me three
the three of the top four wide receivers in the
AFC were in this division and I don't know about that.
I don't know about that either.
Speaker 5 (09:57):
If so, I'd say it's the three best are Higgins, Pickens, right,
I mean, I like Flowers, but he was a nice player.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
But he you know, he scored four touchdowns this year.
I understand, George scored three. Yeah, but he had seventy
four catches and George had fifty five. George missed three games.
Speaker 5 (10:13):
Yeah, I mean some of the stars, Tyreek Nico, you know,
we just didn't have an long enough season.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
And then that that hurt Pickens cause too obviously. Well,
and he also gets all the attention. You know, nobody's
especially in the red zone. You're not going to let
George Pickens beat you on.
Speaker 4 (10:28):
No.
Speaker 5 (10:28):
I mean he still could, but I mean it's not
like everyone's going to scheme around him. Yeah, sure, no,
but he needs to be great in this game.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
He needs to be great. He can't, you know, And
I think.
Speaker 5 (10:37):
That I think we also both expect Mike Williams to
kind of do.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
More and more.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
Yeah, I expect to see more Mike Williams in this one.
And the reason for that is because, you know, one
of the things that George Pickens needs is somebody on
the other side of him, Yeah, taking some attention off
of him. Like if Mike Williams goes out there in
the first half of this game, has a catch like
he had against the Bengals sure out the side line,
and then goes up over somebody else for another catch
(11:04):
that you know, for a first down or something like that,
and all of a sudden, the Ravens are going.
Speaker 4 (11:08):
Okay, are we gonna encoverage this strong?
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (11:11):
Can we can?
Speaker 3 (11:12):
We make sure that you know, we have Kyle Hamilton
on his side no matter.
Speaker 5 (11:15):
What, or we cover two in it and having two
Dube safeties. I mean, say what you went about how
Wilson's played lately. He's never gonna be bashful of taking
a one on one shot down the sidelines, and he'll
recognize that pre snap every time, and of course Pickens
would be his favorite target in that instance it should be.
Speaker 4 (11:33):
But I bet Williams is two. Yeah, you know, I mean, with.
Speaker 5 (11:35):
All respect to Austin, that's not really his game. You know,
if I'm gonna get one on one against Wiggins or
hum for you, it doesn't even matter. If I'm getting
one on one down the sideline.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
They're gonna try to cover Stevens, yeah, or Williams with Stevens.
Speaker 5 (11:46):
Okay, I'm gonna take that shit. He'll take those shots.
Whether they convert or not, who knows. But we've seen
some shots to Williams since he's been here that have
been nice plays. I mean he still has that that
card in his bag.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
Yeah, that club is there. Yeah, he's got that one.
So yeah, I expect to see a little bit more
of that. Arthur Smith talking today about it, he said, look,
we're this is a playoff game, like we're going to
burn the boats here, and you know we're gonna we're
gonna leave nothing unturned here to try to try to
get this win. It's funny there's some people in the
media that what does burn the boats mean? I'm like,
(12:19):
you guys have no historical contest, Like when the Vikings
would land, you burn the boats because you wanted to
give the message to your warriors that hey, we're here,
we're not leaving. Yeah, we better win the battle here
because there's nowhere else to go.
Speaker 4 (12:32):
And they did largely.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
So you know, I'm like that that term has been
around forever when you're talking about this.
Speaker 4 (12:44):
Centuries.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
Yeah, you burn the boats. And so when when Arthur
was talking about that, and he's like, you know, any
plays that you've been saving you use here, You're you're
gonna I'm like and and but you know, do you
get out of you know, you're not going to get
out of character though, right and he's like, yeah, you're
not going to go out there and run you know,
twelve reverse, you know passes things.
Speaker 4 (13:04):
Like that, they go four wide.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
You're not going to go crazy in this situation.
Speaker 4 (13:08):
But you still do what you do.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
You've got some stuff that might you feel might work
in this game against this particular team. And you've had it,
you know, maybe you had it for the first time
around you didn't need it, or you didn't use it.
Maybe you had it for the second time around the
right opportunity did a rise one Sure, now you you
throw it out there and see if you can get
them with it.
Speaker 5 (13:24):
It's like a punt fake, you know, like if you
see this look, switch to it. And we saw that
earlier this year. You may never see that look right now,
you do, you know? Or boy in this instance and
third and long in this package, if you're smelling blitz
from the weak side, all right, we're going to go
for over the top. We're max protet can go over
the top. We just didn't get it in the first
two games. Whatever it is, I'm just making stuff up,
(13:45):
you know.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
But yeah, the one thing that the Ravens do now
more so than they did earlier in the years. They've
always been a team that's been a high blitz team.
They were doing that earlier in the season. Now they show.
Speaker 4 (13:59):
It, but more sales.
Speaker 5 (14:01):
And yeah, it's it's more. I mean they even drop
pierced into coverage. You got interception, You'll get four guys coming.
You just have to figure out which four.
Speaker 4 (14:09):
Guys it is.
Speaker 5 (14:10):
Communication stuff's hard, and that's such a trend in the
league right now too, is the simulated pressures, five six
guys the line, who's dropping, who's not, et cetera.
Speaker 4 (14:19):
And they're good at it, you know.
Speaker 5 (14:20):
Yeah, Guys like van Ney are so smart and have
been around the block, and they sell it well and
are capable of dropping the coverage up being too much
of a liability.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
So because of that, would you go a little more
hurry up?
Speaker 5 (14:31):
Maybe because I think Wilson's really good attitude. Yeah, I
mean I do think that's so.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
He gave you a little bit of a spark there,
and if you know so, I would utilize more hurry
up stuff. Even if you're still running the football in
some of these situations, I want to get up to
the line of scrimmage quickly to not give them a
chance to do some of that stuff.
Speaker 5 (14:48):
Yeah, I think that makes sense. Not to mention Peerce
isn't exactly the most felt fella in the world. I mean,
you probably could wear him out pretty quick if he's
on the field.
Speaker 4 (14:58):
He is. He is a big, big sucker. Yeah yeah, yeah.
No offense, he's a good football Oh, he's a really
good football player. And Steeers have had similar dudes over
there over there.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
He is a wide buddy.
Speaker 4 (15:11):
He takes up a lot of space.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
Yeah, a lot of I'm not folks, that's just an observation.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
And eighty pounds.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
Yeah, he is a big man. And if you again,
if you can get him huffing and puffing out there,
you got to convert the third downs. Oh yeah, convert
on second down, convert on first down. Attack.
Speaker 5 (15:29):
That's a huge difference between these two teams right now, too,
is the Ravens are the best team in the league
on first down. Steelers are still know the bottom of
the league. Ravens don't get the third down very often.
Steelers do that that needs a change overnight. Yeah, on
the road in a game like this where you don't
want to.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
Get behind if you win the toss in this one,
I was curious about that too. You take the football,
do you put your your defense on the field.
Speaker 5 (15:54):
I thought they might last game too, because it's you know,
they obviously came out with the intention of run, run
round and run, and I think you'd want to start
that sooner than later. Talk about Bengals game. Yeah, I
don't know what their approach will be in this game.
But if you could go down and even get three,
I think that goes a long way. But I mean
it's also a risk. I mean you go three and
out and it's like, uh, there's also and people may wonder,
(16:17):
why do you defer? Will you defer to try to
get the end of half score and then have the ball?
Speaker 3 (16:24):
So you're trying to get at least a ten point
swing there, yah, or six point swing whatever it may be.
You know, you're trying to take two for one at
the end of the half.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (16:33):
Yeah, not to mention too, you have a better idea
of how the game is going. You have thirty minutes
of information when you get the ball in the second half,
presumably fresh, and the Steelers have been a good third
quarter of scoring team.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
I think I want my defense on the field.
Speaker 4 (16:46):
It's your best unit.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
It's your best unit against their best unit. And you
can send a message if you force them to punt.
Speaker 5 (16:54):
Or have it for a bid for them, if you
get a good hit on Lamar, or you tip the
ball or sack, or you can quiet the place pretty.
Speaker 3 (17:02):
Quick, really quickly, and get in Lamar's head. I want
to get him. Try to get into Lamar's head as
quickly as possible. He had a quote today about how
he I just get over antsy in some of these games.
And you know, I've I've learned from that, have you?
Speaker 1 (17:18):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (17:18):
Right, right right? You know we all mature. He's twenty seven,
but I mean he's different than he's twenty twenty two.
But it's still kind of his nature, you knoweah.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
I mean he's two and four in the playoffs. Can't
stress that enough. And if you look at the playoff numbers.
Speaker 5 (17:32):
No, they're not that great, right. The rushing yards are good.
Everything else is bad. Everything else is bad.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
Yeah, they average so in La Mars it's like eighty
almost ninety starts in the regular season. Now they average
over twenty seven points per game. Okay, in Lamar's six
playoffs starts, they have sixteen points.
Speaker 4 (17:50):
Ago that it's low.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
It's low.
Speaker 4 (17:52):
I don't think they ever got to twenty and any
of the losses either. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
So, and that includes a good game last year against
Houston in their first round game when they when they
beat the you know, when they beat the Texans.
Speaker 4 (18:04):
Maybe he they are turning the corner. I mean, they're
at that stage of his mature.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
They had that game, so he had four total touchdowns.
I think he had two passing and two rushing in
that game. Then they went to Kansas City the next
week and scored ten points. So I don't know.
Speaker 4 (18:18):
Their losses are very low scoring.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
Yeah, I don't know that they've fixed anything. I don't
know that he is over. You know this, I want
to find I want to see it, much like the
numbers against the Steelers. I don't know that he's fixed everything.
I want to see it, like you got to do
this again. It's not just one time. And he was okay,
he was fine in the first or the second meeting
the season, but he wasn't the reason they won that he.
Speaker 5 (18:41):
Was the driving force in that game obviously has an
influence that's very wide. The playoff experience is a huge deal.
We talk about this all the time, and I'm sure
you saw this, and I shouldn't shock anybody, but Mahomes
is the only one in this playoffs that have more
wins than Wilson. I mean, he's played a lot of
playoff games in his career. I mean, if something said for.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
That, Weilson's also one of just seventeen quarterbacks in NFL
history who have at least ten starts in the playoffs
and have a winning record.
Speaker 4 (19:09):
That's amazing.
Speaker 5 (19:10):
I mean, how often have we had the conversation how
hard it is to win playoff games? I mean, if
you have a winning record as a coach or quarterback
in the playoffs, that is a wow factor, Like it's hard.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
There's been a lot of playoff games played in the
one hundred and plus years of the NFL, and sev seventeen, Yeah,
seventeen guys have a winning record.
Speaker 5 (19:30):
Yeah, Brady Mahomes. I mean there's something. There are no
brainers off the right right thet They take a lot
of the wins, they take a lot of the wins.
I mean, over the last ten years, how many playoff
wins of Brady Mahomes scooped up a awful lot.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
Yeah, they're like up like fifteen out yeah.
Speaker 5 (19:44):
Yeah, Mahomes has fifteen. I think Wilson has nine. Yeah,
Mahomes is distant first. Yeah, you know, Brady's a distant first.
Speaker 4 (19:51):
Well, I mean the guys that are active as we
speak in the playoffs, right.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
Right, Anyways, let's get to a break. He is Matt Williamson.
I am Dale Lolly. You're listening to the Drive if
you're on the Steelers Audio Network. We're going to take
a break. When we come back, we'll be joined by
Bob Larriola, who hasn't visit us in the last couple
of weeks because the games have all been messed up.
So let's do that right after this.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
He's the Drive with Dale Lolly and Matt Williamson on
your twenty four to seven home of the Black and
Gold Steelers Nation Radio.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
And welcome back. I am Dale Lolly. He is the
Matt Williamson. And on the Justin Miller Hotline, we are
joined by the Dean of Doom, the Lord of living
in his fears right now might be the mayor of
Pittsburgh because everybody here seems to be doing the same thing.
(20:46):
That is Bob Larbriola, editor of Steelers Digested Steelers dot Com.
How you doing, Bob, been a.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
While I was dead? Is happy New Year? Boys? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (20:55):
As well? They keep losing because you haven't been on.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
I think there is that it's my fault. That's clever.
Let's let's let's let's start with that. Uh. You know,
if one thing I'm tired of shoveling snow, let me
say that. You know, I agree with that. Guys, you guys, okay, yeah,
(21:19):
and uh, just all the listeners out there. My piece
of advice when you buy a house, do it. Don't
do what I did, which was, you know, the attached
garage is in the back of the house, so when
you're shoveling, you gotta shovel all you know, from the
street all the way back and then the big pad
(21:42):
in the back behind the house because you know, you
gotta pull the cars in that way.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
It looks great because you don't have the cars parked
in front of your house.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
But right, yeah, but see there's yes, I'm really jealous
because they just have to shovel, you know, from their
their garage are in the front of the house, so
they just have to show from there to the street
and that's it.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
And they're all looking at you going sucker. Yeah, that's
why the house was available right then.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
So that's what that's what That would be my advice
to anyone who can, uh, you know, afford to buy
the house in these economic times if if you.
Speaker 5 (22:18):
Have that option, Sage words one with a garage in
the front.
Speaker 3 (22:25):
While we're on the subject of Sage words of it
of wisdom here, I mean, we've seen Steelers ravens a lot.
We've seen Steelers ravens in the postseason. Is there a
path to victory here for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
Yeah, I mean there is. You know, there's that. That's
the whole that's the whole point of the NFL. I mean,
that's been the business model since you know, Pete Roselle.
Back then it was called on on any given Sunday.
Speaker 3 (22:58):
Now it's any given Wednesday, Saturday night exactly.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
So you know, so yes, there there there is a
path of victory. I mean, but you know, I'm gonna
say what I said in two thousand and five, after
a three game losing streak by the Steelers in mid
November to early December was you know, everything you see
(23:29):
though during the three game losing streak contributes to a
sense of how can they win four in a row?
Speaker 4 (23:38):
Which is which?
Speaker 1 (23:38):
Which? Which is what it was in two thousand and five.
So yeah, there's a path for the Steelers to win
Saturday Night. But I mean I haven't seen a whole
lot in the last month that I can point to
and say and that's what they need. You know, you
understand what I mean. Yeah, they have played this season
(24:00):
well enough to beat the Ravens. In fact, they you
know that's a fact, because they did beat them once.
But you know, lately things haven't been going as well.
And uh, I think you can, really you don't even
have to be a really good dart player, just throw
a dart at the board whenever it hits you can.
You can criticize just about every aspect except Chris Boswell. Yeah,
(24:25):
that's the guy. Uh And and you know what I
thought of this as it happened up the entire season,
up until he kicked that ball, that kickoff out of bounds,
You could legitimately say there's nothing you can complain about
with this guy. Yeah, zero now, but that one and
it wasn't you know, I'm not cutting them from the
(24:46):
team or anything, but that's the only thing I could think.
Speaker 3 (24:50):
That's what thoughts In that game. He showed he's human,
like he actually made a mistake.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
He made so but you know, what do you guys think?
Tell me something, Give me something.
Speaker 3 (25:04):
Okay, all right, I'm gonna give you something here, Bob.
We're gonna go back to nineteen eighty six. You were
covering the Steelers back then. Nineteen eighty six, the New
York Jets start the season ten to one. They then
lose their last five games of the regular season, the
closest of which was by fourteen points. Including it included
(25:29):
in that was a loss to the Steelers in nineteen
eighty six, And you were there. The Steelers in eighty
six were not a great football team. They beat the
Jets in New York forty five twenty four, sending the
Jets into the postseason a five game losing streak. The
Jets then go out in the first first round of
the playoffs. They beat the as a wild card beat
(25:51):
the Kansas City Chiefs the following week they go to
Cleveland and lose twenty three to twenty in double overtime,
five game losing streak the end of season.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
Yeah, and I do know that the eighty six Steelers
were bad. That's that's the only thing that I know
for a fact. I mean this other stuff you're saying,
I was trying to, you know, recollect it. But you know,
hearing that the Jets would go on a losing streak,
that's not surprised, right, It's an every year event, you know.
(26:30):
And I can also point to some instances, historical instances
where I believe the Steelers had no chance and they
won two thousand and five in Indianapolis, nineteen eighty nine
in Houston, and one a game that I didn't attend personally,
(26:50):
but I was old enough to be paying attention nineteen
eighty four in Denver. But you know, I don't know
that history. I think Bill Kauer once said this, and
it was incredibly, incredibly insightful.
Speaker 3 (27:06):
The great philosophers.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
Yeah, well, you know, I mean, give them give the
man the credit that's due. You know, history has no
bearing on you know, what's going to happen. I mean
referring to history as a way of predicting or forecasting
the future has no meaning. So you know, we could
(27:32):
we could play this game all day. And again, I
maybe I'm too doctor doomed to use one of your
favorite phrases. You know, I just don't. I don't see
why that should make me optimistic.
Speaker 3 (27:47):
Well, one of the things that happened in that in
that losing streak leading into that game, the Jets in
their ten and one start had forced thirty two turnovers.
Speaker 4 (27:57):
Yeah, I was gonna go turnovers.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
They were plus They were plush thirteen in turnovers at
that point, so more than one per game that they
were winning the turnover battle by and obviously back then
turnovers were more prevalent. In their five game losing streak,
they were minus twelve. But in the postseason when they
when they you know, beat the Chiefs and then lost
to the to the Browns, they were plus five. They
(28:21):
forced five turnovers and didn't have any themselves. I mean,
it's it's it's a fault, it's a it's something that
we've seen from this particular Steelers team as well. When
you get the turnovers, you can beat anybody, and even.
Speaker 5 (28:33):
These bad this bad stretch, I mean the Steeler defenses
tipped balls and caused fumbles and they have some pay
some turnovers as well. But the offense is the one
that needs to correct itself to me, and in terms
of the turnovers in the sloppy play.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Yeah, and you know that's again, I don't think there's
any argument there at all. I mean, because over the
length of the four game losing streak, the defense that
showed some improvement. I mean, there have been areas of
the defense that were below the line in different parts
of the game, different parts of different games during that streak,
(29:11):
but I think towards the end you were seeing some improvement.
They were doing a little bit better job of taking
the ball away. The red zone defense, because I don't
care what anybody says. You know, I'll die on this hill.
I'll take Joe Burrow over Lamar Jackson a thousand times
over a thousand and when you keep that guy out
of the end zone. What was it three times they
(29:33):
settled for three field goals, three red zone field goals,
as they.
Speaker 4 (29:36):
Turned them over nineteen total points in the whole game,
you know.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
Yeah, So to me, that's that's good enough. Red zone defense,
you know, holding holding the Bengals under twenty points that
should have been a win. And so to me, Matt,
that does you know, verify what you just said about.
It's the offense that.
Speaker 4 (30:00):
In particular.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
Yeah, yeah, And I'll tell you what, there's not there's
not an area of the offense even that you can
point to and say, well, that's good.
Speaker 3 (30:11):
This would make it better, right, you know, that's a
good question.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
I can't you know, I don't know what I would
say to that. And you know, looking at that, you know,
what are they good at on offense and not being
able to come up with an answer to me that
points right at the line. Yeah, the line has been
not good enough in my opinion in any way. Not
running the football, not the past protection. You know, there's
(30:45):
just a lot of things that you know, throw the
ball over the middle, well, to throw the ball over
the middle when you're Russell Wilson, you need some throwing
wings in there. If he's supposed to drop back five
steps and throw quick, uh short to intermediate passes over
the middle, you can't have that big, you know, mass
(31:07):
of humanity there that's closing in on him like that.
There has to be some sort of either lanes created
or you know, hold your ground better for that kind
of a passing attack to work with a guy like him.
I mean, he's not Ben, he's not six ' five.
He's not standing in there and just looking over everything
and you know, delivering the ball.
Speaker 3 (31:29):
And even when they were doing that with Ben, with
a quick passion game, there were still balls getting batted
down all that.
Speaker 4 (31:35):
Quite a few at the end there.
Speaker 3 (31:36):
Yes, that's gonna happen.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
Yes. So so you know, the the offensive line needs
to be better in my opinion. You know, receivers can't
be dropping the ball. And you know again I I
and and it's everyone. I mean, you know people will
talk about uh you certainly remember pickings Calvin Austin, but hey,
(32:00):
Farmouth fumbled one and that was a drop on fourth
down against the Bengals. So again I mean, I'm I'm
not pointing at him or anything. But if it's everyone,
is my point. There's you can complain about the play calls,
you can question the game plans. Fine, that's legit. You
can talk about the quarterback that's legit too, But it's
(32:22):
also the offensive line. The receivers, uh, you know, the
make routine plays routinely. I mean that's a I don't know,
that's that's a up there high in the list of cliches.
But I mean, you're.
Speaker 3 (32:35):
Right, right, because there are things that should happen, yes, exactly,
routine play routine because it's expected to be made.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
Yes. So you know, again, I don't know, I don't
know what what the point to is an optimistic thing.
And let me say this too, I don't know what
I would want to do from a strategic standpoint to
start this game. I mean, do you want to come
out it's funny, be aggressive offensively and start throwing the
(33:11):
ball around because you know, it cracks me up this.
You know, people want to talk about this string of
bad starts offensively not scoring. Okay, that's fine, that's that's
factually accurate. But one of the few shows on the
ESPN that I will ever admit in public to watch
(33:33):
is pardon the interruption. I've always liked Will Bond and Kornheiser.
They're ink stained wretches like me. That's that's what they
got to start. But anyway, they had Jeff Saturday on,
who is a former All Pro player, and one of
the things he said was they were talking to him
about playoff games, and he said, what you always have
(33:54):
to remember going into a playoff game is you can't
win the game in the first quarter, but you and
lose it in the first quarter. So you know that
a lot of the media elects to throw into Tomlin's
face that when he says, you know, we didn't lose
the game there, it's too early in the game. We
didn't lose that. That's that's accurate, because if you the
(34:18):
only way you can lose a game in the first
quarter turning it over. And we've seen that in some
playoff games too. I mean, Ben has had so bad starts.
And then there was the one against Cleveland where Poncey
just snapped the ball into the second level or wherever
it went on the first play of the game.
Speaker 3 (34:39):
It would actually have been better if it had gone
to Blocknoxs because it wouldn't have been recovered in the
end zone for a touchdown, right.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
You know what I mean? But Markquis Poncey, you know,
is he the guy you think is gonna, I don't know,
make that kind of mistake at that point of a
playoff game. Ever, I mean, you could have put me
down for no.
Speaker 3 (34:57):
It might have been the only time in his career
that he did that.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
So but yeah, you can't so. But getting back to
my original point, how do you want to open the game?
I mean you want to go for it and risk
that or do you want to try and muck it
down into you know, uh, seventeen fourteen or nineteen sixteen
or something, you know, midway through the fourth quarter and
(35:22):
then see where you are.
Speaker 5 (35:24):
The one thing I think I would do, though, Labs,
is I need to get Pickings involved immediately and engaged.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
You know, I don't you know that? That's fine? Yeah,
but uh.
Speaker 5 (35:36):
And you sink to swim with it to some degree.
I mean, he's your best playmaker. He has to be
one of the best players on the field in this game.
Speaker 1 (35:42):
Or what I'm saying though, is are you coming out
doing that and you know on first downs or are
you talking about getting him involved in.
Speaker 4 (35:51):
Early in the game.
Speaker 5 (35:52):
I need to ball in his hands five times in
the first quarter or four times the first quarter or.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
What I'm what I'm what I'm saying though, is are
you trying to get it to him on third and ten?
Are you trying to get it to them on first
intent I'd.
Speaker 3 (36:02):
Be trying to get it to him on first intent, I'd.
Speaker 4 (36:04):
Be more aggressive that early downs they.
Speaker 1 (36:06):
Okay, I mean I'm not arguing. Yeah, let's certainly hope
that you know, the pass protection works out that ninety
nine cut doesn't come off the corner and strip sack
Russell Wilson because you know, the tackles aren't having a
great day pass blocking or you know, I don't know. Again,
(36:28):
it's the Ravens defense is a it's it's potentially dynamic.
They have potentially dynamic players on that defense. And do
you want to start a game that way on their
home field in the first round of the playoffs. I mean,
all the momentum, they're the favorites, they're I mean, do
(36:50):
you want to come out so if you win the
coin toss? What are you doing?
Speaker 4 (36:55):
That's what we're talking about.
Speaker 3 (36:56):
Last I put the defense on the field. I want
to try a to start winning the field position battle quickly,
and my defense is my best unit. I want that
one to I understand that's Baltimore's best unit, but I
want to try to get Lamar's head as quickly as
I can.
Speaker 1 (37:11):
Okay, Yeah, and that that's a that's a very legitimate
point of view, and you know that would.
Speaker 3 (37:17):
Have happened if you recover that fumble in the in
the in the last rounding on the opening drive, on
the strip sack, you're in his head. He goes, oh,
here we go again against the Steelers.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
You know, and maybe and maybe, because you know, Steelers
fans aren't the only impatient people who will let their
opinions be known early in a game. If if that
was a strip sack on lamar uh, they lost in
Pittsburgh because he didn't really play well. Then in the
(37:49):
first game back against Baltimore in Baltimore, on the first series,
he turns it over. Now, I'm sure to of Ravens fans,
he could have been being careless with the football. I mean,
I'm sure that there are replays that would show he
didn't tuck it right or you know whatever, because you can,
(38:11):
every play made in a football game is either a
good play by somebody or a bad play by somebody,
or at the same time, simultaneous, depending on who.
Speaker 3 (38:20):
You like or you you actually made a good play,
you did everything right, and the other guy made a
better play.
Speaker 1 (38:26):
Yeah there's that too. So you know, it's going to
be interesting how this game unfolds again. I don't think
that there is a clear, decisive, correct way, you know,
to go about this from the Steelers point of view.
Speaker 3 (38:45):
All I know is that if Baltimore wins the toss,
the Steelers offense is going to be on the field first. Yes,
So I'm not gonna do what they want to do.
I'm gonna do what I want to do, and I'm
gonna put my defense on the field.
Speaker 1 (38:58):
Yeah. And as I said, I mean, it's there's there
doesn't seem to be a clear, definitive way to approach
this game, and so the game unfolds in terms of
that strategy. If you if you're a Tomlin hater, it's
(39:18):
his fault, well sure, yeah, you know, or or whatever.
If you don't like Russell Wilson, if you don't think
the Steelers defense is elite, if if, if, if, whatever,
there is a suitable group or individual that there's that
you will get blamed. And that's the I don't know.
(39:45):
It it takes away the fun of the playoffs, it.
Speaker 3 (39:48):
Does, right, it does. I mean, this is a playoff
game we're talking about here, and people are talking they
already want to start talking off season stuff like there's
a playoffs, right, this is what you live for.
Speaker 1 (39:58):
Yeah, and well, and there's no enjoyment of it either,
you know, regardless of what I mean is enjoyment of
the accomplishment, because it is it is one uh you know,
it's not the NHL where everybody gets it.
Speaker 3 (40:14):
There's a ten win team sitting at home right now.
They're actually firing people and moving on with their offseason plans.
The Seattle Seahawks won ten games this year and did
not make the postseason. I mean, people take this for
granted here in Pittsburgh, and I get it. You want
you know, you want super Bowls, you want all that stuff.
But it's not easy to accomplish this and and so
enjoy it when when you get it and enjoy it
(40:36):
for what it is, and you're getting another Steelers Ravens game.
Speaker 4 (40:39):
Half the league is not. It doesn't have a season
going anymore.
Speaker 1 (40:41):
You know. Yeah, yeah, and you know that's that's another issue.
As you mentioned. Deal, you got another Steelers Ravens game,
and that's for NFL fans, oh absolutely, just fans of
their respective teams. That's a game. I mean, if you
just like watching uh football played, that's it.
Speaker 3 (41:05):
There's a reason why hard Knocks is still following these
two these teams like.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
You know, yeah, and and Hard Knocks is a reason that, uh,
and Hard Knocks is a reason a lot of this
latter part of the season was set up the way
it was too. Absolutely convinced me that that's not that
that wasn't the case.
Speaker 3 (41:24):
With you, Bob, But we gotta let you go. We've
we've I know, we kept you over here today because
we haven't talked to you in a few weeks. I have,
but Matt hasn't, and so we had a lot of
questions for you. But we appreciate your time. Hopefully you're
in a little better mood next week, and you know
it's you're not, so we're talking about the Steelers next
to next doom doom field week or something like that.
(41:45):
But uh, well, we hopefully have a game to talk
about our guests and and you don't have to do
any shoveling. Let's let's hope for that as well.
Speaker 1 (41:54):
Yeah, I'm sure Washington Conny hasn't been kind of oh.
Speaker 3 (41:57):
Not at all, not at all, but uh, our guest
has been Bob Larbriola, editor of Steelers Digest and Steelers
dot Com. The Dean of Doom, the Lord of living
in his fears. He's Matt Williamson. I am Dale Lolly.
You're listening to the Driver on the Steelers Audio Network.
We'll be back with more right after this.
Speaker 2 (42:18):
At least he's the Drive with Dale Lolly and Matt
Williamson on your twenty four to seven Home of the
Black and Gold Steelers Nation.
Speaker 3 (42:26):
Radio and welcome back. I am Dale Lolly. He is
the Matt Williamson. And Matt got the Ravens full injury report.
I knew, you know before that Flowers was out. Col
Hamilton returned as a full participant, and I didn't expect
him to mess anything. But the kick returner, the punt returner,
(42:51):
I should say that they had opened the window on
Deontay Hardy did not participate, and he's actually, you know,
a good return guy.
Speaker 4 (43:02):
Yeah, it's kind of his gig. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (43:04):
So if he can't play, then you're still looking then
at Steven Simms as their punt returner. And I like
Steven Simms, sure, but he's not super dynamic as a
punt reach.
Speaker 4 (43:14):
I mean he's been on a bunch of teams.
Speaker 3 (43:15):
Yeah, I mean, there's a reason why the Texans were
willing the same week that they lost Tank Dell. They said,
we're going to part ways here with Yeah.
Speaker 5 (43:25):
I mean, I think he's a fine NFL player. He's
going to retire with money in the bank and a
career and all that kind of stuff. But the teams
have had them play them, right. I mean, they're they're
looking for somebody better. I mean, that's just that there's
a lot of players that a lot of positions that
do that. And case Field didn't listen yesterday and shaming
you for six weeks he didn't. I didn't realize. I mean,
(43:46):
they've gone through kicking punt returners left like crazy, yeah,
crazy until yesterday.
Speaker 3 (43:50):
That's one of the reasons why they signed Simms, because
they lost Hardy. They tried Tyler Wallace. They tried Desmond
King there and they both were putting the ball on
the ground a lot, and they said, we can't do
that for obvious reasons.
Speaker 5 (44:02):
Yeah, and King's kind of a borderline NFL player at
that point too.
Speaker 3 (44:05):
You saw that here, he's the one that fumbled in
the Steeler game on the return.
Speaker 4 (44:10):
And you know you're gonna get some sort of weather.
I mean, there's going to be windy. Yeah, right, Fielding
punts in this time of year, no matter of fun,
isn't great.
Speaker 3 (44:18):
I did a big story in that when I was
still at dk Pittsburgh Sports about just the the problems
of fielding of punts in weather.
Speaker 4 (44:28):
It's so much harder than anyone thinks. If you're looking up.
Speaker 3 (44:30):
In the air, there's snow coming down, there's rain coming down.
How the light hit all of a sudden. You know,
the kickers are so good now they kick a knuckleball
in the air, it's fluttering around and.
Speaker 4 (44:38):
You know, it takes it.
Speaker 5 (44:39):
And it's one of the hardest things in sports in
my opinion, that people take for granted.
Speaker 3 (44:44):
And then you add a left footed punter, as the
Steelers having Corlis Williamson into the equation and makes it
even harder. Corlss weightman. Yeah, Corlus Williams was a basketball player.
Speaker 4 (44:57):
I know that name too.
Speaker 5 (44:59):
Also re nor is Ion for that bat. Yeah right,
but I got all the good jeans.
Speaker 3 (45:05):
Yeah. So I mean it looks like they'll be without
those two players.
Speaker 5 (45:09):
Yeah yeah. Put returner is important again. It sounds like
that's an area special teams in general. I'm sure Harbaugh
can't be thrilled with confidence.
Speaker 3 (45:18):
He's a special teams coach.
Speaker 4 (45:19):
Yeah, that's your background, that's his backer league in that.
Speaker 3 (45:23):
And they've not been as good this year. So yeah,
you know, I didn't expect that that we would not see.
Speaker 5 (45:32):
I thought Hamilton was playing from the start. Yeah, I
think Flowers. I thought it was not gonna I don't
thinks and I'm sure they're going to leave the light
on for him and not gonna tell the Steelers now,
but I would be prepared tomorrow. Are they going to
make a declaration that? Yeah, I'm where the other I
guess it is a day earlier than usual. It's on
normal Wednesday around here.
Speaker 3 (45:50):
Yeah, so game day comes forward as normal Wednesday is
I'm with you, man, I'm driving to the facility today
and I get, you know, the news that the Steelers
are moving practice over to Akrocher Stadium. I'm like, all right,
planning to do that. You get to do their early
locker room, go in do that. The coordinators were going
to talk after the walk through in the morning. Okay,
(46:13):
you know where's that gonna be at. Okay, it's gonna
be there. Is this guy going to talk before practice
or is he going to talk after practice, well after practice,
it was going to be on the field. Then they
decided that we're you know, you're gonna bring everybody back
over and you're gonna have the open locker room after
the practice at Akroeser Stadium. Like, okay, do I need
to go to practice at Achrocer Stadium because you know,
am I gonna drive over? Because we're being told, well,
(46:34):
if you're gonna get if you're gonna go over, you
have to leave practice at one thirty because you got
to get back here in time for the open locks.
Like all right, a strange day again in a strange month, such.
Speaker 5 (46:48):
A strange month. You know, we record this video every
Thursday with Rob. Well, that one's gonna be earlier than usual,
and then you know, pull back the curtain. Friday's drive
is going to be even earlier than earlier than usual.
So you got can get the Baltimore in time, you know.
So just a lot of little things.
Speaker 3 (47:02):
Just the little things that mess things up. No, there
has not been this again. As I said earlier earlier
in the week, this is the first time in team
history that they played four consecutive weeks without playing a
Sunday game. We've had labs for almost in a month.
I guess that's in history. But since their first season,
that's great. Had the Pennsylvania Blue Laws and you couldn't
play on Sunday.
Speaker 5 (47:22):
Yeah, and even like the Chiefs I heard played every
they've played six of the seven days of the week
this year.
Speaker 3 (47:29):
That's so strange, right, Yeah, anyways, that's going to do
it for our number one, Matt and now are going
to take a break here. We'll be back with our
number two right after this.