Week In Review Episode 52 - Gauntlet

The Week in Review looks back at a AFC North win over Cleveland, and ahead to the Pennsylvania State Championship against the Eagles.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
He's the Steelers Week in Review with Wesley Euler on
Steelers Nation Radio at Steelers dot com. Hello Steelers Nation,
and welcome to the Steelers Week in Review, your one
stop shop for all the current news and headlines for
your Pittsburgh Steelers. I'm Wes Euler, host of the Steelers
Blitz on the Steelers Audio Network. Let's get you up
to speed on all the latest for the Black and Gold.

(00:22):
The Steelers ended the stretch of four straight AFC North
Divisional games at home this past Sunday, taking care of
business against the Cleveland Browns. Just a couple of weeks
after falling to Cleveland on Thursday night, Mike Tomlin gave
a synopsis of the effort that was needed by his
team to secure victory against the Browns.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
In reviewing the tape Man, it just really stood out
to me the collective component of the victory. It was
a team effort in a lot of ways, whether it
was individuals getting an opportunity to step up and expanded
roles due to the lack of a availability of individuals,
or the fact that we made splash plays and really

(01:05):
in all three phases, and the complementary component of the
splash plays in all three phases. We started slow on
offense and the defense provided a short field in terms
of the interception by KB, and then the offense was
able to turn that into seven. And our red zone
execution has improved since our many buy and are focused

(01:27):
on that, and so it's just good to see some
of those things and some of the splash plays or
significant plays happening in special teams, the consistency of Boswell,
the turnovers in the kicking game, the gunner play, Ben
Skeronic's efforts, etc. I just thought that everybody had a

(01:47):
playmaker's mentality. Everyone wanted to be the reason why we're successful.
And when you get collectives playing like that, man, that's
when you get an opportunity to play really good team football,
compliment one another, smiling the face of adversity that gets
presented in play, and there's always gonna be adversity, and
the way that you do it oftentimes it's just simply

(02:09):
complementing or supporting those those others. We started the second half,
we gave up a big kickoff beyond the fifty and
the defense got real stout right there and then we
were able to get out of that circumstance, for example,
without giving up points. And so hopefully we're not only
growing in terms of experience, but there's some intangible growth

(02:32):
there as you experience those type days as a collective.
I know as we continue through this journey and the
road gets narrow, that experience is going to be needed
to face some of the challenges that we face.

Speaker 1 (02:48):
And, as coach Tomlin always does at his Tuesday press
conference outlining any injury concerns and updates ahead of this
week's trip to Philadelphia.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
Quickly talking about some health related things, I'll start first
with George and summarize what transpired last weekend and give
you a snapshot of what this week looks like. As
I mentioned leading up to the game, he experienced some
hamstring discomfort post practice on Thursday, getting some post practice

(03:17):
work felt pretty good on Friday. We decided to exercise
a little bit of precaution, worked at him in a
limited fashion on Friday and wanted to save all those
bullets for Sunday. Wanted to see what he looked like
when he got to the stadium and then make a
determination of how many plays we thought would be appropriate
to utilize him in. Obviously, if he wasn't going to

(03:39):
be a full participant. We wanted to gear his participation
toward weighty passing game moments, if you will. But when
we got to the stadium, it was evident that, you know,
maybe the circumstance was a little bit more significant than
we had hoped, and so we made the prudent decision
in terms of shutting him down and not allowing a
small problem to become a bigger one. Post game and

(04:01):
we had an opportunity to get him to get him
an MRI. The injury did show up on MRI. It's
a little bit more significant than than what we imagined,
and so we're just in the mindset now of just
getting them healthy as quickly as we possibly can. There's
a potential for this week, but it's an outside chance,
if you you know, if you if you press me,

(04:22):
i'd probably say he's out or could be characterized as
doubtful as we sit here, But again, like we always do,
we'll go through the normal procedure. We'll let participation be
our guide in terms of availability and then obviously the
quality of that participation. Some guys that are probably in
a little bit better position from a participation standpoint, Larry

(04:43):
Ogan job with his growing and and Deshaun Elliott with
some hamstring tightness. We'll watch those guys, particularly the early
part part of the week and again hopefully there's an
uptick in there participation in the quality of it as
we push forward to a game time. Dante Jackson had
some spotty availability in game. He was sick on Sunday,

(05:07):
but was able to get through. I don't imagine that
he'll be limited. And some other guys got some minor
bumps and bruises associated with competition, and so you know,
as we always do, we won't waste a lot of
time focusing our energies on those not available to us.
We'll appropriately focus our energies on those that are, and
how we divide that labor up and how we can

(05:28):
best position them to perform and play winning football individually
and collectively.

Speaker 1 (05:35):
It is time to get on the turnpike and travel
across the Commonwealth. Philadelphia, Pittsburgh Mike Tomlins speaking about an
Eagles team that is first placed in their division and
playing some really good football as well.

Speaker 2 (05:48):
Now on to the Philadelphia Eagles. Man Really excited about
this one man, this Pennsylvania state Championship. Excited about representing
Whippile in this I was just joking this morning, man,
we could play this game in Breezewood, Man, that'd be awesome.
They're a really good football team. They need no endorsement
for me. They're the winners of nine straight. When you

(06:09):
look at the tape, man, you see exactly why I'll
start first on offense. The acquisition of Sakuon Barkley has
got to be the most significant acquisition in the NFL
in twenty twenty four. That's what the tape looks like.
He's been dominant, eye opening at times, obviously, highlight real

(06:30):
caliber plays, long runs, touchdowns, etc. It starts there for us.
If you don't minimize him in some way, you're not
even going to position yourself to have a chance to
be successful. And so obviously he's got a lot of
our attention at the early stages of the week, but
he can't have the totality of your attention. I remember

(06:51):
the last time we were in the stadium with him,
I think it was twenty twenty and he was playing
for the Giants, and I think Daniel Jones was a
very young quarterback at that time. We were able to
focus a significant amount of our energy on them. We're
not afforded that this time around. Jalen hurts Man is
a top notch quarterback, decision maker, leader, passer, escape artists,

(07:17):
you name it, He's capable of doing it. And so,
you know, we have the challenge of working to minimize
both guys and making the decisions schematic decisions associated with
what's required to do. So you couple that with dynamic
receiving options on the other end of Jalen hurst passes
in the form of a couple of top notch guys.

(07:39):
They've also acquired Dotson from the Commanders and so, man,
they have the type of group that you got to
make some real hardcore decisions about working to minimize and
so we're working through that. The strategic component of that, obviously,
you better play well. I've talked about their eligibles, they're

(07:59):
running back, their quarterback, their receivers, but you can't talk
about Philadelphia without talking about their front. They have some
of the most dynamic people in football up front, Lane Johnson,
you know, being the bell cow that group. Their offensive
line has been stellar for a number of years. They're
not talked about enough for obvious reasons. You get an

(08:20):
opportunity to talk about the dynamic play making of guys
like Saquan and see the highlight real plays like him
jumping people backwards. That oftentimes you missed the brilliance of
a guy like Landon Dickerson man or Lane Johnson. And
so we recognize that the game is played up front,
that they usually provide the wave that the little men ride,
and so we respect that component of what they do

(08:43):
and their capabilities in that area as well. On the
defensive side of the ball. They got a bunch of
young talented players, a bunch of Georgia guys, Guys that
I've seen in draft planning over the last several years,
ultra talented. They've been talent on to the up front
for a number of years.

Speaker 1 (09:03):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (09:03):
They play a lot of people, uh and then invest
in those people in terms of talent acquisition. The same
could be said about this collective. They do a really
good job of of mixing in some schematics. Man Vic
Vangio is a veteran coordinator who's very multiple in terms
of the schematic things that he throws throws at you.

(09:24):
I'd be remiss if I didn't talk about the second
level play. I think when you think about Philly's defense,
you think about the talent acquisition up front, UH, the
quality play making of the young people in the secondary
UH in particular. But when I turned the tape on
me and I saw two inside linebackers that are productive
in all areas. The high volume tacklers, they're very good

(09:46):
in underneath the fence, be it manorson UH, the opportunistic
they created a lot of turnovers for the group. They're
really good blitzers. I just got a lot of respect
for that, that collective of inside linebackers and the quality
in which they're playing at this juncture. As I mentioned earlier,
they got a couple of dynamic young playmakers in the

(10:07):
back end, and Mitchell and Cooper and study those guys
in draft prep not surprised by the contributions that they're
able to provide both guys of football players first and
cover men second, in that they're very physical for their position.
They don't turn down physical confrontation. They display global football

(10:28):
awareness that allows them to make plays other than cover people.
Cooper's shown a nice knack for screen destruction, for example,
a perimeter to play destruction bubble screens, wide out screens,
et cetera. And so they got a real formidable group.
But again, you know, I'm not surprised by that. You're

(10:50):
gonna have some tangible evidence when you're talking about an
NFL collective winning nine games in a row. We're excited
about being in this five star matchup this week, and
we show our excitement by locking in on our preparation,
and so I'm excited about getting started with our players
tomorrow morning.

Speaker 1 (11:09):
In that regard, it's the Battle of Pennsylvania Stiller's eggles
Sunday afternoon in Philadelphia. I'm Steelers Audio Network host West Shuler.
Thanks for listening to this episode of the Steelers Week
in Review. Take care, and I'll talk to the ends
next week