Week In Review Episode 54 - Playoff Opportunity

The Week In Review looks back at a frustrating loss to Cincinnati, and looks ahead to a post-season clash with the Ravens.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
He's the Steelers Week in Review with Wesley Huehler on
Steelers Nation Radio at Steelers dot Com.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
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. The Steelers fell to the Bengals to
end their season at home at Akershuer Stadium, their fourth

(00:28):
straight loss of the regular season. Mike Tomlin, though not
spending too much time lingering on that, a kind of
quick synopsis of Cincinnati before turning his focus to the playoffs.
In the Baltimore.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
Ravens very seriously to be in this tournament and excited
about being in this tournament and being one of the
fourteen that is still working. We met this morning and
kind of got started with an introduction, if you will,
talking about a mindset and our focus, and for us,
it's not about being in the tournament. It's not about
dreaming about the next month, it's not about pouting over

(01:02):
the last month. It's about this week. For us, we're
playing someone that we're highly familiar with. They're also highly
familiar with us. It will be a third time that
these two teams have come together, will do it in
their venue, and so there's a lot of work ahead
of us in preparation for performance. You know, I don't
find comfort in the familiarity. If anything, it just provides

(01:24):
depths to the strategic waters, if you will, And so
we're proceeding with that understanding for us. You know, it's
important that we take the lessons learned from the last month. Unfortunately,
you probably learn more when when there's failure, and obviously
we've experienced some of that, some of it not jaw

(01:47):
dropping things or earth shattering things, more confirmation of things
that we believe in or or things that we engineer
victory by. We suffer the consequences of not winning to
turnover the battle in recent weeks, and that's been very evident.
We've also suffered the consequences of not performing to our
standards in the red zone offensively and defensively, and oftentimes

(02:10):
your ability to win possession downs within those situations define
you that four point swinging that doing that four game stretch,
we weren't strong enough defensively in that area, and we
certainly weren't strong enough offensively in that area, although on
Saturday night I thought we did make some hay in that.
In that regards on defense, our ability to keep Cincinnati,

(02:33):
Joe Burrow and Company out of the end zone was
a major component of us staying in that football game
and having a chance to win. As we talked about
last week, Joe and Company. I think Joe thrown at
least three touchdowns in every game over the second half
of the season, and our ability to hold him in
that collective to one touchdown in play was why we

(02:54):
were closed while we had the ball and a chance
to win at the end. And in regards us to
dreaming about the next four weeks for us, I certainly
want us to have belief himself, but I just don't
want us to waste a whole bunch of time in it.
The next four next four weeks will be defined by
a string of now's our ability to focus on task

(03:16):
at hand, to to win moments, to prepare with an edge,
to be hyper and singularly focused. And so that's what
our intentions will be as we locke in on this week's.

Speaker 2 (03:26):
Prep and as he always does. Mike Tomlin with injury
updates ahead of Steelers Ravens a couple.

Speaker 1 (03:33):
Of things to update. Cam Heyward obviously is sick. I
think he stated so after the game. Gave him the
day off man in an effort to put that behind him,
so didn't affect his preparation as we lean in on
this game, Mason McCormick has a broken hand. He'll be
sides for a cast and or a brace and chech

(03:56):
functionality there, and so his participation in the quality his
participation will kind of be an indication of his potential
availability as we push forward. Dante Jackson was held out
last week with ongoing back issues. He feels good this morning,
but again we'll watch him throughout the course of the

(04:17):
week and see what his participation does in terms of
the possibility of his inclusion. And then there's some other
bumps and bruises associated with play that may affect some
people at the early portions of the week, but I
don't think will be a major factor when it comes
to dividing the labor up and determining who plays and
who doesn't at the latter part of the week.

Speaker 2 (04:39):
Yes, it will be Pittsburgh and Baltimore for the third
time this season. Mike Tomlins spoke about the challenge and
the familiarity of facing a division foe in the playoffs,
and of course everything that they know about Baltimore.

Speaker 1 (04:52):
I've seen a tremendous sea change and some of the
things that they're doing over the second half of the year,
it looks veryamiliar. We talked about DMP's man and his
inclusion and their efforts and how it has impacted their efforts,
and it's very evident, to be quite honest with you.
They remain aggressive schematically, but they do so while being

(05:15):
proved and they're using a lot of bogus pressure, and
that's a signature of Danp's football. They'll showed the similars
of pressure, but still distribute seven and coverage and that
minimizes some one on one matchups on the back end
and minimizes the potential for big plays. And I think
that's a significant change for them between the first half

(05:37):
of the year and the second half of the year.
Their ability to minimize big plays in the passing game
has been a big component of their upswing Defensively. Since
Week eleven, they are number one in the league and
pass passing yards per game, And that just speaks to
some of the things that they've done schematically, but also
some of the things that they've done from a division

(05:59):
of labor per percive in terms of how they've divided
their labeler up and how they've utilized their most significant people,
in particular Humphreys, Hamilton and Rokwan. If you look at
what they're doing schrammatically, particularly in weighty moments, almost always
the onus of the playmaking falls on those three. On
the back end, they do as good a job as

(06:20):
anybody in the NFL in terms of distributing responsibility to
their most significant players, and over the course of the
second half of the season, those guys have delivered. Can't
say enough about Marlon Humphreys and the playmaking that he's
made for them over the second half of the year.
He's been significant in both of our ball games. He
had a big interception that made it really close in

(06:42):
the ballgame here in Pittsburgh, obviously had a pick six
that broke the game open in Baltimore, but he did
similar things against the Cincinnati Bengals. Had late turnovers in
both of those games that allowed him to win both
of those games in a shootout like fashion. Kyle Hamilton,
man since they moved him back to safety, has been
really solid, doing a nice job keeping the lid on it.

(07:05):
Is good down in and around the line of scrimmage
as well, a good blitzer, a good run game tackler.
He's got a really good skill set. And then obviously
Rokwan is a defensive quarterback. They've played a lot of
linebackers over the second half of the season in terms
of his partner, but he has been a consistent guy.
He's in every package of defense. He's their green dot.

(07:26):
He's a high volume tackler. He's good versus the run,
he's good versus the pass. He's good at mirroring the quarterback.
They're doing similar things with Kyle Hamilton in the secondary
in terms of some of their man the man things
allowing him to mirror the quarterback. Also a large longer
yarded circumstance stances. I think all of that has created

(07:47):
an opportunity where they're keeping the lid on it, They're
making the quarterbacks process more. It's giving their rushing opportunity
to be significant. Five three to ninety nine. Both guys
have been really significant in terms of ability to get
after the quarterback ninety two as well. On the interior,
they're playing more behind a four man rush, maybe than

(08:07):
the early portions of the season, but it's risk playing
behind the playing behind the pressure, and like I mentioned,
they gave up some big plays early, they minimized some
of that. The four man rush has been effective. The
combination of things that they're doing in terms of distribution
of seven and the effort to aid that rush has
been impressive and successful as well. Since week eleven, As

(08:31):
I mentioned, man, they're number one in points per game,
they're number one in pass defense, they're number one in
red zone touchdown percentage. And when you're doing those things, man,
you can be positioned to win a lot of football games.
Coupled with what they're doing on the offensive side of
the ball, there's no reason, there's no surprise that they're
one of their hottest teams in football on the offensive side. Man,

(08:53):
it's about eight and twenty two for us, or for
anyone to be quite honest with you, Lamar's played has
been spectacular. He's been very good with the ball, he's
been good in the passing game, he's been good in
the running game. He's been good at play extension with
very little negativity. There's been very little negativity on their
tape in general over the second half of the season.

(09:15):
They don't turn the ball over, they don't have a
whole lot of negative yardage plays. That keeps them on schedule.
And when you have that tandem in your own schedule,
you're gonna score some points, and they do. I think
they're number three in scoring. They're number one in red
zone touchdown percentage. Quarterback mobility is a major component of that,

(09:35):
couple with the relationship that he has with his tight ends.
Can't say enough about the tight end production from Andrews
and likely particularly Andrews. Lamar has worked with him the
totality of his professional career, their draft mates, and may
you see that continuity, the benefits of that continuity. I
think several weeks ago Andrews broke a franchise record for

(09:56):
receiving touchdowns, and that's also reflective of that relationship. On
the perimeters, Zay Flowers is a matchup issue. He's good
with the ball in his hands. He's good in terms
of run after, he's quick to speed, he's got really
good topy and speed Bateman has emerged in a big
way this year. While staying healthy, He's provided a lot
of splash for him. He's been down the grass guy

(10:19):
has made some significant plays, particularly in weighty moments, some
two minute moments, particularly of late in terms of making
some splash one on one plays for Lamar in Company.
But again, if you're talking about these guys, it's about
minimizing their run game and the uniqueness of their run game.
They got a downhill runner who's a challenge himself alone,

(10:43):
but you couple that with his own recomponent of what
they do in the in the special talents of Lamar,
that is a full time job. We got to be
prudent about how we distribute our schematics. Certainly, when you
play a group like this, it's about shedding blocks and
making tackles. There's no substitute for that. Oftentimes, when you
face quarterback design runs, it becomes a mathematic game of

(11:05):
eleven on eleven and so someone has to whoop blocks
and make tackles. That's just the reality of it. And
so we'll focus our energies on some fundamental things this
week in preparation for that, while at the same time
working hard to find a schematic advantage in some of
those scenarios as well.

Speaker 2 (11:24):
Wild Card Weekend in Baltimore, Steelers Ravens eight pm Saturday night.
I'm Steeler's Audio Network host Wes Shuler. Thanks for listening
to this episode of the Steelers Weekend Review. Take care,
and I'll talk to the ends next week