September 25, 2025 • 45 mins
Live from across the pond, Mike Prisuta, Matt Williamson, and Merril Hoge break down the upcoming game and prepare you for Steelers Vikings in Dublin Ireland on Sunday!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Steelers Preview show on WDVE Pittsburgh, brought
to you by your neighborhood Ford Store. The F one
point fifty is the official truck of the Pittsburgh Steelers
by Brian Patton and associates. It's all about the benefits
and by the Steelers Pro Shop. Get it direct from
the team at shop dot Steelers dot com. And now
here are your hosts, Merril Hodge, Matt Williamson and Mike Persuda.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Good evening and welcome to not just another edition of
Steelers Preview right here on your Steelers flagship one of
two point five DVEE and Steelers Nation Radio. Welcome to
Steelers Preview, coming to you live via tape from Dublin, Ireland.
Mike Persuda and Matt Williamson here getting ready for the
Steelers and the Vikings on Sunday here in Dublin. Our
(00:48):
factor back, Meryl Hodge, will be along shortly, but Matt,
I've only been here about twelve hours so far. He
me too, and this place is overflown with Yinsers slash
Steelers fans.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
It's bonker and I'll be honest, I'm sure you're on
the same boat. I mean, with that overnight flight and
all the travel, I don't know if I should cry
or why am I watch, to be honest with you,
but I know I'm having fun and this place is
going to be amazing.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
And I bet it only ramps up between now and Sunday.
It's early.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
The atmosphere is incredible from what I can tell. And
again I got about a twelve hour sample size. But
Dublin is a phenomenal town. It's kind of like the
South Side of Pittsburgh on steroids. Yeah, it's just a
whole lot it logger. Yeah, there's a whole lot more
bars and it's just more festive. But we are going
to play a football game coming up on Sunday. And
(01:37):
your injury report which is presented by your neighborhood Ford store.
The F one fifty is the official truck of the
Pittsburgh Steelers.
Speaker 4 (01:44):
This injury report is significant.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Matt Mike Tomlin at the outset of the week said,
there's certainly a chance that Joey Porter Junior and Deshaun
Elliott'll be back in that secondary for the Steelers. And
let's take a stab at this development from each side.
Speaker 4 (02:02):
Certainly, if they get them back.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Would you expect Les Fanilla, would you expect better play
over the middle, And would you expect Jalen Ramsey follows
Justin Jefferson all the way into Fitzsimon's pub here if
Justin Jefferson decides to come here.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
I'm leaning that way with the Ramsey Jefferson aspect of
it all, and I think it becomes a little easier
if you have Elliott, who I really think they want
to be the quarterback of the back end, and he's
not a green dot guy, but I think he's your
secondary leader and that may have been a bigger blow
middle of the field coverage as well as communication as well.
Speaker 4 (02:43):
One thing he didn't mention is I think Peppers.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
Is going to slowly push Clark out, and I think
Peppers is a nice development. There were three or four
defensive players in this past game Ecles Harmon Peppers that
we haven't seen a ton of it stepped up pretty well,
so I think that's promising. But yes, I'll be to
be frank, I'll be a little critical if it's single.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
High cover three, cover one.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
I think that's why you went and got Ramsey and
all these pieces on the back end, so you can
free up your pass rush and play more press man
and just have a lot more options. And they've frankly
been quite vanilla by NFL standards.
Speaker 5 (03:20):
You know.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Yeah, we heard throughout the preseason process from Mike Tomlin
that they were gonna be heavy schematic options and they
were gonna do a lot of different things.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
They were going to confuse a lot of quarterbacks.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Boy Drake may would have been the perfect time because
he's a young guy that hasn't made many starts. But
as Tomlin explained on Tuesday, Matt, there's there's two things
holding them back to this point from not just being
the secondary they want to be, but playing the way
they want to play.
Speaker 4 (03:50):
One is that.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Injuries have kind of slowed things down. In two is
all the new guys. Against Seattle game Week two, the
entire secondary was comprised by players that didn't play.
Speaker 4 (04:02):
Here last year.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
So there's five guys that played in the secondary zero
snaps from the year before were Steelers.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
I think they still have that vision of pressman and
Ramsey's the shutdown guy, but they haven't gotten to it yet.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
No, they haven't.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
And so what I said a bunch after that Seattle
game was when I figured when we figured it out
that every defensive back had not played a snap the
year before in Black and Gold, that's not an excuse.
But if I'm still saying that in Week four and five,
that's an.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
Excuse, you know what I mean?
Speaker 3 (04:32):
Like that was early, early in the season, and that
your two guys you'd counted on for continuity, Porter and Elliott.
They may not be your two best defensive backs, but
losing both of them at the same time certainly had ramification.
So I can give that a pass to be honest,
from this point on, though, I don't need to be
(04:55):
leading the league in single high and be real Vanella
any more stuff that we thought was coming.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
Yeah, I'll take that a little bit further.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
I think, you know, from this point on, I don't
want to see anymore September football. I thought, yeah, yeah,
I thought it lurched in the right direction in a
couple of key areas against the Patriots, Yeah yeah, I thought.
Speaker 4 (05:14):
You know, they ran the ball early, and they ran
it on.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
That last drive, which, oh, by the way, produced a
game winning touchdown. Yes, Jalen warned into a heavy box,
moving the chains, converting a couple of third downs.
Speaker 4 (05:25):
They really dedicated it to Warren too.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Getting a five yard run to stay ahead of the chains.
That was better, but the bar was pretty low in
terms of it was better for the running game. And
I also thought defensively. We'll get into this with Meyril
a little bit, but I know the Patriots had over
one hundred yards again, which you don't want.
Speaker 4 (05:43):
But the leading rusher was Drake May.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
And while I'm not an advocate of letting quarterbacks get
outside in the pocket and run, I think that was
at least a push because they got to them so
often and sacked them five times and turned them over.
Speaker 4 (05:58):
If you're gonna have an all out.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Of salt on the quarter, you got to get there,
and you gotta make difference making plays. And if you
get there, and if he runs for a couple first
thouts before you make him fumble, oh well, the running
backs for New England, those are the numbers you want
to see in terms of rushing yards allowed in average.
Speaker 4 (06:14):
Per carry, Yes, a thousand percent, great points.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
And I know it's a tough way to live, and
I know as a fan when you're sitting in your
lazy boy with an iron or a Guinness and you
know You're watching them play after play not excelling on defense.
That can be hard, and they get down to the
two yard line and wow, you know this team got
quote lucky. I get that, but no one has excelled
(06:40):
at sacks and turnovers and big plays on defense like
the Steelers. And I'm not just talking about this year.
I'm talking about for five years. I'm talking about long stretches.
I mean, they're the best forced fumble team I've ever seen,
and TJ. Watt and now Herbig are like two of
the best that have ever played. They're the best batting
(07:00):
passes down the line of scrimmage team other than JJ Watt.
Cam Hayward's the best I've ever seen. You know, Like
it's a weird way to live. The Steelers are a
different organization top to bottom, and this environment even proves
that off the field. But they played they play defense
on splash plays and I know that folks will tell
(07:21):
you that's a hard way to live. They've done it
for a long, long stretch and it sure works. Five sacks,
five turnovers.
Speaker 4 (07:28):
Yeah, and when you do it in the red zone,
even better? Right, even better? Right?
Speaker 2 (07:33):
I know they're not going to get just to follow
up on your point, which I agree with one thousand percent.
I know they're not going to get five turnovers of
your game, but there's an expectation they're going to turn
you over.
Speaker 4 (07:43):
That is real. They're as good as anything to leave
at it right.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
If you do that in the right circumstance, it has
a tendency to change games. Absolutely, So they shouldn't apologize
from beating the Pagers, and they certainly shouldn't give it back.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
You know, there's some weird things that happened in the game.
There were there were five fumbles in that game. The
Steelers were covered all five. That's like flipping a coin
that comes up heads five times in a row. I
mean that was fortunate, don't get me wrong, But they
put the ball on the ground.
Speaker 4 (08:12):
You know that. There's something he said for that too.
You know, we're not in the injury report anymore. But
some comings and goings with the Vikings.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
They got a couple of guys back in a complimentary
capacity in beating the Bengals last Sunday outside.
Speaker 4 (08:29):
A weird game. That was oh Man.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Outside linebacker Andrew van Ginkel, safety Harrison Smith. These are
starters and key guys. I would assume their snaps are
just going to continue to grow and show these guys
are going to be more of a factor. Christian Daris
saw a really good left tackle, good back with the offense.
But they've lost their rookie left guard Donovan Jackson. The
(08:52):
anticipation is they'll get their center Ryan Kelly back. He
didn't play against the Bengals last week, so Vikings are
kind of getting a little stronger from a personnel stampion.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
Yeah, let's talk about those guys real quick, because it's
really important. Harrison Smith is a probably not a Hall
of Famer, but he's had a tremendous career. He's kind
of like there Cam Hayward of the defense. It's been
there for twelve years or when they.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Say that because he contributed to a tip pick Tysaiah, Okay,
I didn't think of that. Yeah, the pick six was
Harrison Smith started that getting his hand up.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
Vin Ginkel is the ultimate floores queen on the chess board.
Will do everything for you. He was like fifth and
defensive Player of the Year voting last years.
Speaker 4 (09:32):
He played against the Bengals. No.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
Eight really sacks, he had several two Okay, it's a
pretty good percentage.
Speaker 4 (09:41):
It's a pretty good percentage.
Speaker 5 (09:42):
Now.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
The O line's really interesting to me because for a
couple of years now they've been really good at the
offensive tackle position. The O'Neil kid from Pitt and darrisaw
who I really think is the top left the top
five left tackle, and to their credit, they were ultra aggressive,
rebuilt the entire ro line on two guards in the center.
And Jackson, the first round pick, is going to be
(10:04):
a loss. I thought he was great before his injury,
but Darri saw coming back. I forget what the guy's
name is. I think it's named.
Speaker 4 (10:13):
School skol E. He probably shouldn't be in the league,
you know.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
So from left tackle that was as borderline as you
could get could being a star has been a huge jump.
Speaker 4 (10:23):
And we've even talked about quarterback. I don't think they're
better worse at quarterback, but I don't think they're worse.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Good to that, but they also get Jordan Addison back
not bad from suspension.
Speaker 4 (10:32):
This is a Hawkinson stepping up.
Speaker 5 (10:34):
This is a.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Wide receiver armada, which harkens me back to Mike Tomlin
back in the training camp. We can run and cover
with anybody. Let's it and We have the depth of schematics.
We have the depth at the quarterback. This is the game.
Speaker 4 (10:47):
This is a game.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
When I got Jalen Ramsey, guy thought Cincinnati would be
the game, this is the game. Jefferson Addison right, and
they traded for theland. I mean, that's why you have Corners.
Don't forget Speedy Naylor. Where'd he go to school? Ta Michigan?
Stay gass. Gear up with the latest game day necessities
at the official Steelers pro shops. Get the latest Sideline apparel,
(11:11):
Jersey's Terrible towels, authentic memorabilia, and custom exclusives you can
only find directly from the team.
Speaker 4 (11:17):
Visit one of the official Steelers.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Pro shops located at Akroser Stadium, the Grove City Premium Outlets, and.
Speaker 4 (11:22):
The Tanger Outlets.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
You can also gear up online at shop dot Steelers
dot com. Get it direct from the team at the
Steelers Pro shop at shop dot Steelers dot com. Merrill
Hodge coming up when we come back, so keep it
here with Matt Williamson, I Mike Persuda. This is Steelers Preview,
presented by your neighborhood Ford Store in the f one
fifty is the official truck of the Pittsburgh Steelers right
(11:44):
here on your Steelers Flagship one on two point five
DVE and Steelers Nation Radio.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
Back to the Steelers Preview show on DVE.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Welcome back to the preview Mike Pursuda and Matt Williamson
coming to you from Dublin, Ireland.
Speaker 4 (12:03):
As we get ready for the Steelers and the Minnesota
Vikings on Sunday. Here in Ireland.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Time now to welcome the star of our show to
the show. Our factor back, Merril Hodge. Meryl, we got
to get this worked out one of these days when
we're all in Ireland at the same time. During the
week one preview, you were here and we were back home.
Speaker 4 (12:24):
Now it's reversed.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
But good to talk to you, even if I'm talking
to you across the pond.
Speaker 5 (12:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (12:31):
Well, this actually might be the first time you guys
are in Dublin. I'm in Jackson, how Wyoming, and the
headquarters are in Pittsburgh.
Speaker 5 (12:38):
This might be the first time we ever did a
show like this.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
The magic of technology, Meryl. If we can pull this off,
it gives me hope that the Steelers can pull off
a running game. And I'll tell you what else gives
me hope. The first two drives against New England, and
more than that, the game touchdown drive against New England
(13:02):
saw a couple of runs for first downs on third
and two saw a run into a heavy box that
actually worked. Are they starting to get there or was
that just Hey, if you run the ball one hundred times,
five of them are going to work.
Speaker 6 (13:17):
Well, well, let's I mean to be really honest, it's
not good enough, not from an NFL perspective, not the
standard that is required if you're going to win consistently.
It's just not good period.
Speaker 5 (13:28):
You can. I can leave it at that.
Speaker 6 (13:30):
But some things that you know, they did tinker with
the running game. You know, they ran some pitch plays.
They got on the perimeter. Now, I don't know if
that was like a game specific or team specific if
they thought that they could outflank the Patriots they thought
they were good like that. But I will tell you
this that you know, when this team really ran the
(13:50):
ball started a couple of years ago. They were their
best when they did man blocking schemes and they were
pulling tackles and guards and getting out on the perimeter.
So you know, this is my something that you know
because they had so much success to them. You know,
they didn't get to it later. You know, they didn't
use a lot of it later. But let's just say
that they keep building on that, you know that. That's
what I think my hope is is that they will
(14:12):
build on it and they continue to get better, you know,
down in the trenches, because they're just two way into
too consistent, and some of it is disturbing because guys
just don't know who to block, and that's.
Speaker 5 (14:24):
Always a problem. I mean, you don't know who to block,
you know, getting beat physically, I can tell you.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
There are a lot of steelers here at Simon's Bar.
But as you were saying, but.
Speaker 5 (14:43):
My mother, they got to get better in the trenches consistently.
Speaker 6 (14:48):
You know, they're double teams and who's Who's as possible
for who being accountable for people getting a hat on
people and at least have an effort from I got
my guy, he just beat me, versus I did I
blocked the wrong guy or I didn't block anybody. You know,
although those things are truly unacceptable at this level and
at this time of the season for those things.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
To happen, Merril, you touched on it and It's something
that's been bothering me for a while because say what
you want about the Matt Canada era, and we know
it wasn't pretty, but near the end they were starting
to weaponize those offensive linemen as man blockers and it was.
Speaker 4 (15:24):
Going pretty well.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
I mean, that was about the only thing you could
hang your hat on, and they scrapped a lot of it.
And I mean, I understand that that's not Arthur Smith's thing,
but I feel like they're a little too outside zone reliant.
And I also think something that people don't talk enough
about is the tight ends and receivers haven't been good
enough blockers.
Speaker 5 (15:44):
Now very true. Let me tell you this.
Speaker 6 (15:48):
You know, I watched and I watch, I watched chafe
of the whole league. But I think when I'm watching,
I'm watching the Lions and the Ravens, okay, and I
think the most impressive wide receivers and tight end blockers
in all of football are in Detroit. Those dudes do
not mess around, man. I mean, they get after people.
They I mean you it looks they look like pulling guards.
(16:09):
Those wide receivers.
Speaker 4 (16:11):
You know you can see that one day night that
was that was impressive.
Speaker 6 (16:16):
Telling me you know, like I just I just you know,
I don't know, it's it's uh, it's troublesome, you know
when yeah, you know, if it takes everybody, you know,
you got a job to do. And that doesn't mean
you're going to win every job, because we all know,
you know that you get bees sometimes physically it just happens.
Speaker 5 (16:37):
What what I think is.
Speaker 6 (16:39):
Really probably the most is effort and assignment. You know,
those two things. If those got cleaned up, you know,
we had better effort and we we knew who we
were blocking, we at least tried to get to that
guy versus not blocking him. Oh man will be better
just from that perspective, you know, So that that just
comes down to ownership and being being a better professional
(17:00):
on that.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
Well, let me ask you a football one on one, Meryl,
Because all the talk with the Steelers offensive line throughout
training camp leading into the season, they know they're not
the most experienced bunch outside of Same Molo.
Speaker 4 (17:14):
They know they're not the biggest group in the league.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
But as Troy Fatano said repeatedly, their athleticism is what
they thought was going to separate them and what was
going to allow them to be what the Steelers need
that offensive line to be If you have athletic guys,
is it better to run?
Speaker 6 (17:35):
Zoner Man, Well, I've always felt it's better to run
the things that they're really good at, you know, now
to your point, because they are athletic. You know, if
you watch the Pitts plays, I mean, our guys can run,
our tackles can run.
Speaker 5 (17:49):
I mean people can move and get.
Speaker 4 (17:51):
Out of the big guys that can move.
Speaker 6 (17:53):
Yeah, yeah, listen, I'm I'm a big fan. Listens that
you don't run concept. I mean it is I don't
think people can truly appreciate how hard it is to
execute correctly with five to six guys past, and so
I thought, I've always thought, if you know, if it's okay.
Speaker 5 (18:13):
To man blocking schemes, at least we know I.
Speaker 6 (18:16):
Got that guy, you got that guy, and we can
do some things a little differently from movement and polls
and action and some creativity. So that's what I then, Listen,
maybe that's what maybe it was sparked, and maybe that's
why they kind of did that. They wanted to look
at stuff like that and they build on that. But
I would agree that your your man blocking schemes and
(18:38):
your perimeter play is how you take advantage of athletic
athletic guys, you know, and having the mixture of that
is nothing wrong with that. I've always thought, Listen, you
call it. You designed an offense around the guys that
you have, and what do they do well regardless.
Speaker 5 (18:54):
Of what I want to do. I mean, I've been
a coordinator before, I've coached before.
Speaker 6 (18:57):
As I've wanted to do some things and we can't
do them, and so we don't do them because we
just can't do them. But we can do these, So
let's do this, and that just helps you become a
better team. You know, good coaches do that. I think
he'll get to those type of things eventually, because he
showed last week that they're gonna try.
Speaker 5 (19:15):
They're trying some of it.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
And it is encouraging that they went outside the box
a little bit last week. But I don't need to
harp on it too much, but I just think that
too many of the same play calls becomes predictable and
when you're zone blocking, to me, more than man, if
one guy screws it up, it gets blown up a
(19:39):
lot quicker.
Speaker 5 (19:40):
Yeah, well, you know what they listen, they know we
have problems. So you know what they do.
Speaker 6 (19:44):
I mean, that's what happens is the NFL, they don't
make it easy on you. And so what they started
doing is they start shifting. They start shifting, slanting and stunting,
and you talk about really mess this up. Oh my gosh,
they're adding layers of issue use to making it more
difficult to to a group that's already struggling and and
(20:05):
the team that you're playing that they're playing Sunday.
Speaker 4 (20:12):
Right, I'm gonna tell you this, you're gonna walk up.
Speaker 6 (20:14):
I mean, from a fan perspective, you watch how much
they move around. Watch how many different people are standing
up versus in the dirt threat and then moving around
shifting at the last say. I'm telling you everybody thinks
it's to confuse the quarterback. I'm like, okay, there's ten
other guys that have to see it like he does.
By the way, okay, he's not the only cat. That's
(20:36):
that's why they're doing it. They're trying to confuse other
people that that quarterback is the hardest guy because he's
got so much experience and he's so smart. But if
we mess the other guys up, then we can get
after him. That's what they're doing, That's what they're gonna do.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
Is he the most unorthodox coordinator in the league. I mean,
he sure seems like it to me.
Speaker 5 (20:56):
I mean.
Speaker 4 (20:59):
I don't even think it's closed.
Speaker 5 (21:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (21:00):
Yeah. And taking another level, nobody.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
Mike Flores, Yeah yeah, there's nobody level. Go ahead for
those that are just gonna be at the game. Sorry,
I'm I mean we're talking over each other. I think
the Steeler defense might be the most static in the league,
and this one's the the total opposite. I mean, I
just watching the two defenses couldn't be any more different.
Speaker 5 (21:28):
Well, you're right, you.
Speaker 6 (21:30):
Know, and and and actually you know now the flip
rover on the defensive side, we we developed some problems
in that New England game. Now it all got masked
with those five turnovers, because you're not gonna get five
turnovers every game. I mean, you'd like to get fired,
but you can't guarantee you're gonna get fired. You can't
guarantee you're gonna get one. You might not get any.
(21:50):
But the thing you can trust is how do you play? Fundamentally,
how do we play? What kind of defense are we
How good are we well.
Speaker 5 (21:59):
I will tell you this.
Speaker 6 (22:00):
I cannot tell you how many times they made mistakes
on underneath coverage in their zone concepts.
Speaker 5 (22:07):
Then they they looked confused.
Speaker 6 (22:11):
All the linebackers, not just one gal, but as a group,
the underneath coverages, we're out of position. We're always coming
back with their head shaken, talking to each other, especially
when they would shift or motion or quick shift and
then then snap the ball. And don't think for a second.
Now that they have Carson Wentz they can do that. Now,
(22:31):
if they had the young guy, they would not be
able to take advantage of that as much.
Speaker 5 (22:35):
But with Carson Wentz they will take advantage of that.
Speaker 6 (22:38):
They will challenge those underneath the issues that we that
showed up in New England, and they're gonna see if
they've corrected them. Because with Carson Wentz, you got an
open plate. Now you know, this offense is much more
wide open than it was with JJ McCarthy.
Speaker 4 (22:53):
Berl.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
I want to get back to Minnesota's defense for just
a minute.
Speaker 4 (22:57):
Although you opened the door there that I want to
go down as well.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
But everybody knows Brian Floyd's reputation and I think it's
I think it's well deserved. He's highly regarded and they
are and it's something to see just on TV watching.
Speaker 4 (23:11):
Those guys jump around and be all over the place.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
Any chance you watched the Vikings Atlanta tape and if
you did, how did Atlanta run for two hundred and
eighteen yards on Minnesota?
Speaker 6 (23:23):
Because that's a big number. Yeah, I did well. First
of all, they got a wicked back. I mean they're
back is like I could tell you, there's he's pretty fars.
Half of those runs, yeah, about half of the runs.
Most runners can't make.
Speaker 5 (23:37):
So I just give it. And that's not okay, that's
not the whole thing.
Speaker 6 (23:41):
But I did watch that tape and as I remember, right,
really they attacked the left side and they attack the
edges really well, and they get hit that kid on
the perimeter and he is just man, I don't care
what defense you face, you're gonna have problems with him.
I thought it was more a and they did a
(24:02):
good job up front. You know, anytime you get a
really good runner, a special runner opportunities, you get him
a crack, you give them a seal or something, man,
they are gonna just they're gonna dammage you. It's when
you don't give them that that they will be less effective, but.
Speaker 5 (24:18):
They were getting that.
Speaker 6 (24:18):
They were at least doing their part from that perspective,
and then just his unique and special running skills made
it to be what it looked to be. That was
probably the thing I would say separated is the runner himself.
Speaker 5 (24:31):
And they really did a good job initially up front
on the edges, attacking those edges and getting people blocked.
Speaker 4 (24:40):
So one more note on Floores.
Speaker 3 (24:41):
I mean, I'm sure a lot of people have talked
about this that hey, Aaron Rodgers is great from the
neck up, and I've been saying the same thing that
Rogers might totally understand what's going on and decipher it quick.
But he touched on this earlier. What if the other
ten don't you know.
Speaker 5 (25:00):
Oh that's the problem. It ain't Aaron Rodgers. Let me
tell you this. Yeah.
Speaker 6 (25:03):
Yeah, if we did a better job up front, and
we did a better job route running and getting open,
we would have bigger numbers and we'd have more touchdowns.
Speaker 5 (25:13):
Period.
Speaker 6 (25:14):
You know, people were like, why don't we throw down
the field? We don't have time and we're not winning
down the field. So that combination doesn't allow him.
Speaker 5 (25:21):
To throw the football.
Speaker 6 (25:22):
But I will tell you this, like last week, I
don't think he missed anything.
Speaker 5 (25:27):
You know, there was a couple of games, I mean the.
Speaker 6 (25:29):
The Seattle game, there was a couple of reads I
thought that he missed. I thought he started somewhere because
he didn't trust one side and he missed some opportunities.
He didn't miss anything in New England. He didn't miss
a thing in New England. He took advantage of everything
when they won. When they didn't win, you know, he
he'd eat it. But if we did a better job
(25:50):
up front to protect him and give him just a
half a second more, we did a better job route
running and winning in our routes man, especially against man
man and even zone, I mean, it'll be more fit.
We'll be better in the passing end too, So hoping
that those things come to fruition and doubling.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
I want to get back to those linebackers now, Meryl,
because if I heard it once this week before I
came over here, I heard it twenty five times.
Speaker 4 (26:20):
How can the tight end be so open? What's going on?
I mean they're handy.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Is the linebackers are not absorbing what they're being coached
they're freezing in the moment.
Speaker 4 (26:31):
They're just not as good as Hunter Henry.
Speaker 6 (26:34):
What was going on there, well, a lot of it
was in zone covery, so it wasn't a mandy. But
you know what they would do is they is that
bring that shifts somebody down, so this is and that
FLEs the tight end and they'd move the tight end
inside the tight end as flex And for some reason
they got confused on who was responsible for who and
(26:55):
when they released what area do I go, do I
widen to or do I get.
Speaker 5 (27:00):
To to cover that area of zone?
Speaker 6 (27:02):
And they were just leaving huge voids, so you know,
not knowing who's responsible. Now I could tell you who
I think is responsible for one based on the gap that.
Speaker 5 (27:12):
Existed in his zone.
Speaker 6 (27:13):
I could say, well, in a way, you've got to
be over here because there's nobody over here. There's only
one receiver, there're three over here, and you widened to
the single receiver side versus to the three receiver side.
So I could tell you that from that conceptions, they're
not seeing things the same way. When these guys released
at the line of screamings, they're snapped, they're seeing things differently.
That's why they're dropping into zones differently, so they need
(27:35):
to get that buttoned up, because yeah, I mean, the
Vikings can do that with Carson Wentz. They really couldn't
and wouldn't do that with JJ McCarthy because it's just
too complicated. But you could do that with Wentz. They
will do that with Wins. They did that last week
with Wins, and they're gonna do it this week.
Speaker 5 (27:52):
As much as possible.
Speaker 6 (27:53):
To see if the Steelers have figured that out and
worked through that.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
Let's put a positive spin on things. We've been a
little a little rough on the team here. I'm liking
where the defensive front is going right now. I think
it's rounding into shape. Frankly, I don't know how you
keep her Big off the field. He is a total star,
especially as a pass rusher. The ad Harmon into the mix,
Black Equalle I'm starting to, you know, be pretty happy
(28:20):
with that group.
Speaker 6 (28:24):
Okay, I'm gonna say, but let's I try to be
happy with the whole thing. I'm trying.
Speaker 5 (28:31):
I do.
Speaker 6 (28:31):
Listen, Herbig is He's a menace, you know, and his
motor is constantly going, and I do I will never
disagree with the people that have great motors, people know
what they're doing, people that make plays, and people you
can trust.
Speaker 5 (28:44):
You keep them on the field as much as possible.
Completely agree with that.
Speaker 6 (28:48):
I do still think that they are way too inconsistent
in the trenches. There's too many guys getting blown off
the ball. I do agree that the linebackers got better.
You could tell them there was a priority we were prioritizing.
You shoot, they didn't even they lined them up in
the gaps. You know, they did some different fronts and alignments.
I don't know if you saw that. You know, they changed,
(29:10):
you know, they didn't just line up in a three
four playing through. They shifted things. They put people into gaps,
walk linebackers up. They tried to create burdens on the
blocking assignments of the opponent, which I thought helped at times.
And I do think that they were better, but they weren't.
They weren't as good as you need to be if
you're gonna win consistently. There was still way too many
(29:33):
big runs, way too many people getting bowling off the ball,
and way too many many people.
Speaker 5 (29:41):
Make mistakes, you.
Speaker 6 (29:42):
Know, but it was much better than the first two weeks,
which I would completely agree, But you know, we're not
looking to go you know, nine and eight, nine or
nine and eight, because that's what's going to happen if
you keep playing like that. I mean, you want to
win a division and you got to win a super Bowl.
And it's not good enough yet. But they did make
steps there and they got it. Still long ways to go,
(30:03):
and this team actually just became a better running team
at the big backs that they got now and the
way they ran.
Speaker 5 (30:09):
The football last week is that they're going to feature that.
Speaker 6 (30:14):
They will feature that bad boy in this game without
a doubt.
Speaker 4 (30:20):
You're talking about Mason. I assume really good ball carrier.
Speaker 5 (30:22):
Huh, yes, yeah, I really like it.
Speaker 6 (30:25):
He's yeah, and they did a really good job against
the Bengals.
Speaker 5 (30:28):
You don't run in the football.
Speaker 6 (30:30):
And you know, listen, they don't want to put it
all on Carson Wentz. They don't want to do exactly
what they did against Cincinnati. Control the game. We dictate
when we throw, and we throw it a fit effectively
because we smashed the ball on you. So you can't
stop that, and you can't stop that. You cannot do
anything defensively.
Speaker 4 (30:46):
You're done, merril Uh. We're getting ready for game number four.
Then they take a bye.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
We're out of September game, so the September football asterisk
is going away. What if we don't see drastic improvement Sunday,
that would be bad?
Speaker 5 (31:08):
Correct, very bad.
Speaker 6 (31:11):
Yes, that's not how you want to go into the buy.
I mean it would be Honestly, it would be bad. Yeah, well,
I mean in some ways catastrophic because now you have
an entire week off. You you had a month. Now,
(31:33):
let's let me back up a little bit. You know,
they have gradually got better. So I do expect them
to be better, I really do. I don't expect now,
does that mean they're going to win the game. Like,
if you look at what the evidence you have right now,
Minnesota is a better football team overall, then the Steelers
are right now, Okay, based on the evidence. Now, that's
why they play on Sunday. That's why they practice all
(31:55):
week to get better. Okay, what areas get better? If
all the area we just discussed get better, then there's
then there's a greater.
Speaker 5 (32:03):
Chance that they could beat him.
Speaker 6 (32:05):
And if they beat him with getting better, well, then
that that's a big time growth for where they really
need to be.
Speaker 5 (32:12):
If they don't get better.
Speaker 6 (32:14):
Unless say they just stay stagnant or worse.
Speaker 5 (32:17):
Then that's a concern.
Speaker 4 (32:21):
Mari.
Speaker 3 (32:21):
Lessing I got for you is we've gone fifteen to
twenty minutes without bringing up the best player in the
whole game. And that's justin Jefferson in my opinion. Is
he a top five ten receiver you've ever seen?
Speaker 6 (32:35):
Well, what I like about him that puts him up
in the elite is he is he gets open, he
knows how to separate. What I do like about him is,
you know, there's been games where the ball doesn't come
his way. He's even dropped when you know, Chicago dinna
have the best game.
Speaker 5 (32:50):
And I don't.
Speaker 6 (32:51):
I don't ever see him go into that wine. He
cry and woes me.
Speaker 5 (32:56):
You know.
Speaker 6 (32:56):
That's kind of what I like about him the most
is that he's not gonna weigh your team down because
he's not having a good game when you're not having
a good game.
Speaker 5 (33:05):
And adding to the.
Speaker 6 (33:06):
Complexity, what is concerning about this one is Carson Wentz
is a more polished quarterback and now can get him
the ball in more ways, so they can utilize him
and put him in more situations to win, which is
a danger for us in this game. Is that now
he is, he is much more pliable in areas that
(33:26):
he would not have been with JJ McCarthy.
Speaker 4 (33:33):
Meryl appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
I know we had some issues getting it cranked up tonight,
but thanks for hanging in there with us.
Speaker 4 (33:39):
You've been so good this first month. I think you
should just take next week on God.
Speaker 5 (33:44):
I love you guys. Takes me all.
Speaker 6 (33:45):
Join Dublin Man and go Stevens. Let's get a big win, baby.
Speaker 4 (33:51):
Merril Hodges coming at you on the preview.
Speaker 2 (33:55):
A lot more to come, so you're gonna want to
keep it here with Matt Williamson, I'm Mike Pursuda. You
are listening to Steelers Preview right here on your Steelers
flagship one of two point five DVE and Steelers Nation Radio.
Speaker 4 (34:10):
Back to the Steelers Preview show on DVE.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
Welcome back to Steelers Preview, presented by your neighborhood food store.
The F one fifty is the official truck on the
Pittsburgh Steelers. Mike Pursuda and Matt Williamson coming at you
from Fitzsimon's Bar in beautiful downtown Dublin, Ireland. We're getting
ready for the Steelers and the Vikings here in Ireland.
On Sunday, Matt we talked like the environment here, Oh
(34:40):
my god, this place just pulsates and vibrates.
Speaker 4 (34:44):
Yeah, and more and more people keep filtering in.
Speaker 3 (34:47):
They can't imagine it will be like tonight or Friday
night or Saturday night.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
I mean, wow, you know, my hotel is about an
eight minute walk from here, and coming over here to
do the show pasted a bunch of establishments quite like
this one. They were all packed and there was music
coming out of a lot of them, and I imagine
tonight's gonna get little nuts and we get done. Preview
and sty we talked about the Steelers secondary and how
(35:12):
we you know, this would be a really good idea
if they could be the kind of secondary they want
to be, both in terms of who they're deploying and.
Speaker 4 (35:21):
How they're deploying them. Carson Wentz is a really interesting
component of this game. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:27):
Now, I got to say this, I'm disappointed JJ McCarthy
isn't playing, because I really wanted to see if he
can pass the test when he doesn't know the questions,
but he doesn't know the answers to the questions to
see where you're going before they asked him. But Mike
Tommlan talked about this dynamic on Tuesday and he mentioned
(35:50):
the Colts game last year and he said he told
his defense to keep Anthony Richardson upright, which didn't happen
because he didn't want grizzly veteran Joe Flack to come
in and use all that veteran.
Speaker 4 (36:02):
Savvy and veterans.
Speaker 3 (36:03):
Yeah, and now you have there's a parallel here, grizzly veteran.
Speaker 2 (36:07):
Carson Wentz who I mean, I'm not trying to be
insulting here. Sometimes when I see him drop back into
the pocket, he looks like Herman Munster.
Speaker 4 (36:15):
A little bit. He is not athletic. No, he is
not a threat to run.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
No, but he's been there and done that guy, and
he's got a nice pump fake and he still has.
Speaker 4 (36:23):
Plenty of arm. And he's got a great supporting cast.
Speaker 3 (36:26):
To be very honest with you, like when they put
McCarthy into that cast, including the head coach, who's a
great play caller. Offensive mind, that's about a softened nest
of a landing spot as a rookie quarterback could have.
And frankly, your boy McCarthy struggled in.
Speaker 5 (36:42):
A big way.
Speaker 4 (36:42):
I mean, he had procedural errors, looked way in over
his head. You know, it's funny.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
He was tremendous in the fourth quarter against the Bears,
one good quarter.
Speaker 4 (36:50):
Right after he threw he threw a pick six.
Speaker 2 (36:52):
It looked like he buried him in that game based
off pulling or play. And then he started making every
throw he ran. He just did it off, it all off,
and so here I am, let's go yeah yeah.
Speaker 4 (37:02):
And then I guess the Atlantic game was really bad.
Speaker 3 (37:04):
Really bad, really bad, And so I don't know that
they're asking him to rush back. To be honest with you, now,
I hope we aren't implying that Wentz is the superstar,
you know. I mean, he's he is a been there,
done it guy. But he's also six years in a row,
six different teams, and has started for all of them
(37:25):
some of them. And what's just not happen before not
happened before, and it's not necessarily a compliment either.
Speaker 4 (37:29):
It might not happen again. I would be shocked.
Speaker 3 (37:31):
I mean some of them are like week week eighteen,
garbage time starts win Mahomes doesn't want to play, but
he has ability, and he's had success in the league,
and as Merrill mentioned, he's in you. I mean, he's
been around the league and he understands, you know, NFL quarterbacking.
Speaker 4 (37:47):
At least if that cast might be enough.
Speaker 2 (37:51):
Is it too simple to look at this game and
at least some of the offensive standpoint Aaron Rodgers has
been in a lot of pressure. Yeah, I thought they
played chuck and duck against the Legland last week. Mike
Tomlin denies this, but I still see it differently. Their
passing game is structured based on what they think they
(38:13):
can get away with, not what they want to do.
They don't have time to do anything but get it
out quick and keep.
Speaker 4 (38:19):
It short and simple.
Speaker 3 (38:20):
Yes, and I don't think I'll be frank to be
watching the Jets tape. I was worried that when Rogers
was going to be the starter, they would come out
quick because he didn't want to get hit, you know,
the older guy. This is not unusual for late late
in their career quarterbacks. I don't want to get hit anymore.
It's hard to get out of bed on Monday. That's
(38:42):
not what I see. I think, like as Merrill mentioned,
I think it's coming out quick because that's all they
got right now.
Speaker 4 (38:48):
Yeah, because he is good. I mean I called Wentz
Herman Munster a minute ago.
Speaker 2 (38:52):
I mean, Rogers has better pocket mobility in terms of
avoid the initial pressure.
Speaker 4 (38:59):
And buy the life. Well we saw again against the Patriots.
He's not gonna run for first downs.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
No no, And I think he's kind of past extending
the play and making something happen. Even though he made that,
I still can't get over the throw he made the
friar Mouth in the Seattle game.
Speaker 4 (39:14):
That friar Mouths dropped ammense arm talent.
Speaker 2 (39:16):
Which was a big bench special, you know, Yeah, find
a way to get out on the wing and then
just throw it where nobody else can, or so it seems.
Speaker 4 (39:23):
I mean, immense arm talent.
Speaker 3 (39:24):
And I think he's incredible above the neck and all
the little.
Speaker 4 (39:27):
Tricks of the trade.
Speaker 3 (39:29):
But all you got to do is watch Bill's Ravens
and understand what modern day quarterbacking is in terms of
playmaking and things of that nature.
Speaker 5 (39:37):
You know.
Speaker 3 (39:37):
I mean, that's who you got to beat in this league.
And Wentz isn't that guy by any stretch. But I
mean you have to realize that as fun as Rogers is,
and I frankly think he's already their best quarterback since Ben.
You're not going to get that element that most a
lot of teams have right now, you know.
Speaker 2 (39:53):
So the Steelers are clearly going to still be in
protect him mode, and particularly with this complexity defense and
guys rushing from everywhere the amount Brian floores they blitz
coming off the bus that the rush is coming on
the other side.
Speaker 4 (40:08):
I think the Steelers can get.
Speaker 2 (40:09):
To Carson Wentz Oh. I agree, particularly after what I
saw last week. Your point about high Smith is well taken.
I don't know that I made as big a deal
of that as I should have. Viking's gonna have a
hard time keeping Carson Wentz up. So is it last
quarterback standing wins or is it more complicated?
Speaker 3 (40:29):
They're probably more complicated than that, because I trust the
Vikings run game a lot more, and I trust the
Steelers run game right now. I think that is I
think Meryll mentioned this. I think they're playing better. I
think they're making fewer mistakes than the Steelers, But I
also wonder what kind of effect does this environment have.
I mean, this is not a normal game. I mean,
(40:51):
does that favor the Steelers. Does that favor the coach
has been on the block? Does that favor the organization?
Speaker 4 (40:56):
I don't know. I mean does it matter in the
third quarter when everyone's time?
Speaker 5 (41:00):
You know?
Speaker 2 (41:00):
You know, Mike Tomlin talked about that a little bit
this week, Matt, and he said that, you know, the
NFL has been doing this a while now.
Speaker 4 (41:06):
The Vikings have more.
Speaker 3 (41:07):
Experienced at this fender Steelers and in the four and
oh over here, yeah, are just didn't.
Speaker 2 (41:11):
Steelers only played the London game in terms of a
game that counted in twenty thirteen.
Speaker 3 (41:15):
But in Minnesota staying here they're gonna play here next week. Well,
I mean not here here, but Europe.
Speaker 2 (41:21):
According to Tomlin, everybody kind of shares the information on
what's the best way to lug everything across the pond,
and you know, reset your operation.
Speaker 4 (41:30):
Over here and get everything done that you need to
get done. So it's maybe not the you know, trip
to OZ that it used to be. But I stealer crowd.
It seems like I said, there's an emotional aspect too early.
Speaker 2 (41:43):
Yet another thing I wanted to bring up about the
Minnesota defense because this stat amazed me going into that
Cincinnati game. Last Sunday, the Vikings had stopped twelve consecutive
third and seven or longer third downs.
Speaker 3 (42:01):
That doesn't surprise me. I mean, that's an amazing staff.
But that's flores, bread.
Speaker 2 (42:05):
And Buttercinnati went on to go one conversion, five nine
conversions in that scenario.
Speaker 3 (42:13):
And the big plays on defense for the Vikings for
a scene. I mean, I really believe Wentz could have
came to the line of scrimmage and spiked the football
every snap and the Vikings still win that game.
Speaker 2 (42:23):
So seventeen out of eighteen they stop you if it's
third and seven or long.
Speaker 4 (42:29):
It was thirty Seven's not a mile, no, but still
that's an amazing consistency number.
Speaker 2 (42:34):
And the couple that with the Steelers who gave up
in that New England drive that lasted four days and
covered three and a half miles but resulted.
Speaker 4 (42:44):
In mid and zero no points. They didn't convert a.
Speaker 2 (42:48):
Third and twelve, but they got it down to the
fourth and one, which the Patriots subsequently converted from their
own fifteenth.
Speaker 4 (42:54):
They converted a third and ten, They converted a third
and thirteen.
Speaker 2 (43:00):
Last me is that schematic ers at the players when
I see third and ten and third and thirteen and
third and twelve.
Speaker 4 (43:05):
I think players.
Speaker 3 (43:06):
Yeah, like nobody's getting schemed out of that stuff. I know,
And I'll be honest. I mean, like you look at
the Steeler defense in that game. Their early down stuff
was really good, you know, first down, second down was
really good. Third down and fourth down were brutal. And
that extends drives. That's why you have a drive for
forty days and forty nights, like you mentioned, and now
(43:28):
we're talking drive stats. I want to throw one thing
out through in a positive note before we go. This
team scores touchdowns now though, the Steelers, I mean seven
to eight in the red zone.
Speaker 4 (43:37):
Yeah, that's the quarterback to me.
Speaker 3 (43:40):
I mean he might not move like Alan or Lamar
or whatever, but you get him down by the stripe,
he puts a ball in the paint.
Speaker 2 (43:46):
They may have gone six possessions without a first down
that wasn't the result of a defensive penalty and they did. Yeah,
but they got three touchdowns. But they three touchouts, right,
and they are scoring points. Specialty will be interesting as well.
Will Reiker Minnesota eight of eleven on fifty plus field
goals last season. He made he made a fifty nine
(44:10):
yarder at Chicago this season, and he made a sixty
two yarder at the end of the first half against Cincinnati.
It was like Boswell's kick against the Jets.
Speaker 4 (44:19):
It hit the net. Yeah, yeah, there was more meat
on that bone. So when these teams get to midfield,
they're in field goal range.
Speaker 3 (44:28):
Yes, And I don't even know how to comment on this,
but I know teams and kickers get a little skittish
in weird stadiums too.
Speaker 4 (44:37):
I don't how that affects things. I have no clue. Yeah,
I don't think either one of these guys are gonna care.
If you can make a fifty nine yarder in Chicago.
I'll trust bas anyway. Antarctica that game, I won't trust
Boswell anyway. That's gonna do it for us.
Speaker 2 (44:48):
Thanks to Justin Miller and Brian La Martine back in
the United States of America for getting things.
Speaker 4 (44:56):
Up and running and keeping them running.
Speaker 2 (44:58):
Hats off to Wes and David Edgar and Jacob Wrect
here on this side of the pond for keeping things going.
Bye week next week, so no show, but we'll get
going again when the Steelers get going again. Until then,
thanks for finding us wherever you found us for Matt Williamson,
(45:18):
Mike Pursuda, you have been listening to Steelers Preview, brought
to you by Ford. F one fifty is the official
truck of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Thanks for finding us on
your Steelers flagship one of two point.
Speaker 4 (45:32):
Five DVEE and Steeler Nation Radio. Good Night everyone,
Welcome to the Steelers Preview show on WDVE Pittsburgh, brought
to you by your neighborhood Ford Store. The F one
point fifty is the official truck of the Pittsburgh Steelers
by Brian Patton and associates. It's all about the benefits
and by the Steelers Pro Shop. Get it direct from
the team at shop dot Steelers dot com. And now
here are your hosts, Merril Hodge, Matt Williamson and Mike Persuda.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Good evening and welcome to not just another edition of
Steelers Preview right here on your Steelers flagship one of
two point five DVEE and Steelers Nation Radio. Welcome to
Steelers Preview, coming to you live via tape from Dublin, Ireland.
Mike Persuda and Matt Williamson here getting ready for the
Steelers and the Vikings on Sunday here in Dublin. Our
(00:48):
factor back, Meryl Hodge, will be along shortly, but Matt,
I've only been here about twelve hours so far. He
me too, and this place is overflown with Yinsers slash
Steelers fans.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
It's bonker and I'll be honest, I'm sure you're on
the same boat. I mean, with that overnight flight and
all the travel, I don't know if I should cry
or why am I watch, to be honest with you,
but I know I'm having fun and this place is
going to be amazing.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
And I bet it only ramps up between now and Sunday.
It's early.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
The atmosphere is incredible from what I can tell. And
again I got about a twelve hour sample size. But
Dublin is a phenomenal town. It's kind of like the
South Side of Pittsburgh on steroids. Yeah, it's just a
whole lot it logger. Yeah, there's a whole lot more
bars and it's just more festive. But we are going
to play a football game coming up on Sunday. And
(01:37):
your injury report which is presented by your neighborhood Ford store.
The F one fifty is the official truck of the
Pittsburgh Steelers.
Speaker 4 (01:44):
This injury report is significant.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Matt Mike Tomlin at the outset of the week said,
there's certainly a chance that Joey Porter Junior and Deshaun
Elliott'll be back in that secondary for the Steelers. And
let's take a stab at this development from each side.
Speaker 4 (02:02):
Certainly, if they get them back.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Would you expect Les Fanilla, would you expect better play
over the middle, And would you expect Jalen Ramsey follows
Justin Jefferson all the way into Fitzsimon's pub here if
Justin Jefferson decides to come here.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
I'm leaning that way with the Ramsey Jefferson aspect of
it all, and I think it becomes a little easier
if you have Elliott, who I really think they want
to be the quarterback of the back end, and he's
not a green dot guy, but I think he's your
secondary leader and that may have been a bigger blow
middle of the field coverage as well as communication as well.
Speaker 4 (02:43):
One thing he didn't mention is I think Peppers.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
Is going to slowly push Clark out, and I think
Peppers is a nice development. There were three or four
defensive players in this past game Ecles Harmon Peppers that
we haven't seen a ton of it stepped up pretty well,
so I think that's promising. But yes, I'll be to
be frank, I'll be a little critical if it's single.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
High cover three, cover one.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
I think that's why you went and got Ramsey and
all these pieces on the back end, so you can
free up your pass rush and play more press man
and just have a lot more options. And they've frankly
been quite vanilla by NFL standards.
Speaker 5 (03:20):
You know.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Yeah, we heard throughout the preseason process from Mike Tomlin
that they were gonna be heavy schematic options and they
were gonna do a lot of different things.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
They were going to confuse a lot of quarterbacks.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Boy Drake may would have been the perfect time because
he's a young guy that hasn't made many starts. But
as Tomlin explained on Tuesday, Matt, there's there's two things
holding them back to this point from not just being
the secondary they want to be, but playing the way
they want to play.
Speaker 4 (03:50):
One is that.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Injuries have kind of slowed things down. In two is
all the new guys. Against Seattle game Week two, the
entire secondary was comprised by players that didn't play.
Speaker 4 (04:02):
Here last year.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
So there's five guys that played in the secondary zero
snaps from the year before were Steelers.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
I think they still have that vision of pressman and
Ramsey's the shutdown guy, but they haven't gotten to it yet.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
No, they haven't.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
And so what I said a bunch after that Seattle
game was when I figured when we figured it out
that every defensive back had not played a snap the
year before in Black and Gold, that's not an excuse.
But if I'm still saying that in Week four and five,
that's an.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
Excuse, you know what I mean?
Speaker 3 (04:32):
Like that was early, early in the season, and that
your two guys you'd counted on for continuity, Porter and Elliott.
They may not be your two best defensive backs, but
losing both of them at the same time certainly had ramification.
So I can give that a pass to be honest,
from this point on, though, I don't need to be
(04:55):
leading the league in single high and be real Vanella
any more stuff that we thought was coming.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
Yeah, I'll take that a little bit further.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
I think, you know, from this point on, I don't
want to see anymore September football. I thought, yeah, yeah,
I thought it lurched in the right direction in a
couple of key areas against the Patriots, Yeah yeah, I thought.
Speaker 4 (05:14):
You know, they ran the ball early, and they ran
it on.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
That last drive, which, oh, by the way, produced a
game winning touchdown. Yes, Jalen warned into a heavy box,
moving the chains, converting a couple of third downs.
Speaker 4 (05:25):
They really dedicated it to Warren too.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Getting a five yard run to stay ahead of the chains.
That was better, but the bar was pretty low in
terms of it was better for the running game. And
I also thought defensively. We'll get into this with Meyril
a little bit, but I know the Patriots had over
one hundred yards again, which you don't want.
Speaker 4 (05:43):
But the leading rusher was Drake May.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
And while I'm not an advocate of letting quarterbacks get
outside in the pocket and run, I think that was
at least a push because they got to them so
often and sacked them five times and turned them over.
Speaker 4 (05:58):
If you're gonna have an all out.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Of salt on the quarter, you got to get there,
and you gotta make difference making plays. And if you
get there, and if he runs for a couple first
thouts before you make him fumble, oh well, the running
backs for New England, those are the numbers you want
to see in terms of rushing yards allowed in average.
Speaker 4 (06:14):
Per carry, Yes, a thousand percent, great points.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
And I know it's a tough way to live, and
I know as a fan when you're sitting in your
lazy boy with an iron or a Guinness and you
know You're watching them play after play not excelling on defense.
That can be hard, and they get down to the
two yard line and wow, you know this team got
quote lucky. I get that, but no one has excelled
(06:40):
at sacks and turnovers and big plays on defense like
the Steelers. And I'm not just talking about this year.
I'm talking about for five years. I'm talking about long stretches.
I mean, they're the best forced fumble team I've ever seen,
and TJ. Watt and now Herbig are like two of
the best that have ever played. They're the best batting
(07:00):
passes down the line of scrimmage team other than JJ Watt.
Cam Hayward's the best I've ever seen. You know, Like
it's a weird way to live. The Steelers are a
different organization top to bottom, and this environment even proves
that off the field. But they played they play defense
on splash plays and I know that folks will tell
(07:21):
you that's a hard way to live. They've done it
for a long, long stretch and it sure works. Five sacks,
five turnovers.
Speaker 4 (07:28):
Yeah, and when you do it in the red zone,
even better? Right, even better? Right?
Speaker 2 (07:33):
I know they're not going to get just to follow
up on your point, which I agree with one thousand percent.
I know they're not going to get five turnovers of
your game, but there's an expectation they're going to turn
you over.
Speaker 4 (07:43):
That is real. They're as good as anything to leave
at it right.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
If you do that in the right circumstance, it has
a tendency to change games. Absolutely, So they shouldn't apologize
from beating the Pagers, and they certainly shouldn't give it back.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
You know, there's some weird things that happened in the game.
There were there were five fumbles in that game. The
Steelers were covered all five. That's like flipping a coin
that comes up heads five times in a row. I
mean that was fortunate, don't get me wrong, But they
put the ball on the ground.
Speaker 4 (08:12):
You know that. There's something he said for that too.
You know, we're not in the injury report anymore. But
some comings and goings with the Vikings.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
They got a couple of guys back in a complimentary
capacity in beating the Bengals last Sunday outside.
Speaker 4 (08:29):
A weird game. That was oh Man.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Outside linebacker Andrew van Ginkel, safety Harrison Smith. These are
starters and key guys. I would assume their snaps are
just going to continue to grow and show these guys
are going to be more of a factor. Christian Daris
saw a really good left tackle, good back with the offense.
But they've lost their rookie left guard Donovan Jackson. The
(08:52):
anticipation is they'll get their center Ryan Kelly back. He
didn't play against the Bengals last week, so Vikings are
kind of getting a little stronger from a personnel stampion.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
Yeah, let's talk about those guys real quick, because it's
really important. Harrison Smith is a probably not a Hall
of Famer, but he's had a tremendous career. He's kind
of like there Cam Hayward of the defense. It's been
there for twelve years or when they.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Say that because he contributed to a tip pick Tysaiah, Okay,
I didn't think of that. Yeah, the pick six was
Harrison Smith started that getting his hand up.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
Vin Ginkel is the ultimate floores queen on the chess board.
Will do everything for you. He was like fifth and
defensive Player of the Year voting last years.
Speaker 4 (09:32):
He played against the Bengals. No.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
Eight really sacks, he had several two Okay, it's a
pretty good percentage.
Speaker 4 (09:41):
It's a pretty good percentage.
Speaker 5 (09:42):
Now.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
The O line's really interesting to me because for a
couple of years now they've been really good at the
offensive tackle position. The O'Neil kid from Pitt and darrisaw
who I really think is the top left the top
five left tackle, and to their credit, they were ultra aggressive,
rebuilt the entire ro line on two guards in the center.
And Jackson, the first round pick, is going to be
(10:04):
a loss. I thought he was great before his injury,
but Darri saw coming back. I forget what the guy's
name is. I think it's named.
Speaker 4 (10:13):
School skol E. He probably shouldn't be in the league,
you know.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
So from left tackle that was as borderline as you
could get could being a star has been a huge jump.
Speaker 4 (10:23):
And we've even talked about quarterback. I don't think they're
better worse at quarterback, but I don't think they're worse.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Good to that, but they also get Jordan Addison back
not bad from suspension.
Speaker 4 (10:32):
This is a Hawkinson stepping up.
Speaker 5 (10:34):
This is a.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Wide receiver armada, which harkens me back to Mike Tomlin
back in the training camp. We can run and cover
with anybody. Let's it and We have the depth of schematics.
We have the depth at the quarterback. This is the game.
Speaker 4 (10:47):
This is a game.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
When I got Jalen Ramsey, guy thought Cincinnati would be
the game, this is the game. Jefferson Addison right, and
they traded for theland. I mean, that's why you have Corners.
Don't forget Speedy Naylor. Where'd he go to school? Ta Michigan?
Stay gass. Gear up with the latest game day necessities
at the official Steelers pro shops. Get the latest Sideline apparel,
(11:11):
Jersey's Terrible towels, authentic memorabilia, and custom exclusives you can
only find directly from the team.
Speaker 4 (11:17):
Visit one of the official Steelers.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Pro shops located at Akroser Stadium, the Grove City Premium Outlets, and.
Speaker 4 (11:22):
The Tanger Outlets.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
You can also gear up online at shop dot Steelers
dot com. Get it direct from the team at the
Steelers Pro shop at shop dot Steelers dot com. Merrill
Hodge coming up when we come back, so keep it
here with Matt Williamson, I Mike Persuda. This is Steelers Preview,
presented by your neighborhood Ford Store in the f one
fifty is the official truck of the Pittsburgh Steelers right
(11:44):
here on your Steelers Flagship one on two point five
DVE and Steelers Nation Radio.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
Back to the Steelers Preview show on DVE.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Welcome back to the preview Mike Pursuda and Matt Williamson
coming to you from Dublin, Ireland.
Speaker 4 (12:03):
As we get ready for the Steelers and the Minnesota
Vikings on Sunday. Here in Ireland.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Time now to welcome the star of our show to
the show. Our factor back, Merril Hodge. Meryl, we got
to get this worked out one of these days when
we're all in Ireland at the same time. During the
week one preview, you were here and we were back home.
Speaker 4 (12:24):
Now it's reversed.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
But good to talk to you, even if I'm talking
to you across the pond.
Speaker 5 (12:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (12:31):
Well, this actually might be the first time you guys
are in Dublin. I'm in Jackson, how Wyoming, and the
headquarters are in Pittsburgh.
Speaker 5 (12:38):
This might be the first time we ever did a
show like this.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
The magic of technology, Meryl. If we can pull this off,
it gives me hope that the Steelers can pull off
a running game. And I'll tell you what else gives
me hope. The first two drives against New England, and
more than that, the game touchdown drive against New England
(13:02):
saw a couple of runs for first downs on third
and two saw a run into a heavy box that
actually worked. Are they starting to get there or was
that just Hey, if you run the ball one hundred times,
five of them are going to work.
Speaker 6 (13:17):
Well, well, let's I mean to be really honest, it's
not good enough, not from an NFL perspective, not the
standard that is required if you're going to win consistently.
It's just not good period.
Speaker 5 (13:28):
You can. I can leave it at that.
Speaker 6 (13:30):
But some things that you know, they did tinker with
the running game. You know, they ran some pitch plays.
They got on the perimeter. Now, I don't know if
that was like a game specific or team specific if
they thought that they could outflank the Patriots they thought
they were good like that. But I will tell you
this that you know, when this team really ran the
(13:50):
ball started a couple of years ago. They were their
best when they did man blocking schemes and they were
pulling tackles and guards and getting out on the perimeter.
So you know, this is my something that you know
because they had so much success to them. You know,
they didn't get to it later. You know, they didn't
use a lot of it later. But let's just say
that they keep building on that, you know that. That's
what I think my hope is is that they will
(14:12):
build on it and they continue to get better, you know,
down in the trenches, because they're just two way into
too consistent, and some of it is disturbing because guys
just don't know who to block, and that's.
Speaker 5 (14:24):
Always a problem. I mean, you don't know who to block,
you know, getting beat physically, I can tell you.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
There are a lot of steelers here at Simon's Bar.
But as you were saying, but.
Speaker 5 (14:43):
My mother, they got to get better in the trenches consistently.
Speaker 6 (14:48):
You know, they're double teams and who's Who's as possible
for who being accountable for people getting a hat on
people and at least have an effort from I got
my guy, he just beat me, versus I did I
blocked the wrong guy or I didn't block anybody. You know,
although those things are truly unacceptable at this level and
at this time of the season for those things.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
To happen, Merril, you touched on it and It's something
that's been bothering me for a while because say what
you want about the Matt Canada era, and we know
it wasn't pretty, but near the end they were starting
to weaponize those offensive linemen as man blockers and it was.
Speaker 4 (15:24):
Going pretty well.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
I mean, that was about the only thing you could
hang your hat on, and they scrapped a lot of it.
And I mean, I understand that that's not Arthur Smith's thing,
but I feel like they're a little too outside zone reliant.
And I also think something that people don't talk enough
about is the tight ends and receivers haven't been good
enough blockers.
Speaker 5 (15:44):
Now very true. Let me tell you this.
Speaker 6 (15:48):
You know, I watched and I watch, I watched chafe
of the whole league. But I think when I'm watching,
I'm watching the Lions and the Ravens, okay, and I
think the most impressive wide receivers and tight end blockers
in all of football are in Detroit. Those dudes do
not mess around, man. I mean, they get after people.
They I mean you it looks they look like pulling guards.
(16:09):
Those wide receivers.
Speaker 4 (16:11):
You know you can see that one day night that
was that was impressive.
Speaker 6 (16:16):
Telling me you know, like I just I just you know,
I don't know, it's it's uh, it's troublesome, you know
when yeah, you know, if it takes everybody, you know,
you got a job to do. And that doesn't mean
you're going to win every job, because we all know,
you know that you get bees sometimes physically it just happens.
Speaker 5 (16:37):
What what I think is.
Speaker 6 (16:39):
Really probably the most is effort and assignment. You know,
those two things. If those got cleaned up, you know,
we had better effort and we we knew who we
were blocking, we at least tried to get to that
guy versus not blocking him. Oh man will be better
just from that perspective, you know, So that that just
comes down to ownership and being being a better professional
(17:00):
on that.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
Well, let me ask you a football one on one, Meryl,
Because all the talk with the Steelers offensive line throughout
training camp leading into the season, they know they're not
the most experienced bunch outside of Same Molo.
Speaker 4 (17:14):
They know they're not the biggest group in the league.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
But as Troy Fatano said repeatedly, their athleticism is what
they thought was going to separate them and what was
going to allow them to be what the Steelers need
that offensive line to be If you have athletic guys,
is it better to run?
Speaker 6 (17:35):
Zoner Man, Well, I've always felt it's better to run
the things that they're really good at, you know, now
to your point, because they are athletic. You know, if
you watch the Pitts plays, I mean, our guys can run,
our tackles can run.
Speaker 5 (17:49):
I mean people can move and get.
Speaker 4 (17:51):
Out of the big guys that can move.
Speaker 6 (17:53):
Yeah, yeah, listen, I'm I'm a big fan. Listens that
you don't run concept. I mean it is I don't
think people can truly appreciate how hard it is to
execute correctly with five to six guys past, and so
I thought, I've always thought, if you know, if it's okay.
Speaker 5 (18:13):
To man blocking schemes, at least we know I.
Speaker 6 (18:16):
Got that guy, you got that guy, and we can
do some things a little differently from movement and polls
and action and some creativity. So that's what I then, Listen,
maybe that's what maybe it was sparked, and maybe that's
why they kind of did that. They wanted to look
at stuff like that and they build on that. But
I would agree that your your man blocking schemes and
(18:38):
your perimeter play is how you take advantage of athletic
athletic guys, you know, and having the mixture of that
is nothing wrong with that. I've always thought, Listen, you
call it. You designed an offense around the guys that
you have, and what do they do well regardless.
Speaker 5 (18:54):
Of what I want to do. I mean, I've been
a coordinator before, I've coached before.
Speaker 6 (18:57):
As I've wanted to do some things and we can't
do them, and so we don't do them because we
just can't do them. But we can do these, So
let's do this, and that just helps you become a
better team. You know, good coaches do that. I think
he'll get to those type of things eventually, because he
showed last week that they're gonna try.
Speaker 5 (19:15):
They're trying some of it.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
And it is encouraging that they went outside the box
a little bit last week. But I don't need to
harp on it too much, but I just think that
too many of the same play calls becomes predictable and
when you're zone blocking, to me, more than man, if
one guy screws it up, it gets blown up a
(19:39):
lot quicker.
Speaker 5 (19:40):
Yeah, well, you know what they listen, they know we
have problems. So you know what they do.
Speaker 6 (19:44):
I mean, that's what happens is the NFL, they don't
make it easy on you. And so what they started
doing is they start shifting. They start shifting, slanting and stunting,
and you talk about really mess this up. Oh my gosh,
they're adding layers of issue use to making it more
difficult to to a group that's already struggling and and
(20:05):
the team that you're playing that they're playing Sunday.
Speaker 4 (20:12):
Right, I'm gonna tell you this, you're gonna walk up.
Speaker 6 (20:14):
I mean, from a fan perspective, you watch how much
they move around. Watch how many different people are standing
up versus in the dirt threat and then moving around
shifting at the last say. I'm telling you everybody thinks
it's to confuse the quarterback. I'm like, okay, there's ten
other guys that have to see it like he does.
By the way, okay, he's not the only cat. That's
(20:36):
that's why they're doing it. They're trying to confuse other
people that that quarterback is the hardest guy because he's
got so much experience and he's so smart. But if
we mess the other guys up, then we can get
after him. That's what they're doing, That's what they're gonna do.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
Is he the most unorthodox coordinator in the league. I mean,
he sure seems like it to me.
Speaker 5 (20:56):
I mean.
Speaker 4 (20:59):
I don't even think it's closed.
Speaker 5 (21:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (21:00):
Yeah. And taking another level, nobody.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
Mike Flores, Yeah yeah, there's nobody level. Go ahead for
those that are just gonna be at the game. Sorry,
I'm I mean we're talking over each other. I think
the Steeler defense might be the most static in the league,
and this one's the the total opposite. I mean, I
just watching the two defenses couldn't be any more different.
Speaker 5 (21:28):
Well, you're right, you.
Speaker 6 (21:30):
Know, and and and actually you know now the flip
rover on the defensive side, we we developed some problems
in that New England game. Now it all got masked
with those five turnovers, because you're not gonna get five
turnovers every game. I mean, you'd like to get fired,
but you can't guarantee you're gonna get fired. You can't
guarantee you're gonna get one. You might not get any.
(21:50):
But the thing you can trust is how do you play? Fundamentally,
how do we play? What kind of defense are we
How good are we well.
Speaker 5 (21:59):
I will tell you this.
Speaker 6 (22:00):
I cannot tell you how many times they made mistakes
on underneath coverage in their zone concepts.
Speaker 5 (22:07):
Then they they looked confused.
Speaker 6 (22:11):
All the linebackers, not just one gal, but as a group,
the underneath coverages, we're out of position. We're always coming
back with their head shaken, talking to each other, especially
when they would shift or motion or quick shift and
then then snap the ball. And don't think for a second.
Now that they have Carson Wentz they can do that. Now,
(22:31):
if they had the young guy, they would not be
able to take advantage of that as much.
Speaker 5 (22:35):
But with Carson Wentz they will take advantage of that.
Speaker 6 (22:38):
They will challenge those underneath the issues that we that
showed up in New England, and they're gonna see if
they've corrected them. Because with Carson Wentz, you got an
open plate. Now you know, this offense is much more
wide open than it was with JJ McCarthy.
Speaker 4 (22:53):
Berl.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
I want to get back to Minnesota's defense for just
a minute.
Speaker 4 (22:57):
Although you opened the door there that I want to
go down as well.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
But everybody knows Brian Floyd's reputation and I think it's
I think it's well deserved. He's highly regarded and they
are and it's something to see just on TV watching.
Speaker 4 (23:11):
Those guys jump around and be all over the place.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
Any chance you watched the Vikings Atlanta tape and if
you did, how did Atlanta run for two hundred and
eighteen yards on Minnesota?
Speaker 6 (23:23):
Because that's a big number. Yeah, I did well. First
of all, they got a wicked back. I mean they're
back is like I could tell you, there's he's pretty fars.
Half of those runs, yeah, about half of the runs.
Most runners can't make.
Speaker 5 (23:37):
So I just give it. And that's not okay, that's
not the whole thing.
Speaker 6 (23:41):
But I did watch that tape and as I remember, right,
really they attacked the left side and they attack the
edges really well, and they get hit that kid on
the perimeter and he is just man, I don't care
what defense you face, you're gonna have problems with him.
I thought it was more a and they did a
(24:02):
good job up front. You know, anytime you get a
really good runner, a special runner opportunities, you get him
a crack, you give them a seal or something, man,
they are gonna just they're gonna dammage you. It's when
you don't give them that that they will be less effective, but.
Speaker 5 (24:18):
They were getting that.
Speaker 6 (24:18):
They were at least doing their part from that perspective,
and then just his unique and special running skills made
it to be what it looked to be. That was
probably the thing I would say separated is the runner himself.
Speaker 5 (24:31):
And they really did a good job initially up front
on the edges, attacking those edges and getting people blocked.
Speaker 4 (24:40):
So one more note on Floores.
Speaker 3 (24:41):
I mean, I'm sure a lot of people have talked
about this that hey, Aaron Rodgers is great from the
neck up, and I've been saying the same thing that
Rogers might totally understand what's going on and decipher it quick.
But he touched on this earlier. What if the other
ten don't you know.
Speaker 5 (25:00):
Oh that's the problem. It ain't Aaron Rodgers. Let me
tell you this. Yeah.
Speaker 6 (25:03):
Yeah, if we did a better job up front, and
we did a better job route running and getting open,
we would have bigger numbers and we'd have more touchdowns.
Speaker 5 (25:13):
Period.
Speaker 6 (25:14):
You know, people were like, why don't we throw down
the field? We don't have time and we're not winning
down the field. So that combination doesn't allow him.
Speaker 5 (25:21):
To throw the football.
Speaker 6 (25:22):
But I will tell you this, like last week, I
don't think he missed anything.
Speaker 5 (25:27):
You know, there was a couple of games, I mean the.
Speaker 6 (25:29):
The Seattle game, there was a couple of reads I
thought that he missed. I thought he started somewhere because
he didn't trust one side and he missed some opportunities.
He didn't miss anything in New England. He didn't miss
a thing in New England. He took advantage of everything
when they won. When they didn't win, you know, he
he'd eat it. But if we did a better job
(25:50):
up front to protect him and give him just a
half a second more, we did a better job route
running and winning in our routes man, especially against man
man and even zone, I mean, it'll be more fit.
We'll be better in the passing end too, So hoping
that those things come to fruition and doubling.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
I want to get back to those linebackers now, Meryl,
because if I heard it once this week before I
came over here, I heard it twenty five times.
Speaker 4 (26:20):
How can the tight end be so open? What's going on?
I mean they're handy.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Is the linebackers are not absorbing what they're being coached
they're freezing in the moment.
Speaker 4 (26:31):
They're just not as good as Hunter Henry.
Speaker 6 (26:34):
What was going on there, well, a lot of it
was in zone covery, so it wasn't a mandy. But
you know what they would do is they is that
bring that shifts somebody down, so this is and that
FLEs the tight end and they'd move the tight end
inside the tight end as flex And for some reason
they got confused on who was responsible for who and
(26:55):
when they released what area do I go, do I
widen to or do I get.
Speaker 5 (27:00):
To to cover that area of zone?
Speaker 6 (27:02):
And they were just leaving huge voids, so you know,
not knowing who's responsible. Now I could tell you who
I think is responsible for one based on the gap that.
Speaker 5 (27:12):
Existed in his zone.
Speaker 6 (27:13):
I could say, well, in a way, you've got to
be over here because there's nobody over here. There's only
one receiver, there're three over here, and you widened to
the single receiver side versus to the three receiver side.
So I could tell you that from that conceptions, they're
not seeing things the same way. When these guys released
at the line of screamings, they're snapped, they're seeing things differently.
That's why they're dropping into zones differently, so they need
(27:35):
to get that buttoned up, because yeah, I mean, the
Vikings can do that with Carson Wentz. They really couldn't
and wouldn't do that with JJ McCarthy because it's just
too complicated. But you could do that with Wentz. They
will do that with Wins. They did that last week
with Wins, and they're gonna do it this week.
Speaker 5 (27:52):
As much as possible.
Speaker 6 (27:53):
To see if the Steelers have figured that out and
worked through that.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
Let's put a positive spin on things. We've been a
little a little rough on the team here. I'm liking
where the defensive front is going right now. I think
it's rounding into shape. Frankly, I don't know how you
keep her Big off the field. He is a total star,
especially as a pass rusher. The ad Harmon into the mix,
Black Equalle I'm starting to, you know, be pretty happy
(28:20):
with that group.
Speaker 6 (28:24):
Okay, I'm gonna say, but let's I try to be
happy with the whole thing. I'm trying.
Speaker 5 (28:31):
I do.
Speaker 6 (28:31):
Listen, Herbig is He's a menace, you know, and his
motor is constantly going, and I do I will never
disagree with the people that have great motors, people know
what they're doing, people that make plays, and people you
can trust.
Speaker 5 (28:44):
You keep them on the field as much as possible.
Completely agree with that.
Speaker 6 (28:48):
I do still think that they are way too inconsistent
in the trenches. There's too many guys getting blown off
the ball. I do agree that the linebackers got better.
You could tell them there was a priority we were prioritizing.
You shoot, they didn't even they lined them up in
the gaps. You know, they did some different fronts and alignments.
I don't know if you saw that. You know, they changed,
(29:10):
you know, they didn't just line up in a three
four playing through. They shifted things. They put people into gaps,
walk linebackers up. They tried to create burdens on the
blocking assignments of the opponent, which I thought helped at times.
And I do think that they were better, but they weren't.
They weren't as good as you need to be if
you're gonna win consistently. There was still way too many
(29:33):
big runs, way too many people getting bowling off the ball,
and way too many many people.
Speaker 5 (29:41):
Make mistakes, you.
Speaker 6 (29:42):
Know, but it was much better than the first two weeks,
which I would completely agree, But you know, we're not
looking to go you know, nine and eight, nine or
nine and eight, because that's what's going to happen if
you keep playing like that. I mean, you want to
win a division and you got to win a super Bowl.
And it's not good enough yet. But they did make
steps there and they got it. Still long ways to go,
(30:03):
and this team actually just became a better running team
at the big backs that they got now and the
way they ran.
Speaker 5 (30:09):
The football last week is that they're going to feature that.
Speaker 6 (30:14):
They will feature that bad boy in this game without
a doubt.
Speaker 4 (30:20):
You're talking about Mason. I assume really good ball carrier.
Speaker 5 (30:22):
Huh, yes, yeah, I really like it.
Speaker 6 (30:25):
He's yeah, and they did a really good job against
the Bengals.
Speaker 5 (30:28):
You don't run in the football.
Speaker 6 (30:30):
And you know, listen, they don't want to put it
all on Carson Wentz. They don't want to do exactly
what they did against Cincinnati. Control the game. We dictate
when we throw, and we throw it a fit effectively
because we smashed the ball on you. So you can't
stop that, and you can't stop that. You cannot do
anything defensively.
Speaker 4 (30:46):
You're done, merril Uh. We're getting ready for game number four.
Then they take a bye.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
We're out of September game, so the September football asterisk
is going away. What if we don't see drastic improvement Sunday,
that would be bad?
Speaker 5 (31:08):
Correct, very bad.
Speaker 6 (31:11):
Yes, that's not how you want to go into the buy.
I mean it would be Honestly, it would be bad. Yeah, well,
I mean in some ways catastrophic because now you have
an entire week off. You you had a month. Now,
(31:33):
let's let me back up a little bit. You know,
they have gradually got better. So I do expect them
to be better, I really do. I don't expect now,
does that mean they're going to win the game. Like,
if you look at what the evidence you have right now,
Minnesota is a better football team overall, then the Steelers
are right now, Okay, based on the evidence. Now, that's
why they play on Sunday. That's why they practice all
(31:55):
week to get better. Okay, what areas get better? If
all the area we just discussed get better, then there's
then there's a greater.
Speaker 5 (32:03):
Chance that they could beat him.
Speaker 6 (32:05):
And if they beat him with getting better, well, then
that that's a big time growth for where they really
need to be.
Speaker 5 (32:12):
If they don't get better.
Speaker 6 (32:14):
Unless say they just stay stagnant or worse.
Speaker 5 (32:17):
Then that's a concern.
Speaker 4 (32:21):
Mari.
Speaker 3 (32:21):
Lessing I got for you is we've gone fifteen to
twenty minutes without bringing up the best player in the
whole game. And that's justin Jefferson in my opinion. Is
he a top five ten receiver you've ever seen?
Speaker 6 (32:35):
Well, what I like about him that puts him up
in the elite is he is he gets open, he
knows how to separate. What I do like about him is,
you know, there's been games where the ball doesn't come
his way. He's even dropped when you know, Chicago dinna
have the best game.
Speaker 5 (32:50):
And I don't.
Speaker 6 (32:51):
I don't ever see him go into that wine. He
cry and woes me.
Speaker 5 (32:56):
You know.
Speaker 6 (32:56):
That's kind of what I like about him the most
is that he's not gonna weigh your team down because
he's not having a good game when you're not having
a good game.
Speaker 5 (33:05):
And adding to the.
Speaker 6 (33:06):
Complexity, what is concerning about this one is Carson Wentz
is a more polished quarterback and now can get him
the ball in more ways, so they can utilize him
and put him in more situations to win, which is
a danger for us in this game. Is that now
he is, he is much more pliable in areas that
(33:26):
he would not have been with JJ McCarthy.
Speaker 4 (33:33):
Meryl appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
I know we had some issues getting it cranked up tonight,
but thanks for hanging in there with us.
Speaker 4 (33:39):
You've been so good this first month. I think you
should just take next week on God.
Speaker 5 (33:44):
I love you guys. Takes me all.
Speaker 6 (33:45):
Join Dublin Man and go Stevens. Let's get a big win, baby.
Speaker 4 (33:51):
Merril Hodges coming at you on the preview.
Speaker 2 (33:55):
A lot more to come, so you're gonna want to
keep it here with Matt Williamson, I'm Mike Pursuda. You
are listening to Steelers Preview right here on your Steelers
flagship one of two point five DVE and Steelers Nation Radio.
Speaker 4 (34:10):
Back to the Steelers Preview show on DVE.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
Welcome back to Steelers Preview, presented by your neighborhood food store.
The F one fifty is the official truck on the
Pittsburgh Steelers. Mike Pursuda and Matt Williamson coming at you
from Fitzsimon's Bar in beautiful downtown Dublin, Ireland. We're getting
ready for the Steelers and the Vikings here in Ireland.
On Sunday, Matt we talked like the environment here, Oh
(34:40):
my god, this place just pulsates and vibrates.
Speaker 4 (34:44):
Yeah, and more and more people keep filtering in.
Speaker 3 (34:47):
They can't imagine it will be like tonight or Friday
night or Saturday night.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
I mean, wow, you know, my hotel is about an
eight minute walk from here, and coming over here to
do the show pasted a bunch of establishments quite like
this one. They were all packed and there was music
coming out of a lot of them, and I imagine
tonight's gonna get little nuts and we get done. Preview
and sty we talked about the Steelers secondary and how
(35:12):
we you know, this would be a really good idea
if they could be the kind of secondary they want
to be, both in terms of who they're deploying and.
Speaker 4 (35:21):
How they're deploying them. Carson Wentz is a really interesting
component of this game. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:27):
Now, I got to say this, I'm disappointed JJ McCarthy
isn't playing, because I really wanted to see if he
can pass the test when he doesn't know the questions,
but he doesn't know the answers to the questions to
see where you're going before they asked him. But Mike
Tommlan talked about this dynamic on Tuesday and he mentioned
(35:50):
the Colts game last year and he said he told
his defense to keep Anthony Richardson upright, which didn't happen
because he didn't want grizzly veteran Joe Flack to come
in and use all that veteran.
Speaker 4 (36:02):
Savvy and veterans.
Speaker 3 (36:03):
Yeah, and now you have there's a parallel here, grizzly veteran.
Speaker 2 (36:07):
Carson Wentz who I mean, I'm not trying to be
insulting here. Sometimes when I see him drop back into
the pocket, he looks like Herman Munster.
Speaker 4 (36:15):
A little bit. He is not athletic. No, he is
not a threat to run.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
No, but he's been there and done that guy, and
he's got a nice pump fake and he still has.
Speaker 4 (36:23):
Plenty of arm. And he's got a great supporting cast.
Speaker 3 (36:26):
To be very honest with you, like when they put
McCarthy into that cast, including the head coach, who's a
great play caller. Offensive mind, that's about a softened nest
of a landing spot as a rookie quarterback could have.
And frankly, your boy McCarthy struggled in.
Speaker 5 (36:42):
A big way.
Speaker 4 (36:42):
I mean, he had procedural errors, looked way in over
his head. You know, it's funny.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
He was tremendous in the fourth quarter against the Bears,
one good quarter.
Speaker 4 (36:50):
Right after he threw he threw a pick six.
Speaker 2 (36:52):
It looked like he buried him in that game based
off pulling or play. And then he started making every
throw he ran. He just did it off, it all off,
and so here I am, let's go yeah yeah.
Speaker 4 (37:02):
And then I guess the Atlantic game was really bad.
Speaker 3 (37:04):
Really bad, really bad, And so I don't know that
they're asking him to rush back. To be honest with you, now,
I hope we aren't implying that Wentz is the superstar,
you know. I mean, he's he is a been there,
done it guy. But he's also six years in a row,
six different teams, and has started for all of them
(37:25):
some of them. And what's just not happen before not
happened before, and it's not necessarily a compliment either.
Speaker 4 (37:29):
It might not happen again. I would be shocked.
Speaker 3 (37:31):
I mean some of them are like week week eighteen,
garbage time starts win Mahomes doesn't want to play, but
he has ability, and he's had success in the league,
and as Merrill mentioned, he's in you. I mean, he's
been around the league and he understands, you know, NFL quarterbacking.
Speaker 4 (37:47):
At least if that cast might be enough.
Speaker 2 (37:51):
Is it too simple to look at this game and
at least some of the offensive standpoint Aaron Rodgers has
been in a lot of pressure. Yeah, I thought they
played chuck and duck against the Legland last week. Mike
Tomlin denies this, but I still see it differently. Their
passing game is structured based on what they think they
(38:13):
can get away with, not what they want to do.
They don't have time to do anything but get it
out quick and keep.
Speaker 4 (38:19):
It short and simple.
Speaker 3 (38:20):
Yes, and I don't think I'll be frank to be
watching the Jets tape. I was worried that when Rogers
was going to be the starter, they would come out
quick because he didn't want to get hit, you know,
the older guy. This is not unusual for late late
in their career quarterbacks. I don't want to get hit anymore.
It's hard to get out of bed on Monday. That's
(38:42):
not what I see. I think, like as Merrill mentioned,
I think it's coming out quick because that's all they
got right now.
Speaker 4 (38:48):
Yeah, because he is good. I mean I called Wentz
Herman Munster a minute ago.
Speaker 2 (38:52):
I mean, Rogers has better pocket mobility in terms of
avoid the initial pressure.
Speaker 4 (38:59):
And buy the life. Well we saw again against the Patriots.
He's not gonna run for first downs.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
No no, And I think he's kind of past extending
the play and making something happen. Even though he made that,
I still can't get over the throw he made the
friar Mouth in the Seattle game.
Speaker 4 (39:14):
That friar Mouths dropped ammense arm talent.
Speaker 2 (39:16):
Which was a big bench special, you know, Yeah, find
a way to get out on the wing and then
just throw it where nobody else can, or so it seems.
Speaker 4 (39:23):
I mean, immense arm talent.
Speaker 3 (39:24):
And I think he's incredible above the neck and all
the little.
Speaker 4 (39:27):
Tricks of the trade.
Speaker 3 (39:29):
But all you got to do is watch Bill's Ravens
and understand what modern day quarterbacking is in terms of
playmaking and things of that nature.
Speaker 5 (39:37):
You know.
Speaker 3 (39:37):
I mean, that's who you got to beat in this league.
And Wentz isn't that guy by any stretch. But I
mean you have to realize that as fun as Rogers is,
and I frankly think he's already their best quarterback since Ben.
You're not going to get that element that most a
lot of teams have right now, you know.
Speaker 2 (39:53):
So the Steelers are clearly going to still be in
protect him mode, and particularly with this complexity defense and
guys rushing from everywhere the amount Brian floores they blitz
coming off the bus that the rush is coming on
the other side.
Speaker 4 (40:08):
I think the Steelers can get.
Speaker 2 (40:09):
To Carson Wentz Oh. I agree, particularly after what I
saw last week. Your point about high Smith is well taken.
I don't know that I made as big a deal
of that as I should have. Viking's gonna have a
hard time keeping Carson Wentz up. So is it last
quarterback standing wins or is it more complicated?
Speaker 3 (40:29):
They're probably more complicated than that, because I trust the
Vikings run game a lot more, and I trust the
Steelers run game right now. I think that is I
think Meryll mentioned this. I think they're playing better. I
think they're making fewer mistakes than the Steelers, But I
also wonder what kind of effect does this environment have.
I mean, this is not a normal game. I mean,
(40:51):
does that favor the Steelers. Does that favor the coach
has been on the block? Does that favor the organization?
Speaker 4 (40:56):
I don't know. I mean does it matter in the
third quarter when everyone's time?
Speaker 5 (41:00):
You know?
Speaker 2 (41:00):
You know, Mike Tomlin talked about that a little bit
this week, Matt, and he said that, you know, the
NFL has been doing this a while now.
Speaker 4 (41:06):
The Vikings have more.
Speaker 3 (41:07):
Experienced at this fender Steelers and in the four and
oh over here, yeah, are just didn't.
Speaker 2 (41:11):
Steelers only played the London game in terms of a
game that counted in twenty thirteen.
Speaker 3 (41:15):
But in Minnesota staying here they're gonna play here next week. Well,
I mean not here here, but Europe.
Speaker 2 (41:21):
According to Tomlin, everybody kind of shares the information on
what's the best way to lug everything across the pond,
and you know, reset your operation.
Speaker 4 (41:30):
Over here and get everything done that you need to
get done. So it's maybe not the you know, trip
to OZ that it used to be. But I stealer crowd.
It seems like I said, there's an emotional aspect too early.
Speaker 2 (41:43):
Yet another thing I wanted to bring up about the
Minnesota defense because this stat amazed me going into that
Cincinnati game. Last Sunday, the Vikings had stopped twelve consecutive
third and seven or longer third downs.
Speaker 3 (42:01):
That doesn't surprise me. I mean, that's an amazing staff.
But that's flores, bread.
Speaker 2 (42:05):
And Buttercinnati went on to go one conversion, five nine
conversions in that scenario.
Speaker 3 (42:13):
And the big plays on defense for the Vikings for
a scene. I mean, I really believe Wentz could have
came to the line of scrimmage and spiked the football
every snap and the Vikings still win that game.
Speaker 2 (42:23):
So seventeen out of eighteen they stop you if it's
third and seven or long.
Speaker 4 (42:29):
It was thirty Seven's not a mile, no, but still
that's an amazing consistency number.
Speaker 2 (42:34):
And the couple that with the Steelers who gave up
in that New England drive that lasted four days and
covered three and a half miles but resulted.
Speaker 4 (42:44):
In mid and zero no points. They didn't convert a.
Speaker 2 (42:48):
Third and twelve, but they got it down to the
fourth and one, which the Patriots subsequently converted from their
own fifteenth.
Speaker 4 (42:54):
They converted a third and ten, They converted a third
and thirteen.
Speaker 2 (43:00):
Last me is that schematic ers at the players when
I see third and ten and third and thirteen and
third and twelve.
Speaker 4 (43:05):
I think players.
Speaker 3 (43:06):
Yeah, like nobody's getting schemed out of that stuff. I know,
And I'll be honest. I mean, like you look at
the Steeler defense in that game. Their early down stuff
was really good, you know, first down, second down was
really good. Third down and fourth down were brutal. And
that extends drives. That's why you have a drive for
forty days and forty nights, like you mentioned, and now
(43:28):
we're talking drive stats. I want to throw one thing
out through in a positive note before we go. This
team scores touchdowns now though, the Steelers, I mean seven
to eight in the red zone.
Speaker 4 (43:37):
Yeah, that's the quarterback to me.
Speaker 3 (43:40):
I mean he might not move like Alan or Lamar
or whatever, but you get him down by the stripe,
he puts a ball in the paint.
Speaker 2 (43:46):
They may have gone six possessions without a first down
that wasn't the result of a defensive penalty and they did. Yeah,
but they got three touchdowns. But they three touchouts, right,
and they are scoring points. Specialty will be interesting as well.
Will Reiker Minnesota eight of eleven on fifty plus field
goals last season. He made he made a fifty nine
(44:10):
yarder at Chicago this season, and he made a sixty
two yarder at the end of the first half against Cincinnati.
It was like Boswell's kick against the Jets.
Speaker 4 (44:19):
It hit the net. Yeah, yeah, there was more meat
on that bone. So when these teams get to midfield,
they're in field goal range.
Speaker 3 (44:28):
Yes, And I don't even know how to comment on this,
but I know teams and kickers get a little skittish
in weird stadiums too.
Speaker 4 (44:37):
I don't how that affects things. I have no clue. Yeah,
I don't think either one of these guys are gonna care.
If you can make a fifty nine yarder in Chicago.
I'll trust bas anyway. Antarctica that game, I won't trust
Boswell anyway. That's gonna do it for us.
Speaker 2 (44:48):
Thanks to Justin Miller and Brian La Martine back in
the United States of America for getting things.
Speaker 4 (44:56):
Up and running and keeping them running.
Speaker 2 (44:58):
Hats off to Wes and David Edgar and Jacob Wrect
here on this side of the pond for keeping things going.
Bye week next week, so no show, but we'll get
going again when the Steelers get going again. Until then,
thanks for finding us wherever you found us for Matt Williamson,
(45:18):
Mike Pursuda, you have been listening to Steelers Preview, brought
to you by Ford. F one fifty is the official
truck of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Thanks for finding us on
your Steelers flagship one of two point.
Speaker 4 (45:32):
Five DVEE and Steeler Nation Radio. Good Night everyone,
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