Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
This is the Point After, presented by Parks Casino. Is
today your Lucky Day bet Parks 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. Alongside Craig Wolfley and Matt Williamson. I'm
rob king our final show of the year, guys. This
is it. We're hoping for a couple more points after.
(00:29):
We're hoping they would go for two at least, right, yeah,
games under our belt.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Least come on man.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Unfortunately, the Bills defeat the Steelers by the score of
thirty one to seventeen. This look back segment is brought
to you Brian Brian Patton and Associates. It's all about
the benefits, guys. I will tell you what I thought
had to happen in this game or would be the
most likely path to success. So I'll lead off here
and then i'd you know, like you guys should think
(00:58):
and just give me an overview of the game. I
thought you needed to come out in this game, start fast,
win the turnover battle, and prevent the big plays. Those
are like kind of my three keys. Well, you didn't
start fast, you didn't win the turnover battle, and they
had more big plays than you did. Still, the Steelers
still had a chance, and they clawed to within seven
(01:19):
in the second half, but you know, it just felt
like the entire game instead of being ahead like Green Bay.
Did you know green Bay was against the Cowboys and
turned that into a blowout. I thought all the things
that I wanted to see happen in this game to
get the Steelers on good footing wolf didn't happen exactly.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
So I agree with you on two of the three.
The third one instead of the big plays, I would
put time with possession, just because I felt like, you know,
if you can keep Josh Allen off the field, and
this guy is just a monster, he really is. If
you ask me, if you're able to curtail his ability
to do damage and inflict punishment upon you, you're one
(01:59):
leg up and a big way in Buffalo, and unfortunately
they weren't able to. You think about a guy that
accounted for almost ninety percent of all Buffalonian touchdowns, you know,
twenty nine t d passes, fifteen Russian touchdowns. Ridiculous amounts.
And I'm using this up because I'm using all Matt Samuel,
who he gave to me via his great stats. But
(02:19):
he's got so much more in reserve.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
I'm off the hook down him anymore.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Actually, we got our p shooters and Matt Scott like
I got an a chest behind him, dragging behind him.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
As the late great Howard Kosell once said, it's mere
spit balls at a battleship.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Yeah, so is that it? Are you finished?
Speaker 2 (02:38):
That's pretty much it? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (02:39):
And I agree with that. I'll even I'll pick you back.
We're not even let Matt talk yet. We don't know
how much stuff he's got.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
I agree.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
I you know, I was talking to people before the
game and I thought, you know, I don't know if
you win the toss or an elector receiver. I thought,
I'd love to see the Steelers get the ball first.
I really would. And and you start to think about,
you know, get the ball, drop five down the field,
maybe get a quick three and out, then get the
ball drive down the field again. And now you know
(03:06):
you're looking and there's ten forty one left in the
second quarter, and Josh Allen's like, I've had one possession.
It's freezing out here. We've got nothing going, so that
time of possession. I totally agree that that was a
definite path to victory. The Steelers could have trod in
this game. And now again, if you get the lead, Matt,
you know, and you're playing with the lead and they've
(03:28):
got to catch up, that's when maybe you win the
turnover about I mean, they all are intertwined obviously.
Speaker 4 (03:35):
One hundred percent, and I think we all agree the
Steelers did a lot of good stuff in this game.
This wasn't a blowout, this wasn't garbage time yardage any
of that type of thing. I thought they did a
lot of good stuff, but just not early. Yeah, I mean,
really that was the key to me, was it took
them too long to get into their rhythm and start
to play clean football. I mean, I'm not calling anyone
(03:55):
out because there was a handful of different things that
went against them, but example, pickings, fumbles, the next play
is a kin Kid touchdown. I mean instead of a
first down, you just gave up seven points. Handful instances
like that that were just really tough to overcome. But
that's a good team on the road, really difficult circumstances.
I wasn't there, but it had to be a really
(04:16):
difficult place to play.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
I mean in terms of extremely loud.
Speaker 4 (04:18):
Yeah, everyone's talking about the wind in the snow, but
Bill's Mafia's showed up.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
There's something about watching guys jump off buses on the tables,
just saying okay, being from there, sharing that that's the
same blood that I came from makes me go hmm.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Yea, you might not want to land head first.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
I don't want my kids to see that it's not
where we come from.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Yeah, what what was the weather like? The conditions didn't
seem to affect much better than.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
What I anticipated.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
I had a buddy of mine who is as I
talked about before, and I talked all week along. He's
a he drives for the County of Erie, you know,
in snowplow one of those massive, huge snowplow trucks, Arctic conditions.
And he kept posting pictures and everything. You know, milestrip road,
can't see but ten feet in front of you, you
know that sort of thing. And and the day before
(05:17):
we got there, he had gotten stuck and thigh high
deep snow. They had to come pull him out in
his truck, which is called Lady Lake effect and it
was just letting us know that, yeah, it's gonna be
you know, wild, and it was, but it was not
by the time game time came. It was great job
(05:37):
by the snowplow cruise up there and everybody else. Yeah,
because the field was clear. How the fans got to
sit down? Three quarters of the stadium was still of
the seats were still under snow. And what were they
gonna do? Ye, right, Bills fans did it.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
They got it. You know.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
It's funny growing up in central New York State and
like there's a if you're leaving New York City, there's
a big sign with an arrow that just says upstate,
like it's all one thing, like the Adirondacks, Buffalo, Westchester,
it's all one thing. If you leave once you're out
of New York, it's upstate. I grew up in center
State New York and Cooperstown. And one thing that that
(06:14):
Upstate New York and Western New York is really really
good at is snow removal. They're really good. Like, you know,
you get some snow, they'll get the you know, you
get like twelve fourteen inches of snow and guess what
school bus is there in the morning. I remember taking
my when we first moved to Pittsburgh, taking my daughter
to dropping her off at kindergarten. I'm like, they got
(06:34):
like two or three inches. I'm like, where is it?
What the where's everybody? What's going on?
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (06:39):
School was camp? What two or three inches? But I
mean up there, man, It's like, no, I mean there.
So if you're having trouble, right, you know, there's a
lot of snow because they're really really good at snow
removing exactly.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
I'll just relay this one one short thing.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
When I was growing up, you know, in the seventies
down and you know, I remember one time we were
in snowed in for a week, a complete week. If
you don't want to if you want to see people
go nuts, it's like living like hamsters in a small
house with brothers and sisters going completely batcrap crazy.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Right, Okay, So my dadde the mom and trying to feed.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
Them fought you thought that Grenkowski's had some damage.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
So after a week, finally the snowplow comes through. My
dad tunneled, I say, tunneled from the house to the
road to walk behind the snowplow to the corner store,
you get bread and head like he tunneled, tunneled and
for a period of you know, feet towards the road.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
I haven't seen a lot of them, but you know,
some forty inch snowfalls. I mean you know, yeah, yeah,
there's a nuts yeah. But anyway, like effect, they removed
the snow, they played the game. It didn't look like
the conditions were as nearly as troublesome as we thought.
I mean, obviously they moved the game, you know, and
I wonder if they could have even it sounded like
they couldn't have even played it on Sunday.
Speaker 4 (08:01):
They want our buddy Dale Lawley was up there actually
because he was like half hour he drove there. He's
like a half hour away before they switched it.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
So he's like, I might as let's go to the hotel.
He told me.
Speaker 4 (08:10):
He's like, there's no chance he could play a football
game in this When the wins were just that extreme
and there was so much snow. They said it was
like up to your waist. Absolutely, you really couldn't unfunctionally.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Dale knows he was.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
He was like locked in his hotel room without food.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
That made me, yeah, you know, and there's a lot
of topics to get to but one. And I think, well,
if you mentioned this, I mean Josh Allen, just a
quarterback of that level, It just makes a massive difference
in a game. He made a massive difference in that game.
He didn't turn the ball over again. The steers never
(08:46):
stressed him to get him into a turnover situation. But
the fifty two yard run. And I listened to Matt's
podcast and I talked to you this morning with with Max.
I think both you guys were disturbed by the fact
that he was able to not only get the first
down and again man coverage downfield right the pass rush
comes in. You know they I don't know whether guys
(09:07):
are supposed to stay in their lanes when you got
man behind you, but they didn't. They rushed past Allen.
He steps up easily, gets the first down. They're like, okay,
well geez, now they got to see if they can
hold him to a field goal here, and he just
kept on going fifty two yards.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
They stayed in their lanes by and large, but it
was due to the fact they basically put their heads
down in the chests and were bull rushing and they
didn't see Josh. I don't think when they came by
they might have caught him late, but they they definitely
allowed him to escape the the you know, the pocket.
And it was just it was tough. I mean, this
is a guy that's so capable getting down the field
(09:42):
and being able to run.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
We saw that fifty two yard run.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
I didn't think he you know, I certainly thought Demanic
Casey take him off his feet and Demani probably with
a little bit of a layoff. That's you know, a
little bit. You know, he didn't do it. And you
know there was other guys that had a shot at
him and they just did not bring him down.
Speaker 4 (09:59):
Yeah, that play was alarming, to be honest with you.
And we talked about stats. I don't really only have one,
and it's about Allen is since twenty twenty, they're seventeen
and oh if he doesn't turn the ball over, right,
the running backs may fumble ten times, the guys might muffkicks,
but if that guy doesn't turn the ball over, they win.
And I thought he paid played a very professional game,
(10:22):
like I would have bet everything I had that he
would throw at least one to the Steelers in this game.
But they did get the lead.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Eric Row got that hand up there and just couldn't
pull it down.
Speaker 4 (10:32):
Yeah, but if he plays like that within himself, mixed
with the big plays, they could win the whole thing.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
And I agree with you. Like, going into the playoffs,
I thought, you know, the team that I probably least
wanted to play was Buffalo h even less than the Ravens.
You know, because you're familiar with the Ravens and you
know there's a lot of history there. You know how
to defend him. You've done a good job defending him,
you beat him earlier this year. Buffalo was just on
(10:58):
an absolute role and they were a team that you know,
I again, I was really rooting for Miami to win
that game down there, and you know that long punt
return turned it. But Allen is a terrific player. But again,
I go back to the fact that that's a team
that you you know, when you allow him to play
with the lead, yeah right, he doesn't. You don't put
(11:21):
him in a situation where he becomes impatient or feels
like he needs the players forcing something. The Steelers never
really got him to that point.
Speaker 4 (11:29):
No, they didn't. I mean because of the early troubles. Honestly,
and yes, he certainly can press, and he can put
the Superman cape on and all those things. But I
give him credit for never even really trying to go
down that road. And you're right, the Steelers didn't stress
him to the point where he was ever tense or
probably felt out of control of the game. And they
(11:50):
they're a good football team. I mean, I give him
a lot of credit. They did some things that you know,
they played a very high percentage of six offensive linemen
on the field because they wanted to keep the Steelers
heavy guys out, keep those linebackers and attack them. They
did some things that they don't usually do. They're usually
a super too high safety team. Well, they were in
single high the whole time, just begging the Steelers not
(12:11):
to run.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
I mean, they.
Speaker 4 (12:12):
Feared and respected the Steelers run game, and and that
worked out, you know. I mean, the Bills came to
play and a good football team.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
Part of the problem too, is that you I think
they game planned that beating the Steelers with heavy personnel too.
They ran twelve thirteen personnel, and I think, you know
the problem is maybe you need to need to go
as heavy a personnel based on the fact that the
conditions were better than what your thought. Yeah, and certainly
I think that's one of the reasons why, like Pat
Firemouth took front and center with more targets and stuff
(12:42):
like that, and even more. I think you could add
more there, But the fact is, you know, it is
what it is. The running game didn't materialize the way
we'd hoped wanted to see it. I don't Ed Oliver
was the guy that was.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
One of your dudes for Yeah, he's really good, Yeah,
and really good.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
I was talking to Max this more than one of
the things.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
It just honks you off when you do a great
job of stuff in a pass rusher on the line
of scrimmage and he didn't get up the line of
scrimmage because you wired him, and you're like yeah, and
then he jumps.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Up and knocks them all down. You're like, got crap.
Speaker 4 (13:11):
Couple they hurt the Steelers a couple of minute passes.
Little things like that were problematic.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
But I did think that the Bills, to your point, Matt,
they made a great adjustment. I mean, you know a
cover two team that plays Nickel right because leading tacklers
Bernard two hundred and twenty five pounds Poyer one hundred
and ninety the corner of Johnson right at one hundred
and ninety pounds right, thinking not only can they run
(13:36):
the ball against lighter personnel, but they could wear them down.
There was one run, one touchdown drive. I think it
was the one at the end of the first half
in which the Bills were getting up slowly and looked
like maybe maybe it was the first drive in the
second half w they were starting to It felt like
the Steelers were starting to get things going. But I
thought a great adjustment by the Bills to come out
(13:58):
and change your defense. I mean, they're one of, if
not the highest cover two the team in the NFL,
one of the.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Highest high and yeah, and.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
They changed with the top of the league. They changed
what they did.
Speaker 4 (14:09):
I will say, though, to your point. As the game
went on and their linebacker injuries started to settle into
I kind of felt like the Bills defense was holding
on for dear life a little bit too. I mean,
the Steelers were figuring them out. Rudolph was playing court
pretty well. It wasn't a traditional Steelers nausey for six,
nause for seven, nausey for eight, but they were moving
the ball pretty consistently in the middle of the field
was a problem for the Bills.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Yeah, more to get to in this game. That is
the look back segment, brought to you by Brian Patton
and Associates. It's all about the benefits. Steelers season concludes
with the thirty one to seventeen playoff loss to Buffalo.
We still continue though, with a point after on Steeler's
Nation Radio and one oh two point five DVE. This
(14:54):
is the point After, presented by Parks Casino. Is today
your Lucky Day bet Parks by Brian pat and then 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 in order to prepare properly for the segment.
We're all discussing the interception thrown in the in the
end zone. Look, whether you felt like Deontay Johnson could
(15:17):
have made a harder break on it, which is what
I initially thought. I thought on the replay that Mason
needed to throw that ball wider. Maybe it's a combination
of the two. Maybe it's just to throw, Maybe it's
the break on the ball. I don't know what it is,
but that was that was a huge, huge moment in
the football game.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
Obviously, well, there's no question about it, especially with all
the angst we spent over Matt's stats of you know,
the Bills being sixteen and zero when Allen doesn't throw
an interception or put the ball in the ground or
anything like that. And you know, and then the fact
that over the last three weeks prior to the game
he had thrown four interceptions. I mean, you were just thinking, Okay,
(15:57):
we got something here and Mason hadn't thrown any and
he gets first. But you know, again, a four week
sample of Mason Rudolph, you've got five tds and you
got yourself one. I int, that's pretty good. You can
extrapolate that in a manner that I can't because my
math fails me.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
No, the numbers are good, for sure for Mason Rudolph overall.
But I just think Matt, you know, and obviously the
Pickens fumble you mentioned it was immediately followed up by
a touchdown. You can't go on the road and be
the underdog and turn them all over two times in
the first half and expect to win the game.
Speaker 4 (16:29):
No, and the Bills are a ten point favor for
a reason. I mean, they're probably the better football team.
They could play that game in a dome or you know,
Kansas or whatever. The Bills probably win more than they lose,
so you probably have a you know, you have a
smaller room for air for such things.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
And we've seen that with the Steelers all year long.
Speaker 4 (16:46):
That when they can play their style and like you said,
get up early, run the football, you know, win the
turnover battle, win on special teams things like that. They're
hard to play against. But they're not exactly built to
come from behind either. And that interception wasn't perfect. It
was also a good play the corn. Yeah, he made
a nice play.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
There you have it.
Speaker 4 (17:05):
I mean, you can't have that many game swinging plays
go against you.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
And they kind of lucky. The friar moose wasn't called total.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
I was on X or Twitter or whatever that gets
called down people complaining about some of the calls, and
the Pickens call at the end of the game that
certainly did look like you could have been called past interference.
On thought, well, let's not forget that fire. I thought
they hit his face mask.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
So hard to watch on TV, it's really hard to tell.
It's hard that's what they thought.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
Yeah, you know, I believe it was the same thing
with the IG would be a thing, you know, feed
in the out of bounds and these are out of bounds.
I'll see him tonight at the you know, we do
the Giant Eagle Talk Talk tonight, so I'll take him
off the sensus.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
So tell me that. I think that's what they ruled though,
but just watch on TV. It was not conclusive. No,
there wasn't a lot they ruled on the field.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
I think they said, didn't they that you know, he
had touched it out of bounds and then they need
a definitive.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
And you know the other thing going back just to
the uh, the interception. You know that a lot of
people I think we're grumbling about is why you're going
empty set from inside the ten yard. And I'm not
a big I have to say, with this kind of
a team, I'm not a big.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
So so just just just yeah, just just to so.
I tried to bank my coffee cup here, my styrophone
cup and h and you.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
Know, you look super cool while you're doing No.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
I think I'm looking to see if there's any high
garbage that would have caused a block, But now I
just missed it.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
I've been talking.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
These guys have been tandem drinking your coffee. Coffee has
been a big theme in the show. So I like,
I don't know. I mean, if if I have a
running quarterback, I think I feel better about empty set
inside you know, the ten yard line than I do
when you don't really have a running quarterback. I mean,
(19:02):
I look, these guys are calling up plays to succeed.
They're not calling up plays to fail. But we saw
that earlier when the Steelers had the ball I think
of the one yard line and went shotgun instead of
under center at some point during the season. Yeah, I remember,
I don't remember what the game was, but I mean,
so look, when you don't win, there's lots of gristle
(19:24):
on the bone for people, fans, media, all of us
to gnaw on.
Speaker 4 (19:28):
Yeah, other is and we can nitpick things to no end.
Go get your rebound there, salam, and.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
There you go. That's a dum take. I don't know.
Speaker 4 (19:39):
Those are kind of nippicky things to me. It's kind
of like the Pickens non call at the end of
the game. Yeah, it probably should have been penalty, but
they probably still lose, you know, I mean I thought
the better team went one. I think the better team
would have won more often than not. But I also
thought the Steelers could have went in the shell at
one point when they were getting beat pretty bad. And
they did a lot of good things from quarter two on,
(20:01):
you know, I mean, I thought they hung around pretty well.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
The Adams block field goal, he loved it.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
I couldn't.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
I couldn't even wrap my brain around it at first
because it ricocheted so fast. So far I'm trying to
figure out what happened, you know what I mean. We're
all looking going because you know, you're high up in
the state gum. You know, I got this little monitor,
TV screen about this big. You're like squinting at it,
looking at you can't see exactly what's going on.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
But it was a great, great job to be able
to get bust through.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
And you know, it's very very kind of symbolic of
think about the last time we're here. You know, you
got you got the block punt and all those sorts
of things. What we missed from the last time was
TJ Watt. TJ Watt had what two sacks, five quarterback
hits the last time that the Steelers and Bill's played.
That was greatly missed, and I think that really added
(20:48):
some made for some problems that you know, the Steelers
couldn't overcome.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
He's a hard guy to sack. They got to him
what twice I think, right, two sacks and they think so.
Speaker 4 (20:56):
Yeah, I will say, I mean not that this was
a difference the game either, but they were pretty liberal
about pretty liberal about letting holding go on high Smith
say the least I mean probably would have been the
same for what but what is a force multiplier that
would have a ripple effect throughout.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
The whole game, That's exactly.
Speaker 4 (21:13):
And when when you needed the huge play late in
the game, if anyone was going to get a four,
you had have been ninety.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
I thought there was one other moment that you know,
we haven't really talked about that much that I thought
would have been really nice. Like I agree with you, Matt,
second quarter, you get that score and you're starting to
feel like, okay, hang on a second now, yeah right, yeah,
but if you can get a stop and score here,
well they got to stop and a touchdown there at
(21:41):
that point of the game when you got to touchdown.
Later the Bills I think kind of knew. I mean,
you you know, drew within seven later. The Bills are
just a couple first downs away from winning the game.
At the game, right, yeah, the clocks your enemy and
you have to be you've lost any margin for air Man.
It would have been I'd have loved have seen that
game at twenty one to fourteen instead of twenty one
(22:04):
to ten. I just think it could have made could
have potentially made a huge.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
Tas no question.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
Look, one of the things Josh, to his credit, he
got rid of the ball pretty pretty good, pretty quickly.
I thought Josh Allen normally would hang on a little
bit longer to the ball, but he made up his
mind pretty quick and delivered the ball well. And I
thought he'd gamble a little bit more than what he did,
you know. But the fact of the matter is where
you got somebody like Alex Highsmith. One of the beautiful
things that occurs between he and TJ. Watt is Alex
(22:29):
is one of those streaking penetrators. I mean he's got
close to sixty seventy some pressures you know, where you
know it's not you're not getting a hit on the quarterback,
but you're making the quarterback.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
Step up or whatever.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
He's really good at that, and that gives TJ a
lot of time be able to do his thing or
vice versa, because they really do well together without TJ.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
Because TJ is such a threat man.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
I mean, that guy he absorbs a lot of offensive
coordinator mental reps, you know, during the week and during
the game. And when you take that and remove that threat,
it kind of makes things a little bit easier for
an offensive coordinator to go about his business and calling
plays when you don't have the threat of a guy
like ninety.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
Well he used force multiplier and you know that's a
great succinct way to put it, and I'll put it
less succinctly now, but I mean, if you have a TJ. Watt,
that's going to make the guy to his right on
the inside for this Steelers better because now you're not
going to double team that guy. You have to double
team TJ. Watt. Well, now, if you're double teaming TJ. Watt,
(23:32):
say it's with the running back, Well, that's going to
help your outside line or your corner as well on
the flat because now that running back's not going out
into a pattern. And so when you talk about a
force multiplier. That's one guy who's not only capable even
with all those you know, everything that an offense is
trying to do to limit him, he's still effective even
(23:54):
with that. But now he's making the guy next to
him because he doesn't better, because he doesn't have to
be doubled, the guy behind him better because guy might
not be leaking out to the flat. I mean, it's amazing.
What one player, who I think we all think is
very well deserving of Defensive Player of the Year, you
bring him out of your lineup. It's gonna hurt.
Speaker 4 (24:10):
Yeah, And even just breaking down this matchup specifically, the
right side of the Bilzoh line is to be kind
to work in progress in protection. They're much better run blockers.
They're they're not great in protection. They played a huge
percentage of snaps with a sixth offensive linemen on the field. Well,
that guy would have been to the right, you.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
Know what I mean.
Speaker 4 (24:28):
I mean if they if they kept that approach, maybe
your tight ends don't beat you up quite as much
because they're chipping. James Cook's a tremendous receiver. Maybe he
has to chip on the way side right there about
the tight ends, Yeah, going list. We knew what the
tight ends were going to do. They're a problem, you know.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
I mean both Kincaid and Dawson and uh, you know
they were yeah, right, and they were.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
We knew they were gonna be a problem, and they
were a problem.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
Ye and they and the you know, look, you can
blame the Steelers, you can. You can off your cap
to the Bills on a great play call immediately fouling
the pickings fumble. Uh, the Steelers are in cover two
with you know, the wide safeties in the back, and
they put that they put that safety in a bad position.
They had somebody running up the right sideline.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
Miles Jack.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
He went to the right, and now you have Miles
Jack in trail coverage. I mean, let's face it, Miles
Jack's a great thumper, but you know he's not you
don't want him, Yeah, you don't want him man to
man on a first round draft choice tight end. Into
the Bill's credit, they exploited that that was a huge
play obviously for them to go immediately from turnover, just
as you're you're not you don't even have a chance
(25:35):
to process. I hope they can hold him to a
field goal, maybe even with the weather, maybe you might,
oh wait a minute, hang on touchdown.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Yeah, you know it was like that quick and just
expand on that too.
Speaker 4 (25:44):
I mean, six months ago, Cancaid's running a four to
four at the combine, two months ago, Miles Jackson his
couch right, yeah, right, and Alan, I mean the thin
the subtleties of quarterbacking Frozo's safeties really well. He used
his eyes extremely well where you watching the play and
just created a lot of space for his talented rookie
tight end.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
That's that's mismatch.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
He also made it. I mean, you know, not to
not to say anying about down, but that that's a
relatively easy read, right. I mean, you know, if if
the tight end goes to the if the safety goes
to your left as a quarterback, you throw it to
your right.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
To right them. I'm going there.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
Yeah. Maybe kind of looked him awfu a little when
he saw that match up.
Speaker 3 (26:27):
Perhaps you'll see it, but it's unfortunates. I think the
best thing in there is what Matt quote in the
stats for four freaking Caid a couch for.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Yeah. Yeah, I will say this though, and and again
we're gonna we'll look forward a little too to what
this loss means for the Steelers as far as you know,
personnel and some guys that maybe played well down the stretch,
some other things they might do. But you know, I
think look and and and people don't want to hear
this after loss, but I think you have to credit
him for hanging in there. And you know, again, you
(27:03):
hated to see the penalty to me after the touchdown
on Dan Moore, like second guy in thing right, you
know the fifteen yard penalty because you're thinking, ever, I
saw that you score right now, you kick off. You
force him to start at the twenty five. Now, now
maybe these thought processes like, hey we get him at
a third and eight. Maybe this is where the Allen
turnover seventeen games. You had fourteen interceptions, and interceptions in
(27:25):
fourteen of those seventeen games, eighteen in the season.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
Remember the very pressing.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
Maybe that's where he pressed.
Speaker 3 (27:31):
Remember the Wizard of Boz drilled that thing seventy yards
yeah and run. Now they only got out to the
thirty with it. Yeah, that could have been a disaster.
And and the Wizard of Boz really bailed out Danny.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
Moore on that.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
Yeah, that was the last little sequence. So to me,
you know, you get the interception and the turnover in
the first half, you know you'd like to get that
touchdown instead of the field goal in the in the
beginning of the second half to draw close. And then
that you know, that last sort of sequence where okay, hey,
if you can, if you can get them three and
a halt here, if you could even just not let
(28:01):
them score, you got the ball on a chance to
march down the field and score. And in the beginning
of that game, if you told me, hey, they're going
to draw it within a touchdown in the fourth quarter,
I'm like, uh, where do I sign? Yeah? Yeah, I mean,
because it looked like that thing could have gotten out
of hand and it didn't.
Speaker 4 (28:17):
No, And a couple of things on top of that is,
I mean, they did have the Bills go three and
out three different times, I think on ten or eleven drives.
I mean probably would have taken that going into the game.
There were some long drives that paid, you know, some
dividends for them in terms of eating clock. But you know,
the Steelers definitely won the special teams battle. There's no
question about that. You block a field goal and they
(28:39):
missed a field goal, they play, even a little thing
like Boz did there, but you lost turnover battle. I mean,
the turnover battle kills It kills you.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
Yeah, and especially when they take those turnovers and turn
them into fourteen points and then you lose by fourteen
point points.
Speaker 3 (28:53):
And fourteen And here's the thing too, right, I don't
think that there's not a guy there doesn't remember that
thirty eight to three thump them, you know what I
mean that that was there a couple of years ago,
you know, in the COVID years, you know, and and
the thought of how fast that game could get out
of control based on the crowd. I mean, and I
got to tell you, Steelers Nation showed up big. I
(29:13):
mean for a game there under those conditions, with a
travel band and everything else.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
Those people are just marvelous. They're fabulous.
Speaker 3 (29:21):
Every heard them, Yeah, I mean, yeah exactly. But you
think about how fast with that stadium. I mean, when
we were pulling out of the stadium after the game's
all over it, the the the parking was just chaos.
It's everywhere, you know what I mean, people are going
there and there, and you know it's arbitrary paying attention
(29:43):
to the rules of embarking, right. But I mean that's
just how fanatical their base is that they could come
out and a lot of them shoveled their own seats off,
you know. I mean, it was just like amazing. And
and to hear the noise volume level as it is,
it just the crescendos would rise and fall. But it
(30:04):
really was amazing.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
You said one thing there, like it could have got
away from the Steelers. It could have gotten away easy.
There was a I take no story and I'm like,
they're in trouble now because and a role. I'm like,
this could be sixty to nothing exactly.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
That Mason was able to lead them back and get
them competitive again. That was that took us some some
serious steady hands at the helm there.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
Mason a very interesting storyline. We'll get into some of
the storylines when we continue on the Point After on
Steelers Nation Radio on one O two point five DVE
is The Point After presented by Parks Casino. Is today
your Lucky Day bet Parks by Brian Patton and Associates.
(30:48):
It's all about the benefits and by this doar this
pro shop Get it direct from the team at shop
dot Steelers dot com. Get a little weepys the last segment.
It's been enjoyable. I've enjoyed it enjoyable. So we're let's
get lunch or you get you now you can eat
chicken wings. You boycott it?
Speaker 3 (31:09):
Oh yeah, I had the boycott the chicken wings. Didn't
even eat them at halftime.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
Wow, that's some discipline, you know.
Speaker 3 (31:15):
I have to say I gave a little bit of
pad of a pad on the back to myself. That's impressive.
I avoid him. I think some of the others in
our broadcast crew did not abide by the boycott. I'm
not going to name names though, Max Starks, but you.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
Know, having worked with you for how many how many
years did you do high school football together? Like eight year? Yeah,
like a decade, and just I think the word to
describe the the food trucks and and all those places
we left by might be carnage, like you know, absolutely
you know, And and listen, I'm a pretty big eater,
but let's face it, I'm a cruiser weight.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
You know what I mean. You don't do bad pound
for pound, But yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
I mean I got to stay away. I got to
keep my hands up and stay away a little bit.
I got to dance around the ring a little bit.
I mean I can't have that.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
But you ever shout down starks.
Speaker 3 (32:01):
Oh, I've heard legendary stories. I've heard the legendary story.
These should have been with me in my prime.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
Brother.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
Let me tell you, Yeah, you have the seventy eight
ounce steak or whatever.
Speaker 3 (32:11):
Nowhere else have I ever had the privilege I have
in a chef come out and shake my hand.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
Yeah, you know that time.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
At some point, you know, you just need to move
beyond ounces and like, this is a six pound steak,
you know what I mean? At some point ounces is
like like how would you play sixty months? You mean five? Right?
I mean you know so yeah, at some point maybe
pounds would have come in handy.
Speaker 3 (32:34):
Therefore, again I couldn't figure out the math that quick. Okay, so.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
He did your part, Wolf, Yeah, thank you? Uh so
down the stretch some really really fun things to watch.
I think for the Steelers, the offensive line I think
would be almost the first the offensive line in the
running game. Just you know Naji Harris and Jalen Warren.
You know the move of Jones to right tackle Siamalu
(33:03):
settling in. I don't know again whether it was just familiarity.
I know that offensive lines are a cohesive unit. It's
good to get them all playing together for a while.
They didn't. They were able to do that. They didn't
have any injuries. Knock on wood. I just thought, and again,
I don't know whether they change the schemes a little
bit the better fit the personnel. I mean, again, everybody
(33:23):
wants instant success, but sometimes things take some time. And
I thought, I don't know, maybe five six games into
the season, when Jones got in there, that offensive line
began to really find its groove and for the most part,
the running game with Harris and with Warren began at
times to punish people led by the offensive line, But
those two guys will punish you too.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
No question about it. And this offensive line took some
time getting jelled.
Speaker 3 (33:47):
I mean, they're working together for whatever reason, but it
does take some time, and it's knowing the specifics of
what the guy next to you, to your left or
right is going to do in each and every play,
which the advent of it.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
In situations like we have the.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
Outside zone, inside zone, the double teams and those sort
of things, it takes a little while. Like we saw
Roderick give up a sack. Well, he gave up sack
because he thought that, you know, he's got James Daniels
to his inside. He got a wall going right, and
he got clubbed a little bit by Russo, but it
in his mind. By the way his body reacted, I
could see he was thinking, well, I'm covered to my inside.
(34:22):
I'm okay. I set out a little bit more. But
he wasn't. You know, he was not covered. James Daniels
was working on his own guy, and so there's a
problem there. And and for Bro Derek, I love that
they call it Derek from Roderick Jones. This guy, the upside.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
Is just huge. It's gonna be fun. It's gonna be fun.
Speaker 3 (34:40):
But I'll tell you another guy that I really enjoyed
watching him develop, Danny Moore. Danny Moore played hard all
here long, and you know, tip of the cap because
there's a lot of people that wrote him off in
the offseason. And the guy, again, the best ability is
availability and he here, he is. He I don't know
if he's even missed a game and his years and
(35:01):
I know he's missed one or two because Roderick Yes
against Baltimore remember I think, yeah, came in for a
game and yet Jones that left. But this guy, you know,
kudos to him. He's gotten better and better and he's
withstood a lot of it, a little bit of adversity.
Speaker 2 (35:17):
That shall we say.
Speaker 1 (35:18):
Yeah, and when you look at an offense, I mean, look,
I pointed out to people all the time. You know,
you always see your own worts the most right. Nobody's
got twenty two all pros, nobody no. So you know
how they can figure that offensive line. Whether Jones moves
from right to left and you move more to the
right side, you know what you do. As far as
adding to that, I mean, I think we know with
(35:39):
if Andy Widel has some influence, he likes to build
those offensive and defensive lines. That was his the reputation
that they had in Philadelphia in that front office, and
we saw it already. I mean, like, you know, for
you go out and get Jones to get better and
you add guys along the offensive line. It's intriguing to
think that with a move war two that the line
played well a mover too. This could be a pretty
(36:04):
dominating unit with a lot of depth. That's my perspective
on it. Matt I don't know if you feel the
same way or Yeah.
Speaker 4 (36:10):
For the most part, Yes. And the one thing I
wanted to expand on because I looked at this morning
is the Georgia teammates Washington the tight end and Jones.
Jones played more preseason snaps than any other Steeler by
a long stretch. I mean, they knew he wasn't gonna
start Week one if you remember, and he was out
there all the time. Where I'm going with this is
those three preseason games, seventeen regular season games and a
(36:33):
playoff game between him and Washington. They both played almost
like two seasons of Georgia bulldog football, you know against
NFL players like they have to be like thinking is
this marathon ever gonna end?
Speaker 2 (36:45):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 4 (36:46):
And now you get that under your belt. I think
the world is the oyster for Jones. I think he'll
be their best lineman for a long time.
Speaker 1 (36:53):
Yeah, that is really nice. You were able to get him,
and then you know he expanded out to Washington, Washington, Friarmouth. Hey,
you begin to look at that tight end situation and look,
I mean if you if a superstar was there and
you thought, oh, we got to take this guy, fine,
but I don't think they really that's a position Wolf
that I'm not sure they're gonna have to do a
whole lot with again for a couple of seasons while
(37:14):
these guys remain on their rookie deals.
Speaker 3 (37:15):
Oh there's no question about it. What Darnell can do
as far as his pass catching to up his availability
in other areas. I mean, Pat Fryarmouth is already an
established pass catcher in my book. I mean a guy
that you you know, obviously he's got very great talent.
You go to that twelve personnel, thirteen personnel with the
ability to all three of them that they could be
(37:36):
a part of an offense, you know, in limited structure,
you know, limited specific circumstances. But to have you know,
the ability to spread a Pat fryarmth out it o
Connor Heyward, you know, and to be able to use
a Darnell Washington more in the past reception. I mean,
come on, that guy's just so huge, you know, he
eats up space just by you know, breathing, you know,
(37:57):
and for him to be in some of the route,
which I love. When you start to again you go
back to the Grinkowski Aaron Hernandez years when they had
the dueling tight ends and how they're able to do
a lot of things because of their size and everything else.
I look for some stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
And you're hoping that Friarmouth will be able to beat
if you do a lot of that person out beat
the other team's best, like say coverage linebacker, right, you
know if you're going to be able to attach him
or even have him in there, but he needs to
be able to beat those guys. I thought he was
a little underutilized. This was obviously more of a running
team than a passing team, and you know, if you're.
Speaker 4 (38:33):
In high night though, I thought he looked like the receiver.
Speaker 1 (38:35):
You thought he was definite question and I think that.
You know, there's only so many throws to go around
to so many guys. You can only parse him out
to so many different receivers. It was interesting the way
they use that wide receiver group. I mean, Alan Robinson
got a lot of snaps. He's their best blocker. Calvin
Austin got action early and pass attempts, throwing him early
(38:58):
when Deontay Johnson was on the shelf. When John's and
came back, that kind of dried up jetsweep here. There
caught a touchdown yesterday, and we don't know whether there's
going to be a new offensive coordinator coming in here
to move these you know, these pieces around. But there's
a lot in this offense. And let's take out the
quarterback position for now, but there's a lot in this offense.
I think to like Pickens with the explosive ability, Deontay
(39:20):
Johnson with his route running. He's got one more year
left on his deal. I think there's there's a lot
in this offense.
Speaker 4 (39:26):
Agree, I mean, quarterback, offense coordinator aside, we don't know
how that hell is going to pan out, especially from
a coaching perspective.
Speaker 2 (39:32):
We kind of touched on it.
Speaker 4 (39:33):
I always look at it through kind of a GM's
front office eyes. Yeah, I'm not touching running back and
tight end, Like, I don't think those are needs. I mean, yeah,
if in the fourth round there's a guy you have
a second round grade on, maybe whatever, but they're not
priorities for me. I would love to add because this
draft is unbelievably deep at receiver and really really top heavy.
If you could add another and frankly, I know Alan
(39:55):
Robinson did a lot of good stuff here, but I
don't know if he'll be back, you know, I mean,
considering his contract and things like that. But it's a
great tackle draft. There's a lot of good centers on
Day two, it looks like, and it's an awesome receiver draft.
If you could take advantage of two or three of
those spots in the top four rounds and just expand
upon this and even score more points, I mean, I'm
all open to that.
Speaker 2 (40:16):
I like it.
Speaker 1 (40:17):
Yeah, Like I like all three of those positions. May
to maybe add a little bit. And you know, you're
also and the way the Shooters have always built things
is as much as you can from within. Yeah, and
then you'll obviously add to that, right you know, you
you're bringing a chemov on all Hoffen or Ryan Clark.
But when Joey Porter leaves, you have James Harrison there, right, Like,
you want to be able to replace guys internally, and
(40:38):
I'm sure they'll be looking at hey, Deontay Johnson's got
one more year left on his deal. Let's see what
that means. I don't know, maybe they restructure, who knows
what they're going to do, but yes, that we would
make sense adding there obviously the elepha.
Speaker 4 (40:50):
Wound receiver, early wide receiver thrown into what they got.
Now yeah, wow, okay, now we were really humming.
Speaker 1 (40:55):
Now who's going to get that ball to him? Is
going to be a very very interesting question, and it's
going to be one that's going to be taking up
a lot of this offseason.
Speaker 2 (41:05):
Like, oh, there's no question.
Speaker 1 (41:07):
I mean, there's nothing sexier than except for the head coach,
there's nothing sexier than the quarterback. And then probably third
in that list would be the offensive cordat right, people
can't really get juiced up about they're gotta bring in
an inside linebacker, you know, I mean, but you start
talking about quarterback, everybody's antenna.
Speaker 2 (41:25):
This is the example I always throw years and years ago.
Speaker 3 (41:27):
Touch and I did a show down at Fox Sports,
you know, on Sunday nights in the off season, little
little you know, half hour show, whatever it was, I'll
never forget. In April, March, April or was it May?
And it's a Sunday night, and we got a caller said,
what about who's going to be the third string quarterback
(41:48):
this year? I love this man, because that's why we're
on the air, because we got some real fanatics. But
the fact that you're discussing a third string quarterback battle
in April, you know, may somewhere on a Sunday night
at eleven o'clock at night or something ridiculous like that
tells you everything you need to know about quarterback battles
(42:08):
in this city.
Speaker 2 (42:09):
No doubt.
Speaker 1 (42:09):
And you know when you look at uh, you know,
defensively on this team. And look, I want to include
Spencer Anderson, who's a guy I think he dressed pretty
much every game. I don't recall him playing.
Speaker 2 (42:20):
He might be the center next year. Who knows. He
is very impressive in camp.
Speaker 1 (42:23):
We don't know for sure what they think about him
and whether he's a guy that they think, hey, listen,
we don't need that position. That's not a position we're
gonna worry about. Or whether you think, boy, would he
be a wonderful six offensive lineman and or let's just
get him some use A little surprised made they didn't
use him on occasion as a as a six offensive lineman,
just just to see what they And again, that's that
(42:43):
really exactly right, that's right, but not really I think
he's I don't think they look at him.
Speaker 2 (42:48):
More as more but he played some tackle, yeah right.
Speaker 1 (42:52):
Yeah, and you normally use a tackle is that sixth
offensive lineman?
Speaker 4 (42:56):
But he's a good name to throw out there though,
Like he's an interesting, very intriguing camp in preseason.
Speaker 1 (43:00):
And when I think about the defense, it's hard for
me to evaluate wolf what they did and where they
might go without looking at some intriguing pickups and some
intriguing injuries. And I mean just throwing them all into
one bucket. As far as just an overview, I mean Trice,
they really were talking about him highly a late round cornerback.
(43:23):
Then he got hurt. They picked up Darius Rush in
the middle of the season. He's a guy that I
think maybe could be's intriguing at the cornerback position. How
do they feel about that? What is the internal evaluation
of those guys? Hulkom I thought was really good at
inside linebacker before he went down, Kwan Alexander, you know,
there are a lot of guys I thought in their
absence of Landon Roberts showed that he was maybe more
(43:45):
versatile than a lot of people thought he was going
to be. They thought he'd be that much on his plate,
right exactly. So now you start to think well, what
do they need? You know, I went from you know,
it was funny the narrative, I should just lose the
last three games get the highest pick possible, and you're thinking, well,
is that is that? Maybe awful thinking? And then the
way they finished, I thought, maybe they have fewer holes
(44:06):
than I thought they did three weeks ago.
Speaker 2 (44:09):
Well, think about Eric Rowe.
Speaker 3 (44:13):
And somebody's too deep, you know, I mean I'm sitting
there going, you know, there's that planet theory George Young
and the GM of the you know, the New York
Giants used to say, you know, there's only so many
you know, guys like that walking the planet that's capable.
Well he found one, because Eric Rowe really did some
nice things and to me looks like a complimentary asset
(44:33):
in the back end of the of the defense, you know,
Mica being Meca and Demonte Casey being you know, crazy CAZy,
the crash desk guy. You know, I mean that I
love his style of play and what he brings some
but there's a lot of things that are going to
be interesting. What I hope that Cole Holcomb is able
to rehab do well. Klan Alexander another guy because I
(44:55):
thought they were both significant contributors. Land and Roberts. I mean,
to get the parent a spare going again to me
is something because I thought of Landon Roberts just showed
great courage, great tenacity, great veteranship and understanding the difference
between injury and pain, you know what I mean. That
was one of the things Chuck always used to talk about,
(45:16):
know the difference between injury and pain. And certainly that
guy he's got high pain tolerance, shall we say.
Speaker 1 (45:24):
And just quickly, Mattter. Part of a scouts job, the
internal scouting, knowing your own players, making these evaluations based
on injury and maybe just fleeting glimpses. I mean, these
are difficult decisions. Oh yeah, that the Steelers are facing,
and it's gonna help shape some of what they do
in the offseason, even if it happens sort of under
(45:45):
the radar, away from the public eye.
Speaker 4 (45:47):
Yeah, and again, I mean, I'm just kind of addressing
offseason needs. I think it's gonna be very heavily secondary
based on defense. You know, like your edge guys, you're
gonna bring him back four that's you know, Golden's up,
but you could bring him back the defensive front. You
could bring back basically anyone you want. I don't think
it'd be that hard to recreate the three linebacker situation,
(46:08):
assuming Holcomb's reasonably healthy. Alexander wouldn't be super expensive. You
could handle a lot of those things with small moves.
But if your first round pick or your biggest free
agent acquisitions in the secondary, I think now you're talking
because I'm really excited about Trice Rush Row. He's a
lot different than those guys. But I think anything to
get out of like Trice and Rush is the cherry
(46:28):
on top. Like you can't just count him, say that
seventh round pick look good for a week for camp
started outside corner, you know, like maybe I'd rather he
was the fourth corner, and you know, begging for playing
times he's playing so well, you.
Speaker 1 (46:41):
Know, yeah, it's going to be a fascinating offseason. Guys.
We enjoyed it. Yeah, I really enjoyed.
Speaker 2 (46:48):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (46:48):
It was glad they threw us all together. We enjoyed it.
Hopefully you folks listening enjoyed it too, because that's really
what's well.
Speaker 3 (46:56):
If we get to do this again, let's get this
sponsored by Dunkin Donuts or something like that.
Speaker 1 (47:00):
Right, Hey, we want to thank our good people that
did sponsor today for the most complete selection of Steelers merchandise,
from official sideline gear and authentic memorabilia to our extensive
selection of jerseys and Terrible towels. Visit one of the
officials Steelers Pro Shop stores located at akershur Stadium, Grove
City Premium Ountlets, or Tanger Outlets, or visit us online
at shop dot Steelers dot com for all your Steelers
(47:22):
merchandise needs directly from the team. Our thanks to Parks Casino,
to Brian Patton and associates to the Steelers Pro Shop
all season long. One last time for Craig Wilfley, Matt
Williams and I'm Rob King. Thanks for listening all season
long and for this final show that this season on
the point after and Steeers Nation Radio on one O
two point five DVE