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January 8, 2024 • 45 mins
Rob, Matt and Wolf rejoice in the Steelers victory in Baltimore on Saturday aiding them to secure a playoff spot and extending their season.

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Speaker 1 (00:09):
This is the Point After presented by Parks Casino. Is
today your Lucky Day bet Parks by Brian Patton an 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, thanks for being with us. Time for look
back segment brought to you by Brian Patton and Associates.

(00:29):
It's all about the benefits. Who knows you could have
been looking back at the season, but we're looking back
at a game in which the Steelers won wolf and
that is going to get them into the postseason.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
And it was incredible. I mean when you saw the
weather coming in to Baltimore, I've said two things jumped
out at me. Number One, I am so glad I'm
retired as a player. Number Two, I'm so glad that
I've been promoted to the booth. Oh they just I
ate my hats off. They toughed it up. But man,

(01:00):
what a great game. What a combination of mental RPMs
redlining together with steel Town toughness getting a job done,
because that's what it took to go into Baltimore and
play in that weather.

Speaker 3 (01:14):
One hundred percent, and it is the you know, looking
back segment. But looking forward is going to be a
little more exciting than I thought. You know, I was
a little worried that this Monday was not going to
be about looking forward at all. And they did get
a little help outside of that game, got a little
help with who was playing for Baltimore and all that,
But wolfstead On, I mean, that's still not an easy
environment no matter what, and not a bad defense or offense.

(01:36):
I mean a high quality team that had nothing to lose.
Like I thought, the Ravens were free and loose throughout
the game. You're like, Clowney just wants his sack. I mean,
they ate nothing on their mind, and that's a dangerous
opponent when teams get like that.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
Yeah, about that celebration, seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars
from the sack Clowney.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
I think that he.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
Was pretty excited about that. You know, Matt, I will
ask you this, you know, when the Steelers are seven
and seven, and we'll get back to the game in
a moment. But it just reminded me when you said
about looking forward. You know, a lot of fans are like, wow,
I should just lose the last three games seven and ten,
get a higher draft pick, blah blah blah, and now
looking around and saying, wait, where are the weaknesses on
this team? If you get some guys back, I mean,

(02:16):
it's a little different just to not saying aren't weaknesses,
of course, but just a completely different feel for the
team than you had three weeks ago.

Speaker 3 (02:24):
So what's really interesting to me is there's a saying
amongst front office folks, especially like general managers that have
been in charge of teams, that no matter what the
state of your football team is, we're still three games
away from a mutiny. You know, Like those three games
were the Steelers lost that people expected them to win.
Everyone was thrilled about this team, and then three games

(02:46):
away mutiny all of a sudden. You know, how do
you handle that? And then these three games just like
you said, you're in good shape, Like right now there's
this mutiny going on in Philadelphia. They were ten and one.
Now the Eagles are limping into the playoffs. Like the
league can change so fast, and if you have strong
leadership from GM's coaches, players, you can withstand those things.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
What's the on the opposite end of the three the
three games from Mutiny. I mean, it's like three games
from Valhalla or so, what's what's.

Speaker 4 (03:11):
I think people always look at it negative.

Speaker 3 (03:12):
I mean you go in to the super Bowl and
then going three the next year and fire.

Speaker 2 (03:16):
Everybody, Oh man night sources. I guess that really is true.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
Uh wolf A totally different feel though, And you kept
going back to eighty nine, right, and what happened early
in that game? You guys got crushed by Baltimore in
the opener, and what was just going on?

Speaker 2 (03:32):
Cleveland? That was Cleveland fifty before we came seven years
later they came off that right, Sorry, and then a
year later, I'm sorry. A week later then we got
a little better because we lost forty five to ten
to Cincinnati, right up in the right direction.

Speaker 1 (03:46):
Yeah, but you said, you said this could happen. And
of course, in the post game show on Saturday Night,
Charlie was asked about the two thousand and five team
that won their last four games, that needed to win
those games, got to be a wild card and get
in a role. Now that team was, you know, was
not far removed from going fifteen and one year one year,

(04:08):
a couple of years and win they care. Whatever it was.
We were, yeah, one year away from fifteen and one.
So this is this team's one went away from not
making the playoffs or one year with not making the playoffs.
So maybe there's a little bit of a different background,
but each year's got his own story, and right now
the Steelers are a team that has to be feeling
pretty good about themselves.

Speaker 2 (04:26):
There's no question. I mean, there's been some real great
stuff happening along the way. Who thought three games ago
when they you know, they turned to Mason and and
you know, you're saying, you know, Mike was literally saying,
we just want to score points. Well, you got that,
but you also got a defense that rows up because
they're not on the field as long. You've got a
defense now that, even though they're down some bodies and everything,

(04:49):
you find some diamonds in the rough, like Eric Rowe
coming out of nowhere and doing a great job led
the team in tackles on this last game here. But
you know, certainly this is what Chuck Noll always talked
to about when he said, you've got to get a
spark and then you build that on that spark. And
if you've got enough people buying in increasing their productivity
just by one percent, that rises all over the team.

(05:11):
And certainly that's the very manifestation of what we're watching
right now happening. It's exciting, it's I mean, you get
all pumped up and everything, but everybody here has got
a role to play now, and it's heading into Buffalo.
It's just an incredible feeling as you go from having
what many perceived as no hope to all the hope
in the world now.

Speaker 1 (05:31):
You know, Matt, I wonder what somebody would have said
if you'd said a few weeks ago, well, they can
just sign Miles Jack, promote Eric Road in the practice squad,
and get Mason Rudolph under center.

Speaker 3 (05:42):
Right, Yeah, nothing to everyone saw that coming, right, Yeah,
nothing to it. And I still can't get over. And
I understand that there were some backups on the field
and sometimes you get breaks with who you play in Burrow,
et cetera, et cetera. But this is the AFC North
has four teams now the finish the season with a
winning record, first time that's happened to an entire division
since the nineteen thirties. Steelers are five and won the division.

(06:04):
You know, that's where it starts. I mean, you start
winning games in the division, you're hard to play against.
And by no means am I saying the Ravens didn't
want the Steelers in the feared them or anything like that.
But I bet they would not have wanted to run
into Pittsburgh AFC championship game around one of their games either.
I mean, as good as that team is, I mean
it's just Steelers run the football and they're physical. They're

(06:24):
hard to play against.

Speaker 2 (06:25):
And can we remember that the Steelers beat the Ravens
already one time, you know at Eckescher so.

Speaker 1 (06:31):
Same score both games. Ten Yeah, you know, And to me, Wolf,
one of the things that's encouraging is that what we know,
I think we can pretty much identify, uh, you know,
Baltimore is an elite team right with their record. We
saw the forty nine ers up close, what they've done,
They're an elite team. There are other teams that have

(06:51):
flashed elite. I think if I had my druthers, I
probably wouldn't want to be playing Buffalo in the first
round of the playoffs. It is what it is. You
I wouldn't run to necessarily go to Dallas to play,
but you I wouldn't be that feared about Dallas on
the road. The point is that there's there's only a
couple of teams that you can identify as sort of
top notch teams, and the Steelers were playing other teams,
like minded teams in similar situations. Cincinnati, that was essentially

(07:15):
the loser of that game, was in big, big trouble
for the playoffs, and Seattle the loser of that game
in Seattle was in big, big trouble for the playoffs.
And the Steelers I thought not only won both games,
I thought they outplayed each team significantly in the case
of Cincinnati, but deserved to win by a score or
two against.

Speaker 2 (07:35):
Seattle unquestionably so. And look what they've built over the
last three weeks is not I don't think it's gonna
come to a screeching halt. I think they were gonna
proceed to go on and build on what they're doing. Look,
Buffalos got its own problems. They got some issues with
people that aren't aren't gonna suit up next week, probably
because of they came off the field and they weren't
They were in civilian clothes at the end of the game.

(07:56):
The fact of the matter is, you know, Josh Allen,
as great as he is, he has his also his
his blurb moments as we saw last night, you know,
in fact, and you know when he tossed a couple
of interceptions there that just you know, it's not real.
It's not Josh Allen football. You know, he's gotten so
much better the judgment thing. But look, the fact of

(08:17):
the matter is you're going to go in there. A
couple of years ago, what was it we went in
there and when everybody said we didn't have a chance,
we got a block punt and away we went.

Speaker 3 (08:27):
You know, not to look ahead too much, but I mean,
I don't know how you can't. I mean excited that
you're in the in the dance and the shot and
sounds like weather could be horrible, which could narrow the
playing field a little bit, and just even on the
best weather. Buffalo is a very volatile team, you know,
good and bad. They're a roller coaster and that starts
and ends with Allen too. They have their share of
injuries as well, and it looks like the Steelers should

(08:49):
get Minka back. Case's ready to come back as well. Unfortunately,
TJ probably isn't, though, you know, it'd be nice to
have them all.

Speaker 1 (08:55):
Oh my goodness, Hang on a second, Hang on a second.
This is the look back segment brought to you back
Brian Patton in Associates. It's not look forward.

Speaker 2 (09:02):
Yeah, come on, what's the matter. We'll look forward and
we'll look.

Speaker 1 (09:05):
Forward in a little bit. You know, Matt, on your
podcast that I listened to today, you talked about something
that I mentioned on DV and and felt the same
way about that. This first half may be nervous because
I thought the Steelers badly outplayed Baltimore. Baltimore's yardage all
came on one good drive that they put together. And

(09:25):
when you let a team hang around, bad things can happen.

Speaker 4 (09:28):
And I thought that you didn't that familiar and all.

Speaker 1 (09:30):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I thought they let him hang around.
But then you know they were able to respond in
the second half.

Speaker 3 (09:36):
Yeah, And again I think that shows a lot of
mental toughness, you know, desire, all those things. But I
did think the Steelers were the best teams start to finish,
and at halftime, I thought, man, this is a little
too close for comfort. What if you get a bad
bounce or you know, you know, ball security is an issue.
You could lose one that you probably should be winning.

Speaker 1 (09:54):
Right by the way, Uh, just before we get onto
more serious topics of this game. Serious, you have a
serious face down right now, Godwin Igway, we you know,
Mike Tomin was like, we practice that all the time,
and I know Mike tom wants to get done on
this press conference. Get in the bus, get in the plane,
and get back to Pittsburgh.

Speaker 2 (10:12):
Right.

Speaker 1 (10:13):
I'm like, I have never seen that the presence of
mind for Igweb. In case you're missing, what happened is
a kickoff and the ball died just in bounds and
Iguey Buke went laid down out of bounds, then touched
the ball, which made the ball an out of bounds
kick and the steer's got the ball at the forty
yard line. I just thought, I mean, it's one thing

(10:35):
to know the rule. Like there's a rule in punch
that a lot of players just don't seem to know,
which is that if the punting team touches the ball
and it's not whistled down, as a receiving team, you
could pick it up with no right. Right, there's nothing right,
I mean, and you FuMB what it goes back to
where the ball was touched by the opponent. There's no
downside other than getting clobbered to scooping up the ball

(10:58):
and trying to make a play with it and advancing it.
You know, you get you get the best of both
worlds there. So there's players that don't know that rule.
And honestly, when he did that, I'm like, that must
be a rule, but I'm not. I'm not sure I
was on that. I thought that was a great heads
up play. Every player is on a need to know basis,
you know what. I Yeah, that's the thing.

Speaker 2 (11:17):
My world consisted of, Well, don't clip them if you
can't see their face, all right, don't hold them unless
you can get away with it, right right, all right,
and no illegal motion. Boom there you go.

Speaker 4 (11:27):
All right.

Speaker 2 (11:27):
Yeah, so that's my world. Now. The other one is
kickoff returns. Man. I was surprised, as heck, but it
tells you this much. Number one is you got somebody
who's receiving information and able to carry it out and
get it done, to have the presidence of mind to
do that stretch out on field, touch that ball like that.
Great second thing is Danny Smith is dotting his eyes
and crosses sure, because he is the guy that is

(11:50):
out there instructing, making sure that his returners know what
they got to do if you've got a ball sitting there.
And I'm sure this is not something that he just
pointed out before they kick off. Okay, this is something
that goes all the way back to training camp, constantly
reiterating to your people the ins and outs of what
they need to know and what needs to get done.
And Danny Smith is just one of the best of

(12:10):
getting it done.

Speaker 1 (12:11):
Yeah, and uh, you know, not all good on special
teams here, Calvin Austin had a great return that was
good to see. Harvin really struggled punting.

Speaker 4 (12:20):
Ball, and you know Hunter didn't.

Speaker 1 (12:22):
Yeah, yeah, right, you can say weather was an issue, right,
you could say the weather, but yeah, he punted it
for twenty yards more punch yeah than Harvin. And that's
that's tough. When you know, when you have fourteen punts
in the game and you're losing twenty yards every time
you're punting, that's a lot of field position, a ton
of field position. And I mean, you know, if you're
losing eighty one hundred yards in the punting case, just

(12:44):
by the punters who wouldn't like to have a hundred
yard rusher, we say it's great, we had one hundre
yard rusher. Wall if you lose a hundred in the
punting game break and I think that when you know,
you and I were talking before we came on the air,
Matt about to me this game in Buffalo and again
this this is the looking back segment brought to you
by Brian Patton Associates. Well, look ahead more. But the

(13:05):
things like that are going to be important. They need
Harvin to go up under bad conditions and help, you know,
hopefully be in the in the plus category for you.

Speaker 3 (13:15):
It's instrumental all that hidden yardist stuff, penalties, you know,
turnovers going forward on fourth down, miss field goals, all
those type of things that people don't think about can
swing games in a huge way. And I'm glad you
brought up Austin because frankly, I thought he had a
rough day. I except for one exceptional return, and that
return makes up for the rest of it almost now.
He had a really tough job and that weather catching

(13:37):
punts isn't easy to go and you know, just running
on that surface and all those things against one of
the best special teams units out there. But the fact
that he made up for what I thought were some
lackluster moments as a returner with a big return was gigantic.
And unfortunately we're not getting enough of the big ones
from Harvin, you know, I mean, and it seems to
be a late in the year thing with him year
after year.

Speaker 1 (13:57):
Right, Well, we have plenty of good stuff still to
talk about. We have touch Mason Rudolph. We have done
the passing game or the run game.

Speaker 2 (14:09):
Yeah, we got some examples there.

Speaker 1 (14:11):
We have some good stuff and we'll get to that
good stuff when we continue on the Point After on
Steelers Nation Radio one O two point five DVE. This
is the Point After presented by Parks Casino. Is today
your Lucky Day bet Parks by Brian Patton an associates.

(14:33):
It's all about the benefits and by the Studer's Pro Shop.
Get it direct from the team at shop dot Steelers
dot com. So before we went to break, Matt Williamson
mentioned the trap game and just for fans that don't know,
the basic explanation is a guard polls or a tackle,
but usually guard polls or center I guess but usually guard,

(14:53):
you leave a defensive tackle unblocked, who then thinks, oh
my gosh, I'm unblocked. He crosses the line of scrimmage
like he's going to make the play and this is
this is a manner from heaven and the guard pulling
from the opposite side just completely ear holds him.

Speaker 2 (15:08):
And see the trap.

Speaker 1 (15:09):
Right, you have been tried. So that's the explanation for
those who might not know what a trap is, but
a lot of it. And uh, you.

Speaker 2 (15:16):
Got to give him. Here's the thing. It's your buddy
at the opposite guard that sets the whole thing up,
because he's got to give a good against an even front.
You got to give a good influence block. You set up.
Oh it's a pass. Oh the defensive tackle things, Oh,
I come off and I swim them real quick and
I'm buying them. Wha. Well, that guard just moves on

(15:36):
to the inside, pick somebody up, and you come across.
And if he's got eyes on the quarterback man, it's
like did you ever watch Demolition Derby? That's what if
you ted bomb that guy and he never sees you coming,
and it's just a beautiful thing.

Speaker 1 (15:50):
So create creates didn't I wasn't thinking about that part
of it. The onside guard.

Speaker 2 (15:55):
He's got to set them up.

Speaker 1 (15:56):
He's got to make it look like, oh, kind of
like a screen. Oh my god, I missed you or
beat me.

Speaker 2 (16:02):
Well, I'd better go find somebody else.

Speaker 3 (16:03):
Then then those those dumb d liney get those big
eyes and can't see anything else except now.

Speaker 2 (16:09):
Then it was on the other hand, and maybe that
guy either is really smart, you know, or or like
we used to have in practice because we used to
go pad three times a week, you know. And I
remember Joe Green when he was a defensive line coach,
you know, and he said, Keith Willis, you know that
when the Oakland Raiders on third down and three yards
or less, they like to run this play, which is
a four trap. Well, you know what, We've got to
close that four trap. So you know, when I'm sitting there,

(16:32):
I'm the guy that's running the fore trap. But I
just where's the young guy give me a stunt guard
in here? Because he knows it's coming. This is gonna hurt.

Speaker 4 (16:41):
So yeah, but pick your brain a little bit.

Speaker 3 (16:45):
Looking at like run games across the league, it's kind
of a forgotten art. I mean, like teams don't trap
that much anymore. And my thoughts on and you know
a thousand times better than me, is it doesn't happen overnight.
I mean like it takes a long time to get
good at trapping, and boy, it can pay off when
you're when you're moving. But there's so much o line
movement throughout the league and free agents and guys coming

(17:07):
up that there's just no continuity, you know, Matt, That's
exactly why, because lines don't stick together long enough to
be able to get coherent enough in the trapping game.

Speaker 2 (17:16):
You'll have some forms of it, you know, but to
the extent that we used to run it back in
the eighties, My goodness, I mean we trapped everything. We
trapped coming off the bus, I mean right, yeah, exactly.
He loves it. And you see the tackle trap and
the tackle power where they lead with the tackle pulling
up on the front side. Oh, so they'll do a
number of things. Broderick Jones, because you know, he's a

(17:36):
young buck and so athletic, and Danny Moore the same thing.
They both can run and they can actually take the
place of guards, you know, pulling from the tackle position
based on what's going on in the inside. But certainly
it's like Matt said, the difficulty in keeping lines offensive
lines together long enough to learn the intricacies and nuances
of the trapping game is really difficult today's NFL.

Speaker 3 (17:58):
It seems like Jones and especially see them all who
were taking it up on the level.

Speaker 2 (18:01):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. Isaac Shimal was funny,
like I say, when you see him pull, just follow
the hair man.

Speaker 1 (18:07):
Well here's the other thing too that I remember a coach.
I don't know if it was Bill Parcels. I can't
remember the coach who said, you know, years ago, just hey,
it takes about a year for an offensive line to
really get that cohesiveness a year playing together. What other
factors other than the trap game?

Speaker 4 (18:23):
Is it?

Speaker 1 (18:23):
Knowing when to help a guy out?

Speaker 2 (18:25):
Is it?

Speaker 1 (18:25):
Is it knowing what a guy's strength and weaknesses are?
I mean, double team, yes, mad again is just spot on.
You know, you've got to understand when you come off
on a double team, you're putting huge exertion into number one,
getting in the proper position, putting a shoulder against a car,
and you're both pushing the car. All right, So you're
pushing this car like crazy, and you got to be

(18:46):
ready for somebody flying in either the A gap or
the B gap.

Speaker 2 (18:49):
Well, you're pushing this car because you got to rub
off and pick up that guy, you know, and the
other guy's got to take over the whole block. So
that takes a consistency and understanding number one, your partner
next to you, and number two the relation of the
possible run through guy to where the double team is.
So that takes a lot of repetition over and over.

(19:09):
But the more you move that car into the back
and get that guy backing up, maybe you know, nobody
can really run through a gap. If that gap is
you know, suddenly rear end is coming at you a
three hundred and fifty pounds cheese whopper sitting in your
lap if you're the backside linebacker there, you know. So
that's the whole thing about it. If you can move
that guy with his hand in the dirt into the

(19:30):
lap of the linebacker there, you really got an advantage
in the run game. And right now this run game
is really coming to fruition with guys being able to
play off each other.

Speaker 1 (19:40):
Are there times too where you could come off a
double team where you say you know what, you know,
you're you and Tounch are blocking next to each other,
and you know what Tounch has got this guy? I mean,
oh yeah, Or do you just say let's just run
him into the ground.

Speaker 2 (19:51):
And pile Well, it depends again on the situation. If
the guy plays over the top, then two of us
and we're going up to the inside. You'll stay on it.
It's like when we're playing the ridge over in Chicago
back in eighty five. The guy's three hundred and seventy
five pounds and the day you know, you you come
off and you need help, use a little help from
my friend here, right, Penny, you know, come on, it's

(20:13):
double team off. We come off, and but you can
move him. And job one is to move him, and
the second thing is to make sure you allow no
run through. You can't let that guy run through. It'll
kill you every time.

Speaker 3 (20:23):
And that's something we saw too often early in the season, right,
somebody would leave the double team too soon or stick
with it too long, and then here comes to run through.
Or you know, linebackers are unblocked and you kind of
touched on it. But you've talked about this a lot. Yeah,
I've been on the earth you quite a bit. And
it's like communications also so important, right, I remember when
you said you got to the Steelers Webby in the
guards or just grunt at each other. They won't even

(20:44):
say words. And I'm sure you and Tounch got to
that point, you know, where you don't even have to say.

Speaker 2 (20:47):
Thing, right exactly, But it took a while. Well they're grunting,
you know, I'm like, oh jeez, what I miss?

Speaker 1 (20:54):
They had a double grunner, single gun. So let me
ask you this. Then, as long as we're talking about
the offense, because they've been terrific. I mean, I think
that of the sacks Mason's take taken and I don't
have the number on hand, it's very low. A couple
of those were one he stepped into the guy Dan
Moore was blocking, and probably Mason would say that was

(21:15):
my fault. And then there were a couple of times
in which I don't know whether the running back was
supposed to pick up somebody coming in. I think it
was jail and Warren might have been jailing Warre on
both occasions. When they have six and you only have
five to the block, that's simple, Matt tells you that's
not going to work, and whether that was supposed to
be Mason reading a hot route and getting rid of

(21:36):
it Jalen Warren staying in I don't know. I don't
know what the scheme was. My question though, is that
with the offensive line playing as well as it's played
in the past game and in the run game, is
this you know, you bring in a new left guard
and Seemali bringing Broderick Jones an immediate sort of impact.
Are we seeing now in part perhaps continuity paying off

(22:00):
that these guys that part of the success are having.
Is that continuity exactly? So I always said this, you
start off with five fingers. I'm holding up a hand,
so you got five fingers, right, So you've got those
five fingers, and as you play longer and longer and longer,
you get tighter and tighter and tighter, and b at
the end, what do you got?

Speaker 2 (22:19):
You got a fist.

Speaker 1 (22:20):
I'm glad you're between me and Matt.

Speaker 2 (22:23):
But you know, when you have that continuity between the
players so that you kind of move as one, you understand,
like I've been in situations where a guy moves just
prior to the snap and you can't get a call out,
because number one, you'll make everybody jump off sides, and
number two, you realize what I realize. For instance, what

(22:46):
Touch is going to do pulling from the right tackle
to the left side of Mike Webster's left butt cheek.
There's a guy suddenly in the gap there. But I
know Touch will see that, and I know that's part
of his route, you know, being route aware of him
on his way to that area. He's got to see
it from the left cheek of Mike Webster out to
the C gap right, so he's gonna pick up. So

(23:07):
I don't have to say nothing. But that's a process
of being there for a long time and playing together
for a long time. I don't have to declare to him, Oh, hey, chulute,
you better watch out. You got a guy in the
A gap and he's gonna try to splat. Yeah, he's
already prepared for it. I know that. I don't have
to see.

Speaker 1 (23:22):
Would you guys communicate that like in a film session
or something, or maybe.

Speaker 2 (23:25):
In a practice as you watch film.

Speaker 1 (23:26):
It wasn't just a matter of doing it on the
field during.

Speaker 4 (23:29):
The course of the game.

Speaker 2 (23:29):
On the sidelines, even even as we prepared for it,
we had a special play. It was a ninety three trap.
It was tounch pulling from the right tackle to the
left side, all right, and the only difference is for
Mike Webster and I. Webby's either gonna block all the
way back and I'm gonna get his man, or We're
gonna double team his man and I'll pick up the
linebacker on the back side. That's all it took, you know,
because the quarterback's gonna audible. I don't have to give

(23:51):
a call because number one, I'm gonna alert the guy
here at number two, probably I'm gonna jump off sides.

Speaker 3 (23:57):
And I'm sure on game day sometimes, like boy that
the tackle gets a feeling even quicker than we thought
on tape.

Speaker 2 (24:02):
But you understand thought, Yeah, you understand what each each
guy does. And you understand too like Ray Penny. We
used to call him the rubber band man. Okay. Ray
would get into situations that looked like he was in trouble,
passed rushway, he was okay, you know, he was just
one of those guys that could recoup and rebound and everything.
I saw him. One time, the guy spun and they

(24:22):
were back to back looking at each other over their shoulder,
which is a very incongruous situation. And I laugh about
it now, but I remember trying to help Ray out.
Ray's looking at me, I'm looking at him. I'm trying
to get to the guy and raise back, you know.
So it's just one of those situations where you learn
to play next to each other and have continuity. And again,

(24:43):
the more you play together, the closer you become, and
the better you become real.

Speaker 3 (24:47):
Quick, if you don't mind. Just so, I like to
throw and stuff from the other teams too. But McDonald
the defense coordinator for the Ravens, I think it's gonna
be a head coach maybe in a month. I mean like,
they cause a lot of problems all year, no matter
who the own it is, with simulated pressures, overload, blitzes,
things of that nature. So that's about as stiff a
test as you're going to see schematically. And I can't

(25:08):
help myself to look ahead just a little. This Bills
offensive line, same five starters every game this year.

Speaker 1 (25:14):
Yeah, well, and it is, and the students have gotten
to that point of continuity as well. And I think that,
you know, football is to me the ultimate complimentary sport,
and you know they're they're like TJ. Watt, for example.
We'll talk about the injuries coming up, but he's going
to make the people around him better because he has

(25:36):
to be accounted for. Maybe you have to keep a
running back in to help double team them. Well that
running back isn't getting out to the flat. Well, that's
going to help a linebacker, a corner in coverage. It's
going to help the guy in the opposite side, Alex Highsmith,
because he's going to get single blocks. So all these
things fit in together. And so I'm not saying that

(25:58):
because I do want to talk about Mason Rudolph. You know,
whether it is Mason Rudolph helping the offensive line, the
running backs helping the offensive line, or simply it beginning
with the offensive line helping Mason Rudolph helping the running back,
I think it's probably all tied together. But I don't
think you can understate just how good this offensive line
has been. And to me, that gives you maybe a

(26:20):
little bit better opportunity than that nine and a half
point line I'm staring at that. People might think I'm
not going to ask you about the line. I'm just
saying in general, then this offensive line is if I'm
you know, as a Steelers fan watching it gives me
cause for.

Speaker 4 (26:34):
Hope, no doubt, no question about it.

Speaker 3 (26:36):
First of all, I mean since the bye of last week,
I think everything starts with this franchise top to bottom
with how well they can run the football. But for
looking ahead a little bit, and I'm sure Wolfeul like
this will probably already heard, it is good offensive lines travel,
you know, I mean that facet in a hostile environment,
bad weather, playoffs, AFC, North Football, whatever, good lines tra

(27:00):
and I think this is a good line.

Speaker 2 (27:02):
That is a truism. Matt's right on. I mean, I
couldn't say it any better. They travel, and when you
have that tight knit a group, you take that group
of five anywhere and it's like walking down in the
alley with five of your biggest, baddest best friends because
it's going to get the job done well.

Speaker 1 (27:15):
The other thing is too, is that the guys behind
them running the football. And we'll stick to the run
right now before we move on to Mason Rudolph Jalen Warren,
who obviously had trouble hanging on to the ball in
this game, but who has been a dynamo for them
and Magie Harris, I mean back to back hundred yard
games for the first time in his career, goes up
over a thousand yards. But he when he's running like that,

(27:39):
he's setting the tone. I think the line and Naji
Harris and Jalen Warren too feed off each other. I mean,
those guys run with attitude. They run kind of like
maybe like I think most offensive linemen had. My roommate
in college is an offensive lineman, and I asked him
what he dreamed about, and he was like, you, I thought,
maybe like running out in the open field. His dream

(27:59):
was like the falling a fumble in the end zone.
So not big dreams, you know, But I mean, I
would think if you're an offensive that's the kind of
guy you want to block for man who's gonna give it.
I mean, they're fighting until the whistle blows, until they're
in the ground and someone's on top of him and
there's still a leg kicking out in an arm thrashing around,
you know.

Speaker 2 (28:16):
You know, one of the greatest hits I remember of
Steve Corse and pulling on a sweep and he hit
Reggie Williams from the Cincinnati Bengals so hard that when
Reggie he literally it was like watching a bull gore guy,
you don't, one of the matadors and hit him and
he went straight back nine feet. His cleats were off
the ground by about two inches and he shot backwards

(28:37):
I'm sorry, not nine feet a yard three feet and
his feet hit the ground and he did a backflip
when his feet hit the ground, the yard, official turf.
It was spectacular. I mean, it was such a hard hit.
He literally caused the guy to go backwards the flip.
He came into the huddle, you know, and I remember,
I can't remember it was Franco or Frankie Pollard, whoever
it was, and looked at him and going that was
a great hit. And I just remember Steve going, yeah, daddy,

(29:00):
I mean he knew, you know. And then everybody gets
jacked by that. You see that, and you want to
do that, So you go out there and you go
even harder, you know, in the backs are pushing the lineman.
The linemen are pushing the backs, and all of a
sudden you got this great mugination rolling. It's a lot
of fun.

Speaker 1 (29:16):
Well, we've had some emogination rolling, so much so, in fact,
that we haven't even mentioned the hottest topic in town,
but we're gonna do that next when the Point After
presented by Steeers Nation Radio and one O two point
five DVE continues. This is the point After presented by
Parks Casino. Is today your Lucky Day bet Parks by

(29:39):
Brian Patton and associates. It's all about the benefits and
by this year this pro shop get it direct from
the team at shop dot Steelers dot com. Third segment
of the point after, uh proud of us. So we've
gotten this far in this show and have not mentioned
the hottest topic of town. Most most people would probably
be leading with that, but we're saving the best for last.
This is dessert and it's May Rudolph Wolf. And you know,

(30:02):
I don't quite get the flag in the sand that
a lot of Steelers fans have. You know, you're a
Kenny Pickett guy last year, maybe you're a Mitch Trubisky guy.
Now you're a Mason Rudolph guy. And this is our
camp and this is our hill and we're going to
gather here and frankly, I don't care who is performing
well as long as you're helping a team win and

(30:25):
right Now, Mason Rudolph, the way he's performed, I mean,
he's been terrific. The back to back games of you know,
thirty three points and thirty points. We haven't seen that
in forever, you know, getting over four hundred yards three
ninety seven in the first game against the Bengals because
they took their foot off the gas really was why
that wasn't more the offense just looking completely different. And

(30:47):
you can talk about different factors. We've talked about the
offensive line, but this all coincides with Mason Rudolph getting
under center.

Speaker 2 (30:53):
You know, if I had three words of describe Mason
Rudolph would just simply be making good decisions, you know,
related risks, as Mike Tomlin talked about not gambling, all right,
but understanding the limits of what is necessary at this
moment in time for you to be successful and then
proceeding upon that information and acting on it and whether

(31:16):
it's throwing an in route when you know, I love
the schematic diagram of how they had friar mouth. They
had pickens, and they had Deontay on the same you know,
three and one, you know, on the three to the
right side, and you got Friar mouth freezing the inside linebackers.
You got pickens freezing the corner on the outside. Oh,
here goes Deontay on a little slant route, a little

(31:36):
break in routing. You hit them right at the right time,
and you know it's maybe it was you this morning
talking to I saying you don't have to throw the
ball seventy yards y, you know, to get a seventy
yard touchdown, you throw a twenty yards and the guy
runs the other fifty. Hey, that works.

Speaker 1 (31:51):
Well, we've seen what happens when you get playmakers moving forward.
I think you know, look, the biggest issue that I
had with the Matt Cannada offense, and again, they're running
a lot of the same stuff, right. It's not they've
thrown the playbook out the window and draw. You can't
install a new offense, but a lot of stop gaps
and a lot and again, look, I don't have any

(32:14):
idea how that came down. I don't know if it's
you know, from from the head coach saying, hey, listen,
we got to play this close to the vest. You know,
I don't know whether it's the off I have no idea,
but it was very conservative. There are a lot of
stop routes. Uh, you know, receivers that they're back to
the defense catching the ball. Now they got to catch
a four yard ball, turn around, try to head upfield.
A lot of stuff out to the flats. Well, a
short pass over the middle of the field only has

(32:36):
to travel ten yards, fifteen yards. I said this morning,
it's throwing a ball across your living room. It's it's
not a long throw. And yet Deontay Johnson and Pickens
have the ability to take those short throws as we've
seen and make big plays out of them. Friarmuth, I
mean the first play that they ran Kenny Pickott was
the quarterback with the new offense, was Friarmuth at the

(32:59):
middle of the field attacked the middle of the field.
I thought that was being left alone, and now they're
attacking that. And and Mason Rudolph, you know, came into
this season sixteen touchdown passes, eleven interceptions. That's not the
ratio you want. And this year three touchdown passes, zero interception.
So to Wolf's you know comment about making the right decisions,

(33:20):
he's he hasn't been afraid to throw the ball, and
he's made good decisions and hasn't thrown an interception yet.

Speaker 3 (33:25):
So two things I want to add to that is,
I very very much believe yards after the catch is
as much a quarterback stat as a pass catcher stat.

Speaker 4 (33:33):
You know, I mean putting the ball.

Speaker 3 (33:34):
I mean Bill Walsh six six inches in front of
the numbers, not nine, not you know, we went the
ball here with Jerry Rice on a slant. You know,
I mean yards after the catch, Peyton, Manning, Brady. These
guys are great yard after the catch quarterbacks because they're
timing and accuracy. Now, the interception thing I think is
crucial to so over the last two years, the Steelers

(33:55):
are seventeen and four in games which they did not
throw a single interception. This year, they're nine and two
in games they don't throw a pick. Now, I'm not
giving Trubisky a hard time, but he throws picks.

Speaker 1 (34:09):
And well, if I if I can interject, yeah, they're
they're ten and three in UH, ten and three in
games started by Pickett and Mason Rudolph all in four
in games started by Mitch. Tribiscuits want to throw it.

Speaker 2 (34:20):
I think that that's relevant.

Speaker 3 (34:21):
I mean, if you take Mitch out of the equation,
I think Kenny is a young quarterback, might have been
a little too tight.

Speaker 4 (34:27):
Just can't throw a pick, just can't throw a pick.

Speaker 3 (34:29):
Where Rudolph was a nice blend of the two, where
I think he's been more aggressive with his decisions. But
to Wolf's saying, also smart. You know he'll he'll dirt
the ball if it's not there. He's not gonna put
it in harm's way.

Speaker 4 (34:42):
But still knows when to hold him and win to fold.

Speaker 1 (34:45):
Yeah, it feels to me like this is a guy.
You know, I talk about mental reps. Mental reps are difficult, right,
I mean physical reps are better. That's why the first
and second string guys get the practice, right, But if
you're the third string guy, you're you could go weeks
without taking a snap in unless maybe you're doing the
scout teamers.

Speaker 4 (35:02):
You're simulating what Joe Burrow is.

Speaker 1 (35:03):
Right, Yeah, right, Yeah, that's what I'm saying. You're you're
the scout team guy for the defense, right, that's the
only which is not running your offense, not going through
the progressions. But I'm seeing a guy who is going
through his progressions properly, quickly. He just looks to me
like a guy who took advantage of of every possible

(35:26):
permutation when it comes to uh preparing yourself. And I
think it's a great story that he stepped out there
and taking advantage.

Speaker 2 (35:35):
Of it unquestionably. So look, people will tell you that, oh, yeah,
you know, I got the will to win, But do
you have the will to prepare to win? That's the question.
And people a lot of times though they might overstate,
you know what I mean. Yeah, I'm preparing each and
every day. I'm doing the mental reps. Well, are you
really right? You know, the mental reps is more than

(35:56):
just standing back there going okay, so I got this place,
so I got the fake it's underneath snap, I got
to fake a handoff and then I throw the out
all right, No, No, that's not it. You've got to
put yourself mentally in a position where you're seeing the rush,
you're feeling the rush, and you're throwing the ball. You're
doing all these things and you got to get that down.
How do I know? Well, shoot. One of the biggest

(36:17):
obstacles I had when I first came to the Steelers
was Raleigh Dosh, my offensive line coach. Are you doing
your mental gymnastics? My what mental gymnastics. What's that? And
you learn to put yourself in a position where now
they have what the oculus, you know, they can see things,
you know, and then they can you know, you got
the game coming in. Well, you got to do that
in your head, you know, And I've basically got so

(36:37):
good at doing it in my head i could eat
popcorn in the theater of my mind, you know. But
the point is, you know, if you're really doing that,
you see the results. Because the trapping game had so
many variables, you could never get enough practice to create
the same scenarios and all the different traps that you
run based on whatever defense you know, three four four

(36:58):
to three, stack over Q, all these different defenses. So
the point is you've got to do that mentally, and
the results are You see it in Mason. You see
it when he moves the safeties with his eyes. You
see him when he has a shoulder fake. You see
it when he does the little things like hanging onto
the ball to the last second, knowing that the time
he's about to come, he's gonna get hit. But he's
hanging in there and delivering the ball, waiting for a

(37:21):
window to clear. All these little things. The nuances of
quarterbacking he's doing and how's he doing it? Well, he's
been doing it in practice, He's been doing it in
the mental preparation. He's really been doing what he said
he was doing, which was preparing each and every week.

Speaker 1 (37:34):
Ideally, you'd like every professional to do that. But the
fact of the matter is that Mason Rudolph was staring
straight down the barrel of maybe never getting another opportunity
in his career career, and kudos to him for putting
in the work and saying, listen, the opportunity may never come,
but it might somehow it might, and when it did,

(37:56):
he was ready. And he's been terrific.

Speaker 3 (37:58):
I think it was Muhammad Ali that said champs are
made when no one's watching, you know, like doing the
roadwork at five am. No one's got a camera on you,
you're not on Twitter, blah blah blah. Well, Rudolph's obviously
been doing that type of thing too. You know, he's
doing more than what's going on on the practice field
in the quarterback meeting room. He's spending a lot of
waking hours outside the building or on his own working

(38:19):
on his craft.

Speaker 1 (38:20):
Yeah'd be easier to pay somebody to watch you all time.
That might be the way to perform best. Okay, so
we mentioned and listen to We just have a few
minutes left in the show. A lot of good things
out of the Steelers. You mentioned row playing well. You know,
I think the team getting fewer penalties, although both teams
got fewer penalties, and this game in Baltimore.

Speaker 3 (38:42):
Might be something about the ref crew not want to
make any more extra attention.

Speaker 1 (38:46):
So the Bills have won five in a row. The
Steelers have won three in a row, and they're an
intriguing team. I said at the beginning of the show.
Of all the teams, I think in the AFC, this
might be the team I'd least like to play up
at their place. They've won five in a row. They
include wins at Kansas City, at Miami Dallas, at home.
They were you know, we bring up the five Steelers.

(39:08):
What the Bills are doing remind me of the five Steelers.
I mean that Steelers team won four in a row.
They were counted out. This team was six and six
and people are like, hey, they're done. Now they're division champions.
They won five in a row. And this is a
team with a recent background of success, so they're a
formidable team. They are banged up, Matt. They do have
some injury issues. Last night they lost, you know, already

(39:30):
without White, their premier corner, Milano, their Pro Bowl and
middle linebacker for quite sometimes. This guy's been out since October,
but now their back. They're backups injured last night, gave
Davis injured last night. We don't know whether these guys
are gonna be able to play or not. But it's
a team that's got an absolute franchise quarterback. But he's
been very generous with throwing interceptions this year through two

(39:52):
last night against Miami. So, uh, what do you make
of this matchup going up to Buffalo.

Speaker 3 (39:58):
Yeah, they're one of the best teams of the last
hand four years, but haven't got the ring, you know,
and they've been really close. They've won the division four
years in a row, gone the playoffs five years in
a row. They are dealing with injuries, as is everyone
around the league, but we'll see how significant some of
those are.

Speaker 4 (40:13):
I think they're very volatile.

Speaker 3 (40:14):
I think that their highs are very high, their lows
can be very low. And their quarterback is an utter
superstar who's unbelievably talented. But he's a bit of a
wild stallion too. I mean he's really hard to play against.

Speaker 2 (40:26):
Yeah, he's really hard.

Speaker 1 (40:27):
To play again, hard to tackle, and you know they
got a huge punt return in the game last night.
I mean, I'm not sure they win that game without
the punt return, but they are a handful. And it
begins to Josh Allen just being there's a good question.

Speaker 2 (40:40):
And you're going to have to specifically address that in
your defensive meetings and so forth. But one of the
things I'm like Land's Landon is back Johnson, right, I
mean robertson Johnson, Roberts, I'm roberts It's such a good game,
oh man, you know that blitz when when you know

(41:04):
Tyler Huntley had his back turned you know to him,
he was on him like cheap soup.

Speaker 1 (41:09):
Man.

Speaker 2 (41:09):
I mean it was fun watching and the explosive tackling. Now,
if he can get the other parts of you know,
NFL linebacking down, that'll be great. But specifically inserted into
certain situations, he's got the ability to do some real
good work on there. And Landon again is such a
critical factor in that second level because Number one he

(41:29):
is a hard here. I watched him. You know, I'm
thinking about a peck injury, how much that would hurt
anytime you extend your arm and everything, and you watch him.
He doesn't play like he's got a peck injury. Man.
He played like he was all fine and everything else
and putting a whack on people. And I just I
really respect that professional attitude and being able to coul
There is a difference between injury and pain. Chuck always

(41:52):
used to remind us of that, and certainly he's one
of those guys that understands the difference.

Speaker 1 (41:56):
And you can't miss a guy Matt like TJ Watt,
who is you know, that's a lot of I mean,
he listened, he belongs. I don't understand why the narrative,
you know, jetted away from him in the middle of
the season. Well, it's either Michael Parsons or Miles Garret
for defensive Player of the Year. I still don't understand
why that is. But you know, we can't make our
case for him as defensive Player of the Year and think, oh,
they'll be fine without him. I mean, he's clearly he's

(42:19):
clearly going to be missed. Now that the two guys
backing them up. They have to be good for a game.
And I think one of the other things, you know,
your injuries on the outside when you'd like to be
able to get pressure on Allen. But we talked about
the middle linebacking position. You know, hopefully your safeties come back.
Mink coming back would be a huge deal. Maybe now
Peterson can can think about covering either Cook or one

(42:40):
of those tight ends, because not only does Allan hurt you,
not only they have digs and maybe he can put
Joey Porter Junior on him. But this is a good matchup,
I would think for the Bills, exploiting the guys you
traditionally think of covering running backs and tight ends on
the Steelers and whether those guys are up for the task.
We saw Cook running a running a pass wide receiver last.

Speaker 3 (43:01):
Night, and Kincaid's really a big wide receiver to their
first round pick. Yeah mean he's very yeah, but he's
he's basically as a big wide receiver. I'm sure we'll
I haven't given a ton of thought yet, but I'm
sure Porter will spend a ton of time on dig
I would think so he's clearly their one, and Diggs
was very quiet before last night. To be honest with you,
he had about a five game stretch there where he disappeared.

(43:21):
So they've been looking for others to step up, and
it's been cooking Kaid Davis, who also got banged up.
But I do think as Wolf was talking, and we've
kind of mentioned the linebacker safety situation for the Steelers,
all of a sudden looks a lot better than used to.

Speaker 2 (43:36):
You know, like comes back.

Speaker 3 (43:40):
Has been good Roberts. You know, Robinson's coming off his
best game. So maybe, I mean, you can't make up
for the loss of watt. You can't, but maybe you
blitz ten percent more because you trust the spine of
your defense more than you used it.

Speaker 1 (43:52):
Right, And it is interesting. I feel like what the
Steelers are presenting now with being able to be more
explosive in the passing game is we want to run
the ball, but if you bring that extra guy in,
we can throw it. You know, the Bills will run
the ball and Alan will scramble. They present unique difficulties
as well, So it just it's I can't wait. Well,

(44:12):
it's gonna be a lot of fun.

Speaker 2 (44:13):
I'm excited to And here's the thing about it, We've
already got a pretty good experience with dealing with running quarterbacks. Yeah,
you know, with Lamar Jackson. You know, I mean that's true.
So I think this is not a long step or
a long stretch for this defense to have to address it.
And the more we get the inside linebackers safety position stabilized,
and again great work by Eric Rowe. And I apologize

(44:36):
to the land and Roberts for screwing up your name.
Just remember that so you don't hit me.

Speaker 1 (44:41):
Well, some hard hits on the quarterback and the scrambling
game might not be awful either.

Speaker 3 (44:46):
I've been told to Alan like the opposite of Lamar,
but like Lamar is different when you see him in
person than on tape that he is a big beast.

Speaker 1 (44:54):
Yeah, you hit him and you might not get the best.
It's a large human being.

Speaker 2 (44:59):
I'm still saying I'll take a landing over Josh and.

Speaker 1 (45:04):
I can't wait. And we'll see if the look back
segment next week is a look back at a victory
advancing the Steelers on in the playoffs, or hopefully not
a season recap. But we'll be back again next week
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 official Steelers
Pro stores Pro Shop stores located at Akrocher Stadium, Grove

(45:29):
City Premium Outlets, or Tang route Let's, or visit us
online atshop dot Steelers dot com for all your Steelers
merchandise needs directly from the team for Craig Wofy, Matt Williams,
and I'm Rob King. Thanks for joining us for the
point after on Steelers Nation Radio on one O two
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