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November 18, 2024 • 43 mins
The most enjoyable Victory Monday of the year thus far as Rob King, Craig Wolfley, and Matt Williamson share their joy and takeaways from the game against Baltimore with you.

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Steelers Point after show on wdb E Pittsburgh,
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(00:21):
And now here are your hosts, Rob King, Craig Wolfley
and Matt Williamson.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Thanks very much for being with us on the Point
after your Pittsburgh Steelers have improved to eight and two.
It was a showdown for first place in the AFC North.
The Steelers came into the game underdogs to a Ravens
team that had won seven of its last date. The
Steelers had won four in a row, and make it
five in a row for the Steelers eighteen sixteen. They
hang on to win at the end over the Ravens
to improve to eight and two and strengthen their stranglehold

(00:50):
on the AFC North, or at least grip. Maybe not
a stranglehold just yet, but a nice victory for the Steelers.
Our first reaction is brought to you by First National Bank.
Let's get started, remember FDI see Wolf, what is your
first reaction to this Deeler's victory.

Speaker 3 (01:04):
You know, it's really all about what the defense did
that was so impressive. To hold the Ravens number one
scoring offense to its fewest points, fewest yards, and fewest
first downs of the season was dramatic, It was improbable.
It was everything that you could want of a fist
fight in defense, a defense to come out and challenge

(01:27):
some really great athletes and do such a job. And
it all started in the pregame warm ups for me
watching Mike Tomlin join the group of linebackers in there.
Let's ride you know circuit Joey Porter thing that they've
used to do from years ago. They get in a
circle and they just start getting that little rhythmic sway
back and forth and chant a little bit and talk

(01:48):
a little bit, and you see Mike Tomlin join in,
and you hear Mike Tomlin say it's this group. It's
this group that has to lead. And then you see
at the end of the day where those line as
a group. I counted for twenty tackles, one sack, three
tackles for a lost, three quarterback hits, an interception of
pass defense, two forced fumbles, one fumble recovery. Jad zooks Man,

(02:11):
that was true. It's about that group. That group did
a great job, as did the whole team in large.
It was just a great team effort.

Speaker 4 (02:20):
Matt.

Speaker 5 (02:21):
Yeah, mine's a little more big picture.

Speaker 6 (02:23):
I mean, the playoff math is wonderful right now, but
I think you have one of the best defenses in
the league. You have the best special teams unit in
the league, and kicker couldn't have been more important yesterday.
You have yourself a quarterback that got his first Ravens
game under his belt, as well as some young guys
that got that first Ravens game under their belt. But
as you opened the show, Rob, I mean, they're on

(02:43):
a five game winning streak, and that's really, really difficult
to do if you play the five worst teams in
the league, let alone Washington and Baltimore and these quality teams.
And to reiterate that, I saw this little nugget this
morning that the Steelers own a league high five victories

(03:03):
over teams that currently have a winning record.

Speaker 5 (03:06):
There's a lot of people out there. They really haven't
played anybody.

Speaker 6 (03:09):
They've beat five teams that right now have a winning record.
That's really good.

Speaker 4 (03:13):
Agreed, Agreed with both those counts.

Speaker 2 (03:15):
And you know, I kind of want to start with
the special teams, Matt, and I'm glad you mentioned Chris Boswell.

Speaker 4 (03:20):
It's a pretty good place to start.

Speaker 2 (03:22):
This is the second time this year he's been six
for six on field goals. He was AFC Special Teams
Player of the Month and what I think both September
and October that's pretty good considering you've only played two months.

Speaker 5 (03:35):
But for November too.

Speaker 4 (03:38):
Yeah, I just put a down payment down yesterday, did
he not?

Speaker 2 (03:41):
You know, one of the things that I was looking
at prior to this game, and you're trying to figure
out what are the key matchups? And we have, of
course the matchup show that we're going to be actually
doing tomorrow as opposed to our normal Thursday. What are
the key matchups in the game, and it's usually the
offense defense, But to me, you know, one of those
things that I was looking at in the last game,

(04:01):
and we'll probably look at it in a game like
a game against Cleveland in which you know, the Browns
are looking for ways that they can find a way
to win. And you know, the Steelers are holding punt
returners to two point seven yards per return.

Speaker 4 (04:16):
That is the lowest in the NFL.

Speaker 2 (04:18):
And so if you talk about corless weightman, well, you
went into last week's game twenty first or whatever in punting,
but eleventh in net because of that low return average.
Just everywhere you look, Matt on the Steers' special teams,
whether it is Calvin Austin returning a punt for a touchdown,
getting block kicks, or holding the opponents to two point
seven yards per return, Danny Smith's units have been phenomenal

(04:42):
this year.

Speaker 6 (04:43):
Phenomenal. I mean, there's no question about it. I think
Boswell is now the best kicker in the league. And
it certainly is not justin Tucker. But you mentioned you
a preview in this game. I mean, I think the
whole planet knew it was going to be a close game.
It always is, it will be next year, it will
be the next time they play, et cetera. And you
and I have had a lo a lot of discussions
in different formats about winning in the margins and special

(05:03):
teams is a great example of that. But a big
thing I harped on going into this game was the
Steelers had a distinct special teams advantage. They had a
distinct penalty advantage before the game even you know, we
talked about these things, and they had a distinct turnover advantage.

Speaker 5 (05:19):
Well, all those things.

Speaker 6 (05:20):
Came to truth, and frankly, it's been something that the
Steelers have done really well, but frankly with lesser quarterbacks
and lesser rosters to win, you know, get to the playoffs,
to keep that Tomlin winning streak alive, those type of things.

Speaker 2 (05:34):
And Wolf to kind of talk about what you guys
are both mentioning here and talking about, is that I
feel like, for the first time in a while, the
Steelers don't necessarily have to win that way. Absolutely, those
things are helping to Steelers win games. But I always
felt like when the Steelers were going to play a

(05:55):
Buffalo Bills team or a Kansas City Chiefs team, or
a Philadelphia Eagles team over the last few.

Speaker 4 (05:59):
Years, largely because of the quarterback play.

Speaker 2 (06:03):
Although I do think the defense right now is the
best it's been in a while, and the better than
better than some very good defenses.

Speaker 4 (06:10):
I think this is the best defense.

Speaker 2 (06:12):
The series have added several years of the special teams
are great, but you always felt I always felt like, well,
you know, maybe you need to win the turnover margin,
and maybe not just by one. If there's gonna be
a special teams play, you better be the one that
makes it. You're going to have to win in penalties,
as Matt calls, You're gonna have to win in the margins.

(06:33):
You know now that you're starting to topple teams with
regularity and teams. You know, the Chargers look like they're
a good team. The Ravens are a good team. I
don't feel that way anymore.

Speaker 4 (06:43):
Wolf.

Speaker 2 (06:43):
I feel like you can just roll the ball out
there and let's go play it doesn't You don't need
two or three fourth things to go your way to
win a game anymore.

Speaker 3 (06:53):
Well, I think you're you're spot on, but I'll say this,
stick to the margins.

Speaker 4 (06:58):
Oh yeah, no, no, no, they're way to win.

Speaker 3 (07:00):
For sure, exactly. But I'm saying you're you want to
keep that focus there. You know, I think so much
went right when you got Nick her big punching the
ball out of the nightmare. That is King Henry right,
That dude trucking people, getting that two hundred and fifty pounds,
rolling an open space, running over d backs and everything else.

(07:21):
You know, that can be kind of a nightmarriage then
coming at you when you're second level and beyond. But
you know what, you go out, you punch the ball
out of his hand and suddenly that nightmare is just
it's another boogeyman passed, you know what I mean, It's just,
you know, it's just another guy, and they made him
look like another guy, just another guy.

Speaker 7 (07:39):
So to me, that's that's what it was all about.

Speaker 3 (07:42):
Just taking away the fear factor and what these guys
can do, what Lamar Jackson can do, and then you
just play your ball, You play your game and boom,
that game was good enough.

Speaker 4 (07:52):
Mike Tomlin says, it's not splitting the atom.

Speaker 2 (07:55):
What does Teelers do to defeat Lamar Jackson and defeat
Derrick Henry? But it is impressive, And you know, Matt
and I will freely admit this. When I'm calling a game,
sometimes you don't you know you're calling a game. You're
not necessarily looking at it the way I would look
at it if I was watching on my couch or
watching from home or watching from the press box, so

(08:18):
I don't know if it was completely situational. And far
be it from me to be critical of a guy
who's won one hundred and sixty seven more regular season
games than I have as a head coach and one
more Super Bowl than I have as a head coach,
and that's John Harbaugh. But I was really shocked at
the end of the game, and we looked at the
numbers to find that Derrick Henry only had the ball
on his belly thirteen times.

Speaker 4 (08:38):
I don't know if that was situational.

Speaker 2 (08:40):
I don't know if they, you know, got into a
lot of third and lungs because of the penalties. But
you know, I would expect when these two teams play again,
that carry told Scott to be up near twenty.

Speaker 5 (08:51):
If you're the Ravens, yeah, you beat me too.

Speaker 6 (08:53):
You guys were talking about Dereck Henry and I just
wanted to double check it, so I've flipped the laptop
up the double check. He played thirty of apossible sixty
one offensive snaps.

Speaker 5 (09:02):
How do you let that happen?

Speaker 6 (09:04):
I mean, you're not in third and long the entire
game with you know, receiving backs out there. Justice Hill,
and he played under half the snaps in a really close,
grinded out game, and the season he's having is remarkable,
and I don't understand it. The best way I can
explain it away is teams have chosen to attack the
Steelers out of eleven personnels, so they get their nickelbacks

(09:27):
on the field, they take a defensive lineman off, et cetera.
And I think that the Ravens did a lot more
of that than they usually do, but they were the
best offense in the league. I mean, why not just
run what you do well as opposed to making yourself
play left handed? And you know he wasn't even out
there for the two point conversion to send the thing
to overtime. I mean, I think sometimes Harbaugh can outthink

(09:48):
himself in these games.

Speaker 3 (09:49):
Or maybe you've extinguished the boogeyman for the day, you
know what I mean?

Speaker 7 (09:53):
Yeah, there's you know, I can't account for it, Matt.

Speaker 4 (09:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (09:56):
The only thing I can say is in for some
reason other than if them listing some sort of postgame
injury or something that naturally, yeah, that would be understandable.

Speaker 7 (10:07):
But otherwise, yeah, I agree.

Speaker 3 (10:09):
With you and that you know, to me, I just
thought it was such a huge lift for Nick Herbig
to come back then in his first starting a couple
of weeks, first ability to have action in a couple
of weeks, they should say, you come out and make
such a decidedly big play. It really teed this team
up for doing something positive very early in the game.

Speaker 2 (10:30):
Well, let's stick with the defense, even though we're gonna
be talking defense next segment, because there's plenty of offensive
questions I have for you guys as well. But you know,
Lamar Jackson, it is remarkable he has not been able
to perform well against Steelers. I don't call if he's
called splitting the atom or what you call it. I mean,
sixteen to thirty three. He came in with a quarterback
rating of sixty six against the Steelers. It's gonna remain

(10:52):
at sixty six because it was sixty six again yesterday.
Sixteen for thirty three, one touchdown, one interception this game.
And you know that's not the kind of Lamar that
that you know the fans are worth are used to seeing.
He had forty six yards rushing, sure, but he only
carried the ball four times. So again I feel like

(11:15):
you limited Lamar Jackson and you were able to. You know,
first of all, you stop Henry, but then you limit
Lamar Jackson, and it's it's amazing. Now, look, I'm sure
Lamar is gonna look a that one play, vintage Lamar
scrambling all over the place, hit Zave Flowers right in
the chest, and Flowers normally sure hand.

Speaker 4 (11:34):
Had dropped it.

Speaker 2 (11:36):
But all in all, you just have to look at
it as another game, and you just begin to wonder.
You know, Pedro Martinez had his troubles with the Yankees,
maybe Lamar Jackson just has his trouble with the Steelers.

Speaker 6 (11:49):
I think there's a lot to it. I also think
the best defensive line in the league has a lot
to do with it. Two, because they did pressure him
a lot, but they didn't hit him a ton, so
they made things uncomfortable for him. I also think the
Steelers varied their coverages more than I've seen probably at
any point this year. Minka did a lot of man
coverage against tight ends. They played a high percentage of

(12:10):
man again, even though it wasn't great against Washington. And
then I dug these up too. I mean, he he
only threw five passes outside the pocket. He was two
A five for twenty seven yards, you know, I mean,
and his average depth of completion was only one yard
downfield on those plays, So some of them was because
A Flowers dropped the ball. But I mean, I don't

(12:30):
think it's all him, but there is something to it.
There can't not be.

Speaker 7 (12:33):
Well think about it.

Speaker 3 (12:34):
I mean, he went to this game and he counted
for four hundred yards outside the pocket, nine touchdowns him.

Speaker 7 (12:40):
I mean, it's totally dangerous.

Speaker 3 (12:42):
Didn't happen there now, And you know, you got to
you got to give kudos to Darrel Austin in the
defense doing the job that they did, changing things up
and getting after him and keeping him on a you know,
really an unbalanced, unlevel playing field for himself. I mean,
he just he didn't look comfortable at all. Go out
and you have eight games with the eight consecutive games

(13:03):
with one hundred plus passer rating, and that that ended, Boy,
it ended demonstrably.

Speaker 2 (13:08):
Yeah, And the big streak of them having twenty or
more points three undred and seventy four to five more
yards of offense, they've done that the first ten games
of the season. That streak is over. So a lot
of streak's coming to an end. I do want to
ask you guys schematically about something that the Steelers appear
to me to be doing. But we're gonna do that
when we return. This is the point after on the

(13:30):
Steelers Audio Network.

Speaker 3 (13:32):
Back to the point after on DVE.

Speaker 2 (13:36):
Snap, Lamar moving out to the left, Lamar being strung out,
and Lamar flings it backhand incomplete and the Steelers defense.

Speaker 4 (13:44):
Has come up with a stop.

Speaker 2 (13:47):
The play of the game is brought to you by
S and T Bank, proudly serving our communities since nineteen
oh two. stBank dot com s and T Bank member
fdi C. Thanks for being with us. On the point
after on the Steeler there's Audio Network alongside Matt Williamson
and Craig Wolfley. I'm Rob King wolf We were a
little mystified by that, and I just it felt like,

(14:09):
you know, I think that they changed to play the
origin Who's Gonna Call? Because Mike Tomin used one of
the Steelers' timeouts. They have to get the two point conversion.
It looked to me like Lamar road left and nobody
came with them.

Speaker 4 (14:21):
There were any receivers, there was there was nothing. They're
just it was strange.

Speaker 3 (14:26):
You know, it's kind of funny because I always go
back in my mind, remember Joey Porter when he was
coaching the outside linebackers. They'd say, you know, when they
came up for their one on ones, he say, now
have a plan. I have a plan. I could see Joey.

Speaker 7 (14:36):
Porter up in the suite, cheery and on the sun
yell they didn't have a plan.

Speaker 4 (14:42):
You know.

Speaker 3 (14:42):
All I could think about was the fact that, you know,
it must have been a great time out. It must
have been goggled the Ravens for them to go to
a backup plan, so to speak, their next play. But
it sure didn't look like there was any sort of
now ulterior you know, secondary option for him on that
print to the left.

Speaker 5 (15:01):
Someone must have done something wrong.

Speaker 6 (15:02):
I mean, yeah, I'm sure it's a blown assignment somewhere
along the lines.

Speaker 5 (15:08):
Now.

Speaker 6 (15:08):
I don't know exactly how the Ravens do it, or
howevery NFL team does it, but most teams go into
a game with I want to say, three ish two
point conversion plays they're real comfortable with and one that
they like the best. I assume they went from number
one to number two, and maybe there's a huge drop
off and they didn't rep it very much.

Speaker 5 (15:26):
I don't know, but it was a mess.

Speaker 4 (15:28):
It was a mess, and it didn't look good.

Speaker 2 (15:31):
And the question I wanted to ask you guys before
I got back to some other things, you know this,
do the sack totals are down, They're not bringing a
lot of blitzing pressure, and yet the defense remains more
effective than ever. I believe it's better than ever. And
I just wonder if part of that part of the
lack of sacks. I mean, TJ. Watt is still among

(15:54):
the top ten in the league. He's forced four fumbles,
nobody's forced more. He's still been a disruptive force, but
he's also I think both guys have had to worry
about containing running quarterbacks. And when you see that the
Steelers are number one in the league, I think they
were number one in the league right in quarterback rushing against.
I think sixty one yards had given up all year,

(16:15):
and they'd given it up with guys like you know,
Daniel Jones and Jade and Daniels who can get that
in a half of football. So I just wonder if
maybe schematically these guys are having to worry about not
just let's go get the passer. But let's worry about
contain a little bit as well, which might not be
quite a big of an issue in Cleveland against Jamis Winston.

(16:36):
But I just wonder if there's a little bit of
a tweak of the schematics, a little bit of a
give for the greater good to ask a little something
different than those edge guys. I don't know the answer
to that.

Speaker 3 (16:45):
I'm just postulating, Well, it's interesting, and then it's certainly
something that's worth the study. And the fact doesn't matter
is is you know, I know that there was an emphasis,
especially with Jayden Daniels, to maintain more stricter rushlings, a
more disciplined pass rush. You know, if you can rush
four and drop seven, that's optimal. You'd love to be
able to do that all day, you know, and be

(17:07):
able to send an extra guy here and there so forth.
But it's certainly about if you can get that pressure
home with those four guys, and that's.

Speaker 7 (17:14):
What the Steelers count on. They count on.

Speaker 3 (17:16):
Getting pressure with those four guys, and also mandated the
fact that you got a little stricter rush lanes. You
can't quite free wheel as much as you want. You
can't afford to get you know, that free ride and
run to run the arc in a big way around
the quarterback and in the back door and so forth.
But you're still getting home and still getting after from
and pressure them enough that the defense of this the

(17:38):
back end of the defense, is able to supplant and
support the front end of the defense. And that's really
what's all about in commentary complimentary football.

Speaker 6 (17:48):
I think there's a lot of factors that, yes, the
sack numbers are down, even though I just said it's
the best defensive line in the league, and I still
very much believe that. One thing I remember saying on
the show one week ago was it's also a very
unselfish group. They don't care about their numbers. They're willing
to I don't want to say mush rush, but maintain
gap integrity and lane integrity. And another thing that I

(18:11):
can't stress enough is I've been calling them Steelers swats
and strips. They've gotten so good at swatting the ball
to line of scrimmage. They were second in the league
last year. They have to be first this year. It's
like every game they get two or three of them.

Speaker 5 (18:26):
They're really really.

Speaker 6 (18:27):
Good at disrupting throwing lanes. And I think the pass
rush plan this past two weeks is a lot different
than the previous you know, pre buy because of the
quarterbacks they faced. But they're not the six to five
pocket passer that can throw over Cam Hayward particularly well either.
And as Wolf mentioned, I don't think you want those

(18:47):
edge guys running past the quarterback. That's exactly what they want.
And frankly, offensive linemen, contrary to our co host here,
can be pretty bright and they know these things they know.
But Rob the biggest thing I want to stress though too,
from the season is when you can greatly influence the

(19:07):
passing game by only rushing four and even though they
don't create sacks, they greatly greatly influence it because there's
always at least six blockers in. That's the envy of
every defensive coordinator. And the other thing I think we
can't overlook is as much as any defense in the league,
the ball comes out of their hands incredibly quick.

Speaker 2 (19:27):
Right, And I think that you know, you look at
a team like the Giants that surrenders a lot of points,
they bring a ton of pressure, and yet you know
it's not one of the top rated defenses in the league.
It's pretty good against the it's pretty good against the pass,
but it's sort of middle of the pack. And you
just wonder, you know, how often is that, you know,
feast or famine for them, boom or bust.

Speaker 4 (19:47):
We're gonna get they by the blitz, you know. Yeah,
that's right. And this year others don't have to do that,
which is which is wonderful. You know.

Speaker 2 (19:54):
One of the things that I thought was great about
this game was, you know, you have the rivalry and look,
you don't want to admit that a little bit of
chippiness is kind of fun, but a little bit of
chippiness is kind of fun. And we saw that out
on the field, and yeah, skirmishing going on, and and
I just think that, you know, uh, Deshaun Elliott gets

(20:15):
the fumble recovery right away, Patrick Queen gets the stripsack.
But Patrick Queen went out with the captains at halftime,
and that's obviously wolf a decision made by Mike Tyson
about Mike I said that earlier today, I'm a little
punch truck.

Speaker 4 (20:31):
I didn't watch the Tyson Paul fight.

Speaker 7 (20:33):
I didn't miss anything.

Speaker 2 (20:34):
I couldn't stay I couldn't stay up late enough. I
just couldn't do it. Mike, Mike Tomlin. Who knows what
the choice of Mike Tyson would have made. Mike Tomlin,
you know, a couple things stood out there when the
team came out of the tunnel. That's something I don't
remember seeing. Just to let him know, hey, this is
a little bit different, educating the team throughout the course
of the week, Hey, this is what this rivalry means.

(20:55):
And then sending Patrick Queen out for the coin toss.
I just thought all that wolf was was pretty cool.

Speaker 7 (21:02):
It is very cool.

Speaker 3 (21:03):
I mean, I can go all the way back to
a couple of years ago when Houston came to town
and JJ Watt was one of the captains, and I
believe TJ was not at that point, but he sent
him out for the coin toss as one of the
captains too, because at that you know that that's a
big moment. That's a huge moment I've played against my brother,
you know, in an NFL field.

Speaker 7 (21:25):
To do so.

Speaker 3 (21:25):
And to be like that, that's it's one of those
things that it's it's a totally unsaid thing. It's not
necessarily but it's kind of what makes Mike Tomlin, Mike Tomlin,
those little things, those little qualities such as greedy and
as players coming out of the tunnel yesterday, I thought
it was significant and such a game as such as
this was. So you know, the fact of the matter

(21:46):
is it's it's a different sort of thing and there's
a lot of it's just good stuff that was happening yesterday,
and yet I love the familiarity, breached contempt type of thing.
But it really, it really is that way. These guys
have been going at it for a while time. And
I got to tell you something, when you don't have
to go into a game and worry about cheap shots
because you know they're going to roll anyhow, and you
don't have to worry about saying I'm sorry because it's

(22:08):
not necessary. You know, it's a fun time, it's a
great time, and you want to be one of the
victors because when you come out of it like that, man,
you are the bully on the block.

Speaker 6 (22:19):
And good for the Steelers, and wellf quick question for
you as a former player. I mean, they do a
wonderful thing for Patrick Queen, but I think it influences
the other fifty two as well. No, question, you know,
like the backup center, the other guys on the defense
that aren't even on the field, or whatever, the long
snapper like, he cares about us.

Speaker 7 (22:39):
It's exactly that.

Speaker 3 (22:40):
Yeah, And it's a different sort of relationship that Mike
has with the players. And why do you hear the
players speak so in kind and together about Mike Tomlin
and here other players talk about wanting to play for
Mike Tomlin.

Speaker 7 (22:54):
There's a reason, you know, it's just simple.

Speaker 3 (22:57):
He's very transparent and how he feels about the players
and the respect he carries for the players, and the
players show it right back to them.

Speaker 2 (23:03):
Well, one of the reasons, Matt that I think this
defense is the best the Steelers have had in a while. Look,
they're they're doing a great job of getting the ball,
taking it away from opponents. They've always been good at that.
They're not as good as sacks, they're better at points
per game. But I think that, Look, I don't want
to underestimate, you know, drafting Peyton Wilson, and you know,

(23:24):
seeing some guys, some young guys like her Big improving,
and you know, getting Cam Hayward back to full strength.

Speaker 4 (23:31):
These are all all factors.

Speaker 2 (23:33):
Dante Jackson on the outside, and how neat was it
to see Jackson and Johnson who were traded for each other.
But Johnson and Carolina going back at it, they throw
down the sideline where they were battling for a deep
ball from Lamar Jackson, won by Dante Jackson, by the way.
But you know the biggest reason, I you know, all
those are reasons. Maybe the biggest, though, is the addition

(23:54):
to the two former Ravens. Deshaun Elliott has been fantastic
and Pat Queen, especially lately, has reminded people, Oh, yeah,
this is why they gave him the richest free agent
contract in Steeler's history.

Speaker 6 (24:10):
Yeah, and the coaching staff deserves a ton of credit.
The players deserve an unbelievable amount of credit. But to
your point, I'm a front office guy, and the front
office has done pretty darn well on this side of
the ball with draft. You know, you mentioned all those
guys throw Benton and Porter in free agent additions, keeping
the stalwarts, you know, as productive as possible and under

(24:33):
contract and healthy, and they're happy, you know, Hayward and
Watt and high Smith and Minka and those guys, and
the other thing that this shows up on the field.
Two things really is there's not a discernible weakness. You know,
like the end of last year they were pulling linebackers
in safety off the couches, and hopefully that doesn't get
to that point. But there's not one area of this

(24:54):
defense that every week someone's just going to pick on
over and over and over.

Speaker 5 (24:59):
And the other thing is team speed.

Speaker 6 (25:02):
Team speed is so much better than it's been in
the last couple of years, especially the back seven yep.

Speaker 2 (25:07):
And I do think you bring up a lot of
great points there, and I think that's one of the
things that helps you defend a guy like Lamar Jackson.
As you're fast, you know you can get the players
that speed is huge. And to your point, the front
office has done really an incredible job and when you
you know, hopefully again you knock on wood that these

(25:29):
guys can stay healthy.

Speaker 4 (25:30):
The one.

Speaker 2 (25:32):
Area where I would have said going into the season,
and I think we all said it on defense, you know,
are you going to be deep enough? Is the cornerback position.
But then Beanie Bishop's done a really nice job in
the slot of Corey Trice, who we might be you know,
see back at some point maybe even this week against Cleveland.
He's a guy that was emerging to give you more depth.

(25:54):
And now with Cam Sutton being able to play inside
and outside, I no longer look at the cornerback position
as a team as a position on the team that
needs greater depth. I think I think the depth is
just fine there now.

Speaker 7 (26:08):
There's no question in my mind.

Speaker 3 (26:09):
But I just want to go back to say one thing,
when was the last time you saw somebody run over
to Shaun Elliott?

Speaker 7 (26:16):
Yeah? I haven't seen it.

Speaker 4 (26:17):
Yeah, you know the first time when I see it.

Speaker 7 (26:19):
Yes, exactly.

Speaker 3 (26:20):
The thing that I love about this guy is at
ninety percent of the time that pile is falling backwards,
if it's just a two man pile, he's winning. I
just I got so much respect for watching this guy
operate in and around the box and everything like that.
And I just wanted to point out the fact that
he is just such a big, strong force in the

(26:41):
in the run game and what he does there as
far as.

Speaker 6 (26:44):
His tackle on ability, and you've you mentioned Trice. You
know they're gonna get him back at some point. I mean,
it's easy to forget about Hulkom. Is there a chance
he returns? I mean I have no idea. They don't
need him at the moment. Monty Adams would be useful,
you know, like there's a couple of guys that still
could be reinforcements. Mentioned how Sutton came back, you know,
it was like an extra draft pick. I mean, so
they're deep and they do things like, well, if Torell

(27:07):
Evans is a free agent and bring them in, you know,
why not.

Speaker 5 (27:10):
They always turn in the bottom.

Speaker 4 (27:11):
Of that roster, yep.

Speaker 2 (27:12):
And doing a great job with some of their special
teams pickups as well, no doubt, you know, yeah, exactly
and Pierre in the middle of the season. Yeah, they've
they've done. They've made some great additions, not only before
the season, in the offseason, but during the season as well.
Steelers defeat the Ravens by the final score of eighteen
to sixteen to improve to eight and two. Back with

(27:35):
more on the Point After on the Steelers Audio Network.

Speaker 5 (27:39):
Back to the point after on dv E.

Speaker 2 (27:43):
In the shotgun gets a snap Steelers bringing four Jackson
at some room, rolls out to the right, looking downfield.
It's gonna stop now, retreat being chased and goes out
of bounds written out of bounds by TJ. Watt back
at the eleven. Give TJ Watt another sack. He continues
a very impressive streak of sacks against the Ravens. And

(28:05):
the Zack Hunger segment is brought to you by the
Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank. Get food, volunteer or donate
at Pittsburgh Foodbank dot org. And as far as TJ Watt,
you know, keeping that streak, going eleven straight games at
least half a sack against the Baltimore Ravens. Now has

(28:26):
more sacks against the Ravens than any other team except
the Cleveland Browns. A chance to move past that, He's
tied seventeen sacks against both teams. I suspect that that record,
that personal record, will fall against the Browns on Thursday night.

Speaker 6 (28:40):
And Rob, that's the most any player has against any team.
He is, he's number one and number two in the
whole league.

Speaker 2 (28:46):
Yeah, and Lamar, I don't think anyone's ever sacked Lamar more,
no than TJ.

Speaker 4 (28:50):
Watt.

Speaker 2 (28:51):
And TJ's only played him what for, that's the fifth
time they've ever played against each other.

Speaker 7 (28:56):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (28:57):
Because of the injuries that Lamar Jackson has had, so
obviously some wonderful stuff out of the defense. And you know,
again going back to the conversation Wolf we had earlier
of not absolutely having to play your best to win,
you know, you come into this game. And Mike Tomlin
talked about this like, I don't care what the numbers
say about the Ravens, and I watched all their games,

(29:20):
and I am always I love statistics, but I always
want to see kind of for my own eyes. You know,
sometimes a team might be giving up a ton of
passing yards because you're always ahead, right, you actually have
a pretty good defense for you just sitting back and prevent.

Speaker 4 (29:33):
Well.

Speaker 2 (29:33):
I didn't feel that way to me with the Ravens,
Like it felt like they had some coverage issues, but
they didn't in this game. And I think that if
you had told most people around the country that Russell
Wilson would go twenty three for thirty six, he'd be
sacked four times, he'd throw for two hundred and five yards,
he'd throw an interception, he'd have a rating of sixty

(29:55):
seven point five, I think most people would tell you, Okay,
that's a to thirteen Steelers loss instead of an eighteen
to sixteen Steelers win. They don't have to play perfect
football for me, in my opinion, for them to win,
Russell Wilson can put up thirty or the defense to
the special teams can take care of business. So it

(30:17):
wasn't Russell's best game as he's introduced to the Ravens series,
but it was a winning performance for the Steelers eighteen
to sixteen.

Speaker 7 (30:27):
There's no question about it.

Speaker 3 (30:28):
Look, you can't quantify everything that Russ Wilson does for
this team by statistics. It's just doesn't happen that way.
Whether it's the walk out, what's the confidence he brings
with him when he steps into the huddle, the way
he commands the huddle, the cadence, drawing some guys off,
you know, being able to deliver even after you know
a little bit of rough start here and there. You

(30:49):
know things that it's not necessarily falling the line. People
still believe because he's got all the street credit you
could ever want in a quarterback leading you out there.
So you don't worry about what's going on right at
the moment. You just know it's the next play that matters,
because at some point in time, that next play is
going to draw you closer either to the lead or
keeping the lead because that guy's gonna deliver, you know.

(31:12):
And that's just the attitude that you have. Everybody's got
to win their one eleventh. You don't have to have
all these sorts of magical stats and stuff like that.
You just got to win the one eleventh that leads
you to the next play, that leads you to the
first points, that leads you to the point one that's
greater than your opponent. And that's really how you break
it down. You don't worry about the big picture, man.

(31:32):
You got to stay in your own one eleventh fight.

Speaker 6 (31:35):
And rob along those lines. I think most people know
I real into stats, and I do this Matt stats
and blah blah blah blah blah, and I go way
over the top about it. It's a great learning tool
for me and I enjoy it. But last week, because
I was putting it together for this game, and when
I was finally put this final stamp on it, I
kind of thought, none of this might even matter.

Speaker 5 (31:54):
I just burn this one, you know, like, who cares?

Speaker 2 (31:56):
Yeah, there is something to that, and it's you know,
and I love statistics. I feel the same way you do.
I love them, but Ultimately, you know, two guys with
slide rules and calculators aren't running out to the middle
of the field and uh and drawing on their you know,
their sheets of paper to figure out who's gonna win
the game.

Speaker 4 (32:18):
Heyward, Yes, so it is. You know, human beings still
have to play it.

Speaker 2 (32:24):
And you know, one of the things that I try
very hard to think about the human element because there
are things that happen and I understand, you know, you've
got to be a pro, but emotions can play a
part of it, good and bad, throughout the course of
a game, throughout the course of a week, and it
might not have anything to do with your team. Uh,
you know, your dog might be sick and that might
be weighing on your you know what I mean. There's
just these are still human beings playing the game. So

(32:45):
when I think about when somebody tells me, hey, we
got a package for justin fields, my reaction, Matt is
always like, well, man, you better put that in at
the right time, because you know, sometimes we see this
scripted out. Hey, it's the second quarter, it's the third
drive of the game, and that means it's time for

(33:06):
quarterback Ack the quarterback X to come in and we're
gonna run that package like Taysom Hill for example, in
New Orleans. And it was effective, it worked, But I
always wonder, what's the effect now when Drew Brees comes
back in the game, and how does that upset the
rhythm and the timing And just because the numbers say
it works, does it really work for your team? So
I had my I had, you know, not an eyebrow,

(33:29):
archs but ready to be arched about how they would
use justin fields.

Speaker 4 (33:33):
And the answer, of course was perfectly.

Speaker 2 (33:35):
I mean, they brought him in at the perfect time
and and he did really good things for him.

Speaker 6 (33:41):
Yeah, I might see more of it. You mentioned Taysom Hill.
I don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves, but
the Browns had all sorts of problems with Taysom Hill
this past week, and he went insane. This might be
a great week on a short week for you know,
the older guy to have a few, you know, a
few less snaps.

Speaker 5 (33:59):
And you know, maybe I have six, seven or a series,
who knows.

Speaker 6 (34:02):
But I think so much of it comes down to
great coaching. You know, three instances that come to mine
or Hill and Breeze right now, Wilson and Fields, and
Lamar and Flacco and those three coaches Peyton, Harbaugh and
Tomlin are probably all gonna end up in the Hall
of Fame because they have such a good feel for
the human element of it. And I'm sure Wilson's not

(34:23):
disgruntled on the sideline for three plays or whatever because
his buddy's out there and they get along great, you know.

Speaker 3 (34:29):
And I got to tell you something, and I don't
mean to flip the script on you here, Rob, but
before we end, we got to talk about what these
young guys are doing on the offensive line. Yeah, because
these guys are just ripping it up.

Speaker 7 (34:40):
Man.

Speaker 3 (34:41):
I'm telling you what. I got so excited watching the
Morgantown maler have at it with Travis Jones and watching
mister Jones get escorted to his dairy air that was
by the mall or him and Mason McCormick.

Speaker 7 (34:54):
Yeah, it's zekes. You know.

Speaker 3 (34:55):
The solution to Broderick Jones that somehow let him pass protect.
I don't let them pass protect t J Watt because
he could tackle them and not your call for holding,
because TJ never gets to the holding call, you know
what I mean.

Speaker 7 (35:08):
It's like crazy, you know.

Speaker 3 (35:10):
So the fact is, and I know that's totally illogical,
but that's you know, that's concussion.

Speaker 5 (35:15):
Once Jones gets a little wound up.

Speaker 3 (35:18):
I know exactly. And once he gets wound up. You
saw me, he put some dudes on their back. And
I think that's sensational. And sometimes we tend to overlook
because you get those holding calls and stuff like that.
Isaac Suwemlow again, the grizzled veteran, the Calming Presidence. But
then you got Dan Moore out there slugging it out
to it. Yeah, they had they got a little uh
had a little.

Speaker 7 (35:38):
Problem with o'daffy alway.

Speaker 3 (35:39):
Well you know what that you know, Russ held the
ball a little bit too, you know, and that those
things happened. But I think for this young group where
you've got from the center to the right tackle, you know,
you've you've got rookies and second year guys and the
left guys. You know, you've got Isaac Suwemala who's playing
really good ball, and then Dan Moore was playing some
really good ball too.

Speaker 7 (35:59):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (35:59):
You've got a good line that's building, you know, And
I just I just want to take a moment to
acknowledge the fact that, hey, you know, it's sometimes it's
three steps forward, two steps back, and sometimes it's five
riproaring steps forward.

Speaker 6 (36:11):
You know, Well, if you must be so excited big picture,
long term, all these guys, but especially Fraser McCormick, synergy already,
and now they got their first Raven game under their belt.

Speaker 3 (36:21):
Yeah, exactly, they got under their belt. And you know
you saw some dust ups that are carrying out there. Well,
you know, you got some useful guys that are leaving
their markers, you know, as they go along and get
in some of these pile ups and stuff, and you
get up and uh, you know, you maybe a push
your knee in a little here, then I'll hand on
the face mask. But you're leaving a little jelly on

(36:42):
their work. And they did a fine job of slugging
it out in a very tough trench pit.

Speaker 2 (36:46):
Well, you know, and Matt, as long as we're on
this conversation, I love team building and watching team building
at work, and you'll see a team kind of get
themselves in salary cap issues and push everything into the
table like the Rams did a couple of years ago
and paid off. They won a Super Bowl and then
they did an about face, and then they got a

(37:06):
bunch of draft picks and they're trying to build back
in LA. But when you look at the Steelers and
you look at the evolution of this team, and you know,
I don't care how good you are, you're never going
to keep everybody back. But while one unit ages or
players have to leave, another unit has the opportunity to emerge.

(37:27):
And that talks about how much you're taking of the
salary cap, how good they are as a unit or
as a player. And when you talk about you lay
out this offensive line and Troy Fautanou in that too.
Remember he'd taken over as starting right tackle before he
got hurt. The future at that position to be eight
and two and have a unit that you can see

(37:51):
signs of, see glimpses of becoming really maybe truly a
dominating unit at a critically important position on a team,
and you know they're gonna draft more, you know, I mean, yeah,
they want to continue to add to that. I mean
that is if you're a Steelers fan and you stop
and think about that, that should have you salivating for

(38:12):
the future. Hey throw Darnell Washington and there's a blocker
as well at the tight end position and a receiver,
but as a blocker as well, Spencer Anderson. I mean,
there's a lot of really good young players on that
offensive line that bodes well for the future.

Speaker 5 (38:26):
Absolutely.

Speaker 6 (38:27):
And you mentioned I mean you you got a really talented,
promising first round pick waiting in the wings to add
to the mix. I don't know if James Daniels will
be back, but you've seen life without him.

Speaker 5 (38:37):
You know, he's a free agent after this year.

Speaker 6 (38:40):
Herbig was another guy that was taken away from you
from the offensive line that would have been useful at
several points of the season, without question.

Speaker 5 (38:47):
I don't know what.

Speaker 6 (38:47):
Dan Moore's future is with the Steelers, but the present
is really really good, and the youth and the talent
is overwhelming compared to what they've played with since the
Castro Bouncy days.

Speaker 4 (38:59):
Right.

Speaker 2 (38:59):
And you know, Dan Moore, we talked about this, I
think before a finance major at Texas A and M,
and that's probably gonna come in handy for him.

Speaker 5 (39:08):
You can't get up Darnell Washington too, by the way.

Speaker 4 (39:11):
Oh yeah, as a receiver too.

Speaker 2 (39:13):
This is twice now they've tried to slip a little
screen pass out to him as a tight end, and
twice that it's been broken up, once against Washington and
once against the Ravens.

Speaker 4 (39:25):
I would love to see that.

Speaker 2 (39:26):
I want to see Darnell Washington with a group of
blockers out in front, getting ahead of team, you know,
because at the beginning he's gonna be just about as
fast as those guys, and then he's gonna be and
he's gonna be motoring past him, and woe betide the
defensive back that has to come up and confront that.

Speaker 3 (39:42):
He's kind of like a one man screen anyhow, Yeah,
all by himself.

Speaker 4 (39:46):
Yeah right.

Speaker 3 (39:46):
You know you watch him to catch one of those
those balls over the middle, and all you do is
the closest defenders start, you know, bawling up.

Speaker 7 (39:55):
They just start, you know, curling up and hoping that
it's not too bad.

Speaker 5 (40:00):
It protects like a left tackle nowadays.

Speaker 2 (40:01):
Yeah yeah, yeah, so so so much to light there
a couple of minutes left wolf short week. You know,
in the past, there was talk about how did the
Ravens and Steelers do coming out of this game? You know,
they're beaten up and maybe they're not quite as good
The following week as they they are following other weeks

(40:22):
of the season because of the physical nature, the physical
toll that the game takes on the bodies. Quick turnaround. Look,
Cleveland's got the same turnaround too. Now they don't have to,
you know, hop on a bus and head anywhere. But
your thoughts on the challenges physically of turning around in
a short week and playing this Cleveland Browns team on

(40:43):
Thursday night.

Speaker 3 (40:43):
It's going to be rough. There's no doubt about it.
I mean, and you had to know that ahead of time.
The fact of the matter is, you've got to make
sure that you get your prehab rehab done. You know
the things that they do pregame and postgame to get
your body in the best way possible, getting the massage
to get this on is, get the red light therapy,
get whatever you need to get to get your body
to the best and closest ability to be able to

(41:05):
rack them up and reload and go on Thursday night. Now,
it's not you know, back in my day, it wasn't
very sophisticated. We're in sweats on Monday, pads on Tuesday
and Wednesday, and we've we've went straight from the stadium
where I remember yesterday, if you remember John Coleb, you know,
Kobe was other. He and John Vanazek were in a
fistfight rolling around one on one pass protection, you know,

(41:28):
the day before we play the Dolphins in Miami. You know,
I mean that's the way it was back in the day,
full pads the day before.

Speaker 7 (41:35):
It's not going to be that way now.

Speaker 3 (41:37):
It's about making sure you get your body as close
to together as possible, which means you've got to do
a lot of mental gymnastics. You have got to be
buried in your scouting report, and you've got to watch
as much film as possible and get into the theater
of your mind and make sure that you're making the
corrections in the walkthroughs and so forth. But you're downloading
that and you're doing your very best to assimilate what

(41:59):
you say on the screen and what you assimilate in
the scouting reports that you're ready to roll come Thursday
Thursday evening.

Speaker 2 (42:06):
And less time to worry about correcting and more about
game planning, because you just I think Mike Tomlin pretty
muchaid I didn't even look at the tape. You know,
if you look at the Raven's tape, we got to
get on to Cleveland. We have a short week. You
don't even have enough time to prepare for Cleveland, much
less correct the mistakes or look at the tape that
you had against Baltimore.

Speaker 7 (42:26):
Oh yeah, no question about it. I'm sorry.

Speaker 5 (42:29):
Go ahead, Yeah, I didn't have anything great to say.
Go for it. At least it's an easy road trip
and just up the street.

Speaker 3 (42:34):
Yes, but the best advice is make sure you pack
a lunch when you get on the bus and go,
which they give everybody a lot of food to just
be ready for the two hour road trip. Is you
go through Cleveland and you wave at the city that
has rivers at light on fire.

Speaker 2 (42:51):
Gear up with the latest game to necessities at the
officials Steerer's pro shops. Get the latest Sideline apparel, jerseys,
terrible towels, authentic memorabilia, and custom exclusives you can only
find directly from the team. Visit one of the official
Steelers pro shops located at Akroscher Stadium, Grove City Premium Outlets,
or Tanger Outlets, or gear up online at shop dot

(43:12):
Steelers dot com. For Craig Wolfley, Matt Williams, and I'm
Rob King, we thank you for joining us at the
point after on the Steelers Audio Network
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