The Point After - Week 15 vs Colts

Rob, Matt, and Wolf breakdown the disappointing loss to the Colts

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is the point after presented by Parks Casino is
today you are Lucky Day bet Parks by Brian Patton
in Associates. It's all about the benefits and by this
year there's pro shop get it direct from the team
at shop dot Steelers dot com. Alongside Craig Wolfley and
Matt Williamson, I'm rob king. This is the point after
the thirty to thirteen loss to the Indianapolis Colts on Saturday.

(00:31):
That feels just as miserable today Wolf as it did
forty eight hours ago.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
There's no question about it. And I can tell you
from personal experience. I've spent a couple of nights in
misery as a player back in the day. When you
go through something like this, it's really tough, and I
feel for the guys because, look, nobody's going out there
trying not to get the job done. Everybody's going out
trying to get the job done. And when you fail,
and when you come up short like that, it's really

(00:57):
difficult to handle because you know how much effort you
put into each and every week and then to come
up short like that is just it's it's tough one.

Speaker 1 (01:05):
Matt to me and I listened to your podcast, and
I think you had a similar feeling after the game.
I don't know forty eight hours later has melowed that
at all, But this almost felt worse than the loss
to the Cardinals. You had the lightning stuff going on,
and you had you know, you lost your quarterback in
the game, and Kyler Murray was terrific and then you know,
New England at least he had a chance, and you know,

(01:26):
you could maybe point to Bill Belichick and those are
terrible losses, no doubt, those are bad losses this super
short week, and you know, yeah, this this almost felt worse.
You got off to a fast start and then you
gave up thirty unanswered points.

Speaker 3 (01:40):
Yeah, and again you had a long week to prepare.
You should have been reasonably healthy, certainly well prepared, and
I think they were well prepared and healthy like you did.
They they started the game strong. I mean, they're where
they were in good shape, and of course injury set in.
You'll lose your two starting safeties and went back to
back plays, which is really hard to overcome. And then
you're playing la Brue and Thompson and guys that really

(02:01):
don't belong on the field, and your linebackers are always
already decimated. However, I still think the second half of
this game was as embarrassing masculating as it really comes
in this league. I mean, they just ran the ball
over and over and over, basically ran the same plays
at them and couldn't stop them. I mean, so it's
got to be a disheartening feeling.

Speaker 1 (02:22):
I would think so. And after the game, you know,
Mike Tomlin said things won't continue the way they are.
The team is playing losing football. Everything's on the table.
We can't play football like that. We're going to do
things differently. I don't know how much differently you can
do them in such a short period of time and
expect different results. That might be something we'll talk about
a little bit later on, but let's start wolf with

(02:44):
talking about exactly what Matt was talking about. And I
think it was epitomized by that one drive in which
the Colts ran the ball thirteen consecutive times. It seemed
like they were running the same play over and over again.
Bring the guy in motion, kick out on high Smith.
Run the ball between I don't say between the tackles,
and it's between the guards, just straight up the middle

(03:06):
and pick up huge yardage and not even huge, it
just five six yards just crack every like. It wasn't
like somebody broke a big one. They just kept pounding
into steelers.

Speaker 2 (03:17):
Well, there's no question about it. And that's part of
the evolution of modern day football. You don't have a
toss thirty two trap that has to hit the two hole.
You got. When you have a guy going in as
a whammer like that, it can hit anywhere in three
four five different holes in there. So, I mean the
fact is, and what I find really distressing is I

(03:38):
was sitting there this morning, you know, at five thirty
in the morning, watching film and going is it more
distressing that you you didn't answer thirty straight points? You
didn't nowhere in there did you break that up? Or
that in a fourteen play drive you had thirteen straight
run plays which were run by running backs from the
practice squad, you know. I mean, those things they factor

(03:59):
in and you're like, you start to go a little
bit bonkers because you know how much effort. I know
how much effort it takes to get ready to in
these in these games. To watch these guys prepare. They're
preparing just like they always did, but the results have
not been the same. And when you get that sort
of imbalance where you put all that time, all that
effort into preparation, you don't get the results that you want.

(04:20):
Not only is it deflating, it's disheartening to the point
that you start to question things, you know, and that's
where that lack of confidence can really start to take
effect and create some problems.

Speaker 1 (04:33):
Yeah, this is a loss, and Mike Tomlin indicated after
game this is a loss that will have the Steelers
asking some questions like what's going on here? And I
do want to point something out quickly, you know, before
we get you know, continue again with this game analysis,
Matt is that you know people are going to point
and rightly so look, the middle of your field defensively
is decimated' I mean you know you're you're out. You know,

(04:54):
your top two linebackers, guys that are supposed to cover
for you, I mean Cole Holcomb, I think was really
emerging in to a very very solid player, Kwan Alexander
was doing good things for you. And then you know
micka Fitzpatrick is one of your bell cows on defense,
and then you lose demonte Kz You've already lost Neil
back there, so you're talking about the middle of your
defense being decimated. That having been said, and you know

(05:16):
you're down to your second string quarterback. Okay, well, the
Culture down to their second string quarterback and have been
all year and he's on the brink of leading that
team into the playoffs. You were running your third and
fourth string running backs. I mean, I'm scrambled around for
my roster. Who are the Colts third and fourth string
running backs? They have tailors out with an injury lost
in the game. Pittman is by far their best wide receiver.

(05:39):
He gets knocked out of the game by KZ. So yes,
you can point to injuries, no question. They have hurt
the Steelers by the same token the other team at injuries.
We saw Houston going back further. Hey, this is a
great opportunity for the Steelers front to manhandle Houston's offensive
line because Houston's got three or four guys out of

(05:59):
this lineup injury that didn't happen. Yeah, So you know, again,
it's the kind of a game, the kind of performance
that injuries or no make you question. Okay, what's you know?
As they are questioning right now, I'm not. This is
no illumination here of a of a higher order. This
is like, that's what's happening, that's what we're doing, that's

(06:21):
what they're doing, no question.

Speaker 4 (06:22):
No doubt.

Speaker 3 (06:23):
And I will say, and you alluded to this, I
mean cluster injuries all at one position a short amount
of time are almost impossible, no matter what the position,
and running back's easier to deal with than losing both
your safeties or your linebackers, your communication guys. But yeah,
the spine of the defense is in really bad shape.
There's no question about that. And that's not an excuse.

(06:43):
That's a fact. But it's also it's also a fact
that everyone in the league is dealing with a lot
of stuff right now. I mean Cincinnati's putting winning street
together without Joe Burrow. I mean, Houston won a game
without Stroud. You reference them. But maybe most disheartening to
me is kind of what we've been talking about. But
I'm both sides of the ball. They lost it the
line of scrimmage, right, I mean, no doubt, Yeah, I

(07:04):
mean they lost the line of scrimmage on both sides
of the ball badly. And Wolf, I would want to
ask you as you were talking. I mean, you've been
on the other side of that. I mean, you've been
in the guard moving people out. I mean, it's probably
you've had a wonderful life and done a lot.

Speaker 4 (07:16):
Of great things.

Speaker 3 (07:17):
That's got to be high in your list of memories
when you move on from this world.

Speaker 4 (07:21):
No question. But let's just settle this again. I've been
on both sides of that equation.

Speaker 2 (07:25):
I guess, yeah, well you're you're handing it to them
and they're handing it to you.

Speaker 4 (07:29):
So what is it?

Speaker 1 (07:30):
I mean, you know, Wolf, let's talk about because we
talked about that a little bit in the locker room
this morning with Max Starks. I brought up the same
thing Matt did, because I think it's a great point
and it must be a great feeling. And I think
you know, when you see it happening, you're like, oh
my gosh, are we really this much worse? If you're
a fan, are we really this much worse than that team?

(07:52):
And I think it's hard to you know, they call
it recency bias, right, I just saw it, So, yes,
we are worse and that much worse than that team.
But I mean you must feel a certain momentum whatever
you would call it that. You just start rolling and
even if it's a person that you know, maybe you're
equal to or even a little bit better, then you

(08:13):
just become a lot better than then for whatever reason.
Call it momentum, call it a landslide. I don't know
what you would call that, but it's kind of It
does have.

Speaker 4 (08:22):
To feel good. It's called the code red. Beatdown is
what it's called.

Speaker 2 (08:26):
You know, And again, you know, the thing is, you
get a first down, then suddenly you get a second
first down, you get a nice run, you get a
pile driving hit on a guy. All this starts to
equate to it's like smelling blood in the water and
you just get this fever to keep going and keep going,
and it's it's a marvelous thing. It's incredible. Unfortunately, it
doesn't happen all the time like you'd like it to happen, right,

(08:48):
And when you're on the other end of it, where
it feels like you're holding up an avalanche of things
coming at you, that's it's very dispiriting because you can
see it in the body language. I neither said whether
it's offense or defense. Whoever's getting hammered at the moment.
The point is you can see in the body language
is they stand up. They're very slow. You can see
them kind of getting to the huddle, and they start

(09:10):
arguing with each other because you know, somebody missed an assignment,
somebody kicked down, somebody didn't scrape. All these sorts of
things are coming out and they, you know, you start
to get a little irritated and yelling at each other
and it looks like, you know, issues are starting to rise,
and you know that you're in their head. You know
they're trying to stop this, this onslaught of whatever it
is that you're doing there, and it's just simply starting

(09:32):
to pile up like a snowball gaining more snow as
you roll down the field, and it's getting bigger and bigger,
and it could it's it's a crushing feeling and it's deflating,
and it's it is just what we're talking about. It's
it's like you're being body bagged and manhandled as a pro.
You see all those guys out there, alpha males, nobody's
putting up with any sort of you know, you're you're

(09:54):
gonna just run over me, and I'm not going to
do anything about it. That's not the way they got
to the NFL. And so for them to through that,
that's an incredible experience that you don't want experience. You
want to put that on somebody else.

Speaker 1 (10:06):
Is it more a feeling of frustrating a frustration as
an offensive lineman to see what we happened. Look, they
didn't open up holes, and the Colts are I don't
wanna call them simple, but the culture pretty much like,
here's our four linemen, pretty vanilla. We're not gonna blitz
a lot, We're not gonna do a lot of crazy stuff.
We're gonna bring our four guys, and we think our
four guys could beat your five guys or six guys

(10:27):
if you have a tight end in there. That's what
happened that their four guys beat the Steelers five or
six guys on Saturday.

Speaker 2 (10:34):
Well, on the other hand, you have instead of the
over overwhelming, crushing running game that is again a body
beatdown that is so great for an offensive lineman, but
not for a front end of the defense. You turn
that around and you have a defense that's coming after
who's if I recall it's a bottom ten rush defense.
They've had issues there and you, you're not getting the

(10:56):
running game that you've been getting. I mean, you've been
averaging over one hundred and thirty some yards over the
last three weeks or so of rushing the ball, and
you're not able to do it in this instance. And
it's again the frustration level gets to a point where, like,
you know, you really want to do headbutts without a
helmet on.

Speaker 4 (11:12):
I mean, that's it's really what's bugging you.

Speaker 2 (11:15):
The problem is is that nobody's got a great answer
for it quite yet, you know, other than the fact
they're not executing in a timely fashion at the time
the play is called. Because as I looked at that tape,
the one quote they kept coming back to me was
real simple. The solutions are simple. It's the execution of
the solutions that becomes difficult. Because at every point in

(11:37):
time you watch a play, you can see where the
breakdown occurs.

Speaker 1 (11:40):
Right, And when you look at just the stark numbers here, Matt,
the Colts thirty four carries one hundred and seventy yards
five yards of carry just pretty much.

Speaker 4 (11:52):
And wasn't an eighty yard er in there, just.

Speaker 1 (11:54):
Saying here we come.

Speaker 4 (11:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (11:55):
And then on the other end, twenty four for seventy
four to three point one yards per carry. You know,
the one is way too much and the other is
not nearly enough.

Speaker 3 (12:05):
Yeah, and a couple things. I mean, everyone knows about
that drive where they ran about what thirteen straight times,
but over the culmination of the of three drives at
that point, I'm almost certain twenty out of twenty one
plays were run plays if you take away some kneel
downs and the kicks, you know, field goals and punts
and whatnot. I mean, it was and they ate up

(12:26):
like fourteen minutes of time doing that.

Speaker 4 (12:29):
Now.

Speaker 3 (12:29):
Previewing this game, like Wolf mentioned, I thought their run
defense was suspect, you know, I thought that the Steelers
would run on them with consistency. I thought that was
something that they could hang their hat on as an organization.
And there were a lot of aspects I thought Porter
would do well against Pittman. There was a lot of
things that I thought these are pretty equal teams. But
styles make fights, and I think these styles favor the Steelers.

(12:51):
But clearly I underestimated the Colts on both lines to scrimmage.
I mean, Nelson was tremendous, Kelly was tremendous, their edge
guy did enough against TJ and high Smith. But it's
a lot easier when you don't have to pass block.

Speaker 1 (13:05):
Yeah, yeah, no, they didn't have to pass block. You know,
and when you look at Minshew's numbers again, just looking
at the numbers, you know, three touchdowns, no interceptions, great
quarterback rating, barely had to throw the ball in the
second half. And think about that quarterback rating if he
doesn't have a touchdown pass dropped. You know, you look
at this game. They dropped a touchdown pass, They missed

(13:25):
a couple of field goals, they.

Speaker 4 (13:26):
Had a punt block.

Speaker 1 (13:27):
H I mean yard start thinking they could have put
you know what, forty fifty points up. I mean game,
I mean holy mackerel. You know, it looks worse and
worse the more you look at it. Well, if I
thought there were a couple of really big turning points
in this game, and and the unfortunate part of what
we'll talk about the ability to not sort of you know,

(13:48):
fight back from the momentum going against you. But you know,
the Steelers after that drop touchdown, they get to stop
at the one yard line, and you're thinking, okay, this
is great, and then you know, Mitch Trubisky has Friarmuth
over open over the middle. You're trying to keep a
drive alive and you're trying to be aggressive here. You know,
let's think about putting up some points. And again, I

(14:12):
don't know whether Firemuth was supposed to stop. I don't
know whether mixed out he was going. You wonder if
that's one of those things where this is just not
having enough reps together. Regardless it's a simple short pass.
It should have been completed. You pick up the first
down there, you know you're up at thirteen seven. Now
at this point, maybe it march down the field even
maybe pick up one more field goal try or one

(14:33):
more first down. You try feel maybe you're up sixteen
seven going in at the half. Instead, you punt the
ball and in twenty two seconds they go seventy four
yards and they take the lead. So what could have
been a big momentum. Hey, you get to stop at
the one, let's march down to kick a field goal.
And now we're going into the halftime. We're up sixteen
to seven. Woo who all of a sudden, you're down

(14:54):
fourteen thirteen at the half.

Speaker 2 (14:55):
Oh, it's incredible. I mean, you lay out the circumstances
of that drive. And the thing about it is, you know,
it's you know, it's just like you had an opportunity
to really grab the momentum at that point, right, and
you weren't able to. And that's got to be so frustrating.

Speaker 4 (15:13):
Now.

Speaker 2 (15:14):
On the other hand, I got to tell you, when
I look at it, a big, a big part of
that was the past interference call with Joey.

Speaker 4 (15:22):
Right.

Speaker 2 (15:22):
You know, I'm sorry, but they are making this so
difficult to understand what's going on because first of all,
that was that was Pierce, the wide receiver that he
was battling. He's in a Monoa Mono battle down the sidelines, right,
Pierce puts his hands on Joey. Joey puts his hands
on Pierce. They're both apparently able to do a little infighting.

(15:42):
Nobody's jersey got yanked, nobody fell down, nobody was hindered
from moving forward, and the past was behind. And I
don't understand how that's past interference on Joey. And when
you know it should have been to me a no call,
easy no call. You know, that bothered me a lot
because I to me, you got a young guy back
there who's battling for his life as a rookie out

(16:05):
there doing a great job, by the way, but yet
that ball is thrown behind and it's short and basically uncatchable,
and they're gonna throw it on this kid.

Speaker 4 (16:14):
I didn't like that at all.

Speaker 1 (16:16):
By the way, he is doing a great job and
one of the you know, you look around the Steelers
and you think, okay, what is it? You know, where
does the future lie? Well, there's there's one guy who
looks like he's a big part of a rosier future.
We'll get to more on this game, more on another
aspect that I thought was a big turning point of
this game. When we continue with Craig Wolfley and Matt

(16:37):
Williams and I'm rob king. You're listening to the Point
After on Steelers Nation Radio one o two point five DVE.
This is the Point After presented by Parks Casino. Is

(16:58):
today your Lucky Day bet Parks by Brian Patton and associates.
It's all about the benefits and by this year, there's
pro shop get it direct from the team at shop
dot Steelers dot com. Alongside Craig Wolfley and Matt Wimson
and I'm rob king. Thanks very much for being with us, Matt.
You know, I talked about that turning point at the
end of the first half, and then I thought there
was another one at the beginning of the second half.
The Steelers, Okay, you come out, Oh my goodness, gracious,

(17:20):
you're down and a half. That you really, I mean,
when do you think about it? You know, you block
a punt. You know they were a.

Speaker 3 (17:26):
Better team than first half. Yeah, up until the point
where you laid it out right, I mean.

Speaker 1 (17:30):
Yeah, you know you could be up sixteen to seven.
You're down fourteen thirteen. Okay, you gotta reach teap Okay.
Well they get a three and out right, and then
they get the ball rare Naji Harris fumble one play later, touchdown,
and it just the Steelers never recovered from that. I
didn't think.

Speaker 3 (17:47):
I didn't think so either, And to be honest, I mean,
nobody cares how it affects me. I'm sitting there in
my lazy boy. But the second that they recovered that fumble,
I thought, Wow, the air just came out like I'm like, oh,
they're in trouble now, you know, And it just felt
like the whole stadium felt that way, and from that
point on, it wasn't a competitive football game.

Speaker 1 (18:04):
No, and well if they're just you know, there wasn't
the response that you hope the Steelers would have. I mean,
and again, sometimes you know, they talk about this in
baseball a lot, right, Like, you know, momentum is your
starting pitcher, right, and you're starting pitchers really good, then
you play really well. I mean, if the other team
starting pitcher is really good, you don't play very well.

(18:26):
And again, whether that is an opportunity for the offense
to rise up, maybe going a long drive, wind up,
coming away with some points, what have you, it just
didn't happen. The Steelers just couldn't find a way to
stem the tide in this game. No.

Speaker 2 (18:41):
I mean Moe li Cox when he scored that touchdown
WOA that was his eighth catch of the year. Yeah,
I mean, it's not like this is one of the
troubling trends that came out of that game is the
problems or inability the Steelers are having and covering the
tight ends. Now, yeah, because now we've seen it over
what four games, four straight games, straight games, And the
fact of the matter is you look at.

Speaker 4 (19:03):
Tight ends like you said, yeah, you know what I mean,
right it is.

Speaker 2 (19:06):
I mean including Hunter, Henry and McBride and everybody. So
that's becoming more of a problem than I thought it
would be. And certainly that's something that makes you very
discomfortable as a I would imagine as a defensive coordinator
because you know you still got some tight ends coming
up that can get the job.

Speaker 1 (19:24):
Done well when you think about the tight end position too. Again,
this goes right back to the injury problems. I mean,
you go out in the off season, you get Cole
holcome to play linebacker for you. You get Kawan Alexander, who's
a good coverage guy to play linebacker for we hope
you know, three down guy who can cover tight ends.
You have two guys you think you can do that.
You have Minka Fitzpatrick on the back end. You usually

(19:44):
think of tight ends working the middle of the field. Well,
you wipe all those guys out. And Landon Roberts is
a is He's a you know, first and second down
run stuffing type of guy. That's what Mark Robinson is.

Speaker 2 (19:55):
But the guy is also playing with a pulled groin.

Speaker 4 (19:58):
No, you know what I mean. First remember that, and
he's done. Heck of a job.

Speaker 1 (20:05):
I remember he was questionable last week and still played
and had a and and had a good performance.

Speaker 4 (20:10):
But for sure, and Neil would be useful, as you
mentioned earlier in the show.

Speaker 1 (20:13):
Yeah, you lose all those guys, and now it's four
straight games for touchdowns by for tight ends opposing tight ends,
and then a couple straight. Now we're running backs leaking out.
And again you think of that same coverage group, you know, uh,
especially the inside linebackers, and and they just it was
actually you have to you know, you have to doff

(20:35):
your captain. The Colts they caught the Steelers in man
and man coverage. That was when Pittman was still in
the game. He ran just a simple drag root across
the middle. He was the only receiver r on the
left side, so there was nobody there.

Speaker 4 (20:47):
And they just leaked out.

Speaker 1 (20:47):
I don't even remember it was Moss or or their
third or four was moss little short pass and there
was just nobody there. And so so good coaching, good job.
But again that's I mean, there's only so many guys
you could have on a team that can do what
you want to do before you just run out of guys,
and I think teams are going to continue to attack

(21:08):
the Steelers with their tight ends and running backs because
the Steelers are down to there and in that game,
you know, now Casey's out for the season, suspended for
the rest of the year. Kneels out that Mika Fitzpatrick's
I think he's already been ruled out of this upcoming game.
If I'm not mistaken, she.

Speaker 3 (21:25):
Might even be lesser handed now than you were, right,
I mean, certainly to start the game alone after injury
said in Yo.

Speaker 1 (21:31):
Yeah, But to Wolfe's point, this is troubling and I
don't believe that teams are going to stop attacking him.

Speaker 3 (21:36):
No, this league has no mercy, right, I mean, there's
a gaping hole in the middle of the defense. And
I guess they're sort of lucky that Cincinnati doesn't have
a star tight end. Seattle doesn't have a star tight end.
Mark Andrews is out, that's a remainder. But Indy didn't
have a star tight end and Hunter Henry hadn't done
much until this point.

Speaker 2 (21:54):
And if there's a tight end out there, right, you know,
that can be a problem. I mean, that's just and
call it like it is. There's a problem here that
they have to find the solution.

Speaker 1 (22:05):
And I think the Bengals are getting more and more
comfortable with Tanner Hudson at the tight end spot. They
have drew sample a lot more too, yeah than they us. Right,
this is a burrow looking for Chase, you know, necessarily
so that that you're right, well, if that is something
that that definitely has to be handled for the Steelers,
there were some other how you handle it, right, I
don't know exactly exactly, and I don't know what you do.

Speaker 3 (22:27):
I mean, just telling Mark Robinson to get better by
next week is not going to do it, yeah.

Speaker 1 (22:32):
Right, Yeah, So I don't know what they're going to
do in that regard. It's going to be something certainly
to keep an eye on.

Speaker 4 (22:38):
You know.

Speaker 1 (22:38):
Mike tom Win talked about this game afterwards, and you know,
one of the things he alluded to was the turnovers
and the penalties, and I know, uh, you know, look,
you blocked the punt. That can basically be like a turnover,
but in this game, uh turnover advantage three to nothing
for the Colts, the penalties two for ten yards of
the culture none in the second half zero and for

(22:59):
the Steelers eight for one oh one. I mean, if
you're the Steelers and you're being out gained, you just
cannot afford to give up ninety one yards. That that's
ninety one free yards here. You I mean, you're an
offensic that is struggling to get to two hundred and
fifty three hundred yards. Now you're going to hand them
in the penalty department an additional ninety yards. Ninety one yards.

(23:23):
That's that's not good.

Speaker 3 (23:24):
It's definitely not good. And this team can't overcome that.
So a couple more things. I agree with everything you said,
But the block punt is worse than a turnover. I mean,
you give the ball to the other team on the
one Matt, ga missed two field goals, which is really
just handing the ball to the other team at midfield. So, yes,
the Steelers had turnover problems, but it wasn't like the Colts,

(23:45):
as we said in the first seven and played this
clean game, you know, I mean they gave you some
some the ball back at times.

Speaker 1 (23:51):
Drop touchdown, two missed field goals. I mean, you know
they again, I mean you think about that, Matt, I
mean they had thirty unanswered points, they dropped the touchdown
and missed two field weal, you're looking at forty three points, right,
I mean, my goodness, it was it was, it was.
There's no way to sugarcoat it, but that part of
the game. Uh well, if that's that's you know, the
Steelers have been great in the turnover margin all year.

(24:13):
But I mean, you cannot lose the penalty battle like this,
You just can't.

Speaker 2 (24:16):
But this is what losing football is right now. You
start to see more mistakes a crew as you go
into each and every game, and guys that have been
playing solidly suddenly they're not playing at the same efficient level.
And you you have these these things that happen along
the way losing you know, the middle part of your defense.
I still can't wrap my brain around the Monte Casey

(24:38):
being ejected for the rest of the season. That's to me,
that's ridiculous. That is absolutely ridiculous. But regardless of it,
it is what it is now. And so the Steelers
are hampered even more so. And you know this is
you know, there's that saying these are the times that
tri men's soul, well their souls are being you know,

(24:59):
tried very heavily. Look, you've got to be able to
pull it together and be ready to battle, because here,
let's face it, you've got three games left. For a
lot of these guys, this might be the last three
games of their career or the last you know, or
certainly with the Steelers, or you know, something where you
want to put something on your resume now, because if

(25:20):
you go out and have that lousy last three game stretch,
as personally as a player man, you don't want to
go out that way.

Speaker 3 (25:27):
And this is such an unforgiving game. Oh it is
because the defense now is going to have more and
more problems as they have all year of getting off
the field. The offense isn't eating up time, and you're
out there more and then more injuries set in. And oh,
by the way, this is one of the older defenses
in the league, and I'm sure their bones are a
little tired from you know, the riggers of the season

(25:47):
as well. So as we mentioned, it's just an avalanche
of snowballs and snowballs and snowballs.

Speaker 4 (25:52):
You know.

Speaker 1 (25:53):
I believe these are the times that try mental Thomas Payne,
if They'm not mistaken pre Revolutionary War pampoint and I
believe you later on went on, I believe I should
probably look this up for he called those who were
not ready to pick up the yoke at that time
sunshine Patriots. Right, so hey, the sun is shining. Everything's good.

(26:15):
Now you're a patriot. Now these are the times that
try men's souls. What have you got? And I think,
you know again, we'll step away from the game just
for a minute. That's going to be part of the
evaluation process of these three weeks. Look, everything's gonna we know,
in the offseason, everything's gonna come under scrutiny, right, the
coaching staff, the players, the way that the scouting department, everything.

Speaker 4 (26:37):
Is going to come under view. That's for the off season.

Speaker 1 (26:39):
Right, these next three games, I'm sure the Steelers are
going to say, Okay, who the Sunshine Patriots and who
are the ones that are out there ready to do
battle when the chips are down.

Speaker 4 (26:50):
Here for years to come, right, exactly.

Speaker 1 (26:53):
We want the guys that are saying, you know, I'm
gonna go out there and battle these last three games exactly.

Speaker 2 (26:58):
So one of the last three month I remember at
the end Marcus Golden was still trying to crush people.
You're still trying to nail people. Yeah, I like that,
get out there, play to the end, the bitter end
up by the way, I love that comment or the
quote that you had by Thomas Payne just kind of
seemed to fit, you know, just saying just saying, you're

(27:18):
cursing the great American sport of football Thomas Paine back
in the day.

Speaker 1 (27:23):
But I mean, Matt, you know you were in a
scouting department, right, I mean, this is what you're looking for.
Guys that have that that fortitude that the guys that
have that that part of the game that you're gonna need.

Speaker 3 (27:33):
Oh, you're gonna need it for their duration of their
contracts or time here and know who to go to
battle with who not to especially the young guys. I mean,
this rookie class is gonna be looks like a great one.
But are they gonna cash it in whenever it gets
to this situation and be like, ah, this NFL football stuff, Fine,
I'll just get a check and you know, you know,
just go through the motions or are they gonna step

(27:53):
up and be future leaders around here? And I think
you're gonna find out a lot. I do think you
find out more about people when times are bad, when
times are good, oh yeah, and times are bad.

Speaker 4 (28:02):
You know, right, woth agree absolutely?

Speaker 2 (28:05):
You know the thing that you as a player, you know,
you'll sit there in the locker room and you look around.
You just wonder how many of these guys are really
into it and how many aren't, you know, And the
fact of the matter is you want to be one
of the guys that's in and in fully, and you
gotta be. You gotta have some sort of professional pride
about yourself. You know that I'm not going to lay
down like a dog.

Speaker 4 (28:26):
You know.

Speaker 2 (28:26):
If I'm going out, I'm going out fighting, come back
on my shield. As as Spartans used to say, the
fact is you have an opportunity here to play three games.
You never know what can happen. First of all in
the NFL, you just never know. But second of all,
it says everything about who you are as a player
and as a man in these last three games. By
the way, it was Thomas Pate to figure that, I

(28:49):
know you're like a way there, man.

Speaker 1 (28:52):
So these are the times that trim in souls. The
summer soldier and the summer patriot will in this crisis
shrink from the service of their country. Just replace that
with team, right, Yeah, and you don't want you don't
want those kind of guys around.

Speaker 3 (29:04):
Now, all that being said, if you don't have any
linebackers or safeties that can cover anybody, you know what
I mean. It's like if your goalie can't stop the puck, well,
then you're probably in for a long day the way
for sure.

Speaker 1 (29:13):
But that's again where this self scouting comes in. Where
you're gonna say, Okay, who's shrinking from their duty, who's
mailing it in mentally or physically. You know, who's nodding
off in the meetings, and who's alert and ready to
go and and and giving it. They're all onto the field.

Speaker 4 (29:30):
Believe you me.

Speaker 2 (29:31):
Back in the day, there was a man by the
name of me and Joe Green who made commentary on
a couple occasions about I'll be watching yeah, you know,
and I'm just sitting there going okay, you know, yeah,
ain't gonna be me.

Speaker 4 (29:45):
I'm gonna be coming off.

Speaker 1 (29:46):
The ball, Joe, you bet you Yeah, forty years later,
I'm still sitting up straight or just think show might
be looking at you forty years ago. Okay, So we
have more to get to, including a brief look forward
to this game coming up against the Bengals and more
on this thirty to thirteen lost to the Colts. This
is the point After presented by Parks Casino Brian Patton
and Associates and the Students Pro Shop will be back

(30:07):
with more right after this. This is the point After
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Parks by Brian Patton and Associates. It's all about the

(30:28):
benefits and by the students Pro Shop get it direct
from the team at Shop dot Steelers dot com alongside
Craig Wilfy and Matt Williamson. I'm rob king Matt before
I get to a couple of positives in this game,
there's a couple of things to clean up. Presley Harvin
struggled again in the punning games, thirty first in the
league in net, thirty second in average among NFL punters,

(30:53):
and just lack of consistency. Yeah, I mean, because you
see the great leg, but the consistency so that that
was an shoe. And then I think, you know something
that people talked about quite a bit. Frankly, I didn't
understand when it was happening during the game and didn't
think We got a tremendous amount of clarity after the
game was why they didn't try the fifty fifty seven

(31:14):
yard field goal from Boswell indoors. Again, I don't know.
You know, he missed an extra point, which is uncharacteristic
of him. I don't know whether he's battling something or
they didn't feel like he could kicked that one. If
that's the case, they're never going to say that. And
and Mike tom was just going to take it right
least in front of his players, right, But if there was,

(31:37):
you know, that's certainly something fans have been talking about.
I mean, he kicked that field goal. Hey, you get
with an eight and you feel like, all right now, now,
maybe again that momentum that tiede you couldn't stem maybe
gives you a chance. Of course you miss it, but
at that point it felt like you needed something. Yeah,
you needed something at that time.

Speaker 3 (31:54):
I'm one hundred percent with you, and I have been
inside the walls, and I'm glad you brought that up
because maybe he has a cat for a groin or
something that's just bothering him a little bit, that he's
only good from fifty three in or you know, I
don't know how his pregame kicks went. None of us stuff,
none of us know those things. But on on surface,
on paper, I would much it comes out of this.

(32:15):
I would much rather trust Boz to do something difficult
than Harvin to gain me phenomenal field position. One's a
much better player than the other.

Speaker 1 (32:23):
He's one of your best players. He's one of your
boss one of your best players.

Speaker 4 (32:27):
Yeah, well there's no question.

Speaker 2 (32:29):
That's why they called him the Wizard of Bazz, the
Wizard of Oahu.

Speaker 1 (32:32):
So the other uh, and I did want to point
out I had a couple of positives, and again it's
it was hard to evaluate the wide receivers. Uh.

Speaker 3 (32:40):
The skill guys in general, I thought, I don't know
if they played a good game or bad game.

Speaker 4 (32:43):
Especially the pass cutry hard to tell.

Speaker 1 (32:45):
There was the the bad optics of pickings on that
on that run to Warren, you know, just kind of
jabbing and his guy and not finishing the block. To me,
that's just you just listen, you can't have that, and
you just coach him, hit him and then hit him
again and try to drive him off the ball so
that you're running back has a chance to get into
the end zone.

Speaker 4 (33:04):
So that's bad optics overall.

Speaker 1 (33:07):
Yes, yes, we have seen some bad optics. But Godwin
Igway week I thought was terrific. He had some terrific
kick returns. And Connor Hayward. I don't know if he
had a great game overall, but he did block up
a punt, so I thought those were I had a
little two little tiny stars on my chet of on
my chet of negatives, I had a lot of minuses,

(33:27):
but I have double pluses next to those.

Speaker 2 (33:29):
Well, yeah, there's no doubt about it. Iggy did a
nice job. I mean that that one that was a
line drive. I was thinking, whoa, you know, this could
be a kind of a hot one, and he picked
it up and went away with it and did a
nice job return. I think he averaged over thirty yards
a return. And then conn Connor is one of those
He's one of those guys that I look forward to
what he can do in the future. I think his

(33:50):
role can grow. He's he's a very multi talented guy.
Uh and you know, just these special teams worked in
he's done. I think is only really upped his value.
And I think there's some things that hopefully you know
in the coming games, maybe next year that he can
see the ball more.

Speaker 3 (34:10):
Yeah, needless to stay say, you don't want your stars
of the game to be the kickoff returner, no slash,
backup tight end, special teamer, but that may be better
if it's hey, you're starting quarterback or whatever.

Speaker 4 (34:20):
But the other ones I throw in real quick are
the edge defenders, you know, like t J.

Speaker 3 (34:25):
Watt had five pressures in the first half. Then they
didn't throw the ball the second half and high smith
Wolf mentioned gold and I thought her big was good.
They beat up on those tackles pretty well, and a
lot of the runs weren't at the edge guys, they
were up the middle, right, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (34:40):
Kick out the edge guys and run it straight up
the middle. And they were able to do that successfully
for sure.

Speaker 4 (34:44):
So those guys played well.

Speaker 1 (34:45):
But I mean we're reaching yeah, uh yeah, and I
think I've I think I've reached the end of the reaching.
So Mitch Trubisky pulled late in the game. That's one
thing too, I wondered, you know, with about eight minutes left,
would you think about Mason rudolp there maybe just to
see if again, just for a little spark. I mean,
sometimes you do that, right, you just change because you

(35:07):
need a spark. But I also thought that when they
put him in at the end of the game, that
was a signal that he was probably going to start.

Speaker 2 (35:16):
I felt the exact same way, and I said that,
you know, look, the point is, you know, Mitch's got
a lot of tools. He's you know, he's had some
excellent years and years that haven't been so excellent. But
the fact is he's still a quality NFL quarterback. The
change is I think it's appropriate because right at this
point in time, you're looking for something right, all right,

(35:39):
and you've got to give at least you've got to
turn over every rock that you can they give yourself
the best opportunity to get a win. Mason Rudolph is
a high quality quarterback. I feel no question in my mind.
And I felt that way all along. And I know
he had, you know, training camp he was just fine,
and last year he had an excellent camp as well. Look,

(36:00):
the fact of the matter is you are where you are.
You got to try something. And the thing is, you know,
to substitute a tight end, a linebacker or something, it
might won't have the same effect. Quarterbacks really has an
opportunity to either raise the level or drop the level,
and we'll we'll see. But here's hoping that Mason is

(36:20):
able to grasp and run with this opportunity.

Speaker 1 (36:23):
Yeah, and Matt you said in your podcast to just
to circle back quickly to Mitch Trubisky, you know. And
and Mike Tomlin is quick to point out in his
press conference earlier today, he's not laying his defeat at
defeat of mit your business, but not like, hey, we
lost the game because of Mit your Business.

Speaker 3 (36:39):
So a couple of things to think about that is,
I agree with Wolfe. I mean, just making a quarterback
change just shows the world that this isn't okay, We're
unhappy with how things are going. It's not switching out
a you know, a guard or a linebacker or a
safety or whatever.

Speaker 4 (36:52):
Those guards are important.

Speaker 3 (36:54):
Yeah, the announcer might even not even catch it, you
know what I mean, But that obviously matters. However, obviously
it was too little, too late. But I think what's
the takeaway here is going back to last year's bye week,
it's really clear to me that when the quarterback turns
the ball over with his football team over, I don't know.

(37:14):
Twenty five games they rarely win, right, you know, and
going forward they have to play a very close to
the vest protect the football style. And just to be frank,
that's not Mitch. It just isn't, you know, right, I
mean maybe not the way he plays. It's not the
way he plays. I mean, going back to his Bears days,
that's not the way he plays. And he puts the

(37:34):
ball in Harm's way. I mean in a way, I'm
a killing Mitch. But if you were losing by twenty,
you bring him off the bench as the wild card.
Go sling it, you know, go use your tools. Where
bringing Rudolph off the bench to not turn it over
isn't going to be the answer for around twenty, you know,
or whatever it is.

Speaker 1 (37:51):
You know, that's a that's a really good way of
looking at it. And you know, the old expression and
it's changed a little bit as the as the quarterback
position becomes more and more important, but for years it's
been and you know, quarterback gets probably too much credit
in victory and too much blame and defeat. Although I
think that's less and less true with the rules changes
and other things that have happened in the NFL.

Speaker 4 (38:11):
And just look at the salaries.

Speaker 1 (38:14):
I mean, those guys have always been paid more, but
my goodness, gracious, now the money they're making is staggering.
So now the Cincinnati Bengals team, and again going back
to the reality of where the team is now, Matt,
you've gone from six to well eleventh briefly, then back

(38:35):
up to tenth in.

Speaker 4 (38:36):
The playoff picture.

Speaker 1 (38:38):
It would take you sweeping these last three games and
lots and lots of help. And I think that they
can't even really think in those terms right now. I mean,
you've gone from a I think it was a right
around a sev seventy five percent chance of making the
playoffs going into the games against Arizona going into the
game against.

Speaker 4 (38:57):
Arizona down to three three percent.

Speaker 1 (38:59):
Now, right, you've gone from so you've gone from all right,
take care of business at home, We're into uh, okay,
we're probably not going to make the playoffs. And this
is this is only.

Speaker 3 (39:09):
The Bengals at that level when Burrow got hurt, right
like every tie breaker going against them and their star
quarterback went out, and now they they're beating people.

Speaker 4 (39:17):
I mean, the league's crazy. I'm not saying the Steelers
about Raider on the table.

Speaker 1 (39:20):
No, No, the league is crazy, but I think you know,
quarter or football players are human beings too, just like us.
So we're all like, you know, we can do that.
You know, we can say, hey, seven and four, they
should be eight and four, then nine and four and
then you win. What Hey, they could be playing the
Ravens for the division title at the end.

Speaker 4 (39:37):
Of the year. Players can't sit lamar and.

Speaker 1 (39:42):
Or just or just hey, or they might not be
able to sit him because this could be for the division,
right because they're the you know, the Ravens have got
a little bit of a tough slate.

Speaker 4 (39:49):
So and then their first round match up the playoffs, yeah.

Speaker 1 (39:51):
Right right, yeah, they gotta get a bye. What am
I going to do that second week in January? We
can all do that, right. The team can't afford to
do that. You can't afford to look past anything. I
would think going into this week accepting what you do,
how you do it, and how you can impress the
men around you, meaning your teammates and your coaching staff,

(40:14):
to make sure that everybody knows that you are part
of what's going on. Go out and just focus completely
this week on your job, your team, your responsibilities, yep.

Speaker 3 (40:24):
And exactly one week ago in this room with the
three of us, four of us, Wolf said the same thing.
You know, you got to look at your It's time
to look in the mirror. I mean, everyone has to
take personal responsibility. The only thing I'd add is, I
do think that there's that two of the three, but
especially you know, you only thought to look too far ahead.
The fact that they're division games narrow is a playing
field a little. I mean, Raven Steelers is always nineteen,

(40:46):
you know, right, no, twelve to ten or whatever.

Speaker 4 (40:49):
You know. Yeah, I mean I'm not super optimistic.

Speaker 1 (40:52):
No, no, it's hard to be super optimistic after these
last three losses. But again, as we sort of alluded
to earlier, Wolf, we're talking about it, I mean, this
is a time to bear.

Speaker 4 (41:01):
It down right.

Speaker 2 (41:01):
Yeah, I mean, there's no question about it. Look at
most of those guys. Matter of fact, I'm trying to
dig in the recesses of my cranium here as Myron
used to call it, you know, and try to dig
out exactly what I was thinking is we were approaching
the end of the season. I remember, the large part
was some guys talked a little bit about the playoffs,
as you saw. But mostly no, mostly it's about the

(41:24):
next game and getting prepared for that, not looking any further.
Football is such a short sighted one week you live
by one week at a time, and that's the only
way you can manage through a sixteen seventeen then sixteen
now seventeen game schedule, because if you look too far ahead,
you get lost in a malaise of you know, we're here,
we're there. You know, it's all about the next game,

(41:47):
the next play and the next time you huddle. I mean,
that's all it is. And you just wash, rinse and
repeat over and over again, and you prepare yourself that
way because there's nothing more important and your very next
rep and you you that that that whole playoff tunnel
becomes just a little sliver of light, you know at

(42:08):
the end of the because you're not even really thinking about.
All you're thinking about is what you got to do next,
and that is the next game and the next play.

Speaker 4 (42:15):
Doesn't think how much mental stamina that takes over.

Speaker 2 (42:19):
And this is why my wife k doesn't understand why
I can't, Hey, I can't figure out what we're doing
in the off season.

Speaker 4 (42:24):
Hunt all I can do I got one week at
a time. Here.

Speaker 1 (42:26):
Yeah, well let me let me ask you that wolf
is that? And again this isn't a one size fits
all answer. I mean, some people are born mature. Some
of us are still trying to grow.

Speaker 4 (42:35):
You know.

Speaker 1 (42:37):
So when you when you is that something that comes
organically within a locker room. Is that something that players
already know when they get to the NFL level, or
is that something that maybe maybe ah, you know, event
take swats swats the schedule out of the rookies hand.
It says, don't be looking at that. You only got
one game here.

Speaker 2 (42:56):
That's exactly the point. It's something that you you acquire
as you spend more years in the league, you begin
to realize that it's all the other stuff is is
just it doesn't matter. What matters is the next game,
the next play, the next series, whatever it takes. And
you're extremely equipped, well equipped to you know, stay functionally

(43:19):
focused on just that. It's amazing how well it happens.
If you've been there for a while. In the veterans,
they don't look, you know, towards the off season, they
don't look. They're just looking for the next but I
just you know, look it out it's it's a matter
of keeping focus like that. That's how you stay in
the moment.

Speaker 1 (43:36):
And Matt the belly royaled over the weekend as you
watched the Cincinnati Bengals pull a rabbit out of the hat,
the Steers, uh go lose, the Browns pull a rabbit
out of the hat, the Bengals pull rabbit out of
the hat. Houston pulls a rabbit out of the hat and.

Speaker 4 (43:53):
Still rolling along and yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (43:55):
But that's a different story altogether. I mean, you you
had an opportunity here, you know, you during that Bengals game,
you start thinking, hey, wait a minute, now they lose,
you win, right? The Texans lose without c. J. Stroud, Wow,
those playoff odds could shoot up and they ran out
of rabbits.

Speaker 3 (44:14):
Steelers unfortunately, very quickly. And it's self inflicted obviously for sure.
I mean, there's no doubt about it. But some teams
every week get a bump in terms of luck of
what happens around them, and you know, their their division,
their conference, wildcard, et cetera.

Speaker 4 (44:28):
Shirt and goes Steelers way lately.

Speaker 1 (44:30):
May we be talking about cheerier days Next Tuesday show
on Next Tuesday, not Monday next week.

Speaker 4 (44:36):
It was Monday Christmas. Oh yeah, that's right, Merry Christmas.
Fall I told you.

Speaker 1 (44:43):
Merry Christmas one and all.

Speaker 4 (44:44):
I'm in trouble. Yeah, no, you're not.

Speaker 1 (44:47):
For the most complete selection of Steelers merchandise, from official
sideline gear and ethentnic memorabilia to our extensive selection of
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(45:07):
Directly from the team for Craig Wolfley, Matt Williamson, I'm
Rob King. Thanks for listening to the point after on
Stealers Nation Radio and one oh two point five Dve