December 16, 2025 • 45 mins
Rob King and Matt Williamson recap the Steelers' win against Miami discussing everything that went the black and gold's way.
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Speaker 1 (00:17):
Hello everybody, thanks for being with us on The Point After,
presented by your neighborhood Fords. Join the Students pro Shop
get a direct from the team at shop dot series
dot com. Here at TVD and Sears Audio Network, Matt
Williamson and myself Rob King here to guide you through
what we saw last night on Monday Night football and
what lies ahead a little bit against the Detroit Lions,
(00:39):
but it is the Point After, So Matt, first of all,
your general impressions on what you saw from the Steelers
last night and their Monday night victory over the Dolphins.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Yeah, mostly positive. I mean, I really, I mean, I
don't think you need an expert opinion to figure that
one out. That the vibes around this team right now
are very much ending in the right way, both mathematically
for playoff reasons as well as passing the I and
sniff test. Watching the game, I want to start with
the defense, though I don't care where we start, but
(01:10):
I was gonna throw out some defensive stuff that it
seems like when we talk well about the defense, it's
often centered around splash, and there was some of that
for sure. There were four sacks. There was a takeaway
Sante Samuel. I'm excited about him as well. But I
also think something that doesn't get talked about enough is
(01:32):
when we have good chats on these Mondays about the defense,
it's usually when they make the opponent play left handed.
And what I mean by that is not letting them
feed or thrive with their best players. And I praised
the Dolphins offense up and down all week because I
think this head coach slash offense coordinator do a phenomenal
(01:55):
job of getting Davona Chan and Waddle and Waller to
a lesser degree the football in space so they can
really operate. And a Chant had some numbers when it
was all said and done, but he scared me more
than he actually hurt the Steelers going into the game,
Wattall just got totally evaporated and Waller did some good things,
(02:17):
but really in the fourth quarter when the game is
out of reach. So we've seen this several times. You know,
Jonathan Taylor, we were petrified of Josh Jacobs, you know
Jamar Chase the second time around. That they make you
play left handed lately and have other guys beat you,
and that's a tough way to live in the league.
And I give the defense a lot of credit.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
You know, there have been times in which the opponents
have come to face the Steelers, a defense that either
had been statistically vulnerable against the run or you felt like,
uh oh, here comes a really good running attack. How
you get to stop me? You know, early in the
season last year, Derrick Henry, they barely ran him against
(02:57):
the Steelers. You know, I remember Nick Chubb coming in
here with Cleveland when Cleveland was running the ball over
the place and the Steelers had trouble stopping and run
a couple of years ago. And he did, he just
didn't get any carries. I was a little surprised that
h Chan only had twelve carries. I mentioned it. You know,
Max and I were talking during the commercial break, you
(03:19):
know last night during the game, you know, some worries
about h Chan, and I expected them to run him
on first down, second down, third down, fourth down, fifth down,
sixth down. You know, I thought he was gonna get
twenty something carries. And he didn't, and you know, he
and then and then the game got out of hand
and you couldn't. Which is a great blueprint for victory.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Yeah, great blueprint. Now I wonder I mean One thing
I like to do on Mondays is try to think
as the opponent thinks, you know, or if we were
doing this show for Miami, what would we be criticizing
them or what you know, look through their lens, I
guess is the better way of putting it and the
kind of piggyback off what you said. I kind of
would have given it to h Chan replay the way
(04:01):
the game started. I mean, Tua obviously was uncomfortable. He
had not been a particularly good player all year. We
know his problems in the cold. I mean, he doesn't
improv I've been calling him a square peg all week,
and you know there's only one way he can really play.
But the running game scared me, and I would have
leaned on it heavier, especially in the first half if
(04:22):
I were then.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Yeah, it surprised me the way that game unfolded, But
it unfolded the way it unfolded. This Seether's defended what
they had to defend. I'm glad you started with the defense.
There was one guy. I think, Look, there are plenty
of guys who played a great game. I thought Cam
Hayward was fantastic in this game. First sack since October
sixteenth in Cincinnati, and I just thought he dominated at
(04:46):
the point of attack, up and down the line of
Scrimmage's pursuit. I thought this was just you know, in
a game, you don't have Derek Harmon and you don't
have TJ. Watt, and I just thought he he was
a dominating force.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
I couldn't agree more. And I'll be honest. I mean,
when the inactives came out, I'm like, ooh, I'm not
really getting any good news here. You already knew what
Pierre amongst others were.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Going to be out.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
And I mean, I thought, boy, this defensive line could
could be in for a very long day against this
rushing attack. And I had a lot of respect for
the young Miami offensive line. They move really well, they
get schemed up well. The rushing attack in general was
really really good. And he's had a good rookie year.
The left guard for Miami, Big Jonah, Big Jonah from
(05:35):
Arizona and Cam gave him a welcome to the league
type of the game in this one.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Yeah, he did, for sure. You know one guy another
guy that kind of stuck out for me. And you know,
it's funny. I think we can't help ourselves, some of
us as fans. You know, several weeks ago, there was
a notion, well, listen, this quarterback class, it doesn't look
that great. Hey, maybe Aaron I just come back for
another year. Can we coax him back for another year?
(06:03):
You know? And and you know, rewind to February March,
and some fansers said, I don't even want Aaron Rye, right,
you know so but so I say that only and
I want to talk about Aaron Rodgers later only because
you know, part of me, when I look at the
Sante Samuel, I'm like, okay, great signing for now, but
maybe more than that. And you know, we know he's
(06:26):
a very very good cover corner. Would have been one
of the top free agents available was but you know,
nobody signed it because he needed next surgery. The students
were able to pick him up in the middle of
the season. And to see him come up with an
early interception when the Dolphins were driving, I mean that,
you know, that meant something. And it had the ball
in excellent field position to go up and snatch that
(06:48):
one away from Waddle. I thought that was you know,
kudos to him and a big moment for a Sante Samuel.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Yeah, I'm glad we talked about him too, because it's
been a good problem since they've signed him to not
really give him this opportunity because Pierre's played so well,
Eccles has played so well. You know, Porter's not coming
out of the lineup. You haven't really needed him, and
I don't think they wanted to throw him right in
the mix the day they signed him. Either, Let's bring
him along slow and all those things, And so I
(07:16):
thought this was a good opportunity. I wasn't like concerned
about him, but I was excited to actually watch a
full game of Samuel and it looked like he had
quitted himself really really well. And from what I didn't
study my Tomlins postgame press conference, but I think he
said something along the lines of, oh, yeah, he's a
starter anywhere he goes, or I mean, that's just a
(07:37):
perennial starter. We know what we got. We were excited
to get him, and you kind of hinted at it,
and you and I have had this conversation too that
there's a chance this offseason that the Steelers needs are
the expensive positions, you know, I mean maybe a left tackle, certainly,
a corner could be, or a quarterback could be in
the mix, a second receiver and a corner. But between
(07:59):
Pierre and Samuel, maybe you can bring them both back.
Maybe can bring one back. You might find the answer,
you know.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Right, yeah, right, yeah, And that's that is that's nice
because you know, and again Matt and I I talk
about these things. Matt is far more well versed in
the draft than I. But you know the the you
know exactly what you said. Look, if you need a
franchise quarterback, that's a first round pick. Yeah. If you
(08:26):
need a left tackle, that's a first round pick. You
need a corner that's a first round pick. And there
are others too, right. You know, you want to get
an edge rusher, that's going to cost your first round pick.
You know, if you need a center, probably not gonna
cost your first round pick. You need a free safety,
probably not a first round pick. Inside linebacker, you know,
a good one. Now maybe if you're if you're looking
(08:48):
for a superstar, you may have to grab that guy earlier.
But there's certain picks you can get beyond the first round. Uh,
you only get one of those first round picks a year,
so you can't spread them out to four different players,
you know. Yeah, And when you talk about draft class
evaluation in general, you know, people have to have to
(09:08):
temper their expectations with reality, right, you know. I think
generally speaking, Matt, you're hoping for a you know, maybe
a Pro Bowl caliber player in the first round. You know,
you're hoping for maybe an above average starter in the
second round. And I'm just kind of generalizing here. Yeah, yeah,
(09:29):
a starter in the third round, and then you know,
beyond that a bit of a crap shoot hopefully, you know,
maybe a rotational player, maybe a special teams guy. I mean,
you're not expecting to get a Pro bowler in the
fifth round. So when you get one, and if the
rest of your draft's been good, you've just won your draft.
You've just had a great draft. Is that Is that
a reasonable sort of thumbnail of kind of your expectations
(09:52):
at a draft.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Yeah, I mean maybe you're aiming a little high. I mean,
if there's not gonna be and you know this, there's
not gonna be thirty two Pro bowlers in you know exactly.
I mean one out of those three probably won't work
out great across the league.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Let you know, let me just stop you there, by
saying I've aimed high. Yeah, yeah, fans expecting your fifth
round pick to come in and be a pro bowler.
What I've just laid out is probably more than a
team can expect, especially one drafting late. Yeah, exactly right.
And so and so when you see an Asante Samuel
(10:29):
picked up and I and you know, I'll be interested
to see if they bring back Corey Trice. And I
know they've loved his talent. He's had a hard time
staying healthy. But if you can, if you can reduce
the number of holes you need, there's two good uh,
two good things that come out of that. One that
means you've got a good team, right, yeah, you know,
(10:50):
so that's number one, because a bird in hand is
always better than two in the bush. But you know,
when you talk about, you know, needs in the draft,
it could also reduce your needs in the draft. And
that's and then that allows you to go out and
get a top caliber player at another position. One of
the things that I think the Steelers have always been
great at is unearthing. You know, you're drafting twenty sixth
(11:13):
every year and instead of getting you know, you're not
going to get Jamar Chase with a twenty sixth pick
in the draft. You're just not You're probably not going
to get you know, Pats or Tan with the twenty
six pick in the draft. But you can get you know,
a great center, a great defensive tackle. You know, you
can get Cam Hayward types, and then you do a
(11:35):
brilliant job of getting a guy like TJ. Watt. The
point being that there's you know, you can wind up
getting great players at other positions that aren't you know,
quote unquote premium positions. But great players are like a
rising tide. They lift all boats. And so whether you
get one of guard or tackle or wherever. I mean,
obviously there's the premium positions for a reason, but I've
(11:57):
always thought they've done a great job at finding elite
players at non premium positions, and those elite players are
utilized well and give you a decided advantage come Sundays.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Yeah, and this show is obviously more geared towards the
now as opposed to the offseason. We are getting in
the weeds. But like during the Kevin Colbert era and
the Roethlisberger era, I mean, with all respect to like
Max Starks, who had a tremendous career, you were never
going to get a franchise left tackle because you always
I mean, like Kevin's average draft pick was like twenty
(12:31):
fifth overall. I mean the Brady Patriots, I mean were
even higher. Like those teams did not have Jonathan Ogden
because they were never bad enough to get them. And
even like the Lebau defenses, there was a salary cap then,
and you always had to cut corner somewhere, and the
Lebau defenses cut corner at corner, you know, because they
(12:52):
played a lot of off coverage. They had a lot
of mid round picks. Mike Taylor worked out most, didn't
you know where We're not going to put a lot
out of eggs in that basket because we're never gonna
get you know, Dion Sanders with a fifth overall pick.
And the often the defense is structured around, you know,
getting pressure with our fronts, and we have a lot
of money invested in Hampton and Smith and the edge
(13:13):
guys and all those dudes. Let alone like Detroy. But now,
I mean, we can nip this in the bud here.
But if they if they found something in Samuel and
or Pierre, and you can just go into the draft
checking that box already. That's a wonderful position to be in.
And both those guys are indicating they could be that guy.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Yeah, I agreed. Yeah, and the old thing, you know,
I think you're just this. The philosophy seems to be,
give me the best guard in the draft, Alan fanniic
going to the Hall of Fame. Yeah, rather than the
sixth best offensive tackle or the seventh best cornerback or
the twelfth best receiver or whatever. Okay, well you get
the point, right, So so, uh, Samuel a nice game
(13:55):
for him, I thought, another guy who was all over
the field, and I want to get into some of
the depth guys all over the field last night, again
as he has been on numerous occasions, I thought Patrick
Queen was extremely noticeable in last night's game as well.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Yeah, now you know, the advanced stats will tell you
he's amongst the leaders or the highest mistackle guys, and
that does kind of add up. But Dale and I
used to talk about this a lot with Ryan Shazier too,
like he missed a lot of tackles, but he also
got to a lot of tackles that other guys didn't,
you know, like maybe he comes screaming in behind the
(14:31):
line of scrimmage, doesn't get the ball carrier down, the
statistician says, mistackle, but he slows, makes him stop his feet.
The running back and three other guys get there, and
most linebackers don't even get there to begin with, you
know what I mean. I think we're starting to see
a lot of that with Queen. He's obviously a ridiculous athlete.
I'm not a health expert. I'm not a medical expert,
(14:54):
but it does a lot of birdies have told me
that he's really toughing it out through some injuries. You
know that maybe he shouldn't even be out there, but
he's been a leader, he's been tough. I think he's
playing his best ball as a Steeler these last couple
of weeks as well, which is wonderful. You know, he's
hitting his stride.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Yeah, And I think when I look at an over
you the team and and I want to get into
some of the depth guys. By the way, nice to
see Kyle Dugger back in the lineup for sure for
the Steelers, you know I do. And we'll get some
injury updates from Mike Tomlins press conference earlier today. A
little bit later, on. But as I look at this team, Matt,
you know, we all know, and you know you come
(15:33):
out with your Matt stats, and you know the the
the appallingly low amount of three and outs turned in
by the defense, the lack of possessing the football, the
lack of running more plays than the opponents, which the
Steelers did for the first time last night, first time
all year they have run more plays than their opponent.
But you know, the coming out, you know, the four
(15:56):
games they've led, you know, going into halftime and getting
the ball to begin the second half against quality opponents,
doing nothing with it and finding yourself squandering lead. Just
weird things that have happened this year. Because you know,
I made the point earlier with Max that you know,
I think that if you if you showed certain statistics
(16:19):
about the Steelers this year, you'd say, oh, it's an
elite team. I look at the turnover margin, look at
the amount of sacks they've had. And then if I
showed you other things, Wait, they're giving up how many
yards per game on the ground? Where are they on
three and outs? You know, you think, well, how could
this team? You know they're they're gonna be you know,
a top five picker next year's draft. So if you
(16:39):
can continue to be strong in the areas they've been
strong in and they've had flashes, right, there's been Todays
stopped Jonathan Taylor. They've done a good job on occasion
with the run. If if you can close some of
these holes up, and I think, you know, I'd like
to think I've seen the signs some signs of the
Steelers doing this. Is every weakness going to be covered up? No,
(17:02):
because no team is without weaknesses, But if you can
maintain your strength and close up a couple of those weaknesses,
you could be maybe a little more formidable than people
think when they were talking about a five hundred team
going to Baltimore and trying to, you know, get back
into first place in the AFC North. I'd like to
(17:23):
think I've seen a little bit of that over the
next last couple of weeks. I'd like to think maybe
it's their best back to back games of the season.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
I think so too. I think it was definitely their
best performance. And I kind of threw out the Ravens
game as one of one of their best performances. So yes,
and they're like everyone, they're dealing with a lot of injuries,
and that's just the league right now, and no one's
crying for you. I'm sure we'll probably do the majority
of the second segment on Aaron Rodgers, but he also
(17:53):
you see the value of a quarterback that rises all
ships too, you know. I mean, maybe the running game's
not working great, but he's in, you know, in rhythm
and moving the football. Or the defense isn't great, but
the quarter I mean, we've seen it across the league
where really good quarterbacks can you know, mask some weaknesses.
I mean like when Rogers was winning the MVPs, I
used to call him the deodorant. I mean, because any
(18:15):
little thing that was smelly on the Packers he just eliminated,
you know. And maybe he's not that player anymore. But
last couple of weeks have been pretty enticing. I got
it probably won't shock you, Rob. You've read my tweets
and we've been on the air together, my stats, and
we've been on the air together so much. I got
so many tweets yesterday about Steelers time of possession and Matt,
(18:36):
you must be so happy, and you know, you can
maybe stop talking about all the plays the defense runs
more than the offense. And I'm not going to stop.
It's one game, but boy, it's nice to not say. Man,
the defense was out there twenty more plays than the offense.
I mean you talked about like if you told if
you made a crystal ball back in training camp. And
(18:57):
this is something Wes and I have talked about on
the Drive a lot, and you told me that they
were so bad in play discrepancy the defense having to
play so many more plays in the offense. I would
have been like, they must have had like eight defensive injuries.
Cams out for the year. Wat you know, like it,
the damn starts leaking heavily when they're out there that much.
(19:21):
They're kind of lucky it hasn't gotten away from them.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
Yeah, And as you correctly pointed out, we're going to
be talking about Aaron Rodgers a lot next segment when
we continue in the Point After, presented by our neighborhood
Ford Store and by this year's pro shop get it
direct from the team at shop dot Steelers dot com.
Here on DVE and this yee there's audio Network. Back
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Speaker 3 (19:45):
John Hu spin it spit off the right side.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
Of the burst through and so touchdown Pittsburgh Steelers.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
John who spin put the rushing touchdown to the Steelers
their port touchdown of the game, and.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
Thanks very much for being with us for the point after,
presented by our neighborhood Ford Stour and the steel This
Pro shop get it direct from the team at shop
dot Steelers dot com here on Dvan Steelers Audio Network
and Matt you know, good to see John news Smith
getting a rushing touchdown his second of his career, first
career rushing touchdown for Connor Hayward last night as well.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
Did you hear this? It's the first game in NFL
history the two tight ends of scored a rushing touchdown
in the same game, which doesn't shock me one bit, you.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
Know, yeah, yeah, yes, that would be maybe surprising if
it had happened before. Yeah, good, good stuff, fun stuff
in this game. A lot of stuff going on that
was positive, and one of those to me was Aaron Rodgers.
You know, we've we've seen Aaron Rodgers. You know, I
think adapt to situations. You know, against Cincinnati he kind
(20:52):
of flung the ball all over the field, and you
know last week against the Ravens he attacked deep early.
This game, just precision, you know, good decisions. There were
only four incompletions, and one of them was a flat
drop by Darnel Washington. Another was low to Calvin Austin.
I couldn't tell whether that was when Calvin could have
(21:14):
got in his hands under One was you know, kind
of thrown away in the direction of Pat Fryarmuth to
avoid a sack. I don't remember the other incompletion, but
I mean, he was just sharp as could be last night.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
I thought it's amazing that you can just off the
top of your head and mention seventy five percent of
his incompletions because there's so few, you know what I mean.
That says a lot in itself. So a couple things.
I mean, some of my halftime notes were, okay, this
is sort of a quick half. I mean, there's it's
(21:47):
not a real exciting half. If I didn't have a
horse in the race at the Steelers offense is a
lot of horizontal throwing and tush pushes, and I'm like,
you know, that's not just all that pleasing to the eye.
But you also, if you dug in like we did
going into the game, realize that Miami's a heavy cover two,
(22:08):
they're gonna give you the flats that It's just a
really it was more of a patience thing than settling.
You know, there's been times that I've watched the passing
game going do we have to settle for another dump
off to the flat on third and eight or something
along those lines, where in this case, the more I
thought it through was well, if you're gonna give me that,
I'll gladly take it. And this is a side note,
(22:31):
but it's kind of topical because forty four year old
Philip Rivers did the exact same thing. Flatto did the
same thing to the Steelers. But these old men quarterbacks
are looking at today's NFL like this is not the
NFL from ten to fifteen years ago. They're just giving
me layup completion after layup completion in the flats, and
(22:51):
I'm getting the ball in Jonathan Taylor, Saquon Barkley, gain Well,
whoever's hands two three yards downfield because of they're so
afraid of the explosives, I'm just gonna take lay up
after layup like Tom Brady was death by a thousand
paper cuts. And I thought, then, you know that that
was probably the approach coming into this and the old
(23:12):
wise man just takes it over and over. Another thing
I'm going to talk about though, with Rogers is intellectually
and his charisma, wisdom, knowledge, intellect, whatever blows me away
more and more every time I see him, you know,
like I can understand why people say or over his career.
(23:35):
Boy he seems cocky or abrasive, and frankly, I bet
he is, and because he can be, because he seems
like he's always right, you know, like the more I'm
around him, the more I watch him, Like the refs
don't realize there's twelve guys on the field, but he does,
you know, like is he ever wrong?
Speaker 1 (23:55):
Well, if you play Jeopardy with him? You know, no,
not crushed? What it was? Did you go against the
astronaut Mark Kelly and somebody I don't.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
Remember who you went, I don't know, or yeah he was.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
A host of it, I don't remember who he played.
You know, Oh, he crushed the competition, absolutely demolished him
and takes it seriously like study for Jeopardy and because
he wanted to crush people. He studies film because he
wants to crush people. And he's crushing people, you know
it is interesting too, what you're talking about, you know,
(24:30):
these throws to the flat, and you know, people that
probably watched the Steelers a lot more than they watch
other football might not realize that this is just something
that is all over the NFL. And we saw the
Dolphin trying to do it last night, just you know,
teams playing cover two shell, trying to funnel things to
(24:51):
the middle of the field, you know, playing some man
underneath that two shell and and trying to you know,
kind of gum up the middle of the field. And
so what's the available, well, the flats and can you
running back go out and make a guy miss? And
kudos to Aaron Rodgers, but another kudo kudos as well
to Kenny Gainwell, who once again proved that if he
(25:14):
needs to step up and be the guy, he can
step up and be the guy.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
Yeah, he's another one that blows me away more and more.
I mean, I remember having this conversation on the pregame
show in Dublin when it was apparent that Warren wasn't
going to play, and we talked about it a lot, like, man,
what is this going to be Caleb's coming out party?
And I kind of thought, well, maybe I bet you
have to throw the rookie in sink or swim because
(25:39):
I don't want Gamewell taking all that workload. Matt was
wrong on that one. Give him all the workload. He's
checking that box. Now. It's a combination of big plays, rushing, receiving, reliability,
ability to block and pick up the blitz. And I mean,
I don't know this for a fact, but Andy Whitell
(26:02):
came from the Eagles, where he was directly involved with
Gainwell and probably realized this guy's much more of a
featured back, a top player at his position, than what
I used to call a satellite back, you know, a
spot player, I mean, which is a much easier gig.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
Yes, and you know it is. You know, I've gone
back to this a couple times today in the various
shows that I've been on, and you know, I've pointed
out even when the stud the shop the six and
six pointed out that, you know, my preseason evaluation of
this team could be wrong, and it could still be.
They're still eight and six. They could finish eight to nine,
(26:42):
and everybody else that said they weren't going to the playoffs,
and and you know, this is the beginning of the
end and they got to implode this thing and listen,
maybe those maybe those people are still going to be right.
I've never thought so. I thought that this was a
team that was going to be better for a number
of reasons. You just talked about Numero Uno, and that
(27:03):
is an improvement at the quarterback position. You know, Aaron Rodgers,
if you watch him at the end of last year
with the Jets, looked like he still had it. His
numbers were very good even while the Jets were losing games.
He is, you know, looked to me to be and
I think has been a market upgrade at the most
crucial position in the NFL and probably the most crucial
(27:27):
position in sports. That you know, then you know, okay,
you didn't have a first round pick, well you got
DK Metcalf, or he didn't have a second round pick.
You got DK Metcalf, And you had last year's first
round pick, Troy Futanu, who didn't even really basically didn't
play last year. Yeah, he had him back into the mix.
And then just this relentless addition of depth on the team.
(27:48):
And to me, Matt, the depth has been manifested in
a number of ways. So Assezia told me, well, right,
here's a guy who's been on your team, hasn't been
active most games come up with the sack. Last night,
Dylan Cook. We talked about the depth on the offensive
line going back to last year, and Dylan Cook was
a guy who was standing out last year in camp.
(28:09):
He was your fourth string offensive tackle. He wasn't even
on your active roster. We talked about how cut the
down day was going to be tough. James Pierre did
not make cutdown day, Dylan Cook did not make cutdown day.
They wound up on your practice squad. And here they
are now. Pierre not in this game, but Dylan Cook
in this game. Pierre up to this game making big impacts.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
For the Steelers massively. And one thing I've been saying
a lot this year is just look how different the
entire secondary is from a year ago or when they
played the Bengals a second time. I'm like, the secondary
is a lot different now than even the first time
they played a couple of weeks ago, you know, I mean,
and last time. He is a perfect example because Mink
is on the other sidelines and Ramsay's on this sidelines. Like,
(28:55):
I mean, you forget about who you played with on
that side of the ball. Now, all of a sudden,
the wide receiver corps is almost all different, you know,
with Thilan and mvs and they didn't make huge impacts,
but I think their professional approach goes a long way.
I Butcher his name, but the defensive tackle who you
started off with, Okay, So I think he's a great example.
(29:17):
Like we broadcasted to Drive watching every practice basically at
Latrobe from up in the booth, and he kept popping up,
and like, man, I like this kid. He'd be great
on the practice squad. He's got a lot of work
to do, but there's a lot of talent there. And
then frankly, when Harmon got hurt and you know, some
of those dudes were thrown in the lineup, I just thought, Man,
(29:38):
they're getting run on. These dudes aren't NFL players. But
that's why you keep him around when they have developmental traits,
because they're like Dale And I said this a million
times on the Drive, you're allowed to get better, you know,
And I think he's a great example, like there's something
here that I can work with. I think one of
the unsung heroes of the whole Steeler organization is Carl Dunbar,
(29:59):
the defensive line coach. He does a tremendous job of
bringing these guys along and has for a while. Now.
This might be his latest guy that you turn a
zero investment in. This goes back to like you know,
draft value and things like that, like you have nothing
invested in this guy, Sam with Dylan Cook. But if
they can be a rotational defensive lineman with some ability
and impact the play once in a while, or just
(30:21):
be a rotational tackle that you can't get off the street,
you're making money on those moves.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
Man. Yeah. I mean, look, let's face it, the NFL
as an attrition sport, right, And you get to this
time of year and attrition is a part of it,
and you go into a game in which you know,
Deshaun Elliott has been a terrific player for him, he's
been out for a while. TJ Watt out for this game,
Derek Harmon out for this game. You're down to your
(30:49):
fourth left tackle, right. We just talked last segment about
how you need a top you know, ten pick to
get one of those guys, right, and you got and
you're down to your worth one fourth fourth and it
wasn't even an issue even a guy like Jalen Warren
going out. You know, there's different kinds of depth. There's
next man up, and there's hey, you're the you know
(31:12):
you're on double double deck, be ready if we need you.
And both those depths I think have have come to
the four for this year. There's and have been a
big reason why. You know, they keep winning games. And
this is not unusual for this team winning games when
depth guys have to step up and other teams start
faltering this time of year.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
So when Cook came in for Pete last week, I
thought he was the better player of the two. Now,
it was a small sample size. He only played like
sixteen seventeen eighteen snaps or whatever, and no one had
prepared for him, you know that, And I'll be honest,
I was shocked Baltimore didn't do more overload blitzes to
his side or attack him like he was the weak link.
(31:56):
And I think they probably regret that. That being said,
I I thought Cook also held up really really well
last night, and I was kind of shocked the last
couple of seasons that he wasn't the swing tackle. I
think there's something to work with there, and they've kept
him around for those reasons too. Maybe the math just
didn't work out where Calvin Anderson got the contract, or
(32:16):
Pete shows up and OK, you end up on the
practice squad. But I think there's something there with that
guy that if he can be your third tackle for
the next couple of years, that's extremely valuable. And I
know it's hard when you guys are calling the game,
but I was just curious, did Max have anything to
say about Cook in particular, and.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
He thought he stood up. Well, you know, most of
the game he's going against Bradley Chubb, two time Pro bowler,
who's having a fine season for Miami. I mean, not
an incredible season, but a fine season, play veteran guy.
You talk about Cam Hayward going against their rookie left
guard right and Cam having his way, and you got
a KG veteran in Chubb who's still less some talent
(32:56):
and some productivity and no sacks, no quarterback hits. You know,
I think that just look at those stats, that tells
you Dylan Cooke did a pretty good job last night.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
Yeah, I mean the broadcast team said it, and I
was thinking the same thing. Is the fact that we're
not talking about him is a massive compliment and I
was just curious if Max noticed anything else. But I mean,
yeah again, every step he means solid. Yeah yeah, yep.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
So plenty still to get to injury updates the Detroit
Lions up next. We want to remind you that at
Clearview Federal Credit Union, they're always up in their game
for those in need and through touchdowns for hope. Clearview
will donate five hundred dollars to the Light of Life
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four of them yesterday. Visit CLEARVIEWFCU dot org slash touchdown
(33:46):
to learn more. Back in the morning, The Point After
presented by our neighborhood Ford Store and the Steers Pro Shop.
Get it direct from the team at Shop dot Steelers
dot Com on DVE and the Steelers Audio Network.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
Back to the Point After on DV.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
Pumpins bringing pressure fro over the middle. It is complete.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
The dk Metcalf Pearls designed one Defender step tartan other.
Speaker 3 (34:09):
Fitzburg Steelers touchdown on an ef my DK Metcalf.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
That was fun to watch. Thanks for being with us.
The Point After present of our neighborhood Fords Tour and
the Students Pro Shop get it direct from the team
at shop dot Steelers dot com. Matt, I mean, DK
Metcalf at Darnell Washington just looked like grown men against
you know, fifth graders.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
Yeah, and obviously to me, it's a trend. Going back
to training camp, we referenced camp a lot that this
wants to be a big, physical offense. You know, we
knew that thirteen personnel with three tight ends in the
field was going to be a staple, and it has been.
They're often gonna play with two tight ends. I didn't
see a sixth offensive lineman coming back then, but boy
(34:53):
has that come like Gangbusters as well and been a
really successful ordeal. Now where I'm going this is no
offense to Austin and Wilson, but they're small and they
play small. And now that you got Valdez scantling and feeling,
let alone Metcalf and Washington who are just rare size
for their respective positions, and you're throwing a sixth offensive
(35:16):
lineman out there. I mean, it's probably the biggest offense
in the league when you just add up the poundage
of what you play with snap after snap.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
Yeah, they want to be physical. By the way, I
will credit Calvin for you know, when Micka Fitzpatrick, that
was the guy hurled aside at the beginning of that
run by DK. When he got back up, Calvin was
there to get in his way and block him back
out of the way. And by the way, he was
also the guy hustling downfield in Dublin to help throw
a block to spring DK. So you know, I love
(35:45):
the heart with which Calvin Austin plays. But yeah, I mean,
I'm glad you brought that up, Matt, because I brought
it up on both the programs that I was on
earlier today, that you think about a physical offense. And okay,
we got the extra offensive lineman, and we got Darnell
blocking at the point of attack, and here we come
and Warren runs hard and it's just no fun to tackle.
And you know, Kenny Gainwell runs hard, and these guys
(36:07):
are running people over. Okay, now you throw a short pass.
Oh you've been dealing with those guys all day. Now
you gotta tackle Darnell and you got to tackle DK metcalf.
I mean that just can't be much fun, you know.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
No, I mean tackling Washington has now almost become comical.
You know, like every announcer that doesn't get to see
him like we do. Oh man, they're just hanging on.
I mean it's kind of like your little brother hanging
off you in the backyard, or you know, his son
trying to tackle his dad with a nerve football. I mean,
it's comical to get him on the ground. These people
that are at least one hundred pounds less than him
(36:43):
at times, I mean some of them are one hundred
and fifty pounds less than them, nickel corners and tiny people.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
Yeah, I used earthworm as a verb last night. I
said he earthwormed somebody, because that's what it looked like.
The guy like would come up and kind of slithered
around his shins, and Arnell would, you know, drop his
shoulder on him and there he'd be, like on his stomach,
slithering around like an earthwork. You know, I'm not sure
that i'll pass the the speaking of fifth grade. I'm
not sure that i'll pass the fifth grade English test.
(37:11):
But he earthwormed a few people last night.
Speaker 2 (37:13):
This pretty descriptive though, and it nailed it.
Speaker 1 (37:16):
Yeah, you got a new verb for my lexicon, So
you know. So Mike Tomlins spoke to the to the
press earlier today. Folks listening to the show probably know
some of this news, but it's certainly worth repeating. You know,
Isaac Ciamalo, who's been having a terrific here by all counts,
left last night's game with a tricep injury. Nick Herbig
(37:36):
with a hamstring So really too early to tell on
those guys. You know, I'm definitely going to be limited
earlier in the week. Whether they're going to be available
for Sunday or not certainly is in question at this point,
especially with a short week. Good news Derek Harmon probably
healthy enough to play, is what Mike Tomlins said last night.
So that's good news that he could be back, because
(37:59):
you're gonna be facing a Lions team that will if
they can run the ball effectively, you're in big trouble,
and they will try to run the ball effectively against steerers.
Andrews Pete still in the concussion protocol. Malie Harrison was
last week, and Darnold Washington. They cleared the protocol early
in the week and were able to play. So no
(38:19):
update on Pete yet. You wouldn't expect there to be
the day after a game. Any update on that one.
No real update on TJ. Watt and James Pierre has
a chance to return, which would be good because first
of all, he's playing well, but secondly, the Lions not
only run the ball well. I mean, it's the number
one offense in the league, right, So Jared Goff will
(38:42):
find aman Ra Saint Brown and Khalif Raymond and his
other weapons, Jamison Williams. They got some They got some
people that can fly. I mean, you know, if I
would love to see a foot race between Emir Gibbs
and to von A Chan to figure out who's the
fastest running back in the league, because I think they're
(39:03):
one two and Williams at the receiver position can really
really go. It's the kind of week that I'm glad
asate Samuel's here. Right he might be able to play
a factor and try to limit those speedy receivers. But
you know, you got your hands full. You want all
hands on deck in a game like Detroit, because they
are they are. I think I'm gonna use it now
(39:26):
for the third time. They are a handful.
Speaker 2 (39:29):
They really are to deal with. Yeah, they really are.
Maybe the O line's not quite to the level it
has been. I mean, it's been like a top two
or three OH line for the last four or five
years really since Dan Campbell's there. But Penne Soul's an
elite player and the line's still good for Laporta's out
of the lineup, and that's hurt them a little. But
you mentioned it. I mean, when Montgomery becomes an afterthought
(39:51):
because Gibbs has been so unbelievably good and Saint Brown
is a top five type receiver. Jamison Williams has rare
and they're featuring him more and more since Dan Campbell
took over the play calling. Then they have some peripheral
weapons to play really well too. And Goff is really
really good when you can sit there in the pocket
(40:11):
and pick you apart, especially in a dome, you know,
going there. And this is a desperate team. I mean,
they have Super Bowl aspirations and they're on the outside
looking in. They're as aggressive as any team in the
league in terms of going forward on fourth downs, Like
I wouldn't be shocked if they're fake punts, and I
mean their back is totally against the wall.
Speaker 1 (40:32):
It is, and it just seems Matt Like I think
I talked about this with you last week about how,
you know, sometimes you get a break in the schedule,
Oh so and so is hurt, you get their backup quarterback.
They've kind of mailed it in. It doesn't seem like
the Steelers have gotten too many of those opponents this year.
I mean even you know, when you went to Cincinnati,
(40:53):
they had to win that game. The second time with Cincinnati,
they had to win that game. The Dolphins had to
win last night to not be eliminated from the playoffs.
The Ravens had to win to be in first place
in the AFC North. You know, just a lot of
these opponents, and now Detroit's the latest. I mean, this
is a team.
Speaker 2 (41:11):
I think it's terrible time to get the Lions.
Speaker 1 (41:13):
Yeah, it's a terrible time to get the Lions. And
and yeah sure having said all those things, you know,
part of me thinks that your mentality has to be, Okay,
let's bring them on. Man, we're playing good football. Let's
go and and the Lions, you know, uh, look they are,
(41:34):
They're not the super team they appeared to be earlier
in the season. I don't want to denigrate their ability
because I think they're still capable of beating anybody. You know.
They They are four and five in their last nine games,
they have alternated lost win loss, win lost. When it's
it's it's crazy how up and down they've been. It's
been such an up and down season in the NFL.
(41:54):
But look, I think that if you're building towards something,
this is a game that certainly doesn't get out of
hand now, win or lose, We'll see what happens. But
I'm eager to see how they measure up against the
Lions me too.
Speaker 2 (42:08):
And the Lions have again a lot of defensive injuries.
They're a very interesting team, and they're a very talented team,
and they're probably the team that is currently not in
the playoffs that I still would say that team could
win the super Bowl. And there were certainly portions of
the Steelers season where I would say, Man, Monday night game,
(42:30):
Now you have to go in a short week to Detroit,
not an easy place to play. I'm not feeling it.
I can't see how they I can't see a path
to victory. That's not where I'm at now, though, I
mean it's such a week to week league. Maybe I'll
eat these words, But I feel like the Steelers can
hang with anybody right now if they're playing like they
have the past two weeks.
Speaker 1 (42:47):
Yeah, and I look, let's face it, that's the stated goal. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (42:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (42:51):
The stated goal is not let's slide into the playoffs
for another year and continue this stretch, which again is
still pretty impressive, you know, one more victory away from
a twenty second consecutive and record breaking non losing season.
I mean, it's amazing what they've been able to do.
(43:11):
And yet the goal is still not just get to
the playoffs, but do something when you get there. And so, yes,
a difficult challenge, yeah, but by definition you're gonna see
difficult challenges in the playoffs. So let's get it on
and let's keep building toward a crescendo by defeating the
Lions in Detroit this weekend, or at least you know,
(43:32):
showing that. Hey, listen, we belong in the same conversation
with the top teams, and Matt to me, they have
like you know, you think about how they lost to
Seattle with a non recovered kick in the end zone
and then and an interception in the end zone. When
you're driving the fact that you led Green Bay at halftime,
got the ball to begin, same with Chicago. You know,
(43:55):
I'm missing a team here in which they had the
same sit of the Bills. Yeah, you know, so, although
I didn't I think they played a great game against
the Bills.
Speaker 2 (44:01):
No, I thought they lose that one nine out of
ten times the way that went.
Speaker 1 (44:04):
Yeah, yeaheah, I agree, But that you know that having
been said, I mean, it's not like, you know, they've
just been overmatched against these elite teams and they've beaten
some and now it's time to beat some more.
Speaker 2 (44:16):
One thousand percent. And you know the I think we
got to mention the Ravens too. They're still looming out there,
just in terms of the playoff picture, and Lamar looks
like he's gradually getting back and back and back to
being Lamar after watching that Cincinnati game. They still have
some fundamental issues on both lines of scrimmage. I don't
think they're the team we thought they could be. And frankly,
(44:37):
the Steelers control their situation and Baltimore doesn't. And Baltimore
could lose a couple of games between now and then,
and maybe even Week eighteen doesn't matter. I just know
how Baltimore Steelers go. That's probably not going to be
the case. I'm sure it'll come down to that game
as it always does. But I love where the Steelers
are sitting right now, and they've earned it. It's not
like they've backed their way in because they played a
bunch of third string quarterbacks. Like you said, you know.
Speaker 1 (44:58):
Right, Agreed, He's Matt Williams and I'm Rob King. Justin
Miller has been at the controls forces in the iHeart Studio.
Terrific day for the Steers as they improved to eight
and six and defeat the Miami Dolphins up next to
Detroit Lions. We thank you for being with us for
the Point After, presented by our neighborhood Ford Store and
by the Steerers Pro Shop. Get it direct from the
team at shop dot Steelers dot com, on DVE and
(45:20):
the Steelers Audio Network
Hello everybody, thanks for being with us on The Point After,
presented by your neighborhood Fords. Join the Students pro Shop
get a direct from the team at shop dot series
dot com. Here at TVD and Sears Audio Network, Matt
Williamson and myself Rob King here to guide you through
what we saw last night on Monday Night football and
what lies ahead a little bit against the Detroit Lions,
(00:39):
but it is the Point After, So Matt, first of all,
your general impressions on what you saw from the Steelers
last night and their Monday night victory over the Dolphins.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Yeah, mostly positive. I mean, I really, I mean, I
don't think you need an expert opinion to figure that
one out. That the vibes around this team right now
are very much ending in the right way, both mathematically
for playoff reasons as well as passing the I and
sniff test. Watching the game, I want to start with
the defense, though I don't care where we start, but
(01:10):
I was gonna throw out some defensive stuff that it
seems like when we talk well about the defense, it's
often centered around splash, and there was some of that
for sure. There were four sacks. There was a takeaway
Sante Samuel. I'm excited about him as well. But I
also think something that doesn't get talked about enough is
(01:32):
when we have good chats on these Mondays about the defense,
it's usually when they make the opponent play left handed.
And what I mean by that is not letting them
feed or thrive with their best players. And I praised
the Dolphins offense up and down all week because I
think this head coach slash offense coordinator do a phenomenal
(01:55):
job of getting Davona Chan and Waddle and Waller to
a lesser degree the football in space so they can
really operate. And a Chant had some numbers when it
was all said and done, but he scared me more
than he actually hurt the Steelers going into the game,
Wattall just got totally evaporated and Waller did some good things,
(02:17):
but really in the fourth quarter when the game is
out of reach. So we've seen this several times. You know,
Jonathan Taylor, we were petrified of Josh Jacobs, you know
Jamar Chase the second time around. That they make you
play left handed lately and have other guys beat you,
and that's a tough way to live in the league.
And I give the defense a lot of credit.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
You know, there have been times in which the opponents
have come to face the Steelers, a defense that either
had been statistically vulnerable against the run or you felt like,
uh oh, here comes a really good running attack. How
you get to stop me? You know, early in the
season last year, Derrick Henry, they barely ran him against
(02:57):
the Steelers. You know, I remember Nick Chubb coming in
here with Cleveland when Cleveland was running the ball over
the place and the Steelers had trouble stopping and run
a couple of years ago. And he did, he just
didn't get any carries. I was a little surprised that
h Chan only had twelve carries. I mentioned it. You know,
Max and I were talking during the commercial break, you
(03:19):
know last night during the game, you know, some worries
about h Chan, and I expected them to run him
on first down, second down, third down, fourth down, fifth down,
sixth down. You know, I thought he was gonna get
twenty something carries. And he didn't, and you know, he
and then and then the game got out of hand
and you couldn't. Which is a great blueprint for victory.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Yeah, great blueprint. Now I wonder I mean One thing
I like to do on Mondays is try to think
as the opponent thinks, you know, or if we were
doing this show for Miami, what would we be criticizing
them or what you know, look through their lens, I
guess is the better way of putting it and the
kind of piggyback off what you said. I kind of
would have given it to h Chan replay the way
(04:01):
the game started. I mean, Tua obviously was uncomfortable. He
had not been a particularly good player all year. We
know his problems in the cold. I mean, he doesn't
improv I've been calling him a square peg all week,
and you know there's only one way he can really play.
But the running game scared me, and I would have
leaned on it heavier, especially in the first half if
(04:22):
I were then.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Yeah, it surprised me the way that game unfolded, But
it unfolded the way it unfolded. This Seether's defended what
they had to defend. I'm glad you started with the defense.
There was one guy. I think, Look, there are plenty
of guys who played a great game. I thought Cam
Hayward was fantastic in this game. First sack since October
sixteenth in Cincinnati, and I just thought he dominated at
(04:46):
the point of attack, up and down the line of
Scrimmage's pursuit. I thought this was just you know, in
a game, you don't have Derek Harmon and you don't
have TJ. Watt, and I just thought he he was
a dominating force.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
I couldn't agree more. And I'll be honest. I mean,
when the inactives came out, I'm like, ooh, I'm not
really getting any good news here. You already knew what
Pierre amongst others were.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Going to be out.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
And I mean, I thought, boy, this defensive line could
could be in for a very long day against this
rushing attack. And I had a lot of respect for
the young Miami offensive line. They move really well, they
get schemed up well. The rushing attack in general was
really really good. And he's had a good rookie year.
The left guard for Miami, Big Jonah, Big Jonah from
(05:35):
Arizona and Cam gave him a welcome to the league
type of the game in this one.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Yeah, he did, for sure. You know one guy another
guy that kind of stuck out for me. And you know,
it's funny. I think we can't help ourselves, some of
us as fans. You know, several weeks ago, there was
a notion, well, listen, this quarterback class, it doesn't look
that great. Hey, maybe Aaron I just come back for
another year. Can we coax him back for another year?
(06:03):
You know? And and you know, rewind to February March,
and some fansers said, I don't even want Aaron Rye, right,
you know so but so I say that only and
I want to talk about Aaron Rodgers later only because
you know, part of me, when I look at the
Sante Samuel, I'm like, okay, great signing for now, but
maybe more than that. And you know, we know he's
(06:26):
a very very good cover corner. Would have been one
of the top free agents available was but you know,
nobody signed it because he needed next surgery. The students
were able to pick him up in the middle of
the season. And to see him come up with an
early interception when the Dolphins were driving, I mean that,
you know, that meant something. And it had the ball
in excellent field position to go up and snatch that
(06:48):
one away from Waddle. I thought that was you know,
kudos to him and a big moment for a Sante Samuel.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Yeah, I'm glad we talked about him too, because it's
been a good problem since they've signed him to not
really give him this opportunity because Pierre's played so well,
Eccles has played so well. You know, Porter's not coming
out of the lineup. You haven't really needed him, and
I don't think they wanted to throw him right in
the mix the day they signed him. Either, Let's bring
him along slow and all those things, And so I
(07:16):
thought this was a good opportunity. I wasn't like concerned
about him, but I was excited to actually watch a
full game of Samuel and it looked like he had
quitted himself really really well. And from what I didn't
study my Tomlins postgame press conference, but I think he
said something along the lines of, oh, yeah, he's a
starter anywhere he goes, or I mean, that's just a
(07:37):
perennial starter. We know what we got. We were excited
to get him, and you kind of hinted at it,
and you and I have had this conversation too that
there's a chance this offseason that the Steelers needs are
the expensive positions, you know, I mean maybe a left tackle, certainly,
a corner could be, or a quarterback could be in
the mix, a second receiver and a corner. But between
(07:59):
Pierre and Samuel, maybe you can bring them both back.
Maybe can bring one back. You might find the answer,
you know.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Right, yeah, right, yeah, And that's that is that's nice
because you know, and again Matt and I I talk
about these things. Matt is far more well versed in
the draft than I. But you know the the you
know exactly what you said. Look, if you need a
franchise quarterback, that's a first round pick. Yeah. If you
(08:26):
need a left tackle, that's a first round pick. You
need a corner that's a first round pick. And there
are others too, right. You know, you want to get
an edge rusher, that's going to cost your first round pick.
You know, if you need a center, probably not gonna
cost your first round pick. You need a free safety,
probably not a first round pick. Inside linebacker, you know,
a good one. Now maybe if you're if you're looking
(08:48):
for a superstar, you may have to grab that guy earlier.
But there's certain picks you can get beyond the first round. Uh,
you only get one of those first round picks a year,
so you can't spread them out to four different players,
you know. Yeah, And when you talk about draft class
evaluation in general, you know, people have to have to
(09:08):
temper their expectations with reality, right, you know. I think
generally speaking, Matt, you're hoping for a you know, maybe
a Pro Bowl caliber player in the first round. You know,
you're hoping for maybe an above average starter in the
second round. And I'm just kind of generalizing here. Yeah, yeah,
(09:29):
a starter in the third round, and then you know,
beyond that a bit of a crap shoot hopefully, you know,
maybe a rotational player, maybe a special teams guy. I mean,
you're not expecting to get a Pro bowler in the
fifth round. So when you get one, and if the
rest of your draft's been good, you've just won your draft.
You've just had a great draft. Is that Is that
a reasonable sort of thumbnail of kind of your expectations
(09:52):
at a draft.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Yeah, I mean maybe you're aiming a little high. I mean,
if there's not gonna be and you know this, there's
not gonna be thirty two Pro bowlers in you know exactly.
I mean one out of those three probably won't work
out great across the league.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Let you know, let me just stop you there, by
saying I've aimed high. Yeah, yeah, fans expecting your fifth
round pick to come in and be a pro bowler.
What I've just laid out is probably more than a
team can expect, especially one drafting late. Yeah, exactly right.
And so and so when you see an Asante Samuel
(10:29):
picked up and I and you know, I'll be interested
to see if they bring back Corey Trice. And I
know they've loved his talent. He's had a hard time
staying healthy. But if you can, if you can reduce
the number of holes you need, there's two good uh,
two good things that come out of that. One that
means you've got a good team, right, yeah, you know,
(10:50):
so that's number one, because a bird in hand is
always better than two in the bush. But you know,
when you talk about, you know, needs in the draft,
it could also reduce your needs in the draft. And
that's and then that allows you to go out and
get a top caliber player at another position. One of
the things that I think the Steelers have always been
great at is unearthing. You know, you're drafting twenty sixth
(11:13):
every year and instead of getting you know, you're not
going to get Jamar Chase with a twenty sixth pick
in the draft. You're just not You're probably not going
to get you know, Pats or Tan with the twenty
six pick in the draft. But you can get you know,
a great center, a great defensive tackle. You know, you
can get Cam Hayward types, and then you do a
(11:35):
brilliant job of getting a guy like TJ. Watt. The
point being that there's you know, you can wind up
getting great players at other positions that aren't you know,
quote unquote premium positions. But great players are like a
rising tide. They lift all boats. And so whether you
get one of guard or tackle or wherever. I mean,
obviously there's the premium positions for a reason, but I've
(11:57):
always thought they've done a great job at finding elite
players at non premium positions, and those elite players are
utilized well and give you a decided advantage come Sundays.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Yeah, and this show is obviously more geared towards the
now as opposed to the offseason. We are getting in
the weeds. But like during the Kevin Colbert era and
the Roethlisberger era, I mean, with all respect to like
Max Starks, who had a tremendous career, you were never
going to get a franchise left tackle because you always
I mean, like Kevin's average draft pick was like twenty
(12:31):
fifth overall. I mean the Brady Patriots, I mean were
even higher. Like those teams did not have Jonathan Ogden
because they were never bad enough to get them. And
even like the Lebau defenses, there was a salary cap then,
and you always had to cut corner somewhere, and the
Lebau defenses cut corner at corner, you know, because they
(12:52):
played a lot of off coverage. They had a lot
of mid round picks. Mike Taylor worked out most, didn't
you know where We're not going to put a lot
out of eggs in that basket because we're never gonna
get you know, Dion Sanders with a fifth overall pick.
And the often the defense is structured around, you know,
getting pressure with our fronts, and we have a lot
of money invested in Hampton and Smith and the edge
(13:13):
guys and all those dudes. Let alone like Detroy. But now,
I mean, we can nip this in the bud here.
But if they if they found something in Samuel and
or Pierre, and you can just go into the draft
checking that box already. That's a wonderful position to be in.
And both those guys are indicating they could be that guy.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Yeah, I agreed. Yeah, and the old thing, you know,
I think you're just this. The philosophy seems to be,
give me the best guard in the draft, Alan fanniic
going to the Hall of Fame. Yeah, rather than the
sixth best offensive tackle or the seventh best cornerback or
the twelfth best receiver or whatever. Okay, well you get
the point, right, So so, uh, Samuel a nice game
(13:55):
for him, I thought, another guy who was all over
the field, and I want to get into some of
the depth guys all over the field last night, again
as he has been on numerous occasions, I thought Patrick
Queen was extremely noticeable in last night's game as well.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Yeah, now you know, the advanced stats will tell you
he's amongst the leaders or the highest mistackle guys, and
that does kind of add up. But Dale and I
used to talk about this a lot with Ryan Shazier too,
like he missed a lot of tackles, but he also
got to a lot of tackles that other guys didn't,
you know, like maybe he comes screaming in behind the
(14:31):
line of scrimmage, doesn't get the ball carrier down, the
statistician says, mistackle, but he slows, makes him stop his feet.
The running back and three other guys get there, and
most linebackers don't even get there to begin with, you
know what I mean. I think we're starting to see
a lot of that with Queen. He's obviously a ridiculous athlete.
I'm not a health expert. I'm not a medical expert,
(14:54):
but it does a lot of birdies have told me
that he's really toughing it out through some injuries. You
know that maybe he shouldn't even be out there, but
he's been a leader, he's been tough. I think he's
playing his best ball as a Steeler these last couple
of weeks as well, which is wonderful. You know, he's
hitting his stride.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Yeah, And I think when I look at an over
you the team and and I want to get into
some of the depth guys. By the way, nice to
see Kyle Dugger back in the lineup for sure for
the Steelers, you know I do. And we'll get some
injury updates from Mike Tomlins press conference earlier today. A
little bit later, on. But as I look at this team, Matt,
you know, we all know, and you know you come
(15:33):
out with your Matt stats, and you know the the
the appallingly low amount of three and outs turned in
by the defense, the lack of possessing the football, the
lack of running more plays than the opponents, which the
Steelers did for the first time last night, first time
all year they have run more plays than their opponent.
But you know, the coming out, you know, the four
(15:56):
games they've led, you know, going into halftime and getting
the ball to begin the second half against quality opponents,
doing nothing with it and finding yourself squandering lead. Just
weird things that have happened this year. Because you know,
I made the point earlier with Max that you know,
I think that if you if you showed certain statistics
(16:19):
about the Steelers this year, you'd say, oh, it's an
elite team. I look at the turnover margin, look at
the amount of sacks they've had. And then if I
showed you other things, Wait, they're giving up how many
yards per game on the ground? Where are they on
three and outs? You know, you think, well, how could
this team? You know they're they're gonna be you know,
a top five picker next year's draft. So if you
(16:39):
can continue to be strong in the areas they've been
strong in and they've had flashes, right, there's been Todays
stopped Jonathan Taylor. They've done a good job on occasion
with the run. If if you can close some of
these holes up, and I think, you know, I'd like
to think I've seen the signs some signs of the
Steelers doing this. Is every weakness going to be covered up? No,
(17:02):
because no team is without weaknesses, But if you can
maintain your strength and close up a couple of those weaknesses,
you could be maybe a little more formidable than people
think when they were talking about a five hundred team
going to Baltimore and trying to, you know, get back
into first place in the AFC North. I'd like to
(17:23):
think I've seen a little bit of that over the
next last couple of weeks. I'd like to think maybe
it's their best back to back games of the season.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
I think so too. I think it was definitely their
best performance. And I kind of threw out the Ravens
game as one of one of their best performances. So yes,
and they're like everyone, they're dealing with a lot of injuries,
and that's just the league right now, and no one's
crying for you. I'm sure we'll probably do the majority
of the second segment on Aaron Rodgers, but he also
(17:53):
you see the value of a quarterback that rises all
ships too, you know. I mean, maybe the running game's
not working great, but he's in, you know, in rhythm
and moving the football. Or the defense isn't great, but
the quarter I mean, we've seen it across the league
where really good quarterbacks can you know, mask some weaknesses.
I mean like when Rogers was winning the MVPs, I
used to call him the deodorant. I mean, because any
(18:15):
little thing that was smelly on the Packers he just eliminated,
you know. And maybe he's not that player anymore. But
last couple of weeks have been pretty enticing. I got
it probably won't shock you, Rob. You've read my tweets
and we've been on the air together, my stats, and
we've been on the air together so much. I got
so many tweets yesterday about Steelers time of possession and Matt,
(18:36):
you must be so happy, and you know, you can
maybe stop talking about all the plays the defense runs
more than the offense. And I'm not going to stop.
It's one game, but boy, it's nice to not say. Man,
the defense was out there twenty more plays than the offense.
I mean you talked about like if you told if
you made a crystal ball back in training camp. And
(18:57):
this is something Wes and I have talked about on
the Drive a lot, and you told me that they
were so bad in play discrepancy the defense having to
play so many more plays in the offense. I would
have been like, they must have had like eight defensive injuries.
Cams out for the year. Wat you know, like it,
the damn starts leaking heavily when they're out there that much.
(19:21):
They're kind of lucky it hasn't gotten away from them.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
Yeah, And as you correctly pointed out, we're going to
be talking about Aaron Rodgers a lot next segment when
we continue in the Point After, presented by our neighborhood
Ford Store and by this year's pro shop get it
direct from the team at shop dot Steelers dot com.
Here on DVE and this yee there's audio Network. Back
to the Point After on DVD.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
John Hu spin it spit off the right side.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
Of the burst through and so touchdown Pittsburgh Steelers.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
John who spin put the rushing touchdown to the Steelers
their port touchdown of the game, and.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
Thanks very much for being with us for the point after,
presented by our neighborhood Ford Stour and the steel This
Pro shop get it direct from the team at shop
dot Steelers dot com here on Dvan Steelers Audio Network
and Matt you know, good to see John news Smith
getting a rushing touchdown his second of his career, first
career rushing touchdown for Connor Hayward last night as well.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
Did you hear this? It's the first game in NFL
history the two tight ends of scored a rushing touchdown
in the same game, which doesn't shock me one bit, you.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
Know, yeah, yeah, yes, that would be maybe surprising if
it had happened before. Yeah, good, good stuff, fun stuff
in this game. A lot of stuff going on that
was positive, and one of those to me was Aaron Rodgers.
You know, we've we've seen Aaron Rodgers. You know, I
think adapt to situations. You know, against Cincinnati he kind
(20:52):
of flung the ball all over the field, and you
know last week against the Ravens he attacked deep early.
This game, just precision, you know, good decisions. There were
only four incompletions, and one of them was a flat
drop by Darnel Washington. Another was low to Calvin Austin.
I couldn't tell whether that was when Calvin could have
(21:14):
got in his hands under One was you know, kind
of thrown away in the direction of Pat Fryarmuth to
avoid a sack. I don't remember the other incompletion, but
I mean, he was just sharp as could be last night.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
I thought it's amazing that you can just off the
top of your head and mention seventy five percent of
his incompletions because there's so few, you know what I mean.
That says a lot in itself. So a couple things.
I mean, some of my halftime notes were, okay, this
is sort of a quick half. I mean, there's it's
(21:47):
not a real exciting half. If I didn't have a
horse in the race at the Steelers offense is a
lot of horizontal throwing and tush pushes, and I'm like,
you know, that's not just all that pleasing to the eye.
But you also, if you dug in like we did
going into the game, realize that Miami's a heavy cover two,
(22:08):
they're gonna give you the flats that It's just a
really it was more of a patience thing than settling.
You know, there's been times that I've watched the passing
game going do we have to settle for another dump
off to the flat on third and eight or something
along those lines, where in this case, the more I
thought it through was well, if you're gonna give me that,
I'll gladly take it. And this is a side note,
(22:31):
but it's kind of topical because forty four year old
Philip Rivers did the exact same thing. Flatto did the
same thing to the Steelers. But these old men quarterbacks
are looking at today's NFL like this is not the
NFL from ten to fifteen years ago. They're just giving
me layup completion after layup completion in the flats, and
(22:51):
I'm getting the ball in Jonathan Taylor, Saquon Barkley, gain Well,
whoever's hands two three yards downfield because of they're so
afraid of the explosives, I'm just gonna take lay up
after layup like Tom Brady was death by a thousand
paper cuts. And I thought, then, you know that that
was probably the approach coming into this and the old
(23:12):
wise man just takes it over and over. Another thing
I'm going to talk about though, with Rogers is intellectually
and his charisma, wisdom, knowledge, intellect, whatever blows me away
more and more every time I see him, you know,
like I can understand why people say or over his career.
(23:35):
Boy he seems cocky or abrasive, and frankly, I bet
he is, and because he can be, because he seems
like he's always right, you know, like the more I'm
around him, the more I watch him, Like the refs
don't realize there's twelve guys on the field, but he does,
you know, like is he ever wrong?
Speaker 1 (23:55):
Well, if you play Jeopardy with him? You know, no,
not crushed? What it was? Did you go against the
astronaut Mark Kelly and somebody I don't.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
Remember who you went, I don't know, or yeah he was.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
A host of it, I don't remember who he played.
You know, Oh, he crushed the competition, absolutely demolished him
and takes it seriously like study for Jeopardy and because
he wanted to crush people. He studies film because he
wants to crush people. And he's crushing people, you know
it is interesting too, what you're talking about, you know,
(24:30):
these throws to the flat, and you know, people that
probably watched the Steelers a lot more than they watch
other football might not realize that this is just something
that is all over the NFL. And we saw the
Dolphin trying to do it last night, just you know,
teams playing cover two shell, trying to funnel things to
(24:51):
the middle of the field, you know, playing some man
underneath that two shell and and trying to you know,
kind of gum up the middle of the field. And
so what's the available, well, the flats and can you
running back go out and make a guy miss? And
kudos to Aaron Rodgers, but another kudo kudos as well
to Kenny Gainwell, who once again proved that if he
(25:14):
needs to step up and be the guy, he can
step up and be the guy.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
Yeah, he's another one that blows me away more and more.
I mean, I remember having this conversation on the pregame
show in Dublin when it was apparent that Warren wasn't
going to play, and we talked about it a lot, like, man,
what is this going to be Caleb's coming out party?
And I kind of thought, well, maybe I bet you
have to throw the rookie in sink or swim because
(25:39):
I don't want Gamewell taking all that workload. Matt was
wrong on that one. Give him all the workload. He's
checking that box. Now. It's a combination of big plays, rushing, receiving, reliability,
ability to block and pick up the blitz. And I mean,
I don't know this for a fact, but Andy Whitell
(26:02):
came from the Eagles, where he was directly involved with
Gainwell and probably realized this guy's much more of a
featured back, a top player at his position, than what
I used to call a satellite back, you know, a
spot player, I mean, which is a much easier gig.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
Yes, and you know it is. You know, I've gone
back to this a couple times today in the various
shows that I've been on, and you know, I've pointed
out even when the stud the shop the six and
six pointed out that, you know, my preseason evaluation of
this team could be wrong, and it could still be.
They're still eight and six. They could finish eight to nine,
(26:42):
and everybody else that said they weren't going to the playoffs,
and and you know, this is the beginning of the
end and they got to implode this thing and listen,
maybe those maybe those people are still going to be right.
I've never thought so. I thought that this was a
team that was going to be better for a number
of reasons. You just talked about Numero Uno, and that
(27:03):
is an improvement at the quarterback position. You know, Aaron Rodgers,
if you watch him at the end of last year
with the Jets, looked like he still had it. His
numbers were very good even while the Jets were losing games.
He is, you know, looked to me to be and
I think has been a market upgrade at the most
crucial position in the NFL and probably the most crucial
(27:27):
position in sports. That you know, then you know, okay,
you didn't have a first round pick, well you got
DK Metcalf, or he didn't have a second round pick.
You got DK Metcalf, And you had last year's first
round pick, Troy Futanu, who didn't even really basically didn't
play last year. Yeah, he had him back into the mix.
And then just this relentless addition of depth on the team.
(27:48):
And to me, Matt, the depth has been manifested in
a number of ways. So Assezia told me, well, right,
here's a guy who's been on your team, hasn't been
active most games come up with the sack. Last night,
Dylan Cook. We talked about the depth on the offensive
line going back to last year, and Dylan Cook was
a guy who was standing out last year in camp.
(28:09):
He was your fourth string offensive tackle. He wasn't even
on your active roster. We talked about how cut the
down day was going to be tough. James Pierre did
not make cutdown day, Dylan Cook did not make cutdown day.
They wound up on your practice squad. And here they
are now. Pierre not in this game, but Dylan Cook
in this game. Pierre up to this game making big impacts.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
For the Steelers massively. And one thing I've been saying
a lot this year is just look how different the
entire secondary is from a year ago or when they
played the Bengals a second time. I'm like, the secondary
is a lot different now than even the first time
they played a couple of weeks ago, you know, I mean,
and last time. He is a perfect example because Mink
is on the other sidelines and Ramsay's on this sidelines. Like,
(28:55):
I mean, you forget about who you played with on
that side of the ball. Now, all of a sudden,
the wide receiver corps is almost all different, you know,
with Thilan and mvs and they didn't make huge impacts,
but I think their professional approach goes a long way.
I Butcher his name, but the defensive tackle who you
started off with, Okay, So I think he's a great example.
(29:17):
Like we broadcasted to Drive watching every practice basically at
Latrobe from up in the booth, and he kept popping up,
and like, man, I like this kid. He'd be great
on the practice squad. He's got a lot of work
to do, but there's a lot of talent there. And
then frankly, when Harmon got hurt and you know, some
of those dudes were thrown in the lineup, I just thought, Man,
(29:38):
they're getting run on. These dudes aren't NFL players. But
that's why you keep him around when they have developmental traits,
because they're like Dale And I said this a million
times on the Drive, you're allowed to get better, you know,
And I think he's a great example, like there's something
here that I can work with. I think one of
the unsung heroes of the whole Steeler organization is Carl Dunbar,
(29:59):
the defensive line coach. He does a tremendous job of
bringing these guys along and has for a while. Now.
This might be his latest guy that you turn a
zero investment in. This goes back to like you know,
draft value and things like that, like you have nothing
invested in this guy, Sam with Dylan Cook. But if
they can be a rotational defensive lineman with some ability
and impact the play once in a while, or just
(30:21):
be a rotational tackle that you can't get off the street,
you're making money on those moves.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
Man. Yeah. I mean, look, let's face it, the NFL
as an attrition sport, right, And you get to this
time of year and attrition is a part of it,
and you go into a game in which you know,
Deshaun Elliott has been a terrific player for him, he's
been out for a while. TJ Watt out for this game,
Derek Harmon out for this game. You're down to your
(30:49):
fourth left tackle, right. We just talked last segment about
how you need a top you know, ten pick to
get one of those guys, right, and you got and
you're down to your worth one fourth fourth and it
wasn't even an issue even a guy like Jalen Warren
going out. You know, there's different kinds of depth. There's
next man up, and there's hey, you're the you know
(31:12):
you're on double double deck, be ready if we need you.
And both those depths I think have have come to
the four for this year. There's and have been a
big reason why. You know, they keep winning games. And
this is not unusual for this team winning games when
depth guys have to step up and other teams start
faltering this time of year.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
So when Cook came in for Pete last week, I
thought he was the better player of the two. Now,
it was a small sample size. He only played like
sixteen seventeen eighteen snaps or whatever, and no one had
prepared for him, you know that, And I'll be honest,
I was shocked Baltimore didn't do more overload blitzes to
his side or attack him like he was the weak link.
(31:56):
And I think they probably regret that. That being said,
I I thought Cook also held up really really well
last night, and I was kind of shocked the last
couple of seasons that he wasn't the swing tackle. I
think there's something to work with there, and they've kept
him around for those reasons too. Maybe the math just
didn't work out where Calvin Anderson got the contract, or
(32:16):
Pete shows up and OK, you end up on the
practice squad. But I think there's something there with that
guy that if he can be your third tackle for
the next couple of years, that's extremely valuable. And I
know it's hard when you guys are calling the game,
but I was just curious, did Max have anything to
say about Cook in particular, and.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
He thought he stood up. Well, you know, most of
the game he's going against Bradley Chubb, two time Pro bowler,
who's having a fine season for Miami. I mean, not
an incredible season, but a fine season, play veteran guy.
You talk about Cam Hayward going against their rookie left
guard right and Cam having his way, and you got
a KG veteran in Chubb who's still less some talent
(32:56):
and some productivity and no sacks, no quarterback hits. You know,
I think that just look at those stats, that tells
you Dylan Cooke did a pretty good job last night.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
Yeah, I mean the broadcast team said it, and I
was thinking the same thing. Is the fact that we're
not talking about him is a massive compliment and I
was just curious if Max noticed anything else. But I mean,
yeah again, every step he means solid. Yeah yeah, yep.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
So plenty still to get to injury updates the Detroit
Lions up next. We want to remind you that at
Clearview Federal Credit Union, they're always up in their game
for those in need and through touchdowns for hope. Clearview
will donate five hundred dollars to the Light of Life
Rescue Mission for every Black and Gold touchdown scored this season,
four of them yesterday. Visit CLEARVIEWFCU dot org slash touchdown
(33:46):
to learn more. Back in the morning, The Point After
presented by our neighborhood Ford Store and the Steers Pro Shop.
Get it direct from the team at Shop dot Steelers
dot Com on DVE and the Steelers Audio Network.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
Back to the Point After on DV.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
Pumpins bringing pressure fro over the middle. It is complete.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
The dk Metcalf Pearls designed one Defender step tartan other.
Speaker 3 (34:09):
Fitzburg Steelers touchdown on an ef my DK Metcalf.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
That was fun to watch. Thanks for being with us.
The Point After present of our neighborhood Fords Tour and
the Students Pro Shop get it direct from the team
at shop dot Steelers dot com. Matt, I mean, DK
Metcalf at Darnell Washington just looked like grown men against
you know, fifth graders.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
Yeah, and obviously to me, it's a trend. Going back
to training camp, we referenced camp a lot that this
wants to be a big, physical offense. You know, we
knew that thirteen personnel with three tight ends in the
field was going to be a staple, and it has been.
They're often gonna play with two tight ends. I didn't
see a sixth offensive lineman coming back then, but boy
(34:53):
has that come like Gangbusters as well and been a
really successful ordeal. Now where I'm going this is no
offense to Austin and Wilson, but they're small and they
play small. And now that you got Valdez scantling and feeling,
let alone Metcalf and Washington who are just rare size
for their respective positions, and you're throwing a sixth offensive
(35:16):
lineman out there. I mean, it's probably the biggest offense
in the league when you just add up the poundage
of what you play with snap after snap.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
Yeah, they want to be physical. By the way, I
will credit Calvin for you know, when Micka Fitzpatrick, that
was the guy hurled aside at the beginning of that
run by DK. When he got back up, Calvin was
there to get in his way and block him back
out of the way. And by the way, he was
also the guy hustling downfield in Dublin to help throw
a block to spring DK. So you know, I love
(35:45):
the heart with which Calvin Austin plays. But yeah, I mean,
I'm glad you brought that up, Matt, because I brought
it up on both the programs that I was on
earlier today, that you think about a physical offense. And okay,
we got the extra offensive lineman, and we got Darnell
blocking at the point of attack, and here we come
and Warren runs hard and it's just no fun to tackle.
And you know, Kenny Gainwell runs hard, and these guys
(36:07):
are running people over. Okay, now you throw a short pass.
Oh you've been dealing with those guys all day. Now
you gotta tackle Darnell and you got to tackle DK metcalf.
I mean that just can't be much fun, you know.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
No, I mean tackling Washington has now almost become comical.
You know, like every announcer that doesn't get to see
him like we do. Oh man, they're just hanging on.
I mean it's kind of like your little brother hanging
off you in the backyard, or you know, his son
trying to tackle his dad with a nerve football. I mean,
it's comical to get him on the ground. These people
that are at least one hundred pounds less than him
(36:43):
at times, I mean some of them are one hundred
and fifty pounds less than them, nickel corners and tiny people.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
Yeah, I used earthworm as a verb last night. I
said he earthwormed somebody, because that's what it looked like.
The guy like would come up and kind of slithered
around his shins, and Arnell would, you know, drop his
shoulder on him and there he'd be, like on his stomach,
slithering around like an earthwork. You know, I'm not sure
that i'll pass the the speaking of fifth grade. I'm
not sure that i'll pass the fifth grade English test.
(37:11):
But he earthwormed a few people last night.
Speaker 2 (37:13):
This pretty descriptive though, and it nailed it.
Speaker 1 (37:16):
Yeah, you got a new verb for my lexicon, So
you know. So Mike Tomlins spoke to the to the
press earlier today. Folks listening to the show probably know
some of this news, but it's certainly worth repeating. You know,
Isaac Ciamalo, who's been having a terrific here by all counts,
left last night's game with a tricep injury. Nick Herbig
(37:36):
with a hamstring So really too early to tell on
those guys. You know, I'm definitely going to be limited
earlier in the week. Whether they're going to be available
for Sunday or not certainly is in question at this point,
especially with a short week. Good news Derek Harmon probably
healthy enough to play, is what Mike Tomlins said last night.
So that's good news that he could be back, because
(37:59):
you're gonna be facing a Lions team that will if
they can run the ball effectively, you're in big trouble,
and they will try to run the ball effectively against steerers.
Andrews Pete still in the concussion protocol. Malie Harrison was
last week, and Darnold Washington. They cleared the protocol early
in the week and were able to play. So no
(38:19):
update on Pete yet. You wouldn't expect there to be
the day after a game. Any update on that one.
No real update on TJ. Watt and James Pierre has
a chance to return, which would be good because first
of all, he's playing well, but secondly, the Lions not
only run the ball well. I mean, it's the number
one offense in the league, right, So Jared Goff will
(38:42):
find aman Ra Saint Brown and Khalif Raymond and his
other weapons, Jamison Williams. They got some They got some
people that can fly. I mean, you know, if I
would love to see a foot race between Emir Gibbs
and to von A Chan to figure out who's the
fastest running back in the league, because I think they're
(39:03):
one two and Williams at the receiver position can really
really go. It's the kind of week that I'm glad
asate Samuel's here. Right he might be able to play
a factor and try to limit those speedy receivers. But
you know, you got your hands full. You want all
hands on deck in a game like Detroit, because they
are they are. I think I'm gonna use it now
(39:26):
for the third time. They are a handful.
Speaker 2 (39:29):
They really are to deal with. Yeah, they really are.
Maybe the O line's not quite to the level it
has been. I mean, it's been like a top two
or three OH line for the last four or five
years really since Dan Campbell's there. But Penne Soul's an
elite player and the line's still good for Laporta's out
of the lineup, and that's hurt them a little. But
you mentioned it. I mean, when Montgomery becomes an afterthought
(39:51):
because Gibbs has been so unbelievably good and Saint Brown
is a top five type receiver. Jamison Williams has rare
and they're featuring him more and more since Dan Campbell
took over the play calling. Then they have some peripheral
weapons to play really well too. And Goff is really
really good when you can sit there in the pocket
(40:11):
and pick you apart, especially in a dome, you know,
going there. And this is a desperate team. I mean,
they have Super Bowl aspirations and they're on the outside
looking in. They're as aggressive as any team in the
league in terms of going forward on fourth downs, Like
I wouldn't be shocked if they're fake punts, and I
mean their back is totally against the wall.
Speaker 1 (40:32):
It is, and it just seems Matt Like I think
I talked about this with you last week about how,
you know, sometimes you get a break in the schedule,
Oh so and so is hurt, you get their backup quarterback.
They've kind of mailed it in. It doesn't seem like
the Steelers have gotten too many of those opponents this year.
I mean even you know, when you went to Cincinnati,
(40:53):
they had to win that game. The second time with Cincinnati,
they had to win that game. The Dolphins had to
win last night to not be eliminated from the playoffs.
The Ravens had to win to be in first place
in the AFC North. You know, just a lot of
these opponents, and now Detroit's the latest. I mean, this
is a team.
Speaker 2 (41:11):
I think it's terrible time to get the Lions.
Speaker 1 (41:13):
Yeah, it's a terrible time to get the Lions. And
and yeah sure having said all those things, you know,
part of me thinks that your mentality has to be, Okay,
let's bring them on. Man, we're playing good football. Let's
go and and the Lions, you know, uh, look they are,
(41:34):
They're not the super team they appeared to be earlier
in the season. I don't want to denigrate their ability
because I think they're still capable of beating anybody. You know.
They They are four and five in their last nine games,
they have alternated lost win loss, win lost. When it's
it's it's crazy how up and down they've been. It's
been such an up and down season in the NFL.
(41:54):
But look, I think that if you're building towards something,
this is a game that certainly doesn't get out of
hand now, win or lose, We'll see what happens. But
I'm eager to see how they measure up against the
Lions me too.
Speaker 2 (42:08):
And the Lions have again a lot of defensive injuries.
They're a very interesting team, and they're a very talented team,
and they're probably the team that is currently not in
the playoffs that I still would say that team could
win the super Bowl. And there were certainly portions of
the Steelers season where I would say, Man, Monday night game,
(42:30):
Now you have to go in a short week to Detroit,
not an easy place to play. I'm not feeling it.
I can't see how they I can't see a path
to victory. That's not where I'm at now, though, I
mean it's such a week to week league. Maybe I'll
eat these words, But I feel like the Steelers can
hang with anybody right now if they're playing like they
have the past two weeks.
Speaker 1 (42:47):
Yeah, and I look, let's face it, that's the stated goal. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (42:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (42:51):
The stated goal is not let's slide into the playoffs
for another year and continue this stretch, which again is
still pretty impressive, you know, one more victory away from
a twenty second consecutive and record breaking non losing season.
I mean, it's amazing what they've been able to do.
(43:11):
And yet the goal is still not just get to
the playoffs, but do something when you get there. And so, yes,
a difficult challenge, yeah, but by definition you're gonna see
difficult challenges in the playoffs. So let's get it on
and let's keep building toward a crescendo by defeating the
Lions in Detroit this weekend, or at least you know,
(43:32):
showing that. Hey, listen, we belong in the same conversation
with the top teams, and Matt to me, they have
like you know, you think about how they lost to
Seattle with a non recovered kick in the end zone
and then and an interception in the end zone. When
you're driving the fact that you led Green Bay at halftime,
got the ball to begin, same with Chicago. You know,
(43:55):
I'm missing a team here in which they had the
same sit of the Bills. Yeah, you know, so, although
I didn't I think they played a great game against
the Bills.
Speaker 2 (44:01):
No, I thought they lose that one nine out of
ten times the way that went.
Speaker 1 (44:04):
Yeah, yeaheah, I agree, But that you know that having
been said, I mean, it's not like, you know, they've
just been overmatched against these elite teams and they've beaten
some and now it's time to beat some more.
Speaker 2 (44:16):
One thousand percent. And you know the I think we
got to mention the Ravens too. They're still looming out there,
just in terms of the playoff picture, and Lamar looks
like he's gradually getting back and back and back to
being Lamar after watching that Cincinnati game. They still have
some fundamental issues on both lines of scrimmage. I don't
think they're the team we thought they could be. And frankly,
(44:37):
the Steelers control their situation and Baltimore doesn't. And Baltimore
could lose a couple of games between now and then,
and maybe even Week eighteen doesn't matter. I just know
how Baltimore Steelers go. That's probably not going to be
the case. I'm sure it'll come down to that game
as it always does. But I love where the Steelers
are sitting right now, and they've earned it. It's not
like they've backed their way in because they played a
bunch of third string quarterbacks. Like you said, you know.
Speaker 1 (44:58):
Right, Agreed, He's Matt Williams and I'm Rob King. Justin
Miller has been at the controls forces in the iHeart Studio.
Terrific day for the Steers as they improved to eight
and six and defeat the Miami Dolphins up next to
Detroit Lions. We thank you for being with us for
the Point After, presented by our neighborhood Ford Store and
by the Steerers Pro Shop. Get it direct from the
team at shop dot Steelers dot com, on DVE and
(45:20):
the Steelers Audio Network
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