The Point After - Week 5 vs. Ravens

Recap the Steelers Week 5 win over the Ravens

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:08):
This is the point After presented by Parks Casino. Is
today your Lucky Day bet Parks by Brian Patton and Associates.
It's all about the benefits and by the Steelers Pro Shop.
Get it direct from the team at shop dot Steelers
dot com. Alongside Craig Wolfley and Matt Williamson, I'm rob
king coming to you following the Steelers seventeen to ten

(00:29):
victory over the Baltimore Ravens. It has vaulted the Steelers
into first place heading into the by and we will celebrate,
we will nitpick, we will do lots of stuff over
the course of the next hour. But a wolf I
think we have to begin by celebrating the fact that
as we head into a bye week, no matter what
you want to say or how you want to divvy
it up, you're three and two and you're in first

(00:51):
place in the AFC North.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
You know, I love it because it is you know,
the difference between three and two and two and three
is just one game. But what a different right? What
I means yeah, going into the buy and being in
first place. It's like my old man used to say,
my dad right, my dad us to say, boy, the
difference between a kicking the button a pat on the
back is about eighteen inches. But what a difference, you know,
I mean, so there you go. It's it's a way

(01:14):
to start off, Matt.

Speaker 3 (01:16):
So I'll be honest. You know, basically from the end
of the Houston game whistle up until pretty close to
halftime of this game, I was taking a very glass
half empty approach to the Pittsburgh Steelers. You know, like, man,
there's a lot of problems here. They've got whip by Houston.
Since since the final buzzer, I'm looking at it like

(01:39):
that was a great win, you know, it really was.

Speaker 4 (01:41):
It was it pretty? Was it ideal? Of course not?

Speaker 3 (01:45):
But their situation is phenomenal right now, going into a
buy with a bunch of dudes ready to join you
after while you infuse a lot of rookies into the
mix too. So I'm not saying they're gonna win the
super Bowl, but they're in such a better spot than
they were.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
Well, I would say this. You know, some people have
termed it as ugly. You know, if it's ugly and
two teams are playing, you might as well win it,
right far. You know, losing an ugly game is a
lot worse than winning an ugly game there. I just
that was kind of mastering the obvious there. But I mean,
the only reason I say that is because fans do
want to be critical, and I understand where they're coming from,

(02:21):
and we'll get into some of that. But you won
the game that was in front of you. That's what
you needed to do. They found a way to do
it somehow, someway.

Speaker 2 (02:28):
See, I look at this, you know, from the aspect
of you know, a tounch used to say this all
the time. Uh, the Steelers just are at their best
when their back is against the wall and the chips
they got chip on their shoulder, you know. And the
fact is, I think yesterday proved it. You go into
that game, that first half was abysmo. You know, I
don't even know, I don't even have the arbage to

(02:49):
be able to describe what we were watching there. But
you slowly saw this team just evolving into that that
barrier teeth DNA in your in your organization. That's we're
gonna fight, kick, scratch whatever to claw out of victory here.
And man, you just can't over or overestimate or underestimate

(03:09):
whatever you want to do the fighting spirit and a
guy wearing a black and gold jersey, because it was tremendous.

Speaker 1 (03:15):
You know, Matt, you mentioned and I think a lot
of Steelers fans and I certainly felt that way. Watching
the first quarter and into the second quarter, I thought,
are they going to get blown out of Aker Sure Stadium?
Are they gonna get blown out of their home state?
Are they going to lose this game thirty to six? Again?
Is that the way this is going to go? It
looked like it was going to go. I thought, you know,

(03:36):
a wolf and I were talking about this earlier and
Max Starks today in the locker room.

Speaker 2 (03:40):
That's where I saw you before. You know that.

Speaker 1 (03:46):
So much happened in the last four or five minutes
of the game. You know, you could have you could
write a novel about what happened in the last four
minutes of the game. But the Larry Ogan joby stripsacked
was a huge turning point in that game. It was like,
you're getting blown out, You're getting bown out, You're getting
blown out. Wait a minute, now we have the ball,

(04:08):
you know, right around midfield, and we stopped the drive
and we have life. And I thought that in the
first half so many things happened in the second half.
We'll get to but because we're gonna get to so
many things in the second half, I didn't want to
bypass that play because I just thought that was one
of the biggest players of the game, and if the
Steelers going to do something, it might wind up being
one of the biggest players of the season.

Speaker 3 (04:29):
No, I think it was a huge turning point in
the game. I wasn't in the building, but I'm sure
the fans, the environment, everything changed dramatically. Then it's like, Okay,
we haven't played great, but we might be the last
one standing. You know, as Wolf likes to say, you know,
I mean, you know that's going to be a dogfight.
You know you're gonna get punched the mouth over and
over in that game, and I thought.

Speaker 4 (04:48):
The Steelers were the more physical team, which usually wins
that game.

Speaker 3 (04:52):
And the other thing that kind of dawned on me
today was that game felt like a second half of.

Speaker 4 (04:58):
Last season game. Turn the ball over.

Speaker 3 (05:01):
Wasn't always pretty, but the ground games started to come around.

Speaker 4 (05:05):
Pick it in. The offense made plays when you had.

Speaker 3 (05:08):
To, you know, I mean it come from a fourth
quarter comeback. I think that's his fourth of his career.
Defense made big plays and you can hang around like that,
you know while you worked the other things out.

Speaker 2 (05:18):
That's a great observation. You're exactly spot on. Yeah, geniusness there.
I'm telling you I'm serious because I'm sitting there going, yeah,
that's it. That's right. I think about That's how they
played last year, and you know you appreciate that and
you see it evolving about. But I think, like you said,
Larryo Lario said, no, I mean, he just he saw
the screen develop He turned around, went after Justice Hill

(05:39):
and how a three hundred pound plus bigg and that
befelow got caught up to Justice Hill. I'm telling you
what with that high karate chop. But he went on
that punch the ball out. Like I said before, if
that had Justice Hill should be glad the ball got
punched out because that might have been his like colon
or something. Yeah, you know, he might have lost left
his stomach got on at for sure because that punch

(06:02):
was assive, aggressive and mean and full of power.

Speaker 1 (06:05):
And right on the button. Oh yeah, punched the ball
out of there. So that was a big play. And
you know when you when you do look at this.
It really, Matt was not pretty at the beginning of
this game. And there were some there were some truly
mystifying things. There are some things that happened that get
a little bit glossed over when you win. And depends
upon your perspective. If this is the point after in

(06:28):
Baltimore right now, where beomonas the fact that we let
one slip away, and my god, we should have won
that game handily and all that, and and there was
a sequence by another one that I don't want to
let slip away the Steelers at the end of the game.
You know, you kneel down, they call a time out.
You kneel down, they call a timeout. So you have

(06:48):
a time out in which to get all the personnel
you need out in the field and the right way.
They don't have it. They have a misalignment. And now
the clock stops, and you actually give Baltimore a chance,
even after the field.

Speaker 4 (07:00):
Goal, to at least a puncher's.

Speaker 1 (07:03):
Chance to you know, my, my, my, My sister was
texting me, she's a huge football fan, and she goes,
great win for the Steelers that I texted her back
and said, it's not over yet. But it should have
been over. But but I so so that's I didn't
want to gloss over that because hopefully that's something again
you talk about after a win. It doesn't happen again.

(07:24):
You can learn from a win, you know, Uh.

Speaker 2 (07:27):
You always love the lesson that doesn't cost you a
w exactly.

Speaker 1 (07:31):
Well put, we may so when I looked at that,
when I look at that, you know, if I'm looking
at this from the Ravens perspective, yeah, okay, that ball
whistled through Mark Andrews hands. Maybe Mark Andrews thinks he
should have had it, uh shot the very next play,

(07:52):
My goodness. I mean it was a soft throat. It
was like he was handed of some charman and just
dropped it for whatever reason. So there's instead of getting
a touchdown and being up, you know, having fourteen on
the board, now you only have ten. And then that
just and I'm just talking about the first half that
I mean, I just the reason I brought up the
end of the play, the end of the game and

(08:13):
the Steelers making that mistake on third down was what
in the world or the Ravens doing at the end
of the half there I was, you know, I I
was sure I knew what was happening. They're going to
the line of scrimmage, then they're gonna do They're gonna
milk the clock, just like you wanted to do at
the end of the game. That's why I brought up
the analogy. The end of the game, you want to

(08:34):
milk the clock, right, give them kick a field go
there's thirteen seconds left. Games pretty much over. I thought
they wanted to get to the line of scrimmage and
make the Steelers think they were gonna go for it,
so the Steelers wouldn't use a timeout and maybe have
thirty five seconds or thirty seconds themselves.

Speaker 2 (08:49):
But no, they they.

Speaker 4 (08:50):
Went for it.

Speaker 1 (08:51):
And even if you got it, you'd have the ball
at the nineteen yard line. You're early sixteen seconds, lefl
what are you doing? What do you thinking?

Speaker 3 (09:00):
And three points against the Steelers at that point feels
like it's another score.

Speaker 1 (09:04):
You two scores. I thought that was I just I
got ah wait, I don't know what they're doing. No,
I know what they're doing. No, I don't know what
they're doing.

Speaker 2 (09:12):
What are they doing? What did they do? In the
immortal words of Mike Wagner, who once made the comment
coming off the field after a quarterback spiked the ball
on fourth down, you know, to kill the clock. Thank
God for stupidity.

Speaker 1 (09:28):
Yeah, and I and I listen, I think I still
think that. And I knew that they put in some
stuff Lamar's rookie year. You know, it wasn't like he
wasn't part of the offense. But what they did in
the bye week that year, I still think is one
of the great coaching jobs I've ever seen when they
bench Flacco, completely reinvent the offense and come out with

(09:48):
Lamar Jackson. So I'm I'm not saying, you know, Harbaugh,
he's a great if I was coaching, you know, the
Raven Jory. I just that particular move because listen, Mike
Tomlin gets second get a lot for clock management and
other things. I think we're entitled to second guest the
other team's coach. That that was so mystifying.

Speaker 2 (10:07):
Do you think that's going on in Baltimore?

Speaker 1 (10:09):
Yeah, they really, They really should have had seventeen in
the first half.

Speaker 3 (10:13):
All right, and Lamar probably should have thrown four touchdowns
when was all said and done, and this thing could
have been close to over at halftime. So they have
to be kicking themselves. But if a team's going to
give you a gift, if quote, you know, Mike Wagner,
you take it.

Speaker 4 (10:26):
Thanks.

Speaker 3 (10:26):
I mean, if you're going to not catch touchdown passes
and do things like that, we'll gladly take it and
hang around and can fight one more, you know, round
in the ring, but real quick like we'll feel appreciate this.
It took me six years to get out of pitch
Johnstown with the two point one GPA and creative writing.

Speaker 4 (10:45):
Yes, I worked really hard there.

Speaker 3 (10:47):
But if I were to go to my creative writing
professor and turn this short story in that happened yesterday,
they might say that's a little too unbelievable.

Speaker 2 (10:55):
Matt.

Speaker 4 (10:55):
You might have to pull a couple of things out
of that.

Speaker 2 (10:57):
Yeah, you know.

Speaker 1 (10:57):
I always like to say I was a four h
student two of the first semester and two of the
second semester, right, Adam two, that I was going.

Speaker 2 (11:04):
To high five over the two one. I think that's
a victory in my boods. You know.

Speaker 1 (11:10):
So the Ravens left a lot of stuff out there,
and when you think about just the sheer numbers in
the first half, and this is the kind of thing
that simply. It just it can't happen especially and it was.
It can't happen in either half of a game. But
the students have started so slowly. And I loved the
adjustments they made defensively in the second half. But the

(11:31):
yards were two forty four to eighty eight. The touchdowns
the first downs are fifteen to six. It was a
miracle this game was as close as it was at
halftime because they were they were being dominated. They made
the adjustments defensively, which is good. They got some help,
which was good. But you know, Wolf, as I look
at this, you know the offense has got to find

(11:51):
a way to help out the defense. And look, I
do think it's encouraging that a team comes out and
we're gonna look at this from the opposing team's offense. Right,
So the Steelers scripting their fifteen plays is not worked
out the way they wanted to. The opponent's gonna come
out with their best possible game plan to attack the
defense they think you have. So if they come out
and do that, right, but you would just in the

(12:13):
second half, I mean, I'll take that in a way.
I mean, obviously, like I thought, it was really good
coaching on the defensive side of the ball, really good adjustments.
And the Ravens, Yeah, they had Agalore drop but should
have been absolutely should have been a touchdown in the
third quarter of that game. But I think it was
a third quarter. But it was definitely in the second half.

(12:35):
But they other than that, they were the Steelers defense
was pretty dominant in that second half.

Speaker 2 (12:40):
It was very dominant. I think we got the best
inside linebacker play we've gotten yet this year. Agreed. You know,
I think those guys man Cole Holcombe, Kwan, Alexander Landon Roberts,
I mean, bang bang bang, they were all bang bang plays.
I mean going on like crazy. And you know, by
the way, you don't have to wait till halftime to
make your adjustments, right, what I mean true, I mean

(13:02):
they can make these adjustments, and I think they were
doing it all along and trying to tighten things up
and find out what is going to work. They went
with various coverages, a lot of men. I was surprised
with the amount of man coverages they had, because you know,
with Lamar Jackson, you go, well, then all of a
sudden you got a spy and then you got you know,
you come with the big nickel, and you got various
sorts of things they're trying and instituting in there, and hey, look,

(13:25):
however you do it, however you want to make the sausage,
so to speak, which is always never really that good
to watch. Yeah, yeah, question, it gets done. And in
the end, this was a team that refused to quit,
that found strength from within to get the job done.
On some plays. I get it about the drops, you know,

(13:45):
but tell me that the Steelers didn't shoot their own
self in the foot. Several times in the first half
you see people coming through untouched. Okay, that's that's an error.
That's as bad as a drop ball you get. You
get a guy coming through and blowing up your plays
on you know, just simple five yard runs. How about
with notge you got going a couple back to back
five yard runs? You watch I was just watching Roderick

(14:07):
and I'm watching the Isaac Somalu. They're rolling guys back
and go, that's it. That's what you want to see.
That's it. They got it, you know. And then all
of a sudden, Patrick Brokewan Smith and Patrick quincambe shooting
through a gap. You'll go, that's not what you want
to right, you know what I mean. But it's it's
coming around and I think it's really like Matt said,
it's reminded me of after the buye of the last year.

Speaker 1 (14:29):
Let me ask you a question. I do want to
get back to the inside linebacker play in the next segment.
But you talk about in game adjustments. Is it difficult
when an offense is going three and out? For example,
the way this Steelers offense did against the forty nine ers.
For this, for the defense has had enough time to
make an adjustment. I mean, I know you're the coaches
are seeing things and they're probably making adjustments on the fly,

(14:50):
but they still have to communicate that to the players.
The coaching staff has to be on board. But too
infrequently or too frequently, we've seen from the Steelers offense
quick three and outs. So you're the defense, You're coming over,
your rest, your helmet down. Hey, where's the guy with
the water? You know, somebody have a towel for me? Hey,
helmets on? You know, punt formations. Now you're back out

(15:12):
in the field. Do you even have time?

Speaker 2 (15:13):
You don't get time to get lathered up and get
into a rhythm.

Speaker 1 (15:16):
And to make an adjustment maybe on defense.

Speaker 2 (15:19):
Yeah, well even if you don't have to make an adjustment,
still three and out. It's three and out. And it
works both ways in a sense that I remember in
THEFC Championship game, when you know, in nineteen eighty four,
we're playing Miami the great Dan Marino, and we're going
on drives of twelve fifteen yards of running the ball
on third and twelve and still making first downs, grinding
it out in Miami weather about eighty five degrees, you know,

(15:41):
in December January whenever it was. And then Danny comes
back in two passeses already passed midfield, you know, and
he's got super duper and whatever. Yeah, all the guys right,
And I remember Mike Webster came over sidlines, grabbed the gatoraide,
walk to the forty five yard line, screamed at the defense, Hey, defense,
just slow down a little song and get a gatorade,
wouldn't it. I mean, that's I understand both sides. That's

(16:05):
playing complimentary football by both units. And we had the
best complimentary unit with the special teams. Yeah, zooks man, right,
for sure.

Speaker 1 (16:15):
Something we'll get to. This look back segment brought to
you by Brian Patton and associates. It's all about the
benefits and it's all about the seventeen to ten victory
that has vaulted the Steelers into first place. We'll be
back with more on the Point After presented by Parks
Casino by Brian Patton and associates, by the Steelers Pro
Shop here at SNR Radio and WDVE. This is the

(16:45):
Point After presented by Parks Casino. Is today your Lucky
Day bet Parks by Brian Patton and associates. It is
all about the benefits and by the Steelers Pro Shop.
Get it direct from the team at shop dot Steelers
dot com. I do want to circle back to something
you were talking about with the offense earlier. Matt Williamson,
Craig Wolflely, Matt Williams, and I'm Rob King, thanks for

(17:06):
being with us. I did want to, you know, mention
that last week and in subsequent weeks like last week,
I had and I think you added a name to
the list I had, Najie Harris. That was like that
was my bright spot, one right spot.

Speaker 4 (17:19):
Yeah, I thought was okay.

Speaker 1 (17:22):
So I thought I thought high Smith was terrific. Again,
remember Drew that that holding penalty late in addition to
getting the sack. That was a big play by him.

Speaker 2 (17:31):
His one sack was wiped out by a penalty too.

Speaker 1 (17:33):
He had another one he had one wiped out. He
came up with a big strip strip sack. Obviously that's
a big play. T J. Watt, I mean, just phenomenal.
Ogan Joby Boswell has been good. All three of those
middle linebackers I loved, you know, and each of them
had little plays or little sequences. There was a sequence
in which the Ravens in the fourth quarter looking to

(17:55):
get a first down and maybe, you know, get a
drive going that puts the game away. Second in ten
passed to Beckham over the middle, and you know, he's
not the Beckham of old, but he's still Beckham, and
Roberts gets him on the ground. And then the next
play they give it to Hill and if Roberts doesn't
make that tackle, he'll picks up the first down. Maybe
they start moving the change and maybe the game winds

(18:16):
up being over. So I thought the middle linebacker play
was terrific. So I don't know if you guys where
you want to start, but I thought there were a
lot of guys that starred and I didn't even mention Pickens,
who was funny with Yeah, so there are a lot
of guys.

Speaker 2 (18:31):
Oh mister super scout, Oh.

Speaker 4 (18:32):
He's all right, Jalen Warren.

Speaker 2 (18:35):
I mean I thought the game. Yeah, so.

Speaker 1 (18:39):
Let's start with let's start with defense. Who did you
some individual you mentioned the middle lineback and court they Kwan,
Alexander Roberts and HULKMB combined for twenty three tackles. Hulk
them had a quarterback hit, Kwan had three tackles for loss.
HULKOMB had a tackle for loss. Roberts again the eight
tackles Holk them nine. I thought that was the best

(19:00):
game that trio of middle linebackers has played for the Steelers.

Speaker 2 (19:04):
No, you're a spot on, and I love the fact
that I didn't Kwan they have a sack too.

Speaker 4 (19:09):
He had a sack, three quarterback hits and three tackles
for loss.

Speaker 2 (19:12):
There you go, and he'll take it. Yeah, you can't
be shortened sacks.

Speaker 1 (19:17):
No, no no, no, no, no no no.

Speaker 2 (19:19):
But to watch these guys after what we saw last
week and just not quite the inside linebacker thump, I
thought we were going to get, you know, and they
came out and they thumped. And I'm just telling you,
you know, a landing Roberts yead zooks. You know, he
and Kuan Alexander Coha can make me glad. I'm like retired.

(19:41):
They looked like a headache and a half yesterday, you know,
because they were coming downhill and they were banging, they
were mixing it up. They attacked the line of scrimmage
very well, which I really appreciate watching from that that aspect,
and they really they really got after it on some
of those you know A and B gap plays where
they just got in there and just started mangling with bodies.

Speaker 3 (20:04):
Yeah, it's probably the most comfortable I've been with that
position big picture since Jaziar's injury.

Speaker 2 (20:11):
Maybe. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (20:11):
I mean they've been searching for a while now, trying
to piece things together, and I like that there's three
of them. You know, like Alexander and Roberts are very different.
You know, Roberts is a thumper. You don't want them
playing in space and reverse as much as you do
Alexander where he was flying around the field and you know,
both of them were blitzing really well. I look at
Hulcomb kind of as the glue and I thought Holk

(20:32):
THEMB started the game a little slow, but all and all,
the three of them really play off each other really well.

Speaker 4 (20:37):
Too, and you can put different packages.

Speaker 2 (20:39):
In and you know what's interesting, it's it's that that
thing that happens when the guys on the other side
are really good, like rokwand Smith and Patrick Queen, and
you know, you play the same position. You want to be.
I want to be you know, I want to be
the guy I at that position, you know what I mean,
he's over there with the Ravens, but I want to
be equally good and dynamic from for the Steelers team.

(21:01):
You get that sort of thing. There's no doubt when
when I used to play, you know, there's four guards
on the you know that will eventually play on the field.
I want to be the best one on either team.
You know, that's what you're that's what you want to be,
you know. And I kind of thought like maybe our
inside linebackers rose to the challenge of Rokwan Smith and
Patrick Queen or Roe Queen as I was calling him.

Speaker 1 (21:22):
For you know, I don't want to you know, uh ever,
short change TJ Watt. I mean, it's laboring the obvious
to say he played another great game, and yet we'd
be we'd be remiss if we didn't mention it. He
was phenomenal. And I'll tell you, man, I just I think.
I think Alex Heismith's been really I mean, only has
two sacks, only has two sacks with the five games

(21:44):
because t J. Watt has eight, right, t J Watt
gets their first. But I think Alex Heismith has been terrific.
I thought they were both phenomenal again yesterday.

Speaker 2 (21:53):
Well, think about this, when you have one of the
most prolific Apex Predators you've ever unleashed in the NFL,
and you're the other guy on the other side, You're
not going to get that many opportunities when the Apex
Predators is getting home, you know, and getting home on
a on a on a tackle that you know just
can't seem to stop them, which is a lot of tackles.
But yet Alex Highsmith has made himself a nice niche

(22:15):
and in rising to the same sort of comparable play
not quite the same. I mean, he's not there yet,
but you know, you love to see what this guy
can do. Tackles for loss, got quarterback hits, stripping, I
mean these two. It almost looks like they practice that
and practice the ball. You pick it up running in
you know, ra all intercept the ball and then you
lead and blocked away for me, you know, and and

(22:37):
and what the only thing I'll say this TJ. Comebin,
you couldn't run away from Lamar Jackson. Come on, give
him a straight arm, baby. So a couple of things
on that note, And this works for both teams. I'm
not complaining at all, but I don't even mind but
the quarter or the no offense Wolf, but there were
a lot of holes in that game that could have
been called.

Speaker 4 (22:54):
You both sides of the problem with that.

Speaker 3 (22:57):
As I said, you alignment like that sort of thing.
But I thought they benefited the Ravens more than the Steelers.
When Fallele came in at right tackle, it.

Speaker 2 (23:06):
Almost got comical.

Speaker 3 (23:07):
Yeah, I mean in terms of the mismatch in the
Steelers favor what against that guy. I mean, McCary was okay,
what was still the better player. But Hi Smith's really
the story to me, Rob. I mean he was credited
with eleven pressures in that game. I mean that's hard
to that's credit a big, big number.

Speaker 2 (23:23):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (23:24):
And I used to look at him, like, you know,
we know who Batman is, that's Robin. But hey, Robin's
a superhero too. I don't tell them short now. I
heard someone talking on a national podcast this morning and
they were talking about is that the best edge duo
in the league, you know, like high Smith's not just
Robin or a nice player opposite, you know, DJ if

(23:44):
he were on many teams in the league, he'd be
the one getting doubled over and over.

Speaker 1 (23:48):
He's really ascended, I agree, And he's gone against some
very good tackles. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean he's gone
against some good guys. When you have eleven pressures and
a sack against Stanley, you've done more. You know, you've
done work. Yeah. And I even thought, as great as
Williams is that you noticed high Smith against San Francisco too,

(24:08):
And that's hard to do. I didn't notice, and I
didn't watch fourth quarter. I have to admit last night
I didn't see Michael Parsons as much when he was
lined up over Williams as I saw high Smith.

Speaker 3 (24:18):
They did insane things to neutralize Parsons, they really really did,
and they did a better job of doing that with
Parsons than they did water Highsmith to be honest with right,
same team.

Speaker 1 (24:27):
So and then I guess we have to mention Joey
Porter Jr. And you wonder whether coming out of this
and look, I don't know what the narrative is. And
this is a great thing about about sports. What matters
is what happened. Right, So he's in trail color coverage
on agal or beautifully thrown ball by Lamar Jackson. The

(24:50):
balls dropped, should have been a touchdown, should have been
a touchdown, wasn't right? And then he comes up with
a big interception and he just you know, we heard
the Steelers say this, we got Patrick Peterson. We don't
expect him to be the Patrick Peterson of a decade ago.
We're not going to put him out on an island
at the cornerback position. Eventually, we want to see him
move inside and take on a different role and be

(25:12):
what I think he himself called a football player. Right,
So that's been the goal. Well they haven't implemented that yet.
You get the sense that maybe now is the time
to implement that. With the buy, maybe Joey Porter Junior
comes out as a starting cornerback and maybe you get
to the Patrick Peterson design you had in mind when
you signed him in the offseason.

Speaker 2 (25:33):
Well, there's no question that the opportunities here is with
the rising play of Joey Porter junior. And let's just say,
Joey Porter making a great play at heinz slash acroacher
or acreature slash heins is not a new thing. You know.
Dad was there making big plays long before Junior came along.
And I just think it's one of many to come

(25:54):
in the future to watch this young man operate. I
mean to watch that wing span go, yes, I mean
it was almost it was almost too simple to watch
that that you know, flag route, that jump ball, that
back shoulder attempt, I don't even quite know. It was
too flat of a ball for one thing, I mean
for Jackson to throw, and Joey just turned on it,

(26:14):
and you know, I mean it was just a beautiful
job of snuffing out a threat and he did, but
just a great job playing it, yep.

Speaker 1 (26:21):
And there's there's something to be said for having young,
fresh legs in your secondary when you were going against
there's just so much speed at the receiver position.

Speaker 3 (26:30):
Yeah, And and the Steeler corners are lacking in that
department to be frank, and it's been that.

Speaker 4 (26:35):
I think the corner play.

Speaker 3 (26:38):
Even into the halftime, you know, pretty much for four
and a half games, was below the line. This year,
you know, you know we've seen the production receivers have had.
But to your point, that's not why Peterson was brought here.
I mean even in his press conference he said something like,
I'm not playing man coverage Yester mar Chase all day.
You know, I'm gonna be Rod Woodson later in life.
I'm gonna go do other things. And we saw some
safety stuff, some loot stuff. So I think the time

(26:59):
is now for Porter. But that's been the plan all along,
you know. I mean, you're not gonna throw him in
a week one, all.

Speaker 1 (27:05):
Right, So let's move over to the offense, where you know,
once again, Jalen Warren Wolf provides a spark. I mean,
this guy is, you know, and they tried to hammer
Naugy at him. You know, we were we were, we
had our show with with Dale, the matchup and with
Matt Williamson and Mike Key. I wanted to see the
Steelers actually come out throwing the ball. And I understand
the idea of running, but I wanted to see them

(27:26):
see if you can loosen up the ravens and then
maybe later go back to the run. So I just
thought it was tough sledding for Naje. It just wasn't
a lot there, regardless of whether there was more there.
A Warren just ran better. Boy, he looked really good
and was a huge part of that, you know what
wound up being a really important field goal drive for
the team.

Speaker 2 (27:46):
There's no question about it. I mean, let's face it.
In the one play that dude did you know, high hurdle,
then a spinner uski you know, then a straight arm
and you know, went on three legs, you know, two
legs and one hand. You know, that was ah, my goodness,
look at him. He's like an ant eater going along
the ground there, man. You know, but he got the
job done, and it was tremendous balance and desire and

(28:08):
all these things while protecting the ball. To me, was
very very you know, very apparent that he was very
conscious with ball safety. And look, there's nothing wrong with
bringing out the big hammer or nodgy and going after
these guys and you set a tone and then all
of a sudden, maybe you start going over the top,
and we saw some mobility to go down the field,
and it came at appropriate times. And you know, here's

(28:31):
the thing you got to talk about Kenny Pickett just
for a moment. One thing that I always thought about Bradshaw,
the one thing I always thought about Ben Roethlisberger. What
was so true in my mind when you're in the
huddle with those guys, all right, and I'm not talking
about Kenny here, but we were talking those two guys,
you always feel like you got a fighter chance. You know,
you got a puncher's chance to come out here, no

(28:53):
matter how bad the game's going, no matter what's going on,
this guy can always pull it together and give you
a puncher's chance getting something done and pull your fannies
out of the fire. And the thing about Kenny is,
you think about one hundred and five of his two
hundred and twenty four yards came in the fourth quarter,
you know. I mean, that's a guy that you can
stand in the huddle with. And you know, we're talking
about two Hall of famers and then Kenny, Well, you

(29:14):
don't know what Kenny's total upside is, but what I
like to see is when a guy rises to the
challenge and when the when the big stages is hot,
it's hot, man. I mean, you've got to come through
for your boys. And that forty one yard or that
he dropped into George Pickens, come on, that was so
pretty and so sweet. As I said on the telecast,
I said, that's as sweet as my man Nelly's blueberry pie,

(29:37):
right because let me tell you have Nelly's blueberry pie. Ooh,
that's a grap right now. Yeah?

Speaker 1 (29:43):
Season, Yeah, let me tell my season. You know, I
think that you know, when I think about in terms
of the Steelers offense and look, and we'll talk about
this more next segment. Matt bit piggybacking on what Wolfe said,
they've shown character like and you know, if you tell me, look,
do I want to score thirty points? Absolutely well, you're

(30:03):
not going to score thirty points. So your quarterback can
either be good in the first quarter or the fourth quarter. Right,
I'll take the fourth quarter points.

Speaker 3 (30:09):
You know, keep it close, and you know, don't go
down in the early rounds. Take those those shots that
you're going to get from the Ravens and kind of
expand what wolf was saying and what I was talking
about earlier about the second half of last year. You
don't become Bradshaw Ben overnight. You know, ten games in
his guys in the huddle probably didn't feel that way
about Ben or a Bradshaw of course, you know. But
Kenny's done it now several times, dating back to what

(30:33):
week nine or last year.

Speaker 4 (30:34):
I think he has four fourth quarter.

Speaker 2 (30:35):
Comeback Think about this, four fourth quarter comebacks, five game
winning drives and only seventeen games. Yeah, I mean, we're
only talking. He's completed just one year's worth of starting. Basically,
I didn't realize was seventeen.

Speaker 1 (30:46):
Okay, well, I'm gonna I'm gonna have a few things
to say about that. Good but I'm going to say
it next segment, and we're going to talk about Pickens,
and we're going to talk about the buye. I love
that is by coming at a good time or a
bad time.

Speaker 2 (30:59):
What's here about now? You're tempting us.

Speaker 1 (31:05):
So that's all that, and I look forward to what
the buyer might present for the Steelers when we continue
on the Point After. You hear in SNR Radio and
one O two point five w DVE. This is the

(31:25):
Point After, presented by Parks Casino is today your Lucky Day,
Bett Parks by Brian Patton and Associates. It's all about
the benefits and by the Steelers Pro Shop get it
direct from the team at shop dot Steelers dot com.
Alongside Craig Wolfy and Matt Williamson, I'm rob king. I'm
still going to get back to that uh that last
season this season thing in a moment. But before we

(31:47):
do that, I did want to ask you guys what
you thought about Pickens and are we seeing him emerge
as one of those guys that everybody's got to have
to game plan for. Well, they should be game planning
for now, right Matt.

Speaker 2 (31:59):
I mean, I think so.

Speaker 3 (32:00):
I think wolf knows is better than any of us
that when someone goes down, somebody has to step up.
And I'm not saying he's Wally pipping Deontay Johnson or
anything like that, but that's how you find out who
lu Garry Give is when they get a chance to
be the every day first baseman, you know what I mean.
And clearly when you watch the coach's tape since Deontay's

(32:21):
been out, teams are rolling coverage in Pickens direction and
he's still stepping up, and you know that's a great
step to show that he can be a true number one.
And I referenced Jamar Chase just a little bit ago coincidentally,
when him and Burrow got burst on the scene together.
If Burrow would see zero or single high press coverage,

(32:42):
nobody helping Chase, he might as well put it up
on the scoreboard. I'm thrown to go to him. And
that's exactly what they did. I thought that was tremendous.
I mean, that's what developing batteries do.

Speaker 1 (32:53):
Yep, and Pickens could wind up being that legit you
know when I look at this receiving cores and what's
you know and sneaking ahead to a look at the BIE. Well,
if you get Deontay Johnson back, we know what he
can do. We know how good a receiver he can be.
And now if Pickens continues to emerge, maybe you got
a guy like Austin who suddenly can can be a

(33:14):
threat to go deep. And then you know your fourth
receiver now is a veteran guy. Right, He's not the
same guy he was when he was younger, but you know,
maybe he's that third and two guy that winds up
with a big catch. Because Alan robins because he knows
how to get open and and he knows how to
present a target, knows where the marker is right, and
you get Friar moved back maybe again. After the buy

(33:34):
you start to think what this receiving corps could be.
But Pickens at the head of it. When you have
one guy that I think everybody has to you know,
account for, and this do is listen. I'm not sure
that might be Deontay Johnson, but that's still to be determined.
But when you have the potential to have that wolf,
everything I think drops into place.

Speaker 2 (33:53):
Well, there's no question about it. When you have that
number one dog going out there getting after it and
there is Matt said, rolling the coverage towards him, you
have an opportunity then to take somebody like Kelvin Austin
three like he's got three years, fast, faster and fastest,
you know, and he gets out there and he just
tears the top of the coverage off. As Bruce Arians
used to talk about, what happens. Then you stretch windows,

(34:16):
you know, the windows underneath and when you got zone
coverages and even in some man coverages, you stretch areas
of the field out for each other because this guy
is just so fast and you and you got the
safety's bail and trying to stay deep and over the
top and everything else. And then you've got somebody like
Pickings being able to cruise around and use that tremendous
athleticism and great body control. And you know, to watch

(34:38):
him on the sidelines operate, that's like watching you know,
one of them fancy Russian dancers, you know, you know
what I mean from the Yeah, he just turns around,
catches it and falls over, you know what I mean.
And it was beautiful. I mean that type of skill. Wow,
what I could have done with that in the trenches.

Speaker 1 (34:54):
Yeah, he's light under toes. Yeah right, uh you know,
and yes I agree that. And you know the point
about the windows, I mean, we've all had windows that
have been painted shut, right that that's sometimes what it
looks like out there. I mean, teams are just daring
the Steelers. I mean, you're getting eight nine guys within
five yards of the line of scrimmage. That makes it
very difficult, right, It makes it very very difficult. So

(35:16):
that's why again in this game, I'd like to see
him press the ball down the field, relaxed, but the
thief has a little bit and then maybe run the ball. Regardless,
you still got to run the ball.

Speaker 2 (35:25):
We know that, right, But Max, Max, Sorry, Matt, I'm
just laughing because I'm thinking of Max from the you know,
in the in the locker room with me, you know,
But Matt, the statue gave me if I recall, the
Steelers faced a ton of eight man boxes, but they
were successful running against them. If you ran against them
last year, you can run against them this year. That

(35:46):
was not like the eight man boxes are growing.

Speaker 1 (35:48):
No.

Speaker 3 (35:49):
That was something I was shocked to learn in the
off season. Is basically from week nine on, whenever they
started to put things together, they saw the same thing.
They saw heavy loaded fronts, and they ran against a
man box as much as any team in the league,
and did it as well as any team in the league.
And they were the best in the league at not
taking negative runs. You know, second and nine is a

(36:10):
lot more manageable than second and twelve, you know, I mean,
so consistently moving football forward, it gives you something to
build up.

Speaker 1 (36:17):
Okay, so let me say this. Then, this struck me
when I was doing the postgame show with Charlie last night, Okay,
Steels are three and two. They're in first place in
the AFC North. It's a great place to be as
you go heading into the buy. Maybe doesn't pass the
eye test necessarily, and that game didn't pass the eye
test for a while. As we talked about earlier, this
team is ten and four over the last fourteen games,

(36:39):
but it doesn't feel like a ten and four team.
When I think about a ten and four team, I
think about the Philadelphia Eagles, I think about the Buffalo Bills.
I think about the San Francisco forty nine Ers, and
I think we have seen a couple of times over
the last couple of years, Matt, I'll start with you
here on this one that the Steelers have gone against

(36:59):
the Buffalos and it didn't end well. They've gone against
the Kansas City Chiefs and it didn't end and I
said it didn't end well, and being kind San Francisco,
these were lopsided games. The Eagles, these were lopsided losses.
And so you are just now this game reminded to
you of last year. But I think the expectations for
the fans, the expectations for those of us covering the team,

(37:21):
the expectations for the Steelers themselves, I believe were okay,
seven and two, that was the foundation. Five games in,
we should have built on that foundation. We thought we
saw that building happening in the preseason up a patrol
where they were attacking the middle of the field in
the preseason where they had five drives and five touchdowns,
and that's gone away, and to just be getting back

(37:42):
to that now, I think would be some Steelers fans,
lots of them would label that as a disappointment offensively,
that they need to progress from this point and that
the expectation was at five games in they would have
progressed to some degree. And yet it doesn't necessarily feel
like it. It feels like it, as you said, more
like the seven and two, you know, down the stretch, Deeelers.

Speaker 4 (38:05):
We saw, yeah, right.

Speaker 3 (38:06):
And frankly, if when we did the show a week ago,
if you could tell me they're playing like the seven
and two Steelers down the stretch, like wow, that's a
nice jump forward from where we were just seven days ago.
Of course, but I think you're one hundred percent right,
and I would lump the defense in with the offense
in terms of not being Bills Niners Eagles level, but

(38:29):
the Bills are a Final four team every year the
Eagles were in the Super Bowl. I don't know where
the four losses are coming for the Niners. I mean,
that is the Krem de la Krem, and of course
that's the goal. And they're not there yet. I mean,
I don't think anyone's going to tell you they are.
But Wolf thoses two. I mean, those things didn't happen
overnight for those teams either.

Speaker 1 (38:47):
No, but I think I think the big issues that
fans would have liked to have seen. Sure, so some
more growth.

Speaker 3 (38:54):
And I was a little greedy though, but the fans
are a little greedy of course.

Speaker 1 (38:59):
Also it is also the Steelers stated goal to compete
for super Bowls and championships. And so as you go
into this bye week, which again i'll throw out the
old this is this a good time or a bad time?
You know, Charlie was mentioning last night, well a little early,
but I thought, man, I think this is a really
good time. You're coming off a win, it's a big win,
you're coming off. You know, these Steelers Ravens game seemed

(39:21):
to take it out of the next week. Well, you know,
the next week's not coming for two weeks, so maybe
that helps them. But also we have seen in fits
and starts what the Steelers offense is capable of. They
ran the ball beautifully with Nagy against Houston. They showed
signs of running the ball against the Raiders. They had
the best drive we've seen all year against the Raiders

(39:43):
at six play, authoritative drive. They had an excellent drive
to seal the game yesterday at the touchdown pass to Pickens. Now,
how do you mix all that up and come out
with a little more consistency? So it feels like growth
because the important thing is now and you're in first
in the AFC North. That's what's important now, But that

(40:03):
might not be enough come weeks, you know, eighteen and
on into the playoffs. So how do you get from
here to there? Well, I think the bye week, maybe
getting some guys healthy and maybe doing some self scouting
and self evaluation can hopefully get you back on that
path you want to get on.

Speaker 2 (40:19):
Well, there's no question, and that's exactly what's going to
happen this week. The self scouting, self evaluation. They've been
doing that all the way along, and that would be
I would leave that to Matt to you know, tell
you what comes down with that. My simple thing about this, Yeah,
it's too early to me to have a buy, but
you know what, you don't have a choice in. And
by the way, oh, it's really good now that we've
got several guys injured, right, we're gonna get them back.

(40:40):
So it comes along at a good time for me.
I always thought getting at least half the season in
before you got to buy was important because I thought
it was a time. Yeah. I mean when you're staring
at you know what, nine games or something like that,
or ten games or whatever. I mean, it's a long
second half, you know, So what you want to do

(41:01):
is you think you break it up and you get
that little rest that refreshes and then you're able to
come out. But being that it's already given to you
and you don't have a choice in the matter, and
you've got some injured people that have come back and
be a dynamic part of the team for the second half, run, well,
bike out, you go with it. You know, that's it
is what it is, right.

Speaker 3 (41:20):
I mean, the Ravens were maybe the most injured team
in the league through the first four weeks, and they
were the clearly much healthier team yesterday, you know, I mean,
Steelers were really shorthanded, and I don't quite understand it.
I'm guilty of this as well, bringing up the loss
of Cam Hayward more often like last year and Watt
was out. It seems like every the sentence was we
have a done of what well, Cam Hayward's pretty impactful.

Speaker 4 (41:41):
They can sure use that dude as.

Speaker 3 (41:43):
Well as all the other guys Friarmuth and Deontay and
the other guys. They were short for this just this week.
Real quick to the previous question though, And it dawned
on me when Wolfe said, you know, pick it. This
was his seventeenth start. I think we should expect, I
mean expect Kenny's twenty through forty the start to go
a heck of a lot better than one through twenty.

(42:05):
Josh Allen's did Jalen hurts as? Did you know you
talked about the Eagles and Bills? You know, I mean
like he's still a puppy. I mean the quarterback's pretty important.

Speaker 1 (42:12):
Yeah, those are those are all great points for sure.
You know, Charlie brought up another good point last night where.

Speaker 2 (42:18):
He put that all on a two point one grade
on the grade of writing.

Speaker 4 (42:24):
Six years.

Speaker 2 (42:24):
It took me to get that little I'm proudly I'm brother. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (42:29):
So you know. The the other thing about the that
Charlie brought up last night was, you know, you play
these games and then you have a Thursday night game
and man, a Thursday night game. One eh, excuse you.
But then you love almost a little mini buy and
they have two Thursday night games. So I wonder if
these will be rest in recovery ten days and again
another chance for self evaluation, to get back to the

(42:51):
coaching versus self evaluation. Look, I understand coaches are always
self evaluating, Matt, you were a scout, but I would
imagine that the priority has to lean toward game prep.
There's only seventeen of them, and you're trying to win
every single game. So you, yeah, you Sunday you're breaking
down film, You're self evaluating your own guys. But I
would imagine it correct me if I'm wrong that this

(43:14):
buy gives you a chance for deeper self evaluation because
you don't have that all important game coming up a
week from now.

Speaker 3 (43:21):
It absolutely should, and I think from what I've been
told from many many sources. As you would expected his
experience level, coach Tomlin handles the buy very very well.
I mean there's an art to it. Rookie head coaches
don't know what to do, you know, I mean things
like that. So I think there's a misnomer in this
league that, wow, they get a week between games, pirates
get one day or sometimes they play a double header.

(43:42):
The pen's got to play in a day or two. Yeah,
but it's not eleven guys.

Speaker 4 (43:45):
Moving as one and as physical as it is.

Speaker 3 (43:47):
My point is the week, you know, Sunday to Sunday
is way shorter in terms of preparation than people think,
you know, like oh we'll just install this and install that. Well,
that takes months, you know. So I do think that
you trim the fat somewhat in a bye week as well,
like maybe we're doing too many things or what's our
bread and butter and one thing? A lot of teams do.
I don't know if the Steelers do or not. And

(44:10):
also it's great for any human being to go have
dinner with this family, you know, I mean, just get
away from the building for a minute, you know, self,
scout yourself in your own home, in your own bed.
But a lot of times teams will tell the defensive
staff do a mini game plan against our offense and
vice versa, you know, and she to be as brutally
honest as you possibly can. You know, how would you
attack us, like, wow, your left guard's terrible, your tight ends.

Speaker 4 (44:32):
Terrible, you know, and you're leaving them out to whatever.

Speaker 3 (44:38):
But those kind of things happen, you know, and you
be honest and you present it to the coach.

Speaker 4 (44:41):
This is how I would attack your offense.

Speaker 1 (44:43):
Right, that's really interesting and it's important.

Speaker 2 (44:46):
I mean that that type of self scouting. He's not
kidding about man, and they you know the fact that
you know, even when you run ones versus ones in
limited practice, yeah, I mean you're drawn upon a lot
of guys with a lot of you know, experience and
in competing against each other, and it raises the intensity level.
But certainly, like you said, to be able to present
those game plans and then go over it. The other

(45:07):
thing that you have a problem is that he who
wins as the one with the chalk last. Right as
you're up on the board, they're always writing things up.
And I remember John Cole when he was coaching for
the Steelers back years after he had retired the defensive
line coach. He goes, yeah, it's sat in that meeting.
He goes, man forty five minutes and whoever had the
chalk last one, you know, drive you crazy?

Speaker 1 (45:27):
Yeah, well, work to be done for the Steelers, but
work to be done for the first place. Steelers three
and two heading into the bye week after their seventeen
to ten victory over the Ravens. For the most complete
selection of Steelers merchandise, from official sideline gear and authentic
memorabilia to our extensive selection of jerseys and Terrible towels,
visit one of the official Steelers Pro Shop stores located

(45:49):
at Akroscher Stadium, Grove City Premium Outlets, or Tanger Outlets,
or visit us online at shop dot Steelers dot com
for all your Steelers merchandise needs directly from the team
for Craig Wolfley, Matt Williams, and I'm Rob King. Thanks
for listening to the point after on SNR Radio n
WDV one O two point five