Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
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.
Thanks very much for joining us for the Point After.
Following the Steelers sixteen to ten victory over the Bengals,
(00:30):
it's time for a look back. This look Back segment
is brought to you by Brian Patton and Associates. It's
all about the benefits. My number one thing other than
the fact wolf that the Steelers won the game, was
it felt like they blew the Bengals out even though
they only won by six points, just because the offense
looks so much better the time of possession. They were
completely in command of the game.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Oh, there's no doubt about it.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
I mean, you take a look at the time of
possession was ridiculous. It was almost two thirds of the game.
I mean I heard rumors that Cam Hayward resort and
hot thugs on the sidelines. It was hungry. Now back
to the matters. You know that when the offense goes
out and possesses the ball that long, that is going
to be a great advantage to a defense that's been
a little bit under the gun over the last several weeks.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
So it's good to see.
Speaker 4 (01:15):
Yeah, all this time of possession stuff and you know,
snaps played is starting to trend the right direction, just
like last year. At this time they were at the
bottom of the league and then before you knew it,
they were near the top of the league and starting
to have that feel about it. And boy and Najie
Harris set the tone too, I mean, Friarmuth and Nausea.
That run where he just dragged the whole defense was like, man,
he came to play today.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Well, there are two tone setters. That was one of them.
The other I thought was the very first play of
the game in which the Steelers attacked the middle of
the field. That, of course had been one of the
criticisms of head coach of an offensive coordinator, Matt Canada,
who was dismissed before the game. Again, you know in
this trio here, nobody's celebrating that. I mean Thanksgiving week,
the guy lost his job. You feel badly for him
(01:56):
by the same token. Changes needed to be made. The
offense was struggling. Now people are going to look at
the score sixteen points in thing, but what really changed?
But a lot changed Wolf and I thought from the
very first play of the game. Last three games, the
Seers did not complete a pass, and I think they
only attempted one over the middle of the field. This
week they had five completions over the middle of the field,
(02:18):
including the very first completion of the game, very first
attempt of the game.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Well, there's no question about it, you know. I mean,
you take a look, he's under center, he's uh. They
run the old one to thirty four trap pass. That's
what we used to run back in my day. You
pull the left guard, come out, you trapped the end
man on the line. You got the friar mouth going
down the middle on a little banana bend and cover
two and there's the open spot right in the middle
in front of the split safeties and boom, there you go.
It's right there in the open and I think it
(02:42):
was twenty four yards. Kenny hit him on that first one.
It was beautiful, just and it put I think it
put the Bengals back on their heels. They were not
expecting that at all and hit them. It was that
the opening salball was fired by Kenny and by by
friar Mouth.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
Yeah, and what a game Firemuth had. I mean, obviously,
they game plan early and often to get him the football,
to target him a lot, and that's been missing in
this offense. I mean, I thought he was maybe their
best offensive player last year and this year he had
thirteen targets coming into the game. Now there's been injuries
and you know, some outlying factors, but I thought he
was somebody they really had to get going and then
(03:16):
take it a step further. I mean, obviously, tight end
production often happens in the middle of the field. As
you mentioned, that's been really deficient. But they played a
lot more twelve personnel. They played a fair amount of
thirteen personnel with three tight ends out there, and I
mean that's an interesting tight end room with Hayward and
I thought that was Washington's best game as a pro.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Two.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Now, you mentioned before this game that the Bengals had
really been struggling at the safety position and they moved
Jordan Battle into the starting lineup. You know, so he's
a guy that is back there. It's still and they
liked Jordan Battle, but it's an area that's not a
strength to this defense, as opposed to a team like
San Francisco, where you've got a great safety, you've got
(03:57):
two great middle linebackers, a very difficult team to attack
in the middle of the field. Cleveland has been a
team that's been difficult to attack in the middle of
the field. Absolutely, They've been difficult to attack anywhere but tough.
So this almost seemed like the perfect opportunity to attack
the middle of the field to get your tight end
Friarmuth involved.
Speaker 4 (04:15):
Yeah, and they've been really poor against tight ends too.
Like if you play fantasy football, you start your tight
ends against the Bengals, you know, like they'd allowed a
lot of production to that position, and their linebackers are fine,
but their safeties are questionable and they're just you know,
new guys. For whatever reason, that's been a problem for
the Bengals. So I am curious, are we going to
see more twelve and thirteen going forward? I'm sure Friarmuth
(04:35):
isn't going to have a forty percent target share or
whatever it was they was forty four or something really high,
but Is he going to be a focal point of
the offense still going forward or is that a one
off because of the opponent.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Hmm, good question.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
It is a good question.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
But I think they attacked a lot of the deficiencies
that we've been talking about over the last several weeks.
I think they did it up front and got after it.
And I will say this, Pat Fryarmuth had a heck
of a game blocking. I mean, I've heard, you know,
there's some commentary that people say he's not an adequate
block He's more than an adequate blocker. I mean, my goodness,
(05:08):
some of the work he did there. I was really impressed,
did a good job. So the heck with that. I
think he was on both ends, but both catching the
ball and blocking, yep.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
And coming into the game, yes, there had been some injuries,
but he played five games, nine receptions for sixty yards
in this first game with the new offensive coordinator, nine
receptions for one hundred and twenty that's a career high.
Had never been over eighty five I think in his career.
So that's that's a positive sign and one that is
going to be you know, Wolf is you know and
(05:37):
Matt you two you're going to put that on tape,
and that's going to make everybody else suddenly start to
think about what you do quite a bit differently.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Yeah, he's talking to me, talking to me.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
I was talking to you. I wasn't doing the lookoff.
I was looking at you and talking to Matt. I
was I was looking looking at you. Anyway, you're putting
this on tape now or your teams to have to
think about. And you wonder a question. You wonder if
the Bengals were even really considering that part of the field,
(06:11):
you know. I mean, yeah, you got to go through
the motions of planning for it. But it's one thing
to say, hey, listen, this is what they've done. We're
going to show you this on tape. They hadn't done that.
Now they've done it. Now it's on tape. Now every
other opponent from here on is gonna have to worry
about that exactly.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
So it's going to stretch some of the defenses. But
the way you do it in the beginning is that
you got to have a run game. And the run game,
to me, just it sets everything up. You run the ball,
the linebackers come up, and then you throw the ball
over their heads. I know I'm simplifying, but that's truly
where the power of the tight end over the middle
really is that. And the fact is, when you got
(06:45):
somebody like Friar with the dude reads as I've said,
he reads safeties like a slot wide receiver. You know,
the slot guy has got to see the safeties like
the quarterback seeds the safeties. And when you're able to
do that, you got something cooking. And I think that's
what was cooking on Sunday.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Yep. And you know, the the Suits have been running
the ball well. They've run the ball well the last
three games now, the last four games are the best
in the NFL and doing it averaging I think one
seventy four is it over the last three games. I
got the numbers here somewhere, whatever it is, it's the
best in the league. And so yeah, one seventy four
over the last four games. Now, that's they've been doing that.
(07:24):
But they haven't backed out up with play action at
the tight end.
Speaker 4 (07:27):
So now you have, now you have, And back to
your previous question, Yes, I think they're now much harder
to prepare for than they were three days ago. And
a couple of things. I mean, you mentioned play action,
So I just saw this number this morning, and you know,
I like my numbers. They've tried a play action pass
this year sixty one times, you know, which is a
very very low number. Nine of those sixty one were yesterday.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Yeah, right, And as.
Speaker 4 (07:48):
Wolf mentioned, a lot more under center, you know, tight
ends in the middle of the field. And I keep
going back to this twelve and peron thirteen personnel stuff too,
Like the Bengals played base the verse thirteen, which is
one back three tight ends. Well, if you're gonna do that,
I'm gonna split Friarmuth out. I'm gonna split Hayward out
against linebackers, you know, and keep Washington in line. You
(08:08):
still have either Pickens or Johnson out there, and they're
they're usually more diverse areas of the field, more diverse
play action, more diverse personnel concepts, which I think just
makes you harder to play again.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
And in just what you're talking about, you're exactly right,
because we're talking thirteen or we're talking twenty two, huh.
I mean, because of Connor Hayward, his ability to be versatile.
It's like Matt said, you know, you got to sit
there and decide what's coming out. You know, is it
a thirteen grouping or is this you know, we got
a guy in the backfield.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
So again, the more difficulty you can lay on the defense,
the better your chances of being successful are.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
And I think the point you made about Friarmuth is
a good one. And you talking about being able to
split Friarmth out. The fact that he and Hayward had
that capability. You can move them in tight if you
if a team goes to a nickel or a dime
package and you can on the ball, and if you
spread them out, you still feel like you can throw
it because those guys are good enough receivers. Even if
friar Mooth's going against say a safety, you feel like
(09:08):
or or you know, Hayward against an outside linebacker, you
feel like you can win those battles.
Speaker 4 (09:13):
Yeah, exactly, Like I think it's hard unless you have
Fred Warner's and Roquan Smith's that can do everything on
the second level. If you're gonna play nickel against thirteen,
they're gonna get heavy and pound you with nage, you know,
I mean, you're gonna have friar Mouth on a safety,
you're gonna have Washington on a linebacker. I mean, but
if the other other thing is true, if you come
out in base, well then I got a linebacker trying
(09:34):
to guard Hayward. And what's nice about their tight end
room to me is Washington and Hayward don't look like
the same position, don't play the same way, but they
both are hard to account for in terms of what
should we put out there to defend them. And fire
Moo's right in between, yep.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
And then when you look at so I was gonna
talk about the passing, give it. Since we're here, let's
continue by talking about the running game, which once again
Wolf was to riff. The offensive line is doing a
phenomenal job, and both those running backs are doing a
phenomenal job.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
There's no question about it.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
The offensive line is playing at a peak efficiency. These
guys are really doing a good job of when they
got doubles, they take the guy off, they pick off
the second guy running through. They're now getting to the
run through guys. All those things, and then we're seeing
the growth of you know, Broderick Jones at right tackle.
My gosh, you know, if you go back and look
at the Najy.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
You know the.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
Scrum run, you know, when he's he's running twenty yards,
you can't even see him in the middle of that
group of guys. You know, it's like a rugby scrum
if you ever seen that. But it's it's Broderick Jones
taking bj Hill off the ball, ten yards off the ball,
yead zooks Man, and then you've got Friar Muth behind him.
You got all the offensive linemen to start, you know,
taking shots, getting in there behind him and pushing them.
(10:49):
It was just a great job of guys blocking to
the whistle, maybe the echo of the whistle, the next
valley over, what have you. The fact of the matter
was guys were putting in an effort and it was
great to see it.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
Loved it well, you know, And again I'm gonna I'm
gonna follow this up with a question for you about
the offensive line.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
Wolf.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
I think it was Bill Parcell's that said, like an
offensive line needs a year together to really gel, they
really understand what they're doing together. The cohesiveness of that unit.
You put in Broderick Jones and maybe you start to think, well,
that's a big difference, because that's when the running started
to take over. Is it familiarity? Is it Broderick Jones?
Did they change some of what they blocking schemes, what
(11:27):
they ask guys to do to play their their strengths.
Maybe the players are adapting each other. Maybe the coaching
staff is that are adapting to their strengths. Has it
been all those things? What's happened that this offensive line
is now suddenly just rolling teams out of there?
Speaker 3 (11:40):
I think that Broderick has brought a youthful enthusiasm to
the offensive line that maybe a little bit of something
that could have been missing, just a little bit. It's
not that it's going to be any great kicker, but
when you've got new blood and it kind of gets
a little bit fun and exciting, you start to have
some success, it starts to gel a little bit. Also,
I think the fact they added instead have been adding
(12:01):
traps on powers, you know. I mean when you watch
one of those big tackles they turned Danny Moore turned around.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
In ninety what would have been in my day in
ninety two?
Speaker 3 (12:10):
Trap that would have been John coleb pulling from the
left tackle leading up on the inside that you know,
then you got Broderick running from the other way. Then
you've got the short traps between Isaac Samalow and James Daniels.
The Guards excellent stuff. So I think the traps are
really important. The powers I think are really important, and
they showed them to be against what I thought. I
(12:31):
knew that the Bengals had problems with the run defense.
I try and figure out why. Because you got some
meat eaters in there. Yeah, I mean that. Yeah, I
mean you got yourself, BJ Hill, you got yourself, DJ Reader,
you got Josh Topu, you got Jay to Failiy or
what I think his name is. These guys are like
they're modern did runners.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
They have a lot of death. They have fresh bodies
out there all the.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
Time they were being manhandled on the inside. I will
tell you, and.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
It's yeah, go ahead, Matt, Yeah.
Speaker 4 (12:58):
I don't have a lot more to add to it
other than you know, Wolf mentioned this that. I think
there's a lot more designed offensive line movement, pools, traps,
et cetera. And it's a pretty athletic group. I think
the guard play has been really good all year, but
just keeps getting incrementally better. And it's not a knock
on Chukes at all. But you look at Roderck Jones
and you go, oh, that's a first round pick, right,
(13:18):
You know what I mean? Like that's just in itself,
it's the physical specimen.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
You guys all love this.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
I saw Broderick at the other day and I said, Dude,
I wish I wish my first start at Deegle was
half as smooth as year.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Yeah, it was.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
A good young man.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
Doesn't even know all the ins and outs of what
he's doing, but he's doing it, man, and.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
He does bring that youthful enthusiasm he does. Yeah. Sure,
Steelers women. The final score sixteen to ten. Lots more
to get to, including something than one or two things
that I wouldn't mind seeing cleaned up. So we'll get
to all that stuff when we continue in the Point
After on Steeers Nation Radio and one A two point
five DVE sounds like Craig Wolfley on guitar? Is that
(14:05):
Craig Wolfly on guitar? This is the Point After presented
by Parks Cancito.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
I laid that down a.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
Little Lucky day bet Parks by Brian Patton 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. Didn't you put did you play Albertcollins?
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Who'd you play? No?
Speaker 3 (14:22):
No, no, it was it was mont Gumbo. It's a
local blues band. I played a little guitar opened up
at one of the parks out there. I can't remember
what it was. And it was for another guy, big,
you know, New Orleans guy. But Tim Manie was a
friend of mine. He had the band and he let
me sit in for a little while, and so that
could have been you laying down that track.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
I wasn't that good.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Okay, Steelers are that good? They went by the final
score sixteen to ten. They improved to seven and four
with his victory over the Bengals. Talking about the running
game and Matt just to kind of, you know, continue
on this topic. One hundred and fifty three more yards
in the ground, you know, thirteen care he's for Warren,
fifteen for Najy. I like the fact that Kenny Pickett
(15:04):
tucked at five times and ran one of them. Looked
like it may have been a design run, but I
think most of it was scramble stuff. But you know,
it has been Warren, Warre and Moore in the last
three games, and this time it was Nagy who was
the more effective of the two backs.
Speaker 4 (15:18):
Yeah, and I actually read an article this week saying
I think Warren's an underrated player, you know, going into
this game, that it's time to start looking at him
as one of the best backs in the league. I mean,
just his efficiency numbers and all that were off the charts,
and by no means was he poor in this game.
But Nause was a hot hand and they fed him,
you know. I mean, that's the beauty this backfield right now,
is one of the two is really going to excel
(15:41):
game to game. It seems pretty apparent or both, you know.
And we've seen both of them at times too, so
I think they compliment each other well. And I think
coach I didn't see his press conference exactly, but I
read something along the lines of that Nause because the
way we play and in the fantasy football world, maybe
doesn't get the credit for doing the dirty work that
he should. That he doesn't dirty work and it pays
(16:01):
off late.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (16:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Well, one of the things too, that I like about
this combination. I'm going to go back to a report
that Matt Max Starks had a couple of games ago
where he was down on the sideline as prior to
the Cleveland game, down on the sideline and Jalen Warren
and Naji Harris, you know, split pretty much, splitting carries
right and both being effective. But at that time, Warren,
you know, putting up eye popping numbers as far as
(16:24):
yards per carry, that kind of thing. These two congratulating
each other, then going over to the offensive line and
thanking the offensive line and congratulating the offensive line. I
love hearing that because it's not always easy when somebody
has to split duties. Because they both I'm sure at
some point in their career they're both gonna want to
be the guy. But while you're winning, and while you're
(16:47):
being a good teammate in supporting each other, I think
that can go a long way toward team success.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
There's no question about it. Look, Naji, I'm sure was
the guy just about in every stop that he made
along the way. Jalen Warren the same thing. You never
rise to that level unless you're the guy. At every
level you're you're dealing in as you grow. But can
you lay aside your personal desires and your personal goals
for the sake of the rest of everybody else on
(17:13):
the team. And that's really what they're doing. They're laying
aside all that stuff where you know, with the personal gain, No,
they could still want to be the best. They're gonna
go out and compete, and they're gonna be combative is all,
get out and do whatever they can do to be
the best. But certainly I got to look at that
and say, I think they're doing a great job of
supporting each other and letting the offensive line know, hey,
we're with you, man, let's go. You know, let's rocket.
(17:35):
You get excited when you backs are fired up and
they're doing stuff, and then you know they'll come along
like we gotta go. Like you just kind of like smile, like, okay, now,
welcome to my world. You want to line up on
a three technique over you. But it's fun. It's all fun.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
And I you know, again, I'm always reluctant to bring
up names in the past, especially storied names, but I
think of like Franco Harrison, Rocky Blers, sharing the backfield
and being good teammates and supporting each other. Of course,
in those days, i'd also been blocking for each other, right,
you know, a little bit different when you had this, okay,
all right?
Speaker 3 (18:10):
Uh not that we didn't call Franko stingby for any reason.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
You know, he's a stinger.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
So I will I will then move.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
From Matt knows what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
So I will move then from running the ball to
throwing the ball, because I think, Matt, the runs are
going to be there, right, They're going, Yeah, they're going
to continue to run the ball, and Jalen Warren and
Naji Harris for the foreseeable future, are going to continue
to share backfield duties. Now you flip over to the offense,
the other side of the offense throwing the ball. This
(18:44):
is I just can't foresee this. And we can dive
deeper into the offense because the passing game is obviously
a huge boon in this game. But I cannot foresee
a time in which all three of your main targets
meaning Friar Mouth now you know, second most targeted guy
last year, Deontay and George Pickens, are all gonna walk
(19:07):
out of a stadium saying I got mine. You know,
you're not gonna have two or three hundred yard receivers
per game. That's just not the way this offense is constituted,
and so I think there's got to be and hopefully
there is already a level of buy in. Okay, Pat
Firron with you had your game. Now teams are gonna
have to account for that. Now you go against a
team like Arizona, three rookie corners, maybe that's the team
(19:31):
you're attacking on the outside. Now maybe it's Pickens, turn Er,
Deontay's turn. And as long as everybody's on board of that,
because it's just I just can't see this. I could
see this, you know, two hundred and seventy eight yards
maybe being on the upper edge of what we're gonna
see this yearlers doing with the passing game.
Speaker 4 (19:48):
Yeah, one hundred percent. Then you know, not to mention
you're gonna mix in a couple of targets for the
backs for Hayward. Washington's getting running more routes than that,
just to Austin Robinson. So how big this pie possibly
be for Deontay, Fryarmuth and Pickens. So they are gonna
have to sit their ego to the side. I mean,
they're not going to light up the store, the scoreboard
(20:09):
and their production every every week. And for the most part,
this offense is still very young. That takes some maturity
in order to do that. And the other thing is,
I know it wasn't a ton of snaps, but the
fact that they play thirteen means you only go one
receiver out there. You know, they usually have three. I
mean they're at the top of the league with having
three receivers on the field. So either Deontay or Pickens
(20:29):
is sitting there going I'm not even on the field right.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
Now, right, And then it really Mike addresses earlier in
the year when he talked about Pickens getting the double
teams or Deontay getting the double teams, and you go
the other way. I mean, that's the nature of football,
That's what it is, and so you have to lay
aside your personal goals at times for the benefit of
the team. That's what it's about. That's what team works about.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
Yep. So now let's get to Kenny Pickett because I
think it's he's obviously an important guy to talk about.
When you were talking about what Kenny Pickett was capable of,
Matt used to be a scout wolf. Obviously he's a player.
It seems like the team, you know, the players believe
in Kenny Pickett. They believe. They've never lost their belief
in Kenny Pickett. I think that's important at the quarterback position.
(21:12):
But there's also some scouting that needs to happen. We
see him in practice, we see stuff that we like
from him, because you couldn't really point to any efforts
in games and say, see, that's why, like this game,
I could say, hey, twenty four of thirty three. I mean,
if the ball of a touchdown passesn't dropped, or if
(21:32):
it's reviewed whatever, if it's called correctly on the field,
you're looking at a one twenty passer rating. Probably you
could point to a game like this and say, see,
Kenny Pickett's really good. But there wasn't a lot of
this on tape. So now I think you can begin
to as a fan say, oh, Okay, there's the Kenny
Pickett that this team is believed, and there's the Kenny
Pickett that our scouts have said and our coaches have said,
(21:54):
we think he can do the job. This is to me,
this is as about as good as I've seen Kenny
Pickett in the NFL.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
Kenny's capable of this on an every week basis. I mean,
I truly believe that. I have believed it for a
long time. Just watching him go, you just want to
see You want to give him the opportunity to grow
into this. You know, part of learning is learning how
to handle the downtimes too. You know, when things aren't
going so smooth, how do you handle that. Do you
start to fracture a little bit to create problems, or
(22:24):
do you, you know, go into the pit of misery
for a long time, or do you pull yourself out
by the bootstraps and rebound. The one thing I loved
about Bradshaw Bradshaw could throw three interceptions one week and
three touchdowns the next week. I mean, that's the way
he was. He was able to rebound and bounce really well.
And that's what quarterbacks have to be able to do.
(22:44):
They've got to be able to be resilient, and especially
when young guys. I mean, take a look around the
league at some of the young guys that are fizzling
out and had not done very well. Matt could probably
give us a whole laundry list of guys. But the
fact of the matter is you've got to where weather
some storms in your early parts of your career to
be able to develop that sort of a mental, emotional
(23:06):
and physical armor that you need to get through some
of the tougher times. And I think that's what we've seen.
I think he's gone through some of those tougher times,
and I think it's gonna do.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
All it's gonna do is make him stronger.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
I thought he made pretty much every throw he was
asked to make, you know, the the sharp opening throw
over the middle of the field of firemouth. I remember
three go routes that he threw, two completed, one just
through the fingertips of Pickings who was slowed a little
bit by a battle with a receiver. I thought that
(23:39):
was a really well thrown ball. I just you know,
there were a couple and again we'll get to the
under pressure stuff. But because that was one of my
two minor issues with this game in general. But I
just thought when he had time stepped into his throws,
he made every throw that he was required to make.
And I don't think, you know, an above average NFL
(24:01):
quarterback has to make many more throws than kind of
the throws we saw in this game.
Speaker 4 (24:05):
Yeah, and so first of all, I think it's a
testament to the young man man and his personality as
characters work ethic that I never felt like his teammates
or coaches doubted him, or hey, rumblings if we only
had a quarterback or put the other guy in, or
we got to go get someone in the off season,
Like he never heard that or felt that. Now. I
(24:27):
also think and Wolf can speak, is better than me.
But there was weather yesterday, and you know, there's a
lot of talk about his small hands coming out and
can he can control the football and AFC North Weather,
and you know, after Thanksgiving, I think he answered that
pretty well. I mean, where he was layering it, thrown
with touch, thrown with velocity. I was really impressed. And
the other thing we haven't mentioned, which is at least
(24:47):
is important. He has an unbelievable streak going on right
now of no interceptions.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
Longest head right here. Yeah, I think the only Okay,
so let me let me one more run at the
positives here a few of them. On the second to
last drive, the field goal drive, third and nine, picket
finds Deontay Johnson a third and eight that was from
their own twenty three. Then then and again, remember the
(25:16):
game's in doubt at this time, right, it's a ten
to seven game. I think at this point third and
eight he finds pickings from his own thirty seven yard line.
So confidence in Kenny Pickett and confidence in what he's doing,
breeding perhaps confidence in the play calls, and confidence that
he's going to make the right decision not to turn
the ball over get you a first down. I mean, look,
(25:38):
let's face it, third and eight, third and nine has
seemed like third and thirty at points for the Steelers,
you know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (25:43):
Right?
Speaker 1 (25:44):
And he did you know, two conversions on a very
critical drive. Well, if I thought that was good stuff.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
Can I tell you one day?
Speaker 3 (25:51):
And like I really loved Remember when Kenny rolled out
to his left and he sees Naji Harris by the
first down marker and Logan Wilson's all over him, mugging
him literally almost to the point of driving him out
of bombs got an interference call? What's can he do?
Throw it right at the feet of him. He knew,
he knew not going to make a catch here, But
it highlights the fact the referee standing right there. Well,
(26:12):
I gotta throw the flag now, because right now, Logan
Wilson is all over Nagie Harris and the ball came
to him even though it was at his feet.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
I thought that was a great throw.
Speaker 3 (26:21):
Thought, I mean, just a smart move by Kenny, the
kind of highlight. Hey hello, we got a flag here,
you know. And I thought that was just a great
move by him.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
Old school moxie was the old word.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
Dacy is for that exactly everything that I was never
I was never able to do.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
Yeah. He made also one other throw that that really
stood out to me among many other throws. It was
another third down, the long pass up the sideline to
Deontay Johnson, and Johnson was in was in man mana man,
So he ran up the sideline with his man and
Pickens was running a drag across the middle and once
he cleared the linebacker was wide open in the flat.
(26:56):
Short throw out in the flat, You throw it the Pickens,
he runs, He picks up a first down, ten twelve
yard game. You keep it, drive going. Kenny Pickett goes
up top to Deontay Johnson, throws an absolutely perfect ball
and gets the huge yardage. Again, that confidence to bypass
the shorter throw Matt and go down the field, I
just you know, watching on TV, just that just you know,
(27:18):
the confidence in what he can do. Not saying it's
been lacking, but but you know, whether it's the progression charts.
Wolf and I talked about that earlier off air where
the progression charts change and they said, be more aggressive.
Whatever the case was, he was more aggressive and I
just thought had a really terrific game.
Speaker 4 (27:34):
Yeah, he absolutely did, and a lot of the which
I never quite understood, but a lot of his, like
draft profile coming out of pit was pocket passer, game
manager accurate, you know, gonna get take the layups. I
think his mentality is much more of a big game hunter.
I mean, I think he's aggressive by nature and wants
(27:55):
to take the tougher throw for the bigger yardage. And
for whatever reason, I'm not saying it was coached out
of him, but he was not doing that a lot
up until now this season as much as you'd like.
Maybe he didn't trust his protection, maybe he just wasn't
feeling it, whatever, But if he can get to that
point and still not turn them, I mean, the interceptions
are coming. I mean, we can knock on what all
(28:16):
we want. He's not gonna go the rest of the
year with.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
The thrown cheaper. We're gonna have to talk about this offer.
But you can't be Jackson, are man like that?
Speaker 1 (28:24):
Speaking of off air, and we have to take a break.
There are a couple of things, a couple issues I
would like to bring up. We'll get to that and
a little bit more about this sixteen to ten victory
when we continue on the point after on Steelers Nation
Radio and in one oh two point five dve is
(28:49):
that you and guitar?
Speaker 2 (28:51):
Yeah, I believe that was a little bit if I
did back in eighty three.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
This is the point after PREJETI by Parks Casino is
today You're Lucky Day bet Parks by Brian Patton, an associate.
It's all about the benefits and by this doar this
pro shop get it direct from the team at shop
dot Steelers dot com. Okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna grumble
briefly them. We'll get back to the good news. Hey,
I'm not really gonna grumble. The one thing in this game,
(29:15):
and I think it's fair just to throw a couple
of things out there. You know, you only scored sixteen points.
It wasn't a complete game. I thought the Bengals early
in this game, on a third down brought a ton
of pressure at Kenny Pickett and he, you know, kind
of hurried me threw a ball again. Does he have
an outlet receiver there? I don't know. I don't know
(29:36):
the situation is, but he looked a little uncomfortable through
the ball quickly. Then the Bengals showed pressure backed off.
Kenny reacted as if he thought the pressure was coming
in the Bengals pressure again. I thought in those instances,
mostly pressure, but the one time where they sort of
deeked the pressure and then and then brought it back.
You talk about what teams you know, are gonna have
(29:59):
to contend with. Now, Matt with a tight end play
being on film for the Steelers, you wonder if that's
something that teams might look at and think, Hm, okay, well, uh,
maybe we need to show a little more pressure this
guy in third down situation. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (30:11):
I mean, nobody plays a perfect game. And my negative
column for Pickett was handling pressure. I didn't think he
handled it particularly well. That's not uncommon, especially for a
younger guy. I mean in terms of are they coming,
are they not? How do I get it out hot?
Where do I get you know, I gotta be in
the same page as a receiver, et cetera, et cetera.
I also thought the red zone offense wasn't ideal, but
(30:32):
I didn't think he was the problem for that, where
last year, I mean, red zone was an issue for
him and as it is for like all rookies. So
these are not uncommon issues, you know what I mean? Right,
I mean, I'm up.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
I did pick me a little bit here, but a
little but I.
Speaker 4 (30:47):
Mean he's good.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
That's what a scout does.
Speaker 1 (30:49):
Yeah, I think it's legitimate. I mean, I don't think
we're I don't think we're looking for things to criticize that.
That struck me as a note when I was when
I was watching the game.
Speaker 4 (30:59):
They showed some numbers, he was like, you know, his
numbers weren't great.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
When when they showed it was one for five, I
think at that point, and when you consider that he
only threw nine in completions and you know four of them,
were there one or two that were dropped? You know
one maybe you throw one away?
Speaker 3 (31:14):
And what game is this in his career? Exactly twenty two? Right,
So again it's that learning curve he's learning. It's one
of the things that you watched in the NFL today.
One of the things they do so very well is
disguise their coverages. They will you know, they'll be playing zone,
but they look like they're they're locked up man press
and then they'll bail out before all kinds of stuff,
you know. And and sure Tom Brady who played for
(31:36):
forty five years, you know, I mean, you're not going
to fool him. But for a young guy in now
in his early twentieth game, twenty something game, you know,
it takes a while to adjust to that. And some
of these guys, some of these defensive coordinators are really
pretty sharp. And some of the defensive backs when they
sugar it up, and they they can sugar it good.
So you know, for Kenny, it's just got to be
(31:58):
you got to just keep plugging away and keep learning,
and you got to get these game brains going, because
game brains are when you move the playbook from the
x's and o's into your your gord and that things
start moving off the page.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
For sure, I.
Speaker 4 (32:10):
Remember quick on that your mind.
Speaker 1 (32:12):
I don't worry me.
Speaker 4 (32:13):
If pressure comes, he gets in the fetal position, ducks
his head right away, you know what I mean. Like
and some quarterbacks do that I mean it's scary, I'm
sure you know, but that's not it. I mean, I
think it's just the recognition, the experience.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
That's that's just such a great point. I'm glad you
brought that up. He wasn't worried by the pressure. No, No,
it just appeared to make him a little indecisive, like
where's my read here? Not not? You know, I'm scared, Not,
I'm scared.
Speaker 4 (32:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (32:37):
I remember from some of the first blitz is my
first year of starting, I was like, oh, do I
have him or do I have him?
Speaker 2 (32:44):
Figure out?
Speaker 4 (32:44):
Pretty que you know.
Speaker 3 (32:46):
I didn't curl him in a fetal position, but I
might have tackled the guy or two.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
Well, we saw we saw that happen on what's second
Sack Drew Sample the tight end through both of them.
Drew Sample took the inside blitzer the uh yeah, the
inside blitzer who the right tackle.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
Williams did too. They've both been on chand and Celliban
blitzing off the edge.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
Yeah, wouldn't didn't somebody I could defend myself in the
film room. Somebody had to block Watt, you know, like
if you went that way, at least you could defend it.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
Right.
Speaker 3 (33:27):
Yeah, let's turn the future defensive player of the year
on this one.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
Have had it, so the other one and again, look,
I'll say this lot you. You always see your own
warts the clearest right, so you always see your own deficiencies.
Every team, especially in the AFC, has got deficiencies. No
team is perfectly constituted special teams. I didn't think was
just outside of Boswell, who's just been just incredible. This
(33:54):
wasn't their finest game and allow forty six yard field
goal return or a kickoff return that coupled with a
just that flukey play to chase allows them to score
a touchdown. So special teams harmed you there. Twice he
had an opportunity I thought to knock down punts and
inside the five yard line, didn't do it. And twice
(34:14):
on returns, costing yourself valuable field position with holding penalties.
So it wasn't the best game for special teams either,
wolf Well exactly so.
Speaker 3 (34:22):
But that's what Chuck No always referred to when he
would say teamwork isn't necessarily fifty to fifty or thirty
three and a third thirty three and a third thirty
three and a third.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
See I got the fractions right now.
Speaker 3 (34:33):
You know.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
That's right, Thank you very much.
Speaker 3 (34:38):
But the fact is, you know that's sometimes you know,
one one area that's is having struggles and everything else
the other two got to pick it up, you know.
And sometimes two areas are struggling and the one has
to carry a load. But as Chuck always used to say,
whatever it takes, if it takes returning a punt all
the way for a touchdown, that's, you know, something you
(34:59):
work for, same thing offensively, defensively. Whoever needs to carry
the load has got to carry the load because winning
becomes a habit, all right, Winning begets winning, is what
Chuck always used to say.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
And when I look at this game, so you know,
the naysayers are going to say sixteen points, just like
you had in a Matt Canada, the other side of
that coin is going to be four hundred plus yards.
Look look at us, go We're unstoppable. Right, So you know,
I'm actually leaning more towards the second category. To be
honest with you, I loved what I saw offensively, and
(35:32):
I think you can you can make the point that
you know, if Deontay Johnson catches that ball or if
it's ruled a touchdown which you should have been or
if it's challenged overturned and a touchdown, now you have
twenty three points. Right, the Bengals aren't kicking that field
goal at the end of the game, that could make
it twenty three to seven. And then I'll go one
step further. So even just that this in twenty three seven,
(35:56):
if you told me that was a final square, yeah,
that's that's more like what it felt like. It felt
like three to seven. I also think that we're in
a stage of the of the team's development or and
it's hopefully it's developing, because this is what we wanted
to see, right, what we saw yesterday was what we
wanted to see more of at the end of last season,
what we saw in the preseason. Tack the middle of
the field, make some more splash plays, get some more yardage.
(36:19):
The points didn't follow. There was a I thought an
interesting sequence on the very first drive of the game.
You get to a fourth and a yard and a
half or thereabouts on the Bengals, right about the forty
yard line of the Bengals, and Mike Tomlin, who earlier
in his career was aggressive but now has been coaching
a different style of team punched them all away. You
(36:40):
could see the logic they got. Jake Browning's an AFC
North game. It's the opening drive. No reason to give
him any spark if they make a stop all day
at all. Yeah, they're not gonna you know, if we
kick it deep, they're not going to go ninety five
yards and score touch on us. So let's kick it deep.
Now it goes into the end zone. Doesn't look good.
But you wonder if if this offense comes out against Arizona,
(37:03):
does this again, Maybe score some more points. Then they
add another week, then they add another week. Maybe you
get to a point in a season in which you
know you're going to be more of a shootout, you
know points, you're gonna be more of a premium, and
you might say, Okay, I now have confidence enough in
this offense to go for Some teams just consult the chart.
It's like they're not even Some coaches like it's they're
(37:23):
not even managing the game, right, They're like, well, hang
on a second, fourth and one. Now you see him.
They're over on the sideline. You know, they got the
cheaters on, and they're looking out at their chart and
their charge has to go for it. Doesn't matter where
you are in the game or who the opponent is,
You're gonna go for it. I just wonder I was
thinking about that. I thought, if this offense continues to progress,
maybe maybe Mike Tomlin's gonna go for that more, which
(37:47):
again potentially leads to more points, more offensive productivity. Not
that I think this is going to be a thirty
five point game offense. I'd like to see it consistently
in the twenties. But that stuck me as struck me
as something that hey, in the future, maybe maybe that
adds more points to your score total as well, because
you're at the point and your opponent is at the
point where you go for it there.
Speaker 4 (38:07):
Yeah, And I don't think Tomlin, by any stretch is
that pulls the chart out and doesn't care about the
weather or your right guard can't talk Aaron Donald or
what say do I call here? You know, I mean
that stuff matters. I mean, it's not just go read
it off a chart. But I thought that same thing
on that play. I mean, the fan and me sitting
in my lazy boys like, go for it, put the
(38:29):
put the fork in them. And I also thought if
Joe Burrow's in this game, they probably do go for it, right,
That's right, that's your opponent, that's right. Yeah, it was
one sentence, one run on sentence. I was watching the
game with my son at the first half before I
came down and to do the postgame show with Charlie. Well,
I really love to see him go for here. They're
definitely gonna punt the ball that sentence.
Speaker 1 (38:48):
Because I thought about it, I'm like, here, come on, man,
there's no reason to go for it here.
Speaker 3 (38:52):
Well, I remember one time we had a sideline conversation.
It was Chuck Webby and I think tonch and we
were saying, let's go for it. And remember Chuck looking
at us, going, you got to earn the right to
go for it, you know, I mean, you have to
show enough proficiency in the other parts of the game
and everything else to be able to earn the right
to do that.
Speaker 2 (39:11):
It was just like, okay, we'll just shut up.
Speaker 1 (39:14):
So last week, one week ago, we were down. You know,
we were bummed out. They lost to the Browns. The
sky is falling. You're six and four. Now you win
this game. You know, if they lost this game, the
playoff percentages were like thirty nine percent and you win
it. It was like seventy eight percent.
Speaker 2 (39:30):
So was winning.
Speaker 1 (39:31):
It was a huge, huge swing game. And you just now, Matt,
and well, let's start with you, Matt. You just want
to see this continue, right, Let's see more of this continue.
Let's pile up some wins. Let's continue to show not
just look better, but you know, okay, you look better.
You had four and twenty one yards. Let's get more
(39:53):
points on the board. Let's get this thing rolling. Because
as I look around the AFC, and there's nobody that
really scares you, I don't think.
Speaker 4 (40:02):
I don't either, And most of us took the Bengals
to at least go to the playoffs. The Bills do
at least go to the playoffs. Since he's not going.
I think the Bills need to go undefeated to really
have any chance because all their tie breakers work against them.
Kansas City's an unbelievably respectable and scary organization, but they're
not their best, right, great defense, great defense, head quarterback.
They got a head coach, of course, but I mean
(40:24):
the Browns are very beatable. I mean, would the Steelers
be all that concerned or walk into Baltimore in the
wildcard round. Probably not, that's Browns Ravens. It's gonna be
thirteen to nine, you know.
Speaker 1 (40:32):
One week later. We just want to build on this
wolf exactly so.
Speaker 3 (40:36):
And you know, I would re remiss if we didn't
say one thing real quick. Connor Hayward. He might have
made the play of the game, the tackle tackle on
Jalen Warren's fumble, right, I mean that was a heads
up play and that was over and above because there
was nobody that was beyond I think Connor that I remember.
Speaker 1 (40:52):
Yeah, I had Trenton Thompson, but you're right as the
turning but you know that interception. Now you stop there
one drive and then you play that confidentary private down.
Speaker 3 (41:00):
But you're right, Yeah, that doesn't make that tackle.
Speaker 2 (41:04):
Man. We might be right. I don't even want to
think about it.
Speaker 1 (41:07):
Yeah, we don't want to think about it, and we
don't have to because he did make the tackle and
the Steelers win sixteen to ten to improve to seven
and four. 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 at Akroscher Stadium, Grove
City Premium out Let's, or Tanger Oute Let's, or visit
(41:29):
us online at shop dot Steelers dot com for all
your Steelers merchandise needs directly from the team for Craig
Wolfley and Matt Williams and I'm Rob King. Thanks for
joining us with the point after on Steelers Nation Radio
and one on two point five DVE