November 1, 2022 • 25 mins
Stan gives his opinion on the Steelers loss to the Eagles and whether or not the team seemed to give up or to fight its way through to a loss. Stan is then joined by Dale Lolley from steelers.com and Steelers Nation Radio to talk about the loss and what makes the Eagles one of the best teams in the league.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
As bad as things have been at times, I think
that you know there's there's talent on miss roster. This
separate on Steelers. Hello to all in Steeler Nation. Welcome
to sabrant On Steelers Podcast. I am Stan Savererant, bringing
you Steelers content twice weekly with new posts here on
the podcast, Steelers dot com, savereigant on Steelers. I suppose
(00:25):
we could spend the entire session today talking about the
Philadelphia game, but I think that would be energy misspent.
Most everybody familiar with the Steelers, and certainly the Eagles,
expected what happened to happen. That's the worst part of
(00:49):
it all. That getting beaten routinely by good teams is
anticipated and almost expected. The best you could hope for
was that they were gonna be competitive in that game,
and they weren't. We're early, but it was just a
matter of time before the Eagles wore them down, which
indeed they did in the second half. So talking about
(01:13):
what went wrong in that game, specifically in that game
in Philadelphia is miscast. It went wrong, and the Steelers
are where they're at because of who they are and
what they are. They are a team that has some
(01:37):
high priced players and productive players, but it's a team
and the players that surround the supposedly high talented players
are not good enough. It takes more than four or
five stars to win football games, especially against teams like
(02:01):
the Eagles. So they got exposed just like they did
in Buffalo. And rather than work on what is wrong
with this team and work and use the bye week
to say, well, we gotta fix that. We can fix
that if we just do this, I think that again
(02:23):
is not the place to be looking. I think you
have to take a wider scope and determine why are
they at where they're at. The first partition comes with
the realization and a realistic realization of who you are
(02:46):
and what you are and why you're losing like this.
That's for the organization. It's not it's necessarily about who's
the quarterback, or who's the offensive coordinator, or even to
a degree, who's the head coach. It goes with an
organizational understanding that a rebuild is necessary. It doesn't mean
(03:14):
you have to be three and fourteen every year either.
You can do it rather quickly. Look at the Eagles.
They won the Super Bowl just a few years ago,
had some downtime and immediately began to realize we're not
good enough. I think it's admirable that the Steelers oftentimes
(03:36):
will say we're competitive, We're going to be a super
Bowl contender every year. It's one thing to say it,
it's another one to believe it. And everyone, including them,
should have realized that they're not a super Bowl contenter
coming into this year, no matter who they drafted, no
(03:58):
matter who they picked up in free agency. At best,
they were gonna be like they were last year, a
fringe playoff team, which they were largely because they had
a first ballot Hall of Fame quarterback running his own
show in the fourth quarter of games, and that wasn't
going to duplicate itself. Is the Steelers management really deluded
(04:26):
to thinking that they were a super Bowl contender this year.
If they are, they were sadly mistaken. And what has
to be done now is a switch in that philosophy.
And it's fine to say you want to win every year.
Every team does, but obviously only one team does, and
(04:49):
only a couple or three teams get close. They're not
in that category. So it starts with an understanding, and
it's especially relatable to this bye week that they're undergoing.
The bye week is use for self evaluation. Why is
(05:12):
this not working? Why is that not working? Are we
doing this enough in this game circumstance? Should we be
doing better? Should we be doing something different? But this
year goes beyond that. I mean, yes, they want to
correct mistakes, and yes they may want to reverse some
(05:33):
psychologies that they've employed and some overall concepts, especially offensively,
because they're not capable of carrying them out. And maybe
no team is good enough to carry out these particular schemes.
It sure seems that way. But this year's bye week
is more about organizational restructure. Teams have to make a
(06:00):
decision that we're not in it for and maybe not
three but maybe and maybe what we're looking for he
is here is a sound plan toward that end. May
not be pleasant, may not be any fun, may not
(06:22):
be exciting, but it has to be done. Firing the
offensive quartering might make it feel good, and they certainly
need a better look at what they're doing, partially in
(06:43):
the hopes of things get slightly better. I mean, you'd
like to improve if you can, but the overall configuration
of the players and the coaching staff has to I'll
be under review, and maybe it will be m maybe
(07:06):
because they're in a situation where they have a new
general manager although he had been in the organization for
quite some time, and maybe you have a new guy
who's entrusted with the draft and Andy Widel, maybe he's
that influence on omar Con and say, look, just throwing
pieces at the wall hoping they stick. It's not gonna work.
(07:32):
We need to go deeper than that. And I know
this isn't fun for Steeler fans because we've all been
conditioned to them being contenders. Goes back to the seventies,
after they established the dynasty. Every year, the expectations were
(07:53):
always high. Even in the late nighties when the dynasty
player is largely were gone, the team wasn't doing well,
you always went into a season thinking, yeah, but they're
the Steelers, Well what Steelers were talking about. A more
(08:14):
recent example is going back to people have to remember this,
it's not just the nineteen seventies. From through two thousand
and three, the Steelers did not make the playoffs in
four of those six years. Four the six years ninety
(08:35):
eight through two thousand and three, they missed the playoffs.
Two thousand and one, two thousand two being the exceptions.
Then another down year ninety three. But what do they
do during that time? They drafted Heinz Ward, Alan Fantica,
(08:55):
Plexico Burrs, Casey Hampton, Brett Keisel, Shake Townsend, Aaron Smith.
You get the idea. And this is the way before
they got pounds into Castro. It's ten years before. And
(09:18):
then they added free agents James Ferrier, what an addition
he was a little later on they drafted Paulamalu in
two thousand two, Casey Hampton and two thousand one. They
realized where they were and they began drafting foundational players
(09:40):
and they were hitting on them too. Yes, there were
some missus, but largely their hits were greater than their missus.
What are the Steelers drafted recently in high positions? You
cannot draft already Burns, Sean Davis, Kendrick Green. If you're
(10:01):
going to get a tackle offensive tackle in the fourth round,
you better get someone better than Dan Moore Jr. Buddy
Johnson was only a fifth, but he's a one year wonder.
He's gone. You cannot missing those draft picks and expect
(10:24):
to rebuild. I have hope and confidence that when Omar
Kahn was named general managed to succeed Kevin Colbert. This
by no means he's meant to condemn Kevin Colbert. He
did a great job, but in recent years he had
some misses and they're paying for them. But maybe Omar
(10:54):
Khn in hiring Andy Widele, who helped rebuild that Eagles
team just a year or two after they won a
Super Bowl, he brings in different scouts, guys that he trust,
different talent evaluators. All that's a factor. As for right now,
the schedule does lighten up, But again, I don't know
(11:17):
that Steelers gonna look at any opponent lightly and say, well,
they're not as good as the Eagles or the Bills.
That may be true, but the Steelers aren't good enough
to say that about anybody. We're joining out by Dale
Ali from Steelers dot Com and Steelers Nation Radio and Dale.
Maybe the most telling sign of Sunday's game was that
(11:40):
the result was not unexpected. Yeah, I mean, the Eagles
are a good football team. They'll last unbeaten team in
the NFL right now. And the Steelers, let's face it,
aren't you know, in a good spot right now getting
into this bye week. You know, I don't think they're
as bad as things have been at times. I think that,
you know, there's there's talent on this row stir um,
(12:01):
you know, but this is some of the struggles that
you're going to go through when you have when you're
starting a rookie quarterback. I think a lot of people
got spoiled in Pittsburgh because of what happened the last
time they started their rookie first round the quarterback. That
doesn't happen all the time. They don't go, you know,
win thirteen straight games and things of that nature. There
(12:21):
there are you know, growing pains and and I think
some of the you know, the issues at least offensively
right now are also born out of the fact that
you know, Kenny Pickett didn't get uh, you know, first
team reps throughout training game, you didn't get first team
reps uh you know, over the course of the first
month and half of the season. So you know, you're
(12:43):
you're going to see this continue to evolve. Um defensively,
you know, I don't know what to say about that.
It's it's you know, it's disheartening when you continue to
give up the long touchdown passes, when you play these
good teams, and it looked like they had things in
a better place, you know, after after keeping the reps,
(13:04):
you know, Miami's explosive offense under wraps, and then they
come out and they do that against the Eagles. Uh.
Just anexcusable Uh yeah, it is. And we'll we'll get
to that. Um. When I think about, you know, rookie quarterback. Um,
and I've said this many times and I'm sure you
have too and written it, that it's a huge mistake
to compare what been experienced and oh four to what
(13:24):
Kenny Pick is experiencing eighteen years later. Um. And that
is he had a much better team around him. He
had a really good offensive line, they had a great
running game, and maybe more importantly, as you point out,
a terrific defense. So not to demean um or diminish
what Ben was able to do, but that doesn't happen,
(13:45):
not just because Ben was a special Hall of Fame player,
but because he entered the fray, if you will, under
completely different circumstances. Yeah. And I think we can agree
as well that he was a better prospect. I mean,
you know, he's you know, a more talented player, not
that Kenny's not talented, but um, you know, I'm not
(14:06):
going to compare him now to a guy who you know,
he's headed to the ProFootball Hall of Fame. Uh. I
don't that gets fair either, but you you're absolutely right.
I mean, you know, Kenny Pickett is stepping into a
very young offense. Um. You know, Ben Roethlisberger I just
wrote to some my ten thoughts after the game. Ben
Roethlisberger wasn't expected to be a leader of that. On
(14:28):
that team in two thousand and four, they had your
own Bettis, they had Alan Fanica, they had heinz Word. Uh,
you know, guys have uh you know who had been
through some of this stuff before. Who are those guys
on this offense? They're just aren't any um, you know
they and they knew that going into this. That's the
reason why they initially went with Mr Bisky at quarterback
(14:48):
because they knew that it was going you know, there
would be growing pains with with a young quarterback because
the offense is so young. That's why you know, Mike
Tomlin kept stressing, well, Mr Whske he's our guy. He's
he's the most experienced of our quarterbacks. You know, it
just it wasn't working with Rabisky. Uh, you know as
(15:08):
the starter. He wasn't He wasn't taking Johnson. They were
in a bad place. When you lose t J. Watt Um,
you know, it's off of that defense. I don't care
what defense it is in the league. When you take
you know, take Aaron Donald off of the off the
rams defense, because that's essentially what happened here. He took
a guy who was voted by the other players in
(15:31):
the league as as being one of the top ten
players regardless of position in the league, and you take
him out of that defense, it's not going to look
the same. But again, that doesn't excuse why you're you know,
you can't give up some of the stuff that you've
given up. Undoubtedly. Um, Usually the bye week is the
(15:51):
time for self inspection, introspection, if you will. But regards
to where they're as a team for this year, should
the Steelers introspection week, if you will, be about where
they are as a franchise, And finally, if they haven't
already been realistic about where they're at in the grand
(16:13):
scheme of things, I don't think this is the time
for that stand. I mean that that's an off season thing. Um.
You know, I think they're they're still intent on going
out and winning as many games as possible, and you
know that that's all part of one big process. You know,
you're constantly looking at where you're at in terms of
(16:34):
you know, the franchise, the season, those kind of things.
I think you know, in their heart of hearts, they
knew that this was you know, it's kind of a
transition year. Um. You know, when you're changing quarterbacks after
eighteen years of having um, you know, just consistent, steady
play at the position. Um, yeah, you're you're going to
be a franchise in in change. Um. Uh, you know,
(16:58):
I continue to look at the back end of the schedule.
The teams that Penny Kenny Pickett has started against this
year are combined twenty one and nine and in today's NFL, given,
I mean, we've get division leaders right now in multiple
divisions that aren't over five, and they've played a you know,
(17:18):
a ridiculous schedule to this point. Again, twenty one and
nine in today's NFL. H it's been a really difficult schedule. Well,
the second half of the schedule lightens up considerably, and
so you know, I look at and I want some
of these other teams player them. Like, you know, I
feel like the Steelers are a better team than that
team or that team or that team. Obviously, the results
(17:39):
haven't been there to show that, but again I think
it's part of that's because of who they played. Do
you think there's any change coming offensively into coaching staff?
Is that? Is that even on the REMA possibility, I
don't see them the Steelers doing that. That's just that
would be a very non stealer can move. Um, you
(18:01):
know they've they've made this decision to stick with Matt Canada. Um.
You know they've being Mike Tomlin and and Art Rooney. Um.
You know, you you let it play out, you see how,
you know how this whole thing plays out, and then
you you make your decision moving forward after that. Um. Again, yes,
the results haven't been there. Um, but I don't know
(18:25):
that it's all Matt Canada's fault. I know that's the
easy escape dool for everything. Um, but I do see
players on the field not making plays, not doing things
that I see them do or seeing him seeing them
do in the past. Um. You know, Deonte Johnson has
forty three catches this year and no touchdowns Chase Claypool.
(18:51):
Between Chase Claypool, George Pickens and Deonte Johnson, they have
two combined touchdowns. A J. Brown had three yesterday. I mean,
and that's supposed to you know, that was supposed to
be the strength of the team. That's the worst part.
That was supposed to be the receiving corps was supposed
to be the strength of the team. You know. Naja
(19:12):
Harris talks yesterday about um, you know, accountability and things
of that nature. Um, you know, and it talks about
they're not paying any holes there. Um yeah, there weren't
holes there for a couple of his runs, but there
were other times again when he's catching the ball or
running the ball and he just doesn't get north south
quick enough. He's not looking. You know, He's a two
(19:33):
forty pound running back. Run somebody over. You're allowed to
do that, so you know, I you know, And then
you go, I pointed this out of my my ten pots. Again,
you have Harris saying saying, they're just don't any holes there,
and then you have Jaale Warrenson. I just get east,
just get north to the south. I don't go east
and West, Okay. You know, so, I just think there's
(19:58):
some there's some disc undoubtedly. Um. Yeah, he's playing behind
the same offensive line. Um. I threw this out in
an earlier segment. I want your thoughts, Dale, because you
know the guy. Um, it seems to me that they
brought Naji Harris and build him up as a savior,
(20:19):
and I think the kid is dedicated as he is,
believes that that's his role, that he's got to save everything,
and then every time he touches the ball, it's got
to be a touchdown. Um, that's not realistic. And I'm
wondering if he isn't taking on too much of a
heavy load based on the expectation and the perception. Mike
Tomlin added that talking about this guy loves football and
(20:41):
this is the kind of guy we want, and he's
a leader and he's gonna be a captain and blah
blah blah. Um if Nazi Harris hasn't taken that to
heart and therefore is disappointed that every play is not
a touchdown and he treats every play like I gotta
run for a touchdown if you need three, get three. No,
(21:01):
I agree with that completely. I mean, I think Um
again when you when you talk about young players being
thrust into roles maybe before they're ready to do that. Um.
You know, I think Harris takes his captainship very seriously.
I think he's trying to be a leader on that
side of the football. Um. But I think he's trying
(21:23):
to figure this out much the way Kenny Pick is
trying to figure this out. Um. You know you leadership
is to me, isn't something that you know, you you
can be thrust into. I think you either are a
leader or you're not. And I think he has you know,
nag Harris has leadership qualities. Um, but I think you know,
(21:44):
to your point, Um, I think he is trying to
do too much. Take what's there. Uh, you know, take
what's given to you, and you know, if it's blocked
up for three yards, get four, If it's blocked up
for four yards, get five. Again. He's a two pound
running back and you know I've already seen people questioning,
well they shouldn't have waste that was a wasted draft pick.
(22:06):
Back to that again. Now, Um, he's durable. Uh, he's
available all the time. Um. Handles you know, takes the
ball again and again and again. They haven't gotten in
situations where they've been able to do that a lot
this year. Um, but I still think he's a quality
running back. I just think right now they've run into
some some buzz sauce and they've gotten behind in football
(22:28):
games and haven't been able to use him the way
that you want to use him. I think he's the
kind of back that gets better as the game goes
on and starts to wear teams down. Well, they're like
an opportunity to do that because they're just not scoring
any points. Well, the last thing for you today, Dale, Um,
are you troubled by some of the comments we're hearing internally? Uh?
(22:50):
Kenny Pickett saying we don't study enough. I don't think
we take studying together seriously enough. Naji Harris's comments kind
of throwing the offensive line under the bus. Um. Deonte
Johnson has had the same things things to say. Claypool, Uh,
even graduating from music at practice last year, said we
need to have more goal balls. Um, is this a
(23:12):
sign of a team in turmoil? I don't think so.
You hear you hear a lot of stuff out of
coming out of locker rooms when teams are losing, When
things aren't doing well. I've been doing this for a
long time and I could point to some very good
Steeler teams talking and saying some of the same stuff,
you know, after a loss or two losses in a row,
(23:32):
or things of that nature. So that's just guys grasping
at straws, trying to trying to wrap their mind around
what's happening. Um, you know, if you're losing, can you
study more? Absolutely, you can always be you know, you
can always do a better job of doing those kind
of things, the little things. And when you're making the
mistakes that the Steelers are making. Um, you know, I
(23:57):
know that the offensive lineman get blamed for the illegal
form nations a lot of times that's on the wide
receiver for not being on the line of scrimmage and
not in not covering the guy up in the in
the offensive lineman gets you know, finger fingered for that
that file when it's not him where it could be
the tight end not covering him whoever's on the end
of the line. That kind of stuff. So, um, it
is some of the details, and I think those need
(24:19):
to be better. And if that, you know, that's what
those guys are talking about. I'm with that. Is that
on the coaching staff or is that on the player
to know what they're doing? To me, their professionals, that
they should know what they're doing. It shouldn't. It shouldn't
be a situation where we're halfway into a season and
guys are still lining up in the wrong spots. That
(24:40):
to me is inexcusable. So I get that point of it. Um,
you know, I I and I don't know if it
if it were one guy making the same mistakes over
and over again, then you get that guy out of lineup.
But I don't know that it's been just one person
and there's things going to dale all. He doesn't ounce
ending job for Steelers dot Com and also on the
(25:05):
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Speaking of downloading, you can download the Me I Heart
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(25:26):
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enjoy our Steelers content the Savrann Steelers Podcast. That's it
for this session. Be back with you later in the week.
Thanks for joining me today on Sabrann Steelers
As bad as things have been at times, I think
that you know there's there's talent on miss roster. This
separate on Steelers. Hello to all in Steeler Nation. Welcome
to sabrant On Steelers Podcast. I am Stan Savererant, bringing
you Steelers content twice weekly with new posts here on
the podcast, Steelers dot com, savereigant on Steelers. I suppose
(00:25):
we could spend the entire session today talking about the
Philadelphia game, but I think that would be energy misspent.
Most everybody familiar with the Steelers, and certainly the Eagles,
expected what happened to happen. That's the worst part of
(00:49):
it all. That getting beaten routinely by good teams is
anticipated and almost expected. The best you could hope for
was that they were gonna be competitive in that game,
and they weren't. We're early, but it was just a
matter of time before the Eagles wore them down, which
indeed they did in the second half. So talking about
(01:13):
what went wrong in that game, specifically in that game
in Philadelphia is miscast. It went wrong, and the Steelers
are where they're at because of who they are and
what they are. They are a team that has some
(01:37):
high priced players and productive players, but it's a team
and the players that surround the supposedly high talented players
are not good enough. It takes more than four or
five stars to win football games, especially against teams like
(02:01):
the Eagles. So they got exposed just like they did
in Buffalo. And rather than work on what is wrong
with this team and work and use the bye week
to say, well, we gotta fix that. We can fix
that if we just do this, I think that again
(02:23):
is not the place to be looking. I think you
have to take a wider scope and determine why are
they at where they're at. The first partition comes with
the realization and a realistic realization of who you are
(02:46):
and what you are and why you're losing like this.
That's for the organization. It's not it's necessarily about who's
the quarterback, or who's the offensive coordinator, or even to
a degree, who's the head coach. It goes with an
organizational understanding that a rebuild is necessary. It doesn't mean
(03:14):
you have to be three and fourteen every year either.
You can do it rather quickly. Look at the Eagles.
They won the Super Bowl just a few years ago,
had some downtime and immediately began to realize we're not
good enough. I think it's admirable that the Steelers oftentimes
(03:36):
will say we're competitive, We're going to be a super
Bowl contender every year. It's one thing to say it,
it's another one to believe it. And everyone, including them,
should have realized that they're not a super Bowl contenter
coming into this year, no matter who they drafted, no
(03:58):
matter who they picked up in free agency. At best,
they were gonna be like they were last year, a
fringe playoff team, which they were largely because they had
a first ballot Hall of Fame quarterback running his own
show in the fourth quarter of games, and that wasn't
going to duplicate itself. Is the Steelers management really deluded
(04:26):
to thinking that they were a super Bowl contender this year.
If they are, they were sadly mistaken. And what has
to be done now is a switch in that philosophy.
And it's fine to say you want to win every year.
Every team does, but obviously only one team does, and
(04:49):
only a couple or three teams get close. They're not
in that category. So it starts with an understanding, and
it's especially relatable to this bye week that they're undergoing.
The bye week is use for self evaluation. Why is
(05:12):
this not working? Why is that not working? Are we
doing this enough in this game circumstance? Should we be
doing better? Should we be doing something different? But this
year goes beyond that. I mean, yes, they want to
correct mistakes, and yes they may want to reverse some
(05:33):
psychologies that they've employed and some overall concepts, especially offensively,
because they're not capable of carrying them out. And maybe
no team is good enough to carry out these particular schemes.
It sure seems that way. But this year's bye week
is more about organizational restructure. Teams have to make a
(06:00):
decision that we're not in it for and maybe not
three but maybe and maybe what we're looking for he
is here is a sound plan toward that end. May
not be pleasant, may not be any fun, may not
(06:22):
be exciting, but it has to be done. Firing the
offensive quartering might make it feel good, and they certainly
need a better look at what they're doing, partially in
(06:43):
the hopes of things get slightly better. I mean, you'd
like to improve if you can, but the overall configuration
of the players and the coaching staff has to I'll
be under review, and maybe it will be m maybe
(07:06):
because they're in a situation where they have a new
general manager although he had been in the organization for
quite some time, and maybe you have a new guy
who's entrusted with the draft and Andy Widel, maybe he's
that influence on omar Con and say, look, just throwing
pieces at the wall hoping they stick. It's not gonna work.
(07:32):
We need to go deeper than that. And I know
this isn't fun for Steeler fans because we've all been
conditioned to them being contenders. Goes back to the seventies,
after they established the dynasty. Every year, the expectations were
(07:53):
always high. Even in the late nighties when the dynasty
player is largely were gone, the team wasn't doing well,
you always went into a season thinking, yeah, but they're
the Steelers, Well what Steelers were talking about. A more
(08:14):
recent example is going back to people have to remember this,
it's not just the nineteen seventies. From through two thousand
and three, the Steelers did not make the playoffs in
four of those six years. Four the six years ninety
(08:35):
eight through two thousand and three, they missed the playoffs.
Two thousand and one, two thousand two being the exceptions.
Then another down year ninety three. But what do they
do during that time? They drafted Heinz Ward, Alan Fantica,
(08:55):
Plexico Burrs, Casey Hampton, Brett Keisel, Shake Townsend, Aaron Smith.
You get the idea. And this is the way before
they got pounds into Castro. It's ten years before. And
(09:18):
then they added free agents James Ferrier, what an addition
he was a little later on they drafted Paulamalu in
two thousand two, Casey Hampton and two thousand one. They
realized where they were and they began drafting foundational players
(09:40):
and they were hitting on them too. Yes, there were
some missus, but largely their hits were greater than their missus.
What are the Steelers drafted recently in high positions? You
cannot draft already Burns, Sean Davis, Kendrick Green. If you're
(10:01):
going to get a tackle offensive tackle in the fourth round,
you better get someone better than Dan Moore Jr. Buddy
Johnson was only a fifth, but he's a one year wonder.
He's gone. You cannot missing those draft picks and expect
(10:24):
to rebuild. I have hope and confidence that when Omar
Kahn was named general managed to succeed Kevin Colbert. This
by no means he's meant to condemn Kevin Colbert. He
did a great job, but in recent years he had
some misses and they're paying for them. But maybe Omar
(10:54):
Khn in hiring Andy Widele, who helped rebuild that Eagles
team just a year or two after they won a
Super Bowl, he brings in different scouts, guys that he trust,
different talent evaluators. All that's a factor. As for right now,
the schedule does lighten up, But again, I don't know
(11:17):
that Steelers gonna look at any opponent lightly and say, well,
they're not as good as the Eagles or the Bills.
That may be true, but the Steelers aren't good enough
to say that about anybody. We're joining out by Dale
Ali from Steelers dot Com and Steelers Nation Radio and Dale.
Maybe the most telling sign of Sunday's game was that
(11:40):
the result was not unexpected. Yeah, I mean, the Eagles
are a good football team. They'll last unbeaten team in
the NFL right now. And the Steelers, let's face it,
aren't you know, in a good spot right now getting
into this bye week. You know, I don't think they're
as bad as things have been at times. I think that,
you know, there's there's talent on this row stir um,
(12:01):
you know, but this is some of the struggles that
you're going to go through when you have when you're
starting a rookie quarterback. I think a lot of people
got spoiled in Pittsburgh because of what happened the last
time they started their rookie first round the quarterback. That
doesn't happen all the time. They don't go, you know,
win thirteen straight games and things of that nature. There
(12:21):
there are you know, growing pains and and I think
some of the you know, the issues at least offensively
right now are also born out of the fact that
you know, Kenny Pickett didn't get uh, you know, first
team reps throughout training game, you didn't get first team
reps uh you know, over the course of the first
month and half of the season. So you know, you're
(12:43):
you're going to see this continue to evolve. Um defensively,
you know, I don't know what to say about that.
It's it's you know, it's disheartening when you continue to
give up the long touchdown passes, when you play these
good teams, and it looked like they had things in
a better place, you know, after after keeping the reps,
(13:04):
you know, Miami's explosive offense under wraps, and then they
come out and they do that against the Eagles. Uh.
Just anexcusable Uh yeah, it is. And we'll we'll get
to that. Um. When I think about, you know, rookie quarterback. Um,
and I've said this many times and I'm sure you
have too and written it, that it's a huge mistake
to compare what been experienced and oh four to what
(13:24):
Kenny Pick is experiencing eighteen years later. Um. And that
is he had a much better team around him. He
had a really good offensive line, they had a great
running game, and maybe more importantly, as you point out,
a terrific defense. So not to demean um or diminish
what Ben was able to do, but that doesn't happen,
(13:45):
not just because Ben was a special Hall of Fame player,
but because he entered the fray, if you will, under
completely different circumstances. Yeah. And I think we can agree
as well that he was a better prospect. I mean,
you know, he's you know, a more talented player, not
that Kenny's not talented, but um, you know, I'm not
(14:06):
going to compare him now to a guy who you know,
he's headed to the ProFootball Hall of Fame. Uh. I
don't that gets fair either, but you you're absolutely right.
I mean, you know, Kenny Pickett is stepping into a
very young offense. Um. You know, Ben Roethlisberger I just
wrote to some my ten thoughts after the game. Ben
Roethlisberger wasn't expected to be a leader of that. On
(14:28):
that team in two thousand and four, they had your
own Bettis, they had Alan Fanica, they had heinz Word. Uh,
you know, guys have uh you know who had been
through some of this stuff before. Who are those guys
on this offense? They're just aren't any um, you know
they and they knew that going into this. That's the
reason why they initially went with Mr Bisky at quarterback
(14:48):
because they knew that it was going you know, there
would be growing pains with with a young quarterback because
the offense is so young. That's why you know, Mike
Tomlin kept stressing, well, Mr Whske he's our guy. He's
he's the most experienced of our quarterbacks. You know, it
just it wasn't working with Rabisky. Uh, you know as
(15:08):
the starter. He wasn't He wasn't taking Johnson. They were
in a bad place. When you lose t J. Watt Um,
you know, it's off of that defense. I don't care
what defense it is in the league. When you take
you know, take Aaron Donald off of the off the
rams defense, because that's essentially what happened here. He took
a guy who was voted by the other players in
(15:31):
the league as as being one of the top ten
players regardless of position in the league, and you take
him out of that defense, it's not going to look
the same. But again, that doesn't excuse why you're you know,
you can't give up some of the stuff that you've
given up. Undoubtedly. Um, Usually the bye week is the
(15:51):
time for self inspection, introspection, if you will. But regards
to where they're as a team for this year, should
the Steelers introspection week, if you will, be about where
they are as a franchise, And finally, if they haven't
already been realistic about where they're at in the grand
(16:13):
scheme of things, I don't think this is the time
for that stand. I mean that that's an off season thing. Um.
You know, I think they're they're still intent on going
out and winning as many games as possible, and you
know that that's all part of one big process. You know,
you're constantly looking at where you're at in terms of
(16:34):
you know, the franchise, the season, those kind of things.
I think you know, in their heart of hearts, they
knew that this was you know, it's kind of a
transition year. Um. You know, when you're changing quarterbacks after
eighteen years of having um, you know, just consistent, steady
play at the position. Um, yeah, you're you're going to
be a franchise in in change. Um. Uh, you know,
(16:58):
I continue to look at the back end of the schedule.
The teams that Penny Kenny Pickett has started against this
year are combined twenty one and nine and in today's NFL, given,
I mean, we've get division leaders right now in multiple
divisions that aren't over five, and they've played a you know,
(17:18):
a ridiculous schedule to this point. Again, twenty one and
nine in today's NFL. H it's been a really difficult schedule. Well,
the second half of the schedule lightens up considerably, and
so you know, I look at and I want some
of these other teams player them. Like, you know, I
feel like the Steelers are a better team than that
team or that team or that team. Obviously, the results
(17:39):
haven't been there to show that, but again I think
it's part of that's because of who they played. Do
you think there's any change coming offensively into coaching staff?
Is that? Is that even on the REMA possibility, I
don't see them the Steelers doing that. That's just that
would be a very non stealer can move. Um, you
(18:01):
know they've they've made this decision to stick with Matt Canada. Um.
You know they've being Mike Tomlin and and Art Rooney. Um.
You know, you you let it play out, you see how,
you know how this whole thing plays out, and then
you you make your decision moving forward after that. Um. Again, yes,
the results haven't been there. Um, but I don't know
(18:25):
that it's all Matt Canada's fault. I know that's the
easy escape dool for everything. Um, but I do see
players on the field not making plays, not doing things
that I see them do or seeing him seeing them
do in the past. Um. You know, Deonte Johnson has
forty three catches this year and no touchdowns Chase Claypool.
(18:51):
Between Chase Claypool, George Pickens and Deonte Johnson, they have
two combined touchdowns. A J. Brown had three yesterday. I mean,
and that's supposed to you know, that was supposed to
be the strength of the team. That's the worst part.
That was supposed to be the receiving corps was supposed
to be the strength of the team. You know. Naja
(19:12):
Harris talks yesterday about um, you know, accountability and things
of that nature. Um, you know, and it talks about
they're not paying any holes there. Um yeah, there weren't
holes there for a couple of his runs, but there
were other times again when he's catching the ball or
running the ball and he just doesn't get north south
quick enough. He's not looking. You know, He's a two
(19:33):
forty pound running back. Run somebody over. You're allowed to
do that, so you know, I you know, And then
you go, I pointed this out of my my ten pots. Again,
you have Harris saying saying, they're just don't any holes there,
and then you have Jaale Warrenson. I just get east,
just get north to the south. I don't go east
and West, Okay. You know, so, I just think there's
(19:58):
some there's some disc undoubtedly. Um. Yeah, he's playing behind
the same offensive line. Um. I threw this out in
an earlier segment. I want your thoughts, Dale, because you
know the guy. Um, it seems to me that they
brought Naji Harris and build him up as a savior,
(20:19):
and I think the kid is dedicated as he is,
believes that that's his role, that he's got to save everything,
and then every time he touches the ball, it's got
to be a touchdown. Um, that's not realistic. And I'm
wondering if he isn't taking on too much of a
heavy load based on the expectation and the perception. Mike
Tomlin added that talking about this guy loves football and
(20:41):
this is the kind of guy we want, and he's
a leader and he's gonna be a captain and blah
blah blah. Um if Nazi Harris hasn't taken that to
heart and therefore is disappointed that every play is not
a touchdown and he treats every play like I gotta
run for a touchdown if you need three, get three. No,
(21:01):
I agree with that completely. I mean, I think Um
again when you when you talk about young players being
thrust into roles maybe before they're ready to do that. Um.
You know, I think Harris takes his captainship very seriously.
I think he's trying to be a leader on that
side of the football. Um. But I think he's trying
(21:23):
to figure this out much the way Kenny Pick is
trying to figure this out. Um. You know you leadership
is to me, isn't something that you know, you you
can be thrust into. I think you either are a
leader or you're not. And I think he has you know,
nag Harris has leadership qualities. Um, but I think you know,
(21:44):
to your point, Um, I think he is trying to
do too much. Take what's there. Uh, you know, take
what's given to you, and you know, if it's blocked
up for three yards, get four, If it's blocked up
for four yards, get five. Again. He's a two pound
running back and you know I've already seen people questioning,
well they shouldn't have waste that was a wasted draft pick.
(22:06):
Back to that again. Now, Um, he's durable. Uh, he's
available all the time. Um. Handles you know, takes the
ball again and again and again. They haven't gotten in
situations where they've been able to do that a lot
this year. Um, but I still think he's a quality
running back. I just think right now they've run into
some some buzz sauce and they've gotten behind in football
(22:28):
games and haven't been able to use him the way
that you want to use him. I think he's the
kind of back that gets better as the game goes
on and starts to wear teams down. Well, they're like
an opportunity to do that because they're just not scoring
any points. Well, the last thing for you today, Dale, Um,
are you troubled by some of the comments we're hearing internally? Uh?
(22:50):
Kenny Pickett saying we don't study enough. I don't think
we take studying together seriously enough. Naji Harris's comments kind
of throwing the offensive line under the bus. Um. Deonte
Johnson has had the same things things to say. Claypool, Uh,
even graduating from music at practice last year, said we
need to have more goal balls. Um, is this a
(23:12):
sign of a team in turmoil? I don't think so.
You hear you hear a lot of stuff out of
coming out of locker rooms when teams are losing, When
things aren't doing well. I've been doing this for a
long time and I could point to some very good
Steeler teams talking and saying some of the same stuff,
you know, after a loss or two losses in a row,
(23:32):
or things of that nature. So that's just guys grasping
at straws, trying to trying to wrap their mind around
what's happening. Um, you know, if you're losing, can you
study more? Absolutely, you can always be you know, you
can always do a better job of doing those kind
of things, the little things. And when you're making the
mistakes that the Steelers are making. Um, you know, I
(23:57):
know that the offensive lineman get blamed for the illegal
form nations a lot of times that's on the wide
receiver for not being on the line of scrimmage and
not in not covering the guy up in the in
the offensive lineman gets you know, finger fingered for that
that file when it's not him where it could be
the tight end not covering him whoever's on the end
of the line. That kind of stuff. So, um, it
is some of the details, and I think those need
(24:19):
to be better. And if that, you know, that's what
those guys are talking about. I'm with that. Is that
on the coaching staff or is that on the player
to know what they're doing? To me, their professionals, that
they should know what they're doing. It shouldn't. It shouldn't
be a situation where we're halfway into a season and
guys are still lining up in the wrong spots. That
(24:40):
to me is inexcusable. So I get that point of it. Um,
you know, I I and I don't know if it
if it were one guy making the same mistakes over
and over again, then you get that guy out of lineup.
But I don't know that it's been just one person
and there's things going to dale all. He doesn't ounce
ending job for Steelers dot Com and also on the
(25:05):
s n R program, which you can get easily download
the I Heart Media app to get that with Matt
Williamson each weekday four to six during the Steelers season.
Speaking of downloading, you can download the Me I Heart
Media app and get my daily show on ESPN Pittsburgh.
You can get it there, you can get it over
(25:26):
the air at ESPN Pittsburgh, and of course the podcast
available at Steelers dot Com. Tell your friends if you
enjoy our Steelers content the Savrann Steelers Podcast. That's it
for this session. Be back with you later in the week.
Thanks for joining me today on Sabrann Steelers
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