January 16, 2023 • 26 mins
The Steelers were on the verge of making it into the postseason but came up just short. This past weekend was the first round of this year's playoffs and Stan recaps the exciting matchups. Stan is joined by Alex Kozora to hear his thoughts on which offseason moves the Steelers should prioritize making in order to improve on this past season.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
We hurt yourself by not keeping the you put on
the delerator to put the way, how about to get bad?
This is safean on Steelers. Hello and welcome to all
in Steelers nations and welcome to our Savereign on Steelers podcast.
Thanks for joining us. We post up twice weekly and
(00:23):
you're able to get us at Steelers dot com. Just
go to Steelers dot com, which obviously you have and
if you like the content we have, please looks your friends, neighbors,
relatives know all about us. Again. The podcast can be
listened to right at Steelers dot com. Very easy to get.
You can also listen to me on my daily talk
show on ESPN Pittsburgh as at nine seventy a m.
(00:46):
It airs Monday through Friday noon to two Eastern time
again vent am. If you're not able to get that
you live out of town, easy, no problem, Just download
the I Heart Media app. It's free and you can
listen to me live or on the via these podcasts,
not only this one in particular, but we podcast out
(01:08):
every hour of every show we do all week long.
Busy weekend of NFL playoff football. A number of things
stood out to me, beginning with the biggest, biggest surprise
I suppose, no matter who was playing, and that's the
l A Chargers having a twenty seven to nothing lead
and blowing it to a young and upcoming Jacksonville team.
(01:31):
But still you're up twenty seven nothing. I don't know
about you, but I sensed that that was a possibility. Obviously,
Trevor Lawrence had a very poor first half, four interceptions,
and nothing was going right for them. And yet I
got the sense that the Chargers came out in the
second half just trying to protect the lead, just watching
(01:54):
the clock, watching it slowly melt into triple zeros and
getting out of or they built their lead. They acted
as though their work were done well. The truth of
the matter is that the longer the game went on
and the Charges weren't doing anything offensively, just playing it safe,
just trying to protect the lead, the drip, drip, drip
(02:17):
became an absolute waterfall, an avalanche of water, if you will.
As the Jaguars began to get back in the game,
you could sense their confidence growing. The crowd was back
into it um. But first and foremost, yeah, you got
to eve credit to Jacksonville and Trevor Lawrence. He is
is a tremendous quarterback. He's gonna be great. He needs
(02:40):
more people around him, but they've done a pretty good
job with him in his second year to be nine
and eight when their division to make the playoffs. But
for the Chargers, that's gonna be tough to swallow. And
there were already a lot of people in l A
that wanted Brendan Staley the head coach gone. This is
likely to give them further ammunition um feeling that they're
(03:02):
way too conservative. Staley is a defensive guy, and so
he leaves the offense to his offensive staff. But at
some point you gotta step in and say, look, we
need to be more proactive. It doesn't mean we want
to call flea flickers in every play, but we just
can't sit idly by. And that's pretty much what they did,
and it cost them. It cost them dearly. It might
(03:22):
cause Brendan Staley his job. When you have division matchups
in the first round of playoffs, it's almost always expected
that it's maybe a tougher game than you imagine based
on what we know. Because division opponents know each other.
(03:43):
You're not going to install something in a week. A
staple of your offense or defense or even special teams.
That your opponent hasn't seen you play each other twice
a year. It's been going on for a long time,
so there may be some people are surprised, for example,
that Baltimore, was given their circumstances, was able to hang
(04:09):
with Cincinnati as much as they did. That shouldn't have
been a close game. I give Baltimore a lot of credit,
not just in this game, but they're They're always very competitive.
They're a tough out. You're not going to get rid
of them very easily. Um and I credit a lot
of that to John Harbaugh. I think he's a very
(04:31):
good coach. Teams make the playoffs virtually every year, and
he did so this year without his number one weapon,
the guy who makes them go, Lamar Jackson. I'll get
some more of that in a minute. But he's banged
up everywhere, and he always has them played competitively. But
(04:56):
the one thing that I find different to reconcile and
difficult to reconcile is that Hardball has won one playoff
game in the last eight years. And I know that
people in Stealer Nation justifiably criticize Mike Tomlin for not
winning a playoff game, since that's absolutely fair game. But
(05:20):
we looked at hardball and I generally regard him as
a good coach. One playoff win in six years for
eight years, and it's all well and good to say, well,
we make the playoffs, we win the division, but the
payoff is in the playoffs and only one playoff win
in eight years. It also brings rise to the question
(05:43):
exactly what is going on between the Ravens and Lamar Jackson.
We know that his contract is up. We know this
has been an issue all year long. It has been
from day one. The Ravens still believe he's going to
be their franchise quarterback and they're offering him a long
term deal, which Lamar Jackson, who's handling his own negotiations,
(06:04):
Lamar Jackson has rejected them. But two things I think
really stuck out over the past number of days. Number One,
Lamar Jackson did not even travel with the team to Cincinnati.
He's been there on the sideline for all these games.
He and Tyler Huntley are best friends. Wouldn't you think
(06:26):
that Lamar Jackson being on the bench to talk with
Honley wouldn't be a positive move? And yet Jackson was
nowhere to be found, and earlier in the week, Jackson
posted up his own statement on his own social media
(06:48):
about his physical condition normally the team does that? Does
that represent a split in the relationship between Jackson and
the raven Is? It sure sounds like it to me.
As for Baltimore, I've been on this bandwagon for a
(07:10):
long time. If I were a head coach in the NFL,
and I know it's surprising, I'm not, I would coach
my team to never dive over the goal line with
the ball extended, unless it's fourth down and it's your
(07:32):
last chance opportunity to win. Tyler Huntley dives over the
line on the third down play, gets it knocked loose.
Sam Harbard returns at yards for a touchdown, and because
of that, Cincinnati beats Baltimore. Could have been a tie game.
(07:57):
But aside from that mismanagement of the clock, I like
diving over the goal line create the opportunity for the fumble.
It's a bad play. One of the big surprises to
me was the Giants beating the Vikings in Minnesota. There
(08:19):
have been a lot of people talking about Minnesota's got
a good record, but they're really not that good. Um,
I don't know what that means. I know they want
a lot of close games. They were in a lot
of close games, but we don't get much of an
opportunity to see Daniel Jones play. We don't see that
(08:40):
many NFC games televised in the Pittsburgh region, and generally
Daniel Jones has been one of those game managers. Well,
I had no idea how good he was. I had
no idea how well he could run. I had no idea.
The Giant's offensive line was that good open holes for
(09:00):
sa Kwan Barkley, who I think is a top two
running back in the NFL along with Nick Chubb. That
was a surprise to me. And while we have yet
to see the number one seeds in both conferences meaning
Kansas City in Philadelphia, the best team that I saw
(09:23):
over the weekend anyway was the forty Niners. They are
really good on both sides of the ball. And for
those wondering about Brock Purty Mr Irrelevant, well with him
at quarterback, the forty Niners is six and oh maybe
more importantly, they average thirty five points per game, So
(09:47):
much for Mr Irrelevant. He's doing a pretty good job.
We're joining out by Alex Kazara. He covers the Steelers
in the NFL for Steelers Depot Alice welcome, always good
to have you on a happy New year. Um. I
was mentioning earlier that watching all these playoff teams, basically
(10:08):
all of them, they show wrinkles in their offense, create
creative type plays, um motions. Um, you know various formations
that I never see from the Steelers. Is that because
Matt Canada doesn't have that it is wherewithal or they
don't want to institute that because they're dealing with a
(10:29):
rookie quarterback. Well, Stan, I think it's a bit of both.
I don't want to blame it all on the pitfalls
of a rookie quarterback. Forty Niners. As you guys said,
the best team this weekend have a rookie quarterback at
seventh round pick. In their offense is running just fine
with a lot of creative looks and the job that
Kyle Shanahan does. I think what it came down to
Pittsburgh the back half of the year was they just
(10:51):
simply could not win games and turn the football over.
They went what won in seven this year in games
where they turned the ball over, not even one the
turnover battle just simply gained the ball away at least
one time. They lost almost every single one of those games.
And so I think Pittsburgh's blueprint to success, which really
was proven true based on their seven and two finish,
was run the ball, keep it simple, playfield position. The
(11:13):
defense is playing UM so much better and really you know,
keeping games close, competitive, keeping the score down. And so
that was why the offense became maybe even more vanilla
than it was the first half of the year, which
was not that creative to begin with, because the the essence,
the identity of this offense was to just you know,
play smart, not uh not lose the game so you
(11:34):
can try to win. It was kind of their their mentality.
Do you think that changes now as they get PICKT.
He's got, in essence, two thirds of a season UM
and by the time they kick it off for real,
he would have had a full training camp, he would
have had, you know, full o T a s mini camp.
He'll be the guy who get most of the reps.
(11:54):
It'll lead to and I think it will certainly evolve.
It may not happen all in one instant and this
team will still be primarily trying to win with their
ground approach, very similar to how it was in the
early years of Ben oh four oh five. You know,
even in Ben's second year, the the strategy didn't change
dramatically where it still was that that run heavy game
with Willie Parker, with Jerome Bettis as the short yardage back.
(12:16):
So but certainly this is a different era. This is
going into three and you look at the teams around
the NFL. Every team, the one I believe this weekend,
except for maybe one, scored you know, thirty plus points
in Pittsburgh. Didn't score more than thirty points in the
single game this season, and so, you know, taking care
of the football, ball control, those things are important, but
at some point you have to finish drives, put points
(12:38):
on the board, especially if you want to compete with
the teams you're seeing in the a f C right now.
I mean my homes Alan, Trevor, Lawrence Herbert, et cetera.
Those guys aren't going anywhere. Those guys will be playing
for their teams for the next ten plush years, Joe
Burrow and Cincinnati, and so you better be able to
have some firepower to match that beyond just a decently
(12:58):
efficient run game. Is Calvin Austin the hidden wild card here?
I mean he's a rookie's untested, he hasn't done anything.
Um really didn't have any training camp when you stop
and think about it. But I mean, could he play
a significant role in this offense or what we expect
this offense to be? Yeah, it remains to be seen.
(13:20):
Just because we saw him for two weeks and he
injured the foot and tried to come back midseason, heard
it again, had to have surgery. I mean, you know,
multiple foot injuries for a guy reliant on four three
two speeds not a great start to his career. But
we'll see what it looks like in the summer. And
I don't think he'll have an every down volume type
role in this offense. There are so many mouths to feed.
It will be run heavy. But assuming that Matt Canada
(13:42):
remains as though see which is appearing to be where
things track right now, I think he hits will into
that system to be able to run the horizontal game
and r p O s and screens and jet runs
to get out on the perimeter, to be able to
be to be that vertical downfield guy that can hopefully
create some splash plate. He maybe somebody that touches the
ball three or four times a game, but hopefully can
(14:03):
occasionally have that big splash play. This offense did not
have consistently enough this season, and so it remains to
be seen. Is still a long way to Those guys
got to play in a game to begin with. But
ideally he was drafted to be that big play threat,
and hopefully he can still be that guy. At the
very least he can create space for others whether he
gets the ball or not. It's somebody you better pay
(14:23):
attention to. I thought we'd take a trip around the
playoffs as football fans we all are, um. I thought
the games were really very entertaining, very surprising, almost all
of them closed for at least a good portion of
those games. I don't know if you got this feeling
beginning of the second half with the Jacksonville Chargers game.
(14:44):
I got the sense, Alex, I don't know, maybe you'll
concur maybe not, that the Chargers came out in the
second half and said, let's just, you know, bleed this slowly.
Let's just not do anything stupid. As we're up twenty
seven points and I I think that costs them. I mean,
I think once it began to turn against them, they
couldn't start the engine again. Yeah, I'm with you. We
(15:08):
hear about prevent defense so much. How about prevent offense
where you hurt yourself by not keeping the the your
your foot on the accelerator to really put teams away
and allow teams to get back. And I think it's
a testament to the job that the Jackson Mills done
to keep that keep that team together believing being down
twenty seven nothing and kudos to Doug Peterson um to
(15:29):
to make sure those guys didn't check out and bought in.
That's a belief in the culture that was probably in
still long before halftime of that game, back in in
the summer and whenever you first got hired. And what
a difference it's been for for the Jacks going from
Urban Meyer to to a Doug Peterson. But absolutely, I
think the Charge has probably got to conservative. Certainly. One
of the biggest criticisms that that that the Charges have
(15:49):
had all year is they have a great quarterback with
a big arm and Justin Herbert, why don't they push
the ball down field enough They've been really conservative in
that offense, and that probably hurt this team at the
decision to play Mike Williamson week a team he gets
hurt with him playing this game. So yeah, I think
probably two Chargers got scared and it's costing the game,
costing their season. Do you think it will cost the
(16:10):
head coach's job? You know, I'm mixed on that. I
think the easy answers, yes, from what I'm kind of
hearing from some of the guys that cover the Chargers
is that Steely may return. Um, I think it's just
hard to do. How do you bring that guy back?
Giving the circumstances. But um, you know, I'm not as
a tune of the charter situation as others. I guess
it could go either way, but I think it's a
(16:30):
hard it's a hard sell to bring that guy back.
Let me move on to the ball to where Cincinnati
game no particular order here. One of the things that
I've just been harping on when players try to leap
over the goal line and extend the ball to try
to get a touchdown. I think it's a bad technique.
I don't think it should be taught. I think coaches said,
(16:53):
I don't want to see anybody doing it, And here
we see Ty Huntley trying to dive over the balls
not loose and off. Sam Harvard goes, Um, Maybe that's
an easy time to mention it. But I have to
say I've been consistent about this. I just think it's
a bad play, especially on third down. If it's fourth
down and you know this is your last stab at it.
(17:16):
But this was a third down play and it wasn't necessary, right.
There are some coaches that that don't allow players to
do that. Look at what happened to Nausey Harris against
the Browns. I mean he tried to leap over and
he's done that with success earlier this year, but a
cost in that time. I know it's a it's a
curse word in Pittsburgh, but Bill Belichick's philosophy is to
never do that unless it is fourth down or it's
(17:37):
an end of game where there is no play after,
and so ball security is paramount in every single situation. Obviously,
understand the reward of just needing to break the plane,
but um, in this era of quarterback sneaks, to me,
stand was the y or the quarterback sneak in Pittsburgh
and elsewhere where it really became a constant invoked thing,
and so teams are really focusing on that more and
(17:57):
trying to combat that um goal, lying fourth one, all
those kind of situations, and so um balls security is
always the most important thing. And I would never advise
a player to to leap over the goal line unless
it was a fourth and goal or last play of
the game type moment. You know, I want to ask
you about the Ravens. I mean, obviously, um there's something
(18:18):
going on, it seems to me between the Ravens organization
and Lamar Jackson. He did not travel with the team.
He felt it necessary on his own social media to
list his injury status. That's something normally the teams do,
if they do it at all. Do you sense there's
gonna be a divorce here between the Ravens and Lamar Jackson?
(18:40):
To me stand, it is the number one question of
not just Baltimore obviously, but the entire NFL off season.
And this is one of the biggest conundrums I think
any team has had the face in quite some time.
Because you're you're pulled in in two directions. A. You know,
do you pay Jackson? A bunch of money, uh, given
the injury risk. I mean the last two years been
unavailable at the end of seasons. Back in one, this
(19:03):
team was leading the ANC nowrth Jackson gets hurt, they
collapsed down the stretch and they lose every game. They
failed to make the playoffs. This year, they limp into
the playoffs, Jackson still unavailable, they get you know, bounce
despite that competitive game. Um, but at the same time,
when Jackson's been how you've seen how much this offense
has been hurt. I mean J K. Dobbins in this
frustration was right. If Jackson was healthy and available, they
(19:26):
would have won that game. They would have beaten the Bengals.
And so there's been such a clear difference between I
think the records something like their forty five and six
team when Lamar plays in eight and thirteen when they
don't and they've won those you know games on the
ladder side because of that defense. And so if they
lose Jackson, if they were to tag and trade them,
they have to start all over. And their identity was
kind of built around what Lamar could do. So it
(19:48):
is one of the most difficult decisions I think any
team will have to make in quite some time. There
really is no ideal or really good answer to that.
You know. It's it's interesting. I always feel like that
the Ravens, no matter their circumstances, are well coached. Um,
they're gonna give you They're a tough out. You're not
(20:09):
gonna waltz in and beat them easily, even when they're
undermanned as they were. Uh. And I credit John Harball.
I think he's a good coach. And yet he's only
won one playoff game in the last eight years. Um.
Now Toman getsized criticized, justifiably so because he had won
a playoff game since two thousand seventeen. But here Hardball,
(20:33):
who I view as a good coach. I like your
thoughts on him. He has won one playoff game in
the last eight years. And we all know the payoff
is in the playoff. H It's a It's so funny
how similar Pittsburgh and Baltimore race. If they couldn't get
similar enough in terms of the playoff you know, lack
of success, And I just look at what the standard is.
(20:55):
You know, I understand if you're in Detroit, if you're
some you know team, that's that's missed out on playoff
even contention for the longest time. Maybe getting there is
good enough. And I understand how hard it is to
win the playoffs and it's one and done, and so
you know that it's a different scenario. And like baseball
and really any other sport um, but I just know
in Pittsburgh and in Baltimore, the standard is higher. It's
(21:15):
not just to make the playoffs. It isn't even just
to win the a f C. North Well, that's a
component of it. It is to have playoffs success and
and fans can get spoiled. And again, it's so much
harder to win in the NFLS and I think a
lot of fans will give uh credit for, especially in
this very tough a f C. But you've got to
have results. And you know, in Pittsburgh in particular, I
(21:36):
understand and can respect and appreciate the Mike Tomlin never
had a losing season, a strength that continued this year.
But in Pittsburgh, you know, they put trophies in trophy cases.
They wouldn't playoff games. They that that's how they make history.
That's how they're judged by, not by going nine and
eight or not just making the playoffs. It's the same
in Baltimore, So you know, I understand the difficulty of it,
(21:57):
but certainly I think both teams are looking at themselves.
You know, we have to be more than what we've
been over the last decade. You know, we haven't seen
the Eagles or Chiefs yet. That will come this weekend.
But to me, the forty Niners look like the most balanced,
well rounded, um, overall best team that I've seen those far.
And I realized they were playing Seattle, that's not the point.
(22:20):
I mean, you can just see how strong they are
on both sides of the ball. Yeah, they're gonna be
a tough out. Now, my preseason prediction one I don't.
I'm really bad at the predictions stand. But one thing
I think I've gotten a pretty good field was my
preseason Super Bowl prediction was Bills over Eagles. I'm gonna
stick with that one for now. Um, but it probably
will come down to two Niners Eagles in the championship game. Maybe,
(22:42):
you know, Bill's Chiefs will will play again in the
A f C side of things. But I think certainly
what the forty Niners have done, I mean, it felt
like once Garoppolo went down their season was done, and
the resiliency they've shown, and it's really kind of exemplifies
that when you have a plan, when you have an identity,
when you know who are and how you win, you
can absorb and handle and bounce back from even losing
(23:03):
you know, multiple quarterbacks in the season like they have
with Trey Lance, Andrew and Jimmy Garoppolo. And so it's
a really testament to what makes Kyle Shanna and one
of the best coaches in football. It is a really
well run offense and that defense is just fantastic. I
mean you've got you know, bos off the edge and uh,
their linebacker corps is among the best in football. So
it's really a complete team and they know who they are,
(23:24):
they know how they win, and if you have those components,
you can succeed in the NFL. It's interesting because, um,
the guy who's most credited with building that defense, Robert Salo,
is now head coach of the Jets, and yet they
just continue to be Um, we you know, we think
about their offense primarily, but they continue to be just
(23:45):
excellent on defense. Yeah, I mean, they're their linebacker play. Now.
Some people will talk about how that's an overvalued positions
kind of the running back of the offense. But you
have Fred Warner there, you have Green Law there. I mean,
those are really good cover guys and it is so
hard to find those complete, eat every down off ball linebackers.
Certainly Pittsburgh has been looking for a long time since
Ryan Jays here and to have those kind of guys
(24:06):
that offer so much defensive versatility and coverage against the
run to really kind of build your defense around with
that great front they have. Um yeah, I know that
the offense is going to be talked about so much
in San Francisco with the job that brock Purty stilling,
and he's doing a good job overall. You got George
Kittle at tight end with Debot Samuel Opers in the
run games so much versatility. But defensively, I mean that
(24:27):
is why this team is good, is as good as
it is because that defense is among the best, if
not the best, in football. Yeah, they're um uh, they're
a good team to watch. And again they're they're going
with a Brock Purty quarterback and yet you still see
some of those creative elements that I just don't see. Well,
(24:48):
every team has some uh, the Steelers don't have as many,
it seems to me. Maybe that's just a work in progress.
Alex is always good to talk football with you. I
appreciate your input. We'll talk again very soon. Thank you.
Take care. Okay, that's Alex Kazura. Check them out at
Alex Underscore Kazura, ko z O r A and you
(25:10):
just work for Steelers dot com. Really great analysis and
all his work. All set for this weekend's games. Saturday
at four thirty Eastern time, it'll be Jacksonville, Kansas City.
Then Saturday night it'll be the Giants of Philadelphia divisional
match up. There Sunday's games three o'clock Cincinnati and Buffalo,
(25:33):
and the forty Niners will host the final playoff game
of the weekend on Sunday evening. Don't forget you can
listen to me daily on ESPN Pittsburgh seventy am. Will
just download the I Heart Media att Itsbury. You can
listen to me that right The savan on Steelers podcast
available to you at Steelers dot com. Thanks for listening
(25:55):
this time along. I'm Stan Savran. Thanks so much for
being with us.
We hurt yourself by not keeping the you put on
the delerator to put the way, how about to get bad?
This is safean on Steelers. Hello and welcome to all
in Steelers nations and welcome to our Savereign on Steelers podcast.
Thanks for joining us. We post up twice weekly and
(00:23):
you're able to get us at Steelers dot com. Just
go to Steelers dot com, which obviously you have and
if you like the content we have, please looks your friends, neighbors,
relatives know all about us. Again. The podcast can be
listened to right at Steelers dot com. Very easy to get.
You can also listen to me on my daily talk
show on ESPN Pittsburgh as at nine seventy a m.
(00:46):
It airs Monday through Friday noon to two Eastern time
again vent am. If you're not able to get that
you live out of town, easy, no problem, Just download
the I Heart Media app. It's free and you can
listen to me live or on the via these podcasts,
not only this one in particular, but we podcast out
(01:08):
every hour of every show we do all week long.
Busy weekend of NFL playoff football. A number of things
stood out to me, beginning with the biggest, biggest surprise
I suppose, no matter who was playing, and that's the
l A Chargers having a twenty seven to nothing lead
and blowing it to a young and upcoming Jacksonville team.
(01:31):
But still you're up twenty seven nothing. I don't know
about you, but I sensed that that was a possibility. Obviously,
Trevor Lawrence had a very poor first half, four interceptions,
and nothing was going right for them. And yet I
got the sense that the Chargers came out in the
second half just trying to protect the lead, just watching
(01:54):
the clock, watching it slowly melt into triple zeros and
getting out of or they built their lead. They acted
as though their work were done well. The truth of
the matter is that the longer the game went on
and the Charges weren't doing anything offensively, just playing it safe,
just trying to protect the lead, the drip, drip, drip
(02:17):
became an absolute waterfall, an avalanche of water, if you will.
As the Jaguars began to get back in the game,
you could sense their confidence growing. The crowd was back
into it um. But first and foremost, yeah, you got
to eve credit to Jacksonville and Trevor Lawrence. He is
is a tremendous quarterback. He's gonna be great. He needs
(02:40):
more people around him, but they've done a pretty good
job with him in his second year to be nine
and eight when their division to make the playoffs. But
for the Chargers, that's gonna be tough to swallow. And
there were already a lot of people in l A
that wanted Brendan Staley the head coach gone. This is
likely to give them further ammunition um feeling that they're
(03:02):
way too conservative. Staley is a defensive guy, and so
he leaves the offense to his offensive staff. But at
some point you gotta step in and say, look, we
need to be more proactive. It doesn't mean we want
to call flea flickers in every play, but we just
can't sit idly by. And that's pretty much what they did,
and it cost them. It cost them dearly. It might
(03:22):
cause Brendan Staley his job. When you have division matchups
in the first round of playoffs, it's almost always expected
that it's maybe a tougher game than you imagine based
on what we know. Because division opponents know each other.
(03:43):
You're not going to install something in a week. A
staple of your offense or defense or even special teams.
That your opponent hasn't seen you play each other twice
a year. It's been going on for a long time,
so there may be some people are surprised, for example,
that Baltimore, was given their circumstances, was able to hang
(04:09):
with Cincinnati as much as they did. That shouldn't have
been a close game. I give Baltimore a lot of credit,
not just in this game, but they're They're always very competitive.
They're a tough out. You're not going to get rid
of them very easily. Um and I credit a lot
of that to John Harbaugh. I think he's a very
(04:31):
good coach. Teams make the playoffs virtually every year, and
he did so this year without his number one weapon,
the guy who makes them go, Lamar Jackson. I'll get
some more of that in a minute. But he's banged
up everywhere, and he always has them played competitively. But
(04:56):
the one thing that I find different to reconcile and
difficult to reconcile is that Hardball has won one playoff
game in the last eight years. And I know that
people in Stealer Nation justifiably criticize Mike Tomlin for not
winning a playoff game, since that's absolutely fair game. But
(05:20):
we looked at hardball and I generally regard him as
a good coach. One playoff win in six years for
eight years, and it's all well and good to say, well,
we make the playoffs, we win the division, but the
payoff is in the playoffs and only one playoff win
in eight years. It also brings rise to the question
(05:43):
exactly what is going on between the Ravens and Lamar Jackson.
We know that his contract is up. We know this
has been an issue all year long. It has been
from day one. The Ravens still believe he's going to
be their franchise quarterback and they're offering him a long
term deal, which Lamar Jackson, who's handling his own negotiations,
(06:04):
Lamar Jackson has rejected them. But two things I think
really stuck out over the past number of days. Number One,
Lamar Jackson did not even travel with the team to Cincinnati.
He's been there on the sideline for all these games.
He and Tyler Huntley are best friends. Wouldn't you think
(06:26):
that Lamar Jackson being on the bench to talk with
Honley wouldn't be a positive move? And yet Jackson was
nowhere to be found, and earlier in the week, Jackson
posted up his own statement on his own social media
(06:48):
about his physical condition normally the team does that? Does
that represent a split in the relationship between Jackson and
the raven Is? It sure sounds like it to me.
As for Baltimore, I've been on this bandwagon for a
(07:10):
long time. If I were a head coach in the NFL,
and I know it's surprising, I'm not, I would coach
my team to never dive over the goal line with
the ball extended, unless it's fourth down and it's your
(07:32):
last chance opportunity to win. Tyler Huntley dives over the
line on the third down play, gets it knocked loose.
Sam Harbard returns at yards for a touchdown, and because
of that, Cincinnati beats Baltimore. Could have been a tie game.
(07:57):
But aside from that mismanagement of the clock, I like
diving over the goal line create the opportunity for the fumble.
It's a bad play. One of the big surprises to
me was the Giants beating the Vikings in Minnesota. There
(08:19):
have been a lot of people talking about Minnesota's got
a good record, but they're really not that good. Um,
I don't know what that means. I know they want
a lot of close games. They were in a lot
of close games, but we don't get much of an
opportunity to see Daniel Jones play. We don't see that
(08:40):
many NFC games televised in the Pittsburgh region, and generally
Daniel Jones has been one of those game managers. Well,
I had no idea how good he was. I had
no idea how well he could run. I had no idea.
The Giant's offensive line was that good open holes for
(09:00):
sa Kwan Barkley, who I think is a top two
running back in the NFL along with Nick Chubb. That
was a surprise to me. And while we have yet
to see the number one seeds in both conferences meaning
Kansas City in Philadelphia, the best team that I saw
(09:23):
over the weekend anyway was the forty Niners. They are
really good on both sides of the ball. And for
those wondering about Brock Purty Mr Irrelevant, well with him
at quarterback, the forty Niners is six and oh maybe
more importantly, they average thirty five points per game, So
(09:47):
much for Mr Irrelevant. He's doing a pretty good job.
We're joining out by Alex Kazara. He covers the Steelers
in the NFL for Steelers Depot Alice welcome, always good
to have you on a happy New year. Um. I
was mentioning earlier that watching all these playoff teams, basically
(10:08):
all of them, they show wrinkles in their offense, create
creative type plays, um motions. Um, you know various formations
that I never see from the Steelers. Is that because
Matt Canada doesn't have that it is wherewithal or they
don't want to institute that because they're dealing with a
(10:29):
rookie quarterback. Well, Stan, I think it's a bit of both.
I don't want to blame it all on the pitfalls
of a rookie quarterback. Forty Niners. As you guys said,
the best team this weekend have a rookie quarterback at
seventh round pick. In their offense is running just fine
with a lot of creative looks and the job that
Kyle Shanahan does. I think what it came down to
Pittsburgh the back half of the year was they just
(10:51):
simply could not win games and turn the football over.
They went what won in seven this year in games
where they turned the ball over, not even one the
turnover battle just simply gained the ball away at least
one time. They lost almost every single one of those games.
And so I think Pittsburgh's blueprint to success, which really
was proven true based on their seven and two finish,
was run the ball, keep it simple, playfield position. The
(11:13):
defense is playing UM so much better and really you know,
keeping games close, competitive, keeping the score down. And so
that was why the offense became maybe even more vanilla
than it was the first half of the year, which
was not that creative to begin with, because the the essence,
the identity of this offense was to just you know,
play smart, not uh not lose the game so you
(11:34):
can try to win. It was kind of their their mentality.
Do you think that changes now as they get PICKT.
He's got, in essence, two thirds of a season UM
and by the time they kick it off for real,
he would have had a full training camp, he would
have had, you know, full o T a s mini camp.
He'll be the guy who get most of the reps.
(11:54):
It'll lead to and I think it will certainly evolve.
It may not happen all in one instant and this
team will still be primarily trying to win with their
ground approach, very similar to how it was in the
early years of Ben oh four oh five. You know,
even in Ben's second year, the the strategy didn't change
dramatically where it still was that that run heavy game
with Willie Parker, with Jerome Bettis as the short yardage back.
(12:16):
So but certainly this is a different era. This is
going into three and you look at the teams around
the NFL. Every team, the one I believe this weekend,
except for maybe one, scored you know, thirty plus points
in Pittsburgh. Didn't score more than thirty points in the
single game this season, and so, you know, taking care
of the football, ball control, those things are important, but
at some point you have to finish drives, put points
(12:38):
on the board, especially if you want to compete with
the teams you're seeing in the a f C right now.
I mean my homes Alan, Trevor, Lawrence Herbert, et cetera.
Those guys aren't going anywhere. Those guys will be playing
for their teams for the next ten plush years, Joe
Burrow and Cincinnati, and so you better be able to
have some firepower to match that beyond just a decently
(12:58):
efficient run game. Is Calvin Austin the hidden wild card here?
I mean he's a rookie's untested, he hasn't done anything.
Um really didn't have any training camp when you stop
and think about it. But I mean, could he play
a significant role in this offense or what we expect
this offense to be? Yeah, it remains to be seen.
(13:20):
Just because we saw him for two weeks and he
injured the foot and tried to come back midseason, heard
it again, had to have surgery. I mean, you know,
multiple foot injuries for a guy reliant on four three
two speeds not a great start to his career. But
we'll see what it looks like in the summer. And
I don't think he'll have an every down volume type
role in this offense. There are so many mouths to feed.
It will be run heavy. But assuming that Matt Canada
(13:42):
remains as though see which is appearing to be where
things track right now, I think he hits will into
that system to be able to run the horizontal game
and r p O s and screens and jet runs
to get out on the perimeter, to be able to
be to be that vertical downfield guy that can hopefully
create some splash plate. He maybe somebody that touches the
ball three or four times a game, but hopefully can
(14:03):
occasionally have that big splash play. This offense did not
have consistently enough this season, and so it remains to
be seen. Is still a long way to Those guys
got to play in a game to begin with. But
ideally he was drafted to be that big play threat,
and hopefully he can still be that guy. At the
very least he can create space for others whether he
gets the ball or not. It's somebody you better pay
(14:23):
attention to. I thought we'd take a trip around the
playoffs as football fans we all are, um. I thought
the games were really very entertaining, very surprising, almost all
of them closed for at least a good portion of
those games. I don't know if you got this feeling
beginning of the second half with the Jacksonville Chargers game.
(14:44):
I got the sense, Alex, I don't know, maybe you'll
concur maybe not, that the Chargers came out in the
second half and said, let's just, you know, bleed this slowly.
Let's just not do anything stupid. As we're up twenty
seven points and I I think that costs them. I mean,
I think once it began to turn against them, they
couldn't start the engine again. Yeah, I'm with you. We
(15:08):
hear about prevent defense so much. How about prevent offense
where you hurt yourself by not keeping the the your
your foot on the accelerator to really put teams away
and allow teams to get back. And I think it's
a testament to the job that the Jackson Mills done
to keep that keep that team together believing being down
twenty seven nothing and kudos to Doug Peterson um to
(15:29):
to make sure those guys didn't check out and bought in.
That's a belief in the culture that was probably in
still long before halftime of that game, back in in
the summer and whenever you first got hired. And what
a difference it's been for for the Jacks going from
Urban Meyer to to a Doug Peterson. But absolutely, I
think the Charge has probably got to conservative. Certainly. One
of the biggest criticisms that that that the Charges have
(15:49):
had all year is they have a great quarterback with
a big arm and Justin Herbert, why don't they push
the ball down field enough They've been really conservative in
that offense, and that probably hurt this team at the
decision to play Mike Williamson week a team he gets
hurt with him playing this game. So yeah, I think
probably two Chargers got scared and it's costing the game,
costing their season. Do you think it will cost the
(16:10):
head coach's job? You know, I'm mixed on that. I
think the easy answers, yes, from what I'm kind of
hearing from some of the guys that cover the Chargers
is that Steely may return. Um, I think it's just
hard to do. How do you bring that guy back?
Giving the circumstances. But um, you know, I'm not as
a tune of the charter situation as others. I guess
it could go either way, but I think it's a
(16:30):
hard it's a hard sell to bring that guy back.
Let me move on to the ball to where Cincinnati
game no particular order here. One of the things that
I've just been harping on when players try to leap
over the goal line and extend the ball to try
to get a touchdown. I think it's a bad technique.
I don't think it should be taught. I think coaches said,
(16:53):
I don't want to see anybody doing it, And here
we see Ty Huntley trying to dive over the balls
not loose and off. Sam Harvard goes, Um, Maybe that's
an easy time to mention it. But I have to
say I've been consistent about this. I just think it's
a bad play, especially on third down. If it's fourth
down and you know this is your last stab at it.
(17:16):
But this was a third down play and it wasn't necessary, right.
There are some coaches that that don't allow players to
do that. Look at what happened to Nausey Harris against
the Browns. I mean he tried to leap over and
he's done that with success earlier this year, but a
cost in that time. I know it's a it's a
curse word in Pittsburgh, but Bill Belichick's philosophy is to
never do that unless it is fourth down or it's
(17:37):
an end of game where there is no play after,
and so ball security is paramount in every single situation. Obviously,
understand the reward of just needing to break the plane,
but um, in this era of quarterback sneaks, to me,
stand was the y or the quarterback sneak in Pittsburgh
and elsewhere where it really became a constant invoked thing,
and so teams are really focusing on that more and
(17:57):
trying to combat that um goal, lying fourth one, all
those kind of situations, and so um balls security is
always the most important thing. And I would never advise
a player to to leap over the goal line unless
it was a fourth and goal or last play of
the game type moment. You know, I want to ask
you about the Ravens. I mean, obviously, um there's something
(18:18):
going on, it seems to me between the Ravens organization
and Lamar Jackson. He did not travel with the team.
He felt it necessary on his own social media to
list his injury status. That's something normally the teams do,
if they do it at all. Do you sense there's
gonna be a divorce here between the Ravens and Lamar Jackson?
(18:40):
To me stand, it is the number one question of
not just Baltimore obviously, but the entire NFL off season.
And this is one of the biggest conundrums I think
any team has had the face in quite some time.
Because you're you're pulled in in two directions. A. You know,
do you pay Jackson? A bunch of money, uh, given
the injury risk. I mean the last two years been
unavailable at the end of seasons. Back in one, this
(19:03):
team was leading the ANC nowrth Jackson gets hurt, they
collapsed down the stretch and they lose every game. They
failed to make the playoffs. This year, they limp into
the playoffs, Jackson still unavailable, they get you know, bounce
despite that competitive game. Um, but at the same time,
when Jackson's been how you've seen how much this offense
has been hurt. I mean J K. Dobbins in this
frustration was right. If Jackson was healthy and available, they
(19:26):
would have won that game. They would have beaten the Bengals.
And so there's been such a clear difference between I
think the records something like their forty five and six
team when Lamar plays in eight and thirteen when they
don't and they've won those you know games on the
ladder side because of that defense. And so if they
lose Jackson, if they were to tag and trade them,
they have to start all over. And their identity was
kind of built around what Lamar could do. So it
(19:48):
is one of the most difficult decisions I think any
team will have to make in quite some time. There
really is no ideal or really good answer to that.
You know. It's it's interesting. I always feel like that
the Ravens, no matter their circumstances, are well coached. Um,
they're gonna give you They're a tough out. You're not
(20:09):
gonna waltz in and beat them easily, even when they're
undermanned as they were. Uh. And I credit John Harball.
I think he's a good coach. And yet he's only
won one playoff game in the last eight years. Um.
Now Toman getsized criticized, justifiably so because he had won
a playoff game since two thousand seventeen. But here Hardball,
(20:33):
who I view as a good coach. I like your
thoughts on him. He has won one playoff game in
the last eight years. And we all know the payoff
is in the playoff. H It's a It's so funny
how similar Pittsburgh and Baltimore race. If they couldn't get
similar enough in terms of the playoff you know, lack
of success, And I just look at what the standard is.
(20:55):
You know, I understand if you're in Detroit, if you're
some you know team, that's that's missed out on playoff
even contention for the longest time. Maybe getting there is
good enough. And I understand how hard it is to
win the playoffs and it's one and done, and so
you know that it's a different scenario. And like baseball
and really any other sport um, but I just know
in Pittsburgh and in Baltimore, the standard is higher. It's
(21:15):
not just to make the playoffs. It isn't even just
to win the a f C. North Well, that's a
component of it. It is to have playoffs success and
and fans can get spoiled. And again, it's so much
harder to win in the NFLS and I think a
lot of fans will give uh credit for, especially in
this very tough a f C. But you've got to
have results. And you know, in Pittsburgh in particular, I
(21:36):
understand and can respect and appreciate the Mike Tomlin never
had a losing season, a strength that continued this year.
But in Pittsburgh, you know, they put trophies in trophy cases.
They wouldn't playoff games. They that that's how they make history.
That's how they're judged by, not by going nine and
eight or not just making the playoffs. It's the same
in Baltimore, So you know, I understand the difficulty of it,
(21:57):
but certainly I think both teams are looking at themselves.
You know, we have to be more than what we've
been over the last decade. You know, we haven't seen
the Eagles or Chiefs yet. That will come this weekend.
But to me, the forty Niners look like the most balanced,
well rounded, um, overall best team that I've seen those far.
And I realized they were playing Seattle, that's not the point.
(22:20):
I mean, you can just see how strong they are
on both sides of the ball. Yeah, they're gonna be
a tough out. Now, my preseason prediction one I don't.
I'm really bad at the predictions stand. But one thing
I think I've gotten a pretty good field was my
preseason Super Bowl prediction was Bills over Eagles. I'm gonna
stick with that one for now. Um, but it probably
will come down to two Niners Eagles in the championship game. Maybe,
(22:42):
you know, Bill's Chiefs will will play again in the
A f C side of things. But I think certainly
what the forty Niners have done, I mean, it felt
like once Garoppolo went down their season was done, and
the resiliency they've shown, and it's really kind of exemplifies
that when you have a plan, when you have an identity,
when you know who are and how you win, you
can absorb and handle and bounce back from even losing
(23:03):
you know, multiple quarterbacks in the season like they have
with Trey Lance, Andrew and Jimmy Garoppolo. And so it's
a really testament to what makes Kyle Shanna and one
of the best coaches in football. It is a really
well run offense and that defense is just fantastic. I
mean you've got you know, bos off the edge and uh,
their linebacker corps is among the best in football. So
it's really a complete team and they know who they are,
(23:24):
they know how they win, and if you have those components,
you can succeed in the NFL. It's interesting because, um,
the guy who's most credited with building that defense, Robert Salo,
is now head coach of the Jets, and yet they
just continue to be Um, we you know, we think
about their offense primarily, but they continue to be just
(23:45):
excellent on defense. Yeah, I mean, they're their linebacker play. Now.
Some people will talk about how that's an overvalued positions
kind of the running back of the offense. But you
have Fred Warner there, you have Green Law there. I mean,
those are really good cover guys and it is so
hard to find those complete, eat every down off ball linebackers.
Certainly Pittsburgh has been looking for a long time since
Ryan Jays here and to have those kind of guys
(24:06):
that offer so much defensive versatility and coverage against the
run to really kind of build your defense around with
that great front they have. Um yeah, I know that
the offense is going to be talked about so much
in San Francisco with the job that brock Purty stilling,
and he's doing a good job overall. You got George
Kittle at tight end with Debot Samuel Opers in the
run games so much versatility. But defensively, I mean that
(24:27):
is why this team is good, is as good as
it is because that defense is among the best, if
not the best, in football. Yeah, they're um uh, they're
a good team to watch. And again they're they're going
with a Brock Purty quarterback and yet you still see
some of those creative elements that I just don't see. Well,
(24:48):
every team has some uh, the Steelers don't have as many,
it seems to me. Maybe that's just a work in progress.
Alex is always good to talk football with you. I
appreciate your input. We'll talk again very soon. Thank you.
Take care. Okay, that's Alex Kazura. Check them out at
Alex Underscore Kazura, ko z O r A and you
(25:10):
just work for Steelers dot com. Really great analysis and
all his work. All set for this weekend's games. Saturday
at four thirty Eastern time, it'll be Jacksonville, Kansas City.
Then Saturday night it'll be the Giants of Philadelphia divisional
match up. There Sunday's games three o'clock Cincinnati and Buffalo,
(25:33):
and the forty Niners will host the final playoff game
of the weekend on Sunday evening. Don't forget you can
listen to me daily on ESPN Pittsburgh seventy am. Will
just download the I Heart Media att Itsbury. You can
listen to me that right The savan on Steelers podcast
available to you at Steelers dot com. Thanks for listening
(25:55):
this time along. I'm Stan Savran. Thanks so much for
being with us.
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