December 12, 2022 • 21 mins
Stan discusses how the Steelers were left shorthanded when Mitch Trubisky filled in for Kenny Pickett and threw three interceptions on the day. Stan is joined by Charlie Batch to hear his thoughts on Mitch Trubisky's performance and the struggles by the defense against the run.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
But here you are, quite frankly, with the opportunity or
situation where you can be eliminated before prisoners. What are
the players gonna do? Are they gonna step up? Are
they gonna finish out this year strong? That's why she's
finished and fight. This is Saffering on Steelers. Hello, and
are welcome to all in Steelers Nation. Welcome to the
Savann Steelers Podcast. We are here twice weekly with new posts.
(00:24):
You can find us at Steelers dot com. And if
you have found us and enjoyed the content, please plead
the word ron a, family, friends, neighbors, and whoever you
think might be interested in some non talk Steeler talk,
nothing but Steeler talk. A very, very disappointing day for
(00:44):
the Steelers on Sunday against Baltimore, not only because they
were playing a division rival, but because it gave a
chance to put on display all the talk about us
being a playoff team. We have a chance to prove
that now. Even with a win yesterday, it might not
have manifested itself into a playoff spot, but it would
(01:05):
have been three wins in a row. It would have
put them just a game out of being in the
wild card spot. With a fairly weak scheduled down the road,
and yet when the Rubber met the road, they weren't
there every conceivable opportunity, and there were considerable opportunities for
(01:26):
them to go ahead and end this and put them
in a different category of being a legitimate playoff team.
It ended all on the field at Actress Your Stadium.
It's often been said that football games give or tak
her about a hundred and thirty snaps, and about a
(01:49):
hundred and thirty of those snaps, ten will decide the game.
The other ones wanting those speak flit six six, but
the other ten who wins. The balance of those will
likely determine the outcome of the game. And we saw
(02:11):
in the biggest of moments, we saw the Ravens win
the battle. I'm not saying the Steelers shrunk from the challenge.
They're just not good enough to meet the challenge. And
that was the case on Sunday. They're in driving, driving
(02:38):
for scoring position, in scoring position already, and yet two
of the three interceptions thrown by Mr Robiski came in
the red zone. You're already there. You've got a reliable kicker,
and I know, yes, I know, Chris Boswell was coming
off an injury, but you've got to figure that you're
(03:01):
okay with him kicking field goals, not that you want
to settle for them, but you certainly can't settle for
getting zero points. And there was a lot of talk
about the Steelers running game getting better, and by the
eye tests they were, by the stats, they were, But
(03:23):
the only question was how much better would they be
against the visional rival and against a legitimate a f
C playoff team, And the answer comes, they're short. They
(03:46):
pile up some nice numbers running, for example, against New Orleans,
against Indie, against the Falcons, but now we see what
happened against the Ravens, and the logical conclusion is that
they piled up rushing yardage base largely on who they played,
(04:10):
not how good the Steelers were. I mean absolutely, absolutely,
always got a factor in the level of opposition, and
it looked good against those teams, but you don't see
(04:32):
teams like that in the playoffs, and so it was
a false indication of who they truly are and what
they truly are. Defensively, they had every opportunity to make
a stop and did not make it. Reminiscent of the
Jets game when they needed one more shot to win
(04:54):
the game, no guarantee they would have, but the defense
let him down m And the defense let him down
yesterday as well, and whatever success they had in stopping
the run minimal gains once again came up short against
(05:17):
a really good running team. They had ample opportunities to
get off the field, especially around the two minute warning.
Now again there's no guarantee they would have been able
to do anything with the ball, but at least they
would have had a chance. And yet they failed. And
(05:43):
even though they were moving up the defense against the
run charts, moving all the way up to seventh in
the NFL, it turns out that it was more a
byproduct of who they were playing. Then how good they are,
a lot of work to be done there. As for Trabinsky,
(06:04):
when he called it came out of the game, I thought, so,
this is a chance for this guy to show the
Steelers brass that they made a mistake, that they should
never have benched him. But Trabinsky was not able to
complete the deal. He moved the team, and he certainly
(06:31):
seems more aggressive, more assertive, but there are limits to that.
You've gotta be smart about the throws, he maneuvered them
into scoring position, but two turnovers in the red zone.
The other one they had a ball at the the
(06:52):
the Ravens forty six, he threw a pick there and
then of course beyond the quarterbacking there's the block field goal. Now,
maybe if that field goal is not blocked, and assuming
Boswell makes it, that changes the strategy for the Ravens
probably would have changed it. But not even getting an
(07:21):
opportunity in those three circumstances killed their chances and ruined
the opportunity they had to turn what has to provide
(07:42):
for offense on this team. In other words, they're gonna
be a field goal team. They're gonna rely on Boswell
a great deal. All you have to do is get
into field position and don't turn it over. They turned
it over, which begs the conversation. If the NFL says
to Kenny Pickett, no, we're not going to release you
(08:03):
from the protocol and he's not recovered in time to
play Sunday in Carolina, do you go back to Mr
Robinski after he blew his chance to show management in
the entire NFL that he got a raw deal, or
do you go back to well, not even go back
to but go to Mitch Robinsky and say no thanks,
(08:25):
but go to Mason Rudolph. He hasn't done anything to
earn your ire. I think the die has been cast
with Steelers and Mason Rudolph. I think they showed exactly
what they think of him during the off season. Number one,
(08:47):
they didn't extend a contract his contract. Number two, they
signed Mitch Drabinsky, They drafted Kenny Pickett and another quarterback,
and then when they got to Latrobe, Mason Rudolph didn't
get the first team reps. So that may present a
dilemma going down the line as to who will start
(09:09):
in Charlotte. My guests, if Kenny Pickett is clear, he'll play.
But the league should be more concerned about concussions. And
they've shown they've given a lot of lift service to it,
but I don't know if they've actually addressed it. Charlie
(09:31):
batcheck Horse is my partner on the Steelers post game show.
He also joins me Monday on my show on ESPN
Pittsburgh and Charlie course a veteran of Super Bowl teams
and teams that came close. So after their film study
on Monday, Charlie, what's that room gonna be, like, what
(09:52):
kind of atmosphere they'll be knowing at the playoffs are
out of the question. Yeah. I mean, as you start
out with the positive, you say, of the guys were
not that far off. We've been talking about this the
entire year. Then you just started looking at statues, you say, hey,
sat wise, we operate well out in total offense. We
outperformed them there with the third down completion, red zone.
(10:12):
Everything was better in that perspective. And then when you
look at the flip side, you say, we gave up
over two on a yard Russian. But the key factor
in this game was those three turn turnovers, two of
them in the red zone, and that ultimately was the
difference maker. Yeah, you can now get rid of the
two turnovers and say, wait, what about the other phase
of it? Special teams? It was it was really it
(10:33):
was a wash up until that block field goal and
when that field didn't happen. Ultimately, when you see a
two point loss, all of those things could directly that
are directly related as a race to why you didn't
win a game. And that's why they're kicking themselves here today.
As they watched that film. Yeah, undoubtedly. Um, how does
the team respond, I mean that's a question we won't know. Um,
but you know, really what is ahead for them if
(10:55):
generally most of the players on this team believe that,
you know, being in playoff content is generally what's ahead
of them. Yeah, at this point, the message in that
locker room is fight. You know, we don't know. We
can't control everything that's going on. Yes, we're less there
was less than tempera cent coming into this game is
probably less than five percent as it relates to potential
playoffs talk. So Tom and now is going to say
(11:16):
fight until the end, until we're mathematically eliminated. Then on
the flip side, you're gonna have position coaches that will
have honest conversations with their groups and they're gonna say, guys,
we don't know what the future holds. But all I
know is we're all being evaluated and coach coaching included
that we now in these last four games, we have
to prove what you know, that we belong that as
(11:36):
it relates to on this roster for this season and
now we're outditioning for what can be like. So you're
just encouraging your guys, if you're the assistant coaches that
finish out this year strong, because we're all being evaluated. Well,
it's interesting, um that you mentioned that, because as they
move forward, let's assume when there are four games to play,
(11:58):
Let's assume that Kenney Pickett is not cleared from the
concussion protocol and thus is unavailable to play Sunday in Charlotte.
Do they go back to Drew Whisky or do they
give Mason Rudolf a shot? Well, I mean, if you
could go back a few months ago when this decision
was mazed, then I was one of the one the
first ones to come out and I said, if you're
(12:18):
making a move of this magnitude, you ultimately have to
make Drobiski your three and and move Mason Rudolf up
to the number two. And now you're starting to see, Okay,
what does what is it gonna look like at this
particular point, because now you're in you know, you're unsure
what Mr Bisky went to the table. He's gonna want
another opportunity, But yet the organization has proved that they
(12:40):
don't even want Mason Rudolph. And based off the move
that they made, the entire off season and now here,
all of a sudden, now they're sitting back saying, well,
all those things that we didn't that we said in
the ass, we didn't necessarily mean Mason, come on out
here and see if you can save the day this
week and that light there's going to be an opportunity
for Mason this week, assuming that there is a potential
(13:03):
you know, quarterback controversy as we're based this week, because
again we won't have the answer Tomorrow's or Mike Thomas
press conference. This will linger on during the course of
the week and everybody that will be at practice will
be paying attention to how the starter reps are gonna
be unfolded. But if I'm Mason rudolf I'm preparing to
play this week and hopefully he gets the nod, and
if he does, he better go out there and perform
because quite frankly, he's gonna be playing for his National
(13:25):
Football League career. Well, we uh virtually on the same
page here on what the Steelers thought of Mason rudolph
Um and they don't think much of them, not personally
but as a quarterback. Because last year, when Ben retires,
he should have in the heir apparent. But what do
they do. They didn't extend Mason Rudolph, let him play
out this year to become a free agent. They go
(13:47):
ahead and not only do they draft, can you pick
up a draft another guy? Um? They go out and
signed Mr. Robinski. Um, haven't they already made up their
mind about Mason Rudolph. They made it up and you
you bring three people in here to essentially replace him,
to make it as if he's in the potential quarterback battle.
When they headed in the training camp, that was nulling, boy,
because if you've been at training camp, he didn't receive
(14:09):
any starter reps. He was only running with the number two.
And it wasn't until the second Jazz preseason game against
the Jaguars that Kenny Pickett really ultimately took that step
and leap frog Mason Rudolph and then put him back
into the third group and essentially been running the scout
team ever since. So you're right, the organization they showed
their card. But for him, that's the business of it.
(14:30):
You can't control the business side of it. And listen,
I've been in Mason Rudolph situation before. If you go
back in I was I was promised that I was
gonna get an opportunity to you know, compete for their
starting job, and I was when Ben was suspended that year,
but everything went to Doron left which everything else went
to that Dennis Dixon. And here I was just sitting
(14:50):
near holding the clipboard essentially and saying, Okay, I'm just
waiting for my time, and then all of a sudden,
injuries happened with Byron Leftwich, thenis Dixon, and then there
I was star against Tampa Bay in and we ultimately
won that game. Uh was like thirty eight to ten
or something like that. And it was one of those
things again to Mason's in situation is get didn't you get?
(15:11):
Put it out there? Is if you didn't want me,
but yet I'm the only man standing. And that's essentially
what Mason could do in this particular situation. He can
write this ship. It may not necessarily be for this organization,
but if he wants to play in this league, and
if you think that he's a starter, he may have
the opportunity to do so this week. But either way
he would be competing for a backup job somewhere. So
(15:32):
this week is it may not be important to some,
but it's gonna be very important to Mason Rudolph if
he gets to start today or this week. Yeah, Um,
if Kenny Pickett gets cleared, um, do you put him
right back in there, assuming that medically he's okay? Or
do you given the state of the offensive line, Um,
do you say we're gonna protect our asset here or
(15:54):
do you get back in and say, hey, this would
be another four games experience for him. Well, it's gonna
be an interesting situation for the medical staff, and I
know those guys are gonna be meeting wholeheartedly because if
you remember when he got knocked out in the Tampa
Bay game with the concussion, and then he came back
in the Miami game, and of course that was a
big conversation because what Tour was going through coming back
from his concussion too soon. Now you have a second
(16:16):
concussion protocol that he is entering into and people were
now questioned should he even have went back into yesterday's game.
So it's gonna be really interesting to see what the
medical staff does in this particular situation, because sometimes that
second concussion is worse than the first one. So it's
a long answer to say, I just don't know, but
you know, we have really good doctors on the team,
(16:38):
on the Steeler's medical staff, and I'm gonna, you know,
kind of lean towards their decisions as it relates to it.
But it's going to be very interesting following this week.
As you and I have discussed repeatedly, Um, the Steelers
refused to use the rebuild word. Um. Do you think
this finally, Joe, it's the game like yesterday where they
(16:58):
were and many opportunities is doin the game converting on
any one of key plays? They did not. They failed
virtually in every single one. Do you think that if
indeed there was this thought process in the new management
group that hey we'll just you know, add a guy here,
had a guy there, will continue to be contenders. Do
you think that this loss to Baltimore was so illustrative
(17:20):
of their shortcomings that they're not going to change your philosophy?
You would think that they're not going to change you,
but I promise you to the mental makeup of this
team is going to be tested. You know, it's one
thing physically, but mentally, you know, how do you go
about doing it? Because this is you know, new times
that this organization has been in for many players, they
have not been out of the playoffs since Christmas, before
(17:42):
before Christmas. But here you are, quite frankly, with the
opportunity or situation where you can be eliminated before Christmas.
What are their players gonna do? Are they gonna step up?
Are they gonna finish out this year strong? That's why
you finish and fight. But earlier when I answered the question,
because you have some veterans, I could just say, you
want to know what. I don't want to get hurt.
I don't want to spend my offseason rehabbing. So I'm
(18:03):
only gonna give you eighty percent of what's required out there.
And you might have evening you're gonna look at some
of the rookie guys to say, Okay, you're out of
the playoffs, how are you gonna fight? How are you
gonna to prove your value on whether you're being worthy
to bring back in three? So it's a combination of
u for both parties on this team. And we're all
want to see with the performance because even though you
(18:25):
look at Carolina side that's a bad team, Well, they're
probably looking on the other side and say the Steelers
are a bad team. So if you know you're gonna
get one of their best, because they have an interim
coach who's looking to now get to remove the interim
behind his title or in front of his title so
he can become the permanent head coach. If you know
you're gonna they're gonna fight in Carolina. So if this
team is overlooking anybody, they can't afford to do it,
(18:45):
and they better be up to play their best performance
this week. Well, as you stop and think about it, um,
the fact that they were not able to rise to
the occasion um, either offensively or defensively yesterday. Um, the
(19:05):
do you does that tell you what they are? That's
that's what five and eight teams do. They they you know,
they get to a certain point, but they can't go
any further because they're talent for whatever reason will allow
them to. Um. Is that the stark realization that I'm
talking about. They're just not good enough? Yeah, they're not
They're not talented enough because there's not much motivation you
(19:26):
can have for that game. Everybody knows this rivalry week
is Ravens week, But you didn't have the or around that.
You didn't have this the national televised game. You didn't
have everybody talking about this particular game in the in
the manner that I've been talked about before. But yet
these guys were watching this ribbalry prior to them joining
this Steelers team, and for them to not be able
(19:47):
to rise to the occasion knowing that you now need
to win your division? Can you get ready for the
Bengals who knew the Ravens were at the back into
the sketule that could ultimately determine what the who the
division winner is. But yet you're lay an egg essentially,
and you're not able to do that at home. That's
the frustrating part. And for these veterans who have been
around working so hard, to Cam Hayworth, who've been around
(20:07):
now for twelve years, and you look at you sit
back and say, man, how come we couldn't do this?
And what is the hope? What does the future look
like for this entire organization right now? All of those
questions remain to be seen because right now we're still
trying to figure all of this out. And this is
just you know, I'm just a headscratcher, and you can't
win this game that lets you know, Okay, this team
isn't even deemed worthy enough to potentially talk playoffs talk.
(20:31):
All right, there you go, Charlie. Thank you for all
the good work you do. Thanks for being here. We'll
see a Sunday afternoon. I appreciate it. Thank you, all right, Charlie.
Thanks very much to Charlie Batts, my co host on
the Steelers postgame show on the Steelers Radio Network. That's
it for today's podcast. Reminder. You can hear my show
daily from noon until two on the ESPN Pittsburgh. All
(20:52):
you have to do is download the I Heart Media
apples free. It's there for you every single day. Please
tell your friends about the sabean on Steelers podcast. If
you've already found at Steelers dot com, we'll talk to
you next time on sabran on Steelers
But here you are, quite frankly, with the opportunity or
situation where you can be eliminated before prisoners. What are
the players gonna do? Are they gonna step up? Are
they gonna finish out this year strong? That's why she's
finished and fight. This is Saffering on Steelers. Hello, and
are welcome to all in Steelers Nation. Welcome to the
Savann Steelers Podcast. We are here twice weekly with new posts.
(00:24):
You can find us at Steelers dot com. And if
you have found us and enjoyed the content, please plead
the word ron a, family, friends, neighbors, and whoever you
think might be interested in some non talk Steeler talk,
nothing but Steeler talk. A very, very disappointing day for
(00:44):
the Steelers on Sunday against Baltimore, not only because they
were playing a division rival, but because it gave a
chance to put on display all the talk about us
being a playoff team. We have a chance to prove
that now. Even with a win yesterday, it might not
have manifested itself into a playoff spot, but it would
(01:05):
have been three wins in a row. It would have
put them just a game out of being in the
wild card spot. With a fairly weak scheduled down the road,
and yet when the Rubber met the road, they weren't
there every conceivable opportunity, and there were considerable opportunities for
(01:26):
them to go ahead and end this and put them
in a different category of being a legitimate playoff team.
It ended all on the field at Actress Your Stadium.
It's often been said that football games give or tak
her about a hundred and thirty snaps, and about a
(01:49):
hundred and thirty of those snaps, ten will decide the game.
The other ones wanting those speak flit six six, but
the other ten who wins. The balance of those will
likely determine the outcome of the game. And we saw
(02:11):
in the biggest of moments, we saw the Ravens win
the battle. I'm not saying the Steelers shrunk from the challenge.
They're just not good enough to meet the challenge. And
that was the case on Sunday. They're in driving, driving
(02:38):
for scoring position, in scoring position already, and yet two
of the three interceptions thrown by Mr Robiski came in
the red zone. You're already there. You've got a reliable kicker,
and I know, yes, I know, Chris Boswell was coming
off an injury, but you've got to figure that you're
(03:01):
okay with him kicking field goals, not that you want
to settle for them, but you certainly can't settle for
getting zero points. And there was a lot of talk
about the Steelers running game getting better, and by the
eye tests they were, by the stats, they were, But
(03:23):
the only question was how much better would they be
against the visional rival and against a legitimate a f
C playoff team, And the answer comes, they're short. They
(03:46):
pile up some nice numbers running, for example, against New Orleans,
against Indie, against the Falcons, but now we see what
happened against the Ravens, and the logical conclusion is that
they piled up rushing yardage base largely on who they played,
(04:10):
not how good the Steelers were. I mean absolutely, absolutely,
always got a factor in the level of opposition, and
it looked good against those teams, but you don't see
(04:32):
teams like that in the playoffs, and so it was
a false indication of who they truly are and what
they truly are. Defensively, they had every opportunity to make
a stop and did not make it. Reminiscent of the
Jets game when they needed one more shot to win
(04:54):
the game, no guarantee they would have, but the defense
let him down m And the defense let him down
yesterday as well, and whatever success they had in stopping
the run minimal gains once again came up short against
(05:17):
a really good running team. They had ample opportunities to
get off the field, especially around the two minute warning.
Now again there's no guarantee they would have been able
to do anything with the ball, but at least they
would have had a chance. And yet they failed. And
(05:43):
even though they were moving up the defense against the
run charts, moving all the way up to seventh in
the NFL, it turns out that it was more a
byproduct of who they were playing. Then how good they are,
a lot of work to be done there. As for Trabinsky,
(06:04):
when he called it came out of the game, I thought, so,
this is a chance for this guy to show the
Steelers brass that they made a mistake, that they should
never have benched him. But Trabinsky was not able to
complete the deal. He moved the team, and he certainly
(06:31):
seems more aggressive, more assertive, but there are limits to that.
You've gotta be smart about the throws, he maneuvered them
into scoring position, but two turnovers in the red zone.
The other one they had a ball at the the
(06:52):
the Ravens forty six, he threw a pick there and
then of course beyond the quarterbacking there's the block field goal. Now,
maybe if that field goal is not blocked, and assuming
Boswell makes it, that changes the strategy for the Ravens
probably would have changed it. But not even getting an
(07:21):
opportunity in those three circumstances killed their chances and ruined
the opportunity they had to turn what has to provide
(07:42):
for offense on this team. In other words, they're gonna
be a field goal team. They're gonna rely on Boswell
a great deal. All you have to do is get
into field position and don't turn it over. They turned
it over, which begs the conversation. If the NFL says
to Kenny Pickett, no, we're not going to release you
(08:03):
from the protocol and he's not recovered in time to
play Sunday in Carolina, do you go back to Mr
Robinski after he blew his chance to show management in
the entire NFL that he got a raw deal, or
do you go back to well, not even go back
to but go to Mitch Robinsky and say no thanks,
(08:25):
but go to Mason Rudolph. He hasn't done anything to
earn your ire. I think the die has been cast
with Steelers and Mason Rudolph. I think they showed exactly
what they think of him during the off season. Number one,
(08:47):
they didn't extend a contract his contract. Number two, they
signed Mitch Drabinsky, They drafted Kenny Pickett and another quarterback,
and then when they got to Latrobe, Mason Rudolph didn't
get the first team reps. So that may present a
dilemma going down the line as to who will start
(09:09):
in Charlotte. My guests, if Kenny Pickett is clear, he'll play.
But the league should be more concerned about concussions. And
they've shown they've given a lot of lift service to it,
but I don't know if they've actually addressed it. Charlie
(09:31):
batcheck Horse is my partner on the Steelers post game show.
He also joins me Monday on my show on ESPN
Pittsburgh and Charlie course a veteran of Super Bowl teams
and teams that came close. So after their film study
on Monday, Charlie, what's that room gonna be, like, what
(09:52):
kind of atmosphere they'll be knowing at the playoffs are
out of the question. Yeah. I mean, as you start
out with the positive, you say, of the guys were
not that far off. We've been talking about this the
entire year. Then you just started looking at statues, you say, hey,
sat wise, we operate well out in total offense. We
outperformed them there with the third down completion, red zone.
(10:12):
Everything was better in that perspective. And then when you
look at the flip side, you say, we gave up
over two on a yard Russian. But the key factor
in this game was those three turn turnovers, two of
them in the red zone, and that ultimately was the
difference maker. Yeah, you can now get rid of the
two turnovers and say, wait, what about the other phase
of it? Special teams? It was it was really it
(10:33):
was a wash up until that block field goal and
when that field didn't happen. Ultimately, when you see a
two point loss, all of those things could directly that
are directly related as a race to why you didn't
win a game. And that's why they're kicking themselves here today.
As they watched that film. Yeah, undoubtedly. Um, how does
the team respond, I mean that's a question we won't know. Um,
but you know, really what is ahead for them if
(10:55):
generally most of the players on this team believe that,
you know, being in playoff content is generally what's ahead
of them. Yeah, at this point, the message in that
locker room is fight. You know, we don't know. We
can't control everything that's going on. Yes, we're less there
was less than tempera cent coming into this game is
probably less than five percent as it relates to potential
playoffs talk. So Tom and now is going to say
(11:16):
fight until the end, until we're mathematically eliminated. Then on
the flip side, you're gonna have position coaches that will
have honest conversations with their groups and they're gonna say, guys,
we don't know what the future holds. But all I
know is we're all being evaluated and coach coaching included
that we now in these last four games, we have
to prove what you know, that we belong that as
(11:36):
it relates to on this roster for this season and
now we're outditioning for what can be like. So you're
just encouraging your guys, if you're the assistant coaches that
finish out this year strong, because we're all being evaluated. Well,
it's interesting, um that you mentioned that, because as they
move forward, let's assume when there are four games to play,
(11:58):
Let's assume that Kenney Pickett is not cleared from the
concussion protocol and thus is unavailable to play Sunday in Charlotte.
Do they go back to Drew Whisky or do they
give Mason Rudolf a shot? Well, I mean, if you
could go back a few months ago when this decision
was mazed, then I was one of the one the
first ones to come out and I said, if you're
(12:18):
making a move of this magnitude, you ultimately have to
make Drobiski your three and and move Mason Rudolf up
to the number two. And now you're starting to see, Okay,
what does what is it gonna look like at this
particular point, because now you're in you know, you're unsure
what Mr Bisky went to the table. He's gonna want
another opportunity, But yet the organization has proved that they
(12:40):
don't even want Mason Rudolph. And based off the move
that they made, the entire off season and now here,
all of a sudden, now they're sitting back saying, well,
all those things that we didn't that we said in
the ass, we didn't necessarily mean Mason, come on out
here and see if you can save the day this
week and that light there's going to be an opportunity
for Mason this week, assuming that there is a potential
(13:03):
you know, quarterback controversy as we're based this week, because
again we won't have the answer Tomorrow's or Mike Thomas
press conference. This will linger on during the course of
the week and everybody that will be at practice will
be paying attention to how the starter reps are gonna
be unfolded. But if I'm Mason rudolf I'm preparing to
play this week and hopefully he gets the nod, and
if he does, he better go out there and perform
because quite frankly, he's gonna be playing for his National
(13:25):
Football League career. Well, we uh virtually on the same
page here on what the Steelers thought of Mason rudolph
Um and they don't think much of them, not personally
but as a quarterback. Because last year, when Ben retires,
he should have in the heir apparent. But what do
they do. They didn't extend Mason Rudolph, let him play
out this year to become a free agent. They go
(13:47):
ahead and not only do they draft, can you pick
up a draft another guy? Um? They go out and
signed Mr. Robinski. Um, haven't they already made up their
mind about Mason Rudolph. They made it up and you
you bring three people in here to essentially replace him,
to make it as if he's in the potential quarterback battle.
When they headed in the training camp, that was nulling, boy,
because if you've been at training camp, he didn't receive
(14:09):
any starter reps. He was only running with the number two.
And it wasn't until the second Jazz preseason game against
the Jaguars that Kenny Pickett really ultimately took that step
and leap frog Mason Rudolph and then put him back
into the third group and essentially been running the scout
team ever since. So you're right, the organization they showed
their card. But for him, that's the business of it.
(14:30):
You can't control the business side of it. And listen,
I've been in Mason Rudolph situation before. If you go
back in I was I was promised that I was
gonna get an opportunity to you know, compete for their
starting job, and I was when Ben was suspended that year,
but everything went to Doron left which everything else went
to that Dennis Dixon. And here I was just sitting
(14:50):
near holding the clipboard essentially and saying, Okay, I'm just
waiting for my time, and then all of a sudden,
injuries happened with Byron Leftwich, thenis Dixon, and then there
I was star against Tampa Bay in and we ultimately
won that game. Uh was like thirty eight to ten
or something like that. And it was one of those
things again to Mason's in situation is get didn't you get?
(15:11):
Put it out there? Is if you didn't want me,
but yet I'm the only man standing. And that's essentially
what Mason could do in this particular situation. He can
write this ship. It may not necessarily be for this organization,
but if he wants to play in this league, and
if you think that he's a starter, he may have
the opportunity to do so this week. But either way
he would be competing for a backup job somewhere. So
(15:32):
this week is it may not be important to some,
but it's gonna be very important to Mason Rudolph if
he gets to start today or this week. Yeah, Um,
if Kenny Pickett gets cleared, um, do you put him
right back in there, assuming that medically he's okay? Or
do you given the state of the offensive line, Um,
do you say we're gonna protect our asset here or
(15:54):
do you get back in and say, hey, this would
be another four games experience for him. Well, it's gonna
be an interesting situation for the medical staff, and I
know those guys are gonna be meeting wholeheartedly because if
you remember when he got knocked out in the Tampa
Bay game with the concussion, and then he came back
in the Miami game, and of course that was a
big conversation because what Tour was going through coming back
from his concussion too soon. Now you have a second
(16:16):
concussion protocol that he is entering into and people were
now questioned should he even have went back into yesterday's game.
So it's gonna be really interesting to see what the
medical staff does in this particular situation, because sometimes that
second concussion is worse than the first one. So it's
a long answer to say, I just don't know, but
you know, we have really good doctors on the team,
(16:38):
on the Steeler's medical staff, and I'm gonna, you know,
kind of lean towards their decisions as it relates to it.
But it's going to be very interesting following this week.
As you and I have discussed repeatedly, Um, the Steelers
refused to use the rebuild word. Um. Do you think
this finally, Joe, it's the game like yesterday where they
(16:58):
were and many opportunities is doin the game converting on
any one of key plays? They did not. They failed
virtually in every single one. Do you think that if
indeed there was this thought process in the new management
group that hey we'll just you know, add a guy here,
had a guy there, will continue to be contenders. Do
you think that this loss to Baltimore was so illustrative
(17:20):
of their shortcomings that they're not going to change your philosophy?
You would think that they're not going to change you,
but I promise you to the mental makeup of this
team is going to be tested. You know, it's one
thing physically, but mentally, you know, how do you go
about doing it? Because this is you know, new times
that this organization has been in for many players, they
have not been out of the playoffs since Christmas, before
(17:42):
before Christmas. But here you are, quite frankly, with the
opportunity or situation where you can be eliminated before Christmas.
What are their players gonna do? Are they gonna step up?
Are they gonna finish out this year strong? That's why
you finish and fight. But earlier when I answered the question,
because you have some veterans, I could just say, you
want to know what. I don't want to get hurt.
I don't want to spend my offseason rehabbing. So I'm
(18:03):
only gonna give you eighty percent of what's required out there.
And you might have evening you're gonna look at some
of the rookie guys to say, Okay, you're out of
the playoffs, how are you gonna fight? How are you
gonna to prove your value on whether you're being worthy
to bring back in three? So it's a combination of
u for both parties on this team. And we're all
want to see with the performance because even though you
(18:25):
look at Carolina side that's a bad team, Well, they're
probably looking on the other side and say the Steelers
are a bad team. So if you know you're gonna
get one of their best, because they have an interim
coach who's looking to now get to remove the interim
behind his title or in front of his title so
he can become the permanent head coach. If you know
you're gonna they're gonna fight in Carolina. So if this
team is overlooking anybody, they can't afford to do it,
(18:45):
and they better be up to play their best performance
this week. Well, as you stop and think about it, um,
the fact that they were not able to rise to
the occasion um, either offensively or defensively yesterday. Um, the
(19:05):
do you does that tell you what they are? That's
that's what five and eight teams do. They they you know,
they get to a certain point, but they can't go
any further because they're talent for whatever reason will allow
them to. Um. Is that the stark realization that I'm
talking about. They're just not good enough? Yeah, they're not
They're not talented enough because there's not much motivation you
(19:26):
can have for that game. Everybody knows this rivalry week
is Ravens week, But you didn't have the or around that.
You didn't have this the national televised game. You didn't
have everybody talking about this particular game in the in
the manner that I've been talked about before. But yet
these guys were watching this ribbalry prior to them joining
this Steelers team, and for them to not be able
(19:47):
to rise to the occasion knowing that you now need
to win your division? Can you get ready for the
Bengals who knew the Ravens were at the back into
the sketule that could ultimately determine what the who the
division winner is. But yet you're lay an egg essentially,
and you're not able to do that at home. That's
the frustrating part. And for these veterans who have been
around working so hard, to Cam Hayworth, who've been around
(20:07):
now for twelve years, and you look at you sit
back and say, man, how come we couldn't do this?
And what is the hope? What does the future look
like for this entire organization right now? All of those
questions remain to be seen because right now we're still
trying to figure all of this out. And this is
just you know, I'm just a headscratcher, and you can't
win this game that lets you know, Okay, this team
isn't even deemed worthy enough to potentially talk playoffs talk.
(20:31):
All right, there you go, Charlie. Thank you for all
the good work you do. Thanks for being here. We'll
see a Sunday afternoon. I appreciate it. Thank you, all right, Charlie.
Thanks very much to Charlie Batts, my co host on
the Steelers postgame show on the Steelers Radio Network. That's
it for today's podcast. Reminder. You can hear my show
daily from noon until two on the ESPN Pittsburgh. All
(20:52):
you have to do is download the I Heart Media
apples free. It's there for you every single day. Please
tell your friends about the sabean on Steelers podcast. If
you've already found at Steelers dot com, we'll talk to
you next time on sabran on Steelers
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