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December 1, 2021 • 16 mins
Mike Prisuta and Bob Labriola are back with another edition of Agree to Disagree, the show where I'm right and he's wrong. They take a look at topics surrounding the Steelers and Ravens matchup this coming Sunday

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Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is agreed to disagree with Mike and Bob Labriola.
Do you hear what I hear? That's right? Quiet silence.
You want music, dial up some Simon and garfocals, specifically
the sound of silence, because this is what it sounds

(00:23):
like when you're ready to do agree to disagree to
show with the bottom right, He's wrong, Labs. We're all
business here. We're not. Uh, we're not gonna have any
background singers or a horn section or anything of the sort.
We're not gonna have any fun. No, we're gonna get
to When you said, do you hear what I here?

(00:44):
I thought we were gonna start singing Christmas songs. Yeah,
we'll see. That's how this was. That was part of
the clever nature of the open. And it's that time
of year, but for the Steelers, it's not the most
wonderful time of year. It's definitely not because they're getting
they're in a sock full of coal right now, just
one sockful maybe, Yeah, somebody with really big feet up

(01:10):
over the knee to Yeah, it was pretty ugly in
Cincinnati on Sunday forty one to ten. Uh, what do
you do about that? Well, you know you might want
to change a whole lot, but Labs, there really isn't
a great deal. Mike Tomlin can do agree or disagree.
I'm gonna disagree with that. I think that what we're

(01:32):
gonna see. And this is my forecast for Sunday's game
against Ravens. Uh, We're gonna see some different bodies on
the offensive line. You know what we've already seen so
far this week. And you know you've been around Mike
Tomlin for every year of his tenure with the Steelers,

(01:52):
and so you know his disdain for depth charts. There
was a change to the depth chart. Isaiah Bugs was
demoted from starting those tackle So to me, ding ding
dong dong, that is a gigantic You can just hear
someone walking through the South Side practice facility banging on

(02:13):
the gong saying, hey, everybody, UM, listen up, because it
just seems to me that that's where there's gonna be
some changes. I wouldn't be banging on the archer bong.
The archer bong. That is an accurate um. I wouldn't
be surprised if Carlos Davis has brought up the guy
they just signed off the who played someone with the Packers,

(02:37):
and all due respect, I can't remember his name, um,
but I think you know, he's got four years in
the league. I would imagine he could be active. I
just think we're gonna see a new cast of supporting
characters with Cam Hayward and the rest of the Steeler's
offense or defensive line, excuse me, and that maybe, uh,

(02:57):
that to me could be a significant change. Really seriously
adjusting the personnel upfront on defense. I guess you could
look at it that way. I am going to choose
not to I will I will agree because semantically changing
out Isaiah Bugs for anybody not named Bob Lily is
kind of minor. And rearranging deck chairs on the title, yeah,

(03:21):
you know, uh, as far as the offensive line, you know,
maybe put Zack Banner in and move Checkomacore forward to
the other side, which is where you wanted to play
them all year. I know, for a little while there
they were perceiving some progress, and there was the thought was,
you know, keep keep with the continuity. I'm not seeing

(03:42):
any progress anymore. You can rearrange some more deck chairs
there if you like. And then maybe the other thing
I might be underrating this, but Mike Tomlin referenced this
week the three linebackers thing they unveiled, the three outside
linebackers five linebackers on defense that they unveiled against Lamar
Jackson and Baltimore last year. I would come up with

(04:02):
something schematic that is designed specifically for him, because A
I don't think they're throwing the ball down the field
very much. So maybe you can go single high or
trust whoever you got a corner and be Jackson with
the ball in his hand is just holds your breath time.
And if you if you think you're gonna contain that

(04:24):
just lining up and doing what you've been doing, well,
probably not happen. Yeah, I don't disagree with you. The
only thing is, you know, without t J. Watton, potentially
without Joe Hayden again, um you know, good luck. Good
luck with that too. I mean, but yeah, I'll just
let him score quicker that than you get the ball back. Well,
which brings us in to the next statements. If the

(04:47):
Steelers pull off an upset on Sunday, it'll be because
Ben has a big day throwing the ball. I'm gonna disagree,
It'll be because they found a way to contain Lamar Jackson.
And this is the fascinating part of this matchup because
no matter what you do schematically, there is a certain
element of his game that is okay, time to make

(05:07):
it up as I go along and just be me.
And he made a couple of throws against Cleveland something night.
Did you watch that game some of it? There was
one where it was second and ten from the thirteen
yard line. He wound up retreating to the thirty four

(05:27):
and staying just ahead attack McKinley and Jadeveon Clowney and
Miles Garrett, and he finally flushed left and threw off
his back foot at the thirty four yard line. He
was just running backwards, you know. Uh, throw it to
the middle of the end zone and Andrews comes out
of nowhere the tight end and makes the catch for
a touchdown. Clowney slammed his helmet and frustration, Garrett shook

(05:51):
his hand. I don't know what else he could do
with that juncture, like, wow, okay, you could do that
hats off, which Clowney took the hat soft thing literally
literally threw his hat off, which you know, I'm glad
that that it worked out the way it did for
the raven's sake, because it was one of those plays

(06:14):
that I don't know, I've ever seen anything like it before.
And he does that. There are a lot of design
runs and a lot of read options and a lot
of stuff on script, but there are times when this
guy is just gonna say, all right, we're down to
me figuring this out, and I better do something so
they you're okay with the four picks with no pressure
on him that he threw in that Cleveland game, I'm

(06:37):
not okay with it, but they still won the game,
and they have they have five wins this year where
it's ridiculous, but they found a way to win, and
invariably it comes down to him. It's still a quarterback
driven running game. He gets way more attempts, he gets
way more yards, and a lot of the attempts are designed.
I think you gotta stop that. If you don't stop that,

(06:59):
I mean, if if Ben throws for three fifty and
three t v s, it's not gonna matter. If this
guy runs for a buck eight and they score four, well,
I'm gonna agree with the statement and disagree with you.
I kind of you know this to me is going
to be a different Steelers Ravens game. I don't think
this is gonna be rock'm sock'em robots, as Mike Tomlin

(07:19):
referred to it. Uh, It's gonna be physical, but not
in I don't think it's gonna be thirteen ten that
kind of Steelers Ravens game or sixteen ten Sunday night. Yeah.
I understand that, but I don't think that. Um, you know,
I don't know that the Steelers can hold the Ravens

(07:41):
under twenty and so, you know, I understand that the
team with with more points always wins, but invariably invariably,
But my my view of the game is more like um,
the one in Umen when the Steelers won thirty eight,
because I could see it going either way because the Ravens.

(08:05):
The Ravens defense is really really uh schizophrenic against the run.
They're very very good against the past. They're awful. They
are awful and right and you know why they're not
because there are three teams. I mean, you know, the
Ravens have the same number of interceptions as the Steelers,

(08:27):
and what do we think of the Steelers interception total
so far this year? The Ravens have actually fewer sacks
uh this year than the Steelers. And this is not Blitzberg. Um.
And so you know their twenty ninth and completion percentage
allowed thirty second and passing yards per game allowed, they're
they're allowing over three yards passing a game. So, UM,

(08:51):
I just think that when you look at the Steelers
team as it's currently constituted, the reality of how they're
performing lately, Um, it's not gonna be a run the ball,
stop the run kind of game in terms of a
low scoring, you know, slug it out time and possession situation. Uh,
I think you gotta maybe get into a little bit

(09:12):
of shootout and then see can mar Jackson's legs beat
Ben's right arm? That's that's what I see. And I'm
not saying that that's gonna happen, but I think that's
the Steeler's best chance to win the game. Well, let
me just ask you this, do you think the Steelers
can protect Because I know you mentioned all those numbers
about sacks and turnovers or anything, but the Ravens have

(09:34):
this weird thing going where they give up yards and
then they'll throw blitz at you and they can rush,
they don't necessarily get you on the ground. But Baker
Mayfield was running for his life and coughing it up
and throwing it out of bounds. And they find a
way to dig in when they have to. What if
they're five man or six man pressures are as effective

(09:54):
as they were against Cleveland? Could Ben hold up against that?
Does he have any chance against that? Maybe not? But again,
I don't think you're gonna be able to go jumbo package,
put in Derek Watt and run the ball between the
tackles and end up with thirty five minutes time of possession.
I mean I don't. Um again, I'm not. I wasn't

(10:15):
predicting that it's gonna be. Yeah, it's problematic, yes, very
very much so. And um as this next statement that
you're gonna read kind of leads me to my point. Okay,
let's get to that next statement. A game against the
Ravens is just what the Steelers need right now. This
agree strongly. This agree because you know, I get the

(10:39):
whole idea that, you know, the Ravens coming to town
might get the juices flowing you know in the home
home team locker room in hines Field. Uh, you know,
rivals hate them. John Harbaugh you know whatever, all those things. Probably,
but I just don't say more than others. Certainly, certainly certainly. Um,

(11:03):
but let me just say I don't think that this
Steelers team is ready for uh the Ravens. I mean
I I just it's a bad matchup. You know they
say about boxing, you know, the matchup makes the fight. Uh,
this is a bad This is a bad matchup for
the Steelers. And uh, you know if when you get

(11:24):
admittedly and this is by acclamation coach, defensive captain, quarterback
after the Bengals game, you got handled on both lines
of scrimmage, I don't think a visit from the Baltimore
Ravens is what you need. I am going to disagree.
I think this is exactly what the Steelers need, and
now I don't know what they're gonna be able to

(11:45):
do with it. So then it's if if if they
get if they get stomped, then it's not what they needed.
Well you do, well you can see that I'm thinking
globally here. Okay, I'm not looking for painting with a
broad brush. Yeah, and I'm peyton blue because I hate red,
you know what, I'm Peyton green. I hate blue too.

(12:06):
That's another podcast for another time. Uh. There was a
guy in UH nineteen eighty whose team was up against
it and his response to his team was, great moments
are born of great opportunity, and that's what you have
here tonight. And of course, speaking of the great Herb
Brooks before Team USA felt the Russian giants in the Olympics. Uh,

(12:30):
this gets the Steelers out of the soup if they
can pull this off somehow. Not that you still don't
have a lot of work to do thereafter. But after
I lose to the Bengals forty one to ten, and
I perceived my playoff future to be like Wiley Coyote,
hanging on that one branch at the top of the
cliff and listening to the branch start to crack with
the anvil falling on your head from the sky. I

(12:51):
don't want to play the Jaguars. I want to play
the Bully. I want to play the eight and three
number one seed in the a f C. And I
want to get past that and say, you know what,
if I can do that, I can do a whole
lot more. It would restore confidence, which I don't know
if it's waning or not, but I'm gonna guess it
might be. Uh, it would restore their competitive status in

(13:12):
the division and in the playoff picture, it would generate momentum,
it would us salve a lot of wounds, save bandage,
stitch whatever. Uh. Yeah, find a way to win this game.
The landscape looks dramatically different. I agree. I agree with

(13:33):
all of that. I'm just not real confident um about
that happening. I mean, everything you said about what this
win would mean to that that the Steelers team is
absolutely correct. I just I you know, and I said
this to you, um and nine in two thousand and five,
and I was wrong, then hopefully I'm wrong again. When

(13:55):
the Steeler was shot, Steelers were seven and five with
four games left, and I had to get into the playoffs.
And my point then was I don't see how a
team that just lost three in a row the way
they lost three in a row can turn it around
and win four in a row playing a totally different style.
But they did. Um, you know what else happened in

(14:18):
two They won the Super Bowl. Yeah, But I mean
before all of that, they lost to the Bengals. They
were getting ready to play the Bears. Yes, and what
happened at practice, the pads came on. The older pads
came well, and they were a lot and they they
were actually allowed to use the book. Yes, the c
b A had not taken over uh and limited that

(14:42):
to the degree that it limited it. But when you
heard Mike Toblin confirm on Tuesday a change of attire,
do you not immediately think, oh, this is just like
two thousand and five planned the parade. No, that's not
exactly what I did. I thought, I thought, this is
this is the stroke of genius. It was genius then

(15:06):
and it's gonna be genius now. Laughs. Well, I'll tell
you what, and I'll just say this here for the record.
If that happens, I will wear I will have a
shirt made that says he's right with an arrow pointing
towards whichever direction you're sitting from me, and I will
wear it and you can take a picture of me.

(15:29):
Gonna post it because all the cool kids post that
stuff on Instagram and snap. I know you're you're a ramatic,
You're you're you're a big TikTok guy. Yes, you can
post it. Yeah, no kidding aside um, you got a
chance to dramatically change the landscape is my point. You

(15:50):
wouldn't have that playing anybody, and you might not have
a better chance than you would play in these guys
to make a dramatic a more dramatic change. You're absolutely correct.
I just don't think that that change is realistic expectation
at this point. As a wise man once said, that
is why they played the game. That's gonna do it

(16:11):
for us. We want to thank you for continuing to
find us. However, and wherever you find us, We're gonna
do this earlier next week, right because a short week
we'll have to further review that. We may have to
take the week off, take a need. Yeah, because um,
I don't think we can do it earlier. I want
to talk about Kirk Cousins man do it myself. Who

(16:35):
needs you like that? Mike like that? I'm Mike Pursuit
and you've been listening to agree to disagree the podcast
with the motto I'm right, he's wrong.
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