Hour One: First Reactions to Niners Loss

Arthur Moats and Wesley Uhler react to a tough loss to open the season on Sunday.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hmmmmmmmmmmm.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
Stueler and Moats are on the air. This is the
Steeler's Blitz on your twenty four to seven Home of
the Black and Gold, a skin R Steelers Nation Radio.

Speaker 3 (00:57):
Now it's very fitting that I just messed up the
intro there, Arthur Motes and pressing the wrong buttons, and
because I mean, isn't that just kind of fitting? Not
the greatest of performances and starts for the Steelers yesterday.
Not the greatest performance and start by me here. But
it is the Steelers Blitz. We're on the air, Wesley Yuler,
Arthur Motes on your twenty four to seven Home of

(01:18):
the Black and the Gold. You guys know the drill
on this program. We got a decade of NFL experience
and a really good head of hair. It's up to
you to figure out the rest. What you should know
by now, though, is that we want your participation. As always,
you can get at us question, comments, concerns, reactions, tweet
us ex us at Wesley Yuler at the body fifty two.
We might also go to the phone lines today four one, two, nine, nine, thirteen, sixteen.

(01:42):
But here's where I want to starter. I'm gonna cut
this fresh beat and everything and all the little bells
and whistles that we do here on this program, right,
and let's get right into it because I got a
question for Arthur Motes. Okay, Mozy right out of the
shoot you at the end of preseason, right, Well, you
and I came in here Friday after the Atlanta Falcons
preseason game, right, and correct me if I'm wrong. I

(02:03):
think that was the first time you and I had
been together in studio since like February.

Speaker 4 (02:09):
Right.

Speaker 3 (02:09):
Does that sound right?

Speaker 4 (02:10):
Sound about right?

Speaker 3 (02:10):
Because you know we've been doing training camp stuff up
until that point. That was kind of our back in
the studio, back to your regularly scheduled programming. Yeah, right, right,
And we had the full snapshot of training camp at
that point. We had the full three games sample size
in stadium of the preseason as well too, and we
were kind of just discussing that doing the thirty thousand

(02:32):
foot view thing. What have we liked so far? What
have we seen? Where you're at with this team as
we head into this you know, this elongated kind of
you know, two week break here before the things really
get going. And you said it kind of, you know,
with laughter, but also being serious that. You know what, honestly,
I think it was too easy for these guys. You know,

(02:52):
I wouldn't have minded if they would have faced a
little adversity. It was too easy for the offense, who
scored five touchdowns on five drives. It was too easy
for the defense, who was getting after everybody, including some
of the Buffalo Bills first teamers that we saw in
a small sample size there in that game as well, too.
You saw the depth shining through, you saw the stars
shining through, and you know, one of your takeaways was, Man,

(03:15):
you know, some adversity might have actually been good for
this team because it's been pretty smooth sailing so far,
and that's just not the reality of the National Football League. Well,
Arthur motes adversity here it is? What now?

Speaker 5 (03:28):
I mean, now we get to see how they're gonna
respond to said adversity. Don't get me in trouble today, man,
all right, I'm just here so I don't get in trouble,
all right.

Speaker 4 (03:36):
You try to put them good graces on me. Yeah,
you called it early. Oh man, you said that they
ain't see no adverse. You said was don't you do that?

Speaker 3 (03:44):
But you were right.

Speaker 5 (03:46):
I was I don't know nothing. I was just here
with West, all right. But what I will say is this,
all right, you're right.

Speaker 3 (03:54):
I was right.

Speaker 5 (03:55):
All right, you can toot your own horn because it's
not into my own horn. But it was more so
just the context thing. When you talk about the difference
of teams, we said, on paper, we felt like we
had some of the very same pieces that the Niners have. Right,
they got talent young or they have a young, talented

(04:18):
quarterback that they're optimistic about. We have a young, ti
ted quarterback that we're optimistic about. They have a proven
offensive line. We had a revamped offensive line. They had
Deebo Simmons and Brandon Nyuk. We had George Pickens and
deont Johnson. They got kittled, we got move They got
CMC McCaffrey, We had Naji. So we felt like, on

(04:38):
paper we had to us similar characters, just at different
stages of the journey. Sure, those guys over there two
to three years already proven. Our guys here more so
the up and coming. But we're obviously more optimistic because
we're in house with these guys. These are our players

(04:59):
and right, So and then when you talk about the defense,
we felt like both defenses were supposed to be as
good as avatars right.

Speaker 3 (05:06):
To the top five units in the NFL.

Speaker 5 (05:08):
Both got Defensive Player of the Years, both went up front,
Both got guys in the secondary that could make plays
flying around good linebackers. So we felt like, yeah, this
should be very similar. But the difference was those guys
were already proven. Those guys have played in a super Bowl,
in multiple NFC championship games.

Speaker 4 (05:29):
We have not.

Speaker 5 (05:30):
We've talked about the fact that we tried to scale
the last seven regular season games and wait that to
a postseason run, that we saw that very Niners team
going with that brock pretty quarterback, and with.

Speaker 3 (05:47):
Christian McCaffrey, and with Nick Bosa and with Fred Werner.

Speaker 5 (05:50):
But more importantly, because of our pride, we said that
those seven games at the end of the regular season,
with three preseason games versus is non starters or an
uninspired Bills starting unit, we essentially said that that meant more,
weighed more, and we believed that more than what we

(06:14):
saw the Niners team do the past three seasons. Heck,
if it was flip, we would have looked at Niner
fans like, y'all are crazy. You guys are bonkers to
think that. But because of our pride in our squad,
which we're supposed to have. That is ultimately why we
felt the way that we felt. But when you really

(06:34):
break it down, should you really be surprised.

Speaker 3 (06:38):
No.

Speaker 4 (06:39):
They came out and looked confident.

Speaker 5 (06:40):
They came out and looked like a team that has
played in big games and they knew how to start fast.
That didn't matter if it was week one or for
it was week seventeen or week twenty NFC Championship. Their energy,
their focus, their confidence was consistent. Flip it to us.
We came out the gate playing not to mess up.
We came out the gate and it was we're going

(07:01):
to be overly cautious with the ball. In terms of
Kenny because he didn't have his best performance. But when
I mean by overly cautious, I have to physically see
you be open before I cut the ball loose. That's
what he did the first three starts last year while
people were getting upset with him. Then at the end
of the year in this preseason, he started doing what anticipating.

Speaker 3 (07:22):
Throws, throwing guys open.

Speaker 5 (07:24):
That was the big difference. But to me, it was
start to finish. When that game started, the first couple
of throws, it looked like, yo, I got to see
it get open. So when we look and we say,
why did it seem like Kenny's throws were late? Why
were a lot of his throes low, he like, he
can't have a lot of arm strength. To me, he
didn't have the confidence out there in game one, And

(07:45):
I don't know what it was, because everybody reacts definitely
in certain situations and sometimes you just have an off day.
But to me, when I saw that, it was like, dang,
that was one of the big reasons why we felt
so optimistic. But you look at Party coming out the
gate with confident, you look at Kenny, and Kenny just
looked like the moment got to him. But the beauty

(08:06):
is they're young, so with Kenny, you're still learning about him.
So it still doesn't write it one hundred percent off
or confirm one way or the other. That's the thing
what we've talked about in the preseason as well, though,
and that's the same context that applies today. It's going
to be some people they're going to try to now
use today or use yesterday's performance as an end all

(08:28):
be all to tell you that this is why you
need to tank for Caleb Williams and Sador Sanders and
all this other job. But at the same time, it's
like that was not confirming, Hey man, this guy can't
get it done.

Speaker 3 (08:41):
No.

Speaker 5 (08:41):
To me, it was some information though. It told me
that we can't just assume that because we saw him
do it in the preseason and for a seven game
sample size, that that is one hundred percent what we're
going to get going forward. Now we've talked about that
as well, but we've also seen how people react to that.
You might get called it you go all in on,

(09:02):
But to me that was the context with it. Man
specifically from an offensive standpoint. Defensively thought that schematically we
did some things that I liked. The execution was the
problem with it, specifically, three safeties, both in run fits
and in coverage. I like the concept, I like the
idea behind it, but if we can't be more consistent

(09:24):
with our fits, we can't run it because some not
some of them, A good portion of those runs that
hit yesterday with McCaffrey, we're out of that particular formation
with a certain player at the point of attack every
single time, and when we talk the difference of styles
of players. I get that Terrell Edmans was not a

(09:48):
fan favorite, but the three things that he always gave
you was he's always available, number one, he's always in
his fit number two, and physicality. You won't I don't
ever have to worry about him being the nail and
not the hammer.

Speaker 4 (10:05):
Multiple players.

Speaker 5 (10:07):
Showed the opposite of that at times in positions where
he would have. Now, we can't go back and change
those decisions, but in terms of context to give people
reasons of why it's not this blow it up and
all be all, but in terms of certain things that
we just got to be better at, that to me
was one of the things that yeah, you know, kind

(10:28):
of jumped off to me.

Speaker 4 (10:29):
Now it's some other stuff that took place as well.
We'll get to that.

Speaker 3 (10:32):
But initially I thought that, man.

Speaker 5 (10:35):
We were in position on heck, even the touchdown run
by McCaffrey, we're in position, we fit it up. Well,
we have a mistackle and we got a guy get
bombed on and McCaffrey and you do that that can't.

Speaker 4 (10:48):
Happen, Yeah, but you think about it. Unblock guy just
missed the tackle.

Speaker 5 (10:53):
And then after that, like I said the safety, who's
you know, get over top? Beat this guy? He got pancakes?
Are you had a day? Shout out to my fantasy team.
Unfortunately I had to get that one in there, didn't you.

Speaker 4 (11:04):
Well, I like I actually had them. It worked out.

Speaker 3 (11:07):
Good player, It worked out, good player, It worked out
had himself a pretty nice game. Yeah, Mozi, you said
the word there. It was execution. I don't think which
is it's crazy, you know, looking back on it now,
I don't think the Steelers got completely outclassed. They got
completely out executed. Now that sounds kind of grim when

(11:27):
you phrase it that way. Doesn't it out executed? That
makes it sounds like there were some some lives, some
lives and some death on the line there. But you
get what I'm saying. I listen, I know how this works.
I already we already. I already got a few tweets
from people, you know, wanting to talk about Matt Canada,
few tweets from people wanting to talk about Mike Tomlins defenses.
Don't get me wrong, I don't think any I don't

(11:47):
think the coaching staff was blameless yesterday either, But that
to me was on the players and a lot of
people too. In the reaction last night, in the reaction
this morning, they want to harke him back to last
year with the coaching as well too. I football, more
than any other sport, is a year to year game.
I don't care what the offense did two years ago
with Ben Roethlisberger, particularly thirty nine year old Ben Roethlisberger.

(12:12):
A little bit from last year, sure, because it's a
rookie quarterback and it's you know, there's some continuity there,
and you mentioned those last seven games that the context matters,
but maybe not as much stock as we all want
to put into it. Nobody was perfect, but no coach
ever calls a perfect game. They're killing Andy Reid in
Kansas City for some of the stuff he did on
that Thursday night, and that guy's won two Super Bowls,

(12:34):
Ben to three, five straight AFC Championship games in the
last five years, and they're crushing They were crushing them
on Friday in Kansas City. No coach ever calls a
perfect game. I don't think Matt Canada did. I don't
think Tara Austin did. I don't think Mike Tomlin did.
No one is blameless in this regard, but I my
first thought is not to go right to the coaching staff.
I'm with you. My first thought is a lot of

(12:55):
those big plays by the Niners, the call was there.
We just missed a tackle, we missed an assignment, they
broke a tackle. We didn't execute a lot of those
run plays that ended up going for two yards for
Najie Harris, one yard for Jalen Warren. The call was there.
The offensive line just either missed a block or was

(13:15):
on roller skates. Now that we could talk about this
more in depth, because this is kind of our opening
statements here, right, we could talk about the offensive line
a little bit more in depth. That's maybe where I
was most discouraged, because, man, we need that unit to
lead the way for this team this year, and they struggled.
They struggled mightily. Let's just let's just put it that
way yesterday against the Niners. But I think execution you

(13:39):
use that word, that's that's the word that's sticking with
me here. Now, what we're almost twenty four hours since kickoff? Right,
it's been just about twenty four hours since they been
twenty three hours and fifteen minutes, sorry, twenty I see,
you get to count twenty four hours and forty. Sorry,
gotta do the good math thing here because I'm obviously
the academic type. Since that game yesterday, the players were

(14:02):
there to be made, they just didn't make them on offense,
on defense. I mean, there's one person in the Steelers
organization who isn't who is maybe blameless yesterday, and that's
t J. Watt. But even he would tell you he
was part of that defense in a losing effort.

Speaker 4 (14:16):
He keep put some respect on TJ.

Speaker 3 (14:18):
That's joint franchise sack leader than TJ. Watt.

Speaker 4 (14:22):
Thank you.

Speaker 5 (14:23):
And I tell you what, people, I witnessed it. I
was in person. I saw it. I was so happy
for my dog.

Speaker 3 (14:27):
Did it for you?

Speaker 4 (14:29):
I mean no, no, no, do it for me? Man? Man?

Speaker 3 (14:32):
You I mean you want to talk about I mean
t J. Watt was single handedly trying to be the spark.
He was single handedly trying to drag that team back
into the game. But aside from that, who I mean,
I don't think anyone in the secondary had their best game.
I don't think Minko was terrible or anything like that,
but he left some plays out there, certainly right by
his by his lofty.

Speaker 5 (14:51):
Standards that was a Wes is talking talking today? No, no, no, no,
I just then it think that we were able to
talk about some of those things. Man, you know, I
see it. I watch it all, go back and watch
the tape. I just didn't know that that was on
the table today.

Speaker 3 (15:09):
I thought you just by his standards, right, That's like,
that's like when the when the when the four point
zero on a.

Speaker 5 (15:16):
Roll about this though it's not just in the sense
of him getting a b that's not the context. The
context is when you talk about the compensation, because you're
compensated to be a force multiplier, so force multipliers can't
play like regular players when you're getting paid to account.

Speaker 4 (15:35):
For multiple levels of production. That's the difference.

Speaker 5 (15:39):
That's the whole reason why we talk contracts and expectations,
and people will get enamored with what That player doesn't
deserve that type of criticism, Well, in a sentence, he does,
because if I'm paying you to give me three different
players production, and I'm saying that you're worth all of that,
you can't come out here and just be good. That's

(15:59):
the Kirk Cousins versus Patrick Mahones argument, Is it not
Kirk Cousins has been good for a long time. But
they pay him great money at times. They pay himforce
multiplier money at times. Dak Prescott, Right, we can go
down that list. We can go down that list, right,
but think about it. Good players, No, you're still playing good,
but they're not paid to just be good.

Speaker 4 (16:21):
He ain't the only one that was paid like that.
They did not give us. Yeah, he wasn't the only one.

Speaker 3 (16:25):
There's no singing if you're trying to set out one
single person today.

Speaker 5 (16:29):
And that's something you're missing. That is definitely one of
the things when you were talking. You know, anytime we
have a loss like how yesterday was, with the height
of expectations the way that they were, a lot of
times people's initial default is let's figure out who we
can isolate so that way we can feel better about ourselves.
We don't have to feel like it's just it's just

(16:50):
because if you feel like I don't know why it happened,
then you're gonna feel like there is no hope. And
if there's no hope, then you're really discouraged. But we're
here to tell you that there is actually a lot
of hope.

Speaker 4 (16:59):
There.

Speaker 5 (17:00):
There's a lot of context that went with that thing yesterday.
But the dudes have to play better, and that's one
of the things. But there's a difference between guys having
to play better and as not having an answer. Sure,
and I think that's one of the things that at
times that message could have got lost. Yesterday you might
be walking out of that stadium and actually I've seen
a lot of the people in that stadium. They looked
as if we don't have any answers going forward, And

(17:22):
to me, I don't think that's all the way accurate.

Speaker 3 (17:26):
I completely agree in that, and we got to get
to break here. But we'll touch on this on the
next side. That's the that's the beauty and the pain
of the National Football League, isn't it. That's why you
love the game, isn't it is? That Week one, it's
like the season is on the line, and if you win,
you're going to the super Bowl, and if you lose,
you better start tanking for Caleb Williams or Drake may

(17:47):
or you know whoever the guy is that you want
in the draft. Because all is lost in Pittsburgh today.
It's a funeral. It's fire everybody, it's trade everybody, it's
blow this thing up. It's what are we doing? Maybe
we even need to build a new stadium.

Speaker 5 (18:00):
And you said new still a nation because I saw
a lot of still nation walk up out of that thing.
I heard nine ers here, we go, nine ors here
multiple times.

Speaker 4 (18:10):
That'saw all I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (18:11):
They had their fun.

Speaker 4 (18:12):
That's all I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (18:13):
They had their fun.

Speaker 5 (18:14):
Listen, all I wanna say, is this West since twenty
fourteen when I came here.

Speaker 3 (18:18):
I've never ever so I wanted to ask that.

Speaker 4 (18:22):
Ever, No, no.

Speaker 3 (18:23):
Ever, not even the nasty game ever.

Speaker 5 (18:26):
Think about the Zeke Elliott game. It went down to
the wire. When was there ever, Yo, they take over
our stadium. That game would surprise me because it was
about fifty to fifty. But no, no, no, We're not
going to act like Niners weren't in here and we're
extra allotted at anybody in that stadium in the third
quarter when we were still trying to come back. No,
the act like that's no, no, no. The Zke run

(18:49):
at the end, they got hype after the game ended. Yeah, sure,
like that pop when he made that the.

Speaker 4 (18:54):
Run with the minute left in the game.

Speaker 3 (18:56):
We'll talk about you know what I mean, I get
what you're saying this is the third quarters are looking
around and going, I'm like, bro.

Speaker 4 (19:02):
Y'all walking out of here. And then on top of that,
we got I'm like, bro, what.

Speaker 3 (19:09):
They could have at least played some forty four US.

Speaker 5 (19:11):
We're trying to boot them to get them to be
quiet because they so loud when on offense.

Speaker 4 (19:15):
Got the ball.

Speaker 5 (19:18):
But you know how listen, sometimes you know, I just
figure sometimes listen, nobody, wait.

Speaker 3 (19:24):
We we loved, We love the brag when we take
over a stadium already talking about doing it in Vegas
in a couple of weeks. Sometimes, you know, sometimes the bullets.
Sometimes the one getting bullied punches back right. Sometimes you
got to take one on the chin. In that regard to.

Speaker 5 (19:39):
Shout out that I did get to meet CR still
the Nation nine twenty though shot a lot right.

Speaker 3 (19:44):
I was, like you, the best part of the best
part of the day.

Speaker 4 (19:46):
It was fire, Bro.

Speaker 3 (19:47):
It was you know, shout out CR and Tyler. You know, yeah,
I feel bad those guys travel to travel a long way.

Speaker 4 (19:53):
You feel bad they got to meet too.

Speaker 3 (19:54):
What you mean, well, you know, I guess not all
is lost.

Speaker 4 (19:57):
You signed a sneaker to you ain't big.

Speaker 3 (20:00):
I've been to sign a few things, towels, a couple
of ers and things like that. It always tickles me
to death that anybody wants my s I said, oh,
he fancy because this wes yus right here, this is
the order guy. Did you sign the shoes too?

Speaker 4 (20:13):
I did. I had to make sure I signed smaller
than that.

Speaker 3 (20:15):
Getting I tried to sign small too, because I thought
you might want to wipe this out one day. Yeah,
I was like, wow, I like this. But you know,
count you We just mentioned Dallas. They're going to the
super Bowl today, right. They beat the Giants forty to
nothing last night. They're flying high wet him boys, all
that nonsense that they talked down there, right or whatever.

(20:38):
That's that's the beauty in the Curse of Week one
in the National Football League. It's never as good as
you think it is. It's never as bad as you
think it is. The real answer lies somewhere in the middle.
The Cowboys aren't forty to nothing good over the Giants
last night. The Steelers aren't go out there and look
like you forgot how to play football bad.

Speaker 5 (20:56):
We just wanted to make history, that's all T J.

Speaker 3 (20:59):
Watt did.

Speaker 5 (21:00):
We made history, know I'm saying multiple times, we made history.
That's all I'm talking about.

Speaker 4 (21:04):
You be saying it like it's bad, y'all.

Speaker 5 (21:06):
Always look over here, like man, because we lost and
this was the worst loss, worst home loss in the
coach tim and era.

Speaker 4 (21:12):
That that's like I'm trying to tell you. When I
say it was history, I'm being sad.

Speaker 3 (21:17):
I didn't know this. I didn't want this kind of history.

Speaker 5 (21:20):
But you be playing I'd be serious. It's like, all right,
but this I love it because it's cause and effect.
Don't tell me, y' all. Nice, don't tell me preseason
we did is we big bad? And then you get
out here, you get the you know, historic loss. But
this is the wake up call, hopefully for not just
the team, but for the fans too.

Speaker 3 (21:40):
Real quick.

Speaker 4 (21:42):
That's why I said I like it. Man, it was history. Hey,
one way or another, are were gonna learn from it?

Speaker 3 (21:48):
That's the question we better learn from And you know
what I want to That's where we'll start when we
come back on the other side. What's what's the one
area that needs improved the quickest, right, Because again we
can list a law list of issues from yesterday. Reality says,
you're probably not going to get them all corrected this
week again before you before you host Cleveland on Monday night.
So what's the one area that the Steelers really need

(22:10):
to kick start and get moving in the right direction.
We'll discuss that when we come back on the other side.
We got a few of you on hold right now.
I will get to you during the break, get your
name and where you're calling from, and all that good stuff.
The tweets rolling in as well too. It's a jam
packed day today, folks, and we are with you here
until two o'clock. Westley Yuller, Arthur Motes. It's the Steelers
Blitz on SNR and nine to seventy ESPN.

Speaker 2 (23:03):
This is the Steeler's Blitz with Wesley Euler and Arthur
Motes on your twenty four to seven Home of the
Black and Gold scn R.

Speaker 3 (23:14):
It's the reaction show here on a Monday all right,
it's your chance, our chance to get it all off
our chest. As Arthur Motes would say, Hm, you better
get it off your chest.

Speaker 4 (23:23):
You got to bet out.

Speaker 3 (23:24):
Then we got a couple of you guys on the
phone line, is gonna start hitting some calls here in
a minute. We'll get your tweets as we always do
eventually as well. But first, Arthur mote simple question that
I kind of threw out there that I teased before
we went to break. If you could pick one area
of this team that is drastically improved, that looks like
a different unit, looks like the execution is infinitely better

(23:45):
right on Monday night against the Browns, which kind of
one area would really help this team get moving in
the right direction?

Speaker 4 (23:52):
Does Can he make the those he's supposed to make? Literally,
it's a different ballgame.

Speaker 5 (23:57):
Points on the boy, first downs, all that is drastically
different if he just simply makes the handful of throws
that he was supposed to make, nothing more, nothing less.

Speaker 3 (24:07):
What about you, man I? Man, I think that's a
great answer. I might go offensive line, just across the board,
and I know that becomes more difficult with chokes uncertain
status now with his concussion, which that's what.

Speaker 4 (24:20):
They routed it obviously the game.

Speaker 3 (24:21):
Man I did not hear what they say about yep concussion.
So he's in the protocol. So we probably won't get
an update on him until.

Speaker 5 (24:27):
Different from last year where the same group seventeen games.

Speaker 3 (24:31):
All seventeen games and now in game two, you might
be forced to start a rookie Roger Jones against this
guy Miles Garrett, who's pretty I mean he's no TJ,
but he's pretty good.

Speaker 4 (24:39):
Well also moving down more to a different position, to a.

Speaker 3 (24:42):
Different position, correct, So you would technically have starters at
two new positions on that offensive line against a Browns
team and defense that looked pretty good against the Bengals. Yes,
we'll get to that later in the week. All right,
we got plenty of time to talk about those Browns.
I think I might go offensive line, but I agree
with you know, you kind of mentioned this earlier in
the in the first segment two, and I didn't really

(25:03):
touch on it more. But you're right. Where where was
the Kenny Pickett that we saw doing the Connor McGregor strut,
you know against the Buffalo Bills? Like that first third
down of the game, right, first play, nice six yard
game by Najie Harris. That's a win on first down,
Arthur Buche, You'll take six yards on first down every
single time. That's a w. Second play, they run the

(25:24):
jet sweep. But I know people are gonna say, oh,
the jet sweep. I hate that call. I hate it
in that moment, and I don't necessarily disagree with that.
I'm telling you though, the call was there, the offensive
line that just did not execute, so all of a
sudden third down and it all the sudden, I just
I don't know what happened. I don't know what happened
to kp there. I know there was some pressure from

(25:44):
San Francisco, but he made kind of the first wave
of it miss, right, And then that's the moment in
the past where we've seen him, Okay, you make that
first wave miss, you get some open space. Either tuck
it and run, you throw it away, you get rid
of it. And instead he just he kind of looked
a little shaky there, ends up taking the sack, and
I'm with you motes from that point on, it just

(26:05):
wasn't the same. And so much of Kenny Pickett's game, like,
no one's ever said that he's got the arm of
Mahomes or Peyton Manning, right, no one's ever said he's
got the build and athleticism of Josh Allen or you know,
one of those guys. He can't move like Lamar Jackson,
you know, something like that. But what he's always had

(26:25):
is that above the show that confidence, that moxie. Right,
that's the term we hear all the time. We saw
that in training camp, we saw that in preseason. Heck
we even saw it in stretches down down the stretch
at the end of last season. I think that's a
good call by you, because man, he he needs that back.
They need that back quick. Yeah, that's how I look
at it, man. Like I say, it's a lot of context.
There certainly is, and it's one It's one game.

Speaker 5 (26:47):
Yeah, and even with the offensive line, I know there're
gonna be times where it's easy to just say they
need to be better, but context also mattters with them.

Speaker 3 (26:57):
Like I say, it's a lot of contexts, it's a
lot of contact. Again too, at the forefront, it's one game.
It's I know it's tough in the NFL. It's tough
as a football fan, right. I mean you and I
are texting back and forth on Saturday about about our
alma maters, right about the Dukes. Dukes to the real
University of Virginia. Man, just add another acc cat, just

(27:19):
add another on another the maybe taking down Virginia running
that state. Baby, I tell you, I see how y'all
got out there.

Speaker 5 (27:28):
It's hudo just no, I picked it's putting out huh
a message.

Speaker 3 (27:33):
When Pittsburgh's foremost college and athletic department comes to Morgantown,
you got to put it on.

Speaker 4 (27:38):
I like what I saw it.

Speaker 3 (27:39):
Now we got this other, this thing called the Backyard
Brawl coming up on Saturday. I don't know. It's no
Duke Cane. It's no du Cane, right, but I mean
it's but motzed text about whether you're into college football,
whether the National Football League obviously this is steel a
Nation radio. If you're somebody who loves high school football
on Fridays too, whatever level of football, it is the
beauty and the curses that you only get so many games.
You get twelve in college, you get seventeen in the NFL.

(28:01):
It's it's not the Pirates where if you're a Buckos fan,
you get six games a week and if they get
their butts kicked by Atlanta on a Tuesday night, well
that's okay. They're playing them again tomorrow. You got another
chance to get after them. It's not being a Penguins fan,
right where if you lose to the Sabers seven, nothing
on Monday. It's okay, we got Philly coming to town
on Wednesday, and we're gonna get right and we're gonna
beat up on those stinking Flyers. Right. In the NFL,

(28:23):
you get seventeen games, one a week, and you have
so much anti you go from the combine to the draft,
to mini camps to training camp to preseason, and you're
just waiting for it and waiting for it and waiting
for it and hypothetical season, enlist season and all these
different things that we do and all the hype and
then for it to go like that Week one, you're
at the bottom of the barrel. And and that's the

(28:43):
that's the gift and the curse. That's the double edged
sword that is football. If the Steelers would have beat
the Niners yesterday thirty to seven, right, thirty seven, thirty
to seven, we'd all be saying super Bowl. We'd all
be asking, oh, well, you get in your hotel room
in Vegas for the Super Bowl?

Speaker 5 (28:57):
All right?

Speaker 3 (28:57):
You better you better go ahead and make it happen,
because here we go that that's the National Football League.
But I've said this a few times. I'm sure I'll
say it a million times this week. Mozie, it is
week one. It's week one. This happens. There's always teams
that come out of the shoot hot first two three
weeks of the season and then they fall off a cliff.

(29:17):
There's always teams that struggle out of the gate and
then they you look up and they're in the conference
championship weekend. You know that happened to the Bengals last year.
Joe Burrow threw what five interceptions against the Steelers Week one,
and then went down to Dallas and threw three, three
or four. He had eight or nine interceptions in the
first two games they were zero and two, and they
were like, oh, it was last year, Fluke, we went

(29:39):
to the Super Bowls. We're back to being the Bungals
all over again. And then you look up and Joe
Burrow is one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL
and they're in the AFC Championship Game. Patriots used to
that with Tom Brady every year. Right, They'd starting one
to two and there's a time to fire Bill Belichick
as Tom Brady washed up, and then they'd win, you know,
twelve of their next thirteen games, and they'd be in
the AFC champ Hip Game. It's one week. We wait

(30:02):
for it four months. And so I understand believing I'm
not knocking. I'm not knocking anybody who's who's down in
the dumps or anything like that. I get how invested
everybody is into this thing.

Speaker 5 (30:11):
Yeah, don't let the uh the conversation, you know.

Speaker 3 (30:15):
Yeah, I think there we're not down. Oh absolutely, I
definitely match, absolutely that it all matters in the National
Football League. But it's also one week. It's one out
of seventeen. It's a boxing match, right, Mozy. You lost
the first round. That's the bad news. You always you
always want to start out strong, right, but you lost
the first round. You still got sixteen rounds to go

(30:36):
to to get right and to figure this one out.

Speaker 4 (30:37):
Sixteen rounds.

Speaker 5 (30:38):
Boy, you boxing in the eighties, God day, Yeah, sixteen
This ain't they called me.

Speaker 3 (30:45):
They called me old curly godm I'm forty seven years old,
forty seven.

Speaker 5 (30:53):
If you box the sixteen rounds, you bout sixty seven, bro,
holy smokes man, sixteen rounds West West. This ain't jungle, Okay,
this ain't the thrill in Manila?

Speaker 3 (31:06):
What are you?

Speaker 4 (31:07):
Sixteen rounds?

Speaker 3 (31:08):
Bro?

Speaker 4 (31:08):
Davey Boux sixteen rounds since Tyson early in the nineties. Bro,
they won't do sixty.

Speaker 3 (31:12):
God, sixteen rounds.

Speaker 4 (31:13):
Lord, Lord, it's twelve rounds. Twelve. Shoot, you might even
get a ten piece. I've seen some eights make pay
per view.

Speaker 3 (31:22):
Okay, back back in my day, old Curly, we used
to box for seventeen rounds.

Speaker 4 (31:27):
That's when they put you on the table after they
knocked the dude out.

Speaker 5 (31:29):
They did let him get out like five times and
got knocked out five more times, and they just rolled
them on.

Speaker 4 (31:33):
They're like, yeah, I don't think he gonna be all right.
He talked with a slur.

Speaker 3 (31:37):
You think, Oh, back when concussions were just a headache,
like what he he ain't really out on his feet,
his eyes, he just had something in his eyes, that's all. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
that's you're right. Seventeen rounds, I.

Speaker 4 (31:49):
Say, God, boxing day.

Speaker 3 (31:52):
That is back in old curlage, Dad, they used to
box for cheventeen rounds. Yikes. Let's go the phone lines here, Mozi,
Let's get some reaction. We'll we'll interweave calls and tweets
throughout the shows as we like to do. We got
Mike on the road leading us off today. What's up, Mike?

Speaker 6 (32:08):
Hey, what's going on?

Speaker 3 (32:09):
Guys?

Speaker 7 (32:10):
I got four hundred miles of bad road to in
front of me coming back from that debarcle yesterday, and
I'm gonna be making the trek next week. Wes, We're
going to the backyard brawl. I met Arthur, thank you
very much for a meeting myself and my son.

Speaker 6 (32:25):
Before the game.

Speaker 3 (32:26):
It was great, jobs, it was a pleasure.

Speaker 7 (32:28):
Maybe I'll see you next week.

Speaker 3 (32:30):
Hey, you know, you know I'll be there. You bet
your bottom dollar.

Speaker 7 (32:35):
Yeah. A couple of things. One, I when you guys
talk about execution talk, that's all I've been hearing from Wolf,
from the coach, from you guys, when is it? And
with the amount of season ticket holders that sold their
seats to all these Niner fans because I've never seen

(32:55):
like you guys were saying, I never seen another team
fan base take over Pittsburgh. You know, when is it
that the players just aren't good enough? Certain players, you know,
and it's like it's execution only goes so far. But
when is the the other player is just better than
the current team that we currently have. Don't get me wrong,

(33:15):
we got some great superstars on the defensive, side. But
you talk about execution, when is it just McCaffrey and
the other team's players are just better at times?

Speaker 4 (33:26):
They are, Yeah, and there's nothing to take away from that.

Speaker 5 (33:29):
I mean, there's certain plays that McCaffrey made that I
looked at and I'm like, yeah, I could sit here
and say this player should have made this tackle one
on one, or Kwan should have been pressed up on
him on third and five when he's one on one
in coverage, But that's not realistic because if Kawhan is
pressed up one and one thirty and five, he's not
gonna run it out anymore correct.

Speaker 3 (33:46):
He's gonna run a vertical correct.

Speaker 5 (33:48):
So it's plays like that that I'm not referring to
or saying that you got to execute better. But what
I am saying is when I watched Levi Wallace put
his chest on Christian McCaffrey and have two hands wrapped
around on this man's waist and little McCaffrey is able
to spin out of that and go sixty yards for
a touchdown, that is an issue that is execution because

(34:09):
I've seen Levon Wallace make tackles before when he has
chest on a player with orange ropped around him. That's
the execution part when we talk Kenny Pickett. He missed
a beautiful post rooute the Deontay Johnson which our various
war was on the outside leverage, beautiful route by DJ.

Speaker 3 (34:26):
He might still be running.

Speaker 5 (34:27):
He just overthrew it and missed it. Have we seen
Kenny make that throw in training camp in the preseason.
We've seen him make deep throws. Heck, we've seen him
make the same throw. They got picked off when Fred
Warner tipped it throwing it to Connor hey where and
young Troy Poulamaloika har Finger caught the pick and ran

(34:47):
it and died the lateral. We've seen Kenny make that
same throw, but in those two instances off slightly off.
And this is a game of inches. So is that
me saying, oh, man Ward was so good that we
couldn't throw at Ward. No, I'm simply saying, Kenny, just
drive it back foot to front, flip bottom up like

(35:10):
you always do, rip that thing and put it on
Deontay chest and let him be catching this thing and
running potentially for a touchdown. Or do I bring up
the slant route that took place in the third quarter?
If I remember correctly no no, no second quarter, because
we actually end up scoring this the move score. But
early on in that same sequence in the red zone
before the pillard where we had to get the new
set of downs, Deontay wins once again on the slot

(35:30):
one on one versus Drake Greenlaw. The throw once again
late and behind, so Greenlock is a chance to block it.
And you see DJ motion with his hands and it
was low and behind him. Those are three instances where
we're talking potentially points. I felt confident about two guaranteed
to be points to to to. Deontay had zero to
do with that Niners talent though. That was just our
lack of execution. So that's what I'm speaking on when

(35:52):
I talk execution versus at times where the Niners just
got better players.

Speaker 6 (36:00):
I didn't.

Speaker 7 (36:01):
And how about, like coach says, uh, making routine plays
routine there the bender players, the better players make those
plays uh routinely without a doubt. And then how about
the uh the second play from scrimmage, the Jet sweep.
And then I'm sitting there like, uh, next to my
I said, my son, look at that second play the Jets.

(36:23):
Here we go again. It's the same thing. We're gonna
see over and over and over.

Speaker 3 (36:29):
Listen, Mike, I know a lot of people didn't love
that call, and I honestly too, I didn't. I didn't
love the timing of it so early as well. But
I'll tell you again, I think it was I think
it was there, I really do. But Isaac Sayamalu and
Mason Cole did not have the best reads. I think
that could have easily gone for six or seven yards
in a first down. But I understand why maybe not

(36:50):
thinking it's it's it's the right timing there. It's listen,
it's it's one of those things. When it works, it's
your genius. When it doesn't, you're it's it's terrible timing.
You're done. I will remind everybody last year the Steelers
averaged over five yards per carry on those jet sweeps.
So it wasn't like they didn't work when you look
at the entirety of it, the body of the work.

(37:10):
But again, Mike, fair question, and that's that's one of
those things that we do right. We will, especially week
one and a loss like that, we will dissect every
little decision, every little play. But I also think they
they deserve a little bit of time and a little
bit of rope to get it right.

Speaker 6 (37:26):
All right.

Speaker 7 (37:27):
Hey, thanks, thanks again Arthur for meeting me yesday, and
West don't forget to tweet out what you're going to
be the next week at the brawl.

Speaker 3 (37:35):
Peach Peach lot baby.

Speaker 7 (37:40):
There.

Speaker 3 (37:41):
Thanks for colling. No, I do get what he's saying,
but that's one of those things I said wrote, but
leash was the word I was looking for, Like I
I'm not ready to kill anybody just yet. I don't
think anybody again maybe besides TJ. Watt is blameless from yesterday.
There's got to be better execution, there's got to be
better calls. Everything. It's all in the same ecosystem.

Speaker 4 (38:02):
Arthur Mountz.

Speaker 7 (38:03):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (38:03):
I guess, yeah, I guess it's just one of them
things where jet sweep has become the new firemag Canada.
A play that, like you've already talked about over the
course of seventeen games, is arguably one of our.

Speaker 3 (38:17):
I think it was successful on this but I think
it averaged like five point six yards.

Speaker 5 (38:21):
But let me continue your time, because that's one of
the things. It's like, it's very successful. But because Steeler
fans suffered from fatigue with it because when we were
trying to identify what Canada does well or doesn't do well,
the one thing that a lot of people that couldn't
all the way put together why they often struggled at
times last year they tried to just talk about how.

Speaker 3 (38:42):
Oh, well, it's always a jests it was always a jetsweek.

Speaker 5 (38:44):
Well, what's the difference between you running the jetsweek averaging
four yards of carry versus you run in a dive
averaging four yars of carry?

Speaker 4 (38:50):
It's still four yards of carry?

Speaker 3 (38:51):
Right?

Speaker 5 (38:51):
What's the difference West between the Patriots when they would
used to do then we're gonna throw it to Julian
Edelman and West Welker for two three yards and is
let them on and we said that's their pseudo run player, right,
yp what's the difference?

Speaker 4 (39:03):
It's still three four yards?

Speaker 1 (39:04):
Right?

Speaker 5 (39:05):
That is literally all you're doing with the JETSUITEK. You're
just trying to figure out another off balance, creative way
to pick up some cool yards.

Speaker 6 (39:14):
That is it.

Speaker 5 (39:15):
And the reason why we run our Jets suit the
way that we do in terms of the protection on it,
we try to influence that d ND at times. So
there's times where they won't block him because they're accounting
for him not being able to see it fast enough.
And while you get that player outside of him now
instead of me wasting a blocker on this ohle line,
i'man on.

Speaker 4 (39:34):
This d Lineman.

Speaker 5 (39:35):
I'm saying, we're down, Phil, get you extra blocker. But
we could blame Matt Canada because it's cool to do.
But to me, that is not a Matt Canada issue
right there, that's no different than any of these other
Just give me a call just to stay on schedule.
That's all you're trying to accomplish. But they look at
that player as if, oh my god, he called the

(39:56):
jet suite And it's not just the call because obviously
it's the most people to have talked about it. But
it's like, nah, he's literally just calling the second call
as let me get a safe call on schedule because
we just had a nice first play.

Speaker 4 (40:09):
Let me just get a safe call to keep us
on schedule. We know that. What do we know about
the Niners defense up front? Very aggressive?

Speaker 6 (40:16):
Right?

Speaker 4 (40:16):
What do they do well specifically versus the past? They
rusht the quarterback?

Speaker 3 (40:20):
Well, right, saw that on the third play of the game.

Speaker 4 (40:22):
So you can go screen, you can go draw.

Speaker 5 (40:25):
Those are other alternatives, but in terms of defense, defense
one on one, if you're a high level defender, second down,
if it's second is super long, or if it's second
and short, like we just said, we picked up six,
so it was second and four.

Speaker 4 (40:41):
The two things we're screaming.

Speaker 5 (40:43):
On defense is screen and draw maybe alert play action
because of it being short, because we're seeing this a
waist down now, so you can call a draw play
because that's more. We run this on Madden, and you
could pick up the exact same thing, or you could say,
let's run the screenplay because because this is what you
do on matt if you go to coaching suggestion every
second and longer second and sure, you're gonna get screened.

Speaker 4 (41:05):
Or it's one of the other. So forgive for saying,
let me just try to, you know, do something that's
a little bit.

Speaker 5 (41:15):
Different than everybody's cookie cutter win it second down in
that particular down and distance, just in terms of the
high level NFL thinking. That's how we think as defenders.
So I don't hate the jet sweep call in that situation.
To me, I thought that it was more so it's
rough to run those type of plays leaving their D

(41:36):
line unblocked or trying to influence their D line because
of how well they play. Guys like Javon Hargrave, they've
seen a lot of football. It's hard to trick them.
We talk about boats, we talk about Cleveland f I
thought Flo cleviland Farrell and Drake Jackson played a lot
better then I anticipated. But there were some of those
guys where you weren't just tricking them. You weren't gonna

(41:59):
just be able to misdirection and catch their eyes being bad.
And that is what we kind of were banking on
at times in the run game, and I felt like
our response should have been just more so, we need
to match physically to a physicality. But now it goes
back to what the caller said, in the sense of
do we have the personnel specifically in the trenches to
match that. I thought we didn't, not necessarily our old

(42:22):
line versus their D line, but our interior center and
two guards versus Hardgrave Armstead. And then when they had
to climb up to Fred Warner, they had a issue
all day trying to climb up to Fred Warner. And
that's partly because of how great Fred Winner is his linebacker.
So once again, is that completely on scheme?

Speaker 4 (42:43):
Is that completely that?

Speaker 5 (42:44):
Or is it sometimes that guy over there is probably
the best linebacker in football right now for a reason
because he could play the run like the son of
a gun, and you don't want to try him in
courage as we saw, even though we dropped, wanted hit
him round face.

Speaker 4 (42:56):
Oh my god, Oh my god.

Speaker 3 (43:01):
That was the biggest surpress that.

Speaker 5 (43:02):
That was one of those ones where I'm like, I'm
glad it happened, but I'm just as a linebacker, I
was in utter disgust, like you're are hero, You're supposed
to be our king. We say that you're the number
one linebacker, and you let that boy hiss you in
the face like that, bro. But that was why I
had to like back off my football love and just
go back to Steeler love and like, all right, I'm
glad you dropped it.

Speaker 4 (43:23):
Plump, Yeah, yeah, yeah, we.

Speaker 3 (43:25):
Gotta get do a break here. More of your calls,
more of your tweets on the other side. I mean,
I tell you what, I was just see if we
could do Professor motes in the one o'clock hour. But
I think he's been been lecturing here already breaking breaking
it all down. It's a Monday, it's a you know,
it's the morning after, it's the afternoon after, whatever you
want to call it. We're getting it all out there.
You know where to get at us if you want
to get involved. Steelers Blitz.

Speaker 2 (43:50):
This is the Steelers Blitz with Wesley Euler and Arthur
Motes on your twenty four to seven Home of the
Black and.

Speaker 3 (43:57):
Gold Skin r All right, we've been a little long winded.
We got to do a quicker segment here, you know,
get ourselves back on schedule. Arthur Moones right, a lot
like the Steelers are going to do Monday Night against
the Browns. I don't get to that eventually. For now,
let's go back to the phone lines here to close
out the first hour of the show. Our buddy Ryan
in Orlando is on the phone lines. What's up, Brian?

Speaker 6 (44:18):
Nothing much. We just need to relax, Okay, we just
need to calm down. It's all about execution. If you
look at Adams playing the nose position, his pad level
was high all day long, and then he was getting
washed into the linebackers. If we just get the pad
level low, and then he started taking splits even further

(44:40):
out so the center could go and get the linebackers.
So that's one thing. Another thing is is that we
need to have Kenny Pickens roll out a couple of
rollout passes like we did in the preseason to get
him into rhythm. And I don't think it was Canada's
often because there's people wide, wide open, and then Clease,
it looked like we were on the ice yesterday. I

(45:01):
thought we were in the Penguin with all the flying
and slipping, and San Francisco looked fine. I just think
it's execution. It's the first game.

Speaker 7 (45:09):
San Francisco was No.

Speaker 6 (45:12):
One's homecoming opponent. They were a good opponent, probably the
best defensive line possible. But it's just the little things
that Mode says about execution. I think our pad level
was way too high, and I think we were in
zone when sometimes you should have been a man, and
we were a man when we should have been in
the zone. So I think they're easible fixes, but we
need to get someone else on the defensive line because

(45:32):
if you look at Adams, he tried to do a
spend move every single time and gets washed out. So
we just need to get someone in there that's going
to plug the hole.

Speaker 4 (45:41):
A man of context.

Speaker 3 (45:43):
I love he He's with the relax too. Is this
baron Rodgers in New York? First off? First off, you'll
know what tonight is. We're not doing none of that, Rogers.

Speaker 5 (45:53):
Shouldn't he be focused on the game. We're not doing
none of that. Rodgers, you know where tonight is. Stop playing.
You peeped the hat this in here? Okay, you peep
the hat that's.

Speaker 4 (46:01):
On my head. Okay, That's all I'm gonna say right there.
You know what time it is tonight. I don't want
in here none of that.

Speaker 5 (46:09):
No, no, no.

Speaker 4 (46:10):
He and in New Jersey. He's I mean, he's not
New York. He's in New Jersey.

Speaker 3 (46:13):
Start out exactly what.

Speaker 5 (46:15):
But I will say this though, I agree in terms
of my Travis, he's got to play better. I thought
his effort was excellent. I love how he was chasing plays,
but pel love was too high. And that was part
of when we talk context running game, him being four
or five yards back. Even if it is a double team,
there are still techniques where they teach you what we
called it, sit on a bar stool before you give

(46:37):
up five yards of movement. You put your butt on
the ground and you roll or you roll to a
seated position, and what it does is it stops your
momentum from going, So it creates a power that two
yards versus you being on your feet still fighting, but
your five yards downfield and now you're in the linebacker's way.
In terms of how they're reading and trying to scrape

(46:58):
over certain things. That was a big difference watching our
linebackers versus watching Fred Warner and Dre Greenlaw. Those guys
in San fran were able to scrape freely and get
downhill for the majority of the time. There were a
couple of players where our old line was able to
get to them. In the play spit, we saw Naji
you have a really nice run behind it, right, But
as a whole that was a big part of it.

(47:20):
Mont Travis does have to be more consistent there. In contrast,
I thought a guy like Keanu Benton played really well.
I want to see him potentially get more snaps. I
know it's easy to just knee jerk and say make
him the start of playing every single snap. He is
also a young rookie. We got to see can he
continue to replicate that and if we increase his snaps,

(47:41):
what does his technique look.

Speaker 4 (47:42):
Like, what does his focus look like?

Speaker 5 (47:44):
So it still is one of those things where mont
Travis still has to improve this week because he's gonna
get reps. But from what I saw with Keanu Bitton,
I was very encouraged for that to be his first
opportunity versus to run or the past. I do feel
once again, it's not like we don't have an answer,
because I'm telling you an answer right now. But to me,

(48:06):
I've seen mont Travis play better. Yeah, and that's why
I'm like mont Travis could be better. But even if
he can't, already saw key Ono put a major nice
productive stuff versus run and pass on tape, So I
still feel good about that situation.

Speaker 3 (48:21):
Brian, we gotta run, partner, but thanks for calling us
up front of you as always. We'll talk again soon,
all right.

Speaker 6 (48:27):
Yeah, I'll be definitely getting you both autographs when the Patriots.

Speaker 3 (48:32):
It sounds good, partner, Thank you, thanks for calling us. Always,
have a good rest of your day and we will
halla at you soon. We got to run here and
get our break schedule back on clock hour number two.
On the other side, it's the Steelers Blitz on SNR