Hr 1 - Colts Steelers Recap, Money Makers

Tom and Chris recap Steelers win vs Colts

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:11):
I think the Steelers defense hit us all with the
MJ meme. I think they took that a little personally
last week. I mean, it was an embarrassing performance that
they would admit to on Sunday Night football against the
Green Bay Packers, coming off of a not so flattering
performance against Joe Flaccau in the Cincinnati Bengals just the
week prior to.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
That, and they heard it. I mean, you can't sugarcoat that.
This has to be an offensive team. Now.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
You have to shift the philosophy. You have to help
that defense out, keep them off the field. Don't let
that vulnerability expose you too too much, especially this week
against the big bad Colts. And they were sitting back
Chris in their chairs, smoking their cigars like MJ with
his you know, hands folded. And they took that personally,

(00:59):
and they came and they bawled out and won the
Steelers a football game against the number one offense in
the league, against the team that honestly was the darling
of the NFL until they came to Pittsburgh and until
they came into contact with that defense and their six
takeaways in five sacks of Danny dimes. It is the

(01:23):
Steelers Blitz, Tom Opferman, Chris Damski Steelers now five and
three and held onto that two game lead in the division,
and more importantly, just felt good. I mean, that's a
win in capitol letters in bold face because all week
we were talking about how real the Colts were.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
We were saying, this team.

Speaker 1 (01:43):
Is a real team as far as the AFC is concerned.
This team is an offense that can play with any
team in the NFL. This team hasn't not reached twenty
points in a single game this.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
Year, still true.

Speaker 1 (01:57):
Technically, boy, they had to scratch and claw their way
to get there this time though, and you completely stymied them.
It was an a plus performance from that defensive side
of the football that was just in the crosshairs for about.

Speaker 2 (02:10):
A week and a half.

Speaker 3 (02:12):
Do you think the sack dance they were saying take
that offera in damn Sea. I heard you saying that
the carry.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
This dam Hey, let's not just you know, throw us
under the bus. It was a lot of people that
were saying that. It was a lot of national noise too.

Speaker 3 (02:26):
I mean it was early so that the last two games.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
And they were hard on themselves to that.

Speaker 3 (02:30):
From Jerry Dulac that it was the most yards the
Seeers have allowed in two gamespan in thirty seven years.
Like that was wild, nine hundred yards of the past
two games, and yeah, it was I think the best
compliment I could and this is a little bit hyperbole,
of course, but is that watching that game, especially the

(02:50):
first three quarters, and there was a lot of yards
in the garbage time essentially by the cold, so kind
of it kind of disappointing. Is that ruined the good
stat numbers and a lot of Hey that yardage happened,
and what anything? For me? It just means in terms
of you could go back and say, look, wow, they
held the coast to two hundred you know, two hundred
and twenty yards whatever might have been would have been
really a feather in the cap to have in a second. Okay,

(03:12):
but I think the biggest compliment I could pay, and
like I said this a little bit over the top,
is that you would you could watch that game and
would you do know the difference between Jonathan Taylor and
a mere Abdullah or Tyler Warren and Melali Cox or
you know, Daniel Jones and a career journeyman backup of
the former New York Giants. But what that's that's what
you like, You wouldn't have known that that team had

(03:35):
been tearing up the league to in his story, like
there were numbers analytics and yardage not eveny real deep
analytics that that was one of the best offenses through
eight games of the past decade in the NFL of
any team.

Speaker 1 (03:46):
And Jonathan Taylor was one of the best running backs
we've seen in a long time. And we saw one
for two thousand yards last year in Saquon Barkley.

Speaker 2 (03:53):
But Taylor was doing something that a whole different level.

Speaker 3 (03:55):
Yes, And you could watch that game and not even
it kind of like hit me. At one point he
got to carry about a nine yard carry, which I
think was his longest carry of the game in the
third quarter there, and I'm like, holy friggin crap, this
is Jonathan Taylor who is averaging six yards of carry
and on a pace for whatever it was, Like I
for almost forgot because he had been so invisible because

(04:16):
the defense was so dominant in terms of what it
was doing, not just the takeaways. That's the thing too,
is like people will look at the six takeaways and
that's deservedly so and there would have even been some
scoff I would imagine if something, well, they had zero
the last three games at five and they beat these
good teams if they get well. First of all, that's
part of the recipe, and that's fine. Secondly, like that

(04:37):
wasn't There wasn't smoke and meers in terms of there
was lucky turnover and Dana Jones was not good. Of
course you acknowledged that, but it was also like the cold,
all the dynaticism that the Colts had shown offensively was
just completely invisible throughout from pretty much beginning to end
in that game. I know the turis here, he's got
one hundred yards, but again a law that was the

(04:57):
fourth quarter. And but yeah, I did. You wouldn't like
somebody who told you Tyler Warren is the all pro
tight end future star. You don't notice them right throwing
the Taylor. You didn't notice them. Daniel Jones looked like
a career, you know, bust, like you've had been to
this point. It's amazing.

Speaker 1 (05:13):
Yeah, we were saying last week, hey, maybe you just
let Jonathan Taylor get his you know, maybe you just
let him go for his one hundred and twenty yards not,
you know what I mean, Like, you don't say here, sir,
maybe i'llsher you up these lanes for one hundred and
twenty yards. But you know, you don't really sweat too
too much if he beats you that badly and you
take away everybody else and you try to win the
game with offense and steel Stephen's like, nah, we're just
gonna take everybody away. We're just gonna take away Jonathan Taylor.

(05:36):
We're gonna take away Tyler Warren passing. We're just gonna
shut down the number one offense in football. We're gonna
make their life a living hell. And it did not
look great early in the game. And then your star TJ.
Watt struck like a lightning bolt karate chop ball right
out of the hands. I'm gonna pick it up to myself.
I'll go for the hat trick, sack, strip and fumble recovery.

(05:59):
And that just really woke the team up, Chris, because
the culture up seven to nothing. They were on the
Steelers side of the field at that point before TJ.
Watt checked into the game, and the offense was going
three and out like crazy too, and we were kind
of all getting this vibe I feel like, and you
were in the stadium, and I have to imagine it
was the same in there. It was just like, oh boy,
like this just doesn't seem like it's going great. We

(06:21):
had the break, we had the muff punt and we
didn't capitalize on it, and oh no, now they're coming
right down the field.

Speaker 2 (06:28):
And then TJ.

Speaker 1 (06:28):
Watt and that's exactly what you need him to do.
He's your highest paid player. Make a play that affects
a football game.

Speaker 2 (06:34):
And he did.

Speaker 3 (06:35):
Yeah, and that's finally people would and delivererably. So he
maybe didn't. It wasn't making those plays for a while there.
And it was that first quarter of the way. Steelers
get the ball first, go three and out, four and out.
Three and out were their first three possessions. And of
course the four and out is after a splash play
by special teams where you set up yourselves for an
easy touchdown that you're thinking, like, man, you're an underdog here.

(06:56):
You got the best team in football record wise, offense wise,
and you get set up via special teams play. Whether
you call it your play yourself or a gaff of
the other team doesn't matter. Set up in scoring position
and then you get zero points out of it, not
even just like get the field, go out of it.
It's demoralizing. And then you see them going down the
field again. So everything to that point was like, oh,

(07:17):
this is like what you dream like. The first Colts
drive was pretty much with ease, right. It just seemed like, well,
here we go sort of thing. And the crazy part
was is that the previous two Steelers games, the defense
actually started out well like the first quarter of the
both the Packers and the Bengals games were where they
shine and then things fell apart at the end. And

(07:38):
this was the total opposite where the first quarter was
the downpoint and then they're not the rest of the game,
certainly because again the fourth quarter and now you can
make your point about the fourth quarter by just mean
yard is wise, and then they got their points. The
second and third quarter was just And again the takeaways
are a major major part of that. When I say this,
I'm not trying to downplay the takeaways. I'm saying is

(08:00):
it wasn't just takeaways. There were there was down in
and down out type. There was no a cap, there
was no big plays, no big runs. There weren't these
long passes that we've seen plague the Steelers in recent games.
And again it can't be emphasized enough that I know,
like it looked like the Colt like they are who
we thought they were sort of colds, but the Colts
had built up but an eight game sample size where

(08:22):
it wasn't this, It wasn't just the Colts were regressing.

Speaker 1 (08:25):
Yes see, I reject that if people want to put
that for I'm not saying you are. I'm saying if
people want to be like, you know, I still don't
want to, you know, come around to this being like
a win that you can hang your hat on as
like a signature type win.

Speaker 2 (08:36):
No, it is. This team is for real.

Speaker 1 (08:38):
They've been talked about as for real, like there's no
going back and e racing the last two to three
weeks of opinion on the Colts where everybody's like this team,
you better get ready for them, like they're not going away,
like this is a juggernaut. And I still think they're
going to make the playoffs. I still think they're going
to win the AFC South. I think the Steelers there's
still a good football team in there too, you know
what I mean. And they showed up and we talked
a lot last week about that professional pride, right, And

(09:00):
that's why you know the quote unquote NFL happens sometimes
when you look at it and you speak of it
in that like lens of I just don't see how
you beat this team. Your defense is struggling mightily. It's
the number one offense in football. I guess you just
have to get in a shootout, right wrong. You go
out there and your defense wins you a football game,
and you turn them over six times and you make
that offense struggle like they never have this year, and

(09:24):
that's due. And you see that around the league. It's
not just a Steelers thing. It's just an underdog type
of thing in the NFL because these are professionals. They're
on the national stage. I can't imagine what that embarrassment
feels like when you just get shredded like that and
you have to hear it over and over again, and
you know it's outside noise and pros tune it out,

(09:44):
but it's tough to And then also they know that
they didn't play well and they got to hear it
in the film room like you think the coaches are like,
this is fine, like it's okay, We'll bounce back, Like
hell no, Like that sucked for the previous two weeks
for the defense having to go through what they put
on tape watch it. Oh, how many times do you
think Mike Tomin was in there like rewind play, rewind play,

(10:06):
staring you know what I mean, just like staring at
them like what are we doing here?

Speaker 3 (10:10):
Like can they punt it out like a life sized
photo of Tucker Craft and put it like a defensive
meeting room and just like one of.

Speaker 2 (10:14):
Them, imagine, like for five minutes.

Speaker 1 (10:17):
And then the first thing he says is just like
national TV, like this is on national television.

Speaker 2 (10:20):
But but you know what I'm saying, Like so like
that's what happens. Then you get that bounce.

Speaker 1 (10:24):
Back from these guys, and it's way too good of
a defense to be playing like it had been in
the previous two weeks, especially when it comes to taking
the football away. I mean, that's the sauce, right, You
can't go dry there. If you go dry there, you
can really really start hurting because you give up yards.
You gave up yards through the air in this football game.

(10:44):
You know, Danny Dimes, maybe some of it was in
garbage time, but the Colts severely outgained you. So that's
not really gonna change on a dime. You're not going
to just all of a sudden be a team that
holds teams down to two hundred yards a game. But
you are a team that turns teams over. You are
teams that come up with that splash when teams are
threatening in your territory, when teams are getting close to

(11:06):
the red zone, and if that dries up, it can
be tricky business. But the floodgates opened in a huge
way as far as that's concerned, and that's that's a
huge key for this team. I'm not saying you're gonna
get six a game, just like after the Patriots game.
I'm not saying you're gonna get five a game. But
you gotta at least force one or two a game.

(11:26):
That's just who you are, that's your identity.

Speaker 3 (11:29):
Colton one hundred and ninety five yards through three quarters.
They got one hundred and seventy three in the fourth quarter.
They had I mean first downs. They did have thirteen
first downs for their first three quarters, but they ended
up with what exactly thirteen in the fourth quarter. Actually
do you know what.

Speaker 1 (11:41):
I'm saying though, like that give up This defense I
think will give up its fair share of first downs
and you're playing the Colts still, Like, We're not gonna
pretend all of a sudden that this is a bad
offense just because.

Speaker 2 (11:50):
It looks terrible. It looked terrible.

Speaker 1 (11:52):
Credit due to the Steelers defense, But they're still gonna
move the ball, They're still gonna get first downs, and
this defense kind of will let team to do that.

Speaker 2 (12:01):
But it's that waiting in the weeds and striking with
the turnover.

Speaker 1 (12:04):
That's the I don't want to say it again, but
that's the sauce, that's the formula.

Speaker 3 (12:08):
That's what. Yeah, the Steelers defense is what Now could
you have hoped did they hope was there a scenario
out there where the defense was going to be a
top three in yardage and whatever and just be that dominant,
be and just a completely elite I'm sure that was
the hope that they are they are at this point,
they're eight games in and if they're and conversely they

(12:29):
are what they are too in terms of there's been
a five turnover game and a six thirt their two
best wins of the season. Are that now it happens
once and that was sort of like people were sort
of scoffing. There wears out there like you can't depend
on five turnovers, And I guess it's true, you can't,
as proven, but they didn't get any of the past
three games. They still won one of those three games. Again,
it'll be it against the hideous offense. But to get
it now, to have it happened twice against their two

(12:50):
best wins, well maybe not. They say, arguably the two
best teams they've played all the Seattle's lurk in there too,
in terms of the best teams they've They've played Green
Bays there too, but two the best team. It's a
lot of stretch to state of the Colts and the
Patriot are two of the best teams in the league.
This is a little bit of a tangent, but there's
no team in the league that has If this was
college football and you were just a value, if there

(13:10):
was a committee to pick the playoff teams, the Steelers
resume of beating having I don't think any team could
match the two wins the Steelers have. Maybe it'll go
down to each one of them. I don't know. Like,
who has two wins the caliber of at New England
and home of the Colts so far this season. There
might be one team out there, and then two of
our losses are of the Seahawks and Packers, two of
the best teams in football. So in some ways you

(13:32):
could sit here and put the resume of the Steelers
out there, and I get it. I'm not suggesting they
are the best team in football, but they might have
one of the best resumes right now in terms.

Speaker 1 (13:40):
Of Yeah, and you don't forget the losses too, just
to even more so highlight your point. The wins Patriots
on the road is a big win, and it can
and bigger and bigger and bigger every week. At the time,
you didn't really know it. In the moment, you knew
how big this win was. Yes, and it's also going
to age well too, just like the Pats win, Like

(14:00):
the Colts are not going to be you know, a
bumbling idiot football team moving forward, like they're going to
be good.

Speaker 2 (14:07):
They're going to win football games. They'll be in the playoffs.
You might see them again. You very well might see them.

Speaker 1 (14:12):
Again if you're the Pittsburgh Steelers, because they'll be in
the dance, I promise you that. I mean, the Texans
lost again this week, so like there's just no one
that's really the jack. You don't believe in the Jacks,
So like there's just no one that is going to
that's gonna take them out.

Speaker 2 (14:24):
So they'll be there.

Speaker 1 (14:24):
So like that is a huge signature win. The Patriots win.
It gets better and better every single week. So yeah,
this team can say, hey, you know last year we
kind of ran into that buzzsaw of the elites around
the league. Well, I know people are going to push
back on me a little bit because it's not Lamar,

(14:44):
it's not Alan, it's not Mahomes. But these are the
elites of the AFC through the halfway point of the season.
I mean we're talking about the team that was the
number one team in all of football and the Colts
record wise and.

Speaker 3 (14:58):
Abody right behind them.

Speaker 1 (14:59):
So like, as far as you know, oh, playing up
to the level of the top competition in the conference,
check and check. In fact, the standings have them one
and two right now, and you've got your win against
them in your back pocket.

Speaker 3 (15:13):
So there's literally only three seven and two teams in
the league, and the Steelers have beaten to it. They've
beaten them so so you know, and they didn't play
the other one.

Speaker 1 (15:20):
Right, They've beaten the two in the AFC, so like
the Denver's in the AFC two. All right, it's crazy
that they're seven and two. They've just kind of like
slowly snuck their way into that. You know what, though, Chris,
the Steelers will beat them too.

Speaker 3 (15:33):
Oh look at that.

Speaker 1 (15:34):
Yeah, Like, well, you know what, I have a pretty
good track record to prove me my point, because they
have wins against the Colts and they have wins against
the Patriot So it's just it's all around. What a
great win, What a great feeling this gives this team.
It really should give them a great deal of confidence
and a little bit of a stamp of legitimacy because

(15:56):
you're gonna lose NFL games, And as you said, the
Packers loss is really not a bad loss when you
think about it. In the grand scheme of things, Packers
are contender. Although we'll get to what happened to them
at Lambeau this weekend.

Speaker 3 (16:08):
But that's what I tweet about. What I said about
the resumes. But you see the Packers see it, Come
on now, said the Packers are any good? Now, I mean,
I get it the right if the Packers are I mean,
if you're in Green Bay, you're talking like, okay, this
is good. That's okay one time happening to Cleveland, but
now it's twice after you beat a pretty good team
that you you lay an egg the next week. So
I get that, But it's also the I'm gonna sit

(16:29):
here and dissect everybody's schedule and say, well, they're any
good because they lost.

Speaker 1 (16:33):
To the They're still very exactly so you're gonna lose it.
But you got to bounce back. You can't let the
losses compound. You can't just lose in a streaky fashion.
And they were able to stop that in a huge way,
and they were able to make a statement doing it.
It wasn't like you went out there and got the
Browns and you got a little schedule luck, right, and
you're like, well, we can bounce back from these back

(16:54):
to back losses and look.

Speaker 2 (16:55):
A little good doing it. Playing against the JV team, you.

Speaker 1 (16:58):
Played against the best team in the freaking league, and
you had that kind of bounce back performance, especially on
the defensive side of the football. I mean, that's just
got to feel so good for that locker room, and
it's something that the team's got to build on.

Speaker 2 (17:12):
They got to push forward now and I.

Speaker 1 (17:14):
Got to go out to LA and they got to
go make another statement against the team that's in the
playoff picture right now and kind of start stacking up
those wins, right Chris now, kind of start building an
identity of like, hey, AFC, your top dogs, kind of
having a little trouble with Aaron Rodgers and his Pittsburgh Steelers.

Speaker 3 (17:31):
Well, like I mentioned on Friday, and again, I wasn't
predicting a win by any means. I wasn't even I
would not I do not foresee this. I would say
I pat myself in the back, But first of all,
I would throw my shoulder off. I try to pat
myself on the back some of my forties now and
very tall. You're a very tall man. He's like six
for twelve. And secondly, I again I wasn't predicted. I
just said the opportunity was there as all the swirling

(17:52):
and they completely acknowledged it themselves, the members of the
defense TJ Watt on Friday at that point when when
in the show, I hadn't and I had talked to
DJ why yet was pretty open about we got to
be better, we weren't good enough. And you hear about
the Jaalen Ramsey speech on Saturday night in terms of
we don't know the exact content of that, but it
sure sounds like it was along the lines of we

(18:13):
were better than this. We know what we're putting out there.
It's it's the tape on defense were showing stinks in
the past two weeks, and we know we're better than this.
We need I imagine again, I guess said on Friday. It
was an opportunity because all the what are you the
negative vibes and the outside noise and the internal noise
and lack of whatever confidence they were losing these past

(18:36):
couple of weeks and getting lit up late in these
games against Cincinnati and Green Bay. All you had an
opportunity in front of you. With the best offense in
football by far in points and yards and seven with
the team of the best record in football was coming
to your house and all everything. You could take that
and flip it on its side. And you had a
chance here to do that. And that's exactly what happened. Everything. Listen,

(18:59):
it's not fixed it's not to the point. Again, I'm
not saying it's an elite defense or whatever, but showed.

Speaker 2 (19:04):
Against your Chris, he's going in.

Speaker 3 (19:08):
My nature to temper everything and not but maybe that
doesn't make for good radio. I don't know. But they
took all all the storyline going into the Sunday and
it's completely flipped now right against what you've done. I say,
I can't think it over. I feel like Jonathan Taylor,
I forgot. I'm like, well, that's Jonathan Tylor.

Speaker 2 (19:25):
Yeah, let's get because that he was there. It's kind
of becoming a little bit of an.

Speaker 1 (19:31):
Afterthought what you're saying, because of the six takeaways and
the sacks and I mean the dancing, and we're running,
let's run into this end zone. Okay, now we're gonna
run into this end zone. And now we're gonna run
into that end zone. So we'll get into stopping Jonathan
Taylor next. But the op I can't think of anything
more opposite of negative than some victory woohoo's.

Speaker 2 (19:49):
So I think Max Starks, it's been a couple of weeks,
please lead us. Wow, Chris, it's Monday.

Speaker 3 (19:58):
I've had my coffee on Monday.

Speaker 2 (20:01):
I miss it and I'm glad that we got him back.

Speaker 1 (20:04):
Let's get it again next Monday, when the Steelers come
back from the West Coast with another big win against
the LA Chargers. Jonathan Taylor Talk next, It's the Steelers
Blitz on Steeers Nation Radio, part of the Steeers Audio Network.

Speaker 2 (20:25):
Jonathan Taylor was the leading running.

Speaker 1 (20:27):
Back in the entire NFL heading into Sunday, he was
by far the front runner for the Offensive Player of
the Year. In fact, heading into the Steeler game, Chris,
you started to see the campaign building for MVP.

Speaker 2 (20:42):
Right, you started to hear it.

Speaker 1 (20:44):
You started to see the national talk starting up up
Jonathan Taylor. Could this be the first MVP that isn't
a quarterback since twenty twelve? And Adrian Peterson and he
goes out against the Steelers on the heels of a
week where he was having like twelve yards of carry
against the Tennessee Titans just torched him and he puts

(21:07):
up forty five yards on just fourteen carries. And we
said going into the break, that's kind of being a
little overshadowed by the rest of the defensive performance.

Speaker 2 (21:22):
The sacks, the.

Speaker 1 (21:24):
Splash, right, the sex appeal to what you did against
the bus. But it really, and you heard a lot
of players say this after the game, it really all
started with stopping the run in stopping Jonathan Taylor and
cutting that head off the snake, because that's what the
Colts offense all flows from. It's all successful because when

(21:46):
it's all you know, when you need the yard, when
it's like time to get a big play, you can
just hand it off to twenty eight and he'll probably
go for at least four or five yards a carry.
It's a fool proof kind of formula for the most part,
except against the Steelers on Sunday at Akrosure, and when
that part of the Colts offense isn't working, you can

(22:07):
kind of see that brow kind of nature to it.
And Danny Dimes, this was kind of your first test, right, Hey,
go win us a football.

Speaker 2 (22:17):
Game with you like trailing loud road atmosphere outdoor.

Speaker 3 (22:24):
They didn't played an outdoor game except for Tennessee was
on cont grass field. They played. The only game outdoors
on grass was the.

Speaker 1 (22:30):
La I mean, we're not getting into it, but we
all know about the grass set to afressure and the
talk around that. But I'm saying, like it slows down
a really fast team like that, that that's definitely a
factor there. They got to adjust to that throughout the game.
But I think mainly it's, Hey, there was gonna be
a time, and especially in the playoffs for the Colts
where it's not gonna work with Taylor and Daniel Jones

(22:50):
is going to have to be a good quarterback to
win a playoff game or even flirt with making a run.
And there was gonna be a time in the regular
season where there was going to be real resistance all
those elements we just laid out. Tailor's not working, You're
trailing on the road, bad environment, and he failed the
first time.

Speaker 2 (23:07):
I mean he threw three picks.

Speaker 1 (23:08):
He looked like that New York Giant Danny Dimes that
Dabo was like, get the hell out of here, I
don't care.

Speaker 2 (23:13):
Go to the Vikings, go to the Colts. Who cares?

Speaker 3 (23:15):
Are you playing for?

Speaker 2 (23:16):
Next?

Speaker 1 (23:17):
So great job by the Steelers to again cut that
head off the snake, to really take the Colt's formula
and say you're not allowed to use this today. Beat
us in another way, and the Colts failed miserably there.

Speaker 3 (23:33):
It's funny, you're the sort of the verbiage you're using,
I'm gonna kind of turn this around. And you talk
about a formula, a full proof formula, you talk about
when it doesn't work, rut row. The Steelers defense's formula
is to stop the run. The Steelers defense, particularly the
previous two games and at other points this season in general,
the last few seasons even has had trouble stopping the run,

(23:55):
and that leads to the rot row of the Steelers
defense quite often. And that's kind of what I did
a lot of the previous two games. So for that
other words, the formula for the Steelers defense played out
exactly the way they wanted to that that's the way.
And it's ironic that the five Steelers defense was there,
the whole five Steelers team was there the twenty year anniversary.

Speaker 2 (24:14):
You think they felt that they had to have every
building right now? Could you not?

Speaker 1 (24:17):
Like kind of and I think that you should have.
I think you should embrace that kind of emotion and
tap into it and be like, Wow, we can't really
get beat up bad in front of these guys, Like
look at these Joey Porter Senior and like, oh, Aaron
Smith out here like this is these are hallowed Steelers,
like we got to show out here, and.

Speaker 3 (24:39):
I think having the debt the father of one of
them is part of that too. I think the fact
that they that a lot of those guys played with
the current head coach, not all of them, but most
of them were were Tomlin played for Tom Win. So
they have the connection to the organization that w direct
connection to these to this current team. I think that
there's something even too, maybe just because I'm about the

(25:00):
the age of the five players, so I'm probably fooling
myself when I say this. And then with all your
like those obviously the seventies guys are beyond legends, but
I think there's a little more connection from the current
players rather than guys that are, you know, the age
they be in their seventies or whatever, opposed to guys
that are in their forties. I think there's a little
more they grew up and saw these guys play. I
think there's I think there is something to that to

(25:21):
a point, especially you talk about a prideful defense, and
those teams were built on defenses again shut down the
run that were the reason why teams won. And with
all the everything all the noise of the past two
weeks of the Steelers defense and where it was and
what it was doing. The fact that I think that
that I hate to say it's too much, but I'm

(25:42):
sure I think that did play something. I don't think
it's a total coincidence that you had a defense go
out and shut down the way it did. And again,
this is the way the Steelers defense. These guys all,
I mean TJ. Watt goes without saying, of course he's
the He's the centerpiece of the defense and has been
making force fum and stripsacks and splash plays since since
he's been with the Steelers. Peyton Wilson, That's why he

(26:05):
was drafted. That's what he did in college. He was
making splash plays. I mean high Smith as the as
the perfect Robin who's gonna flash a couple of times
a year for short and have a game like that.
That that was part of all the way up and
that's what this defense was. Cam Hayward batting down I
mean he had two in the first first drive, and
I know they ended up in a touchdown, but that
was at least I sort of made light of it

(26:26):
at the time, and I thought well, you know, I
didn't know. But in a way, it took what the
Colts eight plays to go to the final six yards
of that that first touchdown drive, and they had marched
down there to go to go to gold situation or
in the red zone with ease, and they had convert
to fourth downs I think, and to get that first
touchdown on the five fourth down here was kind of

(26:46):
a quirky anomaly there, but whatever, not the nitpick on that,
but it was kind of five fourth downs. They make
them all. But anyway, it just showed the again, the
recipe this defense was going to be, or is ideally
going to be, create the splash plays. Even it does
allow the yardage, you're going to have guys like I mean,
we could talk, we'll do we get a whole segment

(27:08):
if you want on Jayson Ramsey and moving and everything
like that. But he didn't make a splash play, which
we you kind of expect. But out of my head,
you got guys. You have guys at all every level
this defense and every week could be somebody different. Now
you're getting a five tart takeaway game. It's crazy looking
at you know, the New York Jets have one takeaway
the entire season and one take away that's like you

(27:29):
think the other team would drop a ball like we
saw that the muff punt, I mean the Jets. That
didn't happen to the Jets once the other team a
couple of times, like like somehow the quarterback like like
throws the ball that makes a bad decision or somebody
run the wrong route and you're just interception. Like it
says wow to me, but it's the Steelers had more
takeaways in that game as many as four NFL teams

(27:50):
have had all season, and worth halfway moore in the season.

Speaker 1 (27:53):
And that's the second game where it's just like a
crazy volume of takeaways by the Steelers defense. Five against
the Patriots, six against the Colts. Like after that Patriots game,
you're thinking, there's no way they'd ever do that again.
You're right, we won't do that again. We're gonna do
one better than that again.

Speaker 3 (28:06):
And those are two of the teams that outside of
the Steelers, it's not like they did it. I mean whatever,
I don't look at the Hululi's league and giveaways. I
mean the Titans or whoever it is, I mean the
Colt Drake May has been taking care of the ball
generally speaking. The Colts taking care of the ball generally speaking.

Speaker 1 (28:19):
Now, to be fair with Andre Stevenson has not been
taking care of the ball, That's true. The Colts takeaways too,
had a little bit of a different vibe to them,
right like the Patriots. You know, romondre Stevenson, you prayed
on him, and don't get me wrong, like you had
to get those, but they had a little bit more
of like a I feel like a little bit more
ball luck to him, you know what.

Speaker 3 (28:36):
I mean, Like, yeah, ballou every recovered fumble.

Speaker 1 (28:40):
Colts turnovers felt like you were forcing them, like it
was you that was taking the ball away.

Speaker 2 (28:46):
Like there was nothing ball luck about t J. Watts
strip sack, Like that.

Speaker 1 (28:50):
Was ball out and I'm taking my other hand and
just taking it right here and putting it in my lap.
Like it really felt like again I'm not trying to
down play what they did against the Patriots, but it
felt like there was more of an emphasis on forcing
those turnovers against the Colts.

Speaker 3 (29:06):
You could, yeah, there certainly was as part of the mindset,
probably the defense. But again, the facts speak from the
Colts have played eight other games, they have four takeaways.
In the eight other games they had six giveaways. I'm sorry,
and they have six. The Seeers taken away six times
from them. The Patriots and the other eight games of
a combined six giveaways, and then the Seelers had five
in the one game against them, and that was so
you know, you remember that there was a tip pass

(29:28):
and Eccles makes interception. There were, Yes, they recovered every
fumble that was on the ground, which is which is
everybody would tell you is luck for sure that you're
gonna get the four force. The fumbles is one thing,
but the recovered fumbles another thing. I mean, there was
a couple even in what the Colts fumbled another time
themselves and the Sea wers it and fall on and
they could have you know, say you could have another
one or whatever. But it was there, and it was there.

(29:49):
Definitely was the tenor leading up to the weekend, and
then the tenor after the game, and just some sort
of like this is the Pittsburgh so this is what
we're supposed to be going forward. They have a chance
to see how sustainable it is. But if you think
about it, it's almost as if it's a how many
combinations of safety starters have there been this season? So far,

(30:11):
there's been what six guys have started at safety and
it's it's not been I mean there has been injury
of course has been part of it. But in other words,
we'll see and we'll probably talk about this more later,
how if this is going forward? But they played every
snap Ramsey and Duggar as your safeties. And Dougger was
three days after he showed up and in a high

(30:33):
volume snap game again seventy what was it, seventy snaps,
sixty nine snaps seventy seven that's a that's a that's
a big workload for anybody, let alone somebody who showed
up three days earlier. And I wonder if in terms
of there was a lot of snaps. I charted some
of this in terms of the three inside linebackers on
the field at various points, three outside linebackers on the

(30:56):
field at various points, there were the other ten snaps
or three out inside linebackers thirteen snaps with three outside linebacker.
That's even whenever Highsmith had to leave there for a
little bit to get dinged up, so there wasn't a upportunity.
So I wonder it'll work this time and we'll see
going forward. But there obviously were adjustments made. There were
changes made. There are changes in personnel. Off quite obvious
one when you make a trade and putting Ramsey back

(31:19):
at safety. There was different looks with the putting the
you know, the three edge guys on the field at
the same time Malie Harrison coming back. So between Malie
Harrison and Duggar, there was literally a different defense here.
So there's even a reason to believe that this wasn't
just an anomaly, that maybe they found something here that
you can carry forward and it will be different, and

(31:40):
it's not. You know, there's there's literally different guys on
the field.

Speaker 1 (31:44):
Let's get more into the linebackers and the safeties. But
before we do, I want to play this sound bite.
This is what the Steel defense had to say following
the game to the media.

Speaker 2 (31:54):
I think I got my swag a back. It was
a total tip. That was their swagger. That's what they do.

Speaker 1 (32:04):
They sack the quarterback, they take the football away and
when the takeaways dry up. Remember last week, I said
live by the three, Die by the three. In a
basketball sense, if you're a team that takes the ball
away and you kind of live by that. When the
drought happens, when the threes are clanking off the backboard,

(32:28):
when you're not getting the fumbles to bounce into your lap,
when you're not you know, jumping around and getting an interception,
when TJ. Wattson not getting a strip sack, you're gonna die.
You're going to have struggles as a defense. So they
got their swagger back out there. They were forcing turnovers
and they were sacking Danny Dimes. I love what you

(32:49):
said about the safeties. I love what you said about
the linebackers, because those two position groups in particular, I
think really stole the show. And let's focus on Dougger
and Ramsey here for a second. I don't want to overreact,
you know, like that's a Rich Eisen Newsy's overreaction.

Speaker 3 (33:06):
Monday.

Speaker 2 (33:07):
He invented it. You see it everywhere. Everybody does that.

Speaker 3 (33:10):
It is Monday.

Speaker 1 (33:12):
But I think moving forward, Doug ar Ramsey is a
really strong combination at that safety position.

Speaker 3 (33:23):
Now.

Speaker 1 (33:23):
I know you're worried about taking away from your cornerback room,
but you're really only taking away from your slot corner
room because Ramsey, as far as an outside corner, there
was not much left there, and I think Eccles is
fine as far as filling that role is concerned.

Speaker 2 (33:40):
And maybe Beanie Bishop, who's still on.

Speaker 1 (33:43):
Your practice squad, gets elevated down the road at some
point to kind of help out there. Now it comes
down to Darius Slay and what he can do on
the outside, or maybe it comes down to a trade, Chris,
maybe a trade for an outside corner. We have the
trade deadline coming up tomorrow. I don't want to get
into those weeds right now. I'm just saying, Dougger and

(34:04):
Ramsey me like you a lot. More specifically, I think
there's a lot to Ramsey becoming a free safety and
kind of making that transition.

Speaker 3 (34:15):
If he and the fact that he even he seems
he's a fun guy to get to know or or
at least you know, interact with, and you kind of
wondered coming in and I and I even maybe misread
him the first time he talked to Pittsburgh media about
whether he was embracing like for instance, and they're different situations,

(34:36):
different players, but just follow me here, Like Joe Hayden
was like, I'm a cornerback. I'm never going to be
a safety. I'll retire before I have to move positions.
And that was that, and that's fine. Hey, he had
a great career. God bless him. Good guy doing doing
doing podcasts. Now, uh do what he has. Patrick Peterson,
you know, I don't know where he was in terms
of but you know, he played. He came signed with
the Seahors his final year to be an outside corner.

(34:57):
Eventually got moved to safety kind of maybe out of
necessity because he was kind of getting exposed at corner.
So Ramsey, I wonder, and I feel like, because like
I said, it's kind of hard to read him that
he he he's proud of the fact he can play
any position, that's for sure. He's proud that he can
he can contribute in those ways. If he wants to

(35:17):
fully embrace this, and judging by the fact that he
you know, somehow had the team in the palm of
his hand, given the speech on Saturday night and the
way he even talked on Friday a little bit of
the media, and if he's willing to embrace this, I think,
I mean, he's not dumb. He sees the need on
this defense, he sees I'm sure he knows the the

(35:40):
advantages and why he would be him playing back at
the at the back level as a free safety. And
you know, you can obviously deploy him certain snaps here
and there to pick your spots, and they did in
that game to get him close to the line of
scrimmage and things like that. But you see where the
need is for the Steelers defense, where you can most
help the results of the first game. It happening having

(36:01):
a viable high level running mate. I mean, how like
I said, how many safeties they shuffled in and out
this year to varying degrees of success and very degrees
of non success. In terms of the safeties they've had,
they've all they've tried veterans to like the Clark about,
don't even to go through the whole list here of
the man in. Of course, Elliot's hurt right now, and
you wonder if when and if I don't know, I'm

(36:23):
not getting depression of Mellie, it's probably not gonna or
might not come back this year. And you know whatever,
if you play the too high with the thing with
Elliot's not here, so no reason to talk about it
right now. But if Ramsey embraces that, it seems as
if that can be his, but now there might not
be the the stat sheet production from that per se
from him, Like oh there's still can be can but yeah,

(36:45):
I can still ballhawk back then. But like, but in
this game, there wasn't like it wasn't like if you're
talking about like it's funny the last two games we
didn't give we didn't give give the money to the
defensive player, but there was this game. There's no shorts
of you could there's so many guys on the defense
could get him. Yeah, like like Ramsey could get one,
even though stat wise he wasn't didn't have the didn't

(37:06):
have to take you know, the set whatever of some
of the other guys. But he affected the game and
he can't affect the game, and there will be a
point where he does fill up the stat sheet from
that spot. But I think they can find something here.
But you hit the nail on the head there the
only I think that's probably where he's best to play.
I think it's best for the defense. It's now will
the cornerback group hold up? And Eccles was exclusively the slot.

(37:28):
I think you're okay there, definitely okay there, And it
falls down to the twenty three and slay it does
and that can hold the whole key, maybe this whole thing,
you know, the pivot point where it turns into a
really good defense or you got to find a way
to to cover things up.

Speaker 1 (37:47):
I guess linebackers and moneymakers. That's what's coming up next.
It's Tom op From and Chris of Damski on the
Steelers Blitz Steelers Nation Radio, a part of the Steelers
Audio Network.

Speaker 2 (38:06):
It's time out for Minte.

Speaker 1 (38:07):
Chris Damski back on the Steelers Splitz on Steelers Nation Radio. Chris,
you mentioned in the last segment they were putting three
inside linebackers on the field at times in this game.
They were putting three outside linebackers on the field at
times during this game.

Speaker 2 (38:21):
And I think it all worked really well. I really
was impressed with almost everybody on the defense, but first
and foremost Peyton Wilson. What a dog, I mean, what
a beast performance.

Speaker 1 (38:38):
And when we were doing the pregame show, Matt Williamson
and I, he was saying, how and I heard him
say all throughout the week two on the drive that
Peyton Wilson actually was pretty good in coverage against the Packers,
And like was kind of pumping him up a little bit.
Like you know, the more you watch that Packers game,
like Peyton Wilson, no one played great, but he's one
guy that you kind of look at as like, okay,

(38:59):
there's a silver lining there. Boy, did he explode in
that game yesterday against the Colts, a game high fourteen
total tackles. I believe ten of them were solo. I mean,
you want to talk about cleaning up. And obviously a
huge interception where I mean Danny Diames had to have

(39:19):
just lost him and didn't.

Speaker 2 (39:20):
Know where he was.

Speaker 1 (39:21):
But hey, kudos to Wilson for sitting kind of in
that spot and then pouncing on that ball in that
zone defense and taking it and putting the Steelers in
an advantageous position to then take the lead.

Speaker 3 (39:30):
And there's football justice because and that would happen first.
But he created the other in he created an interception.
He didn't get credit for the interception the second, the
Sawyer interception, but he created that interception right now.

Speaker 1 (39:42):
That was the second one though, yeah, the first one,
so there was no need for football, just there was
need for more.

Speaker 2 (39:50):
Was needed, and that was insane. He jumped out the
gym on that one like he was so up in
the air.

Speaker 1 (39:56):
Watt had another one too early in the game, or no,
it was uh well, Hayward had one that Watt tried
to do the scramble too to try to intercept what
had two on one or damn it, Hayward had two
on one possession down in that goal line. The Colts
did end up actually scoring a touchdown on that, but
Cam Hayward tried his damn hardest to make sure that
they wouldn't. So, I mean that's a part of the

(40:18):
splash too, that was gone from the defense. But anyway,
Peyton Wilson, I mean you needed Like I was kind
of on Patrick Queen in the pregame show yesterday. I
was like, dude, like you kind of need to step
up here, Like we've kind of been focusing on the
Wilson's and the Holcombs, and then I'm kind of like saying, hey,
can Malie Harrison.

Speaker 2 (40:33):
Help it all?

Speaker 1 (40:34):
And it's like, yeah, but Queen's the guy that was
paid the money and he's supposed to be the number
one inside backer and he played good. Like I'm not
trying to pick out in Queen and say he didn't deliver,
but I'm saying Wilson delivered and more of like, oh wow,
you're a number one, you're a you know, typical middle
linebacker and Chris fourteen tackles like that's the cliche, you
know shark from any given Sunday, like any kind of

(40:56):
you know, central casting inside middle linebacker. That's the type
of performance that he has. The Peyton Wilson won.

Speaker 3 (41:03):
It was a high event game. The use some hockey
each I guess, you know, it's like how they do
I like it. You know, he was involved like that
if you fill up it. It's like the thing where
if even if you have giveaways, I me and you
had the puck in the hockey when they say anytime
you were an event and you just fill up the statute.
That's what Peyton was. And I think the Peyton Wilson
thing there is because again he I've said it a
lot and I still and we're here at the halfway

(41:23):
point of the season now, and if you ask me
maybe a couple of weeks ago, I'm like, well, okay,
it looks like we know it's way it's head and
but there is certain that this isn't like an anomaly.
This guy literally at NC State, which isn't easy to
do to a sort of a you know, anonymous program,
a power of conference and whatever. Won the National Defensive
Player of the Year two years ago. Okay, because he

(41:44):
fills up the statute, he makes plays. He's the fastest
linebacker in the league, perhaps right, so he has it
all there. And I was all summer, I said, Peyton Wilson,
this is the guy. And there's there's a few of
those guys in the Steelers roster and there still is
at this point that that I wondered, where would this
season go with him? It's his third season. Is he
going to or the second season? Was he going to

(42:07):
take like elevate himself to be like I could see
him and it's back on the table now. If he
has a couple more games like that and starts getting
the stats, he's gonna be con make It's not out
of the question. He makes it the Pro Bowl. And
there was a scenario where maybe a couple of weeks ago,
we were seeing where he was giving away snaps. He
was playing the third most snaps in his own team
and kind of wasn't even literally didn't start a couple
of games, and you kind of wondered, like, Okay, maybe

(42:29):
he can be exposed. He's not whatever big enough. There's
there's questions and reason why he fell to the middle
round instead of being a first round pick. And so
seeing that, I think just the confidence he gets from that,
seeing maybe again you could tell the defense as a
whole they got in the lab, like whether it was
like they were challenged. Maybe maybe they challenged themselves. Was

(42:50):
it Mike Tomlin challenged him? Was it just they they
looked in the mirror and they had to But it
was sort of an all hands on deck in terms
of the schematic changes, the personnel chain changes, the trying
different things in terms of things we hadn't seen, kind
of packages and things like that, and just sort of
the playmakers making plays and obviously they're trying to make

(43:12):
plays all the time. But to see that happen and
Peyton Wilson, I think in body that the most because
there were a couple of games were in frankly, you know,
he was sort of invisible and he lost, he sort
of got demoted. And so remember he's playing the first
played every snap the first couple of games of the season,
and in three or four weeks ago he was, you know,
playing less than half the snaps, and he went out
and showed out. And I think Thursday scenario like that,
he's not gonna happen. He's not gonna have interception in

(43:33):
a tip pass for an interception every single week. But
there's no reason he can't have double digit tackles almost
every week and you know, make us whatever, whether it
be a quarterback hit, a sack, a turnover of some
sort of force fumble. I think that there that is
not unrealistic because he has that ability and that talent
that you might be able to see that on a
consistent basis from him.

Speaker 2 (43:52):
He also played seventeen special teams snaps sixty percent.

Speaker 3 (43:56):
He's the captain. Wow, Yeah, he's that's He's awesome.

Speaker 1 (44:00):
He's just I'm really glad that he is starting to
come on as far as a defensive players concerned, an
inside backers concerned. He had a great, great game against
the Indianapolis Colts, also a fantasy and Nick Herbert get
fifty one percent of the snaps forty snaps total, high
Smith got forty eight snaps, so a little bit more
of a split there, and as you noted too, they

(44:20):
were on the field at the same time a decent
amount as well. Watt on the field as well, you know,
going with the three outside linebacker. Look Jack Sawyer getting
twenty snaps too, and obviously getting his big splash play.

Speaker 2 (44:32):
The interception they like.

Speaker 3 (44:34):
Peyton tried to take away from him was kind of
foot He tried to take the ball, but I see
what he was taking because he was falling down and
hit me the ball. I'm gonna run and nobody's gonna
catch me. So it wasn't like it was a solid
not putting him down as a selfish player or anything
like that, but yeah, it was sort of.

Speaker 1 (44:47):
It was kind of funny, and Wilson did kind of
cause that, like you said, with that yeah, jumping out the.

Speaker 3 (44:51):
Yeah he would have. Yes, he could earn. Yeah, he's
the one that that that takeaway if you credit the takeaway.
It's funny now because Sawyer's too big a splash plays
of the season or.

Speaker 2 (45:07):
Yeah, he gets his Zachy Wilson.

Speaker 3 (45:09):
You know it's a rookie again, he'd make He's part
of the play. Part of making plays.

Speaker 1 (45:13):
You got to get him any way you can. All right,
it's time to hand out our moneymakers. Teddy kg b
let's start on the offensive side of the ball. For me, Chris,
I'm gonna go with the big man. I'm gonna go
with Darnell Washington. That's me and his offense was struggling
a bit. We're gonna get to that to start the
second hour of the show a little bit more. But
Rogers was able to kind of find a rhythm when

(45:34):
he started going to Darnell Washington in the passing game.
So kudos to Darnell, as Rogers said in the post game,
wasn't able to connect in the red zone, wasn't able
to get him the touchdown to kind of, you know,
put the cherry on top of his performance. But Rogers
also said they're a better team when he's out there,
and that certainly was the case. He helped them get
a little bit of rhythm against that Colts defense.

Speaker 3 (45:53):
I'm gonna go with and it's not just because I
want to hear some non Royalty music maybe, but I'm
gonna go with gain Well. Actually, and like you said,
the offense of the three longest plays of the game,
eighteen and sixteen, he just it just felt like again
and this is they won the game. There wasn't a
lot of explosion and a lot it felt like there

(46:13):
were a couple of like little swing passes like the
one of those sixteen or eighteen yards was a little
flip off pass that he split two defenders and and
and made a you know, I'm playing to make a furs.
Now we're getting I'm glad we're getting this now. And
hey again, he was second the team in catches, all right,
Like I get it. There wasn't a lot there and
I can go a lot of her directors. I'm not
gonna have Aaron Rodgers every single week, so and I'm

(46:38):
appreciative of that.

Speaker 1 (46:39):
I didn't know we were having a moment with Kenny partner.
You gotta give me like you gotta give me a
little heads up on that. So this is what you do.

Speaker 2 (46:46):
You're we get the music up. You adjusted a little
bit of a sneaky one there.

Speaker 3 (46:52):
I just again, you watch you go back and watch
the game. Look at a little burst from him. You know,
I saw a couple of plays like that where he
did that, and and you know, you could go a
lot of different ways with this, And I thought Calvin
Austin did the same thing where again a couple little
plays that that intrigued me going forward, like in Austin
a couple of times where you know, he showed speed
and he one time he had he made a like

(47:13):
a sort of a back shoulder catch that the fireman
you touchdown was. It was a was a nice adjustment
to make that catch, and that Rogers trusted him to
make that throw. He got himself opened. I like that
little play.

Speaker 2 (47:23):
He can't pay everybody, Chris.

Speaker 3 (47:24):
There are little snippets of there was nobody that on defense,
you could go with any number of five or six names.

Speaker 2 (47:29):
I think, well, I'm gonna go with the name Peyton
Wilson on the defense. I'm gonna take me. You're gonna
have to do some.

Speaker 1 (47:35):
Work for yours because he was awesome. I'm so high
on what Peyton Wilson was able to do. I hope
it continues yours.

Speaker 3 (47:42):
I'm gonna go with Alex Highsmith. Now twas yes, two sacks.
There's been there been calls to like, I mean, it's
face bend. I mean it's not more because people want
to see her Big, but people wanted to mote him,
and I get that with what her BIG's done for
him to have the two sacks, get the turnover he
made it, he may have another tackle for a lot,
especially he went he's looped off the fielder in the

(48:03):
first quarter, and at that point I was like, almost
at the break up when I'm like, he's getting hurt
too much. I literally went through my mind. I'm like,
I think the Alex Eismith thing might maybe in the offseason,
got to end because you can't trust him. But then
he comes out and balls the rest of the game.

Speaker 1 (48:16):
The offense that we said all week was going to
have to go out and win a game didn't stink,
but it certainly struggled to get itself going. We'll talk
about that side of the ball for the first time
all day today on the Blitz when we come back
to start the second hour.

Speaker 2 (48:29):
He's Chris Dansky on Tom Opferman. It's Steelers Nation Radio,
a part of the Steelers Audio Network.