HR1 - Beating The Ravens, Defense Sets The Tone

Tom and Chris talk all about strategy for how the Steelers beat the Ravens Sunday and claim the AFC North

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
Happy New Year everybody. Heyo, are you surprised to hear
our voices coming at you live and on the air
on the Steelers. That's what you shouldn't be because I
don't care about no stink in New Year's Day. I
care about beating the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday night and
going to the damn playoffs.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
You would have had to hold me back with the
strength of a thousand guards.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
From getting to this microphone today and breaking down how
the Steelers are gonna beat the Ravens. Unfortunately, Chris Dansky
had to tag along because I just don't do the
show alone.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
He wanted to be off because he's lazy. Now I'm
just kidding, he's right there with me.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
I mean, Chris, you know in three four weeks time,
we're gonna be sitting around like, man.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
I really wish there were some football to talk about.

Speaker 1 (00:52):
I'm not gonna take a day off in the middle
of Armageddon week for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
So we're here, We're about to beat the Ravens.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
You and I on this show today, and then the
Steelers just gonna go out there and execute everything that
we say.

Speaker 3 (01:04):
Holiday small today, my calendar is dictated by football, and
my holidays are playoff games and versual playoff games and
games or whatever else is going on football football.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
Oh, yes, those are the only holidays that matter. It's
if seen with championship weekend. Okay, Mike Tomlin knows what
he's doing, folks. Obviously he thinks it sucks what happened
in Cleveland, but you gotta turn that page quickly. That's
what makes him such a good coach, and that's what
separates the good coaches from the bad coach. The bad coaches,

(01:38):
let teams have bad moments compound. Let teams get held
down by those just down in the dump's terrible performances.
Let that stink carry over into the next game. Not
Mike t He hasn't done that throughout his entire career. Sure,
he's had two three game losing streaks here or there. Oh,
we were already kind of flirting with that this year.

Speaker 2 (01:57):
Okay, so we're done with that one.

Speaker 1 (01:59):
We want star hands of our two to three game
losing streak this year. But he is known for getting
this team to bounce back, forgetting this team to get
off the mat. That's exactly what he meant when he
got to that microphone on Tuesday for the press conference
and dubbed it AFC North Championship Week and set the
mind frame or or put your mind in that frame

(02:22):
that this is a game for the AFC North. It
is a de facto championship game. Treat it like the playoffs.
Playoffs started this week.

Speaker 2 (02:33):
For you and match that intensity on Sunday night.

Speaker 3 (02:37):
And they know it. I mean, of course the players
know it. Of course the team knows it. It is
a it's a winning in it's it's a virtual playoff game.
Like I said, you had winn, you advance, your season
goes on. You win hats and T shirts. I mean,
it's all for the hats and T shirts. He talked
about the that the cheat the.

Speaker 1 (02:51):
Hats and T shirts, like does it say run the
North King of the There's so many options.

Speaker 2 (02:55):
I need to see which one.

Speaker 3 (02:56):
We could probably cheat on this and see what the
Bears are the Bear of clinch, right, although the Bears
didn't clinch during a game, right, so we don't even know.

Speaker 1 (03:03):
Bears got their hats and T shirts in the hotel room,
yeah before San franciscoday night.

Speaker 3 (03:07):
So they are not even public. So it is sort
of like is mystery streets these T shirts?

Speaker 2 (03:11):
They were in the building in Cleveland. I know that
they were somewhere. They were somewhere in.

Speaker 3 (03:14):
A there's a box somewhere. I should have done more
digging investigative journalism.

Speaker 1 (03:18):
A fine, we're not going to ask you to start doing,
you know, a good job in twenty twenty six all
of a sudden, a mediocre drop up they usually do.

Speaker 3 (03:25):
But the good news is we'll get to see him
on Sunday night around midnight, no matter what. Yeah, that's true.
That's right. Well we'll see what the slogan is no
matter what, but I do it is there. I felt
like yesterday being at the facility, and I did sense
a buzz of whatever, negativity or whatever after losing the
game that seemed to be a race. It seemed to
be a loose focused bunch. I was kind of I

(03:48):
walked away from the locker room session thinking that this
team knows where it's at. It was it was a
playoff type feel to it, and it's pretty much a
playoff game, right, you go, good, It's it's kind of crazy.

Speaker 2 (03:58):
Is a playoff?

Speaker 3 (03:58):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (03:59):
That pretty much much.

Speaker 1 (04:00):
You know, technically it's a playoff game. You lose it,
you're going on vacation. The next week. You win it,
you get to play again. That's a playoff game. So
playoffs come early for the Pittsburgh Steelers. And I just
keep drawing back to when it looked like it was
at its absolute rock bottom this year, Chris.

Speaker 2 (04:18):
The Buffalo game, people were, you know, people were wondering.

Speaker 1 (04:22):
What the future might hold for this team. People were
speculating about will they even make the play we'll even
get to five hundred. This year was on the table.
Some people were saying they might lose out after that
Buffalo game, and then they bounced back with such an
epic performance, and it was against the Baltimore Ravens.

Speaker 2 (04:37):
So that's given me a lot of optimism.

Speaker 1 (04:40):
Aaron Rodgers bounced back after that Buffalo game, played a
great game against the Baltimore Ravens. So he's done that
already against that team in their stadium, So that gives
me a great deal of confidence. And your defense played
awesome on Sunday against the Cleveland Browns, save the first
two drives. You'll push back at me, play Devil's advocate

(05:01):
and say, well.

Speaker 2 (05:03):
It was the Cleveland Browns.

Speaker 1 (05:04):
They are awful on offense, and I will cast you aside, devil,
you demon, and I will say, that's what you're supposed
to do against a garbage offense like that. They're supposed
to only have nine to ten first downs. Seems some
more first downs in that game than the Browns did.
Think about that and how bad we've been saying. The
Steelers offense was still more first downs than the Cleveland Browns.

(05:27):
That's what you're supposed to do if you're as good
of a defense as the Steelers are, and that's as
bad as an offense as the Browns are. But I
want to start in this place today, Chris. When it
comes to our real ex's nose, when it comes to
us solving the riddle of the Ravens and beating them,
you cannot let them out to a ten to nothing lead.
As great as the defense was Sunday against the Browns,
it got off to a slow start. They cannot afford

(05:48):
to get off to a slow start against Rams. You
look up at that scoreboard and it's ten to nothing.
First of all, that's exactly where a team that wants
to run the football a billion times, or right where
you want them or right where they want you is
in that hole.

Speaker 2 (05:59):
Early. They can lean on Henry, they can lean on
running the football.

Speaker 1 (06:02):
But furthermore, you're not going to shut down this team,
this offense for the rest of the game like you
did the Browns. Like it's not gonna be ten to nothing,
and then that's it. Ravens keeps scoring. They're a better
team than the Browns are. They're a much better offense
than the Browns are, Huntley or Lamar Jackson. So you
got to show up and come out ready to play.
If you're the defense, you have to get off the

(06:25):
field three and out right away.

Speaker 2 (06:27):
Set that tone.

Speaker 1 (06:28):
If you kind of warm up to the game like
you did against Cleveland, that could be doomsday for the Steelers.

Speaker 3 (06:35):
And part of I know, obviously, to fill a down
ten nothing without this the benefit the opponent have the
benefit of this is part of it is the lack
of turnovers of no interceptions for over a month now
for and Rodgers. I was going to say, and generally
it's true, the Steelers have done a pretty good job
of protecting the ball in general. There were a few
fumbles back in the Cleveland game that did now no harm,
no file that recovered all of them. So it didn't.

Speaker 1 (06:57):
Maybe I'm on like the first play, we didn't warn
like it was first it was on the first game.

Speaker 3 (07:02):
First drive. Yes, yes, and so that that's something that
you obviously do not want, you can't afford to have,
you don't want it. But I mean the Steelers the
last four games have one giveaway in the last four games,
and that's something. And listen, there's other ways, as Cleveland
showed to fall down ten nothing, fall down two scores.
I get it. But probably the most likely way for

(07:23):
an early deficit is you give them the ball in
one way or another. That that just erases a scoring
opportunity for you and it gives them an extra one.
So that's something I think it's always important obviously, but
it's something you want to make sure you avoid. I
probably just having shuddering memories back to the last the
real playoff game that that's been been at, that's at

(07:45):
aker sur Stadium. Won't even called Acrossers aam at that point,
that the Browns game where there was all those turnovers
in the first quarter, and that's how you thought you had. Now,
I don' anticipate anything like that whatsoever. Twenty eight not
there like that happening. Are that many But.

Speaker 1 (07:56):
If you the only way you get to that, I
think is if you fumble like eight time, because he
just the quarterback, just doesn't do that. He Yeah, he
will actually go more into a conservative shell and not
push the ball down the field before he starts throwing interceptions.

Speaker 3 (08:10):
Yeah, and he's been that. He's been throughout his whole career.
He's been that way and certainly here down the stretch
of these games been that way. And you're right, part
of that is sort of a just almost to a fault,
almost to a point, but.

Speaker 2 (08:22):
I think now in his career it gets to be
to a fault.

Speaker 1 (08:25):
Sometimes earlier he could throw forty touchdowns in two picks
like he was just a crazy good But when you don't,
you know, when you're kind of guarding against the turnover
that much, that could be detrimental for you.

Speaker 3 (08:36):
And you know, I do think he's maybe this is
all kind of global in a mindset kind of thing.
It's it's just a relatively small seit. But you look
at that when he was throwing interceptions earlier in the
season about rad a one game there between Week two
and week week eleven or so. It was when the
Seers defense was struggling. His wife had squades, so there

(08:57):
was a lot. I think now he has more faith
in the Seeers events. I think, especially this time of year.
The opponents, the opponents, they had the Ravens. Listen, I
know the Raves put up forty one points last game.
I don't think people anticipate that happening. Again.

Speaker 2 (09:08):
You may kind of quit in that game too.

Speaker 3 (09:10):
Yeah, it was. It was wild.

Speaker 1 (09:12):
Defense didn't look like it was really willing to tackle
Henry in that second half.

Speaker 3 (09:15):
Crazy because that was a team to have Mike A. Park.
It's like you want to say, like Michael Parson's that
whole defense, but that team was thought to have a
good defense heading in.

Speaker 1 (09:20):
And I think we won the Super Bowl before Michael
Parson didn't got there, and so he wasn't even there.

Speaker 3 (09:24):
He wasn't part of the heart of the defense or
however you want to put it. And then they lost
some steff that did feel like an element of that.
But regardless, you wouldn't think Tyler Huntley is the opponent,
with all due respect to new Puntley. If if you're
Aaron Rodgers or the Steelers whoever. You always you have
to respect him, you have to be aware of them
and all that. But you would think going into this
game that there's probably it's wild because last time they

(09:45):
played in Baltimore, one of the reasons they wanted you
gotta been with the aggressive mindset is what Mike tom
Wins said. Now they there't know DK, so it's a
little harder to do that. Even if you wanted to
do that, we felt that was the best. So that's
the thing, like kind of hijacked me here. You went
over to the offense side of the ball.

Speaker 2 (10:01):
Aaron Rodgers.

Speaker 1 (10:01):
But I feel you on it, and I'll bring it
back now, so expertly. You don't have the ability to
get out of bed with that aggressive mindset on the
offensive side of the ball because you don't have DK Metcalf.

Speaker 2 (10:13):
You can't push the ball downfield.

Speaker 1 (10:14):
That was abundantly clear against the Cleveland Browns now as
you noted that Mike Perzuda said earlier this week, and
it's something that I keep parrotting and giving him credit
for because he's so true. You've got a chance to
see what it looked like without DK, So there's a
little bit of an adjustment that can now happen on
the offensive side of the ball.

Speaker 2 (10:30):
But I'm not expecting drastic change.

Speaker 1 (10:32):
I'm not expecting all of a sudden the offense to
look like the Greatest Show on Turf without DK Metcalf,
because you had a sample size now. So I just
don't think that you can duplicate that same kind of
thing Game one against the Ravens here in Game two,
throwing deep, getting the ball downfield and kind of punching
them in the mouth early on offense. On defense, again,

(10:53):
you have to set that to and you have to
come out ready to play in this game.

Speaker 2 (10:56):
If you, I keep wanting to us the certain.

Speaker 1 (11:00):
Ease yourself into the game, have to warm up to
the game, I think you're gonna be screwed. The tone
needs to be set. And I'm not saying that you
need to set the tone by getting a big interception
early or a force fumble early. Get off the field
though three and out. If you give up a first down,
it's only one first down, then they punt after six plays.

Speaker 2 (11:17):
That's kind of what I'm talking about.

Speaker 1 (11:19):
As far as defense, show up, aggressive defense, show up
and set the tone for this game. I think that
is the biggest key. You can't win this game with
your offense. I'm sorry, you just cannot with the way
it is currently constructed without dk metcf maybe without Calvin Austin.

Speaker 3 (11:34):
Still, so you.

Speaker 1 (11:36):
Gotta do it on the defensive side of things. They
have to carry the ball on that side of the ball.
They have to be the ones that snatch the momentum,
because that's another thing. Chris Raven's coming into this game
screaming with momentum. And you were a little bit deflated
last week with what happened in Cleveland.

Speaker 2 (11:50):
You gotta switch that quickly. And defense is a good
way to do that.

Speaker 3 (11:54):
Yeah, and you would think we talked it the other
day about what is more likely to limit this even's
running games, the Steelers defense or Yeah. And you know
one thing is is we the two games ago that
Sunday Night lost to the Patriots, like I pointed out,
John Harball was was open about like I made a mistake.
We made a mistake. We should have given Darren carrying

(12:15):
the mat Paull more late in that game in the
second half and then the very first drive and then
that ensuing game. The most recent game was a thirteen
play eighty yard drive, eleven of which were running plays.
They gave the ball to three different running backs on
that first drive in Green Bay, a full back got
to carry, okay, So it seemed as if that was
really a mindset and a focus, and obviously it worked

(12:36):
at work. The point they rushed forever two hundred yards out,
you know, everything's a chess match, and who knows. Maybe
they come out and they think, oh, the Steelers are
gonna expect that, we're gonna three. You know, we're gonna
take us out the first place. It's like the Steelers
of Duas last time. Who knows. As a defense, clear
to you need to be ready for that. You don't
just completely sell out and say that. But you would
think that that's something that that considering it's a night game,
it's gonna be cold, it seems like the weather is

(12:58):
gonna be okay. Other than being cold, it's not going
to be from what I saw at least snow or
anything like that.

Speaker 2 (13:03):
So in these two teams, don't give a crack.

Speaker 1 (13:04):
Yeah yeah, I mean, they will play in negative five
degrees on haf if they have to, and it they'll
be fine with it. And honestly, it feeds into it
feeds into what the Ravens want to do, especially, but
it should feed into what the Steelers want to do
offensively too, because they don't have anything to pass to.
They don't have anybody in the passing game, so they
should want to run the ball as well.

Speaker 3 (13:22):
Yeah, so I just in terms of the aggressive minds
that you talked about on defense, in that sense, you
definitely don't want to allow it, you know, because I mean,
you know, Henry's pick capable. I guess it would probably
be a sixty five yard touchdow whatever. He used to be.
Eighty yards used to be every drive, but now nothing's
ever a touchback on a kickoff.

Speaker 2 (13:38):
He's one of those guys that like he's faster.

Speaker 1 (13:41):
The more he gets going like fifteen yards down the
field than twenty five yards on the field, he picks
up a couple of mphs. It's it's really remarkable. It's
like he it's almost like he puts that weight and
that that muscle behind his run and just like kind
of just starts like almost leaning forward.

Speaker 2 (13:55):
And then just like the momentum just carries them.

Speaker 3 (13:58):
He's a fun runner to watch, believe it or not,
which is I'm wild to say, but he is.

Speaker 1 (14:01):
In terms of that, you have to say, he's one
of the more unique running backs we've ever seen in
this league with the size and the speed combination.

Speaker 3 (14:08):
Yeah, and you could. And it's funny because I think
we've talked about it last time he played the Ravens
in college. He was just a manchild, so much bigger.
He's bigger than like, you know, some de linemen in
the face and you know, and he's a running back
and he wins the Heisman, but he falls the second round,
probably because NFL teams are like, well, because he was
just a manchild, Yeah, he's not gonna.

Speaker 2 (14:24):
Go to him, which they did not. He still looks
like an in the NFL.

Speaker 3 (14:29):
And that's remarkable.

Speaker 1 (14:31):
They definitely thought that the tread was off the tires
with the high school carries or college I mean, save
and war them out and win championships, won in Heisman's
with him, So they ran him into the ground.

Speaker 2 (14:40):
They thought that was it for him.

Speaker 1 (14:42):
Now Here we are in twenty twenty five and he's
still the best running back in football.

Speaker 2 (14:45):
You can make the claim for it.

Speaker 1 (14:46):
I mean as far as a pure running back like
a throwback is concerned.

Speaker 2 (14:49):
There's no one even close.

Speaker 3 (14:50):
I mean, he's the oldest of all the you know, however,
you want to turn at the top five, six, eight
in terms of the running backs in the league right now,
you have some of the younger guys like that, you know,
Gibbs or Robinson, you have Barkley, who's who's probably the
second oldest now at this point.

Speaker 1 (15:03):
You'll do it with the passing game, Henry's just like,
forget that.

Speaker 2 (15:06):
I'm just gonna get thirty carries.

Speaker 3 (15:07):
Yeah. Yeah, definitely an old school type in that way,
and I just being a great because you would think
you're talking about beat. You want to make sure defense
that you kind of set a tone that way. I
just I want to make sure they don't get beat
by a big player early on. Okay, it's obviously a
fine line, you know, but that's why that's why they're there,
That's why you scheme it up. That's why they're professionals.
I mean, you talk about Joey Porter hasn't allowed to

(15:27):
a touchdown in two years, things like that. You know,
Zay Flowers is kind of the one big play in
the passing game option that you kind of worry about
in that sense, if they do kind of low the
Steelers asleep, but like, yeah, we're gonna run both eleven
times in this driving Oh no, we're not there. It is.
You know, you gotta make sure you don't do that.
So I'm all with you on And I know you're
not talking about being aggressive in terms of like sell out.

(15:50):
You know, the zero cut. You know, man covered that
that kind of thing necessarily. Well oh well, now hold
it now. I mean, I'm not saying, you know, zero
coverage here.

Speaker 1 (16:00):
I'm not saying, you know, just like an an Engage
eight blitz on Madden and send the entire house. But
I'd start the game stuff in the box. I'd start
the game with maybe some run. Blitz is called to
try to hit Henry in the backfield. That's the biggest key.
You got to get them hit at.

Speaker 2 (16:13):
The line of scrimmage. Behind the line of scrimmage.

Speaker 1 (16:15):
He gets ahead of steam, it's over for you. He's
got to get four or five yards every time. So
I'm not you know, saying, like send the house all
the time, you know, forget coverage. But I'd put my
safeties in my corners in kind of one on one
man up situations so I can allocate a ton of resources,
including some of my safeties, to.

Speaker 2 (16:33):
The box and to helping in run support early in
the game.

Speaker 1 (16:37):
Part of setting the tone is setting the tone on
Henry early, because Chris, like we said, Harbaugh has in
the past gotten away from Henry inexplicably, not just.

Speaker 2 (16:47):
Against the Steelers. We just saw it on Sunday.

Speaker 1 (16:49):
You just referenced it Sunday night against the Patriots this
past year, a couple of weeks ago. Give them every
chance to make that mistake, plant those seeds of out
in their head early by stopping Henry. You know, maybe
have harbar look at the statue and be well, he's
got seven carries for twenty yards. He's really not getting
going much, is he, and have him dout.

Speaker 3 (17:10):
Well, here's yeah, this is to your point. Henry has
five carried way more carries or way more games. Excuse
me here, Okay, only one game does he have more
than twenty five carries. Only three games more than twenty
one carries. It's only three games more than twenty one carries.
And there's five games with fewer than fifteen carries, six
games i fewer than eighteen carries.

Speaker 2 (17:28):
Were you a little surprised? That thirty six was his
career high last week.

Speaker 1 (17:31):
Yeah, I mean that's a lot of carries teking round,
but I was like expecting like forty five or something
like that.

Speaker 3 (17:35):
I mean, and it was by far. I mean this season,
this season, I think they've maybe because of his age,
I don't know. I mean, there's that school of thought
that maybe they weigh walk well, okay, why now there's
no reason to worry about the tread the tires now, right,
I mean, yeah, they had a must win game last year,
or they got a must win game to night and
they got a must you know, from here on in
any game they plays, gonna we must win. So maybe
there was an element of that, like kind of preserve
them and then everything and you know Mitchell and they've

(17:58):
used hims. I don't I don't know if I buy that,
but yeah, you look at I mean, he's had games
this season. We've talked about a Hall of Fame career
and everything that he is, and it means them these
are like wins some of these games too, So it
wasn't as if like they were chasing the whole game.
Eight carries, ten carries, eleven, eleven, twelve, and fifteen and
then there's a whole bunch between eighteen and twenty one.
But then then you only have a couple of twenty

(18:19):
four to twenty five and the thirty six carries this
season for Henry So, I guess to my when you
were talking that earlier about be aggressive early in terms
of like a run blitz and maybe with stuff early on,
I think part of the rationale and that is, Okay,
this isn't working. I mean, that's kind of old football

(18:40):
defense one on one. If we shut down the running
game early, you make them one dimensional, right, And I
wonder where the Ravens are mentally in terms of how
committed are they to it now? And it's kind of
fascinating because again it was you don't see it too
too often that that a head coach. I noted that
even before you know, you thought the Steelers Ravens game,

(19:01):
I thought that point it was like, oh, there are
season's over. Pretty much after that Patriots game on Sunday night,
when John Harbaugh was like, yeah, that's on me. I
got it. It's got to be better. We got to
give them the ball. Why did we do that? I
don't know. It was a mistake.

Speaker 2 (19:12):
I'm an idiot.

Speaker 3 (19:13):
Yeah, and then five days later.

Speaker 2 (19:14):
Ten year old dude what to do in that game?
And I didn't apparently, and.

Speaker 3 (19:17):
They give the ball a career high thirty six times.
So now you wonder if there's a correction back or
is there because I'll be like I said, articularly that
first drive eleven running plays, thirteen carries eighty yards or
thirteen plays eighty yards. So that touchdown in Green Bay,
and that set the tone for the whole game. The
entire game was like that, long drives, lots of runs,
lots of Derrick Henry, lots of points for the Ravens.
So you wonder, is that if the Steelers thinking a

(19:39):
force of three and now Henry the minus one four
and then they got a pass probably or something, and
you know, do you get them out of that mindset easily?
And it seems like they are sort of fragile and
maybe in their commitment to it on a global level.

Speaker 2 (19:54):
I got a scary Derrick Henry stat. Then I'm gonna
give you guys when.

Speaker 1 (19:57):
We come back, Chris and I continue to beat the
Ravens when we come back on the Steelers, blitz Necks.
Keep it right here if you want to know the
keys to victory. It's the Steelers Nation Radio part of
the Steelers Audio network, setting the tone aggressively on defense.

(20:19):
Really starts and stops with neutralizing Derrick Henry as best
as you possibly can. The Steelers and every team for
that matter, really have a difficult time doing that when
he was a Titan, and since he's become a raven
for two seasons now, and the Steelers have had some
games where Henry hasn't absolutely killed them. But you look

(20:40):
at that and it's like he's averaging a lot of
yards per carry here.

Speaker 2 (20:44):
Why didn't he get more carries?

Speaker 1 (20:45):
Maybe the game didn't dictate that or whatever, or Harbaugh
got away from him. But when they give the ball
to Henry, Henry has a ton of success against the Steelers,
against any.

Speaker 2 (20:55):
Team really, And this is Derrick Henry's month.

Speaker 1 (21:00):
In the month of December and January, Derrick Henry is
the only player in NFL history to average over one
hundred rushing yards per game one hundred and three point
eight in December and January.

Speaker 2 (21:17):
He gets stronger.

Speaker 1 (21:19):
We were talking about in the last segment how he
might have fallen to the second round in the Drafter
I believe he did fall in the second round of
the draft because people were worried about the wear and
tear on Derrick Henry's body. Well, he ran a ball
billion times in Alabama. He's only gonna have about two
or three years at the NFL at a high level.

Speaker 2 (21:36):
I don't know if I.

Speaker 1 (21:36):
Really want to do that, if I want to sink
a first round, top ten pick into a guy that
I might not even sign to his second contract because
he's just gonna be done. And that was the big fear.
And he's just gotten stronger throughout his NFL career. And
then when you look at like his seasons on a
micro level, the same exact thing. He just gets stronger

(21:58):
as the year goes on. He truly is an anomaly
of the position. Everything about that position is supposed to be.
You depreciate, you wear down, it's like it's caught. It's
like a car you drive it off the lot and
the running back starts to lose its value.

Speaker 2 (22:11):
That is just not the case with him.

Speaker 1 (22:12):
He gets stronger as his career goes on, as the
seasons go on, and even break it.

Speaker 3 (22:17):
Down to a little bit deeper. And I know that, Jane,
there's only a smaller sample size five January games in
his career, but he's after one hundred and forty three
yards in his five yards. So he plays in the
playoffs and that's in December. He's about almost one hundred
yards just in those two months. So more and more
that these the season finales things like that in terms
of what he the see was just seen it. I

(22:39):
mean last year was to December and January game and
both of them were big, the big time Derek Henry
games in terms of what he can do. And you
saw that. And again the weather dictates that. Now a
backup quarterback dictates that, I mean the offense first, and
we talk about a good fit and free agency, you
know at the time. And like I said, like you
just mentioned how it's appreciate eating assets running backs. I

(23:01):
feel like over the last decade I've been my brain
has been trained just to have this internal time run
running backs like oh, they're washed up, they're done, you
know what I mean. Like like you even saw what
the Giants letting. I mean, it's the Giants. Wo's making
one of that. You know, it's fine, and they made
a terrible decision obviously to let Sorry Gwen Barkley go
to their biggest rival and win a Super bowlch and
win a Super Bowl. But at the same time, I
see what they're They're like, oh, okay, well, you know

(23:22):
we've all been told running backs they don't allow once
they get to you know, twenty seven, twenty eight years old,
they're not the same player, and so we all assume that.
And you see the way, so when Henry joined the Ravens, right,
But I mean, you talk about a fit in term
of schematics, especially when Lamar is healthy, and I know
it's hard to kind of this offense is so dependent
and was built on Lamar Jackson without either either maybe

(23:42):
not having him or at least having him if he
plays Sunday or not. Right, this is not quote unquote
Lamar Jackson, Right, we don't, I think.

Speaker 2 (23:49):
So he practiced yesterday.

Speaker 1 (23:51):
Yeah, and Harbad gave the whole Oh, we're pretty optimistic.
That's gamesman, Chip though I'm not gonna buy what he says.
I buy what happens on Sunday.

Speaker 3 (23:58):
Yeah, yeah, it is. I mean the fact he practice.
But you're right, once you get to this time of year,
it could be some performative who knows like he's taken
off so many Wednesdays throughout the season.

Speaker 1 (24:07):
He also has to keep ramping up if they do
indeed make the playoffs and he plays in the wildcard round,
you know what I mean?

Speaker 2 (24:14):
Like, I know it's do or die.

Speaker 1 (24:15):
You don't want to look past this game, but you
as a coaching staff, you have to kind of look
at the forest through the trees and say, well, we
have to keep ramping Lamar up.

Speaker 2 (24:23):
We have to you.

Speaker 1 (24:24):
Know, get him back up to game speed because if
we do beat the Steelers with Snoop, hunt Ley like,
I don't want to just roll into the wild card
game with Snoop if Lamar is ready to go. So
I think that's an element too to him practicing, you
know what I mean, Like you don't want to just
completely shut him down right now.

Speaker 2 (24:36):
He's going to return if he's healthy.

Speaker 3 (24:39):
Yeah, there's certainly an little bit of that. So but
I think not to say it's great, because this is
it is a debate me and you've had a discussion too, right,
And you said Huntley, and some people are like, you're crazy,
And I get it because it is kind of crazy
to say that.

Speaker 1 (24:52):
You want to face Yeah, I want to compromise Lamar's.

Speaker 3 (24:56):
I'm sorry, Yeah, I don't know how I frame it,
but yeah, some people w sell that that's crazy.

Speaker 1 (25:01):
What would be the very least amount of wanting to
see is healthy Lamar because he will absolutely torture us
and wreck our dreams and haunt our nightmares. Number two
is Tyler Huntley, and then the the person that I
want to see the most is like seventy seventy five
percent Lamar Jackson.

Speaker 3 (25:16):
It's funny. I'm looking at Derek Henry's career game log
in the playoffs, the game he got shut down the
most or was most like limited in the playoffs, he's
pretty much been. There's been two games where he wasn't
like a dynamic runner in terms of yard He's average
em one hundred yards per playoff game rushing. By the way,
the one game he did was against the Baltimore Ravens.
Well it was with Tennessee twenty twenty one there, so
that kind of show kind of ironic in that sense,

(25:38):
but uh, yeah it is. I know exactly what you're saying.

Speaker 1 (25:42):
It's like, I think that lends the Ravens to outsmart
themselves more if Lamar's out.

Speaker 3 (25:48):
There that's an excellent point.

Speaker 2 (25:50):
Here's a great rat for you, Thanks Matt Williamson.

Speaker 1 (25:53):
Henry averages eight point one more carries per game, and
contest Jackson doesn't start this season, therefore hand them off
to Henry. That's what they saw in the Green Bay game.
That's what they got to do. If Jackson plays and
that stat holds true and you take eight carries away
from him or what you would have given him if
Snoop was out there, that helps the Steelers big time.

Speaker 3 (26:14):
Yeah, you're on that, and I think whatever, you know,
if this was Lamar had been healthy all year and
been him for ten weeks, eleven weeks, twelve whatever, and
has been hurt he's coming back, or maybe he came
back one game and wasn't the same, I might have more,
well confidence if if I'm you know, confidence in his
abilities or belief that he was going to be old Lamar.

(26:34):
But he's come back. He's been listed with what four
different injuries on the injuryport at different points this season.
When he has come back, he hasn't been dynamic. He's
come back, and part of me says, I'd be scared
to come in, you know, put his cape on for
a playoff game against Like, oh.

Speaker 2 (26:48):
My heart would be beating a little fast.

Speaker 3 (26:50):
But I feel like he's had I mean, they haven't
had obviously by definition, must win games until this past Saturday,
but they've had must win you know. They started one
and five and he came back and they were like,
they pretty much even go a run, and they did,
and he was the engineered a lot of that run. True,
But at the same time, I haven't seen It's not
as if it hasn't happened all year. So whatever's going
on with them physically or whatever it is now there's

(27:12):
like trade rumors and all this crazy stuff scarbage. Yeah, yeah,
you would think it's just it's wild. I might jaw
drop when I started hearing about it. I was like,
what what is this? Like?

Speaker 1 (27:21):
You go ahead and pull the shoot on Lamar Jackson
right now, Baltimore?

Speaker 2 (27:24):
Do it? Please trade him? Go ahead? No, I'm actually
begging you. Get him the hell out of our division. Please.

Speaker 1 (27:29):
I will love you forever if you do that, I
will be on my knees thanking you. And I don't
like playing that guy twice a year.

Speaker 3 (27:34):
Is it kind of crazy that the two we talked
about the big four quarterbacks and two of them are
in the Steelers division, and both of them have and
I don't think either's gonna happen. I'll give they don't.
I'm not, Please don't say I'm saying this, but both
have had these rumors and swirling about Joe Burrow leaving
the Bengals and Jamar Jackson leaving the Ravens and things
like that, and that would be sort of.

Speaker 2 (27:52):
Like although the thing it sucks, although, please God, let
that happen. Let these quarterbacks leave the division.

Speaker 3 (27:57):
After as mad as Mike Tomlin was at the Browns
for trading auk arter back on the division teams. If
if they traded, maybe they could trade to the Steelers.
About that steels There he goes quarterback trope competition, Lamar
Jackson and Joe Burrow.

Speaker 2 (28:11):
It's just absurd.

Speaker 1 (28:11):
And you know what, Henry and Lamar both I think
are still just not given their credit that they're their due.

Speaker 2 (28:18):
Honestly.

Speaker 1 (28:18):
I mean, Lamar is the thrower of the football. Before
he got hurt this year, he was and the Ravens
were losing these games. Ironically, the best passing quarterback in
the NFL. His passer rating that was the best one,
and if you look at his career from a historical context,
he is one of the best passer quarterback passing quarterbacks

(28:39):
in the league's history. There's a ton of touchdowns, doesn't
throw that many picks. His completion percentage has gotten better
throughout his NFL career. He's improved as a quote unquote
typical quarterback, and then he's the best athlete we've ever
seen at that position. On top of it, I still
don't think he gets his due the fact that there
are things out there being.

Speaker 2 (28:58):
Like, well, maybe you should trade him. I don't know
if you can win with this guy.

Speaker 1 (29:01):
Okay, l wait took a while to win with two
Peyton didn't exactly roll out of bed and start winning
super Bowls. I'm not saying Lamar's on those guys level
just yet, but he's got two MVPs, so he certain
at least in the conversation, I get like.

Speaker 3 (29:16):
Follow me here. Dan Marino didn't win a Super Bowl,
But I I don't think if the Dolphins had traded
Dan Reno with you know whoever, they never.

Speaker 2 (29:26):
Believed that that was the problem he was holding them back.

Speaker 1 (29:29):
I don't think that the Ravens should think that at
all with Lamar, But I want to actually focus more
on Henry here when it comes to kind of being
overlooked and overshadowed. I still find it so remarkable that
he signed with the Ravens on his first contract last
year for eight million dollars.

Speaker 2 (29:46):
Chris has nothing but white money.

Speaker 1 (29:49):
I mean, Naji was almost getting close to that much
money this year if he were to hit his incentives
with the Chargers.

Speaker 2 (29:54):
Fortunately he gets hurt, but.

Speaker 1 (29:56):
The contract for Naji was like worth a total of
nine ten million dollars potentially.

Speaker 2 (30:00):
Hendry's given eight by the Ravens just a year ago.

Speaker 1 (30:02):
He goes out and if it wasn't for Saquon Barkley
would have been the Offensive Player of the Year last year.
He was a freak for Baltimore and it just it's
remarkable to me that people thought he was done there.
We referenced that he was picked in the second round,
so people kind of wrote him off right away out
of the drafts, just like everybody just keeps expecting the
fall off and therefore aren't really fully enjoying the ride.

Speaker 3 (30:24):
He had sixteen. That's true about we talk about Saquon
last year sort of kind of overshadowing Derek Hennerton.

Speaker 2 (30:32):
Was right there.

Speaker 3 (30:32):
He had sixteen times he had nine hundred and twenty
one yards. How many times? That was the quietest nineteen
hundred yard rushing season I think I ever heard.

Speaker 2 (30:39):
He almost had two k just like Saquondeah.

Speaker 3 (30:41):
Yeah. Yeah, but twenty one fourteen in the yard from scrimmage,
eighteen total touchdowns. I mean the guy overall one hundred
and twenty seven touchdowns in total in his career, one
hundred and twenty two rushing. I mean, how many times
he's been double digit touchdowns? What each of the past
eight seasons now and the only see it. The low
was ten in eight game season when he got hurt,

(31:03):
right for Tennessee. He had ten in an eight game seed.
Other than that, he's never had fewer than twelve touchdowns
any season.

Speaker 1 (31:09):
And how about that eight game season, Chris, he had
nine hundred and thirty seven yards rushing.

Speaker 2 (31:13):
He literally almost got one thousand yards in eight games.

Speaker 3 (31:16):
Yeah, there is that they have to put it down.

Speaker 2 (31:18):
Thirty seven yards in ten touchdowns in an eight game season.

Speaker 3 (31:21):
So he was on pace there for a second consecutive
two thousand yard rushing. Yeah, you think about that if
you wouldn't get hurt halfway through that season, and at
that point again, that's probably why in my mind, like, well,
there he is, he's right, Cred twenty seven years old,
got hurt.

Speaker 2 (31:33):
He's led the league in carries four years.

Speaker 1 (31:35):
He got a three hundred and seventy eight carry year
for God's sake in Tennessee.

Speaker 3 (31:38):
And yeah, he led it in four years. And he
had the two two nineteen and eight games that year,
so that's a pace for four hundred and thirty eight
carries and actually more than that, seventeen fIF four and
fifty carries on pace four that season when he did
get hurt. And last year he had three twenty five,
which is actually more than two of the seasons when
he did lead the league in carry, So he didn't
lead it last year. But regardless, he's been a workhorse
and he never seems to get tired of that one

(32:00):
season when he got hurt. Not not with standings. That's
pretty much. What's the other than that he's missed what
two games his entire career. Other than that, the the
nine games he missed twenty twenty one, it's just it's
been everything. It's been a remarkable career. And you know,
I know we don't see her and talk about the Ravens.
We don't want to like throw flowers to the Ravens,
but I you know, you wonder I don't. Mark Anders

(32:22):
probably isn't a Hall of Famer, especially unless he is
a real kind of a late career surgeons here. But
I mean he's been an All Pro, He's been a
multi time Pro bowler. You have a Hall of Famer quarterback,
a Hall of Famer running back. It's been kind of
you know, that's something the Steelers have had to deal
with year after year after year. And anyway, you got
a chance to beat him this iteration of them here
in four days and earn yourself a playoff spot.

Speaker 1 (32:45):
He is the active leader in rushing attempts, in rushing yards,
in touchdowns rushing, and in first downs.

Speaker 2 (32:54):
Achieved by running the football.

Speaker 1 (32:56):
I mean, he's a first ballot Hall of Famer if
he decided to retire to day. He also, in terms
of kind of painting him in this he's overlooked, underrated
a little bit in a bizarre manner.

Speaker 2 (33:08):
I know fantasy is an end all be all.

Speaker 1 (33:10):
But does he ever feel like he's the number one pick,
Like he never feels like you go into a season
and it's like, oh yeah, just pick.

Speaker 2 (33:15):
Henry number one.

Speaker 1 (33:16):
It's a long It's no, it's Bejon, it's Christian McCaffrey,
it's Jamiir Gibbs.

Speaker 2 (33:19):
Right, yeah, it's never Henry.

Speaker 1 (33:21):
And sometimes I see people take Henry as far as
like eighth or ninth in the first round.

Speaker 2 (33:24):
I'm like, you just won your league.

Speaker 1 (33:26):
Like I know that he doesn't do in the passing
game what some of those other guys do and that's
why they get picked. But Chris, if he's rushing for
two thousand yards and having fifteen touchdowns, what's the difference?
Who needs anything in the passing game?

Speaker 3 (33:38):
And he's averaging since his first three I remember because
then he's a second round pick, right he joined? Who
was the okay trivia quest? The twenty sixteen Titans, they
drafted Derrick Henry in the second round. Who is their
Bell Kyle running back that they decided, you know, we
don't need this six foot four guy who can run
a fourth to three. I'll try to im. We'll look
it up now and maybe maybe it'll be a name.

Speaker 1 (33:58):
Maybe this wasn't okay, right, I think that was after.

Speaker 3 (34:04):
No, no, you didn't. But this guy rushed for thirteen
hundred yards that season. So it was DeMarco Murray.

Speaker 2 (34:09):
DeMarco Murray, that's a name, that's a real player.

Speaker 3 (34:12):
Yeah, that's that's wild that they had him and they
drafted Derrick Henry as like an afterthought essentially as a rookie.
But anyway, since his first three seasons when he was
kind of that part time kind of backup all the
enough until he was a starter of that third season
at least, he's been average over one hundred hundred yards
per game throughout his career since that point. So it's uh,
and it's been a perfect fit both with Tennessee and

(34:34):
then I see built their offense around him. I remember
that and it was clearly a bad move in terms
of personnel. But they trade away a J. Browt like
like they're like, you know what we have Tannehill, We're
making Derrick Henry are and you know how often do
you see? It really is kind of a he's such
a throwback running back that it forced his teams almost
to play now. It was a good fit with Balti.
Baltimore had Lamar, they were run first, team to begin with.

(34:56):
So that's why it was almost a perfect fit to
get him two years ago. And that's sense too, And
obviously he hasn't disappointed for the Ravens, and it was
just such a Hey, I'm still here that game Saturday
night to see him.

Speaker 2 (35:07):
Yeah, that's I mean, I'm still the man. It's great.

Speaker 3 (35:10):
I mean, lambeau Field, the rusher, more Yard, the Eddy opponent, Lambo,
lambeau Field. We're not talking about if you said that
about whatever Met Life State, some stadium or even whatever.
I mean, lambeo Field. I feel like it's like the
Roman Colisseum the world. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (35:27):
Yes, So it's remarkable what he does. It's even more
remarkable how he's almost overlooked in terms of how great
he is. He's truly the greatest running back that I've
ever seen play. You know, you got guys like You've
seen guys like Barry Sanders play.

Speaker 2 (35:40):
He's unbelievable. But like Henry, Henry gives him a run
for his money.

Speaker 1 (35:44):
As far as I'm concerned, Henry is truly one of
the all time greats.

Speaker 2 (35:47):
And it is a huge key.

Speaker 1 (35:48):
It is the key for the Pittsburgh Steelers to stop him.
We'll get more into that in the second hour. But
when we come back, Aaron Rodgers giving you some reasons
for optimism, we'll hear from him next. It's Tom Offerman's
Krisadansky on the Steelers puts on Stewards Nation Radio, a
part of the Steelers Audio network.

Speaker 3 (36:11):
See my career, I've had a lot of stinkers back
to back over years. So that's say Mike's in every week.
Sam approaches expect great. When it doesn't have a go
shift up the plan, he just keep on keep on
going and chose the process.

Speaker 1 (36:26):
That's Steeers quarterback Aaron Rodgers talking to Kris Sadamski directly
in the locker.

Speaker 2 (36:31):
He was staring at him in the eyes.

Speaker 1 (36:33):
Now, I just ripped that from your Twitter feed, but
that was the media scrum yesterday. Rogers talks to the
media on Wednesdays, and he's absolutely right. He doesn't have
back to back stinkers very often in his career.

Speaker 2 (36:47):
Now, he's never been this old in.

Speaker 1 (36:48):
His career, and he's in a bit of a dire
straits when it comes to his weaponry at his disposal
because his number one wide receiver is suspended right now.

Speaker 3 (36:57):
But He's right.

Speaker 1 (36:58):
That is a huge reason for optimism here, I think Chris,
And even when you look at this year, he really
hasn't had back to back stinkers. The Chargers game was awful, then.

Speaker 2 (37:07):
The Bengals game. He was starting to warm up a.

Speaker 1 (37:09):
Little bit before he got his hands stepped on after
the Chargers game and he had to leave the game
with an injury. Buffalo game abysmal. He was terrible in
that game. Coming back from the injury after missing the
Bears game, he was fantastic against the Ravens one week later.
So even when you look at it this year, there's
truth to what he said there.

Speaker 3 (37:27):
Yeah, every time he's bounced back. You're right, the Buffalo
game and it was what is it now? It takes
number right here. Anytime he's had a a rating under
that's remarking what itself. He's only had three games with
rating passer rating underneath ninety two throughout the whole season.

Speaker 2 (37:44):
Lest sweet forget he's going in on the first ballot.

Speaker 3 (37:47):
Yeah, yeah, I believe he had been. I think Lamar
passed him last year. Olough Lamar se'son this year he
might have it turns the all time passer rating leader
in NFL history. He was holding that title there for
Remember what.

Speaker 2 (37:58):
We were just saying about how Lamar is over looked
and peop don't give him enough credit. What did you
just say there him and Rodgers are jocking for.

Speaker 3 (38:03):
Best passer in the history of the game.

Speaker 1 (38:05):
Yeah, running backs can do that. Running backs that masquerie
a quarterback can go toe to.

Speaker 3 (38:09):
Toe earlier runner. Oh yeah, but you're right this season
in terms of that that the Seattle game was kind
of a stinker, and you're you're sitting there thinking, go, boy, no,
I don't think everybody realized just how good Seattle's defense
was at that point. I mean, actually, Tom, I think
you did. Leading After that game you talked up to
Seahawks front seven and I was like, Tom's sitting a
little bit enthusiastic here about the opponent. But here we go,

(38:33):
like it's twelve weeks fifteen weeks later, like you kicking ass.
Looks like a soothsayer with with that or bybe you
just did you just actually like, you know, paid attention.

Speaker 1 (38:41):
You just gotta spray Chris all right, here's a little
radio last you just gotta spray some will be right.

Speaker 2 (38:46):
I mean, I said the Colts were gonna win the
Super Bowl at one point.

Speaker 3 (38:48):
I think that's too scrubbed, that part.

Speaker 2 (38:50):
That's what I mean.

Speaker 3 (38:52):
Yeah, you just forget.

Speaker 2 (38:53):
You just got hit like one or two.

Speaker 3 (38:55):
Yeah, and you get you're right.

Speaker 1 (38:57):
Six and six when the Steelers and Ravens met week
whatever it was, and the Seahawks defense is now and.

Speaker 2 (39:03):
You can those bringing those up over and over again.

Speaker 3 (39:06):
Forget like the or like or like the Packers win
the super Bowl, or like me me saying the Bengals
would when they have seed it and I say something
like that. I think that was before I mentioned take it.
I ruined my whole thing. I just brought it up, spray.
Should I have forgotten? I said, I knew the Seahawks
would be the one seat the whole time.

Speaker 2 (39:23):
Because of that defense.

Speaker 3 (39:25):
Yes, but anyway, so that was that was one of
his bad games. The next game they had the Steelers
in terms of the most impressive win of the season
winning at New England. And be looking back at that again,
at the time, you probably didn't think winning at New
England be the best winner of the season, but that
shows what the Patriots were lost one since that that moment,
so you're right. The Buffalo game, everybody was down, the
whole team at that point. They go and they went
on the road against Baltimore Jodge to take first place

(39:46):
in the division. So you have another game like that,
another loss. The passer rating at sixty four point nine,
which is which is really that shows how low the
yards broke when you don't have interceptions? Do you have
a low passer rating that shows you're not throwing the
ball downfield. That's part of the calculation, a lot of it.
There's really interception dependent, interception the touchdown ratio dependent, and
you have no interception, it's hard to have a low
passer rating unless you're just sort of an averaging so

(40:08):
few yards per attempt. So it's the one fly and
all this appointment is that there's no DK Metcalf, so
you kind of wonder, especially beating the Ravens. One of
the games he did bounce back in was the Ravens
in the matchup, and I think the Ravens first of all,
learn their lesson not to match up one on one.
But secondly, the Steelers don't have the dynamic alpha WR
one to worry about matching up one on one again.

(40:30):
So there's definitely it's not as simple as you know.
We'd like it to be this path to victory, but
like you said, we're going to engineer the path. Two
here today during the show, just me and yeah.

Speaker 1 (40:38):
And part of engineering that path the victory is putting
a lot of pressure, a lot of weight on Aaron
Rodgers's shoulders. Hey, you know what, he can handle that
and that's what you signed him for. You brought him
in here to be different from last year, to win
these games. Well, if he does this, it will be
different from last year. I know your record will technically
be a game worse, but no, it would be the same.
It'd be ten I'm sorry, you'd be ten and seven
if you won the game, so you'd have the same record,

(41:00):
but you'd have the same record with an AFC North
Championship attached to it and a home playoff game.

Speaker 2 (41:04):
So that's better in my book. That is an improvement.

Speaker 1 (41:06):
That's why you signed him to be better than what
you were last year with Russ and Justin Fields. And
that would be mission accomplished if you go out there
and you win that game against the Ravens.

Speaker 3 (41:13):
Now.

Speaker 1 (41:13):
He also signed him so he would be able to
go win a game by himself, score more than thirteen
points in Cleveland and when the team was asleep and
then it was a stinker. He pulls victory out of
the jaws of defeat, and he failed to do that.
But again, riding on that optimism, if he doesn't really
have back to back stinkers, I expect him to kind
of empty the clip, empty the tank in this one
against Baltimore. It could be his last regular season game.

(41:34):
I don't think he knows that yet, but I think
he's at least had that thought creep past his mind
a little bit, like, Hey, let's go out there with
a bang and have one kind of final.

Speaker 2 (41:43):
Huge victory against the division rival.

Speaker 3 (41:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (41:46):
He and that's like kind of his mo in Green Bay,
like he owned the rest of the NFC North. Everybody
hated seeing him apply that a little bit to the
AFC North. You know, get two on the Ravens in
your one year, if it is your one year in Pittsburgh.

Speaker 3 (41:58):
Yeah, and we could we have a lot of time.
Although it was kind of interesting, And I guess that's
on the collective of us in the media that most
of remember this is a playoff game essentially, and there
might have been two or three questions about the Ravens
and the rest of us about Aaron Rodgers' future and
where it is and everything, And it is obviously, I
mean again, he's one of the great players in the
history of the game. He's one of the most recognizable

(42:19):
faces in the NFL, in the sports world really at
this point. So I understand all that. And it is
sort of like you wonder he was when he went public.
I believe it, if I'm getting this right. I think
when he did his McAfee show in May, when he
still went and signed yet and he said this will
be my last year, I think he was pretty I
don't if there's any ambiguity when he said it. Now
he seems to be. And it's fine. He can change
his mind. There's nothing wrong with change your mind if

(42:39):
he wants to play, and we'll see that. That's a
whole other We got an offseason talk about that, whether
the Steelers bringing him back or whatever. But potentially he
knows it, even his mind, he may make the decision.
It might be what's faced. Even if he could have
this good season, there might be a team aren't exactly
like a lot of teams the reason why you don't
sign forty two year old quarterbacks, right, even if you're
a He's played well the year before, so it might

(43:01):
be somewhat made for him. So I think he knows
for sure there's a reality that there's a good chance.
And this is his last regular season football game he plays.
He doesn't want to end the season with a loss
in the season finale to his rival right on Sunday
night football. Everybody watching when what happens in the playoff run.
At least if your final game is during the playoffs,
there's something to be said for that to go out.
He hasn't played in a playoff game. Remarkable thing. He

(43:23):
hasn't played a playoff game in four years. You know,
the one year he was hurt, the Jets weren't were
terrible the year before, and the final year in Green
Bay didn't work out either in terms of making the playoffs.
So he hasn't played in a playoff game in four years.
So I think he has that that that drive and
that motivation do that now. It's not just him, of course,
but I do expect him to play well and you know,
do his part. It's gonna be hard to be a

(43:43):
dynamic difference maker whenever there's no DK Metcalf, hopefully Calvin
Austin's there. But you know, we'll get into more of
it probably in terms of this kind of how the
division of labor, the weapons, how they deploy the offense,
and you kind of wonder if Pat Friar Myth will
be part of that. Sure, but it's not really set
up for him for success at this point. Right I'm

(44:04):
talking about Aaron Rodgers not having losing your starting tight end,
which again he's not a huge Dardell Washington wasn't this
dynamic weapon in the passing game per se. But he's
part of the offense. He's part of your protection things
like that, and your number one receivers, none number two receiver. Probably.
I think it's gonna play with my little bit more
here in a couple of hours, but it's still you know,
maybe a soft tissue injury with a guy who relies

(44:25):
so much on speed like Calvin Austin. Does you wonder
where he's at. So he's hamstrung here in a lot
of ways. Aaron Rodgers, being forty two years old, play
this game, but he's also one of the goats of
our game. And you know, you have a feeling that
he knows it's there. This could be his last game.
He doesn't want to go out with a loss. It's
a high profile loss like this.

Speaker 1 (44:44):
Before we wrap up this segment, since this show today
is all about beating the Ravens, and we're doing a
great job.

Speaker 2 (44:49):
We're getting so close to beating them. I can feel it.

Speaker 1 (44:51):
We're up in the third quarter. We just got to
finish now in the fourth quarter. I don't want to
jump on the college couch Krits. There's too much important
stuff to talk about with the Ravens, but I do
want to mention a little college stuff right here, Okay,
for about a minute before you wrap up. I'm back
in Okay. That's how you do it, all right. You
go out there, you pull an upset of Ohio State
off Miami. It was an awesome game last night, and
you know what it proved to me. And I know
this is a little weird because technically, in this scenario,

(45:11):
Miami wouldn't qualify for the playoff. We just need eight teams.
We just need eight teams.

Speaker 2 (45:16):
If that was the first round, if this was the
first round, it would be perfect.

Speaker 1 (45:19):
I mean, they would be and you know what, more specifically,
we need the group of five the hell out of there.
I mean, we need names, We need real programs going
up against each other in this thing. And that's what
you got last night. And look what happened. Miami pulled
the upset of Ohio State. Now it's wide freaking open.
I think, and we'll be quite honest with you, I
think Miami could win the whole damn thing. And an
ACC team winning the whole damn thing.

Speaker 2 (45:38):
Would be hilarious.

Speaker 1 (45:40):
An AC team that didn't win the ACC duke was
the Acy Champio that would be even more hilarious.

Speaker 3 (45:45):
And that's what see. And actually I'm speaking to you.
You don't like Miami being good, like, well, how would
your like? I gotta feel like, I mean, Notre Dame's
been consistently good, although Notre Dames at least had flashes
of playing a national title games a couple of times
the past decade and a half. Here like so, I
always make the joke like like people that are like
under thirty five or forty not there name being good

(46:06):
in mounds would be like Navy or Army. You're like
Yale being good. Right, It's like it's like you've heard
about it. You know it's true, but they're never like
they're not like the powerhouse, like Miami, I can't like
you weren't you? Weren't you lair or alive? The phenomenon
on my oar. I'm sure you've watched thirty for thirty
of your Studentmber.

Speaker 1 (46:21):
I remember the second iteration of you in the two
thousands mcgayhee and then they.

Speaker 3 (46:25):
Did they were that team and what do Yeah, they
were very badass team all round too, like that, but
eighty when man, they it was a home game in
nine years.

Speaker 1 (46:36):
Ten years, Mi Nellenberger to Jimmy Johnson to Dennis Ericson's
succession where all three of those coaches won a national
championship was doumbled.

Speaker 3 (46:43):
And it's crazy. They joined the ACC. Everybody thought they're
gonna be the powerhouse of the a CEC and they
never won these they never won.

Speaker 2 (46:49):
They've never been to the title game. They've even made
it to the title game.

Speaker 3 (46:52):
That's ridiculous. Like they used to.

Speaker 2 (46:54):
Run the Big East like they were the Big East team.

Speaker 1 (46:56):
And like they're supposed to be this power what else
maybe got they were like we need a crown power
they were supposed to be detect and were supposed to
run the a CEC and Virginia Tech did it. And
then I was like, and then you go back to
even even as recently as mid October, they had lost
two in a row, like Louisville, Like.

Speaker 2 (47:11):
And those are the are OK teams?

Speaker 3 (47:14):
Yeah, they're they're over you know Bowl teams. But still
it was like, oh, same old, same old Miami of
this iterational Miami.

Speaker 1 (47:20):
Here they are, all of a sudden, they're same old
Miami of the eighties Miami now maybe because they might
bully their way all the way to the national title.
We got three games today Texas Tech and Oregon, Alabama
and Indiana and the Granddaddy of the Mall and Ole
miss and Georgia will round out the semi finals.

Speaker 2 (47:35):
When we come back.

Speaker 1 (47:36):
I got two key things I need to see the
Steelers do on offense and on defense to get this
victory that we're engineering against the Ravens. That's next on
the Steelers Blitz on Steeers Nation Radio, part of the
Steelers Audio Network.