HR1 - Run the Ball, Stop the Run

Tom and Chris talk about the importance of the run game on both sides of the ball this Sunday against Seattle.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:08):
The biggest fear going into this game is that Seattle
pass rush. Spoiler alert, I'm worried about Aaron Rodgers protection
in this game. I think everybody's worried about Aaron Rodgers
protection in this game. I'm Tom Aferman. He is Chris Damski,
and this is the Steelers Blitz Friday addition, headed into
the weekend, Steelers Seahawks Acrossure Stadium getting opened at one
o'clock this Sunday, and Chris, I got a real simple

(00:30):
solution to make sure I can sleep at night, to
make sure that my fears don't be realized on Sunday afternoon.
And that's just run the football. It's really boring. I
wish I could open up these mics for the Blitz
today and give you this great analysis of how you're
going to beat the Seahawks and how it's going to
be one of the most creative things you've ever seen
in the history of the sport of football. But I

(00:51):
think it's real easy. Just run the ball. You can't
rush the passer if you never really pass the football.
Can they succeed rushing the football though, Well, that's the
question that you and I are going to try to
answer over these next couple hours. My friend, keep it simple,
keep it simple, stupid or am I wrong?

Speaker 2 (01:08):
I mean, you would like to certainly, any team would
like to have an effective running game. The Steelers more so, Yes,
Arthur Smith, more so. You just gave a running back
a decent sized contract to do that. You've invested your
second highest draft pick in a running back, and you
know that's maybe more for the future. That's fine. You've
invest a lot in this offensive line. I guess that

(01:28):
doesn't necessarily you paid them to pass block too, But yeah,
I think all the way around with your whatever, Aaron
Rodgers is again one of the greatest arms to play.
He's forty one years old. Even in a quarterback in
your prime, it's to his advantage to have a running game.
So that if you make a list of check marks

(01:49):
to what you want to do from week one to
week two, improving the running game is high up on
that list.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
In a matchup specifically too, I just look, I think
we talked a lot about Rodrick Jones on yesterday's show,
and I think we both came to the conclusion that
there's still something there that's worthwhile to keep, you know,
giving him a chance here, and they don't really have
another choice other than to get keep giving him a chance.
But I don't know this this matchup. It really just

(02:17):
worries me a lot because it's not just you know,
one guy for the Seattle defense that creates a lot
of pressures. It's not like they've got a TJ. Watt
you can devote resources. Yeah, and it's like, well, he
maybe he'll bounce around, maybe he won't always be over Jones,
maybe Feltana will get a crack at him. You can
always just have Darnell help out on him, like Chip

(02:38):
with Warren game plan around one guy. As I mentioned yesterday,
this is one of only three teams that returned four
players who had forty plush pressures each from the previous season.
So you're getting it from Leonard Williams, you're getting it
from Boye Mafe like, you're getting it from all over
the place on this team. And you know, Broderick Jones

(03:00):
got a lot of will McDonald. But I think sometimes
when you're a tackle and you're facing that same guy
over and over again, maybe you can start to pick
up on his tendencies and as the game goes along,
you can get a little bit better. That didn't really
happen against McDonald, but I tend to believe it can.
I think Seattle's just gonna throw a ton of different
stuff at him and Chris. You even saw the Jets

(03:21):
as the game played out on Sunday noticing, wow, that's
a week link right there, starting to cheat Quinn Williams
over towards Broderick Jones' inside shoulder as well. So I
think that there's gonna be a lot of attack patterns
on seventy seven in this game. And we saw a
Jets defense create a lot of havoc for Aaron Rodgers.
I mean we scored points, don't get me wrong. He

(03:44):
had four touchdown passes, he was sacked four times. He
was hit more than that. He was constantly having to
get the ball out quickly because there was just no time.
And I think the Jets are a good defense. I
think Seattle's a great defense, and I think Seattle's pass
rush is in improvement, is a step up from what
you saw out of the Jets last week.

Speaker 2 (04:04):
Yeah, and you wonder there's a lot of questions about
the injury or even if the one hundred percent the
secondary of the Seahawks, and you would think just by
common sense or intuitively that that would maybe limit their
they're blitzing things like that, sending extra people, but the
Seahawks don't really need to get yeah, and that's something

(04:25):
that you would so if they don't need to bring
extra people. Obviously, if the Seahawks get to the second
quarter and they haven't even cutten within an arm's length
of Rogers, they're going to try to do something different,
I'm sure at that point. But if they're seeing they're
getting home to some degree regardless, then they don't need
to do that, and that works to the advantage of
depending And we'll see how that all plays out still here.

(04:46):
The injury report will come out later Friday afternoon of
the Seahawks status report, things like that, and even if
they do play, whether they're you know what percent they're
at or to that level. But it is that it
seems like the Seahawks that they're not like a high
blitz team necessarily in terms of getting their pressures.

Speaker 1 (05:02):
Yeah, they don't need to, and you know, it might
be even more prescient for them to win their matchups
if they do have those injuries in the secondary. If
Devin Witherspoon can't go. I mean, that's a huge break
for the Steelers. It is if Witherspoon is If he's out,
it's a huge break. Even if he's playing, you have
to imagine, Chris, he's going to be somewhat limited having
not practiced both days this week leading up until today.

(05:25):
We'll see what Seattle does today at their practice. But that,
to me was one of the guys that you circled
as Okay, there's not a superstar on this defense. But
if I had to answer the question who's the best
player who do things kind of flow through, Devin Wetherspoon
would definitely be on the short list of names that

(05:46):
would come up. And you know, he does a lot
of Mike Hilton things. He's gonna blitz a lot. He's
part of the pressures that they get on the quarterback.
But he's also a lot better than Mike Hilton too
in coverage. She can do that as well. So this
is a very talentmented player. Seeing him pop up on
the injury report is a little stroke of luck for
the Steelers, But hey, Steelers, they got their problems in

(06:07):
the secondary too, Chris. I mean, now that we're kind
of going down this road, we might as well just
say it now. You know, Joey Porter Junior again yesterday
not practicing. Mike Tomlin was very optimistic, it seemed in
his press conference, more so for Nick Carber optimistic, but yes,
more so for Nick Carberg than he did participate fully yesterday.
So it does look like Nick is going to be okay,

(06:27):
but optimistic about Joey too. And now this is too
stray practices without him participating at all. Practice will be
get underway right about now. We'll see what Joey Porter
Junior status is once the practice report comes out, and
what the game status will be. He'll obviously be questionable
at the very best. You just hope you don't see

(06:47):
that doubtful. You hope you don't see that out next
to his name. So both teams dealing with some blows
in the secondary with their young cornerbacks.

Speaker 2 (06:57):
Yeah, when you get in week two and you're not
practicing Thursday, that's a larnt. You know, I don't know
the Seahawks. I'm not going to pretend I remember know
they're even Mike McDonalds a head coach. They're patters. A
lot of these coaches have rhythms, and you kind of
know what the Steelers, you see somebody the veterans and
obviously the guys like Walten, Hey, we'd take days off
every week, but somebody's dealing with something. I guess if
you're a and this will all be well resolved to

(07:19):
a point less he's questionable, I guess it won't be
resolved then for another forty eight hours here in a
few hours after the injury report comes out. But with Porter,
maybe the way Tom went even described it after the game,
he didn't seem that concerned about it. He's like, we
just want to keep him off his feet, like he
said something to that effect about Porter, sort of precautionary
and when you do on the soft tissue in week one,
maybe you do that and maybe that's it. Kind of

(07:39):
keep him off is you know, you don't want to
anything tightening up and give it every last he's been
you know, it's third year corner now kind of knows
his role necessary. You know, it's not like he's moving
around as much as the other guys in the secondary.
So maybe that's it and you roll him out there
Friday and everything's good, then he's fine. So not ever
yet but it cuts both ways. If the Seahawks have
what do you have? The four member three members of

(08:00):
the second didn't practice at all on their Thursday practice report,
so you know it affects. But but they's it's life
in the NFL, right, somebody's going to be hurt no
matter what.

Speaker 1 (08:11):
Happens right away too, you don't get you know, the
first four weeks free or something like that. So yeah,
team's gonna have to adjust. Steelers and Seattle both dealing
with adjustments having to be made in their secondary. We
can get more into that a little bit later. Back
to running the football, and I just have Sandra Bullock's
voice in my head from the blind Side, Run the ball, Bart,
Run the dang ball.

Speaker 2 (08:30):
Bart.

Speaker 1 (08:31):
Do you think we could get a cell phone feed
to Mike Commlin at the game and like call down
to him, did they run the ball? Mike?

Speaker 2 (08:36):
Would it be your voice or the actual cut from Sandra.

Speaker 1 (08:38):
I'll do the voice the impression, Yeah, run the ball, Mike.
It just again, it's so easy to me, it's it's
slapping me in the face. But maybe it's not that
easy because the Steelers are very unsuccessful at running the football.
In Week one, like if they went for one hundred
plus yards as a team and we're averaging close to
four yards of carry last week, then I think I'd

(09:00):
be like, this is a slam dunk, not worried about
this game at all. Seattle's offense doesn't really put any
fear in me. And as you can keep that defense
kind of on its heels trying to stop the run
most of the game, Rogers will get some time on
a certain plays to you know, go for the jugular,
have those one or two drives as you like to
mention that you were kind of signing up for with him,
just win you in the football game when you need to.

(09:22):
And I would really feel good about this game for
the Steelers. I still feel pretty good, like I think
that they're gonna win ultimately, but I think it's going
to be another sweated out type of performance. And if
you can't generate anything on the ground. I'm not saying
he gets hurt in this game, and he still might
be able to, you know, do what he did against

(09:43):
the Jets here in Week two, but it's going to
be a long day for Number eight. And again, I
just think it's going to be a little bit more
stressful than it needs to be to try to get
your first home win of the season.

Speaker 2 (09:53):
It'll probably catch up to you eventually, not one of these.
You're kind of playing with it to right. Yeah, whether
it happens this week or week four or whatever it
might be, especially Chris when you have it early by.

Speaker 1 (10:01):
I know that they did that because of the Ireland game,
and that was strategic in that sense. But the forty
one year old quarterback that after that point is going
to have to play what thirteen straight games, yeahteen weeks
in a row.

Speaker 2 (10:13):
Yeah, and you know what's faced if there is like
I don't subscribe necessarily to this, Like there is a
school of thought that Naji Harris, for whatever his faults
or warts were, was, is the guy that can take
the pounding, you know, first second down and get those
twenty some carries per se. I don't know if it's

(10:34):
that simple to say that Warrant can't do that, but
I will say it's never happens. It never been asked.
I haven't seen it, yes, So it is an unknown
to that level. We haven't seen. Broderick Jones maybe that
week six back in his rookie year when he did
start left tack with that one game. I don't I'm
not gonna subscribe to remember exactly how he performed that. Dad.
Was that the Houston game they played that?

Speaker 1 (10:54):
Don't try to remember, Chris, See you're trying to remember
right now, don't do that.

Speaker 2 (10:57):
I hope it wasn't the Houston game because they often
that was the game with the Steelers on a whole
night that year or two years ago. But regardless, we
haven't seen Broderick Jones put together above the line game
but left tackle yet. I mean, von Tonams only two games,
so there are enough question marks that if you look
at it from that perspective that that you know this
running game. My tendency is to say, I think the

(11:17):
running game will be fine. I don't think it's it's this.
I don't know if it'd be the best in the
league anything like that, but I think it'll be adequate enough,
or it can be adequate enough on a week to
week basis. But we are at this point now where
we haven't seen it yet with this group necessarily so,
but everything could fit together a lot better. You're right.
I just think when you have raught a quarterback at
this stage of his career, back to the unsustain Unsustainable

(11:41):
is the work of the word of week two leading
into Week two, that's right, Yeah, yeah, I don't know
if necessarily. I mean, what's what this way? The Jets
even what he was third in the league in past
attempts last year or whatever he was, and they did
not run the ball.

Speaker 1 (11:54):
I think that was a huge disservice that they did
to him, is that they just made him, you know,
throw the ball all the time. They were losing in
a lot of games too, so they had to chase.
But the team looked like it was built to run
last year. Shoot, the running back that torched the Steelers
was there last year. I mean, I'm sure he was
pretty good last year too, and he shouldn't use him enough.
And I thought that was a huge disservice to the
forty year old quarterback. Then now you have the forty

(12:16):
one going on forty two year old quarterback here and
the Steelers did not do him. But they tried to
run the ball in Week one. It wasn't like they
were just like, forget it, ignore it, run it two
times for you know, token runs and that's it.

Speaker 2 (12:26):
They wanted to do it.

Speaker 1 (12:27):
They just they really couldn't and I don't think it's
a chicken or the egg thing. I think it's a
both thing. I think that's the line not being able
to get enough push and not being able to execute
what they need to do. And I don't think the
running backs are executing very well either. Look, Caleb Johnson
is not ready, Okay. I think that's probably the back

(12:48):
that fits the mold of what Arthur Smith wants most
out of that group. He just can't play yet. That
would be a liability on the field right now. So
Warren and gain One need to step up in the
time being to fill I don't want to say fill
that void like Kayler Johnson's gonna come in and be
God's gift, but at least until he gets to a

(13:09):
point where it's like you can play more than two snaps,
you know you need to step up big time. And
Warren got a lot of faith paid to him literally
because of the contract that they gave him, and can't
write him off after one game that wasn't extremely explosive.
But you need to see some of those runs you
saw last year from him when nause he was kind

(13:31):
of spinning the tires in mud a little bit, and
he would come in and there was the explosion that
you needed. There was that ten plus yard run that
you needed, and you didn't get a taste of it
in game one. Got to have at least a few
explosives in game two. I'm not saying, Chris, you have
to go out there and run for one hundred and
ninety nine yards like you're the Baltimore Ravens, but you

(13:53):
have to hit a few explosives. You have to go
for ten plus yards a couple of times, make the
defense respect it, or else that pass rush is going
to have a hell of a day for Seattle, and
you're playing into the defense's hands with allowing them to
get after the quarterback.

Speaker 2 (14:09):
You if you got to an early lead, if it
would let's say, whatever, if the Steelers can get a
ten point lead in the first quarter or the first
half or whatever.

Speaker 1 (14:16):
Because we score on the first drives. Now, I don't
know if you know it's a trend.

Speaker 2 (14:19):
It is it's so far in twenty twenty five. So
even if that happens, though, you still got you got
to get through the rest of the game. And if
you're not running the ball, that's going to create problems
and again exposing your quarterback like gain Well is always
a player I liked watching and the Steelers do like
him a lot, or the Smith likes on a lot.
And you could see, I mean to made a splash

(14:40):
plan special teams in week one, but you don't want
him playing. He's not your feature back. I'm just dude,
that's this reality of it. You don't want him playing
that much. And so does it fall on more and
then I don't know. I mean, you know, you're right.
It's not a chicken or the egg thing. It's not
just the running backs. It's not like Warrens wasn't productive today,

(15:01):
he was terrible or whatever it is.

Speaker 1 (15:02):
It's not like Nausey's you know, rookie year where it
was like he leads the league and broken tackles and
he gains a yard because he's just literally dodging everybody
back there. Yeah, it's a bit of both. I mean
it's both. I think are less then and they need
to step up big time in this game. And you know,
if you're the offensive line, you know in those meeting rooms,
you're Pat Meyer. You just gotta like it's about being nasty, right,

(15:26):
Like it's really that simple when it comes to run
in the football Like, yeah, you have different zone schemes
and you got to execute certain blocking assignments to run
the exact run play that you want. But like, at
the end of the day, that's just getting the guy
off of his spot across from you and being a
better football player than him. And you know, that's kind

(15:47):
of the thing that you usually lean on to get
some confidence going with your boys up front. It's like, hey,
my boys need to start feeling it a little bit
more in this game. Let's have him push somebody around
a little bit. That'll make him kind of settle in nicely.
And I just think that that's something that they should
really harp on this week. And again, I just don't
know what else to do. Like the injuries in the secondary,

(16:10):
it's tempting right to kind of have Rogers go back
there and kind of sling it a little bit, but
that just might get him killed. And furthermore, even if
you try to use him to attack downfield, how far
downfield are you going to be able to do that
with a pass rush like this. You saw that he
wasn't able to push the ball downfield very much against

(16:31):
the Jets last week. The quickest time to throw in
the NFL in Week one, so they have like four
air yards per completion. Yeah, so that wasn't either. I
wasn't there. I guess you could say they didn't need it.
I mean, you have a bunch of playmakers a receiver.
But he executed it well for sure.

Speaker 2 (16:45):
Yeah, NFA Tadhu probably at this point he is viewed
as having the highest ceiling of anybody on the old line.
And you know, he is the reason they liked him
so much in the draft. And see what he can
do is he's perfect for that the zone running thing.
Get them out there and get them in the outside
and just have them just bowl people over. There's some
of that tape from him at Washington College. That's what

(17:07):
kind of makes your eyes bulg if you're a scout,
or if you're the Steelers, or if you want to
see your running game, especially the running game. But the
Steelers the style that they want to run. So that
was that kind of fit should be handing glove And
it was one game, and you know, maybe that's an
area you go and see, you know, rely on what
you've have in faton and what you've seen with your

(17:28):
own eyes on the practice field. What you drafted them
for and maybe you know, after a first game, maybe
that's something that that can be that can be done.
I don't know. Obviously, then you're you're going away from
from Jones then too, and maybe get him some confidence
in terms of you know, in terms of the past protection.
And you know, there's it's only been one game with this,

(17:50):
it's a whole new it's not a whole new line.
But you got a new left tackle, a new right
tackle essentially from what you got last year. You have
a new featured running back, a new quarterback for that matter.
So there's a lot of pieces there, and you're, yeah,
Caleb Johnson isn't ready at this point. You know, I'm
sure in an ideal world, but I don't know. It
was maybe a hope, but it wasn't an expectation necessarily.

(18:13):
He was he could be, you know, a belcow early
on in his career. I mean, maybe you come in
and just blew everybody away and during camp and during
preseason or whatever, and said, you know, stomped his way
in there and said they just should they couldn't ignore
it and he had to be the features back. But
I never and remember they gave war in the second
round tender, which is more than they probably had to necessarily.
You know, they probably could it a little bit. I

(18:33):
don't I don't think, you know, you don't see much
restricted free agency.

Speaker 1 (18:35):
Move that's a good point. Like they gave him a
vote of confidence there, yeah, and then past again, Yeah,
with another big vote of confidence. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (18:45):
So it was even before the draft came before I
guess free agency at that point. I mean, the writing
wasn't the wall probably regardless, probably since last May, whenever
the fifty year options have picked up on. Yeah, he
wasn't gonna be bad.

Speaker 1 (18:56):
You would have to have had like a fifteen hundred
yard season to make him really think about it.

Speaker 2 (19:00):
So that was breading one of the wall. But that
that commitment they showed, it's sort of it wasn't It's
not a in the modern NFL five point three five
million is now, and it's really the cheapest position too. Yeah,
but it was more than, like I said, they probably
had to do to do. You know, it wasn't as
if I don't think, like I said, you very rarely
see restricted free agents change teams and they put a
late round tender on them. Whatever it was, I don't

(19:21):
know if that would have they were risk of losing him.
So I thought that was a show right there before
the draft. And I'm sure they planned on drafting or
running back at some point anyway, and they liked Caleb Johnson,
and Caleb Johnson still might be at some point. But yeah,
for for week two here in twenty early in the
season twenty twenty five, he's not gonna be that. It's
gonna be the Jalen Warren and game Ball show. But

(19:41):
Gainwell again, there's a lot of things you can do
with them, but I don't know if it's uh, you
know that what is the four minute offense there? You
get two touchdown lead in the second half. I don't
think they're.

Speaker 1 (19:50):
Gonna turn around and handle ball any over and over again.
I don't think so either. And Gainwell out snapped Jalen
Warren in Week one had more usage than Jalen Warren
did that game and Game one was one of the
players of the game. Maybe not so much for anything
he did particularly on offense, more of the special teams
play that he brought to the table with that amazing
strip on the kickoff, But you know, they know that.

(20:14):
I think Warren should be the one as of right now,
But I don't know how much confidence they truly have
in that, because I mean, it just played out with
the way Arthur Smith deployed them.

Speaker 2 (20:24):
You know.

Speaker 1 (20:24):
I also think there is a little bit too Arthur
Smith likes Kenneth Gainwell as one of his toys, you
know what I mean. I think you brought that up
on an earlier show, Like he just has certain toys
that he likes, and he tried it with Cordell Patterson
last year until he realized, my toy is washed up.
Right now, I can't I can't keep going to my toy. Well,
this toy's not. Gainwell is still in his I don't
want to say he's in his prime in his NFL career,
but he's still a good, very healthy contributor to a team.

(20:46):
And you know, I just think that he likes it,
Like I just think that he likes the versatility that
he brings to the table.

Speaker 2 (20:52):
Yeah, he likes guys like that for sure. And I
think maybe I would say the fear but the twenty
two one, so I'll go back to that. That was
Ben's last year. He was thirty nine, and there wasn't
a faith in the offensive line and to by extension
in the running game per se. And you saw that
ben through the bubble screen, and we saw elements of that.

(21:14):
You know, got a shovel pass, we had to DK
just cut a bubble screen a couple of times. You
know the dump offs the game, Well I don't. And hey,
they score thirty four points. Okay, so if it works,
it works, I can go back to sustainability. I don't
know if it's working over a seventeen game season per se.
And I think that kind of telegraphs or could telegraph
where and the time to throw me in so low,

(21:35):
what the level of faith is and the fact that
and you're behind the running game thing, I don't know,
the game game situation might have been why there wasn't
a kind of a wild game. Yeah, they were behind
most of it or a lot of it, or at
least you knew you had to keep scoring even when
they did have the lead for you know, certain points
of that game. But so we'll see. But yeah, that's
what I kind of like, is this going to turn
into that kind of offense? And that team made the playoffs,

(21:55):
but you know, you hope there's a higher ceiling here than.

Speaker 1 (21:58):
That, I will say this, it is a much better
offensive coordinator heading the ship right now than it was
back then. Yes, quarterback quarterback comparable of course, both Hall
of Famers and the other part of that equation. Much
bigger upgrade right now with the Steelers working with Arthur Smith.
When Chris and I come back, it's not just the
chicken or the egg thing when it comes to running

(22:18):
the football offensively. It's that same chicken or egg quandary
when you figure out why they couldn't stop the run
against the Jets. He's Chris Adanski, I'm Tom op Forman.
It's the Steelers Blitz on the Steelers Audio networkinghouse band.

Speaker 2 (22:40):
We got here.

Speaker 1 (22:41):
It is cool that they shell out for that.

Speaker 2 (22:44):
It's nice.

Speaker 1 (22:45):
You got Kevin, we got Chuck.

Speaker 2 (22:47):
Steve play eight seconds at a time too. It seems like.

Speaker 1 (22:53):
They're really good at like getting really soft too. I
don't fade that down.

Speaker 2 (22:57):
It's just like the quietly plays instrumentals here. Great stuff, guys.

Speaker 1 (23:02):
Thanks, We'll talk to him about another what twenty minutes
or so, sweet, Go get a drink. All right, So
we talked about running the ball on offense. Here's our
next part of our super insightful Einstein level analysis on
beating the Seahawks. Not only do you have to run
the ball, Chris, you have to stop the running this
game too. Have you ever heard that? Have you ever
heard that wisdom before? Stop the run and run the

(23:22):
football keys to victory? So simple, It seems so simple.
But I just don't really see how it's not. Because
there's one threat in the passing game when it comes
to the Seahawks. We'll get to him in a second.
We talked about him a little bit yesterday as well.
But they can run the ball. They should want to
run the ball. Kenneth Walker, I think is a very
good back. I think they have got a good compliment

(23:44):
in sharbon Ay. Although Walker was the compliment in Sharbonay
last week based on the stap snap distribution. They didn't
have much success last week running the football. They're watching
film though, this week. I mean, I don't think that
you know, they're just going through the motions at the
Seahawks facility. It's Friday, Rolds. Run. Should we put on
some of that Steelers film? You think? So they know

(24:05):
what happened last week? Run in the football. The entire
world knows what happened last week running the football against
this Pittsburgh Steelers defense, that's got to be their plan
of attack. So early and often, Chris, you need to
see Steymy's at the line of scrimmage. You need to
see some tackles for loss, maybe a one or two
yard gain. Get some swagger, get some confidence back in

(24:25):
that run defense, because if they have success early like
the Jets did, I mean Brice Sall ran for eighteen
yards on the first play from scrimmage, Like, what more
do you need to see to be like we can
run the damn ball? Huh? So you got to at
least early, I think in this game, make a statement.
And I'm not saying that you have to hold them
to a yard per carry all game long, and there's

(24:46):
not going to be a big run from Kenneth Walker
at some point. Charber Day's not gonna go for nine
or ten yards at some point, but early on, make
that statement, establish a strong run defense, and as the
game works out, or as you work your way through
the game, limit those big time runs, limit the damage

(25:07):
that the running game does, and they'll eventually shy away
from it, and then hopefully your offense gives your team
a lead and they'll have to shy away from it.
But I think that's just such a big deal for
this game. And I said, you know, it's not chickening
our egg. When it comes to running the football on offense,
it's both outline and it's the running backs. Same thing
with the defense. To me, it's not just the defensive line.
Linebackers have got to play better too. I think high

(25:28):
Smith and Waltt were fine. I'm talking about the inside
linebackers in particular. I mean Peyton Wilson, Patrick Queen have
got to be better at stopping the run. Chris I
said this on the Wednesday Show. There's some positions where
if you don't see them at all, or you don't
recognize that they're out there for the game, that's a
good thing, right, Like a corner, a left tackle like

(25:51):
did Jayalie Ramsey even play? He played every snap? Holy crap.
He must have been amazing out there. Opposite, when it
comes to inside linebackers, those are guys I want to
see every play, right. I want to see them all
around the pile. I want to see them wreaking havoc.
I want to see speed, like I need to notice
my inside linebackers. I didn't notice those two barely enough

(26:14):
in that game against the Jets, so I need to
see them make a big statement in this game.

Speaker 2 (26:20):
You know.

Speaker 1 (26:20):
I saw a video clip of Fred Warner, funny enough,
playing against Seattle and the way he hunted the run Chris.
I mean, he saw motion from the full back and
took a couple steps with him and he just knew.
The caption of the tweet of the video was someone's
been watching film or something like that. He just knew
where to go, and he shot right into that backfield

(26:42):
and got to Kenneth Walker. And I'm like, yeah, you
know what, you need your defensive tackles and your defensive
line to stuff to run as well. But boy, stopping
the run has always inherently come from that just middle
linebacker hunting like a shark, right, getting that Jaws music going.

Speaker 2 (26:57):
Yeah, the juxtaposition of the one having six carries by
the Jets of at least twelve yards and not getting
any carries from the Steelers of more than nine yards
and one carry at nine yard carry, that was it.
It's almost you know, if you said that alone, it's
almost like, wow, it's stuck. The Steeers won the game.
It's it's telling on both sides of that. And it's

(27:21):
like we talked about, the most quote unquote explosive or
the biggest gaining, the most matriculated running play the Steelers
had all day was a two yard loss by Caleb
Johnson where he took a latehit out of bounds and
got fifteen yard attacked onto it. So it became a
you know, a thirteen yard game in the end, But
it was more had nothing to do with what the
Sewers run offense did and the run defense. When you

(27:41):
have those carries of eighteen seventeen, sixteen, fifteen, fifteen, twelve
by the Jets, that probably is more often than not
an indictment on the inside linebackers. That's one thing. If
there's a hole there on the on the d line,
if they're you're not getting tackles for loss, if you're
not doing that making splash plays in the running game.
But if if the inside linebackers are there cleaning things

(28:02):
up and limiting things to three four five yards at least,
but not you know, a explosive quote unquote run where
you get a first down on first and ten, you're
and you're running for eighteen in the very first play
of the game. And that's something that I mean with
all the both the big names and the I mean
the contracts that have been handed out and all the
acquisitions of the past year and a half, now people

(28:23):
forget or it's almost like people forget I forget almost.
I mean Patrick Queed was signed to the biggest free
agent contract in Steelers history from an external free agent,
and he was supposed to be that guy. He's played
every snap and he hasn't been poor by an imagination,
it's almost like he gets over He can kind of
live in that almost anonymity almost where there's all the

(28:44):
other guys have come since him and he's not asked
to be, you know, the captain or the alpha of
the defense, which is fine. That's great that they've assembled
this defense that has so many and that's where people
have talked about how it could be a you know,
historic deal go through down down road again. But it
can be a great defense, but can't on the field. Yes,
so you don't have to be, you know, the best

(29:04):
player on that defense. But yeah, if those lines almost
any defense, let's face it, the the interior off ball
linebackers should be leading tacklers every game.

Speaker 1 (29:14):
Yes, I can't see these defensive backs keep leading. And
we saw that so much with Menka Chris and the
same story this week, and it was defensive I saw
Elliott was hurt, he was still leading the team and tackles,
like what is going on?

Speaker 2 (29:26):
And then Chuck Clark don't only play half the game
stood stop somebody in the box for god. So we
had a lot of safeties making tackles, which I think
reflects him. You got runs eighteen seventy sixty to fifty. Yeah,
you know those type of runs the Jets are having,
and that's reflected in that. So that is you know,
the D line is I guess the lines where any
run defense starts. But yeah, if they're there and then

(29:48):
they're making plays. And think I've talked about Peyton Wilson
is of all the players on the roster, if you're
listed them, you know, I don't know the importance that this,
but I think the widest range of outcomes. Right, It's
like if we got to the end of the season
and he was in the Pro Bowl and really emerging
kind of a star, a playmaker like he was in college.
I wouldn't have been shocked if he was or if
he was, you know, exposed, I wouldn't be shocked. And

(30:08):
and you know, you want to see you know week one,
you will you'd rather see it more to the former
than the latter and that and you weren't seeing the
play making out of him and it was his first
star and we'll see. But yeah, yes, I think that
it kind of gets up because we talk so much
about d line because there was a first round pick,
and there's Cam Hayward ad a thing and exactly and
you know, TJ's your star and Alex Highsmith had had

(30:28):
a pretty good Alex Heidman we kind of forgot out
him had a pretty head the sack and I feel
like he was disruptive throughout that game, the secondary and
all the moving pieces had some major talk about that.
We don't talk about the end. We don't talk about
Patrick Queen that much, and you know, and he's a guy.
It's kind of and the steward need him to be good.

Speaker 1 (30:43):
And again, as you illustrated there from the aspect of
we don't talk about Patrick Queen that much because you know,
t J wats a superstar, souperstar, a superstar. Jayalen Ramsey's
a superstar. Cam Heyward is a superstar. Like You've got
so many other guys that come to mind first when
it comes to that defense. And that's fine, But my

(31:03):
thing again is when you're on the field in the game,
like he needs to splash maybe more than anybody, and
it doesn't have to be you know, sacks, but it
has to be again, stopping the running back after three yards,
Like I just have to see him be a heat
seeking missile out there. And it's not just Queen, I'm
putting it on Peyton Wilson too, like that he doesn't
get a pass from this. It's not like it's all Queen.
Like I think Queen played better than Peyton Wilson did significantly.

(31:26):
So in Week one, I'm not worried about Patrick Queen
being a very good pro. He is. I don't voted
in the NFL Top one hundred. He was an All
Pro second team All Pro just two years ago. So
like he's established. Wilson is not Like we're very optimistic
about what he can be. He's got a lot of confidence,
we know that for sure, but he's not an established
NFL player yet. This is his first real step into

(31:49):
potentially becoming that, and he didn't fail Week one by
any stretch of the imagination. But again, you need more
from both of those inside backers now. Not to be
disingenuous here with my chicken or egg stuff here, maybe
I should have gotten a sound effect for that, like
a But it's not just the linebackers. The defensive line

(32:09):
needs to be a lot better too. And I'm not
even just talking about you know, Cam Heyward doing that
old man's strength and pushing a guard off of him
and then grabbing a guy in the B gap and
slamming him down for no gain. But in a lot
of ways, defensive linemen can be offensive lineman. And what
I mean by that is they stop the offensive lineman

(32:30):
from getting to that second level. They kind of put
force that stalemate at the line of scrimmage with them,
and then your hunters, your linebackers can do what they
do best. They're free to figure out where the hole is,
track where the running back's going, and hunt. And I
think there is a lot of examples when you watch
back that Jets game of not only offensive lineman being

(32:54):
able to get into that second level and get bodies
on Queen and Wilson. And let's be honest, that's a
weakness for those guys, right, Chris. They can't get off
blocks very well. They're just not as big as some
other inside linebackers, especially Peyton Wilson. So not only was
that happening though, but sometimes you just see Keanu Benton
go for a ride right three or four yards off
the ball. WHOA, I'm pushed back all of a sudden
into my inside backers. Cannot have that happen.

Speaker 2 (33:17):
On paper, Yeah, and it still can't play out. And
it's not that you have Queen Wilson can be in
terms of sideline to sideline, covering the field, in terms
of where they can go. They you talk to heat
seeking missile. You have two guys there that if you
had one of those guys that you'd be happy, right,
you would be excited about what they can do. You
have two guys that can do that on paper in

(33:37):
terms of their skill set, their resume, and so that's
kind of what it's built upon. They stopping the run
and as long as you again, but if you're getting
pushed into the backfield, it's like go back to Benton, man,
It's like Benton is not like Roderick Jones. You're like,
it's there, come on, come on, keanun you can do it.
It's like you want to like root for him, and

(33:57):
you know that Pat like like why why aren't Why
isn't the production of the results. It's not production per se.
It's weird and you know you're not asking them to
rock up tackles and you want to get them some sacks.
Of course that production has to be. I love that comparison, Chris,
and it's what they were the same draft clash, right,
So I love it.

Speaker 1 (34:12):
I mean, so I don't think the stakes are as
high for Keanu Benton. They're high, I don't get me wrong,
but at least there's options there. They drafted Harmon, they
got black Cam's still around, louder Milks, the nature of
the position you can rotate there. And it's just a
very good point too. But you're so right, like this
is just another guy that it's like you have to
break through. The team needs you to break through.

Speaker 2 (34:32):
Everybody sees the talent and sees it there and sees
it in practice a lot of times.

Speaker 1 (34:36):
And funny enough, just like Proderick your rookie year, you
were good, like you had all this tape that you
put out there that we were like, ceiling is really high,
Proderick's a really good run blocker, but ke Ony benn
is really good. Like we went to have the air
to cam like that was what the talking points was
heading into the second year for those gentlemen.

Speaker 2 (34:52):
It was only fourteen months ago or whatever it was
camp last year. Only fourteen months Yeah, and it's and
it's still there and it's not especially over time. Talking
men here that they were not not saying he's you know,
give up on him or whatever he is a bust
or no good or anything like that. I mean, he's
obviously established as a starting NFL defensive lineman and he
always will be. But it's like you just feel like
that next level can be there with him and he

(35:14):
can be disruptive both, you know, like you said, not
just being stout, stouter. The stouter that's the word Mike
Toman used, which I don't think is a word, but
that's all right, we'll go with it. It's a word now.
It's souder in the run game and give you you
know that the push and the pass rush too. He
can do both of those things. And it's like it's
right there. It's like and you almost expect to see it,
and then it's like, why aren't we seeing that yet

(35:36):
right now? And it's and again it's not bad, it's
just it's just it's just really take that. And we've
talked to he has quite incentive because, I mean, if
he does show that this year, man the the open up,
pay me the money or you know, we'll do that
later on the day. His agent would just be because
the next offseason, Teddy KGB's off today, Chris, you know,
just come in until Monday. I want to give out

(35:57):
the money for the game. He expect the budget on
the on the house band here and we don't on.

Speaker 1 (36:00):
You know, the band's on retainer of course, and Teddy
KGB is too, but he's off. I mean, it's Friday.
What am I supposed to call him in when he
only works Mondays fair enough, he's eating oreos, Okay, let
him be, But you're right, he needs money. K on
keuny Ben does. It's time to start making that big
time NFL money and and he.

Speaker 2 (36:17):
That's there and if he has any any sort of
dynamic time of year and it shows the things he
can do. We'll be getting it next next, next summer.

Speaker 1 (36:23):
I have a take related to Keany Benton when it
comes to this game on Sunday, so I'm gonna give
it to you next. It's Chris Adamski, It's Tom Offerman,
It's the Steeler splits on the Steelers Audio network man
Friday's during football season. Just they just hit so different.

(36:46):
I feel the energy that I used to as a
kid again during Fridays, like when school's done and I
can f off from all this stuff for a while.
You got your high school football tonight, and in these
parts it's bigger than in other parts around this country.
And that's snare drum, Chris. It just hits when you
go to those high school stadiums. I don't know what
it is about it. You got college next week or tomorrow,

(37:08):
and of course NFL Sunday. We'll talk a bit of
college football and the college slate in a little bit.
But I promised everybody a Keanu Benton take first, and
I will deliver on my promises. Chris, you tease, you deliver.
I think Keanu Benton, as you said in the last segment,
has established himself as a pro and as someone that

(37:29):
is a rotational piece and even a starter, if you will,
on a defensive line, not just for the Steelers, but
across the league. I'm comfortable saying majority of teams would
welcome aboard Keanue Benton. All that being said, I would
cut his snapcounts down this week, and I would throw
I would throw Yia Black out there more. I think
Black should play more snaps. I think that it has

(37:51):
It's a good point. I think we all agree Black
should play more. I do. Somebody has to be at
the expense there.

Speaker 2 (37:59):
Yeah, good point.

Speaker 1 (38:00):
Maybe it's louder Milk, but what you saw in the
game was Hayward, Benton, louder Milk when they were in
base and they had three defensive linemen out there.

Speaker 2 (38:11):
I don't know if.

Speaker 1 (38:12):
Benton can play nose. I don't just don't know if
that's in the cards for him. I think why a
Black can definitely play some nose. I also think why
you Black can play on the outside a little bit
on the defensive line too. He's very athletic. But I
would maybe shift some things around. Maybe louder Milk's the
actual odd man out Chris and it's Black and Benton

(38:34):
kind of bumps out to you know, the tackles inside
shoulder of the guards outside shoulder, kind of in the
BC gap, and that's how you go about it. And
then when you go in base and it's only Hayward
and another guy out there on the D line, I
think I would lean towards Black more than I would Benton.
You know, at some point you have to say to yourself,
Benton's fine, but Black showed a lot of potential in

(38:55):
the preseason. What if he's better than Benton's let's I
think he's deserved more snaps, like you said, and it
has to be at the expense of someone. But I
also think that Benton hasn't really done anything to make
you nervous that, oh, Black's going to come in and
just be so much worse than what we've seen out
of Benton I think.

Speaker 2 (39:13):
I mean, Black was a fifth round pick. There's a
lot of different on picks don't make the team or
maybe make the practice squad, whatever it is. So he's
already way exceeded expectations. Whatever you think about easy quote
unquote eating somebody. And there is an element too of
we have not nextual we talked about earlier, but you
know whatever it is. Jaydan Mooreen is a future back.
There's things that we think we know, but we just

(39:34):
haven't seen it yet on tape or on the field
during the game. I think there is Remember Joey Porter
Junior was dime back for the first four or five
games of his rookie season. Yes, and whatever you want
to say about he's in a rookie And I think
there especially on the dean line, Like we talked about
the nature of that position. Is it just you're you're
going to rotate bodies in And I think as the
game when Ontara Austin talked about it too to a

(39:56):
point he thinks, well, he even kind of openly acknowledged
he wants to see more and they steer you probably
will see more. People watching the game will see more.
Ya blast. Yeah, in week two, I knew it. That's
what did you do? The Sandra Bullock voice when you
when you contact. But and then it's like he also
got to do is interesting? You know we're still in

(40:18):
which I get, you know, the Casey Hampton nose tackle,
and that was I want to say, it's a rolic.
You're not gonna play every snap with the big bowling
ball body right now, ya, Black is the biggest defensive
lineman on the Steeler. Now does that mean he is
the nose tackle? There's obviously that makes sense to a degree,
But even the Steelers over the past several seasons now

(40:43):
they would it's not even a base defense where this
guy plays and only nose tackle and then he's done
there or then he but it's it's like it's almost
as if everybody's everything. It's not exactly true. But Black
played some you know as the as the four tech
way outside, he played some nose. He played more of
the you know, the nickel tackles. You know, we saw

(41:05):
him play all. But that's almost everybody on the Steelers
D line. It's not these defined roles. Like I thought,
it was really crazy and intuitively whenever the second team
D line during camp a lot of times was Logan
Lee was in the nose and Black was on the outside,
which just didn't make you look at their body types
and like this doesn't make any sense whatsoever.

Speaker 1 (41:26):
But.

Speaker 2 (41:27):
If you kind of have to get yourself and Tera
Austin talked about this yesterday, out of that mold to
think and we want to nose tackle that just three
hundred and sixty pounds and just big old stands there
and as a brick wall. And there's there's still use
for that. I mean they kept damn the colors around
for what seven years too long? Yeah, there's actually just
be that in the middle. But they're so varied now
on the D line and it's not it's not exactly

(41:48):
this where it's like the three guys roll out there
and where do you want to play or two guys
whatever it is at a certain tact. But so in
other words, this is a long way of begetting to
I think Black, even though he is their biggest D
line and I think also is in terms of can
play you know, however you want to call it, and
it tackled nickel, tagle, you know, whatever position'll tag you

(42:08):
want to apply to it. But I mean Black, I
think we all see has a high, much higher ceiling
than a fifth round pick usually has as a rookie,
and he'll naturally get there. Loudermilk, we've talked about he is.
They're they're there, They're what do we use? We're comfortable
with him. They're they're there, He's there, He's going to
be here if he's your fifth or sixth d lineman.
That's fine, that's great. He knows what he's doing. He's

(42:30):
not going to screw up. He's been around, he knows
everything that that's fine. But you know, for week one,
you see why they're not going to necessarily start the
rookie until we get them a little more assimilate. He's
not playing against Carolina Panthers third stringers or whatever. True,
He's getting out there against an NFL offensive line. So
I do think we'll see more and more Black increasing
throughout to see. I don't know at the expense of venting,

(42:51):
but like I said, the snatch up to come from somewhere,
and you know, Cam Heyward's gonna stay on the field
as much as you can, at least for thirty six
year old. I assume they'll be a little attrition there,
maybe two and and we're forgetting about the fact that
the first round pick will be back here at some point.
And then all of a sudden, it's like the proverbial
good problem now and maybe at that point then yeah,
Benton does start getting squeeze off. The two rookies are
are are are performing at a high level. All of
a sudden. But we're getting way down the road here,

(43:13):
and we go to see Harmon in the field against
legitimate NFL offensive line before we go there, and I
think he'll be good too. But yeah, it's uh, I
mean black certainly relatives who expectation heading into his where
he was on the depth chart, where he was as
a fifth round pick, the biggest most pleasant surprise of Camp.
I don't think anybody would, you know, it's hard to

(43:34):
kind of deny that.

Speaker 1 (43:35):
I think it's time now for the college Couch. This
is a feature on every Friday's edition of The Blitz
where Chris and I will take a look around the
college football landscape and see what's going on in the
college football world that week. We're also going to do
it from this literal couch that we have though from college.
It's very gross, disgusting. Yes, so let's move over. Let's

(43:55):
sit on this couch here to talk some college ball.
And oh, okay, that's the disgusting. Who left it? Who's
spilled beer there? I hope it's beer. That's disgusting. Oh,
I can feel it. It's My shorts are wet now too,
that's gross. How is it wet? It's been out of
commission for years. How is it still like a fresh
wet I don't know. We're not going to talk about
it be burned here. Well, that's a great transition, Chris.

(44:18):
That's exactly where I was going. It's appropriate for us
to be on couches today because that's the marque. Local
game is Pitt in West Virginia the backyard Brawl this weekend. Uh.
I don't think West Virginians are going to be burning
many couches, maybe out of protests to the program that
they root for. But look, I don't like to be
over confident as a rabid PIT fan like I am,
especially in a game like this, And it's usually games

(44:39):
like this, Chris, where the team that has everything to
lose is the one that does lose, and the team
that is just kind of like, you know what, it'd
be great if we beat them, but if we lose,
we were already embarrassed last week. That's the team that
wins the game. So I'm nervous. But boy, everything says
that Pit should just smoke them out of the building.
I mean, they're seven and a half point road favorite, Chris.
That's a huge line.

Speaker 2 (44:58):
I know that that's the thing is game, a robbery
game on the road giving more. That's like, that's like
a trap if I ever saw one in terms of
if if you're into that thing, into putting because that
that violates.

Speaker 1 (45:12):
Like somebody you were talking about trapped, Like everybody be like, well,
I'm taking West Virginia and then all of a sudden
it's like Pit one.

Speaker 2 (45:16):
It's like yeah, it's like it's like, I don't know
what that extra hook. But either way, it's like I
don't I don't want to get involved in that if
I'm on the road. But that shows I think it
opened up. It's two if I'm not mistaken, two and
a half. And it's grown that much over the injury
news this week for West Virginia. So but it again,
it's not this is nothing. It's just like you seem
like everything is just falling Pit's way and turning. West

(45:38):
Virginia is coming off a loss to a MAC team.
It's like, it's hard to really logically put yourself behind WU. Man,
that really took some win out of the sales of
this one. Yeah, you've liked them to be undefeated, I mean,
would whatever it is who have the team's beating their schedule.
That's fine, but at least that that does kind of like,
you know, suck some life out of everything here. But
at the same time, it's like, logically, it's really hard

(45:59):
to say that West Virginia would be able to win
this game. But that's why rovaly games are usually defiologic
in a lot of sense.

Speaker 1 (46:05):
And not the only rivalry game here. The other in
state rivalry game this week Penn State ticking on the
Villanova Wildcats.

Speaker 2 (46:11):
State.

Speaker 1 (46:12):
Yes, of course, what a soft non conference schedule that
Penn State played, but hey, they're gonna get tested big
time when it comes to the conference schedule. They got Oregon,
they got Ohio State. And speaking of Oregon, Chris, they
won sixty nine to three against Oklahoma State last week. Pitt.
This was before my time, but I remember they played
Ohio State. Mark madd brings up all the time because
he bet on Ohio State in this game and won

(46:32):
big because he knew they were going to just slaughter Pit.
Pitt lost like seventy seven to seven or something like
that at the Horseshoe. That reminded me of this, like
a power five, power four program playing another powerful program
and just getting beat like you're in the FCS. Well, now,
Oregon Chris goes to Northwestern to play the Northwestern Wildcats,
big noon, this is this a crime is going to

(46:55):
be committed on this field. I think Oregon needs to
maybe be arrested and calmed down a little bit with
what they're doing to team. Some of the other games
that are are weighty on the schedule, game days at
Rocky Top for Georgia versus Tennessee. How about South Florida
the surprise at the start of the college football season,
the number eighteen in the country. They go to Miami, Chris.
If they beat Miami, they will have beaten ranked Boise State,

(47:17):
they will have beaten ranked Florida on the road, and
they will have beaten top five Miami on the road.
I mean, South Florida should be like the number five
team in the country if they pull that.

Speaker 2 (47:26):
Off, and they're already what eighteenth right now.

Speaker 1 (47:28):
And that way, they're in the driver's seats for a playoffs.

Speaker 2 (47:30):
I mean, how many teams that even play three ranked
teams the first three games in the season in college
football history. And and yeah, even if they lose this game,
if they're.

Speaker 1 (47:37):
Still think they're alive for the playoff.

Speaker 2 (47:39):
Yeah, yeah, I mean somebody. I mean, they're by far
the leader in that because one of the group of five. Yeah,
so they're by far the leader in that already. So
if you lose a game, if your only loss is
at Miami in competitive game, yeah then so no matter what.
But yeah, they can really make a statement that they
could actually be, you know, a factor in seeding higher
than i mean the top ten team if they pull
this off. Yeah right, sure, I mean yeah, but we'll

(48:00):
see everybody that first that Thursday night, my takeaway was
all Boise State's no good without gent but maybe maybe
Florida really yeah, yeah, I mean they take from it
because they blew them out that day in Tampa. So
there's a lot of sneaky games too, like like the
what Clemson Georgia.

Speaker 1 (48:16):
Tech, Well watch out for the Ramlin Red.

Speaker 2 (48:18):
Yeah, with the Paul you know, Pit'll hopefully be in
that conversation if you're a Pit fan and I you know,
we'll see you. Florida State, of course, off sent Miami
has something to say. Florida State all of a sudden
looks like the class maybe the eight. But I mean
Geordia Tech wins this game. I mean, they got a
path to get to the a SEC title game and
they're kind of a sneak and they'll be ranked out
if they do. They get them in home and you know,
I think they got a shock to winner.

Speaker 1 (48:38):
I think a lot of people picked them to finish
fourth in the a SEC this year. So the Wreck,
the Wreck have a stake to do this playing for sure.
And then finally you got Notre Dame in Texas A
and M as your night game on NBC number eight
versus number sixteen, Notre Dame one after losing the opener
to Miami. So this is a big one for how
about that opener bye week last week? Now they play
Texas A and m And.

Speaker 2 (48:58):
That wasn't even like I know, because North Carolina had
a buye. They played Monday night a little more than
than doing.

Speaker 1 (49:04):
North Carolina did not have a bye though. They played
Charlotte and the barely okay whatever, Yeah, I was sitting
in the collach couch. We gotta get off this couch. Okay,
Notre Dame. I forgot about it for a second and
then the smell waft it up. Notre Dame. If they
go in two, this could be a big problem for
them as far as their playoff is concerned.

Speaker 2 (49:23):
So now remember last year they lost what week two
to Northern Illinois, but then ran the table.

Speaker 1 (49:27):
The rest of the season'll be as bad as that,
But you can't start and two. All right, let's get
the hell off this couch and Chris and I come back.
We will award our big ballers for the game against Seattle.
It's the Steelers Blitz on the Steelers Audio Network.