September 8, 2022 • 44 mins
Mike Prisuta and Matt Williamson are joined by Merril Hoge to preview the Steelers 2022 season opener in Cincinnati.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the Steelers Preview show on w d V Pittsburgh,
presented by Unibet. The only thing better than a Steelers
win is the Steelers win that pays double down on
your team. With Unibet, proud partner of the Pittsburgh Steelers,
here are your hosts, Mike Pursuita, Matt Williamson, and Meryl Hodge.
Good evening and welcome to another year of Steelers Preview.
(00:21):
Mike Pursuita and Matt Williamson with you tonight until eight o'clock.
If you're familiar with our show, you know that will
also be joined by Meryl Hodge. Midway through. Meryl will
catch us up on what he thinks are the critical
elements of the upcoming game and hopefully give us uh
and regale us with hunting stories and I'm sure we'll
get a little something a little extracurricular activity there snippets
(00:43):
of his also exciting life. Uh. We're here, among other things,
to tell you what to expect and what do you
What to expect is brought to you by Brian Patton
and associates. It's all about the benefits. Let's kick things
off taking a look at today's practice participation. Nothing major brewing,
(01:04):
or so it appears. Deante Johnson UH limited again for
a second consecutive day. First day with shouldering and cramps
the issue today, so the shoulder seemingly better. Marcus Allen
upgraded from limited to full participation. He's dealing with a hamstring.
Chuck a core for the right tackle shows up on
the Steelers participation report as having not practiced back. Hopefully
(01:29):
nothing brewing there and Cam Hayward coaches decision he got
the veterans stay off for the Bengals. Their number four
tight end Devon as ASSIUH quad didn't practice for the
second day in a row, their number three tight end
Mitchell Wilcox ankle limited for a second day in a row,
and their number two tight end Drew Sample knee full
participation for the second consecutive day. They still got Hayden
(01:53):
Herst ready to rock and UH wide receiver Trent Taylor
hamstring limited today. Uh, you're talking wide receivers with the
Bengals and you're not talking about Jamaar, Chase, Tee Higgins
or Tyler Boyd. It doesn't those three are on the
field almost every snap. They live in eleven personnel with
three receivers on the field, you can see why they
(02:14):
got three really good ones. If Boyds, you're three, you're
doing just fine. But I wanted to, uh start We've
both done a lot of analyzing and speculating and theorizing
throughout training camp on the various forms of media, but
I wanted to start tonight with a look back at
the two games last year. I had to remind myself
(02:35):
the Bengals finished ten and seven last season. Yeah, it
wasn't as great as everyone thought. You know, they didn't
just blow take the league by storm. The Steelers finished
nine seven and one, so they were a half game
worse than the Bengals. And yet when those two teams
got on the same field twice, it was no contest,
no contest, especially the second one, I mean, which was
just a total blowout. Um, how do you account Yeah, yeah,
(02:58):
I mean both teams or four and two in the division.
You know, they both swept some other teams, but got
swept by you know, the Bengals obviously the Steelers here. Um,
I don't know if it's just a bad matchup or
what to really make of it, because you would think
the Steelers pass rush, especially against last year's Bengals would
give them big problems, you know. I mean they're more
(03:20):
of a pass first team. They borrow gets hit more
than any quarterback in the league. And I don't think
that defense is special. But she wasn't play well. I
don't have a great feel for that in terms of
Bengals are just a bad matchup for the Steelers, but
they were clearly the better team. I think they're a
bad matchup when they run for almost two hundred yards,
which they did in the second game, and they ran
it effectively in the first game. Steelers had well documented
(03:43):
stop the run issues all year last year, well most
of the year, and turnovers were problem against Cincinnati. But
I'm looking at the two teams now. They both made
the changes that every NFL team makes over the course
of an offseason. But uh, you know, I don't see
the this is a matchup in which the Steelers have
to trick them or scheme them, or don't get lucky. Uh,
(04:05):
they gotta play better, play better. You stop the run,
gotta be capable. Yeah, I mean, you gotta make some
more big plays. Um. I think a lot of it,
especially that second game and mixings numbers against Steelers were tremendous.
You know, as you mentioned, we're outside zone, outside zone,
outside zone, and you're just getting six eight four, you know,
time and time again. I think they made it too
(04:26):
easy on the Bengals. I'd be shocked if that's how
this one goes. Though. It's also interesting to me that
the Bengals had a bad offensive line last year. That
that's not my opinion, that's their opinion, because they changed
four fists of it and they still made it to
the super Bowl. The Steelers have an offensive line right
now that I think, uh, in my eyes, at least,
it's not where I thought it would be. It's it's
(04:48):
been a disappointment, maybe the disappointment of training camp. It's
definitely the weakest area preseason. Yeah, I think that's safe
to say. I mean, I'm sure we'll talk steel quarterbacks,
but I'm much more from both a quarterback room than
I am the line room me too, And I think
that has the potential. Not that they have necessarily a
future franchise Hall of Famer on their hands at least
(05:09):
not yet, but I think quarterbacks at least that their concerns, uh,
the line is the most of their concerns. How did.
It's by far the biggest concern. How did the Bengals
work around it last year and how can the Steelers
do that this year? Well, think about where the Bengals
were three sixty five days ago. I mean they had
just drafted Jamaar Chase with the third pick in the draft.
(05:30):
The year before that, they had the first pick in
the draft, and you know, the narrative around the team
was this Chase guy can't catch an NFL football drops
and he can't see there's a lot of lines on
at the white lines like in college. Burrow was coming
off a massive injury at this point too, I mean
his knee was he was questionable for Week one. You know,
he was coming off a huge knee injury. So the
(05:53):
first half of the year they did a nice job of,
I don't say protecting Burrow, but making life a little easier.
They ran the ball more, and then down the stretch,
this is what's a little fearful because you look at
their last eight games or so, including the playoffs. They
played four playoff games. Burrow was on fire, and they
threw the ball an awful lot in extremely high percentage
(06:16):
of the time. Um with a bad line I mean
their line. I thought last the last year Bengals line
was worse than this Steeler's line or last year's Steeler
line in my opinion. I mean, it was as bad
as you see in the league, and Burrows partially to
blame for that. No one ever blames the quarterback for sacks.
But I think sacks is as much a quarterback stat
as it is o line, and they were right to
(06:36):
change their old line as drastically as they did. But
Burrow pulls the ball a little long too, you know,
I mean, I think the Steelers can still get to
him to On Sunday, Bengals were five and four after
nine games last an average team. They went into there
by having lost to the Jets and the Browns, and
(06:57):
then they came out of that with a big win
at Vegas, and they stop the Steelers in Cincinnati to
complete the sweep, celebrated that by losing to the Chargers
and losing to the Forts. Then won three of their
last four and uh, you know, the rest is not
quite history. But they made it all the way to
the Super Bowl and damn near won the thing. But
(07:17):
they beat Vegas in the first round of the playoffs.
Second round Tennessee nint win despite giving up hundred three sacks. Right,
I thought they got lucky in that game, and then
beat the Chiefs in overtime in Kansas City. I thought
they got lucky in that game. Not that hey, full marks,
they won the games. They did what they had to do.
(07:37):
But if there's a juggernaut in Cincinnati, I'm I'm not noticing.
I'm not I'm not seeing it. Yeah, the same thing.
I mean, I thought the a f C was was
rather weak. You know, when Tennessee's your number one seed,
um they won. If it's not from McPherson, their kicker
in the playoffs, they don't advance. You know, I didn't
think Burrow even played tremendously great in the playoffs. As
(08:00):
a whole, the old line was a huge problem. Like
I'm not taking any away from the Bengals. I mean,
they deserve to go to the super Bowl, and they
are a legit team. They're better than the Steelers, but
they had a lot of things go their way last year.
The schedule they played wasn't bad, you know, it was
actually quite on the easy side. They were remarkably healthy
on both sides of the ball, so kind of everything
(08:21):
fell into place for them, and you mentioned just does
for a lot of teams. That's how I mean, that's
how it Isn't all sports, I'm sure, but um, you
know you mentioned they were five and four at one point.
The narrative around them then was, wow, this is pretty
good succeeds pretty good season for a middling terrible team.
The picks in the top five every year. You know
that we were the people were happy with them at
five and four, and that's when they started to explode.
(08:42):
Just shows how the league changes so fast. You know,
one thing they had going for him, And a couple
of chats about this with Larry ogan job the defensive
lineman from the Steelers who was with the Bengals last year,
and he said they had a togetherness about them and
a belief and how could it not be. He he
cultivates it, He inspires it. You watch him do what
(09:04):
he does and you think, yeah, why can't we win
with this guy? But I don't really trust the coaching staff,
but I think he's the coach and all the all
the above. You know, Ogan Joby gave a lot of
credit to their sticking together and he said they were
second half team particularly in the second half of the season,
and their approach because what they win four games the
year before, something off. He said, all they tried to
(09:27):
do that old cliche go want to know this week?
You know, they didn't get together and say, hey, we're
gonna make the playoffs this year, we're gonna be over
five you know, some benchmark that they would be pointing
out to say we've turned it around. They just played
the games and whatever was necessary that week. And it's
the NFL that can happen. You can go a long
way doing that stuff, no doubt. And I I think
(09:47):
that organization, mostly because of our ow, has a really
different identity and is much harder to play against. And
I agree with that. They're not a jug Ornaut, but
they're here to stay. I mean as long as they
got that I and they can keep them healthy and
they surround them with weapons. Yeah, they were the first
team to have a four thousand yard pass or a
(10:09):
thousand yard rusher and two thousand yard receivers who were
all under the age of That's interesting. And this doesn't
matter for this week or this year. It's one day.
You gotta pay them all, you know what I mean?
Like this is their window to do all that, to
go outside the organization and build an offensive line, which folks,
the Steelers could do this offseason two. You know. I
(10:30):
mean they're now in that shoe, those shoes as well.
The years before that, they spent a lot of money
on defense, and most of their defensive starters are not homegrown. There.
They've got a lot of those guys and free agency
the last two years, as with the offensive line, and
they drafted their skill dudes on offense and they're in
good shape. Um. I also think, and you know Labs
talks about this a lot. It's a lot different being
(10:53):
editor of Steelers and Steelers dot Com and part of
our regular pregame show team on the Steelers Radio network, Yes,
and friend of ours. Um, it's a lot different being
the hunted in the hunter in my opinion too, you know,
like the Labs have mentioned many times, let's see how
these teams do when they have four night games and
they get home at three in the morning. And you know,
there's something we said for that too. When he buy that.
(11:14):
Although I don't think Burrow's gonna care, I don't think
he's care one, but I fear him for a decade. Yeah,
is he cocky or yep? But right, but he's good
enough to get it done. So no problemismatic, cocky leader,
I mean, whatever you want to say. And he's good,
he's and he's smart. He made a comment last week
(11:35):
and he just said it so matter of factly. He
was doing a ten or eleven minutes session with the
media and Cincinnati and you know they're versatility on offense.
Came up and Burrow said, if you want to play
too high safety, we'll run the ball. Yeah, if you
want to play man to man, good luck. See what's funny?
He said, good luck? Good luck. Yeah. It was like,
(11:56):
there's no way you've covered us man to man. Yeah,
i'my even bring this up with may All because it
became so obvious when you look back at the Bengal season.
This applies this week. When he saw a single high
safety instead of too high or a high degree of man,
he's just going deep the chase. Yeah, I mean I've
used this example. It's like when I was with Pitt
(12:16):
and we got down to the goal line, we could
put up on the on the scoreboard. Hey, we're throwing
a fade to Larry. I mean that's how it was.
It's like, if you're gonna play those coverages, I'm throwing
bombs all day long to Chase and we'll see see
what you can do about it. Because they're special players.
If I take a couple of hits in the process,
I don't really care, you know. So those are the
type of things you're right about. Then you're even seeing
(12:37):
this like with Mahomes and Josh Allen. They don't want
to check it down and check it down and run it,
you know. I mean, they're they're reeling themselves in where
Burrow I think will Nickel and dime, you know, or
take the shot over the top or handed to mix
in time and time again and be just content to
slit your throat any which way you want. It's interesting
you bring up the attack single coverage thing because we've
(12:57):
seen some of that from Mitch Robiski as well as
the season, and he's talked about the trust he has
in the Steelers receivers. Now, their group is not as
accomplished as Chase Higgins and Boyd, but boy Deante Johnson
is pretty good and Chase Claypool has still a high ceiling.
(13:18):
George Pickens uh Friar mos was included when they see
the single outside or the single down to seam, they're
gonna take that shot. And it occurred to me watching
h I think it was the last preseason game. You
can get a shotgun and see that catch a shotgun
snap and throw the ball immediately, and if you throw
(13:38):
it high enough and with enough lab on it, you
know it shouldn't be a protection thing. You can get
it out. You'll be able to get that. Most longer
passes take longer to develop, but that one you can
just throw and let the guy run under it. Uh.
The only thing stopping that is execution, right, is Chase
Claypool gonna go up and fall backwards and not catching
or is he gonna actually go up like a big
(13:58):
boy receiver, get his hands out in front of him
and pull it in. Yeah. I mean there's a lot
of examples. Tom Brady is the best. I mean, Brady
was like almost right there with Ben in terms of
time to get the ball out of his hands. But
he threw for a gazillion yards through the most passes
in the league. They weren't all short. I mean, just
because the ball doesn't just because it all comes out
quick doesn't mean, you can't put it down the field
(14:20):
as long as you anticipate it. Like you said, you
put it where they're gonna be. The old Gretzky thing,
you know, put it where the puck is gonna be.
I mean he put the ball where they're gonna be,
and the they go get it. I mean that's very possible. Reference. Yeah,
hold school, Let's talk about that Bengals offensive line a
little bit because we mentioned it is is fourth, fifth, new,
and most of these guys are veterans, Ted Carress, Alex Cappa,
(14:43):
Leo Collins. Uh. They did draft a rookie out of
the was it North Dakota State or South Dakoaston He's
gonna be the left guard, Cordell Volson, fourth rounder and
the only carryover is left tackle Jonah Williams. Interesting the
way the Bengals approached the preseason. They did play their guys. See,
I think that might haunt them. None of these guys
(15:03):
they've practiced together, but they have not been in a
game yet together. And four fits of this group is new.
It has to be a factor at least early in
the opener, right, I think it has to be. I mean,
the whole offense didn't practice or didn't play at all
in the preseason, And I get that because he was
competing for a job and Jackson Carman we're fighting for
the left guard. I think. I think he was only
(15:25):
started on the other side of the ball, played exactly.
And I get not playing Burrow, especially if you're coming
off an appendeck to me. Of course you're not gonna play.
I'm work Chase, okay, but I would have played that
front five quite a bit. I mean, just because they're
all new together and Bolson is the weak link. I
assume he's the unknown of the group. By the way.
Carriss is related to Mango, by the way, which is
(15:45):
nice to know. Um, Jonah Williams is the only car
he is. I think he's like a great nephew or
or something. He's he's in the in the lineage. He's
way up in my book. He gotta like that. Yeah, Um,
but I don't know if this line is great. He's
pawned in the game of life. Upon in the game.
I think the line is better. But people act like
(16:06):
they just signed John Hannah and Mono's, you know, like
they're fine. It's an average line now, I mean, it's
the NFL is an offensive line starved league. Absolutely, So
if you can get average, you go shopping for three
offensive lineman from what are the chances you got the
three best guys? Of course they're not available. They're not available.
Look what the Steelers were not got James Daniels, and
(16:29):
I think his place since he got here has dampened
some enthusiasm. I was super high on him, and we'll see.
I mean, I thought the last preseason game is his
best performance, but it's still I thought he'd clearly be
their best lineman right now and isn't yet. You know,
we'll see um. But I don't think this is offensive
line all of a sudden, Is this impenetrable force or anything.
It's fine, it's better, it doesn't stink anymore. It's now average.
(16:52):
And I mean the Steelers would kill for an average
offensive line. I mean, so that's what you have to
pay for in this league. But it's the Steelers with
their front seven the way it is now, with the
particularly Larry Ogan jovir Um, there's still a huge advantage
of front. They got a chance to win that, right,
Oh yeah, exploit that. I think Collins the right tackles
their best guy, but what's better? I mean, of course,
(17:14):
and I would assume that sample was their blocking tight end.
He'll probably spend a lot of time on the right,
which allows Highsmith one on ones against Jonah. And people
look at Jonah because he was a tenth or eleventh
pick in the draft, like he's a star, and he
did go to Alabama and he went to Bama and
you know he's a pedigree guy and all that, but
he gave up like a ten to twelve sacks last year.
I mean, he was part of the problem as well. Well,
(17:35):
he wasn't shutting people down. And the other guys are
all average ish interior starters. They can they can handle
Mongo inside. They got a shot here exactly. And I'm
putting Cam Hayward over Bolson all day long or a
good job either way. But I'm putting somebody head up
on that left guard all day long. So the starting
point with all this, you know, Burrow and Chase and
(17:56):
what's your bisky gonna be like? And it's now as
you're gonna get rolling in front with the starting point
to this matchup is can the Steelers defensive line mess
things up for the Bengals offensive line and dictates, and
it's so similar to last year's you know game against
the Bills. I think they were six and a half
point dogs. Similar the Bills didn't play anyone in the preseason.
The Steelers prepped and prepped for through all kinds of
(18:18):
pressures and twists and stunts and blitzes, and Bills didn't
pick it up particularly well. So I think it's a
good time to play the Bengals in an offensive line
that really hasn't played together. I've got a lot more
to get to tonight. We are just getting started, so
keep it here till eight o'clock. When we come back.
We will be joined by the third member of our team,
(18:38):
Merril Hodge. Steelers Preview on DV is brought to you
by Uni Butt. The only thing better than the Steelers
win is the Steelers wind that paced double down on
your team with Uni Butt, proud partner of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
With Matt Williamson on Mike Pursuita. You're listening to Steelers
Preview right here on your Steelers Flagship one or two
point five d V. Back to the Steelers Preview show
(19:02):
presented by Uni Bet on DV. Welcome back, Mike Pursuita
and Matt Williamson with you tonight until eight o'clock here
on our inaugural Steelers preview for the two season. No
more pregame shows for preseason games, no more postgame shows
for preseason games. It counts and that's why we turned
(19:24):
to the big gun the center on our first line
of Steelers coverage. Merrill Hodge, you guy who needs no introduction,
but I'm gonna offer one anyway, And tonight, Meryl, it's
gonna be this. There's an old saying, sometimes you get
the bear, and sometimes the bear gets you before you
get the Steelers Bengals tell us about the former, Well,
(19:48):
I'll actually get everybody's procesing of footage of a bear
coming up a tree at some point, rather coming after
somebody or just coming up the tree. Well, I was
in a situation where I've been Candida hunt and let
me back up. I'm just gonna rewind this a little
bit before I get to that point. In the wild,
it is usually predominantly the big the bigger, the batter winds.
(20:12):
That's how the wild is. I didn't I never knew
that the crazy actually exists in the wild. Now there
was a bear that was actually nuts. Okay, he was
the smallest bear I've ever seen. He was. He was
hovering around the bait and he would scare every bear
that came in that was twice his side. I mean,
(20:35):
he was scaring monster bear away that I was like,
this is not happening. I mean the bear was so
crazy and so nuts that all of them appeared to
be scared. Well, one of the bears actually started to
come up my tree and I was filming it, like
I said, like, I sent the foot footage too, and
then I started. Then I realize that, wait a minute,
(20:55):
I got a problem. This bear comes up here. I mean, yeah,
I can't predict what's gonna happen there, I go. So
what I ended up happening to do? The problem It
wasn't the bear coming up the tree because I couldn't
really shoot at that bear based on howard thing was
set up and all I had was a boat. I
didn't bring my gun. I had to. I didn't want
to kill the bear because the bear was just a raggedy,
(21:18):
nasty looking he was just ugly bear. But I had to.
I had to. I had to take the bear. I
didn't want so that he would quit chasing the bear
that was coming up my tree. So I once I
did that, he got on the tree and left and
everybody's arrived. But it was our hunt i've ever been on. Well, yeah,
(21:39):
you're right. One one bear didn't survive, but he I
really risky would have because I did not want that bear,
and he was he's actually even ugly. I mean he
was an ugly bear. I mean he looked like he'd
been in like a laundry mat and you know it
didn't finish clean. He never seen a bear like that.
Was ugly bear I've ever seen in my life. Are
you now the longer invited back to Chicago Bears reunions? Yeah? Yeah, probably, Yeah,
(22:05):
that's that's not good to be killed the mascot, right, Well,
it's gonna get the bear Sunday. Let's fast forward to
little football. Well, I'll say this, here's what I'd be
like about week one and then when you have a
lot of new faces, what's what's the Steelers do? And
then then you've got guys who have changed in vital
positions at the quarterback position. Listen, there's not even the
(22:28):
coaches really know what what they're gonna see um come Sunday.
I'm sure they have an idea of what they expect
to see. But let's back up the preseason. The preseason
is an evaluation aspect, and there's teams, some teams that
have to evaluate a lot more than other teams. So
let's let's look at the Buffalo Bills. There's that teams
(22:49):
pretty pretty put together. The same guys are there. They've
got a few additions, but for the most part there
who they are. Coaches are don't have to worry about that. Now,
if you look to the Steelers on offense and defense,
especially offense, you gotta you gotta look at Coaches are
always are evaluating in preseason. That's why preseason it looks
so bad. Um, it doesn't look big, there's any continuity.
(23:11):
It's kind of speraty. You know, you don't play the
entire game, so you know, sixty snaps is a lot
different than six teams. Um. But the coaches are looking
at what players can do. Well. I'll give you the
best example. Bill Coward came in this first year, which
I don't know if we scored a puss down. I'm
sure we did, but I just don't remember scoring one. Um,
I didn't know if we were going to ever score one.
(23:33):
When we were I mean we were very w we
were all over the place. We were not very good.
Were there was no consistency of anything. And then we
went into game plan on Wednesday, and it was interesting
how they had compiled the entire preseason and narrowed it
down to a game plan. Then the really remember Ron
talking about here, listen, we did a lot of things.
This is what we do well, and so during preseason
(23:55):
that's what they were doing. They were trying all these
different things, and then you filter out, well, everybody did well,
and we're gonna go on that, and we're gonna take
that into the arena when we go to Houston, and
we end up going into Houston and beating he was
supposed to be the best team and in the NFL
and especially the DFC. So I can't really present it
will be in the fascinating game on on Sunday. Um,
(24:19):
how you predict stuff from preseason, It's very hard, But
I can tell you this. They're off with the wine issues.
I know it's been a highlight, but their last game
they played pretty well. With the five that they started.
They played pretty well, you know, and if they could
play like that consistently for sixty snaps, I mean, that's
the key, you know, then they're gonna have a chance
(24:40):
because they got guys around them, obviously in the perimeter
aspect that can make play running, running the ball and
throwing the post, I mean and catching it. So, um,
I think you might be a little more surprised than
you know. Preseasons just can can fool a lot of people.
And but then Sincinnati's you know, they're a good football team.
They got you know, they're not going to be worse,
(25:02):
so it's not an easy game for him. But um,
it will be an interesting week one that is more
interesting than it's probably been in eighteen years. However, long
seven was under center, lets you know, took over the range,
there was a lot of a lot more consistency there
than than they've had in the past. So, um, it
(25:25):
would be fun. I think it might be the most
intriguing week one you've had in almost twenty in two decades. Yeah,
may I agree with you with the O line on
the last preseason game. I mean, it's started to look
like a cohesive unit. Um, I don't get the low
hanging fruit though out of the way, what are your
what's your take on, Mr Robiski? What are you expecting
from him? You know, how's he fit in this Canada offense?
(25:46):
All the above? Well, um, now listen when Mitch, I think,
you gotta go back and you gotta understand who Mit is,
what his strengths weaknesses are. Okay, Now, coming out of
North Carolina, this was his two biggest issues. He was
not a very good quick decision maker. He's very erratic,
not a very good consistent decision maker, not a consistent
(26:08):
passer either, And he struggled in critical situations, that third
down scoring territory. It's the exact same thing that happened
to him in Chicago. And you know the rand him
out of Chicago is that he struggled being consistent on
critical bounds and making good decisions and making consistent throws,
(26:28):
exactly how he was in North Carolina. Okay, that we'll
see if he's corrected that. Now in preseason, I didn't
see it, you know. Um, I'll give you the Jacksonville
game for example. Probably remember the two scrambles he had. Okay,
those are two throws two times that he should not
have scrambled here's the corner smash option. You should have
(26:48):
just thrown the smash right away. You're in an early down,
get the completion. But he scrambled through them filled and
it was incomplete. The next one in to a pick,
and that ball should have gone. Now when you're offered
you line struggles you, everybody's like, well, we got a
guy that can run. That's not what you want. That's
not going to help your office. Line that caught us
is gonna hurt your office. This line is gonna make
(27:10):
it worse if you've got a guy who's willing to
run versus still the football. I think the same game Jacksonville,
Um picket picket through one of the best passes actually
of the game. I can't to the tight end. I
can't remember who what tlidend it was, but it's about
twenty yard completion Green Yeah, yeah, it was frans Um
(27:32):
Kendrick Green got really beat do That play was highlighted
because he got beat so bad and and hit um pickt.
But what was lost in all of that is pick
it completed it and he pick its decision making even
in college, and he's a very good quick decision maker,
and he illustrated that in preseason. I mean the ball
comes out, I mean you might got to go down
the field, but oftentimes the defense is saying, we're taking
(27:54):
that away from you. Um full the checkdown. Like, here's
why Tom Grady's the great time. Brady is the greatest
in the history of the game, even today in twenty
one years. If you're gonna sit there and play coverage
to him and trying to throw a flat, pull a
check down, he's gonna do it. He's gonna do it.
And that's what drives more quarterbacks out of our league.
(28:16):
That makes um that drive them to the bench is
they don't take they don't execute the play, they don't
take the check down, they don't take the flat, and
they don't do it in a decisive manner. When you
have an officer bland and struggle, that's what you need.
You don't need a guy who's running. Listen, those other
guys can run to. All of them are good enough
athletes to run around. Robinsky is not some magical gifted runner.
(28:38):
You can just run. Pick a can too, Mason, Rudolph
can to. All of them are on about equally. The
athletic ability to move is equal that's not what you need.
You need somebody who's a quick, decisive decision maker and
it's gonna get the ball out. And he struggled. He
was like that in college, you know, by studying them college,
I thought he was. Um, it really concerned me, It
(29:02):
really concerned me. Had one of the worst bowl games
I've ever seen in the history of college football. Um,
he misses guys that were wide open um shoot Delonean's
last games he ever played in Chicago, Minnesota. I mean
it was one of the worst games I've ever seen
in the scoring territory by a quarterback. So you know, listening,
but now a guy, now that will be and said,
(29:22):
and that's the evidence. Okay, that's I'm not making that up.
That is the stone cold evidence of how he has played.
They didn't run him out of Chicago because he plays
good football. There's a reason he left Chicago. That being said,
he hasn't played for a year. He has sat there
and there's something to that at times that can help
a player no matter what his position is. UM. And
(29:43):
in this game, you know, hopefully, you know he'll be
able to do those things because that's what that's what
the offense needs. It doesn't need a guy who can run.
You know, that is so overblown and so much And
nobody's ever runned themselves to the championship. Give me one
team that's ever had the quarterbacks to be so dynamic
there himself to a Super Bowl. Michael Vick can't do it,
or Mark Jackson can't do it. It ain't happening. You're good. Eventually,
(30:06):
whatever you did with your legs, you got to convert
to your arm at some point. So it'll be interesting
to see how he plays. I'm interested to see how
he plays. I'm hoping he plays well. I'm I mean,
I'm a favorite that is playing well. I want him
to do better um and play well there. But that
has been his He's really as big as issues. He's
He gets stuck on people um and I mean stuck
(30:26):
in decisions and then instead of throwing it, he'll run,
and that hurts your offense. It doesn't help your offense.
You know, fans will see it as oh, he's running
that oftentimes he shouldn't be running. That ball should have
come out, And that's really what you need, if you
if he could be a more decisive decision maker and
then in creticbal downs. I mean, he is, he has moments,
(30:50):
but he's just not been ever consistent. You know, from
college to the NFL, he has not been consistent in
critical moments. So that'll be his test. If he can
get better critical moments, scoring territory, being quick and decisive
with the ball. You got a shot, you know, and
if he plays like that, he will um. You know,
it'll aid to the offense and the entire team. Meryl's
(31:11):
this is gonna be a pop quiz or like the
S A T. Mike Tomlin has said that Trabiski will
not have a short leaves. Tomlin doesn't believe in that
he's been voted an offensive captain, neither voted, or he
was made one by the coaches because they wanted to
be one. You know, I don't get to count the ballance.
I don't know how that process works. But do you
think he should be looking over his shoulder at Kenny
(31:33):
Pickett or do you think he's got least at half
a season to see how this thing plays out? You know,
that's that's a that's a hard question. I mean, listen,
if the guys playing terrible and he's got one killing
ten I don't care what you said in the process.
You can't keep you can't keep him out there, and
I don't expect that to happen. But I don't think
he ever going to a you know, a season and
(31:55):
you know, say, if you guys didn't play well in
the first half of him, we're gonna yank you. You
gotta give him some time. And he can't always pin
it on him too, you know. Yeah, you know, I'll
just mention a lot about Mitchell Drabinsky. I mean, listen,
that doesn't mean now his line is not going to
break down and he's gonna have to, you know, make
a play. And he when he can make plays, you know,
when things do break down. But you know, here's what
(32:17):
we don't know. You don't know what those meetings are like.
And I've been on both sides of the of the desk.
They're a coach and a player, um, and media is
never in those meetings. So I am sure that's already
been established. Of what kind of trust I have in you.
This is what I oh take my quarterback. Even though
I've made mistakes. I pulled him into list I'm ade
(32:38):
a mistake, um, and that will never happen again. But
if listen, I'm the head coach, and I've told Mitchell first,
you gotta work. I told the media that I've already
talked to him about that. I've already talked him about that.
He knows exactly where I stand, and I'm gonna stay
true to true to that unless there are circumstances that
we can't fordict right now end up happening, and then
(33:00):
you gotta do the work best of the team in
those scenarios. But now all that being said, you didn't
draft pick it to sit on the sideline. At the
end of the day, he's going to be your starter.
At some point, He's going to be your starter, you know,
now is it? Does it get a full year? I'm
sure that's the plan I would. I'm sure they'd like
to see the risky play well enough that they that
(33:22):
they don't. They don't put him out there. They let him,
you know, mature for a year and and sit there
and learn some things from the sideline to help him
once he does start. But I will tell you this,
take it as one of those guys I'm saying. When
I was watching him in college, I didn't know what
to expect. But when I put the tape on that guy,
he did so many things that you just don't see
(33:42):
college quarterbacks. Dude, like how he manages to drive, how
he got points out of out of situations like in
college they don't really you don't really see that. They
have to be taught at and he did that. You
know how he actually keeps the play. I'm telling you,
I I go back to Tom Brady, Joe Montana, all
the great ones act he plays, they do it to play,
tells him do they make plays and can they may plays? Yes,
(34:04):
and he's done that too. But um, I'm hoping that
Rabinsky can play well because if he plays well, then
the team has a good shot. He doesn't play well,
then they're gonna then they have no shot. So where
are you at on this Borough character from the Bengals? Well, listen,
obviously he was one of the best quarterbacks I've ever
(34:24):
seen him coming out of college. I mean, just not tall.
The best part was the l s U when they
started LSU Comes Again National Championship game when they rattled
his boat. I mean they came out and listen, you
got a whole month, you know, see, like this is
what week ones about two. Everybody's been preparing this for
six six seven months, Josly, this isn't like a week preparation.
Months have been prepared for these opening day games. Okay,
(34:47):
even in training camp they rattled Burrow. I mean they
had him, I mean shell shot, and how he composed
himself and sells himself down, and the way he made
throws and executed in that a championship game, aside from
all the other things he had already shown, really showed
me that he had something special. You know that he does.
(35:08):
He can play in certain circumstances. He's m I love
his accuracy. And he's a good quick decision maker too.
You talk about I think there's three things to translate
from pology the NFL. You have to have. If you
don't have, it's an arduous journey. You've got to be
a good quick decision maker. I don't care what your
system is. If you have to process them, that's even better,
which Pickett did have, so you can tell he knows
(35:30):
how to make decisions. So you gotta be accurate. You
have to be accurate in all aspects of the game.
And then you have to have instincts and a pocket presence.
Like if you don't have those two things and you
can't play in a dirty pocket, you just can't play
in the NFL consistently. You know, half throws are from
(35:50):
a dirty pocket, you know. So he could do all
those things. Pickett did all all of those things. But
Burrow is he's a special cat. You know, Um, I
love being coming out of college and and he's allus
straightening now that you know they have some personnel around
him that you know, make them you're gonna be dangerous
for there was all this stay together for several years,
(36:11):
you know, and if their offensive line has approved like
I think they hope it is, you can't really tell, Like,
you know, you know, the Steelers didn't played much better
than their last one, but and the Bengals had their
issues too, so they don't know they have question marks
there too. You know that might listening then today, it's
probably gonna come down to that, which obviously line it
played better and plays better. It could come down to that.
(36:34):
They're not going to be on the highlight reel because
it's a peace and playmaker. But that could be what
this game comes down to us. However, these offensive lines
that are in question mark play maryl. It is great
to be back. If you can get a Bengal with
a bow before Sunday, maybe they'll put the If we're gonna,
if we're gonna select one and I guess it's the
(36:55):
bb Burrow with the bow. Oh, he can't play the Steelers.
Great catching up again, Meryl will do it next week. Absolutely,
Steve Baby Meryl Hodge first of his weekly appearances with us.
Here on the Preview, you can get her up with
the latest sideline apparel, hats or jerseys of your favorite players,
(37:18):
Authentic memorabilia, custom items, and exclusives you can only find
directly from the team at one of the official Steelers
pro shops located at Acker Sure Stadium, Grove City, Premium Mountlets,
or Tanger Outlets. You can also visit online at shop
dot Steelers dot com. One more segment to go, Mike
pursued a with Matt Williamson. This is Steelers Preview on
(37:38):
your Steelers Flagship one or two point five d V.
Back to the Steelers Preview Show presented by Univet on
d V. Welcome back to the Preview. Mike pursued up
Matt Williamson with you until eight tonight, The Greater Pittsburgh
Community Food Bank reminds you to sack hunger this season,
(37:59):
get food volunt year, or donate at Pittsburgh Food Bank
dot org. Matt Uh just a few minutes to go
here before we wrapped things up for the first edition
this season, and I wanted to get to this before
we got out of here. I think one of the
compelling developments we started talking about how did the Bengals
beat in their records in a regular season. We're almost identical.
(38:20):
One guy has changed sides in this UH divisional war.
Larry Ogan Jobi was I think an underrated component of
the Bengals defense last year, particularly providing push up the middle.
He had seven or seven and a half sacks. I
can't remember exactly what it was. He consistently generated pressure
(38:41):
up the middle, and I think that really set the
table for Hubbard and hendrickson the edge guys, because the
quarterback didn't have anywhere to step up. Now, all of
a sudden, Larry Ogan Joebi lands in Pittsburgh, which had
profound issues stopping the run last year. He should help there.
And now it's gonna be t J. Watt, who doesn't
seem to need by Shelton and Alex Highsmith, the beneficiaries
(39:04):
if Ogan Job generates the same kind of up the
middle pressure. I think this guy is a key figure
for both of these teams. I think they were incredibly
fortunate that Ogan Job he was available when he was
fortunately fortunate. Right. He's a difference maker. He's not a
trade turner, fill in guy late in the process, who's fine.
He's a difference maker that they got at a good price.
(39:27):
You know, he's the only pizza off that Bengals defense.
It's really different. I mean, they're running back the same crew.
Throw Dax Hill in the mix. Ogan Job he's gone,
but he's gonna be missed for them, and I think
he's a huge benefactor, or the Steelers are a huge
benefactor as a pass rusher, as just an interior presence
as you mentioned. And take a little off Cam's plate,
you know, make warmly your fourth now instead of your two.
(39:49):
You know, I mean all that stuff works out great.
You kind of let me where I wanted to go there,
dropping the tax Hill reference the fan first round draft
pick out of Michigan, and uh, I didn't watch the
Bengals in the preseason I'm told he had a fantastic preseason,
and to me, this guy's the wild card. You mentioned
same defense from the Super Bowl. Yeah, I didn't like
(40:10):
the one at the corner. So Eli Apple or Shodobi
a Wooz. I think they're fine. Yeah, they're They're not great.
I don't think von Bell is a cover guy, and
he's four ft tall, so if you can't throw over him,
Bates is great. But uh, what do they do with
Dax Hill? How quickly did they get him involved? How
versatile pieces he? This is a guy he said he
(40:31):
was a safety with cornerback, cover skills and safety hitting
ability speed. Uh. The Steelers have no idea how they're
gonna use them, because I haven't played their starters. Uh,
They're gonna have some wrinkles with Dax Hill. I mean,
I'll be honest. I hesitate to say this because I'm
very impressed with Pickett, but when the Steelers are on
the clock of twenty and I was doing live radio,
I said I'd take Dax Hill. You know that I
(40:51):
love the guy. Remember you loved him a little too much.
I thought at the time, Well, considering where it's all
the water, you may be a little prejuice. Anyhow, I
think a really key interest component of this game is
Claypool in the slot against Mike Kilton. We all like
Mike Kilton, but he's a little fellow. Yeah, Dax Hill
can be a slot and maybe he's man coverage on Friarmouth.
(41:13):
Maybe he's banging Claypool around out of the slot. Maybe
he's deep half with with Bates. I mean, that's the
thing I love about. You can really hold up against
the run as long as it's not enough, as long
as it's not Kenneth Walker, the third who doesn't play
for the Steelers, so that won't be a problem for
Hill this time. You can play near the line of scrimmage,
you know, as a slot, as a blitzer, phenomenal athlete.
(41:34):
I think he's a real difference maker for them too.
And kind of like the Oga Job thing. I'm shocked
the lasted that laid into the thirty first pick and
then my last wild card kind of a similar um
situation with the Steelers. Uh, Damonte CAZy was looking like
he had carved a rollout for himself and that was
in turn going to free up make of Fitzpatrick. They
(41:56):
could spend have a little more fun with make of
Fitzpatrick rather than just keep them back in deep center field, right.
I mean, well, it is a great center fielder, impact players,
deep center fielder, but a guy who can run all
over the place and blitz some and and go attack
the football. Do they still have the depth in the secondary.
It scares me now to take the shackles off and
(42:16):
making Fitzpatrick and let him have to be now, let
him roam. Yeah, would think Cab can't do deep middle.
You don't want Edmunds doing deep middle, you know, so
it would have to be Norwood. I'd be a lot
more comfortable with CAZy. I thought that was a great
signing as well. That you know, in the example I've
been using all offseason is you get said CAZy and
deep middle, and when you play the Ravens maker, you
(42:37):
got Andrews, you know, or you have Kelsey you know.
It kind of like we've talked about with Dax Hill,
big slots, lits, play the you know, all the stuff
he did Obama. I think they'll probably put that on
the back barner a little until I think he's back.
I think they will too. It's something something to keep
keeping the back of your mind. Uh, not much time left,
but we got a ball game tonight, the Bills at
(42:58):
the Rams. Yeah, I'm so sorry. The defending champs are
two and a half point dogs at home. Who do
you like? I think the Rams winning And we talked
about we didn't bring up Levi Wallace, but he is
not a Bill anymore. Their best corner of white is out,
so they're gonna play three corners that are vastly inexperienced. Um.
I think Aaron Donald just recks things tonight. I think
(43:20):
it would be a really good game, super Bowl champ
versus the favorite to win it this year. But I
always feel for the road team walking down these opening
night Thursday nights. I mean, that's a buzz all you're
walking into. Yeah. It used to be they would schedule
it as more of a coronation than a competitive game.
Lately they've changed that. Tonight, Uh boy, it doesn't get
(43:40):
any better than this to kick things off. That's gonna
do it for us. Thanks to our producer tonight, Jacob Reck,
who's putting his UH Indiana University skills. It's a great
use behind the glass. Thanks to Meryl for joining us,
and thanks to you for finding us. Steelers previview on
DV is brought to you by a Univert. The only
(44:01):
thing better than the Steelers win is the Steelers win
that pays double down on your team. With Univet, proud
partner of the Pittsburgh Steels. We'll talk to you again
next week after Cincinnati, when the Steelers are getting ready
to play the New England Patriots in the two home opener.
Until then, for Matt Williamson on Mike Pursuit of thanks
(44:23):
for finding us whenever and however you found us. This
has been Steelers Preview right here on your Steelers flagship
one or two point five d V. Goodnight, everybody,
This is the Steelers Preview show on w d V Pittsburgh,
presented by Unibet. The only thing better than a Steelers
win is the Steelers win that pays double down on
your team. With Unibet, proud partner of the Pittsburgh Steelers,
here are your hosts, Mike Pursuita, Matt Williamson, and Meryl Hodge.
Good evening and welcome to another year of Steelers Preview.
(00:21):
Mike Pursuita and Matt Williamson with you tonight until eight o'clock.
If you're familiar with our show, you know that will
also be joined by Meryl Hodge. Midway through. Meryl will
catch us up on what he thinks are the critical
elements of the upcoming game and hopefully give us uh
and regale us with hunting stories and I'm sure we'll
get a little something a little extracurricular activity there snippets
(00:43):
of his also exciting life. Uh. We're here, among other things,
to tell you what to expect and what do you
What to expect is brought to you by Brian Patton
and associates. It's all about the benefits. Let's kick things
off taking a look at today's practice participation. Nothing major brewing,
(01:04):
or so it appears. Deante Johnson UH limited again for
a second consecutive day. First day with shouldering and cramps
the issue today, so the shoulder seemingly better. Marcus Allen
upgraded from limited to full participation. He's dealing with a hamstring.
Chuck a core for the right tackle shows up on
the Steelers participation report as having not practiced back. Hopefully
(01:29):
nothing brewing there and Cam Hayward coaches decision he got
the veterans stay off for the Bengals. Their number four
tight end Devon as ASSIUH quad didn't practice for the
second day in a row, their number three tight end
Mitchell Wilcox ankle limited for a second day in a row,
and their number two tight end Drew Sample knee full
participation for the second consecutive day. They still got Hayden
(01:53):
Herst ready to rock and UH wide receiver Trent Taylor
hamstring limited today. Uh, you're talking wide receivers with the
Bengals and you're not talking about Jamaar, Chase, Tee Higgins
or Tyler Boyd. It doesn't those three are on the
field almost every snap. They live in eleven personnel with
three receivers on the field, you can see why they
(02:14):
got three really good ones. If Boyds, you're three, you're
doing just fine. But I wanted to, uh start We've
both done a lot of analyzing and speculating and theorizing
throughout training camp on the various forms of media, but
I wanted to start tonight with a look back at
the two games last year. I had to remind myself
(02:35):
the Bengals finished ten and seven last season. Yeah, it
wasn't as great as everyone thought. You know, they didn't
just blow take the league by storm. The Steelers finished
nine seven and one, so they were a half game
worse than the Bengals. And yet when those two teams
got on the same field twice, it was no contest,
no contest, especially the second one, I mean, which was
just a total blowout. Um, how do you account Yeah, yeah,
(02:58):
I mean both teams or four and two in the division.
You know, they both swept some other teams, but got
swept by you know, the Bengals obviously the Steelers here. Um,
I don't know if it's just a bad matchup or
what to really make of it, because you would think
the Steelers pass rush, especially against last year's Bengals would
give them big problems, you know. I mean they're more
(03:20):
of a pass first team. They borrow gets hit more
than any quarterback in the league. And I don't think
that defense is special. But she wasn't play well. I
don't have a great feel for that in terms of
Bengals are just a bad matchup for the Steelers, but
they were clearly the better team. I think they're a
bad matchup when they run for almost two hundred yards,
which they did in the second game, and they ran
it effectively in the first game. Steelers had well documented
(03:43):
stop the run issues all year last year, well most
of the year, and turnovers were problem against Cincinnati. But
I'm looking at the two teams now. They both made
the changes that every NFL team makes over the course
of an offseason. But uh, you know, I don't see
the this is a matchup in which the Steelers have
to trick them or scheme them, or don't get lucky. Uh,
(04:05):
they gotta play better, play better. You stop the run,
gotta be capable. Yeah, I mean, you gotta make some
more big plays. Um. I think a lot of it,
especially that second game and mixings numbers against Steelers were tremendous.
You know, as you mentioned, we're outside zone, outside zone,
outside zone, and you're just getting six eight four, you know,
time and time again. I think they made it too
(04:26):
easy on the Bengals. I'd be shocked if that's how
this one goes. Though. It's also interesting to me that
the Bengals had a bad offensive line last year. That
that's not my opinion, that's their opinion, because they changed
four fists of it and they still made it to
the super Bowl. The Steelers have an offensive line right
now that I think, uh, in my eyes, at least,
it's not where I thought it would be. It's it's
(04:48):
been a disappointment, maybe the disappointment of training camp. It's
definitely the weakest area preseason. Yeah, I think that's safe
to say. I mean, I'm sure we'll talk steel quarterbacks,
but I'm much more from both a quarterback room than
I am the line room me too, And I think
that has the potential. Not that they have necessarily a
future franchise Hall of Famer on their hands at least
(05:09):
not yet, but I think quarterbacks at least that their concerns, uh,
the line is the most of their concerns. How did.
It's by far the biggest concern. How did the Bengals
work around it last year and how can the Steelers
do that this year? Well, think about where the Bengals
were three sixty five days ago. I mean they had
just drafted Jamaar Chase with the third pick in the draft.
(05:30):
The year before that, they had the first pick in
the draft, and you know, the narrative around the team
was this Chase guy can't catch an NFL football drops
and he can't see there's a lot of lines on
at the white lines like in college. Burrow was coming
off a massive injury at this point too, I mean
his knee was he was questionable for Week one. You know,
he was coming off a huge knee injury. So the
(05:53):
first half of the year they did a nice job of,
I don't say protecting Burrow, but making life a little easier.
They ran the ball more, and then down the stretch,
this is what's a little fearful because you look at
their last eight games or so, including the playoffs. They
played four playoff games. Burrow was on fire, and they
threw the ball an awful lot in extremely high percentage
(06:16):
of the time. Um with a bad line I mean
their line. I thought last the last year Bengals line
was worse than this Steeler's line or last year's Steeler
line in my opinion. I mean, it was as bad
as you see in the league, and Burrows partially to
blame for that. No one ever blames the quarterback for sacks.
But I think sacks is as much a quarterback stat
as it is o line, and they were right to
(06:36):
change their old line as drastically as they did. But
Burrow pulls the ball a little long too, you know,
I mean, I think the Steelers can still get to
him to On Sunday, Bengals were five and four after
nine games last an average team. They went into there
by having lost to the Jets and the Browns, and
(06:57):
then they came out of that with a big win
at Vegas, and they stop the Steelers in Cincinnati to
complete the sweep, celebrated that by losing to the Chargers
and losing to the Forts. Then won three of their
last four and uh, you know, the rest is not
quite history. But they made it all the way to
the Super Bowl and damn near won the thing. But
(07:17):
they beat Vegas in the first round of the playoffs.
Second round Tennessee nint win despite giving up hundred three sacks. Right,
I thought they got lucky in that game, and then
beat the Chiefs in overtime in Kansas City. I thought
they got lucky in that game. Not that hey, full marks,
they won the games. They did what they had to do.
(07:37):
But if there's a juggernaut in Cincinnati, I'm I'm not noticing.
I'm not I'm not seeing it. Yeah, the same thing.
I mean, I thought the a f C was was
rather weak. You know, when Tennessee's your number one seed,
um they won. If it's not from McPherson, their kicker
in the playoffs, they don't advance. You know, I didn't
think Burrow even played tremendously great in the playoffs. As
(08:00):
a whole, the old line was a huge problem. Like
I'm not taking any away from the Bengals. I mean,
they deserve to go to the super Bowl, and they
are a legit team. They're better than the Steelers, but
they had a lot of things go their way last year.
The schedule they played wasn't bad, you know, it was
actually quite on the easy side. They were remarkably healthy
on both sides of the ball, so kind of everything
(08:21):
fell into place for them, and you mentioned just does
for a lot of teams. That's how I mean, that's
how it Isn't all sports, I'm sure, but um, you
know you mentioned they were five and four at one point.
The narrative around them then was, wow, this is pretty
good succeeds pretty good season for a middling terrible team.
The picks in the top five every year. You know
that we were the people were happy with them at
five and four, and that's when they started to explode.
(08:42):
Just shows how the league changes so fast. You know,
one thing they had going for him, And a couple
of chats about this with Larry ogan job the defensive
lineman from the Steelers who was with the Bengals last year,
and he said they had a togetherness about them and
a belief and how could it not be. He he
cultivates it, He inspires it. You watch him do what
(09:04):
he does and you think, yeah, why can't we win
with this guy? But I don't really trust the coaching staff,
but I think he's the coach and all the all
the above. You know, Ogan Joby gave a lot of
credit to their sticking together and he said they were
second half team particularly in the second half of the season,
and their approach because what they win four games the
year before, something off. He said, all they tried to
(09:27):
do that old cliche go want to know this week?
You know, they didn't get together and say, hey, we're
gonna make the playoffs this year, we're gonna be over
five you know, some benchmark that they would be pointing
out to say we've turned it around. They just played
the games and whatever was necessary that week. And it's
the NFL that can happen. You can go a long
way doing that stuff, no doubt. And I I think
(09:47):
that organization, mostly because of our ow, has a really
different identity and is much harder to play against. And
I agree with that. They're not a jug Ornaut, but
they're here to stay. I mean as long as they
got that I and they can keep them healthy and
they surround them with weapons. Yeah, they were the first
team to have a four thousand yard pass or a
(10:09):
thousand yard rusher and two thousand yard receivers who were
all under the age of That's interesting. And this doesn't
matter for this week or this year. It's one day.
You gotta pay them all, you know what I mean?
Like this is their window to do all that, to
go outside the organization and build an offensive line, which folks,
the Steelers could do this offseason two. You know. I
(10:30):
mean they're now in that shoe, those shoes as well.
The years before that, they spent a lot of money
on defense, and most of their defensive starters are not homegrown. There.
They've got a lot of those guys and free agency
the last two years, as with the offensive line, and
they drafted their skill dudes on offense and they're in
good shape. Um. I also think, and you know Labs
talks about this a lot. It's a lot different being
(10:53):
editor of Steelers and Steelers dot Com and part of
our regular pregame show team on the Steelers Radio network, Yes,
and friend of ours. Um, it's a lot different being
the hunted in the hunter in my opinion too, you know,
like the Labs have mentioned many times, let's see how
these teams do when they have four night games and
they get home at three in the morning. And you know,
there's something we said for that too. When he buy that.
(11:14):
Although I don't think Burrow's gonna care, I don't think
he's care one, but I fear him for a decade. Yeah,
is he cocky or yep? But right, but he's good
enough to get it done. So no problemismatic, cocky leader,
I mean, whatever you want to say. And he's good,
he's and he's smart. He made a comment last week
(11:35):
and he just said it so matter of factly. He
was doing a ten or eleven minutes session with the
media and Cincinnati and you know they're versatility on offense.
Came up and Burrow said, if you want to play
too high safety, we'll run the ball. Yeah, if you
want to play man to man, good luck. See what's funny?
He said, good luck? Good luck. Yeah. It was like,
(11:56):
there's no way you've covered us man to man. Yeah,
i'my even bring this up with may All because it
became so obvious when you look back at the Bengal season.
This applies this week. When he saw a single high
safety instead of too high or a high degree of man,
he's just going deep the chase. Yeah, I mean I've
used this example. It's like when I was with Pitt
(12:16):
and we got down to the goal line, we could
put up on the on the scoreboard. Hey, we're throwing
a fade to Larry. I mean that's how it was.
It's like, if you're gonna play those coverages, I'm throwing
bombs all day long to Chase and we'll see see
what you can do about it. Because they're special players.
If I take a couple of hits in the process,
I don't really care, you know. So those are the
type of things you're right about. Then you're even seeing
(12:37):
this like with Mahomes and Josh Allen. They don't want
to check it down and check it down and run it,
you know. I mean, they're they're reeling themselves in where
Burrow I think will Nickel and dime, you know, or
take the shot over the top or handed to mix
in time and time again and be just content to
slit your throat any which way you want. It's interesting
you bring up the attack single coverage thing because we've
(12:57):
seen some of that from Mitch Robiski as well as
the season, and he's talked about the trust he has
in the Steelers receivers. Now, their group is not as
accomplished as Chase Higgins and Boyd, but boy Deante Johnson
is pretty good and Chase Claypool has still a high ceiling.
(13:18):
George Pickens uh Friar mos was included when they see
the single outside or the single down to seam, they're
gonna take that shot. And it occurred to me watching
h I think it was the last preseason game. You
can get a shotgun and see that catch a shotgun
snap and throw the ball immediately, and if you throw
(13:38):
it high enough and with enough lab on it, you
know it shouldn't be a protection thing. You can get
it out. You'll be able to get that. Most longer
passes take longer to develop, but that one you can
just throw and let the guy run under it. Uh.
The only thing stopping that is execution, right, is Chase
Claypool gonna go up and fall backwards and not catching
or is he gonna actually go up like a big
(13:58):
boy receiver, get his hands out in front of him
and pull it in. Yeah. I mean there's a lot
of examples. Tom Brady is the best. I mean, Brady
was like almost right there with Ben in terms of
time to get the ball out of his hands. But
he threw for a gazillion yards through the most passes
in the league. They weren't all short. I mean, just
because the ball doesn't just because it all comes out
quick doesn't mean, you can't put it down the field
(14:20):
as long as you anticipate it. Like you said, you
put it where they're gonna be. The old Gretzky thing,
you know, put it where the puck is gonna be.
I mean he put the ball where they're gonna be,
and the they go get it. I mean that's very possible. Reference. Yeah,
hold school, Let's talk about that Bengals offensive line a
little bit because we mentioned it is is fourth, fifth, new,
and most of these guys are veterans, Ted Carress, Alex Cappa,
(14:43):
Leo Collins. Uh. They did draft a rookie out of
the was it North Dakota State or South Dakoaston He's
gonna be the left guard, Cordell Volson, fourth rounder and
the only carryover is left tackle Jonah Williams. Interesting the
way the Bengals approached the preseason. They did play their guys. See,
I think that might haunt them. None of these guys
(15:03):
they've practiced together, but they have not been in a
game yet together. And four fits of this group is new.
It has to be a factor at least early in
the opener, right, I think it has to be. I mean,
the whole offense didn't practice or didn't play at all
in the preseason, And I get that because he was
competing for a job and Jackson Carman we're fighting for
the left guard. I think. I think he was only
(15:25):
started on the other side of the ball, played exactly.
And I get not playing Burrow, especially if you're coming
off an appendeck to me. Of course you're not gonna play.
I'm work Chase, okay, but I would have played that
front five quite a bit. I mean, just because they're
all new together and Bolson is the weak link. I
assume he's the unknown of the group. By the way.
Carriss is related to Mango, by the way, which is
(15:45):
nice to know. Um, Jonah Williams is the only car
he is. I think he's like a great nephew or
or something. He's he's in the in the lineage. He's
way up in my book. He gotta like that. Yeah, Um,
but I don't know if this line is great. He's
pawned in the game of life. Upon in the game.
I think the line is better. But people act like
(16:06):
they just signed John Hannah and Mono's, you know, like
they're fine. It's an average line now, I mean, it's
the NFL is an offensive line starved league. Absolutely, So
if you can get average, you go shopping for three
offensive lineman from what are the chances you got the
three best guys? Of course they're not available. They're not available.
Look what the Steelers were not got James Daniels, and
(16:29):
I think his place since he got here has dampened
some enthusiasm. I was super high on him, and we'll see.
I mean, I thought the last preseason game is his
best performance, but it's still I thought he'd clearly be
their best lineman right now and isn't yet. You know,
we'll see um. But I don't think this is offensive
line all of a sudden, Is this impenetrable force or anything.
It's fine, it's better, it doesn't stink anymore. It's now average.
(16:52):
And I mean the Steelers would kill for an average
offensive line. I mean, so that's what you have to
pay for in this league. But it's the Steelers with
their front seven the way it is now, with the
particularly Larry Ogan jovir Um, there's still a huge advantage
of front. They got a chance to win that, right,
Oh yeah, exploit that. I think Collins the right tackles
their best guy, but what's better? I mean, of course,
(17:14):
and I would assume that sample was their blocking tight end.
He'll probably spend a lot of time on the right,
which allows Highsmith one on ones against Jonah. And people
look at Jonah because he was a tenth or eleventh
pick in the draft, like he's a star, and he
did go to Alabama and he went to Bama and
you know he's a pedigree guy and all that, but
he gave up like a ten to twelve sacks last year.
I mean, he was part of the problem as well. Well,
(17:35):
he wasn't shutting people down. And the other guys are
all average ish interior starters. They can they can handle
Mongo inside. They got a shot here exactly. And I'm
putting Cam Hayward over Bolson all day long or a
good job either way. But I'm putting somebody head up
on that left guard all day long. So the starting
point with all this, you know, Burrow and Chase and
(17:56):
what's your bisky gonna be like? And it's now as
you're gonna get rolling in front with the starting point
to this matchup is can the Steelers defensive line mess
things up for the Bengals offensive line and dictates, and
it's so similar to last year's you know game against
the Bills. I think they were six and a half
point dogs. Similar the Bills didn't play anyone in the preseason.
The Steelers prepped and prepped for through all kinds of
(18:18):
pressures and twists and stunts and blitzes, and Bills didn't
pick it up particularly well. So I think it's a
good time to play the Bengals in an offensive line
that really hasn't played together. I've got a lot more
to get to tonight. We are just getting started, so
keep it here till eight o'clock. When we come back.
We will be joined by the third member of our team,
(18:38):
Merril Hodge. Steelers Preview on DV is brought to you
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Preview right here on your Steelers Flagship one or two
point five d V. Back to the Steelers Preview show
(19:02):
presented by Uni Bet on DV. Welcome back, Mike Pursuita
and Matt Williamson with you tonight until eight o'clock here
on our inaugural Steelers preview for the two season. No
more pregame shows for preseason games, no more postgame shows
for preseason games. It counts and that's why we turned
(19:24):
to the big gun the center on our first line
of Steelers coverage. Merrill Hodge, you guy who needs no introduction,
but I'm gonna offer one anyway, And tonight, Meryl, it's
gonna be this. There's an old saying, sometimes you get
the bear, and sometimes the bear gets you before you
get the Steelers Bengals tell us about the former, Well,
(19:48):
I'll actually get everybody's procesing of footage of a bear
coming up a tree at some point, rather coming after
somebody or just coming up the tree. Well, I was
in a situation where I've been Candida hunt and let
me back up. I'm just gonna rewind this a little
bit before I get to that point. In the wild,
it is usually predominantly the big the bigger, the batter winds.
(20:12):
That's how the wild is. I didn't I never knew
that the crazy actually exists in the wild. Now there
was a bear that was actually nuts. Okay, he was
the smallest bear I've ever seen. He was. He was
hovering around the bait and he would scare every bear
that came in that was twice his side. I mean,
(20:35):
he was scaring monster bear away that I was like,
this is not happening. I mean the bear was so
crazy and so nuts that all of them appeared to
be scared. Well, one of the bears actually started to
come up my tree and I was filming it, like
I said, like, I sent the foot footage too, and
then I started. Then I realize that, wait a minute,
(20:55):
I got a problem. This bear comes up here. I mean, yeah,
I can't predict what's gonna happen there, I go. So
what I ended up happening to do? The problem It
wasn't the bear coming up the tree because I couldn't
really shoot at that bear based on howard thing was
set up and all I had was a boat. I
didn't bring my gun. I had to. I didn't want
to kill the bear because the bear was just a raggedy,
(21:18):
nasty looking he was just ugly bear. But I had to.
I had to. I had to take the bear. I
didn't want so that he would quit chasing the bear
that was coming up my tree. So I once I
did that, he got on the tree and left and
everybody's arrived. But it was our hunt i've ever been on. Well, yeah,
(21:39):
you're right. One one bear didn't survive, but he I
really risky would have because I did not want that bear,
and he was he's actually even ugly. I mean he
was an ugly bear. I mean he looked like he'd
been in like a laundry mat and you know it
didn't finish clean. He never seen a bear like that.
Was ugly bear I've ever seen in my life. Are
you now the longer invited back to Chicago Bears reunions? Yeah? Yeah, probably, Yeah,
(22:05):
that's that's not good to be killed the mascot, right, Well,
it's gonna get the bear Sunday. Let's fast forward to
little football. Well, I'll say this, here's what I'd be
like about week one and then when you have a
lot of new faces, what's what's the Steelers do? And
then then you've got guys who have changed in vital
positions at the quarterback position. Listen, there's not even the
(22:28):
coaches really know what what they're gonna see um come Sunday.
I'm sure they have an idea of what they expect
to see. But let's back up the preseason. The preseason
is an evaluation aspect, and there's teams, some teams that
have to evaluate a lot more than other teams. So
let's let's look at the Buffalo Bills. There's that teams
(22:49):
pretty pretty put together. The same guys are there. They've
got a few additions, but for the most part there
who they are. Coaches are don't have to worry about that. Now,
if you look to the Steelers on offense and defense,
especially offense, you gotta you gotta look at Coaches are
always are evaluating in preseason. That's why preseason it looks
so bad. Um, it doesn't look big, there's any continuity.
(23:11):
It's kind of speraty. You know, you don't play the
entire game, so you know, sixty snaps is a lot
different than six teams. Um. But the coaches are looking
at what players can do. Well. I'll give you the
best example. Bill Coward came in this first year, which
I don't know if we scored a puss down. I'm
sure we did, but I just don't remember scoring one. Um,
I didn't know if we were going to ever score one.
(23:33):
When we were I mean we were very w we
were all over the place. We were not very good.
Were there was no consistency of anything. And then we
went into game plan on Wednesday, and it was interesting
how they had compiled the entire preseason and narrowed it
down to a game plan. Then the really remember Ron
talking about here, listen, we did a lot of things.
This is what we do well, and so during preseason
(23:55):
that's what they were doing. They were trying all these
different things, and then you filter out, well, everybody did well,
and we're gonna go on that, and we're gonna take
that into the arena when we go to Houston, and
we end up going into Houston and beating he was
supposed to be the best team and in the NFL
and especially the DFC. So I can't really present it
will be in the fascinating game on on Sunday. Um,
(24:19):
how you predict stuff from preseason, It's very hard, But
I can tell you this. They're off with the wine issues.
I know it's been a highlight, but their last game
they played pretty well. With the five that they started.
They played pretty well, you know, and if they could
play like that consistently for sixty snaps, I mean, that's
the key, you know, then they're gonna have a chance
(24:40):
because they got guys around them, obviously in the perimeter
aspect that can make play running, running the ball and
throwing the post, I mean and catching it. So, um,
I think you might be a little more surprised than
you know. Preseasons just can can fool a lot of people.
And but then Sincinnati's you know, they're a good football team.
They got you know, they're not going to be worse,
(25:02):
so it's not an easy game for him. But um,
it will be an interesting week one that is more
interesting than it's probably been in eighteen years. However, long
seven was under center, lets you know, took over the range,
there was a lot of a lot more consistency there
than than they've had in the past. So, um, it
(25:25):
would be fun. I think it might be the most
intriguing week one you've had in almost twenty in two decades. Yeah,
may I agree with you with the O line on
the last preseason game. I mean, it's started to look
like a cohesive unit. Um, I don't get the low
hanging fruit though out of the way, what are your
what's your take on, Mr Robiski? What are you expecting
from him? You know, how's he fit in this Canada offense?
(25:46):
All the above? Well, um, now listen when Mitch, I think,
you gotta go back and you gotta understand who Mit is,
what his strengths weaknesses are. Okay, Now, coming out of
North Carolina, this was his two biggest issues. He was
not a very good quick decision maker. He's very erratic,
not a very good consistent decision maker, not a consistent
(26:08):
passer either, And he struggled in critical situations, that third
down scoring territory. It's the exact same thing that happened
to him in Chicago. And you know the rand him
out of Chicago is that he struggled being consistent on
critical bounds and making good decisions and making consistent throws,
(26:28):
exactly how he was in North Carolina. Okay, that we'll
see if he's corrected that. Now in preseason, I didn't
see it, you know. Um, I'll give you the Jacksonville
game for example. Probably remember the two scrambles he had. Okay,
those are two throws two times that he should not
have scrambled here's the corner smash option. You should have
(26:48):
just thrown the smash right away. You're in an early down,
get the completion. But he scrambled through them filled and
it was incomplete. The next one in to a pick,
and that ball should have gone. Now when you're offered
you line struggles you, everybody's like, well, we got a
guy that can run. That's not what you want. That's
not going to help your office. Line that caught us
is gonna hurt your office. This line is gonna make
(27:10):
it worse if you've got a guy who's willing to
run versus still the football. I think the same game Jacksonville,
Um picket picket through one of the best passes actually
of the game. I can't to the tight end. I
can't remember who what tlidend it was, but it's about
twenty yard completion Green Yeah, yeah, it was frans Um
(27:32):
Kendrick Green got really beat do That play was highlighted
because he got beat so bad and and hit um pickt.
But what was lost in all of that is pick
it completed it and he pick its decision making even
in college, and he's a very good quick decision maker,
and he illustrated that in preseason. I mean the ball
comes out, I mean you might got to go down
the field, but oftentimes the defense is saying, we're taking
(27:54):
that away from you. Um full the checkdown. Like, here's
why Tom Grady's the great time. Brady is the greatest
in the history of the game, even today in twenty
one years. If you're gonna sit there and play coverage
to him and trying to throw a flat, pull a
check down, he's gonna do it. He's gonna do it.
And that's what drives more quarterbacks out of our league.
(28:16):
That makes um that drive them to the bench is
they don't take they don't execute the play, they don't
take the check down, they don't take the flat, and
they don't do it in a decisive manner. When you
have an officer bland and struggle, that's what you need.
You don't need a guy who's running. Listen, those other
guys can run to. All of them are good enough
athletes to run around. Robinsky is not some magical gifted runner.
(28:38):
You can just run. Pick a can too, Mason, Rudolph
can to. All of them are on about equally. The
athletic ability to move is equal that's not what you need.
You need somebody who's a quick, decisive decision maker and
it's gonna get the ball out. And he struggled. He
was like that in college, you know, by studying them college,
I thought he was. Um, it really concerned me, It
(29:02):
really concerned me. Had one of the worst bowl games
I've ever seen in the history of college football. Um,
he misses guys that were wide open um shoot Delonean's
last games he ever played in Chicago, Minnesota. I mean
it was one of the worst games I've ever seen
in the scoring territory by a quarterback. So you know, listening,
but now a guy, now that will be and said,
(29:22):
and that's the evidence. Okay, that's I'm not making that up.
That is the stone cold evidence of how he has played.
They didn't run him out of Chicago because he plays
good football. There's a reason he left Chicago. That being said,
he hasn't played for a year. He has sat there
and there's something to that at times that can help
a player no matter what his position is. UM. And
(29:43):
in this game, you know, hopefully, you know he'll be
able to do those things because that's what that's what
the offense needs. It doesn't need a guy who can run.
You know, that is so overblown and so much And
nobody's ever runned themselves to the championship. Give me one
team that's ever had the quarterbacks to be so dynamic
there himself to a Super Bowl. Michael Vick can't do it,
or Mark Jackson can't do it. It ain't happening. You're good. Eventually,
(30:06):
whatever you did with your legs, you got to convert
to your arm at some point. So it'll be interesting
to see how he plays. I'm interested to see how
he plays. I'm hoping he plays well. I'm I mean,
I'm a favorite that is playing well. I want him
to do better um and play well there. But that
has been his He's really as big as issues. He's
He gets stuck on people um and I mean stuck
(30:26):
in decisions and then instead of throwing it, he'll run,
and that hurts your offense. It doesn't help your offense.
You know, fans will see it as oh, he's running
that oftentimes he shouldn't be running. That ball should have
come out, And that's really what you need, if you
if he could be a more decisive decision maker and
then in creticbal downs. I mean, he is, he has moments,
(30:50):
but he's just not been ever consistent. You know, from
college to the NFL, he has not been consistent in
critical moments. So that'll be his test. If he can
get better critical moments, scoring territory, being quick and decisive
with the ball. You got a shot, you know, and
if he plays like that, he will um. You know,
it'll aid to the offense and the entire team. Meryl's
(31:11):
this is gonna be a pop quiz or like the
S A T. Mike Tomlin has said that Trabiski will
not have a short leaves. Tomlin doesn't believe in that
he's been voted an offensive captain, neither voted, or he
was made one by the coaches because they wanted to
be one. You know, I don't get to count the ballance.
I don't know how that process works. But do you
think he should be looking over his shoulder at Kenny
(31:33):
Pickett or do you think he's got least at half
a season to see how this thing plays out? You know,
that's that's a that's a hard question. I mean, listen,
if the guys playing terrible and he's got one killing
ten I don't care what you said in the process.
You can't keep you can't keep him out there, and
I don't expect that to happen. But I don't think
he ever going to a you know, a season and
(31:55):
you know, say, if you guys didn't play well in
the first half of him, we're gonna yank you. You
gotta give him some time. And he can't always pin
it on him too, you know. Yeah, you know, I'll
just mention a lot about Mitchell Drabinsky. I mean, listen,
that doesn't mean now his line is not going to
break down and he's gonna have to, you know, make
a play. And he when he can make plays, you know,
when things do break down. But you know, here's what
(32:17):
we don't know. You don't know what those meetings are like.
And I've been on both sides of the of the desk.
They're a coach and a player, um, and media is
never in those meetings. So I am sure that's already
been established. Of what kind of trust I have in you.
This is what I oh take my quarterback. Even though
I've made mistakes. I pulled him into list I'm ade
(32:38):
a mistake, um, and that will never happen again. But
if listen, I'm the head coach, and I've told Mitchell first,
you gotta work. I told the media that I've already
talked to him about that. I've already talked him about that.
He knows exactly where I stand, and I'm gonna stay
true to true to that unless there are circumstances that
we can't fordict right now end up happening, and then
(33:00):
you gotta do the work best of the team in
those scenarios. But now all that being said, you didn't
draft pick it to sit on the sideline. At the
end of the day, he's going to be your starter.
At some point, He's going to be your starter, you know,
now is it? Does it get a full year? I'm
sure that's the plan I would. I'm sure they'd like
to see the risky play well enough that they that
(33:22):
they don't. They don't put him out there. They let him,
you know, mature for a year and and sit there
and learn some things from the sideline to help him
once he does start. But I will tell you this,
take it as one of those guys I'm saying. When
I was watching him in college, I didn't know what
to expect. But when I put the tape on that guy,
he did so many things that you just don't see
(33:42):
college quarterbacks. Dude, like how he manages to drive, how
he got points out of out of situations like in
college they don't really you don't really see that. They
have to be taught at and he did that. You
know how he actually keeps the play. I'm telling you,
I I go back to Tom Brady, Joe Montana, all
the great ones act he plays, they do it to play,
tells him do they make plays and can they may plays? Yes,
(34:04):
and he's done that too. But um, I'm hoping that
Rabinsky can play well because if he plays well, then
the team has a good shot. He doesn't play well,
then they're gonna then they have no shot. So where
are you at on this Borough character from the Bengals? Well, listen,
obviously he was one of the best quarterbacks I've ever
(34:24):
seen him coming out of college. I mean, just not tall.
The best part was the l s U when they
started LSU Comes Again National Championship game when they rattled
his boat. I mean they came out and listen, you
got a whole month, you know, see, like this is
what week ones about two. Everybody's been preparing this for
six six seven months, Josly, this isn't like a week preparation.
Months have been prepared for these opening day games. Okay,
(34:47):
even in training camp they rattled Burrow. I mean they
had him, I mean shell shot, and how he composed
himself and sells himself down, and the way he made
throws and executed in that a championship game, aside from
all the other things he had already shown, really showed
me that he had something special. You know that he does.
(35:08):
He can play in certain circumstances. He's m I love
his accuracy. And he's a good quick decision maker too.
You talk about I think there's three things to translate
from pology the NFL. You have to have. If you
don't have, it's an arduous journey. You've got to be
a good quick decision maker. I don't care what your
system is. If you have to process them, that's even better,
which Pickett did have, so you can tell he knows
(35:30):
how to make decisions. So you gotta be accurate. You
have to be accurate in all aspects of the game.
And then you have to have instincts and a pocket presence.
Like if you don't have those two things and you
can't play in a dirty pocket, you just can't play
in the NFL consistently. You know, half throws are from
(35:50):
a dirty pocket, you know. So he could do all
those things. Pickett did all all of those things. But
Burrow is he's a special cat. You know, Um, I
love being coming out of college and and he's allus
straightening now that you know they have some personnel around
him that you know, make them you're gonna be dangerous
for there was all this stay together for several years,
(36:11):
you know, and if their offensive line has approved like
I think they hope it is, you can't really tell, Like,
you know, you know, the Steelers didn't played much better
than their last one, but and the Bengals had their
issues too, so they don't know they have question marks
there too. You know that might listening then today, it's
probably gonna come down to that, which obviously line it
played better and plays better. It could come down to that.
(36:34):
They're not going to be on the highlight reel because
it's a peace and playmaker. But that could be what
this game comes down to us. However, these offensive lines
that are in question mark play maryl. It is great
to be back. If you can get a Bengal with
a bow before Sunday, maybe they'll put the If we're gonna,
if we're gonna select one and I guess it's the
(36:55):
bb Burrow with the bow. Oh, he can't play the Steelers.
Great catching up again, Meryl will do it next week. Absolutely,
Steve Baby Meryl Hodge first of his weekly appearances with us.
Here on the Preview, you can get her up with
the latest sideline apparel, hats or jerseys of your favorite players,
(37:18):
Authentic memorabilia, custom items, and exclusives you can only find
directly from the team at one of the official Steelers
pro shops located at Acker Sure Stadium, Grove City, Premium Mountlets,
or Tanger Outlets. You can also visit online at shop
dot Steelers dot com. One more segment to go, Mike
pursued a with Matt Williamson. This is Steelers Preview on
(37:38):
your Steelers Flagship one or two point five d V.
Back to the Steelers Preview Show presented by Univet on
d V. Welcome back to the Preview. Mike pursued up
Matt Williamson with you until eight tonight, The Greater Pittsburgh
Community Food Bank reminds you to sack hunger this season,
(37:59):
get food volunt year, or donate at Pittsburgh Food Bank
dot org. Matt Uh just a few minutes to go
here before we wrapped things up for the first edition
this season, and I wanted to get to this before
we got out of here. I think one of the
compelling developments we started talking about how did the Bengals
beat in their records in a regular season. We're almost identical.
(38:20):
One guy has changed sides in this UH divisional war.
Larry Ogan Jobi was I think an underrated component of
the Bengals defense last year, particularly providing push up the middle.
He had seven or seven and a half sacks. I
can't remember exactly what it was. He consistently generated pressure
(38:41):
up the middle, and I think that really set the
table for Hubbard and hendrickson the edge guys, because the
quarterback didn't have anywhere to step up. Now, all of
a sudden, Larry Ogan Joebi lands in Pittsburgh, which had
profound issues stopping the run last year. He should help there.
And now it's gonna be t J. Watt, who doesn't
seem to need by Shelton and Alex Highsmith, the beneficiaries
(39:04):
if Ogan Job generates the same kind of up the
middle pressure. I think this guy is a key figure
for both of these teams. I think they were incredibly
fortunate that Ogan Job he was available when he was
fortunately fortunate. Right. He's a difference maker. He's not a
trade turner, fill in guy late in the process, who's fine.
He's a difference maker that they got at a good price.
(39:27):
You know, he's the only pizza off that Bengals defense.
It's really different. I mean, they're running back the same crew.
Throw Dax Hill in the mix. Ogan Job he's gone,
but he's gonna be missed for them, and I think
he's a huge benefactor, or the Steelers are a huge
benefactor as a pass rusher, as just an interior presence
as you mentioned. And take a little off Cam's plate,
you know, make warmly your fourth now instead of your two.
(39:49):
You know, I mean all that stuff works out great.
You kind of let me where I wanted to go there,
dropping the tax Hill reference the fan first round draft
pick out of Michigan, and uh, I didn't watch the
Bengals in the preseason I'm told he had a fantastic preseason,
and to me, this guy's the wild card. You mentioned
same defense from the Super Bowl. Yeah, I didn't like
(40:10):
the one at the corner. So Eli Apple or Shodobi
a Wooz. I think they're fine. Yeah, they're They're not great.
I don't think von Bell is a cover guy, and
he's four ft tall, so if you can't throw over him,
Bates is great. But uh, what do they do with
Dax Hill? How quickly did they get him involved? How
versatile pieces he? This is a guy he said he
(40:31):
was a safety with cornerback, cover skills and safety hitting
ability speed. Uh. The Steelers have no idea how they're
gonna use them, because I haven't played their starters. Uh,
They're gonna have some wrinkles with Dax Hill. I mean,
I'll be honest. I hesitate to say this because I'm
very impressed with Pickett, but when the Steelers are on
the clock of twenty and I was doing live radio,
I said I'd take Dax Hill. You know that I
(40:51):
love the guy. Remember you loved him a little too much.
I thought at the time, Well, considering where it's all
the water, you may be a little prejuice. Anyhow, I
think a really key interest component of this game is
Claypool in the slot against Mike Kilton. We all like
Mike Kilton, but he's a little fellow. Yeah, Dax Hill
can be a slot and maybe he's man coverage on Friarmouth.
(41:13):
Maybe he's banging Claypool around out of the slot. Maybe
he's deep half with with Bates. I mean, that's the
thing I love about. You can really hold up against
the run as long as it's not enough, as long
as it's not Kenneth Walker, the third who doesn't play
for the Steelers, so that won't be a problem for
Hill this time. You can play near the line of scrimmage,
you know, as a slot, as a blitzer, phenomenal athlete.
(41:34):
I think he's a real difference maker for them too.
And kind of like the Oga Job thing. I'm shocked
the lasted that laid into the thirty first pick and
then my last wild card kind of a similar um
situation with the Steelers. Uh, Damonte CAZy was looking like
he had carved a rollout for himself and that was
in turn going to free up make of Fitzpatrick. They
(41:56):
could spend have a little more fun with make of
Fitzpatrick rather than just keep them back in deep center field, right.
I mean, well, it is a great center fielder, impact players,
deep center fielder, but a guy who can run all
over the place and blitz some and and go attack
the football. Do they still have the depth in the secondary.
It scares me now to take the shackles off and
(42:16):
making Fitzpatrick and let him have to be now, let
him roam. Yeah, would think Cab can't do deep middle.
You don't want Edmunds doing deep middle, you know, so
it would have to be Norwood. I'd be a lot
more comfortable with CAZy. I thought that was a great
signing as well. That you know, in the example I've
been using all offseason is you get said CAZy and
deep middle, and when you play the Ravens maker, you
(42:37):
got Andrews, you know, or you have Kelsey you know.
It kind of like we've talked about with Dax Hill,
big slots, lits, play the you know, all the stuff
he did Obama. I think they'll probably put that on
the back barner a little until I think he's back.
I think they will too. It's something something to keep
keeping the back of your mind. Uh, not much time left,
but we got a ball game tonight, the Bills at
(42:58):
the Rams. Yeah, I'm so sorry. The defending champs are
two and a half point dogs at home. Who do
you like? I think the Rams winning And we talked
about we didn't bring up Levi Wallace, but he is
not a Bill anymore. Their best corner of white is out,
so they're gonna play three corners that are vastly inexperienced. Um.
I think Aaron Donald just recks things tonight. I think
(43:20):
it would be a really good game, super Bowl champ
versus the favorite to win it this year. But I
always feel for the road team walking down these opening
night Thursday nights. I mean, that's a buzz all you're
walking into. Yeah. It used to be they would schedule
it as more of a coronation than a competitive game.
Lately they've changed that. Tonight, Uh boy, it doesn't get
(43:40):
any better than this to kick things off. That's gonna
do it for us. Thanks to our producer tonight, Jacob Reck,
who's putting his UH Indiana University skills. It's a great
use behind the glass. Thanks to Meryl for joining us,
and thanks to you for finding us. Steelers previview on
DV is brought to you by a Univert. The only
(44:01):
thing better than the Steelers win is the Steelers win
that pays double down on your team. With Univet, proud
partner of the Pittsburgh Steels. We'll talk to you again
next week after Cincinnati, when the Steelers are getting ready
to play the New England Patriots in the two home opener.
Until then, for Matt Williamson on Mike Pursuit of thanks
(44:23):
for finding us whenever and however you found us. This
has been Steelers Preview right here on your Steelers flagship
one or two point five d V. Goodnight, everybody,
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