Week 8 at Philadelphia

Mike Prisuta and Matt Williamson break down the Steelers and Eagles matchup. This week, the duo is joined by Merill Hoge for the entire show!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the Steelers Preview show on w d v
E 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 anything, and welcome to another Thursday
night edition of Steelers Preview. I am Mike Pursuita along

(00:22):
with Matt Williamson, and we are joined tonight, not for
one segment, not for two segments, but for three segments,
and not on the phone, live and in studio here
in Bridgeville, Pennsylvania. Meryl Hodge joining the set of Steelers Preview.
I haven't been in a studio in twenty some years?

(00:43):
Are these studios? And well, they've been, these studios been,
It's going to be in a studio with YouTube started
in a DV studio. Everything everything started in a DV
studio and it continues. Tonight, we are breaking down the
upcoming UH Steelers Eagles game in Philadelphia on Sunday. What
to Expect is brought to you by Brian Patton. And associates.

(01:04):
It's all about the benefits, guys. I expect a tough
day for the visiting team. I'm pretty impressed with this
undefeated Philadelphia Eagles group American. Can you talk me out
of it? Well? No, um, but I'll explain why I
can't talk. I get a call today from Ron Jaworski. Okay,
So I used to do the matchup right right, because
I just you may not know. I grew up out

(01:24):
there at Pittsburgh fan stuck in Philadelphia by accident of
b and I used to hate Ron Wars. I mean,
if you ever met you would love him, John Yea
and Harold car Michael because they were so so good.
I learned a thing or two from that matchup show
with you guys being on it. I never missed an episode.
So he calls me. He goes, hey, you're trying to

(01:45):
avoid me. And I'm like, I'm like, oh, I miss
a car Did you try to call me? He goes no,
he goes, you guys are coming into town. I was like, oh, Johns,
I said, listening it was the matchup show. In the
twenty one years I was there, I never missed a
day other than I when I have an open our
surgery section and say that miss two weeks. Um I said,
I might call in sick because I don't think I
could have a I have a defense mechanism to fight

(02:06):
off what you and Sal would be doing. I do.
I might. I might tell great coach, head, listen, you
might just want to do this with a two man
team this week and leave me out of this one.
Because they are they're they're an excellent football team, which
I know we're going to get to and why they're
so good and why um but you know, just like
both of us said, for hang up, listen, it is
the National Football League, you know, Um, Now, what do

(02:28):
I think the stealers ultimately would need is didn't need
some some favorable turnovers? You know that that can shift
a game with the where they where they both stand
right now. So you're saying there's a chance because Philippie
has turned it over twice in the league and turnover
differential double the second opponents. But other than that, yeah,
that's probably the best in the NFL, isn't it. That's

(02:51):
pretty good seconds plus six so it's not even close.
They do a lot of they do a lot of
great things. Um, I don't even know where we want
to start. I mean, their offense is um I said this, like,
here's the here's a good thing. The Steelers played a
very similar offense last week against Miami where they do
a lot of misdirection r p O stuff. Um, they

(03:13):
paralyzed the box with misdirection, and they actually have seen
that accident. You got to paralyze the box. And he
loves the paralyzed box series. So anyway, now the Philadelphi
Eagles do that at another another level. Their quarterbacks the
best rp O guy in the NFL. And when I

(03:34):
say the best RPO guy, you know that guy has
to make such precise quick decisions with it rather I
hand it off and then when I don't hand off,
do I throw it? And where do I throw it?
And that's what makes him so good. I mean, and
they give him a lot of different options. They create
a lot of wrinkles, you know. The probably the best
example is a lot better the Miamies do. No, Okay,
the quarterbacks better, the running backs better, the lines better,

(03:56):
receivers are better. I think sivers are better. Oh yes,
at least, oh the Miami's oh so much better, I'll
argue with that, Okay, now you're gonna think about speed,
you think about every level of football. From short interview,
they got big guys, they got fast guys. I'm not
saying they're not great, but I think Tyreek Hill is
not just speed. I think he's tough. I think he
goes over the middle. But you look at I would

(04:19):
pick him first if it was a pickup game. I
picked Tyreek Hill first. Let pick J. J. Brown second.
The Goddard factors big, though, Well, it's a tight end
when I when I look at their group, the way
they attacked the field, the different levels and phases to
their passing games, much better Miami's as a group, they're
better than Miami as a group. Now you're talking about

(04:40):
picking individuals as a group, and what they do is
a lot more complicated than what the Steelers saw last week,
and how they go about throwing the football. That's that's
ultimately what I'm getting to hunch and Jalen Hurt has
improved drastically. There's only one to improved more from last year.
Think anybody. There's only one area that he struggles in.

(05:03):
But it's very hard to get him where you can
create dirty pockets for him meaning and that usually takes
some more long yard situations which they're seldom in, and
they do a good job of trying to keep him
out of even that. Yeah, he doesn't get um when
it when it collapses around him. He's good at peeling
out when one guy comes in, but when the whole

(05:23):
thing constricts, he sort of gets drop, drops his head
and he just starts looking for an out. And that's
not how you have to that. You can't play in
this league like that. But they don't. You get so
hard to get him in that situation that you don't
really see it as a as an issue. Now world
will be an issue is a really good football teams,
you know, teams that match up with them. Well, we
don't have a lot of those in the NFC that

(05:45):
more in a f C. The one thing he is
seeing more of, not to interrupt you, is the first
couple of weeks, barely any blitz against Hurts, terrified of
his legs. Defensive coordinators now are ramping up the blitz
a little more every week, and he's not handling it great.
I mean, it's a small shink in the armor, but
it's kind of like we were saying, about the pocket.
It's started with the Cardinals. Yeah, you know the Cardinals
got you know, that's what happens in this league is

(06:07):
you know, you show you know, that's why um people
say it's a copy copycat league. I mean what you
when you see people have flaws and another team had
success in attacking those flaws, well, you try to try
to emulate those build pressures, you know, unless they can handle.
That's why you know, when you get to week ten, people,

(06:27):
you know, wherever you stand statistic that is statistically, that
is not the way you look at a team. You
got to look at their last four weeks because that
tells you if they're getting better or worse. You know,
sometimes you play so bad, yeah for weeks up to
week six, so you do have a four games segment
for your prep. When always when it gets to that
point when we when we are our pre a our

(06:49):
our game plan, it was always the last four weeks
and then they would show us where they stand statistically,
but how they really play right now. Because le's listen,
if you had six bad weeks and then all of
a sudden, for four weeks you start getting better, those
four weeks aren't going to change the six weeks and
so overall you don't look like even prove. But if
you look at the four weeks, you're like, holy cow,
they're not that bad. Yeah, there's a whole lot of

(07:10):
things can change that. So um, but this team, they're
running games really diverse too. I'm gonna tell you this.
There their offensive line is about his wicked of a
group that there is in the game. You know, they
got to kid forget his name on the kid from
Alabama two years ago. He boost me out that he

(07:32):
may have been he may have been the most exciting
player to watch that getting ready for the draft. And
that's hard to very said. I don't know, I think
I've ever said that about offensive. He was a fun
guy to watch. I mean, these are the terms. You know.
LIS's why I like watching tape because I can't come
up with these terms. It's just when you see it,
just then things come out. But he would literally dig

(07:54):
people out. You know, he didn't block anybody. He'd dig
him out and move them. It looks like a back hole.
I mean, I mean he would just erase him. He
take him out of the hole. You know, he wouldn't
like creatd He's like he dig him up out of
the hole and move him like everybody. Yeah, yeah, they're
getting healthier up front to the Uh, the left tackle,

(08:14):
I think the question yeah, the practice stuff from today.
Lane Johnson, the right tackle, has been trying to get
out of concussion protocol since they played the Cowboys a
week ago last Sunday. He was a full participant today.
Isaac Cumalo the right guard, full participant with an ankle.
Dickerson got banged up in the Dallas game, but he's

(08:36):
not even on the the injury reports, so they're they're
looking pretty good. Steelers could be worse. The revolving dort
cornerback continues to Kello Witherspoon. Uh. Second day of full participation.
Levi Wallace second day, did not practice. Uh. Montrevius Adams
back to full duty, as was Steven Sims. He talked
to him after practice day. He thinks he's gonna be

(08:56):
the return guy again, and he really gave him a spark.
UH against Tampa. Pat Friarmouth full participant. No Larry Ogan
job today. Knee. I don't know if that's just maintenance
or that's a new issue, but I guess we'll find
out tomorrow because usually even the veteran guy's practice on Friday's.
The Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank reminds you to sack hunter,

(09:18):
get food, volunteer or donated Pittsburgh Food Bank dot org.
And Matt, I wanted to get to you on the
Eagles defense. I know Meryl loves their offense as we
all do. But as much as I trust everything he
just said. When I was watching my Eagles games that
that I studied, what jumped out to me was Fletcher Cox,
Jordan Davis, and Javon Hargrave across the middle of the

(09:40):
defense and then to stand up edge guys, a five
man front that looked like a real pain in the neck.
I think their defensive tackle room is the best in
the league. And a name that doesn't get mentioned because
he's is Williams. He was a third round pick last year.
He's super athletic. They just bring in the rotation. You know,
we were just talking about their receiving corps, and their
receiving corp kind of reminds me of a basketball team.

(10:01):
Goddard's the center, you know, a J. Browns, your power forward,
Davante Smiths and guard. They're all different shapes and sizes. Well,
their defensive tackles in the same way. You know, Williams
and Jordan Davis don't look anything alike. Fletcher Cox is
your prototypical three technique. Hard Grave was a nose here.
So they have a real, real wide variety of d tackles.
And now they just throw another defensive end in the

(10:22):
mix too by trying for Quinn. Yeah, which no, correctly
If I'm wrong, he could get a few rush to
passer snap sunday, couldn't he. Of course, women on third down,
and there's not all You got him. You got Brandon Graham,
you got Josh Sweat, you got his son, Reddick, who's
an outside linebacker who moves up and brushes the pass.
The depth they got eight deep across the front. They

(10:44):
apparently they want that front to lead to defense wherever
they're going. That's how that whole orrization has been built
from the beginning. You know, he mentioned the trenches on offense.
Nobody values big people more than the Eagles, and maybe
Andy White will bring some of that with him here. Well,
I will tell you this that that is where everything
starts anyway, you know, Um, it doesn't matter what, it

(11:06):
doesn't matter what team we talked about, you nobody had.
Nobody who's won the championship had a bad offensive line
or bad defensive line. I can't think of one team
that you could say. One of the Steelers when they
packed the Cardinals. Trey Essex will want to fight me
on this, and maybe Max Stark's, but their offensive line
was not good. You might have a little bit of

(11:28):
an argument there. You might have just a little bit. Now,
that was Ben to me, Ben Roethlisberger his first five
or six years was superman. Even though that winning with
that line was I did not see that coming. In fact,
I picked the Cardinals in that game. Yeah, you had
it nailed until the last drive almost one you know

(11:50):
what they call, almost went in marynads. But you know us,
we didn't mention since we're a saluting Philadelphia and this
monster Rawst that they have built. They've got great quarterbacks too,
Darius Slay and James Bradberry are in your face physical.
The safeties are good. A lot of press man, single

(12:13):
high and what are you gonna do about it? Yeah,
and we didn't mention. Really the safeties are linebackers. They're
not really household names, but they're playing really well. I mean,
the defense is built on d Lineman, as we mentioned,
and now they finally went in all in on corners
and that's paying off. But those guys in the middlefield
aren't too shabby either. Edwards adults are sound. You've got
some You've got some buzz saws in the middle. Even

(12:33):
though you may not know the names. They they're not
weak links, they're not weakly. They're talking about the fifty
seven t J Edwards and forty three Kaiser White speed
to um good range. So what do you do, man,
it doesn't seem to be a weakness to attack well. Well,

(12:54):
the last thing you can do is just because they've
they've played well and they are good, you surrender, you know,
and say we can't do a or can't can't do
be that that. That's always a major mistake. You have
to come in in a stab of especially being on
the road and being where they are at some point
with their way their offense functions. You have to find
a way to control the tempo of this game. You're

(13:14):
not gonna do that by throwing it forty five times
with the rookie quarterback. Okay, you're not gonna do that.
You have to find ways to chip away at their
running the football. You just there's just no other way
to stay in the game. If you can't do that,
you're just gonna get exposed too many times offensively and
therefore put your defense out there and give them just
too many opportunities. Yeah, that was that was my suspicion.

(13:36):
And watching the Dallas game. Dallas fell away behind twenty
to nothing, I think, but didn't abandon the run, and
eventually they kind of cracked it in the second half
and they got They didn't win again, came close, but
they got it back to You can never surrender. You
have to be able to stay in the game with that.
But comparing what Dallas has on the old line and

(13:56):
running back to what the Steelers have an old line
and running back in the Steeler be as successful if
they are as persistent against that front. I'll take the
two runners. I mean, Dallas has two very good runners,
but the Steelers do too. They got two good rounds.
They just haven't been consistent enough in the trenches with
those those five guys. You know, to give them what

(14:16):
they need. You know, these two will compliment you. You
give them some movement, you give them a seam or
a crack. They they'll compliment you. They just don't get
that consistently enough. Unfortunately. You know, Dallas has done a
good job, and Dallas has done a good job, but
not just five guys, about seven or eight. I've never
seen a team rotate off as the linea yeah, cute.

(14:36):
They freaking one game was I like, shoot, every time
I looked on I was like, wait a minute, who's
this whole new group? And they played well, so they
debunked that. You know, you gotta play together and you know,
play all the time because these guys, um, we're not
doing that. I mean they're in a different group every
other series and played well. I mean, calling it a
weakness is probably extreme, but if you're looking for chinks,

(14:59):
you know, the two things that I've noticed are you
hurts versa blitz and the numbers show that the Eagles
run defense isn't phenomenal, you know. I mean they've faced
the fewest rushes in the league, but they give up
five yards to carry, you know. I mean, you would
think with Jordan Davis and Cox and those guys, you
wouldn't be the case. And it's not just because teams
abandoned the run. They're not winning by twenty every game.

(15:22):
You know, I'll tell you it's funny. I don't. I
don't know what you thought about him coming out. I didn't.
I was not blown away by Jordan Davis Georgia. I
was not, Okay. I expected somebody who just absolutely destroyed
double teams and never moved it, like he created a
three yard area, square box and said you're not coming here.

(15:45):
And I did not see that. There was a lot
of movement I saw. I saw him play a little high.
I signed moved a lot Georgia, Georgia, and even here,
I mean even the NFL, I see it. You know
this not as consistent a player is. Yet you might
anticipate to your point of why I don't think they
are so dominant, you know, with those two beerd not

(16:07):
Fletcher Cox is an absolute beast. He's a disruptor. Okay,
now he is. I'm not. It's not him, but and
he's played like that. He's played very similar to how
it was injured. They'll have moments where he plays well
and then there'll be plays where he's two or three
yards and pushed inside, which which is not What's not

(16:29):
what you would expect, bro, You would expect him to say,
even you will move me matally maybe once. If you're lucky,
and that's not the case, you can you can move him, well,
you guys, So figure out the double teams and just
run all the way up and down Broad Street and
grab a chefe steak and get on the get on
the plane steak while you do it, brother, I love it.
Steel's Preview on DV is brought to you by UNI.

(16:49):
But the only thing better than Steelers win is the
Steelers win that pays double down with your team. With
UNI bet, proud partner of the Pittsburgh Steels, we are
just getting warmed up. Tonight's keep it here with Matt
Williamson and Meryll Hodge on Mike pursuita. This is Steelers
Preview right here on your Steelers slackship one or two
point five d V and s n R. Back to
the Steelers Preview show presented by Univet on d V.

(17:14):
Welcome back to the preview Mike Pursuit of Matt Williamson
and in studio tonight by popular demand, Meryll Hodge, this
is normally Meryl segment of tonight. We got Meryl for
all three and that means Merril. Among other things, you
get to plays Chat, which is the Steelers predictive and
trivia game, answer questions, make picks, and win prizes. You
can play on your own against Steeler Nation in our

(17:36):
new public group, or create your very own private group
to compete against family and friends. You can play against
Chat exclusively in the Steelers official mobile app. The question
Steelers total points in Philadelphia over under fifteen and a
half low number? Have you seen him play offense? M oh, okay, um,

(18:03):
are you asking this for you want? I mean, you
could be wrong. It's not like anything depends on it.
I'll say over, Matt, I guess I'll go over. I
haven't really given this game of thought to what my
final score is gonna be, but I'm gonna get their
averaging point three. Yeah I knew it was in that neighborhood. Yeah, yeah,
I'm gonna go over. Maybe a garbage sign touchdown. We

(18:25):
just talked about how good the Eagles defense. Yeah, they're
a good football team. Answers under, although I could be
wrong based on what Matt Canada I had to say today,
I sort of buried the lead there. I didn't get
to this in segment number one because it is a
preview show and I wanted to take a deep dive
on the Eagles. But Matt Canada, is it fair to
call him the embattled offensive coordinator? You know there are

(18:47):
thirty one thirty one points per game, thirty in total
offense twenty seven and rushing offense and passing. Matt Canada
said today and I quote, this is going to be
a tremendous offense. And he said they're coming. He said
they can put no, I didn't put a date on it. Uh,
maybe after the draft. Three guys. The example he used

(19:11):
is the kind of stuff that is holding them back.
The second to last drive of the game in Miami,
third and one from the fifteen yard line, three minutes
and change left, they run Miles Boykin inmotional what's gonna
be a quarterback sneak because Canadon said they wanted to
get boy Can across the formation and get him behind
Kenny Pickett and helped push from behind to execute the sneak. Well,

(19:31):
pick It starts the formation before the right side of
the offensive line had completed its quote unquote shift from
a two point stands to a three point stands. I
think was the tackle on the tight end on that side.
They call that motion in the NFL, so that that
meant that boy can had to be stationary for two

(19:52):
seconds before the snap. He was not. The play gets
called back and Cannon I said, you know, Kenny Picketts done.
It's this whole lifestar, guys in motion and then this
one time it fell through the cracks that those little
kind of mistake type of deals are what Canada thinks
are holding these guys back. Uh. I think they got
some really good players, but tremendous at this point where
this deep into the season and I still haven't seen it.

(20:15):
I'm not expecting to see dramatic improvement. Is it's still attainable. Well,
I'm gonna say yes to that. Um. You know, because
those self inflicted wounds, Okay, you know this when you
go and watch tape, you know they're very correctible because
they're self inflicted. Um, there are some things that are
and have been consistently been showing up that at some point. Um,

(20:38):
like you know, this is like college where you can
bench a bunch of guys and you know, change people
if you don't have so many people so you've got
to deal with what the people that you have there.
Their obviously line just has not been able to play
as consistent as you need them to play. In fact,
you know, they're like a lot of offensive lines in football.
You know, you look at the Packers, you look at
Tampa Bay, and everybody's on Brady and Rogers if you

(20:59):
watch them, their offensive lines are a identical action, maybe
worse playing than the Steelers of the right. So you
don't don't think that you're the worst, because because you're not.
It's a league wide problem. Right, But then you know,
but the team you're that, they're playing this Sunday, Okay,
the best, and so what what makes one? Here's what
makes a good offensive line. There's five guys that see

(21:21):
things the same way, and they get their account for people.
They're not only this word is never used enough. They
sustained blocks. Okay. They don't just make a block, They
sustain a block. Okay. So they get on somebody and
they stay with them, given the back time to get
to his point of attack, get him through the whole
or at least initiated shoot. I can't tell how many

(21:42):
times where and then you know, I've seen it more
with nag this year than last year, evenough I saw
a couple of times last year, um and thought I
would see it more last year. Is that you don't
trust anything, and so then you start making up things
when you shouldn't be making up things, and then you're
giving up things when they actually do do their job
because you don't trust it. It's like a cute that's
been hit too much, right, you know, you get you
walk through that door and I hit you with the

(22:03):
two by four. You know once you probably are not
gonna flinch and keep hitting you with a two by four.
You're not probably walk through that door. I mean, that's
that's kind of how a runner is. And quarterbacks that
get hit. So they got to get better up front
as a whole, more consistent. And if they did that,
and then you can run the football. I can tell
you this, everything starts to fall into place. Then you

(22:23):
get better many situations, second and short, third and short.
You're not second and long and third and wrong. That's
tough for your coordinator to call plays against that. And
I'm gonna tell you this, there's in every game he
has dialed up a couple of explosive plays that the
quarterbacks have failed to take a shot at and then
that's that's a fact, and that is the truth. Um

(22:45):
so it's not on your coordinator. And I'm not trying
to say, you know, Matt Canada has the best offensive football,
but you gotta be fair. I mean, he does do
some things and when that happens, quarterback comes to the sideline,
you get on the phone or whatever. Why didn't you
throw it all that? That's too late though, guess they
ain't like college. Here's what they do in college. We're

(23:05):
gonna do it again, and it's gonna be there. That's
what happens. If can were you not going to get
that look again probably or might be a while till
we get that look. Week we created it. We do
these plays to get that shot. And when you don't
take that shot and you don't always guess right to
get the cop was out, actually, Alex, because I'm working
hours all week to get covered to on and they

(23:27):
run some plays that led up to calling that play
that we get the shot like it was who who who?
They played the week before? Okay they did. They did
some double dig move go where they double ends in
and up. Okay, can you did even look at it
like he had. They had a double end go and

(23:50):
both of them random and both of them are wide open.
Claypool is wide open in the middle of the field.
I mean, you could have thrown that ball inerrant one
side or the other still score a touchdown. He got
off of that so quick he didn't even let him materialize.
And I'm like, well, that's just no pressure either too.
You know, the pot was as clean as you could
ask you in in the NFL. And I'm like, that's see,

(24:11):
not only in a meeting, could you say, you know, Kenny,
why did you get off that? I think he's too
quick going from one to two to three. But he's
started to do that. He's he's he's he actually knows
his best game. Buffalo buf Buffalo us so much better.
In Buffalo is going through um, you know, really filtering
through things, um, seeing a lot of stuff, processing it

(24:32):
really quick because they running a lot of man and
a lot of stuff that they were doing. The crossing
route is not an easy thing. That's a lot of
people crossing it doesn't it's hard. It's good for your
receivers and getting open, but it's hard on the quarterback
to decipher who gets open, especially if you're a young guy.
He played much better there. So we'll use that Tampa
Bay one he left. Let that go shoot they had

(24:53):
early in the game. They had really it's called K
four where there's a corner and a flat and it
is a very simple, simple You look for that corner first.
It's the first thing that you look for. If not,
then you come down to the flat. I look at
the corner. Claypool's wide open. I mean push that safety off.
Safety turns and runs and opens up these hips to
the inside. He doesn't open the sideline and Claypool breaks

(25:16):
it to the outside. Kenny has nobody on him on boot.
There's not he didn't even look there. He just gave
it to Fiarmouth in the flat for like an eight
yard game, but you could have had a thirty two
yard game. I mean no, Now you're on their side
of the field on one play. You know that those
make a difference if your quarterback doesn't hit those in
the game. You gotta have explosive plays in the NFL, too.

(25:37):
There's two things. You gotta control the tempo and you've
gotta find ways to get explosive plays. If you can
do that, you get a great chance of winning. I don't.
I can't think of a lot of explosive plays they've
had this year. I can't. I really can't even think
of one, to be honest with you. So they lack that, Um,
they haven't. They're not consistent in controlling the Oh my gosh,

(25:57):
well you're right that that that's what I think. It
makes fans so upset is there, Like, you know, how
come you can't just create these big plays with these
guys that you have on the outside. Yeah, listen when
you look at their person I go back to to
Johns because I mean he you know, he watches the
league too, but he was just talking about what scares him. Okay,

(26:20):
he's you know, he's a Philly guy, so he's with
the Philadelphia Rod Martin. He said that, you know, you're
your perimeter guys. No, Lawrence Taylor probably more than Rod Martins.
The guy kept throwing they listen, don't even don't even
go there. I did that on a show one time.
Don't go there. That's that's the only thing he's sensitive about.
I was the only guy in Philly root for the Raiders,
So that's funny. So he was like you're you're your

(26:43):
perimeter people, you know your skill people, scar us. I
mean they're scary. You know that's true in the league,
that they scare people. But they just haven't found ways.
Um well they haven't. They have found ways to get
them there, they just haven't capitalized on the plays to
get them there. That has been a big talking point
all year here, but especially this week. Are they taking

(27:05):
enough deep shots? And when I saw I'll just stick
with the Miami game because it's the most recent couple
early shots which Canada reference these today. They had Deonte
Johnson single press on the first third down of the game,
Pickett missed him, and then they had Chase Claypool on
the second possession, second time down the seam, he got tripped.
It should have been pass interference, it ended up being

(27:29):
an interception. I thought they got scared off the throwing
deep balls after that. And Kenny Pickett said this week
that uh Miami went to what pick It called bail coverage,
which was Davian Howard. For example, the left corner would
get up in the receiver's face and then start retreating
pret snap right before the snap, trying to time and
so you could create a Cushion and Matt Canada referenced

(27:50):
that today as well, and they're like, well they're doing that.
You can't throw deep like really like back shoulder the
hell out of that. And you know, and the guys
running towards his own goal line just stop and turn around.
Like I didn't buy that as an explanation, but the
quarterback and the coordinator seemed to be on the same
page that that's something that is going to affect how

(28:13):
they play. Well, that's I think when people play bill,
you know, they can do that differently, Like they can
open up their hips to the quarterback to you know,
they can they can bail and turn and and have
a better vision. You know, if you're bailing and you
have your back to the quarterback, you know, that's a
different type of bill. There's different concepts in That's like
I don't think to even answer that, I'd have to

(28:36):
get to sit down and go, Okay, these guys are bailing.
How are they bailing? You know what technique are they use?
And are they opening up their hips and bailing? Where
I got I got access to the receiver and the quarterback.
You gotta buy by week next week, all right, So
we'll do that. But that's it's a good thing to
help because it's it's a little confusing because they do

(28:57):
it differently. You know, when you bail, you don't bail
the same way. There's different techniques that are being used
depending on what before the show and as the first
I heard that, and I'm sitting there thinking to ourselves
when we're chatting about it, Like if the rule in
the Steeler building is if you see bail, don't go deep.
I got a problem with that. You know, if it's

(29:17):
pickings versus five ten corner and just because he did
a bail technique, you're not gonna throw the deep ball.
I think that's insane, But nobody knows that. I you know,
if you get if you get him one on one right,
you probably take that no matter what your scenarios are.
What your scenarios. But now listen, um, there's a reason

(29:40):
that's a case the case fifty for a reason. You know,
percent of the time it doesn't go your way. You
still gotta look at design, you know, and I'll tell
you this, well, the best designed offense in the National
Football League is the Kansas City Chiefs. And when you
watch them, design wise and good offense. And then if
I've always felt like on first and tent, if you're

(30:02):
gonna throw the football in first and ten, one of
the best downs throw it because you get some predicted
coverage is oftentimes in first and ten. That's been my
biggest complaint all week is uns on first and ten. Okay,
help your quarterback. However, give me short, intermediate and vertical options.
Don't just give me five hitches. You just can't do that.

(30:23):
I mean five hitches are there's no options there. You
have to threaten all layers of the field and give yours.
Your quarterback has to make the right call within that,
but at least create those options within your design so
that you get that. So to this point and see
a lot of that, what's I don't know if you
can give me a percentage or is it scheme? Is

(30:46):
it executes it? There's there's three thirds, Okay, there's a third.
There's a third scheme. There's a third execution, and there's
the third Okay. The other guys are pretty good, okay,
and we don't we give those guys credit. We act
like everybody's terrible. So the scheme is not gonna change
dramatically between now and the end of the season. The
scheme is the scheme right, correct, But within those schemes

(31:08):
they have explosive options. They have just not the players.
The players can get better, yes, there's no doubt about that.
And the schedule is going to I mean all respect
to professionals, but you'd rather be playing Carolina and then Philly,
no doubt. So there's a little hope. I've at some
confidence build there just is not the one I'm gonna pick.
So there's a little hope here that that the golfer.
I don't know if it's gonna get tremendous to Canadas

(31:30):
unless use what Philly does very We are talked about
the r p O thing. What makes the RPO so
great is your if your quarterback is really good at
it with handling. Yeah, and keep mind Jalen is much better.
He's and he's got a bigger arm. He can do
a lot more things throwing it. But he is really
smooth and quick and and elusive with is it a handoff?

(31:51):
Is he going to keep it? He does that great.
I mean, Michael Parsons, I think they're meant throwing the
r p O s I say two is not even
close to Ye, I'm just talking about goball execution, Okay,
handling the ball. So Michael Parson, they just left him unblocked,
which is another thing we have to talk about in
an r p O. Okay, actually this plays in this game.

(32:11):
Anybody who leaves like Mark Michael Parson stands there for
almost a second and a half or two seconds. How
in the world do you possibly have your best player go, okay,
just stand there and try to read it. I would
send him and attack an RPO. Take your target point
and attack, and I would tell you this. Everybody that
has done those schemes over the years I've watched have

(32:32):
had more success. You attack it. So anyway, they neutralized
Mark Michael Parsons the entire game. He doesn't know if
it's coming or going hand with a blocker exactly. They
ain't even touching Their quarterback was so good at that. Okay,
so now the Steelers try r p os. But Kenny's
not really good at that. I don't know if you
did a lot of it in pit, but you could

(32:52):
tell you know, like that, he doesn't even the ball
is not even a position of danger. And then against Buffalo,
all they did is run curls off of that. And
keep mind they were running, they're playing man. Well, Curl's
not gonna beat any man coverage. You're just covering yourself.
So they didn't even give you an option to throw.
So but you can learn from from them on how
to build an r P O system. But your quarterback

(33:15):
is the link, the linch pin to that whole deal.
How good he is that that is just not an
easy thing. It is a very difficult thing. Takes a
lot of reps to be good at it. Last thing,
we got about a minute here before we've got to
take a break. You played a lot in the leg.
He played with some guys who'd like to throw the ball.
When I can think of in particular, if they tell
you throw out sideways short and you get to the

(33:35):
line of scriptage and say, you know what, I'm taking
a shot and the shot hits, well, he called time out.
They're gonna patch you on the helmet when you come over,
and they're if you throw a fifty yard ball and
George Pickets catches, it's not gonna say, you know, we
wanted to throw sideways to the You gotta have somebody
that's going deep too, though, Well, you know you got
you gotta have that. That's why I'm going by that
first and ten. Give me three options. At least give

(33:57):
me a chance to hit him if I don't center
some intermedia and then if there's if they've taken that away,
then I have the responsibility a good quarterbattle. Check it down.
So we're second in five, We're not second in ten.
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(34:21):
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(34:42):
Back to the Steelers Preview Show presented by Uni bet
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(35:03):
you about proud partner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Meryll Fortuitous.
We got you in house tonight because Making Fitzpatrick of
the Steelers is the recipient of an award this week
that that's kind of your baby. Yeah, it's called the
Way to Play Program. A lot of people probably have
not heard about it, but we've It's been going on
for five years. Um. It was an idea that I

(35:23):
came up with after watching We had some discussion on
Cam Newton. It's how the thing started, and so I
had to do a lot of tedious watching. I mean
hundreds and hundreds of snaps of people throwing the football,
Cam and a few other guys, and in the process
I was like, I was just fascinated and impressed with
how the well the players played and the playing the

(35:44):
right way, hitting the right way. It's just doing all
the right things. Now, there's hun snaps. Roughly in every
football game, occasionally somebody makes a bad play. Now what's
unfortunate is that play is highlighted and everybody thinks that's
how the game is played. Contrary, more good plays and
more good way players are playing the game in the
right way. So I actually met with Roger Um and

(36:04):
end up putting together this way to Play program. So
what we do. We have a committee that we have
five play five candidates. Every week we vote on him
and make a Fitzpatrick one anyone for the hit on
the on the running back of the Miami Dolphins on
that on that say the touchdown because most most most
you know the way he's hitting, you know the target zone.

(36:26):
He used his shoulder. He didn't lead in launch too.
I think that's one of the most important things we're
trying to get out of football. Stop leading the launch.
And that's not a technique, that's not even something you practice.
Perform the art of a tackle. If you function within
those boundaries, you're gonna do the right thing. It's gonna
be better for you and it's gonna be better for
the person that you're striking. Right and and that was.

(36:46):
That was the other thing everybody thought when we you know,
I was on the committee that kind of clean the
league up here, you know, about ten years ago, and
you know, when a lot of rules were put in
place best for the quarterback here. But he started saying,
we gotta put a flag on him. Now I'm like, okay,
wait a minute. Nobody said you can't hit the guy
as hard as you want. We want you to keep
doing that. Just do it right. You're a pro what how? How? How?

(37:06):
What's wrong with You're the best in the world. To
perform an art of a tackle is a challenge for you.
It was ultimately, what was what we're doing is like,
just tackle right. You practice it all week, you warm
up with the proper technique, and then you go out
and you throw your helmet and you're throwing elbows and
everything into a guy who's just standing there in the pocket.
You know, at the end of the day, quarterbacks cannot

(37:28):
defend themselves, you know, So if you want to end
a guy's career, let's reverse that. Let's put you in
the pocket and let somebody come in and throw some
elbow up around your head. Leave in your career and
actually you know what what really put this over the top.
It was actually a Cleveland Pittsburgh game and a Cleveland
guy um blindside one of the Steelers um blindside block

(37:51):
team crack back and entted his career. And we just
tell you know, that's why I like screening is a
big thing now. You know, if you get a crack
back and you're gonna get a flag, possibly get ejected. Um,
somebody just got ejected this week. I'm trying to think
who was I can't think off the top of I
know somebody got ejected in the league for doing that.
It was on a pick. Actually that was the Monday
night ging Chicago offense. You uh, I think it was

(38:12):
the Bears. Well, the Bears guy got ejected, But like
it's not. You know, listen, you're not a tough guy
or a pro. If you're gonna take somebody out and
they're not even looking at you, you think about that conception.
He just like really then my son even tried to
argue with you. He's like, well, how isn't that part
I could bowl? My Son's say, let's just reverse it. Okay, Now,

(38:32):
let's keep in mind you have a chance to end
somebody's career hurt him really bad. I mean, is that
really in the sportsmanship aspect of thing? Isn't football? Is
more that we have combat together. I see you, you
come at me and look like that, I don't have
my back turned and he hit me that that's that.
There's no, that's not football, you know. And when you
get somebody like that, why not just screen them. They're

(38:54):
not going to get the tackle that you still have
done your job. You haven't jeopardized them. And it's very
sport it's been like and and our level. It's it's
being a professional, a good professional. So who picks who
picks the award? Is that a committee? One? Yeah? We
have we have just me. Um, we have about seven
or eight people in the league that um have it.
You know. Ronnie Lott was one of our guy John

(39:16):
Madden was a big fan of this one. We rich
originally it started that. He was a part of our
our committee as well. But people in the league and
former players are all a part that vote for it.
It's pretty cool. Yeah, And that was that HiT's a
great example. Um do they They have tried ways to
get Fitzpatrick to the ball more. Sometimes it's worked, sometimes

(39:37):
it has not. Do they have to do something exotic
to deal with Philadelphia or they just have to be
on the sales. Do you think Casey coming back helps
that because he can do the deep middle stuff. Yeah,
well it might allow make it a freelance a little more,
or get close to the line of scrimmage or this
man on god Eard or you know, we could probably
discuss this for an hour if we go to the

(39:59):
last two. Okay, what what they did in Miami? Yeah, okay,
when you look at what they did in Miami, the
schematics in which they disguised and what they converted to
you know, we're not gonna get into all those would be,
but it was it was impressive I've seen all year
long because I watched everybody in the league the most impressive,
and I was coming off on Tampa, but they were

(40:19):
pretty good too. Yeah. So then they go to Miami
and what they did in the r p O section.
You know, they have like, um, seven guys will play
the run and then the other four play pass so
that they can handle the past portion of the r
p O if that makes sense versus having everybody you
know read the box and then get to their past situations. Yeah,

(40:40):
So I think that the blend of those two things,
because they've shown how they can do all of these things,
prepares them to play Philly. That's you know, I said
this already. You know, you've already played teams that you've
worked and executed some things that could pose problems to
them in the passing game by what they can do schematically,
and they've pulled it off. They've they've played it well.

(41:02):
I mean that's listen after the first drive. Yeah, I
mean yes, and there's there's more phases to this team
than Miami, but um, they know what those phases are,
and you're gonna be able to practice about those phases
and you already and you've already shown some things that
you can do to handle that. So I would not
be shocked to see this team defensively play very well

(41:22):
against him. So the expectation now is kind of what
it was going into this season. The defense has a
chance to be very good and dictate and can the
offense just contribute? Can they do their part? Because at
the end of the day, you know, like teams win championships. Okay, okay,
so here's the greatest example, but you got Chuck used
to say, you don't do an equal share. You do
what you're capable of, and so the defense got to

(41:43):
do the heavy lifting. That's always the case in every game.
That's not I don't know that there's and there's a
lot of I mean there's very seldom where you know, um,
it was balanced. You know, the offense did about the
same as defense. Very sellim as games like that use
the one side has to carry a heavier load than
the But at the end of the day, you met,
you mirror each other. To win a championship, I mean

(42:04):
Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady are absolute train wrecks right now.
Well they're the best quarterbacks and Brady's best in the
history of football. How how can that be? You know,
teams win championships. There's a lot of things going wrong
with their team. They didn't forget how to play football.
Yeah yeah, yeah, you know, he's he's not playing well either,
But they're doing there. They're not playing well as a team.
But you know, just to end that, what they've done

(42:25):
the last two weeks I think prepares them well to
play Philadelphia and play that. What they do so well
on offense somewhat encouraging Meryl. Great having you tonight. Great job.
Thanks to you, Jake behind the glass for keeping us
all on the earth. Thank you for finding us, however
you found us. No show next week because it's bye week,
but we'll be back next game. This is steel a

(42:47):
preview right here in your Steelers flagship one or two
point five DV