Week 17 vs. Browns

Missi Matthews, Matt Williamson, and Craig Wolfley recap the Steelers win over the Browns.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Point After on w d V Pittsburgh.
The entire Steelers radio broadcast team is here to break
down the last game. Here's your host, Missy Matthews place. Um,
hines Field is so special to me. Uh, you know,
just like the city is um and even you guys

(00:21):
for the most part, Um, I am. I'm very thankful
and blessed to have to call this home and UM,
so thank you to all the fans and everybody, and
thank you to Ben Roethlisberger. Hi, everybody, Welcome to the
Point After, presented by Parks Casino and Comcast Business. Your
business depends on Internet. Get Internet. Your business can depend

(00:44):
on Comcast Business Built for business. Missy Matthews alongside Craig
Wolfley and Matt Williamson kind enough to join us. It
is a victory Tuesday. Uh. It is maybe the extension
of what was the moment at hines Field on Monday
night of ball. Ben Roethlisberger, I think you called it
a swan song last night, wolf and just a chance

(01:05):
to take it in, as he said, if he could
bottle up the feelings, the emotions, the crowd everything. Um,
what did you make of just how the night ended?
And unfolded. I thought it was spectacular, you know, I'm
I'm I'm one for those romantic endings. You know, there's
the great win, the great all that sort of stuff.
And to see him actually, you know, be able to

(01:28):
come through all the guys responding to the challenge of
sending off one for the gipper type of thing, and
then to see the whole thing was just as it
just came together at the end when his wife, Ashley
and the kids were there and then you see him
walking off the tunnel. I mean, I'm telling you, it's
the natural right there. Boom, thank you. That was a

(01:48):
drop the mic dropped the camera. That was just a
career shot. And I'm so glad for him. I'm glad
he had that moment. I'm really glad Trey Nor would
oblige by picking off yet again, Baker may Field. To
provide him the ability to do is the very favorite
thing of all of us. And let's take the you know,
the victory formation and taking Nie. You know what, well,
if I was thinking the whole thing the same thing,

(02:10):
I wasn't in the building. I was watching from home,
of course, and it was just like the football God
shined on seven for this game. I mean, it was
the perfect team to play Monday night. Every eye in
America is on them. They win and play well. You
know the Norwood thing where you get to kneel down
at the end and I mean, Harris see you on
the deal with a touchdown too. I mean it was
like the perfect storm was exactly. I thought, you know,

(02:32):
the fact that Ben had a chance to have that
moment kind of you know, maybe not making it a
guarantee that that was it for his his time at
Heinz Field, but letting fans know. I just thought, you know, Matt,
I know you weren't there, but as soon as you
walked into the stadium and fans were able to come down,
I mean, the signs everywhere he interviewed a lot of people,
grown men were crying talking about number seven and just

(02:53):
what he's meant to them. Um. I just thought it
was really remarkable the way the fans reacted to him
as a way to say thank you and we appreciate you. Um,
what were you able to see In terms of the broadcast,
I haven't had a chance to go back and watch.
I mean, even on sitting there, my lazy boy, you
could tell it was loud, it was emotional. It was
not a normal Steeler game or Monday night game for

(03:16):
that matter. I mean, and they constantly kept showing the
crowd and always black and gold. But it was hard
to find jerseys that weren't seven, you know, I mean,
and usually there's so many to pick from, and the
signs galore as you mentioned, and some creative ones and
some heartfelt ones. And it was really cool. I mean,
it just really was. And you could tell Ben even
in the um post postgame conversation afterwards, he was really

(03:41):
choked up to after the win and it was a
really cool situation. Do you think he had maybe an
idea in his head Wolf of Okay, after the game ends,
this is what I'm gonna do, because I just felt
like it was all rushing on him just so quickly,
and it was like, Okay, I wanna take a moment,
but it was like then I wanna, you know, give
some people some high fives, and then I want to

(04:02):
think about it again. And then sitting on the bench
it was I think like almost twelve minutes. I just
felt like he was kind of going with the flow.
I don't know, I agree with you. I think he
was going with the flow. You know. One of the
things I did was I saw him speaking of mel
Blunt youth dinner. All right, he got up there and
he just rocked it. He had no notes. I'm sitting
there looking at Oh, you gotta be kidding me. He's

(04:23):
got no you can't. You can't be that good, not
have no everything. That's just not right. So I was
talking to him afterwards. I said, I said, how do
you go about preparing? But because you don't do a
little public speaking myself, so I was trying to, you know,
just pick his brain a little bit. He goes not,
I just I don't feel good preparing for I just
like to have a couple of thoughts and you know,

(04:43):
just kind of let it fly. And I think that's
exactly what he does. I think he's a very creative
human being. He's a guy that you know, can speak
very well, communicate very well. And I think last night
was simply him. You know, as he started off that
horseshoe kind of going around, and all of a sudden
he cuts back and he goes to of the bench
and it's just like I think, all of a sudden,
I thought he's thinking about Marquis. He's thinking about a

(05:04):
year ago. He's thinking about how bad he felt a
year ago throwing what four interceptions was it or something
like that in the playoff game, coming back to sit
with Marquis and he's sitting there, and I know in
his mind he's talking to Marquis while he's sitting on
that bench. Besides the fact was it was heated to
warm up a little bit. I mean, you guys have
way more interactions with Ben than me. But way back

(05:25):
when I played in the Hindes Ward Celebrity Softball game
and I hadn't picked up a glove in ten years
and bends a shortstop first throw, rips out the liner
and my glove and yells at me for an air.
But he came to plate six times. It's six home runs.
And I'm sitting there looking at this guy. I'm like,
he'd probably be a three hundred bowler or a scratch
golfer or whatever he wanted to do, or a point
guard or you know, I mean, just amazing, just the

(05:47):
ultimate competitor. Cam Hayward, of course, was asked about Bed,
you know, leading into the Money Night game against the Browns,
and He's like, I played him in shuffle board, like
he wins everything and if he doesn't, he tells you
that you cheated. Like he is just the ultimate guy
that just wants to know over everything. Charlie Batch has
talked about, you know, playing darts with him at training camp.
Everybody has a story of something they've tried to beat

(06:08):
seven at and just have not been able to succeed.
It's funny you say that messy because Thursday, Mike for Student,
I are sitting right here and Meryl Hodge called in
and we were talking about Ben of course, and somehow
basketball came up and Meryl's like, we played one on
one and I know I beat him, but he said
he cheated. I know he cheated, and we still fight
to this day. And I mean it's all the same stories.
It's great, never changes, right um. In terms of coach Holman,

(06:31):
today he had his normal Tuesday press conference. He said
that the atmosphere last night was a regular season game,
unlike any other he has experienced fifteen years of playing
games at Hinesfield. What was different about it? Because it
was loud, like Matt said, he could hear it on
the TV. What was different about it? Why do you
think he said that. Well, I think because first of all,
it was charged with electricity, like oh, it was glorious,

(06:54):
you know. I mean when you just sit there and
you kind of marinate and that electricity running through the stadium,
everybody's vibe and because they know this is the last
run of the king and his castle right there, Ben
at Hines, this is the last you're gonna see you,
even though he's not confirmed it. When you got the
family out there, you know, in the aftermath, this was
confirmation this is it and be able to be there.

(07:15):
I mean, think about this in twenty years, it's gonna
be like Woodstock. Everyone I was there when Ben, you know,
I saw him take the victory. He high five me
and everything like that, and it'll be two million people
that were there, you know what I mean, It would
be like that crazy. But it was a beautiful moment.
It was a moment of expression between the fans of
the Steelers Nation and Pittsburgh and Ben. And it was

(07:37):
great appreciation. I love the fact that they said thank you.
It wasn't about hey, wait to go Ben, and you know,
congratulations and this was thank you, Ben, and they chanted that.
There was two great cheers this past year. One is
for t J Watt when we hear m v P,
because somehow t J means m v P okay. And
the other was thank you Ben, And it was beautiful

(07:57):
and I was so glad to be able to experience
It's both of them was a privilege. I'm kind of
shocked Matt Um, you know, knowing what was at stake,
they needed to win the game, knowing that this was
probably his last game at Hinz Field, just how well
he kept his emotions in check for most of the time.
I think the national anthem, that's a time where everybody pauses,
and that's emotional anyways. You see people crying during Super

(08:18):
Bowls and whatnot. Um, but I just I was pleasantly
surprised how how long he was able to go before
you kind of saw like, oh man, it's hitting him.
And you can tell he's an emotional guy. I mean,
some of these quarterbacks are very stoic and very concrete
and keep their emotions themselves, and and he kind of
wears it on his sleeve and has every step of
the way, and it's very emotional on the field as well.

(08:40):
And yeah, I mean it had to be weighing on
him heavily, and not that we're burying the lead, but
winning makes it easier. I'm not sure it would have
been quite as much fun at the end if they
were lost thirty nothing, you know, no, but you know,
against the grounds, knowing you needed to get it. You
still have a chance, obviously, you know, you still need
help from the outside, which is out. How you wanna,

(09:00):
you know, roll into the postseason if you're able to
make it. But um, I also thought, well if the
other players, both sides of the ball, that just I mean,
played their hearts out, you could tell that. Not that
we don't see that from Cam Heyward and the T. J.
Watts all the time, but everybody kind of stepped it
up a little bit, you know, as they used to say,
the old gunner here in Pittsburgh. Hidden biggerish was the

(09:22):
fact that everybody wanted to send Ben on his way
with a win over the Browns, you know what I mean.
And that was a beautiful thing. I mean, you saw
the defense rise to a level that we've not seen
quite some time. We saw the running game come around
to a level we've not seen all season long. You know,
it was it was just terrific. We saw special teams

(09:42):
with a punter coming out there banging that thing away,
and the Wizard of Bos was the Wizard of Bos
yet again you know, um, all hands on deck. It
was a groundswell of emotion and I can only like
it a little bit too. When I played with Terry
and knew, Um, I didn't know it was his. The
last game was December was the last game at Shay

(10:03):
all season long. He'd been hampered with. That tendon in
his elbow was t shoot tissue, paper thin. You knew
it could go at any time. The mantra again was
and the story is, uh, don't let anybody hit Terry.
Obviously I I you know, I almost mess that up.
And I tackled the guy. I followed him in five
different ways. Yes, I had to do, he told my
coach told me the wrong thing is letting him get hit.

(10:24):
The right thing, you know, is to make sure you
attack him. So that that was the point. But even
so his he blew out the elbow, um throwing a
couple of touchdown passes. But it was you knew it
was the end of an era, and I knew that
I didn't want to be the guy that sent him
to the end of the era. You know, you don't
want to go and that allows you, Craig let that

(10:44):
that Ben Rudolph smack him from the Jets and you know,
sack him, and you know, and if it had been
for Wolf, you might have been playing today, you know.
So you know, you have that sort of thing in
the back of your mind. And it was great to
see the young Bucks out there on the offensive line
come together, see that defense just rise up and play
defense the way you know, a good Steelers defense out

(11:04):
a look a little stiff arm from Nagy Harris. Yeah,
that got the juices flowing. Um. I do want to
still stay on Ben for just a little bit longer.
Eighteen seasons with you know above five hundred or better
coached Tomlin fift seasons for him, uh thirteen and oh
at hines Field versus Cleveland for Ben Roethlisberger and also

(11:27):
beat them as a backup to Landry Jones. If you
remember that game, Ben did practice all week. He was
the backup. Landry gets hurt the first series. Ben comes
in and breaks every single like you know, yeah, it
was a very you know what I mean, Like you
hurt that guy and then you got the real guy,
Like that didn't work out for you guys. He is

(11:48):
now nine two and thirty one at Hinesfield, the third
most in a single venue in NFL history, and his
touchdown pass to Deante Johnson last night was touchdown three.
Wonder excuse me? In thirty six at home? Just crazy.
It is so many of those kind of numbers. I mean, one,
you didn't even mention they've won twenty in a row

(12:09):
on Monday night home to do. I mean, it's amazing.
I think it was. I was graduating high school, remember
that far back. Well. I always think about the fact
if I look at him and I think the Browns
could have drafted him, you know, in the meantime, you know,
they drafted twenty seven quarterbacks and they had twenty seven

(12:29):
quarterbacks start in the same time frame that Ben did.
That's if you count Johnny Man's Why bring that up
because I was on the Browns staff during Ben's rookie
year and I've gotten heat this week of Williamson was
on staff and he should have taken Ben like I
was even there. And I went back and read all
their reports though, and rooted for Ben while I was

(12:49):
a Brown's you know, scout and they had been ranked
ahead of Eli and Rivers, so if they weren't take
a quarterback, it would have been him. But they were
set on either Sean Taylor or La Winslow, who Butcher
Davis coached to you, and they just signed Jeff Garcia,
who it doesn't sound like much and shouldn't prohibit you
from taking Ben, but Jeff was a pretty good player

(13:09):
coming from the Niners. At that point. I remember, I'm
not too big and big Ben. You might have want
to that one, but boy, it's been hurting you ever since.
I don't think Ben forgot that they passed on him.
That's even more important. And I even go back, you know,
I was thinking of the week week eight game as
we were kind of getting ready for the Monday night game.

(13:31):
What did they do so well that got them to
win that week? Um, it felt like things were starting
to roll. And I just remember when Ben came off
the field, he didn't just walk through the tunnel. Steelers
fans kind of made their way down, you know exactly
what that tunnel is, and he had a little extra
juice as he was leaving. You know, he used to
be the winning his quarterback at that Stadium until last
year Baker finally beat him. Um, that's the craziest of

(13:54):
all the stats. To me, speaks to two different franchises.
It's amazing. It is really crazy when you think about it.
Another fun fact about the Cleveland Browns and Steelers history. Um,
the Steelers and the Browns have played fifteen home finalees
in Pittsburgh since then the merger in nineteen seventy. The
Steelers are fifteen in one in those meetings. That one,

(14:19):
the number they said on the TV last night that
never dawned on me is this is the end of
his eighteenth season and there's only been two games that
he's played in where the Steelers are mathematically eliminated. You
mean nothing, It meant nothing. I mean, that's amazing. They're
always in it eighteen years, and I think he's a
big reason why they are always in it. A guy
that can rally them, a guy that can do ridiculous things.

(14:41):
We've seen it. Um, Quickly, before we go to break,
do you guys have a favorite memory, favorite moment at
Heinz Field of Ben's man. There's plenty to pick from.
There is there is so very many. I'm right now.
The ones are on the there. The ones on the
road are the ones that are like preempting it right now,
but in the more and yeah, I mean, oh, there's

(15:02):
just just so many, you know. But I know one
was the Jets. That division was it the division around
when he threw the first down? Oh man, I remember
Bruce h Mike Tomlin said to Bruce arians go win
the game. When Rex Ryan was the head coach of
the Jets and he sent out his base package or
whatever and was and been through the ball when that

(15:22):
everybody thought he was gonna run the ball completed for
a first down. And I mean, there's just so many
memories just watching that dude work. Man. It's very much
like how much I enjoyed watching Bradshaw work, you know.
I mean it was two Hall of Famers, two Golden Jackets.
I mean, mine's not a memory. But this week I
was asked over and over are the pocket passers, the

(15:45):
not real mobile quarterbacks a thing of the past? You know?
Like Ben is he a dying breed? I'm like, I
don't think you remember him ten years ago or five
years I mean, what a force of nature he was
in an athlete, and how difficult he was to get
on the ground. Found any young's people that have only
been following theaters for a couple of years. Go YouTube
early ben It's kind of looks like Josh Allen out there. Yeah.

(16:07):
I mean he would literally get hit and just stay
up and try to do it again, and another guy
would try to get him. You remember against the Ravens
he held Terrell Suggs at arms length until he could
complete a pass. Yeah. First, Now, it was one unbelievable
because of all people, Torell Suggs, because maybe as great
as Nemesis. It's funny he brought up the Ravens because
I was listening to a podcast with Daniel Jeremiah, who

(16:29):
was a scout for the Ravens in the Ben era,
and he said, we couldn't draft under sized defensive ends
because they can't get end to the ground. You know,
we had to think about that in every draft. That
defensive lineman, if he gets home and beats his his blocker,
is he gonna get the job done? I don't think
that guy is. He's not for us sending up somewhere else.

(16:49):
It's crazy. It's crazy when the teams in a division
because you're so familiar to play each other so often
you are kind of building your team to defeat those
teams that you know the game's really matter. Um, you
brought up Trail Suggs quickly before I forget. He is
going to be the legend at the game for the
Ravens on Sunday. They just put out a little sizzle
reel of him, uh, you know, some of his crazy entrances.

(17:11):
So I think it's it's probably ironic that they picked
him to come back for what would be Ben's last
regular exactly. Nesis the one thing and I was disappointed
at is that they didn't have a Bennegade video, you know,
all the highlights or at least in Renegade, that they
didn't show him taking down Nick Harper against the Colts,

(17:31):
you know on the on the fumble there that was
the defensive player that year. I'll tell you they shared
that on the broadcast. Actually did they? All Right, we
want to let you know. For the most complete selection
of Steelers merchandise, from official sideline gear and authentic memorabilia
to our extensive selection of jerseys and Terrible towels, you
can visit one of the official Steelers Pro Shop stores

(17:52):
located at hines Field, Grove City Premium outlets or Tanger outlets.
You could also shop online at shop dots Seelers dot com.
That's for all of your Steelers merchandise needs directly from
the team. You're listening to the Point After, presented by
Parks Casino and Comcast Business. We'll be right back back
to the Point After on d V and gets the

(18:15):
call and off the left side, he turns it up field,
the record broken, first down and more thirty thirty five
stiff farm across the forty five and gets to midfield
and is down by m J. Stewart And he got
the record and got it with ease. Everybody. Welcome back
to the Point After, presented by Parks Casino in Comcast

(18:35):
Business MS Matthews, Craig Whiffley, and Matt Williamson taking you
to the top of the hour. A victory Tuesday edition.
The Steelers beating the Browns on Monday Night football. As
Matt mentioned earlier, that's twenty straight Monday Night football wins
at at home. Just kind of remarkable when you think
about that. Uh there you heard Bill Hillgrove calling Naji

(18:56):
Harris's run that included the stiff arm as we were saying,
got pould you stop. And it wasn't just the stiff
arm off. It was the run game, the appearance of
the run game. What worked so well and what did
you make of it? You know, it was really extremely
gratified because there was less and less of the east
west and more of the north south, a lot of
power blocking, multiple tight informations. Guys came off the ball

(19:19):
and they just kept driving the big leglue man. I
like watch, I like what the kid did. Kid did
himself proud. I thought J. C. Hassenaur was fine. I thought, uh,
these guys. I saw some great work by Zach Gentry
just peeling guys off the pile and driving him into
the pile. Um all across the board. The offensive line

(19:40):
really did a great job of battle and battling and battling.
But naji um, you know what, less and less of
the zig and the zag, more of the straight ahead
or running over how many times we run over Grant Delpit.
If you wanted to vote one guy most likely to
represent a hood ornament, it was Grant Delpa. I mean

(20:00):
it was that was I'm telling you. You know. Russ
Groom used to have a saying we can block seven guys.
The eighth guy, that's the backs guy. Yeah, well took
care of eighty eight yards for Nagi Harris, a career
day for him. Matt, what did you see in terms
of what worked? Obviously Adrian Clenn left earlier in the week,
Chris Morgan took over. Not sure how much you can

(20:20):
change in a week, but was there anything that you saw? Well,
I mean it's hard to always commenting on assistant coaches
is hard unless you've been in the building. Anyone's been
in the building realizes the value those guys have. And
it's only been one week, so it's hard to say, boy,
this guy's a lot better or you know, I mean,
that's not what we're talking about here. But clearly in
this game everything Wolf said is acent true. Um. I

(20:41):
thought they're double teams were much better. They got big
bodies to the second level, much better than they have
at any point this year. I thought Hasstin Howard and
the great Lagou or what you call him, I like Leowski. Yeah,
it's good, but very few mistakes from them, very few
mistakes across the line in general. I mean, I think
coach Tomlin described it earlier in the year with the

(21:03):
old line. It's popcorn. I mean, just when we think
we have something fixed, something else breaks. Well, there weren't mistakes,
and clearly Harris ran with the remarkable attitude and yards
after contact or phenomenal and the stiff arm for anyone
that didn't watch him in college, that's a fixture of him.
He has unusually long arms for the running back position

(21:24):
where tacklers can't get to him. When he extends that thing,
people get used to it. You're gonna see that a
lot in the coming years. Stiff arm, the hurdle. What
else can we expect? The other thing we haven't seen
a ton from Nase that I think is very much
in his future with those long arms, his catching radius
is enormous and everyone at camp was saying he's catching
him well over his head, behind the back, you know,

(21:46):
I mean, like all kinds of contortions, and we've seen
some of it. But there's more to come with that too.
That's interesting. Just quickly some injury updates, since it does
involve several people on the offensive line. Kendra Creen obviously
did not play last night. He was dealing with a
calf injury. Coach Hemlin said today he might be able
to practice more, so it could make things interesting. Do

(22:07):
you go with Kendrick Green? Do you stay with J. C.
Hassen Howard H. Dan Moore Jr. Injured his ankle, Trede
Turner his knee, and then Darrell Edmunds from defenses dealing
with a growin. There's also some COVID guys still out there,
Devin Bush and the like, so we will see how
they come back. But what would you do in terms
of the center position? Uh? For the Ravens game. It

(22:28):
all depends on you know what I'm gonna see on
on the on the tape coming up, you know, I
mean Brandon Williams, big boy, and uh, that's somebody you've
gotta you've gotta stay low with. But I will tell
you this, Kendrick Green played him very well last game
and he took Brandon Williams back off the line scrimmage
several times. Um. J C. Hasson hour is another accomplished dude. Um.
I would like to see if if Kendrick comes back

(22:50):
at center, then j C go to guard, you know,
rather than Joe Hague filling in the guard, you know
what I mean? Yeah, And if and if Kevin Dotson
is available, that's boy, that would be nice across the board.
But better buckle up because this is gonna be a
wild finish um. In terms of the rest of the
offense last night, Matt, obviously, the ground game really took

(23:10):
over something that we have heard since what probably last
January or February that needed to improve. What did you
think about maybe the wide receiver play last night? It
was great? I mean, it really wasn't. I thought that, frankly,
I mean, Claypool and Johnson let their quarterback down a little,
you know, I mean drops are starting to peek their
head up again with Johnson. H Claypool is not winning

(23:32):
the contested catches as much as someone as big and
strong and powerful as he should. And I have no
problem with Ray Ray McLeod. He always I always seem
like I'm talking bad about him, but I see him
as much more of a twelve snap a game guy,
not a fifty snap a game guy, you know. So
there's work to be done there in the coming years.
I thought they blocked better than they caught the ball, frankly,

(23:53):
and ran with the ball. And that's a change for that,
you know that that's a good thing, you know. I mean,
and you know they they've got an increase and moving forward. Um.
But for this offense, I really like the fact that
you kind of took away some of the shiny things
and you got more with the straight power game, and
you've rolled Ben out. You started to move him around
so he was not a stable target, you know, and

(24:14):
they could just say, all right, six yards seven yards
deep as the X market, we're gonna get there. Um.
There there was there was some noticeable things. And again
the one thing I think they can exploit more and
more would be the screen game. The screen game to
me with Naji, with with Gentry, with with Friar movie,
you had the move um that you know that that

(24:34):
combo of guys. I really think that there's a lot
more on the bone. As Mike Domlin would say, I'm lead.
You mentioned Gentry now in earlier too, because I looked
at him his first couple of years and thought, this
is a baby giraffe. It's never gonna grow up. You know,
it's just the whole arms and high cut and boy,
he's come a long way. A Matt Spath type away almost,
you know, real strong role player fixture for the coming years.

(24:56):
And one thing that really stood out for me in
this game in general, the stars came to play. I
mean Nausey lot Cam, I mean they were phenomenal football players.
But the filling guys or players that weren't here in
training camp Weather Spoon, Um Louder, Milk, Um Adams, I mean,
both those interior offensive linemen we mentioned, guys that they

(25:17):
weren't counting on coming out of camp really are filling
in well. And something I wanted to mention last segment
is I was sitting there during I was sitting there
thinking after the game, when all the ben hoop law
was going on for a better word, and thinking, all
these young guys are soaking to see in going this
isn't normal in the NFL. I mean, if I have

(25:37):
a good career here, someday they might be cheering for me.
They're not gonna have eighteen year careers and be the
best quarterback Golan, but you know, it just shows Wow,
I want to be a Steeler. I mean that kind
of stuff rubs off on these young guys. Yeah, and
the fact that you know it went that way Troy
didn't have that. You know, that's a guy that if
you can you imagine if we knew when Troy's last
game at Hinesfield was going to be with that place

(25:58):
would be like, Um, so it is interesting when you
think about it. Um. I am glad though that everybody
rose to the occasion and kind of got it coached
in obviously say what Ben said, but it sounds like
he might have had a little something something for the
team prior to go now and even afterwards, and just
the long embraces I think with guys that meant so
much to him, even you know, the equipment staff, guys

(26:18):
who do so much for him, Marcel Pastor, who has
been here his entire career, who's on the strength and
conditioning staff. So that that was kind of cool to see.
It was very cool. And uh, you know, I had
a little conversation with Terrell Edmonds and you know the
aftermath in the locker room. Um. Again, don't know the specifics,
but I think the word it was a precious time

(26:40):
of the group coming together to acknowledge that which which
which has played out for a long time, you know,
in similar words to that, And I think that's special.
That's really something I remember, you know, Mike Webster's last game,
and it was very special. You know. Remember well if
you even mentioned before we went on the air, you know,
and Bradshaw came back the first time as an announcer,

(27:02):
how that this the crowd went crazy for him. Or
a few years back, they brought him back in Monday
night football and he came back and it was it
was bedlam when they brought him out on the field,
you know. And I thought it was so great because
I remember him being so worried pregame that the fans
might boo him and stuff like that. And I think
he brought his daughter along. Yeah, I think she's saying

(27:25):
the national anthem if I recall. Yeah, but certainly it was.
It was a precious thing because this city and great quarterbacks.
You know, you've had a couple, and uh, I just
think those moments you hate to see them go really unappreciated.
Um flipping over, not flipping over, but talking maybe about
what the Brown's defense did or didn't do. As we're

(27:47):
talking about the Steelers run game, what did you see
from them and was it anything you didn't expect or
did expect? Um not to put a wet blanket on
what the Steelers did because they played very very well.
I was highly unimpressed with the I don't start to finish.
To be honest with you, I thought some of their
strategy and coaching was a little off. I didn't think

(28:07):
their effort was The wind was out of their sales
a little bit, and they're walking into a buzz saw.
And from what I saw, and again I've only seen
once on the TV copy, I've been doing back to
back shows all day here. Um, it looked like a
lot of too high and the Chiefs had a lot
of success without a week ago. But the Chiefs also
Pat Mahomes and they're gonna score thirty every game. You know,
you're grinding out every yard you can get. You can't

(28:29):
allow the the Steelers to move the chains against later boxes.
And you know, their back seven was really decimated with
injuries and COVID and all that. And frankly, I don't
think Myles Garrett was close to being healthy. I mean,
he was kind of standing around and playing patty Cake.
And I give him credit. I give him and Baker
Mayfield credit for going out there, but they are were
shells of themselves physically well, And like you said, for

(28:52):
Ben and Tomlin. I think maybe two or three games
was the stat of games that you played in that
meant nothing essentially. I mean the Browns literally knew before
they came to Hines Field it was over and they
still two games. Um, that just has to be such
a weird feeling. And it is, yeah, do you want
to rain on their parade? Do you want to play
bad guy? And you know, ruin things for the Steelers

(29:12):
maybe this team that you know, you always like to
try to go after. But that's just weird. It's a
little different. I can remember back in the eighties, we
needed the Buffalo Bills to beat Cincinnati in Cincinnati in
the last game of the year or something for us,
and that was one of the factors that would lead
to get into the playoffs. And I remember as we
were were I can't remember where we're at, but um,

(29:34):
we got reports that the Buffalo Bills players were going
to the airport, leaving their luggage there and then flying
to Cincinnati, you know, fly back. And they weren't even
bothering to go home. They were just gonna leave from there.
And everyone's like, Okay, you know, they don't care. They're
not They're not gonna play this game. They're already, they've already,
you know, they're they're vote and out. Man, they're leaving.
Just think about it that not everyone out there understands

(29:55):
how a work week in the NFL goes. But they
prepared all week as if we gotta leave it all
on the line, we gotta win this thing. And probably
while they're traveling on Sunday they realized, oh no, you know,
but the game plans in the barn, you know who's playing.
It's kind of like when Rudolph took over for Ben
this year when when he had the COVID situation. We

(30:15):
don't have time to change the gameplay and all the
practices are done. This is the way we're gonna roll,
and you can't play with the same emotion. Well, the
thing about is it's it's just kind of like there's
that acknowledgment today the players today, and you talk about
business decisions. Yeah, that's that's that's verbage that didn't occur
back in the eighties and nineties when I played, you know,
I mean, that was a different, different era right now,

(30:36):
and guys played just out of sheer professionalism, you know,
regardless of whether they're you know, undefeated or totally defeated,
you know, that's what it was. I didn't think their
defense ran to the ball with the same figure you
could you could see, yeah, you could see it as
they went along. There was there was definitely enthusiasm lacking
and them going about their business. Well, Baker Mayfield during

(30:59):
postgame at night or this early this morning whenever, it
was kind of alluded. He was asking, you know, I've
played through a lot and very injured. That shoulder harness
was just hanging all night out of his jersey UM
and said, I don't know if I'm gonna play against
Cincinnati's Kevin Stefanski. How to press conference day and said, yeah,
Baker's out. He's gonna do the surgery route and kind
of move on. And it is crazy, like you said, Matt,

(31:20):
You're you're driving to Pittsburgh, which is very short from Cleveland,
and you have to be thinking, like, do I even
want to play in this game? If you're Baker, knowing
how much he has played through. UM, but I spot
so many injuries this year, and the shoulder obviously the
worst of him and need surgery a sap. You know,
I'm sure if they would have known a couple of
days in advance. He probably wouldn't have gone. You know,

(31:41):
well he was. They made him and turned him into
virtually a human pinata. Nine sacks, eleven quarterback hits, and
I mean you heard that that chant m v P
and you knew the terminator was out there, and that's
t Jane. My goodness. If you were that kid, Hudson,
I would say, couldn't you help the right tackle just
a little? Though I'm not right tackle. I go back

(32:03):
to the old Wolfleie tackling form. Right, whatever it takes,
just bring him down, baby t J. Swimming like he
did that one game where the two guys are yea,
exactly all right, we're gonna talk much for about t J.
Watt the Steeler's defense and go around the NFL when
we return here on the Point After. You're listening to
d D back to the Point After on dv E.

(32:27):
Maybe it wants a pig rock check, k K what
for club for each other record? Everybody, Welcome Back to
the Point After, presented by Parks Casino and Comcast Business.
What a night for t J. Oh Come on, so overused,

(32:47):
Missy Matthews, Greg Wolfley and Matt Williamson taking you to
nine PM. I almost said eight because Tuesday anyways, I
should sleep tonight, Uh t J Watt, I mean because
he's so close now to Michael Strahan's record. But last night,
Uh well, if you said on the broadcast he was
making Baker Mayfield possibly see some ghosts, boy, there's no

(33:08):
doubt in my mind. I mean there was a point
in time where Hudson, the tackles trying to block him,
looked absolutely helpless, like he was like, what more can
I do? Which you know you'd start tackling is what
you do, but even more so this guy, can somebody
just take me out? You know? And and the fact is,

(33:29):
you know, Baker as soon as that clock started ringing,
you know, hitting at t J. Marker, Uh you know,
about two seconds in you start looking around and like
I said, I think he was seeing ghosts. There was
people flying all around. Alex Higsmith, I mean, you know
he got in on the action. He's up to his
game over the year. You know, that's a guy who's
come a long ways and made some great plays. Um.

(33:52):
You know Cam Heyward, Isaiah louder Milk, like you talked
about did we think we talked about this kid at
the end of the year. No, I think he. I
figured he'd be, you know, eating steaks and doing heavy
squats and being ready for you know, two years down
the road, you know it. What's funny too, is you
mentioned high Smith. There was a play that it was
just a race to see that got the sack first.
You know, Smith got there smidge quicker, you know, and

(34:15):
I'm sure Wat's done it to him a hundred times,
you know. Obviously the nine socks by everybody. Derek Tuska
got in on the actual somebody else that I you know,
I feel like he's really stepped up. T J gave
them all a shout out last night just for you know,
the the younger guys who have been really helping with
all of the injuries that the Steelers defense has been
hampered with. We could go through the laundry list of

(34:37):
of those. But um, in terms of t J Watt,
an interesting thing that NFL research pulled for us was
that he has twelve and a half sacks this year
in the second half of O T which is most
in the NFL, and that's where most of his productions
coming from. Well, I'm not surprised, you know what I mean,
because a lot of times you get the lead or
you've got your you're established defensively speaking, so you've got

(34:58):
teams playing from behind with you know, in the third
down yardage stuff. I mean, TJ is just smart, you know.
I mean he picks the spots. You watch him not
too often does he run the yark and run himself
out or you know, on the on the run plays,
does he take himself out of the run game action
by getting too high? You know, I mean there's just
there's out there, and I look at a guy like
Tusca who's been around, you know, when you're behind somebody

(35:22):
like t J. Man, you just watch learn, wash, rinse
and repeat. Ears and eyes open absolutely because you can
learn a lot. And you watch that that uppercut he threw.
That was very good. That was very TJ. Like. I'm
just saying there's some similarities. I'm not saying the same.
You know, you get some of that greatness rubbing off man. Yeah.

(35:43):
The other thing they really did a nice job of,
which is a Mayfield scouting report. People don't think about
quarterbacks being short anymore, but he's short and he has
a hard time seeing and he gets a lot of
passes batted down, and he doesn't like to be confined,
so he always rolls to his right and the whole
league knows it. Now DJ knows it too. I mean
it's hard to balance that pass rush but also keeping

(36:04):
him in the pocket, and he does it exceptionally well.
Cam Hayward getting in on the action of batted passes
and I think he like leads leagues all defensive players
with that. I'm gonna defensive defensive backs. Does he lead
with pets? She's got like eight the course of the year,
Cam Hayward just continues to be Cam Hayward. I don't
know what else more we can say about Cam and

(36:26):
just how much he has you know, done this season,
how much he plays with a d percent heart maybe
and percent every single time we've seen him running down
the fields to tackle. I mean, I think it's the
best year. What you're saying a mouthful, it's crazy and
not having a lot of help, you know. I think
it was what two years ago that they were like,

(36:49):
you know, we want to spell him a little bit,
we want to keep everybody fresh, and I mean that's
not happening. They might have wanted to, but it isn't happening.
Quote the great George Form, and everybody's got to plan
until they get hit with the right hand. That's Cam,
He's the right hand, Matt, And your opinion the run defense?
Why why did it work last night? Was it because

(37:10):
of something they did and they did well week eight?
Or was it because they weren't really using Nick Chubb
last night? I mentioned earlier in the show, I was
shocked with the Brown strategy and I guess he has
a rib issue or whatever. Fine, but your chance of
winning that game was handing at the Chub over and
over and over. And that's what scared the death out
of me coming up on that game, because he's an
exceptional player and they refused to do so and made

(37:34):
very little sense to me. But that's not to descredit
what the Steelers did either. I mean, louder Milks getting better.
I think Adams might be a keeper. I don't know
that he's Casey Hampton, but he's a quality player on
the inside. They picked up for nothing, and I thought
the effort running the football, not that it's ever been lacking,
but they got a lot of tacklers to the ball
carrier time and time again. How about the difference you

(37:56):
go over the last several weeks, and then last night
you watched what was the first play from scrimmage, Robert
Splaine shot the gap, dropped them in his tracks. I
mean that made a statement right there that things might
be a little bit different here. They run that that
what we used to call the toss seven sixteen seventeen.
You pulling the center and the guard, you know, and
then one guy kicks out, one turns up and that

(38:17):
sort of thing. Um, and that's their bread and butter.
That's the play. I think that Chubb went thirty two
yards on that that one. Um, whatever it was, I
need fact checkers whenever started quoting statistics. But um, I
do know this, they bottled that up much better than
they have in the past. They were getting their gaps,
they were holding the point, and I think so much
of it was his groundswell of emotion of you know,

(38:39):
we got a chance to make the playoffs, and we
want to send Bend off, you know in a good way,
and everything else, all this coming together, and you know what,
through it all, you got you got a chance. You
got a chance to get in the playoffs. Man who knows.
You just don't know, and you know as better than
I do. But I think they have a real familiarity
with the Brown style of running and as well as

(39:01):
the Ravens. To be honest, looking ahead, I mean they
do a better job against the Ravens run game than
just about anybody over the over the Lamar era. Playing
against those guys time and time again, I think you
get their tendencies and speaking a tendencies the Browns. And
this goes back to the first meeting. They can abandon
the run a little early, which makes no sense to me.
You consider how good a player Chub is first, how

(39:22):
good a player there passing game right, you know what
I mean? And the running their lines a better runblocking
line than protecting line. I didn't understand their strategy. What
have you guys seen from a killer Witherspoon. We're seeing
the interceptions come infatuated with them. I feel like everyone
was so angry at first. You know, you trade for
him with Seattle, you don't do anything, and then all
of a sudden it's like, oh, we love that guy, right,

(39:44):
I think he's somebody who have to talk to the
second you know the season ends to try to extend
him possibly as an outside starter. He has rare traits,
you know, certainly a playmaker gets his hands on the
football a lot. I mean, was it an interception last
week that got called back? I think, you know, it
doesn't count in the score sheet. I love him, and
I'm not sure people realize back when they were quote mad,

(40:07):
you know, why isn't this guy even getting a hat? Well,
Justin Lane is a really good special teamer. There's you know,
he's new. They don't have faith in him yet. As
a special teamer, you can't be the fourth corner and
not contribute on special teams. When Justin Lane plays every
snap of special teams, that's important. There's only so many
hats you can have on game day, no question about it.
I think he like Montravius Adams um Montrevius more so

(40:31):
immediate impact because let's face it, you got a head.
But two gap, you know, is a great Casey Hampton
once said, I go straight, or I go right, or
I go you know, I mean, there's not a whole
lot of there, you know, exactly, so there's not a
whole lot of need to study what's going on. But
a guy like Witherspoon has showing some excellent ball skills.
He I loved when he drove on that one at

(40:52):
the top of the route and went right through the
receiver and was able to dislodge the ball um and
then of course you got the pick and there's there's
a lot of good stuff there. And I hope that,
you know, I hope he's not one of those flash guys.
Some guys seem to be able to turn it on
and boom, they look good, and then as you get
to know him longer, things kind of fade and we'll see,

(41:12):
we'll see him. It's a short stretch, but exactly right now,
the short sample looking good, real good. Again. I only
saw the TV copy and I haven't watched the coaches
film yet, but it should looked like they played a
lot of man coverage last night. They do, and they
trusted those guys and wanted Baker to beat him outside
the numbers, and it was pretty clear what they're trying
to do. I think he I think it was a
killer Witherspoon's postgame press conference. I could be wrong. It

(41:34):
was one of the defense guys said that was the
most man they played all you really they played a
lot of man when you can do that when you
got that pass rush, When you sack somebody nine times,
when you knock them down eleven other times, that's a
lot of that's that's a lot of getting up out
of the dirt, you know what I mean. Penn Stry
throws without completion, completing one. You don't see that the
NFL too often. And Renegade definitely worked last night. That

(41:56):
was good, Yes it did. I loved when the screen
went dark again. I still have my protest should have
had Ben in there somewhere or the Bennegade video that
would have been good. After Renegade, that was Derek Tusca's
sack that it was the third and twenty five. They
got the false start and the third in uh thirty
Marcus Allen you know, stopped them and then they went

(42:17):
to punt and got the delay of game on the punt.
Things really went bad. That was I mean, that's when
I stopped taking notes a little bit after because it
was just like, oh man, all right, I don't I think,
I don't think I need to remember much more after this,
you know about a legal procedure, and third, what do
you what do you do? It was almost as good
as when I lined up off sides on a third

(42:38):
and ten, and Chuck was like, what are you thinking?
When I didn't have a good answer. That one wasn't
the sharpest before Brownies. Oh you were there. All right.
Let's take a look around the NFL, brought to you
by clear View Federal Credit Union, your financial partner for life,
clear View f CU dot org. Okay, everybody knows the scores,

(42:59):
Let's talk about the sweak and what's at steak. As
we said, the Steelers and Ravens going head to head
at M ANDT Bank Stadium one o'clock on Sunday, both
still have a chance. For the Steelers, it's a lot easier.
They have to beat the Ravens and then hope that
Indie loses. That would punch their ticket. I know they're
still that weird, you know, philas Vegas and the Chargers tie.
That would beat that. Let's hope we don't. I think

(43:23):
that's crazier. I think the Ravens would have a better
chance to get in. They would need to win. They
would need the Chargers to lose, indeed to lose and
then Miami to loser tie. So um, But as we said,
they're what you didn't say is you need indeed to lose,
which means you need Jacksonville to win, and they're really
hard to watch right now. But I was told by somebody,

(43:45):
so I won't go on my own recognizance. You're on
research an anonymous person, Yeah, that the Colts have never
beaten Jacksonville. In Jacksonville, they've lost like seven in a row. Oh,
you're kidding me, a like since two thou fourteen or something.
The what are you saying they've lost seven in a
row in Jacksonville the culture, including Opening Day last I

(44:07):
thought you were saying they won several. Man, you talk
about somebody gonna be bad and I gotta go pound him.
I mean Opening Day last year they went to Jacksonville,
lost and the jackson went again. They've had terrible success
in jackson You. Hey, in eight nine, we needed to
win in Tampa Bay and it's snowed on Christmas Eve again.
You know, things can happen in this COVID world. To

(44:28):
who knows right that is? That's very true? I can't.
It's probably two thousand fifteen. The game in Cleveland, we
needed to beat the Browns. Then you needed Rex Ryan
and the Jets to beat the Bills, and we were
beating the Browns taking care of business. They're playing at
the same time, and all the Steelers fans inside the
stadium started cheering and waving their towels and they're like

(44:50):
their Jets beat the Bill. You know what it's like
trickling down to the sideline. All the players like what
what we're in and you, yeah, you just never know.
This is NFL is like you said, COVID. With COVID,
you just can never tell what's going to happen. So
I would rather bet on thirty one other teams to
help the Steelers, say than Jackson. But you can play

(45:11):
these things out. Remember first time in thirty years it's
snowed in Florida, in Tampa and we were there to
sign Yes, as we were saying early, Terrell Suggs will
be on hand to take in the game. He has
a long history with Ben Roethlisberger, you know, so does
ray Lewis. A lot of those guys. Coach Tama has

(45:31):
asked a lot about just this series. You mentioned how
well the Steelers play the Browns and also the Ravens.
What do you make of this matchup and what we
will potentially see on Sunday not knowing who their quarterback
is going to be at this point. One thing I
can't wait to tell people is they probably know by now.
The Steelers lead the league again in sacks, and t
J has a lot to do with that. Most sacks
per game in the league. Well, you know who's allowing

(45:53):
the most sacks per game in the league. Baltimore by
a wide margin. So just the what record, I couldn't
pick up better opponents. I wanted to throw that out there.
I have the ultimate respect for the Ravens. I mean,
I think they're one of the elite organizations coach owner GM,
the way they build their team. But boy, they've been
dealt or offhand. I mean, the injuries have really dismantled them,

(46:16):
especially in the secondary. They allow so many big plays.
They're grabbing corners off the street and running backs off
the street and offensive lineman off the street. It's a
lot for them to overcome. Yeah, I mean, but you
know what, I got, no mercy, No mercy. I mean,
that's a great organization. They're down a little bit. Kick

(46:36):
them all right, just kick them mother down. That's the
whole thing you mentioned. Matt a t J. Watt factor
this season. The Steelers are seven two and one in
games where he has at least one or more sack,
one in five in games where he does not record
as sacks. Hopefully he gets the record one to tie,
one and a half to break it. Then I wone.
If the Ravens contacted five, you know, yeah, you held

(47:00):
up out. Yeah. I don't think Huntly is going to
lay down for one. Yeah. I don't know if I
would sacrifice my body to let t J. Watt take
me down. Yeah. It's look, he's gonna earn it. There's
no question about it. He's going to earn it. But
this is one of those rare opportunities to really ascend
to NFL royalty. Man, I mean that's I think up

(47:21):
the defensive m VP. I think that's done questionably, so
I would especially Garrett's play lately. Yeah, alright, well it
has been fun. That's going to do it for the
Point After, presented by Parks Casino and Comcast Business for
Craig Woofley and Matt Williamson and Miss Matthews. Thanks so
much for joining us here on d V. Will be
back next Monday night at seven pm