October 10, 2022 • 40 mins
Missi Matthews, Bill Hillgrove, Craig Wolfley and Max Starks break down the Steelers loss to the Bills.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Point After on w d v E Pittsburgh,
brought to you by Parks Casino. The entire Steelers radio
broadcast team is here to break down the last game.
Here's your host, Missy Matthews. Nothing mystical about it. You know,
they did some of the things that tennessee, so we
know it's capable of happening. Um, just disappointed that we
(00:21):
didn't coach well enough of play well enough to prevent
it from happening today. And that's just the reality of it. Everybody.
Welcome to the Point After. I am Missy Matthews with
Bill hill Grove, Craig Wiffley and Max Starks, and our
first segment tonight is brought to you by Brian Patton
and associates. It's all about the benefits. We have to
go over the Steelers fourth straight loss to the Buffalo
(00:44):
Bills yesterday thirty eight to three, Billy, one of the
worst losses and over thirty years for the Pittsburgh Steelers,
the worst of course under the Mike Tomlin era. And
it just felt icky leaving that stadium yesterday knowing what
transpired on the field and started with fumbling the Steelers
opening kickoff, and we know what happened. Steve Simms had
(01:06):
an eye injury and pre game and now there's no gunner.
You can't bring him back because of the law that
once you declare your d X, and he was one
of them, you had to go with James Pierre. And
that was a windy day and it was a tough one.
But let's go back in history. Did you see thirty
years ago? Uh, I think there's a guy in this
(01:26):
room that might have been there. You know, you guys
are setting the table, you're pitching softballs to each other.
Bam out of the park and he welcome into the
shelf on one of the people who happened to be
on the field at Three Rivers thirty three years ago.
The three Rivers. Yeah, that's right, but the other one
(01:48):
was away right. Well, um, it was let's see the
first one to Yeah, because it didn't get any better
the next Well technically it did because we lost forty
one to ten instead of fifty one to nothing. That
we did it. And wasn't that Cincinnati game a bunch
of turnovers? Well, both games were a bunch of turns
every time there might have been I think that was
(02:09):
the Three Rivers one. I think there was more. There
was more in the Cincinnati one, but I will tell
you this much. Every time we turned around, the ball
was going the other way. You know. I hate when
that happened. Yeah, it really I do too. And it
was a monumental, crushing moment for all of us, be
at the Three Rivers game against Cleveland or in Cincinnati, regardless,
(02:31):
it it's stung. It's things today when you bring it
back up, because you remember what it was like in
those moments. And I will tell you because I of
like all of us offensive line, I was probably one
of the the I would say, well, at least between
touch and I was a more calmer of the two,
I think. And I I literally tried to get myself
(02:52):
thrown out in the fourth ward. I was so fed
up with the Cleveland guys running their mouths, and so
you just start bunch of guys and piles and the
referee came up and goes, hey, seventh, I know what
you're trying to do. You deserve to stay in here,
right this one our batman. But you did rebound, yes,
but now you don't. We don't have a chance against
(03:13):
Buffalo unless we go to the playoffs, but you did
rebounds later. Yeah, five games later, we beat the same
Cleveland team that beat us fifty one and nothing. We
beat him at three rivers seventeen and seven. Same people,
you know, basically the same people, same group. But you
know this, And to me, that's the story of of
yesterday and and and any time. You know, and for
(03:35):
for you know, these guys to be able to regroup
and reload. I mean, you can do that. And I
talked about it doing on a weekly basis, you know,
and this is something they've got to learn. You've got
to go through this, and you go through some real
hard times to get through the good times. Max. What's
the most lopsided win that you remember experiencing. Yeah, come on,
(03:59):
make y, yeah exactly. Um m hmm. That's a tough one.
I mean, who and let's see my nine years in Pittsburgh,
it's tough to say that there was like I mean,
I would probably say the a s C Championship game
and oh four might have been one where um, I
(04:20):
think Tom Brad I think it was or something like that.
Like they just they completely dominate us and we got
a couple of touchdowns at the end to make it
look respectable, but they kind of owned us. And I
want to say that was the oh four year, my
rookie year. It was probably the biggest like lopsided loss
because I'm trying to think back because there, I mean,
(04:41):
there's a couple of but most of them been usually
been close within like a touchdown or or two touchdowns.
I can't think of one where it was like definitely
not five touchdowns, but um, yeah, I'm trying to think.
I don't think there's been one. I mean, we've had
low scoring games, but everybody scored low. I think that
would be a yeah, I'd probab I say the uh
that yeah, the a s C Championship game and and
(05:03):
oh four. Alright, so what do you think about yesterday
and just having a day to digest what happened? Well,
I mean, and Max, let's let's be honest. Digesting is
what we do when we need comfort food in we
needed comfort, I mean, we we do. I'm actually digesting
right now, so it won't be hard that um, but
(05:25):
I mean when I when I when I look back
on yesterday, it's it's one you're kind of upset because
you know, I was saying this to Wolf earlier today.
I mean we were literally inches away in situations from
good things happening. Um. And whether it was you know,
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whether it was Deonte's foot in on that third down
UM in the red zone early in the game, whether
it was a catch to the outside that Deonta tried
to make it George Pickens tried to make UM, whether
he had made that catch in the middle of the
field defensively, if Minka had ripped the ball away from
Gabe Davis in the end zone when they were fighting
(06:08):
for it because he had both hands on it um
before Gabe did. I mean, there's just so many off
trade Norwood doesn't play down too far on third down,
the first three players of the game. I mean, there
was just there's all these moments that led like as
a microcose him up to what we the end result
was and have we just put some points on the board.
(06:30):
How different that game could have been. But it was.
It was a tough one. It was embarrassing. I mean
it was frustrating, you know, especially for us of the sidelines.
Right Bassy, We're looking at each other and like, really
another one. I was like, oh god, I mean, there
was so many explosive, big plays where the defense will
have two good downs and then third down happens. Right,
(06:53):
you forget that, you know, they still play on third
down like fourth downs when they punt, you know, it's
always you're like, nope, third down, we got the ball
back and it's like oh oh waits like we have
to play defense. Um. I mean, it was just it
was tough too to stomach through it because, like you said,
you're always on the cusp, you're always almost there, and
it just never happened. So it's just very frustrating, very disappointing.
(07:17):
But you could see see that's the thing. It's disappointing.
But the same thing is, you see it's like a
man of just a little thing here. If you just
tighten the screw here, like it could be a completely
different game. And they're on the verge of either getting
blown out or this being a tight football game against
a really good team, and it just so happens that
the inch wasn't tightened tightened enough and you get blown
(07:40):
out by five touchdowns. Yeah, you knew it was bad
when we were watching the Bill's sideline to see what
case Keenum was doing and when he was going to
warm up and make his presence. It was one of
those things that you know, after halftime you kind of
felt this is going to happen at some point, and
you mentioned the defense they gave up eleven plays of
twenty plus yards, three were forty plus in what's the
(08:00):
common denominator? How How is it that so many things
are so close, yet it's just seems so far away,
you know when I look at it, I think it
just comes down to, you know, just execution, just little things.
I mean it's little things being screwed in there um defensively, offensively,
I mean, you can't affect the wind, but but I
(08:21):
mean you also threw the ball fifty one times, and
I felt Kenny Pickett did the best job he could
never playing in that type of environment and the wind
swirls that were just crazy, like trying to deal with it.
But it's so tough when you have outside factors affecting
your performance. Once the ball goes in the air and
it's above ten feet, it could be a completely different
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weather pattern than what you're thinking about that you're feeling
in the moment. So that's one of the things that
was tough, and I think some of those balls sailed
on him because of that, But I think it's just
everybody being locked in every single play. You gotta have
eleven guys in. I said this to wolf Um one eleven. Right,
You're responsible for one out of eleven responsibilities when you're
(09:03):
on the field, and that's yours. When you're on the field,
you have to do your job to the best of
your ability. You can't worry about anybody else. You have
to trust that the rest of your teammates are gonna
do their one out of eleven, and that if all
of us do our one out of eleven, it will
make a whole and good things will happen. But when
people try and do a little bit more, or guys
(09:24):
do a little bit less, that's when we have issues
and we're not good enough to overcome that. Like, everybody
has to be playing at their best moment for us
to have a chance. We just we don't have that.
We don't have that collective talent right now. Because there's
a there's a certain level of trust you play with
that allows you to elevate your game, and I don't
(09:45):
think that's there right now. I saw too many guys
getting upset with each other. You know, over small plays
and everything else, and that comes down to trust. And
I think that's that's what we're experiencing right now. Well,
how do they how do they get it together and
have that trust and rebound hopefully like you guys were
able to do. Not that they would play the Bills
(10:06):
again in five games, but you know, the season still going.
The bye week is not here yet. You still have
a few more games before you can get to that
point where you can take a break and maybe regroup. Well,
you got to get back to work, you know. Number One.
I remember Chuck Noel rattled off four points basically to
us when he came into the meeting room and he
had a USA today and it said in the headlines
(10:29):
it said has the game bypassed Chuck Noll? And I mean,
that's whoa And he brought it in. I remember that now.
Whether you know that's part of ram Knees or not,
that's the point I remember. I just know that it
was out that day and I thought that the copy
was in. But all the answers to all the questions
that you guys are having are to be found within
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the walls of the locker room. That's the first point.
That he made you know, and the point was you
guys have to take ownership of this and to own
it is something that what does that mean? Because it's
one of those little metaphors that you know, you kick
around a little bit, you know, and people say, oh,
you gotta own it, Well, you gotta make it yours.
You have to understand that you are what you put
on video and if you're lacking in something, you have
(11:12):
to work on that. If you're a professional and you
are going to raise your level of plate to meet
that of the group, you've got to be able to
to do what you need to do. And part for me,
and I'm trying to make this specific, was I remember
when I first got moved out to tackle, how much
I had the extra work I had to put to
get to time my feet and my hands together and
punching and past protection. It was difficult for me. At guard,
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that's close quarter combat. At guard, you can hunker down,
you take you can jump jump, set a guy, real
short throw your punch, jam and and you know it's
all in a very close, confining tackles. Max knows you're
out there in a parking lot. You know, I prefer
the close confines of a of a good fighting side
of phone booth rather than being out in the middle
of a parking lot where you're chasing ghosts. You know.
(11:55):
I mean some of these guys are so fast. And
so that's an example of what you have to do
when I talk about taking ownership. You've got to improve
whatever it is that is not allowing you to play
to your for for your full level. Sorry, you got
mixed up on what I'm saying there, And I got
no tooth, sue. You know, I'm trying to work. Yeah,
(12:19):
I'm trying to be working on my whistle and it's
just not quite the same this, you know. And when
the season is over and they drill up there and
I can get that tooth back and I get my
right now, I got a stunt tooth and I don't
like that. You know. This is what bothered me. Uh. Okay,
the passes will happen, and Alan is a great quarterback
and he's got the surrounding cast, but you had runs
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of twenty three, twenty one and twenty four yards. Uh
that can't happen, and especially the one the twenty three
yard or by Singletary and then the roughing call against
Miles jack and all of a sudden they're at the
fifteen yard line. You can't make it easy for them,
And you're right. You have to look in the mirror
and say, I take ownership of this. I did something
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that hurt my team. And I'm not coughing myles Jackie.
You know, I love the guy and I think he's
one of your leaders. But uh, it's still comes down
to me. There's no I in team, but there's a
lot of me. As the great samar To Guliano once
told me, there's no eye in the word team, but
there's two eyes and the word idiot don't be one. Yeah,
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I was like, Sam, why are you looking at me?
That's before cell phones. He probably would have snapped your
picture to emphasize this, Come on up. That's all right tonight.
The question is has the thud we heard yesterday been
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the bottom and I think a lot of fans want
to know that, or is it possibly going to get worse?
I mean, when's the last time the Pittsburgh Steelers were
an underdog at home? I don't think I ever remember that,
you know, but you mean you mean outside of the
Jets game. Is that were they they don't even pay
(14:08):
attention to that stuff. You know, the playoff game, No,
this past one. I'm talking about eight point favorite eight ok. Yeah, yeah,
I can't think of yeah at home. Yeah, I mean
it's it's these are strange water apps. Yeah, I was
gonna say, I'm just looking at Twitter right now. It
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was either Sports Illustrated or the Wringer had will. The
Steelers finished the season as the worst team in the NFL.
We debate that's where we're at it, you know, after
week five. Well, and right now there are four teams
at one and four and we're one of them. Uh,
that is the bottom. Now, the Raiders could join us tonight, yes, yeah, Panthers, Commanders, Lions,
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and Texans. And as you said, the Las Vegas Raiders
play the Kansas City Chiefs tonight on Monday night. Well,
the other thing Chuck said on that fateful day on
a Tuesday morning, was be careful what you read, be
careful what you well you know, because he was trying
to make a point, be careful what you read, be
careful what you watch, be careful what you allow to
(15:12):
influence you, because if you don't protect what you your
thought process. He on the point he was making is
that you're going to really pollute what you you know,
your concentration levels, and you start to believe things that
are written that aren't necessarily true. Correct some some people,
you don't. For some people, it's it's very easy. For
some people, it's very hard, you know. And in this
(15:34):
day of social media, I can't think of a better
way than to just turn off Mike would talk about
Mike Tomlins turn off the noise, you know, shut out
the noise. All right, we're gonna take a break here
on the point after. When we return, we'll talk about
Kenny Kenny Pickett's first start in the NFL and much
more about the Steelers offense. Were there any silver linings
(15:56):
will discuss. You're listening to w DV back to the
point after, brought to you by Parks Casino on DV E.
You know, there's there's ways to do it, right, I mean,
there's definitely ways to do it. It's there's no finger point.
Like I said, I gotta take a lot of ownership
of this. I'm the quarterback of the team. They draft
me in the first round for a reason to go
out there in play. So I was ready to go
once today and once they drafted me, yet I wanted
(16:17):
to be the guy. So there's a lot of things
that come with that. And I think the way I
work and how much effort in time I put in
with these guys, I think that the respect is there.
So when I'm talking to guys, there's there's no disrespect,
there's no um calling anybody out. You know, we all
want to win. So that's something that we gotta, you know,
continue to work towards um. Like I said, the road
doesn't get easier, so it's got to get, you know,
fixed quickly. That was Kenny pick It following the Steelers
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thirty eight to three loss to the Bills in Buffalo
on Sunday. Pick It was thirty four fifty two for
three d and twenty seven yards, zero touchdowns, one interceptions
in the Steelers offense oh for four in the red zone.
You're listening to the point after I Miss Matthews with
Bill hill Grove, Craig Wolfley and Max Starks, and our
segment now is brought to you by the Greater Pittsburgh
(17:01):
Community Food Bank in Don's Appliance. For every field goal
we kicked the season, Don's Appliance will donate one thousand
dollars to the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank. That is
five thousand meals each time. Thank you to Don's Appliance,
and you can donate to by texting goals to five
zero one five five. Billy, you've watched a lot of
(17:21):
Kenny Pickett over the past few years. What did you
think of his performance first go in the NFL as
a starter yesterday? I thought he was in command. I
thought he did a pretty good job. And you say,
oh for four in the red zone, and yeah, sure,
that's that's on you. But the bills were only one
for four. But stistics, I can say that easy? Why
(17:44):
because dot see how you do that one? Very much?
I'd really be probably speaking in foreign language. The you know,
ninety eight yards sixty two yards, you're not in the
red zone. Yeah, they had a run, a run from
outside the red zone, you know, so you know that
those X do lie. But yeah, I thought he did well.
Uh can he do better? Sure? Uh? The one play
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I didn't like, and I don't know whether it was
on him or Naji or the call, was the two
yard pass on third down. And do you remember the
play he had a technical problem with that though, didn't
he Well, he turned around and I guess if you
would let him, maybe he had a chance if you
would let him out into the flat and he could
well then then turned back. It came back to the
(18:27):
back shoulder. I don't know you know either one. Um,
it's a situation that's very difficult. Look, I thought Kenny
acquitted himself excellently. I thought his his field general ship,
his ability to get the people into the huddle, command
the huddle, move the huddle, make sure there's no stupid
penalties of you know, not having enough time and so forth.
He did the things that you had to do when
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there was a motion and whatever you you gotta do.
He did all those nuances of playing quarterback at a
pretty high level. I think he got big points in
my my view, and handling a hostile out in a
hostile environment with a team that there are moments in
time that and Max knows this sometimes you know when
the game's getting away from you. You know, you you
(19:09):
know when when all of a sudden there's that feeling
the pit of your stomach when you go this is
not gonna end well, just because you can tell from
years of playing however, that there's a chance that this
could get really bad. And the fact is he never
let it show. He never led in the slightest bit
like any frustration. He led the team. He did a
good job. Way to go, Kenny. Good for you. I think, yeah,
(19:34):
I would say I think I think Kenny Pickett did
well considering the circumstances. I mean, for me, what I
have wanted Canny pick it in in this game? Probably
not if I had, if I had to go through
the schedule and pick it out right, like, hey, when
am I going to insert Kenny Pickett? But we're here,
We're here, second half of the Jets game two. Now
(19:54):
we've had six quarters of Kenny Pickett and he I
will say this, he's done. He's done enough to say that,
you know what, he does deserve a shot and the
way he's acquitted himself. Now, granted, we're still sitting here,
what five weeks into the season, and we're looking for
a passing touchdown to a wide receiver. I haven't seen
it yet. Um, you know, we we we've relied a
(20:17):
lot on Chris Boswell's leg. Yesterday was not the environment
for him to kick field goals. Um, we saw by
the evidence fact of one of three, but it's on
the custo, So do I think it's It looks more
productive than Mitch because he's quicker and there's getting higher
completion percentage? Right, the yards dictate that. But at the
(20:41):
same time, is this offense optimized for what the personnel
is And for that question, I don't know. As it
looks right now, I would say no, right just because
of points per time on the field. You know, we
always equated you should be able to score one point
permitted of possession and we are woefully below that line.
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So it's not optimized. So is it the one out
of eleven? Is it? Is it not everybody doing the
job or is the scheme not fitting the personnel that
you presently have? That is the really important question. But
Kenny Pikett, I think has done well within that construct.
It just has not resulted in points. Max. I thought
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last year the receivers as a group did not help
Ben Roethlisberger, and I saw signs of that yesterday where
your two top receivers Dion d. Johnson and Chase Claypool
had targets and ten catches, And I think they've got
to get They've got to get more into gear to
(21:45):
help the quarterback. That's just my opinion. I can't say
that about George Pickens. Yeah, And you know you're right, Billy,
because I think it was actually because we were calling
the game on radio. UM, my friends sent me a clip.
I said that Tony Romo actually made that observation and
he called out Chase Claypool and said that that Chase
(22:06):
Claypool is not making himself quarterback friendly to receive a pass.
And I thought that was something, um, and he pointed
out a couple of examples, and I'm like, huh, he
might be onto something there, because you know, it's if
you want to say and self proclaim that you're gonna
(22:26):
be the best wide receiver, gonna be a top five
wide receiver in the league, you do things to help
your quarterback assist you in that goal. And not every
time do I see Chase Claypool doing things that say, hey,
look at me, you need to get it to me.
I'm doing what I can to make myself presentable to
you so you can put the ball on me. Because
(22:47):
like everything has to be a combat catch, everything has
to be a tight window. And then he's body catching
a majority of things and they're bouncing off of him
because he's trying to catch with his shoulder pads then
his hands, and I was like he might be onto something.
And Deontay it's like, I feel like Deontay is a
lot closer because, like I said, we're inches away like
that Jets game. Literally the tip of his shoe the
(23:10):
game yesterday on the third down right the second foot
dragging hitting the tip of his shoe, not getting in back,
Like there's just little things here and there for more So,
Deontay and Deonta got got got the lion's share of targets.
I think he finished with fourteen targets, ten targets. I mean, yeah,
so you're looking at that, you're saying, okay, you're you're
(23:31):
getting the looks. And George Pickens is doing less. What
is doing is doing a lot more with less targets.
So you guys need to elevate your game in this process.
And of course it hurts, you know, we lost uh
Pat Friar within the game because I think those are
the two he has a really good rapport with and
he's working to get that rapport with Chase Claypool and
Deontay Johnson. But once again, collectively, they're not doing enough.
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I feel like Deontay is doing more than Chase, but
as a whole from the combo, they're both not making
it easy. Max I met a man after the game
who knows the friar Mouth family in the press box
and he said the family said that he had passed
all the concussive tests. So that's a good sign. Good good,
good good. Yeah, because we need We're gonna need him
(24:16):
because Tampa Bay going quickly. Since we're talking about injuries, uh,
Levi Wallace also left the game. In concussion protocol, we
went over Steve Simms, who injured his eye during pregame.
Uh Larry Ogunjobi with a back injury. He missed most
of the game. Cam Sutton also left with a hamstring injury.
(24:36):
And then, of course the Steelers were already without Terrell
Edmonds in the concussion protocol. He was warming up during pregames,
which I thought was a good sign. Doing a lot
of stuff with makeup Fitzpatrick, so hopefully his arrows pointed
up for this week. And then to kill a Witherspoon
missing his second game with a groin injury. So it
feels like the injuries are stacking up on the defensive side,
Wolf and you know, next man up. The standard is
(24:58):
the standard, but it has really ch changed what they've
wanted to do from the get go on that side
of the ball. Well, think about the next man up
means that you're gonna have a next man and right
now they're running out of next men, you know. So
you've got the situation where you're going to bring bringing
guys up from the practice squad and Josh Jackson being
one simply put, you know, the young man, there's another
(25:18):
guy and Max, you're talking about this earlier this morning,
we're talking about on the show. You know, he's in position,
he's in in coverage on the receiver. I think it
was Khalil Shakir maybe uh maybe not. Yeah, it was
Khalil Shakir and he he was in position and he
had an opportunity to you know, contest to catch knocked
the ball away. He was just inches short. But it's again,
(25:40):
you know, you're you're just there, but you're not there
enough to make the play. And it's so unfortunate. Now
you're you're digging deep to a guy that was on
the practice squad being brought up because you're going to
the game with either you know, most of the starting say, uh,
the secondary is out, or they're going into the game
nicked up and injured. So you've got to have some
healthy body on hand, be able to you know, expect
(26:02):
to fill some roles. And that's the way it really
kind of played out. But you know, I I know
everybody's disappointed. I know everybody's down in that locker room. Okay,
but there comes a point in time where you gotta
just you know, I've had enough and I'm done, you know,
and you've got to just grind. And this is the
time you grind. And this is where you find out
who the grinders are. This is not you, you know,
(26:23):
you get the front runners, the guys that are you know,
up and down and play with emotions. If they they
fade really fast. It's the guys that are willing to
grind day in day out. Because one of the things
you can do is turn this baby around. It's like
turning around a big old cruise ship. It's hard, but
you can do it if you keep applying yourself day
(26:44):
after day and you don't quit. I know, you guys
always say it's you know, you have to look in
the me or look at yourself, see what you can
do better. But max is something where captains have to
step up. How does a group like a locker room
like this, I should say, regroup after you're on a
four game skid. I mean, the biggest thing is to
get back in the lab right. I mean you, if
(27:04):
you fall off a horse, you get back on it,
right you. You know, if you fall down in the ring,
you get back up to box. I mean that's the
same thing. You just every time you get knocked down,
you just make sure you stand up. More times you
get knocked down, and the more you keep doing that
creates that habit of I'm not gonna quit. I I
am built to stand this test. And then eventually good
(27:28):
things that happened because other guys are gonna look at
you standing up when they're debating whether to stand up,
and by seeing you, you give them strength. Right if
you don't flinch, they don't flinch. And that's the beauty
of a team sport. You. If you can't manifest that
energy within yourself, look to the guys around you and
then and they'll they'll give you the nod, the okay,
(27:49):
to keep on pushing because they're not gonna quit. When
you look around and guys are sitting on the ground,
sitting criss cross apple sauce. I had to say that
now because that's the PC term is dead right, But
I understood that exactly got me um. But you know,
if other guys are doing it, you're gonna You're gonna
eventually fade into that mindset as well. But if you
(28:12):
don't and everybody keeps pushing and striving, eventually you're going
to break through and eventually it's going to yield a
positive result. But you have to continue to do the work.
That's whether you can't. You can't. You cannot get bored
with the mundane in this process because it is all
about requisite experience, knowledge and every day getting better than
(28:35):
the day you were before. Kim Heyward after the game
called it a dark day when he went to the
podium to finally speak to the media. I know we
talked about George Pickens. I thought, Billy, you know Cam's
play yesterday. We've seen what he's had to endure not
having t J Watt these last few games. But you know,
helping block a field goal, the forced fumble, I just
(28:57):
thought that, you know, Cam really brought his a game
and he's one of those guys. Is that if you're
in the locker room you look around, that's who you're like, Okay,
I want to do what he's doing to try to
write this ship and this with a tweaked elbow and ankle. Yeah. Absolutely,
he's a leader and there's no question. Look, when one
guy stands up, you have a guy like Cam. Believe
you me, there's other guys that you know what I'm in,
(29:19):
I'm in. I mean when you get that commitment of people,
and I know that some people think, oh, you're being
you know, Polly Anish, and No, I've been in too
many locker rooms. I've been in this situation a few
times where you understand, Okay, you know, is there really
going to be a that commitment from the from the
brotherhood inside that locker room and when it comes together, man,
(29:40):
it's an incredible beautiful thing. Think about it. We we
we lost fifty one to nothing, We lost forty one
to ten. You know, then we come back four weeks
later and beat that same Cleveland team at home, and
by the end of the year, we're one drop passed
from the f C Championship game, you know, I mean,
it's an incredible turn round. But it was the belief
(30:01):
number one in in Chuck Noll, And it was Chuck's
belief in his team, and that sort of bonding just
kept building throughout the year. Is as awful as it
seemed and as awful as it looked in the initial stages,
it got better and better and better because guys were
willing to grind and think about this year. If you
(30:22):
look at the standings, and I know we're early, but
I only see three teams playing great football right now.
We saw one yesterday. I believe the Kansas City Chiefs
are and I know the Philadelphia Eagles are playing great football.
I think everybody else is kind of middle is. Well,
we've just seen crazy things happen every week. Well last week,
(30:42):
didn't somebody say last week that fifteen of the sixteen
games were decided by a single score in the fourth quarter?
I think, yeah, yeah, yeah. The a f C North,
we're literally averaging one win a week per four teams.
You know, I mean last night, I mean the week
(31:05):
before I told you this, Billy, I was like, literally US,
Baltimore and Cleveland all scored twenty points in the game
and lost. The only one that won was the Thursday
nighter with Cincinnati that was twenty five points to seventeen. Like,
we're not that far away. We're two We're two wins
outside inside of being in first place in this division.
(31:26):
That's just how depresses this. Most teams usually pull away.
But like you said, the rest of the league is
not playing high value football except for three of them,
and everybody else is looking very mediocre and as strong
as we thought that a f C West was going
to be, it has floundered. It is just Kansas City.
Look at the Los Angeles Chargers. Yes, they beat they
(31:48):
beat the Browns yesterday. They haven't been playing good football. Hell,
I watched I watched the actual Jaguars beat them into
the ground. And then you look at who oh the
Las Vegas Raiders, Las Vegas Raiders, their records looking like ours.
And so I'm just saying that in the Denver Broncos,
I'm not even gonna go there. I think there you
(32:11):
talk about take I'm like, listen, hey, I feel bad
for you guys right now. Wow buy or beware um.
But the rest of this league is not playing phenomenal um,
and there's still a chance we're not out of this race.
And like I said, we've just started the second quarter
of this season. Um. And like I said, it's inches away,
inches away from the tables being turned. If guys just
(32:33):
continue to walk down the path, just continue to walk
down the path, eventually, good things are gonna happen. This
Tampa Bay Bucks team. Yes, they had a great record
last year. This isn't the same Bucks team from last
year or the year before that, or the year before
that when Tom Brady was there. This is a very
different team. And if you could just do the little
things right. Everybody focused on doing the little things right,
(32:56):
not great things. But I'm not asking for everybody to
come out. Every dB needs a turn over, every every
downlinement needs a sack or TfL. No, do the little
things right and be a part of the collective and
be a part of the solution and not the problem,
and good things will happen, all right, well, coach Tomlin
said after the game, changes could be on the way.
Wasn't taking anything off the table. He'll speak to the
(33:18):
media tomorrow. We're gonna take a break here on the
point after and when we return, will debate, discuss if
there are any changes that can be made. You're listening
to d V will be right back back to the
Point After, brought to you by Parks Casino on dv E. Man,
you play like we played today. Man, you've got to
be open to doing whatever is required to change the
the outcome of these games, and so that's a given. Um,
(33:41):
I don't think anybody is going to be surprised by
our willingness to turn over whatever stone to change the
outcome of games like transpired today. That's just appropriate. Welcome
back to the Point After, everybody, Miss Matthews with Bill
hill Grove, Craig Wolfley and Max Starks and our third
and final segment is brought to you by clear View
Federal Credit Union. For every turnover the Black and Gold
(34:03):
creates in two thousand and twenty two, clear View Federal
Credit Union will donate five dollars to the Light of
Life Rescue Mission clear View helping people to enjoy a
better life. Visit clear View f CU dot org slash touchdown.
We'll get to changes that we think could happen moving forward.
But Max, I am told that you you did some
(34:24):
research during the commercial break for us yes, I did.
I wanted to for journalistic integrity. Is we don't have
that on the show. Yeah. Um, the worst loss I
ever took, we actually to zip against Baltimore. That was
my worst loss of my career. Oh, you're not near
(34:47):
as good as I am in losing games. No, I'm not.
I'm a horrible loser. I will admit that on the airwaves.
I don't do well with losing, so I don't do
was losing the problem is part of what has lost
big Oh Max. What he's trying to say is you're
(35:09):
the prince of futility. He's the king. Yes, that's exactly Yeah,
that's exactly what it was. But I wanted to make
sure that, yes I have I have lost a game
by twenty seven points, so I said, So, we lost
the game by four scores before um against Baltimore. And
I remember that I toured my knee in that game, Halody,
(35:30):
not a set on my knee and tour my meniscus.
So I remember that game vividly. But that's probably that. Yeah,
that's the worst loss. But yeah, so I've never experienced
this type of loss. I mean, I probably have to
go back to early football days, which I don't remember,
and they don't have records. You can't research that. I'm saying,
I'm Jones high School Tigers is not is not in
(35:51):
the database. I'm saying that he picked on somebody his
own size. I mean, we could look at it that way.
What's that Helodi max I did? Well? You know what,
you know the official title of his name is a
whole lot of nogging? Is really what it is. I
mean that man had a big cranium. I'm telling you
(36:12):
what head? Yeah, that was a matter of fact. I
asked Casey Hampton one time. I said, who's got the
bigger nogging? You or Helodi? Helodi's got the weight bigger head.
One year at one year at Pitt Camp. Uh, Ironhead
couldn't practice because they didn't have a helmet big enough.
And I said, barge coming up the river is sending
(36:34):
up to borrow air dropped a dropped onto the field.
All right, Billy, we heard what coach Tomlins said about
you know, regrouping changes. Are there changes that can be made?
He didn't take anything off the table in terms of personnel, players, coaches.
What what can be done to try to fix this? Well, Uh,
(36:57):
let's start with a return game, there's gonna regain his status.
I think that's a good question, right, I mean, I
you're not You're not you know, you don't know that
sim is gonna get hurt in pregame. And then I'm
still trying is they're trying to feel to kick off
in that wind? How did he he Obviously he didn't
have his helmet on for that ball to be able
(37:18):
to go through his hands and hit him in the eye. Yeah,
it was like early pregame warm ups apparently not like
just okay, important safety tip, Stephen, put your helmet on. Okay,
that's what we got. Job note one is safety. Okay,
that's Mike Pursuit always used to say. Job one is safety. Absolutely. Yeah,
(37:39):
it's a helmet for a reason. They give you a
helmet for a reason. Yeah. Now that that that that
is a good question. I mean, and the specialty there
were opportunities in the special team's game, right, I mean,
there was some great opportunities um that we didn't capture.
But I think it comes down to really, I mean,
execution the minute detail offensively and defensively, you know, and
(38:03):
it really makes a big difference because, like you said,
you don't have guys like Cam Haywards getting double teamed,
all right, and Alex Highsmith, you know, is getting is
getting attention as well off the edges, so other guys
have to step in and do their job to the
best of ability. Cam's not gonna jump three gaps over
to make a tackle, right, you know, Just stay in
your gap. Don't try and jump out the gap as
(38:26):
well trying to make another play and expecting somebody else
to make the play. Just do your job. I think
that's where's a little bit too much hero ball in
those moments. And then for receivers and running backs, hit
the holes, make yourself open, offensive line block it right it.
We're saying these very simple, rudimentary terms, but if you
(38:46):
just focus in on that's how that's as easy as
the job is in those moments. But it comes down
to trust guys have. These are new guys playing together,
a lot of new guys playing together, so the trust
isn't there, and it's about working towards building that trust.
I told Wolf this earlier in the show. I said,
(39:07):
if you're going home after practice and you're sitting at
home by yourself, sitting on the couch playing Call of Duty,
or Madden or FIFA or whatever game that they play. Now.
I know I play Call of Duty, um, and you
know your buddy sitting at home playing on his instead
of playing over the internet. Invite the dude over to
your house. Order some door dash. I don't know, you
(39:27):
know popular some hot pockets are to I don't even
know what they eat nowadays, but you know what I'm saying,
like like like just be together. They're in the frozen
section at the grocery store. Everybody could have them. You
get a crustable, you get on crustal, everybody gets. I
did see it was either this past week or the
(39:49):
week before. The offensive line did go to talk golf
together on Thursday night, So I knew that that was
something you had talked about earlier this year. Max. So
that bonding is happening. Keep shop. They're looking good and
they're looking better together because of that. It takes those
little moments. Yes, all right, Well, don't forget about the
Steelers Pro Shop. You can gear up with the latest
(40:10):
Sideline apparel, hats or jerseys of your favorite players, authentic memorabilia,
custom items, and exclusives you can find only directly from
the team at one of the Steelers official pro shops
located Acuser Stadium, Grove City Premium Outlets, or Tanger outlets,
or you can shop online at shop dot Steelers dot com.
Thanks so much for joining us here tonight on the
Point after for Bill Hill, Grove Craig Willfully a, Max Starks,
(40:32):
and Miss Matthews. We'll see everybody back here Monday night.
Welcome to the Point After on w d v E Pittsburgh,
brought to you by Parks Casino. The entire Steelers radio
broadcast team is here to break down the last game.
Here's your host, Missy Matthews. Nothing mystical about it. You know,
they did some of the things that tennessee, so we
know it's capable of happening. Um, just disappointed that we
(00:21):
didn't coach well enough of play well enough to prevent
it from happening today. And that's just the reality of it. Everybody.
Welcome to the Point After. I am Missy Matthews with
Bill hill Grove, Craig Wiffley and Max Starks, and our
first segment tonight is brought to you by Brian Patton
and associates. It's all about the benefits. We have to
go over the Steelers fourth straight loss to the Buffalo
(00:44):
Bills yesterday thirty eight to three, Billy, one of the
worst losses and over thirty years for the Pittsburgh Steelers,
the worst of course under the Mike Tomlin era. And
it just felt icky leaving that stadium yesterday knowing what
transpired on the field and started with fumbling the Steelers
opening kickoff, and we know what happened. Steve Simms had
(01:06):
an eye injury and pre game and now there's no gunner.
You can't bring him back because of the law that
once you declare your d X, and he was one
of them, you had to go with James Pierre. And
that was a windy day and it was a tough one.
But let's go back in history. Did you see thirty
years ago? Uh, I think there's a guy in this
(01:26):
room that might have been there. You know, you guys
are setting the table, you're pitching softballs to each other.
Bam out of the park and he welcome into the
shelf on one of the people who happened to be
on the field at Three Rivers thirty three years ago.
The three Rivers. Yeah, that's right, but the other one
(01:48):
was away right. Well, um, it was let's see the
first one to Yeah, because it didn't get any better
the next Well technically it did because we lost forty
one to ten instead of fifty one to nothing. That
we did it. And wasn't that Cincinnati game a bunch
of turnovers? Well, both games were a bunch of turns
every time there might have been I think that was
(02:09):
the Three Rivers one. I think there was more. There
was more in the Cincinnati one, but I will tell
you this much. Every time we turned around, the ball
was going the other way. You know. I hate when
that happened. Yeah, it really I do too. And it
was a monumental, crushing moment for all of us, be
at the Three Rivers game against Cleveland or in Cincinnati, regardless,
(02:31):
it it's stung. It's things today when you bring it
back up, because you remember what it was like in
those moments. And I will tell you because I of
like all of us offensive line, I was probably one
of the the I would say, well, at least between
touch and I was a more calmer of the two,
I think. And I I literally tried to get myself
(02:52):
thrown out in the fourth ward. I was so fed
up with the Cleveland guys running their mouths, and so
you just start bunch of guys and piles and the
referee came up and goes, hey, seventh, I know what
you're trying to do. You deserve to stay in here,
right this one our batman. But you did rebound, yes,
but now you don't. We don't have a chance against
(03:13):
Buffalo unless we go to the playoffs, but you did
rebounds later. Yeah, five games later, we beat the same
Cleveland team that beat us fifty one and nothing. We
beat him at three rivers seventeen and seven. Same people,
you know, basically the same people, same group. But you
know this, And to me, that's the story of of
yesterday and and and any time. You know, and for
(03:35):
for you know, these guys to be able to regroup
and reload. I mean, you can do that. And I
talked about it doing on a weekly basis, you know,
and this is something they've got to learn. You've got
to go through this, and you go through some real
hard times to get through the good times. Max. What's
the most lopsided win that you remember experiencing. Yeah, come on,
(03:59):
make y, yeah exactly. Um m hmm. That's a tough one.
I mean, who and let's see my nine years in Pittsburgh,
it's tough to say that there was like I mean,
I would probably say the a s C Championship game
and oh four might have been one where um, I
(04:20):
think Tom Brad I think it was or something like that.
Like they just they completely dominate us and we got
a couple of touchdowns at the end to make it
look respectable, but they kind of owned us. And I
want to say that was the oh four year, my
rookie year. It was probably the biggest like lopsided loss
because I'm trying to think back because there, I mean,
(04:41):
there's a couple of but most of them been usually
been close within like a touchdown or or two touchdowns.
I can't think of one where it was like definitely
not five touchdowns, but um, yeah, I'm trying to think.
I don't think there's been one. I mean, we've had
low scoring games, but everybody scored low. I think that
would be a yeah, I'd probab I say the uh
that yeah, the a s C Championship game and and
(05:03):
oh four. Alright, so what do you think about yesterday
and just having a day to digest what happened? Well,
I mean, and Max, let's let's be honest. Digesting is
what we do when we need comfort food in we
needed comfort, I mean, we we do. I'm actually digesting
right now, so it won't be hard that um, but
(05:25):
I mean when I when I when I look back
on yesterday, it's it's one you're kind of upset because
you know, I was saying this to Wolf earlier today.
I mean we were literally inches away in situations from
good things happening. Um. And whether it was you know,
(05:46):
whether it was Deonte's foot in on that third down
UM in the red zone early in the game, whether
it was a catch to the outside that Deonta tried
to make it George Pickens tried to make UM, whether
he had made that catch in the middle of the
field defensively, if Minka had ripped the ball away from
Gabe Davis in the end zone when they were fighting
(06:08):
for it because he had both hands on it um
before Gabe did. I mean, there's just so many off
trade Norwood doesn't play down too far on third down,
the first three players of the game. I mean, there
was just there's all these moments that led like as
a microcose him up to what we the end result
was and have we just put some points on the board.
(06:30):
How different that game could have been. But it was.
It was a tough one. It was embarrassing. I mean
it was frustrating, you know, especially for us of the sidelines.
Right Bassy, We're looking at each other and like, really
another one. I was like, oh god, I mean, there
was so many explosive, big plays where the defense will
have two good downs and then third down happens. Right,
(06:53):
you forget that, you know, they still play on third
down like fourth downs when they punt, you know, it's
always you're like, nope, third down, we got the ball
back and it's like oh oh waits like we have
to play defense. Um. I mean, it was just it
was tough too to stomach through it because, like you said,
you're always on the cusp, you're always almost there, and
it just never happened. So it's just very frustrating, very disappointing.
(07:17):
But you could see see that's the thing. It's disappointing.
But the same thing is, you see it's like a
man of just a little thing here. If you just
tighten the screw here, like it could be a completely
different game. And they're on the verge of either getting
blown out or this being a tight football game against
a really good team, and it just so happens that
the inch wasn't tightened tightened enough and you get blown
(07:40):
out by five touchdowns. Yeah, you knew it was bad
when we were watching the Bill's sideline to see what
case Keenum was doing and when he was going to
warm up and make his presence. It was one of
those things that you know, after halftime you kind of
felt this is going to happen at some point, and
you mentioned the defense they gave up eleven plays of
twenty plus yards, three were forty plus in what's the
(08:00):
common denominator? How How is it that so many things
are so close, yet it's just seems so far away,
you know when I look at it, I think it
just comes down to, you know, just execution, just little things.
I mean it's little things being screwed in there um defensively, offensively,
I mean, you can't affect the wind, but but I
(08:21):
mean you also threw the ball fifty one times, and
I felt Kenny Pickett did the best job he could
never playing in that type of environment and the wind
swirls that were just crazy, like trying to deal with it.
But it's so tough when you have outside factors affecting
your performance. Once the ball goes in the air and
it's above ten feet, it could be a completely different
(08:41):
weather pattern than what you're thinking about that you're feeling
in the moment. So that's one of the things that
was tough, and I think some of those balls sailed
on him because of that, But I think it's just
everybody being locked in every single play. You gotta have
eleven guys in. I said this to wolf Um one eleven. Right,
You're responsible for one out of eleven responsibilities when you're
(09:03):
on the field, and that's yours. When you're on the field,
you have to do your job to the best of
your ability. You can't worry about anybody else. You have
to trust that the rest of your teammates are gonna
do their one out of eleven, and that if all
of us do our one out of eleven, it will
make a whole and good things will happen. But when
people try and do a little bit more, or guys
(09:24):
do a little bit less, that's when we have issues
and we're not good enough to overcome that. Like, everybody
has to be playing at their best moment for us
to have a chance. We just we don't have that.
We don't have that collective talent right now. Because there's
a there's a certain level of trust you play with
that allows you to elevate your game, and I don't
(09:45):
think that's there right now. I saw too many guys
getting upset with each other. You know, over small plays
and everything else, and that comes down to trust. And
I think that's that's what we're experiencing right now. Well,
how do they how do they get it together and
have that trust and rebound hopefully like you guys were
able to do. Not that they would play the Bills
(10:06):
again in five games, but you know, the season still going.
The bye week is not here yet. You still have
a few more games before you can get to that
point where you can take a break and maybe regroup. Well,
you got to get back to work, you know. Number One.
I remember Chuck Noel rattled off four points basically to
us when he came into the meeting room and he
had a USA today and it said in the headlines
(10:29):
it said has the game bypassed Chuck Noll? And I mean,
that's whoa And he brought it in. I remember that now.
Whether you know that's part of ram Knees or not,
that's the point I remember. I just know that it
was out that day and I thought that the copy
was in. But all the answers to all the questions
that you guys are having are to be found within
(10:50):
the walls of the locker room. That's the first point.
That he made you know, and the point was you
guys have to take ownership of this and to own
it is something that what does that mean? Because it's
one of those little metaphors that you know, you kick
around a little bit, you know, and people say, oh,
you gotta own it, Well, you gotta make it yours.
You have to understand that you are what you put
on video and if you're lacking in something, you have
(11:12):
to work on that. If you're a professional and you
are going to raise your level of plate to meet
that of the group, you've got to be able to
to do what you need to do. And part for me,
and I'm trying to make this specific, was I remember
when I first got moved out to tackle, how much
I had the extra work I had to put to
get to time my feet and my hands together and
punching and past protection. It was difficult for me. At guard,
(11:34):
that's close quarter combat. At guard, you can hunker down,
you take you can jump jump, set a guy, real
short throw your punch, jam and and you know it's
all in a very close, confining tackles. Max knows you're
out there in a parking lot. You know, I prefer
the close confines of a of a good fighting side
of phone booth rather than being out in the middle
of a parking lot where you're chasing ghosts. You know.
(11:55):
I mean some of these guys are so fast. And
so that's an example of what you have to do
when I talk about taking ownership. You've got to improve
whatever it is that is not allowing you to play
to your for for your full level. Sorry, you got
mixed up on what I'm saying there, And I got
no tooth, sue. You know, I'm trying to work. Yeah,
(12:19):
I'm trying to be working on my whistle and it's
just not quite the same this, you know. And when
the season is over and they drill up there and
I can get that tooth back and I get my
right now, I got a stunt tooth and I don't
like that. You know. This is what bothered me. Uh. Okay,
the passes will happen, and Alan is a great quarterback
and he's got the surrounding cast, but you had runs
(12:39):
of twenty three, twenty one and twenty four yards. Uh
that can't happen, and especially the one the twenty three
yard or by Singletary and then the roughing call against
Miles jack and all of a sudden they're at the
fifteen yard line. You can't make it easy for them,
And you're right. You have to look in the mirror
and say, I take ownership of this. I did something
(13:01):
that hurt my team. And I'm not coughing myles Jackie.
You know, I love the guy and I think he's
one of your leaders. But uh, it's still comes down
to me. There's no I in team, but there's a
lot of me. As the great samar To Guliano once
told me, there's no eye in the word team, but
there's two eyes and the word idiot don't be one. Yeah,
(13:24):
I was like, Sam, why are you looking at me?
That's before cell phones. He probably would have snapped your
picture to emphasize this, Come on up. That's all right tonight.
The question is has the thud we heard yesterday been
(13:45):
the bottom and I think a lot of fans want
to know that, or is it possibly going to get worse?
I mean, when's the last time the Pittsburgh Steelers were
an underdog at home? I don't think I ever remember that,
you know, but you mean you mean outside of the
Jets game. Is that were they they don't even pay
(14:08):
attention to that stuff. You know, the playoff game, No,
this past one. I'm talking about eight point favorite eight ok. Yeah, yeah,
I can't think of yeah at home. Yeah, I mean
it's it's these are strange water apps. Yeah, I was
gonna say, I'm just looking at Twitter right now. It
(14:30):
was either Sports Illustrated or the Wringer had will. The
Steelers finished the season as the worst team in the NFL.
We debate that's where we're at it, you know, after
week five. Well, and right now there are four teams
at one and four and we're one of them. Uh,
that is the bottom. Now, the Raiders could join us tonight, yes, yeah, Panthers, Commanders, Lions,
(14:51):
and Texans. And as you said, the Las Vegas Raiders
play the Kansas City Chiefs tonight on Monday night. Well,
the other thing Chuck said on that fateful day on
a Tuesday morning, was be careful what you read, be
careful what you well you know, because he was trying
to make a point, be careful what you read, be
careful what you watch, be careful what you allow to
(15:12):
influence you, because if you don't protect what you your
thought process. He on the point he was making is
that you're going to really pollute what you you know,
your concentration levels, and you start to believe things that
are written that aren't necessarily true. Correct some some people,
you don't. For some people, it's it's very easy. For
some people, it's very hard, you know. And in this
(15:34):
day of social media, I can't think of a better
way than to just turn off Mike would talk about
Mike Tomlins turn off the noise, you know, shut out
the noise. All right, we're gonna take a break here
on the point after. When we return, we'll talk about
Kenny Kenny Pickett's first start in the NFL and much
more about the Steelers offense. Were there any silver linings
(15:56):
will discuss. You're listening to w DV back to the
point after, brought to you by Parks Casino on DV E.
You know, there's there's ways to do it, right, I mean,
there's definitely ways to do it. It's there's no finger point.
Like I said, I gotta take a lot of ownership
of this. I'm the quarterback of the team. They draft
me in the first round for a reason to go
out there in play. So I was ready to go
once today and once they drafted me, yet I wanted
(16:17):
to be the guy. So there's a lot of things
that come with that. And I think the way I
work and how much effort in time I put in
with these guys, I think that the respect is there.
So when I'm talking to guys, there's there's no disrespect,
there's no um calling anybody out. You know, we all
want to win. So that's something that we gotta, you know,
continue to work towards um. Like I said, the road
doesn't get easier, so it's got to get, you know,
fixed quickly. That was Kenny pick It following the Steelers
(16:40):
thirty eight to three loss to the Bills in Buffalo
on Sunday. Pick It was thirty four fifty two for
three d and twenty seven yards, zero touchdowns, one interceptions
in the Steelers offense oh for four in the red zone.
You're listening to the point after I Miss Matthews with
Bill hill Grove, Craig Wolfley and Max Starks, and our
segment now is brought to you by the Greater Pittsburgh
(17:01):
Community Food Bank in Don's Appliance. For every field goal
we kicked the season, Don's Appliance will donate one thousand
dollars to the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank. That is
five thousand meals each time. Thank you to Don's Appliance,
and you can donate to by texting goals to five
zero one five five. Billy, you've watched a lot of
(17:21):
Kenny Pickett over the past few years. What did you
think of his performance first go in the NFL as
a starter yesterday? I thought he was in command. I
thought he did a pretty good job. And you say,
oh for four in the red zone, and yeah, sure,
that's that's on you. But the bills were only one
for four. But stistics, I can say that easy? Why
(17:44):
because dot see how you do that one? Very much?
I'd really be probably speaking in foreign language. The you know,
ninety eight yards sixty two yards, you're not in the
red zone. Yeah, they had a run, a run from
outside the red zone, you know, so you know that
those X do lie. But yeah, I thought he did well.
Uh can he do better? Sure? Uh? The one play
(18:06):
I didn't like, and I don't know whether it was
on him or Naji or the call, was the two
yard pass on third down. And do you remember the
play he had a technical problem with that though, didn't
he Well, he turned around and I guess if you
would let him, maybe he had a chance if you
would let him out into the flat and he could
well then then turned back. It came back to the
(18:27):
back shoulder. I don't know you know either one. Um,
it's a situation that's very difficult. Look, I thought Kenny
acquitted himself excellently. I thought his his field general ship,
his ability to get the people into the huddle, command
the huddle, move the huddle, make sure there's no stupid
penalties of you know, not having enough time and so forth.
He did the things that you had to do when
(18:48):
there was a motion and whatever you you gotta do.
He did all those nuances of playing quarterback at a
pretty high level. I think he got big points in
my my view, and handling a hostile out in a
hostile environment with a team that there are moments in
time that and Max knows this sometimes you know when
the game's getting away from you. You know, you you
(19:09):
know when when all of a sudden there's that feeling
the pit of your stomach when you go this is
not gonna end well, just because you can tell from
years of playing however, that there's a chance that this
could get really bad. And the fact is he never
let it show. He never led in the slightest bit
like any frustration. He led the team. He did a
good job. Way to go, Kenny. Good for you. I think, yeah,
(19:34):
I would say I think I think Kenny Pickett did
well considering the circumstances. I mean, for me, what I
have wanted Canny pick it in in this game? Probably
not if I had, if I had to go through
the schedule and pick it out right, like, hey, when
am I going to insert Kenny Pickett? But we're here,
We're here, second half of the Jets game two. Now
(19:54):
we've had six quarters of Kenny Pickett and he I
will say this, he's done. He's done enough to say that,
you know what, he does deserve a shot and the
way he's acquitted himself. Now, granted, we're still sitting here,
what five weeks into the season, and we're looking for
a passing touchdown to a wide receiver. I haven't seen
it yet. Um, you know, we we we've relied a
(20:17):
lot on Chris Boswell's leg. Yesterday was not the environment
for him to kick field goals. Um, we saw by
the evidence fact of one of three, but it's on
the custo, So do I think it's It looks more
productive than Mitch because he's quicker and there's getting higher
completion percentage? Right, the yards dictate that. But at the
(20:41):
same time, is this offense optimized for what the personnel
is And for that question, I don't know. As it
looks right now, I would say no, right just because
of points per time on the field. You know, we
always equated you should be able to score one point
permitted of possession and we are woefully below that line.
(21:05):
So it's not optimized. So is it the one out
of eleven? Is it? Is it not everybody doing the
job or is the scheme not fitting the personnel that
you presently have? That is the really important question. But
Kenny Pikett, I think has done well within that construct.
It just has not resulted in points. Max. I thought
(21:25):
last year the receivers as a group did not help
Ben Roethlisberger, and I saw signs of that yesterday where
your two top receivers Dion d. Johnson and Chase Claypool
had targets and ten catches, And I think they've got
to get They've got to get more into gear to
(21:45):
help the quarterback. That's just my opinion. I can't say
that about George Pickens. Yeah, And you know you're right, Billy,
because I think it was actually because we were calling
the game on radio. UM, my friends sent me a clip.
I said that Tony Romo actually made that observation and
he called out Chase Claypool and said that that Chase
(22:06):
Claypool is not making himself quarterback friendly to receive a pass.
And I thought that was something, um, and he pointed
out a couple of examples, and I'm like, huh, he
might be onto something there, because you know, it's if
you want to say and self proclaim that you're gonna
(22:26):
be the best wide receiver, gonna be a top five
wide receiver in the league, you do things to help
your quarterback assist you in that goal. And not every
time do I see Chase Claypool doing things that say, hey,
look at me, you need to get it to me.
I'm doing what I can to make myself presentable to
you so you can put the ball on me. Because
(22:47):
like everything has to be a combat catch, everything has
to be a tight window. And then he's body catching
a majority of things and they're bouncing off of him
because he's trying to catch with his shoulder pads then
his hands, and I was like he might be onto something.
And Deontay it's like, I feel like Deontay is a
lot closer because, like I said, we're inches away like
that Jets game. Literally the tip of his shoe the
(23:10):
game yesterday on the third down right the second foot
dragging hitting the tip of his shoe, not getting in back,
Like there's just little things here and there for more So,
Deontay and Deonta got got got the lion's share of targets.
I think he finished with fourteen targets, ten targets. I mean, yeah,
so you're looking at that, you're saying, okay, you're you're
(23:31):
getting the looks. And George Pickens is doing less. What
is doing is doing a lot more with less targets.
So you guys need to elevate your game in this process.
And of course it hurts, you know, we lost uh
Pat Friar within the game because I think those are
the two he has a really good rapport with and
he's working to get that rapport with Chase Claypool and
Deontay Johnson. But once again, collectively, they're not doing enough.
(23:55):
I feel like Deontay is doing more than Chase, but
as a whole from the combo, they're both not making
it easy. Max I met a man after the game
who knows the friar Mouth family in the press box
and he said the family said that he had passed
all the concussive tests. So that's a good sign. Good good,
good good. Yeah, because we need We're gonna need him
(24:16):
because Tampa Bay going quickly. Since we're talking about injuries, uh,
Levi Wallace also left the game. In concussion protocol, we
went over Steve Simms, who injured his eye during pregame.
Uh Larry Ogunjobi with a back injury. He missed most
of the game. Cam Sutton also left with a hamstring injury.
(24:36):
And then, of course the Steelers were already without Terrell
Edmonds in the concussion protocol. He was warming up during pregames,
which I thought was a good sign. Doing a lot
of stuff with makeup Fitzpatrick, so hopefully his arrows pointed
up for this week. And then to kill a Witherspoon
missing his second game with a groin injury. So it
feels like the injuries are stacking up on the defensive side,
Wolf and you know, next man up. The standard is
(24:58):
the standard, but it has really ch changed what they've
wanted to do from the get go on that side
of the ball. Well, think about the next man up
means that you're gonna have a next man and right
now they're running out of next men, you know. So
you've got the situation where you're going to bring bringing
guys up from the practice squad and Josh Jackson being
one simply put, you know, the young man, there's another
(25:18):
guy and Max, you're talking about this earlier this morning,
we're talking about on the show. You know, he's in position,
he's in in coverage on the receiver. I think it
was Khalil Shakir maybe uh maybe not. Yeah, it was
Khalil Shakir and he he was in position and he
had an opportunity to you know, contest to catch knocked
the ball away. He was just inches short. But it's again,
(25:40):
you know, you're you're just there, but you're not there
enough to make the play. And it's so unfortunate. Now
you're you're digging deep to a guy that was on
the practice squad being brought up because you're going to
the game with either you know, most of the starting say, uh,
the secondary is out, or they're going into the game
nicked up and injured. So you've got to have some
healthy body on hand, be able to you know, expect
(26:02):
to fill some roles. And that's the way it really
kind of played out. But you know, I I know
everybody's disappointed. I know everybody's down in that locker room. Okay,
but there comes a point in time where you gotta
just you know, I've had enough and I'm done, you know,
and you've got to just grind. And this is the
time you grind. And this is where you find out
who the grinders are. This is not you, you know,
(26:23):
you get the front runners, the guys that are you know,
up and down and play with emotions. If they they
fade really fast. It's the guys that are willing to
grind day in day out. Because one of the things
you can do is turn this baby around. It's like
turning around a big old cruise ship. It's hard, but
you can do it if you keep applying yourself day
(26:44):
after day and you don't quit. I know, you guys
always say it's you know, you have to look in
the me or look at yourself, see what you can
do better. But max is something where captains have to
step up. How does a group like a locker room
like this, I should say, regroup after you're on a
four game skid. I mean, the biggest thing is to
get back in the lab right. I mean you, if
(27:04):
you fall off a horse, you get back on it,
right you. You know, if you fall down in the ring,
you get back up to box. I mean that's the
same thing. You just every time you get knocked down,
you just make sure you stand up. More times you
get knocked down, and the more you keep doing that
creates that habit of I'm not gonna quit. I I
am built to stand this test. And then eventually good
(27:28):
things that happened because other guys are gonna look at
you standing up when they're debating whether to stand up,
and by seeing you, you give them strength. Right if
you don't flinch, they don't flinch. And that's the beauty
of a team sport. You. If you can't manifest that
energy within yourself, look to the guys around you and
then and they'll they'll give you the nod, the okay,
(27:49):
to keep on pushing because they're not gonna quit. When
you look around and guys are sitting on the ground,
sitting criss cross apple sauce. I had to say that
now because that's the PC term is dead right, But
I understood that exactly got me um. But you know,
if other guys are doing it, you're gonna You're gonna
eventually fade into that mindset as well. But if you
(28:12):
don't and everybody keeps pushing and striving, eventually you're going
to break through and eventually it's going to yield a
positive result. But you have to continue to do the work.
That's whether you can't. You can't. You cannot get bored
with the mundane in this process because it is all
about requisite experience, knowledge and every day getting better than
(28:35):
the day you were before. Kim Heyward after the game
called it a dark day when he went to the
podium to finally speak to the media. I know we
talked about George Pickens. I thought, Billy, you know Cam's
play yesterday. We've seen what he's had to endure not
having t J Watt these last few games. But you know,
helping block a field goal, the forced fumble, I just
(28:57):
thought that, you know, Cam really brought his a game
and he's one of those guys. Is that if you're
in the locker room you look around, that's who you're like, Okay,
I want to do what he's doing to try to
write this ship and this with a tweaked elbow and ankle. Yeah. Absolutely,
he's a leader and there's no question. Look, when one
guy stands up, you have a guy like Cam. Believe
you me, there's other guys that you know what I'm in,
(29:19):
I'm in. I mean when you get that commitment of people,
and I know that some people think, oh, you're being
you know, Polly Anish, and No, I've been in too
many locker rooms. I've been in this situation a few
times where you understand, Okay, you know, is there really
going to be a that commitment from the from the
brotherhood inside that locker room and when it comes together, man,
(29:40):
it's an incredible beautiful thing. Think about it. We we
we lost fifty one to nothing, We lost forty one
to ten. You know, then we come back four weeks
later and beat that same Cleveland team at home, and
by the end of the year, we're one drop passed
from the f C Championship game, you know, I mean,
it's an incredible turn round. But it was the belief
(30:01):
number one in in Chuck Noll, And it was Chuck's
belief in his team, and that sort of bonding just
kept building throughout the year. Is as awful as it
seemed and as awful as it looked in the initial stages,
it got better and better and better because guys were
willing to grind and think about this year. If you
(30:22):
look at the standings, and I know we're early, but
I only see three teams playing great football right now.
We saw one yesterday. I believe the Kansas City Chiefs
are and I know the Philadelphia Eagles are playing great football.
I think everybody else is kind of middle is. Well,
we've just seen crazy things happen every week. Well last week,
(30:42):
didn't somebody say last week that fifteen of the sixteen
games were decided by a single score in the fourth quarter?
I think, yeah, yeah, yeah. The a f C North,
we're literally averaging one win a week per four teams.
You know, I mean last night, I mean the week
(31:05):
before I told you this, Billy, I was like, literally US,
Baltimore and Cleveland all scored twenty points in the game
and lost. The only one that won was the Thursday
nighter with Cincinnati that was twenty five points to seventeen. Like,
we're not that far away. We're two We're two wins
outside inside of being in first place in this division.
(31:26):
That's just how depresses this. Most teams usually pull away.
But like you said, the rest of the league is
not playing high value football except for three of them,
and everybody else is looking very mediocre and as strong
as we thought that a f C West was going
to be, it has floundered. It is just Kansas City.
Look at the Los Angeles Chargers. Yes, they beat they
(31:48):
beat the Browns yesterday. They haven't been playing good football. Hell,
I watched I watched the actual Jaguars beat them into
the ground. And then you look at who oh the
Las Vegas Raiders, Las Vegas Raiders, their records looking like ours.
And so I'm just saying that in the Denver Broncos,
I'm not even gonna go there. I think there you
(32:11):
talk about take I'm like, listen, hey, I feel bad
for you guys right now. Wow buy or beware um.
But the rest of this league is not playing phenomenal um,
and there's still a chance we're not out of this race.
And like I said, we've just started the second quarter
of this season. Um. And like I said, it's inches away,
inches away from the tables being turned. If guys just
(32:33):
continue to walk down the path, just continue to walk
down the path, eventually, good things are gonna happen. This
Tampa Bay Bucks team. Yes, they had a great record
last year. This isn't the same Bucks team from last
year or the year before that, or the year before
that when Tom Brady was there. This is a very
different team. And if you could just do the little
things right. Everybody focused on doing the little things right,
(32:56):
not great things. But I'm not asking for everybody to
come out. Every dB needs a turn over, every every
downlinement needs a sack or TfL. No, do the little
things right and be a part of the collective and
be a part of the solution and not the problem,
and good things will happen, all right, well, coach Tomlin
said after the game, changes could be on the way.
Wasn't taking anything off the table. He'll speak to the
(33:18):
media tomorrow. We're gonna take a break here on the
point after and when we return, will debate, discuss if
there are any changes that can be made. You're listening
to d V will be right back back to the
Point After, brought to you by Parks Casino on dv E. Man,
you play like we played today. Man, you've got to
be open to doing whatever is required to change the
the outcome of these games, and so that's a given. Um,
(33:41):
I don't think anybody is going to be surprised by
our willingness to turn over whatever stone to change the
outcome of games like transpired today. That's just appropriate. Welcome
back to the Point After, everybody, Miss Matthews with Bill
hill Grove, Craig Wolfley and Max Starks and our third
and final segment is brought to you by clear View
Federal Credit Union. For every turnover the Black and Gold
(34:03):
creates in two thousand and twenty two, clear View Federal
Credit Union will donate five dollars to the Light of
Life Rescue Mission clear View helping people to enjoy a
better life. Visit clear View f CU dot org slash touchdown.
We'll get to changes that we think could happen moving forward.
But Max, I am told that you you did some
(34:24):
research during the commercial break for us yes, I did.
I wanted to for journalistic integrity. Is we don't have
that on the show. Yeah. Um, the worst loss I
ever took, we actually to zip against Baltimore. That was
my worst loss of my career. Oh, you're not near
(34:47):
as good as I am in losing games. No, I'm not.
I'm a horrible loser. I will admit that on the airwaves.
I don't do well with losing, so I don't do
was losing the problem is part of what has lost
big Oh Max. What he's trying to say is you're
(35:09):
the prince of futility. He's the king. Yes, that's exactly Yeah,
that's exactly what it was. But I wanted to make
sure that, yes I have I have lost a game
by twenty seven points, so I said, So, we lost
the game by four scores before um against Baltimore. And
I remember that I toured my knee in that game, Halody,
(35:30):
not a set on my knee and tour my meniscus.
So I remember that game vividly. But that's probably that. Yeah,
that's the worst loss. But yeah, so I've never experienced
this type of loss. I mean, I probably have to
go back to early football days, which I don't remember,
and they don't have records. You can't research that. I'm saying,
I'm Jones high School Tigers is not is not in
(35:51):
the database. I'm saying that he picked on somebody his
own size. I mean, we could look at it that way.
What's that Helodi max I did? Well? You know what,
you know the official title of his name is a
whole lot of nogging? Is really what it is. I
mean that man had a big cranium. I'm telling you
(36:12):
what head? Yeah, that was a matter of fact. I
asked Casey Hampton one time. I said, who's got the
bigger nogging? You or Helodi? Helodi's got the weight bigger head.
One year at one year at Pitt Camp. Uh, Ironhead
couldn't practice because they didn't have a helmet big enough.
And I said, barge coming up the river is sending
(36:34):
up to borrow air dropped a dropped onto the field.
All right, Billy, we heard what coach Tomlins said about
you know, regrouping changes. Are there changes that can be made?
He didn't take anything off the table in terms of personnel, players, coaches.
What what can be done to try to fix this? Well, Uh,
(36:57):
let's start with a return game, there's gonna regain his status.
I think that's a good question, right, I mean, I
you're not You're not you know, you don't know that
sim is gonna get hurt in pregame. And then I'm
still trying is they're trying to feel to kick off
in that wind? How did he he Obviously he didn't
have his helmet on for that ball to be able
(37:18):
to go through his hands and hit him in the eye. Yeah,
it was like early pregame warm ups apparently not like
just okay, important safety tip, Stephen, put your helmet on. Okay,
that's what we got. Job note one is safety. Okay,
that's Mike Pursuit always used to say. Job one is safety. Absolutely. Yeah,
(37:39):
it's a helmet for a reason. They give you a
helmet for a reason. Yeah. Now that that that that
is a good question. I mean, and the specialty there
were opportunities in the special team's game, right, I mean,
there was some great opportunities um that we didn't capture.
But I think it comes down to really, I mean,
execution the minute detail offensively and defensively, you know, and
(38:03):
it really makes a big difference because, like you said,
you don't have guys like Cam Haywards getting double teamed,
all right, and Alex Highsmith, you know, is getting is
getting attention as well off the edges, so other guys
have to step in and do their job to the
best of ability. Cam's not gonna jump three gaps over
to make a tackle, right, you know, Just stay in
your gap. Don't try and jump out the gap as
(38:26):
well trying to make another play and expecting somebody else
to make the play. Just do your job. I think
that's where's a little bit too much hero ball in
those moments. And then for receivers and running backs, hit
the holes, make yourself open, offensive line block it right it.
We're saying these very simple, rudimentary terms, but if you
(38:46):
just focus in on that's how that's as easy as
the job is in those moments. But it comes down
to trust guys have. These are new guys playing together,
a lot of new guys playing together, so the trust
isn't there, and it's about working towards building that trust.
I told Wolf this earlier in the show. I said,
(39:07):
if you're going home after practice and you're sitting at
home by yourself, sitting on the couch playing Call of Duty,
or Madden or FIFA or whatever game that they play. Now.
I know I play Call of Duty, um, and you
know your buddy sitting at home playing on his instead
of playing over the internet. Invite the dude over to
your house. Order some door dash. I don't know, you
(39:27):
know popular some hot pockets are to I don't even
know what they eat nowadays, but you know what I'm saying,
like like like just be together. They're in the frozen
section at the grocery store. Everybody could have them. You
get a crustable, you get on crustal, everybody gets. I
did see it was either this past week or the
(39:49):
week before. The offensive line did go to talk golf
together on Thursday night, So I knew that that was
something you had talked about earlier this year. Max. So
that bonding is happening. Keep shop. They're looking good and
they're looking better together because of that. It takes those
little moments. Yes, all right, Well, don't forget about the
Steelers Pro Shop. You can gear up with the latest
(40:10):
Sideline apparel, hats or jerseys of your favorite players, authentic memorabilia,
custom items, and exclusives you can find only directly from
the team at one of the Steelers official pro shops
located Acuser Stadium, Grove City Premium Outlets, or Tanger outlets,
or you can shop online at shop dot Steelers dot com.
Thanks so much for joining us here tonight on the
Point after for Bill Hill, Grove Craig Willfully a, Max Starks,
(40:32):
and Miss Matthews. We'll see everybody back here Monday night.
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