Week 8 @ Eagles

Missi Matthews, Bill Hillgrove, Max Starks and Craig Wolfley break down the Steelers loss to Philadelphia Sunday afternoon.

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Episode Transcript

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. When you play like that,
you know, it tells on yourself and um, there's a dysfunction. Uh,

(00:23):
and what we're putting on the field right now, hy Boddy,
Welcome to the Point After. I'm Missy Matthews with Bill
hill Grove and Craig Wolfley. Max Starks will be joining
us in just a little bit, and we are unfortunately
spending this Halloween evening discussing the steelers thirty five to
thirteen loss to the Philadelphia Eagles yesterday at Lincoln Financial Field.

(00:45):
The Steelers are now two and six heading into their
bye week, and our first segment tonight is brought to
you by Brian Patton and associates. It's all about the benefits,
al right, guys. Um, it was not a pleasant day
in Philadelphia, and sometimes you start to feel like it
can't get worse. But for whatever reason, Billy, yesterday, when
I started to get that feeling, it did actually continue

(01:07):
to get worse. I had a good feeling the night
before and even the morning of that was at Chief
Steak Cooked at a halftime that's where you were supposed
to be as an eleven point underdog. I felt okay,
but I thought things would get better the second half,
and unfortunately, on both sides of the ball, that did

(01:28):
not happen. And I think you can summarize the game
by looking at nine splash plays. One team had seven
and the other had too, no doubt about it, you know,
But I will say this, Um, I don't think in
my gullet I was feeling quite as comfortable as you were.
But I thought, you know what, I think this team might,

(01:49):
you know, could really get busted loose. But once that
first one dropped in that thirty nine yard or that
went on to uh, you know Brown in between Minca
and Terrell Edmonds, you get that feeling. And I've had
this feeling as a player. That's the problem. That's too easy,
That's just that was just too easy. Now is that

(02:09):
gonna be kind of like a symbol of how this
day is gonna go? Or can we you know, get
on our horses, get something going here? But it just
got worse, like you said, and that was, And I
know these guys got to be so frustrated. I I
have been here, we were one in seven back in eight,
and I can tell you the sort of animosity that

(02:31):
that you know, guys were feeling. You didn't mean to be,
you know, kind of nasty to each other and all,
but you know, it just came, it comes out. You know,
you just get frustrated so much and it just And
that's one thing I hope these guys don't do that.
You gotta stay together, stay cool, keep it within the
confines of the locker room, and keep fighting together. Because

(02:53):
I'll tell you this. I'll tell you a quick story.
We were one and seven at the turnaround. We're going
to the airport. Now. I had to cry, Um, the
meniscus in my knee in the very first quarter of
the first game of the season. So the whole season
was just going wrong. You know, my my knee was
just you know, you'd practice for a couple of days
and you can't walk, and you know that that sort

(03:13):
of thing you play the game, can't walk that. So anyhow, um,
we're going to the airport and touch and are riding
together and uh, we're walking along and it's just my
knee is bothering me. He's he's being a jerk. I'm
being a jerk, you know. And all of a sudden,
we are chinned to chin in the airport and we're
about we're about start swinging, okay at the old Pittsburgh Airport,

(03:34):
And all of a sudden, this elderly couple comes walking
behind twitch and I see them, and she stops and
pauses for a moment as I'm heatedly pointing at touch
and he's saying something I don't remember, and she says, Fred, Look,
there's no wonder they're losing. They're fighting with each other,
and that's it's just kind of like, whoa, Okay, we
gotta back off here. This is just getting stupid, you know.

(03:56):
And I think that's to be taken. Uh, we're some context.
If you see or hear a player pop off or
point of finger or you know, I mean, that's understandable.
It's human nature, massive frustration. Yeah, and everybody's looking for
a reason why we were in this predicament, and especially
the players, like they're looking around and saying, why why

(04:19):
did this happen? You know? Yeah, well I think you know,
being on the sideline yesterday. There was frustration. Absolutely. I
didn't feel like players were going at each other. Now,
granted this was during the game. I'm sure team meeting,
team run, everything that they had to do today wasn't
fun because you know where you sit and you're heading

(04:40):
into the bye week. And I was going to save
this little tidbit for later in the show, but I
think we need to pick me up early, guys. So
credit to Jerry Doolack. He had tweeted today that in
Bill Coward's final season in two thousand and six, the
Steedlers started two and six. They did finish the season
eight and eight, and they started the or six in

(05:00):
to turn around with a victory at home against the
I'll let you guess the opponent, New Orleans. You got it,
you know. And then Michael Bert from the Steeler's PR
department followed that up by saying, you know, twelve teams

(05:21):
have rebounded from two and six, either go eight and
eight or nine and seven. During the sixteen game NFL
era UM and Pittsburgh did it twice two thousand and six,
is Jerry had described in that first tweet, and also
two thousand and thirteen, the Steelers were owing four, coming
home off of a London trip. Uh. They ended up
finished the season eight and eight as well, just missed

(05:44):
the playoffs thanks to a field goal gone wrong in
a different stadium after they handled their business. So still close.
But yeah, that's my that's my glimmer of hope for
everybody today. Other than the Halloween candy that hopefully you're enjoying.
Could that have been Ryan suck up? Yes, you're correct.
How about me pulling that out of the hat? Man
you are like tonight? I am two for two as usually,

(06:07):
I'm wearing the Dunce cap. But don't get me to
try to predict anything. You know, the splash plays, Uh,
you know you give them credit. I mean Jalen Hurts
and I thought when we saw him in the preseason
last year that he was going to be a liability
and uh, you tip tip your hat. I mean those
passes were right where they should be. And give a

(06:30):
j Brown credit and Zach Pascal and whoever else caught
a touchdown pass. You know that that that that was
pretty magical And there's no no wonder why Philadelphia seven
and oh m we have Max with us now, and Max,
we missed you in Philly. But I guess give us
your pick, your perspective, your big picture, after you sit

(06:53):
back and think about what you saw happen yesterday, well
and hello everyone to um. You know, it's one of
those things that I didn't have a high expectation for
this game. I wanted to see competition. I wanted to
see the Steeler squad be competitive with this Philly squad.

(07:14):
But you know, it's one of those things where you
come into it and you know you already got a
hand tie behind your back, right, Chris Boswell's out, Larry Ogan,
Joe b uh kind of wathers from coming off of injury,
Like there was so many different factors that made you
feel like, okay, just let's try and get out of
a healthy right because there's the bye onto the bye
and a lot of intents and purposes. But I thought

(07:34):
there was there's that growth, But then there's that frustration,
right because you see the offense moving the ball and
having these long drives, but it doesn't necessarily translate to
points every time. And when there's that push moment, we
haven't quite figured out what where the button is right blindfolded,
And I think that's kind of one of the things

(07:54):
where it's just you're on the edge of your seat
and literally for me on as of my see since
I was not there, you know, just just looking and
wanting for that moment to happen, and you're like, it's
just there and it doesn't. Like you said, defensively, you know,
it's tough when you have a squad like Philly, right
and like you said, Billy Jalen hurts. You look at

(08:15):
what he's done from last year to this year two
just become a more complete quarterback. I mean, you have
to remember also, the Philadelphia Eagles offense is only surrendered
to giveaways. They've only given the ball away twice at
this point through this point of the year, and their
defense is very aggressive and they play off of this.
They're like, well, our team is gonna take care of

(08:35):
the ball, so we can go be more aggressive to
go get the ball. And that's been a part of
their recipe of success. And you know, the Steelers squad,
I felt like, you know when when you're looking at
the first half, I'm like, okay, all right, and then
it's like the adjustments and then you realize the lack
of depth starts to starts to play a very big
role um as we get later into the game. But

(08:56):
I'm still encouraged. I mean, I'm not frustrated with this team.
I'm not upset with this team. I've already put it
in my mind where we're at is that this is
learning and growing. When you made the switch to put
Kenney Pickett at the starting quarterback position, this is what
you surrender to is that we are now a growing
and building team and that the rest of the team

(09:17):
can only grow as fast as the quarterback can grow.
And everybody has to do their part to do that.
And that and we just need to be healthier. And
I think this by came at a perfect timing where
we needed that health. We need guys to get on
the mend and take a week off to just heal
their bodies up, and then by the end of it,
hopefully we do get a difference maker, a catalyst in

(09:39):
t J. Watt that now comes back on the field
when we take when we take it again against the Saints,
and that will hopefully show another level and maybe that
speeds up a little bit of the learning curve and
the learning process for the younger side of the ball,
which is the offense so Maxim, will you know, going
into a bye week like this, knowing where they sit,

(10:01):
the frustration that's trickling over amongst the guys because they
have playmakers. Of course some are injured, but they have
guys that are capable of, you know, trying to help
us become a good football team. And what do you
do to get through the bye week to a You
need to rest and recharge first and foremost, but also
you want to get better as a team, you want
to get better individually. So how do you handle that

(10:23):
when you're in this situation where you know the Eagles
probably enjoyed their bye week. You know they were still
undefeated last week when they had time off. I'm sure
they still did a lot of stuff as well, a
lot of work. It's not like you just sit back
and say, well, we're underfeeded, we don't need to do anything.
But specifically for this Steelers squad and being so young,
what's the key for them? I think what you gotta
do is you gotta have some of your older gents

(10:46):
telling the young bucks this is the way we're going
to go about business. And the coaches, of course, are
going to schedule things. You have an itinera. I believe
there's like four consecutive days you have to have off
during the bye week now, so they say Friday, Saturday,
Sunday will be for the Steelers. There you go. So
what you want to do is you want to spend

(11:06):
some time this weekend's uh reassess self scouting and getting
yourself right in dloading. I mean to me, Max and
I were talking about this this morning. You know the
important things are to make sure that you understand where
you are physically and mentally as a player. What are
you gonna do because everybody's got to take accountability here,
there's no more of you know, no, can't be any

(11:26):
finger point or anything like that. You gotta understand this
is where we are. Like Max said, okay, so where
do we gotta go from here? What do we gotta
work with? If I'm m Kello Witherspoon, I gotta reassess
what it means to play one on one down the sideline,
playing a little butt ball, playing along the sidelines, using
that that sidelines as a twelve defender, going through the
mechanics of of running in in in coverage with a

(11:50):
man locating the ball, snapping your head around reaching for
his hands when he reaches for the ball. All these
little triggers and little things that you gotta do. And
I'm just using the Kellow as that because look, you know,
you had a tough day. I would be the first
guy to put my hand up and say I have
been a killer. Not not in a corner, but I
have had my share of rough days out there. So

(12:11):
and understanding that you gotta take this time to get right,
which means get your body and make sure that you
get your rest and rehab, prehab all that stuff that
you need, but also take the time to really come
to grips with where you are and what you gotta do.
And then you gotta go about and be determined once
you come back. You gotta make sure you are determined
to do the very best you can to correct those

(12:32):
those things that are have been you know, you've been
messing up well. And I think also it's it's like
you said, well if I mean this is also a
chance to refocus yourself, to recenter. I mean we talked
about it in the show. We had our three checklist
items you know that we had to go about. You know,
one was time off as time to heal that was

(12:52):
the first one that we talked about. You've got to
heal your body, so the extra treatment, the extra contrast
hot and cold U hot cold laser therapy, hyper barrick.
I don't even care anything that you think is gonna
help you placebo or not. That's the one thing, don't
exactly exactly maple bacon bar go ahead and handle your business. Yeah.

(13:19):
And then the second thing that we talked about Wolf
was self evaluate, self scout. That means now you have
a chance as the week is off to go back
and watch and take stock of the previous eight games.
Because usually when you're in the middle of it, Missy
and build, you focus on it for like twenty four hours,
maybe forty eight hours, but then you wipe the slate

(13:40):
clean and go to the next one, right, wash, rents, repeat.
But now you actually have a chance where you can
go and really look at your film individually as as
a player, and you can check my footwork, how did
my footwork progress from week one to week eight? How
was my hand placement? How what are my run keys?

(14:01):
You know, how did I how did I get out
of my brakes or how how did I anticipate someone's
like you get to actually and we talked. I talked
about this earlier. Wolf I said, it's like taking the
trash out, dumping it out and actually sorting it. That's
what you get to do with the bye week. So
that was another very important factor that I felt every
good player should know that. And that's another thing the
VET should be talking to the young guys. If they

(14:21):
don't know how to do that, that you should do that.
And then the third thing was take time to breathe.
And what I mean by that is do something to
get your mind away from football. This is your decompression
deloading period that Wolf was talking about. This is your
de escalation time. You get a week off to actually
go and just relax, relax, take your mind off of it,

(14:45):
because it's good for mental health. It's good to give
yourself a self scan and check yourself head to toe
mentally and say, okay, how do I feel, how do
my shoulders field? How does my next field? How does
this feel? You know, you start to go through all
the way down to your toes and you give yourself
that time to just heal inside because you're going to
have a big push come in the second half. So
those are the three things that you really have to

(15:07):
get in tune with, you know, during this time off,
because like you said, you're gonna have mandatory four days off,
but the time that you're there, take it, use it, evaluate,
build yourself back up, but also physically repair yourself in
the same time, and then be able to just take
that mental escape before you get back into the gauntlet.
Come next week, alright, guys, we have much more to

(15:30):
talk about the Steelers thirty five to thirteen loss against
the Eagles yesterday in Philadelphia. We're gonna talk about the
Steelers defense, Kenny Pickett's performance heading into the bye week,
and also some favorite can Halloween candy talk. We're gonna
have a little bit of fun, even though it doesn't
feel like we should on this evening, So get those
answers readies will do that and much more when we return.

(15:52):
You're listening to w d V Back to the Point After,
brought to you by Parks Casino on DV. Pick it
under center jet motion, Chase has it and he throws
it for a touchdown. Chase was handed off on the
jet sweep right to left, and as he came to
the five yard line, he spotted Derek what what second

(16:15):
reception of the game and the Steelers march at seventy
five yards at store welcome back to the point after
everybody miss Matthews, Bill Hill, Grow, Craig Bifflee and Max Starks.
It's Halloween. There are kids trigger treating and yesterday, Billy
that touchdown from Chase Claypool to Derek Watts certainly was
a treat. Uh, something that caught a lot of people,

(16:36):
including the Philadelphia Eagles off Guarden. At that point in
the game, you're thinking, all right, they're gonna hang in
there with these guys. I did. I had that thought,
and unfortunately there were still unraveling that I didn't see
out in front of me. And uh, you know, it's, uh,
it's a sad day to get embarrassed like that because

(16:56):
it's a second time this year that a quality team
has done that to us. But you hope now that
these are lessons learned and that you know, there's nothing
you can do about two and six. It's there. The
record is there, So let's forget about that during the
buy and as Max says, relax and look forward and

(17:16):
this is what this team has to do. There's no
doubt about it. You know what I mean, you are
where you are and Max makes that point very very well.
And the fact of the matter is I was excited
because you know, that's a difference, that's a scripting of
plays that we had not seen and the proper execution.
And Chase Claypool did a beautiful job. As I said,
it was the Canadian connection when you had Matt Canada,

(17:38):
you know, as scripting it so that a Canadian born
Chase Claypool takes that ball and throws it, uh, you know,
to to Derek Watt. So um. I was all excited
about it. And it's unfortunate that the momentum did not
shift at that point in time to the Steelers. It
went the other way, of course, with what was coming
up well, and I think, so what what made it,

(18:01):
you know tough was you know, you get the ball first,
and you you have you have a quick series, you're
out of there, and then Philly comes down and marches.
The most important thing was now we've got to answer,
and boom we do. But then they come back and
they answer our answer, and and then and then and

(18:24):
then they kept ringing the bell. You know, it was
and we didn't really have an answer for it. You know,
I will say this, you know, happy that we found
you know, a capable kicker in Nick Skiba to come
in and and fill in for Chris Boswell as he
was out with injury. But you can't trade field goals
in touch for touchdowns um against a top quality opponent.

(18:46):
It just this is the result that you get is
that they just continually get you know, get on it.
And I think the other thing was, you know, Jalen
Hurts his connection with A. J. Brown was just that
was tough. I mean that that minded me of Stefon
Diggs right and Josh Allen. You know, they had they
had this where they could just get the ball to

(19:07):
each other and no matter what the circumstances was, and
they just had innate feel for each other, almost like telepathy.
And that's tough. That's tough to break up, especially if
you don't have that pass rush that's getting to Jalen Hurstson,
putting him on the ground consistently and forcing him into
bad situations, you know, because like you say, still leaves

(19:27):
the day only two giveaways for that Eagles offense, and
that's that's just tough. You have to disrupt you know,
their rhythm, their timing and you know, shake the apple
cart a little bit and hopefully, hopefully some of some
of those fall to the ground. But it didn't, it
didn't shake our way yesterday. Well think about this too.
That's a defense that has been taking the ball away
one out of every five or six possessions, you know.

(19:48):
I mean, that's that's just a smoking defense over there.
They and they get the job done and it you know,
and it showed yesterday and you know, unfortunately we weren't
able to overcome it. But that was a very high,
you know, high intensity, high velocity, ballistic violence in your
heart type of defense. They were hitting like crazy out there.
I don't you know, I don't know, you know, It's

(20:10):
just one of those things. It's a learning experience for Kenny,
that's where it is. It's a learning experience for everybody.
And everybody's got to be able to think in terms
of the fact, this is all of us together, all
hands in the pile, and you're gonna have to hang
together and turn this thing around. It's like turning a
cruise ship around. It's very difficult when you have a
two and six record to come back out and try

(20:32):
to reverse this thing, but it can be done all
in our segment tonight. The second one is brought to
you by the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank and Dawn's Appliance.
For every field goal we kick this season, Dawn's Appliance
will donate one thousand dollars to the Greater Pittsburgh Community
Food Bank. That's five thousand meals each time. So thank
you to Dawn's Appliance, and you can donate to by

(20:54):
texting goals to five zero one five and sticking uh here.
On Kenny Pickett, Max, I think you said a little
bit earlier, you know, once you made the switch to
Kenny Pickett, going with the rookie quarterback, you bench Mitch
Trabinski at halftime of that Jets game, knowing what these
opponents were. I don't think this was ideal, and probably
the situation they wanted to put him in. Coach Tomlin

(21:16):
felt like it was the right move. And once you're
stuck with it, you knew what the road ahead was
going to be leading up into this bye week. And
sure you can look ahead and say, well, the schedule
gets much easier, but the chunk of where he got
his first NFL experience was anything, but you know, making
your start in Buffalo against the Bills that you just
finished against the undefeated Philadelphia Eagles. Um, how do you

(21:37):
assess what we've seen from him? I know it's a
small sample size, but you know, as we're heading into
the by and looking forward to the rest of the season,
what you've seen from number eight? Well, the first thing
I think I could say, miss is that number eight
is tough. You know, I think that's really the most
important thing. And you're absolutely right. I mean, we've talked
about this, I think with all of you, all of you,

(21:58):
we've had this conversation about if there was a time
to make a switch, if things weren't going well, it
was gonna be at this moment, the bye week, and
then you give Kenny a week to kind of get
himself underneath himself, and then you get that that game
week of preparation, so you almost get like a two
week build up before it's unveiled. But unfortunately that wasn't

(22:22):
the way that coach Tomlins saw it. He was like,
we need a spark, and the moment he felt he
felt like he said, when you know, you know, and
so I don't never I'll never question you know, his
his thought process and the field that he has, the
instinctual nature that he has for this game. Um, but
it wasn't under the most ideal it was under duress.

(22:43):
And then like you said, to have these games that
came right after it be all under duress as well
until the bye is it's very tough. But I think
I say that Kenny's tough. He's a tough minded individual.
He's not someone who's gonna wilt under pressure. And we
see him resting, like between the twenties. You can see,

(23:03):
you know, a drastic improvement from the first game to now,
but where we are still struggling as obviously we're still
having you know, the nuances of the red zone and
being able to finish off those drives. We can get
through too, like you said, stacked ten plus play drives
and we're getting off two faster starts than we had

(23:23):
been previously. But it's still not translating itself in points.
We're getting the time of possession battle one, but the
points must must equal one point per minute of of
of time on the field. That's how you evaluate, um
the production on the field, and if you have playing
winning or losing football. Look at that time of possession.
Look at your score. If it's close, good, if you

(23:47):
exceeded it better, But when you fall drastically below it,
that's when it's tough. And that that and that's the that,
and that's a that's a clear sign of young guys
coming together and going through the growing pains right now,
and that and that learning curve that's necessary for all
those young guys out there. There's a bunch of young guys.
It's not just Kenny. There's a lot of youth on

(24:08):
that football team playing right now, and especially on the
offensive side of the ball. And we already know that
offense is one that takes a little bit longer to click.
But once that chemistry hits, it's amazing. But getting to
that point is very tough. And you know, you've got
a rookie rd receiver out there, You've got a second
year tight end, second year left tackle, you know, second

(24:29):
year running back in the backfield, and then you have
a rookie quarterback to boot on top of that, and
then two new offensive life. That's a lot to overcome
and expect a team to just come out the gates
firing and be excellent and they rushed for one four yards.
I know that's lost in you know, this this gloom,
but you know that's still a step forward in my estimation.

(24:52):
And I look at this, if you know, I go
back to uh, you go back to the Miami game
with the three great throws that he made, including the
fourth and six with the twenty one yard and the
friar mouth over the middle. That window was so narrow,
and yet he had the courage to stand in there
and go for the wind. He didn't throw to the
shorter routes on to the left while he was pickings.

(25:12):
To the right was Deonte. He went down the middle
and he went after it twenty one yards on a
fourth And say that takes courage. Man, I'm just I'm
just telling you I would have been the guy that
dropped it off the pickings or or somebody else. He
stood in there and and and delivered the ball. And
we watched him this past weekend in Philly, and I'll
bet you ten cheese steaks. You know that this guy,

(25:34):
this guy stood in there. It took hits like you
can't even believe. It didn't blink, you know, he took
a couple that rocked I thought really rocked him, and
he got up and acted like, you know, is that
the best you got? So I'm like, okay, that that's
a true pick pits for a kid there. But you know,
you don't want him to have to, you know, suffer that.
But it is part and parts of the growing I
think he's got a lot of courage. I think he's

(25:56):
got a lot of moxie smarts. He's a competitor, man.
I the way he competes, and he handles himself very
well in front of the microphone and the camera. Not
that that's really important. Well, no, you know, I'm just
saying in the game, that's all I'm saying. Oh no, no,
but sometimes rookies don't know that they and they Yeah.

(26:20):
But to your point, Billy, I sorry, go ahead, Max,
Oh no, no, no, no, no, go go ahead, Missy.
I'll get into it a little bit later. Okay. I
was just that means Max has a lot to say.
I just want to quickly jump in on what you said.
I agree, Yes, you care about what they do on

(26:40):
the football field. And to wolves point, of course, guys
can say things in the media and in front of
a camera that can get them in trouble. I think though,
Kenny just you know, he's not a captain. I get that,
but he has the quarterback of this football team right now.
And his press conference after the game yesterday, I wasn't
there for it live. I read it and then I
went back and I walked. He just has that command

(27:01):
of like, here's what's wrong. We're not detailed enough. We
need to study the playbook more, we need to do
it together. He just was listing all of the different things,
not placing blame, and kept you know, kept it very straightforward.
There's not talent issues. We need to do a better
job of getting in the right spot, knowing what we're doing,
the procedural penalties. He just listed things and how they

(27:23):
can't improve them. I just think from a leadership standpoint,
the second that he became the guy, it just felt
like he took over this offense and wants to be
the person that everybody follows. And I know that's natural
because it's the quarterback position, but it's one thing if
you can actually do it, and it feels like guys
are buying in and I think, you know, for anybody
who hasn't had a chance to check out what he
said post game. I would do so because it's the

(27:45):
same carry over that we've seen the past few games.
But I just thought last night he was very poignant
and and very um not I don't want to say descriptive,
but just very sturdy and what he was saying and
what he believed. And there is no letdown from him,
no uh, no fight that will be let go from
him in terms of trying to write the ship. As
you said, well, and I think I think that that

(28:09):
that's the that's the toughness you know that I was
definitely referencing, is that you know, he takes it personal
and he's not gonna be denied like like this week
is gonna, I feel, be very constructive for Kenny Pickett.
I just hope that everybody else around him also looks
at this as a constructive drill, not a destructive drill,

(28:34):
and not a finger pointing contest pin the tail on
the donkey. I want people to realize, Hey, let me
make sure I'm not the donkey first off and foremost
before I go anywhere else, you know, And that's why
I said, self, scout, self, evaluate yourselves. That's the first thing.
Look inward before you project outward, and I think Kenny's

(28:54):
that type that's going to look inward before he projects
outward and understand where is he at right now? Where
did he think he was going to be and where
is he actually and what's the difference between the two,
and what does it take? What steps need to be
put in place in order for him to get to
where he thinks he should be. And I think that

(29:15):
that's an important aspect of it, that it's very important.
I know he's often overlooked and we can talk about
natural athleticism and talent, but my former teammate, heines Ward,
gave me a T shirt um a long time ago,
was one of his football camps. Does it still fit? Yes?
It still I do. I know peanut gallery over like jelly.

(29:41):
I don't like peanuts. This this is what trust me.
It goes the other way too. Oh yeah, No, I
mean I ras Wolf every morning. I get he's so sleepy,
but it's that hard work beats talent when talent doesn't
work hard and always stuck with me because that's the

(30:02):
epitome of hines Ward, right, I mean, hines was a
guy that just was not going to be denied and
outwork everybody because he knew he didn't have tens. I mean,
the man didn't have a c l S for God's sakes.
So but he lasted as long as he did the
NFL and became a Super Bowl MVP with no a
c l S. So you know, that's that's what it
just and when you're But the other side of that
is when you are talented and you do work hard, whoa,

(30:26):
it's ridiculous and that just takes you to a different level.
So I think that's where you have to have that
type of energy going into this week. That's the vibe
you need to be feeling. Is that is that you
know what, I know, I'm talented, but I need to
work harder, or if I'm not as talented, I darn
sure need to work harder. Alright, guys, we're gonna take

(30:47):
one more break, and I promised. We're talking Halloween candy
first thing to start our next segment, plus a little
bit more about the Steelers defense heading into the bye week.
We'll do that and more when we return. You're listening
to the Point After on w d D. Back to
the Point After brought to you by Parks Casino on
d V everybody. Welcome back to the point after. I'm

(31:11):
Miss Matthews with Bill hill Grove, Craig Wiffly and Max Starks.
Our third and final segment is brought to you by
clear View Federal Credit Union. For every turn over the
black from Black and Gold, excuse me. Creating 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 You

(31:32):
clear View f CU dot org slash touchdown. All right,
Happy Halloween, guys. We're gonna still talk a little more
Steelers football. But it is Halloween, and I need to
know everybody's favorite candy and then your least favorite candy.
Billy will start with you. Candy corn is my favorite? Okay,

(31:53):
least favorite. I don't know, m M. I can't come
up with. There's not one, You're like, I won't eat it. No, no,
there isn't. Unfortunately there oh no. Who hands out anchovies

(32:13):
and on Halloween that's definitely trick. Oh yeah, maybe an
old Italian neighborhood. Good good luck. I like Mounds bars,
you know, the coconut and all that stuff. I'm enjoy
that sort of thing. Oh yeah, what about the least favorite,

(32:35):
least favorite right twigs? Because you know you got left
and right twigs. I like left twigs. Jeez, it's such
low hanging fruit. You know, we're just gonna step over
that one. But I will say this, I'm I'm a
butterfinger guy. Butterfinger, I love butterfingers. Butterfing Yeah, butterfingers and

(33:00):
peanut eminems are probably my two favorite. Peanut m and m's.
You know what I like to do. Peanut m and
m's and regular eminem's. You mix them together, it's like
trail mix everything else that's that's actually just Eminem's. But okay,
there's nothing healthy and then okay, no, but but at

(33:20):
least favorite is actually what your favorite is? Well, I
can't do mounds are all joys. So we could definitely
definitely go trick or treating together because we can trade
off and it would actually be equal trade, so we
can get what we wanted. And also nobody would tell
us know, so we can get a lot more. Can't
you imagine us two stew just going up and down
in neighborhood? I can I can imagine you're at my

(33:43):
door and my one fingure on the button to call
the police, exactly like we're here for the We're here
for the shots, sir. Just just poured in the bag.
Spoored in the bag. No, no, But I think the
funny thing is is that, like I feel like if
if Wolf and I did, it could be like a
Mario and Luigi thing, you know what I'm saying. I
feel like we we could definitely put a little mask on,

(34:05):
wear some overalls and he I wear green, he'd wear red,
and I feel like we would we would blend in
perfectly with all the trigger treaders there you go. I
would love to see this. I feel like we can
still do this. That's Halloween. Spirit of Halloween. Go what
they have a discount after the night. Anyways, you got

(34:26):
to move all that product. I don't know we can
find it. Maybe. You know it's really bad when you
go that one Halloween too many, you know what I mean,
when you just you should have shut it down when
you're you know, that one year younger, and then you
go one more, and then the people in the neighborhood
of going you're even wearing a costume and put a
costume on you like, why why do you have a shot?

(34:47):
Why do you have a shopping bags? You ever had
a little pumpkin pail or anything? You're just about them.
You bound the biggest bag you can find. Just go
ahead to stumping in stumping in oh, man, I was
only forty five the last time I went exactly should
have shut down? What about you, missy? What's your favorite? Man?

(35:11):
I love you guys, But the fact that no one
said Reese's Cup is a favorite. Yeah, my feeling, it's
a top it's the top five, it's a top five. Yeah,
that's that's definitely in the conversation. That's Rec's cups. These
pieces peanut butter Eminem's, they're like the unforgotten Eminem's. Those
are fantastic, although usually nobody gives them out. It's funny.

(35:34):
Dan Quinlin, who helps, you know, produce our game broadcast.
On the plane yesterday on the way home, he was
joking slash not joking that he was telling his son,
you know, his first time really trick or treating. Just
always grab an orange candy. Go for the orange one.
They're usually peanut butter. They're the better one. I guess
if I need some rec's cups. Yeah, if my boys

(35:56):
won't share with me, I'll have to steal from Henry.
But yeah, and uh, this is probably not a popular opinion,
but my least favorite is kick Cats. I just I
don't get the point of them. I don't love them. Now.
See that's my go to movie bar, you know, k Cats. Yeah,
I got a little crunch, a little crunch of vacation
going on there than Yeah, I mean yeah, Now, my

(36:18):
youngest daughter loves kick Cats, but my oldest she's a
Snickers fan, which is hilarious. Yeah, obviously jumped right on
that one. Yeah, but my top five. Yeah, see, and
she likes Reese's Pieces at the movie theater, my oldest, Yeah,
because she's like, you know, it's it's just like a

(36:40):
chocolate interce, peanut butter. You know, it's got the little
candy codd shell pops. You got a little crunch there.
So yeah, no, now, definitely. I remember as a kid
when you get the word from the neighborhood that so
and so mrs Mr and Mrs Jones up on the
next route over there giving out like really big pieces
of candy or something like, and everybody, yeah, yeah, you're

(37:02):
going like it's a mess, you know, mess, exit over
there and everybody hangs out there, and then you get
over there and all of a sudden you find out
everybody's already hit it up and there's no none left,
like bomber or the people that put them out and
say please take one, Like really, you're you're gonna trust
a sugar charge mob of children to just take one?

(37:22):
And then you put all of them and don't let
it be things that they like like sour Patch kids
or pummy bears and stuff like that, Like like you're
just saying, okay, one child, Mary, you know, happy Halloween,
here's your gift. Because if you find that first, guess
what you're taking it and nobody else is getting him.
Can I just tell you that I'm a hundred percent

(37:42):
guilty of doing that and I did it totally retired,
I know, but it was it was such a it
was such a bad move. Here's why I love Reci's cups.
So we had the big size Reci's Cups, which I
knew we're going to go quickly. But then I'm always like, well,
some kids might not like chocolate or maybe they're lactose intolerance.
So then we had race Crispy treats and them we

(38:04):
had gummy bears. I had too much of an option.
So exactly what happened, I'll have to look at my
ring camera, but I'm sure everybody just took one from
every single basket or they just dumped it. Because as
I was running back to my house for the show,
my one neighbor goes, um, there's somewhere candy at your
house if you need more, I have some down show.
You know what, It's fine. It was the thought that counted.

(38:26):
They totally rated me. But it's fine. Locked the door,
turn out the lights. That's business is closed. I did
my job. I know. I brought in my dish and
you know, my big Halloween candy bins and such as life.
So you snooze, you lose, Right's right? Very good? Alright,

(38:47):
one last point talking about Steeler's football here to keep
in line with talking about the defense, Let's take a
listen first to coach Tomlin yesterday after the game. He
was asked about A. J. Brown's touchdowns and if the
Steelers were in a good position or if they just
didn't make a play. You know, position is just a
component of playmaking. Um, the finishes probably is equally as

(39:08):
important as the positioning, and and we were in position,
but their guy made a play and we didn't. We
were in one of one circumstances on the other side
of the ball, and it was a different outcome. One
time we was out of bounds. One time it was
op I. One time to dot the ball, um the ground,
dislidged the ball. And you know that's that's the minutia,

(39:29):
that's the playmaking, that's the that's the difference. They were
making those plays and we were not. You know what's interesting.
I'm sorry, George Pickens that past interference that Mike was referencing.
I'm still scratching. I was. I just watched film on it.
That's like a ghost push off like Sunny Listen and

(39:52):
Muhammad Ali when Mom and Ali knocked out Sunny Listen.
They said it was a ghost punch. I mean I
ran it back and forth. I did not see it.
What I saw it was when Pickens pulled up in
his hand was out, and that's part of the problem.
You can't have your hand out. But the other the
the brad Berry. Bradberry actually slipped as he was trying
to come to a halt and come back on pickings

(40:12):
and I don't I didn't see the past inference, and
I was surprised. Yeah, it was it was strange, but
I mean, I I just feel like that crew um
was just out for penalties, right, I mean they were.
They were throwing penalties left or right now. Grant, I
will say this, a couple of them saved us, But
for the vast majority, I felt like we really you know,

(40:34):
it was just it was just they were they just
didn't like to stay to Pennsylvania. I felt like like,
I don't know where I don't know where they were from.
Are from Omaha, Yeah, exactly exactly. They're Peyton Manning fans. Anyways, No,
just chucking now, it's just the name um. But yeah,
I was I was like, you guys must not you
must not like anything in Pennsylvania, um, because I felt
like they came in and it was just that was

(40:55):
seventeen accepted penalties from both side, that which was just
in in order an amount of penalties in a game.
And it didn't look that sloppy. I know this, if
clip Blakeman came to my house trick or treating, he'd
be getting to the trick. Yeah. The razor blade in
the Apple or no, no, no, I haven't. I mean,

(41:19):
I'm just saying. I'm just saying. I mean, if it
happened to happen, I wouldn't feel that I'm not Freddy Krueger. Okay,
i mean, yeah, you're You're just a Wolfman. I'm sorry,
Sorry about that exactly. Oh alright, guys, well thanks for

(41:39):
helping everybody you know decipher get through that loss. The
Steelers now head into their bye week before returning home
on November to host the New Orleans Saints. We want
to remind everybody that the Steelers Pro Shop is the
best place to get up for the latest sideline apperil hats,
jerseys of your favorite players, authentic memorability of custom items,
and exclusive you could only find directly from the team

(42:01):
at one of the official Steelers Pro Shop stores located
at Akershuer Stadium, Grove City Premium Outlets, or Tanger Outlets,
or you can visit us online at shop dot Steelers
dot com. Happy bye week to you all. Enjoy the
must needed time off and we will regroup and get
ready for the Saints.