10/15/25: Mo Egger with Andrew Fillipponi From 93.7 The Fan in Pittsburgh

Andrew Fillipponi from 93.7 The Fan in Pittsburgh joined us to talk Bengals/Steelers.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's talk Steelers with a guy we get on the
show every time the Bengals play the Steelers, Andrew Philipponi
ninety three to seven in Pittsburgh. Let's start with this,
how would you encapsulate the Aaron Rodgers experience?

Speaker 2 (00:11):
So far, way better than I thought it would go.
I have enjoyed it almost from the second, actually, from
the very beginning mo his first game against the Jets,
his old team four touchdowns in that game, Steelers put
up more than thirty points. It was like we rediscovered

(00:33):
what watching competent quarterback play was like in that game
after being in the wilderness for about a half decade
post Ben and really, look, they've not been stay a dynamic,
high octane offense or anything like that, but we do

(00:53):
see in almost every game, whether it's with his arm talent,
with his mind, his football brain, some combination of both,
we still see hints and clues that he's got that
old Aaron Rodgers four time MVP in him. And it

(01:16):
doesn't come out consistently over fifty offensive plays per se,
but he has been a breath of fresh air for
the Steelers moment. If I had to choose right now,
I would say bring him back next year and run
it back with him. At forty two years old.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
He's completed a ton of his passes. They don't go
very far. Is that going to be the Moll season longer?
Do they do? They hope to build upon that, Well.

Speaker 2 (01:43):
They definitely hope to build upon that. I think there's
a few things in play here. The offensive line was
wretched at the beginning of the year. It was terrible.
It looked like the Bengals offensive line for the first
few weeks. And he was getting hit a lot, not
a ton of sacks, was getting hit a lot. I
had to get the fall out quickly to survive. And
the offense was I think schemed and designed to cover

(02:05):
up for their offensive line deficiencies. They couldn't run the
ball in those first few games either.

Speaker 1 (02:11):
Now.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
I do think talking about his arm, we saw it
a couple times against the Browns on Sunday. He's just
not as accurate on the deep ball as he used
to be. I mean, there are a few deep ball
throwers that have been better than him historically. I don't
think we see that. I think that's probably one area
where his game has regressed at this age. And you know,

(02:35):
they needed to make a decision. They decided because their
run game, like I said, was so lacking that the
last two games here against the Vikings and against the Browns,
they have gone with this jumbo package, big package of
a sixth offensive lineman in Darnelle Wantington, who's the biggest
guy on the team there, tight end, and they have
installed both of those guys into their offense. And they've

(02:58):
run for over one hundred yards in the last two games,
and their offenses function much better in general. So they
have for now they have put kind of Aaron Rodgers downfield,
Aaron Rodgers gunslinger that's on the back burner, and their
biggest point of emphasis is running the ball with those
big guys.

Speaker 1 (03:16):
Andrew Philipponi with us from Pittsburgh ninety three to seven
The Fan. You ran a Twitter poll it just expired,
asking Steelers fans are you worried about Joe Flacco? Twitter
polls are never fifty to fifty. This is literally fifty
to fifty. Half the Steelers fans, over twenty three hundred
votes say they're worried about Joe Flacco. Should they be?

Speaker 2 (03:37):
I don't think so, because it's not Joe Flacco in
a vacuum. It's not Joe Flacco last year off the
bench against the Steelers in Indianapolis, when they had prepped
all week for Anthony Richardson, a mobile quarterback with a
good offensive line, Jonathan Taylor and wide receivers that could
beat you. Not anywhere close to as good as Cincinnati,

(03:59):
but still decent players. This is Joe Flacco with probably
the worst rushing attack in NFL history and an offensive
line that is very subpar, and I think those ingredients
make the matchup much different. I also think that Steelers
defense in the year plus, in the thirteen months since

(04:20):
they last saw Joe Flacco, has actually gotten substantially better.
You've got Derek Harmon up front, a rookie who since
he returned from knee injury, has been outstanding. Nick Herbig,
their third edge rusher from Wisconsin, has been a star,
really a guy that's gotten to a level now where
I don't think they can keep him off the field anymore.

(04:42):
He's just been that much of a disruptive player. And
Jalen Ramsey from Miami in that trade they made sende Minka,
there has been I would say the Rams version of
Jalen Ramsey the guy that helped them win a Super Bowl,
playing safety, playing flat corner. An outside corner had two
sacks in the game against Cleveland, more than Miles Garret

(05:04):
and TJ. Watt combined. So their defense right now looks
like the real deal, and I think that that's going
to present problems for Joe Flacco.