Primetime pressure as the Steelers storm SoFi for Sunday Night Football

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Underground, The steel City Underground, the black
and gold standard for Pittsburgh Steelers coverage. Now here's your hoes.
Joe Kuzma and Brian E. Rose.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Hello everyone, and welcome to another edition of the steel
City Underground podcast. My name is Joe Kuzma. We may
be joined by a one mister Brian E. Roach, who's
kind of all over the place today, but sends his
regards if this ends up being me just flying solo.
So with that in mind, I thought and not to
bore Brian with some of the details because there are

(00:42):
no maps this week for Sunday Night Football as the
Steelers travel to La to face I still can't get
used to this, even though it's been a few years
since they moved from San Diego. It's the Los Angeles
Chargers Sunday Night Football, another primetime contest and AFC opponent
this time for the Pittsburg Steelers, actually one with a
winning record as they visit the five and three Steelers

(01:06):
visit the six and three Chargers. Can call it whatever
you want. I don't know if it's a high stakes
matchup or what, but you've got two teams that are
sitting here currently trying to maintain leads in their respective divisions,
or at least gain some ground in doing so. Right now,

(01:28):
the Chargers are three and oh in the AFC West,
and they're five and one in their conference, but they are
currently six and three, is just one behind the seven
to two Denver Broncos. So this game in their home stadium,
which may not feel like a home stadium Sunday night.
If history is to tell us anything about Steelers Nation

(01:50):
traveling to Southern California for these games, Steelers Nation's going
to need this one. The Pittsburgh Steelers is going to
need this one. Go make some noise and make it
uncomfortable for the Chargers, because the Steelers are holding on
to a five and three lead in the AFC North,
with Baltimore having improved at three and five, Cincinnati's sitting
at three and six, and of course Cleveland at two

(02:13):
and six a way off in the distance. But of course,
also the Chargers have to look over their shoulder at
those Kansas City Chiefs at five and four, and this
is just as equally important in the standings and tie
breakers should the Steelers be anywhere for a wild card
birth to winning the division. To placement and seating within
the actual AFC when we get to that point. So

(02:36):
without further ado, there are some injury updates that I
will get everyone on board with here. We still don't
have the full practice report yet for Thursday, but it's
pretty much the status quo. For Scotty Miller, who's been
dealing with a finger. Will Howard, who's still within the
twenty one day window to be reactivated, is a full

(02:58):
participant coming off of injured reserve. Of course, Corey Trice,
maybe not in the same category, did not participate designation
for him on Wednesday. Chuck Clark was back to full
with an illness. Jre Birol Peppers, Cole Holcombe, Alex Highsmith,

(03:19):
Isaac Samalo, and Darnell Washington all dnps for a variety
of reasons. Holcombe's still dealing with an illness, Say Malow
with the peck injury. High Smith, I believe this is
just lingering from his ongoing issues all season with the ankle.
Washington is showing up with the foot I believe is

(03:40):
brand new, And of course Peppers showed up late last week,
it did not play, was not active last Sunday in
the win over the Colts, which the Steelers are definitely
looking to maintain some momentum against a against the Chargers
team that I mean, let's face it, this is the
same the same John Harbaugh that you're used to seeing,

(04:04):
I'm sorry, Jim Harbaugh, that you're used to seeing, who's
one and one against the Pittsburgh Steelers in his NFL career.
But this is let's play some defense, let's run the football,
but a little difficult to do so with tracking their
own injuries at times, so getting through to trying to
pull up I guess I'll pull it off with the
Steelers site as well. But we have the Chargers injury

(04:27):
report of note Keenan Allen ageless wide receiver talent they've got,
They've got plenty of them over in LA. He had
a veteran's day of rest. I should have mentioned that
John new Smith was also a DMP veterans day of rest.
That kind of got blocked by or lower third there,
So I apologize. Mackay becked in with a knee. Let

(04:48):
me tell you, the Chargers offensive line couldn't be any
more banged up. They just traded for Trevor Penning. Both
tackles including Joe Alt headed to injured reserve, still going
through through this limited with groin. Deshaun hand at this point,
Hand I believe is just here playing kind of a

(05:11):
depth role, rotational, kind of contributor, long snapper, full participant.
That one's kind of important. Bobby Hart a DMP, which
made the Penning acquisition ever the more important because he
was filling in in these positions. Tony Jefferson limited with

(05:31):
a hamstring, Dion Leonard Corner with his knee as well
as back to being a full participant, a veteran's day
of rest for Khalil Mack, who everyone's got to keep
their head on a swivel to take a look at.
And then Tarheb still pretty much the slot or nickel
Corner did not participate with a knee injury. So while

(05:54):
there are a few significant injuries there, most of the
ones that are already in acting the LA Chargers, then
some of the guys are already on injured reserve. In
that case, they've got a small list of them, which
includes running backs familiar Najie Harris signed with the Chargers

(06:16):
during the off season, Amari and Hampton, the rookie. Both
of those guys are on IR. Rashawn Slater, who I
had mentioned one of the starting tackles actually, and DeShawn
hand I apologize, just actually went is listed as still
on IR as well, so his status of course up
in the air. But reading off of this, they still

(06:37):
have a place Joe Alt there officially, and then Leonard
is one of the designated for return players as well,
So they've got some things in flux in LA you're
going to have to keep an eye on, especially all
of these receivers that Justin Herbert could end up throwing two.
And then you've also got a second year running back

(06:58):
Camani Vidahl, who's actually had a pretty decent amount of
volume in success in the horror Blass system. But before
I get into all of that, this is the thirty
seventh overall, thirty fourth regular season meeting between the Steelers
and Chargers. The Steelers have a fourteen game advantage twenty
five wins to eleven losses overall, and a fifteen game

(07:22):
lead in the regular season series. The last time that
the Steelers faced the Chargers was at home last season
and a twenty to ten victory. The last road win
back in twenty twenty one. The Chargers, big win for
them forty one to twenty seven. Once again one of

(07:44):
those games where they were just kind of a shootout.
Big Ben was throwing it around all over the place.
As the Gunslinger he would be. Mike Tomlin is five
and three against the Chargers lifetime. We usually don't like
Mike Tomlin taking teams to the West coast, but this
is an eight twenty kickoff on November ninth on NBC

(08:05):
and Peacock locally WPXI in Pittsburgh Sofi Stadium in LA
with a Matrix turf surface, so no grass. Seventy thousand
folks maybe in attendance. Will be covered on NBC by
Mike Turico, Chris collins Worth with Melissa Stark on the Field,
Steelers Audio Network, Rob King, Max Starks with Missy Matthews

(08:28):
on the Field one's Westwood one Sports nationally and on
Sirius XM NFL Radio Ryan Radkey and Mike Golick. If
you're looking for the Steelers feeds on the satellite radio,
otherwise the Steelers Audio network can be found. Feed can
be found on Sirius eighty one XM two twenty six
and as usual the Internet. On eight twenty six. But

(08:50):
the other two call signs there Serius AD one and
XM two twenty six. It's a little bit of a change.
Brad Rogers, your referee, don't hold your breath. Chargers sl
light favorites at two and a half. The over under
on this game forty five points. Tough to say where
this is going to be after seeing what the Steelers
did with the Colts. Both teams share a three and

(09:13):
two home record. They're very similar in a lot of ways, folks.
The away records only one loss apiece for the Steelers
when they're away from home. The Chargers are the same way,
so it's like two at home one on the road.
The record versus the spread, the Steelers are four and four,
the Chargers are three five and one, so that's kind
of interesting. Points scored, the Steelers are actually marginally better

(09:35):
by maybe about a point and a half. If you
do these per little percentage and half point things, twenty
five point three points is good for twelfth in the league.
For the Steelers offense, they are points allowed twenty first
in the league. They are giving up twenty four point
four points, while the Chargers are actually averaging the seventeenth

(09:56):
best just one tenth of a point shy of twenty five,
so just a little fewer than what the Steelers defense
is giving up. Defensively, the Chargers are giving up twenty
one point four, so you could see they're rate in
the same mix to Steelers offense is twelfth in scoring.
The Chargers defense is twelfth in scoring. The Chargers offense

(10:18):
is seventeenth in scoring in the Steelers defense is twenty
first in scoring. The Steelers are plus nine a second
second best in the league. To take away differential, the
Chargers are a minus four, so they're trending towards the
bottom twenty second in the league. Steelers twenty first in
pass game, thirtieth in the run. Still can't get the
run game going, not a problem for the Chargers, who

(10:41):
are sixth in passing two hundred and fifty yards per
game with that arm of Herberts one hundred and twenty
four per game if you're going the other direction with
the run game. Defensively, the Steelers are dead last against
the pass. They're giving up about two hundred and seventy
eight yards per game a one oh five on the ground,
which is right in the middle of the fourteenth overall
in the NFL, the Chargers are third against the past,

(11:05):
seventeenth against the runs, so about equal with the run,
but almost night and day with the past defense led
by Derwin James, player that we should all be somewhat
familiar with as a superstar in the league. Don't forget.
Also you have Khalil Mack, Tully, Tula Tupoladu, and then

(11:26):
they also picked up or got Oda fey O Way
in a trade with the Baltimore Ravens, so they've got
some guys up on those edges. Very similar three four
type set up with the Chargers defense. Denzel Perryman is
one of those inside linebackers along with Dyon Henley. They

(11:47):
have both been playing above board and then into your
secondary or corners penciled in. And I keep looking at
like different depth charts and trying to keep track of
all the injuries across these teams because it's pretty crazy.
Right you have still who's on the injury report, Dante Jackson,
who you might remember from the Steelers. Elijah Molden and

(12:10):
Derwin James are the safeties. Tony Jefferson mixes in there,
so they're going to give you some different looks the
Steelers the X factors in this game. Of course, Canny
finally win the possession battle. As far as time of possession,
the Steelers have only done so twice this season. They've
been winning to turnover battle, but the offense hasn't been

(12:31):
able to turn out more yards on the ground and
eat more clock than their opponents. Doesn't mean a whole
lot when you still got five victories despite those shortcomings,
but we would like to see a little bit more.
So they can try and keep a hungry defense opportunistic
and on the field, but the defense themselves also have
to keep an eye on Herbert and all of his weapons.

(12:53):
Try and get off the field on third down. Now
make it third and short. Give some of these more
aggressive teams opportunities to go for it on fourth down,
which I had the statistics for you. But the pulse
I have on Harbaugh and the Chargers is maybe not
as aggressive as the Colts, but aggressive enough that they're
in the same category there, right, So you're going to

(13:14):
have to keep that in mind with the Steelers defense.
You can't be having a third and fifteen and make
it a fourth and two. I have a feeling, depending
on field position. Jim Harbaugh is going to end up
going for it there. And it's been working for everyone
who's been doing this against the Steelers now where they've
been a little bit tight lipped as of late with
the Steelers no major other trades during the trade deadline,

(13:37):
so what you see in the wide receiver room is
what you get. They did add Marquez Valdez Scantling earlier
this week, finally became official, came to the practice squad.
Aaron Rodgers had good things to say about him. Arthur
Smith also talking about rum and Wilson and college receivers
having this tendency to want to hurdle everyone, and he says,

(13:57):
we got to stop doing that. We'll Rumin Wilson continues
to get some more playing time. Calvin Austin finally came back.
Let's see if he gets a little bit of his groove.
One of these guys got to take the heat off
of DK Metcalf, who was virtually non existent in the
last game. That's going to happen sometimes can't happen every
time with your wide receiver one. We've seen DK mostly
be a scoring machine and he's already had like five touchdowns,

(14:20):
which equals what George Pickens has been doing or had
been doing with the Steelers over previous years. So it's
an ongoing issue with the offense. But being about halfway
through the season, if he doubled up those totals, we
thought we would be thinking, Hey, that looks pretty good
for a guy that the Steelers traded for that's in
the prime of his career and signed a new money

(14:40):
deal for a lot of cash ol. So just hoping
that Sam Malo is able to come back and play
like he did last week with that peck injury. That
would leave Spencer Anderson in as that extra off tackle
eligible receiver and the Steelers they feed off of that
with a lot of their package. But we've also seen

(15:00):
them go empty set, saw them do some three wide
receiver sets for they maybe I don't want to say
first time, you know, they sprinkle these things in, but
they stand out a little bit more to me. And
it's the same thing I'll say about the defense and
my reluctancy to say that they ran the four to three,
which I'll bring up here in a moment, but try
and get I mean, they tried to get Calvin Austin
a little active here. We've seen Calvin Austin draw some

(15:22):
penalty flags here or there just due to his speed.
Maybe they could do the same with Roman Wilson. But
if not, Johnny Smith got to carry the ball a
little bit. Darnel Washington needs to be on the field
because they use him a lot of times to help Chip.
With Troy Fautanu and Roderick Jones, who, by the way,
both tackles, playing pretty darn good football. The Steelers offensive
line starting to really shape up here, but still going

(15:45):
to have a premiere pass rusher on the other side
of the field with Khalil Mack, and you're going to
have to keep your eye on all times on Derwin James.
I can't say this enough when it comes to the
when it comes to Derwin James and the Chargers defense
cannot say it enough. I would say it one more time,
but I don't want to be blue in the face here,

(16:05):
so looks like I will be possibly flying solo here
for the rest of this I've tried to buy a
little bit of time for Brian, so get into some
more of my thoughts in the preview of this game.
Of course, your team leaders, the Chargers kind of all
over the place because Amario and Hampton was their leading rusher,
but only with three hundred and fourteen yards and two touchdowns.

(16:26):
And he's been out for a few weeks already until
he can return from injury. Pretty much started this season
due to the injury. If you remember and I injury
did Najie Harris leading receivers Lad mcconkey's in his second
year really popped off the page's rookies already got forty
seven receptions for five hundred and twenty four yards three touchdowns.

(16:46):
Justin Herbert, He's already attempted three hundred and twenty five
passes this year. That's quite a bit of a clip
more than Aaron Rodgers, although they do he haven't had
their buy yet in La Rodgers only attempted to two
hundred and forty three passes. That it's yielded for Herbert
is too twenty three hundred ninety yards almost twenty four
hundred to Rogers, just shy of seventeen hundred. However, only

(17:08):
a touchdown a piece separates these two quarterbacks, as Herbert
has one more touchdown with eighteen to Rogers seventeen. Kind
of a kind of interesting to see if Rogers keeps
on this pace, we just kind of say, you know,
they're about halfway through the season, imagine doubling that up,
and he has over thirty touchdowns. It's been a while

(17:29):
since we've seen that in Pittsburgh. So kudos to Aaron
Rodgers who seems to so far halfway through maybe the season,
have found a little bit of the fountain of youth,
and I'm hoping that that carries on through this Sunday
under the bright lights. He's been He's been a hell
of a leader in the locker room, along with also

(17:50):
with Jalen Ramsey, some new Steelers trying to show everyone
in the Steelers way, which of course that transcends from
head coach Mike Tomlin. So I don't know how much
more I can say about the Steelers offense. We kind
of already know what we're thinking here. Loads of tight
ends extra tackle eligible, whether it's Broderick Jones or Troy Fatanuh.

(18:12):
Brian Baldeger had nothing but glowing things to say. Go
find those tweets out on X. I guess they always
say tweets and it's not Twitter anymore, but find it
on X. Fatan who's had a very solid season thus far.
To start and only being a handful of games in,
Baldy had nothing but glowing praise, saying that he's doing

(18:33):
things that are among elite traits in the National Football League.
But after the Rockies start with Broderick Jones as well,
we've been kind of quiet on that. I know he
gets some help, but it's also helped to build some
of that confidence. He's limited some of the premier pass rushers,
especially some of the guys that don't move around as
much like a Miles Garrett, but even Micah Parsons for

(18:53):
that matter. We haven't been saying a lot about Jones,
and you get a little bit of the reason, like
the three wide receiver things stood out to me is
because I'm watching if Spencer Anderson's in, if Darnell Washington's in.
That's usually in addition the personnel. It's not as if
you're you know, you're playing something like a thirteen personnel

(19:17):
and you've got three tight ends in the game, friar
Me being in there, John Neusmith being in there, and
then Washington, and when two of those guys hit the bench,
and all of a sudden, you see DK Metcalf and
you see Roman Wilson and Calvin Austin, maybe sometimes even
a Ben Scronic Scotty Miller when he didn't have the
finger injury, and you're like, uh oh, watch the heat

(19:40):
that's going to be put on Rogers, and Rogers has
had some time to pass, So I've got to give
some flowers to the offensive line. This is going to
be still a pretty good test. I believe last week's
the Colt. I don't think much is going to be
better than what they faced with the Colts, and even
previously Week one against the New York Jets, especially you know,
coming off of not playing all summer and it being
the first real not maybe in full football condition, not

(20:05):
having played together this offensive line. Let's if they can
start running to football. But they still might need those
big bodies. They might still need an Anderson or a
Washington to help in there, help with blocking. Ah all
might as well show our special teams as here Ben Scernik,
who had some healthy blocks in that game when the

(20:27):
Steelers and Jalen Warren did get free. Jalen Warren still
two touchdowns last week. Maybe they could get him going,
find a little wheel route or something out of the backfield.
Some of these screen passes have not been working, some
of the very quick passes, like we saw it with
Darnell Washington, we saw it with Warren last week. If
they can get on the same page and convert and

(20:47):
execute some of these plays, I think that they'll keep
the Chargers guessing. It's going to be a chess match
of moving Perryman. He's a grizzled NFL veteran, moving him around,
and he's a tackling machine too, him and James, and
it's going to be moving them around much in the
same way. They're going to try and move around Patrick
Queen and Peyton Wilson and trying to figure out that

(21:07):
Steelers defense who should and then transitioning over there? Should
I say this because we didn't have a clue what
to say about these guys last week, right, and then
we come around and oh, hey, look, Steelers defense might
be good again. At least they're drawing turnovers they shut
down Jonathan Taylor. I don't know really what the focal

(21:28):
point would be as far as the game plan and
the plan of attack for the Steelers, but they did
add an extra body here with the defensive line with
Daniel Qualley headed to ir they signed a practice squad
player off of the Kansas City Chiefs directly to the
fifty three man roster, Broderick Martin Rhodes. There's a dash

(21:50):
in there. Martin Rhodes. Don't know if he has any
relation to Cody or Dusty, but Martin Rohads was originally
a third round pick in the twenty twenty three NFL
Draft by the Detroit Lions. Just to his body of work,
he's kind of bounced around everywhere and hasn't lived up
to that billing being a third round pick ninety six
to overall a few seasons ago. But maybe someone that

(22:11):
the Steelers had scouted during that process and feel can
be someone at least fits in. If active this Sunday,
probably with special teams, you're kicking units in particular, So
not the largest high profile signing. But we'll see if
Marcus scout Marcus Scaldez whoa Marquez Veldez Scantling or MVS

(22:36):
which is a lot easier to say. We'll see if
he's active this week. Let's see if he gets on
the field for the Steelers, even a handful of snaps,
and let's see what kind of treatment he gets from
Aaron Rodgers if he is, and see if he ends
up breaking this offense open, even just a little tiny bit.
So Veldez Scantling, of course, comes over this season after

(22:58):
being with the Sanfords Go forty nine ers. He is
thirty one. Let's see his age. Yeah, he just turned
thirty one about a month ago, so he's up there
a little bit in age, but he's got a little
something that Kelvin Austin Rubman Wilson don't have the tight
ends have this, but they're not six to four. They're
not six four sixty four to two oh six. So
a Leen a leens six y four. We'll see if

(23:21):
he still has some of those traits that made him
valuable with some of the other teams. Of course, he
played his first four seasons with the Green Bay Packers,
wasn't heavily used, even despite some of the ongoings with
San Francisco and their own injuries. Only four catches for
forty yards and one of those just for our first
down this season. Last year with New Orleans also a

(23:41):
pretty bad offense, seventeen for three eighty five, and with
the Buffalo Bills, where he split time with two teams
last season in twenty twenty four, only two catches for
twenty six there after, Lee's leaving the Kansas City Chiefs,
where you know, marginally productive with you know team catches
four hundred and eleven yards. He's a guy that's making

(24:03):
some of the bigger plays, a lot of long plays,
a lot of longer yards per average, especially that he
gets age thirty and he's his average was last season
between the two teams, even with the Saints, he had
a twenty two point six yard per reception average, which
bumped it up from Buffalo, and even when he was

(24:25):
with some of his prime time there with Kansas City,
averaging between fifteen and sixteen per catch. So let's see,
maybe he could stretch the field. The Steelers will need
some time to throw the ball. But I know what
you're all worried about. You're worried about the Steelers defense.
Tarrell Austin in his press conference this week, being a
little noncommittal as to whether Jalen Ramsey will continue on

(24:46):
as a free safety. He looked pretty tarn and good
there with Kyle Dugger only having been with the Steelers
a week. That was their big trade and Marco Bally
said it best if that trade happens at the deadline,
doesn't seem more important. No, the Steelers really needed a
safety and they were able to get a starting one.
So we'll see if Douggar and Ramsey are the duo
once again this upcoming week. With having already mentioned the

(25:08):
injury status of Pepper's Chuck Clark, and then of course
one Thornhill, who did not get to play. He was
not out there. I don't think that Steelers. I think
they originally had Thornhill penciled in and I think he
might be some of the some of the issue as
one of the starting safeties. Like I said, a lot
of strong safeties on this Steelers defense if you also

(25:31):
include Deshaun Elliott. So when you get an actual free
and Douggar, he's dabbled with both, still more of a
strong safety type, so is Jalen Ramsey. Finally that answered
free safety, does that allow them to do some things
differently with him? We shall see, But no more Beingie Bishop.
He was released to make room for MVS earlier in

(25:52):
the week. I don't know whose doghouse he was in,
or they just don't. They didn't see much of what
they needed to see with them. But the expectation is
is that in Eccles now will move into the nickel.
I thought he might play on the outside a little bit.
I guess it depends on the availability or the performance
of Darius Slay, who you know is up there in

(26:13):
years thirty three thirty four years old, has been getting
picked on here or there, and Eccles is a good
depth piece. But you still don't have Corey Trice available
there yet. So the Steelers are sniffing around for Dun
Dun Dun A Santae Samuel Junior who apparently will be
making a trip to visit the Pittsburgh Steelers formerly of

(26:37):
the LA Chargers and a Sante Samuel Junior forty seven
starts in his career. He only had the four games
last season with the Chargers, but is definitely someone that
would be able to provide some depth and maybe even
be a spot starter where they needed to. He's coming

(26:59):
off of the older entry that he sustained back in
October of twenty twenty four and has remained unsigned but
now healthy and visiting about five different teams. I think
the Bears were mixed in there and maybe, Like I
don't know, was it like the Packers or the Buffalo
Bills or somebody else. So we'll see where he ends
up landing, but can't count on that right now as

(27:20):
we head toward the weekend, and the Steelers got to
go to battle with who they have and that may
even mean seeing James Pierre too, But boy are they
finn in the secondary when you're talking about the injuries,
the illnesses with the corners, with the safety. So among
the names I mentioned, they're going to need top notch
performances from Joey Porter, who's been pretty much labeled as

(27:41):
a guy that they're going to watch and call for
any kind of contact that happens in the passing game.
Darius Slay just got to put him in the right
position when they were helping him out and adding an
extra body, dropping some of the linebackers into coverage, even
outside linebackers like Nick Carberg or Alex Highsmith into the zone.
It's really helped. Like I said, Ramsey's still a chess

(28:01):
piece that's getting moved around a lot. Dugger was playing
deep sometimes, but they moved it around enough to give
some different looks. And the different looks are going to
be necessary Herbert. You know, he's not a It's not
his first rodeo here in the NFL. This guy throws
for boatloads of yards at different times. He's got one
of those big, healthy contracts that have been paid out

(28:23):
despite him having actually not done anything of major significance
here in the NFL, just yet tends to. He played
every game last season. He had missed some the season before.
But he's someone that's in that sixty five to seventy
percent of completed passes in various games this season. He's

(28:45):
had a couple of flubs when he's had to play
with some pressure in his face. That came from the
Denver Broncos. That came from the New York Football Giants.
They've had some get right games as of late, particularly
last week with the Tennessee Titans, but they still struggled
in this game. They were down at fourteen. Nothing to
start in Tennessee just being Tennessee. Can't hold on to it.

(29:05):
So when I can't say when you make Herbert throw
a lot more, there's any much difference. It seems to
be a mixed bag. So you can't expect make one
dimensional like you would with the Colts. I do think
a lot of it starts off the run game of
play action. It's just a hard boss style. But with Herbert,
he's got a lot of guys that he's making into

(29:27):
stars on this roster. We mentioned Lad McConkey just a
little earlier, Quinton Johnston another young wide receiver. You still
have Keenan Allen in ageless veteran, and then you have
like a number of tight ends. But the one that's
jumped up into a starting role and really starting to
make an impact is a Rondez Gadson, the younger a

(29:51):
Rondez Gadson here I believe, I don't actually I really
don't know if they're related at all or not. But
the the elder Arondez Gadson, if it is a father
or whatever, he had played wide receiver in the National
Football League for the Miami Dolphins back in the late
nineties and the early two thousands. And you've got the

(30:15):
rookie tight end uh six five two thirty six Rondick
Gadson the second so maybe junior. So it might be
onto something here, I know, using the thinking cap, this
is why I wish I had Brian here, because when
I get talking a little too much, I get lost
in the weeds, so bear with me. But he's been
kind of on fire as of late, after being used
a little sparsely in the first few games of the

(30:39):
season in the month of pretty much in the month
of October. The last four games that he's played seven,
Gadson has had seven recep two or seven reception games
to five reception games, including a monster game against Dan
Dunda the Indianapolis Colts in which they lost to shootout.
He had one hundred and six four yards and a touchdown.

(31:02):
His last two games, he's been kind of middling in
the five catches for about seventy ish yards seventy seven
with a touchdown, five catches sixty eight yards, no tds
against the Titans. Prior to that, playing against the Dolphins
where this kind of sparked and they saw they might
have something seven catches for sixty eight yards, big body
target ability to get open bloodlines. It appears as well.

(31:27):
This is kind of one of those X factors the
Steelers have to watch for with the outs, with the slants,
with the middle of the field playing the chess game
that will be with kind of two newly placed pieces
with Dugger and with Jalen Ramsey, and also some of
your more legacy pieces like Patrick Queen, Peyton Wilson with

(31:47):
pretty much a career game last last year or not
last year. I'm sorry. Last week Sam cracking up, I
was taking ahead to the outside linebacker rotation because that's
what we want to hear about. We want to hear
about TJ. Watt kind of having a little bit of
a resurgence. Last week. Alex Highsmith, maybe he's fully healthy
and finally making some play strip sacks. The AFC Defensive

(32:08):
Player of the Week last week, Nick Herbig, who we
were calling for to take high Smith's spot, Take it away,
take it away. High Smith just isn't doing it anymore.
We got to get got to get Nick Herbig on
the field. Well, they were doing that too, and that's
why I wasn't saying necessarily a four to three because
they're playing maybe sometimes with one defensive lineman. Sometimes it

(32:31):
was Cam, sometimes it wasn't. Sometimes it was Kean O Benten.
They did not leave Derek Carmon, I believe on an
island by himself, but he mixes in sometimes with Benton.
With Ya Black. You may have like a three. Someome
of those guys and your traditional three four, but not
so much when I saw the three linebackers out there,
I'm hesitant to say four to three because the outside

(32:51):
linebackers like a high Smith, like a Herbig, like a
wat they are not the size of a four to
three defensive end. They're not usually playing with their hand
in the dirt. And even so when they're playing with
three outside linebackers, you bring Herbert in with high Smith
and on those guys are standing up, and it does
it gives a little bit of different looks because you're
looking at Wow, you know what these offensive linemen. They

(33:12):
outweigh some of these guys in some cases like eighty
or one hundred pounds. But where are they going? Are
they dropping? Are they coming at you? Are they blitzing
as someone else? Like Queen coming? And I think as
long as the Steelers can mix it up cause some confusion,
it can have some of the same success that they
did against Daniel Jones. I think Herbert is a better
quarterback than Jones, obviously, but I'm not going to put

(33:34):
Herbert in the same category as where would I put him?
I don't even know. Because Jordan Love had his success
against the Packers, but it was very vanilla, was very
blad and the Steelers just didn't do anything. Joe Flacco,
I don't know, is he has experience, is as much
as a gunslinger Herbert is? I don't know. Is Herbert
in my top five around the league? I'd be difficult

(33:55):
for me to say that. I can't put him with
even Labar Jackson, who sometimes you know, I credit size
because he's not the pocket passer you would want him
to be, but he's a dynamic player and you can't
argue that he's got MVPs under his belt. Josh Allen
he does some running around, but he throws the football
over to place Patrick Mahomes. Those are three guys just
in the AFC alone that I would place easily above

(34:16):
Justin Herbert. So I don't know. And then we don't
get I mean, you got to get into the NFC,
and as much as people crack on Dak Prescott, he
puts up some big numbers. So there's four names there,
but in the top ten, he's probably there. He's probably
about the same respect level as people gave Big Ben Roethlisberger,
maybe a top twelve when it comes to your quarterbacks,
so you've got to keep The Steelers have definitely got

(34:37):
to keep tabs on what Herbert's doing out there. He's
not necessarily the biggest rushing threat, but he's not the
old man that Aaron Rodgers is either, so well, he
could escape free here or there. It's not usually for
a lot, right, He'll get a few attempts. You might

(35:00):
get some of these, like short yardage things where he's
gonna sneak it might rip off a run that's somewhere
in the category of tennis yards just because he kind
of squeaks free. I was trying to see, let's see. Yeah,
they don't have his game logs here necessarily broken out,

(35:21):
but just looking at it, Yeah, so six carries for
thirty eight yards not in his lungs aren't on here, though,
there are nine attempts for fifty seven yards. I'm sorry,
nine attemps for He was actually sacked six times against
the Titans, which tells you a lot. With Joe Alt
and with Rashaun Slater being out and Trevor Penning maybe

(35:43):
coming in and being new on the edges, this should
be favorable for the Steeler's edge rushers and if they
try and throw some extra help that way. That's where
you need somebody else to kind of pick up, step
up their game like last week high Smith, Herbik, maybe
even Jack Sawyer who got a pick last week, so
you could certainly get after Herbert. And even without the injuries,

(36:05):
it has been shaky. They've given up four and five
sacks in two other games throughout the season. They gave
up you know, they're giving up also three to Kansas City,
three to the Indianapolis Colts. I would expect the Steelers
to be somewhere in that category of an average of
four sacks as long as they can get the move
them into negative yards win this field position battle. I

(36:27):
do think that Chris Boswell, I do think that the
somewhat home crowd at this SOFI Stadium environment, I think
it's gonna I think it will lean in the Steelers favor.
I think they could pick up two wins in a row,
important wins within the conference but outside of the division.
Keep that momentum going into the next week. This is
still going to be a rather telling game because the

(36:48):
Chargers are still They're a team that's about in the
same category of the Steelers. They don't have like the
instant respect of say the Buffalo Bills or even the
Kansas City Chiefs getting some of that legas respect that
rightfully they should with Andy Reid and the Super Bowls
that they've won. But the Chargers are trying to climb
into that category, and everybody in that AFC West trying

(37:09):
to chip away at those Chiefs as well. They're built
to play those teams. Let's see how they're going to
be built to play against the Steelers. I think the
Steelers defense just as well as they don't let lab
McConkey look like Jamar Chase did in Cincinnati a few
weeks ago. This one. Will it be a tight game
forty five points over under? I think it'll go over.

(37:32):
I wish that. I wish that Brian had the bubble hit.
But what I'm gonna do here is, I don't know.
Should we do Franco? Should we do TJ? Let's see
if Franco's saying he likes the Steelers on Sunday, Let's
see what TJ says. Yeah, I don't have a randomize
or anything. I just shook their heads. I'm going with
the Steelers here. I'm a homer, folks, don't forget the like,

(37:55):
comment and subscribe Sunday. Here we go Sunday Night foot
Steelers and Chargers until next time, leave a rating and
review wherever you're watching or listening from. We definitely appreciate
you here. Brian will be back on the horn for
the postgame show, probably on Monday, so we'll get a
little bit of sleep and then we'll be able to

(38:16):
talk some more football with all of Ian's until then,
as we always do. To close out this show, my
name is Joe. Until next time. We encourage everyone out
there to be safe, be good, and we'll catch you later.

Speaker 1 (38:27):
We would like it thank you for listening and remind
our listeners to follow us on social media and our
website www dot steel City Underground dot com.

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