Steelers extend home streak vs Browns plus Bengals preview

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 hose.
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 Kuzba, throwing it
back over here to my good colleague buddy pal One,
mister Brian E Rose. Brian on this victory Monday, how
you doing.

Speaker 3 (00:34):
I'm just gonna smack the bibblehead around because he was wrong.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
You show him who's boss man, You tell him. You
go in there. It's that meme where the guy's pointing
at the mirror at himself. You go in there and
you let him know whose boss. That's a great segue,
by the way, the Pittsburgh Steelers showing the Cleveland Browns
who was boss. Big game, big win for the Steelers,
twenty three to nine. First win at Actressure Stadium for
the Steelers this year. Browns in the regular season at least,

(01:02):
I do not count that playoff game with no fans
with COVID years ago with Baker Mayfield. Other than that
one regular season wise, Browns is still winless since two
thousand and three twenty However, many I don't know the
math is it working? My brain in the coffee is
not flowing. Don't require me to do math on the
day after a game like this where I was screaming, yelling,

(01:24):
I'm still dealing with the ciduses. I will try power
through this as best I can. But I'm very pleased
with what I saw. A nice carryover after a bye week,
a very strong all three phases of football approach in
victory for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Brian, I agree.

Speaker 4 (01:42):
I was pleasantly surprised with what was put on display.
Clearly they were prepared. They looked really good coming out
of the by It obviously helps getting guys back, you know,
so I was pleasantly surprised getting guys.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
And what about just we went from doing a show
Thursday early Friday. It was before the it was Friday Friday,
before the injury report, and we thought for sure almost
going to not play. I like sure, and Jerry Dulac,
who he's been wrong more often recently than right. Unfortunately

(02:21):
for Jerry saying that Jalen was going to be out
multiple weeks, I don't know, Maybe he's getting some marching
orders from the Steelers front office and just they're putting
a line of bullshit out there that throw the Browns off.
You never know, but it sure was nice to see
the full complement of the Steelers defense out there. We'll
talk about that a little bit in a moment, but

(02:44):
also setting the tone just the Steelers being able to
run the football. We had kind of surmised maybe just
looking at the way the Minnesota Vikings kind of wore
them down, kind of wore the Browns defense down. We said,
can the Steelers do the same thing and just keep punching, punch,
punching and punching, and between a complement of four tight ends,

(03:06):
three different running backs and then an additional offensive lineman
and Spencer Anderson, it's like, hey, the offensive line's looking great. Well,
they've got six or seven of them out there, if
you count Darnell Washington, which you know that was It
was kind of nice to see them kind of just
ground and pound a little bit. They did not get
one hundred yard rusher, they did not get a full well,

(03:28):
they got exactly on the nose one hundred yards in
the game. And Max Stark's post game with Rob King
doing the call on on the radio call, which I
was also listening to well at the game, Max was
talking about how Mason kind of moved a little forward
made sure they didn't lose any yards statistically with the
victory formation. Yeah, I actually saw that. Yeah, that's pretty cool.

(03:53):
That's pretty cool. But it's nice to see him getting
back to a little bit of Steelers football because Aaron
Rodgers thirty past ten twenty eight rushing attempts overall with
the team, including you know, the Mason Rudolph Neil downs.
Of course, in one Rogers little scamper that wasn't like
a sack or anything for just a run or one
yard run versus Dylan Gabriel, the rookie out of Oregon

(04:16):
attempting fifty two passes that Browns only ran the ball
seventeen times and for a large portion of this game.
I don't know if I texted you this or not.
And I was asking because there's certainly things we don't
see in stadium or vice versa, right where you're at home.
I said, the quick shrine junkins get hurt like it

(04:37):
just seemed like there was no game plan to use.

Speaker 3 (04:39):
As an effective It's all.

Speaker 2 (04:41):
Oh, they held them the three yards per carry a
six yard long Jerome Ford had the longest scamper of
the Browns running backs with twelve and just playing kind
of like a shell defense with two safeties at sometimes,
particularly at the end, we started seeing some backups come in.
Is where Harold Fann and the rookie time really started
to do some of his damage in the middle of

(05:02):
the field. He had a few catches earlier on in
the game. And then you know, just I guess, thank
you to Jerry Judy. Jerry Judy targeted thirteen times, only
caught five of those.

Speaker 4 (05:15):
Yeah, and drops dropsies seemed to be an issue across
anytime Dylan Gabriel throwing the ball, because by my count,
I think the Steelers dropped four interceptions and it could
have maybe been more. I don't know, but yeah, the
Cleveland receivers had the dropsies too, which I'll take I guess,
I guess if none of us are going to catch him,
it's okay.

Speaker 2 (05:36):
Yeah, I'm trying to find I had a really good
post somewhere that I snapped and I'm not gonna be
able to find. Oh here it is now. It was
from the Cleveland Oh I wish I had this. This
is on my phone. It's not I don't have it
like a pop up on the screen. But it was
a social media post from the Cleveland Browns, right you
can kind of see it on the screen here. And
this was like the day that, this was yesterday, before

(05:58):
the game, it says the picture. Somebody comment and said
the picture is clearly AI because it shows Judy holding
onto the ball. And that was before the game. Oh
my goodness. My good friend Eric, who's a huge you know,
he's a huge Ohio everything, Ohio State, Cleveland Browns, you
name it. He's really big into you know, all the

(06:19):
Cleveland sports. And he was just very frustrated by Jerry Judy.
So but for me, I'm like, Jerry Judy, you know,
that's I'd say he's Steeler's best friend right here. So
I was. I was pleased with that. Aaron Rodgers very
efficient in this game again, mention seventy percent completion percentage
twenty one to thirty two hundred thirty five yards, two touchdowns,
second time this year. He was not sacked, no turnovers

(06:42):
by the Pittsburgh Steelers. Of course, the Steelers could have
generated many like guys like one Thornhill or even Patrick
Queen who ran after a nick her big ball and
tried to catch it like he was like a center
fielder or something trying to make a play. That was.
That was fantastic, man, and just a very It just

(07:04):
shows I think if you had to put one word
on this, and I heard this not only I think
Mike Pursued also said that these guys are having fun
out there. It looks like they're actually having fun and
it helps. That helps that you don't have frustration boil
over and even Joey Porter Junior keeping his cool for
the most part. When Judy threw the punch at him,
nothing retaliatory. I gotta get my hats off to those guys.

(07:28):
That was one hell of a game, I agree.

Speaker 4 (07:31):
I mean, offensive line played, I thought better than they
have all year. Robert Jones, which I'm sure we'll talk about,
had had a great game. You know, yes, both tackles
got help throughout the game at various times, but you know,
Miles Garrett was a non entity in this game, basically

(07:52):
did nothing. And the fact that that we gave up
zero sacks and and got six, that's it. That's a
pretty a pretty good showing by the offensive line. I'm
very pleased, and clearly six sacks on our side. Gabriel
was under pressure a lot, you know it, it just

(08:13):
was it worked the way you wanted it to work.
And it's the first you know, I get it. It's Cleveland.
The offense is stinky, but the defense is a solid
and good unit. You know, they were leading the league
in rushing defense. It's a good defense. So the fact
that we played complimentary ball, the fact that we had

(08:35):
a complete game. You know, we didn't let them get
back into it, and there were points in times where
we thought.

Speaker 3 (08:42):
Okay, here we go.

Speaker 4 (08:44):
You know, we're gonna we're gonna let them drive down
the field and all of a sudden, it's gonna be
one score game and then we're gonna have.

Speaker 3 (08:50):
To deal with that. But we didn't.

Speaker 4 (08:51):
Didn't work that way, So you know, I'm very pleased
by the game.

Speaker 2 (08:57):
I'm very pleased. To sixteen if my math is correct,
here quarterback hits by the Steelers defense. Come back around
to that. Well, you know what we could do the
defense first, let's talk about them. Since we haven't. I
was gonna say the key moment and get in the
defense definitely Jalen Ramsey again, Let's come back to Jalen Ramsey.

(09:18):
Holy smokes. I'm skeptic, you know. Sometimes I'm not skeptical.
Sometimes I'm I get the bias bug or whatever, Brian.
But I think when the trade was made for Mika Fitzpatrick,
I definitely had skepticism as to can Ramsey be at
least as good as Fitzpatrick had been? Can he make
these splash plays? Why does he bounce around from team

(09:41):
to team? Holy smokes? Is he a fit for this team?
He is an ex factor that they were. Didn't he
line up yesterday? He was everywhere? And then he had
two sacks when it is the last time you heard
of a safety or a corner having a sack in
the steel with the Steelers defense, let alone two. And

(10:01):
I believe the number that I heard was seventeen sacks
overall over the last three games. The Steelers are finally
back on pace, making splash plays. It helps to have
everybody healthy and everybody back. You had Joey Porter Junior comeback,
You've had now have Deshaun Elliott back for two games.
Ramsey wasn't out Derek Harmon two games, now three games

(10:22):
or you know, he didn't start the season either. Cole Holcombe,
who had a healthy mix in with the inside linebackers.
Alex high Smith was back actually outsnapped by Nick Herbig,
who also deserves a major hats off, kudos whatever. I mean,
he was.

Speaker 4 (10:43):
How cool is it that they introduced him as a
twelve man on the defense. That's that's just awesome. And
I guess it shows, you know, it shows what they
think of him. So and and what a game he
had a great game, you know, And don't I don't
want to you know, I don't want to belittle Alex.
Alex played well too. You know, he made some nice

(11:06):
stops on the run game. Uh just I'm really I'm
excited to see the continuing evolution and maturity of this
defense as they as they start to gel even more.

Speaker 2 (11:19):
Yeah, and you had TJ. You know, he started to
sit a little bit. I know you're worried about a
lake thing, but I think at the end, Tomlin was
starting to think ahead. As much as he doesn't he
says he doesn't do this, he was thinking ahead to
Thursday night football. I mean, Slay didn't go back out there,
but in the post game, the only major injury news.
Of course, Miles killer Brew, who people weren't happy about

(11:40):
the turf right, The surf was horrible. Look the playing
surface you had. You had Chris Boswell trip and fall
on a on a tempted kick near the end, would
have helped my fantasy a little bit more. Fantasy team
with killer Brew more than likely. Sounds like he'll be
out for the season. That is the special team's captain.

(12:00):
That's a pretty major blow for that unit. They're going
to have to find some more hats to help around
with that particular area. But just flipping back to the defense,
like you know, Sleigh came out, He didn't bother trying
to put slide back out there. Now Eckles did come
back out. He left for like a play. Seemed like
he got banged out a bank. He kind of fell
over himself on the one tackle. But Ramsey with two sacks,

(12:22):
TJ had a half sack, Alex had a half sack.
Derek Carmon with the sack with pretty much all him.
He just washed his guy. And then Herbig with the
two sacks. Her Big with four quarterback hits, TJ Watt
with two as well. Ramsey with the two three, I'd
said three by wat Right, two by Derek Carmon. Do

(12:43):
we have some tackles for loss? Also of course Ramsey
and her Big and the sacks counting there, but also
James Pierre, Peyton Wilson. I mean, everyone's got their hands
in the pile. Jack Sawyer gets to Dylan Gabriel twice
with some pressure. Also, they're coming from all directions. They're
trying to find. Like you said, how cool is it
that he was the twelfth guy that was announced? And

(13:06):
I'm not sure if anyone noticed that, but as soon
as it happened, I was like, oh man, that was
really cool, you know, something that was a little out
of play, something else to kind of throw in here
with defense and not run of the mill Renegade, And
I don't believe it was like this. In the first
game against Seattle, Renegade was showing like Jack Ham, James Harrison,
I believe Porter Senior was in there, Troy pal Malo

(13:29):
was in there, Kevin Green, Greg Lloyd. They were showing
highlights from you know, classic Steelers, like almost like throwback films,
NFL films kind of stuff. So that was pretty neat
to see. Also that you probably wouldn't hear from otherwise.
I wish I would have captured a little bit of
it on video. But overall, having everybody back on defense,

(13:51):
it's put everybody on notice now that the Browns weren't
able to run the ball. We're gonna get into a
little bit of a Bengals preview here at the end.
But a Bengals team that's really been struggling to run
a football, I'd be amazed that they were able to
chip away at all. If the Steelers play a similar
game plan as they did. And just getting into speaking

(14:13):
of Cincinnati had the wrong snap counts up, I'm like
dex Hill doesn't play for the Steelers. Let me see
here we had. Patrick Queen played all eighty two snaps.
He never came off the field. He's the only game
in a row. He's the only one who didn't. Usually
guys in the secondary, you know, well Ramsey, even Ramsey

(14:35):
came off. Ramsey got some offensive snaps as well. In
the victory formation, the old Trey Paul and Malou spot
behind the quarterback. Porter Junior played the second most amount
of snaps. He was only he only sat for three
and then Elliott thorn Hill thorn Hill played seventy one
or eighty seven percent. Peyton Wilson Darius Slay still played
a healthy amount fifty one snaps. Then you have Nick

(14:56):
Herbig edging out TJ Watt by one play. Keanu Benton
was out there sixty percent of the time, Derek Harmon
fifty nine percent, and then Alex Heismith, Cam Hayward, Brandon Eckles,
Cole Holcombe thirty four percent, Jack Sawyer twenty nine percent.
That's actually more than I thought. Why Black twenty percent
of the game. James Pierre of course came in when

(15:17):
Slag was pulled. He plays seventeen percent of the game.
Daniel a Qualley Julius Peppers was out there for ten snaps,
as was I can't pronounce his name, oh Tomayo. I
had to actually look up his number because I was like,
who is that? I mean, they literally had everyone out
there on defense. You know, they played complimentary football, so

(15:38):
I don't think they got really gassed, gashed, beat up.
They should be as good as they can be for
this Thursday night game against the Bengals. Key moments, Brian,
what do we got in this game? Because in here
I think we need to talk about officiating because I
mentioned Julius Pepper's name and it's the first thing that

(15:59):
comes to mind. Was the block in the back, and
I know you get some of the TV view and
stuff like that, there was it was acknowledged. Tomlin acknowledged
it in both his postgame press conference and this Monday
press conference that he just held pretty bad when you
know ahead of time, he says, we scopped the officials
like we do the teams. We brought in referees during

(16:20):
practice to be ustless. It was just it felt for
a little bit like you were playing the Kansas City
Chiefs and just everything was a little one sided there.

Speaker 4 (16:30):
I got extremely frustrated with the encroachment, you know, lining
up in the neutral zone multiple times because you know,
you know, as we talked when we were texting, you know,
DJ has to check with the ref to make sure
he's in an okay position, and if the ref gives
him a thumbs up, he knows he's good, and then
they call the penalty. What are they saying he leaned

(16:52):
his head a little bit. I mean, give me a break.
That's the most ridiculous nonsense I ever I've ever heard.
And they were frustrated. I mean TJ was frustrated with that.
Tomlin was frustrated with those penalties, and it seemed to
happen anytime TJ got going on something. TJ makes a play.
Oh no, I'm sorry, you were a little offsides. It's

(17:14):
just it's it was brutal. I didn't think you know,
the the Julius whatever that block in the back one was.
It was weak, no question about it, technically, I guess,
but it was so touchy, like it's even I think
Gene's territor whoever the guy is that they have on

(17:36):
you know, X stinky ref basically said, I'm sorry the refs,
the ref stink.

Speaker 2 (17:42):
That was one that should not have been called. There's
a few of them. There's ones that would maybe take
back just plays in general. I thought that the very
first play where you just thought they were going to
run the football was when they find Darnell Washington was
a pretty big play. Uh Rogers. Rogers overthrows him at

(18:02):
one point, which I felt.

Speaker 4 (18:04):
Now needs to hold on the ball a little better though.
I mean he was carrying it like, you know, a
little loosey goosey. He's just yeah, he's used to crushing
small children. We talked before about the Kaiju thing and God,
small children. Why would he crush small?

Speaker 2 (18:17):
Hold it real gentle, real, real, real, real, real gentle,
Like you know, don't smash the bread. You know, it's
an inside joke I have with my daughter. But my grandmother,
God bless her, you know, rest in peace. But that
woman with grocery bags and smashing loads of bread, buns,
anything that was a bread product, it wasn't safe. It

(18:39):
was what's that No, it's uh. She'd throw a paint
can on it if she could have.

Speaker 4 (18:42):
I don't think she put it underneath the cans, put
the bread on the bottom, and put the cans and
vegetables on top of it.

Speaker 3 (18:47):
That's the way it works.

Speaker 2 (18:48):
They need that. Oh my goodness, you get like a
you get a piece. I know you're I'm the host
who likes toast. We haven't said that in a very
long time. And I hate that crowd. Yeah, and you
get a piece of bread that's like folded like orgami.
But anyways, Brian's going to He's going to fish out
another one of his sparkling waters. I know he is, Brian.

(19:10):
I nope, I I silenced you, my friend, we didn't
not get the.

Speaker 4 (19:16):
Bummer. Yeah, people think I'm drinking a cold one and
I am.

Speaker 2 (19:20):
Cold just the cold water. I don't know. We had
a can like that very similar. I was on a
different call, uh with one of my work professionals, and
it was just like, what do you got there? It
looks like a keystone light or something. It's like who
would drink that day? Drinking anyways, But I will say this,
at least the Steelers got a little bit of come up,
and it's a little bit of payback, if you will,

(19:42):
on the penalty with cordless weightman getting running into and
everybody and their brothers just looking at this like you
have thrown flags for guys sneezing Today, there's some that
felt like they could have gone either way. Particularly was
it Judy that like threw someone down practically in the
end zone. Was it Judy and Joey or Judy and

(20:03):
Eccles or somebody that was torn to me? And it
was just like, are you kidding me? Man? Like that
could go Like you have so many off these dumb
offsetting penalties because you don't have the cojones to just
go one way or the other. With some of the
calls is the way that I felt. But it's officiating
certainly had to be brought up. The field surface had
to be brought up. Both were brought up by Tomlin.

(20:25):
If you didn't catch coach Tomlins presser, please go back
as pretty informtive. It was actually lengthy one. You must
have fielded like forty questions. I didn't hear what he
said under his breath as he walked off the field
or walked off the podium, but he definitely said something
in there was a little chuckle. But we were talking
game balls, and I think we should give a few
of these out for individual performances, including one. Darnell Washington

(20:46):
is definitely high on my list for the game balls
in this one. What was his final tally? Three passes
for sixty two yards. But he was definitely a force.
It was forced to be reckoned with. You talked about
Roderick Jones as well, and I said, yes, any of
the game, they were definitely helping Broderick Jones. They're bringing
Jalen Warren or Kenneth Gainwell over. Washington was on that side,
but as the game went by, they left Jones on

(21:08):
an island. A couple of times. And there was a play.
There was actually a running play. I forget who got
the ball. It might have been Catile Johnson. And he
comes out over the right side and Darnold Washington just
threw someone like he was putting them six feet under,
like he just it was just like get down there,
and it was like with force. I'm just like that guy.

(21:32):
We need something bigger than a grown ass man. We
used to say grown ass man. This guy is just
he's a monster among men out there. So Washington, for sure,
I'm gonna say Brodrick Jones because a lot of people,
you know, they stick to that early season narrative. They
you know, what they remember, and if he has a
bad game and everybody's like, oh, get rid of this
offensive line is coming around and again, what have you

(21:55):
seen some of these offensive linemen celebrating as they're leaving
the field. You got Mason McCormick laying on the ground
like pointing that it's a first looking over at the
pylon or the sticks that it's a first down. And
they were having fun and doing what they were doing.
And definitely I'll give those game balls there. I know,
we said Ramsey earlier. I think you may have one
or two others than what I have.

Speaker 4 (22:16):
Well, I'm going to give one to Nick for sure. Yeah,
you know, two sacks gets you a game ball. I
would have picked Broderick as well and Jalen. I would
have probably picked Darnell Washington as well too. I would
just like to give one to the offensive line as
a group because I just felt they did a great job.

(22:37):
I thought Dk the catch, that early catch that was
just that was that was that was some legendary type
stuff that you know, the throw was perfect from Rogers.
That catch was incredible. You know, he had a solid game.
You know, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (22:55):
What about another what about another great catch? Connor Hayward.

Speaker 3 (22:59):
Connor Hayward catch that was nice?

Speaker 2 (23:01):
What a ball too? And some people are speculating about
Friarmouth his usage was he can get into those numbers.
Thirty six percent of the game. I mean they played
Connor Hayward was ten percent. You had a smattering of
so many different players that were out there. Because Scotti
Miller got time. He played forty four percent of the game,

(23:22):
Scoronic seventeen percent. That was ten reps total Firemouth only
at twenty one. I mean you had John new Smith
at forty one, Darnell Washington leading to charge with forty seven.
The only players who played more than that obviously Aaron
Rodgers the offensive line and DK Metcalf or de kaelin
as Missy Matthews had in the post game and we're

(23:44):
using your government name. He played forty nine plays eighty
three percent of the game. For DK Metcalf, Firemouth looked
a little absent, but the reason I bring him up
in the same breath with Connor Hayward. You see how
Rogers was able to freelance. This is what he's expecting
from Friarmuth and Fronman. You've pass to learn and grow
from this and just work a little more on his

(24:05):
routes and breaking off and getting a little open when
there might be some freelancing because Rogers didn't always have time,
but he had time and he got rid of the
ball is necessary. I mean, the Steelers really took care
of the football. I don't think there were major scares
in this game. I know you were talking a little
loose with Darnell Washington. I had as Sam Worriy sometimes
one Jalen Warren a little bit too. I look at

(24:27):
him and another hats off to punt and kick return
duties by Keishawn Williams who was here a preseason training
camp and gets brought up to the roster to play
on this game. In this game and take over the
duties for Calvin Austin nearly broke like a big play
if it wasn't for the Tiki tak call on Pep

(24:47):
and Peppers was not happy. Peppers probably could have had
a fumble recovery rethought too. There was a few ducks
that were floating around in this game. The defense was
very opportunistic. The spa plays were practically there. So we
now have to turn our attention over to the Bengals.

(25:09):
I'm gonna mention injuries real quick because like the big
One is the only one to really mention on the
Steelers and Miles Killer Brew. Now the attention turns toward
the Bengals in their health because Shamar Stewart did not play.
He's been dealing with an ankle and he was he
did not play. Let's see, that's about the biggest one

(25:32):
on the Bengals.

Speaker 3 (25:33):
Henderson went out Andreson.

Speaker 2 (25:34):
Went out with the back did not return, and that's
a pretty big one as well. When you're talking about
edge rushers in the way that Steelers, even with an
extra offensive lineman like Spencer Anderson playing, they go big again,
They're gonna be able to impose their will on the
Bengals defense has been doing better with I forgot the
defensive coordinator's name already, al Golden versus lou Ana Romo.

(25:57):
It was last year, Almo. That would be funny, though
they hear him count I can't even do it because
my throat still but I need to pull up the
quote from Tom and because it sums up about the
way I think we were all kind of thinking out there.
He sent the quiet part out loud, right and it

(26:20):
was and a quote. Andrew Berry must be a lot
smarter than me or us, because it doesn't make sense
to me to trade a quarterback you think enough of
to make your opening day starter to a division opponent
that's hurting in uh in that area. But that's just
my personal feelings, and that's my personal feeling as well.

(26:42):
Tomlin has a lot of respect for Joe Flacco. Joe
Flacco has actual legitimate people to throw the football to.
I think Mike guy SICKI leaves this game too, and
maybe doesn't come back one of the tight ends. He
ends up checking down a lot. To know a fan,
he was still able to deliver the ball on scale
tool sometimes. I mean, the couple of those throws at

(27:03):
Jamar Chase were pretty sick in this game. He finds
t Higgins a little bit. Overall. Flacco threw forty five
passes in this one, and that's because they trailed most
of the game. He only took one sack. He threw
two touchdowns two hundred and nineteen yards. So even though
he completed twenty nine to forty five, ball not really

(27:23):
getting around and he's not throwing like a lot of
deep passes. It's a lot of like shorter work, but
they're moving the sticks a little bit. Chase had ten
catches for ninety four yards and a touchdown. And then
one of the other reserved tight ends, Hudson, I don't
even know his first name, he caught four for ten
but he also had a touchdown in this one. Bengals

(27:43):
not really able to run the football, but they did
a little bit better against the Packers depending on who
was in there. Chase Brown at nine carries forty two
yards four point seven on average, but Sam Jay Perrine
only six carries for sixteen yards two point seven average.
The Steelers bottle this up and make them really one dimensional.
I think it's going to be difficult for Joe Flacco
to find anybody. And if they don't have Trey Hendrickson

(28:05):
or Shamar Stewart on that Bengals defense, this could this
one tilts a little a lot more maybe in favor
of the Steelers, even though they're going on the road
to a division opponent.

Speaker 4 (28:17):
The fact that they have Joe Flacco now annoys me because,
as you said, he's got legitimate credentials, right, and he's
got weapons to throw to and you know he's not
gonna Jake Browning it. Can he be rattled?

Speaker 2 (28:33):
Sure?

Speaker 3 (28:35):
Is he mobile?

Speaker 2 (28:36):
No?

Speaker 4 (28:37):
Should he be a you know, a statue back there
that we should be able to tee off on. Yes,
but he is still a legitimate quarterback and with the
weapons that the Bengals have, you know that that is
a little more concerning the game. I agree the game
tilts towards the Steelers for sure, especially if those injuries

(28:59):
you know, extend, so that guys like Hendry Counson and
Schumar Stewart don't play. But I mean, look, the Browns
offensive line was a little beat up, right. They kept
talking about how this is like the twelfth iteration of
the offensive line to play in.

Speaker 2 (29:14):
Only five or six games.

Speaker 4 (29:16):
Yeah, but is the Bengals offensive line better.

Speaker 3 (29:19):
Than the Browns offensive line?

Speaker 2 (29:23):
I don't have a very good answer for that. I mean,
Orlando Brown to me, has never really panned out for them.
Ted Harris has played a lot at center. I think
he's got like a consecutive game streak of like sixty
five games or something like that. They do have a rookie,
Jalen Rivers as one of their guards. Marius Mims, the
first rounder we remember, a very large man from last year.

(29:44):
I think Mims actually left that game too and was
replaced by Cody Ford due to injury. Cody Ford veteran
who's been all over the league. I best remember him.
I think I actually picked him up from Buffalo, maybe
even in a trade or off waivers something of that nature.
But he's stuck around there. Dalton Reisner gets in a
mixed somewhere in the interior. They've got like a bunch

(30:05):
of a bunch of kind of journeymen for the most part,
outside of Brown, who was thought to be the missing
piece for their Super Bowl picture a few years ago
when they made that made that signing. So uh no,
it was funny. I was looking up the depth chart
on Cincinnati Bengals dot Com and I think I'm gonna
actually pull this up just for the sake of while

(30:26):
it's here. And then somebody says, oh, well, no, you're
kind of lying to us, you know, And I'm let
me find depth chart. Here we go. Uh this will
you'll laugh and giggle at this one too, so as
showing the wrong screen, Give me a second. There we go. Now,
I got it. Advertising, they're white out, They're gonna be

(30:48):
wearing all these these all white jerseys or whatever. But
do we notice a name missing from the quarterback slide.
They didn't even have a chance to update the website
with Joe Flacco's as a quarterback on the depth chart,
which I thought was just hilarious. But just overall, even
looking at their defense, you know, BJ Hills still a

(31:08):
very solid player. Logan Wilson's been there for more than
a minute. Decks Hill converted over from he was kind
of a utility player when he was at that university
up North and so they have him playing as a
nickel corner. DJ Turner, we're familiar with him too with
Big ten football. Geno Stone's been there for a minute.
Jordan Battles found his kind of role in this defense.
But aside for Geno, Stone's been playing pretty well. But

(31:33):
none of these guys have been playing like over the line,
I feel, and when you don't have a Bengals offense,
they have to play some complimentary football. And I think
if you get if you make them real one dimensional,
which they've been, it's going to put a lot of
pressure on front. I don't think you want Flacco throw
in another fifty passes, even if it's that hole.

Speaker 3 (31:49):
Don't You absolutely don't.

Speaker 2 (31:50):
Yeah, you know.

Speaker 4 (31:54):
I'll tell you what I took away from watching the
Green Bay Bengals game was that I'm not as scared
of Green Bay as I thought I should be.

Speaker 2 (32:00):
No, dude, that's the same thought I had. Did I
text you that? Or did I text I might to
text that that my cousin Brad. I was like, I'm
watching this game and I'm like, is green But is
it just me? Or is everyone? Kind of? I don't
want to call them overrated. They are who they are,
and I think they only have the one loss to
the Browns, but they were struggling at home and they
only that's their only home game in fifty one days.

(32:21):
By the way, they have a buy building and then
a bunch of road games and everything including coming to
Pittsburgh here soon near the end of the month, and
that's going to be it's gonna be an interesting matchup
based on what ends up happening Thursday. But yeah, they
were struggling. They even with the guys that they had.
I think van Ness got a sack on on Flacco
if I'm not mistaken, and then I'm actually looking at

(32:46):
this hold on because I thought I said to Flacco
didn't take he just took the one. Michael Parsons didn't
really get home a whole lot. The one corner was
getting pretty abused. But then again, it is Jamar Chase
T Higgins as a combo. So those are some guys.
But not to get into a huge Green Bay Packers preview.
But since they just played nineteen to twenty six for

(33:08):
two hundred and fifty nine yards and a touchdown, just
took one. Seck had one really bad pick Jordan Love,
which it seems like he's good for one of those.
Every game. We only had to throw the ball twenty
six times. They ran it thirty three times. Josh Jacobs
with a five point two average, eighteen carries, ninety three
yards and two touchdowns. I think that's going to be
at the Steelers. We saw four tight ends catch a ball.

(33:30):
We saw three running backs run the ball in this game.
I don't know that we're worried about a wide receiver too.
This could be a very similar kind of game plan.
And I do think that you talk about putting that
Tyson Campbell just came over from Jacksonville in that Cleveland
game and he put him on Metcalf and he was
lost in the stars, and in fact Rogers missed one
that they probably should have had. Also. I think that's

(33:54):
going to be the same factor here in Cincinnati. I
think that DK is going to squeak free on a
couple of these, make some grown ass man plays. I
continue feeding Metcalf in this game, and I pound the
football with this group, this platoon that they have, whether
it's they just put seven guys up there. Mike Tomlin's
been using the term weight class. We talked about this

(34:17):
in the offseason, training camp previews and whatnot. Brian, this
is a matchup problem for all of these teams. I
even look around the AFC and start to think, unless
you've got like and the Browns have a very good
defensive line, the Bengals are not as good on the
defensive line. Patriots had a good defensive line. Patriots could
end up in the lead in their division. We're looking
at that and they're like, they won in New England,

(34:39):
they won. Now the Jets whole their story. The Jets
were still in it with the Broncos, but all right,
here we go. One guy in particular was really bad.
He was sacked nine times. It's the same number of
passes he completed, and that was justin fields nine completion.

Speaker 3 (34:58):
Passing.

Speaker 2 (34:59):
First time in twenty five thirty years that somebody had
had that kind of statistic as a quarterback. It was
just really bad. He just stood there like a statue
and was getting just mauled. There was no other way
of saying it. And then there was a safety and
the Jets ended up ahead. And this was played in London.
They ended up up eleven to nine. And my buddy's

(35:19):
a big Broncos fan, he was like, what is going
on here? It's like it was just keeping them in
the game. And I felt this way a little bit
with the Steelers and with Boswell and kicking a lot
of field goals at the very beginning, but they were
able to grind and just keep grinding and they tired
out that that Cleveland defense. This might be the first
time this year that the Steelers have actually led in

(35:43):
time of possession, and it wasn't It wasn't a big disparity,
but it was thirty one to fifty two to twenty
eight oh eight. They ran. The Browns ran seventy five
plays to the Steelers fifty eight. So the Steelers should
be pretty fresh offensively. I still think that the Steelers
defense will be because they put a bunch of backups
in towards the end, and that's where a lot of
those those plays and drives came from. There was the

(36:05):
one really nice possession that the Browns had. They had
an eighteen play or sixteen play seventy two yards with
a field goal to end the half, and then to
begin the fourth quarter eighteen plays forty nine yards. They
were able to maintain possession, some of it aided once
again flags Cam hay Fa. Yeah, just there was some

(36:27):
stuff there. So the story of that is once again
Jerry Judy trying to get in Porter's head. We saw
this with Chase, We saw this with t Higgins. If
there's any guys that are going to talk more trash
than those two, just kind of keep a lid on it, guys,
because Jalen Ramsey will definitely square up as well when
it comes to the choice talk. We've seen that in

(36:48):
the past. So that's pretty much. I mean, the Steelers
had ten drives or ten drives I'm sorry, three drives
with ten or more plays. That was very nice. They
had some really nice possessions or most of them weren't
any quick three and outs for the most part until
you got to the very, very very end of the
game where you would have liked to see them kind

(37:10):
of close it out, and they had one with a
nice possession on turnover on downs and that's where Boswell fell.
But Boswell in the past has been a Bengals killer,
and you put them in those stadiums. These coaches around
the league are not afraid. They're throwing guys out there.

Speaker 3 (37:25):
Now.

Speaker 2 (37:25):
We saw McPherson in the Bengals Packers. What was that
a sixty seven yard or he was attempting or something
like that, and it was well short, it barely made
the goal line. But they're fearless. They got the new
rules with the ball that they could bring there, and
Mike Tomin's gonna do the same thing. You got a
turf field. We'll see what the weather's like. I'm excited
for this one Thursday, Primetime Football, No maps, No maps

(37:47):
with Brian, No map, Amazon Prime on the same channel. Yeah,
local channels. If you happen to get whatever's local, it's
probably I think it's maybe it's either on ABC or NBC.
It's that could be CBS or Fox. I forget which
one in the local markets. I'd have to double check,
but just keep that in mind. And any closing thoughts there, Brian,
because I'll about spent. My voice is about gone. Now

(38:12):
is this the Ravens bye week? I'm sorry?

Speaker 3 (38:15):
Coming up? Is this the Ravens buy?

Speaker 2 (38:17):
I believe, so let me let me click on the clicker.
Ravens and Bills are going to be idle this upcoming week.
So then Baltimore is gonna come back. I know Baltimore
is gonna come back out of it. Maybe they get
Lamar back, but they still got a lot of other
problems going forward. And we were talking about that schedule too.

(38:38):
They're gonna get the Bears at home again. They had
three in a row at home with a buy in
the middle, So four weeks at home, the exact opposite
of what the Packers are basically doing. Steeler's gonna get
a lot of home games coming up too, because they
were on the road, even though the one home game,
that ninth home game was played in Dublin, Ireland. Then
you've got to go on the road three games. It's
interesting because we don't expect a Thursday night game, but

(38:58):
Thursday in Miami after playing the Bears. That Bears defense
is pretty physical. I could definitely see that being one
that they might be licking their wounds, depending on who's
actually who's healthy coming out of coming out of the game.
Out of the bye week after the Bears game, they
get the Dolphins and then you get almost It's very
similar to the Steelers schedule. Bye week home game, then

(39:20):
Thursday night on the road Minie By, and then the
Ravens go on the road again for Minnesota and Cleveland,
So it's gonna be there's gonna be some interesting stuff there.
Then they get like the Jets, the Bengals, and the
Steelers all at home. They get another three in a
row at home. One of those is a Thursday night
game against the Bengals. So again, schedule makers, schedule makers,

(39:41):
they get on my nerves a little bit. But again
you will not get any sympathy from us, not only
because of that Christmas stretch last year. But I thought
about this the other day, and it's like the Steelers
with Thursday night games. When Tomlin was asked about this,
and he's lost, however many four of the last six,
five in the last six, and he's always got to
go to like on the road, he's got to go
for a divisional game, got to play in Cleveland. It's

(40:02):
crap weather snowing last year. After you play like the Ravens,
your first divisional game of the entire season last year
was like Week eleven. And so the schedule makers, they're
just trying to put that into hard knocks or whatever.
You know. They could kiss it as far as I'm concerned.
They're right there with the officials. They're in that some
of the officials don't like. I don't dislike as strongly

(40:24):
as you, Brian, but I think they may have gotten
some of the worst ones out of the way. I
did not see an announcement yet for who's on for
Thursday night, So I'm going to bite my tongue until
we hear that announcement because it could be Hockeley's boy
for all we know. And then apple doesn't fall far
from the tree there with.

Speaker 3 (40:44):
Oh Man.

Speaker 2 (40:45):
But overall, we're gonna take this victory and hopefully the
Steelers can build some momentum and then they get a
little bit of a mini buy before they end up
having the Packers come along. Steelers, now, I was premature
in saying this the last time, but they are now
four and one, and you know they could be among

(41:05):
depending on what shakes out here with the Buffalo Bills
and the Atlanta Falcons. I don't anticipate Buffalo struggling, but
the Steelers. And then you got the Colts at five
and one atop the AFC and Kansas City's Clawn back
they're three and three, but they're behind both the Chargers
and the Broncos. That's an interesting time to be alive.

(41:27):
There's still a lot of football left to be played.
But trust me, seeing Baltimore and Cleveland both at one
and five, that makes me happy. It makes me feel
a little more confident. I know some of the schedule
is going to get a little tougher for the Steelers,
a little easier for the other teams, but you got
to play what's in front of you, and so far,
I'm pleased with the way this season has panned out. Yeah,

(41:49):
so far, so good, so far, so good. Well, folks,
that'll do it for us today. Don't forget the like,
comment and subscribe. I'm like, I'm ready to start massaging
my throat. I'm starting that is the voice. So uh,
don't forget to like, comment and subscribe, leave a rating
review wherever you're at, share the show. We appreciate all
of you and said that support us, watching or listening

(42:09):
wherever you may be. Until next time. My name is
Joe Cuzba. His name is Brian E. Roach. We will
catch you next time on the post game and stay tuned.
Middle of the week Terry Fletcher with her WTF What
the Football podcast will also be up at some point
as Terry comes back from Hawaii. Jealous about that Yeah,
I'm not sure what's that said?

Speaker 3 (42:31):
She didn't take us? What the hell?

Speaker 2 (42:32):
I tell her that every year, it's like she goes
there like every year. I've never been, not yet, but
one of these days, one of these days. So I'm
trying to fill out the little America like thing, and
every state that have been to, like thirty eight states,
so there's not a whole lot left. I need the
corners up in Maye.

Speaker 3 (42:48):
Why in Alaska? And why in Alaska? And I think
Maine that might be it for you. North Dakota. I
don't think i've hit yet.

Speaker 2 (42:57):
I haven't hit North I had an opportunity to go
to North Dakota and did because I didn't feel like
being in a car for five hours one way from
South Dakota. Another very exciting place to be, but.

Speaker 3 (43:07):
You've been there. Yeah, So Adlands National Park is very cool.

Speaker 2 (43:10):
Though. Oh that's neat. That's neat. No, I don't really
have a bad thing to say about South Dakota. I
enjoyed my time there, believe it or not. Even Iowa,
which is very flat in the home of our editor
Tina Rivers, he probably would not agree.

Speaker 3 (43:21):
Much better than Kansas.

Speaker 2 (43:24):
Doesn't look like we're in Kansas anymore, Toto, please you.

Speaker 4 (43:29):
That's a good thing, because Kansas is about the most
boring place in the world.

Speaker 2 (43:32):
It's say the same thing about Ohio, so it maybe
even west.

Speaker 4 (43:36):
I's got hills. Ohio has character. There are things in
Ohio you don't Kansas. You just look and go it's
all wheat, what the hell? This is the most lame
state ever.

Speaker 2 (43:49):
Well, I was very flat as well, so you don't
get dull of the sprawling hills and plains and mountains,
and you know the when you get into Appalachia, into
Sylvania and West Virginia country roads. Take me home, and
that's where we're gonna go. We're taking it home.

Speaker 3 (44:06):
Brian.

Speaker 2 (44:07):
My name is Joe. His name is Brian. Until next time,
we encourage all of the few find folks out there
to be safe, be good, and we'll catch you later.

Speaker 1 (44:17):
We would like to 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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