Steelers outplayed in every phase in Week 2 loss to Seahawks

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.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Rose.

Speaker 3 (00:20):
Hello everyone, and welcome to another edition of the steel
City Underground podcast. My name is Joe Kuzma. I'm joined
here with my buddy and Paul one mister Briany roach
in Brian. Usually it's about this time early in the
episode that I ask how you're doing. But I'm not
going to do that today because I have a pretty
good feeling that I know how you're doing. But feel

(00:41):
free to give us all the affirmation that we deserve.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
I'm gonna just smack him because he's wrong. He's this wrong.
So I'm just I'm gonna slap this bobblehead some set
that's bobble abuse. That sounds way worse than it is.

Speaker 3 (01:02):
Don't want you to get in trouble for that, my friend.
But oh, there's plenty of things we'll probably say or
do that could get us into trouble today. Oh yeah, yeah,
the Steelers. I think we totally agree that this was
a winnable game but ends up being a thirty one
to seventeen loss for the Steelers, falling to one and

(01:25):
one on the season. Well, they lose some ground in
the division. Even despite Joe Burrow getting hurt in Cincinnati,
they still took care of business against the Jaguars to
go to two and zero. And then also, you know
Cleveland has fallen behind, but they played the Ravens. Ravens
get a lay up there.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
And in a row.

Speaker 3 (01:46):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean it's it's this is a
rough one, Steelers giving up thirty twice in a row.
We're going to talk about turning points, defense, offense, all
that good stuff, and you know, try and keep the
trying frustrated. I've frustrated with this game. You don't know
me to be too frustrated too often or even go

(02:07):
to leave. I even stuck around up until Mason ended
up coming into the game, and then I was like,
all right, time to hit the road, see if I
could beat any traffic, which you losers, I didn't even
get to do that. So, speaking of it, you know what,
I noticed my shirt, my Steelers shirt that I have
on today. I went to pull one out of the
closet that said steel Kurt, and I can't wear that
I'd be embarrassed to wear that right now, there's no

(02:28):
way after the last two games. Yeah, absolutely absolutely, And
it's not just defense. This whole team was embarrassing. This
is the September football we talk about and hope that
there's some way that they can fix it, But like
in previous years, we've just sat here and gone, how
did they fix it? So let's first talk about some
of the things that went right or wrong, really, the

(02:50):
turning points where this felt like it was going to
be a struggle. But there was a Steelers drive in
the second quarter that I mean are I should say
first quarter and second quarter, So you had three straight
scores from the Steelers after the Seahawks go march down

(03:10):
the field in their first possession and made it look
easy from the opening kickoff eight play sixty five yards,
Steelers scoring their first two drives just field goals, and
you're like, well, here comes the struggle bus, and you know,
all the more they got out of that one interception
was a field goal. So I start to think maybe
my opinion of Seattle is a little higher now than

(03:32):
it was going into this game. Surely, but it seemed
like a turning point might have been. When the Steelers
went up fourteen to seven, they not only scored you know,
the touchdown that they had there, but also found Darnell
Washington for the two point conversion, a good call. They
go up a full seven, it feels like, hey, maybe
they're at home and they're they're going to be kind

(03:53):
of in control of their destiny. And then you even
have the Seahawks miss the field goal. They were kind
of making mistakes all over the place. You had a
Jalen Ramsey interception and Nick Herbick interception. You go in
the halftime feeling a little bit better. You wish they
could have maybe done something before half, but you're like, hey,
you're gonna get the ball to start the second half,

(04:15):
and what could possibly go wrong in this game and
the series? To start the third quarter was absolute garbage.
Six plays nineteen yards and then a punt that allowed
they then allowed Seattle to march down the field take
the lead nine plays eighty yards, and then you had

(04:36):
the mess of you know, okay, maybe just maybe the
Steelers can maybe they could answer, and you had the
goofiest stuff that happened. You had this ping pong ricochet,
Aaron Rodgers pass that bounced off the hands of Pat
Fryarm with Calvin Austin was standing right there and ends
up being one of the two interceptions that he throws

(04:58):
in this game. Rogers will get more into the offense,
but more on you know, he's looking, he's looking for
this uh pass. He rifles one in there, fire me
once again, can't haul it in and it's a turnover
where that's you know, that's a turning point in the game.
That's a point swing. Then you have whatever the hell

(05:19):
Caleb Johnson was doing on special teams. So it's just
not offense, it's just not defense. You know, you normally
you would pin this. It's like, do they know the rules?
We think Danny Smith is a world class special teams coach,
Like what the hell happened here? Like just lost in
the moment, I don't know. And he nearly touched it
to begin with. Regardless if he did or not, the

(05:40):
rule is, if it lands in the landing zone, you
got you can't just let it. You've got to field it,
you got to do something with it. I'm actually pretty
sure too, even if it goes back they I think
they have to bring it out. If I'm not mistaken.
It made some change with.

Speaker 2 (05:51):
That it tackles in the end zone.

Speaker 3 (05:53):
I think it's a safety, yeah, absolutely, which would have
been just as bad, but it would have been two points.
But given the ball right back, they just gave them
a gift, gave them, gave them seven points for free.
I'm sitting there astonished that I witnessed this in a
pro game. Yeah, maybe it'll be a lesson for the
rest of the league, but I'm sure it's not the
only team that's going to make some type of gaff

(06:14):
for snafu here. And then the other one that just
totally got me too was just how they marched down
the field with ease towards the end seven play seventy
three yards and Kenneth Walker has a nineteen yard TD
run on the sweep basically just slices through everyone untouched.
It felt like there was very little, very little heart desire.
I don't know. There were people talking about fatigue or whatever,

(06:35):
but Seattle has to come over and play as a
West Coast team at a one o'clock game in the
same exact environment and conditions, and also deal with some
injuries as well, like they didn't have. They didn't have Witherspoon.
They didn't have a Manawari and the secondary. But yet
it really wasn't It really wasn't a problem for them.

Speaker 2 (06:53):
So I heard somebody tell say it it's a tale
of two halves. Right, they look great, there ahead, there ahead.
I'm like, let's take a step back from that. They
didn't look great in the first half. The offense looked
like trash in the first half. Yes, we managed to
get fourteen points, but we got three points on the
first drive off of a field goal. Then we get
an interception and we can only muster a field goal.

(07:16):
Then we get another interception that we do manage to
cash in as a touchdown. But it was struggle bust
time to get there, right. It took an incredible DK
Metcalf catch to get the touchdown there. What was clearly
obvious in the first half is that the offense has
zero run game, and because it's now known they can't

(07:40):
run the damn ball, all they're doing is playing the pass.
And if the defense on the other side of the
team is simply playing the pass and our offensive line
cannot protect our quarterback, which was also obvious in the
first half, you're going to have nothing but struggles to
try and move the ball and score, which is exactly
what we saw in the first Yes, a miracle of

(08:01):
fourteen to seven lead. But I don't think anybody at
the end of the first half went that was watching
the game right, was like, Yeah, this is gonna go great, right,
because you can't count on every time that the Seahawks
get the ball, we're gonna get an interception. You know,
you knew they were gonna find ways. They had to

(08:23):
run the ball decently. It looked like they cleaned up
a little of the run game, and then later on
it didn't look like they cleaned up a little bit
of the run game. I'm just I am so annoyed
that this universe, this defense that costs more than any
other defense in the universe or the history of football,

(08:44):
is this atrocious. I get it, I get it their
piece is missing. But I'm gonna be shocked if Derek
Harmon comes back and suddenly the run game is resolved, Right,
we can stop the run now. I can't imagine that's
the case. But I just don't know what else to
think of this. There's there's and there's we'll get into it.

(09:04):
I know there's more than just the fact that, you know,
the run defense looks poor. There are pieces of the
puzzle that just aren't there right now, and that has
nothing to do with missing players other than they're missing
in production. You know.

Speaker 3 (09:21):
Yeah, I feel like I know there's some starters that
were out. Toshaun Elliott. Does he make that much bigger
of a difference. Maybe maybe he's a guy that's playing
up in the box more. You know, they try and
slide Ramsey over their ramseys. Ramsey's the one guy that
was playing with a lot of heart and he even
got beat, but he really felt like the one guy
who gave a damn out there posted to everybody else.

(09:42):
I'm just kind of like, what is going on with
this team? And you had injuries, you had Joey Porter out,
you had Elliot out, Queen left for a little bit,
Peyton Wilson was throwing up. They even gave him a
new helmets. Per per radio, I'm listening to a radio call.
Sometimes it turn it on and off when you have
injured players in that when I'm watching in stadium too,
and try and get it extra scoop. Queen actually went

(10:05):
got hurt. Yeah, Queen went actually went to the tent,
so they weren't compensating for a lot, but it still
doesn't give you a lot of confidence. I mean, even
if half the guys are backups. I don't know. If
it's scheme, I don't know, if it's coaching, I don't know.
You know, was it too hot out there? Like they
practiced in this in Latrobe? You know, like I don't
want to make the Let's put it this way, I

(10:25):
don't want to make any excuses. They sucked, just flat
out stunk when it comes to this. Let's see what
they gave up total one hundred and seventeen yards one
oh five and eight point one average for Kenneth Walker,
which is just ridiculous. Thirteen for one oh five and
a TD sharpa day was bottled up a little more.

(10:46):
He had fifteen for ten, which is awful. He didn't
even gain a yard per Carrious is like the only
guy that could stop receiving. Wise, they couldn't stop Cooper Cup.
Cooper Cup was finding these little spots, Yeah, little spots
in the zone and everything like that. Let me tell you,
you know, everybody you know talking about maybe Derek Carmon.
Derek Carmon's obviously brought in to make a difference, but

(11:09):
so is why Black. I felt like, why Black had
pretty decent game. Keanu Benton is going backwards and we
saw some videos of that that's around on the internet,
but I saw it in the stadium. I'm talking with
my cousin Daniel Qualley, and why Black are there on
the line and you're playing with two defensive limen at
one point with them in they were the only ones
who got any damn pressure. Why he's breaking through a quality?

(11:33):
Did a quality have a sack or at least had
a hint on the ball. Let's see Peyton Wilson had
the one on the blitz and then Jack Sawyer, who
let's bring his name up to a rookie that's playing
an awful lot. He texted me in the middle of
the gate, why is he in here so much? And
because of the radio thing, they hadn't put it on
the scoreboard anything yet we knew Alex high Smith ankle

(11:53):
Heismith the times ticking because he signed the contract for
some money and he's been not healthy and then not
so not producing is the same part. And we said
that yeah, during the offseason, if Nick Herbet could stay healthy,
guess what, you're going to keep the guy who's younger,
we could give the new contract to, and you might
offload the other dude. He may even have a cap

(12:14):
savings with Highsmith. It's week two. It's very early to
say this. I do feel more confident with Highsmith out
there for the run on sealing the edge. Usually I'm
not going to say a lot, but what did you
text me? Jack Sawyer statistically is out playing TJ. Watt,
the guy who just got a big bag of money
in the offseason.

Speaker 2 (12:31):
Yeah, and that's what I'm talking about with they are
pieces that are there that just aren't producing. TJ. Watt
has zero sacks in two games. I think zero tackles
for loss in two games. Jack Sawyer a rookie who
I absolutely said looked lost in the first game, because
I felt like he did. He played a little better
in this game. Give him credit for that. Played more

(12:54):
in this game, and now he's got sacks and tackles
for loss. He's got a statistically better season right now
than TJ. Watt. Don't don't everybody calm down, don't get
your underwear all bunched up. I watched the game too.
I know that TJ is running through three and sometimes
four guys on almost every play, right, But that's that's

(13:17):
the problem I have is that's incumbent. Then on the
defensive coordinator, who we'll talk about. I'm sure in finding
a way to unleash this beast that you have moving
they and they did. They moved him around. He was
not effective in places where he wasn't you know where

(13:37):
he was moved, like when he moved him to They
flipped nick in him a lot, They flipped sides a lot,
and he was not getting as much pressure there. I
don't know. I don't think he's hurt, but I can
just tell you that without TJ. Watt making his presence felt,
this defense is never going to play at an elite level.

Speaker 3 (13:58):
Yeah, and I'm totally with you on that one. People
are talking about going back to last year, but they
were hurt and they're a different personnel. I think har
I think harv. I don't know if harvon' is a savior.
I don't want to place that on the rookie's shoulders,
but he can't play much worse, and he's going to
get a chance to show it if nobody else can.
I actually felt Benton played better. I know somebody was

(14:19):
saying nose tackle, but I don't even think that was
a base three four. They were doing better in a
base three four with beton his nose and maybe Hayward
who was on the other side of Hayward. I wanted
to say it was maybe black. It could have been
black some of the actual Look, I'm going to go
through some of the snap totals actually for some of
the defenders, just to give kind of an idea. You know,

(14:40):
I'm not going to blow everything up from a September game.
There's going to be good and bad losses, but there's
nothing positive to take away from this game whatsoever. I
really don't have anything positive. Maybe maybe one or two things.
Maybe maybe the fact that Jack Sawyer showed that maybe
he can play. Yeah, maybe maybe so you have.

Speaker 2 (14:58):
You know, look, I was telling uh, you know, I
I so, Hi, Jeff. You know, we went to a
game with one of our listeners, a guy you know,
his name's Jeff, and I was talking to him about
this and I said, you know, there are moments in
the game where you're like, Okay, I feel like you
know things are going you know, you got uh, you know,

(15:19):
Jalen Ramsey gets the pick which was in a really
nice pick you got, you know Herbig takes the ball
after after Cam bats it up in the air. Those
are the kind of plays that feed this defense, right,
And if they don't get those kind of plays, that
kind of splash, they are not going to hold up, right.
They they are predicated on being that kind of a defense.

(15:39):
I don't think otherwise they're going to be. But you know,
you had you had those moments, So I don't want
to pretend like everything was horrible. Not every I mean
those a great catch, as I said by DK in
the end to get the touchdown on the end zone.
The problem is, over the span of that game, you
had probably four highlights where you could go, yeah, wow,

(16:01):
we looked good there, and the rest of it was
so underwhelming and looked so bad that you know, you
gloss over it. There There are ups, is what I'm
getting at. There. There are things to take away that
are positives. There's just few of them. They're just few.

Speaker 3 (16:17):
Well, not getting any pressure on the quarterback was pretty
pretty bad.

Speaker 2 (16:22):
That's bad.

Speaker 3 (16:23):
That's bad. There were definitely some I think apparently there
were quarterback hits in this game, Wilson had one, Chuck Clark,
I didn't see the Chuck Clark one. Patrick Quayn and
Jack Sawyer each had one. TJ apparently had two. I'm
trying to figure out how you have a pass interference
with Rogers where he like stuffed up in the pocket

(16:43):
threw it away and there was like no one there
or whatever, and that was called in another game too.
I think you mean night grounding call call. I'm sorry, yes,
intentional grounding, but like Darnold's just like I was throw
it right into t J. Watt and it's like, well,
there's nobody there, like that was a low pass everything
like that. Uh. The funny thing is is like you're
you know, when I officiated in pro and college soccer,

(17:06):
we never didn't have the word intent or intentional in
the rule book because they said you can't judge intent
is it deliberate. But this is called intentional grounding, and
I don't know if there's semantics at play with the
NFL rule book. It looks pretty intentional that he didn't
want to get sacked, and so that was kind of crazy.

Speaker 2 (17:25):
Yeah, on that way, somebody we talked about that when
it happened, and like I couldn't remember was there running
back in the area? Was you know, was there somebody
in the backfield that was a potential target? And then
all of a sudden you can't because now, yes, you
know he's throwing it away not to get sacked, but
if there's somebody in the area, then legitimately they don't

(17:47):
call it. Right. The problem with with Aaron's was there
wasn't anybody there?

Speaker 3 (17:54):
Yeah, oh yeah, there definitely wasn't anybody there. But I'm
just saying that's like, I don't know, It's not like
through two games that I have a lot to complain
about with the officiating because I don't think it makes
any difference either way. There's a calling here or there.
But they're going to be bad, ye, because they're going
to be bad.

Speaker 2 (18:11):
I am. I'm sitting there going I'll tell you the
team itself and the biggest to me, glaring issue is
the offensive line, which is just.

Speaker 3 (18:22):
Well, let's get there in a second home we still
got But.

Speaker 2 (18:24):
That's what I wanted to say was the team itself
has played so poorly, especially on defense, that I haven't
been able to really give a crap what the refs
do because it doesn't make any difference.

Speaker 3 (18:38):
Well, you had, I think TJ had. It says two
quarterback hits. I mean most of this is forgettable. Be
apparently had one too, as did Nick Kirbig. The sacks,
of course, Wilson and Jack Sawyer. It's like, why don't
they say it feels like they're not even sending any
blitzes either. It's like, we'll just try and get there
with four and oftentimes you know you're expecting Benton cam

(19:01):
Black whoever, they at least eat up two guys, and
instead they're getting eaten up by two guys. And we've
talked about that getting to the second level with some
of the linebackers just slicing through. And then that's why
Jalen Ramsey has to look like a hero on every
single play, and he just can't do it on every play.
It's just not that's just not possible. It's just not
how it works. So the snap totals you had one

(19:21):
hundred percent participation, sixty five defensive plays between one Thornhill
Darius slay Well, I would say showed up also like
Slay's been quiet, But that may also be kind of intentional.
When we always say when you don't hear a corner's name.
That's a good thing, that's good at him. But Ramsey's
being asked to play all over the place, you know,
and he gets beat on. I think I got beat

(19:43):
on a touchdown too, so.

Speaker 2 (19:44):
And I'm pretty convinced that was a communication problem. I
do think that, especially in the secondary, there are so
many pieces right now that they're just they're they're not
communicating well and not having Deshaun Elliott out there do
and help right, especially in this game. I'm convinced that
because that touchdown that Ramsey gave up, he was so

(20:07):
wide open.

Speaker 3 (20:08):
Yeah, it was almost the same place from the Jets
game too, with Garrett's almost identical to that one. Let's
see here, we've got the excuse me so our throat
from screaming yesterday too. Brian Patrick Queen of course sat
five plays. He went in a tent shortly. Chuck Clark
fifty seven, Peyton Wilson fifty six, Nick Krbig fifty one,

(20:32):
seventy eight percent of the game. This Jersey number. That's
kind of neat the way that works out right. TJ
played seventy seven, Cam played seventy four, So you know
they were a little tired of sucking. Win Benton seventy two,
White Black sixty two, which I think forty snaps. That's
definitely a high for him, and as was for Jack

(20:53):
Sawyer twenty six, forty percent of game. Brandon Echoles same here,
twenty three plays for thirty five percent of quality, one
percent of the game. Cole Holcomb gets his first action
of the season, and this is what I was gonna
bring up and actually let me finish the others. Because
Alex Highsmith only plays ten snaps, Logan Lee ends up
playing twelve. Loudermilk, who also leaves the game hurt only six,

(21:13):
which you know what, I don't have the highest like
maybe better off without him out there. Carson Bruner plays
a snap too, because they started running out of inside linebackers.
At one point, Holcomb looked good. I was glad to
see him out there, so when I did, I think
there is some adjustment that can be made. It might
be some guys riding the pine and getting some splinters
in their ass. That's what's going to end up happening.

(21:33):
Because a Kuale, you know, can he do it for
a full game? Is even football shape as it just
little splash things here. Is it kind of situational where
you send out certain personnel groups because not only for substitution,
gives some guys a breather for like key third down plays.
You know you're gonna do some of that. But just
from the observation in the lens of this game, why

(21:54):
black Daniel Kualay Cole Holcomb instead of Peyton Wilson look
pretty good. In fact, Cole Holcom with and Wilson didn't
look so bad either. Cole Holcom looked pretty good in there. Now,
if you can get your corners back in there, maybe
you get Derek Carmon in there. Maybe there is some
form of hope. And of course in Alex Heismith that
needs to be healthy, who didn't play for you know,

(22:14):
the whole preseason, right, I don't think he was in
at all. So you know, this game is just I
don't know what else to say. I just got to hope.
You gotta hope that at some point, like those slants
on the inside, those drag routes with like a Cooper
cup or something, it was like I'm almost looking for

(22:34):
it every single time, and it's like figure it out.
And when you're not getting home or putting any pressure
on Darnold. He has the time to find those plays.
That is more or less probably the larger part of
the problem. Brings some heat, send somebody, and it just felt.

Speaker 2 (22:50):
Like, yeah, it felt like it wasn't I mean, like
I said, it may change when Derek Carmon gets on
the field, right, you may see some pressure the middle
at that point, but right, you know, and that will
change things because if you're in the quarterback's face from
the middle, that's always going to be more of a problem,
right it it So we'll see if that if that

(23:12):
has an impact. But yeah, they're not getting the pressure
they need to get sending three and four guys. So
you're gonna have to spice it up. You're gonna have
to try and figure out what do we do uh
to get that and and do it in a creative way.
The problem is the couple of times that they did
blitz didn't feel like it was impactful at all or
a surprise or useful. I think Patrick Queen blitzed up

(23:34):
the middle one time. That was effective on that play.
But you know, when you would try and do those
outside you know, either safety blitz or corner blitz, they
weren't coming close to to really causing a problem. You
know the thing I want to and I wanted to
say this at the beginning, but I just didn't. So
I'll say now. You know, you hear that that idiom

(23:57):
all the time. That is your strength. You build your
team from strength, and you always start in the middle, right,
and you start at the lines, and then you build
from there. Right. The problem right now is on both
sides of the ball. The lines are not doing their job.
On the defensive side of the ball, they're not stopping
the run effectively. That is going to be primarily the

(24:19):
fault of the defensive lineman, right, and that they're getting
washed away. They're not pushing back. They're being bullied. And
that's not something you expect to see. We saw that
in the Jets game. We saw it again in this game.
You know, the offensive line that you hope is bullying,

(24:41):
they're also getting bullied. They can't pass, protect, they can't
run block. It's a mess. It's a mess. Right. You
look at Rogers, who is taking two steps and then
having to move because pressure is coming again. Pressure up
the middle mostly, I think from the guard position. I

(25:01):
think if you look at everything all. Yeah, yeah, the
center is doing his job. But again, if that's the
only guy doing the job, it's not going to work.
But you know, I've said all along McCormick, I think
he's a he's a he's a tough guy, right, but

(25:21):
he's not strong enough, he's not getting pushed, and he's
not able to pass protect. Those are problems. You know,
we were We talked about that during the draft process.
They need to you know, I don't I don't want
to go into season with Mason McCormick as my starting guard.
But that's where they're at. Maybe they'll get better, Maybe

(25:42):
they'll get better. It's but I feel like we've been
saying that for three plus years now, maybe the same
guys for three plus years.

Speaker 3 (25:49):
But you know what, Brian, I know, how'd you feel?
How did you feel about Broderick Jones? Because I felt
like he had a better game. I didn't think he
was the focus point of the blame on the offensive line.
I think you're absolutely right with Mason McCormick. I had
a huge problem with Mason McCormick in this game. Troy
Fotpanu also got panalized, he got holding.

Speaker 2 (26:09):
It was bad that was a bad Bulley call, but
it was if he doesn't do it, Rogers's getting crushed
in Sa Malo too, and Sa Malo two has not
looked sharp, and he's been another guy that getting a
slow start to this season.

Speaker 3 (26:24):
He wasn't practicing, he wasn't playing in preseason games. He
was getting some veteran privilege there, you know, with some
of this stuff. So it's gonna take some time to
gel I liked one of the radio callers in a
Steelers post game with Mike Persudo and Charlie Batch. He
kind of said the same thing about you know, I'll
give Roderick Jones probably give more of a flyer than

(26:44):
most of us, including me and you, because he said, look,
he's been used to doing something else for the last
two plus years and he's only had this is only
a second game being over there and already maybe maybe
a little better, and they're giving him some help, no doubt,
they're giving him some help. And that's what they're going
to have to do certain cases. Slide the protection over
if it's Jalen Warren, Ken gain Well, whatever it may be,

(27:06):
which is funny too, because Jalen Warren ends up returning
kicks after the cale, Johnson was probably put talking about
splinters his ass.

Speaker 4 (27:13):
Yeah, I I I'm telling you that mistake was so
bad that if it's if that's like your fifth or
sixth round draft pick, he's cut the next day.

Speaker 2 (27:24):
Right, You're going to do it with a second round
draft pick. Yeah, but look, you know this game and
this team, this team is just a hot mess, right
they have. They got a lot, they got a lot
of problems. They got to go to New England next week.
And I'll tell you right now, I don't think they
win that game, not the way they've been playing, not

(27:46):
the way Yon playing.

Speaker 3 (27:47):
Yeah, I don't know, because New England's the least to
be able to put up some points with Drake May
or whatever. But we'll get into New England preval later.
And you know Vray bowl in the way that he
prepares for games, you know, playing on the road. They're
playing a lot of road trips too, because then you
got to go to Ireland. Maybe it a bye week
actually does come at a good time and they could
get healthy rest up and then get some you know

(28:08):
three out of four at home or whatever, or a
short bus trip. I think the Cincinnati. Yeah, you know
something like that.

Speaker 2 (28:14):
Let me let me let me make this point here
that I was gonna I was talking about. You got
a Jets team that put up thirty something points on
this defense, right, and then they go to Buffalo and
they can put up what three I don't remember if
they scored more after that, Fields gets benched. Right, So
that's clearly a bad offense that whipped our butt on defense. Right,

(28:36):
we just happened to outscore them. You go, and you're
talking about New England. I don't think that's a good offense.
But they put up thirty points, and they can put
up points. I'm scared of any team that can put
up points right now. Why because they only have to
do two things score on their side, which seemingly we
don't know how to stop and prevent the pass. That's it.

(28:57):
They don't have to worry about running about rund. We
can't run the damn ball. So and it looked like
it's a problem.

Speaker 3 (29:05):
Yeah, it looks like we the Steelers tried to run
the ball, by the way, the Jets. That final score
was Buffalo thirty, Jets ten, justin Fields three of eleven
in that game passing, So Jalen Warren here fourteen to
forty eight, three point four nine yard long. He had
that huge sixty five yard reception. He caught four posters
for eighty six and got down the field. But the

(29:27):
rest of the team, you know, kep gainwell five for
twenty for four. But there's only so much you could do.
And once Johnson makes that very critical error, it flips
the way the team's now call play.

Speaker 2 (29:38):
Yeah, screwed. Yeah. At that point, you know, you go
from being down three to being down ten, and you're
it's late in the game, and you like, do we
even have enough time to score enough points to get
back into this, especially you know, knowing our defense has
been playing the way they're you know, you you could
feel and I do what I want to say this, Yeah,

(29:58):
you could feel it. You could feel the air go
out of the stadium when that happened. It was like nobody,
nobody in that stadium, and people did start to leave
right If we had escalators, we would have had our
own escaloser going on right then and there. But you know,
at the same time, oh my god, the number of

(30:18):
empty seats in that stadium yesterday, What the hell was
going on? Was it? Just that it was a beautiful
day and people decided to stay out in the parking
lot instead of coming in, or or did as many
people that watch that Jets game go Yeah, I filled
in and not show up.

Speaker 3 (30:35):
I think there are a lot of people I hate,
especially the start of the second half. Either need a
longer halftime or Steelers the acresuer stadium. People need to
figure something out with the concession lines. I won't buy
anything in the stadium because people just end up standing
there and if you're if you're the visitor, you have
a chance to defer. Do it every time. There's like
twenty thousand people in the stands, and maybe five thousand

(30:58):
of them are your fans, So like, you're not gonna
get hate crowd noise because everybody's waiting to either use
the the latrine or I almost set the pisser, but
I may as well just say it anyways and then
get a pump or whatever. And it takes you a
full quarter to get it, you know, or maybe they're
too hot. It was the sun was brutal. I know

(31:19):
you're in the shade. I'm in the shade after about
the first quarter, and if you're wearing black even if
you're not the yellow seat, the gold seats Rady eight.
I've said this for years. Man, that sun was brutal.
I mean it was only like eighty three eighty four
out there. It felt like it was like ninety two
or something. When you got guys throwing up on the field. Again,
I'm not trying to make it fatigues you. The heat

(31:40):
will fatigue you also.

Speaker 2 (31:42):
And the defense was on the field a lot, a lot,
so you do understand that. I mean, it doesn't help
whether the defense can't get off the field, which was
a problem in the second half, you know, and the
offense isn't backing them up with nice, long sustained drives.
You're not playing complimentary football, which they're not doing. You know,
it's a problem. But you know from my seats, like

(32:04):
you're if I'm not mistaken, you're like down towards the
end zone, right, yeah.

Speaker 3 (32:08):
I below the new that they put in the.

Speaker 2 (32:10):
Corner to see the full it's harder to see the
full spectrum on the other side. There were some empty
seats on the other side of the stadium just through
the whole game, and a lot of them because I
saw a lot of yellow and it wasn't just after halftime.
It wasn't just at the beginning of the game. And
I'm sitting there going like I gave up on it
in the fourth quarter, because yeah, you expect everybody has

(32:32):
gone and left at that point, right, but uh, you know, sorry,
it's a slight technical interruption by somebody deciding to tell
me that my my car is ready to be picked up.

Speaker 3 (32:46):
That's a good thing, at least.

Speaker 2 (32:48):
That's what I think.

Speaker 3 (32:48):
It was played attendants with sixty six three forty seven.

Speaker 2 (32:52):
So somebody there were not sixty six thousand people in
that stadium.

Speaker 3 (32:54):
I'm just telling you there were not. The tail gate
lots felt pretty big. I'll close out some more on
the offense. I mean, I heard this on serious x
MNFL radio. Rogers or I should say the stealers. It
gainst the Seahawks, Seahawks defense pass rush win rate one
of these words we hate, like when he's throwing around
PFF analytical things. Was it's forty eight percent was the

(33:18):
number that I heard. It was nearly fifty percent. Rogers
was hit eight times. They he's been hit fifteen times
so far this season, sacked another three of you know,
another one of these ones where he moves up in
the pocket. He has been holding the ball for a
little while, so you've got guys that aren't getting open
to so it's not all just the offensive line. In
some cases rogers either not getting rid of the ball

(33:40):
or guys aren't getting open. Then you have like can't
yeah or he can't. Terrible interceptions. I think both of
them not necessarily on him. The one is like just
desperation nor towards the end. But the one with Friarmuth
was just like, that's another major swing.

Speaker 2 (33:55):
That's the ping pong ball. That's not his fault five
for Fi unless you unless you want to blame you
for even two trying to make that pass.

Speaker 3 (34:01):
But so I mean, if you keep them clean. But
he did not look sharp some of the passes he threw.
DK Metcalf dropping one or two that probably should have
been in his hands. Friar Mut thropping.

Speaker 2 (34:12):
Uh. There was a nice, beautiful Dalers And that's what
I want to say. That pass that got dropped there
was that's on the receiver. That was one of the
best throws I've seen any Steelers quarterback make in a
long time. That ball was right where it needed to be.
He did it off balance. He that was the the
patented Rogers flick of the wrist kind of a throw,

(34:34):
and it was there and it got dropped, and you
just go, Okay, I get it. They're just not in
sync as a team right now on a whole. You know,
the chemistry is not there. It's off. I don't know.
Was it just a bad game. We'll see. But after
leaving that game, taking into account, you know that they

(34:56):
did manage to win in New York. After watching both
those games games, I'm just being honest. I have no confidence,
no no confidence. I don't know, like, I don't know
that this offense can score a point against the Browns defense.
The Browns have a good defense, which is weird when
they're not worn down. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, you know, the
Ravens beat the crap out of them by the end

(35:17):
of the game. But that's you know, I don't know
how much of that may have been due to turnovers
and other things at.

Speaker 3 (35:22):
The offense, but the same Steelers did last year. You
don't have Flacco and company can't sustain any type of
meaningful drives and they're just getting burned out there.

Speaker 2 (35:32):
So do you think this team can beat Buffalo. Do
you think this team can beat the Ravens at once?
Do you think this team can beat the Bengals with
a backup quarterback? Actually I do? But yeah, actually I do.

Speaker 3 (35:43):
I think I think they were aided by some of that.
I think they're built to play again and compete against
the teams within the division. We saw some of that
three linebacker look and stuff like that. There was a
good point made when you talk about like what's next
or whatever, there was a good point that was made
Max Stark's before he closed out Rob King on the
radio call, and he said, you know, in the grand

(36:04):
scheme of things, this game, non conference, non common opponent,
et cetera, et cetera. So the loss in the tiebreaker
realm outside of wins losses isn't going to hurt as
much as if they played somebody like Bill's Chiefs or
especially somebody within the division. So you can at least
take that back. True and one in one, I still

(36:26):
think New England's a team that you know, it's not
they should the teams we just mentioned, Yeah, they should be.

Speaker 2 (36:34):
They should win that game, but they should have won
this game. Right if your defense is the defense that
we expected it to be. You should have won this game.
The Jets game shouldn't have been as close as it
was the problem is it's not right. So I'm just
going by the impact in my eyes, and my eyes
tell me this team's not ready to play anybody right now.

Speaker 3 (36:55):
Yeah, the preparation, maybe I'd be like, I don't know.
I can't place my finger on it. I'm not going
to try to pretend I did say on defense, there's
some things that could change there too. I don't know
Calvin Oss. I know Robin Wilson got in just a
little bit. He might have been targeting, but got his
first catch it with something like a quick outpass or
something late offensive line. I don't know that there's a

(37:17):
lot that you could do with that butt. But you
still got Spencer Anderson. So if McCormick is kind of underperforming,
it might be worth it. You might look at somebody.
But I know Tomlin doesn't like to change those things
too much, and you have a very early buy. So
do you change it by then? Probably not either. But
you got to get John new Smith a little more involved.
He didn't really get involved util the second half fire Muth.

(37:38):
You know, with the let's put it this way, Like
you said, you should have won this one. Yeah, it's
who made more mistakes. And the end of it, the
Steelers made far more mistakes, even with all of the
giant lanes, giving up the runs and everything that happened.
You don't have that Fluke interception, you don't have Johnson
make that stupid play in the end zone and give

(37:58):
him some points. Different game than Seattle has to play,
probably trailing from behind, Maybe we see a little more
out of the defense, Maybe they throw some more passes,
maybe somebody gets a pick or a strip set. You
never know what ends up happening. So the game script
completely flips. But in this case, it flipped towards Seattle.
They took advantage of it, and the Steelers were pretty
much helpless to do anything about it. They were they

(38:21):
were handcuffed, and yeah, provided they provided they can limit
more of those mistakes in the future. I think they
should be able to compete with the Patriots. I think
they should be able to compete with the the Vikings too.
Just don't Brian Flores is a great defensive coordinator, but
you know.

Speaker 2 (38:36):
You don't know what you got. You look at Week one,
versus Week two and the Vikings. You just don't know
what you got there yet, right, Is JJ McCarthy going
to be a good quarterback or is he going to be? Immedia,
you don't know.

Speaker 3 (38:47):
Yeah, yeah, first year, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (38:49):
And you've got a up and down performance over the
first two weeks. So when we get to Ireland, which
which version of that team are you going to get?
You don't know, you know. I the thing that makes
me nervous about New England next week is that they
have been able to score, and that is somewhat problematic

(39:12):
because we have proven thus far that we are not
necessarily able to stop people from scoring. You know, we'll see.
I'm concerned that could be a Traveon Henderson breakout game.

Speaker 3 (39:28):
Oh man man, I mean he hasn't been playing a
whole lot yet, but yeah, what can the Steelers do
offensive line retooling? Maybe he got one sub I don't.
I'm not ready to yank Broderick yet. I'm not really
even ready yis McCormick yet.

Speaker 2 (39:43):
But you make a good point about Brodick. It was
a better game, but I think they understand they're going
to have to give him some help. What I think
is really going to have to happen. They've got to
figure out how to be much more of the style
of offense that they were with Ben near the end

(40:04):
of his career.

Speaker 3 (40:05):
Gwinn shotgun, shotgun. You tried to put everything out of
the matter too. Uh, they're doing that. Arthur Smith wants
Rogers to do that. It's not something he's done in
his career. And he doesn't have time to make even
a two three step drop and then have anything materialized
or do anything downfield. You're gonna have to You're gonna
have to operate out of the gun, and I think.

Speaker 2 (40:25):
To try and build I'm sorry, go ahead.

Speaker 3 (40:27):
I think Jalen Warren would operate pretty good out of
that too, possibly, and even Caleb Johnson for that matter,
if he ever gets a chance to what do you
get a carry or two in this game? So I
want to think anyway, it's here's the thing is you
you I get it. His offense is predicated on trying
to build up to have play action. The problem is
you can't get put Nobody buys play action.

Speaker 2 (40:49):
Fakes when they know you can't run the ball right.
You need to retool based on what you are actually
seeing your offense capable of doing until you can fix
the problems. Right, if you can start to build a
run game, you can go back to that, but for
right now, yeah, it needs to be an offense that
is predicated on getting the ball out immediately right, which

(41:11):
means you've got a lot of short routes, a lot
of small slants, and then you set the If you
can be successful doing that right now, the defense has
to react to that, and you can set up a
long throw every now and then. But you can't be
an offense that is going to try and have rogers
do you know, three five step drops and wait because
it's not gonna they're not getting enough time. Right, two

(41:33):
seconds go by and he's got to get moving because
the pressure is there, and you know, it's just it
doesn't work. He can't stay on his spots. He's constantly moving.
You watched him pump fake that ball or pull the
ball back down multiple times on multiple pass plays simply
because nobody's open. Right. The routes are taking too long
to develop. It's just not working. You have to figure

(41:55):
out a way to take advantage of you know, what
you are able to get because you're until you do
until you make changes, and we've seen this in the
past with stubborn offensive coordinators. Until you make some changes,
the defenses that they're going to play are going to
do exactly what Seattle did. They're going to play the
pass first and the run second, and it's going to

(42:17):
be next to impossible for that offense to move the ball. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (42:20):
I didn't even feel like Seattle blitzed a whole lot
either like here or there.

Speaker 2 (42:25):
They didn't need to. They were getting pressure with three.

Speaker 3 (42:27):
I know they were getting they were getting there. It's
had to say some guys on roller skates. Any any
closing thoughts, Brian, I still think and got a better
shot at this one play. I just I can't believe
there's two guys there and neither one of them come
down with the ball. I couldn't believe the ball just
didn't hit the ground. To be completely honest.

Speaker 2 (42:46):
I'm just going to say this, I like Calvin Austin
as a complimentary receiver. I don't think he has He's
not a wide receiver two. To me, He's a guy
that has talent, right, but he doesn't have the best
hands in the world, right. He just doesn't. We've seen

(43:06):
it too many times. Every now and then he'll make
an amazing catch, but for the most part drop seas.
I'm pissed off at DK too much dropping like you
make that incredible Like I hate those those receivers that
can make the incredible catch but can't catch the ball
that's right in their hands. What the hell is going
on with that? And I didn't anticipate DK being that
kind of guy, but you know, and I'm not saying

(43:29):
he is going to be that kind of guy. I
still I wore my DK metcalf Jersey yesterday. I'm still
super excited. I wanted this guy to be a stealer
from the get go, so I'm super excited he's here.
But man, it can't be the first pass out of
the out of the gates every week gets dropped, and
sometimes the second and third. You know, they've got they've

(43:52):
got to be better at what they can do, otherwise
they're they're just going to be in trouble.

Speaker 3 (43:58):
Yeah, and I think it's early to just judge too much.
Ugly game. It is collaps all the way around. Get
some other bodies healthy, maybe rotate in some other players
if you have some under performing ones. I think there's
depth there that they could at least reach into in
a few areas if need be. We'll talk a little
bit more about that later this week when we preview

(44:19):
Week three Atchelette Stadium up in Foxborough.

Speaker 2 (44:23):
So I got one other question for you. Yeah, Pepper's
get a single snap Peppers. You know what?

Speaker 3 (44:30):
And of course I just lost that. Let me pull
it back real quick. But short answer is, I don't
believe he was in on defense, but he did play
some special teams if I recall correctly. Because I went
through the whole defense and we didn't mention him, I
would have liked to have seen him. Yeah, he was
only in special teams actually seven seven up. In fact,
Julius Pepper is the only guy on the field that

(44:52):
was going after the freaking ball when Johnson did it,
because I was like, I still have a process that
he's wearing forty, right, it's like a new person. There's
a lot of new numbers out there.

Speaker 2 (45:03):
So I'm also going to say this, I had seen
enough of Caleb Johnson as a return man after the
first game. Yeah, they've got to do a one hundred
percent if you put Caleb Johnson back in that game
as a returner. You're making a mistake. He is not
good at it. He is slow. As far as you know,
you need a different kind of guy. We can't keep starting, Hey,

(45:24):
Dante Campa, maybe we can start behind the twenty on
kickoffs at this point in the game, right, they're designed
to get you out to the at least the twenty
five or thirty. Every time you're getting the ball short constantly.
You you can't get you can't just it just can't. Yeah,
it's so frustrating with that. I'm fed up with it that.

(45:46):
You know, the Seahawks are getting the balls out at
the thirty five to thirty, sometimes the forty, and we're
sometimes behind the twenty. Come on, that has to change.
I'm done with seeing Caleb Johnson as a returner. They
got to come up with something else, and I don't
want it to be Jalen war And because you can't
risk him at this point at that.

Speaker 3 (46:04):
No, no, you can't, and where else do you go?
Patterson had some of the worst numbers not only of
his career but across the league last year where they
tried to do this with the new kickoff rules, they
had Jamal Agnew for a hot minute too and I
thought that was to put some pressure on Patterson. He's
with the Jaguars. You can't and go out there and
get him. So what dedicated kind of return players do
you have. I don't even know who they have in

(46:24):
house other than the guy Dante Kent who's on IR
unless and I don't know that he puts another dB
or maybe a regular wide receiver out there. Very few
and far between, unless it's been somebody like a Patterson
or way back when Jacobe Jones, somebody like that that's
been dedicated to it. It's always been a backup. It's
been Felix Jones and Jalen Samuels. And if you're not

(46:46):
going to give Roan Wilson, let him do it. He's
found me too.

Speaker 2 (46:50):
Yeah. I don't know if he's you got to do
something else because it's just not working.

Speaker 3 (46:54):
Yeah, I don't know. If he's done it, help let
be well. Benscronnick's pretty much the utility guy in all
the way around everything they god he's out there on
special teams because he is, He's made a difference because
special teams has looks spotty because of the injuries. You
get guys like a John Radigan who came from the
UFL or whatever that's getting I thought thinking, I saw
you had more snaps on special teams than pepper'sday. But

(47:15):
then again, he's not He's probably playing more than just
coverage units too, so but that'll do it for us, folks,
don't forget the like comment and subscribe. Thank you for
watching or listening to the show wherever you may be.
We will have the Patriots pre game later this week.
Tune in for that. We may have some other ideas,
some of that we already kind of leaked through to
two percenters. So with that, we will say peace out

(47:38):
to everybody. Taking long, deep breath. Let's regroup next week
and see if we have a better result. Till next time.
My name is Joe, it's my buddy Brian. Try it,
smile a little bit, try it hard to do. It's
not a Monday, it's not a victory Monday, which is
never a good Monday. So until the next one, folks,
we encourage everyone out there to be safety good and

(48:00):
we'll catch a light.

Speaker 1 (48:02):
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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Steelers outplayed in every phase in Week 2 loss to Seahawks

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