Steelers ride highs and lows with bounce back win in Foxborough

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 host,
Joe Kuzma and Brian E. Rose.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Hello everyone, and welcome to another edition of the steel
City Underground podcast. It's a victory Monday. Here with myself,
I am your host, Joe Kuzma and my good colleague
Buddy and Paul One. Mister Brian e Roach, Brian, how
you feeling on a victory Monday? A win is a
win is a win?

Speaker 4 (00:40):
Right? A win is a win is a win.

Speaker 3 (00:43):
I was getting I attempted to go into that game
with a very low key I'm gonna stay calm, and
I did not succeed in getting through the game in
that emotional state, but I was.

Speaker 4 (00:56):
Glad that at the end of it, I wasn't losing
my mind.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
At one point there was some radio silence from Brian.
He wasn't texting me anymore. I probably looked a little
like Mike Tomlin here, just screaming, yelling. Maybe you were
throwing a multitude of your styrofoam bricks at television. Hopefully,
hopefully you didn't break anything. No phone, my phone just
died that was the only reason.

Speaker 4 (01:21):
Oh I went out. You're convenient, that.

Speaker 3 (01:23):
Is otherwise, otherwise you'd have been getting a lot of
rage rage texts.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
No I was getting a rage text for my cousin Brad.
He actually went he went to Foxborough. He was there
and he said the Patriots fans were pat patriot Noel
with their throwbacks and the whole throat whatever was going
on with CBS and the NFL yesterday. I don't know
if you caught some of that. With the throwback they
went back to nineteen seventy five or whatever and had

(01:49):
Nate Burlson with the flared collar and brought Brett Musburger out,
which was kind of cool to see too, you know,
that was that was neat, But yeah, pat Patriot everything.
They didn't like Aaron Rodgers and there was some audible
booing that you could hear various points throughout the game.
But man, folks, seriously, when you when you're a Steelers

(02:09):
fan and you are at an away game, don't go
you can maybe you can wave your towel. It's distracting.
I'm sure the players aren't paying one hundred percent attention
to it, but don't go screaming and yelling and adding
to crowd noise when our offense is on the field.
Please just I was telling the fiance that yesterday. I
was just like, it's just those are one of the

(02:30):
things that drives me crazy because it's like, oh, well,
we need to match the intensity and be louder than
the fans that are here at home. It's like, no
crowd noise is the whole advantage. Stop doing that, please,
I don't understand it. Maybe just get drunk and unruly
and out of control. Who knows, But getting into this
and maybe trying to keep our post game a little
shorter than usual because we've got some travel preparations here

(02:53):
as we prepare myself for Brian to head out to
doublin Ireland, where we'll catch you later this week with
a pregame show and the preview. The Minnesota Vikings, who
with Carson Wentz, rolled over the Cincinnati Bengals minus.

Speaker 4 (03:05):
A Joe Burrow.

Speaker 2 (03:06):
So, but that was a home game for Minnesota two.
I don't know, I do all I'm always like to
carry over. We'll talk about that one later, but this
one was a nail. Bier Steelers finally get their first
win at Jillette Stadium back in two thousand and eight
and never able to get over the hump. With Bill
Belichick and Tom Brady, they were able to do it
here twenty one to fourteen. We'll talk about how it

(03:28):
wasn't you.

Speaker 4 (03:28):
Know, the It.

Speaker 2 (03:30):
Wasn't the cleanest of games. Obviously it was far from perfect.
But again, a win is a win. You'd rather be
two and one rather be three and Oh. They might
have had a winnable game with Seattle. And there were
some things that they actually did clean up in this
game or did better or approved upon or went their
way better. You had some real highs and lows in
this you know what I mean. But when you look

(03:50):
at I don't know if you watched any of the
Sunday night game, but when you look at what Russell
Wilson could not do anything against Kansas City at home
and Giants just oh, it looked so bad, But it
was good for my fantasy team. I'm going to humble
Bragg real quick. I went in and up seven points
and elite Neighbors needed to play the night game in
through three quarters. He didn't even have a catch. So
thank you kids a city for the dub in the

(04:12):
fantasy world. But the Steelers they generate five turnovers. We
know that we're gonna say, hey, can you be turnover dependent? Well,
that's kind of the name of the game. You look
at the teams that have been playing in the Big
Game for a few years now, and Kansas City's creating turnovers.
The Eagles very opportunistic, So I'm not gonna say much

(04:35):
about that. The Steelers get to where they are because
they are a team that makes splash plays. Is it's sustainable,
we know it's not, but there was there's a lot.
There's some things to talk about, really, because there's some
really ugly stuff and then there's stuff where I see improvement.
And let's just jump into maybe the offense. Brian sure

(04:58):
very the first driver to I felt like the offensive
line was doing great, the holes were wide open for
the run game, and then all of a sudden it
wasn't all that great, and Rogers was getting pressured a lot,
and he hadn't been able to have much time to
It's been the whole story through three games. The guy
hasn't had time to throw the ball, but when he does,

(05:20):
you still see a flash of who was an elite
quarterback future Hall of Famer makes the big plays. That's
the difference that maybe the Steelers haven't had the last
two three years.

Speaker 3 (05:31):
So here's an interesting thing, and it's boggled my mind
because I watched the game, right, I certainly felt like
the majority of the second and third quarters and early
in the fourth, that Rogers was under a lot of pressure.
According to the statistics, Rogers was pressured four times. I know, right,
four times.

Speaker 4 (05:49):
I'm like, all right, I don't I clearly I don't
know what a pressure is.

Speaker 2 (05:53):
But you know, to me, we were trying to figure
that out. Remember this the win rate per se whatever
that they Yeah, it's nonsense, it's non sense. Rogers was
forced to move several times. He looked like a forty
one year old quarterback at times badly. I mean, the

(06:14):
interception was a horrible throw, badly through a couple, had
another couple of awful throws. But then, as you said,
the throat to Calvin Austin to win the game, that
was a beautiful throw. Absolutely fantastic, gorgeous throw.

Speaker 4 (06:29):
You know. But so, but that's to be expected. He's
a forty one year old quarterback.

Speaker 3 (06:34):
You're going to have flashes of who he was, and
you're gonna have flashes of who he is, so, you know,
I felt like I'm still frustrated with the with the
way that play, the play calling is put together, the
game plans are put together, and what appears to be

(06:56):
the refusal to try and change up things when when
when teams adjust. Now that's that's a common complaint about
this team and has been for years, but it is
it is very obvious that it's possible to shut down
the run game for this team if you, if you

(07:18):
decide to do so.

Speaker 4 (07:19):
Uh, and I find that it.

Speaker 3 (07:22):
Does not seem like our receivers are doing what they
need to do to get open, whether it's you know,
scramble drills whatever. Clearly they're not always on the same page.
I mean, you know, Rogers was clearly frustrated with Pat
Fararmuth in one play because he thought maybe Pat was
going to.

Speaker 4 (07:39):
Sit down on a route.

Speaker 3 (07:40):
Yeah, has kept going, and that was very obvious that
he was very frustrated by that.

Speaker 4 (07:49):
I think it's gonna be it's just gonna be hit
or miss.

Speaker 3 (07:53):
Look, they did enough to win this game, and they
they weren't the reason they could have lost. Uh, you know,
they weren't turning them over ball over five times. You know, yes,
they weren't productive. You look at the numbers. If they
don't get those turnovers, they don't win this game, clearly,
and it's probably a really ugly loss. But they did

(08:17):
and we gotta we walked out with a win.

Speaker 2 (08:20):
So hey, yeah, on that note too, I mean, if
you saw or got any hint to what happened in
that Cleveland game. Cleveland was dominated for three and a
half quarters against Green Bay and like, yeah, some people
calling in always I love listening to the post game show,
especially since I've always been a fan of my PURSUITA
and then Charlie Batch. You know, people call in and
kiss his ass all the time, and Charlie is such

(08:41):
a great quarterback, and it's like, okay, dude, whatever, we
love but Charlie and it's like I get it, it's
the local love.

Speaker 4 (08:47):
But I'm just like, really, you're.

Speaker 2 (08:48):
Wasting your thirty seconds of call time on this, Like
take a chill pill, dude. But you know the people
that could play and PURSUITA. He's pretty good at And
somebody actually called in and they were like, you know what, guys,
hats off to you. You do a really good job
of you know, you deal with a lot of jerks
to call into the show, and you kind of, I

(09:12):
don't want to say put positive spin, but they don't
lose their cool on some of the people. And they
were saying, you know what, what does it take for
someone that there was two paradigms of people that called in,
because there was one that's like, you know, I've been
a fan since the seventies and we've grown accustomed to
this is supposed to be this standard and this and that,
And I said, yeah, there's the entitled fan. You're a
two and one. Somebody had talked about if they didn't

(09:32):
have Mike Tomlin, where might you be. Look at the
Houston Texans. They're zering three right now because there's a
lack of experience with the coaching and the players and
you thought CJ. Stroud was the next guy and everything
like that. So I tried to put that into perspective.
I understand they may not have faced the You're probably
going to find out that Seattle is a playoff team.
The Jets are, you know, they're competing to Rod Taylor

(09:53):
got them in that game yesterday. They came back almost
beat the Tampa Bay I know, almost only counts and
horseshoes and hand grenades all same difference here, Steeler still
got that twenty one to fourteen victory.

Speaker 4 (10:02):
They're two and one.

Speaker 2 (10:03):
This is it's an important win too, because this is
an AFC game, so they've got something that's a tie.
It's a tie breaker with what will be common opponents too,
because everyone's playing the AFC East. And you know what,
they didn't look half bad on offense to start. Like
I said, there were some holes in the run game,
and they scored on you know, the first two drives.

(10:23):
They got the one ball off the fumble and then
they forced a punt. It was only a six play drive,
a three play drive that the defense forced, then a
six play drive, and you're thinking, hey, this is finally
turning around. Then all of a sudden, it's just like
they let the foot off the gas or something like
they just couldn't do anything. I mean, Jalen Warren ends
up eighteen carries forty seven yards two point six average,

(10:44):
which just see it seems so miserable to look at
this because it's the same thing like your quarterback pressures.
I'm like, oh, Warren had a pretty good game. He
caught five passes for thirty four yards. He was getting
first downs, he was getting some chunks where it really
mattered where we said we weren't sure this team could
gain a yard where it needed to, and it made
some things manageable. But there were a lot of things
that were miscommunication. Like you were saying with Pafarmy, John

(11:06):
whus Smith, same thing. It's not clean. They're not on
the same page just yet. And even to the case
of point dk Metcalf grown ass man catch, This was
dk Metcalf being a grown ass man, being bigger, being
more athletic, being all the way everything.

Speaker 4 (11:21):
This dude, look, he's.

Speaker 2 (11:22):
Got his arm trapped inside as he catches this ball.

Speaker 4 (11:25):
If you can see it on the image here.

Speaker 2 (11:27):
He's what hell of a play? And this is something
they did work on in training camp frequently. Was you
know that flag route in the corner, the Calvin Austin one.
I didn't say it here, but I'd send it to you.
I said hell of a run, and I meant hell
of a route. Kelvin Austin had like that little stutterstep
boom that four to two and a quarter or whatever.

(11:50):
Two and a half four point two five forty speed
and just beats the guy and Rogers put some zip
on the ball and boom, it's right where it needs
to be. I think those things come more with time,
so it's good to see those flashes. Unfortunately we still
see the flashes of not so good stuff. And I mean,
how often are you going to have a guy that
throws for one hundred and thirty nine yards, it still

(12:10):
throws a one interception and still win a game you
should with five turnovers. But you know, maybe a little
bit more credit to New England. Maybe we don't know
quite what they are defensively. Maybe I'm not giving those
other professionals enough enough kudos, but the Steelers offense absolutely
stalled after those first two drives, could not do anything
until it mattered right at the end.

Speaker 3 (12:32):
Yeah, I'm not going to give a lot of credit
to New England on this. I mean, I think they've
played a good game. They have a decent line. Don't
get me wrong. They were getting presedent. I mean they
were leading the league in sacks, right, they didn't get
a single sack, so but they did. You know, they
do have a decent rush, you know, with what Christian
Gonzales not playing, you know, you have to question whether

(12:54):
their secondary is as good as it could be. Yeah,
but you know they held up fine. Uh, And that's
that's the concern, is that there just aren't guys open
or he's missing the guys that are open. I mean,
it is it is very difficult to tell watching TV coverage,
you know, what what actually is there and what is
it it's it's usually easier to tell in stadium or

(13:17):
if we if we went back and watched the All
twenty two or something. But you know, in initial reactions
it's hard to tell. But he clearly you just see
him making a lot of pumps and a lot of
I'm going and then not because they're not open or
he doesn't think they're open. And you know that that's concerning.

(13:40):
When he had a little more time during this game,
he still couldn't find guys.

Speaker 4 (13:48):
Not consistently.

Speaker 3 (13:48):
One hundred and thirty nine yards is generally speaking, not
going to win you a lot of games. Your defense
plays the way you know, and gets the ball takeaway
and we should you know, because there's there there's a
big h you know, glass half full, glass half empty
with the defense.

Speaker 4 (14:05):
Yeah, we get there.

Speaker 2 (14:06):
They still gave up a lot, but you know, how
about the amount of how about the amount of negative
plays that the offense had. I think that's the biggest thing.

Speaker 4 (14:15):
It was a problem.

Speaker 2 (14:16):
Yeah, Hunter gets tagged with the one like false start
and you're just it's never ending.

Speaker 4 (14:22):
I thought that.

Speaker 2 (14:22):
I thought the offensive line played better. Mason McCormick is
still kind of Mason McCormick. There's there's three run plays
and these are run plays where Mason McCormick starts just
to block in and his guy moves and so he
just kind of wanders.

Speaker 4 (14:36):
It's like, Okay, I don't have anybody to block.

Speaker 3 (14:39):
I'm like, no, put your freaking head in there and
get hit somebody, because then the guy that goes right
past him makes the tackle. I am not impressed with
Mason McCormick right now at all. You know, we'll see
and that and having that whole having a weak spot
right there in the middle of that line that that's going.

Speaker 4 (14:58):
To be a problem.

Speaker 3 (15:00):
I did think Broader had a better game again, you know,
or at least a game similar to the last game
where it wasn't a turnstyle. So I do think he's improving,
which is good. They need to clean up the pre
snap problems, you know, jump off sides. Razer had one too,
I think, yeah, fall start, Yeah, fall start. They just gotta,

(15:20):
you know, they gotta be cleaner, and they have to
get more on the same page. And I don't know,
at some point you have to try something different. Do
they need to put Caleb Johnson in a little bit
and see what he can do? You know, I don't know.
I don't know the answer to this run game, but
it's not You're not going to win a lot of

(15:41):
games or or generate a lot of offense when you
can only run for you know, fifty yards a game.

Speaker 4 (15:48):
Yeah, that's true.

Speaker 2 (15:49):
I mean, you know, I expect Rogers to sling it
all over the field, you get and keeping him a
little cleaner. I was bothered by NFL radio this morning,
Solomon Wilcotts. I'm not sure who he had on, and
I don't know if it was Brian Hoyer or you know,
Ryan Lee for one of these former quarterbacks, but it
said something that the Steelers did nothing to impress them.

(16:11):
And this was like a moral victory for the Patriots,
even though they lost on the scoreboard, because they did
all these great things. I'm like, how is a moral
victory when Ramandre Stevenson, who's a known culprit when it
comes to protecting the football, can't do so the entire game.
You could have a young quarterback that plays decently well
and I have a lot of respect for Drake May.

(16:32):
Things can continue to be good. Seventy five point seven
percent completion percentage. The Steelers got a lot more pressure
on them. But you know, when we let's flip over
the defense now, it's probably a good time to talk
about that, because to say the Steelers did nothing impressive
is an understatement of what the first two games looked
like like On the first two games, it was first

(16:53):
down every down, you.

Speaker 4 (16:54):
Know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (16:55):
And while the Patriots still ran for one hundred and
nineteen yards, the main core of the backs here seven
carries forty five yards was Drake May and they didn't
as we said, how are they going to guard him? Well,
they didn't worry about him so much like a Lamar
Jackson adjustin fields anybody like that, which was what we
were speculating. You had Trevon Henderson gets a little more

(17:18):
time in this game. He only had two point five
yards per carry. That's the reason he hadn't been on
the field ahead of Stevenson and Antonio Gibson, who were
both doing a little bit better. But they put the
ball on the floor how many times between those guys
two three times? And I know the Steelers could have
absolutely had their ass handed to him if Cam Hayward
or Peyton Wilson, you know, that fumble on the goal line.

Speaker 4 (17:38):
And then at some.

Speaker 2 (17:39):
Point like later in the game, Brandon Eckles, who ends
up kind of being a defensive MVP here, a guy
that's probably not supposed to be playing as much as
or expected to play as much as he ends up playing.
He ends up with an interception in the end zone.
And then after the Steelers have been incapable of getting
off the field defensively, they forced the third and longs

(18:01):
they give it up or they give up enough to
make it fourth and short. The Patriots were four to
four on fourth down up to this final offensive play
that they had, and then all of a sudden, the
you know, they unleashed the hounds. There they get Jalen
Ramsey was racing in in drink May's face. That's a
short little throw behind the line, hoping to get a
little catch and run for the extra yards, fake them

(18:23):
out a little bit, and Brandon Eckles makes a beautiful
freaking tackle and they call game on it. And that's
all the more you could ask for is getting it
in crunch time. By the way, Brian texted you, is
he going to show up today? And he showed up.

Speaker 4 (18:37):
TJ.

Speaker 2 (18:37):
Watt finally showing up on the stat sheet and causing
some havoc.

Speaker 3 (18:42):
Yeah, I you know, Mike, the defense actually looked pretty
solid in the first few quarters and.

Speaker 4 (18:51):
They then, you know what, they give up.

Speaker 3 (18:53):
Like a seventeen play drive no points because of the interception,
another like thirteen or fifteen play drive. Like they had
the same problems that they've been having, right. They can't
get how many third and longs? Third and long is
like a guaranteed first down against this defense. Yeah, it's
just ridiculous. You know, you can't be third and fourteen

(19:15):
and give up a first down, and third and twelve
and third and ten. It's just you know, constantly happening,
or you know, they get right at the edge and
it's so close that you know they're going to go
for it. It was such a sign of disrespect for
this defense that Mike Vrabel went for it in his own.

Speaker 4 (19:33):
End in the game.

Speaker 3 (19:34):
Oh and was it like this is Mike Vrabel, who
never goes for it on fourth down, has a history
of not doing so, and he just basically said, you
guys suck, We can get this and I'm not gonna
worry about it.

Speaker 2 (19:47):
It's like their nineteen yard line or something. They were
six or thirteen forty six percent, which again the stats
don't seem to but when they didn't get it there,
they were almost perfect up to that last play on four.
So the seven that they didn't get they had gotten
four of those, half of those on the fourth down
because they went for it.

Speaker 3 (20:09):
They just can't get off the field and they have
to figure out a way to do better.

Speaker 4 (20:13):
You know, yes, they were.

Speaker 3 (20:14):
They were absolutely saved by the turnovers, you know, the interceptions,
the fumbles, all those things. And and look, we've said
it for years. This defense thrives on turnovers. The team
talks about it all the time, turnover coach. That's what
they preach, you know, and and that's when they are

(20:36):
at their best is when they're getting these. So that's great,
but you know what if you get five turnovers in
a game and you still are at risk of losing,
that's bad. That's that's just really bad. And and you
know that combination is not, as you said at the beginning,
it's not sustainable. Do I feel happy about the win, Yes,
I'm happy we got to win. The bobblehead is very

(20:59):
happy that we got to since he predicted a win.
But I don't feel good about the direction to the
team direct so much. I still am concerned that there's
a lot of things broken that need to be fixed
before you start playing high powered teams, one of which
might be potentially next week. I mean, they've got when
they put up forty.

Speaker 4 (21:19):
One on the Bengals or something like that, a lot of.

Speaker 2 (21:21):
That was defense too. That was a corner did something
and that no one's ever done in NFL history, and
he did it all in the first half. So they
were picking Jake Browning's pockets. I don't think that he's
I mean, that's terrible. Really, he was pretty bad. And
even so, I think Cleveland's defense has been pretty amazing
in these first few games. And Jordan Love made some

(21:42):
real bonehead decisions at the end too that didn't.

Speaker 4 (21:44):
Help the Packers.

Speaker 2 (21:46):
So but you have that I think I think you're
right though, Like you took a look at the quarterback hits.
Nick herbik Has is credited with four quarterback hits in
this game. That's that's insane. Derek Harmon, who finally gets
on the field for the first time time, plays about
half the game with go through some snap counts too,
but he gets a sack as well. T J.

Speaker 4 (22:06):
Watt get picks.

Speaker 2 (22:07):
Up two of them, and a forced fumble and a
fumble recovery, and it's like, hey, here's your here's your
MVP finally playing like an MVP. The old guy, Cam
Hayward also playing up to standard and getting a sack standards, yes,
punching out the ball. There were four forced fumbles. Cole
Holcombe gets one. What did we say, get Cole hulkam

(22:29):
on the field a little more. He starts this defense
and I mean it sucks because the defense gives up
seventy one offensive plays, thirty three minutes and twenty seconds
of time of possession, five turnovers, and there's some of
the turnovers that you just you're not getting anything off
of because the offense can't do much of anything. You
had the offense after those first two drives three plays,

(22:51):
one play that was end of half three to three,
and three in the third quarter with an interception and
two punts. They punt again after five plays to start
the fourth quarter, then finally the touchdown nine play sixty
seven yards and the drive that ends the game. The
Patriots had a seventeen play drive ninety four yards. I
think I'll talk about corless weightman. The ends up pinning
them in the corner. But you're like, great, they did that,

(23:14):
and then you know what I mean, he just couldn't
stop anything. Fifteen plays, eighty three yards. But it was
good to see them finally dial up some pressure, finally
get some sacks, finally hit the quarterback. These were things
that weren't happening with Sam Darnold, and a lot of
it was due to some new faces or some adjustments
that we weren't sure that they were going to be

(23:35):
able to make. One of those was Jabrill Peppers coming
in and playing in this game a fairly healthy amount too.
I do believe I'm going to look up those stats
here in a second, Brian, But you had Peppers and
Ramsey starting as the two safeties. You had Echos on
the outside. That is not how it was drawn up.
Holcomb is next to Queen, I got Sleighs the opposite corner.

(23:58):
Nick Herbig's in for Alex Smith, and then you have
Betton and Hayward, but now no more louder Milk and
some of these other guys. Now you have Derek Harmon
come in off the bench, and I might as well
say why a black? I saw him make some nice
pressure too. I think the two rookies on this defensive
line are going to eventually make more of a statement.
They're gonna They're gonna put their stamp on what this

(24:19):
defense does. As the communication starts getting cleaned up, as
you get Joey Porter Junior back, as you get Deshaun
Elliott back, I'm not even worried about Alex Heismith being
back necessarily because Herbig has been Herbick played very well
in this game, not just the pressure, but also you know,
the the whole adage for a while has been let's
run away from TJ. Watt, and that might have been

(24:42):
working a little bit if they were running over to
Alex Highsmith, maybe not as much in this game. With
Herbig and the way that the defense forced the turnovers
from these running backs.

Speaker 3 (24:50):
Yeah, I mean, you've got to get it cleaned up.
From the standpoint of communication. That's still but.

Speaker 4 (24:57):
Again, so many moving parts, so many moving pieces. It is.

Speaker 3 (25:00):
It is a different lineup than you know, basically every
week in the backfield right now, in the defensive backfield.
You know, when Slay got hurt, both of us are
just going, oh my god, we can't have any more attrition,
Thank goodness, and defensive back, thank goodness he was able
to come back. Yeah, you know, if we if we
can get a couple of weeks of you know, solid

(25:24):
health and and folks not dropping and maybe get some
guys back. Look, I'm encouraged by the way that the
defense was able to get turnovers, not so encouraged by
the leaky nature of what they were doing, allowing you know,
basically the Patriots to run all the way up and
down the field anytime they.

Speaker 4 (25:42):
Wanted it will. But you know, you came away with
a win.

Speaker 1 (25:46):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (25:46):
And as I said, you know, ugly win is always
better than a loss.

Speaker 2 (25:52):
Yeah, let's let me go through some snap counts here
real quick, just to give you an idea of the
way this this came together. So Patrick Queen's the only
defender who plays the entire game, all seventy four defensive plays.
Watt plays eighty five percent sixty three and that's what
Slay ended up doing as well. I imagine Slay plays

(26:13):
the whole game if he doesn't get dinged there. Brandon
Eckles is next up with sixty two snaps. That's just
one shy of Slay and TJ.

Speaker 4 (26:22):
Watt.

Speaker 2 (26:22):
Brandon Eckles okay, and he made a hell of a statement.
This was a guy that everybody was talking about. What
does he get this job over Betie Bishop? This is
why he got the job over Beanie Bishop. Nick herbig
sixty one plays, so we're still north of sixty. Next,
now we go down to fifty six. Chuck Clark, a

(26:44):
guy who ends up joining in during training camp and
was supposed to be just a role player. They used
him almost kind of like they had him filling in
the back or they used him as a dimebacker. They're
still a little soft in the middle. But you got
to wonder when Elliott comes back, maybe if that makes
any kind of changes. Cam Hayward's up next with fifty
five count of betting with forty eight, Julius Peppers with

(27:05):
forty three over half of the game, fifty eight percent
of the share. Cole Holcom finally returning to fifty percent
of playing time, almost to split with Peyton Wilson, who
plays too fewer snaps. Derek Harmon on the pitch count,
Marcabali nails, it's not a pitch count when you play
thirty five snaps, which is almost half the game of
forty seven percent. Here's the surprising one one Thornhill only

(27:27):
twenty nine reps thirty nine percent of the game. They
were doing a lot of rotation, maybe even situational type things.
You'd get to see him play manning up, maybe a
little more here or there, maybe not play so far
off the ball. We talked about that, maybe making an
adjustment in the future. You've got hy Black playing thirty four.

Speaker 4 (27:47):
Percent of the game.

Speaker 2 (27:48):
Daniel Qualley twenty three percent of the game, seventeen percent
former Patriot Revenge game to Marvin Leal thirteen plays eighteen percent.
He shows things here or there maybe you know again,
not a jack of all trades, master of none type situation.
Good to have him on deck, though Jack Sawyer way

(28:10):
more limited in this game, playing eleven snaps fifteen percent.
James Pierre ends up in for nine plays, and then
Logan Lee is the final guy with any kind of
statistics here with four plays. I don't even remember seeing
Logan Lee in.

Speaker 4 (28:23):
But yeah, you.

Speaker 2 (28:24):
Know, they played some seventy four plays on defense for
seventy four snaps.

Speaker 3 (28:30):
You were going to test your bench when you're when
you're letting that offense stay on the field, that much
question about it ain't lyon.

Speaker 2 (28:39):
So you know, with those adjustments though, it's a large
amount of adjustments, and these were two wins on the road,
I think that's a lot to say about this team too.
And persevering quickly special teams which had been either a
feather undercap or yeah it could be bad at times,

(29:00):
doesn't cost him anything. Weight Man had some great punts.
I'll see what his net average here is. In a second,
Mirker turn coverage was good new returners because you brought
it Rogers Sermon and put Gainwell back there, which is
what we were talking about them doing at the beginning
of this season. No longer Caleb Johnson back there. For
this game, weight Man had his average was forty two

(29:21):
point three, but he had a long and fifty five,
so three of those all down within the twenty yard line,
which is that's that's good for a punting day. And
I really thought this was going to come down to
like that that Rogers drive with the throw to Austin.
And I think that the Patriots thought this this was
you talk about being conservative, playing it safe. Mike Tomlin

(29:42):
doesn't like to over bet the pot or go all in.
That Rogers store of Austin was doing that because the
play it's safe was half back draw to Jalen Warren
wheel route. Jalen Warren hit one of the two tight ends,
even though Rogers had not been on the page with
Friar Mut the entire day. Uh hit one the tight
end short, get something in the middle of the field,

(30:02):
let's trot Chris Boswell out here, or let's just try
and keep chewing a little bit of clock, force them
to use their timeouts, get past the two minute warning
and have Boswell. No, they went straight for the victory
rate there. So we'll give a little bit of credit
where credits due with the coaching staff, Arthur Smith, like
tom and them doing making that call. So overall, that's

(30:26):
just that was something where they out coached there, and
sometimes that one plays all the more.

Speaker 4 (30:31):
It matters in a game, right, And I'm going to
tell you that that's situational.

Speaker 3 (30:35):
If we go back to another game, right, and the
run's been working or the wheel raight's been working, then
they'll do those things right. This is a game where
I think the problem was they both know, I mean,
any everybody on that sideline knows. We can't count on
a turnover every time we get the ball, right, every
time we give the Patriots the ball back, we can't
count on a turnover. We haven't been able to stop

(30:57):
them at all. A field goal is not going to
be a safe, right, we need a touchdown. They went
for the touchdown, give them credit for that, but I
think that their hand was forced by the fact that
the game situation said, a three point lead ain't going
to be safe, not with the way our defense is playing.

Speaker 2 (31:13):
Yeah, I'm with you one hundred percent on that. I
will I'm excited. I was excited to see Peppers ball out,
man and be you know, jump on the moving train
and Jabril right, you're calling him Julius the earlier. Oh
geez on, man, I'll tell you what. It's not gonna
be the first or the last time. I do that too, Now,
Julius Peppers, there's a throwback. I'll tell you what. I

(31:35):
was struggling now. Panthers at red zone on one of
the other TVs, and the Panthers are wearing their teal
and I'm trying to pay attention to, of all things,
the Jaguars game fantasy stuff, right, And every time I looked,
I thought it was the Jaguars playing, and I'm like,
wait a minute, they don't have a guy named whoever
it is. And so Julius Pepper's former Panther bear former great, Oh,

(31:57):
how about the Bears on the Cowboys? And hey, I'd
say it could always be worse. We could always look,
we got to.

Speaker 4 (32:06):
Play them too, And isn't that in Chicago. Yeah, that
team will be interesting.

Speaker 2 (32:10):
I was worried about that because I said, if they
get their act together with a new coaching staff, that's
enough time to get their act together. Now, if the Steelers,
you know, they got to go overseas, so the Vikings.
Maybe the Vikings get a too big a head on
their shoulders or something. Maybe Carson Wentz turns back in
the car, I mean, Carson Wentz did enough, you know
what I mean. And it's not like the Bengals have

(32:32):
this world class defense and then their offense wasn't able
to match much of anything either and cause a lot
of problems. It's all about the mistakes in the negative plays.
For the Steelers, they don't make these negative plays and
they're still able to put some of this pressure. Maybe
they get off the field a couple extra times on
these third or fourth down situations. I think they might
be able to handle the vikings. And then they get
to recoup and get some new things put together, installed

(32:52):
and whatnot. When you're into the bye week, get some
guys off of IR, et cetera. So or healthy. I'm
not sure that everybody's on IR, but you know what
I mean. Yeah, yeah, absolutely so it could be fun.
One man, a little bit of a long travels hearing
about everyone's travel trip planning. Folks, drop in the comments
and let us know if you're going to Dublin, Ireland

(33:15):
for this game. Sunday, nine thirty am for those of
you on the East coast here, so or is it
nine straight up? Nine nine or nine thirty? It's an
early one think I was nine thirty what they said
NFL network, And that'll be fun. It'll be an interesting environment.
We're going to see, you know, Steelers Nation maybe invades

(33:36):
this is you can't invade if it's already their home territory, right,
this is their home mark exactly. And uh Dan Rooney
the former ambassador, US ambassador to Ireland. So there's a
lot of ties there and I'm hoping, hoping for a
fun environment and I'm hoping you know that the Steelers
for once again doing some travel. Maybe it will come together.
I'm not gonna say it's going to come together any easier,

(33:57):
but you get it.

Speaker 4 (33:58):
Bye week.

Speaker 2 (33:59):
Cleveland's got to come back from over the pond too
and play in Pittsburgh, so we'll see that could be
a defensive battle, but that might be the way these
games end up working. I anticipate the Vikings playing some
stout defense under Brian Flores. You just saw what they
did with Cincinnati. So if you want to complain about
these type of wins, I would complain if they were losses.

(34:20):
I'm going to take these wins where they.

Speaker 4 (34:22):
Can get them. Always take a win where you can
get it. Absolutely, I'm all about the victory Monday. Man, So.

Speaker 2 (34:31):
Folks don't forget the like comment and subscribe. Thanks once
again for joining us here on the show. That'll do
it for us, Brian, any closing thoughts, No, yeah, I
mean we already know it was ugly. We already know
we're frustrated. They can never make it easy on us.
For those of us who had take any kind of medications,

(34:52):
have heart conditions, have mental conditions, we all go crazy.
So watching this cave, it's been a while since they've
blown out someone. I thought it was funny because there
was a comment JJ Watt said something like one of
the last wins.

Speaker 4 (35:08):
That they had had there, they actually throttled the Patriots.
The word was throttled.

Speaker 2 (35:11):
I'm like, they ain't throttling anything right now, Like the
clutch is choking, they're not going, they're not moving anywhere,
and it's just spinning wheels. So I didn't throttle anybody.
He gave a good one line or two. It was
what had happened there. Uh, it would have worked better
with the I said to play at the end with
who they throw that to. With Eckles making the tackle.

(35:33):
Now I got to go and look and see who
it was. Because it was that was totally ADUs May Deontay,
that was totally a Deontae Johnson. Totally it was Douglas.
It was a Deontay Johnson's style.

Speaker 4 (35:44):
Play.

Speaker 2 (35:45):
He maybe leans forward, yeah, yeah, he goes backwards, and
at some point JJ had said put it in reverse, Terry.
I'm like, that's what Douglas did here. Put it in reverse, Douglas.
So thank you for that. Steelers getting the victory for
mation and a final score. What's get twenty one to fourteen, folks.
We'll join you later this week, hopefully from something more

(36:07):
scenic than a hotel room. We're going to find out
what we can do and come to you. I've almost
said live, we could. There are several hours ahead. Maybe
we'll do that. Somebody was asking about that. Usually the
problem is, though, is like the way the show syncs
up and then the audio version has to get published
much later. It's really only live for YouTube, folks. But
if you would like to see us live while we're

(36:28):
out there, we can maybe make that happen. So drop
us a line into comments, let us know if you're
going to be out there too, maybe we'll meet up.
We're going to be at all these different Stealers events
and a few other things that we're planning on doing
that are fun out there. But until that next show,
Until that next time, folks. My name is Joe, his
name is Brian, and as we always close out this show,
we encourage everyone out there too, be safe, be good,
and we'll catch you later. We would like to thank

(36:51):
you for listening and remind our listeners to follow us
on

Speaker 1 (36:54):
Social media and our website www dot steel City Underground
dot com.

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