Steelers slip to 6-5 after stumbling at Soldier Field

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

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Hello everyone, and welcome to another edition of d Steel
City Underground podcast. My name is Joe Kuzba. Trying to
put on my happy face and sound however I'm supposed
to sound. Starting this episode with a one and only
mister Brian E.

Speaker 4 (00:36):
Roach.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
And that's because I think, Brian, you and I feel
about the same way with this football team right now,
just you know what, go right into it. Have at it,
my friend, if you're ready for it.

Speaker 4 (00:52):
I don't know I am ready for it. This.

Speaker 3 (00:56):
You know, I had problems with the Chargers loss, right
because they look inept in all phases other than the defense. Right,
that was more on Aaron Rodgers performance issue. The defense
held up pretty well. I started, you know, I said
in the last show, maybe the defense has got it
figured out, maybe the defense is starting to settle in,

(01:18):
and then we have this, Like, to me, this wasn't
just another loss. It's an indictment of everything that this
team says it is is. It's all pretend right, It
pretends to be one thing, but man, they're just something different.
They walked into that game acting like reputation alone would
do the work that they needed, and they were exposed

(01:41):
by a Bears team that said every single lazy habit
they have, every single structural flaw they have, every piece
of denial this team has been living in, got exposed
by that team. The team I've said it repeatedly, over
and over and over again. The defense doesn't get stops.
They survive on turnovers. That was never more EVI in
that game yesterday. Yes, they managed to get a stop

(02:03):
on the very first drive, but they got to stop
on the last drive, not because they were playing good defense,
but because Caleb threw the ball offline or their receivers
drop the ball. They survive on luck, opportunistic moments other
than real sustained resistance, which is what I've been asking for,
and I just don't see it. They don't have gap discipline,

(02:25):
they aren't consistent with their pressure. They just don't have
an answer for anything. Once Chicago realized all they had
to do was stay clean and sit in there, and
the Steelers would sit in that zone and they'd find
ways to beat it.

Speaker 4 (02:38):
Every time. This is not a defense that.

Speaker 3 (02:41):
Plays at the standard which is supposed to be the standard.
This is a defense right now that would embarrass the
steel curtain defenses of the past. You know, you've heard
Cam Hayward say this and other people say this that
the greatest compliment that those guys can give a member
of any of these defenses is that you could have

(03:02):
played with us. I'm not sure there's a single guy
that would say that about this group right now. That's
my rant about the defense. I will save my rant
about the offense for a little bit, but I've got.

Speaker 2 (03:17):
Quite a bit and most of its response, most of
its response to fans, who I feel still are entitled,
but they are entitled to something more than the defense
that for the fifth time this season, has given up
thirty or more points.

Speaker 3 (03:32):
Huh.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
You know what, it doesn't matter who the quarterback is
under center, because we've seen this. Oh, there's some other
team that we could definitely link to this, the Cincinnati Bengals,
and when they have Joe Burrow, it doesn't mean a
hill of beans. They could score thirty five points. Their

(03:53):
defense is going to give up forty points and we're
racking on them all season and preseason, and a great
deal of that is because they don't have the same
star power or name brand or high highly valued, highly
paid defensive players you know that the Steelers have, and

(04:17):
everybody says, oh, it's the h I get tired of
hearing highest paid defense only because you've got teams that
are paying quarterbacks fifty million dollars a year like a
too attack of a looa. Of course, you're not going
to have a highest paid defense when you're paying that
much money to just one position, in many cases, a
position where teams are desperate just to keep an average quarterback.

(04:40):
The Steelers have not fallen into that trap. But then
you see the quarterbacking isn't necessarily helping matters. Although I
made a comment to you yesterday, I believe this team
has scored thirty points on off are thirty points total
because I understand there are defensive touchdown equated into this, right,

(05:01):
but over thirty points scored in two games this season
that's Jets and the three I'm sorry twice against the
Bengals and then the Jets Bengals terrible defense obviously twenty
eight against the Bears, twenty seven against the Colts, twenty
five against the Packers, twenty four against the Vikings, twenty
three against the Cleveland Browns, who they have some main
consistencies of their own, but they have like four or

(05:23):
five games where they've given up fewer than that, probably
twenty points or less, which kind of leads me to
a point that I was making to you. I may
have said this to you. I may have said this
to my cousin. I don't remember off hand, Brian, but
I said, Man, I know who I was talking to. Now,
another friend, you would have killed for this offense. The

(05:44):
point totals that I just mentioned two and three years ago,
when you had Mitch Trubisky, when you had Kenny Pickavi,
and you have Justin Fields and Russell Wilson and these
guys in there, aside from the second half of last
season where there was a defensive collapse. I'm not sure
where the constant comes with this, but I can tell
you this much. I have not been or never been

(06:06):
a fan of Terrell Austin being defensive coordinator anywhere he's been.
We take a look at let's say his final his
final season in Detroit. The defense in Detroit was twenty
first in points. They were twenty seventh in yards given up.

(06:29):
They were in the middle of the pack against the run,
they were almost near the bottom against the pass. Guess what,
they were third in takeaways. Ooh, does that sound familiar,
like you're saying it's a leaky ship. He's in Cincinnati
for a season. One season is the defensive coordinator. And
by the way, that twenty seventeen Lions team was actually

(06:49):
nine to seven. They were second in the NFC that year.
This was Jim Caldwell. They just missed the playoffs. And
that's where the Steelers are starting to trend right now,
is missing the playoffs now in Cincinnati. The year one year,
you have Tarrell Austin in Cincinnati. He's thirty second in yards,
thirtieth in points, twenty first in takeaways. They were you know,

(07:13):
third from the bottom against the run, they were twenty
fifth or I'm sorry, thirty second, dead last against the past.
Just absolutely terrible. And then somehow he's here for four
seasons with the Steelers and it is trended going lower
each each season. You know, they didn't give up the
points as much his first year they were tenth, then sixth,

(07:33):
last year eighth predicated mostly by the first half of
the season where they were averaging giving up like thirteen
to sixteen points on average. Those days I think are
long gone. But those players are still here, right, and
it just does not a total collapse by TJ. Watt
shows up big time against the Bears on Sunday. Cam

(07:53):
Hayward's still doing Cam Hayward things. I still think Jalen
Ramsey's a fine player, but I often question some of
the things I mentioned. There's good Malie Carris and there's
bad Melle Carrison. That was one of the things that
what's his first name? Johnson? The code Ben Johnson, the
coach for the Bears. Here they're playing cat and mouse.
This is some of the and this goes to Tomlin.

(08:16):
This is some of the same shit as to why
Lawrence Timmins wasn't a three down backer. There's a certain
era where defense in offense really flipped in the National
Football League, and a lot of people go back and
they're like, oh, I really miss Casey Hampton. Casey Hampton
wouldn't get on the field in twenty twenty five. Casey

(08:36):
Hampton might not have gotten on the field in twenty twenty.
Things have long since passed by, and I wonder how
much of it is coaching in scheme versus the talent
that's on the field. But like you were saying, lazy,
let's emphasize this because we discussed this. We're shooting messages
back and forth in game, and you get to the

(08:56):
drive at the very end of the half. What what
was the time on this The Bears take the ball
with one nineteen remaining, one nineteen left. Yeah, yeah, one
nineteen remaining, and they run nine plays. It's only thirty
five yards, but that's all they need to get in
position for a forty seven yard Cairo Santo's field goal,

(09:21):
and they had opportunities to get off the field third
down those three points. Guess what the margin was for
this game, thirty one to twenty eight. You can't give
up these three points when you know this is a
top five offense that you're up against. Is Tomlin living
in his fears? I don't know, man, I think that
on the offense if he was living in his fears,

(09:42):
he doesn't punt the football at the end of the game,
and I'm thinking, we're thinking to ourselves, what the hell
is he doing? In fact, you were thinking that before
the game was even over, I got my cousin texted me,
I'm like, there's like three minutes left in this third
quarter that everybody's like games over. My cousin's saying some
and stuff like oh, I'm going to go rake the leaves,
and I'm like, come on, man, you're not tuning out

(10:04):
of this game.

Speaker 4 (10:06):
You know, it ends up.

Speaker 2 (10:09):
Being those three points are huge, and then somehow this
defense does get a stop. But it's also because the Bears,
even though they were up to scorers at one point,
you got to make them somewhat one dimensional to burn
the rest of the Steelers timeouts. Now they made a
boneheaded mistake and you had the incomplete pass and the
Steelers didn't have to use that one timeout, and then
you have whatever the hell that rule is where you

(10:30):
lose the timeout because of the injury even though the
clock is stopped. And that was that was irritating as well, Brian.
So that's kind of my rant and where it's at too,
because how often have we seen in you know, these
recent games where right before halftime it's like, well, we're
gonna be able to go in and get a snack
and get a little bit of water. So we're just

(10:53):
gonna chill, and if we give up three, that's not such.

Speaker 4 (10:55):
A big deal.

Speaker 2 (10:57):
This game would have been tied, would have been tied
instead with the Bears forced with Caleb Williams forced, who
had not been completing, you know, about half of his
passes all year. In this game, Caleb Williams nineteen of
thirty five fifty four point three completion percentage. He has

(11:18):
three touchdown passes. I don't know where you fix anything
on defense other than coaching your scheme. If this were
any other team, you take a look at the Giants
just got rid of a defensive coordinator, Pete Carroll, gets
rid of Chip Kelly as an offensive cording, and they
got rid of both coordinators both of those teams. Well,
the Giants get rid of Brian day Ball as a
head coach. I understand there any much more. They're good, Definitely,

(11:40):
Their seasons like completely watched. Steelers are sitting at six
and five. They have an opportunity still to do something,
but it doesn't look positive. And when you're looking at
the Buffalo Bills and the Baltimore Ravens coming up, it's like,
how the.

Speaker 4 (11:53):
Hell are they going to stop anyone? Or anything.

Speaker 2 (11:55):
It just looks like, you know, what did you say
before the game with the schedule. We had a comment
about the Steelers finding out who they are. You said,
the Bears did want because all they have been doing
is beating bad teams.

Speaker 4 (12:08):
They beat, I.

Speaker 3 (12:09):
Said, and I said they everybody's talking. This is what
annoyed me to no end. The announcers at the end
of the game were like, the question has always been
are the Bears a legitimate contender? Well, I think we've
answered that today, And I thought to myself, no, they haven't.
They beat another bad team us, that's it. We just
happened to have a winning record. We're still a bad team.

Speaker 2 (12:32):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, all right, let's rewind a little more.
I mean, well, I want to say a couple of things. Yeah,
go ahead, go ahead, because this is it's just like
a ram fest. And then I'm going to actually roast
a couple of fans while I'm at it, too, because I.

Speaker 3 (12:46):
Just know that I think some of this stuff. It's
TJ had one play, one play in the game. It
was a big, huge play, but that's it.

Speaker 4 (12:55):
So I like, I don't think that.

Speaker 3 (12:58):
Anybody showed up big in this game. On the defensive
side of the ball. I will give Cam Hayward shit.
I will give TJ watshit as much as I love
both of them, I'll even give Jalen Ramsey shit. All
of them had moments, they had flashes, but they were
not consistent. And that's one of the issues that is consistent,

(13:18):
is the lack of consistency. Like I don't know what
this team is from week to week. I don't know
what this defense is from week to week. I mean, yes,
you can say that about a lot of teams right now.
You can say that about the Bills. Who the hell
are the Bills? They lose to the Dolphins and then
they come back and stomp somebody else you just don't
know which too.

Speaker 2 (13:37):
Yeah, And the Thursday night was not sharp. Josh Allen
was was miserable. I mean Tampa Bay's in that category.
Two Baker, the Baker got hurt. But Baker was really
bad last night too.

Speaker 4 (13:48):
And so you know, and I.

Speaker 3 (13:50):
Get why why people are continually pointing out the cost
of this defense, right. I understand the fresh about it,
because if we're paying a quarterback like Tua Taga Livoa,
Hey did I say his name?

Speaker 4 (14:05):
Right? Holy crap pretty close.

Speaker 3 (14:06):
If we're paying a quarterback a ridiculous amount of money,
who's stunk. We'd be complaining about the quarterback getting paid
a ridiculous amount of money and stinking right now. It
is a fair assessment to say this defense is the
most overpaid defense in the league for what you're getting
out of it. They're as bad as the Bengals. At times.

Speaker 4 (14:26):
It may be worse.

Speaker 2 (14:27):
Yeah, they are. I was saying that because of the
cap hits in the way contracts are structured non averages,
because you when you actually break it down and you're
not factoring in some of those things, and you ticket
as an average per year, it's not different, not much
different than a few other teams that are out there.
But the difference is some of those teams are actually
executing and you know, getting getting the job done. Let

(14:49):
me tell you why I haven't. We've been focused on defense, Brian.
You want to know why the Steelers offense wins the
time of possession yesterday thirty three oh nine to twenty
six to fifty one. When has that happened ever this season?
It hasn't the Steelers. And you say, well, they have
a backup quarterback in let's not ask him to do much.

(15:10):
Thirty one attempts. Some of those at the end of
the game, they ran the ball and it's a total
of thirty six times three and those by Rudolph, the
rest by platoon. Here Kenneth Gainwell a nine point two average.
The fifty five yard big run. Well executed play ten
for ninety two. Jalen Warren eighteen for sixty eight three

(15:30):
three point eight. That's totally acceptable. He had a touchdown.
Metcalf has the rushing touch the little pitch they counted
as a That was funny. Did you hear that on
the You said Iron Eagle gets excited about everything, but
he does.

Speaker 3 (15:45):
It's hilarious to me, like it could be a one
yard game and he's like Jayla Warren goes through oh
for a yard.

Speaker 2 (15:52):
Yeah, He's like Jalen Warren and stopped no gain, you know,
something like that. It's been a little better in those aspects.
But he made a comment about that with the DK
Metcalf it went from it being scored a run to
a pass, then back to a run. And he said
Michael Scott was the scorekeeper for the office fans that

(16:14):
are out there the Steelers ran okay thirty six times,
one hundred and eighty six yards, two touchdowns. This is
what you would expect when you have a backup quarterback
in play, right, the backup quarterback for as many of
you as that are out there getting drunk off your
Iron Cities or whatever the hell you're drinking. Mason Rudolph
eloquently said by Mike Pursuit on the postgame show, he

(16:36):
didn't win this game. He also didn't lose this game.
Completed seventy seven point four percent of his passes only
one hundred and seventy one yards, took two sacks, one
of which Montez Sweat completely beats Darneld Washington. And I'm
not sure many quarterbacks other than Ben Roethlisberger, who pull
him the football and pump faked all the time, is
going to hold onto or evade that. That's unfortunate. The

(16:58):
other one, the interception the DK metcalf, is it thrown behind?
Is it thrown you know it's up there, and.

Speaker 4 (17:06):
It's a nice play. That one. I'm just going to
say it's a nice play. It was a nice play.

Speaker 2 (17:09):
I'd still like to see DK do a little more
with that. But what I really wanted to say, Brian,
is I mentioned this to you? Why the hell off
the Steelers DB's catch the football? Like it seems like
everybody else that you play against catches these krems and
these in these fifty to fifty balls and everything else,
and just the Bears are an opportunistic defense. We knew
that going in. But I have a graphic that I

(17:30):
wanted to pull up because I was talking offense right.
Let me see if I can get this at least
somewhat positioned. Folks, if you're listening to this, it's pinned
to our Twitter or x account. It's on the page,
it's on a Facebook, it's on Instagram. We have a
what Scott Hansen would call the four box on red zone.
These are the last four games I know. Aaron Rodgers

(17:50):
against the Bengals was half a game, And basically what
I've done here is I've taken the next gen stats charts.
It shows like all of the pass attempts by the
Steelers quarterbacks, so this would have been Mason's full game
against the Bears, a half game Rogers against the Bengals,
and then the previous three are the previous two with

(18:10):
Rogers against the Chargers of Colts. Reason Rogers is is
a focal point here is because so many damn people
are like, oh, Mason Rudolph, terrible, Mason Ruolf, they lost
his game, Mason Rudolf backup quarterbacks. Yeah, I told you
wish Rogers would have played even with the hurt wrist.
And they're already jumping to like Will Howard, And I've
put the line on this where it's ten yards for

(18:35):
these passes, right, I'm gonna try and see if i
can make this just a maybe a teen c a
teen C bit bigger. I'm not sure that I'm gonna
have much luck, but give me a second. But basically,
if you can or can't see it, I've got maybe
four passes going beyond ten yards in the air for
Rudolph one half against the Bengals, Rogers had three all incompletes.

(18:57):
Mason only had I'm sorry, Mason had five. He had
one that was complete, four that were incomplete. You have
five that Rogers threw. Maybe you've got six to seven
if you got something that will rate along ten eleven
yards right there. But the deep balls doesn't matter. If
it's five, doesn't matter, if it's six or seven he
completed one against the Chargers, he only threw three beyond

(19:21):
that mark. It gets the Colts completing one. They're not
throwing them. They're not completing them. They're not executing them deep.
The other piece that's totally missing from all of this.
And I am trying to make this. I've got it
a little larger on screen so we could see it
a little better, because this is going to be a

(19:42):
pretty big point here. Look where the hash marks are
in these charts for these four games. And I didn't
go back any further, but I bet it's not much different.
I don't think it's been different for years. Yeah, they
don't use the middle of the field. Matt Williamson on
SNR Steelers' Nation Radio pointed this out in a tweet
post game, and it got me going a little further

(20:03):
because then I noticed there's like no shots that sometimes
you're at third and ten and you're not going any further,
and we go down to the lower games, even with Rogers, Okay,
is this quarterbacking? Oh and then there's the interceptions by
Rogers too, and those were both deep. Those were deep,
as was the Mason Rudolph one too.

Speaker 4 (20:24):
It's red.

Speaker 2 (20:24):
It's a little might be a little harder to see
on this chart, but beyond those lines, it's not there
in between the hash. Yeah, there's a couple of them,
especially like the Colts game. There's two that he completely missed.
There's some that dance on the line. But for the
most part, you were playing against the defense that didn't
have any other freaking linebackers, none of them. They were
all out, and they're talking about third string guys and

(20:47):
he had you know, you get Tyreek, Stevenson ding then
just these guys looked like freaking all pros out there,
like the Steelers.

Speaker 4 (20:56):
What is going on?

Speaker 2 (20:57):
They're not running anybody through there, And you have maybe
an opportunity or two where Mason throws a ball and
Rum and Wilson it's a nice pass break up. You
take that shot Kelvin, Austin's grabbed and there's a pass
interference call. But for the most part, I don't think
that he's the huge problem. The dink and dunk stuff
has been dinkin dunk stuff for weeks, and it's part

(21:18):
of the reason why if I go back even further,
I'm sure it's been that way for a while. And
the difference now is teams have picked up on that
on film, they've identified it, and they're just like, well,
they're not going to throw there, so why the hell
are you bother covering it?

Speaker 4 (21:32):
One hundred percent.

Speaker 3 (21:32):
Look, defenses aren't stupid when they know you refuse to
attack the field, right, When they know you're refusing to
stretch it, when they know you're not going to throw
over the middle.

Speaker 4 (21:42):
They're not going to respect that either. They're not respecting anything. Right.

Speaker 3 (21:46):
The defenses that we're playing are crashing downhill, They tee
off on short routes, they choke out timing, they're suffocating drives. Right,
we are able to run the ball a little bit.
We were able to run the ball fairly consistently against
the right. The loss is not dramatically on the offense.
But when the Bears had to stop them, they knew

(22:08):
what we could and weren't going to do, right, They
knew absolutely where we were going to go and what
we weren't going to do, And that just causes absolute, uh,
you know, chaos from the offensive side. They are, as
you said, the middle of the field. It might as
well be a restricted air zone, right. They just refuse
to use it and it's been forever. They don't have

(22:31):
any layering. There's no inbreaking rhythms. There's nothing to stress
linebackers or safeties in this offense. Literally nothing. You've got
three tight ends and where do you throw to them
on the boundaries?

Speaker 4 (22:42):
What the hell you've got four tight ends? Maybe?

Speaker 2 (22:46):
I mean the team's loaded with them. And I wanted
to get to Connor Heyward in the I will. I
want to say something about that go ahead. Here's the thing.
They got the first down. They absolutely got that first down.
But this, like this is a makeup call from last
week when they didn't get the first down right and
they were given it. They absolutely had the toush push

(23:08):
and they got the first down. There's no question in
my mind. Visually the announcers felt like he got it.
He absolutely got it. Nobody understands why he didn't get
it right. But the week before he.

Speaker 3 (23:19):
Absolutely did not get it, and everybody knew he didn't
get it, and yet they gave it to them. So
you know, the rest again, they rest didn't cost them
this game, right, The fact that they went forward on
fourth down and didn't kick a field goal, the fact
that they gave up a field goal at the end
of the half. You can count to those two things
and say those are the two things that lost in
the game to go for.

Speaker 4 (23:40):
The field goal instead.

Speaker 3 (23:42):
They had there was a fourth down that they went
for deep in the Bear's territory and they didn't get it.

Speaker 2 (23:51):
Yeah, I mean maybe maybe towards Yeah, they I mean
they didn't have anything toward the end. I was going
to mention some more about the offense to not being
the problem. Steelers had more first downs twenty two the
Bears nineteen. They were eight or fourteen, fifty seven percent
on third down, one of three on fourth down. One

(24:12):
of the other ones was that was late in the game, right,
that was That's a whole other thing I'll bring up
in a second because Mason, if Charlie Batch was placed
in the blame on him, maybe.

Speaker 4 (24:21):
Does Aaron Rodgers. Let's just talk about the illegal formation.

Speaker 2 (24:25):
Rudolph scampers out, shows he got some wheels, gets a
first down, keeps this drive going, maybe a game winning
drive gets killed by penalty because between Roman and Wilson,
Calvin Austin, somebody's not there to cover up the tackle
on the end of the formation. And I do I
do wonder sometimes I get like the point of you
don't call that dead right away, because what if the

(24:48):
Steelers offense, let's say they commit a turnover, the Bears
are just going to decline the penalty. That makes one
hundred percent complete sense versus some of the when they
have like the neutral zone and the off side and
then you know a lot of bated to the quarter.
They don't want quarterbacks hurt, fifty million dollars quarterbacks getting
hurt and destroying the TV ratings for the league. I
understand that, and it also you know, cripples teams obviously

(25:10):
that I get. But sometimes when they do and don't,
the competition Committee's got to look at that that injury
when the clock's already stopped thing. Because that did not
I was I was like, wait a minute, I didn't
think that was a thing. And I'm like, did they
goof on this because I thought it stopped and they
don't have to burn a time out. Jeans Terotor comes
on the you know, the guru, the officiating guru, the

(25:33):
rules analyst for CBS and says, nope, that's however, it's okay, fine.
Very similarly, I thought the Peyton Wilson passed interference call
and they're like, he has a right to that, to
his ground where he's standing. And I thought that was
coming to be a rub route actually, which we've seen
not called so many times this year, but called against

(25:54):
like a DK metcalf or something like that. It's like,
damned if you do, damned if you don't. There was
like some type of hold that happened. Apparently ben'scronic. I
don't know how you hold running down to chase down
the punt returner and then get called for a hold.
I was pretty sure he got yanked on that. And
then the cause and effect of that was cordless weight

(26:14):
man then shaking one only thirty two yards instead of
fifty four yards and the Bears have the ball nearly
at midfield. Like there were enough mistakes that you know,
you couldn't overcome if there was a call or two
that didn't go your weight. It's not to blame officiate.
It's not to say officiating exactly. It didn't cause him
this game. The officials that that first, I mean, what happened,

(26:39):
what happened to this goal tech that I wanted to
call it goal line technology because that's what they use
in soccer the other football, but it's the virtual measurement
where they're not using the change or the stick. I
mean if they if that technology exists, you should know
where the ball is spotted at all times.

Speaker 4 (26:54):
You should, right absolutely.

Speaker 2 (26:56):
I mean it seems logical to me. It's like you've
got this technology, Well, we know where it's at, but
only if it's on like fourth and inches, Like is
it not precise? Like we always saw it? And I've
only seen it in the preseason watch. I watched games sometimes,
especially when I don't tank.

Speaker 4 (27:11):
I trust it.

Speaker 2 (27:12):
I watch it like and you know Red Zone would
be showing it too. I've got Red Zone going. I've
usually got a local game going. I got the Steelers going,
and then I got like whatever is in the four
o'clock slate. I watched the night games, you know, primetime
games all week long, and I haven't seen I have
not seen this maybe once, maybe once. It's like where
to go. I think alt Michaels might have been, you know,
tipping back a little bit on Grandpa's cough syrup and

(27:33):
mentioned it. He's been wildfire. I think he's wanting to
get like fired or out so he could cash out
his contract and go home and retire or something. I'm
not sure, but yeah, I don't know where it went.
I don't know where it's at. There's no replays. They
go to commercial, and then all of a sudden they
come back and it's like the team on the field too.
They get the play clock running and it's like is

(27:55):
a third down? Is it fourth down? And then teams
have to burn timeouts. This got to be cleaned up.
It's a lead problem. It's not just this particular officiating crew.
And the camera angles too. CBS like, there's no replays
on half of the stuff they went to commercial during
any type of I don't want to say controversy, because
nothing rose to controversy in this game, but something that

(28:17):
you may have a debate or question on that you
would like confirmation of. Let me see the replay of it. Oh, okay,
that guy's foot was in or out of bounds. No,
we don't have that. And then the kickoff camera, it
was just like, oh the first the first kick, they
were like, oh, he scripted. I'm like, I don't know,
because I'm looking through twenty two jerseys. I can't see anything.
It's just it's so bad.

Speaker 3 (28:38):
I want to make a comment about the offense didn't
lose this game. The offense didn't lose this game. But
the offense did lose this game. And let me explain
what I mean by that. So the problem is, we
are simply not built to be dynamic. We are not
built to win shootouts. We are built to win grind
them out type games when you need when you need.

Speaker 4 (29:00):
To be.

Speaker 3 (29:02):
Attacking down the field, when you need to be able
to stretch the field.

Speaker 4 (29:05):
This offense just isn't built for that.

Speaker 3 (29:07):
Whether it's because we don't have the personnel in the
wide receiver groups, whether it's because we do but they
don't trust them yet and they haven't built a rapport,
or whether it's the offensive play calling refusing to look
at the middle of the field. This offense is not
going to be successful when they have to play catch
up when they just aren't good at it. And you

(29:29):
know that's where I say, did the offense lose the game? No,
the offense actually played well enough to win this game.
The defense played so poorly, Yeah that they couldn't. But
they can't pick the defense up either. So from that standpoint,
does the offense lose the game? Yes, because they can't
pick up or make up not only for the defense's deficiencies,

(29:50):
but for their own deficiencies.

Speaker 4 (29:52):
You know, we've talked about it multiple times.

Speaker 3 (29:54):
They are too dependent and that chart that you put
up shows it exactly. They are too dependent on throwing
for two yards and depending on run after the catch.
Everything is dependent on yards after catch. And when teams
know that and they know you're only gonna throw it
within the ten yards, what the hell they can just
keep all their guys in that area.

Speaker 2 (30:16):
Yeah, you kick from the football either you got to
save these up and everything. Yeah, it's it's rough. And
the offense had spurts they've had. I was like, there
was a really long drive in the fourth quarter, but
they had had a few in this game.

Speaker 4 (30:30):
They too long as a matter of fact, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (30:32):
Almost eight minutes as a response to the Bears in
the first quarter, thirteen plays, ninety five yards for the touchdown.
That was a nice drive.

Speaker 4 (30:43):
Uh. They ended up.

Speaker 2 (30:44):
Turning over on downs after that a seven plays eighty
five in fact, the two three and outs that were killer.
It's like the third quarter and of course the third
quarter two punts and a fumble. The one drive actually
did they got a first down or two on the
six plays eleven yards. They didn't moved the needle much
in the field. Position for the Bears was out at there.
You know, they're getting the ball at like they're forty.

(31:05):
Multiple times throughout this game they're forty four. They also
got the ball. Let me see here, try and read
this forty four, the forty, the forty six, the forty four,
and then at the end of the game the forty
in which that one doesn't really matter as much. I mean,
the Steelers gave the ball up on downs twice, including

(31:27):
at the end of the game. They had the one
interception early on, which is just two plays nine yards.
That doesn't help the defense. We've been saying it forever.
But some of these other longer drives. They made mention
that the Bears they they in real time, the offense
was sitting for about twenty three minutes, which meant the
Steelers defense was sitting for twenty three minutes also, which

(31:48):
is they they they had more yards three forty five
to three twenty eight. They ran more plays sixty ninety
sixty one. This has not been This is that the
antithesis is what usually has been happening. So to put
an indictment completely on offense backup quarterback, Let's see Will Howard.
How much worse can it be. I hate to tell you.

(32:09):
If you've got a rookie quarterback that's maybe taking a
couple snaps in the Latin, maybe the last couple weeks
of practice, if they take ten reps for something, Mason
Rudolph might get three of them. Mason might be running
the scout team, Howard might be running the scout team.
You're not even running your playbook, and you think we're
going to throw this guy out here because he just
won a national title with Ohio State. There were thirty

(32:31):
one other teams that didn't think he was worth drafting
through almost six rounds until the Steelers finally took him
in the sixth round. That gives you an idea of
the talent and the development that needs to happen. And
since he had been hurt and missed portions of training camp,
I think he got the first two weeks of camp.
I know I saw him at camp, and then he
was hurt. After that, he did not play in the

(32:51):
preseason at all, so he didn't get any kind of
NFL real game experience as you might call it, even
in exhibitions, and then he wasn't practicing at all, not
permitted to. We saw the Ravens just got tagged with
their designations and stuff. We were talking about that on
the last episode with the Lamar Jackson and the injury designation.

Speaker 4 (33:10):
So it's.

Speaker 2 (33:13):
What I'm trying to say is that Will Howard is
not a guy that you're going to put out there
and even put him out at the end, they might
be three and out, three and out, turnover, turnover, it
could look far worse. Look at what the look at
what Geno Smith looks like with the Raiders, and Gino
Smith's been around for a minute and had a modicum
of success. He's at least got some experience, and you
just never know. In the NFL, man you talk about

(33:34):
like week to week. The Giants were rate in that
to the end. With the Lions, they just couldn't stop anything.
Jamir Gibbs had like two, I think fifty plus runs
in that game. But the Giants were running all these
trick plays and just doing anything that you know, cling it,
trying to get victory. They were energized, they were on
the road, they were in enemy territory. The Steelers just

(33:54):
don't I don't know what the Steelers have. It almost
feels like it feels like the entitlement that some of
the fans have. I'm listening to the post game and
the people that call in, there's one that's really bad
and they end up getting They end up chuckling about
it a little bit toward the end, and I feel
bad for this one guy because he calls in, Brian

(34:16):
and just tells you about the level of some of
the people that you see on social media begging for stuff.

Speaker 4 (34:22):
Yeah, yeah, I texted to you this.

Speaker 2 (34:23):
I could not believe I heard. I had just heard
what he had said. He said, you know, the kids
were asking I don't know how old the kids are.
Are the kids young? Are they teenagers? Are they grown adults?
In this guy's you know, you know, in the sixties
or something, you know, and he's got kids that are
in the thirties, forties, I don't know, but he said
something about taking the kids to the game, and I'm thinking, oh,
he lives in Chicago, land and he goes drive down

(34:44):
and then realize there isn't a game in Pittsburgh today
that they're playing in Chicago. Do they advertise that at all?
And there's just this dead air silence on the radio,
and Charlie Batch is like, yeah, they begin, they begin
advertising that, and they put the schedule out in May.
He was like, don't they switch that. Don't they flex it?

(35:04):
They don't flex venues. And I'm just like, you've got
you've got sources such as us. But I mean, even
if you don't know we exist and we put this
out here and people make fun of us with the maps,
still try and provide some information and hopefully somebody can
find even if it's by accident. Right go to the
Steelers' website. Where do you go to look for tickets?

(35:26):
Do you not read at Chicago? Bears like, does he
just going to show up anything? I just I had
no idea and to have the balls to call in
to bitch and complain about it on top of it
and then just being like, well, oh well, I think
I could do a better job with that. It's just like, well,
we have smartphones. I mean, I'm sure if you don't
have a smartphone in your old school, do you get

(35:47):
the newspaper. I'm pretty sure the newspaper probably publishes it.
Still if they published the newspaper like it's that was
what and that's just a chuckle. And then they kept saying,
you know, the game this week is not in Buffalo,
and they were saying that to sign off for the
postgame radio show. But I had to bring that one out.
And there was there's some other folks, some people with

(36:08):
some good comments, and there's the folks that are like
walk I possibly, yeah, i'd put well Howard out there,
but there was one that really got me. And I
think Mike pursuita said this best because we're gonna get
called out for it, because there's gonna be tons of
people in these comments that are going to talk about
firing Mike Tomlin. That's what it's always about. It's fire
the head coach. And you know, maybe maybe maybe it's
time for a fresh set scene ring. I'm not against

(36:30):
that thought. Even more so as we continue to go on,
if it continues to be stagnant like this, you might
start to consider how else can you freshen things up?
He can't really freshen up too much of coordinators. Do
you just clean house with everything? And you would do
that because if you're going to get a new quarterback,
you usually pair a quarterback with coach. So I'm not

(36:51):
against it folks necessarily, But there's the folks that talk
about there was a guy that called in and goes, oh,
just I'm tired of this, Like just making the playoffs
isn't good enough. I have not seen a Super Bowl
ring in a long time. I've been a fan for
fifty years. So if he's been a fan for fifty years, Brian,
it could be older than you, which means he saw
the Steel Curtain and he lived through that dynasty. And

(37:12):
there's six rings that he's seen, there's six titles that
he's seen that there's still more than anybody else. It's
just like, does that not tell you how rare it
is when you can say the Steelers have more than
anybody else except for who's tied with them now the Patriots.
Maybe yeah, I think they have sixteen on so yeah,
And I mean that's what they're looking at. They want

(37:32):
this dynasty that rolls over everyone. Kansas City is struggling
this year. They continue to struggle. They're not winning the
close games that we praised them for their defense winning
last season until they got to the Super Bowl, got
smoked Mahomes all that maybe exposed maybe a leak, maybe
a leak because they win too much, they'll have those
good draft picks. That's where the Steelers still are. They're
kind of in this stuck in the mud, wheels spinning

(37:52):
and somebody's like, they didn't spend enough money on quarterback.
Who are they going to buy that's gonna be better
than what they There's nobody out there. It's not a
buyer's market. There's nobody selling. You have to get it
in the draft, and they're nowhere. They may be in
position next year with all the draft picks that they have,
but just goes to show how entitled because pursuita says,
I'd rather be in the playoffs than not because at

(38:14):
least it means you know you're winning and you might.

Speaker 4 (38:17):
Have you in that turn. You have a shot.

Speaker 2 (38:20):
Bill Kauer makes it as a sixth seed, you have
a shot. He takes his shot, they win. Nobody complains
about that now, But that's exactly the same thing you're
looking at when Mike Tomlin squeaks in. It doesn't look pretty.
It didn't look pretty at times. Then they were just
starting to surge at the end like that one Giants
team that did similar that one season. So that's my
ram on all of that.

Speaker 3 (38:40):
All right, I'm gonna do my Tomlin rant now for
you know. I have tremendous respect for Mike Tomlin. He's
a Hall of Fame level coach. But I will tell
you this, if we get to the end of the
season and this defense has been averaging thirty giving up
thirty points a game, I don't think think that anybody

(39:01):
in the Steelers organization is going to be very happy
about that.

Speaker 4 (39:05):
As we said this at the end of the year
last year, there was a.

Speaker 3 (39:08):
Point in time when the collapse was going on last
year and we said, at some point, you question whether
it's just you know, people.

Speaker 4 (39:17):
Need a.

Speaker 3 (39:20):
New set of scenery, Like you said, right, Do I
think that they're going to fire Mike Tomlin right now? No,
not right now. But I do think that there are
things that can be placed firmly on Mike Tomlin's shoulders.
The decision to punt at the end of the game
showed to me, Look, I get it, you know, but

(39:41):
what in the world would you have had confidence in
that defense style?

Speaker 4 (39:46):
They didn't stop the Bears.

Speaker 3 (39:48):
The Bears stopped the Bears, So punting was absolutely living.

Speaker 4 (39:53):
In your fears. I get it, you ended up with a.

Speaker 3 (39:55):
Chance, it actually ended up working out, but it's still
the wrong choice.

Speaker 4 (40:00):
In my mind.

Speaker 3 (40:00):
It was still the wrong decision, and it showed a
lack of confidence in your offensive unit and a ridiculously
misplaced confidence.

Speaker 4 (40:11):
In your defense.

Speaker 3 (40:12):
At this point of time in time, I think and
I expect this to be a slide year. Look, I'm
looking at the schedule. I'm just being honest. I'm looking
at the schedule. This is going to be a losing year.
They're going to have Mike Tomlin's first losing season. It
will depend on how it looks as to whether Mike
Tomlin is back next year. And I agree with you,
I'm not necessarily at this point in time, I'm not

(40:35):
against the idea that a new set of scenery is required.
You know, somebody coming in with a fresh look, if
they are in position to draft a quarterback next year,
if they think they're going to, you know, because they're
now questions about how good this quarterback class is actually
going to be.

Speaker 4 (40:55):
So and it's a viable reason to have those questions.

Speaker 3 (40:59):
The quarterbacks that everybody thought we're going to be great,
haven't performed as well as as expected.

Speaker 4 (41:03):
Now you want to.

Speaker 2 (41:04):
Playing the pros where quarterbacks struggle mightily one quarter I'm
not you know, if they let's say they drop the
Bills game, which is very possible at this point. It's
also possible that they completely flabbergast this and ended up
winning that game, which when they don't.

Speaker 4 (41:20):
Have any reason to, there's no reason to expect they would.

Speaker 3 (41:23):
But let's say they dropped the Bills game, they dropped
the Ravens game at in Baltimore, and they they're coming
into the Miami game, right. Miami is a team that's
been surging, right, They've been winning games lately. That was
a game we thought was going to be the easiest
game on the schedule. I'm starting to think we're the
easiest game on everybody's schedule anymore. Yeah, So let's say
they dropped those three games, right, they dropped those three.

Speaker 4 (41:45):
Games in a row. What do we then? We're what
six and eight? Right?

Speaker 2 (41:50):
There are six games total remaining, right, and they're six
and five. How many of these do you have to
win to have a shot at the playoffs? At least four?
And did not at least four didn't maybe five. I
thought Seattle won ten last year and still missed the postseason.

Speaker 4 (42:04):
Let me check on that.

Speaker 3 (42:05):
You might need to win five games and there's I
just don't see them winning five of those last six games.
So I don't think they've got playoff team. I do
think they're probably a team that is going to have
a losing record. Will it be bad enough to get
them a top ten pick? I don't know the answer
to that yet. And if they you know so, The
point of my rant was going to be this, if

(42:26):
they continue to play the type of football they have
been playing more consistently than playing good football, right, if
they continue to look like this team, yeah, I think
there's a good chance that maybe you know, Art says,
this is the end, this is it.

Speaker 4 (42:44):
You know, you need a new a change of scenery.
We need to change at the top.

Speaker 3 (42:49):
And we've accepted that we're in complete rebuilding mode, because
that's what I feel like they are.

Speaker 4 (42:56):
There are so many problems right now.

Speaker 3 (42:58):
That I don't think that they will even with the
number of draft picks they have next year, they don't
have enough to fix the issues that are existent with
this team.

Speaker 2 (43:08):
And I don't think I touch omar at all because
everybody complains. But I'm thinking to myself, Okay, one, like
the draft picks that he's made. I think everything everybody's
been solid, you know what I mean. And then you
have people complaining that George Pickens went over to Dallas
and it's like, look, Dak Prescott throws for five yeah,

(43:30):
and they have ceedee lamb. They have an offense where
you know, they're on the field all the time because
their defense truly is poor. And I'm just I'm not
making those type of comparisons. It's like two different things.
If Pickens is in Pittsburgh, it's not like he's putting
up those numbers or maybe even half of those numbers,
especially with the.

Speaker 4 (43:46):
Way we play offense. Yeah, right, it's just not going
to happen. It's not.

Speaker 2 (43:50):
And then he would pout and we already know he
missed team meetings and got like, you know, sidelined or
whatever for core or whatever. Their discipline was recently must
around in Vegas and that would be the huge story
in Pittsburgh. And then he says he doesn't block, you know,
and doesn't even apologize and run blocking and all this
other stuff, and it's like that's the guy you wanted
to keep around and then give a big bag too.

(44:11):
And I mean Jerry Jones make that mistake because he's
motivated probably by money right now, and then once Jerry
gives him that money, the question is, and we're not
the only ones that are saying this, This is everybody
around the league. You've got Skip Bayless comes around and
says this the other day. And Bayless a huge Cowboys
fanning he tweets it out and just looking at you know,

(44:32):
I was saying this about some of the fan things,
some of the entitlement things. I don't want to get
too deep. We're already pretty long. I need to cut here.
But looking over this ten and two Patriots lead the division.
Baltimore now has the time record because they're two and oh.
Stealers two and one. Those matchups with the Ravens are
going to be major lea critical. They struggled with the
Jets for a little bit, so they're not like unbeatable.

(44:54):
But I don't have any reason to believe that this
incarnation of the Steelers team could compete right now. Fair enough,
Steelers are six and five, and then in the South
you've got eight and three Colts, seven and four Jaguars
and six and five Texans that are turning it around.
Even with Davis Mills as their quarterback. They're winning some
games and maybe CJ. Strad will be back. Denver, unexpectedly

(45:15):
is nine to two with a very strong, strong, strong defense.
Their offense is still stuck in the mud in some points.
Then you've got the Chargers. They're also a chameleon bad
offensive line, but they're seven and four. They're up on
the Kansas City Chiefs, and I mean the Chargers are
three and zero in their division. The Chiefs are six
and five, one and two in their division. Who do
you have more faith? And when it comes to the

(45:36):
wildcard picture here, this is going to turn out. Like
I just said, you could win ten games, but there
could be some tie breakers here where the Chargers end
up in a wildcard spot and they place above the
Chiefs or something like that. There's just a lot of
strange things that could happen. I don't know that the
Steelers are going to be in the basement of of
the AFC North necessarily, but you know, a posts and

(46:00):
hopes are looking very slim to nine. They could still
have a winning record and everybody will celebrate it. Tomlins,
you only need three, You only need three of these games,
you need to win half of them. But you look
at who's up next on deck, the Bills. And I'm
not going to say that the Steelers, this Steelers team
can beat these teams. But are these teams beatable Bills. Yes,

(46:23):
they're not the juggernaut that everyone thought they would be.
The Ravens. They've shown their struggles and their cracks, and
they give up leads late. Still they have this they
have a poison that's much like the Steelers laziness before
halftime on defense. The Miami Dolphins and you get them
at home and they have just been wherever, just throw
dartists to what team shows up there. Then you've got

(46:43):
the Lions in Detroit, who could throw fifty points on
the on the on anybody, so they might us. Yeah,
it's possible. It's possible. So I'm not gonna count my
chickens before they hatch, but that one you could say.
You know, if you split with the Ravens and you
lose to Detroit, you still up the Browns in Cleveland
and then Baltimore at home, and so you have to

(47:06):
if you can only lose one of these games against
the Bills Dolphins, and then you know, between the Ravens
or whatever.

Speaker 4 (47:13):
You know what I'm saying, you have.

Speaker 2 (47:14):
To at least get three to get to nine that
has a winning season. That's not going to get you
in the playoffs. They got to win four of these
games and still might be on the outside looking in.

Speaker 3 (47:23):
I'm going to go out on a limb and tell
you that I don't think they're going to win another game.

Speaker 4 (47:27):
I don't believe that. I don't believe it.

Speaker 2 (47:29):
I'm just telling you that they could beat Buffalo. And
here's the sad thing my cousin brought to say.

Speaker 3 (47:33):
They can't win. Yeah, I'm not saying they can't. I'm
saying I don't think they will. I don't think they'll
beat Cleveland, Cleveland if they problems in Cleveland.

Speaker 2 (47:44):
So if they end up six and eleven, that puts
them in the top half of the draft, in prime
spot to also trade up from there too.

Speaker 4 (47:52):
And here's where that goes.

Speaker 3 (47:54):
Let's say that the next It's one of the points
I lost my mind on and I was getting at
when we were talking about the next three games. Let's
say they dropped the next three games. Yeah, they still
got an outside shot at having the winning record, but
they'd have to win every remaining game at that point
in time, do you want to know who Will Howard is?

Speaker 4 (48:11):
Right?

Speaker 2 (48:11):
I'm not saying you need I thought about that. I'm
not saying you jumped to Will Howard?

Speaker 4 (48:16):
Right. Will Howard is certainly not the savior of this season.

Speaker 3 (48:19):
No, right, But at some point do you need to
find out who, especially if the season is a wash,
do you need to find out whether you need to
draft a quarterback?

Speaker 4 (48:29):
I don't.

Speaker 2 (48:30):
I don't see a game i'd put him in at
you could start him against.

Speaker 4 (48:34):
Let's just say you went.

Speaker 2 (48:35):
That route and you're completely done with Aaron Rodgers. Aaron
Rodgers gonna be healthy, he's not gonna be happy, he's
gonna pout, and he's gonna go off into retirement after that. Right, Yeah,
but the Dolphins game is the only one I'm looking at.
I'm not gonna put him in. If they lose to
the Bills, you're still six and six, you're at five hundred.
Your season's not completely shot, so you're not gonna throw
him in going to Baltimore in a division game. You've

(48:57):
still got division matchups, So you got you got the
Dolphins at home four games remaining. You're gonna kickstart them there.
This isn't like you're a one and whatever team. Then
you go on the road game, You've got the Detroit Lions.
Aiden Hutchinson in that defense, you've got to throw him
in there. Cleveland. Brown's in Cleveland with Miles Garrett chasing
a sack record. He would he would get it if

(49:17):
he doesn't have it by then, and he's been picking
up some really not high quality sacks according to Pro
Football Focus. They're not going to say that, though, because
that dude's a Browns clown homer uh. And then you
got the Ravens at home at the end, which maybe
Baltimore has got things sewn up by then and they're
playing their backups. Does this really even show you will
Howard is at this point and you fold for the season.

Speaker 4 (49:39):
I think it can. It could, But you're going to
do that on one game? I don't know.

Speaker 3 (49:43):
I just let's say you lose to the Bills. Let's
say you lose to the Ravens in Baltimore. I'll give
you the benefit of the doubt, and you beat the
Dolphins right, you lose to Detroit, Right, that's three losses.
And then let's say that you know, now you've got
what two games left, two games left against the the
Browns and the Ravens.

Speaker 2 (50:02):
You're at seventy eight by the rest of the AFC.
Is at if you're already you might be mathematically out
based on what I just said, Let's just say that
that's what I'm getting at.

Speaker 3 (50:11):
Yeah, I think you're mathematically eliminated at that point, right,
because I don't believe you're going to get.

Speaker 4 (50:17):
In at nine, at nine and nine and eight, right,
I don't think you get into the playoffs at nine
and eight.

Speaker 3 (50:23):
So if you're seven and eight, I think you end
up being mathematically eliminated. When you are mathematically eliminated, is
that the time when you want to.

Speaker 4 (50:31):
Know who you have? Right?

Speaker 3 (50:32):
I don't know, And I agree putting him in against
Cleveland and their defense that's a risk, right, But at
the same time, you have to have a point where
you need to know is this a guy we think
can grow into this position, or we think can be
the guy, or is this the guy that's in the
next Mason Rudolph right is our next backup in development

(50:54):
but is never going to be the guy, and therefore
we have to still try and find the guy.

Speaker 2 (51:00):
And again, I'll be fair Mason. I mean people, people
expect him to come in and just do all this
starting quarterback stuff when he hadn't started, he hadn't played
with this started for the Steelers since twenty twenty three.
We're twelve weeks into the season.

Speaker 4 (51:15):
Fair Mason didn't play back. I know.

Speaker 2 (51:17):
That's just what I'm getting at. And it's just like,
did he play great? No, but he didn't play back.

Speaker 4 (51:21):
I don't know what he.

Speaker 2 (51:22):
Would look like if he actually got a full camp
and a full everything but the Clucks ticket. He's like
thirty years old, now, you know what I mean.

Speaker 4 (51:28):
You know my opinions.

Speaker 2 (51:30):
And maybe maybe based on this quarterback class, you've got
all this capital right now, maybe somebody gets hungry and
you acquire more and you trade a couple of picks
and you get this other pick and then you shuffle around.
Omar is capable of doing. That's why I wouldn't touch
him as a GM. This is still a lot of foreshadowing.
We're in November, so we've got some turkey.

Speaker 4 (51:50):
To eat this Thursday.

Speaker 2 (51:51):
Everyone have a hopefully have a good Thanksgiving. Don't get
any fights over with any Insers, over the Steelers, over
the turkey, over the gravy. We get to watch the
well you got the you got the Bills coming on Sunday.
We'll have the pre game later this week. They're coming
off a minibi and then so will the Ravens because

(52:12):
they get to play Thursday against the Bengals and they
play they play at home too, right, so they got
back to back home games again, and I'm just like, wow,
it must be nice to have the schedule set up
the way it is like this. You get the you
get to host a division rival at home, which is
almost always a gimme, and then you get to host

(52:32):
another division rival on ten day's rest. I hate the
NFL sometimes, I really do. And I wanted to bring
up one more individual thing. And I know this is
two percenter territory. It actually goes to the game. I
like these young defensive tackles, man, why why black? How
do they see the ball get ripped? That was the
real who done it?

Speaker 4 (52:52):
And I don't know?

Speaker 2 (52:53):
And how did they uphold it or whatever? It's like
the call is confirmed. I know there's different languages to
whether or not the video actually does or doesn't show it,
or they just it was inconclusive rates. But that was crazy.
That was absolutely crazy. So the defense they got their
turnovers there, but if they don't get them, is this
game uglier. That's something that you have to Paddy. It's

(53:14):
what you have to ponder with the Bills, with the
Ravens with I just don't want to see Derrick Henry
dragging people around, and James Cook is another guy.

Speaker 4 (53:23):
It's going to be a load.

Speaker 2 (53:24):
But we'll talk about that coming up to the pregame
show later this week. Folks, don't forget to like, comment, subscribe,
leave us your hate nail and the comments. Leave a
rating of review that's positive because you like us. You're
just pissed off about the Steelers.

Speaker 3 (53:36):
That's a whole lot of say one more thing, yeah,
call us Tomlin ball lickers after this show.

Speaker 2 (53:40):
O my god, I know I didn't go out on
a diet, okay, So one thing I'm not going to
do is like some of the I don't even want
to call competitors. I think there's space for everyone. The
pie grows, it's not just limited the pie, right, what's that.

Speaker 4 (53:56):
Don't.

Speaker 2 (53:58):
It's not competing to be better than somebody else opinions.
Somebody else has different somebody else has different opinions, and
a lot of those folks will do it to be sensational.
But I just wonder, I often wonder. You see them,
they go to games, they have tickets, they travel to games,
and they just sounds like the most miserable human beings
on the planet. And now all you hear out of
their mouth is fire, tom on, fire, Tom on. Okay,

(54:18):
you've got two hundred comments, you got all these like,
like what kind of human being? I just I don't know.
I just can't sometimes I can't deal with the negativity.
I think criticism is fair and you you're allowed to
say things that aren't like all sunshine and rainbows about
your team, and that's fine. But I'm also not here
to just be like fire everybody, fire, everybody, this sucks,

(54:39):
this is you know whatever, it's just, oh my goodness,
Like you have to be miserable? Are you on heart
mints or like blood pressure medicine? Like I don't know,
Like this team will get you there without you even
having to do all of that. So yeah, call us
the the whatever they you know, the ball liquors. The
I was trying to think of.

Speaker 4 (55:00):
There's whatever we were I don't know.

Speaker 2 (55:02):
I was thinking of like clerks, or it might not
been clerks, but it was like a jay and silent Bob.
We are the ones who lick balls, like you know
or something like that, Like, yeah, call us that for Tomlin.
We are just totally just sitting there slurping on this guy. No,
we are not so like, come on, like we're able
to appreciate a great, great head Couch. Well, you can't

(55:24):
take anything away. He's been a great head coach. You
can't take it away. Even if he has a poor season.

Speaker 3 (55:30):
You can't know reach the end at some point, you know,
whether it's change of scenery, whether it's the style of
game that you used to play has passed you by
and is in applicable anymore, whatever the reasons are.

Speaker 4 (55:43):
At some point in time, teams do need to move on.

Speaker 3 (55:46):
And again, I'm not necessarily saying this is the time
to move on, but I am saying if we continue
down the path we are on, it's a real legitimate question.

Speaker 2 (55:58):
To ask, and not only not only for coaching staff
feeling the seat getting warm, Some of these players are
going to feel their seat getting warm.

Speaker 4 (56:06):
I mean, there's going.

Speaker 2 (56:07):
To be a wholesale of changes. If these next six
games look anything like this thirty one to twenty eight
loss to the Bears, you know, it's just the stench
of you go to Chicago, you always lose there. The
Bears should be a bad team. Everybody's used them being
a bad team. There.

Speaker 4 (56:24):
Where are they eight and two or they eating three?

Speaker 2 (56:26):
They're eating three, eight and three, and they're leading the
NFC North, which is that that's a crazy division right
now too. You've got three teams with seven or more wins.
You got the Bears, the Packers and the Lions. And
that's how the Seahawks ended up with ten wins and
out of the playoff picture last year. And they went
and cleaned house also and they have eight when that's
another one man. You got the Rams nine and two,

(56:47):
the Seahawks eight and three, forty nine Ers at seven
and four. There's just there's some there's some really competitive divisions.
Then you got whatever the AFC North is. It looks
like you got three teams that are being playing pretty
mediocre and the Ravens are just better than that.

Speaker 4 (57:01):
Based on a.

Speaker 3 (57:03):
We'll still probably end up second in our division. Yeah,
but potentially with a losing record. That's just because the
Bengals are so bad that it's not gonna We're not
gonna dip below them.

Speaker 2 (57:14):
Yeah, we'll, we'll hammer home more on the some promise,
future promise and everything else like in you know, because
I don't know that the Browns are fixed.

Speaker 4 (57:21):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (57:21):
The Bengals got a lot to fix. I don't know
if the Steelers don't have a lot to fix. But
we'll we'll, we'll pine on that later because we may
have another longer off season that starts a little earlier.

Speaker 4 (57:32):
We'll see. Uh. Never that way.

Speaker 2 (57:34):
Next up Buffalo Bill's pregame. Folks, tune into that until
next time. My name is Joe, his name's Brian. Has
always we encourage everyone out there to be safe, be good,
and we'll catch you later.

Speaker 1 (57:46):
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.

Speaker 4 (58:00):
Yeah,

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