Steelers survive Dublin thriller with Vikings

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Underground, The steel City Underground, the black
and gold standard for Pittsburgh Steelers coverage. Now here's your hoes.
Joe Kuzma and Bryan e. Rose. Hello everyone, and welcome
to another edition of the Steel City Underground podcast from Dublin, Ireland.

(00:26):
I'm your host Joe Kuzma with my good colleague Buddy
and Poula one. Mister Brian e Roach. Brian, how's it going.
I don't know how to wear this. I don't know
what to do. It's like it's very European. My friends
like give me my Daughter Back or whatever that movie was.
I don't know. It's not quite Ransom, dude. It's uh,

(00:51):
it's one with Sally Field. I was talking about, you know,
one of one of several and got the whole supporter
scarf thing going very European, very soccer ish, very They
want to say, well, actual, they're the football over here
across the pond, of course, yes, we are the American
football and uh wow, what an atmosphere. Just to start

(01:15):
off things and discuss what Dublin Ireland was, like, my friend,
I mean this was this was a home game. Play
was across the pond with all the amenities of a
home game with a very awkward crowd. Awkward, I don't know,
I mean somewhat awkward because you've got you've got fans

(01:36):
from all of these different NFL teams. We saw like
forty nine Ers, Seahawks, Buffalo Bills. She it was a
strange crowd. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know what.

Speaker 2 (01:45):
We see John Riggins jerseys, some some Tom Brady jerseys.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
Puke.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
We saw one Ray Lewis puke. Yeah, several Joe Burrow
Burrow double puke. Some morons were wearing Cleveland jerseys.

Speaker 1 (01:59):
I don't have any of you.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
Yeah, but uh, I will say this. They were into it.
They were into it big time. And you know, other
than being maybe a little exuberant when the offense had
the ball more so than they should have been, they
were into it.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
We talked about that all the time. Man, Like the
way crowds like, don't they started that stupid mink noise
or twirl the towel thing. And again, it's a home game.
So this is the actual Steelers announcer, the public address
announcer that you get at Akroschuer Stadium, and all of
the visuals and everything that are on the scoreboards, including

(02:42):
Renegade played in the fourth quarter, which was pretty cool,
pretty cool. It didn't work very well, but it didn't
work very well, but was very cool. And the you know,
the stadium itself, man, I mean it was I mean
the pitch as we'd call it. The pitch was very green,
also slick, and I think contributed to some injuries, maybe
some maybe more serious than others. Of course, the NFL

(03:04):
I think got a pretty full, good full display here
for the world audience seventy five thousand people at this game.
There were Vikings fans there. They had like a little
school chant that I don't know would have showed up
on TV as a loud as some of the Steelers
cheering and doing because again it was for all intents
and purposes, it was a Steelers home game. This is

(03:24):
a Steelers turf in Ireland, and the Steelers survive and
leave Dublin, Ireland now three and one. Who would have
I would never have guessed. I don't even know where
to begin with this game, because they just never make
it easy. Right. We had the big dk Metcalf catch
and run that was very early on, seemed very surreal.

(03:50):
Somebody had missed their assignment somewhere somewhere along the line
with the Vikings. It would happen later where the Steelers
would have this happened to, which, of course, we will
address in moments individual performances before we go into some
of the blow by blow, I guess, or we could
do some of the we do some of the scoring.

(04:10):
Why don't we do that before we do some of
the individual ones. We don't have like a real rigid
agenda here because we're just trying and Brian's like right
over here, like my hands almosts somewhere in here. Wait,
that's weird because you're on that's and then I'm on that.
So we haven't flip. Oh, he's going to hit. This
is going to be very childish. Yeah, there we go.
He's he's well, now you find out what you can

(04:32):
do with that thing. There you go. You know what,
it's a good time to this guy right here right here.
Does that work? Yes, it's pointing right at him. Look
that up on your own. It is a square word.
It doesn't mean effing idiot, so it is gay.

Speaker 2 (04:50):
Like here's the key key piece of information you need
to know about that. He didn't get it. He didn't
get it when you first read it.

Speaker 1 (04:58):
I didn't. Oh, that's hilarious. That's hilarious. Viking. Well, Steelers
lose coin toss and the Vikings won in deferred and
that's where this starts off. At Steelers going three and
out minus two yards. Aaron Rodgers sacked right off the bat.
We look at each other, we go Mason McCormick, McCormick,

(05:19):
we go interior the line. It's gonna be a long,
long day in Ireland maybe, and kind of weird because
it's nine thirty on the East coast, even more so
for people on the West coast over in the States,
two thirty in the afternoon. Beautiful weather, by the way,
like sixty degrees and if you saw a little bit
of that with the stadium, there's like a roof that

(05:40):
goes kind of around it. It's got like a very
like European style to it is very cool. Little shot
of the crowd here from the Steelers dot com photographers
terrible toiels everywhere. We had those on display, but they
didn't get pulled out quite early. Just yet. The Vikings
get on the board first with field goal eleven plays
fifty six yards. You're like, oh, the defense isn't going

(06:02):
to get off the field and this isn't looking so great,
and then you know the defense, the offense responds, the
defense forces a punt, and all of a sudden, before
you know it, you have the the DK Metcalf play
that we were talking about. Aaron Rodgers short middle too,
was short medal keeper. Seemed like a deep a deeper

(06:24):
sl Yeah, it seemed like a deeper sling because already
said quick slant and you were correcting me right in
the seat, and I was like, I don't know, but
that's that. Followed up after Kinneth game, well one, you're
a touchdown run. We will talk about mister Gamewell and
some individual game balls that we will be giving out.
We haven't done this for a while, but I think

(06:45):
it's definitely deservedly so, because there was a lot of
hands on deck in this game. Steelers going the halftime
up fourteen to six, and even at the half, we
were kind of like, this wasn't necessarily sewn up because
Minnesota had had like maybe six minutes more time of
possession at that Yeah, yeah, it was.

Speaker 2 (07:04):
It was a little concerning because we just kept saying,
you know, the defense has to get off the field.

Speaker 1 (07:09):
Why. You know, quick strikes are great, but man, the
defense was on the field a lot. Defense was on
the field a lot. But we got to see the
injuries and the amount of people that did put their
hands in the pile. That's why we got to go
through some individuals for some achievements and some game balls.
But the only scorer in the third quarter was a

(07:30):
nice little drive. Five plays, thirty five yards. Steelers go
out twenty one to six. If again, maybe they get
this in the bag. Maybe Boswell next in the fourth
quarter twenty four to six, they get a little greedy.
Maybe of the Steelers they did they actually they could
have capitalized on some other points. We did have a

(07:51):
block kick in this game that the interception. They got
a touchdown off of one or the other interceptions, so
they were able to capitalize on at least one of
those turnovers. But they left some points on the field.
He had the six point swing there. We have some
officiating to talk about as well as driving us crazy.
But before we get to that, let's finish the rest

(08:12):
of this game, because the Vikings are going to make
a push nine plays seventy yards with a touchdown seven
plays ninety nine yards after Aaron Rodgers says, no, I
got this stay on the field fourth and one in
a land short, which Ryan, you said it so well
multiple times as we were talking back and forth trying
to prep for this show, you said, that's hindsight being

(08:34):
twenty twenty.

Speaker 2 (08:35):
Yeah, of course, I mean, look, complete transparency. When the
play was called, I was fine with it. We were like,
I'm fine with it. Long field, the defense been playing. Well,
you don't know that who who got hurt, who didn't
get hurt.

Speaker 1 (08:51):
Well, that's a good point, but you don't know that
one of the DB's all the dbs, Yeah, he came
out at once, came out of eckles Dale. It was
eccles who came out.

Speaker 2 (09:02):
Yeah, you didn't know that was going to happen, which
you know brings U Pierre in not because just just
communication problems, right, So you don't know that all of
a sudden you're going to be down another dB and
that the Vikings are going to find a way to
take advantage of it. You certainly don't anticipate. You know,
what was it a seventy plus eighty one yard throw pass?

Speaker 1 (09:26):
Whatever? And by the way, Peyton Wilson's fast as hell.
He is a fast, fast, fast young man.

Speaker 2 (09:36):
Runs it down to you know, saves the points momentarily,
but you don't anticipate that, so in hindsight you go, no,
you should have kicked the field goal. But I was
completely fine with the decision at the time and in
fact supported them, like, if you get it, great, If
you don't, you got them backed up. The defense has
been getting pressure, they've been doing well.

Speaker 1 (09:54):
Go ahead. Oh well yeah, yeah. It was actually a
fourth to three out of four, but the only game
two yards, yes, one yard short of where he needed
to be and just looking, I was looking to see
how long that play was.

Speaker 2 (10:12):
And I will say I didn't like to play call
that they chose to do befourtune three. I would have
done something different there, maybe, you know, a jumpall to
Mount Washington, a jump all to DK, something else that
was going to at least be certain the ball was
going to cross the plane. A running play that felt

(10:34):
like they were feeling their oats on the running game.
And they weren't that good. They were stoppable in the
run game. They had some nice runs. Don't get me wrong,
it was it was a much better performance than what
we've seen up to this point.

Speaker 1 (10:48):
And kudos to mister Gainwell. Yeah, yeah, definitely kudo's the
mister Gainwell. I'll be talking about mister Gainwell a little
bit more. I think we get into maybe some of
the things that are us officiating wise. You know, even
holding is a myth. Holding is a myth. We meant them.
We wanted to mention this last week and we just

(11:10):
didn't get to it at all. The offensive holding. And
we're not talking about defensive backs or some you know,
the defensive holding or something like that. We're literally talking
about the offensive lineman. It would just seemed to mug
the Cameron Hayward. Where's these guys from the defense, the
offensive lineman from the opposing team, where's that like a
championship title belt? Sometimes he's got them just hanging off

(11:32):
his waist. TJ's getting pulled inside the pat Jack Swayer
that was getting pulled like that looked like Herbie probably
got yanked at some point. And then you have you
have this one Brian Herb the roughing the passer with
pulling the jersey, and then you get a roughing the
passer later on the next series that so you get

(11:54):
like one that's called and you get one that isn't called.
That would have been in the favor of the Steelers.
So what Aaron Rodgers said, Yeah, that was I think
they got I think they missed it from They missed
the one first and they came up the jersey tod
wasn't ridiculous. Yeah, it sure looked like a horse collar tackle.
But you know sometimes they say, hey, you're up on
a nameplate. Whatever, They'll have the angle. I'd like to

(12:17):
try and give them a benefit of the doubt. Man.
There were some of those calls.

Speaker 2 (12:19):
No go, step back, no, no benefit of the doubt.
They stink, they stink, they stink, they stink. They came
to Ireland and they stunk it. Where's your sign? Give
me the sign right there? Well that's the ract.

Speaker 1 (12:33):
They need that one for the refs. Here's the refs
sign right here. Rats are these guys right here? Oh man?
We did not get a lot of replays in the stadium.
That was one major fault of this environment.

Speaker 2 (12:50):
It was I would say, that's my only real complaint
about the environment is the fact that you just did
not get consistent replay and the quality of their big screen,
which was not that big. We're spoiled. We're used to,
you know, the screens at at Akroschure, and this screen

(13:10):
was just smaller, not the same resolution.

Speaker 1 (13:15):
It was not great.

Speaker 2 (13:17):
That was my biggest That was the only complaint I had.

Speaker 1 (13:20):
I mean, they've brought some things in obviously for this game,
but that was one that wasn't one of what was
built in. It's Rugby stadium. What was uh? I was
trying to think of the other thing I was going
to say with the official, well that we didn't get
to see really the replays you said, you got a
little bit clearer the one with the touchdown with the
toes in, but we had no idea with the James

(13:41):
p James Pierre interception, we didn't get the fumble with
Jalen Ramsey, didn't get to set the tone. We had
no idea if these were correct calls or not. We
did get the virtual measurement for just the one thing,
which seemed like it took forever to load. It was
like on dial up. I think, so you know what,

(14:03):
I think that brings us maybe over to I want
to complain a little bit more about the officials. Okay here, Well,
they didn't get actually we didn't get a holding. Patrick
Queen got uh drew flag after they already got to
the quarterback when it didn't matter.

Speaker 2 (14:16):
They threw a holding call on a it was what
was either third and long or fourth and long and
Patrick Queen gets the quarterback and they call the holding
call and it doesn't matter.

Speaker 1 (14:25):
So yeah, sure call it. Then why don't you call
it on one of the plays that it's going to
impact the play and you know TJ's getting dragged the
ground or Cam's got four guys hanging off of them
or any of the other ones that were We were
up in the seven hundred level at this place. Yeah,
so yeah, but I'll tell you it looked it was.

Speaker 2 (14:45):
We were closer than we are in my normal season
tickets at Akrashure, but gorgeous stadium, gorgeous view.

Speaker 1 (14:53):
We could ease, we could easily see this stuff. So
you know they no, No, I always I always think
it's funny because I talk about, like, you know, like
the parents, the moms and dads who get upset at
like high school football games, like you missed it, and
like how can you possibly see it from there? And
you saw something different? And when you do get a
replay like that, we did get the one with the
name player, or we were at least pulling it up.

(15:14):
We'll say this much. I had a little bit better
seller reception I usually do at atterature and at the
Croaker that that's the Croker Crook Park or Croke Park.
The Croaker is the locals call it a little bit
better with Vodaphone or whoever I was roaming with. So
uh in just true to form, Brian still got his

(15:35):
Was that a sparkling water? That was sparkling?

Speaker 2 (15:37):
Now you've got the the carton, the freaek carton of
water water that we get.

Speaker 1 (15:42):
In the hotel room. So you know, Look, my voice
is slightly shot.

Speaker 2 (15:47):
I may have screamed more at this game than I
have at a game in a long time.

Speaker 1 (15:52):
Man. And I've just been cafeinated. When you talk about
Brian not liking coffee, I think everything over here in order,
I'd just be getting America Conos and it's just a
shot of espresso that's with it. So I've been I've
been pretty jacked up, but I think I'm coming down
from the clouds with that. Not to mention it's like
a sauna in this room, but that's that's a whole
other story. But it's hot. It is, it's warm. It's

(16:15):
nice and cool out there, like you could.

Speaker 2 (16:16):
You know, it's in the fifties and maybe even down
to it might be dipping into the forties now that
the sun's gone down, which you know, they had a
little bit of shade at parts.

Speaker 1 (16:24):
But you can't really, you can't blame whether or anything
for this game. One thing that I did see, I
don't know if you saw this, because you know, we've
been bouncing around all over downtown Dublin since the post game,
and they were blaming stadium clock. I think Carson Wentz
said something about it, and oh for all is yeah,
for the delay of games or whatever they announced as

(16:46):
you said, you're you're going to say, yeah, they announced
it at the beginning of the game that that clock
was not functional. Yeah, that clock is not official. I
would I will say they told them to turn it
off and both teams had to plight with that. Yeah,
both teams for the whole game. So when it comes
down to the end of the game, let me tell you,
screw you, Carson Wentz. How about that? Well, the Steelers

(17:08):
end up getting the Carson Wentz. We've got some game
balls to give out. You know what, we weren't talking
about giving it to this guy. Let's let's go with
t J. Watt first for some individual accolades. We've been
asking where mister Watt's been for you know, there was
a bunch of games here where he hadn't been doing
much any In the last two games, he's been a force.

(17:29):
He gets an interception. Well, you've got some problems still
with TJ. But when it mattered, did he make some
splash plays? He made? He made at least one, so
he had to show me up there. He did lose
some contain We think, No, there's not there's not even
the not quite as much as Pat Friarman from the

(17:50):
block field goals well pulled a he pulled a I
don't know Johnson Dan Moore like just like, well, I'm
not I'm not I'm not involved.

Speaker 2 (18:01):
Nobody's going to throw me the ball. I'm not going
to do anything. It was that was bad, Pat, No,
not good.

Speaker 1 (18:07):
I think we could continue with defense. I was training
to see if I you want to name the guy
the guy who like the ball for defense Benon, Yeah,
I'll have a game by Keanu bet Keanu, Benton Well.
I was saying TJ had to pick and that was
pretty impressive and TJ watt fashion Keanu gets credited with
one and a half sacks, three hits on a quarterback

(18:29):
of tackle for loss. He had four combined tackles. One
of his finer, if not finest game as a Steeler,
not just because of the splash with the sacks. We
saw him finally eating up some guys. Yeah, and it
was very interesting to look at the breakdown of defense.
As the defense broke down, you had so many guys
coming in and out. Coleholk, I don't know if I
got snapcount ship. Let me see if they're snapcounts. Let

(18:50):
me doublish while you're looking for snapcounts. Here's the thing
you can tell, regardless of the sacks, regardless of the
tackle for losses, you can tell that the defensive line
was doing their job. Can And was doing his job.
Harmon was doing that. They were all doing their jobs
in there.

Speaker 2 (19:03):
Why Because Patrick Queen is able to get in and
and and and split gaps. He's not getting hit by lineman.
Because Peyton Wilson is able to get in and do things.
They were able to make tackles because they're not fighting
off lineman at the second level. It was a much
better game eating up those those offensive linemen and letting

(19:25):
the linebackers do what they need to do, which is
what this whole defense is predicated on.

Speaker 1 (19:29):
Yeah, totally agree. I mean the mixture of guys. At
one point we said it was just Harmon and Ya Black, Yeah,
the rookies, just those That's when Cam was in the
blue tenn Yeah, Cam went to the plumbing goodness, the
guys that went out and game. We mentioned Slay, we
mentioned Ales just on defense, Yeah, Jalen Ramsey, Ramsey and
with the with the handle of the hamstring, Cam Hayward

(19:51):
went to the tent. We think for concussion and probably
probably you know, everybody's watched out. You guys probably know
they might know that a little better, but but we
were just looking at We've got the overview of almost
like a you know, in All twenty two and just
watching the way they had to mix and match. And
we didn't see Julius Peppers, but Chuck Clark played a
lot more to Sean Elliott and his return probably did

(20:12):
not come off the field. I don't think I don't think.
I don't think he came off the field. Peyton Wilson
was rotating some with Cole Holcom, of course, and he
did get a mix of Jack Sawyer a dash of
him a little bit then in the game, but more
or less it was defensive lineman. And it was interesting
because Benton was playing on a note. Somebody was telling
Betton's not a news tackle, but I'm like, that's where

(20:33):
he's playing though, Like, and then he comes off and
you know he's playing the same as three or four
defensive end with like Kim Hayward. And then when Harmon
comes in, that's where Harmon's playing in a slide Benton
over and I'm thinking maybe Benton has a little more
junk in the trunk to play right over the center. Well,
maybe Black was playing there too.

Speaker 2 (20:53):
I will tell you playing there when Cam was in
the tent and we saw Wya Black and Cano Beton
lined up next to each other.

Speaker 1 (20:59):
Why Black is a large human being? Because he made
it looked like, you know, it looked like you had
one side the extra large and then the medium next
to it. He's huge, He's just huge. Yeah, that's a
big boy. I'm trying to see who else got Craigs
Queen got a sack, Elliott got a sack. Some nice

(21:20):
I think there was decent play calls, at least on
the defense for the most part. There are still things
they could tighten up. We would very much like them
to type they do they need.

Speaker 2 (21:29):
I mean this, the commiss was a tough game with
the number of bodies that dropped, and as you mentioned
and we kept saying during the game, field conditions.

Speaker 1 (21:40):
May have been a little iffy. There was a lot
of slipping and sliding. I don't know why.

Speaker 2 (21:45):
I didn't look like the field was in bad shape,
but there was just a lot of loose turf.

Speaker 1 (21:52):
So yeah, like almost like a wet putting green or
something like. You know, that's the best way I could
describe it.

Speaker 2 (21:58):
I will say this, the Vikings fans were leaving before
that last touchdown that they scored. They were like, no
games over, We're leaving, and they should have been right,
but but it didn't work out that way. But I mean,
you know, the good guys won in the end, so
hey whatever.

Speaker 1 (22:16):
Yeah, and it's it's fun to won't go around town
and just have people, you know, hey win Steelers fans,
so Yeah, let's talk about the atmosphere a little bit,
A little bit more with the atmosphere, sure, because it
was it was. It really was a very very cool atmosphere.
I mean a lot more Irish or a musical people.
There are a lot more music than just renegade. I

(22:39):
mean when we get like Sweet Caroline, we got Zombie
by Fran Barriers. There was at least two or three others.
The Oasis song, Yeah, bon Jovi and these people sing loud,
like loud and everybody's into it. I think that's what
it makes it So about what seventy Steelers fans at least? Yeah,

(23:01):
probably at least, I mean there were there was still
a healthy amount of there were more Vikings.

Speaker 2 (23:05):
Fans than I thought we're going to be there based
on what we've seen around.

Speaker 1 (23:09):
Yeah, or anticipated. Maybe they just don't walk around in
their gear as much as you know, our whole closets
black and gold, Why wouldn't they a purples and ugly
colors wearing purple. That's some crap ass that you know that.
That's all apologies to prints, It's fine, I get it,
but no, for normal people, purple sucks. You could kind
of see it over my shoulder. Here is like a

(23:30):
scarf that's like half in half and I was like
I got it as a as a piece of memorabilia
and has both teams on it. But I was like, oh,
I can't wear this, and that's how I ended up
with the other one actually, so it's like, yeah, I'm
just I'm scarfing it up. I'm doing the European thing
all the music. Man Zombie was like that was really cool,
and I have scripted and everybody's like, yeah, well see
in your head it was this crazy. It was. It's

(23:52):
not in my head. It is is just you know
the Sweet Caroline at the end, well was it Sweet Caroline?
Where they so they would cut the songs off right
as like it wasn't time well with this napcount, but
they they were like, no, screw you, We're singing the song.

Speaker 2 (24:10):
And like near the end of the game, Rogers is
taking the ball and people.

Speaker 1 (24:14):
Are cut you know, coming across and crossing the field
and they're still going. They're like, we're getting our last
ones in. We don't care. Yeah, yeah, that was pretty cool.
And it's everybody And like I said, you got somebody
like standing there. It doesn't make any sense. Now there
were a lot of green Bay Packers. Was probably green
Bay Packers fans that were Aaron Rodgers fans that were
there that I have a lot of green Bay are

(24:36):
and Rogers jerseys. I mean I saw, I saw Broncos
Russell Wilson Jersey and the Seahawks. Russell Seahawks. Was not
a Steelers or Giants Russell Wilson Jersey. Well, why would
you see it? I don't know, but they were. To
be honest, why would you see a Steelers. They're paying
attention to some degree, some forty forty nine ers one
like the West Coast teams is what surprises me. I
saw some Seahawks and Niners. And yeah, because we were

(24:58):
talking those guys. It's one o'clock in the here. When
those guys play, yeah or something like that, is it's
extremely late. I mean we were watched I mean we
were watching the college game. I mean it's almost ten.
It's almost ten night here. Now it's past my I
gotta go to I'm the only man. I gotta go
to bed. Yeah, we left that. We left that game.
It's not like usual when you get a one o'clock
start and it's fourish when it's over. I mean it

(25:18):
was getting dark already, like the sun was setting when
we were done, So that was kind of me. Why
don't we flip to the offense? All right? We got
a guy that I should have should have put him
on my fantasy team because I had to sit cha
for it as the last second. Yeah, you look like
the smartest guy in the room, don't you kind of game? Well,
have a game, have a game ball and definitely the
guy on the offense to give the ball to, right,

(25:40):
Oh yeah, well maybe well DK DK Definitely he was.
He got five of his five targets one hundred twenty
six yards and a touch on his first one hundred. Obviously,
eighty yard reception is going to get a hundred. He's
gonna get a hundred yard game for the first time.
But Rogers only threw for two hundred yards eighteen to
twenty two. He didn't ask a lot of Rogers sacked

(26:01):
just twice, but he was one hundred and nineteen rating
versus counterpark. Carson Wentz threw the ball forty I can't
believe that he threw the ball forty six times thirty
forty six, three hundred and fifty yards two touchdowns, two picks.
He was actually way worse up t toil that point
at the very end of the game. He had only
had the two picks right, so his rating was in
a toilet. But Game Well one yard short of one
hundred yards rushing. Oh so you didn't get then maybe

(26:23):
that's why they Maybe that's part of the decision. They're like,
got you get three more yards, you get a hundred
could have been could have been game welb with the
two touchdowns on the ground too. He was also the
second leading receiver in receptions in yards. So you were
saying during the game, just keep feeding DK, and I

(26:44):
think feeding DK was the proper idea because game Well
is the next guy up. Six of six targets, cut
all six targets only thirty five yards.

Speaker 2 (26:53):
A couple of them more from Yeah, they didn't really
go anywhere. Of course, the dump offs that didn't get
much yard long, but a couple dump offs too, actually
a trio of them to Darnell Washington, finally getting him involved.
Johnny Smith was kind of absent for this game. Two catches,
only six yards. Kevin Austin is.

Speaker 1 (27:10):
The other guy with excuse me there, with any kind
of statistical significance two catches thirteen yards. By the way,
I don't have any snap counts, so that'll probably be
tomorrow or later tomorrow our time when we would actually
see those. So I can't tell you. You just get
a feel for how much someone may have played, and

(27:31):
a lot of titles. We know that we know one
individual who reported as eligible. All often played a lot
more than I think we probably would have thought. But
Spencer and Orson seventy four is eligible, and it was
it was we were feeling a little Zach Banner vibe
by the end of the day. What number did Banner wear?

(27:53):
Was he he was? I thought it was seventy? Was
he savent? I don't. I don't remember either, but everyone
used to get a good kick out of that. But
uh yeah, all the tight ends and the extra lineman
and Darnel Darneld Washington was putting people who is also
a very large man, a very large man, also very
large man. As we got a push, well, Darnel Washington,
what we got hold on. I was going to call

(28:14):
in one second, but you cannot forget Darnel Washington looking
like like like what do they call them? Uh? When
you're watching movies like Pacific Rim. They got the word
for the monsters that are like Godzilla, King Kong like
guys like that. It's the kaijus. He looks like, you
don't you don't know what a kaiju is.

Speaker 2 (28:32):
Oh yeah, I've watched that movie too, and I still well.

Speaker 1 (28:35):
They call them, you know, they come out of the
earth and like god Zilla. But we were talking about like,
you know, just swatten it like aircraft and everything. That's
the way like stiffed armed. The first two guys came.
The one was kind of close and was just like, well,
that guy is gonna get post right no matter what.
But the next Viking ni Kinian got absolutely just it
was just like get out of here, like you know,

(28:56):
just that was something like he grabbed his head like
it was a basketball. The helmets room to the side
and was like not not mine might be slightly exaggerated. Nah,
it was cool. I loved it. Connor Hayward getting a
direct snap and I was just kind of dumbfounded as
to what the hell just happened, because not only did
we see a twitsh push, but Aaron Rodgers is standing
behind the line going yeah, like wait a second, Rogers

(29:19):
didn't get that ball. Rogers is right there, like, you know,
that's so crazy, but to see them execute that and
it's like might as well, like Steelers might have voted
against that, and it be fuddled the people who watch
rugby in Ireland because they're just like, that's a rugby play.

Speaker 2 (29:37):
More people behind us and around us started talking about
that after that.

Speaker 1 (29:42):
They're like, well, it used to be the quarterback sneak.
Now they call it the tush push. But yeah, yeah, yeah,
well it really wasn't a sneak. There's like two I'm
actually surprised how knowledgeable like the fans we actually had to.
It's not like one of those things where you know,
you bring somebody to a game that's just not in
the football. Uh, it would certainly be my fiance for example,

(30:02):
and you have to explain what a first down is.
Like they're into the American football. They know it. These
people have fantasy teams and they're talking about picks with
some of us off to the side and having the
full blown conversations watching on their phones. We go out
and we're walking around around downtown, go to get some dinner,
and uh, got a guy in Irish accent I'm not

(30:23):
gonna do it because I'm gonna butcher it and I
don't want to also insult anyone with a not so
good Gaelic impression. But he said, the Jackson Dart era
is here, he's watching the game, and I'm just like,
I'm like, this is like really cool. And it did.
It felt like a Steeler's invasion. It felt good. It
felt like a home game. So yeah, Gamewell gets ball

(30:44):
and Benton gets the ball. I don't know, you said, Metcalf,
maybe gets Okay, you're right, what maybe not a ball,
but it's nice to see why.

Speaker 2 (30:52):
You can you can you can show it to him
and go, hey, here, TJ, this is what you've all
gotten if you had gotten sacks.

Speaker 1 (30:58):
But game ball went in the stand He did.

Speaker 2 (31:00):
He did throw the ball in the stands, which was
a pretty He was very hype about that interception.

Speaker 1 (31:04):
And that was a throw because the rugby fields are
bigger than an NFL field, so there was like a
whole tarped off portion of the turf and then you
have signboard, you have the signboards, you have the tarts,
and then you actually have the stands. So he launched
that thing like them saying I'm going to save them
for the two percenters when we get there, I say it,
he could probably be there. Are we are there? Okay,

(31:26):
I don't know what else do we got? What else
did we got? There were four to twenty one. That's
about the only thing we did twenty four twenty one.
We win the great points. I was I wanted the
thirty points to.

Speaker 2 (31:34):
There was a giant pop tart walking around the stadium.

Speaker 1 (31:40):
Like this is.

Speaker 2 (31:42):
They had these party crews right with the T shirt
guns and the shooting T shirts and there's a giant
pop tart walking after them, a giant pop tart at
a at a football game. I'm I was flabbergasted.

Speaker 1 (31:56):
I want to bring on something real quick, because we
talked about this over over someship. A lot of people
that gave this guy, Roderick Jones, a lot of flack,
and I think the two sacks came from the interior today,
if you want to talk about it, they did prove
he was probably talking about Calvin Austin going an the
ambulance to real quick. Yeah, shoulders not. Hopefully none of

(32:17):
these injuries are too serious. Steelers are going to head
to a bye week two so we talked about that too,
that this was an early bye week, but man, they
need it because half the defensive backfield is hurt. Yeah,
they're maybe more than half. Yeah, we're like, who are
you going to put out there? And then Pierre almost
gets them interception out of that too, But he had
a nice pass breakup too, I mean yeah, yeah, I

(32:38):
mean I get James Pear a lot of grief for
not really being that great. Thornhill like himself. Out of
some of those on third down, they played a decent game.
I mean, Jay Pierre had a nice game coming and
off the bench. Yeah, they almost stopped them there in
the end zone in the fourth TWN. You know, but
Thornhill got involved with that, and I've never really thought
that he's much of a pass breakup guy. But the
guys on the tackles Fontanu and I know they're getting

(33:01):
some help. They're getting Spencer Anderson, they're getting Arniel Washwash
and John who Smith is in his involved because sometimes
sometimes they're splitting them out, sometimes they're using him to
chip fire. Me completely absent from this one. Wasn't even targeted,
probably because he pissed Aaron Rodgers off on that sitting
down on that route the week before, so that'll probably
teach me. And then maybe in the doghouse a little more.
I know, if the snapcounts, I don't think they he

(33:22):
was still out there. But the special Teams play that's.

Speaker 2 (33:25):
In it, well, Danny Smith is going to chew a
lot of gum right in his face and give him
some grief.

Speaker 1 (33:29):
Yeah, but the tackles Roger Jones and Troy As much
as we want to say, I don't think that's been
the major pressure point and problem. And I know they've
been giving them help and they've needed some help, but
it's been cleaner since, you know, as this season's progressed.
McCormick with kind of the snaff who at the beginning,
same Molow gets beat on one. At some point you're like,

(33:51):
what's going on with same mod But both of those
guys too, were just plowing trailblazing for Kenneth Gainwell and
even Caleb Johnson with a nice you know, a couple
of nights on the one. I know, slow to start.
I don't think he's quite gotten his uh you know,
past the gaff, but you know he had I see
a nice couple of plays that he was in. Yeah,

(34:13):
I still man. He we talked about this. I just
don't see any burst from that guy, and that concerns me.
You know, you don't need long term speed, but man,
as a running back, you got to have some quickness.
You got to have a little burst, and I just
don't see it. I agree with you, And we always
talk about what the special teams was. It seemed like

(34:33):
they come out so much further with a returning the
starting It seems like the starting field position for the
opposition is always better than what the Steelers have when
we're trying to talk about if that's like just our
our bias, our black and gold lenses. But it just
feels that way with the return you know, but today
it was okay. But that's awesome. I like tre surmon
back there. Gamewell had a few I could actually he did.

(34:54):
Let's see what we actually had for the returns. They
give you like a full you know. Austin only had
two for nine yards on punts. Boswell didn't have a
whole lot of actually had the three extra points. He
had one on one block that was blocked. And then
sermon twenty five I guess twenty five average and a

(35:15):
game well twenty four average. Both of their lungs were
twenty five and twenty six, so to catch it in
the landing zone, it's still short of getting out to
the thirty thirty five as you would hope to get
a little bit better field position. And then let's also
talk about like at the end of the game decisions
with Tomlin and not only just going for it, but

(35:36):
when they didn't end up closing it out, and Aaron
Rodgers says in his post game that's up. The offense
has to finish that. It has to you know, get
that first down and then be able to just take
the victory formation there. They just had Corlis Weightman just
kick the ball as far as he freaking could with
the punts. Tomlin said, I'm going to challenge Carson Wentz
to go from the twenty, and then you had just

(35:58):
a series of I felt like the Patrick Queen hold
was I'm not sure who he grabbed. I could probably
find it, but it was just like you were, I'm
not gonna get beat. I don't care if I get penalized. Yeah. Yeah,
it was very it was blatant. It was a heads
up play.

Speaker 2 (36:16):
I'll give the ref's credit for correctly calling that, yeah, one.

Speaker 1 (36:20):
Time defensive holding. It doesn't actually say who he held
here though, so it was an incomplete pass. And then
Carson Wentz gets sacked after that, but TJ. Watt was
deemed offside, and you had Carson Wentz then throw a
ball into Nowheeresville and we're all just sitting there like, okay,

(36:40):
I'm fire or referee, whichever one it was. It was
right in front of you, and we're going it took
so long for that flag to come down intentional ground like,
I'm sorry, he's he is clearly falling to the ground
and heaves the ball to nowhere.

Speaker 2 (36:56):
It's grounding, and they just like they had to have
a conversation. You believe there was anyone in the area.
I don't believe there was. Do you think there was?

Speaker 1 (37:04):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (37:04):
Wait a minute, give me the time. This is what
I think. You're one of these. Well, I think you're
one of these. Well, I think it might be not grounding. No,
it is grounding. You're one of these.

Speaker 1 (37:16):
I don't know. I wish I would have pulled up
some of the photos. Maybe we'll do this because we'll
have a bye weekend and nothing else maybe just a
little more of a Doublin recap, because I mean just
seeing people walking out of there, Oh my gosh, wow
and amazing. We've left some games, but it was like
nobody left, he said. A few people did leave early,
and a couple of Vikings fans left early, but for
the most part that stadium was full. Yeah. I was

(37:37):
the full complement of people just trying to find their
way around, and a lot of because they had to
do the soccer chair at the end of the ola. Yeah,
that's the other thing we forgot with the music. Yeah,
the ola, and I was just kind of like, I
don't know that that one fans. There was a there
was a band. What was the name of that band,
I'm not actually sure, but it was an Irish band.
There's an Irish band Scotta I think maybe it was

(37:58):
what it was called what they were called.

Speaker 2 (37:59):
And then you know they're off in the corner, and
you know every time out man, something was going on,
and you know you had the.

Speaker 1 (38:07):
Steal line there. They did a nice job. They came
out a couple of times you had the scott of
Guy's coming out and they would do this oi oi thing.
I must be must be some rugby soccer thing that
they do. No. I always felt like that was the
ausy thing. But maybe they do it there too. I
don't know. That's just I'm a little ignorant. They did it.
So I get my Smith, who was an upcoming making

(38:30):
music starch, fire technics and stuff flying up in the air,
and I'm like, like when that, I just kept saying
to Joe, I'm like, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (38:38):
Smith, you can tell me. It's an amazing, amazing halftime. Sure,
I still don't know who he is, but I wasn't
half that.

Speaker 1 (38:45):
Actually, not that I would go out of my way
to purchase a Miles Smith album or CD or streaming him,
but I found him completely non injectionable. Okay, I've got
my two percent inner thing with what we close and
we did a tour, but just to have it available

(39:07):
in the stadium on draft and cheaper than some of
this will we get on draft from my beer drinkers
that are out there. Guinness, it was a lovely day
for a Guinness Steelers twenty four Vikings, twenty one, three
and one go in and five week heel up. Build
upon this. They're going to get the Cleveland Browns who

(39:29):
just got pounded by the Lions today and they have
to go over to London, where the Vikings aren't leaving
as part of the world. So they're staying here and
their biological clock is set, and they're just going to
take a hot skip over to the UK there and
over and stay for the week and face the Cleveland

(39:49):
Browns and hopefully, hopefully they're pissed off and they pound
the Browns a little more and pound them a little
further down the standings there, because is that's what the Steelers,
that's what we're looking for. Steelers, get some vantage here
and take advantage of tobacos. Yeah, to go brough those
on Monday night and go Chiefs, Go Chiefs against the Ravens.

(40:11):
Although one of those teams will end up one and three,
which is.

Speaker 2 (40:14):
You never would have thought one of those teams is
going to be one and three, But one of those
teams is gonna be winning.

Speaker 1 (40:19):
Anything to make sure it's the Baltimore Ravens. Please. Anything
can happen on any given Sunday. I mean, look at
the Patriots, they were pretty pissed off and put forty
two on the Carolina Panthers. Yeah, but the Panthers, they do,
but still like you wouldn't have thought. I don't know.
There was a few people that were throwing shape at
Steelers way. How many people picked the Steelers to win
besides us Maurice Jones just really yeah everybody else? Maybe

(40:41):
Steven A did. Somebody jumped in the comments in the
steel Yeah, maybe he did. But they'll do it for
us folks from Dublin, Ireland. It's been an unbelievable experience here.
If you haven't had a chance, follow us on our
social media pages on Facebook, Twitter, slash checks, whatever we're
calling it these days, and a few things on Instagram.

(41:04):
There's been tons of photos posted. There's going to be
more of that in some of the videos because as
good as Vodaphone is, when you have seventy four thousand
people in the stadium, there's no way I was gonna
be able to upload renegade some of this. And I
know some of the other accounts, but if you want
another perspective from it, and maybe you're gonna get a
few that you didn't get because I don't know if

(41:25):
anybody got zombie, but I didn't got zombie on film,
so we can't put it on YouTube or whatever else
because they like to. Brian's like, hey, can we intersperse
this into the podcast and I'm like, no, our account
will be shut down for a week for a bye week.
That wouldn't be so bad. But I don't know how
many strikes we got already. I don't need anymore. I'm

(41:46):
a troublemaker and yeah, not be but I'm happy with
the result of getting the dub in Dublin and we'll
have a victory Monday. I like getting the dub in
the dub In Dublin, and I saw this des do
that and I don't want to toot my horn and
probably coincident on very easy to pick up on, but
I posted that like right after the game. I was like,

(42:06):
dub In Dublin. That sounds so good, and it's like
probably very cheesy and run of the mill, but the
dub In Dublin Steelers survive, thriller. Can they just make
it easy? You hit the thirty points? You know, it
was so close. It felt like it was going to
be a relaxing end of the game in front of us. Yes,
he was like, they never make it easy, dude.

Speaker 4 (42:28):
It's like we should have known, like we should have known.
It's like, no, it's not going to be simple. It's
going to be like they're going to be fighting at
the very end. Just just win a game, just blow
somebody out, please, it.

Speaker 1 (42:41):
Would be it would be nice. Well, until then, folks,
don't forget the like comment and subscribe. And if I
met you here in Ireland, or met you again here
in Ireland, bumped into some people that I actually do
know here what makes it just a small world? Thank
you for following the show. Give some shoutouts. Let Dan Germo,
I'll try to catch up with Martin. Martin is probably

(43:02):
not watching anyway, so it does matter. But we'll get
some other people some other time. Don't forget the like
comment and subscribe. Leave a rating review wherever you're watching
or listening next day, maybe on Spotify. We don't know
when that is for you, So it's five hours, six
hours wherever we end up in the world that you're
behind us, it's it's gonna be bedtime for us soon,

(43:22):
so right now, enjoy it. Yeah, well he's old. Old
he's also see folks. Till next time. We encourage everyone out.
My name is Joe, his name is Brian. We encourage
everyone out there to be safe, be good, and we'll
catch you later. We would like to thank you for

(43:43):
listening and remind our listeners to follow us on social
media and our website www. Dot steel City Underground dot
com

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