DK’s Double Shot of Steelers: Two steps back?

DK’s Double Shot of Steelers: Two steps back?

Hey guys, welcome to Double Shot of Steelers. I’m Dan Kachchovich of DK Pittsburgh Sports. Tomorrow night brings the first and only home preseason game for the Steelers. That’ll be at 700 p.m. against the Buccaneers. Those two teams also squared off in arguably a more meaningful joint practice yesterday. And when I say more meaningful, I mean that everybody used their guys. You know, there wasn’t any of this holding people out, never mind holding out 19 of them. The joint practice yesterday came with its pluses and it came with its minuses. The players coming off the field would attest to all of that. Uh there were some things that they liked. There were some things that they didn’t like. I’m going to tell you today one thing that I didn’t like. And because I didn’t like it, I actually liked it. Meaning, I’m glad it happened. And that is that the defense got served a bit. Okay, you want to call it humble pie, you can come up with whatever uh phrasing you want for this, but the defense which has been seeing, hearing, and reading nothing other than lavish praise in including from this direction for the past three weeks. Got to face Baker Mayfield at some of his sharpest. got to face Mike Evans who still got it. I mean, I know he’s been around a while, but Evans, there was nobody he wasn’t beating from the Tampa Bay perspective. And this idea, this concept that Mike Tomlin’s had that we’ve got our three coverage guys and they don’t need no help and whatever else here and it’s it it’s not it’s not going to be easy, okay? It’s not going to be as simple as it sounds. If if there were teams, if there were players who were capable of island coverage on a consistent basis, you’d be seeing a completely different sport every Sunday. You’d see the elimination of the safety position. You’d see the elimination of linebackers in coverage. You would just see nothing but coverage people. What’s more, before this joint practice yesterday, Tomlin said openly that whoever the other team’s top receiver happens to be, that individual is going to get covered by Jaylen Ramsay. Again, sounds good. Sounds tough. Sounds like, wow, we’ve really got something here. We only need one guy to do this and all the rest of the guys can just do their jobs. Except that it had better work. And I I’m here to tell you that it it didn’t on this day. And you can come up with all kinds of different stuff here. Craig says, you know, wouldn’t they have been mostly playing zone with no real pass? Sure, you could do contingencies on both sides of the ball. There’s everything’s vanilla. everything’s this and that. But when you come down to coverage people and you come if you boil down football and remember this is the choice that Tomlin and Terrell Austin are making to the simplest possible concept and that is I’m here, you’re there, I’m going to cover you that he got to at least do that much. And it it it did not play out that way yesterday. And I just I I hope that you don’t see or sense from this team that they’re going to be, you know, look at us. We’re so awesome. We’re so great and we’re not going to adjust now because we’ve got coverage people and we have big names and we have Jaylen Ramsay and we have Darius Slay and everything else. Uh let’s uh what’s up with the Bahamas? Oh, hey. How are you guys? Come on in. What’s your name? Eugene. Eugene. Eugene, come on in. Come on. Come on. We got room. You just called her your lady. You did not give her a name. My name is Yummy Swain. But, you know. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Say it again. Yummy Swain. That’s awesome. Yeah. That’s really cool. Now, I’m glad I asked. You I didn’t need your driver’s license. Believe you. Get out of here with that. Yeah. I have a radio show in the Bahamas called Mix102.1 FM. and he actually has a youth football program in the Bahamas. That’s awesome. Now, you guys are you guys are Steelers fans? Yes. Come come a little bit closer so they can see you down here. See that? See? Okay. Hi, guys. Now, what what kind of radio show do you do? I do a live broadcast radio show. So, it’s broadcast daily consistently and I have my radio show Wednesday to Friday 10:00 a.m. to 3. So, you’re like you’re introducing music and so forth. Yeah, it’s a music radio show. It’s not it’s not like just reggae. No, no, no, no, no, no. Cuz reggae culture is in Bohemian culture. Bohemian cultural music is called Raik and Scrape. Yeah. Our fake is But we’re a hip-hop station, so we actually play a lot. You said Marley’s kid performing across the river here last week. So that’s why. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We play uh Marley. It’s not No, no, it’s a different Marley. There’s a lot of Marley. They’ll put it up here on the They’ll put it up here on the comments. So, I appreciate you guys. Nice seeing you. Thank you. Yeah, welcome to Pittsburgh. Anyway, yeah, that’s pretty cool. I was not carding them. He just pulled out the thing voluntarily. I have I have nothing to do with that. But yeah, that’s the first inerson guest that we’ve had from the Bahamas. That’s a new one uh on me. Uh when we come back, we’re going to be joined by Chris Hock to further dissect this defense and whether or not it did in fact get dissected the way it might have uh appeared or sounded in that joint practice. At DK Pittsburgh Sports, we take pride in coverage that connects our city’s fans to their favorite teams. Now that connection stronger than ever, introducing our allnew state-of-the-art app. Find expert inside reporting and original podcasts. Check live fox scores. Track the latest stats. Chat it up with our community of thousands of fans all in one place. The new app from DK Pittsburgh Sports. Coverage that connects. No, it’s not. It’s not Ziggy Marley either. Let’s Let’s bring Chris in here. Chris, you know how to do that, right? You can bring yourself in. No, that’s not it. Somehow. I got it. I got it. You do? Okay. And now I’m back. There you are. Yeah. It’s not Ziggy. I don’t think it’s Bill. I can’t I just can’t remember the name right now. But there was Yeah, it was a differently. That wasn’t Bob Marley. He’s He’s long since gone. Well, that’s that was the original reference. Oh, yeah. No, I Yeah. No, I’m talking about there’s like a relative of his that tours now and does some um but yeah, there’s uh that’s still pretty cool. How come you don’t have any radio experience in the Bahamas, Alec? Well, I’ve been to the Bahamas one time in my life and I That’s more than me. Uh I I I was about 10 years old. I went parasailing in the Bahamas. That was a lot of fun. Wow. I think uh that’s actually not to get too personal or anything, but I think that’s actually the moment that I hit puberty. I don’t want to know what that meant. I was parasailing and me and my brother were parasailing and there was a boatload of girls that were all waving at us because, you know, when somebody’s parasailing, you’re like, “Hey, there are these people way up high in the air.” And there’s a whole boatload of girls. And I just looked. I was like, I think I kind of like that now. Okay, then Stephen Marley is the name that actually rings. Yeah. Although there’s there’s been others. There’s been Ziggy. There’s been others. I think Ziggy actually had a hit. A reggae thing. Denny says that the Steelers will soon be playing a game in Bahamas. They will not. They will not. They’re going for the They’re going for the bigger markets. Yeah. Uh let’s let’s talk a little bit about this this the since we’re in the one day in between the two times the the Steelers and Buccaneers will meet here. Any any feelings about the defensive showing yesterday? You know, you and I were in that one end zone and we were watching it happen and we’re not allowed to talk about it, but we were watching it happen. this thing that didn’t happen and and you know, okay, I got one thing to say. I’m not even gonna say it. I’m just going to put it up on the screen. Oh. Oh, look at that. He comes at us with Frankie Goes to Hollywood. Okay, relax everyone. Listen, last year the Bills and Steelers had a joint practice on the same field at the same part of the North Shore right at Stadium. And the Bills looked terrible in that practice. I mean, they did not The Steelers won in a lot of ways in that practice, more so than the Buccaneers won against the Steelers yesterday. When we’re talking about who executed two-minute drills, who didn’t execute two-minute drills, that stuff I can actually say because players confirmed it. The Bills ended up just fine. It’s one practice. Bills were okay. They were just fine. But B, if you were to just look in a vacuum at that one practice and be like, this Bills team might not even if they even if they make the playoffs, they might not even win a playoff game. They were just fine. It’s a pre It’s a It’s a pre-season practice in mid August. It’s everybody relax. Like seriously, like some of the stuff comes out and I saw some of the stuff coming from the Tampa Bay side on the reporting side. I’m not going to tell those guys how to do their jobs, but man, I think the Buccaneers did judging by how quickly they were all deleted, but that’s another story for another day. Yeah. Uh, the dumpster chickens comes in and says points out that almost all of Bob Marley’s kids have had some kind of musical career. Ziggy was the one that he, like I said, he actually had a hit. The rest of the Marley’s I have no idea. I think if you’re reggae and you just have the Marley name. Mhm. Like they’re just going to come see you. Oh yeah. You know, that’s what happened. It was over at uh it was over actually right by Akasher Stadium at Stage AE. Okay. Uh just last week here. Um, it’s not it’s not Ziggy Hood. This it’s not Ziggy Hood. You guys are ridiculous. That one got me. That’s good. You’re wait You’re waiting on there. There There’s not There’s only so many Ziggy jokes you can make. And seriously, that’s definitely one of them here. You’re talking to nothing but Steelers fans. That’s the first Ziggy they think of. Florida Dave says, “Happy Friday. Hey, I got out of work on time just to post this and join in. We appreciate having you. Uh Dave, is that an OBJ that I see at the end? What is that thing at the end of your Is that what that looks like? I have no idea. Doesn’t that little symbol look like it has OBJ inside it? Maybe. Wow. He doesn’t want OBJ, does he? Dude said nine catches last year in nine games. I’m not interested in any of that. You know, I think if the Steelers were interested, like really interested, that would have been done by now. But who knows? It wouldn’t be the first time they surprised us. Yeah, but that that one would not necessarily be a surprise uh for the better. Chris, when I think of things that could make a difference between whether what we saw yesterday with the coverage or didn’t see or might have seen with the coverage, I think of the defense as a whole and the way it’s supposed to work together. Somebody already earlier in the chat said, “Okay, well, there was no pass rush. There’s no nothing.” Well, I mean, a lot of this was seven on seven, so of course there wasn’t going to be a pass rush. Yeah. Yeah. But but this defense at some point needs to come all the way together. And I would hope that the one area that we can agree upon all of us is that even though the secondary and the notions that I was talking about in the intro today are tantalizing, they’re not exciting. They’re they’re electrifying this idea of having these three coverage people. And even Tomlin setting it up like it’s an episode of Survivor where Jaylen Ramsay’s always gonna be on the other team’s top guy. I didn’t ask the other guys. They can’t complain about it. It was like all kinds of like what, you know, now I think you need to start seeing pieces of what’s up front come together. And I don’t mean tomorrow night, okay? It’s it’s going to be Jack Sawyer and and and you know, you’re going to see Derek Harmon. You’re going to see at least some of ya black. But more than anything, between now and the 7th of September, I’d like to see more signs of the defensive dominance up front. Not in a theoretical way. And that of course does mean, yeah, Cam’s got to sign. Yeah. Yeah. or or figure this out in one form or another. Okay. But you got to have your TJs and your Alex’s and your Herbigs and your Yes. Harmon needs to step up. Harmon told me that this week in Latroe. He felt he felt there were things that happened in Jacksonville that he can learn from that he will learn from. There’s another level for those guys and that Chris that’s going to define this defense way more than Jaylen on some dude. Yeah. Well, I think, you know, we we’ve talked about it even even like one time being in training camp and and one of the times that TJ Watt, you know, spoke with the media, you know, was right there in that in that scrum and I asked him the question about, you know, getting back to the quarterback more often and I said, “Listen, the pass rush and and the coverage go hand in hand. you know, if the coverage can’t lock down, you know, or can’t keep guys covered for for long enough, we don’t stand a chance of getting to the quarterback. You know, if the quarterback can get rid of the ball in a second and a half, it doesn’t matter. There’s no chance for us to get back there. So, we have to be able to play coverages that allow the pass rush to get to the quarterback. Um, but then also at the same time, whenever the man coverage or whatever kind of coverage you have gives the pass rush three, three and a half seconds to get back there, they better get home. you know, the coverage does its job, the pass rush has to do its job and vice versa. Uh, so they they both complement each other and they and and one will suffer without the other. Um, so yes, the defensive front has to be able to do its job when when these coverage people that we’re talking about are able to lock down uh the majority of the time able to lock down, you know, just about any other team or at least match up against any other team. You know, they don’t have to, you know, keep these guys to three catches for 19 yards in a game. You know, uh, if if if Jaylen Ramsay goes up against Jamar Chase, for example, and Jamar Chase finishes the game with four catches for 79 yards and a touchdown on the box score, you might be like, “Oh, that wasn’t very good.” But what if the one touchdown was like one really big play that was given up, like a 50 yarder, and then for the rest of the game, it’s three catches for 29 yards. It’s right. No. And then I’m sorry. Go ahead, Chris. Yeah, I’m just saying like like you can live with that kind of stuff as long as the defense more consistently, first off, you don’t give up too many of those big plays and then you more consistently force Joe Burrow to, you know, either be sacked or to make bad throws on third down and keep the Bengals from actually getting out of the end zone. Uh, and that’s the whole name of the game there. Nathan asks, “How much do you think the starting offensive line plays tomorrow? Would it be similar to last week?” I have a feeling that you’re going to see a lot of things be similar to last week in Jacksonville. Just beginning with the fact and it’s a known fact that the same people who were rested in that game plus Herbig will be rested in this one. So the the O line uh I think they could use a little bit of time here. Mason McCormack coming off the field yesterday and I I grabbed him for a second. Not a formal interview or anything. I just cuz he’s such a truth teller and I just wanted him to share with me, you know, his his vibe right now on the line. And he said a couple of things. He got a little bit specific. Mentioned mentioned I mean the you know they’re going to focus on the positive. I mean this is human nature, right? But we got you know we got done and he he’s walking back toward the tunnel and he turns around. He goes, “Hey, we’re we’re getting better.” Yeah. And you can actually picture Mason with his personality saying that, right? This is Mason McCormick, by the way, that I’m talking about, not Rudolph. Yeah. And I I appreciated that. I appreciated that extra effort that he made to send that message is he’s going to tell you, “Hey, we we just stink right now. We really And and he didn’t do that. He didn’t do that.” Now, are they getting a sufficient push on the on the run plays? It’s hard to tell. We’ve seen it at times. We’ve seen it in Latroe at times. But I have a feeling that a lot of what happened in Jacksonville is what what’s permeated most of our brains when it comes to this specific subject because in Jacksonville the second team offensive line came out there and just got handled. Yeah. Okay. And that’s when you saw Caleb Johnson getting thrown for three yard losses and stuff. It was when those guys came out there. So is this going to be a really good test? a really good test including for fans in the stands to watch this line. You know, those of you who are real football people, watch this line. That’s going to be your line out there except except for Isaac Malu. Watch these guys and see what they’ve got. See how they hold. Not hold literally, not. No, I I think I I do think it’s going to be similar to last week. They may play an extra series, you know, they may play three instead of two, but I think that’s the absolute max you’ll see. Uh, the main reason why is, well, you want to keep them healthy. You don’t want to have to be dipping your to uh you know dip digging too far into the depth bag in order to uh uh to to keep the offensive line, you know, functioning and keep going and be able to have five guys dressed that can that are actually worthy of uh getting a helmet on Sundays. Um that being said, I I do think Saturday is going to be a pretty good test. Um, you know, Todd BS, the head coach of the Buccaneers, did say that outside of uh, I think Mike Evans and Levante David that the starters are going to play. That means they’re going to see Kaja Canyon. That means they’re going to see uh, uh, several of the other ones on the other side. And so they will get they will get a test. Um, I do think the offensive the starting offensive line looked pretty good. Yeah. In in Jacksonville, they played two series. Um, you know, Fanu had the one penalty. Uh, but also think about it in terms of run blocking. They didn’t really do that much in terms of run blocking because they threw a lot. Like they came out throwing in that opening series and went down the field and scored a touchdown. Uh, so we’ll see what happens. Uh, but I I think it’s going to be another really interesting game. And that’s honestly probably going to be the position. By the way, the Troy Falanu chalk talk is dropping right after the show is over. So, uh, yeah, I I’m I’m excited to see what what guys like Falano and Broadick, uh, both do, uh, in this second preseason game. You know, I feel like this is a fair question, even though it’s the middle of August. Jonathan Soal asks, and I like the way he words this because it’s also fair. Is Caleb Johnson behind where you thought he might be? And that’s not burying the kid. That’s not saying he’s gonna be a failure or anything like that. He’s asking if he’s behind right now on the 15th of August where we thought he’d be. I’m gonna answer that one for you before I send it to Chris. And I have no idea how Chris feels about this. Yes. Okay. And here’s why. When you draft someone like that and you hear all these great things and you see how excited they were and it’s the running back position where you can most reasonably parachute in from the sky and just begin playing your natural way of playing. It’s not learning quantum physics. And when you see the hesitation that Caleb has shown, that runs counter to everything we’ve seen from him on film, that we’ve known about him, and that we saw for that matter this summer in the O in the in the in the rookie camp, the mini camp, the the everything. Okay? He’s not being his own best self yet. And that’s why Tomlin’s message for him after Jacksonville, as we’ve reported, was to basically kid chill, you know, lighten up. Okay, those are those are holes. You see those holes? Run through them. Okay. Uh I think a lot of you have seen the the All 22 film. Oh, I’m so glad you mentioned it. I’m so glad you mentioned it. Okay. because there’s there’s a clip of Caleb and there’s this the Red Sea parting in front of him off to the left and you see his body language is running to the right and it looks terrible but it also runs counter no pun intended to everything he’s ever done. So I will be fascinated to see how this young man performs tomorrow. What do you say Chris? Spoiler alert for Chalk Talk coming up because that play is in the Chalk Talk even though it is a Troy Fatanu. I had to go on a little side rant and I literally brought up the same exact screenshot. Now, if you actually watch the play, and this is why you don’t just watch screenshots or look at a screenshot and think, “Oh my gosh, he read the wrong hole.” If he would have gone up that hole, he would have gained five less yards at least because it looks like the linebacker on the left side is blocked up. He is not. Spencer Anderson did not get there. That linebacker was free and that linebacker was about to fill that hole in faster than you could say. Caleb Johnson Spence was the one who hit the freeze frame. I’m betting on that shot though. Hey, look at look at how I sealed this guy. Just saying like like you watch that go through. If you fast forward that play about a tenth of a second, it looks a lot different. And that linebacker fills that hole really quick. He bounces it to the outside and gets up to the 50. He would have not he might have gotten to the 45 if he would have gone up that hole. So, he actually got a better run than what it looked like based off that reason. But the the question I wanted to pose with this was you were around the team in 2013. I was not obviously. I was living in Dallas. Where was Le’Veon Bell at this time as a rookie coming in? He was a football god. Okay. Okay. I just What do you want me to say? No, no, no, no. Here’s here’s what Lev was. Okay. Actually, I I was trying to be silly there. What what what Lev was is he was one of those players who was always going to need the rest of the team to adjust to him as opposed to vice versa. Okay. Okay. because of his running style, because of what the Steelers knew him to be in college and everybody accepted that. And you know, Raone Foster will tell you this, we saw what Lev was doing and we knew we needed to figure it out. Okay? So, that was going to take time. It’s not So, it’s not that Lev needed the extra time. It’s that everybody needed to figure out what the heck was going on. Secondly, Lev needed to adjust uh and the Steelers needed to adjust to his pass c his pass catching was I mean he was good at it in college. He became elite at it in the NFL. So, he grew. So, if there was an area where he grew, it’s it’s it’s that. So, you know, somebody else brings up here where where the where the comp the comparables uh are concerned, they bring up Rashard Mendal. I keep bringing up Rashard every time I even look at Caleb. Yeah. And I I keep getting shot down. I’m going to end up being right out of on this one. He He still looks like Rashard to me. His running style, uh even even his his build, his lean forward, the way he gets into the hole, the way he’ll get those extra yards falling forward, that looks like Rashard to me. Uh but we’ll we’ll see where it goes. Well, the reason why I I I I ask that is I remember from from afar I remember there being excitement over Bell even heading into his rookie season. I also don’t remember people proclaiming him to be this all pro or pro bowl or like something way over the top either. Yeah. I mean, he was a second rounder and there were there were other there was another running back. Who was it that went to Green Bay that a lot of people wanted? Eddie. Yeah. Eddie Lacy that everybody thought was going to be better than Lev and Lev of course ended up being way better than Eddie Lacy. But so there was a different sentiment at the time. It felt like the Steelers got second best and and they they didn’t, right? And so with this particular pick, there’s been a lot of excitement from the second he was drafted and for good reason. the Steelers really wanted him. He was one of the Yeah. Yeah. Yellow helmets are classic. Yeah. Um but I mean he was the excitement’s been there since day one. And when that excitement builds throughout the off season when there’s nothing to possibly um like kind of help deflate it a little bit, that excitement just grows and grows and grows and it grows on its own. And then the first time you see the guy, if he doesn’t meet those high expectations, everybody’s like, “Oh my gosh, is this dude a bust? Is this dude some sort of like again, it doesn’t have to be like that. This dude is still young. This dude is still growing. He’s still like he hasn’t taken his first actual NFL snap yet. So, let’s see how things go.” There’s a reason why the Steelers aren’t going into the season with him as the undoubted number one. And they’re not. And they’re not. remember that too. Uh Arian Foster is another name that’s come up quite a bit and I can see some of that as well. Listen, I’ll be happy to take uh Rashard Mendal or Aryan Foster. If Caleb Johnson turns into Rashard Menhal and actually has a with a longer career, that’s a heck of a third round pick. Rashard Menhal gets a bad rap because of what happened in the Super Bowl. He was a good running back. Now Mike asks if the Steelers are wearing the yellow helmets in the preseason game. better not. But mine just came in the mail and I’m putting it out here. I’m not waiting on it. I I walked past all you people in Latrobe who were hanging over the the the little the little fencing there, the cloth fencing, fencing, the divider. Yeah. Yeah. Uh and I saw all these yellow helmets like this and and finally I stopped. It was one afternoon I walked over there and said, “Where did you get these?” And they’re like, “Well, back here at the merch shop.” And I was like, “I mean, I’m just going to order one. I have to have a yellow helmet for the show.” So, it just came yesterday. They’re wearing it at some point in the season, right? With the They’re wearing it with the fauxbacks. Yes. Yes, they they are. That is the Packers game, I think. Oh, so they’re going to look like the Packers when the Packers are here. Well, no, because the Packers wear green jerseys. I’m talking about the helmets. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it’s going to be gold helmet versus gold helmet. That’s uh not sure that’s such a great idea. Well, that’s when they’re wearing them. gold helmets, gold jerseys, and beige pants against gold helmets, white jerseys, and green pants or or gold pants, actually. So, yeah. Uh, no, but it it is a nice helmet, though. You know, I think we’d agree on that. It’s pretty sharp. I heard some people ripping on it. It’s like, come on. I like I I kind of I kind of wish they would have brought back the the 60s throwback that had the gold helmet. Um, pretty much the color rush jersey that they’ve been wearing with the white pants. That was actually probably one of my favorite. Yeah. Nikia finds a great easy way to make sure that your question gets asked on the program. She says, “DK, you mentioned on your app the teams will commit, see that will commit a lot of penalties against the other DK and Darnell Washington. Is this good or bad?” And then she says, “By the way, the app is great.” That gets you every time. That’s such a natural segue to pointing out that under Chris’s smiling face over there, you’ll see how to get our app. And that’s our app. It’s not YouTube. It’s not Spotify. It’s not anything else. It’s our app. DK Pittsburgh Sports. Go to dkps.net. dkps.net. What’s that? It’s these guys day job. Yeah, it’s our day job. It’s what we actually do for a living. And she says that the app is great. And before I get to her question, Robert comes in. $29.99. I’ll pass. We don’t even have a 29.99 price point. And if you No, if you if you email me after you get the app and it’s for a year. If you email Can you can you put our email address or my email address please on the screen? Uh here. I’ll see if I can get here. I got it real fast here. This is Here’s my email address right under Robert’s grunt there on the screen. Come on. That’s Does Robert work for free though? No, Robert. We can ask Robert if he works for free. We can do that because if so, we’re hiring you, man. I got I got a baseball team you can cover. Uh that’s my email address. If you email me after you download the app right there, I promise you I will get back to you with a discount that you will not say no to to be in on this app. And e even even if you grunt like Robert does. to your question. Go ahead. Go ahead. I was say I had uh live cues on the site on the app today. Only for paying subscribers. Yep. Yeah. Only for paying subscri that’s that’s the app is free. You can see all of our work there. But then you can also like ask ask me questions once a week. You know, we have uh you know, obviously Taylor Hos covers the Penguins. Jose Negron covers the uh the Pirates and and you DK does it once a week, too. You can talk to us, ask us questions. Um it’s it’s a lot of fun on there, man. Nikia asks to finally get to her question. Um, uh, the teams will commit a lot of penalties against the other DK and Darnell Washington. Is that good or bad? It’s very good, Nikia. Uh, it’s a very very good thing except for one time yesterday when it wasn’t good. Okay. And I I can report on that since I spoke with Metaf afterward and he described everything for me. Uh but he was basically tackled in the end zone. It was going to be a touchdown from Rogers and everybody well there was like about I don’t know who those people were. They had some special privileges to come in and watch from the public. They were all going to burst out into cheers. Uh and he got brought down and in the process dude lands on his ankle and now good for him. He got up and shook it off and went back and he was he missed maybe one one set of doubts. Excuse me. Yeah. He he didn’t he he wasn’t out long. He just got out. You want DPI flags, Nikia, you want you want that Joe Flacco component into your offense. Well, listen, not even the Joe Flacco uh offense, but also when you’re down near the goal line and you run a fade to Darnell Washington and and he just is either going to catch it because he’s 8 feet taller than the corner or the corner has nothing to do other than ride him like Yoda riding Luke Skywalker’s back in Empire. Uh and then you you get the DPI flag, you get first and goal on the one yard line. You’ll take that every single time. So, yes, like it’s absolutely a good thing that those guys are going to draw flags. Uh Tony Maron says, “I I love this show. I’m happy to be here from across the country.” We got people from all over, Tony. I mean, we these the two guests that came in here from Bahamas and then somebody puts up here, “Hey, I’m watching from Bahamas. Uh it it’s it’s been a lot of fun uh watching this thing uh expand the way that it has, you know, and and we appreciate those of you who pass along the word because that still happens to be the best way to advertise anything in life. Jay Moods says, “Didn’t the offense win six out of seven shots against the Tampa Bay defense?” That’s good to hear. Pat Fri confirmed it and as such we can report it. Yes, they went six and one on seven shots and they actually did pretty well uh using all three quarterbacks, using a lot of different targets. They they did well, didn’t they, Chris? Yes, they did. Can’t get into any of the details of the seven shots, but yes, they won six to one. And it looked really, really, really good. Really efficient. Yes, it was. You would have been very excited to see that as a fan. I’ll put it that way. William asks, “Could ya black be the next step on to it, or is it a little too tall of a task?” First off, there’s nothing too tall for Okay. He He looks down on Darnell. Yeah. Okay. They see eye to eye. It sounded good. Can he be the next human being? I I don’t want to assign the two at bar to anybody to Steph ended up becoming a truly special defensive lineman in this league. Yeah. And uh he’s missed on more levels than one by the way. And the Steelers, I mean, the defense was never the same. No. Even with Cam continuing to perform, you know, at at a literal allp pro level, not not symbolically, Cam was an allp pro. last year in his just now in his mid-30s. Um Steph and Cam what they could do together up front. I know that’s what the Steelers are envisioning when they draft Derrick Harmon and I know that Harmon himself wants that to be the case. Harmon expects himself to be as he was telling me the other day in Latroe he’s measuring his performance. Yes, there’s certain things that he did well in the second half in Jacksonville. He had more of a push. He was more disruptive in general. That’s not enough for him. He wants plays. And what they’re expecting from him is plays. And what Carl Dunar is admonishing him to create are plays. Same thing they’re doing with Keanu Benton. That’s it’s just not going to be instant. I know they anointed him. Okay. starting left defensive end here. But if you want something else to watch tomorrow night that means something instead of getting all caught up in who the fourth quarter running back is or whether or not Skyler Thompson can be retained on the practice squad, the stuff that really matters is going to be in the trenches tomorrow night. Yeah. Uh I got to give Mario a shout out here. This is a heck of a comment. Says ya equals I am who I am. Now for those who understand for who so for those who understand like Christian like teachings and stuff like that the like the name for God is literally Yahweh like in in like old Hebrew scripture which is spelled Y ah y or we think. So it looks really similar and it literally translates to I am who I am. So that’s like legit like that’s a legit comment. That’s like some serious knowledge right there. Um anyway, um listen, YA is doing a lot of really great things. Like really, really great things. He can’t be moved in run defense. He’s batting down passes left and right. He can’t be moved is such a solid check mark on your scouting report. And he I mean, but I’m just look at what I mean, shoot, even just the 12 plays that he played in Jacksonville, look at what he did. Um, now he he did at the very last day of training camp, he did not practice because he had a gigantic wrap on his right elbow or right right upper arm elbow area. I I don’t know if it was what exactly it was. Uh but we will see um if that’s anything that lingers. But the one thing that I would say about ya and to to kind of cool the jets on this one a little bit is that he has to do something in terms of like anything with a pass rush in order to really become anything closest to Stfan to it. And right now the pass rush stuff other than being able to put up those 35 inch arms and bat down passes, which he can and he can. He can, but right now there’s been not a almost nothing in terms of being able to win pass rush reps and get to the quarterback consistently. If he can never develop that, yeah, we’re talking about a potential allp pro because the the run defense and the swatting passes down, that’s already showing up way more than I think anybody thought. A great point here, not a good one, a great one from John Herman says, “It was humorous the way Black moved the center and guard out of the way to tackle the runner.” If those of you who have not seen that clip, that that’s one of those plays where if you’re the head coach and it’s a preseason game, you go, “Get him out of there. I’ve seen enough.” Yeah, I have seen enough. Anybody who’s asking why Black only played a dozen snaps. That’s the answer. That’s going I have seen enough. Bubble wrap. Who’s got the bubble wrap? Let’s go. It is it it I am not and I believe with all my heart that they are not ruling out an active and significant role for him in that defense. They are going to value being stout or how what was your scouting report again, Chris? He cannot be moved. He cannot be moved. They’re going to value that a lot because they have a lot of other parts that they can utilize around him if he in fact cannot be moved. That is a heck of a thing. Now, this not to say he’s going to leapfrog Harmon on the death chart or anything like that. Harmon’s going to play. Just what was it? What was the line? Relax. Yeah. Everybody, hold on. Get the sign again. There we go. He’s got the sign. You need the You need the Frankie goes to Hollywood shirt. Let’s see here. Was that was the That was the Frankie say relax. Yeah. Um Yeah. Mark Cunningham says black is old school, it appears. I mean, I don’t know what that means. That that there are any number of guys that you’ve seen like that that do things like that. Kas Campbell’s the one that jumps out for me. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Where you just go, okay, that guy, we’re not budging. He’s not going anywhere. Okay. So, we’re gonna have to figure out something else because that is the equivalent of putting a telephone pole in our way, you know. So, but yeah, everybody needs to get everybody everybody from the defensive line needs to get it together to swing back to what we were talking about at the beginning here for this defense to be able to do its things. And that things being plural, you’re going to have to get after the quarterback. You’re going to have to be multiaceted. You’re going to have to be able to uh bite in there. You’re going to have to get sacks. Lots of pressures, lots of quarterbacks hits, but this ain’t Cleveland. You got to get sacks here. Yeah. Okay. You got You got to You got to bring the quarterback down. You got to knock the ball out of his hand. You got to do that stuff. You got to make your coverage people to some extent moot. That’s that that’s your dream scenario. I you want for me and Chris to be going through that locker room afterward and asking the coverage people how their night was and they go, “I don’t know, man.” And they never got the ball out, right? Yeah. Exactly. Like you just hope those coverage people just keep everybody covered long enough so that it doesn’t matter because TJ Watt or Cam Hayward or Alex Heismith or somebody else got back there. Um, I do think the one thing that you’re going to see, and I’ve been saying this all along with what with, and this is another reason why I’m saying relax, and Mika Abbuka, you know, receiver for the for the um for the Buccaneers, said the Steelers ran a lot of zone yesterday. They’re not going to run a lot of zone during the season. No, they are not. I can tell you that right now. Like so that just again goes to show like it’s very very possible Todd BS uh you know when when he and Mike Tomlin were working this out we’re just like hey Mike show us man yeah I really need our offense to look at a lot of zone defense do you mind doing that and Mike could have said yes as long as you do this for you know our offense or you whatever you know they always try to arrange this kind of stuff they’re not going to run a lot of zone they’re going to be running a lot of man coverage they might be top five top three in the league in man coverage with what they have on defense. That means you’re also going to see more blitzes, a lot more covered one means a lot more fiveman rushes, sixman rushes, you’re going to see a lot more blitzes. That’s going to give the the opport give the Steelers the opportunity to get to the quarterback more often. And even when they don’t get to the quarterback, yes, those pressures can still have an impact. You still want to rack up a bunch of sacks, but the pressures can force quarterbacks to make bad throws. It can force quarterbacks to um you know have to throw the ball away on third down. Now you’re making them punt it. You get the ball back. Whatever it is, it’s it’s got to go hand in hand and yesterday’s practice is not going to be an indicator of that. It’s just not. Two more questions today. Sebastian Sanchez asks, “Could we potentially see a glimpse of Will Howard to play a series or two next Thursday in in Charlotte?” U my answer to that is it’s possible. My answer to that further is he’d better be honest with everybody about how about how the hand feels. It can’t, you know, now hands are tough to lie about because you can do, you know, X-rays and MRIs and stuff to see how it is. Sometimes you can just look at it and sometimes you can just see, hey, that thing is still swollen. We’re not letting you out there, kid. And it was swollen on Saturday. I can say that definitively because I saw it in the locker room. I understand that he’s he’s eager and justifiably so, not just because of his personality, but because he’s not going to get any other snaps. This is it for him. Yeah. So, he but I also know that I don’t think it would benefit him a whole heck of a lot to go out there in a third or fourth quarter of a of of these kinds of games and then not be able to throw the football. This isn’t his non-throwing hand here, my friends. This is this is it’s this one. Okay. Yeah. This is not the Jordan Love injury. Yeah. So he he’s he’s got it, you know, if if if he’s off with that, he’s not helping himself. He’s not helping his film. He’s not helping anything here. So, uh, I would say no to that one. I would also say that our last question for the day comes from Richard Hunt. I’m going to throw it to Chris, who says, “This is this has to be the Steelers best defense since ‘ 08, right?” Uh, well, I I would make a serious argument for the 2010 defense being the best defense in the since the ’08 defense. Um, it has the potential to be the best defense since that era for sure. When you look at what they have up front in Watt and Hayward and Highmith and then some rookies coming in, you know, Derek Harman, Keanu Benton year three, YA Black’s looking really good with what they have at linebacker, you know, second team allpro Patrick Queen and Peyton Wilson going in year going into year two and looking really good going into year two right now. And then obviously with the I don’t think I really you cornerback hasn’t been this strong since at least when the team had Rod Woodson you might have to go back to even Mel Blunt for the entire position like you know my answers here are are are getting echoed already uh in the chat so I’ll just put them up instead. Jay Mood says on paper maybe ah maybe these are you’re you’re looking at names on paper you’ve got to see performance and you’ve got to see performance relative to age Mike says let’s get a game or two in the books Mr. CJ says they need to play before making that call. I am nowhere near this mindset. Uh I could be, you know, talk to me in December. That’s why I said it has the potential, too. Potential. Yeah, potential. It has all kinds of potential, but it also has things that We’ll see. We’ll see. I know. 08 was a proven thing. 2010, they got rings for it. Okay. There’s there’s there’s there’s a long long way to go uh before we get into that kind of stuff. Guys, we will have both a pregame and a postgame show tomorrow as we did from Jacksonville only we’ll be in we’ll be on location in a much better city and in a much better place in general. No joke. and uh and and we’ll be uh and and we’ll be just as eager as we were back then to entertain with pretty backdrops and all that other stuff. Uh one last reminder to make sure that you’re going over there and getting the app. Get the app. We’re talk I’m talking about making t-shirts to say get the app. Kind of like the Frankie say relax thing. Just just get the app real quick with a big gigantic arrow pointing down. That’s it. You have one dkps.net. If you have an Apple phone, dkps.net/android, uh you don’t get it’s it’s it’s free to download it, okay? If use and to use it if you if you want if you can put up with the ads and and other stuff like that and you don’t care about our all of our great perks and all that other stuff that that the subscribers get. Uh but I’m going to say this again. Where’s my email address? Is it still around? We’re going to put that up here. I want to hear from you. This is this is my actual like email address here. I’m not sending you to some some robot or whatever. Uh, this is putting it up here. Show. That’s it. Email me only after you download the app on your device here and I will get you in at a price that you will not say no to. Okay. So, let’s get that done. Uh, and anyway, we do our thing tomorrow. Pittsburgh versus uh Tampa Bay. Yep. Yep. See you guys then. There are

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Did the Steelers’ defense really regress by being burned in the joint practice with the Buccaneers?

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