Steelers Talk LIVE: Victory Monday News After Week 3 WIN + Film Study Takeaways vs. Patriots

Steelers Talk LIVE: Victory Monday News After Week 3 WIN + Film Study Takeaways vs. Patriots

[Music] Fire. [Music] Hey. Hey. [Music] D. [Music] Hey. Hey. [Music] Welcome in to the Steelers Talk live show. It is victory Monday here on Steelers Talk and today we’re going to be reacting to everything that happened during the Steelers uh week three matchup versus the New England Patriots yesterday. I’ve had the opportunity to break down the All22 film this afternoon and I’ve got my takeaways for you guys coming up here in just a moment in our only live segment on today’s live show. But I want to see who the real ones are down there in the comments section. Spam me if you are one of the 90 real ones that are tuned in at the beginning of today’s show. Type those Mi’s for a quick shout out. Make sure you guys click that thumbs up icon. You can only spam me if you’ve clicked that thumbs up icon. We got 90 people watching. I’d like to get up to at least 40 likes before we get into our segment today. I see Kaden is here. JJ Edits is here. Robert Lock is here. Gen5 is here. Pam is here. Stephen is here. Alex is here. Brian, Madden, God, Kaden, Nathan, Tristan, Stephen, Matthew. We’ve got Carson, Stephen, Pamela, Kevin, Tristan. We got Tom Matthew Steli is here. Carson Wit, Slinky, we’ve got uh Adam Miller, Robert Maxwell’s here, Dustin Gray, Idrop, Daniel, Adrian, Tristan, Matthew, uh we got John Diggs, we’ve got Daryl Oglesby, we’ve got Michael, Ethan, Alex, Tristan, Leon. We got a good crew of Steelers fans ready to talk some Steelers football today. And there is a lot to talk about here. So, we’ll bring on our producer here today. Mr. Ponzi is here ready to talk some Steelers football with us today. Ponzi, how are we doing today? We’re feeling pretty good. You know, victory Monday always feels better. Always. Exactly. It wasn’t a pretty win yesterday. Um but it’s certainly nice to have things to work on coming off a win and a two in one start versus a loss and a one-and two start. Uh it’s going to be definitely a challenge going up against this Minnesota Vikings team this week in Dublin in week four. Of course, we’ll be going live bright and early for that football game, guys. an hour of pregame coverage really early in the morning and then we’ll be uh and then we’ll be doing live playbyplay uh followed by our extensive postgame coverage. So, I wanted to thank each and every one of you guys for the support you gave on the watch party. It was a and once again a great success uh for our week three watch party. Looking forward to week four here, guys. But uh we got to put a little bow on this week three with today’s live show. Ponzi, what do you think is the big biggest problem with the Pittsburgh Steelers right now? There’s a lot of different things that you could choose from. Uh, which one are you picking? I think, you know, just getting off the field. There was plenty of times on third and fourth down where they had the Patriots right where they wanted them on third down and long, fourth down and I mean me mean fourth down and short, but they could still get off the field. They had plays where they could get the angle. You know, there was a play where Cole Hulkcom missed uh I believe it was either Stevenson or Henderson in the back field. and just getting off the field. You mean you can’t really maintain your success on defense with those long and grueling drives. Eventually, you’re going to get tired. And I think if they were able to get off the field a little bit earlier, uh maybe it wouldn’t have been such a close game. Yeah, I I I I would agree with that. I would also say um offensive line is probably my biggest concern right now. Um this entire foundation of the Arthur Smith offense, it relies on having a run game that can enforce its will. Um, and not only can they not enforce their will and have success when there’s uh, you know, not a numbers advantage in the box, but they also can’t get yards when there’s two high safeties and they have the advantage in the box. And like, if you’re not forcing teams to respect the run, it’s not going to open up a lot of things downfield, which means Aaron Rogers is going to be throwing underneath a lot. It’s a lot of screens. It’s a lot of different stuff like that. And then when they do want to throw the ball down the field and when there are opportunities to throw the ball down the field, you can only throw the ball down the field so many times because the pass protection doesn’t hold up for long enough to be able to uh allow Rogers to hold on to the ball for long enough to get the ball out with those longer developing route concepts. So, um if you can’t fix this offensive line by the end of the season, there’s a close to 0% chance in my opinion this team can win a playoff game. They might make the playoffs with this current configuration of the offensive line if they can continue to win these kind of ugly games and, you know, win these kind of classic Steelers football games or they win uh with the defense and they win uh you know, with turnovers and and stuff like that. But, you know, it it it’s certainly limiting if you can’t get this offensive line right because this Arthur Smith offense, if you know anything about Arthur Smith, he runs what he runs. He doesn’t have like a very diverse play call sheet. he runs his stuff and from very certain formations and they they want to run kind of uh not as simplistic necessarily, but they want to run their stuff and they want to be really good at the things that they do and they want to mask it really well so that defenses can’t tell what’s coming next. They have multiple plays from different formations. They want to disguise what they’re doing but really stick to the same core concepts. And if you can’t have the foundation of that offensive line to set everything else up, you know, you’re just not going to be able to have success. So, um, either the Steelers need to make a big adjustment and go really pass heavy and that’s going to really limit what the Steelers can do. You’re going to see still a lot of too high safety coverages and they’re going to teams are going to force this team to dink and dunk and all that stuff or um, you know, I I don’t know, dude. Like, you got to get this offensive line right. If not, I I think the Steelers chances of winning a Super Bowl this year are close to zero. And I have been so disappointed with the two young tackles here in Pittsburgh to start the season. Bradick Jones and Troy Fawutano just have not looked good through the first three weeks. They are the but they are the two weak links on this offensive line right now. Um and that’s not great. So hopefully they can gel and get better as the season goes on. If they do, the Steelers will have a chance to get better as the season goes on and the offense will have more opportunities to throw the ball down the field and the run game will get better. But it really does depend on if this offensive line can figure it out before the end of the season. So, uh, that’s probably my biggest concern with the Steelers right now. But if you guys want to get on the show today, if you have a concern, if you have a question, if you have a topic that you want Ponzi and I to discuss on today’s show, um, it’s overreaction Monday. So, make sure you guys get those comments down there via super chat. Um, you guys, if we get a $100, uh, today in donations, we will donate a Steelers Talk hat and a raffle at the end of the show. Ponzi and I are both wearing our hats today. Uh if you guys want to join hat club, if you guys can just put in a $50 super chat and you guys can join hat club. You don’t have to deal with the raffle. Uh but if you want to take your chances in the raffle today, $5 super chats gets you into the raffle. $10 gets you three raffle tickets. $20 gets you 10 tickets plus your name on the Steelers Talk Gong and join Gong Squad this year. And if we can get to 250 total today, we will hit the gong. And I’m actually going to do a special offer today. If we can get to $100 today, not only will we do the Steelers Talk uh raffle, but we will also hit the gong for every $100 that we make on today’s show. Okay, guys. Uh so, where to donate? If you guys want to uh double your raffle tickets today, Venmo and PayPal is where you guys can send your donations to. Uh the reason why we give you double the raffle tickets for Venmo and PayPal donations is because YouTube takes a 30% cut and Apple takes another 10% cut of all the super chats you guys send in. So, we get to keep more of the proceeds when you send in your donations via Venmo and PayPal. We greatly appreciate your guys’ support. Um, so that’s where you guys uh can put in your donations today. Already got a super chat here from my friend Bernard Nixon. Says, “How is Aaron Rogers playing through the first three weeks?” I think he’s playing fine. He’s had a couple of boneheaded throws. Uh, one in each of the last two games uh in in Seattle at it didn’t get intercepted. was dropped and then uh again and then against the Patriots yesterday uh unfortunately it was picked off. So uh you know I think a lot of it and and that interception by the way that’s just Rogers trying to force it in on four verticals into the seam uh on a third and 10 and he should have just dumped it off to the running back but like on a third and 10 do you really want to dump it off to the running back? It’s like I don’t know, man. Like, uh, you know, Jaylen Warren can certainly make some guys miss, but I think Rogers was getting a little frustrated with not being able to throw the ball downfield because a guys aren’t getting open. And big reason why they’re not getting open is because teams aren’t afraid of the run. All right, the teams are playing in two high safety shells. They’re playing back. They’re playing a lot of twoman uh which means two high safeties playing in zone coverage, playing in deep halves and then you’ve got man coverage across the board many of times in press coverage and there’s just not a lot of winners out there. All right, DK Metaf not winning a whole lot out there. We’ll talk about some of the reasons for that here in our first segment. Calvin Austin III isn’t winning enough out there even though he did make the big touchdown play for the win yesterday. Uh, and then they’re really relying on Pat Fmouth and Jonnu Smith as their number three and number four receiving weapons. And uh, those guys just aren’t separating versus man coverage enough. So, um, and I really don’t and I think the main reason, Ponzi, that they put uh, and they they want to rely on Pat Farmouth and John Smith so much is because I think that the Steelers think that those guys give them a matchup advantage out there in the run game, but like they’re they’re out there a lot and they are not providing uh, you know, an advantage. So, you know, the Steelers, I think, need to do some soularching here, maybe they go a couple more weeks trying out their current offensive plan. Um, but like if the if the heavy tight end stuff is not helping out the run game, there’s no reason to keep trying it. So, like, u maybe you go out and get another receiver. It’s pretty clear they don’t trust Roman Wilson right now. I think he has 46 total snaps in three games. That’s just that’s backup level snaps. So, they don’t see him as a starter right now. Um, maybe they have to go more 11 personnel heavy. And in order to do that, maybe you have to go out and get another veteran wide receiver. Maybe you have to trade Pat Farm Premouth. I know that’s something that maybe not a lot of Steelers fans want to hear. Uh but if you go out and get another receiver and you’re playing a lot of 11 personnel, does it really make sense to have two highly paid tight ends on your team? I I I don’t think so. I I would say Pat Frymouth might be one of the top trade candidates for the Pittsburgh Steelers this season because you just traded for Jonnu, so you’re not trading him. Um, and then Darnell, you know, is actually, you know, a big mismatch weapon in the red zone and a great blocker at tight end, so you’re not going to trade him. So, um, Muth has been disappointing to this point. He’s had some drops. He had a big a scramble drill mistake, uh, that kind of, uh, petered out the offense in the first half yesterday. And uh you know I’m not saying necessarily that I for sure want to trade uh Pat, but like you know if this multi-tight end kind of offense is not working out, you know, I would say, you know, you might have to think about switching things up at some point. Maybe that’s at the buy, maybe that’s at some other point in the season. Um but yeah, that’s it just hasn’t been great to this point. All right, we got a $5 here from Justin Yankusi, my man. Um or did we get another one for Bernard? We have a couple more for Bernard. All right, so Bernard is bringing in the questions. We love it. Bernard says a lot of people are down on the Steelers today. Yeah, man. They didn’t play a particularly great game of football yesterday. They had they were good in moments on offense, but generally speaking, they were not great. Um I thought the final drive and then the first two drives were really good from the team. Everything else was terrible. Um you know, getting behind the sticks, not converting on third down, that sort of stuff. Uh then on defense, you give up a lot of yardage. Um, and you you kind of play bend don’t break style of defense and then you end up making a bunch of big time plays and you get a bunch of these uh forced fumbles. You had four of them on the day yesterday and then you get an interception as well on a tipped pass. So obviously the defense deserves credit for forcing those turnovers. But I also think that you know when you just look at you know outside of the turnovers you just look at which team was moving the football more effectively. Like the Patriots were the team that was moving the football more effectively yesterday. And frankly, you can make an argument the Jets were the team that was moving the football better in that game as well. So people look at that and say the Steelers were not the better team on the field in their two victories to this point. So we should be panicking. But my counter to that is, you know, turnovers do matter number one. And number two, the Steelers in these close games in the fourth quarter when in crunch time, they’ve played really good ball. All right, they got not one but two really big stops against Justin Fields and the Jets offense in the fourth quarter of that first game. and they had a clutch drive and of course a a clutch uh field goal kick from 60 yards from Bos. And then in this last game, you know, you you you know, Patriots have all the momentum, but then uh the Steelers are able to go on a game-winning drive at the end and get a touchdown to Calvin Austin the third on, by the way, a really beautifully dialed up pass from Aaron Rogers. uh he identified uh the rotating safeties down uh in a previous play on that drive and then he used that against uh the Patriots defense to beat them on that final drive. So I think Rogers has actually been pretty decent. He’s been taking what you know a the Steelers and what the defense has been giving him opportunities to do. The arm is really live. He’s generally still really accurate. I think he’s moving around fine for the type of quarterback that he needs to be. He’s maneuvering the pocket uh fine. He’s not moving around like terrific or like he’s running the football, but like he, you know, he’s moving around good enough. It’s just the offensive line needs to protect him better. I think this offensive scheme needs to do a better job getting DK Metaf open and the run game. The run game needs to get going. All right, that just needs to happen. The offensive line needs to get more push on the offensive line. Uh, then we get to Bernard against why is A-Rod not giving it to DK downfield? First of all, he’s not getting open very often down the field. Second of all, um he’s getting a lot of safety help. Third of all, there’s not a whole lot of time to throw the ball deep and let deep developing routes develop. So, you know, those three things are contributing to, you know, DK not getting the football cuz right now the Steelers are not really using him in the way that I thought they were going to use him. And we’ll talk about this in our segment today. Um but I thought they were going to use him like AJ Brown in the Tennessee Titans offense. All right? Like I thought they were going to use him on slants and digs and drifts and all these different things to get him the ball in space with a head of steam so that he can use his excellent yak ability and his size. like no defensive back wants to tackle DK Metaf with a head of steam, but like that what they’re they’re using him kind of like George Pickkins where it’s like a bunch of streaks, a lot of fades, a lot of stuff down the sideline and it’s like you got to get this guy the ball in space um over the middle of the field and the Steelers just have not done that to this point in the season. And I think that that is a huge uh adjustment that this offensive coaching staff can make that can really make a huge difference to the production uh uh that DK Metaf can provide to this offense because they’re treating him like George Pickins, like a true 50/50 ball winner down the field. Frankly, guys, like even though he’s built like a 50/50 ball winner, he’s not really that type of guy. He’s not really great at the catch point. Um, and you know, he does have a limited route tree, but when you get the ball in this cat’s hands and he can start chugging away, good luck tackling him and catching up to him cuz he is fast when he builds up to that uh full speed. So, really hope they can uh see that in the weeks to come and get him going more. $5 from Yankusi here. My man says, “What is your percent percentage likelihood that we will even trade for a wide receiver? Our core right now stinks.” Um, listen man, they’re gonna have to change their philosophy in order to be open to it in my opinion because like right now there are four core players or pass catchers so to speak, DK Metaf, Calvin Austin, and then you got two tight ends, Pat Fmouth, and Jonnu Smith. Two very highly paid tight ends that they’re treating like kind of versatile tight end wide receiver hybrids. They’re putting them in the slot a lot. They’re using them as true slot receivers. And unfortunately, those two guys have not gotten open enough for this football team. So, like what are your options? Your options are to continue to try and pound away at, you know, this two tight end kind of offense and try and continue this forward or you can, you know, try to try to adopt a more three wide receiver centric offense like most of the offenses in the NFL like the McVey system. Um, you know, really, uh, really dives into that three wide receiver philosophy. And you know, the Steelers could certainly run that, but I don’t know if Roman Wilson would be able to run that effectively. I they certainly don’t seem to trust him at this point. He is essentially their fifth offensive weapon in terms of the snaps that he is getting right now. Um, and you know, the target share is even worse. So, um, it’s certainly possible that they change gears and they go out and get a Tyreek Hill or maybe Chris Olive becomes available by the deadline or somebody else um, and they can go to more of a three wide receiver centric offense. But just to put it into perspective, guys, 2/3 of the Steelers offensive snaps on Sunday, yesterday, were with two or three tight ends on the field. So like, this is a heavy personnel offense. And the fact that this is a heavy personnel offense that can’t run the football even when the defense is in two high safeties, is a [ __ ] joke. It’s a [ __ ] joke. All right. Like, it’s there’s just no excuse for it. You know, you have the size advantage, you have the numbers advantage in the box. Why the [ __ ] can’t we run the football and get any push? It makes no sense. And the reason for it is two things. Number one, Arthur Smith is not putting his blockers in positions to succeed. Second reason is the offensive line is not good enough to win their matchups and they and they give up easy penetration up the middle. Those are the two reasons why, like, you know, from a numbers perspective, from a size perspective, this should be working, but it’s not. So, it’s like, what are we going to do? Are we going to keep banging our heads against the wall, or are we going to maybe make a switch at some point? And I think if we continue to see struggles going into the buy, the buy is probably the perfect time to make an adjustment. We saw the Philadelphia Eagles last year after a two and two start, they looked awful. People were talking about benching Jaylen Herz for Kenny Picket. People were talking about firing Nick Serriani. What’ they do? They made adjustments. All right. They they they were playing a more pro style offense in the first four weeks of the season. Jaylen Herz was terrible at it. He was having a bunch of turnover worthy plays because he can’t go full field progression reads. That’s not the type of quarterback he is. He’s a spread quarterback uh that likes to have one to two reads and then run or scramble. Okay? That’s the type of quarterback he is. So, what they do after the buy? They adjusted. They they they tailored the offense more suited to the strengths of the personnel. And what they do, all right, they still haven’t lost a game since then that Jaylen Herz has started and finished, including winning the [ __ ] Super Bowl. So, like sometimes having a buy early in the season is a good thing because you can make some early season adjustments and get back on the horse. Um, you know, this game against the Minnesota Vikings, I think, you know, will be big in terms of determining the future path of this Steelers offense for sure. $5 from Gary Frank says, uh, not so much trading. uh says, “We have the players. They aren’t about paying as a team. Uh they need to come together or they’re not playing as a team. They need to come together.” Um you know, I don’t necessarily disagree, Gary. You know, but they need to play better. You know what I’m saying? It’s like if they if this two tight end system and this heavy personnel system is not giving them the advantages that they that they’re looking for, then it’s like why keep running it? That’s my question. you know, like you got to try something else if it’s not working. Because I agree with you. I think we have, you know, we have pieces here uh to to put it together. It’s just about putting the right pieces in the puzzle to make it work. And like the question is, are they going to find the right pieces to put in the right spots to be able to make this thing into a beautiful picture or is it just going to be a scattered mess and it’s going to end up limiting this football team? That’s going to be the question that gets answered over the next few weeks. $2 from Tom says, “What offensive line needs to improve the most?” I think he’s talking about which offensive lineman uh the two tackles need need to step up a lot. All right. I think Seamalo has taken a little bit of a step back, but he has honestly been still solid. Um Frasier is still pretty darn good. I don’t think he’s been as good as he was last year to start this season, but he’s still solid. I think Mason McCormack has actually been okay as well at right guard. He’s had some lapses, but he’s been okay. really where you’re seeing the most lapses in terms of giving up easy penetration in both phases of the offense. It’s Brick Jones, it’s Troy Futano, your two first round picks. And that sucks to say cuz you could have drafted a whole slew of players that ended up being great players in this league instead of those two guys. But, you know, plain and simply, they they invested a lot in this group and Pat Meyer hasn’t been able to develop them, at least not to a point where they are serviceable starters at this point. Pawutano in particular has been particularly uh disappointing because I loved his film coming out of Washington. He was an awesome player in college. uh and he comes here and he gets the terrible coaching that Pat Meyer provides and all of a sudden he can’t play anymore and he’s allowing easy interior pressure on runs and he’s giving up pressures uh against the pass and you know a Brick’s always been raw but he certainly hasn’t been coached up to a high degree and like when both of your tackles are not playing good football it’s tough for your quarterback that’s a non-mobile uh quarterback to be able to survive especially when you know they’re playing too high deep safety coverages and there’s not a whole lot of options to throw the ball deep down the So that’s what’s wrong, man. And you know, it’s it the thing about football, guys, is that it’s it’s a bunch of variables coming together to create kind of like a puzzle. And you know, you got to have the right pieces to fit in the right roles uh at the right time. And you know, sometimes people sometimes people try to put pieces into the wrong spot. Sometimes you know, the scheme is just doesn’t fit the personnel. And you know, it just doesn’t work. You got to have a beautifully orchestrated uh effort here. And that starts with coaching and that starts with team management and that starts with all that different stuff. And we just haven’t seen that at a high level from the Steelers coaching staff at this point. Hopefully they figure it out and hopefully the players on the field can execute their assignments a little bit better as well. All right, that’s going to be uh it for our buildup here, guys. Thank you so much for all the questions. If you got more questions, I’m happy to answer them after our film study uh takeaways segment here. Uh so make sure you get those super chats in if you want. Uh but uh let’s just dive right in here. Ponzi, first segment of the day and only segment of the day. It’s going to be a long one, guys, so buckle in. Film takeaways, offense and defense versus the Patriots are coming at you guys right now. [Music] Tonight on Steelers Talk, we’re going to be talking about my film takeaways from Steelers versus Patriots in week three. uh had the opportunity to sit down, watch the film, break it down uh in this football game and breaking down some of the good, but definitely a lot of the bad that needs to be improved for the Pittsburgh Steelers uh moving forward here to the Dublin game versus the Minnesota Vikings this Sunday. Make sure you guys stay tuned uh for why the Pittsburgh Steelers aren’t throwing the ball deep with Aaron Rogers all that often and why this is really a dink and dunk Steelers passing offense at this point. You want the answer to that, make sure you guys stay tuned. will be coming up here in just a few minutes. But make sure you click that subscribe button if you haven’t already. If you guys want in-depth Steelers analysis uh based on the film every single day for free on this channel, uh we grind the film here on Steelers Talk so that you guys don’t have to and you guys can get access to the same information without spending the hours that I just did going over this film. So make sure you go make sure you guys click that subscribe button if you haven’t already for in-depth Steelers film analysis and takeaways every single week. So first, let’s start with the offense. All right, because um certainly the offense petered out uh in the middle portion of the game yesterday. You know, you have a great first two drives, you get two touchdowns, um and of course you have a great final drive to get a touchdown to Calvin Austin the third, but in the middle section there, this offense couldn’t get anything going. So, what the heck happened? So, let’s start with the offensive coordinator, Arthur Smith. And the f and the thing you have to understand about Arc, guys, is that he runs what he runs. All right? He’s not Ben Johnson or Kyle Shanahan or Shawn McVey uh where or any of these gurus that have a bunch of uh passing concepts and creative stuff in their playbook. Arthur Smith’s philosophy is a lot more simple and his philosophy is we are going to have a smaller uh type of playbook then we’re going to run the stuff that we run and the thinking is we’re going to practice the same plays over and over and over again so that we are really good at these select few plays. Um, and then you know, uh, we’re going to disguise it with, uh, formations. All right? So, like you’re going to have a bunch of different plays and a bunch of different possibilities from certain condensed, uh, formations that Arthur Smith likes to run. And, uh, the the hope is you are playing at a very high level of execution, uh, with the defense not knowing what’s coming at them next. So, you know, that’s kind of Arthur Smith’s philosophy. And by the way, guys, this strategy can work. He proved that in Tennessee with Mike Vrabel u in his stint as the offensive coordinator there with Derrick Henry at running back. That certainly makes things a lot easier with Ryan Tanahill as his quarterback being somebody that could execute the offense at a high level uh with play action and all that stuff. Um, and you know, in the early 2020s, I mean, that Tennessee Titans team had a number one seed season with teams like the Kansas City Chiefs in the conference, with the Buffalo Bills, with the Baltimore Ravens, and with Ryan Tanahill at quarterback. They were able to have one of the most efficient offenses in the league. Of course, that was a run-centric offense with Derrick Henry, but you guys get my point there. The main issue right now with Arthur Smith Steelers offense is the foundation of this offense is rotten. And of course, the foundation of the offense is the offensive line. All right? in this run game because we saw it in Tennessee. If you can get that run game going, if you can put the fear of God in the opposing defense and and make them go all out to stop the run, it opens up the entirety of the playbook with play action and everything else. And the Steelers just don’t have that right now. And a big big problem that the Steelers have is that they can’t get teams out of two high safety structures. Okay? And Aaron Rogers has actually pointed this out in his postgame press conferences where, you know, they’re just not having success running the football um on early downs when teams are still playing too high safety structures. And you know, you want to know why Aaron Rodgers isn’t throwing the ball deep? You want to know why he’s 32nd in the league right now in average depth of target? Well, it’s because they can’t run the ball uh even when they have the numbers. And you know, it’s weird because this is one of the heavier offenses in the league. Um, this past week against the Patriots, twothirds of their offensive plays were with heavy personnel, yet they still can’t run the football even when uh they have the numbers in the box. If the teams have uh two high safeties, guys, that means the Steelers have the advantage in the run game. And they still can’t move the football effectively even in those instances. So, why the hell would opposing defenses respect the Steelers run game if they can’t run the football uh even when they’re sitting in these two high structures? And um you know what this means guys is defenses can just sit in too high all day long and take away the deep ball. Rogers doesn’t have any options deep and it also doesn’t help that the offensive line doesn’t hold up long enough and Rogers doesn’t have time to sit in the pocket and let these longer developing routes develop. So you know that combination is really a killer and it really forces this Pittsburgh Steelers team. It really does force them to have to dink and dunk and Rogers to try just take what the defense gives them. And I think Rogers has actually done a pretty decent job of that so far this season. He’s had a couple of pretty big mistakes getting too aggressive throwing the ball down the field. We’ve seen that over the last two weeks. Uh but I think overall Rogers is certainly not the problem. It’s the fact that they can’t run the football on early downs. Then we get to uh a positive here actually, which is that uh the Steelers screen game did get going a little bit. Honestly, it was maybe the best thing about this Steelers offense in this game, dumping it off to Jaylen Warren with some blockers in front of him and letting him do his thing in open space. Also, DK Metaf had a couple of successful screens as well. And listen, if you can’t get the run game going, I think Pittsburgh is starting to learn that they might have to lean on the screen game a little bit more. This is why you bring in John Smith, right? To give him those manufactured touches. He’s pretty darn good at that. He did have a almost costly fumble in this football game, by the way. Very lucky the Steelers uh the ball went out of bounds there on that fumble from Janu Smith. But DK Metaf has been very effective in the screen game. So has Jaylen Warren. Uh Janu Smith has been uh maybe a little bit underwhelming in the screen game, but you can certainly find creative ways to get him the football as well. So, uh I think that the Steelers certainly need to lean on that screen game a little bit more. They found some success with that in the in this Patriots game. Um and I’m hoping to see that continue in weeks to come. Uh then I also hate to say it, man, but your two first round picks at offensive tackle uh have been the weak links on this Steelers offensive line. You want to know why Rogers is under pressure as much as he is? because the offensive tackles are allow are allowing inside pressure a lot. All right, and we already knew that Brick Jones hasn’t been playing well. All right, every Steelers fan on the planet knows that that is happening, but I think a lot of people don’t really realize how bad Troy Fawutanu has been through the first three weeks. Uh he has he has allowed almost just as much interior pressure and quick wins in both phases on offense as Brick Jones has. And you know, Fawutano was not supposed to be that way. Like we knew Brick coming into the league was a little bit raw and needed some coaching up, but Futano was supposed to be like a finished product coming out. He was he had awesome film and he still has the physical capabilities. Uh I still think you know that that Futano can turn it around. I’m by no means saying both these guys are busts at this point that they can’t get better as the season goes on. In fact, I expect these guys to get better as the season goes on. And if that happens, that will be huge for this team. But in both faces, run and pass, the two offensive tackles that this team invested first round draft capital in are not good enough. Then we get to DK Metaf, and unfortunately, he’s just not getting open, folks. Um, you know, and this this sucks because you gave him $33 million per season. Now, I won’t say it’s all on DK. Um, you know, I think that the team unfortunately is not necessarily using him in the right ways. I was hoping that he was going to be able to to to be in that AJ Brown role in this Arthur Smith offense. And AJ Brown was absolutely fantastic in this offense when he was in Tennessee with Arthur Smith, but it just seems like the Steelers are leaving so much meat on the bone with teams playing too high safety structures a ton. They’re taking away the deep ball very consistently. And right now, the Steelers are mostly using Metaf as on like streaks and on fades like they used George Pickkins. But like, you know, for me, Metaf is more of a yards after the catch threat than a 50/50 ball winner. I know Metaf is big, so a lot of people think that he’s like a this crazy 50/50 ball winner, but honestly, his contested catch rate is not that great. I think his greatest strength is getting the ball in his hands with a head of steam. And you better believe there’s not a defensive back on the planet that wants to tackle DK Metaf running full speed at them with a head of steam um you know, after the catch. And uh I I I was hoping that they were going to use him on slants, on drift concepts, off of play action, um you know, on on deep digs. and we just haven’t seen that from Metaf at this point. And I’m hoping that they can use him more in those ways in the weeks to come. Uh because AJ Brown really did ball out in this offense in that role. And kind of similar, you know, both these guys obviously college teammates, very similar builds. Both are great after the catch. Now AJ is a little bit more of a diverse route runner than DK Metaf is and he can change directions uh change directions smoother than Metaf uh can. But like uh you when I when I saw that they got DK Metaf, I’m like oh my goodness, Arthur Smith just got his Arthur Smith, but instead they’re just replacing George Pickkins’s role as the deep threat and I just don’t think that that is take making the most of Metaf’s uh skill set. And I just think that Arthur Smith needs to take a hint here, man. I think that his best stuff this season has come in yards after the catch opportunities. We saw it in the Jets game, multiple uh yak opportunities in that game. And you know, once he hits that stride, guys, and once he hits that gear and takes it to that next gear, I mean, it’s scary to watch. I mean, he just jumps out of your television screen and, you know, instead the Steelers are just using him as like a as a as a designated deep threat. And it’s like I feel like you can get so much more out of this wide receiver who is so big and physically imposing and so great after the catch, but they’re just not using him in that way. And I think they got to use him in that way more. And then when it comes to Roman Wilson, guys, he’s a backup at this point. That plain simply, like people want to talk about uh three receivers, and most people uh talk about a wide receiver trio in the National Football League, and for good reason. Most teams, you know, have three wide receivers that get starting level snaps. The Steelers are not one of those football teams, okay? Roman Wilson is essentially the number five receiving weapon in terms of the total snaps uh on the Steelers offense right now. We talked about it earlier, but the Steelers had multiple tight ends. It’s two and three tight end sets and twothirds of their offensive snaps versus the Patriots. So essentially uh what that means is that their four core pass catchers on this offense are DK Metaf, Calvin Austin the third are the only two true receivers and then you got Jonnu Smith and Pat Frymouth is kind of uh versatile tight end slot wide receiver hybrids. All right. you are seeing the uh this team use both Janu and Muth uh as hybrid players in line in in the slot even out wide and you know unfortunately Janu and Muth just haven’t gotten open enough in these first few weeks and teams are really using a lot of man coverage on the Steelers and none of these guys are getting consistent enough separation maybe outside of Calvin um but unfortunately Calvin you know he’s had a couple decent games but he certainly hasn’t gotten the ball enough uh to get these teams out of these man coverage looks that the Steelers are seeing. But at the end of the day, guys, I think it all makes sense. All summer, we heard that the Steelers were perfectly fine and they felt good about their wide receiver room. That makes a lot more sense when you look at it from the fact that they never really planned on having a wide receiver starting trio. They wanted to have a starting duo and then have a duo of receiving type of tight ends to hopefully give them some versatility in the passing game as well. But unfortunately, especially with the run game not being what it is, that just hasn’t come to fruition at this point. and Roman Wilson has essentially been delegated to backup duties. And I think that there’s two major issues here uh with having those four uh guys as your main starting pass catchers. Number one, no one is getting open enough versus man coverage. So teams can just sit in man and Rogers won’t have many options. And then also number two, it’s not creating the advantage in the run game that they thought playing heavy would have. I mean, the Steelers are playing more 12 and 13 personnel than literally any team in the National Football League right now. All right. more than any team just like we predicted before the season. And the reason for that is they wanted to have the size advantage in the run game while also having the ability to play play action. But guess what? The run game’s not working even with the heavy personnel. So, it’s going to be interesting to see if they keep banging their head against the wall here and keep going with this heavy personnel type of game plan. Uh because it certainly hasn’t helped out the run game at this point and that was really the main reason why they went to this strategy in the first place. Then we get to Jaylen Warren and frankly guys, Jaylen Warren is carrying this group and carrying the run game. He’s only averaging 3.1 yards per carry right now. Uh but you know, that’s a miracle given the way that this offensive line has blocked for him. The number of times that this guy has made a guy miss in the back field to get just a two or three yard gain is absolutely incredible. He makes a guy miss on almost every single play. And you know, he’s also a dynamic threat in the passing game. Honestly, he might he might be the most productive Steelers receiver at this point through the first three games. So, all I can say, guys, is that if the Steelers don’t make any switches here, pray Jaylen Warren do does not get injured this year. The second Jaylen Warren gets injured or if he has a seasonending injury, I really don’t know what this offense is going to do. I really don’t. Um, so you better hope that Jaylen Warren with a increased workload now, which means a higher injury risk can stay healthy for the entirety of a 17game schedule because I mean he’s getting a lot of the touches, uh, which means increased injury risk. Uh, but he’s certainly carrying this group right now. But overall, guys, I thought Aaron Rogers was mostly fine yesterday. I do not think he is the problem with this Steelers team. Um, you know, I think when you look at Rogers, he’s honestly been getting the football where it’s supposed to go most of the time given the circumstances. And, you know, it kind of reminds me of last year, man. Like, the Pittsburgh Steelers did not support Russell Wilson and Justin Fields with the run game that they thought that they were going to have with Na Harris and Jaylen Warren. And they didn’t uh give them and they and obviously they didn’t get the production from the receivers that they thought they were going to get. All right. And because of that, Russell Wilson, a limited quarterback, wasn’t able to elevate the group and the team ended up collapsing. And this year, the same thing seems to be happening with Aaron Rogers. Guys not getting open. Um, you know, run game isn’t getting it done. Uh, especially with multiple uh, tight ends on the field, which is just an embarrassment at this point. And, you know, I think Aaron Rogers, you know, if you can put together a good game plan, get him open receivers. We saw it in the Jets game when guys were running wide open, what’d he do? He threw four touchdown passes. This is not an Aaron Rogers problem, guys. He’s throwing accurately. He still has the arm talent, all that great stuff. He’s super intelligent. can see the wheels turning with the mental processing on tape. Uh it’s the other stuff around him that needs to get better. And if it does, I think Aaron Rogers is going to put up some big numbers this year. So, let us know down there in the comments section. What is the biggest problem with the Steelers right now? Uh we’re going to get into the defensive takeaways here in just a second. That was just the offensive takeaways here, guys. Uh this will be the pin comment on today’s show. We’re going to give you a word from our sponsor here at Omaha Stakes here in just one moment. Uh, but make sure you guys go down there while I’m talking about our sponsor today and let me know what the biggest problem is with the Pittsburgh Steelers right now. With that, let’s have a word from our sponsor here at Omaha Steaks. And from handcrafted steaks to delicious fall favorites, Omaha Stakes delivers the world’s best steak experience. Enjoy USDA certified tender steaks, juicy burgers, cozy and convenient comfort meals, plus tailgating favorites like chicken wings, smash burgers, and big deli style franks. And now during their red hot sale event, you can get 50% off sitewide at omahastakess.com. Plus, our listeners get an extra $35 off with promo code steelers at checkout. So, not only do you get 50% off their website, but you also get an additional $35 off your order when you use code steelers uh at omahastakess.com. And personally, guys, I love Omaha Stakes. I cook steak with Cassie at home at least two to three times a week. We love cooking up steaks, especially when you get them at this low of a price and you get this great of a deal. Uh, get fired up for grill for fall grilling with Omaha Stakes today. Visit omahastak.com for 50% off sitewide during their red hot sale event. And for an extra $35 off, use promo code steelers at checkout. That’s 50% off at omahastak.com and an additional $35 off with promo code steelers at checkout. So again guys, that’s 50% off your order, plus an additional $35 off when you use promo code Steelers. See site for details. A big thank you to Omaha Stakes for sponsoring today’s edition of Steelers Talk. All right, so now let’s let’s go on to the defense here. And there’s quite a bit to talk about uh with the defense as well. So if you thought the offense was was extensive, here we go, fans. Uh so let’s go first up here. Same old game plan for the Pittsburgh Steelers. And you know, this is a very classic Tomlin defense. And you know, Tomlin has more or less run his defenses very similarly all throughout his 18-year tenure tenure here in Pittsburgh. Um, but to kind of put it down to the gist, what Tomlin’s defensive philosophy is is to play cover one and cover three pretty straight up with not a lot of postnap rotations or anything like that. Play straight up cover one or cover three on early downs. And you hope that your pass rush gets a sack. You hope for a penalty. you hope for a negative play of some sort to put the team that you’re playing behind the sticks. And then once they’re behind the sticks, then you can start throwing some of the postnap rotations, the non-traditional Tampa, uh, you know, the the the the the blitzes, the fire zones that Dick Leau made famous here and all the disguises. And, you know, the Steelers do run that stuff. It’s just on early downs, they play pretty vanilla, cover one and cover three. I think teams have certainly figured out that they can pass the football pretty effectively against the Steelers as long as they stay ahead of the sticks. So, here’s something that’s kind of crazy, man. The Steelers last six pass defense snaps were quote unquote non-static defensive coverages. What that means is that there was either a pre-nap disguise or there was a post snap rotation of some kind. Before that, they only had, I believe, like five the entire game before that on 30 snaps. So like they were playing pretty vanilla and then of the ones that happened before this final drive, uh most of them were on third down. So they played pretty vanilla and static on first and second down as long as the team that they’re playing is staying on schedule. And the Patriots did stay on schedule pretty uh frequently yesterday. Um, and then they play, you know, kind of non-static coverages on third down, uh, in crunchtime situations, which, uh, might explain why the Steelers defense is pretty good at stopping teams on the final drive of games because they’re throwing stuff at an offense that they haven’t seen the entire game. So, uh, I guess give kudos to the Steelers for getting the job done, having a bend, don’t break style of defense here, but you certainly gave up a lot of yards in the process. Uh, some some more takeaways here in terms of alignment and, uh, play time. Uh Chuck Clark stayed in the in the starting lineup. He had the most snaps among safeties yesterday uh over Jabril Peppers. And then Juan Thornhill went from 100% participation uh last week versus Seattle to this week uh getting under 40% of defensive snaps. He still played in a rotational role uh but he certainly got demoted this week. So keep that in mind. And then another thing that I’ll that to to uh to do here if you’re the Steelers is to play Jabril Peppers more. had a 90.1 PFF grade uh this week and on film he was flying around, dude. He had that forced fumble. He was great in run support when he was asked to play deep safety. I thought he did that better than either Juan Thornnehill or Chuck Clark has throughout the start of this season. So, I’m I’m really excited to see what Jabril Peppers and Deshawn Elliott are going to be able to do as a safety tandem this year. Speaking of Deshawn Elliot, you got to get Joey Porter Jr. and Deshawn Elliott back in the lineup. And I think once you do, that’s going to open up a lot of good things for this Steelers secondary because right now the Steelers are playing a lot of off coverage and they don’t really have any corners on their team that they trust in press coverage. And that’s really Joey Porter Jr’s role. And uh you know, losing Joey, I can’t explain how important that is to this defense because he’s your meg defender. What that means is man everywhere he goes. He is the guy that you put on an island. He is a guy that you trust with the number one assignments and press coverage with those long arms. And when he’s not on the field, that is a big loss for this defense. And we have felt that loss. And then when it comes to Deshawn Elliot, he’s one of the best run defense safeties in the league. Super instinctive. Uh really good as a buzzing safety as well in zone coverages. And you have really missed his presence these first few weeks having to look at Chuck Clark and Juan Thornnehill play safety for this team. There’s there’s been moments where Clark and Thornnehill have looked all right. Uh but that’s certainly been a weakness of this Steelers uh defense to this point. And once you can put Peppers, Joey Porter Jr., and Deshaawn Elliot all on the field at the same time along with Jaylen Ramsey and Darius Slay, and hopefully those guys can stay healthy, I think that this group uh looks a lot better uh than what it has in the first three weeks. Now, before we get into the rest of our defensive takeaways here, guys, if you enjoy uh the in-depth coverage here, if you love the level of nuance and and depth that we’re going in on this video and you appreciate the efforts that we uh put on this video, make sure you guys click that thumbs up icon. It really does help out the show. It puts this video in front of more Steelers fans like yourselves. It helps us grow our subscriber base because the more people that watch, the more people that subscribe, the more people that like, and it’s just a cycle, guys. So, thank you guys so much for your support. Uh, and now let’s get into the rest of our defensive takeaways here. Starting with Cole Hulcom. And starting him over Pton Wilson. He had a majority of the snaps in this game over Pton Wilson um was the right choice. He was much better in run defense. You can tell that he is a lot more uh disciplined in his run fit. He’s a lot more physical than Peyton Wilson has been, frankly, in run defense. And when Wilson was out there, he still had lapses in coverage. He had a blown coverage that gave up the second touchdown in Tampa 2 versus the New England Patriots yesterday. Um, you know, in a disguised look. So, you know, Pton Wilson has had a tough start. Um, you know, that’s a big swing and a miss by me. I I I heard everything coming out of camp and Luke Keequley and all these different people praising him and I thought he was going to be the next great Steelers linebacker. uh right now he’s got a long way to go uh still to get to that point and Cole Hulkcom should be this team’s number two starting uh inside linebacker at least until Jawan Bentley can get going. Then we get to Patrick Queen who is coming alive specifically in the run game guys. Now there’s still some lapses and pass coverage. But here’s the thing with linebackers, guys. Uh in zone coverage, linebackers are not always going to win. All right? There’s not a lot of really good zone coverage linebackers in the National Football League. And you know, does Queenie give up uh his fair share of of catches? Sure. But like he’s also super athletic. He’s great with his instincts. He has had nine run stuffs. So that’s either uh tackles of runs uh that result in zero or negative yardage over the last two weeks. He has been a big- time impact in the run game. He’s a big reason why the run game was as good uh as it was in the run defense department for this defense last week. And I think Hulkcom was also a good part of that as well. So, um, you know, we went from week one where both Patrick Queen and Peyton Wilson were doooo garbage baby against the run to, you know, week three where Queen and Hulkcom seems to be like the the duo there that’s getting it done. So, hopefully they can keep that rolling. Hopefully that duo can continue to stop the run as the weeks go on. I still think that the Steelers need to make a switch at nose tackle. Um, here’s the thing about Keano Benson, guys. he can actually make some very disruptive plays uh as a run defender, but like they’re few and far be between because he’s going to have to get the leverage advantage against the offensive lineman and he’s not going to he’s going to have to not get double teamed, which is pretty rare when you’re a nose tackle. You get double teamed a lot when you play nose tackle in the National Football League and he just he’s still getting driven backwards. It wasn’t as bad as it was in the first two weeks. I thought he played better this week and this was his best game so far, but like I feel like the switch is just so easy. You put ya black who is a 330lb monster with long arms in the middle there to kind of plug up the middle of the offensive line and then you allow Keano Benson to play the other defensive end spot where he can be more disruptive and take on more one-on-one assignments and get into the backfield and get more TFLs. I think if you make that switch like this run defense gets even better than what we saw uh yesterday. Another thing that I want the Steelers to do and I put pointed this out last week and I’m I’m going to continue to point this out. blitz Jaylen Ramsay more. All right. Back in the day, uh, when Mike Hilton was here, the Steelers blitzed him a ton. And it’s so much that offensives were literally afraid of Mike Hilton. And they would literally have to account for where Mike Hilton was on any given play, every single snap, and that they were able to work things off of that. And they were able to beautifully marry concepts off of the threat of the nickel blitz. Well, guess what? The Steelers only blitzed Ramsay once yesterday and it was the final play of the game. And what happened? It was a fourth and one stop. It worked out great. So, right now, I don’t think teams fear Jaylen Ramsey in the way that they should. Now, maybe they feel like, oh, with Joey Porter Jr. out, we don’t trust uh to have less defenders in the in the secondary. We want to play more bend don’t break. We don’t want to give up as many big plays. Um, and we want Jaylen out in coverage where he can get interceptions and pass breakups and all this different stuff. And I understand that, but also man, like if you have the threat of Jaylen Ramsay on every play coming after your quarterback, like that’s going to be another element that quarterbacks and offensive quarterback coordinators have to deal with, and that’s just going to make this defense more dangerous. So, there’s no reason, in my opinion, Ramsay’s one of the best blitzing uh corners in the entire National Football League, if not the best. I would put him close to the line of scrimmage on almost every single play uh and and make teams worry about him so they can open up other things in this defense. And then the final defensive takeaway, guys, is that TJ Watt and Nick Herbig are fierce. All right, these guys are unbelievable. And you know, TJ got two sacks. Herb Herbic had a forced fumble. Both of these guys were affecting the quarterback very frequently. Um, and I I’m really excited about this duo moving forward with Alex Heismith out for probably the next month or so. And right now, guys, I think Nick Herig is making himself indispensable moving forward. All right. Like, would anybody be shocked right now if they gave Nick Herbig a big extension next off seasonason and then traded Alex Heismith for a high draft pick next year? I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t. Especially with the rate that Heismith gets injured at. And listen, man, I love Heismith. I think he’s a great fit for this defense. He’s good out in coverage. can that gives this defense versatility when he’s on the field. He’s just been injured too frequently and he’s very expensive as well and Herbig’s younger and all these different things. So like you know it’s going to be interesting to see how well Herbig plays over these next several weeks. He’s been awesome in the two weeks he’s been back. Um and I’m looking forward to seeing what this young man can do as a starting outside linebacker for the Pittsburgh Steelers over the next month. So what say you guys? Let me know down there in the comments section. Should Nick Herbick be a full-time starter in this defense over Alex Heismith even when he gets back? Give me a yes or a no down there in the comments section. That’ll be it for today’s show, guys. I know today was an absolute beast of a video. Uh, but we try to give you guys the most in-depth extensive Steelers coverage anywhere on YouTube. Uh, so make sure you guys click that subscribe button if you enjoyed today’s content. You want more in-depth Steelers videos just like this one every single day. All right, our segment is in the books. Mr. uh Mr. Ponzi, unfortunately, we just got an update from Ian Ian Rapaort here. Ponzi, a former Pit Panther and Pittsburgh Steeler. Uh James Connor will have surgery and is done for the season. We hate to see that. Also, Naji Harris, another former Steelers running back, out for the season with an Achilles tear yesterday. You hate to see that happen. Um Connor kind of got rolled up on. I mean, it was just a brutal play. It It looked bad, man. Brutal play. I don’t know if you saw the video, but it looked bad. Very bad. And same with the Harris one. I mean, it was it was you hate to see those Achilles tears. We saw Austin Eckler had that Achilles tear as well. A lot of a lot of terrible injuries. It seemed happening early on this week at the running back position. And I mean, it’s just it’s a shame. And obviously, thoughts and prayers with their recovery. Uh Nick Bosa torn ACL out for the season as well. Yeah, that’s just that’s just brutal, man. That San Francisco medical staff, training staff just has to be the worst in the game. It just has to be the worst. I mean, there’s nothing I mean, good. I’m sure they’re great people, but like there I mean, apparently, Coach Shanahan said that the initial diagnosis was that the ACL was still intact. How do you [ __ ] that up? And the whole thing is with a medical like you should be able to see it like even with like a clean tear, you should see that it’s not intact. And that’s what it was. It was a clean tear, which is good for him, but at the end of the day, it’s not it’s still not intact. And you’re having your head coach go up there on the podium and looking like a fool, thinking that, you know, oh, we’re going to have it back later on in the season. Yeah. And now tough. He’s out for the season. And I don’t know which leg it was, but we get any super chats. Uh, I don’t believe we definitely got a 10. Yes. Just just one super chat. Yes. Uh, it’s loading up on here. Sounds good. Um, we’ll stay live, guys, as long as you guys want us to with the super chat. So, if you guys have questions, if you got comments, um, make sure you guys get those super chats in. Uh, but Alex El coming in with a $10 super chat. We appreciate you, Alex. He says, “Let’s go. Defense finally showed up.” Uh, you know, they certainly showed up in some regards, Ponzi. Uh, they showed up in run defense. They showed up in terms of punching the football out. And I said this yesterday, Ponzi, but this coaching staff, if they deserve credit for anything, okay, and right now, it’s certainly not popular to give credit to the Steelers coaching staff for anything right now. Um, but if they do deserve credit for anything, it’s that they teach their defensive players to punch that football out better than any coaching staff in the league. Um, you know, and it’s not, and TJ Watt is a perfect example of that. He leads the league in forced fumbles since he entered the league by a factor of like 20. like it’s just an insane number how many force fumbles he has. But like it’s it’s also outside of TJ. You know, the reason why the Steelers it seems like are always in the top 10 and turnovers for most of the time top five is because they’re able to force these balls out and not just on defense but also on special teams and to get these fumbles like we got in week one versus the New York Jets that are completely gamechanging, right? So, um you know, this coaching staff certainly has it its issues. We just talked about a [ __ ] ton of them uh in that news in that in that segment that film study takeaways, but like you know, you got to give them credit for that that this team can punch a football out and if you don’t secure the ball, Steelers are going to get that thing. All right, so that’s where we’re at. Seahawks signing Khalil Herbert to the practice squad. Wow. Okay. All right, man. Well, uh let’s put on a twominut shot clock here for super chats. Um, if we don’t get any super chats, we will You said two minutes. Yeah, two minutes. Two minutes to get super chats in. And then if we don’t get any, we’ll head out here. We still haven’t gotten to $100 in super chats today. We are $75 away from giving away a Steelers Talk hat today. Someone wants to be generous and donate one or whatever. Certainly don’t need to. It’s just a Monday live stream here, guys. We greatly appreciate all the donations that came in yesterday. But, uh, here’s the menu. If you guys want to send in a question or if you guys want to, uh, talk some more football, we can stay live as long as you guys want. But, as this clock winds down, let’s talk about tonight’s Monday Night Football matchup here, Ponzi. Very fun matchup tonight. Uh, you got the Ravens and the AFC North. Currently 1 and one going up against the Detroit Lions. And I know Steelers Nation is going to be cheering for those uh, boys in the Motor City. Yeah, I’m I’m true to cheering for the Lions right now, too. In my buyin league or fantasy, uh, I’m going against Derrick Henry and Z Flowers. Nobody gives a [ __ ] man. Yeah, I know. I know. I know. Nobody gives a [ __ ] about your f fantasy team. I just I just need it. I need it, man. I’m oneonone right now. I’m not trying to go one and two. Fair enough, man. I I I I I’m facing three players in tonight’s game and I I I got no players playing tonight. So, I I got a little bit of a lead, but got to hold down uh Derrick Henry, Almond Ross, St. Brown, and there’s one other And there’s one other player. Those first two are terrifying. Yes, they are. So, because you know e either one of them could either go for zero or like eight points or the thing is too like these defenses have not been terrific to start the season uh either. So, we’ll see how these guys play. Um but I’m going to go I’m going to go the anti-Ravens pick here. I’m going to go the Lions to win this one. Um what do I want to go with? I want to go 3130. Close game at the end. You think the Ravens are going to blow it again? Yep. I think I think I got the Lions, too. I think it’s going to be a lot closer, you know, or like a lot closer than like any other game because if I feel like some people are thinking the Ravens are going to blow them out. Yeah. But like if I had to go with a score, it’s going to be like the most Ravens score. It’s going to be like 3542. Yeah, that’s that was that’s pretty indicative of that first game against the Bills. All right, you guys got We did get a super chat here, so we’ll hit that. Uh we got 10 seconds to get your super chats in and we’ll stay live as long as the super chats keep coming in. But uh Justin coming in with a five. Appreciate you. Uh Jy says if we if we continue if we continue this path we are not going to be 500. Our end of year schedule is brutal. I don’t disagree Justin. If we play like the way that we have played the first three weeks um throughout the entire season, this team is probably a seven or eight win football team. Yeah. Is what I’d say. Now, now, sorry to cut you off, Pony, but uh the the good news, guys, is that it’s just September, okay? And teams are not the same. And this is something that people get wrong all the time. People are prisoners of the moment. you’re not I mean just because you played a certain way in the first three weeks of the season doesn’t mean you’re going to play that way the final weeks three weeks of the season that doesn’t mean um that you’re going to be you know the same team in December than you are in uh September right so you got to grow you got to get better we talked about a lot of the things that the Steelers are not doing right in our in our segment today um and I completely agree with you Justin if you play the way that this team has played the first three weeks and you don’t make any adjustments and you don’t make any improvements and you don’t progress as the season goes on, then yeah, this is probably a seven or eight win football team and I they’re not a playoff team the way that they played the first three weeks. They’re not I mean, they’re not just not a Super Bowl team. They’re not a playoff team the first three weeks of the year. You know, you took the words right out of my mouth, but like I mean it’s just we you saw the Steelers last year got off to a really good start, one of the best teams in the league. Yep. And then they collapsed. At at one point we were sitting at 10 and three and people and like I I got blasted for putting the Steelers I think sixth or seventh in my power rankings and people are like they should be number two over the Chiefs and the Bills and the Ravens and all these teams. I’m like it’s the same thing. I’m like guys like I I I love that we’re 10 and three right now but let’s hold our horses here a little bit. All right. You weren’t drinking the Kool-Aid. Exactly. And you know, then you have the collapse at the end of the season. And guys, I don’t know about you, but I would much rather have the slow start and then the fast and hots finish and be playing your best football in January and you figure [ __ ] out. Also, another great uh kind of comparison there, Ponzi, Philadelphia Eagles last year. Yeah. I mean, we Philly was terrible the first Well, not terrible, but they were not great. They were not great. All right. They they their first four weeks, all right, they beat Green Bay in that terrible field in Brazil in the in the season opener. Jaylen Herz had like three interceptions, did not play a good game. Packers lost that game more than the Eagles won it. Then you lose in the final moments against Kirk Cousins and the [ __ ] Falcons at home in week two. Then you score 15 points against a terrible Saints defense in week three to win 15 to 12. And then you get uh the brakes beat off of you in week four versus Tampa Bay and you start the season two and two and people were saying bench Jaylen Herz for Kenny Picket. That was actually a talking point in in among Eagles fans last year, guys. Bench Jaylen Herz for Kenny MVP. People Philly fans were demanding the firing of Nick Serriani. And what did they do at during their week five buy, which by the way, guess what week the Steelers have a buy this week? They made adjustments. They made things work. All right, they put Cooper De Gene in the slot. And he was the highest graded corner in football from that point forward. They went from more of a pro style Kellen Moore style offense in the first four games to a Jaylen Herz spread style offense after the buy. And what happened? They they still haven’t lost a [ __ ] game since Jaylen Herz starts and finishes a game. So, I mean, last year, and by the way, that’s not me saying the Steelers are going to win the Super Bowl this year or that they’re definitely going to uh, you know, make the adjustments that the Eagles made last year. All right? That’s not what I’m saying. The moral of the story is teams get better as the season goes on. Teams make adjustments as the season goes on. Teams find things that work. Teams get players back from injury that are crucial to this team. Just look at Joey Porter Jr. and Deshawn Elliott. Once you get those two guys back, man, I think a lot of the coverage issues go away for the Steelers defense. I really do. Maybe I’m wrong on that, but I really think those two guys are really, really crucial pieces of this secondary. And to add on to your point there, Spar, you know, teams should improve as the season goes on, you know. Yes, I think I think that’s the ultimate thing that’s been the ultimate problem for the Steelers team in the past because I feel like they’ve always gone on to really good starts, but sometimes they just collapse. And the Eagles again, they got off to a really good start uh in the year before they won the Super Bowl and then they collapsed. They lost a lot of their games in the stretch, you know, the year, what was it, 2023, 2024, and uh they lost to Tampa Bay in the opening round of the wild card. Yeah, that’s a good point. Like the Eagles and the Steelers, very similar situations. Last year’s Eagles, this year’s Steelers. Now, I think that the the Eagles, you know, they were dealing with injuries early. Uh they had a much better offensive line to work with. Yeah. A lot of different stuff. So there’s there it’s not one forone comparison, but the Eagles were coming off a collapsed season the year before. Remember, they lost all those games in a row at the end and lost in the first round of the playoffs. Then they have a slow start where they lose games that they shouldn’t. They don’t look the way that they should the first few weeks of the season. Then they make adjustments. So the question is, will the Steelers make the proper adjustments? And I if you say no and you don’t trust this coaching staff, I can’t blame you. But last year, you couldn’t blame Eagles fans for thinking that Nick Serriani and that coaching staff weren’t going to get the proper adjustments, right? So like all I’m trying to say, guys, is that it’s a long season. You want to be playing your best football at the end and not You want to put together a whole complete season, don’t get me wrong. You want to be playing good football all the way through. But if you’re going to be picking a time to be start to playing cold and then playing hot, you want to be playing cold at the beginning of the season, figure things out, progressively, get better, and then be playing your best football at the end of the year. And that possibility still very much exists for this football team. $2 from D. Simmons. Appreciate you, D. Simmons. Is DH Joey Porter Jr. D uh NH and ah uh missing time have hurt. No question. injuries hurt, but like and I do think guys that Joey Porter Jr. and Deshawn Elliott losing those guys, it’s going to hurt. You know that that has hurt a lot. It has. Um and I think this defense is going to look a lot better when those guys get back. No question about it. All right. Um but with that said, um that doesn’t really all the injuries on the defense don’t really excuse what the offense is doing right now. And um that’s a big issue, man. like this team is designed to play heavy bully ball style of football and win matchups in that way and they’re not winning those matchups right now. So that either means a you got to execute better or b you got to change course and you got to make an adjustment. I don’t know if they’re going to do either of those things, but uh we’ll certainly see in the weeks to come. $5 from Mark Russ coming in here. What’s up Mark? says, “Hate to be uh negative, but we could be great if we move on from Jones and McCormack. Defense getting healthy and Rogers led league in touchdown passes.” Um, yeah, man. I mean, that’s that Listen, man. If Calvin Austin doesn’t tip that weird uh ball up in the air versus Seattle, Aaron Rogers is in sole possession of first place for touchdown passes in the National Football League right now. If you’re blaming the start for the Pittsburgh Steelers on Aaron Rogers, I have to question like whether or not you’re watching the games number one, do you know ball and do you know ball, you know what I’m saying? Like is Rogers like the MVP caliber guy he once was? Probably not. In fact, definitely not. He can’t make he can’t make the plays out of structure that he used to make from a mobility standpoint. But he’s still really smart. He still has really good pocket presence. He’s still generally accurate. He still has a really good deep ball. Um, you know, just look at that third and 10 yesterday on that wraparound seam to Janu Smith to save that second drive. I mean, like I got to say that that throw anticipating him open. Yeah. I know, especially against Seattle, that throw kind of on the run to Frier and you dropped it, that was a be. Yeah. And you you want to know something crazy? Uh, that that third down and 10 completion to keep the drive alive was the same exact play, the same exact route that he threw the interception on. So, so, so he tried to, so he tried to beat them on that concept for a second time and it didn’t work. Obviously, he tried to get to Calvin on that seam. It wasn’t Janu, it was Calvin that time and then they play Robert Spelain uh played deeper than he did on the first time and took it away. But, um, you know, I think Rogers has been for, you know, with the surroundings that he’s had with the defenses playing the Steelers the way that they’ve been playing them, taking away the deep ball. I can’t blame Rogers for the way that he’s been playing. I think he’s actually made pretty much the most out of what this team has been kind of giving him. And if they can give him more opportunities, I think we’ll see more closer to what we saw from week one where we saw four touchdown passes and a really good completion percentage and a skyhigh passer rating. But like I like I said, guys, he’s one of those quarterbacks that’s not able to elevate the unit anymore. He needs help around him. He needs the pass protection. He needs guys to get open. He needs the scheme to work for him. And right now, it’s not working for him. So, you know, hopefully they can figure that out um in the weeks to come. I’m g pull up a stat here because I’m pretty I saw it the other day. Um yeah, so far Aaron Rogers has been sacked seven times and none yesterday. Exactly. None yesterday, but he’s been pressured a [ __ ] ton, dude. He might be under I I have to look at the pressure rates, but he might be one of, if not the most pressured quarterback in the league through three weeks. I mean, it would not surprise It would not surprise me. And most of that pressure, I would say, is coming from the tackles. Uh, Brick Jones and Troy Futano, I think, are the people allowing the most pressure right now. Um, and those guys certainly need to get better as the season goes on. All right, that’s going to be it for us today, guys. Thank you so much for joining us. Next time we’ll be live is on Thursday. Well, we we’ll be talking about uh more about week the week four matchup versus the Vikings. We’ll be talking about or we we’ll be going into our in-depth preview for this week. We’ll be doing all that great stuff. So, make sure you click that subscribe button if you haven’t already. Till next time, guys. Here we go, Steelers. [Music]

Steelers Talk by Chat Sports goes live on Monday, September 22nd, to discuss what the film says about the Steelers’ Week 3 win over the New England Patriots. On today’s live show, host Jack Sperry and producer Xavier Pon discuss the good, the bad, and the ugly regarding this year’s Steelers team through the first 3 weeks of the 2025 NFL season. What are the Steelers’ issues on both offense & defense so far this year? In what areas are they playing well? Let’s put a bow on Steelers Week 3 on today’s edition of the Steelers Talk Live show.

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