DK’s Double Shot of Steelers: The big trip

DK’s Double Shot of Steelers: The big trip

[Music] [Applause] [Music] Hey guys, welcome to Double Shot of Steelers presented by FanDuel. I’m Dan Kvachovic of DK Pittsburgh Sports, soon to be over in Dublin, Ireland, covering Steelers versus Vikings. Look at our shiny new helmet we got here. I’m going to hold it up, show it for everybody. video side. The official NFL 2025 Dublin game. Absolutely. Ryell miniature helmet because we spare no expense to generate the set of this fine program for all of yins. Welcome to the show. Mike Tomlin addressed the Steelers travel plans heading over to Dublin. I have been promising you not for weeks but for months that this would become a significant point of conversation when the time would hit and the time has hit and so has the significant point of conversation. This was what Tomlin had to say about the Steelers plan today at his press conference. And the plan, incidentally, is for the Steelers to go over on Thursday after practice and get there in the very early hours, Irish time of Friday morning. Uh the physical work on this side of the trip is important for us. Um we’re doing some things to to acclimate ourselves to the trip. Uh we’re working early this week to to to start the body clock transition process. We certainly have some best practices um in terms of acclimating ourselves once we begin the journey at the latter part of the week. Um but nothing unique there. Um a lot of organizations have been traveling internationally now for a number of years. And so some of that some of those procedural things that that put you in position to best perform are less mystical and really more best practices. The hydration factor, the sleep factor, and all of those things. We had a good admin meeting yesterday regarding some of that stuff so that we can get singularly focused on on the football work, the prep work uh that’s going to be required to position ourselves to play winning football. Yeah. Uh a a lot of that and none of that was a lie. Okay. All of it was the truth, but there’s a lot more to it and I’m going to share some of that with you here. To begin, the NFL has a hand in all of this. Uh, the NFL is not in a great position to outright instruct people, but the NFL is and can be and was in this specific event a little bit heavy-handed. And here’s what I mean by that. The Vikings are going over and they are staying an extra week. So, what the NFL didn’t want, from what I understand, is for the Vikings to go over there for two full weeks. So, the Vikings go over this way a couple days in advance just like the Steelers. Nobody has a competitive advantage. The Vikings aren’t stuck in Europe for again two full weeks because after this game, they go over and they play in London. So, the NFL talks to those parties. The NFL says, “All right, this is the way it’s going to be. That’s it.” So if Mike Tomlin were to have woken up, I don’t know, last week and go banging on our Rooney’s door and say, “Hey, how about if we go over on Monday instead?” And I like, “No, no, no, man. We got this done.” So there isn’t going to be, the way there was for London, that really was a debacle, a real easy finger to point. There isn’t going to be something where you can say, “Aha, Tomlin did this or Tomlin was stubborn related to London.” No. No. This has a lot more to do with the Vikings than it does with the Steelers. Now, again, in fairness, both of these teams, the Steelers and the Vikings, are doing the exact same thing. So, if they both come out looking like a total mess the way the Steelers and the Vikings did at Wembley Stadium in 2013, it’s not going to be something that’s advantageous to one side or the other. I hope that at least sets the stage for the conversation that we have today because that’s what this is going to be all about. When we come back, I’m going to be joined by Chris Hack. Hey guys, if you’re planning to see a Steelers game, use the Game Time app to get your tickets. You can snag new ticket deals before anyone. If you set it into your app alerts, the app is easy to use. No surprise fees at checkout. You can see your seat view before buying. And you’re getting legit tickets delivered on time. If you’re not much of a planner, you can get lastminute deals on tickets right up to the start of the event. Lowest price guaranteed or game time will credit you 110% of the difference. Download the Game Time app and enter the code DK Steelers into your app profile to get $20 off your first purchase. Welcome back. Joined now by Chris Hock. And I see that Steelers Mexico has already come in and says, “What a horrible schedule for the Vikings.” Why? I don’t I don’t think that’s horrible at all. The team that’s going to come over to face them a week later is going to be coming over with all the jet lag and everything and the Vikings will be there having a great time in a great city while they’re already completely adjusted. Uh Chris, when when you heard Mike Tomlin uh today, did it almost sound like he was ready to do a preemptive strike to cut off any potential criticism at him? Uh yeah, because I I think he knew that was kind of coming. Uh he knew it was going to be a talking point with the way London went down. Um but you know, to to to your point and what you said, you know, prior to or you know, in the opening segment there, um there’s a lot of truth to what he said that, you know, when when 2013 happened, when when that London trip happened, the international games weren’t as um what’s the best way to put it? It’s not that they He he used the term mystical, right? You know that that they were seen as being these crazy anomalies that we couldn’t believe that we were over there. And now the NFL has what, eight, 12 games overseas a year. Yeah. There there are so many international games now. Um there are so many teams that have made this trip. The Jaguars can pretty much give the the they they’re pretty much writing the book on how to go over to London and handle it because they’re over there every single year. Um, so that part is true and the NFL makes sure that like those teams don’t like hide that information that they, you know, they go through and, you know, we’re seeing tangible efforts made. One thing Tomlin said that they’re doing is they’re practicing, uh, earlier in the day, uh, both Wednesday and Thursday. It’s only 90 minutes, but it’s still 90 minutes earlier. you’re still getting your body used to waking up a little earlier, going to bed a little earlier, and it’s still a process that that they are actually trying to do things to get the players ready. And that was new today, by the way. That was not information that this the team had even Well, it wasn’t information. It wasn’t even a conclusion that the team had reached. Yeah. Until they put it out to everybody today. So that was part of what you you heard Tomlin saying in that opening segment was the the admin talks and the things that he wanted to get out of way get out of the way before focusing fully on football. The other thing to understand and he said this at the very beginning but he he got through it real quickly and I want to emphasize it. The reason that Tomlin stayed in Pittsburgh as long as he did, and this is when it was 100% up to him in 2013, was he just focuses on his practices, on his facilities, on his fields. His only worry in advance of a football game is that there’s enough preparation, if there’s enough time and the weather conditions and the indoor bubble and everything else so that they can get their x amount of work in before that game. Now, you’re going to have to have a practice over there and that is the Steelers intent and it’s the intent is to have one on Friday. They have a field lined up. It’s not Croak Park, but it’s it’s another field. They hope to have contingencies in the event of weather to have that practice done. But this my point here isn’t to bore you with the details. Rather, it’s to let you know what they’re worried about. This coach is a lot more worried about getting through the practice routine and the walkth through on Saturday that they’re going to have at Croak Park than he is about did so and so player get enough sleep on the plane or whatever. That’s he that’s his priority. Now, that might be easier for him to say than for others because he did acknowledge sleeping on the plane the last time and about half the team didn’t sleep on the plane. So, this is this really is the difference for those of us who travel overseas on a regular basis. The difference is did you sleep on the aircraft or did you not? Because if you did not, you’re going to have to pay for that at some point. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. I’m flying out, you know, I’m leaving for the airport like an hour after the show uh the show is over and I’m I’m preparing. I’m like I’m I’ve got my bag packed a certain way so that I actually take my contacts out before I even get on the plane so that I I’m I’m planning on sleeping like that. That’s my particular goal. And for those players in particular, because they’re going later in the week, sleep on the plane absolutely has to be part of a part of this equation. Now, not every single player is going to be able to. It’s just some people cannot sleep sleep on planes. But then also, I mean, TJ yesterday when they had the locker room open, you know, he said like, I’m trying to sleep as much as I can now, like in the days leading up to it. Like, you have to try to sleep as much as you can. You also have to try to it’s also when you sleep. Are you going to bed earlier? Are you waking up earlier? I think that’s why you’re seeing things like the Steelers doing things earlier in the day. I mean, some people might think, “Oh, they’re only practicing like uh 90 minutes ahead of time, which means practice will start at 11 instead of 12:30.” Yeah, they get there way before practice actually starts, like way before. And so that means they’re going to be getting there 90 minutes earlier than they were before. So, their days are going to be starting really, really early. Yeah. You know what though? one way or another, come kickoff. And that’s going to be at 9:30 am Pittsburgh time. It’s going to be at 2:30 p.m. Irish time. Just, you know, it’s just it’s a football game. They have smelling salts. They have, you know, they have I don’t know. They can take some Turners over or something, you know. Whoa. Yeah, we just spritzed everybody. and they they can they can find a way to, you know, make sure that they’re awake and alert and everything else and and, you know, go ahead and play a football game. I I do know that when you’re going back through time in 2013 when the Steelers and the Vikings met at Wembley, that the first quarter and and really the first half was just kind of this walking dead zombie fest. And really, even the third wasn’t much of a of an event. By the time they got to the fourth quarter, because the game was close, I think you started to see some adrenaline kick in and guys getting a little better, a little bit little bit more into it. But afterward, it it was wow. Oh, I mean, I I’ve described this scene many times over the years, but these guys were just uh and not because not just because they lost, not just because they were 0 and4, they couldn’t even speak. Like, if you can picture Ryan Clark not being able to speak and believe me, I’d say that if RC was standing right here because he couldn’t. Yeah. And that was that was phenomenal to see. I remember the session with Ben Rothllessberger. There was I mean no more than a handful of us around him. He It must have lasted a minute and a half. Yep. Got to get back to the lab. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It’s tough now. Yeah. We’re going to have to fight back. Yeah. And that was it. Like, all right, Ben. Thanks. There was just there was nothing there. Uh this So, no matter what you do, this isn’t going to be perfect. I don’t know that the the following week’s game for the Vikings, not that I care about them, is is going to be a perfect thing there. It’s a significant adjustment. The human body, no matter how often you do this, doesn’t, you know, and the mind and everything else and the rest factor, uh, isn’t going to be a thing. The other thing that the Steelers have to concern themselves with though on this trip, Chris, is uh these guys that just put up 500 billion points on on the Bengals. Um when you look at what the Vikings did to the Bengals, how much of it was Cincinnati’s defense being exactly what it is, and how much of it was Minnesota starting to find itself? Well, I mean, so Mike Tomlin talked about it today. Um he talked about how you know like I think some like a lot of fans are going into this and thinking oh well my the Vikings are going to have Carson Wentz a quarterback and not JJ McCarthy. And Tomlin said that actually might not be a a bad thing for them. Uh he said veteran quarter or like veteran quarterbacks or like veteran backups they do a lot of the intangibles right like they they’re professionals. They operate everything within structure. And when you have a very very smart offensive coach like Kevin Oonnell is the Viking the floor is pretty high for that offense especially when you look at the weapons that the Vikings have that that Carson Wentz has to throw to. Plus they’re getting Jordan Addison back. TJ Hawinson is a very very good tight end. We just saw what Hunter Henry was able to do against this defense. If you have TJ Hawinson in fantasy you better start him this week. Uh, and then of course there’s that guy named Justin Jefferson who in my opinion is the best wide receiver in football. Um, yeah, the Vikings got some guys. They got some dudes and they have a very smart offensive coach and you know for everything that that people want to say about Carson Wentz. Um, he’s been in the league for a while now. At one point he was a borderline MVP with the way he was playing the year that the Eagles won the Super Bowl. Obviously Nick Fos had to take that over because of W’s injury. But before that injury, Wentz was, like I said, playing at an MVP type level. So, this is a guy who’s had success. He’s been in the league for a while, and he’s playing for a really smart offensive coach. This is not a team to be taken lightly. And we’re not even talking about the defensive side of the ball yet. the the Minnesota defense is is going to be something for the Steelers to contend with on on multiple levels, not least of which is that they’re going to be aggressive, which is not what you want if you’re the Steelers and you’ve got that offensive line and you’re already running from your own shadow, which they are schematically these days with all the short passes and everything else here. I I have a a theory about what the Steelers could do, and it feels like it’s really wacky, and I don’t know that it should be, but if you’re sending three or four guys, this is independent of the Vikings, Chris, if you’re sending three or four guys out on routes, regardless of what positions they are, wide receiver, two wide receivers, two tight ends, three tight ends, running back, whatever, doesn’t matter. however many guys you’re sending and they don’t have the time to run their routes and your quarterback doesn’t have the time to survey where they are anyway. What are you doing? Like why why not just come up with and and I know this is going to feel like a concession, you know, or just giving up, but why not just say we’re just going to we’re going to become a six-man line. We’re going to go max protect here because as things are listen, it’s never great. We talked about this all summer. It’s never great to take someone like Darnell Washington and remove him as a weapon, but he’s not being utilized at all. At all. So, why not just say, “Listen, we’re we’re really struggling here on the line. There are no rules. There are no rules about this. We can keep six guys in. We could keep more than that in. We can keep a we can keep Jaylen in to just have I don’t know.” Do you see what I’m saying, though? Oh, I what you’re trying to do isn’t even coming close to happening. Yeah. No, I agree with that. And listen, TJ Watt talked about it uh yesterday in the locker room. He’s he’s you saying that, you know, even with the kind of pressure that the Steelers are generating right now, which is a lot. Um they’re still trying to figure out how to deal with so many different max protections that other offenses are giving them. Yeah. So, I’m like, why don’t this why don’t the Steelers go max protect? Yeah. Why don’t they go that that direction? And then I would I’m not saying he can’t do it, but is there enough stuff in the playbook where you can try to get guys open if only, you know, three or four guys are going out for passes? If you have seven protecting the quarterback, if you go full-blown max protection, that’s seven guys. Quarterback is an eighth guy. That means three guys are going out for a pass. You know, can you get somebody open? You know, I I don’t that’s a that’s a legitimate question. Or if you don’t go max protect, you just bring one extra guy in, you keep a tight end in to help, you know, maybe it gives the quarterback an extra half a second. Whatever it is, you got to find ways to get guys open. Uh and you got to find ways to you got to be more creative in terms of being able to stretch the field because we’ve seen it. We’ve seen it in flashes. We saw it with John Smith right up the seam, 21 yards. That was the the pass the in which Rogers passed Philip Rivers on the all-time list. We’ve seen it in flashes. We’ve seen it here and there, but it’s not frequent enough. And until they start hitting that on a more consistent basis, defenses are going to keep playing them the same. Denny says, “If you play Darnell Washington at outer left tackle, which is not a position, it’s Denny just made it up. You can sneak him out whenever you want without declaring him as as eligible.” I mean, you can also declare him as eligible the way they used to with Zack Banner on every snap. Uh but of course, you don’t have to with a tight end, but just use him for something. Yeah. Okay. If you’re sending him out on routes and and I I get it. He he and we talked about this in East Rutherford. He was a big literally decoy that helped contribute to two Pittsburgh touchdowns that day because the the Jets felt compelled to stick with him. Great. This isn’t that time is gone. teams have figured out yet again that all you need to do to stop the Steelers is stack that box is get in there and and and flood them because well maybe because they’re not going to adjust. Here’s here’s a different way of thinking about it. Here’s a more positive perspective on this. Try to picture based on what you saw what all of us saw Rogers do in East Rutherford when he had a little bit of time. the way he was able to drop back, look around, see things, make his right reads, and throw the ball with with precision and purpose just by having an extra second. Mhm. Back there, just by having an extra tick and a half, whatever it is. But you got to get it to him. And you can’t keep pretending that Brick Jones’s development is a priority in this. It’s not. It’s not. Right now, winning the football game is the priority. getting this offense moving is a priority. If that has to take place with either a six-man line or with somebody else doing the blocking, I’m not even going to because it’s not necessarily broad that’s struggling. I thought they they all even, you know, Zack Frasier with another penalty the other day weren’t necessarily great uh in the game in Foxboro. Let these let let this offense at least have a prayer of doing what it’s designed to do. That can’t happen like this. There are also other other options uh for giving the quarterback time. You can move the pocket. You you can utilize play action. You can do a number of things. I mean, look at what Rogers did out of play action against the Jets. I mean, he just carved them to pieces. Um, I there are a number of ways to do it, but I I keep going back to Listen, I I really believe that we’re that Rogers is at a stage of his career, and I I I understand that I, you know, a lot of the things that I’ve said about Rogers have definitely been on the more optimistic side, but I’ve also said you can’t rely on him to be your savior. The Jets did that last year, and it absolutely just blew up in their faces. You have to try to run the ball. You have to be able to not just, you know what? No, not just try. You have to run the ball. You have to be able to run the football. If you can’t do it, you’re going to be asking Rogers to be your savior. And that’s not who he is anymore. Okay. But you’re not running the football with this line. So, we still keep coming back to the same subject. We saw firsthand, Chris, what Jaylen had to run through Mhm. in Foxboro. It ain’t much. To his credit, he was hitting those holes violently. He was trying like crazy to get through. He couldn’t because it ain’t much. We’re back right back to the same problem. And all that you’re going to have done to address this is hope and cross our fingers that those five guys get better individually and as a unit. You’re not going to see the sixman put in. You’re certainly not going to see somebody find a fullback off the street. Yeah. So, so that that’s what you’ve got that you’re just going to watch them say, “Well, you know, we really need to block better. We need those guys to get better.” What if they don’t? What if there’s no real progress from week to week? And we can say things and and they do, and I’m sure they notice little stuff that is getting better. I’m sure they’re not lying about it, but to what extent what are we seeing? What what you know, we can talk about what they talk about or we can also listen. I’m sorry, not listen, but watch what it is that they’re doing on the field. That tells you how petrified they are of this line. Those schemes, those plans tell you that. Yeah. Uh, by the way, I I was kind of curious about this and I just looked it up. The Steelers are seeing the seventh highest seventh highest clip of two high looks from defenses. That means they are leave the box is not loaded. It’s seven guys in the box and that is 54% of the time the box is not loaded from what they’re seeing. Now, if if teams are going to keep showing two high safeties and pretty much daring the Steelers to run the ball and they can’t, you’re you’re not I mean, what we’re talking about here is a team that’s not good enough to go to the playoffs. Nope. That’s what you’re talking about. Nope. And you’re talking about a line that’s preventing them from getting there. Yes. I mean, you really are. Yeah. Run blocking. This is the one they tell you they like. Yeah. You know, run blocking is just see that guy over there, knock him on his rear end. Yeah. And and it’s not happening. Yeah. And and the the the the one bit of optimism, I I I did show this in the chalk talk is that they’re not getting manhandled. We’re actually seeing a lot. There was one block in partic There was one run in particular that Warren got hit in the back field for a loss. and they were running wide zone to the right and they actually had Johnny Smith in as the fullback and they were running wide zone there. Everything else is blocked up. Everything else is blocked up and Johnny Smith is about to run through the hole and he’s about to hit a defensive back and Pat Foothouth comes in and cracks down on Robert Spolain and absolutely trucked Robert Spolain like knocked him on the ground but Troy Falanu whiffed on a block and that’s all it took was one missed block to blow the entire thing up for a loss. Uh Stephen says, “I truly believe the coaches don’t know how to fix this. It looks about the same for the past 5 years. I’m I’m glad you used that time reference, Stephen, because I’ve also seen a whole bunch of things in the live chat here on today’s show that are bringing up why does this same problem keep happening? Why do the names change and the problem is still there? Is it a Tomlin thing? Is it a whatever? You can start pointing fingers in different directions, but it all comes down to the line. Not in some tired cliche way. go back to Ben Rothllessberger coming out of COVID in in the the year that they started at 11 and0 and remember what Ben was doing cuz he he wouldn’t throw hard couldn’t throw all that far anymore. He would get the ball and he knew he was going to get killed behind this line behind Kendrick Green and all that other nonsense, right? He knew. What’s he do? Steps back. Boom. Steps back. Boom. What was the actual problem? Wasn’t Ben, wasn’t the receivers, wasn’t the running backs, was the offensive line. Keep going. Year after year after year, these plays that we’re seeing right now. This is the way a team looks when it does not trust its offensive line. That’s you can take almost every question, every con criticism, comment that you’d have about the offense and boil it down to the same thing. Now, the one thing I will say is like we talk about like like a lot of things haven’t changed or there hasn’t been a lot of change. I disagree with that. I mean, who’s the who’s the most tenured player on this offensive line? And there’s two. They both came in the same year and it’s Isaac Samo and Broadick Jones in 2023. Those are the most tenured guys on this offensive line. Not talking about Isaac Samo and everything he did with with the Eagles. This line has been together before this season for two seasons. Two. And really this starting five wasn’t any good before. That’s my point about the offensive line isn’t the people. It’s the It’s the lineage of ever since they lost their Maris Pouncy group. Yeah, that you’ve had regardless of the names, you’ve had a deficient offensive line in all five of those seasons. Yeah, I think but I think the one thing and and I I’ve been getting like my live cues on on the site on our app today have been absolutely harping on the offensive line like they should. And I’ve had to tell them pretty much the same thing every time. I’m like, listen, in the grand scheme of things, you’ve got three starters who are secondyear players, and one of those guys had 55 snaps as a rookie. You have a thirdyear player at left tackle, and it’s the first time he’s playing left tackle, and you have one actual veteran on the on on the offensive line. It’s going to take time. It’s just going to there’s there’s no magic button that you can push and people want to just automatically blame Pat Meyer for it. The problem is is that you look at you will go and you’ll look at what other teams are doing like okay well what are other teams doing? Like how like do any other teams have the same exact situation that the Steelers have when you have three fifths of your like 60% of your line are secondyear players and one of those guys didn’t play almost any as as a rookie. Eric Schulo says, “I guess it doesn’t matter that the offensive line gave up no sacks on Sunday.” And I could throw on top of that, Eric, that the Patriots had an NFL high nine sacks coming into that game. And it all sounds really good, right? No. Oh. For the same reason that it was, this is redundant, but idiotic of Pro Football Focus to give four of its six highest offensive grades to offensive linemen. If if your quarterback takes the snap and throws directly to his right to John Smith, your offensive line has ceased to be relevant in that play. Yeah. All of the responsibility for the blocking goes to the tight ends and wide receivers on that side. Your offensive line’s never going to get over there in time. So, what’s the grade on that play for your O line? Aha. Quarterback got out clean. Of course, he got out clean. He never had the football. Yeah, you follow what I’m saying here? It’s like, how do you not see that? How do you not factor that into your grading? I don’t know. But no, it does not matter that they gave up no sacks because the the schematics were designed to minimize the offensive line’s impact on the game, meaning their negative impact on the game. They were handed training wheels Sunday in Foxboro, and that’s not good enough. that, as Chris just said, is not gonna get you into the playoffs. William says, “I disagree, DK. You can’t take away the good that they did.” Oh, you’re right, William. The fact that they stood there while that ball was snapped and sent 20 yards out to the right, they were awesome because that’s what How can anybody not see that? Yeah. No, I mean, they are clearly they are clearly getting I mean, Aaron Rogers I just actually just pulled it up now. Aaron Rogers is tied with Matthew Stafford for the third fastest time to throw in the league. Sure. At 2.61 seconds. How about throws behind a line of scrimmage? Well, I could that’s something else I have to have. I got I got you. I got you numbers there. 10 of his Was it 10 of his 20? No, more than that. I had it in the column. Well, average depth of target’s going to be pretty pretty. Half of half of his throws were either at or behind the line of scrimmage. Most of the rest went no further than five yards downfield. That’s not because he’s lost his arm. No, it’s not. Although I’ve seen some of that. That’s not because the receivers aren’t getting open. It’s because he has to get rid of the football because nobody can block. That’s why I can take away from the good that they did. William, they’re being handicapped around. And yet, what would be a more reasonable solution, even if it might be seen as embarrassing by some, if you’re going to go training wheels, go the full training wheels, okay? Put bookends, tight ends around them. I don’t care if they go out for passes. I want to see somebody block a hole for Jaylen Warren. I want to see DK Metaf given an opportunity to go downfield for a combat catch. As one of the wide receivers told me in the locker room Sunday in Foxboro, every time we got every time we went deep and somebody threw the ball, it was either a completion or a DPI. Now, that wasn’t 100% true, but it was a lot of percent. Yeah. What has to happen? You got to be able to block. I I agree with that. And and just to continue to like back that up, of the 33 qualifying quarterbacks right now, Aaron Rogers ranks 32nd in average air yards. Um he’s he’s not throwing the ball downfield. He’s just he’s he’s not I mean he’s getting rid of the ball third fastest in the league and he’s and he’s got the second lowest uh area average air yards. I mean he’s just he’s not getting he’s he’s not throwing the ball downfield. Um, I I I still go back to I I I’m going to stay on listen, if defenses are going to give you two high looks and you’re not going to run the ball successfully, it’s going to ruin this entire offense. I mean, everything I think stems off of that, I think this entire offense was always going to stem off I understand that like they weren’t going to go and they and going to like lead the league in rushing attempts. I think everybody just thinks of an Arthur Smith offense, they’re like, “Oh yeah, they’re going to lead the league in rushing attempts.” If you want to run, you’re going to Right. Right. But no, like they want to run the ball, but they need to be more efficient. That’s what they want to be. They want to be an efficient running team. And again, there’s there’s some optimism there. It’s not like they’re getting manhandled. Usually, it’s just one block that’s being blown. And until they can get that figured out and get those little, as Mike Tomlin likes to call them, popcorn. They get that figured out, then the run game is going to continue to struggle. than everything else. It’s a lot easier to protect your quarterback regardless of the offensive line, how much experience you have, how little experience you have, whatever, if you are getting the defense to for if you are forcing the defense to either load the box to try to stop the run and then you can get, hey, that single high look, you then you can attack downfield down the sidelines or you get the defense to play in coverages that then make it easier to attack the intermediate portions of the and and they’re not doing that right now. They’re and it’s because they’re not running the ball successfully. The re Okay, we want to talk about the first quarter is how the offense needs to look all the time. They ran the ball efficiently. They ran I mean almost five yards a carry, 53 yards total, and it produced 14 points. And then that’s not an accident. And then what did Mike Frael do? I mean they adjusted the the the they adjusted to stop the run. Yeah. And once that happened and the Steelers weren’t able to there’s some other factors that went into it, you know, but they weren’t able to adjust and it took way too long to do that. And yeah, but they got to figure it out. They got they’re they’re starting off games well. That’s the other part of this too is that their game planning and everything is starting they’re 17 points on on opening drives so far this year. That’s phenomenal. You keep doing that, you’re going to give put yourself in a position to win more football games than not. But they got to be able to run the ball. They everything starts with that. Dr. Shadow says, “Well, it starts with the line being able to run the ball.” You have a running back. You have a running back in Jaylen Warren. Dr. Shadow asks, “We keep hearing about the line. Do you think the Steelers will draft offensive line again next year?” Better not. Better not. And certainly not in the first round. There there are as many as six, seven quarterbacks that are projected right now. There’s still a whole lot of minor league football to be played, but you’re talking about a half dozen guys that are going to be in that first round depending on where it is that the Steelers finish. They could have their pick from what, three or four of those guys. I mean, you could trade up, you can get it is Yeah. Yeah. I That’s that. That’s when you say, “Hey, listen. Uh Marll Smith was a second rounder. That’s when you start listing guys who were who were good tackles for you uh in later rounds and just say we’re we’re we’re done with the first round tackles. That’s enough. You know, certainly trading up in the first round to get Brick Jones. That that just can’t happen. Crumb wants to know about Roman Wilson. He doesn’t matter. You know, he’s not he’s he’s not getting on the field. If he did, he would be what what option would he be for Rogers? like maybe the fifth or sixth. He can’t he can’t check down to his second. He doesn’t have time. No, the the the second the the whole wide receiver two, wide receiver three, like doesn’t matter. It really does not matter. They they’ve got to figure out a way to to be able to number one get the defense to stop doing this thing where again they’re just going too high and daring the Steelers to run the ball and they just can’t. And then throw trying to throw. This is this is I mean when you talk about leaguewide trends, this is why offense as a whole is down and has been down over the past few years because defenses have gone into like like you know the Seattle I mean Rogers actually talked about this in one of his availabilities this year. Seattle’s like legion of boom defense. They went with the three high and every and then of course everybody starts copying it and everything. Then you see the offenses punch back. Shawn McVey, Kyle Shanahan, all these guys, they go with the wide zone attack. They start carving up defenses this way. Other passing concepts start start carving up that that Seattle type defense. Then defenses once again shift and they start clouding everything. They start going too high. A lot of cover four and now they’re starting to cloud everything with match quarters, with palms, everything like this. And you just can’t stretching the field is so hard to do nowadays. And if defenses can continue to do that and then you can’t run the ball on top of it. That’s right. That’s a problem. Our last word for today goes to Desire Ray and and and she asks why not have Washington be out there with either John Smith or Pat Frymouth. I’m just saying he needs more snaps because he’s a better blocker as well as a matchup nightmare. Yes. That’s all I got to that one. Everything she said. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. And yes. Yes. Why would you not want Darnell on a field if your offense is out there for 65 snaps? Why would you not want Darnell out there for 65 of them? Do you see what I’m saying? You know he’s going to help you with the run blocking. You know, if he’s out there, you know, he’s going to help Jaylen Warren find some kind of edge to to whatever side he’s on, or at least be something of a deterrent or a bluff to one side or the other. You know, he can go out for a pass. You know, he can go deep for a pass. That’s what she’s referencing there with the matchup nightmare. and you know he’s going to be able to help your weakest link on the line pass protect and in doing so protect the blind side of your four-time MVP quarterback. What are we overthinking here? What what exactly is happening here? We’re just waiting for broad to turn it on. That’s all that’s happening. It’s Yeah, but it’s not even just broad. I mean I No, it’s not. But I think that’s what’s happening. Yeah. I I think I I think what they’re what they’re wanting and what they’re trusting in is for this offensive line to continue to figure things out, to continue to gel together. Um and then eventually they can start taking the training wheels off a bit. They can start trying to do some some uh other things where they stretch the field a little bit more. Um, I also think and and I’m curious, you know, to to get some more perspective on this because I mentioned it, I think, in yesterday’s show on how much because we talked about with the with the players and their perspective, but I I would like to get some more of the coach’s perspective obviously in like off the record conversations, but like how much of this like of September is almost like preseason for them. They’re almost kind of feeling things out and seeing what they have. I mean, this is not just a Steelers thing. I mean, we’re seeing some there’s a reason why September is some of the wackiest football you’ll see. I mean, the Browns just beat the Packers. The Chiefs are one and two. Like, there’s there’s some wacky things going on in the NFL right now. And I don’t think that’s an accident. It’s because teams are ignoring the preseason pretty much, which is exactly what Roger Goodell wants. And then they’re kind of feeling things out in September. And I wonder how much of that is playing a role into what the Steelers are doing on offense and on defense. Sam wants to know what we’ll be bringing in back from Dublin. I don’t bring stuff back, Sam. With with one exception, I do collect, this won’t surprise anybody, Starbucks mugs from all over the world, but I already have the the Dublin I have the last series and I have the most the series before that. So, I’m not probably not bringing anything back. There was my great answer. What do you got, Chris? What are you bringing back for Sam? I’ll be bringing back for for for Sam. I don’t know about for Sam, but for my kids, I’ll be bringing I’ll be bringing back quite a bit for my wife. My wife is uh I mean Ireland’s been at the top of her bucket list for like forever. Uh we will be going at another point in which I won’t be working. Um you won’t be doing you won’t be getting anything as nice as this this customized helmet, right? Dam mini Dublin helmet. Although I got to tell you, I know it’s not cool to say it on a week where they’re the opponent. Matte Purple. Matte Purple wins a lot of fights. The black face mask, too. It’s pretty with the black face mask, too. Yeah, we’re going to see a lot of this when we get over there because that is one popular and beloved football team, including over Europe. It’s going to be 50/50. Uh, boss says boo. You can yell at them when when you get there. All right, guys. Uh, we’re going to call this one a day. Make sure you download the DK Pittsburgh Sports app. It’s free to download into your Apple and Android devices. But if you want the good version, and that’s just how I’m calling it now. I’m not even going to pretend that the free, it has all kinds of ads on it. You can’t comment. You can’t communicate with the reporters, which is one of the amazing things about having a subscription. Uh, you know, being able to just chat with Taylor Hos the other night when last night she was in Montreal, uh, covering the Penguins preseason opener and our readers could communicate with her. get the premium version, but do that by emailing me dkdpittsports.com. I’ll hook you up with a massive discount and and you’ll be really glad you got it. Uh Chris, safe travels. I’ll be joining you in a in a day after that. And uh everybody else, we’ll see you here tomorrow. [Music] [Applause]

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