DK’s Live Shot: Postgame Steelers vs. Jets

DK’s Live Shot: Postgame Steelers vs. Jets

[Applause] Hey guys, welcome to East Rutherford, New Jersey. He’s Chris Hick. I’m Don Kovachvich. We’re from DK Pittsburgh Sports and this is a live shot of Steelers. It’s presented by FanDuel. The Steelers did in fact win this game somehow. However it might have felt to you for the better part of three hours, they did come out on top. The last I checked, Mr. Pallock, that’s kind of what matters the most. A win is a win is a win. You’ll take it however you’ll get it, especially in the NFL. Um, no, it wasn’t pretty. Yeah, there are lots of things for this team to look at to try to correct before they take on the Seahawks in their home opener next week, but you will gladly learn your lessons while also taking a win because what matters is at least getting into the dance, getting into the playoffs. And in order to do that, you got to win some football games, especially this one. Well, I’m not going to lie here. I’m not ready to let it go. Um, that’s it’s it’s it’s too fresh. I don’t believe that they should turn the page from this any more than I believed that they should have turned the page in any form from Baltimore. I’m sorry, but there’s just too much out there that was too similar, including, let’s be honest here, a lot of the names, a lot of the same players, a lot of the same people in the same positions. It’s not good enough. And for these guys to say afterward, as a few of them did to me just now, that well, I mean, we know what we did and what, you know, we just focused in the second half on stopping the run. And I’m thinking, what do you mean you focused in the second half on stopping the run? What would have been so bad about doing that in the first half? Did you think these guys were going to beat you consistently through the air? Yeah, I mean listen, the the fact of the matter is this defense got pushed around. They got beat straight up beat. And then even Mike Tomlin admitted that there were some times where they got they got out coached. They got out schemed at the same time. Say he you know I asked him specifically after the game that you know what was it from what you were seeing in the moment? What was it? Was it scheme? Was it your guys getting beat? And he said both. Both. And so you don’t give up 182 rushing yards on the ground for it to be both. just as it was in Baltimore with 299. It wasn’t just the scheme. It was also the players also getting beat. And that was the case again. Now, they stood up. They stood tall when it mattered, which is good. They did. That that that actually is part of the mark of a good team. I know nobody wants to hear that right now, but some of the players who were victimized early in the game ended up being big performers in the fourth quarter. Yeah, absolutely. and and and cue the usual. Tomlin didn’t have his guys ready to play. I’ll save you the trouble. No, that that’s that’s not true. But but they they they got beat. They got beat on the ground. And if there was any kind of coaching shortcoming here, Chris, I I believe anyway. They It’s not mental preparation or anything like that. It’s that they focused on something else for some insane reason in the first in the f first part of the game. I don’t know if they just thought that Justin Fields was going to air it out to Garrett Wilson the entire half. Now, they did connect the one time, but my goodness, that’s a mistake. Yeah, it’s a it’s a mistake. But just from talking with a few of the players down in the locker room, and I can’t get into specifics because these conversations were not had on the record, but my biggest concern knowing what I know now is in-game adjustments. How quickly can you go? I mean, because you know you’re going to go in, it’s a brand new coach, it’s a brand new coordinator, it’s brand new quarterback. You don’t have tape on what on what this Jets look a Jets team looks like. So you have to kind of guess, take your best guess, but then you have to adjust. Adjustments were not made. The Jets just kept running the ball. Bree Hall kept getting chunks. Justin Field started doing what it reminds me of. Yeah. I mean, you can’t have your adjustments take place in the third quarter. Yeah. And no matter how it is that they portray these things and and you know, the players were just like, “Yeah, we came out ready to stop the run in the second half.” Like I don’t think we were the only two people anywhere who were saying that all they needed to do to win this game was to stop the run. No. And and listen, when when you then force either by game situation or whatever, you then force the Jets to be onedimensional, which when you get up by, you know, at least a field goal and you give the Jets only one timeout and less than a minute to go where they pretty much have to throw their way down the field. They had no choice. They had no choice. They also had no chance, right? And so that then you are making Justin Fields beat you with his arm. And he showed you what what happens when you try to make him beat when when you try to make him beat you with with his arm and it just you’d like to see adjustments done earlier so that you’re not having to be in this situation, especially when your offense puts up 34 points. A couple of things in the spirit of full accountability from these guys. Uh one was that uh when I tapped Patrick, you know what I’m going to tell her. Oh yeah, he said the same thing to me. He said, “I tapped Patrick Queen on the shoulder and I made some kind of remark about the big play he made there.” Uh, at the end, I’m pointing down to that part of the turf. And without even hesitating, he turns around and says, “We played like beep bleep.” So later when every everybody’s around him and whatever else and everything, he still said the same thing into the cameras and microphones. So that’s that’s what you want to hear from your team leader after a game like this. I also went to a guy who I felt really really struggled in that first half and Keanu Benton. Uh initially he you’ll see he he made a little joke with me before I turned on the the video here uh about you know you’re going to don’t ask me about my near interception because all he talked about in Latroe was wanting to generate more splash this year and then I told him that was a pretty tough play. But here’s our little talk here. It’s 1 minute long. Keer wants me to not ask about dropping the pick, so I’m not going to do that. Let’s talk about the feel for the defense here. You guys can be better than this, can’t you? Oh, for sure. You know, we went out there. Um I think we we just kind of did too much to begin with. Just, you know, trying to do more than our job. Uh when realistically when you do your job, everything solves itself. Um, but you know, we we kind of talked about those at halftime and came out with a better plan and was able to come away with the win, but we definitely got more to do. What was your idea in the in the second half? What was your main main focus here with stopping the run? What changed? I mean, just simplifying simplifying the game. Uh, we had certain calls going in or whatever to stop the run, but when we went back to our basics, I feel like it worked a lot better. Just like that. It’s just tackle the football, isn’t it? That’s it. Um, I’ve asked a couple of guys here this and I’ll ask you too. All of this feels fixable to you. You’d know the difference. Oh yeah, for sure. You know what I’m saying? You like you’d know if you just weren’t good. Yeah. You know, I feel like we only in the preseason we played like what a drive together. Um, so this is our first game completely together and now we actually got some film to look back on and communicate on and fix it in the classroom. Now officially with this game over, football season is indeed finally here. It’s time to check out the latest odds, the futures, and the win totals on the FanDuel sports book. Do you think the Steelers are headed to the Super Bowl after this big result? Do you think the Browns are headed there after giving the Bengals a game? Lock in your I’m teasing you. Lock in your bets today, just not those. Whatever your game, FanDuel Sportsbook delivers the latest lines, futures, and specials so that you can join in on all the action. Switching to the offensive side. Yeah, we can get real complex about this or we can get real simple. Aaron Rogers showed everybody why those of us who’d been seeing him for weeks now uh believed in the arm, in the poise, in the selection of his receivers and he ends up with four touchdown passes. Moved the team where it needed to go in the fourth quarter. uh 17 of the Steelers points came in the fourth quarter very Benesque to put it into Pittsburgh’s terms. No, he came up big when he when but he was actually he was just good throughout and he had to take some hits cuz the line wasn’t there for him. No, and that’s that just goes to show like there there was this there was this belief based off of what happened with the Jets last year that Aaron Rogers is not willing to take hits and whenever he get and I I will admit that even watching Jets tape last year when Rogers was getting chased down and he was getting hit early and often. He would just become this quarterback that would go first read not there. I’m throwing away. I’m checking it down. We didn’t see that today. We saw a guy who was getting hit, who got sacked way too many times, and even then still took shots on some on some throws that he hung in there. Yeah. And he hung in there. He kept making throws. He kept making plays. Were there probably too many passes that went sideways instead of downfield? Sure. But that’s more play calling more than it is the quarterback. But you can’t look at this performance and say, “Oh, Ron Aaron Rogers’s part.” No, he’s one of the reasons why you won this game. I had um some a neat uh I don’t know how to put this here, like a group talk with the wide receivers afterward. Uh Calvin Austin was there, uh Ben Scoranic was there, DK Metaf was there, and we were the the four of us were kind of going back and forth over who got open, how open, and why. Then Arthur Smith comes over, which is really helpful because now when he he starts chiming in with his input, which is only everything. Yeah. And what they agreed upon were two things that that came from this conversation. One is that the the Jets became sold on the idea of ganging up on Metaf. They saw him. That first series should have been enough to scare you from from here to Sikakus. Okay. I mean, the way he was, oh my gosh, those were those were two in No, I was just I was also just teasing him making his face as he does that like this as he as he goes down the field. But that’s scary stuff. Yeah. When he’s doing that and he It’s great because he had the initial drop and they come right back to him and he does that barnstorming down the right sideline, you know, like I’m still here. Believe me, I’m going to be here all day. Well, they they go and they put some guys on him and that’s when, as Art just said it, Arthur Smith said, everybody else had to eat and they did. So, with the scanic touchdown, which you and I were marveling over, it was down there in front of us in front of the press box because there was there was so many things that had to go right there and they all went right and it was a really pretty drawn play, wasn’t it? It really was. well-designed play action and Mike Tomlin talked about it after the game that there were too many times in which Rogers was getting hit on these designed playaction passes. Uh there was one in particular where it was like he made the the fake and then turned around and a guy was right there ready to sack him. And when you look at that play in particular, you can see why it’s so important for the offensive line to block that up because with the way things are designed, with the way Rogers is going to sell that, he’s one of the best in terms of these little details and selling handoffs and play action fakes and everything, guys are going to end up being open. I mean, think about the touchdown passes that he throwed. The one to Ben Scar, the one to Calvin Austin. Austin was wide open. I mean, these are I mean, these are opportunities in which Yeah. you all this conversation about WR2 and who’s going to get sometimes the offensive coordinator and or the quarterback are going to help those guys. Just get open. Just get open. Um, you know, there are sometimes when you you press play on these programs of ours and you wonder why you did because I’m just going to the same guys. I heard them this morning. I don’t need to hear them again. I’m about to tell you why you press play on this one. In that little conversation that I was just describing, you know, Cal’s touchdown, the one that you were just you were just laying out there, Cal runs right past his guy. His dude was a statue. Yeah. You know why he was a statue? What? I didn’t realize this. And Cal told me this and and Ben’s standing behind him going like this. It was the same play. Oh, well, there you go. Oh, like exact same play out of the book. Oh, okay. The catch was they decided they weren’t going to bite this time. So they stay up looking for the Scoronic on the play. Yeah. And there goes Cal wide open. Yeah. So I said I said, “Well, who’s who’s primary option on that?” And Skironic chimes in and says, “That’s up to Aaron. That’s how it works when you have Aaron Rogers.” He Aaron tells us, this is Scorronic, that we’re all options. Yeah, absolutely. Of course, you know, the playbook will have the little number one, the little number two, and alert and whatever, but right, that’s why Rogers will get to the line of scrimmage. He’ll see what the defense is showing, and he’ll kind of then predetermine based off of what he’s seeing pre- snap where he might go. He did that down here on the deep ball to Cal. Yeah, that went over Darnell’s head. You know how far you have to throw the ball. Sorry. From the offensive standpoint, uh, I I we we we did speak with who else? Well, I on the defensive side, I spoke with Jaylen Ramsey. Jaylen Ramsey. Yeah. All right. Let’s go to your Let’s go to your Ramsey clip here. Jaylen, what did you uh see on that final play uh where you were able to close in on Garrett and uh separate the ball from from him. Uh it was a visual play call, so I was able to get visual on Justin. So, I’m kind of moving in the pocket, but saw um Gear coming across the field in my peripheral and just did what I do. What’s that conversation like when you guys are going out there for that final series whenever it’s not necessarily gone exactly the way you guys wanted to on the defensive side of the ball where you guys were able to go go out there and make a play? Uh that’s a defender’s mentality. Every play is a new play. Every series is a new series. Yeah, we understand that things happen throughout the game that we weren’t um pleased about, but we got to keep playing, especially when our offense is going out there and they’re putting up points and um trying to win the game for us. We got to We got to come through at some point, right? So, Ramsay, like you’re thinking during the game, aren’t you? You know, where’s the big Ramsay moment, you know? And then he got fired up one time early in the second half. He threw some guy down and and everything or somebody knocked him down, John Simpson. No, no, no. But I’m saying but he was all Oh, yeah. He was all rattled and everything and in a good way. Mhm. And you like to see that in him. He seems to feed off of that sort of thing. Yeah. And then he makes not one but two monstrous plays there at the end. Well, which is what you just asked. Yeah. Well, he was l literally upset about uh and and this is not what he was talking about, but he was upset about not making the interception a couple of plays before uh when whenever he had the opportunity to pick it off. But yeah, that play right there, that’s why you get Jaylen Ramsay. That is why you get a player of that caliber. And that’s why you have a player, and he even said this, this is the first time in his career that he has played nickel, outside corner, and free safety all in one game. He’s played all positions before. That’s actually hilarious. Yeah. But it’s the first time he’s done it all in one game. And so when he’s able to do all of that stuff and then still after that entire debacle the like this entire first three and a half quarters of just not good defense he’s able to go out there and make that play sometimes that’s all it takes to Did he tell you anything as to whether or not he had to play all those positions in part because Deshawn Elliot was out? No. Uh he well he was always going to play free safety no matter like when the Steelers defense is in base and 34 they’re always going well I say always but most of the time Jaylen Ramsey is going to be the one uh playing free safety. Now when Joey Porter Jr. goes out you know then you make adjustments then okay now it can be you know Chuck Clark and uh Juan Thornhill and then Ramsay can go play outside corner but they I mean Ramsay said we had a conversation on Friday with like my what my roles are going to be. he’s fully prepared to have to play every single position and he did today. Now, speaking of guys playing every single position, Scoranic, in addition to getting the the big touchdown, also had a big big special teams play as he’s known for doing uh the bigger play was Kenny Gainwell, respectfully. Gainwell coming in and stripping that ball loose. that situation. I you know whoever number three is for the other Jets. Xavier Gibson. Okay. Not Gibson, but Gibson. Okay. That guy, whoever he is, was standing over on that sideline over there looking like it was the end of the world. He was actually punching himself in the chest, which was a little uncomfortable to watch. But anyway, so they they get the they get the fumble. Skiranic gets the fumble, pounces on it. The Steelers get another touchdown out of it. Skiranic has become such a weapon, you know. Um here here this is I asked Skiranic about both his touchdown and that play here. Can you take me through the touchdown and how incredibly open you got there? Uh just play action. Um great call by Arthur and then great ball by Aaron. Um the Aaron Rogers factor. Are you your primary target there? You said what? Your primary target there. Uh you know we got all options every play. That’s what Aaron always tells us. Hey, run every route to get open. So, um, I’ve caught a couple of those in camp and stuff, but I wouldn’t say I’m the primary, you know, we’re all prim primary play by Kenny there, the fumble, force fumble. Huge play by Kenny. Um, huge play by Boss and the special teams unit. We just got to keep getting better um on kickoff. We got to give our defense, you know, better field position. Now, we’d be remiss if we brought up special teams and and didn’t bring up somebody kicking the ball 60 yards through the uprights. Uh, I didn’t have to look up that it was Chris Boswell’s all-time record. I knew he’d never gotten out of the 50s. I knew he was capable of it. Oh, yeah. Apparently, he knew and the head coach knew. Uh, a it’s a great call to have him do that to to put if you’re going to put your trust in into somebody in a special team situation, you put it into Boss. But dude, that ball could have that had more to it than 60. It did. Now, we’ve said some, you know, we’ve had some players and and and you know, say some things that are like, “Oh, that’s a great quote. Mike Tomlin wins the day when it comes to quotes.” He called Chris Boswell a serial killer. Oh, I did. This is the first time hearing this. I wasn’t in there. He called Chris Boswell a serial killer and said he has a low a low pulse uh like at all times. And that is that that takes the cake for me today in terms of that is simultaneously so vicious and so complimentary that I I don’t even know where I’d be swimming in the middle of that. I don’t know. That’s just one of those things where you just put the line out there, you you just drop the mic and then you just walk off. He probably should have just walked away from the podium right as soon as he said it. Bos uh actually tried to get away from reporters. He tried to take one or two with him and say, “Come on, let’s do it over there away from the big group.” Uhuh. That didn’t happen. That didn’t happen. No, Bos Bos was forced to speak about himself. He’s not real big on that sort of thing. No. Uh but he did win this game. Yeah. And he he won it despite not being super busy. This was this was a game of touchdowns more than anything else and really not having a super busy camp or anything. But that only goes to show you these guys know how to get themselves prepared when you’re talking about Boss, when you’re talking about Aaron Rogers. Uh I’m going to throw out a shout here. I don’t know how popular this is going to be with many people. I thought Cam Hayward had a good game. Now, I know they ran to his side. I also know who they were running through. It wasn’t Cam. Yeah. Okay. Benton struggled. Isaiah Louderdermilk struggled. That’s the reason you saw some changes happen on that line as the game went along. Uh, you know, these guys, you know, TJ Watt was a factor in this. Terrific game the whole time through. So, I know you’re thinking when you’re watching this, they’re not ready. they’re and you should have had them in preeason, whatever. If you break it down, if you go over each individual player, you’ll find that that’s actually not the case. I think one of the things that you this could be like my final thoughts or whatever, but like the thing that I’m going to take away from this game is you will always take the offense starting this season putting up 34 points 100% of the time because you would think that the offense is only going to get turnovers, right? Don’t forget there were there were no turnovers. Yeah. Didn’t turn the ball over. Took care of the ball and put up more than 30 points. Scoreless punt. Yes, he did. Twice uh three times, I think. Three times. Right. But either way, the offense put up a number of points and you want to be able to build off of that because then you’re like, “Okay, well, at least the offense isn’t having to get and yeah, you can be concerned about the defensive issues.” Absolutely. We’re not sugar coating anything here. Be concerned about it for sure until they prove otherwise. Now, because like especially without Deshawn. Yeah, exactly. If he if he’s going to be out for any kind of length of time, yeah, you have to be concerned because he’s their best tackler. Although, did I mention already Deshan? Okay. Yeah. I I walked past and I just I I went like with one of these to him and he goes like kind of like it’s not going to be bad. It’s not it’s not one of the bad knee injuries. So, well, he wasn’t on crutches. He wasn’t in no brace, no nothing. Right. So, um but you you will take Yeah. you you you know you don’t want to play a game like that, but if you’re going to play a game like this and you’re definitely going to come out with a win, you’d rather it almost be this way because the offense now has something to build off of and it’s something positive to build off of then if the offense can play like this against a pretty good defense. Yes. Then you guys made some plays on the New York side. Yeah. Yes. But then you would think that this defense is going to eventually figure itself out. this. They have invested too much money, capital, draft picks, whatever you want to say. They’ve invested everything. Historic hype. Yes. Oh my gosh. You would think they’re they’re going to figure it out. If the offense can play like this while the defense figures it out, then okay, you you might be okay. Guys, we’re heading back over to the other side of the press box to write our stuff. That’s your cue to go get our app like like now. Like faster than Oh, give me one here. faster than Cal Blue pass that guy for his touchdown. The dude who was standing still. That’s how fast you’re going to go to download our app. It’s free to download. We’re not trying to trick you into anything. Go to the App Store uh for your Apple device. Go to Google Play for your Android device. After you do that, you’re going to see ads and stuff on there and you’re going to see that you can’t comment. Email me directly. I don’t know if I’m going to get to you tonight. We got a lot going on here, but I will get to you. And and when I do, I’ll gift you a uh a massive discount on the premium version. You will not be disappointed on it. A bigger hit off of the price than Jaylen Ramsey’s hit on Garrett Wilson. How long are you holding that in? About 20 seconds. See you guys tomorrow. [Applause]

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