Big Ben talks Steelers/Vikings, exploring Dublin, big defensive plays, DK Metcalf & more! Ep 102

Big Ben talks Steelers/Vikings, exploring Dublin, big defensive plays, DK Metcalf & more! Ep 102

Welcome back to Footballing with Ben Rothllessberger. And I have to start the show off with a happy birthday to my mom. Hey, happy birthday mom. Yeah, I was trying to give more of a round of applause, but it’s just me. But well, if we had like this whole like major we could do like Yeah. Well, just imagine it, guys. Happy birthday. Happy birthday. And grandma, mom, however you want to say cuz the kids, you know. Oh, yeah. Happy birthday, Mom. That’s it. All right. Well, thanks for joining, guys. Give us a birthday special birthday episode. Uh, no. We are we are back in the base. I keep saying back cuz we didn’t really leave. I left the country. You did? But it’s not like we the show went anywhere. People, by the way, did ask, as you guys probably know, the family, I was in Ireland. My family went to Ireland for the game. Quite a few people asked where Spence was. Oh, why Spence not over here? You guys doing a show over here? This, that, and the other. And I’m like, well, I brought the family. Yeah. Just, you know, we don’t we’re not we don’t do shows on the weekend. So, that’s true. And I know we’re good friends, but the family wins, guys. The family wins. Yeah. I lose 100% of the time. Yeah. Yeah. But no, I’m I’m excited you guys got to go. I’m excited the whole family got to go because I know in talking about that, it was kind of like, hey, what are we going to do? The fact that they got that is awesome. And we’re going to jump into that in just a minute. Yes. I think um that that let’s start to show off. Obviously, we got a a game to talk about. A lot went on over there. Uh we’ll we’ll preview a briefly next week’s Oh, actually, we have a buy, but the next game that we have, which I guess we can talk about. We can let’s wait. We can wait till next week. We’ll figure it out. We’re playing the Browns. probably not a big deal to talk about. That’s a short show. We just gave them everything that we needed to worry about. Um but uh we will talk about next week. This that and the other. But let’s get into a typical uh let’s get a beer. Yep. And then let’s talk about the trip, the family trip. Yeah. Well, let me do this. Um so we got three beers here today. Two of them are Irish staples. I thought fitting for the week that we talk about. I hope it’s not a Guinness cuz I drink plenty of Guinness. So I didn’t get a Guinness because I knew I knew you would have. Uh and you also have it on tap right right over there. Um, so I didn’t get that. I got two other Irish staples. Do you want to start there or do you want to get a little palette cleanser? Something from the good US of a I don’t it doesn’t matter to me. But I will say this, Guinness does taste better over there. It’s like it’s like it’s like getting I I try to use a compare. It’s like I don’t know cream. It just it’s got this different flavor. The foam’s a little different. I use the example of like, you know, as you know, we have chickens. Yes. So when you get the eggs from the chickens and you eat them with, you know, within a day, a week, that same day, whatever it is, the eggs just taste different than the ones you buy at the store. Same thing. I’m sure if you had a cow, you got an old milk, everything’s going to taste a little different when you get stuff out of the garden. Think, you know, things just they taste a little different when they’re like right then and there. Better and then we’re over there in in Ireland and the Guinness is right there and it just it’s almost like there’s a hose from the factory to like all these different pubs doing the Lord’s work. It was unbelievable. So anyway, it does the Guinness does taste better over there. It’s Is that all you drink over there? You just I did drink Carl’s a couple Carllesber during the game. So I almost got that, but I knew you were probably had some over there. I had some of those during the game. Yeah, Kil and I pounced out a couple of those. And that’s from that’s actually from Holland. Is it not from I heard that? I don’t know. Anyway, all right. Well, let’s let’s keep it let’s keep it um Irish then. Okay, let’s do it. I’ll give you this rolling. I’m still I’m still not sure cuz it’s like Yeah. Well, by the time you guys watch this, it’ll be 11:00. Yeah. PM over the 5 hour difference. So, I’m I’m It’s not bad. Went to bed early last night. Didn’t watch any of the games. Got up. I feel pretty good. Just got to work out in. So, I feel pretty good. I don’t know. I don’t know if it’ll feel like going this way better. Like going out was really tough. I always hear um east to west is the best. West to east is a beast. So, you went east, going out there was tough. Okay. Coming back. You’re like, “Oh, not as bad.” Top of the morning to you. Well, especially Yeah, it wasn’t as bad. But tell us what we got and then we’ll start talking about some. So, this is another kind of staple out there. It’s Smidix. Smidics red ale. Yep. For was drinking this quite a bit. It’s a good beer. I haven’t had one of these in forever. I don’t me either. Um but the last time I do I not a great experience, but uh Well, I drank a whole picture of it. That’s Yeah. Not We were doing a bar crawl. Well, not a whole picture. So, we had a bar we were doing a bar crawl. I was probably 21 and we stopped at a Irish pub in Deneden, Florida. Shout out. And I split a picture with a buddy of mine. He had one cup. I had one cup and then we’re like, “Hey, we’re leaving.” I’m like, “Hey, we just got this picture.” So, I just drank the rest of the picture. I don’t advise that, guys. But, no. Um, didn’t sit right. It was a little heavy. What do you think? So, I did not have this when I was over there. Yeah. Four and a half%. Nothing crazy. That’s That’s really good. I I would have got this if I didn’t have Guinness all the time. Uh very good. I like this Smith Wix. Can you get this over here? Pretty easy. Yeah, I did. Okay. At uh our good friends Giant Eagle. No. Yeah. A little scoop to Giant Eagle. I will have to talk about somebody we know at Giant Eagle during the show some point. I won’t mention Bill’s I mean his name right now. Yeah. Well, keeping on theme, man. So, you and I have now we texted a little bit while you were over there during the game. Yeah. As we do. Um, but I haven’t heard any stories from Ireland, man. And you had a pretty pretty um packed schedule over there. Yeah, it was Well, yes and no. It was nice cuz we went over with the Steelers um not the the team, so they actually had two um you know, planes going over, one with the team and all that and then one sponsors and some some workers for the Steelers and things like that. So, we jumped on that plane um and we got over there on Thursday morning. We left here like 7:00 Thursday uh Wednesday night. Got in there like 7:00 Thursday morning and uh you know try to sleep on the plane as much as you can. It’s not super easy. But you get there and we kind of um you know we’re like okay like you don’t just go to bed. It’s like Thursday was a day that we had nothing planned in terms of the the Steelers had nothing planned for them. So they they because we went over with them they had a couple things laid out they wanted us to do. Um and so we went over there um Thursday with nothing to do. So, we’re like, “Okay, this is the day that we’re going to try and just fight through whatever we need to do.” Mhm. And um so we got there, got our stuff to the hotel, and it was it was so crazy to me because we got to the hotel, and the the people were super nice at the hotel. The general manager lady was unbelievable, like trying to help everybody. But by the time we got on the buses, got to the hotel, it was, you know, 9:00 or 10:00. And there’s a bus, there’s two bus full of people. I mean, there’s 50 to 100 people, excuse me. They were like, “Um, yeah, rooms won’t be ready till it’s a 3:00 check-in.” We’re I’m like, “Wait, how did they not plan this better?” Like, just you’re 9 in the morning. You’re saying 9 in the morning. Yeah. So, now they the lady was super nice and I guess because we we were the only ones that really had young like kids that they were on a lookout. So, one of our rooms was like almost ready. So, we went and we grabbed a quick breakfast in the hotel and then we’re able to at least put our bags away and then be like, “Okay, let’s go on an adventure while the other ones are still getting ready.” Um, and so then we went, we’re like, well, let’s just go see. We’re staying in the like downtown Dublin pretty much. And it’s like, let’s let’s just go venture out and see what happens. Um, Thursday there were quite a few. I mean, you saw a lot of black and gold. There were a lot of Steeler fans there, but as the weekend went on, it got like they got to the point where we I couldn’t like walk around Dublin. Oh, I believe that. Like it was crazy. Um, and so the first thing we did like right down the street was um St. Patrick’s I think Cathedral. You would call it St. Patrick’s Church. St. theater like a you know 1081 jeez you know AD type church that um was very interesting. We can talk probably more offline about some of the uniqueness of it but it was a really cool like you go in there was almost there was a tourist attraction there were just you you paid to get in there was mug you you could buy stuff and yeah it was very interesting to have in a church that still does services. Oh, really interesting. Again, we could talk more about that stuff. I got some questions. Uh, you know, and you got to go, but they did like a they have like all the all these places had audio tours. Okay. So, you either use your phone like scan a QR code and then they have like station one and it would tell you something about it like this and this and all these different places. So, it was really cool. The family went in there, got to look around at all that. And then from there, we went just down the street, like I call it a mile, maybe not even a mile, to um it was actually called Christ Church. No way. coincidentally enough um cathedral church whatever and it’s another really really old one I think that set on on the foundation of like a Viking type that’s pretty church at the beginning so we went there and they had this so we went this was a little less commercialized but it was really old and really neat I these tall churches and whatever and old gothic type feel right the stone kept looking for like gargoyles and type cool stuff right did but this one had a crypt that you could go in down below like you went down these stairs and you came into this crypt And you’re like, “Holy cow, this feels like a like like a prison Paul was in.” Like it just felt like weird. Dang. And um and it was just like you’re in this basement. It’s like brick and stone. Yeah. It was actually pretty well kind of duck to go under certain spots. But it was surprisingly like pretty big down there. And they had some old like um I call like gold and silver from things and whatever down there. But it was really cool to go down there and the kids were like this is creepy down here kind of thing. And I think there’s still like there’s actually people buried down there, you know, in those like in in Oh, sure. Sure. It’s a crib. That’s what it is, right? Um so from there we we spent some time. Now we’re getting to the point where we’re like, “Okay, we’re getting a little worn out. We’re trying to talk like what do we do?” And there was some of the things beyond the list. And right across the street from Christ Church was the um like the VI I guess like Vikings and all that were like big in Ireland, right? They they came over and um so they had a whole museum on Viking and um the medieval times in Ireland. M. So, we got to do that, which I love the Viking stuff. I love to to see all that. So, we got to go through that, do a quick tour of that and go up into the bell tower and look over all the city. So, it was pretty cool. And then, um, we had a couple other things on the list, but we’re like, let’s go back to the hotel and just cuz like Ash’s like, yeah, she’s a zombie, you know? We’re all kind of getting there. It’s like you got to either fight through this thing or you got to figure out what to do. That hit a Celsius one time. This is So, you’re doing all this before the before the you even get to the hotel. Well, we went to the hotel. Yeah. Before we’ve even done anything. So, we’re like, let’s go back. Okay. Our room’s got to be ready. Let’s go back to the hotel. It’s not very far. Let’s go back. Let’s take a quick little like hour, 2 hour nap, get back up, go do some more things, and hit dinner. So, we went back. We We fell asleep for like 3 hours. Woke up and we’re like, “All right, do we want to go try?” There was an illusions museum um that had like all different like, you know, optical illusions things, you know? We’re like, you take a picture. The room’s like upside down, but it’s really not. So, it looks like you’re standing on this ceiling, but you’re not, you know, type silly things like that. We’re like, “Let’s go check that out.” Um, so we went down to the hotel to grab dinner and like and we we got down, we had dinner and we’re like, “You ready for bed?” So we end up going to bed at like 7:30, you know, like 7:30 or something, 8:00. And then woke up on Friday cuz we had to get up early too. Benj and I were golfing on Friday. Okay. So we had to get up early on Friday. So we ended up hitting the bed early. Um, but that was a good thing because I think it I woke up on Friday and I think we all felt and the kids, the younger two slept until like 11:00 after got some work done. So, while Benjamin and I went golfing, so I think that was like a really good thing that we we didn’t push it the first day too much. And so, uh that was a great Thursday. So, that was the the start of our trip was was was that was a busy Thursday, but we got to see some really cool old things. But it was unique because even in some of these churches, like there was a lot of people asking for pictures and stuff. Yeah. So, it was kind of like, man, we’re walking around the Dublin thinking like I’m going to be able to just Yeah. had the freedom like hat down, walk fast, you know? Yeah. It’s unique. Um, I wonder how much of that would have taken place had the Steelers not been in town. So, we talked about that. We’re like, when we come back, it’s got to be not during a game because there was definitely a lot of Steeler fans there that knew that they’re like looking around for players, right? Well, I felt like everybody in Pittsburgh was, you know, you go on social media, everybody in Pittsburgh was in Ireland for the I mean, why not? You get a chance to go there or whatever. So, well, and I thought it was funny, too, cuz I was talking to Evan before the show, and it might just be because I’m tapped into this the Steelers media, but I’m like, I didn’t see anything about the Vikings being there. I’m like, y’all know there’s another team, right? You we talked about that is as the week went on, you started to see some more purple, but and maybe they’re in a different part of town, but there were like again, we there was like a Steelers tailgate, like a big party in a park. They had I mean, crazy stuff. And we’re like, and there was hundreds if not thousands of people in this park, Steeler fans. And I made a joke like, “Yeah, y’all Minnesota’s got four people down there. If you want a little more room, just um but yeah, it definitely was Steeler Nation.” It was Steeler Takeover. I mean, Steeler takeover. I mean, that’s It feels like such a I know there’s a lot of history tied in with the Rooney family, but it feels like Dublin from what I know of it. Um is a perfect like international sister city for Pittsburgh. It was It was It was It was It was unbelievable. So, so yeah, you mentioned going golfing. Um they had a couple you I saw pictures of you and uh Jerome. Yes. Golfing. Yes. Yes. Um, so where did you guys play? We played at a place called Port Marinick. Hopefully I say that right. Uh, it was about a 45minute drive. Beautiful golf course. Really, really good. Flat, windy, total Irish um, link style course. They’re actually going to supposedly host the not that it’s not called the British Open. It’s called the Open Championship there in a couple years. Nice. And they’re going to make it like over 8,000 yards long. Jeez. And it’s it is so hard cuz the wind was I mean the wind was blowing so much. Luckily, it wasn’t raining or cold. I mean, had like a long sleeve on, but it was it was blowing so much that it was affecting putts, like little chip shots would blow. I mean, it was it was definitely tricky. A lot of blind shots, but we had fun. It was um Benjamin and the ambassador. Yeah. Verse Jerome and myself. So, we had some fun doing that. Um that I feel like if I was an ambassador to anything, I would just be referred to as the ambassador. The ambassador. Mr. Ambassador. Yeah, that’s legit. So, but it was fun. He had a good time. First time playing golf in Ireland. Um, and with the wind and all the the good stuff. So, it was it was a good time. So, that was it was a fun to get there and play that course. And he’s all excited for when they have the championship there cuz he’ll be like, I played it and yeah, this that and the other. So, that that was really neat. Um, and then I don’t remember what we did Friday after Friday after golf. I feel like we just went back and kind of like ventured around again. Like it was a little bit it actually was a later day cuz that golf took forever. Traffic’s so bad. I mean, it’s so bad to get around there. Uh, we got back, I think we just did dinner, kind of hung out. Well, got to see some teammates and hang out with them a little bit. And then, um, like Saturday, we end up going to the, um, the ambassador’s house, the residence, to the res where Mr. Rooney used to live. Wow. So, got to go back over there and see that again, which was very, um, nostalgic, very um, a little bit emotional just because I was like, man, last time I was here was with him. Uh, but they did the flag football game there, the flag football game there. Um, you know, there’s a bunch of people there, the, you know, the Steelers. Obviously, the Maroons were all there and and all that kind of stuff. Awesome to take the whole family there, let them go see everything, be a part of that. And then from there, we went back to the hotel. We were hoping to go to the zoo, but the zoo it was like closing at like 5:00, which is very interesting to me. But, uh, you know, we just kind of made a day, I think. Oh, then from there, I ended up going and meeting um meeting a a friend for for a for a pint, and the kids went to the Illusion Museum, and they got that fun. a lot of fun pictures with that and then and you know just it was really hard to get around for me and so they had a good time like kind of doing that. We met we met them in a park. I met met them after meeting my friend and they um did the museum. We ended up meeting in the park cuz it was kind of right between walk home from there and we did walk quite a bit but just like head down move fast. Yeah. And uh I guess they had some ice cream and the seagulls attacked Bailey like they were like on her head like landing on her and she’s screaming and stuff and [ __ ] were just looking around like, “What’s going on?” I wish id have seen it. Uh I don’t know if I would have been laughing, but yeah, she got attacked by seagulls. She also she also had like I think her arm got pooped on by seagulls. So, she’s not a big fan of seagulls right now. Yeah. No, I don’t blame them. I mean, I feel like you see that in like touristy areas. I once in New Jersey. We were playing the convention center there and we just went on the boardwalk. I watched a seagull take a piece of pizza out of a person’s mouth mid bite and they said, “Nah, this one’s for me. Not here. It’s Jersey.” just took it and they hit seagull. Yeah. So, but no, it was it was great and and then obviously the game which we can get into the the actual game, but it was it was fun to get to see to hang out with a lot of the guys. Got to sit um with uh Keel and James Frier, Ike Taylor, Carell Lake was in there with me with us. Um obviously other people Mike Marchinsky who actually started Renegade, who created the Renegade whole thing. That was pretty cool. That’s wild, man. Uh, what was what was it like hearing it? It was really cool. It was really cool. Everything was was amaz I mean the fans never sat down once. It’s like a soccer game. They never sat down. You had you know they had this little Irish band in the corn all this stuff. I mean their chants are way better than it was really cool. But but like Larry Richard art the Steelers announcer. He was the announcer of the game. So you got it was a Steelers home game. Yeah. Yeah. get introduced, be on the field pregame, getting to see all the guys, getting ready for the doing the terrible towel thing with Jerome was really cool being on the field. So, it was just it was a really cool experience. Being in that stadium was unbelievable. I don’t know why it felt so much different. I think it set so far back from the field, but just being in there was just a really cool experience. Really surreal. Uh the history of that stadium, which is unbelievable, which if people don’t know, go go look up Krook Park and look at the history of it and the tradition. I mean that they don’t they typically don’t let anything go in that no sporting events go in there except for Gaelic football and um what’s that weird sport they play with the ball and the stick not like field hockey but it’s like I can’t think what it’s called right now cricket will help it. No something like that but uh I can’t think of what the name is but this so they like they just don’t allow things in there. They’re letting this in there. It was just so it’s a really cool thing to be to be in there. There’s like a back in like then when when Ireland was still I think under control of of of the the UK or of Britain British soldiers came in and like shot people during a like during a GI football game and like killed a bunch of people killed including a player. So the stadium still like is all the original stuff. There’s just a lot of history unbelievable history in that stadium. Fourth largest stadium all of Europe really 83 something like that. So, it was um it was really cool to be there to be a part of the history and the tradition, be around people to see the the genuine excitement. I mean, the the even the the the fan the the Irish people that live there were excited about what was going on. And so, it was really cool. Really cool. It’s something that you would want to see happen more often over there with with at least with Steeler Nation. I I don’t Listen, if the Broncos and Browns came over there, probably not the same. Well, dude, it was funny because I was sitting there. We watched it with um Alex because he couldn’t travel and um I made a joke. I was like, “Yeah, man.” Like, you have to get these franchises that are like legacy franchises. I mean, no one’s going to go to an international game with the Browns are playing and they are playing in London. So, surprised. Yeah, I saw it and then the commercial came on. It was I think it’s I think it’s um I don’t know who they’re playing, but it was it like the London game. game. I’m like, “Oh, jeez.” Well, Minnesota stayed there. They’re playing They’re playing in London this week. Who are they playing the Browns? I don’t think so, cuz we have the Browns the next week, so they had have a by week. Um, but but we but the Minnesota was going from Ireland to London. So, they were just kind of staying over there. Is that uh which would be which would be bizarre. Two weeks away from like your family and stuff, unless they’re with you and then even if they were like school, like that’s a long time to be over there. Um, yeah. They’re playing the Vikings October 5th. Right. Yeah. I thought they were playing the Lions. They’re playing the Yeah, they’re next next week. So, they come back from playing and play us right away. Usually get a buy after that. I don’t know, man. That’s just I mean, this is just what the internet’s telling me. Who knows? Yeah. So, yeah, that’d be that’d be either crazy or cool, right? Cuz you go over and you can have like a maybe a little European experience there or um or it’s the worst. You’re coming back and you’re like, “No doubt.” Um, yeah. I think I think one thing that was really cool watching all of that was the amount of former players that they were incor like incorporating to the events around the city cuz I felt like at least from what I was seeing on like social media and the different things that the Steelers putting out, the NFL was putting out. There was a lot of like cool events around the city that were happening that there were so many events. You you were you mentioned taking part in a couple of them. Um, what was what was it like? Um, I would imagine you guys were probably all at the same hotel. What was it like just seeing the guys again, being in the being, you know, having those conversations, being kind of like the uh the new ambassadors of the sport, you know, right? Yeah, it was a lot of fun. There were two different hotels that guys were at, so we kind of mix and match, but got to got to see guys like Max Starts, BMAC, um, you know, I said James Ferry, Ike Taylor. We did a uh tailgate. They called it a tailgate. That big party I told you about in the park with it was myself, Pounce, and Ike. Sat up on stage and and kind of answered some questions, talked to the fans, did some things like that. So, that that was really fun to be up there, be a part of that with those guys. And then being at the game with those guys and and talking to them. Keel obviously was there. It just was it it was neat to to just have the time. And we got to spend some time. I think it was Saturday night for the game. We we we sat in the hotel lobby and just kicked it all night and just talked and laughed and had fun and caught back up. Which is the other unique thing is most of us are going to get to see each other again in a month because the Super Bowl 40 20 anniversary is is in a month. So it was neat to see each other and then get a chance to do it again in a month. You think as the game grows internationally like that, if it starts to gain any traction, you’ll ever see a Super Bowl in an international stadium? I think that would be tough. Yeah, I think cuz I don’t know how the money how would the NFL or that cuz that’s one of I think one of the appeals of having a Super Bowl in the stadium in the city is all the the proceed like all the money that goes into that city. Sure. So I I don’t know. I mean I guess that’d be tough. I don’t know. Be hard. Yeah. It feels like they’re making a huge push internationally not only with just like the teams going. I mean you got what? You got London. You got um Brazil. What were they? Rio was this year. Yeah. Mexico City and you know obviously the one in Ireland and now you have Bad Bunny was just announced doing the halftime show again getting an international artist huge international artist big here but I think in the rest of the world very big um yeah so it’s I don’t know if it’s out of the scope I don’t know how the business end of that goes to your point but um that’ll be the the only interesting part yeah well let’s jump into another beer let’s do this yeah let’s so this is your uh other half of the black and tan a little harps little a little harpsky Okay. Which Justin can still can’t make. Should we call Justin the same? Well, I asked I asked Justin. I said it was weird cuz I was over there, you know, he’s claims to be Irish. Yeah. And I was over there and they just kept talking about this guy that can’t if you can’t make black and change, you can’t come back in the country. So that’s probably why he’s he’s lost his Irish. He’s like a legend over there. He’s like, “Oh, in the bad way.” O’Brien. That guy. That’s Yeah. So maybe that’s where the O came from. Like oh just Oh, Brian. Justin O’Brien. And he just lost the O when he came over here cuz he felt Yeah. So this is a hard vlogger. Uh again, easy drinking over there. Super easy. Four and a half. It’s a little different than drinking a Guinness. Yeah. Did you get to go to the Guinness back there? We did not. And I’m so bummed about that. Yeah, there was there was two trips that we didn’t realize that we should have done. And a lot of it we we did kind of dictate where we’re going off off how many people we knew were going to in terms of um like just e like a lot of people. Mhm. Guinness factory we were told is unbelievable in the sense that they even for kids they have animations and all like it’s supposedly really fun and I was really bummed we didn’t do that. And then Ashley of I was bummed about the Guinness Factory. Ashley was bummed because I guess they have the oldest book in the world there which everyone’s like the Bible well yes and no. It’s like I guess the gospels were put together first. Okay. And it’s and again we don’t know but it’s supposed on display there. You got a bal at the Guinness. No, not at the Guinness. Just at in this place is awesome. Somewhere in Ireland at a I don’t know castle or where it is. It’s the oldest book in the world supposedly. Yeah. And so she was bummed that she didn’t get to see that which I would have been great to see that as well cuz she studied that for school too. Yeah, that would have been Yeah. The the Genesis Factory, as you know, Gennis is one of my favorite beers. The Guess Factory is like bucket I mean it’s been a bucket list since I know. I wish I was 10 years. You know what I mean? So uh if you ever want to go back, dude, I’ll do it. when we we want to go back just not when like there’s a game. Yeah. Because also Dublin’s cool. It’s fun to do those things, but when we go back, we want to go to the the the outskirts cuz that’s so beautiful out there. And so we didn’t get to see any of that. We saw concrete everywhere. Yeah. Still a super rad experience, man. But the reason you were there was because the game the game. So let’s jump into that. Um I’ll give a little bit of overview and then there’s plenty to talk about, man. Obviously, we gave a prediction last week of this. I lost. I get it. I get it, people. I lost. Hey man, I but I don’t think that the I’m two and two now. I don’t think the prediction was wildly inaccurate going into it. I think what we saw is some maybe some things that worked well were were might have been uncharacteristic of what we had seen so far this season in a good way. I will say for sure. Um obviously we are uh 24 to 21 headed into our buy 3 and one. I think we are sitting comfortably at the top of the AFC North because apparently the rest of the team else are just opting out this season. Um the Ravens are not opting out, just their defense is apparently. But let’s do this. Let’s start with a question that I think is kind of circling around the Steelers sphere here is is this a a confident Steelers win or did the Vikings lose it? Yeah, it’s a good question. I I think, you know, you look at games, you look at who they’ve played, you look at records and this that and the other, and it’s like, okay, they’re supposed to beat the Vikings, they’re supposed to beat the Pats, they’re supposed to beat the Jets, you know, things like that. So, part of me says, I understand the question, understand why you you’d ask it, but a win is a win. You go on the road, you go literally on the road uh to another country, and this win meant so much for the Rooney family, too. Like, so much supposedly that Mr. Rooney went and talked to the team before the game. Like that never happened in my 18 years. Jeez, we all all of us Ike and pounds and James Fair were like, “Whoa, that’s a big deal.” You know, this one means a lot especially cuz of Mr. Mr. Rooney, rest in peace. Um it was just this was one kind of like this Ohio State Michigan, right? You can go one and 12. Like you got to win this one. This one meant more than all the other ones. So I’m so glad for the Rooney family they got it. I think you went over and played a team that is not very good in the Vikings. I will say that. But you showed up. I think your defense finally started to show up and you’re you’re starting to see, okay, like this is the defense we’ve been expecting. This is the defense we paid paid for. We’ll talk about injuries. I know with with Ramsay, I think you go into this game knowing that they have and we talked about last week talked about how good their coaching was. Yep. So, there was there was some challenges to to be had. I think they got after the Vikings. I think they got after Carson. I think they took advantage of the the Vikings line and some injuries early. I think on offense, we did some things that we talked on the show, so obviously they’re listening to our show. I mean, it’s clear they they put DK in the slot a lot more. Yes. Which is unbelievable. And I still think they could have utilized it more. A couple times Aaron threw to the to the back on the flat on third down when DK was on the slot running a quick slant where it’s I you know take that that throw quick, but they use the tight ends on some sticker outs. I remember texting you like there’s the sticker we’ve been talking about. So I think I thought this might have been without looking in in close detail and in the the numbers this that and the other Arthur Smith might this might have been the best game he that he called just just in terms of utilizing guys. Now why did Pat Fry move not get targeted? Is that a is that a Arthur Smith question or is that a um uh Aaron Rogers question? Right. Because he he may call things but he’s throwing other guys. I think we utilize some tight end some like to use it more. We obviously used the run. I thought Gainwell played really well. You know, when when Warren was listed as out pregame, I was like, “Oh man, this is not good.” But I thought Gainwell ran the ball hard. He ran outside. He did a lot of really good things. So, I think all in all, I think our coaches stepped up really well. I think the players played well, but I think the coaches stepped up. I thought I thought the Vikings also helped as I was watching the game. Where we’ve where we’re good on defense against the run is when teams when it’s stretched out, right? We have speed. We’ve got Wilson. We’ve got Queen. We’ve got guys that get wide and can make plays. The downhill stuff is what hurt us so far this year. It felt like the Vikings kept trying to run outside and that’s that’s playing to our advantage. And so I think that that is uh clearly a win on our on our side. And and I thought our guys played well. We’ll definitely talk about the the the Pton I want to call him Pton Willis Pton Wilson play. But all in all, I thought that this game going in, well, I was definitely nervous about it, but coming out of it, I’m I’m I’m really pleased with where they’re going. I’m going to change some predictions as we start getting closer to some of these other games, too. Yeah. Um I I agree. I was talking to Evan before we started filming. I’m like, you know, I feel confident and I felt confident throughout the whole game. Even when we got into the fourth quarter, it was 246 or whatever. I was like, they they were starting to put a drive together. I’m like, I just not from what I’ve seen today, they’re not going to be able to do enough to make me worried here. I think this, you know, the sands are going to run out. we’re not. And then they got a little started getting a little bit closer to some of those big plays and and uh I started getting nervous, but I just it just felt like our defense against a line that was injured and three of their starters were out and a backup quarterback and Carson Wentz, who I think is is a is a really good quarterback inconsistently, which is like you can’t, you know, you can’t bank on a a game-winning drive on someone like that. Yeah. And and I’ll say this too about him is he he he he battled. He played hard and and he got unlucky on a couple turnovers. Sure. You know, ball, you know, TJ picking that ball off, which is huge. I think the other one might have got tipped too. I forget if not, you know. So, it’s it’s kind of those just the way the right now the ball is falling. Again, people people argue because obviously the fumble that that Ramsay picked up and ran back for a touchdown that was touched out of bounds, which was kind it’s a crazy play in itself. So, some people like, well, the ball’s not bouncing our way. Well, and at the end of the day, it is when you’re getting five turnovers one week, two turnovers the next week, the the you’re playing defense, and that’s what you want these guys to do. I mean, you’re looking at this. I mean, as as what’s influencing the way I’m looking at the game in that fourth quarter. I mean, six sacks, 13 QB hits. I mean, we’re there wasn’t going to you’d have to do one of those freak plays, whatever. Um, but you had mentioned you had mentioned the uh the coaching, how the coaching stepped up this week. Um, I I want to look at some of that stuff because there were a couple calls that made me think that maybe Tomlin and the coaching staff was being a bit more conservative on things that I feel like might not have been so conservative historically. It ended up paying off, but in the moment I found myself being critical of the decisions when it felt like there were times where our offenses were clicking really really well. It’s I mean fourth and goal from the three yards one the end of the game. Yeah. With field you go for a field goal there. It’s or or the one where they punted a fourth and one from the Vikings 40. I feel like those are things especially when you’re establish a rhythm on offense. You’re like the fourth fourth and one let let your guys finish it. Like let let your guys get a yard. I felt like they had been doing enough to to prove they could do that with Gainwell. Uh you had mentioned Warren being out. I felt like when I got that news, I wasn’t maybe as worried as I should have been. Mhm. Maybe that’s my ignorance, but I I felt like since the acquisition of Gainwell, I’m like, I think that guy’s if if the O line can provide, I think he’s a good runner. Mhm. Well, I think the line played better. There’s still 77. He’s still just got to get better cuz on the fourth and one that we didn’t make, he got beat. He put his head down and went inside and the guy went right around him and made the tackle in the back field. But all in all, they played they played better. Now, I’ll give him credit for hustling after a play, recovering the fumble that Aaron that that happened with Aaron. Great great hustle down the field by by that young man. I think you know you talk about the coaching and in and the play call like if you have all the issues that the Vikings have with the line and having Carson why is the ball not coming out a little faster? Why you trying to throw? Now I understand you’ve got weapons down the field but utilize those guys in some shallow stuff. Now again it it reared its ugly head that deep crosser to Justin Jefferson. He he slips and falls where 99 times out of 100 he’s going to score on that play. Yeah. I mean that’s a that’s a that’s a big time play. I think they held him to a field goal after that play. I I just think that that they the Vikings didn’t help Carson personally. Okay. Not near the line, but and our guys got after him. And you can’t you cannot drop back five, seven steps, hold the ball for three and four seconds when you’ve got a pass rush like we have. Mhm. Benton got after it. He finally started to do something that he hadn’t done much all all year. I mean, he he was an animal this game. Career game. Yeah. And so I think that’s all those are all really big things, good things. I I think in terms of I know this is going to be the controversial talk and people I’m sure are talking about it is the Tomlin um go for it on fourth down on the three yardd line or whatever it was towards the end of the game. I will I I’ll kind of give my two cents on all of it. Now being there at the game I don’t know how they showed on TV on it was fourth down. Aaron, the offense came off, they were the field goal team went out and Aaron came over and was like very adamant to Mike about something and then coach T changed his mind. So whether whether and now when he went back out I thought it was just going to be to try and draw him off sides type thing, you know, like okay, you go out and try and draw sides then we’ll kick. Okay. But but it it appeared again I’m just saying from my opinion what I saw with my eyes not hearing anything it appeared that Aaron changed coach T’s mind. Interesting. because they were out there and my coach’s like, “No, we’re gonna” and then Aaron’s getting very animated and next thing you know, Aaron goes back out. I think if I’m if I’m if I’m doing a procon debate, okay, the the the pros to going to it there are obviously if you get the first down, the game is over. You score a touchdown, the game is is over. you also if you don’t get it the other team has to go a long way and they haven’t really done a whole lot. Now granted they scored earlier on that on a big play I think the series before we talk we still have to talk about that but but you I think he probably feels pretty confident with his defense the way they had been playing. Yeah. And we’re like listen I don’t care if if they get the ball on the the two yard line the one yard line like like they’re not going to the 40 yard line to kick a field goal on our defense. We’ve been getting after them all day. I’m not concerned with that. There’s your there’s your your argument for going for it. Mhm. Now, that being said, the other argument is kicking the field goal and making them then have to go all the way and score a touchdown. Sure. Obviously, it ended up working out. Now, the rough the the um intentional grounding was a killer because they were getting they only needed 15 20 more yards to to give this kid a chance for a field goal. Mhm. And it was looking a little scary. So, some of those things got a little hairy in there. And again, that’s on the Vikings. Why are you throwing balls down the field that are like get the ball out of your hands and get moving? But so you look at it both ways. Obviously, it worked out and we can we talked about that. We talked about it last week on the fourth down when coach T called a timeout and it worked against the Patriots and uh you know we’re like why is he calling timeout? Same sort of thing here. I know that there were a lot of people that I was sitting in the box with former players that are like what what are they doing? Like we all were confused by it. But again, if I was going to argue for it Yeah. defense and if you get it, the game’s over. That being said, three points makes it seven and that makes it a lot harder, too. Yeah. No, and again, sitting in hindsight, we can say, okay, it was a maybe not even the right call, but it worked. You know what they say, um, indecision is there’s more loss in indecision than wrong decision. Okay. Right. So, it’s like, hey, you got to pick one and go for it and then we’ll deal with the repercussions of it and the gamble here paid off. Um you you’d mentioned the the intentional grounding that and I thought the delay of game I felt like that was Yeah. That’s weak sauce. Yeah. Yeah. Pumped that up for him. That was a wild Yeah. A was that a clock thing or was the the Vikings just kind of lolly gagged. No, they didn’t. No one lolly gagged. That that you know when there’s some delays when like things are arguing and this that and the other that’s like Aaron probably looks at official tells to pump and he probably pumps it. I mean it’s just I thought that was a little that was a tough call. Um I I will say this. I’ll say that the the play the series before when they hit the big pass on us, which was mind-blowing that they got a guy wide open behind us, the fact that Payton Wilson ran that guy down, not like he had an angle. He just flat out said, “I’m going after this guy.” Now, we all know he came out, that was one of the things about him coming out is he had speed. That play right there should have endeared him to Steelers fans. Regardless of what you think for him, you should love that guy forever because that’s embodying Steeler like the Steeler way. Never quitting, never getting up, never giving up. Chasing Addison down. Now, I’ll say this. Addison not scoring is like a that’s mindblowing to me. How do you not get to the two yard, three yard line and dive or as you get tackled, reach the ball? like Mhm. But anyway, when he makes that tackle, it takes them four more downs to score. At least a minute goes off the clock. 65 seconds. Yeah. If they score right there, you can now kick the ball deep, play defense, use the two-minute, use your timeout, and and and play the actual game on side kick. And now the game if they say the Steelers go three and out, now you’re getting the ball in midfield. I mean, it’s a totally different ball game. Look back on that play at later in the season. If the Steelers are are are finding ways in and maybe they get like a one game, that play might go down. It goes down as the play of the game, but it might go down as one of the plays. It’ll go down as top 10 play, maybe top five, maybe the play of the season when we look back on the season. That play I’d say I say to you, Payton, unbelievable. That is that’s called being a Pittsburgh Steeler. Yeah. Yeah, I totally agree. I mean, so Carson Wentz, if he throws an actual ball to him, I think he scores in that. I mean, he threw a ball we had to stop and Yeah, but you you don’t want to overthrow a wide open guy. No, for sure. For like safe bet. I totally get that. And but um yeah, the fact that he got open behind the coverage and it’s that guy is wide open. I mean, that’s that’s one of their guys wide open. Um I I don’t I’d love to know like was I was it busted cover like what obviously had to be busted what happened? But but yeah, that that effort was I mean Mhm. it was phenomenal. But, um, another thing I want to look at is on our side of the ball, we’ve been talking about this since I think DK’s signed to the Steelers is, “Oh, this is going to be a problem. This is gonna be a problem.” Like, I can’t wait. And I feel like I hadn’t seen it at all this year until this game. I feel like the use of DK Metaf was exactly what all of us have been wanting. I mean, you like you said, you’re moving him around in the slot. He was running different routes. You’re giving them 50/50 balls, which is like just do that, right? Well, and the unique thing is it’s not they never really threw it like a like a like none of those passes really traveled that I can imagine. I have to go back and look at but none of them traveled more than probably 20 25 yards. Now DK went for 80, but that was on an in route that probably is at a 15 or 20 yard depth. It’s not like we’re throwing 30 40 yard bombs down the field to him. Aaron hits him on a beautiful back shoulder over the top fade that that I don’t know how you ever stop. Aaron is so good at throwing that ball. DK goes up and and plucks it. You moved him in the slot. You got him catching little slant balls. They do this little like it’s a run, it’s probably an RPO. It’s a run fake and he throws a quick slam backside. Those kind of things are just huge. And again, there was at least one or two different times in the game that they had it spread out where DK was in the slot and Aaron threw to the back to gain one on the right and got one time he got tackled short of the first down on third down where I was yelling DK in the slot and DK showed up quick slant. And so I think that that Aaron will look at that and he’ll continue to to utilize DK all over the field. I think Arthur Smith doing a great job moving around. We used to do the same thing. We’d put Martavvis Bryant in there. You’d put AB in there. You put a bigbodied just straight line fast receiver in there. Chase Clayool and just let him run. Yeah. Because then all of a sudden he’s m he’s like he he’s he’s taking safeties out of play cuz next thing you do is you run him through and then you utilize the tight ends behind him. Let them run their little 10 yard in route. So 12. Let DK clear out and now you’ve got the tight ends utilizing the middle of the field a little more. Oh, especially if you come out the gate that and you start doing that early. You know what I mean? Establish that as something that we’re going to be looking for. What do you think changed in in the DK usage? I mean, is it just opportunity presented itself? Is it like it seemed like a more schematic, thoughtful? Yeah, I would say I would say that there’s definitely some thoughtfulness and and intentionality and putting him in different places and utilizing his his skill set. I also think that there’s probably some comfort level. Aaron and DK starting to feel it, starting to get more comfortable, starting to, you know, like, okay, gauge each other, feel each other out a little bit. So, I just think that they’re they’re just growing in in their relationship and it’s going to continue to get better in my opinion. I I cuz I don’t think we still utilize him in the red zone the way that we could. Sure. You that the potential that’s still there, there’s still another there’s still a whole another part. If I had this playbook, there’s a whole section in the back that’s still available for DK in the red zone, DK, you know, different things. Well, and that’s going to was my instinct in thinking what are we spending our bye-week on other than obviously recovering from this is the red zone. I mean, we’re one for three in the red zone which is uncharacteristic of Aaron Rogers, right? And when you have 11 foot tight end, two other tight ends that are lethal down there and DK M like what are we doing there? Yeah, I think that we what we need to see and we will see maybe especially now that Calvin Austin I think was we talk about injuries that’s going to be a big one that they lose him. I think we’ll probably have to start seeing some more Roman Wilson and some some Scotty and things like that. But I think what you what you what you should see or what I would do if I was a coordinator is I would send in my jumbo package cuz that’s again I want to make sure we hit hit on the running the run game. We saw that because the run game was much more successful and and one of the reasons because the extra lineman. Yes, they bring in the extra line and it just creates it creates more opportunity in the run game and and so kudos to Arthur Smith, the team for for finding ways to be able to run the ball. Uh so I think that was really big. So what I would say is what you do in the red zone, what I would do to to create uniqueness is I would bring in like what we call a jumbo package. bring in have all your John Smith Pat Fri move Mount Washington an extra lineman have have that’s five six seven eight nine 10 and and and if you don’t want to bring the extra lineman in bring in like have DK come in so you have one receiver and and all these tight ends and it looks like running maybe if you don’t want DK in put him out and bring the extra line and then it’s just they bring in then their heavy defense and they have everybody in there to stop the run and you break the huddle everyone’s in there and you you line up in a heavy package like we’re about to run the ball and then you you you break out. Mhm. You know, set and everyone goes and now you’re utilizing your tight ends as receivers and they’re matched up now against linebackers, safeties, guys that are in to stop the run. And now you can use 11 foot Darnell. You can use the the quickness of Janu of Pat and you still have a running back in there. So you can you can do those things and and and create matchup issues. So, I think that to me is what I would do as the next goaround in the red zone is is create those matchup problems because you can’t just send all your receivers out there because you you don’t h you don’t you’re down. We’ve been talking about a second receiver forever and now your second receiver is out. Yeah. So, that’s what I would do. And if you want to put DK in there, put him in there and maybe he takes a safety and a you know, two guys over there and you work your tight ends because you’ve got skilled tight ends that can be um utilized in the red zone. Oh, 100%. I mean, like, yeah, that’s I would love to see that because you saw them bringing in Spencer Anderson and um them pairing him up with another tight end on the edge there and it was extremely successful. I felt like we did that a lot more too when we had Banner. Yes. The the the the big guy report type thing. Yes. And I think we’ll continue to see it because we’re, you know, we had successes. We know other teams are going to start to Okay, this is what we’re going to do, whatever. But I think that that if you want to run the ball and that’ll open up the passing game because this team is not meant to be a passing team right now. I don’t believe I don’t think we can protect long enough. I mean the first was the first play of the game Aaron gets slammed and dropped. I’m like this is going to be one of them. Yeah, just get that just get out of the way. You know, he got slammed a couple times pretty good. He got that’s one thing. He’s not going to be feeling good. I’m just telling you that’s one thing that if if I’m very happy with what I saw by and large this week. One thing I’m always concerned about is like your quarterback’s in your 40s, man. And like he’s a tough guy. Obviously, he’s got I feel like he’s from your generation where like you got like you guys got like dad strength now. You know what I mean? So, it’s like built a little bit different, right? Uh but you can only take so many of them hits, man. You’re talking about injuries. Obviously, there was um report that CA3 had a shoulder thing. Jaylen Ramsay hamstring. Not a good look. The hamstring. Not a good look. Real hamstring. Fake it into a celebration and then gets a real hamstring. Obviously, we hope that isn’t anything serious. JBJ still out, but you had uh Sean Elliott come back from injury and have a phenomenal game. Played really well. Um he’s the heart and soul of that secondary energy, emotion. He he brings it. You saw it, man. He set an absolute tone. You didn’t see a whole bunch of uh Jabril preppers, but that’s probably why. Um so yeah, man. I feel like I feel like it was there was a lot of of tape there for Steelers fans to be hopeful for moving on for sure. Is having a buy after performance like that going to be a a good thing or is that going to be a bad thing in that you can’t establish a rhythm a weekly rhythm of performing like that? Well, remember we have two buys. Those are the Browns. Um maybe three. We have the Bengals after that too. They look terrible. We should talk about that after this. um just the division. Yeah, I think cuz Yeah, it’s always good to to I mean it’s good to get a buy. I hate to buy this early. We talked about that. Uh I think it’ll help anytime you can have a week without a game to get guys healthy and rested, but not having Ramsay is going to be a big deal. Not having Calvin your number two receiver could be a big deal. Don’t know in terms of everyone else what’s going on out there. JBJ, is he coming back at some point? I think that’ll be good cuz I if he’s not back by the after the buy like what are we doing? He should have went on IR. Listen, I don’t know anything that I heard it’s two hamstrings. I don’t know how you how you how do you pull two hamstrings? Well, if you you don’t you want to get them both out the way. Yeah, let’s not do one. Yeah, it’s Yeah, I I I don’t know anything you don’t know, but I don’t know that he’s coming back soon. I do would assume um Alex is coming back after the buy. Yeah, I would imagine. Um, but again, as as great as we talked about, Alex, we know is great. He’s a great friend. He’s a great football player right now. Herbic is playing awesome. Jack Sawyer is playing great. So, it’s it’s a good problem to have when your guys that are backing up are playing well, you know, the know coach Tomlin, next man up. Next man up. The next man up are next men and Yeah. Oh, for sure. Do you So, obviously, what’s up, man? Obviously, the skill set is different with her big and high. Uh, do you think a a defensive performance like we just saw would Alex’s skill set’s going to just magnify that or do you think that her big skill set is like working well within that? Cuz her being more of a speed guy in there. I think Alex I mean Alex is is is a is a great player. Is that Spam? I’m so excited about that. Come on. I don’t know that ever. I mean that when the last time I had spam was probably when you Hawaii ever today. Today maybe today. Um, you want a little peanut butter cup and your eggs? Uh, I think I and it’s anytime you bring back a player like that, it’s a good thing, you know. It’s it’s not going to be like, oh, we got to put her and I I think they’ll be fresher. I think you’ll rotate them. So, I I don’t think that’s a bad move. I am I am concerned about the Ramsay injury. Um, Calvin Austin injury, some of those are are a little concerning, but other than that, I love the way we played and I think that we can just keep benefiting from this. I think we can build on this. I don’t think having a buy will slow down the momentum. Okay. All right. Well, Chef Evan, welcome to the family dinner. Thank you. Welcome to the football and family dinner brought to you by Giant Eagle. And I also want to take this moment. You want me to move it? No. I’ll just just I’ll get the skin. Can you get the skin off my fingers down there? It just fell. I also want to take this moment to thank the lovely people over at Pawn Lee Hockey for sponsoring this episode. We appreciate you guys. Um, Evan, we knew you were dialed in early. We knew you woke up early for this one. I did. Did you watch the game, Evan? Absolutely. Well, before we go, tell us what we have, please. Okay. Yeah, cuz I don’t want to I want to the the one you burnt your fingers on that is called a tot hot dish. A tah hot. Of course, hot dish. So, it’s hot. And above that is an Irish stew. And in the middle there is some spam msubi. What is that? What is that? It’s sushi rice with spam on top of it and a sweet soy sauce and a seaweed wrap. Huh. Is that what they eat over in Ireland? No. Very Irish. It’s very Irish. It’s an It’s It’s an island, isn’t it? I don’t think I’m not sure about that. Did I do this wrong? I am not sure about Oh, okay. I got it. That’s how you tell it’s good. So, we had We had um That one actually might be on me, boys. We had six recipes I think for um Ireland Minnesota. Okay. Yeah. And so um they got flipped. They got one of them I don’t know. One of them got flipped or I took that from LA or something. That’s what makes it a great cookbook. You wanted it sooner. All I All I All I saw was what was on there. I’m like put that in. Put that one in. What is spam? No one knows. It’s kind of one of those things. Yeah. It’s not really meat. Canned ham. Just don’t ask too many questions. Is it really how much ham’s in it? I don’t know. Not not enough. It’s okay. It’s made from natural flavors and and ingredients. Thank you very much. I do have a funny story real quick. Yeah. Cuz we’re we thanking Giant Eagle for this amazing food that they supply with Evan and I was over there with our good friend Bill. Yes. Orman from Giant Eagle. So I was on the Steeler pregame tailgate and they were we were up in this like area and there were a bunch of fans out there. So they were yelling for for us, you know, infection. Kept yelling for, you know, an hour or so or the whole time we were up there. And I was talking with Pounc Mr. Bill and some point Pounc was like, I Bill, they’re not saying Ben, they’re saying Bill. He was like, “Oh, certainly. It was the greatest thing ever.” So Bill, you’re right. They were they were after you. I get it. Thank you for helping with this. And yes, I know you said it. Pondi hockey. Yeah. All right, Evan. Yes. Give us uh hot takes, hot plates. Chef Evan, what did you love? What did you hate? I I thought it was roughly 55 minutes of complete football. Yeah. Okay. I think it it went well. It it fell apart towards the end. What fell apart? Um I don’t know. I think a little bit of everything there. Everybody saw it. It was It was kind of like a hold your breath moment there for Can’t you see their fans just be happy? I am. I’m very happy. You know what? You’re right. Come on, man. I’m very happy. Have your own experience. Have your own experience. I I think that it was it was a a good game. A lot of I saw a lot of things that I liked. Break it down for us. What early? What did you How did you How did you pass to DK? That was that felt like Steeler football to me. Mhm. So, and I think Gainwell did did a good job running. I think that was a line block a little better. Yeah, the line and defense. There was a great takeaway by TJ there. There was a lot of good defensive plays. Uh Patrick Wilson running that guy down. How about that? 22.4 mph. The Nation going to love him for a while. Yep. That’s what we like. Talking about blocking, we can’t we’d be remiss if we didn’t talk about Aaron’s block. Oh man. I mean lowered the shoulder on a guy Yeah. You didn’t see that? Yeah. Oh yeah, man. Reverse something. He was on that run to the left that came out around and he was following the ball but and he just shouldered right into this. I saw him running. I saw him run that direction. Did the guy go flying? I mean I mean he let he laid it the the on the the coverage on the actual play as it was happening looked legit. The replay I was like do you need to do that? It’s like he was falling. He was falling anyway. And just like I saw Aaron running over there. I was like, “What are you going to do?” That’s what I said. I was screaming. He’s blocked. He’s blocked. He lower the show. I was like, Aaron, my man, it’s the little things that I don’t care if that guy ever came close. I like to see it. I love to see it eight. Keep doing it. Yeah. Are you a fan of the go for it on the fourth down in the goal line? Uh, yeah, but I I think I’d pick a different play. Okay. All right. You know, yes, I agree. I always like coach from the bean bag and say like I wouldn’t have called that play. You know what I mean? Like like I know what I’m doing. Like it’s a Madden game. You get the Madden recommendation or whatever. Just shut the game off if I don’t like the result. No, that’s not how it works. But I think I would have chose a different play. But it does blow my mind. Like it feels like it happens a lot of times where you’re on a fourth and short and the play call is something like ridiculous. You’re like, “See, that’s why we shouldn’t have gone with it.” I’m like, “No, that was like a trash play.” Like that should have been like your last option. Why did you do that? Maybe we should just try to run it through all these linemen. They’re all going to come through through the middle. Like, let’s just try to go that way. Hey, they’re crowd in the box. Let’s go that way. But again, easier said than done. Like, you know, you have probably minimal time in that situation. And is that enough time for your quarterback to drop back and throw a fade to a tight end? You know what I mean? It is. Okay. Absolutely. Perfect. This quarterback, it says, “Yes.” Yes. Not you. This quarterback, he’s not as harsh. Okay. Well, there you go. Um, yeah. Well, obviously we talked about injuries, we talked about some of the concerns. Um, is there anything else from this game? Because I do want to Yeah. Anything else from this game that any other thoughts? I thought we talked about the Payton. We talked about obviously injuries could be concerning a little bit move potentially depending on who’s got what. I thought uh the atmosphere looked awesome. Oh, it was just a hy. So overall, I thought it was a really cool experience. And then I got to watch football the whole rest of the day, too. So it was like I’ll wake up at 9 every Sunday and watch football from 9 to bedtime. I enjoyed that. I did thought I did think that was an awesome experience. I didn’t think about the fact that it was just from waking up you got to we watched the Bucks Eagles game. And we were you have to if you’re if you’re a football fan over there like if you’re if you’re a real football fan Yeah. you don’t sleep because games don’t come on till like 1 2 in the morning sometimes. Monday night, Thursday night, Sunday night. Bam. They had a uh it was like there’s two games on Tuesday. Who knows playing on Tuesday? Yeah. But it was because it was like a 2:00 in the morning kickoff. Tuesday night. What do they have? Tuesday night football. No, it’s Tuesday morning on Tuesday. Tuesday modern football. Tuesday football. It was crazy. You got to wake up early. The Guinnesses start flowing. That’s where the Irish coffee comes from. There you go. They’re tailgating. There it is, huh, man? So, I know we have a by week. Um, I do like Oh, sorry. I like you said the tight ends a little more, but I don’t know why we didn’t even think about looking at Pat. Yeah, I I don’t know. The numbers are weird for tight ends this this year. I think, you know, it’s not they’re not being utilized a whole lot. And I get it because they’re putting Darnell Washington in there to block cuz he’s good at he’s a big man. He’s cuz other people can’t block. Matt Washington. Yeah. Well, I don’t know. Well, go ahead. I think doing that like utilizing tight ends down around the goal line and, you know, at a certain spot in the red zone is is probably better than just trying to force the ball. Yeah. through our bodies. Good and bad news. That’s really good. Bad news is I definitely burned some skin in my mouth. Strike two. Well, it is a hot. It’s in the It’s in the description. I know. Yeah, I was hungry. You don’t want that cold. I mean, listen, I haven’t eaten real food in a long week. Let’s be honest. Food over there went good. So, we’re going to we’re going to touch on this. It was okay. No, it wasn’t. It actually wasn’t that great. It’s okay. People were amazing, though. People are great. City’s awesome. We’re going to touch quickly on we have a buy. We know that. Yes. We got a little special something next week for you guys. Oh yeah, we can announce that actually. Okay. Well, we can Well, I’ll let you announce because you know the details. We can announce it here if you want right now with Evan here. But let’s quickly quickly 30 to 60 seconds talk about two weeks against the Browns. We’ll talk about them more next week as we get closer. Before we even see that, what’s our thought going into the Browns game right in 30 to 60 seconds? Uh def they have pretty decent defense. Y so, you know, just being able to move the ball on them and get ourselves in position to score. Might be a little difficult, but offensively, I’m not really concerned about the Browns. Oh, I hear Okay, good. Yeah. So, I hear you say the Browns are terrible. No, no worries. Win. Um, no. Like I said, their defense, I mean, I think it’s going to be a win, but I don’t think it’s going to be like a a walk in there and wipe the floor and then leave. Well, or like wipe the rear end off the rear LeBron. Well, I said it’s I said it’s our second buy in a row, so that’s how I feel. Okay. Uh, should Sanders might be starting by then. Gabriel, let’s let’s retire his jersey. He’s going to start a game. Put it up in the rafters. My goodness. He might. Okay. Well, that’s good. Yeah. I don’t I don’t I don’t foresee a big issue with the Browns. So, we again we’ll we’ll dive into it tonight. I’m going to keep my W here. I’m going to keep my W. No, some some places some teams you don’t have to worry about. Yeah, but you’re not playing them. You know what I mean? Like we’re not dealing about that. Yeah, Spence. Yep. Last one. As you give me the last beer, Evan, stay here. Okay. Tell us what we have next week. So, next week’s interesting because next week, since it’s a by-week, we’re going to give uh We don’t get to go on vacation, I guess. Yeah. Thought we used to go on vacation during the by weeks, but I guess not. We are going to take a little trip, though. Oh, are we? Everything we’re doing right here, Ben. You see? See how I’m pouring this beer? We’re eating this food. Chef Evan standing right there hanging out talking about how bad the Browns are. We’re going to do that. But we’re also going to invite some members of the footballing family. What? Yeah. Here to the basement. Well, not here. Unfortunately, you only got the this many seats, so I don’t think we can do that. We’re going to take it to a giant Eagle Market District. The show is on the road. Show is on. Do we have a bus? like a cool bus like like the big day bus. Yeah, I think with I think we’re going to just hang glide in. I think we’re hang gliders and we’re going to go in there. That’s what I think. Don’t hold me to that. I have to um check the email. But yeah, we are doing a live show next week. Live show Johnny Engle Market District. And not only that, uh we’re inviting some of the football and family. There are 50 spots available for football and family to come join us at Giant Eagle. It’s going to be We’re actually going to film it next Monday. Oh, few days. Wow. 50 spots. You ready? Yeah. And you’re probably wondering, well, how do I get one of those spots? That’s a great question, Evan. Thank you so much for asking that because it’s first come, first serve. All you have to do Wednesday, not when you see this, but Wednesday, whatever the 1st, October 1st, tomorrow from when we are filming this on the foot at Football with Ben Instagram, we will have a post. Follow that Instagram. When that post is dropped, that link will become available. It’s first come, first serve. So, the first 50 people that click the link, fill out whatever it has you fill out. You will be What time is that? Are we not telling? They just got to keep checking in. Just keep check everybody. Hey, listen. For the people who will be attending, they will it will be in the afternoon. It will be like after work, depending on what job you have, depending on what work. It won’t be in the middle of the day, but Monday, October 6th, is when we’re going to film it. But first 50 people that sign up when we drop that at football with Ben on Instagram. That link will be there for you to do that after it’s full, it’s full. But we’ll hopefully do it uh another time. But we thought we’d give the by-week uh an opportunity for you to come see the show, sample the beers here. Our good friends over at Giant Eagle have done all kinds of awesome stuff. So you guys get this experience that we do every week. You’re going to be able to do it with us. You’re going to sample the beers here with Ben. You’re going to get to taste Chef Evan’s food. He’s got a secret menu. Oh, Evan, you’re cooking there, I guess. So, Oh, boy. So, uh, yeah, you get they get they get the they get the they’ll have the same beer as us, same food as us. Yeah, you’ll be sitting you’ll be sitting 3 ft from them. What? Yeah. Talking about the Browns or whatever. Yeah, we got a lot of cool stuff planned. So, we’re we are uh we’re excited for that. So, at football with Ben on Instagram, follow that if you are not already to get that. Wednesday, October 1st is when it will drop. And then when it does, first 50 people sign the link. It’s And it’s free. Awesome. Just got to be there. Can’t wait. That’ll be cool. Super super sick, bro. Well, thank you again to Panley Hockey for sponsoring the show. Thank you to Giant Eagle and Bill and his lovely wife Cindy, all the people at Giant Eagle for the family dinner food. We appreciate that. Thank you for next week. Look forward to seeing you all there. And um well, we can live stress free this weekend. That’s good. Well, I mean, you might not cuz you got Notre Dame to worry about. No, we’ll be fine. Okay. So, anyway, stress-free weekend. We were definitely stressed uh watching this game last week. Some of the guys up in the box, we were not quite sure what was going on at times, but we got the win, which is the most important thing. We are 3 and one. Evan, I’m 2 and2 for my picks, but we’re three and one, which is a good place to be. Going to a bye to get rested up. We will see you when we see you. Thanks for joining us. Have a great time later.

In this episode, Sponsored by Pond Lehocky, Ben and Spence celebrate family, discuss Ben’s recent trip to Ireland, and analyze the Steelers’ performance against the Vikings. They share experiences from Ben’s travels, including visits to historic sites in Dublin, golfing, and the excitement of game day at Croke Park. The conversation also delves into game strategies, player performances, and upcoming events, including a live show announcement.

Get the Footbahlin Cookbook Volume 2:
https://footbahlin-with-ben-roethlisberger.clockwise.io/products/footbahlin-cookbook-volume-2?

00:00 Celebrating Family and Football
01:18 Exploring Ireland: A Family Adventure
05:51 Cultural Experiences in Dublin
11:09 Golfing in Ireland: A Unique Experience
14:55 Game Day Excitement at Croke Park
25:09 Analyzing the Steelers’ Performance
30:53 Coaching Decisions and Game Strategy
32:14 Vikings Performance Analysis
35:23 Controversial Coaching Decisions
38:53 Defensive Highlights and Key Plays
41:45 Utilizing DK Metcalf Effectively
43:39 Red Zone Strategies and Running Game
46:30 Injury Concerns and Bye Week Impact
49:21 Upcoming Live Show Announcement