Immediate Postgame Reaction to Steelers 21-14 Win at Patriots | Pittsburgh Steelers

Immediate Postgame Reaction to Steelers 21-14 Win at Patriots | Pittsburgh Steelers

Welcome to the Ford Steelers Extra Point. Good afternoon everyone. Welcome inside the KDK TV studios following a Steelers win on the road. That’s two on the road, one loss at home. And here we are. Bob Pompiani along with Chris Hokei bro 76 after uh kind of a weird football game today. 2114. The Steelers started very fast. They ended in a good way, but in between there was a lot of stuff that has to be corrected certainly. But right off the bat, Chris, they came out and they moved right down the field on a drive that was eight plays, 54 yards. They get it back after a turnover, 12 plays, 90 yards, Metaf touchdown. So 14- nothing. It looked like it may be a blowout. And then turnovers, misplays, everything took over this. I mean, listen. And the Steelers came out and aided by a turnover takeaway by the Steelers defense. drove down the field and then 90 yards down the field. Bob, you talked about that, but it was all it was aided by penalties. It was aided by mishaps, but the Steelers found a way to win into the game. I always say, Coach Cow used to say to us, we start fast and finish strong. See started fast with two touchdowns in the first quarter. They struggled in between the last drive of the game, but they went down and scored the game-winning drive to win this game. And it was a gutty performance on the road. It’s always tough to win on the road, and the Steelers have two already this season. And Drake May is a pretty good young quarterback. He had his moments today, but he also turned the ball over a couple of times. He did. And then, boy, Raandre Stevenson had a bad day. Also, two lost fumbles. Aaron Rogers right now is live at the podium. And let’s take you there to hear what he has to say after this win. Came out of second half and made a terrible throw. Uh, defense just kind of stood on their head all day. But, um, you know, I thought the first two drives were really good rhythm wise, and we just couldn’t find that rhythm uh in the second half. You did it at the end. What’s that say about the offense resiliency and stick to it? I mean, it’s what we’re supposed to do. You know, we got to make those plays. Uh, so we’re not in those positions, you know, 14 nothing. We’re feeling pretty damn good about ourselves. You know, we haven’t been in the head by two scores yet and two drives, two touchdowns, starting fast for a third straight week. But, you know, I just didn’t uh didn’t play great and uh we kind of lost our rhythm. Had too many penalties and negative yardage plays and didn’t make them pay when we had opportunities. Was there something about the Patriots defense you found especially challenging? Well, I mean, they throw a lot of different things at you. Felt like they were kind of in a two shell to start the game. We kind of ran it ran at them pretty good the first couple drives and they adjusted and we just didn’t uh didn’t make enough plays. You know, we had some penalties, had some bad throws, and um but they played kind of how we thought they were going to play. They’re tough group. They’re well coached. Uh and they were sticky in coverage. Passing five rivers milestones today. Where is that rank on the list of accomplishments today? I mean, not super duper high. Uh, you know, it means I played a long time. Uh, I grew up in, you know, Niners quarterbacks were my favorite and then Brett and then I got to play with Brett. Um, I was drafted the year after Phil Rivers. Um, had a friendship through the game with him for years. Loved watching Phil play. you know, just his mannerisms, his lack of swearing, trash talk. Um, you know, Phil was uh was one guy I really enjoyed watching on on tape and, uh, and the only guy to get out of the Pro Bowl with an excuse that he had his eighth or ninth kid, I think, right before that. So, um, good to be mentioned with those guys. Aaron, what’s it like to see when a guy like J Peppers gets to come face his old team and make a big impact playing a game like that? Well, I think as uh as former players, when you’re playing former teams, that’s what you want. You want to make a big play and and make them uh you know, think about what they what they lost. Uh so, you know, there was there’s always that, you know, every single week there’s a guy that’s facing this former team probably and you’d like to get them the ball or like to, you know, have him make some plays, but uh he was uh he was definitely happy in the locker room. Have you done that? Yeah, a couple weeks ago. Anyone else? Aaron, entering the game, New England led the league in sacks. Your offensive line didn’t give up any in that. Talk about maybe the the growth that you’ve seen in this young unit over the first couple weeks through today. Well, it’s a group effort and I’ve I’ve tried to take accountability the last couple weeks on sacks that were probably my fault. Um, today I moved around just enough. Uh, you know, there’s some things to clean up, but I I have a lot of confidence in those guys. guys. I thought hard did a good job keeping them off balance with some different protection schemes and and some moving the pocket stuff, but uh yeah, I thought I thought those guys played well. There was, you know, they were a little upset after last week and I thought they played with a better attitude this week. All right, thank you coming in. Thanks. All right, that’s Aaron Rogers after the game. And for the game, Rogers uh 16 of 23, 139, two touchdowns. Uh but like you said, it was a fast start. They scored on their first two possessions. That whole first quarter was dominated by the Steelers. After that, it flipped. And why did it flip? Especially what did New England do defensively to change the Well, we saw the complete change, right? What happened the first two drives? Aaron Rogers said it. The Patriots came out with too high, which meant they were playing with seven men in the box. The Steelers were able to get a hat on a hat and a lot of times having an extra hat, extra blocker. In the at the third drive, they switched and brought another safety down the box, meaning eight guys at the line of scrimmage. Steelers had to get a hat on a hat or short a hat, meaning blockers on defenders. It made it much more difficult for the Steelers to win the one-on-one battles and to run the football. And for the rest of the game, until that last drive, the Steelers really struggled at the line of scrimmage, to get any kind of protection for Aaron Rogers to run the football against that eight-man front. Those were the great adjustments. That’s why I believe, Bob, that the Patriots went for on fourth down so many times. They believe that they had the Steelers number and the Steelers couldn’t move the football, so they were confident in going for it on fourth down. Yeah, they were four for five on fourth down when they had the football. overall 10 of 18 on third and fourth downs. That’s just not a recipe that you should have if you’re a Pittsburgh Steelers defense because you’re giving up those significant plays. And uh with regard to Rogers though, he did have the one interception which again you address that with what they did differently and it looked like it was an obvious throw but after that he did a pretty good job especially on the last drive when they had to. Again, started fast, ended fast, in between not so much. But what did you see overall from his efforts today as you take a look at Rogers D? I thought he started out and played well. He started to get frazzled a little bit in this game. He was getting hit a lot. Brderick Jones and Troy Futan who were both getting beat continually by um Harold Landry the third and also by um um Chson. They were both beating them off the edges. He was getting hit and you can see at times getting frustrated yelling at his O line because he could get up and his elbow was hurting him. So they’ve got to clean that up, Bob. They’re going against a really tough Vikings team, a lot of good teams in the in the upcoming season. They’ve got to be able to protect gun Rogers or he’s going to have a tough time making it through all 17 games. Yeah, no question about that. Vikings, by the way, were winners today. They dismantled Cincinnati 48-10. We’ll talk more about that. We’ll also get into some of the stuff that happened uh with regard to keys to the game because there were some significant changes of momentum in this game. A lot of turnovers by New England. As I tweeted, they were wearing red and white. They look like Santa Claus at times with five turnovers. And that’s the way the Steelers did it. They took the ball away at critical times. We’ll get into that and more as we continue. We are live right now in our studios today at Gillette Stadium. And the Steelers come away with a 214 win. First time they’ve won there since that guy was quarterback Tom Brady back in 28. It was actually Matt Castle back there 2008. We’ll be right back. Steelers Extra Point is presented by Remax. Remax voted the most trusted agents in real estate. All right, welcome back. as we continue with uh our extra point show. Steelers win today. So, there are two wins, one loss, heading to Ireland coming up on uh Sunday next and it’ll be a 9:30 a.m. kickoff for that game. Let’s take a look at today’s scoring summary. And you’ll understand why this was it looked like a fast start for the Steelers. It might be a blowout anywhere. Kenny Gainwell with a one-yd touchdown run after Jaylen Warren had did most of the running down to the goal line. A nice play call there to get that done. And then it was Aaron Rogers with a nice pass to DK Metaf went up, took it away from the defender. Two possessions in, it’s 14 to nothing. And then everything changed. Drake May got going 5-yd score to Hunter Henry. And boy, has he been a thorn in the side of the Steelers over the years. Another one. 16 yds to Henry. So it’s 14 apiece. That happened in the fourth quarter. Then the Steelers get the final one with 216 remaining. Aaron Rogers, Calvin Austin, 17yd connection. But you know, there are so many turning points to this game here, Chris. And to me, right before halftime, New England is about to score. They go 17 plays, 92 yards, and Cam Hayward, who was really good today, got his hand on a ball, slightly deflected it right in the hands of Brandon Eckles. And without points there, you thought it was going to be 1414 at halftime, they get nothing. And then right after that, start of the next quarter, third quarter after halftime, what happens? Well, Robert Spelain steps in front of an intended receiver and returns it. And they look like they’re about to score again when Raandre Stevenson fumbles. caused by who? Cam Hayward and Payton Wilson recovered. Bob, last week we talked about a players got to step up and play a ball. What happened today? Cam Hayward had a sack and a half. Cam Hayward caused two turnovers, right? Stuck his big pop in the air and tipped that ball for Brandon Eckles to intercept it. Stuck his paw out there again to cause the fumble that was recovered by Peyton Wilson. Two takeaways that prevented the Patriots from getting any kind of points. That was the game to me right there. A players TJ Watts stepping up and having two sacks in this game. That’s what you need, especially when you play on the road. These are tough games to win on the road and they went in Foxboro and did it. Another guy who played today for the very first time was Derrick Harmon and he immediately got in a sack game and I thought he was good. He was running down players as best he could. He hasn’t played in a long time, but you saw the potential the Steelers liked with him. Number 99 was doing a good job. Well, we call this in in football fresh legs, right? He hadn’t played since the, you know, middle of training camp. He hadn’t played the first couple weeks of the season. His legs were fresh. They weren’t tired from all the snaps. And he went out there and he showed it. He hustled. He came in, he had a nice tackle, and when he ran down a screen, had another sack, half sack, he caused a lot of havoc there at the line of scrimmage. I’m excited for him to go and watch the film and get a little bit better next week and play well against the Vikings. Well, despite all those turnovers, the Steelers took the ball away. Took the ball away, but it’s remained 14-7 until New England finally did go down and score to make it 14 a piece before the Steelers won the game. Mike Tomlin earlier just moments ago spoke to the media after the game. Let’s hear what he had to say. Man, it’s great to win in the National Football League. Um appreciative of the efforts today. Uh certainly required 60 minutes of effort in all three phases to get it done. Uh certainly there are a lot of things to work on, but it’s good to do that with the win. Um couple things of note. I thought we started uh fast offensively. Um but then we stalled out obviously particularly in the second half. Um but a lot of credit goes to New England and their defense and what they were doing. Uh they were major components of that. Um, defensively I thought we were really tight um, in the red zone and things of that nature. I thought we could have been better on possession downs. Thankfully, we took the ball away from them to alleviate some of that lack of possession down uh, success. Um, but all in all, it was good team victory, man. We fought for 60 minutes. We utilized a lot of people, specialization of talent, divisional labor, things of that nature. Um, still finding our way, you know, with the number of new people and uh, people out and things of that nature. And so it was a good experience. Um no significant injuries to mention. Um Slay missed some time in the game with a leg contusion. I think he was able to get back in and finish. Um same with Brderick. Um but we’ll stack this one. Questions. My two big takeways down there by the goal line. How big was the one at the end of the huge um you know that’s why we spend as much time uh practicing down in that space as we do as a collective. Uh we got to be great on defense uh in the effort to win the point swing. We got to be great on offense. And when you take the ball away, man, you you get all seven points. Usually you’re fighting for four. Um but man, those takeaways, particularly down there, uh were big. Mike, do you see that as technique as some of the things you’re working on in practice with punching and stuff like that? No question. You know, we spent a lot of time um on our ball search culture. Um but it’s just words. It’s an agenda. The efforts of the guys make it real. uh not only on Sunday but but during the course of the week and you know just felt like we were headed toward a good game in that area just by the way we worked this week in that area like the passing game wasn’t really clicking but at the end we’re going right down the field there you know um and that’s often times the case man you can um it cannot be going the way you desire uh but you better have enough emotion you better have enough belief um you better stay the course in an effort to do it you can say the same thing about the defense in in in New York uh and we were able to finish it at the end. Same thing with the offense um today. Um but that’s what team is about. You were pounding your chest walking out through the tunnel. Does this win have any more significance other than just good to win the NFL? As you said, it’s good to win the NFL as you just said, Mike. Uh Raandre Stevenson. Obviously fumbles have kind of been an issue throughout his career. Was that guys this week? It was, but um it is every week. um we identify, you know, opportunities and certainly um you know, he had some fumble issues last year and so it was an agenda of ours. Mike, what were your thoughts on how Derek Harman played in his regular season debut? Man, I was appreciative of his efforts. Um excited for him. Um he’s a competitor. He wanted to be out there with his teammates, man. I thought he um represented himself well today. And so it’s just upward and onwards from here. What kind of challenge I guess 97 didn’t surprise you? Never. 97 and 90. Never surprised. What kind of challenge did Drake May provide through your defense today? His mobility is an issue. Um particularly in some of them short yardage moments, you know, fourth down and ones and things of that nature. Uh quarterback mobility by play design I thought was a factor in some of those things. He got out around the edge on us and extended some possessions, but uh not that we were surprised by it. That’s a component of his game and it’s a component of his game that we respect. Mike Eckles played a lot more snaps. Can you speak to the tackle and the effort that he today? He he um he’s been real solid, man, but he’s been real solid throughout this whole process um for us. Uh team development and so forth. He made some big plays today. The interception, the fourth down tackle. He was engaged in the game. Uh he is a good teammate and I’m glad we got him. You know, I thought he played with great energy and communication. uh for a guy that’s new, uh his level of communication is unique in terms of um you know, adjustments and so forth, but he’s a veteran. Uh he’s got a good passion for the game, good relationship with the game, and certainly it’s good to win. Anyone else? Thanks, guys. All right, that’s Mike Tman after the game going with the hokey bro look there. No hat this week. Bald head, right? It’s always looking good. Anyway, let’s you know, yeah, they got the win. It’s always nice to get the win. They’re 2-1 uh in what’s going to be a tough division even though the Bengals got u trashed today by Minnesota 48-10. I want to ask you about the middle of the field for the Steelers because you know they’re in a situation where they’re week in and week out it seems like they’re running free in the middle of the field. We saw Hunter Henry today more than anybody over the years. He’s played now four career games against the Steelers, one with the Chargers, three with New England. And in that time now if you add today um eight catches he has 19 catches and six touchdowns in four games. And it seems like it’s too easy for him at times. What are they what are they doing and what are the Steelers not doing? If I can just add what you’re saying, it seemed like at times the Steelers were playing a prevent defense, giving everything underneath wide open. There was a miscommunication on several passes as they talked about this week that they got to improve the communication. Even Juan Thornhill kind of complained about the noise in Aasher Stadium. They’re on the road now. It’s quiet and they’re still having communication issues. Hunter Hunter um Henry was open on several plays and they were able to get the ball to him to convert third downs uh to move the chains to score touchdowns. They’ve got to improve there because these guys are running wide open in the middle of the field and has linebackers and safeties got to figure this thing out because if that continues to happen, they’re going to struggle to win ball games and get offenses off the field. The other thing that happened again was another 119 yards on the run on the run game for the uh opponents. Uh that’s been a trend and it just continued. While the Steelers could only manage 26 for 64, 2.5. So again, it started well. I thought the offensive line was moving guys the first couple of drives and all of a sudden things change drastically. Well, again, we talked about that, right? They went from seven men in the box, defenders in the box, now to eight defenders in the box, and the Steelers couldn’t get a hat on a hat, couldn’t win those one-on-one battles, and that’s where they really started to struggle to run the football. And you’re right, I mean, Jaylen Warren came out and had a lot of success. He was running like a jitterbug, making a lot of people miss. But when you have a a defender unblocked in the hole, it’s tough to make him miss all the time. So, they’ve got to get in the lab again, continue to improve there. It was better, but they’ve got to be able to run the ball for 60 minutes, not just for 15 and stop the run, too. That again is a recurring theme. So, you can correct those when you win. It’s a lot easier. Two and one. They’ll try to get to three and one next week in Dublin, Ireland. We’ll take a break, come back with more. And later, we’ll take your phone calls as well. Your thoughts about the Steelers after three games at two wins, one loss after a 214 win today in New England. It’s all coming up next right here on the Ford Extra Point. [Music] Welcome back to the Ford Steelers Extra Point. So now the Steelers will hit the road for a home game. Technically, it’ll be in Dublin, Ireland next week. Croak Park is the scene and KDK will be there. Rich Walsh and I will have our pregame show uh the kickoff next Saturday at 8:30 in the morning. That aware because that game starts at 9:30 Eastern time. A 2:30 start in Dublin, Ireland. That should be an interesting game with the Minnesota Vikings doing well even though JJ McCarthy’s out. Carson Wentz was their quarterback today and they beat Cincinnati. All right, let’s take a look at the final stats here from today’s game as the Steelers win 2114. And the numbers are not necessarily encouraging on some of them. Yeah, the final score is encouraging, 214, but if you look at deeper into this, you’ll see that New England had their way with first downs, uh, passing yards, uh, rushing yards, all of that. But they were their own worst enemy, as they were, uh, last week. Even though they beat Miami, they had some turnovers in that game, plus 12 penalties and still won. Today, that continued. And you can see, uh, third down conversions, not what you would want if you’re the Pittsburgh Steelers defense. The most important stat is a win on the road. But you look at this, you’re right, Bob, very concerning. 26 first downs, 119 yards rushing. That’s three weeks in a row where the Steelers defense have given up a over 100 yards to their opponent. 6 for13 on third down. What’s not being shown here also four for five on fourth down. Coach Tommen always talks about situational football and those heavy heavy downs. They’ve got to be better in those moments and the Patriots continually went for it and converted in a favorable rate including from their own 15 yd line which is something and converted and Patrick Queen was in the back field. diagnosed. They had that play diagnosed and somehow he got away and they turn into a first down. But that’s something at your own 15 yd line. You open yourself up for a lot of criticism if that does not work. TJ Watt, two sacks today after going a couple of games without them. He was in a lot of places today. Let’s hear what TJ Watt said after the game. Oh yeah. I mean, we knew those guys were ball search victims all week. They had a lot of fumbles on tape. Um and anytime you emphasize that throughout the week, it needs to show up in the game. And uh that’s what you saw today. Yes. Anytime you have five turnovers, it’s a pretty good day. At least should be. I mean, yeah. Uh there’s going to be a lot of good film to watch in this. Obviously, we’ve had some pretty rough performances the first couple weeks, and today was a much better performance, but there’s still a lot of room to grow. Um third and longs, what do you think the issues have been for you guys? It seems like that’s the one area that’s been a struggle lately. I think it’s just a matter of working together. You know, rushing coverage has to work together and we need to get home and I thought the guys in the back end did a good job of covering to allow us to be able to get to those quarterbacks, especially in some max pro situations. um especially at the end there, but we got to do better, of course. Yeah, they do. But, uh they got to win. And so, that will certainly be the one stat that we all talk about more than anything as this season moves on. But you see Watts Day today, five tackles, two solo, couple of sacks, two tackles for losses, quarterback hits. This was his best day by far. And Nick Herbick in place of u Alex Heismith also had a productive day. He was in the back field, sack, fumble. He had a lot of things going on. We didn’t see all that much of Jack Sawyer and Herbic played a good game. But I thought Jack Sawyer did a great job. He came in and played well against the run and he’s being physical and he’s coming along at a much better rate than I thought as a rookie. I liked him at Ohio State. Great pick. But right now, you look at TJ Watt. I’m hoping this is catapults him into more sacks. He went six games in a row. This was a 6-1 where he didn’t have a sack. Had two today. Two tackles for a loss, a fumble recovery. The Steelers need TJ Watt to get hot and get going in order for them to win ball games. Cuz again, this Steelers defense right now, they’ve got to create turnovers. And it’s been like that for the last couple years cuz if they don’t create turnovers, the Steelers struggle to win. So, this is extremely important for TJ Watt to be hot in each game. And I noticed a couple of times they moved him over to the other side where he was going one-on-one against the left tackle, the rookie Will Campbell, who was a fifth round pick or fourth round pick out of LSU. And they wanted to see what if that would work. Uh, but it’s good to see because I think they have to do that sometimes to free him up, especially if they’re going to, you know, who’s a tight end to Chip or whatever else over that side. And they need to move him around so they can’t keyhon him, right? If he’s always in the same spot, if he’s always doing the same thing, just rushing up field, the teams are going to strategize and scheme around that. So, they’ve got to do that. I don’t like them putting him pump in between the guards, putting him on the nose, on the center, on the nose there or over the guards. He’s just not um he’s not familiar with that. And you saw at times last year where he got knocked around, put him on the edge, move him around, move him inside, do some different stunts with him, so he’s not so predictable of just rushing up field. Brandon Eckles had a big day. He of course made that interception after Cam Hayward got his hand on the ball right at the end of the first half which was a killer for New England although they came back out and tied the game but still at that moment 17 plays 92 yards and then he made some good tackles at the end of the game. Here’s Brandon Eckles after the game. Look at what we need to fix and get it fixed. [Music] Fact that you guys are so well posited. you guys haven’t really performed up to that level. You guys first two games and you said we need to put something out there. Yeah, man. It’s still early in the season. Like like everybody else say, we still early in the season. We still getting acclimated to each other. So, you know, once we all get comfortable and understand, you know, our jobs and not trying to do the next man job, I feel like we’re going to be real fine. You know, we put a we put heavy emphasis on it every week, you know, day in and day out, man. get the ball, turn the ball over, give it back to the offense, you know, and that’s what that was our primary goal going into this game, you know, get the ball back to the offense and that’s what we did. Your interception, were you kind of baking? Did you know it was going to I mean, I said breaking it down, I seen the kind of concept they was giving me. I was getting hollow, you know, with a seven and a flat route right in front of me. Uh, and thanks to Cam, like I said earlier, you know, he tipped the ball, you know, slowed it down a little bit and I was able to go grab it. How about maybe the biggest play that the the stop on fourth down? Oh, yeah, man. I know. I just love making plays, dog. Yeah, he did. Rich said, “All right, dude.” Because that’s what he says. He got dog and dude, but anyway, he did make that tackle and I thought that Douglas could have had the first down, but he had nowhere to go. So, he tries to go back inside and he went backwards and cost him any chance. That was the only time they did not convert a fourth down play when they absolutely needed and it was the biggest moments, right? And I I talked about earlier in the show, right? The Steelers scored in the first two drives of the game. They scored in the last drive of the game. It’s not always a matter. [Applause] You score, you take advantage of it and you jump on top. And that big tackle there at the end of the game was huge because if they would have converted on that fourth down like they had been all game, they really had several shots at the end zone and Drake May was throwing the ball really well. He really was and he had a scramble in there as well. Mike Tomler had said all this week that he was interested in trying to stop Drake May when he, you know, got outside bootleg. scored. You know, there was another fourth down bootleg. Couple of them. Couple of naked boots and he’s converted those third downs. Was able to beat defenders. TJ Watt to the corner. Remember one time TJ Watt was hot cuz he thought he got held. But he was continually able to beat the defenders to the edge and get the first down and move the chains. Yeah, absolutely did. And a newcomer helped the Steelers once again. It’s Jabro Peppers. He didn’t play all that much last week, but he did today and he made a significant play. Let’s hear what he had to say after the game. Punch out the ball and put your face on it and good things happen for you. this one feel a little better? Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. I needed this one. And I thank each and every man coach in here. You know, we had a great week of work, great prep. Yeah, it’s it feel good right now. I’m not going to lie. A good day when you guys can buy this. Absolutely. What was that like being able to do that? I mean, that’s that’s been the DNA here since, you know, the 70s, 60s, and beyond that. You know, they they they implemented rules because of the steel curtain, you know what I mean? to to help offenses out. So, you know, I’m just happy to be a part of it. You know, I’m just going to try to be a star in my role, whatever that role is, week in and week out. You know, lean on the guys and, you know, we got a lot to clean up. But how much of your institutional knowledge of the offense going against this week helped this week? Uh, you know, it it definitely helps you play faster. Um, you know, let your let your instincts take over. But, you know, it’s still a lot to work on, but it’s it’s good making corrections after a win. You get the game ball for this one, bro. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. How’ you describe what your ball? Uh, I don’t know. It It was a fumble recovery, so I don’t know. I I did something with it. I don’t know. Hopefully, it finds me, but if not, it’s all good. Did you already know that you were going to celebrate? I did. Yeah, I envisioned it last night. I definitely envisioned it last night. Let the Let the fans know, you know, I miss him. Uh, but, you know, I’m I’m I’m down with the steel curtain now, and I hope to, you know, become a fan for real, too. It just took two weeks. Last week it was difficult. He just came in in the middle of the week and to expect him to do stuff is maybe unrealistic. This week he had a whole week of practice and you can tell he was more comfortable in that system. He was he came in again. He came in and stopped the run. They had to get a stop there. He caused another turnover and the Steelers five turnovers. That is the difference in the game, Bob. If you cut and dice this thing, yeah, they out out gained the Steelers. Yes, they were they converted all these third downs, but five takeaways, one there by Peppers and that changes the game. Five sacks and the Patriots had zero. Those are the big moments in the game that absolutely turn the tide in the Steelers favor despite how much they struggled throughout the game. And really when you turn the ball over as you’re about to go into the end zone, not once but twice. I mean, I give New England credit for that because they did not at that point, you know, you could say, okay, the wind comes out of their sales, but they still ca, you know, came to play and they tied the game eventually even after they had two of those missed opportunities in their own, you know, at the one yard line. That’s Vable’s personality, right? they have completely taken on his personality and they get fighting, kept fighting and you can see Verbel’s got this team heading in the right direction. I believe as I told you during the commercial break that the Patriots have a bright future with Drake May and what he’s doing there. Um but right now they are embracing who he is and what he kind of player he was. I played against Mike Vrabel and so this was a dog fight game even though the Steelers had five takeaways and five sacks. When we come back you’re going to hear from both of the touchdown makers today. That would be DK Metaf and Calvin Austin. They spoke after the game. Rich Walsh was there. We’re going to run those for you as we come back here. Gillette Stadium was the site. First Steelers win there since 2008. So that’s been a long time. 214 that final score today. They end that jinx. We’ll come back with more right after this. [Music] Welcome back to the Ford Steelers Extra Point with you here in studio and we’ll be taking your calls coming up uh in a little bit. I’d love to hear from you on our um call-in show, which is after this show. In the meantime, I want to talk about the standings now because they’re a little bit of change to them. Uh the Steelers are 2-1. Yes, tied with the Bengals who lost today by 38 points to Minnesota. The Ravens 1 and one. Uh but the Browns picked up a win today. You thought for sure they dropped to 0 and3. Instead, they come back. They were down 10- nothing to Green Bay Packers and they won that game. Used some special teams plays to get it done, but they still won the game. Um, and so they’re one and two. An unexpected win for sure. All right, we talked about touchdown makers in this game. DK Medaf, Calvin Austin both got in the end zone, won in the beginning of the game. Calvin Austin when it m mattered the most, 17 yards on a back shoulder throw, but Medaf got it started. He had a touchdown last week. Got number two to Aaron Rogers earlier in this game. Let’s hear from DK Medaf afterwards. A touchdown. Calvin, what are you thinking? Like he said earlier that he earlier this week it’s in. What do you think? Yeah. You said what? What are you thinking when he gets that touchdown? What do you see there? Uh, I mean, he was built for it. Um, you know, Aaron went to the open guy and he killed the guy off the line of scrimmage and, you know, he was able to catch a touchdown. What’s missing from the offense right now? What’s necessary for that rhythm to show? I mean, I don’t know. I can give you an answer to that as we watch film, but I’m about to enjoy this win right now. How do you stay locked in as an offense? You start off hot and then things get cold for a couple quarters and then be able to come back. Uh just being able to execute um even when you know things aren’t going our way on first and second down just execute on third down and being being able to stay on the field. Offensive struggle. Can you feed off the defense? I mean they had five turnovers. You guys got back out there scoring the last Yeah, most definitely. Without the defense, we definitely wouldn’t be sitting in this locker room, you know, cheering or or happy that we got a win. So, you know, big shout out to the defense for, you know, just creating five turnovers. Um, and two of them were definitely in the red zone where they could have gotten uh, six points easily. As an offense at the same time, how frustrating is it when you’re not able to capitalize on some of those turnovers the defense has given you? Yeah, I mean, in the heat of the moment, you got to just go move on to the next play and just be be able to um, you know, come in on Monday and and fix your mistakes on uh, from Monday to Friday or Saturday and then uh, you know, from week to week making sure those uh, those improvements show up. What was Aaron’s message to you guys, especially when things were going cold in the second and third quarter? Uh, I think everybody’s message in the huddle was just to, you know, keep your head up and just continue to execute. Uh, whenever we we get a chance, it’s going to pop. Uh, you know, just shout out to Jaylen in the O line for picking up a big third and two. Um, that that uh we were able to score on on that drive. All right, let’s take a look at DK’s day and you’ll see uh he was targeted four times, three receptions. You expect bigger numbers from that. I’m going to ask you this, Chris. Uh, do you expect more in terms of targets for DK Metaf as this season progresses? More targets and more production, right? I mean, he was the big signing, big free agent this offseason for the Steelers. Gave him a big contract. I mean, up now to this point, I think he has what 10 catches for 135 yards after three games. So, after a quarter of this, almost what almost a quarter of the season, that’s not enough production out of your number one guy. So, they’ve got to find a way to get the ball to DK Metaf. He’s got to find a way to get open. He had some drops early in the first two games. didn’t have any today, but he’s got to continue to make catches like that and they got to go to him more often. Yeah, they do. Uh and quite frankly, only two receivers were targeted today at all. Metaf was one of them and Calvin Austin was the other guy and he was targeted five times. Again, modest numbers, three catches, 34 yards, but 17 of those came on the final play for them offensively that mattered. It was the game-winning score and Calvin Austin was happy to get it. Let’s hear from him. eight gave me, you know, a little signal that we were on the same page and and converted. Being on the same page, how good did that feel after you guys have had some misconnections in the last few weeks? Um, I think it was just, you know, with this game and stuff, you going to have um, you know, some ups and downs and stuff, but um, I think it’s the biggest thing was just, you know, this week um, we continued to be ourselves, continue to communicate, and then there was no panic at all from the last game. And so, you know, you get in moments like this and it’s just about you just go back to your training and just got to go back to um fundamentals cuz that all that was just basic basic fundamentals right there. He really came running after you, Kevin. Did you see Aaron Rogers? He came running after you after you scored. Did it surprise you at all? Did you expect that? Oh, yeah. Um I think after the first one I scored versus the Jets, he was one of the first people over there. So, I mean, um, that’s the thing with this, um, like stuff happens, but like we see each other every day, so it’s like it’s not like, you know what I’m saying? It’s it’s it’s on to it’s on to the next. So, um, I wasn’t surprised at all. After the struggles there for a couple quarters, were you guys able to feed off the defense and, you know, the five turnovers, especially that last one led to your touchdown? Yeah, most definitely. Um the defense obviously, you know, came up extremely big and um each of those moments where they were getting those those turnovers. Um obviously you want to convert on all of them cuz we wouldn’t be in this type of game. But you know, sometimes there’s games like this and you know coach as coach says like you know it doesn’t sometimes you may not win pretty. You know what I’m saying? But you know it’s just about at the end of the day executing at the end. Is it still frustrating sometimes? I mean, I know win is the most important thing here, but it’s stalling drives. Oh, yeah. Most definitely. Just cuz I mean, our goals and our expectations is to play till is to play till February. And we know um as a offense um you know, we just got to do better if we want to get there. But at the end of the day, it’s week three. We got to win. But um like I said from last game, we got the right guys and stuff. So, um everybody is locked in, engaged, happy for each other. And so as long as we got that mindset going forward, our talents will be able to show. All right, there’s Kelvin Austra at the game. Again, modest numbers, but a big 17 yard touchdown. And I have to say, Chris, as you look at those numbers, he made a nice adjustment. I know that was a back shoulder throw, but he had to spin his body around. Really the only way that play was going to make cuz the defender was there. Coverage was pretty good. But as I watch it, was it really a back shoulder throw? Is that just kind of where it went? And he was able to adjust. He said he would had to turn his body all the way around. So, was it truly a back shoulder fade? But the reality is they’ve got to get more production out of the number one and number two. And then you start thinking about that, Bob. How can they do that if they want to push the ball down the field? Aaron Rogers has to have time to sit in the pocket. And right now he’s sitting in that pocket and getting crushed. A lot of the throws are dumps to Jaylen Warren. I mean, again, he had five catches today for 34 yards. Primarily, a lot of those in the first half of this game. So, in order for Aaron Rogers to push the ball down the field, he’s got to have time to step up into this pocket. We have seen when the puck’s clean, when he’s able to step up in, he makes nice throws to Calvin Austin the third. A nice touchdown pass of DK Metaf. If they get more than that, they’re going to score a lot of points like we saw against the Jets a couple weeks ago. Yeah. Outside of those two receivers, there are no other wide receivers on the stat sheet at all. Tight ends, sure, they utilize those guys, but nobody else. Still not a lot, Bob, from the tight ends. Well, no, not at all. When you look at the numbers, one catch for Frier Muth, three catches for John Smith. for a lot. They attempted to go to Darnell Washington once and it was a pass interference which is always a good play. Yeah. I mean today the yards per pass yards per catch I mean was 55.1 yards and so the Steelers right now they they’re not pushing the ball down the field again. They’re just dinking and dunking the ball. A lot of what we’ve seen the last several years and it has to come down to protection. We we have seen that Aaron Rogers can push it down the field. He wants to push it down the field. There’s not a lot of time. He was on his back a lot today and he was under pressure and and so Steelers got to figure that out because the two edges, they’ve got to do a lot of work at those two tackles. Absolutely. You need time to make those plays work. All right, let’s take a look at the quarterback comparison here. Uh again, the numbers favor May, although he did fumble. Both guys had an interception. Both guys had two touchdowns. Uh so fairly similar in that production-wise, but I was, you know, Drake May was one of those quarterbacks when he came out. I thought he’d have success in the pro game. You can see why. He stays in the pocket. He he’s willing to take a hit if he has to, but he’s got to possess the football better, can’t Well, very talented, right? And he can run when he wants. He wants to stay in the pocket and be a passive, but he also knows that he can run the ball when he has to. And he did that today. They had that key turnover in the game that really hurt the Patriots. But you look at that 268 yards. A lot of it can be attributed to them converting on third down, converting on fourth down, and maintaining the football. But end of the day, he played really well today. I I think he has a bright future in the NFL. All right. One of the things we talked about with the Steelers, uh, is the tight ends. we expected a lot of play from them. John Smith, as I said, just three catches fire with one today. Uh I think the tight end’s another, you know, we thought they would be primarily, you know, focused in on with Arthur Smith’s offense and they have been, but not to a large degree and I think a lot of this has to do the last two weeks, they didn’t have the ball all that much. Possessions were not nearly enough and if you don’t have possession time, chances are you’re not going to run a lot of plays and therefore everybody’s numbers suffer. Yeah. I mean, John had one catch, I think 10 plus yards in this game, but really just not enough yardage of why they brought him here and they traded for him and Jaylen Ramsey in that trade. John Smith, they need to get him more involved in the offense. And you know, right now it’s just around the line of scrimmage primarily. So with these tight ends, they’re they’re really talented tight ends. Fri Muth and John Smith, they’ve got to be able to work the middle of the field just like we saw today with the Patriots. They have these these John Smith and Fmouth, I believe, are more talented than Hunter Henry. More talented than the tight ends that that Patriots had, but they had more yardage today and more catches and move the chains at a much higher rate. We focused a lot on offense. We’re going to focus on defense, specifically Cam Hayward. I thought he has, if I’m going to give a game ball, it would be to him. He does a lot of the stuff that you don’t notice, although today you did notice him in critical times. We’ll talk about that and more as we continue right here with the Ford Extra point. KDK TV. Don’t go away. [Music] Welcome back to the Ford Steelers Extra Point. All right, welcome back. Let’s go around the league. Week number three of the NFL. Some surprises for sure. Uh I would imagine the margin of victory is the biggest surprise here. Although Joe Burrow is out. Vikings, man, they just did what they had to do. 48-10. They win today at home against the Bengals. and Minnesota will be in Ireland next week to take on the Pittsburgh Steelers. Then the Jaguars and how about the Texans are now 0 and3 and I thought they may have a hiccup or two early in the season. Jags beat him. It was a 10-10 game until late. The Browns came all the way back from 10 nothing deficit and shocked Green Bay 13 to 10. And the Colts say what you want, but they’re getting it done. And uh their quarterback is really it’s like a new lease on life. He’s gone and Shane Stiken’s done a very good job with Daniel Jones. has really had a success before he came to the Colts and now with Daniel Jones just really just elevated his game. But what concerns me as you look at that win Minnesota Vikings 48-10 today they had 31 carries for 169 yards against that Bengals defense at 5.5 a clip. The Steelers got to get better because every team’s going to want to run the football and make that part of a majority of their game plan. And so the Steelers got to figure out what they got to do. They still have to be more stout at the point of attack. linebackers still got to step up and play where they struggled again at times in this game a little bit better but not good enough to hold a team from controlling the the the clock like today like they did and when you see those numbers that you just described they’re going to have an appetite to keep running a ball against the Steelers until the Steelers have an answer to the run games which so far in three weeks has not been under 100 yards. Each of these teams has rushed for over 100 yards against the Steeler defense. All right, let’s talk about some of the leading defensive players now because uh there were some significant plays here. Patrick Queen had 10 total uh tackles, six of them solo. Then you see uh Pton Wilson. He he was victimized a couple of times over the middle in some of the coverage areas and that’s that’s got to improve for him. Cole Hulk played right off the bat and made a play and a forced fumbles. Uh you see at the bottom of the list though, Cam Hayward, man, I I really thought his game today was terrific. Little subtle things that make a big difference. Yeah, I mean, listen, when you have a sack and a half, when you caused two turnovers, what I love seeing right there on those stats is that the top three tackles on the team were the Pittsburgh Steelers linebackers. You want linebackers to play the run, play down in, and hit. Yeah, they got to improve. They got to get better. Payton Wilson still making some rookie mistakes, even though it’s a second year guy, rookie in terms of starting and playing time, but I like seeing that the linebackers are the top three tacklers on the team. That’s much better than seeing your safeties and your corners being four of the top five, right? And we’ve seen that the last couple of weeks, too. And when it gets to that level, you’re never going to have good statistic numbers overall. Cam Hayward did have a nice stat day. Let’s hear from number 97 after today’s 214 win. Jim, you talked about the two takeaways down by the goal line, both of which you had your hand in. Um, you know, I just think for our group, we talk about we don’t care how we get on the field. We don’t care the situation. Um, we got to find a way to get off the field. Um, and you know, um, we do a good job of studying our opponents, um, looking for ways to create turnovers. And we preached all week that, you know, we’re going to have some opportunities to, you know, um, punch at that ball. Uh, that was very apparent today. And then, um, you know, in the in the quick pass, you know, you can’t always be a rusher. You got to get your hands up and, uh, result in interception. Mike said that during the week we talked about Stevenson’s fumble issues last year and that was a kind of a point of emphasis. Yeah, that’s what happened. 100%. We uh you know uh from what Wednesday on we we or probably Tuesday on we we were very steadfast about you know creating turnovers. Um I think Stephvenson had 14 going in. May had some um four had four also had some. So, we were very um locked in on that. Uh and it paid dividends. None. And what kind of impact did having Derek in there for you guys? Yeah, I I thought Derrick played very well. Um got strong hands. Um you know, I I was worried about his conditioning, but he came to play today and um you know, I think it really balanced out our group, especially with Lao going down. So, uh to get him back in the flow, he’s just going to keep getting better. You know, I think it it creates for something we can build on. You guys tried so many different combinations in the in the secondary. What does this echo those two plays that he made speak to just the pick and that tackle at the end? I I think it just speaks to being ready for your moments. Um, you know, injuries are part of this game. Uh, you might be thrust in there. Uh, but it’s on you to be ready. Uh, and we appreciate Be ready for that moment. Um, you know, he he talks about it in practice. He he preaches just being ready and, uh, it showed out today. What was just your overall impression? All right, that’s Hayward’s day. You see, he was very active today and again insignificant moments. A sack today. He was actually part of the Harmon sack. Could have been a sack and a half, but they didn’t give him a credit for that. A pass defended. He had a couple of tackles for loss quarterback hit. And we saw last week even Chris, you know, he made that deflected play that went right in the waiting arms of Nick Herbick for the nice return which set up the Medcaf touchdown. So, right off the bat, and we talk about his age a lot, but man, he just continues to defy those numbers and plays very well. He’s absolutely a guy who has a knack to make a play when you need him to. And we talked about this in the last couple of weeks. I mean, these Steeler defenders, the A players, the AllPro players, they didn’t play at all in the preseason, right? So, this month of September is their August. And now you’re starting to see TJ Watt, two sacks. Cam Hayward now having a real huge impact on the game with a sack and a half. He c he forced two turnovers that were he didn’t he didn’t recover them, but he caused them. Now, you’re starting to see these guys get into game form. We’ve got to see more of this every single week, but they’re back to where they were last season and that is good for the Steelers. And Derek Harmon, number 99, made his debut as Cam said, he was maybe a little concerned about his condition. He had not played, nagging injury. He got back in there, had a sack, had a tackle for loss. He was chasing down Drake May when he had to run after him. He looked pretty good. Here’s what 99 had to say on his first NFL game. First sack, too. Oh, it felt good, man. It felt great. uh Dline’s rushing together um as a unit and that’s what we need every game for the whole D line of rush as one. Did you know as the week went on that you’d be able to play in this game? Do you have good feelings? Um it was a feeling but it was it was last minute type thing but I was happy I got out there with the guys and compete. When did you know? Yesterday. Yes sir. Were you limited snapwise? Was that that plan coming in? Yes sir. You feel like next week you should be able to build on that more of a normal workload? Most definitely. Get out of practice, get some rest in practice and and come out next week and we’re ready to dominate again. What were your emotions like when you first stepped out here today? Um excited, ready to get to it. Um a little bit of anxious, ready to um compete at a high level like I said. Um just happy to be out there with my guys and compete. How good of a feeling is it today turnover story? Um, I was very excited. Like I said, we knew coming to this game, the defense got to show up. Last two games wasn’t our standard. We knew we had to do some big things and make some big plays to show off this today. TJ ball out today. How’s that make you feel? No, that’s TJ, man. He play He plays a lot, but great player, great guy. That’s good to see him out there. He was their number one selection. A very good player at Oregon prior to that, Michigan State. And you saw, you know, playing in those high leverage games in some of those conference conferences that he played in, I think helped him just like Jack Sawyer when you play in meaningful games in college and you’re a big part of it. It does help you in your and then those big time games, right? You’re playing against big time teams and so the game’s a little bit faster, right? So the jump from college football to the NFL isn’t as big as if you playing in a small school. The game is much much faster. So I what we wanted to see was will he have an impact on the game and he absolutely did today with a sack. He had a couple tackles. um he had some great pressure on the quarterback and he will go back and watch the film and they’ll critique it and he’ll be much better next week in Dublin against the Vikings because he’ll have another week a full week of work, right? Well, he’ll get a lot of reps in practice and be much more prepared and he’ll be much more wellversed in how the Steelers want to attack the Vikings next week. And speaking of the Vikings, they’re next up as we go on our Ford road ahead. And you’ll see it is going to be that game in Dublin, Ireland. A lot of Steeler fans are going to make their way there. So, Croak Park should be loaded with black and gold. 9:30 a.m. And again, we’ll have a pregame show. It’ll be at 8:30 a.m. Rich Walsh and I in Dublin on Sunday. We’ll have that for you. Then it’s a bye-week. They come home and they’ll get some time before they take on two division rivals. The Browns that’ll be u in Pittsburgh and that’s a 1:00 game. We’ll have that for you. Also, they won again today beating Green Bay. And then the Bengals on a Thursday night. So, a short week as a player. Do you like short weeks or you would rather avoid those kind of things? You know what the I I don’t mind them, right? Because yeah, it’s a short week and you got only got four or five days to prepare. But the reality is once you get out there, that blood starts to flow, the juice starts to go, all those bumps and pains go away and you play. Then you get an extra long week, right? You get that weekend off. Some of these guys can go back home. They can spend more time nursing some injuries. It’s it’s a mini bye-week for the Steelers when you play on a third. So you have a by week, a week later, a mini by week. So that could help them, especially with some of the nagging injuries they have had. And they’ve had a few, including Joey Porter Jr. who missed another game today, and Deshawn Elliott. So those guys will benefit by that. That’s going to wrap up this show today. Our Ford extra point thanks to Chris Hokei bro 76. But we’re not done. When we come back, we’re going to talk about what happened today at Gillette Stadium. And that’s a Steeler win for the first time since 2008 on our Ireland Contracting Nightly Sports Call special Steelers edition. We want to hear from you at 412575-2600. It’s next right here on KDKA.

KDKA’s Bob Pompeani and Chris Hoke recap the Steelers 21-14 win over the Patriots in Week 3

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