FULL PREVIEW 🔥 Bengals vs. Steelers will be ‘GREAT FOR THE OLD GUYS!’ – Aaron Rodgers | First Take

FULL PREVIEW 🔥 Bengals vs. Steelers will be ‘GREAT FOR THE OLD GUYS!’ – Aaron Rodgers | First Take

Welcome to a Mad Dog Wednesday this morning on First Hick. I’m Peter Shreger. We’ve got Stephen A. We’ve got Mad Dog, we got Kimberly Martin. We’re all here. Let’s kick things off with some Thursday night football talk. Stephen A’s Steelers are set to face off against their division rival Bengals. It will be the second start for Joe Flacco since being traded to Cincinnati. and he’ll be up against Aaron Rogers who has turned back the clock and has the Steelers at a 4-1 record. Tomorrow will only be the second time in NFL history that two starting quarterbacks be going up each against each other in their 40s. The other one was Tom Brady versus Drew Brees in 2020. Here’s Aaron Rogers on the Thursday night matchup. This quarterback’s playing this week. Let’s go. Icing hot bowl. I love it. Yeah, I think it’s great. uh great for all the old guys. You know, I know that when I watch other sports, maybe it’s cuz I’m the older guy, but I I tend to to pull for the older guys to win to win championships. I’ve known Joe for a long time. He’s been great coming to my charity event. He’s been a great ambassador for the league. He’s had a great career and it’s fun that we’re both still playing. All right, that’s obviously great respect Rogers has for Flaco. The Steelers seem to be rolling, but Kimberly, should they be on upset alert as they head against Cincinnati Thursday night? I think so. A I understand they don’t the Bengals don’t have Joe Burrow. I get that. But divisional games, they’re always a little weird, always something unexpected. And Mad Dog, you love you love stats. Where’s your little almanac? You love You know, I didn’t bring it. I have it. I didn’t bring it. Do you know what the Steelers record on Thursday night road games is error? They’re 0 and8. Wow. Oh, so I again good one. This is this is a I think this an approved Steelers team from last year, but I covered that Brown Steelers game over the weekend. Do you also know what the halftime score was of that game, Mad Dog? Uh this this past 93, wasn’t it? Nine-3 field goals, Mad Dog. We’re talking field goals. So when I look at the Steelers, I think this is a team that can make the playoffs. However, their offense does kind of worry me a little bit cuz until Rogers finds somebody deep, it’s a lot of quick passes, get the ball out. Um, it I just wonder about them consistently throughout the season. So, yeah, I think it’s a divisional game and they should be on upset alert. I think it is too. I agree with you. I had the over, by the way, in the Cleveland Pittsburgh game. It was 38. So, 23-9 doesn’t add to 38. No, it doesn’t. I needed Gabriel to score a touchdown there at the end. Here’s the stat for you. Can I throw Stevie a stat? This is an interesting one. Do you know that last week Flaco only became the seventh quarterback since 1950 to play against the same team different on a different team twice in in the same year. So in other words, he was on two different teams playing against the same team and the last guy to do it was Jack Kemp. That was from the wind in 1962. Oh, you caught it too. Good for you, Peter. You wonder sit in that chair. That is a good job on your part. But I am with Kimberly. I think the Bengals are going to play a pretty competitive game. You know, they played well against Green Bay. Game was 2418. Third and nine. He makes the big pass play. Love or that game. They could have had the fallback. I mean, I I I actually think the Bengals were very competitive on the road in Lambo and I think they’ll play pretty well here this week. Close game. Stephen A, give us a reason to watch this game. What do we got here? First of all, well, well, the first reason is because I disagree with both Kimberly and Doggy. Let’s get that out the way first. Uh Kimberly’s wrong because one of the biggest reasons she’s wrong is because she’s siding with Doggy who’s a degenerate gambler and we all know that he’s a he’s going to sit up there and look at the angles and how much money he can make and get away with it. That ain’t going to cut the mustard. That I’m telling you that right now. The Cincinnati Bengals, we came into the season recognizing how horrid their defense was. They haven’t been that god awful, but they certainly haven’t been impressive. So, we’ve got to get that out of the way. Offensively, they’ve been anemic. Yeah, you go out and you get Joe Flacco, his first game in the Cincinnati Bengal uniform. uh you that you have him throw the football 45 times, he still throws for about 219 yards, then turn the ball over, congratulations. It’s so touching. But in the end, when you’re going up against a Pittsburgh Steelers defense that’s going to be able to get at a stationary quarterback, that should be problematic for them. I know he’s torched them last year. I know he’s torched them in the past when he was with the Indianapolis coach last year and before that when he was with the Browns, but still in all you should be able to get to Joe Flack. I know he’s familiar with the Steelers. I know Jamar Chase and T. Higgins are elite weapons. But in the end, the way the Steelers defense is flowing, the fact that he’s new to this and still trying to figure things out in terms of being in the Cincinnati Bengal uniform with their system schematically with Zack Taylor coaching, I think that’s something the Steelers defense can exploit more than he can exploit their defense. Offensively, we’re talking about a guy on Aaron Rogers that’s completing about 69% of his passes. That’s got about 10 touchdowns and three interceptions on the season. And I’m talking about this guy since late last season. He’s thrown I think it’s like since week eight or nine of last season where he had the worst season of his career going five and 12. Aaron Rogers is throwing like 28 touchdowns with just seven interceptions with a QBR under 100. The man has been balling right now. And then you’re getting DK Metaf. He’s becoming a bit more active. Of course of of course you’ve got Fry Smith out there with them along with other weapons. I think the Steelers are flooring right now. If you can beat Minnesota in Dublin, if you can beat Cleveland and neutralize them the way that you could, you should be able to handle the Cincinnati Bengals. Yeah, they might score a few a few points, but you should be able to neutralize them to some degree. The Steelers shouldn’t be on upset alert. If they are what we think they are, if they’re not, and they do get upset, then they’re what? Then you know what? They ain’t what we thought they were. That’s how I’m looking at it. And yet I don’t feel like they have the same national buzz that most foreign ones. Why do you know why? One of the re one of the reasons that could be Peter Steven doggy is because coming into that Browns game they won the three games that they had won were one possession games in which they won the turnover battle. So yes, when I say this is a better team, it is. But they need their defense to constantly show up. So before that Browns blowout, they were in tight games and it wasn’t. That’s why I say the the upset alert to me is still on the table because they aren’t blowing teams out, Stephen. So the stats that you bring up about Rogers, okay, the completion percentage, but when you still look at it, it is a quick passing game and try to find somebody when they finally get into the end zone. Dog, you look at this Steelers team. Are you putting them in the same breath of those other AFC contenders? Well, you know, I don’t like Indianapolis either because of the competition that they have played. Look at the teams that the Colts have beaten. They they They beat Miami, the Raiders. I mean, they beat the a lot of Cardinals. Reset Cardinals. Uh Tennessee who just fired the head win against the Broncos, but granted it was a leverage call. So, but back to Pittsburgh. Uh what is the spread in this game? I have no idea. Somebody look up the spread. Listen, if anybody if anybody should know the spread for the game, it should be you. How the hell are you asking us? You should be telling us. What does Hondo say in the post? What do we got? I can’t. Steve’s talking to me and so is Sammy. Sammy, what is the spread? Damn it. Five and a half. Take the points. That’s too many points. Five and a half. So, you like Cincinnati? I would take the points. Five and a half. I would even take a run at the money line. That is a situation. Cincinnati’s going to be competitive. I’m with Kimberly. They’re going to be competitive Thursday. He’s going to play pretty well. The Steelers don’t score a ton of points. Rivalry game. Short work week. Great stat. 0 and nine on Thursdays on the road. I’ll take census. Don’t here. Call me tomorrow. Chris, give me the give me 20 grand on Cincinnati. I I know the way he operates. The Steelers. The Steelers are supposed to be showing us something different. I mean, since listen, the last two years of Big Ben Rothllessberger’s career there. We knew he should have been gone. We’ve had to deal with the Mason Rudolphs, the Mitchell Traitzkies, the Justin Fields, even though Justin Fields didn’t look that bad. Russell Wilson who looked good initially before they nose dived the last four games of the regular season and then lost to the playoffs and ended the season on a fivegame winning losing streak last year. But the bottom line is we’ve had to deal with all of this. Now we’ve got Aaron Rogers, somebody who’s not turning over the football, who’s completing 69% of his passes, who who seems to be gaining a connection with a DK Metaf. This should not be a situation where we’re looking at Aaron Rogers and the Pittsburgh Steelers and you fall to the Cincinnati Bengals. If the Steelers are what we think they are, what we think they have the potential to be, you need to handle this. Period. Take the five and a half. Take the five and I will say this. Last week, Giants home place erupting beat the Eagles. So, the Eagles were favored. Maybe that home Thursday night atmosphere in Cincinnati does play role. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Stephen A. Smith, Chris “Mad Dog” Russo and Kimberley A. Martin join Peter Schrager on First Take to preview Joe Flacco and the Cincinnati Bengals take on Aaron Rodgers and the Pittsburgh Steelers on Thursday Night Football.

✔️ Subscribe to ESPN+ http://espnplus.com/youtube
✔️ Get the ESPN App: http://www.espn.com/espn/apps/espn
✔️ Subscribe to ESPN on YouTube: http://es.pn/SUBSCRIBEtoYOUTUBE
✔️ Subscribe to NBA on ESPN on YouTube: http://bit.ly/SUBSCRIBEtoNBAonESPN
✔️ Watch ESPN on YouTube TV: http://es.pn/YouTubeTV

#ESPN #NFL