FIRST TAKE | “Stop the panic! Steelers still a threat with Rodgers at QB!” – Stephen A. fires back

FIRST TAKE | “Stop the panic! Steelers still a threat with Rodgers at QB!” – Stephen A. fires back

The reason the question is hard is because you got to be the polar opposite. I would give them closer to contender than I would pretender. Okay? Right? I’ve seen this team this year understand defensively how we need to bring pressure in order to get people around the quarterback and create turnovers. I’ve seen whether it’s Nick Herbig, TJ White, Cam Haywood. Uh I’ve seen all of these players defensively make the plays they need to make. I see two sacks from Jaylen Ramsey. Aaron Rogers is obviously exactly who they acquired him to be. Not from a from a leadership standpoint, from a production standpoint. What I did notice last night was the conversation we had yesterday though, Stephen A. Who’s number two? Yeah. Are we going to throw Are we going to give the ball to Scotty Miller? Is the ball going to go to Roman Wilson? Is it going to be Jean New? Is it going to be Darnell Washington? Washington. This team is a contender in the sense that I think they’re closer to being or they’re a playoff team more so than they’re a team that doesn’t make the playoffs. But with what I saw last night, that team can’t win a championship. Yeah. I got a question to you, Stephen A, though. Sure. Because when when we’re having this dynamic, there’s obvious connectivity to the Steelers. Yes. From the fans perspective, obviously playing from an organization. My question is, when you see a game like this, given the circumstances, given the statistics, how do you see them moving forward? And does it give you confidence in them moving forward? You know what I don’t like about what I saw last night? The Steelers showed me why they wouldn’t win a playoff game. In other words, you what you saw from the Steelers last night, we’ve seen before in a regular season game. We’ve seen them plummet when they should have ascended, right? They’ll correct the ship enough to be respectable enough to get to the to the postseason and then when you get there, that kind of stuff is going to happen. If you go up against Indianapolis, Jonathan Taylor probably going to run all over you. If you go up against Buffalo, it’s going to be on the road, all right, in that inclement weather and Josh Allen’s gonna find a way to hurt you. You go up against Kansas City, there’s nothing to discuss. They’ll beat you any which way they want to. Okay? You see vulnerabilities and you’re expecting people to step up and to give you the impression this is different. What do you constantly remmit? Middle of the road. If you can’t be great, be awful. That way, that way as a result, you can position yourself in the draft, you understand? And potentially free agency because you know you need a plethora of parts. The problem with the Steelers is they’re good enough to be better than half the league and not good enough to be better than the other half. They’re the middle of the road, which means they’re good enough to make regular seasons interesting for you. But every Steeler fan know you looking at this team that is not a Super Bowl championship legitimate. Well, how much were you paying attention to? Because when they acquired Aaron Rogers, my thing was this. I believe they’ll be a playoff team and I think they’ll struggle to win a first round game. Right. So, you’re saying in watching that game, even with the way Aaron Rodgers played, you think this is still a team that’s one and done? That’s what has shocked me because I’ve seen too many occasions this week, this season, where the Steelers defense could be exploited. I saw it against the New York Jets. I saw it last night. I’m seeing teams moving the ball and being able to get what they need when they need it. You know, one of the things that was great about the Ravens with Ray Lewis and those boys was that they were going to find a way to stop you. We not having it. And the Steelers at that time when they had to go up against the Ravens, even though it was sporadic, it was inconsistent. There were seasons when you knew the Steelers defense going to show up. Are you going to get something offensively, Big Bend? You going to do something? You going to do something, Antonio Brown? What y’all going to do? But you knew the Steelers defense would would answer the call. We don’t see that from this team this year. Yeah, man. My question now goes to to you RC because from a players perspective or from the fans perspective as you’re watching this game when you see your guy giving up to play like speak to the fans that see a guy like Jaylen Ramsay who I have the utmost respect for as a dog but he’s getting beat. No, it’s disappointing because the the biggest thing is he got beat on two fade balls. Yeah. Right. And this is that’s what he does, right? He understands how to play the ball. He’s pre he can press at the line of scrimmage. You get the Jamar Chase, what he tried to play as a push off. Now Jamar scores the touchdown. Yeah, right. And then late in the game, T. Higgins, he’s trying to lean into T. Higgins and then T. Higgins scores. It almost feels to me because he is so special, because he is so talented, because he can do so many diverse things from an intellectual standpoint, he might be doing too much. This is a guy that’s played free safety, that’s played nickel, that’s played dime, and that’s played outside corner. And so now on a night when you’re facing, he did all those things. Excuse me, fjector. All those things. He’s done all those things since he been the Steeler in the first in the first game against the New York Jets, he opens the game with the tackle on Bree Hall from the middle of the field, right? He plays the nickel spot and then later on and he has a tackle for loss on Garrett Wilson and then late in the game, the big hit came from the corner position. So, you’re asking a player to move and maneuver into all those roles and they may have to have an understanding that Jaylen Ramsey has to be this thing for the Pittsburgh Steelers and we have to play this way. And you’ve seen it with the greats. You’ve seen it with the greats. Eventually, you get to a point in their careers where we can’t say we’re just going to leave you out there and have you do it one-on-one each and every game. And I think that’s where Terrell Austin failed this team last night. And I think for me personally, what I’m worried about Cam is the reliant is is the reliability associated with Jaylen Ramsay because we have to ask him, he’s been around for a very long time and he’s done it all. It’s not to say that the brother still can’t play and he still can’t do good things, but is he what he used to be? Because I don’t see last night happening to a younger Jaylen Ramsey. But you got Darius Slay as well too for So Slay got banged up last night and so they had to insert Eckles. So now they had Eckles playing the nickel and then we had Joey Porter Jr. and Jaylen Ramsey on the outside. But that was also the whole point about all of these acquisitions, right? You felt like Joey Porter Jr. was a guy last year. He traveled with the one. Now you go get Jaylen Ramsey, you get Darius Sllay, you were supposed to be able to man him up. And listen, I had a conversation with Jaylen. Like that’s my dude. Love. He was acquired for this game. Yes. He told us before this game, we are going to have a conversation in the cornerback room about who has who. And I asked him specifically, I said, Jaylen, who has one. And he said, that’s me. And I believe he can do it. He believes he can do it. Obviously, Mike Tomlin, Terra Austin believes he can do it. So, you got to do it when it’s time. They believed he could do it before last night. It’s not easy since I’m not saying I’m not saying it’s No, I’m not saying it’s fast. But here’s why. But here’s why. We got to be real. We have to understand why it’s not past tense or why why why it’s not past. Because everybody ain’t Jamar Chase. You see what I’m saying? That’s true. So, you know, you got 256 yards receiving between Jamar Chase and T. Higgins. Both them was getting they both every time I saw this is how it felt. You know better than me. You know better. Every time I’m looking at the screen because we don’t see all the angles. Yeah. Every time you looked at the screen, a play was being made by a Bengals wide receiver. Jaylen Ramsey was in the picture, right? Every single time. Every single time. Go back and watch it. Go back and watch. I’m not saying it was his fault. Please don’t get me wrong. That’s for football analysts to break down. I’m telling you, watching the camera, you know, you watching the camera and you just see somebody getting up. They’re right there. They’re coming off their knees. They’re coming off. You understand? Right there showing up on a camera. I mean, we saw Jaylen Ramsay more last night than we’ve saw him than we saw him in the first damn five games. I let you do that. That’s just the truth. That’s the truth. Don’t say I’m not saying Listen, I’m not knocking the brother as game. I’m talking about last night. Last night was not a good game. Absolutely not. Absolutely not. And those games happen. And that’s what I would tell the fans who watched the game. It’s like, yo, if you’re telling me that we expect this from every single game, absolutely not. We are surprised because a guy like Jaylen Ramsay, who is the alpha, yes, you know, of all alphas, and when he has an opportunity to say, “Hey, I get the opportunity to cover Jamar Chase and T. Higgins, these games cement legacies, right?” When you go back and you look at stat lines from Derel Rivas prime time, when you look at certain games, man, he held that person to only eight yards, man. Those are type of dominant games that we see. But to Stephen A’s point, everybody’s not T. Higgins. Everybody’s not Jamar Chase. So now we have to re-evaluate if we were to play that type of situation again, like how we play. How do we play him? And do we really give him one? Here’s my non ass self. Here’s how you play that. You do not put that man one-on-one with Jamar Chase on any The thing is this though at at some point you have to because that’s part of football and you have to you have to allow him to go make his money. You have to allow him to go stand on his name. Yeah. And if he if he realizes he can’t do that, he comes to you, he says it, then that’s fine. It’s okay to give up plays to a Jamar Chase and a T. Higgins, but you got to make one. Yeah. Right. And Jaylen Ramsey didn’t make the one he needed last night. I believe he can in the future against Jamar Chase against anybody. I’m asking Jamar Chase. Yes, Jamar Chase, too. A play don’t care who make it. Stephen A. Hello. A play don’t care who makes it. Vanessa J. I wish he had made one. I wish he had made one. Coming up, Dak is having an MVP caliber

FIRST TAKE | “Stop the panic! Steelers still a threat with Aaron Rodgers at QB!” – Stephen A. fires back