Thoughts after re-watching Steelers at Bengals + More | SNR Drive (Oct. 20) | Pittsburgh Steelers
You’re tuned to the drive on your 247 home of the black and gold Steelers Nation Radio. [Music] [Applause] [Music] What’s going on Steelers Nation radio? Good afternoon. It’s the drive on the Steelers audio network. Wuler, Matt Williamson with you here on a Monday as things are happening quickly. Matt, woke up today. It’s October 20th on the calendar already. Yeah, it’s funny you went down that road. Kind of nuts. Um, you know, too, I already started compiling some stuff. We’re going to do a beefy around campus segment this week on Wednesday. Started compiling stuff this morning and I’m like there’s five games left in the college football. There’s five five weeks left in the college football regular season. like this is all happening pretty quickly here. It really is. It’s funny because I thought the same thing as I walked in because actually kind of thought of Dale. Dale and I used to talk a lot about that walk in this parking lot from the carude to the front door felt the first time like it gave me a one one of those for the first time. Yeah. Yeah. The the autumn wind is a raider, you know? I mean like Yeah. blistering boistering across the South Hills of Pittsburgh. Yeah, I still had, you know, short sleeve shirt and shorts on. Like, it’s pretty warm out. We have a window open at home, but I’m like, “Oh, it’s right around the corner, though.” Like, when I walk out of here tonight, it might be a little chillier. It sure is. It sure is. It is that time. Uh, with it, all the good that comes with it, some of the negative, the the weather and the darkness and uh those things as well, too. But what that obviously means means a lot with football world, too. Means a ton in the football world. We’re not quite at the halfway point, but we’re pretty stinking close here of the NFL regular season. And of course, we’ve got plenty to get into on what was a crazy eventful Sunday. Yes. And that was just at Mile High Stadium in Denver. 33 points by one team in the fourth quarter. We will go around the league and recap. Uh yeah, 33 points by one team in the fourth quarter. Hands up if you’ve seen that before. uh plenty that happened across the league, across the AFC North, all these different things on Sunday. But we start today, Matt, with be a little bit of a different week this week since we’re not, you know, just doing our typical kind of hour downloading everything that happened in the Steelers game on Sunday. We’re going to bump up Wednesday on will be normal, but Monday, Tuesday is a little, you know, free time. Little little different little uh like open period study hall almost if you will here. And with that, typically on Tuesdays, we do a thing called Tuesday Rewind where it’s just additional thoughts that you and I have when we have time to go back and watch the game Friday, right? We’re in here late night Thursday, back Friday. We give I hadn’t watched the old 22 at that point. Download of all of our thoughts on the game, but now we’ve had time to rewatch it, to rethink it, to dissect it. I’ve got two observation or sorry, two observations for you on each side of the ball. Okay. So for for my kind of Monday rewind, two offensive thoughts, two defensive thoughts. I bet the offensive ones are good and the defensive ones might not be. Yeah. Yeah. I would say one of the offensive ones is very good. The second is encouraging. Okay. Okay. You want to start there? You want to Yeah. Let’s start keep start with some some sunshine rainbows here on this on this afternoon. Uh, and let’s start with the I think one of the biggest takeaways of that game. If you’re looking from a positivity or a glass half full standpoint, I thought Jaylen Warren played really well. That would be on my list. Breaking tackles, running hard, he’s fast, he’s twitchy, he’s tough to bring down. He’s very good in pass protection as well, too. Highly accomplished receiver. I mean, but he was phenomenal. I thought he was going back and rewatching it, I thought Jaylen Warren was exceptional. I thought he played really well. So, before we get too far and too far into the sunshine and rainbow things, Bengals defense is really bad. So, I think all of our listeners know that. We said that going in watching this game. I don’t think all of a sudden, oh, their defense is fine. No, it’s bad. But, they’re also professionals and Jaylen wasn’t great because they stunk. You you know what I mean? And I think that a lot of that’s true for when the Steelers had the ball. Fry with Rogers, the O line, wherever we want to talk about. Um, but yeah, I’m glad you started with him because just his individual effort and achievement that night was really, really strong. Really strong. And if you play the seven or eight minute just Jaylen Warren cutup of that game. Yeah. You’re like, that guy looked like one of the best running backs in the league. Exactly. I mean, he looks like the the top guys and had one of the best games and had one of the best games of any running back in the league. One of mine would be to kind of piggyback off that, which I also think is encouraging and a little overdue, but we’ve seen more and more of it really since the Anderson edition, you know, 74 is eligible. The the the run game is also getting a lot more diverse. You know, I mean, they’re they’re running a wider variety of plays with a wider the outside zone run that we’ve been talking about at the beginning. And I think that was part of the problem early on is it was predictable and that’s a hard run in itself because if anyone’s wrong, you’re wrong. You know, I mean, it’s everyone has to work in unison and there’s a lot of communication and a lot of uh continuity needed and it’s a it takes a long time for it to get going and once it does, it’s beautiful. But in the meantime, partially by inserting Anderson, you know, you’re having more a variety of runs. And I think Warren runs them all really, really well, too, you know. Yes, he does. And he’s a good receiving back. He is, I think, a great pass protection back, especially compared to that’s an area that it feels like is down across the board across the NFL. Protection, running backs and pass protection. Yeah. He’s got to be on the short list of the best doing that right now in the National Football League. Um, so that was kind of quick. I want to run some because of your college background. I don’t know that we’ve had this conversation, but like this rookie running back class. I think I know where you’re going. Okay, we might have even talked to it way back in draft time maybe like at the combine when you and Dale and Moes and I would do like crossover hours and stuff. And Caleb Johnson’s a great example because the Steelers drafted one of these backs, but it was considered, and I didn’t disagree at the time, a great running back class. You know, there was a lot of them drafted, a lot drafted pretty high. You got guys with like third, second round grades in the fourth, fifth round because of the depth of it. Had some star power at the top with Genty. But really almost all those guys their scouting report coming out was big questions about protection. And weirdly one of the only guys that really checked that box was Tayvon Henderson. And he’s really struggled since he’s gotten the league in protection. So nobody’s really excelled in protection. I haven’t studied every one of them every snap but this rookie class. And I’m wondering with your college background, do you think that could be a trend? you know, like because these got these coaches can’t coach, you know, Sabin can’t grind it into him or he’s going to transfer, you know, and they’re getting paid 1,000%. Okay. Okay. So, this is going to keep coming. This is this is going for for for a for a lot of the reasons that you just mentioned, plus I think just across the board, college football teams are going more and more like there was the spread era of the turn of the 21st century, right? everything you know in football is cyclical and it comes back around. I think we saw that to an extent a few years ago, but I think now there’s this weird where it went from spread kind of back to pro style and now it’s not going back to spread in college football, but it is much more everybody has a stud quarterback. Okay. with with the transfer portal, most of these, you know, the changing things at such a rapid rate the 60 the 60some uh you know power four college football program. So I think there’s 68 or 69 programs in the SEC, the Big 10, the ACC, and the Big 12, the four power conferences. There’s like 68 or 69 programs. There’s no excuse for them to be dreadful at quarterback. Now, maybe if you are for a year, okay, you missed on some evaluations, whatever, but then go get JMU’s quarterback. Go get Kent State’s quarterback, you know, go go get UTEP’s quarterback. There’s someone in that division. Every division has a best guy. Exactly. Right. Still Dukane. I mean, whatever. Go get Ohio’s quarterback, you know, not Ohio State, Ohio. You know, Parker Navaro, he’s actually very good. Carved up my Mountaineers back in September. Um, super quick and this this was true when I recruited Finding quarterbacks in the recruiting world isn’t nearly as hard as like defensive tackles. You mean there’s a lot of people walking the planet that look like a quarterback. There’s not many people that are 6’5, 300, especially at the collegiate level where now these guys rely on their legs. That’s one thing that has really mirrored the pros. It used to be the pro style college football quarterbacks, right? The Andrew Lux. Mhm. And then the spread style college football quarterbacks, the Marcus Mariotas, you know. Okay. Now it’s kind of blending of those skill sets. We want it. We want all of it. We can get it. Exactly. Right. Even guys like Fernando Mendoza, who we talk about all the time, that’s more of a traditional, he’ll still pull it down and take the eight or nine yards that you give. No one can be as stiff anymore. I think part of that with the mobility quarterback element has played into this as well. So, I think you’re spot on. It reminds me, Matt, it really started back when the Steelers drafted Jaylen Samuels. You remember him out of NC State? And I remember a lot of things there. do it all guy, you know, do it all guy at NC State. But I remember when he got drafted and we do the, you know, I’m sure the listeners who have listened for a long time know this. We do our draft coverage from down on the southside at the Steelers facility. Right. Right. And it’s kind of like the Steelers take a running back 10 minutes later here comes Eddie Falconer to sit down with us for 10 minutes and talk about what they liked in that podium. And then they come, here’s what we liked about Caleb Johnson. You know what I mean? Here’s why we drafted him. Here’s how here’s how he fits our offense. And then a lot of times what’s cool is the next day when those guys fly into Pittsburgh, they’ll sit down, you know, Steelers draft Joey Porter Jr. 20 minutes in and and you know in Wexford, but we get to sit down with these guys for a few minutes too. I’ll never forget Jaylen Samuels sat down with us and I mean I don’t even remember if I was on air, you and Dale. What I mean whatever the case may be. This was I know I was on this. Yeah, you’re on the whole that I’m sure of. You’re like the best. You’re like the best player Jake on my beer league hockey team. He doesn’t leave the ice for our 60-minute game. That’s you. During the draft, Jaylen Samuels sits down and he said something along the lines to us. Uh, you know, we said you played a lot of running back, Hback, some tight end. Yeah. He actually did tight end drills at the combine. Yeah. And he mentioned I I never once passed at NC State. I remember that now. Like never once they asked me to pass protect. He was one of their best pass catchers. He was one of the best pass catcher running. Versatile and he’s a big back. fullback, you know, right? They never He said, “I never I never did pass pro at NC State.” And I remember all of us kind of being like, “Uhoh, that’s something. Backs on backers is going to be interesting with this guy, you know, a couple months from now when we when we get to Latroe.” I’m going to rewind one second real quick, too, but you were talking about how everyone has quarterbacks now. And I had thought about that from the college level because you can go pluck them from a a college lesson. Look at Pit here. I mean, Pit’s had like five different quarterbacks in the last six years starting, you know? Maybe they actually have one now. you know, filter doesn’t work, get them out of here. You know, Eli Holstein doesn’t work, get him out of here. But not only can you pluck them from lesser programs than you, but I’m watching that game last night, the Niner game, and they show a picture of in Bama colors smoking cigars. It must happen. That’s the tradition. They when those two teams play, the winning team gets cigars and MAC. And it’s like not all three would ever still be there. No chance. I mean, no chance that one of them will go down a level or go to Auburn or Or they might go down a level for a year, kill it, and then wind up at Florida State. Right. Right. Right. Right. There’s no way the three of them are sitting there waiting for each other either. Absolutely not. Absolutely not. I think the only place that still gets away with that is the wide receiver room at Ohio State manages to stay loaded because they just have such a reputation. All you got to do is start one year. All you got to do is start one year and you’re a first round pick. But that you used to recruit, right? Other than that, it’s even more difficult for Alabama and Georgia’s of the world to build depth because yeah, you might pay me a little bit more than this ACC or Big 12 school, but I don’t care. I want to go start quarterback in my second year. Exactly. Right. Maybe a true freshman lives with that, but you know, right? So, when Jaylen Samuels was coming to Pittsburgh, Matt, it was kind of an eyebrow razor. This guy’s never passed. But it also made a little bit of sense at the time. You had Ben Rothosberger still, that was the year coming up that he had the major elbow surgery. Okay. But he was coming off a 5,000 yard passing season where him and AB and Guju lit it up. Mhm. He was older, but he was there was no reason to worry about just had one of the top five seasons of his career. Okay. AB was gone. You traded him to the Raiders that off season, but everybody was crazy high on Guju. Had over a thousand yards his rookie season at that point. Uh James Connor was coming off of his first real crack at it where he made the Pro Bowl filling in for Lev Bell who sat out that entire year. Still guys, you know, so it was like, okay, they just drafted a running back who never passed pros, but James Connor’s not afraid to stick his fan in his face in the fan. No. No. They got Guju, they got some other young pieces. They’re going to still throw the football like crazy, you know, like it it made some sense in that context. Now, I I think that that is not to that extent where that guy a guy’s gonna sit down with us and be like, I never did any pass. But you referenced Caleb Johnson. He did very little of it his time at Iowa. They never threw and they probably wanted him flaring out cuz he’s one of the best guys in the ball, right? Exactly. Right. But you mentioned Ohio State receivers. Well, those two backs pass proed because they didn’t need him. Exactly. We don’t need you guys to catch back. we’re going to throw to Bua and and Jeremiah Smith and all these we get five star tight ends I’m sure that we never throw to anyway, you know. Exactly right. Exactly right. Um so there is again it’s cyclical at every level and that is I think you are spot on. That is a real thing in college football right now. So we should get used to bad protectors coming in the league I think. I think so. I mean that’s is going to be at least a short-term trend. I think so. Totally adds up. Or just maybe not even bad, but just guys who are have haven’t have very little experience, very little spin in that regard. Totally adds up. But that’s why I think the value to to kind of get back to where we started, the value of Jaylen Warren is immense and it was on display Thursday night. Yeah. And I’ve been calling for ex I pat myself on the back here. Pretty much for six months I’d been saying I would extend this guy. And I haven’t heard many other analysts even mentioning that. I’m like, he’s I I’m not big on giving running backs second contracts. It usually doesn’t work out great, but his situation was very unique. You got him at a somewhat of a discount because he hasn’t made a ton of money. But if he were to hit the open market off after the season, how he’s playing and how he’s played really every step of his career, he would make way more than he does now. Absolutely. Way more. I mean, he’d make I think he’d make way more than Naji got on the Yeah. Yeah. Not even close. Not even close. Right. Right. Right. Um, I’m not saying to make Saquon money, but he’d make a lot. There’d be four teams competing for him, you know. Yeah, absolutely. I I think you are spot on there. Um, and again, I I think his value has been on display all season, but especially Thursday night, he was phenomenal. He was great. He was outstanding. Uh, let’s take a break here. More it was also the healthiest and the most action he’s gotten. You know, I think a lot of against a it’s still an NFL defense. It’s It’s not Ohio State against Akran, but it it is it is uh an encouraging encouraging per. He did exactly what you wanted to see him do on Thursday night. Few more Monday rewind observations as we roll along here. Wesler, Matt Williamson. It’s the drive on Steelers Nation radio on the Steelers Audio Network. [Music] Continuing with our Monday rewind here. some uh I guess second watch observations from Bengals 33, Steelers 31 on Thursday night. We’ll stick with the offense here before we transition to the defense. Matt, Roman Wilson, nice to see you. Yeah, I mean I he was clearly wide receiver number two and that’s my biggest takeaway was they trusted him to be the two. Scotty Miller’s snap count was way down. Single digits I believe Scoranic was at like two as well. single digits as well. Whereas Roman Wilson was like 33, 34. It was a big jump. Like Metaf only missed one snap and they didn’t play a ton of two receiver. They didn’t play much with two receivers, but if there was a second receiver out there played a lot almost always Wilson, all the tight ends played a lot, they Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They attacked with those guys. Um I know you had some really good middle of the field stats from the offense, but yeah, it was it was noticeable. Roman Wilson was out there and Matt, not just in you’re, you know, we trust you in run blocking and we think you’re pretty good in that department. I mean, he was running routes as well, too. Yeah. Yeah. 30ome snaps and I think like 18 or 19 routes ran, I want to say. Um, felt like it was a encouraging step in the right direction. Again, can he be a regular part of this offense? How much can he contribute? All those things remain to be seen. Yeah. But you need to at least have that level of getting out on the field and that trust factor and you need to get some spin out there to get to a point that we are all hopeful that he can get to and I thought that was a step in the right direction. Yes. Now, a couple things, not all of them are going to be positive. Um I think that it’s a step in the right direction that they don’t look at him as only a slot as a third receiver. you know, like I he he lined up often outside the numbers in two receiver sets because there was hardly ever three receiver sets, right? Because there played so much tight end stuff and we mentioned the other receivers not getting a lot and he made some catches, he made some plays, some inbreaking routes. Um he looked the part as a pass catcher and a route runner. So again, these are all positives. My concern isn’t with him and the wide receiver trade talk’s going to keep heating up. Yeah. I mean I mean that’s the way as it probably should. As it should and I got no problem with that. We could do a whole segment on some point. But then you feel you get Calvin Austin back you start to feel really good about that. Yeah. Yeah. But I wonder are they sitting are they are internally are they going man we really need to trade for a receiver because everything we try isn’t good enough including Roman. You know what I mean? Like we put Miller out there a bunch and didn’t really change the game much. putting Wilson out there. At least we’ll give him a cra like are they taking is Wilson getting a chance by default rather than oh he’s clearly the best guy? I think that’s a fair question. And that’s Yeah. I don’t think we know the answer. They’ll never tell us. Yeah. Right. Right. And and maybe it’s a little bit of both at this time. Yeah. And maybe that was step one towards well I am better than the other guys, you know. Or maybe it was step one towards them all looking at each other in a meeting room and going all right we got to get aggressive and have to trade somebody. Right. Yeah. Yeah. I I think it’s certainly one of those like you come into a Y in the road, you know what I mean? Like you go left and you live with what you got or you go, you know, door number two and you go out and you bring somebody in. If they trade for Rasheed Shahid tomorrow, I think we’ll know the answer. Exactly. Right. Jonah Myers is a Steeler this week, right? I think I think we’ll get a pretty and I think either way we’ll get that answer, right? Might be sooner rather than later. We might have to wait another week or two, but I do think and I don’t know if back Sunday or not, but he can’t be too far off. They didn’t put him on IR. I was going to say didn’t put him on IR. Uh so I would agree with you. Look and see if he gets uh gets, you know, maybe they they act. Well, I guess they never mind. They wouldn’t have to activate him. That would be if he was coming off of IR, but we’ll see what his usage looks like here uh as we get a little bit into this week. But that’s a good one. I mean, I think that’s definitely a positive for him. And you’ve get you probably get a million tweets of Rome Wilson a bust. Why is he never out there? Well, he was out there this time. You know, he was. And again, that doesn’t mean that they’re satisfied, any of that stuff, but you at least needed to see this the step in this direction, I think, to really start to be able to make that decision, make that judgment. Uh, all right, Matt. So, those are the two offensive ones and both the Jaylen Warren certainly and and that Roman Wilson 2, I would say, uh, on the more positive side of things. Let’s flip to the defense and a little bit more the negative side of things here. So, I’m gonna use this example super quick because I just recorded Peacock and Williamson’s our national podcast and as you would guess, my co-host Peacock, he’s on on the West Coast. Niners guy, right? Niners Guy. Um, he watches every game like we do, but the Thursday nighter he had something family related. He only watched like the first quarter and he’s and he immediately asked me today because we couldn’t record a show Friday. So, it’s the first time we have we’ve broken down Steelers Bengals. Gotcha. And he opens it up by, “Matt, I only watched the first quarter and I thought this game was going to be 52 nothing the Steelers.” He’s like, “How can a team on both sides of the ball dominate the trenches the way they did?” Remember, he only saw the first quarter and still lose this game. I’m like, the clock struck midnight when the second quarter showed up or something. A potion fell on the stadium or something. I don’t know what happened, but as soon as the second quarter showed up, turned into a pumpkin, it was like all of a sudden the whole defense was tired on a short week and didn’t want to be there and just got pushed around. Like it was from that. It’s weird that you only watched the first quarter because that’s when everything changed. If you only watched the first quarter, you would have thought this team’s awesome. You would have thought the Steelers are going to win this game like they did against Cleveland, you know, 23-9 or 30 to 13, something like that. He started with like the D lines just whipping them. I’m like, yeah. If you only watched the second quarter, you probably thought the Steelers lost 50 to 10, you know, I mean, certainly a tale of of two quarters there. And so, yeah, let’s let’s get into some of this not so great. Um, let’s let’s talk bigger picture first. It just continues to be obvious, whether you look at the time of possession, whether you look at the snap counts, that this defense is on the field too much. The time of possession is getting worse. That doesn’t excuse their uh performance. No. I don’t know, but there is some rhyme. It’s it’s it’s going to be a huge problem. There’s some rhyme to that reason, Matt. Why is that? And how do they get that moving in the right direction? I know. It was like 20 snaps more for the defense than the offense. Again, this is something over and over even when they’re winning and on winning streaks. And I mean, basically, they’re like 26 minutes of time possession for the year. It got skewed a little bit at the end of that Browns game. So, I’ll I’ll Yeah, there’s some weird stuff, right? I’ll give them that. Yeah. Yeah, cuz for most for 80 85% of that Browns game, the time of possession and the snap counts were well in your favor and then it’s skewed a little bit at the end. Yeah. Yeah. But other than that, Matt, this is like something that we’ve been season long problem every week. Yeah. Every week. Even when they’re even when they’re winning, even when they were sitting at four and one, this was still something that felt like it could bite you at some point. Your defense can’t be playing 20 more snaps than your offense every week. And we always talk about, you know, like when you go to the doctor, they know, I got this rash. Well, what have you been eating? What do you you try different dryer sheets or whatever? You know, but it’s on both sides of the ball. I mean, they haven’t run the ball well enough and got getting enough first downs and eat clock because one thing about Rogers career and it still holds true of the Steelers is he he helps time of possession more than a lot of quarterbacks. He takes his time because he takes his time. He comes to the line of scrimmage, clock’s ticking, you know, he’s going to survey things. He’s I mean, yes, he can play hurry up like any great quarterback, but but more often than not, he eats a lot of clock. He wants to see what the defense is trying to do. That’s just his style. Make them show their you know, play chicken and be the last one to blink. Yeah. But a big thing with the defense though, they’re just giving up too much yards. I mean, they flat out are like like a lot of their drives per drive stats are poor. I mean, especially like yards per drive and they probably got a lot worse. These are things I do Tuesday after every team played and I’m sure they got worse, but they’re not too reliant because they’re great at it. But the good things are the splash things, you know, the takeaways, the sacks, the batted passes, the force fumbles, and they’re tremendous at it. But when you didn’t get them, you see that man, you guys are on the field a lot and on a down by down basis, you’re not playing well enough. I mean, it’s kind of the more so than I blame the offense. At least the offense started running the ball and, you know, like kind of did their share, but play by play, it’s like, man, you’re you’re still allowing this team to get first downs. Yes. Way too many missed tackles in this game for we had talked about um how against Minnesota and Cleveland it felt like that was moving in the right direction. Much better, right? Much better after a rocky start that reared its ugly head again on Thursday night. Certainly. And it’s such a avalanche too because if you’re if you’re bad at that and you don’t get better, well, you’re going to be on the field even more and then you’re going to be on the field even more and then and then you get more tired, then you’re miss an extra tackle. And I’m not excusing it, but you see it a lot on the road on a Thursday night. So if that’s only one, I wouldn’t be super, you know, super critical of it. All right. You know, okay. But it’s been a theme. It certainly has. And a not a good theme. A discouraging one, in fact. And with that, Matt, one thing that confused me, and I have not been the first person to to raise this point in the last, you know, few days since that game on Thursday night, but when you go back and watch it, it it it really stands out. You, I know, mentioned this even on Friday before we had a chance to do our our rewind, our rewatch here. There was a lot of, you know, wailing and moaning and nashing of teeth and pulling hair out about Jamar Chase and T. Higgins. Yeah. And why didn’t they try something different? And you kind of pointed out they did. I mean, they lined up different guys on them. They tried different Everybody got beat by them. Everybody Everybody got It wasn’t just Ramsay. It wasn’t just Slay. It wasn’t just Eckles. It wasn’t just Deshawn Elliott. You know, sometimes Michael Jordan gets his against no matter who guards. It felt like Chase was Michael Jordan. Sometimes you could play the perfect, you know, neutral zone trap and Lemieux will still have a hat-tick. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But one thing that it felt like and this correlates with how quickly Joe Flacco was getting rid of the football. I know we’re going the same complaint again. I’m not I’m not Neil Armstrong landing on the moon here. A lot of people have been talking about this the last couple days. But when your pass rush is struggling to get home and the quarterback is getting rid of the ball so early, why don’t you get up on someone’s face, get in someone’s grill, some press man coverage, get your hands on these guys and make Joe Flacco have to tap the ball for an extra half second. There’s a many different ways to play man coverage. There’s many different ways. That’s a misnomer, right? Right. Right. You could play man coverage but still be off the ball. Oh, yeah. Right. I mean, you can play press, you can play mirror match, you can play off, you know, and it’s still my guy. It’s it’s man coverage. So, I saw a lot of man coverage, but I hardly saw any press man coverage. That was the confusing part, which I don’t care at all if it if you the game starts that way, you know. Oh, I didn’t think they would be getting out there the hand getting it out of his hands in 2.4 seconds, which is Ben Aaron Rogers fast, you know, but when that’s a theme and they’re just ripping you apart, like some of the chase numbers, all the numbers are are awesome, obviously. I mean, it’s fantasy stats and his catches and targets and all that. It’ll be one of the best performances a wide receiver has all season. He was phenomenal, but his average depth of target was really short, you know, and it wasn’t like they had a hard time tackling him. I mean, wasn’t great, but they weren’t like he hit it like the Metaf Minnesota game. That’s not where the stats came from. He didn’t take a six-y reception and turn it into an 80 yard touchdown. Yeah. I mean, it was like he also wasn’t Randy Mossing people down the field, right? You know, but it was like you were giving Jordan layups, you know, like you didn’t even make Curry shoot from half court, you know what I mean? Like, yes, he’s awesome and he’s going to take advantage of it and you’re giving him an open jump shot from the corner. And I I referenced the podcast I did today. I didn’t even hear this postgame. Maybe you did, but when they interviewed Flaco, he basically said, “I don’t know the playbook. I just threw it to the really good guy that was open all the time, you know, like we’re playing in the backyard.” You like, “I’m going to draft that kid first. He’s the best kid at recess and I’m going to throw it to him every time and he happens to be open all the time. Like I don’t know the plays. We don’t even draw him up.” Yeah. Like that can’t happen. No, it cannot. And to expand on it, I mean, it doesn’t reflect well on coaching clearly and but a lot of their runs and I noticed this when I watched the All 22, but John Ledard, who I’ve referenced, I think he does really good work. He formerly of this parish. Yeah. Yeah. He broke down on YouTube, I think it was eight of Browns big runs. Okay. Okay. and and and they weren’t they were like nine yarders, 10 yarders, but every one of them and on the the breakdown he did was on purpose was Flaco came to the line and basically pointed at the B gap or the C gap or whatever and said we’re going to run there and the Steelers didn’t have any won the gap, you know, like I don’t know if it was an alignment error. I don’t know if it was coaching errors, but it happened more than once. Who cares? You know, someone lines up wrong or communication people talking 70 something snaps like and there were one or two of those where someone motioned and they’re in the middle of talking and the ball gets snapped and you don’t get your gap. That happens every game. Okay. But this was five to eight alignment. There’s no one in the B gap and there don’t see any linebackers that are getting ready to fill and they didn’t. And thank the Lord for Elliot. Elliott made every one of those plays. I mean, he comes seven, eight, 10 yard 30, 40 yard run, right? And he smashes Brown and played tremendous against the run, but he’s on the third level, you know? I mean, or somewhere between second making the tackle despite how good at it. That’s not the guy you want making the tackle. It was not his B gap. And they’re just running, you know, it’s smart quarterbacking. Rogers would have done the same thing like we’re going to adjust to th to run right at this bubble where there’s nobody at. And there wasn’t like it almost looked like there was no one assigned to it. Yeah, I I think that’s very well said. And that is again, like you said, fool me once. Okay, it’s it’s it’s 70some snaps a game. You’re not going to be perfectly aligned and ready on every single one. Once or twice, all right, five, six, seven, eight times unacceptable. Can’t happen. And again, I’m not making excuses, but it also looks like fatigue. You know, like you make more mental errors when you’re on the and and this is he makes cowards of us all, right? That’s the old saying. And why was the first quarter good and then all of a sudden the second quarter and on it wasn’t. Nobody ran to the ball as much as they did they had the last couple games. They didn’t tackle as well. They weren’t as mentally sharp. They didn’t play with the same energy. And I think that’s twofold why. It’s not Tomlin should run them after practice and run the steps and kill them and they’re no one’s in good shape. They’ve been on the field too much this year already and they played a short game on the road. Now, if I see it Sunday night after you have 10 days rest Sunday night Rogers versus the Packers, now I’m really going to now. Now it’s like I’m waving a red flag or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. But if you’re seeing the same stuff or lack of fatigue looks like an issue in the Unless it’s, you know, you’re 80 plays in and late in the fourth quarter. Exactly. Right. Like Giants, Broncos. Exactly right. I mean, the league does that all the time. um the dam just breaks and the defense can’t keep up anymore. But this was too early for that. Way too early. Way too early. Way too early. All right. Uh Matt, one more thing that I want to rewind, want to run past you. Uh we’ll do that on the other side to close down the first hour and then we will lead off with Rob King in hour number two. So plenty more to get to. We will go around the league in the second hour and talk about a crazy Sunday across the NFL as well. Oh, Wesler, Matt Williams, and it’s the drive on Steelers Nation Radio on the Steelers Audio Network. [Music] Our buddy Rob King going to join us about five or six minutes from now. Before we get to that, one last thing that I want to run past you, Matthew. I got something, too. Okay, sounds good. You you want to go first? You want me to go first? Yeah, cuz maybe maybe we’ll be aligned here. Maybe it’ll be the same thing. I don’t know that we will because pull the curtain back. You were using the potty, you know, between segments. I’m chatting with TV here a little bit, you know, and just kind of off the record. You really are pulling the curtain back. Right. Right. Right. Right. You know, just, you know, a little tinkle. And uh I should have said this, too, and this isn’t like me going back being harsh on the defensive staff or whatever. My bet from a head coaching perspective is well why didn’t you press? Why didn’t you put extra guys in the box to defend the run was probably we look at this game knowing Bengals defense stinks and they can’t stop us. So the thing we can’t allow is the 80 yarder over the top. Sure. So, if Flaco, who’s straight off the couch, is new to this team and nickels and dimes us to death to make this a competitive game, so be it. You can’t take everything away. There’s no perfect defense or everything. No perfect defense and we are tackling the catch and we are making them sustain long drives and they get paid to. They did it. But I bet that was the logic afterwards was we would have loved to seen them walk down and press and maybe that would have worked better. Maybe they’ have won. I’d love to see them cover every gap a little bit better in the run game. 100%. And some of those were just probably mental errors andor coaching problems or alignment issues or whatever. But I also bet going into that game and through the game, which held up was we know we’re going to let up points, but we’re going to get more of them because they can’t stop us at all. Yeah. You know, they had 31 points. I mean, and and it’s so weird to have that philosophy because since the year you’re talking about with Ben lighting the world on fire, you’ve never had an offense where you actually think that. It’s always like we can’t allow 20 points. Correct. Well, you can allow 20 points in that game. Yes. You know what I mean? You could have allowed 30 points in that game and still won. Right. Right. Right. It’s like, okay, we know we’ll give a point and if they just we just can’t allow the 80 yarder, you know, the the home run over the top. Exactly. Like Joe’s going to throw it. we’ll we’ll do the gunfight thing with them and we’ll shoot them more than they’ll shoot us, you know, like we’ll hit them more than they hit us. And I bet that’s the logic behind it that the coaches can’t tell you. Which wasn’t terrible logic. No, no, no, it’s not. But as you said, it it obviously did not work. Did not work. Right. Right. Right. In the end, you were short. And with that, Matt, I guess what I my kind of final thing does piggyback off that a little bit. I know I’ve said this to you before. I’ve said this many times on this network on different shows. I have to remind myself all the time that Twitter that X is not a real place. Yeah. Right. Okay. It’s it’s 50% anonymous people who don’t even have their real name and picture on it. Comment section is a little and it’s it’s where people go to get angry. Yeah. You know, it’s why I always hesitate when you read a restaurant review on Google or on Yelp or whatever or a review about a landscaping company because it’s like the only people that get online to voice their opinion are people that are ticked off. Yeah. You know, like that’s people don’t get online to be like, “Man, that restaurant was amazing. Best chicken parm I ever had. It was like the waiter was a jerk and my pasta was cold, you know. And if they are good, it’s probably because it’s your their mother or something. Yeah. Exactly right. Exactly right. Um, but a lot of people were crushing were crushing Slay and saying, you know, he he’s he’s old and he lost a step and it really showed. And I don’t want to make it seem like I’m saying he had a good game. He did not. No, he didn’t. But is that a oneoff against a two absolute studs and Higgins and Chase or is there or is there more cause for concern there? Um more cause for concern. Not like oh he shot he stinks. Terrible signing. I mean it’s not frankly Patrick Peterson at the same age you know who had amazing career but at the end it’s ugly. But along the Peterson lines, corners that age rarely age gracefully. And he has not position in a young man’s game. It’s so reactionary. And even if you know every tricks of the trade, there’s times you’ve got to open up and run or flip your hips or be an athlete or change direction. And if your old man body doesn’t do it like he used to, well, you’re in trouble. Sure. Um, there’s not a lot of 37 38-year-old Cam Haywards at that position still doing it at a high level. I mean, over 30 is a red flag and I think he’s 33. I think you are correct. Yeah. And he came off a good year with the Eagles, you know, but they also had a great pass rush and they had other things going their way. Um, and I didn’t object to the signing, but at this stage of the season, I’m starting to worry and would consider for the first time playing Eckles over like if you have three corners on the field may because Eckles is pretty good. That’s part of it too, right? It’s not like how the corner room has been in other years. just like we don’t got anybody, right? So, in this case, I’m not sure he’s one of your best three corners. I think that’s a fair question to ask at this point. It’s a the the Eckles. It’s good to have that kind of that guy off the bench, you know, that guy in your bullpen, if you will, right? Um that’s a position group that you would really like to have one extra at, and it feels like the Steelers do. Um, but yeah, but that’s something that, you know, he he I’m I’m sure if he were sitting here with us, he would tell you I didn’t play a good game on on Thursday night in Cincinnati. Ramsey will tell you that, Porter will tell you that. I mean, the corners and and again, I’m not saying it’s defcon with him either, but I’m leaning a little bit more towards the there’s some cause for concern there as opposed to it was just a oneoff against a pair of great wide receivers. Yeah. And they were great. I mean, I can’t state that enough. They were great. And they are great. I’m sure there was a night where Michael Jordan put up 70 points and and had the best defender in the league on him. And I’m saying we weren’t talking about the def because he was just roasting everybody they put on him. You know, he’s dunking on the sevenfooters. He’s going past the sixfooters that are supposed to be quicker than him. He’s dunking, you know, beating everybody in front of him because he was the best player on the field. Yeah, Chase was the best player on the field. And maybe that stuff again, too, when you’re when you’re on a short week, I think everything gets magnified. If you’re 27 years old, you can get over that a little bit easier than if you’re 33 years old. That’s probably the worst environment you could actually play. It definitely is against those receivers on the road in the short week. Definitely. I’m with you on that 100%. That’s an hour in the books. Hour number two, we’ll talk to Rob King. We’ll go around the league. Yeah. And we’ve got a pair, another double header of Monday Night Football games to discuss and preview. Late one uh tonight. So, plenty to get to in hour number two. Wesler, Matt Williamson halfway home. It’s the drive on Steelers Nation radio on the Steelers Audio Network. [Music] Hour number two on the drive here as the afternoon turns into the evening. Wes Uler Matt Williamson on your 247 home of the black and gold. And joining us now is the voice of your Pittsburgh Steelers, Rob King. He also hosts In the Locker Room here on this same network every single morning with our buddy Max Starks Kinger. Plenty that we want to discuss with you. So, let’s dive let’s jump right into it. Uh Matt and I spent a uh you know a a chunky portion of the first hour talking about this defense and particularly that performance on Thursday night and maybe uh was there a little bit of a chicken or an egg type situation. They were good in the first quarter. They looked sharp in the first quarter and then it all kind of unraveled and they were facing two very good wide receivers, two of the best in the league, but they’re also a defense that was playing on a short week on the road playing a lot of snaps in a unit that has played a lot of snaps lately. Uh, how much of Thursday night’s performance will you I don’t even want to say excuse. Say excuse isn’t the right word. That’s the wrong word. Excuses here because we all we all know it wasn’t good enough and in the NFL doesn’t matter. They’re not the only team has played a road game on a Thursday. You know, they’re not the only team, you know, if it’s a Tuesday during co, it doesn’t matter. Both teams are playing. If it’s, you know, three games in 11 days or whatever it was that the Steelers had last year, no one is playing the tiny violin for you. But, Kinger, how it but it it certainly matters. How much h how much of that could you view as hopefully that’s just a potential oneoff in a weird tough spot verse just the backdrop of we know the time of possession hasn’t been good. This defense has played way too many snaps. Are they getting worn down too early in the season? Yeah, I don’t think they should be worn down yet. I mean, I I think you can be worn down within the confines of the game. I don’t know if they’re worn down for the course of the season. So, a couple of things. Uh there’s there’s a lot there. There’s no real easy answer. Uh Matt had a great or no simple answer. Matt had a great uh tweet. Uh Matt, you tweeted, you retweeted it. I encourage everybody, by the way, in the locker room to to follow Matt Williamson uh for nuggets like this one about the AFC North. Oh, yeah. Record on Thursday. Everybody’s got a good record at home. Everybody’s got a lousy record on the road. It’s a real thing. Yeah, it matters. Uh it does make a difference. Now, I will say this. You know, at at one point in the game, I was thinking to myself, “Hey, man, the Steelers are on the cusp of maybe blowing this thing open and making the Bengals one-dimensional.” Um, you know, the the the aborted flea flicker cost them some points, I think. You know, uh, I think it was second and four. You know, get the first down there, get into field goal range at least. They have a touchdown called back. um on what I thought was a little bit of a let that go holding penalty on Zack Frasier. Uh and then the then the you know the tush push that went ary you know in my mind I’m thinking they could be up 17 nothing and forcing this team to be onedimensional. So that didn’t happen. Now let’s look at things from the Bengals perspective. All those drop passes on the first couple drives you Bengals just stopped themselves. Yoseseph caught a pass later in the game. He had three drops against Green Bay that were extremely costly. Um that cost the Bengals at least a chance to be in that game. When he caught one, I think it was in the third quarter. He got the Bronx cheer from the crowd. You know what I mean? It’s like so this, you know, if you’re looking at this from the Bengals perspective, you’re like, look, man, they didn’t stop us. We stopped ourselves or we could have scored 40 points in this game. I think all of those viewpoints are relevant. what happened happened. What shocked me was not that Joe Flacco could move the ball. Um, you know, he I didn’t I wasn’t sure he was the right choice for the Bengals. I was told he was the only choice. He was the only guy they wanted. Um, they don’t want to another especially one in which Joe Burrow might be coming back. And, you know, we saw in the second half of the game against Green Bay that he kind of unlocked what was capable in that offense. and then we saw it on full display on Thursday night. But what bothered me was that the Bengals did whatever they wanted. You didn’t take anything away. Um, and that I think is a little bit troublesome. You know, when the Jets wanted to run, you couldn’t take that away. When the Bengals wanted to run, they ran. When they wanted to throw, they threw. So, short week or no short week, I think that’s something, especially with the personnel the Steelers have. The Steelers have plenty of personnel in my opinion to be a top-notch defense. They showed it for a couple of weeks that they had that capability. I don’t know if we’ve seen it completely for 60 minutes, maybe against the Browns. Uh I would say, yeah, against the Browns, we did see it for 60 minutes. We saw it for about 55 minutes against the Vikings. Um I just think that it’s, you know, it was bothersome to see that, but it’s also another step on the way to the journey. I mean, I don’t know what to think about the NFL this year. I don’t remember being at this point in the season where I thought there were no super teams. Um, a lot of teams capable of being that team that can represent you in the Super Bowl. You know, I was talking with West Matt one through 20 power rankings by one of them. We look at the Athletic and ESPN and and a couple other ones. Um, one was the Buccaneers, 20 was Houston. If you told me right now those teams you’re going to play in the Super Bowl, I’d be like, “Okay, that that doesn’t sound out of the realm of possibility, right?” And they’re one and 20. And so there’s lots of teams in between. By the way, Baltimore wasn’t in that list. Cincinnati wasn’t in that list. I think those teams are going to be factors down the stretch. I just think there’s it is just a crazy season in the NFL. Uh that’s the global picture. The the smaller picture is the fact that the Bengals kind of were able to dictate to the Steelers. That was a problem. At some point, lead or no lead, you need to be able to to stop something and dictate to the other team. The Steelers just weren’t able to do that on Thursday night. Yeah, you said a lot of good stuff there. I want to piggyback on it and Wes, we’ll talk about this more in this next segment, but just globally, I know who the terrible teams are, and boy did this weekend show five or six teams that are flatout embarrassing. And I know the Bengals and Steelers aren’t one of them, but I don’t know who the good teams are yet. I mean, that could be one of 20 or 22 teams. I think that’s 100% true. And then Friday, the day after the game, we were in here doing the show and I said, “Hey, it’s far from great that Higgins and especially Chase just lit you up.” But sometimes Jordan goes for 60. You know what I mean? Like Chase was the best player on the field, but to me the sin was allowing Chase Brown to have as many big holes as he did. you know, at least take something away to what you were saying before. And Wes and I really talked about this a lot in the first hour. You know, a lot more time to reflect. I’d watched the All 22 and by no means am I saying this is okay because what the defense did on Thursday night was not okay. It was not okay. But I think from a a global head coaching perspective, you know, Wes and I were saying, how about more press coverage? How about putting someone closer to line of scrimmage to stop the run? We didn’t see a lot of those things. They made adjustments, but they didn’t do a lot of those things. And then as we’re talking through it, I kind of ended last segment going, I kind of get it. Again, it was not okay. But if I’m Tomlin, I’m sitting there thinking, my offense is running all over the field on this bad defense. If I allow points in this game, so be it. And if they have to have long sustained drives, eventually they’re gonna have a holding penalty or my defense is gonna pick one off or we’re gonna have a strip sack as we always do or a batted pass and something good’s going to, you know, we’re going to make a big play on defense because we always do and we’re the best team in the league at it. I know I’m rambling, but I think in the end the philosophy was let’s make them sustain long drives and just don’t get beat over the top cuz we know we’re going to drop 30 on these guys. It’s and that’s such a different philosophy than Duck, Trabiscy, Russell Wilson, you know, like we can allow them to get to 20 or even 30 in this game because our offense is humming against a bad defense. again. Uh, so much I mean I’m I’m I’m gonna drive right into the studio and do the rest of the show here. Rambled on No, there’s so much to talk about, but everything you said was true. Um, you know, in the in the matchup show that we do with Missy. I, you know, look, you’re looking for matchups. I don’t want to pat myself at the back and say I’m a genius because you’re like, “Okay, uh, Jason Higgins, now what?” You know, and mine was Chase Brown just because, you know, 2.7 yards per carry. you’d like to make you’d like to take something away and the the Steelers didn’t take anything away. And so that was I think to me the the biggest problem was that you took nothing away from the Bengals and that’s you know that’s you know sort of shame on you for not being able to do that. But also you’re right about the fact that you were scoring a bunch of points and it’s and you know what you can look at this game and say the defense didn’t stop. Okay, that’s going to happen in the NFL, right? that I mean the other teams have coaches and great players and look how much money the Bengals have invested in their offense. Um they expect to be that’s an expectation for the Bengals what we saw out there that’s their way of winning games. You know what I mean? When they’re constructed they’re saying we got to get the you know first one to 34 wins. They they lost a bunch of games in which they scored 33 points last year. Set an NFL record in doing that. Um, and so you could also, you know, they talk the students, you know, preach and they’re not the only ones about complimentary football. You could easily look at this game and say, you know what lost it for us? Not the defense, the two turnovers. That’s what I was going to say. Lost it for us. Yeah. You know, you you lost the turnover battle two to nothing. Now, I’ll also say this. You know, there was an unbelievable play on Metaf. Metaf after the game said, “I got to catch.” And I get it. That guy, the defensive back, made an incredible play. Meanwhile, the Bengals throw one up. it gets, you know, it’s wafting up in the air, you know, end over and they wind up catching it for a first down. You know, go back to the week before with the Browns. How many interceptions did the Steelers leave out there? And with all the turnovers they’ve created, even in Dublin and Minnesota, you know, a loose ball on there, the Bengals pounce on it. I mean, there are it really feels like the Steelers have had a little bit of bad turnover luck. Um, and you know, if if that if that turnover battle is 1-1, you know, say zero, I’d like their chances. Yeah. Right. Right. Right. Okay. You threw one and now you get one back. Even if it was one nothing, I think the Steelers still would have won the game. Um, and that, you know, I’m not I’m not laying out at the feet of Rogers who who made, you know, that one throw up the sideline. That’s another takeaway, by the way. So, I was talking to people from Cincinnati said, “How how come more people aren’t weren’t picking the Steelers to do better this year?” I want to be I want an outofmarket view because to me they’re better across the board and they got a quarterback who’s better and and they they told me look we a lot of people just kind of thought Rogers was done. You look at the stats last year and the record with the Jets and I think if you’re going to take something away from this game if you’re a non Steelers fan you’re going to look at this and say uh Rogers still has a lot in the tank. Um, I mean, his mobility, his arm strength, every the magic, he still has a lot of those things. I think that, you know, we talk about this a lot. Uh, how good of a team do you need to have? How good of a quarterback do you need to have to win a Super Bowl or to be in contention? I don’t see how you could watch that game and not think, you know, from outside of the market, not think, hey, Aaron Rogers is one of those ga guys that can help you win a Super Bowl. because I thought he was fantastic. Mobility, arm strength, the Roger touch, the Rogers magic. I I thought a lot of that stuff was on display on Thursday night. Yeah. And to rewind just a minute, too, like I think a lot of our listeners look at Tomlin or head coaches in general, of course, Tomlin because they’re so focused on this team and almost forget what his really only job is is to figure out the best path to win the game. I if it’s 42 to 41, he did his job. If it’s two to nothing, he did his job. And I bet going into this game, he thought there’s going to be a lot of points scored because their defense is bad and I like where our offense is at. And you know, they have some scary dudes and he’s very familiar with Flaco and if I play a lot of press man coverage, I know Joe’s going to chuck it up over the top because he’s like the least bashful quarterback in the league and we’re going to get defensive pass interference calls and they didn’t play well enough. But I’m sure Tomlin also thought, I bet we make more big plays on defense than the Bengals do cuz we always do. And that didn’t happen. Yep. Well, you had another, you know, speaking of of Mike Tomlin because you know, you know what a lot of fans ah typical, right? You know, typical Steelers loss bl and you had another uh thread. I think it was a different one than the one you that you posted about the win loss on Thursday nights about since Mike Tomlin took over. U he has the fourth fewest wins fourth I’m sorry fourth fewest losses against teams with eight or fewer wins. So by losing teams and oh it’s another another bad loss for the Steelers. Well, you know what the rest of the league is doing that too. He has the fourth fewest losses you know fourth fewest. Yeah. And so just think about this. Any game any game Bill Bellichic and Tom Brady lost was a bad loss, right? They’re favored in every one of them, right? You know, the Chief the Chiefs don’t win every game. That’s right. I mean, you know, Mahomes is not undefeated, right? I love the passion and and if you’re a Steelers fan, you’re right, man. This hasn’t been a smooth journey to this point. Um I don’t think that very many teams have had smooth jersey smooth journeys. No. Um, look at just one the Colts. Look at the Colts. I mean, well, even even at six and one, man, they should have lost that game to Denver. Uh, there was another game uh that that I think they come from Yeah, that’s right. Boy, how do you think to be an Arizona fan or a Giants fan right now? Arizona has five losses by a combined 13 points because you could maybe chalk that up to they don’t know how to win. And look at the Giants. I mean, the Giants go on the road, they beat the 3-0 Chargers, who are everybody’s darling, you know, up near the top of the of the rankings, and the Giants beat him. And then two weeks later, on guess what? A Thursday division night at home, they pummeled the Eagles. Pummeled them. And there weren’t even like preseason expectations for the Giants or Cardinals, let alone But how about like the Bills and the Ravens? I mean, some of the Super Bowl favorites, you know, Phillies had some tough times. I mean, like the the top teams in the league have struggled. It’s crazy. The Giants should be three and four and easily, they win an overtime game against Dallas, they could easily be four and three. The Giants, so a team that nobody was picking to do anything. The Cardinals could have a winning record. I mean, uh, and other teams, you know, other teams have pulled I mean, the the Broncos lost a game they shouldn’t have lost, but they pulled two or three rabbits out of the hat. And I guarantee in the in the rankings this week, you know, they’ll be up there somewhere in the top five, deservedly so. They’re five and two. Uh but that’s a team that could be three and four. You know, it’s just I I don’t ever remember a season like this. And and as it pertains to the Steelers, you know, look, they they’re no matter what we say, they’re going to play a stretch of games beginning on Sunday night, the next six or seven games that are going to be difficult games leading up to the game against Miami. Um, you know, they’ve, you know, Baltimore is going to be better. They got Buffalo in that stretch. They have Green Bay. Um, it is, we’re going to know. They’re 4-2 right now. So, uh, what did Herm Edwards say? Uh, you play to win the games, right? Uh, let’s see what Let’s see what the record is at the end of the stretch of games. And that’s going to tell the story. I am not I am not uh, you know, ready to to to go into survivor mode and buy cans of food and and toilet paper and paper towels and run for the hills. Um, I I just I think it was a loss on a on a Thursday night that that that uh that showed some things they got to pick up on and and now you move on and you take on Green Bay and we will be looking forward to that contest against Green Bay. Historical matchup, historical franchises and Aaron Rogers storyline against his old team. That’ll be a lot of fun on Sunday night. Ker will be looking forward to your call and a uh and a big test for the Steelers coming up here at the end of the week. Rob King, voice of your Pittsburgh Steelers. Thanks for taking the time on a Monday, partner. Thanks, guys. Appreciate it. Talk to you soon. There he goes. The king in the castle now exiting the castle. Rob King. Best part about having that guy on is we ask him like three or four questions and we kill 20 minutes. I mean, yeah, he was on fire. Him and Labs, you don’t have to uh Labs is an inning eater. You don’t have to throw him too many alley oops. Just one or two and they will uh they will make good do. That’s for sure. Look at me learning radio stuff. This will segue in the next into the next segment. But Rob had a good point about the rest of the league, too. It’s a it’s a to much I mean the the year is pretty Who’s good? I I’m not sure. I know who’s bad. I’m not sure who’s good. I know Tampa Bay is good. Yeah. Although tonight they could get bad. They could lose by 17 tonight and it wouldn’t shock me. Uh yeah. No, absolutely. We certainly know who’s bad. Who’s good though? Still leaving a lot to be desired. We’ll get into all of that when we return when we go around the league. Guess Schuler, Matt Williamson recapping a crazy Sunday across the NFL. On the other side, it is the drive on Steelers Nation radio on the Steelers Audio Network. [Music] A wild Sunday, week seven across the NFL and also a uh a pair of intriguing a pair of dare I say scintillating Monday night matchups. Matt, we have plenty plenty to get into here in the final uh kind of 20 25 minutes or so of the show. So, let’s jump right into it. We’ll start by uh giving some thoughts on each of these games. Before you do on Sunday, yeah, one thing really stood out to me yesterday or two things of note that I think were important and kind of go hand in hand. Again, the bad teams are real bad. Real bad. The Raiders wolf. They they ran 30 plays. Is that it? They ran 30 plays and I think the Chiefs ran like 77. The Titans wolf. The Titans are horrendous. The Dolphins wolf. Yes. Uh there the Jets. Wolf. I mean just awful awful teams. I mean I don’t put the Jags in that that situation, but they get their doors blown off by the Rams 30 to7 or something like that. 35 to 7. 35 and never was in in doubt. I mean there were bad team. There are are bad teams and there were a couple bad performances including I thought Atlanta last night and we saw a lot of backup quarterbacks especially in those games too. You know like Gino gets benched at the end. Fields might be benched for good. Bryce Young isn’t going to play next week either and they might be better off without him and is Buret better than Kyler Murray. I mean I think the offense stays on schedule better and you know there was a lot of backups in games some on purpose. you know, uh, you mentioned all of that and the poor kind of quarterback play and the backups and so I ask you and it lines up first on our kind of chronological timeline. You sell I know you were one of the guys holding on to your Trevor Lawrence stock. You selling your Trevor Lawrence stock at this point? Um, close. Then that’s not to say he stinks. He’s never going to be I mean he’s Jammarcus Russell you know that he’s a terrible player and I I don’t and I’ve sold the stock that one day I think he’s going to be great you know like and there’s a lot of instances in history like Matthew Stafford’s a great one like when Matthew Stafford was this stage of his career as a first overall pick he was with the poor Lions and people are like he’s all right but he’s never going to be that he’ll never get you over the top right but then he gets you over the top you know um so I still think those things are possible but it’s getting harder and harder. And I do make a lot of excuses for Lawrence, but there’s five throws a game where you’re like, you got to make a throw. I mean, that’s that’s a layup or eight foot jumper. You mean it’s an an easy you got to make those almost all the time in this league. You can’t throw five passes away a game. That should be completions. I mean, that’s okay. That’s a punt maybe. One short or Yeah. Right. Right. But a lot watching Penn last night, too, was the same way. I was like, can you complete an easy one once in a while, you I mean, all the time. Just hit a layup here, hit a free throw. But one thing about the Jags is I even tweeted this like in halfway through the second quarter. I’m like, everything about this team’s playing bad. I mean, anytime that they would make a big completion, it was like, okay, holding or someone was offside. That’s one thing I’ll give Lawrence is he’s not getting much help. No, the second year in a row they’re first in the league in drops. It’s like his wide receiver like he misses a lot of throws that he should make. his wide receivers also drop a lot of passes they should catch. It’s a gone for like 25 games in a row where they’re like the worst team in that regard. And I wonder I I did a lot of like fantasy work on on Travis Hunter because I adore him and he’s like on all my teams and all my dynasty teams and I’m like why is what’s the problem here early on? And I didn’t realize that the Jags defense and offense is considered basically the most complex in the league. Okay. So at Colorado they’re like just cover that dude or hey you don’t even have to go to wide receiver meetings you know like. So, it might be time to concentrate on one or the other. But this isn’t even a Hunter thing as much as the entire offense looks like they don’t know what they’re doing. You know, like they they’re aligned wrong all the time. They’re always looking like am I, you know, like they’ve got some good pieces, right? But I I wonder if they’re if this new head coach who’s considered a super brainiac egghehead nerd type is just filling putting too much out there, right? They need to simplify things a little bit too. Lawrence looks that way. He’s teaching AP US history and he’s he’s got a bunch of like C students. Yeah. Or like we never learned, you know, eighth grade history, you know, like, you know, like in math, you got to take algebra before, right? I never took that stuff, you know? Right. And where’s trigonometry in this equation? That’s that’s very well said by you. Uh, and oh, the Rams I want to talk about, too. Just we’re not going to spend this much time in every game, but McVey is the best coach in the league in my opinion. and he did two things that that blew me away is I think we talked about this Friday, but I didn’t realize that they played Baltimore and I thought they went back to LA and and I was critical. I’m like that’s crazy to go from LA to London. They stayed in practice at the Orioles and they they stayed in practice. I found that out after I had criticized them late last week. I’m like good, good, that’s smart. But what he the other thing he did which this you might think this is nuts. I thought it was nuts since we were just in in Great Britain anyway. You were just in Dublin. They went the day before. They treated it like LA was playing the Ravens, which really isn’t that different. Sure. It’s a 5 hour. If you’re leaving Baltimore, five, six hours. Yeah. Right. They treated it like a West Coast to East Coast. They left. They spent one night there. So, they left Saturday. Yeah. Wow. They treated it like it was a East Coast to West Coast team. Or did they take a redeye Friday night and then spent one night there% regardless? Yeah, but they spent one night in a hotel. Interesting. That’s bonkers to me. That’s bonkers. But it worked. They ran away with and they ran away from that game. And then the other thing they did that McVey is so smart. They didn’t have puka. So they set including the Steelers played more 13 personnel than any team in any game yesterday of the whole season. We’re going to put a ton of tight ends out there and do blocking stuff with them, you know. Okay. We didn’t see that coming. One thing I’ve always liked about McVey. Yeah. If you give him if you give him high quality ingredients, he’s gonna get you a a Michelin star chef meal. If you give him some ground beef, he’s going to make you a really good cheeseburger. I mean, you know, like Yep. Yep. It’s It’s one thing he does very well. A team that is definitely feeling good about themselves, Matt, is the Chicago Bears. Four Yeah, they’re turning the corner, too. Four straight wins on the bounce for the Bears after taking down the Saints 26 to4. this hire is is starting to really pay off and it’s starting to feel really Lionsesque now. These two aren’t as good as Gibbs and Montgomery, but the rookie running back um he’s just a total hammer. Yeah, him and Swift. Him and Swift have kind of that Montgomery Gibbs feel to him. Starts with an M. Yeah, Monagai. Is that how he pronounces it? Kyle is his first name. Yes. Monangi. And I’ve been saying it correct all day and now now you’re making me think wrong. Anyways, he’s like a six round, but he’s a hammerhead and you know, Swift is like the change of pace guy and much like they did with golf when he came to Detroit, they’re really dialing back things for Caleb. You know, like just make the throws when we need them. Crazy stuff. We’re going to run the ball with a two-headed monster. And it’s starting to take shape. It absolutely is. four wins in a row and uh man, maybe the most optimistic they’ve felt in Chicago for a long time. They get the Ravens next week, so maybe they bump them off. That’d be great. That would be fantastic. Uh heading in the opposite direction, and I would be surprised if there aren’t massive changes in this organization soon, the Dolphins go to Cleveland and get boat raced 31 to6. That one might be get fired in the next hour type of thing. I I honestly was kind of surprised that it didn’t happen, you know, before before lunch on Monday. Yeah. Uh, you know, two is throwing picks left and right. This another one. Quinn Yurs is out there. Oh, man. I mean, I don’t even know if Cleveland played that great. I mean, their defense was good. Junins ran well. Judkins, you could tell one was a well coached team and the other one isn’t. The Browns are a well coached team. You can say what you want about them. I don’t think they’re a great organization, but I think they’re a well coached team both sides of the ball. I agree. And some of that was garbage time points. I didn’t think the Browns were great, but you lose that bad to a team like the Browns, how the season’s going, it’s your seat’s on fire. Yeah, absolutely. Uh, revenge Matt, a dish best served cold and it was a fun vengeance trip for Mike Vrabel and a lot of his former staff formerly in Tennessee. I think May’s really good. I think we all thought that that the Patriots would win, but man, 31 to3 they dominated. dominant. They’re now five and two. And Matt, if you look at their next five or six games, super easy. It’s like the Jets and the Dolphins and the Bengals and the Browns. I mean, this team could be could be nine and three in a couple weeks. Yeah, they look like a double digit win team. This is how it lines up for sure. Another team much like Tennessee, much like Miami, moving in the wrong direction. I think we all thought the Chiefs would handle the Raiders, but 31 to nothing. Good lord, I They’re the most disappointing team to me. Agreed. Cuz I thought they would take a step forward with a legit quarterback, a legit coach. They’re worse all the time. Of the teams that are most surprising in a good way, I think it’s Indianapolis. Yes. Maybe we could be starting to get there with Chicago. The teams that are most surprising in a bad way, there’s a couple, but it’s certainly the Raiders at this point. I think so too cuz like I mean the Titans had the first pick in the draft last year. Miami you could kind of see it coming. You knew there was going to be problems with the Jets. This team I thought would go forward not backwards. Yeah. Leveled up at head coach. Yeah. Thought they improved at quarterback. The defense and the offense has some other pieces but they are just so bad in the trenches. They can’t do anything. And to be fair they didn’t have Myers. They didn’t have Bowers. Crosby got hurt. Yeah. I mean like that’s a problem but right they’re not a very good roster. Eagles respond after two straight losses. No uh vengeance being served by Carson Wentz as Philly goes into Minnesota and a professional buttoned up performance take care of business 28 to22. The huge takeaway here is Flores beg them to throw and Herz did it really well which we haven’t seen a lot. I mean it’s like 300 yards combined for AJ Brown and Devonte Smith. Like you’re going to leave those two alone. I’m going to beat you that way. If he goes 19 of 23 for 320ome yards, the Eagles are going to be one of the last teams standing, just like they were last year. That box had not been checked for a while. It had not. And it and it was once again and uh maybe they’re feeling certainly better in Philadelphia this week than they have the last couple weeks. Panthers go into Metife. Opportunity for the Jets to get that first win of the season. Uh they do not. They’re a disaster. 13-6 as the Jets remain the lone winless team in the NFL. I know Fields got hurt, but I think he’s getting benched, too. And I think they’re quarterback and they might have a one and done coach. Yeah. I mean, they’re really, really bad. They’re another one of those Raiders type. I didn’t think you were going to make the playoffs, but I didn’t think you were going to be this. I thought you could win seven or eight games. Right. Right. Right. They’ve already lost seven in seven tries. Horrible. Matt, in one of the craziest, wildest performances that we’ll see this season that we’ve seen in the long in a long time, the Broncos score 33 fourth quarter points to beat the Giants 33-32. Just insane. And Dart played well and Scaboo and you know, those guys are they’re kind of fun, you know. Um, but to me the biggest takeaways and Rob sort of mentioned this too. He mentioned the Giants like I don’t think they know how to win yet. They may learn. I mean, a young this coach will withstand it. Who knows? But they’re they’re at least showing progress and learning how to win in this league. Denver, we know their defense is great. Kind of got worn out. They were on the field so much. But the Denver offense was terrible for three three quarters and then Knicks just exploded and you know, Payton realized this is the only we’re going to have to just totally take the governor off. Yeah. And he’s a very streaky player even going back to Oregon. But I don’t know if we know I know they won. Should we be excited that the offense is capable of doing what they did in the fourth quarter or should we be miserable that 90% of the quarters they’ve played this year look like the first three, you know, on offense on point. Maybe it’s a turning point for them and just what they needed. Maybe it’s a little bit of a false dawn. Yeah, we’ll wait and see. I mean, Payton’s held Nick’s back on purpose. I mean, he’s really, you know, governed him. You know, maybe he’s going to be like, “All right, I’ll let him wing it a little more. Cut it loose a little bit more.” A insane stat. NFL teams had won 1,6 I don’t know if you’ve seen this. NFL teams had won 1,62 straight games. When a team leads by 18 or more points in the final six minutes of a game, 162 straight games until the Giants led the Broncos 26 to8 with 6 minutes left and the Broncos came back to win. First time in over 1,600 games that that has happened in the NFL, Matt. Insane. So, my son, amongst other vices, is taking up gambling a little bit, too. You know, as he’s left over. Exactly. And and he texts me he I guess he live bet the Broncos at like plus 500 when they were losing heavy and he text me with like a minute left in the game. It’s like, “Dad, this was the hardest beat of my life.” you know, like I can’t believe the Broncos end up losing this one. I thought I just almost turned $10 into, you know, he bets like two and turn, you know, turned two bucks into 20 bucks. But he’s like, I almost cashed out huge. I mean, and the Broncos are going to blow it. Then I get a text like two minutes later. He’s like, this is the best win of my Lions. And that right there, young man, is gambling in a nutshell. Like a good lesson. Yeah, that’s that is funny. Um, the Chargers at home, Matt, not only performed poorly, but also wore, I think, the ugliest uniforms I’ve seen an NFL team ever wear as they fell to the Colts 38-24. Herbert was great. They got receivers now all of a sudden. Johnston, McConi, this Gadson kid was pretty impressive. Keem Allen’s far from dead. Yeah, but the Colts are an offensive juggernaut. They don’t have any weaknesses. They don’t have any weaknesses. Like I still have I think the only thing you could say about them at this point is do they run into Buffalo or Kansas City in the playoffs and and Daniel Jones has to outduel one of those future gold jacket guys and it and it ends up biting you right. But other than that I don’t know where the criticism is where the holes are where the you know the holes you want to punch in them right now. Yeah. I mean Taylor’s like an offensive player of the year candidate. Warren’s a rookie of the year candidate you know. I mean they have weapons everywhere. They sure do. They sure do. the Cowboys take care of business against the Commanders. This one was surprising. Also, maybe some some uh injury hamstring stuff with Jaylen Daniels. Uh Jaden Daniels, pardon me. Jaylen Daniels is the Kansas quarterback. Jaden Daniels is the Washington quarterback. Uh and yeah, the Commander I think that’s the bigger story is the Commander season might be on life support here as you know before we even get to Halloween, right? I mean, I assume he’ll miss a little time. I I don’t know, but their lack of weapons is astonishing at the moment right now, too. There there’s no receivers getting open. And then the opposite is true for Dallas. Like this is one of the best offenses in the league. You want CD Lamb, too? You’re like, “Yeah, let’s roll.” They are reminding me a little bit of the Bengals last year. Yeah. Yeah, very much. They I think they’ll play meaningful football into December and they’ll be in a wild card race, but it’s going to be a roller coaster the entire way. Maybe they should trade for Hendrickson or, you know, try to find something on defense. wouldn’t be wouldn’t be the worst idea honestly. Uh Packers go into Arizona, still a Green Bay team that is not playing great, but they find a way to get it done. 2723, they are now 41 and one. And as Rob King alluded to, a Cardinals team that just has to be banging their head against the wall because they have lost five games, two and five by a combined 13 points. Awful. It It’s tough. We’ll talk more Packers, obviously. Plenty. Yeah, we don’t need to get into them a ton. Big key was six sacks. Micah Parsons was the closer. I was gonna say Parsons is doing Parson’s things. Three sacks from him and you know they he he he closed things out. It’s also been nice to see uh Trey McBride start to him and Britt get along better than him and Kyler Murray too. Yes, they do. And I had been kind of kicking myself for drafting McBride where I did my fantasy leagues. Not these last couple weeks. He’s he’s finally showing that worth. Uh, and you kind of referenced Pennix and just a headscratching performance there off of off of their most encouraging performance of the season. The Falcons a uh a step back certainly as they fall to three and three. The Niners despite every reason not to continue to win games. They’re five and two. If Colts isn’t coach of the year, I always call it a team because it shouldn’t just be the guy, you know. Sure. Um, then it’s an NRS. I mean, they’re five and two despite every reason not to be. Every reason not to be. And KD comes back, doesn’t even catch a pass, but he helps in the run game. And McCaffrey is the total locomotive and but he was running through much bigger holes now all of a sudden. Defense has nothing left, but it doesn’t matter. Pennix is worrisome though. Yes, it is. Yeah. Or yes, he is. Yeah, pardon me. Uh and so that’s kind of your week seven Sunday slate recap there. We have have two great games, an early one and a late one tonight in the Monday night double header. We will give a couple thoughts on those before we get up out of here on the other side. Wes Schuler, Matt Williamson, it’s the drive on Steelers Nation radio on the Steelers Audio Network. [Music] Final few minutes of the drive here on a Monday. And I tell you what, a uh a couple of very palatable Monday night football games tonight to watch. Wish one wasn’t starting at 10. I I do wish that Texans and Seahawks was not starting at 10. What a night in Seattle. I didn’t even think about this. Game seven, too, or Yeah. TV. I think you’ll know. Is the Mariners are at home tonight, right? Is that correct? They’re the Mariners. Is that one in No, that one’s in Toronto because the Mariners won the first two games in Toronto and then and then Toronto won the next two in Seattle. So, I was going to say, man, Monday Night Football. Holy smokes. And a game seven to go to the World Series in the same town on the same night, but yeah, that will be in Toronto. That game seven in the MLB tonight. Uh, but speaking of seven, it is 7:00. Bucks Lions, two of the best teams in the NFC. Matt, this is a real early season litmus test. I yeah I have a rematch. I mean like this could be NFC championship game. I think the Eagles are still going to be in the conversation. I think the Packers are going to be in the conversation, but these might be two of the top three or four teams in the NFC. Yeah, big one tonight. Maybe one and two. And and you kind of mentioned it. It wouldn’t shock me if the Lions won big because that’s what they do. They do beat teams bad and it’s a tough spot for Tampa. But Detroit favored six and a half might be a little too much for my blood. I think that’s a bit much for me, too. But it wouldn’t shock me if we get back here tomorrow going Lions might be the best team in the league. Yeah, they win 30 to 20, something like that. 30 to 17, but they have some defensive injuries and Mike Evans is coming back and I would definitely take the point. I think I’m taking the points, too. Again, the Lions winning comfortably wouldn’t shock me because they do that a lot. It’s like, it’s like if they’re not losing, they’re winning by double digits. It’s, you know, go for it on fourth and run the score up and they’re just, you know, aggressive. The Bucks have had, listen, they’re a very good team, one of the best in the NFL, but they’ve had a little rabbit’s foot element early on in the season, too, where they’ve had a couple of those things break their way. Uh maybe that comes back tonight to kind of water finding its level, but I’m very excited to watch that one. And then the night cap, I will promise you one thing, Matt, is that I will be there for kickoff. I don’t know how much longer. I’ll I’ll be there for every snap. I’ll hang around. I’m going to do my best. But, you know, with a four-year-old and a 2-year-old, the mornings come very early at this stage in life for me. But, I try to get a half hour snooze between this show and it’s not a bad idea. First kickoff. Seahawks hosting the Texans. A a big one for both of these teams. If Seattle wins this, they’re five and two. They’re still in lock step with everybody there in the NFC. For the and if they do, we might be talking about them with the Lions and teams you just mentioned. Absolutely. They’re they’re worthy of that. And for the Texans, it’s like if you win this, it’s a big win on the road. you’re back to 500. That’d be three in a row for them. Be three in a row for them. If you lose, it’s like, okay, we understand that that’s a tough spot. We’re not crushing you for it, but you’d be two and four and you’d really be chasing the Colts and really kind of putting all your eggs in the wild card basket. Yeah. I mean, I guess they’re fortunate the Jags have fallen apart all of a sudden, too. But the Colts aren’t for just within their division. I just expect a really, really good defense in the night. It’s going to be a really good lowscoring game. It’s a low o overunder. Only 41 only 41 and a half. Two really good pass rushes. Two really good constructed defenses. I could see this being a race to, you know, 14 16 something like that. So, I would take the points whatever. I don’t know what the line is. Seattle’s favored three and a half. I thought it was over three. So, I would definitely take the points here just because I think it’s going to be tight. That’s one of those good Vegas lines because if it’s Seattle 4 and a half, I would definitely uh take the points with Houston. If it was Seattle two and a half, I would definitely lay the points with the Seahawks. I think I’m with you. I think I’m going to take the points in both of these games. We’ve talked about a lot. Seattle’s so good on the road, but they haven’t been as great at home as you think. They really have. Everyone thinks it’s like the hardest place to play in the league. It really hasn’t been for a couple years, though. I think I’ll take Houston plus 4 and a half. I’ll take Tampa Bay plus 6 and 1/2. I’m taking the points on both. Yeah. But nothing would surprise No result in either of these games tonight would surprise me. I think this is a real measuring stick moment for all four of these team. They’re all pretty good teams. Yeah. I think the way that in Detroit and Houston, they’ll be talking about Packer Steelers Sunday night is kind of the way that you know that the work like it it’s could see these games going either way. Whoever wins is going to be in a good position and feel really strongly. Whoever loses is going to be like, “Ah, man. That was an opportunity to kind of stake our claim and and uh and and you know, stay in the upper crust conversation of the league.” But it’s going to be a lot of fun. Yeah, I’m looking forward to both games. I’m excited about that. We’ll recap both games tomorrow uh here on the show as we roll along this week. Matt and I have got some other kind of fun things that we’ve been emailing back and forth that we’ll get into tomorrow to kind of bridge the gap of a uh of a chunkier week contentwise for us here uh without having a ton of Steelers recap today. But that will do it for us on this Monday. Big thanks to Rob King for joining us and of course uh Tyler V, Mr. TV, not only our YouTube producer, but also our resident Major League Baseball fact checker here for us in this final segment. Uh for Matt Williamson, I’m Wesler. Take care everybody. We’ll talk to you tomorrow. You know as always where to find us. It’s on your 247 home of the black and gold. It’s Steelers Nation Radio on the Steelers Audio Network.
Matt Williamson and Wes Uhler talk about their thoughts after re-watching Steelers at Bengals and more on SNR Drive on Monday, Oct. 20, 2025
#HereWeGo #Steelers #NFL
22 comments
Thanks for keeping Dale involved, Matt. Remember yall banter about the wind… He was the only one to respond to my comments.
Sights and sounds ?
I wonder if they gave TJ Watt credit for a half sack on that initial play by Benton. 😒
He certainly knows how to pirate sacks from his teammates. How pathetic this dude has become
Absolutely embarrassing by the defensive coaching staff and namely Mike Tomlin. He’s such a coward he made it known well before the game that he was afraid of Joe Flacco. And he had his players playing like they were scared.
How many times can tomlin be outcoached and still be considered a great coach….he's been around he should be andy reid taking control of games and instead brand new, inexperienced, or even coaches of less decoration are making a mockery of us! Austin and Tomlin's seats should be on fire 🔥
Darius Slay is Donte Jackson Redux. With him on the field, the defense – on his side at least – will continue being soft.
Can someone tell me what would happen if DK went down? Do they plan a head and get a guy, or do they try to address the need at that time?
What is more needed to STOP the draft drool'n…?
A Jaylen Warren Versus Najee Harris conversation?
BUT MATT Williamson will continue to DROOL
Did we work out Isiah Simmons?? Freak athlete….underachiever but if his measurables are still there….hes a Safety/LB with Great size and speed. Always looking for Deshon Niche fits in Pittsburgh.
Funny that Wes said about the Bucs, "they could lose by 17 and it wouldn't surprise me"…and they lose by 15!
CA3 has proved his worth.
Bengals had a better defense than Steelers last Thursday
Dale would have made a comment about the winds blowing across Mount Olympus! Haha 🖤
… if only muth would of downed the ball at 2.30 like higgins did instead of running it in for the td… that to me was the biggest missed opportunity that lost us the game.
The excuses for Tomlin are getting tired.
Speaking of defensive rankings Cincinnati is down there …but so are the Steelers.
If you need a landscaper .. either one of you guys or anyone.. call Greenscape landcare.
"Labs is an inning eater". 🤣
Defense is terrible again bad coaching
Stop making excuses .all that money they spent on defensive players.
Come on guys! Call it out 5 and 24 turned their backs to the wideout over and over and take your pick turned to the sideline for an undefended pass over and over. Scheme or poor play?
The Steelers are going to kill the Bengals next time just like they did the browns last year!!!
Remember they lost by 2 points that's the Refs interference. Also the Bengals are going to get killed next few games!