Steelers vs Bengals FULL Review + Reactions

Steelers vs Bengals FULL Review + Reactions

It all started Thursday night. We were right. It all started here in Cincinnati. Just five minutes down the road. You and I were here doing a live watch along for all of our members. Cincinnati Bengals got the win 33 to 31 over the Pittsburgh Steelers. Bengals moved to 3-4. Steelers fall to 4 and2. An elite shootout between Joe Flacco, Aaron Rogers, back and forth game and just uh a lot of implications coming out of this especially in the AFC North. Yeah, the geriatric bowl. Um, it was a really big game for Cincinnati. Uh, I mean, we talked about it on the reaction show. Uh, I tweeted about it a bit at some stage between now and then, days ago. Yeah. And it’s like, look, Joe Flacco right there justified the trade in that game on its own. He was absolutely dialed in. It was another clean game. Like, there’s several aspects of the Flaco thing. The most remarkable of which I think is another game that was basically completely clean. No football in harm’s way. No turnovery plays. I don’t believe nothing dangerous, right? And on top of that, he’s also doing that while feeding Jamar Chase 25 targets. You know, T. Higgins gets the the mo the majority of the rest of them. So, it’s like all boxes are ticked for Flacco. Number one, you’re hiding what is still a pretty terrible offensive line. Uh number two, you’re just throwing the ball to Higgins and Chase. Nobody else really. Higgins and Chase. That’s it. Outstanding. And then number three, you’re achieving both A and B without putting the ball in harm’s way. That’s it. That’s all. That’s jackpot. That’s bingo. That’s everything they need from Joe Flacco. However unlikely that would have been at the time. That’s what they needed and that’s what they’ve been getting. And if you look at their upcoming schedule, this has already kept them alive most likely into like December, which is job done, right? The Bengals move to three and four. They have the Jets next week, so you know, pretty good opportunity to get back to four and four and get this season back on track. It is amazing how much better this offense has looked now. Um maybe a parts of the Packers game last week. Yeah, Will would like us to straighten up the hat that I knocked over in the the desk there cuz How’d you do that? I fired you your phone. Oh, on the phone. I didn’t even notice that. How’ you set it back up? I don’t know. As long as As long as we’re doing this ourselves, let’s try and be professional. We’ll try to be professional. Yeah, I had to move. I don’t think it’s centered anymore because we had to move it for the Justin Pew interview. We’re just we’re in an absolute mess. I know. Just bear with us today. I can’t believe And I’m going to drink my coffee on camera now. We usually do it when when we cut to the solo shots. Do we? Yeah. I haven’t been sick of that. I mean, they But Will usually takes us off camera when we’re okay. When we’re doing embarrassing things or you know what I mean? That’s what happens. She’s on her own. Stuck on the camera for for three hours. Yeah. Anyway, um Bengals offense looked really good. There were parts of that in the Packers game, the first time they’ve gotten Chase Brown going. He had 108 yards on 11 carries. He probably had 108 yards coming into the game. Um, and as you mentioned, the Chase Higgins thing combining for 23 catches, 16 going to Chase. Um, and then the big I mean then, so it goes back and forth at the end because Rogers, I think Rogers has played really good football these last few weeks. um maybe the best we’ve seen him over the last couple years as far as making throws down the field, pocket movement. Um there was one incredible interception by DJ Turner early which wasn’t a bad throw. There was one that he floated in there that was picked off. So he had two picks, but Rogers had four touchdowns. Yeah, that was a bad throw. So one one pick not really his fault. Other pick definitely his fault. and and then what was supposed to be the go-ahehead touchdown, the the Steelers had, I think, a bit of a a phantom holding call to make it uh first and 20 or second and 20, whatever it was. Rogers sidesteps pressure on the next play. He’s not done much of that the last couple years. He did a lot more of that in this game. Yeah. Like his mobility looks better, I think, these last couple weeks and then he fires a laser to uh Pat Frymouth for a 68 yard touchdown. And it’s like, all right, Rogers making this fourth quarter comeback again, but then the Bengals come back to get in position for the game-winning field goal. I want to talk about that uh T. Higgins play because we have more information on that as well. But I thought Rogers looked good and it and it really was both quarterbacks playing well and and playing in this shootout type of environment. Hey guys, real quick, only 40% of our viewers are actually subscribed. So, let’s change that. Hit that subscribe button. And now, let’s get back to the action. Yeah, I did. Rogers looked really good. Made a bunch of really big plays. just made a bunch of plays like you’re talking about where he moved in the pocket, slid in one direction or the other. Either reset the leverage of his offensive lineman or simply avoided the pressure that he was surrendering in the first place. Like he did it two or three times in the game where Brderick Jones has given up inside pressure and Rogers just skips outside and suddenly he’s fixed Brick Jones, right? Jones goes inside with the guy, just about stays engaged and Rogers is able to slide back to the point where Ro where Jones is able to continue the block on the inside. So, he did that a bunch. That’s been one of the strengths of his career. And then the other thing with Rogers that we have to bring up at the end is with the Hail Mary, the longest pass in the NFL since like at least 2017. And I think the reason that’s the number that gets brought up is that’s some sort of a or some sort of NGS cutoff. Like that’s when they started tracking something that triggers in that world. So, basically the longest pass we’ve seen in the NFL travel in the air in who knows how long, but the longest pass anybody has attempted. And if you had told me before he was taking that shot that he had that still in his arm, I don’t think I would have believed you. We had seen last week an underthrown deep ball. We’d seen another one in this game. The interception, I think, you know, was way off target whether or not it was underthrown. Um it I didn’t really feel like he still had the 100% 70 yard air throw in him. And as I said on the review show, I mean, we we were like, “Wow, the quarterback does it again when he hits a Hail Mary.” Like, this is more impressive than the actual Hail Marys, which you know, the results are I didn’t think there was any he was getting it to the to the goal line. It would have had us questioning the Bengals strategy. They had um 20 seconds, whatever it was, and um kicked it to the end zone for a touchdown. And then the Steelers had a quick out that set things up and and set up that final Hail Mary. The play I wanted to talk about though, the Steelers, I mean, the Bengals were down one driving in the and they get into field goal range. Flaco throws a a deep ball to T. Higgins. Higgins makes the catch, goes down at the five. And it was that ends up becoming the play of the game because it happened with just under two minutes left and everybody’s always asking, you know, should he have scored? What was what was the play? So it was a minute 47 left. Second and eight from the Pittsburgh 35. So you’re already in long field goal range. 28 y up the sideline to T. Higgins. He goes down to the five. And the the thing that makes this work is the fact that the Steelers only had two timeouts left. had they and and so with two timeouts left, it’s first down, the Steelers use a timeout, and then the Bengals start taking a knee, trying to run a little bit of clock cuz they’re trying to run out as much clock as possible for the game- ending field goal. And had they had three timeouts left, he should be scoring a touchdown. It was that fine of a line. And um I was curious about, you know, who’s coming up with this? Is this is this T. Higgins on his own? Is this Zack Taylor telling him? Is this somebody on the sideline? It came out later. Zack Taylor said it was Sam Francis who runs the analytics department. A very small analytics department for the Bengals. But uh Sam Francis, who is the analytics department, he’s got he’s got a little help now. He’s got a couple friends over there now, but not many. Um apparently alerted everybody on the sideline. If you have green grass, you go down because of the two timeouts in the So this exact situation. And so kudos to the Bengals and the football information department as some teams call it. that that’s what won them the game. So I said Rogers had 20 seconds. The last field the field goal was kicked with 11 seconds left, right? So they got as close as they could to walk off, finish the game field goal. Um then the Bengals kicked it to the end zone and there was 7 seconds left for Rogers before he does does a 5-yard quick out and then the Hail Mary. The late game management by the Bengals there was outstanding and was exactly what they needed to pull this off and not give Rogers and the Steelers another opportunity to come back. Two last things on this game before we, you know, get on to the 78 other games we got to talk about. Um, the most important thing to come from this game is that uh Andrew Filipony, Steelers beat Writer is going to have to pierce his nipples because he was so convinced that the Steelers would win this game. He said that if the Bengals somehow won the game, he would have his nipples pierced without any anesthetic and has subsequently come out and said that this will be happening in some way or shape or form. I didn’t watch his show to find out what the terms and conditions were, but he Yeah, he’s not going to Welsh in the bet. Something along these lines is going to happen. The pony’s nipples are on the way. It was a great storyline for us. Again, we had a membersonly watch along. It was free for a little bit and then um our memberships are just uh above and beyond extra special time hanging out with us. It was a great storyline to follow throughout this thing as he was guaranteeing the next day. I mean my she doesn’t care about football. But the next day my wife Laura was like doesn’t that mean that some guy’s got to get his nipples pierced? I was like yes it does. Yes it does. The pony’s nipples are on the way. Just glad my glad our wives were like engaged in this whole uh storyline with pony. So yeah I’ll talk to him on Thursday. Yeah. on the fan. He said I mean he said on his own show he was announcing exactly how what form this would take and what the T’s and C’s would be. I didn’t watch that so I don’t exactly know but the point is people were like there’s no way he’s doing that. Sounds like he will be. Oh no he’s got to do it. U by the way you talk the importance of this game u the Steelers came in at 4-1. They’re now 4-2. They’ve got the Packers Colts Chargers the next few weeks and they play the Bengals again. Yeah. Those are those are their next four weeks. Um the Packers of course we’ll talk about that a ton this week the Aaron Rogers uh you know re uh revenge game we’ll say against the Packers and then you know the Bengals have the Jets next week like a golden opportunity to shorten things up in the AFC North. That’s why this Joe Flanco thing has been proved worth it already because right now you’ve got the Jets you would assume they win that game. You’ve got the Bears, okay, that’s not a gimme and then the Steelers again. Um, so if the Bengals are able to go, you know, if if they’re able to win those three games, let’s say, even if they were able to win two of them, suddenly you’re extending how long this team is definitely going to be alive for into deep into the season. Now, the schedule gets a lot tougher after that. You get the Patriots, you get the Ravens, who knows what shape they’ll be in at that point. Buffalo, and then the Ravens again. So, you know, that might be the end of it depending on how things shake out. But the whole point of Joe Flacco is to just keep the season alive long enough that Joe Burrow’s potential return is realistic and his return is to a team that’s still alive, right? That’s possible now in a way that it didn’t look like it was before this game. And that’s like the the Flaco conversation. I was completely wrong. I thought it was ridiculous to trade anything for Joe Flacco given what we’ve seen from him at this point in his career. again already proven that it was justified. Now, this may be a 99th percentile range of outcomes for Joe Flacco. I don’t know that there is any evidence in the last 5 years of his career that this was on the cards, but a 1% outcome is still is still a possibility. And not, you know, not a not a tremendously unlikely one in the grand scheme of things. I mean, you play the lottery with one in 158 million or whatever the odds of that are. One in a hundred is it’s easy to hit, right? So, this I think just is is more evidence of never be declarative. Never say never, right? In the NFL, you know better than that. I know better than that. And I I should have been less declarative. I didn’t know that you realize that you were even that declarative. I just brush off your flacco takes at this point, I think. Um, last thing, I know we don’t want to spend all day on this, but the Steelers perspective, Mike Tomlin, it is amazing how consistent he is. both good and bad. Not winning on Thursday nights. I know this whole division, the the the road team never wins on Thursday night in the AFC North, but he’s like the Steelers themselves are 0 and seven. Oh, yeah. 0 and seven. Then was this the 0 and 8 was I think they’re 0 and8 on the road on Thursday night. And then the division itself is 0 and 10 on Thursday night games in the last 10 games. It’s it’s bizarre. And and the other consistent part and part of the reason why maybe he was afraid of Joe Flacco is he doesn’t change his defense a whole lot, right? They were not like they they they did throw different corners at Jamar Chase. It is remarkable. He was open the entire game. I mean, there’s that tweet. Was it Trey Essex had that tweet? Whoever it was was like, I cannot fathom a guy being this open on their 23rd target in the game when they completely blew coverage and Jamar Chase on the the shallow crossing route. Patrick Queen jumps out to a guy already covered. It’s twoon-one and nobody picks up Chase. The fact that they spent the entire game not doubling Jamar Chase in any way, shape or form. I know Tomlin came out and said, “Ah, we did double him sometimes.” Not really. The The fact that they did that in this type of game, I mean, this was whatever about coming into the game at some point fairly early on, it was clear that the game plan here is first read Jamar Chase. if for some reason he’s not uh he’s not open, we might think about going to T. Higgins and you just spent the entire game going, “Nah, whatever. Whoever he lines up against the school with us.” That’s kind of coaching negligence. Uh if you want more on this game, we spent almost 30 minutes reviewing it on Thursday night. We touched on a lot of the same stuff, but it was a lot to unpack in this one. We do have many other games to get to. Thanks for watching all the way to the end of the video. Check the Mic is live every Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. So, be sure to hit the subscribe button so you don’t miss a thing. And the all knowing algorithm is convinced you’ll also like these videos. And who are we to argue?

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