Stephen A. vents about the Steelers after loss to the Chargers 😡 ‘I’M DISGUSTED!’ | First Take

Stephen A. vents about the Steelers after loss to the Chargers 😡 ‘I’M DISGUSTED!’ | First Take

Good morning and happy Monday. Welcome to First Take everyone. I’m Shay Cornet. Stephen A. Smith, Damen Woody, and Cam Newton is with us as well from Atlanta. You know guys, you get to a certain age in life where things get a little sore, like you hurt your back a little bit or something. Something tells me Aaron Rogers woke up a little this morning. That is why I have a problem with your introduction. First of all, it was wonderful to see you this morning, Shay. Great start to the second week usually, not just now. Cam D. Woody, how dare you say this was a happy morning. Happy Ain’t nothing happy about this morning. Nothing. Now, let’s go for you. Not a happy. That’s what I’m saying. For you. Not for me, but for you. Your team. Your team is good to go. Okay, go ahead. Uh, so I mentioned Aaron Rogers maybe moving a little s’more this morning. That is because yesterday the Chargers absolutely had their way with him. from Aaron Rogers last night took an early safety, was sacked three times, held to 161 yards to go along with two interceptions. The Steelers lost to the Chargers 25-10. Offense was really never in sync. And so here’s Mike Tomlin after a brutal loss in prime time. I’m not lacking confidence. I don’t need a pat on the back. Um, we stunk it up tonight. We’ll be back. I expect to play great every single week and this was not my best performance. I got to play better than this for us to win. Whatever it takes, I got to make a, you know, if it’s if it’s better checks, if it’s better throws, whatever it is, I got to play better. I will. How would you assess performance tonight? How would you next? Got to love Mike Tomlin. Always keeping it in a buck. Well, since you asked, Coach Tomlin, we will assess how Aaron Rogers played last night. Stephen A, you got the floor first. What’ you think? He was off. He was awful. It was clearly his worst performance as a Steeler, you know. Um, three sacks, season worst, 50.6 passer rating. Couldn’t complete the passes, was underthrowing, was overthrowing, looked jittery in the pocket. Most importantly, looked moody. Didn’t look like somebody I’m shoot Excuse me, I was choking on something. Looked moody. Didn’t look there, if you get what I’m saying. Like, not I mean, from open and tap, how you going to take a sack in the in the end zone from Khalil Mack like that? You got to be more aware of that. Okay, that’s number one. 0 for five on passes, 15 yards or more downfield. Didn’t make a pass. Okay, I’m looking at that. You ain’t won a prime time game this year. See, I’m I’m taking a macro perspective. You ain’t won a prime time game this year. Okay, Chargers have won every prime time game they’ve been in. That’s not good. Two for 11 on third downs. Two for 11. 29th ranked total offense. 28th ranked total defense. The defense is now better than the offense. And we know how awful the defense has been. We know how we’ve been complaining about the defense. The offense has now usurped the defense as the worst category for the Pittsburgh Steelers. It’s pathetic as their defense is. I’m very disgusted right now. I’m looking forward to this victory. I’m looking forward to celebrating the Steel Holding off on Baltimore. Baltimore at least needed two two games to catch them. Now they don’t. Okay, they can pass them with two games. They’re only one game back. All right, I know they playing week 14 and then the season finale, but damn it, the way the Steelers look. Are we really going to sit here and believe they going to lose another game before week 14? We know they are. We know they are. I mean, it’s just a given. Oh, I’m just so disgusted right now. I’m just looking at them. And then I’m looking at this. Fewer than 300 yards of offense in six of their nine games this season. All right. One Steel drive. Their first nine drives. One. One. Was more than one four plays. One in the first nine drives. That is awful. And this is Sofi. This is Sofi Stadium in LA. Beautiful weather. You see that sunshine? You understand what I’m saying? I mean, if you haven’t been to Sofi Stadium, I mean, Jerry World and Dallas, Sofi Stadium to me are the two best stadiums in America, okay? Right now. And let me tell you something. You go there, it’s hard not to be ready because the sun is shining, the Southern C sunshine, and then Sofi Stadium is flying, the field is immaculate. I mean, there’s no excuses. There’s no excuses. Calvin Calvin wants to drop. If this man drops another pass, I mean, what is this brother eating before the games? Is he eating bagels with extra butter and forgetting to wash his damn hands or something? You can’t catch catch the ball. I mean, that was one of the interceptions. Right through his hands. Right through his hands. I This is This really really bothers me because few weeks ago, Baltimore is one and five and we said, “Nah, they ain’t going, you know, I don’t know about this season.” And I said, “Steelers, I can’t say that because this is what they do. This is what they do and they’re doing it.” Damn. Damn. Damn. I’m hurt. Surprised, hurt, whatever you want to call it. I’m not surprised, but I’m hurt. You know what, Aaron Rogers? He looked his age last night. You a He looked like a 41year-old quarterback scared to get hurt, inaccurate with the ball, taking a bunch of sacks. Okay. This is what we’ve been talking about with Aaron Rogers. Okay. How many 40 plus year old quarterbacks in the history of this league is going on to play outstanding football? It’s like two. Tom Brady. Okay. Tom Brady and Drew Brees. Like that’s it. Okay. And so what I last night, you saw a beat up and battered Chargers team come out there and manhandle the Pittsburgh Steelers. Listen, ESPN bet had the Baltimore Ravens at 1 and5. still the favorite in the AFC North because no one is buying the Pittsburgh Steelers. Okay, that one off that they had last week against the Indianapolis Colts where they had six turnovers and only won by seven points. That should have told you everything you need to know about the Pittsburgh Steelers and Aaron Rogers. They are pretenders and we shouldn’t even waste our time talking about the Pittsburgh Steelers. It was less than a month ago they had a three-game lead on the division and here come the Baltimore Ravens. Cam Newton, what do you make of the yelling? Go ahead. Don’t look at me. Before we get into the Pittsburgh Steelers and um we need to be asking Stephen A what did he eat last night or this morning because my man got hiccups. Uh Shay Gu Elizabeth, could you please pass my man some water on his back? He ain’t starting he ain’t starting the show strong. But what I will say is this. I got some words for you. Uh, Aaron Rodgers looked frustrated. Aaron Rodgers looked exasperated. Did you like that word, Stephen A? It was an abysmal performance to say the least, because of this. We were We looked at this game as a way for the Steelers to win, but also get cushion in their division. Now when you start to say to Aaron Rogers, I saw one pass that he wish he should have had back and that’s the wide open, you know, in the first quarter with DK Metaf. Other than that, there was not any separation from the receivers. And to add in, he was not comfortable in the pocket. You got him throwing a no look pass right here. There’s a combination of things that now being at 41, he’s not able to really save teams as he once did in his career. The defense did play good enough for a team to have a chance to win games. That’s true. But every single time the Pittsburgh Steelers offense took the field yesterday, when you look at some type of receiver, he was always getting clamped or in close proximity to a powder blue jersey and those type of things add up. So yes, taking sacks, bad decisions, errant throw, not Aaron throws, you see a team gets crushed like they did. And Aaron Rogers had it all over his face, but it wasn’t necessarily all on Aaron Rogers. And I’m not always against, you know, the quarterback or saying that it’s his his fault, but they have to have better answers at the skill set position. Drop passes, uh, and one led to a turnover. It was extremely frustrating to watch. When you think about most in the NFL, sacked 28 times, been pressured about 168 65 times this year. He’s been hit 80 times. Last night, he was only pressured like on a 30% rate. And this is with a short-handed offensive line. And the Steelers still wasn’t able to get to him, but so much. Here’s what I’m saying to you. We know that the charges were short-handed. The dominance with which they executed because the Steelers offense was impotent, just devoid of any potency whatsoever. Damn it. The fact is, we got to look at other numbers. And yeah, you could say it’s not Amar Rogers. And I’m not saying it’s all Aaron Rogers, but he was god awful yesterday. Let’s call it what it is. He admitted it. Mike Tomlin essentially admitted it. We all know it. He got two eyes. We can see glasses or no glasses. I mean, damn it. We got it. Okay. But you got DJ DK Metaf. Now, we got to look at management. When are we going to talk about Steelers management? when you how come you didn’t do anything before the trade deadline. You got to get the brothers some help. DK Metav is your number one option. People keying on him. He’s averaging 36 yards. 36 yards over the last four games. Come on, man. Come on, man. 36 yards. 36. That that that’s it for the number one receiver. What does that spell? You ain’t running the football enough. Warren can run with the football. Now, the brother ain’t a scrub. He can play. He might not be the bellcow you need him to be where he gonna run for you 25 30 times, but he’s elusive. He’s quick. He’s fast. He can make some things happen if you could run block. You right. You ain’t getting him the ball enough. You going to DK Metaf, you throwing a d, you know, you you’re throwing in double coverage on on on fourth down plays. I mean, damn. Where’s everybody else at? I thought we were supposed to be happy that Fry Ma Smith was there together as tight end spots. Two the additional tight ends that you had at your disposal. I thought that was supposed to work for the Ste. That’s what I thought. That’s what I thought. But we saw before the trading deadline that that wasn’t the case. And so I’m looking at it and I’m saying, damn. You know, this GM con, we don’t talk about him enough. You know what I’m saying? Root for the brother, but you know, you you could have got him some help. Could have got somebody to come to Pittsburgh. Somebody. They ain’t do that. And now here come the Ravens. One and five. One and five. Four weeks ago. You know, the Steelers have now lost three of their last four. And these brothers are one game back. And everybody in their grandmama expects the Ravens to win this division. This division. And And we got several weeks to go. And we know what’s coming because it’s been the Steelers M for whatever reason. Usually it’s the offense, right? We felt pity for the defense. Then the offense sucked until I’m sorry, the defense sucked until a few weeks ago. And then the offense has eclipsed them over the last four weeks. And they are once again the liability. This is a very sad Monday morning for me. It’s very sad. It’s very sad. It’s very sad. The problem too with the Steelers, it doesn’t get any easier. Out of their next eight games, they’re only favored to win three of them according to ESPN bat. So if that is the case, then Cam and and Damen Woody and Stephen A here, then that would mean that the Steelers have their first losing record in 19 seasons, if my math is correct, potentially could miss the playoffs. So what are the repercussions if the Steelers do miss the postseason? would I mean listen we I keep going back to it Mike Tomlin has constantly said the standard is the standard but what’s the standard been over the last decade what has the standard been the last they haven’t made they haven’t won a playoff game 2016 they have not won a playoff game okay for a story franchise the Pittsburgh Steelers okay that’s won six world championships and you haven’t won a playoff game in almost a decade something’s got to You can’t keep doing the same thing and expect a different outcome. Okay? You’ve you’ve done it with different quarterbacks, same outcome. You bring in Aaron Rogers thinking that it was going to solve the quarterback situation and here we are and it’s most likely heading to the same path that we’ve seen over these last few years where the Pittsburgh Steelers, yeah, they might make the playoffs, but they’re one and done. You’re going to need bigger structural change in Pittsburgh in order for this thing to turn around. Could that mean the coach? Absolutely. Could it mean front office? Absolutely. Okay. But there needs to be something bigger to happen in Pittsburgh rather than, oh well, let’s go out and get another quarterback cuz clearly that has not worked for the Pittsburgh. Well, clearly it hasn’t worked cuz they haven’t been able to find a quarterback. And then when they But here’s where this year is the most damaging. Cam, this year is more damaging than any recent memory because we knew all of these years that they did not have a quarterback and therefore their offense was compromised. They’ve gone all in this year. But but stay with me. But this year, the combination of getting better quarterback play than you’ve had in the last five or six years, combined with the money that you had invested in the defense in the offseason, which I think was around 175 in the league. The most expensive in the league and the second oldest in the league. That’s very incriminating. And then when you got I mean it imply that they didn’t get to I know they sacked Justin Herbert five times just last night. But the pressure rate of 30% you’re expecting a little bit more considering there’s a patchwork offensive line. You expected them to be even more lethal. Again you got to him but he was getting the ball released quicker than the other like 2.21 seconds or whatever it was. My point is all of these things that you did at some point in time it’s not just about Tomlin. It’s not even just about Rogers. It’s about a GM. Yo, what you you going to go out? The trading deadline was approaching. I’m not talking about the offseason cuz when they made the moves that we made, I didn’t like them losing making Fitzpatrick, but I did love them getting Jaylen Ramsey cam. My issue was, okay, as the season progressed and you saw what was transpiring, the NFL tra why are the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles led by the greatest executive in the sport in my estimation in Howie Roseman. Why are they going out and getting pieces that they need to buffer their squad, but the Pittsburgh Steelers, who ain’t sniff a Super Bowl since 2010, can’t do it. Why? Why is that? it it’s clear they need another a weapon, another receiver. I mean, that is so I mean, they win a NFC championship game. No, but I’m just saying even though you can look at Aaron Rogers and say he’s old, say he’s not capable or whatever a person may think, this is probably the best quarterback and the quarterback option that you’ve had since Ben Rothllessberger. And so, when you start to take into consideration, okay, how do we get here? And when you think about what what took place in the offseason, you have to rewind the tape all the way back because when you get rid of a George Pickins, a guy who all right, was he a liability, some would say, but he was definitely an asset on the football field. I mean, let’s ask the Dallas Cowboys that same question and see what you get. Then you start to mount the injuries that they’ve taken place in this whole year. You you can’t you can’t prepare for those type of things. And then on top of that, just a week ago, you didn’t about a week ago, you didn’t do nothing. You didn’t do nothing as far as a trade. You didn’t acquire no type of talent. You know, you need help. You’re strapped for some type of skill on the offensive side of the football. And you don’t get help with an already old quarterback. That’s not something that you have to just sit back and just say, “Okay, well, we’re going to keep giving opportunities to.” I don’t think firing a Mike Tomlin is the answer. What I think have a real conversation to say what I’m what I’m saying is you need to have a real conversation to say we have to get real talent offensively as well as defensively. I know the focus point was defense in the offseason and the the amount of money that was spent, but now offensively they don’t scare nobody. And I mean nobody. So for that to be your case, you’re not going to make it to the playoffs. You’re not going to make a playoff run. And that’s what you go to the Steelers or that’s what you expect from the Steelers. My man Harry Douglas, my man man Harry Douglas mentioned this to me the other day and again this morning. He was like, “How come the Steelers didn’t go out and get Chris Alav or Rasheed Shaheen?” Seattle got Shaheen. Look at Seattle and how they playing. Did they look like they desperately needed Shahed? No. I mean, he helped because the brother can ball, but did they look like they needed him? Not necessarily. Not the way Sam Donner was playing. Not the West and Jiga was playing. Not the way they run football, not the way their defense is playing, but they still went out and got something. But Khan and the Steelers, wh what did you do? What did you do? What did you do? Nothing. What do I a rhetorical question before we go to the next subject? Just rhetorical. Jay, just what exactly are you doing if you’ve made no moves as a GM? What you just doing? Just sitting in the lunchroom? You’re hanging out in the office talking to coach. What do they do? Cam D Woody, help me. Help a brother understand. I don’t know. Are they Are they in the calf? Are they watching General Hospital at three o’clock like I do? I mean, what what are they doing? I I just need to know because if you ain’t make no damn move by the trading deadline, right? What What were you doing? What What were you doing? Maybe they were looking for brick. Maybe. Maybe. You understand? Hey, you know what I would have done? I would have set up, you know, surveillance material and spied on the opposition and saw what they were doing and then I would have tipped you off so you could have got the you could have got the trades done your damn self instead of letting these brothers go to somebody else. That’s what bricks from General Hospital would have done. But I’m just telling you that’s what should have do something. I I just find myself going like this. So you made trades in the you made picks and trades all this stuff in the summertime, right? You know you did that free agency acquisition all that. So, you ain’t really do nothing since August, since July, because I I see no evidence. I I’m really wondering what the executives are doing. If you ain’t making a move by the trading deadline, what have you done? What have you done? Maybe you thought after you were good. I don’t know. Sitting in a press box with binoculars acting like you working. [Music]

On First Take, Stephen A. Smith, Cam Newton and Damien Woody weigh in on Aaron Rodgers’ performance in the Pittsburgh Steelers’ loss to the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 10.

0:00 Stephen A. is not having a happy morning
1:50 Stephen A.‘s thoughts on Aaron Rodgers’ performance
4:40 Aaron Rodgers looked like a 41-year old QB last night – Damien Woody
5:57 Cam Newton reacts to the Steelers’ loss
11:17 What would the repercussions be if the Steelers miss the playoffs?
#espn #firsttake #nfl

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

#ESPN