DK’s Live Shot: Postgame Steelers vs. Bears

DK’s Live Shot: Postgame Steelers vs. Bears

[Applause] Hi guys, I’m Dan Kvachovich. He’s Chris Hock. We’re from DK Pittsburgh Sports. We’re in Chicago. We’re right outside Soldier Field. And the Steelers lost this game to the Bears by the score of 31 to 28. 31 to 28, the man says. Yeah. And it was like there’s there’s so many different things you can say about it and yet at the same time there’s a whole lot of nothing that you can say about it. John Smith I was just speaking with him in the room and I thought he summed it up pretty well. He just said it was a what’s frustrating about it is that it was right there. Yeah. Like it was still there. Like not everything went the way they wanted. Not offensively, not defensively, not on special teams. And yet it was still sitting there. It was still sitting there and they shot themselves in the foot over and over and over again. Whether special teams in a Bengic holding call, whether and then, you know, following that up with a a terrible punt that ends up with the Bears taking over at their own 40 instead of taking over at their own 10 because of a great play by Brandon Eckles on punt coverage. Uh you have the illegal form or the illegal formation uh on on the final uh or not the final series, but Rudolph takes off, gets past the 50. They’re in a great position to it’s a tie to tie or or take the lead and and then that penalty wipes it out, turns 34, third and four into third and nine. They don’t convert. I mean, that’s just two of several times in which they just shot themselves in the foot and then, you know, you actually turn the ball over twice. Uh, you don’t get a tush push that so you turn the ball over on downs another time and they still only lost by three. Like I I I don’t understand like why this team This is why they’re up and down all the time because they’re not buttoned up. Is that the best way to kind of put it? I I don’t know. There was just never I mean I’m going to throw out like the technical stuff here. There was just never a feel. No, I never had for a split second a feel that they were going to win this game from at least like I don’t know the first 5 10 minutes of the first quarter. Yeah. And then it was just like you saw exactly where this was going. And that’s not to sound fatalistic or here. It’s just even there they were they were coming up toward midfield and it was still, you know, here at the end and you’re like, “No, no, that’s not going to happen.” Yeah. And it’s just I don’t know, man. There’s something that’s not there. There’s something that’s not there. Uh I The end of the game alone Yeah. is exasperating. Yeah. I’m not going to sit here and get into like how far Chris Boswell can kick a football, right? Okay. Because they know that they know the conditions here. By the way, the Windy City has no wind. The the the weather was immaculate. It was phenomenal. It was low low 50s, clear, no wind. I This was not like, oh, Boswell’s going to be kicking into these 15 mph winds. There are no conditions every it would have just been it would have just been a kick. Now 48 + 10 + 7. Am I doing that math right? Yeah. So sometimes the the the the snap is 8 yards. Okay. So they’re at the Chicago 48 would have been a 66 y or 65. Yeah. Do you have a better chance of making that than you do of converting something? Yeah. And then like I asked I asked Mason Rudolph after the game about those final few seconds. Where did you guys need to get to here for Fos and and what did you have in mind to get there? Yeah, I think um you know anywhere around the 40 yard line he’s he’s pretty darn good. So even north of the 40. But uh yeah, I think um started out with a couple nice completions and and credit to them. They they made some nice plays. the uh I played some played some tight man coverage and and um you know heated us up there at the end and was able to bat the pass away. So they played a good game and got to give credit to the defense. I guess we all know now why the betters and everyone else had a tough time setting this line and nobody knew nobody knew. We didn’t know what this game was going to be like and we didn’t know how it was going to end until the the the clock ran out here. But, you know, I’m sure there are people who came away pretty happy, too. Oh, yeah. Probably. But I I can imagine that when you uh go and check out the latest odds futures and win totals on the FanDuel sports book for next week when they when the Steelers host the Bills, uh you might want to get a head start on locking that bet in probably. Or or maybe maybe maybe you shouldn’t. I don’t know because we don’t know what this team say. You’re making it sound like you know what’s going to happen. Nobody knows. Well, or or or now since the Steelers have actually relinquished control of the AFC North, you know, technically by a tiebreaker since the Ravens have a better division record, maybe you should lock in your bet that the Steelers will not win the AFC North. So, uh, whatever whatever your game, the FanDuel sports book delivers the latest lines, futures, and specials, so you can join in on all the action. And there was a lot of action in this game. There wasn’t this wasn’t like this was some like total dud on the Steelers part. They did some good things. The offense did some good things. Some 186 yards on the ground, but they didn’t but they did not consistently move the ball. And that’s actually the first thing that I want to get into because the conversation I’m sure is going to be a lot of Mason Rudolph, uh, some Aaron Rogers, who by the way, Mike Tomlin did acknowledge just now will be the quarterback next week against the Bills. hardly a surprise if he was on if he was near close to playing in this one. Uh you can imagine that he was going to be ready for next week. I I look at this and I I see just they they keep trying to do things they don’t need to do. Yeah. Okay. That that’s what gets me more than anything is you see these good solid runs, these six, sevenyard pickups, whether it was Kenny Gainwell who was who was terrific. Yeah. uh whether it was Jaylen Warren, whether it was a pass to somebody. You’d see these first like nice looking first downs. Yeah. And then it was like, hey, let’s just heave it up and see what the hell happens next. I mean, that was literally the first offensive series. I mean, the the the Steelers win the toss, they defer. The uh Bears get the ball first, defense gets a stop, forces a punt. Great game starting exactly how you want to. First down, nine yardd run by Kenneth Gainwell. Second and one. You’re gonna throw a deep ball downfield to DK Medaf that it gets picked off. Why? Exactly. Why? Get the first down. Get things going a little bit here. That’s not That’s going to sound like hindsight. Like, oh, you wouldn’t say that if it if he’d caught the ball. I was saying this all week long. Just Just go at them. The other team didn’t have three inside linebackers. Three inside linebackers were missing. And you’re trying to get cute down the sidelines. No, I understand. That’s on Arthur Smith, by the way, just so we’re clear here. He he calls the plays. I do understand wanting to occasionally try to test the the the Bears corners deep. Yes, they led the they led the NFL in takeaways coming into this game, but they also had given up a good amount of explosive plays on on on passes. So, I understand that. But three, Tmaine Edmonds, Noah Su, TJ Edwards, all those guys out. Edmonds goes on IR and I mean it’s got to be we’re gonna jam the ball down your throat over and over and over again. That’s what I wanted to see today. I wanted to see this team because now there’s no longer the excuse of well maybe Aaron Rogers is checking out a plays. No, this is a team that even though even when they run the ball well, they still don’t fully commit. They still want to do all these other things. It’s like no win the game. Win the game. And I’ve been saying that that wasn’t just this week. This offense is what it is. Yeah. DK Metaf’s occasionally gonna break you one, but you’re not going to get any kind of splash on a consistent basis. So, so do the other thing that you were able to do. Yeah. You know, wasn’t there a 20play drive or something? 17. And And of course, it comes at the worst for Pittsburgh. Yeah. And it comes at the worst time, too, because it’s it’s in the fourth quarter. You’re down by two scores. I’m literally saying in the press box over and over and over again, they’re taking too much time off the clock. They’re taking too much time off the clock. And they took almost 8 minutes off the clock. Yes, they scored a touchdown. That’s great. They needed to get a touchdown in fairness. They did. And they got the touchdown. And and kudos for the touchdown, but my god, like where’s the urgency to do something? I I just I don’t know. Wherever the urgency is supposed to be, it’s it’s it’s it’s a collective thing now. At least maybe that’s the one positive that we can take from this is that you know how usually after these games it’s what about this defense and then after the next week it’s what about this offense? Well, today it was both. Well, today is I mean it was all three and at certain levels, but they all have to get it together because they’ve now lost first place. Yes, they have. And I asked Nick Herbig about that afterward. You’ll see. Nick Herbig, I I know it’s tough to take. You guys have been top of the division all year and everything else. Ravens caught up and everything. What’s your mindset right now? I mean, just got to win games, man. That’s all it is. Got to find a way to win. You feel like there’s been progress this night on your side of the ball? I mean, it’s a collective effort, you know. It can’t just be one side of the ball. Has to be all three phases. Special teams, offense, defense. Um, like we we just got to play together as one team. Um, you know, whatever that is, we got to figure it out soon. Confidence, unshaken. I think the confidence is always there. We just, like I said, we got to figure it out. Got to put got to put it together. We We haven’t put it together yet. Um, so we just got to, you know, do our best to try and find out. And that actually that whole scene there with me and Herbig that was the room. It it was like I mean a lot of a lot of a lot of me and then some snarkiness too. Jaylen Ramsey was pretty snarky with reporters after the game too. So he was snarky. Calvin Austin still didn’t want to talk which was And this time it wasn’t like I’m like he said I have nothing good to say. Yeah. Yeah. He said I have nothing positive to say. And we’re like we’re reporters man. We’re not looking for you to say positive or negative or anything, but once they say that, you just let it go. They don’t have to answer anything that we ask. I just But I I want to paint that a little different because he he refused to talk to the media after the Rams game. But after that one, he was wearing that hard cuz he had two bad drops in that game. One of them ends up in Dante Jackson’s hands. And that was more out of just like I’m beating myself up. I don’t want to talk. Yeah. That wasn’t this. This This was not that. This was I I’m not in the mood to talk. Yeah, this was Yeah, there were so many, like I said earlier, there are so many different things that you could point to and bring out as as as individual subjects. The wide receivers don’t get open. As long as we’re on that one. No, they don’t. There are some things I can guarantee you that you saw on TV where you said, “What the heck was the quarterback doing there?” or “What the Trust me, these guys aren’t getting open.” Ask your buddy who might have had a ticket for this one. Okay, you have to see some things in person in football. U and especi that went double for once DK Medaf was hurt by the way. Still really really limping around the room afterward. Who knows what that’ll be like once he he told me he was fine and he and but and he wasn’t walking fine. And to be fair though, he wasn’t it wasn’t taped up. He wasn’t in a boot. He wasn’t on crutches or anything. He was walking around under his own power, so there’s at least that. And so, you know, yeah, Joey Porter is banged up. Did not see him at all after Oh, you did? Okay. Yeah, he he he was banged up. You could you could tell Brick Jones had this stinger that was he told me it was from Who was it came in on him? Sweat. I think I think it was Sweat. I think he comes in and he kind of collides with Broad’s face and Broad goes back like this and he told me that’s what sent some shock waves down the back there. um he’s going to be fine. Easy for me to say I’m not 300 lb with a back a back issue. Um but that didn’t help either, you know. U this is just bad. Why are you watching this? Find something else to do. The last thing you want to do is relive any of that, right? Yeah. It was Listen, I I don’t know. I think right now when you when you come to a point where this team is so up and down and and you get to a point where you’re like I don’t know what to make of this team honestly then you know what to make of this team exactly that’s that’s where actually that’s kind of what I’m writing yeah whatever I that’s just okay at some point or other you just say okay that’s that’s what it actually is you know so what this is a really noisy guy in if I catch up to you. They can read your plate. What the heck is he talking about? Oh, he is chasing these bikers. The bike guy is not allowed here. Yeah, chase the bikers away. You are in a restricted space. Oh man. Anyway, that’s as interesting as it’s going to get from here. That was actually kind of cool. See you guys back home while Chicago’s finest takes care of the bike dudes. [Applause]

Commentary on the Steelers 28 to 31 lost to the Bears.

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