The Mike Tomlin Show: Week 13 vs Buffalo Bills | Pittsburgh Steelers

The Mike Tomlin Show: Week 13 vs Buffalo Bills | Pittsburgh Steelers

The terrible towel, the single most recognizable sports icon ever created for the fan. It all started in 1975, 50 years ago. The idea, some called it a gimmick, was the brainchild of the legendary broadcaster Myron Cole. Oh, it is not a good luck charm, mind you. It is a force. It gives the Steelers tremendous strength. It is not a curse on the opponent, but if need be, it will pose mysterious difficulties for the opponent. Cope would later credit Hall of Famer Lynn Swan with making the towel popular after Swan famously ran out waving the towel for the AFC Championship game against the Oilers. We got the best offense, the best defense, the best QB, the best running back, the best everything, best coaching staff, best front office, and we got the terrible time. What more do we need? It’s now seen in Pittsburgh, across the country and around the world. Terrible towels in attendance. They were making a lot of noise pregame and equally loud now. Even out of this world. It represents a nation. See thousands upon thousands of terrible towels waving out in those stands today. The terrible pow is poised to strike. So are the steelers. Here [Music] we go. His fastest card and that’s a touchdown. That’s the way to work. Come on. He’s picked and sacked. The Steelers win the football game. Let’s go. Come get it. You know what it is. This one is an answer. Here we go. Welcome to the 84 lumber Mike Tomlin Show. Hi everybody. Welcome to the 84 Lumber Mike Tomlin Show. I’m Missy Matthews. The Steelers quest to change history in Chicago fell short last Sunday as they lost for the third time this season after having the lead at halftime. For more on what went wrong to lead the Steelers to an all-time record of 1 and 13 in the Windy City. Let’s welcome in Bob Pompenni who’s standing by with Coach Tomlin. Bob. Hey Missy, thanks very much. Getting set for a big matchup with the Buffalo Bills. But before we talk about that, head coach Mike Tomlin here talking about Chicago and that was a game you led at halftime. From your perspective, looking back at what you know now, what were some of the problems in the second half that led to that loss? You know, um, you know, we didn’t get off to a fluid start to start the half offensively. We deferred and got the ball to start the second half. Um, you know, we we punted a couple times. Um, we got sacked, fumbled, and and so really we were working uphill from there. It was more about the start of the second half for us offensively and taking too long to find our rhythm in the game. Uh where you’re playing good on good and ultimately um it’s not one particular thing, it’s a lot of things. And so that’s one of the points I made to the team. We had a lot of ways that we could have won that game. Certainly we took the ball away from them defensively, but we also had some takeway opportunities um that didn’t come to fruition as well. Um in the kicking game, I thought our punting could have been better, particularly situational punting. We had a 33 y at a critical time in the game. Uh I thought their kicker was outstanding in terms of kicking dirty balls in the kickoff game and really limiting us um in terms of uh start of possession field position. And so you know whether it’s offense, defense or special teams, I thought we had several opportunities uh to win the game. Certainly we made plays in all three phases, but the things that stick out are some of the things that I mentioned. Critique Mason Rudolph’s performance. So it looked like uh you know underneath he was really good 23 24 but down the field one for six. What was the difference down the field and what was he missing? You know he he largely is good down to the field. That’s always been one of the signatures of his game but he didn’t certainly didn’t have it um in in different instances on on last Sunday. Um he sell one out of bounds when we had Roman uh running behind someone. He he undersshot DK um second play of the game for an interception. Um certainly those aren’t high high percentage passes, but that is a asset to his game. I know he expects to be really good in that area. We expect him to. U we didn’t connect on enough of those as you mentioned down the grass. You had some very interesting fourth down situations. Two tush pushes. One you went for a touchdown. I’ll get into that in a minute cuz I thought it was a great play call and design, but the first one it looked like you had the first down yardage. It wasn’t called that way. And I’m just curious how replay assist works. Um you know, when you guys have it, it’s available. Does that would that come into play in that kind of situation with ballmark? Um potentially. Um if they see clear evidence of uh we certainly have the challenge flag in our hip pocket. Um you just don’t win a lot of those. That was a change of possession and so it was reviewed automatically. Um and so even if what even if it was challengeable I probably wouldn’t. um the judgment component of of forward progress under those circumstances and then not afforded uh the audio relative to the whistle um in those booths. And so I certainly thought we had enough push there to get beyond the line the game, but they made the call that they made. Um singular plays don’t ultimately decide the outcome of the game. Um, we knew we had that, you know, uh, alternative to the tush push in our hip pocket and I think the very next time we were in those circumstances, we went back went back to it. Talk about that play. That was a really nice play, 55 yards. Uh, seemed to catch him completely off guard. Just the nature of making a call like that when you do it, especially you just showed them one thing and you came back with a sequence of another. I I think really the the the the coolest component of it is the fact that it was right before uh halftime and and they called timeout and so they really gave the indicate really gave us the indication of what they were anticipating because as a team potentially ready to receive the punt. They called timeout in an effort to preserve time and and that really acted as a catalyst for us to you know catch them a little bit less than ready um at least situationally. Uh certainly um we’ve had some success. We’re one of the best short yardage teams at third and two or less in the NFL and and so we have a reputation there whether it’s the tush push or related things or just our interior run game. We’ve been very successful in third and two or less and and we played on that reputation at that moment and and got a big play and put us down in scoring territory. You did get a sack strip sack and a fumble recovery in the end zone, but that was it as far as sacks are concerned. You didn’t get as much pressure I’m sure you would have liked on Caleb Williams. He ran the ball for only 21 yards on four tries, but largely he didn’t use that uh to his advantage. What was it about down the field game that made it successful for him and what what you guys weren’t doing necessarily? You know, um they didn’t take a long long time to throw. The the plays that were quote unquote downfield were rhythm play passes. He was turning around and throwing. They were the 15 to 18 yard variety. It wasn’t the things that that require three point plus seconds. Uh we did a nice job minimizing their run game and swift and certainly um Caleb is a component of that and we minimized some of that. A big splash play for us but certainly would have liked more opportunities. Often times the game circumstances dictate that and as I mentioned we started slow in the second half and kind of minimize some of those ones that really come to fruition as the attrition component of the game um becomes a major major factor in the latter part of the third and fourth quarter. All right, coach. Thanks very much. Steelers are six and five taking on a 7-4 Buffalo Bills team. It is real log jam in the AFC. We’ll talk about that and the Bills coming up a little bit later. Missy, let’s head back to you. All right, thanks Bob. No doubt on that. And I think Cam Hayward said it best following the loss to the Bears. The hourglass is going and the sand is following through. So the Steelers need to clean things up ASAP. And one bright spot last weekend in Chicago was TJ Watt’s strip sack of Caleb Williams. It marked his 115th career sack, passing older brother JJ, who finished his NFL career with 114 QB takedowns. The Watt family was on hand to witness TJ take over the family all-time sack record. Even JJ, who was calling the game on CBS, the 84 Lumber Mike Tomlin Show will be right back. Welcome back to the 84 lumber Mike Tomlin show. Despite owning the Bears with a 24 and5 all-time record, Aaron Rogers had a watch from the sideline last week in Chicago. The Steelers weren’t able to leave Soldier Field with a victory, but they do need to get back into the win column against the Bills. For more on this AFC matchup, let’s send it back to Bob and coach. Guys, Missy, thanks very much. Aaron Rogers missed last week. Coaches talk about his availability this week, a big game at home against Buffalo, and I’m sure he’s anxious to play in those kinds of games. He He is, man. He pressed big time in an effort to get back to us last week, and that makes us really optimistic um about his inclusion in in in the game this weekend. This game uh like a lot of games in the AFC, the NFL loves parody, whatever you want to call it, it it makes a lot of teams fighting for spots. They’re a second place team looking at a wild card spot. They need wins. You guys need wins. Uh that’s is that what the NFL wants on a weekly basis because it seems like we get this every year which makes for very competitive football. It it’s no question. All you have to do is is look at the global scheduling and and and you see an emphasis on races and positioning. Um a lot of people have weighted um divisional games uh at the latter part of the season. and they have flex schedules in an effort to put the significant games in front of the fans. I just think it’s really thoughtful and a really good thing uh for football lovers and a good thing for the game of football. Uh these games are so significant that the races are so tight. I know it’s fun and challenging to be a component of it and I’m excited about playing this good football team this weekend. And it all starts with Josh Allen who has 18 touchdown passes but also 10 rushing touchdowns. Uh there was a game a couple of weeks ago he accounted for all six. Biggest point of emphasis when it comes to trying to defend him possession down play and his compet his competitive spirit. Um they are one of the best possession down uh units in football and they have been um and certainly they do solid things schematically, but it is the talent and will of Josh Allen. He can get you with his arm under those circumstances through play extension and and just general arm talent. He can get you with his legs. As you mentioned, I think he’s got 10 touchdowns on the season. And if I’m not correct, he may have just passed Cam Newton as the NFL’s all-time uh touchdown scorer via the ground for quarterbacks. And so that speaks to his body of work. Um you got an all day job trying to defeat Josh Allen. You particularly have an all day job when there’s line to game football, possession football, two-minute football. um his competitive spirit really really really comes to fruition in those circumstances. And to your point, he’s rushed for like 29 first downs in play and they have Cook as their primary guy. So they talk about run games, it’s Cook, but it’s also Josh Allen. He’s involved in both. There’s no question. Um their quarterback sneak game um is good in short yardage circumstances and open grass is good um in the tight red zone because he’s so strong and talented. Um but I don’t want to be disrespectful to what to what Cook’s doing. Um he’s almost got 1100 yards. Um he’s about five point whatever four per carry. Um he’s number two in the league. Um he is a nuts andbolt central component of their running game. Um and probably a guy that doesn’t get a lot of recognition is Reggie Gilliam. Their fullback as a veteran out of University of Toledo. Um he’s got a lot to do with a lot of that and particularly in today’s game, fullbacks don’t get recognized a lot. And uh as a football lover and historian, I just wanted to mention that you got to get those fullbacks involved. Yeah, they do a good job. What about their tight ends? You guys have faced some pretty good tight ends. They have two of them on their roster. Uh and they have another one who’s a blocking tight end. So those guys are primary targets. Who does the responsibility fall on those tight ends? You know, not only with their tight ends and and as you mentioned, they have a diverse and very talented group, but just their receiver core as a collective. Um man, they got a lot of guys that are capable. They divide the labor up very well. Um Josh Allen spreads the ball around to a lot of people. Uh you know, 10 inside is a dynamic slot receiver. Um they just have a lot of options. Um it seems like they’re not beholden to any of them and that really makes them a tough nut to crack because of the way they spread the ball around. Defensively, uh Cole Bishop was one of their top picks a few years ago. He’s a guy who has three interceptions. He also is their leading tackler. What has he brought to their defense to complement some of the guys they have up front? just that just exactly what you mentioned, his unbelievable versatility. I think he’s got three sacks that you didn’t mention. And so, here’s a guy that’s registering tackle numbers. He’s a leader in interceptions. He’s also contributed three sacks. Um he’s a first, second, and third down blitzer. They use him on first and second down to minimize your running game. Uh he shows up in passing circumstances uh to apply pressure to your quarterback. Um he’s a good and versatile player. We did a lot of work on him when he came out of Utah, interviewed him twice. really impressive young man. He’s got a great relationship with the game of football. Really instinctual and smart. And I think certainly that showed up in his play. One of the things vulnerabilitywise on their defense, they’ve given up u 17 rushing touchdowns and 150 yards a game. Is that an indication of where you should attack their team in the run game? I think that’s way choose to allow you to attack to be quite honest with you. Um I think they’re 30th versus the run, their first versus the pass. um their schematics. They play a lot of split safeties. Uh they play a lot of subpackage football. Johnson, their nickel is experienced and and versatile, a good run fitter. And so often times it doesn’t matter what offensive personnel group you put out there. They play out of nickel. And so when you do that, sometimes people are going to run the ball on you. Um I think they’re comfortable with that. They’ve been comfortable with that for years. Uh what they do is minimize uh chunks in the passing game and and passing yards in general. And I think that’s what gives them a a real good shot to be an impactful defense, particularly in those moments. And I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention, you know, this is a continuity group. A lot of those guys have, you know, been drafted and developed there, been there a lot of years. Some of those guys are second time around guys. Porer’s back for his second time around. Tradavius White is back for his second time around. I think it’s real value in that continuity. They got a turnover culture. over the last three years, they’re number one in the NFL in terms of takeaways. You you back it back two more years, over the last five years, they’re number one in the NFL in terms of defensive takeaways. And I think it speaks to that continuity, their commitment to minimizing chunks in the passing game, making you earn it down in and down out create more opportunities for them to to create the splash that allows them to get off the field and and get the ball. It’s going to be a big matchup. Thank you, coach. When we come back, it’s the always popular keys to the game. That’s next. Thanks, Missy. Back to you. All right, Bob. Thanks so much. We are looking forward to that. And Sunday will actually mark the first time during the regular season the Bills have come to Pittsburgh since 2019. Duck Hodes was the Steelers quarterback that game. And Buffalo went home with a 17-10 win. So, how can the black and gold make sure that doesn’t happen again? Meil Hodgej draws up his latest playbook on how Josh Allen in the Bills offense likes to attack opponents at every level. That’s coming up next. Welcome back to the 84 Lumber Mike Tomlin Show. Show off your black and gold knowledge with Immaculate Prediction, the Steelers predictive game that gives you a chance to win some great prizes. Here’s one of the week 13 questions. Will Pat Fri record a touchdown against the Bills? Yes or no? Just head to the Steelers mobile app now to compete for this week’s first place prize, a jersey autographed by number 88 himself. Good luck. Well, stopping Josh Allen is no easy feat. whether it’s in the air or on the ground. And for the Pittsburgh Steelers, they are one and four against the Bills QB. Meil Hodgej has more in this week’s playbook about Allen and how quickly he can dissect opposing defenses. [Music] Hi everyone, welcome into the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex for the playbook presented by Microsoft Co-Pilot. All right, the Buffalo Bills, I mean their offense is lethal in a variety of ways. Running game, their quarterback, but their passing game, they attack all three phases, short, intermediate, vertical, and then you got to add the quarterback’s ability to run as also a concern. But I want to show you a play. They do this like three or four times a game and it shows you how they can attack all levels of your coverage, especially when you’re in zone and how it creates voids. So, as we snap the ball, the very top of the screen, focus at the receiver there, he runs a deep post. Now, this deep post, you stop it here, he’s taking the safety and really kind of holding the other safety because of his angle underneath. You have a tight end that sat down. You got a flare at the left. And the bottom here, you got another route combination. The middle of the field is wide open. Now Josh attempts to throw the post. He misses it. But this is why they go to the sideline and they look at tape like this during the game because this is the fourth quarter. They come back to it again. This time at the very top of the screen, it’s going to be a deep post. Underneath they’re going to hold the coverage and then they’re going to create a void in the middle of the field. This time Josh is going to throw it. So, as we snap the ball, you’re going to see the burden it puts on your coverage because everybody’s looking forward. So, you can’t blame the linebackers for jumping on the running back here at the at the bottom of the in the middle of the screen. The post is going to carry the deep safeties. And now, what do you have? You have a wide open middle of the field where 13 is going to run a dig route. And now this time Josh Allen finds him for chunks of yards. You know, how do you go about handling these type of things? This is where like getting pressure on the quarterback would be your answer. You know, trying to sack him, not allowing him to have time. But then you have the danger of him running the football. It’s understanding your depths, you know, and your spacing and your zone coverage that is so important in trying to handle these type of things. But they are professional players going to make some of these plays. But it just shows you some of the concerns that you have when you play the Buffalo Bills in their passing game. And make sure you check out all of Merrill’s playbooks on the team’s official YouTube page. Well, the Steelers grasp of the top spot in the AFC North quickly evaporated in Chicago. Baltimore jumped Pittsburgh for first place following week 12. And now the Steelers and the Bills are both in second of their respective divisions. For much more on what to expect on Sunday, it’s time for Keys to the Game presented by your neighborhood Ford store. Let’s send it over one final time to Bob and coach. [Music] All right, Missy, thank you. This is a big matchup. Buffalo comes to town 425 on KDKA. Should be outstanding. Coach, let’s talk about what you have to do to prevail in this game because it’s going to be one of those games that you look back on and say this is a key matchup and it could determine a lot of things moving forward. Yeah, time of possession is big. Um, we got to minimize our exposure to Josh Allen. How do you do that? We got to be good on possession downs on defense, but we also got to be good on possession downs on offense. And a component of that is being in very manageable uh possession downs. Last week, we talked about the Bears, for instance, were were second in the league in third down conversions. We talked about how important was it for us to be in third and manageable. I think we had seven or so third down and three or less situations in that game. and I think we converted six of the seven. And so that’s how you stay on the field. That’s how you possess the ball. I think we had 34 minutes or something time of possession a week ago. Um that’s a formula in terms of keeping pace with this group, minimizing our exposure to Josh Allen, putting ourselves in in advantageous position to to determine the significant moments in the latter stages of the game. Roderick Jones won’t play. Who takes his place? And how impactful must that person be in that position? Thankfully, we have two veteran backup offensive linemen and Pete and Calvin. And um both guys are really capable. Calvin’s always done a nice job for us being able to step up in a moment’s notice. And um Pete is a guy that we really excited about having because of his resume, his experience. He’s been a global starter, a wide to wide starter. He was drafted in the first round. Uh he’s got that pedigree and I’d imagine in some combination or another, we’re going to need both moving forward down the stretch. All the best to you this Sunday. Thank you very much, Coach Mike Tomlin. That’s going to wrap up our 84 lumber Mike Tomlin show. It’s the Bills and Steelers tomorrow 4:25. We’ll get you started at 11:30 a.m. All day football on KDK. That’s going to do it for Mike Tomlin and Missy Matthews. I’m Bob Pompiani. Have a great weekend. We’ll see you next week.

On this week’s episode of The Mike Tomlin Show, Bob Pompeani and Coach Mike Tomlin talk about the Pittsburgh Steelers Week 13 matchup against the Buffalo Bills and the keys to winning the game.

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