The Mike Tomlin Show: Week 5 Bye Week | Pittsburgh Steelers

The Mike Tomlin Show: Week 5 Bye Week | Pittsburgh Steelers

You know, fair to say we lobby pretty hard to get this game in Ireland. Took a few years for it to happen, but you know, I think even the league is a little surprised at the demand for tickets and the attention the game is getting. And so, uh, it’s great that, uh, we’re going to be able to to be there and have our team there and it’s going to be a great time and a a great event. The connection between the Steelers and Ireland and the NFL was just so strong that it was a natural choice to have the Steelers there. a full circle moment playing a preseason game in 1997 and then you know now that we are playing a regular season game there really is able to to connect our efforts from what my grandfather had been working on to what we’re able to accomplish now. Did y’all have fun? The Steelers have not played a international game since 2013 and the fact that it’s now taking place in Ireland couldn’t think of a better location for it. Here he goes with his fastest card and that’s a touchdown. That’s the way to work. Come on. He’s picked that sack. The Steelers win the football game. Let’s go. Go 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. It is week five, a byee for the Pittsburgh Steelers, but coming off a huge win in Dublin, the first NFL regular season game in Ireland. To break it all down for you this week with me is Bob Pompiani. Coach Tomley gets the week off, but we’re still here. And just so excited to talk about the experience that was Ireland, the game. Um, what’s your biggest takeaway, especially from the performance on Sunday? Well, the biggest thing was Dan Rooney was overseeing it all because Missy, as you know, it was wonderful weather uh first and you know, he wanted this game to happen. It just a matter of when it would. So, now it did. And looking back, I don’t think it could have been any better from those who went over to visit uh and take part in the game and then the team itself to come out and build up a big lead early on and then hold on to win 24-21. I thought the whole week was fantastic and it had to culminate in a win otherwise it would have taken some away from this. I Yeah, I agree. And I think the way the defense played, um, how they just got after Carson Wentz, what they were able to do, and then Kenneth Gainwell, you know, Jaylen Warren, a late scratch, he was dealing with that knee injury. I thought it was really good to kind of see the complimentary football that we maybe necessarily have not seen in the first three weeks. And I think that started back in New England when they took the ball over as much as they did. It carried into this game. Some significant plays went in the Steelers advantage early, but they made those plays happen. I also thought to your point about Kenneth Gainwell, no Jaylen Warren. So, you know, there were people wondering what’s going to happen with the run game. Would they, you know, pass it more? No. No. They stuck to their plan. They ran it. The offensive line was much better. Open up holes. And I thought, you know, for what they did in the offseason to bring him in at the cost, it’s one of the best bargains in football right now. Absolutely. Kenny G. Kenny G, as coach likes to call him. All right. Well, let’s take a look at some of the best sights and sounds from week four in Dublin. [Music] Fulture Avala or as the Irish say, welcome home. But for the Rooney family, it’s not a visit. It’s a return to their roots. Students have deep ties to Ireland. Dan Rooney, of course, famously was the US ambassador to Ireland. Hey, let’s go, man. Today is an appreciation day. Hey, we got to own the line of scrimmage now. It’s all got to be about us. We got to stop the running. going to smash this quarterback. Yeah, LBs. It’s us. It’s us. Let’s go. The Steelers and Vikings in Dublin, Ireland. The first NFL regular season game ever played on the Emerald Isisle. The Vikings offense came out strong on their opening drive. So the ball at the 37 yd line, went in the shotgun, gets the snap, play action pass, looks to his left, short throw complete to Jefferson and Jefferson has it out to the 45 yd line. So just sitting in this soft spot to the zone and taking these short pickups and that one’s actually not that short. It’s going to be about eight maybe nine yardds. The defense stepped up when they needed to. Big big moment here for the Steelers. Can the Steelers defense hold them back one more time? force at least a field goal if not something better. Quick snap and blitz coming by Patrick Queen untouched. He nails Wentz back at the 24 yd line. You might want to get the license plate of that truck cuz he just trucked Carson Wentz. He sure did. Now Riker will set up right in the middle of the field. And here’s the snap. Here’s the boot. That boot is up and that kick is good. The Steelers look to respond with a drive of their own. Rogers gets a snap. pitches quickly to Gamewell off the left side and finds a huge room and picks up nine yardds just straight to the outside off tackle and oh eight maybe or eight or nine but a good gain there by Kenneth Gainwell Rogers in the shotgun. Vikings will bring four quick throw over the middle of the field and just a slant to Metaf and Metaf picks up 14 into Vikings territory and down to the 43 yd line. You want to utilize the middle. If they’re going to bring blitz, make them pay. Go where they were supposed to be and make them pay. So, right there, they blitz on the inside. Eric Wilson and DK Metaf goes right to the open spot where he was in the zone and makes a nice quick pitch on on the slant and Rogers now comes out under center. Gets the snap. Now, we’ll throw to the left and a quick slant to Metaf and Metaf barreling forward. Defenders trying to bring him down as he drags him inside the 10. A broken eye to the left with Hayward as the fullback. Gainwell as the tailback. Fire move in motion to the left. Handoff. Gainwell goes to the left. Gaping hole into the end zone. Touchdown Pittsburgh Steelers as they respond with a long 65 yd touchdown drive. That was what we wanted to see. We take the jab and we give back a right cross for the Steelers in this match. All right, Palm. Surely exciting one that we will all remember. everybody got a chance to be there. I thought Croak Park was amazing. Uh just a beautiful venue and still the game though. I feel like there’s still too many injuries on the defensive side of the ball, especially in the secondary. So hopefully during the by-week we get some of those guys back. Some people miss debate whether or not the bye-week should be early, late, what’s better. Sometimes you don’t know until the season plays out. And in this case, I think it’s going to be very helpful for the Steelers because you don’t want to go and have another game in the next couple of weeks and have a lot of your players not available to it, whether it’s the hamstring to Ramsay or Austin or whoever else is dealing with stuff. Now is a good time for this and it gives you a chance also with some shorter weeks out the Thursday night games that they are miniby. So I think this is actually looking back probably a good thing for the Steelers at this point. What’s your biggest takea away from Aaron Rogers performance in week four? Pinpoint accuracy I thought. I I mean he didn’t throw the ball that much but when he did especially you talk about the medaf touchdown right that play does not work unless he puts it exactly on where he needs to put it because he didn’t break stride and he had a head of steam going to ramp it up to over 20 mph and I think if you look at what happened on the touchdown or the one that would have been um to Jordan Addison that ball he had to wait for it and even though he was wide open because he had to wait for it Payton Wilson put on his burst and got to him and I think those are significant plays back quarterback. So, if you put it on the money, it’s a huge difference. And Aaron Rogers did. All right. A+ effort for Payton Wilson for sure. We’re going to take a quick break here on the 84 Lumber Mike Tomlin Show. When we return, more about Ireland and how the Steelers prepped for months to get the team over to Dublin. Welcome back to the 84 Lumber Mike Tomlin Show. Welcome back everyone. It was not a quick process. Months were taken by staffs here in Pittsburgh and also over in Ireland to make the first game in Dublin a possibility. Here’s the latest episode from The Standard and how it was made possible. In less than 48 hours, the Steelers will play the first regular season NFL game in Ireland at Croak Park, putting the iconic venue on a massive international stage. CO Park is a very special place both in Ireland and across Europe for one of the largest stadiums in Europe and the largest in Ireland. [Music] We hold a very special place in the heart of Irish people with the headquarters for our national sports of hurling and Gaelic football and it’s where we come together to celebrate both club and county both in championship and league games. Crow Park is a plays a major part in Irish history and has done down through the years. We’ve had numerous events here from tragic runs from the likes of bloody Sunday all the way to our all Ireland finals and then on to concerts. Um, we’ve had the Pope St. Mar when you talk to the Irish about what that stadium means to them. Uh, you know, they light up in terms of just how special of a place that is now that we’re going to play a regular season game at Croak and and the Steelers will be a part of that history. Uh, really fitting and we’re just honored to have the opportunity. It’s where people come together to celebrate whether it be for sport concerts and now we have the NFL coming. Um, I think that really is the icing on the cake for us. Um, to be able to showcase our national stadium, to be able to showcase us for such a big and important game and such as an NFL game. I’m really looking forward to being part of it. Before the NFL graces the hallowed pitch, the 141-year-old stadium received a facelift. Coarks has been preparing for the game for quite some time. [Music] Some of the biggest things we’ve had to do is we’ve relayed our pitch after the Robbie Williams concert. The locker rooms have been upgraded um and expanded to accommodate an NFL team. An NFL team has a much larger panel than we would have on a GA team and equally um the players themselves physically are larger. So, we’ve expanded, upgraded, and um put a lot of effort into ensuring that when the players come over that they have a real authentic NFL experience um in the locker room. [Music] And I suppose the most notable change is Hill 16. Um the Hill 16 is normally a terrace for our games and we’re now installing seating there, which means the capacity on the hill will go down by approximately 50%. But it does mean that everyone in the stadium on the day gets to sit back and enjoy what’s taking place on the field. Dublin game is extremely important both to Crow Park and to the city of Dublin. I think it gives us an opportunity to showcase what we can do um citywide, but especially for us here in the stadium. We take great pride in what we do on a day-to-day basis on a match to match, week to week, and we’re really relishing in the moment and looking forward to showing the world what we can do. The venue is set. Now, after months of preparation for the team’s arrival in the country, the plan can be put in motion. Well, we’re trying to treat it as much like a normal road trip for our guys as possible, just to keep things familiar and try to keep them in an environment in which their sole focus is the outcome of the game. As coach Hen like to say, it’s a business trip and our business is winning. But admittedly, while doing that, it is obviously different than a normal road trip. The flight duration isn’t too much further than if we were going to go to Seattle or Los Angeles. However, it’s just a lot more intensive of a process logistically because we have to get everyone a passport, make sure that if they do have a passport already, it’s up to date. Road game domestically is going to be a little bit different than it is we’re going international. The term carne comes into mind. to, you know, catalog everything we do. Everything’s in our trunks that involves, you know, customs numbers and weights and values that customs require going overseas. The NFL being the main sponsor of this game, they provide us with some field equipment so we don’t have to really pack as much, you know, blocking dummies and and footballs and stepovers that we would knew on like a normal practice day. It’s still a normal week for us. Um, we hit the ground running after practice, you know, packing player bags and get them on the truck. At this point, you know, we’ve already sent over, you know, two trucks worth of equipment to be loaded onto the pallets at the airport. Um, so that way that second truck after practice, we can kind of just get all the player bag stuff and anything like the last minute items, they can be sent over while our buses are, you know, in or out to the airport. The thing with this too, at the end of the day, it’s a game. Any game days, it’s the same process from the time you wake up the time you go to bed at night. It’s a game. it’s important. We need to make sure that we win at the end of the day. So, that’s the mindset we have going over there. You know, we’re going to treat this as a normal game um with just a few extra steps along the way. [Music] I smile when I think about the late great Ambassador Rooney and how fired up he would be about this game. I remember when he was ambassador to Ireland, he used to have a Fourth of July flag football game every year. But I also just simply think about the honor and privilege to play our game globally. It is our hottest ticket by far of our international games and maybe of the season. And I think there’s a reason for that. I think people are anxious to be at Croat Park and celebrate our great game. My father and my mother, you know, they would really love seeing this happen. It would be great. I’m sure they’ll be looking down on this game and enjoying it very much. To watch that full episode of The Standard, head over to the Steelers official YouTube page and Pomp. Everyone should do that. But the next time there is a game in Dublin, I highly recommend it. Just a beautiful, beautiful place and a lot of fun. And it’s walkable. Most of the places you get into, you don’t have to worry about getting a cab or Uber or anything else. You can get there by foot and while you’re doing that, you’ll see some tremendous sites of the city of Dublin, which I thought was a great host for this. So, I really enjoyed going through the Guinness factory. I know a lot of people uh and the Jameson. So, there’s a lot of that. If you guys like that, that’s your place to go next time to Dublin. I liked how nice people were. Um, and I also thought just the fact that Crook Park is in the middle of a neighborhood. You have to walk just to get to it. It’s not uh there’s no tailgating. It’s just people outside. It It was beautiful and we got lucky with that weather. You’re right. DMR was watching. No question about that. But the Croak Park thing is great because it does encourage walking and you don’t have to worry about trying to park. A lot of people I noticed early in the day were trying to figure out where to park and the best thing is don’t. No parking. Walk. All right, we’re going to take a quick break here on the 84 Lumber Mike Tonland Show. When we get back, we’ll recap the Steelers first quarter of the 2025 season. Don’t go anywhere. Welcome back to the 84 Lumber Mike Tomlin Show. The Steelers sit at 3 and one as they head into their bye-week. And Bob Pompiani is back once again to break down that first quarter of the season as coach Tomlin said after the win in Dublin. Your record is what you are, but three and one heading into the bye-week is a good thing. Yeah, a lot of teams in the AFC North are struggling right now and the record says what they are. And even though the Ravens had some tough competition, they’re one and three. They got to dig out from that and they have some injuries also, Missy. But I thought, you know, the first game was very important. Aaron Rogers didn’t talk about it all week long. He kind of downplayed it and what happened afterwards. He knew this was big for him and he showed up in a big way. Four touchdown passes. That had a lot to do with it, but so was uh you know, Chris Boswell kicking that 60-yard field goal and the tackle at the end of the game. Jaylen Ramsey said, “Here I am. I’m with a new team. I’m making a big play against Garrett Wilson.” So big plays by big players. Yeah. And I think on the defense that was, you know, first game out with all of those guys and obviously Derek Harmon wasn’t in there just yet. Um, but I thought it was a baby step. They got the win. It wasn’t pretty, but it’s it kind of showed itself against the Seattle Seahawks. Um, where some things were getting better, but not enough to get a win, especially at home. And I think Seattle’s better than people thought coming into that game, too. Sam Darnold with a new team. People were thinking about Sam Darnold back with the Jets and other teams, but he has really put it together after a nice year in Minnesota. and he stood in the pocket, made plays. So, you got to give him credit for that. They also ran the ball well with Kenneth Walker. But, I thought the Steelers learned a lesson in that game and that is nothing’s easy in this league. You got to go out in the very next week is when we finally started to see the turnovers making a big difference in the way they played. Yeah, I think that’s how the defense wants to be known. That’s how they want to play. We saw it carry out uh as they went to Dublin, but in New England going to that week three game, first win at Gillette Stadium since 2008. big deal for the Steelers to kind of, you know, get that win under their belt. Uh, not usually a great place to go to, but it was a step forward for the team. Uh, especially as we saw the defense come alive. Yeah. And there were parts of it that you said, “Oh, no, they’re going to go back and revert to, you know, maybe what we saw in the Seattle game, which was giving up big yards.” And they were outgainained. But it also goes to show you about just what defensive turnovers can mean. I tend to credit the Steelers for making plays because they knew guys had fumble problems on that team. They knocked the ball out and they recovered. And so, good for them. They won a game that they were outgained in, but it was a big one to get them at two and one. All right, Dublin, we’ve already talked about a little bit, but I think back-to-back performances by that Steelers defense knowing we’re going to punch the ball out, we’re going to intercept it, we’re going to get it from you and give it back to our offense that the consistency was a good thing, right? And I thought, you know, underrated plays in that number one Pton Wilson, you know, really going down the field, hustle play, and I mean, he cut the angle and Jordan Addison was not in the best of positions when he made that catch. The ball was behind him a little bit. he had to stop and then restart his uh run. Uh converse that with what happened with DK Medaf in his touchdown. Aaron Rogers put the ball right where he had to put the ball right on the money and he never stopped one moment and that gave him the edge to just turn on the Jets and go over 20 miles an hour to a touchdown. All right. Well, bye-week is a good time to get healthy and that’s what the Steelers are hoping to do. It’s appropriate though I feel like coming out of the buy Cleveland at home a one:00 game but then a short week going to Cincinnati. Yeah, I miss I think the schedule right now is in their favor because three of the next four are at home. But then, you know, things will get tough later in the season. But coming up, it’s the Browns and they’re still searching for who is their quarterback. It may very well be Joe Flacco. It could be somebody else. They have a whole host of them to choose from, I suppose, even after picket moved on. U but that defense is still a very good defense. I think people need to understand when they play Cleveland, they’re going to be in for a tough game. Cleveland or Green Bay found that out when they went there and lost to Cleveland in Cleveland. So, no matter, you know, AFC North is AFC North. It’s never going to be easy, right? I will say though, the Browns are playing the Vikings in London. So, they’ll be coming home from that trip going into a normal game week, so will be interesting. And they’re coming here to Pittsburgh, which will feel so good to get back home, even though Croak Park felt like a Steelers home game. Um, but then Cincinnati, they’ve had clearly some issues this season in terms of trying to get that offense going, but it’s still a Thursday night. It’s a shore week. It’s a division opponent, and as coach always says, throw the records out, right? All right. And they’ll be desperate at that point. You would think, even though they’re two and two right now with a game coming up, but man, the way their offense is going, they’re struggling. And people like Jamar Chase getting a little anxious and frustrated. Uh Jake Browning has a lot of pressure on him. I wouldn’t be surprised at some point if they make a trade just because there are guys out there specifically. I’ll name one, Russell Wilson if he’s not going to play with the Giants. Maybe he’s a guy they go after. But you can’t have the kind of outpouring of uh you know, offensive plays that other teams put on you and you’re not you’re not scoring at all. the other night was 28 to3 and I they’ve been just absolutely torched two games in a row. So, they’re going to be desperate. Yeah, maybe solidifying the offensive line a little too, but that that’s problems for the Bengals to figure out. But, uh then you said with the Green Bay Packers, a Sunday night game, Aaron Rogers versus Green Bay, this is bigger than Packers and Jets. There’s no question. And Green Bay is one of those teams that everybody thought coming in they picked up Micah Parsons to make their defense better. Although, they gave up 40 points in that game against Dallas. So, but you know, Jordan loves playing at a high level. The Steelers are going to have to do what they’ve been doing the last couple of weeks. I think try to get to him pressure. They blitzed in Kro Park 22% of the time and the last play of the game was one of those as well. So, I think it’s important for them to get aggressive against quarterbacks like that and take advantage of maybe a turnover or two that can help them. All right. And then uh lastly, the Colts to close out the second quarter of the season. I feel like typically we’ve been going to Lucas Oil, but they get to come here to Pittsburgh in the elements. But they have Danny Dimes now, right? Or Indiana Jones, whatever you want to call him. He’s been really good. He left New York. they didn’t want him and all of a sudden voila he’s a good I think Shane Stigen’s a very good coach offensive mind who brings the you know best out of these guys. Uh he’s been really good for them and they have a great running game as you know and that’s going to be the thing they’re going to try to use that run game setup play action and if so Jones has been very good so that’s not going to be an easy game based on what people thought at the beginning of the season. Absolutely not. Well we hope Mike Tomlin enjoys his bye-week and the rest of the Steelers players. I hope you enjoy it too. Thanks for joining me today Paul. Always a pleasure Missy. Really appreciate it. That’s going to do it for the 84 Lumber Mike Tomlin Show. Thanks for joining us. Coach Tomlin’s press conference will happen next week and we’ll be back to recap and get you ready for week six.

On this week’s episode of The Mike Tomlin Show, Bob Pompeani and Missi Matthews talk about where the Pittsburgh Steelers sit at their Week 5 bye week.

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