“Steelers are clearly favorites to win AFC North!” – Kurt Warner tells Rich Eisen on Pits’ 3-1 start

“Steelers are clearly favorites to win AFC North!” – Kurt Warner tells Rich Eisen on Pits’ 3-1 start

patience or are they talking about, you know, aggressiveness and feeding him? I I don’t know which one it is. Um, you know, so we’ll have to see each week. Okay. Very good. Kurt Warner here on the Rich Eisen Show. And then you alluded to the Ravens earlier, Kurt. Looks like uh we’re going to see Cooper Rush for at least the next two weeks. They’ve got to buy three weeks from now. Um Joe Flacco is out and Dylan Gabriel is going to be a raw rookie starting in an international setting. Uh Joe Burrow’s out until at least December and Aaron Rogers chilling on a by-week at 3 and one. So, uh the Steelers appear to be set up right now. Uh what about what you’re seeing what we saw from them on NFL Network in Dublin moving forward, Kurt? What do you think? Yeah, I mean, you know, we talked about it on game day and I I didn’t think the Steelers were a contender based on what I had seen the first few weeks of the season. boy, they looked really good um you know in this game in London and you know it starts with their defense, you know, defense being able to slow down the run but but get turnovers and and do the things that they are have been doing on the back end that just feeds into their offense. I still feel like their offense has a way to go. Um you know that they got the big play um to DK that 80 yard touchdown but that was actually on a busted coverage by Minnesota. Um, and again, no fault of of the Steelers. You take advantage of of mistakes that defenses make, of course, but outside of that, it was still a lot of the short dink and dunk type stuff. Now, can they live in that world if their defense is taking the football away and and doing the things that they do? Well, yeah, they can. But I I still believe that this offense is going to have to take a big jump um in either being able to run the football better or or developing more of a passing game uh to really be a threat in the AFC. But right now, um, you know, I don’t want to say by default because they they’ve earned their wins. Um, you know, but they’re sitting in a great spot right now, you know, looking down at at teams that are having quarterback issues and then, uh, of course the Ravens who are are reeling a little bit and and haven’t kind of found their footing and figured it out and and as you said, possibly without their quarterback for a couple weeks. So, they’ve got to be feeling pretty good right now. But, um, if I was the Steelers, I wouldn’t be sitting back saying, “Okay, after the London game, we’ve got this figured out.” uh they’ve still got, you know, room to to grow on offense for sure. The Steelers at three and one, they are really good at taking the football away. I think we’ve seen that. We’ve had it established uh and week one when they couldn’t take the football away more than just once. Rogers threw for four touchdowns. And the fact that Rogers since that day going into the Ireland game threw only for three touchdowns. A lot of folks are wondering if week one was fagazy and the Steelers won a football game yesterday that I’ll be honest with you, I was concerned about them being able to win without Jaylen Warren and the run game maybe being next to nothing. And here’s Rogers sitting back there. And a defense that was marauding the week before against the Cincinnati Bengals would be having its way with a guy who really doesn’t move around all that well at this age. And I was wrong. Was I ever? Now they’re still not throwing deep. They’re not chunk playing unless DK takes one from like 10 yards and runs the next 70 through the entire secondary as he did yesterday for an 80yard score. That is through 57 International Series games. Now by the time that London is through all of 60 international games in the history of the National Football League, this was the longest play from scrimmage ever outside of the United States in the International Series. They just don’t do that though. It’s almost like they need a guy like uh what’s his name? George Pickins. George Pickkins. Well, it just wasn’t working out there. Whatever was going on there, you know, there’s the tip of an iceberg we only see. And boy, does it appear there have been an iceberg there. Um and the Steelers defense doing the rest along with, wait for it, did Kenneth Gainwell just man take over the running back position for the Pittsburgh Steelers. I’ll tell you this, I know they’ve got a buy now. and Jaylen Warren is was the the guy coming into the season after being the backup to Naji Harris. Um but you got to wonder if they’re just going to basically tell Jaylen um you don’t normally lose your job due to injury here and we’ll try and split the reps in a certain way. But I’m you got to wonder if Kenneth Gainwell is going to get another start. 19 carries, 99 rush yards, two rushing touchdowns, careerh highs in carries, rushing yards and rushing touchdowns and scrimmage yards for Kenneth Gainwell. The guy who, as we all know, was behind Saquon last year. He looked so good yesterday. He sure did. He showed patience. His cuts were great. His 134 scrimmage yards are tied for most by a Steelers player in a game over the last two seasons. And Rogers only missed on four passes. 126 of his 200 pass yards were gained by DK Metaf. The 80 yards of the 126 on one play. So every single time the Steelers win, you’re like, “Yeah, but yeah, but yeah, but but yeah, but they’re three and one.” And they’re two games clear of the Ravens. The Bengals are have a backup quarterback damn near all the way through to the middle of December if they’re lucky. And the Browns are well talking about Shador Sanders’s body language in in Ohio right now. And the Steelers come off the buy and they get the Browns before visiting Cincinnati. And then that massive one where Green Bay now has a revenge game player against them, Sunday Night Football. And you know, I mean, Rogers is going to be talking about that before a game against Indianapolis at home that could be pretty damn big, by the way. Hell yeah. And a visit to Los Angeles against the Chargers. That’s what’s coming up for the Steelers. Um, and as for the Vikings, they’re just going to be up and down until we find out who’s the quarterback and how we can get some sort of rhythm going. Steelers did everything in their power to make that game closer than it should have been yesterday. Well, I mean, the thing was over and then Carson Wentz caught fire in the fourth quarter. Yep. And then Tomlin made that decision instead of going for a fourth down on the needing one inch, let’s punt it away and give the ball back. And that almost came back to bite him. Yeah, there was a few but the defense did its job. The defense did its job. And then there were not one but two takeaways taken away. One in which in the fourth quarter the interceptor bobbled it before getting his feet down. And then the one where Jordan Mason clearly fumbled it and as Jaylen Ramsey grabbed the ball and ran it back the entire distance and then faked with the hamstring injury doing the gritty only before him leaving the game later on with wait for it an actual such injury. Um that Jordan Mason was had his feet out of bounds when he reached out just to grab it and try and gain possession of it. Little did anybody know, probably even Jordan Mason know that that the act of just grabbing it with his feet out of bounds ended the play. So the Steelers actually had two more takeaways taken away and they still had two with six sacks. And JJ Watts I mean TJ Watt JJ’s brother TJ continues to be that steady force and and what I love about him and a little bit different than the other guy I’m going to talk about is he’s making big plays down the field. Um, I think besides Matthew Stafford, he’s gotten more 20 plus yard chunk throws this year than anybody in the NFL. And that to me has been what’s been the difference. Struggling defense. Run game’s okay, but it’s been the big plays on the right arm of Dak Prescott. And so, um, you know, to to bring his team back and, uh, you know, I know it’s not a win, but to get that tie in that game when nobody expected them to be in it, um, you know, he he gets my nod. And then a second guy is going to be Patrick Mahomes. Um who had struggled uh you know mightily throughout the first three games of the season, some him, some the guys around him, but really came back into form, four touchdowns. And as I said earlier, they were playing their brand of football, the things that they do, quick throw, quick throw, quick throw, and then Patrick making a few of those special throws down the field uh in this game. And so I thought he looked really, really good this week. And so those are my my my top two guys uh from the film study. Yeah. I mean, um, and then so you did mention Stafford. I mean, he and Nakua are connecting in such a way. Honestly, there’s some numbers that that that make it, uh, you to Isaac Bruce. I’m serious. There are some Rams numbers that they are threatening from your greatest show on turf. Uh, based on how he’s come out of the box this year, Nula. I mean, I wouldn’t be surprised if they broke any of those. I mean, I was fortunate to have a whole bunch of guys. And not that Matthew doesn’t have a couple guys. I mean, Dvonte’s awesome and Puka’s awesome, too. So, he’s got a couple guys to to feed as well, but their offense goes through Puka Nakua. I mean, you know, everything that they do, they move him around. Uh, you get him one-on-one. I mean, and there’s such great confidence with Matthew Stafford and Puka. I mean, the catches that that Puka makes on a on a, you know, weekly basis is amazing. I mean, diving catches, you know, going low into into, you know, coverage and bodies all around him and his ability to run after catch. I mean, I mean, he he is he is awesome. I mean, he is a really really good player. And and what I love too, he reminds me a little bit of a an Anquin Balden where you you watch him play and you don’t look at him and and like everybody wants to look at these measurable traits. You don’t watch him and go, “Wow, that guy’s the biggest or the fastest or the quick.” Like, you don’t see that. He he’s just a football player. He just knows how to get open. He understands what Matthew is seeing and and how to use his body and how to find the open spots. And because of that, um, you know, these guys can work so well together. And Matthew can take some chances with Puka that he might not take with somebody else because he’s got such great trust in his ability to play the game. And, you know, so when I watch all the film every week, he always jumps off as one of the best football players in the National Football League. uh regardless of of measurable traits, he is so much fun to watch and the way these guys are working together is really really special. Yeah, I mean Nua um started the game in third place behind Tory Holt and Isaac Bruce for the most catches in the first three NFL seasons of their careers. The entirety. Right. Okay. Yeah. and um and he surpassed both Hol and Bruce in the game and he now has 13 more games to play in his third NFL season. Okay. Okay. I mean, you got to let me defend my guys. I’m not criticizing. I’m just talking and foremost, right? They they were on opposite sides, so they had to battle that. Second thing is, come on now. This is a whole different NFL. Okay? I mean, Puka gets five catches a week at the line of scrimmage. Um, you know, we didn’t do that back in the day. Our guys were getting the catches down the field. So, it is a different NFL. As great as Fuka is, and I’m not diminishing how great he is, right? Um, I I just don’t, you know, it it’s a different era when you’re trying to to go stat to stat, catch to catch, right? Um, it was just played completely different when when my guys were out there versus uh versus where they are now. Yeah, this is the Rams record book. Um he needs he needs 98 more catches to tie Justin Jefferson for the most catches in the first three games uh first three seasons. So uh as we all know Justin Jefferson is a a contemporary. Uh Kurt, thanks for the time. Really?

“Steelers are clearly the favorites to win the AFC North this year!” – Kurt Warner tells Rich Eisen on Pits’ 3-1 start