Do the Steelers have a chance? + Dan O. believes more in the Colts than the Steelers | First Take

Do the Steelers have a chance? + Dan O. believes more in the Colts than the Steelers | First Take

How about the Steelers and their defense? They delivered their best performance of the season in a 27 to 24 win over the AFC leading Colts. Pittsburgh fors six turnovers, including causing Daniel Jones to lose two fumbles, be completely discombobulated. Their losing streak comes to an end. Listen to this. We’re all human and I think those guys, you felt, you know, pretty upset, had a little red about what’s been going on. So, I’m proud of them the way they came back and responded. It’s a fine line between drinking wine and squashing grapes in this business. Um, it’s nothing dramatic, you know. Um, it’s really not. We’re still the same group that stunk it up last week. Um, that’s football. Oh, I love Mike Tomlin. He always knows how to keep this thing real, right? Uh, the Steelers looked really good. Oh, we got a Steelers fan in the building. Love to see it. Love to see it. Their defensive effort though against a very good Colts offense was impressive. But were you more impressed with the Steelers D or more concerned with the way that Colts offense looked? I was I I I I was I I was shocked by how the Steelers defense looked because they’ve been an absolute embarrassment. Um there’s no doubt about that. Four times this year giving up over 30 points. Um and then I’m looking at the offense of the Pittsburgh Steelers and I’m still not enamored. That’s why that Steeler fan needs to sit down and not get too excited. Uh because the reality is the reality is is that Aaron Rodgers 24 of his 32 passes were for under 10 yards with under 10 yards. You dipping and dunking and all. I get all of that. The Steelers DK Metaf had six yards on two receptions. Michael Irvin, I’m looking at you. DK Metaf had six yards on two receptions. I mean, that’s an I love DK, but that’s an embarrassing statistic for a receiver. You got Jaylen Warren, he’s averaging 1.9 yard a carry yesterday. The Steelers averaged, what is it? 1.7 yards per carry rushing a football yesterday. I’m not excited about this. Now, Cam W Cam Haywood called out the defense. Said that they didn’t play with any kind of toughness against the Packers and all of this other stuff, I get that part. And so they showed up and they showed some pride. But if you could do it against an Indianapolis coach team that was a number one offense, okay, with a Jonathan Taylor that was a stud and we were talking about him as an MVP candidate. All right, even though Daniel Jones looked awful, sacked, you know, three interceptions, sacked twice, turned a ball, I’m sorry, turned a ball over rather, five times, we understand even with him and these Indianapolis coachs, that was an aberration. That is not something you should expect to see again from the Indianapolis coach. I’m praying that we see some semblance of that from the Steelers defense moving forward. At the very least, be opportunistic because you haven’t done anything in over a month. So, when you look at this stat line as six turnovers, playmaker, Daniel, and you say to yourself, we only lost by seven points. Exactly. That’s something that you have to start to say to yourself, it’s like, okay, that’s blowout numbers. That’s supposed to be a 40 burger to say the least. But now you start to really look on the other side. They did not lead in the stat line with total offense. I’ve said it from time to time since the beginning of the season. The Pittsburgh Steelers needs big questions or have big questions at the amenity position from the receivers. They have no amenities. That uh uh not DK DK Metave for me is a person that’s the biggest head scratcher because you say to yourself, he looks the part. He’s well and capable. It’s just not producing for what it’s worth. Obviously, understanding the type of quarterback that A-Rod is and you start to see the stat line of two receptions, six yards, impossible. Yeah. But but for me that I put that on the coaching staff in Pittsburgh. Now, Seattle ran DK a different way. He’s a big guy. I remember him coming out of the combine. He’s a big guy that had transition issues going in and out of cuts. You got to let him run deeper deep routes. When when he when when he’s in Seattle, he ran deeper comebacks. Yeah. Because he was so fast. Once you get going, it doesn’t matter how quick you turn your hips, you got to get out of there. And now he has more room and more time to slow down and break down. Listen, I’m more impressed with the Steelers defense because that’s the defense I’ve been used to seeing and expect them to be. But I’mma tell you something. If you guys think, okay, Indiana Jones is gone and Daniel Jones is back and you think this is about to happen every game in Indie, that ain’t going down. That’s a real team in India. I mean, a scary team in India. They have everything. And I Indiana Jones has revived his career. It He can play football. It was just playing in New York where it’s hard to to succeed as a quarterback. In Indie, it’s a little different. I think India will be fine. I still believe in the Colts to make the AFC title game more than I do believe in in the Pittsburgh Steelers. There’s no team in the NFL right now. There’s no team in the NFL right now that is benefiting off of turnovers like the Steelers. If they get turnovers, they play good defensively. They’ve beaten the Patriots and they’ve beaten the Colts cuz they’ve gotten 11 turnovers in that game. But if they don’t, but if they don’t, you can you can get after them. So, like I’m not worried about Indie. I think still Indie is one of the more difficult offenses to match up against and everyone’s going to overreact to the Daniel Jones turnovers. One, TJ Watt makes a great play. He’s gonna strip that ball from every quarterback outside of like Josh and Patrick. Number two, the bad interception to Payton Wilson. Yes. The other interception is just a bad break, bro. Like ball gets tipped up in the air off a pass rusher becomes interception. So, I’m not going to overreact to that. If the Steelers get takeaways, they could beat anybody. If they don’t, they can get beat by anybody. Well, damn it. They don’t usually get takeaways. So, let’s get that out of the way first. Secondly, they were playing without four different safeties last yesterday. Okay, High Smith showed up. Obviously, TJ Watt showed up, Sawya showed up, Wilson showed up. We give credit where credit is due. But there’s a reason that Steeler fans actually held a funeral outside of the stadium for their defense before the game yesterday because that’s how awful they have been. The question is, do we believe that that Steelers defense that showed up has really meant, you know, corrected the error of their ways or they’re one pony? They got to get takeways. They’re not a dominant defense. They’re a takeaway defense. And and and a takeaway defense is a championship defense. I’ve been hearing people spew mess defense win championships. No, it doesn’t. Points win championships. And a takeaway defense gives you the opportunity to win get points. That’s what you’d like to believe. That’s a lot. That’s a lie. Defense wins. That’s a lot. Offense is going to propel the Cowboys to the Super Bowl. You ain’t going to no damn playoffs, let alone a Super Bowl. Stop it. Yesterday, the Bengals trailed by two touchdowns with less than 5 minutes to go in the fourth quarter. It was insane. Joe Flacco rallied Cincinnati back to take a one-point lead to only watch their defense just completely collapse. give it away to a 58-yard touchdown pass by Caleb Williams. And so after this happened, Chase Brown and Jamar Chase not happy calling out the defense. Finish the game. Like just end it. Like that’s it. Like that’s that’s like that’s what we need to do. Just end the game. Like make them make them get us the ball back. Let us 22 victory and let’s end the game. That’s how that like that’s how I feel. I’m going to stay in my lane. I don’t want no defensive player come and chew me out about what I’m doing. So, Brown and Chase not happy and now it’s starting to spill over. That’s right. Let them know. Look at the Chicago Bears fan in the building. I love to see it. Chicago born and raised. But I think this is probably more of a problem for Cincinnati than it is for Chicago at this point, Swagu. Because you got players now calling out other players in the locker room. Did you have a problem with what Jamar Chase and Chase Brown said? It’s the Cardinal sin. Even though I know the emotion is running high after the game, it’s the Cardinal sin. So, you don’t really want to go to that point because there will come a time where it’ll be on them. Definitely. And I think a lot of times though, you caught up in the emotion right after the game. You just went down for a drive to win the game and you give up that interception. Who I would have been calling out, Cam, is the damn defensive coordinator. Hello. Cuz I don’t understand. One, you playing manto man with 17 seconds left. That was Tampa. That was Tampa. That was that was Oh, it was Tampa. Okay. But the the the linebacker did not get enough depth. But also but but also what beast Tampa you leaving one man over the top. You’re leaving one man over the top, right? Whether you whether whether you get depth or not, if that ball gets over your linebacker, the safety, the only man left. That’s the thing, right? And you get that up in that situ, man, get your ass in prevent. Keep everything in front of you. A field goal don’t win the game. Now, now this is what the people and make that tackle. They may not even get a chance to make that. You’re trying to make a big hit right there instead of wrapping up and taking all day getting off. Right. I know. That’s what I’m saying. Right. So, tackle him. Spend time on top of him to make sure Yeah. to make sure that that clock run out after you already have given up that big play. This is what I would say this. I’ve seen a specific individual on this panel. Yeah. Talk about a coach not having control of that locker room. And it may not necessarily be the coach in Cincinnati, but where he stayed. He’s in Miami, chick, the person who’s in Miami speaks about Mike McDaniel not having control of that locker room. So Stephen A, I’ll ask the question. Does Zack Taylor require a little something from you? Do you have something to say about him losing that locker room? Well, my resp my response to you is that I’m very very disappointed that you asked me that question because it shows that you’re not watching every episode of First because let me tell you something because if you are because if you are, you have heard me say Zack Taylor, this man is he on a hot seat. He’ll lucky he be lucky if he make it through the season. I held him responsible for Joe Burrow now missing three of his six seasons in the NFL. constantly having him in the shotgun offense, never having him behind center, never having him in a position where he could engage in play action, exposing him the way that he did. And I said, “By the way, you’re supposed to be the headband. That means you got something to do with the defense. Call a different play. Make sure you you you zoned up. Make sure you prevent as opposed to doing a man-to-man. Make sure you understand the importance of tackling in that situation.” The the Chicago Bears with Caleb Williams, who I believe in by the way, but still developing and growing. Caleb Williams said, “We knew we were gonna have a big game today.” He said that. Think about that. When you heard when he heard that name come out of his mouth, ain’t nothing to do that. You know what? But you know what? He saw them lose to the winless New York Jets the week earlier, giving up 39 points to the New York Jets with Justin Fields. And Caleb W said, “I think I could do that against that team. I think I could do that.” And that’s what happened. The Cincinnati Bengals are trash defensively. Jamar Chase deserves better. T. Higgins deserves better. Joe Flacco deserves better. Okay? Because when you have a defense that is n that is just nonexistent. I know I said the Dallas Cowboys instead of the Dallas Cowboys, but the Bengals are worse. The Bengals are worse than the Cowboys. Okay? At least I get an impression. You know, you might not tackle right. Sometimes you might make some mistakes. You might have some confusion from time to time, but nobody is as bad as the Bengals. And by the way, here’s where I got to hold Joe Burrow accountable. You wanted Higgins to get his money. You wanted Jamar Chase to get his money, but you also wanted Hendrickson to get his money. Damn it. They don’t have anybody on defense that look like they deserve money. Start putting that in. Start putting that in. First of all, let let me let me cor let me go back here and address the statement that Chad Brown was talking about. And we get up here all the time and say, “Oh, there’s some cardinal s.” And it is. It is to run to the media with it, but not to run to your defense with it. Oh, yeah. I want accountability and you got to have accountability. I we had a guy named Charles Haley and we would have a conversation before every game. Charles would ask me how many points you got? I said we got at least 24. I said what can y’all do? He said they won’t get 17. If they’re holding that defense, they’re holding that offense to 10 12 points. And he’s looking up at that scoreboard and I promised them 24 and 14 on that board. He walks by me and say, “Playmaker 14 don’t sound like 24.” You see what I’m saying? That’s accountability. And that’s all Chad Brown is saying. I want accountability over here. Now, he should not just be talking to his teammates. He should go scream to his owner who wouldn’t pay a man that plays great defense, who wouldn’t even pay the guy that they drafted. So, they don’t care about defense. So, don’t act like, “Oh, the players are the only one.” Definitely management. Definitely management. It’s definitely management. Everybody, this is this is a team that has given up in the Bengals 300 points in nine games. That’s a I mean, and then back toback weeks, you’re giving up a touchdown to a wide receiver and a running back. Not only that, and this is worse than last year. This is the same conversation last year. That’s what I was about to say. Fighting issue. The issue is not that they’re having this type of play from their defense this year. They’ve been having this same type of issue out of their defense for the last two years. So, let me ask you a question. So, how long before Joe Burrow and Jamar Chase want out? They can’t. They just got paid that I know they just got paid money out. How long before they won out because of the disservice that this ownership out franchise quarterback? I’d want out now. And I listen, it’s hard for me to answer that question because I’m producing and they are producing and not not per say Joe uh Burrow more so, but when you see T the game that T. Higgins had yesterday. The amount of difficulty of the catches that he made. Now it now says you got an issue in I wouldn’t even say an issue in Dallas when you have you got two number one valuable uh playmakers on the outside. When that happens you have to give those guys opportunities. They’ve given them opportunities. Everybody’s out. So you’re spending money going to get traded, right? But you’re spending money incorrectly. All right. You got that offense and you’re not doing it. It’s bad in Cincinnati what they’re doing. All right. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

On First Take, Stephen A. Smith, Cam Newton and Dan Orlovsky join Shae Cornette to discuss the Pittsburgh Steelers vs. the Indianapolis Colts and the Cincinnati Bengals vs. the Chicago Bears.

0:00 Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Indianapolis Colts
0:20 Aaron Rodgers’ and Mike Tomlin’s comments
0:58 More impressed with the Steelers defense or concerned with the Colts offense?
2:50 Thoughts on the Pittsburgh Steelers
4:30 Thoughts on the Colts
7:00 Chase Brown’s and Jamar Chase’s comments
8:00 Thoughts on these comments
9:45 Thoughts on Zach Taylor
11:50 More on the Bengals

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