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A crucial Colts matchup on tap · The Irish Steelers Podcast

0:00
Speaker 1: As an official airline partner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Aer
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Speaker 1: Lingus is flying Steelers Nation even closer to the action.
0:06
Speaker 1: The Irish airline Aer Lingus has launched a brand new
0:09
Speaker 1: non-stop route between Dublin and Pittsburgh. So whether you're heading
0:13
Speaker 1: to Steel City for game day or crossing the Atlantic
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Speaker 1: for that Irish adventure you've always dreamed about, flying there
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Speaker 1: has never been easier. Book now at aerlingus.com. Here we
0:22
Speaker 1: go Steelers!
0:31
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Irish Seeders podcast presented by Aer Lingus.
0:34
Speaker 2: Michael McGrady here. Delighted to be joined in the Seeders
0:37
Speaker 2: studio with Mark McGrath. After the Seeders fell to a
0:41
Speaker 2: 27-24 loss in week four on Thursday Night Football. So
0:44
Speaker 2: we're recording early in the week. We're putting this out
0:46
Speaker 2: on the Wednesday. Hope everyone's doing well. Mark, a bit
0:49
Speaker 2: of a break from Thursday night. We both watched that
0:51
Speaker 2: game live.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, that was good. You did exactly what you said
0:54
Speaker 3: you would do. And you phoned me at the start
0:56
Speaker 3: of the third quarter to make sure I was still awake,
0:58
Speaker 3: you scamp. Good thing I was able to answer the
1:00
Speaker 3: phone call.
1:01
Speaker 2: I had to fly to London for that. I went
1:04
Speaker 2: to one of the training sessions for week four. And
1:08
Speaker 2: I had to listen slash watch the fourth quarter in
1:10
Speaker 2: the car on the way to the airport. And I
1:13
Speaker 2: was disappointed getting into the airport, getting into the security queue,
1:16
Speaker 2: because I really thought the game was there. And I
1:20
Speaker 2: think a lot of Steelers fans will be gutted in
1:22
Speaker 2: the fact of, one, it's an AFC North rival. Two,
1:25
Speaker 2: how close it was. Before we do that, though, how
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Speaker 2: did you stay awake? What was the prep?
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Speaker 3: Those late night games is always the prep.
1:33
Speaker 2: Coffee.
1:35
Speaker 3: Coffee and then hopefully my friends give me phone calls
1:39
Speaker 3: and messages. There's quite a few people who stay up
1:41
Speaker 3: and watch football in Ireland, so there's always messages going
1:44
Speaker 3: back and forth.
1:45
Speaker 2: People will be surprised though about that because maybe people
1:48
Speaker 2: aren't listening in Ireland and we have a US audience
1:50
Speaker 2: and everyone's very welcome. There's a lot of people stay up.
1:53
Speaker 2: I went to the game in week four between the
1:56
Speaker 2: Colts and the Commanders. We're going to talk about the
1:57
Speaker 2: Colts later on in this podcast. The amount of jerseys
2:01
Speaker 2: I've seen in the airport, the amount of Steelers jerseys
2:03
Speaker 2: in Stansted Airport flying back on Sunday night was insane.
2:07
Speaker 2: So there's obviously a big, big market there.
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Speaker 3: Isn't it funny that no matter who's playing, you just
2:14
Speaker 3: have a collection of all the team's jerseys in the
2:17
Speaker 3: games over here?
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Speaker 2: I think it took one of our guys seven minutes
2:21
Speaker 2: to find all 32 jerseys around Tottenham last week. Steelers
2:24
Speaker 2: are not playing in Tottenham, but they are. And it's
2:26
Speaker 2: actually right behind you, Mark, that are playing In Paris.
2:29
Speaker 2: You have a nice little French terrible tile now in
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Speaker 2: the studio.
2:32
Speaker 3: That's very nice.
2:32
Speaker 2: A couple, two or three weeks away. The week after
2:36
Speaker 2: week five, very quickly, very, very important actually for people
2:38
Speaker 2: listening in. Tampa Bay Bucks. There is a big watch
2:41
Speaker 2: party in Kennedy's. There will be Steeders alumni there. That's
2:45
Speaker 2: all I can say right now. Some special guests as well.
2:49
Speaker 2: That'll be very, very fun. Tickets are in the link
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Speaker 2: in the bio and I'll see you there. I'm actually
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Speaker 2: apparently hosting, presenting it as well. So looking forward to
2:56
Speaker 2: seeing people down there.
2:57
Speaker 3: Must be some big names if they've got.
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Speaker 2: You yeah this is it this is it it should
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Speaker 2: be fun i am genuinely looking forward to seeing people
3:03
Speaker 2: um to have something to get in canadies and dublin
3:06
Speaker 2: and steeler station is going to be very very fun
3:08
Speaker 2: very very special one more positive note before we look
3:11
Speaker 2: back on this game last week we'll talk about it
3:13
Speaker 2: in the second half of the podcast here but uh
3:16
Speaker 2: this game against the colts is six o'clock.
3:18
Speaker 3: Yes thank you much much much more palatable than uh
3:23
Speaker 3: A Thursday night football game or a Friday morning football
3:25
Speaker 3: game for us. Future Mark did not have a great
3:27
Speaker 3: day on Friday, but, um, here we go. What do
3:30
Speaker 3: you mean?
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Speaker 2: Like, was it that bad on Friday? It was just,
3:32
Speaker 2: was it ropey? Shall I say?
3:33
Speaker 3: I was just unfortunately busy on Friday. Um, so, but
3:37
Speaker 3: all my stuff, all my, my meetings, obviously kids up,
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Speaker 3: they don't care if I haven't slept, um, kids up
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Speaker 3: and into school. And then I, I, all my meetings
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Speaker 3: were stacked in the morning. So I had to function
3:47
Speaker 3: early and. And then so by the time Friday, I
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Speaker 3: was ready for Friday night to roll in, get a
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Speaker 3: good night's sleep ahead of our 20-year dinner thing on
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Speaker 3: a Saturday.
3:55
Speaker 2: Congrats to the Trojans. And then before we mention, actually
3:58
Speaker 2: a big best of luck to the Junior Wolfhounds who
4:01
Speaker 2: are playing in Scotland this weekend. So the very, very
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Speaker 2: best of luck to them. And I know all the
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Speaker 2: Steelers fans from Ireland will be pushing on for those
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Speaker 2: boys to have not just a good experience, but to
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Speaker 2: also get the win in that under-19 game, which is
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Speaker 2: taking place. There's also a London game this weekend. So
4:14
Speaker 2: if you do have a Steelers jersey, and you see me,
4:17
Speaker 2: pop up, say hello. We'd love to get a photo
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Speaker 2: of you, or at least chat to you and see
4:22
Speaker 2: the crack as well. Right, we have to go. We've
4:25
Speaker 2: spent five minutes now. We have to talk about this game.
4:27
Speaker 3: We've put it off a little bit. Disappointing result, obviously.
4:31
Speaker 2: It's disappointing in the matter of it's an AFC North
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Speaker 2: team for a start. And look, I think at the
4:38
Speaker 2: end of the day, we're on a team podcast here.
4:41
Speaker 2: Outside of that, We have to give the Browns credit
4:44
Speaker 2: for how they pushed in that game. And the fans
4:46
Speaker 2: got behind them. But I really fought in that fourth quarter, Mark.
4:50
Speaker 2: I really fought the momentum with the Steelers. Steelers tied
4:54
Speaker 2: the game. Not even just tied the game. Get a
4:56
Speaker 2: touchdown with a half-hour move. And then that pressurising moment
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Speaker 2: in Huntington-Bankfield where they get the two-pointer. And I think, okay,
5:04
Speaker 2: here we go.
5:05
Speaker 3: And on, you know, Rodgers keeping it himself. He obviously
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Speaker 3: spoke afterwards and he was like, I said to everyone
5:11
Speaker 3: in the huddle, if I see a gap here, I'm
5:13
Speaker 3: going to keep it myself and go through. It's that
5:16
Speaker 3: same thing we mentioned in the first loss where the
5:21
Speaker 3: big positive I suppose you take out of it is
5:24
Speaker 3: that the team keeps fighting. There's obviously a want. Even
5:26
Speaker 3: if the pieces aren't all fitting together, there's obviously a want.
5:30
Speaker 3: We mentioned Rodgers making that tackle in that first. Again,
5:35
Speaker 3: everything's on the line. You've got this big comeback. This
5:37
Speaker 3: is a 42-year-old quarterback who's willing to do a sneak
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Speaker 3: to get into that end zone. He's putting his body
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Speaker 3: on the line. The players are going to react well
5:47
Speaker 3: to that. And there is a lot of positives to
5:49
Speaker 3: take out of this. We did say, can you come
5:52
Speaker 3: back down from that emotional high from the big? It's
5:54
Speaker 3: a short week. It is very hard to turn around
5:56
Speaker 3: those things. I feel like the Browns had a very
5:59
Speaker 3: solid game plan for what they're going to do. And
6:01
Speaker 3: they have the home advantage. You know, they're not having
6:04
Speaker 3: to travel off a short week. They're at home. They're
6:06
Speaker 3: at their stadium. The noise does become a factor. But
6:10
Speaker 3: the team didn't quit. So I think the big positive
6:12
Speaker 3: thing when we were looking down that barrel of 21-7,
6:14
Speaker 3: after such a fantastic opening draft, you know, even with
6:18
Speaker 3: the penalties, with everything, they kept marching, kept moving. Friarmouth,
6:24
Speaker 3: big block. Pittman, big block. This is what those big
6:26
Speaker 3: guys that we see, these big wide receiver cores, two
6:29
Speaker 3: great big tight ends. that are these blocking threats. You know,
6:34
Speaker 3: Warren was pounding the ball, I think, over five yards
6:38
Speaker 3: a carry average.
6:39
Speaker 2: 93 yards, five and a half on the game. Solid,
6:42
Speaker 2: not the explosion we've seen against the Bengals the week before,
6:45
Speaker 2: but still, that running game that we talked about for
6:47
Speaker 2: the first couple of weeks is getting better.
6:49
Speaker 3: That's back-to-back games now. Warren's shown he can potentially be
6:52
Speaker 3: this engine, the engine of the Steelers' offense. Maybe find
6:56
Speaker 3: him even more in space. I don't know if you
6:57
Speaker 3: have the stat for passes, catches, and yards here.
7:00
Speaker 2: I haven't got it right in front of me, but
7:01
Speaker 2: I do have one talking point. Rodgers sacked five times,
7:05
Speaker 2: obviously three touchdowns, two interceptions, 22 of 40, but a
7:09
Speaker 2: guy that got up five times and kept going with
7:11
Speaker 2: his age. I want to mention one thing here. It's
7:14
Speaker 2: important to sort of illustrate this. Any win is disappointing,
7:18
Speaker 2: but when you lose against an AFC North rival, you
7:20
Speaker 2: could see the guys in the post-game press conference. TJ
7:25
Speaker 2: was really frustrated, really gutted. The only pro of this is,
7:30
Speaker 2: They have a bit more time off to get through
7:31
Speaker 2: Week 4 and into Week 5. But there does seem
7:34
Speaker 2: there are like a wee opportunities lost because you think
7:36
Speaker 2: of what happens. But the reality is there are many,
7:39
Speaker 2: many teams in this league this year as we enter
7:41
Speaker 2: Week 5 who have not underperformed, but they've lost games.
7:45
Speaker 2: I'm looking at teams that are 0-4 right now. So
7:47
Speaker 2: it's just a matter of you have to pick yourself up.
7:50
Speaker 2: And I'm sure that's something we'll talk about in the
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Speaker 2: second part.
7:51
Speaker 3: Four weeks ago, off camera, we were talking about how
7:54
Speaker 3: we both said you could see them being an 11-win season.
7:58
Speaker 3: I think that's still very, very achievable. Frustrating, divisional rivals
8:02
Speaker 3: get the win on you. But last year, we had
8:04
Speaker 3: that home and away that the home team won in
8:07
Speaker 3: both battles last year. It's frustrating, but as I'm sure
8:11
Speaker 3: they're doing in their meetings and everything else, you learn
8:14
Speaker 3: what you can from the losses. We can go into
8:16
Speaker 3: it a wee bit more. Some big positives that did
8:20
Speaker 3: take away. I think, look, offensively, they're still able to
8:23
Speaker 3: move the ball. When they were feeding Warren, I want
8:25
Speaker 3: to see him get more touches. I want to see
8:28
Speaker 3: the two big tight ends get more touches, but DK,
8:32
Speaker 3: we spoke about how he was having a couple of problems,
8:34
Speaker 3: but he was a professional. He was going to work hard.
8:37
Speaker 3: He was going to keep improving himself. He had a
8:39
Speaker 3: game that looked like the guy you want to see.
8:43
Speaker 3: Rodgers and Metcalf are finally connecting so that there's little
8:46
Speaker 3: sparks of things that you want to see. I want
8:49
Speaker 3: to see them in more heavy personnel, but I want
8:52
Speaker 3: to see that ground and pound going.
8:54
Speaker 2: That's a really good point because But defensively, I think
8:58
Speaker 2: before we move on, we have to address it because
9:00
Speaker 2: teams are going to have these issues. 372 total yards
9:03
Speaker 2: given up in defense, but 21 given up in one quarter.
9:06
Speaker 2: And I know that Coach McCarthy, that Patrick Graham will
9:09
Speaker 2: be looking at that over the next few days going, right, well,
9:12
Speaker 2: if across the guts of three quarters, if we're getting
9:15
Speaker 2: better in terms of allowing stopping people or stopping teams
9:18
Speaker 2: to score points, What went wrong on that quarter and
9:21
Speaker 2: what do we have to sort of bring up on?
9:24
Speaker 2: There were some coverage issues there, but I do think
9:26
Speaker 2: these are small elements that it can be built on
9:30
Speaker 2: every week.
9:30
Speaker 3: Yeah, and look, obviously they're running that soft zone shell
9:34
Speaker 3: and leaving themselves open for the quick think-dunk. If you
9:37
Speaker 3: can find a way to make a quarterback, especially coming
9:40
Speaker 3: into this week, take Taylor out of it, make Daniel
9:44
Speaker 3: beat us, If you can find a way to get
9:46
Speaker 3: him to hold the ball for three and a half,
9:47
Speaker 3: four seconds, I think that that pass rush is going
9:50
Speaker 3: to get home. We spoke last week. I was expecting
9:53
Speaker 3: this big pass rushing set to get a lot more
9:56
Speaker 3: pressure on the quarterback. They just weren't able to get
9:58
Speaker 3: there fast enough. This week, I'm sure... that's something they're
10:00
Speaker 3: going to be working on and working through. It's that
10:04
Speaker 3: connection between the coverage guys and the guys up front.
10:07
Speaker 3: Can you keep guys covered up a little bit longer
10:10
Speaker 3: so they have a little bit more time to help
10:11
Speaker 3: each other out? Complimentary football on the defense. TJ obviously
10:15
Speaker 3: wasn't too happy at certain parts.
10:17
Speaker 2: I was gutted. I wanted to give him a hug
10:19
Speaker 2: on Thursday night.
10:19
Speaker 3: Yeah, he said we gave up too many soft yards.
10:24
Speaker 2: But they knew it. You can see the reaction on
10:26
Speaker 2: the sideline at the end.
10:27
Speaker 3: They knew.
10:28
Speaker 2: And I guess what I will say, the biggest thing
10:31
Speaker 2: that's changed since Thursday night to now, before we hear
10:33
Speaker 2: from coaching, it'll be second. In terms of the AFC North,
10:36
Speaker 2: Browns are alone or in first. Tie to Baltimore, depending
10:39
Speaker 2: on tiebreakers. A 3-1 in the North. Steelers and Bengals
10:42
Speaker 2: both sitting 2-2. You could argue there that the early
10:45
Speaker 2: margin for error is gone. But my God, they're so
10:48
Speaker 2: long to go in this season. We're talking about a
10:50
Speaker 2: Bengals team that were absolutely unreal through the first two weeks,
10:55
Speaker 2: especially defensively. And now they have dropped two games as well.
10:58
Speaker 2: It seems to me like this division is going to
11:00
Speaker 2: be a long, long road this year.
11:02
Speaker 3: It's going to be a slogfest. Yeah, it's going to
11:03
Speaker 3: be a real fight.
11:04
Speaker 2: So Steelers fans in Ireland and anywhere else listening in,
11:07
Speaker 2: get ready for that marathon, not a sprint attitude. We're
11:10
Speaker 2: going to look ahead to this cold scheme in a
11:11
Speaker 2: wee second on the Irish Steelers podcast presented by Aer Lingus.
11:15
Speaker 2: But before we do that, let's hear from Coach McCarthy.
11:18
Speaker 2: who's talking to us not after the game on Thursday night,
11:20
Speaker 2: but he's talking to the media and talking to the
11:22
Speaker 2: press ahead of this big Week 5 game against the
11:25
Speaker 2: Indianapolis Colts at Accresher Stadium.
11:31
Speaker 4: Your Mondays are full on a normal week. Everything's evaluated. Frankly,
11:36
Speaker 4: Thursday morning team meeting, I talked specifically playing with more emotion.
11:43
Speaker 4: We knew the environment we were going into. I personally
11:47
Speaker 4: thought the environment was incredible. I thought the music was
11:49
Speaker 4: even better. But I thought just playing up there and
11:53
Speaker 4: that type of game, it was important to make sure
11:56
Speaker 4: you bring the energy. But with that comes the discipline
11:58
Speaker 4: of it. So I think those are opportunities for growth.
12:03
Speaker 4: But I'd much rather have too much energy than not enough.
12:07
Speaker 5: How did the team take to that message? How do
12:09
Speaker 5: you feel they responded? You're talking about Thursdays, man? I
12:14
Speaker 5: thought that was a physical football game. I'm sure both
12:17
Speaker 5: teams were sore Friday morning. The thing that we need
12:23
Speaker 5: to improve on and that's.
12:24
Speaker 4: Really why I shifted gears with our schedule and went
12:27
Speaker 4: more into a normal bi-week return to work schedule. We're
12:32
Speaker 4: actually still working through it as a coaching staff because
12:35
Speaker 4: we haven't moved on to Indianapolis yet. We're working through
12:38
Speaker 4: four games South Scott and We're going to make sure
12:41
Speaker 4: we have it prepared, and tomorrow that's what we're going
12:43
Speaker 4: to work on with the players. We're going to take tomorrow,
12:45
Speaker 4: work on ourselves, and then move on to Indianapolis on Wednesday.
12:50
Speaker 6: Mike, forgive me, this is sort of putting a bow
12:52
Speaker 6: on Thursday night. With that last possession there, you had
12:55
Speaker 6: 10 seconds and a timeout. Why was that the call
12:57
Speaker 6: to have Aaron go out to the right and make
13:01
Speaker 6: that play as opposed to look.
13:02
Speaker 3: Into the middle of the field and try to get
13:04
Speaker 3: a chunk?
13:04
Speaker 4: Well, I think you've got to look at the video
13:06
Speaker 4: and look at the whole picture. It's a good call.
13:10
Speaker 4: there's things on the call we could have did better, frankly.
13:15
Speaker 4: But we have a chance to get the ball completed
13:17
Speaker 4: or the backside routes. I'd like to play selection, and
13:24
Speaker 4: Aaron's a big part of that, especially the two-minute. But, yeah,
13:28
Speaker 4: I think those are plays we practice a lot. We
13:32
Speaker 4: have a lot invested in our end of game. And,
13:35
Speaker 4: you know, two minutes was, you know, after going back
13:38
Speaker 4: through everything, the first four weeks, two minutes has been
13:41
Speaker 4: a positive for our offense. But we need to convert
13:44
Speaker 4: that there. That play was, we were in a position
13:47
Speaker 4: to execute that and get the timeout and get an
13:49
Speaker 4: attempt at the field, but we just didn't get it done.
13:51
Speaker 4: Did you roll a pocket because you were worried about
13:53
Speaker 4: your protection or was that just a design rollout for
13:57
Speaker 4: that play? Well, without giving up, you know, the whole
14:00
Speaker 4: play call, we have the ability to drop back there
14:02
Speaker 4: or roll, and it's a combination protection call.
14:06
Speaker 6: Like going back to the emotion and the energy, obviously
14:09
Speaker 6: there was that exchange that was on camera between you
14:12
Speaker 6: and Aaron.
14:12
Speaker 3: Is that a normal level.
14:13
Speaker 6: Of tense between how you two communicate, or was that
14:17
Speaker 6: above and beyond a productive method of communication?
14:21
Speaker 4: I wouldn't classify it as normal, no, but I think
14:23
Speaker 4: the reality of it is, you know, it's a 20-year relationship.
14:28
Speaker 4: You know, I think the fact that we were able
14:30
Speaker 4: to sit and talk numerous times, you know, over the weekend,
14:35
Speaker 4: about that and a number of things. But yeah, I specifically,
14:41
Speaker 4: as I've stated, hopefully not to put any pressure on
14:47
Speaker 4: my daughter, I'm getting the grandfather age. I don't want
14:49
Speaker 4: to be saying those type of words. But it's an
14:53
Speaker 4: emotional competitive environment. But yeah, I think it's something that
14:59
Speaker 4: we can definitely learn from.
15:04
Speaker 2: Welcome back into the Irish Series podcast presented by Aer Lingus.
15:07
Speaker 2: As we look back there, Steelers sitting 2-2, 10 days
15:10
Speaker 2: rest mark and going into what Irish and European fans
15:14
Speaker 2: can almost call a haven of excellence. A 6pm game
15:19
Speaker 2: on Sunday night against an Indianapolis Colts team that had
15:22
Speaker 2: to travel from London there on Sunday night back to Indianapolis.
15:26
Speaker 2: And I'm saying that because I obviously was at the game.
15:29
Speaker 2: I got to see the Colts up close. And if
15:32
Speaker 2: I'm being honest with you, not just up close on Sunday,
15:36
Speaker 2: but I've had the opportunity to chat with some of
15:37
Speaker 2: the guys and see them during the summer as well
15:39
Speaker 2: in different work. This is a really intriguing game and
15:41
Speaker 2: I think this comes at a very, very good time
15:44
Speaker 2: for the Steelers because they're trying to get that third
15:46
Speaker 2: win of the season and they're going to be going
15:48
Speaker 2: up against a team, let me be very clear because
15:51
Speaker 2: I asked some players this, that struggled in London. Sauce Gardiner,
15:54
Speaker 2: we'll talk about him in a second, really, really struggled
15:57
Speaker 2: in Tottenham. Jonathan Taylor did not break 100 rushing yards
16:00
Speaker 2: even though I think he broke the record for the
16:01
Speaker 2: most international rushing yards ever.
16:03
Speaker 3: We know that.
16:03
Speaker 2: They have got a lot of different weapons, but it
16:07
Speaker 2: does feel to me like this game might come at
16:10
Speaker 2: a very important slash positive time for this team because
16:13
Speaker 2: they're going to be playing a Bucks team for that
16:14
Speaker 2: watch party in Dublin, which looks like Baker Mayfield will
16:17
Speaker 2: not be under centre. So two big opportunities here.
16:20
Speaker 3: Yeah, and this is the thing, obviously attrition and injuries
16:23
Speaker 3: affect all the teams, but you can only play who's
16:26
Speaker 3: in front of you. I think you've got to take
16:28
Speaker 3: Taylor away early and leave it all on Jones if
16:32
Speaker 3: you can. he struggled isn't he that's yeah I think
16:36
Speaker 3: Taylor is obviously an exceptional everyone at this level is an.
16:39
Speaker 2: Exceptional it's hard with Taylor because he is just a
16:42
Speaker 2: phenom Taylor could run through 90% of the teams in
16:46
Speaker 2: this league and that is the issue so if you
16:49
Speaker 2: do take away from Taylor it's going to take it
16:53
Speaker 2: is going to take let's be clear it's going to
16:55
Speaker 2: take a mammoth defensive job to do that the question
16:58
Speaker 2: is how and how do you sustain that for four quarters.
17:00
Speaker 3: You know well yeah obviously 27 points let in the
17:03
Speaker 3: last two games. The defense, I said it last week,
17:06
Speaker 3: the defense isn't going to be happy. They're going to
17:08
Speaker 3: be having a lot of calls, a lot of things
17:09
Speaker 3: to work through and iron out. You want to see
17:13
Speaker 3: that same score production from the offense but not first quarter,
17:18
Speaker 3: fourth quarter. You want a bit more consistent trend so
17:20
Speaker 3: it takes pressure away from the defense. But the Steelers
17:24
Speaker 3: defense that we talked about week one, week two of
17:27
Speaker 3: this electric powerhouse of a defense is still there. Yes.
17:32
Speaker 3: You know that they're couple of wee things to click
17:34
Speaker 3: and issues to work through um i thought robert spears
17:37
Speaker 3: jennings had a fantastic game then going to absolutely stand
17:40
Speaker 3: that game and there's one of the young players you
17:42
Speaker 3: know that's what you want to see from young talent
17:44
Speaker 3: development um you know tj it's almost we're almost used
17:49
Speaker 3: to seeing him do ridiculous things that you forget how
17:52
Speaker 3: ridiculous those things are he's playing so so well but
17:55
Speaker 3: um you know himself cam highsmith You know, those are
17:59
Speaker 3: the names that we're hearing week in, week out. I
18:01
Speaker 3: want to start hearing from some of these new young
18:03
Speaker 3: guys that have just signed on, you know, with the money.
18:07
Speaker 3: I want to see more pressures. I want to see
18:09
Speaker 3: some more sacks from those guys starting to take some
18:12
Speaker 3: of the weight off the old guard.
18:14
Speaker 2: Yeah.
18:15
Speaker 3: You know what? I feel like they're, with going over
18:18
Speaker 3: the tape, I feel like there's going to be pressure
18:19
Speaker 3: put on those guys. I mean, you've just got your paycheck.
18:21
Speaker 3: We're expecting you to perform well.
18:23
Speaker 2: I think that's going to be equal across the league,
18:24
Speaker 2: isn't it? And it's these guys stepping up, especially in
18:27
Speaker 2: that secondary, I think the performance is definitely there. And
18:30
Speaker 2: I think one of the key elements on the flip
18:32
Speaker 2: side of that there, we mentioned how many times that
18:36
Speaker 2: Aaron Rodgers was sacked in week four. He was under
18:39
Speaker 2: a good bit of pressure in week three as well
18:41
Speaker 2: against Cincinnati. It's just finding and allowing that time in
18:44
Speaker 2: the pocket for him to get that movement. But on
18:46
Speaker 2: the flip side, you made such an excellent point, as
18:48
Speaker 2: obvious as it sounds to people. Stop Taylor and allow
18:52
Speaker 2: Daniel Jones to have to work with the ball because
18:53
Speaker 2: Daniel Jones through four weeks is turnover prone. Seven turnovers,
18:58
Speaker 2: four interceptions, three lost fumbles, and he's only got four
19:02
Speaker 2: total touchdowns through four games. He was inefficient, they said,
19:06
Speaker 2: at least last week in London. 19 to 34, 143 yards,
19:09
Speaker 2: an interception and a fumble before a late bootleg touchdown.
19:13
Speaker 2: There were many moments on Sunday when I was sitting,
19:15
Speaker 2: I wasn't standing, in Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, and I really
19:20
Speaker 2: thought to myself, if Mariota didn't go down, I thought
19:23
Speaker 2: the Commanders would have won that game. So that's how
19:25
Speaker 2: much I was surprised at how poor that Colville offense was. Now,
19:30
Speaker 2: they flew out and they left London at 5 past
19:34
Speaker 2: 10 on Sunday night and they would have arrived just
19:36
Speaker 2: before midnight. It'll be interesting to see how they customize.
19:39
Speaker 2: I'm sure it'll be fine, but it's a talking point.
19:42
Speaker 2: They have to go to Pittsburgh. They have to play
19:44
Speaker 2: against this home team. It is going to be it's
19:45
Speaker 2: going to be hard for them as well.
19:47
Speaker 3: And having a long week at the level the level
19:49
Speaker 3: of collisions how physical it is you know whether you
19:52
Speaker 3: win or lose every guy on that pitch is coming
19:55
Speaker 3: off sore you know that there's no aspect there's no
19:58
Speaker 3: offensive snap defensive snap special team snap where guys aren't
20:02
Speaker 3: firing into each other who at a ridiculous speed and
20:05
Speaker 3: aggressiveness Having an extra couple of days with the trainers
20:09
Speaker 3: to recover, an extra couple of days to break down film,
20:11
Speaker 3: to look at things is a massive, massive thing at
20:14
Speaker 3: this level. And it's obviously the disadvantage last week with
20:18
Speaker 3: the short week is the advantage this week with the
20:20
Speaker 3: long week.
20:20
Speaker 2: And you can also argue from the Colts viewpoint that
20:23
Speaker 2: they're in a potentially slightly better situation in their division
20:28
Speaker 2: with the AFC South. Look, there's going to be an argument,
20:32
Speaker 2: and I'm sure we'll talk about this at some point
20:33
Speaker 2: in the podcast this year, about how good that Jacksonville
20:36
Speaker 2: Jaguars team is. And we'll talk about that at a
20:37
Speaker 2: different point, but they're in a division there where they
20:40
Speaker 2: are stacking up some wins because they've got Taylor. They've
20:44
Speaker 2: not got a lot in terms of fitness and in
20:46
Speaker 2: terms of availability on that receiver core. And I think
20:50
Speaker 2: that's going to be absolutely vital in this game. And
20:52
Speaker 2: it's trying to stop that. You have that crowd involved there.
20:54
Speaker 2: You have that defense involved. You flip around on the
20:56
Speaker 2: offense a wee bit, you know.
20:58
Speaker 3: What are you hoping to see? Like I've got like a,
21:01
Speaker 3: obviously my opinions of the Steelers football I want to see.
21:04
Speaker 4: Yeah.
21:05
Speaker 3: There's maybe a bit of a boring offensive lineman viewpoint
21:07
Speaker 3: on it.
21:08
Speaker 2: I think, but mine's a bit more like, it's not obvious,
21:11
Speaker 2: but it's like, you know, you're playing at home for
21:14
Speaker 2: a start. You're under pressure. People are not disappointed, but
21:18
Speaker 2: they're gutted because, and I am as well, losing to
21:21
Speaker 2: the Browns, losing to the AFC North team. You have
21:23
Speaker 2: to pick yourself back up.
21:24
Speaker 3: It's the high, you know, the Bengals, the low of
21:26
Speaker 3: the Browns, you know, the emotional sway.
21:28
Speaker 2: It's the week by week.
21:29
Speaker 3: Crowd's got to get behind the team.
21:31
Speaker 2: Yes, and they will. And I've seen that firsthand against
21:33
Speaker 2: that Bengals team. I think that was a pressurizing situation
21:35
Speaker 2: because they had lost that game before. They were coming
21:37
Speaker 2: in and you thought to yourself, right, in the manner
21:40
Speaker 2: in which the team lost in week two, how can
21:42
Speaker 2: they pick themselves back up? And they picked themselves back
21:44
Speaker 2: up and the crowd got behind. And the crowd in
21:47
Speaker 2: the fourth quarter when the Bengals were trying to get
21:49
Speaker 2: down to win that game or at least tie it,
21:51
Speaker 2: they were phenomenal. And I think that is a huge
21:53
Speaker 2: factor on Sunday in regards to it's an earlier game.
21:56
Speaker 2: It's an early kickoff in Pittsburgh. Get behind the team.
21:59
Speaker 2: But also, you've mentioned it a number of times, not
22:02
Speaker 2: just this week, but across different weeks. It's complementary football. Now,
22:06
Speaker 2: the run game worked extremely well against Cincinnati across a
22:08
Speaker 2: number of different guys.
22:09
Speaker 3: And it started to work very well at the beginning
22:12
Speaker 3: with Warren in this game as well.
22:15
Speaker 2: And then it stopped a wee bit. So the thing is,
22:17
Speaker 2: if you see a repeat of that situation where the
22:21
Speaker 2: Indianapolis defense find a way to maybe stifle a wee
22:25
Speaker 2: bit of Warren a wee bit and Enrico Dowdle, what
22:27
Speaker 2: is Aaron Rodgers... and that offence going to do? Who
22:30
Speaker 2: is he going to target? If he's targeting, he seems to,
22:34
Speaker 2: just from watching so much tape, seems to really enjoy
22:37
Speaker 2: targeting Washington because we know the plays he can make
22:39
Speaker 2: and the way he can turn and that movement. But
22:42
Speaker 2: I would love to see Friar Muth get a bit
22:43
Speaker 2: more into it across the entire four quarters.
22:45
Speaker 3: I would counter that. Rodgers is actually thrown to everyone,
22:48
Speaker 3: which is nice to see. But I would counter that
22:52
Speaker 3: Washington and Friar Muth, for me, aren't getting anywhere near
22:56
Speaker 3: enough snaps, enough touches. And we came out in a
22:58
Speaker 3: lot of three wide receiver things there. And we had
23:02
Speaker 3: a five man rush and they just put pressure on a,
23:05
Speaker 3: we're going to go one-on-one man, tight man pressure zone
23:09
Speaker 3: on our receivers and let them try to beat us
23:11
Speaker 3: and give Rod, like put pressure on Rodgers to have
23:13
Speaker 3: no time. You bring those two big boy tight ends in,
23:17
Speaker 3: they can be there to help block, to help take
23:19
Speaker 3: off pressure. Yeah. I want to see Washington and Friarmouth
23:22
Speaker 3: getting more because when they're on, the defenses have to,
23:27
Speaker 3: have to pay attention to them. It's not just two
23:29
Speaker 3: big blocking tight ends. You have two athletes there that
23:32
Speaker 3: can also block.
23:34
Speaker 2: Especially if you're at the midfield point of the game.
23:36
Speaker 2: If you're around the midfield, don't be scared to give
23:38
Speaker 2: it to them and make those plays happen.
23:40
Speaker 3: You've got an offensive line that's built to go after people.
23:44
Speaker 3: It takes pressure off Rodgers. You don't want to see
23:46
Speaker 3: him getting sacked five times.
23:47
Speaker 2: But also as well, I'm sure they will on Sunday,
23:51
Speaker 2: they get to the red zone. I'm going to flip
23:54
Speaker 2: your point almost and say, if you need to use
23:56
Speaker 2: Washington and Frymuth as the blockers to allow the run
23:59
Speaker 2: game to open up or to allow, per se, Michael
24:02
Speaker 2: Pittman to get a touchdown against his old team, that
24:04
Speaker 2: would be quite a moment if it happened, wouldn't it? Yeah,
24:07
Speaker 2: it'd be fantastic.
24:08
Speaker 3: It makes a match. I'd like to see a bit
24:10
Speaker 3: more production from Pittman, but when he's on, they're blocking.
24:15
Speaker 3: They're big, aggressive guys and they'll block well. We're built
24:19
Speaker 3: to go beat the tar out of teams and I
24:21
Speaker 3: want to see us beat the tar out of teams.
24:24
Speaker 2: Well, it'll be interesting to see if we can't get,
24:27
Speaker 2: and I know Pittman will be up for it, if
24:29
Speaker 2: we can't get Pittman up for this against his old team,
24:31
Speaker 2: you know, and I've really enjoyed seeing him develop with
24:35
Speaker 2: his team since he was traded. Looking forward to seeing
24:37
Speaker 2: what he can do this Sunday. A couple of points
24:38
Speaker 2: for European fans, this game's six o'clock on Sunday. There's
24:41
Speaker 2: a London game beforehand with another Pennsylvania team which we'll
24:44
Speaker 2: not mention in this podcast. Even though you're wearing Trojan's
24:47
Speaker 2: green here, Mark, on this camera. What's the plan for you?
24:51
Speaker 2: I'm going to London and... in the press conference room,
24:55
Speaker 2: we've got the games on, so I'm going to be
24:56
Speaker 2: able to watch the game. And like, uh, the plan
24:58
Speaker 2: is get a taxi to the airport and watch the
25:01
Speaker 2: second or third quarter in the airport. A lot of
25:03
Speaker 2: fans will be doing that if they were to Tottenham.
25:06
Speaker 2: I've seen a lot of Steelers fans in the bar
25:08
Speaker 2: opposite White Hardin yesterday. What, um, what's, what's your double-debt
25:13
Speaker 2: plan if you could fuck off in half-time on the onwards?
25:15
Speaker 3: I'm, I'm, where possible, I am, put me in a,
25:18
Speaker 3: in a cupboard with a screen and, and leave me alone.
25:21
Speaker 2: Have you not got like a man cave set up?
25:22
Speaker 4: No.
25:23
Speaker 3: You, you know, uh, Man Cave, no, not set up.
25:26
Speaker 3: I'm very fortunate and my wife loves football as well.
25:29
Speaker 3: So we will sit and watch it. You're one of
25:31
Speaker 3: the lucky ones. One of the lucky ones. The good
25:33
Speaker 3: thing about the six o'clock game is the game finishes
25:37
Speaker 3: and the kids can stay up a little bit later
25:38
Speaker 3: and then bedtime happens between those games. But no, the
25:42
Speaker 3: afternoon game is good for me. Sunday's a nice relaxed
25:44
Speaker 3: day in the household. So they'll just be on the TV.
25:47
Speaker 3: I might not get to pay as much attention as
25:49
Speaker 3: I would like to the early game, just with young
25:51
Speaker 3: kids wanting attention.
25:52
Speaker 2: You'll be watching. That should be a clangor of a game.
25:54
Speaker 3: It'll be on.
25:55
Speaker 2: And obviously the Steelers will play the Eagles at the
25:57
Speaker 2: end of November. I'm going to that game. That's going
25:59
Speaker 2: to be an absolute clangor of a game. Eagles aren't
26:01
Speaker 2: having a great time either, so it'll be interesting to
26:03
Speaker 2: see what happens. These teams take time. There's going to
26:06
Speaker 2: be teams that are doing well now that won't be
26:07
Speaker 2: doing well in two or three months' time. Keep the faith, folks.
26:10
Speaker 2: Six o'clock this week. Six o'clock next week against the Bucks.
26:13
Speaker 2: The game is in Kennedy's in Steelers Station. Come on
26:16
Speaker 2: down for that. Tickets in the bio. And then a
26:18
Speaker 2: week after, an early start for all of us again
26:22
Speaker 2: in Paris. Have you, have you spoke to the family
26:26
Speaker 2: about getting to Paris or is it still a work
26:27
Speaker 2: in progress?
26:28
Speaker 3: I haven't spoken about going to Paris.
26:30
Speaker 2: You're going to Paris, Mark.
26:31
Speaker 3: Probably need to, probably shouldn't try and have that conversation.
26:33
Speaker 2: We all know you're going to Paris. I'm putting them
26:35
Speaker 2: under pressure on camera.
26:37
Speaker 3: Nobody share this with my wife. If I could take her,
26:42
Speaker 3: it'd be an easy sell.
26:45
Speaker 2: The great thing about Paris is you can fly in
26:47
Speaker 2: without it.
26:48
Speaker 4: Easy.
26:49
Speaker 2: Let me work on that for you.
26:50
Speaker 3: It seems like it'd be an easy conversation.
26:51
Speaker 2: I'll work on that for you. But seriously, 6-6 and
26:53
Speaker 2: then an early start for that game. It's a nice
26:55
Speaker 2: few weeks, folks, to be honest with you. Before we
26:57
Speaker 2: go here, I'm sure we're in agreement. I think the
27:00
Speaker 2: Cedars win this game. Based on, honestly, what I've seen
27:03
Speaker 2: in London against the Colts in regards to the performance
27:06
Speaker 2: across 60 minutes, I think that's going to be a
27:07
Speaker 2: huge factor. I don't think they're going to be tired,
27:10
Speaker 2: but I do... I'm going to be very honest with
27:12
Speaker 2: you here. I think it's... Not nigh on impossible, but
27:15
Speaker 2: I think it's going to be very, very difficult to
27:17
Speaker 2: stop a machine like Jonathan Taylor. And then if they're
27:19
Speaker 2: putting points up on the board, say if they were
27:21
Speaker 2: to put 14 to 21 points up, what do we
27:23
Speaker 2: do with Rodgers on the run? And on the flip
27:26
Speaker 2: side of that, what do we do whenever they don't
27:29
Speaker 2: handle off Jonathan Taylor on the second or third down,
27:31
Speaker 2: the longer second or third down? What do we do
27:33
Speaker 2: whenever Daniel Jones has the ball and has to throw
27:36
Speaker 2: that ball because he has not been good enough? I
27:38
Speaker 2: would take the Steelers here. 27-21 to win this game
27:42
Speaker 2: and go 3-2 and move on to Tampa Bay give
27:46
Speaker 2: us your thoughts yeah.
27:47
Speaker 3: No what I'm hoping to see is a lot less
27:51
Speaker 3: three wide receiver sets a lot more big sets and
27:53
Speaker 3: the offense putting together long drives and keeping their offense
27:57
Speaker 3: off the field so we have a really fresh angry
28:00
Speaker 3: defense coming on the play and the offense obviously if
28:05
Speaker 3: they can Keep consistent with feeding Warren, having the run game.
28:09
Speaker 3: I want to see the big tight ends in that
28:10
Speaker 3: they're big playmakers. You saw the touchdown to Friarmouth where
28:14
Speaker 3: two guys tackled Washington just because he was on the
28:16
Speaker 3: field and they, how do we stop him? We have
28:18
Speaker 3: to hit him before he gets the ball. I think
28:20
Speaker 3: those are the guys we really want to lean on.
28:22
Speaker 3: Great to see DK starting to come into his own
28:24
Speaker 3: as a deep threat. You know, Wilson.
28:27
Speaker 2: He's really developed. DK's done really well the last couple
28:29
Speaker 2: of weeks.
28:30
Speaker 3: And Wilson as an emerging vertical threat is again what
28:33
Speaker 3: you want to see from the young guys, but I
28:35
Speaker 3: would like to see more with the big double tight
28:37
Speaker 3: ends in, a lot more of that, and our offense
28:41
Speaker 3: just controlling clock, physically asserting ourselves and dominating, and get
28:47
Speaker 3: a nice 21-14 win out of it. I think we're
28:51
Speaker 3: very good for three touchdowns and control that clock, control
28:54
Speaker 3: that game time.
28:55
Speaker 2: We're over the 20-point mark anyway, so we'll both take
28:57
Speaker 2: that there. We'll see how we get on. Folks, obviously
29:00
Speaker 2: this game is 6 o'clock on Sunday, a nice early start,
29:03
Speaker 2: and we'll be back So look ahead to this big
29:05
Speaker 2: weekend in Dublin. The Bucks, they're not coming to Dublin,
29:09
Speaker 2: but we're going to have the watch party in Dublin
29:12
Speaker 2: in week six. Enjoy week five. If you're heading over
29:15
Speaker 2: to London and if you see any of us, please
29:17
Speaker 2: say hello. Maybe I'll bring a terrible towel with me.
29:20
Speaker 3: Oh yeah?
29:20
Speaker 2: Give to somebody to say hello to me in the
29:22
Speaker 2: airport or whatever on the way back. But really, really
29:25
Speaker 2: cool because I was talking to some lads that went
29:26
Speaker 2: from Dublin airport as well, from Cork airport. I think
29:29
Speaker 2: it'll be.
29:29
Speaker 3: A busy week now. You're going to have a lot
29:31
Speaker 3: of people to talk to. But just charge your social battery.
29:33
Speaker 2: Well yeah it was thanks to everyone that came up
29:35
Speaker 2: it was it was madly good crack but.
29:37
Speaker 3: Like Michael can chop a Guinness in three seconds.
29:40
Speaker 2: That's that's a great thing to say on a podcast
29:43
Speaker 2: I am in full work mode until Valentine's Day until
29:46
Speaker 2: we see that Steelers team in Super Bowl no look
29:48
Speaker 2: good crack really fun to see NFL fans come over
29:53
Speaker 2: to the IRC and have that much of an effort
29:56
Speaker 2: and I know so many Wednesday at Gamework Park next
29:58
Speaker 2: year and I know so many are going to Paris
29:59
Speaker 2: in a few weeks as well. So it'll be good fun.
30:01
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, it's, it's fantastic. And as we said, I
30:03
Speaker 3: always find it amusing. It doesn't seem to matter the game.
30:06
Speaker 3: If you support the NFL, you'll go to the game.
30:08
Speaker 3: You see all the jerseys everywhere, but it is nice
30:11
Speaker 3: to see more and more Steelers jerseys.
30:12
Speaker 2: I seen Terry Bradshaw jerseys, Ben Roethlisberger jerseys. I seen
30:16
Speaker 2: DK jerseys. I seen a lad that had Dublin in
30:19
Speaker 2: the back of his jersey.
30:19
Speaker 3: Saw a few Bledsoe jerseys at the last. It doesn't
30:23
Speaker 3: seem to matter. They're dusting them off from the nineties.
30:25
Speaker 2: They're coming back, man. They're coming back. Here, thanks so
30:28
Speaker 2: much for listening, folks. We'll be back in week six
30:30
Speaker 2: to look ahead to this big weekend in Dublin for
30:32
Speaker 2: the watch party, but also hopefully look back on a
30:34
Speaker 2: big Steelers win going 3-2 and hoping to go to
30:36
Speaker 2: 4-2 next week. Obviously presented by Aer Lingus and the
30:39
Speaker 2: Irish Steelers podcast. We will talk to you soon. Here
30:41
Speaker 2: we go.
30:52
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30:55
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30:59
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31:01
Speaker 1: non-stop route between Dublin and Pittsburgh. So whether you're heading
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Speaker 1: go Steelers!