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HR1: Weekend Reactions · In the Locker Room presented by Neighborhood Ford Store (Pittsburgh Steelers)

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: This is In the Locker Room with Rob King, Max Starks,
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: and Willie Colon on Steelers Nation Radio. Brought to you
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: in part by the Steelers Pro Shop. Get it direct
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: from the team at the Steelers Pro Shop at shop.steelers.com.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: And by your neighborhood Ford store. The F-150 is the
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: official truck of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: And thanks very much for being with us in the
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: locker room here on this Monday afternoon. With Willie Colon
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: and Max Starks, I'm Rob King. Thanks for being with
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: us again. The game was Thursday night. Clearly, Steelers losing 27-24. Willie,
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: I've been talked a little off the ledge. I was
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: dismayed when we talked on Friday. There were some things
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: that I didn't like. The fact that the team, when
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: they fell behind, 7-0, you know, the Browns were able
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: to score 21 unanswered points, and there were obviously some
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: issues that happened, tackling and some other things. You know,
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: when you think about the context, and I've been talked
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: off the ledge a little bit here, think about some
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: of the context of how difficult it is to win
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: Thursday night on the road, particularly within the division. I
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: don't think the Steelers have ever won a game on
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: Thursday night on the road within the division. The fact
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: that they battle back at the end, Um, you know, I, it,
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: to me, it's a busy, a bit of a disappointing
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: two and two record four games into the season, but
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: it's not like they're out of it. And it is
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: a very crowded AFC picture. Do you feel any better,
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: even a little bit better four days later than you
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: did when you woke up Friday morning?
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: Well, I feel better that from, from this standpoint, I
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: feel better that the game is over with, um, they've
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: had enough time to digest, uh, what happened, what transpired,
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: the good, the bad, the ugly. So I feel better
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: that it's behind us, but I don't feel better because
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: I still think there's a lot.
• 2:04
  Speaker 4: Of questions that need to be asked.
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: I think right now we just don't know what this
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: offense is, and we're starting now, we're in the month
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: of October, and now we're sitting here trying to figure
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: out what do the Steelers do well offensively, and I
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: don't know if we really have a true answer to that.
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: And so when you have a 43-year-old quarterback and you've
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: seen how much value he's been able to produce with
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: throwing the ball, I think the question is, like, how
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: do we take some of those bricks off of Aaron Rodgers' shoulders? And,
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: you know, I think our offensive line was forced to
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: grow up in front of primetime on Thursday night. And, yeah,
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: they took a beating a little bit. They gave up
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: five sacks, and Aaron Rodgers was knocked around. But, you know,
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: me and Max, you know, have been a part of
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: those games. And we know how much those games actually
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: mean to the development of your offensive line, especially it
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: looks like this offensive line is going to be the
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: five that's going to be moving forward. So it's a
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: growing moment.
• 3:03
  Speaker 5: It's a lesson.
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: It's something that they can learn from and grow from.
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: But nevertheless, man, we still don't know what the still
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: offense looks like. We continue to live in 11 personnel.
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: When I think the core of this offense is built
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: around heavy personnel in running the football.
• 3:19
  Speaker 5: And I think if.
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: We're able to run the ball more, that's going to
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: protect Aaron Rodgers. It's going to add structure to what
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: he can do well, which is, you know, dissect the
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: defense and then deliver.
• 3:31
  Speaker 4: The football on time.
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: But, you know, you talk about– and I just looked
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: at this too, Rob, as we were getting on air.
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: I mean, against the Pats, he dropped back 45 times.
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: Against the– excuse me, yeah, against the Browns, he had–
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: 40 pass attempts and five sacks.
• 3:47
  Speaker 6: Right.
• 3:47
  Speaker 5: So that's a lot.
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: So we got to figure out how we can protect
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: the old man, keep him from going AWOL, and really
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: feed Jalen Warren and.
• 3:59
  Speaker 4: Start premiering some of our running backs who we know
• 4:01
  Speaker 4: can be impact players.
• 4:03
  Speaker 6: Yeah, I agree with you.
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: And I do wonder on this short week, again, you're
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: looking for reasons why Jalen Warren doesn't get the ball more.
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: Because as far as I'm concerned, Willie, I'd love to
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: see him get 24, 25 carries one game and four
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: or five receptions out of the backfield. Look, I don't
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: know whether– I think there are concerns that he's not
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: the biggest guy and he plays with such reckless abandon
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: that you almost have to protect him from himself. You
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: didn't have Rico Dowdle out there, and so maybe– That
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: was a reason we'll see moving forward, especially if they
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: get Dowdell back. But I wanted to ask both you
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: and Max. I'm going to ask you this first and
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: then have Max jump in.
• 4:45
  Speaker 6: So two things.
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: It felt like, and it's felt like this for a
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: couple of games now, three games really, and going back
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: to the right side of the offensive line being different
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: in New England.
• 4:57
  Speaker 6: It feels like, and maybe this is me.
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: I want to ask your opinion, that the twisting and stunting,
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: has been an issue for the Steelers' offensive line to
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: pick up, whether that's a communication issue.
• 5:08
  Speaker 6: Or what have you. That's part one.
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: And part two, would it help a younger offensive lineman,
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: speaking of Max in particular, but that right side and
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: even the left side, you always hear that it's easier
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: for an offensive lineman to go forward than it is
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: to go backward, that maybe running the ball more would
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: help the offensive line in addition to helping out Aaron
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: Rodgers and keeping him upright when the pass rush does come.
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so for me, I think movement definitely hurt the
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: offensive line, but I think, I feel rather, I got
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: to stop saying that thing, I feel at this point,
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: like I said, this is a line that's getting to
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: know each other. Communication we knew was going to be
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: a factor, especially when communication is still kind of, you know,
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: you're trying to fill your way through it as you go,
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: you get confused. And communication has to be something that
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: all five of those, all five linemen have to see together.
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: I think against the Browns, man, it was just a
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: matter of they were seeing everything instead of seeing their keys.
• 6:05
  Speaker 4: And when you have, I mean, there's plays where you look.
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: At, you know, when the Browns are mugging up in
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: those A-gaps, there were some assignment issues of who they
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: were responsible for, who the running back was responsible for.
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: And so a lot of that, you want to kind
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: of iron out and get together because we know this
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: is a copycat league. What you can't stop, the next
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: team will do until you stop it. So it's... I'm
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: not worried about what they look like physically because I
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: feel like they will get better. I'm more worried about
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: the communication, their ability to understand what needs to be
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: done in crucial situations. And so the movement hurt because
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: they understood that if they can get this office line,
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: this young office line off levels, that they were going
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: to kind.
• 6:46
  Speaker 5: Of, you know, they're going to falter.
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: And we've seen at times during that game where, you know,
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: some of the left side was playing on the line
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: trying to pass off twists. The right side was trying
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: to get back, get depth, so things could kind of
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: clear out and they could pick up. So when that
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: five is kind of moving in that manner, it is loose.
• 7:05
  Speaker 4: For a crowd of pocket.
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: And, you know, it's one of the things that does happen,
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: believe it or not. But I think right now, from
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: a communication standpoint, that's where the Steelers fail.
• 7:18
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I think that's, you know, everything Willie said was
• 7:22
  Speaker 5: on par because, you know, you have to be able–
• 7:27
  Speaker 5: to adjust to what a team does best. And, you know,
• 7:32
  Speaker 5: that's film study. Maybe that's extra film study. You know,
• 7:35
  Speaker 5: I don't know. Or maybe that's watching film outside of
• 7:40
  Speaker 5: the watchful eye of your coaches for your own understanding
• 7:44
  Speaker 5: or with a buddy. You know, I think that also matters. Like,
• 7:48
  Speaker 5: you know, because at the end of the day, you're
• 7:50
  Speaker 5: a professional. You're accountable for your individual performance. It's not
• 7:53
  Speaker 5: a collective thing. performance that you are graded on except
• 7:57
  Speaker 5: for outside the public eye right and you know the
• 8:01
  Speaker 5: little extra that you can do to give yourself that
• 8:05
  Speaker 5: advantage that's what you do that's what that's what this
• 8:08
  Speaker 5: league demands of you essentially and so you know when
• 8:14
  Speaker 5: guys like hey the the o-line didn't do well it's
• 8:17
  Speaker 5: like okay well if i'm operating as one-fifth of this
• 8:21
  Speaker 5: unit Somebody has to speak up. Somebody has to say,
• 8:26
  Speaker 5: not again, not us. I'm tired of this. I'm sick
• 8:30
  Speaker 5: and tired of being tired, sick and tired. And that's,
• 8:34
  Speaker 5: and that's what, that's what it ultimately comes down. It's
• 8:36
  Speaker 5: that individual kind of moxie that you have to possess
• 8:41
  Speaker 5: to want to be great and not just kind of
• 8:44
  Speaker 5: figuring it out. And so, and I know this is
• 8:47
  Speaker 5: a tough task, especially to put on young guys, right?
• 8:50
  Speaker 5: But at this point, If not them, then who?
• 8:54
  Speaker 4: Right?
• 8:55
  Speaker 5: You have to ask that question. And you have to
• 8:57
  Speaker 5: have that kind of pissed off for greatness type of
• 9:00
  Speaker 5: mentality that needs to permeate throughout the room. Not just
• 9:05
  Speaker 5: in one guy. Not just looking at Zach Frazier or
• 9:08
  Speaker 5: Mason McCormick and now Brock Hoffman to get it done
• 9:12
  Speaker 5: for me. I've got to do it myself. I've got
• 9:14
  Speaker 5: to learn how to watch film. And if I don't,
• 9:16
  Speaker 5: go find somebody who knows how to watch film and
• 9:18
  Speaker 5: ask them to teach you how to watch film. It's
• 9:21
  Speaker 5: not that hard. And then if I need extra reps
• 9:24
  Speaker 5: after practice, go grab the guy who you think best
• 9:27
  Speaker 5: represents what you're about to go against. And rep against them.
• 9:31
  Speaker 5: And ask them, what are you seeing in my game
• 9:34
  Speaker 5: that makes them think that this is okay? Right? I mean,
• 9:38
  Speaker 5: that's ultimately what it comes down to. And we're not
• 9:42
  Speaker 5: saying this as old men from... you know, from a
• 9:46
  Speaker 5: thousand yard view. No, we lived this, we did this.
• 9:49
  Speaker 5: So it's not like it's something that's groundbreaking. Others have
• 9:53
  Speaker 5: done it before us. Others should be doing it after us.
• 9:56
  Speaker 5: And so that's where I think it comes down to,
• 9:59
  Speaker 5: like you said, the assignments like man okay there's a
• 10:02
  Speaker 5: there's a couple of things coming out of here that
• 10:04
  Speaker 5: um that i wasn't anticipating well that's what the game
• 10:08
  Speaker 5: of football is son and that's that's what we're gonna
• 10:11
  Speaker 5: have to deal with and that's what we're gonna continue
• 10:13
  Speaker 5: to push towards is we have to get comfortable with
• 10:17
  Speaker 5: being uncomfortable.
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: Max, is it easier for young offensive linemen to run
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: block than it is to pass block, or is that
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: an individual thing?
• 10:27
  Speaker 5: I honestly think it's easier for young offensive linemen to
• 10:30
  Speaker 5: run block because it's easier to go forward and to
• 10:34
  Speaker 5: be in control versus react. Proactive versus reactive. It's always
• 10:38
  Speaker 5: easier to be proactive because that's on you. Reactive is
• 10:43
  Speaker 5: I'm dependent upon them. So I always say that it's
• 10:47
  Speaker 5: easier for a young offensive lineman to run block versus
• 10:50
  Speaker 5: pass block because you get to dictate the terms the
• 10:54
  Speaker 5: terms aren't dictated to you and that's that's what happens
• 10:56
  Speaker 5: in pass protection you know you're a victim of what
• 11:00
  Speaker 5: the scheme is and what they're trying to do and
• 11:02
  Speaker 5: also work on your assignment with another guy and that
• 11:06
  Speaker 5: gets gets cleared away really easily when you are the
• 11:10
  Speaker 5: individual initiating the contact, right? Because the defender does not
• 11:14
  Speaker 5: know what the snap count is. He does not know
• 11:16
  Speaker 5: what the play call is. So you already have two
• 11:18
  Speaker 5: advantages on your side. And now they're the reactors. They're
• 11:22
  Speaker 5: the ones that are just trying to cause chaos because
• 11:26
  Speaker 5: their assignment gets blown up immediately the second you go forward.
• 11:30
  Speaker 5: And I talked about this, you know, when you have
• 11:32
  Speaker 5: a twist game, there's one penetrator, there's one looper. The
• 11:35
  Speaker 5: looper loses because he has to lose ground. guess what
• 11:38
  Speaker 5: a run game is doing? It's going to gain ground.
• 11:40
  Speaker 5: So if you catch them in a twist at the
• 11:44
  Speaker 5: right moment, you've already eliminated one of the pieces of
• 11:47
  Speaker 5: the equation that makes this tough and thwarts your ability
• 11:53
  Speaker 5: to create a new line of scrimmage forward. That guy
• 11:56
  Speaker 5: takes himself out of the play or spot and drop.
• 11:59
  Speaker 5: Those are the things that you have to be prepared for.
• 12:03
  Speaker 5: So yeah, I think absolutely run game is easier for
• 12:07
  Speaker 5: a young guy than it is to do pass protection.
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: So we'll see, again, because pretty much after every game,
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: Mike McCarthy said we need to run the ball more,
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: and we're seeing this drop back. As Willie rightly pointed out,
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: there are pass attempts, but there's also drop backs. How
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: many times did you drop back? How many times did
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: you intend to throw the football versus how many times
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: you ran the ball? And the effectiveness of Jalen Warren,
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: I would love to see the ball in his hands
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: more often. I will say, by the way, I just
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: wanted to point out, we're going to be taking phone
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: calls later on in the show, 412-919-1316.
• 12:49
  Speaker 6: We interrupted it last Monday.
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: But we will be taking phone calls throughout the course
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: of the season on Mondays, 412-919-1316. So I wanted to
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: get that out of the way. We're also going to
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: be talking, the Steelers have made a roster move We're
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: going to tell you about that coming up in just
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: a little bit.
• 13:08
  Speaker 6: There was one more thing.
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: As I look back at the tape, and I watched
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: it again this morning, if I'm looking at it, and
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: there were so many things. There's a missed field goal.
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: I don't know whether the snap was perfect or the
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: hold or anything, but you don't see Boz miss too
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: many 48-yarders. Of course, you lost by a field goal.
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: There was a sack that took them out of field
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: goal range. Again, there's some pass rush issues there. Hard
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: to tell whether Aaron Rodgers could have gotten rid of
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: that football. At the end of the game, I'm still
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: mystified as to why they didn't take a shot over
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: the middle with a timeout remaining. But I do want
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: to point out that there was a timeout remaining in
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: 10 seconds left. Kind of a little thing, but I
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: came away with a couple positives after watching this game tape.
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: I thought Mike McCarthy, at the end of both halves,
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: really utilized his timeouts well, was aggressive in using them
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: and understanding that We're going to try to get the
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: ball back and put some points on the board. Led
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: to a field goal at the end of the first half, Max.
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: And at least an opportunity at the end of the game. Again,
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: I'm not sure why. And as I looked at the,
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: you know, when we were watching it live, I wondered
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: if maybe the pass rush forced Aaron Rodgers out to
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: try to throw it down the field. But I just
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: think that's what he was doing all along. I don't
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: understand why they didn't run a slant or a cross
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: or something to either get closer to throwing one in
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: the end zone or Perhaps get yourself into Chris Boswell
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: field goal attempt range. So there were still a couple
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: things at the end of the game or throughout the
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: course of the game that I thought were not executed well.
• 14:42
  Speaker 6: But I did like it's a small thing.
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: We've heard clock management is always an issue, and people
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: criticize Mike Tomlin in that regard, rightly or wrongly. But
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: I thought Mike McCarthy did a really nice job utilizing
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: his timeouts at the end of each half.
• 14:58
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I think he did. I think, I think Mike
• 15:01
  Speaker 5: McCarthy was smart with them, but like you said, I mean,
• 15:04
  Speaker 5: it's all for not when the most critical time to
• 15:07
  Speaker 5: use a, to use a timeout, you know, so it's
• 15:10
  Speaker 5: rather moot when a critical situation happens and either you
• 15:15
  Speaker 5: forget or you don't feel comfortable, then there's a deeper
• 15:19
  Speaker 5: issue that we have to talk about.
• 15:20
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 15:21
  Speaker 5: And, and that's what's going to be analyzed. That's at
• 15:25
  Speaker 5: the end of the day, 10 seconds near midfield ish.
• 15:30
  Speaker 5: And it's a Hail Mary that leads to an interception.
• 15:32
  Speaker 5: And yes, in the moment, you know, it is easy
• 15:35
  Speaker 5: for us to say this in hindsight, but it's also
• 15:39
  Speaker 5: rightfully criticized. You have to criticize that because it was
• 15:44
  Speaker 5: a pivotal moment that you're, that you're, that you're atoning for,
• 15:49
  Speaker 5: or that you're having to justify because, you know, I'm
• 15:53
  Speaker 5: not going to sit here, you know, there's plenty of,
• 15:55
  Speaker 5: you know, Monday morning, you know, armchair quarterbacks out there.
• 15:59
  Speaker 7: That oh yeah all you had to do was just
• 16:01
  Speaker 7: do this this this this yeah yeah and i get
• 16:04
  Speaker 7: it but in those moments i mean we're leaning on
• 16:06
  Speaker 7: experience that you know and expertise that there was.
• 16:13
  Speaker 5: Another way right you know this isn't the mandalorian this
• 16:16
  Speaker 5: is the way there's only one way to do this
• 16:19
  Speaker 5: no there's a lot of different ways to do this
• 16:21
  Speaker 5: and so i think that's where guys kind of get
• 16:25
  Speaker 5: I would get frustrated, and I don't know if Willie
• 16:28
  Speaker 5: would have in that moment if it was like, so
• 16:30
  Speaker 5: this is our best option? You'd be thinking in the
• 16:32
  Speaker 5: back of your head. You probably wouldn't say it publicly,
• 16:33
  Speaker 5: but you'd be thinking in the back of your head, like, nah,
• 16:37
  Speaker 5: we could do this. Because I know where my gas
• 16:40
  Speaker 5: tank is, and if I've got to get on the Hayabusa,
• 16:42
  Speaker 5: I'll get on the Hayabusa to get on the line
• 16:44
  Speaker 5: to either spike it or we could call a timeout
• 16:47
  Speaker 5: really immediately. I mean, I don't know sign language that well,
• 16:50
  Speaker 5: but I can make a T real quick.
• 16:52
  Speaker 4: You know?
• 16:53
  Speaker 5: So... you know, and that's what happens, right? When you
• 16:56
  Speaker 5: have time on your hand, like we do, and we
• 16:59
  Speaker 5: can go back, we can watch and we can analyze
• 17:02
  Speaker 5: and we can perseverate about it. But at the end
• 17:05
  Speaker 5: of the day, you still have to answer for it.
• 17:07
  Speaker 5: And I think that's something we're going to, I hope
• 17:10
  Speaker 5: that somebody presses him on to ask him, hey, why
• 17:14
  Speaker 5: was this this type of way? And now that you've
• 17:17
  Speaker 5: watched the film more, do you think you could have
• 17:19
  Speaker 5: done this better? And there's nothing wrong with taking the
• 17:22
  Speaker 5: mea culpa, right? There's nothing wrong with admitting fault that, Hey,
• 17:25
  Speaker 5: maybe I should have done it this way. That's perfectly fine,
• 17:28
  Speaker 5: but don't dismiss it as though, you know, I'm smarter
• 17:31
  Speaker 5: than you. And, and I, and, and my, and this,
• 17:34
  Speaker 5: this was, this was all I had when we know
• 17:37
  Speaker 5: that there, that, that to be the latter.
• 17:41
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: Like I said, you know, I was gleaning, looking for
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: some positives in this game and, you know, some things
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: that suck out to me. I know that's not the
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: hugest thing. It's just that every week in his press conference, Mike, Tom,
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: when it seemed like because they played so many close games,
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: was asked about his clock management. That was a small thing,
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: but it gave him an opportunity. There's one other positive
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: that I wanted to point out. The Steelers also made
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: a roster move. We're going to be taking your phone calls, 412-919-1316.
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: Do the guys feel better or worse about the Steelers
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: after what transpired over the weekend? Lots to get to
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: when we continue in the locker room here on the
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: Steelers Audio Network.
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: This is In the Locker Room with Rob King, Max Starks,
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: and Willie Colon on Steelers Nation Radio. Brought to you
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: in part by the Steelers Pro Shop. Get it direct
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: from the team at the Steelers Pro Shop at shop.steelers.com.
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: And by your neighborhood Ford store. The F-150 is the
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: official truck of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: And welcome back inside the locker room.
• 18:49
  Speaker 6: Just dusting up a couple more things from that loss
• 18:52
  Speaker 6: on Thursday night.
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: Uh, before we put it in context around the rest
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: of the league, tell you about us to the signing,
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: take your phone calls a little bit later on at
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: 4 1 2 9 1 9 1 3 1 6. And, uh,
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: generally trundle on, uh, as we go out throughout the
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: course of the week, by the way, Jim Wexel back
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: with us in the locker room.
• 19:10
  Speaker 6: He'll be here on Wednesday. Uh, Jerry Dulac.
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: We joining us Thursday as well as Matt Taylor, the fine, uh,
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: really outstanding play by play guy for the Colts. I,
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: he's really, really good. Um, And on Friday, Mr. Matthews
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: will join us as well. So one guy I just
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: wanted to get to, guys, in looking back at the
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: tape that I thought really jumped out, and he got
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: increased playing time in the second half. And, Willie, that
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: was Robert Spears Jennings. I just thought, you know, rookie
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: seventh-round pick. We heard he was fast. You know, he
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: has all the measurables. It was strange that he lasted
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: to the seventh round, went to a big school in Oklahoma.
• 19:48
  Speaker 6: But he didn't. And I just thought he looked really,
• 19:53
  Speaker 6: really good.
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: A really promising sort of first effort as far as
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: playing a lot of snaps for Robert Spears Jennings.
• 20:00
  Speaker 6: And he had an interception. What were your thoughts on
• 20:02
  Speaker 6: what you saw from him?
• 20:07
  Speaker 4: Sir, he.
• 20:10
  Speaker 6: We seem to have some breaking up.
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: Max, why don't you weigh in on Robert Spears Jennings
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: as we try to get maybe a technical issue here
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: cleaned up.
• 20:20
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 20:20
  Speaker 5: No, I mean, once again, you know, we talked about
• 20:24
  Speaker 5: what he was in training camp, right, Rob? You know,
• 20:27
  Speaker 5: why was a seventh-round pick, quote-unquote, expended on him? It's
• 20:32
  Speaker 5: called a RAS score that they now use in the
• 20:34
  Speaker 5: NFL combine, relative athletic score. And his was off the charts.
• 20:38
  Speaker 5: I think he was close to like a 98 on
• 20:41
  Speaker 5: a scale of 100. Like his relative athletic score was there.
• 20:44
  Speaker 5: But there were some things in college, right? Missed a
• 20:48
  Speaker 5: couple tackles, sometimes a little bit too fast, out of place.
• 20:52
  Speaker 5: And he was on a fantastic defense with Oklahoma. I
• 20:56
  Speaker 5: had them in the playoff last year. And For whatever reason,
• 21:01
  Speaker 5: teams that don't do enough due diligence or they saw
• 21:04
  Speaker 5: what they needed to see and they had other issues elsewhere,
• 21:08
  Speaker 5: the safety positions, one of those like the running back,
• 21:10
  Speaker 5: they always feel like, oh, I could just wait until
• 21:13
  Speaker 5: later in the draft. Well, then you kind of get
• 21:15
  Speaker 5: a backlog if you're not taking these guys considerably. And
• 21:19
  Speaker 5: one guy's 15th-ranked safety is another guy's 25th-ranked safety. And
• 21:25
  Speaker 5: so you kind of fall through the cracks in some
• 21:27
  Speaker 5: of those situations, but I'm glad he fell through the
• 21:28
  Speaker 5: cracks to us Because what I see from him is
• 21:32
  Speaker 5: a willingness, a tenacity, and you see the chip on
• 21:37
  Speaker 5: his shoulder, right? Because he was a seventh round draft pick.
• 21:39
  Speaker 5: He plays with a little bit more zeal or vigor,
• 21:44
  Speaker 5: so to speak. And, you know, I loved what I
• 21:47
  Speaker 5: saw from him. I think he's showing you that, yes,
• 21:50
  Speaker 5: there are some depth issues, but he can come in
• 21:53
  Speaker 5: and play and you don't have a significant drop off. Yes,
• 21:56
  Speaker 5: he might not know every single look when guys go
• 21:59
  Speaker 5: into motion, but he understands his, his reads, he's willing
• 22:03
  Speaker 5: to communicate out there on the field. If he doesn't understand,
• 22:06
  Speaker 5: which I think is always the biggest thing for a
• 22:07
  Speaker 5: young guy, right? If I don't understand, I need to
• 22:09
  Speaker 5: say something. I don't care if the opponent knows it,
• 22:12
  Speaker 5: as long as I know it, I know I'm going
• 22:14
  Speaker 5: to do it. I know I'm gonna operate my job
• 22:15
  Speaker 5: at a higher degree of efficiency if I know. And
• 22:18
  Speaker 5: I think that's what kind of makes him a special
• 22:20
  Speaker 5: player and why, why, why he's, why he's playing so well. Yeah,
• 22:24
  Speaker 5: I'm back. I'm sorry about that, Rob.
• 22:27
  Speaker 3: Um, Listen, I just think the guy right now, Max
• 22:30
  Speaker 3: kind of alluded to it, he plays with the edge.
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: He's a wound tackler. I think you go back to
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: the game against the Browns when they actually benched Rayshon Jenkins, man,
• 22:38
  Speaker 3: for that young kid to step up. Considering prior to
• 22:41
  Speaker 3: him stepping in, man, he had only played one defensive snap.
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: And then Thursday, I think he had like 37 snaps.
• 22:49
  Speaker 3: I think he logged about 60% of the snaps after
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: he replaced Rayshon Jenkins on Thursday. So it just shows
• 22:55
  Speaker 3: that he He now earned the trust of the defensive staff, right?
• 22:59
  Speaker 4: They believe that when he's out there, they're a better unit.
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: And considering that the depth of that secondary is already dwindling,
• 23:05
  Speaker 3: we need some guys to kind of step up. I mean,
• 23:09
  Speaker 3: he's unexpected because of how he got put on rather
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: than coming from the seventh round. And now you look
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: at Deshaun Elliott, you want him to come back. But
• 23:19
  Speaker 3: for this young dude to emerge, man, you got to
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: feel good. I think right now– for the Steelers defense
• 23:26
  Speaker 3: as a whole, right? I think it's just about playing
• 23:28
  Speaker 3: four quarters of hard-nosed elite.
• 23:30
  Speaker 5: Football, and it's tough when you have the injuries.
• 23:33
  Speaker 3: It's tough when you have some of the things that
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: are starting to pile up, but on the back end,
• 23:37
  Speaker 3: we've been exposed over the last couple weeks, and now
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: you have this young dude step in, and now he
• 23:42
  Speaker 3: seems to not only be a willing tackler, but he's
• 23:44
  Speaker 3: a great communicator, and so at this point, you know,
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: it's about putting out the little fires, and I think
• 23:50
  Speaker 3: when you have A guy like this, you have guys
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: who can normally communicate but.
• 23:54
  Speaker 4: Make plays, man.
• 23:55
  Speaker 3: You know, those other– you know, like Max would tell you,
• 23:58
  Speaker 3: with some guys, they're thinkers, and then some.
• 24:01
  Speaker 4: Guys, you got to help think.
• 24:02
  Speaker 3: And I'm going to be honest, I was in between.
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: I was a thinker, but I would lean over to
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: Darnell or Kendall Simmons and be like, hey, man, what
• 24:11
  Speaker 3: do we got here?
• 24:12
  Speaker 4: And they would lead the way.
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: So I think when you talk about Spurs and Robert,
• 24:18
  Speaker 3: Spirits Jennings, man, when you watch him, he's a thinker.
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: He's a guy who's always going to be in the
• 24:23
  Speaker 3: right place. He's going to communicate. He knows how to
• 24:25
  Speaker 3: help others get in line. At the same time, he
• 24:27
  Speaker 3: knows how to make plays window-to-window when opportunity presents itself.
• 24:32
  Speaker 4: We knew about him in the preseason. I think we
• 24:34
  Speaker 4: all talked glowingly about him.
• 24:36
  Speaker 3: It was good to see him on a big stage
• 24:38
  Speaker 3: produce and show everybody what he's about.
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: He's only played four games, but Five games now, or no,
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: four games, I beg your pardon. But he's been a
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: standout on special teams. NFL's leading special teams tackler. But
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: to see him come in, the moment not be too
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: big for him and play the way he did. We talked, again,
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: for those wondering, hey, DK Metcalf played a good game.
• 25:02
  Speaker 6: He did. Roman Wilson, Jalen Warren. Look, we talked about
• 25:05
  Speaker 6: some of these guys.
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: TJ Watt, when they needed him, especially toward the end
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: of the game, after showing some emotion on the sideline,
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: came out and played his best ball. when they needed
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: him down the stretch. So yes, we, we talked about this,
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: just having seen the game again, sometimes you see something
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: different from what you saw the first time. And yeah,
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: I knew Robert Spears Jennings was, was there as a tackler,
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: but to see where he made the tackles and how, uh,
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: you know, uh, a lot of times it was, Hey,
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: they got a little crossing pattern. It's five yards over
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: the middle. Then it just stopped right down in there.
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: That was it came up, made a tackle. Uh, by
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: the way, he's a serious guy. Um, he, I think he's, uh,
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: he's got a, um, a background in, uh, I think
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: his parents were in the military. He writes down three–
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: Missy had this note for us– writes down three things
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: every day to try to improve upon himself and then
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: goes about trying to improve himself on those three things.
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: So he's a serious young man and good to see
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: him have a good game. Hopefully Deshaun Elliott will be back.
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: We'll find out more with Mike McCarthy. I think at
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: least a step in that direction today when he addresses
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: the media at 3 o'clock. So we'll push that down
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: when we know a little bit more. But he would
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: obviously be a big– guy to get back here. But
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: Tom Pellisario reporting and thanks to Missy Matthews for passing
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: this along. Max, our esteemed colleague and co-member.
• 26:27
  Speaker 6: Co-member?
• 26:28
  Speaker 5: I don't know.
• 26:28
  Speaker 6: What would be a tri-member?
• 26:29
  Speaker 5: Tri-member?
• 26:30
  Speaker 6: Anyway, of our broadcast group. Sean Murphy Bunting.
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: So Sean Murphy Bunting was part of Tampa's Super Bowl
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: team in 2020. He's a cornerback, longtime starter, pretty much
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: has been a starter his entire career, 29 years old,
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: suffered an ACL injury, missed all of last year. He
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: was on Tampa's practice squad, and the Steelers have nabbed
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: him with the injury news to Jamel Dean. We'll get
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: to the injury news in a moment, but your thoughts, Max,
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: on Sean Murphy Bunting coming in here and presumably, I mean,
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: you add him to the active roster, presumably he's going
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: to be a guy that can play for you at
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: outside corners.
• 27:14
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I think you have to find somebody. And at
• 27:17
  Speaker 5: this point, what's left?
• 27:20
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 27:21
  Speaker 5: You know, we're five weeks into the season and all
• 27:26
  Speaker 5: the injuries that have happened around the league, guys are
• 27:30
  Speaker 5: just scooping up whoever they can. And I think, you know,
• 27:34
  Speaker 5: any guy that has a pedigree or a resume and
• 27:36
  Speaker 5: is in a prove-it situation, you know, coming off of injury,
• 27:40
  Speaker 5: like what we saw with Asante Samuel Jr., right? You know,
• 27:43
  Speaker 5: you want to find Some guys like that, I think
• 27:46
  Speaker 5: about a couple of linebackers that we brought in. I
• 27:49
  Speaker 5: remember when Miles Jack came, and he was on a
• 27:52
  Speaker 5: prove-it type of deal. You want those guys who are
• 27:55
  Speaker 5: hungry coming in because you know that even though they
• 27:58
  Speaker 5: might not be up to speed fully, they want to compete,
• 28:01
  Speaker 5: and they also have a relative database of information from
• 28:05
  Speaker 5: experience that they can draw from. You're not grabbing a
• 28:08
  Speaker 5: college-free agent that might have went and played up for
• 28:12
  Speaker 5: the Toronto Argonauts, right? You're not getting a CFL guy.
• 28:16
  Speaker 5: You're getting a guy that had success as a starting
• 28:20
  Speaker 5: corner in this league, so he has confidence and knows
• 28:23
  Speaker 5: what confidence looks like, and he knows what the right
• 28:25
  Speaker 5: thing looks like and will speak up. So I like
• 28:28
  Speaker 5: the additional signing. You had to find somebody once we
• 28:32
  Speaker 5: traded Joey. And you needed to fill that void. And
• 28:36
  Speaker 5: let's face it, at corner, we've been really thin, especially
• 28:39
  Speaker 5: with the injury to Jamel Dean. So you need somebody
• 28:40
  Speaker 5: who can come in with experience and at least kind
• 28:43
  Speaker 5: of cover until you get guys back healthy and then
• 28:46
  Speaker 5: get up to speed.
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Willie, unfortunately, Jamel Dean is a guy because of
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: how hard he plays and plays with the reckless abandon.
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: He's missed a couple games here and there throughout most
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: of his career in any given season. Reports are he's
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: going to be out for a little while. And so,
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: you know, that's all of a sudden, you know, we
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: talked a little bit about this on Friday. You know,
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: you go into training camp, the way Asante Samuel Jr.
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: performed during OTAs and the way Mike McCarthy was talking
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: about him, thinking you're going to have a top-notch pair
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: with Dean and Porter and.
• 29:23
  Speaker 6: Then, you know, Jalen Ramsey, the multiple-time Pro Bowler and
• 29:27
  Speaker 6: All-Pro in.
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: The slot, and then behind those guys, you know, Echols
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: behind Ramsey and Asante Samuel behind the two outside guys
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: and a rookie you can bring along in Dale and Everett.
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: And now all of a sudden Joey Porter Jr. has
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: been traded and Jamel Dean is hurt. And now from
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: an embarrassment of riches, you're going and raiding other teams'
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: practice squads. It is a quick transition sometimes that you
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: have to make in the NFL.
• 29:55
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, that's just life in the NFL.
• 29:56
  Speaker 3: I think for the Steelers right now, it comes down
• 30:00
  Speaker 3: to how the guys they have, whoever's suited and booted,
• 30:03
  Speaker 3: you know, it's about getting those guys to figure out
• 30:05
  Speaker 3: what they do well. I think we could all highlight
• 30:09
  Speaker 3: the thing that hindered and still is secondary against the
• 30:11
  Speaker 3: Browns was their lack of communication and being on the
• 30:14
  Speaker 3: same page.
• 30:16
  Speaker 4: With all I said, when you get a new guy
• 30:17
  Speaker 4: in the building, yeah, he's going to be ready for
• 30:21
  Speaker 4: the fight, but you've got to get him up to
• 30:23
  Speaker 4: par about what's asked of him.
• 30:26
  Speaker 3: I think right now, you know, Steelers are playing a
• 30:28
  Speaker 3: lot of zones So they're protected in that regard. But,
• 30:31
  Speaker 3: you know, I think collectively from a defensive side, they
• 30:35
  Speaker 3: just got to be able to put out fires faster. And,
• 30:38
  Speaker 3: you know, we go back to the second quarter where
• 30:39
  Speaker 3: the Browns pretty much exploded for three touchdowns. You know,
• 30:43
  Speaker 3: they get off the field in some of those situations, man.
• 30:46
  Speaker 3: That helps the back end to be, you know, have
• 30:48
  Speaker 3: more legs later in the game. So overall, man, every
• 30:54
  Speaker 3: team's in this predicament. You know, no matter what game
• 30:56
  Speaker 3: you're watching, guys are going down left to right. You
• 30:58
  Speaker 3: turn up, you can turn on the chiefs game and
• 31:00
  Speaker 3: Raiders game yesterday, tight, you know, tight one thought and
• 31:03
  Speaker 3: running down the field, got a big ball boop, you know,
• 31:06
  Speaker 3: his ankles facing his foot is facing the other way.
• 31:09
  Speaker 4: Right. So you always a play away from losing a guy.
• 31:12
  Speaker 5: Um, it's just, it's.
• 31:13
  Speaker 4: About how fast can a guy get acclimated and we're
• 31:15
  Speaker 4: ready to roll.
• 31:20
  Speaker 6: Agreed.
• 31:20
  Speaker 4: Agreed.
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: And, um, The other injury, and by the way, the
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: injury report is presented by UPMC, the official health care
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: provider and health plan of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
• 31:32
  Speaker 6: Max, I think Derek Harmon has looked great.
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: He had back-to-back really strong games in New England against
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: the Bengals, came up with a big play at the
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: end of the game.
• 31:43
  Speaker 6: He's a first-round draft choice. He's a guy you want
• 31:45
  Speaker 6: out there.
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: Having said that, I think For the immediate term, because
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: of Joey Porter Jr. and because you've got a young
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: guy in Dalen Everett who you're trying to bring along,
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: the Dean injury I think is maybe more impactful for
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: the short term. Derek Harmon, clearly for the long term,
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: him being out reportedly again for a few weeks, we'll
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: hear officially from Mike McCarthy. But he's another loss. But
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: they do have a lot of bodies. You know, Sebastian
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: Joseph Day is a good veteran guy. Keanu Benton was
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: just signed to a big extension.
• 32:18
  Speaker 6: You have Y.A.
• 32:19
  Speaker 4: Black.
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: You have other guys that you can, you know, Rubio
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: hasn't been active. Joe Biddy hasn't been active. Maybe one
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: of those guys will be active this week. But I
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: think you have, for the present, you know, a little
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: more depth there perhaps than you have at corner. Although, again,
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: clearly Derek Harmon, when you have a first-round draft pick
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: invested in a guy, it's his second year. You expect
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: a big improvement coming. It's going to be a loss
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: without him there as well.
• 32:46
  Speaker 5: No, there's going to be a big loss. And, you know,
• 32:49
  Speaker 5: Derek Harmon started to come along. And when you talk
• 32:52
  Speaker 5: about that elite playmaking gene, he had it, right? Because
• 32:56
  Speaker 5: we saw him do it in the Cincinnati game. At
• 32:59
  Speaker 5: the ultimate moment, you needed a play. He came up
• 33:03
  Speaker 5: with it. Strip, sack, fumble, fumble, recovery. And you were hoping, hey, man,
• 33:09
  Speaker 5: you know, we got somebody, was injured at the beginning
• 33:11
  Speaker 5: of last season, and now... you know, injured here, so
• 33:14
  Speaker 5: now you need to find that next man up. And,
• 33:18
  Speaker 5: you know, the good thing about the D-line and how
• 33:19
  Speaker 5: they rotate and, you know, for the most part, you know,
• 33:22
  Speaker 5: we were always like, oh, man, you know, you need
• 33:24
  Speaker 5: six guys that can rotate consistently. Well, teams have been
• 33:27
  Speaker 5: playing us in sub, 11 personnel, three wide receivers, one
• 33:30
  Speaker 5: tight end, one running back. And so you've only had
• 33:33
  Speaker 5: to use two at a time. So you kind of
• 33:36
  Speaker 5: had a way to stem the tide and keep guys fresh,
• 33:41
  Speaker 5: but now you're going to have to depend on one
• 33:42
  Speaker 5: of your rookies. to come in until Derek Harmon is,
• 33:46
  Speaker 5: is back. You know, the good thing is you didn't
• 33:48
  Speaker 5: have to go out and get a guy like we
• 33:49
  Speaker 5: did at corner with Sean Murphy bunting, but you could,
• 33:53
  Speaker 5: you could go within your own well of reserves guys
• 33:55
  Speaker 5: who've been training. You've seen since training camp who are
• 33:57
  Speaker 5: in condition, who understand this defense and have plenty of
• 34:00
  Speaker 5: opportunities to watch the defense for the first number of weeks.
• 34:04
  Speaker 5: And now, you know, they're going to have to dress
• 34:06
  Speaker 5: and they're going to have to go earn their keep. Now,
• 34:08
  Speaker 5: you know, you stayed on the active roster and, At
• 34:10
  Speaker 5: some time, you know, your card's going to get pulled and,
• 34:13
  Speaker 5: you know, you're going to get that pop quiz. Well,
• 34:14
  Speaker 5: here's the opportunity to get your pop quiz and see
• 34:16
  Speaker 5: what you can do with it and see if you
• 34:18
  Speaker 5: can have a Robert Spears Jennings type of moment as
• 34:21
  Speaker 5: a rookie. That's why Mike McCarthy kept all these young
• 34:23
  Speaker 5: guys to get them experience on this roster versus keeping
• 34:27
  Speaker 5: some established veterans because you need to get them experience. Well,
• 34:30
  Speaker 5: now they're going to get that experience. So, you know,
• 34:33
  Speaker 5: I definitely hope the best speedy recovery for Derek Harmon,
• 34:36
  Speaker 5: but one man's fate can be another man's opportunity. And
• 34:40
  Speaker 5: so you have to be able to grasp that opportunity.
• 34:43
  Speaker 5: So hopefully either Joe or Rubio can come in and
• 34:45
  Speaker 5: fill that void that Derek Harmon left. I get it.
• 34:49
  Speaker 4: I think it's definitely next man up. And I agree
• 34:51
  Speaker 4: with you.
• 34:52
  Speaker 3: I mean, I mean, that's the genesis of our relationship
• 34:54
  Speaker 3: to Max, right? You went down and I was popped up.
• 34:57
  Speaker 3: But overall, I mean, I just hate it for Derek Harmon.
• 35:00
  Speaker 3: I feel like just when we start to kind of
• 35:02
  Speaker 3: drool and fall in love with a man, he goes.
• 35:05
  Speaker 4: Down, you know, talking about being injured last year.
• 35:07
  Speaker 3: You know, when he was able to get on, man,
• 35:11
  Speaker 3: it was– he was like, man, imagine if we had
• 35:13
  Speaker 3: this guy for the whole year, what this defense could
• 35:14
  Speaker 3: look like. And then going into this year, you see
• 35:17
  Speaker 3: splashes of how good he can be and how he's developing,
• 35:19
  Speaker 3: especially when you look at Cam. He was– we're shortly
• 35:23
  Speaker 3: starting to– you know, he looks like Cam is on
• 35:24
  Speaker 3: the back nine. And, you know, whenever he decides to
• 35:26
  Speaker 3: hang it up, he hangs it up. But we get
• 35:28
  Speaker 3: to test. He's not going to be playing for too
• 35:29
  Speaker 3: much longer. You want to see a guy to get–
• 35:32
  Speaker 3: to be out there as much as he can, not
• 35:35
  Speaker 3: just for a development standpoint, just so you can start
• 35:38
  Speaker 3: to see the continuity with some of the pieces you
• 35:40
  Speaker 3: know that's going to.
• 35:40
  Speaker 5: Be around, right?
• 35:41
  Speaker 3: And him with Y.A., him playing with Peyton Wilson, and
• 35:46
  Speaker 3: him playing with Jack Sawyer. You want to start to
• 35:49
  Speaker 3: see this young Steeler core start to emerge, and he's
• 35:53
  Speaker 3: damn sure that he's the thick of it.
• 35:55
  Speaker 5: He's the face of it.
• 35:56
  Speaker 3: So you just want to see him kind of– you
• 35:58
  Speaker 3: hate to see him go down this early.
• 36:00
  Speaker 4: Like Max mentioned, it's week five. Still a lot of
• 36:03
  Speaker 4: ball left.
• 36:03
  Speaker 3: I don't know when the Steelers' preseason game is– excuse me,
• 36:06
  Speaker 3: bye week is. But you hope to have him back
• 36:10
  Speaker 3: sooner than later, man, because he was playing really well.
• 36:14
  Speaker 3: You love the fact that he was able to kind
• 36:16
  Speaker 3: of be a finisher at the end of that Bengals game. But,
• 36:20
  Speaker 3: you know, this is a game where you would have
• 36:21
  Speaker 3: loved to kind of have him out there to just
• 36:24
  Speaker 3: put some high-quality stuff on tape.
• 36:25
  Speaker 4: And, you know, now he's out and, you know, the
• 36:28
  Speaker 4: next guy up, as Max mentioned.
• 36:29
  Speaker 6: Yep, agreed.
• 36:31
  Speaker 2: Okay, so what is this– What does what happened this
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: weekend do for the Steelers and our thoughts about the
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: Steelers as we try to put this in context? The
• 36:41
  Speaker 2: AFC is a muddled picture right now. There is some
• 36:44
  Speaker 2: clarity at the top, but very muddled in the middle.
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: We're going to talk about that. We're going to take
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: your phone calls, 412-919-1316. When we continue in the locker room,
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: here on the Steelers Audio Network.
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: This is In the Locker Room with Rob King, Max Starks,
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: and Willie Colon on Steelers Nation Radio. Brought to you
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: in part by the Steelers Pro Shop. Get it direct
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: from the team at the Steelers Pro Shop at shop.steelers.com.
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: And by your neighborhood Ford store. The F-150 is the
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: official truck of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
• 37:25
  Speaker 2: So Mondays are days that we're going to be taking
• 37:26
  Speaker 2: your phone calls, and that number is 412-919-1316. Did not
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: take them last week, but we'll be taking them Mondays
• 37:36
  Speaker 2: throughout the course of the rest of the regular season
• 37:38
  Speaker 2: and hopefully on into the playoffs, which leads us to
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: our first caller of the day. It's our buddy Juan
• 37:44
  Speaker 2: in South Carolina. Juan, how are you doing, my friend?
• 37:48
  Speaker 5: Hey, good morning, guys. How y'all doing?
• 37:51
  Speaker 6: Good morning.
• 37:51
  Speaker 5: Hey, good morning. Oh Lord.
• 37:56
  Speaker 8: I was working in, I was working in Cleveland and
• 37:59
  Speaker 8: I had to listen to these Brownies fans.
• 38:01
  Speaker 6: They told me they were ready and they were ready. Yeah.
• 38:07
  Speaker 6: Unfortunately they were ready.
• 38:09
  Speaker 2: Uh, Juan and you know, life on the road in
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: the NFL, the Browns may be a little bit better
• 38:15
  Speaker 2: than I thought they were, or than a lot of
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: people thought they were. I thought they were pretty good
• 38:19
  Speaker 2: as I've said all along. And, uh, You wind up
• 38:21
  Speaker 2: going 2-2, and can you imagine the first place Cleveland
• 38:24
  Speaker 2: Browns four games into the season? I'm sure they're enjoying
• 38:27
  Speaker 2: things up there in Cleveland.
• 38:30
  Speaker 5: Yeah, no one's seeing that coming.
• 38:37
  Speaker 6: And another thing.
• 38:39
  Speaker 8: Hopefully the Curses catch up with those guys because I
• 38:42
  Speaker 8: was seeing some radio with their fans burning Steelers jerseys
• 38:45
  Speaker 8: and terrible towels, so Hopefully the Curses catch up with
• 38:49
  Speaker 8: them because look at the Texans.
• 38:50
  Speaker 6: The Curses catch up with them.
• 38:51
  Speaker 4: They're 1-4 right now.
• 38:55
  Speaker 5: I hope so.
• 38:56
  Speaker 2: Juan, it is always great to hear from you, my friend.
• 38:58
  Speaker 2: Thank you very much. Appreciate it.
• 39:01
  Speaker 5: You know what, Max?
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: The locker room, we need guys like Juan in the
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: locker room. You know what I'm saying?
• 39:06
  Speaker 5: Juan has been incognito for a minute, and now Juan's
• 39:11
  Speaker 5: finally coming back around. I'm like, it's good to hear
• 39:15
  Speaker 5: his voice. Um, what, what have you been up to one?
• 39:19
  Speaker 5: I mean, that's the, you know, we didn't get, you know,
• 39:21
  Speaker 5: we haven't had the victory donut Mondays and all the
• 39:24
  Speaker 5: other stuff. I mean, that's, one of the things that
• 39:27
  Speaker 5: we miss about this locker room. You know, Juan was
• 39:30
  Speaker 5: our accountability partner. You know, he was the one checking
• 39:34
  Speaker 5: the weights, you know, back in the day with Wolf
• 39:37
  Speaker 5: and everything. So it's always good to have guys like
• 39:39
  Speaker 5: Juan in the locker room. Welcome back, bud. Yeah, Juan
• 39:42
  Speaker 5: sounds like he's from the Bayou.
• 39:44
  Speaker 3: Juan's from South Carolina.
• 39:48
  Speaker 5: I know. He's close.
• 39:50
  Speaker 4: He sounds like it. He sounds like he's from the backcountry.
• 39:52
  Speaker 3: You know, to be honest, man, I think it's, I
• 39:55
  Speaker 3: think one of the reasons why this loss is hard
• 39:59
  Speaker 3: to stomach is because when you, despite the ugliness, right,
• 40:04
  Speaker 3: and you tie the game and you got a legit
• 40:07
  Speaker 3: shot to win it at the end of the game,
• 40:09
  Speaker 3: obviously if Aaron Rodgers hits DK down the ball, field goal, boom,
• 40:14
  Speaker 3: we tie it up again and we got a dogfight
• 40:16
  Speaker 3: in overtime.
• 40:17
  Speaker 4: Nevertheless, I think the hardest part is the stomach.
• 40:20
  Speaker 3: I legit felt like even with the increase in talent
• 40:25
  Speaker 3: that the Cleveland Browns had, we were still the better team.
• 40:28
  Speaker 3: I thought we had the better quarterback. We had the
• 40:30
  Speaker 3: better defense. And no disrespect to Cleveland's defense, because I
• 40:33
  Speaker 3: do think it's very good. But I still think we
• 40:35
  Speaker 3: had the edge. And then we turned on too late.
• 40:39
  Speaker 3: I think as we move forward and we continue to
• 40:41
  Speaker 3: kind of turn the page.
• 40:43
  Speaker 4: And we look forward to playing the.
• 40:45
  Speaker 3: Colts, who we have up next, There has to be
• 40:47
  Speaker 3: an emphasis where this team doesn't unravel. And I think
• 40:51
  Speaker 3: that's the most thing. I think emotionally we unraveled and
• 40:54
  Speaker 3: then we came back together. Then we unraveled again and
• 40:56
  Speaker 3: we came back together. Like there's too much talent. There's
• 40:59
  Speaker 3: too much age. There's too much, I guess, experience on
• 41:03
  Speaker 3: this roster for us to not play four quarters of like, hey,
• 41:07
  Speaker 3: you're going to be like life in the NFL.
• 41:08
  Speaker 4: You're going to be in dogfights with teams that you
• 41:11
  Speaker 4: shouldn't be. And then there's sometimes the teams walk up
• 41:13
  Speaker 4: and they're like, hey, we're no pushovers.
• 41:15
  Speaker 5: Let's fight.
• 41:16
  Speaker 3: That's the NFL. That's what makes this game great. We
• 41:18
  Speaker 3: watched it all weekend, especially this past Sunday. When you
• 41:22
  Speaker 3: watch teams constantly step into buildings and they're like, hey,
• 41:25
  Speaker 3: we're not the same old XYZ.
• 41:27
  Speaker 5: We wear a new outfit.
• 41:30
  Speaker 4: I'm going to have to garner your respect. You don't
• 41:32
  Speaker 4: have to earn this respect. That's fine.
• 41:34
  Speaker 3: I think all the national news and everybody continues to
• 41:38
  Speaker 3: pick and look underneath the hood. Obviously, you lose a game,
• 41:41
  Speaker 3: which you just trade one of your best corners to
• 41:43
  Speaker 3: the Dallas Cowboys and And you start to see things like, man,
• 41:47
  Speaker 3: where is this team really at? I think the part
• 41:49
  Speaker 3: of the kind of the uncomfortableness about this team right now,
• 41:52
  Speaker 3: it feels like we're in limbo. We know we have
• 41:54
  Speaker 3: the makings to be a good team. We know we
• 41:56
  Speaker 3: have the makings to do what we need to do
• 41:59
  Speaker 3: when called upon. But at the same time, we feel
• 42:02
  Speaker 3: like we're not finishing games in a manner of finishing
• 42:05
  Speaker 3: opponents off in a manner where we're like, yeah, that's
• 42:08
  Speaker 3: who we are. That's what we've just done. On to
• 42:10
  Speaker 3: the next one. We're kind of in the state of like, yeah,
• 42:12
  Speaker 3: we're good enough, but we can do this, but this
• 42:15
  Speaker 3: guy's capable, but, and I think that's why everybody's still unsettled.
• 42:19
  Speaker 5: I think if you get.
• 42:20
  Speaker 3: Blown out in this game, you say, hey, all right,
• 42:24
  Speaker 3: the Browns has got one.
• 42:25
  Speaker 5: We took one on the chin, but we didn't.
• 42:27
  Speaker 3: Like we've seen, we saw Herculean efforts made And now
• 42:30
  Speaker 3: it's like, all right, what do we need to do
• 42:32
  Speaker 3: to make that a more balanced approach and a more
• 42:34
  Speaker 3: balanced attack when we go against teams that we should beat?
• 42:37
  Speaker 3: And credit to the Browns, the top of the division,
• 42:38
  Speaker 3: nobody gave them a shot. I damn sure didn't.
• 42:42
  Speaker 4: But the Steelers right now, I feel in my stomach, we're.
• 42:45
  Speaker 3: Better than what we've put on tape thus far. And
• 42:47
  Speaker 3: that's part of finding your identity with these upcoming weeks.
• 42:51
  Speaker 3: By the end of October, man, there should be no
• 42:54
  Speaker 3: question of what the Steelers can and can't do on offense, right?
• 42:57
  Speaker 3: And it's the same thing defensively.
• 42:59
  Speaker 5: I think right now when you talk about offensively.
• 43:02
  Speaker 3: We live in this 11 personnel, and I've mentioned it
• 43:04
  Speaker 3: as we started the show.
• 43:05
  Speaker 5: I don't think that's who we are.
• 43:07
  Speaker 4: I think that's what Mike McCarthy and Aaron Rodgers wants
• 43:08
  Speaker 4: to do.
• 43:09
  Speaker 5: That's who they were.
• 43:10
  Speaker 3: But I think we also got to think about what
• 43:11
  Speaker 3: they were during their heyday from a personnel standpoint. When
• 43:15
  Speaker 3: they were in Green Bay, they had a Jordy Nelson, right?
• 43:18
  Speaker 5: They had.
• 43:19
  Speaker 3: a great Jennings and a Donald driver and all those guys,
• 43:22
  Speaker 3: you know, now, and even when Mike McCarthy was in Dallas,
• 43:26
  Speaker 3: you know, he had a CD lamb and a really
• 43:28
  Speaker 3: good quarterback and Dak Prescott. So I think trying to,
• 43:32
  Speaker 3: you know, nostalgia can get you in trouble. I don't
• 43:34
  Speaker 3: know if anybody knows like snap, but there's a reason
• 43:37
  Speaker 3: why your ex is your ex, you know, and until
• 43:39
  Speaker 3: you realize like there's when you date her again, you're like.
• 43:41
  Speaker 4: Oh, you know, I don't know if we just did this,
• 43:43
  Speaker 4: but you.
• 43:44
  Speaker 5: Know, here we are.
• 43:45
  Speaker 9: And so it's– I think we got to– There has
• 43:49
  Speaker 9: to be more of a– I think there just has
• 43:51
  Speaker 9: to be more of a synergy approach to– what was
• 43:56
  Speaker 9: is was.
• 43:56
  Speaker 4: We got to discover who we are now.
• 43:59
  Speaker 3: And I think who we are now is a team
• 44:00
  Speaker 3: that's capable of running the ball with really good tight ends.
• 44:03
  Speaker 3: And we have a running back that's– who's a legit
• 44:07
  Speaker 3: dual threat.
• 44:08
  Speaker 4: He can not only run it, but he can.
• 44:10
  Speaker 5: Catch it off the backfield.
• 44:11
  Speaker 4: So I think we just got to start figuring out
• 44:12
  Speaker 4: what our strengths are faster than later. And really play
• 44:16
  Speaker 4: to those, man, because.
• 44:19
  Speaker 3: They don't need to be in dogfights. They're capable enough
• 44:23
  Speaker 3: of getting the job done with what they have.
• 44:25
  Speaker 4: They just got to find a way.
• 44:28
  Speaker 6: Okay. Hey, our thanks to Juan.
• 44:30
  Speaker 2: We're going to try to quickly get in our buddy
• 44:33
  Speaker 2: Circus George.
• 44:34
  Speaker 4: We got another one, Max.
• 44:36
  Speaker 6: One of our long-time callers. Circus George, if you're still there,
• 44:40
  Speaker 6: thanks for being with us in the locker room.
• 44:41
  Speaker 4: I'm here.
• 44:42
  Speaker 5: Nice.
• 44:43
  Speaker 3: I'm here.
• 44:44
  Speaker 5: Good morning, gentlemen.
• 44:45
  Speaker 6: Good morning.
• 44:46
  Speaker 4: I'm from sunny Sarasota.
• 44:48
  Speaker 6: Oh, sunny Sarasota sounds good. It's beautiful in Pittsburgh, though, man.
• 44:51
  Speaker 10: It's about 90 degrees today. It is.
• 44:55
  Speaker 6: By the way, you can print.
• 44:56
  Speaker 2: Today out and put it on a Xerox machine and
• 44:58
  Speaker 2: have it every day. It is incredible in Pittsburgh.
• 45:02
  Speaker 6: Anyway, go ahead.
• 45:02
  Speaker 4: I'm sorry.
• 45:04
  Speaker 10: I have so many mixed emotions about what I've seen
• 45:06
  Speaker 10: in the first whole weeks, although I'm not one of
• 45:08
  Speaker 10: these fans that say, oh.
• 45:09
  Speaker 5: I can't believe Rodgers.
• 45:10
  Speaker 10: Oh, I can't believe McCarthy.
• 45:12
  Speaker 4: No, no, no, no.
• 45:13
  Speaker 10: The players have to make the plates.
• 45:15
  Speaker 4: All right. Mr.
• 45:17
  Speaker 10: Rogers is not necessarily as sharp as he's been in
• 45:19
  Speaker 10: years past, but he's still a good quarterback. And I'm
• 45:21
  Speaker 10: not going to buy into the old man Rogers garbage.
• 45:24
  Speaker 10: I remember old man Brady winning a Super Bowl with
• 45:26
  Speaker 10: a pretty good box team. So it could be done.
• 45:28
  Speaker 10: He just needs some protection, needs some blocking. And guys
• 45:32
  Speaker 10: need to not drop balls. That would be a good plus.
• 45:35
  Speaker 10: But as far as the defense, I don't understand what's
• 45:38
  Speaker 10: wrong with the defense being gashed up to the middle
• 45:40
  Speaker 10: with runs and the poor tackling. I'm just scratching my head.
• 45:43
  Speaker 10: We spend a lot of money on defense, a lot
• 45:45
  Speaker 10: of good free agents, and got a lot of good drafting,
• 45:47
  Speaker 10: and I'm not seeing the dividends. And personally, I mean,
• 45:50
  Speaker 10: I'm not a football guy like you guys, but I
• 45:53
  Speaker 10: think Benton is not a real nose tackle for a 3-4.
• 45:55
  Speaker 10: I think Benton is more like an end. And we
• 45:57
  Speaker 10: need somebody, a plugger, in the middle of that defense
• 46:00
  Speaker 10: to keep the linebackers clean.
• 46:03
  Speaker 4: I don't know.
• 46:03
  Speaker 10: I mean, that's an opinion of a guy who grew
• 46:06
  Speaker 10: up in the circus, so not a guy who grew up,
• 46:09
  Speaker 10: though I did play football for fun, but that's neither
• 46:11
  Speaker 10: here nor there.
• 46:12
  Speaker 5: Anyways, I'm heading out west.
• 46:14
  Speaker 10: I'm heading to Vegas on Friday to go hiking in
• 46:16
  Speaker 10: Arizona and Utah. So wish me luck that I don't come.
• 46:20
  Speaker 5: Back in a body bag.
• 46:21
  Speaker 6: Hey, real quick, where are you going?
• 46:23
  Speaker 4: Good luck.
• 46:24
  Speaker 10: I'm going to go to Antelope Canyon, both lower and upper,
• 46:26
  Speaker 10: and to Bryce Canyon and possibly to the wave if
• 46:29
  Speaker 10: I can score an overnight permit for it.
• 46:32
  Speaker 6: Yeah, you have to get a permit.
• 46:33
  Speaker 2: That's a long hike up there to the wave from
• 46:36
  Speaker 2: what I'm told.
• 46:36
  Speaker 5: I'm ready.
• 46:37
  Speaker 10: I've been training for this for a half a year.
• 46:39
  Speaker 6: Phenomenal, man.
• 46:40
  Speaker 2: I hope you get the pass. By the way, Bryce Canyon,
• 46:43
  Speaker 2: I can't wait to hear the scouting report. You have
• 46:44
  Speaker 2: to call us and tell us how everything went.
• 46:47
  Speaker 10: This will be my fourth time there, and I'm picking
• 46:51
  Speaker 10: a different trail this time.
• 46:53
  Speaker 6: Phenomenal. That's awesome. Hey, Circus George, have a great time, man.
• 46:57
  Speaker 6: Thank you very much.
• 46:57
  Speaker 5: Thanks, George. We appreciate you calling.
• 46:59
  Speaker 6: We always do like it.
• 47:00
  Speaker 5: We hear what you think.
• 47:01
  Speaker 6: Yeah. So more accountability from the players, Max?
• 47:07
  Speaker 5: Yeah, no, I think it has to be. At the
• 47:09
  Speaker 5: end of the day, coaches coach players play, right? I mean,
• 47:11
  Speaker 5: that's what the old adage is. That's what the ethos is. And,
• 47:15
  Speaker 5: you know, I kind of talked about this, and Willie's
• 47:17
  Speaker 5: talked about this, like the onus has to come on you, right?
• 47:20
  Speaker 5: You know, we can get mad at, you know, you
• 47:23
  Speaker 5: can get mad at the schemes, and I'm sure, you know,
• 47:26
  Speaker 5: everybody had the videos on getting mad at the schemes
• 47:29
  Speaker 5: and players grabbing headsets, throwing down, and expletives that were
• 47:33
  Speaker 5: mouthed and assumed the wording was what it was. Still
• 47:38
  Speaker 5: got to go out there and execute. And then when
• 47:40
  Speaker 5: you come to the sidelines, work with your coaches. Not
• 47:45
  Speaker 5: against them. Work with, hey, no, I don't think this
• 47:48
  Speaker 5: is it. You know, hey, we need to do this.
• 47:50
  Speaker 5: You know, here's what I'm seeing, right? That's always the
• 47:53
  Speaker 5: biggest thing. Here's what I'm seeing. Now, how can we
• 47:57
  Speaker 5: take advantage or how can we change what I'm seeing?
• 48:01
  Speaker 5: And collectively as a group and a unit, figure out
• 48:04
  Speaker 5: what it is. Work together. Work with the coordinator, not
• 48:08
  Speaker 5: against the coordinators. Work with your coaches, not against them,
• 48:12
  Speaker 5: and you get into the smoke. Sometimes it is what
• 48:15
  Speaker 5: it is. I remember a couple times we came to
• 48:17
  Speaker 5: the bench, and Willie knows this. You come to the bench,
• 48:20
  Speaker 5: and you're like, hey, this is what we need to do. Well,
• 48:21
  Speaker 5: this is what we're going to do. All right, well,
• 48:24
  Speaker 5: how do we make it happen? I gave you my thoughts.
• 48:27
  Speaker 5: It got shot down. Here's what we got to do.
• 48:29
  Speaker 5: Here's what was decided, and you make the best of it.
• 48:33
  Speaker 5: You can complain all you want on the sidelines in
• 48:35
  Speaker 5: your head, But you don't need to physically emote. You
• 48:38
  Speaker 5: need to figure out how are we going to get
• 48:39
  Speaker 5: this done and move forward. And I think that's the
• 48:44
  Speaker 5: biggest thing as players, right? You know, you hope you
• 48:48
  Speaker 5: have the respect to be able to, that your voice
• 48:50
  Speaker 5: is heard in a lot of respects. But at the
• 48:53
  Speaker 5: end of the day, you know, you have to have
• 48:55
  Speaker 5: that compromising moment. And if that person is not willing
• 48:57
  Speaker 5: to compromise, well, this is where we're at. And sometimes
• 49:02
  Speaker 5: you can go against it in moments. I mean, we
• 49:04
  Speaker 5: had a couple of, You know, rebellious moments with, you know,
• 49:10
  Speaker 5: I guess. There's a statute of limitation up, right? Will,
• 49:13
  Speaker 5: we're retired. We're old guys, right, Will? Pretty much. Yeah. Okay,
• 49:18
  Speaker 5: so I can say it now.
• 49:19
  Speaker 4: Yep.
• 49:20
  Speaker 5: There was a couple of times when Todd Haley was
• 49:21
  Speaker 5: our offensive coordinator and he would call in a play.
• 49:24
  Speaker 5: We would look at Ben. Ben would look at us.
• 49:26
  Speaker 5: And we'd call a different play because we were like,
• 49:29
  Speaker 5: this is the better play. Especially when you have a
• 49:33
  Speaker 5: two-minute offense that's only right-handed and you're into the boundary
• 49:37
  Speaker 5: with the right formation on the right hash.
• 49:40
  Speaker 4: Guess what?
• 49:40
  Speaker 5: You need to go to the wide side of the
• 49:42
  Speaker 5: field if you're going to have trips receivers. So you
• 49:44
  Speaker 5: flip the formation. Like those are the things that you
• 49:47
  Speaker 5: just have to do, but it takes confidence with a unit, right?
• 49:50
  Speaker 5: Aaron has to trust the line. Line has to trust Aaron. Receivers,
• 49:53
  Speaker 5: everybody has, all 11 have to be in concert. And
• 49:57
  Speaker 5: when they do it, when you do pull the wool
• 50:00
  Speaker 5: over the eyes, you got to make it work. You
• 50:02
  Speaker 5: got to show that it works. But it's like, hey, listen,
• 50:06
  Speaker 5: don't make me look bad. If I'm calling this play
• 50:08
  Speaker 5: for y'all, don't make me look bad. You're like, all right, hey,
• 50:11
  Speaker 5: we're not going to make you look bad. You know,
• 50:13
  Speaker 5: it's like one in, we all in. And that's kind
• 50:17
  Speaker 5: of what happens at times. And so I think that's
• 50:20
  Speaker 5: where there might be a little bit of a misconnect because,
• 50:25
  Speaker 5: you know, Willie's referenced this a lot. PhD level with
• 50:29
  Speaker 5: Aaron Rodgers. Other guys struggling to get their bachelor's degree
• 50:33
  Speaker 5: right now. Some might even have a GED out there.
• 50:35
  Speaker 6: You know, so.
• 50:36
  Speaker 5: You got to talk to the guys you got. How
• 50:41
  Speaker 5: do you bring the PhD level philosophy into GED practical action, right?
• 50:48
  Speaker 5: And that's what you have to kind of understand here.
• 50:52
  Speaker 5: You know, when we did it, we were all kind
• 50:54
  Speaker 5: of the same, right? There was maybe a year or
• 50:56
  Speaker 5: so difference. Maybe the biggest swing was maybe three years. But,
• 51:01
  Speaker 5: you know, when you have Aaron Rodgers, who's 20 plus years,
• 51:04
  Speaker 5: and you have rookies out there, and you have second, third, fourth,
• 51:07
  Speaker 5: fifth-year guys, even the fifth-year guys still aren't to that level.
• 51:11
  Speaker 5: There's a 15-year gap. So you have to be able
• 51:15
  Speaker 5: to simplify it enough that guys can feel like they
• 51:18
  Speaker 5: are weaponized for action versus having to think critically through
• 51:23
  Speaker 5: things pre-snap. And so that's what they have.
• 51:26
  Speaker 4: To work on. Okay, hang on.
• 51:27
  Speaker 6: Hang on. Got to take a break. We're over.
• 51:30
  Speaker 2: Justin Miller is going to have my journalism card here
• 51:34
  Speaker 2: in a minute. Luckily, I don't have one. But anyway,
• 51:37
  Speaker 2: we're going to take a break now. We're going to
• 51:39
  Speaker 2: get your guys' thoughts in a moment. We're also going
• 51:40
  Speaker 2: to take more phone calls should you want to.
• 51:42
  Speaker 4: 412-919-1316.
• 51:43
  Speaker 2: We continue in the locker room here on the Steelers
• 51:47
  Speaker 2: Audio Network.