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Bengals Recap, Ravens Preview · Steelers Country Weekly

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  Speaker 1: Today on Steelers Country Weekly, we recap the Steelers regular
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  Speaker 1: season finale loss at home to the Cincinnati Bengals, look
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  Speaker 1: ahead to their playoff matchup this upcoming Saturday night in
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  Speaker 1: Baltimore against the Ravens, and then we'll talk about some
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  Speaker 1: of our favorite sports cameos in pop culture, as well
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  Speaker 1: as the playoff picture.
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  Speaker 2: Overall.
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  Speaker 1: I'm Nick Detulio and is always joined by the world
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  Speaker 1: famous accountants Eric Vaminshowden, Eric, has it gone tonight?
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  Speaker 3: Oh? I'm doing all right.
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  Speaker 4: Obviously during our testing maybe I was a little spacey.
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  Speaker 4: So we'll see how I do. But you know, maybe
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  Speaker 4: maybe my game is a little bit crisper than the Steelers.
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  Speaker 4: But we'll have to go see and I'll let the
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  Speaker 4: audience be the judge of that.
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  Speaker 1: Well, the bar is set pretty low there, so I
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  Speaker 1: hope that I do hope that your game is a
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  Speaker 1: little crisper than what we've seen the last four weeks
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  Speaker 1: now out of the Steelers.
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  Speaker 2: But no, you make a good point.
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  Speaker 1: You have a good segue, as always for us, and
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  Speaker 1: we talked about it a lot last week. We both
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  Speaker 1: thought the Steelers were going to lose. We hoped we
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  Speaker 1: were wrong. We hoped that they would kick it into
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  Speaker 1: high gear, turn things around and learn from their mistakes,
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  Speaker 1: and as on the whole, they really didn't. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: there's a few things we can take away positively from
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  Speaker 1: maybe the defensive side of the ball, given the performance
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  Speaker 1: they put up against the Bengals offense, but for most
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  Speaker 1: of the rest of the game and the other aspects
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  Speaker 1: of the team, it was just kind of unfortunately, business
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  Speaker 1: as usual for what we've seen over the past month
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  Speaker 1: or so.
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  Speaker 2: I'd say.
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  Speaker 1: Looking at the game, the score was nineteen to seventeen,
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  Speaker 1: and I say the defense had some positives because really,
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  Speaker 1: after the holding the Bengals to one touchdown all game
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  Speaker 1: in the first quarter is pretty impressive for an offense
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  Speaker 1: that features Joe Burrow, Jamar Chase and t Higgins, and
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  Speaker 1: really as well as what you consider the score of
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  Speaker 1: the last time these two teams matched up, it was
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  Speaker 1: good to see that. You couple that with the fact
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  Speaker 1: that the offense really did the defense no favors at
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  Speaker 1: all in this game. Didn't do much in ways in
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  Speaker 1: way of moving the ball consistently getting downfield, so the
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  Speaker 1: defense was always on the field.
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  Speaker 2: It was a mess.
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  Speaker 1: Offensively. We can really get into the weeds if we want.
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  Speaker 1: But frankly, this was kind of a Murphy's Low game.
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  Speaker 1: It was kind of a game that we've seen on
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  Speaker 1: repeat the last three weeks. It was lots of shooting
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  Speaker 1: themselves in the foot, not making the most of the
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  Speaker 1: opportunities they were given. And surprisingly we had a rough
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  Speaker 1: game out of George Pickens too. He had one catch
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  Speaker 1: for negative one yards. He was targeted six times with
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  Speaker 1: three drops as well, so it was just odd to
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  Speaker 1: see them maybe not utilize him the best, but at
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  Speaker 1: the same time, normally he makes the most out of
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  Speaker 1: whatever opportunities he is given. We've seen games before where
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  Speaker 1: he's only gotten like five targets, but he's had three
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  Speaker 1: catches for one hundred yards.
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  Speaker 2: Not the case here.
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  Speaker 1: And then we also didn't see the running game get
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  Speaker 1: established either, saw a couple turnovers, and it was just
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  Speaker 1: not a good day for the Steelers outside of again
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  Speaker 1: a few positives that we saw on defense, which was
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  Speaker 1: mainly just the defense doing everything they could to try
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  Speaker 1: to keep the team in the game. Now, the team
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  Speaker 1: did have a chance to get a go ahead field
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  Speaker 1: goal at the end and ran was probably the worst
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  Speaker 1: two minute drill of the entire season. In the NFL.
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  Speaker 1: We saw some had play calls, a poor decision by
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  Speaker 1: Russ Russell Wilson to run the ball and not get
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  Speaker 1: out of bounds, wasting time on the clock.
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  Speaker 2: We saw Pat.
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  Speaker 1: Fryermuth, who had a pretty good game all things considering,
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  Speaker 1: I guess, drop a perfect throw on a fourth and
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  Speaker 1: long to end the game. And frankly, it was just
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  Speaker 1: kind of one of those things that didn't really surprise
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  Speaker 1: me after everything we've been through over the last month.
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  Speaker 2: So as you look back at.
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  Speaker 1: This game, Eric, what are some of your takeaways?
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean you mentioned I mean, he's the only
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  Speaker 4: positive in the whole entire team. He catches eighty five
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  Speaker 4: yards one touchdown on eleven targets, So to me, he
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  Speaker 4: was the iant said only silver lining. I will say
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  Speaker 4: the defense could have been a little better. You don't
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  Speaker 4: want your cornerback to be the leading tackler of the team.
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  Speaker 4: Corey Trice was. He definitely had a hard time. But
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  Speaker 4: one thing I will give the defense this, especially the secondary.
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  Speaker 4: Chase had a good game right ten yard or ten receptions,
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  Speaker 4: ninety six yards, one touchdown, But one Cavy I will
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  Speaker 4: say that guy always busted huge plays throughout the whole game,
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  Speaker 4: and the Bengals longest reception was nineteen yards. So that's
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  Speaker 4: what the Steelers defense is made of. Ben not break.
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  Speaker 4: Give your team enough chances to win. Look, Joe Burrow
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  Speaker 4: is red hot. I think we previewed eight games in
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  Speaker 4: a row going and fifty yards and three touchdowns. It's
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  Speaker 4: half a season of excellence. And they had three hundred
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  Speaker 4: and fourteen yards total. They had to do that by
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  Speaker 4: throwing the ball forty six times. They got an interception
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  Speaker 4: off of Joe Burrow. They actually Steelers led the turnover margin,
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  Speaker 4: which was part of the lip service that we heard
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  Speaker 4: from Mike Tomlin about losing the turnover battle, you know,
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  Speaker 4: but really, and we actually won the penalties and the
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  Speaker 4: Bengals one of four in the red zone. Yeah, so
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  Speaker 4: how did we lose this game? The offense just did
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  Speaker 4: not show up. I I don't understand George Pickens, as
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  Speaker 4: you mentioned, horndous game awful. I am absolutely perplexed by
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  Speaker 4: Russell Wilson.
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  Speaker 3: That two minute or two minute drill.
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  Speaker 4: Look, you got Boswell, who actually I just saw on
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  Speaker 4: Pro Football Focus got second team All Pro a kicker,
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  Speaker 4: to which.
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  Speaker 3: I thought was.
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  Speaker 4: If he's the NFL scoring leader. We don't understand the
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  Speaker 4: dude just hit a fifty four yard field goal.
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  Speaker 3: In this game.
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  Speaker 4: You get it on that side of the field, you
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  Speaker 4: win this game. Somehow we couldn't do that. We couldn't gain,
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  Speaker 4: you know, the thirty yards to give the best player
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  Speaker 4: out maybe second best player on our team a shot.
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  Speaker 3: And a lot of it.
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  Speaker 4: I think if you had to go back and said
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  Speaker 4: what was the most boneheaded move you can make a
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  Speaker 4: lot on that two minute drill, you could say George
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  Speaker 4: Pickens dropping the ball. You could say throwing it over
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  Speaker 4: the middle of the field when you have fifteen seconds
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  Speaker 4: no timeouts, right. I think really where it came down
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  Speaker 4: to it was, if I'm remembering it correctly, Russell Wilson
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  Speaker 4: with fifty ticks on the clock, he manages the four
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  Speaker 4: yard run, but he got out of the pocket. So look,
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  Speaker 4: most of the time you'll take the yardage, right, but
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  Speaker 4: when you're less than a minute, time is more precious
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  Speaker 4: than yard sometimes. And so I just couldn't believe it
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  Speaker 4: that he didn't throw that ball away. We've seen it
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  Speaker 4: now multiple times during this losing skid where Russ just
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  Speaker 4: doesn't make the right decision. We've talked about a few
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  Speaker 4: weeks ago. I think it was against the Eagles. He
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  Speaker 4: then tucket or slide inside the red zone to live
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  Speaker 4: another day and trust the rest of his team to make.
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  Speaker 3: It happen again.
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  Speaker 4: I don't know if it was trying to play hero
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  Speaker 4: ball what it was, makes another bonehead to move cost
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  Speaker 4: the team dearly put us in a horrible spot. He
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  Speaker 4: did throw a good ball to Firemouth, but I think
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  Speaker 4: that Firemouth was probably surprised that we're running a schematic
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  Speaker 4: tight end post over the middle of the field with
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  Speaker 4: no time out, So honestly, can't blame him. I wasn't
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  Speaker 4: expecting that either, because most likely if he catches that,
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  Speaker 4: we don't even have the ability to spike it because
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  Speaker 4: the kicking team is not getting on that field in
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  Speaker 4: that time.
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  Speaker 3: So just.
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  Speaker 4: Poor coaching, poor execution, particularly when it came to the offense.
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  Speaker 4: Nowhere in this league will you be able to win
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  Speaker 4: if your team has less than two hundred yards of offense.
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  Speaker 3: Done deal.
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  Speaker 1: So here's the actual breakdown by the timestamps of when
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  Speaker 1: that all that drama happened. On the final drive for
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  Speaker 1: the Steelers, I got.
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  Speaker 3: Through agony again. As you give us the details.
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  Speaker 1: Well, there's one really important part that I think you
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  Speaker 1: hinted at, but I want to be very clear with
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  Speaker 1: what happened here. It was first and ten at the
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  Speaker 1: Pittsburgh forty two, so obviously they've got a ways to go,
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  Speaker 1: but they're not that far from where they need to be,
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  Speaker 1: I think. And that's when Ross scrambles for three yards
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  Speaker 1: to get and he doesn't even get out of bounds.
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  Speaker 1: So that's problem number one, Problem number And.
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  Speaker 4: Do you agree he had every bit of he had
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  Speaker 4: every chance to throw that ball away. It's not even
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  Speaker 4: matter like he got tripped up and like trying to
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  Speaker 4: make something happen.
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  Speaker 3: He had clear spapes. He could have just chucked it
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  Speaker 3: out of bounds, right.
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  Speaker 1: He could have done that. I think he could have
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  Speaker 1: gotten out of bounds too. I mean I would I
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  Speaker 1: would prefer he just throw it away if something's not
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  Speaker 1: almost immediately there. But yeah, I do think while he
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  Speaker 1: was scrambling, I would have to go back and watch it.
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  Speaker 1: Not that I want to, but I really remember thinking,
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  Speaker 1: oh my god, he could actually get out of bounds
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  Speaker 1: and get five yards. And that's not that big of
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  Speaker 1: a deal because it wasn't like the play itself didn't
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  Speaker 1: take you know, fifteen seconds or anything. The problem was
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  Speaker 1: they he does that scramble and then it takes twenty
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  Speaker 1: two seconds for them to get another playoff, and guess
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  Speaker 1: what happens on the next play he gets sacked. So
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  Speaker 1: there's what that start. That happens at twenty four seconds.
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  Speaker 1: They call their time out as soon as he gets
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  Speaker 1: sacked with twenty seconds left, and that sets up the
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  Speaker 1: a third and twelve, which was the drop George Pickens
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  Speaker 1: pass that you referenced, and then there was the dropped
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  Speaker 1: drop pass by Friarmuth. So maybe this is just me,
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: and maybe this is just anecdotal. I don't really have
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  Speaker 1: any empirical data to support this, but I feel like
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  Speaker 1: almost every team we play is better about clock management
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  Speaker 1: than we are in these situations. And I'm not necessarily
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  Speaker 1: talking about when we call timeouts and whatnot, although that
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  Speaker 1: could obviously be better most games. I was actually pleasantly
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  Speaker 1: surprised with how they handled the timeout situation in this
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  Speaker 1: game in the second half. What I mean is it
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  Speaker 1: feels like every other team just knows what to do,
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  Speaker 1: you know, if their quarterback gets sacked or if the
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  Speaker 1: quarterback scrambles and can't get out of bounds, they get
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  Speaker 1: right back up to the line and they spike it.
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  Speaker 1: They don't waste twenty two seconds between plays when you
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  Speaker 1: are trying to save a timeout to give your kicker
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  Speaker 1: time to get ready, or for example, similarly, if there's
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  Speaker 1: a play that's really close that goes in your favor.
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  Speaker 1: I feel like the Chiefs, for example, did this for us.
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  Speaker 1: Did this against the Steelers too. There was a I
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  Speaker 1: forget what point in the game was, but they called
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  Speaker 1: a catch for Kansas City, even though the guy probably
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  Speaker 1: dropped the ball. They ran up to the line and
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  Speaker 1: ran a play. They just knew what to do. We
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  Speaker 1: don't have any of that. We sit there with our
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  Speaker 1: thumb up our butts, and then it takes almost the
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  Speaker 1: full play clock to run a plane no matter what
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  Speaker 1: we're doing. So of course the replay assis is going
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  Speaker 1: to come in if the other team doesn't challenge it.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, so I'm glad you brought that up, right. I
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  Speaker 4: kind of forgot about that blunder as well.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, it's not necessarily a time management issue, but
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  Speaker 1: it kind of goes hand in hand with just generally
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  Speaker 1: being prepared and having your situational awareness.
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  Speaker 2: So Yeah, that was that would be a little bit of.
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  Speaker 4: Time management, right because okay, so a lot like the
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  Speaker 4: two minute warning. These are type of things that, like
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  Speaker 4: you think they practiced throughout the week. Yeah, hey, we
• 14:03
  Speaker 4: get in this situation, situational football, if it's close to
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  Speaker 4: the yard marker, and you know it was that to
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  Speaker 4: the point that Tom and already took a time out,
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  Speaker 4: So time was a consideration.
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  Speaker 3: If it's a close type of thing you normally take.
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  Speaker 4: You reserve your timeouts for hey, we just hit George
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  Speaker 4: Pickens or friar Mouth down the field for twenty five
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  Speaker 4: yard dash.
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  Speaker 3: Dan Moore's gonna take five seconds to get there. Call
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  Speaker 3: it time out.
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  Speaker 4: You know, well, why are we calling a timeout is
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  Speaker 4: we just put the ball where we thought on the
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  Speaker 4: nose of the yard marker. Why why are we wasting?
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  Speaker 4: Why are we burning that time out? Because if we
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  Speaker 4: kept that time out, how important would that have been
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  Speaker 4: that when Russell Wilson had this boneheaded move, we.
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  Speaker 3: Could have called it time out.
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  Speaker 4: Then like again it goes, it goes a little bit
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  Speaker 4: of hand in hand, where like why did we we
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  Speaker 4: made this bonehead move at this point to where the
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  Speaker 4: point we could not reserve it for when we actually
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  Speaker 4: needed to, or the players don't feel like they are
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  Speaker 4: empowered enough where that they go through this enough that
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  Speaker 4: they have muscle memory to make the right decision when
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  Speaker 4: they need to do it. Now, you don't think that
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  Speaker 4: that's gonna happen with a thirteen year quarterback vet like
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  Speaker 4: Russ Wilson, that he's going to forget how to do
• 15:30
  Speaker 4: a two minute drill.
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  Speaker 3: I guess that Arthur Smith needs to like talk.
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  Speaker 4: To him like he's a rookie quarterback. But that's where
• 15:39
  Speaker 4: we're at right now.
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  Speaker 1: Well, and that's the thing that is the most frustrating
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: aspect to me, because even going all the way back
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: to the offseason when the Steelers made these two signings
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: at quarterback, there was always talk about Justin Fields has
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: more upside, But Russ's the veteran. He knows what to
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  Speaker 1: do right. That was literally it, and generally speaking, as
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: the veteran, that's what you're supposed to do. You're supposed
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: to know that stuff. When I look back at the
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: last couple of years of Big Ben's tenure with us,
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: you and I had disagreements on when it was time
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: to cut ties. I'm not going to deny that. But
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: the one thing that I will say that Big Ben
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: did better at the end of his career than Russ
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: is doing right now is I think he was still
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: better at making decisions and leading the team from an
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  Speaker 1: offensive standpoint. His arm was absolutely nowhere near where it
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: was before his injury in twenty nineteen, but he still
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: knew what he was doing. That's why the team was
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: able to start twelve and h in the COVID year
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: with or eleven and zero in the COVID year with.
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  Speaker 2: Really not.
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  Speaker 1: Far less talent than they've got right now, I think,
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  Speaker 1: but they had a smart quarterback there who wasn't making
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  Speaker 1: those kind of boneheaded decisions. This has been four weeks
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  Speaker 1: in a row where there's been one really big disaster
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  Speaker 1: play by Russell Wilson that yes, it's one play, but
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: at the same time, they've been really big plays that
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: have been significant mistakes that typically in this case lead
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: to losing the game or in the case of the
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: like the scramble against the Ravens where he fumbled it
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: instead of just sliding it like the three yard line
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  Speaker 1: that could have turned the entire game.
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  Speaker 2: Here, it's I don't want to say you got to.
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: Go back and forth between quarterbacks, because I don't think
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: that really helps anything either. But you do look at
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: that and you're like, Okay, well maybe Justin Fields is
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: going to be the guy they bring back next year.
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: Why I mean, if they're going to lose four games
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: to five games in a row with Russ anyway, And.
• 17:54
  Speaker 4: Actually that becomes a good point. I thought, Okay, the
• 17:59
  Speaker 4: whole point about like why why we we made the
• 18:03
  Speaker 4: switch to Russell was because we thought that Russell could
• 18:07
  Speaker 4: give us a little extra that Fields couldn't do was
• 18:12
  Speaker 4: which was to make the right decisions right. So we've
• 18:16
  Speaker 4: known that Russell. This isn't like brand new. It wasn't
• 18:19
  Speaker 4: like Russ had a bad game out of the blue.
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  Speaker 4: And you don't want to yank them because you know,
• 18:24
  Speaker 4: you don't want to think of it as like a
• 18:26
  Speaker 4: flash in the pan. Anytime you know someone's got this,
• 18:29
  Speaker 4: you gott to yank the cord. But there's I think
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  Speaker 4: there should have been talking halftime about should we put
• 18:39
  Speaker 4: Fields in even for if it's for a couple of drives,
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  Speaker 4: Like I just not to like completely. I think the
• 18:49
  Speaker 4: major thing is we don't seem prepared. They were not
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  Speaker 4: executing but at the same time, was Fields even prepared
• 19:01
  Speaker 4: at all to come into this game or did we
• 19:03
  Speaker 4: roll out Russell regardless of how poor he was playing
• 19:07
  Speaker 4: and how poor he's been playing, because we are too
• 19:11
  Speaker 4: lazy to prepare both quarterbacks that are competent, Like we
• 19:16
  Speaker 4: brought both of them in and it wasn't like Fields
• 19:19
  Speaker 4: with a disaster. There's just Russell provided that spark in
• 19:23
  Speaker 4: the middle of the season that we need it.
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  Speaker 3: Obviously that spark has faded.
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  Speaker 4: This could have been a really good momentum of like
• 19:31
  Speaker 4: maybe Fields lights it on.
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  Speaker 3: Fire and we go to the hot hand and we go.
• 19:35
  Speaker 4: With Fields into a you know, at least into the
• 19:38
  Speaker 4: playoff game where Ravens are second guessing do we have
• 19:42
  Speaker 4: to play against.
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  Speaker 3: Fields or Wilson?
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  Speaker 4: You know, now we just look like a floundering team
• 19:47
  Speaker 4: that has no sense of direction. Both of these quarterbacks
• 19:52
  Speaker 4: are free agents. Fields doesn't want to come back because
• 19:56
  Speaker 4: he got benched. We don't want Russell back because he's been.
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: Playing like dog crap.
• 20:03
  Speaker 4: And we again, we are a team and that has
• 20:08
  Speaker 4: no sense of direction. And again, I think it goes
• 20:14
  Speaker 4: a lot to coaching.
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: I saw something that Mike Greenberg was like, you know.
• 20:20
  Speaker 4: The viewpoint in Pittsburgh is completely different than the viewpoint
• 20:25
  Speaker 4: outside of Pittsburgh when it comes to Mike Tomlin.
• 20:28
  Speaker 3: But again, like I and a.
• 20:31
  Speaker 4: Lot of people say, things go well, people give Tomlin
• 20:34
  Speaker 4: credit when things still go well, head on the chopping block.
• 20:38
  Speaker 4: But there's gotta be some accountability that heads will roll
• 20:42
  Speaker 4: a little bit when you lose four games on a
• 20:46
  Speaker 4: promising season where we are now the highest spread in
• 20:51
  Speaker 4: the playoff divisional round, so we are the there's a
• 20:57
  Speaker 4: two and seventeen. Both sides of the bracket have a
• 21:01
  Speaker 4: less spread than we are right now, and that's because
• 21:04
  Speaker 4: they have little confidence that we can get it done.
• 21:07
  Speaker 3: And I don't understand why the spreads is not even higher.
• 21:11
  Speaker 4: It's ten points not to get ahead to the next week.
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: But it's just we're not doing anything right.
• 21:19
  Speaker 4: Well, I shouldn't say that defense made some marketing improvements
• 21:24
  Speaker 4: this game, so offense, offense is not.
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: Doing anything right.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and your think when you mentioned justin fields, the
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: one thing he wasn't doing was turning the ball over. Yeah,
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: I mean yes, we kind of knew that we were
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: going to get a little more aggressive aggression with the Rocks.
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: We were going to see some of those chances. But
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: it's not like he's throwing an interception on one of
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: those forty yard deep ball moon balls.
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: To George Pickens.
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: It's yeah, it's an interception on an out route against
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: the Chiefs in the red zone after you just got
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: the ball back from your defense. Or it's the fumble
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: because you don't want to slide or over here against Cincinnati,
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: the scramble that didn't get you out of bound. Those
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: are what I'm trying to say is if Russ had
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: an interception or two once a week or each game
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: and it was because it was like a third and
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: fifteen and we threw a deep ball to George Pickens,
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: we wouldn't care, right, We wouldn't bad. Not It's okay,
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: we expected that. The situation didn't really it didn't really
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: hurt us throwing an interception, and that that particular situation here,
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: it's you are actively being detrimental to your team, and
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: that's that's the problem.
• 22:48
  Speaker 3: Yeah, And then and listen to these stats.
• 22:51
  Speaker 4: Sense that Bengals game where he led it on fire,
• 22:54
  Speaker 4: and the previous game ahead against Cleveland, which we.
• 22:58
  Speaker 3: Last, but he still had a good game.
• 23:00
  Speaker 4: Right, So after that Bengals game on December first, where
• 23:04
  Speaker 4: he had four hundred and fourteen yards.
• 23:06
  Speaker 3: He's passed for one hundred and fifty eight one hundred
• 23:10
  Speaker 3: and twenty eight two seventeen, two of five.
• 23:14
  Speaker 4: And he's taken in the last three games, he's taken
• 23:23
  Speaker 4: twelve sacks. I mean, and again, like you said, you'll
• 23:31
  Speaker 4: take some of those negative plays if it leads to
• 23:37
  Speaker 4: a four hundred yard explosion. Right, Like Russ wasn't perfect
• 23:41
  Speaker 4: that game. He had an interception and two sacks against
• 23:45
  Speaker 4: the Bengals. He wasn't perfect, but the reason why we
• 23:49
  Speaker 4: won that game was because he was explosive.
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: We have been explosive. Yeah.
• 23:56
  Speaker 4: The highest average yards per past that he's had during
• 23:59
  Speaker 4: the streak I just mentioned was six point six. A
• 24:04
  Speaker 4: decent quarterback in this league throws above seven. So he's
• 24:08
  Speaker 4: gone five games now not throwing at at least average.
• 24:14
  Speaker 4: So a look, I'm not trying to throw it on Russ.
• 24:21
  Speaker 4: He does deserve a ton of the blame. But I
• 24:25
  Speaker 4: think that like the offense, it's Pickens in his attitude.
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: And and you know he he didn't execute the rush,
• 24:39
  Speaker 3: the running attack.
• 24:40
  Speaker 4: I don't think that they showed up uh in this
• 24:43
  Speaker 4: game either, And I think that you gotta tell there's
• 24:47
  Speaker 4: gotta be a lot of accountability when it comes to this.
• 24:51
  Speaker 3: This coaching staff.
• 24:52
  Speaker 4: I'm sorry, we always believe this point, and if people
• 24:56
  Speaker 4: like hate it because they always looked at Mike Tomlin's
• 24:59
  Speaker 4: non consecutive losing record, But no one wants to limp
• 25:05
  Speaker 4: into the playoffs losing four games in a row soon to.
• 25:08
  Speaker 3: Be five.
• 25:10
  Speaker 4: If it doesn't mean anything like our season ended one
• 25:17
  Speaker 4: week later than the Bengals, Does that mean that we
• 25:20
  Speaker 4: feel better about ourselves than.
• 25:22
  Speaker 3: The Bengals do right now?
• 25:24
  Speaker 4: No, Because the Bengals have Joe Burrow, they have a
• 25:30
  Speaker 4: guy who just got the Triple Crown in wide receiving.
• 25:35
  Speaker 4: They have a defensive end who is going to be
• 25:38
  Speaker 4: a second team off pro who is thirty years old.
• 25:43
  Speaker 3: What do we have to show for it?
• 25:44
  Speaker 4: We have a thirty five year old, decaying dinosaur quarterback
• 25:47
  Speaker 4: that's not good, defensive tackle who's thirty five, that wants
• 25:53
  Speaker 4: to win a playoff game, and we can't surround it
• 25:55
  Speaker 4: with any talent.
• 25:57
  Speaker 3: And we have a Hall of Famer and TJ Want
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: that never has won a playoff.
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: Game, right.
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: And with the Bengals too, Yeah, they would love to
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: have been in the playoffs. But I feel like you
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: have to be optimistic if you're them, not just for
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: all the reasons that you mentioned, all the pieces that
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: they have, but they had problems this year and they
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: addressed them and they ended the year on a five
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: game winning streak, literally the polar opposite of the Steelers.
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: And trust me, they have some bad losses too. That
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: lost to New England in particular at the beginning of
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: the year is atrocious. And what's funny is that game
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: ruined both franchises for this season. Because the Patriots no
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: longer have the number one overall pick, they fired their coach,
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: and the Bengals missed the playoffs and they won that
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: game they would have been in. So if you're a
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: fan of the Bengals, your trajectory is up. And if
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: you're a fan of the Steelers, I mean, I don't
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: want to say the trajectory is down long term, but
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: it's like, what here we are again in purgatory at
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: the minimum, right, it's it's flattened. We're coming into the
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: playoffs at ten and seven again, another rough ending to
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: the year.
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: And you know, again you belabored.
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: This point a lot in the weeks leading up to this.
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: You know, three games in eleven day stretch. These are
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: all very good teams, But who do you think you're
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: gonna be playing in the playoffs. We're not gonna be
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: playing the Cleveland Browns or the Tennessee Titans. We're gonna
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: be playing in this first round the Ravens, and if
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: we somehow managed to win that, odds are we're gonna
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: be pulling up to Kansas City unless the number seven
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: seed also wins.
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: That's the Broncos.
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: I don't think they're gonna win, but our consolation prize
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: if the Broncos managed to win and we wins, we
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: get to go to Buffalo. So these are things that
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: it makes me mad as a casual fan. And I
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: get that I'm not in the locker room. I'm far
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: from a professional athlete, so maybe we don't have any
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: room to talk, but I just don't understand how we
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: can see the same mistakes and the same lackluster performance
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: week in and week out, or why why guys even
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: have to get fired up to go out and play
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: football for a living in one of the most storied
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: franchises in the league. It just makes me mad as
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: the average Joe, knowing that I could never even have
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: anywhere close to that opportunity. But again, maybe that's I
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: don't want to get too poetic of that at all.
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: But and plus we still have to talk about this
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: game in Baltimore.
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: But I think this.
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: What we're feeling now and what we've expressed is a
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: pretty good summation of the entire four game stretch that
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: we have had to live through in the month of
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: December and into January twenty twenty five.
• 29:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: So there you go, After that long winded breakdown emotionally
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: and breakdown of the game, the Steelers fall to Cincinnati
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: nineteen to seventeen. The Bengals miss out on the postseason.
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: They did not get the help they needed. The Steelers
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: do limp into the postseason. They get to play the
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: number three seed Baltimore Ravens in Baltimore. So the Ravens,
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: similarly to the Bengals, ended the year very strong. They're
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: playing some of their best football really since the game
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: the first matchup against the Ravens, I would say, is
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: probably that diverging point where the Steelers ended up with
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: the win. But Steelers have been teetering down. The Ravens
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: kind of took that and adjusted and seem to be
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: much stronger now.
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: As it stamps. That was good for the three seed.
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: Like we said, Chiefs get number one, the Bills get
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: number two, Ravens get three. The Steelers were in play
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: for that prior to the Ravens game against the Bills,
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: and then the Texans got the four seed. So looking
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: ahead to this game, it will be in Baltimore, they
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: are the home team, They seemingly have all of the advantages,
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: except for possibly a few injuries that could hinder them
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: a little bit, but overall, they're the ones that the momentum.
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: They're the ones that are heavily favored to win. As
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: you pointed out before, so odds are against Pittsburgh and
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: it's a very high likely probability that this will be
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: the last game of the season for the Steelers.
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: So with all that.
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: Positivity, I just put out there, Eric, what are some
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: of your keys if the Steelers are going to go
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: into Baltimore and walk away with a win.
• 31:00
  Speaker 4: Yeah, Okay, it's very hard to say because the Ravens,
• 31:09
  Speaker 4: ever since losing to the Eagles on December first, their
• 31:14
  Speaker 4: closest game was against US.
• 31:18
  Speaker 3: Well, game that or not.
• 31:20
  Speaker 4: It made the Giants by twenty one, Texans by twenty nine,
• 31:24
  Speaker 4: and the Browns by twenty five. US we kept it
• 31:28
  Speaker 4: within a meager seventeen points. Well, what do we need
• 31:37
  Speaker 4: to do to keep it close? I'm just gonna just
• 31:41
  Speaker 4: go by close. We're not winning this game.
• 31:47
  Speaker 3: Look, Lamar is he probably this year.
• 31:53
  Speaker 4: Deserves MVP that he did I think twenty twenty three,
• 31:57
  Speaker 4: I don't. I don't understand what he got MV be
• 32:00
  Speaker 4: this season. Very hard to say he wouldn't. He's got
• 32:05
  Speaker 4: ten touchdowns for every interception he throws, pretty incredible, which
• 32:10
  Speaker 4: I think if you look back at that the games
• 32:17
  Speaker 4: that he's I think he's throwing like four interceptions in
• 32:20
  Speaker 4: the year, and I think at least two are from
• 32:24
  Speaker 4: the Steelers, if not three, which is pretty incredible.
• 32:29
  Speaker 3: So I think that's just the key is just.
• 32:32
  Speaker 4: Lamar does seem to have some off games against the Steelers.
• 32:36
  Speaker 3: I don't know what it is. I don't know if
• 32:38
  Speaker 3: it's the rivalry.
• 32:41
  Speaker 4: I don't know if it's like our defense is just
• 32:43
  Speaker 4: built for him, if he just has yips about us
• 32:49
  Speaker 4: having his number, so to speak, because you know, I
• 32:55
  Speaker 4: want to rehash. We have beaten the Ravens eight the
• 33:00
  Speaker 4: last ten times that we've played them.
• 33:04
  Speaker 3: So I think that's your key, is that at the
• 33:09
  Speaker 3: end of the day, we still.
• 33:13
  Speaker 4: We still kind of come up for this game more
• 33:16
  Speaker 4: often than nine.
• 33:17
  Speaker 3: But I just don't see it. You know, when we
• 33:23
  Speaker 3: first played them.
• 33:26
  Speaker 4: The Ravens were kind of going through like a little
• 33:28
  Speaker 4: bit of a of their law. They've obviously have corrected
• 33:33
  Speaker 4: ship and are probably the hottest team in the league.
• 33:39
  Speaker 3: I think that they played some low ly competition.
• 33:44
  Speaker 4: You know, the Texans have been taking a step back,
• 33:47
  Speaker 4: the Steelers been taking a step back, and they beat
• 33:49
  Speaker 4: the Giants in the in the Brown.
• 33:51
  Speaker 3: So I'll take some of that with a grain of salt.
• 33:54
  Speaker 4: But the only thing I can see that like we've
• 33:59
  Speaker 4: turned around in the past week that could then turn
• 34:03
  Speaker 4: into a token for Hope is the defense looked better
• 34:07
  Speaker 4: and we kind of held Joe Burrow a little bit
• 34:11
  Speaker 4: and tactically and say we kept him in check. You know,
• 34:13
  Speaker 4: he still had a decent game. But that's the only
• 34:18
  Speaker 4: glimmer for Hope. You gotta get over two hundred yards
• 34:21
  Speaker 4: there we go.
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: Ex fact, yeah, we.
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: What it's gonna come down to is the offense is
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: going to have to do much better than they did
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: the last two times they played the Ravens. You pointed
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: out that we did win the first matchup, but keep
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: in mind that was one of our games where we
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: won without scoring a touchdown. As much as I love
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: boz I, it's not realistic to continue to rely on
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: your kicker to win you games by scoring all of
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: the points. You can't do it. Yeah, So everything we
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: just hammered Russell Wilson on it's got to stop. It
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: cannot happen in the playoffs. We mentioned that you are
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: the veteran. That was your advantage over justin fields. It's
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: that you've been here. You know what you're doing, you
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: know how to make the right decisions, you know how
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: to lead. We cannot have any more of these bonehead plays.
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: I know I've been saying it every week, but I
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: hope you got it out of your system. I hope
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: you learned from it. I hope you apply what you learned.
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: So if the Steelers do that, and if the defense
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: plays about as well as they did against the Bengals,
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: who I think overall have a better offense, particularly in
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: the passing game. I think that there is a chance
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: for the Steelers to write the ship and walk away
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: with a win. But that's it really is the offense.
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: I'm going to just trust the defense. I know they've
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: had their rough shots here and there, but keep in
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: mind TJ. Watt wasn't in he he didn't get to
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: play in the playoff game against Buffet last year, so
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: I'm going to trust that he's going to come out
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: ready to go. Cam Hayward's been there, he knows what
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: to do. I'm hopeful, cautiously optimistic that that side of
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: the ball is going to be fine relatively speaking. I
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: just need the offense to show up, show up, do
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: your job. I think you can do it.
• 36:23
  Speaker 3: What is going up for you?
• 36:25
  Speaker 4: What do you think that the the offense needs to
• 36:30
  Speaker 4: do at a minimum.
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: To show up at a minimum, I think you need
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: to score at least at least two touchdowns because I'm
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: just going to assume that Boswell is going to be
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: kicking plenty of field goals anyway, so two of those
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: drives have to resulting touchdowns minimum. I do think two
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: hundred yards is also a minimum. Uh And when I
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: say minimum, I mean bare minimum because going back to
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: that Cincinnati game, the time of possession was thirty eight
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: minutes to twenty two minutes. That's a problem. You've got
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: to hold onto the ball longer too. You need to,
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: I would say with Lamar Jackson, you need to maintain
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: the ball for at least half the game. You cannot
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: give him the ball because you know he's got Dereck
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: Henry on his side too, and that's a problem. So offensively,
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: two hundred yards, two touchdowns, time of possession, I'd love
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: you to win it, but just try to keep it
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: at least half the time. And I would like to
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: say win the turnover battle. I expect there to be
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: some turnover from the Steelers, but you got to minimize it.
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: You can't have a turnover in the red zone when
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: you're marching to score a touchdown. I just I know
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: you asked for showing up and what the minimum is,
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: and I know that sounds like a lot, but you
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: have to remember where we've been these last four weeks too.
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: We haven't done any of that, so I don't think
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: that I'm asking for too much. Though at the same time,
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: it's two touchdowns against average defense. I guess you would
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: say definitely not up to the Ravens typical standards and
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: just not making poor decisions is what it comes down to.
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: I think, wouldn't you agree?
• 38:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah? I definitely agree.
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: All right, Well, all that being said, I think the
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: one advantage the Steelers have is it looks like Zay
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: Flowers might not be able to go. He's pretty banged
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: up from this last game, so they do have an advantage.
• 38:47
  Speaker 2: In that regard.
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: But again, the Ravens have all the momentum, they've got
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: home field. They definitely look like the team that should
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: have won the division from the beginning. All that being said,
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: I think I know what the answer is here. But
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: give us your prediction on the score for the game.
• 39:11
  Speaker 4: Oh gosh, I don't even want to think about it anymore.
• 39:13
  Speaker 4: So I'm gonna be pretty lazy. Exact same score of
• 39:17
  Speaker 4: how I lost the last.
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: Game, thirty four to seventeen. Okay, I I'm also going
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: to pick a loss here. I think that it won't
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: be thirty four to seventeen. I think it's if I
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: had to guess, I think this game is going to
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: be the Ravens are going to have a larger lead
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: and the Steelers are gonna cut it close. But it's
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: gonna be one of those too little, too lates where
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: they'll score at.
• 39:47
  Speaker 2: The very end. So it looks a little closer than
• 39:49
  Speaker 2: I was.
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: You said thirty four to seventeen, I'm gonna say thirty
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: one to twenty four.
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: Okay, So there you go.
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: Eric and I both have the Steelers ending the year
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: on a loss, on a five game losing streak, and
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: I guess the team's going to can kun pretty early
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: on in the postseason. So uh, looking at the playoff bracket, Eric,
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: I don't have the full bracket in front of me,
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: but just generally speaking, we'll make our official super Bowl
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: picks after the Steelers get eliminated, assuming they won't be
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: playing in the Super Bowl. But you said the Ravens
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: are looking like the hottest team right now. On the
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: NFC side, who do you like on in that conference?
• 40:52
  Speaker 3: You know, maybe it's like my feelings, I just want
• 40:58
  Speaker 3: the Lions to win.
• 40:59
  Speaker 4: Yeah, they probably still are the best team on that side.
• 41:06
  Speaker 3: I think the NFC is like a little awkward. I
• 41:11
  Speaker 3: I could see the Packers.
• 41:14
  Speaker 4: They exploded beat the heck out of the Cowboys last year.
• 41:19
  Speaker 4: If they get past the Eagles, I would not discount
• 41:22
  Speaker 4: them coming out of that that conference. And the Rams
• 41:27
  Speaker 4: are also like a weird team too. They they seemed
• 41:31
  Speaker 4: down and out. They looked like the Steelers at the
• 41:34
  Speaker 4: beginning of the season.
• 41:35
  Speaker 3: UH turned in around.
• 41:37
  Speaker 4: So but yeah, and AFC wise, I'll tell you what
• 41:45
  Speaker 4: two of the like two beleaguered UH fan bases that
• 41:49
  Speaker 4: need to one give me Lions and Bills in.
• 41:52
  Speaker 3: The in the Super Bowl.
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: I was gonna say the exact same thing. If Pittsburgh
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: is not going to be in it, let's get those
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: two franchises in and let one of them get their
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: first ring.
• 42:03
  Speaker 4: Okay, so happy for all of them. I have friend
• 42:06
  Speaker 4: that's a Lions fan. I've gone to Lions games before
• 42:09
  Speaker 4: with him. So if you need a pick from Mayo,
• 42:13
  Speaker 4: I'm going Lions then this year.
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: All right, we'll make it official after the first round.
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: But no, I've also been impressed with the Lions. They
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: just put down the Vikings, who is another surprising team
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: for sure. They're a fourteen win team that is the
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: five seed in the playoffs. They're the first fourteen win
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: team to not win their division because they went up
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: against the.
• 42:39
  Speaker 2: Behemoth that is Detroit.
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: So speaking about that, I just wanted to mention that
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: Detroit literally was playing this last week for the division championships,
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: so they do have the bye, but they played their
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: starters this last week in a meaningful game. They won
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: that game when all the chips were on the table.
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: And after what happened last year with their loss in
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: the championship game to the forty nine Ers that they
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: probably could have won. They don't want to jinx them,
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: but it feels like it's their destiny this year, right,
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: kind of like the you know when the Steelers went
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: fifteen and one and oh four and were the favorites
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: but lost, and then the next year they once they
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: got into the playoffs, because it was a gauntlet to
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: get in, but once they got in and made some noise,
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: it felt like destiny.
• 43:32
  Speaker 2: So there you go.
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: And I would also give the Bills the benefit of
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: that out for the same reason. They're a team that's
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: been playing hot overall. They're one of the not counting
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: the Broncos this last week. They're the only team that
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: was able to beat the Chiefs in the regular season. Obviously,
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: the Bills beating the Chiefs in the postseason is a
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: totally different story, but that's an I'm with you. That's
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: the matchup that I want to see should Pittsburgh fall
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: in this round or the next round. So there you go,
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: we'll see what happens. But our fun topic tonight actually
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: comes to us courtesy of Eric, who, for once in
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: our careers here as podcasters, Eric came prepared. I still
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: have yet to come prepared, but he sent me an
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: idea for a fun topic on Saturday after the game.
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: So he thought it might be kind of an fun
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: idea to talk about some of our favorite sports cameos.
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: And I don't know if the one you texted about
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: is the one that you're gonna mention here, but because
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: he saw a stealer in one of our favorite TV shows.
• 44:38
  Speaker 2: So Eric, I'll let you take.
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: It away if you want to mention some of your
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: favorite sports figure cameos out there in the pop culture world.
• 44:48
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Well, you know this came about because I was
• 44:53
  Speaker 3: watching The Office.
• 44:55
  Speaker 4: I needed some familiarity, I need some fun, some just
• 44:59
  Speaker 4: good old as Office.
• 45:01
  Speaker 3: I believe you're a.
• 45:01
  Speaker 4: Big Office fan too, and in it I did not
• 45:06
  Speaker 4: remember this, but Jerome Vetis Uh was in the episode
• 45:11
  Speaker 4: that night that I watched it, so uh, you know, I.
• 45:16
  Speaker 3: I thought it was.
• 45:18
  Speaker 4: Very telling, uh, very funny, and well, I don't think
• 45:23
  Speaker 4: that his overall cameo was a was super impactful or
• 45:29
  Speaker 4: you know, notable. It wasn't like it was like super
• 45:33
  Speaker 4: funny or super awkward or anything like that.
• 45:37
  Speaker 3: Just him being from Scranton, Pennsylvania.
• 45:40
  Speaker 4: Well like the show being in Scranton and it's you know, Pennsylvania.
• 45:45
  Speaker 3: Type of appearance made sense. I had to go cameo,
• 45:52
  Speaker 3: you know. I think it was very actual movie when
• 46:02
  Speaker 3: I was growing up. But Mike Tyson in The Hangover really,
• 46:08
  Speaker 3: you know, there's.
• 46:08
  Speaker 4: As funny, it's kind of the whole entire premise.
• 46:13
  Speaker 3: Of their crazy night out. So uh.
• 46:18
  Speaker 4: And then Mike Tyson with his he's just such an
• 46:23
  Speaker 4: interesting character. He's got like the miss innocent voice of
• 46:26
  Speaker 4: all time and one of the strongest right hooks and yeah,
• 46:33
  Speaker 4: that's kind of thought right notable criminal criminal also, but
• 46:43
  Speaker 4: it's just a very interesting pairing. I thought it worked
• 46:47
  Speaker 4: really well in the movie, and not even just so
• 46:50
  Speaker 4: much of cameos as much as they kind of made
• 46:54
  Speaker 4: made the plot around him.
• 46:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah. No, that's a good one.
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: I think the most famous one in Steelers histories where
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: the whole team pretty much showed up in the Dark
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: Knight Rises, and that was filmed in Pittsburgh at least
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: that portion, so at Hines Stadium or Heinz Field rather
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: you had I know, Big Ben was in it. Heines
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: Ward was the main one featured. He returned the kickoff
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: for a touchdown as the stadium blew up. Bill Cower
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: was the coach in the team in the film, even
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: though Tom wind had taken over at that point, So
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: that was I'm sure you heard the same jokes that
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: I did living in Cincinnati at the time, where that
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: was my favorite part of the movie. You're the only
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: time that I wanted Baine to win is when he
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: blew up Hines Field and the Steelers inside it, So
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: that was always a good one. Another Steelers relevant cameo
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: was in The Water Boy. I'm sure you remember that
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: one where you have you actually have two Steelers in there.
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: You've got Jimmy Johnson and obviously not a Steeler, but
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: and Bill Cower in the stands to scout and messing
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: with the Hillbillies behind him.
• 48:08
  Speaker 2: And Lynn Swan, who was.
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: Very good on the field reporter in real life, was
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: the on the field reporter for the Mud Bowl as well. So, uh,
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: that was always a funny one. I love that movie too.
• 48:21
  Speaker 2: And then.
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: I don't know if you can call it a cameo
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: kind of in the same mean that you said to
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: Mike Mike Tomlin The Mike Tyson and the Hangover wasn't
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: a cameo. But another nineties movie, ace Ventura, featured prominently
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: about the Miami Dolphins, so you had Dan Marino doing
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: his acting job when he got kidnapped by the the
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: bad guy or bad girl.
• 48:48
  Speaker 2: In the movie.
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: So that ace Ventura was always a really funny one
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: for me. That was Jim Carrey at the peak of
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: his powers, if you will. Yeah, but those kind of
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: comedies are right up my vein of what I like
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: to watch. So when you have cameos in there of people,
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: you know, especially when it's from like your favorite sports team,
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: that it's kind of a big deal, particularly when you're
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: younger too.
• 49:15
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: All right, Well, the one last thing I wanted to
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: ask you about before we sign off football related, but
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: not NFL related. We've got the college football semi finals
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: coming up. We've got Ohio State versus Texas, Notre Dame
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: Penn State. I'm going to ask you who do you
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: think is gonna win? And who do you want to win?
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: So let me hear your two answers rapid fire.
• 49:40
  Speaker 4: I think the Ohio State Buck guys will win. I
• 49:43
  Speaker 4: did not mean to throw that article out there. I
• 49:46
  Speaker 4: hate that they're they're trying to brand.
• 49:48
  Speaker 2: The agreed.
• 49:51
  Speaker 4: And I want Texas to win, being from Austin, well,
• 49:56
  Speaker 4: coming back from Austin being here since.
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: A no you turn trader on Austin.
• 50:01
  Speaker 3: You're gone. So that's that's what I want.
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: So I I think Ohio State is also going to win.
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: I think they've been really pissed off since the Michigan
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: game and it showed in the two games they've played
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: in the playoffs so far. But I think at this
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: point I'd like Notre Dame to win. They are the
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: only independent left, so they're the only one that's not
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: from the SEC or the Big Ten.
• 50:33
  Speaker 2: And I really like Marcus Freeman.
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: He's a guy from Ohio State but coached a couple
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: of years at our alma mater, the Cincinnati Bearcats. Very
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: likable guy, very smart guy. And I what can I said?
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: Just of the four teams left, I want Notre Dame
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: to get the win, So I don't know that it's
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: going to happen like we said, Ohio, the Ohio State
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: has been just lights out, but we can hope.
• 50:59
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 51:01
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's funny too because I had a lot of
• 51:03
  Speaker 4: friends never like texting after the Michigan game was confirmed
• 51:09
  Speaker 4: to be fired, which.
• 51:10
  Speaker 3: I think is asinine because.
• 51:14
  Speaker 4: He was like fifty and ten probably as the highest
• 51:18
  Speaker 4: win percentage as an active coach, and and they're confirmed
• 51:24
  Speaker 4: to be fired as the eighth best team in the country. Yep,
• 51:29
  Speaker 4: only I was only Ohio State and Alabama.
• 51:33
  Speaker 3: Can be that like delusionable delusional about.
• 51:39
  Speaker 4: That, But no, he's got his redemption to our going
• 51:43
  Speaker 4: that's for sure.
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: There you go, all right, Well, was there anything else
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: you wanted to hit on quickly before we sign off
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: for the week?
• 51:51
  Speaker 3: I should do it, all right?
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: Well, we will be back at least one more time.
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: Hopefully we're back for three four weeks, but we will
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: be here one more time after the Steelers' last game
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: of the year before we go into our off season schedule.
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: Fingers crossed. I hope we're wrong, but I don't know
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: if history is any indication. Next week's going to be
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: our season wrap up for the world famous accountants Eric Vaminshaden,
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: I am Nick Detulio, and this has been another episode
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: of the GameHouse dot COM's Steelers Country Weekly