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HR2: Around the League · In the Locker Room presented by Neighborhood Ford Store (Pittsburgh Steelers)

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: This is In the Locker Room with Rob King, Max Starks,
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: and Willie Colon on Steelers Nation Radio. Brought to you
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: in part by the Steelers Pro Shop. Get it direct
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: from the team at the Steelers Pro Shop at shop.steelers.com.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: And by your neighborhood Ford store. The F-150 is the
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: official truck of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: Phone ringing.
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: Hour number two underway here inside the locker room. Optimus,
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: appreciate you swinging by to let us know this.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: Is a power hour.
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: And I kind of skipped on that. I almost hiccuped
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: and talked through that one. So it did not come
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: over as well as I would have liked.
• 0:49
  Speaker 4: Power hour time.
• 0:50
  Speaker 5: There we go.
• 0:52
  Speaker 4: Had to pop it. Had to pop it a little bit.
• 0:54
  Speaker 5: Hot mic. Okay.
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: It's popped.
• 0:58
  Speaker 6: So, guys, I just wanted to follow up on this
• 1:01
  Speaker 6: conversation one more time because I just it's an important conversation. Like,
• 1:05
  Speaker 6: you know, where, where are they going here? Now you're reevaluating.
• 1:09
  Speaker 6: We've talked a little bit about the fundamentals and, and
• 1:13
  Speaker 6: some of the other things, and that's leading us into,
• 1:17
  Speaker 6: you know, playing a certain way. And, you know, Mike McCarthy,
• 1:20
  Speaker 6: you know, kind of bristled when, when, when he said,
• 1:22
  Speaker 6: you know, Hey, not being physical.
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: And we've talked about this.
• 1:26
  Speaker 6: He, you know, going back to his days with the Cowboys,
• 1:28
  Speaker 6: he ran the ball more than they were running it
• 1:30
  Speaker 6: here in Pittsburgh. So, Max, I mean, the two things
• 1:35
  Speaker 6: I see, and Willie mentioned the gang tackling on defense,
• 1:38
  Speaker 6: but I just wonder, you know, when you think about
• 1:41
  Speaker 6: the heritage of Steelers football, yes, running the football more
• 1:46
  Speaker 6: with an offensive line that's young and wants to move forward,
• 1:50
  Speaker 6: and Mike McCarthy says he wants to run the ball more,
• 1:52
  Speaker 6: that would seem like a really good way to help
• 1:55
  Speaker 6: set the attitude on offense. And maybe, I don't know,
• 1:58
  Speaker 6: I'm just spitballing here, blitzing more? You know, making the
• 2:02
  Speaker 6: quarterback uncomfortable, that seems to have been a hallmark of Steelers'
• 2:06
  Speaker 6: defenses in the past too.
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: Maybe trying to set a tone. I don't know.
• 2:09
  Speaker 6: I mean, look, I'm more interested in winning a game
• 2:12
  Speaker 6: than setting a tone, but maybe those two things would
• 2:15
  Speaker 6: help the Steelers here a little bit.
• 2:16
  Speaker 5: I don't know.
• 2:16
  Speaker 6: Your thoughts on how you turn these thoughts of fundamentals
• 2:21
  Speaker 6: and getting better at fundamentals into the right attitude that
• 2:24
  Speaker 6: you want to play with come Sunday.
• 2:27
  Speaker 5: Call the run, run the run. Okay. Okay.
• 2:31
  Speaker 4: Call the run, run the run. And in practice, rep
• 2:34
  Speaker 4: that run. Like, it's not hard. And develop an identity.
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: Figure out what, you know, when you watch the film,
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: what do our guys do best at? Are they a
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: better duo team? Are they a better counter team? Are
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: they a better inside zone team? Outside zone? Toss zone?
• 2:53
  Speaker 4: You know, is it cutback?
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: You know, or is it one where you just want to,
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: get everything going one direction, and have Jalen Warren cut
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: back to the backside. You know, we had plays, and
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: Willie can talk about this as well. You know, we
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: had ride 34 and 35. That was the base off
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: of that, right? That was a standard inside zone. Hey,
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: we're going to get on this little short train track,
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: you know, bring your caboose, and we're going more north
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: and south, but we're doing it on a zone track angle.
• 3:22
  Speaker 4: Then we had, oh, it was a 3-4 team? Okay,
• 3:25
  Speaker 4: ride 34 and 35.
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: Jackie which means you had a lead blocker going to
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: the backside jack backer that's a pre-design show them ride
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: and come back in a pre-design kind of lead to
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: the backside backer and have a natural cutback made into
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: it there's ways to do it and you're running the
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: same formation same look changing one block and everybody else
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: looks the same and it gets your backers in a
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: position where they have to make a decision and whatever
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: decision they make it's not going to be the right
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: decision so There's ways of doing that, but it takes
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: repping ride 34 to make sure that it looks the same.
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: So then when you call Jackie, now it's an out
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: call on the backside. You leave in the Jack instead
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: of working that backside duo block or, you know, well,
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: we called it single, double, triple, whether you work one
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: of those to the inside back or leave the outside guy.
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: Now you're blocking that outside guy and leaving, leaving the
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: second level defender in a one-on-one with the fullback. Those
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: are the things that you can simply do. That can
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: make it easy for your offensive side of the ball. Now, defensively,
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: we've talked about tackling ad nauseum. We've talked about how
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: you need to communicate. But let your A players play
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: their A games. Let your A players... What does T.J.
• 4:40
  Speaker 4: Watt do well? T.J.
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: Watt creates havoc. Front side or back side. Put him
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: in a position where he can create havoc.
• 4:49
  Speaker 5: Right?
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: Keanu Benton. Take him off of the nose. Put him
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: in the three where you had him slotted when we
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: got those... really pretty rosters at the beginning of the year.
• 4:59
  Speaker 4: Why is Y.A. Black not playing more nose? Why does
• 5:03
  Speaker 4: he have a limited amount of snap counts?
• 5:04
  Speaker 5: Even that, if Y.A.
• 5:05
  Speaker 7: Can't do it, start getting Gabriel in there.
• 5:09
  Speaker 5: Yeah, get Rubio in there. Rubio, excuse me, you're right.
• 5:13
  Speaker 7: You're right, Max, and I'm going to cut you off
• 5:15
  Speaker 7: and I'll let you go, but enough with the Keanu
• 5:17
  Speaker 7: Benson experience. He just can't do it, and he can't
• 5:19
  Speaker 7: do it in a matter that's beneficial to the defense.
• 5:21
  Speaker 7: Go ahead, Max.
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so it's like We have, quote unquote, all the answers.
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: It's just about practical application.
• 5:32
  Speaker 5: Of theory, right? Theoretically, you want to do this?
• 5:35
  Speaker 4: Well, go practically do it. Listen, I don't want to
• 5:37
  Speaker 4: hear A plus B equals C. Go work it out.
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: And figure out every permutation of A, B, C to
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: get to C and do it. It's one of those
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: things that I know we sit here and say it's easy,
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: but I say it's easy because Willie and I have
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: done it.
• 5:56
  Speaker 8: Right.
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: We've been through that problem solving phase where you've had
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: to go through and figure out which way is up
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: and everybody is bagging on you. But at the end
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: of the day, it's about wins and losses, but holes
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: and elbows. Right.
• 6:08
  Speaker 4: Well, I mean, that that's just what we had to
• 6:09
  Speaker 4: do in it.
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: And we played a very physical brand of football that
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: probably shortened our careers.
• 6:14
  Speaker 4: I know both me and Willie's knees probably combined age
• 6:17
  Speaker 4: is probably like 72 years old. But right. We had
• 6:22
  Speaker 4: the momentary glory.
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: We ended up hoisting that sticky Lombardi, and we sacrificed that,
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: and we gladly do it again because we knew what
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: the price was, and we were willing to pay that price,
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: and we knew what it also meant if you paid that.
• 6:37
  Speaker 4: Price, right?
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: I don't want to get all marvel-y on you, but
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: the only way you get the soul stone, you have
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: to sacrifice something to get the soul stone.
• 6:44
  Speaker 4: So you want that soul stone. You want all the
• 6:48
  Speaker 4: infinity jewels. You want all the infinity stones, right? You
• 6:52
  Speaker 4: got to sacrifice something in the process.
• 6:55
  Speaker 5: I love my brother, but he's a dork.
• 6:57
  Speaker 7: I mean, I, and my son.
• 7:02
  Speaker 5: Is a dork too. So it just, it just, it's
• 7:04
  Speaker 5: all perfect. Godfather, right? Yeah.
• 7:07
  Speaker 4: Four and four makes eight.
• 7:08
  Speaker 5: He said he was talking about monster zero. She knew.
• 7:12
  Speaker 5: And then he gave me a little, you know, he's in,
• 7:13
  Speaker 5: he's in Catholic school.
• 7:15
  Speaker 7: So he told me the story about Daniel David.
• 7:17
  Speaker 5: And I was like, Oh boy, we're in the trenches now, baby.
• 7:20
  Speaker 7: Uh, so I love it. It's amazing. Um, No, Rob,
• 7:26
  Speaker 7: I think Max is spot on. I think that sometimes
• 7:31
  Speaker 7: you don't need to make the test harder than it
• 7:33
  Speaker 7: needs to be. You draft guys and you put guys
• 7:37
  Speaker 7: in position because they have a special skill set and.
• 7:40
  Speaker 5: They fit perfectly in your scheme.
• 7:44
  Speaker 7: Right now, offensively for the Steelers, I think they're a
• 7:47
  Speaker 7: better inside run team than they've been able to display
• 7:50
  Speaker 7: thus far. I think they did a good job running
• 7:52
  Speaker 7: the ball inside against the Browns. And we just got
• 7:55
  Speaker 7: away from it. I do think we have the ability
• 7:57
  Speaker 7: to attack the edges, but we don't have the right
• 7:59
  Speaker 7: guys on the edges to hold up. And that has
• 8:02
  Speaker 7: to be better. And that goes back to cleaning up
• 8:04
  Speaker 7: the house, too. Our receivers have to block better on
• 8:07
  Speaker 7: the edges. I think our Titans do a fair enough job.
• 8:10
  Speaker 7: But if we want to get to that, like if
• 8:12
  Speaker 7: you turn on this Colts tape and see what them
• 8:16
  Speaker 7: guards and them receivers and those Titans do on the
• 8:19
  Speaker 7: edges and why Jonathan Taylor is eating up yak on
• 8:22
  Speaker 7: the outside.
• 8:23
  Speaker 5: Because we used to.
• 8:25
  Speaker 7: Have 38 and 37 crack toss, and it's pretty much
• 8:28
  Speaker 7: a tackle lead, block down, 88 out the gate. And
• 8:32
  Speaker 7: so when you see certain other teams do so, it's
• 8:36
  Speaker 7: because it's a collective effort. It's just not about the
• 8:38
  Speaker 7: offensive line doing their job. Yes, that's a big component
• 8:41
  Speaker 7: of it, but when you have receivers blocking, holding up,
• 8:44
  Speaker 7: when you have tight ends holding up, and doing it
• 8:46
  Speaker 7: in a detailed and willing manner, it just feeds the
• 8:50
  Speaker 7: ecosystem within the offense. So When you look at the
• 8:53
  Speaker 7: Steelers right now, and Max just talked about every plays
• 8:57
  Speaker 7: in which they can run, we just don't know what
• 8:59
  Speaker 7: they're really good at right now with all the plays
• 9:01
  Speaker 7: that he just mentioned. I do think for the Steelers
• 9:05
  Speaker 7: moving forward, it's a matter of.
• 9:09
  Speaker 5: Momentum, and you garner momentum with Jalen Warren. You got
• 9:13
  Speaker 5: to feed him.
• 9:14
  Speaker 7: And I think if the Steelers want to continue to
• 9:17
  Speaker 7: be better, or want to get better rather, I think
• 9:20
  Speaker 7: it's just a matter of letting.
• 9:22
  Speaker 5: The offense run through him.
• 9:23
  Speaker 7: Let's eat off our tight ends because we do want
• 9:25
  Speaker 7: to be able to run the ball and the pass
• 9:29
  Speaker 7: come off it. But I also think it's a matter
• 9:32
  Speaker 7: of continuing to build a rhythm. I say this and
• 9:37
  Speaker 7: I'm honest. Aaron can't throw the ball 40 times even
• 9:40
  Speaker 7: though mentally he wants to or whatever it looks like.
• 9:43
  Speaker 5: We just can't do it.
• 9:44
  Speaker 7: The only reason we fall in that position if we
• 9:47
  Speaker 7: get down two.
• 9:49
  Speaker 5: Or three scores. I can see why we're throwing the
• 9:51
  Speaker 5: ball that much.
• 9:52
  Speaker 7: But if we feel like we're not holding up defensively,
• 9:54
  Speaker 7: then it has to come schematically. We've got to be
• 9:57
  Speaker 7: better with time of possession, and really owning the clock
• 10:02
  Speaker 7: because we've shown as of late we can pull ourselves
• 10:07
  Speaker 7: out of a hole, but we don't necessarily have to.
• 10:09
  Speaker 5: Be in that hole.
• 10:10
  Speaker 7: And so I think it comes down to running the ball,
• 10:14
  Speaker 7: letting offense go through Jalen Warren, feeding our tight ends,
• 10:16
  Speaker 7: play action with DK, and just building off all that.
• 10:20
  Speaker 7: And defensively, you know, I'd say this, and I'm not
• 10:24
  Speaker 7: trying to be like an internet gangster by saying this,
• 10:26
  Speaker 7: but we need better play out.
• 10:28
  Speaker 5: Of our linebackers.
• 10:29
  Speaker 7: They have to be, you know, Peyton and Patrick, they have.
• 10:33
  Speaker 5: To just be better. And they got to hold up better.
• 10:38
  Speaker 5: And if we're able to do that, man, on.
• 10:40
  Speaker 7: Top of the communication we continue to talk about, I
• 10:42
  Speaker 7: think the Steelers will be where they want to be.
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: And I will say this, too. They've got a big challenge, Max.
• 10:48
  Speaker 6: You know, we've been talking about this whole tackling issue
• 10:51
  Speaker 6: and trying to get better at the fundamentals. And I
• 10:53
  Speaker 6: know we're going to break down the Colts coming up,
• 10:55
  Speaker 6: but Jonathan Taylor will embarrass you if you're not ready
• 10:59
  Speaker 6: to go.
• 11:00
  Speaker 4: Yes. He will take your soul.
• 11:02
  Speaker 5: Yes. Early.
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Early.
• 11:05
  Speaker 3: He does not want to run past you. He wants
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: to run through you. And he's a valuable back, too, Max.
• 11:11
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah.
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: He gets better as a– like Derrick Henry, right? He
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: gets better as the game goes on. Like he has
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: to feel it to get the rhythm, you know, and
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: they're going to feed him early, often, and consistently. Don't
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: think that you're going to stop him for two zero-yard
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: gains and that's going to be it. And then next
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: thing you know, it's let's air the ball out, right?
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: Let's go fun and gun and throw it all around
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: the field. They're like, okay, you guys was first two times? Okay,
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: we're coming back at you this time six times, right?
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: You know, it's like two times didn't work six times.
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: I say this all the time. You've got to chop wood.
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: You have to chop wood. You have to survive those early, ugly,
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: not so positive yardage down.
• 11:54
  Speaker 4: So when you get into the fourth quarter, people are
• 11:57
  Speaker 4: tired of hitting your guy. I'm tired.
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: I'm sick and tired of being tired, you know, and
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: that that's the mindset that they have. They want to
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: wear you down. And so that's what you have to
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: be ready for. You have to be ready. for all,
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: as we like to say, the S in giggles. I'll
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: let you insert a four-letter word that starts with S.
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: You have to be, and once again, you know, to
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: quote our good friend Alex Holm, BTL, about that life.
• 12:24
  Speaker 5: You got to be BTL.
• 12:25
  Speaker 4: Yeah, you can't, it can't be accidental.
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: It has to be a methodical lifestyle choice that you
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: have to do.
• 12:32
  Speaker 4: We want to be physical? That's a lifestyle choice. And
• 12:34
  Speaker 4: you got to go live that lifestyle.
• 12:37
  Speaker 6: By the way, can I throw out there, I mean,
• 12:39
  Speaker 6: I know we're going to talk more about this later,
• 12:41
  Speaker 6: but I find Jonathan Taylor to be a really interesting
• 12:46
  Speaker 6: guy because I know he's fast, right?
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: He doesn't look super fast to me.
• 12:54
  Speaker 6: He's not one of these guys that's just exploding down
• 12:58
  Speaker 6: the field and you see him and nobody can catch him.
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: But nobody ever catches him. He's big.
• 13:03
  Speaker 6: It doesn't look like he's... running through guys, and yet
• 13:10
  Speaker 6: he's running through guys, and he doesn't look like B.
• 13:14
  Speaker 6: John Robinson who makes a hop cut, and he's outside,
• 13:16
  Speaker 6: and he's exploding down the field. He doesn't look that way.
• 13:20
  Speaker 6: I think he's, and maybe this is just everybody views
• 13:24
  Speaker 6: the game through their own eyes. He might be the
• 13:27
  Speaker 6: most understated back I can remember. I mean, you look up,
• 13:31
  Speaker 6: and all of a sudden he's just put up another
• 13:33
  Speaker 6: great game Like I said, I don't think of him
• 13:36
  Speaker 6: as any one of those things, and yet at the
• 13:39
  Speaker 6: end of the game, there he is. He's got a
• 13:40
  Speaker 6: whole bunch of yards, and I don't want to call
• 13:43
  Speaker 6: him workmanlike because he's way better than workmanlike. I just
• 13:47
  Speaker 6: find him an interesting guy to watch, guys.
• 13:50
  Speaker 5: And he can catch too, Riley.
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right.
• 13:54
  Speaker 7: I think as much as you compliment his running style
• 13:57
  Speaker 7: and his ability to– he may not have the legit
• 14:01
  Speaker 7: home run speed. I think he's probably quicker and faster.
• 14:04
  Speaker 7: And he definitely has the ability to pull away from defense. Yeah,
• 14:07
  Speaker 7: nobody catches him, Willie.
• 14:08
  Speaker 5: That's what I'm saying.
• 14:09
  Speaker 6: He doesn't look fast, but nobody catches him. He doesn't
• 14:12
  Speaker 6: look like he's knocking guys on their back, but they're
• 14:14
  Speaker 6: not bringing him down.
• 14:16
  Speaker 7: Because he's a thick back. And a lot of guys,
• 14:19
  Speaker 7: when you're– and it goes back to tackling.
• 14:21
  Speaker 5: When you get a guy.
• 14:23
  Speaker 7: As thick as– and what I mean thick, like big torso,
• 14:26
  Speaker 7: big quads, butt, calves, and can move at his speed
• 14:30
  Speaker 7: with his footwork, You have to get, like, once again,
• 14:34
  Speaker 7: you got to get your body to the guy to
• 14:35
  Speaker 7: tackle the guy. Arm tackles don't get this guy down
• 14:38
  Speaker 7: because of his low center of gravity and his ability
• 14:41
  Speaker 7: to explode away from contact. So he's a guy, once again,
• 14:46
  Speaker 7: if you're Mike McCarthy, you're pounding a drum about tackling
• 14:50
  Speaker 7: because he will break the first tackle and he will
• 14:53
  Speaker 7: break the second tackle.
• 14:54
  Speaker 5: He's strong enough to do so.
• 14:55
  Speaker 7: But they will have designed pass plays for him. They
• 14:59
  Speaker 7: will put him on angle routes. They will put him
• 15:02
  Speaker 7: on little slants and line him up on the outside.
• 15:04
  Speaker 7: But there's some pass packages they will have for him
• 15:08
  Speaker 7: outside of the traditional role of running the ball. So
• 15:12
  Speaker 7: this won't be a situation where, you know, yeah, he
• 15:15
  Speaker 7: will be in the backfield and they will make room
• 15:18
  Speaker 7: for him.
• 15:19
  Speaker 5: But they trust him with catching the ball too.
• 15:22
  Speaker 7: And he he's he does great pass blocking too like
• 15:26
  Speaker 7: he'll put his head you know we'll me and max
• 15:28
  Speaker 7: say there's a bunch but um he'll put his head
• 15:30
  Speaker 7: in that fan he's not a problem stepping up and
• 15:32
  Speaker 7: taking on a backer in the hole he's actually really
• 15:34
  Speaker 7: good at it so uh he's he's probably one of
• 15:36
  Speaker 7: the most complete backs in the league as far as
• 15:39
  Speaker 7: doing everything that's axed pass run the ball running between
• 15:43
  Speaker 7: the tackles being able to attack the edges um solid
• 15:46
  Speaker 7: and pass protection um And he's not a– I know
• 15:51
  Speaker 7: you used the phrase, not a workman's back, but in
• 15:54
  Speaker 7: his core, when you watch him, that is who he is.
• 15:57
  Speaker 7: He's a hardhat type back that shows up for four quarters.
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, it's funny.
• 16:04
  Speaker 6: I don't know– I can't think of another running back
• 16:06
  Speaker 6: I've felt quite this way about. Like, I love– as
• 16:09
  Speaker 6: long as he's not going against the Steelers, I love
• 16:11
  Speaker 6: watching B. John Robinson play. He's just explosive, and he glides.
• 16:16
  Speaker 6: It's more of an admiration of Jonathan Taylor. I just admire.
• 16:21
  Speaker 6: I'm not like, whoa, man, hey, Jonathan Taylor's on. I've
• 16:23
  Speaker 6: got to go check this out. B. John Robinson makes
• 16:25
  Speaker 6: me feel that way. I can't really put it into words,
• 16:29
  Speaker 6: but I just admire the way he plays without being like, oh,
• 16:33
  Speaker 6: my gosh, I'm gobsmacked. Look at the Barry Sanders run.
• 16:37
  Speaker 6: Look at the B. John Robinson run. But this guy's
• 16:40
  Speaker 6: a great back. Max, do you understand what I'm trying
• 16:42
  Speaker 6: to say here? I don't feel like I'm adequately expressing myself, maybe.
• 16:46
  Speaker 4: It's like Adrian Peterson, right?
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, that's a good comp. That's a good comp.
• 16:53
  Speaker 3: They're volume backs that do dynamic things over time.
• 16:58
  Speaker 4: It's not a one-time dynamic thing.
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: He's going to run it 25, 27 times a game,
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: and when you look up, man, we've had a good game.
• 17:09
  Speaker 4: Whoa, wait a second. How did he get 147 yards
• 17:10
  Speaker 4: on us? Oh, he did score two touchdowns.
• 17:14
  Speaker 5: Shoot. You know what I'm saying?
• 17:15
  Speaker 3: It's one of those things where it's not the 70-yard
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: home run. It's not breaking 17 tackles in one play
• 17:22
  Speaker 3: type of play. But he's going to break two, three
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: tackles every single time, and he's going to do it
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: Marshawn Lynch style.
• 17:27
  Speaker 4: Over and over and over and over and over again.
• 17:31
  Speaker 5: Right?
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: But he can do both.
• 17:33
  Speaker 6: I mean, he's– Okay, let me– I'm going to give
• 17:36
  Speaker 6: you his long runs during every season of his career.
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: Rookie year.
• 17:42
  Speaker 5: 62-yarder.
• 17:43
  Speaker 6: Next year, he led the league with an 83-yarder, 66-yarder, 49-yarder, 70-yarder, 83-yarder.
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: This year, his longest is 24. That's what I'm saying.
• 17:52
  Speaker 6: Like, I don't think of him– I don't necessarily think
• 17:55
  Speaker 6: of him as a home run guy like B.
• 17:57
  Speaker 5: John Robinson.
• 17:57
  Speaker 6: We saw him take that play last night and scoot
• 18:00
  Speaker 6: down the sideline, and he's gone, you know.
• 18:02
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 18:03
  Speaker 6: But if he gets out there, you're not catching him.
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: I mean– Yeah. He's a great player. Just a great player. Yeah.
• 18:10
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and you catch guys by chopping wood in that
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: fourth quarter. That's when a lot of those big plays
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: have happened, right? Because guys are tired of tackling him.
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: Their legs feel like jello because you've probably hit him
• 18:22
  Speaker 3: 10 times already. And you don't want to go for 11.
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: And he just gets stronger and stronger as the game goes.
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: And he's like, I need contact. It's like the Black.
• 18:33
  Speaker 4: Panther suit, right?
• 18:34
  Speaker 3: You know, it's like it just absorbs all this energy.
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: And then all of a sudden it just explodes.
• 18:39
  Speaker 4: And you're just like, oh. I hit this dude. I hit,
• 18:42
  Speaker 4: I've hit this guy.
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: I have 12 tackles on him, but for whatever reasons,
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: it came to that Baker's dozen.
• 18:48
  Speaker 4: And I started, I thought twice for a second.
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: And the next thing you know, he's passed me and I'm,
• 18:52
  Speaker 3: I'm chasing him from behind and he's running in a
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: linear fashion. And I'm trying to catch an angle. I'm
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: trying to look for, can somebody slow him up? Somebody
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: get a crossing guard vest out there, you know, make
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: him stop.
• 19:03
  Speaker 4: And, and he's gone.
• 19:06
  Speaker 6: So that's Jonathan Taylor. That's the talk on the fundamentals.
• 19:10
  Speaker 6: Mike McCarthy leading us off, talking about cleaning up.
• 19:12
  Speaker 5: His own house.
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: That's enough on that for now.
• 19:15
  Speaker 6: Maybe we'll circle back to it as we get ready
• 19:17
  Speaker 6: for the game on Thursday and Friday. Up next, we're
• 19:20
  Speaker 6: going to talk about some of the big news around
• 19:22
  Speaker 6: the NFL. There's some guys who are injured that could
• 19:24
  Speaker 6: have a big impact on what's going to happen over
• 19:26
  Speaker 6: the next several weeks. We'll get to that when we
• 19:28
  Speaker 6: continue in the locker room here on the Steelers Audio Network.
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: This is In the Locker Room with Rob King, Max Starks,
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: and Willie Colon on Steelers Nation Radio, brought to you
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: in part by the Steelers Pro Shop. Get it directly
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: the team at the Steelers Pro Shop at shop.steelers.com. And
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: by your neighborhood Ford store, the F-150 is the official
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: truck of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
• 20:00
  Speaker 8: We're going to put him down on an IR. That'll
• 20:03
  Speaker 8: happen today, so he'll be out for a number of weeks.
• 20:06
  Speaker 4: And how about you, man?
• 20:09
  Speaker 8: He's making progress, frankly, with the players being off this weekend.
• 20:14
  Speaker 8: And then just to talk about the schedule, we made
• 20:17
  Speaker 8: a little shift in the schedule. Tomorrow we're going to
• 20:21
  Speaker 8: focus on South Scotts. The point I'm making is I
• 20:23
  Speaker 8: won't really know until I see these guys back in
• 20:27
  Speaker 8: the training room we had processed on Wednesday morning.
• 20:33
  Speaker 6: So that's Mike McCarthy talking about the injuries, and we
• 20:36
  Speaker 6: do know subsequently that the injury to Derek Harmon is
• 20:41
  Speaker 6: going to keep him out for a while. That is
• 20:44
  Speaker 6: obviously not good news. He's going to be out for
• 20:48
  Speaker 6: at least the next four weeks as they put him
• 20:50
  Speaker 6: on IR. So that's not good, an opportunity maybe for
• 20:54
  Speaker 6: somebody else to come up and see if they can,
• 20:58
  Speaker 6: whether that's Keanu Benton moving out a little bit wide
• 21:01
  Speaker 6: or whatever the case may.
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: Be, So we'll see.
• 21:04
  Speaker 6: I mean, we'll see what this, we'll see what sort
• 21:07
  Speaker 6: of effect this has on who's going to be playing.
• 21:10
  Speaker 6: Jamel Dean, that would be a big loss as well
• 21:13
  Speaker 6: if he can't play. But these are not the, you know,
• 21:15
  Speaker 6: we addressed these a little bit yesterday. These are not
• 21:17
  Speaker 6: the only injuries around the league. Max, let's start with
• 21:20
  Speaker 6: Lamar Jackson. The Ravens are playing the Falcons on Sunday
• 21:26
  Speaker 6: Night Football. The Falcons suddenly look way better. I suppose
• 21:29
  Speaker 6: we should pause for a moment and talk about how
• 21:31
  Speaker 6: good they looked last night as they just dismantled the Saints.
• 21:35
  Speaker 6: The Saints got a couple garbage-time touchdowns to make it
• 21:37
  Speaker 6: look closer. But, you know, that's a Falcons team that
• 21:41
  Speaker 6: has looked completely different since Michael Penix has gotten back.
• 21:45
  Speaker 6: And remember, that week, a couple days before the Steelers game,
• 21:49
  Speaker 6: there was some thought maybe he could return. His back
• 21:52
  Speaker 6: was giving him– I think it was his back giving
• 21:54
  Speaker 6: him some problems. So they waited. Then two was supposed
• 21:57
  Speaker 6: to play. Then two didn't play. And so you get
• 21:59
  Speaker 6: a third-string quarterback out there. But it looks like a
• 22:03
  Speaker 6: completely different game with Michael Penix, a different team.
• 22:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and Michael Penix, remember, he was healthy. It was
• 22:10
  Speaker 3: mental that they were talking about early on in the season. Like,
• 22:13
  Speaker 3: he didn't feel like he could go out there and play. Like,
• 22:16
  Speaker 3: he was nervous. There was some mental block that just
• 22:19
  Speaker 3: made him feel like, I'm not as healthy as I look.
• 22:23
  Speaker 3: And it was kind of like, you know, after week two,
• 22:25
  Speaker 3: it was like, hey, hey, listen, listen, listen.
• 22:27
  Speaker 4: Hey, hey, look at me, look at me, look at me.
• 22:29
  Speaker 5: You're fine.
• 22:30
  Speaker 4: You're fine. And guess what? You're going to go out
• 22:33
  Speaker 4: there and play because we have no other options, bud.
• 22:36
  Speaker 4: So whatever you need to do, you need to woo side.
• 22:39
  Speaker 4: You need to go sit in a hyperbaric chamber, one
• 22:41
  Speaker 4: little salt things where you float. I don't care. We'll
• 22:45
  Speaker 4: pay for it.
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: But guess what? Come Sunday, you're going out there and
• 22:49
  Speaker 3: you're going to either hand the ball off or you're
• 22:51
  Speaker 3: going to throw the ball. You need to figure it out.
• 22:54
  Speaker 3: And he figured it out. And Michael Penix is looking
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: like a first round draft pick.
• 22:59
  Speaker 4: A guy that.
• 23:02
  Speaker 3: The Falcons organization deemed as the guy that they wanted
• 23:05
  Speaker 3: to go after, and they're playing a high-level football. Michael
• 23:08
  Speaker 3: Penix is making some great throws. And like I said, B.
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: John Robinson is B. John Robinson. I mean, he takes
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: away half of your problems when he's in the backfield.
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: So if he is uncertain, that guy gives you a
• 23:19
  Speaker 3: certainty about we're going to produce yards come hell or
• 23:23
  Speaker 3: high water, and they're looking like a different team. I'm
• 23:25
  Speaker 3: glad they didn't figure that out week one. I'm just
• 23:27
  Speaker 3: glad they didn't figure it out week one.
• 23:31
  Speaker 7: Yeah, I'm with you, man. I think at some point
• 23:34
  Speaker 7: they told him, I don't care how you feel. You
• 23:36
  Speaker 7: go out there and play some damn football for us
• 23:37
  Speaker 7: before this thing is over, before we, before we have it,
• 23:41
  Speaker 7: before we're wrapped.
• 23:43
  Speaker 5: No, I mean, Michael Penix just gives him, he's an operator.
• 23:47
  Speaker 7: And when you, when you have an operator who's able
• 23:49
  Speaker 7: to throw the ball.
• 23:49
  Speaker 5: And, and it's not, he's not the end all be all.
• 23:52
  Speaker 5: It's really Bijan Robinson.
• 23:54
  Speaker 7: And, You can just see the way that line is
• 23:56
  Speaker 7: responding to both of them. It's to the point where
• 24:00
  Speaker 7: you don't even talk about Kyle Pitts, who was actually–
• 24:03
  Speaker 7: I don't know if he was benched, but he didn't
• 24:05
  Speaker 7: come off the sideline for a while.
• 24:08
  Speaker 5: But the offense goes through B.
• 24:10
  Speaker 7: John Robinson, and Michael Penix just gives them a lot of–
• 24:13
  Speaker 7: this allows him to be an operator where he has
• 24:15
  Speaker 7: to call it, see it, throw it. and let Bijon
• 24:18
  Speaker 7: be the superstar, and it's working for them. Defensively, we
• 24:21
  Speaker 7: talked about the secondary for the Falcons, and they showed
• 24:23
  Speaker 7: up major in a big way last night. So, you know,
• 24:27
  Speaker 7: it's the league, man. It's fun when the bottom feeders,
• 24:32
  Speaker 7: so to speak, have the gun, you know, because now
• 24:36
  Speaker 7: they start to hunt instead of getting laughed at. So
• 24:39
  Speaker 7: the league, I think the NFL season is just heating
• 24:41
  Speaker 7: up for a lot of teams.
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: Yep, they're one of them. I mean, that's it.
• 24:45
  Speaker 6: It's a crazy division, and, of course, the Steelers are
• 24:47
  Speaker 6: playing that division. They're going to be playing the Saints
• 24:49
  Speaker 6: coming up in Paris. They'll play the rest of the division.
• 24:52
  Speaker 5: What's that? Paris?
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: Carolina later in the year?
• 24:56
  Speaker 6: You know, so, and it was, you know, like I
• 24:58
  Speaker 6: said earlier, I think there are four teams in the division,
• 25:01
  Speaker 6: and six of them finished eight and nine last year.
• 25:03
  Speaker 6: I mean, you know, the whole division is totally up
• 25:05
  Speaker 6: for grabs. Nobody has any idea what's going to go on.
• 25:08
  Speaker 6: You know, I think I saw every team in that
• 25:09
  Speaker 6: division in some sort of publication was picked as one
• 25:13
  Speaker 6: of the surprise.
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: Teams of the year. Hey, here's my surprise team of
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: the year.
• 25:16
  Speaker 5: It's the Saints.
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: Hey, here's my surprise team of the year. It's the Falcons. No,
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: it's Carolina.
• 25:21
  Speaker 6: So, like you say, week to week, who knows what
• 25:24
  Speaker 6: you're going to get out of that team. But here's
• 25:25
  Speaker 6: what I'm hoping they're going to get, Willie, and that
• 25:28
  Speaker 6: is a really good performance on Sunday night because they're
• 25:30
  Speaker 6: going to be taking on the Ravens. And right now,
• 25:34
  Speaker 6: it appears as if Lamar Jackson– might not be ready
• 25:38
  Speaker 6: to go for the Ravens in that.
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: Game against the Falcons.
• 25:44
  Speaker 4: Who cares?
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: My ankle.
• 25:49
  Speaker 4: Oh, Lamar.
• 25:50
  Speaker 5: Listen, he'll be fine.
• 25:51
  Speaker 7: Lamar Jackson, I expect to, you know, it looks like
• 25:55
  Speaker 7: it's a sprain to my understanding.
• 25:57
  Speaker 5: If I'm wrong, I'm wrong.
• 25:59
  Speaker 7: But like I stated earlier, we don't care about your problems.
• 26:02
  Speaker 7: We just have the Ravens have them. Nevertheless, man, the
• 26:06
  Speaker 7: Falcons are a team. who have showed they can win
• 26:09
  Speaker 7: on three favors. On three favors, they can run it,
• 26:11
  Speaker 7: they can throw it. And they seem to now have
• 26:13
  Speaker 7: guys on the defensive end who are showing up for them.
• 26:17
  Speaker 7: So the Ravens are, you know, it's interesting because they
• 26:21
  Speaker 7: have a new center.
• 26:23
  Speaker 5: That kid from Penn State, Max, do you know his name? Vega.
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he was supposed to be a guard.
• 26:28
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 26:28
  Speaker 5: Vega's supposed to be a guard. Yeah.
• 26:30
  Speaker 7: Yeah, and so now he's really– he was supposed to be– Iwani,
• 26:34
  Speaker 7: something like that. But he was supposed to be their
• 26:36
  Speaker 7: third-string center. He's starting for them right now. So, God forbid,
• 26:40
  Speaker 7: if he gets hurt, they are in trouble, trouble. So,
• 26:44
  Speaker 7: all that said, I mean, the Ravens continue to do
• 26:46
  Speaker 7: what they do. They play bully ball. They lean on
• 26:48
  Speaker 7: Lamar Jackson. They have a defense that's responding. I think
• 26:50
  Speaker 7: Matt Abikway is back in the lineup. He's playing a
• 26:52
  Speaker 7: lot better. Marlon Humphreys and Kyle Hamilton, especially Kyle Hamilton,
• 26:58
  Speaker 7: is playing big-time football for them. So, nevertheless, man, you know,
• 27:02
  Speaker 7: and Zay Flowers– He continues– I say this all the time.
• 27:06
  Speaker 7: I don't think he's the true number one. But as
• 27:08
  Speaker 7: of late, he's been playing like a number one. So,
• 27:09
  Speaker 7: I think it's going to be a good game. But
• 27:12
  Speaker 7: I think the.
• 27:13
  Speaker 5: Falcons are up for a fight.
• 27:15
  Speaker 6: Both those guys are– I mean, Flowers has been tremendous
• 27:18
  Speaker 6: for the Ravens. Kyle Hamilton, he's just– look, man, I
• 27:21
  Speaker 6: know he's a Raven, but he is so good. He's
• 27:24
  Speaker 6: such a good player.
• 27:25
  Speaker 5: People don't realize how big he is, Rob. That man's 6'4. Yep.
• 27:29
  Speaker 7: I think 220, 230. Like, he's a big man out
• 27:32
  Speaker 7: there flying around, like, safety. Like, he's playing the robber position.
• 27:35
  Speaker 5: Yep.
• 27:36
  Speaker 6: And he's one of those guys where he's back one
• 27:38
  Speaker 6: time and he's up around the line of scrimmage and
• 27:40
  Speaker 6: he's out in the flat and he's blitzing. He's a really,
• 27:43
  Speaker 6: really good player who's been really, really well deployed. You know,
• 27:47
  Speaker 6: the kind of guy you say, okay, what are we
• 27:48
  Speaker 6: going to do schematically to make sure that this guy
• 27:51
  Speaker 6: can excel? And they're doing it and he is excelling.
• 27:55
  Speaker 6: You know, Tyler Huntley maxes seven and nine as a starter.
• 27:58
  Speaker 6: for the Baltimore Ravens. And, of course, he's been there
• 28:01
  Speaker 6: for all these really good seasons. There is a drop-off
• 28:04
  Speaker 6: when he's playing. And if he has to play, and again,
• 28:07
  Speaker 6: you know, different reports, well, he's probably going to miss Sunday. No, no,
• 28:12
  Speaker 6: he's going to be out multiple weeks. You know, talking
• 28:15
  Speaker 6: about Lamar Jackson, an ankle for a guy like Lamar,
• 28:19
  Speaker 6: an ankle for anybody. You know, maybe a different guy
• 28:23
  Speaker 6: kind of gets through it. You know, maybe a Matthew
• 28:26
  Speaker 6: Stafford gets through it. because you're not expecting a whole
• 28:28
  Speaker 6: lot of mobility, although he's pretty mobile too, more mobile
• 28:31
  Speaker 6: than you might think.
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: But I don't know. I mean, you want them to
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: play for the Ravens, but man, you also want him
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: to be healthy for you.
• 28:38
  Speaker 6: So they're, they're facing an interesting decision and I, it's
• 28:42
  Speaker 6: okay with me if he doesn't play. Um, and I
• 28:44
  Speaker 6: would love to see the Falcons continue to get better, um,
• 28:48
  Speaker 6: since they've, they're no longer playing to steal.
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: The Steelers already beat him in week one.
• 28:52
  Speaker 5: Yeah. Just a quick side note. I'll probably get out
• 28:55
  Speaker 5: your way, Max. Uh, Everybody's like, Willie, aren't you being harsh?
• 28:58
  Speaker 7: It still isn't our last place. There's no room to
• 29:00
  Speaker 7: be hard, right? It still isn't our last place. We
• 29:02
  Speaker 7: need everybody to start to kind of dial it back
• 29:04
  Speaker 7: so we can climb up.
• 29:05
  Speaker 5: So, yeah, if I'm being a hater, I'll be a hater.
• 29:08
  Speaker 5: Go ahead, Max.
• 29:09
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, nothing wrong. You know, the hater won cards out.
• 29:12
  Speaker 3: And, you know, as you look at it, I mean, Tyler–
• 29:15
  Speaker 3: I mean, we've seen– I've seen Tyler Huntley. I felt
• 29:18
  Speaker 3: like that 7-9 record, like all 16 of those games
• 29:21
  Speaker 3: were against the Steelers. Cause we barely saw, we barely
• 29:24
  Speaker 3: saw Lamar Jackson for a very long time.
• 29:27
  Speaker 5: So it's true.
• 29:28
  Speaker 3: You know, he's a guy that's played a lot of
• 29:29
  Speaker 3: football and, and, and he gives you comfortability because the
• 29:34
  Speaker 3: playbook doesn't change. The execution might change, but the playbook
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: doesn't change when you insert Tyler Huntley, like he, is
• 29:40
  Speaker 3: a disciple of Lamar Jackson. So your play style, your
• 29:45
  Speaker 3: schematics and everything stay consistent.
• 29:48
  Speaker 4: It's just the level of execution.
• 29:50
  Speaker 3: Like Tyler Huntley, whereas Lamar is probably going to pump
• 29:53
  Speaker 3: fake and juke you three, four times and then make
• 29:56
  Speaker 3: the pass. Tyler Huntley is going to juke you three
• 29:58
  Speaker 3: times and probably run the ball. So, I mean, you know,
• 30:00
  Speaker 3: that's really the difference between them.
• 30:03
  Speaker 5: So, you know. That's an accurate scouting report, Max. Yeah.
• 30:08
  Speaker 5: Very accurate.
• 30:09
  Speaker 4: I mean, he's so in-depth, right?
• 30:13
  Speaker 3: But I think, you know, I think the bigger issue
• 30:15
  Speaker 3: is the offensive line, right? And I think what Willie
• 30:18
  Speaker 3: said is you're on your third string center who's supposed
• 30:20
  Speaker 3: to be your starting guard that's now having to jump
• 30:23
  Speaker 3: in and play the interior.
• 30:25
  Speaker 5: That's a problem.
• 30:26
  Speaker 4: And that's the middle of your offense.
• 30:28
  Speaker 3: So when you talk about getting pressure in the face,
• 30:30
  Speaker 3: you're going to see Tyler Huntley out on the edges
• 30:32
  Speaker 3: a lot more than you'd like if anything happens in
• 30:34
  Speaker 3: the middle. So, you know, I hope that the Falcons
• 30:39
  Speaker 3: continue to find themselves and they win the bird war
• 30:43
  Speaker 3: on Sunday night football. You know, last time I checked,
• 30:46
  Speaker 3: I believe a Falcon is a lot bigger, stronger, and
• 30:48
  Speaker 3: physically imposing than a Raven.
• 30:51
  Speaker 4: So I'm hoping that holds true.
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: I like the.
• 30:56
  Speaker 5: Science. Yeah.
• 30:58
  Speaker 6: A little ornithology lesson here from Max Starks. The other
• 31:02
  Speaker 6: injury that I wanted to get to was Saquon Barkley. And,
• 31:06
  Speaker 6: you know, the Eagles are suddenly– look, across the state,
• 31:09
  Speaker 6: there's some panic going on, right? They nudged out Washington
• 31:13
  Speaker 6: in week one, 24-22. They nudged out Tennessee 24-20. I
• 31:18
  Speaker 6: don't care if they nudged them or not.
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: They won. But you're– okay, you're 2-0. Fine, let's get going.
• 31:22
  Speaker 6: Well, then you get spanked by Chicago, who– Boy, you know,
• 31:27
  Speaker 6: I haven't broken my arm patting myself on the back
• 31:30
  Speaker 6: saying I thought the Browns were going to be better
• 31:32
  Speaker 6: than people thought. But, man, oh, man, was I wrong
• 31:35
  Speaker 6: about the Bears. Holy mackerel. I thought they would come back.
• 31:38
  Speaker 6: I thought, you know, they had all those turnovers last year, guys.
• 31:42
  Speaker 6: I thought they'd regress to the mean defensively a little bit. But, man, oh, man,
• 31:47
  Speaker 6: they have been good. They steamrolled the Eagles, and then
• 31:51
  Speaker 6: the Eagles lost to the Rams, kind of blew that
• 31:53
  Speaker 6: game 24-20. Now you have no Barkley. And you're looking
• 31:57
  Speaker 6: at Jacksonville, who might, man, they are looking like they
• 32:02
  Speaker 6: could be an elite team. And then Carolina, you know,
• 32:06
  Speaker 6: who's battling, obviously. Then Dallas, those are their next three
• 32:10
  Speaker 6: games on a Monday nighter. I don't know how long
• 32:13
  Speaker 6: Saquon Barkley is going to be out. It looks like
• 32:15
  Speaker 6: he's going to miss this week with a hamstring. But
• 32:18
  Speaker 6: this could be a significant injury for an Eagles team
• 32:22
  Speaker 6: that the Steelers will play in November 22nd, the the
• 32:27
  Speaker 6: Sunday before Thanksgiving, this could be a significant injury for
• 32:32
  Speaker 6: the Philadelphia Eagles.
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: Well, it is, obviously. But, I mean, this is a
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: significant stretch, I guess, is what I'm trying to say.
• 32:41
  Speaker 3: Well, and I think the other thing that you have
• 32:43
  Speaker 3: to kind of consider is what is your identity? I mean,
• 32:47
  Speaker 3: I think we've kind of had this conversation since they
• 32:49
  Speaker 3: won a Super Bowl.
• 32:50
  Speaker 4: What is your identity? Are you a Jalen Hurts-led team?
• 32:54
  Speaker 4: Are you a Saquon-led team?
• 32:57
  Speaker 3: And then, you know, the year that Saquon had to
• 33:00
  Speaker 3: win a Super Bowl, you know, the following year, you
• 33:04
  Speaker 3: go completely away from it. And you try and become
• 33:07
  Speaker 3: a Jalen Hurts. We're going to pass the ball around,
• 33:10
  Speaker 3: but then you got to piss off A.J. Brown reading
• 33:12
  Speaker 3: books on the sidelines, right, and trying to meditate and
• 33:15
  Speaker 3: become a hermit and a helmet.
• 33:18
  Speaker 4: And now you've gotten rid of A.J. Brown, and now
• 33:21
  Speaker 4: you're like, okay, well, we need to figure out how
• 33:23
  Speaker 4: to get Saquon back.
• 33:24
  Speaker 3: And then now you lose Saquon, and now you're left with,
• 33:26
  Speaker 3: davante smith then mckay lemon i know we haven't said
• 33:31
  Speaker 3: that name since the draft because we weren't allowed to
• 33:33
  Speaker 3: say that name because we tried to say it and
• 33:35
  Speaker 3: it got stolen from us so um you know you
• 33:38
  Speaker 3: know that's one of the things and you also have
• 33:40
  Speaker 3: an aging team because you've had all of these guys
• 33:43
  Speaker 3: i mean the offensive line is not getting any younger
• 33:45
  Speaker 3: and your defensive line you've kind of you know paved
• 33:49
  Speaker 3: the way for all these kind of you know, one-year
• 33:51
  Speaker 3: prove-it deals, and then a couple of guys you did pay,
• 33:54
  Speaker 3: and then you let one of those guys go, and
• 33:56
  Speaker 3: Milton Williams, and good God, we know what Milton.
• 34:00
  Speaker 4: Williams can do.
• 34:01
  Speaker 3: And so, you know, you just look at, you know,
• 34:04
  Speaker 3: Howie Roseman and company has just been shuffling and churning
• 34:08
  Speaker 3: this deck so much that, you know, they don't really
• 34:11
  Speaker 3: have an identity.
• 34:12
  Speaker 4: They just know that they're Eagles. That's about it.
• 34:14
  Speaker 3: So, you know, they've got to figure out what they're
• 34:17
  Speaker 3: good at and get back to kind of basics. And
• 34:19
  Speaker 3: now you have to do it with Saquon-less in the process.
• 34:23
  Speaker 6: Willie, nobody cares that you're injured or struggling. They're just
• 34:28
  Speaker 6: happy that you are. So this will be a big
• 34:29
  Speaker 6: test for the Eagles. You know, there'll be some, you know,
• 34:32
  Speaker 6: the first order of business is the game against the
• 34:35
  Speaker 6: Jaguars on Sunday.
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: The Jaguars look great.
• 34:38
  Speaker 6: I think if you're Philadelphia and you go in and
• 34:40
  Speaker 6: win that game, you're feeling a lot better.
• 34:41
  Speaker 2: You're puffing your chest out a little bit.
• 34:43
  Speaker 6: Uh, but if you lose that game and then, you know,
• 34:45
  Speaker 6: you got Carolina and Dallas, I think that Dallas came
• 34:48
  Speaker 6: Sunday night or Monday night. Um, you there look, they're
• 34:51
  Speaker 6: already disgruntled east of the state here in Philadelphia.
• 34:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 34:56
  Speaker 5: I mean, they, and they have a right to be there.
• 34:58
  Speaker 7: I mean, the offense is pretty much underperforming as an understatement,
• 35:03
  Speaker 7: the reality of it.
• 35:04
  Speaker 5: And the max alluded to some of the injuries.
• 35:06
  Speaker 7: I mean, you talk about Devante Smith, Goddard got hurt, um,
• 35:10
  Speaker 7: No Lane Johnson. I mean, the list goes on. The
• 35:12
  Speaker 7: guys who are impact players for them are injured. Nevertheless,
• 35:16
  Speaker 7: when you're talking about their offense production, the reason why
• 35:19
  Speaker 7: they were able to score on Sunday, even with the loss,
• 35:21
  Speaker 7: was because the defense was able to give them the
• 35:23
  Speaker 7: ball on short fields.
• 35:25
  Speaker 5: I mean, it was able to punch it in.
• 35:26
  Speaker 7: With all that said, there's still some discrepancies on what
• 35:29
  Speaker 7: Jalen Hurts can do really well. I think if you
• 35:31
  Speaker 7: go back to the game, I think if you go
• 35:33
  Speaker 7: back to the game, even before the Rams, man, You know,
• 35:36
  Speaker 7: the first half, I forgot who they played in the
• 35:38
  Speaker 7: first half.
• 35:39
  Speaker 5: I think I forgot who they played before the Rams,
• 35:41
  Speaker 5: so excuse me.
• 35:42
  Speaker 7: But I just know from stats, Saquon, I think, ran
• 35:47
  Speaker 7: a ball for 71 yards in the first half.
• 35:49
  Speaker 5: The second half, they ran for like nine.
• 35:52
  Speaker 7: So something's going on with the Philadelphia Eagles when.
• 35:55
  Speaker 5: They come out of halftime. They're just not productive as
• 35:57
  Speaker 5: a team on both sides of the football. And defensively,
• 36:01
  Speaker 5: they don't have a pass rush. They can't get home.
• 36:03
  Speaker 7: And now that Jalen Carter has been kind of– he's
• 36:05
  Speaker 7: dealing with a hand.
• 36:06
  Speaker 5: I know he played.
• 36:07
  Speaker 7: They don't have a pass rush, and now they have
• 36:09
  Speaker 7: Cooper Dijon, who's a safety, kind of playing like a
• 36:12
  Speaker 7: linebacker role because they let go of N'Kobe Dean. He's
• 36:14
  Speaker 7: now with the Raiders. And Kuyon Mitchell, I thought, had
• 36:18
  Speaker 7: a solid game against Devontae Adams. He was scrappy, and
• 36:20
  Speaker 7: they held up in that department. But Puka N'Kua had
• 36:23
  Speaker 7: nine catches for like 100-something yards against the Eagles.
• 36:26
  Speaker 5: So they're still struggling in their secondary.
• 36:27
  Speaker 7: Now you're going into a game right now where, you know,
• 36:31
  Speaker 7: You beat the Jaguars, yes, it's a statement game, but
• 36:34
  Speaker 7: the Jaguars are no walkover at all.
• 36:36
  Speaker 5: I mean, Trevor Lawrence is playing at a big-time level.
• 36:39
  Speaker 7: You know, the defense is, I think, probably a lot
• 36:41
  Speaker 7: stronger than people anticipated, even with the loss.
• 36:44
  Speaker 5: Of their star linebacker, Devin Lord, who now plays for
• 36:47
  Speaker 5: the Panthers.
• 36:48
  Speaker 7: Offensively, man, you know, they– on both sides, excuse me–
• 36:54
  Speaker 7: they look like a team that's complementing each other. The
• 36:56
  Speaker 7: offense can score, the defense can make get-up stops. Travis
• 37:00
  Speaker 7: Hunter has been popping off the tape the last two weeks.
• 37:02
  Speaker 7: I think he has at least three picks in the
• 37:04
  Speaker 7: last two weeks. So, you know, the Jaguars are a
• 37:08
  Speaker 7: team you just can't walk up and feel like you're
• 37:10
  Speaker 7: going to have a day because Trevor Lawrence is playing
• 37:12
  Speaker 7: well within his system and the defense is giving him
• 37:14
  Speaker 7: the ball back. And, you know, it's going to be
• 37:17
  Speaker 7: a tough game against the Eagles.
• 37:18
  Speaker 5: I don't see the Eagles obviously winning that game against
• 37:20
  Speaker 5: the Jaguars.
• 37:21
  Speaker 2: Interesting.
• 37:22
  Speaker 6: Going to be a fun game to watch for sure
• 37:23
  Speaker 6: on Sunday morning. Not a fun weekend for a couple
• 37:26
  Speaker 6: of referees. We're going to talk about that and those
• 37:28
  Speaker 6: suspensions when we continue in the locker room here on
• 37:31
  Speaker 6: the Steelers Audio Network.
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: This is In the Locker Room with Rob King, Max Starks,
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: and Willie Colon on Steelers Nation Radio, brought to you
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: in part by the Steelers Pro Shop. Get it direct
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: from the team at the Steelers Pro Shop at shop.steelers.com.
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: And by your neighborhood Ford store. The F-150 is the
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: official truck of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
• 38:01
  Speaker 3: All right, back inside the locker room, and we are
• 38:04
  Speaker 3: here in the final.
• 38:06
  Speaker 4: Segment, the former bell lap segment.
• 38:09
  Speaker 3: So now it is the trumpet lap segment that we
• 38:12
  Speaker 3: are now doing.
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: Correct, correct.
• 38:16
  Speaker 3: I mean, Willie, all jokes aside, Willie, we did have
• 38:20
  Speaker 3: a bell lap yesterday after.
• 38:22
  Speaker 5: You left because I was cooking. Is that right?
• 38:24
  Speaker 3: I had to talk about food because that's what the
• 38:26
  Speaker 3: bell lap was. It was more like the lunch bell, so.
• 38:30
  Speaker 3: We did have that, but now we're back to trumpets
• 38:33
  Speaker 3: are going high and we are in good moods. And
• 38:36
  Speaker 3: none better than seeing referees reprimanded. We wondered about there
• 38:41
  Speaker 3: being discourse and how does a referee get to act
• 38:45
  Speaker 3: with impunity and there's no recourse for their bad flagging
• 38:51
  Speaker 3: or their conduct on the field.
• 38:54
  Speaker 4: Well, now we have one, right, Rob?
• 38:57
  Speaker 6: Well, we got two, um, two officials were suspended. So
• 39:03
  Speaker 6: I think the big one that everybody saw was the
• 39:06
  Speaker 6: one in the Cardinals game, uh, regarding Trey McBride. So
• 39:09
  Speaker 6: that was Jeff Seaman who evidently, uh, cursing, it looked
• 39:14
  Speaker 6: like he was cursing at Trey McBride. Won't say the words, uh,
• 39:18
  Speaker 6: but McBride got hit, thought there was a pass interference.
• 39:22
  Speaker 6: I think was what he was thinking that there was
• 39:25
  Speaker 6: and yelled at, or said something to Seaman. I don't
• 39:29
  Speaker 6: know if he– I just said something to him. And
• 39:31
  Speaker 6: then Seaman evidently displeased with that and said some, you know,
• 39:39
  Speaker 6: apparently some things with some colorful language. And that was it,
• 39:43
  Speaker 6: two-game suspension, boom. Yeah.
• 39:47
  Speaker 4: Well, you had him and you had Adrian Hill too.
• 39:50
  Speaker 6: Yeah, Adrian Hill got knocked down trying to start a
• 39:52
  Speaker 6: fight and got up and I guess said something or
• 39:55
  Speaker 6: didn't want to be helped up.
• 39:57
  Speaker 2: And the Adrian Hill one, the players involved.
• 40:01
  Speaker 5: Yeah, they cleaned that up.
• 40:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they thought that was kind of funny.
• 40:08
  Speaker 5: Right.
• 40:09
  Speaker 6: But Eric Wilson was the linebacker for the Vikings. He
• 40:12
  Speaker 6: said afterward he thought it was kind of funny. But
• 40:15
  Speaker 6: Hill got dinged for a game. Seaman suspended for two.
• 40:18
  Speaker 6: I have mixed emotions about officials and their part of
• 40:23
  Speaker 6: the game and what they're supposed to do and not do.
• 40:26
  Speaker 6: Mike McCarthy was asked about some of these incidents. I
• 40:32
  Speaker 6: don't know if it was these in specific on Monday,
• 40:35
  Speaker 6: but he said, look, when they started putting mics on
• 40:37
  Speaker 6: the players, the centers and the guards and all that stuff,
• 40:43
  Speaker 6: I mean, you've got to watch what you're saying as
• 40:45
  Speaker 6: a player out on the field because it's going to
• 40:47
  Speaker 6: be broadcast to millions of people.
• 40:49
  Speaker 2: And so the officials have to be the same way.
• 40:51
  Speaker 2: They have to be held to the same standards.
• 40:54
  Speaker 7: Well, Rob, remember, it was a couple years ago they
• 40:57
  Speaker 7: came out with a rule about players using the N-word
• 41:01
  Speaker 7: on the field because when the mics started getting closer
• 41:05
  Speaker 7: to the field and the game became more wide open,
• 41:08
  Speaker 7: you know, players were– peppering the field with all type
• 41:13
  Speaker 7: of profanity, vulgarity. Now, what happened Sunday was it wasn't
• 41:18
  Speaker 7: the players doing it. You caught a ref doing it, right?
• 41:20
  Speaker 7: You caught one of your refs throwing an F-bomb at
• 41:25
  Speaker 7: Trey McBride.
• 41:27
  Speaker 5: But I have to say this. In all my years,
• 41:29
  Speaker 5: in Max's years too, this is nothing new. Refs have
• 41:33
  Speaker 5: been flying the F-bird all over the field. And to
• 41:37
  Speaker 5: be honest, this is justice. I'm glad that they got caught.
• 41:41
  Speaker 7: I'm glad because I can't tell you how many times, right,
• 41:44
  Speaker 7: I can't tell you if I've gotten into a tussle
• 41:47
  Speaker 7: with a guy or I've had back and forth that
• 41:50
  Speaker 7: I've had refs flat out use all type of language
• 41:53
  Speaker 7: to either come at me or come at the other team.
• 41:56
  Speaker 7: So this is, This is nothing new. It just got caught, right?
• 41:59
  Speaker 7: That was my question for you.
• 42:01
  Speaker 2: So this is not uncommon in your experience?
• 42:03
  Speaker 5: No, please no.
• 42:05
  Speaker 7: Rob, I had a ref one time. There's no BS.
• 42:08
  Speaker 7: I think it was a Jet by this time. He
• 42:12
  Speaker 7: came up to me before the game and was like,
• 42:14
  Speaker 7: I'm watching you 66.
• 42:16
  Speaker 5: We're on to you. And I was like, what? And
• 42:19
  Speaker 5: he was like, I'm watching you.
• 42:21
  Speaker 7: And he's like, don't, you know, because I guess I
• 42:23
  Speaker 7: have built a reputation for starting fights, whatever.
• 42:26
  Speaker 5: You know what I mean? It's not a big deal. No,
• 42:28
  Speaker 5: say it isn't so. Yeah, like, it's just, you know, whatever.
• 42:32
  Speaker 5: You can't do what you used to do. I'm glad
• 42:34
  Speaker 5: he's on my team, Max.
• 42:35
  Speaker 7: Anyway, go ahead, Willie. So one of the refs came
• 42:39
  Speaker 7: up to me. He's like, yeah, we're watching you 66.
• 42:40
  Speaker 7: We're not going to have none of that today. And
• 42:42
  Speaker 7: I'm like, I didn't even put my helmet on. Like,
• 42:44
  Speaker 7: this is warm-ups.
• 42:45
  Speaker 5: Like, I'm kind of like.
• 42:47
  Speaker 7: I'm still getting my knees to stop squeaking. I'm trying
• 42:50
  Speaker 7: to get these things lubed up. And, yeah, and then
• 42:54
  Speaker 7: sure enough, I got into it with the same rough
• 42:56
  Speaker 7: because I got into it.
• 42:57
  Speaker 5: I think I was playing Detroit. Me and Ndamukong Suh
• 42:59
  Speaker 5: got into it.
• 43:01
  Speaker 7: And we got to having some unchoiced words towards each other.
• 43:04
  Speaker 7: And he just jumped down my throat. And it was,
• 43:06
  Speaker 7: you know, my teammate at the time, Nick Mango, got
• 43:08
  Speaker 7: rushed to Seoul. had to jump in and was like, hey, man,
• 43:10
  Speaker 7: get out of his face. Why are you like– you're
• 43:13
  Speaker 7: a ref. You're supposed to break it up. You're not
• 43:15
  Speaker 7: supposed to antagonize it. And so Nick had to referee
• 43:19
  Speaker 7: the ref, which is wild. And so it was– refs
• 43:23
  Speaker 7: are capable of doing a lot of things. And I
• 43:25
  Speaker 7: know they're ambitious to kind of neutralize game, keep tempers down.
• 43:29
  Speaker 7: But a lot of times they add to it. And
• 43:32
  Speaker 7: they have a lot of get back too. So they're
• 43:34
  Speaker 7: not innocent in that regard.
• 43:38
  Speaker 3: No, and Will, because we also come from an era
• 43:42
  Speaker 3: where the umpire was in the middle of the line play, right?
• 43:45
  Speaker 5: Correct.
• 43:46
  Speaker 4: He was in the trenches.
• 43:46
  Speaker 5: Correct.
• 43:48
  Speaker 3: So the umps were real physical nature, even though they
• 43:52
  Speaker 3: didn't have quite the physique to stand in there. They just,
• 43:55
  Speaker 3: you know, luckily they would move around, and then you
• 43:58
  Speaker 3: would pray for that shallow crosser that would come right
• 44:01
  Speaker 3: in front of him, and he'd get sideswiped.
• 44:04
  Speaker 4: You know, it was like, oh, darn.
• 44:06
  Speaker 5: Oh, man.
• 44:07
  Speaker 4: Hate that it happens to a worse guy.
• 44:10
  Speaker 5: Well, Max, remember this.
• 44:11
  Speaker 7: Remember back in the day, I don't know if they
• 44:12
  Speaker 7: still do it anymore, but during our playing time, we
• 44:14
  Speaker 7: sounded like a bunch of old men on the porch.
• 44:17
  Speaker 5: But when a fumble.
• 44:19
  Speaker 7: Happened, they used to jump in the pile and give
• 44:21
  Speaker 7: you elbows to get you the ball.
• 44:23
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah.
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah.
• 44:26
  Speaker 4: And they'd grab you by the face mask to get
• 44:27
  Speaker 4: you out of the way.
• 44:28
  Speaker 5: Oh, man. It would be all type of stuff.
• 44:31
  Speaker 7: That's why I got a penalty one time because a
• 44:34
  Speaker 7: ref grabbed me by my collar. I didn't know it
• 44:35
  Speaker 7: was him, and I tossed him off me. And I
• 44:37
  Speaker 7: ended up, you know, that was a hefty one. But, like,
• 44:41
  Speaker 7: they used to get physical with the players. There was
• 44:43
  Speaker 7: a time, like, they used to hit the belly on
• 44:45
  Speaker 7: the floor, and they'd be getting in the pile to
• 44:47
  Speaker 7: see who has the ball, and they'd be poking you
• 44:48
  Speaker 7: and doing all type of nonsense.
• 44:49
  Speaker 5: So, yeah, these zebras ain't innocent. No, they're not innocent
• 44:54
  Speaker 5: at all.
• 44:54
  Speaker 4: And, trust me, we had one.
• 44:56
  Speaker 5: We remember that.
• 44:57
  Speaker 4: Old one when we got a certain crew.
• 44:59
  Speaker 7: Yep.
• 45:02
  Speaker 4: He was on all of our necks. And an older gentleman,
• 45:06
  Speaker 4: a little bit shorter.
• 45:09
  Speaker 3: And he would come, you know, because I specifically remember
• 45:14
  Speaker 3: that San Diego playoff game, Will.
• 45:17
  Speaker 4: After, you know, outside of.
• 45:19
  Speaker 3: Justin Hartwig having his moment in that game. But there
• 45:23
  Speaker 3: was a couple of times, because you and Sean Phillips
• 45:26
  Speaker 3: got into it.
• 45:27
  Speaker 5: Sean Phillips, yeah.
• 45:28
  Speaker 4: Oh, my God.
• 45:30
  Speaker 3: And the ref was getting on us about what we
• 45:32
  Speaker 3: were doing to them, blah, blah, blah.
• 45:33
  Speaker 4: I'm like, man, if you don't get out of our face.
• 45:36
  Speaker 5: Yeah, you don't get to pick a side, ref. It's
• 45:39
  Speaker 5: a ref. Yeah, exactly.
• 45:40
  Speaker 4: So you're a charger now? That's what it is?
• 45:42
  Speaker 3: So your stripes are really a lightning bolt? Like, get
• 45:45
  Speaker 3: out of here, man. So, yeah, we've had those moments.
• 45:48
  Speaker 3: So good for the referees getting suspended.
• 45:51
  Speaker 2: I would say this. The Adrian Hill one, I'm a
• 45:54
  Speaker 2: little like, I don't know about that. Uh, the other one. Yes, absolutely. Uh,
• 46:02
  Speaker 2: maybe he said something.
• 46:03
  Speaker 5: I don't know. Maybe he said.
• 46:04
  Speaker 4: Something sacrificial lamb. Sorry.
• 46:10
  Speaker 6: I am so upset with myself for not getting into
• 46:13
  Speaker 6: this conversation sooner because I would love.
• 46:15
  Speaker 2: To hear more about this from you guys.
• 46:17
  Speaker 5: Seriously. Uh, I, I, I think it's a, I think
• 46:20
  Speaker 5: it's a great topic.
• 46:21
  Speaker 6: Um, one that I rail on and other sports too,
• 46:24
  Speaker 6: by the way, um, You know, only from this– I'll
• 46:27
  Speaker 6: just leave you with this, guys, because I know we've
• 46:28
  Speaker 6: got to go.
• 46:30
  Speaker 2: You're not the show.
• 46:30
  Speaker 6: Not one person paid a ticket to watch you officiate, umpire,
• 46:36
  Speaker 6: call three seconds. Nobody has paid their hard-earned money to see.
• 46:41
  Speaker 5: You do that.
• 46:41
  Speaker 4: Nobody wants to see you throw a flag 30 yards.
• 46:43
  Speaker 2: Do your best to stay in your lane.
• 46:44
  Speaker 6: I understand sometimes things get a little out of control,
• 46:47
  Speaker 6: but you've got to stay in your lane.
• 46:48
  Speaker 5: It's part of the job.
• 46:49
  Speaker 2: Anyway, that's it. We may have to revisit this tomorrow
• 46:52
  Speaker 2: because this is a fun conversation.
• 46:54
  Speaker 6: We've got to go. Jim Wex is going to be
• 46:56
  Speaker 6: with us tomorrow. We're going to turn the corner, also
• 46:59
  Speaker 6: take a look at the power rankings, some other stuff
• 47:00
  Speaker 6: that we normally do on Wednesdays that you know by now.
• 47:03
  Speaker 6: So we'll get to that. For Justin Mill, our producer.
• 47:05
  Speaker 6: For Max Stark and Willie Colon, I'm Rob King. We
• 47:08
  Speaker 6: thank you for being with us in the locker room
• 47:09
  Speaker 6: here on the Steelers Audio Network.