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HR 1: Steelers Coordinators, Jim Wexell Joins the Show · The Steelers Report

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We've got a quarterback that can.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: Play at any volume of game plan, but at the
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: end of the day, it's a team game. We've got
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: to give Aaron better platforms to throw off and have
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: the opportunities because I don't want to think of Duncan
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: play all day and play keep away football. It's a
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: team game. You know, there's a place for that, maybe situationally,
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: but that's not the philosophy.
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: This is the Steelers Report with Brian Batko and Ed
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: Troop on Steelers Nation Radio, a part of the Steelers
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: Audio Network.
• 0:47
  Speaker 4: Steelers Nation, it's been just about 48 hours since the
• 0:52
  Speaker 4: Week 2 loss in New England. How you feeling? Brian,
• 0:57
  Speaker 4: I got to tell you, I'm feeling a bit better.
• 0:59
  Speaker 4: I watched some Steelers Patriots highlights last night or lowlights,
• 1:03
  Speaker 4: however you want to look at it. And I came
• 1:06
  Speaker 4: away thinking that maybe it's not as bad as I
• 1:10
  Speaker 4: saw my immediate reaction on Sunday after the game. I've
• 1:14
  Speaker 4: had a few hours now, a few days to process it.
• 1:17
  Speaker 4: And I think a few tweaks here or there, maybe
• 1:20
  Speaker 4: just maybe this team can get back on track quicker
• 1:23
  Speaker 4: rather than later.
• 1:24
  Speaker 5: I would say the sun still came up Monday.
• 1:26
  Speaker 6: It did.
• 1:27
  Speaker 5: But it really didn't.
• 1:28
  Speaker 7: It was pretty bad weather in Pittsburgh on Monday, pretty
• 1:31
  Speaker 7: rainy all around, but the sun came up for Ed Troop, obviously,
• 1:34
  Speaker 7: from a football perspective. Yeah, and we heard from Mike
• 1:38
  Speaker 7: McCarthy Monday afternoon, now that he has had a chance
• 1:42
  Speaker 7: to absorb the tape, absorb the negativity as someone we
• 1:46
  Speaker 7: used to know might say after a loss. Heard from
• 1:50
  Speaker 7: the coordinators, Brian Angelico on offense, Patrick Graham on defense,
• 1:54
  Speaker 7: Danny Crossman on special teams, and All those guys were
• 1:59
  Speaker 7: asked and discussed the ups and downs, the good and
• 2:03
  Speaker 7: bad of that game in Foxborough. I think with Mike
• 2:08
  Speaker 7: McCarthy and his press conference Monday, there was a lot
• 2:14
  Speaker 7: of interesting stuff said there. I wrote about it on Steelers.com.
• 2:16
  Speaker 7: You can go check that out. Sort of on the
• 2:19
  Speaker 7: topic of any coach, you don't want to dwell on
• 2:25
  Speaker 7: what happened, but you certainly can't ignore it. because correct
• 2:28
  Speaker 7: what's one of the good cliches out there those who
• 2:31
  Speaker 7: don't learn from history doomed to repeat it or in
• 2:33
  Speaker 7: this case don't learn from what happened in a game
• 2:36
  Speaker 7: or are doomed to make those same mistakes other coaches
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  Speaker 7: say your tape is your resume that's that's really all
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  Speaker 7: you've got doesn't matter and Mike McCarthy actually said this
• 2:45
  Speaker 7: too essentially it doesn't matter how hard you worked in
• 2:48
  Speaker 7: practice or how much oh we were prepared for that
• 2:51
  Speaker 7: and just you know excuses are excuses and then that's
• 2:55
  Speaker 7: another cliche they're the tools of the incompetent so he
• 2:58
  Speaker 7: had a lot of good stuff to say on kind
• 2:59
  Speaker 7: of balancing all of that with hey at some point
• 3:03
  Speaker 7: you got to flush it and move on like that's
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  Speaker 7: not us that tape is not us that's not who
• 3:07
  Speaker 7: we're going to be even if it says that that's
• 3:09
  Speaker 7: who we are two games in granted you're one and
• 3:12
  Speaker 7: one it's not like your own two um you got
• 3:15
  Speaker 7: to move past that and you got to move on
• 3:16
  Speaker 7: to the next opponent it's a week-to-week league you know
• 3:18
  Speaker 7: we'll go around the league later in the show today
• 3:21
  Speaker 7: ed i mean the results from one week to the
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  Speaker 7: next i don't i don't know that i can ever
• 3:25
  Speaker 7: remember and we all have short memories that probably happened
• 3:28
  Speaker 7: last year or the year before but some of the
• 3:30
  Speaker 7: results from week one to week two you truly can't
• 3:33
  Speaker 7: make sense of it some you can but a lot
• 3:36
  Speaker 7: of them you can't so that's all over here then
• 3:41
  Speaker 7: in another bucket over here when you cut through all
• 3:44
  Speaker 7: the kind of coach speak from mike mccarthy i thought
• 3:46
  Speaker 7: one quote from him that he just sort of slipped
• 3:47
  Speaker 7: in there yesterday stood out to me and that was
• 3:51
  Speaker 7: at the end of the day our job is to
• 3:53
  Speaker 7: whip the other guy's ass and we need to make
• 3:54
  Speaker 7: sure we're staying in tune with that so I don't
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  Speaker 7: think he's necessarily saying his team wasn't physical enough in
• 4:00
  Speaker 7: New England but I think that's kind of a subtle
• 4:02
  Speaker 7: way to say hey we need to make sure we're
• 4:04
  Speaker 7: physical and he also had a quote in there about
• 4:06
  Speaker 7: this is you know we can't at the end of
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  Speaker 7: the day it's football we can't lose sight of that
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  Speaker 7: and it's Pittsburgh Steelers football right absolutely you you.
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  Speaker 5: Need that to be in your DNA every time you
• 4:14
  Speaker 5: go out there yep each.
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  Speaker 4: And every time Brian and So you probably want to
• 4:18
  Speaker 4: ask me, after watching the highlights or lowlights, whatever you
• 4:20
  Speaker 4: want to say, why do you feel better about it now?
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  Speaker 5: I was thinking it.
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  Speaker 4: 48 hours later, right? Defensively, I stand by where I
• 4:27
  Speaker 4: stood by yesterday on the show with you. Very good performance.
• 4:30
  Speaker 4: And in particular, watching Keanu Benton. and Derek Harmon up
• 4:33
  Speaker 4: front along with Cam Hayward. Why are you black? I
• 4:36
  Speaker 4: thought did well. The defensive line, very good. We know
• 4:38
  Speaker 4: the edge rushers with Alex Highsmith, Nick Herbig had a day,
• 4:41
  Speaker 4: TJ Watt had a day. No worries there. The secondary, again,
• 4:44
  Speaker 4: performed pretty well. I mean, by all accounts, Brian, they
• 4:47
  Speaker 4: hold the New England Patriots on Sunday to 13 points.
• 4:50
  Speaker 4: That should get the job done. But we know on
• 4:53
  Speaker 4: the flip side of things, it was the offense on
• 4:55
  Speaker 4: Sunday that came in. in low and came in very
• 4:59
  Speaker 4: low at that. And it all starts up front. It
• 5:01
  Speaker 4: starts with that offensive line. So here's my takeaway right
• 5:03
  Speaker 4: after the game on Sunday, I'm like, man, Stewart's got
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: to make big time changes on that offensive line. They've
• 5:09
  Speaker 4: got to get Anderson out. They've got to get Cook out.
• 5:11
  Speaker 4: You came on the show yesterday and said, Ed, calm down.
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  Speaker 4: I don't necessarily think they have to make a switch
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  Speaker 4: that quickly. So that's the reason why, Brian Bacco, I
• 5:19
  Speaker 4: went home last night and I re-watched some of the
• 5:21
  Speaker 4: film from Sunday because I wanted to see exactly what
• 5:24
  Speaker 4: you were talking about. And now I agree with you
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  Speaker 4: because I saw more of communication issues rather than execution
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  Speaker 4: up front. After the game on Sunday, and listen, communication
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  Speaker 4: and execution go hand in hand. You don't communicate, you're
• 5:36
  Speaker 4: not going to execute. I get that part of it.
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  Speaker 4: But I came away after Sunday's game thinking it was
• 5:40
  Speaker 4: more of a talent issue. Well, now after going back
• 5:43
  Speaker 4: and watching and watching Rodgers audible at the line of
• 5:46
  Speaker 4: scrimmage several times and the offensive line pointing different directions,
• 5:49
  Speaker 4: not knowing what to do next, I think it was
• 5:52
  Speaker 4: more of a communication breakdown up front. That's why I
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  Speaker 4: think if they can fix that and clean that up
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  Speaker 4: this week in practice, which I think they will, let's
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  Speaker 4: see this five back in action this Sunday against the
• 6:02
  Speaker 4: Bengals before we start making household changes.
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  Speaker 7: And without making excuses, again, I know that nobody wants
• 6:10
  Speaker 7: to hear that, but sometimes excuses are just reasons. And
• 6:13
  Speaker 7: I think you could understand you're two games in to
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  Speaker 7: this new coaching staff, Mike McCarthy's scheme and playbook. It's
• 6:23
  Speaker 7: one thing to drill it out in Latrobe at training
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  Speaker 7: camp or in some limited preseason action.
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  Speaker 8: Sure.
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  Speaker 5: It's reasonable to believe that there's.
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  Speaker 7: Going to be some hiccups early on and there's going
• 6:33
  Speaker 7: to be some growing pains and there's going to be
• 6:36
  Speaker 7: Some lapses here and there that you ideally get cleaned
• 6:40
  Speaker 7: up over the course of the season. And maybe you
• 6:42
  Speaker 7: can peak at the right time, as they say. That's
• 6:46
  Speaker 7: just one way to look at this. I think if
• 6:49
  Speaker 7: you want to not be in the sky is falling camp.
• 6:53
  Speaker 7: The other way to look at it, though, Ed, if
• 6:54
  Speaker 7: the sky is falling, you've got two games coming up
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  Speaker 7: in 10 days here. Bengals and Browns and their big games,
• 7:01
  Speaker 7: their divisional games, their AFC North games, huge one at
• 7:04
  Speaker 7: home against since he won on the road in Cleveland,
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  Speaker 7: where it's, it's been an absolute thresher for the Steelers
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  Speaker 7: to go to in recent years.
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  Speaker 5: But then you get that post Thursday night football layoff.
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  Speaker 7: And you'd also be a little slightly less than a
• 7:21
  Speaker 7: quarter into the season at that point. So maybe that
• 7:26
  Speaker 7: is your runway for, for this offensive line to an extent,
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  Speaker 7: you know, you pick up what I'm putting down there.
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  Speaker 2: Yep.
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  Speaker 5: And you know.
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  Speaker 7: If they play well, then okay, let's look down the road,
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  Speaker 7: a big picture view where some other potential checkpoints along
• 7:42
  Speaker 7: the way, I'd say obviously the bi-week and in week
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  Speaker 7: nine is maybe one of those. And that's where you
• 7:47
  Speaker 7: could assess potentially making a change. If you're not getting
• 7:50
  Speaker 7: the production or the results that you want three games
• 7:53
  Speaker 7: after the bi-week, you go from a Friday to a
• 7:55
  Speaker 7: Sunday and, So you've got a little bit of extra
• 7:57
  Speaker 7: time to prepare. So that's the way I kind of
• 8:02
  Speaker 7: break up this season in segments. If you want to
• 8:03
  Speaker 7: talk about making roster changes and don't get me wrong,
• 8:06
  Speaker 7: these are big boys.
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  Speaker 5: You know, they're in the NFL.
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  Speaker 7: If you want to make a roster change just in
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  Speaker 7: the course of three days of practice, you can do that.
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  Speaker 5: That's that's right.
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  Speaker 7: The onus is on the coaches to determine if someone's
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  Speaker 7: going to be ready to step in there without ample
• 8:20
  Speaker 7: time to learn the, you know, get reps with the
• 8:24
  Speaker 7: first team and get up to speed and all of that.
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  Speaker 5: That very well could happen too.
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  Speaker 7: But Mike McCarthy was asked about it yesterday, potential personnel
• 8:33
  Speaker 7: changes or considerations. And, you know, he had a very
• 8:39
  Speaker 7: long answer on that about how they need continuity and
• 8:41
  Speaker 7: they were trying to work a lot of different combinations
• 8:43
  Speaker 7: in camp translation. They were letting guys compete for spots,
• 8:47
  Speaker 7: which is also a good thing in my mind. And
• 8:49
  Speaker 7: I don't think anyone was really second guessing that too
• 8:52
  Speaker 7: much at the time. But then later he circled back
• 8:56
  Speaker 7: and said, I think the five guys playing together, we've
• 8:59
  Speaker 7: got to keep working through that. We haven't had a
• 9:01
  Speaker 7: lot of reps for all five of them. With their
• 9:03
  Speaker 7: hand in the dirt at the same time, we've got
• 9:04
  Speaker 7: to do a better job of getting ready. So that,
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  Speaker 7: to me, was a tacit admission that, yes, he is
• 9:08
  Speaker 7: sticking with status quo for week three at least.
• 9:12
  Speaker 4: You mentioned that 10-day period that they will get after
• 9:15
  Speaker 4: the Thursday night game, and I agree with you. I
• 9:17
  Speaker 4: think that's the opportunity. If you're going to make some changes,
• 9:19
  Speaker 4: it's almost a mini-bye. That's the time to do it.
• 9:22
  Speaker 4: I think you roll into this Sunday– With the same
• 9:25
  Speaker 4: five from left to right, again, just to refresh your
• 9:27
  Speaker 4: memory in case out there in Steeler Nation you're not
• 9:29
  Speaker 4: familiar with Fontano, McCormick, Frazier, Anderson, and Cook. And Anderson
• 9:32
  Speaker 4: and Cook are the two main concerns at that right
• 9:35
  Speaker 4: guard position.
• 9:36
  Speaker 7: They weren't first, second, or even fourth round picks. So
• 9:39
  Speaker 7: always the spotlight's going to be on them to an extent.
• 9:41
  Speaker 4: And their defense. And this was a group, Brian, and
• 9:44
  Speaker 4: you were in La Trobe every day with me and
• 9:46
  Speaker 4: Chris Adamski up in the booth that We were praising
• 9:49
  Speaker 4: this group as potentially being one of the best in
• 9:52
  Speaker 4: the NFL. And even through the preseason, a couple of
• 9:55
  Speaker 4: hiccups here or there, but for the most part, this
• 9:57
  Speaker 4: is a consistent group in the off season that at
• 9:59
  Speaker 4: least on paper and what we saw in practices. And again,
• 10:02
  Speaker 4: as you said, it's just Latrobe. It's just practices, just preseason.
• 10:05
  Speaker 4: It's not regular season football. I get that. But they
• 10:07
  Speaker 4: didn't play that awful against the Falcons. So does one
• 10:10
  Speaker 4: awful performance against the New England Patriots, ah, scrap it,
• 10:14
  Speaker 4: throw it away, let's just go ahead and put a
• 10:17
  Speaker 4: new five out there or change the order around, switch
• 10:19
  Speaker 4: one side to the other, put Fontano back on the
• 10:22
  Speaker 4: right side, which I don't think they're going to do.
• 10:24
  Speaker 4: I agree with you from yesterday. I think you need
• 10:26
  Speaker 4: to give it more time to develop. However, I will
• 10:29
  Speaker 4: say this. I think that leash is short. In other words...
• 10:33
  Speaker 4: You get to halftime on Sunday. If the first half
• 10:35
  Speaker 4: against Cincinnati goes pretty much what we saw in New
• 10:37
  Speaker 4: England for four quarters, well, maybe you do throw Maxionichor
• 10:40
  Speaker 4: out there in the second half and see what he
• 10:41
  Speaker 4: can do.
• 10:42
  Speaker 7: Yeah, I didn't even consider necessarily the possibility of switching in-game,
• 10:46
  Speaker 7: but you see that at times, too, in the NFL.
• 10:48
  Speaker 7: And again, this is professional football. This isn't peewee. This
• 10:52
  Speaker 7: isn't middle school or JV or even varsity or whatever.
• 10:56
  Speaker 4: You just checked all the boxes for me personally.
• 10:58
  Speaker 7: Ed's not ready to go into the game at halftime.
• 11:00
  Speaker 7: You know, that's not fair to him. He needs a
• 11:01
  Speaker 7: week of practice. No, I mean, this is a business
• 11:03
  Speaker 7: and you're trying to win the game. That is the
• 11:06
  Speaker 7: bottom line. But yeah, overall, I agree with your point.
• 11:09
  Speaker 7: And I think you might border on being a little
• 11:11
  Speaker 7: bit too reactionary if you make a change after your
• 11:16
  Speaker 7: first loss of the season. I know, you know, Tomlin would,
• 11:20
  Speaker 7: Mike Tomlin would always say, we're not going to change
• 11:21
  Speaker 7: just for the sake of change and give you the
• 11:24
  Speaker 7: quote unquote pound of flesh that you seek Now, on
• 11:27
  Speaker 7: the flip side, when we did talk about the potential
• 11:31
  Speaker 7: for this O-line in training camp to be up there
• 11:35
  Speaker 7: with the elites of the NFL, that was if everybody
• 11:39
  Speaker 7: would hit.
• 11:40
  Speaker 5: And even then, maybe you're a player.
• 11:42
  Speaker 7: Or two away from that line coming together in that way.
• 11:46
  Speaker 7: And perhaps at least you'd think at least one of
• 11:49
  Speaker 7: those players is already on the roster in Maxi Honachor.
• 11:52
  Speaker 7: Perhaps another one is Jennings Dunker in due time. He
• 11:55
  Speaker 7: was a third-round pick. late third round pick, but a
• 11:58
  Speaker 7: third round pick all the same. It's kind of tried
• 12:01
  Speaker 7: and true in Steelers history that you expect those day
• 12:05
  Speaker 7: one and two guys to turn into starters at some
• 12:08
  Speaker 7: point or at least get the opportunity to state their
• 12:11
  Speaker 7: case to do so.
• 12:12
  Speaker 5: But yeah, I mean, it's only been two games.
• 12:16
  Speaker 7: You probably wouldn't be fair to your weeks and even
• 12:20
  Speaker 7: months of evaluation of this group in training camp, even
• 12:25
  Speaker 7: going back to Right.
• 12:26
  Speaker 5: OTAs and minicamp.
• 12:28
  Speaker 7: You probably wouldn't be fair to your weeks and months
• 12:30
  Speaker 7: of evaluation if you just like you said, hey, we're
• 12:32
  Speaker 7: going to pull the plug because it was a rough game. And,
• 12:36
  Speaker 7: you know, to heck with everything we saw and charted
• 12:39
  Speaker 7: and discussed as a coaching staff for three weeks at St.
• 12:44
  Speaker 7: Vincent and then for a couple more weeks when we
• 12:45
  Speaker 7: got back here.
• 12:46
  Speaker 6: Nope.
• 12:47
  Speaker 5: We got to turn the page. That was it. That
• 12:48
  Speaker 5: was a zero tolerance policy. I'm not quite there yet.
• 12:53
  Speaker 4: I also think you put a chip on their shoulders
• 12:55
  Speaker 4: this week in practice and say, look, that was one
• 12:57
  Speaker 4: of our worst offensive line performances we've had in and
• 13:00
  Speaker 4: around here in a long time. So now let's fix it.
• 13:04
  Speaker 4: Let's get back out. Now, listen, it's not going to
• 13:05
  Speaker 4: get any easier. We'll talk about it as the week
• 13:07
  Speaker 4: goes on. The defensive front for the Cincinnati Bengals is
• 13:10
  Speaker 4: pretty darn good. At least they're off to a good start.
• 13:12
  Speaker 5: Better than we expected, at least.
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 13:15
  Speaker 4: And that's the other thing, too, Brian. The Patriots defensive line...
• 13:20
  Speaker 4: Pretty good, too. They weren't too bad, either. They faced
• 13:22
  Speaker 4: a good unit.
• 13:23
  Speaker 7: You look at them through two games, and they were
• 13:25
  Speaker 7: in a rock fight with the Seahawks. Granted, Drew Locke
• 13:28
  Speaker 7: was a quarterback, but that didn't change the Seahawks' O-line.
• 13:34
  Speaker 7: This is a team that had a lot of continuity
• 13:36
  Speaker 7: coming back defensively, especially up front. They were in the
• 13:39
  Speaker 7: Super Bowl last year for a reason. Mike Vrabel's a
• 13:42
  Speaker 7: fantastic defensive coach.
• 13:44
  Speaker 4: Old defensive lineman himself.
• 13:47
  Speaker 7: They had some tricks up their sleeve for the Steelers
• 13:49
  Speaker 7: that they either weren't quite ready for or just didn't
• 13:52
  Speaker 7: execute against in the moment. And I think there's another
• 13:55
  Speaker 7: potential reason for, if not optimism, at least less pessimism
• 14:00
  Speaker 7: about this offensive line. I think Mike McCarthy kind of
• 14:03
  Speaker 7: sort of addressed it on Monday, and I think I'll
• 14:06
  Speaker 7: get into that when we come back.
• 14:07
  Speaker 5: How about that, Ed?
• 14:08
  Speaker 4: That sounds good. We'll also hear from Patrick Graham, and
• 14:11
  Speaker 4: let's hear from the offensive coordinator, too. Angelico as well
• 14:15
  Speaker 4: whenever we come back. He's Backo. I'm Troop. It's the
• 14:18
  Speaker 4: Steelers Report here on Steelers Nation Radio, part of the
• 14:21
  Speaker 4: Steelers Audio Network.
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: This is the Steelers Report with Brian Backo and Ed
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: Troop on Steelers Nation Radio, a part of the Steelers
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: Audio Network.
• 14:43
  Speaker 4: Later on this hour and then around 240, we're going
• 14:46
  Speaker 4: to talk with Jim Wexel, Steelers author, Steelers.com contributor, and
• 14:52
  Speaker 4: also the publisher of Steel City Insider. We'll get Jim's
• 14:55
  Speaker 4: takes on Steelers Patriots as well as a quick preview
• 14:59
  Speaker 4: of the Bengals and Steelers. And, Brian, one thing's for sure,
• 15:04
  Speaker 4: you definitely don't want to look ahead from the Cincinnati
• 15:07
  Speaker 4: Bengals on Sunday, but you've got the Browns, in just
• 15:10
  Speaker 4: a few days after that Cleveland after week one you
• 15:13
  Speaker 4: probably were like hey we feel good about that game
• 15:16
  Speaker 4: week two their defense put it together last week in
• 15:19
  Speaker 4: Tampa and Deshaun Watson looked better than he did in
• 15:22
  Speaker 4: week one that's for sure and all of a sudden
• 15:24
  Speaker 4: if the Browns put another performance together here this upcoming
• 15:27
  Speaker 4: week that's already a tough game on your schedule because
• 15:29
  Speaker 4: historically the Steelers have not played well in Cleveland my
• 15:33
  Speaker 4: whole point of this is these next two games you're
• 15:36
  Speaker 4: either looking at two and two three and one or
• 15:39
  Speaker 4: one and three Well, you definitely want to be 3-1,
• 15:42
  Speaker 4: but you'll take 2-2 if you have to, especially after
• 15:44
  Speaker 4: what just happened in New England this past week and
• 15:46
  Speaker 4: the history in Cleveland on Thursday nights. But if you
• 15:51
  Speaker 4: beat the Bengals on Sunday, doesn't that take the pressure
• 15:55
  Speaker 4: off going into that Thursday night game a bit if
• 15:57
  Speaker 4: you do have a hiccup in Cleveland like you have
• 15:58
  Speaker 4: in previous times? Now you're 2-2. But if you lose
• 16:01
  Speaker 4: against the Bengals on Sunday, all of a sudden, that
• 16:04
  Speaker 4: Thursday game in Cleveland, pretty much a must-win situation. You
• 16:07
  Speaker 4: do not want to start 1-3.
• 16:08
  Speaker 5: Yeah, when you put it.
• 16:10
  Speaker 7: That way, it I guess you could say it takes
• 16:11
  Speaker 7: the pressure off a little bit, but there, there's always
• 16:13
  Speaker 7: pressure week in and week out. I think more than anything,
• 16:15
  Speaker 7: it would probably erase some of the, uh, negativity right
• 16:20
  Speaker 7: now that's associated with this team as, as defensive coordinator,
• 16:24
  Speaker 7: Patrick Graham said yesterday, uh, he's, he's not expecting any
• 16:28
  Speaker 7: free drinks this week. So, um, if he, if he
• 16:31
  Speaker 7: did get, I guess the implication there is he w
• 16:34
  Speaker 7: he had been getting them, uh, since the Falcons victory.
• 16:38
  Speaker 7: And maybe he was even getting them, you know, since
• 16:40
  Speaker 7: he got hired, which hopefully for his sake, he was
• 16:43
  Speaker 7: with the hospitable people of Pittsburgh who love their Steelers,
• 16:46
  Speaker 7: love their football, love their defensive football, particularly when the
• 16:49
  Speaker 7: coordinator is doing a good job. But yeah, I mean, that's,
• 16:53
  Speaker 7: this is a huge, huge two game, not just two
• 16:58
  Speaker 7: games coming up, but a two game sample size for
• 17:00
  Speaker 7: what to make of the 2026 Steelers. Because like you said,
• 17:04
  Speaker 7: the Bengals look scary. coming in here to some extent
• 17:07
  Speaker 7: at 2-0 in a defense with a pulse. And then
• 17:10
  Speaker 7: the Browns, I mean, I wouldn't say they're scary, but
• 17:13
  Speaker 7: they were at an early turning point, an early crossroads
• 17:15
  Speaker 7: after getting demolished by the Jaguars and getting dunked on
• 17:18
  Speaker 7: by everybody after week one. Todd Munkin, as their first-year
• 17:24
  Speaker 7: head coach and an older one at that, probably could
• 17:26
  Speaker 7: have either gone in the tank and things could have
• 17:28
  Speaker 7: gotten worse, but he rose up and showed that he's
• 17:32
  Speaker 7: got some fire to him and that team's going.
• 17:34
  Speaker 5: To be frisky.
• 17:35
  Speaker 7: So we shall see how things play out for the Browns.
• 17:39
  Speaker 7: Forget who they have this week off the top of
• 17:41
  Speaker 7: my head. Oh, they've got the Panthers at home. So
• 17:43
  Speaker 7: they could go to 2-1 and be playing with some
• 17:47
  Speaker 7: even more confidence and momentum. The Panthers' offense has been
• 17:51
  Speaker 7: really productive through the first two games.
• 17:53
  Speaker 4: That's my point. This is a tricky upcoming stretch for
• 17:56
  Speaker 4: the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday and then turn around on
• 17:58
  Speaker 4: Thursday in Cleveland. When we get to that Friday show,
• 18:01
  Speaker 4: the day after the Cleveland Browns game, we're going to
• 18:03
  Speaker 4: be sitting here talking– either at 1-3, 2-2, or 3-1.
• 18:07
  Speaker 4: And like I said, that first scenario I gave you, 1-3,
• 18:11
  Speaker 4: you do not want to be sitting here talking about 1-3.
• 18:13
  Speaker 4: 2-2 is fine. Best case scenario, 3-1. Before we hear
• 18:17
  Speaker 4: from Patrick Graham, you had a thought before break.
• 18:19
  Speaker 7: Yeah, I mentioned it at the end of the last segment,
• 18:21
  Speaker 7: some reason for, again, I don't know if optimism is
• 18:25
  Speaker 7: even the right word, but hey, something to help fix
• 18:29
  Speaker 7: what ails the Steelers' offensive line. I think Mike McCarthy
• 18:33
  Speaker 7: said a lot on Monday about A lot of technical stuff,
• 18:36
  Speaker 7: a lot of play calling stuff, a lot of, you know, hey, yeah,
• 18:40
  Speaker 7: we were working different combinations and let's give these guys
• 18:44
  Speaker 7: some grace as far as playing together as a cohesive unit.
• 18:48
  Speaker 7: They did play together a lot, but I understand what
• 18:50
  Speaker 7: he's saying there. They tried to, you know, Dylan Cook
• 18:53
  Speaker 7: was playing a lot of left tackle in the final
• 18:54
  Speaker 7: preseason game.
• 18:55
  Speaker 5: That he was.
• 18:56
  Speaker 7: In theory, those were reps he could have had on
• 18:57
  Speaker 7: the right side, but you wanted to get Maxi Honachor
• 18:59
  Speaker 7: reps on the right side.
• 19:00
  Speaker 5: Of course you did.
• 19:01
  Speaker 7: But one other thing he said to me, speaks to
• 19:05
  Speaker 7: something that he's not really holding against the offensive line.
• 19:10
  Speaker 7: And that was when he talked about, you know, Troy Faltano,
• 19:13
  Speaker 7: Mason McCormick, Zach Frazier working together. He said those two
• 19:17
  Speaker 7: have played a lot of ball together. I would say
• 19:19
  Speaker 7: they're very much a cohesive left side. And obviously with
• 19:21
  Speaker 7: Zach in there too, I don't, I don't see that
• 19:24
  Speaker 7: being a problem essentially is what he said. Now you
• 19:27
  Speaker 7: could be like, Hey coach, you just scored three points.
• 19:29
  Speaker 7: I mean, something's not working there, but he, he, he
• 19:32
  Speaker 7: finished with this. I just think, like anything, it's more
• 19:35
  Speaker 7: the big picture. We've got to make sure we're conceptually
• 19:38
  Speaker 7: giving these guys consistent opportunities to win. That, to me,
• 19:43
  Speaker 7: translates to.
• 19:43
  Speaker 5: We've got to run the ball more.
• 19:45
  Speaker 7: We've got to run the ball better so that you
• 19:48
  Speaker 7: can get in a posture.
• 19:49
  Speaker 4: Absolutely.
• 19:49
  Speaker 7: In a game of we're coming downhill we're ripping off
• 19:52
  Speaker 7: chunks of four five six seven eight the defense is
• 19:55
  Speaker 7: getting winded the defense is getting gassed our offensive linemen
• 19:59
  Speaker 7: are throwing their weight around and moving guys from point
• 20:01
  Speaker 7: a to point b now i get that this is
• 20:02
  Speaker 7: chicken in the egg a little bit if you aren't
• 20:04
  Speaker 7: doing that to start a game then you can't like
• 20:07
  Speaker 7: you can't just generate momentum out of nowhere you For
• 20:10
  Speaker 7: all we know, we'll look back at the end of
• 20:13
  Speaker 7: the season, or maybe even next week, or maybe even
• 20:16
  Speaker 7: two weeks from now and say, this O-line, as it's
• 20:18
  Speaker 7: currently constructed, isn't capable of doing what I just laid out.
• 20:22
  Speaker 7: But maybe it is, and maybe they just haven't had
• 20:24
  Speaker 7: enough opportunities to do that. McCarthy was sort of, you know, tongue-in-cheek,
• 20:27
  Speaker 7: joked about, he had like a Freudian slip of he
• 20:29
  Speaker 7: scripts his first 15 throws, I mean, 15 calls. He's like,
• 20:33
  Speaker 7: that was your guy's chance to make fun of me
• 20:34
  Speaker 7: for throwing the ball too much. He took a shot
• 20:37
  Speaker 7: at himself there. But there's truth in a lot of
• 20:40
  Speaker 7: humor and jokes. Like, they have dropped back, right, 80
• 20:43
  Speaker 7: times in the first two games. And that is a
• 20:46
  Speaker 7: bunch of times that you're putting your offensive line in difficult,
• 20:50
  Speaker 7: precarious positions.
• 20:51
  Speaker 5: Ask any O-lineman who's ever played the game, right? They
• 20:53
  Speaker 5: want to run block.
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: 100%.
• 20:55
  Speaker 7: They want to run block more than pass block. They
• 20:57
  Speaker 7: embrace the opportunity. of protecting their quarterback and that that's
• 21:00
  Speaker 7: a big big big part of your job description but
• 21:03
  Speaker 7: it's way more fun to just get up there and
• 21:05
  Speaker 7: and try to maul a guy when you when you.
• 21:07
  Speaker 4: Have a run play you're running yeah you're coming off
• 21:10
  Speaker 4: the line and you're going right at a defender when
• 21:12
  Speaker 4: you're in pass protection you're you're pulling back you're backpedaling
• 21:15
  Speaker 4: right brian and you're basically looking for somebody to pick
• 21:18
  Speaker 4: up you know whether it's the guy in front of
• 21:19
  Speaker 4: you or somebody coming up on a blitz and there's
• 21:21
  Speaker 4: a lot more moving parts in pass protection than run
• 21:23
  Speaker 4: and run block it.
• 21:25
  Speaker 7: Make no mistake these guys didn't sign up for and
• 21:27
  Speaker 7: they aren't getting paid to be navy and running the
• 21:29
  Speaker 7: triple option so yes you're gonna have to throw.
• 21:32
  Speaker 5: The ball to be successful in the.
• 21:36
  Speaker 7: National football league but i get what mccarthy say at
• 21:39
  Speaker 7: least to me i think that's how i interpreted that
• 21:41
  Speaker 7: is hey when you talk about when you start throwing
• 21:44
  Speaker 7: out the word conceptually need some more run concepts that
• 21:47
  Speaker 7: are hitting for us and not always being in third
• 21:51
  Speaker 7: and long where yeah, defense is going to pin their
• 21:53
  Speaker 7: ears back. And that is a prime, prime chance to
• 21:58
  Speaker 7: disguise a blitz, send a bunch of guys at you.
• 22:00
  Speaker 7: And they hope what happened on the strip sack is,
• 22:03
  Speaker 7: is exactly the result of those situations.
• 22:05
  Speaker 4: It all starts with the offensive line up front, establishing
• 22:09
  Speaker 4: the run, which then sets up the pass. It's football
• 22:11
  Speaker 4: one Oh one folks. You do not have to make
• 22:13
  Speaker 4: this more difficult than what it truly is. Now, On
• 22:15
  Speaker 4: the flip side of that, though, Brian, this isn't the
• 22:17
  Speaker 4: 1970s or even 1990s Pittsburgh Steelers run, run, run, pass
• 22:22
  Speaker 4: on third down, play tough defense, win games, win Super Bowls.
• 22:25
  Speaker 4: They won six of them that way. This is 2026.
• 22:28
  Speaker 4: You do have to pass in the National Football League.
• 22:30
  Speaker 4: As you said, you have to have a successful passing
• 22:33
  Speaker 4: game in today's NFL. But I think it still goes
• 22:36
  Speaker 4: back to the run sets.
• 22:37
  Speaker 6: Up the pass.
• 22:38
  Speaker 5: And this is where we get into the circular logic
• 22:40
  Speaker 5: of like, oh, yeah.
• 22:40
  Speaker 7: Also, I mean, Aaron Rodgers is 0 for 9, I think,
• 22:43
  Speaker 7: on attempts 20 plus yards downfield.
• 22:45
  Speaker 9: Yeah.
• 22:45
  Speaker 5: So far this season. That's the lowest mark in the league.
• 22:48
  Speaker 7: Now, for those of us who didn't just box score
• 22:51
  Speaker 7: watch and were there at Accresure Stadium for Steelers Falcons,
• 22:54
  Speaker 7: we know that there were some maybe missed calls in
• 22:57
  Speaker 7: there that should have been a defensive pass interference. We
• 23:01
  Speaker 7: know that there was some questionable ball skills from the
• 23:04
  Speaker 7: receivers in there at times. That makes it not necessarily
• 23:08
  Speaker 7: a Rodgers stat specifically, but The numbers are the numbers,
• 23:12
  Speaker 7: and I'm not a numbers-never-lie person because sometimes they do,
• 23:15
  Speaker 7: or at least deceive. But, yeah, I mean, we all
• 23:19
  Speaker 7: would be lying, too, if we didn't say we want
• 23:20
  Speaker 7: to see a little bit more of the explosive pass
• 23:23
  Speaker 7: game connecting through two games.
• 23:25
  Speaker 4: Box score watching. I like that. Did you coin that, or.
• 23:28
  Speaker 5: Did you pick that up from somewhere else? No, I
• 23:29
  Speaker 5: don't think so.
• 23:29
  Speaker 7: I think that's pretty much football's nomenclature.
• 23:33
  Speaker 4: Journalist 101. I was there, or I watched the game film.
• 23:36
  Speaker 5: I'm not going to lie.
• 23:37
  Speaker 8: No.
• 23:38
  Speaker 7: We all are guilty of box score watching sometimes. I
• 23:40
  Speaker 7: didn't watch all 16 games the first two weeks. I
• 23:43
  Speaker 7: don't know about you, Ed, but you were in a
• 23:45
  Speaker 7: dark room with a projector and just chewing the tape
• 23:48
  Speaker 7: every snap of every game. No, I mean, at some
• 23:50
  Speaker 7: point you have to just look at the numbers, but.
• 23:53
  Speaker 7: We're not going to do that with the Pittsburgh Steelers
• 23:54
  Speaker 7: because this is Steelers Nation Radio.
• 23:56
  Speaker 4: That's right, my friend.
• 23:56
  Speaker 5: Steelers Audio Network.
• 23:57
  Speaker 4: That's right, my friend. Yeah, me and Vince Lombardi watching
• 24:00
  Speaker 4: the old film, cutting up film, watching Denver Bronco highlights.
• 24:03
  Speaker 7: You probably just get your video guys to do that
• 24:06
  Speaker 7: for you. They get you the cut-ups. And your video guys,
• 24:09
  Speaker 7: I would assume, are your sons. They're your two minions,
• 24:11
  Speaker 7: and they just bring you the clips.
• 24:12
  Speaker 5: That's it.
• 24:13
  Speaker 4: Bring me that Miami Dolphins highlight. I can't wait to
• 24:17
  Speaker 4: watch the Dolphins highlights.
• 24:18
  Speaker 7: Get me every third and short. from that Raiders-Chargers game.
• 24:22
  Speaker 7: I want to see something, boys.
• 24:24
  Speaker 4: I wasn't criticizing the term. I liked it because you're right.
• 24:27
  Speaker 4: And again, just go on social media. My goodness, Brian,
• 24:30
  Speaker 4: there's even in Pittsburgh.
• 24:31
  Speaker 7: Yeah, stuff gets amplified there in a good and bad way.
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: Of course.
• 24:34
  Speaker 4: Even in Pittsburgh. All the Steelers had negative 19 yards
• 24:37
  Speaker 4: rushing after first contact, blah, blah, blah. Okay. All right, enough.
• 24:40
  Speaker 4: Let's go to Patrick Graham, who spoke with the media yesterday.
• 24:44
  Speaker 8: Well, it starts with we did not do a good
• 24:47
  Speaker 8: job against the run game yesterday. And we have a
• 24:50
  Speaker 8: long way to go with that, and we've got to improve.
• 24:53
  Speaker 8: But usually when you look at a big run, especially
• 24:55
  Speaker 8: if it's on the inside, it's never just one person's fault.
• 24:58
  Speaker 8: So in terms of the gap integrity, violence at the
• 25:01
  Speaker 8: point of attack, those are usually the things that it's
• 25:04
  Speaker 8: a combination of. But overall, I would say just a
• 25:07
  Speaker 8: big thing for us, myself included, we've got to make
• 25:11
  Speaker 8: sure that, one, just in terms of play style, we're
• 25:14
  Speaker 8: playing with low pad level, having more violence at the
• 25:17
  Speaker 8: point of attack, not going one for one, And then,
• 25:20
  Speaker 8: you know, I got to do a better job of
• 25:22
  Speaker 8: getting us in some, you know, some of the calls
• 25:25
  Speaker 8: I wish I had back right there, you know, but overall,
• 25:28
  Speaker 8: it's just a combination. When it's running through the inside,
• 25:30
  Speaker 8: it's never one person's fault. It's a combination of gap integrity,
• 25:34
  Speaker 8: but more importantly, it's the play style, the violence at
• 25:37
  Speaker 8: the point of attack, getting off a block, not going
• 25:39
  Speaker 8: one for one.
• 25:41
  Speaker 7: Well, that's fitting going into the first AFC North game
• 25:44
  Speaker 7: of the season. Patrick Graham wanting to see his defense
• 25:46
  Speaker 7: play with more violence. Now, I know that it's There's
• 25:50
  Speaker 7: always a yin and yang for coaching football. You want
• 25:52
  Speaker 7: technique to be right, but you also just simply need
• 25:55
  Speaker 7: your mentality and your mindset to be right. So he
• 25:58
  Speaker 7: had gap integrity and violence in there in the same answer.
• 26:02
  Speaker 7: And I'm going to echo what I said last week.
• 26:05
  Speaker 7: Listening to Patrick Graham talk about defensive football is highly entertaining.
• 26:10
  Speaker 7: And it makes you, I don't know about run through
• 26:13
  Speaker 7: a wall, but entertaining. Definitely makes you want to get
• 26:16
  Speaker 7: out there and watch some of the best defensive clips
• 26:19
  Speaker 7: of the day. So good thing we've got our top
• 26:21
  Speaker 7: 10 from Steelers Patriots later. And I would assume we
• 26:24
  Speaker 7: didn't go over it beforehand, Ed, because we want it
• 26:26
  Speaker 7: to be good organic radio. I'm going to guess 70
• 26:29
  Speaker 7: to 80 percent of it is defensive football.
• 26:31
  Speaker 4: Let me see here. Well, there's one on the other
• 26:33
  Speaker 4: side of the of the of the field that's defensively
• 26:37
  Speaker 4: that we're going to have to play at some point there.
• 26:39
  Speaker 4: We had to reach this past week. They're not all
• 26:41
  Speaker 4: Steeler moments. We had to put a couple Patriot moments
• 26:43
  Speaker 4: in there, too, because they impacted the game. But, yeah,
• 26:45
  Speaker 4: just looking at the quick sheet in front of me,
• 26:47
  Speaker 4: Brian Bacco, you're exactly right. There's at least a handful there.
• 26:50
  Speaker 4: So that was a quick clip from Patrick Graham, who
• 26:53
  Speaker 4: I agree with you. I think he's a head coach
• 26:54
  Speaker 4: in the making here within the next few years. And
• 26:58
  Speaker 4: here's another guy who also has a lot of coaching experience.
• 27:01
  Speaker 4: He also spoke with the media yesterday and coach Angelico.
• 27:08
  Speaker 10: I don't know if there's one particular thing to point to.
• 27:11
  Speaker 10: It just seems like it moved around a little bit,
• 27:13
  Speaker 10: but I think communication's got to be better and just
• 27:16
  Speaker 10: consistency of what we're trying to get done.
• 27:19
  Speaker 7: You've played a lot together, and they're all really young.
• 27:23
  Speaker 5: Do you worry about their level of confidence after a
• 27:25
  Speaker 5: performance like that, and what can the staff do to.
• 27:27
  Speaker 10: Sort of make sure that it is? No, I'm not
• 27:30
  Speaker 10: worried about their confidence. I think it's a confident group.
• 27:33
  Speaker 10: I think we're... you know, we're going to get better
• 27:35
  Speaker 10: from the tape, make the corrections, and certainly put a
• 27:39
  Speaker 10: good week of practice ahead of us.
• 27:40
  Speaker 4: Aaron noted that he wanted to do more to help
• 27:44
  Speaker 4: Mike understand what's working, you know, and as far as
• 27:47
  Speaker 4: play calling.
• 27:47
  Speaker 5: What's your role as far as helping Mike, you.
• 27:50
  Speaker 4: Know, organize throughout the week to kind of have different
• 27:53
  Speaker 4: calls ready that the guys can kind of identify with
• 27:56
  Speaker 4: and play faster with?
• 27:57
  Speaker 10: Yeah, I mean, as an offensive staff, collectively, we put
• 28:00
  Speaker 10: together the game plan, certainly with Mike, and Each guy
• 28:04
  Speaker 10: will have some areas that they're in charge of as
• 28:07
  Speaker 10: far as research and kind of giving a presentation of
• 28:10
  Speaker 10: what the defense is. And then from there, we'll collaborate
• 28:14
  Speaker 10: with ideas and put the plan together. So it's a
• 28:19
  Speaker 10: collective effort by the offensive staff, certainly. I will lead
• 28:22
  Speaker 10: that when Mike's not in the room. Obviously, when Mike
• 28:26
  Speaker 10: is in the room, he's making the final decision on everything.
• 28:30
  Speaker 4: Always good, Brian, to figure out the strategy behind the
• 28:33
  Speaker 4: scenes and Coach Angelico putting that out there with not
• 28:37
  Speaker 4: just him, but Mike McCarthy. Obviously, huge say-so. He's an
• 28:40
  Speaker 4: offensive-minded coach. We knew that coming in, but they still
• 28:43
  Speaker 4: work together.
• 28:44
  Speaker 5: Yeah, absolutely.
• 28:46
  Speaker 7: This is going to be the dynamic all season, of course,
• 28:50
  Speaker 7: barring anything crazy or unforeseen. McCarthy calling the plays, but
• 28:56
  Speaker 7: Angelico coordinating the offense, running those meetings and If we're
• 29:00
  Speaker 7: being real, I mean, the offense had many moments where
• 29:02
  Speaker 7: they just did not look very well coordinated Sunday.
• 29:04
  Speaker 5: So good to hear from.
• 29:05
  Speaker 7: Brian Angelico, not worried about the confidence of the O-line
• 29:09
  Speaker 7: and pointing to how the communication and consistency needs to
• 29:12
  Speaker 7: be better there.
• 29:13
  Speaker 4: Up next, Jim Wexel, Steelers author, also from Steelers.com, a
• 29:17
  Speaker 4: contributor there, and the publisher of Steel City Insider. You
• 29:21
  Speaker 4: got ET and BB. It's the Steelers Report on Steelers
• 29:25
  Speaker 4: Nation Radio, part of the Steelers Audio Network.
• 29:34
  Speaker 3: This is the Steelers Report with Brian Batko and Ed
• 29:38
  Speaker 3: Truth on Steelers.com. Nation Radio, a part of the Steelers
• 29:42
  Speaker 3: Audio Network.
• 29:45
  Speaker 4: Wrapping up our number one here on the Steelers Report.
• 29:50
  Speaker 4: As we continue to wrap up week two across the NFL,
• 29:54
  Speaker 4: we'll have that coming up at the end of today's show.
• 29:56
  Speaker 4: Brian and I will do our Renegade review. Also at
• 29:59
  Speaker 4: the 3 o'clock hour, we'll have our top 10 moments
• 30:02
  Speaker 4: and plays from Sunday. So stay tuned for that. But
• 30:06
  Speaker 4: before we officially put a bow, well, if you want
• 30:09
  Speaker 4: to put a bow on it from Steelers Patriots, you
• 30:11
  Speaker 4: might want to put something else on it, as we've
• 30:13
  Speaker 4: been discussing all week, and get ready for Steelers Bengals.
• 30:16
  Speaker 4: We welcome in our good friend Jim Wexel. Steelers author,
• 30:21
  Speaker 4: Steelers.com contributor and publisher of Steel City Insider. Jim, welcome
• 30:26
  Speaker 4: to the program. It's been a minute. How are you?
• 30:30
  Speaker 6: Great to be here. Thanks for having me. Hi, Brian.
• 30:33
  Speaker 9: I'm sure you guys have a lot of work to
• 30:35
  Speaker 9: do finding those 10 highlights from the other day, but
• 30:38
  Speaker 9: that's what you make the big bucks for.
• 30:41
  Speaker 4: That is for sure, Jim. We have our work cut
• 30:42
  Speaker 4: out for us next hour. There wasn't too many highlights
• 30:46
  Speaker 4: in Steelers and Patriots from this past weekend and week two.
• 30:50
  Speaker 4: Let's start there. As I said, I don't know if
• 30:53
  Speaker 4: we put a bow on it. We probably got to
• 30:54
  Speaker 4: find something else, but let's start there with you. Your
• 30:57
  Speaker 4: initial thoughts after the week two loss in New England.
• 31:01
  Speaker 9: You know, the first words out of Mike McCarthy's mouth
• 31:05
  Speaker 9: on Monday at his press conference were it wasn't as bad.
• 31:08
  Speaker 9: Something along the lines of it wasn't as bad as
• 31:11
  Speaker 9: we thought. You're never as bad as it seems. You're
• 31:14
  Speaker 9: never as good as it seems. And I thought that
• 31:17
  Speaker 9: was true. I rewatched it, and the offensive line was
• 31:22
  Speaker 9: not nearly as bad as I had thought. Or, you know,
• 31:25
  Speaker 9: the angry mob on Twitter.
• 31:26
  Speaker 6: I probably look at that. I look at it.
• 31:31
  Speaker 9: In small doses and it's still probably too too often
• 31:35
  Speaker 9: uh the angry mob was very angry and the offensive
• 31:39
  Speaker 9: line really wasn't that bad i mean new england dominated
• 31:44
  Speaker 9: the line yes but you know it was only four
• 31:47
  Speaker 9: sacks uh the worst offensive line performance that people could
• 31:51
  Speaker 9: remember i mean only go back to 2021 with the
• 31:56
  Speaker 9: rookie line with kendrick green and dan moore and the
• 31:59
  Speaker 9: great Trey Turner and those guys.
• 32:02
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I hear you, Wex.
• 32:05
  Speaker 7: Do you think on the topic of the offensive line
• 32:08
  Speaker 7: and the offense in general, I mean, didn't we kind
• 32:09
  Speaker 7: of know that there might be some growing pains with
• 32:13
  Speaker 7: a new head coach, mostly a new coaching staff? I mean,
• 32:17
  Speaker 7: the same thing was in place for the Falcons sort
• 32:20
  Speaker 7: of in week one, but that was a Patriots team
• 32:22
  Speaker 7: with a lot of continuity, at least in terms of
• 32:25
  Speaker 7: the guys calling the plays. Not to like you know,
• 32:29
  Speaker 7: soft pedal this or, or be too, uh, silver lining ish.
• 32:33
  Speaker 7: But I, I wasn't shocked that week two was a
• 32:37
  Speaker 7: little bit, I don't want to use the phrase herky jerky,
• 32:40
  Speaker 7: but I guess I just did.
• 32:41
  Speaker 6: Uh, exactly right, Brian.
• 32:44
  Speaker 9: And you, I get your point about not wanting to
• 32:48
  Speaker 9: soft pedal this. It was a 20 to three loss
• 32:51
  Speaker 9: and the offense struggled. Um, are we, are we surprised
• 32:55
  Speaker 9: the line struggled? No, I mean, Yes, they addressed it
• 32:58
  Speaker 9: with the first-round pick and the third-round pick. Those guys
• 33:01
  Speaker 9: aren't ready the same way Alan Fanica wasn't ready for
• 33:04
  Speaker 9: five games, and Dermotty Dawson wasn't ready for the first
• 33:07
  Speaker 9: four games, and Mike Webster wasn't ready until two years
• 33:11
  Speaker 9: later for at least full-time duty. So, I mean, why
• 33:16
  Speaker 9: are we expecting a guy who never even played high
• 33:18
  Speaker 9: school ball with a lot of, lot of potential? I'm
• 33:23
  Speaker 9: not down on him at all. The fact that he
• 33:25
  Speaker 9: doesn't understand the high volume of Aaron Rodgers' audible-ing at
• 33:31
  Speaker 9: the line, I'm not surprised. I don't think anybody has
• 33:35
  Speaker 9: trust that he's going to mentally be ready for this. Physically,
• 33:38
  Speaker 9: I think he is.
• 33:39
  Speaker 6: We're talking about Max Ahanachor.
• 33:42
  Speaker 9: I mean, the team addressed the offensive line, the first
• 33:44
  Speaker 9: and third picks. They addressed the lack of playmakers and
• 33:47
  Speaker 9: free agency. And with a second-round pick, those weaknesses showed again.
• 33:52
  Speaker 9: Are we surprised that they're not ready in the second week?
• 33:56
  Speaker 9: We shouldn't be surprised, especially when Pittman was out.
• 34:00
  Speaker 4: You know, Jim, you brought up a good point because,
• 34:03
  Speaker 4: you know, the initial reaction right after Sunday was the
• 34:05
  Speaker 4: world's falling apart. The Steelers are only going to win
• 34:07
  Speaker 4: three or four games. And then 24 hours later on
• 34:10
  Speaker 4: Monday morning, You look back at it and you said, okay, well,
• 34:13
  Speaker 4: we made some mistakes here or there, but it's all
• 34:15
  Speaker 4: correctable mistakes. Now we're 48 hours removed. And I rewatched
• 34:20
  Speaker 4: the game last night. And one thing I noticed with
• 34:22
  Speaker 4: the offensive line was more miscommunication than talent and even
• 34:27
  Speaker 4: execution for that matter. There was just times in that
• 34:29
  Speaker 4: game where the offensive line just wasn't communicating. So that's
• 34:32
  Speaker 4: one area. then I really think that they could potentially
• 34:36
  Speaker 4: clean up rather quickly this week and still have that
• 34:39
  Speaker 4: same five together this upcoming Sunday against Cincinnati and potentially
• 34:43
  Speaker 4: make a difference and improve and get a better performance
• 34:46
  Speaker 4: out of that group.
• 34:48
  Speaker 9: Personally, I would make one change. I'd play Hoffman at
• 34:51
  Speaker 9: right guard. I mean, the coaches know more whether he's ready.
• 34:55
  Speaker 9: What happened with Spencer.
• 34:59
  Speaker 6: At right guard? He gave up, what, seven pressures? That's
• 35:02
  Speaker 6: a lot for a guard.
• 35:04
  Speaker 9: And, yeah, the lack of communication really showed on that
• 35:07
  Speaker 9: 36-yard loss. You could see the confusion at the line
• 35:11
  Speaker 9: as Rodgers was changing the play. McCormick looked back at
• 35:16
  Speaker 9: Rico Dowdell and pointed to the inside linebacker as you
• 35:21
  Speaker 9: pick him up.
• 35:21
  Speaker 6: And then the outside linebacker came up and ran free.
• 35:25
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 35:25
  Speaker 6: The communication.
• 35:26
  Speaker 9: And you see this often on the road, especially in
• 35:29
  Speaker 9: a rough place like Foxborough. And, yes, it should be
• 35:34
  Speaker 9: much better at home where the communication is much easier. But, man,
• 35:39
  Speaker 9: it's not going to get easier with Cincinnati. And then
• 35:41
  Speaker 9: Thursday night at Cleveland is, you know... We all know
• 35:45
  Speaker 9: about those. So they could be one in three, and
• 35:50
  Speaker 9: the Twitter noise will get louder.
• 35:54
  Speaker 6: The angry mobs will get angrier.
• 35:55
  Speaker 9: It seems like they get angrier quicker every year.
• 36:01
  Speaker 6: That's just how it is, I guess.
• 36:04
  Speaker 9: But I'm certainly not down on a team that knew
• 36:09
  Speaker 9: in the offseason it needed to improve its line.
• 36:12
  Speaker 6: And needed to improve its playmakers, and I felt did.
• 36:16
  Speaker 7: So let's say, Wex, and maybe it will get a
• 36:19
  Speaker 7: little bit easier against the Bengals. Two games does not
• 36:22
  Speaker 7: make a season, and their defensive woes have been persistent
• 36:25
  Speaker 7: year over year. It's been a good start for them,
• 36:28
  Speaker 7: but maybe they aren't quite as havoc-wreaking up front as
• 36:32
  Speaker 7: New England is at home, and we'll see what the
• 36:35
  Speaker 7: Browns are without Myles Garrett, albeit if he were on
• 36:38
  Speaker 7: IR in Cleveland, he wouldn't be helping them much either.
• 36:41
  Speaker 7: Let's say there's some credence to the hypothesis we're espousing
• 36:46
  Speaker 7: here that this veteran team that is adjusting to a
• 36:50
  Speaker 7: new coaching staff will, as logic might dictate, improve throughout
• 36:55
  Speaker 7: the course of this season once they all work under
• 36:58
  Speaker 7: Mike McCarthy more and Brian Angelico, and it's not as
• 37:01
  Speaker 7: big of a deal, but on the defensive side of
• 37:03
  Speaker 7: the ball, Patrick Graham. Sticking with the offense, though, and
• 37:08
  Speaker 7: new O-line coach James Campin, too, is at the helm
• 37:11
  Speaker 7: of that group. What is it that gives you optimism
• 37:14
  Speaker 7: that that might be indeed what happens, that this team
• 37:18
  Speaker 7: gels and gets better over the course of the year?
• 37:22
  Speaker 6: So much youth on the offensive line.
• 37:24
  Speaker 9: I do believe they're the least experienced offensive line in
• 37:29
  Speaker 9: the NFL.
• 37:29
  Speaker 6: Wouldn't be surprised. I thought I saw that graphic.
• 37:33
  Speaker 9: I mean, and those inexperienced players play in new positions,
• 37:38
  Speaker 9: and I have no problem with those changes that they made.
• 37:41
  Speaker 9: And Max and I believe Jenny Stunker are going to improve,
• 37:48
  Speaker 9: and they're going to give that right side the heft,
• 37:51
  Speaker 9: the power of a normal right side, of a good right.
• 37:55
  Speaker 6: Side, of a strong running game. that's what they've needed.
• 37:59
  Speaker 9: So I've been watching the offensive line ever since 2021,
• 38:01
  Speaker 9: when you could tell that those rookies were not the
• 38:06
  Speaker 9: answer and they started drafting. Robert Jones, I know it
• 38:09
  Speaker 9: was a mistake, but you keep, they admitted to their
• 38:12
  Speaker 9: mistake and moved on and followed on. It was not
• 38:14
  Speaker 9: a mistake. McCormick's not a mistake. Frazier's not a mistake.
• 38:18
  Speaker 9: So there's three. And, and, You know, they're building at
• 38:21
  Speaker 9: the foundation. And meanwhile, now they know they need a
• 38:25
  Speaker 9: skill player. So they've been adding to that and they'll continue.
• 38:29
  Speaker 6: Adding to that. And I know you want to talk offense, but.
• 38:32
  Speaker 9: The same foundational approach on defense is you know, that
• 38:36
  Speaker 9: really had a good game. Why a black looks like
• 38:40
  Speaker 9: he belongs now. I wasn't sure if he belonged last year,
• 38:44
  Speaker 9: a big guy, you just go low on him. He,
• 38:47
  Speaker 9: you know, his pad level wasn't what it needed to be,
• 38:50
  Speaker 9: but I mean, he looks like, he looks like an
• 38:52
  Speaker 9: NFL player now with that body, uh, that was just
• 38:56
  Speaker 9: offered potential before.
• 38:57
  Speaker 6: So I think both lines are young and going to
• 39:00
  Speaker 6: improve a lot.
• 39:01
  Speaker 9: So, uh, I can't help but see it improve as
• 39:05
  Speaker 9: those foundational, those building blocks improve.
• 39:09
  Speaker 4: We're talking with Jim Wexel from Steelers.com contributor, also the
• 39:13
  Speaker 4: publisher of Steel City Insider, Steelers author as well. Jim,
• 39:17
  Speaker 4: you mentioned the defensive line, and my goodness, Derek Harmon,
• 39:21
  Speaker 4: a bit quiet in week one, but was not quiet
• 39:23
  Speaker 4: at all against the New England Patriots. Had a great game.
• 39:26
  Speaker 4: Keanu Benton, very good game against the New England Patriots.
• 39:30
  Speaker 4: up front as well. He's put back-to-back performances as well
• 39:34
  Speaker 4: as Y.Y. Black, as you mentioned, too. And Cam Hayward
• 39:38
  Speaker 4: continues to play at a high level these first two
• 39:41
  Speaker 4: weeks of the season. He may be getting older, but
• 39:43
  Speaker 4: you can't tell on the football field.
• 39:47
  Speaker 6: No, and he's teaching those young guys.
• 39:51
  Speaker 9: You kind of wish the offensive line still had a
• 39:54
  Speaker 9: guy like Ciamolo teaching and mentoring. But, you know, Cam's playing.
• 40:00
  Speaker 9: He tipped another pass. I don't know if he got
• 40:03
  Speaker 9: credit for a deflection on that, but he did tip
• 40:05
  Speaker 9: an important pass. And their edges, you know, they've got
• 40:09
  Speaker 9: them locked up. Sawyer's playing well. So, you know, it's...
• 40:14
  Speaker 9: The playmakers. Playmakers on both sides are needed. I think
• 40:17
  Speaker 9: Herbig's a genuine playmaker. And Ramsey, of course, she's getting older,
• 40:24
  Speaker 9: but they do need playmakers, and I do believe that's
• 40:28
  Speaker 9: part of the reason they're hesitant to give Joey Porter Jr.
• 40:31
  Speaker 6: Everything he wants.
• 40:34
  Speaker 9: And playmakers on offense, especially with DK and a funk.
• 40:38
  Speaker 6: And quarterback, of course. But we all know about that.
• 40:43
  Speaker 9: So.
• 40:45
  Speaker 6: whether they don't win a Super Bowl this year or not,
• 40:48
  Speaker 6: that isn't. That isn't what I'm looking for.
• 40:53
  Speaker 9: I'm looking for improvement on both sides of the ball
• 40:56
  Speaker 9: on the lines and build from there and then add
• 40:59
  Speaker 9: your playmakers and your key pieces. And so, you know,
• 41:03
  Speaker 9: maybe it becomes like the 2004 Steelers. All of a sudden,
• 41:07
  Speaker 9: they put together two rock-solid lines with playmakers on both sides.
• 41:12
  Speaker 9: Then they inserted a rookie quarterback and they could go, go, go.
• 41:16
  Speaker 9: Just keep building these lines. Keep building the foundational aspects
• 41:20
  Speaker 9: of this team. Don't look at it as super plan
• 41:25
  Speaker 9: like when Al was ready or whomever is the quarterback.
• 41:29
  Speaker 9: That stuff just falls into place. Just keep building this
• 41:32
  Speaker 9: team and get it better. And I think both sides
• 41:35
  Speaker 9: of the ball on the lines, I know it wasn't
• 41:37
  Speaker 9: really apparent last week, but in my mind it is.
• 41:41
  Speaker 6: And I'm happy with what they're doing on both sides
• 41:45
  Speaker 6: of the ball.
• 41:46
  Speaker 7: Well, last one for me, Wex. We've talked offense. We've
• 41:49
  Speaker 7: talked defense. What do you make of special teams? I mean,
• 41:52
  Speaker 7: feel free to choose your, your question here. Do you
• 41:55
  Speaker 7: have any concern with Chris Boswell? Do you love what
• 41:58
  Speaker 7: you're seeing out of Robert Spears Jennings in coverage? Have
• 42:01
  Speaker 7: you been impressed with Caden Legion or Eli Heidenreich and,
• 42:06
  Speaker 7: or Eli Heidenreich as the returners take your pick of
• 42:08
  Speaker 7: that triumvirate?
• 42:10
  Speaker 9: Well, I know some good questions, uh, or as, uh,
• 42:13
  Speaker 9: Mike McCarthy says, those were fantastic questions.
• 42:15
  Speaker 5: Thank you.
• 42:17
  Speaker 9: Um, Weijin looks like a great punt returner. I love
• 42:22
  Speaker 9: his decision-making. I love his courage. And he does have
• 42:26
  Speaker 9: that quick.
• 42:27
  Speaker 6: hit and go. It's not so much of a kickoff returner.
• 42:31
  Speaker 9: I think those guys need to be a little bigger
• 42:32
  Speaker 9: in the core Daryl Patterson mold.
• 42:36
  Speaker 6: And Heidenreich, I love. I want him on my team.
• 42:39
  Speaker 9: I want that kind of character, and I think he's
• 42:41
  Speaker 9: going to show some playmaking skills as we move along.
• 42:44
  Speaker 9: I really like Brandon Echols as a gunner. He just
• 42:47
  Speaker 9: was a little overenthusiastic. He's flying past guys, but I
• 42:51
  Speaker 9: love how he gets down there. He's down there first
• 42:53
  Speaker 9: all the time, it seems. Spears, Jennings, absolutely. Keep playing
• 42:57
  Speaker 9: him over there. I don't know what's gone. It gives
• 43:03
  Speaker 9: you a personal protector. He gave you a lot last
• 43:06
  Speaker 9: year as a gunner, and he's not giving you much
• 43:08
  Speaker 9: of a wide receiver. I don't know if you want
• 43:10
  Speaker 9: to keep that with Travis Homer playing. So that's a
• 43:14
  Speaker 9: question for the coaches. But as far as Boswell, nothing
• 43:19
  Speaker 9: he's doing concerns me, except that time marches on.
• 43:23
  Speaker 6: How old is he now? 34, maybe?
• 43:26
  Speaker 5: Yeah, he's in his mid-30s at this point.
• 43:29
  Speaker 9: Yeah, so that's the only concern. But just because he's
• 43:32
  Speaker 9: missed a couple 56-yarders, I'm not.
• 43:34
  Speaker 6: Worried about that.
• 43:36
  Speaker 4: Jim, just another minute left with you. Quickly, the Cincinnati
• 43:39
  Speaker 4: Bengals roll into AccuShare Stadium on Sunday. Every AFC North
• 43:43
  Speaker 4: game is important, regardless of when it falls. But for
• 43:46
  Speaker 4: this one, the Steelers are going to turn around just
• 43:48
  Speaker 4: in four or five days after and head to Cleveland,
• 43:50
  Speaker 4: a place where they have not done well over the
• 43:52
  Speaker 4: years on Thursday nights for whatever reason, regardless of where
• 43:56
  Speaker 4: the Browns or Steelers are. Steelers got to come out
• 43:59
  Speaker 4: of this two-game stretch 1-1. Of course, we'd love for
• 44:02
  Speaker 4: them to come out 2-0 in the division and be
• 44:03
  Speaker 4: sitting at 3-1, but you certainly can't be at 1-3
• 44:07
  Speaker 4: a week and a half from now, right?
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 44:12
  Speaker 9: The Cincinnati game is so important. Of course they have
• 44:16
  Speaker 9: designs on winning the division title. They're defending champions. I
• 44:19
  Speaker 9: think they've improved their team. So absolutely we should be
• 44:24
  Speaker 9: looking at the division title. And beating Cincinnati at home
• 44:27
  Speaker 9: would be a must in that regard. Especially to gain
• 44:30
  Speaker 9: momentum for a four days later game at the Thursday
• 44:33
  Speaker 9: night at Cleveland.
• 44:35
  Speaker 6: And, you know, with.
• 44:36
  Speaker 9: Dexter Lawrence in the middle there, this Cincinnati defense could
• 44:39
  Speaker 9: be completely transformed.
• 44:41
  Speaker 6: At least, I mean, look at Woody Marks.
• 44:44
  Speaker 9: Eight carries, eight yards after gaining 112 against the Steelers
• 44:48
  Speaker 9: in the playoffs. I know Houston isn't the greatest offense,
• 44:52
  Speaker 9: but wow, what Cincinnati did to them was shocking to
• 44:56
  Speaker 9: me offensively. We know offensively they have it. Defensively, if
• 44:59
  Speaker 9: Dexter Lawrence is going to give that team that kind
• 45:02
  Speaker 9: of chutzpah, that kind of defensive grit and Cassius Howell
• 45:08
  Speaker 9: I don't know who this guy is but he's a
• 45:09
  Speaker 9: second round pick and apparently everybody's raving about this pass
• 45:13
  Speaker 9: rusher so they traded Hendrickson for a run stuffer in
• 45:16
  Speaker 9: the middle that completely changed Cincinnati's look, if they really
• 45:22
  Speaker 9: have a defense, they're trouble. And you would hope that
• 45:25
  Speaker 9: they're a little bit high emotionally after beating Houston the
• 45:29
  Speaker 9: way they did. And you would think they would maybe
• 45:32
  Speaker 9: look at the Steelers tape and be a little overconfident.
• 45:35
  Speaker 6: And the Steelers are going to come in they're going
• 45:38
  Speaker 6: to be sky high.
• 45:39
  Speaker 9: They know the importance of this game, and they're going
• 45:41
  Speaker 9: to be embarrassed in town all week.
• 45:43
  Speaker 6: They're going to be feeling it. They're going to come back.
• 45:45
  Speaker 6: They're going to play well.
• 45:46
  Speaker 9: Whether that's enough against Joe Burrow and those receivers without
• 45:49
  Speaker 9: Joey Porter Jr.
• 45:51
  Speaker 6: that remains to be seen.
• 45:53
  Speaker 4: I agree. Awesome stuff as always, Jim. You're always one
• 45:56
  Speaker 4: of our favorites. Let's get you back on again soon.
• 45:58
  Speaker 6: All right, guys.
• 45:59
  Speaker 5: Take care. Always great talking to you guys.
• 46:01
  Speaker 4: All right, Jim Wexel, who is the Steelers author, Steelers.com contributor,
• 46:07
  Speaker 4: And also a member, well, not member, he's the publisher
• 46:10
  Speaker 4: of Steel City Insider. Always great to have Jim on.
• 46:13
  Speaker 4: That's going to do it for our number one. Coming
• 46:15
  Speaker 4: up at 3 o'clock and up next, we will have
• 46:17
  Speaker 4: our top ten moments and plays from this past Sunday.
• 46:20
  Speaker 4: Here at Brian Chuckles, I chuckled too, but I found ten.
• 46:23
  Speaker 4: It was hard. It was challenging, but we got there.
• 46:26
  Speaker 4: He is back. Oh, I am troop. It's the Steelers
• 46:28
  Speaker 4: report right here on Steelers Nation Radio, part of the
• 46:31
  Speaker 4: Steelers Audio Network.