Latest / In the Locker Room presented by Neighborhood Ford Store (Pittsburgh Steelers) / HR2: AFC Recap

Transcript

HR2: AFC Recap · 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
• 0:11
  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
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: official truck of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: Phone ringing.
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: You know what time it is. That's right. It's the
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: power hour. Second hour inside the locker room. Optimus, just
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: give the little wave. The little Miss America, Miss USA
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: pageant wave as he goes by about his business. And
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: we come rearing into the second hour.
• 0:55
  Speaker 4: By the way, I should just point out there for those...
• 0:58
  Speaker 4: Max is doing this for our own amusement, for those
• 1:01
  Speaker 4: of us on Zoom.
• 1:02
  Speaker 5: I am. But also, for those of you on radio,
• 1:04
  Speaker 5: he was giving a little queen wave.
• 1:07
  Speaker 6: Exactly.
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: It's the pageant wave.
• 1:10
  Speaker 4: Evidently, I think they do that because it's good for
• 1:13
  Speaker 4: their elbow or something. Somebody figured out, I think, I
• 1:16
  Speaker 4: think that's a story. That's a thing where you just
• 1:18
  Speaker 4: kind of move your hand back and forth. Actually, when
• 1:20
  Speaker 4: I do that, it seems to stress my elbow.
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: I would say more wrist strengthening than anything else.
• 1:26
  Speaker 5: I don't know. Evidently, there's an ergonomic reason for doing it.
• 1:29
  Speaker 5: What's that?
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: The angle. The angle might have to be. Maybe at 90,
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: it's a little bit too aggressive. Maybe pull down to
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: a 45.
• 1:37
  Speaker 4: So for those of you, again, listening on radio or
• 1:39
  Speaker 4: on podcasting, which would be everybody. We are literally demonstrating this.
• 1:43
  Speaker 6: We are all.
• 1:44
  Speaker 4: Justin Miller's working on it, too. Only three of us
• 1:45
  Speaker 4: see this right now. I don't know if Willie's working
• 1:47
  Speaker 4: on it. We're all working on our queen wave, and
• 1:50
  Speaker 4: none of us can do it.
• 1:50
  Speaker 7: I can't do it.
• 1:51
  Speaker 6: Max's was pretty good. You guys are doing a great
• 1:53
  Speaker 6: job describing it.
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: I really feel like you should just start randomly bust
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: out in the airport and just look at people and
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: just do the wave. You know what, Max?
• 2:05
  Speaker 6: That's how you get arrested. I mean, in New York, maybe.
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: Well, in Jackson, you might get beat up. But, you know,
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: definitely in New York, you're definitely getting arrested.
• 2:15
  Speaker 6: There's some places where you just need to move and
• 2:17
  Speaker 6: go about your business. Don't just stand in the middle
• 2:19
  Speaker 6: of open areas weaving like the queen.
• 2:22
  Speaker 4: I think Willie's got a flight today. I'm going to
• 2:25
  Speaker 4: start the process by saying if we get a selfie
• 2:28
  Speaker 4: with Willie in the airport doing the queen wave, I
• 2:33
  Speaker 4: will be the first to contribute five American dollars to
• 2:36
  Speaker 4: the cause.
• 2:36
  Speaker 5: It's all yours, Willie. $ 5. $ 5 American dollars.
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: Yep.
• 2:40
  Speaker 5: It's American dollars.
• 2:43
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 2:43
  Speaker 6: Well, I'll support the cause. I'll do the wave.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: I just, you know, once I get questioned and pinned
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: against my back against the wall as to, sir, why
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: are you waving at nobody in the midst of traffic?
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: I'll just say, oh, Rob Kim told me to do it.
• 2:58
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 2:58
  Speaker 6: He paid me $ 5 to do so.
• 3:00
  Speaker 4: I'd use Max Starks' name, though, because he probably carries
• 3:03
  Speaker 4: more weight no matter where you are.
• 3:05
  Speaker 6: Yeah, Max, Rob, it doesn't matter.
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: He's getting that special sweater that has no sleeves that
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: wraps around backwards.
• 3:15
  Speaker 4: So Circus George at the end of that hour, Willie
• 3:19
  Speaker 4: was saying more accountability out of the players, less criticism
• 3:24
  Speaker 4: of Mike McCarthy and Aaron Rodgers. Max pontificated on said subject.
• 3:31
  Speaker 4: I wanted to get your thoughts before we move on
• 3:34
  Speaker 4: to something else I wanted to discuss with you guys.
• 3:36
  Speaker 4: I mean, is this a time for self-evaluation or is
• 3:39
  Speaker 4: this just, I mean, every time's a time for self-evaluation
• 3:42
  Speaker 4: or is it.
• 3:42
  Speaker 5: Just, Hey, let's go about our business. We got to
• 3:45
  Speaker 5: be a little bit better.
• 3:49
  Speaker 6: I think it's a little bit of both.
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: I think you have to, I think you have to
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: really assess about where you at and your concepts and
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: if they're working, are they benefiting the team?
• 3:58
  Speaker 6: I think, But there's some things that you just need
• 4:01
  Speaker 6: to be better.
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: There's the fundamentals of football that the Steelers, in that
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: game against the Browns, just aren't looking as polished as
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: they need to be. It still comes down to blocking, tackling,
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: and being able to just not beat yourself when it
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: comes to penalties. And I think the Steelers right now,
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: from the defensive end, I know Max brought up.
• 4:21
  Speaker 6: Some of their woes.
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: But, like, when it comes to tackling, man, there's fundamental
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: cues that the Steelers just simply miss. When you're going
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: against a big back like Jenkins, who I think the Steelers,
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: the defense pretty much neutralized for the most part.
• 4:33
  Speaker 6: But when you're going.
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: Against a big back like that, man, when he starts
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: running horizontally, man, you've got to get your body across
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: so he has to run through your body and not
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: your arms. I think a lot of times when we
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: watch some of that tackling, man, their backs and receivers
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: just running through the arms of the Steelers. Like, you
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: got to put your body in the way. When you
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: hear Max and I say, you know, put your face
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: in the fan, that's what we mean. You got to
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: throw your whole body into these tackles. And the reason
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: why a lot of these Browns players were able to
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: break their tackles is because they were arm tackling, right?
• 5:06
  Speaker 6: We were peanut punching. There's a wave.
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: There's this anxious wave going throughout the NFL right now
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: where guys are simply looking to punch the ball out.
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: Instead of wrapping a guy up by his legs and
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: bringing him down to the ground. You know, I mentioned
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: early in the season to the game, the first week one,
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: actually the first game, the Seahawks versus Patriots. The Seahawks
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: did a great job of displaying what it means to
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: tackle in the NFL, right? It's not just, you know,
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: holding one guy up and three other guys come and
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: try to punch.
• 5:35
  Speaker 6: The ball out. No.
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: When you're one-on-one and you've got solos, man, and you
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: take the proper angle, you've got to get your head, neck, body,
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: and your torso across the guy and bring him down
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: and wrap and bring him down to the ground. Too
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: many times you're watching these guys get blown through, arm tackling,
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: trying to dive on a guy's legs.
• 5:53
  Speaker 6: No, you've got to bring the whole house to the tackle.
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: So those are some of the fundamental cues that the
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: Steelers just weren't able to you know, execute and it
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: hurt them because they weren't, they didn't play awful.
• 6:05
  Speaker 6: Right.
• 6:06
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: They had a rough second quarter. I get all that,
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: but there's some fundamental things. We're just not doing well
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: as a, as a complete team that, that shows up
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: on tape. And so the attack lens and mindset is
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: something you have to will yourself to do and want
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: to do. But there's also, there's some education to it
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: that we just not executing it. And I think that's what's,
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: that's what's hurting the Steelers. And as far as blocking,
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: it comes down to communication. Um, And I think, you know,
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: for Max Ahamacher, especially being that right tackle, he got
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: beat up. Welcome to the NFL. Everybody catches their licks.
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: But I think you start to see him unravel at
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: times because, one, he doesn't have the experience or the
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: data to keep his nerves calm and just focus on
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: things he needs to focus on. But on top of that, man,
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: life in a hostile situation when the place is rocking loud,
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: you know, man, there's things that I think the Steelers
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: just didn't do to help him out better as far
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: as more tight end presence, chip help. You know, sprint
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: out protection. I know Aaron's not the most mobile guy
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: where there's some things you got to move that pocket,
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: especially when you got a defensive line that's already moving.
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: So there was some things that we just didn't execute.
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: That was just kind of football one on one things.
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: And those are the things you have to kind of
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: go back and ask, why didn't we do better in
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: those in that department? and cleaning those things up, finding yourself,
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: finding what you do on offense, who you are defensively,
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: all that's going to come into fruition.
• 7:23
  Speaker 6: But it's the little things, the fundamental things, they.
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: Just have to be a lot better at that they
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: failed to do on Thursday against the Browns.
• 7:30
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I keep going back to what we talked about
• 7:32
  Speaker 4: earlier and what Willie alluded to, and it's not exactly,
• 7:36
  Speaker 4: I think, the same. I think it's maybe more of
• 7:38
  Speaker 4: a parallel track than exactly what Willie was saying. But, again,
• 7:42
  Speaker 4: maybe you just simplify the game plan. Maybe there needs
• 7:44
  Speaker 4: to be more runs. um to protect this offensive line
• 7:48
  Speaker 4: which i'm still very bullish on i think it's i
• 7:50
  Speaker 4: think we're going to look up in december it's going
• 7:52
  Speaker 4: to be a really good unit you just hope it
• 7:54
  Speaker 4: doesn't cost you a game or two between now and
• 7:55
  Speaker 4: then you know.
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: No me too i agree and i also think it's
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: not just running the ball it's how we run the
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: ball you know we we you got a big tight.
• 8:07
  Speaker 6: End like.
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: Like Mount Washington, you've got a capable blocker like Fairmouth,
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: and you've got Tunyon, and now you're starting to see
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: some of these offense use 13 personnel, and you're starting
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: to see some of these offices in the league across
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: are using their tight ends to kind of shore up
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: the edge.
• 8:24
  Speaker 6: I think there's a serious need.
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: You know if we can get Jalen or Rico or
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: one of these backs to the edge, man, they can
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: make people miss. But I think when you look at
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: our line, And the movement they were able to get
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: in the interior of our line, there has to be
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: more design. Like me and Maxie tell you, we had 36,
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: 37 power, man, which was double teams on the front side.
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: We're going to double this all the way to the
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: backside linebacker. We're pulling the backside guard. We're going to
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: fold back through. And it's 88 out the gate, man.
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: And that's called smash-mouth football. This line is capable of that.
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: we just have to draw it up and allow these
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: guys to execute so they can see for themselves. Trying
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: to be cute with dives and all this other stuff, and,
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: you know, I get all that, and you definitely need it.
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: But there's– I got– when you have Max Ahamachu and
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: you got Troy as your tackles, man, those guys can
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: bend really well. They have really good footwork. We got
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: really big guards, man. We can do a lot better. So,
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: you know, there were some things that I know during
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: my time as a Steeler and Max, man, You know,
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: the duels, when we used to have 22 and 23 duels,
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: which is double teams across the board, right?
• 9:34
  Speaker 6: That worked.
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: That worked against the Bengals. We used to have 36,
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: 37 powers. You know, double on the front side, we're
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: pulling the guard. If you can't get it in sign,
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: we're getting it around. We're pulling somebody behind to kind
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: of clean up or bust through. So there's things that
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: I look at from my time that this line is
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: more than capable because of the athleticism and talent that
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: they have. And so just Mike McCarthy is just going
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: to have to change his ways right now. He's going
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: to have to just kind of say, all right, you know,
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: I want to run the ball, but let's lean on
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: the interior of our line and let's use some of
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: their athleticism to kind of bust through holes and get
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: our backs to the line of scrimmage where we know
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: they can, on the second level, they can make anybody
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: miss in the league.
• 10:14
  Speaker 4: So, I wanted to change gears here a little bit
• 10:18
  Speaker 4: because I wanted to ask you guys, I have to
• 10:22
  Speaker 4: say after the weekend's games and the Bengals losing to
• 10:25
  Speaker 4: Jacksonville and just taking a larger look at the AFC,
• 10:30
  Speaker 4: you know, I, I, a couple of things made me
• 10:32
  Speaker 4: pause and say, okay, you know, take a step away
• 10:35
  Speaker 4: from the ledge. I'm usually not a ledge guy. I'm not,
• 10:38
  Speaker 4: I mean, I'm a, I'm a glass half full guy.
• 10:41
  Speaker 4: That game bothered me Thursday night because I thought the Steelers,
• 10:45
  Speaker 4: had ample opportunity to win that game, improved to 3-1. Now,
• 10:50
  Speaker 4: you could also say they had ample opportunity not to
• 10:52
  Speaker 4: win the game before against the Bengals. Maybe they'd be
• 10:54
  Speaker 4: 1-3 right now. But maybe they evened out. But I
• 10:58
  Speaker 4: just saw that game and thought, man. And then you think, okay,
• 11:00
  Speaker 4: on the road Thursday night. Then I looked at what
• 11:02
  Speaker 4: went on over the course of the weekend, and there's
• 11:07
  Speaker 4: just a lot of parity.
• 11:09
  Speaker 5: I mean, look, you have Casey at 4-0.
• 11:11
  Speaker 7: You have.
• 11:13
  Speaker 4: Some other three-in-one teams. Vegas gave them all they wanted.
• 11:16
  Speaker 4: Who saw that coming other than Willie Colon? Jacksonville, Cleveland, Baltimore.
• 11:21
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I know.
• 11:22
  Speaker 4: That's your team. Like, you know, Cleveland's kind of been
• 11:25
  Speaker 4: my team to look out for. Your team's been Vegas,
• 11:27
  Speaker 4: hasn't it, Willie?
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah, baby.
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: They just playing a brand of football that I respect,
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: and they allowed Kirk Cousins to be the adult in
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: the room, and he's making damn good decisions with the football.
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: And they got guys, right? They got guys who've been asleep,
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: and now they're starting to wake up. When you look
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: at Brock Bowers, but they also got another tight end
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: out of Notre Dame, a big.
• 11:47
  Speaker 5: Giant, man, Michael Myers, man.
• 11:48
  Speaker 6: He's good, man. Now they got this new receiver.
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: I'm falling in love with Cody White coming off the bench, man.
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: The offensive line is playing better. They're actually playing up.
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: They're playing up, if you will. There's still more talent
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: that needs to be had on that line, but they're
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: playing up. It's something when you watch a coach play.
• 12:08
  Speaker 6: Build the ecosystem, right? When you start to see.
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: The Clint Kubiaks, when you start seeing the Matt LaFleurs,
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: and you start seeing some of these coaches who are
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: now in new positions, they bring an organization alive. And
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: it's just cool to see, especially if you're just a
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: casual fan of football.
• 12:25
  Speaker 6: Think about all the teams right now.
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: There's a couple of teams right now who are on
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: four of our playoff teams last year.
• 12:31
  Speaker 6: You get what I'm saying?
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: And now there's emergence of some of these new teams
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: who are something like, not that they're new, but they're
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: like they've been in a dump for long enough. Now
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: they're starting, things are starting to come together. So it's
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: just cool, man. Like Todd Monken with the Browns. You're
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: talking about the floor down in Arizona. You're talking about
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: Clint Kubiak, uh, down, down in, uh, Vegas. Like there's, there's,
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: there's things happening, man. And even, even look at the saints,
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: like they're playing, they play in the Falcons tonight.
• 12:56
  Speaker 4: Yep.
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: Kelly Moore has that team playing at a high level.
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: You know, that's, that's taking some time, but they're not
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: the team who they were last year. And now they
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: got a big time matchup, um, in New Orleans against
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: the Falcons, even the Falcons are different.
• 13:08
  Speaker 6: You know what I mean?
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: Now that they have Michael Penix back, they look like
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: a more competent and competitive outfit. So I think it's
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: just good for the NFL when you start seeing the
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: bottom feeders say, you know what, enough is enough.
• 13:19
  Speaker 6: Let's just start climbing.
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: And, you know, it also makes you question about the
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: teams who have been in the middle of the pack
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: and are.
• 13:26
  Speaker 6: On top for a while.
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: Like, you know, they have to now find some reassurance
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: and stay ahead.
• 13:31
  Speaker 6: So it's– It's good. The NFL is fun right now,
• 13:35
  Speaker 6: even if your team is losing. It's fun to watch.
• 13:38
  Speaker 5: You know, I went through the weekend, and I feel
• 13:41
  Speaker 5: better about the Steelers. Like, they're at the quarter pole.
• 13:44
  Speaker 4: Yeah, we got, like I said, we have Kansas City
• 13:45
  Speaker 4: at 4-0. We have five other AFC teams at 3-1.
• 13:49
  Speaker 4: You know, the Browns, and you think, boy, that could
• 13:51
  Speaker 4: be the Steelers atop the AFC North, a 2-0 record,
• 13:55
  Speaker 4: a road win, a road conference win.
• 13:57
  Speaker 5: Well, they're not. Buffalo's 3-1, Cleveland and Baltimore 3-1, Jacksonville 3-1.
• 14:02
  Speaker 4: They look good. The Steelers will have them later on.
• 14:03
  Speaker 4: They're 3-1. Las Vegas is 3-1. You mentioned the 0-4 teams. Miami, Houston, Tennessee,
• 14:10
  Speaker 4: and the Chargers. I think at least two of those
• 14:15
  Speaker 4: teams nobody saw being 0-4. That would be Houston and
• 14:18
  Speaker 4: the Chargers. And then, Max, New England, the Steelers, the Bengals,
• 14:23
  Speaker 4: the Colts coming up this week. That makes that game important. Denver,
• 14:27
  Speaker 4: who we'll see the day after Thanksgiving here in Pittsburgh.
• 14:30
  Speaker 4: They're all 2-2. And you think, okay, take a breath.
• 14:33
  Speaker 4: You're at the quarter pole, 2-2.
• 14:36
  Speaker 6: Let's go.
• 14:37
  Speaker 5: Start winning some football games. Let's see what you do
• 14:39
  Speaker 5: over the next four games.
• 14:42
  Speaker 4: It is just a reminder that the NFL is week
• 14:48
  Speaker 4: to week.
• 14:48
  Speaker 5: It's season to season, but it's also week to week. And, hey, man,
• 14:52
  Speaker 5: strap it up and let's beat this Colts team and
• 14:54
  Speaker 5: the world looks a little bit brighter.
• 14:57
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 14:58
  Speaker 3: On to the next week. I mean, you're right in
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: the middle of this competition. And I think that's the
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: biggest thing. And, you know, I was there in Buffalo yesterday.
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: I was calling the Bills-Patriots game. And everybody had the
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: New England Patriots dead to rights, right? This team is
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: a poser. It's a pretender. Man, Buffalo undefeated. Yeah, they
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: got away with the scare, almost losing to the Chargers
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: the week before. But they're just going to beat down
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: New England. It didn't happen. Drake May sucks. Can't find
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: a wide receiver. He's bad. What is this team going
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: to do? They lost Christian Gonzalez and Christian Barmore. Oh,
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: my God, the two best defenders. They punched Buffalo in
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: the mouth in their own house and didn't wipe their
• 15:48
  Speaker 3: feet before they walked in on the welcome mat.
• 15:50
  Speaker 6: Sure did.
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: And that just goes to show you that every single week,
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: you don't know what's going to happen.
• 15:58
  Speaker 6: You can predict.
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: The Buffalo Bills were seven and a half point favorites
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: in that game. Lost by three. They couldn't move the football. Hey,
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: you want to talk about Aaron Rodgers? What did Josh
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: Allen do at the most important moment when they're down
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: three points? Threw a flyer for an interception. He had
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: more time than Aaron Rodgers did. Still had two timeouts.
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: I mean, it was, hey, hey, extra sauce.
• 16:26
  Speaker 5: Extra saucy.
• 16:28
  Speaker 6: Meatball marinara.
• 16:29
  Speaker 3: Boom. So even the greatest of quarterbacks have their moments.
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: Even the greatest of teams can fall. So that's where
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: you have to take solace and say, you know what?
• 16:43
  Speaker 3: Not that bad. Not that bad. First quarter of the
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: season looks about like the first quarter of the season.
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: But you have three other quarters you got to play.
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: And this team has opportunities and games to get back
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: in position. And you're not fully out of it. Would
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: you rather be 2-2 or 0-4 or 1-3? You're in
• 17:03
  Speaker 3: a good place, but you've just got to tweak it
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: just that much more, and it doesn't take much. It
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: takes willingness, backs against the wall, and you have to fight.
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: When in doubt and you're looking for inspiration, look left
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: and look right in the locker room. Look to your brothers.
• 17:20
  Speaker 3: That's all you have, right? The answers to all your problems,
• 17:23
  Speaker 3: as Wolf used to say, are in those four walls
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: of the locker room. All the answers you need to find.
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: So I don't feel bad. I watched Joss Allen look
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: terrible yesterday. As much as everybody talked about how great
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: he was and how great he is. And he is
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: a great quarterback. But great quarterbacks can have bad days.
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: You need the rest of your team to lean on.
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: And for the Steelers, it's not that far away. It's
• 17:48
  Speaker 3: just connecting it. They're just disjointed when the mood swings happen.
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: When the ebbs and the flows happen, they're not on
• 17:56
  Speaker 3: the same page. Capitalize on a turnover. Capitalize on good
• 18:01
  Speaker 3: field position. Take advantage of backed-up football. Don't be the
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: guy that jumps off sides, right? Be the guy that's
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: going to get your assignment, even though you might have
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: to strain a little bit. It's all just little things,
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: but little things lead to the difference between wins and losses.
• 18:17
  Speaker 5: Willie, safe travels, my friend.
• 18:18
  Speaker 6: Thank you, guys.
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: Safe travels, bud.
• 18:22
  Speaker 4: We will talk to Willie in the locker room tomorrow.
• 18:25
  Speaker 4: We will talk to you should you care to call
• 18:28
  Speaker 4: us at 412-919-1316. Plenty more still to come when we
• 18:32
  Speaker 4: continue in the locker room here on the Steelers Audio Network.
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: This is In the Locker Room with Rob King, Max Starks,
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: and Willie Colon on Steelers Nation Radio. Brought to you
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: in part by the Steelers Pro Shop. Get it direct
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: from the team at the Steelers Pro Shop at shop.steelers.com.
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: And by your neighborhood Ford store. The F-150 is the
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: official truck of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
• 19:06
  Speaker 5: And the phone number to dial to get into the
• 19:08
  Speaker 5: locker room is 412-919-1350.
• 19:12
  Speaker 4: We are opening up the phone lines on Mondays throughout
• 19:15
  Speaker 4: the course of the year, usually to get your reaction
• 19:17
  Speaker 4: on what happened on Sunday. But, of course, we're talking
• 19:20
  Speaker 4: about what happened on Thursday. And we welcome back Juan
• 19:25
  Speaker 4: and Circus George. And now we have the guy who
• 19:27
  Speaker 4: was the first caller this year, and that is Ricky
• 19:30
  Speaker 4: from Georgia back with us in the locker room. Ricky,
• 19:32
  Speaker 4: how you doing today, my friend?
• 19:34
  Speaker 7: I'm doing good, Mr.
• 19:35
  Speaker 4: Brown.
• 19:36
  Speaker 6: How y'all doing?
• 19:36
  Speaker 7: What's up, Max?
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: Man, what's up, Ricky? How we doing, boss?
• 19:41
  Speaker 7: Man, we hankin', man. We hankin'. Just dealin' with stuff
• 19:43
  Speaker 7: over here, man. And, uh, yes. And, uh, good to
• 19:45
  Speaker 7: hear from you.
• 19:46
  Speaker 6: Too, man.
• 19:47
  Speaker 7: Well, I called the first time you wasn't there, so
• 19:48
  Speaker 7: I was like, yeah, I want to talk to you
• 19:50
  Speaker 7: and Willie at the same time.
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: Yeah, man. Don't worry. I'll be here. If it wasn't
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: for planes, trains, and automobiles and me having to deal
• 19:58
  Speaker 3: with flat tires and stuff, I will be here for many,
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: many more to come. So, yeah, but it was good
• 20:05
  Speaker 3: to hear you get to meet Will.
• 20:08
  Speaker 7: Hey, hey, hey, I will say this, though, man, before
• 20:10
  Speaker 7: I get on to what I will say about LT,
• 20:11
  Speaker 7: but I will say this, man, you should have a
• 20:13
  Speaker 7: lot of sky miles right now the way you travel, man.
• 20:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah, don't worry. Hey, hey, the kids know how to
• 20:19
  Speaker 3: drain it because they have trips planned already for my miles.
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: So it's like, nah, I just got to get there
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: and get them done before they actually try and redeem them.
• 20:29
  Speaker 7: So you're absolutely right.
• 20:31
  Speaker 3: I get them, but they gone just as quick. You know,
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: that's what it is when.
• 20:34
  Speaker 7: You got kids.
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 20:36
  Speaker 7: They already telling them all. I get it.
• 20:39
  Speaker 6: Oh, yeah.
• 20:39
  Speaker 3: They know how to spend your money better than you do.
• 20:41
  Speaker 7: Oh, man. That's great. That's great, man. But, yeah, man. Hey,
• 20:49
  Speaker 7: you know, last week sucked. All the emotional up and
• 20:53
  Speaker 7: down between Wednesday and Thursday. Yeah, that was emotional week. So,
• 20:57
  Speaker 7: I can only imagine how it was for the guys
• 20:58
  Speaker 7: on the field, man. You know, I mean, we can point.
• 21:01
  Speaker 7: We can do this and that. See what we can
• 21:04
  Speaker 7: get better at. But, Honestly, man, I think it's more
• 21:08
  Speaker 7: of a morale thing right now maybe from the team.
• 21:11
  Speaker 7: We got to find somewhere we can hang our hat
• 21:14
  Speaker 7: on in certain situations. Right now, I don't think we
• 21:17
  Speaker 7: really have nothing to hang our hat on because once
• 21:19
  Speaker 7: we take two steps forward, we take a couple steps back.
• 21:22
  Speaker 7: And I don't know what it feels like defense. I
• 21:24
  Speaker 7: think defense is good. I just hate that we lost
• 21:27
  Speaker 7: Jordan in a sense. So now we got to build
• 21:30
  Speaker 7: around that again. The offense, well, we know where the
• 21:32
  Speaker 7: offense has been a couple years, so we still building
• 21:35
  Speaker 7: on that, and it's there. So, I don't, like, me personally,
• 21:39
  Speaker 7: Aaron Rodgers, he's great to me. My respect more, he's
• 21:42
  Speaker 7: been with us, and I don't see him where he
• 21:43
  Speaker 7: can do good and bad. I just have a question
• 21:47
  Speaker 7: about one thing when it comes to our offense. I
• 21:49
  Speaker 7: don't know if they're going to fix this issue. It's
• 21:51
  Speaker 7: the time management or the play call, especially on offense.
• 21:55
  Speaker 7: It seems like. We have– we're kind of unsure about
• 21:58
  Speaker 7: what's going to work in certain situations, especially in the
• 22:00
  Speaker 7: situation of football. And I just think, me personally, between
• 22:04
  Speaker 7: the quarterback and the coach, there has to be more
• 22:07
  Speaker 7: consistency to understand where we are. We shouldn't be going
• 22:09
  Speaker 7: back and forth and losing time on that play call,
• 22:11
  Speaker 7: especially when it's going down. Now you're making an erratic
• 22:13
  Speaker 7: play call and making an erratic throw call, leaving interception
• 22:16
  Speaker 7: and stuff like that. Or, man, Mitchell Simon's on the block,
• 22:18
  Speaker 7: and when it comes to offensive line, they're going to
• 22:20
  Speaker 7: create havoc either way. So I think we need to
• 22:22
  Speaker 7: clean up the small thing, the final thing that's part
• 22:25
  Speaker 7: of our team. I think we can be a better–
• 22:27
  Speaker 7: I just hate losing to Cleveland like that, especially on
• 22:30
  Speaker 7: this short week that we had with just beat Cincinnati.
• 22:32
  Speaker 7: And I kind of seen that coming. But I didn't
• 22:34
  Speaker 7: want it to happen. And so that's why my first
• 22:37
  Speaker 7: game with the team, my first game with them, who
• 22:39
  Speaker 7: did the scheduling, because that's a rough week for anybody,
• 22:42
  Speaker 7: especially in a place that we never really win at,
• 22:45
  Speaker 7: not that often anyway, you get with that type of week.
• 22:48
  Speaker 7: And so I just feel like that right there played
• 22:50
  Speaker 7: a lot into it, and we just going to overcome
• 22:52
  Speaker 7: the fact that it is. we can win there at
• 22:55
  Speaker 7: the end of it. And it's just like, ah, what
• 22:56
  Speaker 7: did we do? So I think we're going to move
• 22:58
  Speaker 7: forward and get this win against the Colts. I just
• 23:01
  Speaker 7: hope the guys can get their taste out of their mouth,
• 23:03
  Speaker 7: especially for a fan. I mean, a fan like myself,
• 23:05
  Speaker 7: been a fan since the 90s. So it's just a
• 23:08
  Speaker 7: hard thing to digest when you see a team lose
• 23:10
  Speaker 7: in that type of fashion. But, hey, that's all I'm
• 23:13
  Speaker 7: going to say. And I wish the best for the
• 23:15
  Speaker 7: rest of the next game. And it was good talking
• 23:18
  Speaker 7: with y'all, man.
• 23:18
  Speaker 6: I'm out here working.
• 23:19
  Speaker 7: So, hey, I'll be listening to y'all. So thank you
• 23:21
  Speaker 7: for taking my call.
• 23:23
  Speaker 4: Ricky, thank you very much. Appreciate it. And, you know, Max,
• 23:29
  Speaker 4: there was a, let's see, there was an injury. I
• 23:36
  Speaker 4: think it was an injury. I don't think the Steelers
• 23:38
  Speaker 4: were coming off of a timeout. I think there was
• 23:41
  Speaker 4: an injury timeout. And the Steelers got called for a
• 23:45
  Speaker 4: delay of game. This was in the fourth quarter. Now,
• 23:49
  Speaker 4: they wound up scoring on the drive. Yet, those are
• 23:54
  Speaker 4: the things that I think fans, you know, point to
• 23:56
  Speaker 4: and say, how come we're not getting, where's the clean communication?
• 24:00
  Speaker 5: That is something that Mike McCarthy has talked about.
• 24:02
  Speaker 4: I think he's acknowledged that there's been a time or
• 24:05
  Speaker 4: two that he'd like it to be a little more efficient.
• 24:09
  Speaker 4: I don't get the feeling that it's, you know, that
• 24:11
  Speaker 4: it's one of the things keeping him up at night.
• 24:13
  Speaker 4: But I do understand Ricky's point that, you know, when
• 24:16
  Speaker 4: you use a timeout and, again, you use one in
• 24:20
  Speaker 4: Cincinnati and the next play was a touchdown. So is
• 24:22
  Speaker 4: that a good use of a timeout in the first
• 24:25
  Speaker 4: quarter of a game or not? I'll exchange the timeout
• 24:28
  Speaker 4: for a touchdown. I got six timeouts a game. If
• 24:31
  Speaker 4: I can give those to you for 42 points, I'll
• 24:33
  Speaker 4: take it. That having been said, I do understand Ricky's
• 24:36
  Speaker 4: point that you want to be able to be cleaner.
• 24:39
  Speaker 4: You want to be able to ideally have those timeouts
• 24:43
  Speaker 4: to use when you want to use them and not
• 24:45
  Speaker 4: because the play clock is going down.
• 24:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah, to use them strategically and not out of desperation.
• 24:52
  Speaker 3: It's what ultimately comes down, right? You like to have
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: the luxury of your timeouts, not the necessity of having
• 24:59
  Speaker 3: to burn a timeout. And I think, you know, Ricky's right.
• 25:02
  Speaker 3: And I think that's what comes down to simplification of
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: the playbook. I think that's what comes down to, you know,
• 25:09
  Speaker 3: cohesion during the week as you prep for the games
• 25:14
  Speaker 3: to make sure that you're in a place where everybody
• 25:17
  Speaker 3: feels comfortable. And I think for this week, They didn't
• 25:20
  Speaker 3: really get that, right? You got two walkthrough days, essentially,
• 25:25
  Speaker 3: and you're getting on a bus after an even more
• 25:28
  Speaker 3: glorified walkthrough than the two previous walkthroughs that you had.
• 25:31
  Speaker 3: And so, you know, when you have these Thursday night games,
• 25:35
  Speaker 3: especially early in the year when you're a team that's
• 25:37
  Speaker 3: still trying to figure yourselves out, it's just tough. It
• 25:41
  Speaker 3: was a recipe for disaster. Ricky kind of touched on it.
• 25:43
  Speaker 3: You know, a place we haven't really had success in.
• 25:46
  Speaker 3: We are 0-9 on Thursday nights against now 0-10. on
• 25:50
  Speaker 3: Thursday nights against divisional opponents. But yet, the NFL keeps
• 25:54
  Speaker 3: scheduling them.
• 25:55
  Speaker 6: Why?
• 25:57
  Speaker 3: Because people love to see the Steelers not do well.
• 26:00
  Speaker 7: Right?
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: And it's an entertaining football. They know that we have
• 26:03
  Speaker 3: a strong fan base that is going to be out there,
• 26:06
  Speaker 3: that's going to be active. They're going to be consumers
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: of the sport. That's why we get the Thursday night football.
• 26:12
  Speaker 3: That's why we get the primetime games. But at the
• 26:14
  Speaker 3: same time, it's a heck of a stressor to put
• 26:19
  Speaker 3: us in those situations because you're coming off of a
• 26:22
  Speaker 3: short week, a big emotional one. You had a division
• 26:24
  Speaker 3: game already on Sunday, and we don't even get seven
• 26:28
  Speaker 3: days between divisional games? Like, that's BS. You know, when
• 26:32
  Speaker 3: you think about it, everybody else played division games or
• 26:34
  Speaker 3: played meaningful games on Sunday. You know, even when they
• 26:38
  Speaker 3: went overseas to play a game, it wasn't a divisional game.
• 26:42
  Speaker 3: And so I think that's something that, you know, Denver
• 26:45
  Speaker 3: had to deal with this a year ago. when they
• 26:48
  Speaker 3: had literally had their first three games of the season
• 26:50
  Speaker 3: were all divisional games. And one of them just happened
• 26:53
  Speaker 3: to be, you know, an international game on top of that. So,
• 26:57
  Speaker 3: you know, we can cry a river, but it seems
• 27:00
  Speaker 3: like year in and year out, we always get the
• 27:02
  Speaker 3: Thursday night football in Cleveland, right? We do not get
• 27:06
  Speaker 3: the Thursday night football at home. Now we will get
• 27:09
  Speaker 3: Friday football against the Broncos on Black Friday, but that's
• 27:14
  Speaker 3: at the end of November. Guess what you had to do?
• 27:17
  Speaker 3: You've had two months to figure out who your team is,
• 27:19
  Speaker 3: almost three months, and then, okay, you can throw me
• 27:23
  Speaker 3: off on a short week. But to do it this
• 27:27
  Speaker 3: early and do back-to-back division games, zero favors were played
• 27:33
  Speaker 3: in that situation. So when you talk about, hey, oh,
• 27:35
  Speaker 3: the Steelers get– we do not get the benefit of
• 27:37
  Speaker 3: the doubt. We just get straight doubt.
• 27:40
  Speaker 4: Well, yeah, and I think that's part and parcel of
• 27:44
  Speaker 4: being a team That everybody wants to see. They're still
• 27:48
  Speaker 4: the Steelers. They're still a big brand. You know, we
• 27:51
  Speaker 4: were talking to, when the Steelers played the Chiefs on
• 27:53
  Speaker 4: Christmas Day a couple years ago, talking to the Chiefs people,
• 27:58
  Speaker 4: I believe they played, I think I had this right,
• 28:01
  Speaker 4: every day of the week except Tuesday. I think they did.
• 28:05
  Speaker 4: They might have even had a Tuesday game. But I
• 28:07
  Speaker 4: think they played every single day of the week except Tuesday. Well,
• 28:11
  Speaker 4: that wreaks havoc with your schedule in your training.
• 28:15
  Speaker 6: Why?
• 28:15
  Speaker 5: Well, they're the defending Super Bowl champions.
• 28:18
  Speaker 4: They got Patrick Mahomes, and when people sit down on
• 28:21
  Speaker 4: Christmas Day or Thanksgiving, of course, they have their traditional
• 28:24
  Speaker 4: people on Thanksgiving, but you sit down on a Thursday night,
• 28:27
  Speaker 4: you sit down on a Christmas Day, you sit down
• 28:29
  Speaker 4: on a Sunday, you flex the game to a Saturday,
• 28:32
  Speaker 4: Monday night, who do you want to see? You want
• 28:34
  Speaker 4: to see the Kansas City Chiefs, and you want to
• 28:37
  Speaker 4: see the Pittsburgh Steelers, and that's part and parcel of
• 28:40
  Speaker 4: being a top team and a top brand is that
• 28:43
  Speaker 4: you're going to get some games that are not ideal.
• 28:46
  Speaker 5: Max, from a scheduling perspective.
• 28:49
  Speaker 3: Oh, absolutely. And I think that's what you have to
• 28:53
  Speaker 3: deal with when you're a popular team and the Steelers
• 28:55
  Speaker 3: are definitely one of those teams. You deal with inconvenience
• 29:00
  Speaker 3: for recovery. You deal with inconvenience of performance and yet
• 29:04
  Speaker 3: you're still expected to perform. That's right. It would be
• 29:07
  Speaker 3: nice to get a couple of home games in there
• 29:08
  Speaker 3: and not always be the traveling road show. you know,
• 29:11
  Speaker 3: or as Circus George would say, you know, be like
• 29:13
  Speaker 3: the Flying Melindas, right? You know, the big top travels everywhere.
• 29:16
  Speaker 3: You know, sometimes you just want to have a, you want,
• 29:18
  Speaker 3: you want to have a brick and mortar location, you know,
• 29:20
  Speaker 3: come to Sarasota to watch us. We don't want to
• 29:23
  Speaker 3: have to come to Des Moines, Iowa for, for a
• 29:26
  Speaker 3: show every time. So I think that's just kind of how,
• 29:30
  Speaker 3: how it has to be. But I mean, once again,
• 29:33
  Speaker 3: at the end of the day, this is a performance-based business.
• 29:36
  Speaker 3: It's a business based on wins and losses. And the
• 29:39
  Speaker 3: beauty of that is you know where you stand at
• 29:42
  Speaker 3: the end of it right there's no there's no speculation
• 29:44
  Speaker 3: there's no guessing it's you won or you lost at
• 29:47
  Speaker 3: the end of the day one of the greatest truths
• 29:49
  Speaker 3: in life right when you play these games and yes
• 29:52
  Speaker 3: every once in a while there is a tie i
• 29:53
  Speaker 3: know there's going to be somebody that's For a majority
• 29:57
  Speaker 3: of them, there's not ties. Not that many ties happen.
• 30:00
  Speaker 3: So it's usually a win and loss. And I think
• 30:03
  Speaker 3: that's kind of where we're at. And listen, the Cleveland
• 30:06
  Speaker 3: Browns were better prepared than we were for the short week.
• 30:10
  Speaker 3: And they had to travel as well the week before,
• 30:15
  Speaker 3: but they were at home. So you got that extra
• 30:18
  Speaker 3: night of recovery, which is nice. And I know Mike
• 30:21
  Speaker 3: McCarthy was like, well, we're this close. It's only a
• 30:24
  Speaker 3: two-hour drive. Why do we have to go and stay
• 30:26
  Speaker 3: in their city? Why can't we stay in our house?
• 30:29
  Speaker 3: It's a night game. Just drive over, what, 2 p.m.,
• 30:33
  Speaker 3: 1 p.m.? But the 19-hour rule is the 19-hour rule.
• 30:37
  Speaker 3: You must be in there. And it's probably to protect
• 30:39
  Speaker 3: coaches from trying to overly do that because then they say,
• 30:42
  Speaker 3: what's the difference between a bus ride and a flight?
• 30:44
  Speaker 3: If I'm a two-hour flight away, why can't I do
• 30:45
  Speaker 3: the two-hour flight? So rules are the rules. Rules are rules.
• 30:50
  Speaker 3: will separate us from the animals, right? So we've got
• 30:52
  Speaker 3: to live by them.
• 30:53
  Speaker 6: Hey, stick around.
• 30:54
  Speaker 5: We have more to come.
• 30:55
  Speaker 4: We're going to look at the AFC and what's going
• 30:58
  Speaker 4: on around the rest of the conference. And, of course,
• 31:01
  Speaker 4: your phone calls should you want to get them in.
• 31:03
  Speaker 4: As we mentioned, the phone number is 412-919-1316. When we
• 31:06
  Speaker 4: continue in the locker room here on the Steelers Audio Network.
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: This is In the Locker Room with Rob King, Max Starks,
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: and Willie Colon on Steelers Nation Radio. Brought to you
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: in part by the Steelers Pro Shop. Get it direct
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: from the team at the Steelers Pro Shop at shop.steelers.com.
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: And by your neighborhood Ford store. The F-150 is the
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: official truck of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
• 31:43
  Speaker 3: All right, back inside the locker room here. It's... the
• 31:48
  Speaker 3: final segment on a monday here and well the bell
• 31:53
  Speaker 3: that wouldn't be the bell lap unless we had a
• 31:54
  Speaker 3: royal entrance that is correct and uh makes me chuckle
• 32:00
  Speaker 3: every time i hear it it gives me like monty
• 32:03
  Speaker 3: python vibes rob talked about some medieval italian castle that
• 32:08
  Speaker 3: he visited and i guess there was like some florentine
• 32:11
  Speaker 3: football horse match or whatever it was sienna he saw
• 32:15
  Speaker 3: sienna italy okay.
• 32:16
  Speaker 5: Good memories okay sienna italy Yeah.
• 32:19
  Speaker 3: Good memories. So, man, I'm going to turn this back
• 32:22
  Speaker 3: into the bell lap of the lunch hour. I know
• 32:24
  Speaker 3: it's the late lunch hour there on the East Coast,
• 32:27
  Speaker 3: but for me, it's early lunch hour, Rob.
• 32:28
  Speaker 6: Uh-huh.
• 32:29
  Speaker 3: And... Uh-huh.
• 32:30
  Speaker 6: There we go.
• 32:31
  Speaker 3: It's a little food topic. We're going a little foodie here.
• 32:34
  Speaker 3: A little foodie here. So, in my delirium this morning,
• 32:38
  Speaker 3: after dropping my kids off, I decided to go get
• 32:41
  Speaker 3: some inspiration at the grocery store. So, bear with me, Rob.
• 32:47
  Speaker 3: And I need your descriptive capabilities.
• 32:50
  Speaker 7: Okay, what do we got?
• 32:50
  Speaker 3: In my hand, I have two bags here.
• 32:54
  Speaker 5: Collard greens.
• 32:55
  Speaker 3: Collard greens, and I got a country green blend.
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 32:59
  Speaker 3: It's got mustards and turnips in it, right?
• 33:00
  Speaker 6: Okay.
• 33:02
  Speaker 3: I'm going to take that. I'm going to saute it.
• 33:04
  Speaker 3: I'm going to get it all good. I got some
• 33:05
  Speaker 3: diced onions.
• 33:07
  Speaker 6: Okay.
• 33:09
  Speaker 3: Pre-cut because I'm lazy. Pre-cut.
• 33:11
  Speaker 5: That's okay.
• 33:12
  Speaker 3: Spicy chicken broth there.
• 33:14
  Speaker 5: Spicy chicken broth.
• 33:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Swanson's makes it spicy now.
• 33:18
  Speaker 5: I did not know that.
• 33:20
  Speaker 3: It's going to be good, so now I don't have
• 33:21
  Speaker 3: to add as much cayenne, right?
• 33:24
  Speaker 6: True.
• 33:25
  Speaker 3: I'm going to make collard greens, and instead of smoked
• 33:28
  Speaker 3: turkey wings or ham hocks or ham, I'm using Trader
• 33:33
  Speaker 3: Joe's rotisserie chicken. It's a shredded rotisserie chicken that they
• 33:36
  Speaker 3: do now. I'm in love with it.
• 33:38
  Speaker 5: Okay.
• 33:38
  Speaker 3: It's from my chicken soup, everything, right? So I'm now
• 33:42
  Speaker 3: going to do that for my lunch today. It's going
• 33:44
  Speaker 3: to take about an hour and a half to two hours.
• 33:46
  Speaker 3: You know, you got to let the greens break down and,
• 33:48
  Speaker 3: and get that good collard green juice. But, um, but yeah,
• 33:51
  Speaker 3: that's what I'm going to do today. So I'm excited
• 33:54
  Speaker 3: to have a fit of fit of imagination. So I'm
• 33:56
  Speaker 3: going to see if this actually works or not.
• 33:59
  Speaker 4: I am trying to remember if I had ever had
• 34:04
  Speaker 4: greens and beans prior to coming to Pittsburgh. Uh, my
• 34:08
  Speaker 4: two favorite, um, Italian restaurants in the Berg, Serafinos, Legends
• 34:14
  Speaker 4: in the North Shore make fabulous greens and beans. I
• 34:19
  Speaker 4: like them with a little bit of sausage in there.
• 34:21
  Speaker 4: So if you go, I thought that's where you were
• 34:24
  Speaker 4: going with the spice because it's spicy.
• 34:26
  Speaker 5: I thought that's where you're going.
• 34:27
  Speaker 4: A little greens and beans, throw some cannellini beans in there,
• 34:30
  Speaker 4: chop up a little, you know, some sausage rings, you know,
• 34:35
  Speaker 4: toss them in there. Hopefully hot sausage as opposed to
• 34:38
  Speaker 4: sweet sausage. My mouth is watering. I can barely speak
• 34:41
  Speaker 4: right now because my.
• 34:42
  Speaker 5: Saliva is accumulating in my mouth right now.
• 34:45
  Speaker 3: Are you calling the people at Serafinos to get a
• 34:48
  Speaker 3: to-go order?
• 34:49
  Speaker 5: Well, hopefully we'll be there again this year. So enjoy
• 34:54
  Speaker 5: your repast, my friend.
• 34:56
  Speaker 4: By the way, as we wander back to the world
• 34:59
  Speaker 4: of football, reports that Marte Mapu, who'd been with New England,
• 35:04
  Speaker 4: has been signed to the Steelers practice squad, a linebacker,
• 35:07
  Speaker 4: trying to get some linebacker depth on the roster.
• 35:11
  Speaker 5: We told you earlier.
• 35:13
  Speaker 4: About the reports that Sean Murphy Bunting, cornerback with Tampa Bay, 29-year-old,
• 35:18
  Speaker 4: had been signed off Tampa Bay's roster, had been a starter,
• 35:21
  Speaker 4: missed all last year with an ACL injury. So he
• 35:24
  Speaker 4: is signed to the active roster, which you have to
• 35:26
  Speaker 4: do when you sign somebody off the practice squad. So
• 35:28
  Speaker 4: just a couple of bits of injury news to get to.
• 35:31
  Speaker 4: As we go around the AFC, and we're going to
• 35:33
  Speaker 4: have to make this relatively quick um max and and
• 35:38
  Speaker 4: we just take a look at the standings buffalo and
• 35:41
  Speaker 4: first at three and one new england uh it almost
• 35:44
  Speaker 4: felt i wouldn't say they saved their season yet but
• 35:47
  Speaker 4: boy it was darn close maybe they saved their season
• 35:50
  Speaker 4: from a morale standpoint hey we are we you know
• 35:54
  Speaker 4: we've suffered some losses but we are pretty good i
• 35:56
  Speaker 4: mean look at their resume now and they've beaten the
• 35:58
  Speaker 4: steelers who were you know a division champ a year
• 36:00
  Speaker 4: ago and buffalo um on the road in Buffalo, who
• 36:05
  Speaker 4: we know is obviously a top team.
• 36:07
  Speaker 5: So that's a big win for them. Buffalo 3-1, New
• 36:10
  Speaker 5: England 2-2. And then the Jets, you.
• 36:13
  Speaker 4: Know, I think they're, boy, I mean, you look at
• 36:15
  Speaker 4: the score and it doesn't look that far away, but
• 36:19
  Speaker 4: the Bears knelt down at the end of the game.
• 36:21
  Speaker 4: The Bears ran, the play discrepancy was amazing and something
• 36:27
  Speaker 4: that I'm not sure, you know, I don't always look
• 36:32
  Speaker 4: at this statistic, but I can't think of one that
• 36:34
  Speaker 4: would be this lopsided. Eighty-nine plays run by the Bears.
• 36:38
  Speaker 4: Eighty-nine plays. They knelt down after a 17-play drive at
• 36:43
  Speaker 4: the end of the game. Eighty-nine to 32. 32 plays
• 36:49
  Speaker 4: for the Jets. So forget the score. And that's Tyler
• 36:54
  Speaker 4: Bajan at quarterback. That's a beatdown that the Bears put
• 36:58
  Speaker 4: on the Jets, even though the score was closer than that. Yeah.
• 37:01
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 37:02
  Speaker 3: Well, and I'll say this. The Jets broke the drought.
• 37:06
  Speaker 3: They got an interception.
• 37:07
  Speaker 5: Yeah, they got a pick. They got a pick.
• 37:09
  Speaker 3: And who did it? Who did it? Minka Fitzpatrick.
• 37:12
  Speaker 5: Oh, that's right. Yeah, Minka got it.
• 37:13
  Speaker 6: That's right.
• 37:14
  Speaker 5: Led a team. He had like 16 tackles or something.
• 37:17
  Speaker 5: And they were out there all day.
• 37:18
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 37:19
  Speaker 5: So I think that division is about what we– Well, yeah.
• 37:21
  Speaker 3: But he didn't play 16 tackles. That's a small consolation.
• 37:25
  Speaker 4: That's about what we expected, though, right? Buffalo and New England,
• 37:28
  Speaker 4: the two teams competing for it. The Jets trying to
• 37:32
  Speaker 4: transition to a team that's a little bit tougher out.
• 37:36
  Speaker 4: They're not there yet, but they're a little bit tougher team.
• 37:39
  Speaker 5: Miami at 0-4.
• 37:40
  Speaker 4: As we look at the AFC South, Jacksonville, they look
• 37:45
  Speaker 4: really good to me, Max. Impressive win over the Bengals.
• 37:48
  Speaker 4: They're 3-1. The Colts are 2-2. The Colts are the Colts.
• 37:54
  Speaker 4: Under Shane Steichen, I think they've been 8-9 or 9-8
• 37:56
  Speaker 4: every single year. And we'll see them again. Of course,
• 38:00
  Speaker 4: we'll have much more of them coming up as we
• 38:01
  Speaker 4: get you ready. But, you know, one of the most–
• 38:03
  Speaker 4: I think maybe the most surprising team to me in
• 38:08
  Speaker 4: all the NFL, and it's not a good surprise, is
• 38:10
  Speaker 4: the 0-4 Houston Texans. I'm shocked that they're 0-4.
• 38:16
  Speaker 3: I am too. And they went and they spent a
• 38:18
  Speaker 3: fortune on that offensive line to protect C.J. Stroud, but
• 38:22
  Speaker 3: they kind of forgot about the weapons around C.J. Stroud
• 38:25
  Speaker 3: that they also needed to keep. add some depth to,
• 38:29
  Speaker 3: and it's just a thinning team. You think with that defense,
• 38:32
  Speaker 3: I mean, what we saw at the end of the
• 38:34
  Speaker 3: year last year, right? With that Texas defense, you just thought,
• 38:39
  Speaker 3: you know, defense is going to carry us and offense
• 38:41
  Speaker 3: is not going to lose it for us. And teams
• 38:45
  Speaker 3: have been going down there and having success against that defense,
• 38:47
  Speaker 3: had an off season to really pick that defense apart
• 38:50
  Speaker 3: and figure out what to do against them to neutralize
• 38:53
  Speaker 3: their effectiveness. And then offensively, It hasn't looked any better.
• 38:58
  Speaker 3: It hasn't looked any better from the past. So for
• 39:02
  Speaker 3: the Houston Texans, yeah, it's soul-searching time for D'Amico Ryans
• 39:05
  Speaker 3: and company to figure out who are they going to
• 39:08
  Speaker 3: be because it's not good. I mean, you go to 0-5,
• 39:12
  Speaker 3: and you might as well just go ahead and start
• 39:13
  Speaker 3: burning the ships at that point.
• 39:15
  Speaker 4: 0-4 with 109 points allowed. That is the most points
• 39:20
  Speaker 4: allowed in the AFC. Most points allowed. And Tennessee at 0-4.
• 39:25
  Speaker 4: I have to say, I've mentioned it several times now,
• 39:27
  Speaker 4: And it's easier to say now that they're, but I, Matt. knows,
• 39:30
  Speaker 4: I said him at the beginning of the season, that
• 39:32
  Speaker 4: the Browns are going to be much improved. At the
• 39:34
  Speaker 4: end of last year, leading up to the Super Bowl,
• 39:37
  Speaker 4: we started talking about the teams that we thought could
• 39:40
  Speaker 4: make big leaps forward this year. Tennessee was one of
• 39:43
  Speaker 4: those teams for me. They're also 0-4. I'm surprised by that.
• 39:47
  Speaker 4: in part just because I thought they were going to
• 39:49
  Speaker 4: make a big step forward. They've scored 55 points. 55
• 39:53
  Speaker 4: points in four games, Max.
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: Yeesh.
• 39:57
  Speaker 3: It's been tough. You think about a year ago, right?
• 40:00
  Speaker 3: They had about three or four games that were seven
• 40:02
  Speaker 3: points or less losses at the end of games. So
• 40:05
  Speaker 3: you said, man, if you could just flip those couple
• 40:08
  Speaker 3: of games, this is a team that can win seven,
• 40:11
  Speaker 3: eight games and be a contender in their division. And
• 40:15
  Speaker 3: like you said, it's been a complete reversion. They have
• 40:18
  Speaker 3: just reverted back to even before Cam Ward got there,
• 40:22
  Speaker 3: and you're just looking around, where's the talent? Robert Sala
• 40:25
  Speaker 3: has to be scratching his head. I took this job
• 40:27
  Speaker 3: thinking there was some possibilities, but then he looks around
• 40:30
  Speaker 3: and realizes, man, the cover was pretty bare when I
• 40:33
  Speaker 3: took this job, and it hasn't gotten that much better.
• 40:36
  Speaker 3: So there has to be some type of cultural shift
• 40:38
  Speaker 3: that has to go on there in Tennessee, or else
• 40:40
  Speaker 3: they will continue to be one of those teams drafting
• 40:43
  Speaker 3: in the top three every year.
• 40:44
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and if Robert Sala doesn't turn that around, his
• 40:46
  Speaker 4: head coaching opportunities are going to be slim moving forward
• 40:50
  Speaker 4: because he obviously didn't have a great time. Yeah, not
• 40:53
  Speaker 4: a great record with the Jets. So those are two
• 40:58
  Speaker 4: surprising teams to me. The rest of it, Jacksonville being
• 41:01
  Speaker 4: good and Indianapolis being solid, doesn't surprise me. AFC West,
• 41:06
  Speaker 4: this has, I think, three surprise teams. Well, actually, all four.
• 41:10
  Speaker 4: I'm surprised the Chiefs are 4-0. I'm surprised Vegas is 3-1.
• 41:15
  Speaker 4: I'm surprised Denver is 2-2 and not 3-1. And I'm
• 41:20
  Speaker 4: surprised the Chargers are 0-4.
• 41:22
  Speaker 5: There we go. I'm calling it my most surprising division
• 41:24
  Speaker 5: in football. I would have picked none of those records.
• 41:28
  Speaker 3: I would have flipped a majority of those, right? Because
• 41:32
  Speaker 3: I thought the Chiefs are dead and gone. And what
• 41:36
  Speaker 3: are the Raiders going to be with Kirk Cousins and
• 41:39
  Speaker 3: Fernando Mendoza? When is he going to start? I still
• 41:43
  Speaker 3: ask that question, but I don't say it with consternation.
• 41:45
  Speaker 3: I say it with enthusiasm. When is he going to start?
• 41:48
  Speaker 3: Because right now, Kirk Cousins looks reinvigorated.
• 41:51
  Speaker 5: Yes.
• 41:52
  Speaker 3: And that team's playing at a high level. And then
• 41:55
  Speaker 3: the Denver Broncos, that's your reigning AFC West champs, went
• 41:59
  Speaker 3: to the AFC championship game, and they're mediocre. You know,
• 42:03
  Speaker 3: there's been no growth from Bo Nix so far. And
• 42:06
  Speaker 3: then the Chargers, everybody had them picked to win the preseason.
• 42:11
  Speaker 3: They were the AFC West champs in waiting, and Justin
• 42:13
  Speaker 3: Herbert is still a shell of himself. He did look
• 42:16
  Speaker 3: decent against the Bills, even though they lost. But once again, interceptions, turnovers,
• 42:21
  Speaker 3: like this team just doesn't have anything to hang their
• 42:25
  Speaker 3: hat on, and it's very surprising.
• 42:27
  Speaker 5: I would say this about Denver real quick.
• 42:29
  Speaker 4: I mean, they lost to Kansas City, got worked in
• 42:32
  Speaker 4: week one in Kansas City. They beat Jacksonville. They beat
• 42:36
  Speaker 4: the Rams. They lost to San Francisco. Schedule doesn't get
• 42:39
  Speaker 4: a whole lot easier. They're at the Chargers. They've got Seattle.
• 42:42
  Speaker 4: They're at Arizona. They're at Kansas City. They're at Carolina.
• 42:45
  Speaker 4: But they're 2-2. Hey, man, we have just had a
• 42:48
  Speaker 4: brutal schedule. So there you have it. We thank you
• 42:53
  Speaker 4: for calling in today.
• 42:54
  Speaker 3: 412-919-1316.
• 42:54
  Speaker 4: Those are our numbers on Mondays throughout the course of
• 43:00
  Speaker 4: the season. Our thanks to Justin Miller, for Willie Colon,
• 43:04
  Speaker 4: for Max Starks. I'm Rob King. We thank you. for
• 43:06
  Speaker 4: being a part of The Locker Room, presented by our
• 43:08
  Speaker 4: neighborhood Ford store and the Steelers Pro Shop on Steelers
• 43:11
  Speaker 4: Nation Radio
• 43:11
  Speaker 5: A part of the Steelers Audio Network.