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HR1: Not Victory Monday · In the Locker Room presented by Neighborhood Ford Store (Pittsburgh Steelers)

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: This is In the Locker Room with Rob King, Max Starks,
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: and Willie Colon on Steelers Nation Radio. Brought to you
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: in part by the Steelers Pro Shop. Get it direct
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: from the team at the Steelers Pro Shop at shop.steelers.com.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: And by your neighborhood Ford store. The F-150 is the
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: official truck of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: We got a quarterback that can play with, you know,
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: any volume of game plan. but at the end of
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: the day, it's a team game. We've got to give
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: Aaron better platforms to throw off and have the opportunities.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: I don't want to dink and dunk and play all
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: day and play keep-away football. There's a place for that,
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: maybe situationally, but that's not the philosophy. We have to
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: attempt to get the ball thrown downfield. If you Looked
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: closely at it.
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: We did.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: I thought actually Aaron a few times got the ball
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: down to the backs on the underneath throws. Details not
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: there on offense. I thought defense played well enough to
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: win the game.
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: Wow.
• 1:13
  Speaker 4: A lot to unpack from yesterday's 20-3 loss to the.
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: New England Patriots. Not a lot of it.
• 1:22
  Speaker 4: Not a lot of it great, unfortunately, as the Steelers
• 1:25
  Speaker 4: dropped this one to New England to drop the record
• 1:29
  Speaker 4: to one and one Willie Cologne, uh, today, Max starts traveling. Uh,
• 1:34
  Speaker 4: we will have Max back with us in the locker
• 1:35
  Speaker 4: room tomorrow, but, uh, Willie, before we dive into some
• 1:38
  Speaker 4: of the particulars, um, your overall thoughts on what you
• 1:44
  Speaker 4: saw from the Steelers in an effort that, uh, that
• 1:46
  Speaker 4: clearly offensively was not the step forward we were hoping for.
• 1:52
  Speaker 5: Yeah, listen, it's, it's easy to be emotional after a win, like, uh,
• 1:56
  Speaker 5: excuse me, after a loss like this, um, because I
• 1:58
  Speaker 5: think we've set expectations on what we want this offense
• 2:01
  Speaker 5: to look like, what we expect this defense to look.
• 2:04
  Speaker 6: Like and be.
• 2:05
  Speaker 5: And only one side of the ball showed up yesterday,
• 2:07
  Speaker 5: and that was obviously the Pittsburgh Steelers defense, who was
• 2:10
  Speaker 5: able to hold the Patriots to 13 points and got
• 2:13
  Speaker 5: a couple turnovers. But seeing from in the trenches in
• 2:16
  Speaker 5: which we talked about the last time we got on air,
• 2:19
  Speaker 5: what needed to happen from a defensive standpoint, we needed
• 2:22
  Speaker 5: that D-line on the line of scrimmage.
• 2:24
  Speaker 6: And for the most part, I thought they did so.
• 2:28
  Speaker 5: Obviously, they had the big run from Shadavion Henderson that
• 2:31
  Speaker 5: got away from them. But overall, I thought our defense
• 2:34
  Speaker 5: did a hell of a job of just meeting, stepping
• 2:37
  Speaker 5: up to the challenge. And it wasn't all great. It
• 2:39
  Speaker 5: wasn't all perfect. But we saw a defense that literally
• 2:43
  Speaker 5: knuckled up and said, okay, let's have at it. I
• 2:46
  Speaker 5: think people have to go back and if you're a
• 2:51
  Speaker 5: fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers and you are a historian
• 2:56
  Speaker 5: of the Pittsburgh Steelers, we've seen the offense sputter like
• 3:01
  Speaker 5: this before. I know during my time as a Pittsburgh Steeler,
• 3:05
  Speaker 5: the year we won a Super Bowl, I often sputtered
• 3:07
  Speaker 5: like this.
• 3:08
  Speaker 6: And the reason I use sputtered because we all, you know.
• 3:12
  Speaker 5: The common thing you say when you're dealing with the offense, well,
• 3:16
  Speaker 5: offense takes time.
• 3:17
  Speaker 6: There's a lot of things that have to work. That's true.
• 3:20
  Speaker 6: Offense does take time.
• 3:21
  Speaker 5: I think the most disappointing thing we saw out of
• 3:24
  Speaker 5: yesterday's game is that we saw an offense that this,
• 3:30
  Speaker 5: it seemed disjointed and they seem to get bullied and
• 3:33
  Speaker 5: that's not the steal away. And I, during my time
• 3:37
  Speaker 5: as a stealer have played games where we look disjointed
• 3:40
  Speaker 5: and we've gotten bullied in the only way to kind
• 3:43
  Speaker 5: of get out of that rut or snap that, that
• 3:46
  Speaker 5: muck that you have to, that you're kind of sitting
• 3:49
  Speaker 5: in or you can get out of it rather. Um,
• 3:52
  Speaker 5: You have to internally look at what do we do well,
• 3:57
  Speaker 5: how can we get better, and from a continuity and
• 3:59
  Speaker 5: chemistry standpoint, not break.
• 4:02
  Speaker 6: And the year we won.
• 4:03
  Speaker 5: The Super Bowl, I've told the Super Bowl, I think
• 4:07
  Speaker 5: I've told this story before, Rob. The offensive line, we
• 4:12
  Speaker 5: had lost Kendall Simmons. We lost Marvell Smith during that year.
• 4:18
  Speaker 5: We had a new center. We were disjointed, and we
• 4:20
  Speaker 5: were kind of a patchwork group. And internally, we had
• 4:24
  Speaker 5: to figure out either we were going to be the
• 4:27
  Speaker 5: problem or we were going to be the solution. But collectively,
• 4:30
  Speaker 5: we had to do it together. And it took for
• 4:32
  Speaker 5: us to dig harder into the film room, put more
• 4:36
  Speaker 5: eyes on our work from a detail standpoint, more work
• 4:39
  Speaker 5: after practice, and change our mindset and how we evaluated
• 4:44
  Speaker 5: the game. And I think I look at that offensive
• 4:47
  Speaker 5: line in particular yesterday. You know, Rob, I threw out the–
• 4:52
  Speaker 5: I had throughout the press, I guess I talked about
• 4:56
  Speaker 5: the story about surviving, how you fall into survival mode
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  Speaker 5: when things aren't working out there. And yesterday we saw
• 5:02
  Speaker 5: an office line fall into survival mode. They got bullied
• 5:05
  Speaker 5: up front and they struggled. But that I don't I
• 5:08
  Speaker 5: don't think that I think everything we saw yesterday, Rob,
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  Speaker 5: and maybe maybe I'm just hopefully optimistic. Everything we saw
• 5:15
  Speaker 5: yesterday is correctable. You know, I don't I didn't see anything.
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  Speaker 5: that can't be corrected or this office line can't come
• 5:22
  Speaker 5: back from. I think we're still trying to figure it out.
• 5:26
  Speaker 5: I think a lot of where we're at right now
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  Speaker 5: is from what happened in training camp, the lack, you know,
• 5:31
  Speaker 5: not having a physical training camp, you know, still shuffling
• 5:35
  Speaker 5: around the office line while you're in the mix of preparing.
• 5:38
  Speaker 6: For starting, starting season that has a lot to do
• 5:41
  Speaker 6: with it.
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  Speaker 5: And you're watching a 42 year old quarterback looked extremely uncomfortable.
• 5:46
  Speaker 5: And so it just adds a level of anxiety, but
• 5:49
  Speaker 5: I'm not, I'm not broken by yesterday. And I think
• 5:51
  Speaker 5: a lot of Steelers fans are just frustrated because when
• 5:53
  Speaker 5: you play a team like the New England Patriots, it's,
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  Speaker 5: it's a litmus test of where you're really at because yes,
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  Speaker 5: they are a good team and a really good quarterback,
• 6:01
  Speaker 5: but they also, I watched our team defensively bullied them
• 6:06
  Speaker 5: as well. Offensively, we just can never answer the bell.
• 6:09
  Speaker 5: And a lot of people who we linked on to
• 6:11
  Speaker 5: make it, to be productive, didn't show up. So that's
• 6:15
  Speaker 5: just my overall evaluation.
• 6:17
  Speaker 4: You know, I think you, Willie, you bring up a
• 6:20
  Speaker 4: great point and I'm glad that, cause there's a lot of,
• 6:23
  Speaker 4: you know, it's overcast here in Pittsburgh, it's been raining
• 6:27
  Speaker 4: and that very much suits the mood of a lot
• 6:29
  Speaker 4: of Steelers fans today. You know, they're looking up there.
• 6:32
  Speaker 4: Is that rain or they're pieces of the sky falling
• 6:35
  Speaker 4: on me? What's happening here? So, you know, Max brought
• 6:39
  Speaker 4: this up and I, I know talking with him, you know, he,
• 6:44
  Speaker 4: he said, I think he, I believe he said it
• 6:45
  Speaker 4: on another show four to five weeks is a how
• 6:48
  Speaker 4: long it takes an offensive line to gel. I seem
• 6:51
  Speaker 4: to think Bill Parcells saying back in the day that
• 6:54
  Speaker 4: maybe it's a year. You don't have a year anymore.
• 6:58
  Speaker 4: People want more instant feedback in a positive way from
• 7:03
  Speaker 4: a unit. Do you believe, again, Willie, I understand every
• 7:09
  Speaker 4: group is a little bit different, but is there an
• 7:11
  Speaker 4: expectation that, say, by week four or five or maybe
• 7:16
  Speaker 4: by six or seven, that this offensive line will come together.
• 7:20
  Speaker 4: And I'll also point this out, that I think a
• 7:23
  Speaker 4: lot of us are very, and I'm very bullish on
• 7:26
  Speaker 4: the offensive line, but a lot of this is projection, right?
• 7:31
  Speaker 4: That I think this is going to be, you know,
• 7:34
  Speaker 4: Max Ahanatri drafted him in the first round. Fautano and McCormick,
• 7:38
  Speaker 4: they've got to adjust to being on the left side.
• 7:40
  Speaker 4: I believe this is going to be an offensive line
• 7:43
  Speaker 4: that people are going to be ready to start talking
• 7:45
  Speaker 4: about as a top 10 unit.
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: But there's a projection for that.
• 7:50
  Speaker 4: For me, that projection is later in the season, people
• 7:53
  Speaker 4: are going to look up and say, wow, the Steelers
• 7:55
  Speaker 4: are really running the ball. Look, Aaron Rodgers has time. Hey,
• 7:57
  Speaker 4: that offensive line is really coming together. And I think
• 8:00
  Speaker 4: we're guilty of– I'm guilty, perhaps, of thinking projection is now.
• 8:05
  Speaker 4: Like I do think it's going to be that unit.
• 8:08
  Speaker 4: But I guess the question is, you know, when can
• 8:12
  Speaker 4: we expect that unit to get to the point where,
• 8:16
  Speaker 4: It's like, okay, it's really rolling now.
• 8:20
  Speaker 6: There's no timetable for it. What has to happen is.
• 8:25
  Speaker 5: Collectively, and I'm glad Mike McCarthy said at the end
• 8:29
  Speaker 5: of his press conference, his presser at the end of
• 8:31
  Speaker 5: the game, from a value standpoint, we've got to shave
• 8:34
  Speaker 5: it down a little bit. We've got to figure out
• 8:37
  Speaker 5: what we do well as a unit, and then we've
• 8:40
  Speaker 5: got to make that before we continue to pile on
• 8:42
  Speaker 5: things that we think we can be great at.
• 8:45
  Speaker 6: And when you have the running backs.
• 8:47
  Speaker 5: We have, Enrico Dotto and Jalen Warren.
• 8:50
  Speaker 6: Both guys have home run capabilities.
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  Speaker 5: I mean, they can get to the second or third
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  Speaker 5: level and get to the end zone. Yesterday we saw
• 8:58
  Speaker 5: Jalen Warren, who I think is a battle horse, man.
• 9:02
  Speaker 5: You know, the hits in the backfield, not being able
• 9:05
  Speaker 5: to get his feet to the line of scrimmage, having him,
• 9:08
  Speaker 5: you know, get past one guy just to get to
• 9:11
  Speaker 5: the line of scrimmage.
• 9:13
  Speaker 6: All that's wear and tear. And I think from an
• 9:15
  Speaker 6: offline standpoint, the.
• 9:17
  Speaker 5: Vibe that we have, it's not just about the lack
• 9:20
  Speaker 5: of chemistry or lack of communication. I thought the movement
• 9:23
  Speaker 5: bothered them a lot. I thought a lot of times
• 9:25
  Speaker 5: they made it a phone booth fight. We just didn't
• 9:27
  Speaker 5: answer it. A lot of those things we didn't necessarily
• 9:31
  Speaker 5: address in training camp. And I understand you never want
• 9:35
  Speaker 5: to keep pounding the horse. Well, that's just not the
• 9:37
  Speaker 5: way Mike McCarthy is. does things, you know, he does
• 9:40
  Speaker 5: things however he feels like that suits the team at
• 9:44
  Speaker 5: the time. And I know a part of pulling back
• 9:47
  Speaker 5: from a physicality standpoint was to make sure the team
• 9:51
  Speaker 5: is primed and more prepped and ready for late season games.
• 9:56
  Speaker 5: But the thing about football, Robin, and you've been around
• 9:58
  Speaker 5: sports a long time and obviously played it. You can't
• 10:03
  Speaker 5: being physical has to become your form of breathing. It's
• 10:06
  Speaker 5: just what you do. It is not you don't you
• 10:09
  Speaker 5: can't turn it off and on. You can't manufacture it.
• 10:13
  Speaker 5: You can't just somehow just, you know, put something in
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  Speaker 5: a cup, drink it and boom. Now you're the most
• 10:17
  Speaker 5: physical outfit. When you're a physical football team, it starts
• 10:20
  Speaker 5: with how you practice, how you work out, how you–
• 10:24
  Speaker 5: everything you do has to be physical and different variations
• 10:28
  Speaker 5: of it. And when you talk about the group that
• 10:32
  Speaker 5: needs to be the most physical at the.
• 10:33
  Speaker 6: Point of attack is the offensive line.
• 10:36
  Speaker 5: We look around the league and we look at some
• 10:38
  Speaker 5: of the teams that have had success running the ball
• 10:40
  Speaker 5: thus far, the Kansas City Chiefs, right? You talk about
• 10:43
  Speaker 5: the Saints. You can talk about some of the teams
• 10:45
  Speaker 5: who are just– they understand, man. From the interior of
• 10:49
  Speaker 5: that line, it has to be tough and bruises. The
• 10:53
  Speaker 5: tackles have to be finishers, and they have to be
• 10:55
  Speaker 5: tough and bruises as well. What we saw yesterday was
• 11:00
  Speaker 5: a lot of miscommunication. The movement sometimes got to us,
• 11:04
  Speaker 5: and we weren't on the same page from who were
• 11:06
  Speaker 5: we trying to identify. So they have to go back
• 11:09
  Speaker 5: in the lab, and they just have to understand what
• 11:11
  Speaker 5: was the cause of that and figure out what they
• 11:15
  Speaker 5: do well and springboard off that. I'm not sure the
• 11:18
  Speaker 5: Steelers know what they do well right now.
• 11:19
  Speaker 6: And it's showing it on tape.
• 11:22
  Speaker 4: So do you think then, okay, so there's, wow. Uh,
• 11:26
  Speaker 4: every time Willie says something, I'm like, it's a, it's whack-a-mole.
• 11:29
  Speaker 4: I have four more questions pop up. I do want
• 11:32
  Speaker 4: to get back to it.
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I love it. I love it.
• 11:35
  Speaker 4: I do want to get back to the, to this
• 11:38
  Speaker 4: notion about maybe figuring out what you do, because Mike
• 11:40
  Speaker 4: McCarthy did allude to that.
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: I would ask you this.
• 11:46
  Speaker 4: Um, when Max is talking about a unit coming together,
• 11:50
  Speaker 4: and I understand that there are chemistry issues around a
• 11:56
  Speaker 4: football field. How is a secondary working? How deep does
• 12:01
  Speaker 4: a corner have to drop back and cover two to
• 12:04
  Speaker 4: maybe have the best spacing with a safety? Or defensive
• 12:11
  Speaker 4: line play. Look, they're all units, but the offensive line
• 12:14
  Speaker 4: play to me You know, I made this analogy last week.
• 12:17
  Speaker 4: It is, it's quite literally the backbone of the team.
• 12:19
  Speaker 4: You know, the part from which, you know, think about
• 12:22
  Speaker 4: your backbone as a human being, right? Everything, you know,
• 12:26
  Speaker 4: your brain comes off of that. Your arms and legs
• 12:28
  Speaker 4: come off of that. Without that backbone, without that spine,
• 12:32
  Speaker 4: it doesn't work. Nothing works. It needs to work. Is it,
• 12:37
  Speaker 4: as far as beyond the physical nature of it, is
• 12:40
  Speaker 4: it a communication issue? Willie, why does it, take a
• 12:44
  Speaker 4: while for a team to gel. And even guys moving
• 12:47
  Speaker 4: right to left, I mean, do you have to become
• 12:51
  Speaker 4: reacquainted with what a guy next to you does well
• 12:53
  Speaker 4: and how you guys can work together in tandem? Mike
• 12:57
  Speaker 4: McCarthy talks a lot about tandems of players, you know, right, left, guard, left, right, left, tackle, right, left, guard,
• 13:06
  Speaker 4: how they work together.
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: Is it a communication thing? Is it a feel thing?
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: Why is it.
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  Speaker 5: I think it's all of the above. They don't have
• 13:16
  Speaker 5: an identity right now. Listen, when you're only averaging 3.5
• 13:19
  Speaker 5: yards per play, and I think their total yards was 235.
• 13:22
  Speaker 5: They gave up four sacks. They had two turnovers. What
• 13:27
  Speaker 5: you're looking at an offense that doesn't have rhythm. And
• 13:30
  Speaker 5: when you don't have rhythm and you don't have an
• 13:33
  Speaker 5: identity and you're pretty much searching for answers on the fly,
• 13:37
  Speaker 5: it calls for ugly football and the operation stopping.
• 13:40
  Speaker 6: I think that's the biggest thing with the Steelers right now.
• 13:43
  Speaker 5: They lack rhythm, and they don't really have– their operation
• 13:47
  Speaker 5: just looks clunky. And so what happens is you start
• 13:51
  Speaker 5: leaning on guys just to get you going, right?
• 13:54
  Speaker 6: But then you have drops.
• 13:56
  Speaker 5: And then when the drops happen, now you say, all right, well,
• 13:58
  Speaker 5: we just– now you're just kind of scanning on what
• 14:01
  Speaker 5: you can lean on during the course of the game
• 14:03
  Speaker 5: to kind of get you going. And when those things
• 14:05
  Speaker 5: necessarily don't arise, now you fall into this mode where,
• 14:10
  Speaker 5: all right, we just got to– Now we've got to
• 14:11
  Speaker 5: lean on our defense to kind of help us pull
• 14:13
  Speaker 5: this thing out.
• 14:14
  Speaker 6: And the defense did as much as they could.
• 14:15
  Speaker 5: Usually when you hold the team to 13 points and
• 14:18
  Speaker 5: you're able to get them to turn over the ball, it's.
• 14:21
  Speaker 6: A good day for the defense. The issue with the Steelers.
• 14:24
  Speaker 5: Right now, Aaron Rodgers doesn't have the mobility like he
• 14:30
  Speaker 5: used to have. When you're not able to run the
• 14:33
  Speaker 5: ball at a consistent tote and your offensive line isn't
• 14:38
  Speaker 5: giving you answers, especially in the screen game, You just
• 14:41
  Speaker 5: you start to your playbook starts to shrink. And so
• 14:45
  Speaker 5: part of the reason why it takes long for an offense,
• 14:48
  Speaker 5: because they don't they don't they can't they can't find
• 14:50
  Speaker 5: their rhythm. And you have you find your rhythm in practice.
• 14:54
  Speaker 5: You find your rhythm in situational football and you start earlier.
• 14:59
  Speaker 5: You start a lot faster. So but it's just it's
• 15:03
  Speaker 5: all these things are fixable, Rob. Like I don't I
• 15:06
  Speaker 5: don't wake up this morning like, oh, my God, it
• 15:08
  Speaker 5: still is just God awful. because the Bengals beat the
• 15:11
  Speaker 5: Texans and the Ravens, even though they lost to the Saints.
• 15:13
  Speaker 5: They still look like a real polished world team. The
• 15:17
  Speaker 5: Steelers have always had an underdog spirit for whatever reason,
• 15:20
  Speaker 5: despite having six Super Bowls. The issue right now, the
• 15:23
  Speaker 5: Steelers have to continue to dive into their work.
• 15:26
  Speaker 6: And let the chips fall where they may.
• 15:29
  Speaker 5: And this can be a situation where we now start
• 15:31
  Speaker 5: to panic or question this guy, that guy.
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: No.
• 15:34
  Speaker 7: No.
• 15:35
  Speaker 5: Understand what it is, receive it, digest it, and move forward.
• 15:38
  Speaker 5: This isn't a time, especially in week two, where we
• 15:41
  Speaker 5: start feeling like, man, do we.
• 15:43
  Speaker 6: Have enough talent on the offense?
• 15:45
  Speaker 5: The things I've seen from the headlines this morning, I'm
• 15:47
  Speaker 5: just like, we got to breathe a little bit, man.
• 15:50
  Speaker 5: Like this is the NFL. It's a long season. It's
• 15:53
  Speaker 5: a long season. We can't start talking about draft and
• 15:55
  Speaker 5: what we should have did. And all of a sudden,
• 15:58
  Speaker 5: it's a long, long season.
• 16:00
  Speaker 6: So we got to exhale a little bit. We got
• 16:03
  Speaker 6: to be adults about it.
• 16:05
  Speaker 5: And we've got to evaluate with an honest eye and
• 16:08
  Speaker 5: then get to work because that's all you can do.
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: Words of wisdom from Willie. I'm feeling a little bit better.
• 16:13
  Speaker 4: I'm looking at Justin Miller and our producer.
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: He's nodding his head a little bit. Willie's picking us
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: up this morning. I love it. All right, stick around.
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: We have much more to come in the locker room.
• 16:23
  Speaker 4: We are presented by your neighborhood forward show and the
• 16:25
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• 16:27
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• 16:33
  Speaker 1: This is In the Locker Room with Rob King, Max Starks,
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: and Willie Colon on Steelers Nation Radio, brought to you
• 16:40
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• 16:43
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• 16:48
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• 16:55
  Speaker 7: I think we've got to take ownership as players. You know,
• 16:58
  Speaker 7: we've got to be accountable to each other about our performance.
• 17:01
  Speaker 7: Mine wasn't good enough, and... You know, a lot of
• 17:03
  Speaker 7: guys on offense wasn't good enough. So we got to
• 17:05
  Speaker 7: start with ourselves, not point the finger and not ride
• 17:07
  Speaker 7: the rollercoaster. It's a long season there. You know, Super
• 17:10
  Speaker 7: Bowl team from last year. We knew it was going
• 17:12
  Speaker 7: to be a tough game. We had our chances. Our
• 17:14
  Speaker 7: defense play an excellent football. When they hold them to
• 17:16
  Speaker 7: 13 points, we got to win again. So definitely on
• 17:19
  Speaker 7: us to play better. But you're not going to see
• 17:22
  Speaker 7: me panic. I don't think Mike's going to panic. Urgency
• 17:25
  Speaker 7: is going to go up a little bit for sure.
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: But no panic.
• 17:30
  Speaker 4: Willie, as we welcome you back in the locker room,
• 17:33
  Speaker 4: perfectly said, I thought, by Aaron Rodgers.
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: Perfect, right? We've got to be better.
• 17:39
  Speaker 4: We all weren't good enough, and it's no reason to panic,
• 17:41
  Speaker 4: but we have to up the urgency.
• 17:46
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I think it comes down to just being realistic
• 17:49
  Speaker 5: about who you are and what you are. Aaron Rodgers
• 17:51
  Speaker 5: has been around this game for a long time. He
• 17:54
  Speaker 5: understands that when you step into a system like this,
• 17:58
  Speaker 5: he's acclimated.
• 18:00
  Speaker 6: He's Accumulated, accumulated. I'm chomping with that word. You know
• 18:03
  Speaker 6: what I'm trying to say.
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 18:06
  Speaker 5: He knows the system. Other guys don't. Michael Pittman's new
• 18:10
  Speaker 5: to this system. Rico Dotto's new to this system. You
• 18:12
  Speaker 5: have a revamped office line. They're still trying to gel
• 18:16
  Speaker 5: and get this thing going.
• 18:17
  Speaker 6: The defense has a lot of continuity because they've played.
• 18:20
  Speaker 5: Together and been together, and they just know they're more
• 18:25
  Speaker 5: set in who they are and what they need to be,
• 18:27
  Speaker 5: especially underneath Patrick Graham, who's doing a hell of a
• 18:29
  Speaker 5: job right now. The Steelers right now, biggest concern, issue
• 18:34
  Speaker 5: right now, they can't run the ball, but they want
• 18:36
  Speaker 5: to use play action. If you're not able to run
• 18:39
  Speaker 5: the ball, play action is useless because that's what sets
• 18:42
  Speaker 5: up your ability to throw the ball is when you're
• 18:44
  Speaker 5: able to run the ball. I mean, that's just as
• 18:46
  Speaker 5: simplistic as I can put it. Up front, it has
• 18:50
  Speaker 5: to be a collection of the minds and really understand
• 18:55
  Speaker 5: what they need to do. Because I think, listen, from
• 18:57
  Speaker 5: an offensive line standpoint, I watched Spencer Anderson have a
• 19:01
  Speaker 5: tough day. I watched Dylan Cook. You're across the board.
• 19:03
  Speaker 5: Each guy had a tough day in some regard. When
• 19:07
  Speaker 5: you're trying to figure yourself out from an offensive line standpoint,
• 19:10
  Speaker 5: it really comes down to how you drill at practice,
• 19:14
  Speaker 5: who's able to do what, and just trying to find
• 19:17
  Speaker 5: out from a skill set standpoint, what does this line
• 19:20
  Speaker 5: collectively do together and do well? And I don't think
• 19:22
  Speaker 5: they know that. And a lot of that has to
• 19:25
  Speaker 5: do with some of the shuffling, like I said, in
• 19:27
  Speaker 5: training camp. But I also think This is a situation
• 19:31
  Speaker 5: where I would have loved to see our Titans get
• 19:33
  Speaker 5: more involved. I would have loved to see, you know,
• 19:37
  Speaker 5: I'm going to see us do more with Jeremy Bernard,
• 19:40
  Speaker 5: not just him being in a slot. Like he's the
• 19:42
  Speaker 5: type of guy I believe we should use like how
• 19:46
  Speaker 5: the Niners use Debo Samuel as far as getting those
• 19:49
  Speaker 5: those speedos those speed options where he's like we can
• 19:53
  Speaker 5: hand him the ball out the backfield and let him
• 19:54
  Speaker 5: go where Aaron Rodgers is turning around just say hey
• 19:57
  Speaker 5: man let's get some lead blockers out to the flat
• 20:00
  Speaker 5: and let him make hey we can still diversify our
• 20:03
  Speaker 5: portfolio but a lot of that's going to be what
• 20:06
  Speaker 5: we do well up front until we figure that out
• 20:09
  Speaker 5: um we're kind of going to kind of be stuck.
• 20:11
  Speaker 6: So they're going to figure that out this week. I
• 20:14
  Speaker 6: have all the trust in Mike McCarthy.
• 20:17
  Speaker 5: I feel like this office line is a young group,
• 20:19
  Speaker 5: but has a lot of pride and they realize the
• 20:21
  Speaker 5: sore spot on this team is dumb. And I, by
• 20:23
  Speaker 5: the way, once again, not to keep you being dead horse.
• 20:26
  Speaker 5: So I've been in that position. I've been in a
• 20:28
  Speaker 5: position where everybody looks around like, Hey, there's one unit
• 20:31
  Speaker 5: that's not holding their weight in water and it's us. So,
• 20:35
  Speaker 5: but it, but one thing you can't happen, Rob, right
• 20:37
  Speaker 5: now is the finger pointing. That's my biggest fear. I'm
• 20:41
  Speaker 5: not saying they're going to do that, but I just
• 20:43
  Speaker 5: pray like this is where your leadership, you know, we
• 20:46
  Speaker 5: talked about the leadership on this team that has to stand.
• 20:49
  Speaker 5: This is where your leadership has to stand up the
• 20:50
  Speaker 5: most because you have to watch the tape, be honest.
• 20:53
  Speaker 5: It's going to be hurtful. It's going to be a
• 20:55
  Speaker 5: lot of things. They just want to kind of close
• 20:57
  Speaker 5: their eyes and act like it never happened.
• 20:58
  Speaker 6: You can't do that, but you can't have the finger pointing.
• 21:01
  Speaker 5: You can't have, well, because what happens, I know from
• 21:04
  Speaker 5: an officer.
• 21:04
  Speaker 6: Standpoint, as you continue to figure yourself out and go
• 21:08
  Speaker 6: along the way.
• 21:09
  Speaker 5: The defense, now that they lost, they feel good about
• 21:12
  Speaker 5: themselves because they felt like they've won technically both games.
• 21:16
  Speaker 6: So they're not looking at themselves. They may say, yeah, well,
• 21:20
  Speaker 6: we may have to do this better.
• 21:21
  Speaker 5: But they feel like, listen, we held the team to
• 21:23
  Speaker 5: 13 points.
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 21:24
  Speaker 6: We did our job.
• 21:25
  Speaker 7: Right?
• 21:25
  Speaker 6: Let's be honest.
• 21:27
  Speaker 5: But it's going to be important for the guys like
• 21:30
  Speaker 5: Cam Haywood, T.J. Watt, and all those veterans and that
• 21:32
  Speaker 5: veteran leadership to really– really pump love and optimism into
• 21:37
  Speaker 5: the offense because I've been in the building before where
• 21:40
  Speaker 5: the defense, especially playing with James Harrison and all those
• 21:43
  Speaker 5: guys where they're, you know, they're littered all over ESPN
• 21:46
  Speaker 5: and they're on magazines and da-da-da-da-da. And, you know, you
• 21:51
  Speaker 5: feel like the little small, you just feel like the
• 21:53
  Speaker 5: baby brother in the corner while everybody, you know.
• 21:56
  Speaker 6: You just feel like the little dwarf in the corner.
• 21:58
  Speaker 5: But it was those guys who, it was guys like
• 22:01
  Speaker 5: Troy Palomaro, it was guys like Casey Hampton, it was
• 22:04
  Speaker 5: guys like Aaron Smith, who watched us work to get better,
• 22:08
  Speaker 5: but also encouraged us to get better and continue to
• 22:11
  Speaker 5: believe in us and didn't isolate us or didn't point
• 22:13
  Speaker 5: the finger. And so this is where that veteran leadership
• 22:17
  Speaker 5: really kind of has to wrap their arms around a unit.
• 22:21
  Speaker 6: And this offensive line. And it really helped them.
• 22:24
  Speaker 5: Kind of grow up because, you know, Cam Hayward's been
• 22:27
  Speaker 5: a part of a lot of dogfights. Keanu Benton's been
• 22:30
  Speaker 5: a part of a lot of dogfights. You know, Selma
• 22:32
  Speaker 5: has Patrick Queen and T.J. Watt and Alex Hatton. Those guys,
• 22:35
  Speaker 5: you would hope they encourage the offense to say, Hey man,
• 22:38
  Speaker 5: we got your back because believe it or not, it
• 22:41
  Speaker 5: does mean something because Aaron Rogers in his.
• 22:44
  Speaker 6: Mind, he's the professor, right? He's, he's, he's the, he's
• 22:47
  Speaker 6: the old wise wizard.
• 22:49
  Speaker 5: There's nothing that the NFL is going to throw at
• 22:50
  Speaker 5: him that he hasn't seen or isn't prepared for. So
• 22:53
  Speaker 5: it's really about this office, the rest of the offense
• 22:56
  Speaker 5: really getting.
• 22:56
  Speaker 3: On his level. So, wow. Again, a lot here. I
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: want to follow up.
• 23:01
  Speaker 4: And by the way, We're going to open up the
• 23:03
  Speaker 4: phone lines, and we're going to be opening them up
• 23:05
  Speaker 4: on Mondays throughout the rest of the locker room. Willie's
• 23:08
  Speaker 4: got his stall. Max has got his stall. I got
• 23:10
  Speaker 4: my stall. We're ready to go.
• 23:12
  Speaker 3: We're all sitting. We're all hanging out in the locker room.
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: We're ready to welcome you.
• 23:18
  Speaker 6: In.
• 23:18
  Speaker 4: 412-919-1316, the number to dial. We're reacting to the loss
• 23:21
  Speaker 4: yesterday to the Patriots. After the game, when we were
• 23:24
  Speaker 4: wrapping things up yesterday at Gillette Stadium, Max said, you know,
• 23:29
  Speaker 4: this might be one of those times you've got to
• 23:31
  Speaker 4: bring You got to come together as a unit if
• 23:33
  Speaker 4: you're the offensive line. He said, I don't care if
• 23:36
  Speaker 4: you go get an Airbnb and everybody stay in the
• 23:38
  Speaker 4: same house together. Just find a way to come together
• 23:41
  Speaker 4: as a group. You mentioned you were on a team
• 23:43
  Speaker 4: with the Steelers where you guys felt like you weren't
• 23:47
  Speaker 4: holding up your end of the bargain. How did you
• 23:50
  Speaker 4: come together to get to the point where you were
• 23:53
  Speaker 4: holding up your.
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: End of the bargain?
• 23:55
  Speaker 5: Extra work at the practice, focusing on footwork and hand placement, conditioning.
• 24:02
  Speaker 5: Thursday night was the night we came together as an
• 24:05
  Speaker 5: offensive line.
• 24:06
  Speaker 6: We would have our rookie make us dinner, and we
• 24:09
  Speaker 6: would watch film.
• 24:12
  Speaker 5: And we would talk about what we were seeing, what
• 24:14
  Speaker 5: we were looking at, different things that we felt like
• 24:18
  Speaker 5: we can do out there from an individual standpoint to
• 24:22
  Speaker 5: get after our opponent, and then collectively what we needed
• 24:25
  Speaker 5: to do to get after our opponent. And so it was...
• 24:30
  Speaker 5: It was also understanding the belief. Because sometimes, yeah, misery
• 24:34
  Speaker 5: loves company. But also sometimes a pissed off dog just
• 24:38
  Speaker 5: needs somewhere to lay his head. Because you're always on
• 24:41
  Speaker 5: the grind. You're always trying to get better. And you
• 24:43
  Speaker 5: only want to lay your head around people who are
• 24:45
  Speaker 5: in your position. And so collectively, we felt like nobody
• 24:49
  Speaker 5: was going to save us but us. And I think
• 24:52
  Speaker 5: it took for us to just continue to... I don't
• 24:55
  Speaker 5: know if you.
• 24:55
  Speaker 6: Remember this, Rob.
• 24:57
  Speaker 5: The Super Bowl year, before we played– so I won
• 25:00
  Speaker 5: the Super Bowl in 2008.
• 25:02
  Speaker 6: That year we played the Philadelphia Eagles on the road.
• 25:06
  Speaker 5: We gave up six– I think we gave up six
• 25:08
  Speaker 5: or seven sacks that game, right, to the point where
• 25:11
  Speaker 5: they benched Ben in the second half and they threw
• 25:14
  Speaker 5: out their Byron Lefkowitz. Actually, Byron didn't play bad. We
• 25:17
  Speaker 5: simply couldn't protect him either. We ended up losing that game.
• 25:20
  Speaker 5: The next week we had to go play the Baltimore Ravens,
• 25:23
  Speaker 5: and the Ravens were hot. And it took like a
• 25:25
  Speaker 5: last effort from a Walden Moore on a third down
• 25:28
  Speaker 5: to get a third down, scamper up the sideline.
• 25:31
  Speaker 6: We was able to steal that game. And I tell you.
• 25:35
  Speaker 5: What the, the Evan flow yet Evan flow of the
• 25:38
  Speaker 5: game is you try not to buy into it.
• 25:39
  Speaker 6: Like you try not to try to say even kill,
• 25:42
  Speaker 6: but I can't.
• 25:42
  Speaker 5: Tell you what that did for us because losing to
• 25:45
  Speaker 5: Philly on the road, coming home, beating Baltimore against a
• 25:48
  Speaker 5: division opponent, like the Steelers are going to have to
• 25:51
  Speaker 5: do next week against the Bengals.
• 25:53
  Speaker 6: How are we, it brought belief into us. Like, man, yeah,
• 25:56
  Speaker 6: that was ugly. That was last week.
• 25:58
  Speaker 5: When we dive in and when we're all locked in
• 26:00
  Speaker 5: and we're all doing the little things right and we
• 26:03
  Speaker 5: get to beat a worthy division opponent, that gave us
• 26:06
  Speaker 5: enough confidence. Like, hey, man, whatever dog fights ahead of us,
• 26:10
  Speaker 5: we're going to be all right because we now have
• 26:12
  Speaker 5: the rest of the peak to combat whatever ugly we kind.
• 26:15
  Speaker 6: Of suffer through.
• 26:16
  Speaker 5: And so it's about this team really being able... And
• 26:19
  Speaker 5: this is a great... Man, this is a great light
• 26:22
  Speaker 5: lesson for Troy Furtado. Mason McCormick, Zach Frazier, Spencer Anderson.
• 26:28
  Speaker 5: Everybody in that room will grow bigger and better because
• 26:31
  Speaker 5: of what happened Sunday. Because, yeah, you didn't meet the expectation,
• 26:35
  Speaker 5: but you're realizing in real time what life in the
• 26:38
  Speaker 5: NFL is like. It's not about laying down, crying about it.
• 26:41
  Speaker 5: It's about how you get up and what you're going
• 26:42
  Speaker 5: to do about it.
• 26:43
  Speaker 6: So they have a great opportunity in the Bengals, who's
• 26:45
  Speaker 6: ripping up the league right now, to show up and
• 26:47
  Speaker 6: show out and hopefully get a win against the Bengals.
• 26:50
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I can't wait to dive into the Bengals. It's
• 26:52
  Speaker 4: a different-looking Bengals team. Dexter Lawrence made a huge difference
• 26:56
  Speaker 4: on that defense. We're going to get to that later
• 26:58
  Speaker 4: in the week. By the way, I mentioned in case
• 27:00
  Speaker 4: you're just joining us, we're going to be taking your
• 27:02
  Speaker 4: phone calls later, 412-919-1316.
• 27:03
  Speaker 3: You know, one.
• 27:06
  Speaker 4: Of the things that struck me as I was watching
• 27:10
  Speaker 4: the game, I thought, and this is no knock on
• 27:13
  Speaker 4: anybody they have out there, but I thought, boy, a
• 27:14
  Speaker 4: Michael Pittman would really come in handy, Willie, in a
• 27:18
  Speaker 4: game like this. So, look, they're missing Carlton Davis, too.
• 27:20
  Speaker 4: I'm not saying an injury here or there cost them
• 27:22
  Speaker 4: the game. I was looking forward to that matchup. As
• 27:24
  Speaker 4: you recall last week, I thought that was going to
• 27:26
  Speaker 4: be a fun matchup to watch. Neither guy played. But
• 27:29
  Speaker 4: it just looked to me live like the Patriots were
• 27:33
  Speaker 4: rushing six. They said they blitzed 18 or 19 times
• 27:39
  Speaker 4: on the Steelers' dropbacks.
• 27:40
  Speaker 3: It felt like way more than that. It felt like
• 27:42
  Speaker 3: it was coming constantly.
• 27:44
  Speaker 4: But on the other end, when they're blitzing you, and
• 27:46
  Speaker 4: Mike McCarthy mentioned this, I welcome blitzes because that gives
• 27:50
  Speaker 4: you an opportunity to make plays.
• 27:51
  Speaker 3: It just didn't look like a lot of guys got open.
• 27:55
  Speaker 4: And that, as concerning as, you know, and again, it's
• 27:59
  Speaker 4: one game, and Christian Gonzalez is fantastic, right?
• 28:03
  Speaker 6: He's still.
• 28:04
  Speaker 3: Fantastic.
• 28:05
  Speaker 4: And I want to talk more about that in a moment,
• 28:07
  Speaker 4: him in particular. But it just didn't feel like a
• 28:10
  Speaker 4: lot of guys were open. I don't know if that
• 28:11
  Speaker 4: was the case, but if you're blitzing, guys should be open.
• 28:14
  Speaker 4: You should be able to make plays down the field.
• 28:17
  Speaker 5: They were blunted, but when the pocket's constantly getting collapsed
• 28:21
  Speaker 5: and you're seeing guys, what they were doing, they were
• 28:23
  Speaker 5: rushing in front of Aaron Rodgers' throne. I'm trying to
• 28:28
  Speaker 5: say a better word for it. They were doing a
• 28:31
  Speaker 5: good job of, one, knocking him off his spot, two,
• 28:34
  Speaker 5: collapsing the pocket, three, they knew if they kind of
• 28:38
  Speaker 5: jammed up his first option and while collapsing the pocket,
• 28:41
  Speaker 5: he was going to have to either force the ball
• 28:43
  Speaker 5: somewhere or throw it away. They knew he wasn't willing
• 28:46
  Speaker 5: to be on the run as much as he wanted
• 28:48
  Speaker 5: to do. And I think it made him uncomfortable. And
• 28:49
  Speaker 5: I think a lot of people realize like a lot
• 28:53
  Speaker 5: of those receivers aren't used to seeing Rodgers on the
• 28:56
  Speaker 5: run as well. So that whole scrambling process of like,
• 28:58
  Speaker 5: all right, he's on the run where I need to be,
• 29:00
  Speaker 5: where do I need to sit? I think was new
• 29:02
  Speaker 5: for Aaron too, because also those are a lot of
• 29:04
  Speaker 5: things you kind of, you sift out in training camp.
• 29:07
  Speaker 6: And so, and in preseason, you start to see those
• 29:09
  Speaker 6: similar things. They didn't have those reps.
• 29:11
  Speaker 5: And so I think, It wasn't so much they were
• 29:15
  Speaker 5: blitzing that they condensed the pocket so fast. And when
• 29:18
  Speaker 5: they did send the blitz, it seemed like it was
• 29:21
  Speaker 5: seven or eight guys up there.
• 29:22
  Speaker 6: It was really four plus one.
• 29:24
  Speaker 5: Or they kind of– if they did blitz, they were
• 29:26
  Speaker 5: coming up the middle. So they wouldn't allow Aaron to
• 29:29
  Speaker 5: step up into the pocket. So it was just a
• 29:32
  Speaker 5: masterful job by Rabel.
• 29:33
  Speaker 6: And his defense.
• 29:35
  Speaker 5: And, you know, you've got to give credit to the
• 29:38
  Speaker 5: Patriots right now.
• 29:39
  Speaker 6: They schemed it up.
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 29:41
  Speaker 3: And look, let's say a couple things.
• 29:43
  Speaker 4: First of all, and Aaron Rodgers alluded to this, you know,
• 29:47
  Speaker 4: the Patriots should have won the game against the Seahawks
• 29:50
  Speaker 4: and didn't. I watched it three times, all three times, Willie.
• 29:53
  Speaker 4: I still thought the Patriots were going to win the game,
• 29:56
  Speaker 4: and they didn't win it many of the times. I mean,
• 29:57
  Speaker 4: they had control of the game. They give up a
• 29:59
  Speaker 4: fourth and one to Jackson Smith and Jigba. He takes
• 30:02
  Speaker 4: it into the house. Then there's three Drake May interceptions in.
• 30:05
  Speaker 3: The fourth quarter.
• 30:07
  Speaker 4: And they still only lost by a field goal to
• 30:08
  Speaker 4: the defending world champions. Let's not kid ourselves. This is
• 30:11
  Speaker 4: a very good Patriots team. And you knew that they
• 30:14
  Speaker 4: were going to put their best foot forward. And there
• 30:17
  Speaker 4: were moments where the Steelers needed to make a play.
• 30:20
  Speaker 4: And they simply didn't make a play. But I just
• 30:22
  Speaker 4: want to point this out about Christian Gonzalez.
• 30:25
  Speaker 6: So.
• 30:28
  Speaker 4: I thought he did a great job covering DK Metcalf.
• 30:30
  Speaker 4: He was in coverage on DK Metcalf pretty much the
• 30:33
  Speaker 4: entire game. You know, DK had a drop that I'm
• 30:37
  Speaker 4: sure he would love to have back. You know, we've
• 30:40
  Speaker 4: seen him have drops now in back-to-back weeks. He has
• 30:42
  Speaker 4: an occasional drop, but usually not in back-to-back weeks, not
• 30:47
  Speaker 4: in moments where the Steelers needed him to make the catch.
• 30:50
  Speaker 4: You know, his one glaring drop was on a little
• 30:52
  Speaker 4: crossing pattern. I think it was early in the third quarter.
• 30:56
  Speaker 4: Steelers had the ball around midfield. They pick up the
• 30:59
  Speaker 4: first down there. Who knows what happens, right? Maybe you
• 31:01
  Speaker 4: march down and get a score on the board. That
• 31:04
  Speaker 4: having been said, Christian Gonzalez, he's a different guy. I'm
• 31:09
  Speaker 4: bringing this up for people who are down on DK
• 31:11
  Speaker 4: a little bit right now. You know, Gonzalez had 11
• 31:14
  Speaker 4: snaps against Jackson, Smith, and Jigba where he was matched
• 31:17
  Speaker 4: up against a guy some are calling the best receiver
• 31:19
  Speaker 4: in football. I think Jamar Chase would have something to
• 31:22
  Speaker 4: say about that, but he's the elite.
• 31:24
  Speaker 3: We know that. Zero catches. zero when Christian Gonzalez is
• 31:28
  Speaker 3: covering him. Now, A.J.
• 31:30
  Speaker 4: Terrell, the week before, he's a fine cover corner. He's upper,
• 31:35
  Speaker 4: he's probably top 10 or 12 in the league, right?
• 31:38
  Speaker 3: He's a good player. D.K. Metcalf was open all day
• 31:41
  Speaker 3: against A.J.
• 31:42
  Speaker 6: Terrell.
• 31:42
  Speaker 4: So I just want to point out that the other
• 31:45
  Speaker 4: guys have players, too. Like, you know, we're talking about B.
• 31:47
  Speaker 3: John Robinson. He's the best back in football.
• 31:50
  Speaker 4: Travion Henderson, you can nitpick that he gave up a
• 31:53
  Speaker 4: 39-yard run for a touchdown. Willie There's been three guys
• 31:58
  Speaker 4: in the history of the NFL who've had 50-plus touchdown runs,
• 32:01
  Speaker 4: four of them as a rookie. Lenny Moore in 1954,
• 32:05
  Speaker 4: Hall of Fame. Saquon Barkley, about to be in the
• 32:08
  Speaker 4: Hall of Fame.
• 32:09
  Speaker 3: And this kid. They're going to make plays, too.
• 32:12
  Speaker 4: But I just wanted to point out, you know, for
• 32:14
  Speaker 4: people that are down on DK, I get it. I
• 32:16
  Speaker 4: understand it. DK looked down on himself on the sideline, too.
• 32:19
  Speaker 4: But he went against an elite corner. And he's not
• 32:23
  Speaker 4: going to– I do not see this guy dropping a
• 32:25
  Speaker 4: passing game.
• 32:25
  Speaker 3: I see this guy making plays.
• 32:26
  Speaker 6: Can I ask you a question?
• 32:27
  Speaker 3: Let me ask you a question.
• 32:29
  Speaker 5: I mean, back-to-back weeks, as you stated, we've witnessed drops
• 32:31
  Speaker 5: from DK and his lack of ability to show up
• 32:34
  Speaker 5: in big moments. Do you feel, because I think Aaron
• 32:37
  Speaker 5: Rodgers highlighted that him and DK have become closer during
• 32:41
  Speaker 5: the offseason. And I witnessed this, too, as a player.
• 32:46
  Speaker 5: Do you feel like he's pressing? Do you think he wants.
• 32:49
  Speaker 6: To be great for Aaron Rodgers?
• 32:51
  Speaker 5: Because I had an opportunity to play with next-to-max players
• 32:55
  Speaker 5: and played next to Trey Essex, both people who I
• 32:57
  Speaker 5: consider like blood brothers to me. And I remember playing
• 33:01
  Speaker 5: with Trey Essex, playing next to him, and we just
• 33:04
  Speaker 5: weren't in sync.
• 33:05
  Speaker 6: We just weren't.
• 33:06
  Speaker 5: I mean, a lot of things, you know, he wanted
• 33:08
  Speaker 5: to do things, or he was trying to take less
• 33:10
  Speaker 5: off my plate. I was trying to take less off
• 33:11
  Speaker 5: his plate. We were trying to play, instead of us
• 33:14
  Speaker 5: just playing the position and doing what was asked of
• 33:17
  Speaker 5: us and letting things kind of, you know, fall into place,
• 33:20
  Speaker 5: we was all pressing in different ways.
• 33:21
  Speaker 6: We weren't just doing our job. We felt like we
• 33:23
  Speaker 6: had to do our job and more.
• 33:25
  Speaker 5: And we didn't, I necessarily didn't have the year we
• 33:29
  Speaker 5: expected together because I think one of us between the
• 33:33
  Speaker 5: both of us, we were trying to look out for
• 33:35
  Speaker 5: each other too much.
• 33:36
  Speaker 6: You know what I'm saying? Sure.
• 33:37
  Speaker 5: I feel sometimes I feel that with DK, I feel
• 33:39
  Speaker 5: like he wants to make the Superman catch. He wants
• 33:42
  Speaker 5: to make, he wants to meet the guy that carries
• 33:44
  Speaker 5: the offense. He wants to be the guy who is
• 33:47
  Speaker 5: elite at his position.
• 33:49
  Speaker 6: And sure.
• 33:49
  Speaker 5: He has all the physical capabilities, but, And I think
• 33:52
  Speaker 5: part of it that he's close with Aaron, he wants
• 33:54
  Speaker 5: Aaron to be like, if Aaron doesn't have it for
• 33:56
  Speaker 5: whatever reason, he can lean on DK. But I think
• 34:00
  Speaker 5: DK has to understand he's, all they're asking him.
• 34:05
  Speaker 6: To do is his job. Ball's over the middle, you
• 34:08
  Speaker 6: got to have it.
• 34:09
  Speaker 5: And the thing about DK right now, he's become a
• 34:13
  Speaker 5: body catcher.
• 34:15
  Speaker 6: And when you're a body catcher, when.
• 34:17
  Speaker 5: You're as big as he is, moving as fast as
• 34:20
  Speaker 5: he is, and you're relying on your body to pin
• 34:22
  Speaker 5: the ball to you, plus a defender on you, you're
• 34:25
  Speaker 5: making it harder on yourself to bring those balls in.
• 34:29
  Speaker 5: And I've been around big body receivers like a Brandon Marshall.
• 34:33
  Speaker 6: I've seen Anquan Bolden. I've seen big body receivers of
• 34:36
  Speaker 6: that type.
• 34:37
  Speaker 5: They attack the ball while it's in the air with
• 34:39
  Speaker 5: their hands.
• 34:40
  Speaker 6: I mean, they literally snatch it. And I've yet to
• 34:43
  Speaker 6: see DK.
• 34:44
  Speaker 5: Everything is kind of like, you know, it falls into
• 34:46
  Speaker 5: him or he's grabbing it on the way down. But
• 34:49
  Speaker 5: I've yet to see him snatch a ball violently out
• 34:51
  Speaker 5: of the sky with his hands. And I think part
• 34:54
  Speaker 5: of that is him pressing to just make the catch.
• 34:58
  Speaker 5: I've got to make the catch.
• 34:58
  Speaker 6: And when it doesn't happen, because you only depend on
• 35:01
  Speaker 6: your body if you're insecure about your hands. He's more
• 35:03
  Speaker 6: than capable of snatching that ball with his bare hands
• 35:06
  Speaker 6: and making those plays.
• 35:08
  Speaker 5: And I wish he would go back to, you don't
• 35:10
  Speaker 5: got to be great, brother. Just do your job. And
• 35:13
  Speaker 5: being able to do your job is locating the ball,
• 35:15
  Speaker 5: grabbing that thing, and owning it. And I have yet
• 35:18
  Speaker 5: to see him this season just own the ball with
• 35:21
  Speaker 5: his hands. It's always kind of laid into him. It's
• 35:24
  Speaker 5: put in a position where he can snag it in.
• 35:25
  Speaker 5: But I would love to see him start snatching the
• 35:27
  Speaker 5: ball out the sky and just being a lot more
• 35:30
  Speaker 5: violent in that way.
• 35:32
  Speaker 4: By the way, keep an eye for fans out there.
• 35:35
  Speaker 4: Keep an eye on Michael Pittman when the ball is
• 35:36
  Speaker 4: thrown to him.
• 35:37
  Speaker 3: First thing that happens, hands up. His hands are up immediately.
• 35:40
  Speaker 6: Correct.
• 35:41
  Speaker 3: And he looks the ball in with his hands. I
• 35:43
  Speaker 3: agree with you.
• 35:44
  Speaker 4: You know, I think– Anybody who's played any sport at
• 35:50
  Speaker 4: some kind of reasonable level, I don't care if it's golf, basketball.
• 35:55
  Speaker 4: I mean, I'm naming sports that I played a lot
• 35:57
  Speaker 4: of just recreationally. All of a sudden, you can't make
• 36:00
  Speaker 4: a putt. You can't hit a chip. You can't make
• 36:02
  Speaker 4: a shot in basketball. It happens, man, and it happens
• 36:06
  Speaker 4: to the recreational players.
• 36:07
  Speaker 3: It happens to the superstars, too. There are crises of confidence.
• 36:10
  Speaker 4: I mean, they have a longer track record of success
• 36:12
  Speaker 4: to fall back on, but that doesn't mean they don't
• 36:14
  Speaker 4: suffer from crises of confidence, and I think that's probably
• 36:18
  Speaker 4: a little bit true with DK. If I were to guess,
• 36:20
  Speaker 4: and I'm just guessing here, I would say that's probably true,
• 36:22
  Speaker 4: and I agree with you. Hands up, relax, make the catch.
• 36:26
  Speaker 4: He's only got to make one or two, and he's
• 36:28
  Speaker 4: not going to drop one for a while. Max, that's
• 36:29
  Speaker 4: what I think's going to happen. He just needs to
• 36:32
  Speaker 4: one or two go his way, and we're not going
• 36:33
  Speaker 4: to be talking about this again.
• 36:35
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I think he just has to focus on making
• 36:37
  Speaker 5: the routine routine. We don't need the ESPN highlight, like
• 36:44
  Speaker 5: Get the football, though.
• 36:45
  Speaker 6: We know you're capable of breaking a tackle.
• 36:48
  Speaker 5: We know you're capable of jumping over any defender.
• 36:50
  Speaker 6: We know you're capable of doing elite-type work.
• 36:53
  Speaker 5: But right now, you're struggling with doing routine work, especially
• 36:57
  Speaker 5: for a guy of your talent and caliber. And that's
• 36:59
  Speaker 5: why people are like, what's going on with DK right now?
• 37:02
  Speaker 3: That's right.
• 37:03
  Speaker 4: I mean, look, and just to make another analogy, no
• 37:05
  Speaker 4: matter how good Michael Jordan or how great Michael Jordan
• 37:08
  Speaker 4: was or how great anybody else is, there are times
• 37:11
  Speaker 4: where they need the team. Like, what can I do? hey,
• 37:14
  Speaker 4: what can Michael do for the team? Well, sometimes it's
• 37:16
  Speaker 4: what can the team do for Michael? You know, maybe
• 37:18
  Speaker 4: this is a case where what can the team do
• 37:20
  Speaker 4: for DK? Lift him up a little bit, take a
• 37:23
  Speaker 4: little pressure off him, and the next thing you know,
• 37:25
  Speaker 4: he's going to be that guy. Okay, we're going to
• 37:28
  Speaker 4: take a break. Again, we're going to open up the
• 37:30
  Speaker 4: phone lines later in the program, 412-919-1316. We'll be back
• 37:35
  Speaker 4: with more with Willie Colon in the locker room here
• 37:37
  Speaker 4: on the Steelers Audio Network.
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: This is In the Locker Room with Rob King, Max Starks,
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: and Willie Colon on Steelers Nation Radio. Brought to you
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: in part by the Steelers Pro Shop. Get it direct
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: from the team at the Steelers Pro Shop at shop.steelers.com.
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: And by your neighborhood Ford store. The F-150 is the
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: official truck of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
• 38:05
  Speaker 3: And thanks for being with us in the locker room.
• 38:07
  Speaker 4: Max Starks traveling back to Arizona today. Myself, Rob King,
• 38:11
  Speaker 4: and Willie Starks taking you through the– Willie Starks. That's
• 38:18
  Speaker 4: what happens when I start going. I started immediately looking
• 38:20
  Speaker 4: down about what I wanted to talk about.
• 38:22
  Speaker 3: Mind wandered for a moment. That's bad news. Can't do that, Willie. Sorry,
• 38:27
  Speaker 3: Willie Colon.
• 38:28
  Speaker 6: You're fine.
• 38:29
  Speaker 4: So, Willie, I loved– I absolutely loved hearing this. Look,
• 38:35
  Speaker 4: I don't want to simplify what Arthur Smith did last year.
• 38:38
  Speaker 4: I'm going to get to what I loved hearing. But
• 38:40
  Speaker 4: Arthur Smith is a, you know, multiple tight end, grind
• 38:44
  Speaker 4: it out, run the football, you know, controlled sort of
• 38:48
  Speaker 4: offensive thing. And Mike McCarthy said yesterday, I don't want
• 38:52
  Speaker 4: to dink and dunk the ball down the field. I
• 38:55
  Speaker 4: loved hearing that. I don't want to watch this too,
• 38:58
  Speaker 4: this dink and dunk the ball down the field.
• 38:59
  Speaker 3: Now, you need it? Absolutely. Comes in handy?
• 39:03
  Speaker 6: Sure.
• 39:04
  Speaker 4: But as an offensive philosophy, the idea that they're going
• 39:07
  Speaker 4: to push the ball down the field is very appealing
• 39:10
  Speaker 4: to me. So, again, Willie, what we're hearing a lot
• 39:13
  Speaker 4: of is people saying, it's the same old Steelers, looks
• 39:17
  Speaker 4: the same, you know, smells the same, acts the same.
• 39:21
  Speaker 4: They don't want to be this way. They don't want
• 39:22
  Speaker 4: to be what we saw Sunday. It wasn't just like, well,
• 39:27
  Speaker 4: if we hit that little dinky pass or if we,
• 39:30
  Speaker 4: if we.
• 39:30
  Speaker 3: Had third and three instead of third and six. And
• 39:32
  Speaker 3: a lot of that's true, obviously.
• 39:34
  Speaker 4: But the fact that the philosophy at its core is different,
• 39:39
  Speaker 4: I think, means that when this starts to click, not
• 39:42
  Speaker 4: if this starts to click, when it starts to click,
• 39:45
  Speaker 4: it's going to look different than it's looked the last
• 39:47
  Speaker 4: several years.
• 39:50
  Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean, that's, I think it goes two ways.
• 39:54
  Speaker 5: I think the Steelers have a right, Steelers fans have
• 39:56
  Speaker 5: the right and kind of, I understand what they, if
• 40:00
  Speaker 5: you look around the league and you start seeing the
• 40:02
  Speaker 5: Kyle Shanahan's office and you start looking at some of
• 40:05
  Speaker 5: the different offenses that we see, I mean, the Saints offense,
• 40:09
  Speaker 5: like you're starting to see motion, you're starting to see
• 40:11
  Speaker 5: people play with three or four tight ends, you're starting
• 40:13
  Speaker 5: to see, you know, watch the Colts yesterday and how
• 40:17
  Speaker 5: much they were able to kind of pull those guards
• 40:19
  Speaker 5: out get him out to the flat, get him out
• 40:21
  Speaker 5: to the edge where it allowed Jonathan Taylor to kind
• 40:24
  Speaker 5: of punch it up and get to the end zone.
• 40:28
  Speaker 5: There's a style in which I think that a casual fan,
• 40:31
  Speaker 5: or even if you're still a fan, it doesn't matter
• 40:33
  Speaker 5: what type of fan you are if you watch football,
• 40:35
  Speaker 5: you're starting to see motions, you're starting to see people
• 40:40
  Speaker 5: attack edges, you're starting to see more RPOs. You're just
• 40:43
  Speaker 5: starting to see a different brand of football that we're
• 40:45
  Speaker 5: starting to adjust to. And I think when you watch
• 40:48
  Speaker 5: the Steelers, it just looks stagnant. We're not seeing.
• 40:53
  Speaker 6: A lot of motion.
• 40:54
  Speaker 5: And if we are, we're not watching tight ends move
• 40:58
  Speaker 5: to one.
• 41:00
  Speaker 6: We're seeing things that we've seen before. I know I'm
• 41:03
  Speaker 6: being a little bit all over the place, so I apologize.
• 41:05
  Speaker 3: Not at all.
• 41:05
  Speaker 6: But my point is.
• 41:06
  Speaker 5: If you're Aaron Rodgers and you have still this arm
• 41:11
  Speaker 5: that can still deliver the football, we have to find
• 41:14
  Speaker 5: ways of getting our guys– open and putting our guys
• 41:17
  Speaker 5: in a better position to get the football. Um, and
• 41:20
  Speaker 5: I don't think that a lot, it doesn't always have
• 41:22
  Speaker 5: to be done by throwing it. And I think we
• 41:24
  Speaker 5: just have to do more out of the backfield. I
• 41:26
  Speaker 5: think we got to get our office online. Who's athletic
• 41:28
  Speaker 5: enough moving. Um, I would love to see more boots
• 41:32
  Speaker 5: and waggles. There's things that we can open up and
• 41:34
  Speaker 5: do that doesn't have to take a Herculean effort.
• 41:37
  Speaker 6: It's just more about schematics.
• 41:40
  Speaker 7: Yup.
• 41:41
  Speaker 3: Uh, I agree with you.
• 41:42
  Speaker 4: You know, I'm reminded of, you know, um, I don't
• 41:46
  Speaker 4: watch boxing like I used to when I was a kid.
• 41:48
  Speaker 3: I'm showing my age. They actually had boxing on TV.
• 41:52
  Speaker 3: Friday night fights. Saturday afternoon, you turn on the tube.
• 41:56
  Speaker 6: They still do it.
• 41:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Friday nights in New York. You could see a
• 42:00
  Speaker 3: little bit.
• 42:01
  Speaker 4: You could watch a welterweight championship on Saturday afternoon. You
• 42:04
  Speaker 4: could watch Roberto Duran and not have to spend $ 100
• 42:07
  Speaker 4: on pay-per-view and go someplace to watch it. Anyway, you
• 42:11
  Speaker 4: would see a boxer versus a slugger.
• 42:15
  Speaker 3: And sometimes.
• 42:16
  Speaker 4: the slugger, you know, somebody would say, how come he's
• 42:20
  Speaker 4: not throwing any, how come he's not throwing those big punches?
• 42:23
  Speaker 3: Because he's being hit in the face constantly by a jab.
• 42:26
  Speaker 3: You know what I mean?
• 42:27
  Speaker 4: It's hard to throw a punch when you're being hit
• 42:29
  Speaker 4: in the face. And it's what all of this feels
• 42:33
  Speaker 4: like to me, whether you want to go back to
• 42:35
  Speaker 4: the offensive line play.
• 42:36
  Speaker 3: Which is where I think you have to go back to.
• 42:37
  Speaker 4: But if they were landing some jabs, in other words,
• 42:41
  Speaker 4: if they were running the football, that's what it comes
• 42:43
  Speaker 4: down to me. Look, they came out in the game
• 42:46
  Speaker 4: They wanted to establish the run. They got Rico Dowd
• 42:48
  Speaker 4: on there. They wanted to be physical. They pick up
• 42:51
  Speaker 4: a foot. They pick up two yards. They got third
• 42:54
  Speaker 4: and seven, and now they're throwing the football. I think
• 42:57
  Speaker 4: they've got to find a way to get that jab
• 42:59
  Speaker 4: game going. They've got to find a way to run
• 43:01
  Speaker 4: the football. I think it goes one of two ways, Willie.
• 43:05
  Speaker 4: If you can press the ball down the field like
• 43:07
  Speaker 4: the Steelers want to, that'll help your running game. If
• 43:09
  Speaker 4: you can run the ball, that'll help you press the
• 43:11
  Speaker 4: ball down the field because they're coming up after you.
• 43:14
  Speaker 3: It's complimentary. We're not seeing that.
• 43:16
  Speaker 4: I don't know where it starts, but to me, I
• 43:18
  Speaker 4: think it needs to start with running the football.
• 43:21
  Speaker 5: Yeah, and when you're able to run the football, you're
• 43:24
  Speaker 5: able to keep the defense off balance, and that's something
• 43:27
  Speaker 5: we didn't see with the Patriots.
• 43:28
  Speaker 6: They didn't seem off balance, and we didn't do really
• 43:31
  Speaker 6: too much misdirection.
• 43:32
  Speaker 5: A lot of those things, man, the Patriots wanted to
• 43:35
  Speaker 5: make it a fumble fight, and they felt like they
• 43:37
  Speaker 5: had the defensive line.
• 43:39
  Speaker 6: They had the heavyweight. They had the heavyweight champ.
• 43:41
  Speaker 5: They weren't champions from the Super Bowl, standpoint when they
• 43:44
  Speaker 5: were in a championship fight they felt like those guys
• 43:46
  Speaker 5: up front for the Patriots were just the stronger and
• 43:49
  Speaker 5: bigger and they did they bullied the Steelers office line
• 43:52
  Speaker 5: but you there's ways of helping out an office line
• 43:54
  Speaker 5: that's struggling and one of the ways is the screen
• 43:58
  Speaker 5: game you know having different forms of screen attack from
• 44:01
  Speaker 5: a screen standpoint on top of that I would have
• 44:04
  Speaker 5: loved it it's not just screen like it there's middle
• 44:06
  Speaker 5: screens and screens to the flat there's little things you
• 44:09
  Speaker 5: can do there's getting the ball into our playmakers hands
• 44:12
  Speaker 5: like Jeremy Bernard like I said on a speed motion,
• 44:15
  Speaker 5: hand it off, let them try to do things.
• 44:17
  Speaker 6: Or allowing our tight ends, man, to take either the
• 44:20
  Speaker 6: middle or the field.
• 44:22
  Speaker 5: And at this thing, we kind of, anytime you punt
• 44:25
  Speaker 5: eight times, you're taking a lot of steam out of
• 44:28
  Speaker 5: the offense, right? And I know Mike McCarthy, you talked
• 44:30
  Speaker 5: about it. He wants to have as many cracks at
• 44:33
  Speaker 5: the football as possible. But it's tough when you're just
• 44:35
  Speaker 5: not able to do little things to kind of keep the.
• 44:39
  Speaker 6: Defense on the heels. And they were never on the heels.
• 44:41
  Speaker 6: They were on the attack.
• 44:42
  Speaker 5: The whole game from, from, from start, from start to end.
• 44:45
  Speaker 5: So Mike McCarthy will evaluate it. And I think he's
• 44:49
  Speaker 5: going to see, you know, he's going to figure out
• 44:51
  Speaker 5: how much to can. And I think Aaron said it too.
• 44:53
  Speaker 5: I think Aaron was like, man, I got to be
• 44:54
  Speaker 5: more honest about what what's working and what's not, since
• 44:57
  Speaker 5: I'm kind of running the show out there. So I
• 45:00
  Speaker 5: like the fact that he take, he took some accountability
• 45:02
  Speaker 5: in that.
• 45:02
  Speaker 6: And at that point.
• 45:03
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 45:04
  Speaker 3: And I think you bring up a great point.
• 45:05
  Speaker 4: I mean, a lot of times you'll see Willie, you know,
• 45:08
  Speaker 4: like a third string quarterback coming to the, game or
• 45:11
  Speaker 4: a rookie making his first start and you think okay
• 45:13
  Speaker 4: well they're gonna they're gonna try to run the football
• 45:15
  Speaker 4: at us right so what do you do you put
• 45:17
  Speaker 4: eight men in the block what do they do first
• 45:18
  Speaker 4: play they come out a little play action try to
• 45:20
  Speaker 4: get them going something but also just to try to
• 45:22
  Speaker 4: relieve some of the pressure if teams come out it
• 45:26
  Speaker 4: is really really hard i'm not sure how many teams
• 45:29
  Speaker 4: are going to come out against a loaded box that
• 45:32
  Speaker 4: has a good defense and just slam the football at
• 45:34
  Speaker 4: them i mean it's it's hard to do that i
• 45:36
  Speaker 4: think it's easier to do that as the game wears
• 45:39
  Speaker 4: on And maybe you establish something. But to come out
• 45:41
  Speaker 4: of the shoot and just say, we're going to run
• 45:43
  Speaker 4: the football.
• 45:44
  Speaker 3: Well, guess what? They're going to try to stop you
• 45:47
  Speaker 3: running the football, too.
• 45:48
  Speaker 4: So, like you said, some of these other little wrinkles
• 45:50
  Speaker 4: could perhaps help things get going.
• 45:53
  Speaker 5: And the Patriots didn't allow us to stay. They didn't
• 45:55
  Speaker 5: stay on double team blocks a lot. So, any time
• 45:58
  Speaker 5: we had combo blocks, you know, Robert Spleen played for
• 46:02
  Speaker 5: the Steelers. You know, so he's aware of what that
• 46:06
  Speaker 5: line is capable of and what the brand is.
• 46:08
  Speaker 6: Football uh the Steelers want to play so anytime.
• 46:11
  Speaker 5: Those guys had a double team not only were their
• 46:14
  Speaker 5: Patriots defense line were able to hold up.
• 46:16
  Speaker 6: But those linebackers were firing they weren't waiting I mean
• 46:18
  Speaker 6: they were.
• 46:19
  Speaker 5: They were forcing our guys to peel off those double
• 46:21
  Speaker 5: teams and that and and really kind of come downhill
• 46:25
  Speaker 5: and anytime you have that type of aggressive attacking linebackers
• 46:29
  Speaker 5: you know you want to have some misdirection where they
• 46:31
  Speaker 5: commit and you can you're going the other way you
• 46:33
  Speaker 5: want to have some screens where you can spread them
• 46:34
  Speaker 5: out and force them to run um And we just
• 46:38
  Speaker 5: weren't able to get to that. But I also think
• 46:40
  Speaker 5: the Steelers are at this point where they're getting a
• 46:43
  Speaker 5: lot of the uglies out in real time. And hopefully,
• 46:46
  Speaker 5: like to your point, Rob, we're not having this type
• 46:48
  Speaker 5: of conversation in October.
• 46:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 46:50
  Speaker 4: And again, I'm glad that we have a measured response
• 46:55
  Speaker 4: from Willie kind of picking us all up a little bit.
• 46:59
  Speaker 4: We've spent the entire time talking about the offense. We
• 47:03
  Speaker 4: have some defense to talk about, and that is a
• 47:05
  Speaker 4: considerably better.
• 47:06
  Speaker 3: Story to tell.
• 47:07
  Speaker 4: Also, if you want to get your phone calls in,
• 47:09
  Speaker 4: we are going to be opening up every Monday throughout
• 47:12
  Speaker 4: the course of the season here in the locker room.
• 47:14
  Speaker 4: We'll discuss maybe whether there's other opportunities to get phone
• 47:18
  Speaker 4: calls in, but that number is 412-919-1316. Back with more
• 47:23
  Speaker 4: when we continue in the locker room, presented by your
• 47:25
  Speaker 4: neighborhood Ford store and the Steelers Pro Shop on Steelers
• 47:28
  Speaker 4: Nation Radio, a part of the Steelers Audio Network.