Latest / Steelers Country Weekly / Browns Recap, Bengals Preview
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Today on Steelers Country Weekly, we break down the Steelers
- 0:03Speaker 1: heartbreaking loss on Thursday night in Cleveland, look ahead to
- 0:07Speaker 1: the matchup in Cincinnati against the Bengals, and then we're
- 0:10Speaker 1: gonna talk about some of our video game go to
- 0:13Speaker 1: elements in honor of the Steelers snow game that they
- 0:17Speaker 1: played through in Cleveland. I'm Nick de Tulo, and as always,
- 0:20Speaker 1: I'm joined by the world famous accountants Eric Vammnhowden, Eric,
- 0:23Speaker 1: how are you tonight?
- 0:25Speaker 2: I'm doing pretty well.
- 0:28Speaker 3: So we're we're hosting, you know, my parents and sister
- 0:34Speaker 3: in law on Thursday.
- 0:36Speaker 2: So because we just moved in to a new place,
- 0:40Speaker 2: I've been payton all week.
- 0:41Speaker 3: So yeah, just been doing that to kind of keep
- 0:46Speaker 3: my mind a little bit off of what happened on Thursday.
- 0:50Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 0:51Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm hosting as well. And Thursday's game was certainly
- 0:56Speaker 1: a unique experience, and we'll rely more were on your
- 1:01Speaker 1: expertise than mine on this one because I wasn't able
- 1:03Speaker 1: to see the whole game. I watched bits and pieces
- 1:06Speaker 1: where I could, But this was kind of like you're
- 1:11Speaker 1: familiar with Murphy's Law, where everything that can go wrong
- 1:14Speaker 1: will go wrong. This was kind of like that, but
- 1:17Speaker 1: it was more like we kept shooting ourselves in the foot,
- 1:20Speaker 1: not you know, things that were out of our control
- 1:22Speaker 1: kept going wrong.
- 1:23Speaker 4: If that makes sense.
- 1:25Speaker 1: Oh yeah, definitely, So full disclosure. I was actually at
- 1:30Speaker 1: the Georgia Tech NC State game. I watched the first
- 1:33Speaker 1: half of the Steelers game on my phone in the
- 1:36Speaker 1: end or you know, in my seat at the Georgia
- 1:39Speaker 1: Tech game. And then I was running too low on
- 1:42Speaker 1: battery because I didn't plan ahead and charge it as
- 1:44Speaker 1: much as I should have. And then I we left
- 1:48Speaker 1: the game a little bit early, went to a bar,
- 1:50Speaker 1: and we watched the last maybe three minutes or so
- 1:54Speaker 1: of game time. So I feel like I got a
- 1:58Speaker 1: pretty good dosage of the poor decision making that we're
- 2:02Speaker 1: going to talk about. That I'll just turn things over
- 2:05Speaker 1: to you a little earlier than I normally do and
- 2:08Speaker 1: just let you walk us all through what happened in the.
- 2:12Speaker 4: Game and what went wrong. Really.
- 2:15Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, it's kind of tough to say exactly
- 2:19Speaker 3: what went wrong, because if you look at the statue,
- 2:24Speaker 3: a lot went right.
- 2:26Speaker 2: So seven to sixteen and third down, we outgained them, we.
- 2:34Speaker 3: Had less penalties, we won the turnover margin by two,
- 2:38Speaker 3: and we won the time.
- 2:39Speaker 2: Of possession by ten minutes. So what went wrong?
- 2:47Speaker 3: We made very poor decisions in every phase of the game,
- 2:52Speaker 3: So it gets chopped up to I think it was.
- 2:55Speaker 2: Mike Tomlins's worst coach game of the year.
- 2:59Speaker 3: I think there should be a little bit of blame,
- 3:02Speaker 3: if not a lot of blame on him. We went
- 3:05Speaker 3: for fourth downs that we probably shouldn't have to. We
- 3:09Speaker 3: ran Chris Boswell out there to kick a fifty eight
- 3:13Speaker 3: yarder in the snow, which I know he's our MVP
- 3:17Speaker 3: of the year, but you're not sending anyone.
- 3:20Speaker 2: Up for success by kicking the frozen bomb. Yeah it's
- 3:23Speaker 2: a frozen turkey right there traveling.
- 3:26Speaker 3: You know, on a good day.
- 3:29Speaker 2: Fifty eight yards is hard to kick. So yeah, that
- 3:34Speaker 2: was pretty much the start of the game.
- 3:35Speaker 3: Even and then just our typical we haven't been great
- 3:41Speaker 3: in the red zone, so I just we obviously were
- 3:46Speaker 3: kind of stalling on a few drives, and you know,
- 3:50Speaker 3: the defense when they needed to just didn't come up
- 3:53Speaker 3: with plates. I mean, when Jameis Winston runs in for
- 3:58Speaker 3: a touchdown to win game, I mean that just kinda
- 4:01Speaker 3: tells you all.
- 4:02Speaker 2: Like it wasn't that you did any kind of acrobatic move.
- 4:07Speaker 2: It just they wanted it more, they got it, and
- 4:11Speaker 2: so you know, it just looks like a very complacent football.
- 4:15Speaker 3: Team that showed up on Thursday, and unfortunately it led
- 4:20Speaker 3: to our first w or first.
- 4:23Speaker 2: Down in a while.
- 4:26Speaker 1: Yeah. So again, I watched the first half and then
- 4:31Speaker 1: missed a good chunk of the second half, and I
- 4:36Speaker 1: had a bad feeling because on the Steelers first drive,
- 4:40Speaker 1: they attempted a fifty eight yard field goal, which even
- 4:44Speaker 1: with bos and good conditions, is not something I ever
- 4:48Speaker 1: really advocate for, let alone in the snow. And it
- 4:53Speaker 1: hadn't even started to get crazy with the snow yet. Yeah, yeah, no,
- 4:58Speaker 1: And my thoughts were, why would you not just punt
- 5:00Speaker 1: the ball and make the Browns drive at least what
- 5:04Speaker 1: seventy five yards if if you kick it into the
- 5:06Speaker 1: end zone hopefully more So that was kind of the
- 5:12Speaker 1: first bad feeling I had in my stomach about the
- 5:15Speaker 1: whole game, and then fast forwarding to the end, the
- 5:23Speaker 1: whole last five minutes or however much it was was just.
- 5:28Speaker 4: Maddening to me.
- 5:29Speaker 1: It was kind of frustrating to not see the defense
- 5:32Speaker 1: able to put a stop up when they needed to.
- 5:34Speaker 1: They did have a couple turnovers, which was big. Russ
- 5:37Speaker 1: had a pretty bad fumble as well, which was not
- 5:40Speaker 1: helping anyone. But on the last drive of the game
- 5:45Speaker 1: for the Browns, they had it looked like it should
- 5:50Speaker 1: have been called intentional grounding, but I guess, I don't
- 5:55Speaker 1: know if you heard the explanation or not.
- 5:58Speaker 4: Allegedly one of the brown on.
- 6:00Speaker 1: The lineman reported is eligible, so that that's why it
- 6:03Speaker 1: wasn't thrown.
- 6:06Speaker 4: I don't know if that's the case or not. But
- 6:11Speaker 4: they did throw a flag on the play.
- 6:12Speaker 1: I believe it was ineligible receiver downfield possibly or maybe
- 6:15Speaker 1: illegal touching.
- 6:16Speaker 2: It was.
- 6:18Speaker 1: Yeah, So the deal was Tomlin had to decide do
- 6:22Speaker 1: you want to let him do fourth and two or
- 6:24Speaker 1: repeat third down? And had it third and seven, and
- 6:28Speaker 1: he went with He accepted the penalty and then.
- 6:33Speaker 5: Like contemplating and going back and forth three different times.
- 6:39Speaker 5: Correct he got by the Browns and fans, and I'm like,
- 6:44Speaker 5: he deserves it, Like I don't understand this, like we
- 6:47Speaker 5: I don't think we should have been able to flat
- 6:50Speaker 5: that many times.
- 6:51Speaker 2: That was like a delay of game on our end.
- 6:53Speaker 1: So yeah, and and frankly, it sucks that they didn't
- 6:57Speaker 1: make the call that we all probably thought that should have,
- 7:00Speaker 1: but the refs never are just going to be like, Okay,
- 7:05Speaker 1: well you disagree, let's change the flag.
- 7:06Speaker 2: Right.
- 7:07Speaker 1: That doesn't The only way that works is if your
- 7:10Speaker 1: fans throw bottles on the field, like we've seen in
- 7:12Speaker 1: college football this year. And if there's any propield that's
- 7:17Speaker 1: gonna have that happen, it's definitely Cleveland. But they're not
- 7:19Speaker 1: going to be doing it for the Steelers, I can
- 7:21Speaker 1: tell you that much. The point is, and maybe we'd
- 7:26Speaker 1: feel differently if they had if it had if they
- 7:30Speaker 1: had stopped him on third down or something, but they didn't,
- 7:32Speaker 1: And I personally in the moment, was like, why would
- 7:36Speaker 1: you not just make them go for fourth and two
- 7:38Speaker 1: because you know they're going to go for it anyway
- 7:40Speaker 1: if they don't get the third down, So why are
- 7:43Speaker 1: we giving them an extra play to burn even more time?
- 7:46Speaker 1: The time speaking of time that the time management was awful.
- 7:50Speaker 1: There was a timeout that should never have been taken.
- 7:52Speaker 1: I think it was on that possession right there, and
- 7:57Speaker 1: that left the Steelers with only one time out to
- 7:59Speaker 1: work with on the drive there or on that following drive.
- 8:04Speaker 1: It was just bad management. And then finally on the
- 8:06Speaker 1: Hail Mary Plass. I actually thought Russ did a good
- 8:09Speaker 1: job getting the ball off and he threw the ball
- 8:12Speaker 1: in the perfect spot of the end zone. He stayed
- 8:14Speaker 1: in the pocket and took a hit, But it didn't
- 8:16Speaker 1: seem like anyone was really paying attention.
- 8:21Speaker 4: I don't.
- 8:21Speaker 1: Someone brought made a good point to me. They said,
- 8:24Speaker 1: I feel like, if you're on a Hail Mary, as
- 8:26Speaker 1: soon as you get to the goal line, you should
- 8:27Speaker 1: turn around. And I'm like, you probably should have your
- 8:30Speaker 1: eyes up a little before then, even but yeah, you're right.
- 8:34Speaker 1: So I guess it is frustrating that they lost yet
- 8:38Speaker 1: another game to a team that they probably should have won.
- 8:43Speaker 1: I do think they're the better team. I don't agree
- 8:46Speaker 1: with George Pickens saying as much after the game after
- 8:49Speaker 1: getting and yet another off the field scuffle or whatever
- 8:51Speaker 1: you want to call it. But I guess if I'm
- 8:55Speaker 1: going to take this with a grain of salt, there
- 8:56Speaker 1: was bad weather didn't help anyone. This was probably the
- 9:01Speaker 1: Browns' biggest game so far because we were coming off
- 9:04Speaker 1: a big win and we are still rivals. It sucks,
- 9:07Speaker 1: but as long as they, you know, keep their heads
- 9:10Speaker 1: on straight, though, they should be Okay, would you agree.
- 9:14Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it's still frustrating.
- 9:17Speaker 3: The Ravens won, so they did gain a little bit
- 9:22Speaker 3: on it, so that that we just worked really hard last.
- 9:25Speaker 2: Week has now gone away a smidge.
- 9:28Speaker 3: But at the end of the day, as long as
- 9:31Speaker 3: the Steelers take care of business going forward, we're still fine.
- 9:35Speaker 2: But we had a chance to take care of business
- 9:38Speaker 2: on Thursday and we did it.
- 9:40Speaker 1: So yeah, well, and the unfortunate thing too is the
- 9:48Speaker 1: Ravens gotta win as well, which doesn't help. We're still
- 9:51Speaker 1: ahead in the division, but would have been nice to
- 9:53Speaker 1: get that division win to keep that pad against the Ravens.
- 9:58Speaker 1: But but yeah, I'm choosing to be optimistic because there
- 10:02Speaker 1: were a few good things we saw. Russell Wilson overall
- 10:04Speaker 1: had a pretty good game. I do like that they're
- 10:08Speaker 1: starting to utilize justin fields more. I do wish. I
- 10:14Speaker 1: feel kind of bad because I was saying, you know,
- 10:16Speaker 1: maybe they should let him throw the ball once in
- 10:17Speaker 1: a while, just so they don't always assume it's going
- 10:19Speaker 1: to be a run when he's in. And I guess
- 10:22Speaker 1: one of the plays I missed was a third and
- 10:24Speaker 1: short and they had field through a fifty yard bomb
- 10:27Speaker 1: and my immediate response was, why are you having him
- 10:29Speaker 1: throw that? So maybe I should have specified, like, you know,
- 10:34Speaker 1: a five yard out route or something they can let
- 10:36Speaker 1: him throw. The point I was trying to make was
- 10:40Speaker 1: let's not be so predictable that they see justin fields
- 10:44Speaker 1: and all they have to do is guess which side of.
- 10:45Speaker 4: The ball is gonna run on.
- 10:49Speaker 1: But overall, it is good to see him getting involved,
- 10:51Speaker 1: to see those plays, and yeah, I just think if
- 10:54Speaker 1: they can tweak some things, they should be okay moving forward,
- 10:57Speaker 1: and ultimately a game against the Bengals might be a
- 11:01Speaker 1: good place to start. So, yeah, is there anything else
- 11:05Speaker 1: you wanted to mention about this game in Cleveland before
- 11:08Speaker 1: we move on?
- 11:13Speaker 2: Just hopefully doesn't replicate itself.
- 11:17Speaker 1: Yeah, I would agree with you. So the Steelers are
- 11:22Speaker 1: going to stay in Ohio. They're going to travel down
- 11:24Speaker 1: to Cincinnati to Eric's stomping Grounds to play the Bengals
- 11:29Speaker 1: next week. The Bengals have by and large been a
- 11:34Speaker 1: very disappointing team this year.
- 11:35Speaker 4: Their offense has been about the same as it.
- 11:38Speaker 1: Has been for the last couple of years, very good,
- 11:40Speaker 1: but their defense is just not there.
- 11:43Speaker 4: This year.
- 11:44Speaker 1: They have really struggled They've lost a lot of games.
- 11:47Speaker 1: There's some games they probably should have won, and they
- 11:50Speaker 1: just they could not hold the other teams. The two
- 11:53Speaker 1: games against Baltimore come to mind. But nevertheless, like we
- 11:58Speaker 1: saw in Cleveland, another team that had a widely disappointing year,
- 12:01Speaker 1: anything can happen on any Sunday, especially when you're playing
- 12:04Speaker 1: a division rival like the Pittsburgh Steelers. So looking ahead
- 12:09Speaker 1: at this game, Eric, where are some of your takeaways
- 12:12Speaker 1: in this matchup in Cincinnati?
- 12:14Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, like I think you previewed the Bengals
- 12:20Speaker 3: really well.
- 12:23Speaker 2: You know, It's something I talked about with.
- 12:25Speaker 3: My coworkers here in Cincinnati, is just they're a weird
- 12:29Speaker 3: team because Joe Brows having an arguably an MVP year,
- 12:35Speaker 3: Jamar Chase is having a arguably a Offensive Player of
- 12:39Speaker 3: the Year year their defensive and Trey Hendrickson is leading
- 12:45Speaker 3: the league in sacks, so you can put them in
- 12:48Speaker 3: the defensive player of the Year category in there, four
- 12:51Speaker 3: and seven. Just seems weird that you might say that
- 12:56Speaker 3: three of the best players in all the football on
- 12:58Speaker 3: the same team and you got a losing squad. So
- 13:03Speaker 3: they I mean, they definitely have the talent, They've been
- 13:07Speaker 3: struggling in certain areas. If it becomes a kicking match,
- 13:12Speaker 3: we got the advantage there, I'll tell you what. But yeah,
- 13:19Speaker 3: I mean the Bengals, they just like the Browns. This
- 13:25Speaker 3: is like a game that if they win this game,
- 13:29Speaker 3: the fans are gonna be like, well.
- 13:32Speaker 2: This year was a disappointment, but at least would be
- 13:34Speaker 2: the Steeler. So, you know, a lot of the same thing.
- 13:38Speaker 3: Will be kind of the intangibles of the game will
- 13:42Speaker 3: be a lot of the similar things that.
- 13:44Speaker 2: We just had this past week.
- 13:46Speaker 3: So what makes me a little nervous is Okay, well,
- 13:49Speaker 3: what kind of team are we? Are we gonna recognize that,
- 13:53Speaker 3: tighten up and get better or are we gonna, you know,
- 13:56Speaker 3: play slappy again and let a team that we should have.
- 14:00Speaker 2: Beat beat us.
- 14:01Speaker 3: So you know, I think the preview for this week is,
- 14:06Speaker 3: because of how we played this last week, is don't
- 14:09Speaker 3: beat yourself.
- 14:11Speaker 2: We should win this game. The chips should lie in
- 14:16Speaker 2: our favor, so we don't have to.
- 14:19Speaker 3: Be overly aggressively. I felt like we were on Thursday.
- 14:23Speaker 3: We do that, we play our game, we get out
- 14:26Speaker 3: of there with a win. Yeah.
- 14:28Speaker 1: I think the big thing for me too, though, is
- 14:31Speaker 1: we particular with the offense, you gotta any opportunity you have,
- 14:36Speaker 1: you need to get the ball into the end zone.
- 14:38Speaker 1: We can't have any of these missed layups anymore. And
- 14:41Speaker 1: a game against the Bengals in particular, you know, the
- 14:44Speaker 1: defense is not good, neither is Baltimore's, but we weren't
- 14:47Speaker 1: able to score a single touchdown on them. We did
- 14:52Speaker 1: respond a little bit in that regard against the Browns.
- 14:55Speaker 1: But my point though is the Bengals do have a
- 14:59Speaker 1: solid They still have Joe Burrow, Jamar Chase t Higgins.
- 15:05Speaker 1: They can score points, and they definitely will score points,
- 15:09Speaker 1: particularly if TJ. Watt isn't able to make his presence
- 15:13Speaker 1: known in Cleveland. He was, he didn't really make that
- 15:19Speaker 1: presence known. He was pretty irrelevant.
- 15:22Speaker 4: We'll just say it.
- 15:22Speaker 1: Against Cleveland, and in a game where you're talking about
- 15:26Speaker 1: Miles Garrett versus t J. Watt, that is certainly not
- 15:28Speaker 1: what you want to see. But keeping it in Cincinnati,
- 15:32Speaker 1: I'm going to assume that the Steelers defense is not
- 15:35Speaker 1: going to totally shut out the Bengals offense.
- 15:38Speaker 4: I'm going to.
- 15:38Speaker 1: Assume that the Bengals are going to score points, and
- 15:41Speaker 1: I think they'll do it pretty often. So what I
- 15:46Speaker 1: mean is I think that Russell Wilson has got to
- 15:48Speaker 1: get in the end zone every chance they can. We
- 15:51Speaker 1: can't have these red zone trips where we're throwing interceptions
- 15:54Speaker 1: that should be caught, or where we have to settle
- 15:56Speaker 1: for field goals, which, by the way, I do agree
- 15:58Speaker 1: with you. If it comes down to the kickers, we
- 16:00Speaker 1: will win. I would really I agree with Mike Tomlin.
- 16:04Speaker 1: I'm getting tired of Boswell when in Player of the week.
- 16:06Speaker 1: I would really like to just get.
- 16:08Speaker 4: Some touchdowns here. And really, I think that's that's it.
- 16:12Speaker 1: I mean, there's not much I can say from an
- 16:15Speaker 1: ex as and O's perspective, because it's pretty universally accepted
- 16:18Speaker 1: that the Bengals defense is atrocious and if the Steelers'
- 16:24Speaker 1: offense can't score on them, then I think we have
- 16:27Speaker 1: some real problems that we need to figure out here,
- 16:29Speaker 1: because that would be you've got two games already this
- 16:34Speaker 1: year where you haven't kicked a field goal or you
- 16:36Speaker 1: haven't scored a touchdown and you had.
- 16:38Speaker 4: To only kick field goals.
- 16:39Speaker 1: If you have a repeat performance of that three times
- 16:42Speaker 1: in a year, we need to talk. It's no longer
- 16:47Speaker 1: just a Matt Canada thing or a Kenny Pickett thing.
- 16:49Speaker 1: It's a it's a system thing, and it's the system
- 16:52Speaker 1: is not their offense, it's the Pittsburgh Steelers.
- 16:56Speaker 2: So and what do you think is driving it? Nick?
- 16:59Speaker 2: Do you do you think.
- 17:00Speaker 3: That there's a particular reason and or is there a
- 17:04Speaker 3: solution that you.
- 17:05Speaker 2: Think that we could find.
- 17:07Speaker 1: I think that a lot of it's just were very predictable.
- 17:11Speaker 1: It seemed like against the Browns. And again, maybe this
- 17:14Speaker 1: is just me popping in and out of watching the game,
- 17:16Speaker 1: but it seemed like, at least for a good chunk
- 17:19Speaker 1: of the time I was watching, it was runs up
- 17:22Speaker 1: the middle first and second down, short pass on third down.
- 17:25Speaker 4: And I don't know.
- 17:29Speaker 1: Again, this is the same guy who just complained about
- 17:31Speaker 1: Justin Field's throwing a fifty yard bomb and then saying
- 17:34Speaker 1: we're too predictable. So I I mean, you know, maybe I.
- 17:39Speaker 4: Don't know. That's what my gut's telling me, that they're
- 17:41Speaker 4: just too predictable when they get in the red zone.
- 17:47Speaker 1: It's almost like, Okay, I shouldn't have to be disconcerned
- 17:53Speaker 1: about whether Naji Harris can get two yards or not.
- 17:56Speaker 1: Like it's always I feel myself sighing with relief every
- 17:59Speaker 1: time he does on those situations.
- 18:01Speaker 4: Because it's so unexpected. And I don't know if it's.
- 18:04Speaker 1: A naugy thing or the line thing, or like I said,
- 18:06Speaker 1: we're just too predictable. But I think that's it. It
- 18:09Speaker 1: just seems like every time we get into the red zone,
- 18:12Speaker 1: we kind of come down on ourselves. So our only
- 18:16Speaker 1: method to avoid that is to have these continuous thirty
- 18:19Speaker 1: plus yard bomb plays to George Pickens from Russell Wilson.
- 18:25Speaker 4: That's at least what I'm thinking. Do you have any
- 18:27Speaker 4: thoughts on it as well?
- 18:30Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I think that.
- 18:34Speaker 3: Like, Okay, so Nag hasn't been like in this past
- 18:38Speaker 3: game he ran for I think less than three yards
- 18:41Speaker 3: of carry. I don't think he's been as effective lately.
- 18:46Speaker 3: And then I mean, I think the strength of Russell
- 18:49Speaker 3: Wilson is also a little bit of a negative when
- 18:52Speaker 3: it comes down to the red zone.
- 18:54Speaker 2: I think.
- 18:56Speaker 3: Russ needs to get a little bit better about passes. Yeah,
- 19:01Speaker 3: I think in the red zone it's all about, you know,
- 19:05Speaker 3: working on that. With your wide receivers. You run a
- 19:09Speaker 3: slant pass or a fade route to the corner, and
- 19:13Speaker 3: those are the most effective red zone plays.
- 19:15Speaker 2: But Russell's very unscripted, and I think that like.
- 19:19Speaker 3: It helps when you get a fifty yard gain, I
- 19:21Speaker 3: don't think it helps when you try to get a
- 19:23Speaker 3: five yard gain and you're trying.
- 19:24Speaker 2: To run out of the pockets.
- 19:26Speaker 5: So yeah, so it's tough because you know, the same
- 19:32Speaker 5: thing that's.
- 19:32Speaker 3: Led to like a little bit of like a spark
- 19:35Speaker 3: in our offense is also the detriment and we're talking
- 19:38Speaker 3: about right now.
- 19:39Speaker 4: Yeah, that's fair. Well, my point still stands, though.
- 19:46Speaker 1: You gotta whatever it is, you got to figure it out,
- 19:48Speaker 1: and against the Bengals, you've got to you've got to
- 19:51Speaker 1: score the points when you can. I mentioned the Ravens,
- 19:53Speaker 1: and they're a good example of a team that I mean,
- 19:56Speaker 1: they drop the ball against US, but against the Bengals.
- 20:00Speaker 4: The Bengals probably.
- 20:00Speaker 1: Should have won both of those games if you look
- 20:02Speaker 1: at the stats. Joe Burrow has like some ridiculous number
- 20:06Speaker 1: of passing yards. Jamar Chase has like five or six touchdowns,
- 20:10Speaker 1: and they lost both games. But that's because the Ravens
- 20:14Speaker 1: strapped up and they scored when they needed to to
- 20:16Speaker 1: win those games. And I think that's what the good
- 20:20Speaker 1: teams do in the end. So I think the Steelers,
- 20:23Speaker 1: coming off of the loss to the Browns and having
- 20:26Speaker 1: that half by since they played on Thursday night, I
- 20:29Speaker 1: think they've got a good opportunity, a good opportunity here.
- 20:35Speaker 1: I think I am gonna give them the win, although
- 20:38Speaker 1: I'm a little reluctant to do it. I'll say that
- 20:43Speaker 1: they're gonna win, but it's gonna it's gonna be twenty
- 20:47Speaker 1: eight twenty four Steelers.
- 20:50Speaker 2: Okay. You know, I think I can go look pessimistic
- 21:00Speaker 2: because I don't know. I think a lot of the
- 21:04Speaker 2: same things are there. And for the Browns game, I
- 21:09Speaker 2: was obviously I forget three touchdown win. So I'm flip
- 21:18Speaker 2: flopping a little bit here.
- 21:20Speaker 3: But you know, I just think that, like, you know,
- 21:24Speaker 3: maybe a little bit in the funk. I think that
- 21:27Speaker 3: the defense played extremely well, you know, like.
- 21:32Speaker 2: Two or you know, against the Ravens and stuff like that.
- 21:36Speaker 3: But the offense is really kind of concerning me lately.
- 21:39Speaker 3: I just don't think it's been in the same you know,
- 21:43Speaker 3: the last two games, not where.
- 21:46Speaker 2: I think it needs to be. You know, we've scored
- 21:49Speaker 2: thirty seven points of the last two. I just don't
- 21:52Speaker 2: think that that fits really well with like the Bengals.
- 21:55Speaker 2: I think that, like you.
- 21:56Speaker 3: Said, the score plays in bunches. Watched that Ravens game
- 22:01Speaker 3: that you talked about. With the Bengals, Jamar Chase is
- 22:05Speaker 3: obviously a problem.
- 22:08Speaker 2: You know.
- 22:08Speaker 3: He gets scored three touchdowns on four catches in the.
- 22:12Speaker 2: Game and have two hundred yards. So you know, do
- 22:18Speaker 2: I think that we can win? Oh? Yeah, but I
- 22:21Speaker 2: think that there's a lot of things.
- 22:23Speaker 3: Right now that I I kind of need to see
- 22:26Speaker 3: and I'm not seeing it.
- 22:28Speaker 2: So I'm gonna go Bengals win thirty one to twenty.
- 22:39Speaker 1: I even though I picked the Steelers to win, I
- 22:42Speaker 1: feel like You're probably gonna be more correct than I am.
- 22:48Speaker 4: So all right, Well, there you have it.
- 22:51Speaker 1: Hopefully I'm right and Eric's wrong, and I even prove
- 22:53Speaker 1: myself wrong here. But yeah, that's just kind of the
- 22:57Speaker 1: way things are going right now with the Steelers. You
- 22:59Speaker 1: never we always have these lulls, And I think you're
- 23:03Speaker 1: right where no pun intended things tend to snowball a
- 23:06Speaker 1: little out of control.
- 23:07Speaker 4: Where we go on these their skids.
- 23:09Speaker 1: They're not even just like we dropped a bad game,
- 23:11Speaker 1: it's we dropped three com in jeopardy of missing the
- 23:14Speaker 1: playoffs and then sneak in in the last week or two.
- 23:18Speaker 3: Yeah, so all right, got a good time to do
- 23:21Speaker 3: it against a big divisional slate, So we got to
- 23:25Speaker 3: figure it out quick.
- 23:26Speaker 1: Yeah, let's drop that game against the Chiefs when they're
- 23:29Speaker 1: already going to have the number one seed locked up anyway, right,
- 23:33Speaker 1: that's right? Okay, Well, with the Steelers playing that game
- 23:37Speaker 1: in the snow, and that was definitely a snow game,
- 23:40Speaker 1: probably the biggest one we've seen in a while. Actually,
- 23:43Speaker 1: we thought it might be kind of fun to talk
- 23:45Speaker 1: about instances when you're playing those video games, whether it's
- 23:48Speaker 1: Madden or NC DOUBLEA Football. I just played the new
- 23:51Speaker 1: NCAA Football game for the first time this weekend, so
- 23:54Speaker 1: definitely fun experience.
- 23:55Speaker 4: But I think everyone goes through it.
- 23:58Speaker 1: Where when you set the stage and what the atmosphere
- 24:01Speaker 1: is like, you pick that favorite setting of yours, whether
- 24:05Speaker 1: it's the national title or the Super Bowl or a
- 24:07Speaker 1: specific bowl game if you're playing college or I don't know,
- 24:12Speaker 1: we'll talk about it specifically too, But what time of
- 24:14Speaker 1: day do you set it? So I'll let you lead off, Eric,
- 24:17Speaker 1: When you are playing whether it's Madden or NC DOUBLEA Football,
- 24:21Speaker 1: what is the atmosphere that you pick for your matchups.
- 24:25Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, one that I hated. I'll start with
- 24:28Speaker 3: what I hated and I never wanted to.
- 24:30Speaker 2: Do was the Rose Bowl.
- 24:32Speaker 3: I don't know if you've ever noticed this about the
- 24:34Speaker 3: Rose Bowl, but the sun is awful in that stadium,
- 24:38Speaker 3: at least in NC double A two thousand and five,
- 24:42Speaker 3: which is the latest that I.
- 24:44Speaker 4: Am twenty years old.
- 24:48Speaker 2: Graphics are unreal, but.
- 24:53Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, yeah, I tend to be pretty vanilla
- 24:58Speaker 3: when I normally am playing football and stuff like that.
- 25:01Speaker 2: Don't really do much of the tinkering.
- 25:03Speaker 3: With them with the settings and stuff.
- 25:07Speaker 2: But you know, I do like a good rain game.
- 25:10Speaker 2: I love like because I think a rain.
- 25:13Speaker 3: Game kind of like is a really good variable. I
- 25:17Speaker 3: don't think anyone. I don't think it creates an advantage
- 25:21Speaker 3: because I think, you know, like when it's a windy
- 25:25Speaker 3: game and stuff like that, it's like a good running
- 25:28Speaker 3: game probably works out and it kind of neutralizes the
- 25:31Speaker 3: passing offense. I think with rain, you know, it's a
- 25:36Speaker 3: lot about footing, and I think that.
- 25:39Speaker 2: Like the game simulates up pretty well. I think running.
- 25:42Speaker 3: Backs cough the ball up, so it's not like you
- 25:46Speaker 3: can just say, okay, well.
- 25:48Speaker 2: Quarterback can't throw it X number of yards down in
- 25:51Speaker 2: the field. Well, running back also has trouble too, So yeah,
- 25:56Speaker 2: I think you know, when I'm doing.
- 25:59Speaker 3: Setting, I don't mess too much with the breeze, staying
- 26:04Speaker 3: out of the rose bowl and you know, whether it's
- 26:08Speaker 3: a monsoon down to a little trickle.
- 26:12Speaker 4: There you go.
- 26:13Speaker 1: I do night games a lot. That's my number one thing.
- 26:16Speaker 1: I always pick the night game. I do prefer to
- 26:18Speaker 1: do snow games as well. Just again, I like enjoying
- 26:24Speaker 1: the the elements from the comforts of my own home
- 26:28Speaker 1: where I don't have to be in the elements. So yeah,
- 26:32Speaker 1: I'll make those guys play in the snow and the
- 26:35Speaker 1: rain at night, no less. I usually I remember doing
- 26:40Speaker 1: this at your house too, and probably on that same
- 26:42Speaker 1: NCAA game. Picking Boise State a lot just to play
- 26:45Speaker 1: on the blue turf. I think that's something that a
- 26:46Speaker 1: lot of people do the first time they discover that
- 26:50Speaker 1: Boise State does use blue turf instead of the green turf,
- 26:53Speaker 1: just because it's so different. But yeah, that's that's my
- 26:58Speaker 1: big thing. Is it's always at night. I always try
- 27:00Speaker 1: to make it. If it's a if I'm playing against
- 27:04Speaker 1: just a computer. I always make it a rivalry too,
- 27:06Speaker 1: just for the fun of it, and then I think
- 27:11Speaker 1: it's fun too. In the old NCAA games, you used
- 27:14Speaker 1: to be able to upload your own music to the game,
- 27:18Speaker 1: so you could have it customer. Yeah, at least well
- 27:22Speaker 1: on when I say, oh, when I'm talking about twenty fourteen,
- 27:24Speaker 1: not twenty two thousand and five, a whole ten years
- 27:29Speaker 1: after years. But no, you used to be able to
- 27:32Speaker 1: upload your own music, so you'd pop your CD in,
- 27:34Speaker 1: you'd you know, download whatever the songs from your CD were,
- 27:38Speaker 1: or you're if you had a flashtribe with MP three's
- 27:41Speaker 1: you could do the MP three pile on your PS
- 27:43Speaker 1: three or Xbox three sixty and then you could customize
- 27:47Speaker 1: like when the user scores a touchdown, this song plays,
- 27:50Speaker 1: or when on a first down, like there's a whole
- 27:53Speaker 1: long list it could. You could really customize the entire
- 27:56Speaker 1: game almost and it was kind of neat because you
- 27:58Speaker 1: could do specific songs, two specific teams as well.
- 28:04Speaker 4: It wasn't just one for all.
- 28:06Speaker 1: So the one, the one that I never did that
- 28:09Speaker 1: I thought would be hilarious to do was if you
- 28:12Speaker 1: had the Navy using the Village Peoples in the Navy
- 28:15Speaker 1: every time they scored a touchdown, that would be a
- 28:19Speaker 1: funny one, but I never believe it or not. I
- 28:22Speaker 1: never had a CD with the of the village people,
- 28:25Speaker 1: so I could never never do that. So that's the
- 28:30Speaker 1: bonus I'll say is in addition to setting the atmosphere
- 28:33Speaker 1: of like the elements and the time where possible, I
- 28:36Speaker 1: would always put my own stadium soundtracked in to make
- 28:39Speaker 1: the game that much more fun for me at least
- 28:41Speaker 1: my friends did not find it enjoyable, that's it.
- 28:47Speaker 2: And then you might get a kick out of this too.
- 28:49Speaker 3: So my my nephew, he came over, I guess I
- 28:55Speaker 3: have been days ago, and we played NFL Blitz.
- 29:00Speaker 2: Uh so, not much in terms of the.
- 29:03Speaker 3: Elements, but completely a different type of gameplay.
- 29:06Speaker 4: Yep.
- 29:06Speaker 2: Man, it was good, good time.
- 29:08Speaker 3: But it was cool to kind of see him he's
- 29:11Speaker 3: only like nine years old but enjoying the game basically
- 29:16Speaker 3: when we were nine years old when that came out.
- 29:19Speaker 2: How innovative that was.
- 29:21Speaker 1: Yeah, and for being a Steelers fan at the time too,
- 29:24Speaker 1: having Cordell Stewart on the cover and then because you
- 29:27Speaker 1: only have like four or five people on each side
- 29:30Speaker 1: of the ball, So you're your Steelers team was Cordell
- 29:34Speaker 1: Stewart and Jerome Bettis that was that was sick.
- 29:37Speaker 3: So yeah, then I actually played him. He was the
- 29:41Speaker 3: he was the Bengals, I was the Steelers.
- 29:43Speaker 2: I loved that bonhom of course, you know you can
- 29:49Speaker 2: go crying to his mama after the Steelers beat him. Yeah,
- 29:52Speaker 2: but now it's uh, it was fun.
- 29:56Speaker 3: Yeah, Cordell was good time bus definitely.
- 30:00Speaker 2: Help me out.
- 30:01Speaker 1: So yep, all right, cool, Well we've kind of been
- 30:07Speaker 1: through everything I had on the agenda for tonight. Was
- 30:09Speaker 1: there anything else you wanted to talk through before we
- 30:11Speaker 1: sign off for the evening?
- 30:14Speaker 4: I don't think so. All right, well that works for me.
- 30:18Speaker 1: We can sign off and wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving
- 30:21Speaker 1: in the year twenty twenty four. For the world famous
- 30:24Speaker 1: accountants Eric Vanminschutin, I'm Nick de Tulio and this has
- 30:27Speaker 1: been another episode of the GameHouse dot Com Steelers Country Weekly.