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Browns Recap, Eagles Preview · Steelers Country Weekly

0:00
Speaker 1: Today on Steelers Country Weekly, we break down the steelers
0:04
Speaker 1: big revenge win against the Cleveland Browns, look ahead to
0:08
Speaker 1: the Keystone matchup against the Eagles in Philadelphia, and then
0:12
Speaker 1: talk about a really weird situation that's got our old university,
0:16
Speaker 1: our alma mater, in some hot water in the court
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Speaker 1: of public opinion. I'm Nick de Julio and is always
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Speaker 1: am joined by the world famous accountant Eric damon showten. Eric,
0:24
Speaker 1: how are you today?
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Speaker 2: I'm doing all right, putting together a puzzle.
0:32
Speaker 1: You like puzzles, I do not, and not. No. You see,
0:37
Speaker 1: when we record the podcast, I am totally committed to
0:40
Speaker 1: the podcast. I'm not multitasking and doing puzzles. No, I
0:43
Speaker 1: actually do multitasking.
0:47
Speaker 2: Uh. You know what are Steelers?
0:50
Speaker 3: They got a multi task and do multi functions in
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Speaker 3: the game.
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Speaker 2: So I'm just trying to emulate their efforts.
0:59
Speaker 1: Very Uh well, no, what, Let's get the details of
1:03
Speaker 1: the puzzle. How many pieces? What's the puzzle? What is
1:06
Speaker 1: the puzzle of.
1:08
Speaker 3: It's a thousand piece puzzle of Harry Potter. Okay, uh
1:14
Speaker 3: And it's insanely hard, to the point that my wife
1:18
Speaker 3: has said, you're on your own.
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Speaker 2: I'm not helping you.
1:22
Speaker 1: That was my next question was are you getting help
1:24
Speaker 1: or are you doing this by yourself? In solitude? It
1:26
Speaker 1: sounds like that's okay. Does Pressley usually does puzzles with you.
1:35
Speaker 2: That she tries, but she.
1:39
Speaker 3: Doesn't spurt, She doesn't just say like, I'm gonna do
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Speaker 3: the whole.
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Speaker 2: Thing with you.
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Speaker 1: Now, I've got to ask with a with a young
1:46
Speaker 1: kid at home too. I'm in the middle of a
1:49
Speaker 1: phase with my youngest daughter, who's only two weeks older
1:53
Speaker 1: than yours, where I can't set anything down and leave
1:56
Speaker 1: it unattended without it being touched and move. So you
1:59
Speaker 1: have do you have to wait until she's in bed
2:02
Speaker 1: or do you have a special room that you're doing
2:04
Speaker 1: this puzzle in? What's going on here?
2:06
Speaker 3: Do it in the basement and have it up on
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Speaker 3: the table that it's pretty much it's it's not like
2:14
Speaker 3: you can't get to it, but it's a little.
2:16
Speaker 2: High, gotcha.
2:18
Speaker 3: You know what. I could get to the end of
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Speaker 3: this puzzle and find out there's a few pieces missing.
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Speaker 1: So that was my follow up was, how do you
2:26
Speaker 1: know that they're all there until you Yeah? So, oh
2:29
Speaker 1: my goodness, yep, I know that. So that aside I'm
2:35
Speaker 1: glad you're enjoying your puzzle, getting your relaxation in. It
2:38
Speaker 1: seems like we had a pretty good sports weekend here
2:41
Speaker 1: when it came to the Pittsburgh Steelers, so at least
2:43
Speaker 1: we're not decompressing from a loss. But that's right, Well,
2:47
Speaker 1: let's get into it here. Steelers ended up walking away
2:50
Speaker 1: with a win over the Browns twenty seven to fourteen.
2:54
Speaker 1: The big news going into this game was that George
2:56
Speaker 1: Pickens would not be playing due to a hamstring injury.
2:59
Speaker 1: There was really no indication that I saw in the
3:02
Speaker 1: week leading up to the matchup, and I don't think
3:06
Speaker 1: it was talked about at all when we got together
3:08
Speaker 1: last time to talk about the game, which would have
3:11
Speaker 1: been last Tuesday. I know that he officially popped up
3:15
Speaker 1: on the final injury report on Friday as questionable. Was
3:18
Speaker 1: a game time decision. They decided to sit him out,
3:21
Speaker 1: and it actually looks like he's doubtful for next week
3:23
Speaker 1: against the Eagles too. So without knowing all the specifics
3:27
Speaker 1: of the injury, it sounds kind of similar to the
3:30
Speaker 1: same type of injury that Russell Wilson was dealing with
3:34
Speaker 1: early in the year, where it was more so just
3:37
Speaker 1: I mean, he probably could go, but really we'd rather
3:39
Speaker 1: just sit him out and make sure he's back at
3:42
Speaker 1: one hundred percent before we put him in the game.
3:46
Speaker 1: That all being said, that meant the Steelers were going
3:48
Speaker 1: to have to utilize all their other weapons, really weapons
3:54
Speaker 1: that had been kind of quiet throughout the year, and
3:55
Speaker 1: Russell Wilson was going to have to step up. One
3:58
Speaker 1: thing I mentioned was that we needed to flip the
4:00
Speaker 1: defensive player of the Year narrative. TJ. Watt was very
4:03
Speaker 1: quiet in the last game against the Browns. He would
4:05
Speaker 1: need to step up, and I think he did. Miles
4:09
Speaker 1: Garrett still made his presence known at times, but he
4:12
Speaker 1: was mitigated as well. So that was good for the Steelers,
4:17
Speaker 1: and frankly, the Steelers started this game slow. The Browns
4:22
Speaker 1: looked very good on their opening drive, but then they
4:24
Speaker 1: responded pretty quickly, and I would say from maybe the
4:28
Speaker 1: second quarter on, it looked like a very solid performance
4:31
Speaker 1: from the team overall, and we saw different players step up.
4:38
Speaker 1: We saw the team get a two touchdown win, and
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Speaker 1: it was overall just a solid performance that I was
4:46
Speaker 1: given the circumstances, particularly missing our number one weapon, I
4:49
Speaker 1: was pretty happy with, so when you look back at
4:53
Speaker 1: this game from this past Sunday, Eric, what are some
4:55
Speaker 1: of your big takeaways?
4:57
Speaker 3: Yeah, I saw the head. Actually my story about Pickens.
5:03
Speaker 3: I went to croker at the grocery store here in Cincinnati,
5:09
Speaker 3: and then the woman saw my Steelers envelem on my
5:11
Speaker 3: shirt underneath my quarters. It she mentioned, I don't like
5:15
Speaker 3: your team, but I got Pickens on my fantasy team.
5:17
Speaker 2: I hope he helps me here.
5:19
Speaker 3: In today's playoff. Unfortunately, I feel like we lost a
5:25
Speaker 3: fan there. Yeah, she probably is seething because George Pickens
5:31
Speaker 3: was probably not on our team and she either had
5:33
Speaker 3: to do a late roster change or got a big
5:38
Speaker 3: old goose egg. So, but you mentioned George Pickens. Theren't
5:46
Speaker 3: that though? I mean, I thought it was a fantastic game.
5:49
Speaker 3: You know, I did think that I didn't love how
5:53
Speaker 3: the Brown's first touchdown.
5:55
Speaker 2: That guy was wide open.
5:57
Speaker 3: But than that, I mean, really, the Steelers played great.
6:03
Speaker 2: You know the Browns they loved to run to the ball.
6:07
Speaker 2: We made them a little bit unbalanced by become by.
6:10
Speaker 3: Taking the lead, So James had throw forty one times,
6:13
Speaker 3: they only ran.
6:14
Speaker 2: It twenty five.
6:16
Speaker 3: I think that kind of helped us and then Russell
6:20
Speaker 3: didn't have to be superman.
6:24
Speaker 2: He actually started off fourrible and then he.
6:28
Speaker 3: Got it, got a lot better throughout the game, and
6:31
Speaker 3: we just ran the ball, maybe not efficiently, but we
6:35
Speaker 3: ran it. I think that Quarrel Patterson might take some
6:42
Speaker 3: snaps off going forward.
6:44
Speaker 2: He had boneheaded you know, didn't tuck into football and
6:49
Speaker 2: fumbled it.
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Speaker 3: But you know, things else I can remember from the
6:53
Speaker 3: game are punter, he did fantastic.
6:57
Speaker 1: Yep.
6:58
Speaker 2: I think he had a really good game.
7:00
Speaker 3: Which is funny because you know, this game is if
7:04
Speaker 3: you look at the stats, really we didn't play fantastic.
7:08
Speaker 3: We were out gained, Browns had five more first downs.
7:15
Speaker 2: They beat us in running or passing. We barely edged
7:20
Speaker 2: him in running. We weren't great in the red.
7:23
Speaker 3: Zone still fifty percent, but you know one of those
7:26
Speaker 3: was because the end.
7:27
Speaker 2: Of the game we were kneeling on it.
7:30
Speaker 3: But turnovers and then the stat I like this, how
7:34
Speaker 3: often does this happened? Possession thirty minutes, zero seconds for
7:39
Speaker 3: Browns for the Steelers thirty minutes, zero seconds, So split
7:45
Speaker 3: as even as you can possibly get into a football game.
7:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, I saw that.
7:51
Speaker 2: So you know, I think when.
7:53
Speaker 3: It looks when you look back at it. This is
7:56
Speaker 3: a game that's hard to kind of tell from a
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Speaker 3: stat sheet of what looked to be I wouldn't call
8:01
Speaker 3: it a dominant performance, but I would call it a
8:03
Speaker 3: very Outside of the first quarter, I never really had
8:09
Speaker 3: a doubt about where this game.
8:10
Speaker 2: Was going to go.
8:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, I will say there was a couple instances toward
8:16
Speaker 1: the end of the game where I was texting you
8:17
Speaker 1: and I'm like, I just want us to close out
8:20
Speaker 1: a game for once. There was one possession where the
8:23
Speaker 1: Steelers went like three and out and took maybe like
8:26
Speaker 1: half a minute off the clock, and I was just like, really,
8:28
Speaker 1: that's what we're doing here. We're gonna blow it like that.
8:33
Speaker 1: But you know, if that's the biggest thing I have
8:36
Speaker 1: to complain about, I'd say it's a pretty good day.
8:38
Speaker 1: I'll give Boswell a shout out to because the Browns
8:40
Speaker 1: kicker missed two field goals and I'm not necessarily throwing
8:45
Speaker 1: him under the bus, But in a year where it
8:47
Speaker 1: seems like kickers, particularly within our own division, are really struggling,
8:52
Speaker 1: he's having arguably his best year. He's been very consistent,
8:56
Speaker 1: So I don't know if this is just a coincidence
8:59
Speaker 1: that we're seeing the other kickers flubbing all these kicks,
9:03
Speaker 1: particularly in Pittsburgh or or just something else. But it
9:08
Speaker 1: does help a lot, particularly when you're in games that
9:11
Speaker 1: are close, or like this one, it could have been
9:13
Speaker 1: close a lot much closer if the guy had made
9:15
Speaker 1: his field goals. It's just good to have that consistency
9:21
Speaker 1: from the kicking position. So I'll give him the shout out.
9:24
Speaker 1: And yeah, I mean you mentioned Russell Wilson started off slow,
9:28
Speaker 1: but he did pick it up, and his two touchdowns,
9:32
Speaker 1: particular with the one the Friarmooth, I thought were exceptional.
9:36
Speaker 1: The way he scrambled and found him open and hit
9:39
Speaker 1: him with a laser was perfect. And you know, it's
9:43
Speaker 1: just it's good to see those positive, those positive vibes.
9:48
Speaker 1: It seems like the team is overall in a good spot.
9:50
Speaker 1: And I don't want to I don't want to say
9:54
Speaker 1: George Pickens was necessarily right. But when he complained about
9:58
Speaker 1: the weather and the game and a game against the
10:01
Speaker 1: Browns in Cleveland, you and I had pointed out, I mean, yeah,
10:05
Speaker 1: the weather didn't help, but it also I mean, it
10:08
Speaker 1: impacted the Browns just as much as it impacted the Steelers.
10:12
Speaker 1: We were more critical of the decisions that the Steelers
10:15
Speaker 1: made that game than some snow, like the decisions they
10:18
Speaker 1: made to kick a fifty eight yard or and their
10:20
Speaker 1: clock management and their play calling. So what I'm getting
10:24
Speaker 1: at is we didn't have any of those issues. We
10:27
Speaker 1: just came out, we played a good game of football,
10:29
Speaker 1: kept our heads about us, and we won by two touchdowns.
10:32
Speaker 1: So it's good that we were able to wash that
10:37
Speaker 1: loss away or cancel it out, if you will. I
10:39
Speaker 1: would have preferred having two wins, but we're on the
10:42
Speaker 1: right track now. I'm pretty happy with where the team's
10:46
Speaker 1: at at the moment. I would like to get George
10:49
Speaker 1: Pickens back and have this team really fire on all cylinders.
10:52
Speaker 1: But you know, for a division game against the Browns,
10:57
Speaker 1: who have struggled throughout the year, have been in a
11:00
Speaker 1: lot of close games, this was a good win and
11:03
Speaker 1: I'll take any win we can get right now.
11:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I mean it was pivotal a week because
11:12
Speaker 2: so now we're two games up on the Ravens.
11:15
Speaker 3: The Bills lost and the Chiefs armor is lost.
11:19
Speaker 2: But yeah, I mean we're right now.
11:24
Speaker 3: We didn't clinch a playoffs, but but it's fairly certain
11:28
Speaker 3: but right now it's we're trying to play for the
11:31
Speaker 3: division and seeding, and.
11:34
Speaker 2: This would have been.
11:34
Speaker 3: A big one because if we would have dropped this one,
11:38
Speaker 3: we put some pressure on ourselves because that Ravens game
11:42
Speaker 3: would al must be a must win.
11:45
Speaker 2: Because if they were only a game back and then
11:49
Speaker 2: we lost, and then we didn't.
11:50
Speaker 3: Have the the you know, the tie breaker over them,
11:54
Speaker 3: I don't know how certain we'd be able to overcome
11:58
Speaker 3: in especially with this consol that we have coming up
12:01
Speaker 3: for the.
12:01
Speaker 2: Rest of the season.
12:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, and speaking of the Ravens, they're playing the Giants
12:06
Speaker 1: next after the Ravens are coming off of by to
12:09
Speaker 1: play the Giants, so you have to assume they're going
12:11
Speaker 1: to pick up a win there. Then they're going to
12:14
Speaker 1: play the Texans, who I think the Ravens are a
12:18
Speaker 1: better team, but the Texans have not been quite as
12:20
Speaker 1: strong as people thought they would be this year anyway,
12:23
Speaker 1: And then they're going to host the Browns in the finale,
12:27
Speaker 1: So you'd have to assume that just the way that
12:31
Speaker 1: the Steelers record has gone this year, I don't think
12:34
Speaker 1: that that's going to be and I'm saying too much
12:37
Speaker 1: at once here. I don't think the Ravens are going
12:39
Speaker 1: to be in a situation where they're going to be
12:40
Speaker 1: resting starters to possibly get a bye. So you're correct.
12:45
Speaker 1: The Steelers need to win as many games as they can,
12:48
Speaker 1: and this one in particular was good being that it
12:50
Speaker 1: was a divisional opponent. The Ravens were on a by
12:52
Speaker 1: so because of the win, they got to go an
12:54
Speaker 1: extra game ahead of them, up to two. Like you said,
12:57
Speaker 1: they're up two games with four games left, which they
13:00
Speaker 1: still have some work to do, and one of the
13:03
Speaker 1: games is against the Ravens, which obviously that'd be the
13:07
Speaker 1: most convenient way to get the division of all, but
13:11
Speaker 1: this helps a lot. Yeah, all right, well, was there
13:16
Speaker 1: anything else you wanted to mention about the matchup with
13:18
Speaker 1: the Browns? All right, well, that'll do it for Cleveland.
13:23
Speaker 1: The Steelers walk away with a win, they avoid the sweep.
13:27
Speaker 1: That means they are on to Philadelphia. Now this is
13:32
Speaker 1: an interesting team because Philadelphia is on like a nine
13:35
Speaker 1: game winning streak the last several years. They've been one
13:38
Speaker 1: of the perennial favorites in the NFC. They're in a
13:42
Speaker 1: bit of a little rough stretch here. They had a
13:44
Speaker 1: close win against the Ravens five point win, and then
13:47
Speaker 1: they really struggled against the Panthers they won by six.
13:52
Speaker 1: And you and I have seen too many Steelers games
13:54
Speaker 1: where they have a really good record ten and three
14:00
Speaker 1: they have right now, or eleven and two, but you
14:02
Speaker 1: see a lot of really close games and you see
14:04
Speaker 1: them start to the skids kind of start, the wheels
14:08
Speaker 1: start to fall off, so to speak, but they keep
14:11
Speaker 1: getting oil with a win, and finally something has to happen.
14:14
Speaker 1: So I'm hoping that this is the week that that
14:16
Speaker 1: does happen, that the Steelers can get a win against
14:18
Speaker 1: their interstate rivals. But as it stands, the rate or
14:22
Speaker 1: the Eagles are still in first place in their division,
14:25
Speaker 1: they're probably going to win it. They seem to have
14:28
Speaker 1: overall done what they needed to do this year to
14:31
Speaker 1: get the wins where they needed them. And right now
14:34
Speaker 1: we've got a battle of two first place teams in
14:37
Speaker 1: their divisions and their respective conferences coming to Philadelphia next week.
14:43
Speaker 1: It'll be the prime time well that the four point
14:47
Speaker 1: thirty game on Fox, so definitely going to be a
14:50
Speaker 1: lot of eyes on it. And as I mentioned before,
14:52
Speaker 1: it's doubtful that George Pickens will be playing, so the
14:56
Speaker 1: Steelers are going to need some stars to step up
14:58
Speaker 1: in a big way. Looking ahead to this game in Philadelphia, Eric,
15:02
Speaker 1: what are some of the keys you see for the
15:04
Speaker 1: Steelers to get a win?
15:07
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, I think focusing on the Eagles first,
15:13
Speaker 3: the clamor has.
15:14
Speaker 2: Been about I guess that they haven't really had a
15:16
Speaker 2: lot of great passing offense lately.
15:21
Speaker 3: It's hard to believe with those weapons in John Hurts
15:24
Speaker 3: a quarterback, that that's the case. But you know, everyone
15:27
Speaker 3: goes their slumps. But keeping that in mind, there's plenty
15:32
Speaker 3: to go with. I mean, the Saquon Barkley is having
15:37
Speaker 3: one of his best years. I saw a stat is
15:41
Speaker 3: so interesting and if you're a fancy owner of Saquon
15:46
Speaker 3: Barkley you're probably cursing this now. But Saquon has been
15:51
Speaker 3: tackled at the one yard line eleven times. Jalen Hurts
15:57
Speaker 3: has gotten ten touchdowns off of those eleven, Saquon's got zero, So.
16:01
Speaker 2: I don't I don't know if maybe they threw well,
16:05
Speaker 2: so Saquon has gotten zero points.
16:07
Speaker 3: When they've when they've gotten to the one yard line.
16:12
Speaker 3: That toush push. Even though Jason Kelsey is no longer there,
16:16
Speaker 3: Uh seems to be still working.
16:18
Speaker 2: So you know, we really have to tune it up
16:21
Speaker 2: on a rushing defense. Uh.
16:24
Speaker 3: You know, we just talked about and there's two ways
16:28
Speaker 3: to go about you because we just kind of mentioned
16:31
Speaker 3: with the Browns game, we took away the brown ability
16:35
Speaker 3: to run because we went up early.
16:37
Speaker 2: So if you trying to get.
16:40
Speaker 3: Them to start passing the ball earlier, they're gonna run less.
16:45
Speaker 2: Or we just stopped it.
16:46
Speaker 3: You know, we we we haven't had a you know,
16:51
Speaker 3: a team run all over us lately.
16:55
Speaker 2: I think that the run defense has been okay, you know,
17:00
Speaker 2: so it it'd be great.
17:02
Speaker 3: To see kind of us actually have a very dominant
17:05
Speaker 3: performance at the line of scrimmage on the defense.
17:07
Speaker 1: Side of the blot.
17:08
Speaker 2: I think we're peopable doing so, but just going out and.
17:12
Speaker 4: Going to do it, I think that that would be
17:15
Speaker 4: a big key and stopping the Eagles. And you know,
17:19
Speaker 4: from an offensive standpoint, one of the things would just be,
17:25
Speaker 4: you know, if we do want to kind of take
17:26
Speaker 4: the ball out of the Eagles hands, take it away
17:30
Speaker 4: from Berkeley Berkeley and making the deal on.
17:32
Speaker 2: Her to pass it, maybe we pass it. Maybe this
17:36
Speaker 2: is a time where we kind of sling the ball.
17:39
Speaker 3: I think weather always depends, but you know, Russell is
17:45
Speaker 3: just two games away from a four hundred and fourteen
17:49
Speaker 3: yard passing performance, so.
17:52
Speaker 2: Depending on his health.
17:55
Speaker 3: You know, I think a little bit of factors into
17:57
Speaker 3: that is he loves George Pickens on the field, so.
18:01
Speaker 2: They do lose that big play element.
18:03
Speaker 3: But Mike Williams also looked very good on Sunday, so
18:08
Speaker 3: maybe we kind of get him cooking a little bit.
18:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, that would be nice, and I should have mentioned
18:14
Speaker 1: it was. It was good to see Mike Williams getting involved.
18:19
Speaker 1: It's just unfortunate it had to come at the expense
18:21
Speaker 1: of losing George Pickens for a game, because after that
18:25
Speaker 1: first game against the Commanders where he had the game
18:27
Speaker 1: winning catch, he's been relatively quiet and looking at the weather.
18:32
Speaker 1: At least as of right now, it looks like there's
18:36
Speaker 1: a forty percent chance of rain, so it is possible
18:39
Speaker 1: that we could see some rain at the game, which
18:42
Speaker 1: again will impact a little bit of the play calling there.
18:45
Speaker 1: But but I agree with you one hundred percent. This
18:48
Speaker 1: seems like one of those situations where you shouldn't have
18:53
Speaker 1: to overthink things, like, Okay, we know what the Eagles
18:57
Speaker 1: strength on offense is I don't think that they're going
19:00
Speaker 1: to try to out smartest or anything. It's not like
19:03
Speaker 1: they're going to come out and throw seventy times in
19:05
Speaker 1: the game just to you know, trick us. It's they're
19:08
Speaker 1: going to give the ball to Saquon right, So you
19:11
Speaker 1: need to do whatever you can to stop that. And then,
19:14
Speaker 1: like you said, have them beat you, try to beat
19:18
Speaker 1: you through the air. When you're talking specifically about doing that, though,
19:24
Speaker 1: teams are going to be more inclined to run the
19:26
Speaker 1: ball if they have a lead on you. So you
19:29
Speaker 1: need to do your job on offense to get the points.
19:32
Speaker 1: I know it's rudimentary, but I think it bears saying here.
19:37
Speaker 1: That's what you alluded to as well. If the Steelers
19:40
Speaker 1: can get some points on the board, I think quickly
19:43
Speaker 1: and probably through the air would be the best way
19:46
Speaker 1: to do it. I think that would be the best
19:50
Speaker 1: medicine here to get that to get that win. They've
19:55
Speaker 1: started off slow a few times. I wish that in
20:00
Speaker 1: this game against the Browns, for example, their first possession
20:03
Speaker 1: I think started on the thirty five after that Keanu
20:05
Speaker 1: Benton defensive line interception, and they couldn't get a touchdown
20:08
Speaker 1: out of that on an instant, especially like that where
20:13
Speaker 1: you kick the ball off and then or where you
20:16
Speaker 1: get the ball back early in the game with a
20:18
Speaker 1: chance to take the lead, that would be a really
20:21
Speaker 1: big exclamation point that you can put down that they
20:24
Speaker 1: haven't been able to do that I've seen yet or
20:26
Speaker 1: that I can recall. So if that's something that they
20:30
Speaker 1: could do, particularly in a game where on the road
20:32
Speaker 1: against one of the better teams in the other conference,
20:35
Speaker 1: that's what you need to do. But again, there's not
20:40
Speaker 1: much that I think we need to beat ourselves up
20:43
Speaker 1: about here. It's if you stop Saquon, I think you
20:45
Speaker 1: probably win this game. I know that the Eagles have
20:51
Speaker 1: invested a lot in their defense in the last couple drafts.
20:54
Speaker 1: I know that they've gotten a lot of Georgia Bulldogs
20:57
Speaker 1: and they've really beefed up their secondary this offseat. And
21:01
Speaker 1: like we said, they're getting the wins, but they haven't
21:04
Speaker 1: looked like the world beaters that everyone thought they would
21:06
Speaker 1: be for the last two years. They've they've won some
21:09
Speaker 1: close games, they've struggled a little bit, and it really
21:12
Speaker 1: hasn't gelled quite yet. Doesn't mean it won't. I hope
21:15
Speaker 1: they don't start doing it this week, but I guess
21:18
Speaker 1: it's possible.
21:19
Speaker 2: Right.
21:20
Speaker 1: We remember one of the last times the Steelers played
21:23
Speaker 1: the game in Philadelphia, where we were so excited to watch.
21:26
Speaker 1: It was supposed to be a great game national coverage,
21:29
Speaker 1: and they pulled our pants down and just beat the
21:32
Speaker 1: brakes off us so badly that they pulled the national coverage.
21:37
Speaker 1: So anything can happen. That being said, I'm looking at
21:44
Speaker 1: this game, I'm looking at what the Eagles have done.
21:52
Speaker 1: I feel like I should give the Steelers a loss here,
21:55
Speaker 1: just because I think that losing George Pickens is going
21:58
Speaker 1: to hurt them more against the Eagles than it did
22:00
Speaker 1: against the Browns. But at the same time, I'm looking
22:03
Speaker 1: at the Eagles and I'm like, man, they're due for
22:05
Speaker 1: a loss, aren't they. Yeah, maybe I'll just say it's
22:10
Speaker 1: going to be a tie. There you go, so that
22:13
Speaker 1: I can be wrong that that's a bold prediction. That's
22:16
Speaker 1: a bold prediction. Now I'll give the I'll give the
22:23
Speaker 1: Eagles a win here. I think the Eagles will win
22:26
Speaker 1: and kind of put a damper rain on our parade,
22:29
Speaker 1: so to speak. I hope I'm wrong let's see, we
22:33
Speaker 1: scored twenty seven last week. I'll say it's gonna be
22:41
Speaker 1: twenty eight to seventeen Philadelphia. A.
22:47
Speaker 3: Uh yeah, I agree with you too, And a little
22:51
Speaker 3: bit of it is because you said.
22:53
Speaker 1: That, you know.
22:57
Speaker 2: How the Eagles have been kind of skating by.
23:00
Speaker 3: But it's weird to say this because we have played
23:04
Speaker 3: divisional teams or very good teams over.
23:07
Speaker 2: The past like a month and a half.
23:10
Speaker 3: But Commanders we had a one point win, Ravens we
23:14
Speaker 3: had a two point win, lost a five point game,
23:17
Speaker 3: won a six point game, and then this last week
23:21
Speaker 3: we turned into two touchdown win. But we hadn't really
23:25
Speaker 3: been like dominating either. So part of me is also thinking, well,
23:32
Speaker 3: we haven't been playing like dominant either, and whether it's
23:37
Speaker 3: been our defense has been suspect or our offense hasn't
23:41
Speaker 3: come to play, we haven't really pieced together I think
23:45
Speaker 3: a totally dominant performance. So until I see that, I
23:51
Speaker 3: also will go with a win for the Eagles, probably
23:55
Speaker 3: based on.
23:58
Speaker 2: I think that.
24:01
Speaker 3: My faith in the Eagles offense is greater than my
24:05
Speaker 3: faith in the Steelers defense lately. I hate to say
24:11
Speaker 3: that because Steelers probably going after the Ravens game people
24:16
Speaker 3: were talking about business, you know, one of the best defenses.
24:21
Speaker 2: But I just feel like things kind of fell off
24:24
Speaker 2: a little bit with the Browns game Bengals game.
24:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, so.
24:30
Speaker 3: It celects to do that, and it's possible, especially with
24:34
Speaker 3: our offensive our outside linebackers all healthy again.
24:37
Speaker 2: But I need to see it, so I'm gonna go Eagles.
24:46
Speaker 2: Let's do.
24:49
Speaker 3: Twenty twenty eight to twenty.
24:54
Speaker 1: All right, so we're pretty close in score, pretty close. Obviously,
24:58
Speaker 1: we've got the same prediction here. That's a good point
25:00
Speaker 1: you made though, too, about having a complete performance. Looking
25:05
Speaker 1: at the Steelers schedule here, their two biggest wins were
25:12
Speaker 1: back to back against the Raiders and against the Jets.
25:17
Speaker 1: And from what I remember about the Raiders game, well,
25:20
Speaker 1: for starters, neither of these two teams are going to
25:22
Speaker 1: the playoffs. Are really that good this year, So let's
25:24
Speaker 1: start with that. But number two, I feel like the
25:28
Speaker 1: Raiders game was actually a little closer than the score
25:31
Speaker 1: would indicate. It was maybe at the very end that
25:33
Speaker 1: they opened that up a little bit. And then the
25:35
Speaker 1: Jets game was also close I think for a while too.
25:39
Speaker 1: So yeah, i'd agree with you that we haven't seen
25:41
Speaker 1: a game where the Steelers have just taken care of
25:43
Speaker 1: business and really controlled things from start to finish. So
25:47
Speaker 1: that's a good point. You would hope that we'd see
25:50
Speaker 1: that if we haven't yet, in at least one of
25:53
Speaker 1: these four games, ideally one of these next three games,
25:57
Speaker 1: if we could come out and manhandle either of the
25:59
Speaker 1: e goals, Ravens or Chiefs, that would be great.
26:03
Speaker 2: I'd take that.
26:04
Speaker 1: I would maybe it'll be a Christmas year or on
26:07
Speaker 1: a Christmas Day against the Chiefs. But now that we've
26:11
Speaker 1: talked about the Eagles, and we'll talk about the Chiefs
26:13
Speaker 1: as we get there, the Chiefs are in a very
26:17
Speaker 1: similar situation what we just described the Eagles as too.
26:20
Speaker 1: They've had so many close calls and it seems like
26:23
Speaker 1: there's either a controversy about a decision that the referees made,
26:27
Speaker 1: or in the game two nights ago against the Chargers,
26:31
Speaker 1: they had a they kicked the field goal to win
26:33
Speaker 1: it as time expired and it hit off the upright
26:35
Speaker 1: and went in. So even though the Chiefs are still
26:40
Speaker 1: the Chiefs and have a i think a two game
26:43
Speaker 1: lead because they've only lost once, they've had a lot
26:47
Speaker 1: of close calls too, So it seems like, this is
26:49
Speaker 1: a year where to put it into perspective for us
26:54
Speaker 1: as Steelers fans, even though we might not we might
26:58
Speaker 1: be a little more pessimistic in say well, yeah, this
27:01
Speaker 1: is not a super Bowl team. You have to kind
27:03
Speaker 1: of take a step back and say, well, everyone else
27:05
Speaker 1: is struggling at different times too. There's not a other
27:08
Speaker 1: than perhaps the Lions, who also just lost. There really
27:11
Speaker 1: hasn't been a team that's dominated most every week. The Rams.
27:20
Speaker 2: Man, the Rams man, Rams playing really good.
27:24
Speaker 1: Let me double check. I'm gonna now that I've come
27:26
Speaker 1: out and said that, because the Rams.
27:29
Speaker 2: Just beat the Bills. And I say the Bills going
27:38
Speaker 2: into that game. I was watching that game a little bit.
27:42
Speaker 3: Uh, they are six game winning streak, and they had
27:46
Speaker 3: turned the ball.
27:47
Speaker 2: They tourced fifteen turnovers during that time, so everything and
27:51
Speaker 2: a half a game.
27:52
Speaker 1: Okay, pretty good work. Let me take it back. The
27:55
Speaker 1: Rams did not beat them. The Rams did beat the Bills.
27:58
Speaker 1: Like you said, I don't know where I got that
28:01
Speaker 1: the Rams just beat the Lions. I think I was
28:03
Speaker 1: just getting all confused inside myself here. But the Lions
28:08
Speaker 1: did just have a close game. They've actually won their
28:11
Speaker 1: last two games by three points. They were against the
28:13
Speaker 1: Bears and the Packers, and they will play the Bills
28:17
Speaker 1: this week. So maybe I was getting all three teams
28:20
Speaker 1: mixed up in my crosshairs here. So there you go.
28:23
Speaker 1: Detroit has been the team to beat this year, and
28:24
Speaker 1: we won't have to worry about them until we get
28:26
Speaker 1: to the super Bowl. There you go.
28:29
Speaker 2: All right, you didn't even say if I win.
28:33
Speaker 1: I was channeling my Remember the Titans. You remember that
28:36
Speaker 1: scene where it was like, everybody has tendencies except Ed Henry. Well,
28:41
Speaker 1: the only time we'll have to worry about Ed Henry's
28:43
Speaker 1: in the state championship. And he just goes mm hmm.
28:51
Speaker 1: There you go. So we have kind of an interesting
28:53
Speaker 1: topic here today. Our alma mater, the University of Cincinnati,
28:58
Speaker 1: has really taking the beating in the court of public
29:02
Speaker 1: opinion because they sent a cease and desist letter to
29:06
Speaker 1: a middle school in Tennessee a few weeks ago that
29:11
Speaker 1: told them they had to stop not only using the logo,
29:15
Speaker 1: which is the letter C with like some paw prints
29:19
Speaker 1: over it, which I actually do think is pretty cool
29:22
Speaker 1: when I like the logo, but they also told them
29:24
Speaker 1: they can't use the name bear Cats anymore. Kind of interesting.
29:30
Speaker 1: I thought Eric and I were talking a little bit beforehand.
29:35
Speaker 1: I actually do find that it's a pet peeve of
29:37
Speaker 1: mine when you see a school just stealing a logo
29:41
Speaker 1: from either a college or an NFL team. We had
29:45
Speaker 1: a couple schools in our little athletic conference and back
29:50
Speaker 1: in Ohio who did it that. It just drove me nuts.
29:56
Speaker 1: But I actually don't care about the mascot name itself,
29:58
Speaker 1: because how many you know, how many Tiger teams or
30:01
Speaker 1: Lion teams or whatever you're going to find out there.
30:05
Speaker 1: But somehow we sent them a cease and desist letter
30:07
Speaker 1: so they can't even use the name Bearcats anymore. So anyway,
30:12
Speaker 1: it got really interesting because our crosstown rival, the Xavier Musketeers,
30:19
Speaker 1: really just leaned into it and said, hey, guess what,
30:21
Speaker 1: we'll help you. We'll raise money and you should change
30:23
Speaker 1: your name to the Musketeers. And today they announced that
30:27
Speaker 1: they did so it is now the I think it's
30:30
Speaker 1: Cheatham Musketeers. So I have to say that I'm a
30:36
Speaker 1: little disappointed in our university just because it seems like
30:41
Speaker 1: a really weird thing to do. Again, if it was
30:43
Speaker 1: just the logo, I would have been like, Okay, whatever.
30:45
Speaker 1: But apparently the school actually reached out and tried to
30:48
Speaker 1: settle something with them and said, hey, look what if
30:50
Speaker 1: we just changed the logo, and the University of Cincinnati
30:53
Speaker 1: said Nope, no dice. So even though our school came
30:59
Speaker 1: out looking pretty bad, I did think I was I
31:03
Speaker 1: laughed when I saw what Xavier did, so I gotta
31:05
Speaker 1: say it was that was pretty funny, and it was
31:09
Speaker 1: Xavier doing the most or making light of a funny,
31:13
Speaker 1: really weird situation at their rival's expense, which is what
31:16
Speaker 1: we love about sports, but college in general. So I
31:20
Speaker 1: know we talked a little bit about it beforehand, but
31:23
Speaker 1: did you I'm assuming because we talked about it, you
31:25
Speaker 1: saw the story. Did you have any thoughts about it
31:27
Speaker 1: as well?
31:29
Speaker 3: Yeah, it just seemed like I understand some schools or
31:35
Speaker 3: some infringement, but are we really like going down in Tennessee,
31:40
Speaker 3: you know, at least five hours away and just scouring
31:46
Speaker 3: different places that they have.
31:48
Speaker 2: I don't think anyone applying for colleges is going to
31:51
Speaker 2: confuse us with the middle school. So to me, it
31:55
Speaker 2: felt like a little petty on our end. Yeah, and uh,
32:02
Speaker 2: extremely disappointed in our university because it just looks so like.
32:09
Speaker 3: Low Brown if you were, I understand, like especially okay,
32:14
Speaker 3: we live in an age where everyone is copying licensing
32:20
Speaker 3: to make cheaper garments, so like, so you don't have
32:25
Speaker 3: to go into a rally house or Dick's or whatever
32:29
Speaker 3: it's been through the nose for a a UC polo
32:34
Speaker 3: or a U S nick cap, which, by the way,
32:38
Speaker 3: we're into a rally house.
32:39
Speaker 2: I don't know if the listeners here have a rally house.
32:41
Speaker 3: It's like just a little sporting good store where you
32:44
Speaker 3: can get your polos, T shirts, hats, et cetera. And
32:51
Speaker 3: my daughter she got a little bearcat's outfit, but we
32:55
Speaker 3: changed it out. We want to get a nick cap
32:57
Speaker 3: because it would fitter throughout the whole entire in it.
33:02
Speaker 2: It costs thirty dollars for a little nitcap.
33:05
Speaker 3: Oh my daughter, it's sounding me like she's eighteen or
33:10
Speaker 3: seventeen months and that's how much it costs.
33:13
Speaker 2: So, you know what, more power to hit them.
33:18
Speaker 3: Musketeers for coaching those things, because it's highway robbery sometimes
33:27
Speaker 3: what they charge and I know that's not always on
33:31
Speaker 3: the schools, but they're obviously getting licensing back to it.
33:36
Speaker 3: And because they're charging so much in licensing. It makes
33:39
Speaker 3: everything so expensive. So I don't know if you ever
33:45
Speaker 3: watched Silicon Valley. Nope, I think you mentioned that you
33:51
Speaker 3: have HBO.
33:52
Speaker 1: Yeah you should watch it.
33:54
Speaker 2: Okay, a really good show. The creator of King of
33:58
Speaker 2: the Hill made the show.
34:00
Speaker 3: Oh nice, and it's about like it's kind of making
34:04
Speaker 3: fun of like the main character is kind of making
34:07
Speaker 3: fun of like a it's called a Google Mark Zuckerberg.
34:14
Speaker 2: Environment going on. But in one of the episodes, one
34:19
Speaker 2: of the guys he creates.
34:22
Speaker 3: New Internet, new, social media, new, and he just puts
34:27
Speaker 3: so he just infringes everybody's inventions and then puts the
34:32
Speaker 3: new in front of it to rebrand it.
34:35
Speaker 2: And I thought it was hilarious. But did you give
34:39
Speaker 2: that shoe a watch? And my final word is it
34:44
Speaker 2: is you see bearcats are petty?
34:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, I would agree with you. And like I said,
34:53
Speaker 1: just because I have that personal pet peeve, I'm not
34:56
Speaker 1: going out demanding that these schools change their logos either.
34:59
Speaker 1: I'm just like, oh that kind of god, Oh that
35:01
Speaker 1: kind of bugs me. And then I move on and
35:03
Speaker 1: then I move on with my life. And that you
35:07
Speaker 1: also brought up a good point too, like how did
35:09
Speaker 1: we even find out about this place, Like, do we
35:12
Speaker 1: literally have lawyers on retainer that are like just googling
35:16
Speaker 1: bear cats and trying to see where they can find
35:18
Speaker 1: people using that name. And again, I'll i'll specify too,
35:24
Speaker 1: like that part really bugs me that it's you can't
35:27
Speaker 1: even use the name bear cat. Really, it's a god
35:31
Speaker 1: dang animal. What are you talking about? And I know
35:34
Speaker 1: some people don't think it's a real animal, because I've
35:36
Speaker 1: had that discussion before too. It is a legitimately real animal.
35:40
Speaker 3: Uh.
35:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, we have Lucy and Lucille used to come to
35:44
Speaker 1: the games all the time, the bear cats from the
35:46
Speaker 1: Cincinnati Zoo.
35:48
Speaker 2: It's not like a super ferocious or even cute animal.
35:52
Speaker 2: It's just it's just an animal.
35:55
Speaker 1: Yeah. It hangs out on the handlers like shoulder, and
35:58
Speaker 1: he feeds it bananas or something throughout the day, like
36:00
Speaker 1: they would walk it around on campus too. So anyway,
36:05
Speaker 1: I'm just leaving at that. I'll say too, I told
36:07
Speaker 1: you I had a funny story about the bear cat
36:09
Speaker 1: logo in question too. I moved to Atlanta a few
36:13
Speaker 1: years ago, and I would say the first couple weeks
36:17
Speaker 1: I was out, I did run into someone or meet
36:21
Speaker 1: someone who happened to live from Cincinnati, so he was
36:24
Speaker 1: talking to me about it for a while. But on
36:28
Speaker 1: two separate occasions, I promise you I am not exaggerating.
36:32
Speaker 1: I am not making this up. I swear to God
36:34
Speaker 1: this is the truth. I had two different people ask
36:39
Speaker 1: me about my job at Chick fil A, and I'm like,
36:43
Speaker 1: I don't work at Chick fil A. What are you
36:45
Speaker 1: talking about. You're wearing a Chick fil A shirt. I
36:48
Speaker 1: looked down and it was just a shirt that had
36:50
Speaker 1: the seapaw on it. I'm like, oh my gosh. And
36:54
Speaker 1: if you've ever it was a situation where it's something
36:58
Speaker 1: you never noticed before, but that's all you see now,
37:02
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh my gosh. So and actually, one of
37:08
Speaker 1: my co workers down here in Atlanta was on a
37:11
Speaker 1: web call with someone else who is still in Cincinnati,
37:15
Speaker 1: and he had a shirt on and so he messaged
37:17
Speaker 1: our manager and said, why is he wearing a Chick
37:19
Speaker 1: fil A shirt? That's not one of his accounts. So
37:23
Speaker 1: it's so it's happened twice directly to me and once
37:27
Speaker 1: to someone else indirect that I know. It's a very
37:31
Speaker 1: common thing. And I actually read about it online too,
37:34
Speaker 1: so as much as I love the logo, I just
37:38
Speaker 1: want to put into perspective for everyone who's listening that
37:42
Speaker 1: when Eric says we're being petty, we are being a
37:44
Speaker 1: bit petty about a logo that I know of at
37:46
Speaker 1: least three times anecdotally speaking, that has directly been compared
37:51
Speaker 1: to the Chick fil A logo. That's what we're Yeah,
37:57
Speaker 1: so you see has.
37:59
Speaker 2: Been around longer than chick But who's who's have a logo? Anger?
38:04
Speaker 2: Could Chick fil agu after us?
38:07
Speaker 1: I don't think they could, because the Chick fil A
38:10
Speaker 1: is a chicken and we are a paw. Although now
38:15
Speaker 1: that you say that, I would really like for one
38:18
Speaker 1: of the two entities to try to send the other
38:20
Speaker 1: a cease and desist because maybe we'll get to see
38:23
Speaker 1: that go to court and we can watch the arguments
38:25
Speaker 1: that they have about with each other about what the
38:27
Speaker 1: logos look like, and it'll just be like one of
38:30
Speaker 1: the sitcoms where you've got one person screaming it's a
38:32
Speaker 1: paw and the other person yelling it's a chicken, and
38:35
Speaker 1: they just come back and forth. But we could. We've
38:39
Speaker 1: got the Google machine. Let's see Chick fil A logo history.
38:49
Speaker 1: If we are to believe the Internet. They first adopted
38:55
Speaker 1: that cursive C with the chicken in nineteen sixty four.
39:02
Speaker 2: Sounds like they've had before us.
39:04
Speaker 1: I think they might have Sincinnati logo logo history image
39:16
Speaker 1: is hold on, hold on, hold on. Oh yeah, they've
39:22
Speaker 1: had it way longer. We didn't start using the seapow
39:24
Speaker 1: till nineteen ninety.
39:25
Speaker 2: So go get them check fil come at us.
39:28
Speaker 1: Chick fil but not on Sundays.
39:34
Speaker 2: That's right.
39:35
Speaker 1: Okay, Well, we've talked about quite a few different things today,
39:41
Speaker 1: and I guess before we sign off, I'm gonna mention
39:43
Speaker 1: too that I actually, if the bear Cats are going
39:45
Speaker 1: to get rid of the seapod, they should just go
39:46
Speaker 1: back to the actual bear Cat logo. I thought that
39:49
Speaker 1: was pretty neat from looks like ninety to two thousand
39:55
Speaker 1: and five when you and I first became fans and
39:57
Speaker 1: started we're growing up. So anyway, not to jump back
40:02
Speaker 1: and forth and back and forth here, But was there
40:04
Speaker 1: anything else you wanted to touch on before we signed
40:06
Speaker 1: off for the night.
40:08
Speaker 2: No, I'm good.
40:10
Speaker 1: All right, Well that'll do it for us. I'm going
40:13
Speaker 1: to bed. Eric's gonna finish his puzzle and he's not
40:16
Speaker 1: resting until he's done, and I think that does it
40:19
Speaker 1: for us. For the world famous account to Eric Lamon Shuttin,
40:22
Speaker 1: I'm Nick Detulio and this has been another episode of
40:25
Speaker 1: the GameHouse dot COM's Steelers Country Weekly