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HR1: Game Preview · In the Locker Room presented by Neighborhood Ford Store (Pittsburgh Steelers)

• 0:10
  Speaker 1: This is In the Locker Room with Rob King, Max Starks,
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: and Willie Colon on Steelers Nation Radio. Brought to you
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: in part by the Steelers Pro Shop. Get it direct
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: from the team at the Steelers Pro Shop at shop.steelers.com.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: And by your neighborhood Ford store. The F-150 is the
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: official truck of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: And thanks very much for being with us in the
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: locker room here on this Friday afternoon as we are.
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: getting you ready for the Steelers and the Tampa Bay Bucs.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: The Steelers looking for their first road win of the season.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: A huge, huge game, obviously.
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: Man, you've got to get yourself to 4-2.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: You don't want to be 3-3 coming home and then
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: that short week of practice heading to Paris, France next week.
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: We are joined as we wait for Willie Starks. Willie Starks.
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: Willie Colon. Willie Starks.
• 1:02
  Speaker 4: There we go.
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: Max Cologne with us now. I'm sure as close as
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: we are, it feels like we're related. Max Cologne and
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: Willie Starks here. Oh, boy. Max, how are you, my friend?
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: That's when you lose that concentration for one beat.
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: That's all it takes. All it takes.
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: So, hope you're doing well. Did you have a chance
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: to watch any of the Thursday night game last night?
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: I did. I did. I did.
• 1:28
  Speaker 5: I'm still reeling right now in real time, Rob.
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: You know, Happy wife, happy life, right?
• 1:35
  Speaker 6: Uh-huh.
• 1:37
  Speaker 5: And, you know, your wife makes a recommendation. She's like,
• 1:40
  Speaker 5: you know what? Why fight it? I'm just going to
• 1:44
  Speaker 5: do it, right? You know, hey, my wife is my
• 1:47
  Speaker 5: number one. She's my ace. I'm going to follow her lead.
• 1:51
  Speaker 5: And even when it's crazy, right, Rob? Like conventional male
• 1:57
  Speaker 5: rational wisdom fails you. You follow because you're like, you
• 2:02
  Speaker 5: know what? I don't know how this movie is going
• 2:04
  Speaker 5: to end, so we're just going to do it here.
• 2:06
  Speaker 5: My wife talked me into waxing my nose hair.
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: What? She was doing it. What? She had extra hot wax.
• 2:15
  Speaker 5: It's like, oh, this will be great.
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: Just do it. I did it. It's fine. It is
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: not fine.
• 2:24
  Speaker 5: Also, once again, I will never know what childbirth is like.
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: Therefore.
• 2:30
  Speaker 5: You know, and I get, hey, maybe there's some guys
• 2:32
  Speaker 5: out there that wax, right?
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: You know, they might do that. It's not for me.
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: Not for me.
• 2:37
  Speaker 5: But I did this, and it's like she pulled my
• 2:41
  Speaker 5: nose off my face, Rob. And I'm still dealing with
• 2:45
  Speaker 5: it right now. And I am like, why did I
• 2:48
  Speaker 5: commit to this? But it's like, this is marriage, right?
• 2:50
  Speaker 5: You know, you just kind of go ten toes in.
• 2:53
  Speaker 5: And so I'm reeling from that. But, yes, I did
• 2:55
  Speaker 5: watch the football game last night.
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: It is hard for me. Peek behind the curtain. I
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: guess we all make mistakes in the name of love.
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: That's one that, yeah.
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: Well, you know what?
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: Maybe you don't have to pull that obnoxious nose hair
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: on occasion like we all have to do. Is that
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: the idea? You don't have to.
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: Pull your nose hair.
• 3:19
  Speaker 5: Or you feel like something's at your nose and it's
• 3:21
  Speaker 5: really your nose hair.
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: Wind is blowing.
• 3:23
  Speaker 5: Your nose hair is hitting your nose.
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: I don't know. Was it painful?
• 3:28
  Speaker 5: It was the most painful thing outside of playing football.
• 3:34
  Speaker 5: Because a nose is such a, like your facial muscles
• 3:37
  Speaker 5: and nerves and everything, like it's a lot more sensitive
• 3:39
  Speaker 5: than other parts of your body, right? Like I'm sure
• 3:42
  Speaker 5: if you did it on my thigh or like my
• 3:44
  Speaker 5: calf or my arms, it wouldn't hurt as bad. But
• 3:48
  Speaker 5: I feel like the facial region, right? You know, if
• 3:52
  Speaker 5: you did my stomach even, I probably wouldn't have, probably
• 3:55
  Speaker 5: wouldn't be a problem. But the nose, mouth, eyes, you know,
• 3:59
  Speaker 5: that region in your face, like that's all sensitive.
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: Never again. Never again. No, never again.
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: I think that's wise. I'm going to, you know, you
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: never know, but I'm going to roll the dice. I'm
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: going to roll the dice and say Willie Colon has
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: never had his nose hair waxed.
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: Nope. Willie? Yeah. You didn't never have to worry about that. That's.
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: Don't worry. It's coming, Will. It's coming, Will.
• 4:29
  Speaker 5: Akisha's going to hit you up one of these days.
• 4:32
  Speaker 5: You're going to catch yourself at a moment of low confidence.
• 4:36
  Speaker 5: You're probably going to say yes because it's your wife.
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: No, I'm here to tell you no. I'm here to
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: see you in pain. I think she's just a fan
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: of your pain.
• 4:44
  Speaker 5: I mean, I feel like that's every woman that's been
• 4:47
  Speaker 5: in marriage for a long time. They kind of delight
• 4:50
  Speaker 5: in that.
• 4:51
  Speaker 4: No, I monitor the nose hairs.
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: I'm a guy who.
• 4:57
  Speaker 6: I have a grooming little tool thing, kitty thing, whatever
• 5:00
  Speaker 6: you call it.
• 5:01
  Speaker 4: So, once in a while, I'll peek under his hood
• 5:04
  Speaker 4: and see if anything falls out.
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: Is it one of those buzzer things where you can
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: get the nose and the ear, too? Yep. Yeah, I
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: got one of those battery-operated. Correct. Yep.
• 5:13
  Speaker 6: So, I try to monitor that stuff because it's actually
• 5:16
  Speaker 6: a pet peeve of mine.
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: I hate it. And, you know, I'm not the.
• 5:19
  Speaker 6: Most groomed, cleanliness, whatever I'm trying to say. But I'm
• 5:24
  Speaker 6: not him.
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: Right, gotcha. But I try to monitor the drapes. Yeah.
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: Well, that's a wonderful discussion in the lunch hour. Reminds
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: me of an old Saturday Night Live. Starts it off
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: with a bang right there.
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: There it is. So Saturday Night Live used to do
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: these fake commercials, right?
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: And so one of them was, you know, they would just,
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: you know, you'd think you're going to commercial kind of,
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: but it would be a fake commercial. And the tagline,
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: and I don't know if it is the same for
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: Smuckers was with a name like Smuckers, it has to
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: be good.
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: Cause it's not a, you know, so that was their tagline,
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: their advertising tagline for a while. So Saturday night live
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: did this skit. And so, you know, they start the
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: commercial with, and so remember with a name like Fluckers,
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: cause they couldn't use Smuckers with a name like Fluckers,
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: it has to be good. And then someone pipes up
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: and says, nose hair with a name like nose hair
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: would have to be good. And I suppose that's actually true. Um,
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: It would be hard to push a jelly with that
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: kind of name. We are far afield from last night's
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: football game, which Max watched in a great deal of pain, Willie, obviously,
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: in his nasal region. So my question to you is,
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: were you able to watch it? And I didn't see
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: the comeback that sent the game into overtime. I thought
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: the game was over by then, which was a mistake
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: on my part, obviously. But I was thinking of, like,
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: I'm a fan of old black and white movies, and
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: modern movies. I love all movies, all eras of movies.
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: And I'm reminded of, like, you know, in Robin Hood,
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: there's this elegant sword fight, you know, at the end
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: of it. And that's what, like, the Rams and Bills
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: were on Monday Night Football, just elegant scoring, beautiful.
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: And then last night was like a rock fight, you know.
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: Great teams, four top teams in the NFL, two completely
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: different types of game.
• 7:20
  Speaker 6: Yeah, I'm going to be honest with you. It was
• 7:23
  Speaker 6: one of those games where you were just waiting for
• 7:26
  Speaker 6: the respective team's quarterback to grow up, right? I mean,
• 7:31
  Speaker 6: Bo Nix, Valid, I don't know what the hell was
• 7:35
  Speaker 6: that out of him.
• 7:37
  Speaker 4: It's puzzling because part of.
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: Me– can you hear me? Yes.
• 7:41
  Speaker 7: Oh, yeah.
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.
• 7:44
  Speaker 6: Yeah, part of me felt like, man, is this Sean
• 7:45
  Speaker 6: Payton calling a conservative game and maybe he's just telling
• 7:49
  Speaker 6: Bo Nix, like, don't. just don't throw it away to
• 7:52
  Speaker 6: the other team and we got a shot to get
• 7:53
  Speaker 6: out of here because.
• 7:53
  Speaker 4: Our defense is playing that well.
• 7:55
  Speaker 6: Or we were watching a serious regression in Bo Nix
• 7:58
  Speaker 6: where everything was a dink and dunk. His longest pass
• 8:02
  Speaker 6: was seven yards. And, you know, there's been a lot of,
• 8:07
  Speaker 6: you know, we all pay attention to the headlines and
• 8:08
  Speaker 6: people who's speaking in reference to recapping the game. And
• 8:11
  Speaker 6: I thought Ron Fitzpatrick said it best, like, you had
• 8:15
  Speaker 6: an opportunity to flat-out compete, right?
• 8:18
  Speaker 4: Yeah, you weren't throwing the ball really well. The offense,
• 8:21
  Speaker 4: I mean, they were going.
• 8:21
  Speaker 6: Against a championship outfit in the Seattle Seahawks, so you
• 8:23
  Speaker 6: got to give them a little bit of grace. So
• 8:25
  Speaker 6: I will in that regard. But there was a chance
• 8:27
  Speaker 6: at overtime where you had a design run. All you
• 8:30
  Speaker 6: have to do is use those legs of yours, get
• 8:32
  Speaker 6: the first down, and this game is over.
• 8:34
  Speaker 4: And you ran out and you were tackled, and you
• 8:36
  Speaker 4: didn't make.
• 8:37
  Speaker 6: Like a Herculean effort to win the game for your
• 8:42
  Speaker 6: ball club. And it's valid to Broncos are able to win,
• 8:45
  Speaker 6: but that's because Sam Darnold threw him one.
• 8:47
  Speaker 4: That cost him the game.
• 8:48
  Speaker 6: But, man, I just struggle to– I'm starting to figure out,
• 8:52
  Speaker 6: is Bo Nix's confidence slowly dwindling? Because, you know, maybe
• 8:57
  Speaker 6: there's too much going on upstairs for him from a
• 8:59
  Speaker 6: quarterback position. Because I don't see the kid– go back
• 9:02
  Speaker 6: to week two against the Jaguars. He was a dual threat.
• 9:05
  Speaker 4: I mean, he was running.
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: He was throwing it.
• 9:07
  Speaker 4: He looked like a kid that.
• 9:08
  Speaker 6: Was out in the sandlot just having fun. And these
• 9:11
  Speaker 6: last two weeks has been very stagnant, stale, and somewhat
• 9:15
  Speaker 6: puzzling because I do think Bo Nix has the potential
• 9:18
  Speaker 6: of being a really good quarterback.
• 9:20
  Speaker 4: You know, this was an opportunity to kind of inflate
• 9:24
  Speaker 4: the headlines.
• 9:24
  Speaker 6: You got to understand, if the Broncos beat the Patriots
• 9:28
  Speaker 6: in the AFC Championship, the Super Bowl would have been
• 9:30
  Speaker 6: Seattle Seahawks versus the Denver Broncos, led by Bo Nix,
• 9:33
  Speaker 6: that quarterback. So this was a great opportunity for the
• 9:37
  Speaker 6: Broncos to say, hey, If we were in that game,
• 9:39
  Speaker 6: this is what it would.
• 9:40
  Speaker 4: Have looked like, right?
• 9:41
  Speaker 6: Because the defense played out of a skull. You can
• 9:44
  Speaker 6: ask for a better defensive performance.
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: By the Broncos.
• 9:47
  Speaker 6: Nevertheless, Bo Nix in the second half of that game,
• 9:51
  Speaker 6: that offense disappeared. It was punt, punt, punt, punt, turnover, punt.
• 9:56
  Speaker 6: It was just insane. They only had 29 yards in
• 9:59
  Speaker 6: the second half.
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: Half of that game.
• 10:01
  Speaker 6: And I'm saying to myself, like, what the hell is
• 10:02
  Speaker 6: going on with Sean Payton and what the hell is
• 10:04
  Speaker 6: going on with Bo Nix? And mind you, Sean Payton
• 10:07
  Speaker 6: has been on record saying that he took over the play-calling.
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: Duties from Davis Webb last week.
• 10:12
  Speaker 6: So this was Sean Payton calling the game for the Broncos.
• 10:15
  Speaker 6: And I'm just trying to figure out, you know, we
• 10:17
  Speaker 6: like to say now it's become a fad and a
• 10:20
  Speaker 6: trend where if you have a head coach who has
• 10:23
  Speaker 6: a decorated resume, that every one of those coaches individually
• 10:27
  Speaker 6: has a superpower.
• 10:28
  Speaker 4: Well, Sean Payton's superpower is supposed to be able.
• 10:31
  Speaker 6: To call high-octane offense and be able to groom a
• 10:35
  Speaker 6: quarterback because of his.
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: Resume and what he did down in New Orleans.
• 10:39
  Speaker 6: Now we understand Drew Brees is one of the smartest
• 10:41
  Speaker 6: QBs to ever play the game, one of the best
• 10:44
  Speaker 6: to ever do it. But there's this parallel that we're
• 10:47
  Speaker 6: supposed to see with Bo Nix to Drew Brees. And
• 10:51
  Speaker 6: you just saw a guy last night in Bo Nix
• 10:53
  Speaker 6: who just flat out from the neck up could not
• 10:55
  Speaker 6: get it done. It was just very scattered and very
• 10:59
  Speaker 6: predictable in a lot of ways. And it was shocking
• 11:02
  Speaker 6: to see, especially against a big time matchup against the
• 11:04
  Speaker 6: Seattle Seahawks.
• 11:06
  Speaker 4: And, you know, Sam Darnold wasn't any better.
• 11:08
  Speaker 6: I mean, even though they were able to score 11
• 11:09
  Speaker 6: points in the fourth quarter, those two bonehead picks were
• 11:12
  Speaker 6: just asinine. But you could also say that, well, Sam
• 11:15
  Speaker 6: Darnold has a track record of that. We don't have
• 11:18
  Speaker 6: a track record of Bo Nix not being competitive when
• 11:21
  Speaker 6: all else fails, right?
• 11:23
  Speaker 4: If anything, that's a superpower for him. We know when
• 11:26
  Speaker 4: the game's on the.
• 11:26
  Speaker 6: Line, a kid, because of his athleticism, can, you know,
• 11:31
  Speaker 6: will a team to victory.
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: He did it last year.
• 11:34
  Speaker 6: You know, I think he had Four fourth-quarter comebacks, six
• 11:37
  Speaker 6: game-winning drives. So we know if there's a superpower for
• 11:40
  Speaker 6: Bo Nix, it's his ability to compete through all else.
• 11:45
  Speaker 4: And we just did not see that last night.
• 11:46
  Speaker 6: So I don't know what's going on with Bo Nix,
• 11:49
  Speaker 6: but it seems like they may have a quarterback problem
• 11:51
  Speaker 6: because if that's the way he's going to play for
• 11:53
  Speaker 6: the next couple of games in that division, with the
• 11:57
  Speaker 6: Chiefs playing really well, with the Raiders scrappy, with the Chargers,
• 12:00
  Speaker 6: forget about it.
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: I mean, they're out of it.
• 12:02
  Speaker 4: But it's going to be interesting.
• 12:04
  Speaker 6: But I was surprised. even with the wind the way
• 12:08
  Speaker 6: Bo Nix played.
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: So let me ask you a question, both you guys.
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: Is this just part of what it takes some quarterbacks
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: to do, get through the growing pains? I point this
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: out to people. Ben Roethlisberger, first year he's 13-0 as
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: a starter.
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: Then he's 9-3.
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: Starting to throw the ball down the field a little
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: bit more, led the league in yards per attempt, yards
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: per completion, all these things, right? Then his third year,
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: 23 interceptions, led the league, 23 interceptions. So it wasn't
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: a smooth ride from Ben Roethlisberger from 13-0 to Hall
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: of Fame quarterback. There were some bumps along the way,
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: and he had some bumps in that third year in
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: the league, maybe just trying to figure out you know,
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: where his boundaries were and what he could get away
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: with and what he couldn't get away with. I'm not
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: sure what the reason would be. Is what Bo Nix
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: is going through one of those things that quarterbacks just
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: have to go through?
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: Or are we starting to wonder how good is this guy? Well,
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: I'll say this.
• 13:22
  Speaker 5: Also, that year three, you have to remember, Ben also
• 13:24
  Speaker 5: had a very Tragic motorcycle accident.
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: Yes, that's right. Before that season.
• 13:29
  Speaker 5: So there was a lot of physical things and mental
• 13:32
  Speaker 5: things you had to get through. So that could also
• 13:34
  Speaker 5: kind of, you know, skew that number a little bit more. But,
• 13:38
  Speaker 5: I mean, for young quarterbacks, I've always been a fan
• 13:41
  Speaker 5: of this. Give me a four-year snapshot of them, and
• 13:45
  Speaker 5: I can tell you what that quarterback is. Up until
• 13:47
  Speaker 5: that point, you're going to get a lot of highs
• 13:50
  Speaker 5: and lows, ebbs and flows, a.
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: Roller coaster ride.
• 13:54
  Speaker 5: From hell for those first four years because there's going
• 13:57
  Speaker 5: to be inconsistencies as they're developing who they are. You know,
• 14:01
  Speaker 5: you see early success and, you know, we always want to,
• 14:06
  Speaker 5: you know, high risk, high reward, right, at the quarterback position, right?
• 14:09
  Speaker 5: You know, they get all the praise but all the
• 14:11
  Speaker 5: blame when things go right or wrong.
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: And, you know, it's.
• 14:16
  Speaker 5: About building that consistency, right, and how you lead, how
• 14:20
  Speaker 5: you present yourself is always– you know, one of the
• 14:24
  Speaker 5: things that teams are going to look at because, I mean,
• 14:26
  Speaker 5: you think about early on Ben's success, right, also was
• 14:30
  Speaker 5: 25 passes or less, 90% win rate. Throws over 25 passes,
• 14:34
  Speaker 5: it's a problem. But yet, it's like, oh, yeah, the quarterback,
• 14:38
  Speaker 5: that's the reason why. But yet, it's like we don't
• 14:39
  Speaker 5: want him to throw it. We want to run the
• 14:41
  Speaker 5: ball and play tough defense. So the philosophies change. And
• 14:45
  Speaker 5: then we saw a shift after like year four where
• 14:49
  Speaker 5: it was like, no, no, no, Ben is making this
• 14:52
  Speaker 5: happen because– We've now changed this offense, right? Bruce Arians
• 14:55
  Speaker 5: now takes over. Ken Wesson Hunt's gone, who had the
• 15:00
  Speaker 5: training wheels on him. Then we take the training wheels off,
• 15:02
  Speaker 5: and then you see him orchestrating. He takes over the
• 15:08
  Speaker 5: re-mic responsibilities, right? He wants the hot to come from
• 15:11
  Speaker 5: a certain way. He doesn't want to protect it.
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: Up for him.
• 15:15
  Speaker 5: So he starts to now figure out how he wants
• 15:18
  Speaker 5: to move defenses, whether it's with his feet or whether
• 15:20
  Speaker 5: it's with a call. And all that maturity, you know,
• 15:24
  Speaker 5: it's like playing a video game and you unlock different levels, right?
• 15:26
  Speaker 5: You unlock different skills as you go on throughout the game.
• 15:30
  Speaker 5: And that's what Ben kind of went through. So young
• 15:32
  Speaker 5: quarterbacks go through this maturation process. And now they say, oh,
• 15:36
  Speaker 5: it's accelerated because of the fact that, oh, these guys
• 15:39
  Speaker 5: play a bunch of seven on seven and they're always playing.
• 15:42
  Speaker 5: So we can throw more at it. But we also
• 15:45
  Speaker 5: see when you just unlock the full playbook for young
• 15:47
  Speaker 5: quarterbacks in the league, it's a crash and burn situation
• 15:51
  Speaker 5: more often than not. And so you have to kind
• 15:54
  Speaker 5: of have these progressions built in. And for Bo Nix,
• 15:56
  Speaker 5: he's still figuring it out. Now, remember, last year, Bo
• 16:00
  Speaker 5: Nix was one of those guys. I had that Philly-Denver game,
• 16:04
  Speaker 5: and literally the Broncos could not get past the 25-yard line.
• 16:08
  Speaker 5: They couldn't even get in the red zone against the
• 16:11
  Speaker 5: Eagles for the first three and a half quarters of
• 16:13
  Speaker 5: that game. And once they finally got in, That's when
• 16:17
  Speaker 5: Bo Nix started to cook, but it took until the
• 16:19
  Speaker 5: fourth quarter for Bo Nix to finally have some success.
• 16:21
  Speaker 5: So I look at the Seattle game. He went 17-27
• 16:25
  Speaker 5: for 107 yards total. 107 yards on 17 completions out
• 16:32
  Speaker 5: of 27 attempts and did not have a touchdown in there.
• 16:35
  Speaker 5: So that's just, it's part and parcel. Yes, it's a
• 16:39
  Speaker 5: good defense. I'll give them all the credit in the world,
• 16:42
  Speaker 5: but they were playing in Seattle, but For Bo Nix,
• 16:45
  Speaker 5: he's still figuring himself out. I don't think we're going
• 16:47
  Speaker 5: to know who Bo Nix is until about year four.
• 16:50
  Speaker 5: I mean, I had him in college when he was
• 16:52
  Speaker 5: at Auburn.
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: And he was this.
• 16:56
  Speaker 5: All-world five-star recruit.
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: Oh, man, can't miss.
• 16:59
  Speaker 5: He's the future of Auburn. The best thing since Cam Newton.
• 17:03
  Speaker 5: And he had to leave and go to Oregon because
• 17:06
  Speaker 5: he was so bad in the SEC.
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: But then he goes to Oregon. What? Year four. Figures
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: it out.
• 17:13
  Speaker 5: Has a phenomenal year at Oregon, gets drafted to Denver,
• 17:17
  Speaker 5: gets to Sean Payton as a head coach, has early success,
• 17:21
  Speaker 5: but then now he kind of goes through that ugly
• 17:23
  Speaker 5: period of, you know, when you're trying to grow your
• 17:25
  Speaker 5: hair out.
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: Type of phase.
• 17:27
  Speaker 5: And now we're kind of seeing that, but his team's
• 17:29
  Speaker 5: still finding a way to win because he has a
• 17:30
  Speaker 5: really good defense. But I think really, you know, it's
• 17:33
  Speaker 5: going to be ups and downs at this point. And
• 17:34
  Speaker 5: I think for Bo Nix, it'll probably be till next
• 17:37
  Speaker 5: year before we really know who Bo Nix is. Because,
• 17:39
  Speaker 5: I mean, at home, I mean, he's thrown over 43
• 17:41
  Speaker 5: touchdowns at home. I mean, he has a 15-3 record
• 17:45
  Speaker 5: at home as a starting quarterback. So he plays really
• 17:48
  Speaker 5: well at home normally, but that's just one of those things.
• 17:52
  Speaker 5: It was a bad game by him, but they still
• 17:54
  Speaker 5: ended up winning. So you love the fact that you
• 17:57
  Speaker 5: can have these growing pains, but at the same time
• 18:00
  Speaker 5: still win along the way, I think is a very
• 18:03
  Speaker 5: good thing for him. But it's going to take some
• 18:05
  Speaker 5: time to figure him out. And for Sean Payton, Sean
• 18:07
  Speaker 5: Payton's now calling the plays. He's got to get a
• 18:09
  Speaker 5: rhythm with him. You know, it took a while for
• 18:11
  Speaker 5: him and Drew Brees to really get going in New
• 18:14
  Speaker 5: Orleans the same way when he was calling the plays
• 18:17
  Speaker 5: because you've got a new quarterback. You're still trying to
• 18:19
  Speaker 5: figure out, like, what's his limitations? Does he know how
• 18:22
  Speaker 5: human he is? You know, can he make these stupid
• 18:25
  Speaker 5: plays at times like Willie talked about, right, boneheaded, asinine picks,
• 18:30
  Speaker 5: but yet understand why he saw what he saw and
• 18:33
  Speaker 5: then try and understand how– The play caller sees how
• 18:38
  Speaker 5: his quarterback is calling and seeing things and makes sure
• 18:41
  Speaker 5: that he also does a good job of compromising and
• 18:43
  Speaker 5: understanding that this is something that he does. We've got
• 18:46
  Speaker 5: to either work around it or build on it and
• 18:49
  Speaker 5: move from there. So this is kind of a feeling out,
• 18:52
  Speaker 5: you know, early dating phase. You're getting the representative version
• 18:55
  Speaker 5: of both of them until they really get to know
• 18:57
  Speaker 5: each other.
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: And yet you would much rather be the Denver Broncos
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: right now at 4-2 than the Seattle Broncos. Seahawks at 3-3,
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: which begs another question about trying to follow up on
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: a Super Bowl and how hard it is to do that,
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: which you guys will dive into. We're also going to
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: talk about the key matchups, obviously, coming up on Sunday.
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: We have our big-time matchup of the game, our keys
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: to the game. All that is on the way. Missy
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: Matthews is going to be with us as well. We
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: continue in the locker room here on the Steelers Audio Network.
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: This is In the Locker Room with Rob King, Max Starks,
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: and Willie Colon on Steelers Nation Radio. Brought to you
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: in part by the Steelers Pro Shop. Get it direct
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: from the team at the Steelers Pro Shop. Thanks very
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: much for being with us. Really appreciate you being with
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: us on this Friday. We'll be ready for the game
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: coming up on Sunday. We're talking about last night's game between.
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: Denver and seattle and you know willie uh we talked
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: about the different styles on monday night and how you
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: know how clean clean and crisp somebody looked and i'm
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: a big believer that especially this time here i mean
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: clearly at all times a year but you're still in
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: that that phase where you just you got to stack
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: wins you just have to win games and you don't
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: want to be you know i'd rather win ugly than
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: than lose pretty um at any time you would but
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: i mean it As you get closer to the playoffs,
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: you're trying to build a style and a momentum and
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: those sort of things. So I don't know if either
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: one of those teams last night did that. But I
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: do know that I'd rather be the 4-2 Broncos than
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: the 3-3 Seahawks. But again, you look at Seattle at 3-3,
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: and they're a great team. They won the Super Bowl
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: a year ago. It's hard for people not to pick them,
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: to maybe... win the championship again, but there's three and
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: three right now. So why, what makes it so hard?
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: And I'm not saying they're obviously not going to repeat,
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: but it's, it's very rare to see a repeat champion.
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: What makes it so difficult to repeat in the NFL,
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: in your opinion?
• 21:24
  Speaker 6: Oh, I mean, my belief is that a lot of
• 21:26
  Speaker 6: people who win a Superbowl the following year are continuing
• 21:30
  Speaker 6: to wait for the magic to happen. Um, There is
• 21:33
  Speaker 6: an element when you're on a Super Bowl team and
• 21:36
  Speaker 6: you're a part of a Super Bowl run. Things are
• 21:39
  Speaker 6: happening and turning over in your favor that you are
• 21:41
  Speaker 6: able to learn from.
• 21:42
  Speaker 4: And collectively, the guys in the locker room start to
• 21:44
  Speaker 4: believe in the one goal and the mission.
• 21:47
  Speaker 6: And then the more you win and in the fashion
• 21:48
  Speaker 6: you win it, those individual games and you find yourself
• 21:53
  Speaker 6: in a Super Bowl and you win a Super Bowl, man,
• 21:55
  Speaker 6: you feel like there's something special about the team.
• 21:58
  Speaker 3: That you just won it with.
• 22:00
  Speaker 6: I mean, you go back to our Super Bowl, Super
• 22:03
  Speaker 6: Bowl 43, that playoff game, you know, go to the
• 22:07
  Speaker 6: AFC Championship, right?
• 22:08
  Speaker 3: People forget how we won that game.
• 22:09
  Speaker 6: Troy Palomaro picked six, touchdown, the city's on fire. So
• 22:15
  Speaker 6: there's moments within that journey that you say, man, we're
• 22:18
  Speaker 6: a special team, and you believe it.
• 22:20
  Speaker 3: And of course.
• 22:21
  Speaker 6: you adhere to it because you're seeing it in real time,
• 22:23
  Speaker 6: and then the offseason comes, you lose some guys, guys
• 22:28
  Speaker 6: who impacted the team in a positive way, and now
• 22:30
  Speaker 6: you have to now get back on the horse and
• 22:32
  Speaker 6: go attain that goal again. And when you're upon a
• 22:37
  Speaker 6: new season, the guys who were left in that locker
• 22:39
  Speaker 6: room still feel like the magic is possible, and they're
• 22:44
  Speaker 6: waiting for the magic to happen. And what happens if
• 22:46
  Speaker 6: you're constantly waiting on guys to make a play, if
• 22:48
  Speaker 6: you're constantly waiting on one side of the ball to
• 22:51
  Speaker 6: dominate so you can get out the building with a W.
• 22:53
  Speaker 4: If you're constantly doing things or moving.
• 22:57
  Speaker 6: Like you moved last year while the rest of the
• 22:59
  Speaker 6: league spent the whole offseason in training camp getting bigger, faster, smarter, schematically,
• 23:08
  Speaker 6: and in a lot of different ways, you find yourself
• 23:11
  Speaker 6: on the outskirts like, man, what happened?
• 23:13
  Speaker 4: Well, what happened was it's not that you just didn't
• 23:15
  Speaker 4: put in the work.
• 23:16
  Speaker 6: Is that you believe that the magic will carry on
• 23:18
  Speaker 6: to the next year instead of believing like, hey, only
• 23:22
  Speaker 6: thing that's going to get us back to where we
• 23:24
  Speaker 6: want to be is taking a humble approach, being focused
• 23:28
  Speaker 6: on the goal at hand, doing extra research, and also
• 23:32
  Speaker 6: holding each other accountable. Because sometimes when you win a
• 23:36
  Speaker 6: Super Bowl, you can be distracted not just from your
• 23:40
  Speaker 6: obligations off the field.
• 23:41
  Speaker 4: You can be distracted in the locker room.
• 23:43
  Speaker 6: Because so many guys– and I think me and Max
• 23:47
  Speaker 6: kind of went through it, so many guys feel like
• 23:51
  Speaker 6: the organization or the game owes them something, right?
• 23:55
  Speaker 4: And it's like the game owes you nothing.
• 23:57
  Speaker 6: This organization, once you get paid and your check clears,
• 24:01
  Speaker 6: you go back to being a football player and you
• 24:03
  Speaker 6: have to reset, refocus, and do whatever it takes to
• 24:07
  Speaker 6: be the best football player for your employer. And This
• 24:12
  Speaker 6: kind of, well, you know, I want the attention.
• 24:14
  Speaker 3: I want more of this.
• 24:15
  Speaker 4: I want more of that. You know, we should be
• 24:17
  Speaker 4: doing this more.
• 24:19
  Speaker 6: All those conversations tend to arise. And while the rest
• 24:24
  Speaker 6: of the league is looking at you as a target
• 24:26
  Speaker 6: and pretty much food on their plate. So you really
• 24:30
  Speaker 6: have to go into a season really erasing what happened.
• 24:33
  Speaker 6: You almost, and it's weird to say because the media
• 24:36
  Speaker 6: reminds you, everybody reminds you that you.
• 24:38
  Speaker 4: Were a Super Bowl champion. You have to erase all that.
• 24:40
  Speaker 6: You have to act as if you are the last
• 24:44
  Speaker 6: team in the division from that mindset, even though obviously
• 24:48
  Speaker 6: you're the best and whatever. You have to go into
• 24:50
  Speaker 6: it like, man, we're bottom feeders, and the only way
• 24:52
  Speaker 6: to get out of being a bottom feeder is to
• 24:54
  Speaker 6: chew our way to the top.
• 24:57
  Speaker 4: But that has to be a collective effort. It has
• 24:58
  Speaker 4: to be a collective mindset.
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: I'm a firm believer. Don't wait for the magic. You've
• 25:05
  Speaker 3: got to create it.
• 25:06
  Speaker 6: And I think teams who are good teams tend to
• 25:08
  Speaker 6: wait on the magic instead of creating it.
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: You know, the magic is an interesting, really interesting way
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: of putting it. And I do wonder if that's maybe
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: a bigger part of it, Willie. I'm just kind of
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: spitballing here a little bit. A bigger part of it
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: than people realize. Like you mentioned the Polamalu interception and,
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: you know, what it takes to win a championship. You know,
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: Jerome Bettis fumbles and, you know, Ben Roethlisberger fumbles tackles
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: a guy by his shoe top, or the Steelers don't
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: make it, right? I go back to even the college ranks.
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: Max will love this. Tennessee National Championship, the year they
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: won it with T.
• 25:46
  Speaker 4: Martin.
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: So, you know, when I think back on that season,
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: I was at the game in which T. Martin throws
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: an incompletion on fourth and ten games over, moments left,
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: and then a flag comes in late. It's pass interference.
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: So they get a fresh set of downs and win
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: it a minute later. Arkansas is running out the clock.
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: They fumble at midfield. Tennessee marches in and scores. Florida missed,
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: I think, one or two extra points when Tennessee beat them.
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: They get to the Fiesta Bowl, and Chris Wenke sits
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: out because he's getting ready for the draft. I can't
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: remember if he sat out for that or was hurt.
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: So there's another win for you. So little things happen.
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: Magic happens along the way that doesn't happen every year.
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: Maybe that's a bigger part of winning than I've than
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: maybe people want to credit it for.
• 26:34
  Speaker 5: There is that special moment. Like, things have to happen, right? But,
• 26:43
  Speaker 5: you know, a lot of people will call it luck, right?
• 26:47
  Speaker 5: But luck is when opportunity mixes with.
• 26:52
  Speaker 3: Preparation, right? The residue of design, as they say, right? Yeah,
• 26:56
  Speaker 3: the residue of design. So.
• 26:59
  Speaker 5: you have to be in a position to receive said luck,
• 27:03
  Speaker 5: but it takes a lot of hard work to get there.
• 27:06
  Speaker 5: And that's why people are always marveled at consistency of
• 27:12
  Speaker 5: that success, right? Like, man, we've got to figure out,
• 27:15
  Speaker 5: we've got to go interview these people to figure out
• 27:19
  Speaker 5: how did they sustain success, right? I mean, that's why
• 27:22
  Speaker 5: we're enamored with The Last Dance, right? Because of what
• 27:26
  Speaker 5: the Bulls did in two separate instances to dominate and
• 27:32
  Speaker 5: win three consecutive championships in two separate timeframes, but in
• 27:35
  Speaker 5: the same decade, right?
• 27:37
  Speaker 3: You know, when people look at what new.
• 27:40
  Speaker 5: England did, people want to know how did they do
• 27:43
  Speaker 5: that consistency and people want to analyze it and psycho,
• 27:46
  Speaker 5: you know, psychoanalyze it to understand what, what, what is
• 27:50
  Speaker 5: it that makes people do good things consistently and receive
• 27:52
  Speaker 5: success over a time period. And like Willie said, They
• 27:56
  Speaker 5: want to capture that magic. That's why leadership people or
• 28:00
  Speaker 5: people who run these large corporations want to talk to
• 28:03
  Speaker 5: athletes who've succeeded at a high level. Because what's inside
• 28:07
  Speaker 5: your brain that allows you to keep going? What keeps
• 28:11
  Speaker 5: the drive alive? And while we're always marveled at Tom Brady,
• 28:14
  Speaker 5: how we were watching him on the sidelines with him
• 28:18
  Speaker 5: and Julian Edelman yelling at each other, right?
• 28:20
  Speaker 3: You know, calling him old man, right? You know, he
• 28:23
  Speaker 3: operated from.
• 28:24
  Speaker 5: a negative chip-on-the-shoulder approach where other guys just wanted to
• 28:28
  Speaker 5: hear positivity, and then you eventually keep saying it to
• 28:31
  Speaker 5: yourself that you actually start to believe it.
• 28:33
  Speaker 3: I mean, that's all part and parcel.
• 28:35
  Speaker 5: But when it comes to team dynamics, when it comes
• 28:38
  Speaker 5: to team sport, that consistently, that closeness. I mean, Peter King,
• 28:42
  Speaker 5: Ryan Clark had him on the pivot. He was talking
• 28:45
  Speaker 5: about that 08-09 team and how that defense was just
• 28:48
  Speaker 5: so close. Peter King marveled at it. So I, of course...
• 28:53
  Speaker 5: chimed in in the comments and said, that wasn't just
• 28:57
  Speaker 5: our defense. That was our entire team. I was like,
• 29:01
  Speaker 5: you could have went to any position group and you
• 29:05
  Speaker 5: could have found that same chemistry. You could have went
• 29:08
  Speaker 5: on the offense side of the ball and found what
• 29:09
  Speaker 5: you saw on the defense side of the ball and
• 29:11
  Speaker 5: also realized that offense and defense hung together. Like we
• 29:15
  Speaker 5: were that close as a team. And that's something that
• 29:19
  Speaker 5: is special. And that's why when we talk about these things,
• 29:21
  Speaker 5: when Willie and I speak about these things, Not only
• 29:23
  Speaker 5: because we lived them, but we saw the success that
• 29:26
  Speaker 5: came because of that, right? When you have each other's backs, truly,
• 29:29
  Speaker 5: when you hang out, your kids call you uncle, right?
• 29:35
  Speaker 3: You have that closeness with the family.
• 29:37
  Speaker 5: You you talk to the wife anytime you see her
• 29:40
  Speaker 5: and it's not like oh my god my husband has
• 29:41
  Speaker 5: to be around for me to speak to these people
• 29:42
  Speaker 5: no it's like it's family you know i i can
• 29:45
  Speaker 5: speak to a key if i need to call akisha
• 29:47
  Speaker 5: about something i can call akisha will he need to
• 29:48
  Speaker 5: call tiff about something he could call tiff like we
• 29:51
  Speaker 5: like we just have this closeness And that's something that
• 29:55
  Speaker 5: not a lot of teams. So we see it when
• 29:57
  Speaker 5: you can tell when a team doesn't do those type
• 29:59
  Speaker 5: of bonding things, when it doesn't quite line up, it's like,
• 30:03
  Speaker 5: y'all ain't close.
• 30:05
  Speaker 3: Y'all don't hang out.
• 30:05
  Speaker 5: I was like, I was like, I was like, you know,
• 30:08
  Speaker 5: when Willie did drink, cause Willie doesn't drink anymore.
• 30:11
  Speaker 3: You know, it was like, I know what his favorite
• 30:13
  Speaker 3: drink is.
• 30:13
  Speaker 5: So when he shows up at, at, at the bar
• 30:15
  Speaker 5: top or wherever we're at, boom, Willie's drink is there.
• 30:19
  Speaker 5: We already know what, What each other drink, we know
• 30:21
  Speaker 5: everything about each other.
• 30:22
  Speaker 3: And that just.
• 30:23
  Speaker 5: Makes a team function so much better. It makes them
• 30:27
  Speaker 5: function so much better. And that's where that magic starts.
• 30:29
  Speaker 5: It starts with just little things like interpersonal communication, getting
• 30:33
  Speaker 5: to know somebody, like understand who's your mama, who's your daddy,
• 30:36
  Speaker 5: you know, who are your siblings? Like those things matter
• 30:39
  Speaker 5: when it comes to this, at this level, when all
• 30:42
  Speaker 5: things are equal, you're at the top 2%, top half
• 30:46
  Speaker 5: percent of human performance and What differentiates you from that?
• 30:51
  Speaker 3: It's the closeness of your teammates. It's how you bond.
• 30:55
  Speaker 5: It makes you want to fight even more so than
• 30:57
  Speaker 5: you're already capable of doing.
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: And there's also, you know, you talk about the quotes
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: about luck. Another great one is the harder I work,
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: the luckier I get, which is kind of where I
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: think Willie was going a little bit. When we talk
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: about luck and how hard it is to repeat and
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: the Seahawks, the defending champs off to a 3-3 start
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: and the Denver, which has had just a brutal schedule
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: at 4-2 after their victory last night. We have so
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: much to get to. The key matchups in the game.
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: The big time matchup in the game that we're going
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: to get to. I've got a couple in mind. I'm
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: going to let the guys go first.
• 31:34
  Speaker 3: I've got two in mind.
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: Maybe three in mind. I might have to have three
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: in mind. There's some fun matchups in this. We're going
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: to get to that. Missy Matthews will be with us
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: as well. We continue in the locker room here on
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: the Steelers Audio Network.
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: This is In the Locker Room with Rob King, Max Starks,
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: and Willie Colon on Steelers Nation Radio. Brought to you
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: in part by the Steelers Pro Shop. Get it direct
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: from the team at the Steelers Pro Shop at shop.steelers.com.
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: And by your neighborhood Ford store. The F-150 is the
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: official truck of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
• 32:11
  Speaker 3: A long musical interlude. But you know what?
• 32:16
  Speaker 5: Max.
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: Waxing Poetic would give a long introduction to Missy Matthews.
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: I'm going to make it shorter because, Missy, my first
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: question for you is how are you feeling? You paddled
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: through the press conference with Pomp earlier in the week.
• 32:34
  Speaker 3: Was that Monday? Monday.
• 32:36
  Speaker 7: It feels like a month ago.
• 32:38
  Speaker 3: Battling through some illness. I hope you're feeling all right.
• 32:44
  Speaker 7: I think, you know, some Florida sunshine, 80-degree weather would,
• 32:48
  Speaker 7: you know, help getting a little vitamin D, the natural kind,
• 32:51
  Speaker 7: not taking it via a pill is good for everybody's soul.
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I totally agree that that would be good. Max
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: knows all about that with the Florida background. You know,
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: I think that Missy, a lot of questions this week,
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: and we'll be getting into this with the guys as well,
• 33:08
  Speaker 2: about winning on the road. Everybody was asking, what does
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: it take to win on the road? I'm sure that
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: the Steelers would love to win on the road and
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: never have to hear that question again for the rest
• 33:17
  Speaker 2: of the year.
• 33:19
  Speaker 5: Absolutely.
• 33:20
  Speaker 7: And I think, you know, they, they can obviously do
• 33:22
  Speaker 7: something about that. This is from what I'm gathering and
• 33:26
  Speaker 7: looking online at different places. It sounds like this is
• 33:30
  Speaker 7: going to be a pretty heavy Steelers crowd. Not that
• 33:33
  Speaker 7: I think any of us are shocked when it comes
• 33:34
  Speaker 7: to playing in Florida, it will have another chance when
• 33:37
  Speaker 7: we go to Jacksonville. What is that next month or
• 33:39
  Speaker 7: the month after? So yeah, It will be interesting to
• 33:43
  Speaker 7: see if maybe that helps. You know, it's an away game,
• 33:45
  Speaker 7: but we're turning it into a home game. So that
• 33:48
  Speaker 7: means it should equal a win. That's my girl math.
• 33:51
  Speaker 3: All right. That sounds good to me. Yeah, I like it.
• 33:56
  Speaker 5: I like it, Missy. And I think that's also kind of,
• 34:00
  Speaker 5: you know, where we're at. We're like we have not
• 34:02
  Speaker 5: been in friendly confines on the away on the away
• 34:07
  Speaker 5: stadiums that we've drawn so far.
• 34:08
  Speaker 3: Obviously, New England. We know what their fan base is like.
• 34:11
  Speaker 5: Cleveland as well. Not the most inviting place, but you're right.
• 34:15
  Speaker 5: The Sunshine State's welcoming to the city of steel at
• 34:18
  Speaker 5: all times. And when we think about the steel industry
• 34:22
  Speaker 5: and history and people moving down along the eastern seaboard
• 34:28
  Speaker 5: when those steel jobs and manufacturing jobs kind of moved
• 34:31
  Speaker 5: out of Pittsburgh, it was natural to make it all
• 34:35
  Speaker 5: the way down south, stay near the beaches and the
• 34:38
  Speaker 5: waterways and everything. And so a lot of fans migrated there.
• 34:42
  Speaker 5: And it's funny, a lot of the stadiums that we
• 34:45
  Speaker 5: go to, we usually have a good showing. But those places, obviously,
• 34:51
  Speaker 5: deep-rooted with their fandom, or I should say New England's
• 34:55
  Speaker 5: a little bit more recency bias in the 21st century.
• 35:00
  Speaker 5: But we're now getting to a schedule where we will
• 35:05
  Speaker 5: have advantages at home. It will not be as loud
• 35:07
  Speaker 5: as Cleveland on a Thursday night, Missy, So I think
• 35:10
  Speaker 5: that's kind of one thing that will be a help.
• 35:13
  Speaker 3: But I think also when you look at this, you know, how.
• 35:15
  Speaker 5: The Steelers traditionally have done, if it is Jalen Daniels
• 35:19
  Speaker 5: and a rookie quarterback, the Steelers genuinely and generally do
• 35:24
  Speaker 5: well with this. So just kind of your thoughts about
• 35:27
  Speaker 5: the Steelers' defense and historically going up against rookie or
• 35:30
  Speaker 5: young quarterbacks that Baker Mayfield can't go.
• 35:33
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 35:35
  Speaker 7: Against rookie quarterbacks is what we always circle back to, right?
• 35:39
  Speaker 7: But I just, one more quick thing about, you know,
• 35:41
  Speaker 7: it being a home game on the road, my brother
• 35:44
  Speaker 7: and his family lived down in Tampa. They've been there
• 35:46
  Speaker 7: for a few years. My parents went down earlier this
• 35:50
  Speaker 7: week to visit my mom's there for like a month
• 35:52
  Speaker 7: because she can, you know, my dad will be there
• 35:54
  Speaker 7: for about a week and then he needs to get
• 35:56
  Speaker 7: away from the sunshine. And so I called her today
• 35:59
  Speaker 7: to check in and she said they were trying to
• 36:02
  Speaker 7: rent a car for tonight and tomorrow. because there's more
• 36:06
  Speaker 7: family coming in town from my sister-in-law's side. And my
• 36:09
  Speaker 7: mom said, every single car agency place is completely out.
• 36:13
  Speaker 7: And I said, well, is it because of yinzers? And
• 36:15
  Speaker 7: she's like, well, I don't know. I didn't ask. And
• 36:17
  Speaker 7: I'm like, well, can you call them back? Like if
• 36:20
  Speaker 7: it's because Pittsburgh people are in Florida taking all these cars,
• 36:23
  Speaker 7: then that's a good sign. Like call them back. So
• 36:25
  Speaker 7: maybe there's no cars that you can rent in Florida,
• 36:29
  Speaker 7: in Tampa, I should say. Um, because Steelers fans are
• 36:32
  Speaker 7: already down there enjoying it. They were, it's, you know,
• 36:34
  Speaker 7: already 80 degrees and swimming in the pool today. So, um,
• 36:39
  Speaker 7: we will hopefully have them on our side. As you said,
• 36:42
  Speaker 7: the Thursday night and the dog pound max kind of
• 36:44
  Speaker 7: gives me chills a little bit when I think about
• 36:46
  Speaker 7: that in that game. And that's why I do think
• 36:49
  Speaker 7: that if you can have it, even if it's a neutralized, okay,
• 36:54
  Speaker 7: we're in your home stadium, but we're the away team.
• 36:57
  Speaker 7: But you guys have a rookie quarterback. He's lost one.
• 37:00
  Speaker 7: He's won one. They're probably riding high now. They've had
• 37:03
  Speaker 7: some extra time to prepare as well. And now you
• 37:07
  Speaker 7: have a chance for this defense to put up the
• 37:10
  Speaker 7: splash play defense, ferocious statistics, and just demoralizing sacks and
• 37:18
  Speaker 7: different things, quarterback hits, the batted passes, the things that
• 37:21
  Speaker 7: it felt like we were seeing in the beginning when
• 37:23
  Speaker 7: they were really helping bring the offense along. And it
• 37:26
  Speaker 7: feels like we haven't seen as much pop, at least
• 37:30
  Speaker 7: from that side, the last game or so. And what
• 37:34
  Speaker 7: better way to kind of, you know, get back in
• 37:36
  Speaker 7: the groove than to do so with a rookie quarterback
• 37:39
  Speaker 7: that hopefully it just takes one second extra to confuse
• 37:44
  Speaker 7: him or to make him, you know, go into a
• 37:47
  Speaker 7: bad decision.
• 37:49
  Speaker 6: Hey, Missy, what's the status of Keanu Benton? I know
• 37:52
  Speaker 6: he suffered a bit of an ankle injury last Sunday.
• 37:55
  Speaker 6: Has there been any updates about his status?
• 37:59
  Speaker 7: No, there's not. Status report has not gone out yet,
• 38:04
  Speaker 7: but the fact that he didn't practice on Wednesday then
• 38:08
  Speaker 7: was limited yesterday is, you know, arrow pointed up for me.
• 38:11
  Speaker 7: I think it'll be was limited too much yesterday or
• 38:15
  Speaker 7: was he able to, you know, sustain that and or
• 38:18
  Speaker 7: more because that would not be great if you lose
• 38:22
  Speaker 7: another defensive lineman.
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, injuries obviously mounting here for the Steelers.
• 38:29
  Speaker 3: And, you know, they clearly want to have everybody back.
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: You know, again, from looking at things, Missy, and just
• 38:35
  Speaker 2: looking at the injury reports, it looks like Rico Dowdle
• 38:39
  Speaker 2: will be back. I'm not quite as optimistic that Deshaun
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: Elliott's going to make his debut this week.
• 38:46
  Speaker 3: I think it might be next week in Paris. But
• 38:49
  Speaker 3: I don't know.
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: I mean, we're going to see with the practice report today.
• 38:51
  Speaker 2: But again, limited in practice over the last couple of days.
• 38:55
  Speaker 7: Yeah, I think Jamal Dean, though, you know, going against
• 38:58
  Speaker 7: his former team, he's been limited. He's a tough guy.
• 39:01
  Speaker 7: He's already played through this injury. I understand why they
• 39:04
  Speaker 7: kind of, you know, shut him down completely last week
• 39:07
  Speaker 7: and had ruled him out. But maybe, maybe, just maybe
• 39:11
  Speaker 7: we'll see some of him this week. I'm with you
• 39:13
  Speaker 7: on Deshaun Elliott. I feel like, you know, For what
• 39:16
  Speaker 7: he went through, the injury, the rehab, the coming back
• 39:20
  Speaker 7: in training camp, playing in one, you know, a little
• 39:23
  Speaker 7: bit in one preseason game and then ending up on
• 39:25
  Speaker 7: the IR designated to return at cut down day. You
• 39:28
  Speaker 7: want this to be like ironclad. he's ready. So I
• 39:31
  Speaker 7: would feel better with a full week of practice, like
• 39:34
  Speaker 7: being full each day. So it wouldn't be a bad
• 39:37
  Speaker 7: time though, you know, to get him back at any
• 39:39
  Speaker 7: point because I think that would be huge for the defense.
• 39:44
  Speaker 3: No, it would be.
• 39:46
  Speaker 5: And like you said, you hope you can, kind of
• 39:48
  Speaker 5: get through this. I'd love to have Jamel Dean back,
• 39:50
  Speaker 5: even though Asante Samuel and Daylon Everett did a great
• 39:53
  Speaker 5: job in the game against the Colts. It's just one
• 39:55
  Speaker 5: thing to have your starter back, right? And to have guys,
• 39:59
  Speaker 5: not kind of necessity.
• 40:02
  Speaker 7: Yeah, sorry to cut you off, Max. And I think
• 40:04
  Speaker 7: just because you're already, okay, you know you're a little
• 40:07
  Speaker 7: tight on the D-line, right? Keanu's dealing with something, whether
• 40:10
  Speaker 7: he goes or not. You don't want to have too
• 40:12
  Speaker 7: many positions on one side of the ball, right? where
• 40:15
  Speaker 7: you don't feel like your numbers are great. So that's
• 40:18
  Speaker 7: where I'm hoping that Dean's able to push through.
• 40:22
  Speaker 6: Missy, question for you. Let's switch over to the offensive side.
• 40:24
  Speaker 6: Let's talk about Aaron Rodgers in the state of Florida.
• 40:26
  Speaker 6: I think he's like two and three versus Ty Bowles
• 40:30
  Speaker 6: on the road in Tampa. I could be, you can
• 40:31
  Speaker 6: clean me up on that if I'm wrong. Has he
• 40:33
  Speaker 6: talked about his matchup against Ty Bowles and the, you know,
• 40:38
  Speaker 6: Ty Bowles comes at you in a myriad different ways.
• 40:40
  Speaker 3: We know the Steelers.
• 40:41
  Speaker 6: Offensive line has struggled with blitz and movement up front
• 40:45
  Speaker 6: from the opposing defensive line. Has he talked about what
• 40:48
  Speaker 6: to expect as far as playing Todd Bowles and how
• 40:51
  Speaker 6: challenging it will be?
• 40:53
  Speaker 7: Oh, yeah. He said, you know, when you talk about
• 40:55
  Speaker 7: Todd Bowles, you're talking about bringing a lot of pressure.
• 40:58
  Speaker 7: And he was talking about how they have to be
• 41:00
  Speaker 7: ready for those and for things that maybe a lot
• 41:04
  Speaker 7: of the guys on the offense haven't seen before. And
• 41:07
  Speaker 7: they'll try to come up with something I'm sure that
• 41:09
  Speaker 7: Aaron hasn't seen before. You know, good luck. But it's disguised. pressure,
• 41:14
  Speaker 7: get after them. Um, so they're definitely going to count
• 41:18
  Speaker 7: on Aaron mostly, uh, and, but everybody else too, to
• 41:21
  Speaker 7: try to pick up on what they're doing to get
• 41:23
  Speaker 7: the ball out and to, you know, continue to have
• 41:26
  Speaker 7: success on the offensive side of the ball.
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: Uh, so Missy, um, we've been talking about, um, the
• 41:35
  Speaker 2: Steelers and the, and the ability to try to get
• 41:38
  Speaker 2: both sides together to get, you know, at the beginning
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: of the season, um, Defense carried the day the first
• 41:46
  Speaker 2: couple of games, and then the offense has ticked up.
• 41:50
  Speaker 2: On the one hand, I'm heartened that the team is 3-2,
• 41:52
  Speaker 2: and I do believe there's upside for both to come together.
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: But I think it's going to be interesting to see
• 42:00
  Speaker 2: if the offense– I don't think there's going to be
• 42:02
  Speaker 2: any letup, I guess is what I'm trying to say.
• 42:04
  Speaker 2: I think that if the defense comes out here and
• 42:08
  Speaker 2: does what we– hope that they will do against the
• 42:11
  Speaker 2: young quarterback in Jalen Daniels. Although he's been very competitive
• 42:14
  Speaker 2: in his two starts one, one, and had the bucks
• 42:17
  Speaker 2: right in it against green Bay at the end of
• 42:19
  Speaker 2: that game.
• 42:20
  Speaker 3: Um, I don't think there's going to be any letup.
• 42:22
  Speaker 2: I don't think there's any, I think Mike Tomlin is
• 42:24
  Speaker 2: very comfortable with keeping it low scoring, especially over the
• 42:27
  Speaker 2: last few years. I think Mike McCarthy is going to
• 42:29
  Speaker 2: keep trying to score no matter what the score is.
• 42:31
  Speaker 2: I just think he's an aggressive offensive coach. And, um,
• 42:35
  Speaker 2: I I'm hoping that we're going to see both those
• 42:37
  Speaker 2: things come together. The defense is, shutting down a rookie
• 42:40
  Speaker 2: quarterback in the offense, just piling up some points.
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 42:44
  Speaker 7: I mean, they've had 24 or more in the past three,
• 42:47
  Speaker 7: you know, the three touchdowns that with Aaron per game,
• 42:51
  Speaker 7: and he can do that again. I just think too,
• 42:54
  Speaker 7: the fact that they got the offense going through Jalen
• 42:57
  Speaker 7: and it's helping the line gel. And obviously Max and
• 43:01
  Speaker 7: Willie are way more experts on that than me, but
• 43:03
  Speaker 7: there's just something that there's a buzz about it. And just,
• 43:09
  Speaker 7: it almost like brought them together in a weird way.
• 43:12
  Speaker 7: Not that you wanted it to wait till week five
• 43:15
  Speaker 7: per se, but I think also the fact that with
• 43:18
  Speaker 7: the injuries with Pittman out, you've utilized your tight ends more,
• 43:22
  Speaker 7: which I think we're all kind of looking as being
• 43:25
  Speaker 7: a possibility there. Maybe we'll see some Robert Tunyon this week.
• 43:28
  Speaker 7: You have some young guys at wide receiver who are
• 43:30
  Speaker 7: going to step up. It's almost like they're, Their engine
• 43:33
  Speaker 7: started and they're ready to go. And, you know, they
• 43:36
  Speaker 7: have to get on a plane to get to Paris
• 43:37
  Speaker 7: because you can't take a train. But they they're it
• 43:41
  Speaker 7: just feels like they're clicking. And I think even, you know,
• 43:43
  Speaker 7: Mike McCarthy is not satisfied. He even said, you know,
• 43:46
  Speaker 7: we didn't run enough play. So that does that does
• 43:50
  Speaker 7: make me think that, you know, he's just he's just
• 43:52
  Speaker 7: scratching the surface of what he wants this to be.
• 43:55
  Speaker 7: And maybe it's coming along slowly, slower than we all
• 43:59
  Speaker 7: wanted it to be. Um, but it'd be, you know,
• 44:02
  Speaker 7: you're three and two, as you sit here doing it
• 44:04
  Speaker 7: and you can hopefully continue that.
• 44:09
  Speaker 5: Yeah, it's, it's one of those things that we haven't
• 44:14
  Speaker 5: seen it in a while. So it's, uh, you know,
• 44:17
  Speaker 5: it's a new frontier, so to speak, um, with seeing
• 44:20
  Speaker 5: kind of this offensive explosion, but, you know, as this
• 44:25
  Speaker 5: team continues to grow, um, You know, one of the
• 44:28
  Speaker 5: areas I think that I'm still trying to figure out, Missy,
• 44:31
  Speaker 5: and I don't know if Danny Crossman's talking about this,
• 44:33
  Speaker 5: but the special teams, right? You know, starting field position
• 44:37
  Speaker 5: on kickoff returns, how they cover kicks. Punt is not bad, but,
• 44:43
  Speaker 5: you know, the special teams just haven't been special. Like, granted,
• 44:46
  Speaker 5: we're going to go against Myles Killebrew. He's going to
• 44:47
  Speaker 5: be down there.
• 44:48
  Speaker 3: I know. Special team days. I'm like, oh, God.
• 44:51
  Speaker 5: I was like, please don't block a punt or a kick.
• 44:53
  Speaker 5: He did last week.
• 44:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly.
• 44:57
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 44:58
  Speaker 5: And that's where I'm like, I'm a little, a little
• 45:01
  Speaker 5: shy about this, but special teams, as we've got to
• 45:05
  Speaker 5: get that, it was just, where are we at with that? Like,
• 45:07
  Speaker 5: what does Danny Crossman said has been an issue or
• 45:11
  Speaker 5: what he's trying to figure out? Because that's something that
• 45:14
  Speaker 5: has always been. And like I said, we have that
• 45:16
  Speaker 5: guy there and we have, you know, a special teams
• 45:20
  Speaker 5: coach down there. That's, that's going to be really excited
• 45:22
  Speaker 5: to play against us. You know, Bubblegum Danny is going
• 45:26
  Speaker 5: to be down there. And so that's one where I'm like,
• 45:29
  Speaker 5: I'm not feeling really great about this matchup with Danny
• 45:31
  Speaker 5: Smith and Miles Killebrew on the other side.
• 45:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 45:36
  Speaker 7: And you don't have Ben Skoranek, not to make it worse,
• 45:38
  Speaker 7: but that's still, you know, it's pretty big.
• 45:42
  Speaker 3: No salt. No salt in the wound. The wound's open.
• 45:44
  Speaker 3: No salt in it.
• 45:46
  Speaker 7: But that matters, you know, like Skronic and Killebrew, that was,
• 45:49
  Speaker 7: they were, you know, Danny Smith's aces, his special team guys.
• 45:54
  Speaker 7: And even, you know, Ben in terms of the offense,
• 45:56
  Speaker 7: but either way, as you said, I think, you know,
• 45:59
  Speaker 7: I have learned one thing that all of the coordinators
• 46:03
  Speaker 7: when something goes wrong, it's always, well, I start with me.
• 46:06
  Speaker 7: They all kind of say the same thing in a
• 46:07
  Speaker 7: different way. It starts with me. I could have, you know,
• 46:10
  Speaker 7: called a better play. I could have, you know, prepared
• 46:13
  Speaker 7: the more done this. And he kind of, talked about
• 46:15
  Speaker 7: that this week, Danny Crossman, that is, of just trying
• 46:19
  Speaker 7: to clean things up. Missed tackles, who knows, there's a
• 46:23
  Speaker 7: number of things, and he keeps talking about how things
• 46:26
  Speaker 7: need to be eliminated so that it can be clean,
• 46:28
  Speaker 7: and that everyone feels like they're close with Cade and
• 46:31
  Speaker 7: Legion doing something. It's just we haven't seen it, like
• 46:34
  Speaker 7: you said, and it's usually not the sexy matchup of
• 46:39
  Speaker 7: special teams units when you're preparing for games but this
• 46:43
  Speaker 7: is one where I'm with you Max I I don't
• 46:46
  Speaker 7: want to say I'm scared but I don't want to
• 46:47
  Speaker 7: say I'm not scared because Danny Smith is either going
• 46:51
  Speaker 7: to pull a rabbit out of his hat or he's
• 46:53
  Speaker 7: going to play straight and you have to anticipate which
• 46:56
  Speaker 7: way it's going to go and hopefully not anticipating correctly.
• 47:01
  Speaker 2: Yep the special teams it's been There's been some positives
• 47:06
  Speaker 2: for the Steelers, but I think we can clearly say
• 47:08
  Speaker 2: it hasn't been positive across the board, especially in the
• 47:10
  Speaker 2: kick return and the kick coverage units.
• 47:13
  Speaker 3: Missy, thank you very much.
• 47:15
  Speaker 2: Not much vitamin D available today, but we will see
• 47:17
  Speaker 2: if we can get you some natural vitamin D, that is,
• 47:20
  Speaker 2: tomorrow in Tampa.
• 47:22
  Speaker 3: Perfect.
• 47:23
  Speaker 7: Can't wait. Thanks, guys.
• 47:24
  Speaker 3: Thanks, Missy. All right, stick around.
• 47:26
  Speaker 2: Jeremy Bernard is going to be a special guest Steelers
• 47:30
  Speaker 2: receiver joining us in the next hour. We're also going
• 47:32
  Speaker 2: to break down the key matchups. As we look forward
• 47:34
  Speaker 2: to the Steelers taking on Tampa Bay and looking for
• 47:36
  Speaker 2: their first road win of the season.
• 47:38
  Speaker 3: When we continue here on the Steelers Audio Network.