HR1: Moving Forward

Published Dec 16, 2024, 10:30 PM
Mr. Lolley and Mr. Williamson break down what happened against the Eagles as the Steelers suffer their 4th loss this season but secure a playoff berth. Mr. King calls in to share his stance on the loss.

At least.

He's the Drive with Dale Lolly and Matt Williamson on your twenty four to seven Home of the Black and Gold Steelers Nation Radio.

And welcome to the Drive. I am Dale Lolly, he is the Matt Williamson and it is a well, it's a rainy non victory Monday here in Pittsburgh.

And yeah, we were festive before we hit record though.

We were having a good time.

I mean, they can always make a make something good out of a bad situation.

Here's the thing, Like you and I both picked the Eagles to win that game. Neither one of us expected the Steelers to go out there and win. I just wanted to see how they matched up against that Philadelphia team. And I got to say, you know, I know the score was twenty seven thirteen, and the Eagles did what they did at the end of the game. But I got through that game. In the first half, I'm watching Steelers had went three and out in their first five possessions.

Yeah, that's a rough start, rough start.

The Eagles were scoring some points and then you look up at halftime and it's seventeen thirteen, and I'm like, like, at.

That point, I bet the Eagles were like, what are we doing here? Yeah? How did this happen? Why was this a game going into the half? You know, why don't we bury them?

Then?

And so and even at that, the Eagles then come out and get they score a field goal in the opening kickoff of the second half. So it's twenty to thirteen and the Steelers come right out and hit the flea flicker and they're driving back to back runs by Jalen Warren. They pick up another first down there they're at, you know, inside the almost getting ready to go into the red zone, and they get the pitch play and the fumble, and that just kind of seemed to change the tenor of the game a little bit. I thought the Steelers had weathered the storm early in that game, which there's often is often the case in a game like that in their building, you got to kind of, you know, roll with the conscience a little bit. I thought they had done that and had changed the momentum a little bit and it had kind of turned it back their own way, and you know, the turnover killed them. Yeah.

I think they lose that game nine out of ten times. Well, you didn't say any differently.

You know, they've They've lost out there eleven times in a row. They haven't won there since nineteen sixty five. I did not expect them to win the game. What I didn't want to see was them get and I know the final numbers looked like it. They were badly outplayed, and to a degree, they were. But you were down once once, once Dante Jackson left the game. You're down two starters in the secondary, no George Pickens, which changes the entire way of how they defend you.

I mean, that's coming in. You knew that was going to be a problem, and.

You know you're you're missing at the starting defensive linemen and you stop the run.

Clearly, that was goal number one.

That was goal number one. They weren't gonna let Saquan beat them, and that didn't happen.

And we said that all week, like if hurts nickels and dimes and complete passes on that's what they're hurting to do. Tip your hat to him, and he did. You know, I thought he played really well.

But who is the best tackler on this defense? To me, it's it's Shawn say it Elliott, It's Deshaun Elliott. Elliott and Minka would do the two best. Yeah, and so by what they did was they put Menca up closer than a line of scrimmage in this game, he was basically took Elliott's role.

Yeah yeah, And you know, so you in a way he got weak or two spots, right, you know, in terms of you know, size and you know all that in the box ability.

But this was not I mean I was I was out there a couple of years ago when they lost that game thirty eight to thirteen.

This was not that okay. So I thought they were clearly the inferior team, you know. I mean, and I was just thinking about it before we hit record too. I'm like, even going into this game, if I had to draft out of the other thirty one teams, who do I least want to play in the league? This is probably my last pick, you know, I mean, especially now with de Troy has a couple of injuries, and I might even talk I mean, I'm even talking about the healthy Mames. I'm like, this is not a great matchup for the Steelers. They have tackles that can deal with your edges. Their receivers are a real problem. Barkley, I mean, this is a really really good football team. But I definitely think there is some credence to you cause two turnovers really early with good field position and great field position, that can't be three points. I mean that can't be.

Three one point and the one they're going in for a score after they get the second turnover at the eleven on the fumbled punt, Yeah, they're going in for They get a seven yard game on first down, and Darnell Washington takes Darius Slay and drives him through the end zone.

Yeah, into the fifth row. Yeah.

Now, people, and I get it. You have to realize, you know, you can't see the play behind you, so you don't know exactly where you're at, but you can see this. You can see the stands coming up. You know that once the stands are there, you're not on the field to play anymore.

I think that's trying to put a statement for the rest of the game.

And I get it. And he has to know he can't do that. No, Slay through a punch. I'm looking right at it. It's right down below us. We're in that we're basically the press boxes in that en zone. I could see the punch. Co then everybody comes and crowds around. I see another punch come. I think it was the other cornerback, the rookie Quintin Mitchell. Quiny and Mitchell through at Calvin Austen and they meet about it. They have a discussion and they decide none of the Eagles did anything wrong. Two penalties on the Steelers moved the ball back to the nineteen and you get three. You get three.

That's offsetting nine out of ten times, and even.

The ninety nine out of one hundred times off set.

That's the right call too, There's no doubt about that. Now, where I's going with this is you. You weren't playing well early, you know, I mean your offense was struggling.

But that gave you, that gave you a little bit of a.

But as we've seen with this offense too, even when they don't have their best guy, as they do figure things out as the game goes on. You know, if you want to be critical of the coaching staff of you don't come in with a good enough plan. Okay, but I think it's a glass half full, glass half empty thing that as the game goes on, offensively they get better, you know, and they were starting to figure some things out.

They just didn't get any plays in the second half. They were eleven plays in the second half. Second half was great because they could you know, it just.

And the nausey fumble was as untimely as you could ask for. And he's the surehand, most sure handed guy in the league and on your team. I mean, that's as fluky of play as there's going to be. But it was a mistake by your most sure handed guy at the worst time. Again, I don't think they win that game a high percentage of the time no matter what as currently constructed. No pickings, you know, missing those guys on defense. But if the game goes different early, I don't think it's a route in the end. No, you know what I mean.

No, I'm with you, and you know I know that. You know they had the It was a twenty one play drive at eight to last ten minutes basically once once they got across midfield, I thought, you know, at that point the game's over. They had run twenty more offensive plays than the Steelers at that point at that point, it ended up being almost thirty because it was just clock killing. Yeah, your offense did nothing early to keep your defense off the field. And you know, eventually the.

Defense is bad defense. Yeah, it's always gonna be the case.

They ran seventy one plays, you know, and the Steelers, it.

Was timon possession was basically equals.

It was seventy seven to forty one. Yeah, right, Like they ran twenty six more plays than you know, thirty six more plays than you did, which is thirty six rare. That's like almost a game's worth.

Almost a games worth. So and that's often what the Steelers are their opponent. Yeah, And but the Eagles do it better than anybody. I mean, usually it's because they run the ball so well. In this case, they didn't run the ball so well and still could lead you out, you know. I mean that's how they're built, and they're really good at it, and they're a really good football team. And I thought Hurts played the best he has in months.

But I look at those, you know, those stats from the first half to your point. At the half, the Eagles had one hundred and seventy six total yards. They were one for nine on third downs, Yeah, yeah, one for nine. They ended up ten for seventeen. You played too much defense, laid into the game.

And tackling was a problem, which also becomes a problem when.

You're fatigued, start to get fatigued.

Yeah, but I was a little shocked with you know, and a six yard pass on third. I'm just making stuff up with six yard pass on third and fifteen Steelers missing open field tackle when they get sixteen. You know, I just had that feeling to it a lot, which happens when you're on the field too much. But tackling has to be better. Blocking needs to be better. Again, I thought they were the inferior team against what I now think it's the best team in the league and the worst matchup for this team in the league. But the world also isn't falling. And you know, we do the pregame show, Tim Benz, you were on the hour after me for away games, and we do a globally speaking you know, uh comment, and that's how we open the show at nine o'clock. And Tim's match, what's your globally speaking and mine is beat the Ravens. He said, well, it's Eagles week. I might all it matters. I'm not punting on this game. Yeah, but globally speaking, beat the Ravens.

If you beat the Ravens this week, you win the division.

You win division. That's the goal here is to win the super Bowl, and the path to do that is winning the division. Losing in Philly isn't the most important thing in the year. I mean, you have to think globally that. That's why we do this segment globally speaking. And yeah, Tomlinism or whatever.

Beat the Ravens, and if you beat the Ravens this week, nobody's gonna think anything, Well, yeah, that was a bad just a bad game out in Philadelphia.

It will come up again if you meet him in the super.

Bowl, right, that's the only time it would come up, right, if you beat if you beat the let's say you win the next two. Let's say you beat the Ravens and then beat the Chiefs, Nobody's like, well, both in the power right now, these guys are actually the Steelers are back.

Yeah.

Like there were people asking questions to Tomlin after and players in a locker room after game, how do you keep this from snowballing?

I think you said it. That's how you keep it from snowball short week, it's kind of the opposite of the loss in Cleveland. That was a long week to stew on it. But now it's like, get me back on the field against my rivals that I know. I don't need the extra day to prepare for Lamar. I know who he is. I want to get out there now. Then Cam Hayward's happy with that performance yesterday, of course, not you know, I mean not him in particular. Yeah, he whipped the crap out of the title of steam by the way when he came in there.

But by the way, that game, the Eagles had three offensive linemen go out of that game with injuries. Like they were getting beat up a little bit upfront too. It wasn't like that today. They weren't real happy to see the Steelers, you know, or they were probably much happier to see the Steelers leave than they like. Yeah, Lane Johnson left, Dickerson left the center, like what are we doing here?

Yeah, you know, And I don't know if Barkley was injured or not in the second quarter, but he sat a long stretch and they asked Sirianni about it. He's like, well, it was this third down defense. And if I'd have been a reporter, I'd been like, so you willingly kept him off the field for the whole almost a quarter. I'm like, that's not they do that though it.

I mean he had he had seven carries for thirty one yards in the first half, you know, I mean that's game was good. Yeah, and game well was good. On he had some big third down catches. All three of his catches went for first downs. Yeah, yeah, on third downs. But that's just how they've operated. Also, trust me, I owned Barkley and fantasy over the snap. Yeah, it's a little frustrating at times when like, why aren't you running the best runner in the country, you know, but that's kind of what they do. And if you're you know, if you're going to throw the ball, which obviously they were intent on doing right, well, then you're not going to hand it to that guy as much. So you know, at the end of it, you know, they attempted well, they dropped back to pass sixteen times in the first half, which is outside of the norm for that.

Yeah.

Yeah, their game plan was to come out throw yea. And I don't think it's because A. J. Brown was a squeaky wheel, but I think they Brown and Smith are real. They might have been the best few players on the field. I thought they were great in this game. And Jackson got hurt, But I don't think that's the reason they lost. You know, Harris fumbled. I don't think that's the reason they lost. There were two penalty calls, the one you mentioned with Darnel Washington take him into the second row, that were bad. And the other one I thought was the.

The Jalen Carter punch at the line of scrimmage.

Well that one too, but I would say that the change of possession on the punt, Yeah, that was a jail. Yeah, that was trying. My wires were getting crossed.

The punch punched Connor Heyward in the side of the head at the snap, and they said that was post that was posted, which.

It wasn't even closed. No, I mean it was.

If you watch, if you see the video of it, and there's the videos of it out on social media, you see him come up punch Connor Hayward in the side of the head and you can see the ball leaving the punter's foot after the fact.

Yeah, like, what are we talking If you did review that and decided it was after the fact, I'm not sure what you're looking at. Yeah, but so there was a lot of that stuff.

Steelers actually had the offense on the field while they were discussing that.

Yeah. Oh it was like, oh, this is coming back.

Yeah, they were out on the offense was out there getting ready to and at that point that was before the ten minute drive, so it was fourth and seven there, you're going to get the first down. Yeah, you're down twenty seven to thirteen at that point. If you punch oing in again, it's twenty seven to twenty.

Now. Yeah, it was kind of like the Washington one to like, now you're in field goal range and not you know, in third and long. You know, now, if Washington shouldn't have done what he did and all that stuff.

Too, but Connor Hayward didn't do anything but no right there and get hit in the head.

So there were there were definitely big plays in that regard. People want to blame Tomlin for the fourth and seven like all those things. I still think the Steelers lose on that day in that building with the players on the field, the coach is coaching, But it could have gone differently too.

Yeah. You know, you just don't know, You just don't know how the game plays out. I'd be shocked if those things don't happen. I mean, I've said a couple of times. I still think the Steelers lose that game nine out of ten times. But I still think the second half doesn't go that way more than five percent of the time, you know what I mean, where it's just running down, you know, just eating clock to an extreme degree. I think it'd be much more competitive fourth quarter. Yeah, I agree, but it didn't work out that way right there, though, in every game, there are maybe five tops play in the NFL, five plays that changed the outcome of the game, and those three go against the Steelers. Yeah, you know that the Eagles, they had them third and goal at the two. They had stopped him a couple of times on first and second down. The first one, I believe, first down play that there was a high snap that hurts, gets stacked and they run the ball and don't get anything. So his third and goal and he throws a little pass to to DeVante Smith. There you stopped the tush push once.

Yeah, it's a hard thing.

It's a hard thing to stop. There were some good things that I saw in that game that if the couple of those plays go your way, I don't know if it again to your point, I don't know if it affects the overall outcome, but it makes it a much closer game.

Yeah. I had a real similar conversation with Wolf and Rob King who we're gonna have on and I compared it to the Colts game. Like the Colts game on Monday was man eight out of nine plays that could have gone either way went against you this one more often than didn't. And I think they would have won the Colts game going away if if it's just Steven Steven, you know what I mean? This one, I don't think they win either way, but maybe the second half is drastically different, you know what I mean?

What we don't know, Like so TJ. Watt versus the fumble on a tackle gets two sacks at the end of the half. If that's a closer game, does he get more opportunities to do that?

I was thinking that too, Like now he's starting to get a better beat on Lane, you know, like these two Hall of Famers are doing battle, and maybe the first couple of rounds went to all Lee and now Fraser's starting to land a few, and then maybe All League gets around and you know, like.

You know, Pro Football Focus credited Lane Johnson. We saw that allowing no pressures in that game.

I was like, that's insane. I think he'd be the first to tell you that that was that was not the case.

Yeah, right right.

I had read that, and I was like for another podcast. I do sometimes I'll just cut and paste things I read and I'm discussing on you know, and I'm by myself. I'm like, I'm not even going to bring that up like that. He hit his hands full of the entire game. Yeah, he's really really good. Yeah, most guys would have got destroyed in that situation, but there's no way that was just now, oh he just won that battle.

Yeah, even you know, all day long, because if the two Philadelphia receivers weren't the best players on the field yesterday, it might have been what it might have been, right, Like he was changing the game with how he was playing.

Yep. Man, of course he got injured, which didn't help matters either.

But you know, real quick, Mike Tomlin held his news his press conference today. He said that he saw t. J. Watt this morning in the building walking around. Fine, so it looks like he's he's figuring on him.

Playing very scary watching it.

Oh yeah, yeah, you know Dante Jackson. Who else was Larry Ogan, Jobi Deshaun Elliott, George Pickens, uh and Justin Fields got banged up in that game yesterday. He said, everybody is on pace too for the opportunity to play this week.

So he didn't phrase it like, oh, we're hoping or holding the game was.

There was no hope. It was like, I feel pretty cam like really confident about what playing was basically his words, and the other guys you said, we feel pretty pretty good about there with the possibility of them playing.

Right right, because this is this is the game, all hands on deck. This is the game until you know further notice, you lose this one, then you got other work to do. But big picture thinking here, you're trying to win the super Bowl. You're not trying to win in Philadelphia as your last goal.

The only thing that does concern me about this one this week is that you did your defense did play seventy seven defensive snaps on the sun.

One less day, and then you get one less day after that, and right, I hate that they played so much.

Yeah, now that being said, a lot of the guys, a lot of your frontline players weren't necessarily out there laid into the game, so it was more like they played sixty five plays.

You know, I haven't studied this night.

I haven't looked at the snapcouts either, but there were a lot of answers like they were managing Cam Hayward. The liver marees were out there more and more. Yeah, but I thought Dean Lowry played well.

No, I think he's kind of a bright spot.

Yeah, yeah, I thought. I thought he did some good things.

Like I would elevate him over the Louder Milks. Yeah, those type of guys right in terms of.

He gets more of a pocket push than I think. Yeah, good physical player, guys, a lot of experience, But we gotta get to a break. When we return, we'll be joined by Steelers play by play announcer Rob King. He is Matt Williamson. I'm Dale Lolly. You're listening to the Drive here on the Steelers Audio Network, Matt, and I'll be back with more right after this.

At least.

He's the Drive with Dale Lolly and Matt Williamson on your twenty four to seven Home of the Black and Gold Steelers Nation Radio.

And we are back. I am Dale Lolly. He is the Matt Williamson and we're joined on the Justin Miller Hotline by published author Rob King. Check out the Stone where you can wherever you can find it there but Kinger, Amazon, that's there. You go to Amazon. Doorton Stone, Doorton Stone. Kinger. You had to get sick and tired of calling the Steelers defense yesterday being on the field second half.

Okay, you broke up slightly when Okay.

So I said you had to get a little tired of calling the Steelers defense on the field yesterday, to be loose Kinger, be loose Kinger. No, I'm not going in my defense there is I didn't hear any of that.

So you had to get sick of calling the Steelers defense.

People are getting sick of this.

Question, right, Hey, how's things going?

Hey?

How you published author Rob.

King doing the Stone Amazon?

Amazon? So back to the game. What do you think of calling the Steelers defense?

Uh? Yeah, yeah, it was out there a lot. I mean it was I don't ever remember seeing a game quite like that from anybody's perspective, even back in the day when the Steelers were you know, ground and pound and munching out drives. You know, you don't see the students on on that side of things. Very often they just couldn't make a play, you know, offensively or defensively. We talk about complimentary football, They just couldn't, you know, they couldn't find a way to either sustain a drive to give a defensive break or for the defense to get off the field to get the offensive opportunity. You know, there were the more I look at at the calls that were made against them, the or some bad calls against them, they just it was a game in which they just couldn't catch a break. Really, and you know, again it's not you'd have liked to have seen them rise to the challenge, get off the field, make a play, and that second happened. It just it just didn't happen.

In a slow start, some calls didn't go your way. You know, you get those two turnovers deep in your own end. And when things are looking good, they don't mind that Philly's swinging and you're not. When Darnel Washington's planting guys in the front row, and these aren't excuses. But against a team like Philly in that building, it's gonna snowball every time, you know what I mean.

We were talking, yeah, we were talking earlier, and I think you made a really good analogy when you brought up to Colts.

That is impossible.

I felt.

There was a game.

So uh, you know, there were six or seven plays in the game. You know, it's kind of a head scratch. You walked out of that stadium, you know, thinking what what just happened? How did that happens? They lost the game? Yeah, the Colts game the series are the better team, and they lost the game. And if any one of six or seven things had gone their way, they would have won the game, any one of them. Just every break seemed to go against them. Well in this one, you know, if the game, if breaks had gone their way, they would have been in the game. That's all we can really.

Yeah, you know they might have gone.

Yeah, the opponent's the opponent is a more quality opponent. But uh, you know, And and that was telling. It showed because when you didn't get the brakes, they brought their quality to bear on the Steelers and it was tough to watch. It was tough to it was tough to not be able to see the team get off the field. But you understand why they couldn't. Why couldn't they well, because when your offense goes five straight three and outs, I mean, you're you're jogging off the field and you know, you're tying your shoes and you're gonna sit down and talk to your coaches, and all of a sudden they saying, hey, punt team, and you're like, whoa, I guess we're back out there again, you know, And that wears on a team, and so you know, you can't just play the the defense because the offense didn't help the in the first half. And you can't just play the offense because you know, the the defense didn't get in the ball back on the second half, and then the officials didn't help. But I'm still you know, and again I've tried to explain this to people like I. I watched the game differently when I'm calling it than I do when I'm a fan. I frequently do not watch the replays because I've got other things to do. I've got other things to I'm preparing for the next play, you know, and I'm at home, of course I'm glued into every replay. I'm annoying my wife by hitting pause and saying, look, I think they're going to roll into a cover two hunting, and she's just like, just just could we just watch the game please? But when I'm calling the game that, that's it's not the same way. So I didn't see the replay, and I don't know what they showed it on TV. But I've seen the video now of that what happened in the end zone. I don't understand how you could have reviewed that.

I don't I don't understand how the official who broke who first came in and broke up the scrum, was right there when the punch was thrown. I don't understand how he doesn't see that.

Look, could you? Could you have said Darnell Washington played past the whistle there and called him. I guess so, I mean, assuming.

He heard the I think that's pretty clear. I mean he's into the second row.

Yeah, right, normally, you know, and again I don't know whether the game has changed. But you know, like that's you know, in any any team I've ever been around, or that's applauded, takes great job, you know, you know, like, hey, listen, if you drive this guy to the stand, you know, I'll give you five dollars. You know, like that's like that's like something that's encouraged.

You know, the whistle.

Okay, maybe you want a little pass the whistle. Fine. A lot of times that stuff is you know, I don't know if that's necessarily called, especially you know, if you're not like giving him the business or whatever. But at the at the least, at the at the worst, it should have been offsetting. And then you know, the punt, and again, those are those are big issues. Those are big things that happen in the course of the game. So I mean, I think if you were looking at the game, you could clearly say, hey, the fumble, my Nagie Harris and and there must have been a blue moon because that's how often Najia Harris fumbles. I'm not the least concerned about Naji Harris fumbling, you know, but that's Can you point in that and say that's the turning point of the game. You had an opportunity to tie it up. Yeah, you had an opportunity to get back of the game. You had an opportunity to be at the break even point with a quarter and a half of football left. If you march down and scored the touchdown, there's still no asshurts. You marched down and score a touchdown. So they're just there's so many things happened in that game that the Steels, you know, had opportunities to make tackles, to make plays and it didn't happen. And a good team shows you what happened. Happens when you don't, you know, when you allow them to take advantage of your mistakes, that's what happened.

Yeah, I just look at that that first as bad as that first half was offensively, and you mentioned the five to three and outs to start the game, at the end of the first half, the Eagles had run thirty one offensive plays and the Steelers had run thirty Yeah. Yeah, right, and it ended up seventy seven forty one Bonker. Yeah, I mean that that's just insane. I've never seen anything like that.

No, I, neither of I, neither of I. Forty six to eleven place. I mean it's thirteen, thirteen and twenty three drives in the second half, three long Eagles drives.

Did you get tired of?

Col?

I'm sorry, did you say something?

I mean, Amazon?

Amazon? Is this like groundhog gas? You know, listen, it's you know, what do you do? Uh? You know? I would have liked the only analogy I talked using talking about earlier. I would have liked that gap to have been smaller, the gap between what happened at what and what might have happened even in the loss. You know, you don't like to see thirteen and then you know, uh, you turn them all over and then it's thirteen again, and then you kick the ball back and then it's twenty. You know, I would have liked even if you lost the game, I would have liked to have seen, you know, maybe could you stop one time you make the tackle, you come back and maybe kick a field goal, and you know, you lose by ten, but you know, that just felt like a kind of a wear down. And the students have been on the plus end of those things, and those are really fun to be on the plus end of, and not much fun to be on the on the minus end of.

No turning the page forward, Rob, Yeah, Yes, Steelers Ravens this week.

Page the page at the Door in the Stone.

Yes, the page and the Door in the Stone illustrated by your daughter.

Page yeah, chapter two. Yes, Okay, so go ahead, get on to the Ravens.

Yeah, we're moving onto the Ravens because we have one fewer day to do all this stuff this week, so you got to you gotta turn the page quickly. Do you expect any carryover from that that game where your defense was on the field for seventy seven plays against the Ravens this week?

So I'm glad you. I'm glad you asked that, And I'm glad because, uh no, I don't expect her to be that. And you know, Mike Common after the game was asked about the you know, the loss and the carryover in the three games, and he's like, let's let's I think he said, that's that good that let's get overly dramatic. Yeah, yeah, And I thought that was a great response. And I think that's the way the team's gonna take it. You can't do what they did against good teams and expect to win. You know, he talked to you, always talked about the you know, the road gets narrow, the past gets narrow. The better the competition you faced, the less you can get away with that kind of thing. And they couldn't get away with it, and uh it's a defense worn down. I don't know, maybe is the you know, is it a short week? It assuredly? Is that I don't. I don't think that. I don't see that having any effect. You know, I like the fact that he didn't rule anybody out early in the week. You know, early last week he characterized George Pickens is doubtful, even characterize anybody is doubtful. This week, it is a big game for the Steelers, and I don't expect there to be any hangover effect. And I understand why people would think that could be an issue because you're playing three games against top quality opponents, physical opponents, and you're doing it in eleven days. And there's a reason that that's not you know, the normal schedule, because that's allow to ask of these guys and allow to ask of their bodies. However, it is the Ravens. I do think that they will bounce back. You know, there's a reason that it's a well conditioned team. It is because you know things like this are coming and you're gonna be physically prepared for that. So now you have another game like this. You know, if this was the quick turnaround game, right, if this was Saturday's game going into Wednesday, maybe my answer would be, I think there's enough time to recuperate, and there's enough at stake where I don't think that's going to be too big of a factor. Now, if they go on some long drives early in the first half of the game, could the defender's leg to be heavy late in the game. I think that's possible. I don't think going in I would expect it to have too much of an effect.

Yeah, I mean maybe I'm more a little more worried about than you guys. I mean it just we have mentioned that the Steeler defense was on the field a little bit in this conversation. You know, not to harp on that, but it is a short week. Amazon's new Stone.

Like subliminal stuff here. But I also think that Christmas there's also pride, and there's also familiarity. You know that great gift.

Hayward and Watt and company were embarrassed by their standards, kind of like on Thursday night in Cleveland and that one they had ten days to stew on it and Tomlin poking at them. This one. I like that they're getting back on the horse now everyone knows it wasn't great. You know, get back on the horse against your biggest rival. Great, give me another challenge.

Right right, you know, And it wasn't like I mean, there were there were some moments in which the students could have made I felt it was more like, man, the students left some plays out there. And this is hard to say, Matt. After they go thirteen thirteen twenty and their drives, I still didn't feel like they got manhandled. You know. I didn't feel like, oh my goodness, gracious.

There left and right and moved off the ball. Yeah, yeah, I'd feel.

Run down their throat. I didn't feel that way. And so when that if it's that, that's alarming, right, right, If it's hey, you got to come up with some tackles here. We got to get a call. Maybe we have to have some things that are uncharacteristic cleaned up. You know. It's like I was saying before, like we all make mistakes in life, and you know, Dale, I was using this when I was talking to Matt and Wolfe earlier. Look, Man, uh so I know I if I make a call and I messed something up on my job and that, believe me, it happens. You know. Uh, I know I made a mistake. I don't need the mistake pointed out now. If I make the same mistake over and over again. Then that's a problem. This is a game in which they made some mistakes, but they know they made mistakes. And so I don't think, you know, I wouldn't say I was saying, so, I wouldn't say a word to nag Naji Here's never funles, right. I don't want him thinking about that. I want him playing football. And if if, now, if that's the fourth pitch he dropped this year, sure I'm gonna pull them aside and say, hey man, we gotta do something different. It never happens with Naji here, So you know, I just I think, And I'm using that one because it's an obvious example. You know, they missed the open season open field tackles missed. Those guys are pretty good too, But still the Steelers get guys in the ground. They're more often than not. I just would I would just say, look, h you know, let's get back on the horse. We lost. Don't forget about it. Use it for motivation if you'd like, but let's not dwell on it.

That's the big thing. I mean, it's how do you how do you rebound from something like this? You can can go one of two ways, and just knowing the character of this team. I expect them to rebound and I expect you to get the the You may not win the game in Baltimore.

I mean, you know, tough game.

It's given me a tough game. You've beaten them eight out of nine times. You know, just the numbers of it all show that when you play somebody a tenth time and they're both good football teams, and you know, that's just the way it goes. But I do expect a better game. I don't expect to see that kind of thing happen again. I don't expect the Ravens to go out there and Lamar throws five touchdown passes and they're all, you know, got hats on it early in the third quarter celebrating, you know, beating the Steelers. That's not going to.

Happen, right, I don't think it's going to happen. And again, you know, if you told me, uh, if you just told me about those three drives in the second half, right, if you just said, hey, that's the way the game went, I'd have been like, whoa man? Were they were? They just outclassed in that game. But like I go back to, I didn't feel like they were outclass. Did they lose? Yeah, they lost. Did they do you know again? Did they do some things that were uncharacteristic in that loss?

Yes?

Did Philadelphia have something to do with it? George Shure are good players, man, I mean you know, look, uh, you know we talk all the time. Hey, throw it short and run long, right, Like you expect George Pickens to break the tackle and make a play. You expect Najee Harris if he has a full set of heam instead of ahead of steam going you know, on a and he's running down the sideline and he hit a yard before the sticks, so he's gonna pick up the first down. Well, if it's true for the Steelers players, it's true for those guys. I mean, you know a j Browns at three time Pro bowler, Demonte Smith is a first round pick. Say Kwan Barkley, you know, has already set the Eagles single season rushing record. These jail and hurts, these guys are going to make their play.

Layne Johnson's going to the Hall of Fame like these are. Yeah, this is a good football team. Yeah, that's right.

And I don't feel like again if you told me that that that was the trend, that's what happened. I would have been like, oh wow, but I didn't. I don't feel that way. I don't feel that that's what happened in that game. And so now if if if you see a similar outcome against Baltimore, and then you see a similar outcome against Kansas City, and then you see a similar outcome against Cincinnati, well then you know, now you've got a trend. One game is.

Not a trend, absolutely, absolutely real quick.

Sorry not to bring not to bring the mood down, but a concern I have is we know this team's gonna run the ball a lot. I mean, that's their identity, which that's head coach, the offensive coordinator, is the quarterback of the stage of this of his career. But three nine or four to zero for the season is a lot different than four three or four to four a pop. I mean, like, I think they have to get this running game one notch better and then all of a sudden it's second and five not second and seven. You know, like it would have such a ripple effect. And it's been a issue slash problem for the majority of the year.

Yeah, it's you know, they have been able to and I don't know where they rank, Matt, and you would know this more than I. On negative plays and you know, rushes of less than two or three yards. You know, the problem I thought in this game was in those first drives you're getting zero yards, one yard, one yard, zero yards. I think they got like six or something, but that was after a penalty. You know, zero yard, one yards, and you're looking at third and eight third, Nate, third and eighteen. I don't feel like that's been the case. I mean, yes, I understand what you're saying, but I feel like they've at least been able to get into third and four or third and three, which is a lot different than third and eight. You know, that's a little more. That's that's Frankly, that's a little anecdotal for me. I don't know the exact numbers. I do know what you're saying. As far as running the ball. Now, I'll also say this, and and this is this one is hard to quantify. The students have been a much better second half team than a first half team. So are the is the fact that you're running the ball a lot early part of the reason that you're more successful late in the game, Right, Yeah, when I look at what happened with the students. I think that that part of the problem with the defense was you went three and ounce. Well, I think part of a problem for defense can be when a team is wearing at you and running at you, and now suddenly it opens things up. Now, I mean, are they the Eagles? And I think this is a great comedy. We could spend the whole show talking about this. But you know, I think the the Eagles came out and I think the students expected him to run. They've been more of a second half running team. But they came out and threw the ball more. They ran the ball with some effective in the second half. They didn't follow their usual script, seemed to me. So is that something that perhaps the students have to think about doing. I don't know, Or do you just say, look, it's been effective. I mean, just look at the proof. Okay, three point nine yards per carry. Okay, we're gonna live with that because we're gonna run it a lot and we're gonna dominate you in the second half. So I think it's a great question, Matt, and it's it's uh, you know, I don't know the answer to it, and I'm not sure. I think that's a hard question.

It might be more of an offseason, right, yeah.

Yeah, And even even so, you would have to I think you have to really part some numbers to figure out. And I understand what you're saying, like, yes, you would. You know, if you're running the ball, you know, the second most times, but you're eighth in yards because you're when were they twenty ninth or something like that in yards per carry?

Yeah?

Uh, that certainly down the list. That's not the that's not the formula you want. Clearly you'd like to be more effective with it. Has that been been a factor in their second half scoring? You know? That might be one of those things that you can parse up all the numbers you want and maybe just comes down to opinion, right I think I think maybe it does. So somebody else might say, well, if you're more effective, it wouldn't. So it's a great question. I mean, we could spend hours talking about just that question you brought up.

Man.

I think it's a great question.

Kengar.

We got to let you go. We appreciate you dropping by here, and we'll see you well later this week when we do the Matchup show. Check that out on the Steelers YouTube channel and on Steelers dot com. And you can also check out the Door in the Stone Amazon Christmas. All that good stuff, all that good stuff. Thank you, You're very welcome, rough very much. That is Rob Kins Voice of the Steelers. I'm Dale LOLLI he is the Matt Williamson and this is the drive on the Steelers Audio Network. Matt and I will be back with more right after this.

At least.

He's the drive with Dale Lolly and Matt Williamson on your twenty four to seven Home of the Black and Gold Steelers Nation Radio.

And we are back. I am Dale Lolly. He is the Matt Williamson and Matt would kind of buried the lead on everything from yesterday.

Oh, Steelers are in the playoffs. Yeah, it's not so bad.

You clinched the playoff spot because, as expected, the Dolphins and the Colts both lost on the road. So they are now post six and eight and the Steelers are NOWT ten and four.

And you're in.

You're in.

Yeah, that's great. I mean, all this upcoming stuff is wonderful. Ravens Week, Christmas with the Chiefs, you know, end with the Bengals, the whole key is getting in the dance and you're in. Yeah, you know.

I mean, you don't have to wait for any help in week eighteen, just you're in.

I mean how much how many years in recent memory has it been certainly this early, let alone man, Jacksonville not to tie.

And this looking a tie breakers.

Don't have to worry about anything.

You're in.

And I firmly believe the Ravens and Steelers will be the three and five seeds in some way, shape or form, And the Steelers have the edge up of being the three as it stands.

As it stands today, And even if if they would happen to lose this game to Baltimore, they still win the division if they've then beat Kansas City and Cincinnati.

I mean, you control your own control, your own fate, and so.

That's all you can ask for at this time of year.

Now.

I hope next Monday we're not sitting here going man, that was a rough loss in Baltimore. But if so, you can still win the next two, yeah, at home, and then you're hosting a playoff game Wildcard weekend against Chargers Denver. Somebody like that. Like your chances, I mean, there's still you put a lot of money in the bank.

Yes, and that's you know, and you've beaten the You've beaten the Broncos, You've beating the Chargers, You've beating the Ravens. You know this is not.

Those are all winnable games, you know, right, Or if you end up the five seed and go to Houston, Okay, we'd probably pick the Steelers right now. You know, you're still in very good shape. You got to globally think this thing a little.

Bit absolutely, And if you know, if you do happen to beat the Chiefs and I you know, I know it's here in a rematch, would likely be out there.

My homes plays. I don't know what's going on with them, right I mean, there's a.

Lot of high ankle spring. Who knows what happens.

The volatility in the league right now? Yeah, what's going with Detroit Kansas City?

And that's so that's the big thing. That you came out of that game yesterday with no major injuries.

Sure sounds like you're gonna be healthier for next game than you were for this game. Yeah, You'll take that.

Christmas timish because a lot of times when you when you get it's not always the team, the best team that wins the super Bowl, it gets to the Super Bowl. It's a but who stayed the most healthy, who got hot at the right time. Now you can look at Buffalo right now and say what Buffalo is red hot? But you know, two weeks ago, three weeks ago, Detroit was that team.

I was just saying, I kind of feel bad for the Lions. You know, like it's they're doing everything right.

They just started the stacked and at some point it just becomes too too much.

Yeah, and then you lose Montgomery. You know, like even I didn't study Bills Lions. I mean, I'll dig into it more throughout the week, but the path to beating the Bills is keep him a nickel, get your big back rolling. Then he gets turned early in the game, and then your defense loses two more guys when it was already on thin ice. You know, like that's happened to so many teams in this league where the attrition of the league.

Steelers people want to talk about Mike Mike Tomlins only won three playoff games since all times you go limping into the playoffs, Yeah, look at who they didn't have for most of those playoff games. You know, Abs out for this game. Le'Veon Bell is out for that game. Ben Roethlisberger can't even raise his arm up in the right right. These are things that These are actual things that happen. Cam Hayward was out, you know when they.

Will not have them watch Yeah right, I mean yeah, these are the all time.

Great, legitimate things that happened. And well that's just an excuse. At some point, you can't afford not to have your best players on the field in the postseason.

That's just just I mean, critical big games Eagles, Ravens, Chiefs, you know, postseason. No, none of these are going to be pushovers in either direction or any of these teams. And if you're a little short, it's going to be awful tough, right, So, so at least you have that going for you as you enter this Ravens.

And that's why to me, people talking about resting people for this game, because oh, you just play and you'll play for the last two games. No, no, you you play to win this game. Then you can rest people, right right, And you also want to give yourself the most paths to get to where you want to go.

Oh yeah, this is the most important game.

So if you win this one, the last two don't really mean anything other than seeding.

Oh okay, I think he meant the last two that just happened. Now, the one that just happened doesn't mean much.

For all your games, of your four remaining games, that was the one that meant the least.

The one that meant the least. And I'm not implying that I am implying that you're not.

You're just saying it.

If that was the Super Bowl, maybe Pickens plays, maybe Elliott plays Ogan Joby. I mean, all of a sudden, we're not super worried about him, but forty eight hours ago we were. That's smart to me, though. That's not punting the game in Philly away. It's like, our goal is one thing is to win the Super Bowl. What's to choose your own adventure path? That makes that the most the least resistance. What beating the Ravens.

Beating the Ravens, Yeah, a team that you've beaten eight of the last nine times that you've played.

Them, and you know like the back of your hand, and you've won. Less day to prepare. But I don't need that much time to prepare.

For you, you know, You've been la Mar Jackson's kryptonite his entire career.

I need health is what I need, you know, to give me the best chance to win that game so I can host playoff game.

Like you think hardballs, like not driving Lamar. You've what's going on with the Steeler thing? He gets asked about it every time they played the Steelers.

That being said, I mean, it's super early in the week to start talking Ravens. But they're in a good shot shape too. I mean, having a really late bye is a wonderful thing for them, and then and then by a preseason game.

That's the one area if you look at the league kind of all three all four of these teams that have to play Saturday and then play on Christmas Day, they're all in the same boat with that.

They are, I mean terms, they're all three and eleven.

But if you look at the Ravens had a buy hot yeah, and so did Houston, and the Ravens then got to go to play a Giants team that's not real interested in winning at this point.

No, they're not.

Houston was at home, now Kansas City was on the road at Cleveland. They didn't know that Cleveland was going to be as bad as Cleveland is.

Sure, but but no, the Ravens had The Ravens had the easiest walking into this. Yeah, And whether the schedule makers tried to or not, that's just the facts. I mean, where the Giants are at now is a preseason game, yeah, you know, but no, so if we were doing Ravens radio right now.

Everybody had had on you know, it was like a preseason game for them.

Yeah, exactly. So they're they're not too beat up and they're hosting the Steelers.

But it hasn't mattered over the years because when these two teams get together, it's going to be a close game. It's going to be a close game. It is absolutely so we're going to get to another break that's going to do it for our number one of the drive here on the Steelers Audio Network, Matt and I will be back with our number two right after this

SNR Drive with Matt & Dale (Pittsburgh Steelers)

Dale Lolley and Matt Williamson tackle the days topics regarding the Pittsburgh Steelers each aftern 
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