This is the Point After, presented by Parks Casino. Is today your Lucky Day bet Parks by Brian Patton and Associates. It's all about the benefits and by the Steelers Pro Shop get it direct from the team at shop dot Steelers dot com. Alongside Craig Wolfley and Matt Williamson. I'm rob king our final show of the year, guys. This is it. We're hoping for a couple more points after. We're hoping they would go for two at least, right, yeah, games under our belt.
Least come on man.
Unfortunately, the Bills defeat the Steelers by the score of thirty one to seventeen. This look back segment is brought to you Brian Brian Patton and Associates. It's all about the benefits, guys. I will tell you what I thought had to happen in this game or would be the most likely path to success. So I'll lead off here and then i'd you know, like you guys should think and just give me an overview of the game. I thought you needed to come out in this game, start fast,
win the turnover battle, and prevent the big plays. Those are like kind of my three keys. Well, you didn't start fast, you didn't win the turnover battle, and they had more big plays than you did. Still, the Steelers still had a chance, and they clawed to within seven in the second half, but you know, it just felt like the entire game instead of being ahead like Green Bay. Did you know green Bay was against the Cowboys and
turned that into a blowout. I thought all the things that I wanted to see happen in this game to get the Steelers on good footing wolf didn't happen exactly.
So I agree with you on two of the three. The third one instead of the big plays, I would put time with possession, just because I felt like, you know, if you can keep Josh Allen off the field, and this guy is just a monster, he really is. If you ask me, if you're able to curtail his ability to do damage and inflict punishment upon you, you're one leg up and a big way in Buffalo, and unfortunately
they weren't able to. You think about a guy that accounted for almost ninety percent of all Buffalonian touchdowns, you know, twenty nine t d passes, fifteen Russian touchdowns. Ridiculous amounts. And I'm using this up because I'm using all Matt Samuel, who he gave to me via his great stats. But he's got so much more in reserve.
I'm off the hook down him anymore.
Actually, we got our p shooters and Matt Scott like I got an a chest behind him, dragging behind him.
As the late great Howard Kosell once said, it's mere spit balls at a battleship.
Yeah, so is that it? Are you finished?
That's pretty much it? Yeah?
And I agree with that. I'll even I'll pick you back. We're not even let Matt talk yet. We don't know how much stuff he's got.
I agree.
I you know, I was talking to people before the game and I thought, you know, I don't know if you win the toss or an elector receiver. I thought, I'd love to see the Steelers get the ball first. I really would. And and you start to think about, you know, get the ball, drop five down the field, maybe get a quick three and out, then get the
ball drive down the field again. And now you know you're looking and there's ten forty one left in the second quarter, and Josh Allen's like, I've had one possession. It's freezing out here. We've got nothing going, so that time of possession. I totally agree that that was a definite path to victory. The Steelers could have trod in
this game. And now again, if you get the lead, Matt, you know, and you're playing with the lead and they've got to catch up, that's when maybe you win the turnover about I mean, they all are intertwined obviously.
One hundred percent, and I think we all agree the Steelers did a lot of good stuff in this game. This wasn't a blowout, this wasn't garbage time yardage any of that type of thing. I thought they did a lot of good stuff, but just not early. Yeah, I mean, really that was the key to me, was it took them too long to get into their rhythm and start
to play clean football. I mean, I'm not calling anyone out because there was a handful of different things that went against them, but example, pickings, fumbles, the next play is a kin Kid touchdown. I mean instead of a first down, you just gave up seven points. Handful instances like that that were just really tough to overcome. But that's a good team on the road, really difficult circumstances. I wasn't there, but it had to be a really difficult place to play.
I mean in terms of extremely loud.
Yeah, everyone's talking about the wind in the snow, but Bill's Mafia's showed up.
Yeah.
There's something about watching guys jump off buses on the tables, just saying okay, being from there, sharing that that's the same blood that I came from makes me go hmm.
Yea, you might not want to land head first.
I don't want my kids to see that it's not where we come from.
Yeah, what what was the weather like? The conditions didn't seem to affect much better than.
What I anticipated.
I had a buddy of mine who is as I talked about before, and I talked all week along. He's a he drives for the County of Erie, you know, in snowplow one of those massive, huge snowplow trucks, Arctic conditions. And he kept posting pictures and everything. You know, milestrip road, can't see but ten feet in front of you, you know that sort of thing. And and the day before we got there, he had gotten stuck and thigh high
deep snow. They had to come pull him out in his truck, which is called Lady Lake effect and it was just letting us know that, yeah, it's gonna be you know, wild, and it was, but it was not by the time game time came. It was great job by the snowplow cruise up there and everybody else. Yeah, because the field was clear. How the fans got to sit down? Three quarters of the stadium was still of the seats were still under snow. And what were they gonna do? Ye, right, Bills fans did it.
They got it. You know.
It's funny growing up in central New York State and like there's a if you're leaving New York City, there's a big sign with an arrow that just says upstate, like it's all one thing, like the Adirondacks, Buffalo, Westchester, it's all one thing. If you leave once you're out of New York, it's upstate. I grew up in center State New York and Cooperstown. And one thing that that Upstate New York and Western New York is really really
good at is snow removal. They're really good. Like, you know, you get some snow, they'll get the you know, you get like twelve fourteen inches of snow and guess what school bus is there in the morning. I remember taking my when we first moved to Pittsburgh, taking my daughter to dropping her off at kindergarten. I'm like, they got like two or three inches. I'm like, where is it? What the where's everybody? What's going on?
Oh?
School was camp? What two or three inches? But I mean up there, man, It's like, no, I mean there. So if you're having trouble, right, you know, there's a lot of snow because they're really really good at snow removing exactly.
I'll just relay this one one short thing.
When I was growing up, you know, in the seventies down and you know, I remember one time we were in snowed in for a week, a complete week. If you don't want to if you want to see people go nuts, it's like living like hamsters in a small house with brothers and sisters going completely batcrap crazy.
Right, Okay, So my dadde the mom and trying to feed.
Them fought you thought that Grenkowski's had some damage.
So after a week, finally the snowplow comes through. My dad tunneled, I say, tunneled from the house to the road to walk behind the snowplow to the corner store, you get bread and head like he tunneled, tunneled and for a period of you know, feet towards the road.
I haven't seen a lot of them, but you know, some forty inch snowfalls. I mean you know, yeah, yeah, there's a nuts yeah. But anyway, like effect, they removed the snow, they played the game. It didn't look like the conditions were as nearly as troublesome as we thought. I mean, obviously they moved the game, you know, and I wonder if they could have even it sounded like they couldn't have even played it on Sunday.
They want our buddy Dale Lawley was up there actually because he was like half hour he drove there. He's like a half hour away before they switched it.
So he's like, I might as let's go to the hotel. He told me.
He's like, there's no chance he could play a football game in this When the wins were just that extreme and there was so much snow. They said it was like up to your waist. Absolutely, you really couldn't unfunctionally.
Dale knows he was.
He was like locked in his hotel room without food.
That made me, yeah, you know, and there's a lot of topics to get to but one. And I think, well, if you mentioned this, I mean Josh Allen, just a quarterback of that level, It just makes a massive difference in a game. He made a massive difference in that game. He didn't turn the ball over again. The steers never stressed him to get him into a turnover situation. But the fifty two yard run. And I listened to Matt's podcast and I talked to you this morning with with Max.
I think both you guys were disturbed by the fact that he was able to not only get the first down and again man coverage downfield right the pass rush comes in. You know they I don't know whether guys are supposed to stay in their lanes when you got man behind you, but they didn't. They rushed past Allen. He steps up easily, gets the first down. They're like, okay, well geez, now they got to see if they can hold him to a field goal here, and he just kept on going fifty two yards.
They stayed in their lanes by and large, but it was due to the fact they basically put their heads down in the chests and were bull rushing and they didn't see Josh. I don't think when they came by they might have caught him late, but they they definitely allowed him to escape the the you know, the pocket. And it was just it was tough. I mean, this is a guy that's so capable getting down the field and being able to run.
We saw that fifty two yard run.
I didn't think he you know, I certainly thought Demanic Casey take him off his feet and Demani probably with a little bit of a layoff. That's you know, a little bit. You know, he didn't do it. And you know there was other guys that had a shot at him and they just did not bring him down.
Yeah, that play was alarming, to be honest with you. And we talked about stats. I don't really only have one, and it's about Allen is since twenty twenty, they're seventeen and oh if he doesn't turn the ball over, right, the running backs may fumble ten times, the guys might muffkicks, but if that guy doesn't turn the ball over, they win. And I thought he paid played a very professional game, like I would have bet everything I had that he would throw at least one to the Steelers in this game.
But they did get the lead.
Eric Row got that hand up there and just couldn't pull it down.
Yeah, but if he plays like that within himself, mixed with the big plays, they could win the whole thing.
And I agree with you. Like, going into the playoffs, I thought, you know, the team that I probably least wanted to play was Buffalo h even less than the Ravens. You know, because you're familiar with the Ravens and you know there's a lot of history there. You know how to defend him. You've done a good job defending him,
you beat him earlier this year. Buffalo was just on an absolute role and they were a team that you know, I again, I was really rooting for Miami to win that game down there, and you know that long punt return turned it. But Allen is a terrific player. But again, I go back to the fact that that's a team that you you know, when you allow him to play with the lead, yeah right, he doesn't. You don't put him in a situation where he becomes impatient or feels
like he needs the players forcing something. The Steelers never really got him to that point.
No, they didn't. I mean because of the early troubles. Honestly, and yes, he certainly can press, and he can put the Superman cape on and all those things. But I give him credit for never even really trying to go down that road. And you're right, the Steelers didn't stress him to the point where he was ever tense or probably felt out of control of the game. And they they're a good football team. I mean, I give him
a lot of credit. They did some things that you know, they played a very high percentage of six offensive linemen on the field because they wanted to keep the Steelers heavy guys out, keep those linebackers and attack them. They did some things that they don't usually do. They're usually a super too high safety team. Well, they were in single high the whole time, just begging the Steelers not to run.
I mean, they.
Feared and respected the Steelers run game, and and that worked out, you know. I mean, the Bills came to play and a good football team.
Part of the problem too, is that you I think they game planned that beating the Steelers with heavy personnel too. They ran twelve thirteen personnel, and I think, you know the problem is maybe you need to need to go as heavy a personnel based on the fact that the conditions were better than what your thought. Yeah, and certainly I think that's one of the reasons why, like Pat Firemouth took front and center with more targets and stuff
like that, and even more. I think you could add more there, But the fact is, you know, it is what it is. The running game didn't materialize the way we'd hoped wanted to see it. I don't Ed Oliver was the guy that was.
One of your dudes for Yeah, he's really good, Yeah, and really good.
I was talking to Max this more than one of the things.
It just honks you off when you do a great job of stuff in a pass rusher on the line of scrimmage and he didn't get up the line of scrimmage because you wired him, and you're like yeah, and then he jumps.
Up and knocks them all down. You're like, got crap.
Couple they hurt the Steelers a couple of minute passes. Little things like that were problematic.
But I did think that the Bills, to your point, Matt, they made a great adjustment. I mean, you know a cover two team that plays Nickel right because leading tacklers Bernard two hundred and twenty five pounds Poyer one hundred and ninety the corner of Johnson right at one hundred and ninety pounds right, thinking not only can they run the ball against lighter personnel, but they could wear them down.
There was one run, one touchdown drive. I think it was the one at the end of the first half in which the Bills were getting up slowly and looked like maybe maybe it was the first drive in the second half w they were starting to It felt like the Steelers were starting to get things going. But I thought a great adjustment by the Bills to come out and change your defense. I mean, they're one of, if not the highest cover two the team in the NFL, one of the.
Highest high and yeah, and.
They changed with the top of the league. They changed what they did.
I will say, though, to your point. As the game went on and their linebacker injuries started to settle into I kind of felt like the Bills defense was holding on for dear life a little bit too. I mean, the Steelers were figuring them out. Rudolph was playing court pretty well. It wasn't a traditional Steelers nausey for six, nause for seven, nausey for eight, but they were moving the ball pretty consistently in the middle of the field was a problem for the Bills.
Yeah, more to get to in this game. That is the look back segment, brought to you by Brian Patton and Associates. It's all about the benefits. Steelers season concludes with the thirty one to seventeen playoff loss to Buffalo. We still continue though, with a point after on Steeler's Nation Radio and one oh two point five DVE. This is the point After, presented by Parks Casino. Is today your Lucky Day bet Parks by Brian pat and then Associates.
It's all about the benefits and by the Steelers Pro Shop get it direct from the team at Shop dot Steelers dot com in order to prepare properly for the segment. We're all discussing the interception thrown in the in the end zone. Look, whether you felt like Deontay Johnson could have made a harder break on it, which is what I initially thought. I thought on the replay that Mason needed to throw that ball wider. Maybe it's a combination of the two. Maybe it's just to throw, Maybe it's
the break on the ball. I don't know what it is, but that was that was a huge, huge moment in the football game.
Obviously, well, there's no question about it, especially with all the angst we spent over Matt's stats of you know, the Bills being sixteen and zero when Allen doesn't throw an interception or put the ball in the ground or anything like that. And you know, and then the fact that over the last three weeks prior to the game he had thrown four interceptions. I mean, you were just thinking, Okay, we got something here and Mason hadn't thrown any and
he gets first. But you know, again, a four week sample of Mason Rudolph, you've got five tds and you got yourself one. I int, that's pretty good. You can extrapolate that in a manner that I can't because my math fails me.
No, the numbers are good, for sure for Mason Rudolph overall. But I just think Matt, you know, and obviously the Pickens fumble you mentioned it was immediately followed up by a touchdown. You can't go on the road and be the underdog and turn them all over two times in the first half and expect to win the game.
No, and the Bills are a ten point favor for a reason. I mean, they're probably the better football team. They could play that game in a dome or you know, Kansas or whatever. The Bills probably win more than they lose, so you probably have a you know, you have a smaller room for air for such things.
And we've seen that with the Steelers all year long.
That when they can play their style and like you said, get up early, run the football, you know, win the turnover battle, win on special teams things like that. They're hard to play against. But they're not exactly built to come from behind either. And that interception wasn't perfect. It was also a good play the corn. Yeah, he made a nice play.
There you have it.
I mean, you can't have that many game swinging plays go against you.
And they kind of lucky. The friar moose wasn't called total.
I was on X or Twitter or whatever that gets called down people complaining about some of the calls, and the Pickens call at the end of the game that certainly did look like you could have been called past interference. On thought, well, let's not forget that fire. I thought they hit his face mask.
So hard to watch on TV, it's really hard to tell. It's hard that's what they thought.
Yeah, you know, I believe it was the same thing with the IG would be a thing, you know, feed in the out of bounds and these are out of bounds. I'll see him tonight at the you know, we do the Giant Eagle Talk Talk tonight, so I'll take him off the sensus.
So tell me that. I think that's what they ruled though, but just watch on TV. It was not conclusive. No, there wasn't a lot they ruled on the field.
I think they said, didn't they that you know, he had touched it out of bounds and then they need a definitive.
Yeah. Yeah.
And you know the other thing going back just to the uh, the interception. You know that a lot of people I think we're grumbling about is why you're going empty set from inside the ten yard. And I'm not a big I have to say, with this kind of a team, I'm not a big.
Yeah.
So so just just just yeah, just just to so. I tried to bank my coffee cup here, my styrophone cup and h and you.
Know, you look super cool while you're doing No.
I think I'm looking to see if there's any high garbage that would have caused a block, But now I just missed it.
I've been talking.
These guys have been tandem drinking your coffee. Coffee has been a big theme in the show. So I like, I don't know. I mean, if if I have a running quarterback, I think I feel better about empty set inside you know, the ten yard line than I do when you don't really have a running quarterback. I mean, I look, these guys are calling up plays to succeed.
They're not calling up plays to fail. But we saw that earlier when the Steelers had the ball I think of the one yard line and went shotgun instead of under center at some point during the season. Yeah, I remember, I don't remember what the game was, but I mean, so look, when you don't win, there's lots of gristle on the bone for people, fans, media, all of us to gnaw on.
Yeah, other is and we can nitpick things to no end. Go get your rebound there, salam, and.
There you go. That's a dum take. I don't know.
Those are kind of nippicky things to me. It's kind of like the Pickens non call at the end of the game. Yeah, it probably should have been penalty, but they probably still lose, you know, I mean I thought the better team went one. I think the better team would have won more often than not. But I also thought the Steelers could have went in the shell at
one point when they were getting beat pretty bad. And they did a lot of good things from quarter two on, you know, I mean, I thought they hung around pretty well.
The Adams block field goal, he loved it.
I couldn't.
I couldn't even wrap my brain around it at first because it ricocheted so fast. So far I'm trying to figure out what happened, you know what I mean. We're all looking going because you know, you're high up in the state gum. You know, I got this little monitor, TV screen about this big. You're like squinting at it, looking at you can't see exactly what's going on.
But it was a great, great job to be able to get bust through.
And you know, it's very very kind of symbolic of think about the last time we're here. You know, you got you got the block punt and all those sorts of things. What we missed from the last time was TJ Watt. TJ Watt had what two sacks, five quarterback hits the last time that the Steelers and Bill's played. That was greatly missed, and I think that really added some made for some problems that you know, the Steelers couldn't overcome.
He's a hard guy to sack. They got to him what twice I think, right, two sacks and they think so.
Yeah, I will say, I mean not that this was a difference the game either, but they were pretty liberal about pretty liberal about letting holding go on high Smith say the least I mean probably would have been the same for what but what is a force multiplier that would have a ripple effect throughout.
The whole game, That's exactly.
And when when you needed the huge play late in the game, if anyone was going to get a four, you had have been ninety.
I thought there was one other moment that you know, we haven't really talked about that much that I thought would have been really nice. Like I agree with you, Matt, second quarter, you get that score and you're starting to feel like, okay, hang on a second now, yeah right, yeah, but if you can get a stop and score here, well they got to stop and a touchdown there at that point of the game when you got to touchdown. Later the Bills I think kind of knew. I mean,
you you know, drew within seven later. The Bills are just a couple first downs away from winning the game. At the game, right, yeah, the clocks your enemy and you have to be you've lost any margin for air Man. It would have been I'd have loved have seen that game at twenty one to fourteen instead of twenty one to ten. I just think it could have made could have potentially made a huge.
Tas no question.
Look, one of the things Josh, to his credit, he got rid of the ball pretty pretty good, pretty quickly. I thought Josh Allen normally would hang on a little bit longer to the ball, but he made up his mind pretty quick and delivered the ball well. And I thought he'd gamble a little bit more than what he did, you know. But the fact of the matter is where you got somebody like Alex Highsmith. One of the beautiful things that occurs between he and TJ. Watt is Alex
is one of those streaking penetrators. I mean he's got close to sixty seventy some pressures you know, where you know it's not you're not getting a hit on the quarterback, but you're making the quarterback.
Step up or whatever.
He's really good at that, and that gives TJ a lot of time be able to do his thing or vice versa, because they really do well together without TJ.
Because TJ is such a threat man.
I mean, that guy he absorbs a lot of offensive coordinator mental reps, you know, during the week and during the game. And when you take that and remove that threat, it kind of makes things a little bit easier for an offensive coordinator to go about his business and calling plays when you don't have the threat of a guy like ninety.
Well he used force multiplier and you know that's a great succinct way to put it, and I'll put it less succinctly now, but I mean, if you have a TJ. Watt, that's going to make the guy to his right on the inside for this Steelers better because now you're not going to double team that guy. You have to double
team TJ. Watt. Well, now, if you're double teaming TJ. Watt, say it's with the running back, Well, that's going to help your outside line or your corner as well on the flat because now that running back's not going out into a pattern. And so when you talk about a force multiplier. That's one guy who's not only capable even with all those you know, everything that an offense is trying to do to limit him, he's still effective even
with that. But now he's making the guy next to him because he doesn't better, because he doesn't have to be doubled, the guy behind him better because guy might not be leaking out to the flat. I mean, it's amazing. What one player, who I think we all think is very well deserving of Defensive Player of the Year, you bring him out of your lineup. It's gonna hurt.
Yeah, And even just breaking down this matchup specifically, the right side of the Bilzoh line is to be kind to work in progress in protection. They're much better run blockers. They're they're not great in protection. They played a huge percentage of snaps with a sixth offensive linemen on the field. Well, that guy would have been to the right, you.
Know what I mean.
I mean if they if they kept that approach, maybe your tight ends don't beat you up quite as much because they're chipping. James Cook's a tremendous receiver. Maybe he has to chip on the way side right there about the tight ends, Yeah, going list. We knew what the tight ends were going to do. They're a problem, you know.
I mean both Kincaid and Dawson and uh, you know they were yeah, right, and they were.
We knew they were gonna be a problem, and they were a problem.
Ye and they and the you know, look, you can blame the Steelers, you can. You can off your cap to the Bills on a great play call immediately fouling the pickings fumble. Uh, the Steelers are in cover two with you know, the wide safeties in the back, and they put that they put that safety in a bad position. They had somebody running up the right sideline.
Miles Jack.
He went to the right, and now you have Miles Jack in trail coverage. I mean, let's face it, Miles Jack's a great thumper, but you know he's not you don't want him, Yeah, you don't want him man to man on a first round draft choice tight end. Into the Bill's credit, they exploited that that was a huge play obviously for them to go immediately from turnover, just as you're you're not you don't even have a chance
to process. I hope they can hold him to a field goal, maybe even with the weather, maybe you might, oh wait a minute, hang on touchdown.
Yeah, you know it was like that quick and just expand on that too.
I mean, six months ago, Cancaid's running a four to four at the combine, two months ago, Miles Jackson his couch right, yeah, right, and Alan, I mean the thin the subtleties of quarterbacking Frozo's safeties really well. He used his eyes extremely well where you watching the play and just created a lot of space for his talented rookie tight end.
That's that's mismatch.
He also made it. I mean, you know, not to not to say anying about down, but that that's a relatively easy read, right. I mean, you know, if if the tight end goes to the if the safety goes to your left as a quarterback, you throw it to your right.
To right them. I'm going there.
Yeah. Maybe kind of looked him awfu a little when he saw that match up.
Perhaps you'll see it, but it's unfortunates. I think the best thing in there is what Matt quote in the stats for four freaking Caid a couch for.
Yeah. Yeah, I will say this though, and and again we're gonna we'll look forward a little too to what this loss means for the Steelers as far as you know, personnel and some guys that maybe played well down the stretch, some other things they might do. But you know, I think look and and and people don't want to hear this after loss, but I think you have to credit
him for hanging in there. And you know, again, you hated to see the penalty to me after the touchdown on Dan Moore, like second guy in thing right, you know the fifteen yard penalty because you're thinking, ever, I saw that you score right now, you kick off. You force him to start at the twenty five. Now, now maybe these thought processes like, hey we get him at a third and eight. Maybe this is where the Allen
turnover seventeen games. You had fourteen interceptions, and interceptions in fourteen of those seventeen games, eighteen in the season.
Remember the very pressing.
Maybe that's where he pressed.
Remember the Wizard of Boz drilled that thing seventy yards yeah and run. Now they only got out to the thirty with it. Yeah, that could have been a disaster. And and the Wizard of Boz really bailed out Danny.
Moore on that.
Yeah, that was the last little sequence. So to me, you know, you get the interception and the turnover in the first half, you know you'd like to get that touchdown instead of the field goal in the in the beginning of the second half to draw close. And then that you know, that last sort of sequence where okay, hey, if you can, if you can get them three and a halt here, if you could even just not let them score, you got the ball on a chance to
march down the field and score. And in the beginning of that game, if you told me, hey, they're going to draw it within a touchdown in the fourth quarter, I'm like, uh, where do I sign? Yeah? Yeah, I mean, because it looked like that thing could have gotten out of hand and it didn't.
No, And a couple of things on top of that is, I mean, they did have the Bills go three and out three different times, I think on ten or eleven drives. I mean probably would have taken that going into the game. There were some long drives that paid, you know, some dividends for them in terms of eating clock. But you know, the Steelers definitely won the special teams battle. There's no question about that. You block a field goal and they missed a field goal, they play, even a little thing
like Boz did there, but you lost turnover battle. I mean, the turnover battle kills It kills you.
Yeah, and especially when they take those turnovers and turn them into fourteen points and then you lose by fourteen point points.
And fourteen And here's the thing too, right, I don't think that there's not a guy there doesn't remember that thirty eight to three thump them, you know what I mean that that was there a couple of years ago, you know, in the COVID years, you know, and and the thought of how fast that game could get out of control based on the crowd. I mean, and I got to tell you, Steelers Nation showed up big. I mean for a game there under those conditions, with a travel band and everything else.
Those people are just marvelous. They're fabulous.
Every heard them, Yeah, I mean, yeah exactly. But you think about how fast with that stadium. I mean, when we were pulling out of the stadium after the game's all over it, the the the parking was just chaos. It's everywhere, you know what I mean, people are going there and there, and you know it's arbitrary paying attention to the rules of embarking, right. But I mean that's just how fanatical their base is that they could come out and a lot of them shoveled their own seats off,
you know. I mean, it was just like amazing. And and to hear the noise volume level as it is, it just the crescendos would rise and fall. But it really was amazing.
You said one thing there, like it could have got away from the Steelers. It could have gotten away easy. There was a I take no story and I'm like, they're in trouble now because and a role. I'm like, this could be sixty to nothing exactly.
That Mason was able to lead them back and get them competitive again. That was that took us some some serious steady hands at the helm there.
Mason a very interesting storyline. We'll get into some of the storylines when we continue on the Point After on Steelers Nation Radio on one O two point five DVE is The Point After presented by Parks Casino. Is today your Lucky Day bet Parks by Brian Patton and Associates. It's all about the benefits and by this doar this pro shop Get it direct from the team at shop dot Steelers dot com. Get a little weepys the last segment.
It's been enjoyable. I've enjoyed it enjoyable. So we're let's get lunch or you get you now you can eat chicken wings. You boycott it?
Oh yeah, I had the boycott the chicken wings. Didn't even eat them at halftime.
Wow, that's some discipline, you know.
I have to say I gave a little bit of pad of a pad on the back to myself. That's impressive. I avoid him. I think some of the others in our broadcast crew did not abide by the boycott. I'm not going to name names though, Max Starks, but you.
Know, having worked with you for how many how many years did you do high school football together? Like eight year? Yeah, like a decade, and just I think the word to describe the the food trucks and and all those places we left by might be carnage, like you know, absolutely you know, And and listen, I'm a pretty big eater, but let's face it, I'm a cruiser weight.
You know what I mean. You don't do bad pound for pound, But yeah.
I mean I got to stay away. I got to keep my hands up and stay away a little bit. I got to dance around the ring a little bit. I mean I can't have that.
But you ever shout down starks.
Oh, I've heard legendary stories. I've heard the legendary story. These should have been with me in my prime.
Brother.
Let me tell you, Yeah, you have the seventy eight ounce steak or whatever.
Nowhere else have I ever had the privilege I have in a chef come out and shake my hand.
Yeah, you know that time.
At some point, you know, you just need to move beyond ounces and like, this is a six pound steak, you know what I mean? At some point ounces is like like how would you play sixty months? You mean five? Right? I mean you know so yeah, at some point maybe pounds would have come in handy.
Therefore, again I couldn't figure out the math that quick. Okay, so.
He did your part, Wolf, Yeah, thank you? Uh so down the stretch some really really fun things to watch. I think for the Steelers, the offensive line I think would be almost the first the offensive line in the running game. Just you know Naji Harris and Jalen Warren. You know the move of Jones to right tackle Siamalu settling in. I don't know again whether it was just familiarity. I know that offensive lines are a cohesive unit. It's good to get them all playing together for a while.
They didn't. They were able to do that. They didn't have any injuries. Knock on wood. I just thought, and again, I don't know whether they change the schemes a little bit the better fit the personnel. I mean, again, everybody
wants instant success, but sometimes things take some time. And I thought, I don't know, maybe five six games into the season, when Jones got in there, that offensive line began to really find its groove and for the most part, the running game with Harris and with Warren began at times to punish people led by the offensive line, But those two guys will punish you too.
No question about it. And this offensive line took some time getting jelled.
I mean, they're working together for whatever reason, but it does take some time, and it's knowing the specifics of what the guy next to you, to your left or right is going to do in each and every play, which the advent of it.
In situations like we have the.
Outside zone, inside zone, the double teams and those sort of things, it takes a little while. Like we saw Roderick give up a sack. Well, he gave up sack because he thought that, you know, he's got James Daniels to his inside. He got a wall going right, and he got clubbed a little bit by Russo, but it in his mind. By the way his body reacted, I could see he was thinking, well, I'm covered to my inside. I'm okay. I set out a little bit more. But
he wasn't. You know, he was not covered. James Daniels was working on his own guy, and so there's a problem there. And and for Bro Derek, I love that they call it Derek from Roderick Jones. This guy, the upside.
Is just huge. It's gonna be fun. It's gonna be fun.
But I'll tell you another guy that I really enjoyed watching him develop, Danny Moore. Danny Moore played hard all here long, and you know, tip of the cap because there's a lot of people that wrote him off in the offseason. And the guy, again, the best ability is availability and he here, he is. He I don't know if he's even missed a game and his years and I know he's missed one or two because Roderick Yes against Baltimore remember I think, yeah, came in for a
game and yet Jones that left. But this guy, you know, kudos to him. He's gotten better and better and he's withstood a lot of it, a little bit of adversity.
That shall we say.
Yeah, and when you look at an offense, I mean, look, I pointed out to people all the time. You know, you always see your own worts the most right. Nobody's got twenty two all pros, nobody no. So you know how they can figure that offensive line. Whether Jones moves from right to left and you move more to the right side, you know what you do. As far as adding to that, I mean, I think we know with if Andy Widel has some influence, he likes to build
those offensive and defensive lines. That was his the reputation that they had in Philadelphia in that front office, and we saw it already. I mean, like, you know, for you go out and get Jones to get better and you add guys along the offensive line. It's intriguing to think that with a move war two that the line played well a mover too. This could be a pretty dominating unit with a lot of depth. That's my perspective on it. Matt I don't know if you feel the same way or Yeah.
For the most part, Yes. And the one thing I wanted to expand on because I looked at this morning is the Georgia teammates Washington the tight end and Jones. Jones played more preseason snaps than any other Steeler by a long stretch. I mean, they knew he wasn't gonna start Week one if you remember, and he was out there all the time. Where I'm going with this is those three preseason games, seventeen regular season games and a
playoff game between him and Washington. They both played almost like two seasons of Georgia bulldog football, you know against NFL players like they have to be like thinking is this marathon ever gonna end?
You know what I mean?
And now you get that under your belt. I think the world is the oyster for Jones. I think he'll be their best lineman for a long time.
Yeah, that is really nice. You were able to get him, and then you know he expanded out to Washington, Washington, Friarmouth. Hey, you begin to look at that tight end situation and look, I mean if you if a superstar was there and you thought, oh, we got to take this guy, fine, but I don't think they really that's a position Wolf that I'm not sure they're gonna have to do a whole lot with again for a couple of seasons while these guys remain on their rookie deals.
Oh there's no question about it. What Darnell can do as far as his pass catching to up his availability in other areas. I mean, Pat Fryarmouth is already an established pass catcher in my book. I mean a guy that you you know, obviously he's got very great talent. You go to that twelve personnel, thirteen personnel with the ability to all three of them that they could be a part of an offense, you know, in limited structure,
you know, limited specific circumstances. But to have you know, the ability to spread a Pat fryarmth out it o Connor Heyward, you know, and to be able to use a Darnell Washington more in the past reception. I mean, come on, that guy's just so huge, you know, he eats up space just by you know, breathing, you know, and for him to be in some of the route,
which I love. When you start to again you go back to the Grinkowski Aaron Hernandez years when they had the dueling tight ends and how they're able to do a lot of things because of their size and everything else. I look for some stuff like that.
And you're hoping that Friarmouth will be able to beat if you do a lot of that person out beat the other team's best, like say coverage linebacker, right, you know if you're going to be able to attach him or even have him in there, but he needs to be able to beat those guys. I thought he was a little underutilized. This was obviously more of a running team than a passing team, and you know, if you're.
In high night though, I thought he looked like the receiver.
You thought he was definite question and I think that. You know, there's only so many throws to go around to so many guys. You can only parse him out to so many different receivers. It was interesting the way they use that wide receiver group. I mean, Alan Robinson got a lot of snaps. He's their best blocker. Calvin Austin got action early and pass attempts, throwing him early when Deontay Johnson was on the shelf. When John's and
came back, that kind of dried up jetsweep here. There caught a touchdown yesterday, and we don't know whether there's going to be a new offensive coordinator coming in here to move these you know, these pieces around. But there's a lot in this offense. And let's take out the quarterback position for now, but there's a lot in this offense. I think to like Pickens with the explosive ability, Deontay Johnson with his route running. He's got one more year
left on his deal. I think there's there's a lot in this offense.
Agree, I mean, quarterback, offense coordinator aside, we don't know how that hell is going to pan out, especially from a coaching perspective.
We kind of touched on it.
I always look at it through kind of a GM's front office eyes. Yeah, I'm not touching running back and tight end, Like, I don't think those are needs. I mean, yeah, if in the fourth round there's a guy you have a second round grade on, maybe whatever, but they're not priorities for me. I would love to add because this draft is unbelievably deep at receiver and really really top heavy.
If you could add another and frankly, I know Alan Robinson did a lot of good stuff here, but I don't know if he'll be back, you know, I mean, considering his contract and things like that. But it's a great tackle draft. There's a lot of good centers on Day two, it looks like, and it's an awesome receiver draft. If you could take advantage of two or three of those spots in the top four rounds and just expand upon this and even score more points, I mean, I'm all open to that.
I like it.
Yeah, Like I like all three of those positions. May to maybe add a little bit. And you know, you're also and the way the Shooters have always built things is as much as you can from within. Yeah, and then you'll obviously add to that, right you know, you you're bringing a chemov on all Hoffen or Ryan Clark. But when Joey Porter leaves, you have James Harrison there, right, Like, you want to be able to replace guys internally, and I'm sure they'll be looking at hey, Deontay Johnson's got
one more year left on his deal. Let's see what that means. I don't know, maybe they restructure, who knows what they're going to do, but yes, that we would make sense adding there obviously the elepha.
Wound receiver, early wide receiver thrown into what they got. Now yeah, wow, okay, now we were really humming.
Now who's going to get that ball to him? Is going to be a very very interesting question, and it's going to be one that's going to be taking up a lot of this offseason.
Like, oh, there's no question.
I mean, there's nothing sexier than except for the head coach, there's nothing sexier than the quarterback. And then probably third in that list would be the offensive cordat right, people can't really get juiced up about they're gotta bring in an inside linebacker, you know, I mean, but you start talking about quarterback, everybody's antenna.
This is the example I always throw years and years ago.
Touch and I did a show down at Fox Sports, you know, on Sunday nights in the off season, little little you know, half hour show, whatever it was, I'll never forget. In April, March, April or was it May? And it's a Sunday night, and we got a caller said, what about who's going to be the third string quarterback this year? I love this man, because that's why we're
on the air, because we got some real fanatics. But the fact that you're discussing a third string quarterback battle in April, you know, may somewhere on a Sunday night at eleven o'clock at night or something ridiculous like that tells you everything you need to know about quarterback battles in this city.
No doubt.
And you know when you look at uh, you know, defensively on this team. And look, I want to include Spencer Anderson, who's a guy I think he dressed pretty much every game. I don't recall him playing.
He might be the center next year. Who knows. He is very impressive in camp.
We don't know for sure what they think about him and whether he's a guy that they think, hey, listen, we don't need that position. That's not a position we're
gonna worry about. Or whether you think, boy, would he be a wonderful six offensive lineman and or let's just get him some use A little surprised made they didn't use him on occasion as a as a six offensive lineman, just just to see what they And again, that's that really exactly right, that's right, but not really I think he's I don't think they look at him.
More as more but he played some tackle, yeah right.
Yeah, and you normally use a tackle is that sixth offensive lineman?
But he's a good name to throw out there though, Like he's an interesting, very intriguing camp in preseason.
And when I think about the defense, it's hard for me to evaluate wolf what they did and where they might go without looking at some intriguing pickups and some intriguing injuries. And I mean just throwing them all into one bucket. As far as just an overview, I mean Trice, they really were talking about him highly a late round cornerback. Then he got hurt. They picked up Darius Rush in the middle of the season. He's a guy that I think maybe could be's intriguing at the cornerback position. How
do they feel about that? What is the internal evaluation of those guys? Hulkom I thought was really good at inside linebacker before he went down, Kwan Alexander, you know, there are a lot of guys I thought in their absence of Landon Roberts showed that he was maybe more versatile than a lot of people thought he was going to be. They thought he'd be that much on his plate, right exactly. So now you start to think well, what
do they need? You know, I went from you know, it was funny the narrative, I should just lose the last three games get the highest pick possible, and you're thinking, well, is that is that? Maybe awful thinking? And then the way they finished, I thought, maybe they have fewer holes than I thought they did three weeks ago.
Well, think about Eric Rowe.
And somebody's too deep, you know, I mean I'm sitting there going, you know, there's that planet theory George Young and the GM of the you know, the New York Giants used to say, you know, there's only so many you know, guys like that walking the planet that's capable. Well he found one, because Eric Rowe really did some nice things and to me looks like a complimentary asset in the back end of the of the defense, you know, Mica being Meca and Demonte Casey being you know, crazy CAZy,
the crash desk guy. You know, I mean that I love his style of play and what he brings some but there's a lot of things that are going to be interesting. What I hope that Cole Holcomb is able to rehab do well. Klan Alexander another guy because I
thought they were both significant contributors. Land and Roberts. I mean, to get the parent a spare going again to me is something because I thought of Landon Roberts just showed great courage, great tenacity, great veteranship and understanding the difference between injury and pain, you know what I mean. That was one of the things Chuck always used to talk about, know the difference between injury and pain. And certainly that guy he's got high pain tolerance, shall we say.
And just quickly, Mattter. Part of a scouts job, the internal scouting, knowing your own players, making these evaluations based on injury and maybe just fleeting glimpses. I mean, these are difficult decisions. Oh yeah, that the Steelers are facing, and it's gonna help shape some of what they do in the offseason, even if it happens sort of under the radar, away from the public eye.
Yeah, and again, I mean, I'm just kind of addressing offseason needs. I think it's gonna be very heavily secondary based on defense. You know, like your edge guys, you're gonna bring him back four that's you know, Golden's up, but you could bring him back the defensive front. You could bring back basically anyone you want. I don't think it'd be that hard to recreate the three linebacker situation,
assuming Holcomb's reasonably healthy. Alexander wouldn't be super expensive. You could handle a lot of those things with small moves. But if your first round pick or your biggest free agent acquisitions in the secondary, I think now you're talking because I'm really excited about Trice Rush Row. He's a lot different than those guys. But I think anything to get out of like Trice and Rush is the cherry
on top. Like you can't just count him, say that seventh round pick look good for a week for camp started outside corner, you know, like maybe I'd rather he was the fourth corner, and you know, begging for playing times he's playing so well, you.
Know, yeah, it's going to be a fascinating offseason. Guys. We enjoyed it. Yeah, I really enjoyed.
Absolutely.
It was glad they threw us all together. We enjoyed it. Hopefully you folks listening enjoyed it too, because that's really what's well.
If we get to do this again, let's get this sponsored by Dunkin Donuts or something like that.
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