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Thanks for joining us for the Point After on this Steelers Audio Network alongside, as you heard, Matt Williamson and Craig Wolfley. I'm Rob King, Thanks very much for being with us. Steelers losing their first game of the season. They lose on the road twenty seven to twenty four to the Indianapolis Colts. Our first reaction is brought to you by First National Bank. Let's get started, member FDIC wolf Let's get started with you your thoughts on this twenty seven to twenty four defeat.
Well, I'd have to say from the very first throw of the game, when Anthony Richardson threaded that ball over the top, but Joey Porter's fingertips in front of Mika and it just dropped in that thirty two yarder, which you know, it's like you talked about in the We talked about in the open was the fact that he'll make the spectacular throw and then kind of clang the ordinary throws. From that moment to the moment that, you know, the very first play when Justin Field's.
Got on the center and.
Zach stepped on his foot and the thing kind of went sideways, you had this uneasy feeling that things were not gonna go very smooth, and it certainly kind of turned out to be that way, and certainly for the.
Steelers, when you dig.
Yourself a seventeen to nothing hole, you got a lot of whole filling to do and they just came up short, though they.
Made a valiant I try it bringing it back, Matt.
Yeah, reiterate a lot of the same things. I mean that the start was rough. I mean just I'm sure it was this way live, but watching it on TV, it looked like the Colts were playing at a different speed than the Steelers. On both sides of the ball.
They were flying around, they were generating chunk, plays time and time again on the first couple drives, and before you knew it was seventeen nothing, and then too many mistakes from that point on, you know, I mean botch snaps in the field's loss of twenty yards, slash fumble and turnovers and failed fourth down attempts. That being said, when I rewatched it, I had more optimism than I thought rewatching the game, I mean early or late.
And here's why.
I mean, when's the last time we've seen over four hundred yards of offense or where would the offenses of the last five years have ben Ben? If I told you they're losing seventeen nothing, they can barely run the ball, they're losing the turnover battle substantially, and they handed the Colts two possessions on failed fourth down attempts, I would have told you they lost fifty to nothing. And they
came back and stormed back and played quite well. I think there's much positive as negative to take away from this.
Game, you know.
And I think that if I look back at this game, I think I can isolate any number of plays and think if any one of those had gone this steerer's way.
Yeah, and you can't look clean.
Play the game.
Like Wolfe said, what if Porter just tips that ball and it's one, It's different, you know.
Right Well, I'll even say this, what if what if Richardson throws that ball where he wants to? Because I can't imagine he was saying, Hey, I'm gonna have my receiver climb the ladder thirty two yards downfield and I'm gonna put it into a tiny hole where he's gonna leap and make the grab. I think it's sailed on it because when I look at Richardson, it looks to me like most of his throws, most of his Aarin
throws have been high this year. I think if he drilled that in the way he wanted to, I don't think he ever saw Porter was a Porter undercutting that route.
Yeah, I don't remember.
Yeah, So you know when I see and then Joey had an opportunity get to get an interception would have been a tough one, made a great break on the ball to Pittman that that Flacco through in the end zone. You know the force fumble by Jalen Elliott that I thought Patrick Queen and maybe a couple of other Steelers had an opportunity to recover. And I'm not trying to single out guys and say these are terrible plays by guys, because these things happen in the course of the game.
You know, the third and twelve or the third and ten, you know, after the Hayward near sack of Flacco, the third and ten in first down by the Colts, who are very good on third down, that leads to that
drive being kept alive. Of course, there's the play they call on Minko, which I think a lot of us thought was a was a questionable call it best, but just that one play on the third and ten to get the first down, the fields play that you mentioned pickings trying to get more and extending and and you know, maybe should have tucked that well in retrospect, obviously should have tucked that ball away. You know, even at the end of the game, the fumble, they're the snap that
was errant. You know, Naji Harris, should he still bad of boundary? He was looking to get more. You know, any one of those plays, any one of those plays goes to Steelers' way, and I think they win the game. And it just felt like it felt like the beginning. The first impression you get is my goodness, are they being outplayed? And then after that moment when they were being outplayed, I didn't think they were outplayed at all,
and I thought they had ample opportunities. You know, you get that first impression and it just feels so lopsided. Like Wolfe said, you had this big hole to dig out of. It felt like if any one of those plays went the Steelers way and they just didn't, it just and it didn't feel like the It didn't feel to me like you could have said that on the other end, there weren't any plays where, oh my gosh, how did that Colt skuy miss that tackle or how did he drop that interception? Or why didn't he scoop
up that fumble? It just in the end it to me, it's a little bit of kind of one of those games.
You know.
The interesting thing, First of all, Matt is exactly correct. There was as much positive as there was negative. Then just that the negative happened up early and they got buried by it. Number one thing that kind of I was reflected on as I watched a film both the offensive and defensive line for the Steelers. The pad level seemed a bit high, don't know, why don't know exactly
what I was kind of marking it against. But to me, there was just a lot of instances of some of those things going on, and I think as a game more on, they got more into a groove. I thought they were much better in the second half than the first half. The fact of the matter is, you know, I thought Justin Fields did a great job of marshaling a you know, a comeback, and it's unfortunate they got caught in a couple of situations, one being the snap,
the other being that fumble. By the way, I still contend I think his forearm was on the ground when he got touched and the ball came loose after that. But you know, that's for another day, in another time. But certainly, and we could be splitting hairs there literally on that thing, you know. But the point being is, I thought they marshaled the great comeback and went after it.
And you know what, this could serve a better purpose down the line than it did, you know, for the Steelers yesterday, you know, and just.
I'm gonna jump in her real quick man. And the reason when I look at that Fields play, you know they're in field goal range. So if you're justin fields and you see the pressure coming and you do what we saw Flacco do once or twice, and that's just you know, fling the ball away. Remember that play where we just got outside of the tackle box and threw it to the right and there was absolutely nobody around, but they ruled the.
Gout outside of the tackle box.
You know, if you just simply throw that ball away, and again easy to say, simple, and but you know you're in field goal range and you lost by three points, you wind up getting, of course no points because you you turned the ball over it.
That's why that play loomed large to me.
And I'll also say this about fields and about pickings and about Nagy and some of the decisions they make.
It's very easy.
Look when they don't work, you shouldn't have done it.
And it's a cruel world. But that's the way it goes.
However, if Pickens, you know, breaks that tackle, goes into the end zone, extends that football, it hits the pylon and it's a touchdown. If Nage shakes out of a tackle, gets up the sideline, picks up a first down, you're one more pass away and you boot one and Boswell gets you into overtime or maybe more cauld you still have a time out in your pocket. I mean, you know, if Fields gets out of that rush situation, pulls off a miracle, finds a guy breaking downfield, but none of
those things happen. And so when none of those things happen, the results are negative plays that if you had avoided them, might have made the difference. And I think I would contend would have made the difference in this game.
Yeah, just recently, last time, you said a lot of really good game of inches examples in this game that went those Colts away and not the Steelers, And sometimes in that regard is just not your day. But I also think that the Colts were sort of a desperate team too. I mean, the energy that they played with to start this game can't be forgotten or discarded. I mean they came out flying on both sides of the ball. I thought their speed, their intensity was really really good.
And I give credit to downs, Pittman and Flacco. I mean it seemed like every one of those throws, especially on third downs, weren't wide open. I mean, you talk about threading the eagle and living on the razor's edge as a passer. I mean Flacco has gotten like that late in his career where he doesn't care anymore. I was on the couch last year. I'm gonna come in with the Browns and just throw it all over the yard. Something bad happens.
Who cares?
And they were very precise in those instances. And you know, in this league, when a quarterback and receiver humming, it almost doesn't matter what the coverage is at times.
Well, that's a great point, and I do think that, you know, the urgency is something we talked about that I just kind of made mention of it in the open. I hope we mentioned it a couple more times throughout the course of the broadcast. But it just feels in the NFL when a team, you know, doesn't think they're a one and two team. The Colts came out after that win against the Bears and said, look, we're not a one and two football team.
We're a better football.
Team than that.
And they believe that, and they believe that they are.
You know, AFC South contenders, well man two and two, you can see AFC South contender from there one in three, boy oh boy, that's even in that division. That's a bad hole to be in. So I do think that in a game, in a league in which the competition between teams is so slender, we see upsets every single week, that the close play is not going your way or and or the other team having that extra sense of
my goodness, this is a huge game for us. That urgency. Well, if I do think those things are enough, are factors enough? You lose the turnover battle two to nothing? Factors enough? When for most teams that's enough, that's gonna that is gonna tilt for most I should say that's gonna tilt it one way or the other. I'm glad Matt mentioned that. That sense of desperation.
Oh, there's no question about it. Look, I've long said many many times, not every player enters the ire in end with the same mental RPMs as they did the week before. That's just a fact of life. You know, those guys on the field, they have lives too, and there's a lot of things going on off the field in their own personal lives. It can be negative, it
can be positive. The fact of the matter is you have to block those things out and go and do your job, and part of that is getting yourself mentally ready, and that means an excitation level to match what the intensity going around you is. And not everybody does it the same way. Not everybody does it well, you know, And so a lot of times you see these the disparity and what's going on, that's just simply a function of some people not being at the same level of
intensity that they were before. You know, and you'll see that that's the human nature of this game. That's why you play the game every week. You know that that long time saying, you know that that's why they play the game, It's true.
Yeah, And you know, again, it sets up an interesting matchup for the Cowboys because I think the Steelers might suddenly feel that way this Sunday, like, well, wait a minute, a minute, we don't want to undo the entirety of our three and oh start. Then again, Dallas, they feel like they're getting something going. The mentality part of the play, I think is going to come in and perhaps be a significant portion of what we see on Sunday night.
And again, Matt, there's a lot to like about the Steelers' performance, and I think we're gonna get to that. But now you're a three and one football team and We're obviously going to be talking a lot about the quarterback position, and we could talk about that next segment, but again, this team is three and one now, and you know, you kind of have to hit the reset button.
Yeah, but you mentioned the quarterback position, and that's where I wanted to go next to is that through three starts, they never asked fields just to take the team over in a bend like manner or you know, and I'm not comparing him to Ben that's a bad example, but this game got to the point where, ok, justin you're the guy, you need to take this thing over, and he proved pretty capable of doing that.
I thought that was encouraging. Yeah.
Absolutely, I think that's a great point because of the fact he didn't shy away, and you know, there was a couple of mistakes he made. Yeah, but you're gonna have that. Yeah, you know, I mean even Bended, who by the way, was in attendance there.
Yeah.
Yeah, it was good to see him. I wish they could have rushed them out at halftime, maybe, you know, get him suited up.
Well.
We will definitely be tackling a little bit of the quarterback position, some other plays, some other elements of miss game, looking forward a little bit to the game coming up on Sunday and against the Cowboys when we continue on the Point After on this year, there's audio Network.
Back to the Point After on DVD.
Fields back to pass fields, fires underneath, it's fire Mooth and fire mooth his eating for the score touchdowns with three forty remaining here in the fourth quarter.
To play.
The game is brought to you by S and T Bank, proudly serving our community community since nineteen oh two. S and T bank dot com S and T Bank member Fdi C and man oh Man.
I thought the Steers had well, they did.
They had a great chance to win the ballgame right then and there, Wolf, And it just felt like there were times in which the momentum was really going into Steelers favor, and that was.
One of them, no question about it. And of course you go to the man, the myth, the moth as I like to say, And the fact is he did a great job of in that little curl and then fighting his way backwards into the end zone. Great job. That's what tied end play is all about, coming through when things are a little bit tight, and he did, indeed do it and I really thought that might be one of the catalysts to you know, coming back and being able to complete the whole comeback with little victory.
But it came up short.
You know, Matt, when you get yourself behind seventeen to nothing. I'm going to go back to one more part of this game that I thought was a big reason that the Colts won. You had Flacco in trouble, incomplete pass, you just cut the lead to seventeen to ten. Then Cam Hayward, I thought he had Flacco. I wouldn't have been surprised as he called him in the grasp, you know, and said he's down. We got to protect these quarterbacks. Somehow he shrugs it off. So instead of third and
say sixteen or seventeen, it's third and ten. And then the completion to pick up the first down, I thought that was just a backbreaker. And then to go down and you get the call on Minca, which again I didn't hear what Jens Terotor said. I have not had an opportunity to watch the game back, so I don't know if they thought that was a good call. It felt to me like Minca was trying to pull up ad Mitchell wanted no part of catching that ball, and I thought that was kind of a tough call against
the Steelers. But that drive, to me, you had all the momentum going. It felt like you'd overcome the fumble, they missed a field goal. It felt like everything was going your way. I should point that out. They did miss a field goal, so I said, everything seemed to go against the students. They did miss a field goal, so that was that could have been significant in this game.
But I thought that drive was kind of the one where they, oh, we have to reset and we're back down to being back to being fourteen down again.
Could agree more.
And I'm glad you mentioned the missed field goal because I think people know that I count miss field goals and miss fourth dound opportunities as turnovers, and that was really the only negative and that that department for Indie all day. I'm pretty sure Jeane's terator thought it was a no call. I mean I was watching it live and I was paying attention, but I think that was his opinion. I tend to agree. But the Kyward and Menca plays are two more examples like you did to
start the show of the game of interest. Things that went against them, and the timing was just brutal because it did detract.
From the momentum, there's no question. Yeah. And the thing about it is, let me just say this.
You know, what is he supposed to do when you're when you're rolling safety over the top like that coverage?
How do you pull off? If you don't, you gotta have air brakes? And he tried. Oh yeah, I mean, oh, he.
Could have laid him outright big time and he was definitely he didn't hit through him. Man, He actually ricocheted backwards because he pulled off, which actually was more detrimental to him than it would have been to the receiver. But the fact is when you do that, I just I think you put such a state of confusion on the defensive backs because now there it's it's again, where is that? The gray area is all over the place as far as what do you hit and how do you hit?
Well.
The other thing, too, was the actions of a d Mitchell I thought made it look again worse like that ball. If ad Mitchell laid out and dove for that ball, would you have gotten a hand on it?
I don't know.
But he pulled up and pulled his hands back, but make it fitzpatches. The game is not played in slow motion. He doesn't have an opportunity to see that. Adi Mitchell is pulling his hands back, wants no point of trying to make the catch. He thinks he's going to be arriving there, you know, relatively close to the time the ball is arriving there, and he wants to jar it loose. And now ad Mitchell decides that those those hands are instead of extending him, he wants to put him in
his pockets. I mean, I thought that added to making it look bad, the fact that ad Mitchell didn't, you know, sell out to try to catch that ball.
Yeah, I tend to agree.
And that being said, I mean I think that still is called in this league more often than not. Player safety, all those things. But I mean, to Wolfe's point, Mica could have struck him. I mean, he didn't strike him at all. There was a collision, there was a glorified bump, but he was pulling back. I mean, you know, we're splitting airs.
I guess I get.
I think if you're gonna make a call in this game against Minka, I might have been more okay with the one in which richardson slid that was not called and Mica again was trying.
To pull up and what happened.
He was injured on ka because he I think he made a little bit of contact with the with the head. So if you're gonna tell me that's a penalty in today's NFL, maybe throw your hands up and say, well, I guess that's a penalty anyway.
It is what it is.
It went against him. You know, I don't want to I don't think we ever want to be in a position to blame the officials because there are plenty of things the students could have done.
Oh no, I think we could be in position to blame something. I know, he's a player back in my day. Yeah, there's a couple of times I really wanted to blame the official.
Yeah, so I wanted to point out a couple of guys. And we started this segment with the firing with touchdown reception and Matt, I'll start with you in this one. He just continues to be a steady eddie and you know, he's getting a lot of receptions and when you you know, obviously health for him is a factor, But when you think about scheme and you think about quarterback play. You were just talking about Pittman, right, and why is Pittman struggling?
And this is a guy who you went from eighty eight catches to ninety nine catches to old one hundred catches last year and he hasn't found any tracks this year. Well, you've got one of the most inaccurate quarterbacks in the league. Meanwhile, for the Steelers, Justin Fields has been very accurate the game plan. You know, we know Arthur Smith likes to target the tight end and Friarmuth, you know, nice big
contract extension. He's gonna be here for a while, and he has just been a steady part of his game plan. This is his first touchdown of the year, but you know, four catches in each of the first three games and now five catches in this one.
Yeah, And I think quarterback has a lot to do with the Pittman situation. Pittman thrived with Minshew and Flacco, but not the other guys. So maybe one of those things isn't like the other. And you beat me to it on friar Mouth. He's the only tight end in the league this year that has four or more catches in each game. And I think there's something to be
said for a steadiness of reliability. I think were some of the words you used there and the middle of the field presence, and I think he's worth every dollar.
And not to throw a negative.
Spin on it, though, but I felt in this game more than the others. Sure it would have been nice to have a better number two receiver.
Interesting, can I say this.
I do enjoy the fact that because we were talking tight ends, anybody that didn't see Darnell Washington's run.
He caught that ball.
Twenty yards and you know, he he down that roll up and he straight armed the guy. He hurtled the guy and then he ran over a guy. It was a trifecta of busting tackles. It was a beautiful thing to see. I hope that leads to more. I think it's very important that you have Mooth doing what he did, and now you've got Darnell Washington again. That's going to bring more credence and more explosiveness I think to the offense when you go twelve or thirteen personnel.
And one more nugget. I thought nause is a receiver was good stuff too.
Yeah, but I was going to get to that because that's the second straight week, and I'll get back to Darnell. Well, let's get back let's finish off the tight end position, because you know, earlier in the season, I can't remember it's on this show or another where I thought, you know, hey, Darnell can this could be a guy who leaps up.
To thirty catches this year.
And people, you know, I got some some arched eyebrows of that comment. But it only takes a catch and a half a game to get to thirty, you know, relatively speaking, somewhere around that number.
A little bit more than that.
But you know, Darnell with two receptions in this game, needs a few more to get to my thirty. But if they're gonna if he's gonna score touchdowns and he's gonna show this kind of ability in the open field, he's a massive target. He is proven to be pretty dark, sure handed. I think he's you know, wolf, he's an interesting guy.
Oh he is.
I mean, you take a look at the size of the power. When he started turning up north and south and those defensive backs started to close on him, they didn't want any part of all. You know, I mean, that is a big man coming at you and you know what to hurdle a guy. Yeah it sounds, yeah, it sounds incredible, but that's because the guy doesn't really want to take him on. You know, I'm you're going low and hoping you get a nice bang on him
and take him out of bounds. But you know, the right arm, he just put the guy down with you talk about an angry straight arm. That was a beautiful job. So again it was really a nice one to two punch. And again I go back to, you know, the gronk, the Hernandez type of offense that was available back in the New England days. I think you could have a similar things going on here between you know, Mouth and Mount Washington.
Well, it sounds wonderful to me. Now let's get back Matt. Then to that point you're making about Nagy and about the second receiver that that number sort of legitimate number two threat. And then you know, we can't let this go completely without talking about George Pickens. But you know, seventy four catches for Nagy in his rookie season, then it was forty one, then it was twenty nine, and now in back to back weeks we have seen him
targeted more frequently. Now he's not on pace to have seventy four again, but he's on.
Pace to have forty five or fifty.
And you know, he's a guy who's very capable in the receiving game. For fifty four, the thirty two yarder was I believe the second longest of his career.
You know, he is a guy again.
So Arthur Smith doesn't have that number two receiver, but he does have a lot of the elements that it appears that he likes when he's running an offense, which is tight ends that can catch the ball, running backs who can catch the ball, and he's got the acumen to kind of screen scheme around the fact that they don't maybe have that quote unquote you know, number two receiver one hundred percent.
And that's by design. I mean, that's a coach front office communication that, Hey, if we're going to be short somewhere, I can make do without Brandon Ayuk, you know what I mean. I mean, it would be great if I had him, that would complete things. But with the tight ends and the running backs, I can make do with my scheme and a good running game, which I'm sure we'll get to. Is also a little worrisome As for nause, Yeah, he got a ton of balls as a rookie, but
the degree of difficulty was really low. I mean they were just two point one seconds. Ben wanted to get it out of his hands, dumped it to him, and really, since then, I thought his receiving skills are untapped here because as a prospect coming out of Bama, he would run semi wide receiver routes. He has a huge catching radius, really soft hands, catch the ball away from his frame, and he can run over defensive backs in space.
So I think that's here to stay.
Well.
I like that, and I also like George Pickens, who you know, had his first one hundred yard game. But again, you know, sometimes we have to be careful with statistics because you know, you go, first of all, look at who he played in his first two weeks, outstanding cover corners and you know, kind of a dubious you look, very good numbers in the first week, right, very good numbers, but he also got you know, called for kind of a dubious offensive pass interference in the call. Otherwise that's
his first hundred yard game. Last week he has a long pass or two weeks ago in Denver, has a long pass going against her tan called back because of a penalty that was you know, committed by an offensive lineman, and then has a touchdown callback so and then had an OPI in that game, a DPI in that game. So he has had an influence beyond what the numbers next to his you know, line score or his line score next to his name are going to say.
He has had a bigger influence.
So I was really happy to see him have his first one hundred yard game despite the fumble. I thought, again, he was really really evident for the Steelers.
No question about it.
You know, the thing about this young man, he is so gifted, has so many attributes. He's just got to functionally put them together in a way that really packages the great characteristics that he brings to bear in each and every game. And one of them is an unbelievable, unbelievable ability of tracking the ball. You know, I don't know how he does it. Sometimes it's like a he's got some type of homing pigeon thing going on with that ball, but.
He sees it.
He's able to squeeze the sharman and do a great job of bringing that ball in. I think he's learning the nuances of being an offensive past receiver in the sense of when you know, at the top of the stems, how much of a little shall we say, a little push you can get away with, and not to extend his hands and things that you know, top flight receivers practice on a weekly basis, and I think the young
man is coming together. He's just got to make sure that he keeps his his cool and he stays collected. You know, he used to have a coach. You say, you know, to be to be a player, you've got to be hot in the heart and cool in the head. And that's exactly what it is. You've got to maintain that coolness about you. And that's just something that will benefit you as a as a wide receiver.
Okay, we still haven't gotten to the quarterback position, which we will. We haven't attacked the run, the running of the Steelers which was not I think where they expected it to be in one category, but was encouraging in another category. And we also had the defense we haven't addressed. So we still have plenty to get to. On the point after on this there's audio network back.
To the point after on DVD.
Roco gets the snack looking left under press or at down. He goes, it's Hayward and it's her big teaming up with a sack that Steelers needed.
The Sack Hunger segment is brought to you by the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank. Get food, volunteer or donate at Pittsburgh Foodbank dot org. They needed that sack, but it felt like they needed more wolf from this defense at times.
Yesterday.
They needed to come up with a turnover second consecutive game. They haven't done that. No turnovers, a couple of sacks that you know, but they needed one that made a difference, and that was a big one. But they could have used one or two more and didn't get them. And I'm sure this is a performance to Steelers defense giving up twenty seven points, coming in as the highest ranked defense in the league as far as scoring in yards per game.
They're not going to be pleased with this overall effort.
I wouldn't think, no, not at all.
And there's not a man in the defensive unit doesn't think they could have up their game in some way, shape or form. Look, it was a heck of a job by Flacco when he checked in and which, by the way, I still want to see his birth certificate because I think that guy's been thirty nine for the last five years that I've seen him play.
You know, It's just well, if I recruited him at Audubon High School way back when, Okay, I don't know.
I mean it seems like longer ago than that.
He seems like he should be at guys in the league.
Guy still recruited.
Oh but you know it was a great sack, you know, and they needed some more. They could have had some more. He had some. I would say this if anybody saw the holding call that didn't get called on Braiden Smith on the touchdown pass.
That Flacko through. I think it was Flacko through it. It might have been Richardson.
And near the beginning of the game when he literally put a seat belt on TJ.
Watt, I couldn't believe it.
I mean, he swam over the top of Braiden Smith and Braiden just turned around and grabbed him with both hands around the waist from behind. Now, I understand that I've done that before, but I've been called for that, you know what I mean.
So to me, it was really irked me.
That you would go with some of the calls that were, you know, kind of dubious in my mind, like the make a hit and so forth. And yet how can you miss the number one sack monster in the league, that being TJ. Watt getting you know, tackled from behind by the right offensive tackle when the side judge is standing right there.
Yeah.
Unfortunately, Yes, that there's some things that could have happened out there. They didn't happen, so unfortunately the Steelers losing twenty seven to twenty four.
Matt, there's a couple of things.
I'm gonna get you guys both on the quarterback play, but I want you to lead off on the rushing attack because I loved the fact that they unleashed fields with some more design runs ten for fifty five two touchdowns. I also loved the fact that cord Aero Patterson had seven point two yards per carry, but Nagy was really bottled up thirteen carries just nineteen yards for the Steelers' lead back.
Yeah, I don't have a lot to add. I mean that patterson injection of energy was great, much like Warren used to provide, and I'm sure will again sooner than later. I'm glad you mentioned fields and the designed runs because it's such a weapon and they haven't really had to dip their toe into that water all that much through the first three games. And I don't one hundred percent blame nausey. I mean, I didn't see a lot of
running room there. I mean, he's had a lot of workload, and he's got to be a little sore and hurting a little bit at this point through the season. But that's what that's why he's here. I mean, he's a reliable, durable pounder. And I do think though, that the rules are different for him when he's in the game compared to Quartererill Patterson or even Warren in the past. That defense is definitely key the run and play the run a little bit different when he's in the backfield.
I just think that Naj is a lot more the year than the other guys are. I mean, Corterell, when you look at him, his ability to see the cutback, he hit the cutback and several times, and I'm not so sure that I think it's like Matt said, there there might be different rules for him because Dodgy is the demolition man. I mean, this guy, he just blows into the hole and things start flying, and sometimes it
works good, sometimes not so good. But I will say this again, over the first three games, we've not seen anybody compete harder than Naji Harris. The guy has really done a great job of trucking along there and doing some real yeoman's work and wearing down a defense and so forth. And I think it was a nice complimentary thing to get Patterson out there with a little bit
of cutback. And it's a shame that he wasn't able to finish the game because I got a feel and things could have been different with him.
And the old line was far from perfect and run blocking to right.
And I think complimentary is a great word to use, because I've been mulling this over a lot, you know, And I think we've talked about this a little bit. Jalen Warren with him credible numbers and the one I always bring up. The thing I always bring up is
the Cowboys situation. I know it's tough because Pollard was coming off a broken leg, but it was a couple of years ago where is Equel Elliott was the main guy and Poward was averaging about six yards of carry and you know you're watching Cowboys games thinking, man, they should give them ball more to Pollard. I mean, he's just so explosive every time he gets the ball. But
it's a little bit different. Maybe when you're getting thirty carries or twenty five carries a game, maybe some of that explosiveness ebbs and maybe it doesn't only ebb on, you know, in a per game basis, but in a cumulative basis as well, so that if it accumulates that week eight or week nine, you've been taking more of a beating, maybe you're slower, and maybe that average rush comes down. So the complimentary running back situation, it's it's different.
I mean, obviously it used to be in the league. You know, you had your bell cow and he was going to get the ball twenty five yards and you might spell him occasionally.
Now I have a hard.
Time sometimes figuring out what's what, who's who, and what numbers are real when you have a tandem running back situation, as many teams in the league now have.
So to expand on that, Rob, I really thought Nause's best season, whether the stats bear it out or not, I don't care, was last year when he was about sixty percent of the touches, you know, and Warren is a great compliment and is missed. I'd love to see him back in the action sooner than later. Patterson was very impressive as well. Side note, Patterson and Darnell Washington are way bigger than people think they are. And by the way, there are huge human beings for their respective
positions and unique individuals. But I would like to see I mean, once Patterson got hurt too, I mean, nause wasn't of success before that, but once Patterson came out of the game, he was really the only show in town too. I mean, it was an ideal situation for Nausey.
And let's remember one thing, Rob talking about the offensive line, I mean, you got a young guy, Mason McCormick making his first start. You got a center making his fourth start. You got the right guard that ended up playing Spencer Anderson, who's the second year guys playing next to a guy that's in his second year, Rodert Jones. So I mean there's a lot of youth in this offensive line that lacks a lot of experience in game brains, and so for them to go out and slug it out, hey,
I thought they played hard. They played very hard now as effective as they can be. No, I think a lot more good is coming, but it's one of those things you got to get some experience too.
Well.
You better get experienced fast, because you know now with the news that James Daniels looks like he's out for the year, Faltano is out, it sounds like for the regular season. Nick Herbig Nate Herbig was lost earlier in the year for the season. These are difficult losses for a team that seemed to have wolf enviable depth at the offensive line, and that depth is getting low now because you've got three guys out for the year.
There's no question about it. And these guys are gonna have to be stalwarts. They're gonna have to play, and they're gonna have to get better. But I got confidence that they will, having watched these guys since they've come here and to watch them gradiently work through training camp in the in the first second year guys, and then the rookies this year, it's sitting. It's hard to call Zach Frasier a rookie, but he is a rookie, you know. And Mason McCormick did a pretty darn fine job for
a young guy out there. He had some a couple of plays that you'd like to take back, but everybody has got plays that you want to take back. The fact of the matter is these guys have to gel and they have to make sure they're on the same page. And you got a lot of youth with a lot of enthusiasm, shall we say. And when you have guys that you know, Brojo was sheriff in the pile pretty good, you know, but you got to be careful because you've got to be selective about it, and you can't miss
fire and hit somebody in the back. That's that's a judgment thing, but that's youth. That's guys trying to help, trying to you know, get down there and protect their teammate. And I saw at one point in time where Brojo got into it and Mason pulled them off. Then several plays later it's it's Mason's into it with somebody and you got Brojoe going pulling him off. So this is a collect this is an inexperienced offensive line that needs
to get better. Will get better. I have every confidence in the world, and we'll see what happens here.
Coming up with the Cowboys and rob along those lines. Something GM's fear most are cluster injuries. You know, like last year at the end of the season, linebacker and safety, they're just pulling guys off the street, you know, to get through game day. And you can kind of do that at that position. You can't with offensive linemen. There
aren't quality offensive linemen that are unemployed right now. So it does look like Cmal who's not far away, which is great and his better leadership would go a long way too, but they might be, you know, a one more injury away from Defcon three.
Or don't say yes, Yeah say it, Matt, You're absolutely right, and you know when you think about the injuries, he said, And look, the Colts have no sympathy, right nurse. They lost Juju Brentz, they lost Kenny Moore, their Pro Bowl corner. They're down their top three pass rushing defensive ends who accumulated twenty six and a half sacks to Forrest Buck. I mean, you know they listen, they've got their share
of injuries. But you know, stepping outside of that game and looking forward, you know, with you feel great about, Hey, we got three really good edge rushers. We have nine or ten really good offensive linemen we feel good about. Yeah, we got to bring somebody along at that cornerback position. Well, that's somebody. Corey Trice is hurt. He got you know, high Smith is out an outside linebacker. Herbig wind up finishing the game with the taped ankle. You're down three
offensive linemen. It's it's it's a bad run that needs to end. On the injury front for the Steelers.
Hopefully number two running backs not a problem.
Yes, exactly right.
I forgot to even mention that Warren Warren has not really been able to be a factor this year because of his injury. So that's another big loss. And then now Cordero Patterson. And again there's a position you felt great about. Three running but Naji Jalen Warren and cord Aero Patterson. Wow, it's hard to do much better than that. Well, hopefully these guys, some of these guys are are healthy. You're going to get healthy or can come back soon. So before we get too far to the end of
the game or end of the show. Can't fit it in, Matt, I did want to ask about fields because everyone's going to be asking the question, should he get the start again?
On Saturday. He's three and one.
Statistically, this was his best game twenty two of thirty four a touchdown, he had a one oh four rating, and again when they talk about rating, that does not include the two touchdowns he ran for in this game, so you can add that to his resume as well for his overall value. So it's going to be interesting. We don't even know for sure if Russell Wilson's going to be healthy for this game, but Fields doesn't seem like he's done anything to lose the job. Now, again,
this is Mike Tomlins's decision. But I think the other thing when you're evaluating Fields, you are trying to make the ascertain. You're trying to ascertain if he is a guy who is getting better week after week, is he's stacking up blocks so that you know things you're moving in the right trajectory in this guy is going to be, you know, a real player for you as you go along and as you win week by week, but also a guy who's got upside as the season rolls on.
So I would very much understand either decision Wilson Versfield's, assuming Russ is ready, and frankly, I wouldn't be critical of either decision. I'm not sure where I would go. I'm not in the building every day. But the latter half of your question, I think is very apparent that he gets better rapidly. Fields we're talking about, and especially I'm sure a lot of folks around here didn't study his Bear's tape or study him as a Bear as much as I did. He's a night and day different
player than that. Yeah, I mean, he is way more comfortable, He's way more in control, He's much more accurate. The ball comes out of his hands quicker and crisper. He is getting a lot better at a rapid pace. Ask any Bears fans to watch him in a ceiler uninform.
Yeah, and I think, well, if this is one of those instances in which Mike Tomlin seems to have great feel for the right decision to make, I agree with Matt. I'm I think it's again. If I'm guessing, I think it's going to be Fields. But I think Mike Tomlin's got a great feel for knowing when to make a move like this.
In my experience in and around this league, the best coaches are the coaches, in my mind, that still trust their gut instinct. You know, there's kind of like the thought process that's more universal, people like, oh, you do this, do that.
But it's the coaches.
That rely on that gut instinct that in my mind, it rises to the level of that's what makes great coaches great because they can make those decisions and intrinsically they they have knowledge about something that maybe some of his dummies like me don't seem to understand. But he's got, you know, some insight to it. And I really believe that justin like, just like Matt said, if you go back to a Chicago tape and then you look at this when you see.
Him throw the ball on time.
Now, sometimes he gets a little bit long in the tooth sitting in the pocket, but that's again that's been whittled down. He was before over three seconds, and then he got it down below three, and then round two and a half and so forth. They roll with him, which I love because now you change, you know, the points of the launch point for him, and defensive lineman can't find, you know, just fire off to the X
sitting seven yards deep. And the fact is he is very very good at tucking that ball and running And I love the fact that you can go wildcat with him in there in a sense, just tucking that ball and go and you pull the guard around, he leads up and you get behind one of those big burly guards and you get whatever yarded you can get. And I think that adds to the offense and the fact that he's throwing the ball well and practicing ball security.
Now he had an issue with it that kind of crept up on him in this fourth game a little bit, But for the most part he's been doing marvelous as far as protecting the ball. I don't see anything that would you point to and say, hey, you got to get him out of here. Because of that.
Interesting stuff and interesting this game an important game. Look, the Steelers want to validate this three and one start. They're at home. It's a great traditional rivalry against Dallas. Dallas at two and two, they don't want to fall any further behind the team we all knew would be leading the NFC East, and of course that's the Washington Commanders with a three and one record. You know, so interesting game for both teams, great rivalry games. Sunday night,
Akroscher Stadium. It's going to be a blast. Gear up with the latest game day necessities. At the Official Steelers pro Shops. Get the latest Sideline apparel, jerseys, Terrible tiles, authentic memorabilia, and custom exclusives you can only find directly from the team. Visit one of the Official Steelers pro shops located at Akroscher Stadium, Grove City, Premium, Mountlets or tang ral Let's, or gear up online at shop dot Steelers dot com. Four Craig Wolfley and Matt Williamson, I'm
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