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00:00Let's take a look at what we saw yesterday, and let's just start with what we saw in the
00:04night game.
00:05The bigger game, the more important game, kind of no matter what happened between Baltimore
00:10and Cleveland.
00:11For Cincinnati, they needed a victory to keep their postseason hopes alive.
00:15For Pittsburgh, the difference now, let's just for the moment say the Chargers are going
00:21to win their game today.
00:22The difference for the Steelers was a look-ahead line of pick in Houston versus now being over
00:30a touchdown underdog potentially in Baltimore.
00:35One of the more costly losses of the season, and here's my angle of it, Donny.
00:40Because Cincinnati was talked about so much more going into the game, I think it's going
00:45to be looked over a little bit.
00:46The fact that the Pittsburgh Steelers now have run up against playoff competition and
00:51not looked capable of getting the job done, this is a Cincinnati team that still, all
00:56suggestions are, they're going to miss the playoffs.
00:58The Steelers, at home, went for it, played for it, needed it, didn't get it.
01:03I think that's as big of a deal as anything else we saw in that game.
01:06And not only they didn't get it, they were down 10-0 in the first quarter, which shows
01:09you, come on now, let's rally the troops and the whole Mike Tomlin, we want to get the
01:12stink off this football team to pick up a victory.
01:15You couldn't have had a better spot to play the Cincinnati Bengals.
01:18Freezing cold temperatures, on the road, T. Higgins has a high ankle sprain, and your
01:22top running back, who's been wonderful this year, doesn't even suit up for the game in
01:25Chase Brown.
01:26And then you're going to let them dictate based on their defense over your defense?
01:30That was as embarrassing as it gets, Joe, because I look even at some other requirements
01:34to previous three games.
01:35Hey, upper-level competition, you step up, you didn't play well.
01:38This was your get-right game, in a playoff-mode game, where you were at home, and quite frankly,
01:421917, I'm sorry, the game wasn't even that close.
01:45No, think about the first time that they played, right?
01:47Russell Wilson dominates, he puts up 414 yards, they put up a 40-spot, they win that
01:52ballgame by margin on the road, and from that time, they've been completely inconsistent
01:57from an offensive perspective.
01:59They rushed for 3.2 yards for a carry yesterday, 4 of 12 on third-down conversions, and I talked
02:05about it, Kev.
02:06This was a team that you should have dominated.
02:08You've now lost four straight, you're heading into the playoffs, and you're searching for
02:12answers, not just in terms of your offensive line, but your quarterback now.
02:16Is Russell Wilson the guy?
02:17We talk about that 414-yard performance, I tweeted it out, that was probably the worst
02:23thing that could happen to the Pittsburgh Steelers and all their fans.
02:26Why?
02:27Because Arthur Smith and Mike Tomlin technically don't want to play that way.
02:31You look at the last five games since that performance for Russell Wilson, 856 total
02:37passing yards.
02:38He's averaging 171.2 passing yards per game.
02:43I gotta be honest with you, they might have been favorites potentially before the Houston
02:48game.
02:49Now it's an even pick, and I would give the edge to C.J. Stroud over the way they performed
02:52last night.
02:53Well, this is where it gets very interesting in Pittsburgh, because when Russ took over,
03:00they win four games in a row, right?
03:03He comes out playing against the Jets and the Giants and looks pretty good in those
03:08games.
03:09Then he kind of is a part of the Steelers.
03:11They'll find a way, they beat Washington, they beat Baltimore, they lost to Cleveland.
03:17Guess what?
03:18They bounced back.
03:19You mentioned the 400-yard performance.
03:21But now, it has been a disaster.
03:25And we have had conversations around Russ and Fields at times in a joking fashion.
03:30I think Donnie, again, the way Russ hit the ground running, you were proven correct, right?
03:34But we sit here now, I'm not telling you Fields will be better.
03:38I'm not sure he'd be any worse.
03:41Russell Wilson, the selling point, and again, a selling point that you were absolutely spot
03:44on about, what he did for George Pickens.
03:47George Pickens is a loose cannon, you probably lost him with what we saw yesterday.
03:52One catch on six targets for no yards, I know it sounds crazy, but I'm not sure that the
04:00Steelers' best option isn't making a move to Justin Fields to get a spark.
04:06Because I think we all know, at the end of the day, this team's strawing dead, kind of
04:10regardless.
04:11Yeah, I don't think it's going to help either way at this point now.
04:13Just watching how it's playing out, there's no explosive plays back there, the running
04:17game wasn't there.
04:18And we're looking at a football game, like, we're talking about Russell Wilson is going
04:22to be a quarterback that needs to be in a dome in perfect conditions, like his arm is
04:24shot.
04:25He didn't look all that great in the pocket yesterday.
04:27He did deliver some balls that got dropped late in the game, but separate that.
04:30Did it look like he had a lot of pop on his passes?
04:32You watch Joe Burrow, it's a completely different ball trajectory that comes out of his hands.
04:35And you're saying to yourself, well, he is a little bit more athletic.
04:38Athletic than what at this point?
04:39Got sacked multiple times last night by Trey Hendrickson.
04:41I just don't see this team peaking at the right time.
04:44It was almost like we were anointing Mike Tomlin as the best coach in the NFL 12 or
04:4713 weeks in.
04:48Then once they got to the real competition and the attrition started to settle in, it's
04:52just not a good football team.
04:53And heading in, quite frankly, I was saying to myself, yes, you want to angle towards
04:57Houston.
04:58I don't think they could beat Houston in a dome environment, and I certainly don't think
05:01they could beat the Baltimore Ravens.
05:02No, I don't think so either.
05:03If you want to play that way, and they had a very conservative approach early on, you
05:07have to run the football much more dominant than what they did yesterday.
05:113.2 yards for Gary, with Warren and Najee Harris on the ground.
05:15You're not going to get it done.
05:16You're certainly not going to get it done against the better teams in the AFC, teams
05:19like Buffalo and teams like the Kansas City Chiefs, right?
05:23You could maybe get one win.
05:24But again, playing a team like Houston in a dome that has speed on the perimeter, that's
05:29going to open it up.
05:30That's going to challenge your defense the way Cincinnati and Joe Burrow did over the
05:33top.
05:34This is tough.
05:35They've plateaued yet again, and they did it with a quarterback change when they were
05:394-2.
05:40I don't know what Mike Tomlin does at Wolfsburg.