Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Pittsburgh radio host answers: Should the Vikings be afraid of Aaron Rodgers? (Part 1)

Episode Date: September 26, 2025

Matthew Coller talks with Andrew Filipponi of 93.7 The Fan in Pittsburgh about whether the Vikings should be worried about the Pittsburgh Steelers' offense and Aaron Rodgers and then Manny Hill picks the schedule. The Purple Insider podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, Matthew Collar, here. And tonight on the show on Purple Insider, presented by Fandall, of course, we will welcome Andrew Philipponi shortly. And he is going to talk about what the Pittsburgh offense is going to bring with Aaron Rogers, what their defense is like so far, and who he thinks is going to win that game. that comes up in about 15 minutes, and then at 7.30 tonight, Mani Hill will join to pick the schedule as we do every Thursday night. And I am very curious to find out how many wins Manny thinks this team is going to end up with,

just gestures at everything, considering what is going on. But I have a question for you, and I'm going to bring this back for Manny a little later in the show, is how do you feel about Aaron Rogers right now? Like, give me a word to describe how you feel about Aaron Rogers now as faithful of the purple folks who have watched the Minnesota Vikings battle against Aaron Rogers for many, many years. Are you still in the mode of this man is the devil to your football team? Are you in the mode of, eh, indifferent, don't really care about this guy anymore?

Are you thrilled that he didn't sign here? Are you mad that he didn't sign here? Like, what's your feeling right now about the Minnesota Vikings facing off with Aaron Rogers? From my perspective, I just consider it to have been awesome to have driven to Lambeau Field in Green Bay and watched Mike Zimmer and Aaron Rogers battle it out at the peaks of their powers. Well, Aaron Rogers was still a superstar quarterback. Well, the Vikings had elite defenses and Harrison Smith would be playing games with Rogers and Rogers would be making crazy throws.

And sometimes he'd get the Vikings. Sometimes the Vikings would get him. You never knew exactly how it was going to play out. There were a bunch of classics with this man playing for the Packers against the Vikings. some that the Vikings won, like 2015 at the end of the season, they win the division by beating Rogers. Others were, say, in even 2022, where he wasn't the same version of himself, but he was still terrific. He did that fake out and then ran in for a touchdown. There's so many throws that I've seen from him over the years. The first game ever at US Bank Stadium, where

the Vikings defense played great against Rogers. He throws the interception. at the end of the game to Trey Wayans. That was a night where the offense did just enough to win that game. Sam Bradford played very well, probably still one of the five loudest times I've ever heard U.S. Bank Stadium. And then even, you know, in recent years when he won the back-to-back MVPs, they had the classic when they went down to Green Bay and they beat him up. DJ won him, I think it was, caught him at the end of the game.

It was a blustery day, couldn't do much. like there's been so many back and forth battles and then there was the one at the end of 2016 where he just, him and Jordy Nelson just smoked that Vikings defense. That was the game where the Vikings secondary went rogue because they were unhappy with Zimmer. Like there's a lot for me that comes to mind with Rogers where I just think, gosh, that was some good football. It was really fun and interesting to watch one of the great quarterbacks in history play against one of the great defensive minds of that era, which I think is very fair to say about Mike Zimmer with a stack team with great players, Everson Griffin getting after him, Danielle Hunter getting

after him, pressure up the middle from Limbaald Joseph, the double A gap stuff and him trying to pick that apart. Just great games all the time against Aaron Rogers. That's what I think of. I know that when the Vikings were considering having Aaron Rogers as their quarterback, that was not something I was for and I didn't have a ton of respect for the way that Rogers handled the latter part of his time in Green Bay and especially his time with the New York Jets where he just turned that entire organization into a circus and now I look at Rogers and

say it's kind of similar to a lot of other quarterbacks when they get to the very end of their career where there's still something there and they could still have some really good moments, but it's definitely not the same. So the first ones that come to mind for me, just for my era of watching football when it started, so this pops into my head, but there's plenty of examples through the eras of this happening, is Dan Marino and Joe Montana when both of those quarterbacks were at the end of their careers and, you know, Montana's playing for Kansas City, still kind of find a way to win. He's grinding it out. Like the arm's not the same. The health isn't the same. And ultimately,

you know, it ended up fading out with him. Dan Marino, his last year was basically the worst year of his career. Couldn't really move anymore. But still, every once in a while, you would get that flash where that arm would just let lose something spectacular. Even Tom Brady when he came back for that one extra year. And they went, I think, eight and nine. But he had a couple of comebacks in there, grinded them out to the playoffs,

despite being eight and nine or eight and eight. It must have been eight and nine that year. you still saw a little bit of it but he couldn't move the same way looked very stiff back there looked like he didn't want anything to do with being hit I will say that Rogers this year with Pittsburgh does look

like he's enjoying football more than he did with the Jets everything with the Jets just looked miserable and I did not enjoy watching that I did not enjoy watching Aaron Rogers one of the all time great quarterbacks going out and just hating football and no one

likes to get hit, but especially not when you get to my and Aaron Rogers age, you know, I don't like, I don't like anything that's going to hurt me. Sometimes when I play with the dog at the backyard, he'll get aggressive and hit, you know, drop me on the ground to get behind me and trip me up or something. I don't like that too much these days. If I was a younger person, then I probably would. And I could feel that in Aaron Rogers still, but he at least has looked like he's having more fun with this organization playing football. And I'm, curious whether we see a beleaguered old bruised version of Rogers or if we see him have some fun against the Vikings and we just end up watching a great battle between Brian Flores defense

trying to mix him up him trying to sort his way through it him making great throws him making some mistakes because he's old I'm intrigued but for me it's one of those things of kind of history that when you go to Lambeau field there's so much history there and you see a quarterback and putting aside some of the personality stuff with him because the first game that I covered down there was 2016. He's still great then and really all the way through 2021. Some ups and downs, but you get to see the great football player and some of the throws that he made from either messy pockets where he had no room whatsoever or especially the ones that are on the run when he would do kind of that hop

skipping a jump thing and the ball just travels so much different so as an enjoyer of all things football and football history it's pretty cool to have seen some of that stuff happen in some of his greatest seasons where he will clearly go to the Hall of Fame but I wonder if now as you guys Vikings fans can reflect a little bit more and say you know what hated him every single Sunday but man, that guy, he played us hard and a lot of great moments. Or if you just, they can't, no, no, no, don't ever say anything nice about Aaron Rogers. Forget him. And how do you feel about him this Sunday?

Are you concerned about the Vikings facing him? Are you totally fine with it? Are you pumped? Do you think that he'll just be terrible? That I am very interested in. And we'll get the thoughts from Andrew Filiponi here shortly. And that kind of dovetails into the Fandul question of the day. I thought it was interesting.

There are so many different props that you can get over a Fandul. And I noticed that Dallas Turner is actually the favorite to get a sack in this game for the Vikings at plus 106 on Fandul. How many times do the Vikings need to sack A.A. Ron in order to win this game. Let me lead, read a few of your responses. And we'll get to Andrew Filiponi. And then we'll talk with Manny Hill about Aaron Rogers a little later in the day. Andrew says Aaron in one word is beatable. DoD goes with old.

Okay, I don't disagree at all with that. Mr. Mayor wants to sack him 30 times. Yeah, yeah, 30 is maybe a little high for the Fandul question of the day. I was going to go with maybe three. But if one of them is early in the game, then I think it could have an impact in the entire game. It certainly was like Rogers has so many moments. Now, I reflect on it as the first thing that goes into my,

My brain with Rogers is just the throws, the plays, the great battles. But there are plenty of instances of him just being flat out obnoxious, and including when he was hit by Anthony Barr, which at the time was a legal hit. I don't think Anthony tried to stop himself from falling on Aaron Rogers, but that was not against the rules. It's actually better than it is against the rules because it turns out, which I didn't think was possible, but these guys are freaks. It is possible to not just land on a quarterback.

with your entire body. And I think that that even there's already too many quarterback injuries. So ultimately it was good for the game that and it resulted in some really stupid penalties and some really bad penalties at times. But ultimately now when guys who are rushing the passer are being trained not to just flop 250 or 60 pounds on a quarterback, it's probably saved some collarbones out there. But Aaron going on late night television and whining about that is pretty. that was pretty soft and there's been a lot of moments from him that we've made fun of

through the years darkness retreats and a lot of other strange stuff with Rogers that I have not necessarily been a fan of or wouldn't have wanted on my football team if I had been the Green Bay Packers. But it's a, so I guess it's an appreciation and respect for what he's done on the football field. But when things go wrong for Rogers like they did with the Jets, I can't say that I took my own darkness retreat to cry about it, right? Because all the stuff toward the end of his career, he's been pretty obnoxious. And for a while there, you just could not get away from the Rogers discussion. And that's another thing I've found pretty interesting is that he's gone to Pittsburgh.

I haven't heard a word about him. I haven't seen him as part of any debate shows. I haven't seen anybody that's sort of like, oh, yeah, okay. Rogers over there. It's been all right. you know, so Rob says most national pundits seem to see this as a close game. I think the Vikings at full strength dominate both trenches and win comfortably. I would see it that way too.

I think, you know, the fan dual line is minus 2.5 for the Vikings. I think that's a little bit low, but maybe they're just factoring in that it's Carson Wentz and he's not a starting quarterback. But, and it's an international game and sometimes these are weird. But I think the Vikings are the better team here. And there is important on the injury report. I wanted to get to that before Andrew Philpony, which is that Alex Highsmith, who is a great pass rusher for the Steelers,

did not practice for two straight days with an ankle injury. So that is something to watch for the Steelers because I think their biggest asset is their ability to get after the passer. And it really tells you how old the Steelers team is. where you see on their injury report, Cameron Hayward, not injury related rest, didn't practice, D.K. Metcalf didn't practice. T.J. Watt didn't practice. They're not even hurt. They're just not practicing. And even yesterday, you know, Darius Slay, not practicing because he's old. John Hussmith, not practicing because he's old. I mean, there's just a lot of guys for that team

that have been long in the tooth. And so Pittsburgh is in kind of a weird spot where they've pushed a lot of chips to the middle the table, but I don't think they're that good. Lucas is going with washed, Rob with lead boots. So I'm guessing that you guys are not reflective anytime your team is playing Aaron Rogers. Jim says pressure with four is how to beat Rogers. I would agree with that. Last year, some of the simulated pressures where you send four, but it's not the four defensive linemen, got to him.

Monty wants another pick six by Andrew Van Ginkle, which I should also mention. did not practice today, and that, I think, is pretty concerning for the Vikings with Andrew Van Ginkle that he's dealing with these injuries early on in the season. They need him for the rest of the year, and I'm curious about whether they play him this week or if they wait or if it's another eight snaps. I mean, he got two sacks. That was great. But do you want to have him out there for a couple of snaps where he might end up getting

hurt again or re-injuring something that don't love that idea. RJ wants three sacks in order to beat Aaron Rogers. I think that's a good number. I definitely think that that is a good number. If you get him with three sacks, one at the beginning of the game, just to make him feel the pressure, and then from there, later in the game in the big moments, when he cannot escape. And the numbers tell a pretty clear story about Aaron Rogers this year.

that he has wanted nothing to do with the pressure. And I think that's where the Vikings have their biggest advantage. He's only been pressured, this is a crazy number. He's only been pressured 30% of the time because he's getting rid of the ball so fast. But when he's been pressured, he is six for 22 passing when he's under pressure. Six for 22 with two interceptions. Now, you mentioned the blitzing. he's actually been pretty good against the blitz,

but he's got two of his touchdowns against the blitz, but he's only 11 for 23. So I'll be very curious to see how they interpret that, and he's gotten rid of the ball in 2.3 seconds when he's been blitzed. Great day to tell us the story. So when he's being blitzed, he's getting rid of the ball fast and he's not completing a heck of a lot of passes. So I could see Brian Flores really trying to get after him in this game

with some early blitzes to get that early. sack and try to throw him off. Jim says, I'd like to see Turner drop to cover a tight end. Well, Pace seems to find Rogers. They've been doing that quite a bit with Dallas Turner. They have been dropping him back in coverage. He's really played the Andrew Van Ginkle role over the last couple of weeks and done a pretty good job.

But I think, you know, the difference between a young player like Turner that has talent and someone who's a second team all pro is doing it every game. And Turner was really good against Cincinnati. Can he carry that over against an offensive? line. Let me pull this up. That just hasn't really been all that good in Pittsburgh where are they ranked. PFF has them 23rd in pass blocking right now. So there's a clear edge here. And that comes down to pressure. So again, that Fandul question of the day, how many times the Vikings have to sack Aaron Rogers to throw him off his game and win against the San Francisco

49ers? Why did I say the 49ers against the Pittsburgh Steelers? I was reading San Francisco 49ers. I'm surprised I don't do that more often. Pittsburgh Steelers. That's who the Vikings are playing. KMAC says, can Rogers get anything done if they drop into hot route lanes

to get home quick? No, I mean, great point. The answer is probably not. And we saw that against the Jets last year is the Vikings would show blitzes. Sometimes they would. Sometimes they wouldn't. But when they dropped back,

so he was getting his pre-snap read, they drop back. There were several times where he just had to panic and fling it somewhere or even take a sack. I've never thought that Rogers was brilliant before the snap.

Now, he's experienced, but I never thought that he was the best of the best. I thought it was really arm strength and athleticism that made him. And now he's only got maybe three quarters of one of those things and definitely not the athleticism.

And I was thinking about this with Rogers. I'll talk about it with Manny. What if he was playing? quarterback for the Vikings. If he was playing quarterback for the Vikings and his numbers are what they are with Pittsburgh, I think we would all be saying, you know, it's fine, but they're probably not going to win.

And what was this really for? He's averaging 6.8 yards per attempt, seven touchdowns, three picks. They're doing okay. He's game managing to some extent. They're throwing underneath stuff. And once you see him on tape looking the way he's looking. which is totally immobile. I'm not sure that it would have gone the way that some people were imagining

with him just throwing lasers to Justin Jefferson. It probably would have been the occasional that, but I think he would have just wanted to get the football out of his hands regardless of whether it was a good idea or not, which also may be what Carson Wentz does. I don't know. So we will see when it comes to Rogers as far as whether,

You know, he tunes it up a few times with the arm, how they manage their strategy against the Vikings. And for more on that, a friend of mine, Andrew Philipponi, who is a host in Pittsburgh, 937, funny enough, we did not cross paths in Buffalo, but he's from Buffalo. We both worked at the same radio station, but at different times. So kind of funny little coincidence there. He's in Pittsburgh now. I'm here. And we're both enjoying where we're at, except for when you listen to Andrew talk about his team that he covers, maybe he isn't enjoying it quite as much.

So with a big time breakdown here on Vikings against the Steelers, I welcome in, Andrew Philippone. All right, we welcome into the show. Usually we're sitting in opposite seats here of this situation. Andrew Philopony 937 in Pittsburgh. Andrew, very interesting start to the season for all of us, wouldn't you say? I just, we got to begin with kind of how weird. Pittsburgh's start to the season is, the crazy game with the Jets, a crazy game with the Patriots.

How are you feeling? What are people in Pittsburgh? What are the Yinsers saying about the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Aaron Rogers era? Well, it's been a lot of the same. You know, it is, I think, if you're a Vikings fan or you don't watch the Steelers week to week every Sunday, you know, it does seem like there are unusual happenings or strange things that occur with them. But it's really life is a Steelers fan because they have this propensity to win all of these insanely close games in bizarre fashion. And at the end of the year, you add up their wins and there's nine or ten of them. And then they go and get blasted in the wild card round every season. So that has become reality for Steelers fans. And I would say the first three weeks,

even though it's different because Aaron Rogers is the quarterback, it still feels like that's this team's destiny. They're in first place. They're not the Ravens who have obviously defensive issues and are one and two. They're not Cincinnati that now has to make up for the loss of Joe Burrow. But I'd be lying to you, Matthew, if I said, because of that pain and suffering felt by Bengals fans and the struggles in Baltimore have made fans here feel much better about their situation because I don't really think that's happened.

And I feel like the conversation for much of this week has been about what they did wrong in New England rather than what they did right to come away with a win in that game. I know all about this, my friend. This sounds to me just like the Kirk Cousins, Mike Zimmer era in Minnesota, where you're competitive every single year. And when you go into games, and I've seen you tweet about this, the broadcasters will praise everybody on, you know, well, they've got a great coach and the quarterback's great. and all this stuff, and yet the boredom has sort of set in. And you have gone through a lot of years of this from the Duck Hodges to the Kenny Pickett. And with Aaron Rogers, and I know that you haven't agreed with PFF's grade of him so far, which is completely fair. But it does look like there's going to be a ceiling

on what you can actually get from Aaron Rogers as the quarterback. I mean, this guy is not played at an MVP level since 2021. That was a really, long time ago in our lives. And since then, he's basically been a bottom third type of quarterback with some great plays and some limitations. And I think it's fair when you look at the weapons, the offensive line, the running game to say, me, like what, what can all of this be? And it probably is some weeks. It could be really good. And a lot of weeks it's going to be very average. I do believe, though, that he would be in a month. better situation had Minnesota wanted him this offseason. And I actually think if he were in the

Minnesota offense right now, the Vikings might be better off and the Steelers might be better off too because it would have forced them to kind of come to grips with who they really are and where they are in their, you know, the grander, greater scheme of the NFL. Instead, you know, I would say through three games, I do disagree with PFF strongly. I think he's been an average to slightly above average quarterback through the first three games. And I think the reason why maybe the numbers don't look as good, although the numbers aren't bad. I mean, he's got seven touchdowns and only Lamar Jackson has more.

I would say it's more a byproduct of what's around him, his situation, his circumstances. The offensive line has been atrocious. Now, it didn't allow any sacks against New England last week, which was a big step because they went into that game with nine. They had sacked, I think, Gino Smith five times and two or four times in those two games. So to give up none was, I think, progress. However, they also are getting rid of the ball faster than any team. And that limits them as far as the playmaking from D.K. Metcalf and Calvin Austin.

And they talked a big game with all these tight ends they have. And they've barely utilized those through the first three games. They haven't run the ball at all. So, you know, if you put Aaron Rogers, and this is probably true of a lot of quarterbacks, though. You know, if you put Aaron Rogers in L.A. or in Minnesota or even in, you know, Cincinnati's line stinks, too. I think if you put him in some of these other situations, I think the discussion about him is a more positive one. And I think there's a reason why,

although he denied it on Wednesday, I do think his preference was Minnesota and not Pittsburgh. And he got told Minnesota was going to go with McCarthy, and this is the pivot and decision that he made ultimately. Oh, I mean, there's no question. I mean, he was calling up Kevin O'Connell night and day at all hours saying, can I please just come and throw the football to Justin Jefferson? And I don't doubt that Aaron Rogers would be the best version of himself because every

quarterback is, including Carson Wentz, who's been a backup for years and comes in and completes 70% of his passes and throws it to Jefferson and Hawkinson and they move the ball. Derisaw's back and left tackle and everybody's happy. Then, you know, of course, Sam Darnold last year, we think we know what this offense, these weapons and this coach can do. I think that the reason the Vikings decided not to go with him is really because what is the upside. If he's not the elite Aaron Rogers that he once was, can you really go into the playoffs and win? And I think that they thought if you could get through early rocky parts of

J.J. McCarthy and then get him to a point of developing to start reaching what he's going to be by the middle late part of the season. Then you've got a higher upside. Now that hasn't played out so far because football always has twists and turns for us. But I think I understand why they did not want to go with Rogers. They wanted to get McCarthy on the field and start taking advantage of that rookie quarterback contract. I don't know how they would manage that again, though. I think maybe they would bring him in if they knew that it was going to look like how it looked and then also that McCarthy was going to be injured. But what is it? What does the offense look like with Rogers? Because here's my thing. When I just took a quick look at the PFF grade, one thing is that it's three games

and we love to use these as like a game score and stuff. And I think that's, you know, understandable for fans, but we need much bigger samples than that. And he's had a lot of turnover worthy plays, which get hammered by PFF grades. And I think I've always talked about this with routine good reads to wide open receivers. They don't get rewarded. And I've always thought that they should get rewarded more by PFF because they never like Jared Gough. He just throws to wide open receivers, but you have to find them and throw on time.

I just, anyway, that's sort of always been my issue with those. the PFF grades is not giving enough credit to routine stuff, but give like, describe it to me. What does it look like? I see D.K. Metcalf has caught like two passes past 10 yards, which is kind of, uh, interesting to me. Well, the one thing I'll say on the positive end of things to defend Rogers and their offense, not that it needs me to, you know, glorify it or lavish it with praise because it doesn't deserve it, um, the way that Minnesota's offense does or some of the other high-octane ones in the NFL. Their games have been much better from the jump. This has been a problem that's plagued the Steelers. They went all last year without a touchdown on the opening

drive. They've come out this year and they've scored on every opening drive. They've scored a touchdown against the Jets. They kicked the field goal against Seattle. They scored a touchdown last week against New England. So whatever kind of mind meld they have between the two, Rogers and Smith, it's worked. They got the ball quick and short to Metcamp on that opening drive yards after catch and then they had a really nice play call in the red zone that went for a gainwell touchdown where he basically could have moonwalked into the end zone it was that easy and then the other thing that's been really a huge breadth of fresh air here is their red zone offense has probably been the best in the NFL they get down there they score touchdowns

they don't kick field goals and when you've had Mitch Trebisky and Kenny Pickett directing things Justin Fields not seeing the field other than being a great runner obviously we saw what Russell Wilson did in the red zone against Kansas City, and that's why he's not their quarterback anymore. So it's been a huge upgrade there. So they've been opportunistic, both sides of the ball, offense, they're scoring touchdowns. And then the other gripe I have with PFF to go back to that is the touchdown pass he makes to win the game against the Jets. He gets no credit for that from them, none. It's a back shoulder throw on third and six to Calvin Austin.

They could have easily went with a more conservative play call there, kicked a field goal, gone up three. taking their chances. It's a complete ad lib play by Rogers. It's out of the context of the offense. He sees something pre-snap. He sees single coverage. He trusts Austin. He makes a throw to him that's not even really one that's out of their playbook. It's a play that he just believes as a 21-year vet he can make. That doesn't happen with the other quarterbacks they've had here, in my opinion. And so we are getting probably the mental aptitude and cerebral qualities in Aaron Rogers that we haven't had since Big Ben.

And I think it's made the Steelers offense passable, not great, but at least competent through the first three games, Matt. Yeah, I think, well, when it comes to just about anything, you can't use one number, one statistic to capture everything. And I think that mental, the mental part of the game for the quarterback and how you read things out is not very easy to figure out when you're trying to grade it out. So, but with Rogers, we've seen this. I don't think anyone in Minnesota would ever downplay his talent or ever doubt him and what he can be because even in the game against the Jets last year,

where he looked cooked and they fired their coach after the game, he's still almost won. Like, he brought them back toward the end of that game and was driving to potentially win it if Stefan Gilmore didn't pick him off at the end. So I don't think there's much doubt there. The matchup to me in this game that's going to determine everything is both defensive lines and how much success they can have. Because when I look at Kim Hayward, I'm like, talk about ageless players. My goodness, in the PFF grade, he's still the highest graded player on the team.

T.J. Watt, I know you guys got beef with PFF over that, but I think we all agree, one of the best players in the NFL. And on the Viking side, they have completely revamped their. ability to pressure up the middle. How do you weigh the, the offensive line of Pittsburgh versus the defensive line of the Vikings, the defensive line of Pittsburgh? I noticed their pressure percentage is very high, uh, that they've been getting after quarterbacks.

I, I think this is a little battle of the trenches here in Dublin. Well, I would have said I felt, I would have, uh, felt good about this matchup from the Steelers defensive standpoint after watching the Atlantic game and seeing what the Falcons did against that kind of ad hoc Vikings offensive line, but Dara saws back is, is the center back to? Yes, Ryan Kelly. Yeah. Okay, so he's back.

And Brian O'Neill, I think, is excellent. So I don't know. I think we saw, we saw huge signs of life for them in the New England game. It was Watts best game of the season. He had two sacks. He recovered a fumble. He was visible. You could tell that Morgan Moses,

the right tackle was just getting crushed in that game, and they needed to chip and help. And then K.M. Hayward literally saved two touchdowns. He got a finger on a ball at the goal line at the end of the first half, which went for an interception. If he doesn't deflect it and change the direction of the ball, it's probably a touchdown. And then after Aaron Rogers threw by far his worst pass of the season,

which went for a Robert Spillane interception that was returned inside the Steelers 10-yard line, he forced. for Andre Stevenson to fumble the ball at the goal line and the Steelers recovered. So that's a, that's a 14-point swing there for the Steelers, essentially, made really by him, all by him. And it's interesting, Matthew, because he's a little bit of persona non-grata here because of his contract dispute in the off-season. And the guy was pretty much put on a pedestal before that and was looked at as one of the

pillars of the Steelers locker room. And he gave all that away with this contract dispute. I sense some of that has come back, but not entirely. And so you're not going to get a lot of Steelers fans who want to pound the table for Cam Hayward right now and say nice things about him. But I will. And I think that the other big X factor for this game in that trench battle you're talking about is what Derek Harmon shows up against the Vikings because he was their first round pick.

He was drafted because of how bad they were in that Baltimore playoff game against the run, 300 rushing yards. He missed the first two games coming back from a knee injury suffered in the preseason. He was on a pitch count, and I thought with no practice barely, and with no NFL regular season experience, I thought he was fantastic against New England. He had a sack on the second drive. They really had gotten gouged in the run game like crazy the first two weeks. They gave up 100 yards in this game, but frankly, Matt, it was mostly because of Drake May

in his legs. and very little to do with New England's running backs. That was a huge, huge point of progress for them, what they did against New England's run game. So I think he's a big time factor in this game because it allows for them now maybe to move Black, who's a rookie to nose tackle and get Keanu Benton out of there from Wisconsin, who's just been a disaster through three games

at defensive tackle. So I think the Steelers are a little bit better up front than they were previously. in their offensive line, I have not a lot of hope for. I do think that that's an area where Minnesota should have a huge advantage in this game. The Steelers haven't run the ball on anybody. Preseason, regular season, even in practice, they were getting beat by their own run defense.

And I don't see why that would change in Dublin on Sunday. Yeah, and that was a huge thing for the Vikings to fix against Cincinnati. And Cincinnati can't run the ball either. But the fact that they got steamrolled against Atlanta's running game with Bejohn Robinson, And once you can't run the ball against this defense and you get in second and eight or third and six or more, that's when Brian Flores starts to do all the black magic that he can do. And, you know, Harrison Smith with his wizardry of making checks and changes. And then that matchup between he and Rogers intellectually is super fascinating. Harrison was just telling us yesterday that he keeps track of the different deceptive things he does so he doesn't do them twice in a row.

So he, he, like has his own mental, like, uh, whatever you call rolladex of his different. Well, I'm, you know, on this coverage, I show this and now I'm not going to do it that way. So he and Rogers, uh, over the years have had these great battles. I, but I wonder what you think about the, the secondary of Pittsburgh because it hasn't looked like it has, uh, clicked maybe in the same way that people expected it. I will tell you the truth. I thought Pittsburgh's going to have an unbelievable secondary with Slay and you're getting Jalen Ramsey over there.

Is it just not clicking yet? Or is it new players or is it scheme or what do you think it's been? It's a loaded question that has a lot of layers to it. But the overall point is that yes, it's been extremely disappointing. I think I don't have the stat in front of me to give it to you with 100% confidence. But I'm pretty sure they've been the worst defense in the NFL at stopping teams from converting third and long through the first three games.

And it's mainly been an issue with busted coverages. And it was so bad Tara Lawston, who was pretty soft-spoken. He's a figurehead puppet defensive coordinator. Mike Tomlin does everything. But he has to come out and talk to reporters on Thursday. And last week, he dropped F bombs in his press conference, which, you know, for the conservative Rooney family is not something that they're a huge fan of. but he was trying to get the point across like I've we've talked about this yes we have moving parts back there because of injury but it's unacceptable that these crossing patterns have killed us for two games in a row giving up touchdowns because guys don't know what they're doing on these given plays and then new England exploited that again hunter Henry had one of his biggest games of the of the last few years against the Steelers just killed them over the middle had two touchdowns in the game as well um

So they have made excuses like, hey, we've got young guys and we've got new guys. But this is also a defense that had Juan Thorneill come out and say that they thought, he thought this was the best defense of all time. And Mike Tomlin came out and said, we're going to do historic things defensively. So they talked a big game and they haven't been able to back it up, frankly. They said they were going to have all kinds of tricks up their sleeve with Jalen Ramsey. It looked like they were on course to do that. But then Joey Porter Jr. got injured in the,

Jets game and hasn't played since. Now, he might come back and play. And to Sean Elliott, who they gave an extension to this offseason, that safety might come back and play in this game, too. So maybe that helps them put a lid on it. But honestly, what we've seen so far is Ramsey is giving up big plays and made big plays. So he's been Feaster Famine. Echle's actually, the slot corner, had a couple of big stops and interception and then the

fourth downstop against the Patriots. So he's fine. but it's mainly a communication thing. And really, Matthew, more than anything else, what it's done here for people this week is it continues to drive Steelers fans nuts that Brian Flores is in Minnesota and not here. And it really is a sticking point in a craw, and a sticking your craw thing for fans here

because they feel like they had, you know, after maybe Vic Fangio and a couple other guys, the best defensive coordinator in the NFL in their building and they didn't promote him and Mike Tomlin wasn't willing to give him the power that he wanted or would have wanted on the defensive side of the ball. Then that's frustrating for people. Well, they deserve to feel that way. I mean, Brian Flores has been absolutely fantastic as the defensive coordinator of the Minnesota Vikings. I mean, not only is he really, really good with his schematics and I think he's ahead of the game with, you know, players moving around before the snap, making it really

difficult on quarterbacks. I think his player evaluation skills have just moved this needle in a way that was hard to see they were so bad a couple of years ago. I mean, literally one of the worst defenses in the NFL in 2022. And now for two straight years, they have been elite and they were even good in his first year with not that much talent. It has been a revelation for the Vikings. I think it's the main reason that they are a contender.

I would still say they're a contender this year, even if Carson Wentz or a young quarterback is there, that you can have one of the best defenses in the NFL. Now, I mean, it's not like Pittsburgh has been terrible on that side of the ball, but I think with the amount of talent there, it probably should have been better over the last few years. And I also think that when you have a guy like Tomlin, who's been doing it a certain way for a long time,

maybe they don't change as much as they should because I feel like I've heard that in different places of they kind of know what Tomlin's defense is and where guys are going to be and the personnel has done enough with T.J. Watt and Cam Hayward to make things difficult on opposing offenses. So I guess that leads me to the last thing I want to ask, which is you're afraid of Carson Wentz? You're worried about Carson Wentz? He's scared of Carson Wentz? How you feel about Carson Wentz. Well, Mike Tomlin really has downplayed quarterbacks in every game before this one. He only mentioned Justin Fields as a runner. He pretty much gave Sam Darnold a backhanded compliment and said he's a well-traveled quarterback, which was a way of saying he's a journeyman

and he's bounced around the league. And that was his opening remark on him. And then last week against New England with Drake May, same thing as Fields, just talked about his mobility. This was the first week he came out and said, they've got a quarterback here, Carson Wentz, who I really think is a guy that can kill you. And he knows it. He saw it in Philadelphia. They got pounded by Carson Wentz's rookie year. And it was really funny, Matt.

In order to illustrate that point, he brought up unsolicited last year. And I was at this game when he told his guys before the game, don't injure Anthony. Richardson, because I don't want to see Joe Flacco. And then sure enough, Richardson did get hurt. Flacco came in and cooked the Steelers defense. So he's very clairvoyant in that respect. I don't think Anthony Richardson expected Tuesday that he was going to get ripped by one of the, by the longest tenured coach in the NFL, but it happened.

And I agree with him. I mean, I do think Wentz, and the thing I keep thinking about with him is the fact that Andy Reid and Sean McVeigh both wanted him as a backup quarterback to Patrick Mahomes and Matthew Stafford. And so there's obviously something there. There's a physical skill set there. And it's a matter of getting him to play intelligently and consistently. And I trust Kevin O'Connell to get that out of them with all the weapons that they have,

including getting Jordan Addison back this week. So yes, within the framework of the Vikings offense, of course, I'm scared of Carson Wentz. I watched Justin Field score 32 points against the Steelers defense in week one. Absolutely. Sam Darnold looked fantastic other than really one good play by Jalen Ramsey and a batted ball at the line of scrimmage. He was outstanding against them. And I see no reason why Carson Wentz can't do the same thing in this game. Yeah, I think with getting Jordan Addison back and now having the full bevy of weapons. I mean, they are in a situation that can amp up pretty much any quarterback skill set. And what I was impressed with for Wentz was getting the ball out quickly. And he still has a very live arm. He's sort of. lives in this place where he's just physically talented enough, even though he's been a backup and just experienced enough, smart enough, where you can totally see it working with the Minnesota Vikings, as we've seen many times over this franchise's history, whether it was Randall Cunningham or Jeff George, or it's like, right, like just enough talent, uh, even, uh, Sam Darnold, like, just

enough talent, even if their history isn't great, along with the circumstances. So who do you think will win this game and let me double that with a question of do you like that it's in Dublin? I mean, you can't, right? Like, Steelers fans can't be thrilled that they are taken away from the home field advantage here, right? Well, on that point, Steelers fans, even the ones that aren't going, actually love it because it's the Rooney family. They understand that the late Dan Rooney, the pro football Hall of Famer, the architect behind their four Super Bowl wins in the 70s was an ambassador to Ireland under Obama, and this was like his lifelong dream was for the Steelers to play a regular season game there. And so many Steelers fans have basically

made a deal with themselves for years that if the game was ever going to get played in Dublin, they were going to make the trip for it. So I think this is a rare exception. If this game were in London, I think fans would be pissed, especially given some of the things that have gone on here. Now it's a level playing field, but I think based on what happened the last time the Steelers played the Vikings in London and getting there late in the week and looking laxadaisical and in a fog, people have long memories here and they remember that. So in that respect, I think there's a little bit of weariness over what kind of Steelers are we going to see early in this game and are they going to sleepwalk through it? As far as how I think the game goes,

no, I don't like the Steelers to win this game. I think that and Ben, Ben, Roppasberger said this, my old co-host, and I agree with him 100%. I just think that they have a tremendous being Minnesota, tremendous coaching advantage in this game. Brian Flores worked with Tomlin. He knows Tomlin. Kevin O'Connell, offensively, I just would put his credentials and resume. I think it far exceeds Arthur Smith.

So I think they've got a intellectual, strategic, schematic advantage in this game. Matthew, and I also think Minnesota. Minnesota, their roster is probably more balanced and more complete than the Steelers right now. So, no, I don't think the Steelers are going to win. I think we're going to see that Brian Flores defense, especially with the Steelers' inability to run the ball, really get to Aaron Rogers and get under his skin in this game. And I think Minnesota is going to kind of rain on their parade here and spoil the party and go there and win this game. If you ask the Rooney family, they can win one game this year. I think they pick this game over a wild card win.

I really do. I think they want this game that bad because of what it means to their family. And you think it's not going to have, you know, well, I tend to agree with you. I mean, this is being looked at in Minnesota as if you're going to have a really good season, you've got to go to an overseas. The Vikings picked this. They made the, they wanted this. They wanted to go over.

They feel very confident in, and what they can do from that perspective. And they've won all their overseas games. I think they're the stronger team from top to bottom. and now it is a matter of actually making it happen with the backup quarterback. Cleveland home game, too, or is that a Vikings home game? It is a Cleveland home game. It's a big advantage. It is a big advantage for the Vikings to take two road games right off the slate.

I agree with you. No wonder people are like, why do they want to do it? You just answered the question. You turn two home games into neutral site games. Now, I don't think, I think there'll be way more Steelers fans there for this game. But I think next week absolutely is a neutral site game. If not a game that looks like a Viking game, home game. Oh, it's a Vikings home game. Yeah. I mean, the Vikings have a huge fan base over in just

Europe in general. And when they've played in London, they have had at least 60, 40, 70, 30 for the fan bases. And also, I just from a little statistical work, Pittsburgh's sack rate home versus away, very different. So I wonder how that will go in Dublin with whatever turf that they may be playing on. Andrew Philipponi. Unfortunately, we did not cross paths in Buffalo. We did work at the same radio station, and I kind of took your spot. So it's a cool little connection there. And I love to see the success that you've had in Pittsburgh and on the national level as well. So I'm glad we could get together and do this. I could ask you the questions this time. And I am sure we'll talk again very soon, my friend. Matthew, thanks for having me on brother. Anytime you need me. Appreciate it.

That is Andrew Philpony, host of hit boy. He's got his own show there in Pittsburgh on 93.7, the fan. And as you could tell, he, well, he is a fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Doesn't seem to be a fan of the idea of them winning this football game. So let's get Manny Hill here in in just a second. And I'm very curious to find out if Manny thinks that the Vikings are going to win this one and the rest of them, because we will pick the schedule, but we'll have some conversation. as well. Manny, good evening, my friend, Sam Darnold's playing football tonight. Aaron Rogers is

playing. Who else could have been the quarterback of the Vikings from last year that is having a season. We're going to be paying attention to. Earlier in the show, Manny, I was talking about how with Aaron Rogers, my own perspective is sort of weighing the annoyance of Rogers and just who he is and the darkness retreats and going to, I don't know, see the pyramids or something rather than OTAs and just how obnoxious he has been over a big portion of his career with some of the magnificent things that I've seen him do in person. And I have to say, I'm just impressed.

And at one time, he was, you know, one of the best quarterbacks in the history of the game. And as you play him here, maybe for the last time ever, I was reflecting a bit on the different games that I saw him play, especially in the Zimmer era. And then last year, it just didn't look like the same. It was kind of miserable to watch him play last year. And so you kind of want some sort of balance in between, like, you know, everyone who's watching this would prefer that the Vikings win the game against Aaron Rogers. But maybe a throw or two where you're like, he's still got just enough for this not to be sad.

So how do you feel about Aaron Rogers? Like, give me a word to describe how you feel about Aaron Rogers. Or several words. It's a long show. Yeah, yeah, it is. I don't know if there's one specific word, but I think in terms of just the football stuff, if we take out all of the sort of the shenanigans over the last, you know, a handful of years with all the weird ayahuasca and the,

the darkness retreats and all that stuff. I don't think even as a fan of, you know, the rival team that he played for for so many years, I don't think you can look at what he did on the football field and not at least have a strong level of respect for what he was able to accomplish, particularly at the height of his career with the Green Bay Packers. it was always frustrating going up against him and we saw many times where he would you know come into the Metro Dome back in the days of the dome

and play really well and sort of dagger the Vikings and break their hearts and then you know he came into the US Bank Stadium a few times and did kind of the same thing but it's it's I think when you factor in all of the years that he had in Green Bay and then all of the years with

with Brett Farr, with the Green Bay Packers, before that, I think you have to really, as a Vikings fan, you have to kind of appreciate just the battles. All of the, all of the matchups, all the high-stakes games, you know, I think about, I think about Week 17 in 2012, the year Adrian Peterson won the MVP, that great game. And that was an important game for both teams.

You know, the Vikings were trying to clinch a playoff spot, get that 10th win and make it in. The Packers were playing everybody in that game because they were trying to get a first round by. If they win that game, they already had the North locked up, but they were trying to win that game and get a first round by.

The Vikings won that game. Of course, they had to play the Packers again the next week, but that changed what the Packers were able to do in the postseason because they had to go to San Francisco, and that's when Colin Kaepernick ran all over them in the divisional round. And so think about games like that. and, you know, just all of the big moments and the battles. And it's just, I just have kind of a, even though I'm not a huge van of him as a person with all the off the field stuff,

I have a tremendous amount of respect for everything he's done on the football field during his career. There's just so many moments between him and the Vikings. And when he eventually does retire, maybe it's after this year. And the fact that he's been on the schedule is kind of funny, too. it's like he's left but he's not out of your life yet because you still have to have the Aaron Rogers conversation and he's just always been there. I mean, the guy has played for so many years in the NFL. There are many Vikings fans who are adults who have never watched a season of the Minnesota

Vikings where Aaron Rogers was not playing them in some capacity outside of the one he tore as Achilles. And every other season, Aaron Rogers is there. it's nice to have a foil. It's nice to have somebody. It's sports, right? Somebody to despise, somebody to look forward to. Tell me every single year, Vikings fans, when they got the schedule, they were not

circling first, when do they play at Lambo, when does Aaron Rogers come here? The stadium is more amped up than ever. And actually, you know, thinking about the different Rogers versus Vikings moments, which I want you to throw a few at me, because I threw a few hours. at the beginning of the show. He said in 2021, and this is when it's actually, there were a couple moments when you knew it was really over for Zimmer, but they won the game in 2021.

And it was actually a phenomenal Justin Jefferson. Kirk Cousins led a game winning drive in that game. Remember Rogers had the two touchdowns in like 15 seconds back to back in the huge bomb, I think, to Valdas Scantling. And after the game, they asked Rogers just about the atmosphere. and he was like, you know, it wasn't really the same as when I've been here before. And I thought that this, it's over for Zimmer when you can't even have the fans buying into a game like this, which was one of the most fun games.

I think of the entire era, the way that that one went back and forth. It was so entertaining. And yet it was still like, even he was commenting on how it wasn't the same because the, the juice was just gone. And the fans didn't have it anymore for Mike Zimmer, even when the game was really, really fun. So there's just, there's a lot of those like historic points that he's a part of and naturally the return of Fav and, you know, and him playing Green Bay and Rogers comes in and doesn't play all that well against Fav in the Metrodome. He's just always like every single big thing that happens to the Vikings. He's there somehow somewhere. You mentioned 2012, but the 2017 one where he gets injured.

And that's the moment. I actually said to Ben Gessling, I remember. remember in the locker room after I said, Ben, we're covering playoff games this year. After Aaron Rogers went down and it was clear that he was very hurt. Like, we knew there's no one else in this division that's going to have a chance to chase down this team right now. So here we go. Like, this is going to be one of those crazy seasons. So I want, I want you to think of maybe your two or three favorite Rogers Vikings moments,

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to think about your most interesting. Rogers versus Vikings moments, but I give you about a minute there. So what do you got?