The Kevin Sheehan Show - Cooley: Tough Grader

Episode Date: December 9, 2020

The show today is mostly a Cooley "Film Breakdown" of the offense against Pittsburgh. Some thoughts on Lamar Jackson and the Ravens too. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it. But you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Cheyenne Show. Here's Kevin. All right, it's a coolly film breakdown today. He's going to do the offense from the win over Pittsburgh. Before we get to it, I've got just two or three things from the Tuesday night game,

the Baltimore Dallas game. You told me before you didn't really watch it. If you go back and just watch Lamar Jackson on his pocket throws, they're some of the worst throws you will ever see. see. Horrible. With that said, though, it's very interesting to me, and it's just an observation. When he's out of the pocket throwing on the move, not from the pocket, but extending a play outside the pocket, going left or right, I think he's tremendously accurate. Like his touchdown pass is, you know, he's out of the pocket, he's extended, he's moving left,

and he makes a beautiful throw. And I've noticed that about him. over the years and maybe, you know, Ravens fans would say, nah, that's not really what happens. But when I've watched him, I don't, it's like when he's moving and it doesn't really rely as much as, you know, on pocket mechanics, I actually think he's really accurate. And I was wondering if you notice the same thing and if you did, why you would think that would be.

I've definitely noticed the same thing, but at the same time I've noticed that he can make accurate for his work. standing in the pocket. It seems like it's there there are weeks when he's much better in the pocket and then it seems like there are weeks where he's really not good at all in the pocket. I don't know why that would be timing of some of the things, his, his anticipation of certain things. Like he knows how to anticipate as he gets out on the edge. He's just very good at that. I don't know exactly what it is. You know, the mechanics of drop, the three, five step drop mechanics getting them off rhythm.

Yeah. I can tell you this, I'm on a normal drop back and to a wide open, tight end coming on a crosser. He sailed the pass six feet over the head of the receiver.

And I just, I thought it was interesting. Like he has very much a different throwing motion a lot of the time. He'll go super sidearm or kind of side arm or not that much sidearm.

It's like, it's like his throwing motion changes too much. It was almost like that with Duane, too, when he wanted to throw something with a little bit of touch, he had to change his arm angle. Yeah, he definitely changes his arm angle a lot. He is, however, as a scrambler or just as a read-option runner, there's nobody better. I mean, you're, you know, it's funny, I'll never forget before that draft. You said, and I quote, Lamar Jackson's the best running back in this draft, and it's not even close.

And if he is willing to play running back, I would make him my first round choice. I said I'd make him my first overall choice. First overall choice. He would be that great of a running back in the NFL. And in many ways, he is that. He's also a guy that makes big plays with his arm too. But his pocket mechanics and pocket accuracy is poor. They had Edwards back.

They had Dobbins back. They had Ingram back last night. They rushed for 294 yards. They won the game. Look, I was thinking about jumping on Dallas last night plus the nine. I didn't, and I'm glad I didn't. However, in watching that game, Dallas actually came out and played pretty well on offense. Zerline missed three field goals in the game, so that alone would have given them the cover. It's hard. Rarely do you see kickers miss three field goals in a game. He was one for four. By the way, Justin Tucker missed a 36-yarder. It's the first.

time in like 70 kicks inside 40 that he's missed. By the way, I was looking at his numbers. He's a Hall of Fame kicker. He's having a Hall of Fame career. But the Cowboys had three missed field goals, and God, did they get absolutely screwed on almost every call that seemed to be, you know, close. There was an absolute egregious pass interference on C.D. Lamb, who did a stop and go at the end of the half, he gets grabbed.

And the ref is right there. They didn't call it. They spotted the ball multiple times poorly. It seemed like the Cowboys got the wrong end of the stick the entire game. They're done. They actually came out and played, I think, with some heart last night. But they're done. Three and nine, that's it for them.

It's a two-horse race. Not that we didn't say that before. It's Giants. It's Washington. And it's going to be fun here over the last month. Just as an aside, I took some of what you said on the podcast. yesterday and those that haven't listened to it, I would urge you to go back and listen to the whole thing,

Cooley's thoughts on the game in our conversation, which was, I don't know, a 10, 15 minute conversation about whether or not Washington is limited. And you were very adamant that you shouldn't put limitations on them. And I agree with you. I do. And I took that to the radio show this morning and took calls. And, you know, there were mixed reactions.

But one of the things I said that I didn't say to you yesterday is that, you know, And I'm not being defensive here. Not really, maybe a little bit defensive to people who would say, oh my God, dude, they just won one game. They're five and seven. Just relax. But the truth of the matter is, at this time of year in years past, we would be discussing the rest of the league because our team season, the competitive portion of it anyway, more times than not, has been over when we've gotten to the month of December. And I love the NFL, and you love the NFL, and we love watching football. And most of you that are listening love it. And if I took Washington and said, they're Houston, all right, this team that you're watching is playing in Houston, we would be having an objective conversation

about teams that are playing well. And the conversation about Washington would go like this, you know, if they were Houston. Yeah, you know what? Houston's five and seven, they've won three in a row, coolly. Their defense is really good. I mean, Chase Young's a monster, Montes sweat, he's having a pro bowl season. Allen and Payne, they're really good defensively. And how about Alex Smith? Like, he's, what a story. Like, I don't think I'd want to play them if they get into the postseason. They're capable of winning a couple of games. That would be a, in other NFL cities that are just talking NFL and not about their own team right now, and they're looking at, you know, kind of a sleeper,

I would bet you people are looking at both the Giants and Washington. And Washington in particular, because of the defense, and saying, that team's pretty good. You know, that team, if they win that division, you know, they might win a game or two. To me, I think that that's a reasonable conversation that you would have if you were totally objective. It's hard to be for me and for you and for many of you out there.

But I would be having that conversation about a team from outside this city if I was watching them and watching the way they're playing. I don't see how you don't have that opinion. You know for me that I have to try to be objective at this point. In the past, you've said, oh, Cooley, Homer, whatever you want to say. I'm not. I don't care if they win or lose right now. I think anybody that really knows me knows that it's the opposite of an agenda when I say they're not limited.

Yeah. For me, if I was part of it and I were in any of the capacities that I'd been in the past, maybe that's a homer opinion. But I have the opposite of that right now. I've been critical, if anything, of this team and have no reason not to be really critical of this team. and I'm just telling you watching ball, I don't think they're limited. I think that there's something to this team. I'm not suggesting, like, they can, here's the other part of it, they can lose any game. Of course they could.

But I think they can win any game. Yeah. Right now, at least in the NFC. If you take, like right now assessing the NFC, and of course it changes, it's the NFL. New Orleans is really good on offense and defense, whether it's with Taysom Hill or Drew Brees, their defense has been the surprise for them this year. Green Bay's got Aaron Rogers. Those are two teams that I think are going to be difficult as we speak right now to beat in the NFC playoffs.

But everybody else, like, you know, I've watched Minnesota. I've watched Tampa. Minnesota's defense is really inconsistent and at times bad. Tampa, obviously, there's something going on there with Ariens and Brady that isn't good. Seattle, you can move the football against. Arizona, I don't even know if they're going to make it. The Rams, you know, golf can turn it over three times in a game. Washington defensively, you know, is going to be there.

And then I think Cooley and I forget if I pointed this out yesterday, but this was a big part of why I think it's really hard to put limitations on them right now. This is totally unique this year. You're not, what do we typically in a conversation say? Yeah, you know, they are playing well and I think they can make the playoffs. And I think they could win a game, but the problem is, is they can't win at Lambo. They can't win in the Superdome. Well, this year's totally different.

These are neutral site environments. There's no, we got to deal with the sound and the noise of the Superdome, or we got to deal with the Lambo situation. You don't have that. So road teams winning this year, it's just going to be easier. Whether or not they get through it and they pull it off is another story, because sometimes the better team just wins. but you're not going to have the added disadvantage of having to overcome crowd noise. Now, Washington, if they win the division, is going to play a home game too, and they won't have an advantage at home against, you know, Minnesota or Tampa or Seattle or the Rams

or whomever it would be in a four or five matchup. But anyway, I think, do you know that Washington is the only team with a losing record that has a positive point differential in the entire NFL. They are five and seven. They're plus four in point differential, which I think is, I don't know why. I think that's an interesting thing. Everybody in the division, including the Giants, obviously have a negative. They've got a positive point differential plus four. Part of that comes from, you know, two blowout wins over the Cowboys, right? The aggregate score being, what was it? 41 and 25, 66 to what they have in the first one? 3, 16, 19. So that disparity in those two games obviously helped out a lot. They still won those two games by those

points. Yeah. So anyway. Dallas has played other teams closer than that. Yes, they have. They have. All right, we'll get to Cooley's film breakdown right after this word from one of our sponsors. We're going in-depth, play-by-play. The Cooley Film Breakdown. Here's Cooley and Kevin. All right, time for Cooley's film breakdown from the Pittsburgh game on Monday night. He teased us yesterday about he couldn't wait to evaluate Alex Smith's performance. So let's start there, unless you've got an overarching theme.

Well, Kevin, I always have an overarching thing. Yes, you do. I mean, I just, I always have something. I can't just start. There has to be stuff. All right. So here, I want to go through a couple of thoughts on this game. Okay.

One, there's some things that I like what they're doing offensively. So, and I think they should start the next couple weeks with this, especially with Gibson, not being available with the turf toe situation. Because I can't imagine that he's going to play this week. I would be surprised if he played the next week, although they're going to need him you still got McKiss it. So we'll see, right?

Yeah. What they're doing with some of the empty sets, because you keep talking, you were talking about some of the empty set stuff, which I absolutely love, is they are starting in that empty set,

and then Alex has the opportunity, maybe not every time, but definitely some of the time, to look at the safety rotation and say if there's two safety back to the empty set, and they're going to play a soft stone coverage, then we're going to bring McKissick back into the backfield,

and then we have an opportunity to run the ball. Right. So because they go empty, it doesn't necessarily mean that they're immediately going to throw the ball. They're letting out of the real. No, sure. I've seen him brought back into the backfield, yes. Is it a tell if you bring them back from that empty set into the backfield

that they're going to run it? I mean, it doesn't have to be a tell, because you can have a check with me on that where you're still going to go, either empty set quick game or empty set easy pass or bring them back to the back field and then still go with a run action. Right. You know, you can bring it back in the back field and go screen.

You can bring it back for anything you want. It was still two plays called in the huddle. Right. And then you can also bring them back and go RPO out of that as well. So I don't think it's a tell per se. It would be if the only thing you did when you brought him back in the back was to run the ball. But you're bringing it back to run the ball

because you have an advantageous look to run the football. I like that. But I think when they start getting McKissick out of the backfield, Alex starts to find rhythm. And that was more in the second half from late in that ballgame when they really started to get into a ton of the empty set look. And I thought that's when Alex really started to feel comfortable and feel some rhythm. For me, if I'm calling play,

I want my quarterback to be in rhythm immediately in that game and early in that game. And so I think getting to some of those empty sets quick, maybe hurrying up to some of those empty set looks and continuing to have one, two-plays called where McKissick split out, it could give you a good start to the game. Then off of that, the thing that I really think they're going to start to get

is some better high-low throws with McKissick running some of the snag route and inside route type of stuff because you have to come up and play him. When you start watching this dude, 41 flashes on film as it's second seven, he catches it for three, but he's still getting a first down. It's third and five, and he's getting 16 instead of six yards. And so if you don't dictate that your coverage is going to come up, then you're in trouble. And what I haven't seen a ton of is some in-breaking stuff behind a McKissick at about 12 to 14 yards.

So I really think you have an opportunity to put McKissick and probably Terry on the same side of the field, and let McKissick run that underneath stuff and McClorn run that deeper stuff and if you're in zone coverage you've got to pick one. I think that would be an opportunity to get Alex into some easy rhythm where he doesn't have to do more than take one extra hitch

to throw over the top of McKissick if they come up and play him. So I think there's a ton of things that they can do with that empty stuff and Alex is really, really comfortable with it. and ultimately you use McKissick as a one read every time with some deeper combinations following it. And the other thing, you can bring crossers from the other side of the field, put McKissick in, whip him over the ball,

and if they come up, then throw the crosser from the other side of the field over the top of it. There's a lot that they can build on with this. I think they should start early with some of this stuff. I wanted to go through the trick play. Inman. The fourth and one trick play. Inman. I'm not convinced that Inman was supposed to be in on that play.

What do you mean? I don't know if it was Cam Sims that came off the field or something happened where somebody else was supposed to be on in that spot. But if they get up to the line of scrimmage, you can see that right is over there a little bit in a tight set. and then Logan Thomas, and Wright's pointing at the spot where Inman should be like, hey, hey, someone should be right here. And then Alex has got to look over and get Inman like, hey, bro, you've got to be on the other side of the field. Inman has no idea where he even is.

He lines up on the wrong side of the field. That's not a shift. You can tell it's not a shift because the receiver on the right side, right, is pointing like, we're missing a dude. And then Alex gets him over. And then as he gets over, he has no clue. He initially aligns too wide. He has no clue who he's going to block.

He's looking at Watt. He thinks he's cracking Watt. He has not run that play before. Okay. That's my true bet. He has not run that play. Is that a bet or do you know? No, it's a bet.

Okay. I don't know. I would bet on it, though, that he had not practiced that play. If he had practiced that play, he was in, La La Land when they did it. I mean, to watch him, one of the things that's interesting about watching him in this play, he is really

he's not paying attention. So he lines up in the wrong spot, you think, and he comes over and if you watch him, because I'm watching it right now, he really just he's looking down the line. You're right. He doesn't know what his responsibility is, but when he sees, was it, was

Hilton break into the backfield, he realizes he fucked up? I think he just realizes that there's someone there. I think he has no clue what he's doing. Okay. Yeah, I mean, it was bad. If Alex, if they had the wrong personnel in the game, then Alex should have called a timeout. Well, and that's what I'm, as soon as, as Inman has no idea what he's doing, he's the first point of attack blocker on that side.

As soon as you realize, the coaching staff should have called a timeout, as soon as you realize in that critical situation, fuck, Inman doesn't know what's going on, you've got to take a timeout. They had to take a time out right there. So that's my bet on what happened on that play. Because I wrote, why are Wright and Inman at the point of attack the two most critical blocks on the most critical place came on that side of the field? It would have been Sims and Terry for me.

fourth and one. You put Sims and Terry over there. No one knows what you're doing on that play. Yeah, exactly. I mean, maybe they thought that if they put Terry on the other side of the field, they get safety rotation away down towards Terry's side. But they're overloaded with a bunch there. That's the strong side for the defense.

Pittsburgh does a heck of a job playing eyes and keen the play. It's really well. I don't know, even if it's blocked all the way. Yeah, you get it. It gets to the edge anyway because Hayden's outside unblocked. Yeah, but he's got to get a half a yard. There's no way Hayden's going to stop him. And by the way, McKissick in the open field has excellent moves and wiggle and vision.

He gets that easily if Inman makes the block. It's not just going to be pure open field because I'm not sure if Wright gets enough of a block. And you can never, there's no way to determine that because once the play goes inside of Wright, then you can't see exactly what's going to happen with that block. You don't know exactly how that's going to play out. anyways, I'll bet you, well, I'm sure this is a fourth and one play, this is not just a walk-through play. They had an extra couple days. This is something they practiced a couple times. It's a true botch on Inman's part. It's a missed assignment, I think, twice. One lined up wrong, two, has no idea who he's blocking.

To me, that tells me the guy didn't run the play in the week of practice. So they should have called time out. As soon as they realized Inman didn't know, the coaching staff should have called time out. Because it's not necessarily on Alex's part to know who ran the play and practice that week. It's not? I'm sure he's thinking, just get over there and get your guy. And then finally, one thing they're going to really have to work on in the run game is Pittsburgh brought a lot of a lot of pressures with stunts up front and it really messed up their run stuff. Their zone operation, if someone's stunting back inside, you don't want to fall back inside as a blocker in some of the ground stuff.

blitzed from backers. They blitzed with nickel pressure. They really made it tough in first and second down to have some of those zone runs. They got off-key with protection. They got off-key with some of the gaps and stuff. They got out of that in the second half, which was a good adjustment. They clearly, you could see that Pittsburgh had a good plan for some of the first and second down run plays or run action plays in terms of pressures that they weren't going to be able to pick up. And in terms of getting guys into the run lanes where our line was discombobulated. It wasn't like Johnson said in the broadcast as a color guy.

Like, we can't get there with five. We're going to keep adding. No, no. They had a plan. They were going with six, seven men pressures throughout the game multiple times. Even late in the game, they went with some all-out pressures. So that's something that you're going to have to clean up in terms of the zone run stuff is, man, you get a stunt, you've got to pass it off to the next guy inside.

You've got to keep going. You've got to keep going, he's going to keep climbing on an angle. If he dives inside, he's out of the way. Trust it. Alex Smith, let's go through Alex Smith. Just the good and the bad kind of altogether. Early in the game, he has an escape the A-gap scramble throw where he hits Sims Jr. open.

It's an awesome scramble. He's climbing the A-gap. He just didn't need to do any of that. He had Sims open as soon as possible. He was jumpy early. You could see that he immediately early in the game was a little bit jumpy. Yep. And my thought is, back to my initial thought.

Let's go get him three as he throws him a kiss. He fills rhythm. The defense gets off their timing. He got a lot to worry about with the empty stuff. And then let's mix in some of the other things we want to mix in. The first sack in the game, I talked about some of the – it was off run action. It was a really cool blitz package by Pittsburgh. on the offensive lines left side,

they had three defensive linemen. They brought both linebackers, and then they brought the nickel off that side. It was almost impossible for them to pick everybody off that side. Barber went out, he picked up the nickel, Spley. It's 41 Splein comes completely free. That's going to be really tough on Lucas to pass it all the way back off.

It was a, I don't know, it was a defense. It was a good sack. It was a good blitz pressure that they had drawn up. Alex had to delay a game. early in this game, too. Man, the end of the second quarter, that throw he makes the Logan Thomas is awesome.

He really hung in the pocket. That was one of the first throws that he really hung in the pocket, too. Right. It was awesome. You know, he can tell he's got action downfield. He can tell he's got something going downfield. He stayed in there, hung in there. And I think that moment really started,

he started to play better after. that. He did miss a throw down the seam to Stephen Sims, Jr. That was the one that got broken up. It was the one that got broken up. That's also the play where he took the cleat to the leg. Right. Take the cleat to the leg. Ball's underthrowing. Take the cleat to the leg. That's close to a big play, though. Simps is open. He's got room down the middle of the field. He's a little more arrow on that ball.

And again, you get hit the leg. I thought he had a great ball on a deep shot to Terry McClorin. that should have been caught. I agree. By the safety, he really didn't get his hands right on that ball. So I thought, to me, that was a good ball. So a couple opportunities for Alex

in the first half that game, but they didn't get a lot going on offense. The jury is really good on defense. Yeah. They basically said, like, it's going to be hard to beat us down the field and did a very good job mixing up some coverages and back into that thing.

The second half of the game where Alex, I thought, really started to shine, ultimately, the positive in the second half. The throw to Logan Thomas on the corner out in the third quarter, the 29-yarder down to the one-yard line, that's a box and a ball, man. That's a good throw. Pittsburgh's really trying to hang. They're playing a cover two look, but that corner's really trying to fall off into anything

deep. And Alex held him just long enough with an underneath look to McKissick, which is where McKissick becomes incredibly impactful. is he's such a problem that the corner still has to hold even even for a team like Pittsburgh who wants to fall off into that stuff but that's a perfect ball that's huge it was a perfect ball is that the read there because you do have you've got you've got safety help the whole thing

it looked like I thought I don't have the play in front of me but I remember looking at it yesterday it looked to me like McClureen was open on that play I think you have a shot but he's reading that entire way in high-loing that cover two corner the flat player and he sees that he's got a window over the top of that guy the safety the cover two state safety really shouldn't be able to get into that corner throw i mean you can get close and it can be contested but you should be able to body the tight end and let him make a play in front of the safety what you're worried about is the flat corner right in that in that situation uh awesome on the fade ball to uh sam sims i was

going to just ask you if you're, I was waiting to see if you were going to skip over that throw. That was a great throw, wasn't it? It was a great throw. Yeah, I'm talking about, well, the fade that he dropped. First of all, in the end zone. Yeah, that's the play. That was a good ball. Great ball. That was a good ball. We'll talk about that with him. Really good throw in a better throws of the day. He's drifting left in the pocket, throws across his body to the right, hits him a kid. Oh, that's the best. I thought that was the most difficult throw because McKissick's going away from him as he's moving left and he's got to turn his body and throw. That was incredible.

Like that's such a good throw. It's great. It's exceptional. Where was that play cooling? They're down 1710 at the second and eight play in the third quarter. But yeah, that's a huge throw by Smith. The touchdown to Logan Thomas is a good throw. Logan's wide open.

It's really it's a good design and Logan does a great job. Logan's running like a wheel, like a flatten-up. Logan sells it long enough. The cover three corner on that side takes the bait,

he takes the post to the middle of the field. Sprinkle gets a ton of credit that look at Sprinkle going in there and getting that pick and that's a zone underneath coverage. Someone's going to try to come out and carry that wheel route,

but that's tough for an inside backer to carry that as it is. The guy that's for Pittsburgh that's going to need to make that play is the corner. I don't know. It depends on how they're calling it. If they called it pure lock by the corner, then it's a botch inside. They should have played over the top of sprinkles.

But that said, good throw. And he takes a big hit on that bike. Huge shit. Because Morgan Moses is doing God knows what on that side. Uh-oh. Like jumping wide outside, like attacking hard outside. Like a run play on the drop back bat. It's weird.

It's actually really weird, but Morgan does on that play. Really good. shot on the inside fade route to sims the one-handed catch i mean that's huge empty set right empty set one-on-one look down the seam kind of in between the numbers and and sideline that inside fade is really a popular throw what do you want to name that route you know i'm wondering what i want to call that when i'm calling my offense what i want to call that row um the couple negatives from the second half. Late to Terry on the first play of the second half, just a little over-out, I think just a second late to him. It was a bad snap. He kind of double-clutched it,

and maybe not necessarily as far, but he's laid to it. Through a low ball to Sims on the leg catch, not a completely accurate ball. He ended up getting it, so that was good. I thought he underthrew Sims on a go-ball, the one that Cam Sim didn't see. I think it was a little bit underthrown, but Sims didn't see it at all. It's still, it's a good idea They had zero blitz on that throw Where they brought everybody It's a good idea to let it go

I like it It's a no risk Throw in my opinion Second and seven throw To McKissick End up being a conversion I have no problem with it You're taking a positive play

It's 10, 17 in the fourth quarter If you want to look at this I think he's going to have Isaiah Right on a wheel But the ball's out I still think he's going to get right on the wheel route for a deeper throw down the field. But that said, you know you're going to get the first down with an open machistic.

You've taken a positive play. So I'm a problem with that. And then tied 17-17, there's a third and 10 throw right before they ended up kicking the field goal. Sims dropped it. Oh, yeah. Sims had, Sims Jr. had the drop. No, Cam Sims dropped it on the rigs before the field goal. It would have kept the clock.

Yeah, right. Yeah. I don't have a problem with the action. accuracy on that throw. But if you look at that again, it's really all out with one free safety. I think he's got to throw a trust ball to McClorn. Oh, really? McCorm one-on-one with running a deep corner out. Sims is not going to get the first down. It's 17-17. You can't take a sack and you can't throw an interception. You're already in field goal range.

He's not going to throw a pick if he throws it to McClorn to the sideline. He's not going to throw a pick if he leaves that one up to sideline, no chance. It's not going to be a pick. He's not going to take a sack. It's just going to have to throw a little early before Terry comes out of a break. I was actually coolly in this situation. I was actually surprised they chose to throw the football. I thought that they should have run the football, made Pittsburgh call their last time out or get it to the two-minute warning. They were already at a 45-yard field goal year. You weren't going to make it worse with a run. You may have made it a little bit better. Now, I say that, and at the same time, if I weren't worried about pressure in this game and sacks, like what happened to,

the end of the first half, then I would have been going for the first down to try to, you know, win the game there. Because if you make the first down, you're basically now in position to run the clock down to very little time left and kick a game winning field goal. But in that spot, we already saw two sacks at the end of the first half. And I remember thinking in the moment, you know what, run a draw here, run the ball. Let's get four yards. Make them use their last time out or get it to the two-minute warning so that when they touch the ball, it's on the other side of the two-minute warning and kick the field goal. because it's third and ten

you can debate whatever call you want to debate but on the call that was made I think if I had to do it again if I was Alex I would say let it fly flatten out the corner to the sideline where you're not throwing at a high angle down the field if you throw it with some air under it Terry can break and run

flatter to the sideline and have a chance to make that play it gives you an opportunity to get the first down again I'm not I'm not sitting here saying It's a terrible throw. I think based on leverage with Camphim, there's really no chance on that five-yard hour out that he's going to end up getting the first down right there. I think Alex would have known, knew when he did it. He didn't want to take the sack.

So he does a good job getting the ball out and not taking the sack. My point is I think he can throw a ball with a little area. Like the guy that I always see do this is Tom. Like three steps is Tom Brady, three steps before they're coming out of the break. Right, the ball's in the air flowing. He's going to let one go with a lot of lost, and he's going to let his receiver adjust to the balls that come out of the break in the air. Right. Terry had a stab.

Terry did win on the corner out. It just would have had to have been thrown really early. I think it was Cam Sims' only bad play of the game. He dropped the ball. That's a good throw. Yeah, no, he definitely dropped the ball. It's just going to be fourth and four. It's going to have a fourth and three.

It's a seven-yard play. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, if you look at it 10 times, it's way early when he's going to have to let that go to Terry. But there's nobody, there's no safety help. There's nobody there. It's a pure one-on-one situation with Terry.

So if he flattens it to the sideline, Terry's got a chance to go make a play on the ball. And only that. Putting that to the side, the missed, you know, opportunity perhaps on the play they did run. Do you agree with me that maybe they should have just run the football there? What would your call have been? Well, I think you know that they're coming with some kind of pressure because that's what Pittsburgh started doing late in the game, especially in those third-down situations,

is bringing added pressure. Yeah. I don't have a problem with the call. If Cam Sims wins one-on-one on that out route just enough to turn it up, he's going to get the first down on the five-to-six-six-yard out route. Right. If Alex buys just enough time, he's got a one-on-one shot on a corner to carry where he can flatten a throw.

I don't hate that call. I just think I don't want him dropping back in that situation against that team with that field position. Because one sack and now you've got a 54-yard kick. Fine. And you're telling me that you're telling me right now you don't trust our quarterback. It's not that I don't trust the quarterback. I trust the quarterback. But the quarterback at the end of the first half took back-to-back sacks that nearly cost us three points.

And this is for the game. I mean, both of them were bad plays. I mean, I didn't necessarily talk about them. The first act they took was ridiculous. He had two open receivers. He's trying to get a sixer right there from the 18-yard line. He's definitely keen Terry downfield, and he's got right in front of his face, right in front of his face. And he's got Sims on an easy out route.

By the way, you didn't comment on the play before, which I mentioned to you yesterday. So remember, the third and four one-handed catch gets him in a few. goal range with 220 left in a 17-17 game. On first and 10, they run Peyton Barber for two yards. Pittsburgh calls their first time out. Pittsburgh now trying to conserve time because they're assuming now they're going to be down at least three. The second Nate bubble, my God, was that thrown into significant traffic? Yeah, I mean, that's not an Alex play. So that's a stream. That's not an RPO.

I know that. I know it. It's a, they love running this. They're bringing nickel pressure off of that side. And Logan Thomas comes across in motion. And in an ideal world, first of all, that's his guy, the nickel guy. In an ideal world, he'll sense that that nickel pressure has no chance of turning around

and getting back out to that play. And he'll bypass him. It'll continue to climb to the next dude. Ideally, you would want Logan to just climb past that. But his numbers count to that screen, I'm sure that's who he's got. But if you watch that play again, that nickel player on that side, it should be actually a good call because he's going to bypass. He's going to come back into the back, though, you know, overrun that play.

You said it's not an Alex play, and I agreed with you at the beginning, but I'm watching it again. The throw is not great. No, it's not a great throw. The throw is high and Sims has to come down with it. And, you know, if it's incomplete or if Sims gets a hand on it and it goes up in the air, I just personally, I love those plays in the midst of a ball game on third and 15 or third and 10. Or, you know, even in normal down-and-distance situations, you are then in sort of,

we are going to take the lead here as long as our kicker doesn't miss, which, you know, was a big if this year, I'm going to be, you know, I'm going to make sure that we don't put our team into position of a bad play. And I always think that the tunnel or bubble or whatever kind of screen you want to call it, I always think it's such a timing play, you know, it's so based on timing that there's always some risk in that play. There's high reward in that play, but I always think that there's risk in that play, too. I wouldn't have called that. So I don't necessarily love the call because three second and longs that had preceded that play ended up being first down conversions to McKithick.

Right. Your empty stuff was really, really good. It seems like an interesting mix-in, but you don't know you're going to get a zone blitz off of that side with nickel pressure and then scraping over the top to cover that up. Like they're already flowing just to cover the nickel pressure. You don't know what call you're going to get against it. it was a good call by Pittsburgh and there could have been an adjustment made, I think, by Thomas

to give you some more room. It could have been a better throw by Alex. But when you say a risk play, I mean, how many times do you see a... You see that play blown up a lot. You see that play blown up a lot. Blown up, fine. I mean...

Well, blown up can lead to a turnover. And by the way, it was... You almost never see that play result. You almost never see that play result. turnover. You see that play. You know, you see that play. And years ago, I think Spurrier really at Florida was, because I remember my friends and I would refer to it as the college play. Like back in the 90s, we would refer to the tunnel screen or the bubble screen as the college play. Because they never ran this in the NFL. It was totally a college play. And I could be wrong. It may have

been somebody before Spurrier. But Spurrier was the first at a high profile. program. I remember they used to run it all the time, and it was unique the first time we saw it, because throws, the traditional screen was the traditional screen. It was a running back or a full back out of the backfield with offensive linemen, letting the defensive lineman come, and then getting out in front of the pass catcher to block down field. And that became a new wave of screen. And it was, you know, it was a lot of hit or miss. You know, it was big play or, you know, eventually it became potential blow-up play. We run a lot of this. Scott Turner runs a lot of bubble, tunnel, whatever you want to call it, screen, wide receiver screen stuff. I just think that the down

distance time, clock score, I wouldn't have run that there because it's a play that can get blown up. And this one did, and it lost two yards. And the throw wasn't good. And the other part of that, Coolly, is that if the throw is high and it's incomplete, which it ended up being an incomplete on the next play anyway, you don't force a timeout. You know, you don't force them to use their timeouts. I don't know. I think against that defense,

I want to go for the touchdown. I want to go for another first down. I also want to make sure that I don't come out of that with anything other than a very makeable field goal attempt for the lead with about two minutes to go against the undefeated team in the league. I hear exactly what you're saying. And I think it's a call that's a change of pace, just call a change of pace, when you didn't necessarily need that because some of the second down stuff they had was fine.

Yeah. So I don't, I'm not going to say that I love the call, but I'm also going to say that they called it into a look that wasn't a good look, and they don't know they're going to get that look. Okay. I don't see that as a high-risk play. I mean, it's not often The high risk would be

Turnover type play I mean, I don't see that play resulting in a turnover very often That's Continue on Alex Again, I don't love the call in Continue on that loss. Look, the two sacks at the end of the half are bad Both of them I think he had opportunities

But he really, I thought, played well In the second half of this game I mean, I just, I thought he was consistent with where he wanted to go with the ball. I thought Pittsburgh took away a lot of the things down field. I do think that the shots that he had to get the ball downfield took some of those shots. I don't think that Alex missed opportunities down the field. The week before against Dallas, I had three or four in the first half where I thought there were missed opportunities down the field for bigger plays. I don't necessarily see that in this game.

I thought Alex did a pretty good job with it. fairly mostly accurate with the underneath throws. Would he end up like 31 or 46, something like that? He had at least two batted balls. He had at least a couple drops in the game. You know, realistically, I thought he was accurate. I thought he was consistent. I thought he played well.

Take away a couple of the sacks. I think it was pretty good game. I was a B-plus. But you agree with me. He was a little bit jumpy, a little bit skittish, early, and that led to some inaccuracy early, but to your point, got into rhythm, end of the first half, and then it just carried over. And he had some drops, too. I mean, he had four legitimate drop balls, and two of them could have been really big. One of them could have been a huge play,

the McLaren play. Yeah, I think the McLaren play was a huge opportunity play that Terry should have come down with. That was a good look. One of the first looks they had where he could really push the ball down the field. McClorn got over the top of the safety. I thought it was a well-throw ball. Yeah. He also had a couple throwaways in the game that he just had to throw away, a couple down in the red zone. He just had throwways on it. He also once again extended some plays with his legs in the pocket and outside of it. There's a play

early in the game. I can't remember exactly when it was. And I think it was a third down that he threw short on, but he should have been sacked and somehow he maneuvered his way through the pocket and out to the right and through the ball. I don't know who he threw it to on that one. Maybe McKissick? He was from the first plays I was talking about. You know, it's great that he extended that play. I just thought he had Sims White Open in front of his face.

Oh, right. Okay, yeah, that was the one you're here. Okay. All right, where are we going next? B-plus for Alex. Yeah, B-plus for Alex. Let's go to Logan Thomas. So Logan makes a couple huge plays in this game, which is big time.

You know, catching the corner route early to the right side of the field, contested. getting his body in front of the safety. That's a big-time play, man, especially when they hadn't had a lot of plays going their way down the field. I thought that was massive. The touchdown catch was a big-time play. That touchdown that he has,

he does a great job selling flat long enough that he pushes the corner. The corner takes the deep ball, and he's wide open. I mean, it's great that he's wide open, but I think because of his patience on the route, it gets him wide open. The fumble recovery was a massive play in that game, massive play.

You know, it's funny on that fumble, they choose to run outside zone at the Tid end. T.J. Waugh is lined up in a 3-4 defense, two yards outside of Lick Thomas. And I thought initially he did an okay job of blocking him, but that's one of those ones where you're like, I always wanted to scream at an offensive coordinator. He put me on the ball with my hand in the ground, and you asked me to block one of the best outside lineback in the league who has two yards of leverage. Come on, man. Like, let me motion to him, or let me get up and get out to him somehow.

Like, you can't put me in this disadvantaged situation. It wasn't a terrible job. That said he let Watt fall off inside and strip that ball out. Right. It's not his fault that McKissick fumbled. But the huge, huge recovery. Oh, it was one of the two biggest plays of the game in my view. And then another huge catch on the corner out that we talked about

that I thought was a great ball down the left side. to get the one yard by. That was absolutely massive. The third down in 14, he converts. How they don't get that, I don't know, that little hop-step back, cut inside, dive for the first down. The great effort play, everybody should have great effort.

And everybody's going to try to get that first down. It was great effort, and I just don't know how they got that wrong. I don't know how they got it wrong either. It makes literally no sense to me. But they did, so they did. He's getting better as a receiver. He really is, and I think his run after the catch is pretty good, too. It's not amazing.

He's not quick twitch, which is weird because I just, and I watch him, I think he's quick twitch, but he's just, he's not. He's not a pure separator. You're right about that. Like he doesn't, when you think about like an athlete, a former quarterback that's playing tight end or a former basketball player who plays tight end. And I don't know if Logan Thomas was a basketball player or not. I bet he was.

But he doesn't have like this like real ability to make people miss, like a quarterback would, especially, you know, he was a zone read, you know, a quarterback under the Virginia Tech Fuentes when he was there. And yet he doesn't really make people miss in the way that you would expect like a quarterback kind of an athlete to do it, you know? He's stiff in his hips. Yep. He just doesn't have fluid hips. He's got no wiggle.

He got a lot of credit in the broadcast for being a physical blocker. And there are things that he does with real physicality. Like early in the game, he ends up with a checkdown catch on a third down, I think. man, he's chipping 56 on the edge, the guy that came in for Bud Dupree. Yeah. He knocked the shit out of him, man.

Knocked him three yards down the line of scrimmage. Yeah, that's awesome. Some of the blocks where he's coming across or he's got a little face to close on a D-D end, he is physical. He's not afraid of contact. There's no doubt about that. But in terms of physicality in-line blocking,

he's just really average as an in-line blocker. When I say that, his average as an inline blocker is better than almost any tight-end that's played there since I've been there. Right. It's not saying much. It's still better than most. It's not good, but it's not bad if that makes sense. Yeah, no, I got it. You've been very difficult on tight ends.

You've been very difficult on the tight ends here as blockers. Well, yeah, but anybody that's watching them would be. Yeah. They just would. He doesn't have that inline pop. Right. And a part of that is he's stiff and his hit. Like, as he unloads, that quick pop is not quite there.

He's good as accelerating through contact when he's got time to accelerate through contact. 50-50 on the outside, secondary stuff, one of the bubbles that was out there, he was excellent. One of the flip screens, he was great. There was another one that was a two-yard loss earlier in the game, where they threw an RPO bubble. and he gets beat to the outside. I think that's one of the ones where Johnson's like, man, that's a great play because Logan Thomas is such a great blocker. He really just, he was a defender made such a good.

Like, no, that's shitty landmark, shitty angle by Logan, and he got out leveraged quick when he should have swallowed him up. So, I mean, I just, I really love the idea, though, that Logan is becoming a better tied end. I watched him on film a lot over the last couple years I evaluated a lot of the tight ends. And I think the more he plays and the more they're showing belief in him, the better he's getting. I don't think he's ever going to be a true separator, but he is getting better at using his body and, you know, the tight elbow push-off stuff.

I'm getting, I'm more impressed every week with Logan Thomas. He was a B-plus in this game. Boy, you know, I mean, I know B-plus is a good grade, and you're typically a harsh grader on tight ends. And don't even start to debate me on that. But I don't think anybody that watched that game would have thought that Logan Thomas's grade was anything lower than an A, and most would have had it as an A plus. You've got it as a B plus. You're a critical grader when it comes to tight ends, but you just explained why. Oh, he also had another false start in the game, which was a weird call.

Remember that he kind of went in motion? Yeah, there were two guys in motion at the same time. That's not a false start. That's an illegal shift, isn't it? Well, it's not an illegal shift because if they reset before the ball snap, then you can have as many guys in motion as you want as long as they set. Well, then it shouldn't have been a false start. Honestly, though, I've watched it like seven times.

I think he tried to cover up a false start by going to motion. I think he tried to cover up an illegal shift maybe by doing so. I don't know. I think he kind of jumped and then went in motion to cover it up. Like, I think it was really smart, split-second thinking, like kind of moved into wet motion instead. I can't, I mean, you'd have to ask Logan what happened on that play. But the way it, as fast as he covered it up,

I don't think they should have called it. It did look really jerky right at the start of the motion. All right. Who's next? No idea. Let's go McKissick. McKissick, in the third, fourth quarter, every single thing he caught

ended up being first down. Second ten, second and five, second seven, third and five. God, he's got so much patience as a route runner, too. He's pushing to real depth on some of these routes. He's holding zone coverage long enough to break away from it.

He's got some quicks, man. I love watching this guy run routes. He's such a weapon, but he's such a savvy situational player after the catch. He knows where to go. He knows how to get the first down, you know, what he needs to do to get it. He's a really

smart football player. In and out of breaks very quick. You know, the one that I thought was interesting, he got held down on the goal line by T.J. Watt that ended up being a DPI and they gave him another set of down. Well, that was the fourth goal. He went across. Yeah, he stumbled coming across

the field in motion again. He did, like, if he got restarted, he did stumble a little bit right there. Still, you get a DPI in that situation. He had the fumble. That's costly. That, to me, was a costly play in that game. Good as a back. Neither back is Gibson. And we'll talk about Barber next.

Neither back is Gibson. It's good at the back. I'd like to see him get more carries. But at the same time, you're sitting there saying, okay, do we want to give him that many carries when on second and seven? He's going to get you the first down. It's really interesting decision they have to make there with how many touches he's going get because of how impactful it touches are in games.

McKissick was a B-plus in this game. Barber. Here's what I see in Barber. Really good in between the tackles guy with good initial vision, but doesn't string cuts together. He falls forward after his first cut. There are not a ton of open spaces for him to run the ball in some of the situations he's in, but he's a one-cut fall forward back.

and that's probably why his average over his career is three and a half, whatever yard. It's because if he gets to where he should make that second cut, he just falls forward. The couple runs he had were big, though, and in between the tackles, you get, I mean, a first and ten falling forwarded, the four-yard gate. That's a good play, you know, second-six situation. Touchdown run, like immediate, downhill. kind of deal. Like that. Take the ball, one hesitation step

downhill. Barber God, he ended up with 14 carries in this game, I think. Not a lot of yards, but a couple of big runs, including the touchdown run. No, there's no doubt about it. Barber was a B minus in this game.

Terry, Terry had two drops. Yeah, he did. He did. He had two drops. in this game and didn't really impact the game the way Terry McCorn normally impacts the game. You know, it's amazing. I think it's the first game that he hasn't caught a slant. You know what I mean?

Why they didn't have some more slants called to Terry? Not a huge impact in this game either way, other than he did have those couple drops and had a chance to make a big play down the field. I thought there were a couple opportunities where he was open and wins with speed down the field where he did not get a ball. But Terry was a D-plus. What did you say? A D plus? Yeah, two drops, no impact in the game.

Yeah, okay. You start as a C and you have a chance to move up or down. You're not just a B start because you're Terry McClureen. Right. It's one game. Gotcha. It's a one game great deal. Sims, man, that first catch got him going in the end of the first half.

Right. The run after the catch was big. take it down the sideline, big. It really did. It really did get things going for them. You know, the other thing in the first half, before you get to what was a pretty big second half. You're talking about the third and 14

early in the third quarter? No, I'm talking about... Oh, the one that got him on the field goal, you know, tribe. Yeah, down in... But the third and 14... The third and 14 was huge. I mean, you'll get to it. I'll let you get to it. Go ahead.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, he did get deed up big time. on a hitch early in the game. It's not the most telegraphed hitcherout, but man, that was good defense. If you think about the ball thrown him on a little six-yard, six-yard button hook, also known as a hit. Right.

I don't see him as a build-up speed guy. He's not that immediate jump off the line of scrimmage. So with DBs within five yards, he doesn't initially sell that true vertical threat. I don't know if you noticed that watching him, but he's a bit, for me, it looks like more of a buildup speed kind of guy.

I know what you're talking about, yeah. The first and 23 in the second half. God, that leg catch got him into a situation where then they go to right and then you get to a third and 14 on the screen where he did a phenomenal job, setting up his blocks and getting down the field

and making a really big play. That was a critical junction in that game. It was. You talked about it yesterday. We talked about it yesterday, but when you watch this film, you really see that they didn't have a lot going. Offensively, they were really stagnant

until about that point. You know, a couple good throws down the field, but other than that, Pittsburgh was stymieing them on defense, and that, I thought, got him going. As they finished towards the end of that drive, there's a fade thrown down in the end zone. He's drifting away from the ball,

and he doesn't high point that ball. He lets it come to his body. you're a 6-foot-4 receiver, go up with high hands, strong hands, catch that at the highest point, bring it down. Hayden doesn't have a chance to break it up. You go and get that thing. He's got to be able to make that play. I know it's Hayden, but he's, what, 6'5?

Yeah. You got to come down with that thing. That's a good, that's a well-throne ball. I mean, you want to be really critical. Alex could have put it a foot higher, but he lets that get into his body as opposed to go up and attack it with his hands. And as he goes

at it, he's drifting away from it just a little bit. That doesn't work in the NFL. You got to go get it, especially against a good corner like Hayden. Um,

he had the ball that he didn't see down the field, the go ball that he didn't see. Just always expect the ball. The other thing I was, like I always loved as a receiver, just to take a peek inside. And you can see Pittsburgh's coming all out.

Or take a look at, coverage that they're flat across the top, man, you know you're one-on-one, you should expect it every single time. Go ball, you should be at 12 yards and head should be around. He was at 20 yards before he looked for that ball. That's just not necessarily seen or sensing coverage, maybe knowing he's one-on-one, but not knowing how important it is for the Quakerback to get it out of his hands in that situation. And then the only other negative would be the third and ten drop. He just got his hands mixed up on that one, but God, the one-handed catch on the sideline was another, maybe the biggest play of the game.

Right. 1717. And again, while they'd had some things going on offense, a lot of it was short field stuff. A lot of it was a couple plays. Like, they needed that play. That changed the game right there. To me, that was one of the biggest plays at the game. So, again, like, overall, you're looking at Sims, and you're like, he made two massive plays

in this game. couple big time plays in this game. And then other than that, you know, not bad, not great. He's a B-plus. I really, I've debated this whether he's a B-B-minus player, because he is other than those two plays. But God, they were big plays. They were two incredibly important plays.

He's a B-plus. Tough greater today. Tough greater. Okay, well, he dropped a fade. He dropped a third and ten. He got locked down on a hitch. He was average as a blocker. You want to be tough. I'll be tough. All right. Who are we going to you next? And also keep in mind, they didn't put up 40 on the Steelers, and the Steelers are a very good defense.

This wasn't an explosive offensive performance. Yeah, I got it. We can do, look, Inman was garbage. He was. It was garbage. You know what Inman's grade was. I can't watch that shit. That was tough.

Right. Didn't play a ton. You know, had maybe come up. Did you want a great inman anyway? Did you want a great inman? Yeah, it was an F. I said you know what Mons grade is. Oh, N. F.

Everyone knows. He was like he didn't play that much. He wasn't good. Wright had one catch in this game for Wright. And had a drop? Or did he end up two? And he had a drop. The one,

catch, it was a second in 17, he's running like a little snag route, like an over and then kind of whip out. You're in it at two yards, bro. That's a five-yard route. Right. It should have resulted not in a third and fourteen, but realistically like a third and 11, third and 10.

You're in that a little deeper, you're a little more separation. It should have been more. He did, yeah, a nifty jump over the defender on that play, though, to get the extra two-yard. Make it, what, a three-yard reception? Nifty. Yeah, nifty. D-minus.

for right. Not your skill players. Do we miss anybody? Recap all the grades? Sims, B, Terry, D-plus, McKithic, B, Barber. What did we grade Barbara? Do you get Barbara B-minus?

B-minus? McClure and D-plus. Shuffling my papers. I mean, did you want to grade Sprinkle? Sprinkles are D. Okay. Would you give Sims Jr.? I didn't grade

Sim's Jr. Oh, that's right. I thought Sim's Jr. was a C plus in this game. I actually did have that written down. You know, he had the one drop that was really, really bad, and you could downgrade him more for that. But there are some things that he does as a Rout runner. Like Sims Jr. caught a little thick route on the inside.

And you just watch, like, his savviness to push, hold the defender inside, break out. He can create separation. Right. He's got something about him that when he's really operating, which he can. He creates separation. He also had that shot down the scene where he was over the top of 28,

but if Alex gets a little bit more on it, it's a big play. I think Sim Jr. should have more touches. I continue to think it. There's something about him that they don't like. I don't know if it's the trust. I don't know what it is. How about hands? How about lack of ball security?

Ball security hands may be a part of it, but it's also, he to me is one of those guys. Once you really start to buy in and he's getting more touches, like towards the back app of last year, that he can go make plays for you. You got McKithick, Terry, Sims is a compliment too. The next biggest playmaker, I think,

Sims Jr. We thought that before, but Cam Sims, you know, maybe we refer to him as Sim senior or the other Sims. He's clearly the number two wide receiver threat.

And by the way, I'd ask you this question. Do you think he's a legitimate starting number two in the NFL? Does he look like potentially that down the road, if not now? He's a legitimate starting two. I don't know if I see him as a dynamic dubo number two, if that makes sense. I hear you. I don't know if I see him just yet as a 75 catch-year guy. Right.

I think he's more like a 35 to 40 catch-year guy. I just don't see enough, like, quick, twitch separation on some of the stuff that he's doing. There's enough positive that I think he is a legitimate starting to, and that you can count on him for what you need him for, but I don't know if he's – I don't know if he's that. We need it. Let's go to him, guy, just yet. All right.

Let's do the offensive line right after this word from one of our sponsors. All right, let's get to the offensive line. We'll start with Morgan Moses. First time of the year, he had three false starts. they didn't call them all they did not call them one they called one right they were three or four times that he's off the ball

right when that ball snaps or right before that ball snapped yeah it's it's it's for Ruey's fault he should snap it the second he hears what does Alex say by the way Alex has a weird delivery on his

final cadence yeah what is it it's uh I can't I'm trying to think of what it is I have to go listen but he slurs like the sego set go or set hut to it's uh it sounds like say what said what

it's a weird delivery that's not relevant you don't hear it as much I actually am interested in finding out what it is so could you find out yeah just go watch the game again you hear everyone but it's hard to understand yeah go pull 20 of them and we'll figure it out

okay it's set go or set hut why I can't think of it exactly what it is right now. I don't know, but it's he slurs them together. That had nothing to do with Morgan Moses was three times being too quick. They're used to that.

Um, got pushed around a little bit by T.J. Watt. He got bold once or twice. Got beat by speed once or twice. God, the touchdown by Logan Thomas. I can't, I can't for the life. Can you tell you what he's doing.

You go pull that up and you're you'll watch it with amazement. Like, he's just a attacking hard outside. Like, he's jumping outside of what? Basically saying, here, run inside of me and hit the quarterback. It was interesting what he did. He had to have had a plan for it. I'm just not sure why or what.

I'd like to hear that. Morgan was a D-plus. Sheriff. Sheriff's consistent. I'm going to say this, though. That Pittsburgh defensive line is good. They're stout. They're hard to move. There was not a lot of movement up front, even with sheriff. And he's staying

on blocks, and he's fighting through things. But it's not the double-team push guys five yards up the ball. There are no Kendall Reyes's playing for Pittsburgh. No. No. But I thought Sheriff was pretty good in past protection. You know, I, the first, like, real downgrade I had, I'm like, he's got his ass whipped. Went back, watched it again. It's West Martin. Oh, yeah, West Martin was in for a couple of plays when he got hurt. Went Sheriff got hurt. Sheriff was a B in this game. Ruehier, not excellent in anything he did, not terrible in anything he did, not good movement in the run game,

but on blocks, not great climb to the second level, but still try, it was a C-minus. It was just an average performance by Chase Jury, maybe a little bit less than average. Okay. Switzer. Yeah. Again, you look at some of the stuff Pittsburgh has versus what we have,

or what we've seen in the past few weeks, and you can just tell they're a better team. I mean, it wasn't a bad performance by Switzker. there wasn't necessarily a great performance. And then I think the interesting one is Lucas. The one thing I think Lucas can do, I think one-on-one was coming off the edge. And I'd like to see him against a true big-time defense event. Because 56 is, what they see,

at 16th at Charlotte last year. Who, Highsmith? Highsmith. Last year at Charlotte, he's a rookie. the University of Charlotte, he had 16. That's still impressive. Oh, dude. Of course it is. He knows how to rush.

But I think Lucas just one-on-one pure set, he's got a chance. You know, with some speed or some power up the edge, I think there's something to Lucas right there. But he's got slow feet right now. Some of the zone run stuff, really slow feet, not aggressive, not attacking, really slow passing stunts off. We almost tight and stiff in terms of passing some of the stunts off inside. The footwork was really average.

Hands were just barely okay. in some of the things. This first game, completely playing, in a tough environment, tough situation. Not a lot of crowd noise. Lucas was a D in this ballgame. You've been consistent with anybody that they've put in that position. I thought Morgan did a pretty good job the last couple weeks,

that you really just average right there. That's something they're going to need to address. So the biggest win for the franchise in years, a performance offensively where they were down 14-0 and they scored 20 of the game's final 23 points. It's not like the defense got a bunch of turnovers or a couple of big special teams plays. I mean, they had the last interception that set up the last field goal.

But you ended up grading, I think, harshly. I mean, in one of the most important games and important wins, your best grade, you didn't have 1A, in the game. And I would have thought, going into this, Logan Thomas, McKissick, Cam Sims, and Alex Smith would have all been potential A's, and maybe with Alex because of the first half and the jumpiness, which I described also as part of my recap that you also saw on film. You know, the B plus is a good grade for him. But the offensive line, which gave up three sacks in the first half, none in the second. Your best grade was a B. And every

anybody else was either a C or a D. Interesting. I've got one question. It's actually a real positive. You should take a real positive out of this. Yeah, the question was, with the quarterback that can just manage a game in a really good defense and some okay skill players around him, other than Terry and McKissick, can you win football games? And they won a football game. Yeah, that's true. They can play better than that. They can absolutely play better than that, but they played a really,

really good defense. They did, Kev. Pittsburgh is so. sound defensively. They play with great vision and great eyes in the secondary and on the linebacker level. And they make you earn everything you get. They're stout in the run game. They're hard to move off the line of scrimmage. They attack physically downhill from the linebacker spot. They're good run defense. They're just across the board of good defense. And Alex found a way to make enough plays in this game, had enough timing and rhythm to get the ball out to guys that he had to get the ball out to. And the couple big shots, when they were available, they took them, and they got them. They got more than they didn't.

when they took shots down the field. So, yeah, what we've said is, is Alex enough? This game shows me that Alex is enough for this team to win any football game. So I graded harshly, I think in watching this grade, this game, that's probably the best defense they're going to see for a while. They found a way to score enough points and win a football game. Yeah, no, that's the positive. I have one question for you to finish up the show right after I quickly tell you about my bookie.

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My one question is this. On Friday and on Monday again, you described this game as the Scott Turner game. What would you grade Scott Turner? I think it's the C-plus. I don't think he out-steamed him. I don't think he did anything crazy. But here's where I would maybe even go into the B range.

they made good adjustments as they got into the second half of the game. What were the adjustments? The guy's position to make place. Well, one, you got away from your primary run scheme with Antonio Gibson. Right. And you got away from some of the first and second down calls in the game where you were getting blitz pressured, and you didn't necessarily have the exact answer for in those moments.

So I think that that's really impactful. I thought he made good second down play calls throughout the second half where they did not have to get into a kind of third down situation. You know, they weren't good in third down. They, the third down play calls throughout the game were really simpleton type play calls, which Pittsburgh covered really well. That's rude. They're not simpleton.

They were just more basic than I'd like. And I think in part, they get more basic when they don't feel like they can pick up pressures. So they're trying to make, you know, really average type plays down the field. But the guy in the second half, they did find a way to keep some balance with the run game. A couple of those touchdown drives. They had decent runs on the play or on the drive.

And ultimately, I thought he kept his team in rhythm in the second half. Other than you talked about that one weird bubble, I didn't like that call. I mean, I'm going to go back and say that it's not dangerous, but I thought that was one of the lost rhythm type calls. Right. You know, the other thing you can get to, and I don't know why they can get to that, is with all the blitz pressures in first and second down situations, they still do not know how to find a way the screen to the back.

I'm getting six, seven-man pressures and first and second down. Hey, let's call a screen to the back. Right. Yeah. You know, but it wasn't, it wasn't, I wouldn't say that it was an all-round balance game, but he went to what he knew was going to work in the second half. And some of those empty set looks were what was working against Pittsburgh. And they attacked the underneath part of their defense, and they made some plays.

And when they got a couple of those plays, they took the shots over the top and they could get them. If I didn't say this to you yesterday, I think part of the problem is with the first half was obviously they're playing the best defense they played in a while. Secondly, they had shitty field position. They started at the 14. They started at the 9 once. They started at the 1 once. It was a terrible field position game for them throughout until they got the last turnover. They had the one, the field goal drive at the end of the half was the best starting field position.

then the turnover at the end of the game, and that started at their own 41 after a relatively short punt, you know, with a minute to go. And when fortunately, I thought there for a moment that Rivera wasn't going to call his timeouts to get the ball back at the end of the first half, but he did call him after second and third down. And I think actually he approached that the right way because you don't want Pittsburgh, you know, Pittsburgh got, you know, a one or two yard gain on first and 10 from their own 10 yard line. You don't want to call it there and then have Pittsburgh get aggressive, you know. So I actually thought he handled that well. But I think field position had a lot to do with it. Yeah, against a really good defense, field position's massive. You start thinking about

how many first downs people get against Pittsburgh, how many big plays people get against Pittsburgh. You know, it's not a lot. So when you're starting backed up, your percentage of scores on those drives are really low. The one thing I would say is they didn't truly flip the field on a couple those poor field position opportunities. The defense is going to be good when we do this tomorrow. I'm sure the defense is going to be outstanding. Yeah. It wasn't bad.

I'm not sitting here telling you it was terrible in office. I would say that I take more positive out of it than I would negative. Even though the grades were not positive, I think that you look at this and you say they know how to win a game on offense or they know how to do enough to win a game on offense with a really good defense. And they protected the ball other than the, the one McKissick fumbled. Yeah, it was good enough.

And they didn't lose the fumble. All right. And that was actually the question I think we had, is good enough on offense, good enough to win games to get good teams? And the answer is, yes. It certainly was the other night, which is why we think their potential moving forward

is without much limit. Thanks. Good job. Back tomorrow. Cooley will have the defensive film breakdown on the show tomorrow. and then I think it'll be a really interesting preview on Friday of the 49ers, who on paper should be the second best defense they're going to face here down the stretch. Have a great day. Cooley, I'll talk to you tomorrow.

See you, Kevin.