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00:00All right, Mike, of course, he is the legendary scribe of the sporting news.
00:04He's also a big basketball head on Fox Sports and the Big Ten Network.
00:09And he's also on Coast to Coast every week.
00:11Thank God for that.
00:12Mike, good to see you.
00:13I was in Pittsburgh for the debacle on Saturday night in the five degree weather.
00:21And I said to the audience earlier, the only thing good about my my night was going to
00:26the Capitol Grill for a thousand dollar dinner before the game.
00:30I thought that the Steelers looked awful and they have looked awful now for a month straight.
00:37And I mean, they are finished and they are done.
00:42Here's where I'll disagree with you.
00:44I don't believe that Saturday night's performance was at all connected or similar to the games
00:52against the Eagles and the Ravens.
00:54They were in the Eagles game until Najee Harris fumbled.
00:58If Najee Harris doesn't fumble, the score goes likely to minimum twenty one seventeen
01:04and possibly twenty one twenty one in.
01:07I don't remember the exact point, but at some point in the third quarter in the Ravens game,
01:12they were actually on the way to taking a 14 to seven lead.
01:16If only Russell Wilson doesn't decide to try to be a hero and tries to take on a defensive
01:23back and winds up fumbling the football at the at the basically at the goal line.
01:29So instead of a 14 seven lead, they wind up in a hole.
01:32So those those were performances that were against exceptional competition.
01:38And they they failed because they are the team that has to rely on you turning the football
01:44over and them not.
01:46And in those two occasions, they turned it over insignificant.
01:50There was a pick six as well in that Baltimore game.
01:53So that's that's the fundamental truth about those two games.
01:57Kansas City was a mess.
01:58Kansas City is way better than the Steelers are on any day, let alone Christmas Day with
02:03what an hour and a half worth of rest.
02:05But then the Cincinnati game was an entity unto itself.
02:08It was a complete debacle from the offensive side of the football.
02:13The coaching staff seemed to have no interest at all in opening the playbook beyond page
02:18one.
02:20It felt to me as I got through this, I'm watching it and I'm trying to figure out what are they
02:25doing, what are they trying to do?
02:26And Scott, there came a point in the game where it felt like it was an exhibition game
02:31and they don't want to show anything to week one opponent or week two opponent.
02:35That's what it felt like.
02:36They had 11 first down plays.
02:40To take that were not part of the end of the first half two minute warning or the attempt
02:45to come back from more than two scores down in the fourth quarter, 11.
02:49And on those plays, they ran the ball 11 times.
02:54You can't win like that in the NFL unless you're gaining 15, 20 yards on every one of
02:59those.
03:00And out of those 11 plays, Scott, eight of them went for fewer than five yards and seven
03:06went for fewer than four.
03:08So they weren't going anywhere.
03:09It wasn't like this is working.
03:10Let's keep doing it.
03:11It was this is failing every time and let's keep doing it because we're going to control
03:16the football.
03:17But you don't control the football if you don't move it.
03:19They make you give it up eventually.
03:22They suck.
03:23OK.
03:24But they, they is a strong, no, they is much too encompassing because they went against
03:31the best offensive unit in football with Joe Burrow and Jamar Chase.
03:36And they didn't allow they allowed one touchdown on the opening drive.
03:40And then they controlled the game at that end where they where they failed miserably
03:45is on the offensive end.
03:47Now, if George Pickens is dropping everything that's thrown to him, which he literally did,
03:51say, for one sideline pass on the opening drive, if he's doing that, I can't say they're
03:58going to move the football successfully against anybody.
04:02But when they play the game the way they can and have, they're they're a challenge for
04:08anybody to beat.
04:10And they decided against the Bengals.
04:12And maybe it was the weather.
04:15But the weather, if it's not working, Scott, you can't keep doing the same thing.
04:20That's just there's just no way that's defensible.
04:23And Tomlin tried to defend it by saying that, well, we want it's a lower risk proposition.
04:30But again, if you are getting less than three yards, three yards or less on every first
04:35down play, you are not moving the football.
04:39And if you're not moving the football, you're not possessing the football.
04:42And so in that in that part of the game against the Bengals, they failed miserably.
04:47They were badly outpossessed by the Bengals, who chose, look, we're not running against
04:53these guys.
04:54We can move the football in the air.
04:56And they did.
04:57They just couldn't complete drives against the Steelers defense.
05:01So you wrote about the Eagles resting Saquon Barkley.
05:05You think it'll pay off on Sunday afternoon?
05:09I do.
05:10I think that that that was the right move.
05:13I think he needed to be rested, healthy and ready to go.
05:17And that record to me really didn't mean anything, Scott, because if you're getting an extra
05:23game to break it, what does it really matter?
05:25And this is football.
05:27You were a kid in Pittsburgh in the 70s and early 80s, as was I.
05:32And we didn't worry about numbers in terms of football.
05:36I mean, we all knew 714 and 4192 and 4191 and all those kinds of numbers.
05:43But nobody paid attention to football records other than how many Super Bowls and championships
05:47you won.
05:48So for Saquon to get that record, it really wouldn't have meant anything.
05:53He's one of, I believe, now nine guys.
05:56I think there were eight before him that gained 2,000 yards in a season.
06:00That's a number we'll respect forever.
06:03It's a very short list.
06:05It's not always a distinguished list because one of the guys on it was O.J. Simpson.
06:09But it's a very short list of NFL greats that have gotten 2,000 yards in a season.
06:16And Saquon's a part of that now.
06:18So those number ones, Kansas City and Detroit, how advantageous is it for them to have the
06:25week off?
06:27I believe it's significant because every NFL game is difficult now.
06:32The talent is more balanced than ever for the most part, except at the pivotal position
06:36of quarterback.
06:38And so for Kansas City to have the rest, to get a little bit healthier, Detroit, I don't
06:43know how many of the many players they have that are injured will have a chance to get
06:47back because they've got that week of rest.
06:50But I think any team that wants to win a Super Bowl better be pretty close to healthy.
06:55So whatever break they can get to get back more of their guys is significant.
07:01They showed a lot in that game on Sunday night against Minnesota.
07:05To be able to dominate that game in the condition they're in, I thought that was pretty extraordinary.
07:11I still don't trust the coaching staff to make the right decisions if they get to a
07:16critical situation where it's a fourth and short and the right play is to punt or kick
07:24a field goal.
07:25I still don't trust that'll happen.
07:27So I'm a little bit guarded about my optimism for the Lions getting to the Super Bowl.
07:32But they showed they're an extraordinary team in that performance.
07:35So college basketball, last year, St. John's didn't make the tournament.
07:41From what you've seen of them so far and what Patino has, does that end and they make it
07:45this year?
07:46I think they'll make it, but there's no guarantee.
07:50The Big East did not have a great non-conference.
07:53So the number of bids that will be available to the league will probably be pretty limited.
07:58So you're going to have to finish in the top three or four of the league to feel good about
08:02having a chance.
08:03I think they certainly can.
08:06They showed a little bit of struggle early on trying to sort of adapt to Patino's demands,
08:13to alignment situations.
08:15They brought in two point guards and weren't really sure whether to play them together
08:20or how it would work.
08:21I think they're starting to figure that out a little bit better and starting to form better.
08:26But if you're St. John's right now, you've got to watch for Creighton.
08:31Creighton can get a lot better in a hurry.
08:33They struggled early on, but they're still dangerous.
08:36Xavier, Zach Fremantleback, they can get dangerous, as well as Villanova, which is starting to
08:42play better.
08:43All those teams can take a run at one of the three or four bids that likely will be available
08:48to the Big East.
08:49What do you think of Pitt tonight getting 14 and a half at Duke?
08:53They're both 12-2.
08:54Yeah, I think that the key for Duke here is they know they only get so many quad one opportunities.
09:02To get Pitt at home, I don't think they'll mess around with this at all.
09:05I think they'll go right after it.
09:08Whether they can cover, that's a big number.