Steelers' Defensive Answers for Linebacker Injuries? | Week 10 Stars and Skulls Grades vs Packers

It's the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Hey football fans, every Friday check out Lockdown NFL Kickoff Live, a live show hosted by local anchors to Neetra Patisse, Jarvis Davis, and Kyle Crabs. From 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. Eastern Time on any Lockdown NFL YouTube channel, they'll break down every game on the NFL Slay to get you ready for your team's match-up, your fantasy line-ups, betting angles, and more. For the most in-depth local analysis, check out Lockdown NFL Kickoff Live on any Lockdown NFL YouTube channel with our stable of NFL hosts who know these teams better than anyone else. It's a one-stop-shop to get you ready for the NFL weekend. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. The Steelers' injuries at linebackers pose big questions as far as how the Steelers' defense can continue playing at a level that will help this team win games. We'll talk with that with Alan Saunders of SteelersNow.com and get to our stars and skulls grades of week 10 in their win over the Packers. It's the Lockdown Steelers Podcast. I'm your host, Chris Carter, let's get into it. You are Lockdown Steelers, your daily Pittsburgh Steelers podcast. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello and welcome to the Lockdown Steelers Podcast. I'm your host, Chris Carter, bringing you daily dose of all things on the Pittsburgh Steelers, as well as you can find the show on your favorite podcasting apps and on YouTube. Like this video if you enjoyed it, subscribe to this YouTube channel and you can all of your daily Monday through Friday episodes. As well as our bonus content, we thank you for making us your first listen every day because we're your team every day. And today's episode is brought to you by Jace Medical, empower yourself when you purchase a Jace case, providing you with a personal supply of five antibiotics that treat over 50 infections. Get your get yours today at jacemedical.com that's j-a-s-e-medical.com. As I said before, we're joined by Alan Sunders of SteelersNow.com. He's back. Alan, let's talk about the Steelers injury situation because you literally could not pick a worse time to suffer two season ending injuries to two starters in a position then right after the trade deadline. And that's what happened to the Steelers, co-holcomb, knee injury, out for the season this week. Alan Alexander, Achilles injury, out for the season. And I landed Roberts. We'll get to him. I thought he played very well for the Steelers in his last game. But now he has to work with Mark Robinson and practice squad guys. And this is the exact reason why they went and signed all three of those guys this year was to not be in this position. And to me, this spells disaster. Is there a way the Steelers can mitigate this disaster and make it not as hurt them not as much? I wrote, I don't know if you ever read the article, I wrote on SteelersNow.com this morning. And by the way, it's a, it's a premium articles of you not a subscriber, use promo code Alan10 to get 10% off. Um, it's like, it's like Will Smith at the end of Fresh Prince, like stand there in the empty room. Like that's, that's the land of Roberts right now. What just happened? Yeah. Um, it's going to be tough, man. There's, there's not really any way to sure put it like there's, there's no easy answer here. They build this trio intentionally. They felt like they had, you know, maybe not one guy they could do every single part of this job. But three guys in tandem couldn't really get after it. I think it was starting to really work. That's the really sad part of it is that I felt like, you know, that, that Tennessee game, they're playing great, lose coal, still playing pretty well, lose corn. Like, it's a, it's a tough blow. Um, I don't think they have anyone in the building that can replace the coverage abilities of those two guys, at least nobody with ILB next to their name right now. I just don't think that, that person exists. Now, Mark Robertson's fast enough to do it. Oh, he's a good athlete. He was running back. Um, it's just about the experience and the sort of coverage chops with him. I thought he did a nice job when they put him in man to man coverage, um, against Green Bay. The zones will probably still be tricky. Some of the runfights might still be tricky. It only the Roberts is going to have to carry a lot of alone. I mean, there's just no question about it. Yep. And he, he did that. We'll get to his grade in the Stars and Skull segment. I felt like he did that in his last game. I mean, there were so many plays that he was, I was just like, man, he is holding it down. But that's just a lot to put on a one guy at a position. You're, you need Mark Robinson stuff up, but so I came up with some alternative proposals as far as how they could do it. This isn't finding some amazing practice squad player that plays for, I don't, for someone else. I'm not talking about that. Not mitigating circumstances, the Steelers could do to help with the linebacker spot right now. And again, Mark Robinson needs to be a part of it. He can't, he can't not be part of it. He's going to start, right? He's going to start. But you can call sub packages where other people help out in that spot because of the different looks you can provide. One look can be the make of his Patrick back, either he or Keanu Neil become a guy that becomes kind of a dime backer that helps in certain plays, especially when they're, when it's, when it's past heavy, when it's a likelihood of a past play that either one of those guys could jump down in there and help in those spots there or in places that are regular plays and also do the same there. I also wonder if we've see, we see this occasionally not all the time, not even that frequently, but the Steelers ad rushers, the way that they sometimes will line up and then they'll jump up back and no play as an off-ball linebacker. Again, I'm not saying every play, but if you can rotate the safety and who comes up, Mark Robins and a part of that make the edge rushers, you know, switching off and doing that. Maybe even calling more sub packages where you have three edge rushers on the field at all at the same time and one of them, and like they, they're just kind of lining up in different spots and then one of them just drops back and is, is that guy? Maybe you can find answers that again, not erase this problem, not make it, not matter anything, but mitigate it, make it not as big of a problem for the Steelers as it currently looks like because right now, if you look at the Steelers situation, they've been able to improve against the stopping the run, they've been able to help cover over the middle, but with Quil Alexander and Cole Holcomb gone, you've now lost a lot of the assets that have been a big part of that despite, you know, them not being maybe like huge turnover creators for this defense. Yeah, I think the guy that comes closest on the team to replacing the skill sets of Quil and Cole is killing Neal. I think you can probably just play him at linebacker and it's not a disaster. Honestly, I'm going to play that great safety, so like it's not on the day. Once make if it's Patrick comes back, it's, you know, it's not like it's a huge deal. Now I do think they have some time here. This week is not that pressing. The Browns don't do that much in terms of things that you will really need cover linebackers for. You know, David and Joku, it's a good boy, such an athlete at tight end, that you just have to treat them like a wide receiver. You cover that guy with a safety anyway, like you're not putting linebackers on that guy, no matter what. Cream hunt at this point in his career, not this devastating guy in the backfield, certainly not as even as good as he used to be. Jerome Ford is okay, but I don't think that there is a big, like when we were looking at that rotation, Quil and Cole, the Lane and Roberts, you could circle Cleveland Brown games as like this is going to be a big deal in the Roberts game anyway. Yeah. Yeah. You know, having that this week, I think, is a big help. I do think he on a New York to help. I think playing three edge rushers at the same time is an interesting look. You know, I think Nick Herbert has some covered skills out high Smith. He's trapped in the coverage a bit more than normal this year. Yes. He's doing it. I think he, I mean, he can cover like it's not like he's just a bass rusher. I think, and I think, you know, just there's some sub pack of stuff that you're just not going to be able to do. I think you're not going to be able to go to that like dime where you have like full, like they were playing that dime with Darius rush and Pat Peterson as the inside to corners, where you had four real corners on the field, then you were hoping that if they happen to run, if they happen to throw out to the running back, that's all on corn Alexander anywhere on the field. He had to take your yeah, yeah, I don't think they can do that. I think they probably need to play more nickel or play three safety dime where, you know, you have killing Neil in there or you have Elijah Riley in there or something like that. Like I think it just takes some of the sub packages just out of it like they can't have that real skinny dime look. I just don't see that being an option unless needles the linebacker, but even then that then becomes a very, very light packet, yeah, they better be starting 15 at that point. And so I think it takes some things off the table for them. I do like that they have some versatility with the rest of their guys. You can bring in Riley, he can play box safety, field safety, lot Peterson can play outside inside field safety, KZ can play both safeties, Neil can play, you know, strong safety as a field strong safety or a box strong safety or linebacker. So you can kind of, it's like a basketball team that isn't that good at deep playing defense, but it keeps changing defense all the time. So it's hard to figure out. You know, like maybe you're not actually that good, but you just keep people off balance as opposed to just, you know, dominating them with your ability. I think that's that's that can be in the cards as well. That's where I'm thinking to it that needs to be in the cards, but part of that also is that catches up with you like like the Steelers did that when Ryan Shays here went down, they found mitigating ways to like cover that up for certain spots. There were times they didn't, but in 2017 when he went when Ryan Shays here suffered his career and ending injury, they had to call upon guys like Sean Spence to come out. The Arthur Moats switched over to off ball linebacker a little bit. But and then fact, when they intercepted Tom Brady in the game in the Jesse James game they ended up losing, but they they they got an interception on it. Vince Williams, I believe caught the interception, but it was Sean Spence, who been a smart play and jumped and underneath route and it kind of forced Tom Brady to abandon a play. And then Javon Harg, who's gotten his face and he threw a bad pass and was intercepted. And that was, you know, a linebacker group of Sean Spence, a guy who had been on his couch for months and Vince Williams, a six round draft pick, who, you know, was a good number two linebacker, but was never like the Ryan Shays here type of superstar guy to make those plays. The Steelers, I feel like with with where they at right now, they have other things going for them. They have other parts of this defense that can lift this defense up in a lot of ways. But if they want to be serious, they got to find ways to smart ways to mitigate that linebacker situation. Now, we got to get to the stars and skulls grades in a minute here on the Lockdown Steelers podcast. But first, what reminds you, this show is brought to you by Jace Medical. The Jace Medical brings you what's called the Jace case that provides you five life saving antibiotics for emergency use. All it takes to get a Jace case is for like a simple online format. In some cases, jump on a quick call with one of their board certified physicians. It ongoing care from their physicians on any treatment related questions, Dr. created Dr recommended, don't be caught unprepared, whether you're on extended travel, bracing for major weather event or limited day by yet another supply storage, Jace Medical's got you covered. Thanks to the partners at Jace Medical, life saving antibiotics and a long list of daily medications can be ordered in one year supply, even eating generics like Cialis and Viagra are available. Jace handles everything from online evaluation to license pharmacy medication delivery and ongoing consultation care. Jace Medical is simple. You go online, fill out a form, and then you get prescription life saving medications right to your door. The Jace case gives you peace of mind so that you are not just hoping that you have access to medication and emergency. Jace Medical, make sure you have the medication on hand. Go online right now at jacemedical.com to receive your 12 month supply on your daily medication. Remember to use promo code locked on and check out for a discount as well. If you go, if you were someone you love, get with gets a peace of mind by having a year supply of any daily medication, go to jacemedical.com and see if it's offered for you. Remember to use promo code locked on for $20 off your purchase. Do you argue with your friends on who the best NFL quarterback is? What about a list of biggest draft buss? This locked on podcast network have a show for you. Its renter ranks, NFL expert Mike renter brings you a smart, insightful, and fun approach to the biggest NFL stories every day. Ranking anything from NFL position units to college draft prospects to the best foods to serve at a tailgate. Mike renter has all the rankings for the true football fan who loves everything about the sport. Available on YouTube or ever you get your podcasts. Part of the locked on podcast network, your tune every day. Back here on the locked on Steelers podcast. I'm your host, Chris Clark here with Alan Saunders with SteelersNow.com. Alan, it's time to get to the grades from the Steelers game. Now, full disclosure, Chris had a busy weekend. Chris covered Pit Basketball and the Whip you'll play on Friday, covered Pit Football on Saturday, covered the Steelers on Sunday and covered Pit Basketball again on Monday. So Chris is a little tied, but we still found a way to squeeze in some film study. I still haven't gone over every little thing I want to about the all-22, but I wanted to give you guys your grades on time. So let's get right into it. We're going to start with the stars here. We're going to save the skulls in the next segment because I think that's going to generate some other stuff. Our star is great here. Remember, for those who might be new to the show, we do stars and skulls to do different than like A plus to B minus or whatever. If you get stars are good, skulls are bad. If you get one star, you get a good play with a decent day, two stars, great play with it, a good day. And then three stars, elite performance, put you in, put you up for consideration for pro bowl stuff. That way, skulls in the same way, one skull just means you get a bad play, never redeemed yourself. Two skulls mean you get a bad game with a whole three skulls, all-time terrible. You were abysmal. Well, we get a three skull here, maybe we'll find out in a little bit. But first, let's get to the one, let's get to the stars grades. Let's start with one star grades. Against the Packers, my one star players that I had graded when I looked back, Keanu Ben Mason Cole, Darnel Washington, do want to take KZ, Keanu Neal, Dan Moore Jr., I put Keanu Neal here twice, apparently, Chris Boswell and Presley Harvin. Now Keanu Neal still gets one star. I mean, putting him there twice, he's just me making a mistake there when I was putting this together. But I look at these one stars, and part of this is, especially in the offensive side, is that you see guys like Mason Cole, Darnel Washington, neither of them have been overly dominant, also Dan Moore Jr. falls in this. But they are coming together. They're part of this offensive line taking steps forward. And I think that that's just as important as getting some of the star power that you get from Broderick Jones and for when Isaac, say, I'm hollow in James Daniel, start to step up. Man, I think I might have given Darnel Washington a T-Stars. When I went back and watched this game, he blocked his bob. He was in front of every big run. I mean, he was really, I mean, I think this was really the first time we've seen him look like a guy that could be the player that we thought he could be. He also caught a pass. He was open another time to pick a shirt of thrown at him when he didn't. You know, I think, I think he had a really good game. I might have bumped him up. I think I agree with Mason Cole, the holding penalty really killed that drive. I think for me, he's got to know better than that. It was unnecessary. Yeah, maybe he'd get away with it, but I might leave him in neutral just because that, I mean, holding him at first in 10 is just a drive record and anyway, he's in position too. I'm not sure I can, I'm not sure I'm not sure he did enough in the rest of the game to make up with that one for me, but most of the rest of those guys, I agree with Casey and Neil had up and down games, but had big plays. And so, you know, you'll take fourth quarter of the receptions in the end zone as a big game saving down a place, even though there was a lot of negativity early. So yeah, I think I think the most part were on the same picture. Okay. Cool. Cool. Let's get to our two star grades here. Excuse me. Two star grades. I got Joey Porter, Jr. Alex Heismith, Patrick Peterson, Isaac Saimalo, and Najee Harris as my two star grades. Now let's start with the corners here. Joey Porter, Jr. Patrick Peterson. I felt like Patrick Peterson, this might have been his best game. He had the break up that led to Keon and Neil's interception and you cannot forget the block to extra point. You know, I might revise this and give him three stars because if he doesn't block, you know what? I'm actually doing this. Patrick Peterson is now revised to a three star grade regardless of my slides here that I've prepared for this show. I've just, I've been going back and forth about a lot of different things. But man, when you look back, if he doesn't block that extra point, Green Bay is kicking a field goal at the end of the game and then they're then they're going to overtime. And beyond even just the Steelers potentially losing, we would have been in the press box for another like hour and a half. And that right there deserves a three star performance from Patrick Peterson by itself. The tip to Keon and Neil was perfect. It was perfect. And that was Christian Watson too. That wasn't, that wasn't just, you know, a fourth stringer that he was covering down the sideline. That's the guy that's supposed to be the big answer that they drafted to get for Jordan Love. And he had the two catches for 23 yards in the game. You know, I think, you know, I think Porter was on some too, but, you know, I really thought that Patrick Peterson was very good in that game. The extra point comes up huge, the tip comes up huge, but also like just his steadiness and his professionalism, no maker, okay, already a big communicator in the back end, then you lose Kwan in game and you could really see the land of Robert leaning on Patrick Peterson to get the calls communicated to make sure everybody was lined up right and make sure things were happening with us to be happening. It's just a situation where a veteran presence becomes really, really important. And you could tell like they don't want to throw it. I mean, I think his passer rating against was like 16 or something like that. I think that's not like he was checking real quick. He was, I guess, depends on, I assume you give him the target for the interception, but PFF sometimes not very good at that. 64.6 is what PFF has passed the rating as. Okay, it's not bad. I think he, I think he was really, really good in this game. I think he was a huge winning factor in the suit. I think so too. He was, he was really big there. Again, we're going to revise him to the three-star grade because again, the extra point, the coverage he provided, all crucial for the Steelers. I'll say this, I'm not sure about Alex Heisman with the two. I think I might have left him at one. I didn't think the Steelers' edge rushers didn't know. I mean, they got chipped a lot, but I thought this was their worst game of the year by far. And there wasn't enough impact on Jordan Loves. See, I thought that early on and then I went back and watched and there were times that they were getting pressure and they did speed up a couple things. It didn't do it. They weren't game records, but they were still good here. And we'll explain a little bit more of that in my three-star grades coming up here. Because I did give T.J.Y. three. He got eight pressures in this game. Like when you look at, when you get eight pressures and you do get a sack, and your defense is part of it, it does make the stands, I kind of, I had to give it to him. Because I was thinking the eight tackles too. Yeah, that was all over the place. That's why I had to give him three stars. I gave Alex Heismith two stars because he was also getting busy in that, you know, Alex Heismith also broke up a pass in this game. So it's funny, but these guys, they didn't, both score touchdowns like they did against the Browns, but they both still had a way, they found a way to impact the game. And I think that's what makes them the best ed rushing duo is that it's just, it's not just when everything's handed to them. They're working hard to make plays even when they're not in their natural forming positions or whatever. You know, I do a pregame like primer story for Stewardsnow.com and I make three predictions for the game, right? I pick the game against the spread. I picked the over under total and then I picked one player prop every week to pick. And I was looking through him this week and I was, I was kind of struggling to find one I like. Like I just, you know, I was hedging a lot and like I like terrorists, but it was a high total, right? I liked warm. I'm like, TJ walked two and a half tackles. Yeah. No, I'll take that. Yeah. Right. It was like the easiest, easiest pick of the world. He had it like four minutes into the game. He was very good. I think I probably would bump those two edge guys down one star each. I just, like I three star game from TJ wide is a little different than the three star game for other people. This guy is capable of taking over the entire game and winning it all by himself. Good point. I don't feel like he necessarily did that. I agree with Joan Warren. Man, is he good? Um, Jayden Warren getting three stars. He was, he was phenomenal in that game. He was awesome. And broader Jones. I will say there are some struggles and past protection, but man, what an impact he has made on their running game. It has been a night and day difference. We're coming to line up totally agree to Daniels. I can probably say two, but I was three, the right side of the line was where all the big runs were. Daniels, Jones, Darnell Washington, and they were running behind a mountain of men and they were making all kinds of, of like running lanes. That was, yeah, I thought the offensive line did it. And my big question to you here, Alan, is what the offensive line, the run game is what they were able to do in this last game? Is that sustainable? Can they, can they replicate, not, not necessarily replicate because that's tough, but can it be a factor that makes the steward not have 205 years rushing ever again the rest of the year. But broader Jones said he wanted it. I think it is, I think it's sustainable against normal teams. We'll see about Cleveland. I think there are going to be some, see, you know, what happened in this game was Green Bay really had to sell out to stop the run in obvious ways. And even though the Steelers didn't really take advantage of that by throwing the ball on the outside, they did take advantage of that by changing the way they run the ball. We saw some more tosses. Yeah. We saw like, like a couple of new wrinkles, like a same side counter, the skip pull from the tackle that we'll see, like, I can't have had a really nice game in terms of calling like really good running plays at the right time. What did you say? Matt Canada had a really nice game, especially calling the runs, like I feel like they've unlocked something real in terms of getting a call. You can't say Matt Canada calls good games. Listen, you can mute me if you want, but I'm just going to say, right? It was the right call for the right game situation with the right running back in the game. They've figured out the Harris calls versus the Warren calls that, you know, they a couple weeks ago that paired down that running menu that they started calling fewer. And now they're adding new stuff, like the different stuff. And so I think, like, I really think they've unlocked something now. The reason is just a better defense than they are in offense, like they are not going to be able to go do the same things that they did in the end screen day against Cleveland. But it feels sustainable against, I don't know, normal defenses like dinner or something. Arizona. Yeah. Well, I mean, look, Arizona, New England, Indianapolis, like Cincinnati, Seattle, even Baltimore of defense. Yeah. You know, like, this week, okay, struggle. But the rest of the way, yeah, I think they can keep doing that. If you're very interested to see if they do, again, our three star grades were Jalen Warren, TJ Watt, James Daniels, broader Jones, and Atlanta Roberts, Atlanta Roberts played his butt off. I said this live during the game, there were the red zone trip, one of the red zone trips where they held them to a field goal. If he doesn't do that, he made two plays, a tackle on a shallow cross that would have been a touchdown if he doesn't make the tackle. And if he doesn't make the tackle on a on a screen, it's problems. He pushed, pushed that screen back and kind of bent and ended up making the tackle, but he made a great play to get around it in front of it. Yes. He slowed it up. He was awesome. He was awesome. That's why he gave him a three star grade, even though he doesn't have like a technically a forced turnover. He gets, he gets points for the, for those kind of things. We'll talk about more of that on the other side of the break here on the Lockdown Steelers podcast. I'm your host Chris Carter stick with us. We still have a lot to discuss and to get to our skulls grades for the Steelers win over the Green Bay Packers. But first, we got to remind you, this show is brought to you by Fandall Sportsbook, the number one sportsbook in America. Right now, new customers get $150 in bonus bets with any winning $5 money line bet. That's right. 150 bucks. If your team wins, if you've been thinking about joining Fandall, there's no better time to get in on the action. And this at the app is easy to use on, on, on spread's player props over hundreds and so much more. Visit fandall.com slash locked on to kick, to kick off the NFL season, the way that you want to the rest of the way, Fandall, an official partner of the NFL. If you're the type who needs football on a daily basis, then you need to check out Peacock and Williamson on the Lockdown podcast network. host Brian Peacock and Matt Williamson give hard for football enthusiasts everything they need. Daily football talk in 30 minutes or less, available on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. For the Lockdown podcast network, your team every day. Back here on the Lockdown Steelers podcast, Chris Carter, Alan Saunders breaking it down for you. Alan, let's get to our skulls grades here because this might make some people upset by who does and doesn't have skulls here, but let's get right to it. Let's start with one skulls. There's only a few in this game, not a whole lot, but Kenny pickets on that list. And listen, I did a few, I did a quick film thread before I covered pit basketball on Monday night. And there are some instances where it's not as much on him, but in general, it is. And I think Kenny picket can turn around. I think Kenny picket can end up being the guy, but I think if you're honestly evaluating what he's doing right now and the opportunities that are there, he's not doing enough. Just me. I agree. I thought Kenny didn't do enough of it, but the uncle Johnson's a big drop. Really? That was a big drop. Actually hit, too. There was another one, too, where like the one was kind of broken up, but like he probably got through the defender. I know, I know which one you're talking about on the sideline. Yeah, not really. Now he was only a report from the thumb injury after the game, so I don't know, maybe that was bothering him. Yeah, I didn't think it was necessarily good enough from down to Johnson. Certainly wasn't good enough from Kenny picket. I'm not sure I'm on board with Mark Robinson here. I got a temper, you know, expectations for a guy who's not really played that much to come thrown into the game. I thought he did okay. He took a bad angle on one with play that turned into a big run and I thought he covered better than I thought he could. And I don't know. I'm general. I thought he just kept his head about him in a bad situation. Maybe didn't play that well, but I liked, I liked the fight and the energy. I think I would, I think I would leave Mark Robinson on this list, but I have to add some of this list. Okay. Well, I don't, I don't think maybe you will have him later, but press the harvain. Not necessarily because he does not pump the ball that well, but did you see the scram at the end of the game? Oh, when he just dipped out in the fight, he just went away, man. I was going to say because he had, he averaged 56 yards of punt. I'm like, what did he do wrong? Some punters. You could be like, all right, you know, what are you going to do? Press can move some bodies, get your head in there. He's a bigger. Get your head in there. Come on. That is funny. No, I, you get, you get, you lose no points for pointing at that. That was actually pretty funny. I, I think the funniest, the funny, first of all, because here's the other thing. You see Chris Boswell take on three offensive linemen. Right. Boss. Boss is like one of press's legs. Come on. Like, come on. Get in there. Get in there. I thought the most impressive part of that though was beyond Roddy Williams saving Danny Smith. I think if it's Patrick, make it, make it, make it captain on take KZ from, from getting a fine. Exactly. I mean, and he just, and the way he did it too, because like, it looked like KZ was, was like right over top of the dude. He was ready to go. It was ready to fight. And then Minka just pushes him off. And I got that was, I thought that was, that was, that was, that was something there. But again, yeah, one star grades, Kenny picket, the ante Johnson Mark Robinson. I'm not going to crush Kenny picket as much in this game because. There was, there was pressure there, but he needs, he needs to figure it out. Uh, the only reason I put Mark Robinson there for is just because from what, just talking to Steelers, his, when he came on the field, there was a lack of communication and that's something that they needed to, to be able to, to be able to work on it fixed, even also slightly. But I think that Mark Robinson just has not been in the best positions so far and sometimes that's not your fault. Um, you know, he's just, you know, he got drafted to a team and he's working his way there. But just me, I think that that could, that, that as, as, as excited as everyone is to see Mark Robinson, Robinson hits somebody because that's what his MO has been and it should be. And he's, that's, that's who he's been. You know, I think everyone's kind of tired of waiting to see it. Go hit somebody and then don't get hurt doing so. I can't afford any more. Yeah. Um, so, uh, so there's that, let's get to our, our, our two skull grades here real quick. There's only one guy that's Levi Wallace. Now I don't give him a three skull grade because there were plays, the touchdowns in particular in which I thought he should have had better safety help. That's also why I didn't give Keanu Neil, uh, more points or more scope that I think that he was very much part of the, the second touchdown. But, um, I, I look, I look at, I look at Levi Wallace right now and I see a cornerback that when everything's lined up and they have a, a favorable mismatch or a favorable match up, it'll, it'll work out for you or you can, again, mitigate it. And we're totally, I'm using that word a lot today, but I really think Levi Wallace right now, they need another answer. If he's not, if, if, if the communication is wrong with him on the field, maybe, you know, get, get another person who's going to talk more something. I think that Levi Wallace, and I've been a person who's defended Levi Wallace at, you know, when he stepped up and made plays, but I think the, the rope is getting thinner over there. I actually think he wasn't that bad in this game after watching it, like both touchdowns. I think we're really on the safeties, not him. I mean, the, the first one, I don't know, it looks like there's a miscommunication between him and Montaille KZ. He is certainly playing like he expects KZ to pick up his guy, uh, KZ doesn't, the second one, there's no question that Keanu Neal should be picking up, uh, his guy and he doesn't be, he'll have someone where he passed him. Um, I, I think there's, you know, I, I think we've, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I think we've all lost his very specific job in this defense. He's not that good in the corner, okay? No. He's supposed to keep a lid on it. He's supposed to catch and tackle, tackle catch. That's, that's what he's saying. They don't need interceptions that, although he's been good at that in the past, they don't need a ton of pass breakups, they don't need him to draw the biggest assignments. They just need him to tackle the guy who catches fall. Yeah. I think most of the time he's done a pretty good job with that. And where things have fallen apart has mostly been in those, like, interactions between him and the other guys. Like, I don't feel like it's all been him. I, I think, look, I mean, they're down guys, right? Like, if you're talking about moving Keanu Neal to, to line back, okay, somebody's got to play safety. Now, if it's making it to Patrick, great, but if he's not back, like, okay, I'm, to me personally, I'm playing Patrick Peterson at safety, and I'm playing Levi Wallace the corner. And I feel better about that than I do any of the other options I see for filling that role. Like, I don't, I think you can play Levi Wallace, especially, let, let Joey take care of a Mari Cooper, like the rest of those browns, why don't you just go and scare me? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like, I'm right with you. I, I think, now, do I want to want to see Higgins in two weeks? No. No. No. But, like, I think, I think this week is a good Levi Wallace week, and I think he can help him get through this. I think he's, I just think he is, he's the obvious target, like you're saying, like, if I'm trying to pick a part of this, there's defense, that's a guy I want to throw at, but that's not really his fault either. He's just doing his job. Yeah. I don't think the steals are going to be a Levi Wallace, I only, I'm not sure if they should, I'm right with you. I think he is. Maybe in two weeks. Maybe in two weeks. Maybe in two weeks. I think part of this would be, you know, preparing, preparing, you know, in case that does happen, but I think the Levi Wallace might have a little bit more, what do you call it? I guess space to make those mistakes because they just don't have that many guys. You know, if Cory trice is healthy, maybe this is different, you know, but there is rushes here from training camp and coming in in the middle of week five, yeah, but yeah, man, I think that it's not as easy as people try to make it out to be, but that's why we do stars and skulls to evaluate the grades here on the lock fund Steelers podcast. He's Alan Saunders, it's SteelersNow.com. Alan, thanks for joining us. Let people know some of the work that you got coming up. Yeah, SteelersNow.com. We're in about Brother Jones today and talking to Mike Thomas, we'll have all the news from that. Steelers afternoon, drop podcast, me and Smitty talking, I think we got a big Kenny Picket episode coming up this week. Alan's going to be today. We'll see how much news we got from Tomlin, but we're going to get into it about Kenny at some point this week. Maybe it'll be tomorrow. Chris Carter on the Lawtons Steelers podcast, joining us. That'd be a lot of work. Just saying it. We'll see. We'll see how much news we get. If we get a lot of news, we might, but we won't be able to do it today. But if we don't get much news, then we'll go for it. That's a great thing about having a podcast in the afternoon. I just talked about what ever happened that day and we're down, thinking about anything else. There you go. You smart. Anyways, he's Alan Saunders of SteelersNow.com. Thanks again, Alan for joining us here in the Lawtons Steelers podcast. I'm your host, Chris Carter. Follow me on Twitter and Instagram. I've got a critique to read my work in the Pittsburgh Post because that find me here on your favorite podcasting app or on YouTube. Like this video, if you enjoyed it, subscribe to this channel and get all of the daily content we release. Thanks again for tuning into the Lawtons Steelers podcast. Chris Carter, Alan Saunders, back with you tomorrow. Talk about your Pittsburgh Steelers.