What Makes Steelers' Offense 'Too Predictable?' | Can Kenny Pickett Call Audibles? | Playbook Talk

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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 your daily dose of all things the Pittsburgh Steelers. As always, you can find the show in your favorite podcasting apps and on YouTube. Like this video if you enjoyed, subscribe to this YouTube channel to get all of your daily Monday to Friday episodes as well as our bonus content. We thank you for making the Lockdown Steelers Podcast your first listening day because we're your team every day. And today, as I said, we are rejoined. But our man, it's Wednesday. So we got some West Euler back on the show from Steel Nation Radio West. How you doing? What's up, CC? Um, jacked up to be back. I'm excited to be back with you here on Lockdown. Love the intro music, right? Miss the intro music. Miss, uh, see in your beautiful face here. I like this nice new format too. You got going on. I tell you what, it's good to be back. It's absolutely good to be back. I want to start off talking about the offense, uh, which is still the big point for this for this. Everyone's waiting for this offense to grow into something. And we talked about it a little bit on Tuesday with Alan Saunders. We did see growth in the right direction, whether you think it's Matt Candidum, Kenny Pickett offense line, whatever. I want to focus on a few things here. First, I want to play a clip from Mike Tom and that he talked about the offense in general and, and how they're making, they're making progress forward. He was Mike Tom during these Tuesday press conference with this conference. I don't get enough questions. Frank, what does it do for the offense? And it may be in for Kenny particular when you have him rolling like this together. You know, that's what we desire to do anyway. Um, sometimes there's less of it when we're not gaining enough fluidity to, to put snaps together. You know, and that's some of the diversity. I think it gets lost sometimes when you're not converting third downs or you're not moving the ball. Um, sometimes you guys ask about snap distribution for runners, for example. Hey, can we see more of 30? Well, not if we have 15 snaps in the first five possessions, because we're not converting third downs. It's the same thing with, with play concept variation. Um, the, the more success you have, the more you controlling the game scenarios, the more you're on schedule, the more possession downs, you win, the more concept diversity you have. And you see pocket movement and play action and misdirection passes and screen game and quick game and all of the things that, that really do a good job of keeping defenses off balance. And so I know there were some questions about pocket movement, um, and then increased usage there. But it's really just about more snaps. Um, and all of those discussions, whether it's concept variation or, or player usage, which allows you to get more into the play. Exactly. So a very important thing here that Mike Tomman talks about that I think is very essential to this conversation about play calls and why are things so basic? Is something we have said on this show for weeks, even years, going back to the usual, you cannot get into any complex plays or any plays that can trick defenses, uh, in your playbook, get further into your playbook. If you aren't executing the basic parts of your playbook, and that's what Mike Tomman's saying right there, you know, he does, he did fully acknowledge earlier in his, in even his opening statement that, hey, we did a little bit better of a, of having a thorough, a more thorough game plan. And that's, and he puts that on coaching. But I think that is a straight up acknowledgement that's like, look, yes, there's certain things that you saw different in this game that were a little bit more advanced. But it's not because of any reports about my, you know, Matt Canada being closer with Kenny Pickett or anything like that. It's not about, you know, I'm magic wand. It's about strictly like, hey, you executed on certain things, which allows you to do other things because the one that defense sees you put on, take positive plays that you're able to do that are kind of basic and taking what's there. That forces them to respond. And then you can counteract that. Yeah, you, you, you just never want to be predictable, right? And, um, at times last season, the Steelers were predictable. At times in those first two weeks on offense, the Steelers were predictable. And they certainly started doing a much better job of that Sunday night out in Las Vegas. And, uh, I mean, the, the next step of that too now is to be able to run the football better. I mean, just point blank period, you do not run the, you know, you mentioned kind of what you do well as an offense. We heard all off season from the players, from the coaches. They made no bones about that that we were going to be able to run the football. We were going to be a running football team who was going to assert our will at the line of scrimmage, control games that way, and use our talent at wide receivers to let Kenny hit some, some shots down field off of that success. When you start to see them improving on offense on Sunday night, still with the run game struggling, like that's kind of one of those glass half empty, glass half full things. You can look at as a glass half full and say, all right, the offense now was starting to hit some more chunk plays downfield back the back games with touchdown passes of over 70 yards. The offense is doing a better job of putting drives together, right? Kenny with two touchdown passes for the first time in his, in a game in his young NFL career. But the final infinity stone of that Chris, you and I are dorks, right? Use a Thanos, use a Mark. We are, we are super hero. A Marvel reference is you got to be able to run the football. All this talk about being, you know, multi-dimensional on offense, about not being predictable, about letting Kenny do more inaudible, you know, in the sense of at the line of scrimmage. To finally kind of reach that last step, you got to be able to run the football consistently. You got to be able to wear teams down in that regard, and you got to be able to make them respect your run game, which right now they aren't necessarily doing. In a weird way, you're getting a little bit more respect for your run game when Jay Lamorans out on the field, right? But when Najee is out there, man, you're a little bit limited in the possibilities that you have. And their starting teams are starting to walk guys down to the line of scrimmage. You've been seeing it. And so for me, good returns early. But yeah, if you want to, if you really want to not be predictable, if you want to keep defenses on their toes, if you again want to be multi-dimensional, before we talk about, you know, a lot of Kenny Pickett, more freedom at the line of scrimmage, all this stuff, you got to be able to run the football better than you have through three weeks. Point blank here. Absolutely. And part of it, you got into there was Kenny Pickett and the chance for audibles at the line of scrimmage, because the students have been running into a lot of stacked fronts. And that's a situation where, hey, like, and it's a legitimate question on tape coaching wise. It's like, why can't you guys get out of certain plays when you see the Raiders just have nine guys and they are saying, please write it right at it. We're waiting for you to, to run it right at it. It's like, let's, let's go. And then you run it right at them and then they win the play because that's exactly what they're looking for. And it was a legitimate question. Do the students have audibles there? Because there are times that it doesn't, there is no audible that comes on the field. And it's a question of, is the audible available to Kenny Pickett? Or is Kenny Pickett not making the calls? Here is Mike Tomlin, when he was asked about that question. And I thought his answer should some light on the situation. There were instances where Oakland, or two banks looked like they were putting the five down linemen up front, much like we even did Monday night. And you guys still ran into those fronts. How much latitude does Kenny have to make a change there? You know, it depends all week to week. You know, why would we have Kenny do it when we know there's five down linemen in the game? So it's not a player decision. It's a coaching decision. You see the defensive personality that comes on to the field as you're making calls. And so different, different players week to week about whether we choose to run past, check or run, run, check or just to run it to be quite honest with you. But I promise you, it's not half-hazard. There's always an agenda there. So I think right there, that was an indictment on the Steelers coaching staff and even Matt Canada by saying we're a little too runny right there. He's saying, you know, sometimes because what he's talking about there with the checks means when the Steelers come out in a formation and they see different different things, there are certain plays that there's a practice to say, hey, this was the first call that we're coming out here. But we have two other calls behind us that we can switch to out of this formation that will allow us to adjust to what they're calling or where they're lined up. And in some cases, it's multiple runs that you checked into. Some days it's multiple passes or some days there's a run and a pass based on different fits. And it seems like what Mike Thomas saying is that in some of those cases they're having too many run plays and not enough pass plays available in those switching moments. And I think that's what he's getting out there. And that to me, that, now if you want to play calling and play structure, I think there's a lot of people that try to pretend to be gurus and say, oh, this wasn't a good play call when there was a wide receiver streaking down the field. Sure. Yeah. You're not in the huddle either. You don't know exactly what was called. Yeah. Exactly. I think those are situations. But when Mike Thomas says this, this right here to me is the legitimate criticism of Matt Canada and Steelers of play calling. What's the U.S.? I am picking up what you're putting down there for sure. I, you know, I wonder how much of it is just a straight shot of, you know, Mike Tomlin thinking this is what we need to be doing more of. I wonder how much of it, too, is just a balance of them. Let's be honest, knowing that they can lean on their defense and that they just want to minimize mistakes and potential errors on offense. It's easy to forget, but that was Kenny Pickett's 16th start in the National Football League, right? So I mean, he's just on that finishing up a rookie season timeline of what would normally be. And I'm not saying it's right or wrong, but maybe in their minds they still have the training wheels on a little bit in that regard because they're looking at what the defense has done, eight takeaways in three games, and they're saying, listen, as long as we protect the football on offense and just kind of stay on schedule, we're going to be fine. With what we can do on defense, we're going to be able to win games 23 to 18, right? We're going to be able to win games. It was a 26 to 24. I think was the final against the Browns. We don't need to score 35 points. If we can get into the 20s with what our defense has been doing, we're going to manage these games. We're going to keep, and I'm using air quotes, right? But the training wheels on the offense here, and he said, I would be naive if I didn't think that that was potentially part of it as well, too, because we just, I mean, that's what the Steelers for two years. That's what they've wanted to do is lean on that defense and just do enough on offense. Absolutely. I want to keep talking about this and the offensive line with West Euler here from Steel and Nation Radio. I'm Chris Carter. You're in the Lockdown Steelers podcast. Stick with us. We still got a lot to talk about on today's show, whether it comes to predictability and performance. But before we do anything else, want to remind you guys this show is sponsored by eBay Motors. eBay, our partners, the eBay Motors, have teamed up with Lockdown Fantasy football host Vinnie Iyer to bring you some of the best fantasy picks each week all season long, whether you're prepping for a draft or scouting for the way for our every week, we're going to provide you players that are guaranteed fits for your roster. So with, so with this year going, we're going to talk about eBay's guaranteed fit and fantasy pick of the week. And this week it's a Steeler Pat Fryer. 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For the most in-depth local analysis, check out Lockdown NFL Kick Off 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. We're back here on the Lockdown Steelers Podcast. I'm your host, Chris Carter, here with Wes Euler from Steel and Nation Radio. Wes, I want to finish up this point about the predictability of this offense. I think part of what's what happens here. I also want to shout out my other podcast I do with the Pittsburgh Post, because at the North Shore Drive Podcast, I talk with Max Starks about this two-time Super Bowl Chain Max. Great guy also on Steel and Nation Radio all the time. He does a great job breaking things down, and he had some really great insight on this as well. But he taught to me about that for the Pittsburgh Post, because that's the same way you find this podcast. He talked to me about how it is so important to have plays that are your bread and butter, things that you can go to. And the Steelers still don't have that on offense, whether it's a power run, a zone run. You know, if you want to imagine that in your head, you're like, what does that even look like, Chris? It was back in the 2010s with the Killer Bs era. It was when you saw Marquis Pouncy and Al and David DeCastro rolling around as a double pole and defensive lineman saying, oh crap, they're bringing that this way and lay beyond bells coming right behind them. And they can't stop that. They're getting at least six or eight yards. The Steelers don't have that in Arsenal, whether it's the passing game or the running game. Now, again, finding some success in the offense period on Sunday. That was why it was so important. And no one's saying that the offense has figured it all out. But they at least put out some positive plays there to build confidence and say, hey, if you can build on these things, you could find something consistent in your offense. It can scare defenses with, hey, we have to take away that one thing and when they start committing to take away one thing, that allows you to counter with your game plan so that you can be the key word not as predictable. That's what it's all about in Chris. It sounds funny because this almost, like this logic almost sounds against being, you know, not predictable against limiting your predictability. But the best team, the best offense, as I should say, not teams. The best offense is in the National Football League. Man, they run like six plays just with a lot of variations off those plays. Absolutely. I mean, watch the chiefs, watch the bills, watch the Eagles. It's really like the same six concepts with just some different wrinkles or some motions or something to throw you off in there because that's what they do well. And you know that's what they do well and come and stop us. I love the example that you use there and what the Steelers used to do with zone runs with what they had in Pouncing to Castro on the line and obviously left Bell in the backfield. It was like, you knew it was coming but pick your poison. If you try and cut inside, we're going to bounce it outside. If you try and come outside, Lev Bell is going to cut inside and make you look like a fool. If you try and play us straight up, you got to get through Pouncing to Castro before you have to try and tackle Lev Bell. Teams knew what they were doing coming stop us. We've got three options off this one play. We can go inside. We can go outside. We can come right at you. Bang, bender bounce. Right. You pick your poison and we're going to make one of the other options work. That's what the best offense is in the NFL. Watch what they do with my homes. That's why it doesn't matter that they lose Tyree Kill and they can still keep that thing humming. Watch what the Eagles have done over the last year and change with Jalen Hertz. So much of what they do is predictable in a way to use air quotes but it's all stop it. But come and stop it. And if you try and come and stop it and option A, we've got B and C where we know we can still beat you and we can still make this same design work. It's a weird dichotomy like I said where it seems like it would almost work against each other in the way in ways. But a lot of times having simple bread and butter. Like you said with Max that you can very okay. We got we got bread and butter. We got garlic bread and butter. Exactly. We got marinara sauce with bread and butter. Right. It all starts with the bread but sometimes we get the garlic. Sometimes we get the butter. Sometimes we get the marinara sauce. Right. Like that's that is what the best offense is in the national football league. Do. And again, I think a lot of us were maybe cautiously optimistic as the way to put it. But we're thinking that for the Steelers that could be on the ground this year. It hasn't been through three games. And certainly I think everyone is culpable in that regard. From the play calling to the offensive line to the guys in the back field. They have they have got to figure that out because there's been encouragement on offense. But again, if you want to get where you're ultimately trying to go. Double digit wins. Division title. Playoffs. All that type of thing. Right. You got to get this figured out sooner rather than later. Because it's the national football league. And you give teams four, five, six weeks of film on you. And they're going to know defenses are too good these days. Coordinators are too good these days. You have got to have some bread and butter that you can hang your hat on and know that you can do well weekend and week out. Or eventually it's going to catch up to you. Absolutely. And let's talk about that offensive line for a bit. In effect, let's not talk about it. Let's let Mike Tomman talk about it. I asked him about the about the offensive line. And what he's seen either in progress or in progress they need to make. Here was his evaluation on Tuesday. Mike, what are the major components of the offensive line that you've seen arm-proving and still need to take make me. It's it's everything to be quite honest with you. Well, you got new people combination blocks and getting to feel how you work well together. And sometimes that practice is game-like, but it's not a game. The intensity of the penetration on double teams is different in a game setting that it is in a practice setting, for example. And so it's any in all areas whether it's technical, whether it's communication, collective work, possession down things, and dealing with the myriad of trending structures. We see three by one defense of front structure on possession down, for example. Well, we've seen it on third down three weeks in a row now. And so it's reasonable to expect us to block the concepts that come with that structure more fluidly with each pass and week because of explosion. Just finished watching, so Houston take, they run three by one structure on pass in their circumstances with their defense of front. So it'll be four weeks in a row we've seen that trending structure. And so it's reasonable to expect the collective to get better in situational ball because of repetitive trending things within the game. And it's also easy to expect individuals within it to get better. And somebody on one matchups because there's less questions about what's going on around them. And so I'm not, you know, side step in your question. It's just a very real thing. We're getting better in all areas individually and collectively at this stage or the journey full out of reasons. Experience being gained, trending things in a natural football league that you see repetitive, three by one structure or five down alignment or what have you. So we're just getting better. Where did you see improvements? So, so there was my top and top one thing. By the way, when he says three by one structure, I think he's talking about like a four down front where it's like a four three over where it's like you got two defensive tackles lined up in A gap and B gap and you're trying to force double teams there so that your ends can win a little bit more. So I think that's what he's saying, defense has been trying to the Steelers. I have to say I was unfamiliar with three by one structure. I hadn't heard that either until earlier. Yeah, I was like, that was a new one on me. But I talked to Alan Saunders about that. That's we kind of came together and I guess that's what we think Mike Tomman meant there. And I hope the press conference with continuing to ask about that. But let's let's talk about this with the offensive line. I agree. Like there's there's they need to gel. It's not as simple as, oh, they can just pick up from last year and just be as good as they were. It took them time to get better last year. And we've we've talked about it on our stars and skulls. Great. So far, Wes, you know, Dan Moore Jr. Hasn't really looked good yet. Chups a core for I think that they're he's been I think this was one of his worst games. This last week against the Texans as far as just keeping his technique. As I say, a model, I think had his first like a really good game for the Steelers. I thought he was kind of the anchor, but Mason Cole continues to struggle. James Daniels, I think it has been decent, but not, but not really good yet this year. And I think that all that adds up to struggles in the offensive line, which get in the way of running the football. Like we're talking about this offense needs to do big time. And I can kind of I can come down on either side of the equation here. All right. Let me go with the bad. My, my, my pessimistic side, if you will, right? My pessimistic side is I understand it takes time for offensive lines to gel. There's not a single unit in the national football league that can, you know, the sum can be greater than the whole of its parts, like an offensive line. They also have one new starter from last season. I mean, was Dan Moore Jr. there last year? Was Mason Cole there last year? Was James Daniels there last year? Was Tukes a core for there last year? Did any of those guys miss a game last year? Yes, they were all there and no, they did, they did not miss a game. That's my pessimistic view. The other side is I know it took them a while to get going last year. And when they finally did, they were really able to run the football more successfully. So I'm willing to give them a little benefit of the, it's the weird balance of, of, of being an NFL fan and NFL evaluator is you want to grain of salt that the sample size still isn't huge, even three games into the season. Well, I also knowing that it's only a 17 game season. And that's just the nature of the beast is you don't have a huge sample size in football at any level. I don't care if it's high school, if it's college, if it's NFL, you, you just don't have that many games. They need more from Isaac, say Amalu, who, who came over from the best offensive line in the national football league for the last, last five years and was a, was a, not a massive, but still a big money free agent addition. They need James Daniels to be better. They need Mason Cole to be better. And yeah, they need Dan Moore Jr. and Chouk's a core for it to be better as well too. Part of this as well. At times last season, it's weird, Chris, but go back and look at it. I realize I'm not saying that I would rather have Kevin Dotson than Isaac say Amalu. I wouldn't. I would have signed up for say Amalu a million times in the off season. But a lot of times last year when they were running at their best man, Kevin Dotson was playing really well. That it, that's his bread and bread and butter is that interior run game. And they just, James Daniels hasn't been that Mason Cole hasn't been that Isaac say Amalu hasn't been that. So again, that one's tough for me because I can look at it and I can say, okay, you're bringing back four or five starters who were all healthy last season. And you added a dog, a big money guy in Isaac say Amalu. I don't want to hear about all this chemistry and all that, you know, like you're working in three or four new starters of the offensive line. I also am willing to give them a little bit of a benefit of the doubt because they played so much better down the stretch last year than they did at the start of the season. And let's hope that that's something that they can get moving in the right direction here soon. Absolutely. I want to talk about the defensive line too with Wes Euler. And specifically what we're seeing out of Keanu Benton. I thought that this was a kind of a coming out game for him a little bit. He had a sat. He looked really good otherwise. We'll talk about that on the other side of the break here on the Lockdown Steelers podcast. I'm your host, Chris Carter here with Steel Nation radios. Let's wet Wes Euler. But first before we do anything else, we want to remind you guys this show is sponsored by Jace Medical. When you're when you're dealing with Jace Medical, you can get their great product called the Jace Case. The Jace Case provides five life saving antibiotics for emergency use. 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It's L-O-C-K-E-D-O-N Lockdown at checkout at JaceMedical.com. That's J-A-S-E-Medical.com. Back here in the Lockdown Steelers Podcast, I'm your host, Chris Carter, here with Wes Euler from Steel Nation Radio. Wes, I want to talk to you about this defensive front because they're still not overly dominant in stopping the run yet, you know, being honest about how they're playing. And Cam Hayward not being there, certainly a hurt piece, certainly contributing to that situation right now. On defense, they're giving up the 30th most, so three spots from last base or two spots from last base against the run and 29th in yards per attempt. They're still not anywhere near what they want to be. Granted, they did face probably two of the better running teams in the first two weeks of the season and another talented back in Josh Jacobs just this past week. But I thought one thing that I saw from this defensive front that's very encouraging is that Keanu Benton looks like he's fitting in very well using his hands well. He's getting lower leverage. He's doing the things that I saw him do at Wisconsin, which Mike Thomas has talked about is so important. That way back when when they drafted TJ Watt, they had no doubt in their mind that he would fit into their defense because Wisconsin runs the same defense as them. And you see goons out there. They're most likely going to turn into goons for you. That's why they're excited about Nick Herbick. And that's why they were excited about Keanu Benton. To me, Wes, when I saw everyone saw the swim move that he put on to get to say it was extremely clean, looked efficient, huge play in the game. But also on top of that, there was a play where he drew a holding call. There was another play where I there were several other plays where I thought he was getting he was changing line of scrimmage. He's doing these things as a as a rookie. If he's able to if this is his baseline, he could become that really dominant interior piece for the Steelers for the long term. It's very early in his career to say that he will be that. But this I thought week three was a good setting up point for a really good rookie year for him. Yeah, the early returns are excellent, right? On Keanu Benton. At a time where you've needed it, I mean, we can't say enough about what Cam Hayward means in that defense, but particularly that defensive line where other than him, it's a lot of younger. And Lario is well too to be fair, but other than those two, it's a lot of younger, more unproven, still on the rookie contracts, kind of trying to carve out their spot on an NFL roster for a long term career. Guys like Benton, guys like Lee out, guys like Louder Milk, guys like Adams, you know, who have maybe been a little more journeyman in certain ways. You needed obviously someone to step up in the absence of Cam Hayward. Lario had his moments and man, particularly against his old team, the Cleveland Browns. I thought he was great, particularly in the first half of that game on Monday night, really set in a tone for that Steelers defense. And Keanu Benton, you're right. I mean, he looks like a guy who is just getting it, just grasping it early on. They're not asking him to do much. You mentioned the kind of the continuity from what he was asked to do. It was constant. And now in Pittsburgh, when you get to play with guys like Highsmith and Watt on your ends as well too, that certainly helps. And yeah, I mean, he at times on Sunday night football against the Raiders looked like he was shot out of a cannon. And that's going to be big because you're going to get Cam back at some point, but not this week, not next week, not really soon here. You know, you hope sometime in October maybe, but that could still be five, six weeks away. Keanu Benton is a guy that is looking a little bit more comfortable all throughout camp, all throughout the preseason, now throughout the regular season as well too. You saw a little bit from him against the Niners and then a little bit more against the Browns. And then obviously that big performance on Sunday night. You're right, Chris. The steel. I mean, as much as we talk about the run game struggles on offense, that's maybe the one thing that the defense is still left desire as well too is. Week one was week one. I mean, it's not to excuse it. It's not to say it didn't happen, but the Niners are the Niners. And you know what, it was just one of those games bleep happens right and bleep happened week one against the Niners. Right. But Nick Chubb was having his way until he exited the game at times. Josh Jacobs on Sunday night was having his way. Now you end he ends with what 64 65 yards. I think it wasn't and you'll take that for him. You you limited one of the better backs in the league to to less than 70 yards. And I think he had 17 carries. So it wasn't like he had limited touches either. But you got to have that a little more consistently. Jacob still had his moments on Sunday night where he was where he was running the ball where the Raiders were running the ball successfully. For this defense to really truly be elite like they've shown through the last two weeks at times. If you want to be a defense that can be maybe the best in the NFL and can win games for this team consistently and can particularly do it down the stretch when the weather gets cold and all the tickets are sold in December in January when playoffs are on the line and hopefully you find yourself in the postseason. Gotta be able to dominate that line of scrimmage like we've talked about on offense, but on defense as well too. If they're going to get to that point, you're going to need a healthy cam. Hey, we're back certainly, but you're going to continue to need to need more of what we've seen from Keanu Benton. And hopefully that arrow is pointing straight up for him. I think that that's the big keys. Could that arrow stay pointed up for him and can it lead to more success because as much as offensive chemistry is needed on the offensive line to them to understand when to combo block when to do the things that Mike Thomas talking about chemistry is needed for the defensive line too. Knowing how to counteract with what different offenses like to do, knowing how to support each other in the right moments and not just with the defensive line, but also how the linebackers fit in which we know as we know as an all new group, that stuff takes time. But again, if the Steelers can continue to snack wins while we're saying while they're building on offense and building on defense like if we're talking about after if we're going into the biweek west and we're talking about the Steelers being four and one and three and two and they and we're talking about they've made progress with each game, but they're not there yet. They are on track to be a much better team by the end of the season, which is again, why going into this year, my point always was this is not the year. This is not the the window is open for Super Bowl year. This is the year where they set that window up for the future and you build it by week after week getting better and sometimes you might take a leap. Sometimes there might be a revelation like, oh, they something has really clicked, but most weeks like this past week are going to be incremental small changes, small improvements to and if you stack them just like Kenny picket stacked good practices and then stacked good preseason games. If you stack them in the regular season, they build up to you becoming a better team in the games that matter and potentially if they keep winning football games and they're better by then they'll be ready to win the big games. The last five games are going to be really competitive at the end of the season with some of the opponents they have lined up and if they make the playoffs, they can be ready to take on their first opponent. That's why we keep talking about this progress here. What's any final thoughts there? Yeah, just to piggyback off what you said last thing here, I think you're absolutely right and that's what they weren't able to do last year. Last year you looked up and you were what two and six or three and six at the by week, whatever it was and you played so much better down the stretch and you were able to finish with a winning record and have a chance to make the playoffs the last week of the season, which says a lot, but you just you just dug yourself too deep of a hole at that point, right Chris. I used to have a hockey coach growing up who used to tell us all the time you can't win a game in the first period, but you can lose one in the first period, right? Yeah, you come back in here after the first intermission and we're down three, nothing, four, nothing that game might be over. We might have lost the game. Last year the Steelers lost themselves a playoff spot in the first half of this and they just couldn't dig out of that hole. Make no mistake about it this year, it's not about playing their best football in September. It's not about being the complete product in October. It's about keeping your head above water that when you get to November and you're hopefully hitting your stride and you're playing your best football and it's crunch time like it was last season, you're not digging yourself out of a hole. You're like you're set, you're five and three, you're four and four, you're, you know, you're five and four, six and four, something like that when you get to, you know, that time when the holiday season's upon us. And then all the sudden you hit your stride and then all the sudden you start playing your best football and all your goals are right in front of you still, you're not digging yourself out of that. That's the, you're not, like only a couple teams come flying out of the gate like the chiefs and like the Niners, right? I mean, even the Eagles, they won, but they struggled mightily in their first two games before really looking like the Eagles again on Monday night football down in Tampa Bay. Just look up in November, have a winning record, have everything to play still in front of you. That's the realistic goal for where the Steelers are at now on their team timeline. Don't be two and six or three and six like you were last year, be five and three and then look up and start playing your best football and really go get after it. And right now you're two and one, you got a chance to go get another victory on the road down in Houston and then you got both and more coming before the byway. I mean, you're right. If you're four and one or you're three and two heading into your by week as opposed to where you were last year, that makes the world of difference because you've still got plenty of room for improvement. But you haven't dug yourself that hole like you did last year. He's West Euler of student nation radio, find him at West Wesley Euler on Twitter, find him on all the West Virginia podcasts that even possibly it possibly exists in the gun. All the shows that he does their West, thanks so much for joining us here in the lock. Thanks for podcast. Thank you all for tuning into the Lockdown Steelers podcast. I'm your host Chris Carter, follow me on Twitter and Instagram at Carter critiques. Read my work at the Pittsburgh Post Gazette Postache Gazette.com and check me out here in the Lockdown Steelers podcast as well as the North Shore Drive podcast for the Post Gazette wherever you listen to your podcasts, wherever you watch your podcasts on YouTube. Thanks again for tuning in. We'll be back Thursday with crossover Thursday, getting ready for Steelers versus Texans this weekend tomorrow on the Thursday episode. James Allen.com is the online destination to easily design a customized engagement ring and save up to 50% compared to traditional stores. You pick a diamond, whether it's lab created or Earth created, James Allen has over 200,000 conflict free stones. Then you pick your ring setting and metal. 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