Drive10.19.26Kinger: Rob King on Bucs Win

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There's your renegade, oh mama, Daylon Everett.

Now, I was, you know, giving props to our guy Rob King for his, hey, he called an incredible game overall, but I thought that Daylon Everett interception was fantastic.

Now, what you didn't hear. Wasn't that great. What you didn't hear.

We can hear Rob King laughing there.

He was just pumping it up like crazy, like it was the miracle on ice or something.

I'm like, it's fine. Here's the thing.

Do you believe in miracles? There was a buildup there, Matt, that didn't make the final cut in the system. And I get it, because in the system, they just need the little highlights. But before that play, the Steelers, Steelers crowd there in Tampa was starting to feel, starting to feel it.

Yeah.

And the Steelers were a little bit too. And Max Starks was like, is this our, is this our renegade moment? And, and Rob goes, Max, listen to the crowd. And they paused for like 10 seconds and the crowds just go.

Yeah. And then that happens.

And then that's where he makes the renegade reference. Cause Max was just calling for it. And the crowd was going absolutely insane. It is the voice of the Pittsburgh Steelers with us here in Kinger.

And by the way, in that context, Matt, it was incredible. that one that one was a lot of fun best.

I've ever heard a lot of fun no i'm telling you you know don't encourage him stop it stop it you're encouraging him all right what we need to do is get the full we need to get the full like 45 second clip there not just the 11 seconds of uh but the build-up was fantastic the crowd.

Was fantastic great Great play by Everett. Another great play by Dean too. I know Matt is a big fan of Dale and Everett and that was a great play, man. Great play. You know what else I love? He caught it. He knew he had it. I don't know if anybody else was sure he had it, but he was signaling first down Steelers as he went out of bounds. I loved that. I thought that was great. And you know what?

We did our intro to the show before having you on Rob. And obviously we're talking about the defense and the offense and overtime and all that stuff. Didn't really mention the crowd.

That was going to be my first question.

I was curious.

I used to laugh. I know I've said this to Matt. I used to laugh when Mike Tomlin would talk about the Steelers were playing in California or the Steelers were playing in Miami. And Mike Tomlin would say, we know we're walking into a hostile environment. And I'd be like, coach, it's a, it's a bowl game at best. In reality, you're probably going to have 60, 70% of the fans.

It's not Cleveland on Thursday night.

I've said this to Matt a million times, Rob, that you'd be shocked how infrequently the Steelers go into a hostile environment. Yeah, Cleveland is always one. Baltimore is one. If you go to Buffalo or Philadelphia, absolutely. But more often than not, when the Steelers go on the road, especially if we head to these southern warm weather or West Coast destination cities and towns where a lot of displaced Yenzers live, have uh have relocated rob does it still it doesn't shock me anymore i almost expect that from steelers fans when we go to these places.

Yeah that was uh that felt like more west that felt like almost 50 50 i mean it was incredible when when the when the fans got up and towels started going it wasn't like you saw a lot of towels you saw a lot of towels i mean you sure did and i think some some Some Tampa fans cleared out of there. Who was on with somebody earlier?

I think it was the DV morning tour. They kept replaying the Dean interception because they're like, listen to the crowd in the background.

Is that a great call by you two?

Oh, unbelievable. Second best call ever. It's going to go miracle on ice. Those two calls.

And then everybody else.

You know. Yeah, then Jack, Buck, and the rest of the group. All right, all right. All right, you jokers. Let's listen to it. Hold on. Here we go. No, it's not. Right. Throws in that direction. And it's kicked off.

And it's Jamel Dean.

Oh, yeah. All people freaking down the left sideline.

Inside the five.

Jamel Dean and his return to Tampa Bay. The big play the Steelers needed.

Sounds like a home game.

It does. Get those terrible towels in the air. Jamel Dean coming back. I mean, it's. Sounds like a home game. It's incredible. It's incredible. It sounded like a home game. But it doesn't surprise me anymore, Kinger.

We get that multiple times a year on the road now.

Yeah, that one was. But it was. It was ramped up. It was among the top Steelers road crowds that I've ever seen. And they got into it. And it was really a listless game. I mean, maybe that added to it, too. Slow start, for sure. Oh, 42 minutes, 42 out of 60. I just, you know, that's 70%, 70% of the game.

The Steelers were being outplayed. They were down big. They just didn't look very good. And then they got that drive going at the end of the third and carried it into the fourth and wound up winning the game. Wasn't even perfect after that. But, you know, I think that anytime you do something that you haven't done in 34 years, and that's when a game that you're trailing by 13 or more going into the fourth quarter, That's that is something you can hopefully hang your hat on later.

You can fix the stuff that needs to be fixed later. You got to win and you got to win that proves that you can do something like that later in the season to get behind somebody. Hey, we've already done this before. So that I think that was a big part of it. Yeah, the crowd was great. There was a lot to like about. It wasn't much to love.

I didn't think going into that those waiting moments of the third quarter and onto the fourth and overtime. But after that, there was a lot to enjoy.

You mentioned it and you got specific there, the first 42 minutes. And clearly Tampa Bay was the better team in that stretch, that first 42 minutes. But I didn't get the impression that it was because they were more well-rested or they were just pushing the Steelers around. I felt like there was just a lot of Steeler miscues and everything that could go wrong went wrong, kind of unprovoked at times. And I also want to give Todd Bowles credit. I think it took a little while to crack the Todd Bowles code when the Steelers had the ball.

Yeah, yes. And I think, you know, when you struggle on third down, as the Steelers did, and then on fourth down, the play that Jeremy Bernard, I don't think we'll ever see him do that again, right? I mean, they always say he makes one mistake, and everyone's like, oh, it's Deontay Johnson. No, he's a one-mistake guy, then move on.

That's what everybody says. He makes a mistake once and moves on. So that one play when they went for it on fourth down. But when you don't make it on third down, Everything looks and feels listless and your defense starts to get worn down. And that's what started to happen a little bit. You know, the Tampa Bay wasn't great on offense, but they put together a great drive.

You know, that's another thing that happened, Matt, in the game. Yes, Tampa Bay was outplaying the Steelers and the Steelers get the ball to begin the second half. they go three and out and Tampa goes on this long drive and punches it in. And it just felt like, wow, is that, is that it? I mean, is there, is there any way to come back from that? And of course there was, but yeah, Tampa, I just think the Steelers, they just weren't doing anything, you know, they weren't at, but especially when you don't pick up third down conversions and we've seen this be an issue for this team. It just looks and feels listless when you're watching it, even if that's not, not like the guys aren't trying, but it's just,

gives off that feel.

Yeah, it was a little bit of a struggle for both teams to run the football kinger. I guess that's the glass half full, glass half empty. The Steelers, for the second straight week, were able to really limit a hot running back. Of course, Jonathan Taylor last Sunday and Bucky Irving this week. But then Jalen Warren wasn't the explosive Jalen Warren that we saw against the Colts either.

Matt and I were kind of laughing at the open because Matt was like, I don't want to get negative right away. But what he did on that on that fourth down in the first half drove me crazy.

And Jeremy Bernard.

But that rookie moment aside, where he could have just fallen down and picked up a first down, tried to make a play, ended up losing yardage and losing the turnover on downs. I think you have to be very happy. Hey, we're going to talk a lot about Daylon Everett, a rookie. We're going to talk a lot about Jeremy Bernard, a rookie.

And those guys and kind of the direct impact they had in the result yesterday.

Yeah, I think there's, again, there's, to me, a lot to like about what happened. And it's not all the pieces haven't come together, which I think is also good. To be 4-2 and think, have the Steelers really played a complete game? I mean... Have we seen offense, defense and special teams just play a heck of a game?

Not that that happens all that often because the other guys are playing, too. Right. And they're going to they're going to be good at something that's difficult for you to be good against. But not only the draft class, but just when you think about the offseason, if you want to just take a step further back.

Right.

I know Michael Pittman's hurt. He was a big pickup. But Jamel Dean was a big pickup in the offseason. And. He comes up with a great game and that interception. He had a bunch of pass breakups in the game as well. And then the Steelers made the decision in the offseason to extend contracts to Darnell Washington, touchdown Keanu Benton, I thought had his best game of the season. of the season was was a very disruptive force and Nick Herbig they they let him rush the passer and he came up with two sacks so I think when you look at the draft the offseason signings and the guys you extended Um, you know, if I'm in the Steelers front office, I'm like, that was a pretty good day.

You know, uh, that's an interesting angle of what we did in the off season.

As you're mentioning, I'm also like, Enrico came back, he was new and that was nice to have him. I've been a little down on Brisker, but that probably was his best game as a Steeler as well. I mean, a lot of guys that weren't on the team last year helped with that win quite a bit.

Yeah. And I, and I think that's, um, that's a positive sign, obviously, you know, you, when you make these decisions and some of them are financial and Extending contracts and signing, like you said, Rico Dowdle. Thank you for mentioning him. He looks sharp, I thought.

Yeah, yeah.

And Dean and these other guys. And then, you know, investing in first round picks. I mean, that tells you, you know, you don't need to be you don't need to always go into, you know, EPA and other things just to see what a team feels like. What are what are we trying to do? Follow who they drafted and who they signed and who they've re-signed and invested money in. That's where they'll tell you they think they're going and the kind of team they want to put together.

This is a team that they want to put together a strong team in the trenches. And we've seen that because of the investment in the draft and first and second round picks and third round picks and the offensive and defensive lines. I mean, those are real investments. And again, it's not going to be linear investment. You know, next week, a couple of rookies might make a mistake. And one of the guys you signed may not have a good game. But, you know, it's not like those line drafts where it's just you start in the bottom left hand corner and a 45 degree angle up to the top right hand corner.

And that's the way it's going to be. As long as you are making it there, as long as you are going from that bottom left to the top right, it's going to be a jaggedy climb. And there's going to be some times where you hit a ravine. Um, you just have to keep climbing up and hopefully that's something that the Steelers will do with, with the, you know, the players that we're talking about here.

Well, I think, uh, speaking of, of that, uh, King or man, it was really nice to see a couple of guys that had maybe been a little quiet on defense, make a ton of noise yesterday. I think Nick Herbig, certainly one of those. My goodness, we were all gushing about how good Tristan Wirfs is this week, and he is perhaps the best left tackle in all of football.

Herbig beats him cleanly to get his first sack of the year, adds another one later on. And then this is probably malpractice on my part because I'm supposed to be hosting this show, but we're about 35 minutes into it, and I don't think I've even said the name Jalen Ramsey.

Boy, he was everywhere. He was everywhere yesterday. He was, you know, so, you know, if I had a, you know, offensive game ball goes to Jeremy, although I thought DK Metcalf also had an excellent game. Of course, Aaron Rogers, um, you know, had that deflected interception, but he led the team back in the fourth quarter. Uh, but if I had an overall game ball, it goes to Jalen Ramsey.

I mean, I don't know how much better you can play guys. I just don't. I mean, four, he had 10 tackles, four tackles for losses, two sacks. Let's talk about making an impact. I mean, he, he was, um, He was incredible. And as far as Herbig, um, so Wes, uh, this friend of mine, uh, Matt Williamson, he, uh, he sometimes looks up these, these crazy stats and, you know, one of them is how often a guy's rushing the passer, like Nick Herbig. He doesn't have a lot of sacks, but he's not rushing the passer a whole lot while they unleashed him here and he got two sacks. And, you know, that was, uh, he's made an impact. You know, that's one of those things where, um, where the sort of, uh, I guess you, I don't know what the term is

in football, the sort of sabermetrics community in football looks at these things. And I was talking about EPA and I think all these tools are really good. And we just call them nerds. Whatever it is. I love it. And I do think it's a part of it. And by the way, I think, you know, the Steelers think it's a part of it too. They're looking at all those things.

I think more than ever, by the way.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's a good, it's a good tool to be able to use. You know, it's interesting. I was talking to Mike McCarthy in the pregame interview about the decision the week before to go for it on fourth down a couple times. Really gutsy decisions, I thought. I mean, he could have kicked a field goal and gone up by five in the fourth quarter and said he goes for it. They wind up scoring a touchdown.

That helps put the game away. But, you know, you see Staley out with the Chargers. It felt like every time they needed to go for something, he just... he just ignored the surroundings and looked down at a chart. Now I'm sure there was more into it than that, but you know what I'm saying? Like you do that, but you also have to feel the game, you know, and Mike McCarthy goes with the feel of the game, but he's got all that information at his disposal. All this information is at the Steelers disposal. I'm sure they're well aware of how well Nick Herbig has been playing when you, when you talk about the sabermetric slash nerd community pointing that out. And then, and then we saw that we saw him cut loose and be able to

do what he did. So, yeah, I thought both those guys, you know, Everett and Dean with the interceptions, Benton, why Black had a sack. I mean, there was a lot to like, mostly I thought on the defensive side, as far as like, there were a lot of guys who I thought starred in this game for the Steelers.

So throughout the course of this small young season, I've been asked a lot, you know, Steelers tackling so bad, what's the problem with it? And I'm like, you have to watch the rest of the league. First of all, tackling's not great as we speak, especially Thursday nights on the road. I mean, everybody's missing tackles left and right.

But I really wanted to give credit to, especially if you're going to play a lot of zone, how important tackling is. Tackle the catch, get a lot of people there to the ball carrier or the receiver. I thought the last two weeks across the board, the tackling's been pretty darn good for the Steelers.

Yeah, that's a really good point, Matt, and I agree with you. And it's, you know, it is something that you have to have, especially if you're going to play off the ball, like the Steelers have done a lot, right? Like you're going to, you're going to concede. It feels like, and again, I don't, I'm not sitting in the meetings. Yeah. Yeah.

That's what it feels like they're, they're playing on defense. Okay. So, you know, and, and that's not foreign to what the Steelers have done in the past. Yeah. You know, bring Blitzburg and then, you know what, lay off a little bit. And if we don't get there, you know, run up and make the tackles. So it's, it is, it sounds elemental, but it's very important. I'm glad you pointed it out.

I think it, I think it has been important. I think they have a lot of guys with speed and a lot of guys who can, who can get to the ball. And then, you know, once you get there, you got to bring them down. Like, you know, Peyton Wilson stood out to me. Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, I, I just think, and look, you know, somebody asked me about, well, you know, Hey, on that Dean scramble in the fourth, you know, it would have been nice to see him stop being short. Daniels. Okay. Yeah. I meant Daniels. Daniels is six foot, 220 pounds. And he's running with a full head of steam.

Yeah. He's a legit.

I don't know too many guys who are going to take him. This isn't like you're meeting a back in the hole who has taken one step. You know, this is a, this is a 220 pound man running with a football at full speed. You know, Look, that was the least of my concerns, and I knew that was going to come up when it happened live, by the way.

I knew somebody was going to ask me about it. Because they want the guy who's going to meet you in the hole and lift you up by the back leg and thump you into the turf and get up with a clot of dirt in your face mask and all that stuff. That's not the way things go. There's very little of that anymore in general. But in the open field, you want guys who can run. And I'm glad you brought up Peyton Wilson because When I wrote down the stars of the game, I had to amend that.

I'm like, oh, yeah, Peyton Wilson. He was all over the field, led the team in tackles again. It's just he didn't make the other guys. There were so many guys making splash plays. But, yeah, I agree with you, Matt. I think the tackling has been much improved. And if they get Deshaun Elliott back, and I hope they will, he's going to help because he's a very good tackler.

Good point.

Voice of the Steelers, Rob King, creating miracle-like calls every single Sunday on the Pittsburgh Steelers audio network. Kinger, I know these Mondays are always busy for you.

You do DVE.

You do your own show. You join us. We're flying internationally here in like 48 hours. Thanks for taking the time as always, dude.

Oh, man. Always great talking to you guys. Thanks for having me on.

The King has exited the castle. There he goes. Rob King, voice of your Steelers. And, of course, the host of In the Locker Room here on this network every single day at noon with our guys Max Starks and Willie Colon. Still plenty of ground to cover from this one. Matt and I will continue to react when we return on the other side. You'll learn Williamson. It's The Drive, Steelers Nation Radio on the Steelers Audio Network.

Drive10.19.26Kinger: Rob King on Bucs Win

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