Drive10.27.26Hr1: Victory Tuesday

0:02 You're tuned to The Drive on your 24-7 home of the black and gold.

0:07 Steelers Nation Radio.

0:24 Ah, this feels good. What's going on, Steelers Nation? It's the drive on the Steelers Audio Network. Wes Shuler and Matt Williamson. A week later, finally back in the booth and back stateside. Matthew, the Steelers, much like Jimmy Buffett, they went to Paris and they came back victorious today. It's a weird day. It's a Tuesday that kind of feels like a Monday.

0:47 Like I've moved on to the Browns, dude, without you.

0:51 I was telling you guys, it's four o'clock here now. So that's like Paris is six hours ahead. So it's like 10 o'clock at night for me. I don't know what day of the week it is. I don't know what time it is, but I am happy to be home after an incredible trip for the Steelers, for everybody involved, for Steeler Nation once again. Last year, we go to Dublin.

1:11 We take victory. History, literally. 30 years from now, when they're playing NFL games in Dublin, they'll roll the tape. Here was the first time. And it's going to be DK Metcalf streaking down the sideline and the Steelers beating the Vikings.

1:22 I guess Aaron Rodgers threw the first touchdown ever in Ireland and in France.

1:26 And in France, exactly right. It's going to be Darnell Washington grabbing that ball with one hand. In Pittsburgh, he's Mount Washington. But in Paris, he's the Eiffel Tower, baby. For 20, for 30 years, we take another piece of history. It wasn't always pretty at times. It was 16-10. It wasn't the sexiest back and forth game.

1:45 I don't want to talk about the game. Tell me about the trip, dude.

1:47 All right, so.

1:48 I need like a whole segment of what all happened.

1:51 This is the balance we're going to have to strike today because obviously.

1:54 I have a. It's a day removed. I've been talking. I mean, it's almost yesterday's news. I mean, we are going to talk Steelers saves. Don't get me wrong, but I'm digging into the Sean Watson and company, man.

2:04 Matt, I think as a.

2:06 I need to hear about the trip.

2:07 As a red-blooded, God bless America, American that I am, you hear a lot of things about France and about Paris and about French people. And obviously we know that there was some unrest going on in the country. That news has been everywhere. But let me tell you. If you would have put if I wouldn't have known any of that, if I would have just been able to just went over like, you know, men in black when they can.

2:28 Yeah.

2:28 Yeah.

2:29 Your memory away. If someone would have done that to me and put me on the plane. Yeah. My goodness.

2:34 Incredible.

2:34 Really?

2:35 The my whole life I've been told the French are a holes. They could not have been kinder. Now, they weren't as excited about having an NFL game there as there was last year in Dublin.

2:44 Okay, Dublin's excited about the sport.

2:46 The NFL took Dublin over. There was Steelers stuff everywhere. There was a lot of Viking stuff there, too.

2:51 Yeah, there was.

2:51 This wasn't necessarily that. Now, Dublin is also a smaller city compared to Paris. Paris is massive.

2:58 So it was consolidated. All the Steelers people were together and we were with them.

3:01 Yes.

3:02 Um, but man, the people were incredible. The food was phenomenal.

3:07 And I didn't, you said every meal was tremendous. You weren't just like baking an eggs in the morning or, you know.

3:12 Rob King and I would every morning we'd go to breakfast. I need to give a shout out to Rob King. I think we're going to have him on the show tomorrow. He's, he's a world traveler. He's been to Europe a bunch of times. He's been to Paris multiple times in France, multiple times. I was like Rob King shadow.

3:26 I mean, wherever you were, her big following TJ water on.

3:29 Every day, he'd be like, we should go to Notre Dame and then we should go to the Pantheon and then we should go to this really good cafe and get the best French onion soup you'll ever have in your life. And I'm like, Kinger. you just, I'm gut. Let's go.

3:39 That's so much better than just wandering around like, Oh, this looks good. Exactly.

3:42 Right.

3:43 Uh, Chris Hoke, who of course, Steelers defensive lineman all around incredible human being. He's fluent and fluent in French speaks it perfectly.

3:51 Wow.

3:52 So everywhere we went with Hokie, he knew all the best recommendations. He knew how to talk to all the waiters and waitresses about what we should order and where we should go and all this stuff.

4:00 And a lot of people, yourself included mentioned to me, like even just giving a little bit of effort for the French, French, France, French language. goes a long way. And, you know, a lot of them know English, but I mean, to be fluent in it, I'm sure would be so awesome. And to have somebody around that's been there and knows the cool spots like Rob.

4:16 That's awesome. It'd be like if a French person came to Pittsburgh who spoke broken English and they walked into a bar and they were like, yin's got iron city i mean you know what i mean it's like all you gotta do is put forward a little bit of an.

4:29 Effort i like that guy and they're like all right you're not you're in.

4:31 You're good you're in uh matt we stayed like when we were in dublin we were a little bit outside of the city which made the commute a little a little bit of our daily routine okay yeah yeah we were right smack dab it i mean the arc de triomphe was was a four minute walk from our hotel the champs de lycée which is like their fifth avenue it's their huge shopping district with Louis Vuitton, Yves Saint Laurent and Balenciaga and all kinds of stores was right around the corner.

4:58 Beautiful spot.

4:58 We we had we took a kind of a Steelers group trip. Rob and I, our producer, Dan Quinlan, Max Starks, Missy Matthews, a bunch of us, Brian Bacco, our buddy. And we did. And one day we went to Notre Dame Cathedral and then to the Pantheon, which is like this beautiful, like Latin quarter of France, France. And we had dinner and just everywhere you walk, Matt, like even the most basic back alley French streets. The architecture is unbelievable.

5:25 I bet it's breathtaking.

5:27 Wow.

5:27 It's one of the most beautiful cities I've ever been to.

5:30 Everywhere you turn.

5:31 Exactly right.

5:31 It's not like just this one little cool little spot.

5:33 Exactly right. And with the fact that the one negative was the weather was not great. I mean, it was 48 degrees, 50 degrees, windy, you know, raining. Yeah, yeah. But with that and with some of the civil unrest going on there, there was like all the touristy stuff was not that crowded.

5:51 So the restaurants weren't as long a wait.

5:53 Restaurants weren't as long as a wait.

5:54 No drama.

5:55 We got into Notre Dame in less than five minutes of a line.

5:58 Okay.

5:58 Eiffel Tower, maybe a 10-minute line to get in.

6:01 Where usually it's probably a half hour.

6:03 Exactly right. Exactly right. So it was unbelievable.

6:05 Is the Eiffel Tower super cool?

6:07 So cool.

6:07 Okay.

6:08 So cool.

6:08 I never quite got it. I'm like, what's so great about it?

6:10 And Kinger's a wild boy. Rob King, he's a walker.

6:15 Okay.

6:16 And a lot like me, you know this about me, Kinger's kind of an ADHD guy. I want to go here. I want to go there. And then we're going to go here. And then we're going to have dinner here and then we're going to get some wine there and then we're going to get some soup there. And so I was just following him around and we walked, Rob and I walked 18,000, 20,000 steps a day. We were walking five, six miles a day would roam all over the city. We'd have dinner somewhere at 8 o'clock, and then we'd get on the train and go back to the hotel.

6:43 That's so cool. It was unbelievable. And the transportation's great, though.

6:46 Transportation was great. It was so easy to use between Rob, between Chris Hoke, between Max Starks, who's been to Paris a bunch of times.

6:52 Is there just wine everywhere?

6:54 There's just wine everywhere. It's easier to get wine than it is to get water in France and in Paris. Dude, it was unbelievable. I mean, I called Dublin last year a trip of a lifetime, and it was in a lot of ways. It was a blast, yeah. It was amazing. But this was kind of different because Paris.

7:11 I'm sure everything about it was different other than it was a long flight.

7:14 The language was different. Kind of the culture around the game was different. But the cities are very different too.

7:21 I have spoke to a couple people that were at the game, at both games, and they said even... And that's my next question is what was game day like? But it sounded like, as you mentioned before, I couldn't remember if it was on or off the air, but the Dublin crowd was more into... football yes in the game and competition and hitting and you know yeah.

7:39 Just the idea of the national football yes yes and they know so much about the rooney family and the history that ties those together but here's i think how i could best describe it to you matt i will absolutely go back to ireland and i will absolutely go back to france at some point.

7:52 In my life take rob with it take rob with me and.

7:55 Hokey and max starks i'm gonna pay those guys just to show for me my wife i'll follow you guys around When I go back to Dublin and Ireland, I want to do like a day or two in Dublin, and then I just want to do the countryside of Ireland.

8:08 We didn't get a chance. We were way too busy. I mean, there's no chance we could have pulled that off. A couple of people did do that, that.

8:14 We chatted with. Yes, and we had too many shows and stuff like that going on to really.

8:17 Venture outside the city.

8:19 If I go to Ireland, I could do Dublin for two days and then go out into the countryside the rest of the time. I could go back to France for a week, and I'm still not sure if I'd see everything. Or to Paris for a week.

8:28 Just spend the whole time in the city.

8:29 Unbelievable.

8:30 There's probably a million spots to eat that you would have.

8:34 Loved to try. It was absolutely incredible. The food was amazing. And you end it with a victory on Sunday. And then we had an incredible dinner Sunday night. Chris Hoke recommended this place to Rob, Bako, and I. Everyone else was too tired. It was late.

8:47 We were like, we're going.

8:49 Had some unbelievable meals, some unbelievable breakfasts. Rob and I, for breakfast every day, would get croissants and then basically like a charcuterie board, like meats and cheeses.

8:58 Wow.

8:59 The coffee, dude, unbelievable. The wine, unbelievable.

9:03 Yeah.

9:04 It was just, it vastly exceeded my expectations. I expected that we would have some fun and enjoy ourselves.

9:10 Of course.

9:10 It's Europe, it's France, it's Paris. But I thought we'd have to kind of tiptoe around. I didn't know how much we'd be able to wonder. Would stuff be closed?

9:17 Things like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

9:19 It was completely the opposite.

9:20 This place all cracked up to be. Everyone talks about it's an amazing city.

9:23 It can't be that great. I think it would be kind of the– and, you know, we get a ton of questions, obviously. Were you guys safe? Were you ever nervous? Anything like that. To use a Pittsburgh analogy for everybody, I think it would be like if we were all going to a Steelers game on the North Shore and there was unrest on McKnight Road.

9:38 Oh, OK.

9:38 You know, it'd be like if you were going if you were in going to Queens for a Yankees game and there were riots and protests in in Times Square.

9:49 Yeah.

9:49 We weren't even close to any of that stuff. And we made sure not to go to those areas.

9:53 Sure. I'm sure people warned you.

9:55 But I mean, again, if you would have just been flashbulbed and dropped down into Paris.

10:00 You would be no different than three years ago.

10:01 Or exactly right. And you, you wouldn't have known as much that the NFL was there like it was last year in Dublin, but you wouldn't have been concerned about your safety in Dublin. You wouldn't have been concerned like, Oh man, do these people really want us here? They not friendly. And you know, some of that stuff that we discuss sometimes, it was just, it, I, maybe that was on me too, of not having the same lofty expectations as I had last year in Dublin, but, Makes sense.

10:25 The man France delivered. Paris delivered. The Stade de France, Matt, is incredible. You know I'm a nerd about this stuff.

10:31 That was actually my next question. Tell me about the stadium and the environment.

10:34 Unbelievable. The fans.

10:35 I mean, the pictures you sent and just watching it, it was like, this is really cool. I mean, just... Unbelievable. I wasn't there.

10:41 I think it was a pretty split crowd. There was obviously the faction of people that were just there for the spectacle. Yeah. But I would say it was maybe.

10:48 I hear the NFL's going to Thailand. Let's give it a try. Yes.

10:51 You know, close to a 50-50 Steelers split with some neutrals in there as well. It was similar to what you and I talked about at Croke Park in Dublin last year where you saw Packers jerseys and Falcons jerseys and 49ers jerseys.

11:03 That's every international game.

11:04 A lot of Eagles jerseys. A lot of different teams represented.

11:08 Like maybe even 32 of them.

11:09 Pretty close. Pretty close. And the stadium there, it was built in the 90s. They built it as the National Stadium of France to try and get the Olympics that ultimately ended up going to Atlanta. Was that 96?

11:20 I would never know.

11:22 But whatever Olympics that was in Atlanta, the Stade de France was built for the purpose of trying to get that in Paris. It ended up going to Atlanta instead. But it got France the 98 World Cup. they've hosted two rugby world cups since there they of course they of course had the 2024 olympics there just just two summers ago and.

11:42 There's you said this last week there's not a home team that's not actually sure i mean there's not a home right.

11:48 There right now there is a french soccer team that plays there because they're building a new stadium of their own but it's like i'm pretty sure it's like it's like a temporary lease okay type thing where you know uh like if Pitt were building a new basketball stadium and they played at PPG Paints Arena for a year or two or whatever the case may be.

12:04 Or like the Titans did when they moved in.

12:06 Exactly right, exactly right. So the stadium was incredible. You would have loved it. They've got the press boxes and stuff. There's pictures of when ACDC was there, when the Rolling Stones were there, and just the history of the World Cups and the rugby and the Olympics. The stadium– you know I'm kind of a dork for those things.

12:23 Yeah, I was curious about it.

12:24 The stadium was really cool too. Okay, just the– And the atmosphere. Like at the stadium, it was bumping. Around the city of Paris, you had to kind of really look to see NFL presence.

12:34 There's not tailgaters everywhere.

12:36 But at the stadium, it was all decked out. Big Aaron Rodgers banners and DK Metcalf banners and Tyler Shuck and Cam Jordan and Steelers and Saints stuff everywhere. And the stadium itself was just– because they did a bunch of renovations before the 24 Olympics.

12:51 Oh, so there's a lot of new stuff.

12:52 All new seats and stuff like that. It was absolutely gorgeous.

12:56 You may not even know this because you're in the press box, but is it different kind of food there? Is it just burgers and dogs for the Americans?

13:03 You would have laughed. And I heard we had this problem in Dublin last year, if you remember, Matt. They ran out of food eventually in the stadium.

13:10 Americans can eat.

13:11 And that's not their culture. Their soccer games, their rugby games, they're two hours long.

13:17 Yeah, you don't go and have a meal or eat. You're not there for.

13:20 Four hours and eat. You neck down a couple pints in the concourse and you go down to your seat and two hours later you're going home.

13:27 You're not hungry when you get there.

13:28 So I think much like happened at Croke Park, again, they ran out of food for the general public and they kind of did for the media too. But they served chicken wings for the media meal before the game. Really? And they were actually pretty good. They were pretty good. So we had an absolute blast. I'm sure we'll continue to tell stories all week.

13:45 Yeah, I want to hear about it all week.

13:47 But we did have a little bit of a panic as well, too. We get there. They show us and everything where we're set up, where we're plugged in.

13:55 Oh, you get there to the stadium.

13:57 I knew you were going to get there really early. It was a 2.30 local start. We were there before 8 a.m.

14:02 Wow, which is way earlier than any other road trip.

14:05 Normally we're there like four hours early.

14:07 And that's plenty of time.

14:08 And that's plenty of time. If this was a regular game, we would have been there at 10, 10.30. Instead, we got there a little before 8 o'clock.

14:15 Because it's nervous or just.

14:16 That– and they don't have broadcast booths like we do. You remember that in Dublin.

14:20 It was just open, yeah.

14:21 You sit out. It's a media gandry, but it's out amongst the people. It's like right in the middle. In the air. It's open air. And it's protected. There's security and there's barriers. It's not like Joe Schmo fan– Randos aren't popping in, right.

14:32 Yes.

14:32 Joe Schmo fan just can't walk in with their terrible towel and their beer.

14:37 Yeah.

14:38 Um, but you're outside. It's not the same kind of press box that we're used to.

14:42 You'll take an elevator up and it's all sealed.

14:44 It's all there. It's easy to set up and all that. And so they show us where to set up and they're like, you guys can just plug your power right into the wall here. And we're like, are you sure? Cause last year in Dublin, uh, Our rack, you've seen it too, our radio rack, it's 300 pounds of equipment. It's a lot of voltage, a lot of power required for that thing.

15:01 You don't just plug it in the wall like in my kitchen.

15:03 Exactly right. So last year in Dublin, we had to have a special voltage grounder box that we plugged into that, and then we plugged that into the wall, into the power supply.

15:12 So it's kind of like in between.

15:13 Yes. They told us we didn't need one of those, and we asked a bunch of times, and they were like, no, you'll be fine. We've got all the right power, this and that. So we're always skeptical. We're in a different country.

15:23 What are you going to do if it's wrong?

15:24 All this stuff. Exactly right. And I had backup equipment just in case. But we plug in, turn on. Boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop. 90 seconds later, everything's connected. We're connected to the radio station. I'm talking to Brian LaMartina back here.

15:38 At the– Why are we here so early? What are we going to do?

15:40 We're here so early. Everything's going great. And then Dan Quinlan and I are like– Oh, you smell that? Yeah, I smell that. What is that? I don't know what's going on. It's a burning smell. We go to the back of the rack and our IFB transmitter, which basically is what we use. So Missy Matthews can hear us down on the sideline.

15:59 How you guys smoking?

16:02 It's on fire.

16:03 It's it's melting and smoking.

16:05 And so we lost our IFB transmitter.

16:08 Okay. Well, I mean, you don't pack five of those.

16:11 Exactly right. And I did some simple troubleshooting stuff. And God bless our engineer back here, Jeff Paul. I'm on the phone with him at like 430 in the morning local time here.

16:21 He's up and.

16:22 Talking to me. We couldn't get it fixed. I want to give a big shout out to the ESPN radio guys who were there. They tried to get us another IFB transmitter, but it just wasn't compatible with our equipment. I was asking the Saints guys if they had any extra stuff. So what we had to do was Missy's wireless microphone still worked, but she couldn't hear anything. She was flying blind.

16:40 So if you ask her a question, she doesn't hear it.

16:42 Exactly right. So what we had to do with Missy was she called the studio here just on a regular phone call. Tom and Brian, Tom Offerman and Brian LaMartina, Tom, host producer, Brian's our boss here working all the boards and everything. They tapped Missy into the phone system for DVE directly. So she was able to hear the broadcast when we were on air and then she'd get the commercials.

17:04 It was like she was listening on the radio.

17:06 Like you were driving around Pittsburgh.

17:07 But they did it for her basically where there was almost, there was like one second of delay. Not bad. So we were able to work with it and God bless Missy for being a trooper.

17:17 In a foreign land playing without your shit.

17:19 She had to do an interview with Roger Goodell before we got this all set up.

17:22 That was on right before me.

17:23 Yes.

17:23 I don't mean to interrupt, but like every time I do the pregame show, I do the pre-pregame show with Tom. And then about an hour in, Missy, they call me up and they're like, you're on, you know, here, scouts on or whatever is what they call it. And I always listen to Missy's conversation. Usually she's talking about the field conditions and these guys are out and blah, blah, blah.

17:41 And there was a conversation with Goodell. And I'm like, did she prerecord that? When you tell me all these problems, I'm like, I wonder how that works. That was a little different too. So what we had to follow Goodell.

17:50 What we had to do was we told Missy, we were like, you're leading right out of the break. So that way there doesn't have to be any communication.

17:56 Oh, okay.

17:57 So normally we'd, you know, Pursuta or Jerry Dulac or whoever would throw it to her when she was ready. She'd be talking to me and Dan and she'd be like, I got Goodell, I got Goodell, throw it. And then we'd relay the message to Jerry and Pursuta. And 15 seconds later, they sent it down to Missy. What we had to do was, and this speaks to the yinzer in all of us. People will like this. Missy's down on the field with Roger Goodell and she's looking up in the booth at myself and Dan. And as soon as it's time to go, Dan starts waving a terrible towel.

18:24 And that's when Missy, that's when, so she's like got like binoculars and she's looking at us with Goodell and she's watching Dan. And as soon as he starts waving his terrible towel, she's we're back.

18:33 Cause they can't be like, Hey, Missy start.

18:34 Right.

18:34 We're back here on the sideline with Roger Goodell. And so big shout out to Missy, big shout out to Dan. We, we made it all work.

18:42 You didn't start a fire.

18:43 Well, we did kind of, we put out the fire very easily. Um, but we made it work. We, uh, we, we went to France and we might've lost one or two battles, but we definitely won the war.

18:53 It sounds like the war went real well.

18:54 Just as we do over there, baby.

18:56 And the Steelers won.

18:57 And the Steelers won, man. 16 to 10. And the Steelers are now five and two.

19:01 Yeah, that's good stuff too.

19:02 As you can imagine, much like going back to, uh, from Dublin last year, spirits Sunday night and then Monday morning getting on the plane and everything. Spirits were very high, rightfully so. Three game win streak. A lot of fun.

19:14 Great trip. Oh, that's awesome. I loved hearing all about that. That was incredible.

19:17 I know you had some fun stuff going on yourself this weekend, but there were a few times that I was like, man, I wish Matt was here with us.

19:24 Oh, yeah.

19:25 Now you're talking, I'm like, couldn't be more jealous.

19:27 He would love this right now.

19:28 I'll be honest.

19:29 When I wasn't going, I was like, eh, only going a couple days, tons of flights, blah, blah, blah. There's unrest. And I'm like, I'll be happy at home. I'm glad I'm missing this one. But now I'm not.

19:39 It's incredible.

19:40 Oh, man. I hope all of our listeners think about it, too, for like the next. Yeah. Overseas trip or whatever, too. If you're on the fence, sounds like you should go.

19:48 I would i would love to go back to dublin for another game and i'm sure the steelers will at some point i but i would love to go back to paris again i i mean the first thing i said to my wife when i got when we got home is i was like we're going there again we're going before like in the next few years you know yeah while we're still young enough to.

20:02 Walk 80 year old man yeah yeah Although it probably wouldn't be bad to be an 80 sitting at one of the cafes drinking wine and watching just people watching.

20:11 Absolutely would not. And you were cracking up. There was a Canadian bar down the street from us, and we went in there one night, and there's a big, huge autograph, Mario Lemieux jersey hanging on the wall.

20:23 I didn't realize it was a Canadian bar.

20:25 Signed, hanging on the wall, and everybody there was like, Lemieux!

20:30 Pepe Le Pew.

20:31 So it was pretty cool. Even some Pittsburgh ties there in Paris. As we all know, you can go anywhere in the world and find some Pittsburgh ties.

20:38 But you saw plenty of terrible towels in general. I mean, it wasn't Dublin-esque.

20:41 You mean pension parible.

20:43 Oh, nice.

20:47 So it was awesome. We'll continue to, obviously, I'm sure more stories will pop up and we'll have Rob King on tomorrow and I'm sure he'll have some stories and some things.

20:54 I might ask him as much French stuff as I talk football with him.

20:57 He was pretty good.

20:58 Yeah.

20:58 I tell you, he was pretty good. Rob King knows how to order the food and the wine and the coffee over there.

21:02 Oh, that would have gone so far.

21:03 Just that in itself. That in itself is all you need.

21:06 You don't want to be this guy that's like, you know, where do I want to, you know, exactly right. Rob, just order for us. And Rob, and West Bras East.

21:15 Yeah, if you're watching on YouTube, there was some really cool, there was four of them. They had these really cool Steelers Radio Paris signs in the booth for us. And I was like, I can take these, right? And they looked at me like.

21:25 Who cares? Throw it all away.

21:27 It's sides in the stadium. So I grabbed, I did bring home, I did bring home some little trinkets, some little souvenirs for the fellas. There's our open. There's a download of, of, of some of the, yeah. And I hope our listeners do too. Obviously we are going to get to football conversation and back to our, our normal operations, but a heck of a trip, a heck of a win for the Steelers. Let's dig into it a little bit when we return on the other side. Just getting started here, guys, you were laughing at me. I've got my, if you're also watching on YouTube, my Victory Donut Monday shirt on.

21:54 I think it still counts.

21:55 Three weeks in a row. I've got to keep it going. Keep it rolling. I've got to keep it rolling here on a Victory Tuesday on The Drive. Wes Shuler, Matt Williamson, Steelers Nation Radio on the Steelers Audio Network.

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23:07 Get that hot dog costume ready.

23:08 Bruh.

23:13 You're tuned to The Drive on your 24-7 home of the black and gold.

23:17 Steelers Nation Radio.

23:27 Matt, I was trying to think in my mind how I could creatively work a Jimmy Buffett reference into the start of this segment here. Is it like I ate the last mango in Paris? Or is it like he went to Paris? I don't know. Jimmy Buffett sang a lot about Paris for some reason. But I was trying to get a line in my head there that would equate to traveling and moving around and things that are kind of universal. I'm just going to stop there because I'll try and get too witty and it won't work out and I'll make a fool of myself. And again, I'm all twisted and on sleep and my hair's all crazy and whatnot.

23:57 Yeah, I'm wondering when you'll get back on track because you're not yet, right?

24:00 No.

24:01 Not even close. Not even close, but that's okay. I'll take that every single time. I don't want to sound like a sappy dork to you, but I was obviously very fortunate to get to experience what I did over the last five days. So I will take the kind of tiredness and unrest and some of it that comes with it. But, Matt, we traveled to Paris, the Pittsburgh Steelers and Steelers Nation, and much like Jimmy Buffett, had a lot of fun doing so. And you and I have kind of talked about where this team's strengths need to be since June, July, August, and throughout the season.

24:33 They need to work on this stuff.

24:35 And the things that travel really well in the National Football League, too. You know, being the team that throws for 400 yards and four touchdowns every week, sometimes that's great. But when it's December in Buffalo, that's tough to do. When it's November in Philadelphia, that's tough to do. I think we've all long thought this Steelers offensive line could and should travel. This Steelers defensive front should and could travel.

24:58 And boy, did they. Yes. And I think particularly on the defensive side of things, they're down some dudes. I mean, they're missing some guys along that defensive front. The secondary is not exactly what we all thought it was going to be. But once again, Matt, for the third straight week, You basically take Jonathan Taylor in that Colts run game out of it. You basically take Bucky Irving in that Tampa Bay Buccaneers run game out of it. The New Orleans Saints had 18 rushing yards on Sunday.

25:27 Tyler Shuck was their leading rusher.

25:29 Tyler Shuck was their leading rusher with three carries for seven yards.

25:33 I think they averaged 1.1 per carry.

25:36 And in an alternate universe, you could have blown that game open with turnovers. I mean, you had two, right?

25:42 The Watt one.

25:43 And they were the right, the Watt one, I think it was the right call, but it's so close to being a massive play, and the Saints end up scoring three there. The Cole Holcomb, the fumble at the goal line, I think it's probably the right call. That one that was a little 50-50 on. Both of them, they called fumbles originally on the field, which means you need inconclusive evidence.

26:02 I thought on the shuck one, you did have it. I didn't know as much about that second one, but that's 10 points right there because the Saints then go in and punch it in on fourth and one, the touchdown pass. That's 10 points right there, man. Patrick Queen should have had it. I tailored the Butterfingers interception.

26:19 He's playing really, really well, but catching the ball is not his forte. No, it is not.

26:23 Keanu Benton was eating people up and blocking passes. Cam Hayward was eating people up and knocking down swatting passes at the line of scrimmage. Matt, I think this defense is starting to settle in a little bit, and particularly in that defensive front. They're going to travel wherever they go, and they're going to make life miserable for teams.

26:41 Yeah, so... A couple notes. It's funny because I've had these conversations for almost 48 hours, but some of our listeners have heard us talk about it and the first you and I have talked about the game. A couple notes. The Watt play I just wanted to mention, I would not have overturned it. whatever was called on the field, I would have stuck with. And that's my only complaint with it. I know that there's different angles.

27:07 That's the kickers. You have to remember what the original call was.

27:10 Right.

27:11 That was my only qualms with how it was called was I would have kept whatever they ruled on the field, the same, you know, based off the replay. I did a hit with Tim Benz yesterday. He was filling in for Mark Madden. He had a good point. I mean, people are like only one by six in this game. Like they really won by nine. I mean, that's not like, oh, well, they should have made this. I mean, they made a field goal they didn't have to make at the end.

27:34 I mean, that matters. They did benefit from a missed field goal. I'm going to go down that road later in the week. It's been another Steeler thing to talk about. But let's talk about the defense because I think it's become very clear what their identity is, and I think it travels, you know, to your point, is first off in this game, I think everything started with Benton and Hayward.

27:56 They just killed those poor guards.

28:00 It was unbelievable.

28:01 Yeah, and that left guard, he's a backup, and he'll be lucky to be a backup for as long as he possibly can.

28:07 They did it to two pretty good offensive lines with the Colts and the Bucs.

28:10 And then the Bucs go stomp the Panthers, all based on line play, by the way. Side note.

28:15 This was not those last two weeks.

28:17 But they destroyed them in the trenches. So anyway, in this game, it started with those two just killing guards. and moving them backwards and either penetrating or just pushing the line of scrimmage in the run game and rerouting running backs over and over and over. And then linebackers flowing the ball with vigor and great, great speed. It's going to be a trend of the week, too, because linebacker speed in this upcoming game is really something for both these teams. And you really felt that. And defensive backs are aggressive triggering downhill right now. And the edge guys are keeping contained really, really well. I'm just talking run stuff. So I've been digging into numbers even more than usual this last 24 hours. Steelers played with the

29:01 second lightest boxes in that game in the whole league this past week.

29:07 You would have thought it was the opposite. You would think they were just loading up to.

29:09 Take away the run. They dominated them with fewer people than you would even think. I mean, really low, heavy box rate. I don't know if I even... I put a lot of stuff on Twitter. I don't remember if I even posted the numbers, but it was really low. Didn't... And that wasn't... You know, reminiscent at all of how they played. So anyway, I think what you're going to see, and some of it is frustrating. I mean, trust me, the group texts with my buddies are still, man, can't they ever get off the field? How about a completion?

29:39 How about an income?

29:39 No.

29:41 A contested catch when the Steelers are on defense? But based on their personnel, they're not going to play a lot of man. They are going to focus on the run, and they've gotten incredibly good at it. They tackle really well lately, and they get a lot of people to the ball. But they're going to give up catches, folks.

29:59 They're going to give up a lot of catches. And some other interesting notes from this game, too, was almost every drive for both teams was 11 plays or longer. It had the most 11-plus play series in like 40 years. I mean, it wasn't meant that people didn't get the ball often, but when they got it, they held it because both teams were short pass, short pass, move the chains.

30:24 One team could actually run. The other one couldn't. long sustained drives, but long sustained drives are hard to pull off in this league. I mean, you're one cam Hayward tip pass or a holding call or a sack or a, you know, Wilson cutting on the ball and picking it off.

30:40 One miscommunication amongst the line or the wide receivers.

30:44 And you don't play against many Tom Brady's that'll just paper cut you to death. And, you know, so there is a patience level too, but the way they're structured and I can't see it changing anytime soon. They should be really good against the run. You hope that keeps up. You're going to allow a lot of short completions, tackle the catch, and make people sustain long drives. The thing I found late last night, side note, my Twitter followers, and many of you are probably listening, thank you, first of all, have been hilarious lately because they're starting to do my stat pack for me.

31:20 Ha ha!

31:21 They like go fire.

31:23 Oh, yeah.

31:23 They're like, what do you think of this one? How about this?

31:25 I love it.

31:26 I'm like, as long as they're not making them up. I'm going to fact check them. But I'm like, so someone sent me this last night.

31:31 Matt, you're like this ripping guitarist who's famous enough now that you have a guitar tech who will just like do the strings for you and tune the guitar up for you.

31:37 Right, right, right.

31:38 He hands it to you and all you got to do.

31:39 Is just play. And just make the packet. How about this? I think you might like this.

31:42 All you got to do is just play. You don't have to tune the guitar.

31:44 It's phenomenal. It's actually getting pretty funny.

31:46 Plug it into your pedal board. The guitar tech does it all for you.

31:48 It's incredible. It's incredible. So like midnight last night, this pops up on my Twitter feed and I look over and I'm like, wow, this is really, really good. The Steelers have faced the least, the fewest drives that have reached the red zone.

32:03 That's good.

32:03 And their red zone defense is really good. And while they do play a lot of zone and they make you, it's more difficult than most defenses to get to the red zone. Once you get there, things get tough too. I mean, it's a lot of constricted bodies. We know that Mid-level quarterbacks always struggle in the red zone. Shuck isn't one of those, by the way. He's a great red zone player that struggled against this red zone defense.

32:28 But it really reminded me of Belichick. Belichick's defenses in history will go down as great. Awesome defensive coordinator. One of the best minds ever. That was his bread and butter.

32:38 How many Super Bowls? They won a couple Super Bowls where the score was like 17 to 10.

32:42 Yeah. Not to mention he was on the LT Giants before he was a head coach and all that.

32:46 He had two rings as a D coordinator. But where did Patrick.

32:48 Graham make his bones? Belichick. I mean, where I was going with this is these Patriot defenses of the McGinnis-Bruski years, they bent all the time. I mean, they would be on the field for a while. They would allow completions. If you can sustain 10, 11, 12 play drives without screwing it up and taking a bad penalty and we'll get you in third and long and then heat you up.

33:10 But when you get to the red zone, you don't get that many points off us. So they were never into the top of the league in yards allowed, but they were always in the top of the league. And most importantly... wins and points points allowed yeah because they practiced i mean people that were there the rodney harrison's that are on media now will be like we practice red zone more than we practice everything else we basically knew people might get.

33:32 There we'll give you between the 30s and between the 20s as.

33:34 Long as you don't screw it up best case.

33:37 Scenario you're getting three points and we're just fine.

33:40 Yeah exactly and i think that's the defense that travels sometimes the colts game you don't get a ton of splash Sometimes you get a ton of splash. The Colts game a year ago with different defensive coordinator, different schemes. It just came to mind. This game, you got a fair amount of splash. And if you get the splash, which this defense is good at, they're near the top of leagues and takeaways. They're a good pass rushing team.

34:02 They bat down passes. It's hard to play against. The day ends, even though you're frustrated watching it on your lazy boy going, man, there's a lot of easy completions. How's that going to work against Burrow and Chase? Probably not as well, but. They do that to everybody.

34:18 They sure do.

34:19 And at the end of the day, you're like, they only let up 10 points. They only let up, what was it, 14 the week before or whatever.

34:24 Right.

34:25 If I'm keeping teams under 20, you're going to win a lot of games.

34:27 You're going to win a lot of football games. Yeah. Via the desk of intrepid video producer Tyler V. Steelers have given up 12 touchdowns this season, fourth fewest in the league, have given up the most field goal attempts at 22, tied for the most field goals made against at 18. But get this, the average distance of a field goal against the Steelers is 43 yards. Okay. Which basically means right outside the red zone.

34:52 Yeah, you've moved the football.

34:53 You've moved the football, but now you're at the 20, 25, and you ain't going nowhere.

34:57 Okay. That's good stuff. Some of that might even make the packet. You can be on my Twitter following list, TV. Good work. Yeah. The one thing now that I'm thinking of the cult of Matt Williams, the thing I was fiddling with this morning was, you know, how I was talking about field goal luck. The Steelers have also been the, they've also had the most misses against them of any team in the league.

35:17 Okay.

35:17 But they've also a lot of attempts to TV's point.

35:20 And I would say to be fair, it's not like four misses. It's not like Chris, it's not like to be fair. English pig dog. You know how many times I said that over? Oh, I bet you English pig dog. Uh, Boz has missed a few this year too.

35:35 There's been eight misses in Steeler games. That's a lot.

35:37 That's a lot. In seven games, that's a lot.

35:39 Yes. So only two or three teams have missed more kicks than the Steelers. There's two or three that have missed five. But none have had their opponents miss more than the Steelers, which is four.

35:51 Gotcha.

35:51 And that's field goal luck. The Boz part's not luck.

35:54 No.

35:55 Teams are going to probably make a higher percentage. But what I didn't realize, and now I'm going to add to the group, is... Well, if you kick a lot more field goals against the team, you're going to miss more.

36:03 Totally.

36:03 Because you're not scoring that many touchdowns or getting in the red zone.

36:06 Totally. Matt, I also love this. The Steelers on offense, 10 of 16 on third down. Yeah, that was a story, too. That's something that was– and I think at half it was like six of nine at half. Really? They were so good at it in the first half. I mean, 20 first downs, over 32 minutes of possession. This is– This is, again, we're starting to see how this team is going to win games.

36:30 Yeah. The identity is really becoming more and more prevalent on both sides of the ball. And just in the whole building, the whole franchise.

36:37 And don't look now. We will really turn the page tomorrow. But obviously there's a huge one at Accresure Stadium on the North Shore this weekend. Five and two Steelers against the five and two Browns. Just like we all predicted before the season started. Of course. after that we'll hit the bye week and you and I will really be able to do some reset, bigger picture conversation. And we can talk about, has your thoughts on the Steelers ceiling, you know, changed and how good do you think this team could be? And man, tell you what, you beat the Browns on Sunday and you moved to six and two and we'll really start having some of those conversations.

37:07 Yeah.

37:07 I mean, you're driver's seat, but I think all of the kind of key points of if the Steelers are going to, once again, contend for a division title, once again, go back to the post season and, they're going to have to do X, Y, and Z. I think so far, so good in a lot of those regards.

37:21 Yeah. So much to unpack here. And I'm going to talk about a lot of different facets of it too, but it was pretty clear and just watching coach McCarthy and his staff and the hiring process and first couple of trips to the podium and then being around those guys a little bit in camp, not that the, and this isn't comparing it to the old staff, but obviously this staff had a plan and everyone does, but, It's working.

37:49 You know what I mean? Like it was a well thought out plan. How do we, you know, every little bit of it, how do we develop drew our, you know, something we only haven't seen in two months, but he had a very succinct plan. How are we going to practice exactly? You know, how are we going to not be the worst fourth quarter quarter defense in the league?

38:06 You know, you know, how are we going to change our offensive personnel around? That's a conversation I want to have real soon here. Six, a lineman all of a sudden.

38:13 Yeah.

38:14 Yeah.

38:14 To me, they're adapting to their surroundings, but they're also having their surroundings adapt to them.

38:19 A little bit of Jack on both sides.

38:21 Right, right, right.

38:21 To be a product of my environment. To be a product of me. Translate that to French for me, TV, please.

38:26 I mean, it's easy when you're sitting there with Mr. Rooney saying, I'd like to be your head coach. And these are the things I think I should change. Well, six, seven months later or whatever, and you change them and they're working. I mean, every head coach, I mean, the Titans head coach sat down with them and said, I got these plans too. Like, oh, let's see the results.

38:44 Robert Sala said, we're going to do this, this, this, and this.

38:46 We're going to turn Cam Ward into a great player.

38:48 In your own five. Although they're looking a little bit better. The last two weeks, they're starting to... To show some life. In an hour or two, we'll go around the league and actually, Matt.

38:56 Big trade today. Ravens-Bengals was nuts.

39:00 I was driving in here today like, how are we going to, Craig Wolfley, how are we going to fit these 10 pounds of potatoes into an 8-pound sack.

39:06 For today's show?

39:06 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

39:07 For today, yes.

39:08 Because some trades and a lot of stuff going on around the league. And it was a wild Saturday in college football that we're going to get to a little bit tomorrow when we go around campus. dante moore we're not going to see any more.

39:17 Of him this season there's a lot going on.

39:19 Quentin nelson the guy that we just talked about a ton rightfully so two weeks ago has been traded.

39:24 Who's next who's gonna be a lot of guys on the move.

39:26 So a a ton to get here today to get to here today but i think that was was really kind of from the x's and o's and what we still want to discuss from the game a lot of what i wanted to talk about there and you did a great job of laying that all out but.

39:39 Folks i get used to seeing completions against the steelers i mean i you can't have everything perfect you're not yeah and It also still makes me crazy. People think it's 1976. You were on this rant last week. It's like, you're not going to shut teams out every week and hold them.

39:53 To three points. You're not giving up 180 yards and 13 points a week anymore.

39:56 Seven sacks.

39:57 The Steelers' 2008 defense is not walking through that door. Yeah. The Ravens' 2001 defense is not walking through that door.

40:03 And it's easy to complete passes in this league. I mean, a completion is not the end.

40:06 Of the world.

40:07 Everybody does it.

40:10 Everybody's doing it.

40:11 Yes. But if you make it one-dimensional, okay.

40:14 Absolutely. and they certainly did that to the Saints. Shuck had some success through the air.

40:18 I thought he played really well.

40:19 Yeah, but he also got to them and rattled them a little bit and won many more of the battles than they lost, and that ultimately... I'm going to make this joke all week. Like we do in France, just won the war for the Steelers, baby. 16-10 NFL Paris game. History in the books. There's a lot of history out there in France, without a doubt. That was one of the things, and we'll talk to Kinger about this tomorrow, but he was... He was explaining to me so much of the stuff. He's like, Dublin and Ireland, it's really cool.

40:50 But their history there kind of started in the 1910s in Dublin.

40:54 Which is infantile compared to Europe.

40:56 Which is infantile compared to a lot of these buildings and a lot of these streets and a lot of this history.

41:01 It's like people in America think. you know, boy, that's an old building.

41:05 Rob and I are walking in like that. Now I need to see the Greece Pantheon too, by the way, because I've seen the French one, which was immaculate. Now I need to see the Greek one. But Rob and I are walking through that whole Notre Dame Pantheon area. And he's like, these roads here seem really wide to you for European cities, don't they? I'm kind of like looking around and I'm like, yeah, actually, now that you mentioned it, yeah.

41:25 Not like you've been to as many as him, but okay.

41:26 But like, you know, I've been to Rome. I've been to Dublin. I've been to Madrid and Barcelona. I'm like, yeah, you know what? You're right. These streets are a little bit wider.

41:32 He goes- I mean, Dublin was narrow.

41:34 Nobody was it. Kinger goes, yeah, that's because back in the day, Napoleon wanted to march his armies down the street, so they widened them.

41:43 That's actually where- I know we're up against it, but I was curious, like, there's an awesome- world war ii tom hanks uh series that came out a year ago or so and i watched everyone was like 24 parts and i knew some world war ii but i and it dawned on me it's like much less so than dublin there had to be so much destruction less than 100 years ago i mean so many buildings blown up and bad stuff that happened because world war ii happened in your backyard you know like america Fortunately, America hasn't had to deal with those type of things ever.

42:16 I believe, right, the Civil War is the only one we've had in the American Revolution.

42:20 No one's dropping huge bombs on each other or destroying things. But I was wondering, some of their old stuff isn't there anymore. You know what I mean? It sure is, man.

42:30 And they actually still were putting on– the Notre Dame Cathedral caught on fire in 2019.

42:34 Yeah.

42:36 I would say it's probably 95% of the way rebuilt, but they still had a couple scaffolding and cranes and areas where they were doing the final touches.

42:42 So it's not original.

42:44 But they also, anytime they do stuff like that, they have to be so careful and take so much time, abundance of caution, because if you mess one thing up, it's like that's gone forever.

42:53 That's kind of what I was thinking, too.

42:54 It's like, how do you restore that city? That thing's hundreds of years old, and if you move one brick the wrong way, it's gone.

43:00 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

43:01 Wild. Really cool. Two around-the-league things that I want to hit on with you quickly when we close down the first hour. On the other side, Euler and Williamson. It's The Drive, Steelers Nation Radio on the Steelers Audio Network.

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43:44 Louis, Missouri.

43:46 I used to have cable internet, but I'm a 100% kind of fan, so I switched to Verizon Fios. It's 100% fiber internet that's super reliable. So I streamed 100% of the NFL draft live with ultra low lag.

43:56 And after what went down in.

43:57 The first round, still getting video calls from my best friend, rubbing it in that he called all the picks.

44:03 I told you they were building their own line. I win the bet.

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44:13 Get that hot dog costume ready. Bruh.

44:24 You're tuned to The Drive on your 24-7 home of the black and gold.

44:28 Steelers Nation Radio.

44:40 Matt, we only got a couple minutes here after two beefy segments to start us off, but two important things. We're going to go around the league and talk about some other games to kick off our tour.

44:50 Are we power ranking today? Do we have time for that?

44:52 We'll do that tomorrow. Let's do that tomorrow.

44:53 That's fine.

44:53 Let's do that tomorrow. We'll power rank tomorrow. We'll do a round campus tomorrow.

44:56 Yeah.

44:56 And we'll start to look ahead.

44:57 There's a lot of talk on those runs, too.

44:59 A lot to look ahead to in Cleveland. But the two big things, Matt, for two big men, offensive linemen in the league, we kind of mentioned this, but Quentin Nelson, one of the finest, if not the finest guard of his generation, the eight-time pro bowler, his contract's up at the end of the year with the Colts. They're going nowhere, cleaning house. They've already fired their general manager, Chris Ballard.

45:18 He was traded to the Seattle Seahawks today. That Seahawks team, they might be starting to heat up at the right time.

45:25 Feeling themselves after a big win. Big win against the Chiefs. Yeah, and So I don't know how much time we have. I don't want to go too deep into it. We can bring it up over the course of the year. But I do think there is a massive fire sale going on in Baltimore or Baltimore, Indianapolis. And I could see their next year. I mean, they don't have their own first round pick. You know, the Jets are sitting there going, sell everybody. Don't win again. Yeah, we got your pick.

45:48 Right.

45:49 That I think sauce definitely. taylor buckner downs all could be on the move they.

45:56 Need all the draft capital they can get.

45:57 Yeah i think you're gonna it's gonna be a i bet the colts year next year resembles the dolphins this year it's like we're gonna be terrible we know we're gonna be terrible get rid of all the old give the gm just a blank slate eat our veggies need our veggies in a big way but i love us for seattle i mean uh adam schefter tweeted this out that they are expecting to get a bunch of comp picks next year including third-rounders, because they lost Walker.

46:19 Sure.

46:20 They lost the corner. They lost Moffay. They lost a ton more than they brought in.

46:25 Which always happens when you win a Super Bowl.

46:27 You win a Super Bowl, you get pillaged. And so they have third-round picks coming back. So they're basically just swapping out one of their comps for Nelson, give or take. What I'm really interested in to nerd it out is the best position on their offensive line is left guard, is Gray Zabel. And Nelson is not moving. He's going to be the left guard.

46:43 Sure.

46:44 Get Trent Williams to say, go, why don't you play the right? I'm a left tackle. I'm not moving at this stage of my career. So I wonder, does Zabel go to center? The right guard position just came back. I'm just curious how their line's going to shake out. Yeah, but it got a lot better and a lot better.

47:00 And who's to say that the Seahawks don't resign him? I mean, you're renting him, but if I'm him, Times haven't been great in Indy, and I get to go to this Super Bowl chance.

47:10 Yeah.

47:10 I'm like, they're going to give me a legit deal, and this is fun, and we win a Super Bowl or win the division or whatever. I'll just hang out here. Or maybe they even franchise them. I don't know. I mean, but that was the missing– the weakest part of the Super Bowl Seahawks was the interior of the row line.

47:24 And when they drafted a running back the first round, I'm like, that should have been a guard or a center. Worked out all right for them.

47:30 Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then speaking of guards, Matt, this one's a bummer. Obviously, we do not worry about the Baltimore Ravens' problems. And as Mike Tomlin said, in fact, we're glad that they have them.

47:40 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

47:41 But we were obviously big fans of Venga Ioane. For all of you who listened to us throughout the draft process, he has been doing outstanding. He's been maybe the best rookie offensive lineman in the league. He has a sprained MCL and is expected to miss time. No kind of time.

47:58 I don't know if IR is in line or not.

47:59 They said shorter term.

48:00 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

48:01 A couple weeks at least. You could still say IR is shorter term.

48:04 That's four weeks.

48:05 Yeah.

48:06 But that's actually good news because when it happened, people thought it might have been season ending. It would have been tragic. I mean, he said he was living up to everything we thought in the draft.

48:15 So certainly something to keep an eye on there. We hope he's OK. Again, we do not we do not weep for the Baltimore Ravens problems. We don't like to see anybody hurt in the process either. And he was one.

48:24 That we spent. They have some crazy stuff going on.

48:25 They really do.

48:26 Yeah.

48:26 They really do. And let's table that for now. We'll talk about it. Let's talk about that more to kick off hour number two here. Hour in the books. Let's go around the league when we return. Let's talk more about Steelers 16, Saints 10 on the other side as well. Euler, Williamson, it's The Drive, Steelers Nation Radio on the Steelers Audio Network.