The South Side Beat - Ep. 296: Previewing the Falcons

0:00football is back and this is believed your home for NFL and college football news and analysis all season long. Now let's start the show. Guys, we finally made it tomorrow. We are recording this September 12th at noon tomorrow in 25 hours. The Steelers and Falcons will be kicking off at the Fadakrischer Stadium. I am so excited. Thank you for joining today show. The Southside beat here on DK Pittsburgh Sports. Brought to you by our friends at the Fandals Sports book. My name is Chris Alex, Steelers Beat Writer, and joining me as always, my co-host, my good friend, Matt Williamson. Matt, we made it. Yeah, I'm pretty sighted. And watching those two games was a blast. And going to watch your college today. You know, a big one tonight. A couple of quarterbacks to pay attention to. We can get in that mode as well. I think it's all about the opener.

1:00And I don't mean to spoil the lead here or bury the lead, but I think Atlanta is a pretty favorable matchup for this Pittsburgh Steelers opener. Yeah, we are definitely going to get into that. And for those who are new to the show who have not listened before or who have not listened as much while we're in season, these shows are typically divided into two halves. And it is the first game that we've ever played. And we're going to get into two halves. And it is the first half is kind of looking back at the last game. And then the second half is looking forward to the next game. And obviously this being the first game in the season. There's not a game to look back on. We've already, you know, dug through the Steelers getting handled by the Texans. But what we can do right now is look at at least to start off because this does impact the game coming up tomorrow on Sunday at Acresure Stadium between the Steelers and Falcons. Joey Porter Jr. Two, like, again, we're recording this. It is 12 o'clock 2 p.m. right now. Yeah. Joey Porter Jr. is not signed to a contract extension yet.

2:00Now, this is a really, really tricky situation because it is. I don't think it's as simple as he signs he plays. I really don't think that. I think there's some legitimacy to the back issue. If not, like the back issue was that big of a deal. It's at least going to impact his conditioning and his football readiness and the way he plays. I don't know what that meant. So I don't know a lot about agents and who has what players, etc, etc. But a body of mine told me that this Porter's agent is the same one that Mike Parsons had when he had negotiation issues with the Cowboys. And he mentioned it just so happened to the Cowboys. And he said, I don't know what that meant. So I don't know a lot about agents and who has what players, etc, etc. But a body of mine told me that this Porter's agent was a very difficult injury to diagnose. He kind of has to trust the player. My back hurts coach. I can't play. And apparently, whenever they got to about this point, Parsons told Jerry Jones,

3:00I'm sorry, but you're going to have to put me on, you know, Pupp or short term, I are because my back just isn't cutting it. And coincidentally, he did not have a contract. And I think that's the reason why I'm going to have to put my back to the point. I'm sorry, but you're going to have to put me on Pupp or short term, I are because my back just was a little more in the past. I'm just throwing that out there. I mean, those are facts I stated. I'm not leaning, saying anyone's doing anything, foul play, etc, etc, etc. But I've been saying, and I say this every year, but I mean it more and more as the years go on. Players need to rotate in the early games of the season. No one is playing 60 snaps in one sitting during the preseason on any team. And the Steelers, even this was a Tomlin training camp, I would say the same thing, but especially as much as McCarthy, sack these guys. Yeah. So if Porter signs the minute after we hit record, and he starts, that's great.

4:00But in terms of rotation, I mean that more for the big guys, but I mean it for everybody. We know quarterbacks and alignment aren't going to rotate in, but everybody should, especially if you're playing in Denver, Miami, Jacksonville, Tampa Bay, hot or, you know, a lot or high climate. Now, when this situation, if Porter signs a minute from now, I would say, Joey, I'm not going to have you follow Drake London. We're just going to left right it, and I don't know what the staff does in that regard anyway, but that's asking a lot. I'm not going to be like, hey, follow Jamar Chase all around. You sign a contract. I think that's crazy. And London's a great player. Not to mention, Dean squared off against London twice a year in the NFC South, so he's highly familiar with them. Yeah. And, and you, as you mentioned off the air, I would rotate Samuel in quite a bit, especially for Porter because he's earned it. And I don't trust Porter's conditioning at this point. So it's not a terrible situation, but that's how I

5:01handled it. It's not a terrible situation. And I think, you know, because the one thing that we do know that if an extension is not done, excuse me, by 102 p.m. on Sunday, there's not going to be an extension done this year. Yeah, it's not happening. The Steelers do not negotiate once the season begins. So they have until one oh one p.m. in theory to get this done. If a deal does not get done, I, I think the question becomes because the questions that Joey have been asked, he's not been consistent. Like yesterday, he, he talked about, he was asked directly, are you optimistic that something is going to get done? And he's like, no, I'm, I'm not really optimistic, like no, not really. That was his direct response. No, not really. But then later on, he said, I'm trying to be optimistic. And it's like, I think what he really wants is he wants to be able to say whatever he wants in

6:01public and he's been. What he wants is you guys have asked him questions about it. Well, really. That's probably it too. That's probably it too. But he's also probably under specific instructions to not talk about, number one, to not talk about how much he was participating in practice. And I think that's just from the team. Do not talk about what you're doing in practice and everything like that. That's probably from the team. And that's fine. But when it comes to the contract stuff, that's probably from his agent. Don't talk about anything. Don't say, you know, and tell them, like, or if you're going to say anything, tell them, I'm not playing. Or I can't, I can't answer whether I'm going to play or not. Now, because the agent is trying to keep all the leverage out there too, it's, it's a really, it's a really difficult situation for Joey to be in it. And I understand. It is. But at the same time, and I don't mean for this to sound like pro team, because it's not in it all. I think Joey should get paid. I really do. Oh, yeah. I like how much we can fight about, but he should definitely get paid a big contract. Like for me, if I were the GM, if I were Steelers GM, what I would have offered him by now, and I think it would get it done, but I

7:01don't know. I would have offered him four years, 120 million. And I would actually think. And I would give him at least 60 million guaranteed. Mm-hmm. And I think. I can't imagine he'd say no to that. I can't imagine it either, but that's what I would offer. It makes him, it puts him in the top seven with corners, which I think is about where you would argue him to be right now anyway in the top seven range of all corners in the league. And I think that's pretty consensus. I don't think there would be a lot of people to be like, no, he's not top seven or he's not top ten or anything. No, they're probably. And by the way, in two years, it's a bargain and. Right. And plus half the contract is not even guaranteed. So like you, you, you still have a lot of flexibility moving forward. But if Joey, he does a human side of it too. I mean, the dealers would hand you a massive check right now that you just put right in your bank account. Right. Exactly. That's how it's going to go. Now, I think, yeah, I think, but I think from Joey's perspective, if, if a deal does not get done, you have to, like, you have to kind of just turn the page.

8:02If a deal does not get done by one or two PM by the time the ball is kicked off and Akershore Stadium tomorrow, like put your head down and play and just you just got to put your head down and play and then and then it's like, listen, now it's about having that chip on my shoulder be as big as it possibly can. Sure. Well, your season ever. Yeah, have an all pro season, like, like do everything you've done in man coverage to this point of your career, like repeat that. But intercept four passes instead of one. Don't go back to taking a lot of penalties or being a portacular. Things you've improved upon. Right. Keep, keep on top of, you know, repeat what you did last season, but intercept three more passes than you did last season. And then you get franchise. Then you get franchise was guarantee you 23 million bucks. It's still better than what you got, right? And probably gets you a contract extension next off season, no matter what. Probably. So that's what I would do. Like, that's what I think Joey should do. I'm a reporter. I'm not like saying what.

9:03What needs to happen when it comes to, you know, the player side, the team side. I understand the team, you know, what's the season begins like, hey, we don't negotiate anymore. It's all about football at that point. I get it. It's not a, it's not a great situation. But the good thing is, like, like we talked about. The Steelers are in a great situation here because they don't have to feel like Joey has to be ready to go and play 65 snaps tomorrow because it's not to say, Emil Jr has been. Arguably their best player on defense throughout the preseason. Yeah. And that camp. That's a great point. And you got Everett waiting in the wings. And, you know, I think they're happy with Dean thus far. Yeah. But I agree with all that. But I also believe they want to lean on man coverage. I mean, big picture before the draft, before even signing Dean, when they hired the new defensive coordinator Graham. Yeah. We're going to base a lot of it around Porter's man abilities. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. You're not going to, you're not going to. So what you've done here, you're not going to have a team, you're going to want to go, you're not going to have a

10:05team. So what you've done here is you're going to have a team with a team that holds up to that position. And then you're going to have to feel like, you know. That's a great point. It's kind of like heavy man coverage. You're still in zone more often than man. It's still under 50% right? Yeah. But when you're in third down, if it's like third in sixth, you're going to try. Yeah. Red zone. You're going to be a man. You're going to trust your guys to be able to lock down the when ever Christian Gonzalez would be matched up man on man with JSN, he did pretty good. Like he had a couple of past. He had a very good game. He had a very good game, but then when they have him play zone and it's on fourth down, JSN finds that spot, gets open and all he needs is a little bit of grass to catch the ball and then go and score. Now as a fantasy owner, especially in our league that we play together, getting JSN at ninth overall, I'm stoked. You're okay. That coaches are going to be running that kind of defense on fourth down where I can let my receiver get 26.2 points in the season opener. But my point is when you have those corners,

11:11let your guys be your guys in those high leverage situations. And yes, I think they want that with Joey. I think that's why they sign Jim Mel Dean and then when you have a San St. St. St. St. Emil Jr. and what he's capable of. And and and St. St. Emil is also really, really good. Like in terms of like reading and reacting so he can play in the zone stuff when he needs to break on the ball. You know, right? Yeah. Yeah. So I think they're in a good situation. Regardless of what happens with Joey, it sucks that they're in this because Joey's a really great player. And I know that they want to keep him long term. I know that at least he said he still wants to stay long term. But this is just this sucks. It does. It does. Including Eccles and Ramsey and including the current contract conundrum. I still think it's the best corner room has been on opening day in a long time. Oh, I'm trying to. I'm trying to. I'm trying to. Yeah. Mel one. I think even whenever you had like Ike Taylor and who was opposite Ike Taylor? No way. And say they weren't. Right. They weren't. They definitely weren't as deep as a bright McFadden. Who was obviously I'm terrible remembering that kind of stuff.

12:15And as great as Ike is I'll take Porter over Ike. Yeah. Well, yeah. On the best day. Yeah. I think so to Porter is legit in that man coverage. Guys, this episode of the South Side Beat is brought to you by our friends at the Fandals Sportsbook. And football season is not only like starting to like footballs already started. Like the season is already underway. We have two games underway. An entire slate of Sunday games are coming up. Now is the time to check out the Fandals Sportsbook for all the latest odds features and win totals. If you think the Steelers are going to win their division and right now third best odds on Fandal to to win the AFC North, which I think is actually a pretty good bet. Yeah. I'm going to tell you how to spend your money. But I think that's a pretty good bet right now because I think I don't know who saw my prediction, but I predicted the Steelers goal 11 and six this year, which would win the division. So hey, it might be a good bet. It might not. Yeah. Anyway, whatever your game, the Fandals Sportsbook delivers all the latest lines features as special so you can join in on all the action. Speaking of wins and getting to old

13:22number like 11, you got to take care of a team like the Falcons, especially in their current state, man. Who? Yeah. Now, okay, let's let's break this down. Let's let's talk about where the Falcons are dangerous. Let's do that first. Be sure. Be sure. Be sure. Is the massive elephant in the room. Yeah. How do you not stop? Be sure. How do you contain? Be sure. How do you not let him just completely take over the game? I don't know that there's a right answer for that to be honest with you. I'm that high on the player. Certainly them having what called subpar or questionable quarterback play makes it a little easier to dedicate everything you possibly can to them. And if Cooper rush beats me, it's kind of like the T-bow playoff game. I can live with it. You know, if he can execute for 60 minutes enough to beat my offense and I can at least limit B-john, you're not going to shut him down. I can live with it. Now, I do a Thursday night show with Merrill Hodge, former running back.

14:25Know the thing or two about tape as well and like for Suda. And I immediately I always ask Merrill about the opposing running backs, you know, and he like jumped out of his skin. And I have to tell the story because he was embellishing the little, but he's like, he kind of reminds me of a mix of Barry Sanders and Walter Payton. I'm like, wow, that's pretty good. And he's like, I know, and I don't make those kind of comparisons, but he's that good. He's, he's an all-time great. And he told a story that I just have to retort and I mentioned it on the drive. He said when they played against Barry Sanders, the offensive scout team played with 12 guys and they would have two ball carriers. So when they would run outside zone, for example, they would have two guys with the ball follow each other and then they would break different ways so that the defense would not lose contained because Barry's coming back at you if you're the backside contain. You know, like, yeah, he's like, that's how you have to prepare for this guy too because he gets ungodly yardage on his own. And oh, by the way,

15:26he's a great receiver. I mean, he's gonna get his. He just can't get to hunt. He led the entire NFL in in George from his last year. Yeah. Oh, speaking of that fantasy league, you guys were kind enough to let him fall to three to me. Hey, hey, I don't know who was picking to the fantasy champ. You can't be giving me gifts like that. I don't know who was picking to. You're just giving the defending champ. Beijon. I'm going to throw it. Mike. Don't make it that easy. I don't know. I don't know what was the bigger the bigger gift. Beijon a three or JSN at nine. Yeah, not bad. Yeah. But yeah. So, yeah, Beijon not only led the NFL, like the entire league in yards from Scrimmage last year, he led all running backs in yards per touch. It's crazy. Yeah. And he was like sixth. I think it was sixth in the NFL in yards per touch. I don't know if you saw the bullet point I put together for Matt Stats, but it just goes on and on and on and on and on and on about Beijon. It's it's yeah, he is a special special player. It is not a situation where you're trying to shut him down. It is a

16:27situation where don't let him take over the game and pretty much make Cooper rush beat you. Like put make like make sure make sure you put them in third and long situations. You you have to win on first and second down. Put them in one dimensional situations where you have to make Cooper rush beat you. Make sure that you don't lose contain of you know the check down to Beijon on those plays. Oh yeah. That kind of stuff. It's it's it's it's important that adds to the importance a little bit of porter because I would like to play more man. Yes. Maybe even a zero here and there and cover one here and there. Yeah. You know, just more people dedicated to Robbins. I would agree with that. A couple of other targets on on offense that I think could it cause some fits. Oh no, Drake London is a really good receiver. Great but he missed five games last year but you know, year before that kind of you know, actually like finally like came out and showed like okay, he's a legit receiver Kyle Pits while came into the league with this massive hype that he was

17:27like the next grunk or anything like that. He actually had a really good year like cause caught 88 passes a career high for him and was named second team all pro and they just paid all three of those guys and they're they're on the prime. They're dangerous. Yeah. Yeah. It's it's they got some weapons. Cooper rush on some weapons and here's the thing with Cooper rush and we can this is where we can kind of transition to maybe the rest of the offense and we'll get to the defense here in a second but with Cooper rush like you can look at his stats from last year in Baltimore. First off, I think I might have been a better fit for the Baltimore offense that Cooper rush. I didn't understand that at all right. That that that fit just it was a square peg in a round hole like there was no fit for Cooper and I think that's why they brought back to New Puntly because it that was always the perfect backup for Lamar. Yeah, like why do you ever get away from that? He was the light version of Lamar that you could just plug and play into the same system. Cooper rush does not move. He's not mobile. He's not he's not a threat to run.

18:27But for people don't know Cooper rush at it. These best things with McCarthy and Dallas, which is a nice familiarity for the Steelers too. It really is because when you look at what what because in in 2024, you know, Dak had you know that that injury and Cooper you know Cooper rush had to start different eight games that year. So started almost half the season. I don't care. Look at those numbers that they weren't that bad when they weren't when he in those eight games he started. He had a pass rating of 86.6 like you'll take that. They won games and yeah, they moved the ball and obviously he had targets to throw to he had to land the throat to you know, he he had some guys he could throw to. So Cooper rush can get the job done. He's not going to shrink in this you know he's started 16 games in the NFL like this isn't going to be too big for him. So I it's similar for Rudolph for starting right and that's it's fun because like Mason Rudolph has only three more starts in his career than Cooper rush. So yeah, it's it's very very similar like he's not going to like I said, he's not going to shrink in the situation. Now he's obviously

19:32limited in what he can do. He's you know, he's not a playmaker. He's yeah, he's not a playmaker. He's not going to you know create outside you know, out of structure too much. So you again, if you can contain Bijon, make Cooper rush beat you and the defense can really get back there. Yeah, that'll that'll get done. I think you'll see Ramsey on pits a lot. I think you'll see whoever's on London including Porter maybe get some help you know and then and their other receiver you're on your own. You know, I mean, could there it's John thoughts in or you mean, it's not a good group. Yeah, as a key as I think is in it. That's who's going to start. Yeah. Yeah. And it's the fanski did a lot of multiple tight end stuff with the Browns. I assume you'll see plenty of 12 you know, yeah, yeah, I believe so too. All right, going to the defense of side the strength is obviously in the secondary AJ Terrell former former all pro. But by far in my opinion, I think the secondary is vastly underrated in the front seven. It's pretty terrible. Yeah, I would have agreed that because when you look at AJ Terrell and then

20:36them drafting his brother, Aby on Terrell, in the two of them starting first off a really cool story for the Falcon. That is pretty awesome. Yeah, because not only two brothers, but like from that area like it's really really cool to see that Aby on Terrell, the rookies going to be coming in starting as their nickel. But good prospect. He was a first pick guys. Yeah, he's a good prospect. Yeah, they do it just because he's cam Hayward's brother. Right. From the seventh round. I mean, he was a really legit prospect. No, he was. So he was actually I think this I think the Steelers met with him during the like I think they liked them. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah. Yeah. Um, but they're, but they're, they're, they're strength. They're safety's are they're safety's like Jesse Bates. Uh, obviously has been in the league for a while. The Steelers have seen him plenty. Uh, and then Xavier Watts coming in as a rookie last year led the Falcons with five interceptions. He had nothing 96 tackles. Uh, like he, he was just, he came in a bald out right away. It's one of the best safety pairings in the league without. Yes. I, I, I would recognize it that way. Yeah. And while under Jeff Albrick, the, the defensive coordinator,

21:37which, just if you guys get retained very smart to retain right. Yeah. Uh, well, so the Falcons were on a lot of single high. They, they like ran almost more single high than almost and I think they were fourth in the NFL and single high. Yeah. They also were second highest in cover for usage. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They will line up and play a lot of quarters as well. So what pretty much if they're in too high, they're in quarters. Yeah. That's pretty much the way it goes. And they were dead last and cover zero. So they're not going to be bringing a lot of zero pressure unless they're just going to change that. I'd be shocked. I'd be shocked. I'd be shocked. Like I, again, I don't, yeah. And listen, the Falcons last year were second in the NFL and sacks. And they were near the top of the league and like pressure rate. And so you have to think that's where I wanted to go. Yeah. Because you have to think because that's where you, okay. Now we get to the front seven. They, first of all, they don't have the two starting edge rushers. Right. Jalen Walker and, and, and, and Pierce, you know, Pierce is suspended for eight games. Jalen Walker's out for the season. That hurts. That was 16 or their size. Oh, it's a killer.

22:37Right. You used to first run picks on those guys and they both hit. You got neither. So a couple of notes, if you don't mind. When they do show that cover four look, I highly question their ability in the front seven to stop the run. Yeah. I mean, not, not that safety's can't get inserted into it and all that. But one part, sorry, just really quick part of cover, part of cover four is, and this is a big misconception is that because you're playing match like you're, you're four deeper matching up against the one and the two on, on the start of the formation. Well, if it's a run, both safeties can come crash down. So you can have as many as nine in the box to defend the run. Yeah. Yeah. They play the run faster than if they were single high folks. Or so. Correct. Yeah. Correct. So just want people to understand like if they're covered four, I'll just run the ball. No, like safeties can come up and join, join the party. Absolutely. But there's also that fan Joe aspect where they asked offensive linemen to do the gap in a half stuff and they don't know Jaylen Carter to do that stuff. It's kind of a correct point. You know, there's no question. So this is one of the most interesting chess matches to me. You mentioned

23:38Ulbrich and I think I'm a big fan only Flores in Minnesota blitzed more than him, even though he did have two good edge rushers and they finally fixed their path first. They were the, they had the fewest sacks over the last 20 years going into last season. Steelers had the most. Um, so they find these two edge rushers and they blitz a lot and they get home a ton. So same coordinator, worst pass rushers, you would think boy, he might have to blitz even more to get home. And I think that's 1000% true. But here's the rub. The Steelers, Rodgers were the least blitz team in the entire league. Because why on earth would you blitz Rodgers because the ball comes out too fast to get home? So I'm not going to waste bodies coming after him. Plus he's so good pre snap. He knows what's coming. So does Ulbrich take the approach? All the other defensive coordinators do and say I'm not going to blitz. And but defensive coordinators despise when a quarterbacks is sitting there patting the ball, you know, under no duress. And then finally in the fourth quarter,

24:40is he like, I have to bring the house. I can't generate pressure any other way. Or does he blitz from the start and Aaron either gets hit a lot in the young offensive line doesn't pick it up well. Or he's hitting Metcalf on slants that he's taken to the house, you know what I mean? Right. It is really, really quick just to interject here. You have Aaron Rodgers who has history with Jeff Ulbrich because Ulbrich was the interim head coach with the Jets. I forgot about that one. Yeah. So I'm like Russian McCarthy. And then yeah, we talked about earlier, you know, Mike McCarthy coaching Cooper rush earlier. So both quarterbacks have history with a coach on the other side. I didn't put the Ulbrich one together. Yeah. But so it's really interesting to see and like how that says because Mike McCarthy knows how Cooper rush ticks like he's, he's and he helped him tick a lot. Right. More so than Ulbrich helped Rodgers. I would, I would think Mike McCarthy. Now while Mike McCarthy is obviously very plugged in on the offense side, he's off at the play collar. You would think that he probably had a long notebook of like he just

25:44slipped a patch of Graham on Monday morning and said all of this needs to be in your game plan. Well, especially Thursday when two of us rolled out like Patrick coming to my office. Oh, let's have a check. Yeah. Bring the clicker. Yeah, that's true. That's right. Yeah, just keep forgetting about the whole two. Right, right, right. Because I play in two. It wouldn't have been terrible either. But you know, I actually think this deal is going to be a better shape if they're playing too. Because he's so predictable. He can only play one way. Yeah. But anyway, he's on the other. No, he's not going to be out there. Anything else that you really wanted to head on because we're getting near the end of our time here. What a couple little things that stood out to me is I mentioned the front seven and I also mentioned rotation being really key early in the season. Yep. The Steelers front seven is way, way, way better and deeper. Deepers where I'm stressing here than Atlanta's. I mean, not only they don't have a watt and a hayword, but they don't have her big off the bench and the big people the Steelers do. So I think in terms of staying fresh on defense, latent games, and you know me, I talk about Steelers' awful fourth quarter defense

26:46last year over and over and over. They should be better prepared to handle that. Another thing I dug up in my stat pack was this should shock no one. But the Steelers' offensive line collectively has the fewest starts in the entire league. When you look at every offensive line room in the league, they're very young, you know. Atlanta's has the most. I mean Jake Matthews has doubled the starts of the Steelers' offensive line room in consecutive games. And I think that is an advantage for them, just in terms of week one, newness, bend there, done it, you know, experience and continuity on the offensive line to me is very important early in the year. Their offensive line is pretty decent. Yeah, it's a veteran group that they know how to get the job done. Lintrums are a star that nobody knows about. Lintrums are very, very good. Four consecutive second team all pro, not just nominations, but like earners and so. Great move, player and space. Yeah, the athleticism on this line is actually pretty good.

27:50They've always been a pretty, like at least in recent years, even going back to when Arthur Smith was there. Like they've been a pretty athletic offensive line on, you know, too. Obviously it's changed a bit. They brought on Jawan Taylor to play right tackles. He's bad. I mean, just a note for people, right tackles a problem. Well, and so is TJ going to have a day? I would hope. Yeah, I would think I think Taylor's got some issues. All right, let's get down to brass tax here. What's your final score prediction? I took Steelers 24-10. I think Robin's in will do damage, but I do think the Steelers will try to shorten the clock and have some success on the ground. Be the more physical team, the deeper team, frankly more talented team. I think this is a good opponent to start to season off with. I'm going to be a little bit more pessimistic on the defensive side, not because I think the defense is bad or, you know, it's the first time. I just think I have that much respect for Bijan. Yeah. And I also think Cooper Rush is going to be able to get some stuff done on occasion.

28:52Just again, been there, done that veteran guy. He started an entire season in his career. If you add all the starts together, I think he's going to be able to make a couple of throws that are going to kind of like those back breaking like third down conversions. Yeah, you shouldn't give up things like that. So I'm going final score Steelers 23 Falcon 16. Still when by touchdown, you still come with a five and a half point spread. And I think the offense should be able to, again, the secondary is really good, but I'm telling you what, if there's one thing that I'm really looking forward to on the offense side of the ball, this Steelers team had better run the ball. I know, especially in this game. Yeah. When you talk about Rico Dattles, Jalen Warren, and then again, that front, not having their two edge rushers, like, I don't care what concepts you're wanting to lean on, whether it's outside zone inside zone, I don't care. Like you got to be able to run the ball against this guy against this team. And then if you're able to do that, that can then open things up for what you can do off of play action, whenever you're constantly

29:53on schedule, then that kind of opens up the playbook for what you, what you can do through the air in the quick game, intermediate game. And then you can take your occasional shots as well. So, yeah, I think this is a game to Steelers, absolutely have to win. You don't get to my prediction of 11 and six without winning this game. You have to win this game. So real quick note, then we get out of here, but I mean, week one's always weird. You know, Wes, as I'm saying, just I don't care how you win a week one, just win. And I agree with a lot of that. But if on Monday, we're going, yeah, they snuck out a win, but they couldn't run the ball at all. I'll be concerned. Or if they ugly win, but man, they ran the ball great. Oh, okay. I mean, that's a nice building block. You know, yeah, you you want to get the win, but you also want to be able to establish some of the things you really want to do well. Like I want to I want to see this defensive front get after the quarterback. Yes, I want to see them not get just absolutely shredded on the ground. I want to see this team be able to run the ball. And that helps set up the the passing game. Like that, that's what you

30:56want to make some tacklers look foolish and some cup back lanes that that's common guys. Just get used to be John special. Yeah, yeah. Like if if they were to shut him down in this game, that is a massive massive W for the Steelers. Yeah. So all right. Thank you guys so much for tuning in. Really appreciate each and every one of you who listen to the show and watch the show every week. We'll be back again next week to react to whatever happens in this game. And then of course, preview the Steelers at Patriots in week two, which will be Sands, AJ Brown, who will be who is placed on the edge. That works out well too. So that works out for the Steelers, but they got to beat the Falcons first. So until then catch you guys on the Football Buddy Flip. See you later.