Minka Fitzpatrick, Chargers, Steelers discussed on The MMQB NFL Podcast

Automatic TRANSCRIPT

But Fitzpatrick is a guy who gets him organized on the back end, and that is a play where, you know, if he doesn't intercept it, it is probably just to throw that's not available, or at least it's a it's a contested type of play instead of that. But you know, just this steelers team, the way that you win games, they do not want to have score 27 points in the fourth quarter in order to be in a game. Stylistically, this is not how they want to play. This is not a game they probably should have one when it's all said and done, but the opportunity was there. Yeah, it is really hard to imagine that that play would have gone the same way with minka Fitzpatrick in the lineup. But that being said, the fact that they were able to muster the performance that they did until the very end that they had a chance to win this game. I mean, do you take something from that? It certainly was better than a week earlier where you have a very unsatisfying tie. Okay, a week later, you're quarterbacks coming off COVID. Like I said, you're missing three ver top defenders. Is this a galvanizing almost win or is it so such a disappointing loss because you almost had it that it ends up kind of undercutting morale? It's hard to say. And I guess that's up to Mike Tomlin's messaging in part. Yeah. I just want to point out real quick. I think the kneel downs brought the Chargers back under 8 yards per play in this game. I mean, you just look at the number, and this is 533 yards of offense for the Chargers, 300 for the Steelers. It was a fairly lopsided game outside of those two really game altering plays that they got. Yeah, I mean, and to Jenny's point like, I loved the juxtaposition between all these stoic shots of cam Hayward after the batted down pass, and it was just like those slow motion like warrior poses where he's just like, you know, like, the stele guy poses, but like, really, Justin Herbert just fired the ball off his head. Like there really wasn't like, you know, and you jumped a little bit. And I'm not discounting the fact that you're an amazing player. You know what, and he's an incredible player, and his role in that fourth down stop later on was critical. He's a great player. But in that very moment, the ball just got rocked off your helmet. And so, you know, I thought that was kind of a funny thing. One thing I did wonder about speaking of the team being shorthanded is after they make the fourth down stop of the Chargers, get the ball back in chargers territory with a couple minutes to go, the game tide. If they had nausea Harris and that at that situation, would they have been able to get the first down? Harris was in the locker room getting evaluated for concussion, which is where he should have been. Glad that they took that evaluation seriously, but I just couldn't help but wonder, Harris is then later cleared to return to the game. And I remember thinking when they were lining up on the third down, they originally didn't have a back end and they took a timeout and they came out with a back that wasn't Harris, and I just was thinking to myself. I wonder how much of a difference Harris would have made in that situation. Yeah, that was three and out there..

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