I'm here with my friend. Jeff hartmann from behind the steel curtain to give you guys. A little preview of the raiders. Steelers game on sunday now as a reminder. We're still doing our behind enemy lines or five questions with the opponent articles. So there's anything jeff and i don't cover on here. We'll cover on the written side of things later week anyways. Jeff thank you for coming on man. How are you doing. I'm doing great. Is there a more traditional or classic. Matchup than raiders steelers. I mean it doesn't get much better than that when he talked about traditional matchups. I know we're going back to what like the the beginning of the nfl days right. Pretty much from the get go. The raiders steelers have been rivals whatnot that numerous times boy us. Oh absolutely the originally see and others playoff matchups and accusations of icing the field in the immaculate reception then even bleeds into modern day where the raiders have have the steelers number in oakland at the time. Terrell pryor beating the steelers. I mean just these weird games. The the rivalry still exists in my opinion. Oh yeah for sure. I mean it is a i hate using the cliche because it is such a cliche now the old throughout the record books when these two teams play each other. Right like doesn't really matter. I remember the last one of the. I guess it wasn't in the last year i went to but In two thousand was it nineteen or eighteen when they play the raiders. Were terrible playing. The steelers would go on to be a playoff team of big. Ben got hurt in the whole broken x ray machine in the you know like i said the raiders were foreign twelve team in one of those wins against the steelers so always a fun match up. Yeah and even in pittsburgh the bruce gronkowski game where i believe. He led the raiders to victory heinz field. That's where they're playing this week in week. two. I'm excited to talk about it. Let's get to it l. Let's get started kind of looking at the big picture now. We had the philosophies of preseason regular season game were steelers even one. How are you feeling about in this year. You kinda still expecting the steelers to to win the afc north and be a super bowl contender. I did predict the steelers to be a double digit win team. I'm not sure if that's going to be good enough to win. The afc north. I am someone that thanks to the. Afc north is one of if not the best divisions in all football those will compare say the nfc west is is comparable but For me the steelers are still a mystery in a lot of ways especially on offense the watch the game against buffalo. In week one yes. It's it's on the road. It's a tough place to play buffalo's a very good team But boy the offense was non existent for tuten for the first half. The steelers needs some consistency than e consistency. Running the ball. They couldn't do that in buffalo for a lot of reasons. Rothlisberger was rusty to start. I don't know how much that we chalk up the week. One just being week one and people still getting league knocking the rust off on and how much we say is is there cause for concern. So there's a lot of questions still with the steelers. Fan base is super pumped. They won that we going game. I have some. I definitely have my reservations heading into week two. I think the raiders are going to be a lot tougher than people think and We'll see what the steelers are made of. Yeah i mean you hit the nail. Right on the raiders. Being a tough route than people realize. I don't know a whole lot of people i know. It wasn't like a clean slate of picking the ravens last night or a monday night. But mean let's be the raiders came into that game as underdogs and i think they impress a lotta people but i do have to ask you before we move on to getting into more specific the steelers. Are you worried about the browns and the ravens at all or i guess more specifically are you worried about the browns. Because obviously they're kind of up and coming team yet. The browns i mean i. I did get to watch the browns chiefs game in week. One Definitely a much improved roster. They're doing it the right way. Finally and it only took them two decades. But they're finally doing it the right way. They're making good decisions. It seems like they have a good coach. In stefanski in the ravens are still in. They're always going to be a concern. They're just radish with injuries. I mean it's insane. I think they lost another offense lineman on monday night football to a knee injury. He was placed on injured reserve today. I mean they're kicking the tires on lady on bell and a couple other running backs. It's insane injuries. They've sustained but they still have a really talented roster and you saw that on monday night football. They didn't win the game but they have a ton of potential. There is no easy win. Even when you throw in cincinnati in my opinion with job row and that young roster they have a lot of exciting players there The afc north is going to be very difficult. Like i said. I'm not predicting the steelers to win the division i think they're going to be competitive but It's tough to win. That division will put it that way. Yeah i mean no doubt no doubt so. I want to start off talking about ben rothlisberger. There is no doubt he wasn't the same player last year especially down the stretch of the season. I think you talked about it a little bit at the topic of what we're talking about on the show. I'm curious do you think is age in. The injuries are starting to catch up with them. Or are you confident he'll be able to bounce back either way kind of what makes you think that why it's interesting. It depends on. He talked to last season. Obviously he's coming off that reconstructive elbow surgery which he had in two thousand nineteen. No one knew what his arm strength is going to be. I don't think that was injury that that really ham. Hamstrung him so to speak it was i think he had knee injuries. I think he had some injuries to lower body that were causing him to have to really throw with all arms and that's anyone knows the mechanics throwing any object. That's a big ask of someone that's been doing it for as long as ben. Rothlisberger has I think that he is healthy. Coming into this season can he stay healthy behind that offensive line. That's a big question. Mark does he have the skills to still win games. Absolutely i think he still has the escape ability in the pocket. He's never been a guy. That's going to run. Like josh allen does or patrick mahomes does or even a derek carr does. He's a guy that is going to want to be in the pocket..