00:00the sports director over at our sister station in pittsburgh 93.7 the fan
00:03jeff hathorne joining us now jeff what's going on hey how are you i i am doing uh very well
00:10i
00:10would imagine it with a five and two sealers team you're feeling about the same way i mean this is
00:15awesome i when i was a kid brown steelers was the game and it is again and there's a whole
00:23generation that knows from a steelers standpoint steelers ravens yeah and probably from a brown
00:29standpoint browns ravens and now this rivalry's kind of been reintroduced i mean cleveland's own
00:36the steelers in cleveland and you know it's been since what 88 since the browns swept and an
00:44opportunity here to not only for cleveland to sweep but then be in first place and from a stealer
00:49standpoint it's like hey just get back from paris you try to get your feet under you and you know
00:55you got a bye week afterwards can you get to six and two and and take a little control of
01:00a division
01:01that's going to be what a wild second half it's going to be in the afc north it's going to
01:06be a
01:06lot of fun jeff before we get into the legitimate things happen around this game i do have to ask
01:10you
01:11that we played it last segment in a segment that i call get a grip where we we go through
01:15and uh
01:15i basically just yell about things that make me mad on a daily basis uh what the hell is pony
01:21doing
01:25i do not speak for for my friend and your philiponi uh i will say this i have met very
01:36few people
01:36that are as talented or provoking as pony is he uh he's really good at this he gets people fired
01:48up i
01:49mean i was we were all there when he got his nipple pierced because he uh he lost a bet
01:56so uh
01:58this one yeah i mean you could imagine how painful the former was the what what could happen here is
02:07um it's something it's definitely yeah i don't want to be a part of this one i will not be
02:13the person
02:13going ahead and uh retrieving that i don't think i don't think this one's going to happen at a bar
02:18where everybody's watching yeah i would hope still not this can be a probably a twitter video
02:22uh and they probably stay there yeah i mean there'd be to have to be somebody there to verify it
02:29yeah but not me yeah i don't want to be the person either so uh if he goes up to
02:33clap sure it can or
02:34somebody else will be very happy it's not gonna be me all right obviously a lot of good things going
02:41into this game uh but what has kind of taken the the headlines away from even a lot of what
02:45you're
02:45talking about has been the back and forth going on between i mean cam hayward was in on a jared
02:51versus comments initially you know it made the claim after the thursday night game against the
02:56steelers that the steelers were a dirty team he's now redoubled tripled down on that and a you know
03:01he had the statement today they're gonna make pittsburgh ours what is kind of the reception happening in
03:08pittsburgh right now to the comments being made i mean i've been in the locker room all week
03:14they're aware of it let's just put it that way they're aware i most of the comments have been
03:19well let's see if he's talking during the game um that that that type of reaction like i'm not gonna
03:25like the the team's reaction almost was we're not going to add to it our response is going to be
03:31let's see let's see what happens during the game and that's whether that was a uh whether the pr guy
03:37got in front of the team and said hey say this uh but that has been a common theme from
03:42the steelers
03:43let's let's see what happens in the game let's do the talking in the game um i mean i don't
03:49mind
03:49from what we do right we i love this stuff and i love the fact that there's just some heat
03:56in this
03:57rivalry again that you know there's you know the browns have gotten under the steelers skin a little
04:02bit because of what they've done to them in cleveland yeah i mean off the base of it i mean
04:07i've gone
04:08back i've watched that game a couple of times i don't know individually what jared verse is talking
04:12about on the initial comments of dirty uh they also i would say for the most part the comments by
04:17jared verse were not necessarily beloved in cleveland either by the way they were uh a little bold and
04:22yeah he's got to show up on sunday now that's for sure i i know i mean i won't say
04:27the players names
04:29um but there were a few that were making comments in the room of like who the hell is the
04:33guy with
04:34no sacks talking a big game and you know that so that was a little bit of the commentary from
04:42it
04:42i i don't know i've i've watched the game too and i was trying to look at like was somebody
04:46lifting
04:47his leg was there some kind of cheap shot i didn't see that now the steelers left guard mason mccormick
04:54who he is the example of the nicest i mean the nicest person that you could talk to until he
05:03walks
05:03onto that field and then he becomes this lunatic it's like that's where all of it comes out and he
05:10got
05:10a personal foul penalty the game last week in paris where you know he just there was a scrum and
05:16he
05:17just came running about three seconds too late and just dove onto it um so he's he's very aggressive
05:25maybe borderline uh plays beyond the whistle but i didn't even see any of that in that game so i
05:32mean i'm not saying stuff doesn't happen that we don't see i didn't notice any of it but i don't
05:38think any of that matters i mean both teams are five and two they know it's at stake they know
05:43there's
05:43going to be a lot of emotion um and i think from a stealer standpoint what really bothered them
05:50least defensively was the browns being able to just drive right down the field at the end of the
05:56game and win it yeah and again jeff hathmore with this here on the hotline i mean going and looking
06:01at this from even a before we get into the game standpoint jeff how do you feel about this team
06:05uh coming off of a game in paris uh and then immediately no no by the week after they're they're
06:11right back into football do you think that has a big impact on a the sealers ability to be ready
06:16going into a game on sunday i i don't i i think this was smart and i know aaron rogers
06:23complained
06:24he would rather been there the entire week but i think the strategy was as much as anything it wasn't
06:31just to save money for three days and not have all the costs in paris it was more that we've
06:37got to
06:37play the next week so if we're only over there for a short period of time we haven't totally
06:42acclimated to that time zone and we could get back he mike mccarthy gave the steelers monday and tuesday
06:50off to kind of get their feet under them and then went right back at it on wednesday so i
06:55think that
06:56was part of the strategy of like hey let's go over late so when we come back we haven't spent
07:01a week
07:01in a different time zone they they seem fine i mean practices can be deceiving um but they doesn't
07:09seem like there's any ill effect and rumor is that if they win this game that they're going to have
07:17a
07:17lot of time off next week so that's probably a motivator for them to make sure that they're at
07:23their best and sealers obviously you guys have been on a great run since the the thursday night game
07:28it feels like things have gone back to normal aaron has continued to play well but it feels
07:33like one of the things that really popped up was jaylen warren's continuing to have a really strong
07:38effect on the ground somewhere where the browns have struggled what have you noticed in that and
07:42do you expect more success and a lot more runs to be brought out this time around because i did
07:47feel
07:47like in that thursday night game warren was having success and then the steelers almost just went away
07:51from because the score got big yeah i mean the score got big you're right um they probably got away
07:56from even with that they probably got away from it a little soon plus they were four of 13 on
08:01third
08:02down so they didn't they weren't able to continue drives where they could run more plays um the one
08:08thing i do credit this coaching staff that i think was missing the last five to seven years with the
08:13steelers is that the the post bruce arian the post ben roethlisberger era that they recognize jaylen
08:21warren is is their offensive mvp right now and they're doing everything to get them the ball
08:25let's find them in space let's find little areas and now kenneth gainwell is back from
08:31from his dislocated toe and he's been running at a decent clip and you know he's had a thousand yards
08:37each of the last two seasons they feel like they're getting some traction with their run game and then
08:43that allows you know they were able to hit a deep pass to metcalf that set up the one touchdown
08:47in paris they're not where they want to be offensively but they've been good enough to generate
08:54momentum and when they needed to against tampa bay you know they were able to have a big fourth
08:59quarter i would i would also caution this they played tampa bay without baker they played a two
09:07and five or two and four at the time new orleans team you know and they beat indianapolis who's
09:13selling off now so these three wins haven't been against three winning teams so i think there's some
09:22skepticism even in pittsburgh of like okay how good is this team because november the schedule's a lot
09:28tougher for them jeff how are things going over there between uh aaron rogers mike mccarthy there
09:33is obviously you know the the clips coming out from the game against the browns and them bickering at
09:38each other if things kind of a calm down there a little bit and if uh if the two maybe
09:42gotten along
09:43a little bit better i mean it's it's almost cliched to use this but it's true they're like an old
09:48married
09:48couple yeah they can yell at each other and each each one understands no they don't take it personally
09:54and they really don't i mean you see them at practice at times they might you know yell about
09:59something and it's just that's just how they communicate and they have an understanding
10:04and aaron's involved in the in the planning process which he obviously wants to be and there
10:10are times he's gonna make changes he's gonna audible or he's not gonna like a call especially if it
10:16doesn't work um and and aaron's a guy that aaron will take responsibility from some things but he's
10:25quick to point out of oh that place sucked because it didn't work and i didn't call it so there's
10:32some
10:32of that little drama but it's nothing that uh if these guys had never worked together before i would
10:38think oh what's going on but i think they understand each other pretty well yeah how has the offensive line
10:44been holding up because i know you turn around it deshaun's the most sacked quarterback in the
10:47league but aaron rogers isn't very far behind him uh he's sitting at 22 sacks on the season is that
10:52a
10:53group especially coming off of you mentioned the three games you played five sacks for the browns
10:57last time they played is the offensive line struggling a little bit over there in pittsburgh right now
11:03so it's a lot of draft capital in that line i mean you've got and you traded a first round
11:08tackle
11:08to dallas right before the season started uh the steelers did in broderick jones
11:14the the quizzical one to me is left tackle with troy faltono who is at washington guy who's
11:22insanely athletic and it just hasn't clicked he played right tackle last year he played both left
11:28and right at washington he's having some struggles at left tackle i think zach fraser in the middle
11:34is at least a top three maybe higher center in the league the guy's playing at an elite level
11:39both guards are bulldogs uh brock hoffman is the other guard with mason mccormick then on the right
11:45side is max ahana chore jake five years ago he was playing soccer and never played football
11:53like he just started playing football in college and then went to arizona state and i i mean not to
12:00get too technical but his sets are amazing for a guy that's played so little football
12:05like his footwork probably because of soccer i mean he moves his feet as well as any offensive
12:12lineman in the league there are just some other things he's got to learn it seems like every week
12:16he's getting better i think they really found somebody they got really lucky that mckay lemon
12:22ended up being drafted by the eagles and the steelers ended up with a hana chore because they wanted
12:26lemon philly took them they ended up with this tackle he's starting to play well i think the
12:32offensive line is coming together but it's not a finished product and they have had some some issues
12:37at times again jeff athorn with us here right now he i talked to me a little bit about the
12:42defense
12:43obviously the the joey porter news kind of broke after we talked last time and is the secondary been
12:50able to bounce back browns are coming off a week where deshaun just threw for 300 yards for their
12:54first time in a browns uniform i i gotta imagine that a monkey would like to get back to some
12:59of
13:00that this week secondary does have uh deshaun elliott back he came back last week and worked about 19
13:08snaps and he's working his way back into the lineup he makes them deeper he allows them to do a
13:14lot more
13:15things i think they came into the season with all of these kind of mad scientist ideas of what they
13:22can do because of all the experience they had when the when porter just didn't happen
13:28they had to change they had to play some younger guys but now that they've got elliott back
13:33they can move ramsey around ramsey's a playmaker not a guy you want covering but a guy you want
13:39blitzing a guy that the quarterback doesn't see that can create turnovers uh i think they're
13:47i think they're they're average to good but because their d-line is playing so well and with
13:54the potential of their outside linebackers i think that probably makes them a little better than what
13:58they really are all right jeff what is your confidence in this game for the steelers i'm not
14:02going to ask you to put any crazy bets on the table like some other people but how confident are
14:07we anything no no we're not going to make you do that don't we're not that type of show
14:12but uh how confident are you steelers walk away from this game with a win i mean i like the
14:18way
14:18the steelers defense is coming together right now and they held the saints to 18 yards rushing
14:23um some of the younger guys are really starting to come into their own the middle linebackers
14:27played really well and they have aaron rogers who is playing at it at a good level i mean he's
14:35not
14:36the same elite hall of famer but he's playing at a good level so i mean i i think this
14:42is a game
14:42that's right there for them uh revenge game at home uh knowing they've got a bye week after i mean
14:49i
14:49have i i would say the steelers feeling confident and you know i i understand why jeff always appreciate
14:58the side you set a time always good to talk to you and uh i'll be hoping for a good
15:02game on sunday and
15:03maybe dreading a video that would come after it same uh let's get an ohio state win over usc
15:09yes and then we can all sit there and enjoy the game sunday however it turns out i'm all there
15:13for
15:13that jeff we appreciate you all right take care
