The Pittsburgh Steelers lead the AFC North and have been quite sturdy against the Baltimore Ravens in recent years but remain a 7-point underdog on Saturday afternoon. Will Graves of The Associated Press in Pittsburgh gives Nestor a full preview of the game of the year from behind enemy lines in Da ‘Burgh.
Nestor Aparicio and Will Graves discuss the upcoming Ravens-Steelers matchup and the state of Pittsburgh sports. Graves notes the Steelers’ surprising success, now technically the most likely AFC North winner, despite initial low expectations. He highlights the Penguins’ rough start and the Pirates’ reliance on schemes. Graves also discusses the Ravens’ struggles, including penalties, offensive line issues, and kicker performance. He emphasizes the importance of the Steelers winning at home to secure a playoff spot. Both agree on the significance of the rivalry and the potential impact on the playoffs, with Graves noting the Ravens’ health and the Steelers’ recent injuries.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Steelers expectations, Penguins rough start, Pirates schemes, Ravens playoffs, Derek Henry, offensive line issues, Super Bowl hopes, player injuries, Christmas Day game, rivalry history, player health, coaching stability, draft success, playoff pressure, game analysis
SPEAKERS
Nestor Aparicio, Will Graves
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home. We are W, N, S T am 1570 Towson, Baltimore and Baltimore, positive. Happy Holidays to everyone out there. If you missed all of our crab cake tours, you gotta wait till January 7. And hey, that’ll be ravens playoff time. We’ll be at libs grill up in Bel Air. All of it brought to you by our friends at the Maryland lottery as well as Jiffy Lube, MultiCare Jiffy Lube. It’s power and loop back and forth through Owings Mills and downtown for a an early match up on Saturday afternoon against Pittsburgh Steelers, and then even earlier game in the week on Christmas next week against Houston. This guy has sort of the same schedule, everybody, Houston, Kansas City, Pittsburgh, we’re all sort of Oh Saturday, oh Christmas Day, Oh, I gotta get out of bed and go to the game in Pittsburgh. Will graves? Covers all things Pittsburgh, sports. Poor sob for the Associated Press, he is a Marylander who has escaped with Yin’s and that he’s gone the opposite direction of all them down there. And it’s always good to have you on man, Happy Holidays to you. Hope the family’s Well, hope your health is good. Looks like the pirates are trying to get better. We’re here with the Orioles trying to figure that out. You cover it all up there. How, how is the state of Pittsburgh sports?
Will Graves 01:12
Um, well, Steelers have sort of surpassed, I think, expectations that the you know, they were, they were the last pick like in the preseason, they were oddsmakers had them as the least likely team to win the division, and now they are sort of still technically the most likely to win the division, although I remain skeptical. You know, the penguins got off to really rough start. Looked like it was absolutely over for them. They kind of got lucky, because the conference looks like it’s terrible. Caps obviously off to a very good start, even, what’s up with that? I was shocked. I talked about, you know, like they’ve won, I think they’re seven, two and one in their last 10, and that’s with sitting Geno not really scoring. So that’s reason for optimism that they can make the playoffs. I mean, they’re not, they’re not a ceiling cup contender anymore, but I think if they could somehow rebuild while still being competitive, that would probably be a best case scenario for for them and the pirates, like, look they got. It’s all schemes all the time. The number of guys in this town that have made it a point to look like Paul Skeens is like, if you’re, if you’re a college age guy, or in your mid 20s, and you’re, you know, got brown hair, you have a mustache, basically, you know, dark brown, the black hair, you have a mustache in Pittsburgh right now. I mean, it is alarming. The number of guys like the Steelers have a couple of their support staff, younger, younger, really young guys that look like the same for Pitt, same for the penguins like and obviously the pirates like half their staff. Scott
Nestor Aparicio 02:37
Paul Skeens is a mustache phenomenon in Pittsburgh. Yes, so strange up there. And I can say that because you’re not from there, so I can,
Will Graves 02:45
I mean, it’s, you know, it’s sort of, I mean, like, you know, they sell little pits like dirt as the season went on last year, towards the end of his last starts, you would see kids like, would get the little like, Groucho Marx mustaches that they would wear to the games. Like, it’s becoming a thing. And the thing is, look,
Nestor Aparicio 02:59
we’ve got a hot girlfriend, so that mean that works out well, they have control
Will Graves 03:03
of they have control over him for the next three seasons at a at a cheap, cheap cost. And then we they have to decide. So they have to maximize their window. Now, they haven’t really done much this off season to kind of address their power problem, which is where they’re really deficient at but, you know, we’ll see it’s nothing. Much has changed with Bob Nutting, they’ve, they’ve had about 40 million in payroll. Walk away. We’re all just Chapman, some other, you know, some others, and they haven’t replaced it yet. So that’s a problem. Alicia owes or is trying to spend some which is good, I think, like that they
Nestor Aparicio 03:33
say they’re trying to spend it. Let’s see when them spend it. You know what I mean? Like Boros rubbing up on Rubenstein, all nice trying to get that 600 million for Henry. I mean, it’s all a big game, but the other part of it is we have new ownership here, so there’s no more bitching about Peter or any of that stuff. It’s like, Hey, what are you going to do? And so many people feel like, from a fan standpoint, from my media pass standpoint, it feels like nothing’s changed, like it’s just from the broadcast, from all of it, like they have a new president. She’s been invisible for three months around here, thinking she’s going to sell from a desktop up at the warehouse. I don’t, I don’t know, man, the baseball thing here, because there is so much hope here. It’s not like your place where everybody or like here when Peter owned it, there is real hope here, and there’s hope this guy was going to be different. I don’t know. Elias is running the team kind of the same way. So
Will Graves 04:24
for what? Well, I mean, I hopefully they spend, I mean, they’ve got a really good core group of players there with a window that’s wide open, I think, for them to be successful, and the town is, look, I mean, I we haven’t talked a while. I mean, my kid last year, like in May, was like, I owed him a mental health day for school. I was going to take him to see the pirates play the angels and trout. Of course, got hurt like three days before. So is that
Nestor Aparicio 04:46
really mental health to take your kid to a pirates game? I mean, well, then he
Will Graves 04:49
goes, so like we had to cancel. Then he goes, Hey, he sent me a link to Yankees pirates, or Yankees Orioles, I think at the yard. I think it was like maybe in the middle of May. And it was just, we just day tripped it. We just woke up early, drove down, went to the game, got nice club seats. You know, owes one hit, like four or five Homers. This is
Nestor Aparicio 05:08
where you call your pal nest. And you say, hey, ness I’m bringing the kid down. And I say, Well, stop by faith. These get some crab cakes, my man, you know, like that. That was what I would have done for
Will Graves 05:19
you. I would have, I want to say, we stopped. We stopped it. We stopped at a boil. But it might have been in Glen Burnie. I think, I cannot remember. We had some issues getting out of town, and he was not going to get a like, I wasn’t going to get home at like, two in the morning so that he could get out of going to school the next day. So we didn’t stick around too much after the game. But it was, it was encouraging, and I imagine he will ask me the same favor, the same mental health day.
Nestor Aparicio 05:41
Well, if he doesn’t want to see Juan Soto, if you want to see Juan Soto, see the Mets, well,
Will Graves 05:45
you know. And I will say this like that might been my first time in Camden since probably 99 I think. And moving that wall back in that something, I literally got emotional, like, walk, it was weird, like I hadn’t I kind of stored all that stuff away for a really long time. And then when we were walking through the gates with him, I, you know, 1415, year old son, first time yards for your boy. Yes, yeah, right, it was, he was a baseball player. And that was, that was actually pretty special.
Nestor Aparicio 06:11
Well, you know what I’m I was just going to talk Steelers with you and say Merry Christmas, and do all that. And, but, but look, I mean, you do cover all the sports there, and the baseball thing here has been on my lips more than the football thing this week, because the Ravens can’t win the Super Bowl this week, right? It feels like the orals can win the World Series in the off season, in the minds of the fans, if there’s some push. But the ravens, this has been a really, this has been a slog for them, and as Luke and I talk about it, maybe they win the Super Bowl, maybe they pull it out this week, go to Houston, win host a game, win it, and then raise hell in Buffalo, or Kansas City, or maybe Pittsburgh goes in and beats buffalo, knocks him out of the way. I don’t know, but this has been choppy, because the Ravens were so good last year, they pissed away the championship game the whole off season, they lost a lot of coaches, depth players, pass rushers. They lost all this stuff, but they came back with Derek Henry, and it looked like it was going to be fine. Defense isn’t very good. Kicker hasn’t been very good. Offensive line, and the whole notion that they’ve coughed up games that they lead the world in penalties. So that’s my football team at this point, and they’re playing on Saturday night and Christmas because everybody thought they were going to the Super Bowl. They thought, Houston, Kansas City, Baltimore. Well, who are we going to pair them with? I’m shocked that the Bengals weren’t this pairing. And I guess the schedule makers of all sorts of things that go into making a schedule, but it’s kind of weird. The Steelers were put on this schedule thinking that they were going to be a five or six win team because Russell Wilson was no good. Tomlin needed to be fired after two like all of that. And as it turns out, here, at first place and Pittsburgh was the right choice for the schedule makers without question, because this rivalries back on. So $300 ticket down here on Saturday. I mean, it’s this is as big a Steelers ravens game as we’ve had since Ray Lewis, Terrell Suggs and Ben Roethlisberger and Heinz ward. Well,
Will Graves 08:00
I mean, you know, you said the Ravens can’t win the Super Bowl this week. I think the Steelers, to me, this is absolute. They they have to find a way to win this game. I think, I think they like the whole, the whole notion this year, starting at the end of last season, where they make the late push with Mason, you know, they blow up the quarterback room in the off season, all with the idea of winning a playoff game for the first time since 2016 to me, the only way they win a playoff game is if they get a game at home. The idea of them going to Baltimore in the first round, or going even going to Houston, where they have struggled, when they’ve gone with better, with good, with really good teams in the last 1012, years, they have to win the division, and they have to be home. That is to me, I them going on the road. I just do not see it. And we saw what happened when they played the Eagles. I view that as a litmus test game for them. They did not look prepared. This is a big emotional game for the Steelers. I think, like, if you want to be a contender, like, you have to beat somebody good. Now, they won the first matchup with the Ravens. But, I mean, like to your point, the Ravens handed them half of that game. The Ravens
Nestor Aparicio 09:06
a lot of teams games, right? And they talk about that. And when you look at who gets off the bus, and you know, roquan Smith and Marlon, and we were like, We’re kicked their ass, and the next thing you know, it’s 1714, in the fourth quarter, and it hasn’t been good enough. And they’ve, Luke always says they play with their food.
Will Graves 09:23
I mean, I think so. And then when, like, the first game here, was just, I’m watching this game, and I’m just like, the Steelers did not play particularly well. They didn’t score a touchdown, okay? And, you know, the Ravens turn it over three times. Tucker misses a couple of kicks that, you know, invented Justin. I mean, I’ve seen him, you know, in swirling 25 mile an hour wins drill 50 yarders here, right? So, like he basically, I won’t say the Ravens handed them that game, but they abetted the Steelers winning that game. I think the Ravens can still go the Super Bowl, even without winning this game. However, I would say this, like the. Idea that Derek Henry only got 13 touches in that first game is like insane to me, like they didn’t even let him get
Nestor Aparicio 10:09
rolling. Well, the issue for me is they look at defenses and say, the Steelers are going to stop our running game, because they have had their running game stop them. If you put eight nine guys up, you can stop it, and then you’re daring Lamar to throw and that. I mean, I’ve seen this for six years, right before Derek Henry got here. Now that Derrick Henry’s here, other teams are like, we got to stop him, because if the Ravens start running on you, they won’t stop
Will Graves 10:34
right? And I don’t think the ravens, They didn’t commit to it the first time, they didn’t really commit to it
Nestor Aparicio 10:40
all three times in a championship game last year. So they monkey and our ball. When they get to these big games, they it’s hardball is going to the Super Bowl and all that. I’m like, I don’t know. Dude lost a lot of big games around here since Flacco left. Like, just in general,
Will Graves 10:56
if you watch where the like, the to like, and it’s weird, because to the Steelers credit against the eagles. They did slow down say, Quan a little bit like they did, but, you know, I mean, Jalen Hurts, you know, just picked him apart. I mean, just absolutely shredded them. So maybe monk and watches that video and goes, well, that’s what we’re going to do too. They’re going to load up the box, and we’re just going to, you know, a, I would say that the, you know, the the Eagles have better, you know, out play makers on the outside than the Ravens do. And I just think that, like, you’d be who you are, like, I think, like, that’s the weird part. Like, if you want to beat these guys, you can, you can face like, the Giants, like, ran for 150 some yards against them. The Cowboys won over 100 yards against them. The Colts went over 100 yards against them. You can’t run the ball on these guys, but you got to commit to it. If I was monk, and I would be like, we are running the ball until they prove it to us that they can stop it, that’s, that’s what I would do. He should have done it the first game. They probably would have won the game. But I think it’s a bigger game for the Steelers, because they have to, you know, prove that they can go on the road to play a quality game. You know, I wrote you know, I wrote a my analysis the day after the Eagles game. I got a lot of crap from Steeler fans because I said, like, they all season, the Steelers knew this stretch was coming. There’s three games in 11 days against quality playoff teams, eagles, ravens, chiefs. And, you know, they knew it was coming, and they still looked unprepared. And if you I mean, you know, it’s couple people say, Well, if Nagi Harris doesn’t fumble the pitch in the third quarter. Maybe they like no what they got Sund the last 10 minutes of that game. I mean, Tomlin lived in his fears, punted on fourth and seven in midfield down two touchdowns with 10 minutes left, and they never got the ball back. When is the last time the Steelers did that to any but to a quality team? They kind of did it to the Chargers early in the year, but, like, Herbert was hurt and didn’t even really play the second half. So I don’t need that to me. That doesn’t even count. Like it’s been, I went back and looked, I think it’s been since 2020 the Steelers went and really handled a quality opponent decisively. This is a big game for them. They if they win, they clinch the division. And then maybe you can rest your guys, you know, maybe you don’t have to try to get Pickens back on the field. Who knows what? TJ stats taking
Nestor Aparicio 13:03
Christmas day off, when everybody you know what I’m saying, like having to go and beat Kansas City on Christmas day to keep pace with the ravens, to do whatever you’re going to do in that last game, and they’ll flex all that out and do all that. But like this game, I feel the same way about the Ravens. I’m like, if the Steelers win the game, the ravens are a playoff team, and they might as well just play for where they’re going to Houston or Pittsburgh, wherever they’re going to go in a couple of weeks. If they win the game, it really puts extra pressure on on everybody. And now Kansas City and buffalo are close enough, so Kansas City’s got to play for their lunch too. So Christmas day becomes just nasty on four days rest with great. It’s unfair. I mean, like, correct, but it’s stupid that they’re playing on Christmas Day. It’s stupid that Yin zinot have to get out of bed and your kid at 930 in the morning, you’re going to leave and say, I got to go over to the island and watch football today. It’s Christmas Day. I That’s the league. But then on top of that, the kind of game it’s going to be on short rest against the world champs. It’s you guys had the tougher schedule. I don’t think there’s any question about that. And a six point underdogs this week coming down here, you know, 15 weeks into it, the Steelers have been the better team this year. But then I get Aaron shots on he talks about DVOA and the Ravens being the greatest of this and that they’re six point favorites. Mean nobody thinks the Steelers are winning Saturday night except Mike Tomlin, I guess,
Will Graves 14:23
right? Well, I mean, I think, you know, we were talking about this in the locker room this week. That wouldn’t it be something the players hate, that this like the players are like, it’s part of the player’s fault, like the CBA, they agreed to the CBA that’s that’s allowed the owners to sort of have free range to do whatever they want with the schedule right, to to maximize the investment to put it on Netflix or whatever. Wouldn’t it be a statement, though, if let’s say, let’s say the Steelers win this game, they’re locked into where they’re at. Let’s say the, you know, the ravens are locked into where they’re at. The Texans have already clinched the division. The Chiefs have clinched their division. What if going into Christmas day instead of getting. You know, Patrick mahomes versus Russell Wilson and Lamar Jackson versus, I’m sorry, the kids Stroud, you get, like we talk a lot and we’re all you get Carson Wentz versus, you know, Justin or Kyle Allen, you know, you know, you get the back, you know, the Texans back. Josh Johnson is what we have here, right? Yeah, you gotta be, you know, you get the you get all these backups in this game as a as sort of a message from the coaching staff, from from the players, that this was ridiculous. You shouldn’t make us do this. And since we’re locked into our spots, we’re just going to treat this like a week three preseason game, like I would almost be in favor of that, because this is for from from from a team, from a league that says it cares about player safety. This is just absolutely reckless. Well, there’s
Nestor Aparicio 15:45
no question about it. Any journalist should say that, any fan should say, any family member should say, anybody’s ever played football should say that will. Graves is here. He says a lot of things for the Associated Press. He is in Pittsburgh, pennsylvan. He covers all the sports up there, including Pitt and a bunch of other things as well. And we love having him on he is a Marylander by birth, a CAPS fan that we’ve talked about that a little bit over the course of our 15 years of doing this together. It’s always pleasure to have will and so for your team and what and health and all of that, it’s uncanny that it’s Christmas week here that the ravens are playing as an underdog at home with the five losses hanging on their head, but they are coming with the full compliment on I mean, they are as healthy as I have ever seen this franchise. And you know, 30 years of it being here, at this point in the season, there’s nobody in the in the the trainer’s room, and this franchise has been snake bitten by this for years and years and years. Harbor had this whack job, uh, trainer who came down and gave them all COVID for you. They finally got rid of all of that. And something has happened here with their sports science that because they put a lot of effort into it, and now they will say, we work hard at getting our keeping our players healthy. Here there is, they’re the healthiest team in the league. It’s crazy. Yeah,
Will Graves 17:01
I mean, and like, that’s part of the, I mean, that’s part of the, you know, the, I guess, if you’re looking for good karma, like, it’s not always who’s the best team maybe at the end of the season, but also who’s the healthiest, right? That’s certainly a part of it. And the Steelers look, they overhauled their strength staff. Got rid of a guy that was Marcello, a guy who was beloved. The new staff has come in. What happens? Russell Wilson tweaks his calf like pushing a blocking sled on, literally, the first, the first day of camp, and is out for two months, and now you’ve got all these soft tissue injuries, you know, with with Pickens, which was very bizarre. I mean, guy who had not missed a game in his entire career until this season, until he tweaked something in practice, post practice Thursday, a couple weeks ago, you got Deshaun Elliot in game hamstring pull. He got Larry oak and Joby with a groin. So the soft tissue injuries that the Steelers were so concerned about that they overhauled their training staff. They’re still here anyway, right? And if you look at it like what trending towards playing, but like when the he doesn’t play, their record when he doesn’t play is one in 10 in his career, one in 10. Now, a couple of those are those like week 17 were locked in whatever. So okay, let’s sit, let’s let’s dismiss those. So that’s one in seven, one in eight. You know, they are healthy ish, but even, like fields, you know, he came in for one play against the Eagles, had an abdominal injury, got hit, slid and got hit a little high, and tweaked his and pulled something. So who knows what if his available, what his availability is going to be like as a as a change of pace guy, which is sort of the role he’s kind of moved into the last month or so. So, you know that being said. I mean, look, it’s, you know, the this, the Steelers have raised expectations. They began the season with very low expectations. Those expectations have been raised. But to me, and the gap between them and the haves of the of the AFC is closer, but if you want to, you know, what’s that Ric Flair thing, if you want to be the man, you got to beat the man. And I mean, I think the ravens, even though the seals are one, eight and nine in this series, I still think the Ravens. I mean, like, there’s, I look, I was literally looking up yesterday, the Ravens still a bigger bet to go to the Super Bowl, a bigger bet to go to the AFC Championship Game, than the Steelers. And I think that that’s actually
Nestor Aparicio 19:09
a favorite to win this week. So they’re supposed to win this week. And once they do that, they will, then it’ll deodorize all the losses if they’re hosting a game, and they might even be hosting the Steelers, right? I mean, right, no.
Will Graves 19:20
I mean, right. And that’s the thing. I mean, I really think this is, it’s, it’s weird to say that the team with a better record that won the first meeting has more at stake in this one, but it feels to me like from, from a confident because, like, people’s memories of, like, 2020 when they got off at 11, oh, start. But weren’t really impressive. Like, you know, they stumbled down the stretch and they got housed by the browns in the first round the first round the playoffs, right? I think people are going to start flashing back to that. If the Steelers lose this game,
Nestor Aparicio 19:44
Will? Graves is here from the Associated Press in Pittsburgh. We were talking all thanks, Steelers, graves, um, your perception of the Ravens from the outside and what they’ve been the last six years with Lamar and the championship game last year, we haven’t talked in a while, maybe since last year’s one of the matchups last year, I think I had you all. But watching the Ravens from the outside, it is fascinating for me, especially being thrown out of the media because I now I see it on NFL and network, and he has been what the hubbub is around it, and also marketing deals that Derek Henry gets that Lamar Jackson doesn’t get right, like just his star and his uniqueness and the way he plays the game. It definitely feels like it’s a lot easier for Josh Allen and Patrick mahomes to be kings in the league than it is for Lamar, who’s won two MVPs, probably in line for a third one now, but Josh Allen’s team’s record is better, right? Like some of that may change down the stretch, but this perception of the ravens and of har ball and of just their talent and their ability to draft players and all of that. It hasn’t, you know, it’s nice clay, and it looks like it’s going to be something it it has not yielded. Certainly, the excitement in January that Joe Flacco winning games and Ray Lewis being here. I mean, the whole franchise changed when Ray Lewis stopped dancing before the games. And I mean that like, you know, and the knee and Wembley, but there were 20,000 Eagles fans here two weeks ago. They’re going to be 20,000 Steelers fans in the seats on Saturday night. And our fan, they threw me out of my seat, so some some jack wagon and a jack Lambert Jersey will be sitting in my seat on Saturday because that’s the way it is, right? Um, there’s a different vibe down here for expectation, meeting those expectations, and this is supposed to be like a great operation, and it’s only been so far so good. They spit this up on Saturday night somehow, and have to go on the road and lose the first playoff game. I don’t say hardballs in jeopardy, because Bucha is like a step brother to him. You know what I mean? Like Bucha, he doesn’t want to be firing anybody here, so the cost is like a son to Bucha. So I don’t much like the Rooney family. Once you’re in, you’re in, they don’t fire coaches. It’s the same way here. But this is teetering here, with Marcus Williams being paid all this money and not on the field. Irani Stanley’s rehabilitated himself to be a a serviceable tackle after they he didn’t make the feel for tears. They’ve had some miracles here, right? Like just a lot of players have come through here that look like Linder bomb, good pick. You know, roquan Smith stole him at the trading deadline. Marlon Humphrey, Jack wagon, but can play football. Oh, Kyle Hamilton, maybe the best pick they’ve had since Ed Reed. I mean, Kyle Hamilton’s could be going to the Hall of Fame. He’s great, but they got five losses, and if they don’t beat the Steelers this week, they’re probably not going to win the Super Bowl this year too. So winning the Super Bowl for either one of these teams feels like I have to host the game January 10 at home. It because buffalo Kansas City are waiting out there, and they don’t look good for either one of us. But it is this rivalry and the history and all of that that’s come to this place where I’d haven’t met a Steelers fan who think the Steelers can really win the Super Bowl, even if they win on Saturday night. I haven’t met too many people think they’re going to win on Saturday, and I’ve been watching the Ravens play and saying I don’t know Steelers win every time they play. Tomlin loves to bring that up with me when I see him. So why would this week be any different? And I look at DJ watt and say, to your point, one in 10, whatever that record is without him, great players really. F up the Ravens. I mean, we saw that with the Raiders. We saw that Miles Garrett, who wrecked the game and beat them, and then the kickers got the yips here too. You got that going on. So it’s just been a really choppy year in a way that it wasn’t supposed to be this way. We’re not supposed to be playing the Steelers from behind on Christmas week, especially at the Steelers. They’re supposed to be the Bengals, right? And so it’s, it’s been a weird year, and I don’t this is a really important game for the franchise here, I’ll say that. Well,
Will Graves 23:42
I mean, I think the, you know, that’s the perception. I think that, you know, the this, the ravens are sort of their model isn’t that dissimilar to the Steelers, right? And you got a lot of stability in the head coaching position. You’re consistently competitive. You do draft guys, and you sort of try to keep the guys that you draft. But I do agree that like, there is like, until Lamar has that breakthrough where he gets them to the Super Bowl, I think there’s always going to be that little like, well, but to your point, I mean, they have beaten themselves more than they’ve been beaten. I mean, I think the Eagles kind of, you know, pushed them around a little bit. But I mean, in the other losses to me, you know, they like the one here, like they just sort of felt like, like in, like the Raider game, like just sort of found ways to lose the game. They’ve the defense has gotten better the last month or so. I think Mike Tomlin talked a lot about that this week when he met with us. I don’t know if it, but I do think, like, if you get into your what this is Lamar, seventh year, right? Sixth, seventh year as a starter, whatever it is. Yeah, he came in. If you get, if you get into that, and you still have not had that kind of breakthrough moment, I’d certainly think that things start, start to get a little queasy, and you’re sort of like, man, is this the group that can really do it, but you’re sort of, sort of in a tight spot. I mean, like the Steelers. Look, this is my 14th season covering the team. Like. Really started after they lost the Packers in the Super Bowl with the idea of, well, Ben’s like, 28 years old. 29 years old. I’m going to go to a couple of Super Bowls before he retires. And instead, they got into this cycle of good, but not great. They had Brady in the way for a while, and now the last couple times they’ve been in the playoffs, they’ve just sort
Nestor Aparicio 25:18
of imploded in the way. Let Make no mistake, right? His eye, ankle return is the biggest story of the week, for
Will Graves 25:23
sure, right? And didn’t really have the firepower to kind of keep up. I mean, they look like they’re more equipped, but I think it’s like, but the Steelers, like, in that second half of Ben’s career, is like, what do you do? You got a Hall of Fame quarterback with a really good coach and a good, you know, a team that’s consistently competitive. What do you do? You know, fire to coach when you guys win 1011, 12 games every year, like, but Raven’s sort of in that same spot. But like, if they can’t, if they just get it to put it together for 60 minutes, I do believe, like they in Buffalo, to me, are by far the most like, well rounded teams in the league right now as we sit here and, you know the legals in there, but go ahead, yeah. Well, certainly in the AFC, at least, right? I mean, like they, certainly, when you watch them play, you’re like, Oh, my. I mean, how many times when, when you like, I watch every I’ve been watched every sealers game for the last 14 years. How many times this season have I been like, this group is has got it against a good team? You know, not often. So, like, that’s and it’s like their schedules are scheduled. But you know, the the losses,
Nestor Aparicio 26:19
right, the quarterbacking of the last five years, and even the last five years of Ben, he wasn’t great. He would and, and that was about all the knuckleheads, you know, running backs who won’t take their money, wide receivers who stream in the middle of naked
Will Graves 26:34
look. Pickens is look George. Pickens is no pic picnic, man. I mean, and I was there, like, literally, a couple weeks ago, you know, they’re preparing for the rematch against the browns, and he had gotten into it with Newsom at the end of the the snow game. And then, you know, we’re asking, why, you know, I’m like, Can opponents get in your head? And he’s like, No. And I’m like, why did the penalties keep coming? And he says, because I’m being targeted. And then somebody says they’re going to talk to Newsome before the game, because I don’t even know who that is like in typical Mean Girls fashion, right? The guy, he’s different than a B in the sense that there was no off the field stuff, right there, at least not yet. There isn’t. He appears to be a very He’s fine. He’s not a problem away from the field of man, he’s one of those guys where, like, they have to decide in the off season or they’re going to pay him or not, right? Because he’s in his walk year, next year, because we
Nestor Aparicio 27:18
have Deontay Johnson here, and you can have him. How’s
Will Graves 27:21
that working? That, you know, that is a weird thing. Like, I tell me
Nestor Aparicio 27:24
about him, dude, you covered him. So okay, he so
Will Graves 27:29
I didn’t have a problem with him. He was good with us, to be honest with you, like he was accountable to publicly. But then, like, when you’re picking fights with your quarterbacks at halftimes of games, which is, which is what happened to Mitch Trubisky and, you know, against the Jets in week four of 2022, like, and then all of a sudden, Kenny Pickett, the Kenny the much, you know, the very brief Kenny picket error begins in the second half of that game. Like, it’s weird. He’s one of those guys where I just think, I like, to me, he’s not a bad guy, like a, b is a bad guy. Like Antonio Brown is a bad guy, full stop, period. Deontay, I think that, you know, the fire that burns in him probably burns a little too, you know, like, I just think that, like, it can be in the wrong situation, it could be toxic for those around you. Raven, he wouldn’t
Nestor Aparicio 28:19
go into the game two weeks ago was insane. I mean, right now, a lot of ish around here, that’s the one. And I could not fathom that horrible was going to tolerate quitter
Will Graves 28:27
like I would not have fathomed him, him as a quitter. Um, but, you know, look, he’s, he got traded from one of the worst teams in the league to one of the best teams in the league, and he’s not being used, right? And look, I mean, I look, guys want to play. I had a long talk with with a Steeler who’s on injured reserve. I’m not going to name his name. This was Friday, this was last week, and he’s healthy, and they haven’t activated him, and he’s pissed. And this is a guy that is a good soldier down the line, and he’s like, we need help in this position. I want to play. I’m not playing Deontay much this, you know, like, these, all of these guys want to play. All of these guys want to play. So, you know, it’s but if Dante’s like, well, if I’m going to go out there and run routes and be the fifth option, I don’t want to do that. Like, I’m not. It’s wrong. Like, this is this guy was, wasn’t a Hall of Fame, wasn’t on a Hall of Fame track, but he was on a guy that, you know, could have a good 1012, year career, and finished with, I don’t know, 750 catches and 80 touchdowns and a couple of, you know, a couple of Pro Bowls. And it seems like he has got, he has gone full AB and that he short circuited his career like it’s gonna be hard for me to imagine teams picking him up after something like this. The same with the guy that with the Niners, they quit in the middle of the game a couple weeks last week. So it is weird, but I think it’s, it’s telling that of where he’s at, that the ravens, like, the Ravens can use more play makers on the outside. Like, I’m not, like, flowers is a good player, you know, and but like, you need to me, like, there’s, there’s more meat on the bone there that they love more had more options that would be better. And it’s weird that they. They traded for him, and then they decided almost right away that he wasn’t worth it, which is kind of a, you know, it’s a weird thing, but it’s just, again, he’s not a cancer in the way that AB was a cancer, but he’s also not as talented as AB either, which makes it more the cancer more tolerable, right? So he’s probably nuked his career. And it’s just, I mean, as somebody who always dealings with him, we’re always okay. That’s just kind of unfortunate. Will Graves
Nestor Aparicio 30:24
is here, easy Associated Press in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, they’re coming down from the mountain on Saturday. We’re gonna play some football around here and then do it again on Christmas. Oh, we have a great holiday, brother. And you know, I love having you on the program. And maybe three weeks from now, they’ll play again. I mean, it’s certainly, it’s always good when the Steelers play the rabies,
Will Graves 30:40
right? It certainly seems like it’s trending that way, like they will see each other again the second week of January. That’s Wait.
Nestor Aparicio 30:47
You did all the game on Saturday. You coming down now,
Will Graves 30:50
I’ll be here and, you know, prepping for Christmas. And, you know, you mentioned it’s, it’s, it’s funny, the the game’s at one, which I’m happy about on Christmas Day. But my kids are teenagers now, and sort of the magic of Christmas has, you know, waned a bit, and sometimes they make decisions about what I want to do, on how much I want to hang out with them, because they’re not as much fun as they used to be, and I’m probably not as much fun as I used to be, either, to be very, very clear, so it might be better. Hey, we have our we wake up at seven. They open their Santa for dinner, right? And I make my french toast. I make this, to be fair, I one of my tradition is I get some brioche bread. I make this sort of pretty good French toast. That’s my thing. I’ll make that at like, nine. I’ll leave it by 10, and, you know, then they’ll have their data played with their new stuff, and I can go to work and, you know, come home and everybody be happy. Well,
Nestor Aparicio 31:39
Wednesdays feel like, listen, I know a lot of things, and I know Mr. Rooney a little bit. I have a feeling he’s got a nice Christmas roast for you and some delicious Rooney family cookies in that little tray there. And you and Charlie batch can fight over him on Christmas Day. All right,
Will Graves 31:54
maybe Taylor Swift will stop by too, you know, oh, I forgot take day. She’s not going
Nestor Aparicio 31:59
to have a Christmas without without Travis. So, yeah, okay, I like that Taylor in Pittsburgh for the holidays. But in the meantime, it’s ravens and Steelers in a slobberknocker here on Saturday night, you can check out will Graves’ work. He’s AP will graves. You find him out on social media as well as at the Associated Press in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, stay healthy through the holidays. I am Nestor. We’re moving the Maryland crab cake tour into 2025 already. On the seventh, we were going to be at libs grill, up in Bel Air for the playoffs. One thing I do know, both these teams are going to make the playoffs, so they’re the nervousness of all of this is more about where the game’s going to be in January. I’m Nestor. He’s will loose. Got you covered on the tech service as well. All that brought to you by our friends at Coal roofing and Gordian energy. We are wnst am 1570 Towson, Baltimore, and we never stop talking Baltimore positive. You.
