The Steelers will go the rest of the way without their star edge rusher, Bud Dupri.

It was confirmed yesterday.

Terrible Injury Tourney A C L.

A.

Major part of a Steelers pass rush that ranks first in the NFL in sacks this season, and he personally had accounted for nearly 20% of the them.

And normally I would start this conversation with our former Steeler, Ryan Clark.

But actually, it is a former Patriot, Rob Ninkovich, who provided some fascinating insight into the pressure off perfection.

What do you think, Rob?

It's unnecessary pressure to be perfect to be undefeated.

Look, in 2007, the Patriots are undefeated.

They lost the Super Bowl to a nine and seven New York Giants on that season, and I think back to 2015.

We were 10 to know, and we went into Denver to play in a snowy overtime game.

They actually won on a crack toss, scored a touchdown on a crack toss.

We lost that game, and I felt that pressure relieved because a perfect season isn't doesn't mean anything unless you win the Super Bowl and that 2007 Patriot team.

I feel if they would have lost maybe one game in the regular season, it didn't have that pressure of being perfect going into the playoffs.

I think they would have won the Super Bowl.

So I think the Steelers look, you never wanna play a game every single week.

You wanna win every single game.

I understand that.

But they're starting to get in creep up into that high pressure, undefeated season status and at 11 to no, it's going to start coming on really hard and fast right now.

All right, so it's a fascinating way of looking at it.

So RC, you know Mike Tomlin so well, you played for him.

How would you imagine he is handling that pressure with his team?

Well, you know, he he used one of my favorite sayings that he always use, which is, you know what?

People don't care about your problems, and most people are happy that you have him, and I think that's going to be his rallying cry for this week.

That's gonna be the way he gets his team, motivated to know that they have to deal with this adversity to show that they can win games when the cards are stacked against them, or they can win games when there's been some obstacles put in their way, and he'll focus on each game to keep the main thing.

The main thing.

And that's something else.

He always says, because the main thing is winning and the main focus is winning that week and Rob is right.

There is going to be a little bit more pressure on the Pittsburgh Steelers because when you're down in the fourth quarter or when you're losing a game when you're not playing well, you aren't necessarily thinking about just losing.

Losing against the Washington football team.

It will be losing an undefeated season, but it's Coach Tomlin's job to keep them focused, its Coach Tomlin job to let them know where they're going and what they're dealing with.

I love the way he talks.

The main thing is the main thing, the standard is the standard.

There's a lot of definitive statements that come from Mike Tomlin every week, but part Scott, what do you think?

Ah, perfect season.

Sounds like a fun.

I went out of fun thing, but but something to strive for to me.

What do you think?

But you always strive for perfection.

But sometimes losing is a necessary evil You talk about.

You know, sometimes when you win, you lose.

And sometimes when you lose, you win.

Because what happens when you lose, you're forced to analyze everything that could contribute to a loss.

When you win, sometimes things that can make you lose get swept under the rug because you fulfilled with the joy of getting your end results.

And what we see is this Pittsburgh team is heavily flawed.

But they got the the feeling of winning and because they got the end result.

So a lot of things they've done, like not really capitalizing the Red Zone turnovers month punch These are all things that can really ugly head when, when when things count the most.

And if you do that and you lose that game, that who cares about you went into that game with an undefeated season, it's about getting the end result in the end result.

Is that rain?

Super quick?

RC.

I only have a minute here less than a minute, but this is a game in which Washington has 11 days rest.

The Steelers have five.

It's a non conference game, so it actually would keep them ahead of Kansas City.

In an honest moment, do you think Tom one wants to see his team lose a game this year before they get to the playoffs?

Hell, no.

Hell no.

Ever know, You know, everyone lose.

That's never how you go into a game.

Now was the focus to be perfect?

Absolutely not.

The focus was to win the A F C North look to get a bye in the playoffs, be the A F C champions and win the Super Bowl.

But you don't ever go into a game planning to lose or wanting to lose or wishing to lose.

Bart did speak about some of those things that happened happened against the Baltimore Ravens, but you could see by the post game press conference.

Mike Tomlin understands that Mike Tomlin will focus on that, and they need to move forward in trying to win every single game they have an opportunity to.

Thanks for watching ESPN on YouTube for live streaming sports and premium content.