And so here is the entire football squad.

And Dominique, I'm starting with you because we talked about this this morning when he says it's not a player's Onley panic meeting, what do you say?

I mean, there's no such thing as a player is only non panic meeting like players.

Only meetings like they come about because the team is in disarray and somewhat in panic.

If he just wanted to reiterate how the how important the playoffs are and how it's not just given, you could do that in the team meeting in the morning, where the coaches are.

You could do that in other meetings when you want everyone out of the room.

But the players, it's normally because of some emotional component or some psychological component.

There's some air that needs to be clear.

There's some tension between position group of some tension between players and coaches.

There's something that needs to be discussed.

There's some sort of mindset switch that needs to be made.

There is no point for players only meeting, given what we know about their situation, because what we know about their situation is they have issues with injury.

They have issues with performance.

You can't talk somebody into performing differently.

You can't talk someone's knee into being healthy.

And unless someone one of those players has a time machine, it could take Ben Roethlisberger back to when he could hold the ball for five seconds in the pocket and shrug off defensive lineman.

Unless one of those players knows that, I'm not sure what they're meeting about.

Well, let's try and figure out what the panic is about.

Luis Riddick.

You had their game on Monday night.

You and I were just talking before we came on.

We were both shocked, frankly, and how bad they looked in Cincinnati.

So if they are panicking at least a little, what should they be panicking about?

Yeah, probably a number of different things if they are.

If you're gonna use the word panic, although from talking to him, I really don't get the sense that they are panicking.

But I will say this.

Their level of concern went up significantly on Monday night.

I think first and foremost for me.

Look, I'm I'm worried about Ben, but I'm not.

I'm not, like, out of my mind worried about him because I think he's a professional.

He's a Hall of Famer.

He understands that he is not playing well.

He gets that, and you could see that on Monday night.

But the thing I'm really worried about, what that offense is, this their past protection for a team that throws the ball as much as they do?

You saw what happened to it on Monday night.

You saw their tackles, just got absolutely just ran through all night long.

Carl Lawson just tortured L A Huh Villanueva, the left tackle, and you see it right here on the screen.

So this week they go up against the Indianapolis Colts.

Have you watched Indianapolis Colts pass Rush?

Have you seen what they do?

The quarterbacks?

That's the kind of thing that worries me if they aren't able to strike a better balance in the run game and take some of this pressure off Bento, where he's dropping back 35 40 times a game.

If they don't get that figured out, they will be lucky to win one game.

And that's something that surprises me to say for a team that started off 11 to know which I don't think with smoking mirrors I think this is a good team, but they have to get back to some sort of balance, and their offensive line has to play much, much better.

D would along those lines like I happen to notice.

Yesterday was the 48th anniversary off the immaculate reception and for every single one of those 48 years, the one thing you knew about the Pittsburgh Steelers, what?

That they were going to be a physical football team.

So what is your reaction to what people are saying about them and what we're seeing on the tape from them right now?

Greeny.

They can't impose their will on anyone you know, And and that's crazy to think about when you talk about the Pittsburgh Steelers, because usually when, when, when someone brings up, the Pittsburgh Steelers is synonymous with, you know, physicality, defense, running, the football, those type of things.

And and we all know that big business on the background of his career.

There's no reason for Big Ben to be having to throw the ball around as much as he is and read the reason that he's doing that.

If they can't knock people off the ball, you know that's been a big recipe for for Pittsburgh success in years prior.

But they just can't do that this year.

And it's starting to manifest itself out right now at this critical stretch where they've lost three games in the road.

They can't protect the quarterback.

They can't run the ball, and it's and it's exposing the whole football team.

And so Schefty have been waiting all week long to get to you on this because let's talk about the Hall of Fame quarterback.

You had the story earlier in the week that Ben Roethlisberger says he wants to come back next year.

His cap number right now is over $41 million for next year.

So how does that work?

Well, he has the largest cap number of any player in the league next year, But it doesn't change the fact that he does wanna play.

He does want to come back, and he doesn't want to fulfill the terms of that contract.

And again, you can bring him back.

And if you need more space, maybe there's a way to restructure that deal to create more flexibility to strengthen other positions.

But make no mistake about the fact that he doesn't want to return.

He feels like he's having fun.

He likes the team.

He likes the players on this team, even though it hasn't been playing well lately.

And I know Louis mentioned, Ah, better balance.

There's been no balance here, right?

There's been no running game that has been able to offset everything else.

There's been a lot of defensive injuries, and this a team that's now lost.

What is it?

Three straight games, teams that you wouldn't ordinarily think the Steelers would lose.

Two.

They lost to the Washington football team, then Buffalo and then Cincinnati and what was supposed to be a get right game.

But this team did not get right.

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