 Ryan you mentioned after the game on Sunday next step for you and Julio is to keep building with him being back in here now what what does that look like in on the practice field and in games yeah just keep keep stacking good days together you know every bankrupt matter so you know whether it's in practice or games any rep that we have together we get to connect is a good thing so just keep stacking those good days and it'll pay off on Sunday. How much does the pitch kind of change for you when he is out there on the field Julio that is out there on the field with you? I'm excited to have him out there obviously I love throwing the ball he does some good things for us you know had a couple more opportunities that we weren't able to get him the ball down the field which is frustrating for everybody but you know I'm seeing some good things from him so excited to have him back out there and hopefully you know we can have some opportunities to connect those those downfield throws. Is it really critical to even if you don't connect just to get those on film so teams know that you guys are still capable of you know pushing the ball down the field? Yeah I think so I mean it's something that we want to connect on so I don't know if if they play us any differently but I know that you know if we have an opportunity we want to take advantage of it down the field. What maybe get your attention first? You talking about last year? What they've done so far this year maybe preparing for that game? Yeah they're a talented defense you know they fly around aggressive linebackers meek of it's Patrick is all over the field I was with with him in Miami and respect him he's a really good player their front is fast and aggressive obviously Watts coming off the edge Hayward on the inside just an overall tough defense they play a bunch of different fronts in base defense they're going to give you every look in the book and make it tough on communicating and IDing and then the other physical I think that's what it comes down to is physical defense that wants to make it tough on you. The looks that maybe you don't see typically I mean do they do they do things that you sort of have to really go a little deeper with your film study this week? Yeah you know some teams will do it and Pittsburgh's included is you know putting five or six bigs on the field and then you know they'll walk water around or and he was out 56 was walking around so make you account for a big guy in a situation or in a place and a spot that a big guy is not normally so makes it tough for the offensive line and communicating and knowing who we're going to. Has it been more a function of what the defense is giving you or what you guys are trying to do to take yourselves? Yeah I think we've had opportunities and we've tried to try to get them off down the field it just hasn't all panned out together at the same time so something will continue to work out. A lot of hits and a lot of sacks oftentimes it has some kind of mental effect on their game at least subconsciously but I talked to Pat about that yesterday he doesn't seem to think that's the case with you nobody doubts your toughness and stuff but do you think there's something there? I don't think so I work really hard for there not to be and you know I want to be be able to stand in there and then make you know tough throws in a tight pocket and it's CNFL there's gonna be a lot of tight pockets and you have to be able to to find that fine line between standing in there and making the throw and and you know protecting yourself so yeah something that that I work really hard at and want to continue to do. What do you feel like Furke got going this past weekend? I know he wouldn't like to have that touchdown but do you feel like maybe he's back to kind of finding some consistency because I know it's been a rough go up to that point. Yeah Furke's been doing what we've asked him to do you know I think maybe his numbers haven't been producing but you know you look at third downs and a lot of times he's helping out and he's he's an underneath route so we're able to get him out in into the route concept a little bit more this past game and and he produced you know you see conversions so excited for him and the steps that he took and hopefully we can build on it. Last year we saw a lot of those what they call dropping in the bucket throws that that you guys had haven't seen that as much this year what's the key to trying to find those and get and getting on the same Yeah I think a couple things going to that is is getting the right coverage when you do have have those those play calls being able to win and getting a good position by the wide receiver protecting and having time to get the ball off down the field and then obviously good throw. The COVID case is increasing the NFL is that something that's been talked about you know quite a bit here and I wonder if you know like boosters are increasingly being encouraged here or does that stand? Oh we understand you know this time of year you know sickness is going around and COVID included so we want to be smart with but the situations we put ourselves in as a team talked about could be able to talk about that this morning and just making sure we keep the team at the back of our minds wherever we go so obviously you're not gonna be able to totally avoid anything it's just kind of the world we're living in but you can be aware of the situation put yourself in and try to be smart. Obviously for any kind of victory lap or state of the union interest but as you enter this sort of home stretch do you like the position you put yourself in where if you do what you're supposed to do you'll be where you want come January? Yeah no doubt obviously things haven't been perfect for us up until this point but we have ourselves in a good situation but Coach Rebels talked about it you know for the last two weeks is we're just getting started have a lot of football out in front of us and want to play our best football here down the stretch so if we're able to do that then we'll like where we end up. Next is Ryan but can you describe your connection with AJ you know going all the way back to when you guys were both getting the second team reps you know when you're in your first season here and how it's progressing it seems like there's a little bit of a special connection. Yeah I love them the ball AJ man he's a he's a great dude I love being around him he's a good friend and he's fun to throw the ball to he's easier to throw the ball to he has a natural ability obviously to get himself open he has a size a strength there's some guys that there's easy to throw to you know it's your first time taking reps with them and and they're easy to throw to and he's one of those guys. Those main reasons is his size and his physicality those are the main reasons you say he's kind of an easy guy to throw to where? Not necessarily you know I think just his feel for for adjusting to the ball the way he moves is is easy to read you know all those things kind of play into it. With that like first practice or two with him you sort of notice like hey this this guy this guy's different. Yeah you kind of early on you can you can see that when you throw with a guy just how easy it is to read their body language and how they move how smooth they move and then obviously you know as a big catch rages and adjust to the ball really well so you put those things together and it makes for an easy target. What are your thoughts on a guy like Rob this Berger doing this since 2004 playing at a high level a couple Super Bowls and this may be his last year but it looks like he's not going to go down without a flight this year. Yeah no doubt you know I have a ton of respect for Ben and what he's done in his career obviously played at a high level for a really long time you know going back to his early days he's shaking off three techniques and standing in the pocket just unbelievably strong and then even now you know they fall behind a couple times lately and he's battling them back you know he's making great throws give putting themselves in positions to to get back in the game and possibly win the game at the end so you can't say that he's you know changed a whole lot or gonna go down without a fight you know he's still able to make those really good tough throws and and his lead in his team to to stay in games. Hansfield compared to maybe other places where you've played it's a great place to play I love playing that I think the last time I actually played there was 2014 in the snow which was a was a fun experience my first real real snow game you know with more than just a dusting you know we went in for after warm-ups came back out and I think there was like four or five inches of snow on the ground it was crazy how fast you know it came down but yeah was a fun game I remember being a super competitive game great atmosphere really cool stadium set right there on the rivers and definitely when you think of a an NFL football stadium Pittsburgh is definitely one of those that comes to mind pretty well in the conditions that day or yeah we threw it I don't remember how many yards or anything you know I I can remember a couple touchdowns and and we won the game so those are things that stick out to me on your right hand or did you go no just bare hand exactly exactly yeah that was a was a wild play I had a great vantage point I was standing around on the sideline I saw him step like he stepped out I knew it when he threw it back to him and he took our front and I looked down the sideline there was nobody on that side of the field it was a bad shape right here but thankfully stepped off