SNR Drive with Matt & Dale (Pittsburgh Steelers)At least, he's the Drive with Dale Lolly and Matt Williamson on your twenty four to seven Home of the Black and Gold cast in Steelers Nation Radio.
And welcome back to the Drive. I am Dale LOLLI he is the Matt Williamson and uh well, it's time for the Fantasy Football Focus here as we kick off our number two and uh well, our DFS lineup once again looking like it's going to be in the money right now. We have one hundred and nineteen point six points that puts us firmly in and right and we still have Jean Robinson going tonight against the Raiders.
There are four teams playing the night, but we got the best guy you want to play I think tonight.
I think so.
Yeah about Jefferson be nice and a couple of biking. That being said, yeah, there was some pitfalls. I'm a little shocked though.
We had some really good hits and we had we had two zero's in our lineup. Yeah, that's one of which was your pick. But it was Amari Cooper. Yeah zero in a game in which there were ninety points scored. Yeah, took a zero and.
He didn't get hurt. And if it wasn't Waddle getting hurt in the first quarter and getting a zero.
He just took a zero.
Coleman came back, and Kaid came back, and everybody's flourished but him. I'm Believa was shocked. Yeah, I was shocked.
So we paid fifty three hundred dollars for him, and he was owned in twelve point three percent of lineup, so it wasn't like we were the only ones that used him. Yeah, he took a zero. We also took a zero on the Browns defense twenty three point seven percent ownership. Now, they were really cheap, but they took it. At least it was just a zero and they didn't cost us points.
Well, you lose the turnover differential by six six, Yeah, I mean, I think we're lucky that that's only a zero. Yeah. I might even show their defense played bad or the Chief's played good.
They held on to twenty one points despite losing the turnover battle six nothing, nothing like. That's not bad. And oh, by the way, Miles Garrett basically got his eye gouge real bad.
I don't know. I mean, that's a different story, but I don't know who defensive Player of the Year is at the moment. I mean, I guess what helped his case.
He certainly didn't hurt his case.
And when he got hurt, I was when I was thinking that. I'm like, oh no, if he gits a stretch, who's going to win the thing. But if he's back, I mean, maybe he can just run away with it. The end.
He's up to eleven and a half sacks now, which is which is third in the league. He's one sack behind Hendrickson.
He's now gotten like that twenty sacks no or you know historic numbers.
So he's now got more sacks than Garrett. He also got his six force fumble yesterday, which leads the league bile a margin. And he also now has I believe, nineteen tackles for a loss. And remember sacks don't count as a tackle for a loss, so therefore he has thirty and a half tackles behind the line of scrimmage.
Scrimmage, whether it's a quarterback or running back.
A wide receiver, whatever. That's a little impactful.
Another guy, though, is certained he got hurt yesterday.
He got hurt too.
He's got a little bit of a case.
I think right now it's it might be what and uh uh the safety from Green Bay.
Uh McKinley, McKinley, yeah, David McKinney, McKinney, yeah, mcken say, he's taking the ball away. Their defense is getting better. He has made a lot of impact.
He has seven interceptions, A lot of those came early.
They did right, But he's their Their defense is done away in one eight. Yeah, I mean you could attribute.
To him, but tougher defensive back to win it.
It is safety, don't win it very often else we have.
So we had Aaron Rodgers. That was that was was a hit ye thirty points, six points. He was only owned in seven percent of lineups.
That was kind of an enjoyable game. And that didn't mean anything. But there was a lot going on there.
Well. And I wanted to start Amari Cooper. No you didn't, Yes, I did start, not Amari Cooper, DeVante Adams. I should say I wanted to start DeVante Adams and he went off.
All in the second half.
All I don't care when it happened.
I know he went They went in the locker room like, hey, Buden, why don't we just throw the ball to each other.
Yeah, let's play catch I'm the last time we had.
To doing the last time we had to do it against terrible jag d and he went they went insane.
Yeah, yeah, he went nuts. But that's all right because we're in the money. We got Bijon going tonight with Jamior Gibbs six point one percent ownership on Jamier Gibbs in that game, which is really I'm surprised it was that low.
At he helped.
Yeah, you know, twenty eight point four points out of Jamier Gibbs. Very nice. Yeah, uh, Courtland Sutton kind of a slow day for him, but he did score. It's pretty consistent though. They hit twelve point two points. He was owning twenty point two percent of lineups at sixty six hundred, So kind of chalky, but we're okay there, didn't.
Heard you didn't kill you. It didn't help you all the time.
Yeah, Garrett Wilson owned in seven point nine percent of lineups at sixty five hundred. He got fourteen point six for us. Again, didn't wasn't great, but didn't kill us.
He was more of the first half.
Guy Stone smart.
Yeah, aren't we smart?
With two te's, Well, so we're we We in thirty six point eight percent of the people in. I mean that's of smart people. You have to like, that's that's just steal. If they're gonna give him to you for twenty six hundred, yeah, you take him for twenty six hundred and he had nine points.
They can't run the ball at all, no, I mean, I bet Harbaugh's losing his mind, right, Yeah, you know.
All those picks you spent on offensive linemen, and.
Yeah, we're gonna run the ball and more physical and they can want to actually have a good running back. Yeah, and even the interior road line has been not great getting pushed around. Yeah, Chargers aren't a great spot. I say that more for Steeler playoff reasons. Yeah, but also you know fantasy notes.
And Herbert wasn't great yesterday either.
No.
Uh, we had Jerry Judy in the lineup at sixty two hundred is the flex play twenty four point eight points.
I don't know what to think of that team. You know, again, they have six zero in their turnover ratio. Winston gets benched. The Joku was out till Moon was out, which is why we hit Judy.
So you know what's going to happen here. They're gonna start Doriyan Thompson Robinson on the stretch.
And it's just gonna kill everyone's fancy value and they're chubbs out for the year.
I actually hope that happens this week because the guy that I play in our playoffs as Jerry Duty.
Okay, go ahead, start Dorian Thompson Robinson. This I imagine the Jokho and Tillman have to be back soon. Jobs out. I mean, they're gonna throw If it's Winston, like broke foot, I feel bad for that guy too. Yeah, but that's that I don't know what to do with that team because even if Winston starts, is he gonna finish the game? Maybe not? Maybe not right well, and that's been the kind of the Browns.
What you get? Uh so yeah we need uh well, we get a decent game out with money b Jon Robinson one hundred and nineteen points as respectable. Yeah, because there were start low up guys. We couldn't start everybody in the uh Bill's No Troy game.
Because I'm sure the Allen owners are pretty happy once again.
But you really had to pay for that, true true, Yeah, it's nice to have that guy in your lineup, but we got thirty points out of Aaron Rodgers at fifty four hundred dollars.
That's I mean, that was Yeah, that's that's the beauty.
Seven percent ownership. We went Aaron Rodgers and we got thirty points.
And even like smart, you know, to get yeah, to really go cheap and not be at a disadvantage against other tight ends.
Yea, and even like Judy was ten point five percent ownership, Like that's that's where you really make your bones, like finding those nuggets. Yeah, we took the zero with Amari Cooper twelve twelve point three percent ownership. But if we'd have gotten twelve point four points out of Judy and twelve point four points out of Cooper, would we feel differently about this? We'd have probably been disappointed a little bit, I guess.
Yeah. I mean a couple of things. I think Judy's only one of four receivers at a thousand yards already, Like I didn't see that coming no matter how you cut it, Like every beat, like sixteen targets a game. Yeah, I mean, the Tillman injury certainly has helped them over, but like, I don't think I'm running and getting them next year in the second round of my redraft leagues or anything.
No, I'll let somebody else do that, I would imagine.
Yeah, but it just seemed like yesterday was a very high scoring fantasy day across leagues.
Yeah.
Yeah, I was shocked when we were still in it.
I'll take it, and again we'll probably finish for a round. I mean, what's what's bije I'm going to get against the Raiders tonight.
Some of them.
Twenty twenty is probably the floor. So we're gonna have over one hundred and forty points.
So I think he might be hanging out in the fourth quarter of the baseball cap on No.
But if that happens, he probably scored a couple of times. Yeah, so we're in good shape there. Let's move on here and take a look at this week's leaderboard. To your point, here's the thing. All those points scored this weekend, there were only two three hundred yard passers. Really, you had Jared Goff at four ninety four with five touchdowns, threw the ball fifty nine times. Yeah, you had Josh Allen at three sixty two and two touchdowns. Now obviously you get the Russians others. Yeah, Well, but right, they're all one game. Mac Jones had two ninety four, two touchdowns, two interceptions.
Nobody's starting Mac Jones wo. No, that's Brian Thomas numbers.
Lamar had two ninety and five touchdowns, but you expect that at Lamar. He threw the ball twenty five times more touchdown passes than he had incompletions.
Yeah.
Jalen Hurts had two ninety and two touchdowns, also ran for one and Rogers had two eighty nine and three touchdowns. So again that bang for the buck in terms of DFS. That's that's where we're at. Baker Mayfield had two eighty eight and four touchdowns with an interception.
They just dominate him in the second half. Yeah.
Burrow two seventy one and three touchdowns with two interceptions. It's actually kind of a down game for him.
That's kind of his floor at this point.
Yeah, he had a bad fumble and a couple of those interceptions.
Weren't the weren't great. Yeah, it wasn't his best day.
Wasn't his best day. Jordan Love we got two twenty nine and two touchdowns. No, No, and then jayde and Daniels had two twenty six and two touchdowns. Random ball pretty effective.
Yeah, yeah, I mean did enough. I mean Saints Thomas, it made that interesting at the end, but.
Got the untimed or the extra seconds on the clock and all that fun stuff.
Daniels, the Mclaurin's a real thing though.
But the quarterback pit position, I mean from Jared Goffitt won with four hundred and ninety four yards and five touchdowns to Jade and Daniels all the way down at ten has two hundred and twenty six yards and two touchdowns. Like there's a massive gap there.
Yeah, yeah, I mean golflin lunatic.
But yeah, but even at that, there's a big gap there between Josh Allen at three sixty two and Jayde and Daniels at two twenty six.
But to your point, there was two guys had a lot of the production. Yeah, through the air.
There were some touchdowns throwing in there, but the quarterback touchdowns when they're like two of Lamar's touchdowns go to Rashaw Bateman, who's playing Rashaw Bateman? Yeah yeah, yeah, nobody right, I mean you got to really be scraping bottom of the barrel. Yeah. The rushing only six one hundred yard rushers this week, Rico Daldell one nine kin every week now, didn't score, twenty five carries a long run of twelve, had one hundred and forty nine yards with a long run of twelve. Bucky Irving fifteen for one to seventeen, didn't score.
Yeah, looks great though.
James Connor sixteen for one ten, two touchdowns, having a good year. Yeah, really good year. Kyron Williams twenty nine for one oh eight in that Thursday night game.
Just never throw the backs.
Jonathan Taylor at twenty two for one oh seven didn't score.
Well, he should have. He should have dropped the ball at the one, which for some reason people are doing left.
And right now apparently so.
Yeah.
And then James Cook had fourteen for one oh five and two scores.
Yeah, that's a great game. Good game.
Rounding out your top ten was Chase Brown twenty five for ninety seven and a touchdown. Josh Jacobs had twenty six for ninety four in a touchdown. Jerome Ford had seven for eighty four in a touchdown. He had a sixty two yarder. I wonder if he gets a bump now it could be the only game in town.
Now Again, I don't think he'll be Foreman or one of those guys.
I just don't know.
It's a hard offensive count. Yeah.
And then ramondre Stevenson thirteen for sixty nine and did not score. Ok so not again, not a less production than I thought. I got a lot of carries there. The receivers, well, we had ten eleven of those that broke one hundred yards. DeVante Adams nine for one ninety eight and two touchdowns.
Yeah.
Yeah, seventy one yarder, a mon Ross Saint Brown, we talked about him, fourteen for one, ninety three in a touchdown. He did a long one too, forty eight yarder sixty six was it sixty six? Mike Evans nine for one fifty nine and two touchdowns. He's been great Ceede Lamb nine for one, sixteen in a touchdown.
Pretty obvious. The Cooper rush can keep your guys fantasy relevant.
This is the one that was the most surprising. Ty Johnson five for one fourteen.
He's break free on one or something.
Or he had a thirty three yarder.
No, I guess he had a couple. He must had a couple of twenty.
They're getting them. I kind of isolated on the linebackers and just go run. Uh. Sam Laporta seven for one to eleven.
He's been more and more relevant. Started a season slow, but I would not give it. Hopefully he didn't give up on him.
Yeah. AJ Brown at eight for one ten in a touchdown. Jalen Coker four for one ten in the touchdown. He had an eighty three yard.
Along one too. Yeah, but they like him a lot, and I think get got hurt at the end of that game.
Davonte Smith at eleven for one oh nine in a touchdown. That's the thing about this game. AJ Brown averaged thirteen point eight yards per catch. His long game was twenty one. DeVante Smith eleven for one oh nine. His long game was twenty two yards.
Very similar.
Like, you didn't you didn't allow the big long.
No, that game part of the goal. Yeah, and I give hurts in those guys credit for doing it consistently.
Yeah, So you know there are adjustments you can make to that.
That again, thing is they don't have a third receiver at all at all.
You know, it's all funneled through those two guys.
Uh.
Jerry Judy eleven for one oh eight, did not score, and then Brian Thomas ten for one oh five and two touchdowns, and I know.
A lot of people kept him on their bench. Word about Mac Jones, I think he's a start, no matter what type of guy.
Yeah, look that some of the other guys. Chase said nine for ninety four, didn't score, Poka Nakua seven for ninety seven, didn't score. Tee Higgins citing this week five for eighty eight and a touchdown after.
I think guy's just a blip last week. Yeah, I thinks so too much.
Trey McBride nine for eighty seven, of course, didn't score. Didn't score. Ty J Spears six for eighty seven and a touchdown.
Him and Paulods flit, but he got all the receiving stuff and that's all that mattered.
It looks like I would you think they start making Rudolph this week?
Yes?
I do too.
Yeah, I think they do.
Yeah. Jackson Smith and Jigba ten for eighty three every week. Yeah, didn't score. Jamiir Gibbs had five for eighty three in a touchdown. Malik Neighbors ten for eighty two in a touchdown, and.
They're still gonna feed him even with bad quarterbacks.
Bateman had three for eighty and two scores. That's why you're not starting that guy, just not there's not enough volume there.
I did it, you know, just starting in the stat pack stuff I do. I mean they use him as a deep threat though he's got a lot of long balls. You know, I never thought of them that had him, but he game my Yeah, I did more intermediate, but.
When you're you know, you're you're run.
He gets single coverage. They sent him deep and yeas a good deep passer.
Yeah. Jaylen McMillan five for seventy five in a touchdown, so to come on a little bit, Yeah, bocks are good. Brenton Strange eleven for seventy three.
Yeah, I picked him up in a dynasty league and I probably would like to trade him now if the deadline hasn't gone. Yeah, they're building for the future.
His long catch was nine yards.
Mac Jones's showing us that he can keep people.
For he doesn't know how to throw to the tight ends, because that's all we had in New England. H Terry McLaurin had seven for seventy three and two touchdowns. Again, a lot of these guys we talked about it.
Oh yeah, they were good values.
We just settled on the wrong guy with Amary Cooper. Calvin Austin five for sixty five.
I don't think he's fantasy relevant, but he's been in success.
He's real world relevant. Oh absolutely, Yeah. Marquez Valdez Scantling two for sixty four. It's all they really got. Yeah, weird team. Keon Coleman had won for sixty four. It would have been nice to get that out of a Justice Hill is a guy the Steelers are gonna have to deal with this WEEKID five for sixty one in the touchdown.
I mean he plays all the time. He's kind of their game. Well, Chig showed up this week.
Chig got eight for fifty nine.
Wow. I think that was all Rudolph. I mean just my hunch, because Rudolph was pretty efficient. Yeah, Levis was all.
Levis was not efficient because that will never be a word it's used with now Will Lewis. He's really been bad, really bad. But that's your top performers this week. Again, not a whole lot of new names on there. Some interesting names, you know. I Jalen Coker is out there.
Yeah, of some interest, but he's not gonna catch an eighty yarder every year.
Every week, the question is are you gonna be able to push that button on game day and say, yeah, let's start him. Probably more of a DFS start.
Yeah, I don't know that. There's I mean, as many injuries there were, are these great waiver wire pickups. I know it's tomorrow's project, but it's you know, my Motgomery direct replacement out there is or Chubb direct replacements.
Again, this was the time of year. If you're your opponent has one of those guys, block block block block. Yeah, because it's all about winning this week and then moving on to the next one. So good luck, hope you hopefully you advanced in your in your playoff format.
Matt and I both had buys this week and were the best two teams. That's right, because one of us, our league mates, must not listen to the drive. One of us finished first over all, the other one finished second. I'm not going to tell you who that was but me. Uh but I think I have more points than you though. Who won our head to head match up.
Well, until we meet again. If you can get there, you get the red hot team. I'm the red hot you get the red hot team. You get the guy that has Josh, you gotta play. That's the thing you played Josh Allen this week. I get to play Lamar. I like my matchup better against Lamar this.
Week, Like anyone better than Josh Allen dangerous.
Yeah, neither one of us drafted quarterbacks early.
Yeah. I got Jaden Daniels and golfs it on the bench. I got Jordan Love Yeah, but I don't worry about that point.
Yeah. Well, anyways, good luck if if you make it past that first round, that will do it for the Fantasy football focus today. Let's get to a break. He is Matt Williamson. I am Dale Lolly. You're listening to the Drive here on the Steelers Audio Network, Matt, and I'll be back with more right after this.
And at least he's the Drive with Dale Lolly and Matt Williamson on your twenty four to seven home of the Black and Gold Steelers Nation Radio.
And welcome back. I am Dale Lollly. He is the Matt Williamson. And I don't want to say like I'm the great Kreshkin here or something you know, or Karnak or whatever, but Lamar Jackson goes out and just choose up the giant.
This week.
Oh yeah, five touchdown passes, just does whatever they want to do, and of course he jumps back in. Is Lamar the MVP, or is Josh Allen the MVP? It's Josh Allen.
Oh, I think Allen's running away with it. Yeah, last two weeks have done Allen wonderful thing. Even in a loss.
The Steelers have an opportunity not only to win a division on Sunday, but kind of end any talk of a Lamar Jackson MVP if they go out and do what they've done consistently against Lamar Jackson. Just to remind everybody earlier this season, what Lamar did against the Steelers. Yeah, sixteen of thirty three for two hundred and seven yards, one touchdown, one interception. They only sacked him twice, which is actually, if you look at it, that's the lowest amount of sacks that he's had on him against. In this game against the Steelers that he started, it's been five for seven and two. They averaged getting to him three point one times, and that's including a game where he only threw one pass because he was the backup quarterback at the time. They just used him as a So really it's it's more like four sacks per game with him, Yeah, in five starts. It's actually it's twenty two sacks and five starts that he is he's one and four.
Yeah, there's obviously something to that. I mean, I think that the familiarity the pass rush plan that I can't harp on enough, I think is really really important. And I know that this pass game was recent, but he's way better from the pocket than he's ever been, and.
You would think that would translate, and it just hasn't.
It didn't this. I mean just even I know he won the MVP last year, but he's a much better passer this year than he was last year. And I still think you take the same approach on him. I mean, why he shows you he can beat it, why would you differ? Of course, But I think he's more equipped to beat it than ever because he throws really well and he's got good weapons. But I don't know if it's in his head, Is it a fluke, is it's you know what the deal is, because he's a tremendous football player that should be right in the MVP race. I mean, there's no doubt about it. Allen's better this year in terms of MVP potential to me, but he'd be number two.
Yeah. Mike Tomlin was asked about you know about well, you know Lamar has struggled against you, guys, what have you done to make Lamar struggle? Like, first of all, like he's going to say, well, here's what we've done.
But he's got descryptinite. I'm gonna tell the whole world about it.
Right, The Ravens know what he's done. Yeah, he said they would be better equipped to answer that question than I am. But there are obviously some things that they have done schematically, yes, that have bothered Lamar Jackson, Yes, and two of those things might be TJ. Watt, Cam Hayward.
I would say, I think has a lot to do with yeah, in terms of just finding lanes, making him, you know, pat the football a second longer than he wants to, things like that. I mean, I think it's more the D line and coverages than coverages, not that they don't have an idea of what he's looking at and all those things too, But I do think it's definitely a Tomlin strength that doesn't get talked about enough. Is the more he plays against you, the less advantage you have, you know, what I mean, Like, I know they lost the Eagles, but if they played them ten times, I think it can they get better? Better? Better? You know what I mean. I think there's something to be said for that. And you know, knowing the division has always been a strength of this organization for decades.
The most yards that Lamar Jackson has thrown for against the Steelers is two hundred and fifty three yards. His best rating in a game in which he has started and finished is that is that game eighty point one. If you look at these passer ratings in the other starts, fifty four point nine, sixty five point eight, eighty point one, sixty five point two, and sixty six point one. So his career passer rating against the Steelers is sixty six point seven.
Yeah, it's amazing.
I mean, this is a guy who is leading the league and pass he's almost almost twice that this year.
Right, I don't say that would be a terrible game for him nowadays, you know there's the average of all well, and it was a terrible game, and it was a terrible game for him, Right, I don't know. I mean, I'm not saying it's not not sustainable, because clearly it is, and they are really well equipped to play against him, and frankly go in and getting Patrick Queen and Elliott not because they're former Ravens, but because they handle the middle of the field and they run well and they understand how to get him on the ground has a lot of value as well. I mean, teams in the division do things to deal with the Steelers, and the Steelers are doing things to deal with Lamar. He's scary. I mean, you know the hard knocks thing, Well, Orlando Brown's there because Heismith's destroying the left tackle. Yeah, I don't want to do that. That happened twice a year. I hope it keeps up. But part of me thinks, at some point, at some point, he's gonna he's gonna have a good game against Right, So he's not gonna go a decade without ever having a good game against Steelers. I mean, there's no chance that's gonna happen.
But he's not a good game for him against the Steelers.
I mean, it's not like the Giants game.
It's not gonna be five touchdowns and no interceptions or anything.
Like more incompletions or something like that, right, I mean, it's not gonna be a walk in the park. I don't know what to make of it. Yeah, I really don't know.
It's one of the more interesting it is situations that I can think of in pro sports today. Yeah, yeah, regardless of you know, this team for whatever reason just has this guy's number. Mm hmm.
It's funny and I should know the conversation better and maybe you can remember it. But I just did a hit with Mark Madden and I was walking out of the office with him when we were just talking about the coming thing off the air, and he said his mom was a huge tennis fan when grow up. They'd always watched McEnroe and Borg and all those guys. And I forget who the other great player was that was really good friends with McEnroe. But McEnroe beat him like sixteen times in a row, and he was comparing to the Steelers and Lamar and I guess in match number seventeen, this guy finally beats McEnroe and they interview him and he's like, you know, no one beats me seventeen times in a row. This totally makes a joke out of it, you know, it could crack me up, you know, but I don't think it's going to get to that degree. But there's certainly a styles make fight thing in sports where I got your number, but this guy's got my number or whatever it is, you know, and I right now they have him figured out. Yeah.
He has five touchdown passes and eight interceptions against the Steelers, he has.
I mean, if he minus those off his career totals, it's insanely different. Yeah. Right.
He also has eight interceptions against the Browns, who have He's seven and five in his career against the Browns as a starter, know that, but he started twelve games against him. He's only started six against the Steelers.
There is a small sample sized thing here, but you know, against them.
Against the Bengals, he's throwing twenty two touchdown passes and four interceptions.
And I always think of those games being first rate, first one to thirty two. You know. I definitely think Harbaugh, I said this couple weeks ago, prepares for the Steelers way different than he does the Bengals. Yeah, you know, and I think some of it's uh, I know that, you know that, I know that, you know, you know the type of thing where if we get the twenty against Steelers we're gonna win. We get the forty against the Bengals to win, you know, just a totally different mindset of maybe we should fake a punt here or something like that that we don't usually do and since the game or we got to play it really close to the vest against the Steelers.
You know, I don't know. The thing is, it's intriguing though. It really is interesting to me. Now the Browns have sacked him more. He's been sacked twenty seven times on two hundred sixty four pass attempts. The Steelers have gotten to him twenty two times one hundred and sixty five. Thrown a lot more against Yeah, right, you know so, and by far those are Yeah, those are by far the most that any team has gotten to him. The Chiefs. The Chiefs have gotten to him on one hundred and sixty two pass stems. So it's very similar to the Steelers. Steelers one sixty five.
Yeah, eleven times, it's half as much as the Steelers have, so they get to him. Yeah, And I just maybe he just sees the rush more against the Steelers because they do get to him. Maybe maybe there's a tendency that Tomlin will never tell us until he's on his deathbed type of thing that he always looks left and then he goes right to Hayward or whatever it is. I mean, there must be we just take Andrew, we take there will be Away, We take Andrews away and you know, so that's not there and then yeah. Yeah, But there's been a couple of different coordinators for them. I mean, it's not just Tomlin against same OC. But maybe there's just obvious things like we have a really good feel for who their first read player is, you know, and down and distance.
But it's been different coordinators.
It's different coordinators, right, I mean it is. If we could take Andrews away as a first read all the time, there's a pretty high percentage that he's gonna have to pack the ball and then go outside. I'm I'm making stuff up. I'm just trying to you'd have to study the tape and play against them like the Steelers have year after year after year.
It's really strange.
It is now, I will say so, but it's wonderful. I mean, it's impressive.
Right if you look at what Baltimore has done basically since that game against the Bengals, the Steelers game being part of that. They gave up four hundred and seventy yards in that game against the Bengals. They brought in Dean ps as a defensive senior assistant or whatever.
He used to be on staff way back.
Well, yeah, he was their defensive coordinator. He's kind of retired down they bring him back. So they give up three hundred and three yards to the Steelers to eighty five. The Chargers two fifty two to the Eagles in that game. Now, the Eagles were winning handily and they're they're more than happy at that point. Yeah, nd around, that one ended up twenty four to nineteen. It wasn't really that close, and they gave up two thirty six to the Giants on Sunday. So the numbers have kind of switched a little bit for them since they brought Pea's back, and they're they're they're playing as they did that at that point, better defensively than they had been.
Yeah, I think they're blowing fewer coverages too. Like, I mean, that was a big problem was just the communication on the back end.
They've also put Hamilton basically, you're not the free safety, Like, we can't we can't keep giving up wrong pass after long pass.
I mean in a way, he's their Menca. Like I last year I wrote an article about how Menca is just putting out fires left and right. You know, something's going wrong. We can't stop tight ends. Make of, that's your job. We need to cover two safeties. Make of that's your job. You got to play someone near the box, that's your job. So I mean, now that's Hamilton. I mean that's a beauty of having a versatile star safety like that. I also think like the O waves of the world are getting better too, They're getting a little bit better pass rush. I'm interested to study him. I mean it's only day one. I'm still kind of recovering. But what's changed over the last couple of weeks. But boy, going into the last game was a lot of blown cover a lot of blown coverages. To your point, Marcus Williams the free safety, he's.
Eddie Jackson bench. Yeah, like they've they've got some of those guys out of there.
Who's might not be in the league next year that have had good careers, you know that probably hit the wall before they expected them to.
And that's always been something that the Ravens have done over the years. They always they always had these ten year veteran guys in the on the back end of the Weddeles the Woods guy that too, right, and just it just didn't work out this year.
No, it didn't. And I don't know that Simpson was a one for one for Queen either. You know, I definitely was not. Yeah, to be honest, I mean he's still learning. You know, he bites on play action and you know, runs the wrong way sometimes and stuff.
But you look at their offense and it hasn't been as explosive over that same period, So I think they've kind of Yesterday it was, but you played a really bad Giants team.
And Henry slowed down a little bit.
Lately, it really slowed down. But if you look at their point out put sixteen against the Steelers, they scored thirty against the Chargers, nineteen against the Eagles, and thirty five yesterday, So it's not the thirty five, forty one thirty forty one that they were. You know, they scored forty one three times this year.
Like leading into Steelers Ravens Part one, I was pretty confident that was the best offense in the league. It was like them an alliance. You know, like you can fight back and forth.
Now, I don't think it's close.
I don't either. I mean it's still really good and they're dangerous, and lighting up the Giants doesn't change my opinion at all. I mean everyone could see that coming. They are good, but I don't think they run the ball as much or.
As well as well.
I think they can get Henry slowed down a little bit more behind the line of scrimmage. They're they're intriguing. I I'm real excited to dig into them throughout.
I still think the offensive line is a bit of an issue.
I think it's okay, not great. That's any line that includes yeah, yeah, I think Gary of guard problems. Yeah, McCarry at the other like the two guards, Pile and McCarry, they're not great.
They're not great.
Vorhees wasn't great.
Like Hayward against McCarry is, oh no, that's.
Gonna be a big brain. Anyone against should be all right. Yeah. I also think the right tackle is gonna be a problem, yeah, without.
Question, And maybe that's maybe that's the issue because when you play the Steelers, you know, you gotta you got you have to chip T. J. Watt, you have to constantly do it.
I wonder if it's a right tackle left guard problem, maybe it might be as simple.
Might be as simple as that.
It might be as simple as that that you're not strong enough at right tackle and left guard.
Deal with those consistently. Deal with those guys.
Yeah, it might be that simple, because they haven't been great. Morgan Moses was more of a run block or two and yeah, and they shipped them out for nothing. You know, I just trying to think other guys in the past. Yeah, maybe that's part of it. Part of it, Oh, there's.
No doubt is part I mean, that's part of you know, what gives the Steelers an opportunity to win every week. And the interesting thing about the other interesting thing about this one is that the Steelers didn't have Alex high Smith the last time, and.
That's definitely a boost. Yeah, I mean, now, as impressive as her Big is, high Smith's a different breed. I mean, he's more of a pounds heavier or whatever it is he plays.
He really sets the edge well.
Yeah, and I really like her Big, But the last two weeks he's been kind of quiet by his standards too. He's he's not going to have the highest wind not fresh wind rate in the league. You know, the kind of stuff he was doing. So having him as a part time player, I think goes a long way. I don't know. I mean, it's going to be a heck of a matchup.
It really is. And I wonder for this one. We've seen it when they when when high Smith was a rookie, for example, and it was it was Watt and Dupree. Yeah, when they played the Ravens, they used the three of them at the same time a lot.
Yeah, yeah, Yeah, that's what the experiment with that. Yeah, I would have no problem with it. I mean they have flirted with it here and there a little bit. One of the issues though, is you got to pull another good player off that has a defined position. Does that mean Benton's on the sideline or Queen or you know, one of your other off the ball linebackers that are doing well on their own.
Yeah. I don't have a problem taking a defensive lineman off the field necessarily, as long as Henry's not in the game.
And it's Henry following Ricard, that's a problem, you know, right.
That's the problem that the Ravens offense has with Henry and this it's no knock on Henry.
He's a certain type of back to me, that's why he's.
Never out there on third down right right, And so you know if you get ahead where they get into a hurry up or a two minute situation, you know, you know he's just not out there.
He's phenomenal. He's got a bunch of milestones that he's going to set against the Steelers. Like he's about to hit his fifteen hundred for the third time in his career, or fourth time in his career. He's about to he's like one carry away from passing John Riggins on for seventh all time, or he's about the eleven thousand yards. So he's gonna set a bunch of milestones this weekend. And I think he's phenomenal. But it also didn't shock me as much as people in hindsight. How could you let him go to the Ravens when he was a free agent because you have to restructure everything for him, and he's not young and you may only get him for a year. Now. Of course Dallas probably looks at it like, yeah, we was just signed. But he's a certain type of player you can take Barkley and throw him in any It doesn't matter, McCaffrey, throw him in any offense. You got to dedicate yourself to being a Henry offense and it's nine to ten times is great, But throwing downs are an issue and he needs Greg Cosel calls him a track runner, you know, like he's on a train track, you know, like you get him on that track and look out. But it's not easy to open the lane for the track, you know.
Yeah, yeah, so interesting. Let's get to another break. He is the Matt Williamson. I am Dale Lolly. You're listening to The Drive here on the Steelers Audio Network, and of course you can hear the Drive every Monday through Friday from four to six pm right here on these very airwaves where you can download the Steelers Mobile app and get it downloaded directly to your phone along with all the other great content on there. And well you can also watch us on the YouTube channel where they also have a lot of great content. So go ahead and do that and enjoy. But we're gonna take a break. We'll be back with more right after this.
At least he is the Drive with Dale Lolly and Matt Williamson on your twenty four to seven, Home of the Black and Gold cast in Steelers Nation Radio, and we are back.
I am Dale, Lolly. He is the Matt Williamson and the Matt you brought up, Barbara on the subject of the Ravens, the Derrick Henry situation. Here last two weeks, eighteen for eighty four, thirteen for forty six.
He's a gut in front.
I'm sorry. That was the beginning of the year. Actually, it's been fourteen for sixty seven, nineteen for eighty two. Remember the Steelers held him to sixty five on thirty on thirteen carries. So his last four of his last five games sixty eight sixty five, he had won forty against the Chargers. Yeah, eighty two and sixty seven.
He hasn't been on Sports Center, ripping off long runs, stiff armon guys thirty yards down field, running away from everybody. I don't know. I'm just throwing this out there. But he's not young, and he's taken a beating, and I wonder if he's as spry. They have a bye two weeks ago. Yeah, they're doing other things on offense too. I mean they haven't sounds crazy, but they haven't fully bought into the Dereck Henry experience. Either. They're kind of teeter in that line, and that's worked well and they haven't needed him every time. But I think he's easier to stop than a guy like Barkley.
He's got five games this year and where he's gotten twenty carries. The Ravens are five and zero in those games, are they? So they're three and five when they don't get Derrick Henry twenty carries. That includes yesterday's blowout of the Gant of the Giants.
They rested a lot of guys though, Like I get it.
You know, but in the game, you're two and five in games that matter, in games in which you weren't you destroying the opponent when you don't get him that many carries?
And I bet that's true when he was a Titan two. You know, Like again, he's a certain type of back. You got to dedicate yourself to being a Derrick Henry type offense. And Teezer said and done. And I kind of made fun of Harbaugh early in the season. It was like week three or four, and they asked him, you know, why aren't you a feature in Henry Moore? And he said something like, well, we're gonna spread things around, we're not featuring anyone. I like, well, then you got the wrong guy.
Yeah, why did you do that?
Then? Not that it hasn't worked out for him, He's a trement. He's one of the best additions in the offseason, right behind Barkley in the running back world. But it's just a I'm not explaining as well as I wish I was, but it's you got to jump in the deep end on the Dereck Henry experience, and that takes away from other things. Yeah, you know, so, I think he's a phenomenal football player, but I don't think he's a perfect football player, you know.
Yeah, you know, he hasn't scored a touchdown now, it's been a while in three games. Yeah, he since he scored against the Steelers.
And these are all standards of great backs. He's on comparison, you know, Joe Blow.
He had that sixty sixty five yards against the Steelers. Remember he had a thirty one yard carry and.
I thought he had won big, decent chunk.
So, I mean, again, much like they did with Barkley yesterday. You take that twenty two yard run away from Barkley. On his other carries, he averaged two point four yards of carry. Yeah, yeah, like you did a really good job there. He did a good job against Henry. He didn't allow Henry to take the game over. And I think the Ravens, unlike some other teams out there, can be dissuaded from using that.
That's kind of what I was thinking, too, is like where there are definitely are teams out there going to pound the rock, pound the rock, three and out hunt. Okay, but we know the damn's gonna break and the Steelers have some of those qualities on offense, and that's.
Been Henry's thing over the course of his career, like he's a closer.
He's a closer. Yeah, and lands a bunch of body blows in the first half and then one mistackle and oh because he's got that rare speed too.
It's interesting, like I just think that they've been you know, if we were doing Raven's Nation radio, like why aren't we giving the ball to Derrick Henry? More like this science game aside, this is this is crazy. I know, I get it.
Last there was no wrong answer in that game.
But he's on He's got two hundred and fifty four rushing attempt. He's at five point eight yards of carry.
Like, I mean, it's still an unbelievable weapon that you just have to keep feeding the weapon like a Lamar's been running a little bit more lately too. I guess his mom told him too or whatever, you know, But he's pretty good at that too. You know, they almost that's a dumb thing to say. I say, they almost have too many good options. You know, why we get Andrews the ball more even yesterday? I mean they're tearing up the Giants, But why didn't say Flowers get more action? You know, like, well, yeah, a lot of good things going on here. You know, if you're gonna connect a couple of deep balls to Bateman and you're not gonna use Henry Aton, you know. I mean Andrews didn't light it up it because they got a lot of options.
Yeah, they were gonna win that game yesterday.
I mean that game's almost a throwaway for where the Giants are at right now.
I mean, my goodness, you're you know you're you're playing against.
I firmly believe the Giants don't want to win, right I mean, I think that's on purpose yea at this stage.
Yeah, just at this point.
I mean they want to pick first or second the draft.
You're they were playing with Tom Tommy DeVito and Tim Boyle at quarterback.
Yeah, DeVito got hurt and Lock's not even the two. He was an emergency guy, right boils the guy off the bench.
So, I mean, I don't even know. Defensively, what you take out of that game from the Ravens defense.
Not much. It was like it was easy a team to play against the zera in.
The league right now, and you know, I don't know, I mean, for at halftime, they just seem like a team that like, Okay, you're gonna take I just I can't get past you. You're gonna put Justice Hill out there instead of Derrick Henry in certain situations.
Well okay, yeah, It's kind of like Gainwell and Barkley though, I mean, like Hills and Gainwell to me are the same level third down back, but Barkley is a much.
Better receiver better. I think game was better.
Yeah, I kind of think they're about the same. They're both spot duty guys that are effective on a per touch basis, but I think Barkley is a much better receiver than Henry. He hasn't catch more balls. To be honest with you, I'm not sure Henry doesn't catch You catch the ball like it's a it's a beach ball.
Yeah, So just interesting. We'll continue to break down this, uh, this roster is.
I mean, he's still a massive challenge and no domination of him and Lamar is a massive challenge. Yeah, but I like Cam Hayward's chances of dealing with it.
Yeah, I do too. And again that offensive line they got to tackle better, though they do it to tackle better. Tackle and space was a problem yes yesterday. Yeah, and I thought some of it was a little bit over aggressiveness at times.
I thought so too overrunning things, not breaking down. Yeah, I thought some of the angles were a little too aggressive. Yeah, but that needs corrected. I mean, to me, that's one of your big on tape coaching points of the week. You know, it's in space in particular, breaking down, making them play. You don't have to blow him up and run through them, get him on the ground.
Yeah, and that's something that especially on the third down. You know, I expect them to be better at They've been good at it all so I think they've been the best tackling team in the league. Yeah, that was the anomaly yesterday.
And it wasn't like Barkley was making some of his crazy ones jumping over people backwards and stuff.
I mean, they did a good job tackling him, That's.
What I mean. Yeah, it wasn't like the hardest guy to tackle out there was just better than all of you. It was a bad tackling day.
Yeah, it's just a bad day at the office all around. But Matt, that's going to do it for the show today.
All right, in the middle of a crazy stretch of the season. It's kind of fun.
Though, Yeah, well kind of fun for you. I haven't even been home yet since a because I got back from Philadelhic. I left my house Saturday morning and haven't been home since. So no, nope, So there you have it. Yeah, I'll be I'll get I'll have so I already called my wife, Hey, what's for dinner? Because I have one of nice home cooked meal your Yeah, and just sit back and relax them. What's the two Monday night games tonight?
Yeah? How about that? So they're okay, they're entertaining.
One should be anyways.
Yeah, yeah, that's all right, that's all right. I like the bikes.
Yeah uh. Anyways, that's going to do it for today's show. So for my partner Matt Williamson, for Justin Miller here on site running the Justin Miller hotline and the soundboard here, and for Tyler Viittmeyer making sure our video makes it out there onto YouTube. I am Dale, Lolly. We thank you for listening to this edition of the Drive on the Steelers Audio Network.
