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 a Steelers Nation radio.
And welcome to the drive. I am Dale Lolli and he is the Matt Williamson and Matt on this day in nineteen seventy two. Oh, this happened.
Bradshaw back and looking again. Bradshaw running out of the pocket looking for somebody to throw to fires at downfield and there's a collision that that's.
Put out of the air. The ball is pulled in by Franchael Harris. Harris the boy Fred touched out of Pittsburgh. Harris the boy right second, not for the clock way, Oh Harris pulling the football. I don't even know where cap pam upball. There are people in the Enzo. Where are the club bar?
Absolutely unbelievable, Holy.
Moly, the immaculate reception on this day in nineteen seventy two.
Pretty cool. So miracles gonna happen, folks. It's not doom and gloom. There's a lot of the things that can happen in the playoffs. Stealers are going to the playoffs. This reminds me of when the Raiders came here recently for the anniversary, and what a good job the NFL did with scheduling to make that happen. Yeah, and what a poor job they're doing with scheduling a oh my goodness.
Yeah, not only that, you know, watching watching the film with this made me think of the Philadelphia Eagles game two weeks ago, when nobody had any video at the NFL of anybody throwing any kind of punches. Ah.
Yes, nobody had any of that radio.
It's kind of like this one where you never actually see frank O Harris catch the ball before it hits the ground.
A little more explainable. In nineteen seventy, I was in my mother's womb, you know, as opposed to Yeah, nowadays when there's every camera angle on the planet and million people with phones doing their share as well. So yeah, I didn't know where you planned on starting the segment. There's a million different ways. Ago we got two shows between games. This has been a really weird day for me because I've been on two Steeler review shows and two Steeler preview shows on the same day. Usually you get a little buffer in between, but my head's spinning. But I do know that you want to bring up, not as an excuse, but as a fact. What the schedule was doing to Steelers is pretty darn brutal.
It's pretty brutal. And I thought about it as I was putting my suitcase away.
I use it quite a bit.
Saturday night, as I got back from the trip to Baltimore, I put my suitcase in my closet. I said, okay, I want to have to use that for at least two more weeks, hopefully three more weeks or more. And I thought, we spent my birthday. I was in Cleveland on my birthday in November twentieth. We're not to yet to December twenty fifth. They've played five games and four of them have been on the road, two of them on short work weeks.
Yes, not to mention, everyone knows the three and eleven days against what turns out to be, but probably wasn't surprising to anyone. Really good football teams, and one of them was a Super Bowl champion, one's your biggest rival. The NFL knows these things when they schedule it, and I do understand that the Texans Chiefs and Ravens are also going through similar things.
Is a thing though, that the Texans and Ravens both got buys stretch.
And unusually late bye. And then they get the Giants, which was a nice little warm up game too. Now I'm not saying there's they're playing favorites, but that's a heck of a lot easier road over a five month week stretch than what the Steelers are dealing with. And you gotta play better. You got to stop the run. I get off the field, but this defense is taking some taking some shrapnel, you know, I mean more you're gonna be out there, the more injuries are going to happen short amount of time, the less you know, less likely you are to bring guy back from injury, of course on a short week. And you know that's what you're seeing here against what I think are two exceptional football teams.
Ye too, high quality teams. And so you know, in both of those games, the Steelers are in the In the Philadelphia game, they're down a touchdown twenty to thirteen, going in for a score and they fumble and the game turns out how it turns. Oh yeah, in this one, they tie the game at seventeen, and then it goes the other way. In the late in the third quarter. Both times late in the third quarter, you're you're right there with those teams, and at some point that you know, the tired legs do catch up with you. Yeah, using that as an excuse, No, no, no, I mean that's just reality.
Yeah, I mean, I think there's they were the inferior your football team when the last two times they've taken the field. I believe that to be true. That being said, I think there's a couple injuries. Well, let's go back to last year. I mean, all these teams, the Eagles started their season slow, the Ravens had the Ravens lost the Raiders. They've had some down times, They've had some problems. Chiefs haven't a many, but they've also squeaked by by the skin of their teeth quite a few times. Hey, they've won loss. No one's crying for the Chiefs. But even the best of teams have had ebbs and flows throughout the course of the year. And it's kind of like last year, but the total opposite in that you lost the Cardinals and the Patriots back to back, and it's like, ooh, those are two of the worst teams in the league.
This is a little different.
This is a little different. There was a condensed amount of time that didn't go your way. This is two losses against what teams might meet in the Super Bowl. I mean, like, these are two great teams. And oh, by the way, you already have in your back pocket a playoff berth before either one of those games even happens, you know, or well I guess and during the yet basically, so you're okay, Yeah, you're okay. I mean, I think corner and wide receiver are probably the positions on the team where you can least afford to lose your best guy, you know, and that's starting to pile up. But could not even.
Like losing your best guy, which they did at wide receiver, but being down to like your fourth and fifth cornerbacks.
Right, that's a little leg last year too.
I mean, at some point, and Mike Tomlin can pray out there to help the secondary, you know, you didn't have three of the top four defensive backs on the field on the field, right, right. And you can preach next man up all the all you want, but when it's next men up, yeah, that's when it becomes an issue because you can replace one guy.
Yeah yeah, And there's contingency plays for that, and I will argue though the Porter is almost as important as Pickings in terms of drop off from number one to two. Doesn't look great for him for this week, but it does look good for the others and.
Looks good for I have the injury report here.
Start there.
Yeah, let's go. Let's go there. So everybody practiced at least in some capacity except for Ben Scronic and Joey Porter Jr. Including full practice participations for George Pickens, Mike Williams who was resting yesterday even though they didn't practice, Deshaun Elliott, Nice, Dante Jackson, Tyler Mattakaevic who's dealing with the knee issue, Larry Ogunjobi who's coming back from that groin, and then they had some other guys who were resting as a veteran players. That was a Landon Roberts, Isaac Samalo, T J. Watt, and Cam Hayward all full participants today. So if they go into this game against the Kansas City Chiefs and the only two guys that they're missing are Joey Porter Junior and Ben Scronic.
Yeah you'll take it.
You'll take it again if it's just one defensive back. You can kind of cover up for that.
And when we've talked about this for years, but last year is a perfect example. Cluster injuries are brutal. I mean they're just the GM can't account for you certainly can't account for it on game day when you're dropping at the same time, you can only have so many active. So that's an issue. Again, not excuses. They're not the only team that's dealing with injuries on Christmas. I mean, Happy Christmas Eve Eve to all. By the way, that's it's a brutal league. It's a war of attrition, it's a marathon, it's whatever cliche you want. But those things happen too. And I when you're playing great offenses and great teams, it's really hard to overcome.
Yeah, our friend, I can't think of his name, now, give me a clue. Athletic Oh, Mike Sando. Mike Sando, Yeah, tweeted out today or did a piece today and talked about the Ravens offense. They've been above one hundred rushing yards in every game this season except for one that they took a knee at the end against Cincinnati. Yeah, ended up in ninety nine yards, right, they had a crazy street go Yeah, so you can't be surprised when they rushed. I was surprised that they had as much rushing success as they had, and that, to me was the difference in the game. And I think you got to stop the run better. You got to stop the run better. But I think part of the reason they didn't stop the run better was because you had guys at a position playing spots that they weren't necessarily accustomed to, and you had to be cognizant of the fact, like, hey, in this game, we are compromised on the back end. Oh yeah, we got to drop more guys in the coverage than maybe ever before, and so the guys up front you've got to do the job in this and if you don't do the job, well, you see what happens. Sure, Derrick Henry's getting into your secondary And that's not a.
Bad, big problem obviously. I mean, it's a very well rounded offense that you're not going to have all answers for. But if you can have partial answers for every little thing and everyone does their job, you can hang with those guys, you know, But if you have a glaring discrepancy and we got to sell out to stop the pass or the run. Well, you got a tough time against Lamar and Henry and their receivers and all those things.
Of course, and they had I thought early in the game they had Lamar Jackson on the ropes.
Mm hm.
You had to stripsack early on the on the opening drive. If they recover that one of those fumbles goes your way, they recover that one. I think Lamar goes into tank because right after the fumble he comes back out. He completed two of his first six passes, and the four that he missed on weren't close. No, he's strolling with people's feet, he saw them, you know, just nowhere close, because I think the fumble got into his head. But the problem was for the Steelers, Lamar or Derrek Henley was running so well that it didn't matter.
Yeah, And I do think there was some schematics involved, you know, right or wrong, that they've always made it a priority that Jackson's not going to beat us with our legs, you know.
Yeah, But and he didn't.
And he didn't. I mean, they accomplished that goal number one. Check that uh, you know, check that off. They did a fine job on that. But they let Henry get going on his runs. Like we talked about so often, far too much and give the Ravens credit. I mean, they did some schematic things that they hadn't done much lately. They ran out a shotgun much more, which kind of froze people a little bit more. You couldn't get into the backfield as quick to get those tms.
And that's what we've seen you in previous years when they would do that and they would run that Reid option. You're handing it to Gus Edwards. Yeah, right, and so he gets his four or five yards, you know, like we can live with that with that, right, Yeah, that's why Derrick Henry on the other hand, is ripping off fourteen and fifteen yard runs? Can you do that? Because guys are missing tackles?
And I heard some real film nerds I was listening to today talk about boy Ravens have really tweaked their running game since their bye as well. You know, they got a nice warm up game against the Giants. Just some of their blocking angles, some of the different run schemes that they've done. They've they've made some nice changes to good for them. I mean that's what it's all about.
Yeah, that's what that late season by does for you.
But it'd be nice to have Ogunjobi and Elliott.
Yeah, but you know at the bottom, you had the ball on the ground twice early in that game. Yeah, and you didn't recover either one of them. I think if they recover either one of those, because the one was on the Ravens opening drive, the second one came after the Steelers punted from deep in their own end, and if you recover that one at midfield again, I think it's I think it just changes the whole complexity of the game.
And everyone's harping rightfully so, because they were crucial backbreakers. Wilson's two turnovers, I mean, and my hunches, he rebounds in a big way. And I also think I haven't had a little chat with Wilson. We're not texting together or whatever. But I'm sure as a smart veteran quarterback, he went into that game going, I can't just be a play it close to the vest, you know, game manager.
He needed an A plus game.
I need to kind of be the locomotive as opposed which is the trailer.
You know, Honestly, outside of those two plays and you know, maybe being a little bit late down the field on the fourth down play.
They played a good game.
I thought he played a really good game.
Yeah, yeah, you'll take that, and he'll probably be the first to stay. I should have slid, you know, and at.
He's trying to. I don't have a problem with that play. I know, people, why didn't you slide there? He had so much open space.
There that It's also a pretty nice play by the defense.
It was almost like for Darius Washington, it was almost like being a soccer goalie on a penalty kick and you guessed right, and you guess right. You had all kinds of open space on both sides of you. And if he goes to the outs, if he goes the other way, Darius Washington just he has no chance to get him. He just happened to guess right on which way Wilson was going to go hit him, and the ball came out.
And it wouldn't kill the defense to not allow a ninety six yard drive there.
Allowed to do that too.
Yeah, you know, right obviously, But I mean it doesn't take a mathematician to realize those two turnovers cost you direct points. Oh, there's no doubt in between probably ten and either ten or fourteen.
I Nick Sando said today it was twelve points.
Was the the EPA of it all? Yeah? Yeah, I mean that that doesn't add up. You can't make that.
Well, but that's the middle in between. You know. If let's say they had to kick a field goal there instead of scoring a touchdown, well.
That's right, right, but yeah, and that's basically a difference in the game.
Yeah.
So I was listening to some draft stuff, and I love this way of looking at quarterbacks. Is it's easy to look at Caleb Williams when he's winning the Heisman and all that, But what's he looked like now when he's getting beat up and there's coaching changes. You know, like even if you're Ben or Wilson or Manning or Brady, there's a game if you're a starting quarterback where you quote cost your team the game. It has to happen because you're too important. Mahomes has happened to all these guys. What's the team look like the next day when you go to the facility, what do you look like? You know, how do you handle that stuff? Well, so he's been down this road a million times.
I did see a stat today about Caleb Williams. I think he's had nine games this season in which he hasn't thrown an interception and they've lost. It's the most in NFL history for for a quarterback that know, to have that many non interception games and lose them.
All and still lose them all. Yeah wow, yeah, I mean, so how do you handle it? How do you handle that kind of thing to like.
I'm doing my job right? You know he did lose a fumble, yes, but still yeah, I mean, you know, this is something that Russell Wilson has been through before, and and that's why you you turn to a guy like that in this situation, and he's playing a lot of big games before, and that's.
I'm sure he's just gonna change the way he prepares or be hanging his head, you know. I mean, let's get back on the horse. And you got a couple of days before you're hosting a really good football team again, nobody's crying for you.
Yeah, and he's just an intrinsically positive person any ways. Yeah, so you know you would expect, you know, him to push that away. It's almost like playing cornerback in the NFL you're gonna give up, You're gonna have bad moments. What do you do in the next play?
Yeah?
How do you rebound from that?
Because someone's gonna pick at you as soon as you get you know, as soon as you're down, they're gonna kick you, or they're gonna tack you when you're down. And my hunches the Steelers. I don't know if they're gonna win or lose on Christmas, but I don't think it's going to be now the season's over.
Yeah, that's not the mentality, you know, No, it can't be. I mean, you've worked too hard to get to this point, you know, and win.
Or lose on on Wednesday, you now get a nice break for your body. I mean, these guys' bodies have to be feeling horrendous, especially the defensive players.
All the name it feels horrendous. And I'm just I just didn't show with them, you know, getting all these games and stuff like it's it's tiring.
Where's the out mentally and physically, let alone tackling Henry and Barkley.
I couldn't believe. I was sitting there and I'm like putting my suitcase, whim like my birthday. I was in Cleveland. That was less than a month ago. And this is the fourth time that I've got I've used this bad suitcase a lot of I don't even bother putting it away, you know, going into that stretch, it just sat there outside my closet. I'm like, well, I just packed the bag up again. And three and two of those games are on short weeks on the road.
It dawned on me because for people who don't listen on game day, the first hour of the pregame show. If it's a road game, I do it. If it's a home game, you do it. And I remember coming in here with Benzi and I'm like, man, I've seen a lot of you lately in these and then and then I realized, I'm like, I'm not gonna see I might not see you again. You know, we might we might be home games galore here, who knows, you know, and this might be the last time you and I sit down, Tim, you know, and do a pregame show.
Yeah, it's uh, you know, it is a again, it's not on.
Some light at the end of the tunnel.
But right, you're now through that stretch and when the schedule came out, we all looked at that stretch as well, that's gonna be a tough, great, you know, four or five game stretch for them. Sure, you know, you get the three games in eleven days and you have, you know, a short work week coming out of the first Ravens game. It's like, yeah, that's that's gonna be difficult.
And that's real easy to say in June, and we were right, and we knew we were going to be right. But when you withstand it and then you're like, oh and then Porter got hurt and you didn't have pickings, and like, could be worse. I mean, you could have be out without Watt, Hayward, et cetera, et cetera. But it's sort of a soapbox rant, and I soapbox rant, and I know why they're doing it. And the fact that Christmas is Wednesday doesn't help matters. It's probably the worst day the year of the week they could happen. But the NFL is asking a lot out of these guys. Really are I mean they really are.
They really to be if they wanted to be fair and using air quotes fair, all four of those teams should have had a week thirteen by and.
That could have easily happened. Oh, they could have easily. There were six teams off that week. Yeah, at least you all come into this stretch because you know, they're good teams on equal footing, right, they're all playoff teams the rivalry games. But they're kind of lucky and they're they could have been worse. I mean, they could have been what if mahomes lamar. All these guys are getting going down in this short stretch of games because you're beating up human beings bodies too much.
Yeah, you know, so that's just a reality of it, but it is. Let's get to a break. He is the Matt Williamson. I am Dale Lolly. You're listening to the Drive here on the Steelers Audio Network. We're not going to spend any more time talking about what happened against the Ravens because there's a good time two days from now against the Chiefs. So let's dig into that a little bit when we come back right after this on the drive.
At least, He's the Drive with Dale Lolly and Matt Williamson on your twenty four to seven home of the Black and Golds in Steelers Nation.
Radio, and we are back. I am Dale Lolly. He is the Matt Williamson and Matt the Well. The Kansas City Chiefs come to town on Christmas Day, and you start looking at some of their games. They finished the season unbeaten at home. Their next their final two games, both on the road, are both on the road at Pittsburgh and I believe at Denver. Yeah, I have to finish off the season. And so you start digging in here and looking a little bit at some of their road wins. Okay, at Atlanta twenty two to seventeen, at the Chargers seventeen ten, at San Francisco twenty eight eighteen, But that was in the middle of the season and the forty nine ers were all kinds of banged up. At Las Vegas twenty seven to twenty. At Buffalo they lost thirty to twenty one. At Carolina they won thirty to twenty seven.
Yeah, that was a close game.
And then at Cleveland two weeks ago they won twenty one to seven, but the Browns turned the ball over six times in that game, and you still only won twenty one to seven.
Plus six and turnover different ver y Yeah, yep, I think that there are some obvious trends, and I'm sure a lot of our listeners know that they've won. They're not blowing anybody out. They win a ton of ones.
Certainly haven't blown a lot of teams out on the road.
Yeah, I didn't realize the road was as choppy as it's been for them. They're interesting, I mean, because again, they're trying for a three peat, they have one loss, they have the best coach quarterback combination you'll ever ask for, and Kelsey and they're just fine. Don't get me wrong. But they're not this juggernaut that people think they are, that's for sure. And they don't really create explosive plays a ton. You know, there's some of their what they do as a team, but not everything.
As a team. They're averaging nine point nine yards per catch. If this were any team other than the Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes, you'd say, oh, their passing game kind of might be broken.
Among I know now, I fear that their passing game is trending up, is leveling up now with not necessarily more Keith Brown coming back, but worthy he's been a much better weapon the last couple of weeks. He's out there a heck of a lot more. And Brown did come back, and he didn't run a ton of routes, but they featured him heavily when he was out there. They threw him the ball whenever he was running routes. They've conserved Kelsey. I don't think that they'll play him a ton of snaps in this game. I think that's a conserve for the postseason type thing. Noah Gray has been helpful, you know. I mean, he's better than Joe blow backup tight end. But like when Racie Rice went down, it hurt them dramatically. They we're not very explosive last year. I mean that's why Brown this year even lesser. That's, as I say, you go out of your way to go get Worthy the fastest guy in combined history and Marci's Brown's not far off. Was to get more explosive, and overall they have not accomplished that. Yeah, Eve were ideally a Racey Rice Kelsey centric type guy.
Worthy as fifty one catches, he's averaging eleven yards per catch and he has a fifty four yard touchdown catch.
Yeah. Yeah.
A lot of their stuff is run after the catch. Oh yeah, it's a lot of short passes and Mahomes is averaging six point six yards per past attempt, like they're just getting the ball out of his hands a lot and quickly. Yeah, I think it was less than two point five seconds last week against Houston. They were a yeah because he was super efficient because they know he's compromised right now. Tackle stink, yeah, and their tackles stink. They've stunk all year, whether he's healthy or not. It's even worse now. And we haven't seen their injury report for today. But Jawan Taylor, their right tackle, got hurt, didn't finish the game. They've kicked Joe Thunei, their left guard out to left tackle.
And he was good this past week and he's a good football player. But yeah, you're a good guard.
If you're getting rid of the ball in two point five seconds, everybody's good.
Yeah. Yeah, you know, Taylor to me wasn't money well spent. But he's definitely been their best right it's been their best guy. And you know, he's an average starting right tackle that's getting paid like a well above average one. He moves early a lot, and the lines in the backfield quite a bit. But oh well, they drafted Sue Mattia. They drafted Ethan Driscoll. Yeah, Sue Mattia they knew was a project, but he's flopped.
I just wonder if if Taylor can't play, do they take one you Morris, who's left tackle, and put him at right tackle? Do they put Sue Mattia there? Do they put Ethan Driscoll there? On their depth chart they list Driscoll is the backup there, but yeah, they also lists Morris as the third string tackle.
And they don't want to play Tony tackle.
The problem with it with that is I don't expect DJ Humphreys, who they I don't think he'll be back yet off the street. So you've got six tackles on your roster, including Humphrey. Yeah, okay, and quite frankly five of them are five of them stink.
Let's say the two best ones are probably Humphrey and Taylor, and the.
Sixth one, Taylor is average at best and questionable and questionable.
I don't know how you cover up for that, and I don't do you know? If you don't, don't worry about it. I mean to tell you Monday, but do you know who the left guard is? When Tony went to tackle uh. They it wasn't a household name.
They listen, Mike Caliendo or yeah, Caliendo is the backup there, don't.
I don't know if he I can't remember if he started this week, I don't.
But but I mean the other the other four backups are three backups you Hunter nors At at center, Ethan Hans and Ethan Driscoll, j Hanson, Ethan Driscoll.
There are rookies, yeah, say they're all pops, all right.
So I would imagine it was Caliendo.
I think. So, I think I need to double check that. I mean, I watched the game and they didn't stress it much.
But he this isn't Frank kelliondo. He's not impersonating a good starting left guard.
He's not impersonating Allen Fanica or Joe Toney. Yeah, but it also that trio is much allot lot. I mean, the guard center guard is really really good, and everyone talks about how they're unbelievably good. I think they're quite good, don't get me wrong, but still the running backs aren't even averaging four yards of carryer piece either. You know, Checko and Hunt. Hunt benefits from volume, but he's not explosive.
He's averaging three point seven yards of carry, but Checko's at three point eight.
Yeah, yeah, you know, and even like the explosives in the passing game aren't being mitigated with explosives in the run game.
It's almost the Steelers offense from from like Ben's last year, where everything's coming out quickly because they don't test you down the field. I mean even you know, Kelsey's averaging eight point three yards of catch. Yeah yeah, he's caught eighty nine passes, that's by far the most on the team, and he's averaging lesson you know, not eight point three yards per catch.
And frankly, he's not the run after the catch guy he used to be. They don't back out running through the secondary.
Yeah, if you think about Pacheco a couple of years ago, and he was averaging five yards of carry's because everybody was backed off the line of scrimmage.
A lot more room to run. I mean, if you're going to against those teams, oh, we'll give up five yards of cary to Checko all day long. Please hand it to him. Don't give it to Tyreek and Kelsey and Prime and all these other dudes. Right, So, no, they're manufacturing things. Reed is also known for I want to get as many guys out in the routes as possible to. I don't want to max protect, which I understand. You know, you've got a really quick processor. Mahomes can buy time, you know. I mean they're hard to deal with when they're with his route combinations, with four and five man row combos, you know, and even they play a lot of extra tight and stuff is they always have.
They've had nineteen different players catch a pass this year.
Yeah, I saw that too, and I went and looked at it after you mentioned it today. Two of them are a lineman or they have targets at least.
Yeah, Wandiam Wurris does have a catch. He has a touchdown catch. I guess if you're not going to block anybody, CALLI. Endo's the other one. He's got a five yard g Yeah.
I said, there's two old linemen on the list.
Yeah, so, I mean they will do that, but they're looking for run after the catch. Oh yeah, it's really what they're looking for. And so to me, that's a big key in this game. Got to tackle better, particularly the backs out of the backfield on those swing passes. Like p Ryan had a thirty six yard catch and run last week. Yeah, I know his Mahomes numbers look good overall, but I didn't think he looked particularly great in that game.
I thought his scrambling and movement stuff was his best stuff. Yeah, even though he has a bad ankle, which I know he does, but I thought.
Some of the passes, like he can't do the jump passes like he was you know, typically does and that kind of stuff. It was more just get it out, get it out and hope, you know, hopefully get something. You know. That was their long gain in that in that game was the thirty six yarder. I mean, people are down the sideline and.
This won't change. Clearly, they worried about, you know, Hunter, and I mean that's a really good pass rus they had to deal with. And it doesn't change this week for them, you know, at all. On a super short week. I'm sure they're going to run back a lot of the same concepts.
And the thing is one of the one of the things that that Mahomes does differently than other quarterbacks. It's different than you know, playing against Lamar or some of these other guys, is he looks to escape backwards first.
Yeah, he does a lot of that, and you know's not how they teach it.
No, it's not how they like.
So you know, you might knock some kind of tax attack like this guy scrambled and turns his back to the defense.
And he might be twenty yards behind the line of scrimmage and still looking to throw the football.
The kids don't do it this way. You're not Pat Mahomes, right.
But if he is, you know, even slightly still compromised, you know, it just makes it a little bit differently, and you know, so you do have to rush him a little bit differently than other quarterbacks. He did show, you know, on the on the fifteen yard touchdown run he is able to step up in the pocket and.
He's a really smart run. It was a straight run.
He didn't have to cut it all. He just ran straight ahead basically the entire way. If you look at his numbers for the season on third downs, he's run the ball twenty three times. He's gotten first downs on twelve of those. The third down stuff, to me is really interesting with him because if you look at the early down stuff, he's obviously has been good first down though six touchdowns, four interceptions. He's got a pass rating of eighty four point eight on first down. Second down it's eighty six point five. He's got six touchdowns and five interceptions. Pedestrian numbers for a guy this good on third down one nine point two, ten touchdowns, one interception on third down, And so you start looking at that was is it third and longs that he's looking You know that he's really doing well with is it? You know it's but they they game yards on first and second down. He gets into third and four less and then.
He's remarkably efficient. I mean like they're the definition of great success rate. Like if you look at their EPA, it's low, but their success rate is number one because they get just enough. Yes, you know, on third and six they get seven. They don't get ten, they get seven, but they consistently get that.
They all know exactly where the sticks is, and he knows exactly where the sticks are.
He's become a death by a thousand paper cut quarterback as opposed to run around for four seconds, light you up with. Not that he can't do those things still, but he keeps reinventing himself. And the analytics folks will tell you you know, it's it's a fine line to live that way. You can't always do it, and there is some truth to that, but it's kind of like, can't keep winning close games either. Well, Ben and Tomlin can, Brady and Belichick can, but at.
Some point you don't like, fifteen in a row is a lot.
Oh, it's a ton.
It's a lot.
It's ton.
And I look at his his road numbers this year. He's fifteen in a row and like one score games. I think, yeah, yeah, what I'm saying, fifteen in a row. At some point that catches up to you. I mentioned the home road splits.
Uh.
He has thirteen touchdown passes in seven road games. He also has seven interceptions. Like seven of the eleven interceptions have come in those road games. You know he will throw you one.
He has played fewer.
Yeah, right, and then when you you know, you start looking at some of the other stuff. They've been a kind of a slow starting team. Have they first quarters of games this year?
Uh?
He has a seventy six point nine passer rating. He's thrown two touchdown passes and five interceptions in the first quarter. So the second quarter, however, he is a one to nine point four passer rating, twelve touchdowns and one interception. They've outscored their opponents in the second quarter of games one forty one to eighty three. That's plus fifty eight. Wow, in one quarter, they're plus seventy eight overalls.
And yeah, yeah, that's not far off.
Yeah, they're so most of that is coming in the second quarter. So if you can weather, if you can get a lead on them early, whether they storm in the second quarter, they're pretty much fifty to fifty in the second half.
Trying to think why that would be. I mean, that's the first I heard those things.
Before you make your adjustments.
I think. See, I'm thinking that Reed and Mahomes are so good and so smart that after they see a series or two, Okay, now I know what they're doing, and I attack, I attack, I attack. Yeah, and then you realize you don't have Kelsey and Hill in their prime anymore, and the Jimmy's and Joe's start to where, you know, bring me back to reality a little bit. As the game goes on. Yeah, you know, you don't run away with things you're not. Okay, now I got that lead going into half, everyone's going to crowd the box I'm gonna beat him over the top, and it's it's not the way teams are playing them.
His second half passer rating is eighty two point three. Okay, I mean that's average.
Yah, it's very average. If you look at I mean his numbers across the borders here, pretty average.
Pretty average, except in the first half he's at ninety seven point one because of that explosive second quarter. Third quarter, his passer rating is sixty eight.
Wow, sixty eight yeah, yeah.
Fourth quarter now goes to ninety seven point seven. But if you look at it and everybody says, oh, you don't want to give the ball to Mahomes, you know, down a score with less than two minutes left, or two minutes remaining, trailing with less than two minutes to go. This season, Patrick Mahomes is four of eight for nineteen yards.
Wow.
I mean that's a sixty he's thrown, and he's thrown an interception that's a sixteen point seven passer rating.
Eight attempts, though, I mean they're never losing lad in a.
Game, even so, trailing with less than four minutes to go, six of ten for forty yards in an interception that's a twenty nine point two passer rating. So this whole idea that you can't give the ball back to them. Now, I understand in previous years that has been the case, sure the buff team. So I think what's happening in many of these cases is teams go into these late game situations, well, we got to go for it here. We can't give the ball back to Patrick mahonae, we can't kick a field The Bills did it. The Bills are up two points on them late in the game, they faced a fourth down, they could have kicked the field goal to go up five. They went for it instead, and they ended up going in and scoring a touchdown. They go up two scores.
But the.
Against most teams, you go ahead and kick the field goal and say you got to score a touchdown on us. Now, against Buffalo a few years ago in the AFC Championship, Mahomes when he had tyreek hill and zoom thirteen seconds right down the field.
Yeah, it's a historic moment, and yeah, playoff history, right.
But I think teams take more chances against this particular team in the fourth quarter because well, we're playing Patrick Mahomes here. Yeah, and the numbers don't necessarily bear that out.
And we talked about this a little off the air too. That's kind of back to like the Belichick Brady years, you know that. I think it's even different than I think it's even wider than just the fourth quarter or your last drive. I think you prepare different during the week. At some point, we have to steal a possession. We might have to try back when you're allowed to surprise on side, you know, a fake punt, something goofy like that, to steal a possession from these guys. And they're not quite the big bad wolf anymore, where you have to play outside your norm just to compete with them.
And I think that's one of the things that a coach like Mike Tomlin does. You know, if you again, if you can weather the storm early against someone like Raven Steelers, you know, don't take the chance. Don't burn down the barn before it's time to burn down the barn. At some point you gotta sometimes do stuff like that of the norm, but don't lose the game by doing something stupid.
Playing left handed or trying to We'll install this on a super short week and try this fleef like or we'd never try before. I don't do that.
Yeah, play play the game. Play the game, and you know, if you're in position to take a lead, take the lead. Don't don't get crazy here because I don't. It's not that Mahomes. I don't think Mahomes is capable, of course, I just wonder about some of the weapons being capable, right, And I wonder exactly in a two minute situation where they have to push the ball down the field, everybody knows past, past, past, and you're gonna tell TJ what he's throwing the football here, You're inn tell Alex Heismith he's throwing the football here. There's a good chance they get home.
Yeah, oh yeah, I mean, I'm sure anyone would tell you. The protection on the offensive tackle situation is dire.
It might be as bad as any team in the league.
I was thinking the same thing. And even like Mahomes, who never throws his guys under the bus or never has any like bad, rarely has bad uh, you know, body language, things like that, He's been noticeably frustrated throughout the course of the year. Sometimes like just give me the two point five seconds.
Youah, I mean, sometimes sometimes they can't even do that.
It's almost like unblocked pressures.
Yeah, and again his first reaction is to go backwards. You might be running right into those good pass rushers, you know. And again if if they're gonna play Thony at left tackle instead of left guard, that's Cam Hayward.
Oh right, I thought you were talking about the left tackle situation because I thought Heismith was one of the best players on the field yesterday. Again, Stanley, Yeah, so, I mean it's just not what Thuny's built to do.
No, I mean, it's just a different animal getting out there on the edge. Although if you listen to Alan Fan could talk about it, that was that was easy. Like I only get a block one guy. I don't have to worry about different gaps and stuff. All right, Alan, you're you're not You're not the norm here, right, you know?
I think soon he might have came in the league as a tackle. Most tackle turned guard types. I can't remember, but I think that rings a bell. It'd be interesting though on a short work week, I I assume, like I gotta just run it back a guy like Wanya Morris, it's probably been practicing on the left side. I want to say he might have been a right tackle to Oklahoma to or definitely has bounced back and forth.
He bounced back and forth. But if you haven't done it all season, does it take you some time to warm up to it. No, by the way, you got t J.
Watt. Yeah, yeah, it's a really difficult situation.
I've had it.
Yeah. No, that's definitely the Steelers' biggest advantages game without question. Edge verse tackles is huge. The biggest screpancies you'll see.
Yeah, absolutely, but let's get through a break. Y is the Matt Williamson. I am Dale Lolly. You're listening to the Drive here on the Steelers Audio Network, Matt and I will be back with more right after this.
At least.
He's the Drive with Dale Lolly and Matt Williams on your twenty four to seven home of the Black and Gold Steelers Nation Radio.
And we are back. I am Dale Lay. He is the Matt Williamson. And you're having fun here on a Monday, Chili Monday. It's starting to warm up a little bit and the weather's.
Yeah, not respecting craziness.
Yeah, it's not supposed to be a factor at all. This I wanted to say this weekend on Wednesday, Yeah, I have no idea what day.
It is now.
I hear nows Christmas Eve from what I understand. None, it's just the like I'm watching. I'm covering press conferences on Sundays. Just crazy schedule, Yeah, crazy schedule. Anyways, we're talking about the Kansas City Chiefs. Look at their defense Matt Chris Jones will see if he is cleared to go in this one or not.
But he's close. I wouldn't.
I wouldn't either if I were them. He's really important to that defense.
Super important a defense. He's one of the best defensive players in the league. You like, take Cam Heyward out of the Steelers. Yeah, I mean he is a real force. He's been one of the best defensive players for five years or so. I mean, he's gonna go to the Hall of Fame. I mean, assuming he keeps us up. Probably is already with the rings. What's interesting about him is on clear passing downs, he comes out of the huddle and decides, I'm gonna line up there. Yeah, I'm gonna go against the left guard.
This, and then everybody else adjusts.
Everyone else adjusts. You know, they obviously won't do that if he doesn't play and he's been known to take a first down or two off. I mean he's a very different style of player than Cam from you know, consistency efforts.
He's always like third downs, you're gonna get his best effort. Oh yeah, because he's all about the sacks.
But his sack numbers aren't crazy. Yeah, I mean I think he's got five or something like that. Yeah, it's fine, but it's not insane. He's a great player though. He's got amazing length, he's got power. He's a bear.
If he plays, every offensive lineman on the Steelers is going to have to put hands on him at some time or of it.
Right, Twist stunts where he aligns, you know, all those things. If he plays. I he doesn't play a ton of snaps. I mean, he's probably the situation. It's probably is.
They don't play him already. Yeah, they don't play him a ton of snaps as it.
Is, right right, They have a decent rotation. He's the straw that serves.
Yeah, he is the guy.
Have a lot of big, physical, pound your face front seven players Leo Chanald and Carloftis. They're not real benders or I mean they're run ahead bulls and China shops, big physical type guys.
Yeah, they want to, and that was their problem. I think early in Mahomes career that you looked at and said, well, you want to try to run and keep him standing on the sideline. We can't really do that against these guys. Now, No, you're not gonna bang. Yeahah, I mean they give up what do they give up? Four yards per carry, which is again pretty good overall, ninety one point four yards per rush. And again they haven't been blowing everybody out.
No, it's not pin in your ears back.
Yeah, this is not We're up by seventeen points and you can't run the football. It's a situation.
Where the game is still They're always a close game.
Yeah, it's a close game, and teams just are not able to consistently run the football against them. And that's one area where I think we know the Steelers did it. You know last they ran the ball effectively against Baltimore. Most teams go into this like they're playing this, you know, against the Ravens, like they're playing the two thousand and one Steelers. We're just not going to try yeah. Yeah, And the Steelers were adamant about continuing to run the football.
I thought it was one of the most positive things that happened Saturday was the running game kind of looked like it used to. I mean there were nice holes. Warren's running really really well. It was consistently productive. You know, I've been harping on three point nine per carry it isn't going to get it done, and it's not, you know, but now they're getting six ish on a lot of runs.
And that was a big difference to me in that game that I saw. And again, I know people are looking at Arthur say they didn't do this, Arthur Smith latt there was over six yards per play on first down in that game.
Yeah, they threw it more. Yeah. And and Steve never at Jost they always just do the same thing. Run run, pass, like they're not paying attention. Yeah, you got actually watched the game. It was about fifty to fifty split on first downs in that game, and they weren't third and all the time, they had more than half their yards in the game on first down.
It surprise, they had over one hundred and seventy yards in the game just on first downs.
Yeah, I get that that that certainly adds up.
And you know, something you've been harping on was you know, it's been what you're getting to third down too much? They were only in third down ten times? Yeah, exactly because they were converting. They were converting early.
Yep. I thought Wilson was sharp other than two plays or so. You know, the running game was much better and you weren't loaded with weapons, you know. I mean, I thought there were a lot of encouraging things from that game, and that's probably the most important of it all.
Yeah, and now you're getting George Pickens back.
Okay.
Yeah.
During that while he was out, we've seen Calvin Austin step up into a more become more of a useful weapon on a regular basis. We've seen Pat Friarmouth become more of a useful weapon on a consistent basis. I understand they didn't throw him a ton of passes last week. The Ravens might have had something to do with that. They know, they see those guys watched Tate big well. Pat Farnmo has caught a touchdown in three straight games. Let's not allow him to take over the game. Let's not allow you know, take away that.
We should have predicted that. I mean, like a team that's super familiar with you and they and you see three games in a row, Friar Mouse, production usage, everything was trending up up.
It's not.
That's not how league work. You know when people people come into race trends. I mean, that's the way the league work.
And then one of the big questions in the locker room today is why wasn't Pat you know, Arthur Smith, you know Pat Farnmouth have been used a lot. Why wasn't he used as much in this game? And and like Arthur Smith was talking about, he goes, you know, he I think Farnworth was targeted two or three times in the game. And he says, this whole target thing is a little misleading. He's just because he was only thrown to pass, you know, that many passes doesn't mean he wasn't the primary target when we drop back to pass or called to play right right. But what they do affects how we run that big covered.
If he's your first read in the play and he's.
Bracket, he's got one guy in this side, one guy on that side, you're not throwing him.
The ball, right, all right? I would have to study it more, but I can bet everything. I have one of their priorities was takeaway Friarmouth first read stuff. I mean, of course, yeah, right, I we go to the Austins of the world and injuries aren't great. Yeah, there's nothing great about him, but it does create opportunity experience for others too. You know, Caz showed that he can play deep middle, you know, like, okay, you know I know that now, right. I mean things like that, scronic can be useful. You know, Austin has stepped up dramatically through the course of the year. I mean, he's I keep talking about him a big picture like he's a piece of the pie. Now.
You know, he's actually the number two receiver on this team right now, right right, Like you who's the number two receiver? Well, right now, Tim, it's him. In terms of the wide receivers, it's Calvin Austin.
Yep. And the big thing I was saying last week when I thought Pickens was going to play in this one, but it's crunch time now, you know, And this is a sort of a playoff thing, but I think it's time to streamline your skill position dudes. You know, like, yes, it was great that Patterson made a nice cutch touchdown catch same with Pruitt. Great, you know, but when you're out there in two receiver sets Tree Pickens in Austin, well, you.
Know Patterson's touchdown came out of the backfield.
Oh, I know.
That was strictly like we're gonna get this guy matched up on that linebacker. And it was something that we talked about, like we went big, attacked that guy and make him play coverage. And it worked.
It was and if it was Roque, they might not have thrown it, right, if it was a safety or Hamilton, they might not have thrown it. It was we got a match up face.
Yeah, at that point in the game, you're like, Okay, he's always a line there, he's taken the back. We got this.
Yeah, if we're gonna if that's how it goes, I'm going there no matter what and go up and be big. But my point was, like I like prud and Patterson, those guys chipping in, but most snaps, I want Austin Pickens, Washington, friar Mouth and a back on the field. You know that that's your That's how you win playoff games.
You know. I don't have a problem with Scronic playing I agree. I think that he does a lot of like nasty stuff out there stuff. He's kind of your Washington and can make play receivers, Yeah, and can make play. Doesn't look good for him this week though, right Uh he did not practice again today.
Yeah, I mean super short week of course, But no, he's a good stealer.
He is a useful football player. He's Miles Boyke and plus.
Yes he's a better offensive player than boy could ever but.
A similar style blocker, and certainly I think is a gunner.
Everybody every body's good. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I agree. I wonder I wonder who will Trice be the gunner if he's on out there?
Probably he was in game, Yeah, yeah, Trison Pierre Okay, so yeah there you're yeah. Anyways, let's get to another break. That's going to do it for our number one of the drive here on the Steelers Audio Network and the Drive, Matt and I will be back with our number two. By the way, Chris Jones actually playing eighty two point seven percent of the defensive snaps this year for the Chiefs.
Wow, more than I would have guessed.
More than I would have guessed too, And I wonder if that's why his sack totals are down a little bit, maybe he's getting a little gassed.
Could see this.
In previous years he.
Was not that high. No, no, I mean not that he's just situational, but that's pretty high. That's a lot for a defensive tackle, period, right, Yeah, that might be higher than Hayward. Yeah.
We'll talk more about this game in our number two. That's going to do it for our number one. We'll be back with more right after this
