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 Steelers Nation Radio.
Man. Welcome to the drive. I am Dale Lolly. He is the Matt Williamson except no imitations, and it is well. Happy uh Christmas Eve?
Yeah, Happy Christmas Eve, the all happy holidays and happy game Day.
When did I was thinking about this on my on my drive here today. When did Christmas Eve become a holiday as well?
I've always wondered that, like Halloween Eve doesn't get anything, you know, Easter Eve right, Thanksgiving Eve right?
No July now that people get this day off like it's you know, the holiday, it's a big one. Christmas is such a big holiday. You get two days off unless you're the NFL.
Unless you're us. Yeah, right here we are. We're not off one bit right.
Now, not one bit. And uh, you know Game Day tomorrow will probably put about fourteen hours in.
Yeah.
I got plenty to do the rest of the day too.
My wife asked me what do you want for Christmas dinner? I said, you make what you're gonna whenever you want, because I'm not gonna be cold.
Leftovers at midnight or yeah.
She's like, well, what time you leave? I'm like, I gotta leave the house at like seven forty five. Thankfully my kids are all grown now, so I don't.
Have to, you know. Yeah, yeah, Well we're having a house full of people that are all excited to watch the game with Matt. But Matt's gonna be up in his bedroom with the door shut, with the laptop. The wife didn't what do you mean, Mike, I kind of have to pay attention to this. I can't have my lovely aunt Judy or uncle Ke just going No, that's not how we're doing it. That's not how this works. She was also thrilled to hear that Week seventeen has a game on Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday. Pretty good bringing slate.
And we well, we also don't even know what the schedule is for Week eighteen.
True, true, Like, it's I like that they do that. Though.
I do believe, however, that the Steelers are going to end up being at one o'clock. This is just my thoughts. They'll be at one o'clock on Sunday, playing at the same time as the Ravens.
Okay, they're smart about how they do that. Like Tom was talking about a little bit last night on a night show I did with him. He was like, assuming they win, are still in it, You're definitely gonna have like Miami, Indie, and Cincy all playing at the same time, right, you know, because so it's not like, oh, they eliminated me, I'm out, I'll pull Joe Burrow.
So looking at maybe a standalone game might be a win. And in situation like maybe Tampa Bay, I say, like NFC South maybe, yeah, something like that. I would Vikings Lions. Is that be eighteen yes, yeah, yeah, it could be for all of Yeah, that could be for the And that's interesting because the Vikings play the Green Bay this week Green Baytroy.
Yeah, I mean they were actually ghost the resting guys at halftime, the ghost of the Saints.
So that game.
For Green Bay but not as bad as usual this week.
If Minnesota wins that game in Detroit, wins where they at the next week.
I think it's for all the marbles in the North. Then I know, if Minnesota wins out, they win the North because they have the Lions on the schedule.
I'm just trying to find there was a weekend Week eighteen, the week eighteen schedule. So if Detroit wins just this week and Minnesota wins this week, that's for the that's for the that's number one seed and the division. Yeah, so you got Minnesota a Detroit. That would make a lot of sense to put that one on Saturday night or Saturday. Yeah, they don't play a Sunday night game. Okay, is there a Monday night game in No, or maybe they do. They do play, they play a Sunday night game. They don't play a Monday night game. That's right, right, because some teams could have a short week, so that one could be the Sunday night game. I'm just looking here. What else could be on a standalone game on Saturday that would mean something? Kansas City Denver, So.
Week eighteen there are Saturday games.
Well, no Kansas City if the.
Steelers, that could eliminate Denver.
Possibly though, if the Steelers beat Kansas City this week, then Denver Kansas City could be for the number one seed in the AFC. If Cincinnati beats Denver this week, that could be for a playoffs.
It could be an elimination game for Denver. Yeah yeah, but then it Also, I'm sure the networks don't want Mahomes, Chris Jones, Kelsey all sitting out too.
Well if the Steelers, if the Steelers win this week, then then that game is very meaningful for Kansas City. Just looking here, Chicago, Green Bay, Green Bay is already in.
Yeah, there aren't a lot of Seattle, La that could batter.
That could be for the division title match. Yeah, that could be for a division title. So there are some other games that I think could be some standalones in those other windows. Buffalo, New England again, Miami, New York maybe, but they're gonna put that at the same time as all the other AFC wild Card playoff games.
You could stagger the NFC South though, that play one of them plays and if they win, then the other one has to try. But then if it doesn't go your.
Way, then I think the one that makes the most sense is Seattle, LA.
Yeah, that word. Or Detroit and the Vikes. Yeah, Vikings.
Yeah, I would say so in Detroit Steelers since he could mean something. Yeah, but it would mean something only if the other teams win, right, So you need all those teams to play at the same time.
You don't want they have to make this decision.
I think by Friday.
By this Friday, yeah, okay.
Say there's a lot of travel and logistics is right, right, So I believe and again I'm just guessing on this that the Steelers will be at one o'clock on Sunday, regardless of what happens.
Makes this week. Yeah, home game obviously because.
They'll want Miami, since and Denver all playing at the same time. Maybe Indy two Indy is yeah, yeah, just to know nobody rested, nobody.
Yeah, sitting there scoreboard watching.
So there's a couple meaningful, meaningful games upcoming, assuming teams win this week.
This week's got a pretty decent slate too. Yeah, so a lot of standalone games is good, imagine with five days of the week being games.
But the game at hand for us is Pittsburgh and Kansas City, and we're gonna start really diving into that one. Just looking at the this is as a hole here and I kind of laid this out in my story on Steelers dot Com today. This will be the sixth time that Russell Wilson has faced that Steve Spagnola.
Yeah, we didn't quite get to that yesterday.
We did not and he's had.
We played against him twice a year in Denver.
The last two years. Yeah, saw saw him once when he was in Seattle. Makes sense against the Giants defense when Spagnola was there. Russ's two for three has won two of the five games. He's completed one hundred and one of one hundred and fifty four passes for oney and twelve yards, with eleven touchdown passes and four interceptions. It's a passer rating of ninety seven point one against the bag noble of defense.
Yeah.
Yeah, so he's been pretty good.
And I'm sure they were dogs in those games. Yeah, you know, like that was they were playing against a better team.
Beat them last year.
Yeah, Denver did beat the Chiefs.
Now in that game. That was actually, if you look at it statistically speaking, it was his worst game, Oh was it? He only threw for like one hundred and fifteen yards.
Did they run all over them?
They turned them over quite a few times. But he threw three touchdown passes, so they didn't have to throw the ball a whole bunch.
Which is what we've talked about Wilson before he even shoot it up for the stealer. You know, when they signed him novel concept. They're going to throw a touchdown pass, you know, right, and.
He's largely I mean, yeah, he's got fifteen touchdown That's that kind of that milestone just kind of went by the wayside. Nobody mentioned it. But they throw way more touchdown passes than this year than they have the previous two years.
Oh yeah, but two games to play and he didn't even play the first what six games the season?
One?
Yeah, right, So he's at fifteen touchdown passes with four interceptions. It's actually one of the better touchdown interception ratios in the league right now.
Which is a trend of his obviously over the years.
But the other thing that that he has done well this season, which could come into play in this game. His passer rating against against the blitz is one thirteen point three. Is it?
Spags is known as a aggressive.
They have the second highest blitz rate in the league and they you're going to see it on third down, every third down. Yeah, every third down. It's just nine guys. It's the line of scrimmage. This corners are going to press yep, and you got to figure out who's coming and who's not.
Yeah, there's a lot of sims there's a lot of simulated pressures. There's a lot of linebacker stuff like Shannall and those guys will come. Uh, they're a heavier downhill group on the second level. They'll bring some defensive backs to some of their DB's have sacks this year, and you know, the secondary to me isn't great though, I mean compared to like last year, because they's.
Mc duffy's good.
McDuffie's real good. Yeah, I mean I think in the perfect world he's a slot but there, I mean that's like it's kind of like the Hump. He's like a better version of Humphrey to me. Yeah, Like ideally, if it's an All Star team, maybe just a lot guy, but that's not how the world works. And he's a really good outside corner too. Yeah.
But they used to have Steed who was their their porter. Yeah, it was their press guy. This guy, yeah, you know, and they still like to press that to me with George Pickens coming back. If you're gonna press George Pickens yeah on stuff like that. I'm gonna. I'm gonna if I'm Russell Wilson any time I see that look where they've got nine guys there. It looks like zero blitz and I got Pickings matched up one on one on the outside. I'm going to him a lot, and just you're gonna press George Pickens. Good luck with that because I'm just gonna lob it up and he's gonna catch it.
Yeah. And it's not even he's good at getting off the line, but it's more of the catch point stuff. Yeah, you know, I mean just going up and getting.
The bigger and more physical and has that you know, catch leaping.
Ability and right body control and all that good stuff. Even if it's McDuffie. But I would think Pickens is gonna get featured in this one right of the bat. Yeah.
Now, one thing I don't does McDuffie travel. I don't that.
I don't know. I mean it's Tuesday morning. I haven't studied it.
I would bet not. I mean just his style will play, but I'm not certain on that. Yeah, so I would. I would try to get that even if he does, I don't care. Yeah, I'm gonna trust Pickens in those situations. And we know Russell Wilson throws a good you know, fade slash back shoulder.
He's also excellent at diagnosing the blitz and where to go with it. And I mean I'm comparing it to recent Steeler quarterbacks. It's night and day. Yeah, you know, in terms of you know, this is the hot route, this is where I need to go. You need to you know, alder your route, check at the line of scrimmage, check to a slant whatever, as opposed to a longer developing route. So letz doesn't worry me all that much. To be honest with you, the backs are pretty good in protection. The only Washington good. Yeah.
The only thing that does worry me is you have to stay on schedule. If it's if you're in a bunch of third and eighths, that's trouble. That's trouble because they're going to force you to get rid of the ball quickly and they're going to tackle the catch.
And you mentioned it, you know before, they averaged what six yards per first down this past game. Yeah, I mean that was one of the I know they lost, but that was definitely one of the things that was encouraging, is they mixed it up a little bit more, they threw a little bit better. It's one of the best running games in a while too, you know. And I'm not saying it's just because of Warren, but Warren's coming on strong. I think the running game is starting to hit a stride. Stay ahead of the say out of third down, stay out of the third and lungs for this offense, if you have to throw a little bit, you know, it was about a fifty to fifty split. I got it.
I tweet out stuff from the press conferences with the yeah, yeah, with the you know coordinators when they're when they're doing those. And I was tweeting out some stuff from the Arthur Smith press conference yesterday and immediately, well, why do we do that? All he does is run the ball every time I'm first down. I'm like, some pay attention, right right, watch the game. Don't just go into it with preconceived thoughts. They threw the ball fourteen times on first downs against the Ravens. Yep, it was not the same game plan that you've seen. I get it. There was too much of that stuff. But they zigged but they changed they changed it right right right. This happens all the time in the league. Yeah, I mean, like almost any team. And I make these mistakes too, like previewing games, picking games. They go two games in a row and can't stop the run. What do you think they do all week?
You know, right, I mean these teams know what they're doing wrong a high percentage of the time. It might overcorrect it, you know, like, boy, they got thrown on a ton in the third game because they tried to sell out the run.
So yeah, it just I mean that's the ebb and flow of a season. Yeah, you know, honestly, there's a lot of anger right now because they've lost.
Two in a row.
Because they've lost two in a row to two good teams on the road.
Yeah, they were dogs in both. I mean that's.
We both picked them to lose those games. These aren't surprising losses. This is what happens in the NFL, right.
I keep comparing it to Patriots Cardinals last year, and it's night and day, night and day.
I mean, you were expected to win those games.
I'm getting the same kind of comments and responses and oh they're just gonna limp in the playoffs lose again. They're not. They can't play with anybody like No, I mean, this is it's not the same as last year when you lost to two of the worst teams in the league in a bad stint. I mean, the games have bad stints, you know.
And even those games like people forget Kenny Pickett got hurt in the first at the end of the first half, and they started Mitch Trubisky in the second game, right like they're Their record when Mitch Trubisky started.
Was not so great.
It was really really bad. Over the few years that he was here.
He's proven that he's a backup on a good day.
Yeah.
I mean, I'm not sure if the Bill the Bills have some infatuation with him. I'd like they must bounce stuff off each other in the meeting room.
I mean, I'll freely admit I was completely wrong about Mitch Trubisky.
I thought it'd be noticeably better. I didn't think he was gonna be the next Roethlisberger or anything.
Like no, nothing like that. But I thought he'd be in a you know, finally, at.
Least a stop gap. Yeah. It was a disaster, right, Yeah.
I mean they lost a lot when he started because he turns the ball over yeah yeah.
Yeah, and he doesn't give you the highs.
He doesn't give you know, the highs are there were some highs, but it didn't balance out the lows. So I think they can be successful against the Chiefs if they stick to a similar game plan to what they had against the Ravens, and that's throwing the ball on early downs.
So they first down balance is intriguing to me.
Yeah, second and five sounds great. If they're in second and five the entire game.
Oh yeah, yeah, I think you can. You can live out of that for sure, and that could be a run or pass down. The one thing I've been critical of Smith is too many second and long runs because that basically this begs for third down, whether it's third and short or not. But if you could stay out of second and long, I think that's promising as well. They just have to stay in the field longer. I mean time of possessed. I mean I'm like, oh, I've been harping on it all week. The week's been twenty four hours. Yeah, but time of possession to me is one of their penalty or one of their special teams turnovers staples of when this team's strong. They're at the top of the league in time possession, and the last three weeks have been bad. You know, you can't live like that.
The interesting thing about this Chiefs team is if you look at them, A lot of the numbers are nearly identical to the Steelers. Are they offensively and defensively, they're very close in every category. Four yards per carrier, they allow, four years per carry, the yardage that they give up. Red zone. You'd think of the Chiefs being a great red zone offense, Well they're fifty one point seven this season in the red zone, thirty one or sixty. Now they get to the red zone quite a bit because on third downs, this is the one area where they really stand out. On third downs, they convert fifty one percent.
Okay, see, I've done very little homework by my standards. Tuesday is my dig day. But I did do a little bit because one of the things I do on Mondays, because it doesn't matter what the rest of the league is, I go to ESPN dot Com and there's a team, you know, there's team stats, and I just look at what they've done versus what they've allowed, and I was shocked. I mean, like you mentioned the third down stuff, this adds up because they have forty nine more first downs than they've allowed. That's a ton. It's a ton, and that's a ton, and that's that carries a lot of weight. They also have the fewest penalties in the league, which helps. But to your point, I was blown away how even steven they are in a lot of categories though, you know, like they.
Look like a five hundred foot they'll take five based on what they what they give up, and what they allow.
Yeah, yards per carry four to oh they allow four to oh. Yeah, I mean they produce six point seven yards per pass attempt they allow six point eight. There, they have twenty three passing touchdowns, they've allowed twenty They have allowed thirty six sacks, and they have produced thirty four. They've thrown eleven interceptions and they have twelve interceptions on they're about five hundred team on the crucial categories, they're like dead even in But the one area where they stand out is on third downs, where they convert fifty one percent. They allow forty point five, which isn't great, right, but when you're converting fifty one percent of your conversion, significant difference. All the money downs, all that stuff has been phenomenal, you know. Yeah, I mean that's really where they're making their money this year. So you have to hold down a lot of.
Mistakes, you know, to me, you have to win first and second down against this team and then make Mahomes get into third and eights where he has to hold the ball longer than he wants to.
Yeah, yeah, especially with those tackles. And I don't even know at this point. You know, do you zag a lot more on third downs than you used to do you? I mean, they blitzed Lamar too much in my opinion. Yeah, I didn't understand that strategy going in, But that doesn't mean you don't blitz much. I mean, my Homes doesn't really have any notice.
I think one of the reasons why they blitzed Lamar so much is because they knew they had three of their four defensive back started around a long can't you know you weren't going to cover all day, so you had to you had to get to him, you had to pressure him, and you know, again, that's not the way they played him the first time. But they had all their defensive different chess pieces obviously. Yeah, so that's one of the you know, things that you have to kind of do when you you know, again, you talk about the next man up mentality, but in reality, they.
Don't have a porter replacement. No, it's not as big a deal as pickings, but I think it's in the neighborhood just in terms of what the rest of that position room looks like.
Yeah, I think because of that, you probably end up playing a little more zone in this game.
I was thinking that as well. I mean, you're better at safety than you've been the last couple of weeks. I mean, one of my off season things to discuss is, you know, there are heavy, heavy cover three with Mink in the middle of the field team, but Porter's really best in man, but the rest of the corners aren't there.
There are still people who think, I still get this all time. Joey Porter sucks.
I get that all the time. Boys, He's turned into a bus tom.
You need to watch the again. You need to look around the league. Yes, he gets penalties. Every cornerback who plays a lot of press man coverage gets penalties.
Follows number one. Duffy is highly penalized. Oh yeah, I mentioned Steed. He was the number one last number one.
Yeah, because you're being physical at the line of scrimmage and stuff's gonna happen.
Then he got a huge contract. Yeah, And Titans gave a bunch of good, nice picks in the game of a huge contract. So those guys are super valuable.
Yeah, absolutely, But to me, the third down stuff, I mean, they're they're that's the biggest difference. They're they're converting eleven percent more. They have one hundred and seven third down conversions compared to seventy five allowed.
That doesn't surprise them.
I mean, that's that's like to a game. Two more additional chances to continue to play in the game. Oh yeah, that's huge, funding it away, right, yeah, and it gets you into field goal range again, thirty one of sixty in the red zone.
In the red zone too. Yeah. So all the weighty downs, they're probably the best in the league a gap, yeah, I mean they're Tom talks about all and that's that's where Mahomes is really. That's why at least numbers aren't as great as they usually look. But when he needs to play, he makes play and you know all the seven he gets you know, yeah, he gets eight all the time. Yeah, and that's just somehow Yeah, whether it's with his legs, I mean, you had some numbers about his scrambles or highly efficient excuse me, those tight ends or you know, you can move the change with them, still even if they don't create a lot of explosives, and now they have some speed on the outside too, And Hopkins added the settled in and I think this is the best their receiving corp has been since race. You Rice got hurt. I mean that was a big blow to them. It didn't make them lose games all of a sudden, but that was he was setting up for huge numbers this year.
Yeah, just looking here, the Steelers have fifty red zone trips on offense this year. The Chiefs have sixty, which sounds like a big difference. But I'll bet you dollars to donuts the Steelers have more explosive plays.
Oh there's no question.
Yeah, there's no question, because the Chiefs just don't do that.
No, they are.
They're still track the ball down the field. I'm sure it's making any.
Read a little crazy that they want to still create explosives, but they just can't. What they're doing is working, you know.
So it's it's going to be an interesting game. We're going to talk more about this with Rob King when we return. He is the Matt Williamson. I'm Dale, Lollie. You're listening to the drive here on the Steelers Audio Network. Matt and I will be back with more right after this.
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 we are back. I am Dale Lolly, he is the Matt Williamson and we're joined on the Justin Miller hot Line by publish author Steeler's Voice of the Steelers, Rob King. The door in the stone can get that makes a great Christmas present? Last second, you can go ahead and you know, maybe send that out to somebody as I got you this. It's the shipping was slow on it, but it's coming exactly right.
That's exactly right.
We as guys, we have to do that, right, yeah right.
I don't know what happened.
I put in the order post office man. We have to yeah, yeah, you have to be you have to.
Be vague, so you're not actually you know, lying a while agoite a while.
Ago. Yeah right, yeah, define it? So kidding. Are a big game on Wednesday, Steelers versus Chiefs. We've seen a couple of big games here in the last couple of days. Matt and I were talking about this yesterday four Road games in the past five weeks for the Steelers, two of those on short work weeks, one on you know, you played a Thursday night game, you played a Saturday game. Uh so you lose a day of practice in that regard. And I don't know how you felt when you got home Saturday. I was pretty tired. I felt like I'd played a football game.
Yeah, it's been a lot. And look, I think you just see, you know, even when you're playing a division opponent like Cleveland, right, Like, if you don't play well, you're not gonna win, you know, and especially on the road. Now you take you know, you throw in some health and you're on the road and you're facing much better competition and there are some things you don't execute, and what happened is going to happen. You know. This road grader of a schedule wound up being kind of just what we feared. Right. This has been a very, very difficult stretch. However, I think the Steelers and their fans are gonna feel a lot better about things if you come up with a good performance tomorrow against the Chiefs team. You know, look, every time they come up with a challenge, they find a way to win. You know, watch the Houston game yesterday. You know, Houston misses an extra point, but then but then the Chiefs take advantage of it. I mean they're like they're like hyenas. You know, they around and around a victory. They had to find a win, they had to add to tear you apart to get to a win. Somehow, some way. They've beaten good teams and it's gonna be a big challenge. But I just think the fact that you're home to your point, Dale and that you're healthy, healthier than you've been, not healthy one hundred percent, but healthier than you've been should help make this a strong performance tomorrow. Rob.
I don't know about you, but the more I've dug into it, and again it's Tuesday morning here, I mean, so it's not like a normal week. But there is a real art to finding a way to win or not losing a game. And I really think over Tomlin's career, he's been one of the best in the league at that Brady Belichick, but these guys might be taking it to a new level. And just terms of what is the few things I have to do in this game to not lose it or to squeak out a win and it's kind of an art form. It's not pretty, but it's kind of an art form.
Well, I agree, And you know when you know, Matt, I know that you had the statistics prior to the year about how many one score games and you can see this were what seven or eight and two in one score games last year?
Yeah, and all the analytics people will be like, well, you're going to return to the mean, You'll get closer to five hundred, and I'm like, well, these guys are wont sixteen in a row.
Yeah, but he had to say Mike Tomlins done that throughout the course of his career, so that gives you evidence that he knows how to do that. And the fact that it's been not only sixteen in a row, which is impressive, but sixteen out of their last what twenty games? Twenty two games? Something? I mean, I would have to do the math. You know. It was Chris, I think it was Christmas Day of last year, right, you guys were when we were taping the show yesterday something I don't know, I can't remember Matterdale which one of it was telling me that it was Christmas Day of last year, the last time this year was the last time the Chiefs lost a one score game. So that's that's basically the course of the season and a postseason.
And that was that was to the Raiders at home. The Raiders they lost twenty to fourteen at home, Yes, because they turned the ball over in that game two times, and they didn't they didn't force any turnovers themselves obviously the calendar, you know, yeah, right, and and.
And again that's how many games did they play, like twenty or twenty one since.
Then, more than anybody else, they have been one score games. They had three to one score wins in the playoffs last year.
Yeah, that it's just what they have done, what they can do, and yes they've taken that as an art form to another hype. I think the other thing that we've seen is that, first of all, if you want any proof of what wins games, Matt, to your point, just look at the Chiefs. The ability to execute when you need to yep is and and the ability to take advantage of other team's mistakes, like you said, not lose the game. You know, even when you were playing a team, you know that you that you beat, even sometimes that you beat soundly. I mean, I think we can look back at almost every single Steelers win and think there were four or five key plays Mike Tomlin talks about this or five key plays that turned the game. People don't want to think that, they don't want to think that a bad team can win in the NFL. But of course they can't. Nobody goes ohing seventeen except the Browns or.
Just blow someone out snap after snap after snap and.
Ye less of last night game, right, right, I mean, it happens, right, it happens. You know, sometimes a bad team they just get on top of them. You know, quarterback play can be a big part of that. If you're a team that is struggling at the quarterback position, you don't have any good quarterback play, you can get rolled by a good Team's pretty rare.
It's pretty rare.
It is rare. And I mean, you know, I think we look at you know, I look at this Ravens game, and you know, we talked about this, guys earlier in the year after the Colts game. You know, there was I thought there were any one of five or six plays that we identified after the Colts game. If any of those had gone this either's way they would have won the game. Now it's a little different against the Ravens. You know, there's a you know, you can't say that when you lost by two scores. You can't say, well, if we've done this, we would have won the game. But you would have been in the game. You know, if Russell Wilson. Okay, so Russell Wilson fumbles, but let's say he recovers it. Because the Ravens recover two of their own fumbles, you know, then you know, you start to think about, okay, what if you know, there's a Russell Wilson. You know, losing that fumble is at least a ten points win. At least, you know, them getting a pick six against instead of you, there's another seven points. And so you know, and then you're the cumultive of effect of you don't keep a drive going to the defense goes out there. And that's another thing that hasn't happened. It's just been disjointed, non complimentary football. We talked about this yesterday. Guys. You know, you have seven three and outs over the last two games, you've only forced one. Well, that's not going to add up to winning football. It's just not And so laid in the game against Philadelphia where five of those three and now it's occurred. You know what's happening. Your defense is gonna tired. It's been on the field too long, you know. But then again there, how about coming up with some sort of stop, maybe trip somebody up on third and seven and you know that now they have to punt it away and and now you go on a drive and that defense gets rested. And now that last drive for Philadelphia maybe doesn't happen. But again there's more maybe's over the last couple of weeks. And the better the competition, the more apt you are to lose a game in which you don't play complimentary football and don't take advantage of those four or five moments in every game, just like we've seen this Deelers due to other opponents. But these are you know, we're we're getting a preview of what you can't do to be able to win and beat some of the top teams in the NFL, because they're going to get a third top team in a row here coming up tomorrow.
I know you're not implying like if Wilson doesn't turn the ball over twice, they would have been better at tackling Derrick Henry, you know, like they still had problems, of course, but that's.
One of the things that's interesting.
Adventure a little different though, you know, right.
Even though they had the trouble with Derrick Henry and stopping to run, that game was seventeen seventeen with five minutes left in a third quarter, despite everything that happened right right right point, Yeah, like they were, yeah, they were. They weren't tackling Derrick Henry, but it was seventeen to seventeen.
That doesn't mean the would drop forty on you right right right right, a long way to put points. And so they were to your point, they were right in that football game.
Well, same thing with the Eagles. You know, Naji who never fumbles, you know, had that snap hit him and he just, you know, that that pitch and he's just looking up right like for the first time in his career, he picks that moment to look up. And now does that mean they win the game? No, But does it mean they go in and score a touchdown or make it seventeen thirteen possessed the ball for another three or four minutes so that your defense is over there and can get a rest, and maybe they do come up with a tackle on the next drive. I mean, there's a lot of things you don't know.
Of course. I mean, put your head's above water longer. You're not drowning as early.
You know right that, that's exactly And I'm telling you, you know, just like we've seen the Steelers do when a good team sniffs it, man, you are in trouble. Yeah, and now again, all.
Three of these opponents will bury you if you like that.
You know that's exactly right, just like the Steelers will do the same to you if they get up on you and they get you to make those mistakes. You know the thing, And I don't want to completely dismiss the fact that I would have liked to have seen one or two things. You know, I'd like to have seen you get down in the game and you go on a nice long answering drive that that quells things a little bit, you know what I mean. Okay, so now drops the drops the pitch. Okay, fine, Now you go on a long drive to answer their long thirteen play drive. And now your defense comes out and makes the stop, and now you've got the ball with a chance to tie it. And six minutes left in the fourth quarter. You know, there there are things like that that haven't happened either. So I don't want to completely say that it's been all hey, you know, the brakes weren't with us or we didn't make you know, there's a little bit of I wish, I wish some other things could have happened. Now let's go back to like.
Rob it wouldn't have broke my heart if he fumbles at the four that they don't allow a ninety six yard drive.
Yeah, that's all right, part of that complimentary football.
So yeah, exactly, I think that's what we're getting out now. They're good too, They're gonna make their plays. I would have liked to have seen this year. There's over the last couple of games. Make a player too, even if you lose those games because you made more mistakes. Now that han't been said. I don't think we can underscore the lack the effect of the lack of Deshaun Elliott. You know, your surest tackler, does he make a tackle somewhere in that Eagles game that stops at somebody short on a third nun I mean, I just have to think he does. But Larry Ogan drove me make a big difference, especially I think against Baltimore in the one game. Yes, I think he does Dante Jackson on the outside. He's gonna make a big difference. Now you're missing Joey Porter Jr. But you're getting three starters back, and then on offense, you're getting pickings back. And I just you know, you look at the numbers, and again you have to be careful with numbers. Out for a couple of games doesn't necessarily mean a trend, but and you know, the level of competition's clearly gone up. I mean, you're not playing the Bengals defense. The last couple of weeks. You're playing the Eagles, and you're playing a much improved Ravens defense. And this week you're gonna be playing the Chiefs. I'm not about to say they're gonna run right out there and score two hundred and run. You know, Russell Wilson's gonna pass for two hundred eighty yards again, and they're gonna score forty points because George Pickens is back, but he makes a huge difference. So all those guys coming back I think makes this an especially interesting game and the kind of game you go out and play a good game, you can say, Okay, that's great, We're ready for the you know, we're we still have the Bengals coming up. But we feel pretty darn good about our game going in because you know, we've played with the biggest of the big boys, and we did it with most of our guys being healthy. You don't have to look at that health thing. You know, you can look back at that health thing and say, hey, that was a that was definitely a huge contributing factor. Rob.
We do that Monday show with Wolf and he often, as a former player, references do your one eleventh, you know, And I thought your Elliott comment really resonated with me with that because I was having a conversation with tom Auferman last night that let's say Elliott plays the last two games and everyone is injuries. But if the Steelers as a team missed two fewer tackles in each of those games because he's on the field, that's a lot. I mean, like that might be a first down, that might be three minutes of time of possession. You know, I mean like it's a lot.
Yeah, it is, I mean, I I you know, you can't see me because run radio. But I'm like shaking my head. I just, you know, how do we talked about this guy back in camp? And you know I expressed my views then and I'm sure you guys probably felt similarly that I really liked the signing. I thought it was the most underrated move they made in the offseason, which is like, oh, yeah, they signed to Shawn Elliott. You know, he's a he's just a you know, in in Baltimore. He was just a good, solid football player. And I wondered, because of that, you know, because of that glue element, you know, would he be you know what Ryan Clark was the Troy Polamala, could he be that to Fitzpatrick? And again, different players different you know, Ryan Clark's a big, big man. Troy pola is a you know, an all time great, first ballot Hall of Famer. I understand that, I get it, but just a similar effect. Well it's been that and more. I mean, he's just been a he's a really really good player who just I think his I think what he does best is has shown here. You know, environment scheme, whatever it is, maybe him maturing you know even more as a player. I don't know what it is. But he has been fantastic, So yeah, I think he makes it. He makes a big difference on this team. And again I have to remind people that, you know, look, everyone's been talking about this second wide receiver thing, but you don't have to take the word of the media. Just look at the look at the fact that the Steelers were out actively trying to acquire Brandon Iyuk and others. They knew this could be an issue. With Pickens being gone, it has been an issue. Now hopefully he's back, and I think that other players have matured over the course of the year and I think it's I think they could have a really interesting passing game, but Pickens does need to be healthy for that.
Yeah, I think you know of you know, looking at this glass half full. Over the last couple of weeks here, you've kind of discovered that, hey, if if we get into crucial situations, we can throw Calvin Austin the football. It doesn't have to be, you know, go to George Pickens in some of those situations. A couple you can you can throw at the pat fire move to convert that first down. It doesn't have to go to George Pickens. It doesn't have to be you know, fourteen targets to George Pickens and everybody else gets five, you know, split up. So I do believe that, you know, maybe this has caused some short term misery not having Pickens out there, but I think in the you know, you get into a playoff game and it's third and seven, you're not just gonna wait, let's draw something up for Georgia. We gott to force the ball even though it's double coverage. No, we could throw at the Calvin Austin if he's got single coverage here even tomorrow.
Yeah, yeah, right, yah, yeah, yeah.
I think that what we've seen a little bit, I think I think is what we hope to see, which is that you've got a really good offensive coordinator. You've got a veteran quarterback who himself is on the way to the Hall of Fame, who knows how to you know, read defenses, has the confidence to make throws, distribute the ball properly. He's seen it, he's been there, he's done that. You're not going to confuse him too often. And then you have a bread of good targets, good players. So do you have that, you know, Number two t Higgins receive no, you don't, but do you have players that you know somewhere down the line, as you start to match up with their defensive players, you're going to find a mismatch, which is why I think we have seen Pat Firemouth have big moments. We've seen Calvin Austin have big moments. We have seen Mike Williams on some go routes be able to do some things. We've seen Darnell Washington be a bigger part of the passing game. Eventually, you know you're going to be able to with that combination of Arthur Smith, Russell Wilson and the players you have, find some matchup that is favorable for you and exploit that. And sometimes it's just maybe maybe it's just the scheme is enough that the distribution of all to a variety of receivers is going to be enough to keep the other team off balance and to keep your passing game going. And I think this year has have those elements to be able to be successful. But again, when you take George Pickens out of the equation, we've kind of seen how that looks over the last few weeks.
Rob it's great that they're getting some defensive starters back and that was much needed. But Porter, you know, I mean, what's the what's the loss of Joey Porter Junior mean to you for this game? Or the absence?
Yeah, that's a big one. Yeah, you know, uh for sure, no doubt about it. You know you're gonna have to find ways to get around that, and you're gonna have to find ways to get around that against you know, the best quarterback in the NFL and a guy putting up a strong argument for the best quarterback ever. Hate that conversation, although it's fun. Uh, but he's certainly you know, this generation, he's I don't I don't see how you can say he's anything but the best. You know, So it's it's you know your he's your top cover guy, no question. And you know it's interesting. You're looking at the Chiefs and they're they're finding ways to get by, and they get Rice injured, and they get some other things, and then you're like, oh my gosh, Hollywood Brown, Wait wait a minute, Uh, how's he playing for them? You know? He he comes in next week. And that's a guy who is you know, you talk about a receiving core. Now he's he's very close to being you know that number one type of receiver.
Yeah, I don't know about that.
I do think this is past.
I mean, he's a good player, but he's not He's not a true number one.
But but he is a he is a blow the top off. I mean here, there are things that he can do that are better. And I'm not calling him a I'm not calling him a one. You know, you know A one. Yeah, I mean I think they're they're more. I think I think let me rephrase that, So, I think he would be I think at this stage of his career where DeAndre Hopkins is, I think he would be their best receiver. Let me put it that way. That's what I think. But again, it's the thing that makes them difficult is it's close. I mean, if you have him and you have Worthy who for three to two, you know.
He's stepping up lately to Wheer.
Well, that's what you hope for out of a rookie receiver getting better over the course of the season. And now you have DeAndre Hopkins and that's your three. How do you spread out the resources to cover those guys? So, I mean I think that they I think that it's a it's a talented group it doesn't have that Jamar Chase doesn't have a George Pickens. But what it does have is three good solid receivers. And now you're out, you know, one of your not one of you, you're out your top cover corner who can hopefully help you maybe lock down one side of the field. I don't know whether he would travel in a game like this. I presume you would just stay on one side of the field because there isn't that. Yeah, there isn't that sort of but we don't know because he's not going to be out there. So it's a it's a loss for sure. And then again, you know, you talk about those three receivers. Okay, so they're all good, solid receivers. I think they're receivers. Those three guys are receivers that any team would be happy to have and would be part of their top three man rotation any one of them, I think pretty much in any team in the league. And then you have Kelsey and then you have Noah Gray at the tight end position. You know, so there are and I mean a guy like Kareem Hunt coming out of the backfield. He's he's you know, he's a decent receiver coming out of the back, and they have a lot of weapons. You know, we talked about the Steelers having a breadth of weapons. Well, the Chiefs breadth of weapons have a longer pedigree of you know, especially when you talk about guys like Hopkins and like Kelsey of being elite players at their position. I don't think, you know, Hopkins isn't a leite anymore, but but you know he's got the memory of being a league you know. So there it's without Joey Porter. It makes for a big challenge for the Steelers secondary, and I think it makes it especially important for you know, you think of playing Mahomes and the defense has to rise up. Well, I think the offense has to rise up in this game. You have to find a way to be able to sustain drives, keep Patrick Mahomes on the sideline. But again, you're going against an extremely formidable defense. That's not going to be easy. But you know what, that's a task in hand. You're you're talking about elite teams. You're talking about getting ready for the playoffs when you'll face elite teams. This is what you have to do.
Yep.
Our guest has been Rob King Kinger Merry Christmas. We'll see you tomorrow down at the stadium. But enjoy your Christmas Eve. You need to say my friends were in the Stone.
You gotta get it.
You can get that Amazon, Amazon, great book.
I appreciate the pitch. Happy Holidays, Mary, Christmas guys.
Our guest has been rob king the Steelers play by a play announcer with the voice of the Pittsburgh Steelers and published author.
Uh.
He is Matt Williamson. I am Dale Lolly. You're listening to the Drive here on the Steelers Audio Network. We'll be back with more right after this.
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.
Welcome back. I am Dale LOLLI he is the Matt Williamson and Well Week sixteen now in the books. After the green Bay Packers just destroyed the New Orleans Saints. Yeah last night, thirty four to nothing. It really could have been one hundred to nothing if Green Bay wanted it to be.
Yeah, I'll be honest, Like, there's this one of the things you're taught immediately as a scout, Like I remember the first game I ever went to. Sitting in the press box scouting. I was sitting next this older scout and he's like, you're new runner, right, And I'm like yeah. He's like, don't ever leave a game early. He's like, that's yeah, that's this young generation. They'll leave games early. I could have left this game at the first quarter. I mean, like rarely, I'll watch every Monday night to the very end, every Sunday night, or I quit.
I mean I had it up on my last strongly considered it.
You know, I'm like, yeah, maybe I'll watch a succession or something. I mean, this is not close to being competitive. Couldn't even write a story of how they could come back and you know make Yeah, I mean no chance. I mean you're playing all your backups in and Willis and Jacobs.
As a scowl. Right. You may want to watch that because you want to see what the saying you're seeing. We're seeing what you know, that guy kind.
Of did some nice string running back or those guys.
But beyond that, right, there was no reason to watch that disaster.
The first shutout of the year. Yeah, I mean that was shocked to hear that. But AD's up.
I mean, it's that's it's how hard it is to play defense in league right now. That was the kind of where I was going out of the season.
I think it was yesterday was a whirlwind, but a couple outlets. I definitely mentioned that defense. There's no seventy seelers.
There's no such thing as a shutdown defense, eighty.
Five bears where you're happy to get ten points, you know what I mean, that's how those defenses were, like are.
Just set up against you. It's so much I mean, this night and days not even really the same game anymore, no as it was in nineteen seventy eight, seventy seven or seventy six.
It's funny, like my buddies and I were just they were chatting about the Penguins. I guess Sid Crosby reached Lemieu's assist number, right, but it's like four hundred games less, you know, and you know Lemuse my all time favorite. But they were talking about it, like how much that game's changed. Like if you go watch like Gretzky highlights or Bossy highlights, there's this much net to shoot at. You know, the pads are so much different. I mean, it's almost like defense nowadays, where the game has just changed so much that with fantasy football and betting and the way the game's growing, they don't want six to nine games. And even if the offensive lines aren't as talented as defensive lines, they're gonna do everything possible that there's points, you know what I mean, where the hockey's gone the other way, you know. But anyway, to my point, what we've been talking about a lot this last twenty four hours or so is because there's no shutdown defenses. If you're on the field a lot on defense, you're gonna get exposed every one of these thirty two, you know, not just a stealer.
That's why there's a greater emphasis on turnovers. You're not going to shut teams down in today's NFL, and to expect that, and I see that a lot this defense stinks. They can't stop anybody. Look around the league. There's like if you look at the top defenses in the league right now, Like right now.
I think the Eagles are playing the best of any defense. Yeah, but even like the Vikings are the top. But they've kind of they've had some a lot of good moments, more good than bad.
But there used to be between every year eight to ten teams allowing less than three hundred yards per game. This year there's one, really one, and the Eagles are allowing two hundred and eighty one point seven yards per game. I guarantee you if I went back ten years in the NFL, there would be at least six or seven teams holding teams under three hundred yards and to eighty one point seven wouldn't be anywhere close to being the lead. I can do that and not gonna look at right now. I'll go back to twenty fourteen.
And another thing that's changed too is every team has a Justin Tucker and their prime now too. You know, like I mean, there's so much fewer missed field goals and they're making them from all over, which resultant point. It's not like points are through the roof. It's not like the COVID year or anything. But you're not going to shut teams down.
At yeah point twenty fourteen, the leader was the Seattle Seahawks, the legion to boom to sixty one point seven. That's twenty fourteen. If I go back to two thousand and four and look at the top defense, well here we got one two three four, five five teams that held teams under under three three hundred yards, led by the Steelers at two fifty eight point four.
Okay, but that was a little more common. Even the difference two.
Thousand and four. What happened between two thousand and four and twenty fourteen, Smashing people over the middle.
Of the field became illegal. Oh yeah, no doubt you can't.
You can't just destroy a receiver going over the middle. So they go over the middle now with complete knowledge that, well, I might get a big hit. I might get a big hit, but it's probably going to get a penalty.
It's not Jack Tatum.
Nobody's going to try to do that to me here, because that's back in those days when a ball thrown over the middle. Yeah, you knew you were going to take a big hit. Yeah, Now that doesn't happen.
Quarterbacks one thousand times better too. I mean, you listen to any broadcasts, even like with Akman or any of those guys. They respect it, but they're jealous, you know. Yeah, let alone the Branshaw years. Yeah, I mean right, I.
Mean you could horse collar tackle was legal. Yeah, there was all, I mean, all kinds of stuff that is they have phased out of the game now.
To where playing defense is just harder than that. It's it's so much harder.
But I also think they have an athletic advantage that yeah, there there's so many defensive.
Athletes coming into the league.
I mean, even just look at some of the hip drop tackles now illegal. You can't do that anymore. That was a staple back in those days. But I'm not implying that the Steeler defense has been great the last two weeks. But you have to can't be on the field that long. You also have to look at things in context, and you know, it's it's just not it's not easy to play defense now. It just isn't and you don't want to play too much of it. But the greatest, the biggest emphasis is on should be and it should be Saxon turnovers. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Saxon turnovers are huge and they do get those.
They do get those, and it's been a consistent thing over years. Yeah, year's time. They have playmakers, they have team speed, they have pass rushers. That's the best way to start.
Yeah, So we'll see if that's the best way to start against the Kansas City Chiefs. Steelers.
Will you're on the field for thirty five minutes on the Christmas Day though, not going to be good.
It's yeah, yeah, not going to lead to good threes, going to figure you out. Absolutely. Looking at the playoff race here real quick. In the AFC, all but ten teams have been eliminated. As we mentioned, five playoff spots have been claimed Kansas City, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Houston, and Baltimore. Two spots still up for grabs up being the Chargers and Broncos. Either one of those teams would clinch themselves with a win this week in any the in either of their final tie, and you're in. It doesn't matter what anybody else does. If you get a win or a tie in your final two games.
You are in.
For the Chargers in Broncos, for the Chargers and Broncos. Over in the NFC, now, six of the playoff spots have been clinched. You've got the Washington Commanders at ten and five in the seventh spot, Tampa Bay and Seattle the two teams chasing them. Everybody else in the NFC has been eliminated. They're both too.
You said six spots or clinched, Yes, Well, technically, actually there's there's four spots clinched because the the West and the South have still but you have Atlanta leading the South now at eight and seven, we know there's going to be a division winner. Yeah, and then we know the other team.
If Atlanta wins out, they win the division, doesn't It doesn't matter what Tampa Bay does because they have the tiebreaker over Tampa. Tampa needs a loss by the Falcons and they need to win out.
Yes, to get to win the divisions.
They can still get in if Washington loses its final two games.
Gotcha, But we don't know six guaranteed teams that are going.
Now in the in the NFC, in the in the NFC West, Seattle is eight and seven, a game behind the Rams at nine and six. They played and the play week final week. So Seattle needs to win this week. They don't necessarily need the Rams to lose, but they need to win because they'll play each other in the final week of the season and therefore could pull into a tie. And then I don't know how the tie breakers work with out if you know the answer to this, but Seattle loses this week, they out the win the division. Yeah, yeah, Okay, I would imagine, yeah, yeah, okay. So that's where we stand, play for absolutely, but let's get to a that's going to do it for our number one of the drive here on the Steelers Audio Network, Matt Nauie Beck with our number two right after this
