HR1: Lump of Coal

Published Dec 26, 2024, 10:15 PM
Matt and Dale recap the frustrating present the Chiefs gave the Steelers yesterday afternoon. The guys also take a look at the updated playoff picture and review how the first round rookies are playing across the league.

This is the Drive with Dale Lolly and Matt Williamson on your twenty four to seven home of the Black and Gold Steelers Nation Radio.

And Welcome to the Drive. I am Dale LOLLI he is the Matt Williamson.

I hope everybody had a.

Merrier Christmas in the Pittsburgh Steelers ID.

Yes. Today.

They lose on Wednesday twenty nine to ten to the Kansas City Chiefs, and it was a lackluster performance by the Steelers to say the least. Yeah, all three phases.

Of the game.

They were beaten, outplayed and outplayed in that football game. And you know, it's a tough three game stretch. You get a little chance to regroup.

It's an understatement, it's a tough three game stretch, but wow, I mean it's you'd like it have gone a little better, a little bit better, no doubt.

You know, maybe if they would have had, say the Giants to open this off and kick this thing off, it would have been a little kinder to them.

But you still were week fourteen by would week fourteen by what. They didn't do the Texans any good, but you lost.

At least they got the they get to win in their first game of this stretch. Oh yeah, yeah, true, because they get you know, but it is what it is. I mean, you can't lose. You can't continually lose the turnover battle, no to good teams.

Not to the top teams in the league. No, And that's what these three teams are. They're the top teams in the league.

And you know that that's the way it goes. That's what happens when when that happens, and you know, and you can't lose the turnover battle decisively where it turns into a twenty nine to ten loss.

I mean, one of the things that stood out to me the most possibly in this game, no matter what unit was on the field, the Steelers made more self inflicted wounds. You know. Now, that doesn't mean they're gonna win every one of their one on one matchups in the trenches or running back corner, you know, winning running back versus a linebacker, wide receive a versus corner, tackle versusn edge guy. What he But this was a really clean played game by Kansas City in terms of mistakes made where they missed an extra point that's about the only thing I could come up with a penalty here and there but I mean no blown coverages, you know, going to the right guy coming out.

Yeah, nine pen surprise. Surprised by that. And there were some there were some things that the Steelers, like the Chiefs were three of ten on third downs, which they are like historically great one percent coming into that game. The Chiefs average three point was a three point five yards per carry in that game. Their running backs did nothing and that was with a twelve yard Mahome scramble.

And their running game was odd to me because I'm almost certain I made a note of it, and you know, the first drive they had like twenty five rushing yards, you know, right off the bat, and then we're like, eh, you know, we're ye, it was too hard and Mahomes throw agains own and that's that was the thing that that stood out to me was it was just a lot of quick passes that kind of supplemented the running game, that extremely wick passes. And that's what I was saying with sharpness. I mean, that was two point three four seconds. It's ridiculous because there's five or six plays that are probably over four seconds and he extended and you know whatnot. So I mean there's a lot of two point ones, two points.

The ball was coming out quickly and.

To the right plate people, And again that was a really sharp showing by the quarterback. The offense as a hole for Kansas City, And I kept coming back to something that's worried me for a while, But you would think the best counter to that in a perfect world, if you have, you know, the best checkers available, let's press these guys play man well without Porter, you don't.

Have you don't have to you know the guy to do that.

Yeah, and then you complicate things by even more with communication issues in the red zone and these zone coverages and things and losing track of Kelsey and snowball.

Yeah, it was not a pretty performance at all. The Steelers get an opportunity to again take a step back, now, take a breath. You needed a much needed breath, and figure some things out. You know what you're doing, who you're doing it with, how you're doing it, all the above. You get an opportunity. It's almost a little mini buy here too. Yeah, all right, reset this thing like you did after the Browns game and see where it goes from there.

And you got a test run against a familiar opponent who's also very dangerous assuming that they are still in it, and.

This will be an offense like the offenses that you face are going to face in playoffs.

That's what I say. This is a great test run to gear up for the playoffs while you mend some wounds and heal some things. And I didn't watch all of my Tomlins press conference, but I saw snippets and red snippets that he basically said we sucked and nothing's off the table. That's exactly one to hear. Yeah, you know, because he wasn't wrong.

No, it was. Now I will say this, So I did some research today and I know Steelers aren't gonna win another game. Blah blah blah whatever. All right, In the last fifteen years, I'm not even going back far here, there have been four instances where the eventual Super Bowl champion went through stretches like this, including at the end of the season eventual Super Bowl champions. So if you go back to two thousand and nine, the Saints lost their last three games of the two thousand and nine season and won the Super Bowl.

Okay, it's not like they're just resting everyone and they've got a four game lead over the rest of the year.

Now they started thirteen to zero. Yeah, but then they lost, and then they lost again, and then they rested me. In twenty ten, the Packers, who beat the Steelers in the Super Bowl two different times during that season, lost three out of four games really two different times. They finished ten and six that year and won the Super Bowl. Twenty eleven, the Giants lost four games in a row from week ten to thirteen, so again later in the season and won the Super Bowl at nine and seven.

Surprised me.

In twenty twelve, again, this is four years in a row that the Super Bowl champion.

Went through a stress real tough patch. Yeah.

Twenty twelve, the Ravens lost four of their last five games, including three straight from weeks thirteen through fifteen, won a game, and then lost their regular season finale to finish ten and six. They then beat the Colts, Broncos, Patriots, and forty nine Ers to win the Super Bowl. And then in twenty twenty one, even more recent history, the Rams lost three games in a row, also lost their regular season finale to finish eleven and five, and then beat the Cardinals, Bucks, forty nine Ers, and Bengals in the postseason to win the super.

Bowl, sure, and there's a million instances of four seed, five seeds, six seeds getting hot at the right time the run Flacco went on. I don't think either one of us are predicting it at the moment.

I'm not, but I'm also not predicting, Oh, it's just going to be, you know, one and done in the playoffs ring right right, like if they go to Houston.

Houston's worship than Steelers right without a doubt. If you if you flipped over to Netflix for your local audience, it was disaster.

They lost thirty one to two, and it wasn't that competitive.

This isn't meant to be a cop out for either one of those nons. But Ross Tucker's a friend of mine. Him and I used to do a podcast together. And I was listening to his podcast today because Greg Cosell was on, but he was talking about it afterwards. And Ross did the Steeler game yesterday. He was in town. He was here doing radio or whatever, and I thought this three out of eleven stretch and he agrees with me, it's just brutal on players overall. But I also think, and he agreed with this two on his podcast, that if the Tier one teams are going to be even more of a of a of a stretch over the Tier Two's.

Funny in these kind of stretches, because I just wrote this from my five thoughts tomorrow five for Friday. In games like that, ye're on we have a four day work week. It accentuates the difference the Jimmy's and Joe's more than the.

X's and o's exactly exactly.

And when you've got Patrick Mahomes yeah, or Lamar or Lamar or someone of that ilk right, your Jimmy and Joe's are going to be a little bit better.

Yeah, you are. It's you know, like your superheroes get a little more super you know, in the act, you will get a little more average.

You don't get the game plan. You don't get to spend the week going, Okay, here's what we want to we want to attack this guy, and here's when they do this. We're gonna do that. You don't get a chance to do that stuff.

Yeah. I really liked Ros's perspective on that. And then we're actually where I was going more so with what his conversation was, where I looked at the total op is it going into a Christmas Day game. I thought, Man, these road teams are such a disadvantage. You know you're going to be, you know, on your phone with your kids, Daddy, where are you? We got to open press and blah blah blah blah blah. Ross saw it as a player, He's like, No, being a home team on Christmas is horrible because frankly, you're rich. You're probably the richest person in your extended family. You're not from Pittsburgh, so mom and uncle and niece, they all come to your house and you're gotta deal with it. And you know, like, He's like, I would much better be the road team. I get on a plane, I don't hear from anyone for twenty four hours. I get home the tree and festive and eggnog. Win or lose is so much easier Now, I think Houston and Pittsburgh lose that game on the road or in Antarctica. But I hadn't. I thought about it from a totally different perspective after hearing a player's opinion of this is a business trip for me. I don't have to deal with all the nonsense at home on Christmas. Getting my aunt from Mississippi up to Pittsburgh or wherever, you know, like all the real life stuff.

It's an interesting perspective. Yeah, yeah, I hadn't thought about it.

I've always thought the opposite.

Yeah, and again, nobody, nobody is making excuses here for what the Steelers have done in the last three games, not at all.

No, No, they lost the game, they've lost bad. They're inferior team. Yeah, but.

You know, I just think that in this particular state, if you're playing here's the other problem with playing three games in eleven days.

There's a million of them, and it's there's a lot. If you're playing well, you're fine.

If you have some stuff happening on your roster with injuries or guys that aren't performing maybe who knows, for whatever reason, aren't performing as well as they had, you don't get a chance to get hard. You don't get a chance to fix what's going wrong with your team. So when you have tackling issues against the the the Philadelphia Eagles, well you get two days of practice before you got to go play the Ravens and they're not even real practices. Then you have issues. You know, again, stop you stop the run against the Eagles, but you didn't stop the run against the Ravens. We don't get a chance to correct that necessarily, so you know, maybe you sell out a little more to stop the run against Kansas City. We've got to stop that run, yeap. And you talk about it all week. You don't get a chance to practice.

So I pre recorded a show with Merrill Hodge and pursued their later today on DV. Check it out. It's always good. But Merrill had a great point. He's like, so this defense has an issue right now when opponents go to trips and they're three to one side, whether it's a bunch, any kind of three by one sets, and all these teams are motioning to trips and the Steelers are not adjusting, And we kind of said, that's not the hardest thing to adjust to. You've no time to adjust to it. Over three over eleven days, and you're playing against AJ Brown and Mahmee. You get two of those.

You have travel days mixed in right, right, Yes, I.

Know this is a problem. Everyone knows it's a problem.

Five of the eleven days, what's twelve because you counted, Yeah, so five of the twelve days that you had were spent either traveling or playing the game, Like.

I bet Houston saying the same things, like, but we can't pick up a blitz to save our life, but we don't have any time to fix it. We know it's a problem. On the planet knows the problem. Yeah, anybody's watched the games can see what's happening. And these aren't excuses. I mean, but I just think that it's wrong to play three and all seven.

Here's the thing, there's a difference between excuses and reasons.

Right exactly exactly like and that often gets all block better. You should still not throw interceptions, of course.

That often gets clouded. And I get, well, you're just making excuses. No, I'm giving you the reason why this stuff is happening. It's not making any excuse for it. It still shouldn't happen.

But it does offer that as insight of being close to the team to realize, man, they got a problem and they know that's a problem, but they can't fix it because it'll make time or you know, things like that. So I remember, even hosting, we always do a show the second the schedule gets released, and we all knew three and eleven against these teams is going to be brutal. But I remember talking about that specifically, and all your AFC North games or what in six or seven weeks combined. I'm like, I sure hope Lamar is healthy for all of them, or Burrow or Watt or Garrett or not knowing how the teams are going to be, but it just so happens. Miles Garrett's out for four weeks. But they're all division games, like, well your season shot.

Just to keep this in perspective. So, the Buffalo Bills, who we both think is a good football played Houston and Baltimore and back to back road games. Guess what they lost them both?

Yeah? Badly? Yeah? The best teams right.

Right, because you're it's difficult to play two very good teams in a row. In the row. That's why you don't want to have to go on the road necessarily in the playoffs.

Yeah, exactly. You know, doing two or three in a row, it's difficult. Quality teams is a losing propositions league no matter what.

Almost, So I you know, I know we both picked the Steelers. We both picked the Steelers to lose the first two games in the stretch, so not a surprise we picked. We both picked the Steelers to win yesterday kind of just because.

Like reasons, yeah, I mean some of them were, well, I think the edge guys will kill those tackles.

I didn't think the ball will come out and two seconds. Yeah, you know, most of the play.

And that's phenomenal work by the Chiefs.

Any team in the league would have lost at least two of those games.

Oh, I think so too. I mean, if you ask the Chiefs to do the exact same stretch or the Ravens had a different one, I don't quite put Houston the same level as the Eagles.

Eagles, Ravens, Chiefs.

Yeah.

Yeah, you take any of the other twenty nine teams, Lions, Bills, they're gonna lose at least two of those games.

Probably, Yeah, especially playing several road games before not having a buy for a long stretch beforehand. Yeah, I mean, if you could, I know, it's three games, but if you could get five hundred out of that, you'd be thrilled.

Oh yeah, it was a terrible stretch. And so you know, the Steelers do still have a chance to get to eleven wins, and you know, if they can do that.

It's hard to see the light through the trees and I'm not saying there's bright light shining and everything's gonna be fine and we're all gonna sing in unicorns and rainbows. But still the most important thing is winning the Super Bowl, winning playoff games. And you got a stretch and then you get the Bengals, and then you're gonna at least have an opportunity to do that.

I mean, I've been doing this long enough that I remember, you know, fix some things. When they fell to seven and five in two thousand and five, they lost three games in a row to fall to seven and five and out of the playoff spot, and they needed to win. They had to win their final four games to get just to get into the playoffs.

Not a lot of those instances where it's like and you need the Jags to win and.

You go to Cincinnati and then in the first round of the playoffs, they're underdogs in that game. They find a way to win that game. You go to Indianapolis to the number one seed in the second week.

Of the playoffs, missus Peyton Manning.

Actually they think they might have been the two seed.

Whatever. They were Superstar team.

Yeah, you're playing Peyton Manning who destroyed you in the regular season. That game wasn't even remotely competitive, and they find a to beat the Colts in that game and then beat Denver to go to the Super Bowl and win it. I can when they lost that third game again to go fall to seven and five, the world was burning. Oh yeah, it was on fire. It was over this team.

Everybody there.

Fourteen to one last year and look at this, They're not even gonna make the playoff an embarrassment. Yeah right, things happen. Yeah, that doesn't mean that's what's going to happen this year. No changes are going to have to be made on what they're doing, who they're doing it with, and how they're doing it. But it is possible.

It is. And I don't think they're as talented as the Ravens, Eagles or Chiefs, you know. And I do think Jimmy's and Joe's are going the way you said. I think is one hundred percent true that in a condensed environment, I get three days of prepare one real practice or whatever. That's a problem, you know, like I'll go to battle with Magic and Jordan if you have you know what I mean.

But they don't play playoff games in three days.

Exactly, right now. From this point on, you're back to normalcy at least, you know, the guy who's playing with a bad ankle that might be healed by Cincy, or you sit them vers Cincy and it's fine for week one or you know whatever. And the blown coverages and frankly, Wilson needs to get the ball out a little quicker and you know, execute the offense a little bit better. And I'm not trying to candy coate things, but Cam Hayward was awesome in that game. They ran the ball well in that game. And I'm not even talking about the last stretch where they were running the ball well before that. The second quarter was well played by the Steelers, you know, like it's not all terrible. And I keep going back to this conversation sat with Meryl because's fresh on my mind. And his first thought was one team's making mistakes. Yell, one isn't right. I mean, yeah, and you count that with the talent gape forget about it. If you can do that, you can be the team not making mistakes and the other one you force a mistake or two or all these fumbles. If you happen to pick what up, you know, that's just bad luck too, I mean, which compound things too. It's all this game goes, but it's not pretty at the moment. You know, no one thinks it is.

No, but it can be turned around. Yeah, there's a whole time. They they they don't need to back into the playoffs this year. They're they're not waiting for something else to happen to get into the postseason because they this is the same team that started ten and three. That was kind of the Deshaun Elliott talking about it yesterday and said, look, this is the same group of guys. We get the same group of guys in here that we're playing well early game. Yeah, there's no reason that we can't do that. It's just not happening right now.

The other thing about previous years is when you have to I mean sometimes the playoffs starts in early December, right like, that's what the Bengels are going through right now. We got to play everyone. If you're fifty to fifty, you're playing this is a playoff game now. You know, they got to win seven or eight in a row to win the Super Bowl, you know, just to even get in. And then you get a bounce and that's a hard way to live. I mean they're not in that situation. Yeah, So we'll see how it goes here. They got a you know, a week and a half here basically to prepare to face the Bengals. We'll see what kind of changes come out of all this stuff, and we'll see, uh, you know, it might not be something that you see.

It might be you know, just schematic changes on how you're doing things, how you're how.

It'll be like, well, let's change our communication on the back end and call it something different, you know, not like they're gonna you're not gonna see Wow, we're gonna Benchminka, you know, I mean like that, that's not what's gonna happen. Necessarily. They're going to change the way they approach their problems. You know, this this trip problem, Well, we're going to always go to cover two or whatever it is. We're gonna bump this guy over. Okay, it's simple. But most guys aren't myself included, won't notice the changes. Yeah, so I don't think it's a whole bench in the quarterback and DJ Watt you know.

Yeah, anyways, he is Matt Williamson. I am Dale, Lolly, you're listening to the drive here on the Steelers Audio Network, Matt and now 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 Matt with the Steelers loss yesterday to the Kansas City Chiefs. The Chiefs clinched the number one spot in the AFC playoffs, and I wonder how that affects things moving forward.

In terms of of a ripple effect on the AFC.

Yeah, because right now Baltimore's Buffalo at twelve and three, they can't they could technically still catch it. Well, now they can't catch the Chiefs. Chiefs only have one game left. What am I saying they can't catch him? Buffalo's at twelve and three, Baltimore is at eleven and five in the three spot, Houston's at the nine. Had to head the Bill's loss, had to head to the Ravens. So they need to play this week as if they're.

Right, they go and to the Ravens, go to and oh and then you go from two to three.

Yeah, then you have Houston at nine and seven, they're in the fourth spot. They can't Uh, they've clinched the division. Yeah, yeah, yeah, they've clinched the division. So I wonder you know what they do in terms of tom they can get the three, right, they can't get to three. They've lost, they've lost the Ravens and their two games behind them, so they can't get to three.

So they're gonna be the four no matter what. Yeah.

The Steelers right now are ten and six. Here's the thing, though, the two teams behind them are the Chargers and Broncos, who they've both beaten head to head. Now, they can still finish behind one of those teams if they get to eleven wins, right right, So, and you know, unless you want to go to Buffalo or Baltimore.

No, I think you definitely want to go to Houston. Yeah, definitely. Real quick, let me stop you, super quick. Think Houston has two more games, as we know, but they have a nice one more game. But I saw him break before it. Do you think they rest everyone for that?

Yes, they sit people out and there's nothing to be gained for them, right playing anybody in Week eighteen.

Agreed, what do you think the Chiefs do though. I mean they have three weeks until their next game, right, I mean with the buye, you play them some, you play like you know, Rush Chriss Jones back, No, I mean anyone that's on the fringe. But it's a long time to sit my homes and Worthy in Hollywood, Brown starting to find himself. You know, I don't know how much i'd rest those guys.

Yeah, I think they kind of play maybe a half something like that in their next game. You know, this weekend, I expect Buffalo to play to win.

And then maybe shut it down if they win, then put it in neutral for a week.

Obviously, the Ravens need to win based on what the Steelers do, and I expect both of those teams to play their guys.

Yeah.

Yeah, And obviously the Chargers and Broncos both need to win. If the Chargers and Broncos win this week, it's over.

In terms of whose the playoffs are set. NFL would hate that now.

The only odd sitting around, The only thing that would be then decided would still be who's who's going where in the first round.

Yeah, but we know the seven teams for sure. All that has happens is a Bronco win and a Charger win.

Yeah, because the Broncos would officially eliminate the Bengals beat Denver does Denver does, I don't believe the Chargers do. But the Chargers play the Patriots, Chargers.

By the Patriots and the other game Saturday. But we might know all that stuff before Sunday kicko. Yeah they are. I'm getting blurbs on my phone ceedee. Lam's getting shut down for the year, like it's starting to be that time of year for some of these stars.

So we could know by Saturday what's going on the teams.

That are in Saturday evening.

Yeah, because again the Chargers play the Patriots.

And half point favorite.

Yeah, Denver goes two cents and.

They're three and a half point dog, But we know a lot. Yeah, Denver gets Kansas City I think in week eighteen, which would probably be a shell of the Chiefs. Yeah, you know, if it comes to that.

So it's going to be interesting here to see what happens with those particular games.

There's really starting to shape up quick. Yeah.

Yeah, things could really be decided by Saturday.

And Bengals obviously need to win and they could at least do damage to one of those teams. The Colts in Miami are in a world hurting too.

Yeah, they're actually in better they're in better shape Indianapolis or than the Cincinnati.

They better tie breakers. Yeah, okay, yeah, but no, it hasn't gone great. But if you're a five season going to Houston, I don't mind that one bit, you know, now lay from there. I mean, Houston's a mess right now. But I'm sure if we were doing Texans Audio Network would be like, well, they need to break and maybe they'll get some things for out too. And they are a talented team.

But here's the thing that the Texans opened the season five and one. Yeah, hot, hot, hot. So they're now nine and seven. So just some simple math tells me they're four and six in their last ten.

And they've lost Tank Dell and they're picking up Deonte and the line.

It kind of actually coincided with when they when they lost stuff on Diggs.

Yeah, yeah, that was their because Dell wasn't himself then too, right, They've never been a really small st they've never really had all three of their guys at the height of their power. Nico missed a stretch there too, and that's what they were built to do, and a lot of times they've had one, you know, Yeah, which you thought they had an abundance of receivers.

Very similarly to the Steelers, though, I mean you start looking at some of the stuff. They're like, they lost a turnover battle in the two short week games they played three nothing. They had two turnovers against Kansas City, didn't force any, and they had one yesterday against the Ravens and didn't force any. Not to it would have mattered in that game. But no, I mean they lost to the Chiefs twenty seven nineteen and lost the turnover battle to nothing.

Yeah, Chiefs have been real claim with that stuff.

Yeah.

Houston's also taken a ton of penalties. There were I mean, they were almost a second team to get shut out if it was for a safety a safety safety is the only points on the board. Yeah, you think things are visible around here, they're worse in Houston. Yeah.

They they're the team that turned the Lions over five times and lost the game. Yeah, like that's really hard to do.

That must have been a penalty fest and no running game can't close teams out. Those have been their problems. Yeah, and the pass protection is really bad.

So that's where the AFC stands right now. It's pretty much decided.

It's pretty close.

We'll know a lot more Saturday night.

Yeah. I wonder if Seth Walder or Cynthia Freudland or one of those guys that projects this stuff. What percent chance do we know even the seven in order? I bet it's pretty strong.

Yeah, because the Chargers have a two. They have the sweep over Denver, so they have a tie breaker.

Yeah. I mean, it seems highly unlikely for it not to go one through seven. Chiefs, Bills, Ravens, Texans, Steelers, Broncos, Chargers. Yeah, that's probably what will happen. Chargers, Broncos, Broncos, Broncos.

If you look at the NFC, it's a little more interesting, although at.

Least there's division races still going on. Tonight's game matters.

Tonight's game matters a ton You've only got four playoff spots clinched, which means that the Rams at nine and six are leading their division but haven't clinched yet. The Falcons at eight and seven are leading their division but haven't clinched yet. Two of the wild cards are already decided, with Minnesota and Green Bay Washington. Currently, if they get a tie in their final two games, they clinch at least are going. They're probably going, so those are. But then you got Tampa Bay sitting there at eight and seven and Seattle at eight and.

Seven, the Lions having clinched division yet, right, Yeah, I mean the.

Lions could fall from leading all season long right to being the number five five yeah.

Yeah, and you know, Philly's fine, but Hurts has a concussion and pickets hurt. They might start McKee this week. I mean, you would think that all gets cleared up by the playoffs, but all of a sudden, the two mightiest teams are the ones that are dealing with the most injuries too. South got really exciting with the Cousins benching and Tampa losing to Dallas. Seattle is this a must win for them?

I yeah, they have to win this because the Rams are nine and six right now. So if Seattle loses the fall to eight and eight tonight, the Rams would just need to win one of their final two games and they play.

I think they have an easy one coming up this week. They have the Cardinals and Seahawks. Okay, so yeah, if they beat the Cardinals this week. In the Seahawks lose tonight, that becomes a moot point. That's done, do you Yeah, They're a big time favorite in the West, now, yeah, and the Cardinals. They played the Cardinals this week, right, yeah, because the Rams are like a seven point favorite, six and a half or whatever. But I was just seeing even since I saw that line, Cardinals put both their offensive tackles on ir. I mean, it's like some of these teams ain't what they used to be. That's like in my CD LAMB conversation, like, boy, Dallas is fighting, but now if you're shutting down your best guys, it's a heck of a lot different. Now.

Atlanta this week has Washington in Washington.

That's a huge game, a fun game. I think it's Sunday night.

And then they get the Panthers who.

Have everything to play for. Yeah, you know. I mean, they're not going to lay down. So it's do we know Pennis is good or not? I mean he was impressive after one week, but you don't know that yet. We don't.

You know, can Atlanta's running game carry them past Washington?

I don't know. I bet there are a where's that game? You know?

It's in Washington. I assume they're favored by three or four or something like that. Yeah, would assume Washington is favored. So, I mean Tampa Bay's looking just going, Okay, we.

Got to Tampa lose the Dallas. That was a killer in the head.

It was a killer. They get the Panthers this week and then the Saints, so they're.

Probably be two and oh, they're definitely gonna be one and one and worse, they're gonna Panthers are dangerous. Panthers are dangerous laughing sock.

Yeah, but it's there's some stuff there that you know, they could still happen in the NFC, and.

And certainly unpredictability in the NFC.

I mean Detroit.

I don't know if Detroit should win Division.

Yeah, that would be could you match they play? They're at San Francisco this week.

I'm sure they're favored, but still, and then the brand hasn't laid down. No, they're playing deebo and Kittle and Boast have played last week. Trent Williams is out.

But and then they're playing the Vikings at home. That's the key last game of the season, right. If both of those teams win this week, there's your standalone game.

The Vikings they go to and they win. Yeah, and they got Green Bay this week, so it's two games. Yeah, and the Packers.

You know, you want you want to look at the Steelers and say, well, you know, they lost all these games to all the good teams on their schedule.

Not true, she isn't true.

They've beaten some goods. Three yeah, the last three have been. Here are the Packers losses, Eagles, Vikings, both at home, by the way, although the Eagles game was in in the Brazil.

Oh that was Week one.

Loston, the Lions at home, lost in Detroit, and that's their four losses right now. Like the best teams in the league, they're wins. They've beaten the Colts, the Titans, the Rams. Early in the season before the Rams were healthy, they beat the Cardinals. They do have a win over the Texans twenty four to twenty two. Okay, yeah, yeah, but that was at home. They beat the Jaguars, they beat the Bears. They beat the forty nine ers at home, but that was the everybody was out for the forty nine ers in that game. Beat the Dolphins, Okay, lost in the lines. Beat the Seahawks lost in Seattle.

That's nice.

That's that's the nicest win. That's their their best win, and.

All their losses are respectable losses. Yeah, you know they don't have a Raiders one on there or something like that, right, But.

If they had played the let's say, for example, they played a stretch where they played the Eagles, the Lions, and the Vikings three games and three and went oh and three, would people be saying out teams garbage?

See? I was going to bring that up for the Vikings just now, because they play what Packers Lions.

Yeah, if they lose both of those.

Games by thirty points total, lose them both, does that mean they're dead? I mean, were they a joke all along? Yeah? I don't probably see it that way. We'll see how they play out, but they could easily go oh and two here. Yeah, that's tough stretch.

I mean, any team, you look at any team schedule. Again, I mentioned Buffalo in the first segment, like when they played Houston and Baltimore on the road back to back and got smoked in both of those games. Well, they didn't get smoked against Houston, but they got smoked again. They got ross Roy Bay the ball.

They got this.

One of the worst beatdowns of the season. Nobody's saying that's a bad football team, right right. I mean it's a lot of recency bias too. There's a ton of recency bias and and.

So and Frankly, the Steelers were the start of the season with these three games and done everything else since they'd be fourth in the power ranks.

And yeah, the Steelers are on a roll and they're you know, yeah, I mean that's just how it goes. I understand, of course, you know, it's it's always about recency bias.

I mean, what happened Week one doesn't matter much.

Every time I see somebody tweet out something about this guy is the best player of whatever, I'm like, Barry Sanders, like the best college football player ever. I'm like, Barry Sanders.

Exists before you. Yeah.

Yeah, there's a lot of dudes out of Earl Campbell was was a thing exactly right.

Funny brought up Earl Campbell. My eighteen year old asked me, Derreck Henry like the hardest guy to tackle in NFL history. I'm like no, He's like, well, give me a couple. I'm like, well, Bett's He's like, okay, I remember for better enough. I'm like Earl Campbell. He's like, you'd rather tackle or Henry all day in Earld Campbell like times a thousand and Henry's awesome, But you stand up and look at me.

Earl Campbell's thighs were as big as my waist. I mean, I imagine running into that.

This league is seen is remarkable, right yeah.

I mean so any time that somebody tweets something like that out like this guy's the best of this or and it's always somebody or they'll tweet out a list of the here are the ten best college football players. It's it's ten guys from like the last five years. Like, come on, Yeah, recency bias is a thing. I get it, but you might want to do a little bit of homework.

Yeah, that's what makes sports so great. I mean, there's so many great teams, players, traditions. You know, before all these guys do standing on each other shoulders.

Yeah, but this playoff stuffs interesting.

But AFC is maybe not that interesting anymore. It might be pretty darn settled.

It might be pretty settled. And and you know, I think that the the top three team are the top three teams doesn't mean that you can't beat any of them. And the Steelers do have a win over the Ravens.

Yeah this season.

Somebody came at me in the on the message board on our YouTube channel, Steelers haven't beaten a good quarterback all season? Like really, they beat Lamar, they beat Burrow.

Yeah, yeah, they're pretty good. Those guys are pretty yeah.

Right, I mean, who's better than those two guys right now? Aren't many? And they beat them?

Yeah they have. So it's not over yet, folks. No times are gloomy and the grenches out. I totally get it, and I understand.

They deserve all the vitriol. Here's the other thing. Don't come at Matt and I. We didn't play a down of this. And guess what, Nobody live over at the facility listens to what we have to say about anything like that. Nobody comes to Matt and say, Matt, you're a former scout. What are you seeing that's going on here?

No?

No, And I'll say, hey, Dale, you're here at every practice. What do you see?

It's no a different podcasts I did. I got a comment today. You picked the Steelers to win this game. You're an idiot. I'm like, Okay, that's fine. I mean I don't have a crystal ball. I don't get every game right.

I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing if I did right, right, right right.

But yeah, so be it. That's fine. I'm us sure it.

Yeah, but uh yeah, Matt and I didn't play a down. No, we didn't coach anything. We didn't drop the game plan or anything like that.

It's trying to present the way this is going for you, yeah, for them, and it is what. It is.

Not great right now, no, absolutely, but we're going to get to another break. He is the Matt Williamson. I am Dale Lolly. You're listening to the Drive here on the Steelers Audio Network, Matt and now 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 LOLLI he is the Matt Williamson and Matt I couldn't help with thinking yesterday I was watching Xavier Worthy play him like, how would the Steelers season have been had they drafted? And I love the Troy Filaton who pick. I think he's going to be a great him. Unfortunately for him, he got hurt. He's played one game this year for the Steelers and got hurt.

They've got nothing out of them, and we do that, and unfortunately, I know you brought a receiver for a reason, Roman Wilson. Also you haven't gotten out of so you've gotten the double WHAMMYE at that spot a little bit.

You know, how how different would their season have looked if the Steelers had drafted him or if they Steelers are drafted Brent Thomas, who went three picks after them. The Steelers even had drafted Quinya Mitchell for that matters.

You know, Jean Or we got something out of a first round pick. I think it is your point here, not really? Yeah, is bad?

No, Again, I still have high hopes for Troy Filotano. I think he's gonna be a great player in the NFL. But he's not helping you right now.

No, it'd be nice to have be nice to have that, Yeah, I mean, how many teams have not gotten really anything out of their first round pick this year? There's not many.

So I thought we'd looked through that first round real quickly. Here and so Caleb we went kind of did this last week when every team picked their or.

Their power rank rank a couple of days ago. I guess it was early, Yeah, it was two days ago. Yeah.

So Caleb Williams, They've gotten a lot out of him with Chicago. Jane Daniels, Yeah, gotten a lot out of him. Drake may New England's gotten a.

Lot more in class I am bought in. Marvin Harrison isn't all disappointing.

It's an interesting He has fifty one catches for seven hundred and twenty six yards and seven touchdowns. Okay, in most years you look at that as a rookie wide receiver and.

Go, oh, that's that's all right, quite good. Right.

The problem is is you've got some of the other guys in this draft who are just blowing up with their teams.

Yeah, and frankly, if you were redrafting, I don't think he'd be wide receiver. One. I'm not sure he'd be wide receive.

Two.

Not certain to be wide is he were three. I'm definitely taking Thomas and Neighbors over him. And I think you can make a case for mccaucky. Yeah, I mean, I'm not saying he's a bad player, but he didn't run a forty and he doesn't look super fast, and he's a good prospect, but he's not a transcendent prospect, you know, like everyone thought he was.

Yeah, I think the Chargers are happy with Joe Alt, although, yeah, he's had some rookie growing pains. Tackles are never going to blow your doors off a year one. Giants are happy with neighbors. Yes, at six, Tennessee with j C. Latham at seven.

He's been up and down too. He's at least a building.

Block Michael Penix, the book is And by the.

Way, both of those tackles had to switch sides, right, you know, compound of batters Penix there. I mean right now, they're very happy they made that pick and didn't take Dallas Turner or whoever.

Romadunzie for Chicago at nine has fifty one catches for seven hundred and one yards and three touchdowns.

Yeah, but he's passing the eyeball test. Keenan Allen's really been picking it up lately. Yeah, they're pecking orders. He's still three as a rookie, but Allen's free agent after the year. I think they're quite happy with the pick. J. J.

McCarthy is kind of like Filatano you've gotten. Yeah, uh, ol Fashanu for the Jets. They just put him on ir got hurt again. Yeah, bo Nicks obviously Denver is happy. Yeah, yeah with that pick. Rock Bauers, same thing. Pretty good first round up to this point. Yeah, it really is. Yeah. Talisi Fluaga, he's done well.

Yeah. I think I didn't think left tackle was him at all, but he's done quite well. Switching sides.

Lay two with the Colts has for SAX season. I thought he would be more impactful.

Yeah. He was my preseason defensive Rookie of the Year because I thought he was much more NFL.

Ready not going to happen.

No, No, he'll probably be sixth than the voting, you know what I mean. Like he's not gonna be the top few, but that doesn't mean it's a bad year.

Byron Murphy with Seattle.

He missed some times.

He's played twelve games, Yeah, but he's a solid player. Dallas Turner with Minnesota.

You played a little this past week, but they have really yeah him back. Yeah.

Amarus Mims with the Bengals.

I would say they're happy, probably I'll kick this coverage. If they planned on red shirting him the whole year, I mean, that wasn't the plan for him whatsoever. But the guy ahead of him was also super injury prone. You can't be shocked that he went. Can't be shocked. Yeah, yeah, but I think they got a you know, a long time starting right tackle or a minimum.

Yeah. Jared Verse to the Rams at nineteen star.

Yeah. I say he's gonna be one of the best guys in the league. But he's probably happy of that pick. Yeah.

Then you had Flatano at twenty Chop Robinson's amazing he fell that far. Yeah, Chop Robinson the Miami at twenty one last.

Month or so. It has been really good for him. I think they're six secs and quite happy with it. Yeah, QUINNYA.

Mitchell at twenty two, great Brian Thomas at twenty three to Jacks Rate, Terry and Arnold with the Lions.

I think you chalk it up if you're in his corner, that rookie corners struggle a lot and take a lot of penalty.

Yeah, it's taking a lot.

A lot of guys aroun don't getting hurt, but they're not out of the Woods on that one. No.

Jordan Morgan with the Packers.

I assume he's been a starter start to finish. He's only played in six games, brilliant. I don't know his story. I mean he started the season. I think is one of the starting guards on IR too, I believe. So that adds up. So I haven't heard that name since been a while. I forgot about it.

Graham Barton with Tampa Bay really good, Yeah.

Really good. I mean they may rather have Frasier, but they're not complaining with the guy they got.

Arizona took Darius Robinson at twenty seven. That hasn't worked out. He's played four.

Yeah, I think he came back like a week or two ago. Yeah, So totally incomplete grade.

Xavier Worthy stepping up lately. Yeah, Tyler Geiton at twenty nine to Dallas up.

And down, and he's had a little bit of injuries too and had to switch sides. Yeah, that's an incomplete grade.

Nate Wiggins in Baltimore, I would.

Say good, not great, not great, Yeah, not great.

Ricky Piersoll with San Francisco.

He's been a ghost.

Yeah, seventeen catches for one hundred and ninety yards and.

Even though he's I don't know how healthy he truly is, but after getting shot, but I mean he was not stepping up in any way.

Yeah, then you had Xavier get to finish out the first round at thirty two to the Carolina Panthers forty one for four thirty nine and four touchdowns.

I don't know how many games he's been into. I think he's missed three or four.

Like that's kind of the kind of numbers there that I thought Roam Wilson might have this season for the Steelers. I know, people he's gonna be the number two. I'm like, I looked at him as a three.

Yeah, that's sure who the two would be at the time, but I didn't expect Wilson to be the two.

No, nor did I.

I am encouraged for next year though I don't know what Wilson is. But Wilson and Austin, I'm glad they're fireable. Yeah yeah, yeah right. I mean one has still has a lot of to be written. Austin has written a lot of his story. They're both smaller, so my wide receiver acquisitions probably won't look like them, right, you know, but we got that part squared away I think.

I'm just looking at some of the other picks beyond that, and Kean Coleman in Buffalo has been.

All those end of round one, not Mconkie. From Worthy to Mconkie, there was a ton of picks not great. Polk's been terrible. Yeah, Mconkey's the one to take first by far of that group.

You know, really, if you start looking at the second round, it's it's the Mconkie, Jerson, Newton, Tovandre.

Sweat, I'm sure Sweats as good ass.

Brayden Fisk has been has been good, Degene has been good with with Philadelphia.

You're just looking through the hits, Yeah, Frasier.

Kamari Lassiter has been.

Yeah, he's come on and going to.

I don't know about Jackson powers Johnson he starts, but yeah, edgrind Cooper's been good at.

Cooper's really been revelation lately. I would say it's an average second round, not yeah, maybe some stars and Santstril has been fine. Yeah, yeah, and I think has been good.

Yeah.

Beyond that, who was the last thing he said, Zach Fraser, Oh yeah, okay, obviously Donnie Mitchell has done next to nothing. Yeah, weird situation there's a lot of mouths to feed with. The quarterback doesn't complete passes, but I mean i'd love him to be on the Steelers roster at the moment, but he's an incomplete grade.

Yeah. Javon Bullard to Green Bay has been pretty good.

Yeah.

Yeah, Cole Bishop is starting to do some things for Buffalo a little bit.

Huh.

Then you know, Rinardo Green with San Francisco has had to play a lot, but nothing special.

Yeah. I think they're happy enough with them.

But yeah, so, I mean it's it's been kind of a you know, the first round was I think really good.

Lot of it was heavy, top heavy draft. Yeah, obviously the offensive guys rule today. Quarterbacks ruled today on Day one of the draft. I think it could. I would say it could be a historic quarterback class. By that, I don't mean River's been and Eli, you know, like Hall of Famers galore or even Herbert Burrow hurts to uh love. I mean, that's maybe two Hall of Famers in there and three really good ones. But this the league needed this class, you know, and after the Picket class and what looks like next year's class is gonna be really light. It might look back at this be like, but those five quality starters in that group.

Of course, we also you know, three years from now, we could have completely different on different teams, Sam Arnold and right, just how that goes. Mayfield has been on a bunch of teams. Yeah right, absolutely, Mayfield was rookie of the year. Yeah right, he was the best of that group. Let's get to a break. That's going to do it for hour number one of the drive here on the Steelers Audio Network. Matt now back with our number two right after this

SNR Drive with Matt & Dale (Pittsburgh Steelers)

Dale Lolley and Matt Williamson tackle the days topics regarding the Pittsburgh Steelers each aftern 
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